Doctor Who, MIA Hurricanes and no crowds! (8/28-9/7)

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I'm not much into documenting my trips but decided to take some not usual for me photos as I roamed around this trip.

Trip Details:

• On Site 8/29 - 9/6
• East Coast train ride via Amtrak Silver Star Line.
• Caribbean Beach Resort, preferred room, Martinique
• Father/Daughter trip (she is 20).
• Free dining offer + upgraded to deluxe.
• Part of the trip was to research a possible move to Orlando next year.

Preparing to leave:

10 years ago when Katrina passed through, I was preparing to take my daughter on her second trip to WDW (but our first together). It was a very interesting trip back then as Katrina passed by southern florida and we happened to be able to fly in. This was an amazing trip for us as everyone canceled and there had to be 10 cast members for every visitor the entire week. We're not talking 10 per resort guest, we're talking to per visitor. A trip we could never repeat with absolutely nobody in your way for anything you wanted to do or wherever you wanted to eat.

Or so we thought. We started turning into tween school girls watching Erika's path towards Florida. We weren't worried about being in WDW if it came over but was our dream vacation that can never be repeated started to come together and we're getting a repeat? The last week before we left couldn't go any slower, we were ready!!

Amtrak to Kissimee:

Taking the 21-24 hour train (depending on what time you go) between NYC and Kissimee was something I that came about by accident the first time. I had a chance for a someone else paying, leave right now trip but couldn't get any flights for several days. My parents having raved about their great 3 week explore the country via rail trip and I found myself on the train from NYC to Orlando getting down there faster than I could get a flight.

One thing I never noticed is I always arrive tired. Between work schedule leading up to time off and the hectic nature of getting ready I always arrive exhausted and need a few days to recoup. With 1 train ride and sleeping most of the way, I wake up ready to go and in vacation mode. Because of this, I know investigate a train for any trip I do to see if I can fit it in. It really works well for me. The ride home, that sucks and I plan to switch back to train down, plane back.

We actually leave from a station in NJ and this is the only picture I took the entire ride. Again, I slept the rest



The ride was nice. I had our normal Deluxe bedroom. I used to save some money with the smaller roomettes but the way the train shakes and how the bed is the side to side motion, I don't sleep well. Also the deluxe you get your own bathroom and shower. We only arrived 15 minutes late. There was an issue switching from the electric to diesel that had us leaving Washington DC late. We made up some time but not all of it. The only downside is amtrak has stopped including a diner car on this trip so your stuck with what you brought with you or what their normal club car has in stock (and standard club car that runs out of food on long trips). This is a trial they are doing specifically for this train (91 and 92 between NYC and Miami). i'm assuming it's going to become normal and you'll see the diner cars go away on other lines.

I like Kissimee better than orlando because orlando doesn't offer much more than we need at Kissimee. One trip we actually hit heavy heavy traffic and almost missed our train back. Kissimee doesn't require highway driving and we've been able to cut it much closer with no worries or stress about missing the train which only comes twice a day. It's also physically closer so transportation is cheaper to the resort and only 15 minutes longer on the train (same price ticket). If you needed a rental car, orlando would probably still be a better choice. Also there is a line of taxi's readily available there.

This trip I decided to use Ultimate Town Car to get to/from the station. Overall, great professional driver. We did not include a stop to do some grocery shopping since we were free dining this trip. We called about 90 minutes early to update them that the train was about 15 minutes late. We got a call back when we hit orlando and they had some car trouble and letting us know the driver was going to be a little late, get an update on how late the train was and kept us in the loop of what was happening. No complaints there.. We were told to expect a call near when we would be arriving which never happened. After waiting 20 minutes, we then called to find out where they were. They did quickly get someone over to us but I feel if I never called they wouldn't have. They were very apologetic however the charge for service didn't reflect them being an hour late. Again overall they handled it professionally, just this 1 little bump.

I did see someone else use the mears taxi app to call a cab from across the street. They had a taxi van in 10 minutes and were off. In the future, this is exactly what I plan to do when using the train from now on. There is a taxi service that does wait, but they try to pile in a few people to 1 larger van. Mears app seems the best way to go if your doing a taxi. There was a couple people that used something called $5 taxi, and they seemed to come quick but the cars were smaller and we wouldn't fit in them.

Check In

We arrived about 1pm. We did get the email that we would get a text when the room was ready but we had our bags and needed to put them somewhere. The lobby was swamped. 2 MDE buses dropping people off, 1 MDE bus picking up and 1 cruise bus picking up. It took a few minutes for all the baggage chaos to clear out before we could get a bell hop to put into storage. No biggy and nobody ignored us, it was just timing.

Upgrading to AP

While we were waiting and because the train has no decent meals we headed over to DTD to upgrade our tickets to Annual Passes. Since we weren't officially checked in it took a few extra moments to find our tickets, get them upgraded and then activate our meal plan so we can use it while waiting. No complaints at all and it was incredibly painless. I've read that people say use the ticket your upgrading first to get the maximum value but the numbers worked perfectly and we had our passes for the difference of tickets to AP. We didn't even have to confirm the expiration date as we were told it was the same day. Can't be happier with the process.

I'm really kicking myself now though. We took 2 trips last year, one was a fully out of pocket no discount trip but we were never the go yearly or biyearly disney fanatics. We thought we were saving money with a long trip and going normal tickets. I completely forgot about the discounts you get being an AP member. In hind sight, I spent about double what it would have costed as an AP in the last year. Lesson learned and I recommend you really run the numbers, including some insanely good room deals you get as an AP.

I skipped also getting a tables in wonderland card since we were on the meal plan and will get than when we're on a trip that will need it.



Disney is listening to Pete

A recent disunplugged webcast, Pete had mentioned how while at WDL, everyone kept asking if he had anything that would give a discount. Our first stop after being upgraded to AP was for my daughter to raid the TSUM TSUMs. We were surprised that the first thing they said was "hello, do you have anything to that would give you a discount". We almost spaced that we get a discount with an AP and boom, already saving money and Disney reminded us. I'd like to say we heard this everywhere but we didn't. We did have several cast members ask if we had anything for a discount but it wasn't widespread yet. It did seem everywhere outside of Magic Kingdom they were asking.

Quick Lunch

We noticed the crowds weren't very big which surprised us. While walking towards the better restaurant options we got our txt that the room was ready so we decided to just hit the Puck Express on the way back to the bus. I do like that restaurant for a nice quick service meal and it hit the spot for fast, good and get us on our way.

A quick run into Magic Kingdom

We had a Keys to the Kingdom tour planned for day 2 and never stayed at CBR so we decided to see just how long a bus really took so we could plan correctly for the morning to get there in time. We didn't do too much, just took a quick "ah we made it" circle of the park. We had some good fast passes setup so we got a quick ride on BTMRR and HM.

Crowds weren't light but they were reasonable. Nothing was summer long waits but it wasn't walk on (yet).



We didn't intend to spend long so we did a quick circle, checked out the central hub progress, haunted mansion and some other quick rides. We hit the country bears as we haven't seen them in 10 years and I finally got to see carousel of progress. It might sound funny since it's one of the oldest rides there, but it's never been opened when I at WDW. Another group while there happened to accidently hit their flashlight option on the phone as the room went completely dark. I have to say, it really added to the show and they should incorporate it. I was surprised to see that the animatronics were moving as the narration kept going on. Normally you can't see it in the dark.

We came out to a huge rain storm. This was a little harder than just the normal afternoon. Our 7DMT turned into a use the rest of the day pass, but the rain didn't really let up so finally about 8pm we decided this is a good start and lets get some sleep and try out the food court (aka get my coffee mug) at CBR before our tour.

Minor Magic Band Fixes

Since my daughter is grown, I can trust her with room charging and she is more than able to do everything on her own. She always does the first couple purchases with her band to make sure it's fully working. She couldn't charge to the room or activate our drink mugs. A quick concierge stop to reset the pin and double check her privileges and we were good the entire week. Since it was CBR, they were right there and no biggy to walk the 50 feet to the side to do it.

The Rain didn't let up.

It turned out to be a good choice as the rain was still going. Lighter now but still raining.

 

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For those wondering about the CBR bridge closure. We were in a preferred room so didn't need to worry about getting around but they added a pontoon boat between the boat docks and the beach at aruba. It's not ECV friendly since it literally comes to the beach but it's really fast to get across as the boat captain is watching for anyone on either side to come up and quickly come over to you.

It's standard life jacket requirements for the boats and they had plenty for whoever was riding.

Here is where the boat leaving aruba:



It didn't run in bad weather but when daylight and sunny, it was fast to get across.

 

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DAY 2:

Part 1: Keys to the Kingdom!

This is 1 tour we've always wanted to take but never been able to book it no matter how obsessively we've tried. This time we we're able to book it and we're prepared to change our vacation dates if needed.

5:30am: DAYNA!!!!! it's too early why are is the alarm going off already!!!
6:00am; DAD that's your alarm now, I'm going to get breakfast.
6:10am: DAD! Breakfast doesn't start until 6:30, I'm stuck with these healthy bars and why aren't you ready
6:25am: at the bus stop and the bus pulls up immediately.
6:40am: we're at MK and the only ones!

Normally I would just taxi over leaving much later but reading threads lately on using buses for ADRs, it seems that buses arrive near 6:25 and 6:55. Turns out that 6:25 seems accurate! I didn't expect to be standing in front by 6:40 though, wow that was early but it helped with the anxiety of we're going to be late so it was worth it.



As you can see, we also got out first tease that we're at WDW just before MNSSHP starts and we're a little bummed about that. This was the first sign, as well as the fall mickey flowers above that it was the end of summer. The discussion on if we should stay longer started. I have the luxury of working anywhere with internet so it wasn't out of the question to stay longer if the budget allowed it.

We normally don't get there before anyone is let in, it took until 7:50am to be let in and it was only a short line of ADR and tours (maybe 35-40 people) there. I didn't notice anyone for rope drop yet but you could see people walking from the buses.

We were happy to finally get some morning alone in the park (well almost alone pictures). There was only 1 photopass phographer near the castle but by the time we made it there, a few more came out and distracted the masses so we have a good 20 minutes in the central hub with only a few other couples.



Central Hub is looking nice but seems like a lot of wasted space with all the flower beds.. It makes the funny colors from recent sky shots make more sense though.



We see a lot of questions about FP+ for wishes, this is the view from the crystal palace fp+ location



The Tour!

Being a backstage tour, we didn't have the opportunity to take too many photos. I discovered after that I actually didn't take any photos. Our Tour guide was Katie (I hope I remember that right) and it was a great tour. If you read any account of the tour from others, it's the same thing and I don't want to give too much away as it's worth discovering on your own. There was a lot of overlap information from the larger multi-park backstage tour we previously took but there was a lot of things we were excited to see.

One thing I will note is this was the second tease that we're missing halloween as there was some parade practice happening and all the floats appeared ready to go. We also got to see the smaller Parade for the afternoon dance party start from behind the start. That was fun to see and everyone in the parade I think enjoyed having an audience to ham it up with. Again, backstage so I couldn't take a single photo of it happening. Katie did note that it's not normal to be there to witness it, this was the 8:30 time slot if your thinking of booking and hoping to see that happen.

The tour was a full 20 people and it was a few couples and 1 extended family. Really great people and lively enjoying what it had to offer. Katie was great with lots of questions and answers. It was interested to see some of the upcoming worldwide changes in some posters in the Utilidors, however before you ask, it's the same artwork released at D23 so nothing new to report .

It's a great tour if your interested in backstage and some of the things that imagineers take into consideration for how the park and rides are designed. I don't recommend it if the magic is more important than how it happens.

At lunch I did notice the short lines for Haunted mansion and took this quick picture from across the street.



We did stay around MK longer and hit a few rides, but the sun was really blazing and we wanted to freshen up before dinner so we didn't stay too long. We hit a few more rides but mostly went mickey ear shopping as my daughter wanted a halloween themed set of ears (which you'll see in day 3 update).

 

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Day 2 Part 2: Dinner at Sanaa

We always liked this restaurant and try to get it in every trip. It's a ton of food if your on the food plan so make sure your ready to eat..

This is 1 appetizer:



In hind sight, we went a little early in the trip and weren't really ready for it. We should have saved it for after a couple primarily quick service days when we were ready for a big meal like this. We enjoyed it anyway.

We do love the view of the animals at AKL, but not enough to pay to stay there.:



Day 2 Part 3: A quick night walk through DTD.

Since it's end of summer, park hours are ending pretty early and we didn't want to pile on mk quickly yet again. We decided since we had to go resort to resort we'd just get some DTD shopping out of the way early..

We don't get over to the west side too often so it was fun to see the live music and check out the atmosphere.



Boathouse also looks gorgeous at night:



We took care of some presents for familiy for the holidays and stuff. It was starting to get cooler and windy so before it decided to rain, we wanted to get out of there. This is the highest that the rain forest flames where, it was too windy for the really high eruptions.



Disney Transportation, Jungle Cruise edition.

We had a driver switch as we waited to board the bus. I never got her name but the bus driver that took over was a riot. Pixar needs to make a bus character and use her voice and personality for a future film, she was that brilliant..

In no way was she unprofessional and not focused on driving. She was just a riot when she was not driving and really hit the spot..

When she got on, "Hello! Don't worry i'm a really good driver.....", "The lights are going to come on.... Told you!!!", "The lights are going to get brighter... TOLD YOU!!!!". "Everyone hold on, this thing is about to start moving on you...." along with some bad trivia moments..

Again it was very professional and at no time did she not do her job correctly and safely. She had really good timing when it was safe to talk to really liven up the crowd and everyone had a combination of "I hope we make it" and "This is the most I laughed all trip" on their face...

 

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DAY 3 Part 1: Are we sick????

Overnight, my daughter had a couple hours where she didn't feel well and then I suddenly woke up early also not feeling well. I would have called it heat exhaustion but it came on suddenly after being well hydrated and it happened to both of us. I also suffer from major allergies that are environmental and aren't found in Florida so I wasn't sure if it was just my body finally adjusting to where I was.

My daughter started to feel better after breakfast but I was weaker. I just started to hydrate better and after some time with allergy medication things started to go away. I wasn't perfect, but I was confident I wasn't about to get all of WDW sick and not going to pass out but we'll take it slow and see how the day goes. Sounds like a perfect day for Animal Kingdom.

We waited pretty late leaving near noon to head to AK. Normally we want to be there early since it gets so hot but today was a little overcast and it was comfortable in the sun.

Part 2: Animal Kingdom

While we were making our way over on the bus we decided to get some fast passes. We were a little stunned when everything was not only available but available as soon as we got there. How perfect is this!!

Pandora is really coming along. Picture from the DTD Bus coming into AK via back stage:



It's also a lot taller than we expected, you can easily see the height from the front of the park:



And as you can see, this is 12:30ish crowd.. We had nobody in our way except on the bus with us to get into the park... Could it be our katrina trip really happening again!!!!!!!!! There is no crowd.

We've never had a picture together with nobody in it. AK is so hard with rope droppers and no late night to get everyone home before us... We decided to stop for a quick close to tree PhotoPass Picture. CMs having a little bit of fun so when we asked to take a picture with them, they took it literal. We had a short couple minute discussion of who was going to take the picture. Did I mention there was no crowds? readily available within feet was other photopass photographers and we quickly took this moment! My daughter couldn't stop laughing so she never made it into the picture.



I did get a father/daughter picture as well but this was a memorable moment for the day!

As we made our way over to africa it became very clear it wasn't a fluke and it was lunchtime in Harambe with no crowd..



We didn't hang around long and decided it might be a great time to check out the Safari. You know that long line you have to wait awhile for? As we approached we found a 10 minute wait on the sign but more interesting was fastpass wasn't even opened. They never bothered to remove the cover as they didn't need it.. We walked right up and just needed to wait for a truck to pull up..

Apparently WDW had the same idea and started to do no passanger new driver training.. It was so low crowd they were letting trucks pull out with only cast members in them and nobody was complaining.



My Daughter did mostly video on this part of the trip since we rarely go on it because, to us, AK is just too hot when we are in town. I was able to grab a quick picture of the new baby giraffes though!



I did not go near the Rapids ride this time. Every single time it breaks, I get rained on, and I'm just tired of not getting to ride it. But we kept our circle of the park and found no lines everywhere. 3 rides on EE and still no crowds.. Then we hit dino...



At this point my stomach was starting to turn again so I decided to not ride the bumpy test track ride. My daughter enjoyed it 3 times in a row since it was yet again no line. No fast pass needed..

I did get a moment to hang out in one of the few smokers areas and scored this interesting crane about to get raptored moment!



Having done everything we could at AK, it was only a couple hours after getting there and we decided lets take it slower and just leave for now. We both looked at each other on the way out and said, we finally get why people like this park. It's incredible without crowds. Previously, we didn't care if we made it.

Exploring Orlando:

Part of this trip is actually to check out the area for a possible move down here next spring. My daughter has a big interest in working for WDW and I telecommute so I can live anywhere. We spent the afternoon going around some areas suggested in another thread to us and we got to check out some neighborhoods near evening commute and early evening to see what they were like when everyone wasn't out working.

I'm not going to go into more detail than that as this is the internet and I'm not looking to divulge possible areas I might be soon living in. I'm ok saying the Orlando area, but it stops there unless I know you better.

Day 3 Overview:

It was a great time at AK and for once we enjoyed it. Overcast was perfect as it wasn't sun beating down on us and we weren't exhausted and hot and upset that imagineers can't imagine air conditioning anymore. It's the first time we loved the place.

We also spotted 2 neighborhoods we want to research more to see where we want to rent for our first year in the area as well as some neighborhoods that I can see us putting down roots in longer term if we love the area. We're about 90% sure we're moving at this point and hoping to get settled in time for the 24 hour MK for start of next summer and the week of dis unplugged 10 year anniversary! WHOOT!

 

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Day 4 Part 1:

We had a little bit of a late start today as we werent' expecting to be so sweaty that we were changing a couple times a day to stay presentable. We had to do a quick load of laundry to and we were still being lazy not really ready to walk a few miles around a park yet. We didn't take too long as we woke up early and got out of the resort by 10am.

Epcot is a strange park for us. I have some fond younger memories of it but my daughter hates the place. I don't mean dislikes it and bored, it's a full on why did you take me here I want to go place for her. Personally, I never really enjoyed the world showcase except for a couple resturants. It might be because we live in an area where there's dozens of nationalities that we call neighbors but we just don't get the enjoyment out of this park as others do.

We checked the app for wait times and after missing breakfast waking up late, we head over to epcot with the idea of a few rides, lunch and then figuring out what to do from there. We had some fast passes already since I wanted to try to do 2 short days and see some of epcot so I hit that one on the planning perfectly.



We did a quick figment ride. My daughter loves figment but for me, I know the original figment and this new ride doesn't do it justice. I think figment is really the first park only character to really last so i'm surprised so little is done with it. It's a great idea and who doesn't love dragons that color on ceilings. I did let her go at her pace, and bribed her with a stuffed figment (her choice, she asked me) but it didn't really last.

i'd love to say we spent the day here but we did figment, lunch at the land, soarin and living with the land. All walk ons and didn't need any passes. It was lunch time and it was very empty. She had this urge for more MK and without pushing our luck we just decided to call it short. She didn't even stop for the walk on spaceship earth, she really didn't want to be there.

Soarin was so empty they didn't have enough people to fill the entire theater.



Monorail to MK

We don't always make use of the monorails but in this case it lined up well and we took a nice ride over to MK.



Very clear day, much better than the hurricane that was suppose to show up about now. In fact it didn't rain at all for a couple days. (kind of, more about that for day 5).

 

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Day 4 Part 2: Our real first day at Magic Kingdom.

Up until now, magic kingdom was a park we just passed through. It may not appear from this trip report but we really spent very little time outside of our tour at the MK so far. We were here pretty early for us and feeling rested and ready to take on the place. We happened to come into the park just as the "mini parade" we saw day 2 was going back. I was only able to grab this 1 really quick picture if your curious what dance party it was.



One thing we did notice is while it was more crowded than epcot or AK the previous day, it was not as crowded as Sunday. Checking the app and most things said about 10-20 minutes including 7DMT.



We took a nice casual stroll around the park with every intention to ride Splash and the original mine train for awhile. This is what we most remembered from our katrina trip and we wanted to relive going back and forth 4-5 times each for an hour.

Unfortunately, WDW had different ideas and Splash Mountain was broken most of the day:


We did a few whirls of original mine train, but it wasn't the same without splash to run over too. I did happen to pick up 6 fast passes for it. This is where we learned the trick that you can get fastpasses for a temporarily closed ride and they turn into all day fast passes for any similar thrill level ride. We had a good supply to do anything except 7DMT now. We happened to also be able to get a 7DMT just in case we needed it later.

The sun was beating down a little and I noticed the Festival of Fantasy parade was getting close to starting. I took the opportunity to Jump into Peco's Bill, get something to snack on and sit down to be lazy with the parade. My daughter stood on the opposite side of the street where it was only 1 person deep to get some good video at the same time.



The only time we saw a crowd was when everyone started to follow the parade out of the park. that's fine by us as they are walking away from splash and mine for us to try to get some more in!





One thing interesting with this parade, we have a little tradition now to get the fancy popcorn buckets. We have over 30 of them right now and we were hoping that cinderellas coach happened to still be available but it appeared to be long gone. We did find dumbo and a mine train car. We can't wait to be able to send them back home with shop disney! We miss so many not being there every season!

Something interesting about the mine car popcorn. The parades have the 7 dwarves in them. They were attracted to the mine car and far more interactive than any other time we've seen a character come up to someone. At one point I was expecting my daughter to have to join the parade to get it back. I'll get some video of the parade posted when she finally gets it online to see as it's pretty interesting to see them all rush over to get it.

She was upset that we only got one because if you look close, they can hook to each other. If anyone ever sees another version, I will more than pay for you to get it and ship it to me!!! I hope they make some more styles to make a full train!



You may notice that my daughter decided it was Doctor Who day. I always say if your going to dress up, you can't go wrong with Doctor Who theme as it's a cast members favorite. they always smile and say hi. There was a very large number of british visitors and they definitely noticed. It's always fun to be at disney near someones favorite character and suddenly hear "mommy look it's a dalek" in perfect english. In a trip last year she was wearing a pikachu dress and the little kids that noticed her though it was better than WDW. Hints for what worlds are really missing or a theme for a 5th gate.

We kept going around the park really slow as we got 2-3 rides in a row on anything we wanted. Then it happened. Time Shifted, the tardis whirled, and suddenly the Doctor was there to save the day...



We never got his name but we ran into him several times. This one I was fast enough to get a picture of it. I did run into him later that night on the bus back to CBR but we never crossed paths again to say hi.

 

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Day 4 Part 3: Dinner at Wilderness Lodge!

We really enjoyed Whispering Canyon Cafe when we had lunch there during a tour last December. We always said if we came back for the winter holiday again, we would stay there. The place it gorgeous. We wanted to take 1 more circle to get an idea of this renovation going on and what the rest of the resort really looked like in case we do decide to go there some winter.

I haven't taken the boats around this lake since I was little any my daughter never did it. The best way to WL from MK is the boats so we jumped on for a nice ride.



One of my fondest memories of WDW younger is how the boat goes OVER the bridge. I was giddy doing it again



We got there very early. We didn't really anticipate how fast we could get through the crowdless Magic Kingdom and over the WL. We had an hour to kill. We do love the lobby a lot!



We also discovered we were starting to get a little sun burnt. We weren't showing red yet but our faces were getting a little raw when cleaning up a little in the restrooms. We took the extra time to raid the gift shop to see what unique items they had and grab some more suntan lotion and some sunburn lotion.

This is the second time my daughter anxiety kicked in. She just hated being there, felt like we weren't suppose to be hanging out in the lobby. She tried hard to make it to dinner but suddenly found Splash Mountain opened and it consumed her. She made her way back to ride while I change my dinner to solo. I went with lesser ordered options instead of the pan with BBQ assortments. I was surprised, it was a really good new york strip. It was perfect for the moment. Solo doesn't bother me and I generally go out solo since nightlife is where my interests differ from my daughter. (although they don't actually differ, she just doesn't want to try, don't tell her that).

I had an interesting txt conversation with my daughter while eating. Apparently the walk on Splash mountain stopped and she was stuck on it. Waiting, waiting, waiting. She said it took a good 20-30 minutes to first stop the annoying loop of music they had to listen for and then another 20 minutes when she got her first evacuation from a ride.



she was talking about it for days. We happened to discuss during our KTTK tour since our tour guide first worked back in this corner and was very familiar with these rides. We got a moment to see the "back doors" you evacuate out of. Now my daughter got a full tour by actually getting evacuated. It was late so a few people gave her their fast passes so now she had a collection of use anywhere, anytime for the entire month collection of fast passes. (you normally get 1, and everyone did, they just were generous since they couldnt' use them to offer them to her).

We finally met back up to watch the Electrical Light parade. My daughter choose a spot over by Sleepy Hollow and that's when halloween tease 3 hit us. More fall decorations appeared..



We do like this parade however we feel this is 1 area that disney is really screwing up walt's legacy. This parade is a Disneyland parade, they made it after the Electric Water Pageant excited a visiting exec and they wanted something similar. Walt was all about new techology and using it to tell a better story. Lighting technology, projected images and everything that makes WDL's paint the night incredible should be at WDW. Sure leave something from the parade in both but lets get with Walt's techology desire and update the parade that didn't even start at WDW. The Water Pageant still happens, the original is there for those that think touching things is wrong.



At this point my daughter had enough excitement so she hit main street to shop and head back to the resort. I on the other hand had some perfectly clear, not much humidity fireworks to explore! It was day 4 and we didn't hit any of the night shows yet. I needed a little fix.

 

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Day 4 Part 4:

I happened to still be by sleepy hollow when Celebrate the Magic Started. I've never seen it from this side of the castle before and I was really surprised how much starts here and then wraps around to the front. The other side is pale in comparison with a similar to front view.



But I was still here for fireworks! So after a few more minutes, I decided it was time to take the quick trek to my favorite spot. I couldnt' go direct so it took a few extra minutes to get there.

One thing I get asked a few times is where should you stand to watch the fireworks? The answer is easy, if you've never seen them you find yourself a spot in front of the castle to enjoy the entire show. If you have and you love fireworks, you need to get yourself to the back of the park where they are going off next to you.

This is where I like to stand in the back.


There is no perfect in the center spot as the carousel is rather large and in your face so you have to pick 1 side or the other. Right here is a good view of what is firing off from the blue roof to the left and behind you (the high altitude fireworks).

Here's a taste of what you can see:



One thing to mention that special holidays and the parties for halloween and christmas, the fireworks are a full 360 degree view around you as some parts do fire from less common places around the park. It's a great place to watch them and you get the soundtrack. What your missing is the video images projected on the castle front and you do a lot of looking straight up and turning around to see them all since your in the middle.

on this day the park was already closed (and the last person riding 7dmt left as they finished), yes it was so empty that 7DMT had no riders by the time the fireworks was over.

Last time I saw the castle at night it was all frozened up so this was a great chance to enjoy it wth blue lighting. I don't remember seeing this lighting scheme before.



From there is was just the normal trek to the bus and waiting to get home. This is when it really started to hit me why some hate the DTD. For a really large resort, it's never really fast on the bus and it's almost double the mid to smaller ones. I can see why many go car depending on where your staying or where you were staying when you decided to try it. It took awhile.

I did get to see the water pageant floating around with the US flag theme. It wasn't doing the show, just the goodbye images from the water. I had only blurry pictures unfortunately ..

Day 4 Conclusion:

I always say/post we're non-planners. This day wasn't actually planned. We felt like epcot, didn't enjoy it much and went elsewhere to really enjoy the day. while you'd need a park hopper (or buy one as you change) to do it. If you happen to have one or have an AP, it's a nice option to cut your losses early and make the day better (magical). We commonly do parks in half days or less and go to all of them a few times and MK a few more than most.

Every family has their touring style but we go with the flow and we always enjoy the trip!

 

[Accident]

Day 5 Part 1

We had a rare morning where we had time to have some breakfast together. For once our wake up schedules lined up where we were both ready to eat together. Nothing special for our meal, just a nice father daughter start of the day.

Today was hollywood day, we were in the mood to see how the part looks and we know there is things closing later so it was a good amount of time to see some things.

Like other days, we got out fastpasses on the way and once again anything we wanted was there and lined up perfect. Looks like another empty day!

Our first stop was Rock N Roller Coaster. I've come to enjoy this ride more and more. i'm not a huge big coaster fan but I'm really enjoying the dark room big coasters. I do love wooden coasters though but since I can't get that here, this will do



This ride showed 20 minutes wait but in reality, it was no wait except for the preshow door to open. This is when we started to notice that near lunchtime, rides that are popular went from 10 to 20-30 on the signs. Nothing was the time it said.

We rode it twice as walk on and then used up our fast pass. ToT was showing a little longer line so we walked up the FP and my daughter did that a few times on her own. I'm not a huge fan of that ride and I forgot that I can't ride it after RnR. I'm not a small person so there is some sloshing around that happens on looping coasters. I'll have to ride with her at another time and do it before RnR.

So 20 minutes later we were tired of these rides and started to explore the things we haven't done lately or never done at all. This is when we noticed just how empty it is. We ran into the street performers and there was only 3 of them. Normally it's a larger group and then it hit us, half of the parks the last couple days has been cast members. It's so empty they are all off and enjoying the parks with no crowds also. No wonder there was so many people in normal clothes recognizing the buttons It's also easy to spot them as they tend to be wearing black in the hot sun and not about to pass out. The ones passing out are just too cool for white.



We spent more times in the stores and just roaming around. Today was the second day with no rain so far and the sun was really blazing. I did a new first, I bought sunglasses. I never wear sunglasses and it was getting to me. I didn't spurge for some really good ray bans since I don't know if I'll really use them.



Also thanks for the tips from this board that they added Mr Gold pawn shop. It made my daughters afternoon to see it.

We've seen every combination of Star Tours so we wanted to see if it happened to change since Force Friday was coming up in a couple days.



It's been a decade since we saw the Action show (no clue what it's really called and never can remember it and don't care enough to look it up). We were really hot (notice the fan in the above picture, everyone had a fan with them, it was the best seller of the day as far as we can tell).



At this point we were really feeling the sunburn, it was hot and we are tired of how this part uses fans instead of some air conditioning. It was really impacting my daughter so it was time to call it an afternoon and go hide in the resort to cool off and re hydrate more.

We got our next tease as we walked out when we realized about 50% of the osbourne lights are already setup. It's getting harder to say don't stay longer for halloween and come back for christmas again ;(

 

[Accident]

Day 5 Part 2

We spent a few hours at the resort. I did the fatherly thing and made sure my daughter had everything she needed. Lots of extra water, food if she was hungry and we spent the early evening with TV. When I knew she was ok and she was looking to get some sleep early, it was my turn man the gopro and head back out for the evening festivities at Hollywood Studios.



Yes I know that looks like a stock image but this is how empty it was yet again. In fact I was the only one to try to come in and the security line was turned into 1 turnstyle with an officer to check your bags if needed.

I love this coaster so it was time for another fix. My daughter wasn't around so it was safe to just skip ToT.

small crowd watching the preview but then is when you realize how empty it was. They were loading and sending off coasters so fast they were only using the last 3 rows, first 4 and middle 2. The coasters were going out empty and nobody was waiting to get on.

Ride one... two.. three.. four.. five.. At this point I realized if I didn't stop I was going to miss the other evening options as it was an early close night. All week we've been enjoying the ice cream and things around the different parks. Why not a special considered a snack $10 frozen themed sundae! Whoot!

I made it back around the crowd which wasn't too bad. It was only the area in front of the stage and not spilling into the streets. It was only about 10 minutes from fireworks so I doubt it got more crowded but I didn't stay to find out. This is one fireworks show they happen to have a good view from a smokers section.



This wasn't my view but it's near the section I sit on the bench to watch. There was only 1 other couple and a photopass photographer in the area with me. They did have an overlap of indie jones and fireworks music. Not really annoying but I hope they get the systems lined up before it's star wars themed, that would kill it.

I think the frozen fireworks has the best low level display disney has to offer. They just did this one up right in my opinion. I was filming for my daughter although the indie jones soundtrack kind of killed the recording so it's not good enough to post in my opinion. Luckily I had another hand and was able to grab some stills.



If you can't tell where I am, that's the old american idol experience building and the restrooms are near the blue neon on the right of some of the pictures. The stage is directly across the lake to my right so this is a full view of the high altitude and half of the low level. It's a better show when you can see all the low level but I got to sit down and enjoy so I'm happy.

I consider this another tease for coming back this winter but I know it's normal with the frozen theme. SNOW!!!



once again early parks close so everyone made their way out and no other park available to hop too. i didn't want to stay out all night with my daughter not in the greatest condition so I was happy to call it a night and head back to get some sleep...

This is where it got really interesting. It's wednesday and I didn't finish watching Dis Unplugged for this week. It's really interesting to be sitting on a bench in CBR with your tablet watching the podcast about where your sitting. I did learn about Force Friday and the extra sales opportunity only at the disney parks earlier. I'm glad I watched but now I was all siked about special events happening! That's in 24 hour so I better get some sleep!

Well I thought sleep, I ended up having a restless night but that's more for day 6......

 

[Accident]

Day 6 Part 1

We went back to Magic Kingdom for our Be Our Guest lunch reservation today.

When we showed up it was a very big surprise for us.. ITS HALLOWEEN FULLY NOW!!!! This was no longer going to be a quick lunch and get out trip. Oh we have to stay an extra 10 days now so we can so MNSSHP!!!! Just teasing.. Why couldn't it be last year when halloween started Sept 1!!! what's this third week of sept to start about!!!



If you look really close at the last 2 pictures above, you'll notice disboards very own @DreamLikeWalt is the photopass photographer in the center. If you don't know who that is, you need to read her trip report of how she left the world behind to be there.

Today wasn't as empty as past days and everyone was loving the decorations so I didn't get in line to say hi and disturb her. Unfortunately she wasn't to be found when I had time a couple hours later

I love how the pumpkins on the buildings are signs for what's nearby and what's in the building, if you never noticed. walk past them slower and look up more, your missing so much about WDW to just keep your head down and rush past..



But we're here for lunch and we better make our way to the back.. With the exception of the mickey wreaths everywhere, the rest of the park was already decorated so not much more to see with the decorations (at this time, i'll have more in another part!!)

We're getting to be too familiar with the park, it didn't take long to skip main street, stop to smoke and get up to bog...



We went back and forth on if we wanted lunch or dinner but this really hit the spot and made my daughter really happy. She spent most of the time teasing family and friends how shes having lunch at be our guest again and they can never even get in. We have good luck here so we find it easy to eat without and ADR. this is the first reservation we've had for it. We probably didn't need it.

 

[Accident]

Day 6 Part 2

After lunch we took a leisurely stroll along the newer fanstasy land.. Nothing special and we're confused why it looks like slapped on fake rock everywhere especially with how miserable they made the construction process for guests.. They really should just close this back section down and finish it..

We did hit the stores and Little Mermaid ride. I like to call it Haunted Mansion under the sea, it's the same ride system and somewhat simple. I do like it better the second time I saw it but it's not a great ride that you want to keep going back and waiting for. It also moves too much and near impossible to get a good image.

Here's some back of the park images.



I was starting to feel how much I didn't sleep. My body was starting to just get more and more worn down and I was starting to get the shakes when you need to rest..

My daughter still hadn't been on Splash Mountain yet so she took off to ride it and I took the train around. We got there exactly the same time and she ran

While I was waiting for her, I got some coffee and sat down in the shade. I didn't intend to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade but it was timed perfectly as she finished and got across to me. We did wait for the princess float to come up because earlier in the week we both noticed my best friend in the world is the doppleganger for Anna and we wanted a picture to send her.

There was also this crane that was flying around to everyone and it decided to watch the parade from a lamp post next to us. It intrigued me a little so I took some pics of the parade with it



I was tired so when "brave" came up, I took off to head back to the resort while my daughter was going to stay. Things were walk on again so she wanted to spend the day alone at MK.

I know I mentioned it was low crowds this week but I never expected to beat the parade to the central hub and even more surprised when I found the crowd being only 1 person at the rope.



Again I didn't wait and took my favorite short cut past main street (no it's not a bypass). I got there so fast I was able to get a photo pass picture of the parade behind me and then made it up to the train station to get some more pics. It actually took 5 minutes waiting before the parade made it to this picture.




Since I was here anyway, had a seat and a perfect view, I decided to wait and let some of the people trying to leave hog up the buses before I got there.



During the parade I started to get txt messages that my daughter was caught in rain. I know Florida has it's patches but she was just on the other side of the buildings at the Jungle Cruise. The parade did start 10 minutes early with almost no warning, it was almost like they knew they could parade around the rain and got it moving at the perfect pace to pull it off. It was sunny everywhere I was standing but I wasn't paying attention to the sky around me.

The rest of the afternoon my daughter enjoyed the park and I went back for what I thought would be a few hour nap. I planned to join to see Celebrate and Wishes from the fp+ area to get some photos while she video tapped the performances. She also ended up catching the Electrical Light parade again and was really happy with the view from the wishes fastpass area.

I eventually had my Epcot Illuminations Alarm Clock wake me up. It's really close to CBR so you really hear it. But this isn't the end of the day! It is Disney after all and I have 1 more thing that happened this evening

 

[Accident]

Day 6 Part 3

This part was very short but being my first time in CBR, I wasn't sure what to expect from nearby parks. I knew how close epcot and hollywood studios is but it doesn't really hit home until you see the fireworks from the resort. While sitting on the bench near my room, I happened to get some ok shots of the Frozen Fireworks. Only having my mobile phone and trying to zoom in to get the resort lights to not impact the images made them all a little less desirable. Some are ok and the day isn't over at WDW until you get some fireworks and they delivered them as room service this time.



This might seem like a lot of fireworks but it's leading up to something in another day or two

Force Friday

This was Thursday Sept 3 which meant in a few hours it was the DTD force friday 12:01 opening.

I decided why not see what it had to offer, my daughter was starting to make her way back and I needed to eat anyway. I headed out and finally tried Earl of Sandwich. There is way too many choices when your just waking up there. Food was good and it was a perfect barely awake meal. I was getting tired of the standard QS fair so a soup and sandwich hit the spot.

I realized that I didnt't take a single picture but the sign outside of once upon a toy looks like they closed at 1:30pm in order to get ready for force friday. That should be a sign of how serious Disney is taking the new star wars land. They would close the large toy store the entire afternoon to get ready for whoever happens to show up to buy star wars merch that evening... WOW. just wow..

I saw a few of the dis unplugged staff but I didn't get a chance to say hi. All in all, I wasn't really interested i buying stars wars merch I had to get home after the trip but I enjoyed seeing the setup for it. I figured let someone else be more comfortable in line so I just headed back to the resort to rest some more..

Day 6 Conclusion:

The week had been interesting with a few forced down days and this was a short but also restful day. Got to do something new and see a last moment event at DTD to get a feel for what it might be like living down here with everything I can only read about in blogs happening.

We still have a couple more days to go!!! stay tuned..

 

[Accident]

Day 7

My Daughter woke up really late and lazy. It started to look like it might be her turn to have a down day but near noon the sky was a little overcast and we had a couple things we wanted to take a look at in World Showcase.

With my daughters hatred of Epcot, we have to have a very specific goal. All the times we've been through there we never knew about a huge Japanese store. Older Dis Unplugged pod casts had turned us onto it being some peoples favorite store to shop in. We're not really sure how we could have missed a "favorite store" as we spend a lot of time around Japanese culture back home and always a destination for us.

To make it easier and to be a little lazier, we hopped through Hollywood and took the bus directly to the international gateway entrance. A walk through future world wasn't going to cut it and see the back this time, we had to try something new and go direct.

For us, no visit is complete without seeing what Doctor Who stuff UK is selling and there was a really good Scottish band performing but unfortunately I didn't get their name and I can't seem to find it now.



From there we took off directly towards japan but as if it's a requirement the hatred started right as we started across the bridge to france. Partly because my daughter wanted to be lazy today but also because she overdid her solo afternoon and evening on day 6 and really the first all day of walking for her. She wasn't going to be able to walk around today and she needs very little excuse to not be at Epcot so anything is elevated to let's leave now levels.

She seemed happy about the idea of a buggy (ECV) and really wanted to see Japan. It was a low crowd day and very few ECVs so I didn't mind getting one for a few hours.



The store at Japan was fantastic! So large. We figured out the reason we never noticed it was we usually get there really late for last second dinner and they were probably closed. Also from the front it seems smaller so looking in, we probably just skipped it before. That will never happen again.



While we were here, it was a good time to grap a quick meal since we didn't eat yet.. We just did the smaller QS spot on the left. The CMS loved the "grumpy depressed bear" as my daughter calls it. Ironically, it's the opposite if you look up what it is .



We had a secondary goal to catch the animatronic show in Amercia. She had learned about it in the larger backstage tour last year but it wasn't working anytime we stopped to see it during that trip. There was a great group performing on the big stage (American Music Machine) so we stopped a few while waiting for the next show to start.



It was a nice afternoon so far and my daughter was warming up to epcot, until our show ended and the rain was coming down . We went another country or two but it was coming down pretty good and she was ready to get back to her lazy day so we made our way out, dropped off the buggy and did a quick walk in for spaceship earth since it was right there and empty.

We rested for awhile and the rain had stopped shortly after making it back to the resort so I took the opportunity to just hang out on the benches and enjoy the resort as she napped. It was the first time I just got to sit with my coffee for a few hours and it was a nice rest for me also. I was looking to get out more but with the up and down of the week so far, my legs wanted a rest even though my brain wanted to do more.

We ended the night with a quick movie at DTD AMC theater. Neither of us had a chance to see Inside Out yet so it was a nice family ending to the evening. The AMC theater really upset me on how bad the home ones were. If you've never been in this theater, it's great and I recommend it for a down few hours with the family. It's really close to the west end boat so minimal effort to bus and then boat over to the other side. The seats are nice and comfy, the refreshment setup just makes much more sense. The extra content being Disney (and we're seeing a pixar film) was great.

Even the claw machines were a little more than normal and my daughter scored a unicorn on the first try.



We had a nice stroll back to the bus since it wasn't crowded and just enjoyed the night. Nothing special, just some time to talk with each other after a calm evening at the movies. It wasn't a full down day but it was the perfect ending.

 

[Accident]

Day 8: Final FULL day/night at WDW

Part 1:

Waking up, I could tell a lot of new visitors had arrived. It was crowded well above the rest of the visit and I was still at the resort. I was expecting some long weekenders but it was a pretty big jump of new neighbors having breakfast. It was also a gorgeous day, cooler than the rest of the week but the sun was out saying hi. Looking up the weather back home, it was actually colder than home.

Watching the boat ferry people to aruba beach while the bridge it is out:


I got my next tease that summer was over and we're about to miss halloween at disney. CBR had a bash planned for this evening to say goodbye to summer!



My Daughter decided she was done with vacation. We had our serious talk over breakfast about if we wanted to stay or not. Also the really low cost last second AP discount for a value disappeared so it was going to be 3 times the cost if we stayed until MNSSHP. This might seem strange but she was on vacation at various places since mid july with her mom and then a cruise with grandparents. I was the end of the vacations and she was ready to be back in her bed. We also had a few more down times than we normally would and we never hit that "we still have how much longer" period and it was just starting today. We never made it to the I don't want to leave point so this was going to be our last days at WDW.

Since my daughter wanted to just rest and do nothing, it was solo time for me. I figured Animal Kingdom would be a good start to the day. I could see on the app that it was swamped but I had added some fp+ early on just in case we wanted to go back. Since I wasn't 100% earlier in the week, it would be a good spot to jump in and just take in a couple rides I had passes for and get out of there.

I did enjoy Dinosaur more this trip than last. I think they overdid how far the truck "bounces", it could be a much better ride if they toned down the extreme movements, there's no way a truck could do that in real life while being driven and it's not a natural feeling. Imagineers forgot to go mudding while they were designing this one. All in all, I really enjoyed it with fp+ and then jumping in as a single really easy bypassing a lot of other guests when a seat was free.

I did hate primeval whirl being closed for renovation. Many don't know but the dinosaur story continues with that ride if you read the signs and follow along. I also love certain carnival rides and that one has a mix of 2 of my favorites so I do really enjoy it. We're also in the nyc area normally so it's not horrible that it was closed since it's just normal boardwalk like rides to us that we have readily available back home.

I also had a moment to hit EE again. I like that ride also and happened to be sat next to someone who loves it so much every thing they had on was EE themed. It was a lot of first timers so they didn't know about going backwards or what happens when so it was entertaining to hear their cries for help and I could stop smiling the whole time.

I had noticed the Walt before Mickey movie was out the night before and I really wanted to see it. It was really crowded so staying even to just eat was going to take some time. I figured DTD for lunch and a movie would hit the spot. On my way out of animal kingdom I saw my first sign about the DTD rebranding to Springs.



The movie was excellent. There was some things that I've seen from previous films and things about Ub that weren't completely accurate but it was an excellent movie. A lot of others had the same idea and the theater was about half full. I did my lunch here. It wasn't a diner and movie theater, just some hot food offerings. My daughter is actually allergic to hot dogs so I play nice and not tease her with them so it was perfect for me to enjoy a rarely eaten quick lunch favorite.



during the movie we did some txting about having dinner together. I wanted to do boat house or somewhere I could get a really good meal but my daughter wasn't in the mood for that. I headed back and we were looking at doing shutters at CBR but the wait was excessive. I forgot how much more crowded it was and should have put in an ADR while traveling back to the resort. We ultimately ended up just getting stuff from the food court and took our time. It worked out best for her as she didn't need to get far to eat and we weren't really in the mood for what shutters had on the menu.

 

[Accident]

Day 8 Part 2

After our nice meal together, my daughter was finally getting into the "it's our last night and MK is opened until 2am" mood. We decided to meet up later but I really wanted to hit the Frozen Fireworks 1 last time. It wasn't the fireworks I was after, I spent the other day looking closer at what was where, what could move and where they needed to leave untouched.

I love the MK Fireworks in the back and the HS fireworks seem really close to the stage. They also close down TSMM for safety so where does the fireworks actually fire from? This was my mission to find out (legally). My idea of where the new lands would be are the area I think they use. We know from announcements that a new star wars fireworks is coming soon while the new stuff is built. How can they keep up fireworks while building and what would HS have to close to make it a regular event there?

I know this park really well and couldn't get to the area I originally wanted but asking CMs it seemed that streets of new york was going to be my best bet. It wasn't roped off and I could get back there..



As you can see it was also a ghost town, the front was packed!!! not just in front of the stage but anywhere out front all the way back to tickets was packed. They even let fantasmic out via the doors next to the wheel chair rentals (gas station theme at the ticket turnstyle). PACKED!!!

There was 1 lonely security guard to keep people away. I asked about where the fireworks come from and I loved the MK fireworks from the back and wanted to see if frozen was a good show in the back also. It turned out it was her first night on that shift and she didn't know herself but quickly ran back to ask the pyros. I found it!! It fires just behind the wall where the backlot tour queue used to be. You can see my view pointed at the firing point below:



To be clear, it's behind the left "building" in the above image. I was warned by the CM that was keeping people in the streets and out of the courtyard that high altitude would be very close but the low levels would be blocked. This was the best I was going to do to be in the middle of them like MK so I just decided to wait and see ready to run where needed..



As you can see it was great. you can't get a sense of how up I had to look to watch them from the images and I was surprised to see some shooting over the street closer to the front than I was.. It was a great spot!! The best part, NO MUSIC! I found frozen without the music!!!

Since my plans are to meet up with my daughter at MK after the fireworks, I left the gopro with her so unfortunately that left me with just my mobile. I alternated between some stills, some quick video and just taking it in! The one thing that surprised me is the explosions were so close they did a combination of echos and shaking the windows. It really sounded like they were doing demo and using fireworks to level the place for the new lands!!

I tried to capture the loadness and rattling bulidings but it's not really great. Below is the mobile phone video of them. I tried to move around to show where it was around me without making it a dizzy video.

It was a great spot but now the question of exactly where is Star Wars going to be?? They called it an expansion and that's not a term they use as a revamp of the park. The entrance road has to be moving and they are heading into the current road. It's the only way I can see keeping fireworks and not having to close down star wars to do it.

Toy Story is a different situation, that wasn't called an expansion and they aren't going to move TSMM so that building is hooked into the land somehow. Disney loves central hubs and the hat removal makes that area look a lot like a central hub to me. I think we're going to see the lands come off of it and toy story land will start where animation courtyard is.

Star wars land off the central hub.. There is that walkway with ABC quick service that kind of looks like the shops section of the artist rendering. I think we're going to see scifi get a new door, that walkway and the old american idol experience building becoming starwars land with a hook into the new central hub. I think star tours is going to become the new ride that sounds similar and star tours is going away. That leaves the parking lot area and into the current road to get the rest of the land to 14 acres. The rest of the park will go untouched to stay opened during construction and provide a place for future expansion.

I also think that the reason cars land isn't built is because the ride platform it uses would make a killer land speed ride or something in the future for star wars. You can't really put the same ride in the same park twice with different theming.

This was a fun run around the place!!! Off to MK to meet up with my daughter and our last evening in the park!

 

[Accident]

Day 8 Part 3

It wasn't hard to get out of Hollywood studios past everyone leaving. The park closed with the fireworks so it was a max exit. The NYer in me kicked in and a couple minutes later I was outside of the park with ease and headed to the MK bus. I had a chance to catch wishes with my daughter and we didn't do any fireworks together. For the first time, DTD dropped the ball and didn't have the normal nonstop line of buses to quickly shuttle you to MK. The line for MK was so long, people going to epcot didn't know they were in the wrong line.

It took 10 minutes but the line of MK shuttles appeared. It was definitely a full crowd so some understandable delays for loading up the people who needed special assistance. I can never complain about that wait no matter how much of a rush I'm in. We made decent time but the traffic was killer and the bus got out of the parking lot slower than normal. I did see my wishes but we were in the bus while it was happened arriving just as it finished.

Luckily the bypass was opened. Having taken the KTTK tour earlier, I know the parade door side had nothing changed behind the scenes but the opposite side did have some minimal mainstreet themed walls put up. It also had a rope so the crowd leaving couldn't fill up the path and I quickly got back to tomorrowland to enjoy the night with my daughter. I tried to get pictures but it felt weird with the mass crowd and it would never be opened if empty. They all came out blurry so sorry, I don't have any to share.



We didn't have an agenda and just wanted to spend some time together and take in MK at night 1 last time before we parted ways again. It was also a mega crowd, never seen lines that long for space mountain (it went back all the way to stretch) and no fast passes were available for anything except younger rides that we did earlier in the week already. We just enjoyed the place and wandered..



This is also where the family breakdown hit us finally. It was going to happen but we had a difference in opinion about seeing the new haunted mansion queue and donig only that all night or enjoying the last night. We couldnt' do the queue earlier because when there is no crowd, the line doesn't go past to the new stuff. I didn't mind waiting for her, but I didnt' want to stand in line with crowds. I didn't have crowds all week and it wasn't starting now!

We did see the second run of electrical parade again but didn't stay around to watch this time..



We ended up getting out about 1am and heading to the bus. The situation with Haunted Mansion just killed the mood and we cut our losses and left. most people were still in MK so it was a quick ride back to the resort...

 

[Accident]

Day 9

Welp, we finally made it to our last day. With the train you have 2 options for our line. you leave at 11am or 7pm. We always arrive on the early and leave on the late because it offers a pretty long day and early diner before departing.. now that we are annual pass members, going anywhere in the parks is not a cost issue anymore so it's really easy to do some or all of the parks 1 last time..

We originally had asked for a late checkout near 4pm. Since it was hot out, we really didn't want to head to a 24 hour train ride sweaty and smelly to start with. To get it this late, you basically pay the lowest rate they offer the room for 1 night and you don't even get to sleep there! We opted for the standard no charge 1pm late checkout so we didn't have to rush after a 2am MK closing.

We were a little lazy but when we emerged just in time for 1 more set of mickey waffles, we were welcomed by a gorgeous day!!!



My daughter has to be packed the night before so it really came down to me. We snuck in some laundry the night before so we had all clean clothes for the trip home, we couldn't sleep anyway. We got ourselves situated and bell services picked up our luggage to store at the resort for us near noon. I have to commend CBR, it's the fastest bell services i've encountered so far. only 5 minutes from calling until someone was there to pick it up.

Now what to do until we have to be back to leave after dinner? We had to cut hollywood short so we decided to go back in and finish the trip. We were able to get a couple fastpasses for indie jones and great movie ride and that's all we didn't do the other day...

It took a long time to get in, the bag check had every line opened and it was 10-15 people deep. It was fun listening to the bickering of who wasn't really in line and how families where hogging up the place with no bags. We spent about 15 minutes just getting threw security and into the park.




The rest of our time we just checked out the shops, we never really go into them so this was all new shopping for us. We also did a nice QS lunch and 1 more round of ice cream sundaes!



It was a perfect few hour ending to the vacation and we felt we did everything and some more that we wanted to achieve!!!

Now it's time to go back to the resort, see where we are with the food plan and figure out our plan of having food during a 24 hour train ride... Seems our downtime was a lot more then we thought, we loaded up on a lot of snacks, pastries and beverages using the meal conversion. We had a ton of meals to convert and we were using snacks like crazy in hollywood trying to be fully hydrated before the train home. We had some hot and cold thermal bags and packs so we were ok with loading up the bags as we left..

Now a new interesting development. We had scheduled our car back to the train for 5:15. That's more than enough for a 6:50pm train time and we were watching it all day to know it wasn't going to be early. I guess they took that as we wanted to be there at 5:15 because we started to get txt messages at 4pm that our car was on the way. Luckily the driver asked what time so we took 4:45 that was the latest without getting waiting fees. We really didn't want to be this early but it was lining up so not horrible.

The heavens opened up though so we had to wait for the internal shuttle to get to the lobby to get our bags and meet our driver. another family was in a panic as they took over an hour for the shuttle late night and now it's raining really hard. It wasn't a long wait and we were at the lobby with plenty of time to spare. The rain cleared up by the time we got to the amtrak station so we just sat down to wait for our train to come.. wow this florida weather kills my hair.



And wait.. and wait.. we were so early and then it happened again.. Train is late.. I hate how long it takes for amtrak to call a train late. It could be 6 hours late and they won't say late until its your time to go and it's not there. 6 extra hours in WDW would be amazing or at least walk down the street for dinner!! Is this amtrak telling us we should have stayed? We actually had a great last day and the topic of should we not go home came up again. At this point it was too close to the train to move it without extra fees and we had to do a moderate AP last second summer deal for best rates. POFQ, our favorite was available though. Ultimately, we opted to just go home and save the money for next time.

It ended up being about 40 minutes late but when there so early, anything late was going to be annoying. We were also exhausted and just wanted out sleeper car to lay down and pass out... This was much better than last December when it was 6 hours late but still late..

We slept a lot of the trip and braved the strange microwave cafe food.. our pastries didn't last long, we were hungry and its a long ride. The ride home is when we always look at each other on why we take the train? 24 hour on a train means leaving 24 hours earlier than we need too and it takes forever. Going there, I love it. Going home, I need to start flying back. Of course we were ready to be home and it was crowded.

We didn't arrive home until 8pm on 'day 10'. The train never made up all the lateness it had and we crawled into the last station. We didn't sleep as much so we were just ready to be home counting how many flights back and forth we could have taken by now..

 

[mrsdaly]

I'm not much into documenting my trips but decided to take some not usual for me photos as I roamed around this trip.


10 years ago when Katrina passed through, I was preparing to take my daughter on her second trip to WDW (but our first together). It was a very interesting trip back then as Katrina passed by southern florida and we happened to be able to fly in. This was an amazing trip for us as everyone canceled and there had to be 10 cast members for every visitor the entire week. We're not talking 10 per resort guest, we're talking to per visitor. A trip we could never repeat with absolutely nobody in your way for anything you wanted to do or wherever you wanted to eat.

I was one of those one visitor for every 10 castmembers during Katrina too! My mom and I took that trip together and it was a dream trip. Great weather and I do believe it is the only time I have gone to WDW and was able to do EVERYTHING that I wanted! Of course when you're on vacation you don't watch the news really so we didn't know the effects of Katrina to the New Orleans area until we got home.