Two Castles & a Dumbo Double Dare for Good Measure-Sep13 *Newx5 2/3-AK Epcot & MNNSHP

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Day 10 – Part 6: Mickey Bars Make Everything Better

Lights, Motor, Action Continued...

While sitting in the shade for the show had been nice, the heat was really starting to get to us. We grabbed a Mickey Premium bar for me and an ice cream sandwich for B on our way over to the back lot tour.

We had heard rumors Disney was planning to close it with the addition of Carsland and if that had turned out to be true, we wanted to get a final ride on it. Universal Studios Hollywood Backlot tour it ain’t but it’s fun, if for nothing else, to get off your feet for a little while.

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Day 10 – Part 7: Just Me and My Shadow

Once you board the backlot vehicles, they take you past various props, parts of the Disney studios and in to Catastrophe Canyon - B wasn't mad about getting sat closest to where the water comes down, it was so hot we both welcomed a little bit of relief!

Our FP for Toy Story was finally good and as we got close to the entrance we noticed one of the Green Army Men out trying to sneak up on guests behind the tree. B had way too much fun mirroring him and they went back and forth on the tree like that for several times before B got a big old fist bump from the Army Man. Oh my goodness, I was laughing so hard, it was such a cute moment watching B playing with the Army Man.

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Day 10 – Part 8: Break Those Plates!

Much like Buzz, I am not a huge fan of Toy Story because well, I suck but I absolutely love the theming of the line compared to DL and I wish our line was even a fraction as cool as WDW’s version.

No big surprise, I lost. I have never, ever been able to get better than the beaver.

While we were both pretty done with our day at DHS, I figured we would still get one last ride at one of our favorites.

Well, B did something I totally didn’t expect, passed up riding it – he was overly hot and ready to head back to WL (of course, not without stopping at the pin store under the giant hat first). I think this was the first time we didn’t ride the Great Movie Ride during the trip. Definitely making up for that in February.

We made our way out of the park and grabbed a couple final PP pics on the way out.

DHS has always been the worst bus service for us and today was looking like it was not going to be any different. The WL bus stop was full of people, more than any other bus stop in the area and as we walked up I heard people grumbling about how long they had been waiting. While there was no WL bus, a Contemporary bus pulled up right as we got in the area and without a 2nd thought we hopped on. Surprisingly, no one followed suit and we were treated to our own private bus ride to the Contemporary!

Score one for boat transportation between WL and Contemporary!

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Day 10 – Part 9: When Did It Start Pouring?

I love taking the boats at WL because the walk to and from the docks is just too beautiful. You forget so quickly that you are in the middle of Florida swamp land.

Since we hadn’t eaten lunch at DHS, we were both hungry and I had yet to get my absolute favorite cupcake on property, so we stopped off at Roaring Fork before heading back up to the room.

Our dining reservation tonight was not at Epcot – streak finally broken, hehe! We relaxed in the room where we were reminded just how quickly Florida weather can change. Even though it was still quite sunny, in the couple minutes it took me to put on sun block at the sink, the skies broke open. It was almost comical how quickly it changed. Luckily, as quickly as it came, it was gone and by the time we made our way down to the docks things had already mostly dried up.

We stopped at the campgrounds first before heading to MK, so while the ride took longer, it made for some wonderful views out on the water.

With it being Sunday afternoon, we expected MK to feel quite crowded and it wasn’t bad at all. Returning to the scene of the crime…still boggles my brain how I actually fell off those steps.

We grabbed a couple PP before heading in to Adventureland and Pirates of the Caribbean.

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Day 10 – Part 10: People, People Everywhere!

The wait for Pirates was about 20 minutes and with nothing else really planned until dinner, we said what the heck and hopped in line. I think we really only waited about 15 minutes before being loaded.

We cruised through the gift shop (no pun intended) as B was on the lookout for pins to trade.

B being a little pin trading fiend this trip, really gave me the opportunity to find the little details we almost always miss. I seriously had no idea they had ships in a bottle here – was such a cool little find!

Big Thunder was next on our list of rides and as we made our way down the bridge towards Frontierland we found out where all the people in MK were!

I couldn’t believe how crowded it was and figured BTMRR was going to have a huge wait. We were shocked that, like Pirates, it was only a 20 minute wait and in reality, we only waited maybe 10 minutes! Woohoo!

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Day 10 – Part 11: Hang on to Them Hats and Glasses

I didn’t take a picture but I think Splash’s line was either 25 or 30 minutes and with neither of us wanting to wait that long, we grabbed a FP to come back later in the evening.

At this point, I was ready to see more of New Fantasyland. Being so beat up after the Marathon in January, I was super disappointed we hadn’t gotten to see really any of the New Fantasyland.

Keeping fingers and toes crossed the Mine Train ride is open when we go in April.

The theming in Beauty and the Beast’s area is just gorgeous!

We checked out Gaston’s but with our ADR less than 30 mins away B didn’t feel like giving LeFrou’s Brew a try and I didn’t want to get one all on my own.

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Day 10 – Part 12: Is it Truly Delicious?

We didn’t have far to walk to get back for our ADR. This was the one meal I was really looking forward to on our trip!

We checked in and waited a few minutes on the bridge before being called in where we were sat at a two person table in the ballroom.

I had goosebumps, it was just absolutely stunning. Pictures really don’t do the inside justice!

The epicness of the ballroom was lost on B, but he did get a kick out of the rose napkins!

Our server was prompt and brought out the bread with our drinks. So tasty!
We both got the steak for our entrée and while I have read some pretty negative reviews about the food our steaks were fantastic. They were cooked perfectly (medium rare) and so tender. One of B’s favorite steaks of the entire trip.

I was also super excited to be able to try the Grey Stuff and it truly is delicious. I am happy to see that Disney has started offering desserts with the Grey Stuff!

We both decided to get cupcakes for our dessert – the double chocolate for B and the strawberry cream cheese for me!

B is a much more talented cupcake unwrapper as he was able to tear his off with ease. Me not so much and I ended up eating mine with a fork. Both cupcakes were very good and moist!

Overall, I give Be Our Guest a huge 5 out of 5 stars. It was one of our favorite meals of the trip. Our server encouraged us to check out the other rooms before heading out.

Of course, no meal would be complete without a visit with the Master of the castle himself! The Beast had the BEST character interactions we saw the entire trip – he was hilarious. The first family we saw, the Beast had given a kiss to the wife and then turned and gave the husband a big bear hug. As he did, the husband “kissed” Beast, which caused him to frantically wipe it off and chase the husband out of the room. Their kids were giggling the whole time. The next family to have their pictures taken were two teenage girls, one of whom was wearing Minnie ears. Beast proceeded to remove the ears and place them as high up as he could on the mantel and wouldn’t let her take the picture with them on.

It was with this family that the PP had to do a battery change and having to wait did not sit well with the Beast. He proceeded to antagonize the PP photographer for holding things up. When we walked up, Beast pointed to our anniversary buttons and made B get down on one knee to look like he was proposing for the picture.

I had no idea Beast covered up B until going through the PP on the site. So much fun! I hope they continue to do pictures with Beast for dinner!

It was a beautiful evening as we made our back through Fantasyland in to Liberty Square.

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Day 10 – Part 13: It’s a Triple Mountain Whammy

I was happy to see Haunted Mansion had no wait since we had yet to ride it this trip. I so wish DL’s version would adopt the Hitchhiking Ghost antics at the end of the ride!

Our Splash Mountain FP was good by the time we got off, but really, we didn’t need it. There was no line! Again, love September crowds!

Big Thunder was also without a line – so much more fun at night time!!

When we got off, I checked the wait times for Space Mountain as the Electrical Parade was going on and like Splash and Big Thunder, it had a pretty non-existent line. So it was back through Fantasyland in to Tomorrowland.

Of course, no trip in to MK would complete without a ride on the People Mover and by the time we came back around the park had officially closed to offsite guests and was now open for 2 more hours for EMH.

We thought it would be a perfect time to finally try Carousel of Progress…too bad it’s not open for EMH! Whoops!

Oh look, Buzz has no wait, sure, I’ll ride this infuriating contraption!!

As much as we wanted to stay at MK until it closed at midnight, we were both pooping out and figured we had given Main Street enough time to clear out. We were able to grab some of my favorite PP and Castle pictures on our way out.

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Day 10 – Part 14: The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Unfortunately, the wall of people hadn’t quite made their way out of the park yet so we merged in to the mass of bodies and over to the resort boats, which surprisingly had a very small line.

Our boat ride back to WL was seriously a traumatizing one for me. I am super afraid of spiders and wouldn’t you know, those big, ugly orb spiders were making their webs in the open windows of the boat and crawling around inside around the windows. I sat as far on the aisle edge of the seat as I could the entire ride back and B even had to squish one of them as it came down the interior wall right next to him. So to say I have never been so happy to get off Disney transportation before was an understatement. Never EVER again will we take the boats back at night time. Ugh, awful!!

Walking back from the docks though, our little amphibians friends were out in full force (one on almost every light post). Sorry again if you don’t like frogs!

The pool was closed for the night, which gave a perfect opportunity to grab a couple of night photos of the area.

We both crashed fast once back to the room. We had an early wake up – it was finally our Magic Kingdom day (and the 2nd to the last full day of our trip…boooo!!!)

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Day 11 – Part 1: I Wanna be That Guy!

Monday, September 9th meant it was finally our Magic Kingdom day. If I absolutely had to only pick one favorite, it would be MK and the only reason we waited a week in to our trip to spend the day there was for the best crowd day. We were up bright and early and decided to take the bus over. After the spiders from the night before, I was less than thrilled at the thought of getting on a boat so early. Shockingly, we were they only people on the bus!! What the what??!

For all our trying and getting up early, we still managed to miss rope drop by a few minutes. We were surprised at the amount of people on Main Street but it turned out to just be the initial rush of people in to the park as once we made the turn in to Tomorrowland, the crowd had thinned substantially.

Today was the last day that Space Mountain was going to be open while we were there (it had been closing intermittently during several of our days) so we wanted to get in as many rides as possible!

Ride #1 down, as we made our way towards the People Mover, I noticed there was no line for Astro Orbiter and since it is something we very rarely do, said what the heck!

Legitimate flying skills right here! Hehe!

I don’t have notes as to why we ended up skipping People Mover but B wanted to do Buzz (yay!!) and once again, I lost miserably!

Space Mountain Ride #2 of the day!

Monster’s Inc was our last Tomorrowland attraction before moving on to the other lands. I liked that they integrated some of the Monster’s U material in to the attraction. So cheesy and corny and cute all at the same time! Unfortunately, B didn't get picked to be "That Guy"!

Before we came on the trip, I had decided that I wanted to check off Goofy’s Barnstormer from my “haven’t ridden yet” list and that is right where we were heading. We were surprised to find the line coming out of the normal queue but with it posted at only 5 minutes, we took a chance.
While it definitely wasn’t a 5 minutes wait, it was a cute little coaster and I am glad we tried it. I loved listening to the giggles of the little kids as we rode it!

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Day 11 – Part 2: Having a Philharmagical Day

We made our way under the Big Top and I so wish I would have stopped and gotten one of the tasty treats, they all looked so good!

B pin traded and once done we checked out the wait times to meet Goofy/Donald and Minnie Daisy. Since Goofy and Donald were only a 10 minute wait (compared to 25 mins for Minnie and Daisy) we hopped in line to see them. We had fun interactions with both characters – it is a seriously cute meet and greet area!

Neither of us wanted to wait in the longer line to meet the girls, so it was back out in to Fantasyland for us!

B was pretty adamant about not waiting in line for the Little Mermaid ride since it is always walk on at California Adventure, so I had to gaze longingly as we walked by.

We had decided to try Pinochio’s Village Haus for lunch today and as we made our way over, we just happened to go by the Stepsisters/Mother as Peter and Wendy were going through the area. It was funny to hear Peter heckling them as he ran by!

Lines to order were super short and even better, we were able to snag a table right next to Small World.

I got the plain cheese flatbread with a Caesar salad and B got the BBQ chicken flatbread.

Both were good and we would give it 4 out of 5 stars. While not totally the same, I liked my flatbread from Captain Cook’s a little bit more.

We decided to continue our theme of sitting in air conditioned buildings and went across the way for Philharmagic. I so wish they would bring this to California!

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Day 11 – Part 3: Oh Big Al, I Love You!

The lines in Fantasyland were quite a bit longer than we were willing to wait for so we made our way back in to Liberty Square and a must do attraction for us!

I know, I know – it’s Country Bear but I love me some Country Bears. Don’t get me wrong, I also love me some Pooh Bear but am still bitter they took our Bears away for the Winnie the Pooh ride. I pick Big Al over Huffalumps and Woozles any day!!

Splash Mountain was next on the list and I made the executive decision to just stick it out for the 20 minute wait. Boy oh boy was that a mistake, our “short” 20 minute wait ended up being closer to 40 minutes. It was the slowest moving line EVER! I felt so bad but at least getting a little drenched was a welcome relief to the heat.

The long wait had kind of done B in and he was ready to go back to WL to cool off and relax for the afternoon. It was so hot, we had to stop for ice cream on Main Street just to make it out to the bus stop hehe!

We came back to a couple of Disney channel watching travel bunnies!

B napped while I caught up on uploading pictures and making trip notes. And after a couple relaxing hours, we were back over to Magic Kingdom for rest of the afternoon/evening.

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Day 11 – Part 4: That’s Amore!

The Move It! Street Parade was going on as we made our way down Main Street towards the Castle. While we are not really parade people, it is always cute watching the little ones dance along and get all excited as they see the characters.

We took advantage of being able to walk through the Castle and made our way over to ride Peter Pan to use our DVC fastpass. One of these days, I will perfect taking pics inside the dark rides!

We still had time to kill before our ADR, so we walked over to grab a FP for Space. The standby would have been cutting it close to missing our ADR so we decided to just head back up Main Street and check in early.

Our dinner this evening was at Tony’s Town Square. I was surprised at how quickly we were sat even though we had checked in about 30 minutes early.

I wasn’t feeling super hungry, I think the heat had gotten the best of me, so I just ordered a Caesar salad for my entrée.

B got the chicken parmesan, his go to for Italian.

Both entrées were good but disappointment came when we went to order dessert. B’s favorite, the ice cream bomb, was no longer on the menu. Honestly, it was one of the main reasons we came to Tony’s, so while the food and service I would give 4 out of 5 stars on, I can sadly say we probably won’t be coming back anytime in the near future. Personally, I would rather do Via Napoli (and we probably would have if we had realized they had taken the ice cream bomb off the menu). Oh well, live and learn, right?

We came out to a gorgeous sunset and with time to kill until our FP for Space, we explored the shops on Main Street as we made our way down.

I was captivated by the glass work that was being done. We stayed to watch him work on making the turrets of the small castles for quite some time. He made it look absolutely effortless.

I realized while we were watching the glass work that we could use our FP so once we were able to tear ourselves away from his work that is straight to where we went.

Space Mountain ride #3, complete!

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Day 11 – Part 5: It’s a Small, Small World

B left choosing the remaining rides of the night up to me so I walked us all the way back across the Magic Kingdom and to Frontierland to get a couple more rides on Big Thunder and Splash.

Both of our faces got covered by the people riding in front of us, so no Splash Mountain picture for us that night.

B was a good sport and agreed to go on Small World since there was absolutely no line.

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Day 11 – Part 6: Fireworks Just For Us!

Small World continued.

By the time we got off Small World, it was getting close to park closing and we still had one more Space ride in us, so we booked it to get to Tomorrowland.

There was no line at all! Woohoo! Space Mountain ride #4 complete!

We had just enough time to either hope back on Space or ride the People Mover and since we had yet to ride it that day, we chose the People Mover as our last ride of the night.

Wishes had just started as we exited the ride and with almost no one left in Tomorrowland, it was like having our own private fireworks show. I was in fireworks heaven!!

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Day 11 – Part 7: The Best Kiss Goodnight

We knew that Main Street would be a mad house and I really wanted to try to stick around long enough to see the Kiss Goodnight – something we had never done before. So we took our time making our way out of Tomorrowland.

While the hub was still bustling, we were able to snag a couple seats on a bench and sat and talked about how much fun the trip had been, how we couldn’t believe the next day was our last full day, our favorite parts of the trip so far and before we knew it, the Kiss Goodnight was happening.
I loved it, it gave me Goosebumps (and maybe a little teary eyed too).

Something so simple yet beautiful! I highly recommend sticking around to see it at least once on your trip. I think it is 30 minutes or so after the official park closing.

I was delighted to see PP photographers still set up taking pictures!

As we made our way over to the bus (no way were we chancing another spider filled boat ride), I got a kick out of the Ferry Boat having a wait time sign above it.

Like the night before, we both crashed as soon as we got back to the room. We were both exhausted.

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Day 12 – Part 1: A Triple Everest Whammy Kinda Morning

Tuesday, September 10th should have been our go home day but with extending the trip to do the Halloween party, it meant instead it was our last full day. Nothing better than getting up to go to a park on a day you were originally supposed to go home! I still couldn’t believe we were already at our last full day at Disney World. It’s depressing how fast vacations always go by!

Our park for the morning was Animal Kingdom and after grabbing a quick breakfast we were down at the buses and got on to a very full bus to Animal Kingdom.

No surprise, we went straight to Everest where there was absolutely no line!

We got off, and there was still absolutely no line.

We got sat right at the front of an empty train and the two women sitting in front of us were an absolute riot! They were laughing and screaming the entire ride – it was so much fun!

Adventure is out there!!

We got off and guess what? There was still absolutely no line. The CM’s at the entrance were messing with the CM’s at the trains and giving everyone who walked in one of the red time tracker cards. By the time we gave them ours, they already had 4 or 5 and there were at least 3 or 4 more groups behind us with them.

Our best attempt at being Thriller zombies!

Well, 3 rides in a row ended up being the magic number for my tummy and while there was still no line, I could not bring myself to ride for a 4th time in a row. So we walked over to Dinoland instead.

Like Everest, Dinosaur had no line.

I had no idea that they had the Dinosaur pop out from either direction of the ride, hence the kind of confused look on my face. I thought it only every came from the right side of the vehicle.

We were going to head over to the Kilimanjaro Safari but as we made our way across the park, we hit the hoards of people streaming in. The plan had always been to go over to Animal Kingdom Lodge to check out Kidani, since the Villas were our new home resort and instead of sticking around AK through lunch then heading over, we decided to cut our losses and head out early with a very tasty lunch destination in mind.

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Day 12 –Part 2: I Can’t Believe this is our Home

Leaving early brought us the good fortune of running across Devine. She is so beautiful and creepy all at the same time.

We made our way over to the buses and only had to wait a couple of minutes for an AKL bus to pull up.

With AKL being broken up in to two sections now, Kidani and Jambo, the buses stop at both locations, with Kidani being first on the drop off list. I won’t post the picture of it but there was the biggest spider just chilling in the greenery next to the bus stop. No joke, with its legs it was close to being the length of my hand. Little too authentic there Disney, don’t need to bring in the African spiders too!!!

Seeing the Welcome Home sign above the entrance made me all giddy – I still couldn’t believe we were DVC members!

The lobby, while much smaller than Jambo, is just as breathtaking and the light fixtures are GORGEOUS!

We spent a few minutes out on the overlook of the Savannah, I seriously can’t wait to spend more time here (which, with Princess Weekend rapidly approaching means we only have to way 18 more days!!!!!) We chatted a bit with the CM who was out there about the Savannah and then made our way back towards the buses – we had an impromptu lunch date to get to!

When we left Epcot on Saturday night, that was to have been our very last time at the park. So you can bet I was super excited to be driving under this sign again!!

Nothing like a surprise trip to Epcot to make the day that much better.

We were both starving by this point and booked it straight to the Land Pavillion – Sunshine Seasons was calling our name!!

Like earlier in the trip, I got the rotisserie chicken with cheesy mashed potatoes and a strawberry shortcake.

B once again got the pork chop with cheesy mashed potatoes.

So, so good!! Big 5 out of 5 stars!!!

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Day 12 – Part 3: The Triple Transportation Whammy!

Our lunch date over, we both agreed it was time to head back to WL so B could take a nap. We were going to be out late tonight and didn’t want him to be too tired to enjoy the party.

Neither one of us wanted to walk all the way back to the bus so we decided to do a Triple Transportation Whammy, starting with the Monorail over to the TTC.

From the TTC, we hopped on the Ferry Boat over to the Magic Kingdom.

Seriously took all my self-restraint to not just head in to the park!

Our third and final mode of transportation was another empty bus waiting to take us back to WL!

The rest of afternoon was spent napping and getting ready for the party. We actually had pseudo costumes for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party this year! I was excited to be dressed up!

We had been able to snag an early dinner reservation at Crystal Palace and were excited to try it for dinner. We had only ever eaten there for breakfast and had always had good food and great character interactions…boy was dinner time different!

We waited about 15 minutes after our ADR to finally be seated and were put towards the back of the restaurant next to the window. It was at least a nice view.

The restaurant was a mad house and it took forever to get through all of the characters. The dinner buffet itself, was just not very good. It was probably the dirtiest in terms of stray food being everywhere and I could barely find anything that looked good to eat. B faired a little better than me as he was slightly less picky. Our server was also non-existent for most of the meal and plates were very rarely taken from the table and drink refills were few and far between.

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Day 12 – Part 4: Does Mickey Know You’re Hanging with Oswald?

The character interactions were slightly better than our experience with our food but compared to when we had been at breakfast were very much rushed.

It didn’t help that the place was packed but compounded with the bad food – we both swore we would never go back for dinner again. Even with the Tables in Wonderland discount, it was an expensive meal and quite frankly a waste of time and money. I unfortunately would have to give our Crystal Palace dinner 2 out of 5 stars.

With the disappointing dinner experience behind us, there was still time before the party officially started, so we made our way to the front of Main Street to get pictures with Mickey. I was happy that most of the CM’s knew who B was dressed as, it wasn’t until the Party that we realized Oswald is a much more West Coast character. We both got high fives and thumbs up from Mickey for our outfits though.

My one and only goal for the party that evening had been to get pictures with Captain Jack and since there was still a little bit of time before the party started we made our way over to Adventureland to check out how bad his line was (it was HUGE when we went in 2011 and we did not want to get stuck waiting that long again…little did we know…)

To my delight there was a very small line – score!! The girls who lined up behind us were both former CM’s and one was now a CM at Sea World so we spent our time talking to them. Around 7pm, when the party officially started, they moved the line up to the little stage area and let us all know that Capt Jack was running a little late but would be there soon.

The girls behind us stuck it out for another 15 minutes until they once again told us “ he would be there very soon”. At that point several other families left as well and we were now only 4 families from the front of the line. At 7:30, we were told again, he would be coming. I was so torn, I didn’t want to get stuck missing the first part of the party waiting like we did in 2011 but we were SO CLOSE to the front of the line. B was okay with continuing to wait but wanted to check out the line for the merchandise so he headed off towards Frontierland. The waiting continued and shortly before 8pm, Captain Jack FINALLY came out! While I was super bummed to have wasted the entire hour in line – he was an amazing Captain Jack and I am happy we stuck it out!

We seriously had no plans for the party and GASP were not going to do any of the treat trails. With leaving the next day, we didn’t want to lug a bunch of candy on the plane home. So we just started wandering.

We got lucky and just happened to run in to Goofy right after he came out with no line.

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