(Complete 4/20!) How Many Cookies Does One Couple Need? - Dec 2023 Trip Report

[SimplyGoofy]

I appreciate your honest review of Jollywood Nights! You did a great job getting fun pictures (I’m not surprised!) and doing a few unique things (the Muppet show would’ve been a draw for me too), but I can see why Jollywood Nights was less “worth it” than another hard ticketed event. I’ll be interested to see what they do with it next year.

I must add that the Gertie cookie looks adorable and the Sandy Claws Hot Cocoa sounds delicious. I also love the Tower of Terror Magic Band - I picked exactly the same one for my upcoming trip. I love that tower!

 

[awrites]

Several of those magic shots are super-cute! I haven’t done many special-ticketed events (just Oogie Boogie Bash at Disneyland) but Jollywood does seem a little lacking in “oomph.” Glad you had at least a little fun, though!

 

[Araminta18]

But is it good to have your own falcon? Not that I have ever kept our scores, but would you have a lower score?

So, I think so! I think the computer does the other roles - I don't think we get lower scores on our own, though I haven't super kept track. I like just being able to yell encouragement at each other without worrying about ruining anyone else's ride.

I love this one, even if it looks photoshopped.

me too!

Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam is my favorite! We loved the dessert party they used to do with it. If they brought it back in that capacity, I would be lobbying hard to go back!

It was super fun - I really liked it

I appreciate your honest review of Jollywood Nights! You did a great job getting fun pictures (I’m not surprised!) and doing a few unique things (the Muppet show would’ve been a draw for me too), but I can see why Jollywood Nights was less “worth it” than another hard ticketed event. I’ll be interested to see what they do with it next year.

I must add that the Gertie cookie looks adorable and the Sandy Claws Hot Cocoa sounds delicious. I also love the Tower of Terror Magic Band - I picked exactly the same one for my upcoming trip. I love that tower!

Thank you! I was trying not to be too down about it, and we did have a good time, but I don't think it was super worth the money. I'll also be super interested to see what if anything they do with it next year. The snacks were good though! and yay Tower of Terror magic band twins! I love the tower too - the theming is so good!

Several of those magic shots are super-cute! I haven’t done many special-ticketed events (just Oogie Boogie Bash at Disneyland) but Jollywood does seem a little lacking in “oomph.” Glad you had at least a little fun, though!

Oooh Oogie Boogie Bash is one of my fave hard ticket events - between Villain's Grove and having the villains at the trick or treat spots, that's exactly the kind of "oomph" I was looking for and didn't see really at Jollywood Nights. Like do some kind of lighting show or something, or have characters out roaming in fancy holiday hollywood outfits...that'd be cool!!

 

[jrmint427]

Quick real life update - I'm gonna be posting a ton, trying to get this trip report finished before we go back to Disney in May. I still have my January trip report to do!

I got behind but I will catch up! Excited you have another trip to share after this!!

Also the way Kevin poses for selfies is the most hilarious thing.

That is an awesome picture!

I'm pretty proud of myself in this picture - I'm not completely freaking out. A+ This ride is seriously scary. And very dark. But fun.

I always freak out in those pictures, it is so scary! I had even convinced myself that the dinosaur blows fire for some reason and realized that was not the case haha.

The seal was also very inquisitive - he startled me at one point! I'd met all the animals out and about at that point so I was just sitting and watching, and didn't notice the seal sneaking up behind me until he stuck his head over my shoulder. Just so much fun.

These puppets are so cute! That is sweet that they were interacting with each other and guests.

And because Trevor was amazing, he'd ordered drinks and food so the drink was waiting for me when I got there and the food arrived pretty soon afterwards.

That is perfect timing!!

 

[Araminta18]

The Packing Problem - Tuesday, Dec 19, 2023 (part 1)​

Our last day dawned bright and early. Well not *that* early, we definitely slept in a big after our late night the night before. The plan for today was a bit up in the air as well - we didn't have any particular plans, and after talking, Trevor decided he'd head back to Universal to try and see the one show he didn't get a chance to see the other day due to the rain. So we got up, got ready, did basic packing, and then he hopped in an uber. I don't have any pictures from that part of the morning, so not sure what time he left!

But when he left, my task began: figure out how to pack up all our treats! Normally we bring a big costco insulated bag and bring the cakes/cookies home with us in that, but this time we went just a leeeeeeettle bit overboard, so I wasn't sure how to pack them all in our carryons, with the few other fragile things. And I'm normally the packer in our family (anyone else?) so this was a fun tetris puzzle for me. Well, "fun". Eventually, I figured it out: I put all the cakes and cookies and such in our two carry-on roller bags, and then put shoes and such in the costco insulated bag. *shrugs* If it's stupid and it works...it's not stupid?

Roller bag one - we bring these little take out containers/tupperware like things for the rice krispie treats, and this time we used them for the gingerbread shingles too.

roller bag #2 - cookies in ziploc bags (yes we bring lots of ziploc bags), the fragile shadow box thing in the box is in the upper right hand corner.

Trevor texted me that he'd made it to the park at 9:40 (apparently there was a good amount of folks who'd wait in line, get up to the turnstiles and then not have their tickets ready. Which guys come on - if you're in line to get into a park, have your tickets ready!). I texted back that I'd managed to get everything to fit! Treats scattered in all our carry-on items.

Once all packed up, I called bell services and unlike our stay at Art of Animation earlier this year, Bell Services was able to come and pick up my bags! Huzzah! Saratoga Springs is so large they come on large golf carts:

They were even willing to give me a ride to the main building on the golf cart too, so that was fun.

In the meantime, Trevor had gotten back to the part of the park where the show would be, only to find out that the 10 am show (in like 10 min) was canceled. Noooooooooo! They did say they were planning on having the 11 am show. You'll have to wait and see if it actually happened! He did get to see the fire-breathing dragon in the meantime.

His plan was to check out some of the shops (we needed gifts for some friends), maybe get a snack, and then head back to the show.

Back to me at the main building!


I took a couple more pics of the building - I love that it's the Carriage House, and they have an actual carriage! I then headed to the gift shop to return a shirt (also that's another thing I really appreciate about Disney - you can return anything purchased on property to anywhere else on property. So we often will buy things in the park, try them on and then we can return them right at our resort if they don't fit), got that done, and then ran into a wreath exhibit! Apparently the CMs put together wreaths:




This Beauty and the Beast one is my favorite. Simple, but nice.

Also Encanto!

You can vote on your favorite - I didn't vote, but I liked them all! So creative.

Up next for me? Magic Kingdom! I'd bought Genie+ that morning at 7:30, so I'd been stacking a few Lightning Lanes.

 

[Araminta18]

Shopping! - Tuesday Dec 19, 2023 (part 2)​

The Magic Kingdom bus arrived right when I got to the bus stop, which was awesome. Unfortunately, it was the last (or second to last?) stop inside the resort, so it was full. Well, full except for one seat where the guy was resting his backpack. Rude (especially since another family rearranged themselves and put kids on laps to free up seats. So I had to stand, but that was ok since it was the beginning of the day and my feet were fresh.

Meanwhile Trevor was heading to the Universal Tribute store. On the way he saw the Beat Builders out and about!

Then he made it to the store! This was another thing he wanted to do and ran out of time the other day. So yay! He took a bunch of pictures.






Honestly the tribute store is a cool idea - a super well-themed store that they change periodically. Trevor obviously had fun. He also found a pretty nifty little ornament of the Marauder's Map, but didn't end up buying it:

Meanwhile, I made it to Magic Kingdom, and ran into the Dapper Dans heading offstage. I was bummed to miss their set but look at these cute holiday outfits!

They have candy cane stripes on their hats!!

Trevor had finished up at the store and decided to get a treat:

A Gingerbread Cookie sandwich! yum.

Meanwhile, I'd done some shopping: I follow too many of the WDW sites and one of them posted about new crown pins so I'd ducked in to the Emporium and picked up a Beauty and the Beast crown pin and a Sleeping Beauty Crown pin. I like crowns. I'd also ducked over to the Space Mountain/Tron gift shop to pick up a little wearable spider bot toy!

As for Trevor - it was almost 11. Was the show gonna happen?!

Yes!! Yay! He really liked it, and was glad he got to see it.

Back to meeeeeeeeeeeeee. After doing my bit of shopping, I was heading to my first fastpass: Haunted Mansion. But on the way, photos! There was a photographer back by the Carousel, which was unexpected, so of course I had to stop.


dang picture limit!

 

[Araminta18]

One Last Time with the Happy Haunts! - Tuesday Dec 19, 2023 (part 3)​

Rainbow magic shot!


Anyways, over at Haunted Mansion, the fastpass line was long. All the lines were long, actually. The fastpass line was using some switchbacks outside the tap in point - it ended up taking 15 minutes to get to the stretching room. Could have been worse though - could have been the 60 min standby wait! As we were boarding our doom buggies, I noticed some of the fun portraits there that I don't usually notice.

Kind of fun!

No idea what I was going for with this picture. Oops!

The ride was fun - I didn't get stopped by the Hatbox Ghost this time, but rather got stopped in the attic!

I tried to get the Candleman - he's there but it's a bit hard to see.

Off the ride there was a photographer out, so of course I stopped.


The line for the ride had not gone down while I was riding:

The holiday crowds were definitely descending! Trevor was dealing with them too - Hagrid's was 120, Forbidden Journey was 80. He was gonna try the Bourne Stunt-acular.

Me? I was heading to my fastpass for Jingle Cruise! Luckily this fastpass line was shorter - only about 8 minutes.



While I was in line, Trevor, on his way to the Bourne Stunt-acular at 1 pm (it was about 12:15), was enjoying the theming, and then apparently having a photo shoot for the snowman rubber ducky he bought.

He sent me like 15 pictures guys, no lie.

 

[Araminta18]

Chugging Around the Magic Kingdom! - Tuesday Dec 19, 2023 (part 4)​

Couple more Jingle Cruise shots -

The tarantula has a santa hat!!

Noel Nellie!

Always a fun ride - who can resist the backside of water?!

Didn't need to include this (though i guess I didn't need to include any of them) but I love it!

Trevor meanwhile was still enjoying the theming.

Pretty.

As for me, I wanted to get lunch at Woody's Lunchbox, but I couldn't park hop until 2 pm. It was 12:30 now, and fastpasses were becoming a bit thin on the ground. So I was just kind of wandering when I saw the spring roll cart! The line looked a bit long, but I was like "meh, I don't have anything better to do!" But to my surprise, the line moved super quick! They had 3 registers and a CM at the head of the line directing people to the various registers.

Yum! Expensive, but good. I headed over to the hub grass and sat down to eat my snack and enjoy people watching. I saw a proposal! Holidays at Disney are popular times for proposals - this was like the third one we'd seen all week, and when I told Trevor he told me he'd just seen one too at Universal!

In Trevor's wanderings, I don't think he got a snack but he saw some of the Transfomers!

MegaTron is funny - when we met him in Universal Hollywood we about died laughing - this MegaTron seemed a bit quieter but it's gotta be nice to play a villain.

Trevor also saw the Scooby gang out and about!


Meanwhile, I'd figured out what to do - the train was back open so I figured I'd ride the train around the park! The line also wasn't very long.

I got to see the new Tiana mural:


And around to Storybook Circus! I thought this billboard was cute:

Thanks for "Choo Choo Sing".

The train isn't my favorite ride, but it's nice to do occasionally, especially after not having ridden it in a long time. And especially on a day that was getting increasingly crowded, it was really pleasant.

Once off the train, I headed out of Magic Kingdom towards the Hollywood Studios bus stop!

 

[Araminta18]

What?! A Slinky FastPass?! - Tuesday Dec 19, 2023 (part 5)​

The bus to Hollywood Studios arrived pretty quickly - right around 1:30. Sweet!

Meanwhile, Trevor was still enjoying the theming around the parks at Universal.


Not sure who these characters are, but still fun.

Hollywood Studios let us in a bit early (I was walking inside the park at 1:50pm), and so I immediately headed back to Woody's Lunch Box and placed a mobile order. They weren't letting you into the seating area until your food was ready for pickup, but even then there wasn't any seating (that is one of the things I miss about COVID - there was seating at Woody's!). So I ended up asking a couple at a table if I could use one of the chairs at their table, and they were kind enough to say yes.

I got the grilled cheese - it was delicious and extra delicious because it wasn't crazy bonkers hot outside!

Also got the root beer float:

and the raspberry tart.

It was a pretty dang awesome lunch. Especially because I'd had a Toy Story Mania fastpass but it went down, so I spent the time looking for a new fastpass and a Slinky Dog one popped up! But it was for like 5 pm, and we had to be back at the hotel at 4:30 to catch an uber to the airport. So, I decided to try and ask the CM if I could use the fastpass early - worst case she'd say no, but best case I'd ride slinky!

So I went to the CM at the fastpass line and said "hey I have this fastpass at 5 pm, but I have to leave to go back to the airport - would it be possible for me to ride now? It's just me". She looked at me, asked if I REALLY was leaving (so I showed her my SW boarding pass - poor thing, she must have gotten lots of people trying to get into the fastpass line. It did make me feel a bit bad for asking!), and then let me in. Woohoo!!

5 minutes later I was on the ride:


It was awesome! I love Slinky!

Then I saw that Toy Story was back open, so I headed over there and got on. But on the way, I saw Holiday Woody!

Look at the candy cane in his holster!

7 minutes later, I was about to get on!

I got called out of line way far back because I was a single rider. That's my pro-tip for going at a crowded time - be a party of one!

Meanwhile, Trevor had decided he was hungry, so he'd stopped into the Marvel quick service place for food.

aaand that's the picture limit.

 

[Araminta18]

Back Home - Tuesday, Dec 19, 2023 (part 6)​

Ok, back to Trevor's food - he got a burger and fries.

He said it was good. And they even decorated for Christmas!


Meanwhile, back on Toy Story Midway Mania -

Not too bad! No best in car, but still.

At this point it was 3:15. I decided I wanted to finish up with a ride on Tower of Terror, so was franctically trying to get a Tower of Terror fastpass that I could use before I left. I got close, but not quite to the time I needed, so I decided to ask one more time and see if they'd let me in early. And they did! They didn't really care, just waved me in.

5 minutes later I was in the preshow, and 4 minutes after that I was in the elevator!

Who doesn't love the theming of the Tower of Terror, even in the end of the ride?


At this point, it was 4:06, so time for me to do a last bit of shopping and then head back to the hotel. As I left, the Tower of Terror wait time was 105 minutes!

Crazy. I stand by my earlier statement - the best way to do Disney when it's crowded is be by yourself.

As I was heading up Sunset Boulevard, I saw a photographer out with a Tower of Terror suitcase prop!

the line was super long so I didn't stop, but I really wanted to get a picture with that! I've never seen that prop before.

I stopped to buy Trevor some Bing-Bong taffy to take back to his office, but mostly just headed out.
By 4:15 I was on the bus back to the resort, but I was getting off at the main building (the last stop) so I didn't actually get there until 4:45. Trevor actually beat me back!

We got our bags, called for an uber, and by 5 pm we were in the uber. Getting to the airport and checking in was uneventful, and TSA precheck was again amazing. We were through super quick, and they didn't say anything about all the cakes and cookies.

At the gate we got some food - Trevor got McDonald's and I got a Jersey Mike's sub.

Trying to be a completionist in my trip report, at least as regards to food. It was yummy but somehow bland? I need to remember to get salt and pepper when I get Jersey Mike's.

The plane was not full, so we had an empty seat between us. Unfortunately across the way was a family with a kid (about 10 years old) who had a bad cough - it was one of those coughs that made it sound like the person was throwing up (or about to throw up) - and he was not covering his mouth at all. Made me even more glad that Trevor and I were masking on the plane!

We landed on time at about 10:15 pm, and headed down to baggage claim to get our bags. Once in hand, we looked to call an uber: the price for uber was $112! The same class of car was only $56 on lyft so we went on lyft. Definitely check both apps if you get a high price - you never know what the algorithms are doing! By 11:15 pm we were home, and the trip was officially over.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 14,447 steps (6 miles)
Ride count: 6 (Haunted Mansion, Jingle Cruise, Disney World Railroad, Slinky, Midway Mania, Tower of Terror)
Savings due to AP discount: $17.00 (merch)
Cookie count: 1 (Trevor's gingerbread cookie sandwich!)

 

[Araminta18]

Wrap up and Haul!​

We had a great trip: we got to do all the Christmas things we wanted to do, and it was fantastic to see Disney all decorated. And the MVMCP fireworks were I think my absolute favorite firework show, which was unexpected on my part. I'm so glad we got to go!

Thank you for following along and indulging me with all the pictures - I love writing these cause it helps me relive the trip, but I'm glad it's been at least a bit enjoyable for some. Below are some final wrap up metrics/taste tests. Next up, my Jan 2024 trip report!

Once home, we held a taste test of all the various gingerbreads!

Going clockwise from the top left:

• The Boardwalk shingle: this had a bit of a licorice taste - I think it's star anise? It was a bit chewy, but also a bit bland. Not bad but I wouldn't go out of my way.
• Yacht and Beach Club: the only one with chocolate on one side and light sugar frosting on the other. Most of the taste was the chocolate, which isn't a bad thing.
• Grand Floridian: chewy, but the flavor is good and just what I want a gingerbread to be. A tad dry
• Grand Floridian Mickey ears: with the chocolate ears the flavor was mostly chocolatey.
• Contemporary: chewy, bland. A bit sweeter than the Boardwalk shingle, and definitely less star anise-flavor. Not a strong gingerbread taste.

Honestly, I didn't really love any of them but if I were to get one, it would be the Grand Floridian one. But I'm glad we got to try them all.

Gideon's cakes!

PB&J: this was good - it really smelled like a PB&J sandwich, but had a sweeter, more cakelike taste (as it should. )



Andes Mint Chocolate cake: delish, though Trevor doesn't like chocolate and mint so I didn't finish it.


Cookies and Cream! SOooooo good. I think this was my fave of the cakes.

We also got the Ganachery holiday chocolates:

Isn't that box cute?


These were all yummy, but the gingerbread one especially... yum!

Cookies!
I don't have any pictures cause we immediately wrapped the Gideon ones in foil and froze them, but the ones we've eaten were delicious. Final cookie haul? 40!

• the bunch of cookies from MVMCP (we kind of ate those throughout the trip and at home)
• Dark Coffee Cake Cookie × 6
• Cookies & Cream Cookie × 17
• Coffee Cake Cookie × 4
• Original Chocolate Chip Cookie

To be totally accurate, 3 of the dark coffee cake ones were for my friend - she and I both love Gideon's so every time we go, we each get the other 3 cookies. Highly recommend getting yourself a Gideon's cookie swap friend!

Souvenir Haul:
I have a problem.
Got some of the paper bouquets from LovePop at Disney Springs. You can see some of the pins there in the bottom, and a lot of the stuff here is from the outlet (like the Grogu in the orange pumpkin!) And the Magical Menagerie penguin puppet and the shirt!


There's Trevor's spiderman shirt, and my spirit jersey, as well as the Star Wars pillow and then Star Wars bag and Avengers bag Trevor got.


The Sleeping Beauty shadow box! and the Sleeping Beauty ornament. We also caved and got the Jollywood Nights shirts, mostly cause I love Tower of Terror and I love that view down Sunset Boulevard.


EPIC Fun with Metrics:
Steps Walked: 139,350 steps (60.8 miles)

Video Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLD2n0Bq57wkYEpXQCq3bD2dDVKGg3JsT

Songs heard while riding Guardians:
Everybody wants to Rule the World x2
September

Money Saved with AP Discount:
$256.57 = considering we would have bought the stuff anyways, that's a decent dent? I'll have to do a review of all our trips while we have APs to see how it goes.

Ride count: 47 (including 9 Universal rides) for Trevor; 52 for Trevor
Test Track
Guardians x3
Soarin x2
Living with the Land
Moana Way of Water x2 [yes I'm counting Moana ]
Tron x2 (x3 for Tiffany)
Jingle Cruise (x3 for Tiffany)
Big Thunder x2 (x3 for Tiffany)
Haunted Mansion (x3 for Tiffany)
Space Mountain (x2 for Tiffany)
Pirates (x2 for Tiffany)
Winnie the Pooh
Tomorrowland Speedway
Tea Cups
MM Runaway Railway
Toy Story Midway Mania (x2 for Tiffany)
Slinky (x2 for Tiffany)
Rise of the Resistance
Frozen Singalong
Flight of Passage x2
Expedition Everest x4
Safari
Dinosaur
Alien Swirling Saucers
Millennium Falcon
Rockin Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror (x2 for Tiffany)
Buzz Lightyear (x1 for Tiffany)
Peter Pan (x1 for Tiffany)
Disney World Railroad (x1 for Tiffany)

Universal Rides for Trevor:
The Mummy
Men in Black
Gringotts
Hagrid's x2
Forbidden Journey
Hogwarts Express x3

 

[awrites]

What a fabulous ending to your trip! I definitely see how doing Disney by yourself during the holiday busy period speeds things up. Awesome cookie haul, too! (And omg, that Grogu is stinkin’ cute!)

Thanks for sharing!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I texted back that I'd managed to get everything to fit! Treats scattered in all our carry-on items.

It's the small wins right?

They were even willing to give me a ride to the main building on the golf cart too, so that was fun.

They did this for us our very first time at the Poly and it was soooo nice!

n the meantime, Trevor had gotten back to the part of the park where the show would be, only to find out that the 10 am show (in like 10 min) was canceled. Noooooooooo! They did say they were planning on having the 11 am show. You'll have to wait and see if it actually happened! He did get to see the fire-breathing dragon in the meantim

Poor Guy! He was having bad luck with that show!

Well, full except for one seat where the guy was resting his backpack. Rude (especially since another family rearranged themselves and put kids on laps to free up seats. So I had to stand, but that was ok since it was the beginning of the day and my feet were fresh.

Why? How? Some people are just so oblivious

A Gingerbread Cookie sandwich! yum.

YUM!!!

Yes!! Yay! He really liked it, and was glad he got to see it.

So, glad he got to see it finally

dang picture limit!

LOVE the ears!

All the lines were long, actually. The fastpass line was using some switchbacks outside the tap in point - it ended up taking 15 minutes to get to the stretching room. Could have been worse though - could have been the 60 min standby wait

Ugh. They are still selling too many Genie+s!

He sent me like 15 pictures guys, no lie.

I love it.

Yum! Expensive, but good. I headed over to the hub grass and sat down to eat my snack and enjoy people watching. I saw a proposal!

irport - would it be possible for me to ride now? It's just me". She looked at me, asked if I REALLY was leaving (so I showed her my SW boarding pass - poor thing, she must have gotten lots of people trying to get into the fastpass line. It did make me feel a bit bad for asking!), and then let me in. Woohoo!!

I am sure they want to make magic but people abuse things that they have to skeptical.

PB&J: this was good - it really smelled like a PB&J sandwich, but had a sweeter, more cakelike taste (as it should. )

This looks good! I wish they had this when we ere there.

 

[jrmint427]

Honestly, it feels kind of dumb to say, but I would absolutely plan a trip around seeing the menagerie again. The animals are beautiful, the puppeteers are absolutely fantastic, and they even had wandering musicians around!

You're really making me want to take a trip that time of year! The menagerie sounds so fun.

The Boardwalk at night is just absolutely freaking gorgeous.

It is, and that is a beautiful picture!

Overall, we had a good time. We got lots of fun pictures, the Holidays in Hollywood show with Kermit and Miss Piggy was good, we rode some rides and even met Chip and Dale. That being said, it felt like...not a lot for the money, and not up to the level I'd expect (aka, comparing it to MVMCP). I don't know that we'd do it again as is, but I love the idea of Jollywood Nights - just needs to be better executed.

Thanks for sharing about Jollywood Nights, it does sound like they could improve the event but still looks like fun!

Eventually, I figured it out: I put all the cakes and cookies and such in our two carry-on roller bags, and then put shoes and such in the costco insulated bag. *shrugs* If it's stupid and it works...it's not stupid?

Well done!! That's some impressive packing.

I headed over to the hub grass and sat down to eat my snack and enjoy people watching. I saw a proposal!

Aww!!

this was like the third one we'd seen all week, and when I told Trevor he told me he'd just seen one too at Universal!

That's a lot of proposals! I've never seen one, but we also haven't gone around Christmas.

So I went to the CM at the fastpass line and said "hey I have this fastpass at 5 pm, but I have to leave to go back to the airport - would it be possible for me to ride now? It's just me". She looked at me, asked if I REALLY was leaving (so I showed her my SW boarding pass - poor thing, she must have gotten lots of people trying to get into the fastpass line. It did make me feel a bit bad for asking!), and then let me in. Woohoo!!

I'm so glad she let you in! And impressive that she asked for proof

Thank you for following along and indulging me with all the pictures - I love writing these cause it helps me relive the trip, but I'm glad it's been at least a bit enjoyable for some.

Thank you for posting about your trip! I enjoy reading and always learn from other trip reports.

EPIC Fun with Metrics:

I love all the metrics!! You got a lot done!

 

[Araminta18]

What a fabulous ending to your trip! I definitely see how doing Disney by yourself during the holiday busy period speeds things up. Awesome cookie haul, too! (And omg, that Grogu is stinkin’ cute!)

Thanks for sharing!

That Grogu is super cute Thank you for reading!!

So, glad he got to see it finally

us too! Would have been really sad if he didn't get to see it today either.

LOVE the ears!

thank you! they're definitely one of my favorites

I am sure they want to make magic but people abuse things that they have to skeptical.

oh yea, I totally get it. Those poor CMs.

This looks good! I wish they had this when we ere there.

PBJ cake was delicious! Actually not gonna lie, I follow Gideon's on instagram and their monthly post of the special cookies/cakes of the month, as well as their monthly cake schedule, is one of the posts I always love!

You're really making me want to take a trip that time of year! The menagerie sounds so fun.

Do it! It's super super cute.

That's a lot of proposals! I've never seen one, but we also haven't gone around Christmas.

Right?! So many. But I can see why, with all the decorations.

I'm so glad she let you in! And impressive that she asked for proof

Me too! I felt kind of bad, poor thing must have had a lot of people trying to "scam" or something.

Thank you for posting about your trip! I enjoy reading and always learn from other trip reports.

Thank you for reading!!

 

[Paulaparm]

Another great trip!
Looking for your next report…before you head south again
Definitely going to follow your lead and bring cookies home to freeze! Won’t be too hard as we’ll be in our camper at Fort Wilderness and can put them right in the freezer!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I really enjoyed your trip report!

I like that you guys don’t mind splitting up so you can enjoy things separately.

I may have missed it but are you not a universal fan? I haven’t been since 2008 and anytime I suggest it to DD18 she gives me a hard no! She’d rather do Disney. I may do an adults only trip for Epic Universe. It’ll be very nostalgic for me.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

You guys are the masters of allll the treats!

 

[Araminta18]

Another great trip!
Looking for your next report…before you head south again
Definitely going to follow your lead and bring cookies home to freeze! Won’t be too hard as we’ll be in our camper at Fort Wilderness and can put them right in the freezer!

Thanks! Ooooh that's a smart use of the camper - Gideon's storage!

I really enjoyed your trip report!

I like that you guys don’t mind splitting up so you can enjoy things separately.

I may have missed it but are you not a universal fan? I haven’t been since 2008 and anytime I suggest it to DD18 she gives me a hard no! She’d rather do Disney. I may do an adults only trip for Epic Universe. It’ll be very nostalgic for me.

thank you for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it. So, it's not that I'm *not* a Universal fan, its more that with my weight gain I can't ride the thrill rides I'd be most interested in, and I'm not willing to buy a ticket when I can't ride rides. We're tentatively planning a trip in November and I've lost 20 pounds already (about 25 more to go to be able to be sure/comfortable that I can ride the rides!) and I'll definitely go/ride rides then Epic Universe does sound amazing! you should do the adults only trip!!

You guys are the masters of allll the treats!

It's Disney...alllllll the treats!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Thanks! Ooooh that's a smart use of the camper - Gideon's storage!

thank you for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it. So, it's not that I'm *not* a Universal fan, its more that with my weight gain I can't ride the thrill rides I'd be most interested in, and I'm not willing to buy a ticket when I can't ride rides. We're tentatively planning a trip in November and I've lost 20 pounds already (about 25 more to go to be able to be sure/comfortable that I can ride the rides!) and I'll definitely go/ride rides then Epic Universe does sound amazing! you should do the adults only trip!!

It's Disney...alllllll the treats!

That’s awesome! Congrats to you and can’t wait to read all about that trip!