1/11/25-1/25/25: 2 weeks, 5 people, a million “it’s cold”s: our freezing but amazing trip: COMPLETED

[disneydreamer1980]

Another great day.

Do they still do any entertainment at Ohana? We haven’t been for years.

Usually there’s a guy playing a ukulele and singing Hawaiian songs but we didn’t see him this time.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Sunday 1/19/25

Woke up at 9, had coffee on the balcony (in my new Fantasia mug bought at World of Disney 2 days prior).

It was cool, gray and rainy. Miserable weather.
Look at that gray sky!

Of course this was just the first day of the worst weather we’ve ever experienced on any vacation ever. We didn’t know that at the time though.

DH ran to the front desk and grabbed the groceries we ordered the day before and we hung out a bit.

We headed to the bus stop at 11:26.

We were on the bus at 11:37. It stopped at the Contemporary on our way to DHS.

We were in the park at 12:04. Gabe had to reset his band/fingerprint for the 5th time this trip. This is always an issue with him but they handle it quickly.

It was lightly raining at this point. We headed into the park, towards our first ride of the day:Mickeys Runaway Railway. We didn’t get to ride it on our previous HS day, so we started with it this time.

When we came out of MMMRR, it was pouring rain. We huddled under an overhang for a bit, trying to figure out what to do. We decided to head to Muppets 3D to get out of the rain.

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We headed to Muppets 3D

After the show, we hung out in the area a bit. I love Muppets Courtyard. I’m sad it has to go.


We decided to get some snacks. We stood under an umbrella and ate. Emma got a Mickey ice cream bar, a Mickey pretzel with cheese and 2 boxes of mini churros all to share. Gabe also wanted a Star Wars helmet popcorn bucket so we got that too. He loved that thing lol.

It was still raining, so we decided to head into One Man’s Dream. I really like this area and we always take the time to really check out and read everything. Here’s Gabe eith his popcorn bucket.

There’s some really interesting stuff in there, but we had to leave.
We had a Slinky ride reservation, so we headed into Toy Story land.



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[disneydreamer1980]

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We headed towards Slinky.

Still raining but we were still able to ride.

Next was Toy Story Mania. We didn’t get to that the previous day either, so we made sure to ride it this day.
I prefer this one over the similar ride in MK. Always fun.

By now it was time to check in to our SciFi ADR. We checked in online and headed over that way.


We waited about 20 minutes outside to be called in. DHS was packed this day. This was the most crowded day of our trip I’d say. Lots of people waiting around to be called into SciFi





SciFi is a must do restaurant for us, every trip. I remember eating here when I was my kids ages. When I asked Isabella before the trip what was the most important thing she wanted to do, she said to eat here. It’s a tradition.

We got called in, and got a car table. I always try to ask to make sure we get one and this time they said that people with ADRs get cars and the picnic tables are for walk-ups, but there were no walk ups available this day so I don’t know if that’s true. Anyway, we got a car table. This restaurant wouldn’t be the same if we weren’t eating in one of those.



I took pictures of our food but it’s just too dark to see them, and I didn’t want to use a flash. But we ordered onion rings and mini corn dogs for an appetizer, and everyone ordered different burgers for their meal, except Gabe who got more mini corn dogs. He also got an ice cream sundae for dessert, and the girls got milkshakes. It was all pretty good. I usually don’t like Disneys fries, but they’re good here.

Back to it being dark… the man in the front row of the car table to our left had his phone flashlight on and had his phone leaning up against the side of the table so that his light was shining right into mine and Gabes eyes. I tried to politely ask for him to move the phone but he didn’t speak English. That light was so distracting and annoying! I understand it’s a little hard to see your food, but be considerate of others. Luckily they left before us so we had some time without being in a spot light lol.




Our waiter was great too. To anyone who hasn’t been here, I really recommend it. It’s an awesome experience. The only negative would be that the way you’re seated, it’s in rows of 2 and you have to turn around to speak to the other members of your group. My poor DH was the “hitchhiker” and had to sit alone in the back row lol.

I felt bad for a CM we saw on our way out who was seating a solo diner in the empty back row of another party’s car (they do this). The people up front threw a fit, they didn’t want “to eat with a stranger” and they were giving him hell. The CM looked stressed out and the poor solo diner looked mortified.
So just know that if you’re a small group, you may be seated in the same car as another group.

After we stuffed ourselves it was off to Galaxys Exge for Millennium Falcon!




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[disneydreamer1980]

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We headed Galaxy’s Edge for our Millennium Falcon LL.


Gabe posing with his helmet bucket in line for the MF ride lol

After that we rode Rise, followed by Star Tours


Last trip one of my daughters (who didn’t come this time-she was supposed to come and Isabella was supposed to stay home but things changed fairly last minute) was the rebel spy and we laughed about that during this ride. It made me miss her (she promises to come on the next trip). Most people are happy to be the spy but she was so embarrassed!

Anyway, after our SW time we decided to see the Frozen singalong show. The girls like this show and asked to see it.


This is a really funny, cute show and the snow at the end is so cool.

Our next ride was ToT. Our time to ride it had arrived, so we headed that way.




Just me and the girls rode. Gabes a little scared of this ride and DH is not a huge fan either so they sat out together.

The fog they were pumping out in the line got really thick, I guess because of the humid/rainy air, but it hung in the air and was so thick in some spots it was hard to see!
You can see a bit of it in this picture.



Emma is really scared of Tower of Terror. She rides it and enjoys it, but she’s always so scared and nervous while we’re waiting to ride. It’s funny because she loves thrill rides but this one scares her. I snapped a pic of her worrying about the ride. This wasn’t a pose, she really did this lol.



After we were bounced up and down on the Tower we headed next door to Rockin Roller Coaster. I always sit out this ride because it gives me a headache. So while they rode and had fun, I got a frozen lemonade and people watched





Let me say again how much I hate those paper straws!!!! It feels like you’re just sucking in air. They’re terrible.

Anyway, we were about ready to head home so we started towards the exit. We passed a fountain and Gabe wanted to throw a coin in, but we didn’t have any on us.




So we headed towards the exit, stopping first at our last ride of the night.

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[disneydreamer1980]

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We headed to the Chinese Theater to ride MMRR one more time (although not the last time this trip). Here’s Gabe in line with his popcorn bucket again


Sidebar: I really like this ride, it’s super cute, but it’s nowhere near as good as The Great Movie ride was. I’m so sad that’s gone and every time I ride this I think about that ride. The pre- show room that used to show all the movie clips before the ride, all the different movie scenes, even the gangster that highjacked the ride cars…it was all awesome. When I was a kid in the early 90s, my parents bought into DVC and would treat our whole family to yearly trips and this was my grandmother and aunts favorite ride, they both loved it. They’re both deceased now and it saddens me that their favorite ride is gone. Every time I enter the Chinese Theater I think about them and all of our trips there over the years. The last trip to Disney I took with all of them (my grandparents and aunt) was in 2006. So much has changed since then, but this one change bothers me the most.

Anyway, back to the trip report lol. After riding we left the park.

We got to the bus stop at 8:48 and arrived at WL at 9:07. They all headed up to the room and I headed to the Roaring Fork to pick up some desserts.



I love these teepee light fixtures! I passed this one right inside the entrance near the Boulder Ridge building.

I continued on to Roaring Fork. They had some desserts there I had been wanting to try and we were getting a little hungry.


It was packed in there. This week was much more crowded than our first week.

I got a few things for us all to share, and took them up to the room.

First was a s’mores cake thing. This was just ok. Not bad but not good either.





Next was the bear mousse thing. This was just…odd…a weird combo of flavors. DH liked it, the rest of us not so much. Our bear was cuter but it got messed up a bit in transit lol




Lastly we got a bacon cinnamon roll. This was actually pretty good but was a bit stale. If it were fresher it would’ve been really good.


After our snacks we laid in bed and watched another Diary of a wimpy kid movie. We saw all 4 on this trip lol. It was nice laying in our beds and watching movies…kind of like a big sleepover. Silver lining of the studio I guess. We usually are in different rooms and hardly see the kids when we’re in our villa because they stay in their room. But they were forced to hang out with us in the studio! Lol

So, it was a rainy day, but still fun. Stay tuned for our Epcot extended hours day!

 

[Simba's Mom]

I felt bad for a CM we saw on our way out who was seating a solo diner in the empty back row of another party’s car (they do this). The people up front threw a fit, they didn’t want “to eat with a stranger” and they were giving him hell. The CM looked stressed out and the poor solo diner looked mortified.
So just know that if you’re a small group, you may be seated in the same car as another group.

As a solo who has been the "hitchhiker", I feel so bad for the person who was the solo. Fortunately I didn't have any such problem. As a matter of fact, when the family I was hitchhiking with got up to leave, I saw that they had a lime green Mickey Head on their backpack, which some people may remember used to be a way for DISers to recognize each other. We had a brief chat and all agreed that we wish we'd known the affiliation sooner! Maybe those people were just extra-grumpy because of the miserable weather and rain that day.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

As a solo who has been the "hitchhiker", I feel so bad for the person who was the solo. Fortunately I didn't have any such problem. As a matter of fact, when the family I was hitchhiking with got up to leave, I saw that they had a lime green Mickey Head on their backpack, which some people may remember used to be a way for DISers to recognize each other. We had a brief chat and all agreed that we wish we'd known the affiliation sooner! Maybe those people were just extra-grumpy because of the miserable weather and rain that day.

I felt really bad for them too. The poor solo person looked like they didn’t know what to do. The people up front had put their bags on the empty seat and the waiter asked them to move the stuff and they were refusing and really making a scene, all the while the solo person was just standing there looking embarrassed. It was just so rude and unnecessary. I’ve never met anyone from the Dis “in the wild” but that would be cool.

 

[jo-jo]

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Our waiter was great too. To anyone who hasn’t been here, I really recommend it. It’s an awesome experience. The only negative would be that the way you’re seated, it’s in rows of 2 and you have to turn around to speak to the other members of your group. My poor DH was the “hitchhiker” and had to sit alone in the back row lol.

I felt bad for a CM we saw on our way out who was seating a solo diner in the empty back row of another party’s car (they do this). The people up front threw a fit, they didn’t want “to eat with a stranger” and they were giving him hell. The CM looked stressed out and the poor solo diner looked mortified.
So just know that if you’re a small group, you may be seated in the same car as another group.

After we stuffed ourselves it was off to Galaxys Exge for Millennium Falcon!


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So the cars have 4 rows? I ate there once maybe 15 years ago.

If I had been that solo diner, I would have turned and left. No way I'd be able to sit and eat. I'm sure there would have been lots of comments floating from the front of the car. I hope disney did something for the solo diner.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

So the cars have 4 rows? I ate there once maybe 15 years ago.

If I had been that solo diner, I would have turned and left. No way I'd be able to sit and eat. I'm sure there would have been lots of comments floating from the front of the car. I hope disney did something for the solo diner.

They have 3 rows, 2 people per row. And there are some larger tables that are set inside the cars, but they’re different. And then they have the picnic tables in the back. Yeah I wouldn’t have stayed either.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Monday 1/20/25 day 9

We slept in until 10 (it is vacation and we are not morning people lol) and then hung in the room, watching yet another Diary of a Wimpy kid movie. We knew we’d be in the park late because of extended hours so we didn’t want to get there too early.

We were on the bus to Epcot at 1:58.

We had the funniest bus driver. The entire ride he was telling Disney themed jokes. I remember two of them: “why doesn’t Rapunzel tie her shoes? Because every time she tries they get all tangled” and “why did Snow White return her iPhone? It was a rotten Apple! Lol. He had a million of them. I did a cast compliment for him on the app. He was really great.

We arrived at Epcot at 2:08.



Festival of the Arts had just started 3 days prior. Our previous Epcot day there was no festival going on, so this was our first FARTS festival day EVER. We’d done the xmas festival and the flower and garden but never this one.



We headed straight to Spaceship Earth, as we always do.



After riding, the kids played with some of the driving games there.


Gabe really loves all of the games after the ride, we have to force him to leave every time. He’d spend all day in there if we let him.

Next was Soarin.






We waited in the LL line forever. There was water leaking from the ceiling and there were buckets and towels everywhere. A few days after our trip I saw that the ceiling had collapsed in the Soarin queue and I wonder if it had something to do with that water leaking?

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[disneydreamer1980]

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We headed to Living With the Land. The girls aren’t crazy about this ride but they get on without complaining to make me happy.


After learning about cool planting techniques we headed over to World Showcase.


We were running a little late to our dinner ADR in Germany, so we rushed over there.




We ended up arriving at 4:25 and our ADR was at 4:00. Luckily Biergarten is never that busy so there wasn’t any issues. We did have to wait about 15 minutes though, in that pretty little area outside the restaurant.




It’s so pretty there.



Behind this mural is the infamous unfinished Rhine river ride. It would be so cool to have that ride….

It was really starting to get cold and the kids were getting tired of waiting. Finally we were let into the restaurant.



It’s so beautiful in there. With the atmospheric theming, music and food you really feel like you’re in Germany.

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We had a great table. Right across from the stage with a perfect, elevated view and close to the buffet.






There was an umpah band and this guy playing water glasses. It was so much fun to watch.

I’m not big on German food but I got enough to eat. Everyone did. The desserts were good though.


We finished up around 5:30 and headed out of Germany and towards China.




We went into the shops and ended up buying some stuff for my daughters at home. They love panda bears and there’s tons of panda stuff here.




We were really getting cold and decided to duck into the temple for a bit of warmth. It’s so beautiful.


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We went into the temple.

It’s amazingly beautiful




The kids like to stand in the very center and whisper. It’s a really cool acoustic trick.


After that we headed to Norway. We had a ride on Frozen Ever After to get to.








This is cute but I miss Maelstrom.

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We headed over to the stave church, which houses a tiny museum. It’s nice to read about Norse mythology and it’s warm. It was freezing outside.




I wanted to stop into Kringla but the line was crazy. I told myself I’d stop back in another time but I never did sadly.

Next we headed to Mexico.





The kids made skeletons on the display screen thing


We checked out all the stuff they have on display. It’s always the same but it’s really interesting





We bought some candy and other things in the Mexico shops.

We had a date with Remy so when we were done in Mexico we had to head there.



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We headed to Remy


This is the cutest ride. Sometimes I have to close my eyes at certain points or I’ll get dizzy, but I love this ride. They do put different parties together in the same mice though, which may bother some people.

After this we stopped in Les Halle’s. The line wasn’t too bad so I figured we’d stop in. They got a table while I waited in line. I got a couple different things for us to share. I can’t believe I forgot pictures! But I got a napoleon, a pa k of macarons and a pastry. It was all really good, especially the napoleon. We had someone ask us if they could have our table when we were finished and of course we said yes, but then they stood there silently watching us the whole time we were eating, waiting and wishing for us to be done. It was very uncomfortable lol.

Next up on our trip around the world: Morocco!






This is a beautiful area but they’ve really been neglecting it. It’s so sad. Anyway, we went into the little shops but didn’t buy anything. Then we ventured into the little museum area that’s always empty.

And the kids each did the desert racing thing.

After we were warmed up a bit, we exited the museum and headed out of Morocco.


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We headed straight to Mitsukoshi. This is the girls favorite shop and even though they already bought stuff there on our previous Epcot day, they managed to find more stuff to buy now. After shopping we headed into the Kawaii museum area. These little museums are almost always empty and they’re cool.



I really like the displays of the Japanese kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. I think they’re so cute and I spend a lot of time looking at all the little details.

Emma sat and got some phone time, because we all know she just doesn’t have enough of that!


We exited the museum to see Harmonious had just started. We watched it as we headed to Future World




By now EEH had started and we headed towards Spaceship Earth




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Notice the gloves? It was freezing. Spaceship Earth was nice and warm!


As we got off the ride we got the alert that our GotG virtual queue was up. So off we headed to that horrible ride lol



I sat out while they rode. That ride almost killed me the one time I was brave enough to ride it lol. So they got on without me, they all love this ride.

I went into the dump shop while they rode and bought a Groot shoulder sitter for Gabe. He’d been seeing people with them and he wanted one. He was so happy when I gave it to him.

After GotG we decided to head out. We’d ridden everything we wanted to and it was FREEZING. It was around 40 degrees. We were so cold and just wanted to go. So we headed towards the exit.





We were on the bus at 10:45. We were sharing with FW, and we stopped there first.




We got to the room and laid in bed watching another movie.

I felt like we wasted our EEH, only doing 2 rides during it, but it was just so cold and we were just done. Plus GotG takes up so much time. Oh well. We still had a great day, but we were just not mentally prepared for the cold.
Would the next day be any warmer? Spolier: No. lol

 

[jo-jo]

We went in Dec and there were some chilly nights, not as cold as 40, maybe high 40s. But once we went to watch Christmas Processional, DH had on hat, gloves,two sweatshirts, jacket and a rain poncho . The plastic poncho holds in body heat. Sitting for two hours, you don't build up body heat at all. We follow the "we may look stupid, but we are warm" thinking.

Great pictures, but they also make me a little sad. So many, "oh , we forget to go there". Did you wing it or you did you have a list of things to do?

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We went in Dec and there were some chilly nights, not as cold as 40, maybe high 40s. But once we went to watch Christmas Processional, DH had on hat, gloves,two sweatshirts, jacket and a rain poncho . The plastic poncho holds in body heat. Sitting for two hours, you don't build up body heat at all. We follow the "we may look stupid, but we are warm" thinking.

Great pictures, but they also make me a little sad. So many, "oh , we forget to go there". Did you wing it or you did you have a list of things to do?

Yeah there were plenty of times we looked stupid too in our attempts to get warm lol. The poncho was a good idea though, we should’ve tried that!

We kind of did just wing it, but with trying to get as much done as possible. There were only a few things we didn’t do-a few shows and Conservation Station in AK. And most things we did multiple times.
Prior to the trip I made touring plans on the Touring Plans app and meticulously wrote out everything we’d do, but I ended up not using any of it lol. We typically are rope drop to close people and that’s how I had planned this trip but we decided when we got there to take it easier and sleep in more and not rush around so much, so I trashed our plans. My two daughters that stayed home didn’t go because they don’t like the pace at which we usually tour, so I figured I’d slow down this trip and it was really nice! We’re lucky that we always take two week trips, so we can get a lot done even if we go slower. If it were a shorter trip we would not be doing all the sleeping in!