A DIS Love Story A Year In The Making (COMPLETE!)

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Thirteen - Day 1: Moonlight Magic!
​

I'm back!

Actually, I've been back home for a couple days now, but I didn't finish unpacking until a couple hours ago (and "finish" is a strong word in this case, since almost all of the stuff I bought is just out of the suitcase, but not really "unpacked"). I always hate unpacking after a Disney Trip, because it feels like that's the moment the magic is officially over. And this trip was truly magical.

It started on Wednesday, technically a day after our "arrival" day, since we spent the night we landed and the first morning we were in Florida with my parents. After a tour of their neighborhood, we finally made our way to WDW, and after a visit to Cast Connection (our tradition to start every trip) and a stop at our resort to drop off our bags, we were off to Hollywood Studios for DVC Moonlight Magic!

We got to the park a couple hours before the event officially began, so we grabbed dinner -- using the free meal voucher for the event -- then headed off to the regular showing of Fantasmic! There was an exclusive showing during the event, but we wanted to save the event time for attractions and characters. We'd had FastPasses for the 8pm showing of Fantasmic, but because we entered the park on the event registration, we couldn't scan in our MagicBands for Fantasmic. I explained the situation to one of the castmembers, who was kind enough to not only let us enter through the FastPass line, but also gave us tickets to sit in the dining package section, so we had an incredible view for the show.

​

Once Fantasmic was over, we immediately headed to Toy Story Land, which we were both seeing for the first time. Because we were still in the overlap between "end of the actual park day" and "beginning of the event", the wait time for Slinky Dog Dash was longer than we were willing to put up with (posted at 60 minutes), so we decided to try out Alien Swirling Saucers, which was super cute. Having just done Mater out at Disneyland, I knew what to expect, but it felt different enough that it wasn't repetitive -- though I will say hearing a peppy instrumental version of "When She Loved Me" was a little weird.

​

I was excited that the event T-shirt was available in 3XL (it's a tight fit right now, but wearable, and hopefully soon it won't be a tight fit anymore), which offset my disappointment that the event pin was sold out. However, we were able to get the DVC anniversary edition of The Game of Life, which we haven't played yet, but will someday soon. From there, I insisted we go over to the Star Tours area, so I could do the Seventh Sister character meet. It was easily the shortest of the character lines all night, and it's a character I've never seen in the parks before, so it was high on my must-do list for the night (probably right behind Slinky Dog Dash). We also met Ewoks, which was one character meet that even my girlfriend got excited about.

​

Of course, while we were in that area, we also rode Star Tours, and it was an amazingly different experience. We got both the Kashyyyk and unfinished Death Star scenes, which I almost never get to see (in fact, I don't think I'd ever actually seen the Kashyyyk scene before, though I knew it was possible in the rotation). I don't know if they tuned the randomizer to more infrequent scenes during the event, or if we just got lucky, but it was pretty cool.

From there, it was over to meet Oswald, then we checked in to the Hollywood Tower Hotel -- and one ride was enough for my girlfriend. With Rock N Rollercoaster down after that ride, we went back to Toy Story Land to make sure we got to ride Slinky. When we got back to TSL, the posted wait time for Slinky was still 40 minutes, but that turned out to be wildly inflated. After about 20 minutes in line, we were on the ride, and then about two minutes later, we were off it. Yeah, it's a pretty short ride, but it was more fun than I expected. I think I was expecting something that was in the "Barnstormer" range, but I'd honestly put Slinky up there with 7DMT in terms of thrills/excitement -- and it's a much more comfortable ride for us Baloo-sized folks.

​

The rest of the night was filled with fun character interactions with the Green Army Men and some Stormtroopers, though sadly I got over to Star Wars Launch Bay too late to do the meets with the remaining Star Wars characters -- not a big loss, considering that while Rey and Darth Vader are not regulars at WDW, they do regular meets at DL, which I should be going back to sometime next year.

​

Before everything closed, we did make it back to RNRC to ride that one time before we left, and then I rode ToT one last time right at closing.

Overall, I'd say Moonlight Magic at DHS was a pretty fun event -- and considering it didn't cost anything (other than, you know, what I pay for DVC every month), I can't complain too much. However, I would say the Moonlight Magic we did at MK earlier this year was better. There were more food and drink options throughout the night, and obviously a park with more attractions is going to have shorter waits for those attractions. Still, getting the relatively easy access to the two new TSL areas and being able to explore the land at night -- when the oppressive heat wasn't as much of a factor -- was both fun and convenient. I'll almost certainly try and plan trips around Moonlight Magic events in the future -- though I'm not holding my breath for one for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge next year.

With the first night of our trip at an end, we headed back to Coronado Springs and got not nearly enough sleep before starting one of our longest park days on the trip.

Next up: Keys, Drinks and Frozen Fun!

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Fourteen - Day 2: Keys, Drinks and Frozen Fun!
​

Unlike our first day, which was loosely and lightly planned, our second day was packed from start to finish, featuring three major events at two parks. So let's run them down one-by-one.

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM TOUR

The day started with a Minnie Van ride to Magic Kingdom, since we both wanted to experience the Minnie Van service and liked the convenience of being dropped off by the bus entry, thus skipping the Transportation and Ticket Center. Shortly after we arrived, we started our five-plus hour guided tour of the Magic Kingdom.

​

For someone like me, who loves MK and considers it far and away his favorite park, this tour was amazing. The first hour of the tour was spent on Main Street, where our guide pointed out all kinds of little details, some of which I already knew about, and some of which I was learning about for the first time. I would guess that even the most knowledgeable, experienced WDW fans would learn at least SOMETHING, not only on this portion of the tour, but on every part of it. From there it was off to Adventureland, for a guided tour of the Jungle Cruise. It was weird riding it without the bad jokes, but finding out the history of WHY that ride has bad jokes was fun.

​

After that, we got to go backstage, where -- of course -- I couldn't take any pictures, but we got to see stuff ranging from gross (the giant trash compactor where all the MK trash ends up) to amazing (parade float storage, including an up-close look at some of the floats for Festival of Fantasy and even the holiday parades). After we returned from the backstage area, it was time for lunch at Pecos Bill. FYI for those of you doing the tour in the future, you actually place your lunch order when you check in, so it's ready for you as soon as you arrive at the restaurant. We also picked up our cool "Key" pin at lunchtime.

​

Lunch was followed by a walk over to Liberty Square, where we were treated to a cool history of the Haunted Mansion, followed by a ride (though this time it was just a normal ride). Then we took a break at the Tangled restrooms before walking back toward Fantasyland, and heading to my favorite part of the tour, the Utilidors! Again, no pictures... it's a "backstage" area, though honestly it's not a particularly photogenic part of the tour. It was, however, in my opinion, the most informative and interesting part. We walked the utilidors from underneath Winnie the Pooh to underneath Tomorrowland, and finished the tour on the Main Street bypass (which was being set up for the Halloween Party, even though it wasn't a party night).

Some of my favorite things I learned from the tour:
- Cinderella's Castle was actually the first public-facing building completed at WDW, because Roy Disney wanted it to serve as an inspiration for the workers to finish the other buildings.
- The story of how a journalist uncovered the secret of Roy Disney buying up the land for WDW and forcing Disney to go public with the information. I won't share the full story for those that don't know it and want to go on this tour eventually.
- The little details of some of the lands, like how the lightposts transition in style as you move from land to land, or how the weird discolored "river" through the street in Liberty Square is supposed to represent the raw sewage that would've been in an actual colonial-era street.
- Mr. Toad being in the pet cemetery outside the Haunted Mansion and how he was put there after his ride was replaced at MK, just one of the many examples of Imagineers paying homage to past attractions at WDW when they get replaced.

​

- I knew about the horseshoe prints for the "Ghost Horse" at Haunted Mansion, but what I didn't realize is that they stretch up the road toward the Tangled bathrooms, and are eventually joined by a second, larger set of prints -- for Maximus (his prints are actually stamped with his name).
- The fact that there are hidden Pascals in the Tangled bathroom area. Given my love for Tangled and how much time I spend in that area of the park (even though it doesn't have an attraction), I was surprised I didn't know this already, but it was incredibly cool to learn (and even cooler to see where most of them were hidden).

​

- Honestly, again, even though they weren't photo-friendly, everything about the Utilidors was awesome. At one point, we were right below Cinderella's Castle while Mickey's Friendship Faire was happening, and so we got to see the characters getting into position and taking the elevator up to the stage.
- And a bonus one about Disneyland, actually: the asphalt for Main Street had just been finished the day before the park opened, and the temperatures on opening day were unseasonably hot, so hot in fact that the heels of women walking down the street were getting stuck in the melting street. Many women ended up abandoning their shoes and replacing them with the moccasins that were for sale in the gift shop in Frontierland. This happened so much on opening day that the moccasins were the most popular item sold that day, which led the company to increase their orders for future days. Of course, once the Main Street asphalt problems were fixed, no one needed the moccasins anymore, and boxes upon boxes of them went unsold.

Speaking of boxes upon boxes, just about every hallway in the utilidor was lined with boxes of MNSSHP merch, which made me confident that anything my girlfriend and I wanted to get on our party night a couple of nights later would be in stock.

Once our tour was wrapped -- after a Q&A session with our tour guide that honestly could've gone even longer if I'd asked every little question I had -- we decided to take a Minnie Van over to Epcot to make sure we would arrive at our next event on time.

MIX IT, MAKE IT, CELEBRATE IT

When we booked this trip and saw that it would be during Food & Wine, I wanted to do at least one special F&W event, and this was by far the most cost and time effective one -- and the fact that it was a cocktail mixing session was an added bonus.

Overall, this even was kind of a mixed bag. The pros: the drinks we made were pretty good (though the Old Fashioned seemed a bit too sweet), our host David Ortiz was fun and engaging throughout the entire event, sitting in air conditioning for more than an hour on an incredibly hot day was nice, and we definitely did learn a significant amount about drink mixing.

The cons: though we did get to make two drinks (both with one-ounce pours of liquor) that portion of the event was done in about 30 minutes and the next 30 minutes of it was just talking about cocktail mixing theory.

​

Really, I guess that's just one "con", but when a 75-minute event feels like it could've been 30 minutes, well... let's just say I'm glad I did the event, but it's probably not something I'll be signing up for in the future. That said, if you're a person who likes to spend time in the kitchen, you'll probably get a lot more than I did out of the non-hands-on portion of one of these. And hey, after having spent 5-plus hours at MK with no alcohol, I wasn't complaining about having a rum cocktail and a bourbon cocktail quickly after arriving at Epcot.

Once the event was over, we did some more drinking around Epcot, rode Spaceship Earth and the Gran Fiesta Tour (always a nice pre- or post-margarita ride), then got ready for our last event of the night.

FROZEN EVER AFTER DESSERT PARTY

This was my second time doing this dessert party and my girlfriend's first -- and her first time actually sitting down to see Illuminations from a quality viewing spot.

​

After doing it a second time, I even more firmly believe that this is the best dessert party option at WDW (even if HEA blows away Illuminations from a nighttime entertainment standpoint). The things I love about it:

- The viewing area is perfect, and you get to stay at your dessert party location for the viewing -- which means you can still be eating and drinking while watching the show
- The drink options are really good AND (new thing I learned this time) you can get two drinks at a time for each visit to the bar
- You have plenty of time to eat and drink, especially when you factor in the show time and the wait to walk over to the ride. On this particular trip, we had the added "bonus" (weird to think of it that way) of Illuminations being delayed by about 25 minutes. Since they don't shut down the bar until the very end of the show, that meant we were able to get something close to our money's worth on drinks, especially when you consider the cost of each Food & Wine drink you can get during the festival
- If you're doing the event as part of a full day at Epcot, you don't need a FastPass for either FEA or Illuminations, freeing up two high-demand FastPass slots. In our case, we had an FEA FastPass for the next day that we ended up changing to something else, because it's not a ride either of us considers as something we have to do multiple times on a trip.

​

I didn't try every food and drink option on this particular trip, but here are my thoughts on the ones I did try:

- Duke of Weselton’s cheese fondue served with country bread cubes, broccoli and grilled flatbread: hard pass on the broccoli for me, but the fondue itself was amazing (I went back for multiple trips) and both bread options are good with or without the fondue (but honestly, definitely do the fondue).
- Elsa's blue velvet cupcakes: the cupcake itself is really good, but the blue frosting is almost TOO sugary. I think I got brain freeze from it, which I wasn't sure was possible from anything other than a frozen drink (also, these used to have an Anna topper, and now they have an Elsa snowflake topper).
- Kristoff’s Kransekake Almond Cookie: I expected this to be a crunchy cookie, but it was actually very soft, with the almonds on top providing the crunch. It fells into the category of "fine", though wasn't worth getting on a second trip.
- Troll Rock Crispy Bon Bons: The only thing I didn't like about these was that they used to have a variety of different flavor coatings, and now it's just the one icing topper, but otherwise they're really good.
- Wandering Oaken’s éclairons: I like the different varieties of these, and honestly wish I'd had more, but I had to save room for the next item on the list.
- Olaf’s Warm Double Chocolate S’mores Pudding Cake: THE BEST! Seriously, skip the Anna Warm Cottage Pudding (which my girlfriend had and didn't care for) and go straight for Olaf. Pile a plate up with it and top it off with a scoop of ice cream. You'll thank me later (your waist won't, but whatever... calories eaten at Disney World don't count, right?)

One big change from the last time I did the party was that the Nitro Popcorn was gone, replaced with a liquid nitrogen chocolate truffle, which was fine, but not as fun to eat as the popcorn.

Drink wise, I stuck with the Sangria and the Margarita, and given the extra time because of the show delay, I was able to have a couple more than I did during my last party experience. The only drink disappointment was that by the end of the show, all the Diet Coke cans were gone, so I couldn't "stock up" for the resort room.

Oh, I probably should mention Illuminations itself, which was great to see one last time before it goes away. It was delayed that night because of the threat of a passing storm, which had my girlfriend and I worried that they were going to relocate the dessert party, but as it turned out, the storm missed us entirely and we got to stay in our great viewing position.

​

Also, the Frozen Ever After ride was fun, as always. I'm definitely in the camp that likes this ride, but not in the camp that likes it enough to put up with the lengthy wait times during the day.

​

Once that was done, it was back to Coronado Springs, where we settled in for a relatively early night before a return to Epcot the next morning.

Next Up: Epcot, Disney Springs and an Unplanned Interruption

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

The Keys to the Kingdom tour sounds like an event we'll have to do one day. My husband would love it. How fun to get to walk the utilidors!

You have me so looking forward to attending the FEA party again!! We have it booked for arrival night. Can't wait!

Your HS day looks like it was a lot of fun, too. Love the photos!

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Fifteen - Day 3: Epcot, Disney Springs and an Unplanned Interruption
​

Finally, a day to sleep in!

My girlfriend and I are very much not rope-drop people, so our Disney days start later than most -- though for me still earlier than my usual day, since my work shifts generally don't start until 3pm or 6pm ET.

Even with not having that late of a night on Thursday, we decided to push back our Ale & Compass breakfast reservation from 10:15 to 10:45... then ended up getting there at 10:30 anyway.

For those looking for a decent breakfast near, but not in, Epcot, and who don't want to do the Cape May character breakfast, Ale & Compass is a pretty solid choice. The "buffet" only offers charcuterie and pastry items, but you also get to order an entree with it, and it includes a non-alcoholic beverage. So if you were planning on ordering an entree (even the least expensive one) and an coffee, it's probably worth it to upgrade to the buffet for just a few dollars more. In my girlfriend's case, she was getting the open-faced skirt steak sandwich, which is $19. Add in $3.79 for coffee, and the buffet was literally a 21-cent add on. She also got the Captain's Bloody Mary with lobster claw garnish, which might not have turned out to be the best idea, but we'll get to that.

After breakfast we decided to be responsible Disney park-goers and drive around to the main Epcot parking lot, rather than leave our car at Yacht Club and enter via the international gateway. We did have FastPasses for this day, and they were all in Future World, so it actually worked in our favor to do things that way.

Our day at Epcot started with a soothing boat ride through The Land. This was the FastPass that had been FEA, but that I switched the LwtL. I know people think it's silly to "waste" a FastPass on this attraction, but on this day the wait time for the ride, at least when we arrived, was around 25 minutes, so having the FastPass was definitely worth it. Plus it was fun to see the specific F&W callouts in the greenhouse area.

​

Our next FastPass was for Spaceship Earth, then The Seas with Nemo, but I convinced my girlfriend to do The Seas on standby to give us a better walking plan, especially since the wait time was only 10 minutes for that (yes, Nemo & Friends had less than half the posted wait time of Living With The Land... I know, I was confused too...). That "10 minute wait" turned out to be "hey, it takes about 5 minutes to walk through the entire standby line, so let's post '10' to be safe." There was literally no line ahead of us, and even with the slow pace at which we walk, it was 4 minutes from entering the attraction to being on our Clamobile.

By this point, the "unplanned interruption" I mentioned in this entry's title began to creep into our day -- my girlfriend was starting to feel queasy. We decided to power through to our FastPass for Spaceship Earth -- for which we actually spent more time in line than the standby wait for Nemo -- but by the time we'd finished the ride, she was definitely feeling sick. She decided to call it an early day and head back to the room to rest up, but let me stay in the park, and if she was feeling better later, we'd re-unite to resume our original plans of heading over to Disney Springs for dinner and drinks.

With an unexpected solo afternoon on my hands, I decided to do a couple of character meets: Baymax and Joy & Sadness. Because I knew we'd be at Epcot that day, I decided to wear this T-shirt, in hopes that their lines wouldn't be too long:

​

Before my girlfriend got sick, we'd checked in on the lines, and both of them were a little longer than I was willing to force her to wait for. But I was willing to put up with them solo, and it turned out by the time I went back to them, both lines had been cut in half. I ended up waiting less than 10 minutes for Baymax, who loved my shirt.

​

Then it was across the way for Joy & Sadness, for whom I had a much longer wait (though still only about half an hour). However, once I got there, I'm not sure who was more excited about my shirt, the characters or the PhotoPass photographer. Both of the characters enjoyed it, imitating Baymax's walk and doing fist bumps with me, but this was also the first time I'd ever had a photographer ask to take MORE photos. Specifically, he wanted to get photos of me just with Sadness, with me playing the "Baymax" role from the T-shirt. It was lots of fun, and I was kind of sad my girlfriend had missed seeing it (even if she wouldn't have gotten in the photos herself).

​

I should also mention that I got more compliments on this specific T-shirt than any other one I've ever worn at Disney World. I'm very used to the occasional "I love your shirt" or "where'd you get that?" with the TeePublic shirts I wear, but with this specific Baymax/Sadness one, it was a constant occurrence. I couldn't walk 5 feet without someone saying "OMG I LOVE THAT SHIRT". I think for my next trip I'm going to get business cards to hand out that say "I got this shirt at TeePublic.com"

Still on solo time, I decided I wanted to wait until I was back together with my girlfriend to do more Food & Wine tasting, so I hopped over to Magic Kingdom to take way too many pictures of Cinderella's Castle and watch Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire.

​

Because it was SO hot that day (close to 100 degrees) and because there's no shade in front of the castle, I was able to get a spot right up front for the show. Now, one of the facts I'd learned on the Keys to the Kingdom tour the day before was how Disney manages heat issues for costumed characters, but I didn't think I'd see it in action so soon. However, toward the end of the show, when Mickey and Minnie welcome all the characters back for the grand finale, Olaf came out from the doors at the back of the stage, took a couple of steps, then started stumbling. Elsa and Anna came over and walked him off the stage as the show continued up front, but then a minute later, everyone hastily made their way off stage and an announcement said that due to inclement weather, the show had been canceled (then the fireworks went off anyway, because... well, maybe they're on a timer?). It was definitely strange to see the show cut off with two minutes left, but obviously the safety of the performers is the most important thing.

​

That was also my signal that maybe I should get out of the heat too (I was already sunburned beyond belief), so I did one last lap around the castle for picture taking, then hopped a bus back to Coronado Springs, where my girlfriend had woken up from her nap and was feeling better.

We still decided to just relax in the room for a couple hours before heading over to Disney Springs, for what turned out to be a scaled-back bar hop. Why scaled back? It actually didn't have much to do with her queasiness, and had more to do with these factors:

- Disney Springs is WAY busier on a Friday night than I'd been used to. This is actually a good thing, as it's nice to see the area thriving, but it makes finding a spot at the various bars a little more difficult.
- Bar hopping is expensive! Given that we were on a trip where we were also planning on doing more Food & Wine stuff, we didn't feel the need to spend $10-$15 a drink at a whole bunch of different spots.
- We're old! OK, maybe not that old, but old enough that we're past our "bar hop all night" days, especially with a brunch reservation the next day.

We ended up hitting three spots, two of which we'd done before, but liked enough to go back:

- Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar was the one place we hadn't tried before and really wanted to do on this trip. I had "The Forbidden Apple", a seasonal drink that came with the much-desired (by me, at least) poison apple glow cube. We didn't get any food here, because there wasn't anything on the apps menu that was particularly appealing, but the drinks were good enough.
- The Boathouse was our second stop, where we had dinner and drinks at the bar (FYI, they serve the full dinner menu at the bar, so if you want to eat here but don't have reservations, you can always look for bar seating). For my meal, I decided to be at least semi-adventurous and eschewed the burger for the fried clams, which were really good -- though my girlfriend was grossed out by my use of honey mustard as a dipping sauce.
- Our last food/drink stop was Amorette's Patisserie, because we both loved the wine slushes we got there last time, and I ABSOLUTELY had to get this:

​

The "Dream Big, Princess" mini-cakes were a special, limited-time offering and it just worked out perfectly that the Rapunzel cake was the one being offered while I was there. Inside the beautiful fondant outside was a chocolate chiffon cake with dark chocolate mousse, raspberry mousse, and white chocolate crispy pearls. Yes, it tasted as good as it sounds -- though not even I was daring (or gluttonous) enough to eat ALL of the fondant. The cake inside, however, was but a distant memory by the time I was done with it.

From there we finished the night with a little bit of shopping -- during which time I managed to avoid buying any more pins, somehow -- then called it a night and were back in our room just before midnight. Honestly, it felt kind of nice to call it a relatively "early" night, especially since our brunch reservation for Saturday wasn't until after noon, which meant we'd get plenty of sleep -- for probably the last time on this trip.

Next Up: Finally, Flight of Passage!

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Sixteen - Day 4: Finally, Flight of Passage!
​

If you look back at the early entries of this trip report, you'll find the original plan for Saturday, Sept. 29 was very little plan at all. Mini-golf and Trader Sam's were the only two definites for the day, and on FastPass booking day we added a potential trip to Animal Kingdom. Then at some point during our trip planning, Art Smith's Homecomin' expanded their brunch service to Saturday, so we added that too, and suddenly our "light" day started to get kind of packed. Certainly not "rope-drop to fireworks" packed, but there was enough on the itinerary to keep us busy and happy.

The first decision I made regarding our plans for the day was to move mini-golf, which we'd originally slated as a morning/early afternoon activity, to the night. It was simply still too hot to be doing a physical activity, even one as leisurely as mini-golf, during the prime sunlight hours. So we enjoyed a nice lazy morning in our resort room (seriously, that king size bed at Coronado Springs was AMAZING), then drove over to Disney Springs for an afternoon brunch.

CHEF ART SMITH'S HOMECOMIN' BRUNCH

I love brunch, mostly because I love most breakfast foods, and the ability to combine them with lunch/dinner meat options and alcoholic beverages is amazing. The California Grill brunch is by far my favorite meal at WDW (save for any meal at CRT, because PRINCESSES AND CASTLE!!!), but Art Smith's comes in a solid second, and is definitely more cost effective.

We started our meal by splitting an order of the house-made doughnuts, which had come highly recommended and lived up to their advance billing.

​

I probably could've had an entire order myself, but I was glad I didn't, because I had to leave room for the main course. My girlfriend got the Hallelujah Biscuit (Open-faced biscuit topped with Chef Art’s famous fried chicken, two over-easy eggs, pimento cheese, pecan-smoked bacon and smothered in sawmill gravy), while I got the Grand-daddy Plate (Three eggs any-style, pecan-smoked bacon, griddled country ham, cheddar cheese drop biscuit and choice of two sides). I opted for scrambled eggs, and even had them sub bacon for the ham. Then I got bacon as one of my sides, along with the mashed potatoes, which led to a thought I never thought I'd have: I think I got too much bacon.

​

This obviously wasn't the "bacon" I was used to at WDW, but it tasted amazing. It was just SO much on the plate, along with the so-called "three" scrambled eggs, which felt like at least 5 eggs worth, if not a full half-dozen. On top of that, both the biscuit and the potatoes were top-notch... basically all the food was better than expected (and my expectations were pretty high already).

The only real downside to the meal was that unlike California Grill or Maria & Enzos, there's no bottomless cocktail option. The Princess Mimosa (because OBVIOUSLY I had to get something called the "Princess Mimosa") was good, and I'd venture to say double the size of a mimosa at most other WDW brunch locations, but let's be honest, nothing beats bottomless.

All in all, Homecomin' is definitely a place I'll eat at again, if not on this next upcoming trip -- which is coming up WAY faster than I was ready for -- then at some undetermined point in the future.

FLIGHT OF PASSAGE

OK, this is the big one. As I already mentioned on this trip report, I FINALLY got to ride this.

For those that don't know the full backstory, I'll summarize it here: I did a pre-opening day at Pandora last year, at which point I was around 440 pounds. At this point, there were very few reports as to who would and wouldn't be able to ride FoP, so I went through the queue, gave it a shot, and didn't come remotely close. Over the next year, I lost close to 100 pounds, leading to this past May, when my girlfriend and I returned to Pandora. I tried the test seat then, and was told I was right on the border, but since we didn't have a FastPass for it and we didn't want to wait 2+ hours in standby, we skipped it. I'd hoped to lose more weight in advance of this trip, but life and bad habits got in the way, and I didn't. Still, with a FastPass in hand, I was resolute: I would try it, regardless of what happened with the test seat.

Well, the test seat experience went much the same way it had in May: I was right on the border, and the test seat CM said it'd be up to the loading CM in the last room to make the final call on whether I could ride safely or not. I told her I'd give it a shot, and headed into the ride apprehensive, but hopeful. My girlfriend, meanwhile, was starting to feel a rumbly tummy again, and decided to skip the ride. She also tends to get motion sick with 3D movies (spoiler alert: she rode FoP later in our trip and did in fact feel some motion sickness effects), so she didn't want to risk it.

Meanwhile, I headed down the FastPass queue, and then into the pre-show room, where the nerves really kicked in.

​

Having done the pre-show experience during the preview week in 2017, I knew what to expect from these videos, but I'd forgotten just how LONG both of them are. I get the reasoning behind them, but when you're in line wondering if you'll fit or not, you REALLY just want to get into the ride room itself.

When we did finally get into the room, the first thing I did was head straight to the back to dump my stuff into one of the storage bins, then I took off my top layer T-shirt. Every little bit of space counts, right? Then, for the moment of truth. I headed to position No. 5, straddled the ride seat, then pushed forward as far as I could. As the restraints moved into place, I heard the telltale click on the leg restraints, but nothing for the back -- which wasn't unexpected. The loading CM came over to my position, asked me to push forward as far as I could (and I squished my gut just a little bit more), then pushed the restraint into place. One deep exhale and a quick push later and I was locked in. Yes! I made it!

And it hurt!

Honestly, once the ride began, any pain I felt at first was gone, but getting that back restraint to click into place felt a lot like that first jolt of Space Mountain. But after a few seconds, the screen opened up, the room started moving and we were off!

I'd avoided most "spoilers" about the ride before riding it, including any YouTube videos, so I wasn't really prepared for the motion between the legs simulating the "breathing" of the banshee, and it kind of freaked me out the first time it happened. But it was just another thing that really enhanced an incredible ride experience. I'd heard it described as "Soarin' on steroids", but it was honestly much better than that. It really did feel immersive in a way the other simulator rides at WDW don't.

That said, even after riding it twice (yes, I rode it a second time using my girlfriend's FastPass, since she wasn't riding that day), I wouldn't put it up there among my favorite WDW rides. Maybe I'm a weird ride purist, but I prefer rides where you actually move -- Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror, Big Thunder Mountain -- to simulator rides. I definitely geek out about Star Tours, but that's more a Star Wars fandom thing than any real love for the ride. FoP is definitely going to replace NRJ as my default Pandora FP+ selection, even if I'm still hit-and-miss as to whether I'll fit, but given my fit issues and my girlfriend's motion sickness issues, it's not a guarantee that we'll even do it every trip.

But I did at the very least get to check it off my Disney attraction checklist (yes, an actual thing I have as a Google Sheet), which also meant I finally got to buy the FoP pin!

​

I have a rule that I don't buy an attraction/show/party/resort pin until I've personally experienced that thing, so I've been looking at getting this pin for more than a year, and finally buying it felt so nice. I also bought this, because, I mean, obviously:

​

The velcro on the back of my "My Happy Place" castle hat was getting worn out, so I needed a new hat. When my girlfriend saw I'd bought this one, she just looked at me and said "did you really buy a Disney Princess hat?" to which I responded "yes, yes I did." She just shook her head, but she did at least go along with our plans for the rest of the day, with me proudly wearing my new hat.

WINTER SUMMERLAND MINI-GOLF

Flight of Passage wasn't the only thing I've never done at Walt Disney World. Far from it. I've also never been to one of the two water parks (swimming, pools, waterslides, etc. have never really been my thing), I've never done an Illuminations cruise (and now I guess I never will... oh well), I've never stayed in Cinderella's Castle Suite (but if I keep bringing it up at every opportunity, maybe it'll happen some day), and, until this past trip, I'd never played a round of mini-golf.

​

(Actually, now that I think of it, I've never played a round of full-sized golf at WDW either. I used to play back in high school, and maybe that'll be a goal if I drop some more weight. My mom plays golf regularly, and I think she'd enjoy playing on a WDW course, even if it's a huge step up in difficulty from her normal courses).

I decided on the Winter Summerland course because I'd heard it was more fun thematically and less of a challenge than Fantasia Gardens, and given that the temperature was still well over 90 degrees even after sunset, I was hoping just the theming of winter would help cool us down. I was wrong on that front, but we did have plenty of fun -- and the entire 18 holes took just about an hour. Plus, I got an idea for how I want to decorate my lawn next summer:

​

I obviously understand why people skip mini-golf even when they get the free coupons in their resort package, because most everyone can play some kind of mini-golf course close to home. But if you're doing a non-park day on your trip, it'd be a fun activity to include in that.

TRADER SAM'S

With the golf behind us (for the record, my girlfriend beat me by three strokes), it was off to the Poly to finally conquer The Nautilus:

​

In a past trip report, I'd mentioned that we'd paid a visit to Trader Sam's but weren't quite sure if we could get the specialty mugs out on the patio. This time -- once again relegated to the patio with the inside seating being nearly a two-hour wait -- we made sure to ask specifically and were happy to discover that yes, they could bring us this giant drink in a ceramic submarine. And we were more than happy to drink it all down.

Honestly, ordering The Nautilus is really about getting the submarine, but the drink itself -- Barbancourt Pango Rhum, Appleton Estate Reserve Rum, Combier Crème de Pêche de Vigne Liqueur, Tropical Juices, and Falernum -- tastes really good too. The only downside to getting it outside is that you don't get to see the special effects they do inside when you order one of these drinks. Eventually we'll have to experience that, even if it means getting there super early.

The upside to sitting outside? Views like this:

​

Next up: Meet Your Halloween Party Princess!

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Sounds like such a fun day! My husband gets sick on FOP, too, so I also use his FP when we go. I couldn't get a FOP FP for our December trip, so we'll experience Na'vi for the first time. I hope the Shaman is working!

Good choice on moving the mini golf to evening. We'll have to give Winter Summerland a try. We did Fantasia because it's an easy walk from BWV, but the decor of Winter Summerland looks pretty fun.

The Nautilus sounds delicious!

Nice hat and pin purchases!

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Seventeen - Day 5: Meet Your Halloween Party Princess!
​

Our Sunday at WDW broke into two specific events that filled basically our entire day: California Grill Brunch and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

CALIFORNIA GRILL BRUNCH

I realized I never did a trip report for our February trip, so this is the first time I'm actually reviewing this meal.

I haven't done EVERY dining experience at WDW (at least not yet... per my spreadsheet I've done more than 50...), but of the ones I've done, this is far and away my favorite.

Fun fact, someone was doing a YouTube review of the brunch on the same day that we were there, so if you don't feel like reading this, you can watch that instead, and see me and my girlfriend in the background (that's us in the upper left here):

​

At the start of the meal, we were handed our blueberry boba mimosas and given a "tour" of the buffet, which had charcuterie items, yogurt, deviled eggs, sushi, pastries and a station with a hot bourbon baba, which was AMAZING. Honestly, you can have a full meal just off the self-serve items -- which my girlfriend almost did, half-joking that she was "full" before our entrees even came out.

I ended up asking to swap the blueberry mimosa for a traditional mimosa, which is an option (and at some point during the day they started putting out traditional mimosas at the arrival counter), and probably had WAY too many of them, but they were spread over a long meal. This isn't your traditional Disney breakfast, where you can get in and out in 45 minutes. In fact, we didn't get our entrees until about an hour after we'd arrived, which was perfectly fine given the amount of self-serve food that was available to us.

One thing both my girlfriend and I like about this brunch is that you aren't limited in the number of entrees you can order. If you want to have EVERYTHING on the menu, you can -- or at least you can try. The entrees are BIG. My girlfriend got the Lobster Omelette and I also ordered an omelette. They have a few pre-configured omelette selections (like the Lobster) that change seasonally, but you can customize an omelette pretty much however you'd like: and I like mine relatively plain (eggs, cheese, bacon). We also ordered the Vanilla Bean French Toast to split with each other, because it looked so good on the menu. On our previous trip, we'd split the carrot cake pancakes, which were also incredible, but we decided to limit ourselves to one bread-based entree this time (and honestly, even that might've been too much on top of the self-serve food and the egg entrees).

Now, I mentioned I like my omelettes relatively plain, but when the server brought it out, it was more plain than I'd expected... it was JUST eggs. Honestly, I was fine with that, but after I got a couple bites in, our actual waiter brought over what was supposed to be my actual omelette, apologizing for the mixup. So now I had two omelettes, both of which were allegedly "three-egg" omelettes, but seemed much bigger, and both of which were delightful.

​

At the end of your brunch, they bring you out a dessert plate, but by that point you've probably had so much food that you couldn't possibly eat anything else, and that was certainly the case for us. Thankfully, they were more than willing to box up our desserts, and this time we were going back to our resort room rather than getting on a plane, so we were actually able to enjoy them later. In all honesty, the desserts aren't anything special, but they're a nice touch at the end of an amazing meal.

​

MICKEY'S NOT SO SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY

As I mentioned, last time we did this brunch, it was on our departure day, which was... let's just say not a great idea.

This time it was on our party day, which was exactly as we planned, so we could go back to the room and relax (and digest) after brunch, then get ready for the party.

Originally I'd suggested that we arrive at the party around 3:30 and use the DVC entrance, because I'd seen how backed up the main party entrance got around 4pm when I'd gone to the Magic Kingdom on Friday. However, our relaxation and preparation time extended a little longer than planned, in part because in addition to doing her own makeup, my girlfriend had to do my makeup to, so I could be Ariel in her "Kiss the Girl" outfit for the party. Yes, it was a little weird that I was wearing makeup but didn't fully shave, but that was the long term compromise because I hate how I look with no facial hair (and my girlfriend hasn't actually seen me in person with no facial hair), so she did the best she could -- and I think she did an incredible job. Her Ursula-inspired makeup -- which she did rather than doing a full facepaint job -- was even better. And we got LOTS of compliments about our costumes throughout the night.

​

We arrived at the party right around 5pm, unsure of what to expect because we'd both read so many stories on the boards here of the parties being overcrowded and it being hard to do attractions, get good spots for the parade or fireworks, etc. As it turned out, we didn't really have any of those issues, lucking out in that our party night was apparently one of the more lightly attended ones.

While the park was still open, we did Carousel of Progress (which wouldn't be open during the party) and PeopleMover (which would be), then "it's a small world" as our first post-close/pre-party ride. We also did Pirates of the Caribbean once before the party changeover and had planned on doing it again right at 7 to see the "overlay" (aka the three live people), but the wait time at 7 had jumped up to 20 minutes, so we did Magic Carpets of Aladdin as a walk-on instead.

After that came a dessert break to try the Hitchhiking Ghosts Creme Puff, which looked good but tasted... well... let's just say it looked good. I also bought pins, because, obviously. I ended up buying the MNSSHP box set, and the complete set of new open edition Princess pins, which had just been released that weekend. I ADORE this set, in part because Cinderella's Castle is on every pin, but also because they look so nice. I think they might be better than the standard Princess Glitter pins.

​

At 7:25, we were back on Pirates to see the live action characters, and I was surprised how fun they were. Maybe we just got lucky in that Gunpowder Pete was specifically addressing me (I was filming video for Instagram and he said "you in the front row... that better not be for a wanted poster...), but I thought it was pretty cool. Not "Haunted Mansion overlay at Disneyland" cool, but definitely worth making sure you do during the party.

After that, we decided to walk back over to Tomorrowland, crossing the Hub along the way, where we were shocked to see how sparse the crowd was watching the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular. I think most people were waiting for one of the later shows (as we were), but it was genuinely surprising to see that you could've walked right up to the front of the castle and gotten a good spot for this show. We did PeopleMover again, mostly to see the inside of Space Mountain when it was completely dark (since neither of us was planning on actually riding SM that night), then headed over to Fantasyland so I could nerd out over Ariel as Ariel. We did a photo in front of the ride (which I still haven't downloaded from PhotoPass, so sorry about not posting it here), then rode Journey of the Little Mermaid, then she took a break over at Gaston's tavern while I waited to meet Eric and Ariel.

​

Our next stop was at the Tea Cups, which I normally skip (because it's such a tight fit that I can't really spin the cup), but I wanted to see with the seasonal music and lighting. Again, I'd classify this overlay as "fine", something you should definitely try to do if you're at the party, but probably not something worth an extended wait. I think the posted wait time when we got in line was 10 minutes, which was reasonable.

So at this point, we'd spent the first half of the party doing attractions and making some trick or treat stops, which meant it was time to settle in for the fireworks, the parade and the stage show. We found a good spot on the bridge between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland (the path by Cosmic Ray's) where we could sit and see the show. Before the fireworks began, I hustled back over to Fantasyland to get the Maleficent Ice Cream cone, which was good, but a bit too drippy in the Florida heat.

The fireworks were amazing, even if our vantage point wasn't the best for getting pictures of both them and the castle in the same shot (oh well, lesson learned for next time). I still put the New Year's Eve fireworks above them, but I certainly saw why everyone raved about them.

​

After the fireworks show, we made our way to Frontierland to get a good spot for the parade. I think more people are starting to learn about the "watch the parade in Frontierland" trick, as it certainly filled up closer to the parade, but we got a good spot on the edge of Pecos Bill, where we were able to see the whole thing pretty clearly. I loved the parade, even if it was a bit shorter than I'd expected. There were some younger kids sitting in front of us, and it was adorable seeing their reactions when the characters would come up close to them.

​

Because we watched the parade from Frontierland, we were able to sneak over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad once it was over for a quick ride. There was literally no wait -- aside from the walk through the empty standby line, which I think took as long as the ride itself -- and had we wanted to, we could've stayed on for an extra ride when it ended. But we instead got off and hustled to the hub to stake out a good spot for the last stage show of the night.

There was a larger crowd for the midnight one than there'd been for the early show, but we were still able to find a nice place up against the railing just to the right of the Partners statue. This was my first time seeing this stage show (not counting the two minutes I saw when we cut through the hub earlier that night) and I loved it.

A couple days before we left on this trip, my girlfriend was at my house and said we should watch "Hocus Pocus", at which point I realized that I somehow didn't own it on Blu-ray or digital. So I made sure to rectify that before the trip and watched it the night before we left -- then watched most of it again falling asleep at the resort one night on the trip -- so it was fresh in my mind, and it's obvious that it was a crowd favorite. I've heard a lot of cheers at WDW over the years (including the weird one for Maleficent's fire during a particularly cold night at Fantasmic), but nothing came close to the roaring ovation that followed the opening line and notes of "I Put a Spell on You." You would've thought Bette Midler herself was on stage (fun fact: Bette Midler was the first concert I ever attended back in... I wanna say 1988 or 1989... when I was at an age that was WILDLY inappropriate for being at a Bette Midler show). The whole show is lots of fun, but that finale really pushes it over the top.

​

The question comes up all the time as to whether the Halloween Party -- and really any extra cost Disney event -- is "worth" the price of admission, and I always say it depends on what you're looking for. You can trick or treat all night at MNSSHP and you're not going to get close to $100 worth of candy, and even on the lightly attended party nights, the attraction wait times aren't as low as they are during something like MK After Hours. But for someone like me who loves fireworks and parades and shows, MNSSHP was a great night. And the fact that I got to go as a Princess made it even better.

In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to splurge and get the party ticket for this coming Sunday, when I'll be back at WDW for the weekend. But we'll get to that...

​

NEXT UP: Lunch with an Imagineer, Night with Pandora

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Eighteen - Day Six: Lunch with an Imagineer, Night with Pandora
​

I swear this trip didn't seem this long when we were on it, but now writing this trip report entries, it's like "holy crap, I still have three more days to cover? Were we at WDW for a year?!"

That said, this was actually the point where our trip started to feel long, at least from the perspective of preferring short days to going from sunrise to park close. With that in mind, we scrapped any plans of doing this as a four parks, one day adventure, and also canceled our early morning breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest. When we'd made it, it was a PPO breakfast, but between the 180-day mark and the time we arrived, MK added an Early Morning Magic event, which meant there wasn't even a ton of value in getting to MK that early. On top of that, the price increases at BOG breakfast made it a less appealing option. So we slept in, had leftover MNSSHP candy for breakfast, then went over to Hollywood Studios.

When we'd gone to Moonlight Magic on our first night, we'd taken the bus to DHS, so this was our first time dealing with the relocated tram drop-off area, and let me just say I'll be much happier about returning to this park once all that construction out front is finished. Whether you're arriving by bus or car, that walk -- particularly in the heat we were dealing with -- is NOT fun. What was fun was our lunch!

DINING WITH AN IMAGINEER

Let me preface this by saying your enjoyment of this event will rely heavily on two things: 1) how much you are interested in the behind-the-scenes information about WDW (which I'd assume would be at least some level of interest, otherwise why book this meal?) and 2) the Imagineer you get.

We lucked out in that we got someone who was a graphic designer/art director who had an interesting career path and had worked on a bunch of cool projects at WDW. His current project was the Ratatouille ride at Epcot, so we got some very cool insight into how that project is being done. He's also been involved with the reimagining of Tomorrowland -- and (in an incredibly trivial fact that I adored) was the person who came up with the name for the Mission to S'mores drink at Joffrey's Revive near Space Mountain.

​

Some of the things I liked about the meal event, beyond the specific Imagineer we had:
- There's an age restriction, so it's almost entirely adults (there was one teenager in our group)
- It's a small group; I think there were 10 total people at our meal in addition to the Imagineer
- It's in a private room at HBD, so there's no worry about talking over the large lunch crowd
- There's ample time for Q&A, and it felt like everyone who wanted to had a chance to ask a question

As for the food, I enjoyed it way more than I expected. I'm a picky eater, so I thought I'd end up skipping most of the food on the menu, but as it was, I had pretty much everything. The soup was a butternut squash dish that tasted pretty much exactly like warm pumpkin pie filling, which was delightful. There are a couple of ingredients in a Cobb Salad that I don't enjoy at all, but the HBD's version is served with all the items essentially separated on the plate, so it was easy for me to avoid the things I didn't like (tomatoes, avocado), while eating up the things I did (greens, turkey, bacon, egg, cheese). Steak & potatoes are obviously steak & potatoes, so I was fine with those -- and the steak was prepared just right -- and then the desserts were excellent. I was surprised at how much I liked the mini grapefruit cake, in part because I couldn't really taste the grapefruit in it.

​

If you're a Disney nerd (and if you're on this board and reading other people's trip reports, you probably are), then I'd recommend doing this lunch (or the Citricos dinner) at some point on a future trip.

After lunch, we made a detour to Company D so I could pick up some new castmember exclusive pins, a couple of which had literally been released that day (great timing!).

​

Then it was off to Animal Kingdom, where my girlfriend finally got to ride Flight of Passage, though sadly this time I didn't quite fit. I'm fairly convinced that if the loading castmember had been willing to give that one last extra push, I would've been as fine as I'd been on Saturday, but quite frankly my back thanked me for not dealing with that. Also, as I previously mentioned, the ride did give my girlfriend some motion sickness symptoms, but I'm glad she got to see it at least once, even if she does decide to skip it on future trips.

After a drink break in Pandora (because their drinks are SO good), we headed over to the safari, where I feel like we had a much bumpier ride than usual, but otherwise had a really good experience. We got to see a baby hippo (sadly, no picture), got SUPER close to a giraffe and got a pretty good look at a lion, who was sleeping in nearly the exact same position one of my cats always sleeps in. From an animal-spotting perspective, it was one of the better safari experiences I've had to date.

​

Our last FP of the day was for Expedition Everest, which, as I mentioned in my Saturday entry, probably remains my favorite ride at AK. After that, we were able to do Dinosaur as a walk-on, as most people in the park were starting to line up for Rivers of Light.

We had different night time plans, specifically seeing Pandora at night, which somehow I'd never done in my many trips to WDW in the year-plus since it had opened. We crossed the park while it was still light out, so my girlfriend had the bright idea (pun fully intended) to duck into the Nomad Lounge for a drink to wait for the sun to go down, so I could actually walk into the area when it was dark and the bio-luminescent lights were on.

That turned out to be a great idea (and I'm not just saying that because I know she's reading this report, or because the Snow Leopard Salvation at Nomad Lounge was a great drink), because I was blown away upon seeing Pandora at night for the first time. Words don't do it justice, so here's some pictures instead!

​

We called it a night at the parks at 8, right as AK was closing, getting some beautiful views of the Tree of Life.

​

It seems like a "light" day, but from the time we left Coronado Springs to the time we got back, we spent a full nine hours either at the parks, at stores, or traveling between locations. And by the time we got back to Coronado Springs, we were hungry enough for dinner, which we had at the recently opened Rix Sports Bar & Grill. Rather than wait for a table or settle for lounge seating, we were able to get "reservations" for about 5 minutes after we arrived. The food was okay, really just about what you'd expect from a sports bar, if a bit overpriced. I honestly wish I'd just gotten the Wachos (waffle fry nachos) and a drink, rather than doing a burger too, but, again, calories at WDW don't count.

Also, while I wouldn't put Rix near the top of my return destinations for WDW dining, it does get points for being a legit sports bar with LOTS of TVs. And, for those planning future WDW trips around major sporting events, it does as of now have plenty of reservations open for Super Bowl Sunday, the opening Thursday and Friday of the NCAA men's basketball tournament and MLB Opening Day, for those looking for an alternative for the harder to get spots at ESPN Club. In the shorter term, it has plenty of lunch reservations open for every NFL Sunday for the rest of the season, if that's your thing (me, I'm a basketball guy... and yes, they have open dinner reservations for the opening night NBA doubleheader next Tuesday, but I'll be back at work in CT for that).

After dinner, we headed back to the room, watched Hocus Pocus again (I think Freeform showed it like 4 different times on the 1st, which is nothing compared to the all-day marathon on the 31st), and eventually fell asleep.

NEXT UP: Plaza Views and Epcot Booze

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Your girlfriend did a great job on your Ariel makeup. I love that she went as Ursula while you went as Ariel. I bet you did get a lot of compliments!

Cali Grill brunch looks amazing. Sounds like you guys put together a great plan for the brunch/party day. One day I'd like to enjoy WDW at a more leisurely pace.

Pandora at night is my favorite. It's spectacular! Very smart of your girlfriend to have you wait until darkness to enter the land.

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Nineteen - Day Seven: Plaza Views and Epcot Booze
​

So after nearly three weeks on the road, followed by coming back to late night work shifts, I've lost all sense of time, particularly days of the week. Prime example: that whole "cancelled BOG res, skipping 4-parks in 1-day" situation I described in Chapter 18? That actually applied to Day 7 of this trip, NOT Day 6. Whoops.

With that said, Day 7 was yet another day where we slept in and didn't really get started until the afternoon. That had always been the plan on Day 6, but was an adjustment here, and a welcomed one at that. On a 4 or 5-day trip, we'd certainly want to maximize our park time, but with 8 days in Florida, we didn't feel the need to push things.

Our day "started" with lunch at The Plaza, where my girlfriend had been able to score a reservation the day before. I'd eaten lunch there on my last solo trip and enjoyed it, so I was happy to go back, in part because I really wanted to get one of the Birthday Cake Milkshakes. Our waiter asked a couple times if that's the one I really wanted, since it wasn't one of the "bottomless" options that you can usually get with lunch at The Plaza, but the last thing I needed at this point in the trip was a bottomless milkshake. The Birthday Cake one lived up to the hype (and the Instagram photos).

​

After lunch, we paid another visit to the Carousel of Progress, then made sure to ride the Magic Kingdom railroad before it shuts down temporarily to make way for Tron construction (which they're already advertising by the railroad).

​

I don't take enough time to appreciate the railroad as an actual attraction, usually just using it to save walking from the front of the park to either Frontierland or Fantasyland. But it was nice to just ride it this time. After our ride was done, we did some shopping on Main Street, then my girlfriend indulged me as I took a bunch of pictures from the second level of the train station.

​

Once that was done, we hopped over to Epcot to indulge in more Food & Wine goodness. I didn't get to NEARLY everything on my to-do list, because that amount of food and wine probably would've killed me, but I did get to try a bunch of different things. My five favorite from this particular evening:

- Lamington (Australia)

​

This was a yellow cake dipped in chocolate and coconut. It was small, but not quite bite-sized, and really hit the spot.

- Cheese & Bacon Soup (Canada)

​

It's cheese. It's bacon. It comes with a pretzel bread roll. Sure it seems basic, but it's so damn good. I really wish this was a year-round option at the Canada pavilion.

- Guinness Bailey's Shake (Ireland)

​

I'm not a beer drinker at all, but you really can't taste the Guinness in this shake. Plus, I love the re-usable cup you get with it, even if it's a bit small to really have any kind of everyday use at home.

- Fuji Apple Cocktail (Japan)

​

I've always had a weird relationship with the drinks in Japan, based on past Drink Around the World trips, but this one really hit the spot. This was the only drink I got that I really wish had been larger or at least available in a full-size option. It was sweet, but not overwhelmingly so, and went down smooth.

- Lobster Roll (Hops & Barley)

​

When it comes to lobster rolls, I normally prefer butter to mayo, but this one wasn't bad. Sure, it was a bit small, but you get used to that with Food & Wine items, and it least it wasn't crazy expensive ($8 almost seems reasonable, given what churros and Mickey Pretzels cost these days).

I should also mention that I didn't get any of the festival drinks in France, because after skipping it on my past couple trips, I had to get the Grey Goose Lemonade Slush, which was FANTASTIC. Less fantastic was "Impressions de France", which I finally took the time to watch for the first time. Somehow, I was the one that got kind of motion sick watching it (or maybe I was just drunk by this point).

The two big Food & Wine items I decided to pass on this night, both for the sake of my stomach and my wallet, were the Maple Bacon Funnel Cake in America and the Frozen Margarita in Italy (which I actually had during Flower & Garden and really liked a lot, just not enough to pay $10 for it shortly after having had a full-sized frozen drink in France).

We probably would've hit up more Food & Wine locations, but were dismayed to find out that even though Epcot had Extra Magic Hours from 9-11 this night, the F&W booths -- and most of the regular World Showcase booths too -- closed at 9. Fortunately, neither Gran Fiesta Tour nor the Margarita stand outside the Mexico pavilion were closed, so we were able to ride with Donald one last time, then get a refreshing drink before we made our way out. Since there wasn't anything pressing we wanted to do as far as attractions, we decided to call it a night and do some packing, since our next day was our departure day -- for which we still had no plans, even as we went to sleep.

​

NEXT UP: Goodbye for now (meaning... for a week or so)

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Twenty: Day 8 - Goodbye for now (meaning... for a week or so)
​

Departure day is always bittersweet at Disney World, but it's more sweet than bitter when you know you're going to be back a week later. In fact, as I finally write this last day of this trip report, I'm less than 12 hours away from flying back to WDW. But before we get to that trip, let's finish this one up.

My girlfriend and I specifically left this day plan-free, to ideally let it serve as an opportunity to revisit something one last time before we left, but by the time we'd reached Day 8 of our trip, we really weren't sure what we wanted to do. Almost as importantly, we were both fairly certain that we didn't want to spend a ton of time running around in the parks -- and, more specifically, the sun -- before we had to get on a late night flight back to Connecticut.

So, after saying goodbye to our room at Coronado Springs one last time, we went over to Disney Springs for lunch and a movie. Specifically, Chicken Guy and "Tangled."

Guy Fieri tends to get a bad rep, in part because of his over-the-top personality and in part because his restaurants focus on the most basic of American foods (burgers, fries, fried burgers... at least I think I remember seeing that on a menu once), but as a picky eater who tends to stick with what I'm comfortable with, I actually like his stuff. And Chicken Guy was no exception. The chicken tenders were good, and surprisingly big. I got the 5-piece combo, expecting something about the size of a typical fast food chicken tender, but they were much larger than that. One of mine was basically a full-sized chicken patty. At Chicken Guy, the tenders themselves are really presented as a delivery system for Guy's sauces (there are a TON of sauce options on the menu); I stuck to the signature sauce and honey mustard as my two choices and liked them both. As far as a recommendation, I wouldn't say Chicken Guy is a restaurant you should seek out, per se, but it is a nice lower cost alternative to some of the other Disney Springs locations if you're spending an afternoon or evening there.

​

After lunch, it was time for the movie. Conveniently enough, Disney once again brought back some Princess movies as part of a promotion with AMC -- they did it last year too, and some of my first dates with my girlfriend were at those movies -- and this week's movie was "Tangled", which happens to be my favorite Disney movie ever. So even though on some level it felt silly to be seeing a movie during WDW time (though not the first time I've done it, and assuredly not the last either), it also felt kind of special to be able to see my favorite Disney movie on the big screen inside the Disney Bubble.

​

(And yes, I used one of my AMC A-List selections to see it... between that program and MoviePass before it, I think I've paid out-of-pocket for a movie just once in 2018).

After the movie, we went up to the roof at World of Coca-Cola to relax, enjoy the view, and imbibe some adult beverages, before deciding how to finish our trip. Once again, we ended up splitting up, in this case so my girlfriend could relax and enjoy a Dole Whip at the Poly, while I took in the Magic Kingdom one last time:

​

I thought about just going, taking some more Castle pictures, and then leaving, but I was able to snag an immediate FastPass for Buzz Lightyear, so I did that... and got my highest personal score ever. Still well short of Galactic Hero status, mind you (since I keep forgetting the tricks to get there), but a good score nonetheless. After that, I decided to risk it, and do something I hadn't done in my past few trips to WDW:

​

Yep, that's right, I rode Space Mountain! I'd had one last "anytime" FastPass leftover from Tuesday, because Small World went down during our FastPass window, which was right at the end of the day before the party that night, and -- new thing I learned -- when your FastPass window bumps up against park closing and the ride goes down, you get a recovery FastPass that is good for most attractions (the typical no FoP, no 7DMT, etc. applies) at ANY of the four parks until park close THE NEXT DAY. So I figured what the heck, why not?

Amazingly, the ride didn't kill my back like it usually does, mostly because I braced myself for the one specific jolt at the beginning of the ride that usually does me in. After that, I grabbed an immediate availability FastPass for Journey of The Little Mermaid one last time before heading back to the Poly, where I reunited with my girlfriend and we headed of for the worst ride at Disney World: the ride back to the airport!

=================

So that's a wrap on this trip, which, despite some hiccups along the way, was magical, incredible, and just about everything I'd hoped it could be. Going way back to my last trip report from May, I'd set out six specific things I wanted to do on this trip, and we actually got all of them done:

- Experience Epcot Food & Wine
- Do MNSSHP
- Do a guided tour
- Play a round of mini-golf
- Bar hop at Disney Springs
- Conquer The Nautilus

In fact, I enjoyed the first two so much that I'm planning on making time for them this weekend. I'm also planning something big for Sunday (the day when I won't be with my 10-person travel party), but I'll save that for the next trip report.

As for the aftermath of this past trip, because I had another trip coming up so soon, I had no choice but to unpack immediately, though much of our items like the popcorn bucket, Toy Story Alien cup, various Halloween-themed items, and The Nautilus itself, are all just sitting on various kitchen counterspace until we find a more permanent home for them. In my unpacking, I discovered that I managed to buy too many pins, again (though I put the blame for that at least like 70% on Disney for releasing a new Princess pin set while I was at the parks... I was powerless to resist). I also bought two more designed MagicBands, and now -- with the addition of those two, plus the basic colors for this trip and the one that starts tomorrow -- my MB display looks like this:

​

I'm thinking if the collection expands any more, those solid color MB1s (which are already deactivated in the MDX system), might have to find new home to make room for some more new designs. Or I could stop buying MagicBands. And pins. And mugs. And T-shirts.

Yeah, obviously that's not gonna happen.

Until next time... (aka tomorrow!)

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

The Lamington sounds and looks so good! That birthday cake milkshake - wow! Who needs a bottomless milkshake when you've got that? If we just wanted that shake, would we need a Plaza ADR or do they have a to go area like 50s Primetime?

Really enjoyed this trip report. Thanks for sharing with us! Fingers crossed you'll write one for this next trip. Have a great time and safe travels!

 

[adamreisinger]

The birthday cake milkshake is available at the Plaza Ice Cream parlor right next door, but I believe it’s a limited-time/seasonal offering. But yeah, it’s definitely enough milkshake that you don’t remotely need a refill.