A Whirlwind 72 (minus 5) hour trip to WDW!! FINAL UPDATE 9/3!!!

[Li Li]

Well, let's try a trip report! It will be quick as was our trip. Earlier in the year, we had jokingly priced out a trip over Memorial Day weekend, because hey, why not? We'll have Monday off, so we should obviously spend our three-day weekend in Disney World! But we never pulled the trigger because we were already going to WDW in September! Our BB was all booked for a week at POFQ in September, so we'd be crazy to squeeze in a May trip, right?! Well, apparently, crazy is our middle name.

Here's the crazy:

That's me (Li Li) and DH (Nigel).

I've only ever written a PTR before and really, not well at all, so who knows how this will turn out. If it's anything like my PTRs, it will just be me and DH.

So, what pushed us over the edge to book a last minute getaway? Really, I think it all came down to Ashley and Joe. You know Ashley and Joe, right? The stars of See ya reel soon! They have a YouTube channel where they post informational videos and video trip reports, and we've been following them for almost a year now. Well, they announced they were going in May and we thought, why not us too? I swear, we are not crazy stalkers! Unbeknownst to each other, we started pricing out flights and rooms and then confessed all to each other.

The more we talked, the more we got excited about the idea. We started seriously talking and then pricing some more. We promised ourselves we wouldn't book unless we could do it under $1,000.00. Well, we came mostly close to that in the end!

So, proper introductions:
Li Li - a 30-something attorney with a lifelong love of Disney
Fav movie - Beauty and the Beast
Fav park - It really is a toss up between MK and Epcot.
Fav ride - Tower of Terror

Nigel - a 40-something attorney and history buff whom I can't believe loves WDW as much as he does
Fav movie - The Rescuers or 101 Dalmations
Fav park - MK (I think, he'll correct me if I'm wrong and I don't feel like screaming for him to come downstairs and answer my questions!)
Fav ride - Haunted Mansion

So, there you have it...we made the decision to go for Memorial Day weekend, which meant we could fit in the 24 hour event and Star Wars Weekend! Would it go smoothly? Would we overspend (of course!) Would it be worth it? Duh, of course!

 

[Li Li]

Basically, I started stalking Orlando flights as we would obviously have to fly in order to spend any real time in WDW coming from PA! We have a local "international" airport near us. The "international refers to the fact that it happens to have one flight to Toronto. Otherwise, it's a pretty small airport that never appears remotely busy when we are there. But, it beats driving 2 hours to a bigger airport even though they have more flight choices.

Originally, we really were hoping to get a Thursday night flight so we could be in WDW for the start of Rock Your Disney Side. But the local airport does not fly to Orlando on Thursday evenings. So, revising our plan, we settled for the Friday morning flight which would get us into Orlando by 9:30. We were hoping to make quick time to our resort, check in, perhaps grab lunch in Epcot and then get to Magic Kingdom for an all-nighter! But...the best laid plans and all that. Yep, things never go as planned. Anyway, we got the Friday morning flight out and then settled for the Monday morning flight home. Who needs sleep?

Is this a good time for a puppy selfie?

That's Ike, and we were sadly leaving him at home with his grandparents. But one day, we will take him to WDW!

We then looked at booking resorts. Obviously, we were looking at values since we were trying to be somewhat financially prudent. Again,

We were also looking at values because that is the one resort category we have not tried yet, and we wanted to check them out. The biggest strike against values? The lack of coffeemaker in the room!!! But, actually, that never really turned out to be an issue.

So, originally, when we booked, the only thing that worked as booking one night at AoA LM room and then the next two nights at POP in pool preferred. For some reason, we just couldn't stay all 3 nights at POP. At first, we thought this would be fine as we wanted to check out both resorts. However, with our plans (okay, my plan) to stay at MK until 6 am Saturday, it almost felt like a waste of the LM room. We would get back to our room at 6 am and then have to be ready to check out at 11 am and shlep over to POP. Not ideal.

So, stalking of the Disney website commenced. I was at home and pricing out stays and finally, a preferred room at POP showed up for all three nights. I quickly hopped on the phone and changed our reservations with a Disney CM.
YAY, 3 nights at POP, here we come! Also, I was happy about preferred since we had quite a bit of a walk at our last resort, Port Orleans Riverside. Lovely resort, but trying to find your building somewhere in Alligator Bayou after spending all day in the parks was not my favorite thing.

Pic of entrance to POP courtesy of 5-something in the morning. I really couldn't tell if my pic was blurry or my eyes were blurry from lack of sleep!

 

[Li Li]

Did I mention we planned and booked all of this less than 30 days out? Can you believe it? Probably the most impulsive big thing we have ever done! Very exciting, especially as Nigel practically gets hives when he can't plan something in advance.

So, once we booked, we got our DME and Magic Bands in quick order. Interestingly, when we looked at our old bands (from October) compared to these new shiny ones, we realized...we beat the crap out of those old bands! Seriously, they looked beat up and we only wore them for four days!

So, we were all set, right? Wrong! Apparently, eight days before our trip, Nigel starts bringing up, you know, I priced out some rental cars...

WHAT?! You're bringing this up now? But I haven't been following the May rental car thread, how will we get the best deals, we haven't researched! Okay, typing this out, it occurs to me that perhaps Nigel isn't the only one who needs to plan things. I swear I wasn't always like this! I blame him and the Disboards for my new planning needs! (I should probably mention at this point that I generally use way too many exclamation points. I am aware of it, but as of yet, no 12-step program has been invented for it.) :good vibes

So, because Nigel has become of fan of the Disney Hipsters podcast, he got the idea for a rental car from them. I started pricing cars out, and really, Costco was the cheapest, so we booked. I had severe misgivings...would it be complicated, why abandon the ME, did we need to spend the extra money, but like any good wife, I compromised

I figured we would give it a whirl. The plan was that we would grab the rental car, stop at Publix for some minor supplies (water, beer), check in at POP, and head over to Epcot for lunch. Also, Joe and Ashley had posted that they were hosting a meet-up at 2 (or 2:30?) at MK, so we thought we'd have everything worked out and make it in plenty of time. AAAAAND, spoiler alert, we didn't. Why? One word, airplane!

 

[Li Li]

So, Friday came bright and early. Well, not so much bright as dark since we got up at 5 am. Flight was leaving at 7:15 am (allegedly). Airport is only about 20 minutes away, so we were having Father-in-law pick us up at 5:30 a.m. We had packed and prepared everything the night before.

Here is Nigel's version of events:
I thought the glitch in our vacation occurred even before it began when I could not find my wallet. Here we were at 5:30am. My dad arrived a few minutes early, which really isn’t surprising, and my wallet was not in my Disney ball cap as I placed it the night before. What the heck had happened to it? After frantically searching, I found it behind the old school 1960s hi-fi we have in our living room. The only thing I can figure is the cat must have batted it there sometime in the night.

After that we gathered the dog, and stuffed the cat in his carrier and piled into dad’s SUV for the brief trip to airport. We pull up, say our goodbyes to family and critters alike wave bye to them as Dad drives away and full of smiles and joy walk into the airport.

I look up at the flight board and can’t find our flight. Where the heck is it, everything is on time. Wait. One flight is delayed. It’s our flight. Delayed five hours. In a stupor, we eat some McDonald’s to plot our next move. Li Li talks to the ticket counter people and learns due to storms in Denver our flight was delayed arriving and the crew needs rest, yadda, yadda, we’re stuck waiting. I text my Dad and he is off to run some errands so my Mom comes to the rescue and we spend the next two and a half hours at their place slightly closer to the airport to hangout.
After finding out about the flight delay...

Back to me:
So, we get back to the airport for our alleged 12:05 pm new departing time. Notice how I keep using that term "allegedly". Yeah, they didn't start boarding until 12:05! But other than that small bump of five hours, the flight went smoothly and we landed a little after 2:30.

We proceeded down to the rental car area and entered the long line. But it really wasn't that bad. Within 15 minutes, we were given our assigned car, a Chrysler 200, so off to the garage.

Just a quick note on tolls. Since we decided to use a rental car, we asked Nigel's parents if we could borrow their Sunpass. They have one because they usually winter in Florida every year. So, I had the Sunpass transponder and the account password. So, when we got to the rental car, I brought up the mobile Sunpass site and entered in the rental car information and noted the days it would be in use. And we were off. It was super easy, we got to use the Sunpass lanes, and the Sunpass worked fine. Also, no problem with the Budget rental car. No charges that I've seen in regard to the Sunpass. So, I would definitely use the Sunpass again. I also had quarters in my bag if we needed a backup.

On the road...

Thank goodness for smartphones, I punched up the POP address and we were on our way. The original plan had been to stop at a store for some water and provisions (i.e. beer). But since we were running behind, we were heading right to POP.

We made it! The drive really was super easy!

Online checkin had no line, so we got all set and off to our room. 70s building, 4th floor.

Next up...is this room really preferred?

 

[Li Li]

So, we were in Building 10, 4th floor of the 70s. We booked preferred, so I have to assume that they gave us the preferred category, but...I have my doubts. I don't know if I am being too picky, but I don't really agree with Disney's room categories, at least the ones I've experienced. Which would be a whole 2 of them, so obviously my experience is limited. But last year, we stayed in a "Garden" view room at POR. If I can see a busy road through the "garden" --which just looked like untrimmed vegetation and not really pretty--then I don't feel that this is very garden-y. We were on first floor of POR in Alligator Bayou. I even asked the front desk if this was a garden view room and they, of course, said yes. If I'm paying upgraded money, then I just want to feel like I'm getting what I paid for. Again, possibly being overly nitpicky, but there you have it.

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, 70s. So, we were around the corner from an elevator on 4th floor, but you still had to walk down a long "hallway", if you will, from the elevator to the main sidewalk to get to the main hall. The hallway I reference is the long block of rooms you walk past to get to the sidewalk. I hope that makes sense. In any case, there was a stairway at the end of the "hallway", so really, the quickest way to get to and from our room was to walk up and down the four flights of stairs and walk down hallway to our room. When you walked down the four flights of stairs, it was a quick walk past the smoking nook and you were right at the food court/main hall. So, in a technical sense, yes, this is a preferred room because I could quickly get to main hall and buses. BUT, that quickness is largely due to utilizing 4 flights of stairs. On the one hand, this is probably a good thing because it helps in working off those Disney calories. And really, the four flights were not that bad; I never felt winded or like I couldn't make it up the steps. On the other hand, it just seemed like this was the very edge of preferred. Just close enough to technically be considered preferred. So, I guess I should just say I had mixed feeling about the room, but overall, I did like it and felt that we were close enough to the main hall and buses. I'm sure everyone is just, get over yourself, Li Li. Got it.

Anyway, we got to the room and dumped the luggage.

*Oh, interesting (probably just to me) side note that I forgot above. Frontier Airlines made everyone checking in place their carryon in a sizer to see if it was the appropriate size. But what I found interesting is that they did not check weights on any of them. My carry-on roll wheel suitcase fit fine, but I thought they would also check the weight limits, which are 35 pounds for carry ons.

I think we both liked the room very much. Jumping ahead, I would have no problem staying at POP again. I liked the food court, the rooms, the buses and the pools. The room was the standard 2 double beds. Nigel was worried about having a double bed rather than queen, but I think we were so exhausted every night (at least I was) that the size never seemed to be an issue. But I'm not very tall and only slightly overweight, so there's that. I did not graduate from a twin bed until I got married! So, obviously, bed size isn't a huge thing for me.

Also, sorry for the lack of pictures in this post. Nigel took most of the room photos, and they are on his computer upstairs and not the laptop I am writing this report on, so yeah. My bad. Maybe I'll be proactive enough to put in pics later. :good vibes

Now, we had places to be! We are still running 5 hours behind...thanks again, Frontier. We quickly loaded on the sunscreen, especially for me, thanks Irish forefathers. And we were off. Now in the excitement, I never opened our packet that the checkin person gave us. D'oh! As I found the next day, that packet contained the slip of paper for free parking at the parks. Blissfully unaware, we set off for Epcot.

When we got to Epcot, I said to the woman that we were staying at POP but I didn't have a slip. She seemed confused by this, but the other CM working with her said, no prob, just scan her Magic Band. So, she scanned it and we were in! So, perhaps they might do away with the paper slips for parking eventually? Who knows.

Since I had heard horror stories about parking at TTC for MK for the 24-hour party, we decided we would just park at Epcot and monorail over to Magic Kingdom.

Up next, can we resist the siren call of Spaceship Earth?!

 

[NigelSTW]

Nigel here.

Just a few thoughts on Pop. I thought our room's location was clearly preferred. It was a snap to get to the main building, and main pool. Overall, I thought our room was nice. The smaller sized bed was a bit of pain for me. It was not awful. I've been sleeping in a queen sized bed since I was aged 14 other than when I was in school. Still, the room was clean, and well laid out. I do wonder if we had been there for a longer stay with more luggage if things would not have become cramped quickly. However, for three nights with carry on luggage it was perfect.

I liked the food court. It was nothing spectacular, but everything was run efficiently and the food was prepared such that everything we ate was tasty. (Although the ice machines kept running out, which was my biggest annoyance. I need access iced cold beverages at all times. It's my birthright as an American.)

I won't go into my thoughts on the pool until Li Li covers it. I will say overall I could easily see us staying at Pop again. Especially for visits where one is only staying a few days and will be spending most of the time in the parks and going back to the resort to crash and grab a quick bit at the start or end of the day. Springing for the preferred room is definitely worth it. When Li Li goes into the day we spent by the pool, I can share why Pop for an extended stay or for planned long periods back at the resort is not my cup of tea.

 

[Li Li]

As I said, we were parking at Epcot and taking the monorail over to MK. But, being right outside Epcot, Nigel kept saying, well, we could just quickly go in and ride Spaceship Earth, right?! As much as he loves Haunted Mansion, Spaceship Earth is a pretty close second. We grabbed some water at the stand outside the entrance because we were dying of thirst and discussed. I looked on the MDE app and the wait time was 15 minutes , so I hesitantly agreed.


Originally, we had planned to grab lunch at Epcot before going to MK, but ya know, plane delays! Am I still bitter? Yes, a little. Weather, I can accept, but mandatory rest still just irks me. Get a new flight crew! I get that Frontier is small and that probably wasn't possible, but I can't get over the fact that the airline just didn't seem to care. Okay, in the words of Elsa, let it go.

Anywho...we got in line...and it sure didn't look like a 15 minute wait. We stood in line for 10 minutes and were still no closer to the entrance at all. As I looked impatiently at my watch for the hundredth time, Nigel gave up and said we could go. In part, I was worried because we had our first FP+ scheduled for 5:20. Although, thank god I had scheduled our first FP so late so the flight delay did not affect it. We hopped out of line (since we were still in the outside line of the queue) and went off to the Monorail.

We grabbed the monorail and headed to MK!!

Sorry, kind of blurry.

Finally, we were here! And I was determined to stay all night! (Or as late as I could talk DH into )

And we were doing okay on time as it was just coming up on 5:20. As we were walking down Main Street, I detoured us into Starbucks. I was still mega thirsty. I think we had only split one water bottle at Epcot, and I needed more plus some caffeine. The line wasn't too bad except for some obnoxious kiddie group. Seriously, do not let 10 year olds order by themselves. Okay, I don't mean that...entirely. I just remember these two little boys who could not for the life of them get the correct amount of money to pay for their order. And why are 10 year olds getting Starbucks anyway? I digress, and I like kids, I swear. Just the lack of supervision kind of irked me. Their counselor was off in a corner on her phone trying to keep track of all the barely-tweeners.

So, I got a blue Powerade for Nigel (who only likes red, but I told him to deal), one iced coffee and one iced green tea. We split the Powerade to hydrate, and I drank the green tea and Nigel got the coffee. Sorry for the hyper-detail. There you have it. After drinking some, we both were feeling more human and a bit more relaxed. The day/night was ahead of us!

And I should probably insert here that we needed hydration because of the tequila. What? you may say. Well, I have developed a weirdly late in life fear of flying. And apparently, I passed this fear off to Nigel, which I had no idea about until he told me before we boarded. Anyway, we had 2 shots of tequila before boarding and a Coors light each on the plane. Let me tell you, this made the flight go much better for me. (Foreshadowing, I had no alcohol on flight home and it was not fun). It's only a 2-hour flight, so I would not want to take a pill of some sort. Plus, I don't like sleepy medicines in general. Anytime I take a Benadryl I feel like I am dying because of how sleepy it makes me. It freaks me out. So, alcohol to the rescue. Remember, the cause of and solution to all life's problems. And sitting here tonight, I realized that we really didn't eat much up to this point. We had McDonald's breakfast sandwiches right after we learned of the flight delay (6:30ish), we split a package of trail mix at the beginning of our flight (12:30 ish), and nothing else. So, no wonder we were dehydrated. But weirdly not hungry yet. Don't worry, the food is coming later! Aaaaand, sorry about that. Moving on.

Okay, so we got our Starbucks and headed off to Mickey's Toontown, which is how I think of it, but I guess it is all just New Fantasyland. And when do we drop the "new" from that?

We were headed to our first ride, Dumbo! I grabbed FP+ for it because we had never been on this before and I wanted to make sure we tried it. Although, we probably did not need the FP since it was not that busy. The park in general seemed to be fairly laid back, possibly because people were off eating dinner or still resting back at hotel before gearing up for the night?

Yep, we got separate elephants.

Woo hoo! Fun times. So, we had finally crossed one of the big to-do rides off our list! We both thought the play area for kids was great. I had read about it, but Nigel was surprised by it. We both agreed it was a great idea to let kids play while waiting. Genius, Disney Parks! Nigel loves that whole circus area, the theming and everything. It is really neat. So, we had some time before our next ride and decided to wander around and look for some snacks. We weren't starving, just wanted something quick and easy. I reminded him that the Disney Hipsters had talked about the Eggroll cart in Adventureland and we went off in search of it. Take note: this is the first in a long line of decisions in which we think, how about we do that thing that is in the complete opposite direction of where we are currently standing?

[Oh, the Disney Hipsters are two guys who started and run a blog and podcast that we...okay, mostly Nigel...listen to.]

So, off we went in search of egg rolls, but instead we found...a family living in a tree. Again, neither of us could remember ever doing the Swiss Family Robinson tree house, so when we passed by it with absolutely no line (cause no one is ever there!), we decided to take the tour.

Aaaaand, you'll just have to stay tuned because those photos are on the upstairs computer, so I'll have to get those uploaded before posting.

 

[scrpbookr]

I'm enjoying your adventure so far! Can't wait to read the rest. Subbing to follow along!

 

[Li Li]

I'm enjoying your adventure so far! Can't wait to read the rest. Subbing to follow along!

Aw, thanks so much!!!

Hoping to get next installment done tonight!

 

[NigelSTW]

Where's the update? I want to know what I did.

 

[Li Li]

Yesterday, I enlisted Nigel's help in trying to piece together our 12-hour marathon in the Magic Kingdom. Between the order of our photos, texts, Facebook and our somewhat shaky memories, I think we have it all pieced together. So, here we go.

When we last left off, we were in search of egg rolls, but took a tree house detour.
I don't seem to have picture of the sign, but the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House was pretty much empty, so we took the tour.

Nice to see the Bible is front and center.

Great view!
But don't worry, we were able to get our egg roll after our detour. Turns out the Eggroll Cart is right next to the Tree House!

Had a Powerade too of course. Have to keep hydrating.

Oh, while I'm thinking of it, I'll explain my outfit. I was trying a Disneybound! For the unaware, Disneybounding is basically wearing clothes that are evocative or indicative of a certain Disney character, like wearing different shades of green and a red feather for Peter Pan. Can you guess who I was going for?

Smee!!! I went for a fairly easy character to imitate, I know. But I added an Anchor necklace, did you notice? But I felt in fit in with the Heroes/Villains theme for the event!
See?

Our next FP+ after Dumbo was Haunted Mansion at 6:40 or maybe 6:45? Either way, after enjoying a nice pork egg roll snack, we headed over to check on a certain Ghost Host. Aaaand, we have absolutely no pictures of it! Weird. Maybe we've been on too many times and figured we did not need any more? In any case, I know we enjoyed a lovely DoomBuggy ride.

Afterward, as we were walking, we saw Small World with only a 10 minute wait, so we decided to hop on.

It looks crowded, but it moved quickly. I have to say, one of the best parts of the event was seeing everyone's costumes. People really went all out for Rocking their DisneySide! The picture I wish I got? The two guys dressed as the wicked Stepsisters, Drizella and Anastasia...so great with feather headbands and everything!
Back to Small World...

Nigel's favorite

After Small World,next item on the agenda was some more food. Definitely feeling a bit more peckish, I directed us to Sleepy Hollow Inn. I read more about the food offerings at Disney than Nigel, so I tend to take charge of our eating. Usually, I do pretty well.

On my list to try was one of the Waffle Sandwiches. We decided on the Spicy Chicken waffle sandwich to split.

SOOOOO GOOODDD! We loved it! And I have to say, the CMs here were fantastic! When I asked our cashier for an ice water, he said, okay, $500.
Obviously joking around, but nice about it. Then, since the waffles take a few minutes to prepare, Victor at the next window was trying to keep everyone entertained and was giving us Disney trivia questions. I just really thought everyone there was really enjoying their job and trying to keep all the guests entertained. I even wrote to Disney when I got back to give them Victor's name and tell them that I thought everyone at Sleepy Hollow was great. So hopefully, Disney passes along my thanks for being such great CMs!

I'm worried about my picture limit, so continued in next post...

 

[Li Li]

After our delicious waffle sandwich, we (okay, probably me) decided some shopping was in order. I wanted to see if they had any special shirts for the 24 hour event. I have to say that I was really underwhelmed by the design. The heroes v. villains thing looked more like a Halloween shirt rather than something for the 24 hour event. Meh. We entered the Emporium area, and I showed Nigel the new seating area for Casey's that opens into the shop. We saw some cute PJ pants for men, but none were in Nigel's size. Don't worry, spoiler alert: we find them later! We moved on.

We stopped and I looked/drooled over the Vera Bradley bags. So, I've been following the Disney Vera Bradley designs since I had bought a regular Vera Bradley bag a year ago to use for going to the parks. I told myself that I did not need a Disney one, since my bag was practically brand-new, still in good condition, and I just did not need to spend the money. How do you think that argument went over with myself? We shall see...

Moving down the street, we visited the candy shop. Although Nigel hates apples and I would never eat one by myself, I always think the designs they do with them are great.

Maleficent, obviously.

Orange bird! Tweet tweet.

We also tried to make a phone call.

I forget if it was the Dis or not, but Nigel had heard some podcast about where you could pick up the phone and hear a party call? Or something? Unfortunately, we didn't hear anything. But we did take a mirror selfie!

Oh, this was in the Hat Shop. I tried a pair of ears, but I was worried I would not really enjoy them for couple reasons. First, for my fair skin protection, I like to wear a baseball cap so I have sun protection. My thought was I would not get a lot of use out of them because I would probably end up just wearing my baseball hats, at least during the day. Second, I had read a friend's post where she felt the ears were too tight and gave her a headache. Even wearing them a minute or so, I could tell that they felt tight. So, I didn't go for any ears although it is a slight regret. Perhaps next trip?! I'll probably just talk myself out of it again.

So, we went back up Main Street, and we again somehow found ourselves in front of the Vera Bradley bag. Remember the argument about whether I needed the bag? Long story short (too late), I lost/won the argument.
I don't have a picture of me actually buying it, but here it is from today.

And, I got the 10% discount with my Disney Visa, woo hoo! Actually, the 10% off really did make me feel better about the purchase.

As you can see, I got the Where's Mickey pattern. They had that and the pink one, I forget what that's called since I'm not a fan. Oh, the other reason I talked myself into the bag is that I had already bought the Where's Mickey wallet/ID thing. I luckily snagged it when it was on the Disney store website for a hot minute. So, obviously, I needed the matching bag! And since, I only use my Vera Bradley bags for my Disney trips, well, I just needed a Disney themed one, right?! Nigel was supportive of my craziness and self-arguing.

So, I found my receipt and I purchased the bag at 7:59, so we were just about hitting dusk. And I guess I'm really talkative because I did not think going through the whole night would take that long. I've barely made it through 3 hours in just 2 updates! I have to go water the garden, so to be continued. I leave you with the castle. pixie dust:

 

[Li Li]

So, it was hitting dusk as we were walking up Main Street. We took a right and headed up the path into Tomorrowland. Not many pictures through this timeframe, so bear with me. For some reason that escapes me, we didn't really look at going on any rides in Tomorrowland.

I know we walked around and went into the Space Mountain dump shop cause why not? Checking out merch. We were once again aiming for the Big Top, and we love that almost secret path from Space Mountain over to the Barnstormer and Dumbo. Of course, the secret path is also home to a smoker's nook. As we passed the smokers, Nigel turns to me and says, "I think that was President of the DIS." I turned around, and it kinda looked like Corey, but I wasn't certain. As we were debating, who should walk right past us but Shaun Thompson of the DIS Unplugged and our new fav, the Universal edition. Eeek! We called his name and said we were big fans, and he was nice enough to stop and talk with us for a few minutes. It was really nice and definitely neat to meet one of the DisUnplugged hosts in person after watching them on the TV.

So, after our meet, we were feeling the need for some dessert! Off to the Big Top! Shopping and treats all under one circus tent!

More fancy apples

Here is one of the "special" cupcakes for the 24-hour event.

Again, maybe it is just me, but that design looks way more Halloween than anything else. And honestly, the cupcake did not look appetizing at all. That was a really bright orange color they made for the cake part.

Of course, we wondered around and then made our selections.

Of course, we were getting marshmallows on a Mickey straw; it's two in one! Both a delicious snack and a souvenir!! We had some from a previous trip and somehow melted/lost its Mickey shape in our dishwasher, so we needed a new one. And Olaf was just cute! Very tasty and very sugary! I highly recommend Big Top treats! Cute store and rarely is there a line for the dessert case.

With dessert taken care of, it was now time to head over for our final scheduled FP+ of the day, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I had scheduled this for ride for after dark because I personally feel the ride is ten times better in the dark than during the day. And I totally picked up that tip from someone's trip report here on this DIS, but I can't remember who! Thank you, random Dis'er for letting me know how awesome BTMRR is in the dark. And I really don't think we have a lot of pictures from this part.

Here's one from some point during the night.

Later on, I think there was a DJ on that balcony above the sign? Possibly? In any case, we went on BTMRR and as we were going up the hill some small fireworks went off by the castle, probably for Celebrate the Magic. But it was just so cool because the timing was just right for us to see the small burst and the castle right at the top of the hill.

After, we walked down to check the line for Splash. And, it was down. There was a group of people waiting for it to open back up, but we moved on. What sounds like a good idea? Walking all the way across the park, of course! I really can't remember why. I think we were checking out the line for 7DMT. I knew it was running because everyone on Twitter announced that it was definitely open and running for the 24 hour event despite not officially open until the 28th. Woo hoo.

As we were walking across through Liberty Square and then into Fantasyland, Wishes started. I always think it is a neat perspective to see Wishes from that "back" area if you will. But, in my opinion, I think the best view of the MK fireworks is when they are framed by the Castle. Just the classic view.

We didn't stop because we were on a mission. We found the entrance to 7DMT, but the real trick is finding the end of the line. We start following the line of people spilling out of the Mine Train entrance. We follow the line of people along the fence line, and keep following, and keep following. It went on forever!!! When we could see the Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland, I think we were like, nope! So, we finally saw a CM with a sign for the end of the line, and I think it was 120 minute wait. Not surprising, but we continued past. We had never been on the Tomorrowland Speedway, and since it was a ten minute wait, we jumped in line. While we were in line, we looked back and all of a sudden the amount of people in the queue had quadrupled! I think it was the after-Wishes crowd. It was at this point that I think the crowds were really at their worst. Lots of people had come for the fireworks and then started jumping on rides. Lots of wait times went up.

We jumped in a car together and were off!

I'm pretty sure this was our selfie from the Speedway. Nigel made me drive, and it felt like our car wasn't really fast. And the track was really dark in parts!

So, now we can say we've tried it. We exited the ride, and while walking through Tomorrowland, I saw the FP+ kiosks, so we went up to see what we could schedule. We ended up picking Pirates (cause you know, it was the exact opposite from where we were) and went off to Adventureland. This was around 10:15 because I was texting a friend from FB to see if we could meet up and that was when I sent a text saying we were heading to pirates.

We went straight to Pirates and I got a huge splash right next to me. Probably the wettest I got on that ride ever, lol. I remember I think we were pretty crowded in on the boat. No pics At least on my phone.

After the ride, the closest FP+ kiosk was at Jungle Cruise, and there are only like four or five kiosks compared to the banks of them over in Tomorrowland. And there was always a line at this kiosk station. So, we got to the kiosk and were able to book Jungle Cruise. Unfortunately, it was a little bit of a wait before the FP+ time, so what should we do? Perhaps we should meet some enchanted tiki birds for the first time?!

To be continued...

 

[Joben]

Soooo I guess I will subscribe again, and post again when I have time. But in the mean time I will say great trip report and I'll post a longer response when I'm not at work....oh who am I kidding, I'll post more in a bit when things are slow

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Hi Leah! I'm joining ... not sure how I missed this TR before today!

I only read the first couple of posts - sorry about the plane issues - especially for such a short trip that must have been super frustrating. The Tequila sounds like a good call but you lost me at Coors

I have no way of validating WDW room categories but I am right with you in wanting to feel like I got the upgrade I paid for. So even if a room fully met the criteria for said upgrade, if I didn't "feel" like it did I would have been kinda annoyed

Ok, will comment more when I finish more updates

 

[Li Li]

Soooo I guess I will subscribe again, and post again when I have time. But in the mean time I will say great trip report and I'll post a longer response when I'm not at work....oh who am I kidding, I'll post more in a bit when things are slow

Nice to see you! Thanks for joining in!

Hi Leah! I'm joining ... not sure how I missed this TR before today!

I only read the first couple of posts - sorry about the plane issues - especially for such a short trip that must have been super frustrating. The Tequila sounds like a good call but you lost me at Coors

I have no way of validating WDW room categories but I am right with you in wanting to feel like I got the upgrade I paid for. So even if a room fully met the criteria for said upgrade, if I didn't "feel" like it did I would have been kinda annoyed

Ok, will comment more when I finish more updates

Hi Phil! Haha, I know, Coors is not a first choice, but desperate times and all that!

 

[Li Li]

Hello all! I just wanted to pop in and say that I will hopefully get to my next post next weekend, but not this weekend because we are off to Vegas!

Wish me luck, longest plane ride in some time but at least it's direct. Although, Nigel and I both agreed that it feels weird to be going on a plane and not going to Disney!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[KelleyK75]

Just found your TR and subscribing now. That stinks about the plane delay. Your time in MK sounds fun so far. Love the Dumbo ride, and love the Olaf treat.

 

[Li Li]

Just found your TR and subscribing now. That stinks about the plane delay. Your time in MK sounds fun so far. Love the Dumbo ride, and love the Olaf treat.

Thanks for joining!

 

[Li Li]

So, we are back from Vegas! The flight actually wasn't too bad. We flew Southwest (our first time with them) and completely overpacked due to the free checked bags! But the flights went well with only a few patches of turbulence, nothing bad at all. Also, SW had free wifi on our flights with free live TV. So, I passed the time with the Food Network. And some cocktails, of course.

I would do a mini-TR, but what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?!

All in all, we had a great trip and now the countdown to Disney begins! Woo hoo!