Anniversary trip pandemic-style January 2021

[VandVsmama]

Got side tracked by weekend projects last weekend! While most of the county is dealing with the polar vortez (snow near the Gulf of Mexico! Crazy!), DH & I started planting stuff in some planter boxes on our back patio. DH also put up an outdoor ceiling fan on the covered part of the back patio so we'll be able to tolerate being there in the summer in the evenings when the blast furnace heat is here.

I also started on a spray paint mural project against part of the fence that's near our fire pit. There's bamboo planted on either side, so it'll look cool when it's all done. I already need to go buy some more Amazonas Green paint because it appears that I prefer that shade. LOL! Here's what it looks like so far...



When it's all done, I'll paint a tidy border on the left and right edges of the big mural. Yesterday, I also learned that nail polish remover is good at removing spray paint from your finger nails!

Back to our trip report!

Sunday 1/24 at MK:
According to the pics on my phone, we got in line for BTMRR at 8:52 am.


Oh check it out! There's another Disneyland-er like me, at WDW because DL is still closed! And as you can see, the CMs who are in jobs where they're closer to park guests wear face shields in addition to masks.

Some foliage that reminded us of home..


Mining equipment in the queue...


We see these sorts of plants in people's front yards in AZ all the time!


Always remember...don't bite the fuse caps with your teeth!


Getting closer to boarding our train!


DH's first impressions of WDW's BTMRR (his 1st time riding it here, only other times riding BTMRR have been at Disneyland):

• felt slower
• missed the dynamite & blasting caps part
• queue was cool
• "that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'd be willing to go on that again." SUCCESS!

Then we went next door...

 

[VandVsmama]

Wait. You may get wet?
DH: Did you bring ponchos?
me: No
DH: Why not?
me: I didn't think we'd need them.
DH: But what if we get wet?
me: We'll dry off. It'll be fine.
DH: If I get totally soaked, it's your fault.



This ride was basically a total walk on. The only "wait" was basically the amount of time it took to walk through the queue! We got put in a log all to ourselves and they placed us at the very back of it.

DH's assessment of Splash Mtn:

• "that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be"
• "I thought we'd get super wet"
• "I might be willing to go on that again with some convincing"

Another success! Now it was 9:36 am and we'd been on Peter Pan, Fast Choo Choo, and Splash Mtn! Here's what some of the wait times were then:


We both did a quick bathroom stop, then sat down on a bench nearby to eat some macadamia nuts & water that I'd brought with me. Asked DH what he wanted to go on next since I was just thrilled to be there and didn't really care WHAT we did next! He said, "What do the wait times look like on the app?" Here, honey, take a look...



The husband requested POTC, so we headed in that direction.

9:50 am - got in the POTC queue. DL's queue for this is a lot different. I enjoy both of them!


DH's assessment of MK's POTC:
- "that's it?"
- "it's way too short"
- "they should bring back the bride auction. Pirate Red is stupid."
- "there's no 2nd drop!"

Ok, so clearly DH doesn't care for POTC at WDW. Our family all TOTALLY prefers the DL one much more. But I'd rather have SOME POTC than none.

Where do you want to go next, DH? "Anything but Pirates again!" Ok, Jungle Cruise it is! We got in line at 10:30.



The wait for this was fine. But a lot of the socially distanced queue is in the sun. Need to remember that for our summer trip to WDW!

We got on our Jungle Cruise boat and thought of YDD, who totally loves this attraction because of the stupid jokes. And, of course, I had to take some pictures of plants...


This is something that Disney is really really good at...using plants to help stage the scene all over their parks and resorts. They're good at it at DL and at WDW.


It totally feels like you're far away...


The app said that the Jungle Cruise line was a 25 min wait. But we got in line at 10:30 and were off the ride at 10:54. Definitely happy campers!

 

[BusyFLmom]

Really enjoying your TR

 

[Paulaparm]

Your mural looks great!

 

[Isabelle12345]

following!

 

[VandVsmama]

Life has been busy this past week! ODD & YDD returned to school in person. ODD has a whole whopping 6 kids in her classes. YDD has 15, including herself. They've both said that it's way easier to learn in person than online.

My sister and I worked some more on the mural!



The mural will extend to where those pavers are stacked up. And there will be a border on either side (left and right sides). I need to get some painters tape so I can extend the color to the ground without painting the gravel.



Back to the trip report!

After Jungle Cruise, DH wanted to head over to Fantasyland. It kind of blew his mind that there's no Mr Toad's Wild Ride, no Pinocchio, and no Snow White's Scary Adventures! We went on HM next, though. At 11:02 am, it was basically a walk on! Crazy!

Neither of us had ever been on Winnie the Pooh at MK, so we decided to do that next!



Posted a 15 min wait and we got in the queue at 11:20. We waited probably 5-8 minutes. Not too bad! But I gotta say...I don't understand what everybody goes crazy over about this ride. We've been on Winnie the Pooh at DL...at DL, it's in Critter Country and even on a busy day, the wait is rarely above 20 min. I've often seen Winnie the Pooh wait times at MK at almost an hour in pre-COVID times! It's a fun ride. It's just not one I think I'd be willing to wait an hour for.

After Winnie the Pooh, I thought maybe we'd try for 7DMT, but the line looked to be 45 min, so we passed on that and instead went to Dumbo as a walk on! That was 11:42 according to the pics on my phone.



It's kind of nice how Dumbo at MK has 2 sections to it! After Dumbo, we were both a little hungry, so stopped for a snack break. DH & I shared a Mickey pretzel and some cinammon-sugar almonds. We had a good view of Tomorrowland Speedway while we relaxed.



I told DH that I REALLY wanted to go on the MK Autopia at some point on this trip! The last time I went on it, I was 5 or 6 years old and WDW only had MK...no Epcot yet!

After our snack, DH realized that he forgot to pack a hat and his head was getting a little hot, so we wandered over to Tomorrowland to see if we could find a decent one. DH opted for a Jungle Cruise Skipper hat and promised YDD to give it to her when we returned home since she's a huge Jungle Cruise fan. (side note: she LOVES the hat!)

Here's a quick view of what the walkway sort of near 7DMT looked like at noon:



I don't have pics of it, but after buying the hat, we went to Carousel of Progress next. That, too, was a walk on. We were having amazing luck today. Carousel of Progress was done at 12:42 and we decided to head out. DH was a little burned out and so was I.

The hub in front of the castle was as dead as a doornail, though!


We browsed and shopped for a bit in the Emporium on our way towards the exit and I found the Mickey & Minnie People Mover toy that I was looking for the night before at Epcot! Only $10 each for one 'car.' I bought these for myself. LOL. Yes, I bought myself a toy. This is now sitting on my desk at home. The doors on these cars even open! YAY!



At 1:15, we had just missed getting on a boat to Wilderness Lodge. DH really wanted to go back to the room for a few hours, but we were both hungry for lunch...lunch food at Pop wouldn't cut it for DH, so I asked him to just trust me on this so we could head to Geyser Point for lunch.

One might be wondering why the heck we were actually leaving the park when it was pretty dead, when some rides were walk on's, and lines weren't that long. Theme Park Fatigue. DH gets it every day we're in a theme park on a Disney trip. I've learned that I, too, benefit from some down time from all of the stimulation. So we left MK for lunch at WL!

 

[VandVsmama]

When we last left off, DH & I were headed out to Wilderness Lodge so we could try out Geyser Point. The ride over was lovely, so relaxing. We lucked out with an outdoor seat on the boat. When we got to Geyser Point, there was a bit of a wait. This is technically a QS restaurant, but it operates like TS (i.e., you have a server). So they don't take ADRs. We put our name in with the host and waited about 20-30 minutes...long enough for DH to take a nap sitting at an outdoor table nearby (not in the restaurant, though).

When we were seated, we both ordered a cocktail. I got this one - the Blueberry Lemonade. Very tasty!



DH ordered this one, which I think was the Bourbon Breeze. I don't care for the taste of bourbon, but this drink was pretty good as well.



This was the view right behind me. Isn't it great?!



And this was the view behind DH...


DH ordered the bison burger. He really enjoyed it. I tried a bite and thought it was definitely worth getting again if we go back there some day.


I had the salmon, which was good. If we go again to Geyser Point, I think I'll get that bison burger instead.


It was a nice leisurely lunch and we didn't feel rushed. The weather was just perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. We finished with lunch at 3:00. DH then started talking about "going back to the room," but I convinced him otherwise since park hours were reduced and were not the 8:00 am - 11:00 pm hours that we're used to all the time at Disneyland.

I wanted to explore WL a little bit. DH was NOT interested. But I parked him in 1 of those really tall comfy chairs sort of near Whispering Canyon while I went to go investigate things.



The totem poles in this lobby are really impressive.


I went to browse in the gift shop. There wasn't anything really exciting for sale there...a lot of the same WDW merchandise that I'd seen in other shops. I also took a 10 minute nap sitting in those tall red chairs in the lobby.

Up next...more Wilderness Lodge photos along with where we went next!

 

[VandVsmama]

After my lovely siesta, I took a few more photos. When you stand right next to one of these and you look up, it's easy to feel so small!



The lobby also has these amazing Native American headdresses. This photo doesn't properly capture how wonderful this one is.


Here's a side view of the same one...



Each headdress display also had a placard which explained a little bit about what you were looking at.


This one was equally impressive!



Look at how TALL it is!



This is what the display said about that headdress:


You know what? I'd really love to stay at Wilderness Lodge some day. I could see myself being happy owning DVC there. It's close to MK, but feels far away. The lobbies of WL and AKL are equally impressive (we stayed at AKL for 1 night on our trip before this one), but also very different. Both make you sort of stop and say "Oh wow!"

After my browsing and napping and photo taking was all done, DH declared that he wanted to go DO something. In other words, "Hey, are we going to just sit here in the lobby all day?" Oh, ok honey, are you saying that you want to go on a ride now? Yes, that's exactly what he was saying. LOL!

It was now 3:45. I convinced him to go to Animal Kingdom. Why? Because he wanted to ride FOP at some point on the trip and, well, there was a bus stop right there at WL, so why not?


We only had to wait 4 minutes because at 3:49, we were on the bus! And the ONLY guests on the bus, too!

 

[Bama Mom]

You know what? I'd really love to stay at Wilderness Lodge some day. I could see myself being happy owning DVC there. It's close to MK, but feels far away. The lobbies of WL and AKL are equally impressive (we stayed at AKL for 1 night on our trip before this one), but also very different. Both make you sort of stop and say "Oh wow!"

My hubby and I stayed at WL in August 2019 for our 25th anniversary trip (it was one of the resorts on my "stay here someday list") and I loved it as much as I thought I would. Next on that list are AKL and GF.

 

[VandVsmama]

Well, we had a pretty short bus ride...we pulled up to AK at 4:05 pm! DH was pretty grumpy, tired, and wanted some coffee, so we stopped at Starbucks in AK to get him some caffeinated refreshment and chilled out for awhile.

At some point, I took this pic:


It really feels like you're a world away, doesn't it?

It wasn't too crowded...


And the Tree of Life looked pretty great...


Since I'm a plant person and I love bamboo, I had to take this picture of the bamboo next to where we sat and relaxed while DH had some coffee...


And this one, too...


And here's another random pic for you...


One more...


I really wanted to try to get on the safari before the park closed, but let DH decide what to do first. He opted for...


Flight of Passage!

We got in the queue at 4:50 pm and by 5:01 pm, we were getting on the ride. Were done and getting off the ride at 5:15. 10 minute wait is pretty darn great!

After that, we had a bathroom break and DH wanted to go on it again, so we walked back to the queue and rode it a 2nd time! Hardly any wait that time, too!

 

[rdkeim]

Really enjoying your TR! My DH and I were there for 6 days in March. I think it was a bit more crowded than what you experienced but not bad at all. I was just so happy to be there!

 

[Hubie]

So....we decided to get in line for Frozen. Neither of us had been on this before. The end of the queue was outside, but the weather was nice (not hot!). It wrapped around the outside of what I think is Akershus.

View attachment 554195

And this was the practically empty walkway before we got in the queue... Where did everybody go? They were all getting margaritas in Mexico!
View attachment 554196

I really love this replica of that famous wooden church in Norway...
View attachment 554197

Oh! I spoke too soon. Some people showed up...haha!
View attachment 554198

We spent about 5 min in the outside portion of the queue before heading into the building...
View attachment 554199

Really enjoy your pictures, especially of the art.

 

[Hubie]

Life has been busy this past week! ODD & YDD returned to school in person. ODD has a whole whopping 6 kids in her classes. YDD has 15, including herself. They've both said that it's way easier to learn in person than online.

My sister and I worked some more on the mural!

View attachment 558186

The mural will extend to where those pavers are stacked up. And there will be a border on either side (left and right sides). I need to get some painters tape so I can extend the color to the ground without painting the gravel.

View attachment 558188

Back to the trip report!

After Jungle Cruise, DH wanted to head over to Fantasyland. It kind of blew his mind that there's no Mr Toad's Wild Ride, no Pinocchio, and no Snow White's Scary Adventures! We went on HM next, though. At 11:02 am, it was basically a walk on! Crazy!

Neither of us had ever been on Winnie the Pooh at MK, so we decided to do that next!

View attachment 558192

Posted a 15 min wait and we got in the queue at 11:20. We waited probably 5-8 minutes. Not too bad! But I gotta say...I don't understand what everybody goes crazy over about this ride. We've been on Winnie the Pooh at DL...at DL, it's in Critter Country and even on a busy day, the wait is rarely above 20 min. I've often seen Winnie the Pooh wait times at MK at almost an hour in pre-COVID times! It's a fun ride. It's just not one I think I'd be willing to wait an hour for.

After Winnie the Pooh, I thought maybe we'd try for 7DMT, but the line looked to be 45 min, so we passed on that and instead went to Dumbo as a walk on! That was 11:42 according to the pics on my phone.

View attachment 558198

It's kind of nice how Dumbo at MK has 2 sections to it! After Dumbo, we were both a little hungry, so stopped for a snack break. DH & I shared a Mickey pretzel and some cinammon-sugar almonds. We had a good view of Tomorrowland Speedway while we relaxed.

View attachment 558201

I told DH that I REALLY wanted to go on the MK Autopia at some point on this trip! The last time I went on it, I was 5 or 6 years old and WDW only had MK...no Epcot yet!

After our snack, DH realized that he forgot to pack a hat and his head was getting a little hot, so we wandered over to Tomorrowland to see if we could find a decent one. DH opted for a Jungle Cruise Skipper hat and promised YDD to give it to her when we returned home since she's a huge Jungle Cruise fan. (side note: she LOVES the hat!)

Here's a quick view of what the walkway sort of near 7DMT looked like at noon:

View attachment 558205

I don't have pics of it, but after buying the hat, we went to Carousel of Progress next. That, too, was a walk on. We were having amazing luck today. Carousel of Progress was done at 12:42 and we decided to head out. DH was a little burned out and so was I.

The hub in front of the castle was as dead as a doornail, though!
View attachment 558206

We browsed and shopped for a bit in the Emporium on our way towards the exit and I found the Mickey & Minnie People Mover toy that I was looking for the night before at Epcot! Only $10 each for one 'car.' I bought these for myself. LOL. Yes, I bought myself a toy. This is now sitting on my desk at home. The doors on these cars even open! YAY!

View attachment 558207

At 1:15, we had just missed getting on a boat to Wilderness Lodge. DH really wanted to go back to the room for a few hours, but we were both hungry for lunch...lunch food at Pop wouldn't cut it for DH, so I asked him to just trust me on this so we could head to Geyser Point for lunch.

One might be wondering why the heck we were actually leaving the park when it was pretty dead, when some rides were walk on's, and lines weren't that long. Theme Park Fatigue. DH gets it every day we're in a theme park on a Disney trip. I've learned that I, too, benefit from some down time from all of the stimulation. So we left MK for lunch at WL!

Your mural really looks neat.

 

[Hubie]

FOP is the best ride in Florida!

 

[VandVsmama]

FOP is the best ride in Florida!

We LOVE FOP!

 

[VandVsmama]

We're still at Sunday, 1/24, and still at AK.

After FOP, I wanted to try riding on Expedition Everest, which had practically no wait at all so we hoofed it all the way to the other side of the park. And then DH saw that roller coaster and said, "No way." So we passed on that. I still haven't ridden on that yet. Maybe on a future trip!

By the way...here's what the inside of the buses look like right now and how they're partitioned up.


And...even better...between some of the seats are USB ports! So you could charge your phone or other device. Pretty cool!


Alrighty, back to AK...
We decided to go on Dinosaur instead!


The line was practically non-existent. 10 min wait. There was this adorable family in front of us with 2 boys who chickened out at the last minute. One of their boys was shaking because he was so scared! Poor kiddo!

We enjoyed Dinosaur, but prefer Indiana Jones at DL. Same ride vehicles and it's the same ride technology, we just prefer the IJ theming instead.

After Dinosaur, it was time to head out. We got into the queue at 5:50 pm and were off the ride at 6:10. Walked very slowly to the AK exit and got in the line for a bus to CR at 6:24 pm. I think our ADR at The Wave was for 7:30 pm. We waited a good 30 minutes for a bus to arrive to CR. Buses drove past for EVERY other resort though! I was glad that I'd allotted enough time for us to get to CR though.

We check in to The Wave at 7:10 pm and had a few minutes to hang out. Here's a pic of I can't remember which floor of the Contemporary...


And that amazing multi-story tile mural done by Mary Blair...


Some day we'll spend the night here! That's a bucket list thing for sure.


Decided to hit up the Fantasia Gift Shop after dinner...


And then I got the text alert from WDW that our table was ready! It also comes through as a push alert through the WDW app on your phone. I love the entrance to this restaurant.

 

[VandVsmama]

January 24 (continued):

We walked past this lounge area on the way to our table...does this look cool?


We ordered those famous bacon & eggs appetizer that gets talked about so much on the Dis Unplugged shows. Here's what it looks like when it comes out...


My favorite part of this was the bacon. As for the rest of it, I could have passed. I learned that I'm not a fan of grits. And that I really don't like poached eggs. It's the texture that I don't care for. DH was sort of "meh" about it, too. I'm glad we tried it, but it's not something we'll be getting again.

HOWEVER, if you like poached eggs and grits, then you absolutely should get this dish. It's very rich and filling. I think next time, I'll try the crab cakes appetizer instead.

DH ordered this chicken curry soup appetizer. We both enjoyed this way more than the bacon & eggs. I'd definitely get this next time!


Ryan was our server and he was amazing. So much personality, knew the menu very well, recommended some good cocktails to try. You could tell that he loves his job. And he was over the moon thrilled to be working at WDW.

For main courses, DH ordered the grilled beef tenderloin, which comes with potato gratin and 'seasonal vegetables.' We both liked this a lot. Normally, neither of us care much for asparagus, but this asparagus was really good.


I ordered the pork tenderloin, which comes with smoked cheddar grits, a coffee-BBQ sauce, and roasted broccolini. The grits? Didn't care for those, but they were better than the bacon & eggs ones. the coffee-BBQ sauce was...different. The pork tenderloin was cooked really well. Next time, I'd get the beef tenderloin instead. This dish wasn't bad at all. It just had flavors that I learned that I don't care for quite as much.


I did order a dessert, but I can't remember which one it was and it wasn't creme brulee. Dinner was really good. The tables were well spaced apart from each other. The restaurant was definitely busy, but you didn't feel squished or crowded at all. We both ordered cocktails, too, but I forgot to take pictures of those and can't remember what we ordered!

DH gave this restaurant a big thumbs up. I liked it, too. We have an ADR for here for our June family trip!

 

[VandVsmama]

After dinner, we browsed through the CR gift shop and bought these 2 pins. Mr Toad's Wild Ride is 1 of DH's favorite rides. We laughed at how we've never seen this pin at DL but here it was at WDW in Florida instead. We always end up getting 1 pin per person to commemorate/remember the trip.



By now, it was about 9:15 pm and the monorail stopped running to the TTC, so taking a bus from MK to Pop Century was not possible. Free transportation option involved taking a bus from CR to Disney Springs, then transferring to a bus to Pop Century.

DH said, "Forget that. Let's take a Lyft." Which we did. waited <5 min and we were on our way back to Pop Century! All masked up, of course, including the driver. And we used hand sanitizer before getting into the car (which the driver appreciated). By ~ 9:30-9:35 pm, we were back at Pop Century and pretty darn tired!

It was a great day! Long day, but so worth it and a lot of fun. Very relaxing. DH had a great time. We went to bed early...I think we turned out the lights at 10 pm! The next day was going to be a HS day.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

some time after that, somewhere, I took this pic, but I don't remember exactly where we were when I took it. LOL!
View attachment 554202

I am fairly certain this was taken in front of the China Pavilion. Walking from Norway to Germany, you took this just before crossing the bridge. It's a drawbridge; it opens up so they could bring the Illuminations globe into the lagoon each night.


Also, now I want that Peoplemover toy!

It looks like your trip is really relaxing and enjoyable. I agree that the foliage and other details really can transport you to the location the Imagineers intended.

 

[VandVsmama]

After getting some shopping in, we decided to take a Lyft from CR back to Pop. That was quick & easy and we arrived back at Pop in just a few minutes instead of taking a bus from CR to DS and then DS to Pop. Stopped off at the food court to get a drink with our refillable drink mugs and then went back to the room to crash!

Monday 1/25:
Hollywood Studios day! I was too excited to sleep and woke up REALLY early...like 5:30 am, if memory serves me correctly. Took a shower, got dressed, and checked the room wifi download/upload speeds, which were 26 download & 22 upload. Cell phone service was only 1 bar in the room. Boo!

...And then decided to go outside in order to find a decent cell signal. So I went outside (DH still sleeping!) and started walking around (so did some other people, not a lot, just a few, but we were all doing the same thing). Had better luck outside with 2 bars on LTE. Turned off wifi, bluetooth, and Location Services with the goal of getting a BG for ROTR!

We got...


Boarding group 21! YAHOO!

After that, I placed a mobile order for breakfast. Basically same order as the day before, with a pick up window of 7:15-7:45 am. High temp this day was going to be 82!

Went back to the room and told DH the good news...well, I woke him up and THEN told him the good news. Made him get up and at 'em, shower, and then we went over to the Pop food court to pick up our breakfast.

At 8:30 am, we were on the Skyliner. Got to the transfer station and I was VERY grumpy to see such a long line with everybody also waiting to get on the HS line...


DH got a Joffrey's coffee while we waited. He's not a fan of Joffrey's coffee, but it does the job when you need a piping hot caffeinated beverage. At 8:56 am, we were on the Skyliner line to HS.

Here's what it looked like wrapped around...


View of Caribbean Beach Resort while waiting to get on the HS line...


Another Skyliner pic:


I noticed that when we started to pass over the HS parking lot, they hadn't yet opened up the toll plaza to cars! At 9:03 am, we were in the park! First time ever at HS.


First impressions:
Reminds me of DCA's Buena Vista Street.
It's like a more sanitary and not stinky version of Hollywood without all of the homeless people and drug addicts hanging around on every street corner and in every crevice.

Up next...our first HS ride!