Well after a long two week break from posting here, we're back! Gloomy and super rainy day in Vermont, so maybe a few posts can go up today.
When we parted ways Deb was going to meet some friends and Disboard members, and M was going to meet a new friend as well. If you can't tell from the girl's hair the humidity level went up to a 10!
They made their way over to BTMRR, but ran into exactly the same problem D and I ran into...... The Phantom Thunderstorm.
They decided to wait it out, and once the roller coaster was rolling again they jumped on!
They were really there to hang out with each other, get Dole Whips and get a great spot for Happily Ever After. When it started they were ready to go!
Looks like some popcorn may have made its way into their group too. All set up they grabbed some great pictures of the show.
Then it was time to fight the crowds. not ready to call it a night they made their way over to Tomorrowland for a couple bonus rides. They started with the People Mover.....
Then they made it on Buzz Lightyear (I think) before closing. the trick was getting in line before closing, but not a line that was too long because they had to make it to the boats back to Wilderness Lodge.
After a successful evening they grabbed a couple candids in front of the castle.
M and Deb made their way back to WL via the boat and then to the room. Feeling accomplished they were quickly asleep and Monday would bring the arrival of Auntie, so this trip could take it up another notch!
The morning came pretty quickly and we had a busy day planned! Actually without Fastpasses it was more of a loose plan with an ADR in EPCOT. First things first, we were up at 7:30 to get and early start. I had to meet the stroller company to get D a stroller for the next couple days. Tuesday we had a lot of walking planned, and even though he'd been ok walking for a couple days, we didn't want to push it too much.
We grabbed a quick breakfast, the same as yesterdays. Then it was off to MK, the scheduled opening was for 9am.
Sky was looking ok, maybe a storm later.....
Or soon, but there was a little rainbow over the Grand Floridian. Once we arrived at MK we realized they opened early, about 8am. So we were a little late, but it was still really empty. We made our way back to BTMRR for our first ride of the day.
It was still walk on, and we were off! M sat with Deb and D sat with me! We had much better luck on this ride than we did on Everest.
Already nice and hot and I was sweating. After a wild ride through the wilderness, we made our way to Haunted Mansion. Posted as a 15 minute wait, we made it to the stretching room in 7 minutes at right about 9:30.
Snagged ourselves some hitch hiking ghosts on the way out.
We noticed again, that this ride stopped a few times while we were on it. When Deb and I were riding in April the same thing happened, the buggy stopped like 4 or 5 times each time we rode.
We unloaded and Deb needed a picture of herself in front of her favorite ride....
Next it was time to see if we could beat the crowds to another line. Peter Pan was close and posted as a 40 minute wait. Good enough, we jumped in line.
Right at about that sign and it was only a 25 minute wait. Soon we were on our way to Neverland!
Out of room here, come back and see if we make it to the pool today!
Welcome back, it's been a while, and we've been a busy bunch! Now with a week off for Thanksgiving I hope to get through a few days of this report, because well, there's a lot of trip left to go.
Leaving off we were getting in line for Peter Pan with a 40 minute wait. The line moved right along and we got a picture with everybody's favorite character Nana.
We made it through the line in 25 minutes, flew over Neverland, laughed at Tick Tock Croc, and then were ready for our next ride! We jumped right into Philarmagic, then tackled the teapots, all before 11 o'clock. We also must have stopped at Memento Mori because I've got these pictures.
And when you're super proud you match the wallpaper!
With a lot done already and my sister landing soon we asked the kids what they wanted to do knowing we'd have to head back to WL at some point.
If you've read any of this report you can guess what their answer was...... THE POOL! Well clear skies, some time to kill, temperature rising.. PERFECT! We headed on out of the park and saw the band coming down Main Street on the way.
Good to see some sort of parade was back! Even a small one. Either way we jumped on the boat, got up to our room, changed, and went to the kids favorite place ever...
The Splash Pad!
Words can't express the joy and the fun being had..... for about 8 minutes. Then the whistles blew and the the fun was over. Storm was apparently somewhere close enough by that they had to shut it all down.
"Can we go back in the pool?"
"Sorry kid not today, phantom thunderstorm #2 is here"
Well we grabbed some lunch, just the typical burgers and stuff then changed back to park clothes. We wasted some time relaxing in the room and then the good news was Auntie was here! and got here big hugs from the kids in the lobby. So she grabbed some lunch changed and we were ready to go!
We left the resort around 3 grabbed our bus and were in EPCOT in no time.
We had an ADR at Via Napoli (which is my favorite!) for around 6pm. With plenty of time to kill and my sister not having been in a few years there was some great stuff to do.
We started with.....
Soarin! Also with Auntie here our parenting duties were also officially on vacation!
Pretty terrible picture, but you get the point, I was now just along for the ride. Let's see how the ride goes next!
When we got in line for Soarin it was posted as a 30 minute wait which was inflated as usual, and we waited only 17.
We were lucky and got seated in B1 without a request. Phew, no leaning tower, or crooked mountains.
Safely up then back on the ground it was straight over to Living With the Land.
Less than a 10 minute wait and a nice peaceful boat ride.
I was all of a sudden super hungry and needed a pick me up, and the kids wanted a snack. Limited options on that side of the park so we grabbed a pretzel and I got a Frozen Coke. I was pretty skeptical but actually, it was really good and gave me the caffeine and sugar boost I needed.
With no wait time really posted for Figment we headed that way and bumped into Winnie the Pooh (from a distance) on the way. Gave us some time to finish our snacks and grab a picture, sort of.
Still Auntie was parenting for us....
Deb and I had a whole row to ourselves. Once we got off we decided to head to the World Showcase and take our time getting to Italy.
Food and Wine was in half swing so we had to get some picture of that i guess.
We stopped off in Mexico so that we could ride the ride and Deb met one of her Dis friends from the night before!
After our boat ride it was time to head to Italy for dinner. We arrived at our destination soon after and checked right in.
In consistent fashion we got the first table right inside the door and next to a bussing station, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
So start we got some drinks, I stuck with beer and Deb got her favorite drink, which I can't see on the menu right now so I'm not sure what it's called.
My sister got Sangria, and the drinks were enjoyed by all!
We also started with the Mozzarella Caprese- fior di latte mozzarella, vine ripened tomato, basil.
Welcome back, it's been a while, and we've been a busy bunch! Now with a week off for Thanksgiving I hope to get through a few days of this report, because well, there's a lot of trip left to go.
Leaving off we were getting in line for Peter Pan with a 40 minute wait. The line moved right along and we got a picture with everybody's favorite character Nana.
We made it through the line in 25 minutes, flew over Neverland, laughed at Tick Tock Croc, and then were ready for our next ride! We jumped right into Philarmagic, then tackled the teapots, all before 11 o'clock. We also must have stopped at Memento Mori because I've got these pictures.
With a lot done already and my sister landing soon we asked the kids what they wanted to do knowing we'd have to head back to WL at some point.
If you've read any of this report you can guess what their answer was...... THE POOL! Well clear skies, some time to kill, temperature rising.. PERFECT! We headed on out of the park and saw the band coming down Main Street on the way.
Good to see some sort of parade was back! Even a small one. Either way we jumped on the boat, got up to our room, changed, and went to the kids favorite place ever...
Words can't express the joy and the fun being had..... for about 8 minutes. Then the whistles blew and the the fun was over. Storm was apparently somewhere close enough by that they had to shut it all down.
"Can we go back in the pool?"
"Sorry kid not today, phantom thunderstorm #2 is here"
Well we grabbed some lunch, just the typical burgers and stuff then changed back to park clothes. We wasted some time relaxing in the room and then the good news was Auntie was here! and got here big hugs from the kids in the lobby. So she grabbed some lunch changed and we were ready to go!
We had an ADR at Via Napoli (which is my favorite!) for around 6pm. With plenty of time to kill and my sister not having been in a few years there was some great stuff to do.
That was us on our universal portion of our September trip. Both days we were in five minutes and had to get out. Never happened when we were at Boardwalk.
I also have that matching wallpaper shirt. I always get so many compliments on it.
Welcome back, I have not been as nearly productive this vacation as I hoped, but moving on I'll finish off Monday at the very least, still leaving 6 more days of this trip.....
After we finished eating we really didn't have any plans, so we decided to wander over to the Ratatouille and take a look around. Cute area, now it's open though so these pictures aren't nearly as exciting.
I'll just post one. From there we couldn't decide what to do, stay in EPCOT, go somewhere else, go back to the hotel?
Since Auntie hadn't seen Galaxies Edge yet we though that a trip to HS was our best option, even though it closed at 9. She also hadn't been on the Sky Liner yet and was excited to take that. Deb decided she didn't want to go on the Sky Liner and insisted that walking was faster anyway. I disagreed and a bet was made to see who would arrive first.
We jumped on the Sky Liner with M and Deb took D in the stroller. It was a tight race and came down to the end. Deb swears she walked at a leisurely pace the whole way, but I managed to find a picture of her during her journey......
As you can see she made excellent time and texted me she was at the Sky Liner exit as we were flying over the parking lot. So pretty much a tie because according to D, she ran.... a lot. We also had to wait for a transfer at Caribbean Beach, which held us up a few minutes.
We made our way right into HS and back to Andy's Backyard, another area Auntie hadn't seen yet either. The wait for Slinky Dog was over an hour so we just hopped into Toy Story Mania, and I cleaned house on my kid.
We grabbed a picture on the way out and made our way to Galaxies Edge!
Since it was closer we went in the back way and ran right into this guy,
Auntie was thoroughly impressed with all of the stuff, but it was getting late and hours at HS were still short so we jumped in line for Smuggler's Run. It was posted as a 25 minute wait and that was pretty spot on. This was the first time I got to see the whole pre-show for it, and the ride made a little more sense.
Deb and Auntie flew, D and M were gunners and I was the engineer. We did ok, with some practice we could have been a great crew.
When we got off the park was pretty empty and we got some good pics of the Falcon.
We slowly made our way towards the exit enjoying the sights of a sort of empty park. We had to take our time, Deb's legs were tired from her speed walk over from EPCOT.
We made it to the bus stop about 9:40 and were back in our room about 10. Kids were exhausted and fell right asleep.
Come back soon for a big day on Tuesday with... NO LINES, see how we pulled it off!
Happy Weekend! Given my recent pattern I'm a whole day early with my update. Maybe I'll get a few posts done today and tomorrow, or maybe that's wishful thinking!
Chapter 4-
Can I Get Some Sun..... Not Today
We got up pretty early and with good reason; today was a Very Important day for Very Important people. With big plans that were a surprise for Auntie, (the kids kind of had an idea for what we had in store), we had no problem getting up and going. We grabbed a to go order from downstairs for breakfast. The same breakfast we had everyday this week. Deb's friends were at our hotel room nice and early to get ready for the day, hair was getting done and shirts were shared for what they were calling the Best Day Ever!
Picture was taken a little later but we were lucky enough to have a VIP Tour booked with our friends for the day! We called Auntie to have her join us and tell her the big news and there were smiles all around. Only problem was the weather, it was pouring and we checked the forecast...
The radar wasn't looking much better....
When I simulated the future forecast that swath of rain moved directly across the Orlando area.
Oh well it was time for problem solving mode in the gift shop, and about $60.00 later our unprepared selves were ready for anything with 2 ponchos and 2 Disney umbrellas. Our tour was set for 10am so we wanted to get to MK by 9:15.
Off we went on our boat!
The amazing news was that the rain had slowed to a little drizzle, but we took everything with us, just in case. I knew that if I spent the money and stayed prepared the rain would stop. We also got a stroller the other day specifically for this day so that D would not have to walk for the entire day as we were planning on getting a lot in.
We got to MK on time and the rain was still holding off. Our guide Stephen was waiting for us at the Town Hall and we were off for a 7 hour VIP Tour. He also brought an umbrella to keep the rain away.
The way this worked was he asked us what we wanted to do for the day and then suggested a route and order of the parks. We had a list of the rides we wanted to hit in each park, and had decided that we would maximize our time in MK, and HS. We only wanted to do 2 rides at AK, and to leave EPCOT off the plans.
Let's see if we could get everything done!
First up was Pirates which we were on at 10:15. Some of the rides we used the FP lane and a some of the rides were were able to go through backstage or the ride exit. Pirates was a back stage entrance so there was no line to wait in. Stephen was nice enough to push the stroller!
Next we were off to Splash Mountain in the FP line and on at 10:28 and it was Selfie Time!
Then down the drop, off the ride, and straight over to BTMRR! My favorite!
This was another FP entrance and we were on the ride at 10:53.
Up the three lift hills and hands were all in the air!
I got to ride in the back with Stephen for this one, he was able to talk about the ride and VIP tours and stuff. Once we unloaded we were off to Haunted Mansion, where we went in the exit, missed the stretching room, and were on the ride at 11:15.
The sun was now shining (unbelievably) and the humidity was picking up. From there it was over to Peter Pan, D had taken a liking to Stephen and insisted on holding his hand when we were walking (that was fast!).
At Peter Pan at 11:30, this was another ride where we went in the exit.
Then we were heading over to Seven Dwarves Mine Train where we had to use the Fast Pass line, so it wasn't as quick getting on. I have written down that we were on at 11:52.
After a quick ride we were off to our next adventure and our last planned ride in MK, Space Mountain. Stephen also offered us snacks and water after he got us on the ride. When we got over to SM, it was closed. Nice thing about having a guide is he found out for us how long it would be closed for. Instead of the stock answer they told us no sooner than 90 minutes. So we obviously decided to skip it and make our way to our next stop. We got the kids to use the bathrooms by Tomorrow Land Terrace and Stephen got us water and an assortment of Mickey Bars, Mickey Sandwiches, or Olaf Bars. They hit the spot, but we had to eat them before we got in the van.
Here's a Tomorrowland picture, and some Mickey Bar eating!
They were melting fast! But at least they weren't wet with rain!
We exited the park behind Main Street where there were a bunch of vans waiting. While we were eating, Stephen got the van air conditioner going. He was telling us they used to let parties eat in the vans, but they no longer could with the mask policies. This helped out the guides because they were generally tasked with cleaning the vans at the end of each tour. You can imagine the messes left behind from kids eating in the vans....
We took the back way over to Animal Kingdom, and since it was all backstage we couldn't take pictures. We passed the sewage treatment facility, which was a treat, and also drove through all of the areas where Disney grows all of the food for the animals. Miles of crops and fruit trees etc.... really cool stuff to see that most people normally don't get to look at. We went in the back way to AK and parked behind Pandora.
We only had 2 rides to hit here, Expedition Everest and Flight of Passage. Not the best way to do this park because Everest is a long walk, and there is no where to park the stroller. Stephen told us he tries to dissuade most people from Everest because of the long walk, but everybody wanted to ride so off we went.
After our debacle a few days ago Everest was running. Stephen told us he had a tour the day before ours and it was down almost the entire day, so something was definitely up with the ride, he said it was probably some sort of sensor problem.
Since D and M decided they hated the ride so much last time, they insisted on going on again. IDK, can't figure those clowns out. We had left MK at 12:24 and were on Everest at 1:00!
Since there was no place to park the stroller I was stuck not riding, and keeping my eye on things. They used the Fastpass line so it was was few minute wait to get on. That left me with my hidden talent of people watching (I'm a behavior analyst, all I do is pbserve human behavior). Here I got to see this guy wearing a brand new PAIR OF CLEATS!
I can't think of more uncomfortable shoe apparel for concrete walkways on a 90 degree day, but maybe it's all he had. I myself have forgotten things like shoes at important times as well. Or maybe this is how he broke them in.....
Once they were all off Everest it was back to Pandora and on to Flight of Passage which we got on about 1:30.
After we got done with our trip around Pandora we had a quick bathroom stop and I think we got more water. It was time to leave AK.
Back into the van we were on our way to HS for the last part of our tour. We parked behind Tower of Terror and got to see some props and set pieces out back. They were moving parts of the Indiana Jones show out of HS on trucks, which Stephen said was usually a sign the show was getting closed down for good. But it's coming back this month so now we can't figure out what they were doing.
Not everybody wanted to go on TOT so I stayed off with M and some of the other kids. Apparently D is now a thrill ride junky and insisted he go on. I got another opportunity to people watch and spotted an illegal "stroller."
We got some donuts and cool drinks while we waited.
They got on TOT at 2:20 then over to Rocking Rollercoaster right after. Once everybody was off we headed straight to Mickey and Minnies Runaway Railway.
When Deb and I went on in April there was no preshow, but this time it was running. The ride made way more sense with the preshow.
We also found some hidden Mickeys!
We got on the ride at 3:00 after going in the Fastpass line which was actually a fairly long wait, but we were doing fine with time and would finish everything we had planned.
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