Disney in a Time of Covid-A Different, But Wonderful Trip! (updated 8/4/22 x2)

[Clarf]

Reading this I'm thinking "What's the big deal about Wawa?", but that's because I live in the Philly suburbs and they're everywhere. I had no idea they made their way to Florida!

To us, The Goldbergs is like a scrapbook of our youth. The level of detail they put into the show that people who don't live in the area are aware of is astonishing. Many of the places they are in are still there, but just vastly different. Seeing that they recreated how all of these places looked in the late 80's, and to the level of detail they went to achieve that has me always checking out everything else in the background while watching the show. For example, the old Wawa logo was multicolored and has been gone for 25 years. It's in the show. The "Old York Road" hockey jersey is legit too. So is the rink. I know, I played against them in high school in that same rink. Barry's Flyers t-shirt is the exact one I wore as a kid. The posters on his bedroom wall are the same ones I had. Seeing all of it made me think maybe I can still buy them. Not a chance. They must have made or scoured the earth to find them just for the show.

Anyway, saw your post when looking for trip reports as we're still wavering about a Jan 3 trip. Yeah, I know. Less than 2 weeks away and we're still unsure. If we do go though, our drive to the airport takes us through Jenkintown (which is 10 min from me). I'll be sure to tell the JTP you guys said hi.

Wow, this is so cool! I bet it's like re-living your youth watching that show! I love that they're so attentive to details, even if not everyone would get them. The fact that you do and you live there is fantastic! It's January 3rd today. I hope you went on your trip! You'll have a great time if you go and you'll feel very safe.

Hi! Glad to see you have continued this TR! I have been enjoying all your adventures. We are back from our trip and I am already starting to plan for our next one. I hope you are having a happy holiday season and that Santa was good to you!

Definitely continuing, even if slowly. We did have a nice holiday! Hope you did as well! I'm glad you had a great trip. We're always planning for our next one, even if we don't know exactly when it will be. Probably September or November of 2022. More coming now.

 

[Clarf]

Okay, so we headed over to meet Toni and C at Big Thunder. But we had to stop for a Splash photo first. Maura insisted since it would be changing.



Like I mentioned, the line for BTMRR was a walk on, so we walked on. Someone (I think Lucy) was able to grab this picture while we walked.



And a couple from the outside because it makes for nice pictures.



This was after we rode, and there was a short line by now, but you can see how people were spaced apart. They had markings on the ground throughout the whole ride that extended well out of the beginning of the cue telling people to stand here. They were all placed 6 feet apart. Most guests were very good about following them. The lines often looked longer than they really were because they were so much more spaced out.



We checked the Disney app, and saw that Peter Pan had a wait time of just 10 minutes!!! WHAT? 10 MINUTES? I have never, in all the times I've been to WDW, seen the wait for Peter Pan's Flight that short. This is one ride we don't go on unless we have FP+. Since we couldn't have that this trip, we figured we wouldn't get on it, but how wrong we were! Of course we headed over there right away. We did of course get side tracked a little. We can't pass up the stocks in Liberty Square without getting a picture taken.



Or 2.



And then we finally saw our first PP and they were in front of Haunted Mansion, which is my favorite ride, so we had to stop for some photos there. Please enjoy while I regale you with an inappropriate number of PP.







Please note that the damp spots you see on my shirt are from Splash Mountain and not sweat. You'll be graced with some of that later in this TR.

Let's get a little magic in there.



Then we got some with just the kids. Toni wouldn't be in any. Party pooper.





Some more magic.



Well, that's enough of that nonsense. Let's get to Peter Pan's Flight. We walked the short distance to Fantasyland from Liberty Square and got in line. The wait was still posted at just 10 minutes. You'll see again it LOOKS like a long line, but it kept moving and wasn't really that long at all. People were just spaced out.



You can see there wasn't much of a line for IASW either, across the way.



Jason, Lucy, and I all started snapping pictures right away. We couldn't remember the last time we waited in the standby line for PPF. Certainly not since they re-did the cue, as all of the stuff was brand new to us! I think the last time may have been our 2012 trip. So, all of the decos were fun to see.



Okay, so that one wasn't new, but we still took a picture.

Oh, quick tangent. Here you can see the wait for IASW was 5 minutes, which means it basically took you that long just to walk to the loading area.



Now we were inside the cue. Never saw this!



Or this.





By this time, Jason and I said to each other "Is this stuff all new? We don't remember ever seeing it." And then we remembered we always had FP or FP+ and basically walked right on the ride. We all agreed it was neat to finally see all of this.



I don't think I've ever seen pictures of this cue in a TR before either. I guess the TRs I read, everyone always has FP+ for this.



We were walking pretty much non stop, so could only pause for a moment to take pictures.







The kids' room was cute! You can see the blur of Maura walking in this picture.

20200910_101521 by clarfclarf, on Flickr

In minutes (the time it took to walk through the cue), we were boarding our pirate ships.



Some pics from the ride.





Tick Tock Croc. He's my favorite.



This one's a little blurry.



And one last Tick Tock. Can you tell we all like him?



Peter Pan's Flight always seems like it's over before it starts. It's so short, but such a fun ride and so "Disney" to me. It's always a can't miss, even if we only get on it once, and this would be our only ride on it for this trip. But we were glad we got on in such a short time and also that we got to see what the actual line looked like!

(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

Well, we got off of Peter Pan, and where did we decide to go? We backtracked of course to Liberty Square to ride the best ride ever anywhere. In case you were confused, it was here.



The wait time was posted at 13 minutes, which of course means there is no wait. So, again, the time we waited was only how long it took us to walk through the cue. Of course all the fun interactive stuff was closed this trip, due to Covid, which was disappointing, but okay if it kept people safe. There's always next time! We did get to walk by this though.



And we did get to see Madame Leota's grave. I know we got a picture later with her eyes open.



As you may or may not know, the stretching room wasn't open. Due to people being too close to one another in there, the room was already stretched, and you just walked through on your way to the Doom Buggies. We tried to get some pictures as we walked through, but it wasn't easy because it's so dark in there! I'll give you a few of our blurry attempts.





Terrible. You can barely tell that's Sally Slater.

This one turned out better though! Once we got into the Doom Buggy loading area, we stopped for a moment so were able to get a decent picture.



While determining ride partners, it seemed that I was on my own for this one. Everyone wanted to know if that was okay. WAS THAT OKAY? That was the best! I could ride all alone, with no one but the ghost host yapping in my ear. I could just look around myself and take it all in. I was more than okay riding myself. I had never done that before! It was absolutely the best trip I'd ever had through the HM before. We all tried to take pictures with our phones, but in the dark, they aren't great. I'll post a couple of the okay ones.











Constance Hatchaway turned out okay! Lucy was her for Halloween a few years back.





These were cats sitting in the graveyard. I had never noticed them before! See what you can find when someone isn't talking to you?







I don't remember this guy either! And I really thought I was kind of an expert on this ride. Clearly I've disappointed myself.





Here are our ride photos. I didn't get Toni and J since they rode themselves and weren't attached to our account. I think we rode HM at least 4 times this trip. I still have no idea where the camera is that takes your picture, so if you can enlighten me to this fact, I'd be very grateful. This was our first trip where they took photos on the ride. I'm usually good at finding them, but I seriously have no idea.



Just me and my backpack. And for anyone wondering, I'm wearing a HM mask on this day. I know that's really important info that you were all dying to know. I also look very suspicious.



Jason, of course with his phone out for pictures. If he would have know where the camera was, he may have put it down for a minute.



The pet cemetery. It's always better looking at night, but we still had to stop and look. Mr. Toad is back there somewhere.



The wait for HM was still at 13 minutes, so what did we do? What any good HM loving people would do. We went right back on. Toni and J wanted to go look for something in a shop. I can't remember what, but we said we'd meet up with them in a bit. I didn't get to ride myself this time, but Jason was my ride partner. We hadn't ridden this together since 2001. One of us always had to ride with a kid because they were a little scared. Not this year! Lucy rode with C, and I think Maura wanted to ride herself! I don't have the ride photo from it, but that was the case! I don't know why we didn't get her ride photo. It must not have registered. It's okay though. None of us knew where the camera was anyway.

We did get a picture of BTMRR from across the river while we walked into the line.



A close up of the house.



Lucy took that picture. It's a great shot!

Another scenic shot of the river.



We got a couple more of the graveyard this time.



Poor Fred.



Pre-Stretch room.



Lucy did get some better pictures of the Stretch Room this time.







[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kjfy1i]

We didn't really get new pictures of anything this time except the clock.



And here are our ride photos, minus Maura for some reason.

We both look appropriately worried.



And there's Lucy, taking pictures as usual.





(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

Well I've now spent an entire post on HM and you know what? I'm not quite done. It is my favorite ride after all.

Jason did get this one of Constance that's worth sharing.



We got this picture on the way out this time.



And one with the girls in it.



The Pet Cemetery from a different angle. Mr. Toad is still being blocked by the fence.



But here he is!



We didn't ride HM again now. We would again on this trip, but not right now. The line was getting a little longer. It might have been up to 5 minutes and we just weren't willing to wait since it had been a walk on before. Honestly, I would have ridden it 20 more times, but other people wanted to do something else. Jerks.

We made a pit stop at the Rapunzel bathrooms, because if you're going to do a pit stop in the MK, those are the bathrooms to do it at. Such a cool area just for bathrooms! We did look for some of the hidden pascals. We found a couple, but they were hard to spot. There might be one in this flower arrangement, I can't remember, and I can't see it if there is.



The lanterns, which are really prettier at night, but due to the reduced park hours, we wouldn't be in MK when it was dark at all, so this is what we got.



That was really the 1 thing that I was sad about this trip, not getting to see the parks at night. They take on such a different feeling with the lights on and we were sad to miss that this trip. But, that's why we go back!

I definitely think there's a Pascal in this picture, but again, I can't find him.



A Lucy selfie! Her mask had all the park icons and other fun stuff from the parks on it.



There is absolutely a Pascal in this picture. I can see him.



This picture looks like a postcard. That's because Jason took it. I told you his phone takes great photos.



We looked for Pascals for a few more minutes and then decided what to do next. If you want to find the Pascals, I think there are 12. We only found about 5. Next time!

We had decided where to meet Toni and J, and Lucy and C asked if they could go off on their own for a bit. They were both just about to turn 14 and had both been to MK many times, so we agreed they could have a few hours to themselves. We told them we'd text them once in a while to see where they were, and Jason has the ability to track Lucy's phone, so we knew we could find them if something happened. We weren't worried at all that they'd misbehave or try to leave the park at all. They're both really good kids. They were excited to have some time to themselves. I only know exactly what they did by Lucy's pictures, so once in a while I'll be able to share their adventures too.

Before meeting Toni and J, Maura, Jason and I went in search of a snack. We headed over towards Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Maura found the Sword in the Stone and had to give it a shot.



The true ruler of England, she is not sadly.

She gave it a good try, though.



We then realized how un-crowded it was, at least in this part of the park, so we took the opportunity for a back side of the castle picture with hardly anyone around.



It was nice to be able to get some pictures like this!

Jason and I wanted to try our luck at the Sword in the Stone then too. Neither of us fared any better, but hey, you have to try! And there wasn't a line of 20 people all scrambling to be next, which was nice.







As we were walking to get our snacks, we ran into our friend Mr. Ibis. We'd see a lot of him and his friends this week.



The line for Peter Pan was looking about the same!



We weren't sure what we wanted for a snack, and then we saw it. Storybook Treats, and their fall menu. We had read about these beforehand and knew we wanted to try them. We took the chance Lucy would be mad we didn't wait for her, but knew we could get more later in the week, or later that day. Here is what we wanted!



The Poor Unfortunate Souls Float and the Peter Pan Float. Lucy had read about both of them and had shared her knowledge with us before the trip. The Poor Unfortunate Souls was cream cheese soft serve, black raspberry syrup, and coke. Garnished with a chocolate crown and little purple candies. The Peter Pan was key lime soft serve and sprite, garnished with a little chocolate feather.

Both were amazing. The Poor Unfortunate Souls was an interesting, but delicious combination of flavors, and the Peter Pan was so refreshing on a hot day. We enjoyed them both. Both floats were flying out of Storybook Treats like crazy. A lot of people were enjoying them. Maura had gotten in line with me, and tried the floats, but saw they had rootbeer floats and asked for one of those. Then she saw the cool souvenir cups they were offering and was hoping she could have one of those, and since we were on vacation, of course she could. So, she got her rootbeer float in this guy.





I think she hated it.

While we were enjoying our snacks and waiting for Toni and J, Lucy and C were headed to Adventureland by way of Frontierland.



They were headed to Pirates! We hadn't been on this ride since 2014 because it was closed for refurbishments on our 2015 and 2018 trips. Lucy was excited to get on this ride this trip!



Clearly Lucy was keeping up with her picture taking.









If I remember correctly, they walked on POTC as well. Before long, they were on their boat sailing the high seas.



They look like such teenagers in their photo.



Meanwhile, back in Fantasyland, Maura and Jason were doing this. I can't, or I'll vomit.

I don't know where they are in that sea of people and tea cups. But I know where they are in this one!



Jason will spin the snot out of that thing and the girls love it. I was laughing hysterically because their teacup was going about 5x faster than anyone elses he spun it so fast.

They really look like they're both concentrating hard.



As we kept walking to Tomorrowland, we saw Stitch out for a wave and were able to get a socially distanced picture with him. He's a favorite of all of ours, and since Maura was wearing her Stitch shirt that day, she needed a picture.



I'll be back soon with more! We still have a lot to go on our first park day!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Why am I not getting notifications when you are posting? I'm commenting so that I'll be subscribed again and can go back to read.

 

[Clarf]

Meanwhile in Adventureland, Lucy and C were taking pictures of this!



And this.



After finishing in Adventureland, the girls walked by the castle for a couple pictures with very few people in front of it!





And then they walked into Tomorrowland.





Which is funny, because while they were walking into Tomorrowland, we were already in Tomorrowland riding this!



That's the Astro Orbiter if you couldn't tell. Maura always wants to ride them, but there is always a long line. Not today friends, not today. We got right into the elevator and up to the platform. I could have sworn I took a picture during the ride of the view, but I guess not because I can't find one. Maura was glad to have gotten to ride the rockets at last! She enjoyed it and definitely wants to do it again. By this time, we had re-joined Toni and J and they went on the Astro Orbiter with us too.

After AO, we looked just across Tomorrowland and saw there was no wait for Space Mountain. This would be both Maura and J's first time riding Maura was nervous and excited at the same time, as was J. Toni skipped it because it jerks her around too much. I totally understand and J rode with us. The kids were talking a mile a minute while we hiked up to the boarding area. It was definitely nervous chatter. Jason was taking pictures as we walked.





You can see one of the "please wait here" markers on the ground here, but the line kept moving, so we never needed to stop.





See? Zero line!



She's ready to go! This was after asking no less than 20 times "how dark is it?" "Does it go really fast?" "Can you see anything?" This, coming from the kid whose favorite roller coaster is Millennium Force at Cedar Point in Ohio. That has a drop of 300 feet and reaches a top speed of 93mph. And she was worried about Space Mountain.

NO ONE WAS IN FRONT OF US!!!



We were boarding our rocket in seconds and off we went!

Here is our ride photo. The kids look pretty chill.



What was their verdict? They loved it. Of course they wanted to immediately go back on.

We still didn't know Lucy and C were in Tomorrowland. But they were riding Buzz Lightyear Spaceranger Spin while we were braving Space Mountain. Here's the photographic evidence.







I'm guessing this is Lucy's score and she wasn't happy with it.



She usually does better than that. She must have been having a bad day.

Jason, Maura, and J decided to go back on Space Mountain, since they had enjoyed it so much. I took a break with Toni in the SM dump shop. I charged my phone and just sat for a bit. It was nice to catch up with her, since we don't see each other very often.

Jason decided he needed more pictures of the SM cue. I mean, his phone does take good pictures.







Lucy took this one, because her and C were about to ride it too!



Here is their ride photo. They both look scared, which is funny, because neither of them were.



I'm trying to post Jason and the kids' ride photo, but Flickr won't let me share it for some reason. So you'll have to use your imaginations.

Toni and I caught Lucy and C as they were coming off the ride. They stopped for a minute, but wanted to ride again. Well, it turns out, Jason, Maura, and J wanted to ride again too, so off they went!

J might be doing some sort of dab here?



I'm really not sure what Jason is doing here. Embarrassing Lucy? I'll go with that.



Okay, that was 3 times on Space. I'm sure they would have kept going, but we decided to do something else.

It had started raining pretty hard, so we wanted to stick with something inside.



Since we were in Tomorrowland, we decided to do Carousel of Progress! If you can believe it, we'd never been on this before! Toni and her family had, but we had always missed it somehow. We had wanted to see it this trip. We had recently gotten the Walt Disney World Official Album and had heard Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow and wanted to see where that song had originated. I think this would be the longest wait we had all day at a whopping 10 minutes. Here we are waiting while Maura is sporting her new Mickey raincoat she had gotten the night before at WOD.



We were inside in no time and Toni said her kids like to sit in front, so that's where we sat! I'm fairly certain Lucy and C didn't sit RIGHT next to us. Because you know, teenagers.





Here's Jason and I settling in.



Jason looks like he's awake her, but I kid you not, he was snoring. I had to keep shoving him.



We all came out having thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure, it's cheesy and dated, but still fun. That "future" scene at the end looks like it came out of about 1989, but it was fun and we still love the song.

(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

The older girls wanted to go off on their own again, so we agreed and bid them farewell. We were still in Tomorrowland and hadn't ridden Buzz yet, so we headed over there. We walked right on! Yee haw!









I think this is Jason. I think.



This one is a little fuzzy, but I think it looks kind of cool!



There's Maura and J 2 cars in front of me.



This is the only ride photo we got, but that's okay. It's the kids, so that's what counts!



I must have gotten a bad score. I usually try to document what my score it, but it must have been embarrassingly low since I didn't take a picture.

While we were riding Buzz, Lucy and C were riding Space Mountain. Again. Lucy did get this cool picture!




Here's the proof they rode again!



They must have had enough of Space for now, because they started walking over towards Fantasyland. Lucy took a picture of Gaston's Pub. It wasn't open this day, which was sad. We love their cinnamon rolls. If you've never had one, they are delicious and as big as your head!



They kept on walking over to Voyage of the Little Mermaid. This is always a hard ride to get pictures on, but Lucy tried her best. She got a few that turned out okay.
























Actually, her pictures turned out better than I thought! I guess they were having a good time.

We were in need of a snack! We headed out of Tomorrowland, not sure what we wanted, and saw a popcorn cart near the castle. Maura always wants popcorn, so we got some of that. She had noticed the Halloween Mickey souvenir bucket and wanted one of those. We obliged, because why not? We can refill it the rest of the week! Toni and J got some popcorn too, and we sat down in the hub and ate our popcorn. We had some visitors while we sat there! Maura and J, being kids, managed to get more popcorn on the ground than in their mouths, but these guys were happy to pick up the crumbs!

It started out with just this one lady, who seemed to be taking shelter from the rain and the people. (I hesitate to say crowds, as it wasn't really crowded)





We were having fun watching her waddle out from under there and then back under. You can see her right by the CM's feet here! She was a pretty smart duck and was also waiting for popcorn to drop.





Then she was joined by this one, who was using good social distancing practices and following the signs.



They realized there was food available and more and more started coming. I don't know whose hand that is, as we didn't have chips. We had popcorn.





"Hey everybody, come over here! These clumsy kids are dropping popcorn! There's enough for everyone!"



They were quacking away and eating popcorn. It was really funny.



We'd had a nice sit and enjoyed the ducks for a bit, but it was time to move on and see what else was going on.

 

[mickeystoontown]

All caught up again but will only comment on the last two updates 'cause I'm supposed to be working and I'm sneaking this in....shhh! I'll keep it short and sweet.

Ah teenage girls exploring the world alone. I'm sure they were feeling cool and all that stuff.

Looks like there weren't many people in the park that day which made for short lines. Yay for that!

Clare! I can't believe that you hadn't been on Carousel of Progress before! What the heck? What'd you think of it? Did you think it was cool? I know what the hubs thought....snore snore snore. But that's okay because I know a certain someone who has done that before too.

 

[Paulaparm]

Following!!

 

[Clarf]

All caught up again but will only comment on the last two updates 'cause I'm supposed to be working and I'm sneaking this in....shhh! I'll keep it short and sweet.

Ah teenage girls exploring the world alone. I'm sure they were feeling cool and all that stuff.

Looks like there weren't many people in the park that day which made for short lines. Yay for that!

Clare! I can't believe that you hadn't been on Carousel of Progress before! What the heck? What'd you think of it? Did you think it was cool? I know what the hubs thought....snore snore snore. But that's okay because I know a certain someone who has done that before too.

Oh the girls loved their freedom! We knew they would be responsible.

It was definitely a small crowd day!

I can't believe we'd never done Carousel of Progress either! I don't know why we didn't. We all enjoyed it. It was cheesy, and a little dated, but that's what made it fun. Yeah, Jason took a nap opportunity.

Following!!

Yay, welcome!

 

[Clarf]

After our fun with the ducks, we finally found a PP by the castle! Even though we didn't have Lucy with us, we stopped for some pictures. Toni and J refused to participate. We tried. You can see our newly acquired popcorn bucket around Maura's neck!





Oooh, my glasses are getting fogged up in this one!



I love this mask of Maura's, because it looks like she's smiling even if you can't see her mouth.





And empty castle picture with Maura and J! It was so nice to be able to get these. It's usually so hard to do.



So while before there didn't seem to be any PP around, now they were out in abundance at different places around the castle, so, like any good MM purchasers, we stopped for more photos.





Now we got some magic!



I love this one of Maura.



Maura looks like a spokesmodel in this one. She's posing both of her hands.







See? Now the PP were EVERYWHERE! We stopped at yet another location for pictures. Because I knew my readers would want to see 87,500 pictures of my family and I in slightly different poses and areas near the castle.



This PP got some more of just Maura. You can tell she's smiling under her mask. You can see it in her eyes.





And now some magic.





Phew! That was a lot of pictures. While we were doing that, Lucy and C were doing this.



They look like they got their own private ride, but I know they didn't. It was just social distancing at it's finest! Disney did a great job with it.

After sitting and eating popcorn and other snacks, and then posing for all those pictures, we were of course exhausted and famished, so we decided we needed a break with some Starbucks. This was one of the longest lines we waited in the entire trip, but it still moved pretty fast. Before getting in line though, Maura needed to perfect her copy cat skills with this picture.



Not bad! I think she did a good job. I'd believe she was a statue. After that silliness, we got our snacks and sat down one of the little side paths on Mainstreet USA. Maura got a cake pop and some peach iced tea.



Jason had some cold coffee drink and we shared this Mickey cinnamon roll. The CM in Starbucks was holding one advertising them, so how could we NOT get one? It was yummy. Not as yummy as the one at Gaston's Pub, but yummy. I also had a peach iced tea. I know Toni and J got something, and I thought I took some pictures, but I guess not.



We enjoyed our snack and rest (because it had been so long since we had done that) and then decided to head towards Adventureland. We'd only walked through earlier, but hadn't looked around. While we were having a snack, Lucy and C were having their own snack. Lucy took a picture of the deliciousness they had. I just asked her where they had gotten it. She said Gaston's Pub. I know I said earlier that they were closed this day, but I guess I was wrong because that's where this monstrosity came from!



Seriously, if you've never had one of these, DO IT! They are as big as your head and so gooey and yummy. The girls shared this one before heading over to Liberty Square for another ride on Haunted Mansion. Here is their ride photo. They have almost identical faces!



Meanwhile, on our walk to Adventureland, we found more Disney wildlife! The animals were out in droves today. We saw bunnies running and playing across from the Crystal Palace.





They were having a good old time. It was still sprinkling a bit. You can see the drops hitting the water behind the bunnies, but it wasn't too bad. The bunnies certainly didn't mind being out in it!

As we were walking, Maura said "Mom, take a picture of this cool light!" So I did. She is right. It was a cool light post!



(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

When we got back into Adventureland, I was so glad to see these guys were back in their places! When we were here in 2018, they were gone and I was worried they had been removed for good, but I later found out they had just been temporarily removed for refurbishment. And they were spitting this day too!



I love the spitting tikis. They are one of the things that is classic Disney for me. They've just been around forever!

We had checked the wait times for Pirates of the Caribbean, and it was short. I think it was about 5 minutes, so again, basically a walk on. We hadn't been on this since 2014! It's a favorite, but the trips we went on in 2015 and 2018 just happened to coinside with refurbishments and it was closed both times. I know, the horrors, so it had been 6 years since we rode this bad boy! As you saw earlier, Lucy and C had ridden it earlier in the day, but not us. So, in the line we got. I got a couple of pictures while we walked through the cue.







I actually think Jason took those. They're too good for my camera. Maura of course had to get in on the action.



As you can tell, she's not photogenic at all and hates having her picture taken.

We were almost to the loading area!



See? No one in line! We just had to wait for the next boat.



Soon we were seeing this!



And this! Here you can see the difference in camera quality between mine and Jason's phones. His was the first one (obviously). Mine is the second. We both take pictures the same way.



Here's our ride photo. I certainly look entranced by something. Toni and J are not paying attention. They have APs though. They ride this a lot more often!



Here again you can see the differences in our cameras. I'm sure you can tell whose is whose. We took the same picture!





I love that Jason got such a good shot. This is my favorite part of Pirates. I love the giant ship and the feeling of the cannonballs flying past your face.

Meanwhile, Lucy and C were in Fantasyland waiting in line for It's a Small World. The wait for Peter Pan was still so short!



Lucy, my good Disney kid, paying attention to the details and taking pictures while looking up!





Selfie with IASW! Look at those eyes. I sometimes forget how blue they are. She didn't get those from me or Jason!



No line for this either. Look at those empty boats.



Obviously, I hate Covid-19 and what it's done to the world, but I sure enjoyed the low crowd levels it caused for this trip! We usually visit in September, and the crowds are usually lower, but this was the lowest we'd ever seen it. That said, I'd take a Covid-free trip anyday over a Covid trip, but we had to find the positives somewhere!

Clearly the girls were enjoying their ride. I was so happy they had this time to spend together. Lucy has tons of friends at home, which I'm grateful for, but it was so nice to see her with this friend she's known her whole life, but only gets to see every couple of years. They were enjoying every minute together. And now they text daily.




[

Lucy got some decent ride photos.





This one is fuzzy, but we always have to get a picture of the pink poodle. On Lucy's first trip that she remembers to Disney, in 2011, when she was 4 1/2, the first thing she saw on IASW was the pink poodle. She was so excited about it and said loudly in her little 4 1/2 year old delighted voice "Look at the pink poodle!" We always point it out and get a picture. She remembers that trip so well. We just did 1 day at the Magic Kingdom and spent 1 night at CBR in a pirate room while we were visiting Jason's parents. Maura stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and Lucy got 15 hours of alone time with mom and dad at the Happiest Place on Earth. Such great memories and it cemented her as a fan for life.



I think she was trying to get a picture of the mechanism on the ceiling that makes the characters go up and down. I sometimes just think about those randomly and how they just keep moving, all day every day.





I love the platypi!





And just like that their ride on the happiest cruise that ever sailed was over.



We were still riding with some pirates though.



We liked the new scene. It didn't look that much different than the old one, and if it makes people less uncomfortable, that is just fine with me.











Well that was fun to get on finally for the first time in a long time. We would have been so disappointed if it was being refurbed AGAIN this trip. Once in the dump shop, some sword fighting happened, as expected.



(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

We still had stuff to do in Adventureland before we moved on to somewhere else. Jungle Cruise was close by, so we headed over there. You'll see the wait time posted at 45 minutes. False. It was like 10. Again, we pretty much moved the entire time we were in line.





The entire family loves this ride. How can you not? Cheesy jokes. Fake animals. Head hunters. Sometimes we just start talking about it at home and will all start giggling as we remember a joke from our skipper. And the details in the cue are outstanding.





See? Someone was excited to ride.



An "usie" not to be confused with a selfie.



There goes Ganges Gertie, off on her 10,000 mile trek!



I needed to get a picture of Toni and I too. Just like our daughters took on IASW.




Boats on a boat ride. Lucy is sitting next to me and just reminded me that those boats are supposed to represent Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. This kid knows more Disney trivia than just about anyone. She reads stuff all the time.

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Uh oh. The gorillas took over someone's tent.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kjfBa4]

You can see here how they had up plexiglass to separate the groups. The boats weren't quite as full as usual, but they plexiglass certainly allowed more people to be able to ride at a time. And again, it felt very safe.



I love this part of the ride. It makes me giggle every time. And I took this one! My camera does much better outside.



Aw, aren't we cute. Makes you want to barf, huh?





The natives are restless.



Maura insists on wearing her hair in a ponytail even when it's not that long.



Hey! Trader Sam!



I almost opted to get one of his shrunken heads this time, but decided against it due to Covid.

While we were finishing up our cruise through the rivers of the world, the big girls were still in Fantasyland checking things out.



I don't think they rode Dumbo, but just took some pictures. You can see the crane for Tron in the background.



And here's a picture of Tron in the works, which I now heard they've stopped construction on for now. I hope it's still done by 2022 when we go on our next trip! It looks pretty darn cool. I do love a good, fast roller coaster.



What else should we do while in Adventureland? Hmm...Aladdin's Magic Carpets of course! This ride is underrated. I like Dumbo for the nostalgia, but this ride, not only do they go up and down, but they tilt too!





Toni and J were on there somewhere too, but I didn't get any pictures. Maura drove us up and down, Jason tilted us, and I took pictures while our carpet flew through the air.

I got the camel mid-spit!





I love Adventureland. It's my favorite land look/scenery wise. I love the buildings and the trees. It was sad to see so many of the shops closed this time, though.



Our flight around the world complete, we went back into Frontierland to check the wait for Splash Mountain. The Country Bears were out on the balcony waving to their fans.



The line for Splash was short, and Maura wanted to ride again, so on we went. I think Toni and J rode BTMRR again, as they prefer that ride.





Just a couple pictures this time. I wanted to enjoy it. Speaking of enjoyment, please enjoy our ride photo. If you didn't vomit before, you will now.



Maura is clueless in the front, but she also has her eyes closed as if she doesn't want to see what her parents are up to behind her.

Maura wanted to see how long the line was for Space Mountain again, so we started walking that way, via the path that goes along the water. Toni had texted and said that she and J were on their way to Tomorrowland to meet the older girls.



I had to get a picture of my fave. We were at the right spot!



(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

When we got to Tomorrowland, Lucy, C, and J were already on Space. There was zero line now, so they kept just getting back in line. Toni and I just sat and chatted and I grabbed a couple pictures.





Lucy, C, and J, rode Space 4 times. Four. FOUR!!! Here's the proof.





My kid. Always the clown.





And here is Jason and Maura's ride photo. Maura was of course mad she only got to ride once, but she got a second ride on Splash. And she'd ride it again on our next MK day.



Not really sure what Jason is looking at. I guess he didn't get the memo for where to look.

By this time, it was just about 6pm and the MK was closing for the day. We started the trek back to the front of the park. The monorail was coming by, but we just had to walk back to the Contemporary since we had parked there. We said goodnight to our friends, but we'd see them in the morning at Epcot.



We were back at BCV in no time and had to decide what we wanted for dinner. BC didn't really have much for QS, but YC had the Ale and Compass Market, so we headed over there. We all found something we wanted and we really enjoyed this meal! It was nothing fancy, but really yummy. We ordered on our phone with the app, and by the time we walked over there (it was a hike from our room to YC), it was ready! We took our food out to a table right outside the Ale and Compass and enjoyed our dinner. Lucy, ever the adventurer, got the grilled cheese. She's modeling it nicely with her hands.



Maura got the kids grilled cheese with grapes, chocolate milk, and applesauce. Those Doritos are Jasons. Maura is ready to go swimming, as you see. She's wearing her swim suit.



Jason had the grilled chicken panini and the Doritos.



I had the hot ham and cheese on a pretzel roll. I don't usually eat beef or pork, but on vacation, I take a vacation from that. The ham just sounded really good that day, and it was. It came with house made chips too, which were yummy.



Unbeknownst to the rest of my family, I also had a Mickey bar. No one came in with me to get the food, so I just grabbed one for myself. I did share a bite though. I'm not a total beast.



After our dinner, we finally got to experience Stormalong Bay. No thunder tonight! We swam for a good hour, and enjoyed the slide, the whirlpool, the lazy river, and the hot tub. We liked the slide, but man, it hurts your back when you go down. We liked the pool, and the sand bottom was nice, but we didn't necessarily think it was better than other pools. It was HUGE and hard to find your family if they weren't right next to you. But, we are glad we got to experience it! And we'd be back in future days too.

After the swim, we headed back to the room, packed our bags for tomorrow, showered, and went to bed. I had 25, 208 steps that day! It was a great first park day. Tomorrow would be Epcot!

 

[marisa in lake mohegan]

Hi there! I like your joie de vivre; I've been totally reading your reports. At this point I feel like I know you. How's that for creepy? Put THAT in the Haunted Mansion : )

 

[Clarf]

Hi there! I like your joie de vivre; I've been totally reading your reports. At this point I feel like I know you. How's that for creepy? Put THAT in the Haunted Mansion : )

LOL. Not creepy at all. I totally get it! Thanks for joining in! And thanks for the nice comment about my joie de vivre!

 

[Clarf]

I'm back! Sorry I've been gone so long. I have to practically reserve time to use the computer these days! I took it over tonight before anyone else could.

We had finished our first day in the parks! We got to sleep in a little the next morning because we were headed to Epcot and it didn't open until 11:00. We were all up by around 9:30. Jason and the girls headed down to the Ale and Compass Market for sticky buns. Unfortunately, when they returned, they had no sticky buns. They were out already. We made a mental note to make it down there earlier one day so we could get them. The cast member had given them free chocolate croissants as a substitute. That was so nice, and totally not necessary. Things run out sometimes. It happens! Maura also got Mickey waffles and bacon. We enjoyed our breakfast and put the leftovers in the fridge. We didn't want to eat too much since Food and Wine was going on and we needed to save room for all the treats they offered, plus our dinner ADR for later in the day!

Since we were staying at BCV, we were able to walk to Epcot! This was super exciting. It took less than 5 minutes to walk there. We were through temperature checks and security by 11:05.



It was HOT this day. Super hot. But it was all good. I tell you what, I'd take that 95 and humid any time over the 3 degrees and 14 inches of snow we have here in Wisconsin right now. It's supposed to be in the 20's tomorrow for the first time in almost 2 weeks. It's going to feel so nice! But I digress.

As you can see, it was packed in Epcot that day. The crowds were massive.



We were going to head over to Soarin' to meet Toni and the kids. My notes say "stopped in UK briefly." By the amount of pictures we took, I don't think it was brief. Here, let me regale you with the 87 pictures we took.





Once again we're advertising just how much we love where we live. (well, except right now in the throes of winter)







Here's those huge crowds again.



I mean, we were dodging between people constantly.

















We were reminiscing about the Agent P mission we had done here in trips past.















Seriously. I don't think this was a "brief stop."



Those phonebooths! On our 2014 trip we had the best PP photoshoot in those!



We did sort of a recreation of that. Sort of.









And because there's a fountain in that area too, well, we had to get some pictures there too.





Lucy took that last one. She pretty much had to wait in line to take it. There was some guy there with a big fancy camera and was photographing it from every possible angle. I didn't know one could find that much to photograph in a fountain.



We had to stop for a quick picture in Canada too. I promise this is the only one.



This guy was drinking from the drain.



I guess it wasn't that good.



Are you bored yet? There will be more exciting things in the next post.

 

[Clarf]

Finally we were on our way to Future World. It was a maze let me tell you. I had gotten a text from Toni and they had already ridden Soarin' once. It was a walk on!



Look what a hot mess it was!



We'd be there later!



Finally! The Land! I really like this picture. Jason gets the credit for this one.



Ew. Look at these dorks.



As we walked by Garden Grill, Mickey and friends were out saying hello! We love Garden Grill and were sad it wasn't an option this trip.





A silhouette of the seasons.



Finally! Soarin'! We walked on.





Toni and kids were just finishing a snack and they met up with us. We started the long walk to the loading area for Soarin'. It's a pretty cool queue to walk through.



Lucy took this picture of Jason taking a picture of the sign.



And here's the picture of the sign.







Soarin' selfie! You can see Lucy and C in the background.



Before the trip, Lucy had watched the entire series of Seinfeld. She was excited to see David Puddy make an appearance on the ride.



Here's a tangent. I will say the pandemic has been good for binge watching shows! I watched all the seasons of ER, Grey's Anatomy, and Private Practice. I'd seen them all before, but they were good for a re-watch. Jason and I watched the entire Big Bang Theory series. We'd never watched that one before and loved it. We all watched The Goldbergs and can't believe we never watched it before. We're all caught up now. I love Bev Goldberg. I think she's my spirit animal. Lucy watched 30 Rock, Seinfeld, Family Guy (we allowed that one once she turned 14), and now she's on Friends. And we all just finished Schitt's Creek. How did never know about that show before?

Anyway, now that I got that out of the way, let's get back to Disney. This had been our first ride on the new version of Soarin'. I know it's been around for a few years, but we didn't have fast passes our last couple trips and the line was always too long. NOT TODAY!!! We were riding around the world in no time. We enjoyed it! We sat down for a minute in the Sunshine Seasons area. Toni and J wanted a snack. So, we sat for a couple minutes and enjoyed the air conditioning. This was in case we weren't sure where we were.



Now a non-silhouette of the seasons.



And once again you can see the mobs of people at Epcot that day.



Since we were in The Land pavilion we headed over to the other ride in there. Living with the land! Surprise, surprise, it was a walk on!

Since we always take too many pictures on this ride, I'll try to limit it to just a small mountain of them.





















Hidden Mickey! Sort of. It's not really hidden.







(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

We're still on Living with the Land!

Nanners!





Another sort of Hidden Mickey!



This one is a Hidden Minnie!







Pepper grows on trees. Huh. Who knew?





Background Mickey.



Mickey lettuce!





Mickey pumpkin! I wish I could do this at home.



This ride has so many Hidden Mickeys.





When we got off Living with the Land, Chip and Dale were saying hi at Garden Grill. Maura had to get in on that. Notice Maura and Jason's Epcot themed masks this day.



With that, we headed back out into the hot Florida sun. We were going to head over to Journey Into the Imagination, but decided to stop for a snack first. Lucy decided to get a picture of what was coming up first.



Our snack of the moment was a Mickey pretzel, which Maura is doing an excellent job of modeling for us. I see some spokes model or hand model work in her future!



We saw this guy hanging out. Probably waiting for someone to drop a snack so he could grab it up.



I think this lady was resting in the shade.



Snack finished, we started walking over to JII. On the way, we saw Joy waving and greeting people. She was fun. Skipping and dancing in the grass, and waving to everyone. I know this wasn't ideal character meeting for some, but it was nice to still be able to see them from afar.



Alright, no more goofing around. Time for JII!



Here again is a picture of Jason taking a picture.



I guess I don't have the picture he was taking this time though. Sorry. I know you were all probably dying to see it.





Here's some of the fun stuff in the pavillion.



We're getting close!





This was probably the longest line we waited in all day. It's awful, isn't it.



Here's our sweet ride.



These 2 are ready.



Alright, I'll leave it here for now. We'll get ON the ride next time!

 

[disneywithbaby]

Loving your review! We are staying at BC 1 bedroom villa this summer so loving the resort photos too.