Disney World Trip Report (Nov. 7th-16th)- Trip Summation & Review!

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THE COVID TEST THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED:

Okay, so thanks to a helpful Disboards poster, I was able to grab a COVID test appointment in some place called Windemere. Turns out there's a LOT of small towns around WDW! This one involved a bit more planning than the other one, but thankfully it all worked out. First I had to get a Taxi- the in-parks help suggested I go on the ferry across the lake to the transportation hub and get one there. When I told the hotel concierge that, she looked as if that was the most asinine solution ever offered, and pointed out the Contemporary is MUCH closer.

So hey! Plus side! I get to go to the Contemporary! "Visiting the good resorts" is always something I've wanted to do at WDW but never found the time to, so this let me actually check out the great Mary Blair mural in the middle, see the Monorail go through the hotel itself, and look through the gift shop before I needed to get a cab.

Getting there proved a bit tricky, since the arrows outside MK pointed me down the end of the bus pickup area, where the sidewalk ran out. As I was trying to navigate this and not die via bus, I heard a bunch of dudes shouting. I looked up and security was waving me back the other way, lol. Turns out there's a security checkpoint parallel to MK you have to go through to walk there. When I got there, we all had a laugh over it- "Oh, was that you?" one guy said. "Yeah- I thought I was going the right way based off of that arrow!" "At least you ADMIT it!" another guy said- I am apparently not the first person to try to shuffle through the bus area to get to the Contemporary! To be fair, it WAS mostly a straight line from that point- the "real" way makes you kinda scoot around corners and odd walking paths.

So I hit the Contemporary, go to the cab concierge, and ask about a ride into Windemere for the test. I'd phoned Mears Transportation to check if they took people on drive-through tests (the only ones in Florida, maybe?), and they confirmed every driver should. When I asked I should check with the driver if he would, the concierge just bluntly stated "I ALWAYS check"- I am apparently not the first person who's asked this, lol.

In any case, I go on my way! Which was a fun drive, actually- you get to see the side areas of WDW- did you know there's a big power plant right outside it? Makes sense, I guess. A lot of vehicle docks/garages and the like, too. Windemere itself looks like a generic suburb you'd find anywhere- chain fast food joints, etc. I figured it was a generic middle class area populated mostly by Cast Members... but looked it up later and this is apparently where the MEGA-RICH live. For example, Kobe Bryant used to live here.

In any case, me and the poor cabbie have to hit this pharmacy and the lady speaks to him via the speaker, then he speaks to me- we somehow manage to not screw it up as he instructs me on how to shove the giant q-tip up my nose and place it in the booger-bag or whatever it is, and we head back! I gave the guy a pretty solid tip (I mean, that had to suuuuuuuuuuck, lol) and I was back in the MK with 2-2.5 hours gone. Not the funnest way to spend a vacation, but at least I was done and got my Covid test. And they'd already emailed me to say it was negative by the time I got back to the park!

Turns out these multiple trips mostly just cost me some parade viewing and maybe a ride or two, plus Tom Sawyer's Island, Hall of Presidents & Country Bears- none of which I could justify with the time I had left. And some stress. NOT IDEAL, and it makes me wanna wait againt to go to the parks, but at least this is all stuff I've already done.

 

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This friend of Elsa is EVERYWHERE these days. If you notice, almost all of the Disney social media and Parks reporters that meet the characters take pictures of this exact person every time- the recent announcement that they'd returned to the Royal Somerhus ALSO featured her! She must be like... the Elsa of Elsas.

DAY EIGHT (EPCOT & Magic Kingdom):
Finally on my last day! I had made my last day an EPCOT one in my pre-planning, but by this point I'd gotten a bit tired of "Wallcot" and wanted to do MK, so I left as soon as I could. I think I must have miscalculated my time to leave because I was WELL behind the major lines from the Skyliner and despite hauling it to Frozen Ever After, I saw a line reaching China Pavilion- the line helper pointed out the posted wait-time (45 minutes) was DEFINITELY off, which meant for the third time this trip, my "Rope Drop Ride" actually failed. The parks were THAT BUSY. So I just waited until my paid G+ ride on it came up a bit later and went then. I did a last go-round the World Showcase, seeing the Princesses again- Jasmine was different! But Swole White recognized me! Aurora had replaced Belle in Paris, and even swapped to her winter gear the second time as it was getting colder. I took the park in one last time, and rode Spaceship Earth (helping out a couple who didn't realize that you couldn't book a new G+ ride until two hours had passed) and did Soarin'. I still didn't get on the upper row- I might have to ask specifically next time, but oh well.

Belle at EPCOT.

I left EPCOT... a tad disappointed, maybe? I was so into it two years before, especially never having ridden Frozen Ever After before, but it was diminished both by walls being everywhere (making pathways hard to traverse speedily), foreign CMs being gone, and the fact that I'd done it before. So my planned "three days at EPCOT" turned to "wow I shouldn't have made the first part of my trip only be here" and then I left early the third day. I still love FEA/Norway, though the crowds made that rougher... and it didn't hit QUITE the same way on the second trip, probably since I'd already done it so much the first time.

On one of the last days of my trip, I noticed the first-ever appearance of Belle just outside her cottage- a new temporary "Meet & Greet" variant, where you can talk (er... shout from afar) to the Princess. They were just starting this out at the time, with a security guy, a helper AND someone who looked like they were higher up. I made sure to thank them for bringing the characters back, as non-ideal as this was.

So back to MK! Turns out this park DOESN'T get worse with repetition! Also no giant walls everywhere! I managed to do most of what I wanted- still no Mine Train, but most of the other stuff thanks to G+ (which was really necessary on busy days like this). Most of what I ended up doing was waiting for the repeated character promenades. Not as big as the parades, but they're a bit more "personal". Had a fun bit where a little girl freaked upon seeing Elena of Avalor on a float, with the mom explaining that "She dressed as you for Halloween!" "REALLY!?", and as they walked away, she said "There- we finally saw her"- they must have been at it for a while. I pointed out to them that she's almost always in the Fairytale Hall these days as Cinderella's pal.

Elena's face when she was like "You came back!"

Then the next time I waited for the promenade (I walk fast enough that I could easily get ahead of it repeatedly and take pictures from multiple vantage points from Liberty Square to Main Street to the exit door), Elena actually spotted me and shouted down "You came back! So lovely to see you again!", making my day. I must be super-distinctive-looking, lol. Or she just really likes it when adults recognize her. Seeing ALL the Princesses at once is pretty good- you can catch all of them in close-up instead of hoping to catch them as they spin around their giant floats.

There was a funny bit as I went to check out one of the windows by a shop near the castle (the one with Scrooge and the triplets, I think), and a lady on the bench by me was like "Yes- that's a cigarette!" all embarrassed and then begged me not to tell on her. I hadn't even noticed until she said it! She was trying to sneak one out and was dreading it as I was walking up to the window where their bench was- she was mortified when she realized she had parked in front of a display window.

TINK! I'd have missed her if I hadn't seen some people taking a photo. She's not hidden at all- she's right in the main cog in front of the castle. But she's so tiny it's easy to miss if you're looking for the big golden statues.

As it was my last night in town, I went to say bye to the people in the ice cream parlor after the fireworks show. They had recognized me coming in on 2-3 separate occasions- when I told them it was my last night in town, they actually looked disappointed. The one girl pointed out "We DO recognize people when they come in more than once" and that they figured I was an Annual Passholder or something.

 

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I think you either need a good camera to take quality pictures in here, or be a better cameraman.

BE OUR GUEST:
-Okay I forgot to include this bit, lol:

So I arrived too late for my Haunted Mansion Genie+ reservation, but when I asked the guy how forgiving they were about that, he told me "It's usually fine!" and just to go up. When I got to the front, I scanned my MagicBand and the indicator turned red, which led to the girl there going mock-angry "You're LATE! Why are you LATE?!", haha. I explained "I was stuck at my hotel and couldn't make it" and she was good enough to let me in (this is one of like four times I was late for my return window, and in all but one I was still let in). I do love how the HM Cast Members are able to be blunt, lecturing and rude. It apparently makes that a REALLY popular attraction to work for ("It's also the only place here where you don't have to smile".

Anyways, I finally hit Be Our Guest. Now it's not ideal to be on your phone there, but I had to set up my new COVID appointment fairly quickly, so I did that while waiting for drinks and food, haha. And I took pictures after anyhow! I requested the main dining hall because I love that (I might try the Beast's Study some time, but it's so dark and crowded!), but unfortunately I got the "Lame Single Person's Space" in the newly spread-out version of the restaurant, shoved against a side wall instead of being somewhat in the middle area like I was two years before. But it's a good view of everything, I guess. The Beast walks by every 20 minutes since you can't do a meet & greet this time around.

Instead of a meet & greet, the Beast does several quick tours of the place.

I think I ended up going with the steak (which I had at the Skipper's Canteen earlier, too, haha)- I went with lamb or something the time before and I recall it not being THAT excellent. I don't particularly recall the meal all that much two months later, but I was not disappointed. Most memorable stuff is always the funny little dessert platter where you eat a white chocolate version of Chip! I naturally took a bunch of pictures after I ate. Probably the same ones I took two years before, but whatever. I tried to "see things without the camera", too (I find that if I focus too much on pictures I don't really LOOK at the stuff I've photographing and let it sink in, you know?).

The lil' Chip cup... which is edible.

Funnily enough, I actually spotted my waiter from two years before! That's the only time (other than the Elena I met) that I recognized a CM from a past trip! He had a distinctive enough look that I was able to figure him out- I told him about it and he was like "Oh I've worked here since it opened, so probably! Welcome back!" So all that wipes out an hour and a bit.

 

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MEET & GREETS:
* So Meet & Greets in the Princess Fairytale Hall are back! Only slightly modified, because the characters are in these odd little "pens" that are roped off and you have to stay masked. The staffing shortages are apparent here, as back in the day it was Attendant/PhotoPass/Princess and now it's just one Attendant for the whole room, mostly. However, this kinda suits me fine, as it's easier to take pictures yourself (though I wonder if that's awkward for them to talk while you're just holding a camera out front).

The rooms are Tiana/Rapunzel (almost always half the line of the other) and Cinderella/Visiting Princess... yet every single time I went over the week, the Princess was always Elena of Avalor. Now this one shocked a lot of Park-Bloggers as the assumption was Elena would be dropped once her show ended in 2020, but I think the diversity/representation quotient wins out here (I mean, Florida has a big enough Latino population that the ride warnings are also in Spanish, right?) and she was here. Which suits me fine, because I'm actually a huge fan of her show! Moreover, I found out just the week before that she was in fact returning (via a CM I follow on IG), and in fact, she was the "friend" of Elena's in the room, lol! That makes her the only performer I saw in both my 2019 trip and this one.

So Elena has a lot of issues with people going "So who are you?". So she has to fill a lot of conversation with "Have you tried my Abuela's Avaloran chocolate?" or "I rode by on my friend Skylar" filler-talk, but thankfully I actually know the lore, and MAN are they delighted to be actually recognized by an adult, lol. Especially since I can drop the deep lore like how Elena was crowned Queen and various side characters bowed to her, and stuff like when Elena goes on about "The Sirenas, which is what we call our mermaids", I can name-drop Princess Marisa ("YOU KNOW PRINCESS MARISA!?" she shouted back). I swear they actually seem touched to not have to explain their characters to an adult.

Funnily enough, the same Tiana was there twice, which was fun. When I responded with surprise that she recognized me over three days later, she said "You have a very distinctive face" and I said "Well, half of one, anyways" and she actually jumped around covering her mouth from laughing! I can't remember if that was a "Practiced Princess Laugh" of Tiana's or I just legit made her crack up, lol. In any case, since we'd described ideal restaurant experiences and she suggested Tiana's Place for dinner, the next time I was in there she scolded me for not going! So now I was being teased and had no adequate response, haha- I just made the excuse that I went to Be Our Guest Restaurant and we went on about that. It occurs to me every time I talk to Tiana the subject is always food- poor girl must be starving after each shift!

 

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So my trip home was FANTASTICALLY miserable. Though now that I think about it, I think all three of my trips home from Disney World were bad. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it's almost impossible to avoid travelling through Pearson, Canada's crappiest airport. Especially with only a one hour layover (thanks to plane schedule shuffling after I'd already bought tickets).

Naturally, my plane touched down at the same time as another one, so two planeloads disembarked into the same "scan your passport and then get back in another line" thing, which for some reason took like 30 minutes despite it mostly being one person figuring who got randomly selected for a COVID test... naturally, I was chosen, despite at this point having only FIFTEEN MINUTES LEFT.

So I had to tell like 3-4 people I needed that test RIGHT NOW while a bunch of other people around me were also infuriated- nobody was being tested in their destination site, just in Toronto. This at least got me to the front of the line and tested... and then I had to bolt at top speed across like a mile of airport (including getting up the wrong set of stairs at one point), desperately hoping I could make it. I even had to get my stuff scanned AGAIN, and went through the "extra security checking" part, but when I desperately explained what was up, they just let me go without checking me. I BARELY made it, with one minute to go... and of course the plane had been delayed in departure for like 20 more minutes, lol.

So someone else in line gave me some paper towels as I was SOAKED with sweat at this point... and of course once we got on board the plane was stuck on the tarmac because of some airport security issue, so we were an hour or so late all in all.

And this STILL beats the time WestJet destroyed my suitcase (thankfully my stuff was still fine).

But yeah, at last I was home!

Next up: The Good & Bad/Finale!

 

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OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:
* So it's hard to truly rank my Disney trips- I'd have to say the previous one was the best overall- I'd gone in 2014 or so and had a blast, but that was also my FIRST time, so I was running around trying to DO everything. In 2019 I was able to relax and take it all in. That was also the first time I'd done Meet & Greets. I'd also been able to get "Be Our Guest" reservations (I went with Cinderella's Royal Table before) AND Akershus, and all sorts of stuff. It was also my first time with "Frozen Ever After", and it turns out that feeling is hard to replicate. This being my first trip while everything was still somewhat "fresh" from last time made it more of a "time to come back to my favorite place again" over "OMG time to see EVERYTHING for the first time ever!". I was also going through some stuff in 2019 that the trip made me feel a lot better about- though this trip being the first fun thing I'd done post-COVID sort of came close- after two years of that I was REALLY ready.

This also being a year of "carrying your mask under your chin so you can pop it up every time you go indoors", CMs all in masks, lowered amounts of CMs, no international CMs in EPCOT, etc. (I mentioned the "clearly bored teenagers talking about how they couldn't afford anything" in the UK shop, lol), also put a bit of a damper on things. Not a HUGE one, but the international aspect was a big part of the flavor of EPCOT to me.

* EPCOT felt... quite diminished. Part of it was my familiarity with it- Frozen had nothing new, and as I said, the feeling of wonder from the ride had somewhat faltered- now I was really used to it. It was still wonderful, but now it was an old familiar friend. At least Ratatouille gave me new stuff to look at! I'd done it in Disneyland Paris so that wasn't new, but still.

* Merchandise fell well short this time around, I think. I was floored by how much amazing stuff there was in 2014 & 2019... and this time I really only found "Must Have" stuff in the art store at Disney Springs. I got four wonderful art posters/prints but the rest of it was mostly the same old stuff from Disney Stores (shortly before they'd closed). I also kinda wish merch stores aired clips from old Disney movies, same way the Disney Stores used to- that's one of the biggest things I miss about the shops.

* It was MUCH busier. To the point where the crowd calendars were all far off. CMs were stunned. Hotels were hard to get and every park was jam-packed. It was a staggering difference between my 2014 & 2019 trips (which took place in spring between holidays) and this. Example: At AK in 2019, I was able to ride Na'vi River Journey THREE TIMES. This time around, it had a huge line all day long and I only got on once. Expedition Everest? That was a walk-on using single rider EVERY TIME and I could go on whenever. This time they shut that down and I only got on once. Frozen Ever After? I used to ride that 4-5 times PER DAY in 2019; here, I managed rope-drop twice and paid LL trips twice, then one additional run at the end of the night; it was just way too busy every other time. One time, even ROPE DROP didn't work- I was just a bit too late (delays in the Skyliner, getting up a bit too late, etc.) and it was already at 45 minutes by the time I got there.

I think everyone was like me- they held off as long as possible and went for the 50th Anniversary, so it broke all expectations. Seeing it busy and alive is good on that front, but it definitely diminished my ability to ride things.

* Genie+ is really NOT much fun to use. I didn't viscerally hate it quite as much as others, and I never really liked having to book FastPasses 60 days in advance (that's crazy to me, and in 2019 I missed Slinky Dog because of it- I was a day or two late because I changed my HS day), but having to pay extra for it is another kick in the teeth from Disney. Being able to decide one thing at a time was alright, though- passes didn't sell out QUITE as fast as when they were FastPassses. I was able to pick & choose when to use it (MK kind of requires it, unfortunately; HS as well) and the app seems easy enough to use...

But one issue I have from it is that it forces you to be on your phone. I kind of have enough issues being glued to my phone at the best of times- I tend to use it to check something out... then I look up and ten minutes have passed because I started checking notifications and websites and stuff, lol. This is extra-annoying at Disney Parks because you almost have to check your LL offerings the second you're off a ride, so you're looking down at your phone repeatedly throughout the day, and I end up locked-in like this.

* The COVID test stuff SUCKED, but that's not Disney's fault- just draconian government stuff (this was pre-Omicron, too). Granted, all I did was miss a couple hours of park-time in the middle of two weekend days- this is stuff they actually RECOMMEND people do (via daily breaks) so mine was just a more stressful version of a park break, haha. All I really missed was the Bears, Hall of Presidents & Tom Sawyer, I guess- stuff I've seen before and can easily see again.

All in all, I enjoyed myself. Probably spent MUCH more money than last time- Park spending is so gradual because I typically paid for hotels, flights and other things piecemeal and THEN went to the parks, but this time I kind of had to do it all at once because it was a sudden trip and that blew through all the money quickly- though I spread the credit card bill across two months I think I paid about $4000 Canadian just for me to go. That feels pricier than before, though about $1000 more than my 2014 trip (where hotels were literally half the price!). That kind of showed me that Disney should be a "once every year and a half" trip instead of just a yearly thing, lol, but then I remembered my 2019 trip and immediately deciding to make Disney a YEARDLY vacation until I could no longer afford it, because I'd liked it so much. So who knows?