Dutch & Matt Take On Disney - Our First Time in Forever Feb 2020 TR - UPDATED 5/27 - COMPLETE

[eliseisawkward]

Glad to see they were able to move you to a room that you wanted! It pays to be polite and ask nicely. I bet Kyle was glad he was dealing with you instead of crazy lady.

 

[andy_dangg]

Caribbean Beach looks lovely! Y'all look like you had such a blast and I can't wait for more.

So nice that you got the water view! I'll be staying at Caribbean Beach as well in May on a trip with my family. I loved POR so much I wanted to stay again but your report is reassuring me I made the right choice. We're currently booked for a preferred room (it was all they had left). I'm actually trying to "downgrade" into a water view room--I want to be in the Jamaica section which is the closest to the hub Skyliner station. The preferred rooms are only in Barbados and Martinique. Plus none of the preferred rooms face the water so even though the category is a downgrade in price it's an upgrade in view.

 

[dwonderz]

Glad to see they were able to move you to a room that you wanted! It pays to be polite and ask nicely. I bet Kyle was glad he was dealing with you instead of crazy lady.

We were very happy ! I still wonder what ended up happening with that woman!

Caribbean Beach looks lovely! Y'all look like you had such a blast and I can't wait for more.

So nice that you got the water view! I'll be staying at Caribbean Beach as well in May on a trip with my family. I loved POR so much I wanted to stay again but your report is reassuring me I made the right choice. We're currently booked for a preferred room (it was all they had left). I'm actually trying to "downgrade" into a water view room--I want to be in the Jamaica section which is the closest to the hub Skyliner station. The preferred rooms are only in Barbados and Martinique. Plus none of the preferred rooms face the water so even though the category is a downgrade in price it's an upgrade in view.

Yes! The water view was awesome - and I totally hear you on the downgrade! Being close to the Skyliner was a game changer

 

[dwonderz]

Chapter Three: Epcot & The Rest of Day 1

After spending some time in our room - we (mostly me) started to get a bit restless - so we headed off to Epcot.

View of CBR on the way to the Skyliner

We walked over to the Skyliner for the first time and we loved how close we were - literally less than 5 minutes from our door to getting on a lift? Pod? Gondola? Sky Vehicle? (no idea what the correct term is ).

First Skyliner Ride!

Matt and I were both so impressed with the Skyliner - we loved how easy it was to get to Epcot/DHS and how quickly it moved! We experienced a couple of delays throughout our trip - but never anything excessive. Compared to the public transit I have to take everyday - it was a literal breeze!

We rode over with a woman who had ran the half-marathon in the morning and was going to try to ride as many rides as she could before the park closed - we were super impressed that she was going to explore the parks.

This is all I would be doing after a half marathon...

We scanned in for the first time ever using Magic bands and then headed off to explore the Festival of the Arts in World Showcase!

We had ordered "skins" and mickey head decals off of Etsy for our magic bands and were very happy with them! You can never have too much glitter - right?

Realized afterwards I got the back of Figment ... not sure what I was going for there

We stopped at Deconstructed Dish - where we tried the Deconstructed Strawberry Cheesecake. It was great!

Then we stopped by Pop Eats. Matt got the Almond Frangipani Cake and I got the Blue Sky Blackberry Freeze. We were both really looking forward to the cake - and were kind of disappointed. We were hoping for something closer to a rainbow cookie and it was more of a very dense cake.

Almond Cake

Blue Sky Blackberry Freeze

We continued wandering around World Showcase - stopping to check out/take part in the Giant Paint by Number Mural. I thought this was really cool.

We still had some time to kill before our Frozen Ever After FP - so we stopped in Mexico and got on the Gran Fiesta as our first official ride of the trip!

A very blurry selfie as we waited for Gran Fiesta...

Finally it was time for our first FP of our First trip together which was appropriately at Frozen (really going for this whole First Time in Forever theme ).

I have nothing but blurry pictures from the actual ride - but we both really enjoyed it! We're not super huge Frozen fans (hours of babysitting and having to sing Let it Go has had a lasting impact on my life...) - but it was still a really fun ride.

Looking a little shocked on Frozen...

We then continued around WS and stopped in to see Reflections of China ... until I realized Mulan was meeting outside in 3 minutes! I urgently turned to Matt and exclaimed "Oh my god! Mulan is out on the street! We have to go!" Definitely turned a few heads with that one....

We raced over just as the doors to Reflections of China were closing and were the second to last group they let in line. I thought we scored the rarest character meet ever ... turns out Mulan is pretty regular and my urgency was not needed . I was still super excited for it - I watched the VHS of Mulan with such dedication as a child that we had to get multiple copies

Love this one!

Meeting Mulan was great - I love the photos we got with her! I'm excited for the upcoming live action version!

After Mulan - we headed over to Mission Space by way of the First Aid Center (Matt’s ear still hadn’t “popped” from being on the plane so we were picking up some decongestant). Highly recommend the First Aid Center if you have to go - super friendly and super easy!

On the way to the First Aid Center...

After a quick ride on Mission Space Green (there was something that seemed a bit ominous about Orange) - it was time for our Spaceship Earth FP.

Along the way Matt stopped to become his favorite Zootopia character....

We got in line for Spaceship Earth after having some trouble scanning our FP's and then proceeded to wait. The ride broke down while we were in line and then once we were finally on it - paused for about 5 minutes. It was okay - not our absolute fave - but I think that had more to do with the delays and us being hungry than the actual ride itself .

We grabbed Dinner at Sunshine Seasons - the Salmon was fantastic!

Really ... I think I could fall back on food photography if all else fails

We attempted to do Living with the Land - but it had closed for the evening - so we rode The Seas with Nemo and then headed on out for the night. We had planned on staying for the fireworks … but we were exhausted! Overall - we really enjoyed the Festival of the Arts and wish we could have visited on a less packed day (marathon + Sunday + afternoon + festival = craziness).

On the Skyliner ride back to the resort we realized we had left both our swimsuits and refillable mugs in the locker by the pool ... which was now closed . So we stopped by the front desk and a CM named Tyler helped us find another CM named Matt who unlocked the pool area for us so we could grab our stuff. We were very appreciative that they took pity on our scattered brains . We then headed back to the room and called it a night!

Up Next: Chapter 4 - Animal Kingdom Time​

 

[tundra1]

Love this one!


Now what is Mulan truly thinking in this photo?????


On the Skyliner ride back to the resort we realized we had left both our swimsuits and refillable mugs in the locker by the pool ... which was now closed . So we stopped by the front desk and a CM named Tyler helped us find another CM named Matt who unlocked the pool area for us so we could grab our stuff. We were very appreciative that they took pity on our scattered brains . We then headed back to the room and called it a night!


This is a great trip report! Thanks for sharing! Glad that the CBR pixie dusted you twice in the same day!










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​

 

[eliseisawkward]

Leaving things in the pool locker is 100% something I would do!

I’m jealous of your Mulan meet. She’s the only princess from my childhood I’ve never met.

 

[TNGirlwCamera]

Following along! I love NYC. I go a couple of times a year because my best friend lives on the upper west side.

Yay for some early pixie dust for you two! We just missed each other I left Disney on the day you arrived!

I haven't had my picture with Mulan, I should do that...

 

[lvcourtneyy]

We stopped at Deconstructed Dish - where we tried the Deconstructed Strawberry Cheesecake. It was great!

This looks delicious!

We continued wandering around World Showcase - stopping to check out/take part in the Giant Paint by Number Mural. I thought this really cool.

Agreed.

I thought we scored the rarest character meet ever ... turns out Mulan is pretty regular and my urgency was not needed

Her line can get super long though so I would run there too lol!

 

[dwonderz]

Now what is Mulan truly thinking in this photo?????

Ha!! Right! Her face is 100% my favorite thing about this photo!

This is a great trip report! Thanks for sharing! Glad that the CBR pixie dusted you twice in the same day!

Yes - we got super lucky! Thank you for reading along

Leaving things in the pool locker is 100% something I would do!

I’m jealous of your Mulan meet. She’s the only princess from my childhood I’ve never met.

I wasn't even surprised when I realized we had left stuff there . Mulan was an awesome meet - totally recommend!

Following along! I love NYC. I go a couple of times a year because my best friend lives on the upper west side.

Yay for some early pixie dust for you two! We just missed each other I left Disney on the day you arrived!

I haven't had my picture with Mulan, I should do that...

Yay! Thank you for joining in NYC is pretty great - I love the Upper West Side! Totally recommend meeting Mulan - she's the best! I hope your Disney trip was fantastic!

This looks delicious!

SO good!

Agreed.

I wish they had something like it year round!

Her line can get super long though so I would run there too lol!

I was surprised by how popular she was!!

 

[starousse]

Following along!

 

[dwonderz]

Chapter Four: Animal Kingdom Time!

It was finally here - our first full day at Disney! Today we were starting off with Animal Kingdom ... but first we had to get out of bed...

That 6:15 A.M. wake up call was a bit rough...

We had placed an Amazon Prime Now order so we would have breakfast stuff in the room (bagels/bars/etc.) and our order had been delivered the night before. Of course they left out the water we ordered so we had to place another order for later in the day - but we were certainly happy to have breakfast stuff in the room.

We headed out around 6:50am and called an Uber - I had 50% off 10 rides (no idea why - but total score!!) - so our ride to Animal Kingdom ended up being like $4 + tip.

Side Note: We loved Uber and so preferred it to the buses - even if we didn't have the 50% off we felt like the amount of time we saved + the convenience + being able to do things on our schedule was definitely worth the cost. That being said - we are two 20-somethings without kids so we didn't have to worry about accessibility/car seats/etc. which definitely makes it easier. In the future we will certainly be sure to add a line to the budget for Uber.

We arrived to AK around 7:00ish and were through security and being held in front of the turnstiles around 7:15. A steady crowd had already formed - and over the next 20 minutes it grew quite a bit.

AK was doing EMH that morning and a CM came out to announce that "Cast Members would be checking people on the left-hand side to ensure they were resort guests." Before she even had a chance to finish a bunch of people stampeded over to the left side. Poor CM almost got run over. She then finished with the key phrase "AFTER you move through the turnstiles." The stampede all felt a bit foolish....

At around 7:35/7:40 they let us through and we began our calm speed-walk over to Pandora.

I was super. super. super. super. excited. I didn't see Avatar when it came out and actually only saw it for the first time back in January (mainly so I would have an understanding of Pandora) and totally fell in love with the movie. It also felt very "new" to me - since it wasn't 10 years since I had first seen the movie and instead it was only 1 month.

We followed the line for Flight of Passage - winding all throughout Pandora. It wasn't terrible at all - they had CM's along the way and we never stopped moving.

I was in total awe - the way they've built Pandora is incredible. I loved all of the little details.

After about 10 minutes of winding through the line - we were inside waiting to get on! We were both shocked with how quickly it all moved!

We were then in the "loading" area - numbers 15 & 16 - and went through the pre-show experience. About 3 minutes in - the narrator stepped away and they kept repeating "We will be back momentarily. Scanning your bodies. Move around." Having never done the ride before we thought it might be part of it ... until it went on for about 8 minutes.

Delayed in the holding room ... someone in our group had been on the ride over 35 times!

Eventually we moved into the main ride area ... to have a CM ask numbers 15 and 16 to step aside. Turns out there was some sort of malfunction with our banshees during the last ride and so they were out of commission. Our only option was to go through the pre-show again.

We didn't mind - it was pretty cool being in the pre-show area by ourselves waiting for the next group!

We finally got on the ride (honestly spent more time in the delay/re-doing the pre-show than walking from the turnstile and through the line). And it. was. amazing.

It was around 8:20am when we got off the ride and checked the Lines app (awesome tool!) and Kilimanjaro Safaris was showing only a 20 min wait. We had a FP for 1pm - but we thought the animals might be more active in the morning - so we headed on over.

We basically walked on to Kilimanjaro...

It was absolutely stunning being there with the morning sun and all of the animals - at one point there was a giraffe about 3 feet from our safari truck! About halfway through we decided to soak it in and just watch it all .

At this point it was about 8:45am and we were getting a bit hungry - the line at Creature Comforts was a bit long so we stopped at the Harambe Fruit Market. Matt got a Pretzel/Coffee and I got a muffin - one of our more unique breakfasts .

We had some time before our first FP at Expedition Everest (10am) and so we wandered around AK - stopping in some shops and taking a few PhotoPass pictures.

Not sure what was happening here ... but we were going for it

Again ... really going for it....

On the way over to Expedition Everest we came across the line for the Rafiki & Timon. The CM's told us it would be a 20 minute wait - so we hopped in line.

20 minutes turned into 30 which turned into 40 ... and then when we were finally at the front ... they took a break . It was all good because soon they were back - and lots of fun! This meet ended up being one of the longest wait times of our entire trip!

Got lots of fun photos - this is one of my favs! Timon and Rafiki are so much fun together...

Coming Up: The rest of AK & Fantasmic Dessert Party!

On a Non-TR note: I hope everyone is staying healthy and being gentle with themselves! Here in NYC things have been a bit on edge/up in the air - sending positive energy and pixie dust to everyone. . ​

 

[DLo]

Just found your TR. Great start. Following along. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures. Sweet upgrade!

 

[disneyAndi14]

We stopped at Deconstructed Dish - where we tried the Deconstructed Strawberry Cheesecake. It was great!

We really enjoyed this, very good!

Meeting Mulan was great - I love the photos we got with her! I'm excited for the upcoming live action version!

Great pictures, I am really looking forward to the movie, it looks so good!
We like use Lyft/Uber it really is a time saver and well worth the minimal cost!!
AK is my favorite park, so glad you enjoyed FOP
I love the pictures and the meet with Rafiki and Timon, looks awesome

By the way I am joining in and look forward to more!

 

[andy_dangg]

We had nearly identical AK EMH experiences! Kind of regretting not doing Kilimanjaro first thing like you did, it looks so stunning!

As a side note--did y'all get Memory Maker? Forgive me if you mentioned it earlier in your report, but I like the Photopass pics so I'm thinking it might be nice for my trip with my BF. If so, did you think it was worth it?

 

[pepperandchips]

Finally checking in to say hello! Wow, what a bright spot in my sad social distancing day - I just love animal kingdom and you two are off to an amazing start! I hate that FOP pre-show Dr. Whatshisname is awful. It looks like you had a wonderful safari and a great character meet though. I’m so grateful to have happy memories and happy vicarious vacations to re-live today!!! Plus you and boo are adorable. Love all the photos!

 

[dwonderz]

Following along!

Thank you for joining!!

Just found your TR. Great start. Following along. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures. Sweet upgrade!

! Thank you for joining - we got really lucky with the upgrade!

We really enjoyed this, very good!

SO good!

Great pictures, I am really looking forward to the movie, it looks so good!
We like use Lyft/Uber it really is a time saver and well worth the minimal cost!!
AK is my favorite park, so glad you enjoyed FOP
I love the pictures and the meet with Rafiki and Timon, looks awesome

I can't wait for the movie - looks like it's being delayed now - but will definitely be seeing it whenever that is! AK is quickly becoming my fav park!

By the way I am joining in and look forward to more!

And thank you for joining in

We had nearly identical AK EMH experiences! Kind of regretting not doing Kilimanjaro first thing like you did, it looks so stunning!

It was pretty cool!! Part of me wishes that we had done Na'vi River - but I'm glad we got to see the animals when they were active

As a side note--did y'all get Memory Maker? Forgive me if you mentioned it earlier in your report, but I like the Photopass pics so I'm thinking it might be nice for my trip with my BF. If so, did you think it was worth it?

We did! We totally thought it was worth it - we got a ton of photos and we loved not having to worry about asking someone to take our photo/try to get a selfie/etc. We also loved getting all of the ride photos! As someone who forgets to take photos - it was so nice having "built-in" photo ops. Anytime we saw a PhotoPass photographer without a long line - we would stop!

Finally checking in to say hello! Wow, what a bright spot in my sad social distancing day - I just love animal kingdom and you two are off to an amazing start!

SO glad to have you here! Especially amongst all of the craziness happening in the world.

I hate that FOP pre-show Dr. Whatshisname is awful.

The pre-show definitely got old the second time through !

I’m so grateful to have happy memories and happy vicarious vacations to re-live today!!! Plus you and boo are adorable. Love all the photos!

I 100% agree with you - having TR's to read has helped me so much - they kind of feel like a big virtual hug More to come soon!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

What a great start to your day in AK. Uber/lyft is so convenient and inexpensive! We use it more and more now in WDW lol.

Love the picture with Rafiki and Timon- so cute!

Things are so scary in NYC right now. Stay safe and healthy!

 

[dwonderz]

Chapter Five: Animal Kingdom Continues!

After meeting Rafiki and Timon we headed over to use our first FP of the day at Expedition Everest. This was one of my favorite rides aaaallllllll the way back in 2011 and I was very excited to ride it again.

On the way to Everest!

We made it onto the ride within 5 minutes - and it was just as fun as I remembered it being ! Unfortunately we were still getting the hang of scanning our MagicBands for our photos and I think we scanned on the wrong kiosk - so no ride photo for this one

We then headed back across AK to Pandora to use our FP for Na'Vi River Journey. Part of me wished I had done a better job of scheduling our FP's so they were in similar areas - but I was so nervous about grabbing them that I just got whatever I could at the 60-day mark. Plus our booking window was 7am Christmas Morning ...
So that was interesting

My setup way back on Christmas Morning...

We really liked Na'Vi - I thought the animatronics were amazing and all of the theming was pretty cool. That being said- I totally see where some of the critique around the ride comes from (too slow/boats too close together/not immersed enough/etc.) - and it certainly doesn't feel like Disney's most tech-savvy ride. I do think it's a nice compliment to FOP ... but I wish there was one or two more rides in Pandora to round it all out.

While we were on line for Na'vi - we placed a mobile order for Satu'Li Canteen. We both got variations on the wood-grilled chicken bowl and were very happy.

My kids meal looking miniature-sized in comparison to Matt's

Loved the theming in Satu'Li!

Afterwards we stopped by Pongu Pongu to try the Night Blossom - also delicious - and spent some time just people watching in Pandora.

Night Blossom!

Heading out of our new favorite land

We also took some time to grab a few more PhotoPass pics before heading over to Festival of the Lion King ...

The line for the show was so long - we were nervous that we weren't going to make it in for the 1:00pm show. Thankfully we made it in! We were seated in the Giraffe section ...

The show was fantastic! I love all of the entertainment at Disney World - and I think its what really sets it apart from other theme parks. Granted - I am a bit biased since I work in the arts - but I really do believe the various shows/acts are what really keep the magic alive!

After the show, we decided to head out, as it was starting to get a bit hot and a bit crowded. On the way out - we saw this guy with no line.

Neither of us could remember what movie he was from - and were arguing about whether this was a rare character or not. The woman standing in line ahead heard us going back and forth and just as she was getting ready to meet said unknown character turned to us and goes "Oh my! It's so nice to meet you Meeko - Pocahontas' sidekick. It's so rare to see you away from Pocahontas!"

Meeko was fantastic - and we were very thankful to the woman in front of us in line! It's small moments like that at Disney which I love. We'll probably never see that woman again - but she totally made our day.

Side Note (pt. 2): Hope you all are continuing to stay healthy and safe with everything that is happening! Here in NYC a lot of things are closed and we're all trying hard to practice our social distancing. Finding the entire soundtrack for Pandora on YouTube has definitely brightened my days a bit!

Up Next: Resort Time & Fantasmic Dessert Party ​

 

[dwonderz]

What a great start to your day in AK. Uber/lyft is so convenient and inexpensive! We use it more and more now in WDW lol.

Uber is life-changing!

Love the picture with Rafiki and Timon- so cute!

Things are so scary in NYC right now. Stay safe and healthy!

Thank you!! We are practicing social distancing and taking it day by day. I hope you are staying safe as well!!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Everest is my favorite ride at AK! I love it even more than FoP. I just wish the Yeti would move again... Oh well.

I also LOVE Satu'li for food. It's such a great way to have it set up with the bowls and sauces and makes it really easy to accommodate all sorts of dietary restrictions. Derek and I are vegetarian and I have a sister with Celiac's and we agree this is the best quick serve place we've been to.