First Time at Fort Wilderness Cabins (Day 4 posted 24 March)

[tkd lisa]

Welcome to my latest trip report!

Dates: 9-13 March 2026
Where: Cabins at Fort Wilderness using DVC points
People:

• Me, Lisa. Age 61, retired federal employee. I live in Tampa, am a DVC owner (SSR and HH), a long time Disney Annual Passholder.

• DM, my mom Helen, age 88, retired nurse. She lives two hours south of Tampa, and enjoys a more sedate Disney experience. She’s a heart patient, and uses either a scooter or a wheelchair because she can only walk about 25 yards without stopping.

• DS2, my son Casey, age 32, active duty navy sonarman, currently on a shore duty assignment in King’s Bay GA (just north of Jacksonville)

• DDIL, Casey’s wife Kay, age 35, stay at home mom who homeschools the kids and manages a challenging household. She (and my son) are former college program cast members.

• DGD, Ely, who turns 10 just after the trip. This was her birthday celebration. Ely was literally born at Celebration Hospital, and still loves Disney although she’s moved on from the characters. She’s into fantasy (dragons and mermaids are high on her lists) as well as Greek mythology, and loves theater.

• DGS Cayden, age 5. Cayden is autistic, and we are only able to do Disney with the use of Disability Assistance Support (DAS). He’s a super sweet kid, who really loves his Grammy (that’s me) and GiGi (my mom).

I’m going to break this into a trip report that covers the actual trip, and one that focuses on the DVC cabin elements. I’ll load the 2nd part into the DVC trip report page, since that seems to be mostly interesting to DVC members. Here's the link.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/5-days-at-fort-wilderness-cabins.3980127/
But all of the trip details are going to be here. Are you ready? Here goes!
Day 1, March 9th
Our initial day had DM and I driving over from Tampa early in the morning, while DS and his family were driving down from Georgia after he reported in for morning muster. For those not familiar with the military, their vacation (or leave) works a little differently. They get charged for the weekend days unless they report for muster Monday and Friday. Because they have a lot of short trips scheduled, DS is conserving leave, and since his family are NOT early risers, they agreed that he would go into work Monday morning, then leave after muster. He was also going to return Thursday night, leaving the rest of the family to return with me over the weekend. That meant that instead of 9 days of leave, he would only have to take 3.

DM and I were awake fairly early, and after a stop by Wawa for coffee and breakfast, we were on the road by 7:30. We did hit some traffic on I-4, which turned a 75 minute drive into a 2 hour drive. But we were at Fort Wilderness by 9:20, and dropped off our cooler bag with bell services before heading to Hollywood Studios. Once inside the park, we could tell it was going to be a crowded day because all the wait times were fairly long. So at 9:50, we chose to head to the first villians show of the day (10:30), since that was on our “must-do” list for this trip. I did get a few photopass shots while we were waiting, then we were seated in the very front with Mom’s wheelchair. DDIL and I texted while waiting on the show to start, and she said that they were still waiting for my son to be released from duty, and we agreed that due to the crowds, we would adjust to a different park for the day.



Mom and I really enjoyed the show, and got some good pictures since we were close. But the location was a bit TOO close to actually get the whole experience. Captain Hook won our show, and very energetically sang his victory song! Pics below.



Once done, DM and I decided to switch to Magic Kingdom, because their lines were fairly reasonable. So we drove back to Fort Wilderness, planning to park the car by the boat dock and transfer over by ferry boat. This was our first experience with Fort Wilderness transportation challenges (detailed further in the DVC trip report section). Let’s leave it by saying that there is no general parking anywhere in Fort Wilderness. You either park at your campsite/cabin or up at the very front and take resort internal transportation to all locations. Thankfully, we got the text saying our cabin was ready at 11:20, so we parked in front of 2701, our home for the week. We settled in, getting our cooler bag and grabbing a quick sandwich in the room. A few pictures of the room below.


We then went out to get the internal bus to the ferry boat, leaving the cabin at 12:45. By this time, DS’s family was on their way, and planned to go straight to the cabin on arrival. DDIL’s mom and brother (who live in Melbourne, about an hour from WDW) were at Animal Kingdom, so we planned to meet up with them later. Although the bus to ferry transfer seemed to take a long time, we were in MK by about 2pm, and headed straight to Small World, which was Mom’s choice. With Mom’s wheelchair, we enter this ride at the exit and transfer to the boat opposite the normal line. During our ride, we had a really cute family behind us. They were trying to guess what country all the dolls were from in each room. Once we got to the last all white room, the little girl just couldn’t figure it out, so I turned around and told her it was all of the countries, just wearing white to show that it really was a small world. She told her mom, who said “Oh, you are right! You’re so smart!” and the little girl giggled and said, “no, that lady told me!”

Once off small world, the parade crowds were building at 2:30. Mom didn’t want to see it, and asked to go to Country Bears Jamboree, so we wove our way along the pathway. For those people who grumble about being asked to keep a walkway clear, realize that weaving a wheelchair through a narrow path is super challenging! There was one family laying flat out on the sidewalk, with all of their souvenirs spread out who were particularly annoyed about being asked to make way!



The new Country Bears is a cute little show, with all the music Disney themed. We exited right as the parade was starting, and wove the rest of the way down the clear walkway to the Dole Whip stand across from Aladdin’s Carpets. This was the longest line I’ve ever seen for Dole Whip! It was doubled back, and ended at the cross over to FronteirLand, taking about 15 minutes to order. The family was at the cabin, so we headed out to meet them, getting on the boat at 3:40. Our return was faster and we were in the cabin by 4:10.

Up next: Dinner off-property followed by an evening at EPCOT including late EMH.

 

[tkd lisa]

March 9, part 2.
I left off with everyone back at the cabin, and everything unpacked. DM typically doesn’t go back out after our mid-day break, preferring to stay in and watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. So I fixed her a light dinner while DDIL coordinated with her family for our meet up. They prefer to eat off property, so we agreed to meet at Ford’s Garage off 192 for dinner. This location is in a new “neighborhood-style” shopping area, and when we checked in, they explained that due to the location we would be automatically charged a gratuity and service charge. Since everyone was hungry, and they had immediate seating, we went ahead and ate there. It was honestly just barely on the “okay” side. It took more than an hour and a half just to get a basic burger and fries meal, and the bill for 3 adults and 2 kids came to $100. Everyone there was experiencing the same questionable service, and we were treated to screaming children behind us for most of the meal.

Once finished, we headed back into the Disney bubble, with us heading back to EPCOT making it into the park shortly after 7pm. Tonight was late night EMH, so we planned to hit the minor rides before park closing, then focus on DGS’s favorite Test Track. Once inside DDIL pulled a DAS for Test Track, then we all rode Spaceship Earth. Afterward the kids played some of the games with their dad and Funcle (fun uncle). That’s when we saw that TT was down. Since our DAS wasn’t coming up for another 45 minutes, we decided not to say anything to DGS, instead head over to split into two groups. DS, DGD, and Funcle went over to ride Mission Space which was showing a 20 minute wait, while the rest of us rode Nemo. The plan was to meet up at Livin with the Land to ride together before hopefully heading to Test Track if it was back up.

After we met up, the Test Track DAS had converted to a “use anywhere” reservation, since it was nearly 8:45 and the park was closing. I split off from the group to watch the evening fireworks, and the rest used that pass to ride Soarin together. Since DAS is still available during EMH, DDIL pulled one for Frozen, and we all met up after the fireworks were finished. I grabbed this cute picture of the Moana flower and garden display, then we headed around World Showcase to Norway. DS and I sat out Frozen while the others used the DAS, and thankfully, TT came back up while we were waiting, so I grabbed a DAS for it!




Everyone rode the Mexico boat ride together on the way back around to the front of the park to ride TT. I sat this one out since I knew I'd be riding TT with DGS many times the rest of the week. We headed out of the park about 10:45. Back in the room and in bed by 11:30.



Up next, morning at Magic Kingdom.

 

[DLo]

Following along . Looking forward to reading more

 

[tkd lisa]

Mar 10, Plan for today: Morning at Magic Kingdom. Dinner in room, then either pool or park time.

We all slept in a bit, since the kids didn’t want to go directly to sleep, finally giving in around 1:30am. We ate breakfast in the cabin, and loaded up in the car to head to the Ticket and Transportation Center around 10. We decided this would be the best way, since it was a challenge to get to the boat dock. We split up because DGS wanted to ride the monorail, and it’s a challenge to push DM’s wheelchair up the ramp. DM and I took the ferry boat, and met up with the kids once we were inside the park. As we were on the ferry boat, I couldn't find my phone, so I texted the kids to tell them to use DM’s number for us. I assumed it had fallen out in the car, or that I might have left it in the cabin.

I just figured out I didn’t include the photopass pictures DM and I had taken at the MK entrance on Monday, so I’m adding them here.



Once inside MK, DDIL pulled a DAS for Tiana’s since it was a fairly warm day. I set DM up near the exit to wait for us (after a quick restroom stop). She held onto most of our things to avoid getting them soaked. It was a fun ride, with DGS and I riding in the front row per his request. We did get a bit wet, but not completely soaked. Once off the ride, we decided to get photopass shots since we were all wearing the matching outfits I had made. The photographer was really good, and enjoyed getting us all to pose for magic shots.



We decided to try to stop at the DVC lounge in Frontier Land to get some snacks and drinks. There was no wait, so we enjoyed the air-conditioning for a while. When DM and I had taken the boat from Ft Wilderness the previous day, I had seen a sign for wagon rides and carriage rides, and the price didn’t seem too bad ($10 pp for wagon rides, and $65 for the carriage ride). So I brought it up with DDIL as a possibility for DGD’s birthday. DGD was super excited about it. The wagon rides were only Fri-Sun, and we didn’t want to stay that long on Friday. But we were able to grab a reservation for the carriage ride on Wed. Evening. Plus we got a discount as DVC members, so it was less than $60 for the whole family. While we were doing that, the DVC cast member offered to take a birthday photo with DGD. She got a sign and personalized it for DGD, which was really nice. Edited to add the photos. And a bonus on with both grandkids.



DDIL had pulled a DAS for HM which was ready for use. DGS asked my mom to ride with him.



While they were riding, I headed off to relocate the stroller into Fantasy Land, since we were going to ride Small World next. While I was waiting on them to come out, I was sitting right behind the ice cream cart, and the CM handed me a mickey ice cream sandwich. He said “You might as well enjoy some ice cream while you wait!”. That was super nice, and unexpected, especially because that’s my favorite Disney ice cream treat. The family came out and finished off the last half of the ice cream, and we all headed over to ride It’s a Small World. Once we were done with that, DM was ready for a break in the room. She and I took the boat/bus back and left the car for the rest of the family. We grabbed lunch, and played canasta, while the others rode a few things in TomorrowLand.

On their way back to the cabin, the kids called Mom’s phone and said that they thought my phone was maybe lost because they didn’t see it anywhere, and when DDIL called it, the phone went straight to voicemail. I called it back, and they answered from my android auto, which meant the phone was somewhere in the car! Apparently, I had accidently set my DDIL’s number to blocked. She typically uses Facebook rather than calling, and her number uses an area code commonly used for SPAM, which must be why I did it! By the time they got back, DS had found my phone, which had slipped under the seat.

We cooked some chicken and veggies that I had brought with us for dinner, then changed into swimwear. We took the kids over to the nearby Wilderness Pool with the goal of swimming and doing laundry. We typically do laundry in our one-bedroom DVC rooms throughout the week, especially when we get hot and sweaty but since cabins don’t have washer/dryers we wanted to see how difficult it would be to use the communal units. We actually used DM’s wheelchair to transport the laundry basket so no one had to carry it, which worked out well. DDIL set the clothes up, while DS and I got the kids into the pool. Unfortunately, there were NO pool towels anywhere to be found. I think when they have a lifeguard on duty, they pass them out, but it was around 7pm, and no one was there. We all splashed around until the clothes were ready to move to the dryer, then headed back to warm up in the shower in the cabin. I went back to get the dried clothes, and we were all in bed (and thankfully everyone went right to sleep) around 10pm.

Up next:
Morning at Hollywood Studios, Birthday Lunch at T-Rex, Carriage Ride at Fort Wilderness, and Late EMH at Magic Kingdom. Whew, good thing we had a light day today!

 

[tkd lisa]

Wed March 11th, Day 3

We started out earlier today, thanks to a better nights sleep for everyone. We breakfasted in the cabin, and were all out the door and in the car by around 9:15, headed to Hollywood Studios. DGD was on a mission to ride Tower of Terror, so she and DS headed there as soon as we entered. The rest of us pulled a DAS for Toy Story Midway Mania and headed back that direction. DGS loves the Alien Saucer spin, but no one else can handle the motion, so I was his designated partner! We did standby there while DDIL took DM for a quick bathroom break. DGS was squealing the whole time, and I got a cute video of him taunting all the cars who were in front of us that we were catching up with them. Unfortunately I don’t know how to post videos here.

Meanwhile, DS and DGD had a great ToT drop (picture below), and DDIL was looking at all the time slots trying to figure out how to fit in the Villians and Little Mermaid show. We decided to try to do Mermaid after our Midway Mania DAS, so she pulled a DAS for their family as soon as we tapped through. My son rode Mania with my mom, while I rode with my grandson. It was kind of cool having two generations of grandma/grandson groupings! As always DDIL beat everyone else. She’s got DGD trained on how to open up the rocket ship and get the fox out of the henhouse. It never works for me, so I just focus on having fun!


We headed over to the Mermaid show, waiting in the crazy cattle pen holding area. DDIL is also on the neuro-divergent spectrum, and really struggles in crowds. Since DM was staying in her wheelchair, they joined us up on the side of the room leading to the front of the theater, which allowed DDIL to back up against a wall, avoiding the worst of the panic attack. Unfortunately, wheelchair seating is super super close to the stage, essentially almost impossible to see the show (pic below, which wasn't zoomed in at all). DDIL took the kids back a couple of rows which was a little better viewpoint. From there, we headed over to catch a Villians Show. DM and I were the last handicap party taken in, and she transferred this time so we weren’t so close to the stage. DS’s family was on the other side of the theater, and we joined up after Cruella won the competition!


By this time we needed to head out for our 1:30 T-Rex lunch reservation. This was DGD’s pick for her birthday. We had eaten there last summer, and it was one of the best meals we have had at Disney in quite a while. And the kids love digging in the dig pit. We shared 2 adult meals (stuffed salmon and seafood trinity), a mozzarella stick appetizer, the kids each got a kids meal, DS got a specialty drink and DGD got a souvenir slushy. This fed all of us pretty well, at a total of $186. DS and DDIL did a little shopping while the kids dug in the dig pit, then we headed back for a short break in the cabin.



Several of us wanted to try to larger Meadow’s pool which had a slide and a kids splash area. Even Mom wanted to go, since they had a hot tub, which she really enjoys. Minor disaster ensued. DGS had been warned numerous times during the trip about running in and out of the cabin onto the deck, because we were afraid he was going to pinch his hand in the door. Well, when DS tried to get him to come in and get on his swimsuit, he pushed back on the door, and got his foot caught underneath, scraping up his little toe pretty badly. We got him all cleaned up with antibiotic cream and bandaids. -- Sidebar, although he did limp a little bit while we were at the pool, he had absolutely no impact from this. Got to love how resilient kids are. An adult would have struggled for a week given how squished it was!

I took DM and DGD down to the pool via the bus, and after they got DGS calmed down and changed, DS drove them down. This pool did have active lifeguards, who explained that they don’t leave pool towels out anywhere in the resort. They did bring us a pile to use, and said that we take them back to our cabin, and even call housekeeping to bring us some if we wanted to use the other pool again.

I'll break this into two because I've got lots of pictures for the last half.

 

[tkd lisa]

We left off at the Meadows Pool.
After about 45 minutes, I took mom back to the cabin, since the wheelchair transfer can be a challenge, plus she wanted to get a shower before the rest of them came back. DDIL let the kids play on the splash pad for about a half hour, then DS picked them up so we could get dressed for the rest of the evening’s big plans. I had booked the carriage ride at Pioneer Hall for 7pm, and we were going to late night EMH at MK afterward. During our transfer on Tuesday, I thought I saw where there was a parking lot near the Hoop de Doo location which I could use, so we banked on parking the car there for the evening. Well, turns out that parking lot is not accessible from the resort, and is a staff only lot. It was 6:40 by this time, so I dropped of DS, DDIL, DGD, and DGS and drove my car back to the cabin and took the bus back down. I got there just as they were returning from their ride, which they absolutly ADORED. DGD told me this was the best thing she has ever done at Disney! Below are some pictures. Their horse was named Pirate, he was 7 years old and had been working since he was 5. Apparently DGD did the princess wave throughout the trip, graciously bestowing her presence on her loyal subjects



We caught the ferry boat over to MK, just in time for a gorgeous sunset. DDIL had snagged a reservation for 3 at Beak and Barrel for about 9:20, so we were planning on hitting some rides together, then splitting up after the parade with me taking DGS. Once in the park, we had a bit of a challenge, with DGS insisting that the only thing he wanted to DAS was Monsters Inc. We were on the wrong side of the park, and didn’t want to fight the crowds who were forming for the parade and the fireworks. DGS finally agreed to seeing the Tiki Bird show. We exited out just in time to cross over and catch the evening parade from the back side of the boardwalk in order to avoid the crowds. It’s not the best view, but it accomodates the needs of our group. We ducked into the pin store to await the flood of people exiting, then separated. DDIL had pulled a pirates DAS before we went into Tiki room, but the ride had been down the whole time, yet hadn’t changed over to an “anytime/anyride” reservation. On their way to Beak and Barrel they stopped by Pirates and the CM just gave us a set of “anytime” passes good for any park to be used the next day (this proves important tomorrow).



Meanwhile I had pulled a DAS for the Speedway, and took DGS over to get in his Monsters’ Inc fix. There weren’t too many people in the theater, so we got picked for one of the interactions. It was the one where the Monster says he knows all about the human world, so he told “Cayden from Georgia”, that Georgia is a land of frozen tundra, full of garlic and of course, the home of the Eiffel Tower! Cayden proudly told him “no, you are wrong!” only to be told that everything had changed since Monday. The Monster sang the new national anthem of Georgia, and DGS giggled about that the rest of the week! Once out of the theater, DDIL reminded me that we needed to grab food if we were hungry before park closing. We got a hot dog, chips and a pretzel at the Lunching Pad, and sat and watched some of the fireworks while we shared this. From there, we went to the Speedway, where they had closed their lightning lane, making the DAS worthless. Luckily it was only about 10 minutes, so I pulled another DAS for Winnie the Pooh, and we rode the PeopleMover while we waited it out. About this time, the rest of the group was finished in Adventureland, so we met up.

DS, DDIL, and DGD absolutely LOVED Beak and Barrel. They had the “Infamous Craig” as their server. Apparently there were a couple of off-duty CM’s in the area, and they said Craig really is known as a spectacular server. They enjoyed everything, and came out to do some magic shot photopass shots, as well as ride Pirates, which had come back up. We were now into evening EMH, so the lines weren’t bad for anything except Mine Train and Tron.



DGS was about done, saying he wanted to go back to the room after Winnie the Pooh. They really wanted to ride Tron, so DDIL went to the CM there and requested a return time since she had been denied a DAS. They got a return time for 11:55, so they rode a few other things while waiting, then had a great TRON ride, and closed down the park. DGS was able to get a set of boat trading cards from our ferry boat Captain, which made his evening. Unfortunately, our bus transit was pretty slow, so we didn’t get back to the cabin until 12:20. The rest of the group had a smooth transit, and were back by 12:45. DM was fast asleep, so another great Disney day was in the books!

Next post will have the photopass shots. I told you there were lots of pictures!

 

[tkd lisa]

Photopass pictures!




Up next, Last full day with Dad/DS

Plan for the day: Morning at Animal Kingdom, Break to see dad off, evening at EPCOT with lots of TT. Spoiler Alert - This changes.

 

[tkd lisa]

Day 4, Thur 12 March

Since this was our last day with DS, we got everyone up fairly early so we accomplish our plans before he needed to head out. One thing I forgot to mention in the previous day’s report was that our drying line in the shower had broken. We hung all the swimsuits on it, and when I took them down to take a shower, the line snapped. I called maintenance who came and fixed it while we were gone, so we were able to use it for our suits after Wednesday’s swim. This was one of those times that the lack of an in-room washer and dryer affected us because we could have tossed a lot of the stuff in a dryer, but had to hang tons of stuff instead.
Back to Thursday. A variety of things for breakfast in the cabin. While we were getting ready, housekeeping knocked on the door (probably around 8:15, which seemed really early to me) to do the towel and trash service. I explained that we had someone in the bathroom, and suggested that he come back later, but did say that we were desperately in need of towels. He brought a stack of them to me, and evidently decided that this fulfilled the housekeeping for the day because no one ever pulled the trash on this day.

Once in Animal Kingdom, DDIL pulled a DAS for safari, and we split into two groups. DGD wanted to ride Everest with her dad, so they headed over while the rest of us went to see the otters playing. I got a good picture of DM, DDIL, and DGS while they were doing this. When we headed out of there, DGS insisted on pushing his stroller. Unfortunately it was fairly crowded, and he was not being a safe driver. We ended up having to step over to the area by the lemurs to try to resolve this issue, where he had a minor melt down. He was reaching his limit of exposure, and kept insisting that he wanted us to get a DAS for Toy Story Mania. He just couldn’t understand that this was a different park. And he kept grabbing the stroller and shoving it into people. Since he typically needs some cool down time with limited input to resolve these issues, I had DDIL take my mom for a bathroom break, and told her we’d meet up for our Safari DAS. After about 15 minutes of him basically just sitting with me in the quiet, he finally agreed to go to Safari, and wanted to get a Flight of Passage DAS for afterward so he could ride with GiGi. He had ridden FOP for the first time during our last trip, and really enjoyed it. But my Mom had stayed in the room since it was late night EMH, and DGS wanted to share the ride with her.



I parked the stroller, and we made our way to DDIL. DGS was still struggling a bit, so we wanted to get into an attraction to distract him. I hadn’t been watching the app, and DDIL said that it was time for the DAS, so we went up to the touchpoints, and DGS touched in first, which is what you have to do for DAS. It went green immediately, which should have alerted me of an issue. -- Sidebar – when you use a DAS, the DAS receipient goes first, it lights up blue while the CM verifies it’s the actual DAS holder, then they activate the group. So since it went green, it was actually using our “anytime return” from last night’s pirate issue. When DM tried to tap in, she flashed blue because she wasn’t with us so didn’t have the antime return. The 3 CMs who were there were NOT helpful. In fact, they actually ignored our issue and worked with another family who had come up after us. Once we finally got them to talk to us, they said “well you have to have the DAS holder check in”, which we did. They finally got DM a green light, and as we went into the queue, DDIL checked the app and found that it had used the 3 return times for DGS, her and me. She was pretty upset about it. As a prior CM, she felt like they should have actively engaged with us to be sure things were correct. Plus it was getting really congested which sets off DDIL’s panic sense. I told her I’d go to guest services after we got off and try to get it fixed.

We went through the handicapped section, and got onto our truck in about 15 minutes. Handicapped loading did seem to be pretty crowded, and the parking area for the scooters and wheelchairs was VERY full. On the plus side, we had a great safari. The elephants were super close, and we actually saw a baby and adult giraffe both sitting/lying down. Pics below. Thankfully, the ride worked to reset DGS, so he was back to his normal self once we got off.



We met up with DS and DGD, and that group headed over to try to catch the Lion King show while I went to the guest services umbrella to resolve the issue. DDIL had cleared our Safari DAS, and pulled a FOP DAS while we were on the safari, and we planned on getting lunch at Satuli Canteen before heading back to send DS on his way back to GA. The CM at the guest services umbrella was able to see what had happened (apparently we were just a couple of minutes early for our DAS window, so that’s why it didn’t pull the DAS first), and asked me what I wanted to do to fix the issue. I told him we were going to EPCOT that night, so if he could just give an EPCOT return for the three of us, we’d use that along with DGD’s remaining return time for a ride there. DS’s return would just expire since he wasn’t going to be with us. -- Heads up that this didn’t exactly work out.

I met up with the family at Lion King, and we made our way down to Pandora. The CM accomodated our entire group, so DGS was able to ride between Grammy and GiGi, which absolutely made his day. And since we were using the wheelchair, we stayed on the lower level, meaning no steps! As we were in line, we placed a Mobile order for Satulis, getting 2 kids meals, and 2 adult meals to share. FOP was enjoyed by everyone, and after a bathroom stop we picked up our food and sat down for lunch. This is one of those times where the shrinking Disney meal size became very apparent. We definitely needed more food, whereas in the past this would have easily fed us all. In particular, the bowl is probably half the size they used to be. Rain was rolling in, so we headed back to the cabin about 1:30, and made a couple of quesadillas and some mac and cheese to fill everyone up.

DS loaded his car and left, while everyone else rested or watched TV while the rain poured down outside. It cleared up around 4, and DDIL and I got the kids ready for our EPCOT evening. As we were driving over, the rain came back, and as we parked she was checking the radar which looked like rain was going to stay there for at least another hour. She pointed out that Test Track doesn’t run in the rain, and since that’s DGS’s primary goal we started thinking about alternatives. As we went through security, we saw a SEA of people. The CM was directing traffic, saying “event entrance straight ahead, regular park entrance to the left”. It turned out there was a paid After Hours event at EPCOT that night. Wait times in the app were already ridiculous, and TT was showing as closed (probably because of the rain). We went to the turnstiles as directed, and the CM there said “this is event entrance only”. Disney definitely failed on traffic control here. We could see the signs, and they literally pointed to left and right of the exit, as “event entry”. The only other turnstiles were exit only. A bunch of people were milling around, trying to figure it out, and DDIL called an audible. HS was running 2 Fantasmics that night (last one at 10:30), and the park was open until 10, so we went there instead.

During the drive, we decided that even though we had wasted an hour, the extra 90 minutes would make the difference, and we’d switch our Friday plans to EPCOT instead of Studios. DGS said that he was willing to do Rise of the Resistance for his sister (he really doesn’t like the section where you drop at the end), so we pulled that once inside the park. We also took advantage of the low crowds to fix a photopass problem that we had where I wasn’t able to pull DDIL and DGS’s pictures. This was a big deal because we had gotten some adorable shots with Figment with DGS and I during our one day Festival of the Arts trip. But now they had completely dropped off each of our apps. I had stopped at MK a couple of days earlier, but they couldn’t fix it. Thankfully, the CM at Studios worked it out for us, and was able to recover the missing shots (posted below). DDIL wrote up a cast compliment for her, and we headed over to Star Tours for a walk on ride.


This is when we realized that we needed to try to adjust our EPCOT ride return since we weren’t in that park. I headed to the guest services umbrella that was at the entrance to Galaxy’s Edge, but it had already closed. The only option was to go to the front of the park, which was a long way the wrong direction. And by this time, Rise was down. It converted to an open return time, so we pulled a DAS for Toy Story Mania, and walked through to Toy Story Land. DGS and I rode the saucers, while DDIL convinced the CM at Slinky Dog to accept DGD’s anytime pass, and the EPCOT one. This time, DGD rode with me on Toy Story, while DGS rode with his mom. Once off, we headed to Millenium Falcon but as DGD really wanted to ride Tower of Tower, and I was worried we wouldn’t have time before the park closed. So she and I split off to use the Rise return passes, while DGS and DDIL once again saved the planet. The ToT line was a little nuts with a couple of big school groups clogging the tapstiles before their time, but we made it in, and got the front row, so there wasn’t anything blocking DGD’s face in the picture.



We met up at Fantasmic. It was a pretty empty theater, so we were able to be seated in the upper handicapped section without a bunch of people around us. We grabbed some snacks, and enjoyed DDIL’s favorite show on property. Her last job with Disney she worked in costuming for this show, and knows all the secrets. Because of the wet conditions, this was apparently a “Plan B” show, which was kind of interesting. We had a young lady seated behind us who was apparently just as much of a “Fant-nerd” as DDIL. She was reciting all of the lines along with the show, and singing her little heart out. After the show while we waited for the crowds to clear, DDIL had a short conversation with her and her family about how much we loved hearing the little girls’ enjoyment. One last curve ball for the day. While we were waiting on the show, we went onto the app to switch our park reservations to EPCOT, and everything was showing unavailable. Now we had seen “good to go” days the entire week (although I had made reservations just to be sure), and NOW we can’t get into EPCOT?? I got the bright idea that we could drive to Studios and park, tap into the park, then take the skyliner over to EPCOT in the morning if necessary. DGS loves disney transportation, and hadn’t yet gotten a skyliner ride, so that was our plan.

In the car back at the cabin, DDIL packed up the remaining clothes, and we were all asleep by midnight. Oh, and DS had made it back to GA safely!

Up next – last day at EPCOT.