First time back in 14 years!

[Disney Addicted]

Yes - 14 years since our 1st visit staying on-site. September 2010 and now September 2024. Now, we did have a Universal Studios on-site trip in 2019 and snuck away twice to visit AK and MNSSHP, but it took us 14 years for a 2nd full Disney trip. I wish we had made it back sooner but ah well, that's how things work out sometimes. However, having said that, I told everyone I am not going back to Disney again until we have grandkids. And then, I'm only taking the kids (and my husband), not their parents! In 2010 our kids were 6 and 11. Now 20 and 25. I loved it more when they were kids!

This trip came about as I had won a Virgin Voyages cruise through Virgin Radio 99.9 (Canada) in 2019. The ship was ready in 2020 but Covid came along and grounded all ships. In 2022 I finally went on the cruise. My daughter was going to come with me but her passport had to be renewed and we didn't know when it would arrive. Finally we gave up and my aunt came with me. Virgin had to book the flights and couldn't wait any longer. Turns out her passport arrived the week before the flight/cruise. In any case, I told her I would take her on another trip later. In December 2022, she started pushing for a Disney trip instead of a cruise. Her aunt tried to talk us into a Disney Cruise instead (oh yes please!!) but did not commit to a date (even roughly), and then my husband started asking when I was going to book the trip. Fine - I'll book the trip!

This was now January 2024 and I thought I was going to lose my job (a lot of people did - thankfully I did not). So I booked a shorter trip than we originally talked about using a room discount (ASMu); booked the flights when I could not convince everyone to drive; then months later booked the Canadian Resident tickets.

Monday, September 16th finally arrived! I ordered 2 cases of water and a bottle of sunscreen to be delivered to Bell Services through Instacart and off we drove to the airport. I was very stressed about flying. I'm not normally but after my experience in 2022 getting to Miami for the cruise, I was convinced something was going to go wrong. Back then, my aunt, husband & I woke up at 2 AM to find out Air Canada sent a text message at 1 AM cancelling our flight! They rebooked us on an evening flight the next day, which would have had us landing AFTER the cruise ship departed! My husband dropped us off at the airport and it took about 3 hours to get rebooked on an evening flight leaving that same day. We ended up at the airport for 17 hours before departing. When I get stressed, I get gas in my chest and it hurts. Ugh. However, our flight to MCO took off on time and everything went smoothly.

Here's our plane and pictures I took as we arrived at our resort.



Ohh and here's something funny. I had asked for Rock Inn, hoping to get the side closest to Jazz Inn as I didn't want to pay for preferred rooms. We not only received that (building 3 - 3rd floor facing building 2 Jazz) but they gave us connecting rooms. I only asked if possible to keep our 2 rooms close to each other. That was a nice bonus. When we got there, we looked in through the windows and saw our room had a King bed and table. Nice! Then checked out the kids' room and it was the same! I had specifically advised they were brother & sister and needed 2 Queen beds. Off we trooped to the Front Desk and explained the issue to one of the Cast Members. My son told her he did not want to sleep in the same bed as his sister - lol. The CM said she would get us new rooms and went off. When she came back, she said they were both 2 Queen bed rooms. At my puzzled look she said the table is where the second bed - a murphy bed - is, and just pull it down. OMG I laughed so hard. I swear I knew that but after the stress of getting there, I had completely forgotten!

We never heard noise from the rooms on either side of us. One night someone was out on the balcony/walkway talking on the phone and that we did hear. That same night someone fast rapped on our door around 10:30 pm and took off.

I loved how quickly the soap bars became foamy. The shower pressure was awful however. The 2nd night the shower wasn't draining fast enough (pooled up around the ankles) but ASMu fixed it the next day while we were in the parks.

Safe was big enough for everything we wanted to put in it.

Air conditioning worked great. My husband likes it cold so I had to ask for a blanket. I was surprised there was no blanket tucked away in the room somewhere.

Here's the view from outside our door, and then outside looking up. Top floor - 2 rooms in the blue section.




I had ordered (from Instacart) 2 cases of water and a bottle of sunscreen to be delivered to Bell Services. It was there when we arrived. When we brought it back to our room and opened the plastic bag containing the sunscreen, we discovered the lid was off the bottle and almost half the sunscreen all over the inside of the bag... This was our first time using Instacart.

 

[Tina1]

Can’t wait to hear more

 

[Disney Addicted]

Before I go into Day 2 of our trip, I want to mention a couple of things.

We liked ASMu and had no complaints whatsoever. Our first trip we booked at Coronado Springs Resort as it was our first real family vacation (besides Great Wolf Lodge) and my husband & I wanted a more quieter, peaceful, toned down vibe. The values looked to be more attracted to kids. The deciding factor became the queen beds at CSR instead of double (we were sharing beds with the kids, then 6 and 11), and we booked the Free Dining and received the DDP instead of QuickService.

This time, since I was trying to keep costs down, I thought we'd book the room discount, discounted park tickets and pay for dining. So we booked ASMu to save money. I wanted POP but it was about another $500 per room.

However, this trip we discovered we (my husband & I) want a moderate resort in the future. There is so much stimulation in the parks that we do not want it at the resorts. We want the peaceful, serene, vibe before and after the parks.

Also, we discovered we prefer the Free Dining. Yes, we would pay full rack for room & tickets but we missed the sit-down table service meals and not watching our wallets. Now, I had made up a spreadsheet before booking to compare the cost if we had Free Dining or how much the same meals would cost OOP with the discounts instead. Surprisingly the totals came out very close. Since our daughter does not eat much anyways, we thought we would give OOP a try.

Theory was different than real life. We started questioning our meal decisions and avoiding places we originally intended eating at. I cancelled an ADR I very much wanted due to price and avoided booking others.

Future visits will be with Free Dining. Quick-Service breakfast, a snack or two at lunch, and an air conditioned sit-down table service dinner. Or swap the QS and TS sometimes. Years ago I was told TS meals would take at least a couple of hours but we were never there for 2 hours. We really missed the TS.

I know Free Dining has multiple debates on value, but for us, it works and we like it.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Since Tuesday was a MNSSHP, and we have already done that twice, we decided MK would be our park day that day. I had read that a lot of people (without hoppers) will skip MK on party night, making the crowds lighter during the day. Since we're not big thrill riders we figured we could ride everything we intended from about 10-7 pm. I did not purchase hoppers. Honestly, I cannot see the point of leaving one park for another park and wasting park time on transportation. We spend the entire day in one park.

Here's some more resort photos as we walk to the front to call an Uber:



I left a Kona Cafe review in the Disney Restaurant section already so some of you might have read it already. I stalked MDE for about 2 weeks to get a 7:35 AM breakfast at O'hana and succeeded. However, since we booked a room discount and Canadian Resident tickets, this meant we did not have Free Dining. I ended up cancelling O'hana. I could not justify at least $60 a person (multiplied by 4 people) for breakfast. Now if I had booked the Free Dining, we would have kept our O'hana reservation!

I remembered Tonga Toast though and still wanted to try it. I was able to book an ADR for Kona Cafe easily. Even though not rope-dropping MK, I still wanted as early as I could get so we didn't arrive too late at MK. I ended up with a 7:40 AM and we called an Uber to take us there.

The Tonga Toast was larger than I expected (and good) - especially with the strawberry sauce provided. My husband ordered the Macadani nut pancakes and we split our plates. Our son ordered the Tonga Toast as well. Our daughter hardly eats breakfast, if at all. The lady who took our orders told her about their seasonal pancake (pumpkin) and offered to provide her a small pancake. I think she charged her the kids' meal price as it was only about $8. The meals all came with a side - bacon or sasauge. The food was good and I'm happy we ate here. I couldn't finish all my breakfast. I tried a bite of my daughter's pumpkin pancake and it tasted better than I thought it would. I wish I took more photos there.

Now, when we arrived I was cold (wet hair, air conditioning) and planned on ordering a hot drink. However, the lady who took our orders told us about a particular shake. She said it was not on the menu but she could order it for us. Chocolate strawberry! How can you go wrong with that?! It was delicious! And presented so pretttily! By the way, the flower is edible if you want to eat it. My son did.



After breakfast we browsed the two gift shops inside Poly and, of course, traded pins. I completely fell in love with these but did not want to carry them all day! I was told they would also be in Tomorrowland at MK. Yay!



Ohh, this reminds me - I had seen a Stitch mug online (Disney store) and found it at ASMu's gift shop when we arrived the night before. It was my very first Disney purchase of this trip.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Afterwards, I asked for directions to the TTC so we could take the boat to MK. (We have not done that before). The gentleman told us to take their boat instead. So we got to walk around back and see a bit more of the resort. A great shot of the Grand Florian as well. I believe that is the resort.



According to the first photograph I took inside MK, we arrived at 9:35 AM. Main Street looks crowded to me! It didn't feel that crowded as we moved further into the park, until we were heading out around 6 PM.




We did:
Buzz LightYear
Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
PeopleMover (1st time)
Journey of the Little Mermaid (I think)
Pirates of the Caribbean
Liberty Square Riverboat (1st time)
Haunted Mansion
MIckey's PhilharMagic
Winnie the Pooh
It's a Small World (my husband's 1st time)
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Well - my husband and son road 7DMT. I had intended to until I watched a Youtube video... Then I chickened out. Our daughter never intended to ride it. We went on Winnie the Pooh while they did 7DMT. Even though their wait time was longer, they were finished first.

When the kids were 6 and 11, they loved the Mad Tea Party! I couldn't get them on it this time around.

My husband:


I was hoping to split the Halloween Turkey Club with bacon on black sandwich bread (and fries) with my husband but I think it was at the Plaza TS and needed a reservation. We had the maple-mustard glazed salmon instead but I forgot which QS that is at.

I love how these photos came out, taken from Liberty Bell. By the way, I did not realize it runs on a track until we went on it.

 

[Disney Addicted]

We spent about 9 hours in MK on Tuesday and had a good time! It was much hotter than we thought it would be though. Like, melting hot! The Weather Network told us the temperatures would be feeling like 38 C (100.4 F) for the next 2 or 3 days. It rarely goes that hot back home for us. I like when it's 28 to 30 C (though that is when my family starts demanding the A/C be turned), but 38 C? Whew!

I had read about cooling towels and saw them at various places inside MK but scoffed at such a thing. How could those possibly make a difference? More on that later.

On the way out, we explored the Main Street shops in more detail. We did not spend much time in them in the past, even though we had 2 prior visits to MK. My daughter & I watched the glass blowing but my husband missed it to his dismay. I forget where he was but he took too long to arrive.

At some point on the way out, he and our son backttracked to get a dole whip. They started to go into the Ice Cream Plaza on Main Street but it was packed. Great choice! The orange dole whip they purchased was amazing! I wish I had gone back to grab one myself. I ended up with one in Animal Kingdom, but it wasn't orange and was not as good.

Before we left, we also backtracked to Tomorrowland where yes, I did get the Stitch bag! Not the backpack, but the bag. I love it! Earlier in the day I also saw Stitch but did not want to brave the lines.



Initally we had planned on going to Disney Springs for dinner at House of Blues. After 9 hours of walking, my husband & I said no way and we headed back to the resort. We ate dinner there around 8 PM. Sesame chicken, rice with red peppers & onions. At least my husband & I did. I think the kids had cheeseburgers.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Mary Pops In]

Afterwards, I asked for directions to the TTC so we could take the boat to MK. (We have not done that before). The gentleman told us to take their boat instead. So we got to walk around back and see a bit more of the resort. A great shot of the Grand Florian as well. I believe that is the resort.

View attachment 898499View attachment 898500View attachment 898501View attachment 898502View attachment 898503View attachment 898504

According to the first photograph I took inside MK, we arrived at 9:35 AM. Main Street looks crowded to me! It didn't feel that crowded as we moved further into the park, until we were heading out around 6 PM.

View attachment 898505


We did:
Buzz LightYear
Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
PeopleMover (1st time)
Journey of the Little Mermaid (I think)
Pirates of the Caribbean
Liberty Square Riverboat (1st time)
Haunted Mansion
MIckey's PhilharMagic
Winnie the Pooh
It's a Small World (my husband's 1st time)
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Well - my husband and son road 7DMT. I had intended to until I watched a Youtube video... Then I chickened out. Our daughter never intended to ride it. We went on Winnie the Pooh while they did 7DMT. Even though their wait time was longer, they were finished first.

When the kids were 6 and 11, they loved the Mad Tea Party! I couldn't get them on it this time around.

My husband:
View attachment 898506

I was hoping to split the Halloween Turkey Club with bacon on black sandwich bread (and fries) with my husband but I think it was at the Plaza TS and needed a reservation. We had the maple-mustard glazed salmon instead but I forgot which QS that is at.

I love how these photos came out, taken from Liberty Bell. By the way, I did not realize it runs on a track until we went on it.

View attachment 898509View attachment 898510

It sounds like you had a terrific day!

 

[StarCruzer]

We did the dining plan once and struggled to finish all the credits. Now when we're planning a Disney trip we just buy $100-200 per month in Disney gift cards in the months leading up to the trip. Meals are prepaid and we rarely have to think about the cost (but we are DVC and book our trips 11 months in advance and it's usually just the two of us).

If we have leftover (we usually do)we splurge on souvenirs or let it roll over to the next Disney vacation!

 

[Disney Addicted]

Can’t wait to hear more

Thanks! I'm glad you are enjoying it.

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks! I go back to work on Monday so I'm trying to get this report done before then.

It sounds like you had a terrific day!

We did. It was very nice.

We did the dining plan once and struggled to finish all the credits. Now when we're planning a Disney trip we just buy $100-200 per month in Disney gift cards in the months leading up to the trip. Meals are prepaid and we rarely have to think about the cost (but we are DVC and book our trips 11 months in advance and it's usually just the two of us).

If we have leftover (we usually do)we splurge on souvenirs or let it roll over to the next Disney vacation!

That's a good way of doing it. Actually, one that I'll recommend to my daughter to do when she goes back on her own or with friends. She hardly eats much so for her the DDP does not work. We're lucky that the Disney gift cards we purchase in Canada can be used in the U.S. and convert automatically to U.S. Funds.

 

[Disney Addicted]

I completely fogot to mention Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Our son LOVED Splash Mountain. He rode it at age 6 with his Dad (I was too chicken and our daugher already didn't like drops and fast rides). Then, when he and I went to California in 2017 (age 13), he rode it about a half dozen times while I waited with a book. Then again in 2019 he and his Dad rode it at WDW.

I thought he would still love it, even though the theming changed. I remembered that morning I wanted to try for a VQ but the next time I remembered it was 7:10 and they were all gone. So I set the alarm for 12:55 pm. We were in Monsters Inc. Laughfloor when my phone vibrated. So I turned the brightness down as far as I could and still see the screen and started refreshing 12:59 pm. I managed to get a VQ for the 4 of us! Boarding 82 I believe it was.

I figured our daughter wouldn't ride but I would this time. Hey, I rode Jurassic Park/World in Islands of Adventure in 2019 and loved it! So surely I could steel myself for Tiana's?

When we exited Monsters Inc., I excitedly told my son I managed to snag a VQ for Tiana's and... he did not want to ride it... He was insistent on not riding it but would not say why. Even when our boarding was called. We were somewhere else in the park by then and even my husband was like meh.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Wednesday, September 18 = EPCOT!

I was really looking forward to 2 days in Epcot. Last time the kids were 6 and 11 and anytime my husband & I wanted to look at anything in one of the stores, the kids would be dragging us away to show us stuff and begging to buy. This time would be different! They are adults now. And - Food & Wine Festival!

Yeah, I had the Food & Wine app on my phone and starred a bunch of items I wanted to try. Breakfast that morning at ASMu but no intentions of eating anywhere in Epcot other than all the foods stands.

Since we planned 2 days at Epcot, we were only going to do 1/2 the park on the 1st day, and the other half on another day.

We slept in and did not arrive until after 10:30 am. The only rides we were planning on was Soarin', Remy's and Frozen. My husband & daughter were pulled over at bag check and directed to another search line so Andrew & I sat and waited for them. I ended up sitting beside a lady, who was waiting for her boyfriend in the search line, who turned out to be a CM. She had a large binder of pins and we chatted. Turns out her boyfriend grew up in the city we lived in where our son was born.

11 AM hit and we were finally in Epcot. My son tried to photobomb as many photos as he could. That's my daughter, with the ears.



First stop was Journey of Water (new to us). This was a beautiful area and fun to try and make the water rise/jump.


We moved on to Turtle Talk with Crush, Awesome Planet, the Seas with Nemo & Friends and an hour long wait for Soarin', so we skipped that to do on our way out of the park. I remember us eating here 14 years ago.










This was a nice shaded spot for people making their rounds the Food & Wine.


I wanted to walk to Canada (I mean, we were almost there as it was!) for the Cheddar Cheese & Bacon soup and Filet Mignon with mushrooms, mashed potatoes! I was outvoted though. We took the boat (new experience for us) to Moracco and walked over to Japan with the intent of then walking a half-circle back to Canada and Soarin'.

I had read about the gift card wristlets years ago so when we first entered Epcot, my first stop was at the first gift shop where I purchased and put $100 on it. I loved having the gift card on my wrist. So much easier than digging into my belt bag for money every time.

 

[disneyseniors]

Disney Addicted: I am following along and enjoying your photos. These bring back happy memories of our family trips to WDW. Looks like you had a nice trip!

 

[Disney Addicted]

Disney Addicted: I am following along and enjoying your photos. These bring back happy memories of our family trips to WDW. Looks like you had a nice trip!

Thanks! When did you last go to Disney? I love being able to show some of the photos I took with the trip report. It's nice being able to write down some of the details of the trip - for people to enjoy reading and to remember it more clearly. It can be such a whirlwind of days blurring together when there!

 

[Disney Addicted]

I took a lot of photos in the Japan area. So beautifully laid out.



Our son was looking forward to this pavilion (Japan) the most. He bought a lot of candies (especially the packages of rice cakes) and checked out the swords. Did you know Japan sells the swords and will ship them to your home? Since we were coming back to Epcot again on Sunday, he left seriously considering purchasing a sword on our return visit.

Now our son was 6 the first time we ever came to Disney World. Both kids and myself did the Pick-a-Pearl back then. I purchased the pearl necklace cages off of e-bay (back then) and brought them with us. He loved the pick-a-pearl! He would talk to everyone who listened, and show them his pearl, for the rest of the day. He's 20 years old now, so I was surprised to find this was something he was looking forward to doing again.

One of the pearls below is mine. The one on the left with a more pinkish hue.




I just really admired the carvings in this photo below:


Somewhere along the way, my son decided to purchase one of the Mickey Head cooling towels we saw everywhere. You can see the blue towel hanging around his neck in one of the photos above.

We have a cat back home. One of my daughter's friends (she grew up with down the street) was looking after our cat. Making sure she had food & water every day, and taking her outside/backyard for 30 minutes a day as well. April (the cat) hangs out in the backyard, wearing a harness and leash so we can grab her when she bolts after a squirrel and tries to run up the fence into the tree. The girl dreams of visiting Japan and collects pins. I found a Japan pin in the store, purchased that and some packages of Japan candies and rice cakes for her.

My husband found a collection of various flavours of mini bottles of Sake. One that looked especially intriguing was chocolate sake. I wish we could have bought 2 or more and brought them home, but we were not checking bags. We purchased the one mini bottle and drank it back in our room. It was surprisingly a thick liquid but sweet and tasty. My husband ended up purchasing some chocolate milk from the food court and added the sake into it. Tasted so good! I wish I took a photo of the bottle. I tried to google it, but no luck.

I purchased a folding fan and one of the ladies wrote my name in Japense on it.

Honestly, I was so hot for most of this trip, I did not take as many photos as I normally do on vacations. According to my computer, I have 871 photos but trust me - that's a drop in the bucket as to how many I normally take. I just discovered there's a 3 hour gap in my Epcot photos, from 2:30 to 5:30 pm. No photos of the other pavillion areas on the way back. That is so unlike me. We were all hot, sweating, melting and starting to snip at each other. Our daughter hadn't eaten anything of substance so far - she just wanted sweets and I was getting upset over that as well as she looked like she would drop soon and needed food.

Morocco: I was surprised Morocco doesn't have a bigger presence. Ohh the table service restaurant here (I forget the name) has a table with 2 jugs of ice cold water and cups for people to help themselves. Right beside the stand where you check in for your meal. So nice of them!

France: Heading into France and shocked at Remy's wait time! I did not researching the rides in Epcot much and did not realize how popular it would be. We decided we were not waiting. Completely forgot about the Impressions de France film and so missed it. I don't believe any of us purchased something from here.

U.K.: Here our daughter finally asked for food instead of sugar! She wanted fish. We grabbed orders of fish & chips & ice water from the quickservice window, and found a table in the shade to the right of the building under cover. We needed that break out of the sun. It was a nice looking area as well. Something I would have normally taken a photo of.

Canada: I think the carving photo I posted above came from Canada. The maple popcorn smelled so good. No one wanted a large bucket of popcorn however, not even to share. I asked the CM if they sold any smaller containers. She said no, but gave me a paper cup half filled with the popcorn. That was so sweet of her! And the popcorn tasted so good! I brought it back to the family to try and maybe convince to get a bucket. Then I choked and coughed and coughed to the point I seriously thought I was about to vomit. Yeah, we left without purchasing any. It smelled so good that I forgot I have a tendacy to choke on popcorn if I'm not careful when eating it.

I didn't get as many of the Food items I meant to as my husband was trying to avoid chocolate & cheese (migranes), and, did I mention?, it was so H.O.T. However, we tried:
Teriyaki Chicken Bun in Japan
Beer-braised beef with gouda mashed potatoes in Belgium (very good!)
creme brulee mangue et passion in France (never again)
Liquid Nitrogen frozen sweet potatoe mousse w/ candied pecans/maple caramel sauce (way too sweet!)
Grilled bison witth butternut squash puree, roasted mushrooms and huckleberry (very good!)
Pear and Almond frangipane pate brisee (not bad)
There was some kind of strawberry slushie alcholic drink my husband purchased as well
I also discovered Joffeey's Citrus Frosted Iced Tea - lemon, lemonade, ice tea, orange/tangerine syrup - so tasty and refreshing!!

I was so full I didn't have room for the cheddar cheese & bacon soup or filet mignon when we got back to Canada. Ah well - we're coming back another day before heading home.

The last photo I took that day was time stamped 6:07 PM, on our way back into the building that houses Soarin'. At this point it was only a 20 minute standby. The only time I have been to Epcot was in 2010, so I haven't done this ride before. Our kids didn't want to back then. Our daughter had the opportunity to go back with her aunt & uncle & cousin maybe 3 years ago? and she rode Soarin' then. I do not like heights much. I knew this would lift us into the air, so I asked for the middle or bottom row and we were given the middle.

I swear my husband paid more attention to me than the screen! Apparently I was that entertaining. I gasped when we were lifted into the air. I had a death grip on the metal handles/grips on my seat. I shrieked when the plane came at us. (He says I screamed) I kept muttering "no, no, no, no" every time we were "lifted" higher over an object. But when we got off it, I asked everyone if we could do it again! No? My husband was game but the kids were beat and they wanted to go back to the resort. I should have told them to go ahead and ridden it again without them. However, we were coming back to Epcot another day.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Thursday, Sept 19 = Hollywood Studios!

I couldn't wait to visit this park! Galaxy's Edge was completely new to us and I was really looking forward to it! I knew we needed to be up and on the bus by at least 7:30 AM (as to not be stuck in a long line at Ride of the Resistance), but we found ourselves entering the park at 8:30 am. It was already sweltering.



The last time we were in this park (again, 2010), we separated so I rushed with the kids to sign our son up for Jedi Training, and my husband took off for fastpasses for Toy Story Mania. We also had GAD vouchers and turned one in for extra FPs for Toy Story Mania. We did TSM 3 or 4 times that day.

This time I was dragging everyone to Galaxy's Edge for ROTR. I read so much about it. I figured we were in for a long wait since there was probably a good half an hour or 45 minutes of people already ahead of us. Our daughter wanted to stop to look at pin boards on the way, but I had warned her - not at the beginning of today!

As we were approaching, I had just finished telling our son that I read this ride goes down a lot and seems especially during the early entry - there ahead of us stood a CM telling everyone the ride was down! However, when wereached the ride, people were swarming in. The CM there told us it just started up again a few minutes ago. Yay!! I think we only waited 30 minutes.

OMG that ride was totally awesome!!! I had not watch any videos on it, so the short elevator drop surprised me (yes, I gasped/shrieked again ) When we were climbing out I yelled "let's do this again" and everyone agreed. However, the wait time was now about an hour or more. I'm sure you're all familiar but here's photos!





Smuggler's Run standby was also high so we searched for the Droid Depot to purchase the Silver Batuuan Spira Credit Medallion gift card. We purchased 4. One each for my husband, myself and son, and a 4th to bring home as a gift (after using all the credits) for a friend who collects Star Wars stuff.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Off we went to explore some more.



The light saber is surprisingly heavy! I would have loved to seen inside but we had no plans to make a light saber and no reservations so I did not ask.

I found these interesting.





At some point this day, I tried my son's cooling towel and discovered it really DID make a difference! I ended up purchasing one as well. After I purchased one (they were all blue), I saw a few ladies with pink! I was all hey, where'd you find a pink one? - only to be told they were a few years old. Darn.

 

[Disney Addicted]

The wait time for Smuggler's Run had dropped to 30 minutes by this time so off we went! I love the theming for Galaxy's Edge. So well done. The friend I mentioned, for whom we purchased the extra Silver Batuuan Spira Credit Medallion for? He has this huge Millennium Falcon lego set in his living room, under a glass coffee table. We sent him plenty of photos through our cell phones to drool over.

We really enjoyed this ride as well. My son and husband were insistent on being gunners when asked, my daughter & I ended up as pilots, and 2 people we didn't know as engineers. OMG this was fun. I discovered I didn't have any symptions of motion sickness as I was too busy trying to fly. I had to go up/down and my daughter left/right. Our son kept yelling at us but I was doing the best I could. We crashed so many times. Ended up getting one train and completely destroyed the ship. It was so much fun!

Again, the wait time was back up when we exited.





We ended up in this area. I suddenly realized smoke was coming out of the TIE and pulled everyone's attention to it in time to see a (First Order Officer?) step out, then Stormtroopers. We didn't realize this happens so I'm glad we happened to be there at the right time! They then came down and started interrogating people.

 

[Disney Addicted]

The next ride we went after was Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. We have never ridden it before. I believe the wait time had dropped to 30 minutes, maybe 45 when before it was 60 or 75 minutes. Between the First Order show and MMRR, we had wandered around, checking out gift shops, pin trading, snacks, and such. From 10:30 am to 1:50 pm, I don't have any photos to help jog my memory.

Just as we were getting close to riding MMRR, it went down! We were advised it could take 5 minutes or maybe 40 minutes to start up again. Now we already waited at least 30 minutes and I didn't see us coming back to start the line all over again. We decided to sit and wait like a bunch of other people.


The CMs were nice about it. They let people leave and come back in periodically as they went to fetch cold water or ice creams for their groups. They played trivia games and handed out stickers and trading cards as prizes.

Now, I have back issues and diabeties. In February I started working at losing weight, which would help both. Once spring (May) arrived, I was out walking 3.5 kms (2 miles) 5 days a week right up to the weekend before our trip. I went down 18 lbs and I'm still working on 25 lbs more to go. Slow walking/shuffling and standing long periods hurts. I worried I might throw my back out in Florida but with the weight loss and all the daily walking, I figured my chances were good. The last time my back went out was 3 years ago (and 25 lbs heavier) when I wasn't walking daily. Anyways - I asked one of the CMs if I could sit on the steps as my back was aching and she brought out a wheelchair for me to use. I was kind of embarrased but holy heck sitting really helped. And it turns out we did all wait at least half an hour, if not the entire 40 minutes before the ride started up.

Now, it was a cute ride but we wouldn't ever wait like that again.

Afterwards we did more pin trading on our way to Indiana Jones and discovered the show was going to start in 5-10 minutes.


Now, remember - it was 14 years since we had seen this stunt show. So when the lady came running out, yelling for Indy after the boulder ran over him, I thought a real accident had happened! My daughter was all, "mom, don't you remember this?". Nope.


Didn't this area have Ewoks before? And a speeder bike for photo shots? I love the Ewoks.


I sent these 2 photos to our friend:


Around 5 PM the wait times were down again (still about 45 and 30 minutes for each) for both ROTR and Smugger's Run so we went to do them again. Man, I love those rides. I wish we could have done them over-and-over, but I'm sure most people wish the same. I thought this photo came out nicely.


Now it's after 7 PM and we discovered Rey outside. I asked if I could take her photo and she invited my daughter & I to have our photo taken with her.


Now it's 7:30, starting to get dark and lights are coming out. We talked about Fantasmic (as we have not seen it ever), but decided we'd all rather get back to the resort, have dinner, rest and sleep. We wanted to get up early for Flight of Passage the next day. It was cool seeing the lights come on as darkness descended but my photos came out kind of blurry.

 

[disneyseniors]

Thanks! When did you last go to Disney? I love being able to show some of the photos I took with the trip report. It's nice being able to write down some of the details of the trip - for people to enjoy reading and to remember it more clearly. It can be such a whirlwind of days blurring together when there!

Our last trip was in 2020, just as Covid was being reported. Haven't been back since.