HatboxHaint
GrimGrinningGhost
- Joined
- May 18, 2014
- Messages
- 980
Let me preface this crazy rambling with a few things. We are not total newbs. This is our 4th trip. We are week long vacationers about 12hr drive away. We flew to WDW for the 1st time. 4 kids, 2 adults, 1 senior in ECV for 1st time. I uber planned and got all the ADRs and FP+ I wanted, I was on top of my game. But there will be curveballs like monorail downage and hurricanes and kids that become terrified at rides they like on previous trips.
Oct 2nd
We landed about 12:30. MDE got us to Contemporary around 2pm-ish. I had made a 3-4pm FP+ for FEA. It was well after 3 by the time we got into our rooms. We had 7 people in our party broken into two BLT studios. They could not put the studios close together. So mistake number 1 was that we should have reserved for the two bedroom instead of saving the few hundred on two separate studios. So I underestimated time to get settled and head to epcot. We also had a scooter to pickup back at CR bell services then hop on the monorail and really had to push hard. We were about 30min late to our FP+ at FEA. We were graciously allowed on the ride. FEA was great, but not sure why I thought it was worth all the trouble of going to EPCOT just for that. Then we hopped to Animal Kingdom via bus. The bus for AK is so far out from Epcot entrance, there is like one bench with not shade out in the middle of a bus parking lot for it. We had to wait 20-30min in the sun. It was not pleasant. I would definitely use uber or cabs but we had 7 and one in an ECV. I tried to get FP+ on the AP for AK after riding FEA but being so late in the day there was nothing, but we did not need since AK crowd was light. We hopped to AK and went straight to out Tusker House ADR. We had a good meal, it was enjoyed, the characters were enjoyed since this was the kids first character time of the trip. We danced a song or two with a band in harambe. We hit a “dark” Safari. I liked it, the lions were going bezerk roaring, we caught glimpses of a lot of animals, the ankori(sp?)cattle look really wicked at night. Would I do it again if I went back frequently, no. Then we booked it to Everest. Got on the last ride. It broke down at the top, probably just before the yeti model scene. Lights on and we walked down 7 flights of stairs to the bottom of the mountain, it was awesome. We booked it to the tree. We missed all the awakenings. The tree said goodnight, but stayed lit. We headed out.
Oct 3rd
This was Tomorrowland day, we always start with fantasyland, so I changed it up. We walked over to MK (I now know what it’s like to be in the 1%, if only briefly) and rope dropped. Headed for Space Mountain, my 8 year old was in tears coming off the ride but the other littles loved it. Went on to ride AO, Buzz, TS(SDFP), Barnstomer, rope dropped(lol) Pete’s Silly Circus all 4 characters (my DS-5 loved Goofy so much here), Dumbo(SDFP), SDMT (FP+), watched Mickey’s RFF and went back to CR, ate lunch at contempo and then back to BLT for a bit of R&R. Now here’s where it gets cooky. We had a 4:40-ish ADR at Ohana. Monorail was down. Wamp-wamp-wamp-waaaamp. Waited on bus at CR bus stop 30 minutes or so. Got to Ohana pretty much on time. Ate, food was pretty good, it was fun, I had never done Ohana, and now I can say we have. My wife ordered well done steak, the pieces they served us had been pretty rare so far. That skewer of well done came out kinda cold, which is counter intuitive really, but that was the only meh part of the meal. Now disaster. We left out of Ohana about 6. We did not make it to MK till about 8PM. We tried boat first, but boats were not coming, there were CM’s at the far end of the doc but we could not hear what they were yelling. We turned around after 10-15min and headed for busses. We had to wait for the 3rd or 4th bus due to our ECV. They were all too full to accommodate ECV’s because monorail was down. I thought ECV’s got priority, one bus had people sitting on the bench that folds up for an ECV. So anyway an empty bus got there and we got on then endured a loooong wait at the GF and maybe back to CR too before finally getting to MK. We got onto main street and people were lining the street for the 9PM MSEP already so we plopped down and waited too. It was pretty magical really. And then stupidity took over. We had missed like 3 FP+. I would have done everyone a favor and just called it a night but, we pushed on into the park behind the parade. It was unbearable trying to get a double stroller and an ECV through the crush at the end of mainstreet with people going every direction and folks trying to hold their ground for Wishes. It probably took at least 10min to move from casey’s area to Adventureland turn off. We got dole whip floats which all but one of the kids didn’t care for. We hit pirates, 8 year old cried, she never cried on that ride before, then we went on splash, watched fireworks a bit as we walked over. We were like 1 to 2hrs late for our splash mountain FP+, but they let us on after requesting that we tell them a joke. And then we called it a night.
Oct 4th
This was fantasyland day. Went to BOG for PPO breakfast. Shared 4 Gaston platters between 4 of us. Food was really good, kids loved it, 4 was plenty, did not finish all of the food and pastries. Great value for QS credits. Ate in west wing, yes in the dark for breakfast. No doubt one of our favorite meals. Got in SDMT line at 8:30, got first ride in before hordes at the gates arrived, EMM people made no difference that I could tell. Hit peter pan, the Rapunzel/Tiana, Merida, TeaCups, Alice, Haunted Mansion, Muppets in LS, MoveShakeDanceParty. Headed for the resort. Swam in the pool, loved BLT pool/slide/games. We then headed to HS. No problems with Buses, in fact HS was probably our best park for busses back and forth to CR. FP+ TSMM. 4:45 ADR at Minnie’s Halloween Dine, fantasmic package, took 20min or so to get us seated. Food was better than expected. They had lots of cute Halloween desserts and since (spoiler) we would miss our party later in the week this was the only halloweeny thing we did, so glad we did it. Characters in costumes were cute, so much more enjoyable then spending valuable party time in line to see them. We had about an hr before we needed to head for fantasmic after dinner, we chose Olaf over Tower of Terror. Wait for Olaf was ~20min. That was a fun M&G, kids enjoyed it. Then headed for Fantasmic. The kids are all the right age to really enjoy that show now, our previous years it was kind of a bust. But 5-9 years now adored it, so fun to see them experience it and react. Took our time getting out, used Robo’s secret exit, We sat in dining section and CM had my mother-in-law park at the top near the section, there was not getting out until the entire theatre cleared, which really wasn’t that bad of a wait. Barely a wait for CR bus, maybe the initial crowd was gone once we got there, only a few in line, a great post spectacular experience all in all.
Oct 5th
My favorite day of the trip, I think. Although I walked over 26,000 steps this day. Most days we average over 20,000. Staying at BLT and walking to MK was surely a factor, but I’ll take the steps over loss of sanity in the MK transportation process. So the kids wanted space mountain, all but the DD-8. So I took 3 back to MK to do whatever they wanted, within reason. These are really the best days I think at the parks I think. We had no FP+ reserved for MK, had FEA in Epcot later, kinda crazy to basically give up 3 decent elsewhere to get that one golden at Epcot, but this is the sandbox we play in. I stopped and got some SDFP, but Wednesday must have been a popular day because there was not much left. Here’s a good point. I did not reserve a talking Mickey FP+ because I thought I could get it SDFP, but I never could, so that was a mistake on my part. We rope dropped and rode Space 3 times, got some space pressed pennies, then we headed barnstormer and rode it several times, then rode under the sea, ran into some friends and rode dumbo with them. Then we hit up the popcorn bucket refill and mickey bars. Then we took a ride on Liberty Belle steamboat. Something I had never done, kids enjoyed running around the boat and investigating while I watched the scenery. We played a bit of SOTMK. We headed for Jungle Cruise but ran into a CM writing out FP+ checks. I sweet talked him into Splash so we ran for that then headed back to BLT. DS and me went over to FtW to look around, another thing to check off on my list. I got some kind of club sandwich at the trail’s end to-go window that was just massive and really good, one of the best things I ate all trip. This is when I really started to hear rumblings about how the hurricane would affect WDW. When I heard they were evacuating FtW the next day I knew it was serious. After all the hype I’d seen about Trail’s end I was pretty underwhelmed visually, but given the right circumstances I could probably see eating a meal here sometime in the future. Next we head to Epcot and met up with some friends from back home and did spaceship earth, mission space, FEA, ate at Akershus (server was borderline rude, really puzzling for how expensive that meal is, food was meh, but we kinda knew all that going in), anna/elsa M&G, Soarin’ and test track. Somehow I missed Illuminations again. 4th trip, never seen Illuminations. We had never done Test Track and that’s what our friends were doing so we chose test track which of course the kids loved. We then headed back. Monorail wait after illuminations was abysmal, 30 minutes or so to get on the monorail then we had to transfer. Everyone was so wore out. But MK had EMH, so after getting everyone settled I head over there by myself. 11pm parade was about half over when I got there and I had a heck of time getting through the crowd trying to swim upstream. Made it Pirates. Got stuck on pirates for ~20-30min next to the drunk pirate trying to convince the cats to drink with him. “Here kitty kitty….want some rum with Ol Bill?” No they don’t! Just stop asking!!!! I was in a boat by myself surrounded by empty boats….creepy. I laid down in the boat and took a load off for a bit. Went over to the mansion and rode it multiple times till it shutdown….my happy place. Really enjoyed when the CM in the stretching room somehow lept across the room when the scene went dark, when the lights came off he was starting a girl in the face which of course made her scream, too funny. I also got a welcome back from the loading CM the 2nd or 3rd time I rode. Last ride and I headed out, heard the kiss goodnight in the background as I stood at City Hall guest relations about 1am. Got a refund for my cancelled MNSSHP and some fast passes for Saturday.
Oct 6th
We scrapped our plans for this day due to impending hurricane and the events of previous day. Plan was to rope drop epcot but since we got test track done the night before we would only miss Joy and Sadness M&G by doing this and gain another chunk of time at AK instead. We could have park hopped but didn’t feel like the hassle was worth it. We really enjoyed this day. It was cloudy/drizzly and started raining about 1pm. We did Tarzan meet, Gorilla Falls trail (little gorillas were really hilarious that day), Safari, Ice Cream break, FoLK, Woders of flight, Maharajah Jungle Trek(bats were put up due to impending wind and only one tiger spotted), then the rain came in we hit Restarauntoraus and exited. We could have stayed but some were getting weather anxious. As we walked out around 2-3pm there were giant parks close at 5pm signs put out. A band was jamming away on discovery island. In retrospect we could have stayed longer and without DM-in-law we might have, but with Dinosaur down and rain probably going to shut Everest down I felt justified in calling it. Went back to CR and talked to concierge desk. We were going to move to AKL the next day, but with hurricane coming in they said they would make some other arrangements for us to stay at BLT or CR. I then came down with something and spent the rest of the night in bed except for a run to the market at CR to stock up on a few things. We avoided the contempo since lines looked long and microwaved some meals we found for the kids in the CR market. Watched a lot of hurricane coverage. DW took kids to CR for some of the activities. Pretty much in suspense overnight as to where we would be relocated to the next day.
Oct 7th.
I was pretty sick most of this day. Rest of the group mostly hung out in the other room and hung out over at CR and enjoyed the games. I did not take many pictures even tho my kids has all access to play and interact with Mickey, pluto and others. My guess is it was the characters from Chef Mickey’s. That was great, but we had a Chef Mickey’s reservation at noon and they were without characters which really is the reason I would spend money or credits on Chef Mickey’s in the first place. It was open but menu was reduced. Mickey Waffles were on the menu, so that made me happy at least. We kept the ADR and used DDP credits even tho they were giving a 30% discount. We did this because it was our last day on the dining plan. Our two day stay at AKL did not have dining plan. Next came another sesson at the concierge since now it as 1pm and we still did not know where we were sleeping that night. I think the height of the storm was supposed to be mid-day. Even with all the news coverage I had watched I had somehow missed when it was supposed to be “the worst” in Orlando, but from what I could tell from wind predictions it was around midday. The 5th floor open air walkway between BLT and CR never closed to my knowledge. I asked about getting our DDP extended since we missed the real chef mickey’s and were stuck at the resort for 1.5 days and we had missed out BOG for Thursday night. Technically we could have gone since it was a before 6pm reservation, but I didn’t think everyone in my party would want to get out in the increasingly stormy weather. They would not extend our DDP but gave us a $300 credit. Not exactly sure where that number came from but it seemed fair when I totaled up in my head how much a missed character meal and a quick service meal would be. Also they would keep us in BLT but move us from our two studios into one 2-bedroom, which turned out to be 6th floor magic view. The CM walked us over with a bellhop to complete the transfer. This was around 1:30 the day of the Hurricane, she walked us on the ground, it was breezy and a little wet, I was really impressed by the personal service she gave us at this point. We completed the room transfer. New room was amazing. We also received 1-day tickets to compensate for the loss of tickets due to park closure. I really could not ask for them to have done any more. We settled into the room. We could have gone to Disney springs at but decided against. I was worried about crowds and still didn’t feel well. We at the contempo cafe….again, traded our credits in at the store and got ready for the next day.
Oct 8th
We rope dropped HS. Maybe 10-15 back at our turnstile. We went straight to Jedi training line. We wanted the earliest show, but ended up with 12:10 show. We then met Buzz/Woddy, TSMM, Launch bay movie, met chewie and kylo, traded with Jawas, took our droid body over to star traders and made a droid. Did Jedi Training, definitely a trip highlight. Did Star Tours, had a dark side burger at backlot express, Did Tower of Terror two times (this is where the hurricane FP+ that we were given came in handy.) Went back to BLT. Swam. It was pretty hot and standing out in the heat during Jedi Training had wiped us out. I wanted to go back to MK for the 3PM parade (still never seen it) but we didn’t make it. I was told via texting with Disney agent that they had arranged a 5PM BOG ADR for us since we missed it due to hurricane. We arrived and they could not find anything related to this reservation, but when we mentioned hurricane they said they would fit us in. They said it would be 1hr wait it turned out to be more like 30min. We had a pretty nice meal and enjoyed meeting the Beast. Then we did ETwB, Small world(FP+), SDMT(FP+), Carousel of Progress, Wishes on Tomorrowland bridge, Space(FP+). We flew home the next day. All in all a pretty good trip.
Oct 2nd
We landed about 12:30. MDE got us to Contemporary around 2pm-ish. I had made a 3-4pm FP+ for FEA. It was well after 3 by the time we got into our rooms. We had 7 people in our party broken into two BLT studios. They could not put the studios close together. So mistake number 1 was that we should have reserved for the two bedroom instead of saving the few hundred on two separate studios. So I underestimated time to get settled and head to epcot. We also had a scooter to pickup back at CR bell services then hop on the monorail and really had to push hard. We were about 30min late to our FP+ at FEA. We were graciously allowed on the ride. FEA was great, but not sure why I thought it was worth all the trouble of going to EPCOT just for that. Then we hopped to Animal Kingdom via bus. The bus for AK is so far out from Epcot entrance, there is like one bench with not shade out in the middle of a bus parking lot for it. We had to wait 20-30min in the sun. It was not pleasant. I would definitely use uber or cabs but we had 7 and one in an ECV. I tried to get FP+ on the AP for AK after riding FEA but being so late in the day there was nothing, but we did not need since AK crowd was light. We hopped to AK and went straight to out Tusker House ADR. We had a good meal, it was enjoyed, the characters were enjoyed since this was the kids first character time of the trip. We danced a song or two with a band in harambe. We hit a “dark” Safari. I liked it, the lions were going bezerk roaring, we caught glimpses of a lot of animals, the ankori(sp?)cattle look really wicked at night. Would I do it again if I went back frequently, no. Then we booked it to Everest. Got on the last ride. It broke down at the top, probably just before the yeti model scene. Lights on and we walked down 7 flights of stairs to the bottom of the mountain, it was awesome. We booked it to the tree. We missed all the awakenings. The tree said goodnight, but stayed lit. We headed out.
Oct 3rd
This was Tomorrowland day, we always start with fantasyland, so I changed it up. We walked over to MK (I now know what it’s like to be in the 1%, if only briefly) and rope dropped. Headed for Space Mountain, my 8 year old was in tears coming off the ride but the other littles loved it. Went on to ride AO, Buzz, TS(SDFP), Barnstomer, rope dropped(lol) Pete’s Silly Circus all 4 characters (my DS-5 loved Goofy so much here), Dumbo(SDFP), SDMT (FP+), watched Mickey’s RFF and went back to CR, ate lunch at contempo and then back to BLT for a bit of R&R. Now here’s where it gets cooky. We had a 4:40-ish ADR at Ohana. Monorail was down. Wamp-wamp-wamp-waaaamp. Waited on bus at CR bus stop 30 minutes or so. Got to Ohana pretty much on time. Ate, food was pretty good, it was fun, I had never done Ohana, and now I can say we have. My wife ordered well done steak, the pieces they served us had been pretty rare so far. That skewer of well done came out kinda cold, which is counter intuitive really, but that was the only meh part of the meal. Now disaster. We left out of Ohana about 6. We did not make it to MK till about 8PM. We tried boat first, but boats were not coming, there were CM’s at the far end of the doc but we could not hear what they were yelling. We turned around after 10-15min and headed for busses. We had to wait for the 3rd or 4th bus due to our ECV. They were all too full to accommodate ECV’s because monorail was down. I thought ECV’s got priority, one bus had people sitting on the bench that folds up for an ECV. So anyway an empty bus got there and we got on then endured a loooong wait at the GF and maybe back to CR too before finally getting to MK. We got onto main street and people were lining the street for the 9PM MSEP already so we plopped down and waited too. It was pretty magical really. And then stupidity took over. We had missed like 3 FP+. I would have done everyone a favor and just called it a night but, we pushed on into the park behind the parade. It was unbearable trying to get a double stroller and an ECV through the crush at the end of mainstreet with people going every direction and folks trying to hold their ground for Wishes. It probably took at least 10min to move from casey’s area to Adventureland turn off. We got dole whip floats which all but one of the kids didn’t care for. We hit pirates, 8 year old cried, she never cried on that ride before, then we went on splash, watched fireworks a bit as we walked over. We were like 1 to 2hrs late for our splash mountain FP+, but they let us on after requesting that we tell them a joke. And then we called it a night.
Oct 4th
This was fantasyland day. Went to BOG for PPO breakfast. Shared 4 Gaston platters between 4 of us. Food was really good, kids loved it, 4 was plenty, did not finish all of the food and pastries. Great value for QS credits. Ate in west wing, yes in the dark for breakfast. No doubt one of our favorite meals. Got in SDMT line at 8:30, got first ride in before hordes at the gates arrived, EMM people made no difference that I could tell. Hit peter pan, the Rapunzel/Tiana, Merida, TeaCups, Alice, Haunted Mansion, Muppets in LS, MoveShakeDanceParty. Headed for the resort. Swam in the pool, loved BLT pool/slide/games. We then headed to HS. No problems with Buses, in fact HS was probably our best park for busses back and forth to CR. FP+ TSMM. 4:45 ADR at Minnie’s Halloween Dine, fantasmic package, took 20min or so to get us seated. Food was better than expected. They had lots of cute Halloween desserts and since (spoiler) we would miss our party later in the week this was the only halloweeny thing we did, so glad we did it. Characters in costumes were cute, so much more enjoyable then spending valuable party time in line to see them. We had about an hr before we needed to head for fantasmic after dinner, we chose Olaf over Tower of Terror. Wait for Olaf was ~20min. That was a fun M&G, kids enjoyed it. Then headed for Fantasmic. The kids are all the right age to really enjoy that show now, our previous years it was kind of a bust. But 5-9 years now adored it, so fun to see them experience it and react. Took our time getting out, used Robo’s secret exit, We sat in dining section and CM had my mother-in-law park at the top near the section, there was not getting out until the entire theatre cleared, which really wasn’t that bad of a wait. Barely a wait for CR bus, maybe the initial crowd was gone once we got there, only a few in line, a great post spectacular experience all in all.
Oct 5th
My favorite day of the trip, I think. Although I walked over 26,000 steps this day. Most days we average over 20,000. Staying at BLT and walking to MK was surely a factor, but I’ll take the steps over loss of sanity in the MK transportation process. So the kids wanted space mountain, all but the DD-8. So I took 3 back to MK to do whatever they wanted, within reason. These are really the best days I think at the parks I think. We had no FP+ reserved for MK, had FEA in Epcot later, kinda crazy to basically give up 3 decent elsewhere to get that one golden at Epcot, but this is the sandbox we play in. I stopped and got some SDFP, but Wednesday must have been a popular day because there was not much left. Here’s a good point. I did not reserve a talking Mickey FP+ because I thought I could get it SDFP, but I never could, so that was a mistake on my part. We rope dropped and rode Space 3 times, got some space pressed pennies, then we headed barnstormer and rode it several times, then rode under the sea, ran into some friends and rode dumbo with them. Then we hit up the popcorn bucket refill and mickey bars. Then we took a ride on Liberty Belle steamboat. Something I had never done, kids enjoyed running around the boat and investigating while I watched the scenery. We played a bit of SOTMK. We headed for Jungle Cruise but ran into a CM writing out FP+ checks. I sweet talked him into Splash so we ran for that then headed back to BLT. DS and me went over to FtW to look around, another thing to check off on my list. I got some kind of club sandwich at the trail’s end to-go window that was just massive and really good, one of the best things I ate all trip. This is when I really started to hear rumblings about how the hurricane would affect WDW. When I heard they were evacuating FtW the next day I knew it was serious. After all the hype I’d seen about Trail’s end I was pretty underwhelmed visually, but given the right circumstances I could probably see eating a meal here sometime in the future. Next we head to Epcot and met up with some friends from back home and did spaceship earth, mission space, FEA, ate at Akershus (server was borderline rude, really puzzling for how expensive that meal is, food was meh, but we kinda knew all that going in), anna/elsa M&G, Soarin’ and test track. Somehow I missed Illuminations again. 4th trip, never seen Illuminations. We had never done Test Track and that’s what our friends were doing so we chose test track which of course the kids loved. We then headed back. Monorail wait after illuminations was abysmal, 30 minutes or so to get on the monorail then we had to transfer. Everyone was so wore out. But MK had EMH, so after getting everyone settled I head over there by myself. 11pm parade was about half over when I got there and I had a heck of time getting through the crowd trying to swim upstream. Made it Pirates. Got stuck on pirates for ~20-30min next to the drunk pirate trying to convince the cats to drink with him. “Here kitty kitty….want some rum with Ol Bill?” No they don’t! Just stop asking!!!! I was in a boat by myself surrounded by empty boats….creepy. I laid down in the boat and took a load off for a bit. Went over to the mansion and rode it multiple times till it shutdown….my happy place. Really enjoyed when the CM in the stretching room somehow lept across the room when the scene went dark, when the lights came off he was starting a girl in the face which of course made her scream, too funny. I also got a welcome back from the loading CM the 2nd or 3rd time I rode. Last ride and I headed out, heard the kiss goodnight in the background as I stood at City Hall guest relations about 1am. Got a refund for my cancelled MNSSHP and some fast passes for Saturday.
Oct 6th
We scrapped our plans for this day due to impending hurricane and the events of previous day. Plan was to rope drop epcot but since we got test track done the night before we would only miss Joy and Sadness M&G by doing this and gain another chunk of time at AK instead. We could have park hopped but didn’t feel like the hassle was worth it. We really enjoyed this day. It was cloudy/drizzly and started raining about 1pm. We did Tarzan meet, Gorilla Falls trail (little gorillas were really hilarious that day), Safari, Ice Cream break, FoLK, Woders of flight, Maharajah Jungle Trek(bats were put up due to impending wind and only one tiger spotted), then the rain came in we hit Restarauntoraus and exited. We could have stayed but some were getting weather anxious. As we walked out around 2-3pm there were giant parks close at 5pm signs put out. A band was jamming away on discovery island. In retrospect we could have stayed longer and without DM-in-law we might have, but with Dinosaur down and rain probably going to shut Everest down I felt justified in calling it. Went back to CR and talked to concierge desk. We were going to move to AKL the next day, but with hurricane coming in they said they would make some other arrangements for us to stay at BLT or CR. I then came down with something and spent the rest of the night in bed except for a run to the market at CR to stock up on a few things. We avoided the contempo since lines looked long and microwaved some meals we found for the kids in the CR market. Watched a lot of hurricane coverage. DW took kids to CR for some of the activities. Pretty much in suspense overnight as to where we would be relocated to the next day.
Oct 7th.
I was pretty sick most of this day. Rest of the group mostly hung out in the other room and hung out over at CR and enjoyed the games. I did not take many pictures even tho my kids has all access to play and interact with Mickey, pluto and others. My guess is it was the characters from Chef Mickey’s. That was great, but we had a Chef Mickey’s reservation at noon and they were without characters which really is the reason I would spend money or credits on Chef Mickey’s in the first place. It was open but menu was reduced. Mickey Waffles were on the menu, so that made me happy at least. We kept the ADR and used DDP credits even tho they were giving a 30% discount. We did this because it was our last day on the dining plan. Our two day stay at AKL did not have dining plan. Next came another sesson at the concierge since now it as 1pm and we still did not know where we were sleeping that night. I think the height of the storm was supposed to be mid-day. Even with all the news coverage I had watched I had somehow missed when it was supposed to be “the worst” in Orlando, but from what I could tell from wind predictions it was around midday. The 5th floor open air walkway between BLT and CR never closed to my knowledge. I asked about getting our DDP extended since we missed the real chef mickey’s and were stuck at the resort for 1.5 days and we had missed out BOG for Thursday night. Technically we could have gone since it was a before 6pm reservation, but I didn’t think everyone in my party would want to get out in the increasingly stormy weather. They would not extend our DDP but gave us a $300 credit. Not exactly sure where that number came from but it seemed fair when I totaled up in my head how much a missed character meal and a quick service meal would be. Also they would keep us in BLT but move us from our two studios into one 2-bedroom, which turned out to be 6th floor magic view. The CM walked us over with a bellhop to complete the transfer. This was around 1:30 the day of the Hurricane, she walked us on the ground, it was breezy and a little wet, I was really impressed by the personal service she gave us at this point. We completed the room transfer. New room was amazing. We also received 1-day tickets to compensate for the loss of tickets due to park closure. I really could not ask for them to have done any more. We settled into the room. We could have gone to Disney springs at but decided against. I was worried about crowds and still didn’t feel well. We at the contempo cafe….again, traded our credits in at the store and got ready for the next day.
Oct 8th
We rope dropped HS. Maybe 10-15 back at our turnstile. We went straight to Jedi training line. We wanted the earliest show, but ended up with 12:10 show. We then met Buzz/Woddy, TSMM, Launch bay movie, met chewie and kylo, traded with Jawas, took our droid body over to star traders and made a droid. Did Jedi Training, definitely a trip highlight. Did Star Tours, had a dark side burger at backlot express, Did Tower of Terror two times (this is where the hurricane FP+ that we were given came in handy.) Went back to BLT. Swam. It was pretty hot and standing out in the heat during Jedi Training had wiped us out. I wanted to go back to MK for the 3PM parade (still never seen it) but we didn’t make it. I was told via texting with Disney agent that they had arranged a 5PM BOG ADR for us since we missed it due to hurricane. We arrived and they could not find anything related to this reservation, but when we mentioned hurricane they said they would fit us in. They said it would be 1hr wait it turned out to be more like 30min. We had a pretty nice meal and enjoyed meeting the Beast. Then we did ETwB, Small world(FP+), SDMT(FP+), Carousel of Progress, Wishes on Tomorrowland bridge, Space(FP+). We flew home the next day. All in all a pretty good trip.
