here now! 6/14 thru 6/23 just the two of us :)

[rccllap]

Downtown Disney today. We needed a break from the theme parks!

 

[rccllap]

We visited resorts yesterday as well. Art of Animation, Boardwalk, Ft Wilderness campground, and the 3 monorail resorts. We also saw Wishes from the beach at the Poly. Very nice!

Today another shot at HS.

 

[rccllap]

There is something so right about starting off your day with the Rock'n Rollercoaster. And we got FP's for 9:40 He's doing ToT right now (I can't handle it) so I wait in the a/c for ride #2 RnR.

Crowds early not as bad as the same time two days ago. They opened the park early again...we were inside the gate at 8:40 and were not even close to the first ones in. The rides are all going early too. Two days ago there was a 70 min standby line for RnR because the ride wasn't up yet.

We might run through the Great Movie Ride before #2 RnR.

Laugh all you want but the Muppets are a priority today. We'll head there soon.

 

[Katy Belle]

Sounds so fun! Sorry the humidity is getting you down! Being miserable at WDW is still better than being miserable at home!!!! Loving your report!

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

Sounds like you are having a great trip, minus the humidity. Keep drinking that water!

 

[rccllap]

We had a great day. Full details to come!

 

[rccllap]

Today is check out and drive home. I will add any memories, ideas etc when I can (and edit the thread title if possible). I had to stop live updates because it became a conflict between me & the bf...he felt ignored and so I put down the device.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Thanks for all the live updates!

 

[momjeeps]

Can't wait to hear more about your trip. Sounds like lots of fun.

 

[rccllap]

We had a hard time getting character pictures/autographs. There are just lines from you-know-where for everything this time of year. I did give in and wait about 30 minutes for the Princesses, because I'd made a promise to myself to have a chat with Rapunzel about hair care (I have longer than waist length blonde hair). We kind of had to scramble to catch Donald and Goofy on our last day.

The heat would have been a lot more bearable if the humidity wasn't also so high. I learned that I cannot cope well with that for long periods of time. It became necessary to find a/c and a seat around 11:00 am on any given day.

All the rides and attractions were just as awesome as ever! There are new activities in the queue lines for Space Mountain and Soarin' that would make those long lines much more fun for those without FP's.

Speaking of FP's, they seem to have added them to a lot more things. That is both good and bad. The two-hour lockout window is the only negative thing, because it takes a LOT of planning to make that work with all the options now.

We noticed the Mickey-head scanners for FP+ at several places but didn't see anyone with the wristbands (the test IS happening now).

Chatting with a CM at the Muppets shop, I learned that Avatarland is not only a done deal, but that's what all the construction already is over behind Festival of the Lion King. The staff rumours are, Carsland and an expansion of the Star Wars area. (Obviously this is all at HS.) He said the attractions/rides on the possible axe list are the Muppets 3D show and Indy's stunt show. The backlot tour is already slated for closure and the Lights Motors Action show is also going.

There was construction at EVERY park. Of course the New Fantasyland development is what's most obvious at MK, but there was stuff all over the place.

The Starbucks location on Main Street opened up when we were there. We walked through it...looks just like any other counter service set-up, and the smells are lovely, but I loathe Starbucks coffee (they deliberately burn the beans to make it taste the same no matter where you get it).

The photographers were great, but I noticed a lot of guests who were totally clueless about the system. Is Disney not really advertising this?

We did not do a lot of the rides at MK in Fantasyland/New Fantasyland. It would take targeted early arrival to make that happen this time of year and we focused on the headliners.

We will be going back in October with our boys (who will be 14 and 8 by then).

 

[Nakkira]

We're back to our room now. Doing the rope drop does give the advantage.

Special activities today included pick-a-pearl in Japan Got a lovely 7.5mm and a 7mm and had them set in a horseshoe charm and ring, respectively.

Photo op with Duffy. Figured out the purpose of adding a stand-alone character like that to the roster. It's to compete with Build A Bear.

Can't wait to see all the pictures!