How -you- doin', East Coast? (October 23-25 2020)

[Jaina]

Hahaha ME TOO! I definitely did not pick up on the many adult references in the songs when I was a kid.

Also I love seeing the Be Our Guest photos. I would have liked to have done with BoG or CRT but I just couldn't justify the price for all four of us.

Yeah, I can't imagine even paying for another adult, much less a few kids who might not appreciate it, haha!

Great trip report! I've never been to Disney World, I don't think I could handle the humidity, but I love seeing the pictures! Looks like a great time!

It was a little intense at times, especially coming from such a dry state as ours.

We went and watched Country Bear on our last trip in 2019, and it was my first time ever because I started going to DLR regularly after it had already left. My husband remembered it from his childhood. I, too, was cracking up at some of the lyrics. I kept looking at my husband like, "Is this for real?!" Definitely a surprise!

Those AC breaks at WDW are not a luxury, they are a necessity! Our trips there have been in May, June, and July - HOT HOT HOT with lots of rain, so lots of humidity! We have a whole different touring style there than we do at DLR, and it's all because of the weather. But it's been a great way to find new cool things like the shows at AK (which I know are not currently running). We went to the Finding Nemo show our first time purely to get out of the blazing heat, and we ended up loving it! Epcot has the circle vision movies in China and Canada, and the movie in France. We've really gotten to know where all the AC breaks are!

It was hilarious. We'll probably go see it again next month (for my husband's benefit) if it's at all warm.

It will be interesting to see what kind of weather we get this next time. I've already started praying (haha!) and I'm going to be stalking it as soon as we hit the 10-12 day mark.

 

[Jaina]

All right, sorry anyone who was following this. Christmas was so darn busy, and it's been non-stop since then! Thankfully we have still been healthy, and things have been going well. We took the kids for a staycation at Great Wolf Lodge a few weeks ago, and that was really fun! DLR still isn't open, with no obvious end in sight. My husband and I qualified for a companion ticket through Southwest (and have a bunch of points still, since both our personal and business card are attached to the same account) so we have had some traveling planned. We went to SLC last weekend to see how he did on the flight with a mask. (He struggles with anxiety and even slight panic attacks before he got more used to them.) We were planning to go to Hawaii in early March, but this last weekend we changed our plans. Hawaii was just too uncertain, not knowing if we'd get our test results back in time, and if they'd be negative, you know? Plus, we haven't had any reason to get a covid test so far, so why get into "the system" if we don't have to? We'll go another time, when Hawaii is more open.
So guess where DH suggested we go? (Since my MIL had already taken time off to watch our kids during their spring break?) Orlando. I was honestly blown away. But we this has been our first chance to travel TOGETHER (other than a night or two here or there) since our 10th anniversary 5 years ago. Kids are finally all potty trained, and fairly easy (they are 4 to 14). We have these flight points. I'm working, so we have a little extra cash. (Not a lot, haha. Our trips are always "budget.") So I'm going to get this finished. Mostly because I'm suddenly planning this trip, which totally surprises me. We just decided this last weekend, and I've only bought the WDW park tickets so far, since I wanted to get park reservations. This would be no big deal for a pre-Covid DLR trip, but it's a little stressful when I have more of a learning curve with WDW (and now Universal)... I'm excited, but a little anxious at getting it all figured out!

Okay, back to the report!

Where were we? Enjoying all the goodness of the grey stuff cupcake! I'm glad I ate some yummy sugary goodness treats that trip, because my husband is kind of anti-sugar. (he's a chiropractor, and knows better than some what it does to your body, plus he has a lot of food sensitivities) He'll keep me healthier during our trip for sure! He does like a treat every now and then, but it's closer to once a month than once a day...

We were right by Ariel's Undersea Adventure (do they call it that at MK?) and N hasn't been on that one (hasn't been to California Adventure) either, so we waited in a decent (I thought... I refuse to ride it if the line is over 15 minutes at CA, since it's often that low!) line to ride it. It took us 20-25 minutes, but it seemed longer than that, since the sun was nice and toasty. Again, our umbrellas were so nice to have! That ride IS really well done though, and it's a nice break to relax in a shell. (rode about 3:45 PM)

We were right across from Winnie the Pooh (she hasn't ridden that one at DLR either) and I heard we wouldn't want to miss the queue. The line was about 25-35 minutes, but I'm not sure which, because my kids called on Face time when we were getting kind of close to getting on, and they asked if they could "ride" it with me. They are such good sports, and were (outwardly) happy for me to get to go on such a fun trip, so I turned my volume way down and took them along for the ride. (Since we were in our own vehicle, I didn't think it would affect anyone else's ride. My daughter's (DD12, the Disney-obsessed one) favorite character right now is Winnie the Pooh, too. The line was super cute, and I could see all the fun things they normally have for the little kids to do. I loved the Tigger bouncing motion as well, compared to ours. Winnie the Pooh was my favorite movie for a year or two as a 3/4-year-old, and my dad still quotes it to me, so I have a soft spot in my heart for it. I think we probably rode it about 4:20 PM.

We were feeling a little warm and ready for a nice sit-down in some a/c, so away to the Carousel of Progress it was! I was excited about this one, since I only saw it that one time, when I was at WDW in 1998, and it has so much history. I still can't believe the moved the show from Disneyland. What a project that must have been. It was super entertaining, and N loved it. (Saw it at 4:35 with no wait) I wish they could have added some years on later. You know, every 20-30 years instead of just ending where it did. Them trying to bring current-ish stuff into the last scene was pretty funny.

We decided it was time to try Splash Mountain finally, now that we had been refreshed by a nice rest. It is a TREK from that end of Tomorrowland to the other end of the park at WDW! (We would later make that trip again, at a much faster clip...) We caught the Villains cavalcade going through, which was fun, and some of the bears were out interacting.

You guys. Splash Mountain was DOWN! It hasn't even shown up in the app yet, so we must have just missed it. But it was like way down. Like not letting anyone in line, and they said they thought it might be a while. Oh NO! This was at about 5:15 PM. Splash was a priority for us, since it's a little better than the DLR version, and since this was probably our last chance to see it before it's reimagined (which means we should have hit it early in the day...) and we were bummed! There is a relaxation station nearby though, so we decided to go take a rest and keep our eyes on the app for a reopening for a while. We rested, and snacked, and waited. And waited. And... waited.

At 6:15, though were were well-rested now, It was not looking good with a 8 PM close!! We later talked about it and we were both very grumpy that we might not get to ride at all, but were both trying to be pleasant adults and not throw a temper tantrum. Go, us. We finally decided to head to Tomorrowland/Fantasyland, where the wait for the Tomorrowland Speedway looked low-ish, and we might right the teacups. The clouds were beautiful, and the weather was finally cooling a bit.

 

[Jaina]

The Speedway was only about a 20 minute wait, and it's anyone's guess these days when the teacups will make me sick, so we opted for the cute little cars! Having ridden Autopia many, many times over the year, it was fun to have a different track and a different experience. I honestly can't remember for sure, but I think I had N drive, so I could take some pictures. The air had cooled a bit, and the clouds/sunset were really pretty, especially behind the castle. We rode at 6:43 PM.

We were really unsure what to do next. Splash was still closed. I was up for a couple Fantasyland rides, but N was interested in Space Mountain, even though I told her it was rougher than ours. The line looked about 45-50 minutes? Maybe? but I said we could totally ride that, as long as we checked on Splash Mountain before the point of no return (going inside the Space building.) She agreed. We got in line at 6:52.

But. BUT. About 10 minutes into the line, before we went into the building, and we saw that Splash was up, with a 15 minute wait. You better believe we abandoned Space Mountain and RAN to Splash Mountain. Well. As much as two not-young ladies wearing masks in Florida and with Disney's rules against running can run. We speed walked and slow jogged ALL the way from Space to Splash, and you better believe we were "glowing" or "glistening" by the time we got in line. It said there was a 45 minute wait, and we waited more like 15-ish before boarding at 7:22 PM! We were happy campers! We asked to ride in the back to avoid getting soaked, and had a great ride! I was missing Maxpass this whole trip though, with it's free ride picture downloads. (Also, beautiful glimpse of the castle on our way through the hub!)

We made our way over to Fantasyland by 7:45, and decided we were up to the wait, and jumped in a line for the SDMT. Good way to start the day, good way to end it! It really is a great ride! It took us about 25-30 minutes to ride one last time, and we meandered our way out of the park afterwards. It was all so beautiful, and it was such a fun, busy day! I loved the mosaic murals of Cinderella. Those were awesome!

As we came down Main Street, we took some time to get some snacks to go. Always a good choice! But it was pretty crowded in there, and the confusing, socially-distanced line got just a bit heated at some point.

We asked a few questions and then grabbed the monorail over to the transit center, where we finally figured out where to go to meet our Lyft and get back to the Delta. Ah, home sweet home!

 

[disneycat321]

Woohoo, another WDW trip, and this time with your DH! That's awesome!

 

[Jaina]

Woohoo, another WDW trip, and this time with your DH! That's awesome!

Yes, I'm still kind of in shock!

 

[Jaina]

Day 4: Animal Kingdom

Well, after 2 days of early mornings, long park days, and kinda late nights (because we were still on AZ time) we were a little wiped out, and couldn't get out the door early enough to make AK an hour before it opened, at 7 AM. We squeaked out the door around 7:30 and were at the gates at 8 AM exactly. (Official opening) And we paid for it by waiting almost 70 minutes for FoP (rode at 9:15). Ugh. At least we had never seen Avatar land and there was lots to look at. Of course, when they opened up the line we were in and started pushing it back, we actually ended up going all the way from the Festival of the Lion King area... It was not an auspicious start to our day. (And it would end up being my least favorite day of the three)

But Flight of Passage was AMAZING! So awesome, and I'm so glad I got to ride it once!

Expedition Everest was our next priority, (we had learned our lesson about putting those off with Splash going down the day before) and since we were behind the crowd curve, we also waited over 30 minutes for that (rode at 10:10 AM). And you guys. I was so nervous about not knowing where the yeti was, exactly, that I kept closing my eyes, and didn't even SEE him. I am the worst with monsters. I still close my eyes occasionally on the Matterhorn because the newer Harold is terrifying, haha. And the old Harold traumatized me as a child, so I have issues with yetis, apparently.

We were right by Kali River Rapids, and the line didn't look too long, so we grabbed our little plastic shoe covers and jumped in line! The line was actually pretty cool. I enjoyed it. The ride however, though cool-looking, was so disappointing compared to Grizzly River Rapids. I was like, "That's it? Where'd the rest of it go??" We did see a cool komodo dragon right after. We didn't see a ton of animals, other than on the safari. We did take a detour after Kali to look at the bats and tigers area. That was pretty cool-looking.

We headed over to Dinoland, USA, to ride Countdown to Extinction, er, Dinosaur, but didn't explore the land much. It was feeling pretty toasty. We waited in line for about 35 minutes and rode at 11:50. The sun was brutal by now, and with so much of the line outside, we were thankful for our umbrellas again! The inside line was pretty interesting, and we enjoyed the ride, though probably not as much as Indiana Jones.

 

[Jaina]

By the time we finished Dinosaur it was about noon. We were kinda hot, kinda tired, and the lines were long. We decided to try the ITTBaB show, both to get a closer look at the Tree of Life, and because N had never seen it. We waited 35 minutes from we entered the line to when we sat down in the theater, but at least there was a lot to look at, and the air conditioning in the waiting area and in the theater was nice. It was a nice chill-down time. AK could have used a few more of those, and the day would have been nicer. (And loved watching these tortoises eat some lunch! I have two juvenile sulcata tortoises at home, so I have a soft spot for turtles. (All tortoises are turtles, but not the reverse) The show was about how I remembered it, since I saw it in 1998 there, and once or twice in California Adventure before it closed several years ago. There were some crying children...

It was after 1 now, and we were feeling kind of hungry, so we decided to try the Yak & Yeti local food carts. We split a teriyaki chicken salad and some egg rolls. It was good. Not amazing, but good. We also took this funny picture of my baby Yoda friend.

We had been wanting to try to Kilimanjaro Safari, and the line was as good as it had been all day, so we decided to head that direction. It was a bit of a hike, but we tried to enjoy the scenery as we went. We waited a little less than 30 minutes, even though the line snaked all over Africa. I think it rained on us while we were in line, but not heavily, and mostly when we were under cover. It stopped by the time we boarded. We really enjoyed the safari, (we rode at 2:15) and were able to get a good look at most of the animals.

As we were exiting Africa, we caught Pocahontas and Meeko, which was pretty cool. We were headed over to Pandora to try a few of the snacks someone said were some of the best in the park at Pongu Pongu: the Lumpia and the Night Blossom. I figured the Lumpia were the same as you could buy in Disneyland from the description, and they were pretty close, if not the same. The line at Pongu Pongu was a little long, but we got our treats, and finally found a random place to sit and eat them. There weren't any free tables in the area. We got to watch some funny little lizards while we ate though, so that was fun. I like the Lumpia at DLR, but it was funny to see N's face when she tasted them. She wasn't a fan. We like the Night Blossom, but neither of us are big sugary drink fans, and between that and the paper straw weirdness, it was just a little strange all together.

It was 3:30 PM, and the park closed at 6. What else were we going to fit in?

 

[Jaina]

We were right by the Na'vi River Journey, and kind of wanted to see that one, so we jumped in line. Man, it was a long line, and the people behind us were kinda on our heels for a while (they were a large group) until I think a CM finally said something to them. Still so long. (plus, we were hot and our feet were tired. But did you know if you keep slipping ice in your mouth, it feels like you have a/c inside your mask? Anyway...) We waited almost exactly an hour, (rode at 4:25) so our longest wait of the trip, almost. It was really cool, and the shaman animatronic WAS awesome. But I would never wait that long again, I don't think.

We thought about doing Rafiki's Planet Watch, but apparently it closed earlier than the rest of the park, so we missed that one. We did the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, and really enjoyed that one. I found my new favorite animal, the Okapi! He was the cutest, coolest thing. (That is not what is in the picture, but he/she was cool, too!)
Also, we got up close and personal with some hippos, which I thought was just amazing. We had a nice conversation with a CM who worked with the birds, too.

We really wanted to ride Expedition Everest again, but the line had been pretty long all day (like over 60 minutes) and then it just shut down. So. We tried to keep an eye on it, (Spoiler alert: it never did.) and went to get a treat I had wanted all day. Soft serve ice cream. Guys, after a long, hot day, where we didn't feel like we got much done, I think it was my favorite treat of the trip!

We sat right there in Asia and enjoyed our ice cream, before heading out. We took a few pictures on our way out, but it was 6, and stuff was closing up. We could have jumped back in line for something, but the only thing we would have considered that might be worth it was FoP. And were were tired! It was an okay day, and I enjoyed much of it, but it wasn't that "fun" after how much there was to do at Magic Kingdom the day before! Even Hollywood Studios kept us quite a bit busier. Kind of a weird let down, other than a few rides and the beautiful views.

 

[Jaina]

Traveling home wasn't a problem, but we were pretty tired! I have to think about if I can get another trip report done for my most recent WDW trip, in March, but I might have to wait until school is out towards the end of May. Things are very busy right now, and I'm getting ready for a big hike in Zion National Park the third week of May! If videos are your thing, here are video links to our 3 days at WDW! These are very "family videos"-ish, since that's what I made them for...
Day 1 - Hollywood Studios
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom
Day 3 - Animal Kingdom

 

[disneymouse16]

Great trip report! I love reading any people's trips and your style is a great! Looks like you had a great time!

 

[Jaina]

Great trip report! I love reading any people's trips and your style is a great! Looks like you had a great time!

Thanks! And thanks for reading! It was a really fun trip, and I'm so glad we got to go check out WDW a few times this year!