"IT'S A TRAP!" A January 2012 trip report ~ *Updated FINALLY! 7/6*

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

That's so cool that everyone got to ride in the first row on the first ride of the day!! I agree, Disney magic really is wonderful!

Your TT picture is awesome!!

 

[xoktenox]

Epcot is the only park we've never done RD at but wow...you guys got soooo much done!!!! I can't believe you rode Soarin' and TT 3 times a piece, that's amazing

Getting to WS at close to when it opens is awesome! Can't wait to hear how it went!

P.S. is playoff hockey giving you severe anxiety like it's giving me?!?!?!?

 

[Megablocks]

Just the thought of riding Soarin' right now makes me happy. Put me in the LOVE IT category.

Your Test Track picture is great! That will be down for our next two trips. It's one of Brooklynn's favorites, so she'll be momentarily disappointed. Jill wouldn't have been able to ride on this trip anyway, and I only ride it when it's the last ride of the evening because it messes up my hair so much. It will be interesting to see what changes they make to it when it gets back in service.

I knew you would appreciate getting to ride Soarin' a few times first thing in the morning. Best way to start the day!

Glad you like the TT picture. That's too bad it'll be down when you guys are there. And I know what you mean about it messing up your hair - I had my hair down for part of the morning, but I always carry a hair elastic or two so I can pull it back if it gets to be too much. Definitely had to after that last TT ride!

Love the EPCOT update - Rope drop rocks!!!!

The PP picture is priceless. I wish I was there right now.

Watched the videos and love the end of Illuminations...

This was my dad's first time doing rope drop and he was seriously amazed at all we got to do in such a short amount of time. We'll definitely be doing more on the next trip!

Glad you like the picture; it's on display right next to my dad's picture as a jedi. I also love the end of Illuminations. My mom and I forgot how awesome the entire show is.

That's so cool that everyone got to ride in the first row on the first ride of the day!! I agree, Disney magic really is wonderful!

Your TT picture is awesome!!

It was so cute how he moved people around to get everyone in the first row!

Thank you!! My dad reallyyyyy wanted to do that pose on ToT but Kailyn said she couldn't do it on there because she couldn't let go of whatever she was holding on to (me, usually), so we chose TT. She does have her eyes closed, though, because she hates the part when you're zooming towards the door.

Epcot is the only park we've never done RD at but wow...you guys got soooo much done!!!! I can't believe you rode Soarin' and TT 3 times a piece, that's amazing

Getting to WS at close to when it opens is awesome! Can't wait to hear how it went!

P.S. is playoff hockey giving you severe anxiety like it's giving me?!?!?!?

You have to do rope drop at Epcot sometime, it was awesome to get all that done in such a short amount of time! Being there right when WS opened was awesome, too

Yessssss playoff hockey is driving me crazyyyy! We are also tied at 2 and it's very stressful! I'm just glad Vancouver is doing crappy. Even my cousin who lives in British Columbia is rooting for the LA Kings instead

 

[MeMom]

This was my dad's first time doing rope drop and he was seriously amazed at all we got to do in such a short amount of time. We'll definitely be doing more on the next trip!


You have to do rope drop at Epcot sometime, it was awesome to get all that done in such a short amount of time!

Just keep this a secret among our DIS friends. We don't want the rest of the world to crowd up our nice mornings.

 

[Tink9721]

Hi Meg! I'm all caught up!

I really, really hope we go in January next year so I can see the Osborne Lights!

I love your SSE video and your Test Track picture

Now that I've finally done rope drop at MK, I wanna try it at the other parks too. I almost made it at AK unintentionally I think the park opened at 9:00 and we got into the park at like 9:03.

 

[Megablocks]

Just keep this a secret among our DIS friends. We don't want the rest of the world to crowd up our nice mornings.

We can complain and say how crowded the mornings are...

Hi Meg! I'm all caught up!

I really, really hope we go in January next year so I can see the Osborne Lights!

I love your SSE video and your Test Track picture

Now that I've finally done rope drop at MK, I wanna try it at the other parks too. I almost made it at AK unintentionally I think the park opened at 9:00 and we got into the park at like 9:03.

I hope you get to see the Osborne Lights! They're seriously amazing. Seeing them in person and seeing them in pictures are sooooo different.

Glad you like them - Mike and I got such a kick out of our future. He isn't really an Epcot or SSE person so I was really glad he got to see the interactive part.

Unintentional rope drops were what we made, too, on previous trips!

 

[Megablocks]

Day 5 continued - Sunday, January 8

So when I left off, the guys and Kailyn had left Mom and I to explore Epcot. This is our absolute favorite park and we love going with each other, because we each like to poke around and take our time. WS had just opened, so it was probably around 11:30 at this point. We started in Canada, and made our way to France because we were hungry and not eating at Boma until 4:30. We shared a ham and cheese croissant, a lemon tart, and creme brulee. No pictures, but it was all reallyyyy good! The lemon tart was especially amazing.

We pretty much meandered around WS, taking pictures. We spent a LOT of time in Morocco. It's my mom's favorite pavilion, and my BFF spent two semesters there for a study abroad program, so I always want to take a bunch of pictures there. These are a mix of my pictures and my mom's.

I loved seeing the Christmas tree!

Not 100% sure where in WS I took this...but I wanted to get a picture of the weird bird. I also got a seagull!

My mom and I love the lions. I got a pair a couple of days later.

We seriously killed an entire afternoon just walking around WS. At some point, I had texted Mike to ask him to tell Kailyn to meet us at Epcot around 3:30-4:00 for Boma. Her phone at the time was having major issues with sending/receiving texts and even getting phone calls, and the guys had decided against coming to Boma. Since we still had some time to kill before Kailyn was meeting us, we decided to ride SSE. I think I mentioned that we had kind of a wait for TT at one time earlier in the day, because of some issue. It was kind of a sign of things to come, but we didn't realize it at the time. On SSE, we got stuck right in between the Egyptians and the Venetians, for several minutes. We saw people actually walking by with flashlights and I was kind of nervous we'd have to be escorted off. We got stuck in a crappy place, too - literally RIGHT in between scenes, so we couldn't see anything unless we leaned over to peer out, or turned around and craned our necks to look behind us. We did get moving again, luckily - no escorting off the ride!

Totally just realized "our" robot has a little mustache and bowtie.

Luckily, we are the types of people who allow for delays, so by the time we got off, Kailyn was waiting for us near the buses and said she had only been waiting a couple minutes.

Next update - Boma and Magic Kingdom!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Isn't meandering around WS just wonderful?

That would have made for an interesting story, having to have been escorted off of Spaceship Earth!! I've always looked at those billions of stairs when you're going up or down into the ride, like "I'd hate to have to walk up or down all of those!"

 

[MeMom]

We can complain and say how crowded the mornings are...

Yes, that is exactly what we will do!

American White Ibis, I'm pretty sure.



We've been stuck on Spaceship Earth probably 3 or 4 times - enough that we don't go on it if we have any time constraints at all. I'm sure most of the time it gets going pretty quickly, but once we were stuck for what seemed like quite some time.

Looking forward to Boma and AKL pictures!

 

[IheartDDuck]

WS is my favorite place to wander around and waste time. There are so many things to see and you never feel bored.

I would love to be escorted off of Spaceship Earth! I'm just a weirdo though.

 

[photographymom517]

I am so glad I finally figured out how to share them! I'm weird and didn't want just anyone to be able to find my videos, so I am glad there's an option for people like me to be able to share them without them being searchable

HOW do I do this?! You have to email me & let me know. I really want to share my videos of the kids with you (and some Disney videos on the DIS!) but I don't want a bunch of random creepers from online to see them!

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Now onto your updates!

How exciting to make it to Epcot before RD!!!

I STILL haven't made it to a single rope drop but maybe next trip! We saw a partial rope drop at WS when they first opened, but I'm not sure that counts! It's nothing like a park opening with the characters & the music/show, but it was really neat to see the CM's from France all standing in a row with their country's flags!!!

I can't believe how much you got done in just a couple hours! That is really motivation to try to make it to RD!!!

You already know this but we LOVE Epcot!!! Your pictures from Morocco are so beautiful!

I always take pics of those birds too! There are so many of them wondering around the grassy areas near WS!!!

I know I had more to say but I am so exhausted! I will come back this weekend, reread your updates and post again!

 

[flyergrad09]

Hi! I'm late in joining this, but I'm really enjoying your TR!

The only time I got stuck on SSE it was between scenes too. So boring.

I love the Morocco pavilion! I also had a friend who did a study abroad there, but she's not much of a WDW person, so I'm planning on taking lots of pictures so she can see how much it's like the real place.

I saw that you completed your practicum... yay! I completed mine a couple of weeks ago too. What are you getting your degree in? Mine's a Master of Library & Information Science. I definitely know what you mean about being sad/relieved when your practicum ends... I loved my library site, but I'm really enjoying the extra free time now too.

 

[Megablocks]

Isn't meandering around WS just wonderful?

That would have made for an interesting story, having to have been escorted off of Spaceship Earth!! I've always looked at those billions of stairs when you're going up or down into the ride, like "I'd hate to have to walk up or down all of those!"

I love just meandering around WS! My dad and Mike don't really care for Epcot, and Kailyn can take or leave WS...she likes it, but can't spend an entire afternoon just wandering like my mom and I can. Just walking around there is one of my very favorite things to do in Disney!

Right?! It would have made for fantastic TR fodder, and it would have been cool to say, "why yes, I was escorted off SSE..." but I think if I had to walk past the audio-animatronics, I would lose it. I don't mind them when I'm safely inside the vehicle, but they're soooo lifelike I'd be afraid walking by them! I'm one of those people who really dislikes/is afraid of dolls, mannequins, etc.

Yes, that is exactly what we will do!





American White Ibis, I'm pretty sure.



We've been stuck on Spaceship Earth probably 3 or 4 times - enough that we don't go on it if we have any time constraints at all. I'm sure most of the time it gets going pretty quickly, but once we were stuck for what seemed like quite some time.

Looking forward to Boma and AKL pictures!

We've gotten stuck for a couple minutes at a time before, but this time we were stuck for several minutes. It was really weird. I'm pretty sure we were trying to figure out what was going on, especially after we saw people with flashlights walking past. Definitely never saw that before!

Ummm...I actually did not take any pictures of either, unfortunately I was kind of only partly planning on writing a TR so I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do. Took notes, but not a lot of pictures, oddly enough.

WS is my favorite place to wander around and waste time. There are so many things to see and you never feel bored.

I would love to be escorted off of Spaceship Earth! I'm just a weirdo though.

Same! I love how there's so much to see. In real life, I am not much of a shopper, but I love looking in all the WS shops.

Part of me was kind of like, "being escorted off would be kinda cool, not everyone can say they've been escorted off SSE!"...but seriously, if I had to walk by the audio-animatronics, it would freak me out.

 

[Megablocks]

HOW do I do this?! You have to email me & let me know. I really want to share my videos of the kids with you (and some Disney videos on the DIS!) but I don't want a bunch of random creepers from online to see them!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Now onto your updates!

How exciting to make it to Epcot before RD!!!

I STILL haven't made it to a single rope drop but maybe next trip! We saw a partial rope drop at WS when they first opened, but I'm not sure that counts! It's nothing like a park opening with the characters & the music/show, but it was really neat to see the CM's from France all standing in a row with their country's flags!!!

I can't believe how much you got done in just a couple hours! That is really motivation to try to make it to RD!!!

You already know this but we LOVE Epcot!!! Your pictures from Morocco are so beautiful!

I always take pics of those birds too! There are so many of them wondering around the grassy areas near WS!!!

I know I had more to say but I am so exhausted! I will come back this weekend, reread your updates and post again!

Okay, let's see if I can explain the YouTube thing. First, log in to your account, then go to your username in the top right corner. Select "video manager" from the drop-down menu. All your uploads should show up. To the left of each one should be a little box. You can click in the box so a check mark shows up. Up at the top, hit "actions," then select "unlisted" from the drop-down menu. Something should come up and say that all the selected videos were now changed to unlisted. That way, the only way for anyone else to view it is if they have the direct link I hope that works for you, if not, text me or something and I'll try and help!

I know you share the WS love with me I would love to be there at the same time as you so we could poke around there together! The rope drop was awesome, we got SO much done. Even my dad and Mike were really impressed. Mike was also impressed the day before, with all we got done at MK. Definitely must-dos from now on!

I always get such a kick out of the weird Florida birds! There's actually hawks around here now, which is probably the most unusual bird I've ever seen around here. We have bluejays, seagulls, the occasional cardinal, I think robins, and of course sparrows and pigeons (not as many pigeons as we used to ) but hawks are now around here. We also have the odd wild turkey, which frankly just confuses me, because we're a city.

Hi! I'm late in joining this, but I'm really enjoying your TR!

The only time I got stuck on SSE it was between scenes too. So boring.

I love the Morocco pavilion! I also had a friend who did a study abroad there, but she's not much of a WDW person, so I'm planning on taking lots of pictures so she can see how much it's like the real place.

I saw that you completed your practicum... yay! I completed mine a couple of weeks ago too. What are you getting your degree in? Mine's a Master of Library & Information Science. I definitely know what you mean about being sad/relieved when your practicum ends... I loved my library site, but I'm really enjoying the extra free time now too.

Thanks for joining, I love new readers!

Yeah...my best friend is not really a WDW person. I do always take pictures of Morocco with her in mind, just so I can show her how similar they really are.

Congratulations on being done with your practicum, too! I'm getting my associate's in early childhood development. I'm really lucky and get to sub at my site and will be working there over the summer, but before I knew that, it was sooo hard to leave. I am so glad to be done with the class, though...it's such a relief!

 

[Megablocks]

Day 5 continued - Sunday, January 8th

When I last left off, Mom, Kailyn and I were all heading to Boma. This was my request, since I loved it the last time we ate there, and I was really excited to go back. We caught a bus to AKL pretty quickly. When we arrived, we got off at the wrong stop, quickly realized our mistake, and got back on. Yeah, rookie mistake. When we were driving in, all I could think was that I didn't think I could ever stay deluxe...I am SO directionally challenged and the size of some of the deluxe resorts just overwhelms me.

I unfortunately didn't get any pictures from AKL, or our meal, so I'll try to keep this part short. We arrived at 4:12 for our 4:30 ADR, but were asked to check in in three minutes. We checked in three minutes, got our buzzer, and were called at 4:35 and led to a nice, small table in the corner, but still close to the buffet. I can't remember what exactly Kailyn got, but once she found stuff she liked, she stuck with that. Mom got some chicken corn chowder that she LOVED. I had the steak (went up several times for that), sausage and lentil soup, bobotie, peanut soup, white bean hummus, olive tapende, and pita bread. The only things I didn't really care for were the bobotie, and the peanut soup. I love peanuts and the soup was, of course, very peanut-y, but the spices or the seasoning in it just threw me off. Everything else was delicious, of course.

For dessert, I had caramel cheesecake, two zebra domes, banana butterscotch bread pudding with vanilla sauce, chocolate cinnamon mousse, a coffee tart, and a peanut butter thing (I obviously couldn't remember exactly what it was called because my notes literally say "peanut butter thingy.") I don't think I cared too much for the coffee tart. I LOVE the bread pudding with the sauce, and the zebra domes. Overall it was a fantastic meal!

We waddled contentedly out of Boma, checked out the gift shop, and caught a bus back to Epcot so we could get a bus back to Pop. We saw a Pop bus there while we were still on the other bus, but we waited just over five minutes for another bus. (Foreshadowing alert: this was pretty much the end of our awesome bus luck.) We arrived back at Pop a little after six, relaxed for about an hour, then headed to MK for EMH 8-11 and Wishes at 8. We arrived around 7:45 and by the time we made it in, it was the end of the Magic, The Memories, and You show, and Main Street was PACKED! We made our way up as far as we could, then just stayed on Main Street for the fireworks. My mom got some pictures while I tried to video the end of it. It was my first time seeing it from Main Street, and WOW.

I hate the sound of my voice, especially in this video (I was crying haha) but it shows the finale of the show, with the castle lights. If you don't want it spoiled...don't watch! Also I apologize for the weird angle, and the shakiness...I was holding my phone up and down and not sideways, plus I was watching over the phone and not through the screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GG9qsr6YhQ

I realized my dad said something about a Mickey balloon going by...pretty sure someone lost it and it was just floating away.

After Wishes, we headed to Liberty Square to see what the wait was for HM. It was pretty short, so we hopped in line. There was a full moon this night so Mom got a really cool pictures of it through the trees at HM.

Remember how mom and I got stuck on SSE? Well, we got stuck on Haunted Mansion, right before the hitchhiking ghosts...and then the effect didn't work.

BTMRR was closing the next day for the refurb, so we headed over there to see how the long wait was. The time posted was 20 minutes, but the line was all the way past the entrance, so we just decided to skip it. Mom, Kailyn and I then headed over to Splash Mountain. I wore my hoodie and didn't get too wet, but Kailyn got drenched! We also got stuck three times on THAT.

We went over to PotC, and waited like ten minutes. Got stuck on THAT a couple of times, mostly due to boat backup. We checked out the shop after, and started heading towards the castle. I was definitely really tired and knew I wouldn't make it till eleven, so I decided to head back to Pop. On the way out, though, some window displays caught my attention.

Mickey's Christmas Carol! I freely admit that this one of my all-time favorite movies. It came out when I was pretty little and I remember watching it ALL the time. I still love to watch it repeatedly around Christmas.

This part always freaked me out when I was little.

This part still makes me cry...

I finally left after checking out the displays, and began the loooooong trek to the Pop bus stop. As I was walking, I saw one queue that was COMPLETELY filled. I mean, weaving all the way around and the line was going down far past the entrance of the queue. As I got closer, I realized...

THAT'S THE POP CENTURY QUEUE.



I've honestly never seen the queue that bad before. I texted Mom at some point to let her know the situation, just so they wouldn't get a nasty surprise if it wasn't fixed by the time they left (from the looks of it, it wouldn't be, and no, it wasn't; it took them almost as long as me to get back.) From the time I arrived at the bus stop, to the time I got back to Pop, was an hour. I made it on to the fourth bus, and I was NEVER so happy to get on a bus in my life. What was funny was that even though the bus ride was incredibly quiet, "Sweet Caroline" started playing on the way back. When it got the "Sweeeeeet Caroline" (bah bah bahhh) some people quietly sang, "bah bah bahhh..." and then when it got to, "good times never seemed so good"...you heard, "so good, so good, so good!" It was AWESOME!

I was so grateful to have a preferred room tonight. I got back to the room, changed, shut the connecting door, and fell asleep really quickly.

Next update: a nice lazy morning!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Boo for your good bus karma ending!!! That Pop line sounds crazy!!

I thought your Wishes video was great!!! I definitely could never hold the camera that steady! One of these days, I really do have to watch it from Main Street, I know!

 

[flyergrad09]

Geeze, it's like all of the rides just gave up after the Christmas crowds left! You have some seriously bad luck with rides.

Mickey's Christmas Carol used to scare me so much when I was little! Those window displays are beautiful, but I'll be honest, the grave one kinda got my heart going.

 

[Megablocks]

Boo for your good bus karma ending!!! That Pop line sounds crazy!!

I thought your Wishes video was great!!! I definitely could never hold the camera that steady! One of these days, I really do have to watch it from Main Street, I know!

It was insane! I don't think it ever went down, either. I'm pretty sure it was just as long as when my bus (the fourth one!) pulled away, and my parents and Kailyn had the same problem. I've never seen it like that before.

Awww thank you! And yes, definitely watch Wishes from Main Street. We've seen it from the side of the castle, but seeing it from Main Street was SO different, and amazing. It gets me anyway, but seeing it from Main Street REALLY got me!

Geeze, it's like all of the rides just gave up after the Christmas crowds left! You have some seriously bad luck with rides.

Mickey's Christmas Carol used to scare me so much when I was little! Those window displays are beautiful, but I'll be honest, the grave one kinda got my heart going.

It was so weird! We've gotten stuck on rides, of course, but never THAT often. I remember one of the times we rode HM, I was telling my sister that my friend got stuck in the bride's attic and how jealous I was. I wish I could remember if that conversation took part when we got stuck. I do remember being kind of unhappy we were not stuck in the bride's attic.

Oh, good, I'm glad I'm not the only one. The grave one definitely was the scariest part for me. I STILL get nervous watching it! Also, another part in a Disney movie that used to scare me..."Poor Unfortunate Souls." I heard the song on DIS radio and it actually kind of freaked me out, because that part reallyyyy freaked me out when I was little. I love creepy movies now though.

 

[Megablocks]

I can't believe it's been so long since I updated...I hate the end of the school year! But, I am done with school till my online class starts up at the beginning of June. This report is wrapping up, too...I only have this day, the next day, and departure day to get through. I'm REALLY hoping to start planning another trip soon so I can do a PTR this time around.

Day 6 - Monday, January 9

This was the day before our last full day. I hate this day almost as much as the last full day. It also ended up being a sleep-in day, since we'd gotten up pretty early the last few days. We slept in and headed out around 11. Dad and Mike were heading to Animal Kingdom, and Mom, Kailyn and I decided to head to DTD. When we got there, we hit Tren-D, then Art of Disney, then World of Disney. I didn't really take any shopping pictures (sorry!) I LOVE Art of Disney and wish I could just buy out the store! I also love WoD even though its size is completely overwhelming for me. I bought something for Katie DisKate there, along with some Vinylmations. I got sucked in on our 2010 trip and had NO IDEA they had expanded to tiny Vinylmation keychains, so I had to get one of those for myself. THEN, I saw them...STAR WARS VINYLMATIONS! I'm not a big Star Wars person, but DBF, Charles, is, and also LOVES blind boxes, so I grabbed one for him. I'm pretty sure Kailyn got one for herself, and my mom grabbed one for Mike and maybe Dad. Mike was really happy and ended up buying some more for himself! My keychain Vinylmation was a tiny tiger, from IASW.

I took this picture, sent it to Facebook, and tagged both Charles and Katie in it...because I'm bad.

After shopping, we headed to

I didn't really know about EoS till I joined the Disboards, and I am SO glad I learned of it. Each time I've been there, I've gotten the Hawaiian BBQ sandwich, but this time I deviated and went with the Italian (all descriptions are courtesy of allears.net.) The Italian was roasted ham, salami, capicola, mortadella, mozzarella cheese, roma tomato, and zesty italian dressing, and it was DELICIOUS! I was not disappointed to have strayed from the Hawaiian BBQ. Kailyn got the BLT (pretty self-explanatory), and Mom got the veggie (feta cheese, lettuce, roma tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, roasted red peppers, and mediterrean dressing.) We were all very happy with our choices.

Since I feel the only safe way to enter Goofy's Candy's Co. is when you're completely stuffed, we headed there for treats. Each of us got a rice crispy treat. Mine was dipped in dark chocolate, covered in crushed Oreo cookie crumbs, and drizzled with white chocolate. Mom's was dipped in white chocolate, covered with dark and white chocolate chips, and drizzled in white chocolate. Kailyn's was dipped in white chocolate, covered in rainbow sprinkles, and drizzled with white chocolate. I didn't get a picture of Mom's or Kailyn's, but this was my masterpiece

I could definitely go for one right now!

While we were waiting, Kailyn and I were playing with the mirrors and laughing at ourselves

After Goofy's, it was around 1:30, and we decided to head back to Pop. The guys came back from AK, and we hung out for a little while before heading to DHS around 3.

Next update: DHS and Epcot and IS THAT REALLY THE LINE FOR THE BUS?

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Agreed that the only safe time to enter Goofy's Candy Co. is when you're full! That rice krispy treat looks great!