Oh, has it Been Raining? No, this is Just Sweat. Sept/Oct 2022 Trip Report! (Updated 9/16!!)

[Wood Nymph]

Even though in the LL, the wait ended up being over 35 minutes.

The LL lines should not have taken that long. Now I know why the standby line for Soarin' has been so short lately - everyone is in the LL line.

We were assigned B2, so not quite the best, but happy with being in B!

I think that the best seat is B6. We usually ask for B.

The walk back to the Dolphin felt so much longer than the walk to Epcot It was hard walking past the YC and not heading in there, but at least we would be the next day!

My sister stayed at the Dolphin while we were at the Beach Club last October. She ended up really loving the boats. But she didn't care for the Dolphin.

 

[VAtink]

The LL lines should not have taken that long. Now I know why the standby line for Soarin' has been so short lately - everyone is in the LL line.

Right? It was crazy, and it happened more than I expected. The first day I figured maybe the rides were just having issues which was causing the waits, but it kept happening throughout the trip, so who knows what was going on!

I think that the best seat is B6. We usually ask for B.

B is definitely the best. We got pretty lucky with our assignments this trip, only once did we have a really bad seat on Soarin'!

My sister stayed at the Dolphin while we were at the Beach Club last October. She ended up really loving the boats. But she didn't care for the Dolphin.

Yeah, I'm with your sister. The Dolphin was fine for the first night, but we weren't huge fans of it. Definitely made checking into the YC the second day really feel like we were coming home!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Hurrah for a shady picnic table. I am filing away that secret location for my next visit. And would you believe that in however many years it's been, I've never had that ham, cheese & noodle dish (too lazy to look up spelling)? Must fix next time. I'm with your mom on LOVING Ratatouille. I think it's my fave too though I enjoy Guardians. I'm soured on Soarin' with all the distortions if you're not sitting in the perfect seat. I'd rather they bring back the original -- or at least have it as an option! I saw that walkway from Dolphin to YC was closed a few weeks ago, looked like they took down all the balconies. I wonder if they're putting them back?

 

[VAtink]

Hurrah for a shady picnic table. I am filing away that secret location for my next visit. And would you believe that in however many years it's been, I've never had that ham, cheese & noodle dish (too lazy to look up spelling)? Must fix next time. I'm with your mom on LOVING Ratatouille. I think it's my fave too though I enjoy Guardians. I'm soured on Soarin' with all the distortions if you're not sitting in the perfect seat. I'd rather they bring back the original -- or at least have it as an option! I saw that walkway from Dolphin to YC was closed a few weeks ago, looked like they took down all the balconies. I wonder if they're putting them back?

Right? Finding a shady table that you can actually sit at is amazing! I definitely recommend the schniken thingy noodle ...while it's hard to spell, it does taste great!

Ratatouille is definitely a lot of fun, and mom absolutely loves it. I pointed out the large prop wheels moving in the scene we're under the cart and she was blown away by that detail. We tried to get on it every day we were in Epcot just to see if we could notice more details like that!

And totally agree on Soarin', the original was so much better. That would be cool if they gave you the option of either the new one or the old one!

 

[VAtink]

Day 1, Part 4: An Evening in Disney Springs!​

September 23rd, 2022

We last left off with us heading back to the Dolphin to check out our room for the first time and to rest up a bit before dinner.

On the way back from Epcot it started to drizzle a little bit, but it was very light and cooled us off so we didn’t mind. Plus we got super lucky since the second we got back to the Dolphin the skies opened up and it poured for like an hour!

Once back in the Dolphin we swung by the front desk again to get our room keys, then picked up our bags from Bell Services before heading to our room.

Now I’m a bad trip reporter since I totally forgot to get pictures of the room, but I did get a picture of the door!

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We got a room with a balcony, so were in one of the shorter wings off the back of the building. It was a decent room, smaller than what we’re used to in Disney resorts, but it served it’s purpose for the first night. It was also very quiet which we appreciated!

Once in the room we took a nice long rest, that early morning was really catching up to us! Also, since it was pouring outside, we decided to take a longer rest to wait for the rain to slow down before heading out to dinner.

Finally, around 4:00 I called for an Uber to take us to dinner. I had wanted to use a Minnie Van, but got the error message that it was only for Disney resort guests. I didn’t realize they didn’t let people use Minnie Vans from the Swolphin! I guess we could have walked to the YC and gotten one there, but an Uber was just easier, and cheaper!

We arrived at Disney Springs around 4:20, and made our way to the restaurant we had dinner reservations at, Wine Bar George! Our reservations weren’t until 5, but we were hungry already so went to see if we could be seated early.

Luckily, they could seat us early, and we got the requested outdoor table too! It was super nice out there since it was still very cloudy from the rain earlier, so we were surprised no one else was eating out there.

https://flic.kr/p/2nS1p5q][/url]

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We decided to get a bottle of white wine to split, and then ordered two of the small plates each. I got the Mac’n Cheese bites and the meatballs, while mom got the beets and meatballs. Of the items ordered, the Mac ‘n cheese bites were definitely the favorite, they were so good! I really liked the meatballs, but my mom wasn’t a huge fan.




Boy is it hard to get pictures of food before diving in when we're hungry!







So, by this time (Friday the 23rd) we had an inkling that a hurricane may be heading our way, so decided that since we liked the bottle of wine we split for dinner so much, we should buy a second to take with us to keep in the room so if the hurricane did hit we’d at least have some good wine to drink!

By the time we wrapped up with dinner the clouds had moved away and the sun was beating down on us, so we were getting overheated quickly! So once we paid we quickly made our way out.

After dinner we did a bit of shopping. I wanted to swing by Gideons, but the line was crazy long at that point (we should have gone before dinner when there was no line…probably because of the rain). Oh well! Instead we checked out Uniqlo, where we didn’t find anything, the Lego store (omg that Colosseum set is awesome, I need it!), and of course World of Disney.

I found a zip-up hoodie with this super soft sherpa lining which I bought, which turns out was a great purchase because later in the trip I would need it! (yes, I needed a winter sweater in September , but we’ll get to that later).



I also bought the Spaceship Earth cookie jar, which I had shipped to my house, and spoiler alert, it arrived broken! But no worries, I contacted Disney and they are sending a replacement! Well, they said they were anyways, I contacted them the day I got home and they said the new one should arrive within 7-10 days, and here we are at day 9 and still no shipping notification. I should probably bug them again…

We also swung by the Coop where mom got me a puzzle for Christmas! (I love puzzles!). We also popped over to Basin where mom got some soaps and I got more of the pumpkin butter (highly recommend, I love that stuff!).

Goodies in hand, we headed out to the buses. I really dislike that there is only one bus stop there these days, I miss when they had three, two at each end and one in the middle. It seems the walk to the single bus stop now takes forever!

We decided to take the YC/BC bus (I think also shared with BW) back, and the wait was pretty long, about 30 minutes. I did find it funny that almost everyone got off at the YC and walked right through the lobby and out towards either Epcot or the Swolphin!

Once back at the Dolphin we swung by the store in the lobby to pick up some extra snacks for the room just in case the hurricane did end up hitting so we wouldn’t have to worry about food.

After our quick shopping trip, we headed up to the room and decided to watch some TV before getting to bed pretty early since we were exhausted at that point! While lying in bed I heard the Epcot fireworks going off, and ran over to the window to see if we could see them, and we could see some of the higher ones! What a great surprise to end the night!

Stats Day 1:

Step Count: 25,260

Miles: 11.39

Next up: Finally Home!​

 

[Wood Nymph]

I found a zip-up hoodie with this super soft sherpa lining which I bought, which turns out was a great purchase because later in the trip I would need it!

That hoodie looks really comfortable.

We decided to take the YC/BC bus (I think also shared with BW) back, and the wait was pretty long, about 30 minutes. I did find it funny that almost everyone got off at the YC and walked right through the lobby and out towards either Epcot or the Swolphin!

This happens with the WL/CR bus, too. People crowd onto it to get to MK.

 

[Joy1127]

Bad idea on my part to read your F&W escapades whilst hungry!! lol Looks like an awesome start to your trip! Also I need that hoodie! Love a cozy sweater like that!

 

[VAtink]

That hoodie looks really comfortable.

It really is, and super warm! I love how understated it is too. I don't always want to wear Disney clothes that scream DISNEY CLOTHES!

This happens with the WL/CR bus, too. People crowd onto it to get to MK.

I'm not surprised, I would probably do that as well!

 

[VAtink]

Bad idea on my part to read your F&W escapades whilst hungry!! lol Looks like an awesome start to your trip! Also I need that hoodie! Love a cozy sweater like that!

Haha, that seems to happen to us a lot too! The weeks leading up to the trip we like to go through the food for ideas on what we want to get, and inevitably we end up doing it while hungry!

The hoodie is soooo comfy, and super warm. I really love this one. Now just can't wait for it to get cold enough here to actually wear it.

Edit to add: I don't know if you're on the shopping thread, but a bunch of pictures of the holiday "Joy" merchandise was posted on there this morning and it made me think of you!

 

[NJlauren]

It really is, and super warm! I love how understated it is too. I don't always want to wear Disney clothes that scream DISNEY CLOTHES!

Right?!? I have so many cute items that are over the top, I love them but am always looking for more understated items! I never find them

 

[VAtink]

Just got my fitbit stats from last week, my first full week back from Disney. This seems about right!

 

[VAtink]

Right?!? I have so many cute items that are over the top, I love them but am always looking for more understated items! I never find them

Yes! It's so rare to find something that is understated! When I saw this I had to have it, between the sherpa and the not in your face Disney, I loved it!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 1: Finally Home!​

Saturday September 24th, 2022

We slept in a bit this morning, well slept in for Disney. I think we woke up a little before 7 so I could book our ILL and G+ for the day right at 7. (hate this part of Genie+!)

I managed to snag an ILL for RotR with a return time of 5:00 (we were heading to HS later in the day so I purposely got a late afternoon one), then went to book the G+ for Slinky. Oddly, I was able to book Slinky for myself, but it showed that my mom didn’t have Genie+, which was wrong, we both definitely had it. So I ended up booking Slinky for just myself and told my mom we’d swing by the GET in the park to get her added. I did contact them through the chat in the app, but they said we’d have to take care of it in person in the park.

Once the ride booking was completed I took a look outside. The sunrise from our room was beautiful!



We showered and got ready for the day, then packed up our stuff and made our way downstairs to check-out and let the front desk know the shower wasn’t draining. Funny enough, we had this same issue back in 2019 when we did the first night at the Boardwalk where the shower would not drain, so I don’t know what we’re doing wrong, but we seem to keep getting rooms with showers that don’t drain for our first night!

We had a rather odd interaction with the front desk as we were checking out. They asked us if we enjoyed our stay, and we said we had, and the guy looked super surprised and goes “oh really?” HA!!!! It seriously sounded like he expected us to say how much we hated it!

I told him I loved how quiet it was, and once again he looked shocked and said, “well that’s always good when you get a quiet room!”

So yeah, he wasn’t really selling the place!

Once checked out we grabbed our bags, then made the trek over to the YC. It was definitely a pain dragging our suitcases up and over those bridges, but also sooooo nice to finally be checking into our home resort!

The lobby was pretty empty when we got there so we headed right to the front desk to see if we could get a room. The CM we spoke with made a call to see if we could get into a room, and she said something that kind of rubbed me the wrong way while she was on the phone. She said something along the lines of “oh no, I don’t want to upgrade them.”

Now I don’t expect to ever get upgraded, it’s a nice surprise when it happens, but just something about the way she said it irked me, like we had somehow offended her or we weren’t worthy enough to her for an upgrade. Stupid thing I know, and we really didn’t care if we got upgraded or not, I just wish she hadn’t said it the way she did.

She also wouldn’t give us a celebration pin, and I really wanted one this time since I was celebrating my 40th with Epcot! She didn’t ask if we were celebrating anything when we checked in, which ok, she may have forgotten, so I asked if they had them, and she said that they don’t do them anymore. This would have been fine but there were tons of people wearing them that week and saw a CM giving them out later in the week when we stopped by the front desk for something else. So I don’t know if she was just new and didn’t know or actually just flat out lied. Not the best welcome home, but it’s ok being the only minor snag in the trip (besides of course the hurricane )

Anyways, moving on!

The CM/CM on the phone weren’t able to get us into a room at that point, so we dropped our bags off at bell services and headed off to Epcot!

Next up: Will We Get Mom on Slinky?​

 

[Wood Nymph]

Not the best welcome home, but it’s ok being the only minor snag in the trip (besides of course the hurricane )

Your check out from the Dolphin was kind of funny but the check in at the YC was not. It seems like you got unlucky with that YC CM. Maybe they thought you wanted a free upgrade, Whatever it was, it wasn't very nice.

We've gotten lucky when they suggested that they could find us an available room but noticed that they don't like it when you ask them to find one for you. I saw this at GF, too,

 

[2xcited2sleep]

What I would give to have some of those Wine Bar George mac & cheese bites for dinner tonight! SOOOO good. I had no idea they sold full bottles of wine "to go" ... will definitely keep that in mind. LOVE that sweatshirt and will be keeping eye out for it on my next trip. Swan and Dolphin has become my "go-to" given the rates at Yacht & Beach and Boardwalk but with the conventions and construction, I'm kinda surprised you got a quiet room too! Glad you enjoyed. Ugh on the Genie and LL early wake-ups. I wonder who thought that was a good idea for people on vacation. Sorry the check-in at Yacht was less than magical.

 

[VAtink]

Your check out from the Dolphin was kind of funny but the check in at the YC was not. It seems like you got unlucky with that YC CM. Maybe they thought you wanted a free upgrade, Whatever it was, it wasn't very nice.

Haha, it was a pretty weird check-out experience! The guy seemed so shocked we actually enjoyed our stay! And no idea what was with the check-in at the YC. I imagine the CM on the phone asked the desk CM if we were getting an upgrade, so she could have just said no, but for some reason she decided to say she didn't want to give us one out loud. Just very weird.

We've gotten lucky when they suggested that they could find us an available room but noticed that they don't like it when you ask them to find one for you. I saw this at GF, too,

Yeah, we didn't expect a room to be ready at that time in the morning, but figured we'd go check-in at least and make sure the correct credit card was linked to our room. I'm not actually sure we even asked to get into a room at that point, I think the CM just looked for us. Still very odd interactions that morning!

 

[VAtink]

What I would give to have some of those Wine Bar George mac & cheese bites for dinner tonight! SOOOO good. I had no idea they sold full bottles of wine "to go" ... will definitely keep that in mind. LOVE that sweatshirt and will be keeping eye out for it on my next trip. Swan and Dolphin has become my "go-to" given the rates at Yacht & Beach and Boardwalk but with the conventions and construction, I'm kinda surprised you got a quiet room too! Glad you enjoyed. Ugh on the Genie and LL early wake-ups. I wonder who thought that was a good idea for people on vacation. Sorry the check-in at Yacht was less than magical.

Those mac n cheese bites were amazing! I need to learn how to make them at home!

I was surprised we could get a full bottle to take with us, but it was really nice to be able to, we really loved the bottle we had there!

So are quiet rooms not really common at the Swan and Dolphin? The guy at the front desk seemed really surprised that it was quiet and we enjoyed our stay! Haha!

Yes, 100% ugh on the early wake up to book the ILL and G+, I hate that so much! Why not let everyone book their first ride of the day in advance, and then use the current rules for the rest of the day?

Yeah, not the best welcome home to the YC, but at least it was the only snag we had at the hotel this year. Fortunately no random workers on our balcony while we're trying to use the room this time around!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 2: Will We Get Mom on Slinky?​

Saturday September 24, 2022

It was right around 8:30 when we arrived at Epcot, so about 30 minutes after it opened for resort guests, and it was actually a great time to arrive since the IG wasn’t too busy. Still busier than the pre-skyliner days, but no huge lines to scan in at this point.

I hopped in the shortest line to scan into the park, and what would become the norm for the trip, the line didn’t move. I warned my mom that this is my thing, same thing happens when I go to stores, whatever checkout line I pick is the one that never moves. Happens every time, and happened almost every single time I picked a line this trip, finally mom got fed up with my bad luck about half way through the trip and started picking the lines, and lo and behold, we no longer got stuck in the one that didn’t move!

Our first stop that morning was Soarin’ for our 8:30 pre-booked DAS. This time there was hardly any wait at all in the LL, only about 5 minutes! We were in C-1, but *almost* in B since we were the two closest seats to B, so we had almost a straight Eiffel Tower!

It was once again a great flight!

We next headed over to LwtL. There was hardly anyone there when we got there so the CM was putting people in the boats with 2-3 empty rows between them, which I always appreciate! (hot take: I miss the days of social distancing at Disney!) We piled into our row and settled in for a relaxing ride. As we were leaving the load station I was surprised to see a pretty sizeable line had built for the ride! Good timing on our part!

The ride was great as always. One of these days we want to do the behind the seeds tour there.






This Mickey looks a little rough these days…


Mmmmm, coffee and tequila…this may be my favorite section of the greenhouse


There did seem to be a lot of these random seating displays set up in the greenhouses now, like I feel they’ve always had one or two, but now there are a bunch, which seems odd. Like I’m there to see the plants, not how to make a table display?



After LwtL, we headed out and over towards the Seas, but I saw a GET umbrella just by the entrance so we headed there first to hopefully take care of mom’s Genie+ issues.

The CMs at the GET umbrella were fantastic and so incredibly nice. They said the reason I couldn’t book Slinky for mom was because we hadn’t checked in at the YC yet that morning. This seems odd since I was able to book it for myself, so shouldn’t it not work for me either if that was the case? Who knows, we didn’t really care why it didn’t work, just that it would work from then on. The CM assured us that it should work fine, but first she needed to get mom on Slinky then we could test to make sure Genie+ was working for her.

The CM had to make a call to HS to get it worked out, and they had to issue us a recovery pass for mom to get on Slinky, so she wasn’t using Genie+ yet. This was fine though since now we could test to make sure that I could book a ride for her, and it worked this time around! Phew! Crisis averted!

Once that was taken care of, we hopped over to the Seas. I love it in this pavilion, it is so relaxing, especially that early in the morning. We hung out there for a while just watching the fish and waving at the divers. Looked like they had the dive tour going on again that day as there were a bunch of divers in the water! I really want to get SCUBA certified so I can do this. Maybe one of these years.

After a while we had gotten our fill of fish time, so made our way out. Earlier in the day I had booked a day of DAS for SE, so we headed over there to use it.

Next up: More of Our Epcot Morning!​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I have the same "luck" with my line choices. NEVER fails -- I will always pick the wrong one. Annual passholder who somehow doesn't know how the tapstiles work, former Marine who thought bringing a large hunting knife into the park was a good idea, person who has been waiting in line for ten minutes and chooses when they get to the register to read the menu and call over their family of six to also choose ... you name it, I've been next in line behind it.

I also really miss the social distancing. I had high hopes some of that would remain - maybe not a full six feet but perhaps we wouldn't need to fill in all the available space. Oh well.

I'd like to do Behind the Seeds someday too. I'm not brave enough to do the scuba but recently did the Dolphins In Depth tour at the Seas and it was soooo fun.

 

[VAtink]

I have the same "luck" with my line choices. NEVER fails -- I will always pick the wrong one. Annual passholder who somehow doesn't know how the tapstiles work, former Marine who thought bringing a large hunting knife into the park was a good idea, person who has been waiting in line for ten minutes and chooses when they get to the register to read the menu and call over their family of six to also choose ... you name it, I've been next in line behind it.

Wow! That is so obnoxious, I mean I have the same "luck" but usually it's just people not knowing how to scan in, or using their phones which for some reason takes forever. The knife and the people who waited til the last second to look at the menu take it to a whole other level!

I also really miss the social distancing. I had high hopes some of that would remain - maybe not a full six feet but perhaps we wouldn't need to fill in all the available space. Oh well.

Right? I've never enjoyed the filling all the available space!

I'd like to do Behind the Seeds someday too. I'm not brave enough to do the scuba but recently did the Dolphins In Depth tour at the Seas and it was soooo fun.

Ohhh, I love dolphins in depth! We did that back in I think 2013 and it was amazing! Do they still have you do the tricks with the dolphins? I forgot the name of the command I got to do, but basically the dolphin sprayed water. The only bad thing about that tour was the length of time in the tank, I could have spent hours in there!