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

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The best way to see RotR is to be completely in the dark as to what happens in the ride. I still remember the first time we did the ride and how amazing it was.

Definitely! And it was fun to be sitting next to someone who had never been before to see their reactions too. I'm so happy my mom finally got to get on the ride!

We just got back from WDW on Thursday and didn't run into too many sick people - thankfully.

That's great! I'm a bit jealous

I'm glad your mom is feeling better. It is always puzzling as to who gets sick and who doesn't.

Thanks! It is weird how some people just aren't getting it. Both my dad and I tested multiple times (rapid and PCR) the week after the trip, and we never came up positive. Very surprising, but we're very happy with that result!

 

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Oh my goodness!!!! What a horrible thing to happen. So stressful! And to have that on top of your fall....I hope you had some chocolate and bevvies to take the stress away.

Yeah, what a week! Just when I thought I was going to put all the bad luck behind me and have a fun weekend. Oh well, it is what it is. Fingers crossed this week is a bit better!

That's an awesome lineup!

I was pretty impressed with getting that lineup. It was such a fun night at HS!

RoTR is so great!

Yes! Love it so much, and happy my mom loves it now too!

TSMM is always so fun even if never do very well.

Haha, I may always beat my mom, but I never do very well. I see videos of people scoring over 200,000 and I don't understand how! Half the time I don't even break 100,000!

I noticed that too. Shopping was nothing special.

The lack of fun merchandise was really a bummer this trip. Last year I got some really great things at HS, like the mixing bowl set that I didn't see anywhere else on Disney property. It seems like they don't really have unique things in any of the stores these days.

Very nice end to the day!

You really can't go wrong with a Mickey bar and wine in bed!

 

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Day 3, Part 1: Is Anything Open Today?​

Sunday, September 25th, 2022

We were up ridiculously early this morning, just after 5! But we had a fun morning planned and wanted to get to the park first thing, and the first bus was, in theory, around 6:15.

We showered, got ready, and drank some coffee. Btw, this year mom packed some k-cups of coffee brands I actually like (not a huge fan of Joffrey’s), and it made for a much more enjoyable morning!

Around 6:10 we headed out of the room and down to the bus stop. There were already a handful of other families there waiting, so I hoped that meant a bus would come shortly (no buses were listed on the board yet).

Sadly, the first bus did not arrive until 6:36, so we had a bit of a wait. It was a pretty quick ride up, no stopping at BC for the early morning crowd, so we headed straight to MK.

Once we arrived at the MK we quickly made our way through security then started to make our way to the far left tapstiles where there was already a pretty decent crowd waiting. As we’re walking over that way, I happen to glance over to the empty tapstiles on the far right, and there is this CM standing at one who makes eye contact with me, and then motions for me to come to him, so I change direction and head over his way. Once I get to him I ask if I can tap in here, and he gave me a big smile and said “of course!” YAY!!!!

The funny thing is, once I veered in the direction of the CM, everyone behind me followed, so the lines at the right tapstiles grew quickly. Luckily for me, I was first in line!

We had a very short wait before they started to play the welcome message, and finally the CM at my tapstile motioned for me to scan in, so I did. Per usual, once I was in a few steps I turned around to make sure my mom made it through, only this time I turned around and realized the CM let me in before he was supposed to! Everyone else was still being held back, and there I was the first guest just standing awkwardly amongst CMs by the train station!

Like 10 seconds later (but what felt like 10 minutes!) they let everyone else scan in, but there was that awkward moment of “should I go back outside?”

Once mom made it in, we quickly made our way to….a photopass photographer!



I also managed to book a Splash LL for 8:05am right at park opening (they let us in at 7 this morning).

We made our way down Main Street getting more photopass pictures, and then I played around with the photopass lenses and my own camera a bit as well.








Makes me feel slightly old that I was here (and not a kid) when the castle actually did look like this!



Finally we popped into the store for some retail therapy.

I ended up getting the Starbuck Been There MK mug and the big foot Remy plush, omg that thing is so ridiculously cute! I’ll post a picture later of the Remy, Mousekeeping did some fun things with him and Sulley!

Our plan this morning was to rope drop Buzz (crazy right?), so at 7:28 we scanned in for the resort guest early entry and made our way to the Tomorrowland bridge. About a minute later they let us enter the land.

We headed to Buzz, only to find it was down. Nooooo! So we went to Peoplemover instead, only to find that was down too! Ugh.

So we stepped to the side to regroup and rethink our morning. During this time I booked a DAS return time for Space at 7:50. While in the app I noticed that 7DMT was also down this morning. Yikes, rough start for the MK this morning!

While regrouping, peoplemover opened, so we ended up heading there for our first ride of the day.





By the time we got off, it was time for the space DAS, so we headed over there. This was a total walk on in the LL this morning.

When we got off Space, I saw that Buzz was finally open, so we headed over there. This was a total walk-on at this point in the standby line.



I once again won, but came just shy of making Galactic Hero!

As we were leaving Buzz, I saw that 7DMT finally opened so booked a DAS for that with a return time of 8:52.

At this point we were into our Splash LL return time, so we headed over to that side of the park. We arrived at Splash to find that it was down, and Thunder too! Ooph, MK was having a rough morning! Buzz, Peoplemover, 7DMT, Splash and Thunder all down the same morning? Yikes!

Next up: A Fantastic End to the Morning at MK!​

 

[Wood Nymph]

Makes me feel slightly old that I was here (and not a kid) when the castle actually did look like this!

I'll never forget the 25th anniversary castle. It looks cute in the picture, but it was actually rather hideous in person, or at least we thought so. We saw it on two separate trips, a year apart and we were thrilled when they finally took it down.

When we got off Space, I saw that Buzz was finally open, so we headed over there. This was a total walk-on at this point in the standby line.

I love riding Buzz first thing. We can usually ride twice before the crowd comes in.

MK was having a rough morning! Buzz, Peoplemover, 7DMT, Splash and Thunder all down the same morning? Yikes!

That was a disappointing morning, especially after arriving so early.

 

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I'll never forget the 25th anniversary castle. It looks cute in the picture, but it was actually rather hideous in person, or at least we thought so. We saw it on two separate trips, a year apart and we were thrilled when they finally took it down.

Oh yeah, we hated the 25th castle. My dad dubbed it the Pepto Bismol Castle!

I love riding Buzz first thing. We can usually ride twice before the crowd comes in.

Love how empty it was in the morning, we should have gone on it twice!

That was a disappointing morning, especially after arriving so early.

Yeah, not a good showing for MK this morning. It did get better as the morning went on though!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I once got Galactic Hero and to this day have no idea how I did it and have had no luck in even getting close to recreating. I did it riding with my friend's then 6 or 7 year old and I'm about to revisit with them next year and he's now 22. I'm hoping he'll indulge me.

I know there are a lot of thoughts about alcohol in the MK and am not wanting to instigate anything ... but how nice would it be to sip a libation whilst on the PeopleMover (or while viewing Carousel of Progress)?

 

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I once got Galactic Hero and to this day have no idea how I did it and have had no luck in even getting close to recreating. I did it riding with my friend's then 6 or 7 year old and I'm about to revisit with them next year and he's now 22. I'm hoping he'll indulge me.

Aww, you got this! It definitely helps knowing where the high point targets are, although even knowing three of the high point targets I rarely get galactic hero. One of the high point targets I found by dumb luck, just happened to notice after hitting it my score jumped like like 50k or 100k, so now I always aim there!

I know there are a lot of thoughts about alcohol in the MK and am not wanting to instigate anything ... but how nice would it be to sip a libation whilst on the PeopleMover (or while viewing Carousel of Progress)?

Ohhh, I can just picture it, a peoplemover bar crawl. You stay on for a handful of loops, and each time you get to the load station you're handed a new drink! I would LOVE that!

 

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Happy Friday everyone! Just wanted to pop in here to share something fun!

We were at Epcot for the 40th, so got the commemorative posters they were handing out. I really liked it, so wanted to frame it, but took forever to figure out exactly what kind of frame to get. Well, I finally decided, and I absolutely love how it looks! Now to find some wall space to hang this on!

 

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Once mom made it in, we quickly made our way to….a photopass photographer!

Love the pictures!

While regrouping, peoplemover opened, so we ended up heading there for our first ride of the day.

IMO, People Mover is always the perfect first attraction. So you started off the day in the best way.

We were at Epcot for the 40th, so got the commemorative posters they were handing out. I really liked it, so wanted to frame it, but took forever to figure out exactly what kind of frame to get. Well, I finally decided, and I absolutely love how it looks! Now to find some wall space to hang this on!

It looks awesome!

 

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Day 3, Part 2: A Fantastic End to the Morning at MK!​

Sunday, September 25th, 2022

We last left off in Frontierland finding out both Splash and Thunder were down. Since Splash was down, we got an anytime LL and were able to book our next one immediately. Sweet! So I checked the app to see what rides were available soon, but most were already later in the morning, so I booked a Thunder one with a 10:25 return time which was one of the earliest I could find that wasn’t something like barnstormer.

We decided at that point to head over to Pirates and were thrilled to see it was a super short wait still, about 5 minutes.



After Pirates we made our way over to HM, which was a total walk-on at that point.



On the way out we saw a photopass photographer, so of course we had to stop!



We had great timing, as we left HM the line had gotten huge and the posted wait had jumped to 30 minutes!

By the time we got off HM, we were into our return time for 7DMT, so headed over there. While in the line for this, I cancelled our Thunder LL and booked another Splash one since it looked like it just reopened and had a much earlier return time.

The wait for 7DMT was pretty short in the LL, but not a walk-on, maybe 10-12 minutes.



Didn’t we used to get two pictures with this one? We only got one this year.

It was just after 9am when we got off 7DMT, so in 1.5 hours we had ridden 7DMT, Buzz, Peoplemover, Space, HM, and Pirates. Not too shabby, especially with all the closures this morning!

I checked the app at this point and saw that both Splash and Thunder were now up, so we headed back over to that area. We decided to use the Splash LL then use the anytime one from earlier on Thunder afterwards.

We ended up in the second row on Splash, and had so much fun! I love the picture from this one.



After Splash we made our way over to Thunder to use our anytime LL. Once again, it was basically a walk-on. I was thrilled we were put in the second to last car too! It’s so much more fun in the back!

We wrapped up Thunder by 10, so in 2.5 hours had gone on 8 rides! Not too bad, although to be fair in the pre-Genie days I had done 8 rides in 3 hours with just using standby, so not a huge difference in time, but I guess back then the crowds may have been less crowded (maybe? It certainly didn’t feel like it!).

At this point, we decided it was time to head out and over to our lunch spot, so we slowly made our way out of the park. I thought we took photopass pictures on the way out, but I can’t seem to find any.

Oh well, it’s not like we didn’t get like 100 on the way into the park!

Next up: A New Lunch Spot!​

 

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Love the pictures!

Thank you!

IMO, People Mover is always the perfect first attraction. So you started off the day in the best way.

It is pretty amazing, and I don't think I've ever rope dropped it before! Probably the most relaxing way to start the day in MK!

It looks awesome!

Thank you! I really love how it came out, I was debating for way too long about the gold color, but I'm so glad I went with it!

 

[Wood Nymph]

We wrapped up Thunder by 10, so in 2.5 hours had gone on 8 rides! Not too bad, although to be fair in the pre-Genie days I had done 8 rides in 3 hours with just using standby, so not a huge difference in time, but I guess back then the crowds may have been less crowded (maybe? It certainly didn’t feel like it!).

It's amazing how many rides you can do by 10am when you take advantage of early hours. It also helps if you go to MK a lot and don't need to ride everything, like us.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Wow! You did so much in such a short time! Good strategy!!

 

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It's amazing how many rides you can do by 10am when you take advantage of early hours. It also helps if you go to MK a lot and don't need to ride everything, like us.

So true! We also got very lucky with our timing at rides. It seemed we would get to each ride we did standby on just before the crowds did. I'm so glad we got to do so much this morning too since our MK day later in the trip ended up being cancelled by the hurricane, so we didn't feel like we missed much!

 

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Wow! You did so much in such a short time! Good strategy!!

Haha, we really did! I'm not sure how much strategy played into it vs dumb luck though.

 

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Day 3, Part 3: A New Lunch Spot!​

Sunday, September 25th, 2022

We last left off heading out of the MK. We made our way out and down to the boat docks. Today we were heading over to the Wilderness Lodge!

When we got to the docks there was a small line of people waiting, and a boat pulling up. What great timing!

It took a few minutes for the boat to dock and unload, but soon we were boarding! We made our way to the back to sit outside.



It was a quick ride over, and soon we were at the Wilderness Lodge! I think the last time we took a boat over here was to go to River Country! (yes, it’s been that long!....also I miss River Country!)

Throwback photo time!





When we arrived it was still prior to our lunch spot opening, so we walked veeeery slowly over in that direction. We ended up making it to Geyser Point about 20 minutes before they opened, but we saw some other groups sitting in there, so we asked a CM if it would be alright to sit and wait at a table, and they happily let us! Phew!

It was so amazing out there, there was a great breeze, and it was just so relaxing!





Eventually it got time for opening, and a CM came over to ask us to move a table over. Not sure why, the table we were at remained empty the entire time we were there, but I’m sure they had their reasons.

We moved over to the table behind us, and a few moments later our server came to introduce herself.

I totally missed her name, but she was great. We ended up chatting with here for a long time, she was so much fun!

Eventually we did order, I ended up getting the margarita flight (Halloween themed!) and the bison burger. Mom got the pumpkin margarita and also the bison burger.

It wasn’t long before our food came out, and oh my goodness, wow. We are obsessed with Geyser point now! The burger was phenomenal! And the margaritas were delicious!







We ended up hanging out at the table for a while, it was so peaceful and relaxing back there, we didn’t want to leave! Our waitress was funny and told us that if we wanted to take a nap she’d be fine with it, but she would have to wake us up if they started getting busy since she would need the table!

Finally, after a fabulous lunch and a decent rest, we paid and made our way into the lodge proper. The plan was to book a Minnie Van to get back to the YC so we wouldn’t have to deal with buses.

Being the tech savvy geriatric millennial I am, I decided I could walk and book the Minnie Van at the same time, but kept running into problems. Grr. Ok so maybe not so tech savvy…

It turns out that Lyft had updated their payment system since I last used it (which I’m pretty sure was for a Minnie Van in 2019!), and for some odd reason it would not give me an option to add my credit card to the app.

So into the lobby we went to find a place to sit so I could figure this out. I know we could have used an Uber, but we had big plans for Minnie Vanning on our upcoming 4 parks in one day day, so I wanted to make sure it was working properly beforehand.

It took a while to figure out how to get it working, in the end I had to add my credit card to Google Pay, and then I could add that to the Lyft app. So annoying, but at least it worked!

Of course, then we had to try to get a Minnie Van, which for some reason is never easy for us. I gotta say, I wish we were those people who call for one and get it immediately, seriously, who are those people? Minnie Vans have never worked like that for us! This time it took about 15 minutes of searching to finally find a car, and then another 20 minutes for the car to finish up their current ride and make it over to us. So yeah, a bit of a time waster! Fortunately, we could wait in the rocking chairs in the lobby and rest a bit, and I feel like it still was faster than taking a bus to either Epcot or HS and walking/boating back.

Eventually our car did come and we were on our way!

We made it back to the YC at 1:08, so had a bit of time to rest up before our big evening!

Next up: Dinner and a Show​

 

[Wood Nymph]

It was a quick ride over, and soon we were at the Wilderness Lodge! I think the last time we took a boat over here was to go to River Country! (yes, it’s been that long!....also I miss River Country!)

Throwback photo time!

I remember River Country. It looked like lots of fun.

I ended up getting the margarita flight (Halloween themed!)

We were at Geyser Point a few weeks ago. I would have gotten the margarita flight if I had someone to share it with. We love Geyser Point and try to get over there on every trip.

The plan was to book a Minnie Van to get back to the YC so we wouldn’t have to deal with buses.

We have taken taxis back to our resort but have also done the MK boat or bus to get to the MK bus depot.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Geyser Point, and specifically the bison burger, has been on my want-to-try list for quite some time but I have yet to make it over. I'm hoping I can take an afternoon this holiday season and go over. How fun that they had so many Halloween specialty cocktails.

 

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I remember River Country. It looked like lots of fun.

I miss it, we used to love going over there multiple times a trip. It was so laid back, and had a ton of shade which my dad loved!

We were at Geyser Point a few weeks ago. I would have gotten the margarita flight if I had someone to share it with. We love Geyser Point and try to get over there on every trip.

I am so happy we finally went there, it was so good! We're already talking about going back our next trip. The margarita flight was really good, but smart of you to want to share it, they were super strong!

We have taken taxis back to our resort but have also done the MK boat or bus to get to the MK bus depot.

Yeah, we debated taking an Uber or heading back to MK to catch a bus, but I really wanted to make sure the Minnie Vans were working for us since I figured they would make hopping between parks on our 4 parks day much easier. While it took a while, I'm glad we finally got one!

 

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Geyser Point, and specifically the bison burger, has been on my want-to-try list for quite some time but I have yet to make it over. I'm hoping I can take an afternoon this holiday season and go over. How fun that they had so many Halloween specialty cocktails.

That bison burger was soooooo good! I cannot wait to have it again, I think it may have been the best burger I've had on property. It took us years of saying we're going to check out Geyser point before we finally made it over, but I'm so glad we did. Definitely one of our favorite places now for a meal. Good luck getting over there this holiday season, I wonder if they have some fun holiday drinks these days!