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

[VAtink]

Im glad you enjoyed Savor the Savanna! Thats definitely one of my favorite Disney experiences to date!

It is so good! I would definitely do that one again!

Have fun on your FARTs trip! We are going in February ourselves and I cant wait either! I feel like its the most underrated festival!

Thanks, you too! I've heard such good things about it I'm so excited to finally check it out!

 

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Ok but you HAVE to save room for the 17 layer chocolate cake at 71. I did my 50th birthday dinner there and I still look at the picture and drool.

Haha, ok, so I'll be getting the burger, onion rings, soup, and 17 layer chocolate cake. Just a small lunch

I seriously may just order it all and doggy bag what I can't finish for the room later!

 

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Day 4, Part 5: Second Dinner!​

Monday September 26th, 2022

We last left off getting back to the YC before heading out for another evening adventure!

When we got back to the room to drop our stuff off, we saw that Mousekeeping had set up our big feet Remy and Sulley to look like they were watching TV, Sulley even was holding the remote!





After taking some quick pictures of the cute set up, we headed out again. This time we were heading to Epcot.

We got there around 8, and immediately made our way to Australia where mom got the lamb and I got the shrimp and the red wine. While eating I booked a day of DAS for FEA.





It was all delicious!

After finishing up that food, we decided to make our way to France.

Here we ran into a very very long line. Why on earth did they stop having two lines here? One long line doesn’t seem the most efficient.

We ended up waiting in line here until after park close, from 8:30 to just after 9! Fortunately, they did not close off the line, and even though we didn’t order until after 9, there was still a ton of people in line after us who were also still able to order.

Here I got the beef dish and mom got the crème Brulé. I also go the red wine blend.

This was all amazing!





While eating Harmonious was going on so we watched a bit of it, but (hot take) we found it be kind of boring! It just didn’t draw us in at all. Our magicband+ going off during the show was more interesting than the show! Granted, at this point we only caught a portion of it, but we would see the full show later in the trip to make our final verdict.

Once done eating we decided to use our anytime LL we had gotten earlier in the morning. It had been a DAS for Remy, but Remy was down at our return time, so it turned into an anytime LL. At this point of the night, during the fireworks, the line to Remy was short, so we didn’t have any wait for the LL and were on quickly!

It was amazing though, by the time we got off the ride the line was stretching out through the expansion and the posted wait was 70 minutes!

I should note, that being a Monday, tonight was the extra evening hours for deluxe resorts at Epcot, so we still had almost two hours left to enjoy the park!

On the way out of Remy we of course stopped for photopass pictures!



We next went to FEA to use our DAS we had booked earlier. Interestingly enough at Remy they didn’t ask what resort we were at when we scanned in even though it was within the extra evening hours, but for FEA they did. I figured that info would be available for them to see when we scanned in, but at FEA they were asking everyone who scanned into the LL to tell them what resort they were staying at.

We got lucky on FEA and ended up in the front row!



After FEA we were getting tired, so took a quick stroll to the front of the park to get some pictures before heading back to the IG and the YC for the night! I had seen they had added some fun pictures with lights and wanted to find those, but didn’t end up finding that photopass location, so got some of our own pictures of SE looking all pretty and the regular photopass in the area.







After getting the photos we were really getting tired, so started to head back to the YC. On the way we saw there was a photopass photographer on the bridge between FW and WS, so got in line to get some pictures. We ended up behind this group of teenage girls, and omg, they were hilarious. When it was their turn one of them went into rapid fire poses for the photographer, and her friends, noticing all the people in line laughing at it commented that she practices a lot for pictures!

Honestly, I was a bit nervous going after them, I can’t pose like that!



Finally after our pictures it was time to head back and go to bed.

Next up: Four Parks in One Day, Part 1!

Day 4 Stats:

Steps: 31,531 (ouch!)

Miles: 14.57​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

The stuffed animal poses are so cute. I remember as a kid that my brother and I were always excited to come back to the room and find a new pose and/or towel animal. So nice that some housekeepers are keeping up the tradition. What did happen to those booths (France, Japan, Mexico, Canada) that used to have lines on both sides?? That was so helpful and a great insider tip as a lot of people didn't know to check the line on the other side. With you on Harmonious. I'm not sad to see it go and I will be getting some champagne to celebrate when the barges are gone from the lagoon.

 

[jambologic]

Just discovered your report and binged on it today. It's getting me excited for my own September trip!

 

[Wood Nymph]

I should note, that being a Monday, tonight was the extra evening hours for deluxe resorts at Epcot, so we still had almost two hours left to enjoy the park!

On the way out of Remy we of course stopped for photopass pictures!

We never seem to take advantage of the deluxe hours. Disney makes you get up too early.

Steps: 31,531 (ouch!)

Miles: 14.57

Wow! That's a lot of walking. We always do more walking when staying at the YC or BC then when staying at any other resort.

 

[VAtink]

The stuffed animal poses are so cute. I remember as a kid that my brother and I were always excited to come back to the room and find a new pose and/or towel animal. So nice that some housekeepers are keeping up the tradition. What did happen to those booths (France, Japan, Mexico, Canada) that used to have lines on both sides?? That was so helpful and a great insider tip as a lot of people didn't know to check the line on the other side. With you on Harmonious. I'm not sad to see it go and I will be getting some champagne to celebrate when the barges are gone from the lagoon.

I love when mousekeeping does the poses with the stuffed animals and especially the towel animals! Years ago I had my own room and every day I would come back to find a new towel animal on the bed I wasn't using. It was so awesome, I wish they still did this! Here's some of the collection, they even made a birthday cake out of towels for my birthday! (and I love the hanging monkey!)

Totally agree on the lack of two lines at the booths. I wonder why they stopped doing that, it would be really helpful to have them back!

I am SO excited for the barges to be gone from the lagoon! I'm a bit hesitant to be excited for the new show, I feel like Disney hasn't had a great track record lately with new shows, but we'll see, hopefully they come up with something amazing!

 

[VAtink]

Just discovered your report and binged on it today. It's getting me excited for my own September trip!

Thanks for joining in! So exciting you have a September trip coming up! Food and wine trips are seriously the best, and hopefully (fingers crossed) they bring back some of the special events this year!

 

[VAtink]

We never seem to take advantage of the deluxe hours. Disney makes you get up too early.

HAAAA, 100% agree. We still do the late hours and just end up exhausted for the trip

Wow! That's a lot of walking. We always do more walking when staying at the YC or BC then when staying at any other resort.

It really was, and I think this is the day I got a blister on the bottom of my foot, that was rough! (and funny enough made the upcoming hurricane kind of a relief to give it time to heal!)

 

[VAtink]

Day 5, Part 1: Four Parks in One Day, Part 1!​

Tuesday September 27th, 2022

It was finally here, our four parks in one day challenge day! I’ve been wanting to do this for years, so was pumped to finally be doing it. Our goal for this was to do at least one ride, one snack, and one picture in each park. (funny enough, I noticed that Mammoth club just did this exact same challenge a few weeks after we did it, same rules and everything!)

This morning we slept in a bit, getting up just before 7 to make a LL selection.

Since we had a prebooked DAS for the safari at 10:30, I booked us an EE with a return of 8:05.

We headed down to the bus at 7:45, and my goodness, I think the entire YC was going to AK this morning, the crowds for that bus were nuts, it extended almost all the way back to the porte cochere! While waiting, two MK buses came and only one family got on.

While waiting, the bus time changed from 7:52 to 8:04 to 8:11 to 8:18. So a little before 8 when the bus time kept creeping up every minute or so I decided to start trying to get a Minnie Van.

I did end up getting one after a while, and it arrived right at the same time as the bus, but at least the Minnie van didn’t have to stop at the BC!

We made it to the park around 8:30 and were surprised to see the lines at the tapstiles were still pretty long even though the park opened an hour prior! It took a while to get into the park, and once again the line I selected came to a standstill shortly after we got in it. I think later this day was when my mom decided she would pick the lines from then on.

Once in, we were shocked at how crowded it was, the oasis area was just a sea of people! We have never seen it that crowded in September before. We did see Devine though, so that was cool!

Once in the park I booked a day of DAS for FoP as well.

Since we were well into our EE G+ time at that point, we made our way over there. We didn’t even bother stopping for pictures in front of the ToL this morning since the lines for the photographers stretched all the way back to the bridge by the oasis. Seriously, it was crazy packed in there this morning.

There was a short wait for EE, but soon we were on. This time mom was very very careful with her magicband!



I love this ride.

Once we got off the ride I checked the app to book a G+ for one of our afternoon parks, but at that point all the return times were still in the morning save for like slinky, so I booked a G+ for Dinosaur with an immediate return time.

We headed over to Dinosaur to use our G+, and found we really didn’t need it. There was only one other group there in the standby line. Oh well, at least we were sort of getting use out of G+!



After Dinosaur we had some time before our next ride return, so headed to the stores at the front of the park to browse a bit. We didn’t find anything we wanted, so eventually made our way over to Pandora where we got in line for a photopass pictures!



By the time we wrapped up with the pictures, it was just about time for our DAS for FoP, so we made our way over there and scanned in.

It was basically walk-on in the LL, and soon we were flying! Such a fun ride.

The timing was great at this point since once we got off FoP it was time for our pre-booked Safari.

Here there was a bit of a wait, maybe 15 minutes, but I feel like this is one that even back in the FP+ days always had a wait. Plus it’s outside so it wasn’t bad.

The safari was fun, but the animals weren’t really active this morning. I’m wondering if maybe the animals knew there was a hurricane on the way, this was the second day in a row the animals were not really out or active, it was so different from past years safaris.





After the safari we had a chunk of time to waste before our lunch reservations, so we decided to swing by Starbucks for some coffee since we had a long day ahead!

Starbucks ended up taking forever. The ordering was quick, but they were taking a long time to make the drinks, so there was just a mass of people squished in the pick-up area waiting for the drinks. They really should have paused taking orders until they caught up with making the drinks. We waited almost 30 minutes for our drinks to be ready! While waiting I did book a G+ for our next park, MK. Our ride there would be the Jungle Cruise!

While there I also bought the AK been there mug, this is the one I’ve really wanted, I just love the design of this one!

Our drinks finally did come out, so we took them over to the trails behind the ToL to enjoy. It was nice and peaceful back there, but I was surprised that the cavalcades never went by while we were there. I feel like they used to go by every 10 minutes or so, but I guess they’re a bit less frequent these days.

Next up: Four Parks in One Day, Part 2! (Lunch time!)​

 

[Wood Nymph]

We headed down to the bus at 7:45, and my goodness, I think the entire YC was going to AK this morning, the crowds for that bus were nuts, it extended almost all the way back to the porte cochere! While waiting, two MK buses came and only one family got on.

This is a situation in which the park reservation system puts the guest at a disadvantage. This would have been a perfect time to jump on the MK bus, except that option is gone.

We waited almost 30 minutes for our drinks to be ready!

That is ridiculous. At least you got a cute mug.

 

[VAtink]

This is a situation in which the park reservation system puts the guest at a disadvantage. This would have been a perfect time to jump on the MK bus, except that option is gone.

This 100%! I hate not being able to change plans on the fly. I really wish these reservations would go away!

That is ridiculous. At least you got a cute mug.

Yeah, it was nuts, the wait for starbucks was longer than the waits for almost every ride in the park at that time! I am happy I got my mug though, I really love that one!

 

[VAtink]

Day 5, Part 2: Four Parks in One Day, Part 2! (Lunch time!)​

Tuesday September 27th, 2022

We ended up hanging out on the trail behind ToL for a while until our drinks were finished, and around 11:40 made our way over to Tiffins to see if we could check in. Last year we were able to check-in just before 11:45, so I figured it would be similar today. Also, I miss when Tiffins opened at 11:30.

Well, I was wrong. HA! There was no one outside when we got there to check in with, but the door was unlocked, so we went inside to sit. I also ran to the bathroom while we waited. There was another guy in there sitting too, so we figured it was cool to sit there while we waited for them to open.

Well, a few minutes after sitting down someone new came in, and the CMs at the desk tell her that she can’t be in there since they weren’t open yet. Hm, odd, we were in there and they didn’t say anything to us!

Finally just before noon, one of the CMs at the desk ask the other guy in there if he was waiting to check in, but he wasn’t, he was just sitting there to cool off. I figured they’d ask us next, but instead they went outside to start bringing people in who were waiting out there. The first few groups did not have reservations and were seated immediately.

So I went up to the desk to let them know we did have reservations and would like to be seated as well.

They were great and immediately called our server over to bring us to our table. We ended up in the same table/booth as last year in the corner of the totem pole room.

Our server, Jonathan, was great and we ended up chatting with him for a while about the restaurant and the menu. Apparently they have a new chef there who was actually testing out possible new menu items that morning with the higher ups. We told our server if they wanted real guest feedback we would be happy to also participate! (he sadly declined our offer)

We ended up ordering the octopus to start, and then mom got the butter chicken and I got the surf and turf.

Soon after ordering, Jonathan brought out the bread service, and it is completely new! I actually like the new bread so much more than the old one, and the sauce was AMAZING. I was already starting to really like this new chef!



The food came out quickly and it was all very good.





The octopus keeps changing, and while I preferred the old more smoky version, it was still very tasty. I also ordered the red wine flight, I believe they were all cabs.



The butter chicken was not what I expected, I was thinking it would be chunks of chicken in the sauce like I see in restaurants around here (and make myself), but nope, it was a chicken thigh with just a little bit of sauce on the plate. It was still very very good!



My surf and turf was amazing, I love that dish!

While eating I kept refreshing the app to check times for our third park of the day. This really kind of sucked, but in order to get all four parks in one day I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss out on the G+ in each park, so I sucked it up and kept looking for the return times to get to when we would be in that park. I assume it would be much easier now that you can modify your G+ reservations, but back then the only thing to do was keep refreshing. Once again, I’m not a fan of Genie+. There has to be a better system than this….like, you know, FP+ where I could pick a return time…

Anyways, I was finally able to book a G+ for MMRR with a return time of 4:40.

We took our time eating, and finally around 1:15 settled our bill and made our way out. I wasn’t surprised this time around that we didn’t get the returning customer gift. It’s been a few years at this point so I think I’ve finally accepted they’ve stopped doing that. Oh well, it was nice when they did that, but it is what it is.

As we made our way out of the park I started calling for a Minnie Van. It took about 15 minutes to find a car, and another 15 for it to arrive, but fortunately we were leaving with plenty of time to get to our next park and G+.

The car finally arrived around 1:50, and fortunately it was a super quick drive over and we were scanning into the MK at 2:05!

Next up: Four Parks in One Day, Part 3!​

 

[Wood Nymph]

Soon after ordering, Jonathan brought out the bread service, and it is completely new! I actually like the new bread so much more than the old one, and the sauce was AMAZING.

The bread is looks very interesting. It looks like it has "chunks" of stuff.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I love that you attempted the four parks one day challenge! Too much work for me but I love the idea! I didn't know Tiffins had a new chef. It's been a while since my last visit. Going to have to remedy that! It's such a great spot and nice respite from the park. SO happy the Minnie Vans are back!! Getting close to your Arts trip now! I have to go back and look at your dates and see if we'll overlap.

 

[suse66]

When we got back to the room to drop our stuff off, we saw that Mousekeeping had set up our big feet Remy and Sulley to look like they were watching TV, Sulley even was holding the remote!

Oh my gosh, this is so cute!

Finally after our pictures it was time to head back and go to bed.

Love your pictures with your Mom. You are making such precious memories.

I am SO excited for the barges to be gone from the lagoon! I'm a bit hesitant to be excited for the new show, I feel like Disney hasn't had a great track record lately with new shows, but we'll see, hopefully they come up with something amazing!

I cannot wait to see World Showcase lagoon without those eyesores!

It was finally here, our four parks in one day challenge day! I’ve been wanting to do this for years, so was pumped to finally be doing it. Our goal for this was to do at least one ride, one snack, and one picture in each park. (funny enough, I noticed that Mammoth club just did this exact same challenge a few weeks after we did it, same rules and everything!)

A 4 parks challenge is so much fun!

Once in, we were shocked at how crowded it was, the oasis area was just a sea of people! We have never seen it that crowded in September before. We did see Devine though, so that was cool!

Love Devine!

Our drinks finally did come out, so we took them over to the trails behind the ToL to enjoy. It was nice and peaceful back there, but I was surprised that the cavalcades never went by while we were there. I feel like they used to go by every 10 minutes or so, but I guess they’re a bit less frequent these days.

That area behind the ToL is one of the best areas.

We ended up ordering the octopus to start, and then mom got the butter chicken and I got the surf and turf.

I've never eaten at Tiffins but ot looks interesting.

 

[VAtink]

The bread is looks very interesting. It looks like it has "chunks" of stuff.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's in it, but it's very good! It's not sweet like the previous bread which I was never a big fan of.

 

[VAtink]

I love that you attempted the four parks one day challenge! Too much work for me but I love the idea! I didn't know Tiffins had a new chef. It's been a while since my last visit. Going to have to remedy that! It's such a great spot and nice respite from the park. SO happy the Minnie Vans are back!! Getting close to your Arts trip now! I have to go back and look at your dates and see if we'll overlap.

Haha, it actually wasn't all that bad. If it weren't for the hurricane coming we probably could have done two rides at each park!

Tiffins is a must for us each trip, we love it so much. I'm curious to see if this new chef makes changes to the menu, it looks the same still.

I LOVE that Minnie vans are back, they are pricey, but I hate the bus!

Yup, less than a week until FARTs! I'm so excited!

 

[VAtink]

Oh my gosh, this is so cute!

Isn't it great? I love when Mousekeeping does this!

Love your pictures with your Mom. You are making such precious memories.

Thanks! Yeah, I love being able to do these trips with her!

I cannot wait to see World Showcase lagoon without those eyesores!

Seriously, me too!

A 4 parks challenge is so much fun!

It was a lot of fun, I kind of want to do it again, especially if they get rid of the stupid 2pm park hopping restriction!

Love Devine!

Yes! We rarely see her, so it's always cool when we do!

That area behind the ToL is one of the best areas.

It really is, I love exploring back there, the details on the tree are so awesome, and there's usually hardly anyone back there.

I've never eaten at Tiffins but ot looks interesting.

It's really good, we eat there every trip, it's one of our favorite restaurants on property! Highly recommend!

 

[VAtink]

Just popping in for a quick RL update! So the FARTs trip is coming up sooooo fast! Today was my last day in the office before the trip, I still have two more days of work at home, but it's kind of like my first Friday of the week since I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow! Yay for working in my PJs!

Also, funny/interesting thing happened yesterday at work. So the floor I work on doesn't have a kitchen, so I have to go down to the third floor to get water and wash any dishes. Well yesterday morning when I got to work I headed down there to fill up my water bottle and rinse out my coffee mug, and when I opened the door to the third floor I was hit with this intense smell that instantly took me back to Disney!

It was crazy, I knew the smell was a Disney smell, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out where in Disney the smell was from. I knew it was from a ride, but I just couldn't figure out which one. So all day long, every time I went downstairs I would take another long sniff and try to figure out what ride it smelled like.

Finally, after about a dozen trips downstairs it hit me, it's from Soarin'! It smelled exactly like the smell during the Taj Mahal scene. Something about that just totally made my day, it's like my office was prepping me for my upcoming trip!

Well, that's it for now. I'm hoping to get at least one more update to the TR done before I leave, so keep an eye out for that! Hope everyone is having a great week!