Please Don't Try to Sleep Here - A Summer 2018 Solo Trip Report - Updated 3/10

[Nancyg56]

Following along!

Hey you! How have you been?

 

[suse66]

I LOVE Toy Story Mania, and the line was only 5 minutes, so I went in there right at 7.

You did so well! I am hoping for the same luck next week!

I entered the line at 8:12 and did not exit until 8:52, which was frustrating because I had wanted to get dinner and find a reasonable spot for Illuminations. Well, I got to the Refreshment Port and got the cheddar cheese soup and some poutine, but Illuminations started while I was getting my food and I ended up on a bench under some trees. I basically had a terrible view, but I enjoyed the music and my soup. They have two kinds of poutine, and I got the kind that was covered in the soup. I should have either gotten two orders of soup or gotten one order of soup and the regular poutine. Regardless, I wasn't hungry anymore and the soup was good. (It tastes better than it looks.)

Yum! That makes a perfect light dinner.

I took some photos of different mouse ear headbands that I liked, but I decided I would wait until I finished my schoolwork before buying a pair. I also took some more photos. I can't resist!

Your pictures are gorgeous!

After my delicious breakfast of champions, I went to use my Haunted Mansion fastpass. I hadn’t been on this in a while, and like many other things in Disney, the details are incredible.

My absolute favourite!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Following along!

You did so well! I am hoping for the same luck next week!

Yum! That makes a perfect light dinner.

Your pictures are gorgeous!

My absolute favourite!

Awwww, thank you!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Friday, July 27 continued

After Buzz, it was time for my lunch reservation at Be Our Guest, so back to Fantasyland I went. I had pre-ordered a French dip for lunch. At the pay station, I was able to add a Coke to my order before paying.

Pro-tip: If you have a reservation here for lunch (and I think breakfast), you can pre-order this meal and save a lot of time. The caveat is that this is different from mobile ordering and as far as I know, it cannot be done from the app and I think it must be done at least one day in advance. The benefit to pre-ordering is that you will get to walk up the left side of the bridge to the castle. I’ve done this a few times, and every time, the line to order is all the way across the bridge. The line is almost entirely outside in the sun, and they actually have an ice water station set up on the bridge for this line.

I sat in the room with the music box and the art because it had an available table. I think it might be a little calmer in this room also; it’s not as impressive to look at as the others, so I think it gets less tourists. However, there is some really pretty artwork on the walls and the spinning music box with Belle and the Beast dancing in the middle is pretty cool.

How I felt to leave the park to go do the rest of my schoolwork:

I took the path to the end of Fantasyland because I thought I might ride the train to the front of the park. However, it felt like it was taking forever, so I decided to walk along the train tracks to Tomorrowland before heading out of the park. One thing that was really interesting is that they added water to the train at the Fantasyland station. I had never seen that before; I thought maybe the water towers were just part of the theming, but they are functional!

You’ll also notice that I left the line mere minutes before a train arrived; I didn’t get very far away before it came!

I got really confused at one point along the trail, because they had a staffed railroad crossing and I didn’t remember seeing it before and wondered where the trail could possibly go. I found out on another day where the path came from.

I took some photos on my way out of the park before catching an Incredibles-themed monorail almost immediately. My transportation luck was back in balance, apparently.

To be continued...

 

[Nancyg56]

Your photo eye is really spot on. They are lovely.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Your photo eye is really spot on. They are lovely.

Awww, thank you!

 

[KsGiGi]

Wonderful pictures! Enjoying your report..

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Wonderful pictures! Enjoying your report..

Thank you!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Friday, July 27 continued...

I got off at the Contemporary because my friend told me there was a quiet space on the 2nd floor at the convention center that had couches. Perfect! I’ll go finish my homework and then return to the Magic Kingdom.

I got off on the 4th floor, and immediately got distracted by a viewing deck at the north end of the building. How have I never seen this before?! I was watching the monorails for a bit before heading in to find the couches.

​

Have I mentioned my pocket camera has a 40x optical zoom?!
​

My friend was right - there wasn’t a convention, so the place was pretty quiet. There was a group of people working on some sort of project. I wish I had asked them about it because it sounded like they had some special access to Toy Story Land and it seemed like they were working on a blog or show about visiting Disney World.

I actually fell asleep for a bit on one of the couches. I ended up with an imprint of my Magic Band on my arm.

I moved upstairs to the Contempo Cafe to get some soda with my refillable mug and have a table to work on instead of the couch. It much louder and the WiFi was dreadfully slow up there, but something really cool happened! The characters from Chef Mickey’s all came out and went up and waved from the balconies of different floors!

I ended up ordering a chicken Caesar salad and it was actually really good. I was also chatting with the people around me - the tables at Contempo are very close together. One person was finishing up her college program and the other people were actually tent camping - in JULY - at Fort Wilderness. They were just hanging out at the Contemporary for the air conditioning!

Despite all of this, I was actually getting work done and was down to my very last assignment, but the WiFi was so awful. I went back down to the 2nd floor to ping into the convention wifi and it was working much better. Looking back at it later, the Pop WiFi was fantastic in the afternoon but really slow at about 11p when I was surfing on my phone while in bed. I think the WiFi problems were related to the number of people trying to use it at the same time.
Regardless, I got my homework done but by then it was actually pretty late. I bought the Minnie Mouse ears that I had looked at the day before and swapped out my FuelRod and then headed out to see the fireworks.

To be continued...

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Following along. All your pictures are beautiful!

 

[Disneybell2015]

I am really enjoying reading your trip report!

 

[mrsswat]

Do you mind sharing what kind of camera you were using? I believe you said "pocket camera" and would love to take a smaller one than I have on my upcoming trip

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Following along. All your pictures are beautiful!

Thank you!

I am really enjoying reading your trip report!

Thank you!

Do you mind sharing what kind of camera you were using? I believe you said "pocket camera" and would love to take a smaller one than I have on my upcoming trip

Sure! It's a Canon PowerShot SX720HS. I primarily shoot in auto mode; it also takes video and has some manual settings. It does look Canon has some newer models of this one - the SX730 and soon the SX740.

Canon has another model in the same line that is a little smaller with a little less zoom also - the SX620.

Good luck deciding! I did a ton of research and waffling on decisions before buying mine. I used the website SnapSort.com to help me decide and compare models.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Friday, July 27 continued

I had asked my friend where I should watch the fireworks from. I didn’t really want to go back into the Magic Kingdom and fight the crowds at this point. I was debating between watching from one of the decks of the Contemporary, the Polynesian beach, or the Transportation and Ticket Center. She reminded me I could go to the Top of the World, so that's what I did!

The Top of the World is on the top of Bay Lake Tower and open to DVC members. I had just closed on a resale DVC purchase (Polynesian) in early July, so this was the first time I was getting to take advantage of any part of it! Squee!

​

I could see the Electrical Water Pageant and Illuminations while I was waiting. There was a lightning storm in the distance also.

Then, Happily Ever After started and It was amazing! It’s really interesting from this perspective to see how far back the big fireworks are. They pipe in the music up here, and there were low crowds and a great view! The only downside is that this show is really dependent on the castle projections to get the full effect, and those were nearly impossible to see from the top of Bay Lake Tower. I still would totally watch from this spot again in the future, especially if I was staying at Bay Lake or another monorail resort, because I could avoid the walk back to the Magic Kingdom bus stop.

Then I walked back to the Magic Kingdom to catch a bus back to Pop so I could go to bed. The salad had worn off by this point, so I got some food at Pop. I actually had been chatting with a family after the fireworks, so by the time I got back to Pop it was right about 11. All of the food options are closed at this point except the pizza/pasta and grab & go stations, so I had a slice of pizza before heading off to bed. I saved the Rice Krispie treat for later.

Food Spending 7/27: $59.14
Breakfast: Gaston’s - $8.82
Lunch: Be Our Guest - $21.07
Dinner Part 1: Contempo Cafe - $12.24
Dinner Part 2: Everything Pop - $17.01

Souvenir Spending: $21.29
Mouse ears headband - $21.29 (with AP discount)

 

[mrsswat]

Thank you!



Thank you!



Sure! It's a Canon PowerShot SX720HS. I primarily shoot in auto mode; it also takes video and has some manual settings. It does look Canon has some newer models of this one - the SX730 and soon the SX740.

Canon has another model in the same line that is a little smaller with a little less zoom also - the SX620.

Good luck deciding! I did a ton of research and waffling on decisions before buying mine. I used the website SnapSort.com to help me decide and compare models.

thank for sharing! Definitely going to look into them!

 

[suse66]

I sat in the room with the music box and the art because it had an available table. I think it might be a little calmer in this room also; it’s not as impressive to look at as the others, so I think it gets less tourists. However, there is some really pretty artwork on the walls and the spinning music box with Belle and the Beast dancing in the middle is pretty cool.

​

Lovely!I don't even think I saw that room when I ate at BOG last summer. I was in the West Wing which was really neat, if dark!

I got off on the 4th floor, and immediately got distracted by a viewing deck at the north end of the building. How have I never seen this before?! I was watching the monorails for a bit before heading in to find the couches.

​

Must check that out next week!

The characters from Chef Mickey’s all came out and went up and waved from the balconies of different floors!

That is awesome!!!!

I bought the Minnie Mouse ears that I had looked at the day before and swapped out my FuelRod and then headed out to see the fireworks.

Really cute!

I had just closed on a resale DVC purchase (Polynesian) in early July, so this was the first time I was getting to take advantage of any part of it! Squee!

Congratulations and welcome home!

I could see the Electrical Water Pageant and Illuminations while I was waiting. There was a lightning storm in the distance also.

This is such a beautiful picture!

 

[TNGirlwCamera]

Love your pictures and I'm enjoying your trip report!

I want those Minnie ears! I've almost bought them a 100 times.

 

[Princessclab]

Very nice! Following along, l feel like I am there in person.
Thanks for taking us along!

 

[CML's mom]

Great pictures and report. Thank you!

 

[nettii]

So enjoying your TR I love your mini ears...I hope they have them when I head back in March!