Solo(ish) at WDW for 13 days... a trip for the ages (or is that aged?)

[adamreisinger]

I might be 36 years old at this point, but nothing gives me as much child-like glee as a trip to Disney world, which is why I make it a point to go multiple times a year (and finally took the plunge to become a DVC member a couple years ago).

On top of my normal Disney planning, every year when the NBA schedule comes out, I see when the Cleveland Cavaliers are visiting Orlando, and try to plan a trip around that visit, so I can see my favorite place on the planet (WDW) and my favorite basketball player (LeBron James) all on one vacation. This season that game happened to fall on March 11, so I planned a March 6-12 trip, using my 2017 DVC points to get a room at BLT.

As it turned out, my job (at a tiny division of Disney you might have heard of called ESPN) wanted me to cover the first round of this year's NCAA Tournament. Originally they were going to send me to Buffalo, but I pointed out that not only was I already going to be in Orlando in the days leading up to the tournament (so I already had the plane ticket down there paid for), but I could stay on site at a Disney property and save us some money, since we'd get the room at the Disney corporate rate.

So what started out as a 6-day solo trip turned into a 13-day stay from March 6 to 19 and a memorable adventure for the ages. I did a lot of pre-planning for the personal part of the trip, making my ADRs 180 days out and booking five days worth of FP+ choices right when my 60-day window opened. But there was one thing I couldn't plan for.

We'll get to that, but for now...

 

[adamreisinger]

Monday, March 6 - It Begins!

I woke up at 5 a.m. for my 8:20 a.m. flight from CT to Orlando, and immediately had this thought: "maybe next time I go to Disney World, I'll take a later flight and not go to the parks on my travel day." Of course, by the time I landed at 10:43, my immediate thought was "I NEED TO BE AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM NOW!"

It took exactly 2 hours and 15 minutes from wheels down to walking through the gate at the Magic Kingdom, after taking DME to BLT, then dropping off my carry-on bags with Bell Services, then taking the monorail over to the park. My first FP of the day wasn't until 1:50, so I had plenty of time to stroll through Main Street, stop and take pictures at the Partners statue and Cinderella's Castle, and (of course) grab a churro to hold me over until my dinner reservations.

Since the FP window is an hour long, I decided to put off Splash Mountain until closer to the end of the window and take in the Country Bear Jamboree, one of the few attractions at MK that I'd yet to mark off my checklist. Once that was done, I made my way over to Splash Mountain, where I recorded the final drop for posterity, and got less wet than I would have liked.

Before doing my next FP, I took a quick detour over to Tom Sawyer Island, which I hadn't done in years. As I got over there, I remembered why I hadn't done it in so long -- there's just a lot of walking and not a whole lot to see.

It definitely was interesting to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade from over there. I've now seen that parade from the Liberty Square Riverboat and Tom Sawyer Island, but never from street-side itself.

Once the parade had made its way out of Frontierland, I headed back across the river to enjoy Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which is fast becoming one of my favorite attractions at all of WDW. I decided to take a first-person video of the entire experience, and was stunned at the end to see that it was almost four minutes long. It's such a fun ride, and I'd definitely put it above 7DMT for bang for the buck (or wait time, as it were).

My next FP was Jungle Cruise, but on my way there, I saw that the Magic Carpets of Aladdin had just a 20-minute wait, and since that was one of the remaining holes on the checklist, I took that in as well. I spent the entire ride trying to get a good picture of Cinderella's Castle from as high as I could go, but I could never quite get the right angle.

My last pre-selected FP of the day was at the Jungle Cruise, which I loved as a fan of bad puns. I was sitting right behind the tour guide, and I think she enjoyed how much I laughed at every intentionally-terrible joke.

After that, it was time for dinner at The Crystal Palace, for one of the few character meals I'd yet to do on my various trips. The food was marginal, at best, but the character interactions were well worth the price. While I was there, I grabbed one more FP for the night, at Dumbo the Flying Elephant -- the only attraction that had any FP times left for the night, and another one I needed to complete the MK attractions set. On my post-dinner walk over there, I got a nice view of "Wishes" from Tomorrowland, which I was surprised to find so empty. It's not quite the in front of the castle view, but the fireworks look amazing from there, and there are plenty of places to sit, unlike Main Street.

After Dumbo was done, I swung back over to Liberty Square to get my "Tangled" lantern photo. I got in line at 8:20, and they said there was about a 40-minute wait -- but they also said that anyone who was in line before the park closed would get the photo. After about 20 minutes of waiting, during which the line moved reasonably quickly, the lantern malfunctioned. Fortunately the CMs did a good job of getting someone over there to help, and explaining to us what was going on. Eventually after about 15 minutes or so, they got things working again, and I got to see the light, literally.

By that point, it was after 9, and I slowly made my way out of the park, the key word being "slowly", so I could be in position at the front of the castle for the goodnight kiss -- I'm just a sucker for the sparkles and the light effects. From there it was a short but slow walk back to Bay Lake Tower and an eventual collapsing into my bed for a magical night of sleep.

 

[adamreisinger]

Tuesday, March 7 - An unexpectedly-long day!

I've never been a "rope drop" person, so I slept in (relative to Disney standards) and made my way across the walkway from BLT to CR and downstairs for a 10 a.m. breakfast at The Wave.

Originally I had reservations for Chef Mickey's, but I've done that character breakfast already and decided a few days before my trip to switch the reservation, since what I was really more focused on was having a buffet breakfast, and not necessarily seeing Mickey and friends again. I don't think The Wave gets enough love as a quiet, calm breakfast spot, particularly for us solo travelers. It's a nice, peaceful way to start the day before attacking the craziness of the parks, especially if you're staying on the monorail line -- or planning a day at MK.

After that, I took the bus over to Animal Kingdom, arriving shortly after noon. I planned that out so I'd miss the big crowds for the tapings of "The View" that were happening that day, though as it turned out, they were still taping stuff for shows later in the week well into the afternoon. Fortunately, most of the crowd around that area had spread out by that point, so I didn't have any problems making it back to Asia in time for my first FP at EE. In fact, I had time to stop and get a Frozen Coca-Cola with Spiced Rum, the first of many adult beverages I'd consume on this trip. After riding and thoroughly enjoying EE on my FP trip, I decided to swing back over to the single-rider line for a second go-round, since it had a posted wait time of just 5 minutes! I know I mentioned that BTMRR was becoming one of my favorite rides, but EE is right up there too.

At this point I decided to start shuffling around my day. Originally, I had an FP for Kilimanjaro Safaris at 2:05, followed by the 4pm show of Finding Nemo: The Musical. So I started walking back over to DinoLand U.S.A. to maybe try and squeeze in a ride on Dinosaur in between the FP windows. Instead, I decided to duck into the 2pm show of Finding Nemo, since the standby line was almost non-existent. While I was in there, I canceled the later FP for Nemo, leaving me some afternoon flexibility.

I enjoyed the show much more than I'd expected -- and enjoyed being out of the sun even more. For the long trek over to Africa for the safari, I decided to grab a Himalayan Ghost, which turned out to be one of the better adult beverages I've had at a Disney Park. It was sweet going down, but had a nice kick to it too. I arrived in Africa just in time to catch my FP window for the safari, which remains the No. 1 thing I tell people they have to experience at Animal Kingdom. It's no substitute for actually visiting Africa (as my sister, who's been to Africa multiple times, keeps reminding me), but it's amazing nonetheless. This time in particular we got to see an elephant who was practically posing for us, in addition to a baby elephant, which I'd never seen before on my various trips (though sadly I couldn't get a good picture of the baby).

After the safari, I decided to take advantage of the new Express Transportation options to head on over to Epcot for the second half of my day. The waiting area for the bus from AK gave us a pretty good view of Pandora, but of course I abided by the "no pictures backstage" rule. The express buses still have to take the same roads as everyone else, so we did get caught up in a little traffic, but it was still definitely worth it to be able to bypass security.

While I was on the bus to Epcot, I snagged a FP for Mission: Space. I told myself I would only do Green this time, since Orange was a little too intense for me the last time I did it, but by the time I got up there, I was all like "ORANGE FOR LIFE, Y'ALL!". This time wasn't nearly as disorienting as the last time was -- I think I did a better job paying attention to the instruction to keep my eyes on the screen at all times -- and after that was done I was up for a single-rider trip on Test Track.

As I detailed on another thread, that ended up being the most memorable ride experience I've ever had, because we got stuck on the track right on the banked turn on the outside part of the track. We were hanging out there for about 15 minutes before they finally got us going again. They offered everyone in our car an immediate reboard, but I decided to head out and explore what else Epcot had to offer, for the next hour before my "dinner" reservation at Beaches & Cream.

I walked a bit of the World Showcase, taking notes as to what special food and drink items I'd want to try later in the week, before heading out the International Gateway and taking the boat over to the Beach Club.

When I got to Beaches & Cream, I asked about solo'ing the Kitchen Sink. As detailed in this thread, I was talked out of it by a level-headed server, and had a real dinner instead, followed by the Mickey Pants Sink, which ended up being just the right amount of food. I then took the boat back to Epcot to catch Illuminations. And since I saw it that night, I decided to cancel my reservation for the Illuminations Dessert Party on 3/17 -- which ended up working out very well. But we'll get to that in due time.

 

[adamreisinger]

Wednesday, March 8 - Late start, great finish

When I'd done my FP planning for my Hollywood Studios day, I didn't do a particularly good job of it. Everything was at the opposite ends of the park from each other, and my first FP of the day -- for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster -- was way before anything else. So I decided that I didn't need to be a slave to my pre-planning, slept in a little bit, then headed over to Hollywood Studios shortly after Noon, with a 1:55 p.m. lunch reservation on the horizon.

When I got inside the park, I headed straight for Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which somehow I'd never seen in all my years coming to WDW. I got to sit right in the front row, and I'm pretty sure I shed a tear or two when Ariel sang "Part of Your World." No matter how old I get, I will always love that song with all my heart.

From there, it was a short jaunt over to Star Wars Launch Bay for my Disney Visa Cardholder photo op -- which is still Kylo Ren these days (I wish they'd change it up, but it is nice to be able to use the card to be able to essentially bypass the line for the Kylo photo). As it turned out, there were Jawas in the launch bay, and though I'd forgotten to bring anything to trade with them, I did get one to take a selfie with me.

I still had plenty of time before lunch, so I swung by "One Man's Dream" to check out the preview of the new live action "Beauty and the Beast", which turned out to be everything I'd hoped for and more. Plus, getting to see Belle's dress up close gave me new appreciation for it. In the trailers and press photos, it'd seemed kind of plain, but in person you can really appreciate the detail that's poured into it.

Lunch was at Mama Melrose's, which was one of the few sit-down places at DHS that I'd yet to experience. I ordered the Carne d'Italia Flatbread as my appetizer and the Chicken alla Parmigiana for my entree, and both were really good. Maybe a little overpriced for what they were, but with my discount it ended up being well worth it, as was the Magical Star Cocktail I had with it (though, now that I'm thinking of it, I have no idea what happened to my glow cube -- I don't remember finding it among the stuff I unpacked when I got home).

After lunch, I still had some time before my next FP window started -- though stupidly it was for Tower of Terror, which was all the way across the park. Even with that walk ahead of me, I decided to stop and enjoy Muppet Vision 3D, which was one of the last DHS shows I needed to check off. This might be blasphemy for some people here, but I've honestly never really enjoyed the Muppets that much (though I was a huge "Muppet Babies" fan as a kid), but I still enjoyed this little show. I think it was the meta-humor that worked for me.

En route to Tower of Terror, I encountered the March of the First Order, which is always a fun thing to see at DHS, especially when the Stormtroopers interact with you (which is easy to make happen when you yell "I fight for the resistance!" at the top of your lungs as they walk by).

Following that was another trip on the Tower of Terror -- which used to terrify me as a kid, but now almost seems a bit mundane. I think I got the most tame of the randomized drop profiles this time, because it didn't seem scary at all.

Thanks to my terrible planning, I trekked from there back across the park to Star Tours, which I ended up riding twice -- once on my Fast Pass and once with what was listed as a 20-minute wait, but turned out to be more like 10 or so. This was the part of the day where I started to get really lucky with wait times. In addition to the short time for my second Star Tours ride, there was only a 20-minute wait for Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey and Hollywood Minnie. Minnie in particular was happy to see me, because I was wearing my "On Wednesdays We Wear Pink" Disney Princesses T-shirt, and she was wearing a pink dress.

After that character meet, with lots of great photos (which I still have yet to download from Memory Maker -- gotta get on that soon), I went over to Toy Story Mania, which somehow, someway, only had a 10-minute wait. I was flabbergasted. I couldn't remember ever seeing a time in the MDE app when it was listed at less than 60, but there it was. So I got right on, had lots of fun shooting various targets, and wrapped up just in time to head over to the Star Wars Dessert Party.

I'd done my fair share of dessert parties at WDW over the years, some better than others, but the Star Wars one was the first one I'd been to that had an assortment of specialty cocktails. Almost all the dessert parties not in MK have one, and some will have two. Star Wars had four, so, of course, I had to try all of them. The "Swamp Milk" (Vodka, Pina Colada mix, Vanilla Syrup and Melon Syrup) was the only one I didn't really like, but I ended up having seconds of the other three. Yes, seven cocktails in an hour seems like a lot (ok, not "seems like", it is a lot), but I'm a very large human being, and these were, relatively, very small drinks. The dessert assortment itself wasn't anything outside the ordinary for these parties, though I did appreciate the attempts to bring in some Star Wars-specific theming (the R2-D2 cupcakes were a nice visual treat, if a bit average as an actual food item). Eventually we were escorted out to the viewing area, which I was familiar with from having done the Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam dessert party in December. It's a pretty good spot to see the show, and me being a huge Star Wars fan I loved the actual show so much more than the Christmas one. And, again, I might have shed a tear or two when Carrie Fisher showed up for the first time.

After the show I headed back to the Contemporary, where I decided to stop at the main gift shop and purchase way too many pins -- the first of a few times on this trip I'd do exactly that -- then called it a night.

 

[adamreisinger]

Thursday March 9 - Epcot After Noon, MK After Dark

This was another day where I decided early on to make some adjustments to my early plans. One of my first FPs of the day was for Mission: SPACE, which I'd done two days earlier and wasn't really feeling quite up to again just yet, so I decided to cancel that one, and reschedule my first morning FP (Journey Into Imagination with Figment) for later in the afternoon, allowing me to take things a bit more casually upon arrival.

With my FP plans re-done, my new plan of attack became to head into the park right around 11, then immediately head back to World Showcase for character meets. For the past year, I've been supporting comic book artist Joe Eisma ("Morning Glories", "Riverdale") on Patreon, and every month for my support I get a digital commission from him, so I've been having him draw Disney Princesses, and on this trip I brought those pieces to get signed by the princesses themselves. I knew I'd be able to get most of them at MK, but I had to get Belle, Mulan, Elsa and Anna at Epcot.

I ended up running a little late, so I missed Belle's first period of availability, but didn't have to wait long for the second set. She was very impressed with the artwork -- which I did have to admit I didn't draw -- and after getting the signature and some pictures, I was on my way over to China. Once again, I just missed out on Mulan, so it was a bit of a wait to get her. At least that wait is inside, so I was out of the sun, which was shining down without a cloud in the sky that day.

After meeting Mulan, I decided to swing over to Norway to see if I had time to meet Elsa and Anna before my lunch reservation at Via Napoli. I got there at 1:20, and it said there was a 40-minute wait, so I got in line. Then, after a couple minutes, I decided to take another look at my plans in the MDE app. For some reason, I thought my reservation was at 1:55 -- and I figured it wouldn't be the end of the world if I showed up 5 or 10 minutes late. As it turns out, my reservation was actually at 1:35. Whoops! So I got out of line and walked over to Italy, where I made to the front of the restaurant at exactly 1:35.

Every time I plan a WDW trip I tell myself I'm going to try new restaurants at Epcot, to try and get a real taste of the world. And every time I instead end up having lunch at Via Napoli, because I love it just that much. The pizza was once again excellent, though this time I skipped dessert since there were so many good options at the World Showcase that I wanted to try (and I wish I'd paid more attention to what I ended up getting so I could tell you -- as it is, I remember it being at one of the Flower & Garden stands between Italy and Norway, and it was really good).

Upon my arrival back in Norway, I hopped back in line for Elsa and Anna, with the wait time now down to 20 minutes, and my FP window for FEA having just opened. Being by myself, I got to be the last person into the greeting room before they took a break, which meant I got a little extra time with both of them -- and I got to see Anna stay 100% in character while she was alone in her little area waiting for Elsa to finish up before both of them headed out.

I got both pictures signed, and got to have some fun talking with Elsa about my nails, which were painted "Frozen" style for this trip.

With my missions at the World Showcase complete -- and not wanting to attempt a Drink Around the World adventure on this day -- I started to head back to Future World. But before I did, I ended up stopping at Mexico for the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros, which somehow I'd never done in all my recent trips to Disney World. There wasn't much of a wait for it (maybe 10 minutes or so), and it was cute enough. Then it was on to the front of the park, where I was able to cross Figment and the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival off my checklist in short fashion. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the film festival, particularly "Get A Horse", which used some incredible visual tricks. I do still miss Captain EO, but this was lots of fun too.

I considered taking advantage of my express transportation to head directly over to the Magic Kingdom, but decided instead to go back to my room to shower, change into long pants for the night, and relax a little bit before partaking in Magic Kingdom After Hours.

I’d been to the Magic Kingdom during late night hours before, including for MVMCP, but I’d never seen the park like this. I walked in around 8:15, just after “Wishes” ended, and most of the regular park attendees were making their way to the exit. By the time I got to Cinderella’s Castle, the plaza in front of it was practically empty. I loved it! I was able to take so many great pictures without getting in anyone’s way or having anyone in my way. I walked through the castle — being sure to stop to take pictures of the beautiful tile artwork on the walls — and headed to Princess Fairytale Hall for a meet & greet with Rapunzel and Tiana.

While I was standing in line inside the princess room, Tiana saw the artwork I was holding and said “Is that me? That’s amazing!” and even came over to the line to take a closer look before the next family finished with Rapunzel and headed her way. When I got up to Rapunzel and showed her the artwork, she was amazed, resulting in one of the most expressive Photo Pass photos I’ve ever gotten.

I then told her, “I was at the Snuggly Duckling earlier today, trading ceramic unicorns with my buddy Vladimir, and he told me I had to come and visit his friend Rapunzel in her castle tonight.” She said, “Oh, that’s so sweet of him. Well, let me give you the tour!” and then proceeded to prance around her little area of the room, showing me every little part. “This is my rug, this is my flower pot, this is my wall, this is my curtain, and this is my window!” It was SO adorable that I almost passed out from joy.

Then I went over to Tiana, who was so happy to get another look at the picture and was thrilled to sign it, and we had an incredible conversation about the beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans (I’d just been there a couple weeks earlier).

From there it was time to take in everything the park had to offer — well, not quite everything, but everything I wanted to do. I forgot to take detailed notes about everything I did — I was having too much fun for that — but looking at the map, I believe this is about how it went, with literally every ride I chose to do being a walk-on:

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mad Tea Party, Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, The Barnstormer, Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Peter Pan’s Flight, It’s a Small World, Haunted Mansion, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, and last but not least, Splash Mountain right at midnight. I’m not sure I could fit all that in a normal park day if I tried, and I was able to do it all in three hours. It was as enjoyable a time I’ve ever had in the park. The only thing that bummed me out is that there were no special character meets like they have during MVMCP or similar events.

Well, that and the fact that the only option for transportation back to Bay Lake Tower at the end of the night was my own two feet. If I’d known the monorail wouldn’t be running after the event, I might have paced myself a little more, but it was still a great night.

That is, until I laid down in my bed and felt a little tickle at the back of my throat. Uh-oh.

 

[adamreisinger]

Friday, March 10 - A day to relax

From the moment I first planned this trip — even before I knew it would get extended into a 13-day stay — I left Friday, March 10 as a day without plans. No Fast Passes, no ADRs, nothing scheduled, so I could wing it, or just chill at the hotel (or more likely the pool bar) if needed. And as it turns out, it was badly needed.

When I woke up, that tickle in my throat had turned into a full-on sore throat, the kind where it’s painful to swallow. So instead of going to the pool bar, I went to the grocery store at the Contemporary to pick up some cough medicine, and then settled in for a day of watching movies in my hotel room. But as the hours passed, and I went from “Moana” to “Tangled”, I had a decision to make.

Early in the week, I’d moved my Thursday night reservation at Le Cellier to Friday night, so I wouldn’t be going straight from that to Magic Kingdom After Hours. That meant my “clean” day now had something on the books — and something that was too late to cancel. Thankfully, while you can’t cancel a reservation without paying a fee within 24 hours of the reservation, you can modify it — and modifying it includes moving it to another day entirely. So I was able to switch the reservation from Friday to Monday night, by which time hopefully I’d be feeling better and truly be able to enjoy my filet mignon, and was able to just take a nap after another movie or two.

I rested up enough to take in “Wishes” from the 16th floor observation deck at BLT, right down the hall from my room (which was a lake view, so I couldn’t see the fireworks from there). I livestreamed the whole thing on Periscope, then once it was done I headed back to my room to get a good night’s sleep.

 

[adamreisinger]

Saturday, March 11 - A Royal Breakfast, followed by a night with the King

So as I mentioned in my initial post, the reason this trip was 13 days long was that a work trip got tacked on to the back end of my originally planned vacation. This wasn’t supposed to be a work day when I first made my plans, since I was perfectly willing to pay to see the Cavs-Magic game as a fan. But as it turned out, work decided since I was already down there that they'd like me to cover it as well, so this ended up being the first of my Disney/work days, which ended up working out just fine by me.

I wasn’t going to let the entire day go by without enjoying the parks, or more specifically, my favorite castle restaurant.

The very first ADR I made when my 180-day window opened was for this Saturday morning breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table. I know a lot of people don’t like it because the food is only average and it’s very expensive, but for a solo traveler, it’s a perfectly manageable cost, and I love everything about Disney Princesses so much that the experience makes it worthwhile for me. This was my fourth time eating at CRT; I’ve done all three meals there and breakfast is my favorite, though my best experience was the one time I had dinner there.

The meal itself was adequate (though I do always enjoy the plate of pastries for the table when dining alone), but the interactions with the princesses was divine. Every one of them loved signing the artwork, and Aurora even gave it a kiss.

After breakfast I did some shopping on Main Street, picking up way more pins than I needed — again — and then took the monorail back to the Contemporary, where I met my shuttle to the car care center to pick up my rental car for work. After driving back to BLT, I took an afternoon nap, then drove to the Amway Center in Orlando for the basketball. I got to sit courtside (which is not the usual for me when covering an NBA game), produced some good content for my employer, then headed back to Disney World for another exciting — though cough-filled — day.

 

[adamreisinger]

Sunday, March 12 - Family Day at DHS

When I originally planned out this trip back in August, this was going to be my "Drink Around the World" day. But as the day got closer, it turned into my one non-solo day, as my parents drove up from The Villages to join me for the day. We'd done Epcot together during my last trip, so I moved our day to Hollywood Studios, specifically to accomodate them.

Both of my parents are deaf, and Disney offers sign-language interpreters at many of their shows inside the parks, but only on specific days of the week at specific parks. Sunday is a day they're available at DHS, so I made sure to plan our day around the three interpreted shows (Beauty and the Beast, Frozen Sing Along, Indiana Jones).

Before we headed over to the park, we met up for breakfast at Ohana. I'd been trying to get a reservation for the Best Friends Breakfast featuring Lilo & Stitch for years, and it wasn't until recently that I learned that due to a glitch in the system, you can't get a reservation for 1 at Ohana. So I booked a reservation for 3 long before I knew my parents would be joining me, and it just ended up working out that we actually got to show up with 3.

Getting seated was a little slow, but once we got to our table, the service was quick and the food was really good. I enjoyed the family-style meal, and our server was great about replenishing the serving dish without us having to ask. In the end, we got plenty of food for our money, plus a fun family photo with Stitch -- which made my sister, who was stuck at home in the snow in central New York, insanely jealous (Stitch is her favorite Disney character).

Upon arrival at DHS, I made sure to stop and pick up a beverage (something with alcohol, of course) and we headed to the Beauty and the Beast theater, where the castmembers were happy to direct us to the section of seating designated for people needing the sign-language interpreting services. We all really enjoyed the show, and it was the perfect teaser to get me in the mood to see the new live-action movie later in the week. It did weird me out a bit that in the DHS stage show, Belle doesn't show up in her iconic dress until after the Beast's transformation back into the prince, but I understand changes have to be made for staging's sake.

After B&TB, we took in the "Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away" stage show, which wasn't interpreted or closed captions. Fortunately, it doesn't really have a lot of dialogue anyway. Unfortunately, my parents aren't big "Star Wars" fans, but I really liked seeing all the characters up on stage, especially Darth Vader. I still get chills when the opening notes of the Imperial March start to play and he walks out in that deliberate fashion. It's just damn cool.

From there it was a short walk over to the theater for "For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration" (which has way too long of an official title). Despite being deaf, both of my parents are big fans of musicals, from way back in the days where they were growing up watching "The Sound of Music" and "Mary Poppins", so they really enjoyed this show. The interpreters -- the same ones who did the B&TB show -- really did a great job playing up the emotions of the characters, and my parents commented multiple times about how good they were at their jobs (I do have some video of the interpreter "performing" "Let It Go" if anyone would like to see what that looks like).

We said our "see you again later"s to the interpreters after the show, then had a good amount of time to kill before the Indiana Jones stunt show, the last interpreted show of the day. My parents aren't really ride people -- my dad has two replaced knees and my mom has a bad back -- so trying to convince them to take a ride on the Tower of Terror was a futile effort. Instead we headed over to One Man's Dream to see about meeting Moana. The sign outside said the wait time was 70 minutes, which was definitely too long for us to stand there, but as we got inside and finished looking at all the amazing items in the attraction, the sign right outside of Moana's waiting room said the wait time was down to 40 minutes, which was well within an acceptable wait time.

After exactly 37 minutes (I timed it to see how accurate the posted wait time was) we were in to see Moana. Sadly, my sore throat and cough forced me to abandon my original plan of singing to her, like I'd done with Ariel on my last trip, but I still had her sign my Moana Blu-ray and we got another nice family photo with her (even though my mom wasn't up for doing the warrior pose).

We finished the day watching the "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!", which was probably our least favorite of the three shows that day (needed more singing!). My parents drove me back to BLT, where I went back to my room, showered and changed into dress code appropriate clothing for California Grill, where I had reservations that night for Sip, Savor & Sparkle.

When I made the reservations for this event, I hadn't paid much attention to the menu, and I'm glad I didn't, because I might not have booked it otherwise. I'm not a big fan of sushi, and looking at what was being offered I initially thought there wouldn't be much that I would eat, but I was sorely mistaken. The duck bacon flatbread was incredible, the lobster rolls were to die for (literally -- I thought I might die given how many of them I ate), and the pork belly bao was served on a steamed bun that was like biting into a piece of heaven itself.

The open bar at the event was an impressive value. In addition to the various beers (which I don't drink) and cordials (which I definitely do), they had a relatively full selection of cocktail items available for mixing. I probably had about 4 or 5 drinks with my dinner -- mostly vodka & cranberry -- and then at 8:45 headed out onto the balcony to get a good spot to watch "Wishes" for the third time in a week. Afterwards, we headed back inside for dessert, which definitely had better options than the typical Disney dessert party. No mediocre cupcakes or boring crisped rice treats to be found here. Between the chocolate ganache cupcake, the creme brulee tart, the hazelnut crunch cake, cheesecake, and assorted cream puffs, there were more than enough options -- and I made sure to try all of them.

My only real disappointment was how quickly the event wrapped up after the fireworks. Last call for the bar was right around 9:45, and by that point they'd closed up the room with the desserts too. But I felt like I got my money's worth, and it was nice to attend a dinner/dessert party that was almost exclusively adults. I had a nice conversation with an older woman and her adult daughter with whom I shared a table. They were locals and annual passholders and were doing this event as a special night for just the two of them, which I thought was nice (though it definitely made me regret not including my own parents in the night's festivities).

Once I was done with all my food and drinks, it was a quick walk back across the bridge to BLT for my last night there before I had to relocate to my work-funded Disney home for the next week.

 

[adamreisinger]

Monday, March 13 - Two resorts, two parks, two meals

When I woke up on my check out/check in day, I packed up everything in my room, making sure that I wasn't leaving anything behind by accident, then loaded up my car and headed from Bay Lake Tower over to the T&TC to start my day at Magic Kingdom. Yes, I could have just left my car at BLT parking for the day, but I wasn't sure exactly how my day was going to play out, or when I'd head over to Caribbean Beach Resort to check in and drop off my stuff, so I figured it made more sense to have my car in a more central location.

From T&TC, I decided to take the ferryboat over to MK, since I'd yet to do that all week, and it's by far my favorite way of getting to that park -- when I stayed at the Poly this past December, I rode the ferry to MK almost every day. From there I decided to take a ride on the Wald Disney World Railroad, rather than walking all the way back to Fantasyland. I love taking that tour, and it's a nice relaxing ride, rather than an exhausting walk through what turned out to be a very crowded park.

Once off the train, my day in MK started at Be Our Guest for a nice lunch, which was really just an excuse to buy the enchanted rose cup (not that the smoked turkey sandwich was bad, but if I'd really been looking for food, I could've gone to any number of QSRs around the park that I hadn't already been to). This was the first time in my trips to Be Our Guest that I'd taken advantage of the option to pre-order my meal, and it worked out really well, because the ordering line was backed up nearly out the door.

It was a bit rainy on Monday, so I decided to stick to indoor things as much as possible. I wasn't planning on staying at MK for long that day as it was, but I did take in a show at the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, before taking advantage of my final day of Express Transportation to head over to Epcot. Once at Epcot, I decided to do Mission: SPACE Orange once again (I mean, it was basically RIGHT THERE once I got in from the dropoff point from the express bus), then went up to the DVC Member Lounge to relax for a bit and get out of the rain -- since I didn't want the weather making my cough any worse at this point of the week.

My next stop was the World Showcase, where I had some time to kill before my dinner reservation, so I took in the "O Canada!" show, another thing at Epcot that I'd somehow missed all these years. It was fine -- though I wish I'd known in advance that it was a standing show -- and from there I was off on a mission to have some of those speciality Flower & Garden drinks I'd made note of earlier in the week. I didn't want to walk too far, given the weather and the fact that my dinner reservation time was getting relatively close, but I had drinks in Canada (Maple Popcorn Shake with 357 Maple Rye Whisky), the UK (Caribe Blood Orange Tropical Hard Cider), France (La Vie en Rose), and Morocco (Desert Rose). The La Vie en Rose frozen slush was by far my favorite of the group.

Finally the time arrived for the dinner I'd been waiting for since I first booked this trip: Le Cellier. I'd heard so many good things about the filet mignon there that I was afraid I'd built it up too much in my mind, but as it turned out, it not only met my expectations, it vastly exceeded them. They were nice enough to substitute a bed of mashed potatoes for the mushroom risotto (I'm not a mushroom fan in any form), and I got the smoked mac & cheese as an enhancement.

I know it doesn't look like something special, but it was probably one of the best steaks I've ever had. In fact, everything for dinner was delicious, as was the camembert cheesecake for dessert, and at no point did I feel rushed at all during my meal. I was glad I'd made my reservation for relatively early in the evening (6pm), because as I left I saw how crowded the waiting area had become.

Meanwhile, I headed back to Future World and toward the exit, but not before stopping at Pin Central to once again buy way more pins than I needed -- beyond food, pins were probably my second-biggest expense of the trip. A quick monorail ride back to T&TC, then a tram ride to Rapunzel 228 (I was so happy to be parked in the area of my favorite character that I didn't even need to write it down to remember it), and I was on my way to Caribbean Beach Resort.

Earlier in the afternoon I'd gotten the text message that my room was ready, but by that point I was already enjoying all that Epcot had to offer from an adult beverage standpoint, so I knew I wouldn't check in until after all was done at the parks for the day. Originally they'd placed me in a second-floor room, which I considered just taking, but I decided to stop at registration to see if there was any way I could get a first-floor room instead -- I wasn't really in the mood to carry my three bags all the way up a flight of stairs, nor having to deal with going up and down the stairs every day for the rest of the week. As it turns out, they were able to put me in the room right below the one they'd originally put me in, which had a beautiful view and was right by the pool -- though sadly not the one at the resort with the pool bar.

 

[adamreisinger]

Tuesday, March 14 - The Springs have Sprung

With the work part of my work trip beginning in earnest on Wednesday, I needed to take some time Tuesday to prep, so I spent much of the morning and afternoon doing that from the comfort of my hotel room. I did take the opportunity to take my iPad out onto the beach and do some work from there, but it was a bit chilly (for central Florida) and the hammocks weren't as comfortable as they first appeared, so I finished up my work inside, then headed out for a little shopping trip.

My first stop was the Company D store at Team Disney, across the street from Disney Springs. However, I'd forgotten to ask the concierge at my hotel about the current Company D hours, which turned out to be a mistake, because if I had, I surely would have learned that the location inside Team Disney was currently closed for renovations. Whoops.

I didn't have much time before all the locations closed for the day, but I was able to make it over to Disney University just in time to spend even more money on cast-exclusive pins, plus an awesome Rapunzel lanyard medal (have I mentioned yet a hundred times that Rapunzel is my favorite character? Because she is). After my first purchase, I was literally walking out of the store when a couple other pins caught my eye, so I turned right around and ended up buying more stuff there before heading back to Disney Springs.

I had three specific stores I wanted to visit at Disney Springs: Art of Disney, Disney's Pin Traders (obviously) and World of Disney. I parked closest to World of Disney, but made my way to Art of Disney at the far end of the Springs and worked my way back. There wasn't anything new at Art of Disney that caught my eye, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I decided to finally pick up a few Jim Shore figurines (Ariel, Belle, Jasmine and -- of course -- Rapunzel), and made the plunge on a piece of artwork I'd had my eye on for a while, the Belle and the Enchanted Rose canvas wrap by Paige O'Hara (the original voice of Belle!).

At Disney's Pin Traders, I continued my unhealthy addiction to buying pins. In addition to picking up just about every Rapunzel-related pin possible, I've also become obsessed with getting a pin for every attraction I experience, as well as one for every resort I stay at. At this point, I knew all the pins I picked up on this trip wouldn't fit into my existing pin trading bag, so I bought another one of those, as well as two new MagicBand 2s (the Magic Kingdom 45th anniversary one, and the Belle in Blue Dress one). I fear that once I decide I have too many pins, MagicBands are going to be my new addiction, but for now I only have ... (stops to count MagicBands on shelf) ... ok, so they might already be an addition. But if God didn't want us to have 14 MagicBands, then He wouldn't have made us with 14 arms... or something like that.

Once that was done and I pried myself away from Pin Traders before doing too much damage to my credit card balance, I went to World of Disney with the goal of getting one item and one item only: the soundtrack to the live action "Beauty and the Beast" movie. I felt kind of silly buying a CD, when I don't even have a CD player in my laptop anymore -- which meant the only place I'd be able to listen to the album before I got home was in my rental car -- but I just had to have it. And once I'd procured it, I proceeded directly to my rental car, where I sat in the garage listening to the entire first disc (the one with the songs -- the score is on the second disc) before driving back to my hotel.

The next two days of my trip were taken up entirely by work covering the NCAA Tournament at Amway Center, so no park time and no shopping time either, so for the next post, we'll skip ahead to Friday.

 

[adamreisinger]

Friday, March 17 - Tale as Old as Time

After two days of work, and two days at a Disney resort without setting foot into a park, I was more than ready to make my triumphant return to the Magic Kingdom. As I mentioned in an earlier thread, this was originally the day I had my Illuminations dessert party reservation, but when that got canceled, I booked a last minute dinner reservation at Be Our Guest, to celebrate the opening of the new "Beauty and the Beast" movie.

I knew based on my plans that it'd be a late night, so I intentionally slept in and then walked from my hotel room in Aruba to the QSR over at Old Port Royale. CBR was a little more spread out than I would have preferred for a Disney resort, but I did like the convenience of being able to cross the lake at the Caribbean Cay island and cut down what would have otherwise been a very long walk around the resort to get food (though without that shortcut option, I probably would've just driven or taken the internal bus). The angus bacon cheeseburger was your standard Disney QSR fare -- not bad, but not anything I'd recommend anyone go out of their way for -- and I supplemented it with a bag of character gummies from the Calypso Trading Post, where I also finally picked up my CBR pin.

After lunch it was off to the Magic Kingdom, where I'd made three pre-dinner FP reservations: Splash Mountain, Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid, and Enchanted Tales with Belle. I did a much better job of planning this time, because after taking the ferry to MK I was able to take the train to Frontierland for my first FP, then get back on the train to go to Fantasyland for my second FP, which led my directly to my third FP. No more of this silly zig-zagging across the parks for me!

While the first two rides in my day were fun, the real treat was Enchanted Tales with Belle. This was only the second time I'd been able to do it, and the first with a full audience (the first time was a couple years ago on a night where MK was open very late, and we barely had enough people in line for the show to fill all the interactive parts). I love seeing how everyone's faces light up when Belle walks into the room for the first time and the kids in the show seemed to have so much fun.

I had about 30 minutes between the time Enchanted Tales finished and my dinner reservation at Be Our Guest, so I checked the app to see if there was anything nearby I could knock out quick was was stunned to see something I'd never seen before: 7DMT had a 10-minute wait. Yes, 10. I honestly thought it was a typo and it was actually 100, but I quickly went over there and found that yes, there was basically no line. So even though it's not one of my favorite rides and I barely fit into the car, I was able to squeeze in (pun intended) a quick ride on that before heading into the restaurant for dinner.

I'd had breakfast and lunch at Be Our Guest before, but this was my first dinner experience, and it was perfect to be doing it on the same day the new movie opened. I had the strip steak, which wasn't as good as the filet mignon at Le Cellier, but was still up there with some of the best steaks for that price that I've had. When I placed my order with my server, I also went ahead and told her I'd want the grey stuff for dessert, but after I finished with the steak, she let me know they had a limited edition dessert item called the "Tale as Old as Time", and it was only available that night. I don't know how accurate that is, but a friend who had been there for dinner a week earlier told me she didn't have it as an option, and I know people who were there a couple days later didn't either, so it was definitely only around for a little while. And it was delicious. I was so caught up in the presentation that I honestly forgot what my server told me it was, but everything about it tasted amazing (I do remember that the grey stuff was the filling inside of the outer shell).

I made sure to get my photo with The Beast before I left the restaurant, then made my way to the front of the park as quickly as possible, because I had a 10:30 ticket at Disney Springs to see the new Beauty and the Beast. I'd given myself an hour to get from MK to DS, which I thought would be enough time. I was mistaken. The park was so crowded that the lines for both monorails were bananas. The ferryboat line was a little less crowded, but it still took multiple boat loads before I got on one. Once I was back at T&TC, it took multiple tram loads before I got on one, and I wasn't in my car until 10:20 p.m.

At that point, I thought to myself that if everything went perfect from there to DS, I might still be able to make it to my seat just in time to see the last trailer or two before the movie started. Of course, nothing went perfect. It was slow going getting out of MK parking, I hit just about every red light between MK and DS, and then to top it all off, I stupidly parked in the wrong garage (Lime, instead of Orange, which is right next to AMC). By the time I parked, it was already 10:55 and I was certain I'd missed the start of the movie. Fortunately, there was an 11:15 show as well, so I accepted the fact that what I'd paid for the other ticket was a wash, I sucked it up and bought a ticket for the later show, and walked over to the theater with just enough time to buy a soda and a bag of M&Ms before taking my seat.

The movie was everything I'd hoped for and more, and seeing the songs come to life on the big screen after having heard them so many times over the previous three days was incredible.

I didn't get back to my hotel room until well after 2 a.m., but I was so wired from the great dinner and movie experience that I couldn't sleep, so I ended up watching the original animated "Beauty and the Beast" before finally falling asleep after 4. Saturday was another work day, or more accurately work night, so I was happy to sleep in, relax at the beach, then drive into Orlando at night for more NCAA Tournament action, before my departure day on Sunday.

 

[adamreisinger]

Sunday, March 19 - What to do on departure day?

This is always the dilemma I have when leaving Disney World: what's the one last thing I want to do before I leave the magic behind? More accurately for me, the question becomes: is it worth going to a park when it's hot and sunny out and thus ending up all sweaty and gross before I have to squeeze into a metal tube in close proximity with nearly 200 other people for 3 hours? In this case, the answer was no, but it was a bit more complicated than that.

After seing "Beauty and the Beast" on Friday night, I for some reason became enamoured with the idea of buying the limited edition Lumiere candelabra. But it was only available at the parks, specifically at Bonjour! Village Gifts at MK. I briefly considered waking up extra early, rope-dropping MK to get back to the store by 9:15, then immediately heading back to my hotel room, hopefully getting back by 10:30 so I could squeeze in a shower before I checked out for good. But that all seemed crazy to me, especially since there was no way the candelabra would fit in my already overstuffed luggage. Since I'd already spent so much money on the trip, I decided to pass on buying it, and took a much more relaxed attitude toward my final day.

I woke up at around 9:30, showered and then finished packing everything left out in my room, once again making sure I left nothing behind. I then loaded up my car and drove over to Disney Springs, remembering to park in the Lime garage this time, and bought a ticket to see "Beauty and the Beast" again, this time in one of the dine-in theaters, which was a new, interesting experience. I'm not sure I'd regularly watch a movie like that, with full meal service, but it was fun to do this once, and the movie was just as good the second time (and the third time, when I saw it at home on Monday before returning to work on Tuesday). I definitely shed a tear or two multiple times during the movie, though some of that might have been sadness that I had to go home.

Once the movie was over, I lingered at DS for a little bit, walking through some of the shops, but not buying anything, because I literally didn't have more space in my suitcase -- which ended up being exactly 50.0 pounds when I put it on the scale to check it.

I know a lot of people complain about MCO as an airport, but my experiences there have generally been pretty smooth. The only hangup this trip, which was the same as my last trip there, is that my carry-on suitcase with my pin bags had to go through extra inspection, because the X-ray machine doesn't handle all the pins very well. The TSA agent who had to inspect the bag was very impressed with all the pins I'd accumulated, and sent me on my way, and from there it was just a three-hour flight home and Disney World was in my rear-view mirror until a time to be determined in the future (but hopefully at least once more this year).

 

[nummer]

That was a wonderful trip report. Thank You.