Terra Nova Guy and the Raiders of the Lost Park - an August 2018 TR *updated 02/07

Sure does look like a lot of food at Homecomin!

Matching shirts definitely count as costumes!

1. We meet a character at MNSSHP. Which one? Moana

2. Spoiler – there is a wait for that character. How long do we wait – 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours, more than 2 hours? 1 hour

3. We watch the 2nd parade. From where do we watch it? Liberty Square

 

That breakfast burger was huge! I had been eyeing it on the menu all week and decided our "relaxing" morning was the best time to get it. I hadn't thought how filling it would be. Not the best choice right before a big lunch at Homecomin'. Oh well. Who doesn't over eat on vacation?

I should have tried that with my wife. Of course I may have come back home single....

Dang! Mistake #1. Stupid typos. And I even type these up in Word before hand and proof read them.
(FYI, should read waited for the waitress)

Huh? Really? Never would have guessed that. But I suppose I can see it, at the fancy restaurants.

Well, that would make for an interesting in your Ariel photo series....
It would also be your last.

Dang! Mistake #2. But not a typo. Brain fart I suppose. It's donuts. I absolutely had chicken & waffles in my head when I was writing (without looking at the picture), then never thought to cross check it after adding the picture. D'oh!

I've used the car care center three times now. No issues at all.
When staying longer, we used to rent a house in Kissimmee off 192 for the first week and used a rental car, then moved to the Disney bubble for the second week or so.

 

I remembered that you didn't enjoy it. I hope you get to go back sometime just to give it another chance.
See below for my mac & cheese comment.

I guess it really depends what kind of mac and cheese you like.
Some are very wet and saucy. Others are dryer. I am OK with either.
The Homecomin' mac and cheese was not wet and saucy. Definitely on the drier side, but had lots of delicious gooey cheese.
Dry without much cheese is terrible. I've had that at places before too.

 

That's mind-boggling. We have malls at home!

Story checks out.

Dude. That's the only way to survive.

Uh oh. This is where I start to pray I haven't steered you wrong.

I mean, you can't put it past us.

Good call there.

Huh. That stinks. Sorry you got a dud piece. It encourages me that no one else had that problem.

Yeah, we were very glad we split the entrees.

That's about as far as I'd be willing to go with "costumes" anyway.

I think you might have mentioned this story in the DDC. Moana?

> 2 hours. Which you'll never get back.

In front of a bathroom somewhere?

 

Maybe not the best choice... but like you said. It's vacation! Let the gluttony begin!

Hey now! Family board!

Oh! That.

Anyway. Yeah, maybe not the best move.

Just poking fun atcha.
Feel free to do the same to me.

Yup. Besides, now that we're engaged, that just won't do.

Ah. Wasn't sure if yours was different of if the waffles were out of sight below the chicken.

I can see that. We talk about chicken and waffles often enough either on the Dads thread or on TRs.

Good to know!

Hmmm... would you do that again? Or are you now fully assimilated into the Disney bubble?

 

Definitely I would do it again.
The reason I didn't this last trip was cost. We cut out Universal and shortened the trip to 10 days.
Previous trips have been 16-18 days, with 6-8 days off site to do Universal, two times SeaWorld, Cocoa Beach, and general relaxing at our private pool.We really missed it this last trip. So much that I may actually consider just renting a house while doing Disney. That would be a big change, but to be honest I am finding less benefit to staying onsite. EMH have been cut back and we hardly take advantage anymore. The 30 day FP window would be tough. But I'm mulling it over.
Having said all that, I also love being in the Disney bubble.

 

Fantastic review so far, I'm hooked.

Me and my partner are attending WDW this year at the exact dates you went, and I just booked MNSSHP yesterday so I can't wait to see how it was for you guys!

Everything you are talking about is really helpful and giving me ideas, so thank you!

 

People who live on Islands tend to shop a lot when they leave their Island, it's definitely a thing......

Haha, my boys thought the same until they saw other people doing the same!

That is a crazy amount of food. I have been showing DH food pics to see the portion sizes and convince him we will be fine splitting a lot of meal/snacks this summer!

They look great!

I am hoping it was magical for you but I did hear how crowded the parties were this summer.......

1. Lotso
2. 1 hour
3. Town Square by Tony's ~ best spot ever!

 

Considering how much you like ice cream, that is not at all shocking.

 

There are many debates over who does barbeque the best. As far as sauces, there are three main types...
1 spicy
2 sweet
3 Carolina style - heavy vinegar

I personally don't care for heavy vinegar and prefer the sweet.

 

Hmmm... Interesting. I don't know if I could bring myself to doing that... providing I'm at Disney. And believe it or not, I am considering a trip to Florida with either no or minimal Disney time.

Who me?
No idea what you could be referring to.

 

Incredibly late to the party, but I just read through your trip report and loved it. Surviving Disney in August take a lot of fortitude, and I especially applaud you for waiting in lines to meet the princesses in the WS. That had to be a long morning for you three.

Matching shirts most certainly qualify as a "costume." Can't wait to read about your latest MNSSHP experience. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it was more 2010-esq and not a 2014 repeat. (By the way, a triple run on BTMRR at night sounds incredible!)

 

Great to have you here! Thanks for the praise, I'm glad you enjoyed the report so far and you found it helpful. I still have a couple more trip days to update so stay tuned! If you ever have any specific questions, just let me know, I'm happy to help with advice.

True
It really has to do with stores that we just don't have locally where we live. We've had a lot of popular chains come in over the last 10 years, but there's still a few we don't have. And that's what DW goes for in Florida.

The portions were huge. Even the side dish of mac & cheese was enough for lunch, let alone the chicken. Generally we each get our own meal at restaurants and it's OK, but it was a mistake at Homecomin'

I'm glad you stopped by. It's never too late to join the party! The princess meet at WS was tiring and hot, but it made the girls happy, so I was fine doing it. I really enjoyed that Grey Goose slush break in France.
I have the MNSSHP post written, I'm hoping to update over the weekend!

 

Homecomin' is one of the places in Disney Springs I am REALLY wanting to try!! I'm hoping we can maybe have dinner there on our pre-cruise night since we plan to visit the World of Disney store in DS. The food you got all looks really delicious, but it's a shame about that too-salty piece of chicken bringing the meal down. We will definitely keep in mind to share some entrees if we end up going there!

I really hope the party ends up being better than your previous one!! We had similar experiences with the party, as our very first one was AMAZING...perfect weather, low crowds, no long waits for ANYTHING, and then the next year was sold out and kind of a mess.

 

I have heard great things about the mac and cheese at homecomin'. So much food though, maybe I will go and just order the mac and cheese.

 

August 24th – Day 7 – Part 2 – More Tragical than Magical

I left off with us arriving at MK for MNSSHP. We were a tad later than I wanted but still respectable, getting through the gates at 4:30. I had made some pre-party FP, the first for 7DMT that ended at 4:55. All the party guests were being funnelled in the back alley between Tony’s and the hat shop, and there were plenty of photo ops here. Not wanting to miss our FP, we rushed through here and went into the mine, which is always fun. Well, maybe not as much fun as the dude in the red shirt is having. But still fun.



We had separate FPs up next – Space Mountain for Brianna and I, and Mad Tea Party for Tish and Katie. I had read there were special Halloween ‘extras’ for both these attractions. Unfortunately, we found out the overlay wouldn’t start until 6:00. Bummer. Oh well, Space Mountain is fun either way. The FP queue wasn’t being fun though. I don’t know what was going on, but we were not moving at all in what seemed to be a big line, and the SB queue was walking past us. I started to wonder if we had the wrong line. Once we got to the loading area, the SB queue did twist around more, so maybe it was even in the end. It just seemed strange. Once again, I have a boring ride picture. Also, don't you hate it when there's only two of you but your ride photo is split in two? #firstworldDISproblems





I can only assume the tea cups were as nauseating as usual. They were much faster, so Tish and Katie had been sitting outside Cosmic Rays for a while, where we met up with them again.

We wanted to get back down to the treat trail where we entered the party. The CMs wouldn’t let us go against the flow by The Plaza, so we had to walk down Main Street and then up the back walkway again. But we got a few photo ops, which was the whole point, so it was fine.





Below is the one and only Magicshot we managed to get the whole night.



It was around 6:00 now and I knew the characters would be starting their meets. For me, I would be OK not meeting any characters. I know there are some rare ones, and they have their Halloween costumes, but it’s just not high on my priority list. The girls, however, had one character they really wanted to meet – Moana. They started talking about it even before we left home. I warned them the wait times are at least an hour, and Moana was rare, so she would be a long wait. But they were undeterred and committed to it. She is an unofficial Disney Princess after all, so they weren’t about to miss her. We made our way to Adventureland and found her queue outside the Enchanted Tiki Room. At this point the line filled the whole Tiki Room queue plus about 10 people outside, including us. I asked the CM outside next to the Moana sign roughly how long the wait is and she said 75 minutes from the sign . I figured we were looking at 90 minutes. We all had a chat again. 90 minutes would put us close to the fireworks start, but I would hopefully still have time to do a ride with one of the Halloween “extras” like Pirates or HM. The girls were determined and OK with the wait. The truth is, although I had mentioned the Halloween overlays on some rides, and Madam Carlotta outside HM, and the Cadaver Dans, they really don’t pay much attention to that stuff and likely forgot it right after I mentioned it. It’s the curse of being a DISer I suppose. You’re probably wondering why – once again – I didn’t go off on my own and do some things I wanted to do. I have wondered that myself on more than one occasion since doing this report. I guess I just feel like it’s our family vacation and we should stay together for the most part. Splitting up for a quick ride here and there is fine, but I knew they would be stuck in this queue for at least an hour and half, with no way for me to join them if I left (I don’t feel right cutting through a queue, even if my family is up ahead). So, we all hunkered down, getting Mickey bars to help pass the time because A. I hadn’t had one yet (blasphemy!) and B. anything Mickey shaped makes things better.



CONTINUED NEXT POST...

 

August 24th – Day 7 – Part 2 – More Tragical than Magical...CONTINUED...

The line was moving rather slowly and we couldn’t see the actual meet area, which was tucked away at the doors to the Tiki Room, so it was hard to figure out if the 75 minutes was an accurate wait time. A photopass photographer was trying to keep everyone occupied by doing Hei Hei magicshots.





I won’t bore you with any more details on the waiting – it was bad enough going through it the first time. Eventually, we did meet Moana and she was pleasant although somewhat forgettable. She mentioned something to the girls about “you brought your whole village” which I guess meant the whole family? I dunno. Anyway, pictures or it didn’t happen…





And the total wait time for those pictures? Two hours and twenty minutes – nearly double the estimate. That CM in front of the Enchanted Tiki Room is a lying son of a Beverly.

And with that sentiment, I think this is quite enough for you to read for one update, so I shall have to regale you with the continuing saga of our Halloween party another time.

 

You are too funny!!!! I love your tees. You all look great. I give you A LOT of credit. I NEVER would have waited that long for a character meet, rare or not. Good for you. #bestdadever

 

All I can say is Holy Crap, my 75 minute wait for the safari with Ricky out of sympathy after his ACL injury does not seem bad AT ALL now. Because what you say your wait was is crazy talk!
Interesting about your Space wait even with FP because we experienced the same thing earlier this week! Had a FP, line was ridiculous and SB was passing us. FP line took 30 minutes . Better than the 185 posted SB time but no idea why we were at a standstill for almost 20 while SB moved. Plus I feel like that queue is claustrophobic for some reason.

 

I like your matching shirts.

Wow! That was an insane wait for a character. You're a good sport, though, about keeping your family together. I would have told my husband to go enjoy himself otherwise since it was a special event. He probably would have stayed like you did, though.

I've never had a Mickey bar. Is that blasphemy, too?