The One Where We Used All the Transportation : A March 2025 Sister’s Trip

[amyjoq]

I might just be hungry, but this is the BEST hamburger!

We left off we had walked through Toy Story Land for funsies…went right on through Star Wars Land and through to our next LL.

If it’s going to go away by the time I visit again…I’m getting in my time now.



Now, do you NEED a LL for Muppet-Vision…probably not but I made my LL reservations in advance of our trip and needed 3. ALSO I did not know how many other people wanted to make sure to pay they respects one more time before a different member of the Monster family takes it over.


He is the very best!


Pretty good crowd by the time show time came around. The messy details are incredible.




Took some pics of the area as well.

I have never dined here but have family that enjoy it almost every trip.


Muppets area looking towards PizzaRizzo. My daughter, who was not with us this trip, LOVES PizzaRizzo …not necessarily for the pizza but for the Caesar Salad of all things.

After our last hurrah with the Muppets we ventured over to Frozen For the First Time in Forever sing along. We hit pay dirt! Two of the very best MCs were on cast today and it was like Disney magic.





I don’t care how old I get, I will never NOT tear up seeing all these little girls singing along and fully immersed in the magic of snow falling from the sky.

After that, we were hungry. We had walked to the Backlot Express but with my particular milk allergy, there really wasn’t anything that looked like what we were on the hunt for so we moved on. On to a new counter service experience for me: Rosie’s All-American Cafe.
Tucked in behind a larger covered seating area, just before you arrive at Rockin Roller Coaster and across for the entrance for Beauty and the Beast entrance, is the best hamburger I’ve had on property.
I may have been really hungry, but the burger and fries hit the spot.

We had one more LL to get to…next time.

 

[noahdove]

I might just be hungry, but this is the BEST hamburger!

We left off we had walked through Toy Story Land for funsies…went right on through Star Wars Land and through to our next LL.

If it’s going to go away by the time I visit again…I’m getting in my time now.

View attachment 962917

Now, do you NEED a LL for Muppet-Vision…probably not but I made my LL reservations in advance of our trip and needed 3. ALSO I did not know how many other people wanted to make sure to pay they respects one more time before a different member of the Monster family takes it over.

View attachment 962918
He is the very best!

View attachment 962919
Pretty good crowd by the time show time came around. The messy details are incredible.

View attachment 962920
Took some pics of the area as well.
View attachment 962921
I have never dined here but have family that enjoy it almost every trip.

View attachment 962922
Muppets area looking towards PizzaRizzo. My daughter, who was not with us this trip, LOVES PizzaRizzo …not necessarily for the pizza but for the Caesar Salad of all things.

After our last hurrah with the Muppets we ventured over to Frozen For the First Time in Forever sing along. We hit pay dirt! Two of the very best MCs were on cast today and it was like Disney magic.

View attachment 962925

View attachment 962926

I don’t care how old I get, I will never NOT tear up seeing all these little girls singing along and fully immersed in the magic of snow falling from the sky.

After that, we were hungry. We had walked to the Backlot Express but with my particular milk allergy, there really wasn’t anything that looked like what we were on the hunt for so we moved on. On to a new counter service experience for me: Rosie’s All-American Cafe.
Tucked in behind a larger covered seating area, just before you arrive at Rockin Roller Coaster and across for the entrance for Beauty and the Beast entrance, is the best hamburger I’ve had on property.
I may have been really hungry, but the burger and fries hit the spot.

We had one more LL to get to…next time.

I'm in for the rest of your trip....I have 84 days until I get there..

 

[amyjoq]

A FANTASMIC ending to a FANTASMIC sort of day!

Bellies full of the ‘greatest hamburger I’ve every had’, we headed back to the other side of the park for our final LL of the day…in Toy Story Land




A little drumline if you please…


Slightly crowded - thankful for the LL today.


Apparently I followed that same little girl for awhile…



We had a wait a few minutes for our LL, so we stood at the entrance and watched the chaos of CM shift changes and people trying (and some successions) to slide right on through.

We were able to check in 5 minutes early, walked through the line, got a few steps from the platform and…

Ride breakdown…

Watched the CM maintenance guy walk through the ride, come back, hit reset (because if I know anything about IT, just turn it off and back on again or hit reset and all is right in the IT world again), and we were moving. Took about 15 minutes.

There was one screen where we could not see our arrows/balls flying across the screen but still received the points.


It was at this point that I yelled “THAT’S ME”. It was not but we both got a good laugh out of it.


I did, however, get a higher score than my sister. She blamed the malfunctioned screen…

We left Toy Story Land and headed back to Sunset Boulevard for our last activity of the evening. On the way, we inspected several Olaf dolls outside of Frozen Sing A Long. For some reason, their arms were not even. After searching for two perfect Olaf’s - and purchase made - we headed to a couple of shops. I had seen a Loungefly I wanted to pick up for this trip, and my sister saw a shirt.

Something to note, that we discovered much later, Olaf’s arms are actually ONE arm which slides back and forth. So if you are searching for the ‘perfect’ set of arms on Olaf…just slide one arm to the right or one arm to the left…Pure Disney Magic y’all. We still laugh about this. But when a Grandma needs the perfect Olaf for her twin granddaughters, you do what you’ve got to do.

Once all purchases were made, we met back up and headed towards Sheri’s favorite night time show…FANTASMIC. We ended up getting pretty decent seats down front on the far left had side. There were a few people in front of us who required sign language CMs. Honestly - they were FANTASTIC and they made only increased the enjoyment of the show.

They had two lights set up so the guests could see them. As the lights went out for the show, they removed all jewelry and took turns signing each part based on the character. It was moving see witness. Great actors as well as interpreters.

My nephew tried to tell his mom we were going to get wet…just to get her going…and I had to pull her back to reality with ‘if they were going to get wet, don’t you think they would move the electronic portable lighting so it didn’t get damaged.’

My favorite part of the show….why Mickey and gang of course!






We loved all of it.

We took the long walk out of the park, and then the Skyline back to Caribbean Beach.
We got off at first stop - the Jamaica station - and walked back to our room ‘the long way’.

For our first full day - we had done so much, saw everything we wanted to see at both parks, and made some decent purchases. It was now time for bed…

Today won as most steps walked: 28,247 steps.

Up next…Our 2nd full day and first full day in one park PLUS we add to our Disney Transportation variety list!

 

[cassidy57]

loving your trip report and can't wait to read more.

 

[amyjoq]

DAY THREE : First full day in one park…or is it?

We are two sisters with zero supervision…the sky is the limit…literally.

We started out with a walk over to The Riviera, we thought we’d stroll thru the gift shop before heading off to the skyline. I shared this photo with my mom, niece and nephew as it is the ‘scene of the crime’…


That elevator door is the same elevator my mom rammed into the back of the elevator as she lost control of her scooter…it is at that same moment my nephew slowly backed out of the elevator with his twins stroller (Homer Simpson like) and got an opposite elevator as if he had never seen us before.
It was in this elevator that I reminded my mom that we can not afford to stay one night in the ‘Richie Rich’ hotel, we certainly can not afford to repair any damages she leaves behind.
I made sure there was no damage and on this morning, we chose an opposite elevator.

Too early for the gift shop, we headed to the skyline … our destination … Epcot.
No LL today, we are using an early entry strategy as well as dumb luck.

A view as we walked towards the Epcot station.


It is Flower and Garden Festival in Epcot so we enjoyed all the topiaries at our own leisurely pace. The first one we spotted as we entered Epcot via the International Gateway Skyline Station.


We took a moment and walked into the gift shop to purchase our Easter Egg Hunt cards. Give my sister a competition and suddenly…well, you’ll see…

Our view of the bridge prior to the gate opening.


I took this picture for my husband - proof there is fishing at Disney World, notice the gates have opened and the first patrons are running for the very same designation as we will be strolling to.


Once we were in, we headed towards France, took a quite photo of a people free France:

Well, people free except for The Beast enchanting Belle.

Once we reached the end of the first line - the CMs stop this line prior to entering the queue for Ratatouille, we spotted our first egg!


And these lovely topiaries:


We were so very close to our first ride of the day:


We were stopped here for about 15 minutes or so before CMs opened the queue - from that moment on, it was a constant walk until we were shrinking down to mouse size.



*On a side note - this guy I’m behind made the journey so much more enjoyable. He kept messing with his wife in the cart ahead of him. Turned off the key once, bumped into the back of her, changed the speed settings… an array of things and each time he would look back at us and grin. It made the journey that much more enjoyable and the wait not so long.

Up next - Ratatouille and many, many steps…

 

[amyjoq]

Day 3; Part 2 : Ratatouille and so many steps…



A quick picture before we headed inside and became much, much smaller.



It looks like a long line but we never stopped walking.




Taken from inside the line, under the pavilion as we made the turn to finally enter into the building itself.



Ope - just one more…. These patrons were the end of the line OUTSIDE the queue area. They had not made it past the entrance just yet.


Details in the wallpaper.



Up on the rooftop…the dogs barking in the distance is always a nice detail that at first makes you think…



I just love this queue line…


A true artists work station.



And we are next! Our transition complete, our mouse rounds the corner to take us inside…


See…as small as a mouse. Only picture I attempted inside…I sat back and enjoyed the ride from this point forward.

Continued in next post…

 

[amyjoq]

Continued from previous post…

Back to our ‘normal’ size, we looked at the wait times - we were going sans LL today - we headed towards Soarin. On our way we witnessed the sweetest moment…

Belle had emerged to head towards her meet and greet area and met this sweet little girl. You see her in her red jacket walking behind Belle.


Belle was … being Belle as she walked through the town streets, greeting patrons as she goes. At one point she takes this little girls has and walks with her to the designated photo area - telling the little girl she has the perfect spot.


What a precious memory moment - I was that little girl in my mind and yes, tears came to my eyes. So sweet.

A still empty streets of the United Kingdom - my absolute favorite as I have a bit O British in my heritage on my dad’s side.


Pooh and Rabbit look very dashing this morning.


As does Tigger and Eeyore.


Making our way back towards Future World we ran into a few more favorites:

Hook and Peter Pan


Bambi


Goofy


These next topiaries gave us both such JOY. Our cousin had been to Epcot the previous week and his little boy did the most BOY poses in front of each of these topiaries which represent Inside Out. By BOY poses - I mean, you would have thought he was posing with Spider-Man…
So we took a pic and send a ‘Thinking of you’ text to our cousin.


The one and only SIMBA


Continued in next post…

 

[amyjoq]

Continued from previous post…

After a stroll from World Showcase over the Future World, we arrived at our destination, our second ride of the day :


It was a quick wait - I believe less than 20 minutes. We were only stopped on the downhill ramp for maybe 10 minutes before being moved to our holding ‘cage’ and receiving our very important flight instructions.


Yep - we were the last one’s on…and that was okay.

I secretly hoped Patrick Warburton would walk right and surprise us but alas…we were in Florida, not California…

After our successful flight, we took a ride on Living with the Land - it was my first ride with all the extra scenes - so stinking cute!

Up first…Moana





A classic hidden mickey:


The one and only - my favorite topiary for obvious reasons…

It just would not be the same without him.

Tangled properly represented:



After our ride, we got a quick snack and sat down for a bit. We both grabbed a banana and a soda. I do love this seating area.


That small snack hit the spot and after resting up for a bit, we moved onto our next destination…

Up next…Another first for me!

 

[TinkHappy]

Very much enjoying your sister trip report!

 

[amyjoq]

Very much enjoying your sister trip report!

Thank you! So glad you like it

 

[amyjoq]

Day 3, Part 3 : A new experience … for both of us.

We left The Land pavilion and immediately saw this Butterfly topiary and had to get a picture - our younger sister loved butterflies as did our Great Aunt.


We took a quick ride on Finding Nemo - surprisingly a first for Sheri -


and then headed towards a first for me:


I had been looking forward to walking through this new area and I’m here to say, from my now personal experience, if you do not want to get wet, you will not get wet. It is not just for kids and showcases waters fascinating power while making you feel as if you harness the power of Moana.

This touches from the film are pretty incredible if you like that sort of thing … and I do like that sort of thing.




Sent this one back to the daughter and husband - only one was envious and it wasn’t my husband.


I wish I could have gotten a better photo of this.


After walking through the curtain of water - and not getting wet - I could have watched this next section for hours … well, maybe for minutes. Sheri had already experienced this area on previous trips and was letting me explore. She was not about all the water.


The water rises as you lift your arms. I think I caught this as the water was up but the arms had just gone back down.

I exited the space and rejoined my sister. We were getting ready to embark on a hunt…

Continued in next post…

 

[amyjoq]

Continued from previous post…

A few essential Moana moments:

Little Moana touching the water.


Tamatoa - not as shiny as he is in the deep ocean but just as regal.
(Did you know his name was Tamatoa? I confess I had to look this one up. I only hear him singing in my mind rather than know his actual name - I know now.)

Surviving the Journey of Water dry we headed over to World Showcase for our Easter Egg Hunt.

It is during this hunt that my sister’s competitive side - and eagle eye - shine through.

Looking forward to new episodes of this gem starting in June. ( I guess that would be today.)
The one and only (or two and only) Phineas and Ferb.


Such cute topiaries, I especially enjoyed the photo opp here. There was a Photo CM taking pictures but we just wanted the topiaries and tried to stay off to the side as much as we could, out of the way.



After a failed attempt to find the hidden egg at Odyssey Center we took a pic of the Coco Topiary and entered World Showcase through Mexico.


I know there is big controversy over which side to start World Showcase. We had thought this through and our goal was to END at United Kingdom for some Fish & Chips so starting at Mexico was very strategic for us.


I think I caught this guy mid yawn…

We started out inside…with no luck.
But did get a picture of this lovely couple.


Coco resignated with me in a way I was surprised. I now make sure to have pictures of loved ones displayed so they don’t fade away. I always had some here and there but now I feel I appreciate those photos with a bigger purpose if that makes any sense at all.


Mexico Pavilion Egg FOUND - across the walkway in front of La Cantina De San Angel.
Sheri spotted it.

Onto Norway …


Nothing. Spoiler alert - you are looking for Thumper. He can be found on the right hand side of the Elsa & Anna Meet and Greet…we walked right past him looking the other way…

Out of photo space, continued in next post…

 

[amyjoq]

Continued from previous post…

Leaving Norway defeated, we entered China.
Again…defeated. We had decided that we were not going to go through every nook and cranny, if we saw it, we saw it.


These Pandas are so cute!

Miss Bunny is the egg to look for in China. She can be found ‘down low and hidden a bit’. Between Nine Dragons and Lotus Blossom Cafe - make sure to look down.
Well shoot - probably walked right past her too.

There is much luck to be had in Germany as we DID find Oswald The Lucky Rabbit!

He is nestled in the garden near Sneezy on the lagoon side of Germany.

I love these topiaries!



It is here that I found my absolute FAVORITE little topiary and learned that they are of German transition. My family on my mom’s side came to America just 2 generations before me from Russia - they were Germans, living in a German town within Russia. Came to America through assistance from a group in Lincoln, Nebraska. There is a museum and the original neighborhood still stands. Kind of cool to be able to see your own families journey within the museum, the surrounding neighborhood, then drive through Lincoln to see their homes they built and the German traits instilled in the layout of the properties.


In recent years I have taken up collecting gnomes - I’ve had to limit myself to ‘one a day’ when shopping during certain seasons…
This one speaks to me



Success came to us once again in Italy. I was taking this picture when Sheri said - don’t you see it!


Where? Oh there! I was focusing on the landscape…
If you were wondering, it was HERE the competitiveness in Sheri emerged.


Up next… more Eggs and where to find them.

I got some help with Egg locations at Fantasy Land News.

 

[kclark9830]

I'm enjoying your trip report! We stayed at CB once, several years ago, and I loved it.

 

[amyjoq]

Day 3 Part 4 : You didn’t see that one?

After Italy, we traveled onto the America’s where we were once again successful.

First - The beautiful Tiana.


And we found Skippy from Disney’s 1973 film Robin Hood nestled on the backside of Tiana’s Topiary.


Moving on to Japan…we failed. I tried - the ‘eagle eye’ tried - and we failed.



It was at this point we thought we should start following this kid we had ran into doing the same egg hunt, where ever this kid was successful, we would just follow his lead…
He had way more energy than us at this point, we moved on.

*Judy Hopps (Zootopia) is found across from the Koi pond on the Pagoda side. I’m pretty sure we walked right past Judy looking the other way.

Morocco had mercy on us and Jackalope from the Pixar short ‘Boundin’ is right on the World Showcase walkway.


I spied someone pretty fantastic and took a photo:

I mean…of course they look dashing!

We had found the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland in France earlier in the morning so we bypassed France and headed right for my all time FAVORITE country in all of World Showcase : The United Kingdom.
When doing our family heritage several years ago, I tracked my Dad’s side of the family back to England. It was very unceremonious - I was tracing back farmer with ten kids, then farmer with ten kids, and farmer with ten kids till I found gold in the form of ‘THIS is why I watch “Who Do You Think You Are” for!’ My eight or ten (the number escapes me here) times Great-Grandfather manned a ship who brought prominent families to Baltimore for Lord Baltimore. He and his two brothers came to America on one of his last trips. Three brothers and I am the family of farmers…. I have failed them all as I can not keep a plant alive to save my life.

This AND I LOVE all things Mary Poppins!

But First….LUNCH. We got our traditional Fish and Chips at Yorkshire County Fish Shop. I was finally Home…

How can you not be eating delicious Fish and Chips on the water with views of World Showcase and the smells of nature and this dude keeping you company?

It is here that I looked up where all these eggs were evading us and we updated our Egg Stravaganza 2025 card by placing the stickers on the correct countries.

After lunch we walked through the U.K., purchased a Mary Poppins pin, and DID NOT find the egg.
*The White Rabbit from Alice can be found in the Tea Garden across from the Alice Meet and Greet. Well…isn’t that convenient, the one area we did not walk through as we were on a bee-line for fish & chips.





I think this is my favorite spot and I REALLY REALLY want this to transformed into Cherry Tree Lane…



We bypassed Canada and were headed to pick up our prize and go back to Caribbean Beach to rest and change for a very important date.

*Alec Azam - the rabbit in the hat from Pixar’s Presto, can be found down the walkway in Canada heading to LeCellier Steakhouse.

Up Next : Never dreamed I’d be taking THIS adventure…

 

[amyjoq]

Day 3 Part 5 : Okay Okay…you twisted my arm… We’ll DO IT!

We left Epcot with our prizes for NOT finding all the Eggs ourselves…A wooden block of Mickey that came with paints. I gave mine to Sheri so she would have two for her twin grand-daughters. (They were a hit, by the way.)


Skyline photo.

For a few months prior to our trip, I was getting emails from DVC with promotions that I faithfully ignored. Then about a month prior to our trip, I was getting phone calls weekly. Always a kind message, no pressure, they saw we were coming and wanted to offer a tour. About the fourth phone call they mentioned a gift card just for taking the tour and sitting with one of the CMs. I checked in with Sheri, she was as curious as I was so we did it.

Today we had a reservation with DVC at the Polynesian Resort. One the phone, precisely five days before our trip, I made a reservation to view the bungalow’s at teh Polynesian Resort in the afternoon of our Epcot day.

After a break, and changing our clothes, we made our way to the front of the resort to wait for our ride. This is one form of Disney Transportation I never dreamed of riding in:


The driver was super friendly - kept the conversation light and carefree. Really got our brains focused on DVC based on his families experience and that he enjoyed it so much, he now drives for them.

He dropped us off right up front, walked us to the DVC counter where we checked in then sat and enjoyed the smells of the Poly lobby while our DVC CM made his way from his office to us.

I had specified that I wanted to see the Bungalow’s - if I were to utilize DVC, I would want it to be in a Bungalow at the Poly. Can I afford a Bungalow at the Poly… NO. But this is my ‘dream’ and that’s what I want to see in person.

Our CM greets us, asks us what we want to see, we told him what we reserved and we’d like to see the rooms first rather than a tour of the resort - we’ve been here before at Ohana and didn’t really need a full resort tour.

On our walk to where I THOUGHT we were going, we did see several key spaces like on of the pool areas. Then our guy took us to the new tower…

It was beautiful! No, I did not take pictures but I should have.

Some positives to the Tower…you have to have you ‘key’ to get into the building AND to start the elevator. Random guests can not roam the building. I thought that was a nice security feature. As a ‘random guests’ I found it rude - how do I enjoy this magnificent artwork otherwise?

We went in the elevator’s to a deck area anyone in the tower can utilize and I must say…the view was devine.


Hey look…The Bungalows.

Then he showed us a couple of rooms - nice features, the suites were nice and had great amenities within the rooms like hidden beds in the walls, multiple bathrooms, and a kitchen area. The single bed rooms only featured the bed in the walls and a small kitchenette, if you pulled down the bed…little to no walking space.

We sat down in his office and he assured us this was like no other ‘time-share’ sales pitch because DVC is not a time share. They won’t pressure anyone to buy. When he asked what made us decide to make the reservation, I was honest about the repetitive phone calls and he seemed surprised.

He steered us away from the Poly and over the Riviera Resort where he was able to give us some amazing Walt history on the library off the hallway when you are heading towards the elevators. This library is based on Walt’s trip to the Riviera which was the inspiration for the Riviera Resort. Some artifacts within the library are from the Disney Archives and Walt’s trip.

Then he discussed what our usual trips consisted of and matched us with he best plan for the Riviera. While the monthly cost really wasn’t that bad, I was still helping my child through college and had no desire to add on DVC at this time. The very moment I expressed this, he was done with us. He called for our ride and gave us directions to the lobby. Womp womp…

A few take aways - he ignored what I was really interested in to sell the Tower which I was not interested in. He mixed up my sister and I, focusing on where she would be most interested in calling her DVC home. When we said no, all Disney CM hospitality was done. IF I were to decide to join DVC in the future, I would not go to the Poly.

It did not end on a completely sour note. DVC will drive you anywhere on Disney property you want to go, not necessarily back to your resort. AND we were both given a quality Disney Gift Card, not just myself but Sheri as well which were active before the end of our meeting.

We chose to go to my true Disney home, the one resort I have completely fallen in love with…Port Orleans French Quarter. It’s small, it’s quiet, it’s on the river, and they have MICKEY Beignets!

Our chariot:


Again, super friendly CM, talked to us about our experience, then told us his families experience with DVC.


Home

First, a little snack:


I had on a black t-shirt dress…first bite in I got powder all over my lady lumps…the powder wiped away pretty easily and I took note: do not breathe while eating. Easy Peasy.

I picked up the French Quarter ornament from the gift shop and we strolled through the resort towards the boats.






So relaxing…

Our original plan was to go back to Epcot for the evening but once we decided to go to FQ, we changed our evening plans for a walk around Disney Springs.

Our view on the way:

Not sure what the magic consists of here but I am so at peace on this ride. Every. Single. Time.

After getting some required shopping done - and yet another avoidance of the LEGO story - we took a bus back to Caribbean Beach.

We walked through the gift shop…just in case…filled our mugs, and had an early evening watching some challenge show Sheri watches - I think Amazing Race maybe - and had a variety of snacks as our ‘dinner’.

At this point you might be asking yourself if we had, in fact, ridden all the Disney Transportation options we would this week…

Find out up next during Day 4…

 

[amyjoq]

I'm enjoying your trip report! We stayed at CB once, several years ago, and I loved it.

Thank you! So glad you are following along!
CB is my sisters absolute favorite. I think she’d move there if she could.

 

[cassidy57]

I am loving your trip report. I love going to the flower and garden festival. Epcot is do beautiful!!