The One with the Line Jumpers & the Perfectly Timed Fart -- August 2024 Trip Report

[MamaMouse0920]

Once we were in Epcot, we turned right at the International Gateway and were in France. I'm not sure why I stopped at a Blue Umbrella - my memory ain't what it used to be folks - but for whatever reason I was at a blue umbrella and a CM (Nick, from France- this much I know because I wrote it down so I could submit the Cast Compliment!) issued the 4 of us an "anytime" pass for Remy's. I know, I know, something as monumental as this you'd think I'd remember what had spurred it but I have ZERO idea. Sorry all! Regardless, I was so thrilled I was smiling ear to ear when I rejoined Matt & the kids and told them the good news. The entire trip we hadn't been able to get Remy's not even ONCE. Not just that it was a time far-away from now, but I'm saying it was unavailable or broken every single time we tried. And this was day NINE, folks. Maybe I was just telling the CM that conversationally and that's why he gave it to us????? I really don't know but it was a total surprise and I was in shock. What nice pixie dust!!

We decided to eat dinner at Regal Eagle and so made our way to America.



I was definitely feeling like I needed to eat something lighter today (9 straight days of park food, oof) and so opted for the house salad with smoked chicken which was very tasty!









A moment or two later Matt discovered that there was a bug in his beer (ha!) so I quick ran up to the counter and asked if they could pour him a new one, which of course they said yes.

I can't remember when, but at some point we had modified an ILL for Guardians to instead take place this day (Tuesday) at 8:20pm. So after we were done with dinner we just kind of moseyed around the World Showcase, killing time til we were going to head toward GotG. It was about 6:45 by the time we left Regal Eagle, so we had some time. The kids checked out the little train between Italy & Germany:



& of course had to bang the drums in Africa





We also got stopped briefly when they lifted the drawbridge just before China, something I'd never experienced before so that was kind of cool to see!

Living with the Land showed a 15 minute wait so we made our way there, and had a nice relaxing ride- front row!

We must have had a LL for Soarin' as well, because at 7:50 we rode that & had a great exchange with an older CM who loved giving the kids a hard time. Soon after, it was time for Guardians!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

We scanned in to Guardians at 8:15 and were super excited to do Epcot's two coolest rides to close out our night - anticipating going from GotG to Remy's (in France) and then to the IG to get back on the Skyliner as the park closed at 9. In no time at all we were in the teleportation room.... but as soon as we made it past the room with the Cosmic Generator the ride broke down and we were stuck there. We waited and watched time tick on.... more and more panicking that we wouldn't be able to make it to Remy's.



Eventually they fixed it and we got on (One Way or Another by Blondie- DD6's favorite), but we didn't get off the ride til 8:53.



While the ride was broken we warned the kids that we may not be able to ride Remy's, but that we'd do our best.. and so when we were off the ride we power-walked to collect the stroller & we power-walked to France... but no luck. Battling the fireworks crowds with the stroller was too slow-moving and we didn't make it. The kids were devastated. All that work, that amazing CM Nick getting us this amazing pixie dust.... and I wasted it. This was to be our last time at Epcot this trip and all 9 days we weren't able to get on Remy's. In hindsight, we should have done less moseying around the World Showcase & done Remy's right away but we couldn't have predicted that Guardians would have gone down. We used this as a learning opportunity for them to always temper our expectations and that sometimes life just doesn't work out the way you want it to, but with it being 9pm and past bedtime they were still heartbroken.

As we were on the Skyliner returning to Art of Animation, Matt & I agreed that even though it meant a lot of hustling & bustling and doing 3 parks in one day... we would Rope Drop Remy's the following morning on our last day. We were supposed to rope drop Hollywood Studios, but oh well. Change of plans! We were in bed by 10:30 and ready to hit it hard the next day for our last day. Here we go!!!

TOTAL STEPS: 25,180 (9 miles)

Up Next: Wednesday, August 21st (Day 10)

 

[piglet1979]

Did you get your patch back? I dropped my sunglasses below the monorail a few years ago. My husband bumped my hand while I was getting off at MK (I think) and they fell perfectly between the monorail and the landing (they were in my hand in the case). No bouncing or anything, just straight down. We put it into lost and found with a picture of them and a very detailed description of the case and where they fell. I had the exact spot. It should have been so easy to get. The guys working it said they should be able to get after park closing. I never got them back. I just got a generic automated message that they were not found. They were prescription sunglasses too. Thankfully it was the end of the trip and the sun doesn't both my eyes too much.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Did you get your patch back? I dropped my sunglasses below the monorail a few years ago. My husband bumped my hand while I was getting off at MK (I think) and they fell perfectly between the monorail and the landing (they were in my hand in the case). No bouncing or anything, just straight down. We put it into lost and found with a picture of them and a very detailed description of the case and where they fell. I had the exact spot. It should have been so easy to get. The guys working it said they should be able to get after park closing. I never got them back. I just got a generic automated message that they were not found. They were prescription sunglasses too. Thankfully it was the end of the trip and the sun doesn't both my eyes too much.

Unfortunately, no. Same thing as you - I had the picture clear as day and it should have been easy-peasy to get back but I got a generic response after 7 days that they weren't able to locate the item and the case was closed. I've been waiting for someone I know to go to Disney and ride Space Mountain and take a peek down there and let me know if it's still there... but no luck. Boo!!

I'm glad it was just a $20 patch and not something valuable (i.e. prescription sunglasses!!) but still, such a bummer! And surprising since like we both said, we know exactly where it is and CMs told both of us it would be totally doable to get back... bizarre!

 

[piglet1979]

I'm glad it was just a $20 patch and not something valuable (i.e. prescription sunglasses!!) but still, such a bummer! And surprising since like we both said, we know exactly where it is and CMs told both of us it would be totally doable to get back... bizarre!

It is bizarre. I feel like they never even looked at the report we put in. I was not happy but had to go with it.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Wednesday, August 21st (Day 10)

Our last park day.... waah! This trip was coming to an end. Physically we were all exhausted, but mentally we weren't ready to leave. We woke up and realized it was raining so did a quick shuffle of the stroller contents so we could have our ponchos out & ready. It was only a very fine drizzle but one never knows when the skies will open up so better to be safe than sorry. I quick prepared the kids a light breakfast of muffins, sliced apples, & yogurt and we left the room around 6:45.



As I mentioned we were initially planning to rope drop Hollywood Studios, but we had managed to get on Slinky & Rise of the Resistance several times this trip and never Remy's so we did a switcheroo and decided last night to rope drop Epcot instead. As we walked to the Skyliner 7am rolled around, so I joined the VQ for Tron, getting group 10. Whoops. Wouldn't be making that call-back!

We found our place in the AoA line (with only 1 family ahead of us), and I snapped a photo of the kids in their cute Cars gear with the sunrise over the water--



The family in front of us were all chatting, and it didn't take me long to realize it wasn't in fact one family but a family + a solo traveler. The solo traveler mentioned at some point that she was headed to MK and all of us within earshot froze. The worst possible thing to happen to you as you've sat in a line for 30+ minutes... she was in the wrong line!! She quickly skedaddled out of line & made her way to the bus stop- we all felt awful! I made small talk with the mom of that family ahead of us and surprisingly the CMs let us on the Skyliner early at about 7:15. Whaaa-?! That hadn't happened to us before on this trip!





We were all in a good but sad mood - trying to soak in every last second. We made it to the Caribbean Beach transfer by 7:32, only 2 minutes after the Skyliner was even supposed to be running. We still had a transfer to go, but we were feeling like we were in a good spot to rope drop Remy's!



The 4 of us took a family picture in our Cars gear on the way to Epcot - our last Skyliner selfie, waah!



We went through security and scanned into the park around 7:55am where we met this sight:



Which looks daunting but it really isn't that bad and we were still feeling pretty good.........

........until DD6 hits me with a "mama I have to go potty". Doh!

I ask a nearby CM where the nearest restrooms are and she says outside of the park. Say what now?! So we would have to leave, go potty, then go through security all over again and re-scan in to the park.

So I left Matt with DS4 and off the girls went to find the restroom. As soon as I made it into the stall (figured I may as go too while I'm in there, ha!) Matt calls in a panic and says "they're letting everyone on to the bridge!! Hurry!!" DD6 and I washed our hands and quickly raced to security- which of course the line had quadrupled since we went through it initially. Thankfully we didn't have bags or anything so at least it was quick & painless in that regard, but either way we then had to be one of THOSE people who have to nudge their way through the crowds to re-join their group. I swear I'm not cutting, my family really IS up there, she just had to go potty!! I felt awful and got some dirty looks but oh well.

By 8:02 I had found Matt on the bridge, again trying to soak in my surroundings as this would be our last time at Epcot for a long while --



And we were still in a pretty decent spot for rope drop, considering you could argue that maybe 1/3 of these people would be heading for Norway:




Matt and I took our usual waiting-for-rope-drop-selfie & the kids entertained themselves during the wait.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

As we waited, Matt and I tried to remember what the stroller parking situation was for this one - was it to be a 7DMT fiasco or a RoR situation? The person in front of us overheard and confirmed it was more like 7DMT, with the parking off to the right and the line to the left (which works out at least a bit more in your favor than 7DMT), so we knew we were going to have to split up - me & the kids follow the crowds & Matt parks the stroller and re-joins us. At one point as we chatted & waited I commented to Matt "hey look! There's our Skyliner line buddy!" as I noticed the mom I had chatted with earlier was a couple spots ahead of us on the bridge.



Soon enough the rope was dropped and the CM led us to France. It was a mad-dash to be sure but it still was worlds better than 7DMT. Have you picked up on how much I hate rope dropping that ride????





We wove our way through the queue, this being our first time in the standby line so it was nice to see all the intricate theming that the queue had to offer - as briefly as we got to see it, that is.













Finally it was our turn!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Time stamp shows we were in our mouse by 8:37, so 7 minutes after park opening for Early Entry.







I have a video of the tiles going from being massive (as if you were the size of a rat) to back being normal sized tiles at 8:43am so not bad! We were obviously in a biiiiit of a hurry since we were only in this park for the one ride, but the kids wanted to pose with the bikes and there was a bit of a line, so we waited our turn and let the kids sit very briefly for a picture:











Remembering that there weren't a TON of breakfast options at Hollywood Studios, we figured we may as well use one of our remaining 3 Adult QS meal credits here in France for some crepes & champagne! As I found my place in line at La Creperie de Paris I noticed I was once again next to my Skyliner buddy. I placed my order (a bechamel, cheese & ham galette + a mimosa... breakfast of champs!) & chatted super briefly with that other mom as we both watched the worker inside pour a HEAVY mimosa. I'm talking almost to the brim champagne and the teensiest drop of OJ. We both had our mouths open in surprise. The other mom commented something about having champagne that early (it was 8:50am) and I had to sheepishly admit that I believed that mimosa was mine, ha!! I had credits to use up, lady!!!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

We found a nearby trash can/table and dug in!



As soon as we had eaten most of the savory crepe (it was DELISH, by the way) and weren't at a huge risk of spilling, we took our breakfast 'to go' and made our way back to the International Gateway to hop on the Skyliner, getting in our gondola by 9:05am.



By 9:29 we were heading to scan in to Hollywood Studios!



Our LLs were stacked for the morning- Toy Story Mania at 9:00am, Slinky Dog at 10:00am, and Tower of Terror at 11:00am. After scanning in to TSM, I booked us a LL for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway for 12:20pm. We were on & off Toy Story Mania by 9:52, and on & off Slinky Dog by 10:06. We were on a roll this morning!!!



As we got off Slinky, I'm not sure how or why I noticed it but I happened to look down and discovered (in disgust) that I had gotten some really gross brown goo (ha!) on my white tennis shoes. Ugh! I stepped in the restroom at the entrance to Andy's Backyard and did my best to get as much of it off as I could, but I wasn't very successful and really just smeared it all into the fabric of the shoe. I was racking my brain but couldn't figure out when I got this mystery substance on my shoe (how long had I been walking around like that?!)... my only guess is that it perhaps was in the bottom of the cart I was in for Slinky.



After Slinky, we were all feeling hungry so we stopped for a snack (still had maybe 12 snack credits by this point- but those I wasn't worried about since I knew I could stop at the Confectionary on my way out of Magic Kingdom that night and load up on pre-packaged goodies to take home). We settled on popcorn & churros at Hydraulics, the newish stand outside of Muppets 3D (RIP, by the way!). As soon as I saw the chocolate dipping sauce it came with I thought "aha, I bet THAT is what's on my shoe!"



As we walked and ate, we noticed Chip & Dale doing meet & greets in the BLAZING sun. I'm talking it felt like the back of my neck was sizzling, that blazing. How these CMs manage to survive in those suits is beyond me. What felt like 10 hours later (probably only 10 minutes, ha!) it was our kids turn!

 

[KPeterso]

Unfortunately, no. Same thing as you - I had the picture clear as day and it should have been easy-peasy to get back but I got a generic response after 7 days that they weren't able to locate the item and the case was closed. I've been waiting for someone I know to go to Disney and ride Space Mountain and take a peek down there and let me know if it's still there... but no luck. Boo!!

I'm glad it was just a $20 patch and not something valuable (i.e. prescription sunglasses!!) but still, such a bummer! And surprising since like we both said, we know exactly where it is and CMs told both of us it would be totally doable to get back... bizarre!

I had a pair of ears fly off my head at Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland a couple years ago. Totally forgot I had them on and the CM did not say anything about removing them. Ride went down right as we were getting off. Bet it was the ears to this day. I could tell them exactly where they flew off and what they looked like. Filed the report like I was told and it was closed 7 days later. I bought a new pair in a shop maybe a month later when I saw them again. About 2 months later, I get an email that they found my item and would be mailing it to me. Package arrived... These are not my ears. Mine were all red (headband, ears, bow). These had a black headband with a red bow. Once we stopped laughing, it was like, so what do we do with these?

 

[MamaMouse0920]

The kids had a great time with Chip & Dale. After saying goodbye, we made our way to Tower of Terror for our LL, scanning in around 11:05am.





After getting past the second touch point and heading toward the pre-show room where you watch the little film, I noticed we were once again in the presence of greatness! This time, after the pre-show was over and the room cleared Matt asked him if I could super quickly get a picture with him since I was a fan- what a guy!



DD6 obviously doesn't know diddly about this guy but is always down to smile for the camera! Since we paused for that quick picture with TJ we were at the very end of the line so didn't feel rude to attempt a quick family picture - of course it came out top notch:



We were on the ride by 11:20, AND we got front row again!!





Look at that picture, so much fun!! I love that ride so much. Afterward we mobile ordered lunch at Rosie's, using our last 2 Adult QS meal credits since we were headed toward MK after our afternoon rest and they don't serve alcohol at that park anyway.



Matt is picky (which I think I've alluded to) and generally speaking doesn't like any condiments except for BBQ sauce so whenever I get anything for us to share, I have to get all the "extra stuff" on the side- so for this chili cheese foot long, the cheese & chili was on the side. DD6 took it upon herself to help herself to our cold, shredded cheese & put it on her chicken nuggets. What a weirdo!!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

As we ate, Matt got a call from his mom, letting him know that while she was dog-sitting for some longtime family friends, the little 20# ankle-biter dog pulled the leash so hard that she was pulled to the ground and she hurt her shoulder pretty bad. Matt was freaking out ("should I look for flights home??") but his mom and I both quickly nipped it in the bud, reminding him how silly that was since we were literally flying home in 24 hours anyway and there wasn't anything that he could do for her even from home- but of course he felt bad and like he should be there.

We didn't know it at the time, but she had broken her shoulder in a couple places (would eventually need surgery to repair it a few weeks later) AND her wrist, plus - as if that wasn't bad enough - the part on her wrist that was scratched up from the fall would eventually become so infected that she was miserably sick and had a 104 temp for a few days until we convinced her to go to the ER and the infection was caught. Ugh!!

Anyway, we wouldn't know all of that until days/weeks later so at the time we only had "I fell" to go off of, which is troubling enough as it is but we weren't as worried then as we would be later... so we continued on and tried to enjoy what little time we had left in our favorite place.



It was only 11:55 by that point so we had about a half an hour til we could scan in for MMRR, so we decided to go to the Lightning McQueen area since that's how we were dressed for the morning!





As soon as we could scan in to MMRR, I booked us a pirates LL for 7:15pm & we were on our way to catch a ride with Goofy!





Afterward we said goodbye to DHS (why is it so hard to say goodbye to a park?! Leaving Epcot was tough and DHS felt even tougher!!!) and made our way back to the Skyliner for our afternoon rest around 12:45.

Quick pause in the TR as I'm remembering an incident with a guest that I forgot to mention earlier -- on one of the nights where we closed out DHS, we were walking to the Skyliner and there was a woman ahead and slightly to the left of us. We were making the little turn (left) into the Skyliner area when she sort of slowed so that we were more side by side than ahead/behind each other. We were no where close to bumping in to each other, and I don't think she even had noticed that we were there when out of no where she turns to face us, dramatically gestures with her hands and shouts "NO, NO- BY ALL MEANS!!!". Matt and I looked at each other, completely bewildered. What are you talking about, lady?! The most confusing part was that she wasn't even going to the Skyliner at all, since after her outburst she turned right and made her way to the parking lot. I think she may have been drunk, but I really don't know what was going on.

I guess add it to our list of odd/unpleasant experiences with other guests!

Anyway, the kids napped while Matt & I finished packing everything up & tried to make our lives easier for that night/the next morning when we would be checking out. In that time I did a quick inventory of our credits, and here is how it looked:



Not too bad!! We had 9 kids meals left (needing to save some for the following morning's breakfast, so I planned to try to eat 4-5 that night at MK), and 10 snack credits. I was pretty proud at how I'd stretched these credits and really made them work to our advantage! I don't know how I'd feel about the dining plan if I had 'paid' for it, because it did feel like sometimes we were throwing a lot of food away because it was so much... Sharing 1-2 meals (every couple hours, ha!) for the 4 of us was definitely a good call and was that 'sweet spot' of just the right amount of food. It was nice to not have to worry about it or feel like you're forking over your CC or Disney Gift Card every 15 minutes.... but again- not sure I'd get the dining plan if it weren't included in my package like it was this trip.

Around 3:30 we left our hotel room where we discovered again it was raining (and would be off/on the rest of the night) so again quickly put on our ponchos before heading to the bus stop around 3:30pm.







Even in the rain with the grey sky, it's still so beautiful!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

We had changed our outfits for our last night at Magic Kingdom, this time the theme being "favorite rides". We of course had to take a picture in our favorite ride gear outside of our favorite ride.. so we headed to Haunted Mansion for mine!








For some reason no ride pictures for this one, which is a bummer because my ears glowed in the dark and I wondered how they would have looked in the Doom Buggy!

After my favorite, we headed toward DD6's favorite to finally redeem that "anytime" pass for Tiana's, a little before 5pm!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

I'd say we got pretty wet!!







I had forgotten to mention that when we scanned in to our Haunted Mansion LL we booked our next LL for Buzz with a return time of 6pm. It was around 5:20 by the time we got off Tiana's, so I placed a mobile order at Casey's and sent Matt & the kids to pick it up, with the plan being for me to do the same thing as our first day when I used a kids meal credit for the chicken & waffle sandwich at Sleepy Hollow- so that was the direction we headed after leaving Tiana's.



We eventually went our separate ways, and I joined the lengthy line for the non-mobile orders at Sleepy Hollow.



When it was finally my turn, I politely asked the CM if I could use a kids meal credit for the meal since they don't offer kids meals...... she said no. Well, first she said no but then she agreed to try and then a second later said "nope, it won't let me". Boo! It worked 9 days ago! But oh well, I had waited in line for a while to get to that CM so I handed her my Disney gift card and paid for the meal out of pocket. You got me on that one, Mr. Mouse! It's like he had heard me bragging about how I had beat the system and wanted to remind me that I'm in HIS house & put me in my place- ha!

While I was dealing with that whole kerfuffle, Matt was dealing with his own at Casey's. He said that when they called his mobile order #, the CM set the tray on the counter and Matt was like "uh...." realizing he wasn't sure how he was going to do this with the double stroller and the tray (complete with drinks), and trying to snag an ever-so-rare table at Casey's. A CM saw him struggling and offered to help, so Matt pushed the stroller and the nice CM carried his tray over to the little indoor counter area with the barstool chairs. There weren't any open chairs, but there was space on the counter for him to set his tray down while he waited for me and scoped out a table. He said that two older ladies (70s) came in after he had been waiting for a while and the three of them talked briefly about how he was waiting for a table & how it's like this often but tables come & go pretty regularly so it was just a matter of time. A few minutes later, when one became available Matt turned to pick up the tray and those two old ladies swooped in and took the table!! Matt was dumbfounded. It was that moment that I had arrived with the Sleepy Hollow food, so he quickly explained to me why his face looked the way it did. As if that weren't bad enough, as soon as they sat down the old ladies ask loudly "what kind of food do they serve here?" to the guests sitting at the neighboring table. They answer "corn dogs, hot dogs, French fries, that sort of thing" and the two old ladies go "OH no, we don't eat that kind of food" and then lock eyes with Matt and go "Sir!! Here, you can have our table - we're not eating here. You're welcome!" in the sweetest voice, like they were doing him the biggest favor. Ha!!!!

We sat down and ate, both of us in slightly worse moods after both of our less-than-ideal situations. Thankfully it's *almost* impossible to be grumpy with a tray of corn dog nuggies & a cup o plastic cheese (+ a frozen mint julep!!) so we were happy again in no time.

As we ate, we observed a family with a baby (maybe 3-5 months old) change the baby's poopy diaper ON THE TABLE. In the middle of this QS restaurant. And then left.

The collective tables nearby all looked like this:

In true Casey's fashion, immediately after they left another family seemingly appeared out of thin air, happy to have found an open table. All of us screeched "STOOOOOOOOP" - one neighbor table quickly telling them what happened while I dug for a sanitizing wipe out of my bag.

Some people, I tell you. YOU ARE LITERALLY LESS THAN 20 FEET AWAY FROM THE CUTEST BABY CARE CENTER IN THE WORLD. Go change his diaper in there!!!

Blah. Anyway, we eventually walked toward Jungle Cruise for our 6pm LL and to take DS4's picture since this was his favorite ride (favorite might be a stretch, but he does really love it!).



We had a great trek, as always!





After our ride, a couple of the CMs noticed DS4's shirt and LOVED it, telling him he's an honorary Skipper now and that they're expecting him at 6am tomorrow to report for duty! He loved the attention, such a little ham! They gave him a cute little card, showing his honorary Skipper status, and he was even more thrilled!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

So cute!

The kids had been BEGGING to go on the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House since, well, a few trips ago so we finally said "okay let's do it!"





After exploring that area for a bit, we made our way toward our Buzz LL since it was almost 6:40 by that point.



We rode Buzz next, which is always a good time, and we of course had to take our obligatory "after buzz ride photo" with Zurg.











After Buzz the wait times were pretty high and we didn't have any LLs to use, so we decided on a first for me - Monsters Inc Laugh Floor!







The wait was hefty but the show itself was BEYOND adorable and I was laughing the whole time. Whoever is behind those curtains needs a raise, cause it was seriously hilarious!!! I don't know how I'd never done that one before.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

After grabbing our stroller we made our way to the Tomorrowland Terrace to check in for the pre-party, a little after 7:30pm by that point.



So pretty!



By 7:45 we'd had our first plates of dessert, Matt & I opting for champagne this night instead of our usual beer (the kids excited to have their sparkling cider!)





















We had a great time!! Our consensus was the same as the last dessert/fireworks party we attended - was the food/drinks worth $316? Absolutely not. In ZERO stretch of the imagination is it worth that amount- but at this rate with the behavior of guests & Disney's total lack of crowd management it feels like this is the only way we'll probably ever watch fireworks again. Which really breaks my heart because as I'm sure a lot of you remember I LOOOOVE fireworks/shows/etc. (who doesn't?) and literally every single time I watch HEA or Fantasmic I cry. So I'm not sure what the future holds for our family in terms of fireworks viewings, cause unfortunately even WITH the premium price tag we paid to watch, we still didn't have a great fireworks experience so I really just don't know.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

After finishing up with the drinks/desserts, we made our way to the hub grass which was absolutely already PACKED. Last trip with the post-party we felt like we rushed out of the party to get good seats but then everyone crammed in our space anyway so it didn't feel like there was much of a point. This trip we were a lot slower to get to the hub and didn't have much of a choice on where we stood. We were instructed as we entered the area that our stroller needed to go along the back gate- which only had room for 1 or 2 more strollers and there were people standing in that space. We politely asked them if they could move over, as the CM had just told us we had to park it there. They obliged, and we parked our stroller- standing just in front of it and trying to be as small as possible.



We dug out the kids light-up toys and let them play with them while we waited, instructing them to be very mindful of nearby guests to avoid bumping in to them.



Eventually the area filled more and more until we had to have the kids stand in the stroller (again, them standing in it still doesn't bring them to even my height so don't come for me!) to avoid getting bumped into.





When it was getting pretty close to the time HEA was supposed to start, we noticed some commotion going on nearby (couldn't see what happened but heard the shift in the noise from general chatter to concern). A moment or two later there were tons of police and they had separated two groups and were interviewing them separately. We gathered (from both what we could see and from Facebook comments in the big Disney group later on) that a fight had transpired and a man had raised his fist in threat to a woman. Yikes. Once again we are reminded how Disney can bring out the absolute worst in some people, and let's face it - people are freaking nuts.

The show went on as the police continued to work everything out behind us (they were still there interviewing even after the show was done), and DD6 & DS4 were blissfully unaware that anything had happened (thankfully) & Matt and I tried to continue on with our night, not wanting this to bring us down.



As we left the hub (trying to let the crowds thin out a bit before we did), that's when the crowds really reared their ugly head - it was an absolute cluster. We wanted to head to Adventureland (Matt needed to get his "favorite ride" picture with Pirates!) but we couldn't head left at all- the CM were all shouting different directions, it felt like they were directing everyone OUT of the park but when we tried to explain "but we don't want to leave the park! We want to go THAT way!" they would say "okay, go this direction then" and we would but then another CM would absolutely tear into us "YOU CAN'T GO THIS WAY, YOU HAVE TO GO THE OTHER WAY!" ... but the other CM just told us to go this way!! It was just a nightmare, and I overheard a CM telling another (presumably newer) CM "if you can handle crowds tonight, you can handle any night" so I'm not sure if once again it was a particularly crowded night or if honestly they just all feel this way now. We eventually gave up on even attempting to make our way to the left to Adventureland and instead cut through Tomorrowland Terrace & joined the masses going into Tomorrowland (it seemed no one left the park after HEA, which they usually do and the crowds thin out a bit... no luck this trip). The wait times were still/already high for every ride in Tomorrowland, We attempted to get in line for Astro Orbiter, thinking no way would it have a long line but as we got in line the estimated wait time appeared on MDE and it showed 45 minutes so we said "uh, hard pass" and left the line- Pirates was showing only a 5 minute wait (unsurprising since CM weren't allowing people to go that way!) so we quick dashed that way, hoping Adventureland would be more accessible by this point.



I have to hop off but will be back on tomorrow to finish this TR!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I love the picture of your daughter drinking her cider with her pinkie raised! Very demure, very mindful. LOL. I'm glad you summed up the dessert party. I often think about doing it but I find the price tag hard to justify, especially since I can't eat that much sugar. But given that you were as packed in to the reserved area as you seem, it really doesn't seem worth it at all. Sigh. They have got to find a way to get crowds under control. I remember the good old days (early 2000's) when you could sit on a curb in front of the popcorn stand (that is no more) and watch the parade AND the fireworks. People didn't all stand for fireworks. Ahh...the memories...WISHES.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We also do the dessert party for the reserved space but have noticed it’s getting more packed each time we do it.

I’m really enjoying your report. You guys pack in so much.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

By the time we navigated through the awful post-fireworks crowds and made it to Pirates, the wait time had creeped up to 25 minutes. We parked the stroller and got closer to the queue which we could immediately tell just by looking at it that it was going to be longer than 25 minutes. We were all getting tired and agreed that this would be the last ride of the day (/trip)- it being 9:50pm by this point.

The kids were troopers as we wove through the lengthy queue, ogling at all the pirate-y stuff (our kids love Pirates!)











We asked if we could be in the front row for our very last ride of the trip, which the CM agreed to- yay! We decided on a pirate theme for the ride photo- nailed it!



A great last ride!

It was about 10:40 by the time we got off & snapped Matt's "favorite ride" picture:



Mission complete, we made our way to Main Street to stop in the Confectionary since we still had I think 9 snack credits remaining.





The little display case in the middle of the room shows which of the baked goods qualify for the Disney Dining Plan snack credit so it was pretty easy to pick the ones we liked best & grab a handful of the Stitch Sour Belts (if you remember from a previous TR those are my favorite but are becoming increasingly difficult to find- they were in the Confectionary AND in the gift shop at AoA so we had positively stocked UP already throughout the trip, I think we arrived home with about 10 bags of them we're slowly plowing through them, I think we have maybe 4 bags left...wah! Anyway, I grabbed a few more things of Sour Belts and then like 6 treats from the bakery - cookies & rice krispie bars, that sort of thing, successfully using up every last snack credit (and since everything was over $6 it was a good use of the credits!).

The park closed at 11pm this night and we were walking under the "See Ya Real Soon" pumpkins at the park's exit at 10:51 so pretty much shut 'er down. Waaah! I imagine everyone feels this way but I absolutely HATE leaving the park on that very last night.

The buses were the typical disaster, with the line being so long it took multiple buses til we finally were able to get on. There were several instances of guests giving attitude- one even screaming at the CM who was manning the line! The guy directly in front of us in line was absolutely appalled that he had to take his sleeping child out of the stroller to collapse it and get on the bus. While I am a parent and can obviously understand how frustrating it is to have to wake (& then carry) a sleeping child...................... please explain to the group what your thought process is here? Do you think that all the parents & strollers that are around you in this line (so, what, 50?) should be able to take up an entire bus with their non-collapsed strollers? Like how is this even something we have to explain to you, sir...... and secondly, why are you screaming at this guy?!?! The CM was older and appeared to have been around the block a time or two and was unfazed by this guy yelling at him, but I just shudder to think if the CM had been a younger (greener) CM how that would have made him/her feel. Not that the older CM isn't worthy of feeling bad for, I just think back to being in my 20s (as a lot of these CM are!) and how I would have felt if a grown man stood in my face & screamed at me while I was just trying to do my job. Ooof.

Anyway, when we got to the CM we already had our kids out & double stroller collapsed and he thanked us for setting a good example. I just wanted to hug the guy! I wish I would have gotten his name & issued a cast compliment, but I was so tired I wasn't even fully functioning at the moment- and we had a loooong time to go til bedtime since our suitcases weren't fully prepared for the next morning.

We got home & gave the kids a super quick shower before letting them go to sleep, Matt & I staying up well past midnight trying to get the 10 snacks packed away - dipping in to one that night while we packed. The suitcases were BURSTING. Like, almost have to sit on them to get the zipper to shut, bursting. We took tons of stuff out and shoved as much as we could into our 4 separate backpacks, but I just knew that we were going to be over the 50# limit when we got to the airport. Oh well, nothing I can do about it other than what I'm already doing! We collapsed into bed & were off to dreamland in no time.

TOTAL STEPS: 25,731 (9.1 miles)

Up Next: Thursday, August 22nd (Day 11/Return Home)