The Rain Can't Order Me To Stop Dreaming (A May 2018 Trip Report - COMPLETE!)

[adamreisinger]

Allow me to reintroduce myself... my name is Hov.

Wait, that's not right. Let's try this again.

Hi, I'm castmember Adam Reisinger. You might remember me from such trip reports as "Has it been 30 years already?" and "Pandora and More(-a)". But today I'm here to write about my next trip to Disney World, coming up in just six short weeks.

Trip Details​

Who: Me and My Girlfriend (an actual person, not a metaphor like the 2Pac song)
What: A birthday celebration at WDW
When: May 18-20
Where: The Cabins at Fort Wilderness
Why: Because, until medical science makes a miraculous breakthrough, you only turn 38 once
How: Money can be exchanged for goods and services

For those that don't know me, allow me to actually reintroduce myself (rather than just quoting Jay Z).

Meet me, The Guy With the Princess Tattoo (it's like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but with fewer dragons, more princesses and none of the crime-solving stuff... so not like that at all):



And this is me and my girlfriend, who I actually met in my last trip report and who accompanied me on my last trip in February -- the one I never got around to writing a trip report on, but I'll share some details of in this trip report as they become relevant. (Note: she also has no idea I'm posting this photo in here and she might murder me in my sleep when she finds out I did):



As you can see in my signature, I've taken many trips to WDW over the years, and, more importantly, I have A LOT of trips coming up. In fact, I'll likely end up being at WDW in just as many months this year as not (6/6, for the math averse).

So you don't have to dig through my past trip reports to find it, here are my favorites to give you a little sense of who I am as it relates to all things Disney, some of which have changed since my last report:

Favorite park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Favorite non-ride attraction: Voyage of The Little Mermaid
Favorite nighttime show: Happily Ever After (I mean, really, it's still Wishes, but HEA is a worthy successor)
Favorite character: Rapunzel
Favorite non-Princess character: Stitch
Favorite resort: Polynesian (but I also want to live in the Royal Rooms at Port Orleans - Riverside)
Favorite TSR: California Grill (OMG that brunch tho...)
Favorite QSR: Sunshine Seasons (fancy cupcakes FTW)
Favorite moment of mine at WDW: The one in my avatar picture, as detailed here
Favorite holiday to be at WDW: New Year's Eve

Join us as we go down the rabbit hole of two crazy DISboarders who found each other and keep finding reasons to go back to Disney World aside from taking more pictures of Cinderella's Castle to fuel my Instagram strategy.

Once Upon a Time (Pre-Trip Entries)
1. How this happened...
2. Planning a "Late" Trip
3. "Gear"ing up for the Weekend
4. Getting the (Magic)Band Back Together
5. One Week To Go!
6. On My Way!

Happily Ever After (Trip Entries)
7. Day 1 - How Wet Is Too Wet?
8. Day 2 - All Castle Everything
9. Day 3 - Flowers & Gardens & Cupcakes & Shopping
10. What's Left For Our Next Trip​

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter One: How This Happened...​

As I mentioned in the first entry, my girlfriend and I went on a week-long trip to Disney World in February. It was our first vacation together, and the first time I'd gone to WDW when I wasn't alone for at least part of the trip. And it was amazing (trust me, if I hadn't been lazy and let two months go by before getting back into the trip report thing, I'd be telling you all about it in excruciating detail... heck, I still might...).

But when we got back to Connecticut, we were hit with a double-dose of sadness. Not only was our trip over, but our My Disney Experience pages were empty. That's right, nothing in the planner at all.

A few weeks ago, we started thinking about our next vacation. Originally, we were going to do something around the week leading up to Memorial Day, but I couldn't get the time off from work, and -- as we later discovered after my request had been shot down -- she wouldn't have been able to get the time off either. So we ended up deciding on a trip in either late September or early October (the exact week we land on is up in the air, but we've booked both just in case).

So at that point we had a trip booked, and last Friday we actually hit the 180-day mark for the first week and made some dining reservations, but that only made us want to be at WDW even more.

The WDW FOMO, at least for me, fully set in earlier this week, and I sent her these two text messages:



To be clear, I was literally talking about THIS weekend, as in I was going to fly to Disney World on Saturday morning and fly home either Monday night or Tuesday morning. On three days notice. But yes, the flights were too expensive, and -- more importantly -- my girlfriend wouldn't have been able to join me.

However, being the perfect girlfriend that she is, she informed me that flights were more affordable for the weekend of May 18-20, for which she'd already requested that Friday off because she wanted to do something special for me for my birthday (have I mentioned that she's perfect?). So I went in to work that day and requested the 18th off, a request that was quickly approved. Just as quickly I booked us two nights at the Cabins at Fort Wilderness and we both booked flights and just like that our six-month wait to return to Disney World was cut down to six weeks.

Are we crazy for doing this? Maybe. As it stands, we really only have one full park day on this trip: Saturday, May 19. We arrive in Orlando on the 18th, and depart on the 20th, though our flights allow us for plenty of park time on both days. Barring delays, we'll both be on the ground at MCO by 10:30 a.m. on the 18th, and my departing flight -- the earlier of the two -- doesn't leave until after 9 p.m. (and yes, we are taking separate flights, because she's using Southwest points and I'm using JetBlue points, just like we did for the February trip. Eventually we'll take one of these trips and fly down together).

Additionally, this trip comes on the heels of our February trip, and I was also at WDW in January at the tail end of my New Year's Eve trip. As I mentioned, we'll be going back in September or October, then I'll be going back without my girlfriend (but with a large group of friends for what should be a very special outing) for a weekend in October, and then my family is hoping to go on a Disney Cruise in November (and if, for some reason, there's no castmember space available, we'll probably end up doing at week at WDW instead). I'm not saying I'm a WDW addict, but I'm not NOT saying that either.

But, as for this specific trip, it'll be my birthday weekend, so I have no qualms about doing it. Coincidentally, this ends up being basically the same itinerary I did for my birthday trip last year -- fly in on the 18th, fly out on the 20th -- though that one was even more of a last-minute splurge, specifically because of the DVC and D23 previews of Pandora.

Speaking of Pandora, this will likely end up being yet another trip where I still don't go on Flight of Passage. For those that have been following me for a while, you know that I couldn't fit on the ride uring the preview event last May, and I didn't attempt it in December or February. I'm still not entirely sure I'd fit on the ride, since I'm still very much Baloo-sized, but I have dropped 80 pounds since my one and only attempt, and I'm hoping to shed another 20 before going down there in May. But, even if I could fit, FastPass+ times were long since gone before we booked this trip -- and neither of us has the tolerance to wait in lines of 2+ hours for a ride I might not even be able to ride. Animal Kingdom does have a morning EMH on the Saturday that we'll be there, but castmember guest admission is blocked out that day, meaning my girlfriend would have to pay for a ticket to get in. And, again, that's totally not worth it for one ride, especially when we'll be back in September (or October), and hopefully by then I'll have dropped enough weight to feel more confident in my ability to fit.

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Two: Planning a "Late" Trip
​

First, a quick weight-loss update. When I started this trip report a week ago, I was at 362 -- down from a "high" of 441 last year (I put high in quotes, because that's the highest number my scale will register and it's entirely possible I actually weighed more than that at some point, which is scary to think about). This morning I was down to 359, so I'm right on track for my goal for this trip. Assuming I get there, I'll post side-by-side photos of me from last May 18th and this May 18th at Disney World so you'll be able to see the difference, and hopefully I'll be able to see it too (because I see myself every day, I tend not to notice the difference when I'm losing weight until it's pointed out to me -- I of course notice every little difference when I'm gaining weight, but don't we all...).

Now, on to Chapter Two!

I think it's safe to say that most of us on this board, particularly in the trip report section, are long-term Disney planners. We make our reservations very far in advance, and circle the 180 and 60 day marks on our calendars -- prepping for ADR and FastPass day well in advance.

This trip was a little different, because when we decided to book it we were already inside that 60-day window. That meant a couple of things when it came to making our trip plans:
- We'd have fewer choices for which resort we wanted to stay at
- Some of our prime ADR choices might be unavailable (or only available at weird times)
- As mentioned in the previous trip report entry, getting a FastPass for Flight of Passage was probably out of the question

Fortunately, the resort we wanted to stay at -- the Cabins at Fort Wilderness -- was still available, even through the castmember booking system (hello 50% discount!). In a weird way, I'm kind of bummed that it was, since we'll only be there for two nights and probably won't be spending that much time in the resorts. Still, it'll be fun and I get to check another resort off my list in my quest to stay at all of them at least once. Also, it helps to be there since we'll be doing the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue on Saturday night -- a reservation that we moved from our trip this September/October, a trip we actually booked before this one.

Having experienced the amazingness that was the California Grill brunch on our last trip, we considered doing it again on this one. However, it's only available on Sunday, and with that being our departure day on this short trip, we decided against it. We'd had it on our departure day back in February, and while the meal was certainly amazing, it was also so filling and food-coma inducing that we ended up not doing anything else that day (unless you count sitting on the fourth floor of the Contemporary and watching the monorail go by as "doing something", which, I mean, I kind of do...). So in place of that meal, I ended up grabbing us what I thought was just a normal breakfast reservation at Trail's End on Saturday morning, but turned out to be a brunch reservation, because they offer that there on the weekends. I also snagged a dinner reservation at Artist Point on Friday night, since it's one of the restaurants that is currently offering a 40% castmember discount. Weirdly, I didn't intend to have our first three ADRs for this trip all happen in our resort area, it just sort of ended up that way. The only other reservation I ended up making was a lunch at Sci-Fi on Sunday, and it's entirely possible we end up changing that -- I just wanted to make sure we had something booked on our departure day, and since that's going to be our DHS day, I figured I'd book the only place that takes reservations that I haven't experienced yet.

With the ADRs done, it was time to move on to FastPasses -- though, being entirely honest, I actually started with FastPasses, just to quickly check if by any miracle there would be something available for FOP. When there wasn't, I started booking dining, then went back to FPs. Here's what we ended up with:

Friday - Animal Kingdom
12:55pm - Na'vi River Journey
1:55pm - Expedition Everest
3:00pm - UP! A Great Bird Adventure



My flight, the later of our two, is scheduled to land at 10:11 a.m., so the hope is that we'll be dropping off our carry-ons at Fort Wilderness by 12:30 (and based on my experience, it could be even earlier than that) and hopping on the bus to AK right after that, giving us plenty of time to make the end of our first FP window. Because of the CM admission blockout dates, this is the only day we could go to Animal Kingdom, so that's why we're starting there -- plus it's my girlfriend's favorite of the four parks. From AK, we'll take the bus over to MK, then take the boat over to Artist Point for dinner. After that, we'll either go back to MK for Happily Ever After or watch it from the beach (really it'll depend on if park hours get extended that night or not).

Saturday - Magic Kingdom
10:30am - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
11:30am - Splash Mountain
12:30pm - Enchanted Tales with Belle



Our brunch reservation is at 9am, so we'll almost certainly end up using our BTMM FP near the tail end of the one-hour window for it, which will be perfect because we'll be able to hop right on to Splash Mountain right after. We didn't get to do Splash during our last visit (it was too cold during the Moonlight Magic event, and was down when we went over during MK After Hours), so we're excited about that. And my girlfriend has never experienced the magic that is Enchanted Tales, so I'm basically forcing her to do that (and I'm definitely volunteering to be a suit of armor). I didn't even bother looking for an FP for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, not because I didn't think it'd be available, but because neither my girlfriend nor I are big fans of the ride. We did it last trip during MK After Hours, and I was surprised that it didn't even take any extra effort for me to fit in the mine car, but it's still a very tight squeeze and it's probably third on my rankings of MK coasters (though I actively avoid Space Mountain now even though I love it, because my back hates it).

After the morning/early afternoon at MK, we'll probably head over to Epcot for some Flower & Garden goodness, though weirdly we were both in agreement that there were no must-do rides for us at Epcot this trip. We'll almost certainly end up doing Spaceship Earth, because it doesn't feel like a Disney trip without that, and after skipping it last time (because the wait times were weirdly high), we'll probably do Living With the Land again, but she's not a big fan of Soarin', I've had some bad experiences on Test Track, and we both agree that while it's adorable, Frozen Ever After isn't really worth the extended waits. But seeing the topiaries and enjoying the adult beverages on the World Showcase is always worth the trip. Then we'll make our way back to Fort Wilderness for Hoop-Dee-Doo (and bottomless beer and sangria) to end the night (note: entirely possible night doesn't "end", but ends up continuing on at Disney Springs after the show).

Sunday - Hollywood Studios
11:05am - Tower of Terror
12:40pm - Rock 'n' Roller Coaster
1:50pm - Star Tours



There's a morning EMH at DHS this day, which is VERY tempting, but so is sleeping in, especially given how long we know this day will be (also, I suck at sleeping on planes, so waking up at 7am and not getting to bed until around 2am is a recipe for disaster). This was the only day I couldn't get perfectly stacked up FPs, but it's not a huge concern, as we can always sneak in viewings of One Man's Dream or Voyage of the Little Mermaid between windows. I might try to have us squeeze in another trip to MK to see the castle again before we leave (if you're not familiar with my Instagram account, Cinderella's Castle is kind of my obsession), which shouldn't be a problem considering that we don't have to be back at the resort to catch the Magical Express until 6pm.

So even with the "late" planning of this trip (still booked six weeks in advance, which isn't remotely close to my shortest Disney planning window), we should be able to do almost everything we want. I still have a lot of things I want to check off my Disney to-do list -- play a round of mini-golf, do one of the MK behind-the-scenes tours, actually maybe go in a pool at my resort for once -- but I'm saving most of that for the trip later in the year, since this is just a long weekend, and since it's my birthday weekend, I want to get as much park time in as possible (and force my girlfriend to be in ALL the PhotoPass photos, since she hates being in pictures again, again, might kill me for posting the ones I put in this chapter).

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Three: "Gear"ing up for the Weekend
​

Four weeks to go, and we start -- as always -- with a weight-loss update:



That was from this morning, so I'm still on track. I might even go buy some new smaller pants this weekend to celebrate.

That segues nicely into the theme for this entry, the new Disney clothing I've bought for this trip. It's been a tradition of mine for a couple years now to buy new T-shirts every time I go to Disney World, which has left me with drawer full of Disney shirts, many of which will hopefully soon be too big to wear (which will then give me even more incentive to buy new shirts, thus continuing the cycle).

On my last trip, it was actually my girlfriend who provided the new gear, in the form of matching T-shirts for us. You can sort of see one of the sets -- the I'm his/her Rapunzel/Flynn shirts -- in the Tangled lantern picture in the first post of this trip report. I'll spare her the embarrassment of sharing one of the pictures of us wearing the Star Wars "I Love You"/"I Know" T-shirts that made up the other set.

For this trip, I decided to lean into my Cinderella's Castle theme, and picked up these two adorable designs from TeePublic:



Both of them are the same 5XL size as the shirts for my last trip, and they're comfortably baggy right now, which is how I prefer to wear my clothes. But I do realize that I'll probably have to go down a size for my next trip (which is obviously a good thing).

As excited as I am to wear these shirts -- one on Friday and one on Sunday -- I'm FAR more excited about my Saturday outfit, when I'm going FULL ON Cinderella's Castle. A few months ago, Torrid released an entire Cinderella line. For those of you who are familiar with the brand, Torrid does not make men's clothes. The number of effs I gave about that was exactly zero, especially when I saw how awesome some of these designs were. So for Saturday May 19, which is our big MK day, I'll be rocking this look (just imagine my face in place of the Porg):



That's the Torrid Cinderella tank top (with a plain black T-shirt underneath), the Torrid Cinderella's Castle leggings, and the Vans Disney Princess sneakers. Over the leggings, I'll be wearing the Orlando Magic's alternate "Galaxy" shorts, both because I like having pockets, and because as my spirit guide to all things fashion Blair Waldorf would say, "tights are not pants."

Am I weird for dressing like this? Probably. But, again, when you already have a giant, colorful Princess tattoo on your arm, you've pretty much established a baseline level of "weird", and certain other quirks are to be expected. Basically I'm just super excited to make my girlfriend take as many PhotoPass pictures as possible with my while I'm dressed like this (and probably wearing super-embarrassing birthday ears too).

Also, you'll note this outfit doesn't have socks yet. I've been trying to track down a good pair of Cinderella's Castle socks, but if I can't find one between now and May 18, I'll pick a pair of no-show socks from the Target Disney sock advent calendar my sister got for me last year.

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Four: Getting the (Magic)Band Back Together
​

Apologies for the delay in this entry. I meant to post this past Friday, but I was in an "Avengers: Infinity War"-induced haze. How many times have you all seen it so far? Me? Not enough, I'll tell you that.

Oh, and speaking of "not enough," that's my weight-loss status right now. I seem to have hit a plateau at 355. I'm trying not to stress about it, since I know these things can happen, and it's still possible for me to hit my 341 goal before May 18. But I'm also not going to go crazy trying to get down to it either. Honestly, if I can just get to the point where the second digit in my weight is a 4 and not a 5, I'll be content for this trip -- and be willing to at least TRY the test seat at Flight of Passage (though I'm still assuming that even if I get down to 341, I won't fit yet).

Regardless of my struggles with the scale, I'm getting more excited for this trip, because these arrived late last week:



Truth be told, I have a love/hate relationship with MagicBands. Specifically, I love them, and I hate that I love them, because I have WAY too many of them. Every time I book another trip, I tell myself that I'm going to decline the MagicBands on that trip and just use one of my existing ones. Then I get another one anyway. And when that one arrives, I tell myself that it'll be the only new MagicBand for that trip, but then I get to Disney World and inevitably buy another one to add to my ever-expanding collection.

At least now I have a decent way of displaying them in my Disney Room (along with, conveniently enough, more room in the display for future purchases):



The only way I won't be buying another one on this trip is if the limited edition "Avengers: Infinity War" MagicBand is already sold out by the time I get down there in 17 days. And even then, I might have to break down and buy the new Cinderella's Castle MagicBand, because, well, duh. Also, since this is a birthday trip, the Mickey "It's My Birthday" MagicBand is very tempting, and... well, you see how I might have a problem.

Fortunately, I'm good at solving problems. For example, I recently had two problems: the entertainment unit in my Disney-themed room wasn't very Disney themed (not counting the stuff on top of it) and I didn't have a good place for displaying the various badges I've accumulated from dessert parties and after hours events over the years. Suddenly, as I was hanging some other stuff in that room last week, it occurred to me that both problems could be solved simultaneously, and this was the result:



Now, I'd still like to get a more Disney-fied entertainment shelf/cabinet in that room at some point -- I might enlist my brother-in-law, who is an amazing carpenter, to custom-build one for me -- but this will certainly do for now. And while I won't be adding any badges to it on his trip, I'm sure there'll be at least one more on there by the end of the year.

 

[reyasmommy]

I love this! Congrats on the weight-loss and have fun!

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

So happy to find another trip report from you! Love all the pics you've been sharing.

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Five: One Week To Go!
​

First, some good news:



It's not all the way where I wanted to be, but getting back under 350 is a milestone for me. Now hopefully I can keep it off for another week, then for 3 days at Disney World.

Oh, and speaking of Disney World, I might be a little TOO excited for this trip. How so? Well, I'm already packed:



And yes, as you can see in the photo, I did find some Cinderella socks to go with my castle outfit for Saturday.

Truth be told, these days it seems like I get almost as excited to plan a Disney trip as I do to take the actual trip. I know that's probably not an uncommon feeling around these parts, but it's really hit home for me over the past week. I haven't been doing any additional planning for this upcoming trip, but I've spent a lot of time this week planning that October weekend trip I mentioned a few entries back. We're up to 14 confirmed people for the trip, and trying to coordinate all that has been chaotic -- but it's the kind of chaos I enjoy. Trying to wrangle up tickets, figuring out where we can eat with a group that big, starting to discuss which rides/attractions we want to get FastPasses for... it's been so much fun.

It's crazy to think in comparison how quickly this upcoming trip came together, and how soon it'll be here. In fact, at this exact time next week, we'll probably be wrapping up dinner at Artist Point, and deciding whether or not to go back to the Magic Kingdom or to just watch the fireworks lakeside at Fort Wilderness. Either way, I'm sure it will be magical, and I'll surely tell you all about it.

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Six: On My Way!
​

As I write this, I’m on a JetBlue flight a little more than halfway to Orlando, which means in just a few short hours, I’ll be at Disney World!

As I woke up super-early this morning, I got some pretty good news:



No, it’s not all the way where I wanted to be, but it’s a lot better than I was at this time last year. Plus, my progress was reinforced when I got on the plane and didn’t need a seatbelt extender. That gives me the confidence to at least try the test seat at Flight of Passage. I’m still fairly certain I won’t fit — and even if I do, my girlfriend and I aren’t the kind of people who’ll put up with 3-hour wait times.

So what kind of people are we? Well, we’re the kind of people who go to a concert the night before going to Disney World, despite both having early-morning flights. She was lucky enough to get complimentary tickets to see Rachel Platten, who just happens to be one of my favorite singers ever — and one of the only ones who has ever performed a concert in my living room. This concert wasn’t in my living room, but it was at a casino just about 40 minutes from my house. It still made for a late night, but it was worth it to see Rachel and meet up with some of the friends who’ll be joining me for a Disney World trip in October.

Of course, we’ll end up paying the price for it today. Her flight left earlier than mine, so she got less than 3 hours of sleep and I only got around 4. So it’s probably safe to say we won’t be taking advantage of the late night hours at Disney Springs. That said, we’ll probably do more than what’s in this plan:



I’ll be sure to share plenty of photos and videos on my Instagram account, so follow along there, and I’ll have an update on this trip report for all of you soon.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Woohoo! Congrats on your new number!

I want to hear more about Rachel Platten and a living room concert. How'd you manage that?! And "one of the only ones"? So there have been other living room performances?

Wishing you and your girlfriend a magical first day of your trip! Have fun!

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Seven: Day 1 - How Wet Is Too Wet?
​

First, you'll notice this thread has a new title, because while it was a very rainy birthday weekend at Walt Disney World, it was still magical.

As I previously mentioned, my girlfriend and I arrived on separate flights, and when I landed, she texted me to meet her at the Avis counter, where she was picking up our rental car. One problem: we both forgot that there is an identical set of rental car counters in terminals A and B. So I went one way, she went the other, and eventually we figured things out (did I mention we got almost no sleep the night before?).

After driving around the airport a couple of times trying to figure out which way to go (again, almost no sleep), we were on our way to Animal Kingdom. But first, a detour.

On our last trip, I introduced my girlfriend to Cast Connection and Property Control, the store where all the overstock/old items from the various on-site stores go to get marked down. You have to either be a castmember or be with a castmember to get into the store, but the prices can't be beat. She loves getting the older Dooney and Bourke purses that have been pulled from regular stock, especially since they're marked down anywhere from 50-67 percent. The store also has a TON of leftover RunDisney merch, and normally I skip right over that (since my idea of marathoning involves stacks of Blu-ray discs and giant buckets of popcorn), but they had this super-cute Princess Half-Marathon hoodie that was marked down from $50 to $5. The women's 4XL - the largest size they had - was a tight fit on me, but I decided to buy it anyway, with the hopes that it'll fit perfect by my next trip. I also bought a bunch of pins, because I can't stop myself from buying pins. At least these ones were super discounted. The ones I'd buy on future parts of this trip would not be (well, aside from my typical castmember discount).

​

While we were browsing around the store, it started pouring outside. Like full-on skies open, gather two of every animal, abandon your car and hop in a canoe pouring. But, with our first FastPass of the day fast approaching, we hopped in the checkout line and figured we'd just brave the rain on our way back out to the car. Amazingly, however, by the time we had paid, the rain had stopped. And it stayed dry on our entire drive over to Animal Kingdom, where we REALLY started our Disney vacation.

​

Our first ride was Na'vi River Journey, which was beautiful as always, and the air conditioning felt particularly nice after walking through the humidity that always seems 10% worse at AK than at anywhere else at WDW. After that, I gave the test seat at Flight of Passage a shot. As expected, I didn't fit, but unlike when I tried the actual ride last year, my legs fit in fine. The back restraint didn't get to the green, but the castmember who was operating the test seat explained that unlike the seats inside, the back restraint on the test seat doesn't click into place. She said I was close enough on the test seat that it'd be very possible that if I was willing to be squished a bit, the castmembers inside could probably make the ride seat click into place. We weren't about to wait two-plus hours in line for "probably", but being that close gave me enough confidence that if I can drop another 20-30 pounds by September, I'll fit on the ride next time.

​

So what do you do after you find out you still don't quite fit in the test seat? Go eat, obviously!

We'd fully intended to eat at Satu'li Canteen on our last trip, but we just weren't hungry enough on either of our AK days. This time we stopped there and had lunch. I had the same hamburger pods I had on my trip last year, and they tasted just as amazing as I'd remembered. One of these trips I'll be more adventurous and try something else, but for now the hamburger pods hit the spot just right.

As we walked back out of Pandora, I stopped to buy one of the banshee perches. I'd bought a banshee during my visit last year, but forgot to buy the perch then, and just kept forgetting on every subsequent trip. But not this time. With that purchase secured, we headed across the park to Expedition Everest -- where I promptly forgot the banshee perch on the ride. D'oh. Fortunately I remembered it before getting too far from the exit, and was able to get a castmember to grab it when the train I'd been on came back around.

​

Up next was... well, Up! Specifically the new "Up! A Great Bird Adventure" show that replaced "Flights of Wonder." I thought the new show was cute, but I felt like the old version featured more birds. Still, it was very cool to see them up close, and who couldn't use more Dug in their lives (something we'll get to in a future entry here).

​

After the show, we decided to head to our room before dinner, stopping to do some more shopping at Animal Kingdom on the way out. Sadly, the Infinity War MagicBands were sold out (not just at AK, but across all of WDW), but both the Cinderella's Castle and It's My Birthday MagicBands I'd mentioned a couple entries back were in stock, so I bought both of them -- and I even wore both of them at various points during the weekend, so it wasn't just a "collectible" purchase.

Amazingly, we didn't get any more rain while we were at AK, but it did start raining again right as we got to our car. It was still raining when we got to the gate at Fort Wilderness, where there was a backup because they had to check everyone's ID, even returning guests. Why? Someone had driven over the MagicBand scanner in the other lane. Really. I wish I'd gotten pictures of it. Of course, that delay meant that by the time we got to the cabin, it had once again stopped raining. The cabin itself was very quaint, and I could see myself going back there at some point (of course, I forgot to take pictures until we were leaving, which is why the bed isn't made here). The bed itself ended up being pretty comfortable, and I liked that the TV tilted back and forth depending on where you wanted to sit in the living room (which made it easy to connect my iPad for watching movies.



After we unpacked and changed clothes, we relaxed a little bit before driving over to meet my parents at Wilderness Lodge for dinner.

Artist Point was as amazing as I'd remembered it from my January trip -- and actually better this time because I wasn't getting sick. The sourdough bread for the table might be some of the best pre-meal bread at any WDW restaurant. My filet mignon was perfectly prepared and tasted so great that I probably ate it faster than I should have. It didn't result in me getting sick or anything, I just wish I'd taken more time to enjoy it.

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I didn't get any dessert on my last visit to Artist Point because I was feeling under the weather, so I was very excited to try the warm donuts this time. They lived up to the hype, and the banana sauce -- something I probably wouldn't eat usually -- was surprisingly good. My girlfriend had the venison and let me try a bite; the taste was fine, but the texture wasn't what I normally like from my meat. Still, she seemed to like it, and my parents enjoyed their meals as well. And with my 40% castmember discount, it was a good value for such a great meal. It became an even better value when they removed the drinks from the check after accidentally running the wrong check for us the first time -- something I didn't discover until my girlfriend and I were already on the boat over to Magic Kingdom. In fact, had my parents not stayed behind to use the bathroom before driving home, I'm not sure what would've happened. Still, everything worked out in the end, so it was all good.

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What was not good was our post-dinner visit to the Magic Kingdom. Remember all that luck with just missing the rain we had earlier in the day? That ended in a big way. Before dinner I'd snagged a 9pm FastPass for Splash Mountain, since it was the one thing we wanted to do that we didn't get to do on our last trip. I figured getting a little wet at the end of the night wouldn't be a bad thing, then we could drip dry on a ride on the PeopleMover to end the night. One problem: while we were in line for Splash Mountain, the skies opened up again, raining far harder than it had at any point in the day. That wasn't really a problem while we were IN line, but the second we got into the loading area, we got soaked. And we kept getting soaked every time we went outside -- and it had nothing to do with the drops in the ride. Getting to see part of "Happily Ever After" from the ride was fun, but certainly not worth getting that wet. By the time the big drop came around, we were already so wet that the water from the ride had no effect -- however the water from the rain that was still coming down was certainly making things worse (if you want to see video of what that looks like, you can check it out in my Instagram Story Highlights).

The weird thing was that I was mostly laughing and smiling the entire time this was happening. Sure, it wasn't the best park experience, but it was AN experience, and something anyone who was on the ride that night is sure to remember forever.

That said, we weren't about to venture out in the rain right away. We hung out in the store at the end of Splash Mountain for a little while, and even sprung for some ponchos for the walk back to the docks. We didn't quite make it over to Tomorrowland that night, but I did get some nice pictures of Cinderella's Castle for my Instagram account on the way out, setting the stage for a magical second day at the Kingdom.

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Next Up: Day 2 - All Castle Everything

 

[adamreisinger]

I want to hear more about Rachel Platten and a living room concert. How'd you manage that?! And "one of the only ones"? So there have been other living room performances?

I've been a fan of Rachel's for about 8 years now. Back when she was working on new material for what would become "Wildfire", she sent a note to all her newsletter subscribers that she was doing a mini-tour of the Northeast and wanted to fill the days between shows with house concerts. So on Jan. 31, 2015, this is what my living room looked like:

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Within six months of that show, she went from relative unknown to international superstar (though one who still has the time to wish me a happy birthday on Instagram). I've hosted a few other house concerts, but no one else has gone on to have the kind of success she's had.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

I've been a fan of Rachel's for about 8 years now. Back when she was working on new material for what would become "Wildfire", she sent a note to all her newsletter subscribers that she was doing a mini-tour of the Northeast and wanted to fill the days between shows with house concerts. So on Jan. 31, 2015, this is what my living room looked like:

View attachment 324270
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Within six months of that show, she went from relative unknown to international superstar (though one who still has the time to wish me a happy birthday on Instagram). I've hosted a few other house concerts, but no one else has gone on to have the kind of success she's had.

That must have been so much fun! What a great story. Thanks for sharing with us!

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Day 1 sounds like a winner - even with the rain. As usual, love all the pics. Great shot of the castle!

 

[OhMari]

I have you moved.Good progress on your weight loss.
We were in NYC this past weekend and they keep getting all the rain from the south.
It sure can stop at any time.

 

[tammy]

Congrats on the weight loss!! Great report...thanks for sharing!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Our first ride was Na'vi River Journey, which was beautiful as always, and the air conditioning felt particularly nice after walking through the humidity that always seems 10% worse at AK than at anywhere else at WDW. After that, I gave the test seat at Flight of Passage a shot. As expected, I didn't fit, but unlike when I tried the actual ride last year, my legs fit in fine. The back restraint didn't get to the green, but the castmember who was operating the test seat explained that unlike the seats inside, the back restraint on the test seat doesn't click into place. She said I was close enough on the test seat that it'd be very possible that if I was willing to be squished a bit, the castmembers inside could probably make the ride seat click into place. We weren't about to wait two-plus hours in line for "probably", but being that close gave me enough confidence that if I can drop another 20-30 pounds by September, I'll fit on the ride next time.

Thats good news! I hope you're able to give it a try in September!

On our last trip, I introduced my girlfriend to Cast Connection and Property Control, the store where all the overstock/old items from the various on-site stores go to get marked down. You have to either be a castmember or be with a castmember to get into the store, but the prices can't be beat. She loves getting the older Dooney and Bourke purses that have been pulled from regular stock, especially since they're marked down anywhere from 50-67 percent. The store also has a TON of leftover RunDisney merch, and normally I skip right over that (since my idea of marathoning involves stacks of Blu-ray discs and giant buckets of popcorn), but they had this super-cute Princess Half-Marathon hoodie that was marked down from $50 to $5. The women's 4XL - the largest size they had - was a tight fit on me, but I decided to buy it anyway, with the hopes that it'll fit perfect by my next trip. I also bought a bunch of pins, because I can't stop myself from buying pins. At least these ones were super discounted. The ones I'd buy on future parts of this trip would not be (well, aside from my typical castmember discount).

I'm always so jealous of people that get to go to CC and PC! I'd love to check out what they have one of these days - just need to be friends with a CM!

 

[kilroy1966]

Following. I was at WDW May 14th-20th. I can testify to the rain!

 

[adamreisinger]

Chapter Eight: Day 2 - All Castle Everything
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A long time ago (read: April) when we booked this trip, we knew that Saturday was going to be our big Magic Kingdom day. This was our original plan:

9:00am: Trail's End Brunch
10:30am - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad FP
11:30am - Splash Mountain FP
12:30pm - Enchanted Tales with Belle FP

But after our first day at the park, we decided to make a couple of changes. The first was dropping the Splash Mountain FastPass. We'd gotten wet enough on Friday night that we didn't need more water in our lives, especially with the forecast calling for more rain on Saturday. The second change was to start our day later. We moved brunch to 10:20, which gave us more time to catch up on much-needed sleep. In moving the brunch reservation later, we ended up having to drop the Big Thunder FP entirely, but we still ended up with a nice mix of Pirates, Enchanted Tales and Haunted Mansion -- aka three indoor things that would keep us out of the rain for at least a little while.

I'd read mixed reviews of the Trail's End brunch, but I found it to be really good. I'm a big fan of Disney's breakfast buffets -- mostly because the idea of unlimited eggs and bacon is basically my idea of heaven -- and this was for the most part the traditional buffet line, with a few added lunch/dinner items (like the fried chicken, which I avoided because I knew I'd be having plenty of it that night). I did think it was a bit weird for a brunch to not have a full drink menu available, but they were basically able to make any drink we wanted (though I ended up settling for a traditional brunch mimosa). One thing probably helping boost my opinion of the meal was the fact that Trail's End was another of the current 40% castmember discount restaurants, so our final bill for a brunch buffet ended up being less than what we'd usually pay for a single-entree brunch locally. Still, I'd definitely consider going back again.

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The convenience of being able to leave the restaurant and walk right over to a boat that took us to the Magic Kingdom was certainly nice too, especially because the security line for the Fort Wilderness boats is probably the shortest of any of the various ones for the Magic Kingdom.

We arrived at MK just after noon, right on time to see the Main Street Trolley performance -- and right as they were performing "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted", the movie I watched each of the four nights before my trip to get me in the Disney mood (as if I'm not literally always in the Disney mood).

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From there I began my day-long obsession with taking as many pictures of Cinderella's Castle as possible -- including one of me and my girlfriend in front of the castle that I won't post because I know she hates posing for pictures and only indulged me in the moment. But I will post this one of just me in front of the castle, so you can truly understand the title of this entry.

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Yes, I followed through with my plan to wear my "Castle" outfit. So you don't have to go back and read all the past entries to identify every item, here's the list from top to bottom: "My Happy Place" Castle hat, Cinderella Castle tank (over plain black T-shirt), Cinderella Castle MagicBand, Orlando Magic "City series" shorts (because leggings are not pants), Cinderella Castle leggings, Cinderella socks, and Vans Princess shoes. Because when your entire Instagram account is "365 Days of Cinderella's Castle", you need to make sure you're representing the Castle when you're in the parks.

I continued to take plenty of Castle photos as we made our way over to Tomorrowland and The Purple Wall, where I had to both take my cheesy Purple Wall Instagram photo and try the new Purple Wall slushy. The drink was pretty good, even if the boba balls were kind of gross (though, to be fair, I think all boba balls are kind of gross). Once it melted a bit and I was able to swirl the whipped cream into the slushy, it tasted even better. It's probably not something I'd get again, given all the other various drink options at WDW, but I'm glad I tried it at least once.

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Once we got past trendy drinks and photo walls, we headed to the two things we'd wanted to do the previous night before getting soaked: the PeopleMover and Carousel of Progress. I feel like a lot of people skip these two attractions when visiting MK, especially since things like Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin are right there and far more popular, but I don't feel like it's a real Disney World trip unless I do both of them. We did PeopleMover first, and were going to skip CoP to do it later, so we could make our Enchanted Tales FP, but while we were on PeopleMover, I got the infamous "There has been a change to your FastPass" email. Yes, somehow, Enchanted Tales was down. So we did Carousel of Progress, where the ride briefly got stuck, creating a weird situation where the song was playing at the end of one scene, but we didn't start moving until the next scene had already started playing. Toward the very end of our journey on Carousel of Progress, we heard a very loud noise that we couldn't quite pinpoint, but were fairly certain was thunder. When the exit doors opened, that suspicion was confirmed, in the form of another downpour.

We put on the disposable ponchos my girlfriend had smartly packed in her purse then made our way over to Merchant of Venus to hide from the rain for a little bit. After killing some time and buying some drinks there, we ducked into Cosmic Ray's, which was packed, as expected. After walking around for a little bit, we finally found a table, and were able to sit down, enjoy a non-alcoholic beverage or two, and wait out the worst of the rain before eventually making the decision to try and make it across the park to our Pirates of the Caribbean FastPass. That turned out to be a bad decision for two reasons. First: the walkway outside of Cosmic Ray's connecting Tomorrowland to The Hub was basically a river. We probably could've taken the long way around to Adventureland, but we decided to walk through the river (my girlfriend at least had the option of taking off her flip-flops and walking barefoot), and my socks and shoes got soaked.

The second reason it turned out to be a poor decision to try and walk over to Pirates was that by the time we arrived, Pirates was down too. So at this point, we were completely soaked, but had two anytime FastPasses, plus our Haunted Mansion FastPass, which had just had its window open up. We headed to Haunted Mansion, stopping at Memento Mori to check out what was available and wait out the FastPass line for a bit (it was probably about 50 people deep when we got over there, and maybe 20 people deep when we left the store). Getting out of the rain for a little while was nice, and Haunted Mansion is certainly one of my favorite rides at MK. I even managed to get a semi-decent picture of our hitchhiking ghost.

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After that, we decided to use one of our newfound "anytime/(almost) any ride" FastPasses to do Enchanted Tales with Belle, since it was part of our original plan, and it was something my girlfriend had never experienced before. I volunteered to be one of the suits of armor, while she watched bemused from the benches.

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Since we were already in Fantasyland, we decided to use our next open FP for Journey of the Little Mermaid -- though we briefly considered Space Mountain, before remembering that we both get hurt every time we ride it. Sure, the ride only had a 20-minute standby wait, but why wait when you can walk right on? Right after we checked in at the FastPass entrance, I started refreshing the app to see which FastPass to grab next. As it turned out, there was immediate availability for Mickey's PhilharMagic, which was perfect since it was both close by and indoors. The only real downside was that because it's a show with a large loading area, it meant a lot of standing with no moving, which is harder on my legs than a continuous moving line. Still, we did get to sit down for a while, and the show is always enjoyable.

Once again, right after we scanned in for that FastPass, I started looking for another one, and grabbed "It's a Small World" for 4:45, which would be right about the time we were getting out of the show. We rode that, and it just so happened that we timed the ride exactly right so that we got to see the 5:00 clock parade right as we were getting off the ride.

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While we were on IASW, I went ahead and booked a 5:05 FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which I was surprised to find for two reasons: there hadn't been any more FastPasses available the night before when I tried to change our previous one, and at the time I was booking this FastPass, the ride was down.

Now, experienced WDW visitors will know that booking a FastPass for a ride that's down can work to your favor, because if the ride stays down when the FP window opens, you've suddenly been handed one of those precious anytime/anyride FPs. In fact, that was my plan behind booking this specific FastPass. As much as I love BTMRR (in fact, in a past trip report I listed it as my favorite ride, though it got passed by Tower of Terror on recent trips), I had no intention of riding it in the rain, which started to come down harder as we got off IASW. Yet, despite the increasing rain, BTMRR somehow re-opened -- and clearly not many other people were interested in riding it either, since it had a 5-minute standby wait at that moment, and didn't get above a 20-minute wait at any point in the next couple hours.

Rather than risk getting soaked again, we decided to head back over to the PeopleMover one more time, before leaving Magic Kingdom for the day (and for the trip). On our way out, we caught a bit of the Rainy Day Cavalcade, which I legitimately did not know existed. Hey, something else to mark off my Disney checklist, right?!

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Before we left the park completely, we did a little shopping, and I bought this gorgeous Princess wallet. Given that I was already wearing a women's shirt and women's leggings, the fact that this was a women's wallet really wasn't going to faze me. In fact, the only reason I hadn't bought this before this trip was that I wanted to check out the inside in person, to see how many cards it could hold and if my iPhone 8 Plus could fit inside it (the answer, if you're wondering, is yes, though with the "tough" cases they sell at D-Tech, it's a very tight fit, so I ended up ordering a slim case when I got home from my trip). Sure, it doesn't exactly fit in my pants pocket, but I loathe carrying stuff in my pockets anyway, which is why I almost always wear a hoodie with a giant front pocket or carry a backpack. I should probably just start carrying a purse -- and almost did exactly that on this trip, but we'll get to that too.

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After our boat ride back to the cabin, we had a little bit of time before dinner at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue. This was one thing that my girlfriend had done before that I had not, and while she was pretty sure I'd enjoy the show, she was less certain about the food. I'm a picky eater, so she was concerned that there wouldn't be enough that I would eat, but I kept assuring her that as long as there was fried chicken and mashed potatoes -- and unlimited sangria -- I'd be fine. And I was. The cornbread was great, the salad was... well, fine, even if the dressing wasn't what'd I'd choose, and the fried chicken and mashed potatoes lived up to expectations in both quality and quantity. Plus, our server brought us a bowl of the mac & cheese too, which I was more than happy to dig into.

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In the end, I'd say the food was good, the show was great, and the price was fantastic (castmembers get 50% off Hoop-Dee-Doo tickets), and I'd probably do it again, though I think I'd try to do the early show, so it could basically serve as the mid-day break between park trips.

While Magic Kingdom was open until midnight that night, we decided it'd be far smarter to go back to our cabin to pack and rest up for another long, but amazing, day.

Next Up: Day 3 - Flowers & Gardens & Cupcakes & Shopping

 

[SweetSerenity]

I'm joining in!

Congratulations on your weight loss! That's a big accomplishment!

Torrid is an amazing store. I love their Disney line! You are rocking your castle outfit.