"There's Nothing To Do At Disney World!" Jan '17 Weekend TR **05/19 X2**

[MarieLightning]

They were probably from Massachusetts (seriously though, I have friends who'll go on it no matter the weather. It has to be HOT for me to consider going on!)

I mean, I'm from Canada, so location doesn't necessarily factor into it Usually I'm not that bad with it, I start wearing my Spring coat pretty much as soon as it hits 45, but cold water is a completely different ball park, especially at night when there's no way you'll be drying off before you're basically back to wherever you're spending the night. I can do Splash when it's not sweltering outside, but if there's a chance I won't be able to dry off properly by walking in the sun, I'm putting on a poncho. And it still has to be decent temperature out.

Oh it's gonna be so hard to resist that Eeyore next week...

I knooow isn't he adorable? They had a few of those oversized heads plushies and they were all so cute, but I do think Eeyore was the cutest

Absolutely love everything about your Trip Reports and thoroughly look forward always to reading them.
Thank you so much for taking the time.

Favor: Please use a darker color, larger font if possible. I know I'm old but I'm so hoping it's just not me that has to squint. I'm also hoping it's not my PC.

Thank you so much for joining in! I'm glad you're enjoying them

And duly noted! Sometimes, I take aesthetic into consideration a bit more than practicality, which is probably not the way to go in all cases

 

[MarieLightning]

Day 1, Part 10 - "I Just Want A Bed Right Now"

After getting of Winnie the Pooh, we started making our way toward the last land of the night - Tomorrowland.

We passed the Tomorrowland Speedway.

Of course, I had to try and capture Amber's favorite trees in the Magic Kingdom.

And then it was onto...

Space Mountain!

We headed in through the regular queue, though I feel they must have let some people use the FastPass line seeing as that one doesn't have stairs.

As you can see, it was crowded.

Not.

It is, however, where we encountered our longest line of the night, and our longest wait.

I was so mad guys, Like, how ridiculous is this. We should be getting on the ride in a second. They should really have been operating both sides. I was more than ready to go and make a complaint, and request a refund.

But I took a deep breath, took a nap and felt much better after the ride was over.

Yeah, I can't even sell it.

Once we stepped out of Space Mountain, there really wasn't that much time left to the party.

It wasn't quite over yet, but it was getting very close to it. We maybe could have squeezed another ride on say, Buzz, but we were actually really, really tired. I was especially tired. Keep in mind, we'd gotten up at 2 that morning. I didn't sleep on the plane, and I got maybe a thirty minutes nap during our small resort break. And at that point, it was nearing midnight.

So, we decided, it was time to start heading out.

Amber did want to stop in the photobooth that's located in the Space Mountain gift shop, as it does work with Memory Maker.

We did take the time to stop for a castle picture on Main Street, because I mean, how else can we prove we were there?

Typical back to back picture.

Funny story - Amber always gets annoyed when they direct us to do this pose, although you probably couldn't tell it from her face. It comes from the fact that, when she used to work at the Walmart Photo Studio, they trained her to use this particular pose as a sister pose.

With our picture goals achieved, we made two more quick stops. First was for me to get a Mickey Ice Cream Bar, because I mean, we'd really not taken as much advantage of our snack perks as we could have that night (although there's really only so much you can eat in two hours).

Second was to make a short stop in the Emporium.

How cute are these, guys? So adorable. I just want to squish that fluffy head.

I was also very much tempted to grab one of these, but we had so little luggage space (and Amber is much wiser than me when it comes to buying plushies, which is probably why we have a reasonable amount of stuffed animals in our apartment rather than having it overrun) that we passed them on.

These were also super cute.

But if memory serves, they were something like, 40$, so that was a hard no.

In the end, we only ended up grabbing one small thing - the Magic Kingdom 45th Anniversary pin.

We'd actually been wanting to purchase it all night, and we figured this would be the only park we'd have a shot at getting it, so since we wouldn't be coming back to the Magic Kingdom, it was now or never. We'd picked it up every time we'd entered the Emporium that night, actually, on the hunt for a sweatshirt, but upon finding none had always just put it back down.

Happy with our night, we made our way out maybe a couple of minutes before the official end of the party.

I have to say, I think it was totally worth it for the cost. We did most everything we'd wanted to do that day, and it was awesome to breeze through every single queue. We could for sure have done more, if we hadn't been so tired - as the night went on, we were definitely getting a bit more sluggish, which for sure affected our speed. But all in all, I was definitely glad to have given it a try, and if we were ever to return to Disney while this was ongoing, we would get tickets again.

We would, however, take a cab back to our hotel.

We made our way toward the buses area, and a Cast Member asked which resort we were staying at. We told him, and he directed us to a bus line, where a bus was already waiting. So far, so good.

We got on, got settled, and then waited for the bus to depart. I would say we waited maybe ten minutes before it left - obviously, after such an event, they can't be running as quickly, as they want to get as many people in as they can before sending the buses off.

We knew this would be a shared bus, of course. We did kind of expect it to be something along the lines of, Caribbean Beach, Pop, and then Art of Animation. You know, kinda like the Magical Express routing.

So, we took off, and headed to the first resort stop - The Dolphin.

Next up - the Boardwalk.

Third on the list - the Yacht Club.

Followed by - Pop Century.

And finally, Art of Animation.

By the time we got back to our room, it was about 12:50 AM.

We had planned on rope dropping Epcot the next day. Spoiler alert - we did not.

We pretty much walked in, collapsed on the bed, and went promptly to sleep with a glorious wake up call of 9 AM.

(That's sleeping in at Disney).


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[anniebean]

Following along, but haven't posted yet. I'm trying to get better at NOT lurking.

The after hours event looks awesome, but I'm not a night owl (even at Disney) so I don't know if I could hack it.

I've gotta make a note to try the photo booths. I've read about them, but seems like I forget about them every time I go.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Glad you found the after hours event to be worth it - despite that ridiculous wait at Space Mountain!!!

Uggh, that does sound like an annoying trip back to AoA - understandable to some extent the need for shared buses, but still. Maybe with this new Disney Uber thing coming out they can include a ride with your paid after hours ticket

 

[coloredimage]

oh man, I forgot this was your first day too! That is insane! I would have been taking a hobo nap somewhere in MK. Curled up in a barrel in Pirates lol.

In the end, we only ended up grabbing one small thing - the Magic Kingdom 45th Anniversary pin.

I forgot that there's a 45th anniversary pin! I need to remember to grab on Sunday!

We pretty much walked in, collapsed on the bed, and went promptly to sleep with a glorious wake up call of 9 AM.

I would have fallen asleep on the bus. Especially when it was that long. Ugh. Great day though!

 

[abarriger]

Typical back to back picture.

Funny story - Amber always gets annoyed when they direct us to do this pose, although you probably couldn't tell it from her face. It comes from the fact that, when she used to work at the Walmart Photo Studio, they trained her to use this particular pose as a sister pose.

​

Easy solution to this-- just start making out ;-) But seriously I did briefly peck my partner on the cheek during one of these photo shoots, at which point the photopass person said "Well if you're going to do that why don't you really go for it?" and that was the only time they ever staged the romanticy type photos for us.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I've just read the whole trip report through. Even though it's a short trip you seem to be making the most out of it. You really did a lot at the Magic Kingdom. What's it like being in a line with no wait? Kidding that's great and makes paying the extra money worth it.

 

[BlvInMagic]

Hello...joining in! Such a fun mini-break and an action-packed first day. Tiana...texting? Oh my stars! Talk about breaking charachter..... lol. I've heard such good things about the after hours events that I'm eager to try one too, shoudld it ever become available when we are visiting.

 

[MarieLightning]

Following along, but haven't posted yet. I'm trying to get better at NOT lurking.

I'm glad you're joining in! I get you though, I've got the lurker habit as well. I'm glad you're reading along whichever way though!

The after hours event looks awesome, but I'm not a night owl (even at Disney) so I don't know if I could hack it.

This year I think they had a few events that were running a bit earlier because it was all Winter time events, so I memory serves, some of the February dates were 8 to 11 instead of 9 to 12 like ours was. But who knows what they'll decide to do next year!

I've gotta make a note to try the photo booths. I've read about them, but seems like I forget about them every time I go.

Not all of them fall under Memory Maker, but those that are just standard pictures with a cute frame typically do. They can be pretty fun!

Glad you found the after hours event to be worth it - despite that ridiculous wait at Space Mountain!!!

I know right, so inconsiderate of them

Uggh, that does sound like an annoying trip back to AoA - understandable to some extent the need for shared buses, but still. Maybe with this new Disney Uber thing coming out they can include a ride with your paid after hours ticket

It was pretty rough, and I think a bit of an overkill on the sharing front. That would be a good idea though, from a business standpoint especially, because I don't think that they're still quite managing to sell these events out.

oh man, I forgot this was your first day too! That is insane! I would have been taking a hobo nap somewhere in MK. Curled up in a barrel in Pirates lol

Yeah, I was just about ready to drop at some point. Probably could have taken a nap somewhere if we'd wanted, seeing as the place was pretty empty

I would have fallen asleep on the bus. Especially when it was that long. Ugh. Great day though!

I was very close to it, but then I was thinking of that walk back to our room and how much more miserable it would be after waking up from a bus nap

 

[MarieLightning]

Easy solution to this-- just start making out ;-) But seriously I did briefly peck my partner on the cheek during one of these photo shoots, at which point the photopass person said "Well if you're going to do that why don't you really go for it?" and that was the only time they ever staged the romanticy type photos for us.

Amber's much better at doing that now and again - kissing my cheek, or just positioning herself next to me in a way that friends or siblings wouldn't typically. It doesn't typically prompt much else, but at least we get photos back on which we do appear to be a couple

I've just read the whole trip report through. Even though it's a short trip you seem to be making the most out of it. You really did a lot at the Magic Kingdom. What's it like being in a line with no wait? Kidding that's great and makes paying the extra money worth it.

The extra hours really helped doing all that! And having no wait is a very good feeling when it's a ride like Space Mountain I would definitely recommend it if it was part of someone's vacation budget. I think it was money well spent, especially with the AP discount

Hello...joining in! Such a fun mini-break and an action-packed first day. Tiana...texting? Oh my stars! Talk about breaking charachter..... lol. I've heard such good things about the after hours events that I'm eager to try one too, shoudld it ever become available when we are visiting.

Thanks for joining in!

We were really super amused when we realized she was off in a corner on her phone. But we were like, you know what, it's fair, what else are they gonna do all night? She probably figured we wouldn't see her cause we were on our way out, but we just happened to glance back for some reason.

I would definitely do it again if I could! Last year was April/May, this year January/February/March... so I guess we'll have to wait and see if they keep it on, and if so, if it's gonna stay a Winter thing or if they'll make it available a bit more frequently. I doubt they'd ever do it from September onward, because there's already the Halloween and then Christmas parties, and Summer would be pretty intense since the park often closes so late in the summer (though there have been EMHs til 2 AM in the past), but it could be a nice Winter/Spring thing

 

[katt789]

I'm here too! Following along, looks like an awesome trip, cramming a lot into a short amount of time! The after hours event is totally something I can see my bff & I doing, we're usually the crazy ones who do am emh all the way through to a 3am park close time! Plus, bonus treats and low crowds, yes please!
Ugh that bus ride home is not good though!
Can't wait to read more!

 

[MarieLightning]

I'm here too! Following along, looks like an awesome trip, cramming a lot into a short amount of time! The after hours event is totally something I can see my bff & I doing, we're usually the crazy ones who do am emh all the way through to a 3am park close time! Plus, bonus treats and low crowds, yes please!
Ugh that bus ride home is not good though!
Can't wait to read more!

We did want to try and do as much as we possibly could since we were there for such little time, so I'm pretty happy with what we accomplished

Man, I wish we could have done that! The only time we went before they changed evening EMHs to 2 hours instead of 3 was November 2012, and the park wasn't open late enough that the EMHs would have pushed closing to 3 AM. I still wish we could have done the 24 hours event once. I hope someday they'll bring it back, I'd love to still be chilling in the Magic Kingdom in the middle of the night.

 

[MarieLightning]

Day 2, Part 1 - "I Am Not Impressed With You Right Now"

We started our Disney adventures by belonging to the crowds who believe that there is no sleeping in Disney. And I can still understand that concept - I mean, we definitely didn't take many breaks on this particular weekend.

But for example, in our case, the 'no sleeping at Disney' or 'no breaks' rule came from the fact that we would have never expected, after our first trip, that we would be so lucky and blessed to be able to return as often as we have. So, figuring that at some point our luck would run out, we'd just always try to soak in as much park time as possible, just in case our next visit turned out to be further away than we had grown accustomed to.

At this point though, we've made the decision that Disney is something we just can't pass up. It's a second home, and as long as we're able to spring it (and finance it without feeling crushed under ridiculous amounts of debt), we will return on a yearly basis.

As such, we now belong to the crowds who glory in afternoon resort breaks. And on occasion, sleeping in.

Which is what we did on this particular morning, and it was pretty nice. The phone rang right at 9 AM with the wake up call, and we felt refreshed. Well, mostly - I could probably have turned over and snoozed, but that's something I do any time any where, so you know.

Amber sprung right out of bed though, and I soon followed as I didn't want to get too late a start, and I still needed to shower.

So we turned on the TV to check the forecast, and we both got busy getting ready for the day.

Epcot was waiting for us! We weren't in too big a rush though, because Epcot would be the only park that weekend that we'd get to spend a full day at.

Amber had to take a picture of her layering technique to try and deal with the cold weather.

Sweater + cardigan + sweatshirt.

She also ended up buying a windbreaker coat later on.

She still got cold.

We were ready to go before too long, and headed out of our room to make the walk to the lobby.

We made a quick stop in the gift shop first.

As I wanted to check if the Cast Members would be able to help us locate the 2017 sweatshirt I'd been after the day prior. Unfortunately, the Shop Disney Parks App is not available on our phones, as our location is Canadian and it only works in the US. At least, that's my reasoning for it. I used to think it was because we each had an iPhone 4, and most newer apps don't work on those, but now I've got an iPhone 5 and it's still not there, so, I'm thinking it's location related.

As it turned out, they were not able to bring it up on their own system when entering the code for it, so we figured we'd just have to take a gamble at it.

With that settled (or well, not, but you know, as settled as it could be at that point) I headed out to the buses to wait for Amber.

Now, where was Amber?

Weeeell...

I may have forgotten my pins in the room.

And it may have been after she reminded me not to forget them.

Oops.

But because she's the best wife in the whole wide world, she's the one who went off to get them while I checked with the gift shop CMs about the sought after sweatshirt's whereabouts.

This is how she felt about it.

There was a bus waiting as I got in line, but she still hadn't returned, so I stood back a bit and let other people past when they joined in the line.

And of course, just as Amber was arriving near the bus section, the bus pulled away.

She was even less impressed then.

Thankfully (for me), another bus came by merely minutes later, and we hopped on to grab ourselves a nice comfy seat.

Direction, Epcot!

Ah, beautiful sight.

We got to try out the Passholder entrance.

Which was pretty nice, considering the regular line was rather lengthy. The lady manning it was definitely checking to see if people had APs, too, before letting them in, which apparently not everybody does. I guess when it's not busy though it wouldn't matter.

She went to scan our bands, but noticed our AP sliders so she just let us through.

We quickly entered the park and joined the crowds of people who, shocker, had also decided to come to Epcot on a Saturday during a festival event.

(Not that you can see them in this picture, but Spaceship Earth makes me feel better about it. You'll see the crowds later.)

We headed toward our first FastPass attraction of the day - which was, actually, Spaceship Earth. Amber felt the need to take a photo of me as we did so.

And let me tell you - a FastPass for Spaceship Earth in this particular instance was not a throw away FastPass.

The standby line was a whooping 45 minutes.

We were definitely glad to bypass that, and before too long, we were seeing this.

We happily allowed Dame Judi Dench to teach us the history of the world (I will be so upset when they decide to re-do it again and change the narrator. Although, I guess some people I could handle her being replaced by. Julie Andrews. Neil Patrick Harris. The Rock. Can you imagine Spaceship Earth narrated by The Rock?)

With that ride done, we headed toward our next mission of the day.

We spotted this cute Figment topiary on the way.

And then...

Yep. Sweatshirt hunt again.

This took up way too much of our weekend than I'd like to admit. Let this be a lesson - never underestimate winter weather in Florida, even if you're from up North.

We did manage to locate a Cast Member who was able to pull up the availability in her system for the desired sweatshirt in my size. The results were, there was possibly a limited stock at Hollywood Studios, but it may or may not be there as it was listed very limited, and there were some at... Coronado Springs.

At that point, I gave up. I didn't want to waste our Epcot time heading off on a sweatshirt adventure, even though Hollywood Studios wasn't strictly very far away, but it'd still be yet another waste of time.

Thankfully, Mousegears had a slightly better selection of warmer clothes, and I managed to find something that I liked the looks of and that would keep me warm. So, with that purchase done, we headed out at a faster pace than before, because we had somewhere important to be.

We made our way into the World Showcase, hoping to catch a boat, but unfortunately, we had just missed one, so we trekked on.

I didn't take pictures as we went past Canada and the UK, so you'll have to take my word for it, we were there.

Morocco in the (near) distance.

As we passed through France.

I can't stop myself from taking pictures of Morocco though. It's just so pretty.

If a tad blurry. Sorry about that.

And then of course Japan.

Which was, as some of you may have already guessed, our destination of the time.

Yep. Even with planning a trip five days out, and spending less than 72 hours in Disney World, we could not not get a reservation for Teppan Edo.


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[MeghanEmily]

What a shame about your limited sweatshirt availability! I remember this happening to me years ago when I saw a shirt I wanted on a December trip...and then they took away all the shirts with that previous year's date on them in favour of the new merch for January...before I could snap it up...sad day.

Love Teppan Edo! Even on short notice, I can see why it was a must-do ADR. Great you could get the reservation

I found out this weekend that I'd likely be getting a better tax return than expected, and I almost pulled the trigger and planned an unexpected short notice trip for this month like you two! ...But then the "responsible adult saving for a wedding and school" thing set in, and we decided against. Sad. Oh well, I'll just keep living vicariously through TRs until August!

 

[BlvInMagic]

YES! I'm all for Spaceship Earth being narrated by The Rock ! But, I do love the comforting tones of Judi Dench too

You are definitely right, never underestimate the Disney Winter Weather! My husband and I went in December 2009, and being New Yorkers we thought we'd handle whatever Florida winter temps dished us -- boy, were we mistaken! We did the layering and even purchased mickey knit-hats and gloves while on Main Street! Also, after the first day, all of the topiaries and gardens were covered with frost blankets -- we considered ourselves lucky to have seen the beautiful works of art on the day of our arrival, because everything was buttoned-up there after.

 

[1Grumpy9]

I am finally catching up on your report (I have been traveling up and down the eastern states in the last two weeks). I would have loved to be able to do the after hours event. To have access to the attractions with little to no wait would have been fabulous!!

Sorry you had such a hard time finding a sweatshirt. My friend had the same issue in November with a Maleficent sweatshirt. It took us 3 stores to finally find it.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

What a bummer about all the challenges trying to find that sweatshirt ... you'd think it would be a simple thing and that all the systems would be connected. glad you found something you liked at Mousegears at least.

The Rock. Can you imagine Spaceship Earth narrated by The Rock?

bwaahahah ... now I am totally picturing combining the current lines with his classic WWE sayings (many of which aren't realy DIS-appropriate)

We always seem to FP Spaceship Earth as it is a favorite and you can quite often hit it with a bit of a wait

Morocco is a very pretty pavilion - though I tend to keep changing my mind which one I like the best

For the record, I am definitely not surprised you fit in a meal at Teppen Edo

 

[MarieLightning]

What a shame about your limited sweatshirt availability! I remember this happening to me years ago when I saw a shirt I wanted on a December trip...and then they took away all the shirts with that previous year's date on them in favour of the new merch for January...before I could snap it up...sad day.

It was pretty lame, especially since there was so much of every other sizes. Even the 2X and 3X, there were often as many of those as there were smalls and mediums and larges, but not XL to be found *anywhere*. Another reason to motivate weight loss - clothes are always hard to find in the bigger sizes, because most stores order a lesser quantity of them than of the smaller sizes.

Love Teppan Edo! Even on short notice, I can see why it was a must-do ADR. Great you could get the reservation

It's our favorite, we just can't go to Disney without a Teppan Edo meal. I've talked about it so much that my mom is super set on eating there once we go with them. We were talking it over a bit this weekend at my Aunt and Uncle's, because we're planning a family trip in 2020, and I mentioned food and what kind of cost to expect, and over the course of that conversation, she must have said three times "I just want to eat at the Japanese restaurant and the Italian restaurant" (cause we do rave about the Via Napoli pizza a lot too). I was like, yes mother, it's already on the list

I found out this weekend that I'd likely be getting a better tax return than expected, and I almost pulled the trigger and planned an unexpected short notice trip for this month like you two! ...But then the "responsible adult saving for a wedding and school" thing set in, and we decided against. Sad. Oh well, I'll just keep living vicariously through TRs until August!

Aww drat that responsible adult life! But at least you have a trip coming up soonish, so that'll help too!

YES! I'm all for Spaceship Earth being narrated by The Rock ! But, I do love the comforting tones of Judi Dench too

I think that would be pretty epic! But there is definitely something so nice about Judi's narration that it would be very hard to get over their changing it

You are definitely right, never underestimate the Disney Winter Weather! My husband and I went in December 2009, and being New Yorkers we thought we'd handle whatever Florida winter temps dished us -- boy, were we mistaken! We did the layering and even purchased mickey knit-hats and gloves while on Main Street! Also, after the first day, all of the topiaries and gardens were covered with frost blankets -- we considered ourselves lucky to have seen the beautiful works of art on the day of our arrival, because everything was buttoned-up there after.

Amber actually did have to buy a pair of gloves! She ended up getting kids' gloves, too, because they fit her and that was the cheapest pair (and even then, it was like, seven bucks. Yikes). She wanted to get a hat too but she just couldn't bring herself to pay 20$ for it. I didn't notice anything covered up while we were there, so you must have had even colder weather than us! Or maybe there just weren't that many topiaries around to cover, it being past Christmas time but before Flower and Garden.

 

[MarieLightning]

I am finally catching up on your report (I have been traveling up and down the eastern states in the last two weeks). I would have loved to be able to do the after hours event. To have access to the attractions with little to no wait would have been fabulous!!

It was really great to be able to attend it! I am hoping they make it a recurring thing, although I don't know if we'd be able to do it again.

Sorry you had such a hard time finding a sweatshirt. My friend had the same issue in November with a Maleficent sweatshirt. It took us 3 stores to finally find it.

It really sucks, when you find something you just fall in love with and then there's just... no getting it. I'm glad it ended well though!

What a bummer about all the challenges trying to find that sweatshirt ... you'd think it would be a simple thing and that all the systems would be connected. glad you found something you liked at Mousegears at least.

I don't know that the lady at the Ink and Shop store really quite knew how to look it up, to be honest. But I was really surprised at the fact that a lot of the 2017 merchandise had some limited availability in sizes, seeing as it was only just January still.

bwaahahah ... now I am totally picturing combining the current lines with his classic WWE sayings (many of which aren't realy DIS-appropriate)

I think it's just the best pick for replacement, when the time comes

We always seem to FP Spaceship Earth as it is a favorite and you can quite often hit it with a bit of a wait

We do typically FastPass it (I mean, there's not really that much to FastPass at Epcot anyhow), although I wonder if the standby line would get this long for it if there were no FastPass option.

Morocco is a very pretty pavilion - though I tend to keep changing my mind which one I like the best

It is so gorgeous. I couldn't tell you which I find to be the second best, but Morocco is just so gorgeous to me.

For the record, I am definitely not surprised you fit in a meal at Teppen Edo

We're very predictable in some instances

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Sorry you couldn't find the sweatshirt you really wanted but when you're really cold anything will do. I hope you found one you liked.
Once we were in Disney for Thanksgiving and the temps were in the 20's. The newscasters were all going on and on about how this never happens in Florida. Well, to say we weren't prepared is an understatement. We all had jeans and sweatshirts but not winter coats. That was miserable!!

EPCOT is my favorite park. I hope you had an amazing day there.