Three Cheers for Minnie Ears: A March 2019 Trip Report *Updated 7/15*

[tinawv]

Love Beaches and Creme. Looking forward to reading more about your trip.

 

[GrantDB]

Following along, as others have previously said, what a can-do positive attitude you have, what an amazing trait, I can't wait to hear about the rest of your sister sister trip, your itinary is top notch, let's see how it went!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Sorry to hear about your stressful year but looks like you have a positive outlook . Looking forward to reading more about your adventures

 

[Spacecow]

Day 1, Part 1: Two Night Owls at Early Morning Magic
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I’m not a morning person at all. You want to know how I know this? Even the prospect of starting my long-awaited week in the parks wasn’t enough motivation to get me out of bed when my alarm went off that morning. In my defense, it was 5:30… Which is rough no matter where you are. But, after snoozing my alarm a few times, I managed to get up and get ready. But I wasn’t happy about it!

My sister is also a complete night owl, and is notorious for sleeping well past noon on the weekends. Although, she's much better than I am when it comes to getting up and surviving on a small amount of sleep. if I don't have my full 8 hours... It's noticeable.

For Christmas, I searched through Etsy looking for fun Disney things to buy my sister and I, to help us get excited for our trip. This was a dangerous, dangerous mission, because there was so much cute stuff it was hard to resist the urge to buy all of it! But, I narrowed it down to one pair of ears and one fun shirt.

Coordinating our outfits ahead of time made getting ready really easy, and soon enough, we were ready to head out the door. We left right at 6, with the goal of getting the 6:30 bus. I was very proud of myself for making that- I’m usually the type that runs way behind in the mornings, because I’ll go to great lengths to get as much sleep as possible.

There’s my “I’m tired but I’m ready to go!” face.

It was kind of nice, and somewhat eerie, to be the only ones at the bus stop. Although other families eventually trickled in, we were alone out there for a while in the early morning mist.

It was at this point I was mindlessly shuffling through my bag when I made a big “oh crap” discovery- I didn’t pack my portable charger. I know they have fuelrods in the parks, but I wanted my own. So, I had no choice but to book it back to the room as fast as my legs would take me (which was not very fast), after giving my sister strict instructions to keep the bus driver from leaving in case the bus arrived while I was gone. That was a bit dramatic of me, because it only took me about 5 minutes to get in/out of the room. The bus did arrive, but the driver was planning to wait until 6:25, which gave me a good couple of minutes to sit on the bus and catch my breath.

Once the bus got moving, it wasn’t long before we arrived at Magic Kingdom- and, according to my phone, I took this right at 6:41am!

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A lovely sunrise with the Grand Floridian in the distance, taken as we scurried away from the bus and towards the day of magic ahead.

Now, I know being early is better than being late, but I really anticipated some sort of delay along the way that wouldn’t result in us getting to the park an hour before Early Morning Magic began. But, there we were, gathering with the small flock of fellow early risers.

There wasn’t anyone checking bags for a while- just security standing behind the rope and occasionally letting early dining res people heading to the monorail resorts through.

By 7, cast members were starting to appear.

We were let in and herded to a specific turnstile, while PPO dining res people went to another one. I watched them pass by and thought about how we were almost one of them. I originally booked a PPO breakfast at Be Our Guest for our first day and was pretty happy with it…. Until I realized that EMM was offered on the same day. I figured it was worth the extra money to have 90 minutes in Fantasyland and breakfast vs a hurried breakfast at Be our Guest and one pre-rope drop ride on mine train.

It was here that we got our wristbands (which I didn’t photograph…). The CM who gave me mine asked if I was ready to have the park “pretty much to myself”. As if the answer would be anything but yes!

People began waiting near the tunnel, but we took the opportunity to take the first of many photopass pics!

Magic shot!

The photopass photographer asked if we were twins. It wasn’t the last time someone asked us that on this trip, funnily enough. I feel like we definitely look related, but not similar enough to be twins!

That helped us kill some time, but there was still one last hurdle of waiting left. We stood in front of the tunnel waiting patiently-mostly patiently- to be let in. Someone asked a CM when we’d get to go in, and she said “we usually try to let people in around 7:30”. Which I figured wasn’t entirely true, since most accounts of EMM I read had people getting in right at the event time… So 7:30 came and went, and we were still behind the rope. But, at 7:40, they lowered it, and we were in!

I took a few “wow it’s so empty pics” of course. They’re not the best since I was trying to walk, take in the environment, marvel at how cool it was to be one of the first people in the park, and not be outpaced on the way to fantasyland at the same time!

On the way to fantasyland, we couldn’t resist the urge to take another photopass pic.

And another one:

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We didn’t really get the “empty main street” vibe, but I still like the pictures!

We hit Winnie the Pooh right away, then decided to work our way left before trying to hit mine train. The wait was about 20 minutes at that point- far more than I wanted to spend during such a short event.

Fantasyland felt so EMPTY! On the walk to Peter Pan, we saw maybe 5 people. Maybe.

The shock of it being SO EMPTY didn’t wear off throughout the whole event. A pic like the one above would never be possible during normal park hours! It almost gave me the feeling that I was somewhere that I wasn’t supposed to be, like we snuck in or something!

We walked on to Peter Pan, and our flight was temporarily stopped right in front of this pirate ship scene:

Fortunately, we weren’t held long, and after our flight around Neverland concluded, we were on our way to Small World.

It felt so strange essentially being the only ones in the whole building!! Needless to say, we got our own boat:

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After disembarking from our happy little cruise around the world, we decided to circle back and see what the wait times looked like for mine train. The posted wait was 10 minutes, and soon enough we were on our way!

Now, I’m apparently the last person on earth to figure this out, but I had NO idea that mine train videotaped you on the ride! That must not have been working on our last trip, because I definitely never saw anything like that. It was a nice surprise to start going through my photopass downloads the other day and find ride videos!!

The wait time was even lower once we got off, so we circled back and got right back on for ride #2!

I don’t know what it is about my face, or about the lighting on this ride, but it was the uncanny ability of making it look like I have no teeth… But whatever.

By this point we thought we knew where the camera was, and tried to pose:

The second camera on this ride takes pretty meh photos… I think the reflection from the sun ruins it.

For good measure, we made it 3 in a row (our first 3 of the trip!):

By this point, our time spent in the mines brought us nearly to the end of the very magical Early Morning Magic, and used the last 15ish minutes to ride Ariel and then the teacups:

At the ripe old age of 23, I’m officially declaring myself too old for the teacups. I felt SO dizzy and out of sorts for an uncomfortably long time after. In hindsight, probably not the best idea to scramble my already-scrambled brain.

Once the tea party ended, it was about time to wait for rope drop. We planned on ropedropping space mountain, going to buzz, and then circling back to breakfast. They held us right in between Cosmic Rays and the teacups, and then as soon as we heard the BOOM of the fireworks, they let us walk further before we were stopped again. From this vantage point I got to see the rope drop masses approach:

The little girl running away has the right idea, lol.

I had a split-second worry of “oh crap, they’re going to let all these people pass us”, but in the blink of an eye the cast members, who had clearly done this before, effortlessly merged our waiting group with the rope drop crowd. We were right towards the front and were on the ride by 9:12!

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On the way out, we stopped for a photopass picture before heading to buzz. As you can see in the background, the line was building quickly!

Then it was buzz time!

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We were very focused, as you can tell.

We walked on and got off at 9:30ish, giving us plenty of time to walk back over to breakfast!

After the long morning, we were both pretty hungry. I’ve seen some reviews saying the quality of the food was poor, but I didn’t feel that way at all. Sure, it was nothing special, but it hit the spot. I’d say it’s standard hotel quality breakfast, which was more than fine. But, then again, I'm not a foodie in the slightest, so maybe my standards are low. Either way, it was a good meal. The pastries were also really good- we went back up for seconds on those.

Overall, I give Early Morning Magic a very enthusiastic 10/10! Even if I wasn't a fan of getting up so early, it was completely worth it, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat! The cost wasn't too outrageous for two people, but even if it had been, the experience itself was pretty close to priceless- the ability to knock out most of fantasyland with basically no crowds, a great jump on the ropdrop masses, and food included.... What more could I ask for?

In my next update, we'll set out to conquer our first 3 FPs, try our luck with the refresh method on a very crowded day, and enjoy a lunch with our favorite Disney characters- Pooh and friends!

Thanks for reading!

 

[disgeek009]

You accomplished so much! EMM seems like a good deal. Great pictures too!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Wow, so many rides! A great use of EMM

 

[ArielSRL]

Magic Kingdom! Kicking off bright and early with EMM

How did you like it? We are scheduled for it on our Labor Day trip for the first time!

experiencing Flower and Garden for the first time,

My husband and I taking a couples only May trip (along with some other Disers) and experiencing it for the first time. I can't wait!

DAH at Magic Kingdom!

I so want to do this. But my kids are 5 & 7 so we will probably wait a year or two....maybe.

We elected not to use DME’s luggage transport, because just a few days prior to our trip I read a horror story about someone who waited 36 HOURS to get their bags delivered at Pop. Extreme example for sure, but I wasn’t taking that chance.

We are doing the same in May. Otherwise, we usually drive.

So, after landing our first step was to collect our bags. As we soon found out, this was quite inconvenient. Southwest’s baggage claim is in terminal A, whereas DME picks up in terminal B. Translation: lots of walking and lots of backtracking. But it was worth it to know that my bags were with me and not floating out in the great unknown for hours!

Good to know. We aren't arriving until 9:45pm so we may have a late night....

Now, my biggest mistake here was not looking at a map of the resort before we got there…. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I really didn't pay attention to the actual layout or anything. Instead of taking the very quick and easy shortcut through the parking lot, we walked the lonnggg way to the 90’s section. Through the 60’s, through the 70’s, then the signs stopped changing and I thought we’d never get to the 90’s…. But we did. Definitely not a fun walk while lugging suitcases. But, we learned the errors of our ways when we glanced to the left and saw the main building and the bus we’d just gotten off sitting just across the parking lot. But, from that point on, we used the shortcut, which came in handy after long days of parkhopping.

Yes, we love being in that area. Very easy short cut to the buses and even the main building. We were in 80's in Oct and 70's a few weeks ago.

One thing I was bummed about was that the light up headboard on the murphy bed was burnt out. L It was a real downer for my sister: from “Ooh, it lights up!” to “oh, never mind, it’s broken” in a matter of seconds. It still looked cute though!

I don't even know if I knew this was a thing.

I'll save a full resort review for later in the report, but overall we were very happy with Pop and would absolutely stay there again. And, the beds were SO COMFORTABLE! On our last trip, we stayed in a royal room at POR: Riverside, which i loved, but the beds felt hard like dorm mattresses! After years of enjoying cozy beds at Paradise Pier Hotel and The Grand Californian at Disneyland, I was left with the impression that beds at WDW just didn't measure up- but the beds at Pop put that to rest for sure.

I've heard the POFQ mattresses are a dream!

As you can see above, we wasted no time making ourselves at home and cluttering up the dresser.

We do this too!

We got in line for the Disney Springs bus right after one left… It was at this point that I remembered that I could check bus times in the app. That wasn’t a feature on our last trip!

I always forget this!

And there, we waited. And waited. The next bus arrival time on the screen moved forward, then back, then disappeared altogether. 7:21, 7:25, 7:30, 7:27…. We passed the time by talking to the couple behind us, who were from Ohio I think…. Or somewhere else cold. They expressed that they’d dealt with several long bus waits during their time at Pop. Not exactly the glowing endorsement I was hoping for.

My absolutely least favorite thing about Pop and its a really big negative for me. The other is all the people in the food court!

Obligatory dog picture: This is Lucy!

So cute! We have 3 ourselves!

This was our first time at Beaches and Cream

Can't wait to try B&C in June. I always make ressies and end canceling! But not this time...I think. LOL

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Oh my, that is an early morning. I built a lot of extra time into my mornings in case of bus delays and I didn't have us at the stop for our PPO breakfast until 7:00am.

It looks like an awesome experience, though. Not only did you get to do so much in Fantasyland, but it set you up for a nice ride on Space, too. I hadn't seen anyone else talking about being able to merge into the RD crowd. Great that you didn't get stuck at the back of it.

 

[Spacecow]

How did you like it? We are scheduled for it on our Labor Day trip for the first time!

It was great! Totally worth getting up early. It's so great to knock out so many rides when Fantasyland is cool calm, and empty as opposed to trying to rush around in the crowds of the day.

Oh my, that is an early morning. I built a lot of extra time into my mornings in case of bus delays and I didn't have us at the stop for our PPO breakfast until 7:00am.

It looks like an awesome experience, though. Not only did you get to do so much in Fantasyland, but it set you up for a nice ride on Space, too. I hadn't seen anyone else talking about being able to merge into the RD crowd. Great that you didn't get stuck at the back of it.

I was so sure SOMETHING would happen that would delay us from getting to the park so I was so surprised when we got there at 6:40. Like oh.... Great.... We're an hour early

It was well worth it though, and I was very happy with it from beginning to end. And yeah I think they handle merging the EMM crowd with the rope drop crowd pretty well! Which is so important because ended up at the back completely ruins the point of rope dropping!

 

[Spacecow]

Day 1, Part 2: Fastpass Backtracking and Lunch in the Hundred Acre Wood
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We enjoyed our breakfast and then went to head to our first FP, Big Thunder Mountain. And, yes, it probably would’ve been better to book Space as our first FP, but I didn’t book EMM until far after our FP date and had no luck moving anything once I did!

I didn’t take any pictures of this portion of the morning (boo!) but Big Thunder was fun as always! Then, we made the trek back to Space for our second FP.

It wasn’t quite time to get on, so we took a ride on the people mover to kill time.

"People Mover, yay!"

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It was just before 11 am, and lines were starting to look pretty crazy. I can't tell if this is the line for the Astro Orbiter or the People Mover.... But we definitely got on right before a rush. Earlier my sister had remarked that the crowds didn't seem that bad, to which I replied "just wait".

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Tron construction I think? I'm super excited to experience this ride for myself, instead of just living vicariously through all the ride through videos of the Shanghai version on YouTube! It looks amazing, and SO FAST!! I think Space Mountain may get dethroned from being my favorite Magic Kingdom ride.....

Speaking of:

"See you soon, friend."
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After our journey around Tomorrowland, it was time for Space ride no 2! We decided to do the "Wakanda forever" salute… But we did it backwards, because I thought it was left arm over right… when it’s right over left! Black Panther was my favorite movie of last year, so I felt like a bad fan.

This was also (thankfully) the only time in the whole trip that we were put in separate rockets.

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Then, it was time to make the journey back across the park for our Pirates FP. We did a fair amount of backtracking this day. But, the weather wasn’t too bad, it was warm but not INCREDIBLY WARM AND STICKY like our last trip was. So I didn’t mind taking a leisurely stroll around the park to get to the next ride.

When we got to Adventureland, Jack Sparrow was meeting, which was a great surprise since we’ve never met him before, and we’re big Pirates of the Caribbean fans. But alas, his line was closed. But the CM told us he’d be back, so we decided to come back after we went on the ride.

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The camera on this ride is…. Useless to say the least. It would make more sense to have the picture taken during the drop than right before. Plus, if you’re in the back (like we were) you can barely even see yourself!

Side note: Love the pure fear of the child sitting in the front row, lol. Hopefully he liked the ride.

I’m neither the first nor the last person to write about how much of a disappointment WDW’s pirates is after growing up on the Disneyland version, so I won’t rehash the same points. But man, it’s so short… The queue is better, but the ride itself just doesn’t measure up! Still fun though.

We ended our treasure hunt and got in line to meet Captain Jack. It didn’t take long before it was our turn:

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He was a ton of fun! He was confused by our shirts and asked me to explain what “bows before bros” meant. I told him I simply didn’t have enough time to make him understand. He agreed.

I got us a fourth FP for Haunted Mansion, so we headed over there next. Not before stopping for yet another photopass opportunity, of course!

"Beware of hitchhiking ghosts!"
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After our graveyard jaunt with the happy haunts (say that five times fast), it was nearly time for our lunch reservation at Crystal Palace. But, we had just enough time for another FP, so I refreshed for a minute and found one for The Little Mermaid that started right away. So, we went under the sea once again before resurfacing very hungry and ready to meet our favorite Disney pals!

The Crystal Palace is always a must-do for us because we’re big Winnie the Pooh fans. Eeyore is my favorite, as you can see from my avi. The Crystal Palace also has a special place in my heart because nearly 19 years ago, Eeyore and I took this picture there!

We sat down and waited for Pooh and friends to welcome us in. And wait we did. We sat and watched other families get called up, while the clock ticked past our ADR time and I began to wonder if I hadn’t checked in correctly. Others around us started feeling restless too, with one woman going up to speak to a CM who informed her that they were working through a backlog of reservations, which is why they were running behind. We ended up waiting around 45 minutes!! Luckily it wasn’t too warm outside, and the wait gave us time to relax a bit and charge our phones, but still. When it was finally our turn to go in, I put my annoyance aside. It's Disney, after all. We were shown to our table and immediately got up to hit the buffet.

I didn’t take a picture of my plate, because I didn’t want you guys to judge my dietary choices… Let’s just say my meal consisted of a whole lot of carbs and a conspicuous absence of greenery (the rolls there are so good!!!). I may be a grownup, but my taste in food is definitely a small child’s.

We ate a little bit and soon enough the characters were making their rounds. Piglet came by first:

Super cute!

I love this pic I got with Piglet- it looks like we’re two old friends laughing at some gossip.

The big bear himself make an appearance next, and I found myself a new Facebook pic!
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On Facebook Pooh’s face takes up most of the thumbnail, which makes it seem like he’s the one writing my comments. Which I love.

I didn’t see Eeyore when we went up to the buffet, or anywhere near our section of the restaurant, so I was worried he wasn’t meeting that day. Since you can only meet him at The Crystal Palace, and I wasn’t willing to book (or able to afford) a second meal there, I was bummed at the thought that I wouldn’t get a picture with my favorite character this trip. But, all my worries were for naught, because he was the next character to come around!

Eeyore looks adorable as usual, but I don’t love how my face looks in this pic. As you can see, I mirrored it and slapped a filter on it to see if that made me like it any more... But, it didn't. So I opted to use the one of me and Pooh as my new Facebook pic instead.

Last but not least, Tigger came bouncing in. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the pics we took with him!! My sister can't find them either.... Sure would be a great time to have a photopass photographer at these things! If they turn up, I'll post an update with them.

While we waited for the check, Piglet came back around for a goodbye hug. Then, with full bellies, we set out to our next Fastpass destination: A second ride on the wildest ride in the wilderness! (Which I again took no pictures of).

I'll pick up in the next update with how we spent the lull of the late afternoon and eventually perked up just in time for our fireworks dessert party!

Thanks for reading!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

So, your first MK day would have been 3/3, right? We were there that day, too. Used our Big Thunder FP just after 10am, so it sounds like we were there right around you guys.

We had CP for a late breakfast that morning and barely had time for a bathroom break before we were called. They must have gotten themselves backed up between the breakfast and lunch crowds. The character pictures are adorable, and then your fastpass luck was great, too!

 

[Spacecow]

So, your first MK day would have been 3/3, right? We were there that day, too. Used our Big Thunder FP just after 10am, so it sounds like we were there right around you guys.

We had CP for a late breakfast that morning and barely had time for a bathroom break before we were called. They must have gotten themselves backed up between the breakfast and lunch crowds. The character pictures are adorable, and then your fastpass luck was great, too!

Yup, it was 3/3! How crazy that we might've
crossed paths without knowing. I overheard the woman who asked the cast member about the wait at CP saying she was told they were working through the 12:30 reservations still... And this was at 1:40 ish. So something must've happened to make lunch all screwy. Good thing you didn't encounter that with breakfast though!

 

[disgeek009]

After our journey around Tomorrowland, it was time for Space ride no 2! We decided to do the "Wakanda forever" salute… But we did it backwards, because I thought it was left arm over right… when it’s right over left! Black Panther was my favorite movie of last year, so I felt like a bad fan.

I liked Black Panther too, but definitely would not know this.

I didn’t see Eeyore when we went up to the buffet, or anywhere near our section of the restaurant, so I was worried he wasn’t meeting that day. Since you can only meet him at The Crystal Palace, and I wasn’t willing to book (or able to afford) a second meal there, I was bummed at the thought that I wouldn’t get a picture with my favorite character this trip. But, all my worries were for naught, because he was the next character to come around!

Eeyore's the best! I'm glad you got to see him.

 

[Spacecow]

I liked Black Panther too, but definitely would not know this.

I had to look it up on YouTube to figure it out, lol. But at least now I can point out when people do it wrong

 

[MaleDisneyBeliever]

Following along. Looks like you guys had a blast!

 

[Spacecow]

Following along. Looks like you guys had a blast!

Thanks for following!

 

[disneywlf]

Subscribed! Love your TR and you wasted no time in getting a lot done!

P.S. Crystal Palace is awesome!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Tron construction I think? I'm super excited to experience this ride for myself, instead of just living vicariously through all the ride through videos of the Shanghai version on YouTube! It looks amazing, and SO FAST!! I think Space Mountain may get dethroned from being my favorite Magic Kingdom ride.....

And it will probably be much smoother! I'm totally psyched to give it a try this fall!

He was confused by our shirts and asked me to explain what “bows before bros” meant. I told him I simply didn’t have enough time to make him understand. He agreed.

Perfect response!

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in!

I'm sorry to hear about your MS diagnosis and the struggles you've had. You certainly deserved this fun trip!

Sounds like a good first night!

Love the matching outfits on your MK day. Sounds like EMM was well worth it and that the rest of the day was going very well! Such cute pics from Crystal Palace!

 

[unwritten01]

Joining in and, as always, enjoying it all! I have MS as well. You and I are fortunate it was diagnosed - a lot stay on the not diagnosed side of the fence.. I do think your way of discovering was scarier than mine. Mine was related to trigeminal neuralgia so just pain - losing sight in an eye .. sheesh. All of that Disney walking keeps me going now . I have had it for years (RRMS), am thankful as well for the insurance victories, and man have I gotten used to needles. . My beautiful wife actually went back to school and became a RN, but it doesn't make the shots any better. Keep up the fight - you've got this!

someone left their Disney parks bag with a new T-shirt inside.

Maybe it is the location. We went to Beaches & Cream and found a wallet with cash hanging out (yes we took it to the desk as well - lol).

I felt SO dizzy and out of sorts for an uncomfortably long time after.

Yep - I used to fly jets and now can't ride that thing (kids spinning it at Mach 1 does not help).