Too much BBQ on the menu! An Aug 2018 Trip Report *Day 4 continued - 8/14*

[MinnieWebster]

Hey everyone! We just got back from our August trip to WDW to celebrate our 6th anniversary!

Who is 'we'? Myself, Sam, and my hubby, Nick! We have gone to WDW near our anniversary each of the last several years, and love this tradition we started

It was hot and tiring, but we had a great time!

I am working on uploading all of my pictures to my computer, so I will probably be ready to start this trip report soon. Can't wait to share all about our trip!

 

[heaven2dc]

Can't wait to read all about your anniversary trip!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m joining in! It was hot and tiring this August! Glad we met up and said hi!

 

[MinnieWebster]

Can't wait to read all about your anniversary trip!

and

I’m joining in! It was hot and tiring this August! Glad we met up and said hi!

It was very hot and tiring, although surprisingly, I felt like the first couple days were cooler than it has been at home this summer, which is crazy. But it's been very hot/humid here in central Illinois this summer I am glad we were able to say hi as well! It was great meeting you!

 

[MinnieWebster]

Arrival day, AKA The Longest Day EVER!!!

We actually flew down to MCO the night before our trip started.
DH had to put his MagicBand on as soon as we were at our gate
Our flight left Chicago Midway
Airport at 8pm, and we arrived at MCO at 11:25pm. Once we made our way down to baggage claim, we had to wait until almost midnight until they even started putting bags on the conveyor. Luckily it didn't take us too long to find both bags that we had checked. We went back upstairs to find something to eat, which was McDonald's, since that was the only place still open after midnight. Long line of people wanting food at that time too. We both ordered the buttermilk crispy chicken, which ended up being very crispy (i.e. burnt ) but it tasted okay for being McDonald's. And airport food.
Trying to find a bench to lie on for a couple hours was not easy... I didn't realize so many people would be spending the night at the airport! But we eventually found a place to crash for a little while, planning on napping for a couple hours and then heading downstairs to take the ME to AS Sports and the start of our vacation!


DH said he was not able to fall asleep at all, but I was able to get a little nap in, which was nice. I had dozed a little on the plane as well. Anyway, we were awake and at the ME check-in point around 3:50am, where the CM told us that the other CM was on break, but would be back in about 10 minutes, so we could go sit down and he would call us back once she returned from her break. At 4am he called us back over, sent us down the line for AS Sports, where we waited for the CM there to point us toward a bus. We figured we would probably have to wait a while, to see if there would be other guests heading for WDW, but we didn't have to wait! The bus driver stored our bags underneath, and we left for AS Sports right away! It was really cool to have the motorcoach to ourselves and not have to stop at other resorts on the way to ours.
We made it to Sports and were at the check-in desk by 4:30am.

We had done the online check-in, but we wanted to check on our requests and get our "Happily Ever After" pins to celebrate our anniversary. The CM at the check-in counter was great. Of course, being that early, we didn't have to wait in line, and we were very surprised to find that she had a room available and ready for us! So cool! And she said she would give us 2 FP to use at AK that day (score!). So we took our bags to our room, which was pretty much what we wanted. They upgraded us to preferred, so we had a king bed, first floor in the Surf's up building Once at our room, we unpacked our things, so we wouldn't have to do that later, and still had time for a little nap before heading out to the bus stop to get to AK for rope drop. Long morning, and it's only 6am!!!

More about the longest day ever in the next post!

 

[disneyAndi14]

How wonderful to have a room ready with a little pixie dust thrown in.

Very cool to be the only ones on the ME!

Excited to hear about your marathon day.

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

I'm following along too It was fun planning along with you on the August Thread. We booked again for next August. Can't wait to follow your report.

 

[DaniMoon]

Was also at Sports. Our trip was 8/15-28

 

[MinnieWebster]

How wonderful to have a room ready with a little pixie dust thrown in.

Very cool to be the only ones on the ME!

Excited to hear about your marathon day.

It was wonderful! That nap helped me get through the day, for sure! And the pixie dust was very special...and that wasn't the only pixie dust that day, which made for a very nice start to our vacation!

I'm following along too It was fun planning along with you on the August Thread. We booked again for next August. Can't wait to follow your report.

It was very fun planning along with everyone in the August Thread. Oh nice!! I enjoy our August trips to celebrate our anniversary, but we are planning on December for next years visit, hoping Galaxy's Edge will be open by then.

Was also at Sports. Our trip was 8/15-28

Nice! Hope you had a great trip!!

 

[Aimee Wolfe]

I'm following along too It was fun planning along with you on the August Thread. We booked again for next August. Can't wait to follow your report.

I just returned and booked the bounce back offer for next August as well. Would love to plan along with you!

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

I just returned and booked the bounce back offer for next August as well. Would love to plan along with you!

There is an August 2019 thread you can join (in case you haven't joined yet). @Tomh has started a roll call The 2018 group was friendly and shared a lot of plans / ideas, so hopefully we can continue with the same! Always nice to have a trip planned to keep away the Disney Blues - and reading trip reports help too!

 

[Nohal]

Anxiously awaiting the rest of your trip report. What a long night it was for you. It was nice that your room was ready and you were able to nap a little before leaving for the parks.
Happy Anniversary!

 

[Tomh]

There is an August 2019 thread you can join (in case you haven't joined yet). @Tomh has started a roll call The 2018 group was friendly and shared a lot of plans / ideas, so hopefully we can continue with the same! Always nice to have a trip planned to keep away the Disney Blues - and reading trip reports help too!

Yup, I certainly did. It is HERE if you are interested in joining us. There is also a facebook group, which is currently morphing from an August 2018 group to an August 2019 group HERE.

 

[DisneyyDaydream]

Following along! Arrival days are my favorite days- still have the whole trip in front of you and endless possibilities for adventures

 

[MinnieWebster]

Anxiously awaiting the rest of your trip report. What a long night it was for you. It was nice that your room was ready and you were able to nap a little before leaving for the parks.
Happy Anniversary!

Thanks for following along! It was a very long day/night. The nap in our room definitely helped us get through it!

Following along! Arrival days are my favorite days- still have the whole trip in front of you and endless possibilities for adventures

And it was such a nice arrival day, with lots of Disney magic

 

[MinnieWebster]

Are we ready to continue Day 1??? It's park time!!!!

We got up from our nap around 6:30am. I went to the food court to get our mugs while DH headed to visit the concierge to see about getting the 7-day PH tickets from our "package" removed from our account and getting printed copies of those tickets, which we plan on using Dec 2019. We had been told by the CM at the check-in counter that concierge would be able to take care of this for us, rather than having to use park time to visit guest relations. Well, they weren't able to do what we wanted, so that was a bust. DH also asked about the anytime FP that we had been told we would be given by the check-in CM, since we didn't see them in MDE yet. The CM at the concierge said they would give us 3 anytime FP instead of the 2, and did we still want them for AK? No, let's get them for HS, since that will be our second park for the day.
We looked a little later to see that we had received the anytime FP from both CM's who promised them, so we scored 2 anytime FP for AK and 3 anytime FP for HS!!!
Made it to the bus stop outside AS Sports at 7:15am, and a bus showed up less than 15 minutes later to take us to AK. Once through the bag check, I realized CM's were now holding guests near the ticket counters, instead of letting them line up at the tapstiles. Honestly, not a fan of this new process. It encourages running to the tapstiles, instead of everyone just lining up there after going through bag check. Anyway, once we were allowed to go to the tapstiles, DH went over to GR to see if he could get the tickets sorted out, and at least make sure that our AP's would have priority, since we didn't want to use the 7-day PH tickets.

Guests were let into the park at 8:13am, and everyone took off for Pandora/FOP. Of course, CM's were at the bridge leading to Pandora to walk everyone in, and they didn't make us wait that long. 8:30am we were headed into FOP. DH can walk faster than a lot of people can jog, so he gets us to the front of the line most of the time.


Love this ride so much. We got off FOP and back to the FP+ entrance before 8:55am, where we had to wait a minute before we could scan our magicbands for our first FP of the day. Yay for getting to ride FOP twice by 9:25am!! Then we went to Africa to go on our favorite 2 week safari. Standby wait time was posted at 15 minutes, and we waited about that before we were on a truck.
Such a great safari this morning! Several animals were out and about, so we got lots of great pictures.

So exciting to see the baby Hippo!! Super cute!


The Ostrich kept crossing back and forth across the road, making the trucks stop and wait for them.

Once our safari was finally over (which was 25 minutes long!), we went to our next FP+, EE. We enjoy this one, but don't do it too often, because the backwards part makes DH dizzy. At my pic limit, or I would post the ride photo. It's a good one I guess I'll end this update here, and I'll share that photo in the next one...

 

[disneyAndi14]

Great start to your day, yay to the extra FP and 2 FoP rides before 9:30. Our last couple Safaris have been more boring with very few animals out, nice to see you had animals on your Safari

I can’t ride EE because of the g force going backwards, to intense for me!

 

[ariane37]

I am a horrible DIS friend to everyone lately, so of course I am just seeing this now But I shall return soon to catch up!

 

[DLo]

Following along.

 

[ariane37]

Look how quick I caught up, pretty proud of myself lol! But omg I'm tired just thinking of your travel day I'm all for starting my first Disney day early, but I don't think anyone would have gotten me up again at 6:30. Props to you and DH!