(Complete 4/20!) How Many Cookies Does One Couple Need? - Dec 2023 Trip Report

[Araminta18]

Saratoga Springs is not a resort I see on here much. I am intrested to hear how you liked once all was said and done.

Same! It was hard to find much about it here, so it was kind of cool to have everything be "new".

 

[Araminta18]

Rides Before Breakfast - Thurs Dec 14, 2023 (part 2)​

One more photo - I liked this magic shot.

Stitch is your present! Though let's be real if Stitch was my present I'd be looking to return him. Too much chaos!!

We finished this picture right as it hit 8:30 so we decided hey, we haven't ridden Test Track in a while, let's follow the crowd and see if we can ride it!

There was a really good line for the standby line, but single rider was open and there was NO line. Woot! So we headed that way. We were actually the very first people in the single rider line, but they held us at the "merge point" (since you don't really merge but that's the point they held us at) for about 10 minutes. I thought we were waiting for the standby line to make it through the "create your car" room, but that only took about 5 minutes and then they held both groups for another 5 min or so. Not sure what that was about, but then Trevor and I got to be in the same car!


Rope dropping Test Track will wake you right up!

Then they'd called our Guardians boarding group, so we decided to risk it (we had about 40 min til our breakfast reservation), hoping that there would be basically no line this early.

We were right! It took 3 minutes to get to the first pre-show room, and it was SO NICE to not be super packed in the pre-show rooms. Makes those irritating pre-shows a whole lot better when you're not packed in. Honestly, it was great.

We requested and were given row 9 (best row ever) AND THEN...we got our favorite song! Everybody Wants to Rule the World!

Someday I will remember where the camera is. LOL.

We got off the ride at about 9:10 (not too shabby, considering we got in line at 8:50), and so headed towards our dining reservation. But of course, we stopped for pictures.


Hi Groot!

Back in the hub we got a few more pictures (cause no wait!)

I can't remember if this morning (or later) was the time we saw a proposal here in this area but it was one of the early mornings (so probably this one). Super cute.

But then, guess who we saw out with basically no line?

Daisy!

 

[jrmint427]

We were ready to go just a bit before 8 pm, and so we headed to the bus stop, which we were very excited to realize was essentially right outside our room!

That's good luck! Had you requested a specific room / area?

Not sure what that was about, but then Trevor and I got to be in the same car!

More good luck! That's awesome you got the ride photo with both of you in the same car.

We requested and were given row 9 (best row ever)

What makes row 9 the best? Is that in the last car?

We got off the ride at about 9:10 (not too shabby, considering we got in line at 8:50),

That seems super fast for this ride!

 

[Araminta18]

That's good luck! Had you requested a specific room / area?

I had requested a specific room/area but this wasn't it, so this was just pure luck. I wasn't happy with our room location generally but being this close to the bus was definitely a piece of good luck!!

More good luck! That's awesome you got the ride photo with both of you in the same car.

Right? We had such a fantastic Epcot morning. Though I've had good luck with Test Track and being in the same car with my traveling companion when we do single rider, so highly recommend it for couples.

What makes row 9 the best? Is that in the last car?

It's the front row of the last car, so you get some awesome g forces and then you're in the front of the car so no one is in front of you. Since the cars all spin around, being in row 9 gives you a slightly better view than row 10. And when the cars spin to go backwards at the launch, no one is in front of you

That seems super fast for this ride!

Right? I think it's the fastest we've ever done it! If only they'd let you skip the preshows early in the morning.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I'm not sure I will ever know where that photo spot is!

 

[jrmint427]

It's the front row of the last car, so you get some awesome g forces and then you're in the front of the car so no one is in front of you. Since the cars all spin around, being in row 9 gives you a slightly better view than row 10. And when the cars spin to go backwards at the launch, no one is in front of you

Good to know! We ended up in row 10 last time, it was a good ride but I can see why 9 is better! It was so much to take in on our first ride!

 

[Araminta18]

I'm not sure I will ever know where that photo spot is!

Right?! Apparently it's right after you go backwards and are coming around with all the flashing lights but we've never yet been able to get a good shot. I think they just mess with you.

Good to know! We ended up in row 10 last time, it was a good ride but I can see why 9 is better! It was so much to take in on our first ride!

There is SO much going on with that ride! 10 is a great ride, but yea, try asking for 9 next time, see what you think

 

[Araminta18]

Garden Grill Feast - Thurs Dec 14, 2023 (part 3)​

With only a couple folks in line to meet Daisy, we had to stop and say "hello"! I think this may be the only time we've ever met Daisy, actually, now that I think of it.

We talked about bows, since she and I both had bows in our hair. It's so cool that they just have characters out in this area in the morning.

But after that, it was time for our breakfast! I knew we wanted to do the dining package for the Candlelight Processional that night, and Trevor had yet to try Garden Grill, so Garden Grill breakfast it was! I'd eaten here once before with my mom back in 2019, doing the dining package for the Broadway Concert. But that was pre-Covid, so I was curious to see how it would be post-Covid.

We got seated pretty quickly but sadly up on the upper level. I'd have preferred the lower level for a better view of Living with the Land as it rotates by, but no big deal. There was a hidden mickey on our table though!

They have the same plates as they have over in Woody's Roundup Rodeo BBQ that look like paper! Cute.

Hi Trevor!

Dale came around pretty quickly - before we'd even gotten our drinks!


Then, time for food!

The bread was cinnamon-ny and delicious, and the watermelon was good too. I'm not generally a huge fan of watermelon because when it's mealy the texture ruins any enjoyment for me but this was good.

Then before the main course came out, Chip came around!

(sneaky Mickey photobomb in the background )

But then real food!

The bacon was nice and crispy, and the beef/steak/whatever it was was also yummy, though I didn't love the spicy salsa on it. And of course -

Mickey waffles! Don't drum me out of the dis though - I'm not a huge fan. They're a bit too hard and crispy for my taste, but I still always have at least one when they're available, cause Mickey!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

One day I want to do Garden Grill but I honeslty forget it's there! Sounds like a nice breakfast

 

[Araminta18]

One day I want to do Garden Grill but I honeslty forget it's there! Sounds like a nice breakfast

It is! It's a bit pricey, but the characters are great and the food is all you care to enjoy, so it was nice.

 

[Araminta18]

The End of the Feast and Soarin Over California! -
Thurs Dec 14, 2023 (part 4)​

Then, it was time for Pluto! I love how Pluto always does this pose with his ears.



Oh i forgot! Our waitress was great but she forgot to bring us our drinks til way late in the meal, but we got milk and POG juice!


I'm just a dedicated dining/trip reporter. I also like that the milk came in the mason jar.

Then finally it was time to meet the big cheese himself!


Such a cute little farmer's outfit.

Overall, we had a good breakfast. Definitely expensive, especially with the dining plan, but it's a hearty meal and our waitress was great about asking if she could bring us any additional food, which I appreciate. At some of these meals I feel awkward asking for more of something, so it was nice that she was super proactive about asking if she could bring anything else. Also guys, the cheesy potatoes - so yummy! Basically I wouldn't do this again without some kind of dining package, but it's a good choice for that. And Trevor got to try it out! He also had fun playing with his Pixel fold, propping it up to try and record our character interactions - we didn't have anything super great but I'm including it anyways.

We had fun looking over the edge at Living with the Land, but then we were headed to Soarin! It was posting 10/15 min all through breakfast, and we figured hey, if it's still posting that when we finish, we should obviously head down and ride it. It was 10:08 when we got off, and it was indeed still 15!

Not too bad - I totally thought it would be longer by now.

We ended up waiting about 15 minutes, so not bad! We thought about waiting for B1 but the CMs seemed a little..not open to that so we just went with C1.

And it was our first time seeing Soarin Over California!! For whatever reason I didn't get a good scent of the oranges that everyone talks about, but otherwise it was really neat, and the curvy screen was way less obvious. I liked it! And glad I got to try it.

When we got off, Soarin was posting 40 minutes! We had epic good timing. Next up - Living with the Land because we wanted to see the Christmas decorations!

Also LOOK AT THAT LINE! I've never seen Living with the Land like that. Crazy.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

And it was our first time seeing Soarin Over California!! For whatever reason I didn't get a good scent of the oranges that everyone talks about, but otherwise it was really neat, and the curvy screen was way less obvious. I liked it! And glad I got to try it.

I hate to say it but I like Soarin' over the World better. I think California version is just old now. World isn't perfect but I def perfer it. They just announce World is coming back.

 

[Araminta18]

I hate to say it but I like Soarin' over the World better. I think California version is just old now. World isn't perfect but I def perfer it. They just announce World is coming back.

Curvy bits aside, I think I'm with you - I like World better. It's probably just cause it's the first one I saw and so the "original" for me. I also like being able to see the various sites like the Taj Mahal and Neuschwanstein. And yea, California does look a bit old and grainy for sure.

 

[Araminta18]

And You Thought There Were Lots of Christmas Tree Pictures - Thurs Dec 14, 2023 (part 5)​

We hopped in line and ended up waiting about 10 minutes. Not too bad, but definitely a longer wait than I've EVER had for Living with the Land.


Hello chickens! It was fun to be riding and looking up at Garden Grill and being like "hey we were just there!"

And then we made it into the greenhouse and the Christmas decorations! We (well, me) were really excited about seeing the lights and the decorations, so forgive me - LOTS of pictures.

presents of pineapples!

I thought the sandmen were super cute - the kid is on a sled!

I also really liked the giant ornaments. Though the lights probably would have shown up better if we'd ridden at night, but what can you do.

Chocolate and other Christmassy desserts!

and cute little wreaths!

I wanted to get a close up of the wreaths cause they're all full of fruit like pineapples and bananas! I kind of want that wreath.

"hidden" mickey - kind of fun that they light up the regular/normal hidden mickey. And presents!

Mickey topiary - BUT WITH REINDEER ANTLERS!

 

[Araminta18]

From the Floating on the Water to Walking Through the Water - Thurs Dec 14, 2023 (part 6)​

As we continued to float through the greenhouses, we continued to take a LOT of pictures of the Christmas decorations.

I wanna come to this party. Look at the cute little stockings of fruit, and the little stove! Honestly, props to the decorating team - these are so cute.

Disney100 there in the back!

Pepper wreath! Well, peppers + eggplant + squash?

Not sure what this is, but I liked it - a pile of fruits in themed boxes?

Mickey carveout there in this fancy garden setup!

Look at all the presents at the Biotechnology lab! And what are they studying today?

Blue Spruce, Poinsettia, and Redwood! I guess even the research is holiday themed? Also, notice the stockings in the windows and the large ornament there!

And one more little diorama there at the exit - I liked the "tree" of beakers and other test tube equipment.

So yea, overall, a really fun ride! Definitely recommend it if you're at Epcot during the holidays.

Leaving the pavilion, the plan was to head over to Guardians for our lightning lane, but I got distracted because Moana the way of water was right there! I forgot but we definitely wanted to try it, and now seemed as good a time as any, so over we headed.

You start off with this little pyramid/mountain thing - I like the Moana symbol there.

It was a bit crowded, but not too bad.

My first hidden character - can you see Te Fiti there in the rock?

 

[Araminta18]

The Way of Water - Thurs Dec 14, 2023 (part 7)​

Then we got into the actual attraction! It was a bit crowded so we did have to wait for spots to try a lot of the interactive elements, but it wasn't too bad. Just a little bit of a wait. I do appreciate that they tend to have lots of spots available, but sometimes folks (including me and Trevor ) didn't realize there were lots of spots so people clumped up around the beginning few spots. So that's a LPT - go past the clump and see if there are other interactive spots.

But the spots were super fun - Trevor and I both had a great time with the jumping fountains.

Those have no right to be as fun as they are.

I also liked the bit where you run your hand through the water and it makes music. And of course we always chose the wet path whenever possible, cause why not? The weather was just slightly on the chilly side, but not bad at all, so it was a good day for it.

And of course the water curtain that you walk through was awesome.

For anyone who watched that video and thought my question of "Do you think it'll do it" was dumb...it's Disney, stuff breaks down! you never know!

But my favorite part of the whole walkthrough was:

Te Fiti! So cool! And then there are fountains jumping around in front of her - so so neat.

We took several pictures with her:


The photopass picture almost looks fake, what with the clouds and the sky.

We kind of forgot to look for characters in the rocks because we were playing with the water but then we remembered and saw a BUNCH there after Te Fiti.

Maui's hook


Baby Moana!!


Moana!


The "shiny" crab dude!

Honestly, this is such a fun little walkthrough/attraction/whatever you want to call it. I wish it didn't take a bajillion years to put together, but it's a really fun addition. We really liked it and had a lot of fun.

As we walked out, we saw the Moana meet and greet right there, and no line, because it was 11:37 and Moana was supposed to come out and meet at noon. And 'cause I'm insane we decided to go ahead and wait. Meet Moana in her winter outfit? why not? The world was our oyster, and while we had plans (riding Guardians, seeing the decorations at the resorts) we could be flexible. So we waited, and ended up being the 2nd or 3rd group in line the way it all ended up shaking out. Not too shabby! And Moana was super cute in her winter outfit. We talked about how far we'd come to see her.

(awkward picture post break...sorry)

 

[Araminta18]

How Long Would You Wait for September? - Thurs Dec 14, 2023 (part 8)​

Nice shot with both of us. It was a fun meet and greet!


Then it was time for our Guardians Lightning Lane!! So we headed over to Guardians, crossing through the new hub (which is much nicer than the construction walls. And as we walked over, we passed right by Club Cool so we had to stop in and get a small drink.

My favorite is the raspberry soda and I love it and I'm so sad that Club Cool doesn't let you buy full size of the drinks they have in the soda fountains there. How cool would that be?! It literally just occurred to me that you could ask to buy a larger cup and fill it with something from the fountain. I wonder if that would work? Hmm....

Anyways, appropriately refreshed, over to Guardians! We scanned our Lightning Lane and basically walked right into the first room and then the first preshow (second room). But then we got stalled in that room (before you go into the last room where you teleport). They made announcements of a "slight delay". Several folks left, but we were in the front and heard some of the CMs talking and they were saying they didn't expect it to be longer than 10 min or so.

We definitely sat down and took a load off, and basically said that we would stay until 12:45, but if there was no movement by 12:45, we'd bail. We didn't really want to get an "anytime" lightning lane and figured if it kept going down the LL would get backed up, so we'd rather ride now. Conveniently enough, it came back at 12:43 - yay!! So down for about 15 minutes. Not too bad!

There was still a bit of a backup, but we waited for row 9 and by 1 pm were on the ride! Woot!


And what song did we get? September! Not our fave but still good.

Next up, time to head towards the Epcot resorts! I wanted to stop and get the Annual Passholder drink/cup at the Refreshment station (https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2023...lder-exclusive-treat-is-coming-to-epcot-soon/) but they were all out of the fancy cup. So we just got the slushie instead. Oh well - you win some you lose some.

We then meandered our way through World Showcase and over towards France, because I remembered that Belle was meeting and greeting and MAY be wearing her holiday dress! She was one I wanted to meet in her holiday dress but if she was meeting here, I'd rather meet her here vs using up MVMCP time to meet her. So over we went!

We ended up getting there at about 1:30, while Sleeping Beauty was still meeting.

We ended up creating a secondary line for Belle. Though I honestly would have gotten in line for Sleeping Beauty except they'd closed it already. Belle was supposed to meet at 1:50 pm, so 20 min was a bit of a wait but not toooooo bad.

While we were waiting Trevor and I switched off looking at a couple of the decorations they had in France.


I thought these ornaments were just super cute! They're 3D little dioramas there. Very nice.

 

[jrmint427]

Honestly, this is such a fun little walkthrough/attraction/whatever you want to call it. I wish it didn't take a bajillion years to put together, but it's a really fun addition. We really liked it and had a lot of fun.

This is the most detailed post I've seen on the walk through! I'm really excited to see it in person and relieved to see the video that the water doesn't soak you when you walk through it Did you get wet at all on the wet path?

 

[Araminta18]

This is the most detailed post I've seen on the walk through! I'm really excited to see it in person and relieved to see the video that the water doesn't soak you when you walk through it Did you get wet at all on the wet path?

It's so much fun! As far as getting wet, the "wet" path is basically water running across the pathway. So our shoes got a bit wet but not really. And the rest you can kind of get as wet as you want - running your hands through the water or playing with the fountains. We definitely didn't get any kind of soaked or anything like that.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Joining in for another of your reports!

We breezed through security with our TSA pre-check - this was only our second trip with pre-check and it continued to be AMAZING.

I agree 100%. We just renewed our Pre-Check as it’s AWESOME.

Anyone else miss when Disney would pick up your bags and take them to your hotel for you? So you just got off the plane and headed right to the Magical Express? *sigh*

YES. SO MUCH. I adored being able to skip baggage claim - Magical Express itself was fun but the luggage delivery was the most magical part. I’m not optimistic it will return, but if they added the luggage delivery to Mears I’d be happy to pay for it!

Nightmare Before Christmas Tree! Look at Jack and Sally there on the hill!

I love all your pictures of the trees! The Nightmare Before Christmas tree is a particular favorite as we watched that movie A LOT last fall.

Overall, we had a good breakfast.

I’m looking forward to trying Garden Grill in May! I wish they still had the cinnamon roll skillet, but the cinnamon bread and the rest of the food (plus the great characters - love Chip and Dale!) look good. I love your approach of hitting a few attractions first and then eating an hour in - I’m debating doing the same to save some wait time.

So yea, overall, a really fun ride! Definitely recommend it if you're at Epcot during the holidays.

I either didn’t know or remember they did this - fun!

I got distracted because Moana the way of water was right there!

I’m super excited to see this! (I’ve watched a LOT of Moana! ) As usual, I appreciate your detailed descriptions.