(Complete 6/19) Need More Snacks! - a Universal/Disney Jan-Feb 2023 TR

[Araminta18]

They are. My absolute favorite are the lingonberry Icees at IKEA.

Oooh i like the lingonberry icees! Sadly the Ikeas near us are still not doing the icees.

 

[Araminta18]

Sunday January 29, 2023 (part 2):
Boardwalk Room Tour and Dinner at Wine Bar George​

Room tour! Boardwalk is awesome - though I saw the pics of the new rooms at the Boardwalk after the refurb and those look gorgeous too!

I was so happy to see this on the tv! I love this little scroller with the hours and the instrumental music, and I know some of the hotels have gotten rid of it.

Look at that pretty view! Yes its the front drive in, but still nice.

Such a cute little pullout bed under the tv.

Little alcove right by the door.

Individual toiletries!!!

I like the border on the mirror.

When the pull-down bed is hidden, we have a nice little table.

Lovely home for the next week!

The weather was just perfect today and the view from the balcony was just my fave.

I was also kind of impressed with the size of the balcony, actually.

Hard to see in the picture but you can see the skyliner going by! Added some nice kinetic movement to the view.

We talked with Thad and Erika for a bit, then the headed back to their hotel. It was about 2:30 and the plan was to meet up at 4:45ish head over to Disney Springs for our dinner reservation. Before a nap though, it was time to unpack! Get all set for the week. We also saw housekeeping in the hallway and asked for some more toiletries:

They did not disappoint!

I'm not the fastest unpacker, but it helped having Trevor being willing to be bossed around ;D, but by 3 we were all set and it was naptime! Trevor conked right out but I was riding the Disney emotions and wasn't too sleepy. I ended up getting up and sitting on the balcony and reading, though near the end someone started smoking on a nearby balcony. Blech. So gross. That kind of ruined it so I went back inside.
hard to see the flames, but still so good.

We left the room a little bit early and were looking around, enjoying the atmosphere while waiting for Thad and Erika, and guess what we saw on the lawn?

The wedding carriage! Per the CMs the couple was getting married at the little pavilion there so the carriage started here (I guess?). It was neat to see. so pretty!

Right after they left Thad and Erika arrived, right on time. We walked over to the bus stop and by 5:08 we were at Disney Springs! They have dedicated bus lanes now, which is BRILLIANT and makes it so much nicer to take the bus over to Disney Springs. I approve, Disney!

Our dinner reservation wasn't until 6:15 pm, but we figured might as well try getting seated earlier, so we headed there first. Well, first after getting our name on the Gideon's virtual queue. I was hoping Gideon's would have a short line, but sadly no. At least the line was virtual!

Over at Wine Bar George, they were able to seat us but "only on the balcony". Which was what we wanted so it worked out perfectly! Yay!

Actually I think this is the same table Trevor and I got the last time we ate at Wine Bar George. Though sadly this time the Iberico Pork Pluma was off the menu, and I am still disappointed about that, 'cause that pork was AMAZING.

We were all hungry so we got right down to business.

None of us drink so we got the Cherry Smash mocktail - cherry, lime, soda. It was really good! And they had the agave straws not the paper ones so we didn't have to worry about the straw disintegrating. A+.

We ordered a bunch of appetizers. Erika is a nutritionist and she loves vegetables, so those featured heavily in our order. And they were DELICIOUS.

Miso Roasted Vidalia Onion with chilis and quinoa. This was yummy.

Cheese lit on fire!! This was delicious too. And it came with a show -

hard to see the flames, but still so good.

Roasted Beets with whipped ricotta / prosecco vinaigrette / puffed sorghum. I didn't try these cause beets are gross, but Erika and Thad liked them.

This is a picture of our demolished meatballs - I forgot to take it when it arrived and by the time I'd remembered only one was left. I like the triple cheese polenta that it comes with slightly better than the meatballs, but the meatballs are delicious.

Crispy mac and cheese bites! I don't like mac and cheese that much so these aren't my favorites, but they are good.

Time out for the beautiful view...look at that cotton candy sky.

And with characters in flight going up!

The main course!

Skirt Steak with roasted potatoes / grilled bok choy / mushrooms / bacon / chimichurri. This was delicious and all four of us demolished it. With this and the appetizers, we were pleasantly full. Wine Bar George did not disappoint! If you haven't been, I highly recommend, even without the Iberico Pork Pluma.

As we were getting ready to leave, they brought Erika a birthday dessert! I think this was the key lime pie.

This whole series of photos just cracks me up, so I felt I had to include it. Erika and Thad said it was delicious. And it was nice that they brought her a birthday dessert.

After dinner, it was time for more treats! Bwahahaha. Trevor and I had to run our normal Disney Springs errands: the ganachery, Gideon's, Amorette's, Goofy's customizable rice krispies...and now with Salt and Straw open I wanted to go there too! Thad and Erika weren't quite up to all of it, but we did go together to the Ganachery and then Thad decided he didn't want ice cream so Erika went with Trevor and me to Salt and Straw while Thad waited over by Gideon's.

There was a bit of a line at Salt and Straw, but it gave us enough time to figure out what flavors we wanted to try. It took about 15 min? More than I was hoping for but what can you do.

Cute little shop! And all the flavors. Not gonna lie, I was a bit sad that their special flavors this month were all vegan/dairy free... Still good though. We wanted to get a flight so we could try several flavors but they don't do flights. They do however do samples - however many you want - so it kind of makes up for it. And the sample spoons are metal and they have this lovely little spoon chute!

I thought it was cute.

I got Olive Oil and Strawberry Balsamic, which was delicious! Highly recommend. Trevor got Oats and Cookie and Gingerbread Snickerdoodle - I don't like oats in my ice cream but otherwise it was yummy.

While we were in getting our ice cream, we got the text that it was time for Gideons! We weren't sure how long the actual in-person line would be so we hustled back, but we had time. Oh well!

I was super excited when we got inside to see that they still had some of the cake that I wanted!

Banana bread chocolate chip.

And Chocolate Everything cake. We got the two cake slices and a bunch of cookies because yum.

At that point Thad and Erika went back to the hotel and Trevor and I continued our blitz of treats. We got several rice krispie treats from Goofy's, and decided to skip Amorette's (where we usually get a cake for breakfasts) because we'd gotten two cakes from Gideon's. We were going to go back to Disney Springs on Friday so we figured we could get a cake from Amorette's then. I also looked in the Art of Disney store and ended up buying some postcards of artwork that I liked because the first rule of Disney is if you like it, buy it when you see it or you may not get it!

I especially love that Robin Hood one in the bottom left.

We did a quick blitz through the Marketplace and I'm still sad that they got rid of the Dress Shoppe. But at that point we were ready to go back to the hotel - and we got lucky! We got to the bus stop at 9:29 and a buss pulled up immediately. It was just us and one other couple, but unfortunately we were sharing with Yacht and Beach Club, so it took some extra time to get back to the Boardwalk - why is your hotel always the last stop when buses are sharing amidst resorts?

Trevor headed back to the room and I went down to the Marketplace to grab some milk for the morning, and of course I had to blitz through the full gift shop because gift shops are amazing. They had some great boardwalk specific merch!

Didn't end up buying any of it at this point, but isn't it cute?

Back in the room, it was about 10:30 pm and we were ready for bed: we needed a good night's sleep for our rope drop plan tomorrow at Animal Kingdom!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 19017 steps (8.1 miles)
Ride count: 4 (Velocicoaster x2, Hogwarts Express x2)

 

[DisneyyDaydream]

Such a cute little pullout bed under the tv.

Omg that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen

 

[Araminta18]

Omg that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen

right?! I love all these cute little touches

 

[Araminta18]

Monday, January 30, 2023 (part 1):
Animal Kingdom Rope Drop!​

Our first Disney park of the trip was Animal Kingdom, and we were definitely rope-dropping. We were buying Genie+, but sometimes you just gotta rope drop. And I figured Thad and Erika's Disney trip wouldn't be complete without at least one rope drop. The park was opening up at 8:30 for resort guests, and in planning I realized that we've never actually rope-dropped Animal Kingdom before, so a new experience for Trevor and I too. The plan was to be on the bus at 7, figuring that would put us at AK at 7:30, and therefore at the front of the rope drop crowd.

We woke up at 6:30ish, and it was time for the DisneyWorld breakfast of champions:

Gideon's Chocolate Everything Cake, and Banana Bread Chocolate Chip Cake. These were both delicious - highly recommend Gideon's cake for breakfast. For this particular combo, we recommend a bite of each at the same time. Yum.

I was checking the bus times in the app, and when I didn't see a bus time listed for Animal Kingdom by 6:55, I texted Thad and Erika that we could meet at the bus stop at 7:30am. Might as well meet later, vs just sitting at the bus stop right? Rookie mistake...I forgot how unreliable Disney bus times are in the morning! A few minutes after I texted them it showed that an AK bus was on its way. Oh well.

We got to the bus stop at like 7:25, and were on our at 7:32am (I took notes).

Bus selfie!

The line for security...blargh. I like the new security a bunch, where you just walk through, but they only had two bays open, so it was a bit of a bottleneck. My track record of picking bad lines continued.

We were clearly a bit late for rope drop: this was how far back we ended up:

And this was after maneuvering our way through a bit! We did lots of maneuvering as they opened up additional tapstiles and the people moved around, but again - don't ever let me pick the line, I without fail choose the slowest one! Thad and Erika choose a different one and made it through before us. They actually opened up the tapstiles a few minutes after 8, so that was nice - didn't have to wait all the way for 8:30.

Once through the tapstiles we were all part of the mass of people breaking left and heading towards Pandora, though we all hit the roadblock where they have to check bands to see if you're staying onsite or not. That was absolute chaos - it'd be really easy to get through that if you're not staying on site, just point to a random person already through and say you're with them. Not my favorite logistic thing.

We made it over to the bridge and were held there for a few minutes, but by 8:15 or so we were forming into a line and winding our way through Pandora to form the Flight of Passage line.

It was a little bit hot and humid this morning, but mostly nice.

I love this view from the queue. Also this is timestamped 8:19 - we were still just walking on through, no stopping yet, which is always a good sign.

I think we ended up slowing down and stopping right about here.

Animatronic pic! We had a lot of fun pointing out all the fun theming in the queue to Thad and Erika.

After about 10 minutes we were in the first pre-show room, hearing about how soon we were going to "uh, fly!"

I really really really wish they had a "skip the preshow" option!

I was a bit nervous about how Thad and Erika would do on the ride - Erika gets motion sick pretty easily but she wanted to try this one. Though she wanted to try it cause we'd been talking it up a bunch...oops! But she said it wasn't too bad, and Thad liked it. So calling it a win. I always like it.

We were off by about 8:55, and as we were walking out of the ride I saw a photographer out and about, and we had no choice - we had to stop.

You get all four of us, and you know it's gotta be winter in Florida because my hair is down and not up in a ponytail (for now...).

Banshee pic! Trevor and I are...not actors.

After the pictures, we thought about going over and riding Navi River Journey, but the standby line was already up to 40 minutes, so I was like "yea that's a no" and figured I'd try and get us a fastpass there a bit later. Instead, we decided to head over to Safari! Our fastpass was at 9:30, so we meandered over to Africa. We were very grateful to have the fastpass, when we saw the line out of the queue and backed up a bit. They didn't let us tap in until 9:25 though, so Thad got a banana and then we tapped in. The line wasn't bad, and by 9:30am we were here, about to get on the truck.

I don't know if you've sensed a trend yet, but I really had a good time sneaking selfies where Trevor knew I was taking it but Thad and Erika weren't.

Ok, had to get one with them looking too. Also, 'cause I know you care - it was officially hot enough that I had to put my hair up in a ponytail.

We had a really great safari - the animals were super active in a way I don't really remember seeing before, and it was just really interesting. I guess they're like us - more active when it's not one billion degrees and super humid outside.

We saw the rhinos up and about and moving.

Even the hippos were out of the water!

Got to see the elephants out drinking water too.

We had to hold for a bit on the savannah because some zebras had the zoomies and were zooming around on the driving path, and then when they went and started zooming over somewhere not near the path one of the big horned cattle animals was just like parked in the road. The CMs who take care of the animals had to lure them off the road with food. And when we saw the lions, one of the lionesses was just splayed out on a rock - it was really funny: imagine just splayed out flat with arms and legs fully extended on both sides. I did get some clips (though the sun in the way makes there be a bit of a glare) and Trevor actually filmed most of it, though he was in the middle of the packed truck so....yea.

Clips:

Full Safari:

After the safari, we planned to head over to Everest for our next Lightning Lane. But first, we saw a photographer out by the Mickey on the wall, so of course we had to stop - I'd never seen a photographer here before!

Animal Kingdom really is such a neat park to walk around in. And as we were walking over, we saw Kevin off in the distance!

But we couldn't be distracted, because we were on a mission: Everest! And more importantly, Trevor was going to try it! His experience with Velocicoaster and Hagrid's had made him brave. So he and I had fastpasses and off we went. Thankfully, no fastpass line really at all, which meant no time for Trevor to get super nervous. His big thing is heights and the lift hill on Everest has made him nervous since the first time we went.

Pre-ride selfie.

Selfie on the ride - Trevor wasn't quite ready 'cause he was getting his hat and everything all situated in the pouch.

So...did he like it?

Well, this is a selfie right before we pull into the station -- that's one of his first few "real" smiles in pictures, so yes - he liked it.

He didn't love the lift hill, but he thought the rest was really fun. This picture of him pressed up against the back of the seat makes me laugh.

But yea, he liked it enough he was willing to go on it again with me! Thad and Erika weren't at all interested in riding it, so we used their passes and rode it again. This time, we asked for the back row, and got lucky that we essentially didn't have any wait.

Not sure what Trevor is doing here, but I think it's him having fun.

Yep, definitely having fun.

I'm so glad he decided to try it - I thought he'd like it if he ever decided to try it (and wasn't too thrown off by the lift hill), and he really did. I mean, that does mean no more double rides for me, but that's ok - more fun with him.

Afterwards we met up with Thad and Erika - it was about 10:35, and we were getting a little bit hungry, so we decided that it was time for Nomad Lounge! Even with it not opening til 11, we figured now was a good time to get in line - gotta rope drop Nomad.

As we headed that way, we ran into Kevin!

Not my best selfie, but gotta do what I can.

You can hear me trying to get his attention by yelling like an idiot. Also there was a cute kid dressed as a wilderness explorer and Kevin did some awesome poses with the kid.

We got over to Nomad about 10 min ahead of opening, but they opened up just a minute or two later, so that was nice. I will say they know that people rope drop Nomad so I wish they'd set up ropes or something - it ends up being a bit of a free for all when they finally open up. But that's just a side comment - we got one of those nice couch seats outside and immediately got comfortable.

I got the "Lilly Gorill-ie": Strawberry and Sprite. Trevor got the Zingiber Fizzie: Passion Fruit Purée, Mint, Simple Syrup, and Lime Juice topped with Ginger Beer. Delicious. Though mine was sweeter and came with a whole strawberry in it.

Thad got a Diet Coke and Erika got the Happy Macaque: Guava Purée, Coffee Simple Syrup, and Lime Juice with a hint of Cilantro.

We put in an order of food and then just enjoyed the weather and the ambiance...and the boats!

Russell and Dug!

Then, food! We just ordered a bunch of dishes to share. First up - poke bowl!

This was really good. I don't really like seafood, but tuna/poke bowls are like the one exception. This was yummy.

Honey-Chili Glazed Pork Belly - I don't remember much about this one, I didn't really eat it. But I think the others liked it.

Sliders with the yucca fries! Delicious, as always.

Lobster mac and cheese! Trevor liked this - I wasn't a fan but then I don't like lobster and mac and cheese isn't my favorite.

I think this was fried cauliflower? I can't quite remember but it's not anything currently listed on their menu. It was good though.

Overall we had delicious food and a wonderful time just enjoying the weather and the company. Nomad Lounge never disappoints. Now I want those sliders!

 

[Araminta18]

Monday, January 30, 2023 (part 2):
Dinner 220 miles above Earth​

We ended up spending about an hour or so in Nomad Lounge and enjoyed it immensely. Delicious food, lovely weather - honestly who doesn't love Nomad Lounge. While we were there I got lucky and managed to score Navi River Journey fastpasses for all four of us - Huzzah! So we finished at Nomad and meandered back into Pandora.

The lightning lane was super backed up though - we weren't even into the caves. It didn't actually take too long, and we did get to see some of the theming that normally we blow right by, like this fun little water feature.

It was only about 8 minutes from tap in to getting on the ride, so not bad at all. It was a cute little ride - everyone liked it.

The Shaman!

Afterwards, Thad and Erika were starting to flag a bit, while Trevor and I had ILLs for Flight of Passage. So Thad and Erika were going to just hang out while we went on the ride again. I felt a little bit bad about that, but not bad enough to not ride again.

More Flight of Passage queue. It was an awesome ride, as per usual.

As we headed out, we found Erika but she said Thad was done and decided to head back to the hotel, but he had just left like 3 minutes before so we texted and figured we'd catch up to him in a bit. And we did! We caught up with him by the Tree of Life.

Did you really think we'd be at the Tree of Life and I wouldn't make us get a photo? Also, yes, Trevor's eyes are closed - he closed them in every single picture. I suppose that's probably my fault for having us take pictures facing into the sun!

We slowly meandered out, and as we left, we saw a photographer stationed at the photo op there at the entrance/exit, so we had to stop. It's an "Up" photo op!!

We're Wilderness Explorers.

Thad and Erika even got a picture - and they didn't stop for most of the photo ops, so that was kind of neat.

We walked them over to the Swan/Dolphin bus stop, which was a bit of an ordeal - people didn't seem to know where it was and Thad asked someone who told him to go to where the Disney buses were and I was like "nope, it's over by the parking lot on the other side" and he was skeptical until boom, there it was. And then there was some confusion as they were closing/opening up gates you could enter/exit through. Not my favorite exit experience, but we made it and got them situated and then made our way to the Boardwalk bus stop. We had to wait about 10 min for a bus, and then when the bus left (at 1:26) we were sharing with Yacht and Beach Club. Boo. And of course Boardwalk was the last stop - we didn't make it to Boardwalk until about 1:55 or so. Blargh. But we headed back to the room for a nap. I don't remember what time we planned to meet up with Thad and Erika - maybe 4:15/4:30? Or we may have just said "hey, text us when you're up". I honestly don't remember. LOL. But at about 4:15 we were meeting up at the boat stop to head over to Epcot. The timing worked out great - Thad and Erika arrived at the Boardwalk right as we got out there, and then a boat pulled up right as we got in line. Sweet!

Boat selfie! This was 4:22pm.

Our first stop was Remy with our fastpass - I managed to score that after we'd tapped in at Navi. I felt super lucky, especially cause it seemed like Remy was down a lot today.

Love being able to walk under this arch.

But I didn't factor in how the fastpass line would be affected by the ride being down earlier - it was super bonkers long.

This is the end of the Lightning Lane line. Like, are you kidding me?! Bonkers. We foolishly stuck it out. Though while we were in line, Thad and Erika saved our spots and we ducked out to get some photopass shots right there off to the right.

Kind of a fun magic shot!

Ok, how long did we wait in the LL line? It took us 10 minutes to get from the end of the line to the tapstiles.

Cute tapstiles though! I loved that little "R" on it.

Once inside, it took us another 10 minutes to get on the ride. So not too bad - it just kind of felt like a lot.

We all enjoyed this ride, though it did make Erika a little bit sick. Super cute!

Afterwards though, Trevor and I were BOOKING it to Guardians for our Lightning Lane - we wanted to tap in before the 6 pm drop (since it was extra hours that night for deluxe resort guests) so that if we liked it, we could try and get on it again. Thad and Erika decided to head down to Soarin' area cause that's where our next fastpass was, and Trevor and I planned to ride Guardians and then meet them there for our Soarin fastpass.

We tapped in at Guardians at 5:10 - phew! Plenty of time.

We were surprised (though we probably shoudn't have been) at how long the line was.

It was backed up all the way out here. It was nice cause we got to see/hear a bit of the pre-show, but after a bit I was just like "meh, let's go". We eventually made it up to the "exhibit" part, which was super neat.

Why does it always feel like you spend a lot of time in the part of the queue with nothing to look at, and the part with interesting things you move through super quickly?

After a bit, I gave up and sat down.

Trevor took a picture of me so I took a picture of him.

Eventually we made it to the preshow - took about 35 minutes to get there. It was really fun to see - we'd mostly avoided spoilers so it was all new to us. The effect in the second room is AMAZING. So neat. We did pick the totally wrong side of the room though (the side closest to the cosmic generator, not the side closer to the doors), so by the time we made it through to the line, we were way backed up. Took another 15 minutes to actually get on the ride.

Trevor was nervous, but excited! We couldn't wait to ride and see what it was like, as well as what song we'd get! So, we got on the ride (row 3) - what did we think? We LOVED IT! It's such a neat ride, and the music really adds to the excitement - trying to figure out which song you'll get, etc.

We got "I Ran" as the song, which was awesome.

Overall, 10 out of 10, A+, best ride. We loved it.

This is where the rails sort of came off the night a little bit...our fastpass for Soarin was at 6 I think (I actually don't remember...is that bad? we just tapped in and it was fine LOL), so Trevor and I were booking it over there from Guardians. Thad and Erika had texted us at 5:30 that they were just sitting outside by Finding Nemo waiting for us, which made me feel bad, cause like guys - do things. Or not, but you don't *have* to wait for us by just sitting. Anyways, I told them Living with the Land was only a 5 min wait and they should go ride that-- they like gardening so I thought they'd probably enjoy it. Thankfully they did go ride it (it made me feel a little bit better, at least - since yes, this is all about me).

So we're booking it over to Soarin, and we made it by like 6:18 per the pic (which is pretty good considering how FREAKING BIG EPCOT IS #notbitter). Soarin is a great ride, and we had a good time. HOWEVER. We had a dining reservation for Space 220 lounge at 6:35, and obviously that was going to be close. But I didn't want us to not ride Soarin cause it's Soarin! Probably should have just let it go, esp cause when we got in, we ended up waiting in the Soarin line for a bit - one of the rows was down. We ended up getting off Soarin at 6:41, and then I was being a crazy person and was frogmarching us over to Space 220. I was worried that they'd enforce that 15 min grace period super hard, but I needn't have worried. We got there at 6:49 and got checked in just fine, but it didn't seem super busy so we probably would have been fine. Oh well. I did feel bad but hey, even the best planner has some misses. And at least everyone enjoyed Soarin, right? #worthit

When we got checked in, they gave us our space station pass:

Pretty nifty!

We did have to wait a few minutes (maybe 10?) to get on the elevator and go up to the restaurant.

We got on the elevator, ready to be transported up! It was pretty neat - a fun little conceit and a cool effect. Then once off the elevator we got to see the spinning greenhouse, and then got seated in the middle of the restaurant with a great view of space. It was a bit crowded with the four of us around this little table, but fun. We did discover that you cannot order off the main menu - only from the lounge menu. Just in case that helps at all.

We got some fun drinks: I got the Lightyear Lemonade (Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade, Butterfly Pea Tea, and Mint), which was pretty straightforward and mostly tasted of minty lemonade. I still liked it.

Trevor got the Moon Rocks: Coconut, Blue Cotton Candy Syrup, Lemonade, Moon Dust, and Moon Rocks.

Also fun, but mostly cause pop rocks. Both our drinks came with the Space 220 collectible cards so that was cool. And also, our waiter was HILARIOUS. I think he was a bit over the whole space thing so he was like "here's your space drink, with your space straw, and your space rocks"... Very dry, but very funny. I was dying laughing.

Some clips of our experience, up to the pop rocks drink:

There are only about 6 food items on the lounge menu - I think we got 4 of them? Skipping the seafood stuff, I guess.

Short rib sliders: White Cheddar Cheese, Sriracha Aioli, Lettuce, Tomato, Butter Pickles. These were delicious. Though I'm not sure if they were actually good or if we were just hungry, cause it had been a while since we'd had snacks, honestly.

Blue Moon Cauliflower: Tempura Fried Cauliflower, Housemade Hot Sauce, Blue Cheese Dust. Also good, though not my favorite 'cause I don't like Buffalo wings and this was basically a vegan buffalo wings. But deep-fried cauliflower, if I got a bite without a lot of sauce - yummy. And I'm not joking - near the end Trevor was like inspecting each bite and biting off the bit with sauce and giving me the bit without a lot of sauce. #marriage

Astro Deviled Eggs: Free-Range Eggs, Maple Glazed Bacon, Scallion, Pickled Shallots, Micro Greens. Delicious! Definitely better than the weird deviled eggs at The Edison that we had back in 2018.

Chicken on Waffle: Fried Chicken, Smoked Bacon and Roasted Corn Waffle, Spiced Coleslaw, Bourbon Maple Glaze. I didn't try this but Thad and Erika liked it.

Overall, we had a great experience, and I really want to go back. Definitely on my list for August. Highly recommend.

The bathrooms even had some fun theming:

In case you can't read the sign, it says: "In the unlikely event of an artificial gravity malfunction, fluid vacuum containment systems will engage". Good to know.

We didn't look around a ton out the windows, focused as we were on the food, but Trevor's time-lapse camera made an appearance!

At 36 seconds you can see the astronauts dueling with lightsabers.

Then as we were getting ready to leave, guess what showed up?

Space cake for Erika!

It was about 7:55 and we were ready to head out - I was going to try and make the Broadway concert at 8:30, the last one of the night!

 

[Araminta18]

Monday January 30, 2023 (part 3):
Who's the Prettiest Girl in School?​

Ok, so the goal was to catch the last Broadway concert and then watch Harmonious at 9 pm. After that the park was open til 11 for those staying at a deluxe resort, so our goal was to ride Guardians again. Thad and Erika decided they wanted to see the fireworks, but didn't really want to walk all the way around to see the Broadway concert so we split up.

We got up there and I realized that I'm an idiot, and the concert actually started at 8 pm, not 8:30 like I thought (for some reason). Oh well! The singers would be performing an additional time while we were there, so not tooooooo big a loss. We decided to grab a spot at the rail to see Harmonious, and ended up a bit to the left of the America Gardens Theatre, but with a great view. Then since we had about 30 minutes, I sent Trevor to get the Sam the Eagle sipper from Regal Eagle, cause he is a big Sam the Eagle fan (RIP Great Moments in American History; let's bring that show back!) . Then when he came back, I went and looked at some of the art booths (I got a fun postcard pack of Haunted Mansion art) and got an icee too cause I was hot!

Our Harmonious view:

We were right there at the rail, so it was a good view. We did have people backed up behind us by the time the show started, and while we tried to stay seated, the view wasn't as good so we did stand up. But we noticed there was a family behind us with a little kid so we let the little kid go in front of us so she could see the show. Overall, we liked it, but there weren't very many fireworks! So that was kind of disappointing. And definitely not worth the tradeoff of having the barges there 100% of the time. And while the magicband+'s did light up a little bit during the show, it wasn't a ton - and weirdly enough Trevor's magicband+ lit up a BUNCH more than my magicband+ did.

Still fun though.

And then it was time to go ride Guardians again! We made our way semi-quickly over to Guardians and tapped in to find a much shorter line than before, which was nice. It was about 15 minutes total in line, including the preshows. We also knew what we were doing this time as far as where to stand in the pre-show so we weren't caught behind the whole crowd again! Pro tip - go to the right. Still such a cool effect in the pre-show when they're transporting you up to the ship! We got row 3 again this time, and as far as the song, we got Disco Inferno!

Afterwards we used Thad and Erika's boarding groups to tap back in again, since they didn't want to ride it, and waited about 20 minutes, including the pre-show. Not too bad! We even waited for row 1, to see how it felt in the front. I don't know that we noticed a huge difference. Also the song? Disco Inferno again. Whomp whomp. We really wanted to get "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" but we were having fun with the songs so far.

We got off at about 10:30, and so we didn't really have time to do too much more before the park closed, and what I really really wanted to see was the show on Spaceship Earth where they played Rainbow Connection, so Trevor being the kind and indulgent husband he is, we headed over to the front of the park to just enjoy Spaceship Earth and hopefully see the show. That's the one downside of staying at Boardwalk - you don't really get to the front of Epcot that much!

Who's the prettiest girl in school? The Epcot ball...

Fun little mosaic they do for you.

I loved this magic shot - it turned out great! They don't always - but this time we were looking right where we should and it just turned out great.

Loved this display at the front too.

And one more - this didn't turn out quite as good, but still fun.

After we did the rounds and got all the pictures, we sat down on the planter bench and just enjoyed the music and the ambiance. It was really nice and calm and pretty - just a really nice time.

Monorail!

The only downside is that we didn't get to hear Rainbow Connection, and we weren't sure how late they would be doing the show on Spaceship Earth and basically just lots of unknowns, so we ended up leaving at about 11:15ish and walking back towards international Gateway.

A boat basically pulled up right as we got there, which was epic timing.

We ended up leaving at 11:45 pm and were back at the hotel just a few minutes later. It was a good Disney day. Next day - Epcot! FARTS!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 28,365 steps (13 miles)
Ride count: 11 (Flight of Passage x2, Safari, Everestx2, Navi, Remy, Soarin', Guardiansx3)

 

[erinch]

Loving your report! Thank you! I had always read you can get the main menu in the Space 220 Lounge? Is that a new change?

 

[Araminta18]

Loving your report! Thank you! I had always read you can get the main menu in the Space 220 Lounge? Is that a new change?

Thank you! Dunno - I can only speak to our experience. I thought I'd read that you could order a la carte off the prix fixe menu in the lounge, but they said no, and that the only way to get the full menu was to do the prix fixe, and that if we wanted to do that we'd have to move to a new table. It may be different now, or our waiter could have been mistaken - who knows.

 

[Araminta18]

Just got Incred-passes for Trevor and me!! Yay!!!

 

[Araminta18]

Tuesday, January 31, 2023 (part 1) - No Snacks, Billions of Photos...what Trip Report is this?​

Epcot day! We decided not to ropedrop, and instead make full use of Genie+. We had a breakfast reservation at 9:20 at La Creperie in Epcot, and the plan was to meet up with Thad and Erika there. I ended up waking up a bit earlier than planned (I didn't sleep super well; I think I mostly just live off adrenaline when we're at Disney ), so I snuck out of bed and sat out on the balcony, just enjoying the lovely morning.

So pretty!

After 45 min or so Trevor got up and so we started getting ready for the day, including Gideon's cake for our pre-breakfast. We left the hotel heading for Epcot at 8:20ish - we figured we might get there in time for rope drop and thought we'd try for Remy's.

This was the line at the International Gateway at exactly 8:30 - we were definitely not at the front of the rope drop crowd!

We kind of figured the plan to head to Remy's was not going to happen, but decided to try anyways. HAHAHAHAHA. This was the line:

Nope! We decided to look around this area a bit though, since we didn't get a chance last night. It's so cute!

And I loved this shot of the ride and the fountain and the Gusteau's sign just peeking up over the roof there in the corner.

We weren't sure what to do next, so we were just wandering around the France pavilion when I saw the sign for the Beauty and the Beast singalong! I'd wanted to do this but had kind of forgotten, so I was like yes! Let's do it! And Trevor agreed, so in we went, to rope drop the singalong.

They had some really fun exhibits set up in the foyer there:

Beauty and the Beast in movies...

France in the theater - that's the Phantom of the Opera mask and Valjean's costume from Les Mis! This was definitely my favorite part of the exhibit - I'm a huge Broadway fan.

Cinderella's glass slipper!

Hunchback of Notre Dame costume from the stage show! If you get a chance, highly recommend seeing it - the music for the Hunchback musical is gorgeous.

I really do like how Disney does this - there's no need for exhibits and cool artifacts here, but it's so interesting and neat to look at while waiting. Awesome.

After about 5 minutes or so we got let in to the theater, by a very exuberant cast member, whose energy level we definitely endeavored to match. Believe it or not we were not the only ones in the theater, but it was still pretty sparse, so we got a center seat. And proceeded to have a great time singing along, though they splice it all together so much that just as you get into the groove of the song, it's over and on to the next one. Still a really fun way to start the day - I love the music and love singing along, and even Trevor got into it a little bit.

I do love these types of things at Disney - not really planned, and not the things people think about, but just a fun, happy thing to do.

We got out of the show at about 9:05ish, and were looking around in the gift shop for a bit. Found a fun pin, and then the Ann Shen x Disney Aristocats collection was adorable--didn't buy anything at this point because I didn't want to carry it around all day though. Disney, bring back package delivery, even if just to the front of the park!!! That's seriously the one thing I miss the most...come on!

We started heading towards La Creperie at about 9:15ish, but GUESS WHO WE RAN INTO!

My favorite princess was out meeting and greeting, with essentially no line! So of COURSE we hopped in line so I could meet her.

I love these portraits they have out for Festival of the Arts, so I got a fun picture of her with the portrait.

And Trevor took one of me and her. Not too bad for only about 5 minute wait!

Thad and Erika joined us right as we were finishing, so it was breakfast time! We got to the restaurant and were seated immediately, which was nice. I do wish this restaurant had a bit more theming - it's a bit spare and modern for my taste. But the menu looked good!

We decided against the prix fixe menu (too early for salad or soup).

I got the Savoyarde: Raclette cheese, Carmelized onions, bacon, prosciutto.

This was sooooooo good. Yum.

Trevor got the salmon crepe: smoke salmon, creme fraiche, chives, lemon

Trevor said this was good but who knows - fish, gross.

We then got the Poire crepe for our dessert: pear, chocolate ganache, whipped cream.

Super delicious too. I almost wish I'd gotten one all for myself!

We left at about 10:30/10:45ish - it took kind of a while to get the check. Overall, we'd definitely go back - the crepes were absolutely delicious. We had a Frozen fastpass so we started meandering towards Norway. We ran into a photographer though.

I love this magic shot! Yay Figment!

As we were heading to Frozen, we ran into one of the fun FARTS photo ops in the American Pavilion! I didn't know they had photographers stationed there, so when I saw one, I made us stop. (I realize you're all shocked by this ). But even Thad and Erika took this picture with us!

We kept meandering and in Germany, we found Snow White!

She had a longer line than Sleeping Beauty, but we did stop and watch her for a little bit. I do love the portraits they have with the princesses during the festival!

We kept going and in China, we found more photographers! I'd never seen photographers there before, so we stopped.

Not sure what pose we were supposed to be doing in that first picture, but Trevor was definitely in to it. I think his face is even turning a bit red!

Then we finally made it to Norway and our fastpass! The fastpass line was super short - we basically walked right on. Which was nice, but a little sad that Thad and Erika didn't get to spend more time looking at the theming--Erika is a big fan of Frozen.

I love this load area and the little houses.

Erika Mike Wazowskied herself a bit I feel a bit bad I was in front of the little kids but what can you do. The little baby in green in the front is my favorite though. Thad and Erika liked the ride a lot, though we did get a bit wet sitting down.

Afterwards we poked around in the gift shop for a while - they had Larry Dotson's art for sale there and he had some fun Haunted Mansion pieces I was looking at, but I didn't want to carry them around so I didn't buy them right then. Everyone had kind of scattered to the bathrooms and gift shops for a bit so while I was waiting I found adorable snowgies!

After we all found each other again, Thad and Erika needed to stop by the first aid in the park cause Thad's ears hadn't popped after the flight and now was starting to hurt. And we had a Guardians of the Galaxy boarding group, so we decided to split up - we'd ride Guardians while they went to the first aid. I did feel a bit guilty leaving them while we went and rode Guardians but I'm clearly a horrible friend 'cause I didn't feel that guilty...and certainly not enough to not go ride Guardians!

When we got there, the photographer out front had essentially no wait so we got our pics taken in front of the ride!

Then onto the ride! The line wasn't bad - we made it to the first preshow after about 15/20 minutes, and were waiting to get on after 30 minutes.

I really need to figure out where the camera is...this is a really boring on-ride photo of Trevor and me!

We got off the ride at 12:30, and headed to meet Thad and Erika at Spaceship Earth! Gotta ride Spaceship Earth every trip.

Spaceship Earth Mural selfie!

On board selfie. Everyone who partially loves Spaceship Earth for the long sitdown in the a/c, raise your hand...

For whatever reason this image in the onboard video really caught my eye. Spaceship Earth is so pretty!

Also I apparently took a video of some parts of the ride - who knows why.

After Spaceship Earth, we were hungry - time for FARTS food booths! So we started heading back towards World Showcase. But man, those paths behind Spaceship Earth with all the construction walls really hold the heat in the middle of the day. Woof.

We passed the Figment 50th statue and of course I had to take a picture.

We really had bad luck with the statues and our magicband+'s. They didn't really seem to trigger, or they did at random. Not sure if there was a reset period between triggers, or what, but we were never able to consistently trigger the statues. Which is kind of irritating, since that's like the main thing they do. But oh well. I wonder what else Disney will roll out for the magicband+'s.

 

[Araminta18]

So this is more related to our trip this upcoming August, but I have to share with people who get me! Trevor and I both bought Incredipasses that we'll activate when we go in August, which was exciting - ended up having to call in to use gift cards for them, but we were successful!

We also bought tickets for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party - we're gonna go twice while we're there - and tickets to the Epcot After Hours. Woot! It's gonna be an awesome trip -

• Arrive Monday the 14th: check in at the Contemporary and start my class! I think it goes late on this first day
• Tuesday the 15th: I have class but then that night, Mickey's Not So Scary!
• Wednesday the 16th: I have my class
• Thursday the 17th: my class and then Epcot After Hours!
• Friday the 18th: no more class, and Mickey's Not So Scary
• Saturday the 19th/Sunday the 20th: who knows yet
• Monday the 21st: check out and head home

Gonna be fun!

 

[Araminta18]

Tuesday, January 31, 2023 (part 2):
Definitely Snacks in this Update​

Done with Figment, and still heading back towards the food booths and World Showcase, we found the chalk art! My last (and only) time at FARTS it was raining the day we were planning to do the festival so we missed the chalk art, and I was excited!

Isn't it so neat! It's just amazing how good these artists are...IN CHALK! Amazing.

But my favorite chalk art was the 3-D one that you could stand in. That day, it was a Big Hero 6 scene:

It's really amazingly good! Trevor has the better pose, I think. Brilliant.

I promise, we will eventually get some food. But like, how could we pass all this cool stuff up? Like the Rocket and Groot statue...

which also did not work when Trevor waved his magicband+ around in front of it like a crazy person. Worth trying though, right?

We decided to start at Mexico - gotta get that Carne Asada! From the booth menu: Carne Asada: Chipotle-marinated beef sirloin, sweet potato purée, and crispy-fried onions

This was getting great reviews at the festival, and they are well deserved. This was delicious - the meat was a bit chewy, but delicious. I also liked the sweet potato puree, but Trevor hates sweet potatoes and was like nope, not gonna try it. But overall, definitely a good dish in our book

Next up was the China booth.

General Tso’s Chicken Shumai - I don't remember what was in this but it was good. I liked it. Char Siu Pork Bun - this was a bit small for the price, but also good. China is definitely not worth the money but at least what you do get is yummy.

At this point, it was about 2:30, and we were all flagging a bit, but because Trevor and I are insane, we'd bought the ILL for Rise of the Resistance and were heading over to ride Rise in Hollywood Studios - cause it's just a quick skyliner ride away! And also cause I was crazy, i'd managed to snag a Slinky fastpass for Trevor and me too after we'd finished riding Spaceship Earth earlier. So we all were heading back towards International Gateway, for Thad and Erika to head back to the hotel for a nap and for me and Trevor to hop to HS via the skyliner. However, 'cause it's us...we didn't make it there very quickly. We needed one more food stop:

Trevor needed his pretzel from Germany!!! He said it was yummy.

And just looking back through my receipts, I realized that I forgot to tell you that at this point, I was carrying a lot of merchandise, and by merchandise I mean art. Why? Because I completely forgot that earlier when Trevor and I ditched Thad and Erika at the first aid center, we walked through the Imagination Pavilion and I bought art! I only bought postcard size art, but then there was an artist there signing...and he had a piece of art that Trevor liked, and the postcard size was all out, and so we ended up buying the larger (11x14 inches, I think?) size because I'm an enabler. But it's a super cool spiderman print, and then he signed it by drawing a little spider with Mickey ears to "the amazing Trevor!". So, worth it. And then since I bought that and was carrying it, when we made our way through the food booths and passed Norway, I stopped in and got the Haunted Mansion pictures that I liked earlier. And then while Trevor was buying his pretzel, I was looking at one of the art booths nearby and ended up buying a pretty Snow White print in the larger size cause at that point, in for a penny, in for a pound. So yea...I was carrying a lot of art. Disney, bring back package delivery to the hotel, or even the front of the park!

This was the part where we split up with Thad and Erika though - them to go back to the hotel, and us to head to Hollywood Studios. Well, the goal was to make it to Hollywood Studios. But we kept passing photographers out and so we had to stop! They didn't even have lines in most spots!

Trevor, for all his pretend "not enjoying" of things, really got into this photo op. I was doing my best Mona Lisa but I like Trevor's "the scream" impression better.

After this I was really feeling the heat so stopped and got a cherry icee by the America pavilion...icees are the best.

Then, I'd never seen a photographer down in this area with the fun view of France in the background, so we had to stop here too. Also I really do love this Magic Shot.

Ok, finally, at 2:45 we made it onto the Skyliner and 20/30 minutes later we were walking into Studios and back to Slinky! Look at this fastpass line though - bonkers!

It's longer than it looks, because they were holding us at the bridge and then letting one or two parties enter the line itself, but once you tapped in at the second tapstile you were caught up to the line and couldn't really go forward much.

I did notice this cute sign in the queue for the first time though!

It took us about 8 minutes to get on the ride though.

We had fun, can you tell?

From here, it was time to ride Rise! That line was much shorter - we basically walked right into the pre-show room.

We got the sidewith the ATAT pointing right at us, which is my favorite. But we also got our first B-mode Kylo Ren, with him on the screen in his TIE fighter shooting at you. Kind of fun, but I prefer A mode.

After Rise, I had gotten lucky with getting us an immediate use Falcon fastpass, but I needed to go buy some of the toy "build your own" lightsabers for my coworker's kids (and Falcon isn't my favorite anyways) so I decided not to ride and Trevor went off to ride Falcon and I ran over to Tatooine Traders to build the lightsabers. There were SO MANY CHOICES. I ended up just choosing at random, cause they have a CM like give you options and walk you through the whole thing and it was a lot of pressure man!

But I finished up, and then headed back to Batuu to wait for Trevor. I ended up sitting down outside of Oga's, and was intently on my phone when the stormtroopers totally startled me.

So fun!

Trevor came out just a few minutes later, and we headed back over to Toy Story Land to ride Slinky Dog - I'd gotten fastpasses for Trevor and me and Thad and Erika for slinky earlier, without really paying attention that Thad and Erika wouldn't be with us. And I realize this may be controversial, but I didn't want them to go to waste so...yea.

The line was shorter this time, thankfully.

End of the ride selfie!

Afterwards, we wanted to get a root beer float from Woody's Lunchbox - I was going to place a mobile order but the nearest time was 10 minutes out while there was absolutely no line if you just walked up! What madness is this? So we totally canceled the mobile order and just walked up and ordered.

The rootbeer float was delicious.

But while I was getting our root beer float at Woody's Lunchbox, Trevor saw the Green Army Men out and about and one of them was camouflaging himself with a blade of grass:

So cute!

So from here were heading out of Hollywood Studios to go back to Epcot - the main goal was to see the Broadway concert today, but we had plenty of time. We did a little bit of shopping at the gift shops at the Hollywood Studios entrance/exit (bought a Mandalorian car magnet), and then were back on the skyliner at 5:10. We decided we probably wouldn't make it back for the 5:30 Broadway concert, but we could shoot for the 6:45 concert! And that would give us time to use the REMY FASTPASS THAT I'D MANAGED TO SCORE for like 5:30.

But as we headed to France, we saw a photographer on the bridge there - I've never seen a photographer stationed there, so we of course had to stop.

He was awesome and had us get this picture with the banner - love it!

Back to Remy! There was basically no line in the fastpass lane, so I snagged a pic of the wallpaper in there - so cute!

I love these details - the cheese and Emile and Remy...

We got up to the gates and were the next ones to get on the ride when it broke. Whomp whomp. They cleared out the queue after about 5/10 minutes and gave us an anytime fastpass, but the anytime fastpass was good for basically nothing - not even Soarin! Lamesauce Disney. I did take advantage to grab the calendar I'd been looking at this morning in the France gift shop (the Ann Shen x Disney collab), so...silver lining? And it did free me up to start looking for more fastpasses for us.

We decided to just grab some dinner at the France food booth there, and head over to the concert area and grab seats. The line wasn't long at the booth, which was nice, even thought it was 6 pm. We ended up getting all the food at that booth, and then walking it over to the theatre and grabbing a freaking awesome seat like two rows behind the reserved area. Love it!

Ok, food pics: Starting with the upper right and going clockwise:
Mille-Feuille de Betteraves aux Herbes et Noix de Cajoux: Plant-based napoleon with beets, cashew-herb filling, pepper-pine nut sauce, and balsamic vinegar caviar, then Crème de Brie en Petit Pain: Warm creamy brie in a house-made bread bowl. Then Croissant à la Truffle Noir d’Hiver: Black winter truffle croissant, and finally, Moelleux aux Noisettes et Chocolats Valrhona: Molten chocolate and hazelnut cake with pure origin Valrhona chocolates and passion fruit-mango sauce

I had to take another pic of this Beet Mille-feuille to show it to you - this was bonkers expensive (like $10 I think?) but it was SO good! I didn't think I'd like it, I just figured it seemed interesting and I wanted to try it, and I loved it! Trevor didn't like it at all, but I *loved* it. Super super yummy. The brie bowl was also delicious, as you'd expect. The truffle croissant just tasted like a croissant, but still yummy. The only disappointing thing actually was the chocolate cake, which was dry and just kind of meh. It looked cool though!

Honestly, this was one of the best times - yummy food booth food, sitting down, at a Broadway concert...#livingmybestlife Trevor did run and get us another cherry icee 'cause we needed something cold to cool us down!

Look how awesome our seats were! Love it.

Tonight's concert was L. Steven Taylor, who was in the Lion King on Broadway, and Mandy Gonzalez who is currently starring in "Hamilton" as Angelica Schuyler, but her Disney connection is that she was in the musical Aida. I mostly wanted to see Mandy, but honestly everyone Disney has come for this series is fantastic.

The song choice was really interesting - obviously some Lion King and Aida, but they also sang a song from "Beauty and the Beast": "If I Can't Love Her". And since "If I Can't Love Her" is literally my favorite Disney Broadway song, I filmed it.

So good! So yea, the Broadway concert was awesome. Highly highly recommend making time for it if you're ever there during FARTS.

With the concert over, our plan was to go and ride Test Track, since I'd been intermittently refreshing and managed to score one for 7:15, and also Guardians again, using Thad and Erika's boarding group (again, I realize this is controversial, but we booked it this morning cause they thought they might want to try it and when they decided no, I didn't want to waste it!). I realize again, smallest violin in the world playing here, but man why does Guardians have to be SO FAR AWAY from the international gateway...it's such a long walk!

Anyways. We made it over to Test Track at 7:35 pm - about a 20/25 min walk after the end of the concert.

Trevor was very proud of his monstrosity of a car - notice that 01 under efficiency.

I like Test Track but man it always feels like it loads so slow - took us 20 minutes to get on the ride.

Crazy eyes selfie!

And all of us looking in exactly the wrong direction. The girl next to Trevor though looks like she could be part of an ad!

It's ok though - Guardians was up next!

Thankfully basically no line - the only delay was getting through all the pre-shows. Trevor did film some of the ride theming, but it's a bit...motion-sickness-inducing, at least for me.

That pre-show effect is awesome but at this point we were horrible and just wanted to get on the ride. The best we could do was making sure we were on the far right side of the room to be through the doors as quickly as possible. It's kind of funny - you can definitely tell who has been on the ride before based on how they head to the right side of the room or not.

Drax is my favorite.

Such excitement. The song we got this time was "September" again.

We were off the ride a little before 8:30, and while the fireworks were at 9, we weren't planning to stay, but just head back to the hotel. But first...more pictures!

 

[Araminta18]

Tuesday, January 31, 2023 (part 3):
An Equal Amount of Snacks and Photo ops​

So we were meandering back to the International Gateway, but we found this awesome photo op! They have the CM walk around behind you with a lightstick.

Pretty nifty! It does take a while though. I think there were about 3 parties in front of us and it took like 10 minutes.

Then as we kept walking, it was hot and I decided I wanted to grab some ice cream from France, specifically the ice cream macarons. We figured we could definitely make it just before park close at 9 pm. But then passing the UK we saw the MOST ADORABLE photo op, with a short line. So of course we had to wait.

It's Tink! I'd never even seen this advertised! I wish the first photo especially was a bit more centered, but super super cute.

That slowed us down a little bit, but at 8:50, we made it to France...where there was still a bit of a line for the ice cream shop. Cause of course there was. But on the bright side, the line made it so I noticed Marie, Toulouse and Berlioz there on the wall!

Also, it was a good thing we were there for the macarons and not the brioche, cause they were out of the brioche and people were sad. But not me - I got my macarons!

Chocolate and raspberry - delicious! The raspberry one was a bit softer, but the were both delicious. A lovely end to the day.

From there we were heading out of the park while the fireworks show was going on and let me tell you - I am still confused about this. There were WAY MORE fireworks tonight than there were last night when we camped out to watch it. And I don't know why? Is there a B-mode for Harmonious where they just don't use many fireworks? I kind of wish we'd camped out tonight and not last night - I may have liked the show better! Oh well.

We took the boat back to the Boardwalk, and were back in the room before 9:30. Not too shabby! Tomorrow, Magic Kingdom!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 24898 steps (10.6 miles)
Ride count: 10 (Trevor), 9 (me): Beauty and the Beast singalong, Frozen, Guardians x2, Spaceship Earth, Slinky x2, Falcon (Trevor), Rise, Test Track

 

[LeeLee'sMom]

Tuesday, January 31, 2023 (part 3):
An Equal Amount of Snacks and Photo ops​

So we were meandering back to the International Gateway, but we found this awesome photo op! They have the CM walk around behind you with a lightstick.

Pretty nifty! It does take a while though. I think there were about 3 parties in front of us and it took like 10 minutes.

Then as we kept walking, it was hot and I decided I wanted to grab some ice cream from France, specifically the ice cream macarons. We figured we could definitely make it just before park close at 9 pm. But then passing the UK we saw the MOST ADORABLE photo op, with a short line. So of course we had to wait.

It's Tink! I'd never even seen this advertised! I wish the first photo especially was a bit more centered, but super super cute.

That slowed us down a little bit, but at 8:50, we made it to France...where there was still a bit of a line for the ice cream shop. Cause of course there was. But on the bright side, the line made it so I noticed Marie, Toulouse and Berlioz there on the wall!

Also, it was a good thing we were there for the macarons and not the brioche, cause they were out of the brioche and people were sad. But not me - I got my macarons!

Chocolate and raspberry - delicious! The raspberry one was a bit softer, but the were both delicious. A lovely end to the day.

From there we were heading out of the park while the fireworks show was going on and let me tell you - I am still confused about this. There were WAY MORE fireworks tonight than there were last night when we camped out to watch it. And I don't know why? Is there a B-mode for Harmonious where they just don't use many fireworks? I kind of wish we'd camped out tonight and not last night - I may have liked the show better! Oh well.

We took the boat back to the Boardwalk, and were back in the room before 9:30. Not too shabby! Tomorrow, Magic Kingdom!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 24898 steps (10.6 miles)
Ride count: 10 (Trevor), 9 (me): Beauty and the Beast singalong, Frozen, Guardians x2, Spaceship Earth, Slinky x2, Falcon (Trevor), Rise,

all of the cute photo-ops I may have to get the Memory Maker this next trip. Haven't got it in years but maybe I can guilt my DD17 into taking more pics seeing I paid for it already. Seriously she acts like it's such a big project to stop and pose for a pic even when we take them ourselves.

 

[Araminta18]

all of the cute photo-ops I may have to get the Memory Maker this next trip. Haven't got it in years but maybe I can guilt my DD17 into taking more pics seeing I paid for it already. Seriously she acts like it's such a big project to stop and pose for a pic even when we take them ourselves.

You definitely should! They really have some great ones. The whole reason we started getting Memory Maker was because Trevor wanted me to take pictures of myself and I am *not* photogenic so I didn't want to, but with these fun photo ops, I got sucked in, and now as you can tell I make us stop ALL the time for photos. Good luck with DD17!!

 

[Araminta18]

Wednesday, February 1, 2023 (part 1):
MK Morning and Be Our Guest lunch​

We're old and decided not to rope drop today, but just to try our luck with Genie+. So we decided to meet up at 8:30 at the Boardwalk bus stop - poor Thad and Erika, having to walk over to the Boardwalk every morning to catch the bus. But with Swolphin dropping you off at the TTC instead of the Magic Kingdom...nope!

We had cake for breakfast again- this is Trevor doublefisting the cake, so he gets a mouthful of chocolate plus the banana chocolate chip, which really is the ideal way to eat those cakes.

We both actually arrived at the bust stop a few minutes early, but we had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus, and at 8:54 am we were off the bus heading towards security. There was, as you might expect, a lot of people waiting to get through, and this time I didn't pick the slowest line! We all kind of split up and this morning Erika got stuck. And there was basically no line for the photos in front of the train station, so Trevor and I got some photos while waiting. Though let's be real we would have done that anyways.

proof we were there for the 50th!

By then Erika had made it through, so we entered the park! That initial walk into Magic Kingdom is one of my favorite things - just getting immersed in the Magic.

Of course I had to make us get pictures, but as we were in the (surprisingly short) line for a picture with Roy and Minnie, we got to see the Dapper Dans!

And of course as we kept walking up the street we had to get a picture with Thad and Erika in front of the castle - it's like the law or something.

Yay!

Our first ride of the day was Peter Pan (I'd gotten lucky with Genie+ - it definitely boded well!) and so we headed through the castle back to Fantasyland.

But first - these gorgeous Mary Blair mural tapestries! I love these and wish they kept them. Get rid of that ugly 50th medallion and keep these!

I do love the banners or whatever those twirly decorations around the turrets are. Just that ugly medallion I don't like.

Then, we walked on to Peter Pan!

My other on-ride photos from Pan didn't turn out, but Thad and Erika liked it!

Next up, we went for Pooh, since it was basically right there. Also, I like Winnie the Pooh.

Had to point out the whole Mr Toad handing the deed over, since Thad had been asking if there was a Mr Toad here.

Next up, Little Mermaid!

I love this castle too. I think I just like castles.

Shelfie!

I took a bunch of clips - no idea why!

Ariel was a bit irritating because it kept stopping. Like seriously 5 or 6 times. And it's not a long ride! Oh well.

Afterwards, it was time to use our Seven Dwarves ILL, and then abandon Fantasyland for Frontierland/Adventureland, cause we had a Haunted Mansion lightning lane!

Seven Dwarves is such a great ride! We definitely tried to get the cart rocking but we weren't too successful because Thad and I were on the same side...next time, opposite sides!

After a brief pit stop at the Tangled toilets...

we headed over to Haunted Mansion. Though actually, this was the first time I saw one of those photo sessions with a photopass photographer - the ones you can reserve for like a half hour? There was a whole family there taking pictures in front of the tower, with the littlest girl dressed up like Rapunzel. Seemed kind of fun, to get photographs in not-the-usual places.

We walked right on to the Haunted Mansion.

I loved that there were roses on Madame Leota's tomb!

Weirdly enough it wasn't super crowded but they started the whole stretching room spiel before the door was closed. That was very weird - totally destroyed the illusion of "no doors" when the door is literally open right there. Do not recommend. Otherwise though, a great ride.

Now you get two photos, which is kind of fun.

After Mansion, our next stop was Memento Mori! We ended up buying several things (I bought this awesome "you may kiss the bride" hoodie shirt with Constance on it), and Thad even bought Haunted Mansion ears! We are all big gift shop people, so that was nice. Just...Disney bring back package delivery!

While we were in the gift shop, I managed to get us basically an immediate use Big Thunder Mountain LL - yay!. But as we were walking down there, we ran into Mickey's cavalcade! That was a neat bonus.

If you look carefully you can see Thad with his Haunted Mansion Mickey ears in that video.

On the way to Big Thunder, I had to take one last picture of Splash Mountain. We missed the closing by like what, a week? Oh well!

We walked right on at Big Thunder too.

We all enjoyed the "wildest ride in the wilderness!" We got off at about 11:10 or so, and while we had a Be Our Guest reservation at 12:10, that meant we still had a little bit of time for rides! We'd wanted to do Jungle Cruise but it wasn't available until like 1 pm, so we decided to get a Pirates LL instead, since it was available to use right away. So we got Pirates, and then as soon as we tapped in at Pirates I got us a Jungle Cruise LL for after lunch. Woot!

I was trying to point out where the camera was, and while Erika got it, Thad totally missed it (or I was talking too softly and he turned around to try and hear me. Oops!

We got off the ride at 11:30ish and spent some time in the gift shop and then decided to just take our time heading up to Be Our Guest. It was nice! Just enjoying being there.

We did check in a little bit early, because I wanted to request a seat in the West Wing - I figured it would be less crazy loud there. I do love Be Our Guest but the noise level in the main ballroom...rough.

They called us back after about 5-10 minutes, and we were seated in the West Wing! Yay! This meal was one of the few ones that Erika really really wanted to do, cause she likes Beauty and the Beast, so I was anxious about how it would turn out, and was hoping it would go well.

We all got fancy drinks (except for Erika who got water). Thad got the special souvenir goblet, and then Trevor got the 50th drink that turns glittery, and then I got the Nautilus: Blue Raspberry Slush served with Candy Fish and a souvenir Glow Cube

This was just a fancy blue slushy but I loved it.

Right after we got our drinks, the Beast came through and we got to see him for the first time, which was a great way to start. Then right as he left the server brought us the bread! Yum.

Be Our Guest is now a prix fixe, so we all got appetizers. And so, for the first time, I tried the French Onion soup. I don't like soup really, but I do love cheese, so figured I might as well try it.

It was interesting - I loved the cheese on the top and the bread in there, but again, still not a fan of soup. Oh well.

Trevor got the Endive and Roquefort Cheese Salad: Pear Gastrique, Toasted Walnuts, and Champagne Vinaigrette.

Now, Trevor didn't really want this, but none of the appetizers appealed to him, and this was the other appetizer I wanted to try, and he thought it sounded about as good as any of the rest, so he ordered it. I liked it! But yea, not really a Trevor appetizer. He ate a lot of bread with salted butter.

Then entrees! I got the filet.

This was delicious! Thad got it too and decided that this was the best cooked steak he had on property. A+ Be Our Guest!

Trevor got the fish, which currently says Trout on the online Be our Guest menu but I have no idea if that's what it was then.

He liked it though. Weirdo.

Then for dessert, the trio!

This was all really good - I think I liked the macaron the best though. A little sad that you don't get the grey stuff in a white chocolate Chip anymore, but this actually tasted better.

And they actually brought Erika a birthday grey stuff Mickey!

Gotta blow out the candle! I can't remember if Erika liked the grey stuff all that much, but it was nice that they brought it and she got the attention.

https://youtu.be/hF5B5-3YdZY

Despite my worries, it was a really good lunch. We got to enjoy the a/c, and the food was delicious. They loved the theming, and we just had a great time. I know lots of people have had not great experiences with Be our Guest recently, but we had a fantastic experience.

 

[Araminta18]

**blargh something is going on with imgur images here on the Dis...not sure what! I need to figure it out...sorry **

It's a Festival of Fantasy for the Aspirational Galactic Heros! - Wednesday, February 1, 2023 (part 2)​

We ended up hanging around Be Our Guest for a bit, looking through all the rooms and enjoying the a/c and clean restrooms. When we finally left, I had to take the requisite photo.

Thad and Erika didn't want one, lame.

As we walked out, it was about 2 pm, but there was a photographer, and I know you're all shocked, but we stopped.

And I snapped a picture of the sign that turned out great, so including it.

At this point, we wandered over to Liberty Square...we'd thought about going over to Tom Sawyer Island but we wanted to see the parade at 3 pm so the timing was a bit tight (we left a bit after 2 pm). Thad and Erika wanted to get silhouettes done, and I vaguely remembered they did those in Liberty Square. On our way, we had a fleeting character interaction, but it was everyone's favorite of the entire trip:

"Congratulations on aging, Erika". That guffaw you hear is Thad

In Liberty Square they got their silhouettes and Trevor and I explored scouted for a nice place to nap. We first found ourselves in the sleigh:

But then the rocking chairs by Hall of Presidents vacated and so Trevor and I went over there to nap for a bit. It was nice, but a bit more chaotic than our spot on Tom Sawyer Island. We didn't end up making it over there at all this trip; I wonder if the rocking chairs are back!

A little after 2:30 I went over to the fastpass area for the parade cause I'd managed to get lucky and get us a fastpass for the parade! People get there super early! I managed to get one of the last "front row" spots at the rope, facing Liberty Square, so had a head on view of the parade coming. Thad and Erika joined me after a little bit, and I'm not sure why now but Trevor and I got separate too...I assume he maybe stayed napping in the chairs? I don't remember. The fastpass area is nice but it's full in the sun, so that's the main downside.

Trevor wanted to try out his tripod again so we filmed the parade with the camera on the tripod on the ground, and then I filmed it too because if one video is good then two must be better, right? I love Festival of Fantasy.

After the parade, it was time for our Jungle Cruise fastpass! We meandered on down there, and decided to detour on the way to do Swiss Family Treehouse. We had a nice little walk through there, and then headed over to Jungle Cruise. There wasn't much of a wait in the fastpass line. Though I did have to take a picture of this sign, cause it's awesome.

Selfie with the little hut across the loading dock, for reasons.

We got on the boat and got one of the seats near the front which is my favorite. Dad jokes and puns are the BEST.

The skipper was great, which meant we had a great ride. I hope they never get rid of the skippers on the Jungle Cruise.

After Jungle Cruise we were going to get a Dole Whip but the line was long and it wasn't doing mobile order, lame. So we skipped it and headed over to Tomorrowland. The plan was to ride Buzz using fastpass I got right after tapping in at Jungle Cruise, but as we walked by Monsters Inc, it was a walkon, so we did that!

I never noticed Mike's dressing room door before!

None of us got picked to be any of the characters, but they used my pizza joke, so we're calling that one a win. It's always funny.

Then, on to Buzz Lightyear! Sometimes, esp lately, the fastpass line for Buzz has been weirdly long, but this time it was just 5 minutes. Not bad! Now, the last time we rode Buzz at DW we ended up riding a bunch of times in a row trying to become Galactic heroes, so Trevor and I were focused this time around on that same goal.

Despite that super flattering picture...we did not do it. Trevor got so close though! 826,300. I only got 177800. But they let us try one more time, and we each got our own car for this second try.

And this time, how'd we do?

Trevor did it! He got Galactic Hero!!

Fun action shot of Thad.

This was after Trevor had maxed out - look at that smile.

I didn't get Galactic Hero - I got 778200 which isn't bad, but we were all pretty excited that Trevor won - we actually stopped at one point, which allowed Trevor to hit the high value target a few times and put him over the edge. I was *just* out of reach of it.

Trevor with his Galactic Hero sticker!

Riding high off Trevor being a Galactic Hero and saving the galaxy, we took a celebratory lap on the People Mover.

No one high-fived us...lamesauce.

Afterwards Thad and Erika were hungry so we did a first for me and Trevor: got food at Cosmic Rays!

I wasn't super hungry, so Trevor got the spicy chicken sandwich that everyone (well, Tim Tracker) raves about, though with the slaw on the side, and then I had a few bites. The milk is for me cause the sandwich is spicy. It was good, but nothing super special.

Then we also got the Sully Slush: Blue Raspberry Slush with purple Whipped Cream. A bit odd, but its a blue raspberry slush - you really can't go wrong with that.

While we were eating though, I realized we were right next to the Cheshire Cat - which had pepperjack pretzels! So I ran over there and got my first ever pepperjack pretzel.

Honestly? It wasn't my favorite - it was fine, but nothing amazingly special. Glad I got to try it though.

At this point, it was a bit after 6 pm, and we were all tired. We'd booked the dessert after party for the fireworks show, and it said we could enter the garden at 7:15, but we decided to check in early and they let us in, so that was nice. We got ourselves all set up and were just relaxing on the "grass" and enjoying being there. I realize half the point of the party is so you don't have to hang out in your spot super early, but it was kind of nice to be able to hang out in a less-crowded spot for a while.

After a bit I realized that there were things I wanted to do! Namely, get the Mr Toad popcorn bucket, and get the corn dog from Sleepy Hollow for me for dinner. There was a bit of a line for the popcorn bucket - they had it at the popcorn stand there in the hub.

Lovely view though, while waiting in line.

I snapped this picture as I crossed the hub over to Sleepy Hollow. So pretty!

Over at Sleepy Hollow, they had a fun Haunted Mansion themed cakepop, that of course I had to get.

Best picture I could get...this was basically chocolate cake with frosting/cream and then the chocolate portrait on the top.

Corn dog dinner! A bit greasy and burned tonight though, sadly.

I managed to get myself back to our spot without dropping or spilling anything, which is pretty amazing considering I was carrying the chips, corn dog, a water cup, and the cake pop. I'm still pretty proud of that.

When I got back, I found Thad really making himself comfortable.

We relaxed and I ate and just had a good old time. I had to take a video of the ambiance.

And then, it was time for the show!

Look at that pretty view - so gorgeous.

https://youtu.be/e_szkAqGGxg

So I really liked the beginning bit that was all about DisneyWorld and Walt, but the rest of the show was just ok. Not my favorite. Thad and Erika had never seen a Magic Kingdom fireworks show before and they absolutely LOVED it. So that's an interesting data point. I am glad that they brought Happily Ever After back though.

Still though, very pretty. We hung around in the garden for a bit talking, and then once the crush had died down a bit, we headed into Tomorrowland Terrace for desserts!

It was still a bit crowded though, so we ended up having to wait in line a bit for food. It was a pretty good spread--

apple cinnamon crepes!

Cheese and bread and chocolate covered strawberries

cookies/cream cheesecake

chocolate cake and chocolate little tortes.

They had a bunch of juices and milk and water for those of us who don't drink - I especially appreciated the milk, with all the sweets. The food was good, nothing spectacular, but good.

They were periodically bringing out birthday treats and singing to people, but after 45 minutes most people had left and so we were starting to leave but then they brought over a birthday treat for Erika!

That was nice. A good way to end the party.

At this point Thad and Erika were pretty well tuckered out, and were planning to head back to the hotel, while Trevor and I were planning to stay and make use the extra hours for resort guests! We walked with Thad and Erika to the front of the park and did some shopping (bought some treats to take back to our offices at the Confectionary, and I found Boba Fett ears for Trevor but he didn't want them ) and then we put our stuff in a locker, and headed back into the park.

 

[Araminta18]

**In the meantime, uploading pics directly here to the dis...that'll mean a bunch more posts but hopefully the images come back!**

Extended Evening Theme Park Hours! -
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 (part 3)​

I don't remember what our plan was for the first ride - maybe Mansion? But as we were heading over the bridge from the hub into Liberty Square, we saw a picture photo op there by the side of the castle, and we HAD to stop.

It was a photo op with Cinderella's glass slipper! Isn't that neat? I've never seen this out before, so it was really neat. And there wasn't really a line either, so that was nice - we waited maybe 5 minutes? They were switching out CMs, so that was the main reason for the wait.

So cool! Definitely boded well for our extra hours in the park.

Ok, picture out of the way, the goal was rides for the rest of the night! We headed right over to Mansion to start, at about a 5 minute wait.

Trevor's a better actor than me in this one.

We came out of the ride to see a photographer there, so of course we had to get photos with the Mansion.

I like the lighting on the Mansion in this picture!


Someday we'll learn how to pose correctly for the hitchhiking ghost magic shot, but today is not that day. Also Trevor was blinking in literally all the pictures...oops.

Next up we decided to do a nighttime ride on Big Thunder. We took our time walking over there though, looking at what used to be Splash Mountain. When we got over to Big Thunder, it was basically a walk on, and we got to request the back row. Woot!

Big Thunder is always great.

Next we wanted to ride Space Mountain cause we missed it earlier. But on the way, we found some water pictures the CMs drew!

That was a nice surprise - I thought they only did these in the morning. Also poor Donald...always trying to be #1.

 

[Araminta18]

Extended Evening Theme Park Hours Continue! -
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 (part 4)​

To your shock and surprise, there was a photographer right by Tomorrowland Terrace and of course I made us stop.

Doesn't the castle look so neat?

Space Mountain was another walk on, which was awesome.


At this point, it was about 11:30, and we decided to push our walk-on luck and try for Seven Dwarves!

Seven Dwarves wasn't quite a walk on - we ended up waiting about 10/15 minutes (and we waited for the back row). But it was fun! I've never really waited in the queue before.


We got this great view of Tron from the outdoor queue.

And then in the indoor portion of the queue they had the spinning barrels back on, and it became a whole thing with all of us in the queue to try and get all the barrels spinning so Snow White would appear:

We did it! It was a lot of fun - the line was moving quickly enough and we were all just happy-tired to be there. The clip at the end is as the ride finished.

We went all in on this photo, obviously.

We got off just a bit after midnight, and having ridden all the (remaining) mountains, we decided to call it and head back to the hotel. We're old and tired now, apparently.

As we were walking back through Fantasyland, planning to go through the Castle, Trevor decided to try and see if he was the king of Fantasyland:

Spoiler, he was not. So back through the castle we went, getting this lovely view down Main Street.

We took several pictures at the photographers as we headed out - one of them was fun and had us twirl each other and dance a bit, but none of the pics turned out. We did do a fun magic shot though!


We (of course) did some more shopping - I bought one of the Vault shirts that has the map of Magic Kingdom all over it and its SUPER soft. I love it.


Also how fun is this Mr Toad statue they had in the Vault store there on Main Street?

We figured we had to end the day with a picture with Roy and Minnie, just like we started the day. The color balance didn't quite come out right, but still fun.

Also I LOVE this poster so much - I wish there was a way to buy it! The gorgeous castle but without the medallion, and the carriage...I really want it. If you know of any way...let me know!


As we were heading out we were thinking about using a Minnie Van to get us back to the hotel super quickly, but it was $41 AND there were no drivers nearby. So we were like yea no way. And then when we got to our bus bay there was a bus there and waiting so it worked out. We were back at the hotel by 12:45 am, exhausted but happy. It was a great day at the Magic Kingdom.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 24,325 steps (10 miles)
Ride count: 17 (Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Little Mermaid, Seven Dwarves x2, Mansion x2, Big Thunder x2, Pirates, Swiss Family Robinson, Jungle Cruise, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, Buzz x2, Peoplemover, Space Mountain)