WDW Beat us. A Nov 7-14, 2020 Trip Report.

[heybets30]

Hello! We made it home alive. Barely. Home now almost 72 hours, and our feet may or may not have healed yet from all the walking.

Reminder who we are: me (49 - will be 5-0 Nov 27), hubby (57), Allison (will be 14 on Dec 2), and Andrew (11-1/2 and has 2 broken bones in his wrist, in a cast this trip). - pic below is from DCA Nov 9, 2019.


I just read a few trip reports of folks who were also at WDW last week. Interesting how people can be at the same place and have VERY different experiences. I hope that my report doesn't come off as all negative. We did have a great time traveling as a family, hubby & kids had their first trips to FL and WDW EVER, and we really enjoyed seeing what the fuss was about staying "on property" at WDW. And - Disney is magical for sure! My "aha" moment as a mom is always when my kids get on the Carousel. That's the "look at my babies" moment. That's my annual photo. Every single year, a photo of each of them on the DLR Carousel - at least 2020, we got the WDW carousel.

We are DLR regulars. Hubby's dad & stepmom live about 30 miles from Anaheim, so it's an easy vacation for us - see grandpa/grandma, spend 2 or 3 days DLR. We used to be DLR passholders, but as the kids have grown older, we've added international travel to the repertoire, so 3 trips to SoCal each year doesn't happen anymore.

That said - let's get to the nitty gritty of the trip!

We had a 9:30am flight from O'Hare. My brother came to use my Sequoia to drive us to the airport so we'd all fit. we left our house around 7:15am, we breezed through checking bags & TSA and were at the American Gates H/K McDonalds for a quick breakfast by 8am. Boarded our flight no issue - it was PACKED. They had offered vouchers to anyone wanting to give up seats. We were originally on an 11am nonstop flights, AA combined like 3 nonstops into the 9:30am one. Me & kids were 3 across, hubby had window in row behind us. He had one of maybe 2-3 empty seats on the plane next to him. Quick & easy flight.

Arrived at MCO right on time - followed signs to baggage claim. This is where the herds combined & there was virtually NO social distancing. We got our bags & followed the masses to the Magical Express location. We were maybe 10th group in line for the Pop bus - here the social distancing was VERY clear - the lines had 6-ft spacers, and people were very respectful of them. The lady checking us in said it would be about 45 minutes until we were on a bus. We ended up waiting 10 minutes. YAY! Off to a nice start. The Driver was awesome, he spent about 20 years outside Chicago, so we chatted about that before the bus departure. We stepped out from MCO into the gray, humid, sticky, sprinkling weather of Orlando. We had NO IDEA how Hurricane Eta would affect our entire trip.



We arrived at Pop right around 2:20. Got unloaded from the bus. It was actually very funny - there was only one CM at the bus - she cheered & clapped for us! We checked most of our luggage with Luggage Services, quick & painless. We knew we were early, so we didn't have a room assignment. We meandered through the lobby, checked out the gift shop (WELL STOCKED, by the way!), and made our way to the Hippy Dippy Pool. Petals Bar was open, we were able to snag a table, so hubby and I each grabbed a vacation drinky. I got the Banana Cabana, hubby got the Cucumber & Mint Vojito. Both were good - nothing "wow", solid choices for sure & nice way to kick off vaca. It was around 3:15 when we sat down, no room text yet. I checked the app - no alerts. We just sat - it was cloudy & VERY windy, people enjoying the pool until they had to evacuate it for a few minutes due to weather. 3:45 no text. 4pm still no text. I had requested 50's OR 1st available. at 4pm, I get on the "Chat with Us" Feature of MDE. I asked if a room was ready. I got transferred to another chat CM, who had me fill out a quick form - name, address, email, phone so they could look up the reservation. "Good news, your room has been cleaned and is awaiting the final inspection. You will get a text shortly with the room #." Ok, cool.

Well ... when it came to 4:15, hubby & daughter said - we're outta here. They decided to do discover the resort. 4:30, 4:45, 5pm - still no text. I get back on Chat With Us on MDE ... CM transfers me to "someone who might be able to assist me" ... this transfer took about 5 minutes. Then I had to fill out the same form with new CM - name, address, email, cell# ... I hit submit, I explained we were told it "would be soon", and nothing. By this time, it's 5:20 - no response from the chat CM. By this time, hubby & daughter come back "we rode the skyliner to Epcot & back, hopped on it to DHS & Back, walked around the resort .....". Hubby isn't happy. We went inside to the front desk. The CM who helped us was awesome. He really was. He brought us to his desk station, does some typing, I show him the message that says "room ready soon" from the Chat. He looks at us & goes ... "sorry, there was never a room ready for you. They should never have said that." Great. He typed, said "there is a room available, in the 50s, but it is literally the furthest room in the whole 50s to the front. That doesn't work ..." he goes "hold on ..." He walked away & went to maybe a supervisor down the row of terminals, we see a lot of typing ... arms waving, he comes back & goes ... "I'm so sorry, this is embarrassing for the resort. We have moved you to the 60s, facing the lake, 4th floor. We're also giving you a credit to the account as we haven't been able to start this off in a magical way. we are also sending up your grocery order free of charge."

We got up into the room - room 5418 - and wow, it was small. Pictures do not do these rooms justice. They are small. Nicely decorated, definitely feels brand-spankin-new in terms of cleanliness! About 10 minutes later, the poor luggage services guy brought up all our bags and all our groceries (which literally was milk, bread, OJ, and like 24 bottles of Diet Pepsi, 12 Diet Dr. Pepper, 24 waters, 12 propel). We tipped him VERY well. After we get settled in a bit, my brother & his fam let us know they would meet us at Disney Springs (they drove up from Venice, FL for the night at an outside hotel, to see us).

Ah. Disney Springs. On a Saturday night. Will update soon.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures.

 

[heybets30]

Disney Springs. Saturday night (11/7). That's where I left off. We headed from Pop after getting settled, maybe around 7pm to the buses. We got to the bus area, and there were maybe 3 buses of people ahead of us. It was a Saturday night, 7pm, not unexpected. We waited maybe 20-ish minutes, got on a bus & were on our way. As we approach DIsney Springs, we see the street signs "Disney Springs Parking is FULL". Now, you may say "you are on the bus, this doesn't matter" ... it does if you are trying to meet up with your brother & his family who are arriving in their car! We got off the bus, connected with my brother by phone, and agreed we'd skip DS since they couldn't park, they would grab us fast food & meet back at the hotel. Since we had gotten off the bus, the ONLY way to return to Pop would be to walk through the temp screen, then walk thru the exit to the return bus corral. Since we were there, we took a pic with the tree. It was PACKED. Hindsight - good decision to turn around & get out of dodge! SO many people not really looking where they were walking - about 90% followed full masks, many teens with mask under nose. No one really out & about "enforcing", so everyone went about their night.


So here's the thing that totally sucks about the transportation buses back to Pop from Disney Springs. It is literally the FURTHEST bus stand from the entrance. That might not seem like a big deal, but it is a hike. Wasn't so bad the first time there, but after a few days at the park, we HATED the walk back to the bus. Seriously. Seemed the more expensive the resort, the closer the bus was to the entrance.

We got back to Pop close to 8, my brother & his fam met us around the pool around 8:15 - they literally just picked up Pizza Hut as it seemed to be the closest "fast food" from the direction they were headed. We had a lovely evening sitting around the pool catching up, eating pizza. We called it an early evening around 10pm, as we were going to spend the whole day Sunday exploring the WDW with my brother & crew!

Pop didn't charge my brother to park the car that night at all! I thought for sure there would be a charge. Nope! (Pic of my son & niece enjoying their pizza outside the Hippy Dippy Pool - brother & his wife & 2 kids moved from IL to Venice, FL, about 2-1/2 years ago to flee the cold winters. Go Bears.). MANY families were out enjoying a late dinner or cocktail at the tables. It was sticky, but wasn't raining at this point yet. Temp was actually comfortable!.

 

[heybets30]

Sunday morning, 11/8. It was a bit gray & gloomy, sticky, but not raining. My brother & fam met us at Pop around 10:30, and we made a plan - let's try to ride ALL the WDW transportation options! This picture was taken around 10:45 that morning - pretty much shows how the skies were the entire day. This is the view outside Room 5418 at Pop, 60s section - flipside of the Hippy Dippy Pool side.


We headed to the skyliner, got there close to 11. It was about a 7-minute wait to get on. All 8 of us fit with room to spare. To be blunt, we aren't tiny people at all. My brother alone is just a tad over 6'6", and he was comfortable too!. The Skyliner uses cross-breezes to cool the compartments, and it was refreshingly comfortable! Nice breeze, the gondolas make barely any noise, it was a delightful trip over to CBR! We exited the Skyliner, then had to go all the way to the far end of the Epcot line - which added about 20 minutes of waiting to get on the Epcot Skyliner line.

Once on our way to Epcot - there was a sprinkle or two, nothing extraordinary that would freak out any of the kids about being in the gondolas. It was WINDY, though! We arrived at Epcot with the intention of taking the Ferry ... we just missed a ferry, and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one, got some pictures in while we waited. Our plan was to take the Ferry 1 stop to Boardwalk.

Pic of me & my "little" brother (again, he's just over 6'6", I'm about 5'8") waiting for the ferry. My 2 kids are in the middle, his girls are on the outside. My daughter in the hat is the oldest of 12 cousins on my side of the family, she's just 2 weeks from being 14 - youngest cousin in the family is 5 ... all 12 are VERY close, close, close to each other. Her cousin (fanning her head) is #2, about 10 months younger, and is really her BFF. Both were HEARTBROKEN when the move to FL happened. My son is #5 & the odd boy in the middle of a sea of girl cousins! My younger niece in the pic is a 4th grader & is #8. I'm the oldest of 5 kids, my brother in this pic is the oldest boy (my younger sister is 3 yrs younger than I), and he's 6 years younger than me. When Ken was born, 1976, my great-grandfather lived in St. Petersburg, FL. That was my first trip to FL and to WDW! My great-grandfather needed "proof" that there was a great-grandson and that the family name would carry on, so my dad piled us in the car & drove us down when Ken was about 4 months old to show off the prodigal great-grandson (and namesake of my grandfather - many, many, many generations of Kennedy-John-Kennedy-John of 1s born sons broken when my brother Ken had 2 daughters, no sons). I digress!!! We spent 2 very cold, cold days in December at the Magic Kingdom that 1976 trip. So really, because of him, I started going to Disney Parks ;-)



Digression over! Ok, so we caught the ferry to Boardwalk. It was EERIE. We exited, and seriously wondered if the resort was even open. We saw NO ONE on the Boardwalk. NO SIGN OF LIFE. Other than the wonderful smell of garlic, we saw zero people. We walked through to the Boardwalk Buses & were going to go to Disney Springs for lunch. We got to the bus lanes, and still we had seen NO ONE. About 10 minutes later, 2 other families came near the bus waiting area. Very classy - no corrals as I like to call them, just a nice casual waiting area with benches.

We got to Disney Springs, it was a LOT nicer without the bazillion people that were there Sat night. Everyone was hungry. I wanted to try the sausage place - the trio of sausage sounded SO GOOD to me. Son wanted a cheeseburger, and everyone else wanted Polite Pig. They got in line for the Pig, son & I went to find sausage place. We made a wrong turn, and found the Bar George take out window! An alcoholic Dole Whip? Why yes, thank you! I bought the white classic cup (why? Because it was $30, the other two glasses - frosted pink & gray - were both $36. I'm cheap. Oh, I also splurged for the metal straw). So you get the drink "with the cup". Cool. I think with straw, tax & tip it still came out to about $36. DELISH!!! I got the moscato one with pineapple dole whip. YUMMY.

By this time, hubby calls me ... "I got the BBQ platter for two, so don't get sausage" ... ummmm. I didn't want BBQ. Oh well. Guess I'm having it now!. We found D-Luxe burger, I went to the hostess & asked if we could order inside - I hadn't planned on Mobile ordering. She sighed, made a face, but then was kind & said sure when she learned we were getting a plain cheeseburger. Ordered son a plain cheeseburger, strawberry shake, and small fries. $24. Yes, $24. Here's a picture of the strawberry shake (and of son while we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited for the plain burger)... granted, the shake was delicious:


After waiting quite a while for the plain cheeseburger & fries, we made our way back to the POlite Pig. Family had snagged a table for 8, so we joined them. Naturally, everyone else was done eating, and they saw the shake and they all wanted shakes. So, son and I got to stay & eat while everyone else left to get shakes. Honestly? I was still pissed that I had to eat BBQ, and not the sausage trio I was looking forward to. The Polite Pig BBQ was just ok. There was a TON of smoke flavor, but you know what it was missing? Smoke rings. The adults all agreed that there was an excess of liquid smoke added to steamed meats. It wasn't bad, just not "wow, that's some good BBQ" bbq, if you know what I mean. We're all meat snobs, and enjoy brisket on the Traeger often, and this wasn't even near what someone can do at home with a good technique. Coleslaw wasn't tasty, cornbread decent, chicken decent. Sister-in-law was excited for the brussels sprouts, but couldn't even finish them, she said they were not good at all. The beans were probably the best part of the meal - VERY tasty - SPICY (I get horrible acid reflux, so had to be careful of how much spicy I eat). We had a few pieces of meat left, so I wrapped it up as best I could - hubby enjoys a good cold meat sandwich, so I decided to save it. My son said his burger was GREAT! He gobbled it up very quickly, so I didn't get to snag a bite.

Andrew and I joined everyone over at D-Luxe burger, and it wasn't raining ... yet ... so we sat and everyone else enjoyed their shakes. Hubby got the Bourbon Shake, daughter got the strawberry. The bourbon one was tasty - and her strawberry was also very tasty (no change from when son got it - HA!). Brother's family had 2 eggnog shakes, a chocolate, and a strawberry. The eggnog shake drinkers said that it was more of a pumpkin pie spice than eggnog, that the flavor of the eggnog didn't come through. Not bad, just not what they expected.

We decided it was monorail time! We walked towards the bus depot for the Contemporary. Again, the more $$ the resort, the closer the buses ;-) It was maybe 2nd or 3rd in line. It took a LONG time to get over to the contemporary, maybe a 15-20 minute minute drive. We exited, and made our way up to the monorail entrance!

Word of caution. Well 2 words. Eyeglasses cases. I had in my backpack, 3 battery chargers, 2 eyeglasses cases, 2 umbrellas, GoPro, camera, and a small can of hairspray (the wind was INSANE and I needed to keep my hair down!). I set off EVERY single alarm at the monorail entrance. Emptied out the whole bag. 5 minutes later, we got on the Monorail & took it to Magic Kingdom. Nice little ride - kids were excited to ride it since the DLR one doesn't go far & you have to have a ticket to ride it. We exited MK and just sort of took in the entrance before we made our way back to the resort buses. By this time, it was nearing 4pm, so we wanted to get back to the Pop to get in an afternoon swim.

Back at the hotel, kids in the pool, it got super windy, chilly, and raining - not enough for poncho, but enough to get damp. We all said our goodbyes to the family (not knowing if we'd see them at Thanksgiving given travel discouragements), and plopped ourselves back in the room to go over the Epcot plan for Monday.

I printed out the list of foods for the Food & Wine festival. I went through & circled what i wanted to try. I kept trying to get hubby & daughter to take a look before we went, to no avail. FINALLY, I waved it in front of their faces enough they caved & started to get excited about food options! We had an idea what foods we wanted to try, a general feel for where we wanted to go when we got into the parks. It rained that evening, and well into the overnight hours, woke up to a gentle rain too. Luckily, it mostly subsided Monday morning.

 

[disneyseniors]

following along! Great family trip report,and can't wait fo rmore

 

[heybets30]

Monday, Nov. 9, 2020. Park Day 1: EPCOT. Park Hours: 11am-9pm

We didn't race out of the hotel to get to the Skyliner, the skies were icky & gray, and there was a sprinkle. Around 10:30, we made our way to the Skyliner. There were probably 50 of the 6-ft markers ahead of us when we got in line (about 10 minutes to get onto a Gondola). Naturally, it started to rain - not enough for an umbrella, BUT, remember - son is in a traditional cast, so we had to quickly get his arm in a plastic bag. As we made our way up towards the front of the line, it started to rain a bit harder, and was pretty windy, enough for the umbrella to come out. Still sticky outside - guess with 90%+ humidity - that's what you're gonna get!

Skyliner to CBR - CBR was PACKED. We had to go to the end of the Epcot line of people. It took easily 20 minutes to get onto a Gondola. We walked into Epcot about 11:10am. We grabbed our paper maps (someone said on an earlier thread somewhere they didn't see the maps - each park DID have paper maps!). We hopped into the first gift store on the left - daughter saw something that caught her eye. Naturally, there's a penny machine. Who forgot the container with quarters & pennies on the counter of the hotel!?!?!?! Yep, me. The CM at the register was super kind - let me break a $20, get a few $$ in quarters, and then gave me a quarters' worth of pennies. We got up the machine for the kids to press pennies, but the couple in front of us let us know it ate their $$ and didn't spit out a penny. Alrighty then, onwards & upwards! Turns out many of the penny machines across the park don't even take pennies! They are all credit-card operated!!

We turned LEFT towards Canada - no real plan, just ride the rides & eat like crazy all day! We saw the Joffrey's coffee cart & donuts. The kids really wanted a donut. We grabbed a pink one & a chocolate one (the pink didn't have strawberry flavor, just icing flavor). Happy children! And, just as we were sitting there, there was a calvacade with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, pluto! Off to a good start!

Honestly, I am so pale & burn so easily, I wasn't terribly upset that we didn't have sun out. It definitely kept the ickiness temperature down! Don't get me wrong - FL with 90% humidity & 80 degrees is still plenty miserable!! (DLR at 98 degrees, full sun, is more comfortable than this was in FL!).

We started walking towards rides, and again, rain came out. Heavy enough we wanted to duck in somewhere for son's arm. We found ourselves at the Figment ride. Posted time was 10 minutes, we walked right on. What a cute ride! As it was still raining outside, we quickly ran into the animated movie thing next to Figment. There were maybe 6 other families in the waiting area, we waited maybe 5 minutes to get into the theater. Rain had stopped by the time we got out. Hubby REALLY enjoyed this show. Afterwards, we were hungry. I REALLY wanted the Canada kiosk for food, so we headed that way. Near Canada was the Orange Bird Sippers - each kid got an orange shake on the side, and each got a sipper. Orange shake was ok, I dislike dreamsicles, so it's not my thing, but they enjoyed it as a small drink. I stopped at Canada & got the cheddar soup and the filet with mushrooms. The soup was really good. The filet was OUTSTANDING!! Only issue was all the tables were taken to stand, so we had some issues cutting it on our laps on the tiny plate with plastic silverware! The filet was probably the BEST food I had the entire trip.

We started walking towards the Land - figured we'd get over there to get on rides. As we approached - it started raining - again (this is a theme this whole day!). I haven't been on the Land ride since 1995, and honestly, I don't remember the entrance at all how it was back then. The ride was walkon. Here's my question, though - for those of you who have ridden it recently & it was walkon (time posted 10 minutes), why in the heck do they make you walk through all those switchback corrals??? That was crazy. Lady in front of me had to stop because she was getting dizzy going back & forth & back & forth x 20 times!. Another nice solid little ride. There were workers near the end stringing xmas lights on some of the plants as the ride was almost over. We all cheered them, it was cute.

Here's where hubby's fun began: Soarin. This is hubby's absolute FAVORITE ride at DLR (DCA). As in - if he doesn't ride Soarin during a trip, he is pissed & gets very, very grumpy. Line said 10 minutes. We walked right into a queue to board & were on the ride in 5 minutes. PURE JOY! The smells were much more pronounced than we've experienced at DLR's Soarin. Same ride, different ending. We exited, saw the line was still 10 minutes, so we got right back into line to ride again - same thing - only waited about 5 minutes to get seated, got left row 1, so no feet this ride!

It was pouring out, Andrew needed a beverage, restroom, so we hung back while hubby & Allison went across the way into a gift shop in search of a tie-dye bucket hat. We joined them in what seemed to be the main shopping store - it was pretty big. I got my Starbucks Epcot You are Here mug, Allison got a bucket hat, John got a Mickey bucket hat, son got a Monsters U hat and a plush Mike Wosowski- they had B1G1 2020 items on sale, so we got a bunch of those too. Had quite the haul, but all fit in backpacks no issue. Hubby fell in love with a Disney Train - $139, holiday themed. Huge box. Told him no way that's making it home with us on a plane. He was dejected. We stepped out & wanting something a bit more substantial to eat, headed to the events pavilion. We got a mac & cheese with boursin, the buffalo mac & cheese, the apple pie slushie, pierogie, sausage bites, and kids each got a nitro pop. Food was solid. The A/C was nice, and the opportunity to casually eat with mask off was appreciated. We hung in there a solid 45 minutes, as there was a very steady rain and poor Andrew with a plastic bag on his arm was getting so hot & sticky & uncomfy. (Note the stylish bucket hats on these two! Hubby used this hat the whole week over his Cubs hat ... HUGE!).


Another sprinkle passed, we made it over to Test Track. We LOVE Radiator Springs Racers. So we knew we'd love test track. Another ride I had been on back in 1995, so had high hopes. This had a 40 minutes time posted, and it did take about 30 minutes. There were a lot of "due to inclement weather, the Test Track may be suspended" messages throughout the line. We did get on, as we were buckled in, the guy manning the buttons, had a glitch. Nothing went. lots of flicking switches, calling people over to look ... about 4-5 minutes later, we were on our way! Ride Camera flashed - we assumed we had our first ride photo! Got off the ride exactly at 4:30 and enjoyed the orange Corvette in the showroom. Cool car! Hubby and son were in HEAVEN looking at the cars. Thoughts on Test track that I'll share after going to all 4 WDW parks ... Love the ride, no issues. But the part that goes over the parking lot, I'm surprised with all the focus on theming & being immersive everywhere, that there hasn't been some kind of theming to flow into the outside portion of Test track. Just - look kids, a parking lot!. Spoiled by Radiator Springs Racers.


Right outside the exit was the frozen Coke stand - where you can get a slushy & add a topping. Andrew was thrilled we said "yes" to virtually all goodies this day & he got a frozen slushy - cherry & blue raspberry mix with swedish fish on it as his topping. We had grabbed some nibbles along the way - nothing memorable. Hubby grabbed a Rueben bite thing near Test Track (Flames something stand)- this was one of the bites I was looking forward to most, but gotta say, I was SO STUFFED from just nibbling our way around, I couldn't take more than 1 bite. It was very good and would have enjoyed it much earlier when I wasn't stuffed! We did a bit more browsing, then rode Spaceship Earth. Cool ride! Our photo thingy didn't work in the car with my son at the end, but it did with daughter in hers. I really enjoyed that ride. It was also walkon. As it was getting darker, we realized we only had about 2-1/2 hours left in the parks, we earmarked Frozen would be the last ride to get on right before 9pm, so we headed over to Nemo.

Nemo was cute. It was total walkon. As a matter of fact, we were the ONLY people getting in line, or walking through the line until we got on the ride. Another head scratcher - why on earth did we have to walk the 30 switchbacks to get to the ride start!?!?!?! I cannot believe how long the lines could be for that ride given all the aisles to get up to it. Cute, but honestly we probably wouldn't worry about riding it again. Doesn't have the same charm as a Monster's Inc. at DCA where the lines can get insane, but the ride after is solid. We skip the Nemo subs at DLR - after doing it once, that's our "won't bother with it again" ride.

At the exit, FINALLY - we saw our first photopass photographer! Since I bought Memory Maker, I definitely wanted to get use out of it! She was awesome, took about 30 pictures - humored son too when he asked "can you take pictures of baby Yoda?" We got photos of Baby Yoda in front of Spaceship earth. We popped into the Camera Help counter - spent about 20 minutes in there trying to find the Test Track ride photo. Final response was it takes about 72 hours to load. (after the trip, it was the only ride photo not loaded ... turned out there was a camera malfunction between about 3:36pm and 5:04pm that day, NO ride photo). At this point, we needed to finish the rides - last one, Mission: space.

I read so many people wax euphoric about this ride, we really had high hopes. We walked right onto the loading area, and the light flashed "engineer, etc." other roles. We chose Green side, by the way. Get in, ride starts up, and all the blinking lights and stuff, we weren't exactly sure what we were supposed to do - all 4 of us focused on the lights on the dashboard, that we really missed what was going on the screen. It was over so quickly, we all came off scratching our heads - ummm what did we just ride? In fairness, I think if we had skipped the button-pressing, joystick stuff, etc., we would have enjoyed it more.

Son & I headed to ride the Mexico boat ride. I had forgotten that there was a little village in the pyramid. Cute boat ride, I don't get the story of the ride, though. It was completely walk-on. Would've just enjoyed a boat ride no story. Hubby & daughter wanted to go to Italy & Japan. we agreed we'd meet up near Norway at 8:40. We met up at 8:40 by Germany - I had the gratin, strudel, bratwurst. Son just got a hot dog to be honest. The gratin I thought would be phenomenal - it was tasty but overly salty. The strudel was a star. SO GOOD. Hubby & daughter got some good photos too in Japan & Italy - so at least there were more photos! They also popped over to France and grabbed a strawberry crepe and a chocolate crepe. Both were good. After MORE food, We got in line to Frozen at 8:50. line said 30 minutes. Honestly - we were up front to the loading deck in about 7 minutes, but then needed to wait about 12 minutes right at the front of the line while all boats got sanitized. (Overheard CM say to the sanitizing young woman CM - "seriously, the ride will shut down after these 50 people ride, they called for a sanitizing break now?"). Hubby was grousing a bit - he HATES Frozen, he thought it would be in-your-face and wasn't sure what the ride was all about, but after the ride ended, he was very pleasantly surprised and said he really enjoyed Frozen and besides Soarin may have been his favorite of the night! I rode it as Maelstrom in 1995, so remembered it very vaguely as the viking story.

Our feet were KILLING by this time, there wasn't much sitting down at all - most of the dining spots were stand-up tables only. We slowly, and I mean slowly, walked over to the Skyliner. We got off Frozen at 9:20, got to the Skyliner & there was a very short line - maybe 15 families in front of us - and it was moving quickly. We were VERY thankful at CBR that the Epcot exit moved right onto Pop line, and there were maybe 10 families in front of us for that. We were back in the room, shoes kicked off right at 10:10. We all agreed to get to sleep early, as Tuesday was Magic Kingdom day! In a nutshell, we all agreed that we would enjoy Epcot as a Park Hopper park - come ride Test Track & Soarin, get some food, and then spend time elsewhere. I would have definitely enjoyed strolling around the World Showcase on a nice day - no masks (maybe no children!) - and when everything is open. The masks & all the closures definitely made a difference in the enjoyment of the park.

And, we all foolishly thought - the crowds were nonexistent at Epcot, maybe that'll follow us the rest of the week! HA! Next up: Magic Kingdom!

 

[noodle73]

Following! Your title is ominous... I hope that you were able to have some good times despite setbacks.

 

[heybets30]

Tuesday, Nov 10, 2020 - Magic Kingdom

Well, can't believe it's been over 3 weeks since we were there! Where has time gone?

We woke up around 7:30 am for a 9am park opening. Hours today were 9am-8pm. We figured we'd meander over to the bus line at Pop around 8:30. In reality, we got there around 8:45, there were a TON of people on yet another gray, damp day. But - we did see there were maybe 15 buses literally lined up one after the other, and they were moving people on pretty quickly. I think we were moving in line the entire time & only took about 10-12 minutes to be seated & get on our way! We walked through the gates shortly after 9am, it really wasn't too much after official opening. We thought we'd head to Tomorrowland to get on our way.

A nice family agreed to do a photo swap in front of the train station right as we walked in - we took their pic & they took ours. As you can see - it is sort of ominous ... that sky!


Fair warning - here's where we made a key mistake - comparing MK to DL. It is inevitable with so many of the same rides, and we tried not to do it, but it really was hard not to. My apologies if anyone is offended that we like several DL components way more than WDW.

We stopped & took a few pics along Main street - how we miss it at Disneyland! But, it really does look extremely similar - dare I say - almost the same? after we ooooh'd and aaaaaaah'd at the castle, we started to Tomorrowland. Right over the bridge, we caught a photopass guy! There were so few at Epcot due to rain the previous day, we decided we were stopping for EVERY photopass photographer! We got some pics with him, but sadly, most weren't good - we were all dark, and the background was too bright. We didn't know that until later, though.

We walked right onto Buzz Astroblasters (SORRY) don't have my MK Map, and I don't recall the MK name of this ride. It showed 15 minute wait, but it really was walkon. We all decided we MUCH prefer the Disneyland version - the guns are much more fun to use since they come out of the holster, and the music more catchy. However, we do LOVE the photo option at the end of the WDW ride! That was way more advanced than looking at a screen & looking for your photo & then entering in an email address at DL. First time we really appreciated the whole magic band phenomenon! We got off Buzz, saw that Space Mountain was only about a 30 minute posted line. But, hubby wanted to check out Carousel of Progress. We assumed it was like Innoventions, but were surprised it was a "show" and not a walk-thru! We enjoyed sitting for a bit & watching. Kids were bored - "why all the old stuff". We got off, Space was still a 30-minute line, We jumped right in the space line!

It seemed like we were constantly moving in line, and much like DL Space - you just keep queuing til you get to the front! This was one of the few rides that was very accurate to time - posted 30 minutes, I think we were on in 27minutes. The single rider rocket is an interesting concept. We liked it - BUT, noticed there was virtually NOWHERE to put our backpacks! The thing basically took off with me still trying to get my backpack to go down under my legs! We all liked it - I rode this back in the late 70s as a kid, and that's what got me hooked on Disney ... Space Mountain. Still my fave ride (the DL version). Another However - the Disneyland one is just so much better. Having ridden the DL one probably 50-60 times easily, and I haven't been on WDW Space since 1995, the DL one is just better. WDW Space is not bad, reminded me of why I loved it as a kid, but as an adult (even my 2 kids & hubby), said they LOVE the DL one, this is just ok.

When we got off Space ... you know what we saw? SUN!!! Seriously, SUN!!! So, we stopped - grabbed a snack, a water from the backpacks & all applied sunscreen. It was such a welcome peek of the sun since we hadn't seen it since arriving in FL 3 days prior! Mind you - this is the ONLY time we applied sunscreen the entire week. It was that cloudy. After a slushy of some kind was purchased, we decided to meander to Adventureland. We found a popcorn cart right over the Tomorrowland hub walkway by the Walt statue area. My daughter REALLY wanted the white xmas bucket to go with the green one Santa got for her last year. It was MUGGY, I had purchased the Uniqlo masks at suggestions on this board ... gotta be honest, they were so hot. I had to switch to the Disney masks I had purchased online from Shop Disney. They are thick, but seemed to breathe, I found the Uniqlo ones felt suffocating on me. Also rotated in the 32 degrees ones from Costco that come in a 4-pack. Hubby and I seemed to fight over the clean ones! Anyway - POPCORN. We had cold water bottles, so we popped in a Crystal Light pink lemonade powder packet to wash down the popcorn. They do request to stay stationary when eating/drinking, so we plopped ourselves down & snacked!

remember what I said about blue skies? Well, this was it. I think we had about 30 minutes in the afternoon, then gone. I had a suspicion that if I wanted my picture by the castle with ANY blue sky, I needed to do a selfie immediately.

We walked toward Adventureland ... saw a photog so we stood in line. Got some magic shots - plate with Mickey cookie on it, Tinkerbell. We decided we'd walk towards Jungle Cruise! We LOVE Jungle Cruise & we heard that it was longer than DL, so we were PSYCHED! Well, with the little blue skies getting smaller, we were in line (line read 40 minutes), and we were in line maybe 5 minutes, when they started announcing "bad weather is approaching, the ride is shutting down". Great. So, as we stood there wondering "do we head to Pirates like the 50,000 other people in line?" As the thought bubble was over our heads, it started to sprinkle. We walked towards Pirates (which isn't awfully far), the line was pretty far back. There was a photog right there, so we had him take some photos - magic shot was a pirate ship in a bottle. Then, as we sauntered to Pirates line, I was putting on a plastic bag over Andrew's cast ... "just in case", then BOOM. Not a sprinkle, not rain, DELUGE. The kind that'll soak you within 20 seconds. This isn't a picture during the deluge, this is the "getting a tad heavier rain" portion. We were in line for Pirates, Andrew & I stuck with umbrellas - for the most part, rain was coming straight down, so my sleeves got a tad wet from umbrella overrun, and the bottom of my shorts too. John & Allison opted for ponchos and umbrellas. There were SO MANY people who were obviously caught unprepared. One completely and totally SOAKED dad used his poncho to cover their stroller as we rounded a corner. The line read 50 minutes, it took the full 50 minutes to get to the front. Pirates was seating groups in front and in back. We got front row, another family was in the back.

We were not expecting Pirates to be so short! The DL one is longer & bigger - unless you've been on it, it's hard to explain. It's just bigger - like the cannonballs at the beginning. This was another ride where we just all got off with a "huh" - definitely not as good as DL. This ride difference is very obvious. By this time, it had stopped raining, and Jingle Cruise was just getting going. We hopped in line - said 40 minutes. This one was an HOUR. Good grief - the line seriously didn't feel like we were ever going to get to the front! Just back & forth & back & forth. Good news - no upstairs portion of the line like at DL. Our feet were SORE - not from walking, but all the standing & shuffling 6 feet, standing, shuffling 6 feet. Our cruise took off & the driver was funny - as expected. Hubby and I were the only ones laughing on the boat - I think there were maybe 3 other families. Oh well, we enjoyed it!!! Jungle Cruise/Pirates area was really, really packed. VERY busy. Seemed like a really crowded day at DL. Hubby and I looked at each other "they are letting more than 25% capacity in here ...."

As we exited Jingle Cruise, we were all HANGRY. It was 1:30. I had read Pecos Bill was a good lunch spot, so we sat on a ledge outside Pecos Bill & did a mobile order. Allison & hubby ordered the fajitas to share, I got the beef nachos, Andrew got a cheeseburger, and we got the holiday dessert taco. Our timeframe for pickup was 1:40-2:00, I got an alert at 1:35 we could click "I'm here" ... only time during trip we got the alert we could get order early. By 1:50, our food was ready! Kids found a table, we got lots of water cups to refill our water bottles. Andrew liked his burger, I thought the nachos were good, Allison & John were "fajitas are ok" - there actually wasn't enough for 2 people to share the fajitas, so John nibbled off mine too. We assumed these would be huge portions like we get at DL at Rancho del Zocalo - they are not. These are single-diner portions, with maybe 2 bites for someone else. Hubby wasn't terribly hungry, so it worked out & we had nothing left. He was able to munch a few nachos, took some of Andrew's side tortilla chips & used the guac that we paid $2 for with the fajitas.

Big Thunder was up next ... line said 40 minutes, it took almost exactly 40 minutes. How can you not love Big Thunder? Awesome ride. Really didn't make DL-WDW comparison because it felt like the same ride. I will say - the queues for most of the MK rides blow away the DL queues. They really do. The theming is awesome. Splash was down, so made our way over to Haunted Mansion. This is one of my FAVE rides. It is actually kinda cool to see it untouched - we always see if with the Nightmare before Christmas overlay at DL. the line was insanely long. Time showed 40 minutes. I won't go into how long it took to actually get on the ride, but we were treated to 2 breakdowns. Not cleaning, breakdowns. They didn't tell us to leave the line or anything, so you know what we did? We made ourselves comfortable. Look how close were are to the front of the line! At least the floor was carpeted & it was air conditioned in there!


Sometimes the original without any "makeup" is more awesome. I loved this as a child/tween too. I remember begging to ride it, and getting stopped when we were laying back in our doom buggy. Just such good family memories with this WDW ride. Even Steven for WDW-DL versions. Both spectacular. Only bonus is the photo opp at MK!

FINALLY - got on & afterwards we decided we needed a snack. I almost forgot to take a pic of our ears!!

Splash Mountain was next. I think because it had gone down about 1-1/2 to 2 hours earlier, there wasn't a crowd to get on it. Line showed 30 minutes, we literally walked on. Barely gave me time to get Andrew's plastic bag on his arm! As there were 4 of us, we got the whole log to ourselves. Kids sat together in front row, hubby & I took one row each at the back. Barely got splashed. Kids got sprinkled, no one was soaking wet. We were all glad we rode it a "last time" as Splash! (Given we don't know when the changeover is happening at DL). None of us were starving, or ready for dinner, so we just made our way to Fantasyland.

We saw Peter Pan had a line of only 15 minutes, so we got in line! (N.B. The one ride we ALWAYS skip at DL is Peter Pan. We've ridden it with both kids, but won't wait the 45+ minutes for it, so we don't get to ride it, basically ever). We hadn't realized Andrew literally hasn't ridden it since he was 4 months old! He didn't remember it - always just knew - "we don't ride Peter Pan". So, we are glad we got the chance. The queue is tight & winding, but we more or less got right on. What a sweet ride. Glad we rode it & glad Andrew got to ride it. Honestly, we will continue to skip it at DL unless they were magically able to institute FP on it (really never see that happening! - though a virtual queue would be good for that one!).

A note about Peter Pan area ... there was a LOT of congestion in the walkways. One of the first times during the trip we felt there wasn't a "respectful" distance able to be kept from others. It was so tight near Small World, people were bumping into people, sitting side-by-side wherever they could find a seat over there too.

A friend suggested Mickey's Philharmagic, so we got in line for it. We waited a good 25-30 minutes. Really cute. Everyone enjoyed it. Unexpected & cute. The seating is very respectful so you aren't near anyone else's group/family. By the time we got out, it was dark - so pretty with everything lit up! The castle started with solid colors, and huge beams of lights overhead. Very impressive! We hopped on Winnie the Pooh - one of hubby's FAVE rides at DL! So cute! Line said 30 minutes, I think it took an actual 10-12 minutes.

We decided we'd go for it - The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Sign said 70 minutes & the line started so far back it was crazy. Hubby walked to get himself into line for Seven Dwarfs, kids hopped onto the Tea Cups - a favorite. They got off, hubby had made it close to the tea cups. We joined him, and I'd say honestly - we got to the front of the line in about 25 minutes. What a fun ride! Moved quickly, kids LOVED the photopass stuff we got with it - 2 photos & the video! All enjoyed it!

BY this time, it was close to 8pm, so we started making our way to the front of the castle to get some more photopass shots & night pictures. The castle is gorgeous all lit up, that's for sure! We saw 2 different photos - one on the side of the castle, one in front of the statue (none right in front of the base of the castle, though). We got TONS of photopass pictures! Some magic shots too. I'm SO GLAD I upgrade my iphone8 to the 11 pro max the week before we left. I waited for a good deal & for the 12s to be released. The photo quality is so much better & I didn't feel I needed to lug my point-and-shoot with me! (I lowered the quality for uploading here).


We were all exhausted, so after some pictures, we meandered out to the buses back to Pop. As I was on the bus, almost at Pop, I ordered a pasta with marinara for Allison, and we also ordered a mickey cupcake and the tie-dye cheesecake. Allison waited for the food as we literally inched our way back to the room. We had snacks & crackers, cheese that we had in the room, so hubby, Andrew & I made due with nibbles only since we literally snacked all day at MK.

We all had a blast. Our feet were tired. Again, if we were walking, it wouldn't have been as bad, but literally felt like we spent half the day just STANDING. Was super-bummed I couldn't get a foot soak in the Pop tubs - it sucked that they have the sliding doors on the tub, you can't sit on the edge & soak your feet. I even brought good "stress relief" BBW soaking salts with me. Oh well. We made do with peppermint foot rub, we all rubbed our feet, threw socks on, and laid back.

OH! I almost forgot. So at Epcot the previous day, I used my Disney Visa card to make the $160 purchase to get the discount. It was NOT the card linked to the magicbands. Actually the cashier told us to break it into 3 purchases so we could get the appropriate B1G1 deals. On the third purchase, the machine literally ate my card. It came out ripped up. Needless to say, we weren't happy. Flash forward to Tuesday afternoon, making a purchase towards the end of the night, it's a $60 purchase, whip out my Disney Visa, and she can't run it manually - their machines weren't allowing the swipe, it had to be chip. So, I couldn't use it. Hubby decided this was horrific, all my fault, and wasn't speaking to me. It was at the end of the evening. Mind you - we've been married 15 years, having a spouse not speak to you sometimes is perfectly fine. He was pissed. I called Chase, and they couldn't get me a replacement card guaranteed before we left WDW, so I said that was fine. Apparently, that was the wrong answer. "the whole reason we get lots of extras at the parks is because of the Disney Visa discount, now we can't get any". Hubby and I fight MORE at Disney than anywhere else. The kids know it, we know it, it happens, he usually screams & yells over something not that big, then everything is fine the next day. While they all rested, I went to do laundry for us at Pop - in the pouring rain - I opted to sit inside for "alone time" at the food court while the wash was going, rather than be in the room with Grumpy. Kids were fine with him - he was mad at me for not getting a replacement card faster, not them. In fairness, by Friday, Allison & John were trying to find him a Grumpy shirt (at least he recognizes it - even if after-the-fact!!!).

IN HINDSIGHT - FYI - You can use ApplePay if you have the card scanned into your phone. We didn't realize that until Saturday morning when we were checking out, the CM at the gift shop told us we can enter in the Visa to the phone, that counts as using the Disney Visa! DUH!!! I also realized I could've switched over the DisneyVisa card to the MagicBands. I kept my airline card there, as I had a bonus offer, so thought I'd go for some extra miles instead when we weren't spending enough to get discount. Really - most purchases were $20 here, $10 there ....

Wednesday - Disney Hollywood Studios! I'm the one who was going to get up at 6:50 to make sure we got a boarding group. I was nervous about it, and thankful we could do it from our hotel room!!!

 

[heybets30]

Wednesday, November 11, 2020 - Disney Hollywood Studios! (Hours were 10am-7pm that day).

So, we had booked this trip BEFORE the announcement you could get boarding groups for ROTR from your hotel room at 7am. We had also read about the possibility we wouldn't get from Pop to DHS on the Skyliner in time to all check in before 10am to log into MDE to try to join a queue. We had decided that if we didn't get a Boarding Group, we'd be ok. We would eventually be able to ride ROTR at DL down the road. We were THRILLED to hear we could attempt a BG from the hotel room!

6:50am - I'm up - didn't sleep that well as I was worried I'd oversleep & not get the Boarding Group! Anyone else like that? I was up til about 2am while everyone else snoozed. Couldn't turn my brain off, no matter how exhausted I was. Everyone else was sound asleep. 6:59am, watching the clock like a crazy woman, we got it! Boarding Group 37. I did no practice beforehand, just logged into MDE, clicked join - and got that lovely confirmation I did screenshot it, and once I read the whole thing making sure I didn't do something stupid, I let out a "yahoo" of some kind ... enough I woke up the other 3. We decided to go back to bed til 8am. We meandered out to the Skyliner at 9:45 for a 10am open. Naturally, it started sprinkling. You don't think we'd start a morning with sun & no rain, did you??. It was SO MUCH NICER getting to DHS with the skyliner than Epcot ... got on at 10am, got off at CBR minutes later, simply got in the line for DHS gondolas - probably 20 people ahead of us, no ridiculously long queue to get on the Epcot Skyliner. It is a very quick trip to DHS, so we were through the gates right around 10:12 am. The line for Mickey & Minnies Railway was insane, but we knew, for Allison - the one & only place she wanted to be was Tower of Terror. That is her FAVORITE DISNEY RIDE. Ever. She was upset when DLR turned it into Guardians, and is still bitter after a few years even. No matter what ToT line time was marked, it was going to be Ride 1 at DHS. We did find a photog taking pics with ToT in the background, we stopped & Allison WILLINGLY took about 50 photos with him! Then, it was off to get in line for ToT. The sign said 50 minutes. We got in line, sprinkling, rain, then would stop & was ridiculously humid & gross out. Behind this mask is probably the BIGGEST smile she had all week, knowing she was about to ride ToT.

This is where we encountered the first almost "issue" between a CM and a guest in line about mask compliance. We were still in the outside portion of the ride. And it was moving so incredibly slow, I can't even begin to tell you how slow. A CM came out & announced "sorry for the inconvenience, ToT is running, but at 1/2 capacity. One of the Towers is not functioning, so it's going to be longer than we expected". Something like that. So, already reduced capacity, to cut in half of what it was. Regardless, we were in it for the long haul. As we were close to the exit from the gift shop, there was a family in front of us, probably 3 older teens, parents. Heard mom & dad used, so safe assumption it was a family. We didn't notice anything, but the CM goes up to the family, not very loud, goes, "sir, you'll need to get your mask on or we will have to ask you to leave." the Dad responds "I'm on a phone call, I will when I'm done." CM said "sir, it's not an option, you need to have your mask on whether you are on a call or not." The look that the mom shot the dad spoke volumes. The dad kinda put the mask on - he held it with his hands while he finished his call. The CM stood right there & waited for the guy to finish & made sure the mask went on.

Finally - we get into ToT. The left-hand side cars were not being used, just the right hand ones - at the fork near the loading zones (go straight for the left-ones, make the right turn for the right cars). Allison was bummed she didn't get the whole ToT story, but man-oh-man, we miss ToT!! That was so much fun!!! And what a cool element the way the cars move - Definitely different than DLR!! Everyone walked out of the ride smiling, that's for sure! Love the Photopass treats too with the ride!! By this time, it was 11:40 - I kid you not. It took forever & a day to get on ToT. We all had our "rides", and this was Allison's. It was getting ridden even if it were a 3-hour wait. (John's was Soarin, Andrew's was Splash, mine - Space Mountain). We slowly made our way to Star Wars area, as my MDE showed groups like 22-35 something like that were boarding. We stopped for photog in front of Mickey & Minnie's railway for some photos, and got the alert our Boarding Group was Ready! We made our way to RoTR. Very subtle entrance - we literally almost walked past it, until hubby stopped to ask a CM.

There was no time posted, we just got in line & walked ... and walked .... and walked ... lots of queue fun stuff, but since we were moving, we really didn't get to take it all in. The line moved pretty swiftly, and I'd say it took about 20 minutes from when we entered until we got towards the front of the line. The queue is hard to space 6 ft - they've got some areas where you stop instead of turning a corner in the queue, and the next stop is maybe 15 feet away, but they space it so you aren't standing next to other groups too. A lot of stopping, peeking around corners, seeing if you can move up.

Ok, no spoilers here. RoTR was PHENOMENAL. I mean that. SO cool. The room with the stormtroopers - wow. FYI - there's no stopping & taking pictures, I literally took one as I was walking. I think pre-everything, you could stop & take a photo? I'll just leave it at this ... Wow. actually, I'll add another Wow. That has to be quite possibly the most incredibly thought-out ride I have ever been on. (we hadn't ridden Flight of Passage yet, and we all agreed this was better). Quite possibly one of the best rides you could possibly ride - so immersive! Allison LOVED it (and she doesn't really enjoy Star Wars!). What did she love about it? "Mom - this is awesome, I should get a job here - I can be MEAN to everyone!" The CMs really get into their roles. "Did I tell you you could look at me?" "Apparently, some of these prisoners don't know gray from orange." It was funny. A little girl with light-up sneakers got a little scared with a CM spoke tersely at another group ... the CM quickly turned it and asked the girl to show her the shoes & that she'd make a great First Order Captain, and would she consider joining the ranks? The young girl started giggling & also got into it. So, they are "mean" but respectful to those a tad more sensitive ;-) I cannot say enough superlatives about this ride.


We left RotR in awe & very hungry! We first grabbed the round bottles of pop - a Diet Coke & a Sprite. We were near SMugglers Run, but we have ridden that one several times at DLR, and really wanted to try other rides. I ran over to the restroom while family sat & enjoyed our cold beverages - I can't remember what it said, but there was something pretty funny near the restrooms - was near the Muppets, and the restroom had something funny near it. Anyway, we all decided it was time to EAT. But, since we were near Star Tours, we got on that first. Ride was more or less walk-on, I think it took 7 minutes in the queue, then we had to wait about 5 minutes to get into a pod. I think it was virtually identical to one of the DL screens. We all agreed for the most part, we had seen that one before.

We opted for Backlot Express as it was close to where we we exited Star Tours. I got a time for right then & within 7 minutes, we were walking up to the counter to get our food. Hubby and I split the Cuban Sandwich and the order of Chicken Strips. Kids each got a burger. Solid lunch - no complaints. Cuban Sandwich was delightful, actually! The Chicken strips were BIGGER than we expected. We were all full when done for sure! Andrew is a HUGE Star Wars fan, and he wanted to look in the shop. While we were eating, we got weather alerts that rain was coming through - and as we sat eating, the wind picked up immensely. We thought it would pour again. With the cast on Andrew's arm, I ducked into the gift shop with him, John & Allison were going to scout out Slinky Dog Dash line. We got Andrew a few pairs of Star Wars socks, and a yoda magnet and some other yoda stuff. He fell in love with the remote-control Baby Yoda ($69). I promised Andrew we'd consider it, but it might be hard to bring back on the plane. We had seen it all over MK, so we knew we could pick it up Friday at MK also. (Spolier - I ordered it from Shop Disney along with the train John wanted - 10% off with Disney Visa AND free shipping. Couldn't beat that. It arrived on 11/22, so about 2 weeks after I ordered it).

John called me to tell me Slinky Dog Dash was down (almost a given with the winds & potential threat of storms that were expected, but did not come through). He said he & Allison were jumping on Toy Story Midway Mania (think it's the same name as DLR??). So Andrew & I headed over there too. We got in line for Midway Mania, it was walk on ... by walkon, again, it means 5-7 minutes of winding through the queue then getting on ;-) Same exact ride as DLR. It's one we often skip as the line gets ridiculous at DLR. We got off, caught up with Allison & John- they said "no way are we waiting in line for Slinky Dog Dash". It was posted at 70 minutes.

At this point, I was ready to chop my feet off. I've never wanted a scooter so badly in my life. I have tendonitis in my right ankle. I thought my tendonitis was pretty much "taken care of" - i.e., haven't needed any treatment, boot, ice, medicine, anything for a year. I pretty much forgot I had it - until we had to walk up the little stairs at Midway Mania. OMG. I was almost in tears. My ankle/foot at this point were ridiculously swollen. Oops!! The 90+ humidity did not help. It was gross out, and I was HURTING.

We thought it would be a good time to head over to Chase Disney Visa photo op location (we all limped over)! We were the only ones there, so we got our digital photos done- FUN! The photog was the same young lady who had taking our pics around noon in front of Mickey & Minnie's! She was very excited that she recognized us. Right next to the photo stop is a relaxation zone. We all sat for 15 minutes, masks off & enjoyed the breeze that came through the covered space. So relaxing. Hubby had to take a work call - one of 2 during the trip - and the call was for 4pm ET. We saw Mickey & Minnie's ride was posted around 40 minutes, so we got in line! Hubby found a spot where he could see us & he could take his call. Our feet were KILLING us at this point. The queue for M&M is kinda goofy (no pun intended). It is really just go-with-the-flow & maybe we can just make people spiral around. We mad it towards the front in about 40 minutes, hubby joined us right at the entrance before going in the building. His call didn't happen between disconnects, bad connection, so he had to reschedule for Friday 4pmET. The Runaway Railway was super cute. We all enjoyed it. We all decided we needed to sit a few minutes - with snack in hand, of course ;-)



The third pic above is the Toy Story Calvacade getting ready to come down the street. Notice to the left - throngs of people, no social distancing going on. Across the street was better, but as the calvacade came down the street, the people filled in & you may as well have called it a parade. We kept moving along as we were headed to Rockin Roller Coaster. We also stopped in a few stores - Allison fell in love with the 2020 Neon Loungefly Disney backpack & we tried to find it. Didn't. Got over to Aerosmith ride. Andrew was going to sit out because of his broken arm. CM at end of line said - "mom, you wait with him - just tell the CM when you get to the line that you are doing Rider Switch". It was a HOT MESS is all I can say. One CM said "wait in line together", the other CM said "nah, we'll scan your Magicband to do rider switch". Turns out, we ALL needed to be together to finish up the line. It went quickly. Line said 40 minutes, we were through the indoor parts within 20 minutes. So, here's what we were going to do - John ride with Allison, I wait with Andrew. Allison gets off & I ride with Allison.

We were STUNNED at the CM at RocknRoller Coaster. The only time we thoroughly questioned the sanity of a CM. Us 4 getting to the CM who assigns lanes for the coaster seats: me: We'd like to do rider switch, please as my son can't ride. CM: "Nah, he's fine - he can ride with a cast." me: Actually, he has a broken wrist, so won't be able to hold on to the restraints. CM: "Really, it's ok, he can ride, he'll have fun." Me: No, really, he won't be riding it.

Andrew and I were sent down a hallway thru a backdoor (After CM rolled his eyes) to the gift shop to wait. We were there maybe 2 minutes, when John & Allison came back on the ride. They get off & both in unison "there's no way Andrew can ride this ride." So, Allison and I went back through the door & were put on the ride. Wow. What a fun ride! It is intense - you get maybe 3 seconds and you're already upside down! There is NO WAY Andrew could have ridden this ride safely. He would have seriously injured his wrist as he would've held on for dear life. Having not ridden it before, we didn't know if it was a smooth or rough coaster. He could ride Incredicoaster if we were at DLR as it is so smooth & he knows the ride and he doesn't need to hold on. This was a fun coaster for the rest of us, but he doesn't love upside down ones & would have been holding on for dear life. He was REALLY excited to ride it before he broke his wrist, something about it being in the dark & not anticipating the turns had him gung-ho over it. We made him sit out & are SO GLAD we made that decision. We got in the line around 5:20pm, and at 6pm, we were all talking about "last rides" as DHS closed at 7pm. We agreed we wouldn't try Slinky Dog Dash. Looked cute, but Allison begged for ToT again. We got in line at 6:10 maybe and were off the ride at 6:40. We decided we'd all hop in line again - and got in another ride, We were on the ride at 7pm. SO WORTH IT!! And, anytime Allison can't stop grinning & talking about how happy she was that she got to ride ToT, is a good time we lingered and took some shots of ToT as it was lit up so pretty!


We looked in a bunch of stores - found out the hard way that DHS "you are here" starbucks mugs are ONLY available at the Starbucks ... didn't even see a Starbucks to be honest. So, I got the tall ceramic mug from the store that they did have. No luck finding the Neon 2020 Disney Loungefly backpack.

We made our way to the exit ... looks JUST LIKE DCA!!! Or, I should say, DCA looks JUST LIKE DHS!!! So many similarities, it is strange knowing it is the same - but different.

We saw the skyliner, and it looked like an ok line around 7:35. Nope. Man we were wrong. Hubby was wiped out. He needed to sit. Allison and I walked to the back of the skyliner line. And we walked, and walked, and walked. Man oh man was that a long line! There's a reason there are vending machines towards the middle of the line! We were back at Pop in our room about 8:25, if I recall. It was a long, long, long line to get on the skyliner. Thankfully, the CBR connection was modest - we only waited about 3 minutes after getting off the gondola to get on a Pop gondola! We were exhausted, and literally did NOTHING that night. Nothing. Our feet were SO SORE!!!!! My ankle was looking like a balloon. Before I sat down at the hotel, I limped & hobbled to the ice machine, filled our container with ice, hobbled back to the room, filled a ziploc with ice, laid on the bed with my feet up on the wall, and iced my ankle. The swelling went down quickly, thankfully. I put some icy hot on it about an hour before bed (so I could wipe off any residue before sleeping). Literally 3+ weeks later since we were in the parks? My ankle is still slightly swollen & I have to sleep in my boot again. Close to better, but part of why WDW totally beat us.

Also side note, I was VERY happy with the amount of Photogs at DHS! Every time we saw one, we took pics! Mind you, about 90% of our photos are all the same at each park, I wanted to make sure we got every single penny out of Memory Maker ;-) We paid $169 (since paid ahead of time), and I didn't want it going to waste! I think at the end of the week, we had 240 pictures.

BIG OH MY: we were watching the news in the hotel room. This nugget comes on: "and, in a statement by the CEO (?) of Walt Disney World confirms that they quietly recently increased capacity to 35% in all the parks". We noticed it. We kept saying, there's NO WAY this is 25%. DHS was crowded. Everywhere. There wasn't anywhere that we didn't feel like it was a normal day at DL. It seriously made us question how many people they let in during a normal time, because we felt crowded. Moreso at DHS than at MK, and we thought MK felt crowded! At least at MK, it was concentrated in 2 areas - Adventureland and Fantasyland. The hub felt a bit more open & less crowded than we expected.

And, still 2 more park days in a row to go!! Little did we know that Animal Kingdom is the largest Disney property at over 400 acres. Yowza! That's what was on tap for Thursday. Animal Kingdom. Also on tap? Huge storm according to local newscasters.

 

[footballmouse]

I have tendinitis in my hip/leg so I feel ya when you said you were hurting . I can't imagine trying to do any of the parks with that kind of pain.

 

[tundra1]

Our trips to WDW overlapped a bit! We arrived on the 10th and left on the 18th. It had been 22 years since we were last there, and a lot had changed. but none of us had been to Disneyland, so no comparison there. I am looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

 

[sheri18]

Following..great read so far....we are going in January..

 

[heybets30]

Hadn't realized I left off over a month ago! WOW, time flies! It was just 2 months exactly ago that we were in the parks!

I left off with Thursday, November 12, heading to Animal Kingdom. As a reminder, none of us has been to AK. We knew it was a "larger" park, but wow, didn't realize it was WAY bigger than WDW!! So, the sheer size of the park also plays into how our day went. The hours that day were 10am - 5pm. There were 3 main things we wanted to accomplish at AK - and by george, if we only got those 3, we'd be happy. 1. Ride Everest. 2. Ride FOP. 3. Find anything/everything Simba for 11-yr old OBSESSED child (yes, I will humor & spoil him with ALL the Simba-things while he's still this interested).

We didn't race to the Pop bus lanes. We did get there around 9:45, and I think we were walking in AK right at 10:10. It was POURING, not a drizzle, not a casual mist like all the other mornings, it was POURING. Pop let us stand under the awning by the buses, so by being late, we didn't have to wait in a huge line & get soaked while we waited (I'm imagining earlier crowds would've had lots of standing in rain).

Here's what our entrance looked like to AK (and this is after entering for a few minutes, and letting some of the downpour move out) - this isn't my group, but I thought I'd snap a photo to remember the weather! We went thru maybe 3 maps just trying to get our bearings as each map got wet, wetter, wettest! And, after a few minutes of just looking around this area, we found our first SIMBA!!!! OMG, was Andrew excited. Mind you, we took photos in front of this spot 3 times during the day. Each one, he insisted that he get maybe 20 of "just him"! And, remember - he had a cast on, so he had to have extra protection of a plastic bag over the cast. Yep, that sucked.
:

We had heard that the safari was awesome first thing in the am, and also awesome after a rain. So, we headed over there.... trekked is a good word for it! We stopped along the way for a few photos, but wanted to get over there quickly. The time for Everest was "closed", and FOP was like 75 minutes, safari showed about 10 minutes. Well, it was walk-on. We got the 2nd-to-last & last rows in the safari vehicle. We got a TON of photos of the animals, and I do see how some people say the motion got them queasy. Luckily, none of us get motion-sickness, but after a rain, there are more divots in the ground, and they said a bit bumpier, and MAN were we jostled! HOLD on to your phones if you're taking photos! I thought for sure my hubby in front of me would drop his brand new phone over the edge of the tram if we hit a bump! Here are some animal pics! There were SO MANY!!! It was feeding time also, and the guide was great, and said we literally got one of the best mornings - no sun, rain had just slowed, and feeding time.




And, according to Andrew, the piece de resistance: MUFASA!!!!! By this time at the end of the safari, the clouds were kind of parting, but we really didn't get much more than a brief minute of sun the whole day.



After the safari, it hadn't rained again, and the app had showed Rafiki's thingy had just opened up. So, we headed over, not knowing what it was! So, when you get there, it looks like it'll be a really cool train ride. It is a festive train ride - but - you MUST disembark at the Conservation land (sorry, my terminology is kaput). And, once we actually looked at the map, we learned that this is where the animation academy was! YAY! John & Allison were DYING to do it. We got there at 11:02, and the next animation class was 11:45. We walked around inside one the animal building - there were vets doing a CT scan on a giant lizard (iguana, I don't recall). So that was interesting. My ankles were completely swollen from the heat & the tendonitis acting up. Andrew doesn't like Animation Academy at DLR, so we decided he and I would sit & watch the outdoor animals ... they were slowly coming out into the "yard" to walk around. There were plenty of benches to sit in an outside small ampitheater, and so I popped some ibuprofen, put my feet up, took my sandals off & massaged the heck out of my feet! It was STICKY HOT out, there was cover over the seats, so that helped a tad.

Around 12:15, we were ready to move along. Waited about 10 minutes for the return train at the depot. We saw the Everest was opened!!! YAY! It was tiny sun trying to peek through, but also misting. We made our way over, and Andrew decided to do the Wilderness badges. So, he started a booklet & we stopped at a few spots along the way. We all needed a snack, so we saw a spot overlooking the Circle of Life Tree, that basically serves 2 things (again - forgetting the names!!!) - potstickers and french fries. We got an order of both to share. They were both DELIGHTFUL! We really enjoyed them - and they were perfect for a quick pick-me-up before riding Everest. Andrew and I were limping along - and we were super-close to Everest, but we noticed john & Allison weren't near us ... we stopped, then we see Allison walking towards us, and she's got something under her shirt. She yells "surprise" to Andrew, and presented him with a SIMBA POPCORN HOLDER!!! Of course now we had a container of popcorn (we always get them on the side, never filling the holder). Luckily, I had a ziplock bag & we dumped the pocorn in there, put Simba in a backpack, and headed to Everest.

Sidenote - the Simba popcorn holder, the last 2 years, is the ONE souvenir I said I'd look for for Andrew if we ever went to WDW. It was Allison who caught it out of the corner of her eye, I had totally forgotten about it while we were there. Go figure. We had one HAPPY kid!!!!

Back to Everest - the ride was literally walkon. Thought the queue took a few minutes to get through, we got to the front & there was a train empty & waiting. So, I had watched videos of this before we went to ensure I was willing to let Andrew try it with his broken wrist. Looked like it wouldn't be a problem. He was also excited to ride the most expensive coaster ever made. Off it goes. After the broken track part, I wasn't leaning all the way back in my seat. Holy cow. (Since this is family-friendly, I will not type the words that came out of my mouth at the time) ... I got horrific whiplash. The force of that section of the ride, WOW. Andrew LOVED it. We all LOVED it. I definitely pulled a neck muscle trying to get my head on the headrest - so word of advice - get your head all the way back & LEAVE IT THERE. That ride was AWESOME!!! Andrew asked right away if he could go back on, I uncharacteristically said I just needed to sit a minute. I wasn't sure what happened, I did love the ride, but wow, the sheer force of movement on my neck made my head feel 1000 lbs. I would've gladly ridden it many more times, I do say that earnestly - even with the head whip, the ride was FANTASTIC.

We all started getting hungry, so we headed over to Flight of Passage area. We heard a Disney guide tell her group "I know a shortcut to Flight of Passage" - so we hightailed it to basically stalk-follow her group. FOP looked like it would be super short, so we got in line. Mind you - it takes forever to walk up to the ride itself. I would HATE to see it when the lines are full - wow, they really allow for an insane amount of people to be in that line on a regular basis! I was disappointed there wasn't a blue guy - I thought he was part of the pre-show?? We haven't seen the movie, so the pre-ride stuff was lost on us, and none of us were interested in it really. The line only stopped when we were waiting to actually go on the ride.

We got our glasses, got on the ride. Wow. Also Fantastic. everyone loved it. Definitely super-cool ... we called it "soarin on steroids". The technology was amazing. Once we got off, we definitely needed to eat. I had read that people LOVED Satuuli Canteen (I probably got that wrong). So, we did our mobile order - John got the beef & shrimp bowl, Allison got a chicken bowl, I got the beef & chicken bowl. Andrew got a bagel dog (may have been a pretzel dog). We thought the food was good, I wouldn't highly recommend it, but wouldn't say skip it. We all decided it was the sauces we didn't love - we each got a different sauce, and they just weren't great. We did get the dessert with the blue mousse and passionfruit curd ... that was good.

Found a few photopass locations, so we got some pics - there was a tiny bit of blue in the skies!!! We decided to hop in line for the Boat since we were still over by FOP. Mind you, about 20 people - all diehard WDW folks - all told me ... "skip the boat ride if it is longer than maybe 20 minutes". Line said 20 minutes. It took a miserable 50 minutes. My unfiltered thoughts. The setting is really cool. We don't know the Avatar story, so that part was lost on us. It was nice. It really is a super-quick casual, no thrill, boat ride. Glad we rode it once. That's one of those rides we probably wouldn't do again unless the line was EMPTY. Oh - I say the line was miserable because there were so many crying, cranky kids, tired, possibly hungry, none wanted to be waiting in that long, long, long line in the heat & humidity. No one in line seemed to be "psyched" to be riding it. Strange feeling as we went through the queue.

We skipped the River Rapids ride because of Andrew's cast. He really was SO TIRED of being stuck in plastic. And, all the same friends said Grizzly Rapids is way better at DLR (longer), and virtually the same, so we skipped that. Before we left that land, Allison asked if she could get one of the slushy drinks - there was some drink stand (could also get alcoholic) at the exit of the gift shop after FOP. We got a drinky - no booze - to share. Found a ledge, all sat, took turns removing the masks to sip. I offered to the kids - we can ride FOP one more time - OR, walk all the way back to Everest to ride that again. Kids opted for FOP - only because it was literally right next to us, and the though of walking all the way back to Everest made our feet hurt just thinking about it. By this time, it was getting closer to 4pm, so the 3 of them decided to hop back in line for FOP, I decided to watch all the bags, put my ankle up again & just SIT.

They were on & off pretty quickly, so around 4:20 we started waling to Dinosaur. Slowly walking. Like super-duper incredibly slow. Stopped in a shop here & there. Got more photos in front of Simba. Andrew had already gotten completely decked out with Lion King lanyard, pins. I'm embarrassed to say I spent more in that shop than almost any other one.

Dinosaur. We got in line at 4:50. Looked like it wouldn't take that long at all. The group in front of us with young adults had a young gentleman who kept pulling down his mask. He looked like he was going to pass out from the humidity. He was fanning himself, I was about to offer him a water, when one of his group did the same. We got our own car, there were only about 10 people behind us. Friends said "oh, it rides like Indiana Jones". I don't love Indiana Jones just because of the stop/start aspect & all the "jiggling". I enjoy it, but I don't make it a must-ride, it's a "if we have time, I'll ride it". The 4 of us weren't so sure afterwards what to think of Dinosaur. It was sort of fun, but short. Didn't really follow the story, so it was just a "meh" on our list.

Off ride at 5:10. Park was officially closed. One last stop in a gift shop for a Simba coffee mug, and we were ready to head to the busses. Though, we did stop & take some pics at the xmas tree in front. There was no wait for a bus to pop ... we walked through the line & a bus pulled up. PHEW! Our plan was to get to Pop, rest a bit, and head to DS to try to find the neon 2020 Loungefly backpack that Allison REALLY wanted.

In a nutshell, if we go back to WDW, we're not sure we'd rush back to AK. We really enjoyed the Safari, LOVED Everest, LOVED FOP. We might enjoy walking around & just enjoying all that nature - if it weren't raining & so stinking hot & humid someday too. AK would be a park-hopper situation, and honestly, if we all had to choose 1 ride only, it would be Everest. Everest was just phenomenal. So cool.

Friday the 13th was last park day, 2nd day at MK!

 

[goodeats]

My trip overlapped with yours for a bit. I was there 11/3 - 11/10 and that deluge on the 10th was definitely memorable! Also, you were lucky your day at Epcot was so empty. I was there on Saturday the 7th and it was a complete zoo all day.

I'm a runner and I have to pace myself over a week at Disney. Doing more than a few days back to back in the parks wears me out - rest days are necessary!

 

[heybets30]

I left off on Thursday after AK ... we were headed back to the hotel and then going to go to Disney Springs. I am DETERMINED to finish this Trip Report!

So after we got on the bus from AK to Pop, we were back in the hotel by about 6:10. We had promised ALlison we could go to DS to look for the 2020 Neon backpack. We sat on the beds til 7pm, BARELY able to move, we did rouse ourselves & got to the shuttle to DS. The line was quite long for what we thought was an average Thu night. But, it was one of the nicer nights - not raining, seemingly clear dark skies, AND, cooler! I even put on a light sweater (I mean SUPER light) - the buses were FREEZING! We got off at DS, and holy cow (those were not the words I used), it was PACKED. Seriously difficult to walk without bumping into others! Allison & John headed to the Disney Store - there was a 20+ minute wait to get in, and unfortunately, the Employee wouldn't answer any questions about what they had or if they even sold an item.

I decided this would be a good night for a drinky! I had my refillable Corksicle with me & so I made it over to the Wine Bar George quick window. I ordered the Lime one, I confirmed "oh, refills are $11, correct?" I assumed she responded "yes". But, somewhere in there, when she handed me the credit card receipt to sign for like $17 - I was "ummmmmmmmm .... how is tax on $11 totallng $17?" Her response was this ... "well, it was for the prosecco you ordered." I absolutely 100000% didn't order Prosecco! I don't EVER order wine out. So, it required a manager to come over to make a refund then recharge, so took about 20 minutes to get my drinky. I tried the Lime whip ... it was good, but would've been better when it was scalding hot during the daytime .. was a bit too refreshing for an evening drinky. I really enjoyed the moscato one our second day there, should've had that one again. I ended up dumping 1/2 the drink, John thought it too tart to finish it for me.



No success finding the backpack anywhere. We were all tired, frustrated at the sheer amount of people every single place you could sit or stand, so we decided to order burgers and bring them back to the hotel. 4 cheeseburgers, no fries, no drinks, cost ~$50ish from DeLuxe Burger. We grabbed the bag, walked back to the shuttle bus (Again, WAY away from the entrance to DS), and then got back to the hotel. We took turns eating at the table - since we couldn't have more than 2 at the table at a time. Andrew's burger accidentally was served with pickles. I asked no pickles, literally completely plain burger. Sadly, he was bummed as he HATES the taste of pickles, and you cannot get that flavor off a bun or patty. Mine was missing something too - I forgot, but they were good burgers. We made it an early evening (~10pm ish), and everyone fell asleep except me. Of course not me, I had to prep for our last park day.

And Friday, the last park day. Friday the 13th. MK for a "long" day ... it would certainly seem long as our feet were literally about to fall off!!!!

 

[kimberwee]

Just popping back in on the Dis and wanted to see if you ever made it to DS for that "Boozy Dole Whip" we talked about on my last trip report. SOOOO glad to see that you did and I LOVE the white cup!

Looks like you had a good trip

Have a magical day!