"What are we doing today?"- September/October 2016 Trip Report UPDATED with Pics&Video

[Shrfleen]

Great TR! I'm also a big fan of the Finding Nemo Musical and agree it's very entertaining. Can't wait to read about your last day!

Thank you! Hopefully I'll have it up this weekend. I can't wait to go back!

 

[Shrfleen]

We started our last day a little later than all of the other days, we had a 9:35am breakfast reservation at O’hana. They were very busy, but we were able to check out the Polynesian before and after our breakfast. The food was good, just the basics and the characters came quickly once they made their way around the large room. We finished our meal and waited for the characters to arrive but once they did we were out. The monorail was down so we headed to the boat dock to hop over to the Magic Kingdom. We waited for a good 20 minutes, no boat but the monorail was operating again so we walked back and took the monorail instead.

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It was big day at the Magic Kingdom everyone was celebrating 45 years! We knew it would busy but dang, it was busy! Like the time we went for Christmas and we were late to the party so it was busy. We didn’t let that stop us. We met Mickey, Merida and rode Pirates of the Caribbean (I didn’t think it was that great of a ride). Our last day seemed to be the hottest day on the books for our vacation. Once we finished everything at the Magic Kingdom, we headed home to Wilderness Lodge for an afternoon break before we finished the day at Hollywood Studios.

 

[VACamm]

Great trip report! I LOVE your Belle ears!!!

 

[Shrfleen]

Great trip report! I LOVE your Belle ears!!!

Thank you. I got them from ModernMouseBoutique on Etsy. All of my ears (minus the sequins ones) are from that shop.

 

[Shrfleen]

We made it to Hollywood Studios just in time to eat a late lunch at Starring Roles, well Sarah had lunch the rest of us weren’t hungry. After that quick bite to eat Mom and Hannah went and did some shopping while Sarah and I attended Characterpalooza. Minnie in her classic red dress (we didn’t get to meet her), Prince Ali, Evil Queen, Geppetto and Robin Hood were all there. Once we were done with Characterpalooza we booked it over to Beauty and The Beast.

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I am a huge Beauty and the Beast fan so I could not miss this! It was a very good show. I enjoyed seeing all the characters and wish they would do meet and greets. I want to meet Chip and Clocksworth! Following our trip to Beauty and the Beast, Sarah finally got to watch the Star Wars stage show. Mom and Hannah ended up leaving early since the weather was a bit warmer than the beginning of the week. Sarah and I grabbed some frozen lemonade and made our way to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. I’m pretty sure we walked in a bit late but it was nice to sit down and cool off while watching something truly impressive. Toward the end of the show Sarah started to feel a bit ill so we decided to go back to the resort before Star Wars fireworks. As we pulled into Wilderness Lodge the skies opened up and let down.​

I stopped by Roaring Fork to grab something to eat and took it up to the room. The Southwest Chicken sandwich was delicious! I think everything I had at Roaring Fork was good. Once we were done eating we checked the radar for the rest of the evening and there was no sign of the rain stopping. The fireworks were cancelled so we went shopping in the Mercantile and cashed in all our remaining snack credits.

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Since it was storming we packed up our bags and decided to call it an early night. While we were getting ready for bed we heard an alarm going off. It wasn’t going off on our side of the building but we looked out on our balcony and saw it was going off in a room across the courtyard. A few minutes after that someone knocked on our door and the other doors on the floor and told us to evacuate. We don’t know if it was a cast member or just a guest but we followed the stairs to the first floor and went out the back door. All of the cast members were standing outside, there was a firetruck and we found some other guest standing out by the road so we stood with them. Maybe 5 minutes later it started to rain a little hard and the cast members began going inside. I went up to the security office and asked if it was safe for us to go back inside and they said yes. We said we didn’t know how to get back since we were in a part of the building for cast members only so one of the cast members lead us all back to the elevators. It was a strange way to end the vacation.​

I hope you enjoyed my trip report! I will have one more post with random thoughts and tips coming up! Thank you all for reading!​

 

[Shrfleen]

Random thoughts and tips:

• The bus tracker at the resort was great! They need it at the parks!
• If going to Wilderness Lodge during construction, request a room near the elevator.
• Table service meals are great! Especially if they are Pre Park opening. However, if they are during the day they can take up some park time.
• I'm never driving down again!
• Don't want dessert with your quick service...switch it out for a snack. I used mine for extra bottled water.
• Roaring Fork was delicious.
• Epcot, in my opinion, had the furthest bus stop for Wilderness Lodge/Fort Wilderness guest. Followed by Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.
• Boating to Magic Kingdom in the morning was peaceful.
• Some people don't pay attention. Be prepared to duck and weave in and out of crowds.
• What is with the stairs in Toy Story Mania?
• We didn't plan for many breaks but we took them. It was very nice to just sit down and rest.
• Check out the clearance section in the China Pavilion.
• You will have a lot of fun on the rides...don't listen to the horror stories.
• Use the My Disney Experience app for quick Fast Pass+ changes.
• You can get a lot accomplished during a Pre Park breakfast or at rope drop. Sometimes waking up early is worth it.
• Staying on property is worth it!
• Keep hydrated!
• Your feet will hurt if you don't walk a lot. Stretch before and after you go to the parks. (I wish I had stretched)
• Your plans will change. Make a list of must dos, do in time and can miss attractions/entertainment/characters.
• Arrive early for fireworks/parades if it is important for you to watch.

 

[VACamm]

Wow... it looks like you got some great Disney souvenirs! I LOVE the photo frames!

 

[Shrfleen]

Wow... it looks like you got some great Disney souvenirs! I LOVE the photo frames!

Thank you! I found them at the Wilderness Lodge Mercantile

 

[Sim4242]

Sarah and I were the only ones in our party to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and this wasn’t our first time. We loved it so much, we came back this year! We entered the park around 5:30pm. We knew that in order to meet Jack and Sally or the Seven Dwarfs we had to arrive before 7pm. We made our way to meet Jack and Sally and the line was wrapped around to the bridge! We were told it was at about a 2 hour wait, so we waited. We knew that the line was going to be long but it moved pretty quickly. We made it through in about an hour and half. The character interaction was pretty awesome. As you can see in my picture I have a GoPro and Jack and Sally found it very interesting.

Our impromptu talk about me being a witch. Can you tell I'm bad at impromptu? ​

Following our meet and greet we made our way to meet Belle and Gaston. I’m a huge Belle fan and need to meet her in blue dress with my Belle ears (I packed them in my bag and changed into them just for the picture). It also was a fantastic character interaction! Belle noticed the ears right away and we talked about how the basket even had books in it. She told Gaston he had to see those and he said I must not read them since they were on the back of my head. Long story short I said something like “I don’t read picture books” and Gaston won the conversation with “Well of course you don’t read picture books”. Following that meet and greet we made our way to the Big Top to do some merchandise shopping. Then our friend Karen needed some food. Following dinner we made our way to the candy trails. I’m a little surprised I didn't’ get as much candy as last year and we went to more stops. However the candy this year was a much better selection than last.

Note to self: Think and then respond to Gaston ​

Following our candy stops we made our way to the hub for Hallowishes. We didn’t have a great view (trees) but it didn’t really matter because we had seen them before. We then moved a little to get in position for the Hocus Pocus Spectacular. We enjoyed the show, it was very entertaining. It was almost time for the Boo To You parade. We made our way down Main Street and watched the Headless Horseman usher the parade onto the streets of the Magic Kingdom. We didn’t stay for the entire parade. We had a pre park breakfast at the Animal Kingdom the next morning. One thing I would change if we decide to go back to for a Halloween party is to spend more time on character meet and greets and less time trick or treating/shopping/eating dinner.

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Join me next time as we visit Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios!
P.S The picture from Hallowishes and Boo To You Parade are from our MNSSHP trip in October 2015.

Can I ask how long the wait was to meet Belle & Gaston and what time you met them? Thank you!!!

 

[Shrfleen]

Can I ask how long the wait was to meet Belle & Gaston and what time you met them? Thank you!!!

It was during the first parade. Shortly after we arrived they took a break and then they took another one right before we met them. We waited 30-45 minutes because of the breaks.

 

[thumper*]

Hi from another Hoosier, from Indy here. Wow great TR. I loved everybody's ears. Funny when we stayed at AKL on our last trip when we arrived back to the resort via bus from Epcot. The bus couldn't drop us off at Jambo house where we were staying because an employee caught an area of the loading dock on fire. So they dropped us off at Kidani Village. After standing around in an over crowded building that literally had people sitting everywhere including the walk ways we decided to just walk the 10 min to Jambo. Walk in and it appears that it's business as usual and nothing happened. It was a very surreal night. Thanks for taking the time to write up your great trip.

 

[Shrfleen]

Hi from another Hoosier, from Indy here. Wow great TR. I loved everybody's ears. Funny when we stayed at AKL on our last trip when we arrived back to the resort via bus from Epcot. The bus couldn't drop us off at Jambo house where we were staying because an employee caught an area of the loading dock on fire. So they dropped us off at Kidani Village. After standing around in an over crowded building that literally had people sitting everywhere including the walk ways we decided to just walk the 10 min to Jambo. Walk in and it appears that it's business as usual and nothing happened. It was a very surreal night. Thanks for taking the time to write up your great trip.

Thank you for reading! Yes it was very strange during the fire alarm. I guess if there was a real emergency we may have received a call to the room or cast members on each floor letting us know where to go. Hopefully we have smooth sailing on our next trip in November.

 

[thelittlemermaid2]

Thank you for this report! I really enjoyed it!

 

[Shrfleen]

Thank you for this report! I really enjoyed it!

Thanks for reading!

 

[sarahothomas]

I love your interaction with Jack & Sally! Great trip report

 

[Shrfleen]

I love your interaction with Jack & Sally! Great trip report

Thank you! They were great! One of the best interactions of the trip.

 

[daisydee43]

I really enjoyed your trip report! Glad you had a fun trip.

 

[Shrfleen]

I really enjoyed your trip report! Glad you had a fun trip.

Thank you! We look forward to more great adventures at Disney World.