Who says Disney is just for the kids?! An adults trip (with a little bit of work sprinkled in) - February 2024

[MamaMouse0920]

Sunday, February 25th: Day 2 - Hollywood Studios









I think you can tell by both sets of pictures that we were still feeling sleepy, lol!

We still had a teensy bit more time before that magical 20-minute-early rule for our ADR so we strolled around and used our MagicBand+ to activate some of the leftover 50th statues. It was generally a hit or a miss throughout the trip whether or not they did anything/made sound but sometimes we would just be walking and our Bands would vibrate, but after a quick scan of our surroundings we wouldn't see any statues? So it seems like they just like to keep us on our toes

At 6pm we checked in at The Hollywood Brown Derby (stopping at the restrooms near the hostess desk to wash our hands first) and were seated at a teeny table for 2. As we walked to our table, we passed a large booth with a group of guests, one of them was legitimately sleeping with her head resting on her folded arms on the table. Her tennis shoes were also kicked off under the table, blah!

Our waiter was super nice & attentive, and even though our table was less than ideal (it was so small it didn't fit all of our food/drinks! We had to set my drinks & the bread basket on the nearby ledge) it was still a great time! We were feeling sleepy & ordered a round of drinks hoping this would perk us up a bit (plus some self-medicating for these painful knees). I ordered the martini flight and Matt got a Jai Alai beer. The martini flight wasn't on the menu but I'd obviously heard about it and inquired with the waiter who said it was no problem at all and the bartender would whip it up for me. Sweet! I can't remember the details but it basically was a regular vodka martini (dirty), a citrus gin martini, and a pomegranate martini.



I sipped on those martinis suuuuuper slow- my favorite being in this order: 1. gin citrus (I don't even like gin, usually!) 2. pomegranate 3. dirty vodka martini. I usually love me a dirty martini but this one was barely dirty (hehe) & I actually ended up asking the waiter if it would be possible to get a teeny shot glass of olive juice which he said again, was no problem at all and came back with basically a whole glass of olive juice, ha!! It definitely helped make it more palatable for my taste. Matt's Jai Alai was good, but we're no stranger to that beer so it was definitely a safe bet (probably a little traumatized from the Three Daughters 'IPA' from Enchanted Rose a few nights prior!). For dinner, I ordered the Famous Cobb Salad --

Our Famous Cobb Salad​

Spit-roasted Turkey, Bacon, Egg, Tomatoes, Blue Cheese, Avocado, Classic Dressing. $25

And Matt got the Filet --

Filet Mignon*​

Mushroom Risotto, Roasted Asparagus, Black Garlic Butter, Madeira Sauce


Him subbing the risotto & asparagus for fries. I made the mistake of having the waiter toss the salad table-side which was dumb because I don't care for tomatoes and wish I would have picked them off when they were in a neat little row instead of all mixed in together. I also should have snapped a pic when it was super pretty but the waiter was standing there waiting to toss it and the idea slipped my mind, whoops!



Everything was absolutely delicious - the salad was HUGE and I left probably half of it behind. I really underestimated the portion of this salad!

The waiter asked how we were feeling about dessert, me rubbing my tummy and grumbling that we were WAY too stuffed but a few moments later he whisked by the table and set down a free slice of their grapefruit cake & two glasses of champagne! What! Happy anniversary to us!!

Grapefruit Cake​

A Brown Derby Original. Vanilla Sponge Cake, Grapefruit Syrup, Cream Cheese Icing



Overall we had a great meal & a great time- the martinis (+ champagne) did in fact help perk me up & gave me the necessary strength to keep hobbling around the park And the cake was delicious!! Matt generally does not care for fruit flavored desserts but even he enjoyed this & actually probably ate more than I did! After tax & tip it was $130 so a spendy meal to be sure but worth the price, IMO. Stinky Foot Sleeping Neighbors & all.

As is customary for us at this park (well, we've done it once before this day and we decided it was a good idea so now we're making it customary, ha!) after dinner we headed over to Muppets 3D to have a relaxing show while we digested our dinner a bit more - it was 7:15pm by this point. While waiting to enter the theater, we were standing by a dad and his 14ish year old daughter where we overheard the dad ask her "where do you want to sit?" to which the daughter replied "in the back of the front". The dad was like

and Matt & I busted out laughing. We chatted with them for the rest of the waiting time and throughout the rest of the trip kept using the quote "back of the front" whenever we were trying to figure out where to sit. The daughter justified her response by saying (in true teen fashion) "UUUGGGGHHHH dad, you KNOW what I mean! Like the middle toward the front!!!"

We found our seats (in the back of the front) and had a great show, as always!






After Muppets we walked over to Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run & were with a family of 4 - Matt & I slated to be engineers- something I was A-OK with because I don't love the level of responsibility with strangers & my poor flying skills! All we had to do was push flashing buttons and I'd say we did a fine job I took zero pictures, only video so you'll have to use your imagination! We were off MFSR by 8pm and moseyed around a lit-up Galaxies Edge for a bit, enjoying the scenery. We thought about trying to walk up to Oga's but decided against it and ultimately crossed over into Toy Story Land instead.

We had at some point (or maybe even just then, I can't remember!) made a LL for Alien Swirling Saucers so scanned in to that at 8:05 where we were met with a loooong line (unlike Slinky Dog Dash, this LL did not work out beautifully!)



We had a great time getting scrambled around by those little green aliens, again squealing and giggling like a bunch of kids.

At some point earlier in the day we had agreed that we would keep modifying our Tower of Terror LL for later and later to try to get to ride it at night/in the dark-something neither of us had done! So we had a ToT LL for around 8:30pm. We decided to grab a beer to share & a Cookie Num Num (to be shoved in the backpack for later) from Market. We figured since it's a lengthy trek into the Hollywood Tower Hotel we would have time to drink it between the two of us. We also decided to skip Fantasmic this trip- neither of us were feeling it for some reason, even though we both really love it!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Sunday, February 25th: Day 2 - Hollywood Studios

As we passed the Fantasmic area, we noticed a PhotoPass CM without a line so of course we stopped- us setting our beer under her tripod so it wouldn't get knocked over by the masses!








I don't understand why PhotoPass pictures turn out so poorly in terms of quality- even when you download the High Resolution versions. You pay that much money and they turn out so grainy!!

We entered the Tower of Terror LL beer-in-hand:



We ended up needing to chug the beer just before we entered the hotel lobby, once again looking like this after it was done:

We had an AMAZING ride, definitely worth the constant modifying to experience this amazing ride in the dark - highly recommend!



We were off by 8:45 and stopped for one more PhotoPass capture! The CM asking "do you want to stand or sit?" something we'd never been asked before, so we opted to sit! She directed us where to go, and these are some of my favorites from the trip!






We exited the park shortly after, around 9pm. As we approached the bus area, we noticed there was a Coronado bus waiting so we RAN (ouch!!!) to ensure we made it on and didn't need to wait 20+ minutes for another one. Turns out the painful running was unnecessary as it must have just pulled up or something and we sat there seated for a couple minutes (me cursing the heavens that I ran & made my knees worse for no reason). We made it back to the resort by 9:15 and after a dose of Icy Hot & more ibuprofen were off to bed by 10pm. Man, between the naps & the early bed times we were getting a lot of rest this trip - though it certainly didn't feel like it!

TOTAL STEPS: 21,070

Up Next: Monday, February 26th: Day 3 - Conference (day 1) & Epcot

 

[SimplyGoofy]

You really packed in a lot at Hollywood Studios! I’m glad you enjoyed your meal at Brown Derby - the grapefruit cake and champagne was a nice touch.

I completely agree - Tower of Terror at night is amazing! I always used to schedule a Fastpass+ right after Fantasmic - we’d walk out of the theatre and right onto the ride.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Monday, February 26th: Day 3 - Conference (day 1) & Epcot

We woke up around 6:30 despite our 6:58 alarms (gotta get that VQ + ILL for Guardians of the Galaxy!) so we laid there chatting for a bit until it was time for both of us to complete our missions - Matt in charge of the VQ and me buying the ILL. My conference was to start at 8am and we weren't allowed into Epcot til 1pm (we had discounted "after 1pm" tickets courtesy of the conference) so I made the ILL for 1pm precisely- obviously wanting to ride that first before we start eating/drinking our way around the world. Turns out Matt was TOO speedy and ended up getting Boarding Group 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With an estimated callback time of 9:11am. Whoopsie.



I eventually showered & got ready, Matt walking with me down to the conference area (him walking, me limping) so he could get a coffee from the Barcelona Lounge (I had heard that it was some of the best coffee on property). The first day of the conference went well, the first breakout session from 8:15am-9:15am, and then it was the first Keynote Speaker from 9:30am-11:00am. While I was in that morning's breakout session, I texted Matt and asked him if he could do me a huge favor and check out one of the gift shops at the resort & try to get me some chapstick. I had brought SunBum SPF 30 chapstick which should in theory do the job but despite my almost constant applications the previous 2 days my lips were SO dry & chapped - it was embarrassing! I made a mental note to WAY increase my water intake & thankfully Matt was able to get some better chapstick and I was relieved when he met me to "deliver the goods" during the brief break in between the morning breakout session & the keynote address.

Oh also, Matt said the coffee was good but not the BEST he'd ever had and actually said he preferred Joffrey's, ha!!


One of the higher-ups in the company had passed away earlier this year, and they had a great tribute to him before Jason Arday (keynote speaker) took the stage. I didn't even know the guy but the way they talked about him and his impact on his learners made me cry! What it must say about this man to leave such a legacy that people are moved by you, without ever having interacted with you before.




Has anyone heard of Jason Arday? I had not prior to this conference, but his speech was moving & motivating.


I won't get in into too much detail about the conference since it's not Disney related at all but basically this day it went til 11:00am, and I headed back to the room shortly after 11am to get ready for Epcot! I had an apple (from our Walmart grocery order) for lunch as well as a good size chunk of that Cookie Num Num from the night before. Not the heartiest of lunches, but it would get me through for the next hour or so anyway!


We hopped on a bus to Epcot at 11:30, arriving to Epcot at 11:42. Uhhhhhhmmmmm, whoops?! We aren't allowed in for another hour & 20 mins! I had stupidly thought "well let's go check out the boardwalk since we've never been!" and I knew you could walk there from Epcot...................not realizing that you walk there from the International Gateway, which we could not get to without entering the park............. so that was a bust. I suppose we could have hopped on a bus to DHS and then the skyliner to the International Gateway but I assumed that by the time we did all that, it would be 1pm anyway so a waste of time/walking. Instead we decided to get on the monorail & go to the Polynesian. We wanted to check out more of that resort, and I figured I may as well treat myself to another Spiky Pineapple!



We arrived at the Poly a little after noon, and unfortunately the Tikki Terrace was not open so we hoofed it back inside and went upstairs to Ohana. Obviously not having an ADR but figured we may be able to grab a drink at the bar? It was as we were walking up the stairs that I realized in horror I had left my wallet back at the hotel! I hadn't been carded once this whole trip but you know it would have happened the ONE day I didn't have my ID so we played it safe and had Matt get in line for the beers while I grabbed us some chairs near the entrance of the resort. He got us each a Kona Longboard and we had a relaxing time sitting in those soft chairs surrounded by the beauty of this resort.



After we finished our drinks, we hopped back on the monorail, scanning in to the park almost exactly at 1pm. Perfect timing! We immediately scanned in for our 1pm ILL, snapping these "line selfies" at 1:15pm





Shortly after taking these excited pictures, a CM announced overhead that the ride was down, boo! But it came back up within 10 minutes, and we were in the teleportation room around 1:45 so about a 30 minute wait overall. We were chatting throughout the queue, wondering which song we would get. So far we'd only had:

-Conga by Gloria Estefan
-One Way or Another by Blondie

and we reeeeeallllllyyyy wanted September! Our wedding anniversary is September 20th and we (I) have been known to change the lyrics to "Oh do you remember? The 20th night of September!" so I thought it would be fun to get that song on our 10 year anniversary trip



No luck though- we got Disco Inferno by the Trammps which was new for us so still exciting! We were off by 2pm & I was ravenous by this point and needed food PRONTO- I did not care what, but I knew I needed to eat soon or I'd start getting hangry.

We started World Showcase in Mexico but did not get a margarita yet, the lines were too long (Epcot was NUTS this day!) so we made our way to Norway (had to stop and get a pic of my favorite troll!)



We eventually made our way to China where I decided to grab some Egg Rolls:



I was so hungry I ate them before we even found a table/chairs Granted I was ravenous so anything probably would have been delicious, but I thought these were really tasty!!! I'm pretty picky with my egg/spring rolls (remind me to tell you guys later about when I was mega-pregnant with DD5 mega-craving egg rolls & subsequently sent my ENTIRE family on a massive egg/spring roll hunt and taste tested over 20 different egg rolls in one sitting) but I was very pleased with these! Not too cabbage-y, which is one of the "no no"s on my egg-roll list.

Matt being his picky self instead opted for a hot dog from the Refreshment Outpost. Only Matt would get a HOT DOG in Epcot. Sigh, this guy I tell ya. After he wolfed that down (and even shared some with me because I was still starving, ha!) we continued to mosey throughout the World Showcase, stopping for our next snack/drink in Germany.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Monday, February 26th: Day 3 - Conference (day 1) & Epcot

In Germany we split up- Matt getting in line at the outside beer cart & me going inside to Sommerfest to grab a pretzel bread pudding. The cashier had handed me my receipt and instructed me to wait at the little booth area behind her for my bread pudding, but as I stood there I turned around and tossed my receipt in the cashiers trash can which was basically overflowing with receipts. Once the booth CM noticed me standing there, he asked for my receipt. Uh. Whoops. I immediately turned around and glanced at the over-flowing trash can and said ".... I'm so sorry, I accidentally threw it away! All I ordered was bread pudding" and thankfully he didn't put up a stink and handed me a pretzel bread pudding anyway.



IT. WAS. SO. GOOD. The perfect balance of crunchy & soft, sweet & salty, cold & warm, it really was just perfect. When I went back outside Matt was still in line so I stood to the side and mom-style fed him bites.

Once he got the drinks, we grabbed a seat in the sun on a nearby bench facing the water (so great views!). We ate the bread pudding pretty quickly but nursed our drinks.

When we had drank about half, we started walking- stopping for pictures in Italy.









We had strolled by Via Napoli but I remembered someone saying that the pizza you can get without an ADR is NOTHING like the pizza you get inside so we decided to skip it. We were going to stop for a selfie in front of the fountain but there was a woman who was doing a full blown photo shoot (we stood and waited politely, thinking it would be done in a moment... no luck and even after leaving Via Napoli they were still shooting away!) so we left Italy and headed to America.

In America we caught the tail end of Voices of Liberty which was cool & I wished we had seen/heard more. We checked out that inside area, stopping briefly in that little museum for Native Americans. My knees were hurting so bad by this point, Matt felt awful and kept asking if there was anything he could do-- which there wasn't anything I could think of other than him running to the front of the park to rent me a scooter, ha!! So I continued on painfully.

We stopped for pictures in Japan but didn't eat or drink anything there --






I love these pictures but this poor CM was NOT feeling her job this day, ha! She had the grumpiest attitude and you could tell she just did not want to be there - a stark comparison to the other CM we had encountered this trip! Previous trips we've met people with similar attitudes but this trip, this was our first less-than-magical encounter. I felt bad for her!

After Japan we walked through Morocco, not really stopping in that country much at all. Matt took a brief potty break in France, where I grabbed a seat watching the Skyliner- it was so peaceful & relaxing!

 

[footballmouse]

Lol, I'm so competitive I would have taken great joy in beating Puffy Jacket guy and Star Wars girl also.

I will forever now always refer to the middle as the "back of the front". Classic!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Monday, February 26th: Day 3 - Conference (day 1) & Epcot

We were feeling hungry again by that point and remembered how delicious the fish & chips were at Rose & Crown so Matt got in line for their QS spot while I attempted to locate a table. No luck with the table, so we took our fish 'to go' and grabbed a nearby bench to enjoy our snack. I love malt vinegar with my breaded fish so I made sure to ask Matt to grab some for me -- which he did, but they were packets and didn't ask for a cup or anything so I had to attempt to pour just a little bit of vinegar on my chunk of fish, it was a nightmare and I spilled a lot on myself so if you were in Epcot on 2/26 and walked past someone reeking of vinegar...........yea that was me. The fish & chips were also SUPER hot and I burned my tongue on that first bite! Man, this fish was out to get me, I swear.

Fish & Chips: 1
Bethany: 0



After UK we basically just walked through Canada & re-entered Mexico, this time wanting that margarita! We both got in line at Choza de Margarita (totally forgetting that I didn't have my ID! Thankfully I was not carded) ordering a frozen Fiesta Margarita (a combination of strawberry, classic lime, and mango loco $14.99), they filled it SO full it was spilling everywhere - I had to drink some before we left the area and still ended up being a sticky mess! Between the fish/vinegar and this margarita I was really a mess, ha!




We grabbed a seat across the way since a family had just left their table & we happened to be standing nearby (I'm telling you the crowds were at Epcot this day!).







I was in desperate need of ibuprofen (though I don't think it was even touching the pain), so I opened my travel pharmacy & said "you know you're old & in Disney when you take your ibuprofen with a margarita in Mexico!" Gotta do what you gotta do.

Shortly after we left our table for the next family & entered the Mexico pyramid (would you call it a pyramid? I guess I'm not sure), hoping we could take our drink through the line since the standby wait said 15 minutes. The CM at the entrance to the ride stopped us and said we could not, so we moseyed around the shopping area while we finished it (unlike beer, you can't exactly chug a frozen margarita without resulting in massive brain freeze!). Once we did, we joined the line at 5pm and were off the ride by 5:11 so it was definitely a walk on despite the (now) 20 minute estimated standby! Such a cute (relaxing) ride!

After Gran Fiesta we decided to fill our popcorn bucket and head back toward Guardians of the Galaxy for our VQ. We had stopped at a Blue Umbrella basically as soon as we entered the park and told them about our Group 8 VQ that we had loooong missed (since we weren't allowed in to the park til 1 based on our ticket type) and the CM assured us that we can enter the VQ whenever AFTER the group had been called.

We scanned in around 5:20pm and as soon as those automatic double doors opened behind the tapstiles/CM, were stopped by the line. HOLY SHOOT. We had never seen the line this far back. About 5 minutes in to our wait, we overheard the mom & dad in front of us talking about the situation - saying something about "an hour and a half".

I stopped them, apologizing for eavesdropping but -- what?? And she said that the CM warned them that it was an estimated 1.5 hour wait. WHAT. No one warned us!! She commented that Disney needs to figure out a better system for managing these VQ waits/boarding groups and that people joining the queue long after their group is called results in these crazy waits. She's not wrong! I told her that we were one of those scenarios & that the CM explicitly told me we could ride whenever! The people in line behind us had mentioned that GotG was down to one operating track because the other one was down, which added to the hefty wait times. We ended up chatting with the people in line before & after us for the full hour and a half, snacking on our popcorn along the way and eventually entered the teleportation room around 7pm. Oof.

When the doors opened and crowds all RAN out of the room (we were on the right side of the room, we're no rookies but still don't feel the need to run) Matt & I eventually came to a stop at that window where you can look down and see the cars being loaded/whizzing away. A CM came on overhead and said that the ride was down. Of course it was. We were all crammed in this tiny area like sardines & everyone was agitated. Kids were whining (they had already waited 1.5 hours), adults were crabby, it was just a stinky, sweaty, hot mess. Eventually people started giving up and leaving via the nearby exit, which I was secretly fine with since A) it gave us a bit more breathing room and B) because they left, the ride would probably be up soon! Isn't that always how things like this go? And sure enough, about 3 minutes after the people in front of us decided to ditch, the CM down below started diverting the people from the newly down track over to the (must have been) newly fixed track and were sending them on their way. We ended up riding at 7:30pm, a full 2+ hours after joining the queue. Yikes!

We had One Way or Another by Blondie, and it was a great ride, as usual!




I kept feeling something hitting my feet/ankles, but assumed it was the strap from Matt's backpack and ignored it. Until the ride ended and I looked down.......... NOPE - our popcorn bucket had opened on the ride!!! Omg!! I felt SO stinking bad!! I wonder if the people behind us were getting pelted with popcorn?!? Probably not because it all seemed to be contained at our feet, but still. As we pulled back up to debark, I let the CM know what had happened and apologized profusely, her looking at us like this, as she grabbed her broom:

We skedaddled out of there, and as we rejoined the outside world discovered it was already dark out! We stopped briefly to put our sweatshirts on, and when I took my ears off and handed them to Matt to hold while I donned my sweatshirt he squealed "MY HAT!" -- he had left it in the basket thing on Guardians!! I hand washed it this summer (it had mega sweat stains!) & even though it was hand-washed & air dried, it shrunk.. so it wasn't exactly his favorite hat anymore (hence the search for a new hat) since it was a little snug. I think because of this, he was kind of like "welp, that's too bad" but me being the cheap a--- that I am was like "uhh no, we're going back to see if we can find it", the two of us disagreeing about who we should ask. He wanted to go ask a regular CM and I said that was silly, that I would just go back up those stairs and find the CM we told about the popcorn since it hadn't even been 5 minutes so no way it had made its way to lost and found or whatever. So we split up to better serve our time, me painfully going up those stairs, until I found the same CM. I told her about the situation and while I was talking she went and grabbed a little basket of miscellaneous left-behind items (a quick glance told both of us it wasn't there), and when I ended my sentence with "we're the ones who spilled the popcorn in case you remember which car we were in" - she stops what she's doing, stands up and says "oh we remember"

As soon as the car rolled back in (I loved seeing all the happy/laughing faces! that wouldn't be a bad gig, being a CM at the end of one of the best rides ever! except I guess when people's popcorn buckets explode.......) she went to the car, and grabbed his hat from the pouch!! Huzzah!

I texted Matt that I had the hat & we met shortly after, deciding to stop at a PhotoPass photographer outside the Guardians spaceship:

 

[MamaMouse0920]

How cool!! That's amazing timing. You really had the perfect morning/half day at HS!

We kept commenting on our luck, it was really amazing! I don't know that we'll be able to recreate it with the kids in tow, but you never know!

This is too funny, I also bought a Long Live Cowgirls shirt on Etsy for our Toy Story day, but I had NO idea what the reference was to! I don't know Morgan Wallen's music at all, I only know him from his SNL appearance I wonder if others saw my shirt and thought of him...

I never knew he was on SNL! I'll have to look it up!!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

You really packed in a lot at Hollywood Studios! I’m glad you enjoyed your meal at Brown Derby - the grapefruit cake and champagne was a nice touch.

I completely agree - Tower of Terror at night is amazing! I always used to schedule a Fastpass+ right after Fantasmic - we’d walk out of the theatre and right onto the ride.

Super smart! When we did Fantasmic in September the park closed at 9 but Fantasmic wasn't until 9:30 so we did not have that choice, but that would have been WAY better than dealing with the masses leaving the park all at the same time! If I can manage to hack it when we go back in August, I am for sure going to do that!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Monday, February 26th: Day 3 - Conference (day 1) & Epcot






This last one, the CM positioned our hands/rings for us and then stood back and snapped the picture saying "Oh you won't be in the picture" .............which explains why we're like half smiling???

As we went back into the World Showcase, Matt said he wanted a good ol' fashioned beer from America so we headed basically straight across the Showcase. We went all the way to America, got Matt his beer, and then were like "yep, we can head out now" A lot of walking for one measly beer!

We stopped for one last PhotoPass picture session before exiting the park:






It felt like the CM was super close to our faces when she took the pictures but with the wide angled lens they turned out super cute!

We exited the park and decided to order a Minnie Van back to Coronado. As I type this I'm not sure exactly why we didn't just hop on a bus? Because the wait for the Minnie Van was maybe 15 mins anyway....... Regardless we got back to the resort soon enough and had showered, wolfed down some snacks, and were in bed watching TV by 10pm. It was a great day!!

TOTAL STEPS: 25,742

Up Next: Tuesday, February 27th: Day 4 - Conference (day 2) & Coronado Bar Crawl

 

[KPeterso]

Loving your trip report.

I had the popcorn bucket mishap (lid popping off happen on Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Popcorn everywhere. Like you, I felt pretty bad about it. I also lost the lid when that happened with mine and was just told to ask at any stand for a lid and they would give me one (which was true), so I ended up with a non-matching bucket and lid combo.

 

[ThayerB]

"you know you're old & in Disney when you take your ibuprofen with a margarita in Mexico!"

This is my new mantra for Disney.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Loving your trip report.

I had the popcorn bucket mishap (lid popping off happen on Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Popcorn everywhere. Like you, I felt pretty bad about it. I also lost the lid when that happened with mine and was just told to ask at any stand for a lid and they would give me one (which was true), so I ended up with a non-matching bucket and lid combo.

oh bummer!! I'm surprised we didn't lose ours too- I'm not sure if I'll continue to just have it clipped to our backpack strap via carabiner moving forward.. at least not on the coasters! It was mortifying!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

"you know you're old & in Disney when you take your ibuprofen with a margarita in Mexico!"

This is my new mantra for Disney.

 

[jrmint427]

As we walked to our table, we passed a large booth with a group of guests, one of them was legitimately sleeping with her head resting on her folded arms on the table.

There's nothing like Disney tired, even for adults!

The waiter asked how we were feeling about dessert, me rubbing my tummy and grumbling that we were WAY too stuffed but a few moments later he whisked by the table and set down a free slice of their grapefruit cake & two glasses of champagne! What! Happy anniversary to us!!

How sweet!

I don't understand why PhotoPass pictures turn out so poorly in terms of quality- even when you download the High Resolution versions. You pay that much money and they turn out so grainy!!

I noticed this especially on our most recent trip - the quality is awful, I can't believe how poor it is, especially for what they are charging these days. But I'll still always get Memory Maker.

I won't get in into too much detail about the conference since it's not Disney related at all but basically this day it went til 11:00am

That sounds like the perfect work day - finish by 11am, Epcot by 1pm!

Shortly after we left our table for the next family & entered the Mexico pyramid (would you call it a pyramid? I guess I'm not sure), hoping we could take our drink through the line since the standby wait said 15 minutes. The CM at the entrance to the ride stopped us and said we could not, so we moseyed around the shopping area while we finished it (unlike beer, you can't exactly chug a frozen margarita without resulting in massive brain freeze!).

They wouldn't even let us take water into that queue!!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

When you are old and in Disney - you take your pain killers with anything that is handy. But alcohol is the best!!! What an amazing day at EPCOT, although that last wait for Guardians was a bit much. Did you ever figure out what was wrong with your knees after you got back?

 

[MamaMouse0920]

When you are old and in Disney - you take your pain killers with anything that is handy. But alcohol is the best!!! What an amazing day at EPCOT, although that last wait for Guardians was a bit much. Did you ever figure out what was wrong with your knees after you got back?

Other than just being old & out of shape (+ old injuries from my volleyball days), no they are fully back to normal & totally pain-free now so that is my only conclusion. I do think looking back at pictures they look a bit swollen so I imagine I must have tweaked something somehow on that first Friday with the luggage or something and then just continuously made it worse by putting on the miles every single day... due to some office issues I have been working from home basically full-time for the last 6 months or so, which has obviously resulted in a more sedentary lifestyle.. that paired with winter & I guess I just went 0-60 way too quickly, without any sort of preparation before the trip.

Matt and I are really good in the summers trying to walk 2-4 miles/day so I'm not super worried about our August trip since I will (hopefully) be in much better shape & way more prepared to pack on the miles each day! Fingers crossed, anyway, cause this trip was ROUGH!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Tuesday, February 27th: Day 4 - Conference (day 2) & Coronado Bar Crawl

The first part of the conference on this day was to begin at 8:15 so my alarm was set for 7:30, hobbling down to the conference center around 8am to grab a seat for the 2nd Keynote Speaker (this one was Amy Herman). When the keynote address was done at 9:15, I had a lengthy break til our next breakout session so Matt and I decided to quick head to Disney Springs to try to FINALLY get our hands on some Gideon's cookies. We tried 2x last trip but both times they weren't doing the VQ and we had the kids with us and didn't want to make them wait for an unknown amount of time so we skipped it. This trip we had no kids and weren't in a huge hurry so we were going for it! They didn't open til 10 and we got in line around 9:50 and entered the building at 10:15 so not bad at all! It definitely pays to get there early! This is what it looked like when we got there:



We crept forward slowly but surely, chatting with the CM nearby who was handing out the month's list of cookies. Beware, I took TONS of pictures! I LOVE the theming (if you couldn't guess, since I'm obsessed with Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, Harry Potter, etc.) so I was in heaven!!! Add in delicious cookies?! Yes please.






Soon enough the CM at the door said we could enter, eeeek!!!







Since we had ample time while waiting in line, we already knew which cookies we wanted to try................. basically all of them



We did not try the cake but it sure looked good! And of course the former wedding planner in me was going wild with all the exciting ideas for a dark themed wedding:

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Tuesday, February 27th: Day 4 - Conference (day 2) & Coronado Bar Crawl




Soon enough I had to stop snapping pictures and start ordering cookies! We got 6 in total:

1. Original Chocolate Chip
2. Banana Walnut/Banana Bread Chocolate Chip (we saw it titled two different things? But I assume they are one in the same)
3. Coffee Cake
4. Cookies & Cream
5. Peanut Butter Crunch
6. Pistachio Toffee

And of course added on a Peanut Butter Cold Brew, because yum!

Our cashier was continuously hacking up a lung and her fellow teammates were passing her by & saying "hey welcome back, you feeling better today?" and in my head I'm like this:

As she fondles all our cookies

I don't remember the total but our Disney Gift Card balance was considerably smaller as we exited the building, vowing to be back- come hell or high water!



We walked around, perusing the many shops (even though a lot of them were higher-end than the likes of us cuold afford!) and enjoying the stunning weather.



Just look at that sky!



We of course spent a huge chunk of our time walking around inside World of Disney, since that is more our budget and I spotted this adorable Newborn crewneck:



Now y'all I assure you we are DONE having babies- done done. Like more than done. But................................................ omg.

I eventually pulled me & my ovaries away - Matt still searching desperately for his hat (no luck), but otherwise with nothing specific in mind.



Eventually around 11 we decided we were hungry (& apparently thirsty) so we stopped at a place Matt had been eyeing for some time: Polite Pig. I've mentioned in previous TRs that Matt dabbles in professional meat-smoking so our standards are a bit high. We were burned by Flametree (people had sworn up and down that Flametree was the best bbq on property so we made it a priority last trip) so we were both super leery of this place. We sat at the bar, apprehensive, but so far enjoying the atmosphere.



Eventually we ordered two of their sister-brewery (Ravenous Pig)'s IPAs:



and then for lunch we split an order of mac & cheese and the slider trio:

Mac and Cheese $6​

with Aged Cheddar and Breadcrumbs

Slider Trio $18​

Southern Pig, Low and Slow Brisket and Fried Chicken






THIS. WAS. AMAZING. I think I can say with pretty much full confidence that it was the best mac & cheese I've had in my life - not just Disney property - in my life....!!!!! And all 3 of the sliders were impeccable as well. The meat was perfectly cooked & insanely juicy- with amazing flavor & not at all in need of sauce (as any true smoker would tell you- if you do the meat right you don't need sauce at all). We of course asked for the slider toppings to be on the side, but the Southern Pig was a pulled pork that came with this delicious fennel-apple slaw and a sweet/tangy mustard bbq sauce -- it seriously was ALL to die for. We will without a doubt be returning to this place!! After tax & tip it was only $50 so really not bad for 2 drinks & a shared lunch!

The only other thing to note about our delicious lunch was an older couple nearby that were doing shots at 11am and Matt looked at me and whispers "oof, I hope they're taking the bus!"


We eventually left Polite Pig (no food waste this time!) and made our way back to the busses, hopping on ours around 12:15 and were back to Coronado by 12:30- me scrambling a bit to get to the next breakout session.

 

[jrmint427]

And of course added on a Peanut Butter Cold Brew, because yum!

Yes, it’s the best!!

Our cashier was continuously hacking up a lung and her fellow teammates were passing her by & saying "hey welcome back, you feeling better today?" and in my head I'm like this:

Ugh, I’m so frustrated by that. I’m extra sensitive to people coughing and sneezing in public these days, but can’t handle watching someone cough on my food!