ThemeParkCommando

Beautiful ship.  At one point I was reminded of the opening of the first Star Wars movie, as it was backing out and it just kept going and going.. I never thought it was going to end, lol.    I can't believe the engineering behind these monster ships.  I keep thinking they look so very top heavy.  The ballast used must be quite impressive. 

From the way it looks, I'd bet you could park a food truck there.  The deck looks like it would make a decent spot for a line. 

4 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Foot pain can really mess up a good day.  Sorry you have to deal with that.

I am old. 

I use a flip phone.

Can I use that for the menus?

Liked your idea to read menu before getting to restaurant.

As long as your phone can access the internet.  It might not be able to read a QR code, but you can find the menu's on the WDW website for each restaurant.  My Father in Law still uses a flip phone, too.  He does have internet access with it.  It's slow, but it works.

OH, I forgot one part.  The reason for the title of this TR.  

According to our Pokemon Go game, we walked 58 miles during the 6 days we were at WDW.   You can see by the pictures, I'm not an 'in shape' person, except for the concept that round is a shape.

I have a condition called "palmoplantar keratoderma' which causes thick callouses on my feet ( up to a half inch thick in some places, and that's with all the buffing I do to keep them down).  Due to this I have a lot of foot pain, and a new issue called 'polymyalgia rheumatica', which causes pain in hips and shoulders,  I just was in a lot of pain walking that much.  

I still intend to do theme parks, but I think next time I'll be part of the ECV crowd.

Final thoughts:

I probably should have put this at the beginning of the report, because it has the most useful information about traveling to WDW right now. Well, call this the reward for traveling there with me, as I reminisced.

Mousekeeping is limited. Something I must have missed in all my reading, but mousekeeping is still not doing sheets or bedding changes. Neither will they make the bed on their days in the room. Mousekeeping comes every other day for light cleanup and to replace towels and sundries. If you want to come back to a freshly made up room, you will need to make your beds before you leave. If you want new sheets, just call down to the concierge, and they will have new bedding delivered. Mousekeeping will pick up dirty sheets on their cleaning days.

Genie+: For us, just 2 people wandering the parks, Genie+ was worth it. We used it daily and probably averaged about 5 rides using it, at each park. The only 2 rides we never managed to grab were Test Track and Slinky Dog. We didn't try real hard with TT, because we just weren't that into it. So that's $75 to save about 1 to 2 hours a day in line. Worth it to my feet.

Mobile Ordering: I LOVE this feature and took advantage of it wherever I could. I can understand how it would be hard to work with if you have any kind of severe allergy or food intolerance. Not a whole lot of options on most items. But when you can use it, nothing like just ordering while in line, and having your food ready when you are ready to eat.

QR codes for full restaurant menu's: This is the hardest thing to get used to. If I am eating in a full service restaurant, I don't want to stare at the tiny screen of my phone for the menu, I want a full, page turning menu. Can't put my finger on exactly why, maybe because the explanations of each dish are easier to compare that way? After our first dinner at Nine Dragons, we decided to study the menu's before we got to our restaurant, so we would know what we wanted, and didn't even have to use the menu in house. It just felt better that way. At Skipper Canteen and at Morimoto's, both our servers there brought us paper menu's when we tried to explain we'd already chosen our options before arriving. I think they are used to the older crowd griping at them about it.

Crowds and attitudes: We did not see a lot of crowding, except on that Saturday. Probably a lot of locals coming to enjoy the Christmas season. The only time I saw upset guests was in front of Columbia Harbor House. The mobile order 'required' seemed to really rub people the wrong way, there. Outside of Sat'uli Canteen, there was a general air of "yes, mobile order is how it's done!". Also, Docking Bay 9 at HS had happy people using mobile order.
I never once saw a cranky CM while at the parks. Everyone we waved at or spoke to seemed to be in a great mood. It was what I expect of WDW, I felt the CM's were happy to be back. Or they were great at faking it.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my trip report. Not sure when I'll be back to WDW. We have Disneyland and a Disney cruise on tap for our next adventures.

For the first time in forever, we left a park at midday. We went back to the hotel, took a quick shower and took a nap for an hour. We then got up, got dressed and went back to HS. We had one final thing to accomplish back at Galaxy’s Edge. It was about 1:30 when we walked back into the park, and it was about 85 degrees. We got a cold beverage an d started the long walk to the back. This was our one crazy decision, as we wanted a photo pass photo with our new ‘couples’ shirt, in front of the Millenium Falcon. Worth it!

We left HS after that, a long walk back out to the Skyliner. Just had to ride that before we left WDW. We hopped over to EPCOT, and got there at about 3:30pm. It was Saturday…and OMG it was more crowded than I have ever seen that park. Wall to wall people on the main walkway. We had though about doing Test Track, but one look at Genie + and we gave that up. No more LL’s available, and a wait time of 60 minutes.

So, we got down to the serious business of shopping for Christmas presents. Having come in at the international gateway, we started for Japan, first. I have a granddaughter and a sister-in-law who love Anime, so this was a good start. After picking up presents, we stopped to watch the Daruma Vendor show in the Japan courtyard. We love this holiday show, and we think the presenter was the same Japanese lady who we’ve seen the last 2 times we were there. We were happy she was not still caught up overseas, ( it’s a good possibility she lives in the USA now, I suppose. )

We also stopped to watch the Hannukah holiday show, where the presenter was telling the story of the dreidel. That was really nice. I love the various holiday showcases. Walking back through Morocco, we got a glimpse of Jasmine, and then a few pictures with Belle in France. The kiosk for the Grand Marnier slush was open, this time, but it looked to be a half hour wait. Ah well, I’ll get one someday.

We looked hard for presents for my husband’s parents, over in England and Canada, but just came up empty handed. A lot of neat stuff, but nothing in particular that we thought they’d like. We did find a couple of stocking stuffers, some Butterfly Kisses soap for his mom, and some Sled Dog Drool soap for his dad. His dad HATES dog kisses, so it was a good joke soap for him.

We went in to see the Canadian 360 film. There were about 15 people in the theater with us. It was a nice show, lovely scenery. A few more tears from me, because this is the type of country that my son chose to make his final resting place. (Sky Lakes area of Oregon, for those curious). It’s very beautiful in that part of the country.

Next up, we had our first dining experience at Le Cellier, the Canadian Steakhouse. I have to say, this was another exemplary round of Disney service. Our server was Sam, she is from Canada, and started at WDW with the program that handles the various countries staffing at EPCOT. She met her husband here in the USA, so now lives in our country. I made an offhand comment that I hadn’t had my ‘drink with a glow cube’ yet this vacation and placed my order. However, I misread the description of the drink I wanted (the EAR-idescent sip-a-bration), and it didn’t actually come with a glow cube. Sam kindly pointed this out. I told Sam not to worry about it, I still wanted the drink. She took our drink and appetizer orders and left us to look at entrée options.

When she came back, she put down the drink I ordered, sans glow cube, and also my husbands drink. Then, she went around a corner, and came back with a water for me, dancing with glowing light! I got my glow cube, it was sooooo sweet of her to do that. Hubby and I both got the cheese soup as an appetizer, and we ordered our steak, and the classic poutine for our entrée. The reviews are true. That cheese soup is amazing! So good, just a bit heavy. Our steaks were cooked perfectly. Hubby and I both agreed that poutine must be an acquired taste, as we did not prefer it. It was OK, just not something we’d miss.

For dessert we had the Warm Pecan-Brown Butter Tart. That was also a good call. It was so good, we ate it slowly to savor it.

We finished up, and walked out of Canada and into the Harmonious show in progress. We watched until the end, and then began our walk to the busses. It was about 10:30pm. We got back to the room around 11:15. Our Tragical Express was due to pick us up at 3:30am, because for some reason I booked a 6:45am flight. What was I thinking?!

4 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Thanks!  Glad you had fun and weather wise was pretty nice.

One question/thought,  In the photo in front of ToT it looks like you are getting ready to swat Tink

My husband said the same thing.. lol.  I was trying for 'suprised' , but my hand is just in the wrong place.

Saturday – Last day at the parks.

So, for this day, we knew we weren’t going to be done with HS, but we were pretty sure we didn’t need an entire day there. We also had reservations for LeCellier at 8:45PM at EPCOT. Also, we hadn’t yet ridden the skyliner. Now, we are not a family that enjoys the Disney busses. We prefer the freedom of the rental car. We also prefer to tour one park per day, rope drop to close. So, we had a big, different plan for today.

Our plan was to get an LL for Slinky Dog, then head over to Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Rollercoaster. Watch the first showing of Beauty and the Beast stage show, then head back to the hotel for a rest. After our rest, we were going back to HS for a final run through Galaxy’s Edge, then take the skyliner over to EPCOT. I’m still a little miffed I had to buy park hopper for all 5 days, when I only needed it for one.

Our first attempt to run our plan fell through immediately. We were unable to get an LL for Slinky Dog, and we were online right at 7am. It was amazing how fast those LL’s go. So, instead of RD and heading to TOT and RnR first, we had to swap it. We got a decent time for an LL on RnR. We headed out to grab the bus to HS, and were lucky enough to walk right onto one at the POFQ station, at 7:15. 

A quick trip to HS, and we were walking into the park, heading with about 20% of the people for SD. We got into line about 50 folks back, at about 7:45. Then, we waited in the damp, dewy morning.  The picture shows where we were in line before opening. Had a nice conversation with the couple in front of us, and at about 8:15, they opened the line and let us into the main queue. We rode SD, then meandered over to the area where Star Wars Launch Bay is. A few characters from Disney Jr. were out, and Pluto was also out for photo ops. We stopped and interacted with him a bit.

The Launch Bay area is not having character meets, yet. They have it open for touring, so you can see the props and the movie posters / concept art. They ALSO have a Chase Visa Photo op here, that we did not know of. The photo op is with virtual characters, just like it is over at EPCOT, but I was totally stoked to see K-2SO in my photo! He is voiced by Alan Tudyk, and he is currently one of my favorite actors ( other parts played by Alan: “Wash” in Firefly / Serenity, King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph, Duke Wesselton in Frozen, Duke Weaselton in Zootopia, Hei-Hei in Moana, Tuk-Tuk in Raya and the Last Dragon, and Harry Vanderspeigle in Resident Alien).

After that fun time, we strolled toward Tower of Terror. The wait time was still posting 10 minutes, so we didn’t rush. We stopped on Sunset Blvd and got our pictures from the PhotoPass CM. She was fun to talk to.

Our ride on ToT was right at 10 minutes wait, and I enjoyed myself, although the ride seemed, somehow, slower on the drops than it used to. Not sure what’s up with that. I still love the Twilight zone part, I miss watching those shows. Moving on, we went and tapped in for our Rockin Rollercoaster LL. I still like this coaster a lot. The interior signs were working this time. Last time we rode in completely in the dark, no internal traffic signs or anything.

We decided to get a REALLY early lunch at 10:30, from Rosie’s All American Café. We got a cheeseburger each, and one Reindeer mousse to share. This was the only time I’ve ever had Disney let me down. The burgers were great. Fresh, hot and delicious. The reindeer mousse? Ooooo… On my 2nd bite, I got something that did not belong. Not sure what it was, maybe a hardened piece of the gelatin used to set the mousse? It wasn’t hard, but seemed to be the same texture as chicken gristle. Well, I’m not one to get grossed out over things like this, but I wasn’t going to eat any more of it. I took it back to Rosie’s, quietly handed it back and explained the issue. They got a supervisor, and I had my money refunded. No muss, no fuss.

We walked over to BatB, and really enjoyed the show. My husband kept ribbing me about it, because he’d been asking over the last 3 visits to see this show, and we kept missing it. The last time, they moved the showtimes on me and I didn’t notice.

Then it was time for our reservations at Oga’s. We got in pretty quickly, only about 5 minutes after our scheduled time. We had a spot at the bar, and a very lively bartender. I was happy because DJ Rex was playing music, but not nearly at the ear splitting levels most bar’s seem to like these days. Oga’s only offers 2 snack plates, so we ordered both. The Batuu bits, which are chips and dip, and the Happabore Sampler, which is a charcuterie plate. They were both pretty good, with the odd shaped chips and strangely cut meats to try and make it seem more outer worldly. I still had to drive, and both hubby and I were pretty tired, so we decided to only have one alcohol drink between us, but order more of the virgin drinks. We got the Outer Rim libation. It was a fancy margarita, and it was really good! We also got a Carbon Freeze in the first round. That one is fun to drink, with dry ice contained at the bottom of the glass, making the drink roil with bubbles, smoke and the popping pearls ( boba balls) bouncing around inside.
 

We soaked up the atmosphere, took some pictures, listened to the hilarious stories of people who had been there a bit longer than us and were getting tipsy. One group had purchased 3 pets, and had them all in the same carrier. We were all having a rousing discussion of which pet would be left, since 2 were obvious carnivores, and the third was definitely a prey species. From the looks of it, it wasn’t so much a pet carrier as a small, portable thunderdome. ( for the record, these are all stuffed animals, and there were no kids around)
 

For our second round, we tried the Hyperdrive, and the Jabba Juice. All the drinks were very good. My husband had never tried any boba balls before this, and he really liked the effect the give to your drink. He’s now on the lookout for more to try.

When we were done at Oga’s, we made a last round of the shops and then left through the warp space into Toy Story land. Toy Story Mania was posting a 20 minute wait time at 8:30. We jumped on line, and only waited 10 mnutes to ride. As we were making our way out of the park, we saw people heading for the Chinese Theater area. There was no show scheduled on the Genie+ app, but apparently there was going to be one.

We stopped in a decent spot off to the right of the theater, pretty much straight out from the ramp leading down to Toy Story land, and got to see the Wonderful World of Animation projection show. It was cute and a nice end to the night, as it was totally unexpected.
 

We trudged back out to our very far away car ( I really shouldn’t complain, as it was only one row that we had to walk, lol), and drove over to the Car Care center to turn in the rental. After hours drop off is pretty easy. Just check the car for belongings, and drop the key in the lock box. We used the Lyft app to get a ride back to the resort. We started packing up what we could, since our vacation is almost over, and we didn't want to have to pack ALL of it after our last full day. We had brought an entire collapsible duffle bag as extra, since we only checked one bag going to Florida on SW Airlines, and hubby only had one carry on. We knew we'd need the extra space, even with shipping stuff out. Our next day, the final park day, we would be experimenting with a number of ‘new to us’ park options. Also, will we get the coveted LL on Slinky Dog?

We stopped by the Indiana Jones stadium to pull the rope on the mine shaft / well / whatever that is. It was fun, and we startled a few passerby. I’m glad that little easter egg is still there. We got in line for our Mickey and Minnie Railway journey, and I was very happy to have purchased the ILL. The line was at 70 minutes. We only had to wait about 10 minutes overall. The ride was a fun little jaunt, but it is not going to become a favorite of ours. We don’t like the new animation of the Disney characters. Goofy is just too scruffy for our liking, we much prefer the older animation. Also, it just wasn’t as much fun as the old ‘Ride the Movies’ ride. Stepping out, I made a LL for Alien Swirling Saucers for about 20 minutes into the future, and we walked into Toy Story land to look around. Toy Story Mania had no available LL options, and we didn’t want to wait in the 50 minute line, so we just took pictures, and enjoyed some people watching. We bought some water to help stay hydrated, as the temperatures were heading into the upper 80’s. Toy Story land suffers from the same issue as the carnival area of Animal Kingdom. Too much heat reflecting asphalt and no shade.
 

We actually enjoyed the ride on ASS ( sorry, I just HAD to use that acronym once, lol), it was a cute little ride and I love the voices of the Toy Story green aliens. I also like being flung around in circles, so that helps. Afterward, we walked back into Galaxy’s edge and explored the area. We stopped for a photo pass opportunity, and then wandered over to the milk stand and got our blue milk and green milk to try. We opted not to get an alcoholic variety. Both of us prefer the blue milk, which surprised me. Considering what is in them, I thought I’d like green milk better, since I love all thing citrus. But the green milk just tasted too bitter. Maybe they put more grapefruit juice in it than the other flavors? Dunno, but blue milk was the winner, although neither was good enough for us to get a refill.
 

Then we went into the droid store, so we could considered our ‘extra’ options to purchase for our upcoming droid. That shop was very busy and very noisy, so hearing the sounds of the extra sound chips you can buy for your droid was pretty challenging. They have a BUNCH of extra’s for the droids, more so than for the lightsabers. We checked in for our droid build with the CM holding a clipboard, and waited outside in the shade for our turn.

The droid build was much more chaotic and ‘self serve’ than the lightsaber build. You get in line, pay for your droid and wait your turn. A droid wrangler will come to you with a basket, and guide you to the conveyer belt with all the droid parts. You are shown the instruction graphic so you know which parts to pick, and left on your own. After you choose your parts, you turn around and face away from the conveyer, and another droid shop employee will direct you to your build space. Each build space has a diagram on how to assemble the droid. They are very tight together with others, there is no space to video your builder actually assembling the droid. Also, it is really noisy in there, cannot stress that enough. Not sure if they could put in sound dampeners but wow, I was a little overwhelmed.
 

When you have your droid assembled, the engineer will come over and get the electronics working, and make sure your droid’s chip and wheel gears are all working. You get a little tutorial on how to run the droid and they pack it up in a nice cardboard case for you. Leave your droid on when you are done, because there are some cute effects to play with. We exited the building, and started walking back to First Order Cargo to ship our droid home. As you pass other droids in the outpost, they talk to each other. Your box may start shaking as your droid discusses whatever news droids find important, with the droids waiting outside their respective buildings. It’s adorable. They will also talk to other boxed up droids if you happen to pass close to someone else carrying their new droid.
 

Back at First Order Cargo, we were met by a much more stern First Order cadet, who agreed to ship our droid off planet, but first needed to inspect the droid for contraband. (Basically, opening the box to turn the droid off, lol... a fun way to do it). Outside of the shop, we were near the Tie Fighter stage area, and more Stormtroopers were out, being gruff and trying to maintain order. There were a lot of lightsabers out, as it was dusk and they glowed beautifully, making for great photo opportunities with the lighted ship and Stormtroopers in the background. We watched the people for a while.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments.  Nice to see folks reading along.  I keep an eye on the view counts too, since I am bad about commenting on TR's, I can tell folks are reading along from those counts. 

We were now in the window for our ILL on Ride of the Resistance, so we walked back over using the path lower down, below Ronto Roasters and the shops.   There is an area there where you can play with your newly built droids with other folks who also have one.  They talk to each other!  It was cute to watch them for a bit.  That area is near a used landspeeder shop, where Chewbacca was out interacting with the crowd.   I wanted to know why I can never find a NEW landspeeder shop?  All the used ones are so beat up looking.  I think Chewy tried to give me directions to one, but I don’t speak Shyriiwook, and there were no translators nearby.  No joy there.

Our 2^nd ride on RoR was also fun.   We were in a car that took a different path from the first ride of the day, so got to see a little of a different area.  The AT-AT room is so amazing to me.   I kind of wish they had animated one to raise a foot and almost crush your car, but that is a minor thing, and I’m sure hard to do / possible safety issue.  Once outside, we stopped at a drink kiosk and bought the fun custom soda and water bottles with the Aurebesh printing on them.   I wish I had thought to buy one before riding RoR the 2^nd time, so that I could threaten the First Order cadets with a thermal detonator.   Ah well, next time.

Using Mobile Order, we grabbed an early lunch from Ronto Roasters and picked up a mouse droid popcorn bucket (except ours was full of chicharonnes).  RR only has a wrap or the pork rinds in terms of meat, so we got 2 wraps also and the Tatooine Sunset drinks. We then went into the lightsaber shop, to compare and discuss what accessories we wanted to add to our lightsaber.   Over by the extra Kyber crystals, we met…Emma!  She told us her boss owned multiple stores in Batuu, so she moved around a bit.   Since the shop was slow, we picked up all our extra goodies for the lightsaber we were about to build.  We then went to get in line for the build reservation.

The lightsaber build ceremony was interesting.  My husband was the builder, I was videoing for us.  The area is small, so I had to video from over his shoulder.   The beginning was somber, there was a small history of the Jedi and a ceremony for choosing your kyber crystal color.   It was quiet.  Then they gave the order to build and all hell broke out.  It went from calm and quiet to maximum chaos.  I started laughing at the contrast.   Of course, my husband was lucky enough to be given a broken kit, so he had to have a few parts swapped out.  Once everyone had their lightsaber complete ( hubby was last due to the need to replace parts of his hilt), there was a ceremony to light the sabers for the first time.  That was pretty neat.  Everyone then raised their sabers and took their vows, and it was done.   We got a lovely sheath for the saber to carry it, and decided to go take it to get shipped home right away.

When we went over to First Order cargo to get it shipped, we met up with… wait for it… EMMA!  She pulled us over to a register and in a hush-hush voice told us she was doing reconnaissance for the resistance, and not to blow her cover by mentioning the other shops.  We fell into the role play and asked if the First Order would allow a lightsaber off planet, and she assured us she would give it to ‘the right people’ so it would make it back to our home planet safely.   Little touches like this make the vacation so much more entertaining!

Since our next reservations in Black Spire Outpost weren’t until  evening, we decided to go off planet for some touring.  We went over to Star Tours to grab a shuttle.  I used the LL feature here to bypass the 15 minute line.  The LL was for just 10 minutes in the future, and we took a bit of time to grab a Mickey bar and take a break.   After flying with R2 and C3PO,  we started wandering in the direction of the Chinese Theater.

On 12/24/2021 at 9:15 AM, keith_h said:

Daughter number two would have loved the Nightmare Before Christmas tree. In fact it is her favorite Christmas movie which she introduced our granddaughter to last night. I think it will end up being GD's favorite too as the rest of the evening it was a 15 month old going around the house saying "Jack".

Duck can be fatty but drying it for 24 hours in the fridge and pricking the skin before cooking will help a lot of fat to render out. I like to smoke ducks, no Dave not that way, and the longer cooking time tends to render more fat than what I can achieve in the oven. We aren't big on turkey so it is not uncommon for us to serve smoked duck along with another poultry such as pheasant and ham for Thanksgiving.

Nightmare before Christmas is my granddaughters favorite Christmas movie too.  I always bring her something on that theme for Christmas. 

Friday! – A full day at Hollywood Studios, emphasis on Galaxy’s Edge.

This is the big planned for day. All the timing for every other park was due to the need to experience the Star Wars expansion to the limit. When it was time for me to make reservations, Friday was the only day I could get the lightsaber build reservation, and reservations for Oga’s Cantina, so this day was set in stone early. This day will be the biggest section of my trip report.

HS opened at 9am officially, so 8:30 am was our target. We got up and ready at 6:30, and made our Genie+ Lightning Lane and Individual Lightning Lane reservations in the car. The plan was to rope drop to ride Rise of the Resistance, and also buy the ILL so we could ride it twice. We got a 9:35 return time for RoR on our purchase. We were unable to secure a LL time for Slinky Dog, and we were looking for it by 7:01. That ride’s LL’s go fast! So, we got a LL for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run at 9:15. We went ahead and bought the ILL for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad for somewhere around 2:30pm. Loaded up with our plan, we headed for the park.

This was the first time that the parking was not open more than 1 hour before the Resort opening time. We got to the parking area around 7:15, and had to wait behind the security truck. At 7:30, we started moving. We were the 4th car in line. The way HS parking is set up, at least for this day, this was not an advantage. Would have been better if we were the 25th car in line. The first row of parking was being done furthest to closest, instead of starting with the closer parking and moving away from the park gates. Bummer.

Oh well, even with parking done that way, we were out of our car and walking to the entrance ahead of all the people waiting to be guided into their closer parking spot. The skyliner was dumping folks off and the busses were too, so there was a decent crowd building up. We got up to the tapstiles and they were already open. We went in and started the long walk back to Rise of the Resistance, along with about 90% of the other early risers. There were no barriers at all until right at the RoR line. We got in line outside of the queue area because they weren’t letting anyone in the queue area yet. I would guess we were about at the 75 to 100 people in front of us mark. Not too shabby!

At about 8:10, we were allowed to fill the queue. The queue is also impressively big. Lots of furbling ( our familiy’s term for the back and forth weaving through an empty or a fast moving queue). We stopped in one of the interior cave rooms, and were told we had about 3 more rooms to get through from there. Right at 8:30, we started moving again as they filled up the last bit of the queue and started the ride.
 

For context, my husband is a super Star Wars fan. I love science fiction and the Star Wars universe, but I’ve always like Star Trek better (My sons name was/is Kirk, ‘nuff said). Both of us really enjoyed the RoR ride, the attention to detail was awesome, and the ride mechanics were impressive. What we enjoyed most was messing with the CM’s playing First Order privates, trying to get us to stand on colored ovals. Those folks make the ride. They stay in character and manage to deal with smart ass answers without actually hitting anyone, lol.

We were off the ride at about 8:45, and we started to walk into Batuu. We took the chance to grab every photopass opportunity. We stopped at the pet store, and I considered adopting a Kowakian Monkey-lizard that was perched on the shoulder of the shopkeeper. I decided I didn’t need another pet. Into another store we went, and were greeted by shopkeeper Emma. I purchased a Millenium Falcon charm with an ID holder, and she told me it would mark me as a sympathizer to the resistance, and to take care where I showed it.
 

The shops fed over to Ronto Roasters, and then we went around the corner, and were greeted with the courtyard view of the Millennium Falcon. My husband just gasped. It is an interesting feeling to see up close the props of one of your favorite movie of all time. You so want it to be real. We took a good long look around the courtyard, grabbing pictures from all sides. Then we went in for our ride at about 10am. The standby was at 40 minutes. We walked all the way to the merge point without stopping, in the LL side.

My husband and I both MUCH prefer the MFSR ride over RoR. We asked for the pilot’s position and waited one boarding group to get it. He got up / down flight, and I got left/ right flight.  A really stupid way to split up the piloting, but it does make you work as a team. We really tried hard, and it was a blast. We flew that ship through so many rock spires, lol. Could not get the hang of it for the first part, but we finally stabilized enough so that we got the first shipment of whatever we were supposed to be stealing. Our gunners did a great job. We were hot on the tail of our second retrieval when we were called back. Ride over. I like rides where I can actually participate.

We shopped a bit more, over in the courtyard with the Tie fighter. We watched the Stormtroopers hassling the crowd and threatening to arrest the lightsaber dueler’s for public endangerment. I love how this area really immerses you into the story, as much as can be done.

Thursday – Disney Springs / Rest day

You know…’rest’ is a relative term when you are at WDW. This was more of ‘no park’ day, but not completely restful. We did sleep in, got up around 10am and went swimming at the resort pool. I’ve always seen the pool slide at POFQ and wanted to play on it. My chance is finally here! I went down the slide a few times, enjoying the ride and swimming around happily. No one else was in the pool at the time.  We spent a couple of hours poolside, then went to get dressed and head to Disney Springs.
 

We took the riverboat up to DS, a nice 20 minute journey, past some cute Christmas decorations along the shore. When we got to DS, we encountered something brand new to us. They are still restricting entry pretty tightly, and have an explosive sniffing dog at the entrance. As we walked in, the officer walked the dog behind us, perpendicular to our track. The dogs head shot up and it lunged (no other word for it) at my husband. This was a sweet Golden Retriever, and the lunge was one of pure happiness. The dogs tail was wagging and it was very happy. I saw this out of the corner of my eye, as I like to watch the dogs work, since I train dogs for a hobby. The officer reset the dog, and walked him past us again. Again, the happy, enthusiastic lunge. I told my husband to hold up, we’ve been scented.

The officer came up to talk to us. The dog was happily looking at my husband and ignoring me. My husband and I both have our license to carry, and he does so more than I do, back in Texas. The pants he was wearing hadn’t seen a pistol in over a month, though, and had been laundered twice. The dog still pegged us. What a great nose! Anyway, after a quick bag check and patting my hubbys pockets, we went on our way. I told the officer to give that dog a great reward. The name of the dog was a hoot, too. We were scented by officer ‘Scary’ Terry.

First order of business was lunch. We went to the Earl of Sandwich. The line was out the door. The sandwiches were delicious, as usual. We spent a couple of hours shopping at World of Disney and the Lego store, two of our favorite places. We spent a good 10 minutes trying to finagle finances so we could buy an $800 AT-AT lego set, but decided we liked our home luxuries too much. You know, things like food and electricity… heheh.
 

At 3pm, we hopped on a bus to the Polynesian resort, to try and get into Trader Sams. We were too late. The waitlist was at 2 hours by the time we got there, and we had Morimoto reservations at 6pm. So we went to the outside Tiki bar area, and picked up our Nautilus mug and drink out there. That is a lovely area to get a drink, too.
 

Back to DS we went. Going back through the security area, another dog was on duty this time. This dog did not pick up on my husband. His nose was not at sensitive as Scary Terry’s. We did see the dog lift his nose and scent as we walked by, but he didn’t indicate on us.

Morimoto’s dinner was really nice. We were sat by the kitchen area, we could see into the kitchen from the big floor to ceiling windows they have. I really enjoyed the Iron Chef shows, Japan’s more than America’s, and many other cooking contest shows. Because of that, it was fun watching the plates being prepared. Hubby and I ordered the Peking duck for 2. He had never had duck before, and I’ve only had it rarely in more American versions. We also had the egg roll appetizer, egg drop soup, lo mein and steamed white rice. Didn’t get an adult beverage this time.

Afterwards, we strolled to the new, smaller shops along the middle of Disney Springs, and stuck our head into a few. Took pictures of some of the Christmas trees all around the Springs.

We walked back over the new bridge to where the boats back to PO were, and we went to Riverside, to see YeeHaw Bob. I am so glad he is back! His show is amazing. A big old sing along full of both Disney songs and old kids songs that most people know. We sang a full round of BINGO…lol. Also, some other song where we had to raise our hands, drop our hands, spin in a circle.. The audience was really into it. I don’t know where Bob get his energy, he was just bouncing all over the place.
 

Had the blood orange margarita and some bites from the bar, stayed for about an hour and caught a boat back to POFQ.

One thing I didn’t take into account, is the fat content of the duck we ate. I have no gallbladder, so occasionally have trouble with fats. That duck did me in. It didn’t hurt, but the next day had me become MUCH more familiar with Hollywood Studio’s restrooms, lol.

The MK report took 3 posts. We really did have a nice day there, and did a lot!

Time to check in for our Skipper Canteen supper! 4:10 pm was our reservation time, and we were called up at about 4:20. After all my research and perusing about this restaurant, somehow the ‘secret menu’ concept was completely missed. Apparently, there is one. Our server recommended the Pao de Quiejo secret appetizer, so we tried it. It’s a cheese bread bite, and they are served with a chimichurri and cream cheese sauce. So glad we got it, it was delicious. Apparently, the ‘secret menu’ changes almost daily. I guess it’s what they have on hand that’s a bit ‘extra’, lol.

For entrée, I got the Hardy Har Char Sui pork and hubby got the ‘Tastes like Chicken, because it is!’ dish. Every interaction with our server was chock full of bad jokes, we had a blast. As we were waiting for entrees, a different server came by and tried to give us another round of appetizers. We politely told him we had not ordered them, and he left to confer with our regular server. She came over and started to profusely apologize for the mixup. We thought it was a lead up to another joke, but no… they had given our entrée’s to another table, who had actually ordered the same thing we had, but they were given their entrée’s before the appetizer. It was, for us, hilarious. We weren’t in a hurry, and had no issue waiting for another few minutes. We told our server it was the best joke of the day. I felt a little sorry for her, because she looked absolutely terrified to tell us, so you know she’s had to deal with some angry guests before. Anyway, we got food quickly ( I guess it was the order for that other table), and enjoyed it thoroughly. Sorry for not having pictures. I rarely take pictures of food. In fact, I only took one all week, you'll see it a bit later.

We got the Panna-Connie’s Congo Lime Delight for dessert. We passed up the Kungaloosh dessert, and had a spirited discussion with our server about whether it was originally a drink or a dessert at WDW, since I’ve been offered the liquid version before. She’d never seen the recipe for the drink, but admitted it looked better than the dessert’s ingredients.
 

We left at about 6:15, and went to wander the stores in the area, before needing to find a place to watch the fireworks. The show was scheduled for 8pm, and crowds were already gathering in the hub. No way were we going to make Pirates before the show. We got an awesome spot right in front of the ‘Chip and Dale’ 50th anniversary statue, at about 7pm. (see pic above, C&D in lower right) There was no way I was standing for an hour, so I sat down there and started chatting with the other families near us. No social distancing was observed. No one was wearing masks. I’m pretty happy to try to get back to ‘normal’, but this still made me a bit nervous. Another sign of the times.
 

The fireworks show was great. I admit, I ended up sobbing hard about halfway through. I grabbed tissues and cried quietly for my son for the rest of the show. It’s just so heartwrenching to have lost him. I miss him so much. We enjoyed so many of the Disney movies and songs together. When it was over, we stayed put to let the crowd disperse, and to let me gather myself.

Hubby and I decided to check if the 15 minute grace period on LL ‘s work like they used to work on FP+. We went back to Pirates, and sure enough, we tapped in at 8:34, 14 minutes after the hour of our LL. Green light, good to go! In line, we were playing Pokemon Go! We were trying hard to get all the WDW presents to send out to fellow gamers. A young child in line behind us saw us playing and got ALL excited. He politely asked me if he could talk to me about the game. So cute! I said of course! And we talked about the game for the rest of our time in line. The kid then told his dad this was the best day EVER! Because he talked to grown ups who play Pokemon Go!. Dad looked at me and said softly “ Thousands of dollars on a Disney vacation, and talking about Pokemon makes it the best day ever.” We both chortled together sympathetically. It certainly raised my spirits. In the pic below, my little Pokemon friend is sitting behind us.
 

After the ride, we slowly walked back to Main street and went shopping for the presents we decided on earlier in the day. We wanted to stay for ‘The kiss goodnight’. At 10:15 pm, I finally asked someone about it, and found out they haven’t done it since re-opening the parks. Oh well. We wandered out to the ferry, and were on the boat with about 7 other people. This day was a win.
 

8 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

For some reason that made me chuckle.  Then I was wondering if anyone threw toast at the stage, but I guess I’m confusing it with another show.  

hehehe....I've got some newspapers and a squirt gun around here somewhere.

Thanks for all the kind messages about my TR! We are heading to lunch in MK now.

Outside of Princess Hall, I did a mobile order for Columbia Harbor House for lunch. That was interesting, because the poor CM keeping hold of the doors had to constantly tell people that it was Mobile Order only. That rule is frustrating to both CM’s and guests. Hope they can get rid of it soon. However, when I got inside to pick up the mobile order, there was plenty of seating for us, when just before we were fighting to find a spot to sit outside, thinking we had no choice. Hubby and I both were happy to sit in the AC and eat. We both got the chicken strips. Good enough, nothing spectacular. Condiments and drinks were out for the taking, no social distancing in place at all.

Afterwards, we went to the Hall of Presidents. Got there JUST as the doors were closed, so we had to wait the full length for the next show. Neither hubby or I remembered the film they show now. But, we hadn’t been here since the ‘80’s and there’s been a lot of change. It was good, we liked how they handled it all, and no one in the crowd hollered at the presidents.

Once done there, we had to stride boldly towards Splash Mountain to make the time for LL.  I made a new LL ( 1pm was the 2 hour mark for another LL) for Haunted Mansion,  with a 2pm return time.   We tapped in at Splash right at the 1:35 time limit for the LL. ( 15 minute grace does still exist, but we weren’t sure).   Happy to be able to see the Brer Rabbit version one more time before it transitions.

We traipsed back after to the Country Bear Jamboree.  After all the visits I’ve had to WDW, I’ve never seen this show.  Hubby remembered it from his trip back in the ‘80’s.  We had a blast with it.  I actually have an old 45 record with ‘Blood on the Saddle’, that was my dad’s.

Next up was Haunted Mansion, the LL lane had a 20 minute wait.  I think standby was at 90 minutes.  The standby line was all the way out into the main walkway  area.  We said Hi to Madam Leota and picked up our hitchhiker.   We shopped a bit in the stores around the colonial area, and I got a great Tiki Room hat!  I love it.  The pic below is from a different park, but is the best one I have of my hat.  Check out hubby's hat too!  He waited 2 years to wear it first at WDW, so it wouldn't get all sweaty. 

It was getting very busy in the park by this time.  We had to dodge crowds over to our Jungle Cruise LL.  Once tapped in there, I got an 7:20 LL for Pirates.  Jingle Cruise was our overlay fun.  Our skipper was Matthew with ‘No L’.    Get it?  Ha! 

After seeing the 8^th wonder of the world.. the backside of water!   We went to see the singing birds and crooning flowers of the Tiki room.  The last time I saw this one, Zazu was the guest host.   He’s not there anymore now.  It was still as catchy as I remembered it, and we left with the Tiki room song stuck in our heads.   

Wednesday: Magic Kingdom day!

At least we got a good night sleep, lol. We crashed at about 9:30pm after returning from AK, slept until 6:55 when we got up to make our LL selection for the day. We planned to do MK as the ‘Memories of Walt’ tour (i.e. All the stuff kids find boring!). We’ve been on all the rides. SDMT did not impress us back in 2014. Space Mountain is now in the ‘It hurts too much to ride’ category. We made our 7am selection for Jungle Cruise, with a 2:30pm return time. Perfect!

Resort open time was 8:30am. We drove into the TTC parking area right at 7:30 pm, and again were in the first row of parking. Thank goodness for small favors! The lack of trams here REALLY hurt for me. I have really bad feet. The ferry was not running due to the fog, so everyone was being directed to the monorail. That early in the morning, there was no line, and our car was not even full when we left the station.

By the time we got to the tapstiles, they were letting folks onto main street. We spent the early entry half hour shopping on main street, to identify items to buy on the way out. ( really miss the ‘ship to resort’ feature, hope they get that back before our next trip!) We made it to the hub just in time for the opening show. The first pic was taken at the Christmas Tree at the start of Main Street. The castle was so pretty in the fog!

We started the day in TommowLand.   Buzz Lightyear was our first audible for the day.  As we passed, we could see it was a walk on still, so we went to save the galaxy!  We are apparently terrible at it.

At 9:15, we went on our first planned ride, the Carousel of Progress.  My husband had never been on this, and I haven’t been since 1983, when I immediately put it in the ‘not worth the time away from better rides’ category.  It was great for our purposes of this visit.  Hubby loved it, as he loves all things classic Disney.  At 9:30, we waltzed onto the PeopleMover, and enjoyed our relaxing tour of TommorowLand.  The Space Mountain part seemed different.  There were big dividers up and it was very dark in there.  We did not see the queue, nor the effects from the coaster.  Very odd.   We really enjoyed looking at the Tron construction.  I hope to get to ride that one, someday.

Aftewards, it was breakfast break time. We picked up 2 Cheshire cat tail pastries from a quick service near Alice’s Tea Cups, and a couple of strawberry slushes.  Brain freeze time!  Then we strolled to Cinderella’s wishing well, and got a few pictures for my mother-in-law, who is a huge fan of Cinderella.

We walked by the carousel and headed towards Gaston’s tavern.  I wanted to see if Gaston was there, but he was not.  There was already a line to buy food there, so we just took a pic of the fountain and left.  As we were passing Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, we saw Belle come out in a garden area across the way.  We noticed her first before there was a line, and we got to stop and talk to her for a while, before getting some pictures with her.  Fun interaction!

Next up was ‘It’s a Small World’.  Only a 10 minute wait at this time of the morning.  When we got off, it was 11am, and I could make another Genie+ LL reservation, based on the ‘2 hour’ rule.  I got Splash Mountain with a 12:35 return time. 

Princess Hall was showing only a 10 minute wait for Elena and Cinderella, so we jumped in that line.  The interactions were fun, Elena was impressed that I knew what Skyler was ( we call them flap cats in my area of Texas), and Cinderella recorded a personalized message for my mother in law.  They were both very gracious to us.

We went to Celebration of the Festival of the Lion King, and got on the Lion side of the crowd. My favorite side! I’ve never been a fan of the tumble monkeys, so didn’t miss them, but my husband did. I am not sure why, I am impressed by gymnastics, and I know how much work it takes for a person to be that nimble, but I've never enjoyed watching people flip around.

After tapping in the LL lane there, I made another LL for Dinosaur! for around 3:45pm.  We had a couple of hours to kill before EE, so we rode the train to Conservation Station.  It’s still very quiet there.  They have an Art of Animation class you can get into , but they were using tablets, not the cool tables they used to have at DisneyQuest, so we didn’t get in on it.   We ducked into the petting area and played with a few goats and a pig.  I really like the animals.  No vet procedures were being done while we were there.

We rode back to the main area, and walked the Maharaja Trek.  The tigers were pretty active and the birds in the aviary were just everywhere, quite talkative, too.  We grabbed some water and walked into a KiteTails show.  I love kites, so I was happy with the whole thing.  We sat near the big inflatable landing zone, so got to see Baloo and King Louie do their ungainly crash landings.  I think it’s funny, because honestly, there is no good way to land one of those big kites.  Even at all the kite fests I’ve been to, the inflatables just have to be crashed into the ground.

I noticed they had some Revolution kites on standby, but they didn’t use them in our show.  That was a little disappointing, because I have one of those kites. They have 4 strings, and can fly up, down and sideways.  I have never been able to get mine to stay up, I don’t have the technique.  I was hoping to watch them fly theirs to get some pointers.

Afterwards, we tapped in our LL for Expedition Everest.   Disco Yeti is still alive and well.   Next up was Flights of Wonder.  There is no Dug and Russel in the act right now, and the birds are just awesome to watch.  I highly recommend this show!

We went to “It’s Tough to be a Bug!” next.  Only about ¼ full, and no hollering to fill all the seats.  We like this show, it’s still really good.   We walked over to Dinosaur! next,  it was a walkon for both the LL and the Standby lines at about 4:30pm.

When we got off, we checked Navi again, it was around 4:45pm.  The line was still listing an 80 minute wait, and Flight of Passage was down to 40 minutes!  My husband was upset because we hadn’t gotten an LL for the ride.  I was just going to use the ‘get in line before park close’ feature, but he doesn’t like doing that.   I took screenshots at 4:06 pm, and the wait times had only shifted 5 minutes for Navi.  I thought it was worth keeping for posterity, the day that Navi had a higher wait time than Flight of Passage.

Anyway, we went to our dinner reservation at Tiffins. I have to give a huge shout out to Andy, our server. He read the table impeccably precisely. Hubby and I were cranky with each other. I was fixated on having a fun dinner, and he just wanted to eat and get out. Andy’s attention to detail, quick suggestions and very impressive knowledge of just what flavor profile we could handle was amazing. I had the sustainable Fried Fish, and it was amazing. I don’t usually like fish, but wanted to try something different. I asked Andy if they had something like cocktail sauce, because the 'fermented black bean sauce' just didn't sound appetizing to me. He convinced me that it was worth it to try. It certainly was that, I cannot describe the flavor of that sauce, but it was exactly what the fish needed, and the fish itself was sooo flaky and delicious. My husband had the Honey-chili glazed pork belly appetizer and some different bread and chip offerings. We both had the Green Shimmering Margarita. He relaxed and we both enjoyed ourselves.

We made it out of Tiffins with almost an hour to spare before park close.  We had time to go get a banshee from the store, and I even did the adoption pledge for mine.   Then, we had it shipped home, and we got into line for Navi at about 15 minutes to park close.  The line was a full 60 minutes long.   We didn’t leave AK until an hour after park close.   ( the 2nd picture below is of the inside ceiling area of the Navi ride.  I thought it was beautiful.  You can see all the heads of the people in line, below.)

Urrrrgh.. the worst of my planning was putting the latest closing park first then having to get up for the earliest opening park the next day.  Couldn't be helped, since my reservations to Hollywood Studios for the lightsaber and droid builds were only available on Friday, and my Skipper Canteen lunch was only available on Wednesday or later. 

AK opens at 8am, so Early entry is 7:30am for resort guests.  Went to bed around 11:30pm, and groaned our way out of bed at 5:45am. The morning was beautifully foggy, dew dripping everywhere.  We drove into the parking lot at 6:15 am, and were the 3^rd car in the parking lot.  At 7:00am we were already in the park, and walking to Expedition Everest.  I purchased an individual Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage with a 12:05 return time, and got an LL for Kilimanjaro Safari at 11:00am.  When we got to EE, it was down.  No ETA for when it would come up.  We waited in the area for the first half hour, but no joy.   Another early entry wasted, we are having bad luck this trip.  So, I paid for the ILL for EE, with a return at 2:55. We decided to walk the Maharajah trek, but it wasn’t opening until 10am.

One thing I do like about MDE app, is that it tells you when rides are down.  Turns out Navi River ride was down that morning as well.  We decided to go check out Pandora in the pretty misty morning, so we wandered around and searched for PhotoPass spots.

  At 10am, I picked up a LL for Celebration of the Festival of the Lion King .  We checked in at the Safari five minutes early.  It was still lightly foggy, and the animals were very active.  We saw giraffes running across the savannah,  and the rhino’s came right beside the tour truck, close enough to pet.   The painted dogs were playing, and we even got a glimpse of the new baby hippo.

We had lunch at Satu’li Canteen.   It was the best quick service we used all week.  We had the soba noodle bowl, mine with chicken and hubby’s with shrimp.   We also had the blueberry cream cheese mousse… cleaned that plate and wanted more!  So good!

After lunch, we digested our food and went to FoP near the end of our hour, close to 1pm.  That was a very fun ride, lots of fun ups and downs.  My hubby didn’t even need his Dramamine for it.   Very smooth.   

After lunch, the big IT hiccup started for Disney.  I didn’t realize how big an issue it was, because the only thing that happened to us was that my gift card wasn’t working.  I just shifted to my Disney Visa and didn’t think anything of it.  Apparently,  park entry was affected, gift cards and other  Disney ticketing issues were occurring.  Genie+ was not affected, though.

4 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

Your last update makes me realize how long it’s been since I’ve been to WDW, and how much has changed.  I need some help…LL? VQ?  BatB?   I know what Rat is because I’ve read about it but otherwise you could be talking about a theme park in Bangladesh and I’d be no more lost.  😂

Oh dear, so sorry!   LL is Lightning Lane, the replacement for FastPass +.  You have to buy Genie+ at $15 a day per person to be able to use the LL feature.  VQ is Virtual Queue, what they use for the popular ride as a fastpass feature that you don't have to pay for.   ILL is Individual Lighting Lane, the Fastpass+ you have to actually pay for separately, and can be anywhere from $7 to $10 per person.

BatB is Beauty and the Beast.

Using the LL for Soarin, we got on the ride with only a 5 minute wait, while standby was about 1 hour.   I immediately booked a 3:25 Spaceship Earth LL.  On Soarin, we got the top row, far right side, so we  giggled a lot at our bent building perspective.  It was still fun though.

After, we walked onto LwtL using our LL.   We then went to the Seas, and walked on the Nemo ride.  Enjoyed the cool air and watched the aquatic wildlife for a bit, then went to SE.  During this time, I noticed that our Rat VQ was starting to get pushed back again, and again.  After SE, we walked onto MS: Orange.  That ride made me cry for a bit.  I had really hoped to enjoy it with my son, so the grief hit hard right then.

We watched the Rat VQ change from 2:35, 3:10, 4:20, 5:01 and finally settle on 5:50, then the ride went down.  We had a dining reservation at Nine Dragons at 5:00 pm, so headed that way, with a stop in Mexico to ride the Grand Fiesta tour.  I was happy that the cardboard cutouts were gone.  I still like that ride.  We enjoyed the honey sesame chicken at Nine Dragons, with hot and sour soup.  This is one of our favorite EPCOT dining choices.  Still REALLY good.

We slowly strolled around WS afterwards, sad that the Plum wine and green tea slushy is now gone from the Tea kiosk in China.  We picked up a black and white cookie from the Cookie Stroll, and got our stamps.  Can’t say we really liked that cookie, though.  A bit overly sweet.  The disappointment of the day was the kiosk with the Grand Marnier Orange slush was closed.  

Ratatouille came back up around 6:45, so we did get to ride, YAY!  They honor your VQ after time if the ride goes down, or if you were eating.  Just bring your dining receipt if you had a dining conflict.  It was a fun romp, and interesting to watch the dance of the trackless mouse cars.  Afterwards, we did the BatB sing along, then went to the CP.  Our reading was done by Alton Fitzgerald White, who played Mufasa in the Lion King on Broadway.  A powerful voice, lovely to hear him.   The CP was very moving.  Some more tears were shed here.

After CP, we went down a bit to the left of the CP stage to watch Harmonious.  We were a couple of people out from the rail, but had a nice view of the stargate and the water tacos.  It was a nice show, but I’d rather have seen Illuminations.  This just used too many of the animated movies to try to get the point across.   It felt very Disney-like, but not at all EPCOT-like.  One warning to all.  Take a look at the shoreline where you decide to stay for this show.  They have put firework cannons all along the shore and we were right behind one.  I almost jumped out of my skin at the first shot.   All of us in the area just cracked up laughing after we recovered from the surprise.  It was LOUD!    If those were there for Illuminations, then I never had the pleasure of being near one. 

Since we were still by the CP Stage, our walk back to the rental car was the longest trudge ever, lol.  They were making everyone exit to the right side of future world, so not even the small shortcut from the path by Canada to Imagination area helped.  Thank goodness we got there at RD, so we were at least parked in the first row.

3 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Thank you for sharing about your trip... I can only imagine how bittersweet this visit was.  You'll be in my prayers this holiday season.

I agree with Dave's comment above regarding the hassle of technology.  Then again... I wish Disney would bring back the ride tickets, so you can balance my comment with that knowledge 

LOL..I'm with you, though.  Make entry to the park free, and just sell ride tickets for each experience, the way it used to be.  You would have to keep the reservation system though, because the parks would become unimaginably crowded otherwise.

22 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

First off, let me say it's great to see a trip report here.  Enjoying reading it! 

But I also have to say, regarding the part I quoted above...I don't know what any of that means but it sounds like the garbage I deal with at work every day.  Technology that is supposed to make things better doesn't work as intended, and we waste more time trying to find a workaround than it would have taken to do it the old way.  Why would I want to do that on vacation?? 

Exactly.  The reason he had 2 MDE presences is long, and I really disliked having to figure out the workaround on our first morning there.   Also, SO many restaurants in EPCOT now just give you a QR code and expect you to pull up the menu on your phone.  I really dislike that, too. 

Before I left for my week at WDW, I purchase unlimited data from my phone provider.  I did not want to have to depend on Disney WiFi for the 7am rush to book LL's.  We had issues with being indoors blocking my wireless connections.  Hopping onto the wifi then usually helped. 

I also was less than thrilled about having to use my phone for a menu AT the restaurants.  Luckily, we had taken the time to look at the menu's earlier, so we knew what we wanted already.  Even Morimoto's had the QR code for menus at the table.   Our waiter was kind enough to bring paper menu's for us, though, without our asking.