Halloween in August Trip Report

[wendinator 109]

Not a lot of Fort content unfortunately, but since TCD has trip report writing burnout I thought I'd share my recent trip (apart from the food photos I already posted). I won't feel bad if you don't read it all - I tend to write too much!

Back in about March my sister let me know she was planning to go for two weeks and asked if I was interested in joining. Since I got an AP in January this seemed like a no brainer so of course I said yes. For planning purposes the things we had to keep in mind were: 1. she was only telling her kids about the first week, so the second week would be a surprise, 2. we'd be down there for my birthday (yay!), and 3. the accommodations would be a mix of her time share on 192 and their DVC

My sister and her family started their summer vacation in the Canadian Maritimes with my parents and when that was over my parents headed back home and my sister headed south to Florida, making a few stops along the way. On Sunday, August 20 they checked into AKL for themselves and the timeshare for me. She set up her reservation with DME for 1 person from MCO to AKL, so when I flew down I hopped on DME to meet them. Is there anything better than seeing this for the first time?

When I arrived they were already poolside. I changed out of my jeans and runners into shorts and sandals in the Jiko/Boma bathroom - the handicap stall was occupied so I used a regular stall and all my wiggling around caused the toilet to flush at least 4 times. It was pretty funny but I felt bad about the water waste. They'd managed to get 2 nights at the club level so I rehydrated with a glass each of the lounge's water, lemonade (very sweet), and jungle juice (POG).

I knew that I'd be doing a bunch of different things from my sister and her family so I'd booked myself a rental car. My BIL drove me to where I thought the rental car pickup place was since I'd picked up a car from there before. But when we pulled in the parking lot it became pretty clear that I wasn't in the right place.

Fortunately there was a sign on the door with the address to the right place. When I got there it didn't look much better but at least it was actually open and staffed!

I picked up my rather beat up looking rental car and went to the time share to unpack my bags.

After unpacking I went to Target/CVS to lay in a few supplies. After that it was straight back to AKL to pick up one of my nephews who wanted to go to afternoon tea with me.

You can read all about our afternoon tea here.

After tea we popped our heads in a few of the GF gift shops. My nephews like to pin trade so are always on the lookout for interesting pins. I have a weakness for mugs/glasses and thought this one was cute.

But I also know I'm already out of cupboard space so I gave it a pass.

I don't have a lot of pictures after that. I'm pretty sure I was tired from travel so returned the kid to his parents, then I went back to the time share for some Zzz's in anticipation of rope drop at the Magic Kingdom the next day (Monday). We'll pick up there, which will be way more interesting than this!

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

I'm in! Who could say no to 2 weeks at Disney. 

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Two weeks..awesome!  Too funny about the toilet flushing and THE SIGN!  I'm always SO happy when I see it!!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

You're off to a great start!

Way to step up!

TCD

[momof3kids-Yvonne 595]

I'm in. 

Love the glass. I am a firm believer in c.

[Tony 27]

I'm in.

Sounds like its gonna be a good one

The sign never gets old!

[wendinator 109]

Thanks for following along!

My sister and family were aiming to maximize their resort time (and were especially fond of club level) which meant I had the day to do with as I pleased. And I was pleased to do rope drop at MK.

I was at the TTC and in my parking spot just after 8 am. I took a picture of my parking row because I know otherwise I'll never remember.

This was my first time back at WDW since the security procedures changed, so that meant this was also the first time I went through security at the TTC. I think this distributed model works better than the centralized security at MK only. I didn't keep track but you know how sometimes after bag check they ask you to go through the metal detector as well? I swear on this whole trip there was only one time where they didn't ask me to go through the metal detector as well. But anyway.

I'm ferry people not monorail people and I was waiting for the ferry by 8:10.

After an easy ferry ride and breezing through the tapstiles I was still pretty early so decided to stop for a PhotoPass photographer.

Park didn't officially open until 9 so I went to the Emporium to get myself a gift card. As a Canadian it's a little easier on the credit card statement if you have one transaction of $100 onto a gift card rather than a bunch of little transactions. I had a tiny gift card that I got at Food & Wine a few years ago but my experience has been that the card is finicky when they swipe it so I decided a normal sized card would be better.

I got the one that looks most like my Miata. 🙂

Took this photo at 8:30. Looks like a nice day, eh?

You might also recall that today was the big eclipse day.

They had signs up about it at the park too.

While waiting for the park to open I found a nice table and chair inside Casey's Corner. I didn't bother to watch the opening show - I'd seen it before and it's pretty disappointing compared to the old train station show. Finally the park was open! Any guesses where I went? Where would you go at rope drop...?

If you said Sleepy Hollow for a Nutella waffle... you win! My thrill ride days are largely behind me.

Isn't it great to not have to share?

Now that I'd started the day off right, I headed to Pirates. It was a walk-on (no surprise). This was my first time riding since they added the ride photo just before the drop. Either it wasn't working or it didn't link to my MagicBand because I didn't get the ride photo. After that it was over to Jungle Cruise for my first FP of the day. I got given a red card, which was pretty funny considering there was literally no wait so all I did was carry it from one CM to another.

I was interested to note that the rhino is still being refurbed. But at least now instead of there being nothing at the totem pole there are hyenas. I wonder when the rhino is coming back.

I had a great skipper and I made a note of her name (Kasha) so I could swing by City Hall later. A good skipper makes all the difference with the Jungle Cruise, as you know. From here it was over to the Tiki Room. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea but it always reminds me of my Mom singing along, and I like those singing totem poles so I always go at least once.

After the Tiki birds I saw a PhotoPass photographer who looked lonely so I chatted with him for a while and got him to do another magic shot.

By this time I was ready for my Haunted Mansion FastPass.

You know the part where it talks about the hot and cold running chills? And there's that cold fan that blows? Yeah, that's where I got stopped. (Sorry for the grainy, low light photos.)

Fortunately I had a light sweater with me and fortunately I wasn't there for too terribly long. And I guess there are worse places to be stuck?

There was another PhotoPass photographer as you leave the Haunted Mansion so of course I had to get a picture there too. For some reason I really struggled to make the hitchhiking thumb gesture the photographer wanted. He was probably questioning his career choice by the time he was done with me.

I wandered around the Tinkle Tower area a bit and went into Memento Mori. Also saw this great kid on a leash. I know nothing about kids, but thought he might be a little old for this...

From here it was over to Country Bear Jamboree. It must be my advancing years because I also have a soft spot for the Bears too. If you're interested at all in why the Bears are worth keeping give this a read.

After the Bears I decided it was time for a train ride. When I was here in January and again in March the train was still closed for refurb. So I got on the train at Frontierland and took it just one stop over to Fantasyland.

As I was walking along the pathway towards Tomorrowland I noticed some scaffolding on the side of Space Mountain and saw they were painting.

I forget where I read it but somewhere I saw something that said, "Near the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and Astro Orbiter in Rockettower Plaza, there is a courtesy phone provided by the Galactic Communications Network. Pick it up and listen to some of their party line conversations! You’ll be able to find out what movies are playing nearby, find out which criminals are on the loose in Tomorrowland, and even “order” a pizza!"

The good news was that I found the phone thing.

The bad news was that it didn't actually do anything as far as I could tell. Fail.

But that's OK because PeopleMover time!

MDE even kindly reminded me about the eclipse in case I'd forgotten.

To be continued...

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Wow, you are doing an excellent job!

I don't think I've ever gone to MK for rope drop and gone for the Nutella Waffle.  But, that's really not a bad idea.

Mucho respect for hitting the Tiki Birds and the Country Bears.  Those are personal favorites of mine, too.

I can't believe that Rhino was still missing. He's been gone a long time.

Tinkle Tower?  I thought that was a typo, but then I got it.  Good one.  I haven't heard that one before.

I also never heard of, and don't recall ever seeing that phone in Tomorrowland.  You just there proved the value of a good trip report!

TCD

[BigTom 76]

great report, I read all of them and try to comment. Tiki Birds and CBJ are also some of my favorites.

[Tony 27]

Great report, fun to follow. I'm wondering how many people went with the eclipse happening that day? Guess we'll wait and see....

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Awesome start! Can't wait to read more :)

[alexwyattmommy 181]

I love the Tinkle Tower name.

The breakfast looked good.

[Mrs.TN22 12]

I'm in!

 Great report!  Love seeing the sign every time.  Love the Tinkle Tower - I'll have to remember that one.  

2 weeks at Disney = Awesome!

 

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

Tinkle Tower is great!

 I also love the Tiki Birds. 

Now I'm intrigued by this phone, wondering if anyone has any other information on it. 

One of these days I may get around to actually doing rope drop, but it involves getting up to early!

[dblr....Rennie 224]

Reading along and great pictures, amazing the ground you can cover when your alone, looking forward to more!!!!!!!

[wdwpoohbear...Jennifer 40]

Great report so far!  I can't wait to read some more!

[Seals 111]

After TCD's comments about people not reading TR I'm vowing to actually comment instead of commenting in my head. Great trip report so far. You've done all my favorite attractions. You should have done time lapse photography on that waffle. I love Tiki Birds because of my Dad singing along (during the show and for months after at home; cracked himself up every time). Looking forward to reading more.

[Memphis 105]

I'm in great job.   I love trip reports.  I always learn something new or a different way of seeing the parks and resots.  

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I'm in too!  Great start!

[wendinator 109]

Thanks again to everyone for commenting and following along.

After the PeopleMover I headed over to the Carousel of Progress. I almost always sit in the same spot for this - all the way over to the right. I know that in COP they don't ask you to move all the way down to the end of the row to make space for everyone... but I usually do it anyway. Today I threw caution to the wind! So I got a better view of these folks instead.

I noticed either in the Lines app or on the park map that there was something called iCan that had an appearance in Tomorrowland coming up soon so I decided to hang around until that showed up... whatever it was. I think maybe TCD had mentioned it once before but I certainly hadn't heard a lot of buzz. Sure enough I found him/it.

Looks a lot like my husband's razor only with a head.

 

I didn't stick around long. Push was way better.

While in Tomorrowland I was intrigued to notice that the Express Transportation was still running. I thought it was closing down, which I guess it did not long after. (This was Aug 21.)

I was close to the Lunching Pad so grabbed my favorite snack of a frozen Coke and a cream cheese pretzel and I  headed over to where the fireworks dessert party is (Tomorrowland Terrace) to sit and watch the world go by.

The only thing better than snack time is... Snack time with a view!

I had a FP for 7DMT so I headed there next. I'm sure it's just my imagination but man is the queue for 7DMT ever LOUD! Maybe it was the large group ahead of me too. I had time to read the overhead monitors with the safety info. This part made me laugh.

The ride wrangler asked how many in my party and I told them '1' so they put me with the large group in front of me and then we were herded right to the very front boarding area. When the next train pulled into the station the group started to board... and it was total chaos. To be honest, I'm not really sure what happened, but some people wouldn't get on, and then they changed their minds, and moved around, by which time my seat was gone and the ride operator was anxious to get the train rolling so they told me to just stay put. The next train pulled into the station and they told me to get on... essentially by myself. The ride operator said, "This will make for a great ride photo!" and he wasn't wrong!

Probably my favorite PhotoPass picture evah!

After this I did a little wandering and browsing.  I played a game of  "spot the Brits".

There seemed to be a lot of Brits when I was there. My husband is from England and I love teasing him about how they don't have the sun in England. He doesn't even own a pair of shorts and has worn jeans at Disney in August before. (facepalm)

Saw some interesting shirts, but nothing that I actually bought.

By now it was Festival of Fantasy parade time. I've seen it before so I didn't watch the whole thing, but by coincidence I happened to stop right near where there were 2 CMs doing the sign language for the parade song. I'd never seen that before and thought it was really cool.

It was pretty close to peak eclipse time. There were LOTS of photographers ready to capture it.

I wasn't sure the sky was going to cooperate.

This photo was taken at 2:49 which I think is when the maximum eclipse was supposed to be in the Orlando area.

I  took it from the area near Sleepy Hollow. You can see... it's not all that dark. Frankly I didn't really see what the big deal was all about. I didn't have eclipse glasses so didn't look up but I sure saw lots of other people looking up both with and without glasses.

Went onto MDE and made myself a Small World FP. I'm guessing you guys were OK with the CBJ and Tiki Room but draw the line at iasw. Fortunately one of the many joys of being solo is there's nobody to stop me from riding iasw! Now I've been stuck on iasw before, so I always take this picture in order to give me a time stamp.

And I always take a winking hippo picture.

I have the plush version at home. :-)

 

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Now I want a plush hippo. =)

 

Nice mine ride photo.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

You are continuing to do a great job showing why Trip Reports are so great-  I've never seen that I-can robot before, nor have I seen the new screens in the 7DMT queue.

Spot the Brits?  Funny.  And you certainly did find some based on that photo.

I'm with you on the eclipse.  I know people who traveled so they could be in the zone of totality, or whatever that was called.  Why?  It gets dark every night, people.  I swore that Disney posted a bunch of photos showing the eclipse.  There must have been some view of it between the clouds.

I have no problem with a nice ride on iasw- although the WDW version is kind of lame compared to Disneyland's.

TCD

[Memphis 105]

3 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I'm with you on the eclipse.  I know people who traveled so they could be in the zone of totality, or whatever that was called.  Why?  It gets dark every night, people.  I swore that Disney posted a bunch of photos showing the eclipse.  There must have been some view of it between the clouds.

TCD

Where we live now was in the "zone" it was amazing to see.  Yes it was just dark but it was the speed that it got dark and light again. Just the tiniest bit of the sun showing puts out a lot of light.  But when in totality it was like night time. All our outside lights came on, the bugs started singing and two mins. later it was like a timelapsed video it got so bright so fast.  And going in and out of totality we had a 360 deg view of a sunset and sunrise.  I had been in a partial before and I agree it was no big deal but I would not have missed this for anything.

[Helmsey......Todd 134]

Somehow I missed the start of this TR but I'm caught up now. 
Tinkle tower.....now that is funny!!
I wonder how many other FP pictures there are from 7DMT where only 1 person is in the shot? I can't imagine there are very many of those.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I'm in and all caught up. 

Aweome job!

ive done Disneyland solo but never  Disney World. Hopefully one day I'll get to do it. Until then I'm really enjoying your solo trip.

Tiki room. Love it. 

 Country bear jamboree I love it. It's a small world Love it.

I'm definitely going to try to find that phone on our next trip.  And find the robot.  

Thanks for the info  

My family really likes doing and finding new things we've never seen or done at wdw  

cant wait to read more.