Trip Report Feelin' hot, Hot, HOT!

How on earth are we back already! But, that's the way it always goes when you go on vacation - you're back before you even know it! We had a great trip with many new experiences, new foods and great, great memories! We had an interesting flight down, a more interesting flight back (details later!) and if you hadn't guessed, it was HOT!

I'm still getting my notes and photos organized, so I will update this TR soon, but wanted to share that the "G" Family has a new addition!! Prior to our trip, we had filled out an application at our local Humane Society to adopt a kitten. We received a call on the Friday we were getting packed up to leave that our application had been approved and that we could pick up the kitten any time that worked for us. I explained we were heading out of town for a week and asked if we could pick her up after we returned and they of course said not a problem. So now we had something fun to look forward to upon our return! When we got home this past Friday, we weren't even in the door 15 minutes and we drove over to the Humane Society to pick her up Meet Belle

She is just the sweetest thing and is very loved in our home!

Be back soon! I see lots of TR's I need to catch up on too

 

[Matt and Kelly]

We have yet to try California Grill but definitely on our list!

 

[gdisneyfans]

Following! Seems like a great trip so far!

Thanks for following and yep, it was GREAT!

I so need to eat at California Grill! You're pictures had me drooling, as I would definitely order the filet! I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after seeing the price on the 2 oz pour thinking you really did each get one!! I was very relieved to scroll down and see you were just teasing us!!

Definitely do it! The filet...I still think about it! Can you believe that price?! Last time we were there, we noticed a $7,000 bottle of wine on the menu...who in their right mind would drink away $7,000?? Eeks.

 

[gdisneyfans]

I missed the fountain too. I loved Trader Sams, but in 2015, I had the Uh Oa' and drank it by myself after having a a Backscratcher and Long Island ice tea at Tambu Lounge. I was fine til I stood up. Love the effects in the bar though. Also enjoying your pics of MK, we did not go back after the fateful MNSSHP rain out day. We had plans to our last day, but Irma made us leave early.

Oh my that's quite the drink spread you had! I love the effects too - so much fun Sorry you didn't make it back to the MK especially considering the circumstances. But thankfully you got out okay!

We are eager to try Trader Sam's on this trip! Glad you enjoyed the atmosphere and drinks! I've never been in the GF, I'm sure it's amazing, glad you were able to check it out! We also have Cali Grill dinner reservations during the fireworks, so we are really looking forward to that. I'm terrified of heights, so I won't be on the balcony, and I hope I can still see the fireworks from the big crowd at the windoq Lucky for the Jungle Cruise fastpass!!!!

I have zero idea where the camera is on Pirates, so I'm sure I'll look distracted when the pic is snapped!
Looking forward to day 3!

Thanks! It really is beautiful - definitely a place I would go back and check out from time to time. Mizner's was nice and I would like to get back there again too. You will love the view!! I think you should see them okay from inside, I guess depending on your seat? The first time we were there, we had a seat right by the window and could see everything perfectly from there, along with the music piped inside as well.

Good, then you'll look like the rest of us

We have yet to try California Grill but definitely on our list!

Definitely do it

 

[gdisneyfans]

Monday, August 21st

We slept in just a bit this morning and were up about 8:00 a.m. We had Fast Passes for Hollywood Studios so we got ready to go and took the boat over to the Studios. It was another hot steamy morning, so we figured we should save our walking energy for the park vs. walking! We only had a stop at Swan and Dolphin and were at HS in no time. It was so busy trying to get in I didn't eve take a picture of the entrance Bag check lines were long and the line to get scanned into the park was about 15 minutes! But we finally made it in!

We had our first Fast Pass at Toy Story so we headed that way. I saw that the March of the First Order was at 10:00, so was hoping to catch that as well after TSMM.

We walked right onto the ride – I have no idea how to tell if you get the new track though! Do they send you a different way?

 

[gdisneyfans]

Our scores!

Mine

Brian and Emily's (I think Brian won?)

Off to find the Storm Troopers!

I have never seen any of the Star Wars films - yep I know. But these guys were pretty cool to see even if I have no idea what they
do

We had a bit before our Fast Pass was up for Tower of Terror, so decided to check on the wait for Rockin Rollercoaster as we didn’t have a Fast Pass for it this trip, so we headed down Sunset Blvd.

What a sight

We got there and it said 50 minutes, so we decided to do the single rider lane which we’ve never done. As we were entering the line, the cast member said the ride was down and they weren’t allowing anyone to enter the line. Oh well - maybe later we can take that limo ride.

 

[gdisneyfans]

We only had 10 minutes to wait for our FP entry for ToT so we just hung around that area until it was time to join the line.

I just love the details of this place!

SO MUCH FUN!!!

 

[gdisneyfans]

We had just finished and Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage was about to start in less than 10 minutes, so we made our way into a very full theater! We found seats at the top right, but really, any seat is good the way the theater is designed.

**Sorry, my photos are not all that great, but I'll post some of the ones that actually didn't turn out half bad!

 

[gdisneyfans]

Just a few more BatB:

The show was great - we had never seen it before! I'm so glad the timing worked out to see it this trip.

Our next FP was for Frozen Ever After a Singalong, but it wasn’t until 12:00, with the show being 12:30. So we just kind of wandered around looking at things. We could see the Jedi training, which looked super cute with the little kids dressed in their robes!

But soon thereafter we made our way over to the theater where the show was. We had to wait a bit before we were ushered into the theater, so it was getting rather warm in the waiting area. But those with FP got to go in first and were able to stop in the middle of the row for a great seat (vs. move all the way down to the end of your row!). Then they filled in the rest of the seats with standby guests, so those with the FP had better seats.

The two historians were hilarious. We laughed the entire show!

 

[gdisneyfans]

Finishing up the show!

Definitely a hit with all three of us - we really enjoyed the show

Then it was time for our ADR

I had been excited to go here for quite some time, so we booked the Fantasmic! lunch package which included an appetizer, entree, dessert and soft drink. Our reservation was at 1:30, but we arrived probably around 1:15. We checked in and were told it would most likely be close to or a little after our reservation time before we got seated as they were busy, but we were okay with it. We waited at the most 5 minutes and were seated

 

[gdisneyfans]

We had a really awesome server, Joanna – she was super attentive and very engaging. We started out with a beverage order – we chose drinks that weren’t included in the package – Brian and I each had a beer and Emily had a non-alcoholic mojito. She brought our beverages and bread and dipping oil.

Then she took our appetizer order (and would take our entree order once our appetizers were delivered). I had the Caprese salad

Emily had the mushroom flatbread

Brian had the calamari

My "salad" and Emily's flatbread were very, very good. I would not try Brian's calamari

Entrees!

Emily had the chicken penne pasta with Alfredo sauce

And Brian and I both had the strip steak with four cheese macaroni.

Oh my goodness this meal was so fantastic!!! We were all stuffed at this point – I couldn’t eat all of my steak, but I did eat all of the macaroni! We all received the same desert – a trio of lemon cheesecake with passion fruit pearls, tiramisu and blood orange cake. We tried them all, but just couldn’t finish everything. I thought they all tasted very good.

We would definitely go back and do this again!

It was raining while we were having lunch, but it stopped just in time for us to head out of the park

 

[gdisneyfans]

The eclipse was today so as we were walking toward the exit, everyone was looking up to see. We didn’t have the special glasses to view, but if you put sunglasses on and look up, you could see the outline of the eclipse.

Loved that they had Star Wars balloons for those Star Wars fans!

They had a photopass photographer so we hopped in line for some pictures.

We ended up taking the boat back to the resort as it was just too hot to walk. We stopped at Swan and Dolphin and then our stop was next, so we were back to the resort pretty quickly.

 

[gdisneyfans]

Pool time! We were having a hard time finding seats, but found some together about the third row back. It was fine as we spent most of the time in the pool because it was just too hot to lay on the chairs!

Quite a few of the nighttime lights were on - I'm assuming from the eclipse?

Brian and Emily played a little "volleyball" (aka hit a ball over a string that is tied from one side of the pool to the other!) with a gentleman and his son. They had fun!

I love that you have a view of the Dolphin from the pool area!

We relaxed at the pool until about 5:30 and then went up to the room to get ready for an evening in Hollywood Studios. We decided to walk because the boats seemed to be taking quite a while.

The walk wasn’t too bad – as a matter of fact, we never even saw a boat pass us while we walked over, so we made it there before we would have if we had taken the boat!

 

[gdisneyfans]

We took a few photos when we returned, but it was pretty much the same picture like five times!

Em wanted to try Rockin Rollercoaster again to see if the line was open. Standby was like 90 minutes, so if we wanted to ride, we would have to do single rider. We opted for that because we knew we wouldn’t be back in HS this trip and we really wanted to ride. The signs did say that single rider can take as long as the standby, but we risked it because we had to get over to Fantasmic! for the show. It probably took about 30 minutes and we were boarding our stretch limo! This is the only picture I took while inside

We figured Brian would go first so he could wait for Emily when she got off.

But she and I ended up on the same car just a few rows from each other!

Oh my goodness look at the little girl in the row in front of me

An awesome ride as always!

I forgot to post a couple photopass pictures from earlier in the day so I'll plop them here since we're in HS anyway!

Okay, back to our evening...We made our way over to Fantasmic! The theater was filling up pretty quickly, but we found a spot sort of at the top. We wanted to be close to the top, so when the show was ending we could dart out and hopefully get into ToT before the park closed….we’ll see! We hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, but we weren’t starving or anything. They had concession stands in the theater so Emily saved our seats and Brian and I went and got us all a snack. Brian and I each got a pretzel and a beer and Emily got a sprite and some popcorn. We had about 45 minutes until the show started, so we had our snack and just people watched.

I think we're full!

 

[Figaro Family]

How have you never seen Star Wars? Glad you had a great pool day at the Beach Club. We had a good time on our pool day there playing volleyball over the "string" with the kids too!

 

[gdisneyfans]

The show finally starts and we have this group of girls sitting right behind us talking and singing loudly throughout the entire show – it was really annoying I think they were cast members or prior cast members because it seemed like they were talking about specific people in the show. I get that it can be fun to sing and have fun, but when it is so loud it over takes the show itself, I would rather not even watch then!

But the show was great, as always! We don't catch it every trip, but we try to do it every other.

So just as the show was ending, we made a b-line for the exit. ToT here we come!

 

[gdisneyfans]

We walked pretty fast and almost ran to the entrance, but we were told not to run, that we could get in. Yay! We didn’t have a full elevator and we sat in the back row so we could put our hands up without getting in the way of anyone’s picture.

Sad that it was our last time on ToT this trip, but so glad we were able to ride it twice!

We made our way out of the park. The Star Wars fireworks had just finished, so it was a very full Hollywood Blvd. We were on the sidewalk, but there were people everywhere, so it was a slow walk out. We were going to catch the boat back, but the line was just way too long. I’m guessing it would have been three boats before we would have gotten on, so we walked instead and we actually beat the first boat back!

 

[gdisneyfans]

It was a good 20 minute walk and we were hustling – we wanted to try to get to Hurricane Hannah’s before they closed at 10:00! We made it! I had 2 white sangria’s (I was thirsty!) and Brian had a beer and a white sangria

Looks like they are getting ready to close - the booze bottles are almost gone!

It was almost 10:00 so we made our way back up to our room and called it a night. We walked a lot that day and knew the next day would be even more! It was another awesome day at Disney!

At some point so far in this trip, Brian asked how much an AP was! Not sure if it was just curiosity or what, but I found it interesting that he asked!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Love your ToT pics! It is my absolute favorite ride!! Night is the best time to ride in my opinion.

They send you down a hallway to the left instead of up the stairs for the new TSMM track.

 

[amjt660]

At some point so far in this trip, Brian asked how much an AP was! Not sure if it was just curiosity or what, but I found it interesting that he asked!

Carpe Diem!!
(sieze the day)

As soon as he asked it you should have been " well lets go ask at Guest Services and Brian remember to bring your credit card because this is happening now!!!!!"

Max

 

[gdisneyfans]

How have you never seen Star Wars? Glad you had a great pool day at the Beach Club. We had a good time on our pool day there playing volleyball over the "string" with the kids too!

I know! It was just one of the franchises we never got into! I'm sure the land will be awesome though and can't wait to see it. I never thought I'd watch Avatar, but we before this past trip just to have a sense of what the movie was about before seeing the land. So who knows, maybe we'll binge watch Star Wars one of these days!

Love your ToT pics! It is my absolute favorite ride!! Night is the best time to ride in my opinion.

They send you down a hallway to the left instead of up the stairs for the new TSMM track.

We enjoy it at night best too - I think it gives more of the eerie effect

Thanks - that's what I kind of thought but when we walked in we were ushered so quick to go up the stairs I didn't even have a chance to look around to see if there was a hallway going to other way.

Carpe Diem!!
(sieze the day)

As soon as he asked it you should have been " well lets go ask at Guest Services and Brian remember to bring your credit card because this is happening now!!!!!"

Max

I should have seized that day! But there's always next time...maybe I'll just do it before we leave and not tell him