Trip Report We tried New Things/Invasion of the Mother-In-Law- September 2016

Well, here we go!

The Basics-
Who- Me, Dale

And my husband, Frank

What- Our annual anniversary trip, Celebrating 13 years together. (Full disclosure, we've only been married since July 1, 2015, a few days after it became legal. But we keep this anniversary as well, since I don't think it's fair to ignore the 12 years since we couldn't actually get married... )

When- September 15th- 22nd, 2016
Where- Caribbean Beach Resort- Pirate Room (Cause I am a child at heart and pirates are awesome)... might I come to regret this decision? We shall see...

(If you want more info, see my Pre-trip report http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/we-are-trying-new-things-darn-it-september-2016.915967/

I must start out by apologizing that there are no cute airport or plane pictures. I have lately become such a nervous flier. I'm not sure exactly when it started, I used to love flying and looking out the window, but probably about 3 years ago, it just kind of lost the appeal. Now, I need an aisle seat, and sit facing forward... not looking around, usually with my eyes closed, generally clutching onto Frank's arm.

But, the flight down was fine, actually, no turbulence to speak of, and we actually arrived about 38 minutes early. Once we were safely on the ground at MCO, I did snap this picture for instagram.

Once off the plane we headed to the Magical Express, waited maybe 5 minutes, then we were on, to be greeted by my namesake on the video screen!

The ride was uneventful, and I chose a seat poorly since I was right next to one of the bars and the decal on the outside impeded my view a bit, but I did manage to snag a (slightly blurry) pic of this guy...

We got to Caribbean Beach shortly after, and... our room wasn't ready. But I checked in and went to the concierge to pick up our tickets for The Hoop Dee Doo Revue, then checked my backpack and headed to the bus stop where I think we waited about 5 minutes for the bus, and while we were waiting, I snapped a pic of the Custom House (because for some reason, I didn't get a picture of the resort sign)

So, then the bus came, and we got on to head to our traditional first park of the trip...

Seems like a good place to stop for now... To be continued...

 

[catmandoo]

Sorry for the lack of updates... life keeps getting in the way... I should be able to post a bunch this weekend...

 

[catmandoo]

So, we got on the bus and headed to Epcot, our traditional first park of the trip. Once on the bus, I sat down and looked up to check out the new advertisements and saw...

I hated this movie. Moving on.

Soon enough, we were greeted by this sight

As we passed through and I caught sight of the price for parking, I was sure glad we never drive. We were let off at a far away stop and began the long trek to the front gates... Would we be randomly selected??? Well, at that point, Frank went through the Guests Without Bags entrance and I went through the bag check. They were having everyone without bags go through the metal detectors, and I got through after a quick bag check... so no random selection... yet.

A brief wait in line, then Mickey gave us the green light and we were in!

It was a gorgeous day, but HOT. I've read a couple other trip reports from the dame timeframe and they mention the heat... I think it was hotter this year than any other time I've been. But I loved it. I am not a fan of the cold. But I digress.
Since we'd been up for awhile with no food, first thing we did was heard for a bite to eat...

 

[catmandoo]

I totally hit the wrong button there... didn't mean to post so soon. Whoops.

Anyway, we headed to

It wasn't terribly busy for being just around lunchtime, so we ordered pretty quickly, then did something we've never done before (a new thing!) and sat upstairs. It was just like sitting downstairs, but higher! We had a lovely view of the little passageway, but for some reason, I did not take any pictures...
But i did manage to snag a few of our food!

Vegetarian Flatbread for me... (I am not a vegetarian, I just thought it sounded good, which it was!) But for the life of me I don't know what is in that little medicine cup next to it. I didn't write it down.

Sausage and pepper sandwich for Frank. He liked it. It was a bit messy though.

He probably had Orange Soda to drink and I probably had lemonade (I have to severely limit caffeine So I generally stay away from carbonated beverages, just in case)
And for dessert...

Fun fact- I scraped about 6/8ths of the frosting off... I'm not a big frosting person. They were quite tasty.

A brief Pause, here is the button that we were given upon check in- which would come into play a few times during the trip...

And moving on! After lunch we still had a bit of time before our first fast pass, so we decided to just wander around and ended up heading toward the Food and Wine Festival Center. Frank has a bit of an obsession with The Wonders of Life pavilion, and every year say "Maybe Body Wars will be open this time." I'm not sure he believes me when I say it's not there anymore. But anyway, it bring back memories being inside that pavilion since my Dad used to work for MetLife and we got to go into the lounge there a few times when I was growing up. I really wish they'd do something with it.

It was interesting to look and try to remember where things were on the inside. I eventually looked for a map on my phone to see if it would help. Sort of, but still have fuzzy memories of the locations.
While looking around, I saw these Kitcheny things, but could not convince Frank that we needed them. Even though they would go with our kitchen perfectly.

Down the way a bit was free chocolate. Which is never a bad thing.

And then, a little further along was the greatest place of them all.

Sadly, did not buy any since it was early in the day and I didn't want to have to pick it up later and we probably didn't have a corkscrew in the room but it was fun to look at all the different wines.

It was about time to head to our first FastPass+ selection, so we left and as we passed Universe of Energy I made Frank sit and get a picture since... if the rumors are true... it might not be there much longer...

As you can see, he was thrilled.

 

[Jess G]

Great TR so far! I've been DYING for that kitchen set, I love the dinner dishes in that style. Do you remember which store in Epcot you were in? I have to keep an eye out for those when I'm there!

 

[catmandoo]

Great TR so far! I've been DYING for that kitchen set, I love the dinner dishes in that style. Do you remember which store in Epcot you were in? I have to keep an eye out for those when I'm there!

That particular display was at the Food and Wine Festival center... but I'm pretty sure I saw them at the Kitchen store in Disney Springs too... or the little kitchen place at the Co-Op also in Disney Springs.

 

[sheriffwoody]

I love that kitchen stuff too! It wouldn't go with mine. so that's my excuse not to get it all haha.

Loving your report!

 

[catmandoo]

As we headed toward the front of the park for our dirst Fastpass+ selection, we took a little detour, knowing it wouldn't take long and we had an hour until our window was up.

What a sad, sad, little world innoventions has become.... I remember back in the day when I first visited... in the later 1900s... OKay, Fine 1991ish... when CommuniCore was still around and it was bustling with activity. The thing that sitcks out most in my head was a little counter of never ending numbers that stated the world's population. And there seemed to be a lot of robots.

And now, well... there's this.

Which was... nice? I guess. I was jut excited there was a little game afterwards. I'm a bit competitive. I guess it stems from being the youngest of 5 kids. Anyway, Frank and I play the color matching game... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddd...
This way my result.

But this was his.

So, in little competitions so far, Dale-0 and Frank 1.
We moved into the little paint with light room, and I was fascinated by the multi-color shadows. It's the little things.

And this is my incomplete mural... I kept changing the colors since they all did different things.

And that completes our tour of innoventions.

So we head on up to the front of the park and our First Fastpass+ selection.

If I recall, Standby was maybe 25 minutes, so it was worth it to used the fastpass, even though 25 minutes isn't all that long. (PS, I hate the tiered system at Epcot, but I completely understand why it exists).
I love this mural.

Side note- I recently upgraded to a DSLR camera and was curious to see how it would far on dark rides, etc... This is the only picture that came out halfway decent.

I would find later in the trip that my cell phone took decent pictures in Dark Rides, so... be prepared for those.
So, we traveled through time, accompanied by the dulcet tones of Dame Judi Dench, and then it was time to build our future... and this is what we got.

You will notice that this is not Frank and I. And as I looked at the other people's cars in front of us, they had similar pictures... The pictures would not work any of the times we rode Spaceship Earth the entire trip. *sad face*

Coming up... Another Disney first... and my most embarrassing Disney moment of all time.

 

[catmandoo]

So, after our journey through time and space, I was a little parched. Which means on our way to our next attraction, we made a little pit-stop at the world famous.... Club Cool! *insert fanfare here*

Now, if you'll recall, I have to limit caffiene, so I only took tiny sips of each of the drinks... including, for the FIRST time EVER... Beverly!
Sorry, there are no pictures of my face since Frank does not like to try new things, and he was at the counter buying a bottle of orange soda. So, I'll paint a word picture... at first I was like, "This isn't so bad"... then I swallowed and it hit the back of my throat and I probably made a retching noise, since there was a teenage girl laughing at me. The Melon Fanta drink was quite tasty though...

(I wish they'd switch things out every so often... I feel like they've had the same things the last few trips I took)
Thirst satiated, we headed to our next attraction, which we did not have a fastpass for, but it was okay since we walked right on, after one of my favorite queue lines...

Full disclosure, I don't remember The Living Seas. And I quite enjoy the Nemo ride. After the ride, we hung out a bit and looked around at the aquariums and various fishy displays. It wasn't terribly crowded, and we stopped to look at the Manatees for a bit. I used to have an adopted Manatee back in the day (Do they still do things like that?) His name was Tithonus and he was a hefty looking fellow. He had a chunk out of his back from a boat propeller, so he'd been through a lot. I was quite sad when I got the letter informing my that he'd passed on. Anyway, there was a manatee chowing down on some lettuce... AND HE WAS HOLDING IT IN HIS LITTLE FLIPPER LIKE HE WAS A PEOPLE! It was super cute.

After that, it was time for our next Fastpass+ selection... Everyone's FAVORITE ride....

Full disclosure #2... I DO remember the original Imagination and miss it terribly. I also remember the second version and hated it... And was trying to tell my friends (It was during our high school band trip) that it wasn't the ride I remembered, but they didn't believe me. In it's current version... it's okay. I enjoy singing along like a fool to embarass Frank... and if you think of coffee at the skunk spray, inhale deeply, it almost smells like really strong, burnt coffee.
After getting into the car, I snapped one of my traditional pictures... "HOLD HANDS! NO DANCING!"

After the ride was over, we made a figment, and e-mailed it to me... but it never arrived. So there is a lost figment out there floating around in cyber space, lost... or perchance causing mischief somewhere.
So we headed next door since the show was starting right away for the Disney Pixar Short Film nonsense that was lazily installed after Captain EO went away. Again. (Bring back Honey I Shrunk the Audience at least)... Get a Horse... Somethign with the moon and stars... and some bird thing? Maybe.

When the movies were over, we stopped to watch people stand in front of the dancing water fountain... and had a few laughs when they got hit with the water. Sadly, I did not get any pictures of the impacts.

Then there was a bird sitting along the little walkway, and I wanted to get a picture of it... evidently the bird had other ideas and started to fly away ad I clicked the camera... what resulted... a blurry black blob that looks like it's falling off the ledge.

There is a better picture of the bird that Frank took, but I am saving most of his pictures for a "Day one through Frank's Eyes" post... he takes such... interesting pictures.

Coming up... We go around the world... a couple of ways. And still... my most embarrassing Disney Moment ever.

 

[KatieLVT]

I am loving this post! You are cracking me up!! More please!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Great report so far. I like your magic bands. How did you get the speckles on them?

 

[LeighM]

What- Our annual anniversary trip, Celebrating 13 years together. (Full disclosure, we've only been married since July 1, 2015, a few days after it became legal. But we keep this anniversary as well, since I don't think it's fair to ignore the 12 years since we couldn't actually get married... )

My husband and I were together for 12 years when we got married 2 years ago and I felt the same way. So I completely understand what you mean. Some of my friends don't understand why Nov 1st means more to me - more history with that one, a whopping 12 years!! Longer than some couples have even been together LOL. We do more for our dating anniversary Nov 1 (11-1) than we do for our wedding anniversary Feb 22 (2-22) - fun fact: my birthday is Jan 23 (1-23) and his is Mar 21 (3-21) so we unintentionally kept the pattern going LOL.

I'm loving your trip report so far!! And you reminded me that I forgot about the Pixar film thing when I was there earlier in the month. What did you think about it?

 

[catmandoo]

Great report so far. I like your magic bands. How did you get the speckles on them?

That is.... really cheap nail polish from Five Below. A few coats of the color/speckly one, then a coat of clear polish. usually wrap them around a water bottle to paint, it seems to hold up better that way.

My husband and I were together for 12 years when we got married 2 years ago and I felt the same way. So I completely understand what you mean. Some of my friends don't understand why Nov 1st means more to me - more history with that one, a whopping 12 years!! Longer than some couples have even been together LOL. We do more for our dating anniversary Nov 1 (11-1) than we do for our wedding anniversary Feb 22 (2-22) - fun fact: my birthday is Jan 23 (1-23) and his is Mar 21 (3-21) so we unintentionally kept the pattern going LOL.

I'm loving your trip report so far!! And you reminded me that I forgot about the Pixar film thing when I was there earlier in the month. What did you think about it?

It was okay for what it was. Nothing special, There were minimal effects in the theater, so it's kind of like, just going and watching three short films in 3D with occasional flashing lights.

 

[catmandoo]

Where were we...

After I didn't get a good picture of the bird, it was nearing time for our next Fastpass+ selection... so we took the looooonnnnnng trek from Imagination to...

Exhausted, we went inside. It was still about half and hour until our Fastpass time for Soarin, so we hit up, what actually is one of my favorite rides, Living With the Land. I'm not sure why I like it so much... but I love going through the greenhouses and am trying to get Frank to take the Behind the Seeds tour. The irony is, I cannot make things grow to save my life. I have no sort of horticultural skills in the least. Anyway, this is what the wait time said...

But it was actually more like... 36 seconds. We were seated in the front row of the boat, and off we went... past one of my favorite HIdden Mickeys (Which I can never get a decent picture of). Now I'd like to show you a few of my favorite plants.

That one.

This one.

And that one over there.

And the alligator tank was all covered up. (But I did not get a picture this time)

Still, we had a bit of time before our flight, so we went to nap... er, watch the Circle of Life movie.
After our nap... I mean, the thrilling movie, it was finally time to check out

AND for our first flight on the new movie, we were in the new theatre! It was very clean.
Full Disclosure #3(right?) Soarin' freaks me out a little. When I was a thinner man, I used to use the kid's strap for added security. But my thighs are a bit too thick for that these days.

We were in row three right in the center for our first flight, which was fine with me. Frank was a little upset since he always wants the top row. So... I liked it. The new movie. It was fun, I miss the Orange scent. I'm glad I got to see the old movie one last time when I was in California in May.

So, after that, we headed over to the other side of Future World.
Here's a caption for the next picture... Me- "Frank, turn around I want to take your picture" "Frank- No."

Aaaand now... Time for another Disney First! Our first ever Memory Maker Photopass pictures!
We stopped in the area to meet Baymax and Joy & Sadness! (Joy & Sadness was an hour wait, so we skipped them.)

He did move and kind of freaked me out... I don't know if there's a person in there or not.

After that, we headed over for one last trip to the Piggy Bank... The Ding dang... The Big Bang. Again, I tried to use my new camera in the dark sections and this was the only decent picture that came out of it.

After our trip through the Universe of Energy, we headed over toward Test Track and caught a glimpse of the future (possible)

In a disappointing end to the post... Test Track had like.. a 75 minute wait, so we skipped it.

Coming up... A trek around the world by foot... one of my favorite Disney Views... and my most embarrassing Disney Moment (I promise, it's coming!)

 

[catmandoo]

For some reason, unless we enter Epcot through the International gateway, we always head around World Showcase the same way. We made a little trip through the Food & Wine Craft Beer building *whisper*odyssey*whisper*
Full disclosure #4- I do not like beer. Frank does like beer. This may come into play later.

He did not like any of the beers in the Craft Beer building, so we moved along right outside where he promptly made a phone call to work.
My face- . It annoys me when we're on vacation and he talks to work. He is a bit of a workaholic.

So, I decided to bust out the zooooooooom lens on my camera and take a few shots of Wold showcase, which includes one of my favorite views/tricks at all of Walt Disney World.
The Tower of Terror/Morocco fun trick. I love how they line right up.

I don't know why this is so crooked.
And here are a few more from Across the Lagoon...

And here is a picture of some ducks.

Frank was FINALLY done with his work call, so we headed around the World, with our first stop in...

I enjoy this pavilion. I love how it's all inside. And speaking of...

It was nice to be inside since it was so hot outside. I almost went off to the right for a shot or 10 of tequila (LOVE), but I thought that might not be so great in the heat, so instead we decided to take a Gran Fiesta Tour!
But first, we looked at the little shops... and, for your viewing pleasure... Here is a picture of Frank in a tiny sombrero.

You are all welcome, my friends.

There was literally no one else in line for the ride, so we got right onto the boat. Then like, everyone in the pavilion decided that we were super cool and wanted to ride with us. So, boat full, we headed off in search of Donald. This was the ride I actually got quite a few decent pictures on. Here are a couple.

I enjoy the animatronics. I hear tell rumblins that this ride may be going away soon, which makes me a bit sad... It's not a bad ride... It's not great, but it's relaxing.

Coming Up: My life becomes complete,and I am horribly embarassed (It's coming... really it is... maybe in like... 4 more posts... or 5? I dunno.... I take a lot of pictures. Literally like 3000 this trip alone)

 

[catmandoo]

So, we were moving along to the next pavilion, and noticed that Mexican Donald had like, 2 people in line, so of course I made Frank stop to get some more memory maker pictures. I was determined to get my money's worth. Of course, right after we got in line, Donald had to go take a break... but it was only like 5 minutes, and we were back on. He seemed very excited when he noticed Frank's anniversary button.

And then we all got a nice picture together.

After that, we moved along to Norway. Now, I mentioned in my pre-trip report that I love Frozen. Which I know, might make me a bit uncool, but I can't help it. It was even the theme of this year's Shutterfly book that I made for Frank after our trip. So, I was excited to see all the new additions to Norway. I'm not in the camp of "It doesn't belong!" Because, well, there are quite a few things in ALL of Disney World that don't belong where they are, but... hey, things have to evolve to keep moving forward.

Anyway, we walked and saw the new Meet & Greet location...

...With a wait time of 10 minutes... so you know what happened next?! Yep, I made Frank go right in so we could meet Anna and Elsa.

I really enjoyed the interior of the Royal Sommerhus. The attention to detail was fantastic... I took many pictures, and afterwards realized somehow my camera had switched over to Manual focus, so they're a little blurry, but... hey, what can ya do?

I was tickled to find this clock was actually the correct time. I don't know why it wouldn't be.

I loved this painting and wish they sold prints of it somewhere. They might, I just couldn't locate them.

And I loved the little tributes to Maelstrom in there. It was once upon a time my favorite ride in Epcot.

And then, it was our turn to go into the M&G area... I was wild with anticipation.

Coming up- Literally an entire post with pictures of the Anna & Elsa meet and greet. Seriously.

 

[catmandoo]

So, as promised, an entire post of pictures from our Meet and Greet with Anna and Elsa.

So we started with Anna, she came to greet us and walk us to the official meeting area.

At first, she seemed a little unsure of Frank...

But then she warmed up to him when she realized that we didn't get married right after we'd met. We had to explain that it was in fact 12 years after we met.

There was some conversation about how Elsa would most likely make sure we had known each other a proper amount of time before getting married. And then she asked if we had a cake, and we did... Chocolate of course. And she made this face.

And then we posed for a group shot before moving on to the Queen.

As promised, the first thing Elsa did was make sure we hadn't just met when we got married.

Of course, we told her. We've been together 13 years! "Thirteen years!?"

She accepted our answer, then we talked about the weather outside and how she would make a flurry, but was afraid it would turn to rain. We then agree it would be nice to have a little personal flurry sometimes like Olaf does. So we all posed for a picture.

But frank was making a goofy face, so we tried again. And it was much better.

Then we left, and I immediately posted on The Facebook "OMG, We just met Anna and Elsa and my life is complete."

Coming up- My most embarrassing Disney moment. Not in the next post... but probably the one after that.

 

[bee]

At first, she seemed a little unsure of Frank...

But then she warmed up to him when she realized that we didn't get married right after we'd met. We had to explain that it was in fact 12 years after we met.

There was some conversation about how Elsa would most likely make sure we had known each other a proper amount of time before getting married. And then she asked if we had a cake, and we did... Chocolate of course. And she made this face.

As promised, the first thing Elsa did was make sure we hadn't just met when we got married.

Of course, we told her. We've been together 13 years! "Thirteen years!?"

She accepted our answer

This is all WAY TOO CUTE. Great report!

 

[catmandoo]

So, after our royal Meet & Greet, it was nearing time for our dinner ADR. We continued our way around World Showcase, just walking, not really stopping. We'd have more time later in the week... or so I thought. We passed through China...

Spent a little time in Germany... listened to the yodeler...

Looked at my favorite part of the German Pavilion...

Took a leisurely stroll past Italy...

I wanted to stop and see The American Adventure, but Frank wanted to keep going, so of course, we kept going... Again, there'd be time later in the week... or so I thought.

Bypassed Japan since that's where we were eating, and took a quick stop in Morocco...

Then turned around and headed back to Japan. There were some drummers performing.

Then explored a bit after we checked in for dinner. I tried to get a better picture of these fish, but they were being a bit... Koi. *Ba-dum-Tssh*

No. That will not be the last corny joke I make, I promise you that.

Finally, we got a picture taken by the photopass gentleman. I don't think he loved his job. He was... not unfriendly... just kind of... blah. But the picture is decent.

Shortly after that, we got called for our ADR at Tokyo Dining... where, as promised, we will finally get to my most embarrassing Disney moment ever.

 

[Trisha Lynn]

Ooh, the suspense is killing me!

We moved along right outside where he promptly made a phone call to work.
My face- . It annoys me when we're on vacation and he talks to work. He is a bit of a workaholic.

My hobbit is the same way. When we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale for our honeymoon cruise a few years ago, the first thing he did when we got to the hotel was take a tech support call.