Trip Report the last time (taylor's version)

Hi all! Guess who just came back from Disney World? Tis I! After over a year away, it was a most interesting trip. My grandma and I planned this back in June after I found out that I got into grad school (again... I'm a sucker for punishment) so it was meant to be a celebratory trip for that and also my grandma would be turning 70 shortly before it! And then the end of September rolled around and I (in Fort Myers) got to experience the delights of Hurricane Ian. I work in a first response field so it was a very busy, awful couple of weeks. After that I decided... If we were doing this trip (which was all that was keeping me going post-hurricane for a good bit), we were going to give Bob Chapek everything he wanted. That's right, we were going to cough up for Genie+. I'm a hypocrite, I know. Does it help if I say that I'm moving to West Virginia and won't get back to Orlando until after the program is over? No? I thought as much... But still... I spent A LOT OF MONEY on this trip LOL... and most of it wasn't even at Disney... Because, you see... While we were going to be in the World, Taylor Swift was going to have a presale for her tour... And I, a Swiftie to the max, knew that I would be going... come h-e-double-hockey-sticks or high water... Did I manage to get tickets? Did Grandma and I conquer our previous records regarding attraction count and step count? Stick around to find out....

We begin with DAY ONE, November 14th. Our travels would take us from Magic Kingdom to Epcot, as MK was closing early that evening for the Christmas Party (no expense spared, I say, whilst cringing away from the prices for the Christmas Party... So we didn't do that). I awoke at 6am, pulled up MDE, and....

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But, I shelled out $36.22 (Grandma and I decided we would trade off each day) and got ready for the day. We had an hour and a half drive to get to WDW from my grandparents' house (which I had traveled to on Friday), so we got in the car around 6:45 and hit the road. It went well until we were about 30 minutes into the I-4 stretch... and then we hit solid red traffic. Stand still. Man, I had to pee. I kept looking down at my phone and seeing that we only had 15 miles left, 14, 13... Then 13 for an eternity... and then...
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I decided to go a longer back way, because at least we would be moving. I'd rather be moving continuously for a longer stretch of time than sitting in stand still traffic. A brief stop was made at 7/11 to pee (huzzah), and then we continued on our strange, back way route to Disney property.

Meanwhile I received this
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Which was a pleasant surprise! We were looking forward to dumping our belongings in the room, grabbing a bus to MK, and getting started with the day. And just like that...

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We were pulling in! Huzzah!
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This is where I decided to park *crowd oohs and ahhhs*. We took a very bizarre route to our room because we couldn't find the elevator, but eventually we were walking inside and were greeted by...
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Welcome, [REDACTED] & [REDACTED]!

A room tour, you ask? No, I shan't do it. I will instead show you things that I noticed.

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A crooked light fixture.
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Some scum.
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The shower got my seal of approval. With the room inspected and no egregious disturbances noted, we were ready to head to MK.
 

LSV

Well-Known Member
Needing to pee while stuck in traffic is excruciating! I am also in the I'd rather be moving even if it takes longer camp.
Sorry you had to experience the Ian devastation first hand, I hope the Disney trip was good interesting, not bad interesting.
 

tonystark

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
First in!

Glad to have you back @tonystark

Thank you for everything you did to support the Ian efforts

Looking forward to multiple HM rides??


Max
It has certainly been a while since I was here! An unintentional falling off - I have a lot of trip reports to catch up on! And honestly, not as many HM rides as I would have liked, but better than 0!

Needing to pee while stuck in traffic is excruciating! I am also in the I'd rather be moving even if it takes longer camp.
Sorry you had to experience the Ian devastation first hand, I hope the Disney trip was good interesting, not bad interesting.
Since I was behind the wheel, I got to make the executive decision LOL. And I would say it was a mix of both good and bad interesting. Definitely some standout things that I really enjoyed and then some things that really ground me gears.

Are you seriously saying we were at WDW AT THE SAME TIME??!!!
Say it ain't so. SAY IT AIN'T SO! I SHOULD HAVE DONE A PTR... I EVEN CONSIDERED IT!!! dang it :(
I'm in. I was also there at the same time (left on 17th!). Coped with Nicole during our visit, obviously nothing like Ian.
Looking forward to this TR.
When Nicole rolled around I think everyone in FM had an episode of PTSD. Even though we knew it wasn't coming anywhere close... Crossing my fingers for the remainder of November.
Can’t wait to hear if you and your grandma beat your earlier bests 😊
All shall be revealed... I'm still tabulating the results... I think that we did. But not as easier as we would have with FP+.
Following along!!
Hello GIF by Originals
 

tonystark

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I will be entirely honest with you... Given the madness of the last... oh, 6 months or so (interviewing with schools across the country, parents selling my childhood home (very sad)), I had fallen very, very behind on Disney news. Terribly behind. I had no idea how the current iteration of Genie+ worked. I wasn't feeling very motivated to research it, either. It boiled down to me watching a Youtube video on Sunday night trying to understand.
Confused Schitts Creek GIF by CBC

You're telling me you can only ride a ride with Genie+ once? But, but.... I used to absolutely exploit FP+, plumbing it to its very depths... I'm paying 17$* (*To maintain the magic for our treasured guests, please be advised that Genie+ is priced dynamically ranging from 15$-first born child per person, per day). Am I the reason Bob Chapek decided to raze FP+ to the ground and offer a subpar product that I had to pay for? Perhaps so. Perhaps so.
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But at least I had my trusty Iron Man magic band that I shall use until the wheels fall off. We were blessed with pleasant weather this trip and found the environs at Bus Stop 3 to be quite comfortable. What wasn't comfortable was the wait time.
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A solid 20 minutes. Most disappointing. However...
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Twas 9:44 when this bus rolled up. Had I not noticed the sign on the door, I never would have realized that it was for MK. My grandma didn't believe that it was the right bus, but we boarded anyway along with my closest friends.
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Drummer Drumming GIF

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Ohh, could this be deceiving? Could it actually be quite busy beyond this bend?
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Ehh, not really! We did have to stop off at Guest Services to activate our Florida residents tickets. Well, I didn't have to because apparently I had verified my driver's license in June and had 0 recollection of doing so... But my grandma had to verify hers, so not an unnecessary diversion. We also got her a birthday button.
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Oh, right, I'm supposed to be doing something with this... To be honest, I don't think I was very good about tracking what we used.... Lightning Lanes for... except for when I snag a picture of the queue, so that will be an indication. Our Space Mountain lightning lane was going to expire at 10:15, so it was time to book it to Tomorrowland (STRANGE! I NEVER START A DAY IN MK AT TOMORROWLAND... I usually always go to HM! For some reason, I didn't this trip. I was wary of using up my EVER SO GENEROUS single LL for the ride that day).
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I did not stop to smell the roses. It was time to shift into...
car gear GIF

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Ugh, party nights... Fine, we'll just go to Epcot.... See if I care... This doesn't hurt my feelings. Nope.
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We may have shifted into maximum overdrive, but I still grabbed a pic of this as we passed. My favorite side street :( and the traffic flow is horrible on this side of Main Street now. Hopefully the rebricking will be lovely, though... Anyways, back into mach speed walking.
 

cgersic

Well-Known Member
Captain America Reaction GIF

Me too!!! I cannot believe you and @Tuvalu didn't plan this better?? I also live in the area (Pine Island) and feel the hurricane pain. I also give immense thanks for all of the work you and your comrades do every day! Congrats on grad school! Edited to read I'm sitting at work (insurance agent) today (Sunday) listening to Taylor - very excited to hear about the tickets!!
 

tonystark

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Not On Time Im Late GIF

I'm a little late to your trip report but I'm glad to see one from you!
Glad you are here!!
landing iron man GIF by Disneyland Paris

I am also here.
Season 6 Reaction GIF by The Office

Captain America Reaction GIF

Me too!!! I cannot believe you and @Tuvalu didn't plan this better?? I also live in the area (Pine Island) and feel the hurricane pain. I also give immense thanks for all of the work you and your comrades do every day! Congrats on grad school! Edited to read I'm sitting at work (insurance agent) today (Sunday) listening to Taylor - very excited to hear about the tickets!!
Pine Island definitely got it much worse than where I'm at in FM (thankfully a little more inland so didn't face storm surge). Also yesss let Taylor carry you through a dreadful Sunday workday!!!
 

tonystark

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well y'all...Mickey Mouse has given me coronavirus. To be honest, I didn't wear a mask and people were coughing and spluttering around me like it was going out of style. I tried to be good about continuous hand sanitization and not touching my face but... Here we are. Started feeling crummy yesterday and developed a fever, tested today just to be safe... Then tested again because I was in denial lol. Oh well, if there was a time to have to be off of work, I guess it's Thanksgiving week.

Moving right along...
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I know you guys read my trip reports for my hard hitting commentary as well as my astounding photography skills. I hope this image of Cinderella Castle elicits an emotional response from you.
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I could do without these.

We may be running late, but we still stopped to have our photo taken.
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See my shoes? Yeah, so I ordered them off Amazon and requested black and white. Amazon delivered them the day before the hurricane and said here is black and pink. And then the hurricane happened, and then work happened, and then I ended up keeping black and pink shoes. Not my style, but they were quite comfortable.
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We're not gonna make it, we're not gonna make it...
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Oh, we made it! I knew we would. Except... Space Mountain was DOWN. Shock, horror. Things were not going according to plan. I had no idea how lightning lane worked when rides went down, a CM let me know we should get a multi experience fastpa— lightning lane to use.
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As good a ride as any to be ATTRACTION #1, I suppose.
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While in line, I booked Buzz and noticed that the SELECT EXPERIENCES FASTPA— LIGHTNING LANE had arrived. This is really the only way to game the system, which I did further towards the end of our trip. If a ride is down, and the window is close enough, and you have a gut feeling that it won't be back up by the time the window opens, you might as well book the LL. Because then you'll get the select experiences one, and you can use it on a ride, and then book a lightning lane for that ride later. A way to outsmart the stupid you can only ride a ride once rule. But a little risky, I suppose, because what if the ride comes back up? Why, my dear reader, you still win, because you get to ride a ride.
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I'll wait for the next car, thanks...
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Another stunning photo of Cinderella Castle if I do say so myself...
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Can't ride PM without taking a picture of Progress City. Also, I hate the new ride audio. You expected that response, didn't you?
 

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