Trip Report A Mr. John sighting...oh, and we did some other stuff while we were there...

Ok, who's ready for another disappointing, maybe he'll post updates and pictures and maybe he won't, Draybook trip report? Yeah, me neither but here we go. To start off, I FINALLY found Mr. John in Tomorrowland after a handful of years of not seeing him. This man is a gem!

Ok, so now that I've got this started, I'll come back and photo dump and fill in some missing blanks. But here's a small morsel to tide you over. The trip includes seven Drays. Me, the guy who's birthday the trip was for(48 on October 19th), the Mrs. 44, Ashley 25, Justin 24, Chris 9, Jace 8 and Grayson 2 1/2. We flew in on the 13th and we leave tomorrow, the 24th. We had four regular days in the Disney parks, two MNSSHP night, two HHN nights, one day at Legoland (first time) and one day at Epic Universe. We also snuck some Cocoa Beach time in on two days. Anywho, I'll be back to finish this out this weekend. Thanks for reading!

 

[cgersic]

Dang! You sure got a lot done in that time. Can't wait to read all about it.

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Looking forward to reading about all your adventures.

 

[luvinthemajik]

Ok, who's ready for another disappointing, maybe he'll post updates and pictures and maybe he won't, Draybook trip report? Yeah, me neither but here we go. To start off, I FINALLY found Mr. John in Tomorrowland after a handful of years of not seeing him. This man is a gem!

View attachment 889073

Ok, so now that I've got this started, I'll come back and photo dump and fill in some missing blanks. But here's a small morsel to tide you over. The trip includes seven Drays. Me, the guy who's birthday the trip was for(48 on October 19th), the Mrs. 44, Ashley 25, Justin 24, Chris 9, Jace 8 and Grayson 2 1/2. We flew in on the 13th and we leave tomorrow, the 24th. We had four regular days in the Disney parks, two MNSSHP night, two HHN nights, one day at Legoland (first time) and one day at Epic Universe. We also snuck some Cocoa Beach time in on two days. Anywho, I'll be back to finish this out this weekend. Thanks for reading!

Sounds exciting and fun packed!!

 

[draybook]

I forgot to mention that I finally got the chance to take a photo with another local legend, Eddie Maserati...heck yeah!

Man, why didn't you guys tell me I've put the weight back on? Geesh, and you call yourselves my friends... .

 

[MinnieM123]

Ok, who's ready for another disappointing, maybe he'll post updates and pictures and maybe he won't, Draybook trip report? Yeah, me neither but here we go. To start off, I FINALLY found Mr. John in Tomorrowland after a handful of years of not seeing him. This man is a gem!

View attachment 889073

Ok, so now that I've got this started, I'll come back and photo dump and fill in some missing blanks. But here's a small morsel to tide you over. The trip includes seven Drays. Me, the guy who's birthday the trip was for(48 on October 19th), the Mrs. 44, Ashley 25, Justin 24, Chris 9, Jace 8 and Grayson 2 1/2. We flew in on the 13th and we leave tomorrow, the 24th. We had four regular days in the Disney parks, two MNSSHP night, two HHN nights, one day at Legoland (first time) and one day at Epic Universe. We also snuck some Cocoa Beach time in on two days. Anywho, I'll be back to finish this out this weekend. Thanks for reading!

Welcome Home (WDW) Draybook and family! Looking forward to following your vacation fun.

 

[fractal]

Ready for a @draybook trip report!

Do seven drays make a week?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Looking forward to your adventures.

 

[draybook]

I have to say that last night at Epcot was fun, even entertaining as I watched some dude puke about 6 times at the French bar stand in front of Ratatouille... . That was also my first time riding that attraction and I really enjoyed it. I'll try to photo dump tomorrow or Sunday.

Edited to add: Not gonna lie, I'm getting a little irritated with Disney Springs. First we had the issue with T-Rex on the 20th, now they told us that the walkway bridge from the Citrus garage is only open to cast members until 3:30. Yeah, because it would have taken too many brain cells to put up a sign or something at the entrance to the garage or somewhere other than right at the entry point for the walkway, so we had to go back to the car to come over to the Orange parking lot. Gotta kill some time before heading to the airport in about 4 hours.

 

[draybook]

Photo dump

 

[draybook]

 

[draybook]

 

[draybook]

So, we flew into Orlando out of Memphis on the 13th with a departure time of 3:40 pm. With the shutdown and everything I was a bit concerned about being there 2 hours early. Especially with a family of 7, including the small one which meant we'd be bringing a car seat for him and gate checking the stroller. Let me tell you now, I'm glad that Memphis is a smaller commercial airport, because there's no way we would have lugged all of that stuff all the way to a counter otherwise. We flew Southwest and they offered to check in one of of carry on bags at the front free, so why not?

We had plenty of time to kill until boarding, so we let the little one walk up and down the terminal. Well, the plane got there late so we stood in the boarding line for an extra 20 minutes and he wasn't happy about it. We were towards the end of the A boarding group but we already planned on going to the back of the plane to minimize any irritation towards other passengers should he still be having a meltdown during the flight. I'm here to tell you, it worked out well. He was awake and chill when we boarded up until we hit cruising altitude, then he was . Lol, that was better than I hoped for. While he snoozed, I watched some of the Seattle-Toronto game.

He woke up as we started descending for the landing and was still enjoying himself. The only thing bad about being in the back is having to wait to deboard. Once we got off of the plane, we had the pleasure of the first "monorail" ride over to the main part of the airport. We then grabbed our baggage from the claims area and walked down to the Enterprise garage. They upgraded us from a 7 seat minivan to an 8 seater but oops, as we loaded up the baby in his car seat, we realized we forgot the booster seats for the two old boys. So I had to walk all the way back to grab them.

We hit the road and grabbed some food once we got near the rental house. I don't know if I've told you guys before, but a handful of years ago we found an Airbnb rental in the Vista Del Lago community off of 192. It's one of those mobile home communities for 55+ but without the age restrictions. Since that stay, we've looked for places in there but haven't had any luck until last year. The place we found last year is literally waterfront and is a little over 2k square feet, so everyone had plenty of space. It was obviously meant to be, as we stayed there last year and we literally arrived two or three days after Hurricane Wilton hit and luckily it didn't damage that house but took off the carport next door.

After we unloaded the luggage, we headed to everyone's favorite spot to stock up...Walmart. By the time we got back to the house, it was time to wind down and rest for the busy 10 days ahead of us. More report to come later...

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

So, we flew into Orlando out of Memphis on the 13th with a departure time of 3:40 pm. With the shutdown and everything I was a bit concerned about being there 2 hours early. Especially with a family of 7, including the small one which meant we'd be bringing a car seat for him and gate checking the stroller. Let me tell you now, I'm glad that Memphis is a smaller commercial airport, because there's no way we would have lugged all of that stuff all the way to a counter otherwise. We flew Southwest and they offered to check in one of of carry on bags at the front free, so why not?

We had plenty of time to kill until boarding, so we let the little one walk up and down the terminal. Well, the plane got there late so we stood in the boarding line for an extra 20 minutes and he wasn't happy about it. We were towards the end of the A boarding group but we already planned on going to the back of the plane to minimize any irritation towards other passengers should he still be having a meltdown during the flight. I'm here to tell you, it worked out well. He was awake and chill when we boarded up until we hit cruising altitude, then he was . Lol, that was better than I hoped for. While he snoozed, I watched some of the Seattle-Toronto game.

He woke up as we started descending for the landing and was still enjoying himself. The only thing bad about being in the back is having to wait to deboard. Once we got off of the plane, we had the pleasure of the first "monorail" ride over to the main part of the airport. We then grabbed our baggage from the claims area and walked down to the Enterprise garage. They upgraded us from a 7 seat minivan to an 8 seater but oops, as we loaded up the baby in his car seat, we realized we forgot the booster seats for the two old boys. So I had to walk all the way back to grab them.

We hit the road and grabbed some food once we got near the rental house. I don't know if I've told you guys before, but a handful of years ago we found an Airbnb rental in the Vista Del Lago community off of 192. It's one of those mobile home communities for 55+ but without the age restrictions. Since that stay, we've looked for places in there but haven't had any luck until last year. The place we found last year is literally waterfront and is a little over 2k square feet, so everyone had plenty of space. It was obviously meant to be, as we stayed there last year and we literally arrived two or three days after Hurricane Wilton hit and luckily it didn't damage that house but took off the carport next door.

After we unloaded the luggage, we headed to everyone's favorite spot to stock up...Walmart. By the time we got back to the house, it was time to wind down and rest for the busy 10 days ahead of us. More report to come later...

I;m enjoying your trip report! Your children are adorable Looking forward to more Draybook TR's.

 

[draybook]

So for day two, we had our first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party. Now, I'm still a bit upset over what happened and I'll explain in a bit. This was the first trip where EVERYONE was dressed up or at least it's been a long time since everyone had a costume. Anyways, we got there just a few minutes after 4 so we didn't have much of a wait at the turnstiles. I learned my lesson last year after having to stand in the sun and wait 20 minutes with a screaming baby in the stroller.

Anyhow, we usually get there around 4 and spend the first 2 hours riding stuff and then go up front and get changed into our costumes. Well, this was no exception except that Jace's costume was missing somehow. So, I made my way to the car to check to see if it got left out there but no dice. I asked Amy if she wanted me to zip back to the house to look but she said no. I felt HORRIBLE because Jace had been excited all year to dress up as the "Titanic captain" and he wasn't going to be able to. She got him a pirate costume from a gift shop and he was okay with that but I felt so bad like I had let him down. I remember packing it in the bag we brought so I don't know what happened to it and we never did find it when we packed up to come home.

Of course I went as Troy Polamalu, Amy was Kim Possible, Ashley was Shego, Justin was someone from Jujutsu Kaisen, Chris was the Titanic captain and Grayson was Peter Pan. Originally Chris was going to be Doodlebob again, but he's gotten into the habit of doing what Jace does, so that's cool. The only difference is Chris wore a white outfit and Jace had a blue one. We had a great time and got compliments and lots of candy. As soon as we got back to the house, I ordered Jace a new costume via Amazon to make sure he had one for the second party.

Now here comes the gripe and it's not park related. Of course we were hungry so we decided to stop at McDonald's right at Sherberth and 192. We ordered on the app and pulled up to the drive thru. I thought it was unusually quiet and empty but figured it was luck. Sat at the speaker for about 5 minutes and then tried the other lane. Same results and I knew there were workers inside as I saw them and their cars. So I figured I'd try to go inside but the door was locked. At that point, they motioned that they were closed. I won't repeat what I said but it was colorful and basically said then give me my money back and put up signs. I mean seriously, how many brain cells does it take to put up signs or at least tell people through the speaker that you're closed?

We ended up going to the other location that's actually the next light from our rental and even though it took 20 minutes and there was only one other car, I appreciated them because it was literally two women working by themselves but they got it done.

Anywho, that was day two and I'll post more here and there. Thanks for following along!

 

[draybook]

For day three, we had two objectives: head to Cocoa Beach for a bit and then come back so Amy and the two oldest could go to Horror Nights while me and three younger boys chilled at the house. Well, we got a later than planned start to the beach (as usual) so we only got to stay for just over an hour but the kids loved it. I think Jace loves the beach more than anything else.

We made it back in time to scarf down some pizza and then they got cleaned up and headed to Universal. They got there about 45 minutes after it started but managed to hit 8 houses. I think they only missed Terrifier and Wyatt Sicks. They had a great time, though. They got home and for some reason, the little one stayed up almost until they got home so everyone was ready for bed.

We had so much fun at the beach that we decided to go back the next day for a bit. Kinda ironic that we spent just over an hour both days considering it takes over an hour each way to get there, but the boys loved it so it was worth it.

 

[cgersic]

What a great variety of things you got done, and in my brain, there's nothing better than a Florida beach

 

[draybook]

I forgot to add that we were there when that young lady took her own life and that's the reason I had to take the ferry across to go look in the car for Jace's costume. I saw the resort line was down when I came back and thought it was odd. After hearing about what happened, I felt terrible for feeling "inconvenienced" when in reality, someone lost their battle with mental illness. RIP to that woman.

 

[draybook]

On to day four. We headed back to Cocoa Beach and still somehow barely got to spend an hour there but it was totally worth it. So before last year, I never knew there was a small park with free parking for the beach. All of these years we spent paying for parking... . Anyways, at one point, Grayson got knocked down by a strong wave and actually submerged. As I grabbed him, the wave started pulling him out and had me twisted and next thing you know, an inbound wave knocked me over. After I got him up and handed him to Amy, I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and had her dry it off.

We made our way out around 3:15 and headed back towards the house to get changed for our HHN night. Since we have the little one, we decided to take turns at HHN starting last year. Amy and the two oldest go the first night and then me and Amy go the second night. It's fair and it's a small date night for us. Last year, Amy and the oldest two finished 9 out of 10 houses while she and I only got 7.

Not this year. This year, they finished 8 and we got all but Five Nights at Freddy's and that's considering that we also didn't get there until about 45 minutes after it started and I didn't really care if we saw that house or not. We started with Terrifier and I really enjoyed it. The "wet path" was underwhelming in terms of it being a small part of the house but the cold water felt great.

The wait was posted at 75 minutes when we got in line but I know we waited a solid 90-100. I didn't have much faith in getting more than 5-6 houses done at that rate but I was surprised. Next we went to Grave of Flesh and it was probably a 20 minute wait. Not a bad house. Next up was the Wyatt Sicks house. It was decent and probably another 25 minute wait. From there we decided to go hit the Galkin and Fallout houses. I think we waited about 40 for Galkin and about the same for Fallout. They were pretty good.

We were making decent time and I figured we had time for two more houses, maybe three at that point. So we headed to Dolls and when we got there, it literally dropped from 35 minutes to 5 but was actually a walk on. Nice. I liked the house. Since we had a little extra time, we headed to Hatchet and Chains next. Not bad at all, I think we waited about 15-20 minutes.

We knew we had time for Jason Universe and possibly El Artista. We waited about 45-50 minutes for Jason and it was the best house of them all. Slightly better than Terrifier to me only because of the variety of Jasons. We had 9 minutes to make it to El Artista and waited maybe 5 minutes. Another well designed house.

After that we made our way home and hit the sack. Another long day down. I will say that this year's houses didn't have a "bad house" imo. I don't get scared at all so for me, the enjoyment comes from the design and effort they put it and this was a very good year. I will also say that I always seem to get the scaredy cats behind me and end up getting bumped a million times but it's funny.

I feel like the value for the money spent on tickets definitely sways in favor of Universal versus Disney. I think I paid about $400-440 total for 5 HHN tickets whereas it cost me roughly 1200 for 6 of us per MNSSHP. Also, when it's hot and you sweat as easy as I do, those Coke freestyle cups are the cat's pajamas!

Ok, I'll post more later. Thanks for reading!

 

[pkkurz]

So for day two, we had our first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party. Now, I'm still a bit upset over what happened and I'll explain in a bit. This was the first trip where EVERYONE was dressed up or at least it's been a long time since everyone had a costume. Anyways, we got there just a few minutes after 4 so we didn't have much of a wait at the turnstiles. I learned my lesson last year after having to stand in the sun and wait 20 minutes with a screaming baby in the stroller.

Anyhow, we usually get there around 4 and spend the first 2 hours riding stuff and then go up front and get changed into our costumes. Well, this was no exception except that Jace's costume was missing somehow. So, I made my way to the car to check to see if it got left out there but no dice. I asked Amy if she wanted me to zip back to the house to look but she said no. I felt HORRIBLE because Jace had been excited all year to dress up as the "Titanic captain" and he wasn't going to be able to. She got him a pirate costume from a gift shop and he was okay with that but I felt so bad like I had let him down. I remember packing it in the bag we brought so I don't know what happened to it and we never did find it when we packed up to come home.

Of course I went as Troy Polamalu, Amy was Kim Possible, Ashley was Shego, Justin was someone from Jujutsu Kaisen, Chris was the Titanic captain and Grayson was Peter Pan. Originally Chris was going to be Doodlebob again, but he's gotten into the habit of doing what Jace does, so that's cool. The only difference is Chris wore a white outfit and Jace had a blue one. We had a great time and got compliments and lots of candy. As soon as we got back to the house, I ordered Jace a new costume via Amazon to make sure he had one for the second party.

Now here comes the gripe and it's not park related. Of course we were hungry so we decided to stop at McDonald's right at Sherberth and 192. We ordered on the app and pulled up to the drive thru. I thought it was unusually quiet and empty but figured it was luck. Sat at the speaker for about 5 minutes and then tried the other lane. Same results and I knew there were workers inside as I saw them and their cars. So I figured I'd try to go inside but the door was locked. At that point, they motioned that they were closed. I won't repeat what I said but it was colorful and basically said then give me my money back and put up signs. I mean seriously, how many brain cells does it take to put up signs or at least tell people through the speaker that you're closed?

We ended up going to the other location that's actually the next light from our rental and even though it took 20 minutes and there was only one other car, I appreciated them because it was literally two women working by themselves but they got it done.

Anywho, that was day two and I'll post more here and there. Thanks for following along!

That McDonalds at Sharbeth is horrible. We had a bad experience there too. Never again.