Trip Report 4 Trip Reports in One Year? Why not!

Yup. 4th trip in this calendar year. If you are a regular traveling friend of Brifraz, you know that this year we've done our daughter's 21st Birthday trip, the Princess Half weekend, and a Graduation/Retirement Celebration trip. What does that mean? Well... it means that we've left @MeffysMom out of the celebrating and that just isn't right. Coincidentally, her birthday is coming up later this week. And, someone happened to look online the right day and time and found some great airline fares. So... I think you can likely figure out where this is leading.

It's another long weekend in the World for the Brifraz Clan!!

Flying down on Thursday afternoon, doing some special events on both Friday and Saturday nights and flying back on Sunday evening. No Pre-Trip for you this time, I'm going to keep you in suspense of our plans. Suffice to say, after the Summer of Splurge on activities, we are perhaps making the sequel - maybe the Evenings of Excess? And as a tease, I'll mention that one of those excess activities is one that we had hoped for this summer, but didn't manage to do.

But, I will give everyone a little udpate on the clan and where we now stand. @MeffysMom is still teaching high school English full time and still really enjoys her classes (all seniors this year and 2 classes of the AP Research course that she loves teaching). Our daughter now has gotten a full time job as an engineer and moved into her own apartment about a month ago - both the job and the apartment are about an hour away from where we live. I am now doing three part time 'retirement' jobs - teaching two bands at the local college, mentoring two new teachers in the district I retired from, and teaching private lessons to a few kids. It actually looks quite likely that my college job will be expanding next year so we feel a little better about doing some more higher end activities.

It really is a bit crazy that we will have 4 trips this year, but sometimes things work out in good ways! I'll do my best to 'live report' starting Thursday and I'll see you all then!

 

[brifraz]

Love your Santa tie!

I'm glad you shared your SWHS story, I was wondering why Chewie was wearing (a choir robe? a graduation gown? a long dress?), now I assume it has something to do with the special... I've never seen it!

In the special, Chewie is trying to get home to celebrate Life Day with his family when various things happen along the way. That would be his Life Day robe. From the special:

 

[Tiggerish]

In the special, Chewie is trying to get home to celebrate Life Day with his family when various things happen along the way. That would be his Life Day robe. From the special:
View attachment 896109

I'm going to guess that Peter Mayhew was relieved no one could see him in that getup.

 

[Bullseye1967]

Love your Santa tie!

I'm glad you shared your SWHS story, I was wondering why Chewie was wearing (a choir robe? a graduation gown? a long dress?), now I assume it has something to do with the special... I've never seen it!

It is on YouTube

 

[brifraz]

It is on YouTube

@Tiggerish - but unless you really want to hurt your soul, I recommend against watching it. Some moments are funny in the so bad it's funny way, a lot is just bad. The Boba Fett cartoon is the most redeeming portion. The weird 2 minutes of hologram Cirque that Lumpy watches literally hurts. Everything else is somewhere between, but much closer to agony. This being said, I've watched it at least 10 times...

 

[donaldtoo]

@Tiggerish - but unless you really want to hurt your soul, I recommend against watching it. Some moments are funny in the so bad it's funny way, a lot is just bad. The Boba Fett cartoon is the most redeeming portion. The weird 2 minutes of hologram Cirque that Lumpy watches literally hurts. Everything else is somewhere between, but much closer to agony. This being said, I've watched it at least 10 times...

Yea, I watched that show/movie a few years ago on YouTube. I watched all of it. I don’t remember watching it as a young man, but it’s pretty bad…cringeworthy through so much of it…!!!!!

 

[brifraz]

So, we had met Santa Duffy and Bing Bong, drive-bys of Chewie and Phineas and Ferb and some dancing with Jose, Panchito, Mike W, and Frozone. Now it was time to party. And, for us, that was at the DJ just out in front of Baseline Taphouse. This is where Goofy and Pluto were dancing with the crowd (along with a couple crowd encouraging CMs) and the music was pretty much all 2005-2015 Disney Channel and related pop music. So, pretty much right in the time that we were engulfed in Disney Channel and pop music as our daughter was growing up. Sorry for the 'cool' lighting effects, but my lens was obviously having some issues.

We hung out there for a while, grabbing some drinks and food at the Taphouse as well. It was quite enjoyable and the CMs and characters were both fully up for a good time. I'm not sure how those CMs were still standing by the time we left them - they were constantly at 120% on the energy scale.

It was getting close to the end of the night which meant the final stop of the party, the Nightmare Before Christmas Sing Along. It looked amazing and was very well done, but there really wasn't a whole lot of singing along. This one could've used those CMs from the dance party to get the crowd more involved! The Jack puppet/character is pretty amazing.

It's very tough to tell from the picture, but he's gotta be about 8 feet tall, if not a little more. We enjoyed and did sing along and then it was time to head out. Just stopped for one last picture with the Phineas and Ferb tree at the meet location.

Definitely a very good time and we were definitely very tired by the end! The entertainment is top notch and there is definitely something for everyone with all the different styles represented. The character lines were definitely longer than we expected - we had read reviews that said they got down to very short by the last hour or so of the party, but this definitely was not what we saw. We didn't do a single attraction during the party, but that wasn't our intent - we just wanted to enjoy the entertainment and we certainly did!

One more day to go!

 

[brifraz]

Yes, I'm still here! Yes, I'm finally going to get back to the tale of our trip with Sunday, November 23rd.

Does that date seem familiar? Do you remember some kind of startling stories coming out of Disney that day? Here's the link with the least pop-ups: DFB report on monorail electrical fire

We pulled into the MK parking lot just a little bit after the time that the fire happened, with absolutely no clue about it. TTC was pretty chaotic, with both monorail lines shut down and enough people in line for the ferry to fill at least 3 trips (solid mass of humanity from the dock all the way up to the monorail entrances). We decided to head to Poly and try to catch their boat.

Got to the pier and the same situation and no boat in sight. But folks were being told that the best bet was to take the walking path via GF if you are willing. And, we were certainly willing! So, off to GF we went.

Stopped in the lobby to see the new lounge (obviously not open this early) and the Christmas tree.

We started heading on the walking path and found it blocked around the one side of the last building toward MK (blocked by a fire truck and other emergency equipment). Hmmm... let's try going around the other way. Blocked. How about cutting through the building? No actual way to do that. So we find a CM and ask. Nope. Walking path is closed you have to take the boat. We told them that folks at Poly TOLD us to take the walking path and were told 'Well, they shouldn't be doing that.' The line for the boat was also insane and this CM said busses might be running, but would be very crowded. We were planning to meet a CM friend of our daughter in MK between 10:30am and 11am and by this point it was 10:30am. We chose to try the bus. There actually wasn't that much of a line and since we didn't have strollers, we could cram into a bus a little easier than others and so we did! Took us well over an hour to get from our car into the park and a lot of aborted transportation attempts.

Finally got ourselves into MK at 11am and headed toward Adventureland to meet the friend. Sadly, she wasn't availble now and wouldn't be until after 11:30am. So... why not visit with some aurally amazing avian friends!

Actually, I'm more of a fan of the Tiki idols and the war chant, but those birds certainly can sing (or croon, if you prefer). Next up, we headed over to the Jungle Cruise to enjoy some Jingle Cruise time!

Somehow, the line was exactly zero minutes. Oh wait, that's because our daughter's CM friend... Skipper Libby!

And she had set up a reserved spot for us that they were fine with moving back in time a bit due to our issues getting in. Always a fun ride and especially so when you are friends with the skipper.

We had a lunch reservation that was still a little ways off and lines were starting to really jump up (as the beginning of the Thanksgiving week crowd was arriving now... albeit all on boats or busses!) so we decided to just find someplace to chill out and relax. Luckily for us, the former shooting gallery was available. Yup, our first visit to the new DVC lounge. I was never a shooting gallery fan, so it's not that big of a loss to me and it is certainly overshadowed by the tragedy of the loss of TSI (which makes me very upset and angry, but is a topic for a different place). We enjoyed our drinks and chips.

And the setting is very nice and fits the location very well.

Gives a western lodge lobby kinda vibe and seemed quieter than the Epcot DVC lounge. Our only complain has nothing to do with Disney, but with parenting... there was a girl who just stood in front of one of the Coke Freestyle machines trying everything over and over and creating mixes. If there wasn't a line, sure, let your kid experiment for a few minutes. But there was a line. And at times a decenly long line while she stood at the one machine and nobody could get to it to get a drink (luckily the other machine was working fine and people using it were courteous). And she was there for almost the entire time we were in the lounge - maybe 20 minutes or so. People.

When I come back to you again (hopefully not too long!), it's time for our first visit to the Beak and Barrel!!

 

[cgersic]

I doubt I will ever be DVC, so thank you for the insight into the old Shooting Gallery! I does look good, although I do have a lot of fun memories shooting there.

 

[brifraz]

It's time for our last adventure of this trip.

If anyone is like us, the actual location and entry into the new pub was not quite where we expected it to be. As you approach the main entrance to Pirates, this little unassuming door is off to the right before the exit from the gift shop. Since that area is under a roof, from the outside you can't totally see the sign. And when we arrived, there wasn't a CM there so we didn't quite notice it at first.

Once we got checked in with someone, we were called in to be seated pretty quickly. Well, seated is an overstatement as we found ourselves at one of the standing bars. Just inside the entrance. Here's our view of the tavern.

Over the bar to the left is where the barker bird 'shows' take place and there are rooms to the sides as well. It definintely does not feel nearly as crowded as Oga's. I suspect this is both because there is a little bit more space between tables but also because there are far more seated tables here than at Oga's. Here's our view the other direction.

Certainly better than a blank wall! We quickly put in an order for some drinks and some of the griddle cakes.

We were quite pleased with both. The drinks are a little less over the top than Oga's and ours were all pretty well balanced and enjoyable. In fact, a second round followed.

And, again, we were quite happy with the drinks. In fact, here's us... being happy!

While I didn't feel rushed, we definitely knew the time limit and our waitress came by pretty much right on time with the check so off we went. We didn't have a whole lot of additional time before we needed to head to the airport, so we decided for just one last attraction. Haunted Mansion had a bit of a queue, but not terrible, so away we went.

After our wait in line, we got in and managed to do pretty well in the horrible funnel to get onto our doom buggy. While on the ride, we got to enjoy a bit of a stop in the attic and scored some nice pictures.

After that it was about time for us to head out, but we did manage to catch the tail end of a performance of one of my favorites.

I think that someday I'm going to make sure to have a trip where I spend a full day watching Main Street Philharmonic and another full day watching the Jammitors! Okay, maybe not quite that much. Made our way back to the airport, returned our rental car, and caught our flight back home. And, I'm afriad that pretty much wraps things up for this trip.

@MeffysMom found her way back to the World just 2 weeks later (the weekend after Thanksgiving) to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of her friends. For our full crew, the next trip is for the Princess Half Marathon at the end of February and into March. With the coinciding closing of Rockin' Roller Coaster, we are carefully considering some interesting costuming options. No chance of 4 trip reports in 2026 as that trip for the race and a brief visit in August (prior to a cruise) are our only planned visits right now. And then there is also a very slight chance that I might do a quickie visit at some point as I have airline credits that are going to expire.

Anyway, thanks for joining in for the trip report. Hope you enjoyed our little visit for @MeffysMom to celebrate her birthday.

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks for bringing us along! Your TRs are always a lot of fun

 

[cgersic]

That was a great birthday celebration!! Thank you for taking the time, it's always fun to see you all having fun!

 

[brifraz]

Thanks for bringing us along! Your TRs are always a lot of fun

That was a great birthday celebration!! Thank you for taking the time, it's always fun to see you all having fun!

Thanks! We almost always manage to have fun - even though there are a few moments here and there that are slightly lesser enjoyment levels, we do our best to make the most of whatever situation we are in. I tend to be a glass half full kinda guy no matter what the situation (sometimes to the frustration of my girls!!) and it's tough for me to be any less than glass 9/10 full when we are in The World.