Trip Report “It’s Pinnie the Pooh!!” November 2020 trip

Hi everyone! We got back this past Sunday from our quick trip and it already feels like it was forever ago....too soon to go back? 🤔 All of our pre-trip details are in my pre-trip report...I finally just learned how to post a gif in these reports so you will not find a link to it here 😂 My husband, our 3 year old daughter, and myself were there November 5th through 8th. We stayed at Art of Animation and spent two days in the parks. Lets get this show on the road to find out what rides Ryleigh loved and didn’t love....how were the crowds....did frozen open in time for our Epcot day...was eating hard....and most importantly, did my husband get his 🤬 egg roll???

Thursday, November 5th
We got up around 7:15 which was fun after I didn’t finish packing until after midnight. My own fault I know 🤷🏻‍♀️ Ryleigh was bursting with excitement which only made me more excited. We had breakfast, packed up the car, and was on the road to the airport by 8:20.

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We got to the airport around 8:45. I learned a week or so before that you can pre-pay for your parking and it gives you a discount. We took our checked bags into the airport to drop off first. There was no issues with a wait or weight. We went back to grab our carry-ons and the stroller from the car and we were on our way to TSA.


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There was no wait and no drills like our 2018 trip. We made it to our gate around 9:20 which gave us about an hour to hang out.

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Our flight was right at lunch time but it was too early to do lunch so we opted for a few snacks to hold us over. (spoiler alert - this plan would come back to bite us in the butt a few hours later.) We did a potty trip before we boarded. This is where I played my first round of “Don’t touch that” in the bathroom. We potty trained Ryleigh during quarantine (only took 3 days 😦) so she hasn’t had much experience with public bathrooms yet. I sprayed down the toilet with my travel Lysol, put her travel seat down, and she went. Then it was my turn and she insisted on trying to touch everything. The sounds from our stall were “Don’t touch that!” “Can I touch this” “No that has germs too.” “Can I touch this?” “No....don’t touch the floor!!!” We played this game every bathroom trip during the trip. We started boarding around 10:30 and took off on time at 11. Lesson learned....the $8 Southwest WiFi does not work for streaming. I watched The Notebook from their free movies and Ryleigh watched the new trolls, colored, and looked out the window.
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We landed on time around 1:00. Ryleigh LOVED the landing!

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MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We decided to head over to Buzz next. We stopped to meet Santa Stitch 2020 style. There are 3 or 4 green dots on the pavement in front of the stage. A CM directs you to an open circle and Stitch makes his rounds to pose behind each group. It was different but at least you still get to see the characters and take photos.
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Buzz was showing about a 30 minute wait. Ryleigh was starting to wear down so the plan was to ride Buzz, get lunch, and head back for a nap. The line moved decently and wound outside and through the Laugh Floor. We waited about 25 minutes which wasn’t too bad. Now, Ryleigh loves Buzz. She was even Buzz for Halloween last year. This is going to be great right? NOPE! She rode with George and I rode by myself. Fun fact - I’m even worse at this ride when riding by myself. Ryleigh wasn’t overly impressed with the ride but when we got into the room where they take the picture, the loud Zurg recording and light flashing did her in. She wasn’t even visible in the ride photo because she hit the floor hiding. 🤦🏻‍♀️ So much for the love of Buzz. This was the second ride of the day to be deemed “I’m can‘t ride that ever again.”
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I mobile ordered while we were in line and we timed it out pretty well that it was time to eat when we got off the ride. We checked in on our walk over to Cosmic Rays and only waited a few minutes before it was ready. This dining experience I did not miss the normal hustle and bustle. We had a little bit of a time finding a table but not nearly as bad as pre-Rona. Ryleigh and I split the chicken nuggets and fries. Since this was the first day of the holiday offerings, George got the Spice Up Your Holiday chicken sandwich. And I actually remembered to take a pic!
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When we were finished eating, I volunteered to walk back over to the Little Mermaid ride to grab the stroller. (Anyone else’s husband get direction stupid when they go places or is it just mine? We’ve been to Disney 7 times together and he went as a kid. But to go find the stroller, I get “I have no idea where that ride even is” 🤦🏻‍♀️) On my way, I passed a popcorn cart. A fellow magician suggested that is a great way to keep a small child entertained while waiting and they had the light up Christmas tree bucket! And there was only 3 people in line....how could I not stop? So with stroller and newly acquired popcorn bucket, I went back to meet George and Ryleigh.
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She was excited to see the bucket and my convo with George went as
”How much was that?”
”Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to.”
”$15?”
”Are you forgetting you’re in Disney” 😂
We also made a questionable parenting choice on the way out. We like to do things ourselves or with Ryleigh that we weren’t allowed to do as kids. (Example - on our honeymoon at Cedar Point, we passed the arcade in the park. George wanted to go in because his dads standpoint was “we already paid to get into the park so we’re not paying more money there“. My mom was a single mom so the extra money wasn’t always possible. So in we went!) When in Disney, George and his sister were never permitted to feed the ducks popcorn. (“I didn’t buy the popcorn for the ducks!”) So he saw a duck by the castle and let Ryleigh feed a piece of popcorn to the duck. 🤷🏻‍♀️ We had no wait for the bus and soon enough we were back in the room for naps.
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I snacked on popcorn and watched Netflix on my iPad.
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We decided for dinner to order the pizza meal from the food court at AoA rather than trying to find somewhere to eat in the park. It came with a cheese pizza, Caesar salad, and breadsticks. It says it’s enough to feed 4 and was only $29. Reasonable price for Disney! It was 8 larger square pieces of pizza, a good sized salad, and 6 breadsticks. We had a very fancy relaxing dinner in bed before we got ready to head back.
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MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We were rested, had full bellies, and were ready to close down MK! We did a wardrobe change and were out the door by 5. Ryleigh even brought a breadstick for the walk!
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We made the trek to the bus stop and were on a bus by 5:20.
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We were back at the park by 5:40. I stopped to take a pic of my favorite hotel.
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We ran into Santa traveling down Main Street. I FaceTimed my Disney loving grandma so she could watch with Ryleigh. I get my love of Disney from my grandma. She calls herself Mickey’s cousin. When my mom was a kid, they lived 20 minutes from Disneyland and went often. She took me on my very first trip when I was 6. She was pretty bummed that she couldn’t go with us this trip. She wants more than anything to see Ryleigh in the parks. We had a trip planned in 2018 but my mom had her stroke a few months before and while she’s thankfully still here, she never fully recovered to herself. So to make a trip with the two of them, my sister and I have never been able to make our schedules line up so we could tag team helping them. She tried so hard to convince me to let her go this time, but with her age and many health conditions, she is SUPER high risk. So I made sure to FaceTime her as much as I could so she could safely “be there”. ❤
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MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We stopped for some photos in front of the castle. And while I’m not a big fan of the new paint job, it is STUNNING when the sun starts to go down! 😍
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Ryleigh and George watched a video of the teacups before we left so she had to ride them. The wait was only 10 minutes and she LOVED them!
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After the teacups, we decided we should probably see the other side of the park. We walked toward Adventureland through the hub. This was the first night of the new castle projections so it was decently crowded with mostly vloggers and such. The Projections are gorgeous! Pictures do not do them justice.
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While I was taking pictures, I passed a stand with light up bubble wands. Naturally, I purchased one for Ryleigh. (Things we couldn’t do as kids 🤷🏻‍♀️)We stopped for a popcorn refill and for a Christmas treat - sugar and spice churros with egg nog. They were pretty good.
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MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our first stop in Adventureland was the Magic Carpets. Ryleigh kept her bubble wand close. And they had the dang camels in full spit mode! George and I got pretty damp 😒
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We weren’t sure what to do next. The jungle cruise was 50 minutes so we opted out of that one. If she didn’t like Zurg, we figured PotC and HM were probably not a good idea. I had wanted to ride splash since it is being reimagined. The line started clear out by the gift shop so apparently I wasn’t the only one with that idea. We made a quick stop at the Christmas shop for our yearly ornament for our Disney tree. I have an ornament for each year that George and I have taken a trip together.
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For Halloween this year, Ryleigh chose to be here favorite disney Princess, Rapunzel. And if she wasn’t the cutest dang one ever!

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So naturally we had to visit the bathrooms. She was very confused as to why we couldn’t go into her tower to say hello to her.
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IASW had a 40 minute wait (and ended up going down for a bit) so we opted to pass for now. Peter Pan was 30 minutes (also ended up going down). Ryleigh has never seen Peter Pan so we decided not to wait. We decided we would repeat Ryleigh’s favorites. We walked onto Ariel and Dumbo. The teacups had a 5 minute wait.
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Then we reached a crossroads....we had wanted to take Ryleigh on 7DMT but the wait had never really gone down all day. It was 50 minutes before closing and the wait was 45 minutes. I also had not made it into the emporium yet and I’m pretty sure you can’t leave the park without going. So do we a) say forget shopping and ride 7DMT or b) say forget 7DMT, get ice cream, and hit up the emporium 🤔🤔🤔 And the winner was.....
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A brownie sundae from Auntie Gravity’s....sorry dwarves! 🤷🏻‍♀️
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We enjoyed our ice cream and made our way to the emporium.
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Here’s where you can learn from my mistake. Do not save your shopping until the end of the night near closing. You’ll encounter a line to get into the store and said line started at the crystal palace! 😨 Ryleigh’s legs were “soooooo tired” so she pretended to sleep in her stroller.
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I sent a picture of a closed Casey’s to my family. 😢
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We made it to the door in the middle of main street that they were using as the official entrance in about 10 minutes. Not a bad wait but an unexpected one nonetheless. I bought this adorable Christmas sweatshirt.
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Another lesson to learn from me - I also bought a royal blue sweatshirt with a silver Mickey on the front earlier in the day. When we got home, I washed all of our new shirts. Do not wash that royal blue sweatshirt for the first time with that gorgeous white sweatshirt....it’s now a pale blue 😭😭😭😭😭 On our way out, we saw Mickey and the gang waving goodbye to guests. I have no pictures of this because I naturally FaceTimed my grandma so she could see.
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This bus picture was taken 20 minutes after closing. The bus was waiting for us. It was a double bus and had maybe 10 other people on it. I could get used to this post-Rona change! We made it back to the room fairly quick, took baths (I don’t even like baths but showers are dangerous), and hit the hay! Epcot was our plan for the next day. Our plans were to RD Frozen and eat around the world. Will our plans work out better this day??
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
We decided to head over to Buzz next. We stopped to meet Santa Stitch 2020 style. There are 3 or 4 green dots on the pavement in front of the stage. A CM directs you to an open circle and Stitch makes his rounds to pose behind each group. It was different but at least you still get to see the characters and take photos.
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Buzz was showing about a 30 minute wait. Ryleigh was starting to wear down so the plan was to ride Buzz, get lunch, and head back for a nap. The line moved decently and wound outside and through the Laugh Floor. We waited about 25 minutes which wasn’t too bad. Now, Ryleigh loves Buzz. She was even Buzz for Halloween last year. This is going to be great right? NOPE! She rode with George and I rode by myself. Fun fact - I’m even worse at this ride when riding by myself. Ryleigh wasn’t overly impressed with the ride but when we got into the room where they take the picture, the loud Zurg recording and light flashing did her in. She wasn’t even visible in the ride photo because she hit the floor hiding. 🤦🏻‍♀️ So much for the love of Buzz. This was the second ride of the day to be deemed “I’m can‘t ride that ever again.”
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I mobile ordered while we were in line and we timed it out pretty well that it was time to eat when we got off the ride. We checked in on our walk over to Cosmic Rays and only waited a few minutes before it was ready. This dining experience I did not miss the normal hustle and bustle. We had a little bit of a time finding a table but not nearly as bad as pre-Rona. Ryleigh and I split the chicken nuggets and fries. Since this was the first day of the holiday offerings, George got the Spice Up Your Holiday chicken sandwich. And I actually remembered to take a pic!
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When we were finished eating, I volunteered to walk back over to the Little Mermaid ride to grab the stroller. (Anyone else’s husband get direction stupid when they go places or is it just mine? We’ve been to Disney 7 times together and he went as a kid. But to go find the stroller, I get “I have no idea where that ride even is” 🤦🏻‍♀️) On my way, I passed a popcorn cart. A fellow magician suggested that is a great way to keep a small child entertained while waiting and they had the light up Christmas tree bucket! And there was only 3 people in line....how could I not stop? So with stroller and newly acquired popcorn bucket, I went back to meet George and Ryleigh.
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She was excited to see the bucket and my convo with George went as
”How much was that?”
”Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to.”
”$15?”
”Are you forgetting you’re in Disney” 😂
We also made a questionable parenting choice on the way out. We like to do things ourselves or with Ryleigh that we weren’t allowed to do as kids. (Example - on our honeymoon at Cedar Point, we passed the arcade in the park. George wanted to go in because his dads standpoint was “we already paid to get into the park so we’re not paying more money there“. My mom was a single mom so the extra money wasn’t always possible. So in we went!) When in Disney, George and his sister were never permitted to feed the ducks popcorn. (“I didn’t buy the popcorn for the ducks!”) So he saw a duck by the castle and let Ryleigh feed a piece of popcorn to the duck. 🤷🏻‍♀️ We had no wait for the bus and soon enough we were back in the room for naps.
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I snacked on popcorn and watched Netflix on my iPad.
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We decided for dinner to order the pizza meal from the food court at AoA rather than trying to find somewhere to eat in the park. It came with a cheese pizza, Caesar salad, and breadsticks. It says it’s enough to feed 4 and was only $29. Reasonable price for Disney! It was 8 larger square pieces of pizza, a good sized salad, and 6 breadsticks. We had a very fancy relaxing dinner in bed before we got ready to head back.
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I love that you do things once in a while that you never got to do. Those are things she'll remember...that one time she got to feed the duck a piece of popcorn, etc. We do "dessert Day" every once in a while, where instead of an actual meal, we let the kids each pick a couple of junkfood items to eat for dinner. Only a couple of times a year, but it's a beloved tradition. Our daughter is old enough now that she prefers an actual meal, and we adults need real food, so it's mostly just our son who junks out these days, but when they were little, they both had a blast picking out their treats. And then they get to sit in front of the TV to eat instead of at the table.
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report! It brings back wonderful memories of our trips with our kids and grandkids. About the bubble wand, our young grandkids wanted the light up mickey spinners,but Mom and Dad wouldn't buy them. They had spent their allotted disney treat money on other things. Soooooo, grandma bought them for the gkids. To say they loved them was an understatement. To this day, when looking at disneyworld pictures, they always say how much fun those wands were, and they are "old" in their early to mid 20's!!!! Those little things are such great memories you are building.
BTW, I loved your daughter's hair Mickey ears, so cute, and they lasted all morning.
Can't wait for more of your tr!
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I love that you do things once in a while that you never got to do. Those are things she'll remember...that one time she got to feed the duck a piece of popcorn, etc. We do "dessert Day" every once in a while, where instead of an actual meal, we let the kids each pick a couple of junkfood items to eat for dinner. Only a couple of times a year, but it's a beloved tradition. Our daughter is old enough now that she prefers an actual meal, and we adults need real food, so it's mostly just our son who junks out these days, but when they were little, they both had a blast picking out their treats. And then they get to sit in front of the TV to eat instead of at the table.
I love that idea! I may have to use it one day!

I'm finally here! Looks like you had a great first day! Glad Ryleigh loved the Little Mermaid room! I love that sweatshirt!! Can't wait to hear about your Epcot day!
She started asking last night if she could go home to her mermaid room. I told her we had to save money for a trip before we could go 🤷🏻‍♀️

Checking in - great pics!
Thank you! My iPhone pics don’t hold a candle to your gorgeous photos!

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report! It brings back wonderful memories of our trips with our kids and grandkids. About the bubble wand, our young grandkids wanted the light up mickey spinners,but Mom and Dad wouldn't buy them. They had spent their allotted disney treat money on other things. Soooooo, grandma bought them for the gkids. To say they loved them was an understatement. To this day, when looking at disneyworld pictures, they always say how much fun those wands were, and they are "old" in their early to mid 20's!!!! Those little things are such great memories you are building.
BTW, I loved your daughter's hair Mickey ears, so cute, and they lasted all morning.
Can't wait for more of your tr!
Ryleigh got a minnie spinner on our 2018 trip. A few battery changes later and she still plays with it. And spoiler alert...she got the Elsa spinner this trip lol And thank you...I found the clips on Etsy and figured they would be more comfortable for her. I didn’t think they would last very long but they made it until she took them out for her nap.

I’ll have to remember that for the future! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Meaning the new one that was ordered the night we got home after I ruined that one 🤷🏻‍♀️

Following along. Great pics, and an adorable child!
Welcome and thank you!
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Saturday, November 7th
Let me start this post by giving you the most important advice I can give you....if given the option to visit Epcot on a Saturday,
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On that note, let’s get this day started! Our plan was to ride the Skyliner to Epcot (2/3 of our party wanted this part...I was NOT one of them!) and RD Frozen. Frozen was the main point of the visit to Epcot and I switched our days to ensure it would be open. I wanted to ride it early with a hopefully shorter line so we could ride it later in the day too. The park was set to open at 11 so we were out the door just before 10.

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I took this pic of the death buckets at 10:15.
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And here we are on a bus around 10:25!
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Confused? When we arrived to the skyliner line, we were told by the CM that the wait to transfer to the Epcot loop was 45 minutes and suggested we take a bus instead because they were arriving every 4 minutes. We arrived to the park around 10:45, loaded Ryleigh into the stroller, and were ready to move! Except they were already letting people into the park 😨 I didn’t let that stress me out. I just focused on getting as far as they would let us. I took some quick walking photos of the “golf ball” as Ryleigh fondly refers to it.
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This was my first visit to Wall-cot and HOLY WALLS! This definitely hindered our hustle mixed with the very windy conditions that nearly blew my ears off. We were able to go all the way to Norway and we found the line for FEA. It was 11:03....3 minutes after “park opening”. How long was the wait for 3 minutes after park opening?? Where did the line start you ask 3 MINUTES AFTER PARK OPENING???
 

MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
If your guess was inside the FEA building, you are incorrect. If your guess Norway, you are incorrect. If your guess was under the archway in CHINA, you would be the winner of this guessing game! 😨🤬 The listed wait time was 90 minutes. Did I mention it was only 3 minutes past when the park was supposed to open?? Because it was. But I had a toddler dressed head to toe (probably even underpants) in Elsa so we got in line. They closed the line not long after us because the line was at capacity. What does that even mean? 🤷🏻‍♀️ The one plus is they let you keep the stroller in line with you until you go into the building. It was a cooler morning so the wait outside was pleasant.
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Ryleigh’s excitement really took over once we got into the building. She kept proclaiming “I’m in Arendelle!!” to anyone in line who would listen.
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We made it onto the ride in about an hour so it wasn't terrible. (Despite getting in line 3 minutes after park opening...I’m not still bitter I promise.) How did Ryleigh feel about the ride?? She was OBSESSED!
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MegRuss626

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We exited Arendelle and their gift shop (managed to escape with only an Elsa light up spinner that was on sale for $10 #parentingwin) to the masses. 😨 We managed to catch a princess cavalcade and it was the cutest watching Ryleigh blow them kisses. 😍
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But holy people Epcot! Now I know that we took the risk of being around people when we booked our trip but at this point, I was truly uncomfortable. The food booth lines zigzagged and ended by the next booth. You would think that those lines mixed with the 3 main rides all having wait times over an hour, there wouldn’t be many people left to wander around. But it was shoulder to shoulder walking around.
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And here begins my “eating in Disney is hard” experience....It was getting to be lunch time but there were no booths in sight that could be touched. I suggested going to the festival building right past Canada because I knew they had Mac n cheese. We squished our way through people and were releived to see there was no line to get into the building. That would be because EVERYONE was already in there. I know George was looking forward to the food offerings so I committed to making something work here. I suggested he get into the first line (which was long) while I went to the Mac n cheese booth that was 2 booths over. Except the Mac n cheese booth line zigzagged a few times in front of it and snaked all the way to where George was in line at the other booth. NO THANK YOU. Trying to stay calm because it was uncomfortable crowded in there, I suggested we mobile ordered for Sunshine Seasons. I quickly ordered and we started squishing through people to make it over to the Land. We passed the food booth with the waffles on the side path with only 2 people in line so we figured we might as take advantage. I left George in line while I went ahead to the Land to park the stroller. Upon arrival, I noticed there was a line to get into the building. I approached one of the CMs directing traffic, showed them my mobile order, and asked how this would work. He told me when it was ready and our whole party was there, that he would let me through to the door. Easy enough. I parked the stroller and George appeared with two waffles with chocolate and whipped cream. (And an entire cup of hard cider in his belly because he couldn’t carry everything so he chugged it right then and there 🤦🏻‍♀️) My phone alerted me that our food was ready. I approached the CM I had already talked to and he let us go up to the door past the outside line. Going smooth right? That ends at the door. Another man was having a slight disagreement with the CM at the door and she walked away so we walked in the door to find ANOTHER LINE! It stretched from the door clear to the escalator. I stayed in the line because I’m a rule follower and didn’t know where to go. I knew surely they weren’t going to make us wait in this huge line when our food was ready and waiting. I sent George to the next CM to see where we needed to go. Apparently I was very mistaken. We INDEED had to wait in this enormous line. George said he explained that our food was ready and he was told that it didn't matter and we had to wait in the line with people who were waiting to get down to Soarin. How does this even make sense??? He asked how we would go about getting our money back for an order that would surely be cold by the time we got there. “You’ll still have to wait in this line because they will only be able to give you a refund down there” My cool was officially lost
giphy.gif

In what world was this a good plan?? Why did they let you mobile order if you would have to wait in line?? WHY IS IT SO FREAKING HARD TO EAT IN DISNEY?!?! 🤬 Between the crowds and this nonsense, I discreetly had a meltdown while we were in this stupid line. Un-Disneylike words were used....A LOT. We couldn’t even eat our waffles because Disney doesn’t want you eating in line. After a 10 minute wait, we were finally permitted on the escalator where we descended to our cold food. We were way past lunchtime at this point and we just needed to eat. I took our food and found a table. I knew the CMs directing traffic inside Sunshine Seasons weren‘t the ones to take it up with. They had no control over how things were run. We ate our lukewarm food. I had a bacon cheeseburger, Ryleigh had cheese pizza, and George had a pulled pork sandwich of some kind I think. We also got the strawberry shortcake and plant based dirt pudding....plant based Oreos just taste weird. I cooled off while eating. George and I both decided that a trip to guest services might be the best idea. Not because we wanted something in return for the experience but because how will they know that the plan they currently have in place might not be the best one. I wanted to check if this was protocol with everything. We had a reservation for the Garden Grill later and I didn’t want to be late because I had to wait in line with the people riding Soarin. George also laughed and told me he had been getting ready to thank me for staying calm through all the nonsense right before I lost my cool. He said he overhead wives in line yelling at their husbands out of frustration and he was thankful I was doing my best to keep calm. And then I didn’t 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

And that folks is how I came to agree with @Darstarr - EATING IN DISNEY IS HARD!
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
We exited Arendelle and their gift shop (managed to escape with only an Elsa light up spinner that was on sale for $10 #parentingwin) to the masses. 😨 We managed to catch a princess cavalcade and it was the cutest watching Ryleigh blow them kisses. 😍
View attachment 513594

But holy people Epcot! Now I know that we took the risk of being around people when we booked our trip but at this point, I was truly uncomfortable. The food booth lines zigzagged and ended by the next booth. You would think that those lines mixed with the 3 main rides all having wait times over an hour, there wouldn’t be many people left to wander around. But it was shoulder to shoulder walking around.
View attachment 513593

And here begins my “eating in Disney is hard” experience....It was getting to be lunch time but there were no booths in sight that could be touched. I suggested going to the festival building right past Canada because I knew they had Mac n cheese. We squished our way through people and were releived to see there was no line to get into the building. That would be because EVERYONE was already in there. I know George was looking forward to the food offerings so I committed to making something work here. I suggested he get into the first line (which was long) while I went to the Mac n cheese booth that was 2 booths over. Except the Mac n cheese booth line zigzagged a few times in front of it and snaked all the way to where George was in line at the other booth. NO THANK YOU. Trying to stay calm because it was uncomfortable crowded in there, I suggested we mobile ordered for Sunshine Seasons. I quickly ordered and we started squishing through people to make it over to the Land. We passed the food booth with the waffles on the side path with only 2 people in line so we figured we might as take advantage. I left George in line while I went ahead to the Land to park the stroller. Upon arrival, I noticed there was a line to get into the building. I approached one of the CMs directing traffic, showed them my mobile order, and asked how this would work. He told me when it was ready and our whole party was there, that he would let me through to the door. Easy enough. I parked the stroller and George appeared with two waffles with chocolate and whipped cream. (And an entire cup of hard cider in his belly because he couldn’t carry everything so he chugged it right then and there 🤦🏻‍♀️) My phone alerted me that our food was ready. I approached the CM I had already talked to and he let us go up to the door past the outside line. Going smooth right? That ends at the door. Another man was having a slight disagreement with the CM at the door and she walked away so we walked in the door to find ANOTHER LINE! It stretched from the door clear to the escalator. I stayed in the line because I’m a rule follower and didn’t know where to go. I knew surely they weren’t going to make us wait in this huge line when our food was ready and waiting. I sent George to the next CM to see where we needed to go. Apparently I was very mistaken. We INDEED had to wait in this enormous line. George said he explained that our food was ready and he was told that it didn't matter and we had to wait in the line with people who were waiting to get down to Soarin. How does this even make sense??? He asked how we would go about getting our money back for an order that would surely be cold by the time we got there. “You’ll still have to wait in this line because they will only be able to give you a refund down there” My cool was officially lost
giphy.gif

In what world was this a good plan?? Why did they let you mobile order if you would have to wait in line?? WHY IS IT SO FREAKING HARD TO EAT IN DISNEY?!?! 🤬 Between the crowds and this nonsense, I discreetly had a meltdown while we were in this stupid line. Un-Disneylike words were used....A LOT. We couldn’t even eat our waffles because Disney doesn’t want you eating in line. After a 10 minute wait, we were finally permitted on the escalator where we descended to our cold food. We were way past lunchtime at this point and we just needed to eat. I took our food and found a table. I knew the CMs directing traffic inside Sunshine Seasons weren‘t the ones to take it up with. They had no control over how things were run. We ate our lukewarm food. I had a bacon cheeseburger, Ryleigh had cheese pizza, and George had a pulled pork sandwich of some kind I think. We also got the strawberry shortcake and plant based dirt pudding....plant based Oreos just taste weird. I cooled off while eating. George and I both decided that a trip to guest services might be the best idea. Not because we wanted something in return for the experience but because how will they know that the plan they currently have in place might not be the best one. I wanted to check if this was protocol with everything. We had a reservation for the Garden Grill later and I didn’t want to be late because I had to wait in line with the people riding Soarin. George also laughed and told me he had been getting ready to thank me for staying calm through all the nonsense right before I lost my cool. He said he overhead wives in line yelling at their husbands out of frustration and he was thankful I was doing my best to keep calm. And then I didn’t 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

And that folks is how I came to agree with @Darstarr - EATING IN DISNEY IS HARD!
Did the CMs get their wires crossed? Why would you have to wait outside until your order was ready if you have to wait in line again once inside? That makes zero sense. I'm curious about what guest services had to say.
 

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