Trip Report A Friend Like Her *COMPLETED*

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
~ Forrest Gump

Ah, February. The month of heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. The month of romance and love. The month of someone’s Valentine birthday.

The month of the crappiest weather in 95 percent of the country. Including Florida.

The month in which another mother/daughter jaunt to WDW brought unexpected surprises.....some great, some not-so-great....much like biting into a piece of boxed chocolate.

Much like life itself.

I’d LOVE to have you follow along on our long-weekend adventure.

Who: Tuvalu and Em (with special appearances by a dear friend)
When: January 31 - February 4, 2020
Where: Disney’s Pop Century Resort

 

[Tuvalu]

One of my goals this trip was to see Epcot Forever. One of Em’s was to see Kara Lindsay and Kevin Massey perform in the Disney on Broadway series. I checked the app for Epcot dinner reservations, but nothing was available that would enable us to accomplish both. I changed the search to DHS restaurants and there were a couple early dinner slots that would allow us to eat and get to Epcot in time to see the shows.

I read menus aloud to Em and we chose the location based on ribs and dessert. We headed out as the sun was setting.

Em liked the convenience of the Skyliner as a Pop guest.

I did too!

Beautiful evening sky.

 

[Swissmiss]

What a nice sunset

 

[Tuvalu]

Where was dinner?

When this quick service restaurant began offering ADRs at dinner my first reaction was, “Why?”
My second was, “Who would make a reservation at a counter service place FOR DINNER?!!”
Turns out....I would.

Em and I had no idea what to expect when we walked in the door. There was a host at a check in stand who asked if we were walkups or if we had reservations.

“We have 6:10 pm,” I announced.

He checked our name and directed me to a marked register on the right. (Walk-ins proceeded left to any register line.) Em and I knew we wanted ribs but we also had a hankering for chicken nuggets. We opted to order a platter of each and share. But we wanted our own S’mores cookie ~ no sharing!

“We’re out of S’mores cookies,” said the cashier.

Let’s be honest.....that cookie was the REAL reason we’d opted to dine at ABC Commissary.

Oh well. We set off to find a table.

Our food arrived on real plates with real stainless flatware.
And.....MINTS!

There were enough seasoned fries to feed a family of 4. Actually there was almost enough protein to feed 4. Em and I could have just shared one plate of ribs, but then we would have missed out on the tender, crispy yet juicy, chicken nuggets. The ribs were surprisingly good (we are picky when it comes to BBQ) as were the steak fries. In spite of the lack of S’mores cookies, we were glad we chose the Commissary!

I could feel myself crashing as we finished up dinner. “I don’t think I have the energy to go to Epcot,” I quietly announced to Em, afraid of disappointing her.

Without blinking an eye she cheerily responded, “There’s always tomorrow! I’m happy with finding some ice cream and heading back.”

We perused the shops on Sunset Blvd. before Em dove into her brownie sundae from Hollywood Scoops.

Bonus ~ we got to see some fireworks (from the projection show on the Chinese Theater) as Em ate.

A quick ride on the Skyliner had us back at Pop for an early bedtime.....for our early RISE.

 

[Tuvalu]

Discovered these in my MDE account.

Likely taken on our way to dinner.

 

[RememberWhen]

Discovered these in my MDE account.

Likely taken on our way to dinner.

View attachment 452849

View attachment 452850

The Chinese theater makes such a nice backdrop! Especially compared to the hat or stage...

 

[amjt660]

We were back in our room a little past 4 pm and found a treat that would please Forrest Gump

Max

 

[need2go2wdw]

View attachment 452908

Max

Is it weird that I read that in their voices. And literally laughed out loud?!

 

[amjt660]

Is it weird that I read that in their voices. And literally laughed out loud?!

Not weird at all
I do it all the time
Then again - maybe we are both weird??

Max

 

[Tuvalu]

Who knew there were posters of naked men at the airport?

As they say in baseball, Em has a “good eye!”

What a nice sunset

Indeed....especially since the rest of the day was so crappy!

The Chinese theater makes such a nice backdrop! Especially compared to the hat or stage...

Agree 100%!

 

[LisaBelle]

I barely have any time to be on the boards lately . So happy to find this today! I'm all caught up and ready for the rest of the report.

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

Beautiful evening sky.

We perused the shops on Sunset Blvd. before Em dove into her brownie sundae from Hollywood Scoops

At least you had a yummy dinner with Em and she got her dessert (I agree with you, the most important part of any meal)!

I'm glad Kel was able to give you a ride back ---squeeze in extra friend time however you can!

 

[Tuvalu]

I barely have any time to be on the boards lately . So happy to find this today! I'm all caught up and ready for the rest of the report.

Hey Lisa! We’ve missed you around here. I hope to post the next installment tomorrow.

I'm glad Kel was able to give you a ride back ---squeeze in extra friend time however you can!

And the drop off at our building couldn’t be beat!

 

[lindawdw]

I'm so glad that the rain stopped for you to enjoy your evening at DHS together. Dinner at the ABC Commissary looked delicious although not having available the Smores cookie would have been a disappointment to me also! Being that you needed to get up super early for ROTR the next morning it was probably a great move to head back early for a good night's sleep!

 

[Tuvalu]

February 2, 2020 ~ Super Bowl Sunday

I mention that it was Super Bowl Sunday only for commenting on park crowds. I don’t watch football and only pay attention to the commercials during a Super Bowl broadcast. Happily I can now just Google the SB commercials and watch them at my leisure.

Our day did not begin leisurely. How could it when we were on a mission to score a RotR Boarding Group?!! I was awake before 5 am and Em woke shortly thereafter. Unfortunately it was the morning she discovered the downside of sleeping in the Murphy bed.

The wood partition on either side of the bed rendered it difficult to use the nightstands. Em had to awkwardly “reach around” this partition whenever she was in a reclining position. It was hard to grab her glasses, phone and pill case....

....which she had neglected to close tightly the night before. An accidental bump caused the case to hit the floor and a few pills went scurrying. The lighting level in our room was low (remember it was only 5 am) because we didn’t want to be blinded by the light in our sleepiness. Em got out of bed and saw a couple pills; then she did an “arm sweep” under the bed to find the last missing pill.

She thought she’d found it and her cry of “Yes!” suddenly turned to disgust.

“That’s not a pill, that’s a Cheerio!”

We had brought no Cheerios into our room.

Em burst into laughter which caused me to do the same. Then I hushed her so we would not disturb the guests on either side of us. It made us doubt whether the room had recently been swept. Many people believe non-carpeted hotel rooms are “cleaner” but I have found them to be the opposite.

She located the remaining pill and we both finished getting ready. No time for coffee.

We went down to the parking lot to wait for Uber Kelly.

Kel was a few minutes past our arranged meeting time (she’d overslept) but we managed to park and get through security by 6:35 am. K and E left me behind as they hurried toward the tapstiles.

Kelly loves Tower of Terror and requested we make that our first attraction after the park opened. (She’d given us a private ride to DHS....who were we to say no? ) We made our way to Sunset Blvd. and waited anxiously for the RotR Boarding Group lottery to commence.

At 6:59 am the three of us pulled out our phones and breathlessly waited until 7:00 to open the app. (Full disclosure ~ Em and I were much more stressed this time, not because we had to experience RotR again, but because we wanted Kel to!)

For any of you who missed the “Sneak Peak” in my Christmas TR, this was what appeared on my phone.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Success!

 

[Rista1313]

It made us doubt whether the room had recently been swept. Many people believe non-carpeted hotel rooms are “cleaner” but I have found them to be the opposite.

We had this problem last time... Scott purposely thru a couple candy wrappers on the floor, but the room wasn't swept... after 3 days.....

The gal who had to come in and embarrassingly clean and sweep in front of me, said they were so short handed she had been assigned 18 rooms that day... (sooooo what's the excuse every other day?)

 

[Nunu]

I prefer a non-carpeted hotel floor, at least you can see what's on it more easily. To me, finding hair strands embedded in corners of bathrooms when we check-in, is the worst!

I hate it when I accidentally drop something and it goes under a hotel bed! At WDW, I've found hair ties, candy wrapers, hairpins, etc. Once Frank had to move a dresser to check the tv cables, and found a fossilized sock (!).

Needless to say, I always pack our slippers and never walk barefoot inside hotel rooms.

Looks like when looking under hotel beds, like you wrote on this TR's introduction: "life is like a box of chocolates..."

 

[93boomer]

February 2, 2020 ~ Super Bowl Sunday

I mention that it was Super Bowl Sunday only for commenting on park crowds. I don’t watch football and only pay attention to the commercials during a Super Bowl broadcast. Happily I can now just Google the SB commercials and watch them at my leisure.

Our day did not begin leisurely. How could it when we were on a mission to score a RotR Boarding Group?!! I was awake before 5 am and Em woke shortly thereafter. Unfortunately it was the morning she discovered the downside of sleeping in the Murphy bed.

The wood partition on either side of the bed rendered it difficult to use the nightstands. Em had to awkwardly “reach around” this partition whenever she was in a reclining position. It was hard to grab her glasses, phone and pill case....

View attachment 453290

....which she had neglected to close tightly the night before. An accidental bump caused the case to hit the floor and a few pills went scurrying. The lighting level in our room was low (remember it was only 5 am) because we didn’t want to be blinded by the light in our sleepiness. Em got out of bed and saw a couple pills; then she did an “arm sweep” under the bed to find the last missing pill.

She thought she’d found it and her cry of “Yes!” suddenly turned to disgust.

“That’s not a pill, that’s a Cheerio!”

We had brought no Cheerios into our room.

Em burst into laughter which caused me to do the same. Then I hushed her so we would not disturb the guests on either side of us. It made us doubt whether the room had recently been swept. Many people believe non-carpeted hotel rooms are “cleaner” but I have found them to be the opposite.

She located the remaining pill and we both finished getting ready. No time for coffee.

We went down to the parking lot to wait for Uber Kelly.

View attachment 453281

Kel was a few minutes past our arranged meeting time (she’d overslept) but we managed to park and get through security by 6:35 am. K and E left me behind as they hurried toward the tapstiles.

View attachment 453282

Kelly loves Tower of Terror and requested we make that our first attraction after the park opened. (She’d given us a private ride to DHS....who were we to say no? ) We made our way to Sunset Blvd. and waited anxiously for the RotR Boarding Group lottery to commence.

View attachment 453283

At 6:59 am the three of us pulled out our phones and breathlessly waited until 7:00 to open the app. (Full disclosure ~ Em and I were much more stressed this time, not because we had to experience RotR again, but because we wanted Kel to!)

For any of you who missed the “Sneak Peak” in my Christmas TR, this was what appeared on my phone.

View attachment 453284
I breathed a sigh of relief. Success!

Ugh the wood floors I thought were a good idea too. But, at the end of our last trip, we were packing up our flip flops. Yep we do not go barefooted in the room. The amount of dust, dirt etc on the bottom of these were awful! Thinking about carrying a swiffer next time! And no we don’t get mousekeeping.

 

[Tuvalu]

A couple minutes passed before the crowd on Sunset began to move forward towards ToT and RnR. I’m not sure if there was an official “rope” that dropped or if CMs were leading the way down. There were several CMs stationed on the sidewalk, instructing guests not to run and to “stay in the street.” This was a safe means of funneling excited park-goers to their first attraction.

What did Kelly do?

She broke away from the masses on the street and began to race-walk on the sidewalk, oblivious to the CMs shouting at her, “Ma’am, stay in the street!”

In Kel’s defense, she didn’t hear them. She is deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other. As Em and I tried to keep pace with her (in the street), I apologized for Kel’s behavior to the CMs we passed....”she can’t hear you”....for fear of being ejected from the park (or at least the ToT queue!)

When Em and I finally caught up with Kelly at the ToT entrance, we “scolded” her for disobeying park rules. As we suspected, she hadn’t realized she’d done anything wrong. In fact she couldn’t understand why people weren’t using the sidewalk!

A selfie before checking in.

The line moved quickly....

....and then:

(@Loco_driver Em NAILED IT!!)

 

[Tuvalu]

Just before the “drop” pictured above, our phones all buzzed with the notification that our Boarding Group had been called. We knew where our next destination would be ~ Batuu!

Such a helpful sign!

Kelly’s excitement was palpable as we neared the entrance (though hard to tell from this pic.)

I was concerned we’d be in for a long wait when I saw the amount of people at the ride entrance.

My fear was unfounded once we scanned our bands and were in the queue.

There were more people in line than what Em and I had experienced in December, but we’d had a lower BG number (3) and had been called immediately after park opening. Still we had nothing to complain about since a slower pace through the queue enabled Kel to take in (and appreciate) all the details. She tried explaining some of the props to us and their purpose, but all Em and I heard was, “Blah blah blah, blah bitty blah...” Seriously though, Em and I were tickled by Kel’s enthusiasm and eagerness to find out what else was in store for us.

There were several jaw-dropping moments for Kelly. When BB-8 first rolled out in the preshow, Kel looked at us and said, “I’m a little teary-eyed!” And when the doors opened to reveal this....

....she gasped and could hardly speak.

Em and I were loving her reactions! It was like being with a little kid who was wonder-struck by everything she saw.

I told her to pose with Em in front of the Stormtroopers.

Then she wanted me to take a picture of herself “with attitude” that she could text to her kids.

Kel embraced the role-playing of the CMs and managed to get a guard to agree to take our picture as we waited to begin the actual “ride” part of the attraction.

When it was over, Kelly declared, “THAT. WAS. AWESOME!”

Em and I liked being a little more “relaxed” this time since we knew what to expect. We noticed more details (and one special effect not working properly, unfortunately) and got a better grasp on the storyline. Experiencing RotR with a Star Wars geek lover made it extra fun!

That said, RotR won’t be a “Must Do” for us on future trips. We’ll attempt the Boarding Group lottery again when we’re with Woody, otherwise we’re happy to allow true fans to RISE in our place.

 

[Dory71]

Hoping to experience RotR in May. Thanks for your trip reports and inside info!