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!

 

[draybook]

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

I will say that the one across from Old Town is the worst we've ever experienced anywhere. About 12 or so years ago, we went there after the parks and we literally spent over an hour waiting on our order. We get back to the hotel we were staying at, which I believe was the Rodeway Inn next to the Fasttrac and Waffle House right past the 417 only to find my wife's food wasn't in the bag. Well, I won't tell you how hangry she can get but I went back to get it while they waited there.

I was gone so long getting her food that when I pulled back up to the parking spot, her and the oldest two(our only kids at that point) we're coming out of the room to walk and look for me as I had left my phone at the hotel since it was dead. I think we literally waited a combined 2 hours... ridiculous.

 

[draybook]

Day 5.

This was our first actual non Halloween party day in a Disney park and we started with Animal Kingdom. As I've said before, we're no longer open to close type of people so I want to say we got there around noon with a closing time of 6pm. Honestly, there's not much to do for the little one, so I wasn't too upset about a short day.

We headed straight to the Safari and boy oh boy did he have a meltdown in that line until we got to the part with the tvs talking about the ride. The posted time said 50 but we definitely waited at least 60. Meh, that's life. The ride itself was great as always and he was so curious about everything we passed. From there, we went to the Avatar river ride. I know, that's not the correct name but eh, it's 530 am and I'm still groggy.

We most definitely waited for over an hour as I've never been that far back in the queue. It literally was all the way back to the curve right past the entrance to the line. Such a short ride after a long wait but very relaxing and he enjoyed it. I think after that we went and grabbed lunch at Pizzafari. I prefer a nice burger from Restaurantasaurus but Ashley has literally gotten sick both times we've been there so pizza it was.

After that, Ashley and the older two rode Dinosaur and when they finished, Justin and I went via child swap. I was scared of that ride for our first few trips but once I started going, I loved it. I sure am going to miss it. After that, Ashley and Amy went to ride Everest while me and the boys walked around taking in the sights. Once they finished, we made our way out of the park and went and grabbed some dinner.

After filling our stomachs with some grub, we headed to Disney Springs for the first time this trip. That's when I saw Eddie Maserati and I just knew this was the trip I asked him for a photo and he happily obliged. We also grabbed our annual Christmas ornament from the Christmas 365 store. Eventually it was time to head back to the house and get some rest for the next day, which would be our Disney Hollywood Studios day. And with that, I shall see you all later. Or should I say see you real soon?

 

[draybook]

Day 6 was our DHS day. As usual, we got to the park around noon. We made our way into the place and I believe our first ride was Runaway Railroad. It was posted as a 50 minute wait and I believe it was that long. Have I mentioned how I'm getting old and holding an almost 40 pound 2.5 year old is wrecking my back, . Anyways, we love that ride but I will admit that we do miss TGMR.

After that, we headed over to Toy Story Midway Mania. Another 45 minute wait but always enjoyable. I somehow managed to score over 200k just using one arm but Justin managed almost 300k and was close to getting best of the hour. After that, everyone except me and the little one went to ride Alien Swirling Saucers, or as it's known, AS....well, you know.

When they got done, we decided to grab a bite at Woody's Lunch Box. I like that they have CMs monitoring and making sure that only diners are sitting there but they still need more seating. We lucked out and found a table but me and Justin had to stand while we ate. Shoot, no problem for me. After being in the Army, I could eat while hanging upside-down if I needed to. After that, it was time for Amy and Ashley to ride RnR and ToT while us guys went back on Runaway Railroad. We did that and then walked around Sunset Blvd while we waited for them to get done.

After meeting back up, it was pretty much dad duty for a while. Me and the three younger ones pretty much roamed while they rode the Star Wars rides. After meeting back up, we went back to Runaway Railroad for one last time. Then we made our way to the car. Here comes the funny part. For years, I've always made fun of the people who use the car alarm to find their vehicle. But 2025 was the year I became one of those people. I distinctly remember parking in aisle 409, but after walking far back and only seeing 309, I knew there was no way there were 100 more aisles.

I'm pressing the alarm button to no avail and getting closer to the back of the lot while Amy and the others spread out. Finally, after hitting the lock button for the 728th time, I finally got a response. Ironically, a couple was walking towards it thinking it was their vehicle until they saw me pressing the button and we shared a laugh.

Well, we made our way off property and went to grab a bite to eat before heading to Disney Springs for a bit. One recurring theme to the trip was Sprinkles being "sold out" of most of the cupcakes every day. Kind of annoying, especially since we've never had a problem getting them via the outdoor ATM machine but that was always in the "check back in 30 minutes" mode. Anyways, we went back to the house and got some rest. Next up was our second MNSSHP, or as I like to call October 19th, my birthday.

 

[draybook]

Alright, on to the next day. October 19th, my birthday. If you're thinking, "I just know they woke up early and had a full day of activities planned", well, you haven't been paying attention to our trips over the last 10 years... .

I couldn't even tell you what we did before heading out to go to our second MNSSHP night, except I think we stopped at Target for a pickup of water or something. Oh, and we grabbed a bite to eat, which I consumed in the parking lot. So l made sure to have EVERYONE'S costume this time, so as to not disappoint Jace again.

We made our way across to the park and I'm just going to be a consistent old grumpy guy when I say I generally despise going TO the Magic Kingdom because of the way they try to cram everyone into all the "available space" on the monorail, even when there's almost nobody there. Same thing applies to getting on and off the ferry boats. Meh, what're you gonna do?

I do love being able to enter the park at 4, as I feel the value is decent for spending 8 hours in the park. We did the usual that we do at the party nights. Plenty of candy and got some rides in as well. I don't think we've ever done a Halloween meet and greet with the exception of Jack and Sally some years ago. We had a great time like always and got plenty of candy.

I will say that we got plenty of comments and compliments on our costumes, especially Amy and Ashley. They were Kim Possible and Shego. My oldest was some character from Ninjitsu Kaizen and the middle two were both the Titanic captain. The little one was Peter Pan and of course I was Troy Polamalu. Lots of people are shocked to find out my hair is natural. Good times. I will say that I got a compliment from a guy who I thought was the scientist from Rick and Morty, as I only glanced in his direction, but my daughter said he was with someone dressed as "that guy from Back to the Future". I felt like a total dummy not recognizing Doc Brown and Marty as I'm a huge BTTF fan, but they were too far gone by the time I looked back and spotted them. If by some chance you're here and reading this, my bad and I wish I had recognized you both sooner because I wanted to grab a picture with you both!

Also, we had a LOT of interactions with characters during the Boo to You parades on both nights. That was priceless. I will say that the party seems to get busier every year. The first night(14th), we got to "our spot" about 45 minutes early and it was already taken but there was literally a huge gap next to it that worked just fine. Seems like they've been raising the number of tickets sold but that's cool. Everyone wants to have a good time.

I can't remember what we had to eat when we left the part but I'm sure it was McDonald's. We got back to the house, unloaded the sugary loot and hit the sack. Up next is day number 8, our first trip to Legoland and the "incident at T-Rex", which you can read about in a separate thread if you feel so inclined to do so.

Thanks for following along and I hope I have been keeping you somewhat entertained even though I've obviously lost some of the pixie dust magic for Disney over the years.

 

[draybook]

Okay on to day 8. Being that Legoland is a bit of a drive away from Kissimmee and they closed at 6, we actually got up early for a change. I know what you're thinking, we got up and made park opening. Whoa there, Tonto, not so fast. When I say early, I mean we got there early enough to get to the park before noon even if they did open at 9 or 10, .

As we pulled up to the entrance, the 9 and 8 year olds lost their minds. They're the main reason we got tickets, as they're HUGE over legos right now. We all were excited to try a new park and we got even more excited to see how empty the parking lot was even though the park had been open for 2 hours or so already. Heck yeah!

I will say that I've seen a few videos from Tim Tracker showing the parks, but I never really paid attention to them but I was a little giddy seeing the little pizza dude statue thing...yeah, I totally butchered the English language there. So our first ride was the double decker monster carousel. I have to say that after getting off of that one, we had a Six Flags vibe going so we weren't sure what to expect going forward but we didn't have high hopes. I gotta tell you, we were completely wrong.

From there, we hooked a right and went into some land that had the Battle of Bricksburg ride and a few others including a Soarin type ride. We LOVED the BoB ride and got soaked, which felt great given the beating sun. After that, Amy and the older two rode the Dragon ride and Merlin's Challenge while I took the middle two boys over to the Joust ride and walked a bit. After meeting back up with the others, we headed to Ninjago and man, that was fun.

We grabbed some nachos and lunches and then Amy and the older two did some rollercoasters while me and the three youngins headed back to Ninjago and played with the legos at the entrance to that land. After meeting back up, we headed down to the kiddie area and road the motorboats and then did the fire rescue ride thing. That was HILARIOUS. Not only was that fire rescue attraction amusing but what a workout. We hit up the indoor shooter ride(name escapes me) and then back to Merlin's Challenge before heading to the gift shop upfront as it was closing time.

Now, here's where their guest service really shines. We got about 3 miles down the road before realizing that the 8 year old didn't have his phone. Yeah, I know some of you aren't with that whole kids with phones thing but we are. Anyways, I called it and got no answer so I pulled over to check in the stroller. As I was doing that, Amy got a call from the phone. It was a model citizen from Legoland letting us know they had found it and would have it for us at the entrance. We turned around and picked it up and I made sure to send their guest service folks a great email about them going out of their way to contact us.

So after that, we headed to our Target pickup on the way back to the house to drop it off and then head to Disney Springs for my birthday dinner at T-Rex at 8:20. We got there on time and got checked in at the podium. Within 5 minutes we got the notification that our table was ready and went inside. We got a good table and the dinner was great. Me, Amy and Justin had the double burger while Ashley had the nachos. I believe the younger three had the chicken nuggets or tenders. Then it happened, the "incident" that made me create a whole thread about it. They brought the check and my wife presented Disney gift cards like we've always used there. I couldn't hear what he was telling her but after he left the table she told me that he said the system was down in regards to Disney gift cards so we had to pay out of pocket.

Nice, it would have been great to know that upfront, as we had literally planned the dinner based on gift cards. So anyways, you can check that thread out if you want more details but we paid and left. We headed over to Sprinkles for some cupcakes and guess what, the ATM gave the "come back in 30 minutes" message and almost all of the cupcakes were "sold out". Man, what a kick in the teeth, . Not going to lie, those two things kinda put a dent in the night but yeah, first world problems. We looked around a little longer before making our way out and back to the house.

Some folks might do a double take when they see me say this but personally my favorite day of the entire trip was the Legoland day. The only thing that wasn't a walk-on was the motorboats. And honestly, I had the most fun as a family at that park. They even gave everyone their own bag of gummy bears on the way out, which made the kids day!

Thanks for reading and I'll get around to the next day soon. Up next, our first ever time at Epic Universe.

 

[draybook]

Day 9. Our first time ever at the new Epic Universe park. The park was open from 9 or 10 until 10 pm, so you know we didn't get there until roughly 11. Now, I'm going to do this part differently. Instead of trying to remember the order in which we did stuff, I'm just going to say what we thought of each land and ride/attraction that we experienced.

First off, the park itself is...Epic. For me, the most impressive land was Super Nintendo World. The theming and experience was amazing and made me feel like a kid. The only negative is how cramped it can get but it's visually awesome. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was a close second but the only ones who rode anything there was Amy and Ashley and they waited two and a half hours for the MoM ride.

The Island of Berk area was awesome and we LOVED the boat ride. And we got pretty wet on the first ride through, which felt great in that Florida heat. Speaking of which, I LOVE the freestyle drinks. I'm pretty sure we literally refilled our cup about 27 times that day. I also got one at Legoland and at HHN. Well worth it! I will also say that there's not a lot for the young ones and me to do so we literally rode Yoshi and the Berk boat ride and then did a lot of walking around looking at stuff and the boys also spent about an hour playing in the water play area, which felt great.

I think the only attraction that none of us made it to was Mario Kart and Dragon Racer Rally. Even with there being limited rides for the young ones, I absolutely think it was money well spent just to see the place, especially at night. Absolutely stunning visuals at night.

We closed out the park and leaving was a breeze. I do remember that we went and got some Subway for dinner, which was great finding one open that late.

For Epic, I won't complain about it being crowded because I mean c'mon, it's not even a year old. People are going to flock to it. As far as things to do for young ones, I'd give it a 7/10 right now. For visuals, I'm going to go 9/10. For value, I'd give it a 8.5/10. Oh, and we did eat at the Toadstool Cafe. It took a solid 35-40 minutes of waiting in line but I like the way they do it there. You wait in line and they seat you when tables open up. We had the Mario burgers and that was a good experience. I'd give the food there a 8/10. Yeah, I'm easy to please as you can tell.

Anyhow, that sums up that day, so I'll be back soon with day 10.

 

[MouseNana]

Just found your report. Thanks for sharing!