Trip Report An OG Anniversary Trip - Completed

And we're back!

We'll be spending our anniversary-ish trip at Walt Disney World. You may remember that we've turned into avid Disney cruisers and have pretty much sailabrated (see what I did there) on a cruise ship for the past several years. Much to our dismay, that won't be happening this year, but cruising will be back, so in the meantime, we will get Disney where we can.

If you've followed our past journeys, we may have mentioned that we had a DLR and cruise planned for mid-September. Cruise was cancelled and it's not looking like DLR is going to open the parks any time soon. We hate that Disney waits until THE LAST MINUTE to cancel, so we've taken it upon ourselves to change our plans.

I called up DVC today (less than 5-minute wait) and changed our Grand Californian stay to a Walt Disney World stay.

Here's the rundown. Jim Halpert needs to take notes.

Who:
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What: A rescheduled DLR trip.
When: September 22 - 27
Where: Boardwalk Villas Studio

We converted a 3-day ticket for a visit in February to a 6-day in September, no problem. I made park reservations as well. I'm not going to lie...when this park reservation business began, I thought this was going to be a crazy free-for-all and all the dates would be snatched up. I was wrong. I've had positive experiences both times when reserving parks.

We have our room reservation and tickets in place. Now I'm working on flights and dining reservations.
 
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Zipadeelady

Zipadeelady

Well-Known Member
imahistorygeek said:
Polynesian MRE aka Spam hash - I actually liked it. I think it could have been better, but there were good elements. The vegetables and teriyaki flavor were good. I know what spam is supposed to taste like, and that wasn't it. Spam is salty. This was salt-free. The chunks were too big and it should have been fried. You listening, Disney? Spam should be fried.

The rose sangria was also good and refreshing. It was heavy on the red wine and light on the rose, but I'd drink it again.



Yes! I could have eaten another round of them. I love falafel so these were right up my alley.

The avocado toast at The Wave...if you like avocado, this is THE DISH for you. It was so good. It's like guacamole for breakfast I think I'll get it again on Saturday.

Story from The Wave - I don't know how it came up, but somehow it came up that we didn't have any coffee mugs in our room. Our server put two extra coffee mugs on our table with the intention of us taking them with is. We told her that we couldn't take them. She was going to leave them at the front desk for us to come back and pick them up. We politely declined.

Hades Nachos - I think a sprinkling of blue cheese would work on top of these. I'd eat them again, but no rush. The orange color was weird.

As you can see above, we went to Tambu Lounge for drinks with the understanding that we'd hit Enchanted Rose for more drinks before our dinner at Narcoossee's. As we were drinking our drinks at Tambu, we were looking at the price of the drinks at Enchanted Rose. One word: EXPENSIVE. An old fashioned is $20. Reviews were calling it overpriced drinks. We were going to ditch it, but decided since it was something new, we would try it out.

I had in my mind that it was a Beauty & the Beast theme. I couldn't be more wrong. It's elegant and beautiful on the inside. We made our way to the bar and ordered our two drinks. We watched Sheila, the bartender, make our drinks. They were heavy on the good alcohol. Beautiful presentation of the drinks and they were good. I think they were well worth the $. You could definitely taste the alcohol in these drinks whereas the drinks at Tambu tasted watered down. Enchanted Rose is upscale and the quality of the drinks reflect the setting. This may be our new watering hole.

We've been having a great time and while the experiences have been cut, we've still found plenty to do both inside and outside of the parks. The low crowds are nice and Disney is handling things quite well. However, for the amount of experiences they have cut, the price of a ticket right now isn't worth it. Yet, here we are. We're paying for the experience of low crowds. If they don't open APs soon, I'm not sure we will be back anytime soon. I can't stomach the price again. Honestly, I'd rather spend my money on cruising.

Tomorrow is Hollywood Studios. If so inclined, please pray to the Disney Gods that we can one, get a boarding pass, and 2, the ride is running.
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Good to know spam should be fried, when I tried it last year it definitely wasn't fried, I still don't think I'll be buying spam anytime soon though. Now the avocado toast did look delicious! Glad to hear it was good. The reviews of The Wave always seem to be good, I'll have to make it a point to try it next trip.

Joe would probably love Enchanted Rose. He's a sucker for an Old Fashioned but $20 is steep. I'm sure it's a little too booshie for us but I wouldn't mind trying it at least once, who knows maybe we'd fit right in. 😁 Nah, probably not.

Good luck getting a boarding group!
 
Zipadeelady

Zipadeelady

Well-Known Member
lostpro9het said:
Folks M&MRR is awesome. Im the first to dump on Disney for half *** attempts like FEA but this is a gem. I would wait in line for this ride multiple times. There is so much to see and take in. Well done!

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Glad to hear your opinion of MMRR or whatever the abbreviation is. I know some, myself included may be a little "nice"when it comes to reviews. I trust that if you say it's good it most likely is. Do you feel the same @imahistorygeek ?
 
lostpro9het

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Fueled up at Basline and got the word our boarding group was ready.
RotR was fun and definitely repeatable. My main concern is keeping all the animatronics running over time. Hit up Star Tours, another round of TSMM and now queued up for RR. Lots of day left. The park feels busier than the previous days but RR has been down until about 30 minutes ago.
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imahistorygeek

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Smugglers Run - good experienc
Zipitidoda said:
Glad to hear your opinion of MMRR or whatever the abbreviation is. I know some, myself included may be a little "nice"when it comes to reviews. I trust that if you say it's good it most likely is. Do you feel the same @imahistorygeek ?
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I loved it! It was so fun! Definitely worth waiting in line to ride.
 
lostpro9het

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Just finished up another great dinner at Il Mulino. I seriously don’t know how y’all go to any other “Italian” restaurant on property. The mushroom risotto pictured below is a half portion as we shared it and the meat and cheese plate for dinner. This closes out another great day. Ill say it now, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is the best ride at HS. I don’t know how those imagineers did it but they did. I want all the M&MRR!!! We head out early tomorrow for a day at AK. Looking like we might need some ponchos. TBD
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imahistorygeek

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hollywood Studios was crowded and I can't imagine what it's going to look like once the restrictions have been lifted, especially Galaxy's Edge.

I'm glad we stayed at an Epcot resort because there's no way you can get there really early by bus, monorail, or car. This really helped knock two rides out of the way and have approximately 15 minutes to spare while waiting for 10am boarding passes. The crowd gets really quiet and still a few minutes before and everyone has phones out and ready. You almost have to have several devices ready. I had been practicing and my phone got stuck on one of the screens. Sean was the boarding pass hero.

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway - I know some don't care for the animation style, but this ride is so much fun! Easily one of the best rides in the park and warrants the wait time and we would wait well over an hour for this ride if needed.

As for the other mainstays, ToT, TSMM, RnR, are still great and not to be missed. We didn't ride swirling saucers or Slinky Dog. They're fine, but we weren't missing anything. They pull the crowds from Midway Mania which allowed us to basically walk on each time.

The longest wait was Muppets. Still a great attraction and I laugh every single time. The bubble effect was in fine form.

Galaxy's Edge - I thought it was really well done. It's immersive and it really feels as though you are entering a new land. There's so much to see and take in that it can be a bit overwhelming. Crowds are also pretty large here, especially in the main ride and food areas. The Millennium Falcon outside the ride is amazing. The actual ride is good, but I think you need more people to experience the full effect. It definitely has re-rideability, but I wouldn't wait more than an hour to experience if you've already experienced. Rise of the Resistance is an amazing ride. I can understand the downtime with this ride. There's is so much going on here. I felt as though, which I think was part of the story, we were rushed through. We were trying to get away from the First Order and we had to be quick. The walking audio-animatronic Kylo Ren was scary.

I picked up a wrap from Ronto Roasters and we made our way to our ADR at Oga's Cantina. They only allow you to stay 45 minutes, so our reservation time was spot on. Drinks are sweet and pre-mixed. The fuzzy tautan was so unique. I wanted the experience and it was a fun atmosphere, but we won't be back. The ronto wrap was very good and I'd get it again.

Overall, it was a great day. It was hot and there were a lot of kid meltdowns.
 

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