Trip Report Blisters! Why Did it Have to be Blisters?! A 2019 Flower and Garden Report COMPLETED

Hello Disney Friends! Welcome to the "Trip Report That Almost Wasn't Posted". More on that in a minute. Now for the details:



Who: Me @LisaBelle and my sister, Tina @TangledTina
What: Tina's 50th Birthday Celebration
When: May 28-June 2, 2019
Where: The Contemporary Resort

How this trip came to be:
In 2016 Tina and I celebrated my 50th birthday by running the runDisney Princess 5k. You can read that trip report here. We knew that we wanted to take a sister's trip for Tina's birthday, but she hadn't decided what she wanted to do. We considered sitting on the beach, a cruise and visiting a new city. Then in July of 2018 our families went on a joint vacation to WDW. That TR is here. That trip had lots of bumps in the road and left Tina wanting another dose of Disney magic. In November of 2018 she called me up to discuss her birthday trip. The conversation went something like this: Tina: How would you feel about spending my birthday trip at Walt Disney World? Me: I'm calling to book it right now!

Because we were experiencing Flower and Garden for the first time we wanted to stay at an Epcot resort. Tina chose the Beach Club and we spent the winter months dreaming of lounging at Stormalong Bay and walking into Epcot via the International Gateway.




Fast forward to about 3 weeks prior to our trip. I received a phone call from Disney saying that they were overbooked at Beach Club and we needed to switch resorts . Because of the inconvenience they would discount the price on a monorail resort! After some discussion we decided on the Contemporary. We'd stayed there with our families in July, but we had stayed in one of the Garden Wing buildings. It was a long walk to both the Contempo Cafe and the monorail so this time we wanted to stay in the main building. They were able to accommodate that request so we booked it.

Why this TR almost wasn't posted....
As soon as Tina and I returned from our WDW trip we needed to "finalize" (read completely plan and book ) our next family adventure- a 2 week drive from Ohio to Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota. With those plans made I spent June uploading all of my WDW photos, dealt with Disney concerning Memory Maker issues and finally got those pictures uploaded. Our family vacation took up 2 weeks in July and then it was time for professional development and preparing my classroom for back to school! No worries, I can write my TR on weekends for sure over Thanksgiving and Christmas break, right?! This school year has been crazy busy and suddenly March rolled around and I still hadn't started my TR. Too late now I thought. Flower and Garden 2020 had begun and I felt like no one would want to read about last year's festival when they could real about this year's offerings. Then COVID 19 came along and closed down our beloved Disney World ! With that I decided that now might be a good time to finally post this TR!

So without further ado, here we goooooo!

Monday, May 27, 2019
Today was Memorial Day and my family did our usual cookout while I finished laundry and packing. We were flying out of the Cincinnati airport early Tuesday morning. I live closer to the airport so we decided that Tina would spend the night at my house to make the morning less rushed. Tina sent me this photo as she was packing. Tina had planned to arrive at my house in the evening, but due to laundry/packing issues she was running behind. Then the weather near her turned ugly which delayed her even more. There were actually tornadoes in Dayton that night. Luckily, they weren't close to Tina's home.



Tina finally arrived at my house between 11:30pm and midnight. We double checked our Magic Bands, plane check-in, flight time, etc. As we were discussing our outfits for the next day Tina asked my opinion on which shoes she should wear. She had bought a new pair of shoes that hadn't been broken in yet. They looked great with her outfit and they felt so comfortable when she tried them on that we felt like they should probably be okay. Remember this conversation.

Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Our flight was scheuled to depart at 8am. Because I don't like to be rushed I wanted to be at the airport by 6. This meant we needed to leave my house by 5:30. We woke up about 4:30am. We got dressed, drank a quick cup of coffee and were on the road to the airport by 5:35am. We parked, took the shuttle to the terminal, checked our bags and had made it through security by 6:35. On the way to the gate I sent this text to my family, all of whom were still sound asleep back home.



Tina and I took some airport pictures to pass the time until we could board the plane.



Time passed quickly and by 7:45 we were on the plane!



I channeled my inner J from @riverside's reports and read the safety instructions while we waited for takeoff.



We left the gate at 7:59. During the flight we looked over the Flower and Garden menus to prioritize our food choices for the afternoon. Our original plan was to drop off our bags and hop on the monorail to Epcot. During the flight Tina suggested that we drop off our bags and pop into the MK for a few photos and 1 ride before heading to Epcot. MK is always our first park, so I was excited to keep this tradition alive. Besides, who says no to MK?! Checking our progress.



Our flight was uneventful and we landed at 9:50, which was about 20 minutes ahead of schedule! We used the restroom and jumped in line for Starbucks. We both got a caramel macchiato to drink on the Magical Express.



We checked in with Magical Express and we were first in our line.



We boarded the ME at 10:35 and pulled out of the airport at 10:43.





At 10:47 we received our room ready text. We were super excited about this because we would be able to freshen up a bit before heading to MK!



At 11:07 we drove under the sign and felt like our vacation had officially begun!



Up next: The Contemporary

 

[LisaBelle]

Is that CM posing for you? There's no one else around him so I was wondering if this is a photobomb?

If he was I didn't notice it at the time. Sure looks like it though!

Loving reading this! So glad you decided to post it

Thanks so much! Writing this report is providing some MUCH needed distraction. I wanted to post more today, but the weather here was GORGEOUS so I spent most of the day outside. Gonna try to post a bit now.

 

[LisaBelle]

Wednesday, May 29, 2019 continued...

After HEA we headed to Carousel of Progress. CoP is always a must do for us. We figured it would be a good attraction to see before EMH began.





We had one last FP to use before EMH started. We'd had an evening FP for SDMT, but it was down so we got an anytime FP. I pulled it up on my app when we left CoP. When we got to SDMT the app loaded but, EVERY. Single. FP. For. Our. Entire. Trip. Was. GONE!!! I tried several things and nothing was working. We saw a kiosk with the Technology Team (I'm sure this is not the correct title, but I didn't write it down!) and headed over to see if they could help. The CM to help us was Taylor and she was AMAZING! Super friendly, efficient, and completely focused on making sure we had a magical time. She tried looking up my account on her tablet, no luck. Called in to the behind-the-scenes techies. Still no luck. She even walked us over to the kiosks where you can make FP reservations in the park. Still no luck. All the while we had a great conversation. She asked us about our trip and told us that she had been in the Disney College Program, but was now a full time Disney employee. When she was in the DCP she worked at the Plaza restuarant. We had an ADR there later in the week and had never been there, so she gave us meal recommendations (strip steak). We felt like we'd been friends for years! We took a selfie with her so we'd remember her. Taylor told us she was certain our FPs were still there, we just couldn't see them. Luckily, I had taken screenshots of all of our ADRs and FP times before we left home. She took pictures of my screen shots and was going to try to restore them. She did feel certain that they would reappear. EMH was about to start she gave us a note to take over to SDMT so that we could still use our "invisible" FP.




When we got to the FP entrance Mickey turned green, so she was correct, the FPs were still in the system. I love to ride SDMT at night.





We needed to make a pit stop so we headed to the Tangled potties and we came across the Lantern PP area. Tina really wanted to do this PP so we were excited to find it!







We wanted to ride Jungle Cruise, but I don't think it was open. We like Magic Carpets of Aladdin, but hate waiting in line so we decided this would be a good time to fly over Agrabar.





Next up was Pirates!


We had some fun with the photos for this ride!




Our last ride of the night was Haunted Mansion. Obviously we had no clue where the camera was! As you'll see from our later PP photos, we never did learn where it was !



That is the last photo I have from that night. From there we headed back to the Contemporary, showered and crawled into bed. We had another early morning planned.

Up next: Rope dropping FoP

 

[blreinsel]

Hi! I'm so happy you decided to post this. I always enjoy reading your reports. Can't wait for more! Hope you are healthy and safe!

 

[LisaBelle]

Hi! I'm so happy you decided to post this. I always enjoy reading your reports. Can't wait for more! Hope you are healthy and safe!

Hi Brittany! Thanks so much for reading. We are hanging in there. The transition to remote learning has been tough. Hope you and Dylan stay safe and healthy as well.

 

[LisaBelle]

Thursday, May 30, 2019 (thanks @Songbird76 ) Animal Kingdom and After Hours at MK

We were up bright and early today because we wanted to rope drop FoP. We actually had a FP for Fop, but it wasn't until 7:35pm. We had tickets to After Hours at MK and wanted to be there well before After Hours began which we figured would be challenging if we kept the FP.
As soon as the alarm rang I grabbed my phone to see if our FPs were there and they were! I was up first, got dressed and headed to Contempo Cafe for coffee for both of us. Tina got ready and we headed to the bus stop. Most of the bus waiting areas had only a smattering of people. The one for AK had double the people. We waited several minutes and no bus. We were getting a bit nervous because we really wanted to minimize our FoP wait time. A bus for MK pulled out and then another pulled in . I think the driver got off or maybe a CM with a clip board got on (no notes so who knows exactly what happened ), but I overheard something about AK. I approached the bus and asked where it was headed and the driver said AK. I told him the sign said MK! I told Tina to climb aboard and she let the family we'd been talking with know what was going on. The driver changed the sign, more people boarded and we were off!

We stopped for a few quick pics before joining the queue.







They let us in a few minutes early and we joined the masses heading to Pandora. The time stamp on my picture says we were in line in Pandora at 7:57am. The line seemed pretty long to me, but we'd never rope dropped FoP so we were clueless. We wondered aloud about how long it would take and the guest in front of us said it would probably be about 40 minutes. We were fine with that. The guest was by himself and we continued to chat as we waited. Like Taylor the night before, he had been in the Disney College Program but was about to become a full time Disney employee. I mentioned that my daughter would LOVE to do DCP and he gave me some pointers to pass along to Allie. The line moved steadily and we enjoyed the scenery as we waited.









Since I don't have any notes, I am not sure exactly how long we were in line, but I know we were finished with the ride in about 50 minutes. This was only the second time we'd ridden FoP and we loved it!

We'd skipped breakfast, so we were hungry. By 8:57 I had a night blossom and a pineapple lumpia in my hands and I was a happy woman! Why can't I have this for breakfast everyday?! Love the colors of the Night Blossom. I devoured my pineapple lumpia in record time!





The standby entrance for Navi River posted a 30 minute wait. We figured it would be a nice way to relax and ease into the rest of our very busy day. We hopped in line thinking we'd sip the rest of our Night Blossom during our 30 minute wait. Well the joke was on us! We basically walked right on! We stepped to the side to drink more of our Night Blossom (can you say brain freeze?!) and boarded our watercraft. The Shaman is amazing and the air conditioning is heavenly on a hot Florida day, but it is not a must do especially if there is a wait.





We took a few more pictures in Pandora and headed out to explore more of AK.





Up next: Lots of PP pictures!

 

[Songbird76]

Thursday, May 30, 2020 Animal Kingdom and After Hours at MK

We were up bright and early today because we wanted to rope drop FoP. We actually had a FP for Fop, but it wasn't until 7:35pm. We had tickets to After Hours at MK and wanted to be there well before After Hours began which we figured would be challenging if we kept the FP.
As soon as the alarm rang I grabbed my phone to see if our FPs were there and they were! I was up first, got dressed and headed to Contempo Cafe for coffee for both of us. Tina got ready and we headed to the bus stop. Most of the bus waiting areas had only a smattering of people. The one for AK had double the people. We waited several minutes and no bus. We were getting a bit nervous because we really wanted to minimize our FoP wait time. A bus for MK pulled out and then another pulled in . I think the driver got off or maybe a CM with a clip board got on (no notes so who knows exactly what happened ), but I overheard something about AK. I approached the bus and asked where it was headed and the driver said AK. I told him the sign said MK! I told Tina to climb aboard and she let the family we'd been talking with know what was going on. The driver changed the sign, more people boarded and we were off!

We stopped for a few quick pics before joining the queue.







They let us in a few minutes early and we joined the masses heading to Pandora. The time stamp on my picture says we were in line in Pandora at 7:57am. The line seemed pretty long to me, but we'd never rope dropped FoP so we were clueless. We wondered aloud about how long it would take and the guest in front of us said it would probably be about 40 minutes. We were fine with that. The guest was by himself and we continued to chat as we waited. Like Taylor the night before, he had been in the Disney College Program but was about to become a full time Disney employee. I mentioned that my daughter would LOVE to do DCP and he gave me some pointers to pass along to Allie. The line moved steadily and we enjoyed the scenery as we waited.









Since I don't have any notes, I am not sure exactly how long we were in line, but I know we were finished with the ride in about 50 minutes. This was only the second time we'd ridden FoP and we loved it!

We'd skipped breakfast, so we were hungry. By 8:57 I had a night blossom and a pineapple lumpia in my hands and I was a happy woman! Why can't I have this for breakfast everyday?! Love the colors of the Night Blossom. I devoured my pineapple lumpia in record time!





The standby entrance for Navi River posted a 30 minute wait. We figured it would be a nice way to relax and ease into the rest of our very busy day. We hopped in line thinking we'd sip the rest of our Night Blossom during our 30 minute wait. Well the joke was on us! We basically walked right on! We stepped to the side to drink more of our Night Blossom (can you say brain freeze?!) and boarded our watercraft. The Shaman is amazing and the air conditioning is heavenly on a hot Florida day, but it is not a must do especially if there is a wait.





We took a few more pictures in Pandora and headed out to explore more of AK.





Up next: Lots of PP pictures!

Wow!! You traveled to the future?? That's so cool!! So...we know it will be open again in May!

We had that same thing happen with buses once on our last trip, too, but we were at CBR and they have separate bus shelters for the different parks. So when we were waiting for whatever bus it was, the bus that showed up had signage for a park where the bus would have stopped at a different shelter. I asked where it was going and the driver seemed confused until I told him what the sign said. He got out and looked, got back in and changed the sign. We managed to get on first and get a seat because everyone else thought it was for a different park. It pays to pay attention!!

 

[LisaBelle]

Wow!! You traveled to the future?? That's so cool!! So...we know it will be open again in May!

We had that same thing happen with buses once on our last trip, too, but we were at CBR and they have separate bus shelters for the different parks. So when we were waiting for whatever bus it was, the bus that showed up had signage for a park where the bus would have stopped at a different shelter. I asked where it was going and the driver seemed confused until I told him what the sign said. He got out and looked, got back in and changed the sign. We managed to get on first and get a seat because everyone else thought it was for a different park. It pays to pay attention!!

Thanks for catching that! I was even thinking 2019 in my head when I started to type, but I guess muscle memory took over and we were suddenly in 2020. I will go back and edit it now! Fingers crossed that WDW will be open as soon as safely possible.
I was so glad we asked, otherwise we definitely would have missed rope drop and overall the timing worked out well.

 

[LisaBelle]

Hello friends! Sorry I've been away for so long. Remote teaching has been a big adjustment, especially being on screens for huge portions of my day. By the time I finish with all my school work I don't want to be on the computer at all-even for Disney ! The last few days I have been missing Disney a ton so here I am!

May 30, 2019 continued...

We finished up in Pandora and had some time before our first FP+, so we decided to head over to Dinosaur. We happened upon a new to us Photopass spot. We enjoyed this photo shoot!









Tina was much better at posing for this one!



We'd skipped taking pictures at the Tree of Life in order get to FoP, so we stopped for those pics next.





We were surprised when Kevin photobombed us!



I'm usually not a fan of the picture frame pics, but this one turned out cute!



We finally made it over to Dinoland! It was around 9:30am.





Another super flattering ride photo!



Tina had some fun taking a selfie with this guy!


Then we made a new friend.




We still had some time before our Safari FP so we decided to try something new.

Up next: Up!

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

Hmmmm. Which way should we go?



My daughter Allie hates birds, so we could never see this show when she is with us. We decided to check it out.





It was hard to get good pictures of the birds because they swooped in so fast and I only had the camera on my phone.


Russell and Dug joined us.







Truth be told, I am not the biggest fan of birds either. Originally I had been sitting on the aisle, but when they said they needed people on the aisle to help with the birds I asked Tina to trade with me! She had to create a tunnel for the birds to fly through. I didn't manage to catch the birds, but Tina and the other guests did a great job!



I remember these birds were funny.


This guy was getting ready to fly around the audience.






So majestic!



Peacock!



We enjoyed the show. I can't tell you much about the story line, but it was entertaining and I liked how they included Russell and Dug. I'm glad we did it and I would see it again, but it will not be a must do.

Up next: A snack and the Maharaja Trail

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

It was still a few hours until lunch so a snack was in order. Believe it or not, this was Tina's first Mickey Pretzel. Definitely one of my favorite Disney snacks.



We shared the pretzel before taking the Maharaja Jungle Trek.



It had been awhile since I'd walked this trail. I'd forgotten what a beautiful, relaxing experience it is.



Beautiful Hidden Mickey.


Again, Disney's attention to details is amazing. Absolutely stunning!


We had a difficult time photographing the tiger.


I loved the variety of artwork.





Better views of the tigers.




A nest.


Cool bird house.


We exited the trail and needed to show some love to the Tree of Life.


Just beautiful!


My kids love these drums. We take a photo of them here on every trip. We sent this picture to them.


Loved this musician!


Up next: Our first FP of the day.

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

Time for our safari.






Kilimanjaro Safari is one of my favorite AK attractions. It is such a different experience every time and I love the anticipation that builds, wondering which animals you will be able to see on this trip.

Okapi. I love these guys. Such beautiful creatures.


Snoozing rhino.




Submerged hippo.


Sunbathers. Don't want these guys hanging out at the beach with me!


I love giraffes! I could sit here for hours.






Taking care of the savannah.


The CMs are getting some help from a friend.




You can mainly see the antlers/horns of the ankole cattle.


Yay! I was excited to see the elephant up close.


Up next:Finishing up our safari.

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

Finishing up our safari.


Hello Pumbaa!




I always take a picture of this waterfall. It is always blurry!


After our time in Africa we had to continent hop over to Asia for our next FP! We stopped for a few pictures on our journey.


A freak snow storm blew in but it blew over pretty quickly.


Ready to face the Yeti! We were glad to have a FP. It was pretty toasty!


Our ride photo never showed up, but we did get a photo of some random guests enjoying the ride.


It was finally time for lunch and we were hot and starving. We were ready for air conditioning and a delicious meal.
We arrived at Yak & Yeti right on time or maybe a few minutes early for our ADR. There were lots of people waiting outside and in the lobby. We checked in and they told us they were running behind. I can't remember how long they quoted our wait time. We'd been waiting about 10-15 minutes when a server approached us and said that we could be seated at the bar immediately. We decided to do it. We were soon sad that we did. We got to eat sooner, but servers and other guests had to stand right next to Tina to order drinks from the bar. We also felt like the attention from our servers was only so-so since their primary job is tending the bar.

I ordered the honey chicken. It was delicious!


Tina ordered coconut shrimp and garlic noodles. She was hoping the noodles would taste like the ones from O'hana. Sadly they did not. O'hana wins hands down on this one.


It was a ton of food! We stuffed ourselves a bit too much! I think I enjoyed my meal more than Tina did. I would eat here again, but never at the bar! We felt cramped and a bit rushed. It was not the relaxing lunch experience we were expecting.

We wanted to see FotLK so we headed back to Africa. We enjoyed some entertainment along the way.


These performers were outstanding!




Their strength and focus are unbelievable!













Up Next: Festival of the Lion King

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

After watching the street performers we decided to take advantage of the air conditioning in the shops for a bit. I called home and talked to my daughter while we shopped and then we headed over to FotLK.

I think this was Tina's first time seeing this show. I had only seen it once back in 2004. Back then it was performed in a different theater and I was excited to see it again.

We were not disappointed. This show is spectacular! No words needed. Please enjoy our photos of the performance.















Loved the show! We walked outside and immediately wanted a cool treat. Time for another one of my favorite Disney treats, a spiked Dole Whip.






We'd accomplished quite a bit and were ready for a break, so we headed to the front of the park.



One last photo shoot on our way to the bus.








Loved driving by Space Mountain on our way back to the Contemporary.


We changed into our bathing suits and headed down to relax by the pool.







After some pool time we headed back to the room for a showers and a nap before heading back to MK for the After Hours event.

Up Next: After Hours at MK

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

A little after 8pm we walked over to MK. We were both super excited for this event. I'd read very positive reviews on the boards and was anxious for some low crowd time in my favorite place!

A photo to commemorate the event.


The PP photographer had asked the group in front of us to pose for a magic shot. When she didn't prompt us to do that I requested a magic shot. This is what we got. Not sure if she didn't realize where Peter Pan was going to be or if she was unhappy about me asking for the magic shot.



Having this wrist band made me so giddy with excitement!


We were hungry so we headed over to Cosmic Ray's to fuel up! I had the bacon cheeseburger. I remember that it was exactly what I wanted that night. Super yummy!


Tina had a Greek salad with chicken.


We enjoyed our food while catching up with our pal Sonny Eclipse.


We caught some of Happily Ever After. These are Tina's photos! She got some good ones!


Mickey!






According to my pictures we sailed with Captain Jack.


The beginning of After Hours was approaching. We had a bit of time and we hadn't visited the Enchanted Tiki Room in years. The wait time was next to nothing so we figured we'd exit the show just before After Hours began. Yeah, we were wrong on that one. We waited a bit and probably should have bailed, but we were committed and thought we'd probably still make it.
We enjoyed the show, but lost a few precious minutes of After Hours time as we exited at 10:13. Rookie mistake!








After Hours had officially begun!!! We wanted to accomplish as many rides as possible. We wanted to experience both our favorites and the things we don't like to wait in line for during the day. We were near Magic Carpets of Aladdin so we started with that. We decided that we'd decide on a route and do whatever attraction was on the route.

After Hours Ride 1
Tina caught me taking a selfie!




Then we hopped across the way to the Jungle Cruise. Love this one at night. I think it is more fun in the dark.
After Hours Ride 2



Our Skipper was fun and everyone was in a good mood.



My favorite scene!


And the obligatory back side of the water.


Up Next: More After Hours fun!

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

After Hours Ride 3
Another cruise with Captain Jack. This was so much fun! We walked right on and there was only one couple in our boat with us.


After Hours Ride 4
BTMRR at night! This is my is absolute favorite night time ride. It is my favorite ride in MK and riding it in the dark is the best! I requested the back row and my wish was granted!



Look at how empty it was! Mind blowing!


I took this to remind me that we got to sit in the back.


Ready for the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness!


We decided to head to Haunted Mansion next. We love to walk on the path along the water. It always feels more relaxing, even when it is packed full of people. As we entered the path we came to a snack cart. We decided to take advantage of the complimentary snacks. We each got a drink, a popcorn and a Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich. We sat on a bench and just took in the moment. It had cooled down and there was hardly anyone around. It felt as if we had the entire park to ourselves. It was pure bliss and one of my favorite memories of the night and the trip.



We're so creative. We made our own Hidden Mickey with Mickey Ice Cream Sandwiches !






Full of snacks and ready to move on, we headed over to visit with 999 friends.
After Hours Ride 5



We still haven't figured out where the camera is located!


We made a quick pit stop and couldn't resist another photo of the lanterns.





After Hours Ride 6 took us to Neverland!





Up Next: More After Hours

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

The carousel was beckoning! Another ride that seems more magical at night. Riding this at night reminds me of our first trip in 2004. My daughter was only 4 and she loved riding the carousel. We usually rode it at night so this brought back some sweet memories for me.

After Hours Ride 7









Another shot to show how empty it was.



We hadn't visited Buzz yet, so we walked through the castle and headed to Tomorrowland.





After Hours Ride 8









Not great scores, but Tina won!



Our kids always take this shot with Zurg, so we took one for them!



After Hours Ride 9
Another one of our favorites. People Mover!









Up Next: Still more After Hours!

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

We decided to take a ride with the Dwarfs.
After Hours Ride 10



I've never gone through the stand by line on this ride. The jewels kept us entertained!






It was getting late and I kind of wanted to go back and ride BTMRR again. Tina's feet were not very happy, so we opted for a closer attraction.

After Hours Ride 11
A visit with our friends from the Hundred Acre Wood.



When we exited Pooh we had 6 minutes of After Hours time left. The Mad Tea Party was our closest option so we power walked over there.

After Hours Ride 12





We exited the ride and briefly thought about whether or not to try to for another ride, but decided the smarter thing to do was to head out. We took these beautiful photos on the way out.





We walked in front of the castle as the Kiss Goodnight was happening. I absolutely LOVE the Kiss Goodnight so seeing that was the icing on the cake of my night!

One last picture as we made our way out.



Even though we made a rookie mistake and got a bit of a late start we were able to enjoy 12 attractions. We had time to sit and relax and just enjoy being in the Magic Kingdom. We kept up a good pace, but didn't sacrifice enjoyment purely for quantity of attractions.

We LOVED our After Hours experience! In my opinion it was definitely worth the money. As much as I love the hustle and bustle of the Disney crowds it was great to be able to maneuver through the park with such light crowds. It was a completely different vibe and I soaked it in and enjoyed every moment of it. It was a blast to walk on almost every ride, especially when you didn't have to wait for all the seats to be filled before they started the ride. The complimentary snacks were a great touch. At the end of the night, Tina ended up trying a frozen banana that she wouldn't have tried if she'd had to pay for it. Given the chance I would definitely pay for an After Hours event in the future. Definitely some of my favorite Disney memories ever!


We walked back to the Contemporary and our long but very magical day was coming to an end. Or so we thought...

Up Next: What's going on?!!!

 

[LisaBelle]

May 30, 2019 continued...

Well technically it was now May 31st, but since our day wasn't quite over I'm opting to just call it May 30th !

We walked back to the Contemporary and started to get ready for bed. I took these photos of our After Hours event brochure while Tina took her turn in the bathroom.





I think I mentioned this earlier, but when we picked up our refillable mugs on our first day, the CM told us that we could get drinks from Contempo Cafe 24/7. We did not find this to be true, but checked almost every night anyway. One night they were cleaning the drink machines and every other night they were doing some sort of cleaning or light construction work in the area. We were thirsty so I decided to grab our mugs and try to grab some drinks. I opened the door to our room and could see that they were doing some sort of welding or other activity right above the drink machines and the area was blocked off. I also noticed that it smelled a little funny. Luckily we had water and juice in the room so it wasn't a huge deal. Tina grabbed some water and hit the bed while I took my turn in the bathroom.

While in the bathroom I thought I heard a bleeping noise, but Tina wasn't saying anything so I just ignored it. A minute or two later when I came out of the bathroom I could still hear it. Curious about what it was I opened the door to our room and discovered that what I was hearing was the fire alarm going off on the other side of the A frame! It seemed to only be alarming in a small area of that side of the resort and I could see some people exiting their rooms. People on our side of the A frame were looking out the doors, but the alarms on our side were not going off. I decided we weren't taking any chances so I woke up Tina and we threw on clothes and our shoes and headed for the stairs. I noticed that it was still only a small area with alarms buzzing and it didn't look like everyone was evacuating. I also noticed a lack of CMs. We headed down the stairs and outside. When we got outside we saw some guests and only 1 CM who wasn't really directing anyone. No fire equipment.
Thinking better safe than sorry, we stayed outside and walked across the way to some outdoor seating.







No one was telling us anything, and a few of us were asking one another for information. At some point I heard that it was a false alarm, maybe something with some maintenance equipment and that the fire department had okayed people going back in. I didn't see the fire department from where we were, but no one else was leaving the building and all seemed calm. Those of us who were outside started to head back in. Tina and I decided to take a sleepy selfie to help us remember our Disney fire drill.



There were a number of people lined up to talk to the one or two CMs at the desk. While we wanted to know exactly what had happened, we decided that we wanted sleep more. We headed back upstairs to bed. I was expecting to hear something the next day via a note to our rooms or something, but we were never provided with any information. It definitely wasn't good show, but since "all's well that ends well", we didn't spend much time dwelling on it.

Up Next: Hollywood Studios

 

[Swissmiss]

We’ve done an after hours event once at DLP and everything was a walk on. Lighting is lower than at WDW, which added to the experience (some areas are downright creepy when you are the only two walking through them!)

Sorry to hear about your experience with the lack of information and the fire alarm. We had a similar experience last year at work. My takeaway was that even though fire drills are meant to help us prepare for the “real deal”, when the “real deal“ comes it isn’t “pre-prepared” and many people aren’t good on the fly. Took at least 15 mins before we were told anything, and even that was coming from one person on a megaphone in a different area. Because the fire was in an unoccupied and closed off area of the building (one-third of the building was being renovated) and because the fire happened on the hottest day of the year, the recommendation of the fire department was to keep us inside on the opposite side of the building. Even before the announcements started being made, we learned it was a fire because I got a message from my boss asking about the fire - he was away at a meeting (thousands of miles away) and someone in that meeting was informed. They did at least recognize all the shortcomings in an organization-wide email the following day, so that at least is something. The irony of the whole situation: it was started from a spark from a welding tool ... that was welding the new fire escape stairs to the building!

 

[k8einwdw]

Glad you enjoyed After Hours! It’s definitely 100% worth the money in our book! As far as the fire alarm...I work for a fire protection company, and I can almost guarantee you that they forgot to disable their system before doing “hot work” (the welding you referred to in the food court area). They probably set off their smoke/heat detectors, which caused the building system to alarm. Happens all. the. time.