Trip Report *COMPLETE* The Wanderer Returns - April 2016 Trip Report

I’ve been reading these boards and enjoying so many of the trip reports on here since I booked my trip back in August, so I thought I’d join in and share how it went! This is my first trip to WDW in 17 years and my first trip as an adult. So much has changed (and not changed) in the time I’ve been gone and it's been such a different experience getting to plan it myself, but i’ll get into that later!

Here’s the details:
Dates: 18th - 28th April 2016
Resort: Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter
Travellers:
Peter (me, on the right), 3rd time visitor:
Ben (on the left): 1st timer!

Itinerary:
Day 1: Fly in from London Gatwick / O'hana Dinner
Day 2: Animal Kingdom / Tusker House Breakfast / Boma Dinner / Magic Kingdom
Day 3: Universal Studios
Day 4: Magic Kingdom / Be Our Guest Breakfast / Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner
Day 5: Epcot / San Angel Inn Dinner
Day 6: Day Trip to Miami
Day 7: Islands of Adventure
Day 8: Blizzard Beach / Epcot / Biergarten Dinner
Day 9: Disney's Hollywood Studios / Mama Melrose Lunch / Sci Fi Dine In Dinner
Day 10: Typhoon Lagoon / California Grill Dinner / Magic Kingdom Extra Magic Hours
Day 11: Epcot / Fly Home

I’m not sure why it has taken me 11 years of adult life to finally get around to going back to Orlando. It’s always been somewhere I’ve been desperate to back to but things just never lined up. Happily, last year my friend Ben expressed an interest and I started looking into packages. A couple months later after far too many glasses of red wine we were looking at a booking confirmation and doing a little happy dance in my living room.

We got a great package direct with Disney staying at French Quarter including flight, park tickets, dining plan, memory maker, gift card etc for what I would have paid just for hotel, flight and tickets separately. I was pretty excited about the free dining because when i was a kid my family had always stayed and mostly dined off property. I remember looking at a guidebook when I was 11 and desperately wanting to eat at Sci-fi Dine in.

Pre-trip I went into slightly obsessive planning mode and read so many reviews, touring plans, crowd calendars. Ben is more laid back than me so he was happy for me to do the research legwork, which I was happy to do. I definitely overplanned each day and the dining plan probably complicated things a bit with all the reservations but I was determined to make sure we didn’t waste a single minute. Let’s see how it worked out!


Day 1: Travel/Check in/O’hana

We arrived in Orlando at around half 5 from Gatwick. The flight was uneventful but made slightly less enjoyable by the cheerleading team sat all around us. They weren’t too rowdy but there’s something about a big group altogether that really changes the atmosphere on a plane.

Customs didn’t take too long and we went and found the Magical Express to take us to our hotel. The bus was waiting for us and we only had to wait for 20 minutes maybe before we were on our way. We were the 3rd stop and arrived at the hotel at around half 7. Check-in were lovely and very quickly we had our magicbands with just enough time to shower and change before our first ADR: O’hana!

After hopping on a bus then monorail from the Magic Kingdom we were a few minutes early for our 21:30 reservation so we checked in and grabbed a couple of Lapu Lapus from the Tambu Lounge to get into proper holiday mood.

We were seated and quickly given pineapple coconut bread. Delicious, but i’m not here to fill up on bread. The salad was fairly standard but the dressing really elevated it.

Noodles, dumplings and wings arrived. Really fresh and tasty. I don’t have a huge appetite so at this point I was starting to feel pleasantly full, which is where i’d usually stop. (I would have taken pictures but we basically inhaled the food as soon as it arrived - a recurring theme on this trip).

Then the steak/pork/shrimp started coming round.
I had a few pieces of each, really delicious, definitely full at this point, Ben has a bigger appetite than me and he was completely stuffed at this point too. We decided to ask them not to bring dessert.

“You all done here?” our waiter asked
“So done”
“Well here comes the main course” he said, before slapping down the biggest portion of bread pudding i’d ever seen in front of us, then covering it in bananas foster sauce.
“....”

I think we managed to force down a couple of bites down before we were defeated. I really hate to waste food. It was pretty good though.

At some point during the meal they piped in the music for Wishes and but we were quite far from the window so we decided not to give it that much attention and enjoy it fully on our Magic Kingdom day.

After dinner we were dead. The combination of long flight, big meal and coming from a different timezone meant we were shattered. We thought about getting an uber but decided to do the monorail/bus combo again instead. Mistake - in our tired state it felt like it took so much longer to get back to the hotel than it had before. As soon as we got back to our room we went to bed and I was out light a light. The next morning would be an early one as we had an 8.05 reservation at Tusker House!

 

[myhappyplace]

My husband and I are hoping to have our first meal at Ohana in December, the food always sounds so good, and your report is no different. I also really liked POFQ when we visited briefly on our last trip.

Eager for more!

 

[Barcoco]

Day 2 - Part 1 - Animal Kingdom


Jetlag worked in our favour for our first full Disney day! I woke up at about 6am without much trouble and brewed some coffee to wake Ben up (he doesn’t wake as easy). We hopped on a bus around 7.20 and it didn’t take too long to get over to our first park - Animal Kingdom!

As soon as we arrived we spoke to a lady with a clipboard and she scanned our bands and let us enter the park for our 8.05 reservation at Tusker House.

Animal Kingdom is such a beautiful park. It just looks like it's been here for ever.

We were quickly seated and unleashed upon the buffet. There was a nice mix of the usual breakfast foods and more unusual choices. Ben and I are big breakfast food fans so we mostly loaded up on the more traditional fare. I made sure to save room for the Krispy Kremes. Our server was really attentive and made sure we had coffee and our Jungle Juice was always topped up (this stuff is amazing, it tastes just like a drink we have in the UK called Um Bongo).

It’s hard to make a buffet plate look photogenic. That cornbread tho.

Donald is Ben’s favourite but we weren’t quite ready with our camera when he came round (i thought there should have been a photopass photographer?) so he’s the only one we didn’t get a picture with! We did feel a little silly being two grown men posing with oversized character but we got more into it as they came round. If you can’t be a big kid at Disney where can you be?

It was a little after 9am when we finished breakfast and headed over to our first ride - Kilimanjaro Safaris. We walked straight onto a truck and it was a really nice ride. So many animals were out - I had read that early morning was one of the best times to see lots of animals. I think the ride had changed a little from when I rode it in 1999 - I think there was a bit with poachers that they’ve removed.

Our next stop was Expedition Everest. This wasn’t here on my first trip, neither was Primeval Whirl. The whole area around the ride is stunning, and the queue is so well themed. The ride itself was great, I think the most thrilling coaster after Rock’n’Roller Coaster. I was a little concerned about our backpack flying out of the train and smacking someone in the face but it was fine. I would have liked to ride this again but we weren’t ready for a second ride straight after (one big thing i discovered about grown up me vs 12 year old me is that my ride tolerance has really diminished) and time didn’t allow for another ride later in the day.

The standby line for Kali River Rapids was still short so we made that our next stop. I’m sure I remember getting barely a sprinkling of water when I rode this as a kid. This time we got utterly drenched. In that day's heat it was pretty welcome, and we dried quickly.

I was expecting to hate Dinoland based on reading some of the posts on here but I didn’t mind it that much. Its certainly not as beautiful and detailed as other parts of the park. Ben liked it though. To him it had a colourful, kinetic appeal. Primeval Whirl is not good though, a really bad mix of horribly painful/not very thrilling. I pressed my head against the back of the seat and prayed I wouldn't get whiplash. Dinosaur, our first fastpass, was fun but I remember it being a lot more thrilling, like terrifying, at age 12 when it was Countdown to Extinction.

These bemused smiles should be screams of terror.

Pretty early in the day we realised that seeing all the shows was probably not feasible so we decided to ditch the Lion King. I’d seen it already and we’ve both seen the west end show. We hadn’t seen Flights of Wonder though, so we hit that and both really enjoyed it. I wasn’t expecting much but I think it was one of my favourite shows of the whole trip. Some of those birds are huge!

I think we did Maharaja Jungle Trek after that, which I don’t have much memory of. We saw some tigers chilling out, and the bats were pretty cool. By this point it was the day it was waaaarm, but luckily I had the foresight to fastpass us another Kali River Rapids cooldown. Refreshing.

For lunch we went to Flame Tree BBQ. It was pretty busy at the ordering area but we managed to find some shaded seating in a nice quiet spot. We had reservations at Boma at 4.30 so we just decided to share the sampler platter, a watermelon and feta salad and we got fries and onion rings instead of dessert. I think this was the best quick service we had at Disney. The food was delicious and the seating area was so relaxing, like a little oasis.

One of the few times I could keep food out of my mouth long enough to take a picture.

We took it easy the rest of the afternoon with Tough to be a Bug, Pangani Forest Trail and then made a mad dash across the park to make the Nemo show. We had about an hour and a half until our dinner reservation at this point so we made a leisurely exit. I picked up a Starbucks souvenir mug and we peeked in on some of the random exhibits on the way out.

I think of all the Disney parks, Animal Kingdom is the one I would have liked to spend a little more time in. We rushed around a lot and it would have been nice to relax a bit more and enjoy all the little details, which is something we took on board for our approach to the other parks. We only had the one day at Animal Kingdom but I would definitely like to return just to hang out and soak in the atmosphere. When Rivers of Light starts and Avatar opens it’ll be even more stunning.

One short, crowded bus ride later we arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Wow, this resort is beautiful. I’d really like to stay here at some point in the future. The lobby is just so ornate and impressive.

We made a good attempt to try pretty much everything at Boma. The salads and carved meats were my favourites. And the zebra domes. We decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom after dinner as we were both still fairly energetic. While we were eating I checked out the mydisneyexperience app and scored us fastpasses for Space Mountain...

 

[Barcoco]

My husband and I are hoping to have our first meal at Ohana in December, the food always sounds so good, and your report is no different. I also really liked POFQ when we visited briefly on our last trip.

Eager for more!

We we're really happy with the resort. When I was looking at pictures of the rooms before we went they seemed quite small and dark but in reality they were much larger and brighter than I imagined. The grounds were really nice to just take a stroll in, and the best part was the single bus stop. We visited a couple of resorts with multiple stops and it took forever for the bus to get around them all!

You'll love O'hana! Bring your appetite, all the food is really good. I wish I had been hungrier!

 

[Barcoco]

Day 2 - Part 2 - Magic Kingdom

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom around 7pm. There’s nothing like turning that corner on Main Street and seeing the castle up ahead. It was crowded at this time of day so we made our way up Main Street and decided to have a bit of a wander instead of going straight for attractions.

We took in some sights in Adventureland and Frontierland before heading to Fantasyland and finding a 20 minute wait at It’s a Small World, which I thought would be perfect for our first ride since it’s such a classic. The line was more like 5-10 mins when we got in. Maybe it was because I was seeing it through a new visitor’s eyes but I didn’t love IASW as much as I did when I was a kid. It might just be this version. I rode the one at Hong Kong Disneyland a few years ago and remember finding that one more engaging.

After that we wandered over to New Fantasyland and the Little Mermaid ride had a short wait so we rode that. It was fine, I don’t remember being blown away by it. We had a sit down to take in the ambiance then headed to Tomorrowland.

I remembered liking the Peoplemover so we went on that - still love it. I don’t know why, it’s just so pleasant. After our tour of Tomorrowland we used our Space Mountain fastpass+.

Whee!

We checked the app and found a fastpass+ shortly after for Winnie the Pooh so we headed back to Fantasyland. Ben was a fan of this one.

Two grown men in a hunny pot.


I think after that we went and got a spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade. It wasn’t hard to find a quiet patch in Frontierland so we had a decent view. I will never be able to get that song out of my head, we were humming it for days after.

We had nabbed a fastpass+ for Splash Mountain after the parade. I don’t think we needed one at that time but it saved walking the long queue. This was by far our favourite ride of the trip. I had forgotten about all the extra drops so some were a real surprise.

The father with his son behind us was joking around with us. Every time the log would hit against the sides he complained about our bad driving.

We decided not to watch the fireworks that night and save them for our full MK day later in the week, so we took advantage of the short waits in Adventureland. Jungle Cruise was cute, our Skipper was pretty incomprehensible for the most part but still very funny. Pirates of the Caribbean blew us away. I loved it when I was young, and as an adult I was impressed by the scale of it all.

We decided to call it a night at this point. It was 11pm and we had been up since before 7. The transport came pretty quickly and that Port Orleans bus soundtrack started to sound like home. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Tomorrow would be another early one - rope dropping Universal Studios.

 

[Barcoco]

Day 3 - Universal Studios

This morning took a slightly more leisurely pace than the last one since we didn’t have an early reservation or have to rely on Disney transport. We got an uber at a little past 8 and about half an hour later we were strolling through the gates of Universal Studios.

There were far less people waiting to go in when we arrived, and after waiting about 5 minutes we were allowed to proceed into the park. We made a bee-line for the Minions ride as this was the one I was warned gets the worst waits.

Minion Mayhem was a cute ride but damn Universal really relies on jamming on the breaks and making it feel like you’ve just been smacked in the face. I’d say pretty much every simulator based ride did that action at least once and I was left with a very sore head by the end of the day. That said, I prefer the 3D glasses at Universal, they seem of a better quality and give a more immersive effect.

Next was Rip, Ride, Rockit. I had forgotten about my hat when we stuffed everything in the locker so I just jammed it in my pocket and hoped no-one would notice the huge bulge in my shorts. I took too long trying to choose the perfect riding song so I ended up getting one selected for me that i’d never heard before! I liked the ride and would have rode it again… but not straight away. I’m not built that way anymore. Ben found it quite rough, he said he kept hitting his head on the back of the seat.

Ben loved Transformers but it made me feel very nauseous. Also it did that smack you in the face thing again. I had to find a bench and sit down for a few minutes, then we rode the Mummy, which we both loved. On our second day we rode it several more times in a row. The practical effects are great. Not enough rides have rooms full of fire.

We were hungry at this point so we snacked on a pretzel and a soft drink then headed over to Men in Black. The line said it was 5 minutes but it ended up taking a lot longer, maybe 20, as there seemed to be a problem with one of the tracks. When we finally got on we loved it. I beat Ben on this one. He said his gun must have been broken.

It was getting warm and it looked like the water rides all had short lines at Islands of Adventure so we hopped on the Hogwarts Express. We both live in London so the King’s Cross area was quite surreal. They got the building styles really spot on.

Before long we arrived at Hogsmeade and it was so crowded. We didn’t linger too long there as it was just too busy. I think at any given time, half the people in the park are just doing Harry Potter. We would do all the Potter stuff in our next Universal day.

We rode Bilge Rat Barges without any wait but by the time we got off Dudley Do Right had a 35 min line. We decided to do it and I think this was the longest we had to wait for anything during the whole trip, which is a far cry from the lines we waited in in the summer months when I was growing up. When we got off, Bilge Rat Barges still had a 5 min line and the first time was so much fun we rode it again, but this time was a lot wetter and our shoes and socks got totally drenched. Water rides are my fave but they pose such logistical issues.

We walked back over to Universal Studios hoping we’d dry out a bit and took off our shoes to let the sun do its thing but they never got dry so we had to walk around the rest of the day with wet feet. Rookie mistake.

By this point we were starving. We ate at Krusty Burger, which we’d both been looking forward to, and it didn’t disappoint. We both got Kloggers with curly fries and Buzz Cola, then for dessert we shared one of those huge donuts. I didn’t expect to be able to finish all of it but somehow I managed. The burger had a really unusual sauce, almost like a honey mustard dressing, which worked for me. The donut reminded me of the ones you get at a supermarket but really soft and I loved the flavour (this was not our only giant donut of the trip).

The order of things is a bit fuzzy in my mind now. We did the parade (very short, probably more aimed at kids), Shrek 4D (which we both liked, found very funny) and the The Simpsons Ride. I found The Simpsons Ride really impressive. The part where the roof opens blew me away, I felt like I was outside… and in a cartoon. Again with the face smacking though. My poor head.

I think by this point I was done. On both this day and our second Universal day I got so wiped out. Maybe its the lack of long, slow rides, and relative lack of shade. We probably could have done more shows to sit down and recharge a bit. We left at about 5 or 6pm and headed back to French Quarter for some pool time.

We ate at the resort for the first time that evening. I had the Chicken Parmesan Po’ boy but wasn’t that impressed with it. It was ok but the chicken and sauce were quite bland. I had a Mickey rice krispie treat for dessert but wasn’t blown away by that either. Cardboardy.

We got an early night in preparation for tomorrow’s breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest!

 

[Barcoco]

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

Another early morning - the coffee maker in our room went very well used. The resort bus got us to the Magic Kingdom for around 8.45 and we were let straight into the park for our Be Our Guest reservation. It was nice to walk up Main Street without having to weave through crowds. We walked straight through the castle to New Fantasyland and checked in at the restaurant. There was a bit of a line but we didn’t have to wait too long as we’d already ordered using the app that morning.

We tried to find a table in the west wing but all the tables for 2 were taken so we found one at the back of the ballroom. Both dining rooms were very elaborate and well themed. The ballroom looks just like the film, but with more of a cafeteria vibe. I grabbed drinks - coffee for me, hot choc for Ben. I ended up wishing i’d gone with the hot choc as well as I had a sip of Ben’s and it was delicious.

It took a little while for our food to arrive, reviews I had read suggested that service was quick so we must have caught them on a bad day. The food looked great when it arrived. We ordered the open faced bacon and egg sandwich and the cronut, and had half of each. The plate of pastries was a nice touch on the side. I think we ate them all! The sandwich was good - good flavours, the cronut was very sweet. I think half a portion of each worked well.

We left Be Our Guest at around 8.45 and headed down to Seven Dwarves Mine Train. There were only a few people waiting at the rope to be lead down to the attraction. They piped in the welcome show music into the park and as soon as it ended we were lead down to the ride. We pretty much walked right on.

It’s a cute ride. I enjoyed the dark ride section and the coaster parts were fun but it could have been longer.

It was still before 9 when we got off the ride so we headed to Peter Pan. I had a fastpass for this but the line was only 15 mins so I switched it out for one for Haunted Mansion later on. This ride was one and done for me. It seems pretty dated!

We did the more minor Fantasyland rides next - Dumbo (they seem to have curtained off the fancy waiting area, we were lined up in a weird little corridor), Mad Tea Party (we tried to spin it as fast as we could) and Barnstormer (so short!).

We had missed out on a picture with Donald at Animal Kingdom so we went to Pete’s Silly Sideshow for a meet and greet with Donald and Goofy. We got there just as it was opening up so there was only one family in front of is. Maybe I’m too introverted for this kind of thing, but I found it really awkward! I can’t imagine what it would be like with face characters. I’d freeze up. It was our last M&G of the trip, haha.

On our way through to Frontierland we spotted this handsome guy.

Big Thunder was down when we got to Frontierland and the line for Splash Mountain was huge, I guess all the people who would have gone on BTMR just got in line for Splash. We sat and waited a little bit and the ride ended up opening up shortly after. We made a dash for it and got straight on. When we got out the line had died down for Splash slightly and we had time to kill before our HM fastpass so we waited 30 mins. I can’t get enough of Splash Mountain.

We did Haunted Mansion, caught the end of the Trolley Show then decided to try a dole whip! We got a dole whip float between us and it was huge! It was delicious and just what we needed as the day was getting hot. I’m a fan. I couldn’t have had a whole one though, I saw a family with two little girls and they each had one to themselves. I wondered how they would manage.

The next fastpasses were for Space Mountain and Buzz so we headed over to Tomorrowland. Ben’s said his gun was broken on Buzz. Funny that.

Ben says this guy was video chatting for the whole ride.

I decided to ignore everything i’d ever read on these boards and try out Stitch’s Great Escape. Wow, Disney. Not good. The restraints were so uncomfortable and the show was just really boring. I don’t remember anything very thrilling happening.

For Lunch we went to Casey’s Corner and got foot long hot dogs. I went for the standard dog, Ben had chilli cheese. I liked mine I don’t think you can go very wrong with a hot dog. For dessert we shared a brownie and took home a bag of cotton candy, which went uneaten and eventually solidified into a sugar rock in our hotel room. It was very crowded and we had to stand for a little while but a table near the pianist opened up after a couple minutes so we had a decent spot.

After lunch we walked down towards the exit via the Emporium. I had a weird thing where I asked the cashier if I could use a dining credit to buy a bag of goofy candy, and he said sure, but then he charged me cash to my room. I queried it but he said it wasn’t valid, even though it had the dining plan symbol on the price, and I had bought the same bag at the resort with a credit. I decided to pick my battles and not get into an argument about it, it's only 5 dollars, it did annoy me a bit though.

We sat at the end of Main Street for the Festival of Fantasy parade. I was wiped out and hot so I wanted to make a quick exit afterwards. The floats are impressive but my favourite parts of these parades are always the dancers. Me and Ben picked out the ones who were really into their role and others who were trying to play it cool.

Love some Flynn.

We had intended to have a short nap at the resort, then a swim but we ended up sleeping for 3 hours and I felt great afterwards. Usually after a nap I feel a bit groggy and worse off but this was just what was needed. We went to the bus stop to head back to the Magic Kingdom for our Liberty Tree Tavern and Wishes.

When we got to the bus stop a woman in a suit and another who seemed to be resort staff asked us where we were heading. We said Magic Kingdom and they asked us if we had heard of Disney After Hours. I said yeah (I had read about it a lot on here before going and i’m definitely in the camp that it’s far too expensive) and she ended up giving us complimentary passes to the event! I guess they hadn’t sold nearly as many as they wanted to.

We weren’t sure if we’d have the energy to do After Hours (spoiler: we did) but we checked in using the passes just in case we decided to stay.

Next up: Liberty Tree Tavern and exploring an empty park!

 

[blreinsel]

It's so awesome that you got free passes to After Hours! A little bit of pixie dust on your trip.

 

[myhappyplace]

Love the Gaston pic!! He is a really fun meet

 

[minnie2000]

Great report! Looking forward to the rest.

 

[lemon meringue]

Great report so far. Looking forward to more

 

[Barcoco]

It's so awesome that you got free passes to After Hours! A little bit of pixie dust on your trip.

It was really surprising, and the experience ended up being such a memorable part of our trip.

 

[Barcoco]

Love the Gaston pic!! He is a really fun meet

We watched him from afar for a couple of minutes, he was cracking everyone up!

 

[Barcoco]

Great report! Looking forward to the rest.

Great report so far. Looking forward to more

Thanks so much! Hoping to get a new post up soon!

 

[sheriffwoody]

she ended up giving us complimentary passes to the event

That's amazing! I'm excited to hear your thoughts on it. It seems like a cool event, just definitely geared toward a select crowd (the crowd that makes a lot more money than me).

Great report so far! I love me some French Quarter too.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Loving your TR so far!!

We've never been able to meet Gaston! We missed him 3x on our last trip and I started to get mad, so I gave up! Looks like he had nothing going on in this picture!

I can't believe they gave you free tickets to the after hours event! That's amazing.

 

[Barcoco]

Day 4 - Part 2

We got to the Magic Kingdom in good time so we checked into the park with our free passes and received our massive event lanyards then killed some time at the Christmas shop before heading into Liberty Tree Tavern.

I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for Ben a couple of years ago as we both love roasts and wanted to try something a bit different from the usual British ones. It all went down really well, even slightly more unusual stuff to our palette like green bean casserole, so when we saw that there was a restaurant that did Thanksgiving dinner all year round we jumped on the reservation. As time went on I started to doubt how hungry we’d be for a heavy roast in the Florida heat, but Ben insisted we keep the reservation.

I was wrong to doubt the reservation. It was all great, and we made short work of all of it (we didn’t need any second helpings though). I think the nap earlier helped. The honey butter with the bread was so good, everything on the Patriot’s Platter was delicious and the service was wonderful, really attentive. So we learned that there’s really no bad time for a roast. I’d definitely go back.

I must have gone into some sort of food blackout after dinner but a couple of hours later we found ourselves in front of the castle watching Wishes. We found a spot in the hub with a nice clear view. Well, the guy in front had a really nice clear view on his phone screen. At one point he dropped his phone and sheepishly put it in his pocket which gave me a deep feeling of schadenfreude.

We both loved the show and later agreed it was probably the best firework show on property. I can’t imagine how much they spend on it every night!

After the fireworks the crowds were all heading towards main street so went upstream towards Tomorrowland. We did Buzz again, then the Carousel of Progress. I think there must have been about 10 people in our theatre, it was so dead! I enjoyed the show but it is very dated, it needs some love.

Knowing we were in for a late one, we got some coffee from Starbucks (and I got my Magic Kingdom mug) and sat in the hub watching the tail end of the parade go by. It was already really quiet at this point, you could stand anywhere and have a clear view of the parade.

We had already been to Pirates that day (i think that's where we went in our food haze) and we were one and done for Jungle Cruise so we decided to start in Frontierland and work our way round the park to Tomorrowland. Thunder Mountain, no wait. Splash Mountain, no wait, private log. There were more cast members than guests.

It was dark and quiet in the walkway between Frontierland and Liberty Square. We found a lone ice cream vendor and she gave us free Mickey bars. On the way to Haunted Mansion we must have passed maybe 6 people. There was definitely a certain life in the park missing, but it was really interesting to see it so quiet. I don’t think we’ll ever experience the park like this again.

Haunted Mansion was our longest wait. The doors to the pre-show were closed so we waited a couple of minutes for them to open then headed in. Before the pre-show the cast member with us was over by the door, then went the room went dark and the lights went back up she was standing right beside me just staring creepily, it was hilarious. I love it when cast members get really into their role.

Seven Dwarves Mine Train had no wait, which was bizarre to see after witnessing 90 minute lines during the day, then we were straight onto Winnie the Pooh with not another guest in sight on the ride.

Back in Tomorrowland we had our third ride of the day on Buzz, which was empty (ben still getting the broken guns), then Space Mountain, which had a short line, then Astro Orbitor. They asked us on Astro Orbitor if we wanted to be in separate rockets or the same. I don’t know why, but I said the same, and instantly regretted it. We awkwardly wedged ourselves into the same rocket and for the whole ride I wondered how we were going to get back out of it.

We started heading out at about 1.30am, stopping for a photopass on the way out. What a night, we managed 8 rides in about 2 hours, including most of the headliners. We could have done more if we’d tried but because we got it for free we felt able to take a leisurely approach and just enjoy the peacefulness of the quiet park.

We didn't manage to get many photos since it was so dark but Ben took a short video on the way out.


Luckily they were still running resort buses when we got out, I think because they had given away a lot of tickets to resort guests, so it didn’t take very long at all to get back to the hotel and straight to bed, plans of rope dropping Epcot out the window.

Next up: Epcot: trying out the flower and garden food kiosks

 

[blreinsel]

So neat! It would be awesome to have the park to yourself like that! Though I'd probably enjoy it more in the morning (aside from having to wake up early) for the sake of getting nice pictures and such!

 

[Barcoco]

Loving your TR so far!!

We've never been able to meet Gaston! We missed him 3x on our last trip and I started to get mad, so I gave up! Looks like he had nothing going on in this picture!

I can't believe they gave you free tickets to the after hours event! That's amazing.

Thanks! I'm missing it already - it's been nice to re-experience the trip.
Gaston actually had quite a long line, but they were held back away from him a bit, I managed to sneak in a photo between meets.

 

[Barcoco]

That's amazing! I'm excited to hear your thoughts on it. It seems like a cool event, just definitely geared toward a select crowd (the crowd that makes a lot more money than me).

Great report so far! I love me some French Quarter too.

Yeah we definitely wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been free. It was a lot like extra magic hours, in that regular guests could linger and enjoy the second parade, the ambiance etc, but you needed to show your pass to get on rides. We did evening EMH on our last night and the waits were almost as short, except 7DMT and Peter Pan.