Trip Report **COMPLETED** "Chewie! We're Home!"

Bright Suns and Rising Moons everyone!!

We are back from our visit to WDW and I am excited to share it all with you! We enjoyed a 5 day 4 night trip from September 11 - 15, 2019 and we definitely packed a lot of fun into this long weekend. There was F&W, there was Extra Extra Magic Hours, there was MNSSHP and some relaxing time at the pool!

Who was on this adventure you may ask?


Me, Dawn and my amazing Husband Dan!

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We stayed at our DVC home resort this visit, AKL! We stayed in Jambo House. (Our favorite between Jambo and Kidani")

So without further ado...let's get into it!

Day 1: Travel

We had an early flight out of Buffalo on Wednesday Sept 11. Not as early as we usually have, which was kind of nice. We arrived at the airport at around 4:30am, which meant that we were able to get some breakfast and coffee before boarding our plane.


Coffee!!
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Buffalo Breakfast Wrap for Dan...
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and croissant breakfast sandwich for me!
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They may not look like the most appetizing, but they were pretty good and hit the spot!

After eating our breakfast, we made our way to the gate. I had finished my coffee and soon it was time to board!!

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Awayyyyy weeeee gooooooooo!!!

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We arrived at MCO before our ETA! We were 20 mins early when we pulled up to the gate...what a great start to the trip!

YAY! PALM TREES!!

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Once we disembarked the plane, we made our pit stop to the restrooms, then headed to the fake-o-rail! The first ride of the trip! 🤣

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After our high speed, thrilling and intense first ride...we headed down to the rental car pick - up area to claim our very own "Magical Express". We had rented a vehicle in March and decided to try it out again during this visit and it was very nice! We enjoyed not having to wait on buses or rely on transportation to get us from point A to point B in a timely fashion. The only downside to this visit was that the entrances to EVERY park is under construction so trams were not able to take you up to where they normally let off guests. This was not a negative impact, we just learned very quickly to just walk instead of waiting on the trams...unless it was the middle of the day and walking across the concrete desert was the last thing we wanted to undertake...yeah, it was THAT hot!

Picking up our rental went seamlessly due to the online Check-in that Alamo offers. You can enter credit card and driver information ahead of time, print out the confirmation e-mail and go directly to a vehicle in the designated lot of the type of vehicle you reserved. We picked out our vehicle, went through the check out booth, and away we went! Before long we were seeing this beautiful sight!

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Up next: Day 1 Continued @ MK
 
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Ears to Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

Ears to Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 1 Continued

We did not waste any time when we arrived on property, we headed straight to MK! We hopped on the tram to take us over to the TTC...thinking that we would start off the trip by having a nice little parking lot tram ride, it stopped before you go under the bridge. I forgot about all the TTC construction, and it made the tram ride pretty useless. Oh well! Hakuna Matata! We are on our way to the MK!! We choose the Monorail since the last visit we did not take the monorail at all and just took the ferry over. We took the Passholder line...tapped Mickey to Mickey...and then...

WE'RE HOME!!!!

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The sights, the sounds, the fall decor...it all was a sign that we had officially returned to our home away from home. The arrival was made even more special because we were welcomed with the Trolley Show! One of my absolute favorites!

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We love to stop and take it all in when we first arrive in the MK. It is all just so magical and breezing right by is no way to begin a WDW visit.

Mickey pumpkins are just the BEST!
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We were starving at the point, not having eaten anything but plane snacks since 5AM...so lunch was indeed in order! We decided on Pecos Bills since we haven't been in such a long time. We each got the taco trio and got each meat choice; carnitas, chicken and beef. I am not up on my TR game with food pictures since we vlog as well...so here is a, most likely, terrible still from a video clip! 🤣

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Since I dubbed today Magic Kingdom Mountain Day, we had a FP for Space making our first stop, Tomorrowland! Our friend always turns the other way for the picture on Space. It started out as she could not remember the side the camera was on, and now she just does it as a joke. So here is our tribute to her! 🤣

Dan is in the back of this car...
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...and I am in the front of this one!
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Since we caught the tail end of our Space FP, we were about ready for our Splash FP so we headed towards Frontierland. On the way through Liberty Square, we caught some of The Muppets Present Great Moments in American History! We don't usually stop for the show, but we decided to watch today. We are always trying to take a more relaxed pace to our visits to WDW, and I have heard rumors that it may be ending soon. ☹

"Great moment in history..."
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"...but just the American parts!"

Such a cute show!

After we roasted in the sun a bit, it was time for our second mountain of the day...Splash!

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We did get wet...and it was more than welcomed! The water cannon before you head up the first little hill right next to the drop happens to get Dan EVERY. TIME. Right in the face! Hey...he volunteers to take that side of the log! 😂

FofF was about to start, so we decided to check on the wait times. POTC was only a 10 min wait (so basically a walk on) so we headed over to Adventureland.

Ever thought of becoming a Pirate...we mulled it over for a bit...
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...we decided it may not be for us. The Red's Revenge however, that was calling our name for sure. We did not need to think that over too long. The heat was blazing and it was about time for a refreshing snack.

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It was strawberry soft serve with strawberry Fanta and a chocolate hat. DELICIOUS! It is located at Sunshine Tree Terrace. We sat in front of the Shooting Gallery to eat it.

Up Next: Day 1 Continued - More MK
 
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Ears to Disney

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Original Poster
Day 1 Continued

After we finished, I remembered reading in @Tuvalu's TR that the Shooting Gallery had been free to go over and shoot. If they were free, we most definitely needed to shoot around a bit. And they were!! It was a lot of fun!

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After having our fun at the Shooting Gallery, it was time for our last mountain of the day, BTMRR. The completion of Mountain Day!

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After the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness, it was almost time for "Check -in" and we still did not receive a "Room Ready" text. This was unusual, but at the same time it was not. I have had an Online Check-in go wrong before. But first, pictures!

Since it was September 11...I couldn't pass up this photo op.
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I also can't resist taking picture of the scarecrows! LOVE THEM!
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We noticed that the PP Photographer had a very small line, so we stopped to get a picture!

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We headed out of the park and made our way to our home for the next 4 nights...AKL - Jambo House!

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Our room was ready...and our Online Check - in didn't work. We made the trek alllllll the way to our room. I love AKL, but if you don't have a room close to the lobby it can be quite the hike! We had a Savannah view this visit, which we love. It is always fun to animal watch. These are our friends who we had the pleasure of watching during our rest in the room.

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Up Next: Day 1 Continued - EPCOT
 
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Ears to Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 1 Continued

After unpacking and resting in our room, we left AKL to head to Epcot! We were very excited to dive into the Food and Wine eats! The front of Epcot is all under construction as well. We always walk to the gates at Epcot when we drive, but the tram stops are all being redone as well and the walkway takes a round about way to get to the gates. We made our way through the winding construction walls and then we were greeted by a Grand and Miraculous Spaceship!

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Peeking out from behind some walls of course!

After obtaining our Food & Wine festival passport, we headed under SSE and to our first stop, Mouse Gear. We had to make sure that one our fist visit we got our Passholder Magnet!

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After we each collected our magnets, we headed for our first F&W Booth, "Flavors from Fire".

Here we got two different items to try:

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On the left: Charred Chimichurri Skirt Steak on a Smoked Corn Cake with Pickled Vegetable Slaw and Cilantro Aïoli!
On the right: Smoked Corned Beef with Crispy Potatoes, Cheese Curds, Pickled Onions, and Beer-Cheese Fondue

Both of these Dishes were Delicious! The steak was well cooked for our taste and the corn cake was a delicious additive to the dish. The corned beef was so good as well especially with the beer cheese fondue! YUM! (Now I am wishing we were making another trip while F&W is going on).

Our next stop was "The Wine & Dine Studio" We also ordered two items at this booth.

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On the left: Seared Scallops, Truffled Celery Root Purée, Brussels Sprouts and Wild Mushrooms.
On the right: Butternut Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter Vinaigrette, Parmesan Cheese and Pumpkin Seeds.

The only star of the first dish was the Scallops. We are not fans of mushrooms and the other additives were not our cup of tea either. The Butternut Squash, on the other hand, was delicious! It had the sweetness from the squash and the saltiness from the pumpkin seeds and it all worked really well together!

Next, it was time for dessert! We decided on heading to France for the Crème Brûlée!

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Crème Brûlée with House-made Chocolate - Hazelnut Cream.

This was SO GOOD! Last year they made this with a fruity center, but Dan and I both agreed that the Chocolate-Hazelnut Cream was much better. This was one of our favorite dishes from the festival this year.

It was almost time for the Eat to the Beat concert, and tonight was a country artist, Jimmie Allen. We have only heard a few of his songs on the radio and we liked them both so we agreed that it would be worth it to watch the show. We showed up with fifteen minutes before show time and there was hardly anybody there. We were able to sit in the first row after the break between the seats for dinner package guests and the general seating. His show was most definitely worth going to! He is very good! He is one of those artists that loves what they are doing and it shows. He even came out to the crowd and we ended up getting to shake his hand.

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Our local country radio station puts on an Acoustic Show every year where they get three artists that are lesser known and they each take turns playing their songs unplugged. It is a great experience and we are definitely going this year because of this guy!

After the show ended, we contemplated watching IllumiNations, but we had plans to watch it another night so we decided to head back to the room and have a somewhat early night since we had been up so long and traveled this morning.

That is going to wrap up day 1!


Up next: Day 2 - September 20 - Extra Extra Magic Hours at Studios!
 
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Ears to Disney

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Original Poster
Day 2: Hollywood Studios

We woke up extremely early...around 4:15am. We had a mission. EEMH at Studios for SWGE! It began at 6am and our plan was to be to the park by 5:15am. We arrived at the gates to Studios and all of the lanes were closed! WHAT?? It was 45 minutes until the EEMH started, why are the lanes all closed?? We sat and sat a bit more until this one vehicle went in this "secret" entrance that nobody else was sure of apparently. This must not have been their first rodeo. Thank you to them for showing us the way, we followed suite with many others. It was a lane on the left hand side of the gates that allowed us to bypass the lanes. Whew! Still making good time. We arrived on Hollywood Blvd. at around 5:30am. Not too shabby! The crowd was not too crazy. It must have been way too early because I did not take any pictures of Hollywood Blvd. this morning. We took some vlog footage, but it is sooo foggy because it was already so humid! They had two lines for the EEMH RD, the left side was for those going to SWGE and the right side was for TSL. When 6am came around, the First Order march song started playing and Storm Troopers began escorting us back. It was a looooooooooong walk. The pace was a slower one, which was probably for the best because nobody was trampling anyone. It was such a great experience that just built up the anticipation. We followed the hoard of people into the line for Smugglers Run. Not too much time had passed before we were inside the Millennium Falcon! A dream come true!!

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Unfortunately we did not have time for a game of Halo Chess!

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We had a mission to accomplish...as the gunners of the Millennium Falcon.

The attraction is pretty neat! It is very interactive and it is any Star Wars fans dream to be in those memorable seats in the most iconic ship. The gunner position was not too bad, it was very easy on the automatic mode and all you had to do was hold down the button when it was lit up to shoot the opposition. My only issue with the attraction was that, there were things you had to do that took your focus off of what was going on around you. I know that is the point, but I feel the Pilot positions are going to be the only positions in which you get the absolute full experience.

After Smugglers run, we began to walk around and explore the new land. It was still fairly empty, which was great, so we really got too look at a lot of the details. I am sure it will take us a few visits to get the full effect, but we look forward to that! The sunrise was looking amazing on Batuu so we used it as an opportunity to take some photos.

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Upon walking around, we heard CM's outside of Oga's Cantina that they are excepting walk ins!

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We knew it was too early for an adult beverage, but there was something else that we had to try!

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It was called the "Blue Bantha", which was the Blue Milk with a Bantha sugar cookie! We really enjoyed the Blue Milk and the sugar cookie was very good as well! We also ordered the Mustafarian Lava Roll.

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This was a croissant-esque roll with a red glaze on it that did not have a flavor that was fruity and it also had what we believed to be chocolate (Oreo) cookie pieces on top. It was really good! (sorry for the odd backlit picture, we were standing at the bar)

After we finished our treats we decided to move along to make room for others who wanted to get in to see the Cantina. We look forward to coming back and sampling some of the other offerings.

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Next Up: More SWGE!
 
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Ears to Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 Continued

After our time in Oga's, we decided to do so looking around SWGE.

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We really liked this droid and wanted to take it home with us because it is Buffalo Sabres colors!! (LET'S GO BUF-A-LO!!)

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After exploring a bit, we decided to head into TSL to take advantage of a low wait for SDD before the park opened to general guests. I believe the wait time was around 10 mins, which we have NEVER seen before.

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Got my favorite/hockey number row!!

.......and maybe one day we will actually look at the camera for the photo!!! :facepalm:

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After SDD, we decided to try and get back on Smugglers run one more time before EEMH ended since we won't be back to Studios until December to ride again. We only waited around 30 mins despite the 60 minutes that the entrance to the queue had showed. We were Gunners...again. We are hoping for Pilots next visit for sure!

This is where the trip title comes in. I had looked to Dan when walking through the hallway and said "Chewie, we're home!" Since Dan's beard is so long, I always call him Chewie so it fit perfectly! 😂

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Up Next: More Studios
 

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