Trip Report ***Completed** For the First Time in Forever! Aug 2016 WDW Trip Report

Hi guys! I'm so excited to start my very first trip report! My family and I have just gotten back from Disney World about a week ago and we had a fabulous vacation. It was our first trip to Disney since 2008, so there have been a lot of changes since then. This was our first trip since Fast Pass + and Magic Bands and the DDP, so it was a bit of uncharted territory for us. This was also the first trip where I was primarily in control for most of the planning. My Dad insisted on using a AAA travel agent to book the package even though I told him I could have done it. I planned all our meals, booked all our fast passes, and generally mapped out all of our park days. Overall I think it went really well considering I hadn't actually been to the parks in 8 years. Thank God for these forums and You Tube!

Anyway it was a very memorable trip with its highs and lows and I can't wait to share the craziness with all of you. So here is the outline of our vacation to start:

When: Friday Aug 19th- Mon Aug 29th 2016

Where: All Star Movies Resort

Who: Myself (Melissa), my Mom, my Dad, my younger brother Matt. My younger sister Stephanie and her bf Steve (now fiancee but we'll get to that!) arrived on Tues Aug 23rd.

Anyway I hope you enjoy my trip report!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Day 5- Tuesday August 23rd- Magic Kingdom

Today was our first full Magic Kingdom day. My sister and her b/f were supposed to arrive that night, so we had already decided to head back to the hotel fairly early because my parents wanted to be there when they arrived. We also had a 9:30am breakfast ADR at O'hana. We decided to sleep in a little bit instead of trying to get to MK early and fit in a ride or two before breakfast.

Because we were going to be at MK later that day anyway, we chose to park at the TTC and take the monorail over to the Poly. I forgot to factor in time for a crowded tram of guests heading into the park for the day, so we were already cutting it pretty tightly by the time we arrived at the TTC. I remember being able to walk from the TTC to the Poly, but I had forgotten that it's still a bit of a walk to the Grand Ceremonial House. Still, we decided to walk versus deal with the monorail. Even though it may have taken a bit longer, it did allow me to take in some of the theming of the Poly. Someday I'd love to stay there... Better find me a rich man lol jk.

I'm so artsy... I look like a giant rat!

Then everyone got a picture sitting in the big chairs while we were waiting for our buzzer to go off after we checked in.

We did our first character breakfast at O'hana on our Aug 2000 trip and have made it a mainstay of every trip since then. I even convinced my friend to do it when we went on our Spring Break trip while I was in college. I think this was my 5th time doing the character breakfast there. It's really a great breakfast and it's a great excuse to stop off at the Poly. I highly recommend it.

We were led over to our table with a basket of these delicious goodies.

As well as glasses of what I think was pineapple/guava/orange juice. It was very good! Of course we had to snap a few more pictures.

 

[DimpledDevil18]

When our skillet arrived we found out that now they also serve Stitch waffles in addition to Mickey Mouse waffles.

I tried to catch a shot of Mickey leading the parade around the dining room, but this was the best I could do.

Then it was our turn to meet Lilo.

Next up was Mickey himself.

We also met Pluto, but I think those pics are on my Mom's phone and I forgot to have her text them to me.

Stitch was the last character to come around and he had a Photopass photographer with him. I don't love this pic because of the angle it was taken on, but it is what it is.

Also here's a random pic of the Poly lobby from the 2nd floor. Somehow my pics wound up out of order.

So with our bellies full and all the characters met we headed towards the monorail station. They definitely didn't rush you out at O'hana and by now it was around 11:00 and we had I think an 11:55 FP for Peter Pan's Flight. Late start, but it was it was. Next stop Magic Kingdom!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

We got off the monorail and got through bag check and everything just as the Move It! Street Party was rolling by. Although I've never seen it in person, I'd seen enough youtube videos where I started singing and dancing to "Vamos" as we made our way up Main Street. As I mentioned previously, we had our first FP for Peter Pan's Flight so we headed straight to Fantasyland.

I had originally made FP's for 7 Dwarfs Mine Coaster, Splash, and Space for that day, but my sister requested that we keep those attractions for when her and Steve arrived, so we decided to do a lot of the smaller attractions today. It was just as well because not only was it hot, but it seemed fairly crowded too.

We got on line for Peter Pan and even on the FP line there was a bit of a wait. My Dad started talking to a family behind us who was telling my Dad about the free dining bounce back offer and how they had decided to book it because it was only $200 down and they could always cancel. I could see the wheels in my Dad's head turning, so I made a mental note to try to work on him later lol.

After Peter Pan we could already see that Fantasyland was pretty crowded with a lot of families and young kids, so we decided to come back there at a later time. Like I said it was also really hot, so we decided to visit the Hall of Presidents. We caught a show just beginning to start, so it worked out and the AC was very welcoming.

From there we headed into Adventureland to do the Tiki Room. Not my most favorite attraction by all means, but my Mom wanted to do it and there was AC. I did manage to get a pretty good picture of this guy while we waited for the next show to begin.

The Tiki room was okay. My Mom really enjoyed it. Then it was time for something else my Mom really wanted... Dole Whips. She's obsessed with them and she was very pleased to see that she could use her snack credit on them. So we headed to Aloha Isle. I had vaguely remembered trying a Dole Whip on our last trip, but couldn't remember if I'd liked it or not. I decided to give it another try. My Mom got a plain Dole Whip and my Dad and I both got Dole Whip floats. Matt got a citrus swirl ice cream which he didn't really like.

I may get some flack for this, but I wasn't really a Dole Whip fan. *hides* I liked the pineapple juice at the bottom of the float, but didn't really like the actual Dole Whip part at the top. My Mom was very happy though, so that's what counts.

By the time we finished our Dole Whips it was time for our Pirates FP. Pirates is one of my Dad's favorite rides and is always a family favorite. We enjoyed our trip and got some good laughs out of the more memorable scenes. My Dad especially thought it would be funny to compare my Mom to one of the women chasing the pirate around with a frying pan.

After Pirates, we decided to head across to Tomorrowland since our next FP was over that way. We stopped to take some pictures near the side of the castle and sadly these would be our only castle pics. Somehow we'd wind up forgetting to take the most iconic Disney photo op!

The Photopass photographer had instructed us to make a silly face, but apparently I was the only one who listened.

The first attraction we did was Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. I had forgotten how entertaining that show is. We wound up on the camera at the beginning. They zoomed in on Matt who was sitting between my Dad and I with the caption, "Sitting in between two monsters" or something like that. Also our "that guy" was really funny and a good spot. They were teasing him about "just getting out of the shower" because he had one of those cooling towels around his neck. Finally, my joke made it into the show (it got picked on our last trip too). In case you were wondering this was my joke: How do you make a tissue dance? You put a little "boogie" in it.

Next, everyone else wanted to do Stitch's Great Escape. Stitch is another attraction that I don't particularly like too much, but it only had like a 15 minute wait, so we got on line. As we were getting on line we witnessed a lady who I'm not sure what the situation was (my Mom said she thought she heard that she had lost her child) but she all of a sudden came to a dead stop in the middle of a very crowded Tomorrowland and literally just screamed "What the F*&%!" Real classy lady... I get your child may have run off, but that's no reason to use that kind of language in the middle of a crowded park full of young children. I'm no saint and I can have a potty mouth too, but I try to watch my mouth when I'm someplace like Disney. So that was entertaining...

Stitch on the other hand was not... I think its such a waste of space. Of course my parents thought it was great... They would.

After Stitch's not so great escape we decided to take a ride on something everyone likes; the Peoplemover. We snapped some pics too because I'd been slacking on the pictures since we arrived in the park.

After we got off the Peoplemover we decided to catch a performance of the Carousel of Progress which is one of my favorites despite some of the continuity errors throughout the show. (Like how come the daughter Patricia starts out as a brunette and then becomes blonde?) Do any of these things bother anyone else as well? I still love the attraction though and again... There's AC!

After COP it was time for our third FP which was Buzz Lightyear. We were glad to have this on since the wait was 40 min at this point. Again I think I came in last place (I'd get my revenge though!) And again I took an incredibly awkward on ride photo... My Dad on the other hand thought he was back in Vietnam and was a little too into it.

Here is my Mom and Matt

At that point it was only maybe around 4pm, but we were all hot, tired, and cranky... The park was kind of crowded and we'd done most of the attractions with shorter wait times. I could have booked more FPs but that would mean waiting around to about 6pm and as I mentioned my parents wanted to be back early, so we were at the resort when Steph and Steve came in. So we decided to grab a quick bite to eat and then head back to the resort for a nap and swim.

Since we were already in Tomorrowland I suggested we stop into Cosmic Rays. Even though it was a bit late for lunch and a little early for dinner, the place was pretty crowded. We wound up not being able to sit near Sonny Eclipse, but there were plenty of tables near the back. I think we all got burgers. Matt may have had chicken nuggets. My Mom and I got the chocolate cake, my Dad got yogurt, and Matt got the smores. The burger was good, but I wasn't a fan of the chocolate cake. It tasted very artificial if that made sense. My Dad praised my choice to eat there though. He was beginning to finally realize I knew what I was doing when it came to Disney!

The only other interesting thing to note at Cosmic Rays was I forgot to mention it in previous posts, but we'd developed a nasty habit of accidentally stealing other people's things at Disney. We wouldn't mean for it to happen, but somehow we'd look down and have someone else's water bottle or at one point my brother thought we had accidentally picked up someone's spray fan thinking it was ours. Anyway so I stopped in the bathroom at Cosmic Rays and my lanyard had accidentally snagged onto a woman's backpack on the way out. Well, when I get back to the table I look down and there attached to my lanyard was one of those Mickey ear straws that come with one of the smoothies. Apparently it was in the side pocket of her backpack and when we bumped into each other it had somehow attached itself to my pin lanyard. So, I ran back in and waited for her to get out of the bathroom, so I could return it to her. How embarrassing! Sadly, that's not even the last time I'd accidentally find myself in possession of something that didn't belong to me this trip!

We headed back towards Main Street and on our way out we stopped to look at some of the shops. I got my parents to look at the Alex and Ani bracelets and my Mom told me to pick one out for her to put away for my birthday. It was a really hard decision, but this is the one I picked out. (Pic from the disney parks website)

I also saw a really nice blue tank top that said Magic Kingdom on it. I almost bought it, but decided I'd pick it up on another day. Sadly, by the time I made it back the shirt was gone and no one knew where it had went. Maybe I imagined it...

Anyway after we had made our purchases we headed out to return to the resort and try to get our last bit of peace before my sister arrived. More on that in the next update!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

When we got back to All Star Movies I had every intention of trying to squeeze in a quick nap. I really should've taken one, especially since we rarely if ever find time to nap at Disney. I got into bed and tried to drift off, but I was distracted by my phone and my sister was texting me from the airport that she had arrived and was at her gate waiting for their flight. I shut my eyes a little, but never actually drifted off.

I waited until my sister had texted me that they had just boarded their flight. It was around 7:00pm by then, so I wished her a safe flight and told her to text me when she landed. They weren't expected to land until close to 10pm, so I decided to see if anyone wanted to take a swim.

My Dad was up, so we changed into our bathing suits and headed down to the pool. Matt said he might join us later. We swam for a little bit and thankfully the pool was a bit cooler than it was on Sunday night. My Dad was all up in arms because there was a young couple swimming in the pool holding a baby who looked to be only a few months old. He was saying how unsafe it was and how the baby could drown etc... Out of curiosity I asked how old she was (because she was really cute) and they told us she was 3 months old. They even dipped her underwater which I thought was a little much for a 3 month old, but to each their own.

Matt came and joined us for a short bit. Our plan was to meet Steph and Steve in the food court and eat a little something with them once they arrived, but Matt wanted a turkey sandwich from one of the food windows that always closed before 10, so he decided to go get his food now. I decided to go with him because I kind of wanted a salad and the salad counter also closed early. So we went back to the room and changed and then headed for the food court.

I ordered a create your own salad with romaine lettuce, chicken, cheese, tomatoes, croutons, and ranch dressing. I got a lid for it thinking I might take it back to my room and stick it in the fridge for later. I also decided for dessert to get an ice cream cookie sandwich with cookies and cream ice cream. I was shocked at how big it was!

Matt got one too, so we decided we had to have dessert first so the ice cream didn't ,melt. It was so filling that I think I barely ate half of it. By that time my parents came and joined us. They weren't too hungry, but they sat with us while we ate. I figured I'd better eat some of my salad now as well.

While we were eating our meals we got a text from my sister that they had landed. They still needed to get their luggage and hop on the Magical Express. A little while later she texted me that she was waiting on the Magical Express, but told us that they had told her at the airport that it could be up to another 90 minutes until she arrived (and of course with All Star Movies being one of the furthest out on the AK loop it would probably be a while depending on how many other people were boarding). That would mean she might not arrive until after 11:30. We were a little nervous that the food court would close by then, so my parent's decided to use some of their unused QS credits to order a pizza for them just in case.

We told Steph to keep us updated and to text us when she got to the resort. We basically just kind of hung around and picked at our food a bit. Matt and I went into the arcade for a bit just to pass the time. We did the video game simulator thing which was a waste of money, but it was something to do. By the time we got back to the food court the pizza had just arrived and shortly after that we got the text that Steph had arrived.

Matt and I went out front to meet her just as the Magical Express pulled up. I attempted to get a picture of her and Steve getting off of it, but my timing sucked. Turns up it didn't take as long as they had originally said probably because I imagine not too many people are arriving that late in the evening. We said our hellos and then sat with them in the food court while they ate their pizza.

They had a similar situation as we did the first night where their vacation package wasn't starting until the next day, so for the night they were going to squeeze in with us. It wasn't as bad as the first night because now we had two rooms with 3 people in each. My Dad came into me and my Mom's room while Matt stayed with Steph and Steve. I was a little worried about my Dad's snoring after the first night, but luckily I fell asleep pretty quickly, so it didn't bother me.

Next up, another Epcot day with an unplanned stop first and our streak of no rain ends.

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Day 6-Wednesday Aug 24th- Animal Kingdom/Epcot

This was another day where we tried to get up pretty early. Steph and Steve wanted to check into their room and move their stuff over, so they headed to Cinema Hall as early as they could. After they had gotten settled we met at the food court to have breakfast and come up with a game plan for the day. Our original plans were to return to Epcot, but since we had gotten mostly all of Future World done we had a little wiggle room in our plans. Our only set in stone plans for the day was a 6:15pm ADR at Le Cellier and a 7:30pm FP for Frozen.

Since Steph and Steve had missed our DHS and AK days we decided to give them the option of what they wanted to see. After some discussion and looking at projected crowds for the day, we decided to go back to AK for a few hours in the morning before heading over to Epcot. Steph wanted to ride at least Everest and the safari. We also noticed that MK had EMH until 1am, so we were considering heading there after Epcot closed, depending on how we were feeling.

So after a QS breakfast ,(I had the egg and cheese croissant with tater tots again) we made a quick stop in the gift shop so Steph could get a pair of ears like mine. While I was there I traded my first pin of the trip with the cashier. I gave her a Daisy Pin I had gotten back in 2004 that I didn't really like much anymore for a hidden mickey monorail pin that I thought was cute. After Steph got her ears we posed for a quick picture before getting in the car to head to AK.

When we arrived at AK of course we tried to squeeze in for one big tram selfie. It was nice to have the whole family together finally. (Well, minus my other brother and his wife, but whatever. We were lucky to get all of us together!)

The first thing Steph wanted to do was ride on Kilimanjaro Safari, so we headed straight back for it. Thankfully it was still early and not too crowded, so it was practically a walk on. In fact, we spent longer sitting in our safari vehicle waiting for others to board than we did on line. (It took a bit since we were coming in from the wheelchair and stroller entrance. This time since it was early in the day I had my camera to snap a few pics.

I got so annoyed because just as we were passing by the rhinos someone in our ride vehicle just decided that they couldn't wait until the ride was over to dispose of a piece of plastic, so they threw it off the side and onto the grass below right into the animal's habitat. It's like REALLY?! People amaze me sometimes.

After we got off the Safari we decided to walk through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail since we didn't get to do that one on our first day in the parks. I got a good underwater shot of one of the hippos.

We took a quick look at the gorillas, but it was a bit too crowded, so we just moved on. We weren't too heartbroken because we go to the Bronx Zoo a lot, so it wasn't like we never get to see gorillas.

At this point the sky was looking pretty gray and we thought we felt a stray drop or two. We'd been blessed up until this point to not have any rain, but we were joking with Steph that she and Steve must have bought a rain cloud down with them. We knew that Steph really wanted to do Everest, so we decided to run towards it to try to squeeze a ride in before it really started raining. The standby line was only maybe 15 minutes, so we thought we could do it. My Dad decided to stay with my Mom while Matt, Steph, Steve, and I rode.

It started out fine. It wasn't until we were almost out of the artifact room that it started to downpour and they made the announcement that Everest would be temporarily closing until the weather let up. We were welcome to stay in line until it passed though. Ordinarily if it were up to me, I'd have cut my losses and left to try to find something to do indoors, but my sister is stubborn. She insisted we wait in line because what else were we going to do? To make matters worse I'd left my cell phone with my Mom, so I couldn't even check what the weather was doing or how long it was expected to last. I was very annoyed to say the least because we were making excellent time that morning so far.

Well long story short... That 15 min wait turned out to be nearly an hour of just sitting there. Steph called my parents who had taken up shelter in a gift shop and they told us i was okay if we waited and they'd meet us after the rain stopped and we'd ridden. When they finally cleared us to ride it was still actually raining a bit. Let me tell you, riding a roller coaster in the rain is painful! Every drop felt like I was being pelted with little rocks. It was still an enjoyable ride though!

As you can probably see from the picture Steve didn't really enjoy Everest. He isn't into roller coasters and gets motion sickness. He let Steph talk him into going, but it as a bit too intense for him. He was NOT happy when he came off.

We were thinking about trying to see Festival of the Lion King, but the times just didn't work out and Steph and Steve had enough AK at this point, so we decided to just head on to Epcot where there was at least more indoor things to do if the rain continued. We had already lost over an hour waiting for Everest grr...

 

[prfctlyximprct]

I'm so sad about your margarita! I am always afraid I'm going to forget my ID, i literally get OCD checking for it before I go anywhere I plan to drink. I'm on like the 8th 21st birthday, so it is a bit frustrating, but hey I guess it's good we still look young!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

I'm so sad about your margarita! I am always afraid I'm going to forget my ID, i literally get OCD checking for it before I go anywhere I plan to drink. I'm on like the 8th 21st birthday, so it is a bit frustrating, but hey I guess it's good we still look young!

Haha thanks! I did wind up getting a margarita at some point, but it just wasn't the same! I'm usually pretty good at remembering it especially since I'm so used to being IDed but I guess I just had a bit of Disney brain lol.

Everyone tells me I'll appreciate looking so young someday. As for right now I just find it embarrassing having to explain how old I actually am. I literally just started telling people I work with that I was 25 because it's just easier than dealing with their reaction when I tell them how old I really am.

 

[DimpledDevil18]

While we were on Everest, my parents had been nice enough to pick us up ponchos from the gift shop to wear on the way back towards the front of the park. So, of course this called for pics!

By the time we reached the tram it had finally stopped raining for the day so the ponchos got put away in our bags. Luckily, we didn't need them again on that particular day.

We decided since we were considering going to MK that night that we would park at the TTC and then take the monorail over to Epcot. We usually try to take the monorail over there at least once anyway because we like to ride through the park and see everything from a different perspective.

When we got to Epcot, Stephanie wanted to take Steve on Spaceship Earth, so I decided to tag along with them because I just love dark rides, My Mom, Dad, and Matt decided to go on ahead and look around in Innoventions while we rode. After we got off we called my parents to find out where they were and they told us they would come back to meet us. While we were waiting I got approached by a CM who asked me to complete a survey. It was really short and more likely a pre- screener for a survey sent to my e-mail which I still need to finish completing.

I wanted to drag Steph and Steve into Club Cool to see if I could get them with the same Beverly trick that had worked so well on my parents. Either A) They knew what I was up to or B) They are in that rare group of people who don't seem to mind the taste of Beverly. They both drank without any facial expressions and said that it tasted just okay. Grr... It figures.

From there, Steph said she wanted to ride Figment which I had no problem with because I love him. Before we got to the Imagination Pavillion we decided to take a family picture in front of the fountain right outside it.

Steph wanted a few shots of just her and Steve.

We went ahead and did Figment which was only a 15 minute wait. I don't know if Steve knew what to make of me and Steph singing along with "One Little Spark" at the very end lol. They took a quick look around Imageworks and after seeing nothing exciting we left. We noticed that Soarin had a 25 minute wait and Steph really wanted to do that so we headed for The Land. None of us minded doing that ride again anyway.

The standby line wasn't too bad. Matt, Steph, and I played along with the mobile game on our phones. We were all team purple and we found out one of the guys ahead of us was also purple so we had a good time getting our team to the top of the leader board. Soarin was just as good this time around. Steph actually screamed at first scene (I won't go into detail about which part, but if you've seen it you probably know which part because it's kind of sudden and takes you by surprise) which made us all laugh. My only complaint this time around is I guess we were seated farther away from the middle of the theater so some of the scenes looked a little too wide.It's definitely a better experience if you are in the middle of the theater.

After Soarin we decided to stop and get a snack because we were getting kind of hungry. We got Mickey pretzels with cheese and sat on a planter while we ate them. Steph really wanted to do Test Track but the standby line was 75 minutes and she didn't want to do single rider because she wanted to definitely ride with Steve.Instead she opted to do Mission Space. Her, Steve, Matt, and my Dad decided to go for it while I opted to stay behind with my Mom. As I mentioned before I can't do spinning rides anymore and I'm a bit claustrophobic, so I can definitely leave the experience.

My Mom and I decided to look in Mouse Gears for a bit. Then I lingered over to the pin trading spot to look for a few new pins. There were also a few people with pin trading boards and books. I would've definitely looked longer, but I didn't want to just leave my Mom. So eventually I wheeled her over near a bench by Mission Space and we waited for everyone else to finish their ride.

By then it was about time to start heading over to our dinner ADR which was something I was looking forward to for literally years. We were finally eating at Le Cellier. I've always wanted to try it and even though I've heard the quality has gone down recently, I still wanted to check it off the Disney bucket list. I didn't care that it was 2 TS credits and probably not worth it. I also did not care that Matt did not like literally anything on the menu. I was going to eat there and nothing was going to stand in my way!

We wound up being early by the time we got to Canada so we decided to squeeze in the movie before checking in for dinner. We were still a bit early for check in, but I gave them our name anyway where they informed they were currently running 15-20 min behind schedule. I also noticed they were training quite a few new CMs, so this my have contributed to the rush.

Thankfully it had cooled down quite a bit, so we waited outside until they finally called us around 6:40pm. Our reservation had been for 6:15pm. Also keep in mind that we had a 7:30 Frozen FP which I was already afraid would be a tight squeeze. I figured we had until 8:30pm, so we should be fine, right?

The wine flights looked really good, but I was totally not willing to pay $20 for it, so I just stuck with a Coke. My Mom, Dad, and I ordered the Black Angus Boneless Rib-Eye. I love Rib-eye steak so I was excited. I also subbed the veggies for fries (yes, I'm THAT person. I know some people may be cringing right now at how classless I am). Steph ordered the Chicken Two-Ways and Steve ordered the Alaskan Halibut. Matt didn't like anything, so he decided not to use his credits and just order a side of poutine and he'd get something else later. I was also super tempted to try the Cheddar Cheese Soup, but it was a bit too hot for me to really want soup.

It took forever for our food to come. I was starving by the time I got it, but my steak was really good. My Dad enjoyed his as well. My Mom was unimpressed, but she's not much of a steak person. Steve said the halibut was really good and Steph was indifferent on the chicken. By the time we were finishing up it was already about 7:45 and we still needed to order and be served dessert and pay our bill. I was starting to get a little anxious about this FP...

When our waitress finally came over for our dessert orders Steph and I got the Chocolate Whiskey Truffle. I honestly don't remember what everyone else ordered because by now I was mentally trying to figure out how we were going to make it from Canada to Norway with my Mom in a wheelchair by 8:30pm. It was now after 8pm.

When our dessert finally arrived I felt bad, but I did have to politely ask the waitress if she could bring the bill right over because we had a FP for Frozen that was going to be closing shortly. I had nightmares of us missing it and I really wanted to ride it without waiting in a two hour line. She assured us if we did miss our window just to tell a CM that we were dining at Le Cellier, but now I was too keyed up. I could barely enjoy my dessert.

As soon as my Dad finished with the bill I practically ripped my family up from the table and started booking it towards Norway. (It was now 8:15-8:20pm.) In hindsight I was probably being a bit ridiculous, but I was having an insane Disney moment. I may have actually cried if we missed this FP, especially since it was the only one that I had pretty much no hope of rescheduling if we did.

Somehow we made it with maybe 5 minutes to spare. I was never so relieved to see that Mickey head turn green! lol Thanks to FP we practically walked on. Now I know I've ridden Maelstrom before, but I didn't really remember it too much except the going backward part. I knew that the ride itself was still the same with the addition of all the Frozen stuff. For what it was, I loved the ride, but I'm a Frozen fan. Matt said what I've heard from many others that the faces on the animatronics were kind of creepy. I didn't really mind, but I could see where people thought that. I for one actually filled up with tears during the Let It Go scene because I felt like you really felt like you were in Elsa's ice castle. It was amazing! I also had no idea they took a picture (not that you'd see me anyway since Steph's head is completely blocking my face lol

Steph said she loved it and now she wants to see Frozen. (She still hasn't seen it even though I've been bugging her to watch it with me. It's SUCH a good sister movie!)

After we got off Frozen it was just about time for Illuminations, so we found a spot between Norway and China. It was then I realized that we had barely touched World Showcase and I wasn't sure if we'd be able to make it back to visit any of the countries. I love World Showcase and NEVER get to spend a fraction of the amount of time I wish to spend there. I was heartbroken and then I realized that our trip was already past the halfway point and I was starting to realize with everything we've seen, we still were not going to be able to see a lot of what we wanted. Darn you WDW for being so big! Needless to say I may have cried a little during Illuminations. The inevitable Disney depression was starting to set in a bit.

After Illuminations of course we got swept up in the closing rush. Getting out of Epcot is still not as bad as MK by a long shot. I feel like there is more space for crowds to disperse. When we got to the monorail though that sucked. The line was pretty long and we really had no choice but to stand in it. Everyone decided that they were tired and we should probably skip the EMH because we had an early breakfast ADR the next morning. (Well, early for us). So we waited about half an hour for the monorail back to the TTC to get our car and head back to the hotel.

Would I make it back to Epcot to cram in a mini trip around the world? Stay tuned! Next up, the Universal portion of this trip report.

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Day 7- Thursday August 25th- Universal Studios

Today we were beginning the first in a two day stretch at the Universal parks. Stephanie and Steve had specifically requested that we wait for them before we did Universal. In all honesty, I can take or leave Universal. In terms of ride technology and thrill rides, I'll give it to Universal, but there just isn't that Disney charm there. I find the CM's at Disney to be generally more friendly.and we encountered way more rude guests at Universal than at Disney this time around. Still, we decided to include it in our plans since there had been so many new additions since we'd last been there. The last time we were down there was pre Harry Potter just to give you an idea.

Anyway since we'd have an extra TS credit, we had decided to book a breakfast ADR for the morning of our Universal trip. It was a little out of the way, but I had decided to book the Grand Floridian Cafe for 8:30am. I had eaten at 1900 Park Fare on a trip I had gone on with one of my friends several years ago, but the rest of my family had never even stepped foot in the Grand Floridian before, so I thought that it would be nice to try to squeeze in some time to check it out. Especially since we could probably only afford to stay there in our wildest dreams.

In my family though, everything has to be a circus. We were now on Day 7 and we hadn't really fought much yet, but tempers were definitely rising lol. Driving into the Grand Floridian, my Mom made a wrong turn into the resort guest parking which was all numbered spots and the only way out of the lot was to completely exit the resort. She was embarrassed to have to drive through the security booth again and admit that she had made a wrong turn. So that was a whole thing...

Then when we finally parked my parents were complaining about how they felt outclassed by coming here to eat. My Mom then bought up our dinner at Le Cellier and how she's not a fan of all "these fancy meals" I had planned. So, I was a little upset because I had tried to book some nice meals that were covered under the dining plan anyway. Apparently my family is not the fine dining type.Even on vacation when I think you should splurge a little. So yea... Apparently I have "expensive tastes" in their eyes.

As tense as the morning was, I really wanted to enjoy what little time we had to explore at the GF. Just look at the view. Someday when I marry a rich man... lol jk

We were taken right away once we arrived at the Grand Floridian Cafe. I wish I'd taken a picture because our table was really pretty. We were right in front of this big window, but we had to ask to have the drapes shut because the sun was hitting Steve right in the face. I really did not do a good job at remembering what everyone ordered (I'll improve on that next time!) I ordered the french toast and bacon which was really good and definitely filling.

Luckily our service was pretty fast, so it didn't put is too behind on our Universal Day. I wish I had more time to explore, but here are a few quick pics I snapped on the way back to the car.

We bid goodbye to the GF and then hit the road towards Universal which was an easy 20-25 minute drive down I-4. In a way it takes almost as long to get to the gates of either Universal theme park as it does MK, but at least you just walk the whole way and there's more room for people to move. It was kind of convenient to go through the metal detectors before you even reached CityWalk. The wheelchair rental process was more involved though. My Mom had to sign all these papers and show ID, none of which she had to do at Disney. I could be wrong, but I also think it was just a flat $12 a day regardless if you were coming to the parks for more than one day. The wheelchair we did get actually had a bad wheel, so it was a pain all day long.

Finally after a long walk through Citywalk we were finally approaching our park for the day.

We had just gotten the standard two day ticket. (No Flex Pass). Honestly when we go to Universal we know what we want to see and always wind up leaving the parks earlier than closing. We do a park a day and we are done. It seemed like we'd only be getting the Flex Pass to ride Hogwart's Express and we aren't HUGE Harry Potter fans, so for us it just didn't make sense.

When we got in, I of course had to snap a picture of this place. A) Because my nickname is Mel and B) It was at this very site on one of our previous trips that my Dad had spilled an entire tray of sodas all over himself. To this day we still tease him about his "soda shower."

We decided our first ride was going to be ET, so we headed over that way. We had also considered paying the extra money for an Express Pass, but had decided against it last minute. In all honesty we found the wait times not too bad and they were usually a shorter wait than posted. For example ET was posting a 30 or 40 min wait and we probably waited less than 20 min. I think it's still a great dark ride, but for some reason ET didn't say my name in the end. He did say Steph's name which we teased her about because she finds ET extremely creepy.

After that, Steph wanted to stop in the Spongebob gift shop to look around. In the middle of it they had Spongebob's pineapple. I tried to take a picture in it, but all I got was the purple lighting. Still an interesting picture.

From there we decided to head towards the Simpsons ride. Simpsons had been there last time we were at Universal, but it was before they built up Springfield.

Simpsons had a wait time of 30 minutes posted and I guess we waited close to that time. The theming in that ride is very entertaining even if you aren't a HUGE Simpson's fan. The ride itself was actually a bit more intense than I remembered it being. Steve said it made him feel sick, so he wasn't really a fan.

Since we were in Springfield we decided that we couldn't leave without stopping to try a Duff beer. Would I like it? Keep reading to hear my opinion on it!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

When we used to go with my whole family, my brother would complain about all the "fancy" meals I had booked. It's hurtful when you've tried to make a nice trip for everyone, but I guess all families get a little irritable on vacation!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

When we used to go with my whole family, my brother would complain about all the "fancy" meals I had booked. It's hurtful when you've tried to make a nice trip for everyone, but I guess all families get a little irritable on vacation!

It really is hurtful, isn't it? My family can be a bit picky about meals especially since Matt literally only eats chicken tenders and burgers. He's slowly branching out a bit, but it can be limiting for the rest of us, especially at Disney. The way I see it, is you are on vacation and you SHOULD eat places you might normally pick. Especially if you are already on the dining plan anyway. It's good to experiment a bit!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

We last let off about to stop in Springfield to experience Duff bear for the first time. We decided to grab our drinks at Duff Gardens. We ordered 3 Duff Lites. One for me, one for Steph and Steve to share, and one for my Mom who let my Dad have a few sips. Matt doesn't drink, so my parents gave him money to buy one of those refillable souvenir mugs that he could refill with soda throughout the day. That turned out to be a huge pain, but I'll get to that.

Here is my Duff Lite.

Steph and Steve

My parents

And me!

So here is my opinion on the Duff beer. I'm by no means a beer expert. I don't really drink a lot of craft beer or anything. I'm perfectly happy with a Miller Lite or Bud Lite. I did not see anything special about this beer. I actually wished I had someone to share mine with because I was so ehh about it. I think I made my Dad also have a few sips of mine and actually left some. I'll definitely skip it next time and if I want a beer in Universal I'll head to Citywalk.

After we finished our beers we decided to head towards Men in Black. The wait was only 20-30 min (that was about the wait times for most attractions, but actual wait was a bit shorter). We did have to rent a locker though for all our things. I actually didn't do too bad on MIB and ranked somewhere in the middle of the pack. I was starting to get better at all these shooting attractions!

After Men in Black we stopped at the bathroom and had to wait for Matt to fill up his cup at least twice. The guy was guzzling soda like it was nothing which was not good in this heat and it held us up a lot. Then we decided to continue on to Diagon Alley and literally walked past the entrance at least 2 or 3 times before we realized where it was. It's crazy how it's kind of tucked away from the rest of the park. As I mentioned before, I'm not a HP fan, but it's literally like you are stepping into a whole new world when you enter. It's pretty crazy.

We walked around a bit first. My Mom was considering getting a wand to bring back for my sister in law who is a big HP fan. Once she saw that even the non interactive ones were $40 she decided to try and fit something else for her. Steph and Steve wanted interactive wands of course, so they purchased them. We wanted to go ride Gringott's, but Steph and Steve wanted to go play with their new wands, so we split up and left my Mom with Steph and Steve while we went ahead on the ride. Not ever having read the books or having seen the movie, the plot was a little confusing on me, but the ride was very entertaining and a bit different than I had anticipated. (Different for the better). We enjoyed it.

After we got off, we found my Mom and hung out for a bit while Steph and Steve continued their magic wand business. We tried to look in the shops, but a lot of the shops there are very small and the doorways aren't really handicapped accessible, so we gave up. We told Steph and Steve that they could hang out for a bit longer, but we were going to move on.

Steph and Steve actually caught up to us a few minutes later... With a frozen butter beer she had purchased. My Mom and I had to try a sip just to see what the hype was about... OMG amazing! Definitely worth the hype! We weren't about to head back just to get one, but we definitely put it on our list for the next day at IOA.

We decided to do The Mummy next. Again, Steph and Steve chose to stay with my Mom while my Dad, Matt, and I rode. It was practically a walk on and definitely rougher than I remembered it being. I was definitely slammed around a few times.

After The Mummy, we decided it was time to get something to eat. The food inside the actual Universal parks isn't that great, so we decided to eat in Citywalk. With all the options there to choose from, my Dad wanted to go to Hard Rock Cafe. Hard Rock is fine, but we have one in Times Square in New York City that we go to a lot when we are there and we had eaten at Hard Rock on our last trip too. I guess it's good in the sense you know what you are going to get. Anyway, we wound up there. I had a burger. We purchased the group picture, but I haven't scanned it into our computer and I can't find it at the moment. I really missed Memory Maker at Universal!

After our meal, Steph and Steve wanted to go see the Horror Movie Makeup Show while my parents and Matt wanted to go see Shrek 4D. I decided to check out the Horror Movie Makeup show since I had never seen it. Steph and I are both makeup lovers and we thought it was going to be more of a demo of them actually applying FX makeup to people. It turned out to be a bit different than we anticipated, but it was still entertaining. It was very funny and some of the jokes would never fly at Disney.

After the show, we texted my Mom to find out where they were. Shrek had actually been a really short wait, so they had went on to watch the Terminator 3D show. Steph and I aren't fans, so we weren't too upset. We took the time to browse in some of the shops while we waited for their show to end. We finally met up and realized that we had done almost all the rides outside of Minions, Transformers and Rip It Ride It Rock It. The line for Minions had been at a steady 75 min wait all day and we honestly were not very interested in riding it. So we decided our next stop would be Transformers. Steph and Steve decided against riding it. (We were really surprised how they didn't seem to want to ride anything). They instead chose to walk around Citywalk and have some drinks for the rest of the night.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Love reading about Universal! I cannot wait to go here! Sad about the Duff beer, not a beer person myself really so you may have just saved me some money. Guess I'll stick to just getting the donut LOL

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Love reading about Universal! I cannot wait to go here! Sad about the Duff beer, not a beer person myself really so you may have just saved me some money. Guess I'll stick to just getting the donut LOL

I totally forgot to try the donut, but I can take or leave donuts. Yea... I would skip the Duff beer. Now butter beer on the other hand (even though it's non alcoholic) you MUST try!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

With Stephanie and Steve breaking off to tour City Walk, my Mom, Dad, Matt, and I went on to ride Transformers. Bumble Bee was doing a meet and greet.

Transformers actually turned out to be better than I expected. At first, I was like "this is just like Spiderman" but somewhere in the middle I really started to enjoy it. I actually got that falling sensation in my stomach during some of the scenes. Being that I'm not a Transformers fan and know very little about them, I was still entertained.

The only other ride left that we wanted to tackle was Rip, Ride, Rock It. My Mom obviously sat this one out and I debated staying with her, but at the last minute I decided to ride. I wasn't too keen on the fact that the lift hill was literally at a 90 degree angle. I struggled to figure out which song to pick on my ride and finally settled on "Hella Good" by No Doubt. The only bad thing was the song didn't really kick in until halfway through the ride. As expected, I did not find the lift hill very comfortable and couldn't wait for it to be over. The rest of the ride was surprisingly rough. I definitely got tossed around quite a bit. I'm not sure if I'd ride it again. Not my favorite roller coaster.

Afterwards, not only can you buy on ride photos, but they also video tape you throughout the entire ride. Yes, you can buy a video of your reactions throughout the entire ride set to the song you chose. Mine was not at all pretty. I couldn't even watch all of it.

By the time we got off the roller coaster, it was just starting to get dark and the park was almost about to close anyway. We decided to head out before their nightly show and meet up with Steph and Steve. We had another stop we wanted to make before heading back to the resort for the night. Of course Matt decided he just HAD to fill up his souvenir cup one more time for the road which meant he had to back track a bit. He told us to go on ahead and he'd catch up with us.

So we began to trek back towards the car and through City Walk. We texted Steph and Steve to meet us in front of the movie theater. Apparently they had a real good time drinking their way around City Walk. Actually, they only went to Cowfish, but they'd squeezed in like two drinks and a shot, so lets just say they were feeling pretty alright. Somehow Matt wound up having to go to like two different places before he could fill his cup, so we wound up waiting almost 20 minutes for him. By now we were all a little irritable, but as I said we had one more stop to squeeze in.

So to backtrack a bit, one of my Dad's really good friends moved down to Florida about two years ago. (Fun fact: He was actually the one who introduced my parents. He had been dating a casual friend of my Mom's, so my Mom wound up at the same party as my Dad and the rest is history!) He's retired, but he got a job working at Disney part time. He currently works at Art of Disney in Disney Springs and he had been telling my Dad to stop in and say hi to him numerous times once he heard we were coming for a visit. This was one of the only nights he was working that fit into our schedule, so it was kind of now or never. My Mom really didn't want to go all the way to Disney Springs just to say a quick hello, but it seemed rude to be down in Disney and not make an effort to see him.

So we all piled into the van and started to drive towards Disney Springs. As I said, everyone was tired and kind or irritable. My Mom was a little lost since that whole area has changed a lot since it became Disney Springs and she wasn't sure what would be the best place to park to be closest to Art of Disney. Also factor in the fact that Steph and Steve were getting a little obnoxious. Maybe it was because I was stone cold sober, but they were getting to be a bit annoying. I think they drank a little too much too fast and although I love her, Steph can sometimes be a little belligerent when she drinks. First off, she was arguing with my parents how she wanted to go back to the resort to get a swim in, so she wanted to take the bus back when we got to Disney Springs. My Dad's friend is her godfather, so my Dad was trying to tell her that she out of any of us should especially be the one to stop in and see him. Then she was trying to argue with my Mom about where she should go... Needless to say I was happy to get out of the car!

I wish I'd taken more pictures of Disney Springs, but at that point of the day I was so done that this was all I took from the lime garage escalator,

Here are my thoughts on Disney Springs. It's really pretty, but parts of it did remind me of the Tanger Outlets we have near my house. There has also been so much new stuff added so quickly that it's only now that I'm home I'm like Man! I should have looked at that! It also probably doesn't help that we weren't in the best mood and went with the sole purpose of dropping by to say hi to my Dad's friend. It was surprisingly crowded too. I would get the chance to return to Disney Springs on another night, but again I was on a time constraint and I had a specific thing to do there. I wish I had more time to wander and explore.

It was actually a bit of a walk to the Art of Disney and it didn't help that we were a bit confused about where things were since the layout has changed quite a bit. When we reached Art of Disney it was actually packed and my Dad's friend was with a guest, so we browsed around for a bit. We'd lost Steph and Steve on the way, but figured they would catch up. We managed to say a quick hello to George (my Dad's friend) but he looked super busy, so we didn't want to keep him from helping guests. He told us he was off on Saturday and that we should call him, so we could try to meet up somewhere on property for a drink.

My Dad tried to find Steph, so that she could say hello only to come and find out that Steph and Steve had wound up having a fight. I don't even know all the details, but she was just in a bad mood and Steve tried to hug her or something to comfort her and she pulled away, so he got all offended. Anyway he wound up walking away for a few minutes just to calm himself down, but Steph thought that he had decided to wait by the car, so she took it upon herself to catch the bus back to the resort. (This is why sometimes alcohol and theme parks don't mix!) My parents weren't happy about it because they didn't like her taking the bus by herself. (For some reason they were very weird about any of us taking the buses alone on this trip. I think they were a little freaked out about the recent Orlando club shooting and the news that the shooter had been scouting out WDW as a potential target). Steve was really upset too, so yea.... Just lots of drama. It had been so quiet and drama free when it was just the four of us. (Just saying!)

We decided since we were there to look at World of Disney. We had some 10% off coupons we got on receipts from things we bought at MK. My Mom really wanted one of those Disney Vera Bradley bags and an Alex and Ani bracelet, so my Dad bought them for her. I think he also got a shirt or two and then I wanted another Alex and Ani bracelet, so they offered to pay for half of it. It was a tough decision, but I decided on the silver Anna and Elsa one. We tried to get Matt to pick something out, but he chose not to get anything.

We also tried to continue our quest for our 2016 Disney ornament at the Christmas store and once again we did not find anything we liked. Why was every ornament like 10 pounds?

So tired, cranky, and irritable, we decided it was time just to head back to the resort. Of course, nothing can go smoothly though. Somehow along the way, Steve, Matt, and I wound up separated from my Mom and Dad in a crowd. So, we decided just to head to the car and meet up with them there. When we reach our level in the parking garage we see our van and the alarm is beeping like someone had hit the button on the keys to alert you where the car is parked, but my parents were nowhere to be found. We knew they couldn't be far though if they had hit the alarm. Turns out, they thought we were one level lower than we actually were. When they couldn't find the car, they hit the alarm and then were confused to hear it going off above them. I guess I shouldn't be surprised... We are talking about the same people who wound up at the All Star Music lobby and was convinced it was All Star Movies.... Luckily we got it all sorted out and made it back to our resort just in time to crash and pass out. Day 2 of Universal was next!

Would Stephanie and Steve kiss and make up? Would I finally get my Butter beer? How long would the wait be for Kong? Stay tuned!

 

[deanna88]

following along... loving your trip report

 

[DimpledDevil18]

following along... loving your trip report

Thanks for reading! Glad you are enjoying it!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Day 8- Friday, August 26th- Islands of Adventure

Today was our second and last day at the Universal parks and our goal was to tackle Islands of Adventure. Today we grabbed a QS breakfast at the resort before hitting the road to Universal. I went for my tried and true egg and cheese croissant with hash browns.

FYI Steph and Steve still weren't talking after their argument, so that made for a bit of a tense start to the day. When we arrived at Islands of Adventure, I tried talking to her and she said something dramatic like, "This may be the last trip we take together.."

Before we hit any rides I experimented a bit with one of the location specific Snapshot filters.

Every time we do IOA we always start at Seuss Landing and work our way counter clockwise around the park. In theory, it shouldn't work so well because you would think everyone starts that way, but we've always had success doing that way. Touring Plans had rated the day as an 8/10 but crowds seemed pretty light. I don't think we waited more than 20 minutes for any ride we went on. So following our usual pattern we did Cat in the Hat first which was pretty much a walk on. I think its a really cute dark ride and I love Dr. Seuss, so I enjoyed it.

Next we headed for the Seuss Trolley. This was one of the few rides where the actual wait time exceeded the posted one. It was supposed to be a 10 minute wait, but turned out to be closer to 20. It was cute though and gave you a nice view of the park, but it does load pretty slow.

We decided not to ride One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and we really didn't feel like wasting time on the Caroseussal, so it was onto the next island which is The Lost Continent. My Mom loves Poseidon's Fury and there was like a 20 minute wait (totally in AC) so we decided to go join the line.

Unfortunately, we did not have the best experience on Poseidon's Fury. First off, for the pre show we wound up being almost completely crammed into the corner since we were the last group let in. A CM (is that how Universal refers to their employees as well?) told us we couldn't be behind the line, but it was literally impossible for all of us plus my Mom's wheelchair to squeeze before it. Secondly, where on most attractions such as this they have guests in wheelchairs go to the front, they didn't during the pre show and people were literally standing in front of my mother, so she could barely see. Nothing against tall people, but I'm only 5'2 on a good day and of course there was an entire family where the shortest person was like 5'8 and they looked to only be 12 or 13 standing in front of me. Then I got yelled at (well spoken to) because my cell phone was in my hand and I'd accidentally turned the screen on and didn't realize. Honest mistake though... I apologized and made sure it was off and put away. Needless to say we literally saw zero of the pre show.

I thought it would be better in the next room because we were instructed to stand in the front row. Of course we had another wheelchair party in front of us and instead of moving all the way down their row they stopped right in the middle of the row and refused to move down! Forcing my family to have to be on top of each other crammed into the left hand side of the theater. We tried to get their attention to see if they would move down and they pretended they didn't notice us. Oh man I was fuming! Where was that CM who yelled at us earlier about being too close to the doors and about my phone? If it weren't for the fact that there wasn't enough room for my Mom's wheelchair to pass, we would have just walked right past them to the other end. People are unbelievable!

So, unfortunately I did not fully get to enjoy that attraction. And now I was ticked off because they just aggravated one of my biggest pet peeves at amusement parks. But, onward we went and I'd get over it. Our next stop was art one of the Moroccan style gift shops right near the bridge between The Lost Continent and Harry Potter. Steph and I were looking through the henna tattoos and decided we both kind of wanted one. Matt and my Dad wanted to ride Dragon Challenge, but I decided I'd rather get my henna tattoo, so I stayed behind with my Mom, Steph, and Steve. Steph decided to get a custom made arrow on her forearm while I decided on a floral henna pattern from their book on my foot. Steph's was $10 and mine was $15. I think mine came out MUCH nicer.

The henna tattoo artists were really quick, so we decided to head into Harry Potter world to wait for my Dad and Matt. While we were waiting we got butter beers and Steve and Steph tried a bit more magic with their wands. Somewhere around this point, they both decided to kiss and make up.

After Matt and my Dad came off Dragon Challenge (they had ridden both sides) we finished up our butter beers which were very refreshing in the heat and then Steph and Steve let Matt and I play with their wands a bit. It's more difficult than you think and it was kind of embarrassing that a kid who had to be maybe 8 was trying to help me out by telling me what to do. Finally, I got at least one window to interact, so I was pleased.

Then we decided to head towards Forbidden Journey. Stephanie and Steve decided not to ride. (For someone who begged us not to do Universal without her, Steph literally did not do any other rides for the rest of the day. (Okay, she did ONE other ride). Maybe it was because Steve was a little wary of some of the rides. They also didn't want to get wet. Considering a large portion of the park is water rides and thrill rides that could be a problem. Matt wanted to ride, but because he is a larger guy he found that he couldn't fit in the seat. (This was unfortunately the only ride he couldn't fit on in either Disney or Universal). So it wound up just being my Dad and I.

Even though I'm not too familiar with the HP universe this was a very unique and entertaining ride. I really wish Steph would've went. I kind of wanted to go again, but we didn't really have the time to go back to re ride.

While we were riding Forbidden Journey, the rest of our group discovered that I guess there is a section of Forbidden Journey that non riders can walk through. Apparently they got to talking with a CM (ironically named Melissa). Anyway Melissa asked if they had ridden Spiderman yet and they said no. Melissa told them to tell whoever was at the front of Spiderman that "Melissa from Forbidden Journey had sent us" and they would hook us up. My Mom made a mental note to do that later.

After they finished their walk through they decided to head on to the Discovery Center at Jurassic Park where my Dad and I would meet them once we got off our ride.

Next up: I get antsy at the Discovery Center, I experience another theme park pet peeve, and another rain storm delays our plans.

 

[DimpledDevil18]

My Dad and I eventually met up with the rest of our group at the Jurassic Park Discovery Center. I may have mentioned earlier that Matt is a really big dinosaur nut, so he was having a ball looking at literally everything. If given the choice he would probably stand there and watch the raptor egg hatching all day long.

I browsed around a little, but I can only do so much of these kind of exhibits, especially when there still are rides that need to be experienced! I watched a bit of the raptor egg hatching and then I took a turn creating myself as a dinosaur (not a pretty sight!) but then I grew a little bored. My Mom's knee was really bothering her today even in the wheelchair, so she was fine sitting in the AC and Matt, Steph, and Steve were off literally taking in everything. I wanted to move on to the Jurassic Park River Ride which only had like a 10-15 minute wait at the time and I knew it wasn't going to last. My Mom didn't feel up to it and Steph and Steve didn't want to get wet. Matt wanted to do it, but wanted more time in the Discovery Center, so the day kind of came to a bit of halt.

This was Matt as a dinosaur lol. I kind of like it. It suits him!

This is my "I'm really bored and impatient, but I'm going to smile like everything is fine" selfie.

Matt and I had to get a picture of the two of us in our Jurassic Park shirts in Jurassic Park.

Finally, we managed to drag all the dino lovers out (I swear they are worse than little kids!) and head towards the Jurassic Park River Adventure. But, we didn't get very far. We passed the sign for the Raptor Encounter and Matt insisted we do it thinking it was a walk through of some sorts. I wasn't exactly sure what it was myself, but it didn't seem worth a 15 minute wait. Sure enough, once we got on line we were informed by a CM that the attraction was actually more of a photo opportunity with a Raptor and that it would be temporarily closing in a few minutes and reopening like 20 minutes later. We were welcome to stay in line if we liked. We all decided it was not worth it and headed on our merry way with more time wasted.

We finally got to the River Adventure (which now had a 30 min wait ). We parked my Mom, Steph, and Steve at a table by a food stand and Matt even gave them his coveted souvenir cup in case they got thirsty. Then we finally got on line. The line moved faster than the posted wait time, but we were all getting kind of tense. My Dad was upset that Steph and Steve didn't want to seem to do anything and I couldn't blame him. They were really starting to slow us down.

To add insult to injury once we board our boat we are literally surrounded in a cloud of really bad BO. Not only was it the people in front of us, but in back of us as well. I don't mean to sound ignorant. I know people have various reasons for choosing not to wear deodorant, but it's Orlando in August with temperatures feeling over 100 degrees. You are also in very heavy crowds and sometimes are forced to share a close proximity with other guests. Please be courteous! It kind of made the ride a little hard to enjoy since I couldn't breathe.

By the time we got off the ride we all decided that the reason for our crankiness must have meant we were hungry. We decided to grab food in Marvel Superhero Island because Steph and Steve wanted to do some shopping there anyway for Steve's nephews. They didn't want to ride anything in Toon Lagoon, so we figured the rest of us would just back track. We decided on the Marvel Superhero Diner which was pretty much chicken fingers and burgers. Even though I had a burger the day before I decided to get another one. It was okay. Standard theme park food. My Mom said the chicken was disgusting and that I had made a good choice.

So, we left Steph and Steve and decided to back track to Toon Lagoon. My Dad wanted to do Reign of Kong, but it was a 2 hour wait and it was already almost 6pm. We also decided to skip Dudley Doo Right because that was a 45 minute wait. We all did want to ride the Popeye Ride and it was surprisingly a consistent 10-15 minute wait throughout the day. Ideally, we should have tried to do this ride earlier in the day, but we had a few hold ups. It wasn't until we were on line that we realized the sky was looking pretty grim... Maybe the rain would hold off until we got off the ride...

Of course as SOON as our raft started to leave the station it started to rain. I guess it wasn't that big of a deal because we were going to get wet anyway. Now, I totally forgot about the main difference between this ride and Kali. On Kali you do get wet, but there's always that ONE person who gets soaked. On this ride absolutely every person in the raft gets DRENCHED. There is no lucky seat on this raft. So again probably not the best decision to go on this ride when its later in the day and it's now raining. Oh well...

We debated using one of those huge drying stations, but my parents thought it was highway robbery to pay $5 to use one even after Matt and I decided to pay. Plus they were getting pretty crowded. So my Mom just put on her poncho. The rain wasn't too bad yet and there wasn't much of a wait for Hulk so my Dad thought if we hurried we might be able to make it a ride on it. Well, by the time we dropped my Mom back off with Steph and Steve and got towards the Hulk entrance it had started to pour and Hulk was closed. My Dad figured that we might as well wait the storm out in the queue, since it was covered. So, for the second time in like two days I was stuck waiting out a storm while on line to ride a roller coaster... I'm starting to see a pattern here!

At least it gave me a bit to dry off a little even though my clothes were still damp for the rest of the evening. We thankfully didn't have to wait as long as we did for Everest the other day and the ride reopened after about 20 minutes. We should have practically walked on at that point, but somehow we must not have been paying attention and wound up in the line for the front row. So, what should have been a quick wait turned out to be another 20 minutes.

I was a bit apprehensive of riding front row on a roller coaster (I'm a chicken!) but it turned out to be much better than expected. It was nice not having anyone else's head in the way and just open track in front of you. I don't remember Hulk well enough to really compare the new track to the old one, but it was an awesome ride!

There was just one more ride for us to conquer on our list and that was Spiderman. All 6 of us agreed to ride it and my Mom had to name drop "Melissa from Harry Potter." I don't know what kind of pull this Melissa has, but as soon as we mentioned her name they led us right through the Express Pass line. We pretty much walked on which was greatly appreciated even though the stand by line was only about 20 minutes. Spiderman is still a good ride, but after riding Transformers you can tell it's just a variant of the same ride system. To be honest, after two days in Universal there were only so many simulation rides involving movie screens that I could stand after a while. Universal's rides are definitely more high tech, but I feel there is more variety at Disney if that makes sense.

We decided after that, there really wasn't much more we wanted to see. We could have waited on the two hour Kong line I suppose, but we really wanted to go back to our resort and change into some dry clothes. We stopped at the gift shop where my Mom decided on a Harry Potter mug for my SIL and we tried getting Matt a shirt he wanted, but they didn't carry his size. (Not cool Universal. Disney at least carries up to a 4 or 5 XL or something crazy like that).

We still had a nice portion of the evening open to us. Stay tuned for swimming, a quest to find quesadillas, mini golf, and a chance for me to finally get my margarita!

 

[DimpledDevil18]

When we finally made it back to All Star Movies, the rain had stopped, so we decided to go for a swim. I forgot to mention this, but of course right before we left NY, one of my bathing suit tops (that I'd worn maybe four times max) had fallen apart in the wash and by the end of August it was really hard to find another top. I had to order a new bathing suit online and have Steph pack it with her because it was scheduled to arrive after I already left. So, now I finally got the chance to wear it. Thankfully it fit well enough.

While we were in the pool, we discussed going to play some mini golf. My family is very competitive wen it comes to mini golf and we try to play whenever we can. Plus we had vouchers for free games. We had wanted to try to squeeze a game in at some point and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Technically our vouchers were only for a free game before 4pm, but my Dad called up and they said as long as they weren't busy we could redeem them. Score!

We decided to go back to the room and change and we were getting a bit hungry, so we decided to try to grab a bite to eat before heading to Winterland/Summerland. We were getting a bit tired of burgers, so we weren't really feeling our food court. Matt said he really could go for a quesadilla and that sounded really good to the rest of us. Now the question was where could we get one that wasn't too far out of the way?

Matt took it upon himself to do a little research and he said that when he looked up the menu for the All Star Music food court it said they served quesadillas. We were in walking distance of All Star Music and I vaguely remembered them serving quesadillas the time we had stayed there. (Too bad that was 2004). I was hungry and I trusted that I had taught Matt a thing or two, so I didn't stop to verify the information.

The quest for quesadillas was on!

We were extremely disappointed to arrive at All Star Music and find out that they didn't offer quesadillas after all. Matt must have been looking at an old menu. We were already there though and they did have a pasta station which our resort did not have, so we decided just to settle for pasta. I got penne pasta with alfredo sauce and chicken. For dessert I got a Rice Krispie treat, but I should have done what Matt did and ask for a Mickey Premium Bar. The pasta was just okay. It tasted a bit watery and I'm not sure the alfredo sat well with me because I had some pains in my stomach for a bit afterwards. I still would've liked a quesadlla.

After we finished it was already almost 10:30 and they told us at Winterland/Summerland to get there by 10:30 because that was the latest they would let us on the course since they closed at 11pm. Luckily, Winterland/Summerland was just up the road, so we pretty much made it at 10:30 on the dot. We decided to play the Summerland course since we had played Winterland on our last trip.

I wish I'd have taken pics at the golf course, but I left my bag and my phone in the car because I didn't want to worry about holding it while I golfed. I was wearing a skirt too, so I had no pockets. I love the theming on the course. It's very cute! Unfortunately, I did not do so well on that night. I wound up going first which psyched me out. I normally do better after at least one person before me goes, so I can get a better sense of how to best play each hole. I am also a very big sore loser, so I was not happy when I came in last out of the 6 of us. I may have even pouted about it for a good 15 minutes afterwards.

I got over it though pretty quickly once my Dad suggested we go down to the bar back at our resort and grab a drink before bed. If anything was going to numb the pain of a disappointing game of mini golf it was alcohol. Matt declined since he doesn't drink and I think Steph did as well. They went back to the room or maybe went Pokemon hunting. I don't remember, but my parents, Steve, and I belly upped to the bar.

I was owed a margarita from the other day when I had forgotten my ID in Epcot. It wasn't from Mexico, but it would do the trick.

I don't remember which drink my Mom ordered, but it was really good and I kind of wish I'd ordered it instead of my margarita.

Steve liked his drink too. I had a sip, but didn't care for it. Again, I'm not sure what it was called. He gave it a thumbs up though.

Cheers to a long, but productive day! We were getting down to the nitty gritty now. Only two more days left in the Disney bubble. The next day was supposed to be our "free" day. Our only set in stone plans was dinner at Chef Mickey's at 7pm. Where would we wind up? You'll have to keep reading!