Trip Report *COMPLETED* How Much Magic Can We Cram Into 2 Days???....Allllll the Magic (if you know you know)

As the quote goes “Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in”. Welcome to my first trip report in 6 years. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever write a trip report again, but here we are. Maybe I’ll do more of these in the future.

If you’re interested in the pre-trip report, here’s the link: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/lets-see-if-i-can-remember-how-to-do-one-of-these-things.980385/

If you want the quick summary, then here goes:

Who’s travelling this time: This time it is just Tammy (my DW) and me (Graham).

It was our 25th anniversary at the end of August, and we wanted to do something with just the two of us. We would have gone closer to our anniversary, but our daughter Steph got married mid-August, so we decided to wait to give us time to settle down from the busy summer. As a side note, Steph and her husband Calvin went to Disney for their honeymoon and had a great time.

When - We were there from September 20-23 (this was kind of a last minute add-on to the start of our planned anniversary trip (a cruise out of Miami)).

Where – We stayed at the Villas at Copper Creek in a studio.


A little preamble

5 years ago (September 2018) we walked out of the parks on the last day of our annual Disney vacation, fully expecting to be back the following year. However after 10 straight years of annual Disney vacations, we decided to take “just 1 year off” and do something non-Disney for a change, but fully planned on going back the next year….That was 2019….Remember 2020?? I remember reading the news in early 2020 that Shanghai Disney was being shut down because of some unknow virus that was spreading in Asia. That was closely followed by all Disney Parks around the world being shut down as Covid spread around the globe. Two weeks to flatten the curve turned into over 2 full years of travel restrictions for Canadians, which lead to 5 years of no Disney for us.

To say we were looking forward to this trip would be an understatement.

A lot had changed from the last time we were at Disney. Back in 2018 you booked your 3 advanced fastpasses (for free) 60 days before you arrived at the parks, and dining reservations were made 180 days before your trip. When you arrived in Orlando you just walked off the plane and onto a bus that was “free”, that took you right to your resort and your bags just magically showed up a few hours later.

Now we have to pay for fastpasses, collect our own bags and arrange our own transportation. This isn’t a complaint, just stating the facts. Despite these changes, we were really looking forward to being back at Disney.

So let’s get started…

 

[BigDis]

Enjoying your TR and following along also.

 

[lindawdw]

I'm enjoying following along! You certainly accomplished a lot in your first full day! It was a rocky start with all the attractions being down at DHS but you seemed to take it in stride and still got a lot done. Great counter services choices for dinner. I find the Disney transportation truly adds to the experience of the trip.

 

[kimberlymautz]

Following along! Happy Anniversary!

 

[amjt660]

Great start to the trip report

Glad you came back to the boards


Max

 

[Minnie1986]

As the quote goes “Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in”. Welcome to my first trip report in 6 years. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever write a trip report again, but here we are. Maybe I’ll do more of these in the future.

If you’re interested in the pre-trip report, here’s the link: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/lets-see-if-i-can-remember-how-to-do-one-of-these-things.980385/

If you want the quick summary, then here goes:

Who’s travelling this time: This time it is just Tammy (my DW) and me (Graham).
View attachment 751366

It was our 25th anniversary at the end of August, and we wanted to do something with just the two of us. We would have gone closer to our anniversary, but our daughter Steph got married mid-August, so we decided to wait to give us time to settle down from the busy summer. As a side note, Steph and her husband Calvin went to Disney for their honeymoon and had a great time.
View attachment 751367
When - We were there from September 20-23 (this was kind of a last minute add-on to the start of our planned anniversary trip (a cruise out of Miami)).

Where – We stayed at the Villas at Copper Creek in a studio.


A little preamble

5 years ago (September 2018) we walked out of the parks on the last day of our annual Disney vacation, fully expecting to be back the following year. However after 10 straight years of annual Disney vacations, we decided to take “just 1 year off” and do something non-Disney for a change, but fully planned on going back the next year….That was 2019….Remember 2020?? I remember reading the news in early 2020 that Shanghai Disney was being shut down because of some unknow virus that was spreading in Asia. That was closely followed by all Disney Parks around the world being shut down as Covid spread around the globe. Two weeks to flatten the curve turned into over 2 full years of travel restrictions for Canadians, which lead to 5 years of no Disney for us.

To say we were looking forward to this trip would be an understatement.

A lot had changed from the last time we were at Disney. Back in 2018 you booked your 3 advanced fastpasses (for free) 60 days before you arrived at the parks, and dining reservations were made 180 days before your trip. When you arrived in Orlando you just walked off the plane and onto a bus that was “free”, that took you right to your resort and your bags just magically showed up a few hours later.

Now we have to pay for fastpasses, collect our own bags and arrange our own transportation. This isn’t a complaint, just stating the facts. Despite these changes, we were really looking forward to being back at Disney.

So let’s get started…

you guys look STUNNING in that photo!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Glad to have you back! Enjoying your report so far.

 

[gwhb75]

I'm in at number two. Now I have to go back and catch up!

Thanks for following along. I always love reading your trip reports. Any trips coming up?

I'm enjoying following along! You certainly accomplished a lot in your first full day! It was a rocky start with all the attractions being down at DHS but you seemed to take it in stride and still got a lot done. Great counter services choices for dinner. I find the Disney transportation truly adds to the experience of the trip.

We really tried to cram a lot into day 1. We wish we had more time (it's one of those "absence makes the heart grow fonder" things). I think we forgot how much we enjoyed Disney. Disney transportation is awesome. Even our kids talk about how they would rather take the bus to the parks than have me drive. Thanks for following along.

Following along! Happy Anniversary!

Thanks. Hope you're enjoying it so far

Glad to have you back! Enjoying your report so far.

It's nice to be back. I had been around, but wasn't posting anything, so it's nice being active and interacting with everyone again. It's fun seeing people who followed us in the past following us on this one too.

you guys look STUNNING in that photo!

I'm blushing. That was taken on our cruise and we thought it looked cool (the setting and the pose, not so much the subjects in the picture (at least not me LOL. Tammy always looks great).

 

[gwhb75]

Loving the start of your report. Wish we had seen you both whilst we were there as well. We are so looking forward to staying at the WL in 2025.

It would have been fun to meet you as well. I think you'll love WL. In terms of theming, it's pretty much a tie with AKL for us. Definitely one of our favourite resorts.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 21 – Tammy, Graham the Viral Shirts and the Candy Heist

We started the day with the planned “sleeping in” (i.e. around 8am). We had a quiet morning planned since we were doing the MNSSHP in the evening. We started with the normal coffee in the room to wake ourselves up, then we headed over to the fitness centre (Sturdy Branches), which is located in the Boulder Ridge part of the resort. The gym was fairly well equipped, and we got a good workout in.

After working out we headed back to the room for showers, then made our way back to Disney Springs. When we were at Disney Springs yesterday we really only hung around the old “West Side” area, so today the plan was the old “Marketplace”.

Not a whole lot of excitement to talk about here. We wandered around some of the stores (Basin (Liam used to love it here), Le Patisserie, etc) taking pictures of things we found interesting.

Some cool pet stuff at the Co-Op

Steph thought we should have got this for Cooper.

LOL.

More Sept 21 to come.

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 21 continued

Around 11ish we decided we should have lunch (we wanted to eat lunch a bit early since we had dining reservations at 4:30). We both love Earl of Sandwich so that’s where we went.

Tammy got the Holiday sandwich, and I got the limited time Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich.

Both were great (now we’re thinking we should open up an Earl of Sandwich in Canada). After lunch we continued our wandering. We made our way into Ghirardelli…when did they stop doing samples??? Man, what else has covid taken from us… Oh well…I bought a sample for Tammy and I.

Not bad.

More Sept 21 to come

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 21 continued
We eventually made it to World of Disney.

For the most part things are exactly like we remembered them. They do have the mobile check-out thing, but we can’t use that because we want to get the DVC discount. Still a cool idea though. We walked around all the different departments (we really like the houseware section, but we didn’t have a lot of room in our suitcases, so this was just a “look and dream” excursion). We made our way over to the clothing section, and we noticed a bit of a commotion around a clothing rack that had some black hats and cream coloured sweatshirts on them. People were going a bit crazy grabbing these things, so we couldn’t help but ask a CM what all the excitement was about. Apparently these shirts and hats had gone viral on Tik-Tok and were really hard to get a hold of. “So Stupid” I thought to myself as I grabbed two sweatshirts and a hat (LOL). I tried them on and sent a picture to Steph to get her opinion.

She said she was getting Toby Mac vibes off that hat and that she really liked the sweatshirt. I’m not a hat guy, although I didn’t really mind this one. However, it was a hard no on the hat. The sweatshirt however…I had one condition…Tammy had to get one too.

Yeah, I really had to twist her arm on that one. So, with matching sweatshirts in hand, we headed to the cash register to check out (it was interesting how quickly these shirts went though. The rack was looking pretty sparce by the time we made up our mind what we doing). The CM at the checkout was surprised they had the sweatshirts back in stock again (so either they really are that popular, or we’re victims of a well-organized psy-op orchestrated by Disney). We were happy with the shirts.

With our purchases made we decided to head back to WL to try and get some rest before out anticipated busy night ahead.

One thing I wanted to do when we got back to WL was go over the DVC desk. I had heard they have medallions for members, and I wanted to grab one. We found the desk and I asked about them, and they knew exactly what I was talking about. They pulled up my file to make sure I hadn’t received one already (this is apparently a problem where people will try and get multiple items that are available (e.g. DVC magicband sliders), so now they have to track). As the CM was looking through my account, she noticed something strange. “Who is your representative?” she asks. I really had no idea, as we bought resale 15 years ago, so I’m not sure how that works. The CM keeps digging…”It looks like you’ve never had one”. Well that would make sense since we’ve never heard from anyone from DVC since we bought it (other than the mass communications). So, long story short, we got assigned a rep who was actually at WL at the time, so we had a chance to meet him in person and have a quick chat with him. Later that night we received an email from him so now we have an actual point of contact going forward. Oh yeah, we also got that medallion (and a couple of magnets to boot).

More Sept 21 to come

 

[gwhb75]

Sept 21 continued

With medallion in hand, we headed back to the room for a little afternoon nap before the big night ahead. Around 3 pm we got up, threw on something a bit festive, and headed down to the boat launch.

We made it to the MK around 3:30ish, and we jumped into the massive line that was already in place for the MNSSHP (actually, Tammy got in line. We had bought DVC tickets, and I was told I had to go to Guest Services to show I’m a DVC member before I could go in. Turns out that wasn’t true. The bright side for me was that they let me in through a side entrance with no wait. The downside was Tammy was in the line already, so I waited for her).

Around 4 they started letting everyone in to the park. We got out wristbands and Trick-or-Treat bags, and then headed into the park.

I was really excited about being back in the MK.

However, we didn’t have a lot of time to soak in the atmosphere since we had a reservation at the Diamond Horseshoe at 4:30, so we headed over to Fronteirland.

On the way through Liberty Square I stopped and took a picture of the gallows, and sent the picture to Steph and Liam with a “miss you guys”.

About 30 seconds later Steph replied...

LOL.

I did the mobile check-in for the restaurant while I was standing there, which worked great (they were waiting for us by the time we got to the restaurant).

More September 21st to come

 

[gwhb75]

September 21st continued

We had never been in the Diamond Horseshoe, but we had eaten the food before (same menu as Liberty Tree, which is one of Tammy’s favourites).

We were seated quickly, and the bread and salad were brought out almost right away.

Next up was the mains,

followed by dessert.

Dinner was great (although a bit heavy), and the setting was nice. I prefer the theming at Liberty Tree, but this was a nice alternative. We were both quite satisfied with our meal. With dinner done, we headed out to the MNSSHP.

More September 21st to come

 

[gwhb75]

September 21st continued
One thing we had to figure out is what we wanted to get out of this night. Did we want to watch the parade and fireworks? Are rides a priority? Do we want to get lots of Candy? We talked about it, and decided that rides and candy were the priority. I really do love the parade and fireworks, but I think that having a limited amount of time meant I didn’t want to stop for 1-2 hours.

Our first stop after dinner was the Peoplemover (had to let that heavy meal settle a bit before we tried anything too crazy).

I love the Peoplemover.

After Peoplemover we headed over to Adventureland, and hopped on Jungle Cruise.

I should mention that on our way over it hit 6pm, which meant one thing – the virtual que for Tron opened. Ofcourse the app glitched as I was refreshing it, and I ended up having to log out and log back in. I did get a boarding group, but it was quite a high number (group 181).

Oh well, at least I got one. Big Thunder was next up

More September 21st to come

 

[gwhb75]

September 21st continued

The party officially started right after we got off Big Thunder, which meant all the trick-or-treat locations were now open,
so we went into full-on candy collection mode.

I like the set-up better than the previous parties I had been in (like in 2014). They had a lot if indoor locations now (Country Bears,

Pinnocchio Village Haus, Philharmagic,

Gaston’s Tavern,

to name a few). We hit all of these up, as we made our way around the park.

More September 21st to come

 

[gwhb75]

September 21st continued
One thing Tammy really wanted to try was the “make-your-own” popcorn bucket thing they had at the confectionary (we had both seen this on Tik-Tok).

We got the caramel popcorn with Snickers and Twix. It was really good, but it was really sweet (and very sticky).

Still good though.

After our snack we headed back to Liberty Square. Haunted Mansion was a must-do for us (especially during the party),

so we got in the 25 minute stand-by line.

Next up was Space Mountain.

I didn’t realize they turn off all the lights during the party. By the time you get to the bottom of the ride it is almost pitch-black. Great time.

More September 21st to come

 

[gwhb75]

September 21st continued
I kept checking the app to see how close my boarding group was. Around the time the fireworks started they were on group 160, so we’re getting there.

One cool thing was that during the fireworks our Magicbands were vibrating and lighting up.

Really neat (also a bit startling when you forget that they do that now – they also vibrate when you walk by the 50th anniversary statues (again, didn’t know that either so I thought the battery was dying the first time that happened – LOL)).

Finally, around 11pm our Tron boarding group was called.

One small issue. Tammy hates heights and doesn’t love coasters. Despite how much I tried to convince her she would like it, she was a no-go. She wanted me to ride though, so she stayed in line with me until I got to the entrance and then we went our separate ways.

I thought the ride was amazing. The standby line is another pretty interesting one, and the ride itself was great. I agree it is a bit short, but I still had a great time.

After riding we decided to call it a night (we have a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us with a really early start tomorrow). We lugged our now full bags of candy to Main St USA (we had two of these):

and bid farewell to the Magic Kingdom.

End of September 21st

 

[gwhb75]

Closing thoughts.

5 years with no Disney parks was tough, so this was the perfect little mini-trip to get us back into it. I wish we had booked two extra days just to be able to hit all four parks, but I was pretty happy with the two days we had. Having read about all the changes that had been made since the last time we were there, I wasn’t sure how I would like it now. Turns out I still really enjoy it, and have the bug to go back again.

So what’s next for us? As I mentioned in the pre-trip report, both Steph (and Calvin) and Liam (and Samantha) really want to do a trip to Disney with us. Originally the idea was two separate trips, but this has now become one big family trip some time in September 2024. There are still a lot of logistics to work out, and schedules may not allow for us all to go together, but the preliminary planning of a 6 person trip is underway.

Thanks for following along.

 

[gwhb75]

So great to see you doing another report, and congratulations on the anniversary!! Can't wait for more!

Thanks. 25 years has flown by (and I can't believe I'm old enough to be married 25 years. It means I've been married more years than I was single now).

 

[BwlrBry212]

They do have the mobile check-out thing, but we can’t use that because we want to get the DVC discount.

I'm not sure about the DVC discount, but the mobile check out automatically applies the AP discount.