Trip Report Completed: March 5-14, 2020: Our Return to WDW and the "Hips and Elbows People, Hips and Elbows!" edition

Hello everyone! It has been one month since we made our return to Walt Disney World, it was 593 days since we had been there. We hadn't been without Disney trips, we were annual passholders of Disneyland during that time. More info in my pre-trip report. Needless to say we were were excited to return. I was a little apprehensive for a few reasons: 1. what if I didn't like WDW as much any more after being away so long and maybe I had fallen too much in love with Disneyland. 2. I was slightly worried about this corona virus thing (maybe I should have been more worried), but I was hopeful we would get through the trip without having to think about it.

In case you don't want to go back to my pre-trip report let me give you a few more details:

Who: Amy and Brad (my husband)
Resort: Pop Century



Let's begin:

March 5, 2020

We had an early morning flight, it is a pain getting up at 3 am but we do like getting to our destination early and being able to spend a lot of our day at our vacation destination. Plus we were early birds so it wasn't too bad. Luckily there wasn't a snow storm and our flight out of Minneapolis was on schedule!

Not much was open so early but Caribou coffee!

Coming up more of our journey and lots of fun, food and beer!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 13, 2020

A few more of Festival of Fantasy. When the parade was over we headed out of the park and back to the Pop for a nap.

We headed back over to the Magic Kingdom a few hours later and used a fast pass for Buzz.

We ate some super gourmet food at Cosmic Ray's and listened to the smooth vocal stylings of Sonny Eclipse.

Chicken nugget time!

I made Brad do a funny dancing pose, not that he needed any encouragement.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 13, 2018

After dinner it was time to get our spot for Happily Ever After, we like to be in the hub at the rails of the garden area by the partner statue. We like that because then no one stands directly in front of us and we are willing to put in the wait time for it. Usually we can snag a spot no problem an hour before but we forgot that because of the castle painting the Friendship Faire was having showings later in the day and when we went to find a spot the show was going on.

We split up to look for a spot and I was able to snag a spot big enough for both of us! There were still spots along the rails in front of us but not flush to the little gardens and that isn't worth waiting for at those spots because there are people directly in front of you at during the show so you might as well just be in the crush of the crowd right before it begins.

So we waited and I entertained myself from time to time by taking pictures at different stages of darkness. We talked to the people around us (talked about shut downs parks and schools, the lady next to us was a school nurse from Alabama) and played on our phones. By this time we had seen that our governor was closing public schools on the Wednesday we returned from Spring Break. So I was texting with my student teacher about adjusting his lessons for those two days. He was set to move to his next placement before the governors date for reopening (which didn't happen) occurred. So I was assuming that he needed to wrap up his unit and plan a goodbye to the students. My student teacher was a really nice guy but flaky and despite conversations and tips I gave him about planning (and his university supervisor chatted with him about it too) he just didn't like to plan out units, he liked to be spontaneous. In fact he was supposed to use Spring Break to plan our the rest of his units and lessons, which he didn't do. Anyway, I was hoping he would be able to follow though for 2 days of lesson wrap up.

Coming up: Happily Ever After fireworks!

 

[riverside]

My student teacher was a really nice guy but flaky and despite conversations and tips I gave him about planning (and his university supervisor chatted with him about it too) he just didn't like to plan out units, he liked to be spontaneous. In fact he was supposed to use Spring Break to plan our the rest of his units and lessons, which he didn't do. Anyway, I was hoping he would be able to follow though for 2 days of lesson wrap up.

A teacher who doesn't do lesson plans--R would not be happy with that in the least. His teachers have to turn theirs in for the week first thing Monday morning.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

A teacher who doesn't do lesson plans--R would not be happy with that in the least. His teachers have to turn theirs in for the week first thing Monday morning.

I know! Like I said he was a nice guy but very much a hippie/free spirit type. All I asked from him as far as lesson plans was a general outline on a shared google doc of what he was going to do each day like: Monday-starter question, lecture on pages 303-307, and such & such activity. Nothing super detailed I would even ask at the end of the day or the start of the day what he had planned and his response was "well I'm working on that" and sometimes he was working on it when the bell was ringing. Our principal doesn't collect our lesson plans, we are supposed to have a google doc he can look at but he never does. Some teachers keep theirs update and some don't. I am a planner and rule follower so mine is updated. With this student teacher I always had a back up plan and the lesson plans I typed were what I would have been doing if I had been the one planning.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 13, 2020

Time for the show to start. Not much commentary needed on Happily Ever After except to say it’s a great show and I LOVE it!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 13, 2020

More Happily Ever After:

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 13, 2020

And even more of Happily Ever After

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 13, 2020

After Happily Ever After we headed into to Tomorrowland. The new sign is still kind a meh to me but I do like the main colors lit up in Tomorrowland.

For me this is a great score for Buzz. I do terrible on the WDW version. I only got this score because we got stopped for awhile.

Brad became a Galactic Hero. He maxed out early and moved on to the other gun in his car.

Time for the Peoplemover...nope it was down.

We took an evening stroll behind the castle to the hub.

I got a Mickey Premium bar as my snack and B had popcorn then we sat by the Partner's statue and took in the ambiance.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 13, 2020

Some evening shots of the castle and hub area as we slowly made our way out.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 13, 2020

And a few more shots before we left for the night. Mornings are my favorite time in the park but night has its own type of magic.

Coming up: our last day and tragical express time

 

[PacNWTigger]

The colors in your pics are sooo vibrant! You're just using your phone, right?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

The colors in your pics are sooo vibrant! You're just using your phone, right?

Thanks! Yep, just my phone and I don't edit pictures except to maybe change the size. I have an iPhone 11 promax.

 

[aliceismad]

Thanks! Yep, just my phone and I don't edit pictures except to maybe change the size. I have an iPhone 11 promax.

You have a good eye for composition and colors.

 

[cgersic]

That just made my day!! It was almost like being there for Happily Ever After

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

You have a good eye for composition and colors.

Thanks!

That just made my day!! It was almost like being there for Happily Ever After

I'm glad the pictures made you happy, it is a fabulous show.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 14, 2020

Today was departure day but our flight didn't leave until late in the evening so we had basically a full day to play. We debated about going to Hollywood Studios to try for a boarding pass and then go to the Magic Kingdom but in the end we decided we wanted more time at the MK so after our kid's meal waffle breakfast at the Pop we headed over to the MK.

While we waited at the tap-stiles I wandered a bit and took some pictures. When I joined B back in line I felt really bad for the people in front of us. It was a dad with two daughters and he pulled out of the bag a carefully typed out schedule for their week long trip that was starting today and I saw that today was supposed to be a Disney Springs/Resort day but clearly with the imminent closing of the parks they had to punt with their game plan. He was also concerned about some vouchers they had a their tickets and hoped they would work. They did have to get a manager to come over once they tried to tap in but eventually they got in.

I should have gone for a wider shot but I think it still looks cool. I also couldn't see the screen as I was taking it because I was flush against a construction wall, so this was the best of my attempts.

It was a beautiful morning and we took our time in the Town Square area, we wanted to savor the last few moments at WDW.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 14, 2020

Brad and I took one of the Main Street vehicles down to the castle and again I was a little obsessed with the repainting. We wandered around as I took some more pictures.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 14, 2020

We ended up at the end of Main Street by the train station and rode the Omnibus back up Main Street and got the top floor front seat! It was a beautiful ride. The welcome show started a few minutes later and it is no train station welcome show but it is a nice welcome for the day.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 14, 2020

Our rope drop attraction: Jungle Cruise! Brad is a wannabe skipper so just like a little kid he was thrilled to be sitting next to the Skip.

We headed over to small world next.

We always get our picture taken on the carousel (a tradition my mom had done with us) and we hadn't done so yet so that was next on the agenda.

Fantasyland still wasn't crowded it was turning into a fantastic day even though we were leaving that day.

I needed another spin on the teacups. Brad came with me through the line to take a picture of me in my cup and then left for his seat outside the ride! I got my green cup!

Next we took a bathroom break and I only mention it because I noticed some signage in the bathrooms today that I hadn't noticed before.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 14, 2020

Next up for the day was a journey with a Little Mermaid and we thought about a cinnamon roll from Gaston's but we weren't really that hungry.

Then we wandered over to the Haunted Mansion and it was down and stayed down for the rest of the day. We were bummed that we only got to ride once during this trip but we consoled ourselves that if we had been in Disneyland we wouldn't have been able to go on at all since it was under refurbishment.

We continued to Frontierland for our Big Thunder fastpass.

After Thunder Mt. I had a little low blood sugar so we decided to get it up with a citrus swirl!

Time for the Tiki Room. Brad fell asleep as usual, it isn't that he doesn't like it but he claims the music and cool darkness calms him so he snoozes.