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 6, 2020

More of the Villains show.

It was kind of funny when Maleficent came out, there was a huge roar of pleasure from the crowd. None of the other villains got that type of response.

Unlike the Halloween and Christmas party there weren't any special fireworks shows, which we already knew but at the end of the show there was a little pyro so that was a nice bonus.

Not a great selfie after the show.

After the stage show the Cursed Caravan was scheduled to start soon, so we decided to sit with this view at the top of the hub and wait for it to come by. We knew it wasn't a huge parade and probably didn't need to sit and wait for it but it was nice and just sit and rest for a little bit. The cursed caravan was scheduled for another showing later in the evening and had we decided to watch it again or if we went to the party again we would just walk up to the route a little bit before it started.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 6, 2020

More of the Cursed Caravan

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 6, 2020

And more of the cursed caravan. The highlight was really seeing the dragon at night and watching her "breathe" fire. B got a good picture of the fire, it doesn't seem to want to load on my computer though so I will try later. The caravan looped around the hub, it didn't go down Main Street at all so from our spot we were able to see it coming out of Liberty Square and then back. It was nice to get another look at the Villains without having to wait for it again.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

March 6, 2020

Wandering around the party.

Pirates also had a special addition to the attraction during the party, live pirates. Both of us liked the addition to pirates, they were added to enhance the ride and while on the attraction they kind of moved like animatronics. There was also a pirate in line too, we had a nice interaction with here. And I think we had her later in the week as a skipper on the Jungle Cruise but Brad doesn't think it was the same person.

It did get a little chilly at the party that night.

He tried to be worth but wasn't.

Some of the magic shots.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 6, 2020

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 6, 2020

Final pictures from the Villain's Party.

Before going to WDW I had been following some threads about the Villain's party and was it worth it, so was it worth it? I think it was a little expensive for the party, we enjoyed ourselves and might do it again because it did have special features. There were "free" treats which we did have plenty of, like the ice cream, bottles of water, and popcorn. We actually took a very large Ziploc bag and filled it up with popcorn which we took back to the resort and munched on the next couple nights. Compared to the Christmas and Halloween parties though it is a lesser value, so if someone could only budget enough to pick one special party for the year and had their choice of Christmas, Halloween or Villains I would advise Christmas or Halloween (probably Christmas because I love Christmas).

Still it was fun and by this time, around midnight we were ready for bed. And if it were Disneyland we would be back in our room in less than 10 minutes, but not here about 20+ minutes later we were back at the Pop because we were lucky that there was a bus ready at our bus stop.

Coming up soon: a full day at a Disney park. Any guesses on which one? Clue: we would be listening to music we love.

 

[John Dulmage]

You both are hilarious in this photo!!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

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You both are hilarious in this photo!!!

Yeah, we are kind of dorks like that!

 

[Disstevefan1]

@ajrwdwgirl , Wow! Excellent photos! What do you use?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

@ajrwdwgirl , Wow! Excellent photos! What do you use?

Thanks. This trip I only used my phone, it is an iPhone 11 pro max. I got tired of carrying around a regular camera so I decided phone only this trip. Overall I'm okay with how everything turned out. There were aspects of the regular camera I missed but I didn't miss the weight of carrying it around!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 7th, 2020

Good morning Pop Century!

Time for breakfast. Kid's Mickey waffle meal with bacon.

Brad and I had a theme for our day today it was Dapper Dans day! We both work Dapper Dan's themed clothes.

Brad being a goof.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 7 2020

Even though we had been at the MK for the Villains party last night, today was my tear jerk moment. Seeing Main Street and Cinderella Castle in the early morning light was something I had missed in my time away. But I also realized that Main Street in WDW and Disneyland are both my favorite early in the morning.

It was nice wandering around the hub and Main Street for the hour before opening.

It was also nice to get a few pictures of Cinderella Castle before the repainting started, which would be in a few days from this morning.

We even wandered into the Emporium and I thought these Dumbos were super cute.

The photopass photographer told me to put my hands up so the back of my shirt could be seen in the picture better. It looks like I'm doing some sort of Hallelujah motion.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 7 2020

We headed to Big Thunder right away when the park opened and we lucked out and got the back row! Made me think of @Tuvalu and @Longers

After Big Thunder we wandered into Fantasyland and used our fast pass for Peter Pan and I rode the tea cups again. We had to keep an eye on the time because we needed to catch a few Dapper Dan performances as possible. The first one we caught was a great one as it incorporated the Citizens of Main Street.

After the Dapper Dans, we made our way into Tomorrowland. I have mixed feelings on this sign. I just can't decide if I like it or not.

Luckily the Peoplemover was running. It would be the only day we were able to ride it as it was down the rest of the time. Haunted Mansion was still down today too.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 7, 2020

Yep, I'm a dork. I was pretending that the ride was super fast and scary.

I decided to try out the phone's picture quality while on the move. It didn't turn out too bad.

The last time we were at the MK, they had just started to clear some of the land for Tron so this was fun to see.

We are big fans of the train and we were sad that it wasn't running. The same thing had happened to us a few years ago in Disneyland. So just as we did then, we didn't pass up the chance to check out the train close up. In Disneyland we had been allowed to sit up in the engine area and one of the engineers told us how everything worked, this was not the case here. But it was still fun to see the train up close, and I did sit on the bench for a bit.

This was a neat touch on the front of the train, I'd never noticed it before.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

March 7, 2020

After the Peoplemover we were going to ride Dumbo but the wait was 30 minutes. The characters's at Pete's was only posted at 15 minutes.

Up next was our 7 Dwarfs fast pass.

We made a pit stop at the Tangled toilets and ventured over to see if the Haunted Mansion was running....it wasn't.

And before moving on, I forgot to post this with the Dapper pictures earlier....

Coming up soon: more Dappers and lunch at the Skipper Canteen.

 

[Big Hair]

Saturday March 7 2020

Even though we had been at the MK for the Villains party last night, today was my tear jerk moment. Seeing Main Street and Cinderella Castle in the early morning light was something I had missed in my time away. But I also realized that Main Street in WDW and Disneyland are both my favorite early in the morning.
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It was nice wandering around the hub and Main Street for the hour before opening.
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It was also nice to get a few pictures of Cinderella Castle before the repainting started, which would be in a few days from this morning.
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We even wandered into the Emporium and I thought these Dumbos were super cute.
View attachment 463089

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The photopass photographer told me to put my hands up so the back of my shirt could be seen in the picture better. It looks like I'm doing some sort of Hallelujah motion.
View attachment 463091

I too really cherish Main Street and the rest of the Magic Kingdom early in the morning. The Magic is strong and it is so peaceful. There is just something about it that is special. Must be the Pixie dust before it gets trampled by all those people and those strollers, dont get me going about those strollers.

 

[Swissmiss]

Love me some Dapper Dans

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I too really cherish Main Street and the rest of the Magic Kingdom early in the morning. The Magic is strong and it is so peaceful. There is just something about it that is special. Must be the Pixie dust before it gets trampled by all those people and those strollers, dont get me going about those strollers.

Yeah, the whole first hour in the parks is the most magical time of day for me. I'm a morning person though, so maybe that is part of it.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Love me some Dapper Dans

Yep, they are fantastic!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 7, 2020

Time for lunch! Both of us really enjoy the menu here, and think it is nice to have some "exotic" flavors. Our waiter here was simply fabulous, he was funny and playful; he carried the theme of the skipper really well. He was also attentive without being bothersome. There was a family from Montreal that sat next to us at one point and the tables are fairly close together so we indavertantly heard their interactions with Skipper Jeff (from Columbus Ohio) and he was really fantastic with them. They had a special needs child (maybe 8-10 years old) and Jeff was fabulous with that child, he made sure he talked to the child when he could have just talked to the parents and brought out special stickers and stuff for the kid. Overall, we were very impressed by Jeff's interactions and service and would love to have him be our waiter again. When we left the Skipper Canteen there was a blue umbrella Guest Services kiosk and we went over and filled out a cast compliment card.

I was planning on getting the special Portuguese cheese bread, it is like the stuff at Food and Wine in Epcot but better because of the dipping sauce. The sauce was a chimmichurri of sorts, I believe. Skipper Jeff recommended it and even told us that he made it frequently at home and I think he told us where to find the recipe online. It was so good, later in the trip we thought about making a reservation just to get the bread!

Brad loves the pork char sui. He kind of wanted the whole fish, but that creeps me out so he is kind of banned from getting that unless he sits at a different table.

I love the tastes like chicken because it is. The breading on the chicken is great and I especially like the chili sauce that comes on it. I usually ask right away for extra.

closer look at the pork.

We made sure to explore the library before leaving.

And a closer look at my chicken.

S.E.A. hats

And after lunch we had a fast pass for the Jungle Cruise. We usually pair the attraction with the restaurant. Luckily we got a really good skipper.