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]

Saturday March 7, 2020

Bad selfie with Sam.

We watched the piano player for a little bit but had to move on for another main attraction.

Another performance of the Dans was due to start soon. So we had to hang out in Town Square for a bit until B could spot them and follow them to their location.

Another fabulous performance.

After the performance we headed back to the Pop for a nap, we need a nap to stay out late.

 

[Matt and Kelly]

I love the picture with the Dapper Dan’s and your shirt!! We have never tried skippers canteen, Matt always tries to convince but I always decline.
kelly

 

[JosieBee]

Great start! Glad you got to go before they closed!

 

[PacNWTigger]

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You both are hilarious in this photo!!!

Ditto what @John Dulmage said. Awesome shot!! Definitely got a giggle at work from that one.

 

[Big Hair]

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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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closer look at the pork.
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We made sure to explore the library before leaving.
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And a closer look at my chicken.
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S.E.A. hats
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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.
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I enjoy experiencing a Skipper Canteen visit each trip and have the same modus operandi as you. After magic hours rope drop Tomorrow Land then rope drop regular hours into Frontier land, 2 FP's, lunch at Jungle Navigation Co LTD, and a Jungle Cruise FP on the way out. Something about the ambience of the place, the food, and getting Zita as our server seems like one of my favorite welcome home moments.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I love the picture with the Dapper Dan’s and your shirt!! We have never tried skippers canteen, Matt always tries to convince but I always decline.
kelly

My two cents, I think you should let Matt convince you to try it.

Great start! Glad you got to go before they closed!

Thanks! I'm glad we got to go too.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Ditto what @John Dulmage said. Awesome shot!! Definitely got a giggle at work from that one.

Thanks, like I said, that is typical dorky Amy and Brad!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I enjoy experiencing a Skipper Canteen visit each trip and have the same modus operandi as you. After magic hours rope drop Tomorrow Land then rope drop regular hours into Frontier land, 2 FP's, lunch at Jungle Navigation Co LTD, and a Jungle Cruise FP on the way out. Something about the ambience of the place, the food, and getting Zita as our server seems like one of my favorite welcome home moments.

What dish do you like to get at Skipper Canteen?

 

[Disstevefan1]

Look at the wonderful, beautiful mobs of people..... Never thought I’de say it.... I will miss the mobs.

 

[Songbird76]

Friday March 6, 2020

I finished my breakfast and I still had a little Kona press pot coffee left so I asked for a to go cup and decided to ride the monorail. I knew that B was almost done with his golf round so I didn't have enough time to go into the Magic Kingdom. I figured that I would just loop the monorail a few time and then he would be ready to meet me at the Polynesian for our adventure.

I guess I got a refurnished monorail, it looks nice but the seat looks a little shoddily covered in plastic. It didn't really have that monorail smell. But I was still happy riding the rail. At this station, the GF, I got a text from Brad that he was almost done shopping at the golf course store (he likes Disney golf shirts). I told him I was on the monorail at the GF and I would meet him in the Poly lobby.

The timing worked out great, I made it to the lobby about 2 minutes before he did. Since the BouTiki shop was going to open in a few minutes we waited around and browsed there. We like looking at the Hawaiian type stuff offered at the store.

Soon we headed out to our first park, but which park. It is a non-Disney park....
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So we hopped in the rental car and drove to Bok Tower. It is about a 40-50 minute drive from WDW and it is a botanical garden. We are members of the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and our membership grants us admission to many botanical gardens around the country (and a few in Canada). So we thought since we had a car for once we would check out Bok Tower. We like historic things and nature so it was a win win.

Here is a short little description from the internet: Bok Tower Gardens is a contemplative garden, and bird sanctuary located north of Lake Wales, Florida, United States. It consists of a 250-acre garden, the 205-foot tall Singing Tower with its carillon bells, Pine Ridge Trail, Pinewood Estate, and a visitor center.

Driving up to the main area we passed an orange grove. It was lovely to see all the oranges.
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Bok Tower. It is known as the singing tower and there are concerts 2 times a day with the bells. But it does chime often and we were able to hear it go a few times, but we didn't stick around for the first full concert which wasn't until 1pm. We were there around 10:30-ish.
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The area was very pretty and it wasn't very crowded in this area, yet. There were a lot of people and some school groups but they were in other areas of the grounds.
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A closer look
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Sundial on the side of the tower.
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The tower is on a hill and it was nice to sit on the benches and enjoy the overlook.
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More orange groves.
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A closer look at the top of the tower.
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The tower looks beautiful! How old is it? It reminds me a little of St. Jacques Tower in Paris, though it can't be that old because that was built in 1509. (Nicolas Flamel was burried under the church floor, though the church was demolished during the French Revolution.)

 

[Songbird76]

Friday March 6, 2020

So dinner at Il Mulino....

We started with meats and cheeses. This was very good. We are meats and cheeses types of people. Off to a good start Il Mulino!
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I ordered the chicken parm. WOW was it huge!!! Literally the size of my head! It was very good but I couldn't eat all of it and made Brad eat some.
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He got the saltimbocca, and this was really good too. We had considered both dishes and decided we would share. He ended up getting almost 1/2 of mine but I only got a couple bites of his, whenever I asked he seemed to forget that we were supposed to share and he got a little salty about it so I gave up. He sometimes does that when we are supposed to share something and he ends up liking what he "ordered" better than what I ordered and forgets the plan.
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We also got some pasta to share. This was just okay, the pasta was a little harder than I cook mine and we both would have liked more sauce and ricotta on it.
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Inside the restaurants. So what is our verdict on Il Mulino? We enjoyed our meal very much. The food was tasty and a decent value for what we got and could share (if someone remembers to share) in the future. The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice too and we couldn't fault the service. Actually we overheard the lady at the table behind us and she had a huge list of allergies and things that couldn't be in her food and the waiter (who was ours too) was very good about it; made a list, got the chef out, and checked with her many times to make sure everything was okay for her requests. I have had better Italian food before, there are two places in St.Paul MN that are much better but for Italian food at WDW it is good. It won't be on the regular rotation, but we would eat here again.
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Alright, it was after dinner. We ate at 5pm because I was able to get fastpasses at the Magic Kingdom before the Villains Party officially started. Because we were going to the Villains Party! Did anyone guess that? I was able to secure fastpasses for Big Thunder Mt., Jungle Cruise, and Buzz so we did those before enjoying party things.

And here it is...Cinderella Castle! We've missed you!
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We were going to watch Happily Ever After from the spot I took the picture of the Liberty Belle (almost said Mark Twain, a Disneyland brain moment...) but we were unsure if we would be able to hear the music okay. We we ended up in Fantasyland and found a spot to sit at the gate are behind the carousel. It was nice to sit down and watch from that spot.
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Awww, I'm sorry Brad forgot to share. My husband usually orders something I won't eat. He will share a bite if it's something I like, though. Usually it's my daughter and I who share, and we both remember to share really well. But that pasta didn't even look like there was any sauce on it! Your Chicken Parm looked amazing, though!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

The tower looks beautiful! How old is it? It reminds me a little of St. Jacques Tower in Paris, though it can't be that old because that was built in 1509. (Nicolas Flamel was burried under the church floor, though the church was demolished during the French Revolution.)

According to a quick search it looks like the tower was built in 1929, so not as old as that Paris tower.

Awww, I'm sorry Brad forgot to share. My husband usually orders something I won't eat. He will share a bite if it's something I like, though. Usually it's my daughter and I who share, and we both remember to share really well. But that pasta didn't even look like there was any sauce on it! Your Chicken Parm looked amazing, though!!

I could have made him share more of the saltimboca as he had agreed to to do but I just took a couple bites and let him enjoy it. The pasta really didn't have enough sauce, but the chicken parm was good.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 7, 2020

Okay, on with the trip report. We had spent the morning to mid-afternoon at the Magic Kingdom and had returned to the Pop for a nap so we could stay out later. Upon waking up from our nap we decided to go to Epcot for the evening which meant we could travel by Skyliner!

Here was the view outside our room at the Pop. It was nice to have a view of the lake coming and going, and it was a short walk to the Skyliner.

There wasn't much of a wait at the Skyliner station and we got our own Gondola to the Caribbean Beach station.

And then we hit the Caribbean Beach station and had to switch to the Epcot line and as you can see it was crowded. The line moved fairly fast though, maybe 10-15 minutes. I guess we should have expected it to be crowded to Epcot seeing that it was a weekend and the first fully weekend of Flower and Garden.

One of the main reasons for going to Epcot was to do a little Flower and Garden shopping. My sister and niece had requests and I had items I wanted to get before they were sold out. We were concerned that the Orange Bird items and passholder stuff would sell out fast.

I didn't buy this shirt but I liked the design.

I was texting with my sister around this time and she was convinced there was some sort of Orange bird passholder ornament I didn't think there was and no one knew what I was asking about so I went on Disney Food Blog to their list of items for sale at the Festival that included passholder merch and this was the only orange bird ornament I saw on there or in the store I was in at Epcot. So I took a screen shot and sent it to my sister and asked if this is what she wanted, she said yes that is the passholder ornament. But it wasn't just for passholders, so now satisfied that I knew that was what she wanted I finished my purchases including the ornament for her (as her Birthday present) and one for me.

Once we had done some shopping and had sent it back to the resort we needs some dinner. Brad and I decided our first stop for food would be Mexico. And we got all three main dishes.

In the lower left corner was: Choriqueso Torta: Bolillo Roll filled with Chorizo and Monterey Jack Cheese, Avocado Mousse and Jalapeños . We both liked this but there was a lot of bread and when I ate my half part of the filling plopped down onto the table. Later I saw someone else eating it and they spread out the sandwich and smashed it down to spread out the filling on the bread, that would have been a good idea. I liked the taste (what little I ate) of the filling and I did think of getting it again, but Brad wasn't as into it as I was. He liked it but liked other stuff better.

Top Dish: Quesadilla al Pastor: Flour Tortilla filled with Monterey Jack Cheese and Pork Pastor topped with Grilled Pineapple, Salsa Verde, Red Onion and Cilantro. Again this was a solid dish but the flavor were a bit muted. Brad liked this better than the torta but he doesn't like pineapple so he picked most of that off.

Bottom right: Chilaquiles de Pollo: Chipotle-braised Chicken and Tortillas served with Salsa Ranchera, Monterey Jack Cheese, Crema Mexicana and Guajillo Cheese We both agreed that this was really good and it was big serving so it was a decent deal value wise too. We did get this one again.

Then we moved on to the booth in China to the Lotus House and got these dishes:

• Szechuan Spicy Red-braised Beef Shank over Rice
• Bon Bon Chicken Skewer with Sesame and Peanut Sauce

Both were tasty but of the two we enjoyed the chicken skewer the most. The peanut sauce was very flavorful.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 7, 2020

We wandered with our food from the Lotus House into the China pavilion and found a bench to relax and eat our food.

Then we headed towards Germany so we could get the ham and cheese pretzel and I could get a beer flight from the Bauernmarkt: Farmer's Market booth.
I can't find my little card that came with the beer but these are the beers listed on Disney Food blog's menu so I'm assuming this is what the beers were:

• M.I.A. Brewing Hugo, Doral, FL -$4.50
• Bitburger Premium Pils, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany – $4.50
• Stiegl Brewery Radler Zitrone, Salzburg, Austria – $4.50
• Beer Flight – $9.50

Overall the beer was just okay. I wasn't really bowled over by any of them and after a sip of each I knew I would finish them (I'm no heathen!) but I wouldn't be lining up for them again.

Here's a description of the pretzel bread: Toasted Pretzel Bread topped with Black Forest Ham and Melted Gruyère Cheese
It was good, we've had this before and it has always been a little hit and miss but that night it was a hit, it was soft and had plenty of cheese.

Then we wandered towards Italy and I liked the new location for the Lady and the Tramp topiary. It was more scenic than in other years when it was against the wall of one of the buildings.

The booth's in Italy have usually sounded good, like it did this year but then we try it and the dishes aren't great. I read a review on either Disney Food Blog or Disney Tourist Blog and they weren't that thrilled with Italy so we decided to skip it entirely and we don't regret it. So onward to Japan. Here we got the slider and it was really pretty in its presentation. The flavors of the slider were good but to me the bun was cold and a little hard. Brad didn't feel that way and he ranked it as one of his festival favorites.
Here's a description of the slider: Menchi Katsu Slider: Japanese-style Panko-breaded Beef Patty topped with Tonkatsu Sauce, Mayonnaise, Cucumber, and Pickled Lotus Root

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Saturday March 7, 2020

After Japan we still had room for some food in France at Fleur de Lys. And we got the onion tart, which is usually my festival favorite and a Kronenberg Blanc which is one of my favorite beers of all time. And neither one disappointed. So good!

I offered Remy some of the beer but he didn't take me up on it.

After France we headed out the International Gateway, our destination was the Beach Club bus stop. We planned to head to the Magic Kingdom to see Happily Ever After, we wanted a view of it with the castle. As we sat waiting for the bus all of a sudden I felt tired and I didn't feel like fighting the crowds before or after the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. There was no arrival time listed for the bus so who knew when it would arrive, so feeling tired I turned and looks at Brad and he was kind of looking the way I was feeling. So I just said "I'm tired" when he said me too, I asked if he just wanted to go back to the resort and relax and go to bed early. He said he was torn because he wanted to watch the fireworks but didn't feel like fighting crowds, which was exactly the way I was feeling. So we made the mature decision to just head back to the resort. So we walked back to the Skyliner and called it a night.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Sunday March 8, 2020

So I think besides not wanting to fight the crowds we both knew that we were planning to get up super early today, and today was the time change where we jumped ahead an hour. It was going to be our first visit to Hollywood Studios with Galaxy's Edge with Rise of the Resistance and Mickey's Runaway Railway open. The focus was on Rise of the Resistance though.

If you've read my reports before you might know that Brad is a fanatical Star Wars fan and he has been super pumped for Rise. We have been to Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland so while we were looking forward to seeing this version and noting some differences Rise of the Resistance was the clear goal of today and anything else would be gravy.

So fanatical Brad was convinced that we arrive at the tapstiles as soon a possible for the day. So we got up around 4:45 am and took a Lyft to Hollywood Studios and I think we were there by about 5:30-ish am, according to my phone I took the picture below at 6:00am. Like I said the goal and Brad's plan was to get into the park and find a good spot with a strong signal and wait for a boarding group. We realized that we were here so early, with plenty of other people too, that we could and should get in line for one of the major attractions, so as we waited and chatted with some awesome people for Louisiana and Texas we formulated our plan.

So they finally let us into the park at 7:00 am and our new plan was to head into the line for Mickey's Runaway Railway that had just opened a few days ago. I was actually more excited for this attraction than Rise of the Resistance.

Of course as people do at a rope drop people start to run, we do not Amy and Brad are not runners, but we walk as fast as possible. So as we get closer to the Chinese Theater cast members yell/remind the runners not to run. And that's when we hear the phrase that is in the title of the trip and now a part of our daily lingo as we thought it was funny. As people are running a cast member starts saying, "no running people, use those hips and elbows to walk. Hips and elbows people! Hips and elbows!" We both laughed and I decided to be a dork and speed walk by exaggerating my walk with his hips and elbows phrase and the cast member pointed at me and said something to to the effect of good job and pointed out my walk of using hips and elbows and still keeping my feet in a walk. And actually by walking like that it made me move in a faster speed walk. I'm sure I looked like an idiot but it was fun and funny. So every time this trip we were in a situation where we were in a rope drop situation Brad and I said to each other..."hips and elbows" and we walked swinging our hips and elbows.

So we arrived at the Chinese Theater and we were near the front of the line to the attraction. We figured with our placement in line, we would be able to try for our boarding pass at 8am and then ride Mickey's, at least that was the plan....

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning. As a morning person, sunrises make me happy.

Waiting in line! Shortly after this picture, at about 7:45 cast members came out and opened the doors to the Chinese Theater. Hmmm, what is going on? Well they opened the attraction early! Cool...what wait....we were near the front and we NEEDED to be available at 8am for trying for a boarding pass for Rise. Oh NO! What to do?!?!?! We decided to follow the line and see what happened, we quickly talked and if we lost signal on our phones we would leave the line and if we got to the boarding point right before 8 am we would step aside. But we and everyone around us had the highest anxiety! Literally everyone in line had a headbob going on looking down at their phones checking the connection signal and trying to look around at the queue area.

So we got into the queue and after the pre-show we were assigned our row and it was 7:52 am. The guy next to us was as concerned about getting a boarding group as we/Brad was. He asked a cast member how long the ride was and he said 5 minutes so at 7:52 am we sat on the attraction vehicle and hoped that "absolutely nothing could go wrong" (line from the song in the attraction) and calculated that we would be off the attraction with a couple minutes to spare. So we were on a new attraction, so exciting but all of us in the attraction with us was still doing the headbob phone check and trying to enjoy the ride. It was the most nerve wracking ride I've ever been on in my life. But OMG....Mickey's Runaway Railway is so darned cute!!! We both loved it and couldn't wait to go on again (we had a fast pass for another day). The scenes have so much to look at and the song is fun and catchy (and available on iTunes). I loved the Great Movie Ride, and while I wish there would have been a way to keep the GMR and add Mickey's Runaway somewhere that would have been great but I love this attraction!


**If you don't wish to see any pictures from the attraction then skip the rest of this post. There will be one last picture from the attraction on the next post, but it is just at the end looking at the load area.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Sunday March 8, 2020

Okay, here's is a blurry picture at the end of the ride, the time stamp on this picture was 7:59am !!! We only had seconds until park opening. Our signal was fairly strong so we were hopeful. Neither one of us remember getting off the ride but we got off the ride and kept walking toward the exit with our eyes glued to our phone. The plan was that both of us would try until one of us got the point to pick guests and whoever made it there first would continue on to making the boarding pass....Oh many talk about anxiety......

And Brad made it in first! And secured our boarding group! Relief, excitement and more excitement washed over us. We were both prepared for failure, we had alternate plans to try again other days but now we could relax and now process the awesome attraction we had both just experienced for the first time. So after a high five of getting the boarding pass we stopped and chatted for a couple moments of how awesome Mickey's was.

We looked at the merch for sale. And I basically took pictures of nothing I ended up buying, although B did buy the Goofy conductor ear hat and I bought the whistle toy.

Then we headed over to the Tower of Terror which is one of my favorite attractions. And it was fun, but after exiting I was also disappointed, it hadn't been a great drop sequence and I was left wishing it was the Guardians attraction (it replaced Tower of Terror) that is at DCA. Guardians is just a little more fun now.

After Tower we wandered into the shops on Hollywood Blvd for a bit.

 

[riverside]

Your sunrise pictures are absolutely beautiful!! So exciting that you were able to ride the new ride & get a good boarding group also!! I have to admit, I was nervous reading wondering what was going to happen!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Your sunrise pictures are absolutely beautiful!! So exciting that you were able to ride the new ride & get a good boarding group also!! I have to admit, I was nervous reading wondering what was going to happen!!

Thanks! It gave me anxiety again typing about it!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

So glad you were able to do both rides! But very stressful I bet!