Trip Report **COMPLETED** We're 3 happy chappies, with snappy serapes. You'll find us beneath our sombreros! Sept 2018

*Record scratch* *Freeze frame*

Yep, that's me. So you're probably wondering how I got myself into this situation.

Long story short... I'm no longer at Disney World Kaitlyn and I returned home last Thursday and have been settling into our new place and finally only got wi-fi yesterday. For those of you who didn't get around to reading my pre-trip report, my friend Kaitlyn and I moved into our first apartment a couple weeks ago, just a few days before we left on our trip to Disney. She moved from Saskatchewan to my hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. We have been to Disney together once before in April 2015 in celebration of our graduation from University (along with 2 other friends). Kaitlyn has been back once since then, and I have been back to the World a few times since, including my family trip in February which my sister @krause wrote about.

Here's a quick review:
Who: Myself (Emily) and my friend, Kaitlyn. Here we are with the Big Cheese himself.

Now, you may be thinking, “she says there’s only two people on the trip, but her title references the 3 caballeros”. Not to worry! We’ll get to that.
What: Pure, unadulterated Disney fun!
When: Thursday, September 13, 2018 to Thursday, September 20, 2018
Where: B Resort and Spa (a Disney Springs Resort Area Hotel with EMH and bus system).
Why: For fun, mainly. It was also a great way to kick off our being roommates!
How: With determination and by emptying our wallets

Our travel day on September 13th started early. After finally falling asleep around midnight, we were up and at 'em at 3:40AM and in the taxi on the way to the airport by 4:10. We were very much looking forward to the change in weather.

Luckily, Winnipeg's airport is both small and near the centre of city so it only took us about 15 minutes to get there (we probably could have been there a minute earlier but had to stop for a skunk that was crossing the road! I really wish I had got a picture of this) and were through security by 4:48, through customs and at our gate by 5:15!

We made it to our layover in Minneapolis by about 8:00. Our flight to Orlando boarded and departed just after 9AM. And, finally, we landed in Orlando shortly after 1PM.

Fonorail selfie!!

Coming up: Our first-ever attempt at Uber… good or bad?

 

[AKemily]

I guess, I didn't say anything about what I thought of SDD. It was fantastic! Such a great coaster! Thrill-wise I'd say it's a bit more thrilling than SDMT, but much less intense than EE. It's just a nice, smooth, fun ride! Awesome! I'm sad we never got to do it again on our trip. I'm looking forward to it potentially losing some focus when Galaxy's Edge opens so the wait times (hopefully) go down.

A few minutes later we made our way to A. S. S. Both of us were a little nervous to ride because we both get dizzy on spinning rides, but we knew we had to give it a shot! The line was about 25 minutes long.

I love Buzz's box on top of the line!

This is a "hidden" Mickey, right?

No, they're not real buttons

Okay. For a simple ride, this was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed it! And definitely didn't feel sick after at all. Even less than Dumbo! I will definitely do this one again.

 

[AKemily]

Day 2: Hollywood Studios, cont'd...

After taking a swirl on the saucers, we headed over to use our TSM fastpass. Neither of us are particularly good at this game, but I still beat Kaitlyn

Crushed it.

As we were leaving, I obviously had to take a picture with the popsicle stick wall. Meanwhile, I had to explain to Kaitlyn the purple wall, bubblegum wall, etc. as she had no idea that they existed or were of any significance.

We then made our way out of Toy Story Land. We planned on coming back to check it out at night.

I checked my phone and noticed I received the following email. This felt a little premature to me:

 

[AKemily]

It was time for my first real coffee of the day (I can't bring myself to count the hotel K-cups as real coffee even if they do briefly caffeinate me). Kaitlyn stopped for a Mickey pretzel as I joined the line at the Trolley Car Cafe. This was the longest line I've seen at this Starbucks so far, as the line wrapped around the line outside. I find this Starbucks is usually the least busy in any of the parks, but not today! By the time I got my coffee and breakfast sandwich, Kaitlyn had found a spot behind the cafe and was halfway done her pretzel. Please, enjoy my basic white girl Starbucks photos:

After my coffee, we headed to our RnR fastpass.

I think I just took the below picture because there were people at the front of the fastpass line who were having an issue and instead of letting everyone behind them pass they stood right in the way. Standing here waiting took longer than the actually fastpass line. I don't understand why people don't let people pass.

I may have forced Kaitlyn into striking this pose. "But I need my hands to hold on!" "No you don't, you'll be fine." I especially wanted her to do it when I noticed the people in front of us discussing it. I was pretty pleased when I saw this and that she actually listened to me for once

 

[AKemily]

We headed to Star Tours next where, as always, I felt a little sick after.

We headed to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid after that, mostly to enjoy the a/c. We were about 6 people from the front when they closed the line and we had to wait until the next show I like the little details in the pre-show room like "Gepetto's Candle found in Monstro" The monkey's a little weird though.

Unlike many Disney-goers, we followed the instructions and moved alllll the way to the end of our row and didn't stop in the middle. I was actually pretty happy with our view.

Coming up: Dropping into the Hollywood Tower Hotel.

 

[AKemily]

We headed back to Sunset Boulevard for our third fastpass of the day.

For a relatively quiet day at Hollywood Studios, the standby time was 90 minutes. We were about to find out why.

These statues always freak me out. I feel like they're gonna come to life.

Here's a very blurry photo of why the standby line was so long.

The left-hand section in the boiler room was roped off and only one elevator on the right side was operating. That always makes me extra nervous to go on this ride.

I love when you ride this with a lot of people who haven't been on it before. They never expect it to start moving forward

After we survived our check in to the HTH, we started to make our way over to the Frozen Sing-Along. I had an instagram star to see

 

[AKemily]

As we made our way over to Frozen, the Citizens of Hollywood were out and about. We slowed down to watch for a bit but we had a show to catch!

*Skip to next paragraph if you don't want to read a rant about rude people* While we were entering the line for Frozen, there was a man who was possibly the rudest person I've ever seen at Disney. As we arrived, this man started jumping each of the line chains to get further ahead. All the while, the CMs were telling him he couldn't do that and to go around. He acted like he couldn't hear them. Then he pulled out one of those three-legged unfoldable stools and sat down on it near the front of the line and said to the CM "I was just going ahead so I could sit down and wait for my family to get here". Well no one could have missed this interaction and the CM looked at us and said, very exasperated, "You're not even supposed to have those stools in the parks." I felt very bad for them. Then when we neared the spot where this man had plunked himself down, it became quite clear that he didn't have any family he was waiting for. He started to push his way past the CMs, who were trying to stop him from cutting even more people off and he started making a hundred excuses as to why he needed to be let in. Well, eventually there was nothing the CMs could do except for let him in. Once we were in the pre-show room, he made his way to the front of all the people waiting. Now, this was pretty close to when the show would start and the CMs were pointing us to go behind all the seats and take up the seats on the left side of the room (the seats left over from people who had decided NOT to go to the end of their row). Well this man wasn't having that, and ignoring the CMs, ventured past them, down the right side of the theatre (the full side) and found himself a leftover seat. I couldn't believe how rude he continued to be. Absolutely no regard for anyone. It was mind-boggling. I was glad to not see him again after that point and that I didn't actually have to sit on the same side of the theatre as him. I hope this problem didn't continue for the CMs the rest of the day. I felt super bad for them. Rant over, sorry folks.

Now, if you've been to the Frozen Sing Along more than once and you've had the Royal Historian of Arendelle, Eric, then you'll know he's the best one. Some of you also know that he has a pretty popular instagram account. "Eric" is extremely entertaining to watch, and in addition to Frozen, he also performs at Mickey's Backyard BBQ, the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue, the Pirates fireworks cruise, and at the Edison in Disney Springs. Anyways, I'll only bother you with about 1/10th of the photos I took.

He's taken his shoe off and is threatening someone who sang the song as "but put me in summer and I'll be a... puddle!"

This show is always great, no matter which historians you get, but of course I really enjoyed this one. The snoap at the end is intense though! It feels like it's never gonna stop. It is pretty magical though

 

[AKemily]

Before I move on, I just want to say a quick Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends! Today, I'm thankful for my family, friends, Harry Potter movie marathons, and of course, Disney World.

After Frozen, we decided it was high time for ice cream. We stopped by a cart nearby for some Mickey ice cream sandwiches. We found a bench to sit on and while we sat there, Chip and Dale walked by. They're way too cute.

After finishing up our ice cream, we decided we'd go to see Muppets 3D. There was about 15 minutes until the next show so we looked around the Muppets and Christmas stores to kill some time before moving onto the show. You always notice something new in the pre-show room. I like how the evil kermit is no longer in the video, too.

You can't beat Waldorf and Statler I always love this show, even though the 3D Waldo guy kinda annoys me haha. I was sad to not see it in February.

Coming up: a brief meet & greet and Beaches and Cream! (yes. we know we just had ice cream)

 

[youngdeb]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

 

[Princess Leia]

I realized I forgot to post my ride photo from Pirates and Splash. Oops!
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The Pirates ride photo continues to be the worst placed, most awkward thing at the parks (Runner up is the Frozen ride photo).

This trip looks like a blast so far though!

 

[fractal]

Not sure what Disney's policy is, but when a guest continues to ignore orders from CM and is that rude they should call in Security and have him escorted out of the park.

 

[officialtom]

I'm really impressed by how much you managed to do on day 1! We're usually lucky to even get to DS that day!

PS, hi from PEI!

 

[AKemily]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

Thank you!!

The Pirates ride photo continues to be the worst placed, most awkward thing at the parks (Runner up is the Frozen ride photo).

This trip looks like a blast so far though!

I agree! I'm not sure why it was necessary in the first place but you would have thought they would at least pick a good spot for it! It is super awkward. And I don't care for the talking skeleton, either. It feels out of place.

Not sure what Disney's policy is, but when a guest continues to ignore orders from CM and is that rude they should call in Security and have him escorted out of the park.

I feel the same way! Many of those rules are for guest safety. We experienced several extra rude guests on our trip but he took the cake. Typically the rude people are just angry people who you have the misfortune to cross paths with. This guys was not angry, he was just blatantly ignoring the rules and everything the CMs said like he was above them.

I'm really impressed by how much you managed to do on day 1! We're usually lucky to even get to DS that day!

PS, hi from PEI!

Haha thanks! We felt pretty accomplished at the end of our first day 10 rides after 3PM ain't bad!
Always glad to have another Canadian around these parts! Thanks for reading!

 

[AKemily]

Day 2: Hollywood Studios cont'd...

After Muppets 3D, we had some time to kill before our lunch ADR. We started to head toward the exit and saw that the line for Olaf was only 10 minutes long. I believe it ended up being closer to 20, but that's okay, because we got warm hugs!

After Olaf, we headed out of the Park. We went to try getting on a Friendship but the line was long and after waiting about 10 minutes there was no boat in sight. We had about 20 minutes until our ADR at the Beach Club. We decided to go see if we could catch a bus. It was only until after the loooong walk to the bus stops that we realized that buses don't go from HS to the Beach or Yacht Clubs. Can someone tell me if this is normal or if it's just a result of HS redoing their transportation?

Anyway, at this point, there was no turning back, there was only going forward. At this point, we were truly hoping that Beaches and Cream was something worth melting for (see what I did there?). It. was. HOT. And I knew we weren't going to be getting a lot of shade on this walk. We pressed forward, our thoughts set on the sweet, sweet release of a giant bowl of ice cream.

Not quite sure where we were going, we finally found our destination, a couple minutes shy of our 4PM ADR time:

We were seated right next to the juke box, which was fun. It was super cute in there and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Our waitress, Herlina, was great. I had the angus burger and Kaitlyn had my side of onion rings. We were saving room for the ice cream I thought the burger was pretty good, but nothing special. Sorry for the poor pictures, most of the onion rings were already stolen off my plate.

Next came the star of the show, the No Way Jose. When we saw the size, we were both glad that I had talked Kaitlyn out of getting her own. Behold! It's as beautiful as it is delicious:

It was actually amazing. I could go for one of those puppies right now.

 

[Tuvalu]

It’s normal. The only time there’s a bus to Yacht/Beach from DHS is when the Friendship boats are closed due to inclement weather.

 

[AKemily]

Once we had finally cooled down, it was time to leave Well, we clearly weren't going to walk back to Hollywood Studios, so this time we waited for a boat. Why don't we all just take a nice, peaceful ride on the Friendship together? I'll meet you guys in the next post.

 

[AKemily]

It’s normal. The only time there’s a bus to Yacht/Beach from DHS is when the Friendship boats are closed due to inclement weather.

Thanks @Tuvalu, I knew I could count on you!

 

[AKemily]

According to my notes, when we got back we checked back in to the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Apparently we also saw the Citizens of Hollywood on the way again

We shopped for a little while after this. @krause had me pick up some crocs for her kids and I think I also got some kitchen stuff for our new place at the same time. Here it is folks, the second photo Kaitlyn took on our trip:

At some point at Hollywood Studios I also picked up two more of those balls like I got for Kinley, except they had Mickey in them. Okay, I give, here's a picture. They're not very photogenic.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the issue with these until a few days later. Can anybody guess my problem?

After shopping, we decided we'd go meet Mickey and Minnie. We knew we wanted to meet them at some point and now seemed as good a time as any. The wait time was listed at 30 minutes. I don't think it took quite that long. We played the Disney Parks deck of the Heads Up! app while waiting so it felt really fast. I was also pleased to discover that you can download the deck for free if you're in a park.

Minnie is too cute

 

[AKemily]

These posters in the hallway are so adorable! I thought I had taken pictures of all of them but I guess I held back.

Nothing beats meeting Mickey though. I love his sorcerer outfit.

When we left, the sun was starting to set.

It was around this time where we saw someone pushing a dog in a stroller and the dog had two fans pointed at him going full blast. He was being treated better than most children! We meandered through a couple more stores and then made our way with the rest of the crowds over to...

Fantasmic! It was finally time to make up for missing it in February. I love this show so much We decided to sit near the front so the mist from the show's fountains would cool us down.

As a side note, it blows my mind how guests just feel the need to do the wave when they're in that theatre. And they just keep doing it. I don't understand the draw of the wave. I've been standing all day, I'd like to sit now please Is the love of the wave an American thing? Someone please explain

We were about 40 minutes early for Fantasmic! but clearly, we weren't the first ones there. I feel like the wait always goes really quickly though. I think it's the 00's Disney teen star music

 

[AKemily]

Unfortunately, I mostly took video during Fantasmic! so I don't have much to show you guys. But that means I can wrap up day 2! I had a lot of respect for you regular trip report posters before, but I have so much more now! This whole trip reporting thing ain't easy!

That's it for photos, folks. Sorry!

After Fantasmic! we headed out of the park with everyone else. My notes say we were on a bus by 9:20 and back by 9:45 so not too shabby! I have to ask, are the Stacey videos on the Disney Resort buses up to date? Because our buses all had really outdated videos that included such things as Lights, Motor, Action!, Downtown Disney, and the Backlot Tour, and definitely didn't have anything newly opened. I was quite sick of watching this by the end of the week.

Here's our stats from day 2:

Thoughts on the day? I was sad we never returned to Toy Story Land in the dark, but we just wouldn't have had time. Toy Story Land was fantastic, and I'm definitely looking forward to exploring it more in the future. The rides there are a fantastic addition to the park and I think they were exactly what the park was missing. I didn't grow up with Star Wars but I think Galaxy's Edge will be fantastic and will really make the park come to life. I hope they renew one of the stage shows in the coming years. We didn't end up seeing Beauty and the Beast (I have seen this one so many times that I didn't really mind missing it this time) or Indiana Jones (this one is never a loss to me if we miss it) but I think those two and VotLM are a bit tired. I think Disney could do so much more with them! Frozen Sing-Along, however, is fantastic! I am also looking forward to the Mickey & Minnie ride which should also add some variety to HS. I would definitely do Beaches and Cream again, if not for the food, then at least for the ice cream! Overall, we had so much fun on day 2 and I'm super excited for what's to come at Hollywood Studios!

 

[krause]

I think it's the 00's Disney teen star music

I have spent a decent amount of time on D-cot searching for this playlist. I go to Fantasmic just for the before and after music