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?

 

[sheriffwoody]

Florida may be in the Southern US, but it does not know how to make a good batch of Sweet Tea. Besides, anything other than sweet tea is just brown water.

Ha! True, Florida is in no way "southern" other than location.

This is good to know! Apparently I need to go to places in the south OTHER than Florida They sound like my kind of people

Come to Tennessee anytime! We'll get you plenty of sweet tea

 

[AKemily]

Day 3: Animal Kingdom, cont'd...

While we sat and ate our ice creams we noticed a change in the wind. It became clear pretty quickly that a storm was coming. It was only a couple of minutes before the CMs near by started pulling tarps down over their stands. We figured we better find some cover. The line for Dinosaur was posted at about 15 minutes so we headed that way. We were pretty sure that the line would be longer than 15 minutes as we weren't the only ones looking for cover. By the time we were there rain was coming down pretty steadily and it wasn't long after we got in line that it was a downpour. At about the 15 minute mark we weren't even in the t-rex room and we started discussing if we wanted to head back out into the rain to get to the Nemo show at 3 or wait this out. We couldn't make up our mind so ended up just staying in line. I think it took about 35 minutes and by the time we got out there was no way were making it to Nemo.

The rain had subsided but we were unsure what to do with ourselves until Rivers of Light. We decided to go do Gorilla Falls trail as we hadn't done that yet, but we looked at the app and saw that it was closed.

We were wandering aimlessly toward the Tree of Life when we saw the line for Pocahontas. I asked the girl how long it might be and she said perhaps 20 minutes so in we went. While we walked through the queue, we discussed what we had all accomplished in the day and what we would do with ourselves on our second AK day. It was at this point I said my first unthinkable thought of the trip:

"Well, we don't HAVE to come back here. We could go to a different park and rearrange our fastpasses."
Kaitlyn (never having swayed from a Disney schedule before): " We can DO that?"
Me: "Sure, why not? We are the masters of our own destiny."
Kaitlyn: "... but... where would we go instead?"
Me: "I have no idea. Epcot? But that would be two Epcot days in a row. But maybe if we really enjoy the Food & Wine Festival we'll want to do that."
Kaitlyn: "True... so what should we do?"
Me: "I don't know, we'll see how it goes." ("We'll see how it goes" could have been an alternate title for this trip report).

Anyways, within 5 minutes we had met Pocahontas and were wandering again We debated taking off our hats, but our hair was SO gross. I still think we made the wrong decision

We meandered back toward Nemo and decided just to wait. I think we maybe waited 15-20 minutes before we got let in. While waiting, we put in an order for Satu'li Canteen.

Finally!

I love Go with the Flow

After Nemo, we must have tried to give Gorilla Falls another go, as we headed in the direction of Africa. It was as we neared Africa that I noticed Kaitlyn's favourite Disney treat -

Dole Whip! Although, it didn't look exactly like Aloha Isle Dole Whip, and this one had rum in it!

 

[AKemily]

Sorry about that last text-heavy post. To make up for it, this one will be picture-heavy.

After our little indulgence, we finally headed to Gorilla Falls, at which I took many more pictures than the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

As a side note, the baby okapi at AKL looks soooo cute and I hope to see it before it's full grown

What is that? That freaky thing? (Yes that's right, it's a naked mole rat!) Come on y'all.. let the girlies sing! (Listen to the naked mole rap!)

Ten points to whoever knows what that's from! I can't be the only millennial who sings that when they see these little guys.

These toads are TOO BIG.

Up next: More Gorilla Falls photos!

 

[AKemily]

The problem with having really petite friends is that you lose them all the time! I felt like I spent half my trip looking for Kaitlyn in the seas of people and behind merchandise racks, but it is especially easy to lose sight of them, when they DON'T TELL YOU THEY'RE LEAVING. You've probably guessed it, that at this point Kaitlyn decided to move up on the trail and not tell me about it. And if you've been to Gorilla Falls, you'll know that there are always a million people at the glass. So I probably spent a good 10-15 minutes at this point just looking for Kaitlyn and mistaking several small children for her. Eventually I found her waiting at the end of the trail for me, all innocently, literally stopping to smell the flowers I took pictures of them instead.

It's always interesting going to Disney at different times of year and seeing all the different foliage.

After this, we saw that Kilimanjaro had a 25 minute wait so we decided to get in line.

 

[AKemily]

Ha! True, Florida is in no way "southern" other than location.


Come to Tennessee anytime! We'll get you plenty of sweet tea

That sounds amaaaazing

 

[AKemily]

I LOVE giraffes

Baby Aella!!

 

[AKemily]

Just a few more, that's it, I promise!

RED ALERT: THERE WAS A CHEETAH WALKING

... Nevermind.

After Kilimanjaro, we made our way over Pandora using the bridge behind Africa.

 

[AKemily]

Let's see if we can finish up Day 3, shall we?

I forgot a few things about our safari.
1) Our guide was actually really good. They talked about the conservation part of it a lot and it seemed like it was something they were really passionate about, which I appreciated.
2) I either forgot or didn't realize that the flamingo island is a hidden Mickey
3) There was one poor, innocent lady on the ride who kept asking where they imported the baobob trees from. I didn't have the heart to shatter the Disney magic for her.

We finally made it back to Pandora for our 6:45 FoP fastpass. Kaitlyn had been told it was kind of like Soarin' but otherwise had no expectations. When we got on our "bike", she said quietly "... this is NOT like Soarin'." It was an enjoyable ride as always. It's been kind of ruined for me since I noticed all the rows of people above and below riding - it just totally ruins the illusion. But it is still fun

After getting off the ride, I pulled up our mobile order from earlier to say we were there. Our meal was ready by the time we got to the counter. I had the hash with beef and the charred green onion vinaigrette. Kaitlyn had rice with chicken and the creamy herb dressing. We both really enjoyed our dishes but definitely could have shared. Although I think we both ate the leftovers later in the week. They gave us boxes but we had to go to the FoP store to get a bag for carrying them. I was glad that they gave us one at all though!

We also got the Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse. It was really yummy but we were definitely glad we shared. It would have been too sweet for us to have our own.

Here was my view:

We then headed over to Rivers of Light.

 

[AKemily]

I believe at some point earlier in the day we had switched our fastpasses around and ended up getting one for Rivers of Light, so we had pretty decent seating.

I would say I enjoyed this show more the second time around but I think that had more to do with not having a baby and a toddler as part of our entourage (which also meant I as personally less exhausted ) than actually appreciating the show more. It was good, but not a must do like the other Parks' nighttime spectaculars are for me.

After RoL we headed out of the Park with everybody else. Despite the mass exodus, our bus was not crowded, in fact no one even had to stand. We were on the bus by 9:30 but for some reason had to pick up at Epcot before we went back to the hotels. This was the only day they did that.

Thoughts on Day 3? Well, it was Animal Kingdom, so it was amazing! I loved how much we were able to get done. The only thing we didn't do was Rafiki's Planet Watch which is take or leave for me. I was sad to see it was closing but now apparently it's not? I do enjoy the little booths in there where you listen to the sounds of the rainforest. As proof, here's a picture of me and @krause thoroughly enjoying it in 2011.

Here's the stats from Day 3:

Coming up next: Magic Kingdom!!

 

[riverside]

It was an enjoyable ride as always. It's been kind of ruined for me since I noticed all the rows of people above and below riding - it just totally ruins the illusion. But it is still fun

Funny you say that--the first couple times I rode it I didn't notice the other people either. Once I did it changed it for me also!!

It was good, but not a must do

I saw it twice so I could give it a fair chance. Not a must do for me either....

 

[AKemily]

Funny you say that--the first couple times I rode it I didn't notice the other people either. Once I did it changed it for me also!!

Right? Once you notice, there's really no going back.

I saw it twice so I could give it a fair chance. Not a must do for me either....

It's really too bad, but I guess if you can't do fireworks, it's just not going to be as impressive

 

[AKemily]

Day 4: Magic Kingdom
This morning we woke up in time to catch the 8:00 bus. At the hotel after ours they loaded 2 ECVs so the trip took a little longer than usual. During our wait, Kaitlyn and I discussed what we were going to do first. Much to Kaitlyn's disdain, I suggested Peter Pan's Flight. I think this ride is only mildly entertaining but I hadn't done it on my last couple trips. Kaitlyn wasn't very excited about this suggestion, having had Peter Pan's Flight overload as a child (in Disneyland). However, after discussing our other options and the fastpasses we had for the day, I won

I took some less than decent pictures of Main Street on our way into the Park.

The fireworks we were all waiting for!

We made our way over to PPF and hopped in line. It can't have been more than five minutes before we were flying. Here are some more poor pictures

We then headed over to HM which had an hauntingly short wait time.

 

[AKemily]

We then headed toward another one we hadn't got done on our arrival day.

We had @riverside's favourite skipper, Joseph, and she isn't wrong, he is fantastic! Definitely one of, if not the, best skipper I've had.

After our cruise, we got in line for PotC. After we were in line for a couple of minutes, the ride went down. Some people left the line but most didn't. After maybe another 5 minutes it became clear that nothing was going to get fixed any time soon, so we bailed along with a majority of the others. I think it was down for at least another hour, so we made the right choice. From there, we decided to find some breakfast. There was something I wanted to try for a while, so we headed towards Liberty Square.

It was another beautiful day!

Many of you already know where we were - Sleepy Hollow! I had a hankering for a Nutella & fruit waffle

Kaitlyn and I shared this puppy, and it was a good idea as it was very filling. Not that I expected any differently, but this was so delicious! And Kaitlyn doesn't like banana so I got to have all of it I would definitely have this again.... as you may be able to tell.

Oh yeah, I also got an iced coffee.

 

[AKemily]

Next we had our first fastpass of the day to get to, but on the way I snapped a few pictures

This fountain is so cute

Then we hopped in line for...

... a blurry picture of Dopey!

Also, I realized I posted this picture for our arrival day, but it was actually from this day. I guess our first day picture didn't come through. How did I not notice the outfit change though?! Anyways, here's the happy guy again!

We did a little shopping after that and I found this music box that I thought my niece would like.

I didn't buy it right away though because I wanted @krause's opinion. Throughout the week I ended up finding this music box in most of the different princesses and I ended up getting the Ariel one, which sang Under the Sea.

After shopping, we headed to Tomorrowland for a ride through space. The girls behind me were quite animated - and by that I mean they basically screamed the whole time. It was a lot of fun to ride with them though. Not quite sure what look I was going for.

If you squint your eyes and make your eyes go blurry, you can see the train through the trees. We were stopped to wait for it to pass on the looooong walk from the Space Mountain exit back to Tomorrowland.

 

[AKemily]

While waiting for the train to cross, Kaitlyn and I discussed what we should do next. I made another suggestion Kaitlyn wasn't very excited about when I said, "well, we could go on Carousel of Progress or the People Mover." I guess she doesn't love these rides Anyway, I guess the People Mover was the lesser of two evils so we headed that way (I prefer the People Mover to CoP as well, so I was fine with that).

I find the People Mover to be so relaxing.

I guess we did Buzz next. The line can't have been longer than 20 minutes or I wouldn't have got on. I think I mostly took these kinds of pictures to keep track of what time we got there, but I almost never go back to check what time it was. In this case, it was apparently 12:01.

I would do TSM 10 times before I would do Buzz once. I'm just not a big fan. Even when I do well I'm not really convinced the guns work properly lol. Anyways, I didn't do great but I skunked Kaitlyn

This is my "DIE, alien, DIE!" face

 

[AKemily]

Should I see if I can at least make it up to MNSSHP tonight? It's only fitting Happy Halloween everyone! And Merry Christmas Eve! (As we Disney-lovers know, Christmas starts tomorrow!)

After Buzz, we finally headed back to PotC after the ride shut down in the morning.

Apparently after Pirates we headed to do our BTMR fastpass but I don't have any photographic evidence. We headed to Casey's after that to grab a late lunch.

Okay. The corn dog nuggets. Are. Amazing. I literally just wanted to eat corn dog nuggets the rest of our trip. They seriously hit the spot. I will return for more of these one day.

After Casey's we headed back in the direction of Frontierland for our Splash fastpass. Unfortunately, we timed this poorly and ran right into the FoF parade. We decided to wait and watch.

 

[AKemily]

I should mention that the evening before I had my second unthinkable thought of the trip. And that was to (*gasp!*) leave the Park and refresh at the hotel before getting into our costumes and heading back to the Party for the evening. So while we enjoyed the parade we were kind of just hoping to get our fastpass done and get out of the Park.

So, once the parade had passed we rushed across the street upstream to get to Splash. And, once we got there, what did we find? Splash had shut down We were really looking forward to getting a good soaking after waiting in the heat, too. Defeated, we headed in the direction of the Park exit. However, we knew we would have to try and beat the parade once more or risk getting blocked again.

We hoofed it out of the Park and were able to (just barely!) beat the parade to the end of Main Street. We took the Monorail to the TTC and got on our bus around 2:30PM.

When we got back to the hotel, Kaitlyn hit the shower, and I hit the pool

One very noticeable difference between our hotel and a Disney hotel - no kids! I think I saw one kid the entire time we stayed there It was kind of a nice reprieve, to be honest.

After cooling off, we got in our costumes. We knew they would do nothing to help cool us down, which is why we knew we would have to go back to the hotel in the afternoon. I know that if we hadn't done that, we would have scrapped the costumes.

Have you all figured out our costumes already? Or do I need to provide a non-subtle hint? I'll give it to you in a spoiler.

Spoiler: Costume hint!

After about a 2 hour break at the hotel, we headed back toward the Park.

 

[AKemily]

Now that we were back in the Park, we were on a hunt. A hunt for our third amigo! We headed down the back path that they open up for the party.

First thing we did was get in line for a picture.

Not exactly what we were looking for.

Definitely not what we were looking for. I don't get this photo op. Is it from something?

The first thing we decided to do was get in line to meet a very important someone (although we did hit a few trick or treat spots along the way). People were either very excited about our costumes or didn't get them at all

They told us it would be about an hour and they were right!

What? Not who you were expecting?

We enjoyed our meet with Moana and were excited to cross it off our bucket list.

I can get on board with these wait times!

Where to next? Let's just say there were several cast members who asked where our third caballero was and when we asked if they've seen him we got some very helpful pointers!

 

[AKemily]

We got in line for our next meet. While waiting, it became very clear by this point that there were a lot of cast members at this party as guests. I felt that our party was quite a lot busier than the one I went to in mid-October two years ago. I'm thinking maybe cast members are encouraged to visit earlier ones? Maybe someone knows. Anyways we had some conversations with several young people who were clearly cast members and who really loved our costumes

We maybe waited about 35 minutes for this meet and greet but it was well worth it!

Daisy was pointing out my bird feet and how we matched

Donald was so excited to see us and we had so much fun in this meet and greet!

 

[Swissmiss]

Great costumes!