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]

It appears we took some Photopass pictures once we entered the Park. At least, I don't think I've posted these yet

I guess the line for Dinosaur was short, so we headed in that direction. A janitor was doing water paintings on the way.

I love this Disney touch!

I stopped and looked at the crocodile (as per usual Kaitlyn didn't notice me stop and kept walking).

Then we made our way to the past.

This is a blurry picture but the third and fourth light are labelled AC and DC.

 

[Figment Forever]

are you kidding... you mean they can't beat Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris! (circa 1976) you knew it was a remake right?

Haha - I was thinking the same thing!

 

[AKemily]

We exited into the carnival area and I sat down and rearranged my bag while Kaitlyn looked around the store. While I sat, Chip and Dale walked by.

He was rearranging all the Chip and Dale stuffed toys and bringing them to the front

RAWR

We headed in the direction of EE.

This deer continues to terrify me.

When we got out, rain had started and was picking up speed. You can see people putting on ponchos in my pictures below.

It was so hot out all day that we were glad for the rain. We couldn't believe there were people ducking for cover and hiding under roofs. It wasn't even raining that hard. I have to assume those people are from places hotter than Florida.

We had noticed a Lion King towel at one of the stands in Asia when we had been leaving the Park earlier. I decided to go back for it now. I'm guessing the CM thought I wanted to stay dry, but I really just wanted a souvenir towel Anyway, he was nice enough to remove the tarps and get one for me.

We decided we wanted supper next and chose to go to Flame Tree. Neither of us had eaten there before, and I was looking forward to it.

 

[AKemily]

At Flame Tree, Kaitlyn picked up our food while I found us a table close to the water. There was barely anyone there and finding a table was no problem. I could not get over this view. It was so perfect and calm with the rainfall.

Not long after Kaitlyn arrived with our food, all the tables around us emptied and we had the place to ourselves. Kaitlyn had the pulled pork mac and cheese and I had the pulled pork sandwich. Kaitlyn enjoyed her mac and cheese. She just told me it was "good" and reminded me that we also had a "boozy lemonade or something", which was far better and she wished she had had her own of I guess I wasn't as impressed as I completely forgot about it. I also felt my sandwich was subpar. It just didn't have a lot of flavour. Kaitlyn had said she waited for them to finish a new batch of pulled pork when she ordered and people were mad they had to wait (why? it's fresh!), so maybe they rushed it. I'm not sure. But I do remember I had a pulled pork sandwich at the counter service at POR in February and THAT was GOOD. So maybe this was just bad by comparison.

But the peaceful view totally made up for it, so I was happy!

 

[Swissmiss]

are you kidding... you mean they can't beat Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris! (circa 1976) you knew it was a remake right?

I am so glad someone said this!!

 

[amjt660]

Love it! Although I hope I can do better than that guy

I don’t know...
If he looks like this when he is not blue .....

Max

 

[Tuvalu]

Buses do not run from Disney Springs to the parks because people would park for free in the garages to avoid paying the theme park parking charge.

Another example of why we can’t have nice things.

 

[Songbird76]

are you kidding... you mean they can't beat Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris! (circa 1976) you knew it was a remake right?

Amen!! (I actually don't like either Lindsey Lohan OR Jamie Lee Curtis, and I loved the original. But ANOTHER remake? Why?

 

[krause]

I guess I know what your Friday night plans are if you want to finish this by the end of the month

 

[AKemily]

I am so glad someone said this!!

Amen!! (I actually don't like either Lindsey Lohan OR Jamie Lee Curtis, and I loved the original. But ANOTHER remake? Why?

Haha, I thought I might get in trouble for this, but I didn't know how much trouble! Although...

... the critics have spoken.

I don’t know...
If he looks like this when he is not blue .....
View attachment 328633

Max

Haha fair point!

Buses do not run from Disney Springs to the parks because people would park for free in the garages to avoid paying the theme park parking charge.

Another example of why we can’t have nice things.

That makes so much sense!... not that I'm happy about it. Thanks @Tuvalu!

I guess I know what your Friday night plans are if you want to finish this by the end of the month

Yes, my dear sister has called me out. I will try to get more done on this tonight! Sorry friends!

 

[Swissmiss]

@AKemily We’ll just have to agree to disagree (and I noticed that the audiences have also spoken ... the original had a higher average rating than the remake )

 

[AKemily]

@AKemily We’ll just have to agree to disagree (and I noticed that the audiences have also spoken ... the original had a higher average rating than the remake )

Haha I was hoping you wouldn't notice that! Anyways, I think we can all agree that a third movie was totally uncalled for! As it would seem, others agree...

 

[AKemily]

Alright, back to the main event. It was hard to drag myself away from the serenity we found at Flame Tree. But we had a fastpass to get to! I needed one last safari. We made our way toward Africa.

We had to have been on one of the first "nighttime" safaris of the evening, as the sun was still setting.

Aaaaah, sunset.

Our driver was like, "I don't know what you guys are talking about, that is a very realistic sunset."

The real sky actually was quite impressive. I don't know how well it comes across but it was very purple.

 

[AKemily]

After another successful safari, it was getting near to park close. I really wanted to see the Tree of Life Awakenings (to me, these are more enthralling than Rivers of Light) and Kaitlyn wanted to see Pandora at night, so we parted ways. By the time the first awakening started, Kaitlyn had found me, so I guess she made the right choice. We only ended up watching one of the little films, as we wanted to catch the bus immediately after park close. Luckily for us, it was the Disney themed one. I really enjoyed it!

I think the main reason I love the Tree of Life Awakenings is because the first time I saw them, I had a really great experience. There was hardly anyone in the park, and my friend and I sat down really close to the front (we may have been sitting with a lot of children but don't worry, we weren't in the way) and watched all four "movies". It was so relaxing, and a perfect AK evening. It was sad to leave the park this night after only seeing one, but we both felt it was best to beat the RoL stampede out of the park and onto the bus. It was about 8:20 when we left the park and I believe we were on the bus no more than 15 minutes later. This bus was kind of weird though because there wasn't enough people from all the Disney Springs resorts and it ended up going to all of them instead of just half. Still, we were back at the hotel by shortly after 9.

There was this one bus where the screen had a big black spot, and I can only imagine someone had their fill of Stacey

Thoughts on the day? What's not to love about Animal Kingdom?! We were definitely glad we had our second day there, which was much more relaxing than our first day there. I loved our detour to Disney Springs, more for POFQ/beignet/boatride part. Otherwise, Disney Springs was just hot and I spent a lot of money Here's our stats from the day:

Up next: Day 7!!!! We've made it, you guys.

 

[AKemily]

We have finally made it to day 7. I am a little worried that once I finish this trip report that I will feel completely over and the Disney blues will kick in hard(er). I do have a lot of your trip reports to catch up on though!

On the last day of our trip we, of course, went back to the Magic Kingdom. We were on the bus and on our way by 5 after 8.

We joined the crowd waiting to get into Fantasyland.

Have a magical day!!!

Finally, we walked with hundreds of our closest friends to - where else? - Seven Dwarfs Mine Train! This is where we got in line.

Didn't this have a game in it before? Wasn't it a touch screen where you moved the jewels into the right bin? I'm not imagining that, right?

 

[AKemily]

After SDMT, we headed over to Haunted Mansion.

Now, I need to go back to something that happened earlier in the week. It would have been on our second day and we were leaving the Haunted Mansion. Kaitlyn had lagged behind me for some reason and I was looking at the pet cemetery and was feeling ready for some ice cream. Consumed with the thought of ice cream, I heard Kaitlyn say something like "I want to check out the Haunted Mansion bathrooms next time." I was a little confused, being pretty certain no such thing existed, but I had a one-track mind on the ice cream so we carried on.

Today, however, as we were leaving the ride, Kaitlyn reminded me of this. When leaving the ride, there is a small hallway. Unsure, but pretty confident it would be a dead end, I followed Kaitlyn down there. That's when we saw the CM. Before we knew it, she had said something about "skipping the room" (this would be the stretching room) and were ushered into the bottlenecked crowd in the doom buggy loading room. Friends. There was LITERALLY NO TURNING BACK NOW. We were sucked into the crowd and before we had even come to terms with what was happening, we were loaded on to our next doom buggy. So yes, we very unexpectedly, unknowingly, skipped the line for a second ride on Haunted Mansion. But we felt SO GUILTY. I can promise you that neither of us enjoyed that second ride. Not only did I feel guilty, but I was in total disbelief of what had just happened. Not only that, but apparently to that CM, we looked like people who would skip the stretching room. I made myself feel a little better because of the fact that we basically walked on to this ride the first time, and we probably weren't causing anyone to wait much longer than they would have. Anyway, the above pictures are from our first ride

After our "guilt trip" around the Haunted Mansion, we decided to get far away from Liberty Square and made for the 5 minute wait at PotC.

Not a big fan of the new scene, by the way. Mostly because the red head's voice annoys me haha.

We then made our way (gasp!) out of the Park!

We had an ADR to get to.

 

[Tuvalu]

You are not crazy. There did used to be a game in the 7DMT queue where you were supposed to “catch” moving stones. I remember the first time we saw it that Em was aghast at all the little germy fingers touching the screen.

I don’t know when the game was removed, since we usually ride 7DMT with a FP, but I did notice the change when I was in the standby line during MVMCP last week.

 

[AKemily]

You are not crazy. There did used to be a game in the 7DMT queue where you were supposed to “catch” moving stones. I remember the first time we saw it that Em was aghast at all the little germy fingers touching the screen.

I don’t know when the game was removed, since we usually ride 7DMT with a FP, but I did notice the change when I was in the standby line during MVMCP last week.

Thanks again, @Tuvalu! You know everything! And Em is right too, the touch screen games are pretty gross.

 

[AKemily]

We got to the Polynesian right on time for our 10:50 reservation. It's so beautiful

We headed straight for the restaurant and were seated right away.

We started off with the press pot of coffee and I got the POG juice (or whatever it's called at Kona Cafe).

The coffee was a little disappointing. I expected it to be a lot better. It was only okay. But the POG juice was definitely a hit! I did regret not getting the mimosa flight a little bit. Next time!

It was very clear while we were there that the breakfast service was coming to an end. By the time we left, we were pretty much the only people there. That being said, I think we still waited quite a while before our food came. But eventually, it did. This was Kaitlyn's splurge, and she ordered herself a feast!

She had the macadamia nut pancakes and a fruit platter. I wasn't sure she would be able to finish it all, but the people at the table next to us were judging her hard We got all sorts of looks from them.

Since we were at Kona Cafe, I had no other choice but to get the Tonga Toast.

It was delicious! Lots of people say that they think the strawberry sauce is too sweet, but I thought it was perfect! It is by no means my new favourite Disney meal but I might have it again one day

And, if you were wondering, Kaitlyn didn't finish her meal but was thisclose! I think she was saving stomach space the whole week just for this moment

We very much enjoyed our meal at Kona, but they almost had to roll us out of there

 

[AKemily]

We hopped on the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom. Between the Grand Floridian and the park, it was stalled for a few minutes so I snapped some pictures.

She's always so impressed with me

We got back to the park at about 12:15 and headed straight for our Splash Mountain FP. With our full bellies, we decided to take the MPB instead of walking. I guess we waited a while as I took several pictures.