Trip Report COMPLETED: "What is Mickey hiding from anyway?" ACE GANG REUNION

Hello, all! I'm Abby.

Welcome to what is sure to be a long TR!!

I’ve finally returned to the real world after a fantastic reunion with my very best friends from college. I live in Florida these days and I have a pass but I haven’t done more than 3 consecutive days at Disney since I went with my family in 2008. So, for that reason and for the fact that I would get to spend plenty of time with the best besties ever, I was incredibly excited for this trip.​

Here we are! I'm on the left then there's Kelsey, Cassie, Megan, and Val. We call ourselves the Ace Gang.

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We had all been talking about this trip since we graduated, and the hotel was booked a year out. Val and I did most of the planning. She’s from California and always seems to be at Disneyland. I’ve visited her 3 times there and it was finally time for her to come over to this side of the country. Since we were the planners (and we got the separate bedroom in our Finding Nemo suite), the rest of the girls took to calling us Mom and Dad. I was Dad since I did the driving and paid for a bunch of things so I could use my Tables in Wonderland card and everyone else could just pay me back later. We really cracked ourselves up throughout the trip, getting carried away with our inside joke and constantly trying to decide who was our favorite daughter.

We stayed at Art of Animation for 7 nights. Val and I had some extra time, and we did extra days at Disney and elsewhere in Florida. I didn’t take all too many photos on this trip. So I’ll include a bunch of photos I stole from Val, as it is probably more interesting to see WDW through the eyes of a first-timer anyway. Also, a number of these will be Memory Maker photos (We split the cost of this 5 ways and definitely got our money’s worth).​

Wednesday, October 15.
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I left work about 3pm and drove down to Orlando. Waited in the MCO cell phone lot and then it was time to go grab Val!! We headed immediately to Magic Kingdom upon her arrival by way of TTC and a pretty crowded monorail and soon enough we were entering the park.

Here we gooo!
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Val was worried that her magic band wasn’t going to work but everything went completely smoothly. We were in! We left today and headed into the lands of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy. Tears were shed as Val took it all in.
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Huzzah! More adventures to come...

 

[abzoo]

Next ride was Jurassic Park River Adventure. I always love this ride and Val was excited to go on it too since she has ridden the one in California. The effects on the ride weren’t working very smoothly-- it seemed like there was a delay for most of the dinos. So not in the best shape but still fun. And we got soaked-- well, parts of us did anyway.

On to Wizarding World! You can kinda see how wet we are in this photo in front of Hogwarts.

Hogsmeade! I'm a huge Harry Potter fan so I love the Wizarding World. I hadn't been to Universal for over a year so it was nice to be back but I was really more excited for Diagon Alley (which didn't disappoint... more on that later).

We went on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey next and going into Hogwarts is awesome. The line was moving very quickly so we didn't have all that much time to look at all the things. Val, Kelsey, and Megan really liked the ride. I think it was their favorite of the day.

We decided that we would come back to Islands of Adventure later in the day since we had a lot to see over at USF, which closed early that day due to Halloween Horror Nights. See you later, Hogsmeade!

 

[mrdrift]

Great start to HP trip, the pictures are really cool. Following along.

 

[ValVal]

POST MOREEEE

 

[Gabe1]

Just found this report that was bumped up, so much fun. Cheering for everyone to be healthy.

 

[abzoo]

POST MOREEEE

Ahh you're no longer just creeping on the report! Since Amtrak has finally added free Wifi, I have no excuse but to post!

Just found this report that was bumped up, so much fun. Cheering for everyone to be healthy.

Welcome! Yes, we're all healthy at this point!!

 

[abzoo]

Ok I'm back now! Sorry it's been a while. And welcome to @ValVal who finally decided to join and stop lurking on my trip report!

Where I left off, we were headed to the Hogsmeade train station to catch a ride to Diagon Alley. We scanned our tickets and then went up to the platform. We were then led to our compartment on the Hogwarts Express!!

So impressed with this ride! The detail in the train cars was just awesome and then there was the added bonus of the scenes being shown on the window and seeing/hearing characters passing by us in the hall. Soon enough we were pulling into London! We exited the Hogwarts Express in King's Cross and took in even more glorious immersive detail.

We then followed the way out of fake King's Cross into Fake London, which is beautiful. We passed the Knight Bus, Grimauld Place, and Wyndham's Theatre. Kelsey and I were particularly excited about this part of the London façade since we saw an amazing production of Much Ado About Nothing starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate 2 years ago at the real Wyndham's.

I couldn't wait any more and it was time to leave Muggle London and see Diagon Alley for the first time.

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We took so many photos but I still feel like there's so much more that we didn't capture. Tons of amazing little details in the storefronts and signs and writing on the walls of the buildings. I need to get back there and take it all in again.

 

[abzoo]

Val and Kelsey got some yummy butterbeer ice cream, we saw part of the performance of the Tale of the Three Brothers, went in a few more shops, including Knockturn Alley, which is perpetually in darkness.

Then we ended up in Ollivander's just in time for the next wand-choosing "show" to begin. We were the last ones to enter and I made eye contact with the wand salesman. He called me to the front and asked for my name. Huzzah! I had been selected. It probably helped that I was wearing my Harry and the Potters shirt. He then called Megan up too! It was awesome! Wands "chose" us and then we were led out of the room and a store employee talked prices with us. But we weren't willing to shell out the money for them. It was a great experience though!

We kept checking to see if the new ride was open, but it was having issues throughout the morning. While we waited for it to open we decided to get lunch at the Leaky Cauldron!! It was a great atmosphere-- just like being in the movies but with lighting that's not quite so bleak. Good food too!

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[abzoo]

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Finally the queue opened for HP and the Escape from Gringotts. We didn't have to wait outside at all so we went straight to the gorgeous lobby of the bank, with the AA goblin tellers. Amazing.

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We went down the stairs and got our photo taken while waiting, which was strange. Finally we got our 3D glasses and then it was announced that the ride was once again having difficulties. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it was earlier in the day, but we were so close that we weren't about to turn around. It ended up being about 20 more minutes of waiting.

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The ride itself was pretty good. I hate too much simulation so I was glad that there were some thrill potions to it. I think the consensus of the first-timers was that Forbidden Journey was a better ride though.

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We finally ventured out of the Wizarding World and went to see other parts of the park.

 

[abzoo]

A wand chose you!? Yay! But also yay on standing firm on not buying, those suckers are expensive.

There are other parts of the park?

They have new interactive wands that you can use in a bunch of places throughout Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley and those are the ones that choose you at Ollivander's now, I guess. Much more expensive.

And yeah, the other parts of USF are pretty inconsequential... except for a couple rides.

 

[ValVal]

Actually I thought the newbs had decided Gringotts was better?? IDK maybe that was just me haha i just know FJ made me sick & gringotts didn't haha

 

[abzoo]

Actually I thought the newbs had decided Gringotts was better?? IDK maybe that was just me haha i just know FJ made me sick & gringotts didn't haha

I see... Now that you've emerged from the shadows of the internet, perhaps I should stop making generalizations. All simulators make me feel sick. Meh.

 

[mrdrift]

Thanks for the tour of Diagon Alley. On my wish list to do next time in Florida. All of the pictures turned out great and detailed. Following along.

 

[abzoo]

Hello again! Sorry for the lack of posts-- my computer was out of commission the past few weeks but back now. Luckily no photos were lost since I have everything backed up.

So where I left off, we were venturing out to the rest of Universal Studios so we could see more than just Diagon Alley.

We rode The Mummy and ET, which was bizarre as expected. Then I tried to get everyone to ride the Rip Ride Rockit with me, since I really love it, but the only one willing to give it a try was Val. Kelsey and Megan waited for us while we rode. (Fun Fact: they've started staring people down before you enter the queue to see if it looks like there's anything in your pockets. This is probably a good choice because 2 years ago I lost my iPhone on this ride. It fell out of my pocket and was miraculously returned to me with scratches only on the case, no damage to the phone after falling off a roller coaster!) Anyway, the wait was less than 5 minutes and I would have ridden multiple times but no one else felt the same desire . Oh well, on we went since we had other things to do before we were kicked out for HHN.

We got in a 30-min line for Transformers and I ended up regretting that. I think it was a waste of time since there just wasn't enough that made it stand out from the Spiderman ride we went on earlier in the day. Simulators are definitely not my favorite.

Of course we had to go on Men in Black too.

By the time we were done with that, Val wanted to check out Disaster! but the rest of us wanted another look around Diagon Alley. It turned out that neither of those plans was a possibility since it was about 4:30 and we didn’t have tickets for HHN, which started at 5. Boo. So we went to get in line for the train back to Hogsmeade. The line was pretty long for this, but there was lots of new stuff to see. In particular the effect showing you crossing over into Platform 9 ¾ and walking through the brick wall! I knew about this beforehand but managed to forget about it until we got to that part of the line. Then I was super excited.

Woo Kings Cross Station. So London!

Hedwig!

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I promise there will be more soon, @ValVal. Next up is the rest of our day at Islands of Adventure and then finally some posts about Food and Wine Festival!

 

[ValVal]

YEAAA!!!! UPDATESSSSS hehe Rock-it was Fun but if i rode it again after the 1st time i may have 1-vomitted or 2-passed out on the ride, & neither of those sounded like good options to me haha Ready to relive the rest of our adventuressss

 

[mrdrift]

Welcome back, I hate when computers act up and get mad at us for using them so much. Glad you didn't loose all of your pictures from the computer issue. Sorry that not everyone wanted to ride RRR, that's a family must do when at the park especially when there is almost no wait for it. Great pictures from Hogwarts Express. Following along.

 

[abzoo]

Our second ride on the Hogwarts Express was a pleasant one. We were dropped off outside Hogsmeade and knew there was still some Wizarding World stuff we needed to do, such as ride Dragon Challenge (Megan sat that one out) and Flight of the Hippogriff (the line for which ended up being far too long since they only were running one car on the track at a time).

In high school, I used to think it was really funny to call Megan "Hagrid" so here's Hagrid with her hut.

We visited the newly-expanded Honeydukes and Val bought some goodies.

People playing with their interactive wands.

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It was getting late so we started heading towards the park exit. On our way, we stopped in Seuss Landing and Val was hit hard with Dr. Seuss nostalgia... we should have planned on making more time there I suppose. We (and by we I mean just @ValVal and I) did go on one more ride before leaving, Hulk! Another awesome coaster with zero wait.

So tired!

The only time we saw the front entrance to USF park... it's nice being able to take the Hogwarts Express instead of exiting one park and walking over to the other entrance. Assuming the lines aren't horribly long, that's the ideal way to park hop.

So we went back through CityWalk to get to the car so we could drive to get dinner at 100 Montaditos and pretend like we were in Spain. Val graciously drove us back to Art of Animation afterwards.

And that's it for Day 5!

 

[FlaggNL]

Still a great report and off course still following! Great pictures, bring back a lot of memories

 

[mrdrift]

Great end to day 5, I just love the Harry Potter attractions at Universal. The pictures are really great addition to the report. Following along.

 

[abzoo]

YEAAA!!!! UPDATESSSSS hehe Rock-it was Fun but if i rode it again after the 1st time i may have 1-vomitted or 2-passed out on the ride, & neither of those sounded like good options to me haha Ready to relive the rest of our adventuressss

Yes, I'm glad we didn't have to resort to those options. It's so bittersweet to relive the adventures, since we're past the halfway mark at this point. You should probably come back ASAP so I can have more to report about.

Still a great report and off course still following! Great pictures, bring back a lot of memories

Thank you! And it's great to see your countdown is now much lower again since you decided to come back in October!

Great end to day 5, I just love the Harry Potter attractions at Universal. The pictures are really great addition to the report. Following along.

Thanks for following! Some of the photo credit goes to @ValVal since I stole a bunch of pictures from her camera before she left Florida!

 

[Sandurz]

Ahh yess I picked a good time to come back and read some TRs. Love catching a good one while it's still being posted! Fun read so far. Looking forward to the rest!

Big fan of adding the goofy unrelated templates to the various Photopass pics. "We're Engaged!" had me cracking up.