Trip Report Disneymoon aka the trip of ROLLER COASTERS!

Who: The newlyweds! Myself- Laura, 30 & husband Roland, 40
(he turns 41 one week before we leave!)
When: Oct 26 - Nov 2 2017
Where: Staying on property, at All Star Movies
Tickets: 6 day Park Hoppers

The day we tied the knot! May 18, 2017 in Hamilton, NJ

 

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DAY 2 cont'd
Our FP window for EE was approaching so we headed towards Asia, ready to conquer the Yeti. We saw that the single rider line was 5 minutes so we hopped in line to ride, then came back around to ride again with our FP. That's two rides through the mountain so far I really wanted to see Finding Nemo The Musical and we had a good half hour before the first show so we headed over to Dinoland & saw that Primaveral Whirl (hurl?) was only a 10 minute wait so we took a spin. It was fun! Like a cross between a wild mouse roller coaster & the tilt a whirl. We rode with a woman & her young son who seemed nervous waiting in the queue but Roland was making him laugh throughout the ride & he seemed to have fun. His mom said we were good ride partners We headed back to the theater for Nemo and waited for a few minutes before being let into the theater. The little boy sitting behind us kept yelling, "NINO, NINO!" while his parents were trying to get him to say NEMO That same family ended up in the row behind us on KS afterwards too- they must have been on the same attraction rotation as us! We loved the show! I didn't take many pictures because I just wanted to enjoy but here are a few shots I did take:

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After the show let out, we headed over to Africa for our KS FP. I was glad I had reserved a FP, stand-by was at 75 minutes! We soon boarded our Jeep and off we went. It was a good safari- we saw a lot of animals and our driver was fun & informative. Some shots I got:

 

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Last two from safari!

After our safari we headed back towards the front of the park- it was lunch time! We really wanted to try Flame Tree BBQ but the line was huuuuuuuge. We weren't surprised considering it was literally the middle of lunch so we opted for our second choice, Rainforest Cafe!

We headed in and decided to sit at the bar to eat instead of wait for a table as it was pretty busy. We settled in and checked out the menu- I decided to have the chicken Cesar salad, Roland had a pasta dish w/ chicken. Both were very good, and the two bartenders were very friendly & attentive. It was funny- we don't drink, so it's rare that we are ever sitting at a bar yet there we were hanging out at the bar in Disney Towards the end of the meal, I started having some stomach pains & was feeling really uncomfortable- I've had stomach issues ever since I was a little girl so this didn't come on as a surprise to me. Roland asked if I wanted to head back to the resort for a break- at this point I was feeling slightly nauseous and I found myself saying, YES! Some AC & downtime sounded exactly like what I needed. We finished up & slowly made our way to our bus stop. A bus came after about 5 minutes, and once we sat on the cool bus I started to feel a little better. Our driver saw our Happily Ever After buttons & Roland's Happy Birthday button so he made an announcement over the PA system to wish one of their guests a very happy birthday & celebration. Everyone on the bus wished us well, smiled, etc. It was so nice! The older women sitting across from us asked Roland if he was in the services- no he is not, he's an electrician. Funny because he gets asked that question often! Must be the short haircut & the seriousness We made it back to Movies and stopped in the food court to get a Coke, that's what usually helps my stomach. We walked back to our room, re-grouped & I took some Pepto Bismol which paired with the Coke really helped and I was soon feeling back to my old self! Not sure what set me off exactly- it was pretty humid that day, and I probably hadn't drank enough water. I was definitely more mindful of my water intake for the rest of the trip! We headed back to the bus top & checked the app to check out our ride photos from EE & some Photo Pass photos we took on the bridge afterwards
Our single rider shots:

I accidentally elbowed the poor guy next to me at least twice throughout the twists & turns of the mountain but he was a good sport about it

I love the guy behind Roland taking a call

And our ride together!

Afterwards

And the cold weather version:

 

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As we walked back into the park we decided to check out The Tree of Life Garden. It was SO PEACEFUL back there- and it was cool to check out the tree from a different angle. We kept pointing out the different animal carvings we saw, and just enjoyed the quiet.

Large mouth bass that I took a picture of for my dad!

On our way out we ran into this guy

Hello, Flick! We chatted & told him how much we enjoyed his show. We had some time before our Dinosaur FP, and stand-by for EE was at an hour so we figured we'd check & see what the single rider line looked like- 20 minutes! Why not? That's 3 EE trips

We met up at the end of the mountain and headed over to Dinoland. The park was CROWDED at this point- literally just swarms of people at one point, there was some much congestion We arrived at Dinosaur in one piece & headed in. LOVE THIS RIDE! I scream & scare myself as if the dinos are real

We really wanted to ride again but stand-by was at an hour so we decided to walk over to Pandora to check it out before heading over to AKL for our ADR at Sanaa. Pandora was a madhouse We did a quick walk through, took some pics & headed on our way. Neither of us have seen Avator so it's not part of the park that we were dying to see. I hadn't bothered trying to get FP for FOP or NRJ because of that reason. However, our curiosity for FOP got the best of us by the end of our trip

 

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Next up: dinner at Sanaa!
We began making our way out of the park and saw some familiar faces

It had also started to rain a little bit, and we were hoping it would let off because we really wanted to check out the grounds at AKL. We saw that Russell had no visitors so we stopped in to say hi!

After our visit, we continued on to the bus for AKL. We arrived quickly, and unfortunately the rain had not stopped. We watched the animals from the covered deck for awhile then checked out the gift shop in the lobby before heading downstairs for dinner.

This guy is ready for dinner!

 

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We checked in a few minutes early and checked out the menu while we waited for our buzzer to go off. We were both excited for this meal- Roland loves Indian food & I was excited to eat with views of one of the savannas. Our buzzer went off & we were brought to our table, with a slight view of the savanna! I loved the atmosphere, and our server was fantastic (I hate to say that I forgot her name) We both decided to get the Potjie Inspired- I chose the braised beef with roasted okra, cashew & tomato stew. Roland had the butter chicken with paneer tikka. Both were served with basmati rice, and we also ordered a side of naan.

Everything was FANTASTIC! We were pretty hungry and there was nothing left on our plates at the end of our meal I was too full for dessert, but Roland ordered the African Triple Mousse which our server brought out with an 'Happy Birthday' edible sign. I had a taste, and it was amaaaazing.

We were 3 for 3 on our table service meals- wonderful food, atmosphere & service. We had received quite a few Disney gift cards from friends & family before our trip and that really helped with our meals. We didn't feel like we were breaking the bank each night! After dinner it was still raining so we decided to hop on a bus to MK and take the monorail or ferry over to the Grand Floridian. Roland had never been & I wanted to give him a tour. The GF is my dream resort! I've been obsessed with it ever since the very cheesy 90's episode of Full House was filmed there By the time we got to MK, the rain had actually stopped so we hopped on line to take the ferry over.
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We walked around before checking out the lobby, which was VERY busy. We poked in & out of the shops before hopping on the monorail back to MK.

A Movies bus was pulling up just as we got to our bus stop- yay! Once back at Movies, we stopped and got Mickey ice cream pops to eat on our way back to our room. The perfect end to a perfect day! We settled in for the night, and fell asleep quickly- we were exhausted. Hollywood Studios in the morning!

 

[amjt660]

Coral reef looks and sounds great
I have never been
It used to have a bad reputation but reviews like yours will change that

Max

 

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Coral reef looks and sounds great
I have never been
It used to have a bad reputation but reviews like yours will change that

Max

It was one of the top meals of the trip!

 

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DAY 4
Sunday 10/29/17
We had our routine down to a science at this point- showers, breakfast, bus stop! Oh, and lots of coffee The only thing different this morning was that it was COLD & gray out (well, cold for Florida standards)- we considered bringing sweatshirts with us but then decided against it because we would be out all day and didn't want to be stuck carrying them around once it got warmer. (This plan backfired on us just a few hours later)

We hurried over to the food court where Roland ordered the bounty platter again & I had the Mickey waffles, this time with strawberry topping. So good! I ended up ordering them this way for the rest of the trip. We sat near the movie projector & watched Mulan while we enjoyed our breakfast.

Once we finished up, we walked out to the bus stop and noticed how people were dressed- long pants, jeans, sweatshirts, etc. We still had faith that it would soon get warmer We boarded a bus and we soon arrived at HS & stopped for some Photo Pass pics on our way in

We scanned our bands (still pretending we weren't cold) and headed over to Trolley Car Cafe for some hot beverages to warm up! We drank our coffees while checking out the shops on Main Street. We made our way to Sunset Boulevard for our first FP- Rock 'n' Roller Coaster! We stopped for some more PP pics:

 

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DAY 2 cont'd
We continued on to RnRC & saw that the single rider wait was five minutes so we hopped on that line before using our FP. We love this ride!!! The queue, the music (LOVE Aerosmith), the pre-show- it never gets old.

This was cool!

We met up in the gift shop and headed back around to use our FP. We sped off onto the freeway again (best part!) and were in the first row, but the music wasn't working! It was literally the most quiet attraction we had ever been on, ha ha. We eventually began singing our own songs We pulled up to the exit, and the CM working the station instructed that anyone who would like to could cut through 'backstage' to ride again! So that we did

So, a total of THREE rides on RnRC that morning
The sun had peeked out by this point but it was WINDY, which made it seem a lot colder than it actually was. We headed over to Animation Courtyard to catch the next showing of Voyage of The Little Mermaid. On our way we ran into some Storm Troopers

My husband has never watched The Little Mermaid BUT he recognized the songs from our ride through Journey of The Little Mermaid two days earlier! I've loved this show ever since I saw it for the first time, when I was 6 years old. After our voyage, I saw we had 15 minutes before the next showing of Beauty & the Beast so we headed back towards Sunset.
On our walk over we discussed dinner plans for that night- we had a 5:00 ADR for The Hollywood Brown Derby, but we also thought it would be nice to take a break from table service and just grab a quick service somewhere, whether it was in HS or whichever park we decided to hop to later on. I called to cancel, and we headed in to see the show.

 

[amjt660]

I love the mini-me Kylo Ren in your stormtrooper picture!!

Max

 

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Again, another show that I love love love!! Roland actually HAS seen BaTB- the animated & live version, thanks to me!

After the show, our FP window for ToT had opened up- yea! I was sooo excited. ToT is my faaaaaaavorite attraction of all time. I rode it for the first time in the spring of 1995, and still have the tshirt I picked out in the gift shop afterwards. Unfortunately, it was having A LOT of issues while we were there and we only got to ride once There were long stretches of time when only one elevator shaft was working- standby was getting up to 105 minutes at certain times! It was absolute chaos in the surrounding area, and of course, FP for it were nonexistent for the remainder of our trip. Oh well, we still had a great ride!

The couple in front of us were in front of us in line, and the guy did not look up from his phone the entire time The girl would move up in the line, and he wouldn't budge. So annoying! You think she would tell him to move up? Strange. People with no line etiquette are the.worst.!!

I think Stitch is a brat, but I thought #bellhopstitch was cute!
After checking out the gift shop, we were STARVING and *still* cold- the wind was not letting up! We decided to head back to Movies for lunch and some sweatshirts. We headed to our bus stop, and were happy when a Movies bus pulled up about 5 minutes later. Once back at Movies, we grabbed sweatshirts from our room and I changed from shorts into yoga pants. Roland wears shorts until it snows
Being funny headed back to the lobby:

For lunch Roland got a burger and I got chicken tenders, both served with fries. They were both very good. For dessert, Roland got a Mickey ice cream pop & I got this bad boy:

It was sooooo good! (Roland helped me finish all that chocolate, LOL) We headed back to the buses and were soon on our way back to HS, full & warm!
On the bus ride back two girls sat across from us, both probably in their early 20s- one was in a sundress, the other in shorts & a tank and both with hair and make-up done like they were going to the red carpet. They looked adorable, but little did they know how windy & cold it was inside the park! Roland said that they were me & my best friend ten years ago when we would go out, dressed up to the nines. He jokingly calls us the Kelly Bundy twins Again, I'm an old fart now who goes for comfort over anything- don't think I wore anything but shorts & yoga pants our entire trip!
By the time we got back inside the park, our FP window for Star Tours had opened so we began heading in that direction while we FaceTimed with my sister. Multi-tasking! We heard March of the First Order beginning so we watched that with sis still on the line. Talk about good timing We finished our FaceTime and continued on to Star Tours

 

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I love the mini-me Kylo Ren in your stormtrooper picture!!

Max

I was happy to have captured him in the shot

 

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Jedi training!

After our ride with C3P0, we headed over to see Muppet Vision 3-D. Another show that I l-o-v-e!
I miss the fountain

'back in 5 minutes key is under mat'
Blurry, but I lifted up the mat and there really was a key under it!
After the show we checked out the gift shop, and the new building

During the pre-show I was able to get a FP for Soarin'. I had one scheduled for our last day, but I was anxious to ride sooner- we had never ridden it before! We decided to take a Friendship boat over to Epcot, another first for us. We headed towards the exit and walked over to the boat launch. We were second in line and watched as the dock filled up- good timing yet again! We boarded and had a nice ride over. Our driver he was a member of the college program, which one of my girlfriends participated in about 8 years ago so we chatted about that at stops before arriving at International Gateway. It was cool to enter the park that way- yet another first! We scanned and headed in. I made a call:

I must have still been warm here with my sweatshirt hanging off my shoulder like that! It got COLD not too long after we took this and that wind was whipping! People were bundled up in winter coats It truly didn't start to warm up until early the next afternoon.
I'm embarrassed to say we only spent these few minutes in World Showcase the entire trip I expected crowds with Food & Wine going on, but it was MOBBED. A lot like the congestion we experienced in AK - swarms and swarms of people. I really wanted to ride Frozen Ever After because I am a huge Elsa fan but wait times never dropped below 75 minutes & gaining a FP for it did not seem to be anywhere in our near future We made a pact that our next trip will include more WS. I was upset that we didn't get to visit each country or ride Frozen, but then I reminded myself that this was one of many trips we plan on taking, we WILL be back! It's impossible to do it all at once, I know this
Once back in Future World we saw that SSE was only a 10 minute wait so we hopped on. It was nice & warm in there! After our ride we did some shopping in MouseGear. I picked up a shirt I had my eye on and Roland found a nice zip-up fleece. These came in handy the the next morning at MK! We worked up an appetite while shopping so we headed over to Electric Umbrella to get some dinner. We both got the Energy Salad with roasted chicken. We were glad we decided to do a QS meal instead of another TS- it was nice to just take our time in Epcot & not have to be anywhere at a certain time. We finished up our salads (which were very good btw) and began heading over to The Land- it was time for Soarin'!

SOARIN'! We scanned our bands & quickly entered through the FP line- and of course got stuck behind a group of slooooooow walkers. Like, snail pace Anyway, we eventually boarded & soared! We had never ridden the original so we couldn't compare, but we liked it! After we exited we saw that Living with the Land was a walk on so we hopped on a boat for a ride. We played a game this time to see who could find the most hidden Mickeys- I think it was a tie! A group a few rows ahead of us kept touching the sand in the greenhouse so a voice kept coming over the PA system, which ruins the experience in my opinion. We noticed a behind the scenes tour going on, which looked pretty cool! After our ride I wanted to check out Club Cool so we headed that way. We sampled a few different sodas, and I HAD to try the Beverly ICCCKKKKKK!! We browsed a little bit and I picked out a Coca-Cola pen, then we headed over to Starbucks for some hot chocolate. We walked around with our drinks trying to keep warm and decided to check out the single rider line for Test Track- aaand it was temporarily closed We contemplated staying for Illuminations, but decided to call it a night and head back to the resort. It had been a busy, great day & we wanted to be rested up for MK the next morning. A Movies bus was just pulling up as we got to our stop- yea! We returned to Movies, settled in & watched some TV before falling fast asleep!

 

[amjt660]

So you and Roland were on your honeymoon you say..

Again, this one is too easy, got to let it go.....let it go.....

Max

 

[LMSB]

So you and Roland were on your honeymoon you say..

Again, this one is too easy, got to let it go.....let it go.....

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Max

your posts make me laugh!

 

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DAY 5
Monday 10/30/17
Our second MK day! It was still cold when we headed out of our room but we were prepared this time We did our breakfast routine & headed out to the bus stop. We didn't wait long, and soon we were here

We headed in and our first stop was the Main Street train station to get some castle pics:

We continued along Main Street and stopped in at the Confectionery where I picked out this:

Then stopped for a PhotoPass pic & chatted with our photographer Gus (an Orlando native) about the cold temps

We were nice & cozy in our MouseGear purchases from the night before!
From there we headed into Tomorrowland for a ride on Space to start the day. Standby was 40 minutes but we definitely waited less than that, the line moved quickly. I can't find our photo from that ride We had some time before our FP for BTMR so we walked into Fantasyland for Mickey's Philharmagic. Yet another attraction we have never done- it was fun, we enjoyed all the music! After the show it was off to Frontierland where I was sad to see this:

Splash is my second most favorite attraction after Tot, and my family's favorite to ride together. I sent them this sad sight
We headed over to Big Thunder and hopped on the FP line- this one is always a good ride! We had two mountains under our belts for the day

We then headed over to Adventureland where POTC was only 20 minutes. We were in the middle of the boat this time

 

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DAY 5 cont'd
We headed out of Adventureland where we grabbed some Mickey pretzels for a snack & watched Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire.

By then it was time for our Haunted Mansion FP! We made a pit-stop at the Tangled restrooms on our way:

We waited for quite some time to be let into the library- apparently the ride had shut down. The couple in front of us quickly got out of line, but we decided to stay in line a little bit longer as well as the family behind us who we had started chatting with. Soon it was up & running, yay! It was spooky fun as always! It was Phineas (I think) who hopped on board to hang with us the rest of the day. We stopped for some Photo Pass shots on our way out

We wanted to head back to Main Street for the parade and instead of walking we decided to walk over to Frontierland station and hop on the train. Once we arrived back on Main Street, spots were filling up but we found a spot for the two of us on the curb. It had been a very long time since I had seen a Disney parade & I was excited

As you can tell, it FINALLY warmed up & I was able to show off my Never Grow Up Peter Pan tank! Roland was back in his tshirt shortly after this too
The parade was EXCELLENT! We had a great time seeing the characters & floats and watching the performers.
Some pics:

 

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More FOF pics!

After the parade wrapped up we were hungry but didn't want a big lunch since it was already 3PM and we didn't want to ruin our appetites for dinner. We decided to share something from Casey's Corner- we ordered from the app & did mobile pick up. We got the chili cheese foot long with fries, it was really good! We had two hours until our 7DMT FP so we decided to head over to Jungle Cruise. Standby was posted at 50 minutes- it actually seemed shorter than that. I forgot to snap a picture of our boat's name & I forgot our skipper's name as well She was good though, very funny! We ended up in the middle seat so it was hard spot for pictures but I did get some. I liked these two:

After our cruise we headed back to Fantasyland, it was getting close to our mine train date

 

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We still had some time before our FP window opened so we browsed at Sir Mickey's and Castle Couture before taking a spin on Prince Charming Regal Carrousel

I felt bad for the CM on this queue- people were being obnoxious. Going the exact opposite way that she had just told them to go, letting their kids climb the fence, etc. Our ride was also stopped halfway through because a little girl wasn't strapped in properly, which led to her mother giving the CM a major attitude about Now I'm not a parent, but my first concern here would be to make sure my child was strapped in, seated, buckled properly NOT relying on an employee to do so? But hey, that's just me. After all that excitement, it was time to board our train!

What a cute ride!! Just needs to be a little longer IMO

We cracked up at the first photo- it looks like I'm riding alone, you can't even see Roland The video they take is cute, too!
Snow White's cottage on the way out

The Mad Tea Party was only a 10 minute wait so we hopped on line & went for a spin

Roland has the "my wife is crazy & is going to make me spin her around in this giant tea cup" look
As I mentioned before at Prince Charming, at this point in the day people were obnoxious. Hopping in and out of line, unhooking the chains to get in or out of line, parents screaming at their kids. It was just chaotic. We witnessed quite a few meltdowns that afternoon in Fantasyland. After our tea party, we decided to head on over to the Wilderness Lodge to walk around & relax before for our ADR at Whispering Canyon Cafe.

 

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We also stopped for these photos on our way out of Fantasyland

We decided to take the ferry. It was nice to sit down & rest our feet for a little while!

We docked at WL & I showed Roland the grounds- he really enjoyed this resort! We walked around before heading into the lobby where we saw the hot spring and checked out the WL Mercantile. Before we knew it it was time for dinner

We headed over to WCC to check in, and the two CMs at the stand were very animated- they were a lot of fun! We were seated right away and began checking out the menu- neither of us had ever dined there before. Our waitress (who's name I cannot remember) was nice but seemed overwhelmed, and therefore the service was slower than what he grown used to on this trip! It wasn't a big deal- we were on vacation and in no rush whatsoever. We had a great time!! The atmosphere was loud and fun, we cracked up at the tables who had to carry all those bottles of ketchup I ordered the full slab of ribs, Roland got the meatloaf. My ribs were a little on the dry side but other than that, no complaints! We had plenty to eat, and were too stuffed for dessert. We thought about heading back to the MK (it was EMH that evening) and quickly decided we were exhausted from our busy day! (Old farts) We walked out to the bus stop and saw that an Epcot bus was just pulling up- we hopped on, and were soon at Epcot where we headed for the AS Movies stop. We didn't have to wait long for a bus and before we knew it we were back at Movies. We were ready for dessert so we stopped at the food court where we got decaf coffees & shared this wonderful little pastry:

Pumpkin spice filled Mickey cream puff! A fitting dessert, since the next day was Halloween..