Trip Report First Return Since the VID, What Happened Here?!?!

Who: Me (39), Wife (35)
Where: Drury (Disney Springs)
How Long: 3 Park Days
Occupation: Teachers from New England
Occasion: School Break / Conference
Key Notes: Children left at home, two boys (4 and 2).

As I sit in MCO, dreadfully early (as always), I’m pondering my initial post Disney thoughts on what is our first return to the parks since 2019.

My wife and I are big fans of the mouse, obviously since I’m on a Disney forum. We were engaged here, honeymooned here, had AP’s at one point, many many visits always staying on property.

We saw a window to come back down with an education conference in the area and double dipped with Disney. Mentally a very challenging trip for us as we left the kids at home and were constantly seeing those magical moments. A pending June 2025 trip is happening with the grandparents insisting a final trip for them as they’re getting up there in age.

We consume a lot of Disney media across YouTube and socials so we have been inundated with the negative perspective regarding crowds and cost. Fresh off a trip, Disney is different. Edit: a great deal of what I wrote got deleted and I’ll try my best to summarize.

We are planners and are not opposed to a good spread sheet but Disney has gotten to the point where spontaneous things are almost non existent. Sitting on a phone all day isn’t fun.

Most of this thread will be photographs as I’m a photographer by trade. Here’s a picture of my tripod all set up and me desperately trying to not stick out like a sore thumb! It isn’t easy. I did have an awesome chat with security once I was set up, he was also a photographer and it was nice to have an engaging chat and not have it be an inquiry into what I was doing.
 

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ddbowdoin

ddbowdoin

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I am obsessed with Epcot and must admit, I do really enjoy the front entrance but I miss the old Epcot. It isn't good vs bad, or right vs. wrong, it is just different. That is completely OK, I will come to love it as I did the old ways. This trip was actually supposed to be a solo trip for me but my wife was able to attend fairly last minute. Originally I had intended to make this a photo based trip and so I found it challenging to be present and enjoy attractions etc while also seeing pictures everywhere I went. I came with a tripod and a few filters and wanted to focus on motion.
 
ddbowdoin

ddbowdoin

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day Two: Magic Kingdom

A real bitter sweet day today. We always get emotional walking into MK, something about Main Street and how many times we went in our early dating days, to being engaged, married without kids, and now with kids and them not being there with us. We constantly reminded ourselves this was a "research" trip. I think we gleaned a few ideas regarding strollers etc and how to approach our June 2025 trip. We already touch based with our travel agent and with 4 adults and 2 kids, I need to start saving like today.

We got to the park super early, as always. Today we took advantage of the hearty breakfast at the Drury anticipating a less than stellar eating day at MK. I have never been a huge fan of the food here in general but MK seems to be a food desert in particular. Again, no reservations and sticking to small finger foods. Mid morning stop at Friars for some gravy covered tots, which were actually really good. This time I had to get a diet coke for a boost, can't do the coffee at Disney. We later stopped into adventureland for some cheeseburger spring rolls, so good! Next on the snack train was some classic popcorn and lastly we finished with a dolewhip. At around 3:45 we hit the monorail and headed over to Poly for a Lapu Lapu and some potstickers / noodles at the lounge. It was getting real busy with families pouring in for Ohana. I had definitely wished we did a ressy at Ohana but oh well, next time! That concluded our eating day. I've always been a Caseys guy but my last visit along with my wife, left us feeling underwhelmed so we passed today.

The park was open until 11PM tonight but at around 8:45 there was a quick dump of rain and we got pretty wet, so we decided to watch the fireworks and head home around 9:30. My feet were killing me again! Powered through though so I have plenty of time to rest when I get home.

Luckily with G+ and VQ, we nailed everything we wanted. We did not have to purchase any LL which was nice. We really hit everything we wanted but left off a few classics. I am always up for a few grand circle tours but only made it around once this trip. Also, I missed my classic mid day mild snooze during CoP. Again, next time! We'll have kiddos with us so we need to embrace a slower approach.

I was ecstatic to finally experience Tron. We hit the 7AM VQ and didn't get called until about 2:30PM. It didn't really bother my motion sickness, seems the spinning gets me more than straight speed. The ride is awesome, but it is as many have noted super short. The ride vehicle is fun, I didn't find any discomfort behind the knee which is a common complaint I've seen. I'm 5'7 220, so maybe a little stout but not too tall.
 
ddbowdoin

ddbowdoin

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Luminous Blend 3000-1-2.jpg


Shooting this show blind was super hard. I hadn't seen Luminous before, nor did I do any kind of research before hand. I had the camera set up on a tripod, pre focused, and trigger in hand so I could watch the show with my wife and made 2 second exposures every 2 seconds. I've worked through all the images and nothing really pleases my eye but its ok. It requires a ton of blending and masking in photoshop. This is probably 5 images together.
 
P

Pirate's Life

Member
ddbowdoin said:
A sad reality for this 39 year old dad… I can’t do the cool rides anymore. Day 3 of the trip my wife bought a LL for cosmic by herself and I walked around and made pictures. As I’ve never been on it I gave it a good effort. Sea bands, water, and Dramamine and nope. My wife knew it too. As soon as the ride started I was yelling and having a good time and then like 20 seconds into the ride I went completely silent. Came off the ride sweating profusely and felt terrible for about 3 hours afterwards. It’s an awesome ride but I can’t do it anymore, I’m so ed.
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I suffer from motion sickness as well, and hopefully I can offer a solution (see attachment). The patches are prescription and work like magic. I was able to do screen simulator rides like Star Tours, Smugglers Run, Soarin, as well as, major rides like Everest and Cosmic Rewind. I still haven't tried it on Flight of Passage but will soon. One last tip for Cosmic Rewind that helped is when the ride starts spinning, keep your focus straight ahead. Don't turn your head to look at what you just spun away from. hope that helps in the future.
 

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Minnie1986

Minnie1986

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Pirate's Life said:
I suffer from motion sickness as well, and hopefully I can offer a solution (see attachment). The patches are prescription and work like magic. I was able to do screen simulator rides like Star Tours, Smugglers Run, Soarin, as well as, major rides like Everest and Cosmic Rewind. I still haven't tried it on Flight of Passage but will soon. One last tip for Cosmic Rewind that helped is when the ride starts spinning, keep your focus straight ahead. Don't turn your head to look at what you just spun away from. hope that helps in the future.
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Thank you so much for posting this! My niece gets terrible motion sickness sometimes, so I've been on the hunt for something to keep in the park bag besides Dramamine.
 
ddbowdoin

ddbowdoin

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Pirate's Life said:
I suffer from motion sickness as well, and hopefully I can offer a solution (see attachment). The patches are prescription and work like magic. I was able to do screen simulator rides like Star Tours, Smugglers Run, Soarin, as well as, major rides like Everest and Cosmic Rewind. I still haven't tried it on Flight of Passage but will soon. One last tip for Cosmic Rewind that helped is when the ride starts spinning, keep your focus straight ahead. Don't turn your head to look at what you just spun away from. hope that helps in the future.
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I'll absolutely look into this and contact my PCP for our next trip!
 

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