Trip Report "I heard they paint the knobs every night!" 7N w/ MNSSHP *Complete!*

A belated Trip Report from my October trip. Pre-trip is here!

Here's a super quick recap! There were 4 of us on this trip, from left to right:

Greg (19), my sister Ange (20), Greg's sister Amanda (23), and me (23)

We stayed at Coronado Springs (in two interconnecting rooms) from Sunday, October 12th to Sunday, October 19th. Everything else I guess we'll figure out along the way!

We met at the Buffalo airport for our 4:10pm flight and were eating sandwiches in the terminal when my sister snagged us new seats in the exit row! Hooray for extra leg room.

A short (and very comfortable) flight later we were in Atlanta for a 5 hour layover. We grabbed dinner and then found a quiet comfy spot to get some work done. Greg's absorbed in his laptop.

Amanda is reading something and trying to pretend she doesn't see me taking her photo.

And Ange is doing some schoolwork to stay caught up!

We made it to MCO around 12:30am on Sunday, October 12th and stayed overnight in the airport hotel. The next morning we woke up well rested, grabbed breakfast at McDonalds and drinks at Starbucks before finally stepping outside in Sunny Florida!

Selfie in the airport! We're so pumped to be somewhere where iced drinks are not only delicious but also appropriate for the climate.

We got a shuttle to the rental car place and quickly picked out our car. When we pulled out our GPS and turned it on though it took quite a while for it to realize we weren't in Canada anymore. We made do with our phones and some good guesswork until the GPS kicked in and before we knew it we were seeing one of my favourite sights!

We were thrilled to be there because we insisted upon a compact car at the rental place despite our copious amounts of luggage. While we were determined to pull it off, the car rides to and from the airport were squishy to put it kindly.

When we got to Coronado Springs (around 11am if I remember correctly) our rooms were ready and interconnecting like we'd requested! We dropped off our bags, unpacked a little and then ran to Walmart for some breakfast foods. We grabbed a couple muffins, apples and bananas, and yoghurt. Then we went back to Coronado Springs and got lunch at Pepper Market.

As a reminder, we payed full price for the Quick Service Dining Plan on this trip. I was expecting to come out having "lost" a few dollars a day which I was alright with because of the convenience of having everything on our Magic Bands. I enjoyed pre-paying and then ordering whatever I liked without worrying while on vacation. I know there are other ways to do that and that the dining plan isn't for everything but it works for us. Still I was curious about how much we'd spend so I kept a tally on my phone of what we had for each meal and how much it would have cost. I'll give you the tally at the end! If you're wondering why most of the trip is a fuzzy memory and the meals are so clear - it's because I have a reference!

After lunch we went to the pool for a couple hours. Swimming, tanning, and making a gameplan!

We made some FP+ for Magic Kingdom the next morning and planned to get there bright and early to line up for 7DMT since we weren't able to get fast passes for that, even months earlier.

After a swim we headed over to Downtown Disney for some shopping and dinner. I have this photo of our dinners because we texted it to our parents. They were on vacation together in Vegas at the time and we challenged them to guess who had what for dinner as we thought that what we'd each ordered was hilariously typical of us.

TL: Pizza (Greg), TR: Pasta (Amanda, BL: Salmon (me), BR: Salad (Ange)

We had dinner, as you can guess, at Wolfgang Puck Express in the Marketplace. It is one of my absolute favourite QS restaurants and is definitely a great value on the dining plan. We did a little shopping and then headed back to Coronado Springs to finish unpacking and get a good night's sleep - we had big plans for the next day!

Up next: Our first park day, 7DMT, and more!

 

[Anotherfaceinthecrowd]

Following with intent

 

[vcstr]

Monday, October 13th (Thanksgiving back home!)

We got up bright and early today! We went to the Poly first for a quick stroll around and breakfast at Captain Cook's so my sister could get Tonga Toast. We then took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom and made it with plenty of time to watch the welcome show before making a beeline for Seven Dwarves Mine Train. This was the first trip for all of us that it had been open. So yes, we were racing to get there but I also couldn't resist a quick shot.

Can you blame me? I'd never even seen the Halloween decorations before!

There was a lot of strategy in this trip and I was thrilled with how well we worked together, right from our first moments in MK that day. As we walked down Main Street we were debating the best route to New Fantasyland. Someone would offer a suggestion, and we'd all follow. So quick and efficient.

We only had to wait about 40 minutes for the ride and we were thrilled! Our parents had bought us Memory Maker as a surprise and so we have all our ride photos! This was awesome but this ride began what would be a trend for the duration of the trip. We were almost NEVER in the same car as one another. We'd often as but it seemed like it would be so much work for the CMs we normally just gave in. It was fun nonetheless.

After Mine Train we did several more rides in the New Fantasyland/Fantasyland area. I want to say we hit Journey of the Little Mermaid and maybe something else before deciding we had time for a quick carousel ride.

It was while we were waiting for this ride, I think, that Greg said something along the lines of "I heard they paint the knobs every night." Just like that. It made no sense. It meant nothing. "What?" we asked. "What knobs? What are you talking about?"

Apparently he'd heard or read somewhere that employees paint the small knobs on the top of posts every single night. 1. This is clearly untrue. They might be painting something every night, but not the same thing. 2. Why paint just the knobs? We bugged him about it the whole trip. Every queue we stood in we'd point at the support posts and say "hey you know what? I heard they paint these knobs every night!" We're awful.

#Carouselfie!

Then we headed over to Tomorrowland where we rode Buzz and the Peoplemover.

I was determined to do somewhat well. I failed.

We got lunch at Cosmic Ray's where Amanda was complaining that she'd never heard Planetary Boogie. Sonny was nice enough to play it for us while we ate our turkey sandwiches.

After that we took a quick ride on Space Mountain.

I'm not great at knowing where the camera is.

We headed back to the resort for a quick swim, and then showered and changed for an evening at Hollywood Studios. On our way out of Magic Kingdom a truly awesome Photopass photographer named Eric got this picture of us which is one of my favourites of the trip. He was also WONDERFUL.

We headed to Hollywood Studios and got another photo of us all cleaned up.

We went over to GMR hoping to get a ride in before dinner and took a spectacular journey into the movies.

We headed over to Muppets so that I could say a quick hello to my old stomping grounds.

Ahhh, good to be home!

We had a great dinner at Mama Melrose and then we caught the late show of Fantasmic - awesome as always.

Up next: our only rainy day - morning at EPCOT and evening at Magic Kingdom.

 

[Doc Disney]

Great trip report so far can't wait to read more! I always thought it would be fun to go with just "the kids" and no parents

 

[vcstr]

Tuesday, October 14th

We were determined to get the most out of the Memory Maker our parents had so kindly got so we thought this morning was a good opportunity to hit up the character spot in EPCOT. We were there right around park open after a quick breakfast in our rooms.

With the Big Cheese!

Greg was goofin' around.

We have a million more but I won't bore you with them! After Character Spot we rode Test Track. We headed over to The Land where we rode Living with the Land while we waited for our Soarin' FP. After Soarin' we left the Land with the intention of heading to WS and were met with torrential rain.

Uh oh! Andrea and Amanda were wearing Birkenstocks which they absolutely would not get wet so we might have run barefoot to Innoventions. We hung out inside for a little bit, playing the Piggy Bank game (fun!) and then rode Spaceship Earth for the first time of the trip!

After that we headed over to World Showcase, stopping for a couple photos on the way.

I was so excited for Food & Wine Festival and it's a huge reason I wanted to come to the World in the fall for the first time. I love love love my sister and our friends but none of them are even close to adventurous eaters. Even though the F&W Festival has lots of accessible fare as well I couldn't persuade anyone to try anything from any booth ever. Because of that I felt like any time I wanted to browse around the booths I was wasting their time. I did get two things from the festival during the trip, but I would have really wanted to spend a whole day just wandering and eating. Next time I'm there for the festival I will make sure I have the chance to do that.

Anywho! We took this sunny opportunity to stroll through World Showcase. I made sure to stop in Germany in front of the sign for Biergarten restaurant's Oktoberfest sign. Fun fact time! I have spent the past 5 years going to school and then living and working in the Kitchener-Waterloo region in Ontario. They are home to a large German population and they host the largest Oktoberfest celebration outside of Germany. It's an incredible part of our region's culture and something I have celebrated happily with friends every year I've lived in the city. Sadly because of the dates of our trip I missed this year! But I made sure to send my friends a quick shoutout with this photo while they drank beer, ate pretzels, and polkaed the night away!

After this we all got lunch! Best part of World Showcase (especially with picky-ish eaters)? It's like a food court! My sister and I grabbed our own lunches and brought them back to America where Amanda and Greg grabbed lunch at the Liberty Inn and we ate together. Ange got an Apple & Brie sandwich with a macaron from Les Halles Boulangerie, which she thoroughly enjoyed. I went to my all-time favourite QS, Tangierine Cafe in Morocco and got the chicken and lamb platter. In the immortal words of Rachael Ray, YUM-O.

While the others were checking out a store I also sprinted to Australia for a lamb chop. I was stuffed but couldn't resist. Afterwards we decided to hit The Seas on our way out of the park.

But first, let me take a Shellfie!

The rain held out for the rest of our time at EPCOT but then it started POURING. We went back to the hotel, took our sweet time showering and relaxing a little, and at 4pm it was still pouring down rain. We had originally planned to go to Magic Kingdom tonight but really didn't want to walk around in the rain. So we decided to drive to the Contemporary, have dinner at Contempo Cafe and wander around the resort. If the rain let up, we'd take the monorail to Magic Kingdom. If not, we'd just head back to Coronado Springs and watch the Disney Channel!

By the time we'd finished dinner (lobster roll for me, burger for Ange) it was still raining. We went through all the stores, took in the resort, and still it was raining. I proposed a last ditch idea - we'd hop on the resort monorail and ride it around. If it was still raining when we got to the Magic Kingdom, we'd give up and head back. How did it turn out?

That's right! The rain slowed as we were sitting at the Grand Floridian and had stopped entirely by the time we reached the Magic Kingdom. Disney Magic! This luck WOULD follow us for the rest of the night.

First stop? Jungle Cruise where it rained during our entire 20 minute covered wait and stopped just as we got on our boat with a fabulous skipper!

When we got off Jungle Cruise it started raining again so we decided to try to make a Fast Pass on a kiosk for soonish. It was 8:00pm at this point. We tapped our Magic Bands and there was a FP available for Space Mountain at 8:05pm. What?! AMAZING. We snatched it up and strolled leisurely in the light rain to Space! When we got there the standby wait was 60 minutes!

(Thanks Greg for taking one for the team and sitting solo almost every time we rode Space!)

After Space the other got treats at Auntie Gravity's (sundae for Greg, iced coffee floats for Amanda and Ange). Then we hit up Mickey's Philharmagic and then watched Wishes! Amazing night

Up next: Animal Kingdom day and a stroll on the Boardwalk!

 

[bfalgoust]

Following along! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip!

 

[vcstr]

Thank you so much to everyone who's following along - this is my first trip report and any feedback would be appreciated!

 

[Anotherfaceinthecrowd]

Thank you so much to everyone who's following along - this is my first trip report and any feedback would be appreciated!

Just keep going as you are your doing great

 

[geebee721]

Following along! Great trip report so far!

 

[vcstr]

Wednesday, October 15th

Today was our Animal Kingdom day! Amanda and Greg love love AK, but it's my least favourite park. I like it and I don't mind spending half a day to a day there but if I could only hit three I'd skip it in a heartbeat. In fact I have skipped it on multiple shorter trips.

But we were ready to hit it hard today and only spend a day there. We got up early and had breakfast in our room. We were having such full days that most nights we were in bed pretty early so none of us struggled to wake up around 7:30/8:00 each morning (even though Greg and I are definitely not morning people).

Still we got up and made it to Animal Kingdom. We did Expedition Everest first with a Fast Pass.

Amanda and Greg in the back row.

And Ange and I in front.

We were pretty terrified after our encounter with the yeti!

Then we did (in no particular order) Dinosaur, Kilimanjaro Safari, Festival of the Lion King, It's Tough to be a Bug, and Finding Nemo the Musical (my personal favourite!). We grabbed lunch at Restaurantasaurus which was yummy but seriously lacking in dessert options. I wish they'd let you have a small ice cream for dessert, you could take your receipt over to the ice cream place next door.

Anyways at this point it was pretty late in the day and we didn't think it made sense to do our usual nap/tan/shower before hitting another park. So we stopped into Hollywood Studios and had a super quick visit - Star Tours, Muppetvision, and a drawing class. Then we headed back to the resort and grabbed dinner at Pepper Market. We went to the Premium Outlets for an hour (we bribed Greg by promising to keep it to an hour and go for ice cream after). Then we came back and got ice cream on the Boardwalk. Great evening!

Here's a photo of us leaving AK that afternoon, our Photopass photographer was a little wacky.

 

[vcstr]

Thursday, October 16th - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

I was so excited for this party and so grateful when everyone else agreed to do it with me! I'd been most looking forward to the parade but HalloWishes ended up being what impressed me most of all (I should have known, I've always been more of a fireworks person). Sorry for all the text until we get to the party, then there'll be photos I promise!

Anyways because we had Halloween party tickets we didn't bother with park passes for this day. Instead we used it as a chance to shop and spend some time at the pool before hitting the party nice and early (as I'd read on here we could!). I was hoping to be there for 4 but it ended up being closer to 5pm. That's alright though!

Because we'd been eating breakfast in the room most mornings and were paying for two dinners out of pocket we decided to use 3 quick service meals today. When we were at Wolfgang Puck Express for dinner I noticed their breakfast menu. Normally using a QS credit on breakfast is a terrible value but since we were going to do it anyways I wanted the tastiest breakfast we could get. WP was a great choice. I had the breakfast pizza, Ange had a Belgian waffle with fruit. AMAZING.

We did some souvenir shopping around DTD and I was happy to check out the Marketplace Co-op for the first time. I also snagged some really cute stemless wine glasses (Alice in Wonderland text print) 5 for $20 in Fun Finds. I was thrilled. I'm drinking out of them now and I've gotten SO many compliments on them. They were also less than half the price of the "Be our Guest" ones I had planned to buy and much more appropriately sized!

On our way out we picked up Earl of Sandwich to go. When we got back to Coronado Springs we went swimming, tanned, read books, and then ate lunch by the pool before getting ready for the party. By the time we were pulling into the MK parking lot everyone was stressing out that I'd exaggerated how many adults would be wearing costumes. Amanda and Andrea had brought shorts in their bags (without telling me!) in case they wanted to ditch their tutus when we got there. Luckily they quickly realized that our costumes were some of the least elaborate ones!

We got there around 5 and used a FP on Pirates before the party started. Then we did a couple more rides (though I can't remember what). We picked up our trick or treat bags and Greg went to buy the pins for the party. He is a super avid pin collector, which I don't think I've mentioned until now. He carried around a printout of all the hidden mickey pins and we all kept our eyes out for them on CM lanyards the whole trip.

We went to grab dinner at Columbia Harbour House (shrimp platters with broccoli and peach cobbler!) and then headed into Fantasyland just as the party started.

After grabbing some candy we saw our first character target!

Chatting with Minnie!

Andrea was Tinkerbell and Amanda and I were very loose interpretations of Aurora and Belle in their formal dresses. Most people assumed we were Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather which I was fine with (even though we were the wrong colours). A couple people thought Amanda and I were Rosetta and Fawn (the fairies). We went with whatever people thought. My personal favourite guess was "Belle in all her dresses" which I thought was really clever!

After Minnie we took the Trick or Treat Trail to Tomorrowland where we rode Space!

Apologies, it's hard to even get in this car in a tutu, let alone get your phone out!

Ride selfies were a big thing on this trip, can you tell?

Amazing ride photo I think!

Then we met Winnie the Pooh and friends!

And had some seriously great interactions.

Tigger wanted Amanda and I to spin in our tutus!

Eeyore stole Andrea's wand!

Afterwards we headed to Mainstreet for HalloWishes which totally blew me away! Literally the only fireworks I've ever liked better were Hollywood Studios' Rockin' 4th of July fireworks which I saw on my CP (nothing is better than an over-the-top fireworks display that's way too close to you and set to Free Bird).

I'm not much of a photographer but I loved this shot.

I wanted to meet Mickey in his costume and the line was nonexistent so we did that next!

Then we met Tink so Andrea could see her!

"Where have you been all day?! I've been doing this all by myself!" -Tink

This was the best character interaction I've ever had and I've had some gems with Gaston.

"Are you really a pirate or are you a Lost Boy pretending? Greeeeegggg? You're a lost boy, right?"

I insisted on watching Boo To You from Mainstreet for the ambience and later really regretted it. It was so crowded and while it was a good parade it didn't blow any of us away. I don't know why I expected otherwise, none of us are really parade people.

Greg and I both heard "look scared!" while Amanda and Ange heard "look scary!"

To be honest I don't even remember what else we did. All I know is we had so much fun just walking around in costume, soaking it all in. It was such a great experience, we really felt like we were little kids again trick or treating and just running around. I would definitely do this party again.

Up Next: Morning at Hollywood Studios & evening at EPCOT!

 

[accord99cutie]

Great report so far! Can't wait for more!

 

[smk]

Cute costumes! I MNSSHP! Love being a kid again and seeing everyone have so much fun!

 

[LisaBelle]

Loving your report. I've never been to any of the parties. They look like a blast!

 

[mrdrift]

What a great report. All of the pictures are really cool, especially the MNSSHP party and the interaction with the characters. The four of you seems to be having a blast at the different parks. Following along.

 

[Foltzy]

Great report so far.
I really like MNSSHP
Quick question. What Coronado building were you in and how do you like it? I've always been in one and its been great.

 

[joshsprincess921]

loving your report so far, following along!

 

[vcstr]

Great report so far.
I really like MNSSHP
Quick question. What Coronado building were you in and how do you like it? I've always been in one and its been great.

Thanks! We were in 7a. I always request a building or buildings when I make a reservation and usually it's possible but unfortunately it wasn't this time (I requested buildings 1-5 to be closer to the main building). To be fair they had interconnecting rooms available for us at 11am so they were pretty amazing with requests!

I found 7a to be a little bit of a trek (my favourite moderate resort is POFQ because everything is in close proximity) but the building was beautiful and it was close to one of the quiet pools which we used a lot as well as to our car. Plus I guess a little extra walking wasn't going to hurt considering how much I ate!

 

[vcstr]

Friday, October 17th

Because we'd had such a late night with the Halloween Party (we stayed until closing, then fought our way through the crowd), we slept in a little on Friday. We got up around 8:30 and took our time getting ready and having a light breakfast. When we were all ready we headed to Hollywood Studios!

We had a grand plan today to get Andrea on Tower of Terror. She is not a thrill rides person. She somewhat enjoys Everest and she braves Rockin' Rollercoaster like a champ but this trip was her first time doing Tower of Terror. We had to pester her all week to do it and throughout the line, even when a 7 year-old girl was getting on with us.

Greg and Amanda were on-point as always, Ange was freaking out, and I was howling at the hilarious things the little girl next to me was saying as she commentated the entire ride. She was a riot!

Andrea had no problem looking terrified for the next picture.

We hit up Beauty and the Beast, Muppetvision(home sweet home!), Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and Indiana Jones. I feel like we probably also did a couple other things. We went to Pizza Planet for lunch. Say what you will about pizza, salad, and a carrot cake cupcake is kind of the way to go. I do sometimes wish there were better QS options in this park though.

We made sure to hit up Rock'n'Rollercoaster on our way out!

Probably our best ride photo of the trip!

We headed back to Coronado so we could change for our dinner at Teppan Edo before going to EPCOT.

This was the night we realized we could use snack credits on any drink at Starbucks. I really REALLY wish we'd discovered this earlier in the week. We usually use our snack credits for breakfasty stuff but since we bought breakfast foods at Walmart this trip we had so many extra snacks kicking around. I'd planned to use them at F&W but since everyone else wasn't into it we didn't. Would have loved to have grabbed a yummy frappucino during our early mornings in EPCOT or Magic Kingdom!

We had a really fun night but the people we were seated with at Teppan Edo were out of this world. It was a family of four with two young girls. The father seemed alright, but the mother who was sitting next to me was awful! She wouldn't speak to us at all, ignored her kids for most of the meal, and just seemed generally uninterested in her family. At one point she was texting and her daughter asked her to take a photo of her using chopsticks. The mom's phone was facing me so I could see what was on the screen.

Daughter: Mom, can you take my picture?
Mom: Sure honey. *points camera at her daughter and pretends to take a photo without leaving her texts*
Daughter: Can I see it?
Mom: No, not right now.
Daughter: Did you really take it?
Mom: Yes.

How many times has she pulled this if the daughter has to ask if she really took the photo?!

Anyways, we stayed for IllumiNations after a little shopping and a stop for me at the craft beers pavilion (I actually got to try some pretty good ones!). Super fun night

Up Next: Our last day

 

[vcstr]

Saturday, October 18th

Again we started the day at Hollywood Studios to cross off the last few things we wanted to do! Everyone whines about how there's nothing to do in HS but that's clearly not true for us. For Greg and I it's our favourite park, and Ange and Amanda love it too. Obviously I'm a little biased since I worked there but the others aren't! On this trip we spent almost two full days in Hollywood Studios and the only thing we did more than once was Rock'n'Rollercoaster which we always plan to repeat (oh and we might have done TSMM twice, I can't remember). Our only mission this day was to hit up Lights, Motors, Action since none of us had seen it on our last few trips but I also decided to grab us a FP for the Frozen Sing-a-long. Again lots of Frozen hate but I thought it was a fun cute show. For something so thrown together it had some good jokes and we all enjoyed it, even Amanda who hadn't seen Frozen. In the immortal words of Taylor Swift, I guess the haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate.

After a lunch at Backlot Express where we watched part of Jedi Training Academy we headed our and I had to say goodbye to my home again!

Crossroads of the World <3

I'm honestly so thrilled that the Sorcerer's Hat is coming down (walls went up today!) and hoping it means this park is in for some more attention in the years to come. Between that and the GMR refresh with Turner Classic Movies I think good things are in store.

We went back to Coronado Springs and packed up almost all of our things before heading to Magic Kingdom for dinner and a few last minute things!

We had to hit up It's a Small World since it's Andrea's favourite.

It's a Small Selfie!

Apologies for the super random and blurry photo but this was our last "I heard they paint and re glitter the knobs on the tops of these posts every night!" joke.

We got dinner at Pinnochio Village Haus (though if it had been my pick I would have gone back to Columbia Harbour House again). After dinner we took a bathroom break at the world's prettiest bathrooms.

We went on Splash against my better judgement and Andrea and I got pretty wet but it was worth it!

Greg and I were petting our rabbit friend.

We were planning on going to Main Street for Wishes but we were passing a FP+ kiosk anyways so we took a shot in the dark..

And happily had time for a quick trip through the 100 Acre Wood as our last ride of the trip!

Finally we posted up on the end of Main Street for Wishes. I had really wanted to be further up for the photos but it made more sense to be further back so that we could make a quicker exit at the end of the night since we had such an early morning the next day!

So we ended our trip the best way we know how...

...with a bang.

Up Next: One last boring, no photos post with my final thoughts!