Trip Report It’s broken. A Loco Christmas TR!

Hello everyone!

We just got back yesterday from our weeklong stay at WDW and as promised, I am here to deliver a full blown loco_driver TR. I have about a million pictures to sort through still, but we have enough to get started. Let’s do this!

When: December 4-11

Who: Me and the wife A, or Mrs. Loco if you will. Pickle the dog would not be making the trip.

Where: Split stay between OKW and Riviera.

With all the formalities out of the way, let’s do it to it!

 

[Songbird76]

Was it….
Gouda?

Frankly, my dear, I don't give Edam.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day 6 continued.

I mobile ordered from primo piatto on our skyliner ride. It was waiting for us when we got there. We shared a margherita pizza and some romano and herb fries. Both items were above average for QS meals, but nothing spectacular.

After lunch it was time to head for the pool. We may have ran up an embarrassingly high tab at bar riva that day.

We spent the afternoon at the pool and in our room napping. Seven days of nonstop action had taken a toll on us. Luckily dinner that night was within walking distance.

We had dinner at Sebastian’s Bistro back in august of 2021 and had been itching to get back ever since.

The pull apart rolls were just as great as we remembered.

The salad is very pretty, but not particularly tasty. I’m not a fan of the dressing they use.

The meats, sorry we’d already grabbed some! The mojo pork is outstanding, and the steak was better than what we’d had at Ohana a few nights before(for twice the price). The chicken was fine, but paled in comparison to the other two meats.

We didn’t get a picture of the sides but everything was good except for the grilled broccolini, which is just a waste of plate space.

Speaking of things that are better here than at the more expensive Ohana. This is my current favorite dessert on property! People, this meal was $29 a person before discounts. This is far and away the best TS dining value on property!

We had a nice stroll back to our room.

We watched MK fireworks from the balcony and listened to our hometown football team try and make it to the Texas state championship game(they sadly came up just short). We did a little packing and got ready for our last day.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day 7. Saturday December 11, 2021

The dreaded last day of vacation. If I’m being honest I wasn’t that sad about it. A week is plenty for me. We loaded up the car then headed to the bus stop for a MK bus. One last morning selfie.

We arrived at the park earlier than anticipated. It was a clear, pretty morning.

No issues with fog this day. Cinderella’s castle beckoned guests to the end of Main Street.

We waited for RD at Tomorrowland.

I noticed a lot of trash in the parks this trip. This was taken before park opening, so chances are it had been left there overnight. It’s a bad look for a place that’s charging over $100 a person just to get into the gate.

Ride number one of the day was buzz. We both had broken guns.

Our second attraction was our old friend the peoplemover. We had a pretty smooth trip until this spot. It afforded some nice castle views.

A was thrilled to be sitting here for so long.

We did get moving again after about 10 minutes. We made it about 50 feet before stopping again.

 

[LeighM]

I don't remember so many frequent ride breakdowns during my previous trips. Is nostalgia influencing my memories? Or is the pandemic and staff shortage affecting ride performance? Bc it seemed like there were a lot of rides and/or elements that weren't 100% while I was there either.

 

[MinnieM123]

@Loco_driver , I always enjoy your TRs. You took some great photos -- especially with the food pictures! But really, all your pictures were interesting, and enhanced your commentary.

You both know how to make the best of your time in the parks. I think it helps that you had a week there, as it gave you extra time to go back to your favorite attractions. Also, if an attraction/ride was offline one day, you could go back another day when it was back in operation.

Thank you for sharing your upbeat WDW vacation with everyone. Best wishes to the both of you for 2022.

 

[Loco_driver]

I don't remember so many frequent ride breakdowns during my previous trips. Is nostalgia influencing my memories? Or is the pandemic and staff shortage affecting ride performance? Bc it seemed like there were a lot of rides and/or elements that weren't 100% while I was there either.

It seemed like more of an issue this trip than we’d previously experienced. I’m sure it’s some combination of staffing/budget issues.

@Loco_driver , I always enjoy your TRs. You took some great photos -- especially with the food pictures! But really, all your pictures were interesting, and enhanced your commentary.

You both know how to make the best of your time in the parks. I think it helps that you had a week there, as it gave you extra time to go back to your favorite attractions. Also, if an attraction/ride was offline one day, you could go back another day when it was back in operation.

Thank you for sharing your upbeat WDW vacation with everyone. Best wishes to the both of you for 2022.

Thank you for your kind words! I think it definitely helped being there a full week. We’re also spoiled and are able to take multiple trips per year, so we didn’t feel any pressure to do every attraction.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day 7 continued.

We were eventually evacuated from the peoplemover after a 30 minute ride. Unlike @Tuvalu I had no guardian angel keeping me from taking pictures/video. Unfortunately the video turned out to be mostly peoples feet and a strangers backside because I was trying to be sneaky since they did actually ask for no photos or videos.

Anyways they scanned our bands and added a recovery FP(or is it a LL now?)that was good at any attraction except for the two ILL attractions space mountain and SDMT. So all wasn’t lost.

We made our way toward fantasyland.

The Cheshire Cat statue reminded me of something. We have this odd tradition of having a Cheshire cat tail at MK on our last day of a trip. I’m not sure how it started, it’s just a thing we do.

With our snack business out of the way it was time for another attraction.

It was also time for another extended stop on a ride. This time it was at least in front of the most impressive AA on the attraction. We sat here for almost 10 minutes.

Belle was greeting guests.

There were quite a few CMs doing the “water art” around the park.

Attraction number 4. It was strangely quiet for a Saturday.

Colorful facade > white facade.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day 7 continued.

We continued our lap around the park towards Frontierland.

We always have to get pictures with the stars of the greatest attraction based on singing bears in Frontierland!

Our next destination. The posted wait was 30 minutes, which was clearly wrong. We waited less than 10.

Pirates had a 45 minute posted wait, but the line was still inside the building, so we knew that was most likely inaccurate. We were correct. My notes say we were on the ride 9 minutes after entering the queue. This was our 6th attraction in 2 hours. Not bad at all considering the extended time spent on the TTA and mermaid.

The crowds had finally arrived when we exited pirates. There was a PPP in a somewhat random spot.

Snack number two was this Christmas cookie concoction from auntie gravity’s. It was better than the Halloween travesty that they served a few years back, but not worth going out of my way to get.

We saw tink going around the hub.

There was another cavalcade coming soon, so we stayed put in front of the castle.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Howdy:
Just a comment on the trash.
Before the pandemic and all it's results, we saw a lot of trash on the floor right up to the ride at HM one time. I mean, there were food wrappers, kleenex, various papers, etc. And there was a lot of it all the way to loading.
I wrote disney about this because this was very unusual at that time.
They said that the CM's on the attractions are supposed to keep this trash picked up. ?
I thought that was kind of lame. How can the busy CM's loading and unloading the guests be able to pick up the sloppy guests trash?
I know they could do it before and after their shifts, maybe, depending on the times of their shifts.

Anyway, this response surprised me. I always thought that there were CM's who were supposed to pick up trash everywhere.
It's sad to see disney in this state of neglect.
But glad you had a great time and loved your trip report.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day seven continued.

These people came by next.

We found these guys on the NE side of the hub.

Time for another cavalcade and some more terrible guest behavior. Let’s take note of the guests on the sidewalk just to the left of those trash cans. It’s a little girl with a bubble blower, her mother and father, and a stroller.

Now look at the same spot. The two women in the white shirts darted right in front of the stilt walker and nearly ran into him while also managing to practically run over the little girl and barging their way between her and the mother. The stilt walker was obviously annoyed.

I don’t know that I’ve seen max out in the parks before this.

We ended up in the Christmas store in Liberty square, but we were really underwhelmed with their selection.

We took some photopass pics from liberty square.

Apparently A is short enough to see the crown when standing in front of this statue.

More water art. We really were just kind of wandering around the park with no real destination in mind. I believe this is near cosmic rays.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day seven continued.

The princesses were coming through, and our old spot was open.

Cinderella behaved herself this time.

The main mouse and friends followed close behind.

We had enough time before lunch to use our anytime LL. We’d planned to RD Jingle Cruise before our peoplemover problems, so that was our selection.

Time for a nice positive long story. When we tapped in the LL entrance we got the dreaded flashing blue circles.

The CM working directed us to talk to another CM named Carl who was holding an iPad. Carl informed us that jungle cruise was not included on the list of available attractions for our recovery selection. However, since we were told otherwise, he would let us through and let us keep the LL selection for another ride!

Carl was our new best friend, but there’s more to the story.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day seven continued.

Our vessel for the trip. We had to wait on a new skipper for a minute. Guess who our skipper ended up being. It was our new friend Carl!

Carl’s skipper skills were just as good as his customer service skills!

Our trip also featured “guy who hangs out the boat” guy. He and Carl were not friends.

New-ish scene.

Hanging out the boat guy got some nice pictures of this new scene probably.

Sometimes we could get a picture without him in it, if it was on our side of the boat. We did not hang out of the boat for pictures because we are nice rule followers and because we are not idiots.

Backside of water selfie!

New trader Sam scene.

Did they find little red?!

We had a great time on jungle cruise all thanks to our friend Carl!

 

[MickeyCB]

Now look at the same spot. The two women in the white shirts darted right in front of the stilt walker and nearly ran into him while also managing to practically run over the little girl and barging their way between her and the mother. The stilt walker was obviously annoyed.

Just damnnnn...

Hanging out the boat guy got some nice pictures of this new scene probably.

"But you need to do a recovery, I lost my phone and my kid in the water!"
(This emoji is supposed to represent bored if you hover over it, but I think it looks more like "are you a moron)?!

The princesses were coming through, and our old spot was open.

At first glance it looks like Merida is blowing gold things out of her mouth!

 

[Loco_driver]

At first glance it looks like Merida is blowing gold things out of her mouth!

She’s clearly spewing Disney magic all over the place!

 

[Swissmiss]

What does it say about me that I was secretly hoping that you would inform us that hanging out of boat guy dropped his phone in the water?

 

[k8einwdw]

There was a special PP shot(don’t giggle at that) in SWL that A wanted to do, so back across the park we went.

 

[Loco_driver]

What does it say about me that I was secretly hoping that you would inform us that hanging out of boat guy dropped his phone in the water?

It says you’re a lot like me.

 

[amjt660]

I don’t know that I’ve seen max out in the parks before this.

Your right - we have not met in person

Cinderella behaved herself this time.

I only see one hand


Max

 

[Loco_driver]

Howdy:
Just a comment on the trash.
Before the pandemic and all it's results, we saw a lot of trash on the floor right up to the ride at HM one time. I mean, there were food wrappers, kleenex, various papers, etc. And there was a lot of it all the way to loading.
I wrote disney about this because this was very unusual at that time.
They said that the CM's on the attractions are supposed to keep this trash picked up. ?
I thought that was kind of lame. How can the busy CM's loading and unloading the guests be able to pick up the sloppy guests trash?
I know they could do it before and after their shifts, maybe, depending on the times of their shifts.

Anyway, this response surprised me. I always thought that there were CM's who were supposed to pick up trash everywhere.
It's sad to see disney in this state of neglect.
But glad you had a great time and loved your trip report.

I have no direct knowledge about any of the CM responsibilities. I do have a few friends who were CMs many years ago who told me that it was everyone’s responsibility to pick up trash as soon as they saw it. Didn’t matter if it was a CP kid or Bob Chapek himself. If they saw trash, they picked it up. Clearly that’s not a priority anymore.

 

[Lilofan]

I have no direct knowledge about any of the CM responsibilities. I do have a few friends who were CMs many years ago who told me that it was everyone’s responsibility to pick up trash as soon as they saw it. Didn’t matter if it was a CP kid or Bob Chapek himself. If they saw trash, they picked it up. Clearly that’s not a priority anymore.

I've bought those "pickers" at Home Depot go use at home or in my yard similar to what cast use to pick up trash. It surely saves me from bending down too much.