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!

 

[Loco_driver]

Really late here but I'm caught up and looking forward to more great details about your trip.

Glad to have you along!

I'm excited to follow along with your trip report. We checked in starting Dec 12th so it's fun to see what happened right before we got there

Thanks for following!

which I think is supposed to be a compliment...

Most of the time. Sorta.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day 1 continued.

We continued towards Robin Sparkle’s beloved homeland for cookie number two. Canadas cookie was far superior to the sad pathetic gingerbread cookie!

Nice view of the lagoon. Almost. There’s a burnt taco in the way.

Even worse.

The sun was really beating down on us. I had worked up quite a thirst. Luckily @Darstarr s beloved moosehead was available nearby.

It got the job done!

Continuing on to the UK, we saw the real star of the day. No I’m not talking about Father Christmas. I’m talking about this guy!

The Kiss hat, the Iron Maiden shirt, the extra short cutoff jorts, and it’s all pulled nicely together with the white tube socks with white cons. This guy is incredible, and he knows it.

Anyways. We did also see Mary Poppins greeting guests.

We caught the very end of Father Christmas’s storytelling, and got to have a quick meet and greet.

Another favorite decoration of mine.

Trying to get a picture of SSE without mistake on the lake blocking my view.

Coming up: More WS.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day one continued.

We made our way past France toward the L’Chaim! booth for the black and white cookie. It was fine.

Aurora was nearby. I’m regretting misplacing my sunglasses by this point.

Back into France for Père Noël. He was really great! The sun continued to try to kill me.

Back by the L’Chaim booth we watched the Hanukkah storyteller. He was very good as well, and did a great job interacting with his audience.

We headed towards the American pavilion for the next cookie. Stopping for pictures in Japan on the way.

There was a shaded table with seating available in Japan, so A stayed behind while I went to America for our cookie.

I decided to get the turkey dinner while I was online for my cookie, since I was getting pretty hungry. This was really good and not too expensive either!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookie featuring Dove chocolate. My 2nd favorite behind the snickers doodle(yeah) from Canada.

We saw the Daruma Storyteller afterwards. She was quite funny.

Coming up: More Epcot.

 

[amjt660]

We continued towards Robin Sparkle’s beloved homeland for cookie number two

Keep it up @Loco_driver and you will get honorary citizenship in the Great White North!!


Loving the report - keep it coming

(especially white knee high sock guy - he is fabulous)


Max

 

[ShookieJones]

Day one continued.

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Chocolate Crinkle Cookie featuring Dove chocolate. My 2nd favorite behind the snickers doodle(yeah) from Canada.
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We saw the Daruma Storyteller afterwards. She was quite funny.


Coming up: More Epcot.

Great TR and Just getting caught up, but I wanted to tell you I had a real true to life audible stomach growl from these two pics! Following along!

 

[Loco_driver]

Keep it up @Loco_driver and you will get honorary citizenship in the Great White North!!

I think I’d make a fine Canadian. I mean that one time it got cold here I did ok(we set a record high temp of 82 degrees, or 27 Celsius today BTW.)

Great TR and Just getting caught up, but I wanted to tell you I had a real true to life audible stomach growl from these two pics! Following along!

Thanks! They were two of the better things we ate that day!

 

[Loco_driver]

Day one continued.

We continued around WS to Italy. La Befana was out telling her story! We both adore this performer. She was so sincere and kind, and really took a lot of time to visit with us!

We would see her again later in the week.

The linzer cookie in Germany was our last cookie. I wasn’t a fan.

We waited in China for a bit to see the Chinese lion dancers.

I was tired just watching these two performers.

We saw spaz barn Santa in Norway.

We stopped in Mexico for some sweet sweet air conditioning. The boat ride was a walk on.

These were a welcome sight after the cardboard cutouts that were here in April.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day one continued.

Our journey around world showcase was complete. We collected or prize for finishing the cookie stroll. Ornament cookie, penguin ornament, and a peppermint ice cream concoction of some sort which was more than welcome on such a warm afternoon!

We looked around the port of entry shop for a minute. We didn’t see anything that required an immediate purchase.

We headed toward the neighborhood of

The line for figment was out the door and featured several switchbacks. We decided our time would be better spent in the DVC lounge instead. We didn’t take any pics in there though, so I guess you’re going to have to use your imagination.

After a nice little break we headed back outside. The line for figment was back down to an acceptable time. We still ended up waiting longer than we would’ve liked. It seemed like something was causing the capacity of the ride to suffer. Not sure what(hint, he’s blue and annoying and suckering people out of $15 a pop every day).

Anyways we ended up waiting around 15 minutes to see our purple friend.

We made our way to the front of the park hoping for a ride on SSE. But, as the title of this TR suggests, it was “temporarily unavailable” or broken as we normal people would say. We spent some time near the front of the park instead.

Goofy and Pluto were out as well.

There were lots of PPP available in the area.

I’m not really sure what the intent is here?

 

[amjt660]

Not sure what(hint, he’s blue and annoying and suckering people out of $15 a pop every day).

Max

 

[Loco_driver]

Day one continued.

I guess I should mention that I forgot to try for a rat boarding group at 7 that morning, but did secure one during the afternoon. We didn’t know if we’d make it or not because the virtual queue was showing that our BG would be called around the same time as our dinner reservation. This will all come into play later.

Now back to our regularly scheduled TR. We waited around for a bit to see if SSE would be reopening soon, but eventually gave up and moved on to mission space. Green side only for this guy.

We started making our way towards international gateway for our dinner reservation. We found the best statue at Epcot.

And took more pictures of the tree.

Dinner was at cape may cafe. I always enjoy the walk along crescent lake.

We were happy to see the BC gingerbread carousel. This years theme was little mermaid.

There is a tree in the lobby too, if you know where to look!

Up next: dinner, and ratatouille?

 

[LeighM]

I didn't get Genie+ because I refused to give Disney even more of our money. I was already mad that I bought ILL for Ratatouille and Rise in order to guarantee experiencing it. I downgraded my room at FQ in order to justify the extra cost to myself LOL. I haven't gotten to that experience yet in my trip report but trust me, it's a'comin

 

[Loco_driver]

I didn't get Genie+ because I refused to give Disney even more of our money. I was already mad that I bought ILL for Ratatouille and Rise in order to guarantee experiencing it. I downgraded my room at FQ in order to justify the extra cost to myself LOL. I haven't gotten to that experience yet in my trip report but trust me, it's a'comin

I get frustrated with them sometimes. It feels like they’ve created this false sense of urgency about the rat ride, and instead of actually addressing the operations problems with rise, they just monetized it instead. I don’t know maybe I’m just a fool, but I feel like if someone pays for a days admission, they should get to experience everything they want without paying extra or jumping through a million hoops.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day one continued.

We checked in for our dinner as soon as possible and we were seated about 10 minutes before our reservation time. We did have to wait quite a while before we were greeted by our waitress, Barbie. She took our drink orders and promptly brought out our starters. We did have some issues with her disappearing for long periods of time before showing back up to refill our drinks or food.

The salad was forgettable. But we all know we’re not there for salad.

Bread service consisted of cornbread and rolls. One pet peeve I have with Disney restaurants is that they serve cold dinner rolls. Why? It just feels lazy. The breads come with a cheddar spread and another spread that was basically just butter. The cheddar spread wasn’t bad. I preferred the cornbread to the cold rolls.

The “turf” platterSlow-roasted Strip Loin with Chimichurri and House-made Steak Sauce, Oven-roasted Lemon-Pepper Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Farmer’s Market Vegetables

I enjoyed everything on this plate, and had seconds of chicken and mashed potatoes.

The cape may macaroni was a highlight as well. Very rich and creamy.

The seafood boil. PEI Mussels, Peel-n-Eat Shrimp, Cape May Clams, Sustainable Catch of the Day, Red Bliss Potatoes, and Corn on the Cobb. The catch of the day was cod.

The fish and shrimp were both adequate. I’m not a huge seafood eater so your mileage may vary. A really enjoyed it and ordered a second round of shrimp and fish. Neither of us thought the mussels or clams were very good. They both felt overcooked and rubbery.

Dessert platter. The standout is of course the Oreo bon bons!

While we were at dinner our ratatouille BG was called. We had about 20 minutes left, and if we could get the check paid quickly we had a chance. Server Barbie had other plans. She decided it would be a good time to start up a chat about Texas and more specifically buc-cees(stupid awesome hat!). We eventually did get our bill settled and out the door, but had given up on making it back in time for our BG.

We entered Epcot and booked it to France to see if they’d let us on anyways.

Turns out it didn’t really matter at all because, you know, it was broken! Since it broke down during our boarding window we were going to be allowed to ride at anytime that evening if it came back online. So all of our rushing and worrying about chatty Barbie was for nothing!

Also bonus points for Barbie because when she asked what we’d be drinking I asked if they had orange soda. She said she’d get some for me no problem. Little did I know that she’d been going over to the marketplace and getting bottles of orange soda for me every time I needed a refill, hence the long waits for refills. To top it all off she sent me back out with a bonus bottle for the night. So what we thought was slow service was actually a CM working hard to make magic for us!

Anyways back to Epcot. We were a bit relieved to have caught such a break.

We took a picture to commemorate our attempt at riding!

 

[krause]

PEI Mussels

Again with the desire to be Canadian

 

[Loco_driver]

Again with the desire to be Canadian

Theme of the day!

 

[mpaulam]

I feel like if someone pays for a days admission, they should get to experience everything they want without paying extra or jumping through a million hoops.

The carousel is gorgeous!

 

[LeighM]

Broken became the theme later in our trip

 

[Loco_driver]

Day one continued.

I really wanted a ride on SSE, so that’s where we went next.

Ugly Christmas sweater. The new lights are incredible.

Here’s a few pictures of the various places we got stopped on SSE.

The best place to be stopped is next to this foxy lady.

Afterwards we sat out front and watched the different light shows. This is probably my favorite addition for the 50th, and the best nighttime show at Epcot.

I won’t bore you with the other million pictures we took. Pictures don’t do it justice anyways.

One more before we go though.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day one continued.

Let’s wrap this day up shall we?

Ratatouille was back up and running, so it was back to the France pavilion for us.

The expansion feels bigger than I expected

I had seen reports of people still having to wait upwards of an hour once their BG were called. This would fortunately not be the case for us. This picture was taken at 8:44 pm. Just as we entered the queue.

We were here at 8:56

And here at 9:03. Total wait was a hair over 20 minutes. Which is probably about as long as I’d be willing to wait.

I was glad we got to experience a new attraction. I certainly wasn’t blown away by it, nor did I expect to be. I think it’s a fine choice for an attraction in WS. Would I wait more than about 30 minutes for this? Not likely. Would I pay extra to experience this? Not a chance! The pacing of the ride was just strange to me, and the trackless vehicles feel like an afterthought here, simply a vehicle to get you from one screen to the next.

Anyways, with that done we both agreed it would be best to head back to the hotel and get some rest. It had been a long day!

Our room was in building 44 in old turtle pond section. Normally I’d have some room photos for @Nunu but I was so tired I guess I forgot. Sorry friend!

That’s a wrap on day one.

Up next. Day 2 at DHS and AK. Featuring camo hat guy!

 

[brifraz]

Day one continued.

We spent some time near the front of the park instead.
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Love this 360! Hope it is still around next week when we are there. Your report is definitely getting me fired up for our trip (at least until I remember the 14-15 hours in the car starting on Thursday afternoon).