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]

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).

That time in the car will be over before you know it! Hope you guys have a great time!

 

[Disstevefan1]

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, you just invented an excellent quote for a T shirt:

Bob C. Says, “Don’t fix it, monetize it”

 

[Loco_driver]

Bob C. Says, “Don’t fix it, monetize it”

Bob is an easy guy to make the villain, and he certainly deserves all the criticism he gets, but there’s a whole slew of people that have been making the guest-hostile decisions lately. Including everyone’s favorite Josh D’Amaro. People need to quit giving that guy a free pass.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day two. Monday December 6.

We were up nice and early for early entry at DHS. Our first stop would be ToT. They hold guests wanting to do ToT or RnR on sunset boulevard until the official start of early morning magic.

It was a clear pleasant morning.

There is a little welcome message that plays right at opening, and we were led back to the Hollywood tower hotel immediately afterwards. A quick walk through the grounds and we were at the lobby within a few minutes.

There would be no on ride photo. I mean it was taken, but I have no access to it.

It had only been about 10 minutes since rope drop and we were off the ride. Our plan was to do MMRR next. Guess what.

No problem, we’d have another morning at DHS to try again. On to toy story mania.

Dr. Malpractice.

The group in front of us had me on the brink.

We were directed to the third track for the first time in many years.

By the time we exited TSMM(I won, BTW), it was a little past official park opening. We ventured into Star Wars land.

They see me, they run. Timing has nothing to do with it!

Millennium Falcon was showing a 30 minute wait. We decided to give it a shot.

 

[Tuvalu]

At least you got to ride Toy Story.

We got evacuated!

 

[Loco_driver]

At least you got to ride Toy Story.

We got evacuated!

View attachment 608528View attachment 608529View attachment 608530

Hey at least you got a new experience right?!

 

[Loco_driver]

Day two continued.

According to my notes it was 20 minutes from entering the queue to this point.

I had mobile ordered us some breakfast at ronto roasters, but it was so chaotic in there I forgot to get any pictures. I would rectify this later in the week.

SWL was filling up fast, so we left via the exit closest to muppets. And since we were right there anyways.

Pigs in space was one of my favorite bits of the show growing up.

As you can see our show was quite full. So full in fact the line stretched outside, so I’m not sure everyone made it in for the show!

There was a frozen singalong starting in about 20 minutes, so that was our next destination. The female historian was very funny.

There’s a special holiday ending featuring Olaf.

It was getting close enough to lunchtime that we started making our way toward the exit, enjoying the echo lake decorations.

We were lucky to catch a boat just as it was pulling up to the dock. We got off at YC and checked out the decorations.

I think the decorations at yacht are always underrated. I like the nautical tree and the big Christmas village!

 

[Songbird76]

Crowds were moderately heavy that day. We’ve seen worse.
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Not the point of the picture, but these two women on the left....their shirts cracked me up!

 

[Darstarr]

Luckily @Darstarr s beloved moosehead was available nearby.

Bought a case yesterday for Christmas

This guy is incredible, and he knows it.

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 two continued.

Lunch was at one of our usual spots, Beaches and Cream. The restaurant really lost some charm when they expanded it, and the food isn’t my favorite, but they do have No Way Jose and our friend Herlina, so we continue to come back.

Sadly Herlina was not working the lunch shift this day. We would settle for Kimmy, who was adequate. We both ordered loaded tots, the portions are right for leaving room for dessert.

Speaking of dessert. A had some sort of 50th celebration shake.

I had no time for such nonsense. I was glad to see the salad bowl sundaes were gone. The toppings just mix better in the goblets!

After lunch we took our customary waddle around crescent lake to the boardwalk. There was some sidewalk work going on outside near the lobby.

The Christmas decorations inside are still scaled way back from previous years.

We ended catching a boat back to DHS and a bus back to our hotel. We had to stop by the front desk for regular coffee since we somehow only had decaf in our room. When we got back to our room it was scorching hot inside! The thermostat said 82!

The AC wasn’t broken, this was by design. The thermostat just totally shut down as soon as we left the room, and started blowing cold as soon as we returned. The rack rate on this room for our nights was $516 a night, and we’re trying to pinch pennies with the thermostat like some sort of cut-rate motel?

A quick google search later and I had hacked the thermostat so that our room would stay the same temperature no matter what.

We took a little nap before heading out to the bus stop. We decided we’d finally go see AK at night. Shirley status on the bus was a good start!

It wasn’t quite dark when we arrived.

Discovery island is really nice after dark.

 

[LeighM]

I kept forgetting to reset our thermostat so that it wouldn't stop while we were sleeping. I woke up every night around 4am burning up and too tired and lazy to Google it

 

[ShookieJones]

When we got back to our room it was scorching hot inside! The thermostat said 82!


The AC wasn’t broken, this was by design. The thermostat just totally shut down as soon as we left the room, and started blowing cold as soon as we returned. The rack rate on this room for our nights was $516 a night, and we’re trying to pinch pennies with the thermostat like some sort of cut-rate motel?


A quick google search later and I had hacked the thermostat so that our room would stay the same temperature no matter what.

This is actually a thing? Why is this legal anywhere in Florida?

Thanks for great pics of Discovery Island at night. We were lucky enough to be in AK at night only once and I got very few pics.
Also never around the Holidays which seems to increase the night time awesomeness by a few degrees. Anyway, thanks for sharing, I continue to follow along.

 

[Darstarr]

…..aaaaand are you going to share the thermostat hack??

 

[Laurenciaa]

…..aaaaand are you going to share the thermostat hack??

#askingforafriend.. only going in August next year but yes, I wanna know too!!

 

[Loco_driver]

…..aaaaand are you going to share the thermostat hack??

#askingforafriend.. only going in August next year but yes, I wanna know too!!

Ok here’s how you do it. Note that this is only for the thermostats found at OKW. There’s a different process for the newer models.

Press and hold the F/C button on the left side of the thermostat until the display shows Bp(bypass). The bypass only works for 24 hours, so you need to do it every day.

Here’s a link on how to override the newer ones that I know are at WL and Riviera, among others.


Enjoy your sweat-free nights!

 

[Loco_driver]

Day two continued.

The sun was setting on the tree of life.

We were interested to see pandora after dark.

Remember the hoopla that was made by James Cameron and Joe Rhode about the magical glowing sidewalks? Didn’t exactly turn out as planned.

There are some cool elements to the land though.

Im not sure what this suit thing is called(nor do I care), but I thought it was pretty cool.

Triangles for @Darstarr

We caught a showing of tree of life awakenings. Camo hat guy obstructed the view.

The awakenings were really cool, and I really like that they basically show continuously throughout the night, so crowds don’t congregate too much.

 

[LeighM]

I'm over here cracking up LOL. You had Camo Hat Guy and I had Mr. Big Head in a Santa Hat

 

[Loco_driver]

I'm over here cracking up LOL. You had Camo Hat Guy and I had Mr. Big Head in a Santa Hat

There’s always that one guy. Although I admit that usually that one guy is my big-headed self!

 

[Darstarr]

Triangles for @Darstarr

 

[Loco_driver]

Happy Festivus everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates yesterday. Festivus Eve was wild!

I hope everyone put up their festivus pole in preparation for the feats of strength!

And don’t forget the airing of grievances!