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]

Day two continued.

We decided on flame tree for dinner. Neither of us was super hungry, so we shared the ribs and chicken meal.

After supper we headed to dino land since dinosaur had no wait.

We seem to always have at least one legitimately terrified child with us on this ride.

Dino land is surprisingly festive this time of year.

Everest had a posted 5 minute wait. We couldn’t resist a night ride(or three).

Maybe our ride photos showed up for somebody out there.

AK was getting very close to closing time, and we had other things on our agenda for the night, so we headed for the exit.

We had to get some pictures with the tree all lit up of course.

And this thing.

We hopped a bus to Beach Club to finish the night at Epcot.

Coming up: We finally watch harmonious.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Again, a big thank you for all the beautiful photos!
They make me happy and fill the void of not going to disney for a while.

 

[Loco_driver]

Day two continued.

We entered Epcot through international gateway. We made a lap around WS.

Crowds were surprisingly light. We ended up towards the front of WS with about 30 minutes to go before showtime. I ordered a Kona Mai Time from the Mele Kalikimaka booth.

Waiting on Harmonious.

We were able to get a half decent spot near Mexico for the show. I didn’t take any pictures or videos since it was my first time seeing it and I wanted to try to take it all in.

Sadly what I took in was a really really bad nighttime show!

I really have no words to describe how much I disliked this show. The pacing is boring, the songs are just crappy covers of music that they own, the giant tacos really don’t seem to add much, and the stargate is hard to see without being directly in front of it. It just feels like a corporate created show. Of the two new night shows, I disliked this one the most. Sadly this one feels like it’ll be around for a long time compared to the MK show(probably why I hate it more).

We enjoyed a relatively empty WS after the show.

This was a night with extended hours for deluxe guests. We took advantage by walking on test track.

We were finally able to make it onto soarin as well!

Our last attraction for the night would be Nemo, where it sure felt like we might’ve been the only people in there that weren’t
CMs. There was still plenty of time left to do more attractions, but we were both spent and decided to call it a night.

Coming up: we finally make it to MK!

 

[Loco_driver]

Day three.

We’d been on property three days and somehow not set foot in the Magic Kingdom. We would remedy that situation today! We were at the turtle pond bus stop at 0720 that morning for the 0830 early morning opening.

We generally don’t have many issues with bus service from OKW. The lone exception always seems to be getting to MK. We sat at the bus stop(along with several other parties) for the better part of 40 minutes before a MK bus finally arrived. We all piled into what was already a fairly full bus. When we left our stop it was definitely full. What made the situation even more odd is that there was a second MK bus literally directly behind this one that was clearly empty. Luckily our driver finally noticed this at the next stop and coordinated with the second driver that our bus would not be stopping at hospitality house. After she made sure nobody on our bus needed off at hospitality, we were finally on our way!

We still made it in time for early morning magic. It was quite foggy!

There’s a castle there somewhere

“Castle” selfie!

We joined the rest of the resort guests on the right side of the hub for EMM. Our plan was to do buzz first, since it seems to keep a pretty long line throughout the day. One little problem with that plan.

We improvised and chose another attraction that can build up the wait times during the day. @Tuvalu is it an RD Pooh if it happens before official park opening?

After Pooh we considered going to small world but once again.

We chose mermaid instead. Here’s A waving goodbye.

It was close to park opening when we got off. I wanted to try and get on HM as soon as it opened. Guess what?

We continued in to Frontierland. Splash was one of the few attractions actually operating. It wasn’t particularly cool that morning, so we went for it. And got quite wet. Notice the giant wet spot on my side before we even made it to the bottom of the big drop.

When we got in line for splash the following attractions were down: HM, IASW, Pirates, Jingle Cruise, Buzz, Peoplemover, and CoP. To say it was a challenging morning for the park would be putting it lightly, but things were just getting started on that front.

Lucky for us pirates had just opened as we arrived in Adventureland. We walked on and were among the first riders of the day!

Mask kiss. Notice how soaked my shirt is from splash!

We were hoping to have the same luck with jungle cruise, but it remained down. There was a show starting at the tiki room, so we gladly enjoyed the birds singing words.

Coming up: Amazon breaks everything.

 

[LeighM]

My husband and I just stared in horror at the new barges at Epcot. I obviously knew they were there - seen pictures and video - but nothing prepared me for just how horribly bad they were in person. I didn't look towards the lake again my entire time in the park and didn't even bother to stay for the new show.

 

[Loco_driver]

My husband and I just stared in horror at the new barges at Epcot. I obviously knew they were there - seen pictures and video - but nothing prepared me for just how horribly bad they were in person. I didn't look forwards the lake again my entire time in the park and didn't even bother to stay for the new show.

Yeah it’s hard to tell just how massive those things are until you see them in person. In what world did they think they could cover those things with a fountain? Not a chance!

 

[Loco_driver]

Day three continued.

After being serenaded by the birdies, we ordered up a Tropical Serenade. POG juice, coconut soft serve, and a pineapple upside down cake pop. This was really good. With the mysterious disappearance of my beloved citrus swirl, this will probably be my go to Adventureland snack.

Just across the breezeway there was a superstar out and about.

A few of them actually.

Liver Lips could tell we were big fans.

CBJ was not supposed to open until 11 am, but I think they decided to open it early due to the issues with other attractions. We of course had to take in a show!

Peoplemover was showing to be back up, we started that way through Adventureland. I’ve never seen a PPP at this location.

Pooh and Piglet are near crystal palace.

Dumbo is somewhere in the hub area.

The castle finally makes an appearance!

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Hi, I hope you don’t mind me interrupting your fabulous trip report, but we just wanted to say Merry Christmas
and a healthy 2022 to everyone who write and read these magical Tr’s. From the two of us in the UK.

 

[brifraz]

Is there something wrong with me that when we come back to the room for a nap after a morning at Epcot, I'm sitting here reading your Trip Report?? Just being fully immersed, right? Love the look of the nighttime EMH in Epcot - hoping that we can also get Test Track and some other things done without too much wait.

 

[Loco_driver]

Hi, I hope you don’t mind me interrupting your fabulous trip report, but we just wanted to say Merry Christmas
and a healthy 2022 to everyone who write and read these magical Tr’s. From the two of us in the UK.

Thank you very much! Happy Christmas to you all and a very happy new year. Thanks for reading! Although the emojis where I’m at now would be something like 🕶!

Is there something wrong with me that when we come back to the room for a nap after a morning at Epcot, I'm sitting here reading your Trip Report?? Just being fully immersed, right? Love the look of the nighttime EMH in Epcot - hoping that we can also get Test Track and some other things done without too much wait.

Nothing wrong at all. Night time emh was an absolute joy, and really helped us get a lot done without giving any more money to the blue money machine!

 

[Darstarr]

With the mysterious disappearance of my beloved citrus swirl,

Beeeeee cause it was inferior to the delicious pineapple dole whip!
Btw, Tone has the same Buc ee’s hat

 

[Loco_driver]

Beeeeee cause it was inferior to the delicious pineapple dole whip!

Btw, Tone has the same Buc ee’s hat

 

[amjt660]

Hey at least you got a new experience right?!

I see an "up charge" event coming soon!!

I really have no words to describe how much I disliked this show. The pacing is boring, the songs are just crappy covers of music that they own, the giant tacos really don’t seem to add much, and the stargate is hard to see without being directly in front of it. It just feels like a corporate created show. Of the two new night shows, I disliked this one the most. Sadly this one feels like it’ll be around for a long time compared to the MK show(probably why I hate it more).

Max

 

[Loco_driver]

I see an "up charge" event coming soon!!

Max

I think @wdwmagic really frowns upon the actual words that came out of my mouth after the show. This is a family friendly website!

 

[Plowboy]

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

It's not Florida, it's Disney...

 

[Loco_driver]

Day three continued.

We made it to Tomorrowland for a spin on the TTA peoplemover. We waited maybe five minutes.

There’s pure joy on my face, probably.

We were glad to be able to ride a beloved attraction that was a week away from reopening on our last trip to the parks.

We got stuck here for a little while. Not much visible work was happening. I look forward to the opening of tron for the WDW 75th anniversary!

We almost made it all the way through SM before getting stopped again. I tried to see if we could grab any last minute dinner reservations for that night, but couldn’t get the app to cooperate. Disney being the tech wizards that they are, I didn’t think much of it and would try again later.

Finally moving again!

After our unexpected 30 minute trip on the peoplemover we needed a bathroom break! Stitch was out on the stage as we headed for CoP.

Things really started getting weird here. A and I both got on the app to look for dinner reservations while waiting for our CoP theater to open, but the app was showing no wait times or anything. There were reservation times available, but if we tried selecting them we’d get an error message.

We put our phones away for CoP. The opening scene played without a problem, but the theater wouldn’t rotate to the next scene. They restarted the show and we had no further problems.

It was time to head to WL for lunch. Remember when the “purple wall” was a thing and then Disney tried to make it an “official” thing and ruined it? I didn’t care about any of that but apparently it was this big thing.

We left the park and made our way to the boat dock. There was a massive line of people at the guests services window, like stretching all the way back towards the contemporary massive. Now we knew for sure something was going on with the app, and most likely Genie+ as well. Anyways we did make it to Wilderness Lodge without incident.

While I love the Grand Floridian at Christmas, Wilderness Lodge is my favorite. I do miss the gingerbread cabin and hope they bring it back someday, but the WL tree is hard to beat!

 

[amjt660]

I really have no words to describe how much I disliked this show.

I counted over 46

The pacing is boring, the songs are just crappy covers of music that they own, the giant tacos really don’t seem to add much, and the stargate is hard to see without being directly in front of it. It just feels like a corporate created show.

Max

 

[Loco_driver]

I counted over 46




Max

Haha. Thanks for counting. Happy Boxing Day(is that a thing up there? My calendar says it’s a thing)!

 

[amjt660]

Happy Boxing Day(is that a thing up there? My calendar says it’s a thing)!

Yes it is a thing up here (still part of the British empire you know)

Sort of like Black Friday but the deals are not as good

Max

 

[Loco_driver]

Day 3 continued.

We were early for lunch thanks to the boat being faster than planned. We relaxed in the lobby while we waited.

I was finally able to get us an adr that evening at boathouse while we waited.

We checked in for lunch 15 minutes early, and were seated fairly quickly. I do not remember our servers name, but he was slow and grumpy. Not haha grumpy, just grumpy. We both had burnt end nachos.

Whispering canyon went to a brunch menu for lunch back in august(we happened to be there the day it went into effect). I am not a fan of that move because it ruined the lunch skillet.

Luckily the burnt end nachos remain on the lunch menu.

We opted for dessert from roaring fork. There’s a good little cake under all that fondant.

We weren’t as lucky with our return boat service to MK. We waited all 20 minutes for a boat to arrive. This companion dog was just begging me to pet it. I somehow resisted.

We had originally planned to head back to our hotel after lunch, but we were feeling good and the weather was nice, so we went back in to MK for more fun.

The train station is looking good.

Now if we could only get an actual train…