Trip Report It Is What It Is... Our Journey To The Dark Side...Sept 2023 (Completed)

Hey there everyone!

We are back! I have to say, it was a Disney trip that was VERY different from those in the past. I am happy and excited to share it all with you all, as long as you are patient with me. Lol. You know – me -the one that takes 4 plus years to finish up a report!

That being said, I need to take care of some unfinished business before I start this epic tale. If you don’t know what I mean…. Here is the link to September 2019 trip which I am desperately trying to wrap up.

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/from-droids-to-toys…-texting-the-boy-and-can-we-just-blame-it-on-captain-hook-our-september-2019-disney-journey-including-another-ross’-return.960569/

Thanks to all of you who helped get me excited for this trip and gave me such good advice and tips for our journey!

Here we go…

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Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Figment Forever said:
Julia says a big Thank you!

I agree - I'm happy Nick took some breaks. I was just wishing he would be a little more into it... especially for Julia.
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Yeah, my husband is not a fan of Disney. Our first trip with the kids was a lot of fun and I think he liked seeing things through their eyes. But as A is autistic and gets overwhelmed easily, my husband got more and more frustrated at Disney. We didn't have a diagnosis for our first couple of trips, and the heat, the crowds, etc...it made my husband grouchy, and then add in that A would get upset about things, my husband just couldn't handle it. He wasn't used to dealing with the meltdowns like I was, because he was at work all day. When we'd go on vacation and he was dealing with that all day, every day, it really took a toll on him, and I think he kind of blamed Disney....like, he associates that behavior with Disney because that's where he actually had to deal with it. At home, he goes off to work and I'm the one caring for the kids and dealing with the every-day frustrations. It's like he thought A only did that at Disney, and it drove him nuts, so he just doesn't enjoy Disney. The last time we went, I finally convinced him that it was ok not to do EVERYTHING together...that if he wanted to ride a roller coaster, he should go ride the roller coaster and we'd do something else. I built in time for him to go off by himself and do all the things he wanted to do that we didn't. But then when he had to come back and let ME do something, he got grouchy and resentful. It's just not worth it to bring him to Disney because then nobody really gets to have fun. At least Julia will always have you guys to go to Disney with, even if Nick isn't into it. Nothing says he HAS to go with you. Would it be nice if he enjoyed it? Sure. But if he doesn't, he can always do his own thing and Julia can go with you guys.

I do kind of want to see if going in the winter when it's not so hot would help with my husband. He hates the heat and the crowds...I mean, who loves that? But it's worth putting up with for me because I love Disney, where he doesn't, so it's not worth it for him. But I wonder if he would have a better time if he didn't have to wait in lines in blistering heat. We never wait longer than about 20 minutes in a line....if the posted wait time is longer, we skip it. But that heat does take a lot out of you, so I wonder if it would be better if we went in December.
 
Figment Forever

Figment Forever

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Songbird76 said:
Yeah, my husband is not a fan of Disney. Our first trip with the kids was a lot of fun and I think he liked seeing things through their eyes. But as A is autistic and gets overwhelmed easily, my husband got more and more frustrated at Disney. We didn't have a diagnosis for our first couple of trips, and the heat, the crowds, etc...it made my husband grouchy, and then add in that A would get upset about things, my husband just couldn't handle it. He wasn't used to dealing with the meltdowns like I was, because he was at work all day. When we'd go on vacation and he was dealing with that all day, every day, it really took a toll on him, and I think he kind of blamed Disney....like, he associates that behavior with Disney because that's where he actually had to deal with it. At home, he goes off to work and I'm the one caring for the kids and dealing with the every-day frustrations. It's like he thought A only did that at Disney, and it drove him nuts, so he just doesn't enjoy Disney. The last time we went, I finally convinced him that it was ok not to do EVERYTHING together...that if he wanted to ride a roller coaster, he should go ride the roller coaster and we'd do something else. I built in time for him to go off by himself and do all the things he wanted to do that we didn't. But then when he had to come back and let ME do something, he got grouchy and resentful. It's just not worth it to bring him to Disney because then nobody really gets to have fun. At least Julia will always have you guys to go to Disney with, even if Nick isn't into it. Nothing says he HAS to go with you. Would it be nice if he enjoyed it? Sure. But if he doesn't, he can always do his own thing and Julia can go with you guys.

I do kind of want to see if going in the winter when it's not so hot would help with my husband. He hates the heat and the crowds...I mean, who loves that? But it's worth putting up with for me because I love Disney, where he doesn't, so it's not worth it for him. But I wonder if he would have a better time if he didn't have to wait in lines in blistering heat. We never wait longer than about 20 minutes in a line....if the posted wait time is longer, we skip it. But that heat does take a lot out of you, so I wonder if it would be better if we went in December.
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I agree! I will say that Nick has told Julia he is happy to visit "sometimes", but does not want this to be their "go to" vacation. In the meantime, he said she can go whenever she likes. And I agree I think they should trying the cooler months. We went last December... (Maybe one year I'll get that posted. lol) and it did feel different.
 
Figment Forever

Figment Forever

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday September 18th 2023

Even though I was up bright and early and was ready to go at 6:59AM, I was not able to get a VQ for Tron. Oh well… It is what it is…

Before drifting off to dreamland the previous night, I threw in a load of laundry. So I walked down to the laundry room to swap it over to the dryer and get some well needed coffee. Ross was kind enough to lend a hand.

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Nick was up and ready to go along with Julia – they were having breakfast in the food court.

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I had forgotten that the night before that Julia and Nick did go out to DS and ate at Morimoto. They both really enjoyed it and would absolutely go back.

We all hopped a bus for MK.

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Nick and Julia went off on their own. I was sad in one way, but happy that they could go off and enjoy themselves. And I knew Julia would have no problem finding her way around.

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Figment Forever

Figment Forever

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
As I was trying to figure out what was going on in the MK, I got an unexpected text from @dizfan917 inviting us to meet up with him and Keven the next day at Epcot and be their guests to the DVC lounge in the Imagination Pavilion!!! When I told Julia, she went CRAZY!! She was so excited!! She has been trying to get up there for years! Would it finally happen?

We had a return time for Peter Pan, so we walked that way.

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When we exited, we were supposed to ride Haunted Mansion, but it was still closed, so we went to PhilharMagic.

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Fantasyland was wall to wall people!! All attractions in Liberty Square, Frontierland and Adventure land were closed. As we were waiting for the show to go in, I started hearing some people talking about a bear in the MK!! People were joking… Winnie the Pooh? The Country Bears?? People were saying that CM’s were blocking the entrances to the lands, but telling people they didn’t know what going on.

Since everything was either crazy busy or closed, we figured it was a good time to eat and I placed a mobile prder from Cosmic Rays.

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Figment Forever

Figment Forever

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Then I began to get notifications from WDW Magic…

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Yep, a bear was wandering around MK!!! I followed the notifications and kept a close eye on the app. Thankfully, by 1:00PM, the bear had been successfully moved out of the park and we moved over to Haunted Mansion.

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I also was successful in obtaining a VQ for Tron!
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We headed over to Laugh Floor while the crowds started to balance out.

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Figment Forever

Figment Forever

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We were in need of a snack and there was one item I really wanted to try the spring rolls! We got one cheeseburger and one pepperoni. They were both yummy, but the cheeseburger rules!!!

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After our savory snack, it was time for sweet!

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We watched the Tiki Birds and then rode pirates before meeting up with Googly Bear and Smoopsie Poo.

It was finally time for Tron. The cool part about not getting the VQ at 7AM was that we got to ride it at night. It is a cool ride, but way too short.

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Figment Forever

Figment Forever

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It was time for HEA, so Ross, Hope and I found a spot out in the masses, so Hope could see the projections.

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We wanted to let the crowds empty out before we left, so we rode Buzz and watched PhilharMagic one more time.

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As we were getting ready to leave, Hope announced she was hungry. So I did a mobile order for Casey’s. It was very yummy!

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After a quick shopping trip in the Emporium, where I found my now favorite popcorn…

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We hopped a bus to Pop and hit the hay!

Up next… an EPCOT dream come true…
 
dizfan917

dizfan917

Well-Known Member
YIPPEE!!

We always enjoy hanging out with you guys! Thanks so much for brunch and the tumblers, we use them all the time. You guys are lots of fun and very generous. Hopefully we can meet up again sometime in 2026 (after our year-long break... we'll see if that actually happens!!) and catch up on all the NEW stuff happening at WDW! We always learn things from Hope and all her parks knowledge. I think Nick was having a better time than he let on when we met him. I remember when we first heard about "the boy" and look where they are now! :) Time flies!
 
Figment Forever

Figment Forever

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
dizfan917 said:
YIPPEE!!

We always enjoy hanging out with you guys! Thanks so much for brunch and the tumblers, we use them all the time. You guys are lots of fun and very generous. Hopefully we can meet up again sometime in 2026 (after our year-long break... we'll see if that actually happens!!) and catch up on all the NEW stuff happening at WDW! We always learn things from Hope and all her parks knowledge. I think Nick was having a better time than he let on when we met him. I remember when we first heard about "the boy" and look where they are now! :) Time flies!
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We had so much fun!! Looking forward to our next meet-up. Do we really have to wait until 2026??? :(
 

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