Trip Report Kylo Ren is Scary, and so is every other character

Welcome everyone. We are back with yet another Trip Report.

We were in WDW at the end of January/early February this year. Normally I would post the trip report right away, but this year I had a rather intense insurance course I was studying for related to my job. It was not nearly as much fun as a Slinky Dog coaster. Thankfully, about 4 months later, I have passed, and now it's time to re-live old memories by typing away at this trip report.

A change in this trip from years past...We're passholders now!!!

My wife Sara did the math, and figured out that we could save some money by becoming passholders and going twice in a calendar year. So we were looking forward to all the perks that come from Passholder status .

This trip began as all our most recent ones have...leaving on a Thursday evening after Luke returns home from school and making the long drive from York, PA to Florida. Sara had gotten home from work, and we hastily packed the car to have it ready for when the bus dropped him off. We stopped at a Moe's for lunch in Leesburg, VA, then continued on our way to Southern, VA for an overnight stop. Luke is currently huge into football, soccer, and almost any other sport, so our soccer ball made the trip with us, even into the rest stations.

We made it to our hotel around 11pm, quickly loaded all our things into the room and fell asleep fast. When we woke up the next morning, Luke was excited to learn that his new shirt he had gotten the previous weekend had thumb holes!!!

You can just really sense the excitement in his face in this picture. After packing up the car and a quick breakfast at the hotel, we were back on 95 South. At a rest stop football became the game of choice this day.

We stopped for lunch at a pizza hut in South Carolina, and talked to the manager who grew up in PA, now lives in SC, and goes down to WDW every year. We traded stories for a bit, then were back on the road, where the kids (and Sara) promptly passed out.

We made it to Florida before the sun went down this year. By our standard, we made good time, but we still missed out on the free orange juice.

And a silly one...Makayla was a little bit lost

Often it seems that the drive from the Florida border to WDW can take the longest of the whole trip. This particular ride was no exception. The kids were happily watching their DVD player in the back (Luke probably watched the Captain Underpants movie at least 4 times on our trip down), but also peppered us with the classic, "are we almost there," every 5 minutes. Sure enough, we eventually arrived. Our first stop of the night was Disney Springs.

 

[Lyear]

We had gone to bed relatively early on Sunday, so Monday it was pretty easy to get up and moving. We had our breakfast and the kids got ready without a fuss. Unfortunately, we had a dilemma with what to wear. It was still forecast to be 40-50 degrees most of this day, and our winter coats were still soaked from the day before. We decided to wear out light jackets and tough it out. As a final insult, I realized my one pair of sneakers I had packed were still drenched from the day before. It is decidedly NOT fun to put on wet shoes.

We were on pace to make it to MK in time for the opening show. We made it through a pretty long bag check line and into the park, and made our way towards the castle. We stopped to get some photopass shots before the show.

Watching the opening show is a must for Sara, and it is really cool to see Mickey and friends welcome you to the park as the day begins.

While Everest had claimed the top coaster in Luke's heart after yesterday, going into this trip 7DMT had been his favorite ride. We had a fastpass for it later that day, but as we had been planning our day I figured that after the opening show this morning we would make a run for it and try to do it first thing this morning. Unfortunately, the huge crowd of people crowding around the entrance to Fantasyland made it clear this probably wasn't going to work.

We walked back towards the ride with countless other guests all around us. By the time we made it to the queue, it was wrapped quite a ways back away from the entrance. Eventually, we came to the CM holding the sign that announced the start of the line. I asked her quickly if she knew about how long the wait would be from there, and she guessed it would be 90 minutes. Well, so much for that .

Instead of an early morning ride on 7DMT, we opted for the Barnstormer, which was a walk on. Luke and Makayla both loved it. We got to see the construction for the new Tron Coaster from the line.

When we finished, both kids wanted to do it again. Here we are in line a second time.

Last year, Makayla cried during the entire ride, what a change a year can make!

After Barnstormer, we hopped next door to Dumbo. This had a longer than expected wait, and I'd guess we were in line about 20-25 minutes before we got to fly. Luke was VERY disappointed that they didn't have the play area open this early.

Sara was cold, if you can't tell

We exited the circus area and made our way over to a walk on at Ariel's ride. Crazy bad selfie pic in the dark.

I attempted to get a photo of Sara and Makayla, but it came out even worse. We had a great time jamming to Under the Sea.

After this, we decided to stop for a quick brunch by Gaston's tavern for some yummy cinnamon rolls. Gaston was out greeting. We asked Makayla, but she certainly did not want to meet Gaston. As we were walking by, he was sharing how happy he was that someone had brought a book with his picture in it.

Somehow, we failed to take any photos inside the restaurant, or of our food. Major fail by us. But the cinnamon rolls were a huge hit with all. Once we finished it was time to head over to tomorrowland for our first fastpass of the day on Space Ranger Spin.

 

[fractal]

I am thoroughly enjoying this report! It's has taken me back to the time when my children were younger and all the challenges and joys that brings at Disney.

Way to survive a rainy day, especially with young ones!

 

[Lyear]

I am thoroughly enjoying this report! It's has taken me back to the time when my children were younger and all the challenges and joys that brings at Disney.

Way to survive a rainy day, especially with young ones!

Thank you. Challenges and Joys...nice way to say that. I think the kids survived the rain better than we did in some ways. They still had lots of fun with no complaints (weather related)

 

[Lyear]

So in writing this report, it has seemed strange that there were photos missing of some events. I realized that some photos Sara took, which let's be honest is over 3/4 our photos, never made it into my shared folder so they weren't there for me to see when I was writing. Here's some catch up photos...

Inside Restaurantosaurus, with soaked hair and clothes

And inside Gaston's Tavern... (Sara complains when I take candid shots of her while eating, but at least I've never done this to her

 

[Lyear]

We made our way towards Tomorrowland, with some bubble wand fun along the way. We used our fastpasses for Space Ranger Spin, which already had a long line for being midway through the morning. Luke enjoyed the ride, Makayla was pretty scared the whole way through. She did NOT like when I spun our car .

Luke was hiding behind his blaster...I don't believe this was intentional

Makayla kept inching closer to me during the ride.

After this we did the People Mover. This is not a big name attraction, but for some reason it's one of our favorites. We all love it, and usually ride it 3-4 times during our time in WDW. This time they must have been doing some work on Space Mountain because the lights were on. Sara was quick to take some photos.

A car was running, but there were no people in it that we could see.

Our time in tomorrowland went very fast, and it was already time for our 7DMT fastpass. Luke loves this ride, but Makayla had never been on it. She had been scared of most roller coasters, but within the past year decided she liked them. As we finished the ride, her response was "Best Ride Ever!!!" She liked seeing Snow White dancing in the cottage, but was a bit scared of the witch.

Makayla and Luke both wanted to go on again, but since we had already used our fastpass and the line was over 90 minutes long, there was no way that was going to work. We huddled together and decided to do Philharmagic. Sara tried to take a photo, but she was moving too much.

Luke refuses to wear his glasses in these shows. He says he can still see the movie without it. My guess is he doesn't like having things flying at him. Makayla really likes the show, but isn't a fan of when she gets sprayed by water.

So this seems like a good time to share Sara's medical dilemma. Beginning Saturday, she had been getting a sore throat that was slowly getting worse and worse. Once we got out of Philharmagic, she decided she wanted to take some time to head to first aid to see if they could do anything for her. Unfortunately there wasn't much they could do. Thankfully, she had some medicine she had brought from home, and that slowly started to resolve her throat issue during the week. But unfortunately this would put a damper on her trip for most of the week.

While Sara did first aid, I took the kids on the carousel. The line for this was well out of the queue area, but given how many people can fit on each ride, I figured it wouldn't take too long. Famous last words. This ended up being a pretty long wait. I kept glancing at my watch as we had dining reservations at 1pm. Soon it became clear we weren't going to make them. Fortunately, with Sara not being with us, she was able to make it to the restaurant and go ahead and put our names in while we were riding.

Once the ride finished we rushed to our stroller, then rushed down main street towards Tony's. We made it into the restaurant just as they were calling our name for the table.

 

[Lyear]

It seems like in many ways, we are creatures of habit at WDW. We enjoy the same restaurants, do the same fastpasses, etc on each trip. One of those repeat restaurants we always seem to go to is Tony's. Sara and I tried Tony's on our very first Disney trip together, and we have gone back ever since. The past two years we had done their festival of fantasy dining package to eat lunch then get the reserved seats for the parade.

We were seated in the indoor part of the restaurant. Luke and Makayla started coloring their menus as Sara and I decided what to order.

Luke loves coke and pepsi. He doesn't get it very often, but he loves when we go to a restaurant and can order it. The dining package comes with an appetizer, so we ordered a caprese and fried mozzarella. The kids had grapes for their appetizer, which happens to be their absolute favorite fruit, so they were thrilled. For our meal, Sara decided to go with the gnocchi primavera.

Luke and Makayla each picked the mac and cheese meal.

I decided to go with the Ravioli which was spinach based with parmesan sauce.

Sara unfortunately didn't have much of an appetite with her throat hurting, so a lot of her mean went uneaten. Luke did well with his mac and cheese, but Makayla wasn't very hungry either. I of course was able to finish off my plate. It was super! As we were finishing dinner and getting our dessert, Makayla started having a temper tantrum. I believe what happened is while I was taking Luke to the bathroom, she had crawled into my seat. When I returned, she didn't want to go back to her space. I think she was tired. Luke of course was a very understanding and sympathetic brother

Soon it was dessert time, which perked up everyone's spirits. Luke and Makayla each got the ice cream with sprinkles. And yes, let's give the ice cream bunny ears.

Sara ordered a chocolate cake.

I ordered the cheesecake. I can't remember now if it was strawberry or raspberry cheesecake. It was good either way.

We were all full as we exited Tony's, maybe with the exception of Sara who hadn't eaten much. Currently, with our plans for this coming September, we will not be going to Tony's . Very shocking. Looking forward to trying something new then, but certainly had a great time at Tony's on this visit.

 

[maxntina]

Love seeing all the memories you've made! Thanks for letting us tag along!

 

[Lyear]

Love seeing all the memories you've made! Thanks for letting us tag along!

Thanks for following along!

 

[Lyear]

When we walked out of the restaurant, Robin Hood and Little John were greeting in the square!!!

I LOVED this movie growing up. I remember watching in on the old VCR, and the opening credits had a chase scene in it, and my brother and I would make my mom rewind it so we could watch the chase scene over and over again. I really wanted to meet them, but they had already closed off their line .

We had some time to kill, so we decided to stop into The Chapeau and pick out our Mickey ears for the year. Then we played some tag while the ears were being stitched up. Other than cast members going in and out, the area between Tony's and the Chapeau is always empty. It's a good place to play tag, and we have used it for this purpose a LOT.

Soon our ears were ready. They both went with Stitch ears this year.

After a little bit more tag fun, we took our seats for the parade.

Robin Hood and Little John were still hanging out...but they didn't come over our way

Soon it was time for the marching band.

Robin Hood and Little John seemed to really enjoy the parade. Robin Hood was even beating an imaginary drum in time.

 

[Lyear]

Soon it was parade time. I personally love this parade, and our family really likes it too. Makayla enjoys seeing her favorite characters go by at just a safe enough distance to not be scared. Luke waves at the characters as well, and helps Makayla make out who is coming next. For me, I just enjoy the overall magic of it. I know that sounds like a trite, Disney thing to say, but it's very easy to get swept away by the music, and it's so awesome to see Luke and Makayla get excited when a character they like comes by. Last year, Elsa waved at Makayla while she was wearing an Elsa dress, and Makayla talked about that interaction the entire rest of the trip. No great story like that this year, but we still enjoyed it.

Following that summary, enjoy some photos .

 

[Lyear]

And some more photos

Once the parade is finished, we always make a point to stay where we are to let the crowds that are exiting go around us. After a few minutes, the flow of people exiting the park ended, and we made our way back up Main Street. We were on our way to our 3rd fastpass at Haunted Mansion.

 

[meggo819]

GREAT pictures of the parade! Might be some of the best I’ve seen on this trip report forum.

 

[KellBelle]

Those ears are adorable! Great choice by Luke and Makayla. You have a beautiful family!

 

[bee]

Great parade photos! The story about Luke helping Makayla know which characters are coming it too sweet!

 

[ladydi]

All caught up! Your story about Makayla at Tusker House brought back memories! My daughter at age 3 loved mask characters but was terrified of face characters! We ate dinner at Norway and my husband fed a hot dog to her under the table. Every time she would try to surface another princess would walk up. She wouldn’t talk to them until age 5 when a wonderful Cinderella coaxed her out of Daddy’s arms and in to the seat next to her.

 

[Lyear]

GREAT pictures of the parade! Might be some of the best I’ve seen on this trip report forum.

Thank you very much. I can't take any credit, Sara is the photographer. They are taken with an Iphone 8 without any editing. We're very fortunate that they came out as good as they did. I'll be sure to share your kind words with Sara.

Those ears are adorable! Great choice by Luke and Makayla. You have a beautiful family!

Thank you!!! Yes the ears were great and we got a lot of fun comments. Unfortunately, they didn't choose to wear them too long.

Great parade photos! The story about Luke helping Makayla know which characters are coming it too sweet!

Thank you! Yes, he can be sweet from time to time .

All caught up! Your story about Makayla at Tusker House brought back memories! My daughter at age 3 loved mask characters but was terrified of face characters! We ate dinner at Norway and my husband fed a hot dog to her under the table. Every time she would try to surface another princess would walk up. She wouldn’t talk to them until age 5 when a wonderful Cinderella coaxed her out of Daddy’s arms and in to the seat next to her.

That's a great story, and yes very similar! Luke was actually the same way when he was 4 as well. I remember well eating breakfast at the Disney jr breakfast at Hollywood and Vine and him hiding under the table and refusing to come out. Makayla is the opposite when it comes to characters. She is ok with the princesses and other characters where you can see their face, but wants nothing to do with the masked characters.

 

[Lyear]

We had ridden Haunted Mansion as a family for the first time on our last trip, and both kids had not stopped talking about it since that time. So it was no surprise that it made our list for fastpass choices. We made out way up main street then hung a slight left to go into Liberty Square. We saw a family at the stocks on our way towards HM, and no one else was waiting, so we decided to stop and take some pictures. Both kids have a bit of growing to do before they're tall enough to fit.

We parked the stroller and made our way up to the fastpass entrance. Soon enough we were making our way into the Mansion. We were led into the first room with a pretty loud group of people. Suddenly, it was very dark. I guess it's not complete unexpected, but it did catch us by surprise (given how much they talked about loving HM), that Makayla suddenly got very scared. She started talking about how she didn't want to go on the ride. Sara and I were both explaining to her that nothing is real, just as the door to the stretching room opened.

In nearly total darkness, Luke decided to run ahead, cutting around groups of people to get into the next room. Instantly, he was gone! Sara and I were looking around and we couldn't find him. We weren't completely freaked out, because, honestly, there's not anywhere he truly could have gone, but it was a scary couple seconds. Sara took out her phone and turned on the flashlight and apologized to everyone around. Sure enough, Luke followed the light and ran back to us. He explained that when the door opened he decided to go into the next room, and we kindly explained that we need to stay together.

We reached the bottom floor, and Makayla's fear had not subsided. I was holding her and reminding her of how much she had liked the ride the year before. We slowly made our way towards the doom buggies, and she got in and had a seat. Very shortly after this, some young man ahead let out a loud shriek that was obviously in jest, but it nearly sent Makayla over the edge. I tried to explain that he was just joking and getting in the spirit of the ride, but she was clinging very tightly to me throughout. Ultimately, and happily, we made it out alive. Makayla explained that she didn't want to do that ride again .

As we exited, we saw a photopass photographer with nearly no line, so we got our pictures taken in front of HM. They ended up being some of the best of our trip.

And the scary picture. Makayla had quickly returned to better spirits.

After this, Sara pointed out the statute/tombstone of Mr. Toad in the graveyard.

This likely requires some explanation. Luke and Makayla seem to have a knack for liking the more obscure Disney movies. Instead of classics like Lion King, Toy Story, Cars, etc, they prefer movies like G Force. One of their favorites, especially around this past Halloween, was Ichabod and Mr. Toad. We went through about a month where it felt like that movie was always on. Sara figured that if anyone would appreciate seeing a statue of Mr. Toad, it would be Luke and Makayla.

Following HM, Sara saw online that Splash Mountain only had a 5 minutes wait, probably because it was less than 60 degrees out. We made our way over there. Thankfully we didn't get very wet. It was Makayla's first time. She was a bit nervous at the drop, but afterwards said it was the "best ride ever." Best ride ever would become a theme of hers during the week.

Next we found ourselves in Adventureland for the Swiss Family Treehouse. The treehouse holds a special place in our heart because of how much Luke used to LOVE it. Both kids still enjoy venturing through. This time Luke was very interested in seeing how the water was carried in the small cups up to the top of the treehouse.

A view from the top.

Wonder who sits there...

 

[jlag1006]

We had ridden Haunted Mansion as a family for the first time on our last trip, and both kids had not stopped talking about it since that time. So it was no surprise that it made our list for fastpass choices. We made out way up main street then hung a slight left to go into Liberty Square. We saw a family at the stocks on our way towards HM, and no one else was waiting, so we decided to stop and take some pictures. Both kids have a bit of growing to do before they're tall enough to fit.

View attachment 388240

We parked the stroller and made our way up to the fastpass entrance. Soon enough we were making our way into the Mansion. We were led into the first room with a pretty loud group of people. Suddenly, it was very dark. I guess it's not complete unexpected, but it did catch us by surprise (given how much they talked about loving HM), that Makayla suddenly got very scared. She started talking about how she didn't want to go on the ride. Sara and I were both explaining to her that nothing is real, just as the door to the stretching room opened.

In nearly total darkness, Luke decided to run ahead, cutting around groups of people to get into the next room. Instantly, he was gone! Sara and I were looking around and we couldn't find him. We weren't completely freaked out, because, honestly, there's not anywhere he truly could have gone, but it was a scary couple seconds. Sara took out her phone and turned on the flashlight and apologized to everyone around. Sure enough, Luke followed the light and ran back to us. He explained that when the door opened he decided to go into the next room, and we kindly explained that we need to stay together.

We reached the bottom floor, and Makayla's fear had not subsided. I was holding her and reminding her of how much she had liked the ride the year before. We slowly made our way towards the doom buggies, and she got in and had a seat. Very shortly after this, some young man ahead let out a loud shriek that was obviously in jest, but it nearly sent Makayla over the edge. I tried to explain that he was just joking and getting in the spirit of the ride, but she was clinging very tightly to me throughout. Ultimately, and happily, we made it out alive. Makayla explained that she didn't want to do that ride again .

As we exited, we saw a photopass photographer with nearly no line, so we got our pictures taken in front of HM. They ended up being some of the best of our trip.

View attachment 388243

View attachment 388244

And the scary picture. Makayla had quickly returned to better spirits.
View attachment 388245

After this, Sara pointed out the statute/tombstone of Mr. Toad in the graveyard.

View attachment 388246

This likely requires some explanation. Luke and Makayla seem to have a knack for liking the more obscure Disney movies. Instead of classics like Lion King, Toy Story, Cars, etc, they prefer movies like G Force. One of their favorites, especially around this past Halloween, was Ichabod and Mr. Toad. We went through about a month where it felt like that movie was always on. Sara figured that if anyone would appreciate seeing a statue of Mr. Toad, it would be Luke and Makayla.

Following HM, Sara saw online that Splash Mountain only had a 5 minutes wait, probably because it was less than 60 degrees out. We made our way over there. Thankfully we didn't get very wet. It was Makayla's first time. She was a bit nervous at the drop, but afterwards said it was the "best ride ever." Best ride ever would become a theme of hers during the week.

View attachment 388247

Next we found ourselves in Adventureland for the Swiss Family Treehouse. The treehouse holds a special place in our heart because of how much Luke used to LOVE it. Both kids still enjoy venturing through. This time Luke was very interested in seeing how the water was carried in the small cups up to the top of the treehouse.

View attachment 388248

View attachment 388249

A view from the top.
View attachment 388250

Wonder who sits there...
View attachment 388251

My daughter had a similar experience at Haunted Mansion at Disneyland a couple years ago....and she was 12 at the time and had ridden HM at WDW several times before this. We entered with a group that was really into the theme and were making spooky noises & screaming all throughout the pre-show. By the time we headed to the doom buggies, she was shaking horribly. She was still nervous going on during our June trip, but luckily the group we were with this time was much tamer & she was fine. Glad to hear Makayla recovered quickly.

 

[Lyear]

My daughter had a similar experience at Haunted Mansion at Disneyland a couple years ago....and she was 12 at the time and had ridden HM at WDW several times before this. We entered with a group that was really into the theme and were making spooky noises & screaming all throughout the pre-show. By the time we headed to the doom buggies, she was shaking horribly. She was still nervous going on during our June trip, but luckily the group we were with this time was much tamer & she was fine. Glad to hear Makayla recovered quickly.

Very Similar. Glad she is fine now. Makayla has a knack of becoming scared of rides she's already ridden and loved, so I don't think we're out of the woods yet. Just today she mentioned that she doesn't think she wants to do Splash Mountain because of the drop.

 

[Lyear]

Once we had finished the Treehouse, it was time for our fastpass at Small World. This was an extra FP we picked after our first 3 were used. Pretty sure the word is out on that little trick, because the pickings were slim. But the good news is the kids love Small World.

We then took a spin on the teacups...

...before heading to the playground at Dumbo. Luke was happy that we were finally getting to play on the playground, even though we weren't going on the ride again. We actually only made it about 30 minutes before the playground was closed for the night.

Spent plenty of time here. Sara and I enjoyed sitting down in the air conditioning. Makayla is not the most graceful girl, and she took a few tumbles, but a good time was had by all.

Luke making his way across a pendulum walk.

climbing the stairs

When we told the CM's we weren't going to ride, they actually had us use a back exit, that you can see all the way to the right of the photo above. It just leads you to walk around the tent and back into the Circus area. Didn't get to see anything special.

We went back into Tomorrowland and rode people mover at night one time, then made the decision to head towards the castle to secure a spot for the fireworks.