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]

Makayla was really hoping to see a green army man when we exited into Toy Story Land, but we couldn't find any roaming around. We did manage to take a photo in front of the giant Pixar ball as we were leaving.

Both of them wanted to do Slinky Dog Dash again, but there was no way we were going to spend half our day waiting in line for that. We made the decision to exit Toy Story Land and made our way over to the Muppet 3D show. This certainly isn't a favorite show of ours, but it definitely seems like every year we find ourselves doing it.

Luke didn't want to wear his glasses during the show, which is the story with all of the 3D shows. Despite not being able to see the screen clearly, he did think the show was pretty funny. Makayla got bored pretty quick with it.

We spent a bit of time around the Muppet courtyard area. We went into the store, and both kids were sad that they didn't have any Muppet Babies merchandise. That show had become one of their favorites at that time (seriously, major memories for me with that one, I use to LOVE muppet babies when I was young).

Makayla smiled nicely for a photo by herself, but when Luke wanted to join, she apparently decided she wanted to grab Sara's camera and try to break it. At least that's what her expression seems to be saying.

We used a Star Tours fastpass next. We had promised Luke he could pick out a toy since Makayla had gotten the Pasquale stuffed animal earlier in the day, so he spent some time in the Star Wars gift shop area and ended up with a couple small toys.

Our final fastpass of the day was the Ariel show. Makayla was a much bigger fan of this show than any of the other ones to that point.

When we had finished with Ariel, we decided to head into the Star Wars Launch Bay. We had never spent time in there before, and since we had no real agenda left for the day, we decided to take some time to see it.

We looked around for a bit, then stumbled upon a BB-8 meet and greet with no line. BB-8 was a big hit. He didn't really do much, but he is one of the favorites in our house, and both Luke and Makayla enjoyed getting their picture with him.

 

[Lyear]

We made our way through the other areas of the Launch bay and saw some of the costumes from the movie. It was then time for the most memorable meet and greet of the trip. Makayla went into the meet and greet with Kylo Ren having no idea who he was. She immediately decided that he was a very scary man!

She refused to get close to him.

Here we're a little bit better, when being held.

But Kylo Ren raises his hand!!!

Of course, it is completely understandable how a 4 year old would be scared of a man dressed all in black with a scary mask. Luke seemed to be a bit scared and unsure of how to act himself. I think he was very happy to have me nearby. He had picked up a Darth Vader styled hot wheels car in the Star Tours gift shop and he wanted to show it to Kylo Ren. It was deemed acceptable.

One final pic, with Makayla keeping as much space as possible.

 

[Lyear]

Chewbacca's meet and greet was right next door, so we said hello to him as well. Makayla decided that a giant hairy beast isn't any better than Kylo Ren, so she hid from him as well. She refused to come out of the corner of the room, so one of us stayed with her while the others took time to say hi.

After saying goodbye to Chewy, we took a quick look at a couple more exhibits. Luke has never made it through a whole Star Wars movie but he seemed more interested following this. Makayla did not! She was quite glad to be done with the Star Wars part of our day.

 

[MegRuss626]

That show had become one of their favorites at that time (seriously, major memories for me with that one, I use to LOVE muppet babies when I was young).

Same!!! I’m so glad my two year old enjoys watching it because my inner child loves getting to watch it again!

 

[Lyear]

Same!!! I’m so glad my two year old enjoys watching it because my inner child loves getting to watch it again!

 

[Lyear]

Once we left the Launch Bay, we were a little early, but we decided to get in line for the last showing of the Disney Jr Dance Party for the day. This would be our first time at this show since they re-imagined it.

We ended up being the first guests in the standby line. After we had been standing there about 5 minutes, and a few more guests had arrived, we were approached by a CM who asked if we wanted to help open the doors. It's some type of thing where the first guest in line gets to knock on the door to have it open. There was some phrase we had to say as well, but as I'm writing this I can't remember what it was. Anyway, Luke and Makayla were very happy to help. In the end, we were the first ones inside, and we got a little certificate to remember the occasion.

The inside of the theater had been totally re-designed. The puppet stage was gone, and instead there were several areas of bright dance style lights.

Soon enough we met our host for the show.

Then it was time to dance...for a little bit.



So the whole idea of the show is that Mickey and his friends are coming to a party, but there's several obstacles along the way and they need help from some Disney Jr friends. Every once in a while, you need to make a call to someone, and Luke got to help make a call.



Along the way we met Vampira (not a big hit in our house)

We also met Timon (slightly more popular)

They would keep the audience involved as well, either through certain moves, or something dropping from the ceiling.

Eventually Mickey made it to us, as if that was ever really in doubt.

When the show is over, we found some streamers and were having fun playing around with them in the courtyard for a bit.

 

[Lyear]

the remainder of our night was one of those truly rare times in WDW, we didn't have any fastpasses we had to make our way towards, and no deadlines coming up where we had to be somewhere. We could truly take some time and do whatever we wanted. With all the planning that goes into WDW, I think it's times like this that I look back on most fondly.

We decided to get a popcorn bucket refill, and that we would head over to try the Indiana Jones Stunt show for the first time.

We found some duck friends as we parked the stroller. Despite my pleading, and the signs that were everywhere saying not to feed the ducks, they still got fed .

Once we were seated, I did my best to act crazy and get picked to come up on stage and be an extra, but it wasn't to be. I would just be a spectator for the show. It was all good though. Even though Luke and Makayla had never seen Indiana Jones (possibly some bad parenting by us), they did enjoy this. Luke especially. He was really into seeing how the stunts work, and since it was such a big hit we've planned a fastpass for it for our upcoming trip. So who knows, maybe I'll end up on stage this time!!!

We grabbed a quick dinner at Backlot Express, which consisted of Caprese sandwiches for Sara and me and Mac and Cheese for the kids. Luke was my helper in grabbing napkins, ketchup, drinks, etc. Meanwhile, someone was tired from a long day.

We got her up and moving once the food came, but she wasn't that interested in eating this night. We ended up nearly being the last ones out of the restaurant. It actually closed while we were still eating (I believe it closed at 7pm). Once we finished, Luke wanted to do Star Tours again. The sign said it was a 40 minute wait. There was some hemming and hawing about this, but eventually we decided to go for it.

It was a good decision, as it ended up being a walk on! I'm not sure why it was reading as a 40 minute wait. Even better, Luke was the rebel spy!!! He was so happy that he got a turn after Makayla was the spy on our first day at HS.

In the gift shop on the way out, Makayla decided she really wanted one of these things, but Sara and I held our ground and said no.

Our big event this night was going to be watching the Star Wars Fireworks show. We had actually never been here when it was playing. Since we normally come around Christmas, we had always been treated to Jingle Bell Jingle Bam, which is a fine show, but we were excited to see something new. We still had a bit of time, and saw that the Olaf M&G only had a 5 minute wait. In actuality, it was also a walk on, or walk in .

Luke was happy to meet Olaf, but Makayla was scarred from characters after meeting Kylo Ren earlier and wanted nothing to do with "silly Olaf" (that's her name for him).

I have no idea what is going on here, but I seem to be having a good time

Somehow, the family that was behind us got let in while we were still taking photos, so we have some photos of Luke with another little Olaf fan.

Once we said our goodbyes, we made our way to the main courtyard for the fireworks.

When we got there, it wasn't too crowded, and I was expecting the crowds to close in on use soon. But to my surprise it never really got too crowded for the show, and we were able to spread out and enjoy it.

The show itself was pretty much what I expected. It was loud. It was bright. And there were fireworks going off all around me.

Even though I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, it was an enjoyable show. The one line that sticks with me is one from the very beginning of the show, when they talked about how the movie has become such a world wide phenomenon. I'm reminded of that as I see the crowds gathering in such large numbers for the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge opening.

Once the show had ended, Sara looked at her phone and realized that Slinky Dog Dash only had a 15 minute wait. We had thought the park was closing with the fireworks, but this was like an added bonus. Turns out, it was really too good to be true. Disney was having some after hours event, and you needed to have a wristband to ride. Thankfully we hadn't made it the whole way back there before we ran into a CM who let us know. With that knowledge, we headed to the exit.

 

[Rista1313]

Awww.. we have a porg at our house... he's getting packed to go down to WDW with us in 2 sleeps!

 

[Lyear]

This seems like a great time to bring up a phenomenon that we had never experienced on a trip before - "backpack girls." I'm sure others are very familiar with them. All over the parks, we would run into large groups of girls all more or less dressed the same and wearing identical backpacks. We're pretty sure they were Quinciniera groups, probably from Brazil. But tonight as we left HS, we got caught in a huge crowd of them all around us. I took a quick picture as we were approaching our bus stop, which doesn't nearly do the size of the group justice.

It was an entire mob of 15 year old girls, which is exactly the type of group I try to avoid.

Anyway, the line for the bus was as long as we feared, and we ended up at the bus stop about 20-30 minutes before we finally made our way onto a bus. Overall we did well. We decided to treat ourselves when we got back to our hotel with some cupcakes. This ended up being a bit of a mistake as everyone else apparently has the same idea at All Star Movies. Add 2 tired kids with 2 tired parents and a long line that moves very slowly...and it's not a great sight. In the end, we were able to snag some yummy cupcakes though.

So it was the end of a long day, at the end of a long week. This was our last full day in the parks. Sara and I did a bit of packing that night as the kids went to bed. Tomorrow we had one last half day at Epcot to look forward to.

I'll leave you with one last video that I didn't post earlier, with the kids running around at the Boardwalk.

 

[Lyear]

Awww.. we have a porg at our house... he's getting packed to go down to WDW with us in 2 sleeps!

so now I know what they are . We might be down there near the same time. We leave a week from today, getting there Friday night, September 20th.

 

[Rista1313]

so now I know what they are . We might be down there near the same time. We leave a week from today, getting there Friday night, September 20th.

I'll keep my eyes out... we are there the 14th - 24th! Movies the first 2 nights and Pop the rest.

 

[Darstarr]

so now I know what they are . We might be down there near the same time. We leave a week from today, getting there Friday night, September 20th.

I will be there as well. Have @Rista1313 add you to the group chat if you would like.

 

[Lyear]

I'll keep my eyes out... we are there the 14th - 24th! Movies the first 2 nights and Pop the rest.

I will be there as well. Have @Rista1313 add you to the group chat if you would like.

Thank you both for the add. Haven't been able to check it out just yet.

 

[Lyear]

The remainder of this trip report will be based off memory and photos, because I didn't take time to write down any notes .

When we woke up on our last morning, which was also the first day of February, we immediately started into full scale packing and loading the car. I remember at some point I walked down to the food court to use their microwave to heat up some leftover mac and cheese for breakfast. I'm not totally sure where it was from (Luke eats mac and cheese a lot ).

Before long everything was packed up, and we began our trek towards Epcot.

Both of our kids really liked standing inside this hat as we left for the parks. Here they are doing it for the last time. With a light saber and soccer ball...cause yeah, that's our kids.

Our last day ended up being one of the most beautiful weather wise.

We got over to the van, then headed to Epcot. We had parked, walked toward the entrance and just made it through bag check. All week we had been using a sit and stand stroller, which honestly we've probably outgrown, but we still keep bringing it along because we figure the kids legs probably tire out after a bit. Well as we were entering both of them decided they wanted to sit in the little chair part of the stroller. Arguing turned to pushing. Sure enough, with me holding contents of my backpack and trying to still push the stroller, the pushing got a little more out of hand and Makayla ended up being up-ended by the side of the stroller and falling out, landing on the back of her head on the concrete, full on WWE style.

There must have been a staff person there who saw this happen, because immediately she was over with us asking if we needed her to call for medical attention. Makayla was crying, but honestly there are a lot of levels of Makayla crying, so we weren't quite sure just how bad this was. She slowly got herself calmed down, and it turned out not to be too bad. I'm sure it hurt falling on the concrete, but she ended up being ok. I think Luke felt bad, but we was trying to downplay his involvement in the melee. We did have him apologize, but soon enough we were able to be back on our way inside.

We made it through the entrance with no problems. We had to go right past SSE, which is hard for us, because this morning we had breakfast reservations at Akershus. This is probably one of Makayla's favorites.

When we first got inside we were greeted by and got a photo with Belle.

Makayla was much better with princesses than the characters from last night. We got a photo with just her and Belle, wearing matching dresses.

As we were seated the princesses were not out greeting, so we had some time to visit the buffet, and eventually our food was served.

Luke does not like scrambled eggs and potatoes, which meant more for us. Yum Yum!! The potatoes are so good.

Eventually the princesses were introduced and began greeting. First to our table was Snow White.

Jasmine was next. I remember we talked to her about Rajah, since Makayla really likes big cats.

Aurora was the next to visit us.

After Aurora had visited, it was time for the Princess Procession. Luke was adamant that he was not participating, his 7 year old boy self fully of the understanding that all girly things are bad . It took a little convincing, but Makayla finally agreed to do the procession by herself. A big step up from last year.

 

[Lyear]

Once she arrived back at the table, she decided she was going to try to match all the different poses of Martin Short from the Canada film. Seriously I don't know what was happening here .

Our final princess to meet was Mulan, our first time meeting her. It was also our first time to meet Jasmine.

By the time our breakfast had ended, Luke was a little princessed out. But we had all eaten well, and Makayla had really enjoyed getting to meet her princess friends.

 

[Lyear]

We made the short walk from Norway over to Mexico for the boat ride. Seriously we can't get enough of this one.

We then spent more time doing the Coco skeleton portrait maker they had done on Wednesday night.

We left World Showcase and went into Future World. Sara wanted to spend some time in Mouse Gear by herself. A dangerous proposition to be sure. They had a playground set up outside the store, so the rest of us spent some time there.

They also had a sidewalk chalk station.

 

[Lyear]

In the end, we purchased way too much, and Sara walked away with these beauties .

We walked to the other side of Future World, where we had back to back fastpasses for Soarin and Living with the Land. It was Makayla's first time on Soarin, and she really liked it.

We did the Chase visa meet and greet next, and ended up seeing Mickey and Goofy.

Makayla still wasn't quite ready to meet masked characters.

Fountain play time was next, one of Luke's favorites.

In the end, they got a little bit soaked.

 

[Lyear]

Our final fastpass of our trip was Nemo. We did the ride quickly, then spent some more time checking out the aquarium. Luke kept complaining that he was cold. Hmmmm...wonder why???

And...unfortunately...that was it . Always so fun to arrive, always so sad to leave.

We made our way back to the car with Sara fighting back tears. Ok, not that bad really, but still sad.

Luke and Makayla had both asked earlier in the week if they could have giant lollipops. We ended up buying them on the last day. Didn't take a pic as we opened them, but here they are when we stopped for a light dinner a couple hours later near Jacksonville.

Seriously, they worked hard on them, but didn't make much of a dent. We ended up throwing most of them out once we got home.

The trip home was thankfully uneventful. We drove to Savannah and spent the night, then found our way back to PA the next day. Sunday included a stop at the world's busiest Cici's (no story really needed ) and a quick non-ride photo on Pumba.

Since this was the first Sunday, it was Super Bowl Sunday. When we got home and slightly unpacked, I checked and it was already into the 3rd quarter. Reviews on twitter showed that it truly was a horrible game, so I decided I would just not turn it on and go to bed. So for the first time since I've been washing football, in 2019 I did not watch the Super Bowl. All thanks to Disney .

And with that, we've come to the end of this report. Thanks for all who have followed along, I've had a fun time writing it, and enjoyed the fun comments along the way. If you liked this report, you probably won't have to wait too long for the next one. We leave in less than 48 hours.

 

[riverside]

Great TR!! I really enjoyed it & I hope you all have a wonderful time here shortly!!

 

[KellBelle]

Such a fun report! Can't wait for the next! Thank you!