Trip Report Pop & Hop, Snack & Shop, Graduation Celebration - Sept 2016

sheriffwoody · Feb 4, 2017

Figment Forever said:
When I made my reservation, they asked me if I was celebrating anything so I told them Julia's graduation and Hope's (Disney) Birthday. So I would just call doing and have them make a note.

Ahhhh ok that's probably why I've never had any luck. I usually book online. Our 5th anniversary trip is going to be renting DVC points, so I'm not able to really do anything with the booking. Oh well. Maybe we'll just wear the buttons!

Figment Forever · Feb 4, 2017

Day 4: September 15th Continued...

After we left Tusker House, Hope was really wanting to see Pocahontas. So he headed that way. I knew that we would have to get in line to see her. Along the way we met Flick – a character we have never had the pleasure of meeting!

Figment Forever · Feb 4, 2017

We found the line for Pocahontas and waited. The line was not even officially opened yet, but I didn’t want to chance it being cut off. We waited at least a half hour if not more. It was HOT – but we stuck it out. As we got closer, we realized it would only be her. Last year, there was a second character to meet – but not this time. We were the next in line and we noticed the couple in front of us were Pocahontas super fans. I don’t know what they were showing her, but they has her sign a million different things and then were talking to her about something that happened in her movie. It was a little weird.

Finally it was our turn. Pocahontas has never disappointed us! She is so amazing! I have to say, she takes a long time to spend with people. Julia was quick – a picture and an autograph.

But when she saw Hope in her outfit, she went crazy. She sat her down and started to tell her a story! All the characters are good and kind to Hope, but some some reason, Pocahontas seems to have a special insight. Hope of course LOVED it!

She is probably the one character I don’t care how long we wait because the interaction has always been amazing.

Figment Forever · Feb 4, 2017

We stopped for a picture...

We made our way to Dinoland even though Julia’s favorite – Dinosaur was closed for refurbishment. She was very sad. Ross took Hope for a spin on a Triceratops while Julia and I spun around on Primeval Whirl. We had a Fast Pass but didn’t need it. That was another fight Ross and I had – why did I make a FP for a ride that didn’t need one. The last time we visited, I was sure that there was an hour wait for it, since it seems to be a slow loading ride.

We met up and switched. While Julia and Ross were in the restrooms, Hope and I checked out the gift shop. Hope was in love with this crazy thing – Tsum Tsums!!

We gave Dinosaur a sad look and headed over to Nemo.

Figment Forever · Feb 4, 2017

We had a couple of other things to check off our AK to do list. There was a Yeti waiting for us!

Finally, we headed over to FOTLK. This is one of my favorite shows in WDW. Last year, Hope was picked to go and parade around the stage at the end and I know this year, she wanted to do it again. When the time came for the cast to pick out the kids it looked like Hope would be disappointed. But then, to our surprise a CM came over and asked if she wanted to be included. She leaped out of her seat and of course, Ross and I held our breath until she was back safely. I have this nightmare where she breaks away and flies along with the tumble monkeys! I am happy to report that did not happen.

Figment Forever · Feb 4, 2017

It was about 6PM when we left the show and we needed to figure out what we wanted to do next. AK was open until 9PM but we had done everything except see the tree light up, but that would not take place for at least another hour. So after a few last pictures, we decided to say our goodbyes to AK.

The choice was to either go back to the hotel and swim or head to Downtown Disney – oh man – I mean Disney Springs. We decided that we would swim for a bit and then try to go to DS if it wasn’t too late.

I have no pictures of this night. I’m not sure why. We went to the quiet pool near our room, which wasn’t so quiet because there was a little boy there whose “adult” chaperone was on her i-pad and ignoring him. I felt sad for him because he was going around to everyone asking if they would play with him.

It was a nice time in the pool and I managed to get some laundry done at the same time. The one thing that I was surprised at was that there were no towels at the pool. Apparently, pool towels are only at the main pool.

At about 9PM we headed back to the room and should have called it a night. But unfortunately, the kids really wanted to go to DS. Okay – we all did. We had not been there yet. But I should have known better. I had a feeling that it was going to be a bad idea.

Off we went. We decided to take the boat and ended up waiting a bit. When we arrived at DS we went to Wolfgang Puck’s Express to eat. By now it was 10PM. We ordered and got our food and took a seat outside and that’s when Hope started to kick off. She wanted to go to Once Upon A Toy but I wanted her to eat first. Ross bypassed my rule and took her off to the store and that’s when the Hope Tsunami erupted! The store had just closed! She absolutely flipped out like I haven’t seen in a long time and haven’t seen since!

I left poor Julia with a tableful of food to see what was going on and that’s when I saw Hope laying down in front of the door off the store crying inconsolably. She kept screaming, “Go into the store!” over and over again. Ross was a mess. I was trying to get her to walk away – it was an ugly site!

Finally Ross got a CM inside the store to come over and he explained what was going on and begged him to let us walk inside the store with Hope just for a minute.

I could see the CM did not want to do it, but I think he realized we had a huge issue here. He said okay and just asked if we could go quick and explained we couldn’t purchase anything.

We said no problem and a tremendous thank you! Sure enough, she walked straight through the store commenting on several things and making her list of what she wanted to purchase and then after only a few minutes, the same employee let us out. Hope was okay.

We returned to Julia who was worried and still sitting at a table loaded with food. Needless to say, no one was hungry anymore. We packed up what we could and headed for the bus. However, a funny thing happened when we arrived at the bus stop – it wasn’t there! Yes, fellow readers, I apparently missed the memo on Disney moving the bus stop so we had to turn around and head to the other end of DS. You may be asking why we didn’t take the boat – it was raining and the boat wasn’t running. Of course, by the time we had to turn around and walk back, the rain had stopped and we did end up on the boat back to POR.

Ross and I were fighting. Julia was mad about us leaving her alone. Hope was just done for the night. We all went to sleep a little unnerved.

Up next... My childhood dream comes true.

blreinsel · Feb 5, 2017

Love the video of Hope at FOTLK.. so glad she got to partake again this year!

Sorry about the difficult trip to DS. Hopefully things were better after a good night's sleep!

Figment Forever · Feb 11, 2017

blgauger said:
Love the video of Hope at FOTLK.. so glad she got to partake again this year! Sorry about the difficult trip to DS. Hopefully things were better after a good night's sleep!

Thanks! Yes - thankfully, this was the one and only meltdown of the trip.

Figment Forever · Feb 11, 2017

Day 5: September 16th

We woke up hoping to shake off the previous night’s events. Thankfully, we all seemed back to normal and ready to start our day.

Today we were heading to Hollywood Studios. We didn't have to wait too long for a bus but started to realize that we were lucky to board by building 8 - our stop seemed to be the first in the POR loop. The main bus stop by the food court usually had the longest lines and many people were left to keep waiting.

We arrived at HS excited for the day, I always want to stop for a pic outside the entrance, but I am always outnumbered but everyone else wanting to go inside.

This CM traveled quite a distance to work here!

Julia stopped to trade a pin.

We had a 8:30 ADR for Play N Dine for breakfast. We waited outside for our name to be called.

This is always a must do because of Hope, but because we had had bad experiences at lunchtime, we thought we would give breakfast a go. Well, unfortunately, it wasn’t much better. I don’t understand why there is such a long wait to get inside. Especially, when we enter there are usually empty tables throughout. Sadly, it’s not just the wait; the service isn’t so great either. Not the friendliest server or quickest server.

The food was okay – typical breakfast buffet. By now, I noticed that the chef no longer comes out to go over the GF food. Instead, I was given a menu that had everything on the buffet listed and under what allergy they fell. I did request GF Mickey waffles, which were yummy. I actually asked for more, but I never received them and I didn’t want to ask again.

Figment Forever · Feb 11, 2017

Of course, we weren't here for the food. It's all about the characters!

Figment Forever · Feb 11, 2017

Another difference I noticed was this year is that they didn’t do their sing & dance along with the characters. Ross said it was probably just for lunch, but I wondered if they just stopped doing it.

It took FOREVER for Jake to come over – we almost left because we knew Hope would probably want to meet him in the Animation Courtyard, but finally we saw him heading our way and we waited.

Figment Forever · Feb 11, 2017

We left Play & Dine and headed for Disney Jr. Live on Stage. Hope loves it so much. I noticed that during the show there was a sign language interpreter at the front of the stage. Ross thought that they just added it to the show, but I think he was with a specific family because when we returned to the show later, there was no interpreter. But then we saw the same man again at the Frozen show.

When we left Disney Jr, we walked across to VOTLM. But before we entered, Julia had to run to the bathroom. Ross took Hope into the gift shop and I was waiting for everyone when I saw the stormtroppers marching past by.

I was in awe! Star Wars is my absolute favorite – always has been. I saw it for the first time when I was 7 years old in May of 1977 and I fell in love with it. I saw it in the theatre 112 times. (That was when the matinee was $1.00 and there was no DVD or even VHS release – so it stayed in the movie theatre for well over a year!)

So needless to say, I was just crazy about it. Ross and Julia didn’t quite get it. I had to take a picture and sent it to my folks and I also texted a pic to my friend who was going to WDW in January. Her son, Julia’s friend, loves Star Wars so I wanted him to see them too.

Figment Forever · Feb 11, 2017

I came back to earth and we all went to see Ariel.

Then it was time to for our Fats Pass for TSMM.

Unlike SOARIN where we didn’t get to experience the new theater, we were led into the new track for Toy Story! Yeah!

MotherofaPrincessLover · Feb 14, 2017

That's unreal that you saw Star Wars that many times in the theater. Imagine how much that would cost nowadays!

Figment Forever · Feb 18, 2017

MotherofaPrincessLover said:
That's unreal that you saw Star Wars that many times in the theater. Imagine how much that would cost nowadays!

lol I can't even imagine!

Figment Forever · Feb 25, 2017

Day 5 Continued...

After Toy Story we headed over to watch Beauty & The Beast show. I can’t remember if we saw it last year – it may have been rained out. I like this show – not as much as FOTLK but I think it’s a fun show.

Am I the only one who finds it a little sad when the beast turns back into the prince?

Then we travel from a beast to a snowman…

I still like the Frozen show very much. Maybe because we were never Frozen fanatics? I like that they change the jokes a bit and we all still find it a must do.

Figment Forever · Feb 25, 2017

Since we were so close, we figured we should enter The Twilight Zone – not one of my favorites… I just don’t like free-fall rides. I actually let Ross do this one - I chickened out. Hope and I got some frozen lemonade and a free water. I was surprised how much we took advantage of the free water - I also was surprised that they gave a full regular size cup and not just a small one.

Then it was time for a first… Rock N Roller coaster. It took a while to get Julia determined to go – but she did it – and liked it!!

Hope was very patient so we headed back over to Animation courtyard to see Disney Jr. and meet up with some friends.

Julia and Ross decided to skip second showing and went to go on the Great Movie Ride instead.

When we left the show to go outside - it was POURING! We dashed to get on a line to meet our friends so at least we were under cover! Even Pluto needed an umbrella! lol

Figment Forever · Feb 25, 2017

Figment Forever · Feb 25, 2017

Day 5 Continued...

Soon it was time for our dinner at 50's Primetime Cafe. It was still raining hard so we opted to check in early and wait. It was packed - we weren't the only ones who were trying to escape the monsoon outside. Luckily, we ended up waiting around 20 minutes before they called our name and seated us.

Our server was really fun - he was definitely in character! I will say that I thought the food was better on our previous visit - but it was still yummy. I ordered the stuffed pork chop and it was a little tough. I asked our server for a knife and he complained that there were none. He came over and handed me one and said it was the last one in the kitchen. A little later, when a person at the next table also asked for a knife, he told me to share mine with her! It was really funny.