Trip Report Shortest Retirement in History?

Justin Bieber lasted 2 weeks.

Tom Brady lasted 40 days.

I, Tuvalu, outlasted them both. Not by much, mind you. Yet if not for the encouragement of some forum friends - along with some unusual circumstances - you wouldn’t be reading this.

Unusual circumstances, you say?

Around Thanksgiving my beloved Woody learned his presence was required at a work conference. In Orlando. At Universal.
Just down the road from Walt Disney World.

Woody said I could accompany him if he drove (rather than flew) to Florida. And that we could leave a couple days early and have some Disney time together.

Well you don’t have to ask me twice!

I’d be on my own during the conference. Since the majority of Universal’s attractions don’t appeal to me, it didn’t make sense for me to buy Uni tickets when I could visit WDW for free with my AP. Being solo, I thought it might be fun to do a live trip report so y’all could be my virtual companions!

Turns out I won’t be alone while Woody is occupied after all. Some friends that you have seen in my previous TRs (and one you haven’t) have offered to play with me. I can’t wait!

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Click to expand...
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Wednesday, con’t

We didn’t have to venture far for our next attraction.

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When we got to the load zone, Patti and I were first in line to be assigned a row.

“We’re gonna get the back of the boat, either row 6 or 12,” I warned her. “They always put parties of 2 in the back. It drives me crazy!”

I was then served my slice of humble pie when the CM said, “Party of 2, row 1.”

I happily embraced being wrong!

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The standby line for Little Mermaid extended outside the caves. Every part of the queue - including the circular alcove - was in use.

How long did we wait?

No idea. Chick chatting.

One year Em rented a special lens for her camera that would allow for a good photo of Ursula. It worked, as her pictures were fantastic. Since photos taken with smart phones have greatly increased in quality in recent years, I attempted to capture Ursula.

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Yeah I’m thinking it’s not the phone camera. It’s me. :facepalm:

It was Patti’s turn to do the Woody wave.

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When we emerged from unda the sea I opened the app to check wait times.

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Told ya it was crowded!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Wednesday, con’t

We moseyed back to Tomorrowland. The wait for the Peoplemover didn’t look too bad considering the crowds. We joined the queue.

Soon we were onboard the MPB 2.0.

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We opted for a double spin around Tomorrowland!

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And got stuck in a tunnel for a bit.

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At this point neither our Pirates nor TRON ride photos had appeared in MDE. I wanted them for this report so I asked Patti if she minded going to the Photopass station in Town Square to see if a CM could help.

Pro Tip: When you are close to the load zone of an attraction with a ride photo, take a picture with your phone. The time stamp on that picture will make it much easier for a CM to search for a missing ride photo.

Patti’s Pirates picture helped in quickly locating our ride photo. Neither of us had taken a pic at TRON and we weren’t sure of the exact time we were on the ride. We had to look through a half-hours worth of ride photos before finding ours.

We’d ridden the MPB 2.0. Now it was time to ride the OG.

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We boarded at the Main Street station.

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We did 1.3 loops and disembarked at the Frontierland station. Took a quick pic of the Tiana mural.

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Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
We snagged a last-minute dinner ADR.

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We were feeling the cold and were glad for the warmth of a table service restaurant.

The Diamond Horseshoe has the same menu as Liberty Tree Tavern. Instead of a Patriot’s Platter we partook of the Frontier Feast. It’s a lot of food (and all-you-care-to-enjoy of it!) Both Patti and I hate food waste so we discussed beforehand what food we wouldn’t eat.

When our server came I told her to omit the pork and dark meat turkey. I should have had her omit the Parker House rolls - we received a basket of five and they went untouched.

From salad to sides, everything we tasted was delicious. Pot roast and turkey were outstanding as always.

Though it’s not her favorite dessert, Patti even sampled the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake.

I asked our server to take our picture. She insisted on “one horizontal and one vertical.”

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It was dark when we left Diamond Horseshoe. It had gotten colder. We chicks were chatted out - for now.

I still had to make the drive back to Sapphire Falls. (Don’t make me leave the bubble!)

We parted with smiles on our faces. It had been a glorious day!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Thursday, January 18

Woody’s conference included breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. Yesterday I bid him farewell at 7:15 am and didn’t see him until 10:30 pm - see being a relative term, as I had fallen asleep and was groggy when he entered the room.

Today he was out the door even earlier. I had brought Entenmann’s and cereal from home for my breakfasts. (I can only imagine what breakfast cost at Sapphire Falls!)

I was fast with my finger again.

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Party of 2?

Yep. Though I don’t ride GotG, my companion wanted to ride.

It wasn’t Patti.

Or another forum friend.

It was my bestie who lives in Florida - Kelly.

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For those who don’t know (or remember) her, background can be found in my TR from February 2020 - right before the world shut down.

Trip Report - A Friend Like Her *COMPLETED*

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” ~ Forrest Gump Ah, February. The month of heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. The month of romance and love. The month of someone’s Valentine birthday. The month of the crappiest weather in 95 percent of the country...
forums.wdwmagic.com forums.wdwmagic.com
 
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ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Tuvalu said:
We snagged a last-minute dinner ADR.

View attachment 764638

We were feeling the cold and were glad for the warmth of a table service restaurant.

The Diamond Horseshoe has the same menu as Liberty Tree Tavern. Instead of a Patriot’s Platter we partook of the Frontier Feast. It’s a lot of food (and all-you-care-to-enjoy of it!) Both Patti and I hate food waste so we discussed beforehand what food we wouldn’t eat.

When our server came I told her to omit the pork and dark meat turkey. I should have had her omit the Parker House rolls - we received a basket of five and they went untouched.

From salad to sides, everything we tasted was delicious. Pot roast and turkey were outstanding as always.

Though it’s not her favorite dessert, Patti even sampled the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake.

I asked our server to take our picture. She insisted on “one horizontal and one vertical.”

View attachment 764640

View attachment 764639

It was dark when we left Diamond Horseshoe. It had gotten colder. We chicks were chatted out - for now.

I still had to make the drive back to Sapphire Falls. (Don’t make me leave the bubble!)

We parted with smiles on our faces. It had been a glorious day!
Click to expand...

Both pictures of you two are lovely, but I prefer horizontal especially since it shows the wine. Hopefully that wasn't wasted.:)
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Spaceship Earth was down - and would remain closed all day.

We went to The Land pavilion instead.

Soarin’ was posted at 20 minutes. I don’t think we waited that long.

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When the film began I was startled to see this —

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What a great, unexpected surprise! The score for the California version is so much better than Soarin’ Around the World.

The film has been beautifully remastered. And there’s no “fake” CGI (looking at you, Taj Mahal!)
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
The end of the line for Nemo - Nemo! - was well past the sign to the right. A CM was holding a sign to indicate where to get in line.

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At first I thought that perhaps the ride opened later, at 10 am. It made sense because the line didn’t begin to move forward until then.

Then when we entered the building, we kept a steady pace on the boardwalk.

Piece of cake, I thought.

But once again I was wrong.

This line had stopped.

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Was there a sudden rush of Lightning Lane guests? Had a vlogger given an Insider’s Tip to visit in the morning “when there’s no wait”? Or was this a result of SSE being down?

I’ll never know.

Eventually we got into our clamshell.

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Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Woody and I had enjoyed Journey of Water the other night in the dark. I wanted to see it during the day.

I mentioned to Kel that this was a new attraction and Kel being Kel, she exclaimed, “Let’s do it!”

She raced ahead of me.

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I heard her say lots of oohs and cools and awesomes. Kel’s inner child was in full force. She delighted in playing with the water in each section.

These two were her favorites.

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As for me, while JoW isn’t as pretty in daylight as in darkness, it is still picturesque.

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And apparently is just as fun for seniors as it is for 5 year olds!

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