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!

 

[Wicked Sisters]

We still keep saying we wish we were back at POFQ. We have decided to visit there when we go back in 2025 just to have a lovely walk around as we loved it there.

 

[93boomer]

Saturday, January 20

It was our last day.

Woody had one request for the day.

“I want Mickey waffles.”

He didn’t care about anything else. Just Mickey waffles.

Gotta love a low-maintenance human! He would have been satisfied with waffles to-go and eating quickly in our room. But the waffles would have been cold and he would have felt rushed, knowing that I like to rope drop the parks.

My gift to him was a non-hurried morning, and dining in the food court.

It was COLD again. And windy. I think it ended up being the coldest day of our trip. Thankfully there were patches of sunshine throughout the day, otherwise we never could have spent 10 straight hours in a theme park!

But I am getting ahead of myself.

A leisurely walk through the resort grounds reminded me of why I love POFQ. (And made me a little sad to think I won’t be spending spring break here this year.)

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The frog fountain makes me smile.

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POFQ is famous for beignets, though I’d rather have waffles. Powdered sugar in lieu of syrup on a waffle? YUM. After receiving my waffles, I moseyed over to the beignet station where a CM was more than happy to dust my waffles with powdered sugar!

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Woody with his one request!

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Chef’s kiss for the bacon! It was extra crispy and hardwood smoked, just as we both prefer. Waffles were A+!

Now you know why we had waffles three mornings last trip!! That bacon

 

[93boomer]

There were no planned meets today. Tony and Brian were blacked out from the parks and we other Passholders (Patti, Cindy, Darlene & families) had reserved different parks for today.

Yep, APs still have to make park reservations even though those with regular tickets do not. Doesn’t matter that we aren’t local and have to buy the most expensive pass because it is our only option. Doesn’t matter that we are staying in Disney resort rooms or own DVC.

Can you tell I’m a little miffed about this?

Deep breath. Back to Saturday. Which we spent in my happy place.

View attachment 765171

Tuvalu and Woody taking on the Kingdom today!

View attachment 765172

I would be miffed too!!

 

[Tuvalu]

Saturday, con’t

Since we didn’t make rope drop and it was a Saturday, we knew the MK would be slammed.

And it was.

Thus we focused on ride priorities, since we weren’t giving Genie any .

No Arty Pooh. No Arty Pan. Actually no Arty anything since we’d missed Rope Drop.

My #1 priority will surprise no one.

NAILED IT. Two for three this trip!

Scrolling through wait times, I saw Pooh was posted at 30 minutes - doable.

Woody was game because he knows it’s one of my favorites and I hadn’t ridden it this week.

But that nasty Genie cursed us. We were stuck in the noisy interactive play area (those buzzing bees!!) for a very long time. When we reached a place where we could see the merge point, we noted that only a half-dozen standby guests were allowed into the merged line while a couple dozen (or more) LL guests breezed on through.

You peasants must remain behind the rope at all times!

Thirty minutes was a lie. We waited over 40, which we never would have willingly chosen to do.

I’m just going to leave this here.

Finally!

Hooray!

 

[Tuvalu]

Little Mermaid was the polar opposite of Pooh.

(And the polar opposite of Wednesday, @riverside!)

Woody and I walked right on.

Woody doing his wave.

Then we experienced another walk on.

What happened to these seats?!

 

[93boomer]

Little Mermaid was the polar opposite of Pooh.

(And the polar opposite of Wednesday, @riverside!)

Woody and I walked right on.

View attachment 765187

Woody doing his wave.

View attachment 765188

Then we experienced another walk on.

View attachment 765189

What happened to these seats?!

View attachment 765190

The Woody Wave!!!
Don’t you love the new seat covers?! So much better. Hmmm didn’t see missing ones last time.

 

[Tuvalu]

Saturday, con’t

We were getting hungry but the warm sun felt good, so we sat down on one of those built-in benches across from Mickey’s Philharmagic to mobile order our lunch.

It was there that something wonderful happened.

My final (unplanned) forum friend meet!

With none other than Lil BES!

(Yeah, yeah, her parents were there too, but Grandma Tu is all about the kiddies!)

Her well-loved bear was sporting a Minnie Pull-Up and a Peppa Pig BandAid.

When I inquired about the BandAid, Lil BES said, “It was mud there.”

She’s a sweet chatterbox that I could have conversed with for much longer than we were able. Mama BES knew her toddler was getting tired and hoped pushing the stroller around would lead to a nap.

For the record, I know Lil BES’s real name.

And my lips are sealed!

 

[Tuvalu]

We finished our mobile order, pressed I’m Here and entered Pinocchio’s Village Haus. FYI only those who have mobile ordered may enter through the door next to IASW. All other guests must enter through the main entrance.

Not surprisingly, the restaurant was very crowded but we lucked out with a table overlooking the attraction.

We shared a pepperoni flatbread and an order of fries (as if we hadn’t already had our share of carbs for the day!)

Since we were right there, we figured we might as well visit the singing dolls.

Only waited 15 minutes. Not bad on a crazy crowd day!

I’ve titled this, “Woody’s I AM GROOT photo.”

 

[93boomer]

We finished our mobile order, pressed I’m Here and entered Pinocchio’s Village Haus. FYI only those who have mobile ordered may enter through the door next to IASW. All other guests must enter through the main entrance.

Not surprisingly, the restaurant was very crowded but we lucked out with a table overlooking the attraction.

View attachment 765213
We shared a pepperoni flatbread and an order of fries (as if we hadn’t already had our share of carbs for the day!)

Since we were right there, we figured we might as well visit the singing dolls.

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Only waited 15 minutes. Not bad on a crazy crowd day!

I’ve titled this, “Woody’s I AM GROOT photo.”

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Hey wait....there's more things than carbs at WDW??

 

[Tony the Tigger]

View attachment 764921
I love this picture so much!!!

When I first started reading this trip report, I had no idea I would end up in it!

 

[Laurenciaa]

Saturday,

View attachment 765176

Sooooo he MAYBE thought it was “Bring Your Own Carriage” to be put on the Arty Pooh rails?

Honestly these things should be banned.. I can already image the injuries when a foot gets trapped under this monstrosity

 

[Tuvalu]

When I first started reading this trip report, I had no idea I would end up in it!

 

[Tuvalu]

Saturday, con’t

Test Track
Tower of Terror
Big Thunder Mountain
Toy Story Mania
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Haunted Mansion
It’s a Small World *new

What do these attractions have in common?

I have experienced an evacuation from each of them!

Remember me bragging on our short 15 minute wait to ride IASW? That was just the beginning. Little did I know it would be a 40 minute wait (not including ride time) to get off the ride!

Our boat began to slow to a creep once we entered the blue unity room. (That’s not its name but that’s the spirit of the final room.) However that’s not unusual, as that’s where the boats begin to get backed up in preparation for the load zone.

Our boat came to a complete stop for a couple minutes. We were here -

- again, nothing out of the ordinary. Even folks behind us were unconcerned.

I am now going to dispel the myth that the IASW song plays continuously 24/7.

Because the music STOPPED. The dolls, however, continued to move and clack (the clacking being very loud cuz no music) while all of us in boats began to look around.

Then came an announcement over the intercom apologizing for the delay and announcing that the ride would be powering down. And that a cast member would be by shortly to help us.

Oh….kay.

I texted Em and she replied, “Too bad you’re so close to the end. I’ve always wanted to know how evacs work from a water ride.”

We were about to find out.

A few minutes later a CM appeared out of a nearby door to ask if anyone had a medical emergency.

Apparently IASW has a triage system.

No one in our vicinity was in urgent need. The CM was very vague about the evacuation procedure. She warned us to put our phones away.

She disappeared and we sat there for awhile. Eventually several CMs holding very long poles appeared. I was hiding my phone in my hands - I wasn’t about to let this opportunity pass without photographic evidence!

“Careful, or they’ll poke you with a pole!” Woody teased.

The pole-toting CMs did seem at first to serve as a guest distraction. But I turned away and noticed the arrival of a CM in waders. This was about to get interesting.

There was another warning to put phones away. (Curiously, nothing was said about cameras. ) I knew I had to act quickly and discreetly in order to solve the water evac mystery for Em.

You can see the pole CMs and the wader CM (in the water) above. The wader CM began with the boat at the end. She got on the left side of the boat and began to push it backwards into the previous room. A pole CM helped guide the boat (via pole hook on the back of the boat) while remaining on dry ground.

This same process occurred four times until it was our turn. Keep in mind the poor wader CM had a lot further to push boats backwards the closer she got to ours. (And there were two boats ahead of us!) She was panting when she reached us and cracked a joke about not needing to go to the gym later because she’s already had a workout!

She pushed our boat into the previous (Polynesian) room. Ironically I had taken picture in there when we floated by the first time.

Even weirder was that I had a noticed a dimly-lit exit door in this room down-aways from the boy and kiwis pictured above. Painted on it was “Door D” or something similar. I had turned to Woody and said, “Ooh a secret club! I want to go through Door D!”

Turns out I got my wish.

Our boat was navigated to a spot in that room where we docked against the set floor. A pole CM carefully evacuated our boat by row, keeping the weight balanced.

(We learned that each room is evacuated in a similar manner by other CMs and there are additional emergency exit doors.)

Once out of the boat Woody and I made our way to the secret Platinum door (Frasier fans will get the reference ) pushed it open and found ourselves outside!

(No garbage or bees to contend with, thankfully!)

There was a CM scanning bands/cards to give us a LL for our inconvenience.

We exited the backstage area into the Tangled restroom area.

Which we promptly took advantage of

 

[RememberWhen]

So jealous! I’ve only been evac’d once. From people mover. But that was pretty great.

 

[Laurenciaa]

Saturday, con’t

Test Track
Tower of Terror
Big Thunder Mountain
Toy Story Mania
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Haunted Mansion
It’s a Small World *new

What do these attractions have in common?

I have experienced an evacuation from each of them!

Remember me bragging on our short 15 minute wait to ride IASW? That was just the beginning. Little did I know it would be a 40 minute wait (not including ride time) to get off the ride!

Our boat began to slow to a creep once we entered the blue unity room. (That’s not its name but that’s the spirit of the final room.) However that’s not unusual, as that’s where the boats begin to get backed up in preparation for the load zone.

Our boat came to a complete stop for a couple minutes. We were here -

View attachment 765358

- again, nothing out of the ordinary. Even folks behind us were unconcerned.

View attachment 765359

I am now going to dispel the myth that the IASW song plays continuously 24/7.

Because the music STOPPED. The dolls, however, continued to move and clack (the clacking being very loud cuz no music) while all of us in boats began to look around.

Then came an announcement over the intercom apologizing for the delay and announcing that the ride would be powering down. And that a cast member would be by shortly to help us.

Oh….kay.

I texted Em and she replied, “Too bad you’re so close to the end. I’ve always wanted to know how evacs work from a water ride.”

We were about to find out.

A few minutes later a CM appeared out of a nearby door to ask if anyone had a medical emergency.

View attachment 765360

Apparently IASW has a triage system.

No one in our vicinity was in urgent need. The CM was very vague about the evacuation procedure. She warned us to put our phones away.

She disappeared and we sat there for awhile. Eventually several CMs holding very long poles appeared. I was hiding my phone in my hands - I wasn’t about to let this opportunity pass without photographic evidence!

“Careful, or they’ll poke you with a pole!” Woody teased.

The pole-toting CMs did seem at first to serve as a guest distraction. But I turned away and noticed the arrival of a CM in waders. This was about to get interesting.

View attachment 765361

There was another warning to put phones away. (Curiously, nothing was said about cameras. ) I knew I had to act quickly and discreetly in order to solve the water evac mystery for Em.

View attachment 765362

You can see the pole CMs and the wader CM (in the water) above. The wader CM began with the boat at the end. She got on the left side of the boat and began to push it backwards into the previous room. A pole CM helped guide the boat (via pole hook on the back of the boat) while remaining on dry ground.

This same process occurred four times until it was our turn. Keep in mind the poor wader CM had a lot further to push boats backwards the closer she got to ours. (And there were two boats ahead of us!) She was panting when she reached us and cracked a joke about not needing to go to the gym later because she’s already had a workout!

She pushed our boat into the previous (Polynesian) room. Ironically I had taken picture in there when we floated by the first time.

View attachment 765369

Even weirder was that I had a noticed a dimly-lit exit door in this room down-aways from the boy and kiwis pictured above. Painted on it was “Door D” or something similar. I had turned to Woody and said, “Ooh a secret club! I want to go through Door D!”

Turns out I got my wish.

Our boat was navigated to a spot in that room where we docked against the set floor. A pole CM carefully evacuated our boat by row, keeping the weight balanced.

(We learned that each room is evacuated in a similar manner by other CMs and there are additional emergency exit doors.)

Once out of the boat Woody and I made our way to the secret Platinum door (Frasier fans will get the reference ) pushed it open and found ourselves outside!

View attachment 765363
(No garbage or bees to contend with, thankfully!)

There was a CM scanning bands/cards to give us a LL for our inconvenience.

We exited the backstage area into the Tangled restroom area.

Which we promptly took advantage of

Had an evac on POTC in DLP 2 years ago and the same process was followed! Thanks for the very accurate description (an sneaky pictures hihi)!

 

[Tuvalu]

Saturday, con’t

With a LL now in our possession (albeit with restrictions on where it could not be used) we decided on a second ride through Haunted Mansion.

That choice was quickly squashed when we saw that the Lightning Lane line extended past Columbia Harbor House.

We did an about-face and walked back through Fantasyland to the train station in Storybook Circus. I was happy to see that trains departed every 7 minutes, rather than every 25 minutes like they did last summer.

We enjoyed the grand circle tour.

Upon arriving back in Fantasyland, I checked the app and saw that Peter Pan was posted at a surprisingly low 40 minutes. It was parade time so we hoofed it to Neverland to beat the crowd before the parade ended.

 

[MerMom1981]

If you'd like to ketchup with my past year and enjoy novels -

Trip Report - The Story Comes ALIVE! *COMPLETED*

Hello again, my friends. For nearly a decade it has been such a joy for me to write about 50 (yes, 50!) different trips that I have taken to WDW - including one that was virtual. ;) The reason? You, the reader. I don’t do trip reports for my own documentation. I have journals for that. I...

forums.wdwmagic.com

I happen to love novels.

Congratulations on your growing family! Is that 5 grandbabies now?
Congrats on 40 years as well! We'll be celebrating 19 years on our upcoming trip.

I'm so glad to know that you disapprove of Genie+ and that you were able to have enjoyable park days without it! You have given me hope!

 

[Tuvalu]

I happen to love novels.

Congratulations on your growing family! Is that 5 grandbabies now?
Congrats on 40 years as well! We'll be celebrating 19 years on our upcoming trip.

I'm so glad to know that you disapprove of Genie+ and that you were able to have enjoyable park days without it! You have given me hope!

Yes, 5 grands - ages 7, 5, 1 and 6 months.

It is definitely possible to enjoy the parks without Genie+.

Thanks for .

 

[Tuvalu]

Saturday, con’t

I snapped this quick pic as we headed inside.

Pity I didn’t notice the wait time before we entered. Since none of the outdoor portion of the queue was in use and we kept walking through the queue until we stepped through the door to the interior hallway, I assumed the wait was still the same 40 minutes I’d seen on the app five minutes earlier.

However when we didn’t move at all for 15 minutes and then inched along for another 15, I opened the app to see this -

With IASW still closed - and Haunted Mansion and Barnstormer - there must have been an influx of guests into Pan. (Peter Pan is excluded from “Multiple Experience” Lightning Lane pass otherwise we would have used ours.)

Every so often there was an announcement, “We apologize but Peter Pan is operating more slowly than usual.”

Tell me something I don’t know.

Woody and I were stuck.

We watched Tink flutter through the boys’ room a couple times.

Approaching Wendy’s room I noticed an item that annoyed me. What cretin decided it was okay to leave their paper beverage cup on the dresser?

I wasn’t the only one bothered by the cup. A couple minutes later a dad ahead of us in line removed the offense (and deposited it in a trash can.)

We didn’t wait 40 minutes.

We didn’t wait 70 minutes.

We waited 75 minutes.

Fantasyland attractions were not on our side today.

 

[Tuvalu]

We attempted to use our LL on Haunted Mansion again.

The LL now backed up to the Riverboat.

Pass.

The MPB 2.0 also had a wait, but shorter than anything else.