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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Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Tuesday, August 20

Our LLMP day started early! While Em and I are experienced with 8 am park openings, Woody not so much. He was a great sport and I tried not to wear him out.

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In total we did 12 attractions today, used 6 LLMP and left 2 more unused due to circumstances beyond our control.

And in a weird, unexpected twist to our evening, this happened.

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lindawdw

lindawdw

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you both had a fun day at MK and a great time at WCC!!! We ate there for the very first time in May and had such a great meal along with a fun experience. We will be back for sure! Enjoy your pool time. 🥰
 
Minnie1986

Minnie1986

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
Thursday, con’t

We moseyed to Norway to pick up one of these little beauties.

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Now don’t throw shade - yes, we had Gideon’s cookies back in the room - but Kringla Bakery’s chocolate chip cookie far surpasses Gideon’s.

Em put it in her sling pack and we would share it later.

She then asked if we could backtrack to Mexico for a margarita.

You already know we rope dropped the kiosk. What you don’t know is that she made another purchase.

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She returned with a margarita and elote.

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She’s a huge fan of elote and wanted me to try it. But I was sweating from the humidity and a hot ear of corn covered in cheese and spice was - at that moment - not appealing to me.

I promised her I would try it someday in a climate-controlled Mexican restaurant!
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I'm still having dreams about those cookies, and cannot wait until April to get another one. Gotta figure out a way to get some for S as well.
 
Minnie1986

Minnie1986

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
Thursday, con’t

The rain eventually slowed to sprinkles - after our ride on BTMRR!

Since we were already wet, how much worse could it get on Tiana?

Before.

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During.

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After.

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It got worse. So much worse. Not necessarily from the big drop (although that didn’t help) but water effects inside the ride completely drenched us. Em read on the interwebs that those effects have recently been turned on. To maximum level.

You’ve been warned.

This is what happens when you give a kid your phone.
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This is what happens when you try to take a picture of the window into Tiana’s finale scene while riding on the MPB.

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Artsy, huh?

The sunset was amazing.

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As were the fireworks.

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Lotsa fun with the Tuva Tribe today in the MK!
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I still can't get over how many times we very likely walked right past one another on this day😭
 
Minnie1986

Minnie1986

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
Sunday, con’t

It wasn’t the last time we’d get wet today.

We had a dinner ADR at Beaches and Cream. Our transport choice was WL bus to MK and transfer to Yacht/Beach bus.

We left an hour+ before our reservation time. We stepped on the WL bus and the skies opened. A full-fledged monsoon that had us trapped at the MK station.

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The wind sprayed water over us. The Yacht/Beach bus didn’t show up for 40 minutes.

We were late for our ADR. At check in we were told we would have “a long wait” for our table because:
1. We were late
2. People were lingering at their tables due to the rain.

And this is our fault why? I told the host we would be willing to sit at the counter (which had 2 empty seats) and was told, “counter has a long wait too.”

Meanwhile the monsoon continued to rage. I noticed an empty two-top and figured it was taken. For twenty minutes that two-top remained empty until we were seated at it!!

Our server was unfriendly and inattentive. When they brought us water, mine had a gift in it.

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A runner brought our sandwiches. Server took my contaminated water and forgot to bring me a new glass of water. The napkins given to us were wet. Server asked if we wanted the ice cream menu as we were in the middle of eating. They came to take our ice cream order when we finished eating but did not clear away our plates. Server then disappeared.

A manager happened by and I mentioned our less than stellar dining experience. She apologized and said she would speak with our server.

Another server cleared our plates and a runner brought our ice cream treats.

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Server dropped the billfold on the table. I picked it up to insert my credit card and server snatched it away mumbling, “I forgot to take off the ice cream.”

I didn’t see the manager to thank her for making our evening a bit better.

It wasn’t raining as hard when we left Beach Club (bus to DHS, transfer to WL bus) and we were back in our room in 30 minutes. Planned to watch HEA from our balcony (as we’ve been doing) but the rain picked up and the show was delayed.
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Sorry you had such a crummy experience at Beaches and Cream. I get that it may have been a busy night, but their attitude was NOT necessary, and certainly not your problem.
 
Minnie1986

Minnie1986

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
m&ms GIF by M&M's Middle East's Middle East

Grumble time.

Yesterday was 7 days until our check in - meaning we were eligible to purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass for our stay. While I dislike having to pay for something that used to be free (who does?), I was hopeful that advance booking would solve the issue I hated with Genie+ - not being able to choose the time we wanted to ride. (I also found the two hour rule limiting and confusing.)

With FP+ I loved entering a park with 3 booked attractions. I'm a planner and a rope-dropper so this system worked well for us. I (incorrectly) assumed LLMP would work the same way except now there's a cost. A cost that swings from $17 to $29 per person per day, depending on date and park.

Knowing that this upcoming trip won't be park-centric, I decided to buy LLMP for the park with the worst waits (for us) - DHS. Because we are APs and still need park reservations (don't get me started on those!) I'd booked our parks months ago. We arrive on Sunday and DHS was booked for Monday.

I decided our Tier 1 choice would be Slinky Dog, with Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers as Tier 2. At 7 am I was in the app, selected my choices and was stunned to see all three attractions with return times of after 4 pm. The app holds the attraction/time for 5 minutes if you want to modify times (before paying), but I had been given the earliest return times. Modifying to morning was not an option. And I wasn't going to pay for LLMP with my given times and then try to modify them day-of (I've read there are same day "time drops" for attractions) because we'd be back at the resort by early afternoon.

Frustrated, I decided to check DHS availability for days later in our trip. It wasn't until day 7 (our last park day) that I was given morning return times for my three choices. I booked and paid (also booking Lightning Lane Single Pass for Rise), only somewhat satisfied that I'd gotten what I wanted - but not until our last vacation day. Another item of note is that our park reservation for that day was MK and the system allowed me to book LLMP for DHS anyway. (Of course I then had to go online and switch the MK reservation to DHS. :banghead:)

Will be interesting to see how LLMP works in real time. I'll be posting the result!
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I'm not looking forward to this new system
 
Minnie1986

Minnie1986

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
Whelp, I caved.

I had decided not to purchase LLMP for our MK days. Then I saw that Peter Pan is opening a week early from its refurbishment, with an updated new scene. As much as I enjoy Pan’s standby queue, I have been miserably trapped in it several times lately thanks to deceptive wait times. I do not want to take that risk next week.

Instead, “I solved the problem with money,” as Woody is wont to say.

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I was pleased to get an early return time. I am hoping to be able to modify HM and Pooh to earlier times once we are in the park. The times above were the earliest times I was able to modify to during the five minute window before purchase. I found it interesting that I was able to have a 20 minute overlap with those LLs.

If I can’t get earlier times, no big deal. But I’ll be happy to do the research for y’all.
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Throw Away Make It Rain GIF

Sometimes, you just gotta do it
 

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