Trip Report The 6 Parks, 4 Days, 26th Birthday Extravaganza- COMPLETED

Hello everyone! I’ve been back from Orlando for one week now, so I figured I might as well get this started (I miss it so much).

This is just the entry post, I’ll begin telling the tales of adventure later

 

[Princess Leia]

Between Gringotts and Forbidden Journey, I preferred Gringotts. I had taken motion sickness meds in the morning, but FJ was a little too jerky on me compared to Gringotts being smooth.

This meal was so good!!!

Naturally, we made a quick visit to the Hog’s Head

 

[Princess Leia]

We said goodbye to Hogsmeade and went to check out the rest of the Island.

Katie, crashing my picture of Poseidon:

The line for Poseidon was freezing. I had bought a Hufflepuff sweatshirt in Diagon Alley, and I was very glad I did, because we kept getting stuck waiting under air vents.

Next up, Seuss:

I enjoyed Trolley in the Sky, but we all were miserable on Cat in the Hat.

We walked through the Toon space (can’t remember what it’s called), as it wasn’t warm enough for the water rides.

At last, Marvel Superhero Island.

Karie & Josh got in line for Hulk, and Erin & I made our way over to Storm. It was okay, and needed for the park, but I wish Uni would plus it a bit (or add a dark ride)

Hi Cap

Spider-Man deserves all of the praise it gets, it’s a great ride. Riding it after Transformers took some of the thrill out though.

 

[Princess Leia]

Next on the list- Kong

And if it wasn’t for all of the other 3D screen rides, would have stood out. Unfortunately, it was a bit more of the same (Josh made a comment that was more or less “time to get our 3D goggles... again...”)

There was nothing for us at Jurassic Park, because even though there was only a 5 minute wait, it just wasn’t warm enough to get soaked on a water ride, no matter how much we love Jurassic Park.
Luckily, we had Forbidden Journey to ride again.

Once again, I closed my eyes when the spiders were everywhere. I should mention that I kept shutting my eyes during the first ride, because spiders and dementors are scary things.

Back to the train!

Oh man, the ice cream. I got a cone of Earl Grey & Lavender, and I could have had a scoop of that every single day.

Erin wanted to do Minion Mayhem (something I suggested we do when we arrived and the wait time was 10 minutes... and was shut down), so we waited 40 minutes for our last attraction of the day. Next time, Mummy, next time...

Another park, another tree.

My feet were killing me by this point, so we slowly made our way back to the curb to get a Lyft. And I promptly crashed into a deep slumber in the car. So I have no memory of our Lyft driver almost getting us into a crash. We didn’t have great luck with Lyfts on this trip.

 

[Princess Leia]

Back at Pop, we took a brief moment to rest and/or change before we went to the Boardwalk for dinner.

Birthday button, back where it belongs

We tried getting to the Boardwalk (we took a bus to Epcot, then found out we couldn’t get to Boardwalk from there)... So plan B. Disney Springs.
I cannot remember what this place was called, but the food was great.

We got into the Pop bus line, and waited for a bit. Unfortunately, we were stuck behind a woman who was not having a Magical day, at all.
Eventually, we got on the bus, I had a half-asleep experience, and we made it back to Pop to sleep.
Step count: 24,075

 

[amjt660]

Great pictures of Uni!!

Max

 

[Princess Leia]

Just looked it up- the restaurant we went to was Chef Art’s Homecomin’

 

[sheriffwoody]

Just came across your report and got caught up! I got emotional in Hogsmeade too

 

[Princess Leia]

Just came across your report and got caught up! I got emotional in Hogsmeade too

Welcome!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

I am joining your TR wayyyy late but I'm sure enjoying it!!! First, I'm so sorry about all the loss you went through earlier but I'm so happy you have great friends and HAN to support you!! Here's hoping you and HAN get a magical trip to WDW soon! I can't believe how early you got up for Animal Kingdom! I don't think I could even do that! I'm impressed about your FOP wait time though! I'm sorry you ended up alone at HS and MK but it's impressive you could ride Star Tours 3 times!! The HM is fun at night, a little extra creepy. Doing it by yourself at 11:30 would add an extra layer of creepiness....yikes!

I want to hear about Katie and Josh's engagement! And the rest of your adventures!

 

[LisaBelle]

Don’t know how I missed your report when you originally started it, but so glad to have found it now!
So sorry for all you’ve been through. Disney Magic definitely helps you to heal and find true joy again. I know this from experience. My sister and I went to Disney after we lost our dad. We had been caring for both him and our Mom who had dementia. Disney was exactly what we needed! Seems like it helped you as well!
Loved reading about Ohana. We are eating there for the first time in 12 days. I cannot wait to taste all of it!
I am a Harry Potter fan and I LOVE both Hogsmeade and Diagonal Alley. Didn’t get to fully explore Diagon Alley so I will have to go back. Won’t make it this trip though. With Toy Story Land opening we decided to make this trip strictly Disney.
Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[Princess Leia]

Belatedly going to finish this over the next couple of days, because I don’t want an abandoned trip report before I really get into my pre-trip report. And since it’s almost been 9 months since the trip, I think I’m mostly going to have to finish this with just pictures.

The “it’s my birthday” selfie:

First glimpse of the castle:

First time on Mine Train!

After Mine Train, we hopped on Small World before our Pan FP+ window opened

We briefly were stuck on Pan. Apparently someone dropped a bubble wand?

Katie & Josh left for their BOG reservation, which left me and Erin some time to walk and wander before our Space Mountain FP+ opened.

 

[Princess Leia]

Crossed off another ‘first’ for the both of us- Space Mountain.

While fun, the ride was definitely rough. We both had neck aches for a bit.

Post-Space snack (this cheese was disgusting, AK had the better processed cheese)

I booked us a FP+ for Laugh Floor, so we got to do some shopping, and caught the end of Move It Shake It.

My beloved castle

Back to Tomorrowland we go

I really liked the show! It was cute. In the wrong park, but cute.

BOG reservation, here we come!!

 

[Princess Leia]

I realize that hindsight is 20/20, but I wish I would have just ordered soup and a salad (and that maybe I should have skipped the pretzel snack). The croque monsieur was just way too big, and there were too many fries. So, great value, but I didn’t eat it all.

However, the grey stuff WAS delicious!

 

[Princess Leia]

Forgot to post this earlier- Erin and I found a Purple Wall (not THE Purple Wall (tm), but a wall in Tomorrowland that is still very purple.

We walked from BOG to Frontierland to meet up with Katie & Josh for our next FP+: Splash Mountain. We tried to convince Erin to join us, but she was worried that her recently dyed hair could get wet and leak everywhere. So, the three of us got in line, me for a return trip from 2008, but the first time for Katie & Josh.

Ladies and gentlemen, another embarrassing ride photo!

(I promise, that despite my face, I love this ride).

My first Dole Whip

Said hello to those tropical singing birds of paradise

We didn’t see the Pirate show, but as a former major Pirates fan (I still love it, but man I was obsessed for a couple years), I had to take a picture.

 

[Princess Leia]

Speaking of Pirates...

Gosh this ride photo is awkward. And the flash didn’t happen on this turn. I think ride photos can be fun, but when they look like this, ehhhh

After Pirates, we walked over to Pecos Bill’s, which hands down, has to be the best deal at the park. I ordered through the app before we got there (another godsend), and holy moly, look at this food:

I ordered the plate, the nachos, and the churros, but the toppings all come ‘free’. Just go over to the toppings bar and load up.

My college friend Leah (who works at the parks) came and joined us for a bit, and took one of the few pics of the four of us on the trip:

This is Leah:

Leah has had a variety of roles at her time at WDW- Star Tours, Mugsi on GMR, Ghost Hostess (which was her role when we were down there), and now she’s at guest relations!

Not pictured- Leah taking us through the back way of Haunted Mansion, being my personal guide on our tour of HM (filled with lots of fun facts- including where the copies of Nightmare Before Christmas were located), the five of us on Big Thunder Mountain.

Next up- Little Mermaid

We were really booking it from ride to ride at this point.
Another awkward ride photo of Josh kicking my butt on Buzz:

Not pictured- our quick ride on Goofy.

Dumbo!

Annnnnd the ride had to come to an end early for some reason. We were offered another ride, but we declined. We had a castle to get to.

 

[Princess Leia]

Katie was rocking the holiday themed ears.

Definitely started tearing up here:

If Disney ever wants to gauge an audience’s feelings towards Moana, this is the moment:

The crowd went wild. Seriously, they cheered more here than for any other character. There is a clear love for the film and character, so idk why Disney A) took away her M&G, and B) hasn’t built a new ride for the film in Adventureland yet. The want and need is there.

 

[Princess Leia]

Something I forgot! Leah took me to get some extra special birthday fairy dust!

Okay, back to the show. I can honestly say that Happily Ever After has got to be the best projection show that I’ve ever seen in my life. Absolutely incredible.

Post-HEA carousel ride with the bff

We did some browsing in shops and around the castle as we waited for our dinner reservation to open.

Erin was 100% on cloud nine during this entire experience. She was so excited to meet all of the princesses and be in the castle.

A very tired birthday princess with her wand:

I’m going to post all Cinderella’s Royal Table food pics in the next post. No pics with princesses though, because I am a hot tired humid mess in all of them.

 

[Princess Leia]

Look at all this food!!!

Birthday cupcake for me

The park was still open for some last minute rides, but the clock was winding down for the 4 of us. In fact, this might have been the bus ride that I partially fell asleep on. We got back to Pop, and I went to sleep happily thinking about the wonderful birthday I’d had.

Step count- 23,392

 

[Princess Leia]

Final park day- Epcot

I started my day with some Mickey waffles (finally).

We got on the bus, and off we went to the peaceful world of Epcot.

My three travel companions went to France for breakfast, and I went to get my picture with Mickey in what the app said would be a 15 minute wait.

It was not. The time eventually bumped up to 40 minutes when I was in line, but I think I probably waited 20.

I’m less than 5’4”, so I felt like a giant here:

Apparently I launched myself at Goofy (sorry Goofy)

 

[Princess Leia]

I left my long lost Disney friends to meet up with the others at Test Track (another first for me). This is the totally functional car that Erin and I made:

Hey, it’s efficient!
Next up was our FastPass for Mission: Space (another first!). Katie & Josh went to the orange side, Erin and I stuck to the green (and had a vehicle to ourselves)

Look at that tired face. I should mention that though I didn’t know it yet, I was carrying a flu bug!
Next up, Spaceship Earth FP+... and something was not right here:

We headed over to The Land next, and got on Living with the Land, a personal peaceful favorite of mine.

Next up- Soarin’, and “How I accidentally trolled the Han Solo of my life”.