Trip Report The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway…Actually Yes, Yes It Did

Hello!!

So, excited to share another TR with you all! This quick trip was the trip that felt like it wouldn’t happen until we actually got on the airplane, so I was afraid to even write a Pre-Trip Report. But, we made it and had a GREAT time (even though the cold DID in fact bother us, sorry Elsa).

The Details…

Who: Me, and two of my wonderful colleagues who I will call A & P.

Why: A & P both had daughters who were going to be in WDW on a school trip, and wanted to be close to them in case anything went wrong. As for me, I never need a reason to go to Disney!!

Where: All-Star Music (to be at the same resort as the girls)

When: January 20-24, 2022

I was very excited to try out Disney in January. Typically, we go in the summer months and have been once over Thanksgiving and once over New Years Eve. I was looking forward to (hopefully) some low crowds and cooler weather! Little did I know, we were certainly in for some COOLER weather.

Up Next… Travel Day!

 

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We left the JC area and came upon the Tiki Room. P & A announced that they had never been in there!!?!?!


So, naturally, I had to give them the experience.

They were not impressed. I personally though love it and may or may not know all of the words…….

As we were just oh so close to the Dole Whips at this point…..

Another note on mobile vs. non-mobile ordering… do the mobile! I got my whip in about 8 minutes and went to sit and eat. I was totally finished by the time A & P even got their whips from the normal line.

A & P ate their whips on the way to our next ride… SDMT again! A really wanted to go again so we used her DAS because the line was 85 minutes.

(A also was realizing at this point that she could and needed to keep snacking even though we had lunch and dole whips. All the walking was making her counts stay much lower than normal.)


After SDMT, Tomorrowland was calling. On to Buzz!!!

I got SOOO close!!! This is the closest I have ever been so I was very excited.

 

[fractal]

Following along and enjoying the ride.

 

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We had a DAS for Space at this time, but it was down. We would try again later this day, get in line, and it would go down again. We ended up skipping it on this trip -a first for me.

Instead of a ride through space, we went on a ride through time… or progress, rather.

A has a son who loves CoP. He is in middle school and loves the history of Disney. We did it for him this time.


Next, Laugh Floor! I am so glad this is back from the pandemic closure. It’s really a great little show.

We were talking about how even though we have always texted in our jokes, they never get chosen and it seemed like they just really choose random ones not from that particular showing. Funny enough, the family next to us had theirs actually chosen! I guess we just have bad luck.

We were enjoying this little break of going show to show, also.


Since Space was still having issues, we hopped on the TTA.

Would we get to see Space in the light???

 

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YES!!



But first….

Tron Construction Update.

A & P enjoying the ride.

Space, from the outside.

Tomorrowland.

Castle.

More Tron.

And finally….. SPACE! With ALL the lights on. I have seen it many times with some on, but never all.

 

[cgersic]

You girls are getting so much done! And I have never seen SM with all the lights on either. Coool!

 

[Duckberg]

GOOD to see smiles thru the CHILL

 

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We made it to the end of our TTA journey but wanted more so… I nicely asked the CM if we could go another round and the answer was yes!


I meant to say earlier, we did Buzz with Genie+ and after that, I had booked another for Dumbo. (Not that we particularly needed it).



It was time so we went there next. I noted that the play area was open again. Last summer, it was not.

Hungry again (somehow ), P had the idea of going to the Big Top Souvenirs because they have delicious snacks.


They had cleared out a LOT of the merchandise. It was quite different from how it used to be. But thankfully, the snacks were just the same!

P and A both got apples. P got the 50th anniversary one, and they told us it had been out of stock since 10/1 but they had just gotten them back today!

I had my usual…

SO good. As always.

We grabbed a table indoors here and enjoyed our snacks and a little rest. It had also gotten a bit chilly. (Warning us of what was to come, perhaps?) I booked another LL for Philharmagic while we ate (we didn’t really need it for this, though).


I was excited for the new Coco scene. It fit in seamlessly and we LOVED it!! I think Philharmagic is highly underrated.

I also booked us another LL for Aladdin after we scanned in. We had done just about everything else we wanted to do at this point, but the P & A wanted to do it and it had strangely had decent waits through the day ~35 minutes.


Before that though… I had to give P and A another new experience!!

The Country Bears!!
This was SO fun. They said it was their favorite show Between my singing along and the others in the audience having a great time and hyping it up, it was hilariously entertaining. They both said they would have to make their families see it when they came back next time!

 

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It was time for Aladdin, but on the way we noticed that the CM’s were lining up for a cavalcade. We had managed to be in MK all day and see NONE. I was so excited and hoped it was the 50th one!

Surprise! It was!

No pics but we did Aladdin next and then I made another immediate LL for Pirates. As we got in line, I saw Molly blogging from AllEars.Net. I didn’t think to get a picture though, but it was cool!

 

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We were hungry for dinner and A wanted Casey’s so we made our way to the front.


Couldn’t go by without some more pictures…

Casey’s was surprisingly uncrowded. I mobile ordered some corn dog nuggets and got my food very, very quickly. Again though, I was totally done by the time my regular-line-comrades had theirs. I tried to wait but my plastic cheese just couldn’t.

(This was A’s Chili Cheese Dog)

 

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It was getting close to fireworks time but we still had a few minutes so….


PeopleMover for the third time!!

(And fourth!!) Can you tell we love it?

P & A were worried about their being long bus lines so we saw Enchantment from about halfway down Main Street. I went in with low expectations from things I had heard. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE HEA, so I was already judging.

But, it was definitely not as terrible as I was expecting. It still had some moments that got me in the feels! Don’t get me wrong, I do think HEA is way better and I SO hope they bring it back someday, but it didn’t seem as bad as some made it out to be, in my opinion.

After it ended, we made our way quickly to the bus and were able to get right on!

We got back and wasted no time getting ready for bed. P had to run some toothpaste to her daughter (thankfully we were at the same resort) but aside from that, we stayed in and went right to sleep. We had a great, great day.

Next up… Hollywood Studios!



Would we be frozen???









Who am I kidding? YEAH. Big Time.

 

[amjt660]

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip


Max

 

[fractal]

Loved that The Country Bears was such a big hit!

and happy to hear those comments from an HEA fan.

 

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Hollywood Studios & Disney Springs

Our day began with a very early wake up. Early for me because I was freeeeezing. P had a fan that she brought going for background noise and we had the room temp set low from the day before. Now, it was clearly too low and I couldn’t get warm. Not a good sign for things to come.



I remembered this time to book our first Genie right at 7:00AM, and went with Smugglers Run. We left and got on what I can only assume was the first HS bus of the day at 7:15 AM, as there was no one else even at the stops. The park was opening at 8:30 for the resort guests.

This was the kind of day where I kept my mask on a lot just to keep my face warm. We arrived to a very empty park.

We were in by 7:34, according to a time stamp on my photo.

(The sky even LOOKS cold )

We wandered down the street and took some empty photos in front of the theater.

 

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Afterwards, we went to get in line for SDD.

empty, empty, empty

I’m excited for this restaurant to open! (I think HS desperately needs for TS options)

We were not far from the front of the line, but they kept us outside of the actual queue. It started to rain once we got there but thankfully we had an umbrella.

So, if you’re keeping tabs, now it is cold AND rainy. I considered finding us somewhere indoors to wait, but honestly there was no such place in TSL besides the bathrooms and we didn’t particular want to hang out there. The line had also gotten very long behind us.

I kept hoping they would start running it a little before 8:30, but it ended up being right on the dot.


SDD was fun (in a hit-you-in-the-face-frozen-rain kind of way) but really, it was and I honestly forgot how wild it feels in the back!

 

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Longing for a respite from the weather, we quickly went to TSM next. It was a total walk-on.

Guess who won???

We all know it was me.

We got off and got stuck walking out behind a slowww group of kids on their phones. But, eventually we made it out and saw that the wait was still only 5 minutes…

So we did it again!

(I won both times )




P and I did A.S.S. next, also a walk-on. A decided she would rather not, for fear of motion-sickness.

We were careful to hold on to our bags…

So, it was only 9:15 and we had done everything in TSL.

Onward to Batuu! (Here’s to hoping it is warmer and drier there)

 

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You girls are getting so much done! And I have never seen SM with all the lights on either. Coool!

Between Genie and the DAS, we really were able to do a ton! I would say that the Genie was definitely worth it on our trip! (Although I could see where sometimes it would totally not be needed, too!)

GOOD to see smiles thru the CHILL

We were cold but we had fun!

Loved that The Country Bears was such a big hit!
and happy to hear those comments from an HEA fan.

Yes!! That is something I always did as a kid and is very nostalgic so I was thrilled that they loved it!

It really was a decent show. I am HEA forever, but I was so pleased that I still enjoyed it anyway. The projections down main street were kind of neat too!

 

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(Sorry for the delay. Life has been busy lately!)

Unfortunately, Batuu was experiencing the same weather woes as Earth. It was raining, so no Kylo or Stormtroopers out at the moment.

Thankfully, we were headed here, to take a quick flight.

We used our LL that I booked at 7:00 AM for this and virtually walked right on. P had never done this at all and A had done it but not from the pilot chair. Both of them would be getting a new experience today.

A and I debated on whether the up/down control or the left/right would be easier because she wanted the easier choice. We thought the left/right would be. Spoiler: We chose wrong.

This was the roughest flight I’ve ever had on SR! We did horrible. It was so bad that it made A get motion sick so she had to close her eyes, but she was our left/right pilot so… you can imagine that her motion sickness was not helped.

It was time for our ride on Rise with A’s DAS, but she was in no shape to ride it. Thankfully, that is a benefit of the DAS. It is unlike a FP or Genie where you have to arrive between a certain window. With DAS, you just have to arrive anytime after a particular time. A took a break and had a snack while P and I did Star Tours.

Sorry, no pictures of Star Tours because we did a LL and we walked on so fast there wasn’t time!

A had thankfully recovered when we finished and we headed to Rise!

Kylo was in B mode, but still such a great attraction. Every time.

It was cold and we wanted a break from the wind. I also wanted a snack so we stopped in the Backlot QS. I mobile ordered this Wookie Cookie. It was SO good. And, SO big.

(This was after I had already eaten half!)

 

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After our break in the warm-ness, we went to Indians Jones. I had never seen this, but P and A both insisted that it was great. I was mostly concerned that I would be an icicle by the time it was done. Surprisingly, it was much warmer feeling in the stadium than I would have thought.

I really enjoyed the show! But, it started pouring rain during the performance so they apparently left out a lot of the show. We didn’t see anything to do with the buildings (besides a small number of stunts on the mat) or the desert scene. They just cut the show short.


I booked a DAS for MMRR after we finished Rise earlier, so we RAN over there in the rain. I do mean RAN. I had never been colder at Disney than I was then running with the rain whacking me and the wind blowing. A & I tried to share an umbrella but P just took off ahead because she had no poncho or anything easily available.

Wet, but indoors. (A has a DRY poncho because she didn’t put it on until after we entered MMRR )

I love this ride! I also loved GMR, but if they had to remove it, this is a good replacement. I was hoping to hear the witch cackle from Daisy. Not this time though!

It was pouring rain still after our ride so we just stood under an awning for a bit. We considered our options for the rest of the day. We had lunch at Primetime in just a little bit and kept that ADR, but we also had Oga’s for 6:50 that evening. None of us wanted to stick it out for that so I went to a Guest Experience tent. I was worried about getting charged for canceling the day of, but they did for us with no penalty.

 

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On to Primetime!

We saw these guys on the way there. I checked us in on the app and we were seated within 10 minutes.

Onion Rings to start

And shakes!

A & P both got the fried chicken.

I usually get the sampler but today I just got the meatloaf.

All was delicious, and our waiter was great!

After our meal since we were already FROZEN and it was pouring rain…

We enjoyed being inside in the warmth. The storytellers were great!!! Both were people I hadn’t seen before. We were cracking up.

The rain had FINALLY let up as we exited the theater. A & I had a LL for ToT that I had booked earlier so on we went! P didn’t want to ride so she went to see Lightning McQueen.

Ok, we had the BEST drop sequence I have ever had. It was so fun and seemed so long. We got so much airtime that my backpack (that I was holding on to at my feet) flew into the air and I had to grab it mid-air so it wouldn’t whack anybody It was awesome!

 

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Another photo from LMRA…

And our PhotoPass Photo from ToT!

P finished this before we were done with ToT so she went on to BatB to grab a seat for us. We went and met her. I love this show and I am so glad to see it back!

Gaston had REAL muscles today. Usually, he has on a body suit. Not today. These were the real thing!

That social-distancing though… it had us rolling

A & I had so much fun on ToT that we went back to do it again after the show. P did some browsing in the shops.
(Warning, not many pictures after this, I’ll explain why!)