Trip Report The Tractor's out of gas, Nobody tells me nothing

Welcome to our September, 2019 trip report. Our family was in WDW from September 20th - 28th and we had a fabulous time.

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Ok...so this trip was supposed to be it. At least for a little while. I mean, we have been going to WDW every year for five years now. It was time to do something else. And in case you haven't noticed, WDW vacations are not cheap. Time to maybe try something a little more affordable.

These were some of the thoughts going around in my head as we embarked on our trip. I had shared with Sara that maybe in the coming years we should take a cruise, or go explore a city, or even relax on a beach. But then this September trip came, and wouldn't you know that Disney Magic did its thing and we had perhaps one of our favorite trips ever. Now as I sit here typing, I can't wait to head back. We haven't officially booked anything just yet so we don't know when that will be, but that decision will be kept for another day. For now, on with the report...

We were pretty busy in the weeks leading up to WDW, so Sara, who normally is packing at least a week in advance, couldn't really start until about two days before out trip. This led to a bit of stress, but of course we got everything together. We have two cats, Oliver and Jasmine, and they both were insistent that they wanted to come with us.

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We officially started on Thursday, September 19th when Luke and Makayla returned from school. Sara and I had taken the afternoon to load up our van. We met the kids at the bus stop, but before we hit the road, Makayla had her soccer shots session. We had signed her up for soccer for 8 weeks on Thursdays after school without really thinking through how it would affect our trip. We decided in the end that we would let her play soccer, then leave after. So a bit later than normal, but around 5:15pm we were on our way from York, PA.

We stopped just north of Baltimore for some Chipotle for dinner and a potty break. Then we were back on the road. Since we were leaving later than usual, I made the decision to go around DC on 495 instead of my usually creative detour on 15/17. Thankfully traffic was pretty light. We made our way through Virginia and to our normal stop on the way, the Hampton Inn in Emporia, VA. For some reason, the hotel has a picture of cows with "happy" behind the front desk.
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We woke up and ate breakfast the next morning, and then were on our way through NC/SC, and Georgia. We made sure to take breaks along the way for the necessities, like throwing a football around and playing tag.

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In Georgia, we hit a bit of rain, and then in front of us we noticed a very faint rainbow.

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It shows up even fainter in this photo Sara took than what it did as we were driving. But trust me, it was there. If you start at the green sign and sort of go up and to the left, that's where it was.

We made great time on our trip, and by 4:45 we were entering Florida. We were so excited. We had never made it to the Florida welcome center by 5pm before, and we were finally going to get to try the complimentary orange juice...

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WHAT?????

We worked so hard :cry:.

Needless to say, this was a touch disappointing. We still managed to explore a bit.

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One thing you will quickly learn about Luke, he typically either has a football or soccer ball with him. He loves to play all sports. That made him super excited for our hotel this year, the All Star Sports. He had been asking to stay there for our last several trips, and this time we were finally doing it.

We left the Florida welcome center and began the absolute longest drive from the Florida border to WDW.
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Here's the final photos.

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So yes the photos are out of order, but as I go through, the amount we were able to get with the characters looking directly at us is AMAZING. So happy and thankful, and very greatful to the CM's for choosing us, for whatever reason. Once the final float had gone by, we waited for the crowd behind to walk past us, and then we were on to continue our day at MK.
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
That parade viewing spot was quite awesome!
It this a spot that anyone can go to or was it a special access spot?
This must have been pure pixie dust! 🧚‍♂️

It's a reserved spot, but there's no special ticket or dining package to get there, as far as I know. Several families were led up to it by different CM's, and it seemed to be at their discretion on who they asked and was fortunate enough to get in there. Thankful that we were some of the lucky ones.
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I could check out the new Disney + toy. I could finish watching the Sixers play a meaningless regular season game in September, but instead I'm going to continue my trip report 😜 .

One thing that Luke really wanted to do, besides ride Space Mountain again, was go on the Dumbo playground. He had asked about it a few times already today. I don't think he was too interested in doing the ride, just the playground.

We made our way from the hub over to Dumbo. The ride itself was a walk on, but we were given a pager as we entered the playground area. The CM explained it was their way of keeping track of how many people were in the playground area. Sara and I quickly found a seat while Makayla and Luke ran and explored.

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A bit of drama happened inside the playground near where this photo was taken, and I admit I don't have all the info. Luke was trying to cross these little pendulum swings without touching the ground with Makayla behind him. I guess a boy and girl (probably not the ones in the photo), were using them as swings, and when Luke got to the one swing, he got pushed. I had a bit of a nervous reaction as I imagined kids getting involved in a shoving match up on a second story play area where I have no idea how to even get to them. Thankfully, Luke just sort of gave a funny look and then ran somewhere else. When I asked him later what happened, he just said that the boy and girl didn't want anyone else getting on the swing.

Turned out to just be a little bit of nothing, and the kids enjoyed playing for a bit. Finally, Luke got a bit bored. When we suggested we go for our turn on the ride, Makayla really didn't want to. But it was 3 against 1 :) so off we went.

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After Dumbo, we had some fun in the Splash and Soak Zone. This had been closed due to cold weather on our past two trips, so both Luke and Makayla were very excited to finally get to play here. Of course, they quickly were soaked.

I got our video camera and recorded a bit while they played.





The final outcome:

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We decided to do the Ariel ride next, which was basically a walk on. Both kids were of course complaining that they were cold since they were soaking wet. We then grabbed a popcorn near Gaston's Tavern, and made our way to Haunted Mansion.

Tonight was going to be a Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party, and by this point people were definitely showing their Halloween spirit. On our way to HM, I feel like we saw at least 3 Jack Skellington's and Sally's. We saw some other fun Toy Story inspired costumes as well. We would see more and more as our evening drew to a close.

I had mentioned before that we had used a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear, but I realize now we must have done that as a standby, because HM was our 3rd fastpass of the day, behind Peter Pan and 7 Dwarfs. Makayla was a bit scared to go on, but was willing to sit next to me. We made sure to keep a close eye on Luke after he had gotten lost in the stretching room on our last visit. Once we left the stretching room, the line to actually get on the ride went very slow as the ride kept stopping. Makayla, for some reason, didn't seem to appreciate being stuck in a dimly lit hallway with lights flickering and lots of spiderwebs.

After a couple minutes, everything was running smoothly again and it was our turn to ride.

You can see a little fear in her little face.

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It's a small world was next. By the time we were done, we were all feeling really tired. We took a potty and rest stop near the Rapunzel bathrooms.

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Extra fastpasses were hard to come by at this point of the day, but I had managed to get us fastpasses for Barnstormer while we were standing in line at HM. Just as we had rested long enough and were ready to head over there, Luke announced that he wasn't feeling good. He looked fine, but he said he wasn't interested in going on Barnstormer. I stayed there with Luke while Makayla and Sara headed over to the ride. Luke laid down for a bit, and thankfully in a couple minutes he said he was fine. Maybe it was the heat or exhaustion catching up with him. He said he wanted to do Barnstormer, so we headed that way.

Barnstormer had a pretty long line, considering how short the ride is, but thankfully we got right up towards the front with our fastpasses. A short time later we were exiting and managed to find Sara and Makayla waiting for us. At this point, MK was set to close in about 15 minutes, but we still had our dinner reservation for the evening at Skipper Canteen.
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We made our way from Fantasyland through the hub, and over to Adventureland. By this point, the Halloween Party was pretty much in full swing, at least from a costume perspective. Costumes were everywhere. Jack Skellington was most popular, but we saw some Mickey's, Woody's, and other cool costumes as well.

Skipper Canteen had been a restaurant I had been wanting to try for a while. For us, Tony's had been such a MK eating staple, it was a hard habit to break. But one of my goals this visit was to try new things. So after a good bit of pleading, Sara agreed to give it a try.

We made it over to the restaurant, parked our stroller, and checked in. The waiting area is outdoor with a nice roof overhead, but it was still pretty warm inside. We each found a seat, which were arranged in a haphazard circle. We were all pretty tired at this point. Honestly, had it been a few degrees cooler, the chairs were comfortable enough to fall asleep in.

After a wait of about 10 minutes, I received a text that our table was ready. We followed our hostess into the restaurant as she explained they were very formal here. I figured this was destined to be the first of many jokes we would hear during out dinner. Our table was just inside the restaurant in the main room.

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The overall decoration around the restaurant was exactly what I expected.

Sara quickly found the "backside of menu"

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Makayla was excited about knives...for some reason.

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Luke and I were feeling the effects of a long September day in Florida.

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At one point, Sara asked where the bathrooms were, and was told it was in a back room, and the doorway you go through is comprised of two steer heads on either side. You can see them in this photo below.

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The host told her to just hoof it on through and she would get to the bathroom. She explained that he kept going with more cow related puns, but I can't remember what they were right now.

For dinner, both our kids ordered mac and cheese. Makayla got hers with a side of potatoes, and Luke chose fresh fruit.

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Sara got a curry dish. It wasn't her favorite thing in the world. She didn't like the little flat bread that came with it. The rest was pretty good though.

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For my meal, I chose the Perkins' Thai noodles. These were by far the best thing on the menu, and would be in the running for best meal I had in WDW. They had just the right amount of spice on them. The only thing wrong was that the plate was so huge, there was no way i could finish the whole thing. I've hit my 10 photo limit, so...continued below... :)
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Here's the photo of my dish.

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At one point, Sara and I traded our dishes so we could try something new. We both agreed the Thai noodles were the best. Sara's curry was pretty good too, at least I thought so.

The kids meals came with a small dessert. Both kids were intrigued by the hard candy sculpture, but quickly became bored with it when it came to eating in.

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Sara, to no one's surprise, chose a chocolatey dessert.

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We finished up our meal, and our server brought the check, then mentioned he had to go get us wristbands. Guests eating at the parks after hours on party days get special bright yellow wristbands, which signify that you had eaten dinner, and are on your way out of the park. I guess that's the WDW alternative to having cast members stopping you 10 times on the way out to tell you that you need to leave.

Tarzan, Jane, and Tarzan's ape friend (forgive me, I'm not a Tarzan fan, I can't remember the name) was out meeting across from the restaurant entrance, and Sara took a photo.

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We made our way through the party goers, down main street and out. Instead of going directly back to the hotel, we hopped on a monorail to head to Epcot. Annual Passholders would get a set of coasters if you visited Epcot 4 times during the F&W festival, and Sara wanted coasters.

On the Monorail

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To Luke and Makayla, this was basically another ride. This was their first time being on the monorail as it went full speed between MK and Epcot.

Some blurry photos were taken from the monorail. Here's one that sort of turned out. From up high, you could see just how much of Ecot was ripped up for construction....it was a lot.

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Another one.

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SSE from the monorail station.

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Our plan was to do a quick in and out at Epcot, but Makayla, as we were standing in line to enter, announced she had to use the bathroom. So we did a quick stop by the SSE area bathrooms before exiting and heading back to the hotel.

Our night was capped by more pool time at the Home Run Pool.

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Spending time at the pool was definitely one of Luke and Makayla's favorite thing about this trip, and I'm glad we go to do it more often than we had in the past. They would have stayed here for the whole rest of the night, until the pool closed at 10, but I was much too tired for that. We gave them about 30 minutes of swim time, then went back up to our room to change into PJ's and head to bed. Certainly an earlier bedtime than our first two days.
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Terk is Tarzan’s BFF, voiced by Rosie O’Donnell 👍

Thanks for the pics from Skipper Canteen - looks SO good! My husband and I are vegan, and have been thinking of booking an ADR here.

Thanks for the assist on the name. Sara of course knew it as well as soon as she read my post. We're all vegetarian in our family, but I'm not positive if what we ordered would qualify as vegan. Hope you get to go soon, we really enjoyed it.
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our third full day, a Monday, was set to be our Epcot World Showcase day. Normally this is day one for us, but this year I convinced Sara to move it to a weekday to try to avoid the crowds at Food and Wine. Not sure if it ended up actually working or not.

We got ourselves ready and to the bus stop, and were met by a very long line, and then a long wait for a bus. We saw all the other parks have buses arrive, but the Epcot line kept getting longer and longer. Finally, the Epcot bus arrived, followed by 2 more Epcot buses within 1-2 minutes afterwards. Our guess is that someone got on the horn to transportation and called out that they needed Epcot buses at All Star Sports, and 3 drivers responded.

The end result of the long wait was being slightly late for our breakfast reservation at Garden Grill. When we arrived, we made it through security and then through the entrance, and headed straight for the Land. We checked in with no issues, and after a brief wait we were led to our table. Shortly after, we met Larbi, our waiter. Larbi was very talkative and quickly became one of our favorite waiters we can remember. He was very good with getting the kids' drink orders figured out, and he was very interactive throughout. Shortly after we sat down, Pluto came by for a stop.

Those who have read our reports before will remember that Makayla does not like characters, at least in the beginning of our trips. She always finds the characters scary. She said as we were leaving our hotel that she didn't want to see any characters, and I assured her she would be fine. Surely enough, when Pluto stopped by, Makayla bolted under the table. We tried to get her out and convince her that Pluto was just there to say hi. Luke was quick enough to get his photo.

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We tried to get Makayla's photo with me holding her, but...she was not enjoying herself.

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Around this time, Larbi came back with fruit and the cinnamon sticky bun. That sticky bun would likely be on a top five list of favorite foods in Disney. So good. We all combined to gobble it down, and Larbi offered to bring us another. I think Sara and I would have said no, but Luke and Makayla were very insistent that they wanted more, so we ended up getting one.

Mickey came by next, and Makayla was slight more ok with meeting Mickey, as long as I was holding her.

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Larbi then brought the main dish out. We had asked for a vegetarian plate, but it still came with bacon and sausage. We were able to eat around it, still enjoying the eggs, waffles, and tater tots, as well as the sticky bun that was left over. It was so much food, but it was so good.

Dale came by next and by now, Makayla was happy to join in our photos. Yay!

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After Dale, Chip came by after a little bit.

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After meeting Chip, we settled up the bill and waddled ourselves out of the restaurant. I took the kids to the bathroom, and when we came out, I found Sara standing near the host stand talking to Larbi. He had realized after we left that we had asked for the vegetarian plate, and couldn't believe that we hadn't said anything. He was very apologetic, and we explained repeatedly it was no big deal. With that, we said our goodbyes to Larbi and began the rest of our day.
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Following our meal at Garden Grill, we went downstairs for a fastpass on Living with the Land. This ride used to be a favorite of Luke and Makayla, but it is slowly making the switch to being a "boring" ride 😞. I'm sure in time it will come back around.

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Sara takes this picture every year...

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Following our boat ride, we made our way over to the Imagination Pavilion and took a ride with Figment. Afterwards Makayla was big enough that she could make music. This was a very exciting time for her...🙂.

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Some more imagination fun. I tried to show Makayla how to play this game, but she was more interested in hitting different rectangles to see what happened.

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Following the fun in the imagination area, we just had to do the leaping fountains. It's a must when we're in this area.

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And a nice photo before we finished our time here.

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Sara noticed yellow dress Belle greeting on the way towards the Imagination restrooms, but by the time she got notice to us and we got over there, she had already left.

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Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We made our way back to World Showcase, which is what Sara really was there for on this day. On our way back, we stopped to get the kids a Remy Showcase game. It was a cute game where you had to find Remy in all the countries, plus a few other places. In each one he had a different ingredient he was cooking with. You placed a sticker of the correct ingredient on the little game board in the right space, and at the end you could redeem your map for a prize.

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Our first stop was Mexico, and we found Remy right away atop the Cantina.

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We went inside to ride the Donald boat ride. This has always been a favorite, with both kids thinking Donald is so hilarious. We rode it once and there was very little line. Once we were done, I asked if they wanted to go again, fully expecting to get a resounding "YES!!!" I did get that from Makayla, but Luke, to my surprise, gave an adamant no. He declared that the ride was BORING.

What????

When did this happen? Our little kid is growing up. Well sorry eight-year-old, we're doing this ride again and you will like it 😜. Makayla at least thought it was really funny.

We exited Mexico and made our way to Norway, and spotted Remy on top of the Bakery roof.

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We were able to coordinate this well so that we were showing up during our fastpass window for Frozen Ever After.

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As you can see in the photo, Makayla was a little scared of the "hill" 🙂.

When we got to China, we had a bit of time before the next 360 degree movie showing, so we scanned unsuccessfully to try to find Remy. We looked all over but couldn't find him. Sara did find a nice spot to have Makayla pose for a photo.

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Eventually, we gave up and went inside for the show. This was the first time seeing the China pavilion movie with the kids. The 3D movies are still popular, so we had a good time. A CM had told us to look for Remy inside the store in China, and sure enough on our way out we found him.

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The kids really liked the little puppet animals they had for sale. I was really nervous about Makayla, she was bouncing hers really hard, I was pretty scared a string would pop and we'd be stuck buying it. Thankfully the structural integrity held firm 🙂.

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As we headed off towards Germany, Sara stopped and purchased a mango drink from the India F&W stand. I don't remember now specifics on what was in it, but it was good.

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More F&W fun is coming.
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Finally back at this trip report...

We made our way over to Germany. I'm ashamed to say it took us a very long time to find Remy, and eventually had to ask a cast member for assistance. He was hiding on a balcony over the beer line.

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We then spent a LOT of time watching the model trains. I think if Luke and Makayla had their way they might have stayed here all day. They would pick a train and then just follow it around.

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Sara tried to get Makayla to pose in front of the water and SSE, but she wasn't having it. This is the best one we got 🙂

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Italy was a quick stop just long enough to find Remy.

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We were then on to American Adventure. Makayla and Sara sat to listen to voices of Liberty while Luke thought it was boring and spent his time in the little Native American exhibit off to the side.

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We stayed afterwards and saw the movie. Because why not on a very hot day 🤷‍♂️. Makayla was wearing a necklace with beads on it, and she must have been pulling on it, because about halfway through the movie she started freaking out that her necklace had come apart and she lost her beads. We did our best to try to calm her down and assure her we would look for them after the show was over.

After the show let out, we found Remy in America, Japan, and then Morocco.

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Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
When we got to France, we decided to get a light dinner as we were getting (very) slightly hungry, and Sara really likes their bakery. We split a quiche and an apple and cheese sandwich between the four of us.

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Of course, desserts were had as well...because they're yummy.

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Not pictured, Sara had a chocolate chip brioche, and Luke and I each got some ice cream from the shop next door.

We stayed in France and watched the movie there, and also found Remy hanging out.

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When we got to UK, we found Remy hanging by the R&C.
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Sara was excited to meet Pooh in Christopher Robin's room, and we actually made it for that just in time. We were the 2nd to last group to make it in for the night.

While we waited for our chance to meet Pooh, the kids had fun checking out the shrubbery pathways.

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Almost our turn.
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Pooh was very interested to say hi to Makayla, but she was not so interested to say hi. Her fear of characters had returned, and she needed to be held during the majority of our time.

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She's a big Pooh fan at heart

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Makayla finally mustered enough courage to give a high five.

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Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We made our way over to Canada once we had finished our meet with Pooh. It was a little sad to look out and see the waterfalls turned off as they were doing their renovation to the area. I'm sure eventually it will be nice. It was a little sad for me to not be able to run around looking at the waterfalls as we inevitably arrive to the show area just after the prior show had just begun. 🙂

We found Remy hanging out near Le Cellier.

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Then, shortly after we had arrived at Canada, we were leaving. We found a redemption location for our maps, and they let the kids get their prize for the game even though we hadn't found all the Remys yet.

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The kids had their choice of travel hot beverage containers. They each picked the Figment one. Sara's love of Figment must be rubbing off on them.

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We left World Showcase heading towards the Imagination Pavilion. We saw Remy at Cheese and Wine stand along the way.

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Then came something Sara was very interested in...the spicy chocolate cake. (It has a name, I just can't remember it now 😜).

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Luke, Sara, and Makayla each fought over who got to eat the swirly chocolate thing on top. In the end they ended up splitting it, and we all enjoyed some cake. It was good, but did have a little kick to it. I enjoyed the mangoes along with Makayla.

More Remy

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Finally, we ended up in the Land Pavilion, to the old Timon and Pumba theater area, where Sara really wanted to try drinking chocolate. She of course had some family members willing to help out. The cool thing was that they were also giving out free Ghirardelli samples while we were in there. That was my personal favorite part.

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Luke and Makayla were really hoping to try the playground that was on the other side of Mouse Gear. Unfortunately when we got there, we learned it was only open during daylight hours, and it was now dark. We decided to do a standby wait on Soarin, which was only about 30 minutes. We all loved it. Soarin remains one of my favorite attractions in all of WDW. It was fun as we were leaving at night we were all talking about our favorite scenes. My personal favorite is the island with the boats. The smell during that time is amazing.

With that, our Epcot day had come to an end. We found our way over to the bus stop, with Makayla using her bubble wand along the way. We did not use the pool this night, as we were getting ourserlves geared up for an early, early start to our next day.
 

Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Here we are on Tuesday, bright and early, leaving our hotel room by 6:15. Yes, this is early for us. Even by non-vacation standards, it's early for us. The whole week, HS and MK were opening at 6am. We had done a bit of an early start our first day, but this day we were all-in.

The moon was still up as we waited at the bus stop.

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As we arrived at the entrance, the Gondolas began moving across a beautiful Florida sunrise (still only in test phase at this time).

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We enjoyed seeing the different characters go by as we walked underneath.

The sun was coming up quickly as we entered the park. It was eerily quiet.

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We hung a left and went straight back towards Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.

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The area above was interesting, they had Rey and Chewy out seeming to work on some type of ship, while they had a photopass area in front of it. My guess is you could get a photopass pic in front of them working. I'm not 100% sure that's what was going on as we only saw it in passing.

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Makayla was really scared to see Storm Troopers approaching, but she was thankful that they left us alone.

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Our destination was Smuggler's Run.

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Lyear

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Unfortunately, I didn't realize the wait time as we were entering. Sara did, and told us once we made our way through the queue to the rest of the crowd that it was going to be a 50 minute wait. Not the worst wait ever, but still longer than I was hoping for when we got up so early.

The queue is very well done. After initially being outside near the Millennium Falcon, we made our way inside to what appeared to be some type of garage or loading area.

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We spent a lot of time wrapping around this area, going up a ramp, then made our way into another area where you actually got to look out over the Falcon. While the queue was unique to look at, it did seem like there were a lot of times where you would go through a door or hallway and you would hope you were going to see the end, but it was just another part of the queue ahead.

Eventually, we made our way to the end of the formal queue, and we were each given cards signifying our jobs. There were 3 jobs on each "ship," with 2 people having each job. Luke and Sara each got to be pilots. Makayla was initially a gunner, but we eventually switched the the two other people on our ship and Makayla and me were both Engineers.

After some video showing us what our mission was, we were led into our cabin. Luke quickly took his spot as the pilot.

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Makayla got into the back of the shop as the Engineer.

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The ride itself was very similar to Star Tours with the jerky motions, but the pilots were in control of what was going on. For the engineers, it's not quite as much fun, as we were along for the ride instead of controlling it. At times there were buttons that would pop up and we would have to hit them, similar to Mission Space. Poor Makayla a lot of time didn't really know what was going on, and there were some times where she wasn't tall enough to press the buttons she was supposed to hit.

A poorly lit shot of Makayla in action.

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About halfway through the ride, I decided I would just focus more on the ride itself instead of my light board and making sure I hit every single light, and I think ultimately that was the right way to go. We eventually had a successful mission, and Luke thought it was a lot of fun.

We grabbed our stroller and made it through more of these guys. Makayla of course wanted nothing to do with them.

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Then it was time for another first for the family...the Tower of Terror!!!

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Luke was a little hesitant to go on it, and surprisingly Makayla didn't take as much convincing. But as we got closer, Makayla got a little more nervous. We were successful in getting everyone loaded, but Makayla was holding on to me tightly throughout the ride.

I'm not sure if this link will work to see our ride video.


Here is the ride photo.

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Yes, Makayla was a little bit scared, at least in the photo. But...so was Sara apparently. Makayla kept saying afterwards that it felt like she was flying, which of course she was a little bit. The whole rest of the day, Makayla was so proud of herself for going on Tower of Terror, and announced it was her new favorite ride. Unfortunately, when we ask her today what she thought, she says she didn't like it and doesn't want to do it again. We'll see though, a lot can change between now and our next trip to Disney.

As we exited TOT, the park was just hitting it's normal opening time of 9am. We had a lot of fun still ahead of us.
 

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