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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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...

WHAT?????

We worked so hard .

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

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.

 

[riverside]

I'm pretty scared of heights.

I feel your pain!!

 

[Rista1313]

Man.. we were there until the 24th! Sad we didn't get to meet!

 

[Isabelle12345]

Following! This was a great start for a « late » morning!
Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

 

[Lyear]

I feel your pain!!

Haha thanks. I don't get a lot of sympathy inside my house on this one

Man.. we were there until the 24th! Sad we didn't get to meet!

I'm horrible at spotting people in crowds. I could have walked past you 3 times without recognizing.

Following! This was a great start for a « late » morning!
Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

Thanks for following along. Yes, definitely wasn't too late of a start. A few times later in the week we got some later starts. For the most part we're pretty good at getting up and moving.

 

[Lyear]

I set an alarm following our nap to wake us up with a little extra time so that we could have some pool time. It was SOOOOO nice having the pool right outside our hotel. We woke up and 5 minutes later we were hopping in the pool. I must say the pool was pretty cold. Of course Luke and Makayla loved it. They probably would have spent most of our vacation swimming in the pool.

We stayed in the pool for about 20-30 minutes, then went back to our room to change and get ready for our evening. Soon, we were making our way back to the bus stop and headed towards Epcot.

 

[Lyear]

We made our way to the entrance of Epcot. Once inside, I was amazed at the amount of construction walls up. I had read about all the work they were doing in future world, but nothing prepared me for this. All the Leave a Legacy rocks were down, which Luke noticed immediately. There was a giant green wall to the left side of the Leave a Legacy area, which also swallowed the fountain. We would go on to find more behind SSE and near the Test Track and Mission Space area. Epcot will certainly look different.

I had grabbed a SSE fastpass earlier in the day so we used that first, even though the line was only about a 10 minute wait. I rode with Luke, and I remember the ride seemed to stop a lot. Once we had finished, we stopped by the area outside of Mouse Gear to pick up our AP magnets. Then we were off to World Showcase and our dinner reservation in Mexico.

Yes, we were eating our first dinner at San Angel Inn. Just like we always do. I had suggested to Sara that we try something else first, but she just scoffed. I guess this tradition is just too engrained.

We requested a waterside table, and it only took about 5 minutes before our table was ready.

Luke and Makayla were going between waving at the boats passing by and trying to read and color their kids menus in the dark. For dinner, Sara and I each got the Plato Vegetarian.

Luke got the Mac and Cheese

Makayla got a Cheese Quesadilla meal.

For dessert we split a chocolate dish between the four of us. I don't remember now exactly what it was called.

The food tasted great as always. I feel like I've written about this restaurant so many times there's not much more to say. There's a reason we keep going back. The food is always excellent and the atmosphere is fun while also cozy.

Following our meal, the wait for the Donald boat ride was pretty long, so we decided to skip it. Luke and Makayla both wanted to the Coco skeleton dressing game, and we also spent some time looking at the attractions and art in the main entrance.

 

[Rista1313]

I'm horrible at spotting people in crowds. I could have walked past you 3 times without recognizing.

I'm the same way! I'm so absorbed with everything else that people are a blur!

 

[Lyear]

We decided to go into Future World as World Showcase was pretty crowded with Food and Wine fun. Before we left though Sara snapped a cool sunset photo from Mexico.

Luke was very interested in playing in the leaping fountains near the Imagination Pavilion, but unfortunately that area was closed off. I believe most of Future World closed at 7, but certain areas were still open. We decided to do the Nemo ride instead which was a walk on and always a crowd favorite. Makayla was happy that the little glowy fish was not operational during our ride, she said that was the part that scares her.

After Nemo, we took some time to check out the aquarium. Always a big hit with Luke and Makayla.

The stingrays were a favorite.

Makayla saw Bruce the Shark on the way out and insisted we get a photo.

I went behind Bruce with them to help Makayla get up for the photo, and there was a very nice boy back there who was running crowd control. He was probably 5 or 6 years old, but he was telling the groups when it was their time to go and making sure no one jumped into a photo too early. It was pretty cute.

Sara noticed that the wait for Soarin was only 30 minutes, so we decided to do it standby. And this brings us to the title of this trip report. A little back story is needed.

All summer long, Luke has been obsessed with the song "Old Town Road." He sings it all the time. I had never heard the actual song until several weeks before our trip when the kids had a birthday party at our local roller skating rink. But from listening to Luke, I feel like I had heard it many times before.

Makayla is very much a monkey see monkey do type of sister, so whenever she would hear Luke singing the song, she would sing it too. So at some point during this evening, Luke must have been singing "Old Town Road," because as we're standing in line for Soarin, we hear her singing it, but the words weren't quite right. It was during the verse part of the song, and I was pretty sure I heard her sing, "The tractor's out of gas, nobody tells me nothing." I asked her, and she confirmed that those are the words we were singing.

I don't know what the actual words at that point of the song are, but we all got a kick out of imagining some farmer taking is tractor out to a field only to run out of gas and realize that someone had used it before but didn't tell him that the gas tank was nearly empty. All week long we kept repeating this over and over. I realize it may not be as funny to read this as a story, but to us it was hilarious.

Anyway, by the time we had nearly finished up laughing from the song lyric mix up, our time to board had arrived. We were luck enough to get the top row in a side seat, and ended up with a great view. We all loved it. Soarin ranks right up there on a short list of my favorite rides in Disney. As we finished we were all talking about our favorite scenes and smells. Makayla thought the bird and plane that lead to the scene changes were pretty scary, and we all agreed we liked the animals and island scene.

Once we had finished Soarin, it was nearly time for Illuminations. Sara went ahead with the kids towards World Showcase while I went back towards Nemo to get our stroller, then followed a short ways behind. She ended up finding some space in a crowded World Showcase near Norway. Once we arrived, we only had to wait about 10 minutes for the show to start.

This would be our last time experiencing Illuminations. It was the first fireworks show I had ever seen at WDW, and certainly was a great one. I enjoyed it each time I saw it. Hopefully this is a case where the new show fills the shoes of the one before it.

Once the show had ended, we waited a few minutes for the crowds to thin out, then began our walk towards the park exit. We thankfully didn't have to wait very long for a bus. We made it back to our resort, and then back to our room. With that, our first full day had ended. When we woke up, we would be heading to Magic Kingdom.

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Your family is so cute (and I love those matching dresses)! Can’t wait for the rest of your TR

 

[AgentPerry]

Following along, loving it so far

 

[MinnieM123]

Makayla is very much a monkey see monkey do type of sister, so whenever she would hear Luke singing the song, she would sing it too.

She reminds me of myself when I was little girl. I had two older brothers, and sometimes I'd mirror image exactly what they were doing!

 

[KellBelle]

Late as usual...

1. Looking forward to reading!
2. Your cats are beautiful!
3. I am TOTALLY with you on the heights thing.. NO WAY I would get on one of those gondolas!
4. Your family is as beautiful as always!

That is all

 

[Lyear]

Your family is so cute (and I love those matching dresses)! Can’t wait for the rest of your TR

Thank you! Sara was EXTREMELY excited to wear the matching dresses.

Following along, loving it so far

Thank you for following along.

She reminds me of myself when I was little girl. I had two older brothers, and sometimes I'd mirror image exactly what they were doing!

Yes, I've heard from a couple people about that, so it sounds like it's pretty common.

Late as usual...

1. Looking forward to reading!
2. Your cats are beautiful!
3. I am TOTALLY with you on the heights thing.. NO WAY I would get on one of those gondolas!
4. Your family is as beautiful as always!

That is all

Thank you for following along. Not too late, we've just gotten the first day done.

 

[Lyear]

We woke up on Sunday and it was our Magic Kingdom day. We decided to try MK on a Sunday since they were having a party that night and closing early, we figured the crowds might be at a lower level. Makayla was so excited as we got ready, she kept repeating over and over that she couldn't wait to see the beautiful castle. We had a very short line for MK, and ended up getting to the gate shortly before 9am. The part had opened at 6am that day as part of the extra early starts that were happening during our entire trip, but no way we were going for that today. The one sad part about that is we didn't get to see the welcome show. I asked a cm if perhaps they would do a second one at 9am, but unfortunately it was only going to be the one at 6am.

Makayla loved seeing the castle. For me, it was the first time seeing the fall decorations up at MK for a long time, and it looked marvelous. We walked quickly down Main Street and I tried to tell Luke about the names in the upper windows of the buildings, but he was only interested in learning what ride we were going on first. We went over towards Tomorrowland, which is our custom.

Since it was still relatively early, our plan was to split up. Sara had really wanted to take Luke on Space Mountain for his first time, but he wasn't very interested. We offered to get a fastpass for him, but he said no. The wait was only 20 minutes this morning, so Sara was determined to go for it. We parked our stroller and told him that he was going with Sara, and I was going with Makayla. Makayla and I started heading over towards the speedway. Soon after, Luke comes running up behind us with a pouty look on his face. He had figured out where Sara was taking him . It took a LOT of encouragement from Sara that he would really like it, but eventually she was able to convince him to try it.

Meanwhile, Makayla and I had fun on the Speedway.

We could have gone again, but she didn't want to. We were thinking of going on another ride, but I didn't want to miss Luke and Sara when they came out. We ended up playing in the mister in tomorrowland for a bit.

After a bit, Luke and Makayla came out and found us. Turns out, there was a bit of a wait for Space Mountain, and Luke was a bit frustrated that they were standby and all the fastpass people got to go in front of them. But once they went on it, Luke though it was ok. He didn't really like it, but he didn't hate it either. Sara made sure to reach out and hold his shoulder during the ride, which at least for this picture he did with his eyes closed.

When we had finished, we went over and did our first fastpass on Buzz Lightyear.

Once we saved the galaxy, we decided to take a more relaxing ride on the peoplemover.

Sara was very interested to try a fruit and nutella waffle from Sleepy Hollow, so when we finished on peoplemover, she walked over there to grab one. The kids and I stayed in tomorrowland to take our first ever ride on the Astro Orbiter.

We were lucky with this. Earlier in the day, the ride had shut down. And just as we were saying bye to Sara, I noticed the CM's were opening it back up. We walked over and got in line and were the 2nd ride on the newly opened orbiter. Since there were 3 of us, we all fit into one spaceship, which meant we were very packed in there. My takeaway of the ride is that it's very short. It seemed like we got going, did maybe 5 rotations, then were coming back down. Second, they really, really hurry you along in getting into the elevator after the ride. I wanted to try to take a photo from the top, and I was pretty convinced they were going to send the elevator without me.

Makayla didn't want to be a good listener here, so she wasn't able to get in the photo . All good though, Luke was looking right into the sun anyway ☺.

We did another round on the people mover, and by then Sara had made her way back into Tomorrowland with her her waffle. She grabbed a table outside of cosmic ray's and we all soon joined her.

 

[Lyear]

Once we had finished our yummy waffle, we had a bit of a disagreement on what to do next. Makayla really wanted to see Carousel of Progress and see the puppy in the show. Luke really did NOT want to do this. He wanted to do the speedway. We decided we would split up once again. I took Luke to the speedway, which was about a 20 minute wait at this point. Sara took Makayla over to COP.

Luke did a pretty good job of driving the car himself, but did have a couple times where he would hit the middle bar and then the car would bounce back and forth a couple times out of control. We'd have to slow down to let him get a grip on the steering wheel again.

When we had finished, we went over towards the Tomorrowland mister again, and Luke said he wanted to do Space Mountain again. Apparently he liked it a bit more than he let on. I looked over and made out that it was a 30 minute wait, so I texted Sara and let her know we were going for it. Luke was very excited to be going on it again, but unfortunately it ended up being closer to a 50 minute wait than a 30 minute one. I was texting Sara our status, and she decided to take Makayla on her 3rd ride on the people mover while she waited for us. After a while, we finally had our turn.

Luke kept his eyes open this time, at least during the photo. When we had finished, he had decided that he really liked Space Mountain . Hmmmm...just like we thought he would.

We med up with Sara and Makayla, and it was time for our next fastpass at Peter Pan. This ride was a favorite of Makayla's, but unfortunately it always seems to end so quickly.

When our trip to Neverland ended, we decided to grab some lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus. It was still pretty early by lunch stands, I'm guessing it was around 11:30. The restaurant had some empty tables, but it was filling up quickly.

For our lunch, Sara got the caprese flatbread, and I decided to go with a 4 cheese flatbread. This, in hindsight, was a mistake. I tried Sara's and it tasted much better. Luke also got a cheese pizza in the kids size. Makayla chose an uncrustable sandwich.

Luke was my helper in getting the food to the table, while Sara and Makayla found us a table.

No photos of our food, as we've all seen pizza and PB&J before, but we did get this fun dessert.

Other than the 4 cheese flatbread not tasting the best, it was an enjoyable meal.

After lunch, we all went to Philharmagic, which is one of Makayla's favorites. She really likes seeing the funny things Donald gets into, and giggled through just about the whole movie. Then, it was time for a spin on the carousel, which in this instance really seemed to have a slow load time.

While we were going around, we noticed Drizella and Anastasia getting in line to ride. Sara quickly snapped a photo.

It probably seemed like the line for the carousel took so long to load because we were well into our fastpass window for 7 Dwarfs when we got in line. Once our ride ended, we quickly hopped off our horses, found the exit, and ran over to the entrance. This ride has been Luke's favorite for a long time. It's one of Makayla's favorite's now too.

Coming up next...a bit of magic at the MK parade.

 

[MickeyCB]

Makayla saw Bruce the Shark on the way out and insisted we get a photo.

And this is the girl afraid of the little glowy fish?!
Late to the TR but enjoying following along!

 

[jlag1006]

Once we had finished our yummy waffle, we had a bit of a disagreement on what to do next. Makayla really wanted to see Carousel of Progress and see the puppy in the show. Luke really did NOT want to do this. He wanted to do the speedway. We decided we would split up once again. I took Luke to the speedway, which was about a 20 minute wait at this point. Sara took Makayla over to COP.

Luke did a pretty good job of driving the car himself, but did have a couple times where he would hit the middle bar and then the car would bounce back and forth a couple times out of control. We'd have to slow down to let him get a grip on the steering wheel again.

When we had finished, we went over towards the Tomorrowland mister again, and Luke said he wanted to do Space Mountain again. Apparently he liked it a bit more than he let on. I looked over and made out that it was a 30 minute wait, so I texted Sara and let her know we were going for it. Luke was very excited to be going on it again, but unfortunately it ended up being closer to a 50 minute wait than a 30 minute one. I was texting Sara our status, and she decided to take Makayla on her 3rd ride on the people mover while she waited for us. After a while, we finally had our turn.

View attachment 423827

Luke kept his eyes open this time, at least during the photo. When we had finished, he had decided that he really liked Space Mountain . Hmmmm...just like we thought he would.

We med up with Sara and Makayla, and it was time for our next fastpass at Peter Pan. This ride was a favorite of Makayla's, but unfortunately it always seems to end so quickly.

When our trip to Neverland ended, we decided to grab some lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus. It was still pretty early by lunch stands, I'm guessing it was around 11:30. The restaurant had some empty tables, but it was filling up quickly.

For our lunch, Sara got the caprese flatbread, and I decided to go with a 4 cheese flatbread. This, in hindsight, was a mistake. I tried Sara's and it tasted much better. Luke also got a cheese pizza in the kids size. Makayla chose an uncrustable sandwich.

Luke was my helper in getting the food to the table, while Sara and Makayla found us a table.

View attachment 423828

No photos of our food, as we've all seen pizza and PB&J before, but we did get this fun dessert.

View attachment 423829

Other than the 4 cheese flatbread not tasting the best, it was an enjoyable meal.

After lunch, we all went to Philharmagic, which is one of Makayla's favorites. She really likes seeing the funny things Donald gets into, and giggled through just about the whole movie. Then, it was time for a spin on the carousel, which in this instance really seemed to have a slow load time.

View attachment 423831

View attachment 423832

While we were going around, we noticed Drizella and Anastasia getting in line to ride. Sara quickly snapped a photo.

View attachment 423833

It probably seemed like the line for the carousel took so long to load because we were well into our fastpass window for 7 Dwarfs when we got in line. Once our ride ended, we quickly hopped off our horses, found the exit, and ran over to the entrance. This ride has been Luke's favorite for a long time. It's one of Makayla's favorite's now too.

View attachment 423834

View attachment 423835

View attachment 423836

View attachment 423837


Coming up next...a bit of magic at the MK parade.

OMG we were on Seven Dwarfs together! That's my friend & me in the car in front of you with the coordinating Halloween shirts! (not sure why I look terrified in the 2nd pic, lol)

 

[Lyear]

And this is the girl afraid of the little glowy fish?!
Late to the TR but enjoying following along!

Well in fairness Bruce is not moving and making scary noises . thanks for following.

OMG we were on Seven Dwarfs together! That's my friend & me in the car in front of you with the coordinating Halloween shirts! (not sure why I look terrified in the 2nd pic, lol)

that is funny. I didn't notice the terrified look until you said something. I always wonder how many times I appear in someone else's photos.

 

[Lyear]

If you've read some of my prior trip reports, you know that our family loves the MK parade. I believe we've seen it every year we've gone with Luke and Makayla. The last couple years, we had done the Tony's Parade dining package for the reserved seats right in the flagpole hub inside the main entrance. This visit, we decided that we wanted to do something other than Tony's. We like Tony's, but something new was in order. This of course meant we would have to stake out our own seats to see the parade this year.

When our turn on 7 dwarfs ended, we hustled to the main hub. My initial idea was to go over into Liberty Square, but as soon as we arrived in the main area we realized finding a spot was going to be difficult, no matter where we went. We were about 20 minutes early to the parade. Sara thought it looked a bit less crowded in the hub, rather than around it. We made our way over there, and found some space where Luke and Makayla could sit close to the action, but Sara and I would be back behind.

As we sat there in the sun, waiting for the parade to start, it was HOT! This wasn't the hottest day of our trip by far, but sitting there with the sun coming down on us and being surrounded by so many people, you could really feel it here. So we were here for about 5 minutes, when a cast member came up and knelt down and began talking to Makayla. She was talking about her being dressed up like Belle, and then asked if she would like for her and her family to come over to a special seating area. Makayla looked back at me, not sure what to say. I said, half to Makayla, and half to the cm, that yes, of course we would be welcome to that. They walked us over to a small area with benches in front of Liberty Square.

The greatest thing about this spot was that it was in the shade! It was so much cooler sitting there. It was also an area where seating was only on one side of the walkway, so all the characters coming by were looking over at us. We were SOOO fortunate to be lucky enough to sit there, and obviously owe a huge thanks to the CM who decided to come over and talk to Makayla. I did take a picture of them before they went about the rest of their day.

We had a magical time watching and waving, interacting with the characters and even giving some of them high fives.

Sara, as always, was super on top of taking photos. Unfortunately google photos completely placed them out of order when uploading them, so fair warning the following photos will not be in order of the parade flow.

Mr. Smee stopped over to say hello

 

[Lyear]

More Parade Photos

This is the moment Belle noticed that Makayla was wearing her dress. Makayla was very excited that she noticed.

I can't overstate how cool it was to be the seated on the only side where seating was allowed. This meant that we got 100% of the characters' attention, which made for a truly memorable experience. Awesome to have all the characters coming through waving and noticing us.

Luke and Makayla really weren't sure what to do about Grumpy