Trip Report Third time’s the charm- Sorta kinda live-Now with bonus content!

We’re going back! Hey everyone it’s me, the Loco. Like many of us here in our little community, I missed out on a few Disney trips thanks to the pandemic. We originally had plans for a west coast trip back I the summer of 2020, but that clearly was a no go. We had a backup plan of visiting WDW in September, but a change of jobs for me forced us to cancel that since I wouldn’t have any available leave time(I started the new job in august). That leads us to now, trip number three, and we are a go! Our last trip was February of 2020 just before the world went bananas, but that seems like decades ago at this point!
Its Been A Long Time Waiting GIF

So Let’s do this! I’ll get the intros and details out of the way.

Who: Those of you who have read any of my older reports know it will be me and the wife. She’s the good looking one in the picture below, which would make me the slightly inebriated one.
54D83DB0-7A70-42DE-8AE8-39E5506CF25F.jpeg

Anyone remember the throwback TR we did last year featuring Molli and Chris getting engaged?

Where:
Four nights here
ED1895B9-B756-43BF-B05B-334E7C7A08A8.jpeg


Followed by three nights here
39454182-D955-4032-A35F-46E84A034DCA.jpeg


Wait, not there. I mean the real wilderness lodge! Copper creek villas to be exact.
AA7F2DB9-78A7-4E8E-8A29-3408ECAC9D1B.jpeg


When: Approximately 48 hours from right now. Am I ready? Of course not. Being the man, I’m contractually obligated to wait until the last second to pack, and to forget something super important!
joel mchale rules GIF by ABC Network


We are excited to get back “home”, even with the restrictions and missing entertainment. I have to admit that it’s been nice not having to plan quite as much. I just made park passes and a few dining reservations and that was that. I’m in the camp that believes fast pass actually inflated wait times for most attractions, and I am not particularly sad to see it go.

We’ll be driving down since we planned this trip before vaccines were widely available and we were still a little on the fence about flying. I feel more comfortable with it now, but prices have skyrocketed, so I’ll just stick with the road trip.
Road Trip Friends GIF by Disney


Will I be putting the loco in Loco_Driver by doing the entire trip in one day? Even I don’t know the answer to that yet. Check back Friday!
Confused Gavin Free GIF by Rooster Teeth


Will I partake in mine and @Tuvalu beloved WCC burnt ends nachos, or a No Way Jose?
Step Brothers Yep GIF by reactionseditor


Will any fellow magicians be making appearances?
Iron Man Reaction GIF


So with all that out of the way, let’s goooo!
Lets Go Start GIF
 
Last edited:

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Now you've done it!
All those terrific pics are making me want to go back to disney, before masks are discontinued!!!
Really, those night time pictures in the MK are beautiful. I love the MK at night with all their twinkling lights and neon.
Thanks for letting us enjoy your fun trip:)
Thanks for following along, glad you enjoyed!
Awesome report as always! I loved seeing Wilderness Lodge. It is my favorite resort. We haven’t stayed there for a few trips and I miss it so much! Glad you had so much fun and some meet ups with other Magicians. Safe travels to you and A.
Thanks for reading. We love wilderness lodge! It was the first resort we stayed at together.
Thanks for a great TR! Safe travels home!

Have a safe trip home!

So glad you had a good trip! Thanks for sharing. Safe travels home!
Thanks so much everyone. We made it home safely and without incident!

Great TR & it was a pleasure to meet you & A!! It was also fun to be able to tease E with Bucky—how appropriate!!🤣🤣
Safe travels on that long journey home!!
It was so great to visit with you and E(and J when he decided to come out of his shell a little!) Tell E happy birthday for us!
Great trip report. But don’t think we have forgotten you never answered our question ....

Hope you had a safe drive home. 😊
Hmmm. @MickeyCB has guessed one.
Really enjoyed your TR, and thanks for sharing your comments and some great photos, too. :)

I hope you both have a safe trip home.
I’m glad you enjoyed. Thanks for the kind words!
Thank you for sharing your adventures with us! Hope your trip home is uneventful!
Thanks for reading.
🎵 Clap my hands and stomp my feet
and try to keep right with him
One sure thing that Loco’s got
Is real ole trip report rhythm 🎵


BEEP BEEP
Thanks my friend. Getting to meet you and Em was certainly a highlight of our trip!
Aw, it's over already?! Thank you for sharing and safe travels home!
All good things must come to an end. Thanks for reading!
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thanks for the report! It looked like y'all did a great job of navigating those Spring Break crowds and had a great trip.
Thanks for reading. Crowds for the most part were not bad at all, save for our last day which was a Saturday with lots of special events going on. I think the weather kept people away the first few days, then the Easter crowds were pretty much gone on Monday.
Thanks for sharing, it was so fun to follow along!
And here's my 2 guesses. Astro Orbiter and The Barnstormer??
And safe travels!!
One of those is correct. The issue of legroom will keep it that way too!

I don’t think @Loco_driver would like what attraction is on my MK ‘never done’ list. 😬
classic film old hollywood GIF
 

cgersic

Well-Known Member
And so, our journey comes to an end. But yours continues on. Grab ahold of your dreams and make them come true. For you are the key to unlocking your own magic. Now go. Let your dreams guide you. Reach out and find your Happily Ever After.
Disney Fireworks GIF

That seriously brought a tear to my eye! Thank you sooo much for doing such a fabulous, live report. I can't wait for the next one!
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thank you for sharing. It looks like you had a great trip along with some great meetups. I hope you made it home safely.
It was really a great trip. I’m so glad to be a part of such a fun little group here and have really enjoyed getting to make some great friends these last few years. We did make it home safely and I’m now at work trying to stay awake
Sleep Reaction GIF

This was wonderful to follow along with! Thank you so much for sharing!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had a blast doing it!
great report - enjoying every post!

Thanks for the much needed Disney vibe.

giphy.gif
You’re most certainly welcome pal! Any idea on when we may have the pleasure of seeing a new trip from you?
Thanks for the live TR! Loved that you were at WL for part of the trip, that among other things got me totally stoked for our vaca in 13...short...days. :)
I loved that I was at WL for part of the trip too! Those two weeks will fly by and you’ll be relaxing at the Boulder ridge pool Omni time!
And so, our journey comes to an end. But yours continues on. Grab ahold of your dreams and make them come true. For you are the key to unlocking your own magic. Now go. Let your dreams guide you. Reach out and find your Happily Ever After.
Disney Fireworks GIF

That seriously brought a tear to my eye! Thank you sooo much for doing such a fabulous, live report. I can't wait for the next one!
Thanks for following along. The next one will be here soon-ish!
 

MotherofaPrincessLover

Well-Known Member
And so, our journey comes to an end. But yours continues on. Grab ahold of your dreams and make them come true. For you are the key to unlocking your own magic. Now go. Let your dreams guide you. Reach out and find your Happily Ever After.
Disney Fireworks GIF

That seriously brought a tear to my eye! Thank you sooo much for doing such a fabulous, live report. I can't wait for the next one!
Me too. When that show comes back and I see it, there are going to be lots of tears.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Some last thoughts.

In my past reports I’ve included a last post with some impressions and thoughts about our trip. This one will be no different. So here are some final thoughts.

Hotels-This was our first time staying at the DVC side of both Beach club and wilderness lodge. As far as room design/aesthetic goes, I’m more of a WL fan. The hotels were probably what felt the most “normal” to me as far as cast interactions goes. If I had to chose one over the other it’s probably beach club, but that’s more to do with the location than anything else. WL is a great hotel. Having said all that, if I were driving and paying cash for a room at WDW I’d probably stay offsite. We got some great rates for the first and last nights of our trips at some fairly nice hotels. We had one night at the galleria palms hotel which is literally three minutes from AK for $65 including tax. Our last night was at a Fairfield inn at crossroads where we got a king suite that came with a little room with bunk beds for kids, and that one was $70 with tax. With the lack of on site perks right now it would be hard to sell me on paying cash for a Disney room with places like that nearby!

Transportation- Bus service was hit or miss, which is not unusual. It sounds like we were generally lucky with bus transportation after reading other reports. We did end up driving to DHS two times, and to AK which was really convenient. The boats from wilderness lodge were great in the morning and night, but horrible in the middle of the day when they go down to just one boat. It’s really frustrating to see three campground boats pull out while you wait on the one boat. The smaller boats have such limited capacity right now I’m not sure why they’re using them at all. We didn’t use skyliner for any park opening or closing times, but there was quite a line during those times. COVID restrictions have really hurt the capacity there, but it’s nice to have your own cabin if there’s not too long of a line. Not necessarily transportation related, but the walkway from GF to MK is awesome and will be a real lifesaver for those staying there when fireworks return!

Parks-The parks generally felt ok to us. The new security process is worlds better than the old way. As others have stated, it is confusing sometimes knowing where to go. They seem to change the entrances to restaurants, stores, and ride queues at random sometimes. I like the hand sanitizer stations everywhere, and hope these are permanent, because people are gross. Plexiglass sucks, especially on Kilimanjaro Safaris, but if it helps with capacity I’m ok with it. My best advice for anyone going to the parks is to get there as early as you can, leave around lunch, and come back in the evening. Also eating is hard at WDW, so pack accordingly!

Lastly I wanna mention how great it is to be a part of such a fun community. Getting the chance to meet so many great people wouldn’t have been possible had I simply stayed in the shadows lurking. Getting to know @Tuvalu, @Darstarr, and @riverside was easily the highlight of this trip, and I hope to get the chance to meet more of you in the future. Because WDW isn’t nearly as special if you don’t have incredible friends and family to share it with, and that includes all of you guys!
38E79672-5ECF-4A83-9200-B4FB4C54F6DF.jpeg
05C16BE7-865A-46F2-A1AF-D73B0E093E5A.jpeg
F294F29A-DFD5-444F-A675-F0CCDEF9CAD3.jpeg
D1C7434A-51B3-4EB2-9FFF-1B07A161251D.jpeg


Until next time!
9CBC6806-4C90-473E-8729-E3587F74F103.gif
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
So much fun!! I was wondering about staying off site. It seems like so many of the perks of staying onsite are gone. No fastpasses, so that early booking isn't a perk, they seemed to be letting people in before park opening, so extra magic hours aren't a thing, and now that they are getting rid of magic bands and the magical express, I don't know what's left besided the early booking of ADRs. I'm not sure there's much incentive to stay on property anymore.
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Some last thoughts.

In my past reports I’ve included a last post with some impressions and thoughts about our trip. This one will be no different. So here are some final thoughts.

Your last thoughts/impressions were very helpful, especially to people who have not visited WDW for a long time. (For me, it's been 3 years, at this point.)

Also, I'd like to say that both you and @Tuvalu have a very balanced approach to sharing details -- both good and bad. This provides some valuable insight to many of us here on the forum, and thank you (again) for taking the time to share your experiences. So glad that you and your wife had so much fun on your trip! :happy:
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So much fun!! I was wondering about staying off site. It seems like so many of the perks of staying onsite are gone. No fastpasses, so that early booking isn't a perk, they seemed to be letting people in before park opening, so extra magic hours aren't a thing, and now that they are getting rid of magic bands and the magical express, I don't know what's left besided the early booking of ADRs. I'm not sure there's much incentive to stay on property anymore.
Yeah there are pretty much no benefits to paying extra to stay on Disney property other than maybe Disney transportation if you wanna call that a perk. Some friends of ours who used to always stay onsite just got back from a weeks stay in a vacation house near MK where they paid less than they would have to stay at Caribbean Beach. The house had four bedrooms and a private pool with a hot tub in the back. They say they’ll never stay onsite again now.
Your last thoughts/impressions were very helpful, especially to people who have not visited WDW for a long time. (For me, it's been 3 years, at this point.)

Also, I'd like to say that both you and @Tuvalu have a very balanced approach to sharing details -- both good and bad. This provides some valuable insight to many of us here on the forum, and thank you (again) for taking the time to share your experiences. So glad that you and your wife had so much fun on your trip! :happy:
Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad I could help. We still enjoyed our time at WDW and can’t wait to go back, but it’s certainly far from perfect right now!
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom