Trip Report Trip Report IV: A New Hope ***Completed***

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Trip Report IV: A New Hope

It is a period of domestic unrest. After years of wearing him down BES has won her first victory in getting DH to join her at WDW.

After her last adventure to WDW BES managed to uncover DH’s not so secret plans to see Disney’s ultimate weapon: STAR WARS STUFF.

Pursuant to DH’s hint of interest, BES raced to plan an awesome trip to win her spouse over to the Disney side of THE FORCE and restore freedom to the galaxy...

When: January 31st to February 6th
Where: Port Orleans- Riverside
Who: Just DH and myself (BES)

Here’s the pre-trip report.

I’ll start with something I finished in between trips. I’m not kidding when I say we are a pro-SW household:

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Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 2: February 1st continued

We entered Epcot via the IG. It seemed pretty calm. I didn’t see any riff raff. Oh no...

It’s because we were the riff raff. 😱 My apologies! 😂

France was très crowded so we moved in Morocco to look for coffee. I recommended the Moorish coffee at Tangierine cafe to DH.

It was the second time my coffee recommendations let him down that day. 😬 Oh well. I still like it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

We explored Morocco and Japan and checked out the Kawaii exhibit. We walked thru Mitsukoshi. DH couldn’t believe how big it was.

Next up I took a gamble and took DH to the American Adventure.

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As you may have picked up on DH and be a bit of a grumpy young old man. He did appreciate the animatronics but thought the show was “too pro-American” as it only focused on the positive parts of American history.

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I staunchly defended AA and thus America. When it came down to it DH’s problem was the way the Native Americans got shafted in AA which is pretty valid.

The Chief Joseph speech in AA was also in a textbook DH encountered in his previous job so he was already a little pre-bitter towards it. Similar to AA, this was the textbook’s only mention of Native Americans. It’s kinda 😬 for us in both cases because it’s a surrender speech with the overall summary of:

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Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 2: February 1st continued

On a brighter and more familiar note our next order of business was... more coffee.

I swear recouped my AP cost just with the Joffrey’s savings from this trip alone.

We made our way to the front of the park and ride SE.

We left Epcot and realized on the bus that we kind of missed dinner. We got off at the main depot and had dinner in the food court.

I had a chicken Caesar salad. DH had a burger. He declared it the worst thing he ate all day. (I think it won the week too)

I told DH about my trip rules and how no burgers is one of them. DH decided that was a good rule.

Back at the room I asked DH how many steps he thought we took.

DH: “200000”

BES: “Close. 31,654”

And we were out of the room for more than 12 hours. Not bad for someone who didn’t think he would like theme parks.

We did some TV watching and went to bed before 10. After our long day we happily set no alarm.
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 3: February 2nd

We slept in and mobile ordered breakfast as we got ready.

I introduced DH to kids meal breakfast.

DH: “But we’re not kids. They’ll know when we order!”

BES:
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“That’s the beauty of the mobile order. Can’t judge us when ordering if they can’t see us order. Also they really don’t care. And who’s to say we don’t have children that we’ve just left unattended somewhere.”

Look at our bounty:

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I had waffles. DH had pancakes. Neither of us ordered meat as our sides but both got it in addition to our other sides.

We hopped on a Bendy bus to MK. By this time the park had been open for a bit. I figured we could just waltz in there. Nope. Sardines can’t waltz.
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Quick question, do you two like coffee?

I think I will have to take advantage of kids meals lol

Haha. We’ve really been good this year at cutting our coffee intake drastically but definitely went back to our old ways while on vacation mode.

(At my worst I would drink “double coffee” at work- coffee with a packet of instant coffee it. Now for nearly a year I’ve managed 1 to 2 cups for most days.)

The kids meals are a great deal. Really frees up some extra coffee money. 😉
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 3: February 2nd continued

Just outside of the MK bus area we encountered a surprise.

All of @Tuvalu ‘s Brazilian tour group neighbors at POP also decided to show up late to MK! 🤦🏻‍♀️

There was a megaphone wielding CM encouraging all non bag people to get into the no bag line that was all the way to the left.

No worries. Surely DH had learned his lesson after the previous day’s no phone issue...

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This time DH decided to go thru the no bag line and “you know just meet someone off to the left”.

I decided to go for the left-most bag line. The tour group girls were generally well behaved but unfortunately all had backpacks.

One additionally had this?!:

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The bag check line moved pretty fast. The true bottleneck was that everyone was also sent thru a metal detector and there were at least 4 bag check lines per detector.

Miraculously I found DH and we still had time on our first FP window.
 

krisri18

Well-Known Member
Day 3: February 2nd continued

Just outside of the MK bus area we encountered a surprise.

All of @Tuvalu ‘s Brazilian tour group neighbors at POP also decided to show up late to MK! 🤦🏻‍♀️

There was a megaphone wielding CM encouraging all non bag people to get into the no bag line that was all the way to the left.

No worries. Surely DH had learned his lesson after the previous day’s no phone issue...

View attachment 451749

This time DH decided to go thru the no bag line and “you know just meet someone off to the left”.

I decided to go for the left-most bag line. The tour group girls were generally well behaved but unfortunately all had backpacks.

One additionally had this?!:

View attachment 451750

The bag check line moved pretty fast. The true bottleneck was that everyone was also sent thru a metal detector and there were at least 4 bag check lines per detector.

Miraculously I found DH and we still had time on our first FP window.
Oh I would love to know what they plan to do with a Rody horse in the MK. Baby E has a green one, but you know I didn't bring it to Disney. Lol
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Oh I would love to know what they plan to do with a Rody horse in the MK. Baby E has a green one, but you know I didn't bring it to Disney. Lol

Rody horse? I didn’t even know it had a name. I lost track of them in the bag line. I would have liked to know if security had an issue with it. I mean I don’t know if it technically violates any park rules but it just seems like a recipe for trouble.
 

krisri18

Well-Known Member
Rody horse? I didn’t even know it had a name. I lost track of them in the bag line. I would have liked to know if security had an issue with it. I mean I don’t know if it technically violates any park rules but it just seems like a recipe for trouble.
Yup, he's got a name and comes in a rainbow of colors! Lol kinda of like a Hippity hop but in a donkey/horse shape.
CA-ltBDVAAAg8ry.jpg
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 3: February 2nd continued

When I hastily booked this trip at 61 days out I didn’t have a lot of time to plan FPs.

DH had said he loved getting up early on vacation so I booked a lot of late morning/early afternoon FPs thinking we would be RD’ing and could do a lot of rides at park opening.

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(To DH’s credit he did get up extra early twice for RotR)

I am telling this to say I didn’t anticipate our first FP of Space Mountain being DH’s first ride of the day. 😬

He says he likes rollercoasters but... he only did one at Dollywood and declined all the rest.

He also has some back issues but he assured me that he would be good with SM and... everything was fine!

We were in the back the train on Omega side. I took the very last seat for the sake of DH’s back. That ride is noticeably rougher than it used to be- both SM and I are getting older.

DH saw the Joffrey’s near SM and I denied him.

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The line was long and we had some timed stuff coming up.

Next we swam across the hub to Adventureland.
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 3: February 2nd continued

It wasn’t quite time for our next FP so we stopped by the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

DH liked it. I was a little bummed that it was pretty crowded and we were in front of family that had a kid that really rushed us. (On every staircase this kid was on the step immediately behind us.)

Our 2nd FP was for the Jungle Cruise. Our skipper Sarah Kate was a delight. She was pretty deadpan which I love.

By the time we finished our cruise it was nearly time for our lunch reservation.

We made the long perilous trek to Skipper Canteen. The restaurant was just opening for the day and we were among the first seated.

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DH had the Curry Vegetable Crew Stew and I think the Punch Line Punch.

I had the A Lot at Steak Salad and sangria. I got to pick from three types but I can’t remember what mine was called.

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It was weird to drink alcohol at MK. I felt like Mickey Mouse might show up at any moment and slap the drink out of my hand. 😂

The only downside to Skipper Canteen was that since it wasn’t crowded we got to hear our waiter give his spiel to us and all of his other tables. It was funny the first couple times...
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 3: February 2nd continued

After lunch I decided to take a gamble and take DH to where the all birds sing words and the flowers croon.

I warned him that I took my family in May and it wasn’t well received. I think my nephew liked it but my dad later in the trip in his review of JII said “well at least it was better than that singing bird one. ”

In the outside waiting area DH note a duck in the water and joked that animatronics are really getting realistic looking.

(You can kind of see the duck. Barely):
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DH really liked it! I caught him humming the song later in the trip. He said he was really liking all of the older less flashy attractions. 😍😍😍

Next DH had an idea for what to do.

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HoP was Disney first for me and quite possibly a Disney last.

Similar to Twain’s “golf is a good walk spoiled” I would say HoP is a good nap spoiled.

The wait times and crowds were crazy. Our final FP was SDMT but not until later.

DH suggested heading to another park. I agreed but with one condition.

I changed my future SDMT FP for an immediate Dumbo one. 😱

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This is one of my favorite rides if not overall favorite mostly because Dumbo was my favorite Disney movie growing up.

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It was about 2:30. Time leave MK and also time for more ☕
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 3: February 2nd continued.

I guess this day’s theme is me preventing DH from getting coffee. The previous day’s theme was me recommending coffee he didn’t like. 😂

We past a very crowded Starbucks on our way out of MK. Again I denied DH.

Headed to the monorail. I suggested making a stop at Poly for coffee there. DH said no to that. It turns out he wanted Epcot snacks *and* coffee. So Express monorail it was.

We made our way to WS and passed the new Epcot Starbucks. Another denial. Too crowded.

We finally stopped for coffee in Canada. And by we I mean DH. I had another idea for a drink...

Went to France for snacks. We had a Framboise cake and a café liégeois (my personal favorite)
Blurry pic. Had to get it before DH got to the snacks.

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As we left France the balancing act was underway. DH stopped to watch. Or rather I told DH to stay put and watch and I grabbed my drink:

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Not bad but not my favorite though. Just not my favorite types of boozes.

I’m meh on Dole Whips, FOP and now the Grand Mariner Slush- am I allowed to be a Magician? 😬
 

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