Trip Report Two goofs and an orange bird conquer the world.

Hello all!

I’ve finally found a little time to patch together a trip report from our trip in mid June. It was just the wife(A), and I(Dave)on this trip. We started out at Yacht Club, then went down the road to that other place in Orlando for a few days, before finishing up with a stay at the poly. Along the way we laughed, we cried, we survived many storms, and endured some brutal heat! Let the shenanigans begin!

Sunday June 16

We took two days to drive down from Texas, arriving on the 16th. I won’t bore you with the details of our long, mostly boring trip.

We made it on property by mid morning. Our room wasn’t ready, so we headed into Epcot in search of something to eat. We had an early lunch at Les Halles. I had the jambon beurre, and A had a B.L.T. We were super hungry from our morning drive, and didn’t take any pictures. My sandwich was fine, A really liked hers.

We split this thing for dessert. It was delicious!

After lunch we strolled around a very empty world showcase just taking in the sights and sounds of each pavilion. We also came across a few PP photographers along the way

Notice the increasing amount of sweat on my shirt as we progressed. It was only around 11:45 and it was already sweltering! Also you may notice A is wearing an orange bird backpack in a few photos. The orange bird will be making several appearances later in the report. Some friends of ours bought it for her as a thank you for coming down to photograph their engagement in March, because it was so inconvenient for us to come to Disney! . Anyways we sent our friends pictures of orange bird doing various activities with us throughout the trip, which will be appearing here later

 

[Loco_driver]

Tuesday June 18 continued.

After meeting BB-8, we threw back a few more galactic punches and were ready to go meet Kylo
Ren

A still seems a little nervous. She really gets creeped out by his voice!

I was having a good time talking a little smack to him!

He was a good sport about it, and returned the banter. We ended up really enjoying our time with him! Guess the trick is to partake in a few adult beverages beforehand!

Eventually they gathered everyone up, and we headed out to watch the Star Wars show. It looked like everything was going to go off as planned. Then the skies opened up again! We got absolutely soaked! We had been chatting with a lady and her son before the show started. After getting soaked, they decided to head back to their room. So of course they immediately started the show! I felt bad for the kid, as he was pretty excited to see it!

On second thought, maybe he didn’t miss much. There’s not much “spectacular” in the Star Wars galactic spectacular! Mostly just a bunch of projections! They were neat, but they need more fireworks!

they did make good use of the lasers!

After the show was over we headed out. The deluge before the show did a good job of clearing the place out, and we were back in our room in no time. Despite the rough morning, and wet ending, we’d had another great day!

 

[LSV]

Late as usual but all caught up. Enjoying the adventures of Orange Bird (and the two goofs)

 

[Loco_driver]

Late as usual but all caught up. Enjoying the adventures of Orange Bird (and the two goofs)

Thanks for following along! Not late at all, especially since I should’ve have started this report nearly 2 months ago!

 

[Loco_driver]

Wednesday June 19

We woke up a little later than usual. We had no plans before lunch, and planned on taking it slow.

After breakfast, we headed to international gateway. A wanted to look for the new illuminations farewell shirts that had just come out the day before. We didn’t have to go far to find it, they had plenty in stock at world traveler! We both decided to get one!

We headed toward imagination, and paid another visit to everyone’s favorite purple dragon. But there was another reason we were there.

We had to meet Ralph and vanellope! We both are big wreck-it Ralph fans. Vanellope and I look like we’re about to share a very warm embrace!

We had a great visit. Vanellope really seemed to love our shirts! She threw a fit when we told her we had to leave!

We headed towards the Canada pavilion to do one of the few shows/attractions that we’d never experienced. O Canada! We figured the current version wasn’t long for this world, and wanted to see it before it went away. We both really loved it(who doesn’t love a little Martin Short!).

We grabbed a bench and did a little people watching. Orange bird made a new friend. This little duck was very friendly! We didn’t have any snacks to give it(we don’t feed the wildlife!), but it stuck around anyways just to keep us company!

Soon it was time for lunch. We headed back to beach club to visit an old favorite. We were headed to Beaches & Cream! We decided to split some sock hop fries. But we all know we weren’t really there to eat fries!

I wish I could remember our waitresses name. I remember she was from Hong Kong, and she was an absolute hoot! She insisted we take pictures with our desserts, and the red glass were to serve as the background. She spent a good while setting it all up!

A had the strawberry Minnie milkshake. She really liked it, and the let her keep the jar!

I had been craving a No Way José for months! I’m a huge peanut butter and chocolate fan! In what was a first for me, I finished the whole thing!

After lunch we headed to the bus stop. It was time to pay a visit to our favorite place!

 

[Darstarr]

Guess the trick is to partake in a few adult beverages beforehand!

I am going to have that engraved on my tombstone

 

[Loco_driver]

I am going to have that engraved on my tombstone

I figured it would read something like this.
“Dearest @Darstarr we hardly know ye. We wish you had loved guacamole”

 

[Darstarr]

I figured it would read something like this.
“Dearest @Darstarr we hardly know ye. We wish you had loved guacamole”

I seriously just peed my pants!!!
So funny!

 

[Tuvalu]

We were headed to Beaches & Cream! I wish I could remember our waitresses name. I remember she was from Hong Kong, and she was an absolute hoot!

Herlina?

 

[mouse_luv]

I'm in. I just read all 3 pages in one sitting haha!

I would have totally freaked with the snake. No snakes for me.

 

[Loco_driver]

Herlina?
View attachment 395722

Yes! I’m so bad with names(I may have gotten her home wrong too, our waitress at HDDR May have been from Hong Kong!) she was such a sweetheart!

 

[Loco_driver]

I'm in. I just read all 3 pages in one sitting haha!

I would have totally freaked with the snake. No snakes for me.

Thanks for reading! Snakes spook me every time I see one! I usually won’t kill them, but the way they move really gives me the creeps!

 

[Megbutnotmegan]

Herlina?
View attachment 395722

That was my guess too!! She was my waitress in May and absolutely hysterical!!!

 

[Oh bother!]

June 16 Contd.

After finishing our stroll around world showcase it was time do so some future world attractions with orange bird!(darn childless millennials ruining Disney!). I was a bit worried we’d run into the crowds of people that were non existent in world showcase.

View attachment 395079
Imagination was up first, notice the people are still nowhere to be seen. The ride was a walk on, and we were the only people on our train. Imagination has grown on me in my recent trips. I still don’t love it, but if it has a reasonable wait time I’ll gladly go for a spin. I never experienced the original so I have nothing to compare this one to.

View attachment 395081
We headed over to the land pavilion next. I had originally made our FPs for later in the afternoon, but do to not being able to sleep at our hotel in Tallahassee the night before, we got a super early start by leaving before sunrise. I easily switched our later fast pass for living with the land. I love this ride and make sure to do it every time I’m at Epcot. It did not disappoint. We passed on Soarin at the moment because we had a FP for test track, neither of us had done test track in a long time and didn’t want to give up our FP for it.

View attachment 395084
We headed back outside, and over to the seas. By this point we were really enjoying the empty park! Nemo was posted as a 5 minute wait. I guess they allow 5 minutes to walk through the que. We were on in 2 minutes. We spent about 30 minutes looking around the aquarium before finally heading back into the bright Florida sun.

View attachment 395094
We had a FP for SSE, so we headed over there. I, like any good Disney loving, red blooded American, love SSE. However the current version just seems to lack a little “something”. I’m not sure what, but I know I preferred the Jeremy Irons version. Also the ride itself seems to be in desperate need of a refurb, the vehicles creak constantly, and the sound seems too quiet at times, although that may just be me not having very good hearing! Despite these minor issues we had a great trip through time!

View attachment 395096
We had about 30 minute before our test track FP, so we decided to give mission space a go. I had not done this attraction since the last update, and was looking forward to something new. Neither of us are great at handling spinning anymore, so we opted for the green side. A wise choice given how warm it was! We actually had a great time on mission space! There was only one other party in line with us, so each party got there own “pod”. We had a blast goofing off and trying to do all the jobs with only two of us in there. When we got off we still had 15 minutes before our FP window for TT opened up, we killed time by grabbing a water and sitting on a nearby bench to people watch. Unfortunately while people watching I could hear some distant thunder, and feared our ride on test track wasn’t going to happen. My fears were confirmed a few minutes later when I got the notification that our FP was changed to a multi experience pass. I still had not gotten my room ready text from yacht club, so we headed over to soarin to make use of our FP.

View attachment 395100
The orange bird would finally take flight! We were seated in row 1 right in the center! Soarin is one of my absolute favorite attractions! I miss the original California version, and like others I get a little annoyed by the warped images in parts of the current version. But I still love it. While waiting for our first ride on Soarin, I was able to grab another FP for it that started right away, so we went right back in for another ride, and got lucky on our seat again! I also got our room ready text while waiting to board our second flight around the world. We were both feeling pretty drained from getting up early, and decided we’d try and get back to YC before the storms began. We failed miserably, pretty much as soon as we stepped outside the bottom fell out, and we were immediately soaked! We decided since we were already wet that we’d make a run for it anyways. It was raining buckets at this point, grabbing an umbrella or poncho would’ve been a futile effort. We finally made it to the door of the yacht club and surprise! It quit raining!. For anyone wondering, it’s exactly one mile from the exit to the land pavilion to the entrance to the yacht club.

We went up to our room, and thankfully our bags were delivered quickly. We changed into some dry clothes and got off our feet for a bit. We would be heading to Epcot again in the evening for the frozen dessert party. We were in room 3195. The view was of the roof, so I won’t bother you with that.

View attachment 395127
We had a king room, which means I had to share a bed with my wife. It was a sacrifice I would just have to make!

View attachment 395126
It took me two days to notice the design on the curtains. It took A about twelve seconds!

Love that Loungefly!

 

[Loco_driver]

That was my guess too!! She was my waitress in May and absolutely hysterical!!!

She was great! I was super hot and thirsty when we got there, and was drinking lots of water. She told me she was worried I was about to pee my pants at the table!

this is cool

Some might even say it’s “spectacular”!

Love that Loungefly!

Thanks! It got a lot of compliments from people everywhere we went. Ended up being a great conversation starter! A really wants the Dug from Up one next. Her birthday is in September, so we’ll have to see!

 

[Loco_driver]

Wednesday June 19 continued.

We hopped on a bus and headed to Magic Kingdom! I can’t believe we’d been on property for 3 days, and hadn’t visited!

Orange bird was feeling a little more at home. The people behind him are clearly coming up with a plan to kidnap him!

Nobody was in line to take the strange zoom photo thingy. Outer bright shirts give us away pretty easily!

Hi!

We headed to our first fast pass, Splash Mountain!
We were greeted with a pretty long but steadily moving FP line. Everything was going good until we got almost to the merge point. Uh oh! More bad weather was moving in!

Not wanting to get soaked, we waited it out in the que, making a new friend to kill the time. We were finally on about 35 minutes later!

Moments before the soaking. Not from the drop, but from being stuck right were the little water jets shoot water! Wasn’t really a big deal since the heat had returned in full force!

We headed over to orange bird’s native adventureland to check in on our pirate friends.

A was prepared for the photo. I apparently was just glad to be inside!

We headed over to Jungle Cruise next. Our skipper was named Topher. He did a great job, but we had a laaaaame boat. We did our best to egg topher on. After our cruise he made sure to thank us for being good passengers.

When we finished our cruise the skies were starting to look a bit menacing again. We had plans to do Hoop-Dee-Do. We headed for the exit to see if we could beat the weather.

Just a quick PP before we leave!

We headed to the boat dock, hoping the rain wouldn’t arrive too soon. It wasn’t raining yet, and we heard no thunder. We were ever hopeful!

Our hopes were soon dashed! This was the most intense storm of the trip. It came in very fast, and the wind and lighting were terrible! After a few minutes everyone’s phones started giving emergency alerts.

Tornado warning. On the boat dock. We were not in a good situation, and I was legitimately scared! We needed to get out from the boat dock, but it was hailing and lightning was striking everywhere! Eventually one of the large boats that run to Ft. Wilderness pulled up. The captain yelled for everyone on the dock to immediately get inside to boat to wait out the storm. He promised it would be much safer than standing where we were! We rode out the rest of the storm in the boat. We were drenched from having to run to the boat, but thankful to be safe! Definitely an experience we won’t soon forget!

 

[sheriffwoody]

That does sound scary!! We've been through a bad tornado here and warnings are always SO stressful for us. I cannot even imagine being outside in the middle of that.

 

[Loco_driver]

That does sound scary!! We've been through a bad tornado here and warnings are always SO stressful for us. I cannot even imagine being outside in the middle of that.

It was quite the ordeal! My wife is absolutely terrified of them(as she should be). This is actually not the first time I had to ride out a tornado warned storm outside. On one of my first days on the job with the railroad, a fellow employee and I were caught outside in one with nothing but a wooden boxcar to take shelter in. Had the tornado occurred at that exact spot, I may not even be here!

 

[Loco_driver]

Wednesday June 19 continued.

Eventually the boat we were on headed to Ft. Wilderness. We had wisely planned ahead, and had an extra set of dry clothes to change into. We had never done HDDR, and were both excited. We love cheesy, good fun!

The menu is also right up my alley!

Salad? Get this rabbit food off the table! This is A’s plate. I only had some cornbread while waiting for the main dishes.

That’s more like it! Everything was great! Except maybe the corn, it sat there uneaten the entire time!

Soon enough the show began. What a great time! This quickly went to the top of the list of our favorite things to do! Good simple food, good corny jokes. We will be back!

The crowd was also really into it! Probably because we were all just thankful to be alive! . The little boy at the table in front of us was really having a good time. They would later pull him on stage for the Davey Crockett skit!

This guy was such a good sport! He was eating up the laughs from the crowd!

I was all hopped up on strawberry shortcake! This is the closest thing I have to a shortcake picture. Sorry @Tuvalu, another TR fail!

After dinner we hopped a boat back to MK. No weather concerns this time!

 

[Swissmiss]

I can’t wait for our next HDD dinner - we go each trip

 

[Rista1313]

This is mine and my hubbies favorite! I don't eat the salad either... but our corn was delicious last year, very sweet! I didn't touch the baked beans. And we are ruined for shortcake now... if isn't HDDR shortcake, we don't want it! We have it scheduled again this trip... I can't wait!