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.

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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.
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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

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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

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I’m in!!:)
Thanks! I really enjoyed your last TR, even though I was a little confused by your giant family! 😆
Woohoo!
I’m in too.
Thanks for following along!
Hopping on board :)
Thanks, hope you enjoy!
Here for the Poly pics. 😉
Oh man. Was I supposed to take pictures there?! 😬 Thanks for following along. I always enjoy your reports!
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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!:banghead:. 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.

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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!

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

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
June 16 contd.

We relaxed/napped in the room. The rain had returned and wasn’t letting up. We eventually got restless and took a walk around the resort.

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The lobby was pretty crowded with people hoping for the rain to let up so they could get back into stormalong bay.

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We contemplated grabbing a bite at crews cup, but the rain had chased a lot of people inside and it was full.

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The pool sat empty for most of the afternoon. We ended up over at beach club marketplace, where we split a flatbread before heading back to the room.

By the time we got back to the room the rain had finally stopped, and no more was in the forecast until after midnight that night. We decided to head back in to Epcot early before our dessert party.

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We checked out the shops in Germany as well as the model trains. I’d never really stopped to take a good look at the train set. I enjoyed seeing all the small details.

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We skipped Norway earlier in the day. We both were still feeling a bit hungry so we headed to the bakery.

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We had this, along with some school bread. I can’t recall what this was called but it was delicious, one of the best snacks we had the entire trip. Like a cheesecake, but light and fluffy.

We headed back into future world for a few repeat rides on living with the land and spaceship earth. Soon it was time to check in for the frozen party so we headed toward the check in table. Because of the rain they told us the party had moved inside, and told us to go to the Norway pavilion. There was a cast member near the stave church who told us to meet another cast member at the exit to FEA. We met the cast member at the exit of FEA, who directed us to the end of a hall, and told us to take the stairs up to the metal door and knock. After our bizarre dessert scavenger hunt, we finally ended up at the super secret metal door that led to the executive lounge above the Norway pavilion! How cool!

Unfortunately we don’t have any photos of the actual party for some reason. The dessert selection was pretty good. We’d done this party before, so we knew what to expect. The rain had began falling again outside, so they allowed us to stay inside until just a few minutes before illuminations began. We took the extra time to enjoy some more pina coladas. We lost count after about 8 apiece, and were really ready to see illuminations for the last time!🤪

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The reserved section for the party is in a really great spot.
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Knowing it would be the last time I would see the show, I didn’t get a lot of photos. I don’t have quite the fondness for illuminations as others do, but I still really enjoyed it. I will miss the show, but I’m excited to see something new. After the show we were escorted back to Norway for our ride on FEA. Our ride photos never appeared. I like the ride just fine, but somehow it feels like Norway deserves better, and frozen deserves better. We headed back to our room and had no trouble getting to sleep after a fantastic first day.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday June 17

We woke up bright and early, ready to conquer the day. We had muffins that we brought with us for breakfast, and headed out to Animal Kingdom for the morning. While waiting at the bus stop we chatted with a sweet lady who was visiting with her family. It was their first trip as a family. I felt bad because it turned out she had no idea about setting up FP+, or that they’d probably need dining reservations to eat at many restaurants. We took the time waiting on the bus to get her some FPs for AK, and told her to head straight to FoP if they wanted to ride it.

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Dinosaur was up first.

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Our vehicle was clearly excited to be there! The girl in front of us was actually terrified, she kept her ears covered the entire ride.

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We had a FP for Everest but standby was only 5 minutes so we hopped in line.
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The wait was 30 minutes after we exited, so we used our FP for a second ride. Then headed over to the safaris.

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We waited about 20 minutes in standby then redeemed our FP for another ride.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
June 17 Contd.

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I always love the ankole cattle!

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We had two really great safaris, with lots of activity.

We had about an hour to kill before or next FP, so we stopped by Starbucks for a quick pick me up.

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We grabbed a bench in front of tiffins for a while. The day was young but we were already a little tired from the heat and walking. Animal Kingdom always seems to be extra hot!

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We headed into pandora to do a little exploring. Our last trip in March was pretty short, and we didn’t get to really get a good look at the land. I was pretty impressed with the level of detail found throughout the land, and all the little interactive elements found throughout. I still think AK needs more, but this is a solid addition.
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I don’t know what these are called, but it was fun watching them shoot water towards unsuspecting guests!

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The night blossom really hit the spot in that heat.

Next it was time to use our fast pass for Na ‘vi river journey. I’d never done this ride before, and I’m always looking forward to new things. Probably an unpopular opinion, but I really liked this ride. I wish it were longer, and I’d never wait in a long line for it, but I thought it was really nice for a secondary attraction. At this point we were pretty hungry, so we headed over to flame tree.

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We ran across Kevin on our way to lunch! She was pretty hilarious interacting with everyone!

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We ordered the backed Mac and cheese with pulled pork, and the fries with pulled pork and cheese. Both were tasty, but we both preferred the macaroni.

Shortly after we finished lunch I started getting notifications on my phone that the rain was moving towards us. Not wanting a repeat of the day before, we made a beeline for the bus stop. Luckily there was a bus waiting for us when we got there! We made it back to yacht club just as the rain started coming down in sheets!
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
June 17 contd.

We sat in the room and watched it rain for about an hour or so. Shortly after it quit raining I heard the lifeguards down at the pool give the all clear. We headed down to a completely empty pool. I’ll spare you any photos from the pool, your eyes are safe for now! We had a blast having the massive pool to ourselves for about 45 minutes!

After getting out of the pool and drying off, we headed off to do something we’d never done at Disney, but often enjoy doing at home.
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We headed over to winter summerland mini golf!


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We’re extremely competitive when it comes to games, especially mini golf! We went to play mini golf on our first date many years ago, and have been trying to beat each other at it ever since!
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I was not off to a great start!

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A wasn’t off to a great start either though, so I wasn’t sweating it just yet!
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About 1/3 of the way through the course I encountered a new “friend”. I am not a fan of snakes! The snake slithered into the grass and bushes, which were right next to the next hole. Added a new thrill to our game of mini golf!
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The snake is somewhere in the landscaping directly behind me, hence the nervous face!

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A celebrating a hole in one!
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Our favorite was the castle hole.
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The last hole was straight outta the mid nineties!

We had a blast playing the “winter” side(I was the winner!). The CM at the desk asked if we had fun as we were returning our putters. We told him we had a great time, and he offered to let us play the “summer” side for free!
 

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