Trip Report We’re Breakin’ Free!

Helllooo friends!

It’s been a while. A very long while. I have followed many of your reports and lived vicariously through you so thank you all so much for all the time you put into your reports.

But now it’s my turn.

Or our turn.

We’ve earned this. We have all been through a lot. So what do you do when you’re planning your first holiday in 2+ years and you really truly need to relax and only look after yourself for once?? Answer: You don’t invite your husband and kids .

Here are the players in this report:

On the left we have my younger sister @AKemily (or I could call her dear sister “DS29” if you like @wdisney9000), myself, and my older sister Kaely (“DS34”) . Maskless pictures to come but this was our first airport selfie and you still have to wear masks in airports here. We hail from Manitoba, Canada.

As @Tuvalu likes to mention, the Canada pavilion in EPCOT is beautiful. This is what the real Canada looked like this month:

Well, spoiler alert, it was not the storm of the century although in very non-Winnipeg fashion it shut down schools and everything else in the city for 2 days. But luckily it did not affect our trip.

So we continued to plan. Thankfully on April 1 they dropped the test requirement to return to Canada, however we still need a test to fly into the US. We would not need a test to drive into the US. So we booked our tests, @AKemily who has not yet had covid hunkered down and was not allowed to leave her house for 2 weeks for risk of catching covid, and me and Kaely slapped our masks back on and did our best to avoid a re-infection.

Yesterday afternoon we all did our virtual rapid antigen tests with our breath held and - all negative!!

We did a LOT of tests this week to prepare and try to calm our nerves. I have summoned the artistic skills of @amjt660 and I present to you this work of art:

That’s only a very small portion of the tests we did but you get the idea lol.

So the big question (maybe you didn’t even ask this question yet) - where are we going?!?

Well, in honour of @AKemily 30th birthday we are doing her first trip to - DISNEYLAND. California, that is. Kaely and I have both been in the past but each only for short 1 or 2 day trips. So it will be the first time we get to soak it all in.

We flew this morning from Winnipeg to Calgary and are now waiting for our flight to LAX. It’s delayed so far by almost 3 hours and we were thisclose to being able to switch to a flight to Santa Ana but it didn’t work out.

I don’t know how “live” I’ll be able to do this but stay tuned and I’ll try to provide some snapshot updates as we go!

Also, I fell off my suitcase this morning when we were waiting in line at the airport and if I don’t post this picture I know Emily will so here you go.

 

[youngdeb]

Quick update

First attraction of the day: the first aid station I rolled my ankle off the first curb and was looking for a tensor. They didn’t have one but they had some advil and it’s feeling better now just feel like I have a permanent foot cramp. It’s okay though, gives my sisters a fighting chance at keeping up with me.

Then we got a LL for Haunted Mansion and went straight there. Grabbed a LL for splash mountain for later in the evening.

Had supper at Hungry Bear - I’m out of practice on these trip reports so this is the point I remembered to take a picture

View attachment 635000

Then one of the shortest lines of the big attractions if you can believe it was Rise of the Resistance at 60 minutes so we’re in the line.

The park is VERY busy with it being a Saturday and the first weekend of all the nighttime entertainment being back.

Thanks to everyone for following along!!

Late to the party but following along! I've been that person falling off the curb at MK and rolling my ankle, so I feel your pain. Skinned knee and embarrassment was the worst of it. Hopefully it's not feeling too bad now.

 

[DryerLintFan]

So glad you all made it out of the great north yonder for a trip!

 

[Bullseye1967]

Following along!

 

[macefamily]

I on board to follow along !

 

[krause]

Alright. I’m home. I slept (11 hours solid). I hugged my children. Back to the report.

Where did I leave you? Ah yes, queue for Rise.

What do we say about Rise that hasn’t already been said? It’s majestic. I 100% felt sad that my husband and my dad weren’t there to experience it. None of us are Star Wars fans … I try I really try to to watch the movies. I’m a part of so many fandoms I would really love to be a part of the Star Wars fandom as well. But I just don’t get “it”. But the ride was still amazing.

We appreciated the benches in the queue (it’s like they KNEW how often it would go down when they built it )

And had to grab one of these:

Although the first time through we rushed as we were worried about being yelled at lol so I think we have a better one from another ride.

After Rise we jumped on Winnie the Pooh before our splash LL.

And yes we did take a selfie on every ride.

There’s a hilarious comedy routine about this ride that’s like you’re going along like “this is nice” and Tigger comes out of the abyss and is like “time to bounce m*!$&?fu!?$;@s”. Anyways it’s hilarious and you should look it up if you loathe this ride like I do. We also had the heffalumps and woozles song stuck in our head all week so that was fun. Shout out to @ajrwdwgirl as she reminded me of the Country Bear guys on the wall in @JenniferS report and so we spotted them! And it made going on the ride worth it

After this, we went on Splash. Guys. We were soaked. Like soaked soaked. It goes so fast just whipping you around the corners and you get absolutely drenched. If I hadn’t been on WDW Splash I would not have any idea that this ride has a plot line. It moves that fast. It was hilarious at the time.

It was NOT hilarious when we realized it was not a warm evening. How do you dry off? How about a whip around the wildest ride in the wilderness??

Row 1 Shockingly at the end of it we were still very wet and very freezing.

But we were off to see some fireworks. We found the perfect viewing location in the hub right at the walkway so no one in front of us. This is my favourite spot to find in WDW and we were very lucky to stumble upon it in DL as it really was perfect.

Crowd control was not up to WDW standards and there was a lot of traffic on the walkway during the show but it was still a great viewing location.

Up next: possibly the weirdest thing any of us have ever witnessed at a Disney park. Seriously.

 

[krause]

First we had to save the galaxy

Then we grabbed a pretzel and a churro. I think I had the cream cheese pretzel and it was fine. Just fine. Odd but tasty.

Then we wanted to grab seats for the electrical parade. We LOVE this parade. To me it is more classic Disney than fireworks. At 8:45 it had gone from small world to Main Street. So we thought that was the parade route. So we found seats by small world. It was supposed to start at 10:45. 10:45 came and went - no parade. It was then we realized that on the second time it goes the opposite direction from Main Street to small world. So I think it was 11:00 before we caught a glimpse of the parade. BUT during our 30 minute sit on concrete the WEIRDEST thing happened. And this circles back to my comment on poor crowd control. Everyone was in typical parade fashion on the sides of the street (there was some kind of VIP section with chairs across from us), I had already been told once by a CM to back up onto the edge of the walkway. And then this large family shows up. The boys in Anaheim Angels gear. And they start playing baseball. In the middle of the parade route. The girls start sitting down. In the middle of the road. While the boys play baseball. It was bizarre. No CM said anything. This is a picture I snapped as proof.

It went on for 10 minutes at least. I couldn’t watch. It was like they thought the hundreds of people lining the street were there for them. So so so strange. I thought I was hallucinating (at this point we had been awake for about 20 hours so it was possible).

Anyways, eventually the parade came and it was amazing as per usual. The final “new” float IMO didn’t add anything special other than trying to cram as many characters as possible in which seems unnecessary when you spend the first 15 minutes on Alice in Wonderland

Oh also at some point prior to the parade starting we saw the Encanto projections on IASW which was a nice distraction from how wet and freezing we were. We must have watched that movie 100 times while home with covid and we all still love it very much. The projections were just okay.

What do you do when you’re in Disneyland for the first time, soaking wet cold to your bones, and delusional from being awake for 20+ hours??

A quick rip on the Matterhorn of course.

This was not as jarring as I expected from the reviews (right hand track… a second ride on the left hand track was bumpier) but lots of fun was had and it’s terrifying at night when you’re already delusional and have never been on before.

Then we walked back to our hotel (Grand Legacy) and flopped into our beds.

Up next: day 2!

 

[amjt660]

And yes we did take a selfie on every ride.

Max

 

[Darstarr]

The boys in Anaheim Angels gear. And they start playing baseball. In the middle of the parade route.

Angel fans…smh

 

[krause]

Alright I’m told I’m being disowned if I don’t put some work into this report. Life’s been crazy… someone decided instead of being a bedside nurse during covid it would be more fun working in hospital bed utilization… and guess what.. there are still no beds and there is still a ton of covid. So it’s been a busy few weeks to day the least and I’ve been exhausted.

I think I finished day 1 so let’s move on to day 2!

Kaely Uber Eats-ted some Starbucks to our room (I’m told this was ridiculously expensive but it never hit my MasterCard so I’m going to pretend it was worth it). And off we went on our ~8 minute walk to the gates

We were rope dropping at DCA today and not doing the typical RSR or Webslingers so we were in a pretty short rope dropping queue. We saw these folks that I already posted but worth another smile

This was our rope drop queue: (and we were NOT that early by any means)

And our destination:

It was Kaely and Emily’s first time on this ride and we all love it so much. I wrote in my notes “Give up the Funk” because I knew @amjt660 would ask

I was trying to do the Genie+ strategy of not booking until the times get a bit later in the day but nothing was moving that far ahead so we grabbed a lightning lane for Incredicoaster.

First we made a pit stop though at a ride that Emily was very excited for and Kaely remembered from her previous trip as being magical. So while it only had a 5 minute wait (and yes we did see it hit 45+ minutes at times), we hailed a cab through Monstropolis.

It’s just not good guys.

Then we hit our LL

Also our first time on this - lots of fun but I felt all 32 years of my life rattling around in my head and immediately texted my husband that he will be the one taking our kids on rollercoasters in the future

Then we hit an immediate LL for TSMM.

I’m sure I won

Then we took a quick ride unda the sea -

Then my notes say we went to Soarin’ … however the photos say we hit Webslingers so we’ll go with that.

This was a fun ride! The wait was tedious with multiple switchbacks outside but the ride itself is very fun and over too fast (although my arms were exhausted by the time it was done).

Then I think we had a LL for Soarin. It was Soarin’ over California while we were there so that was fun!! No curvy Eiffel Tower and alll the orange smells!

It was only day 2 but we needed some vegetables and we needed some alcohol, Smokejumpers provided both.

Then it was time. Time to talk Emily into another water ride. She was still seething from our Splash experience the night before but it was a billion degrees out and Grizzly River Run was thisclose. I had sneakily at some point earlier in the day grabbed a splash LL for after park hop time (1pm in DLR) so this was my proposal - Grizzly, Splash, back to the hotel for a break. But would she agree??

 

[krause]

Of course she would! Who could refuse such a well laid out plan.

First step: Grizzly River Run

This is how excited she was for my plan:

But there was no denying it was a brilliant, well thought out plan. So on we went!

See I even offered to stuff her backpack in my overalls so it wouldn’t get soaked like it had the night before! What a wonderful sister I am!!

But . This ride purposefully spins you. It was like teacups on water. 10/10 would not recommend. Will not be doing this one again. But hey, we weren’t soaked so off we went for the next step in the plan!

We were, however, a little early to park hop. So must be time for ice cream!! Of course that was part of my plan I had just forgotten to mention it. We stopped at Clarabelles and I saw wine on the menu. When I see wine, I must have it. So we ended up with these pricey little things

This was not good. I guess the wine was port and I guess I don’t like port (*gasp* I thought I loved all wines). Anyways also 10/10 would not recommend. This plan is not shaping up.

Then we were able to park hop but were a few minutes early for our LL so made a pit stop at the one place guaranteed to pull a failing plan up out of the ashes - Enchanted Tiki Room! But. We had just missed a show. So we got to sit outside in this little corral which had no shade and was very hot. I think it’s a strategy actually to make you appreciate the dark air conditioned room even more once you get in there.

Well the birds sang tunes and the flowers crooned and we got tf out of there as soon as the doors opened.

Off to splash! I think another agreement to this plan was that Emily would not have to sit in the front again. So I took that bullet

And I got soaked. You can see me holding my phone in my overalls pocket as it was the only place it stood a chance of staying dry (it did not). I again ask WHY do you get so wet on this ride?! Overalls were not the most functional choice to begin with on a day with multiple bathroom breaks (forgot to share that I got the dropping-your-overall-strap-in-the-toilet over with on our first bathroom break of the day ) and they were not fun wet.

Plan 100% success if I say so myself. And I do.

Then we were hungry so we mobile ordered some corn dogs for kaely and Emily and some alien pizza planet pizza for myself (which totally neutralized the fact that we had salad for … 1st lunch? Why did we have 2 lunches??) and out we headed to the hotel for a well deserved nap and change of clothes.

 

[krause]

Gonna zip through the evening because I think it was a lot of riding rides and nothing else too exciting.

First up: Entrance picture. White jeans. I was clearly not intending to go on splash again this evening.

Then: Space LL

Then we went on Smugglers. We let the other 2 people in our group be the Pilots as it was their first time.

Then we grabbed these oh-so-delicious cold brews

These are perfection. It would not be our last time at this table.

We had a LL for Indy that turned into a multiple experience pass so my notes say we grabbed supper. I have no recollection of what we are or where we ate it … possibly this is when we ate at Rancho del Zocalo. That’s probably it. Got some burritos, nothing wrong with that.

Then we watched the fireworks. We went a bit farther up main street so that we could see the projections and then again found a spot behind a walkway so no obstructions to our view.

IMO the projections on the Main Street buildings don’t add anything to the show but it was good to try it out.

A few more quick rides to end out the night:

BTMRR LL

Indy with our multi LL:

We got stuck right at the part where you go down under the “Boulder”. I didn’t realize we were stuck on a ledge the whole time and after we started moving and realized it was a ledge it was that much more terrifying.

Then a walk on jungle cruise:

And that’s the end of day 2! Thanks for reading along!

 

[DryerLintFan]

Of course she would! Who could refuse such a well laid out plan.

First step: Grizzly River Run

This is how excited she was for my plan:
View attachment 638927

But there was no denying it was a brilliant, well thought out plan. So on we went!

View attachment 638928

See I even offered to stuff her backpack in my overalls so it wouldn’t get soaked like it had the night before! What a wonderful sister I am!!

But ***. This ride purposefully spins you. It was like teacups on water. 10/10 would not recommend. Will not be doing this one again. But hey, we weren’t soaked so off we went for the next step in the plan!

We were, however, a little early to park hop. So must be time for ice cream!! Of course that was part of my plan I had just forgotten to mention it. We stopped at Clarabelles and I saw wine on the menu. When I see wine, I must have it. So we ended up with these pricey little things

View attachment 638930

This was not good. I guess the wine was port and I guess I don’t like port (*gasp* I thought I loved all wines). Anyways also 10/10 would not recommend. This plan is not shaping up.

Then we were able to park hop but were a few minutes early for our LL so made a pit stop at the one place guaranteed to pull a failing plan up out of the ashes - Enchanted Tiki Room! But. We had just missed a show. So we got to sit outside in this little corral which had no shade and was very hot. I think it’s a strategy actually to make you appreciate the dark air conditioned room even more once you get in there.

View attachment 638931

Well the birds sang tunes and the flowers crooned and we got tf out of there as soon as the doors opened.

Off to splash! I think another agreement to this plan was that Emily would not have to sit in the front again. So I took that bullet

View attachment 638932

And I got soaked. You can see me holding my phone in my overalls pocket as it was the only place it stood a chance of staying dry (it did not). I again ask WHY do you get so wet on this ride?! Overalls were not the most functional choice to begin with on a day with multiple bathroom breaks (forgot to share that I got the dropping-your-overall-strap-in-the-toilet over with on our first bathroom break of the day ) and they were not fun wet. View attachment 638933

Plan 100% success if I say so myself. And I do.

Then we were hungry so we mobile ordered some corn dogs for kaely and Emily and some alien pizza planet pizza for myself (which totally neutralized the fact that we had salad for … 1st lunch? Why did we have 2 lunches??) and out we headed to the hotel for a well deserved nap and change of clothes.

Overalls are my favorite. Sorry yours went for a swim in the toilet though!

 

[fractal]

What exactly are those "cold brews"?

 

[amjt660]

I wrote in my notes “Give up the Funk” because I knew @amjt660 would ask

It was Soarin’ over California while we were there so that was fun!!

Was this your ride photo on Space or a re-enactment of the overalls going for a swim?

Great to have you back - following along

Max

 

[krause]

What exactly are those "cold brews"?

Cold Brew Black Caf​

Cold Brew Coffee topped with Sweet Cream Cheese and Chocolate Puffs

From docking bay 7. The cocoa puffs are *chefs kiss*. I did the due diligence for you and I don’t see them on the menu at Docking Bay 7 in WDW . 10 points to the west coast!

 

[krause]

View attachment 639078

Was this your ride photo on Space or a re-enactment of the overalls going for a swim?

Great to have you back - following along

Max

For some reason I always have ridiculous picture on Space. But yes, also my identical face when I realized I made it all of one bathroom stop before wearing toilet water all day

 

[krause]

Alright keeping up the momentum and heading into day 3!

Today we rope dropped the same thing as everyone else. However I must make a confession. On behalf of Emily because she is 100% to blame for our sins. We rope dropped Radiator Springs Racers. There seems to be some unspoken rule that when rope dropping no one walks on the sidewalks, they all just somehow know to stand in the middle of the road. Well we are Manitoba drivers (ie. horrible) and don’t respect the rules of the road. Emily led us down the sidewalk, past a large portion of the crowd and we merged (which is a word most Manitoba drivers don’t understand) further up the crowd. Me and Kaely kept our eyes on our shoes we were so ashamed but Emily just owned it! There’s no rules! Disneyland has proven again that they don’t believe in crowd control and we just took advantage of that! Sorry. I feel I owe you all a sincere apology. It won’t happen again. Probably.

Anyways, off we went!

Look at those guilty faces.

Then we hopped on mater. One grown up had to ride by herself.

Then off again to GoG with a LL

Immediately after this we had breakfast and we listened to every possible song for this ride and could not figure out which one it was. I’m so sorry I disappointed you Max. It won’t happen again.

We had breakfast at Pym Kitchen. Shared some kind of breakfast platter and a cinnamon bread which was … blue. So that was a bit weird but all very tasty. Also some cold brews.. but these were just plain so.. really just cold coffee

Then we caught the Spider-Man animatronic show. Which was fun but really blink-and-you-miss-it.

Then we did something that has been strictly banned by us park commandos on previous trips …

 

[krause]

Pool time! I take a “we can sleep when we are dead” attitude when planning disney trips but let me tell you.. this was glorious! And we sent very sincere apology texts to my parents to let them know that all future trips will include pool relaxation time

However, I had an alarm set for noon to get in the World of Color virtual queue but by the time I heard my alarm, got out of the pool, and tried for a spot - they were gone! By 12:02. Ridiculous.

After we were fully relaxed we hopped an Uber to DLR

Where we had a very exciting reservation for:

This was SO FUN!

Drinks? Good.

Food? Good.

More drinks? Gooooood.

Birthday girl got a little carried away.

She actually ended up giving 2/3 of this drink to a guy at the table behind us pandemic shmamdemic. She couldn’t finish though! These drinks were STRONG. This was our first time at Trader Sams and won’t be our last. The bartender and server antics were hilarious and the whole thing was just so much fun. I had just stumbled upon this ADR when flipping through the app one day and props to @ajrwdwgirl as I remembered her previous trip reports and had the wherewithal to snap up this reservation!

We had plans to return to DL after this but it was HOT. Me, an intelligent level headed albeit somewhat buzzed person, suggested more pool time. However I was outvoted by my 2 super duper buzzed sisters who in the moment thought it would be HILARIOUS to ride fantasyland rides with a buzz.

Well friends. I did the research so you don’t have to. The 100% guaranteed best way to ruin a VERY expensive midday buzz??

Half an hour in a 30+ degree (that’s like 90 Fahrenheit) line for Storybook Land Canals. It was not hilarious. It was pure torture. (To be fair I think it was posted at 10 minutes. Which was a lie)

But off we went!

Looks like we also did small world

And while we were at it, I think we checked Snow White off the list. Again I think it was posted at 10 minutes and we waited 30

Apparently at that point we were all so grumpy that we stopped taking pictures.

 

[krause]

I had again sneakily (doesn’t take much to be sneaky when no one else opens the app) booked a LL for Splash and had great schemes to talk Emily into it again on this VERY hot day. I did not win this one though and it ended up being a multi LL which we used on Haunted Mansion (again no pics, I was very grumpy)

But what would turn our spirits around! More cold brew of course! We grabbed more cold brew from docking bay 7 and some Ronto Roasters

Feeling much better, we hit Matterhorn and then Buzz

Then we grabbed the train at the Tomorrowland station, did 1 and 1/4 laps and got off at Main Street station just in time to watch Mickeys Mix Magic from the top of Main Street! Then we called it a night!

 

[amjt660]

There seems to be some unspoken rule that when rope dropping no one walks on the sidewalks, they all just somehow know to stand in the middle of the road.

Have not heard of this one - I have walked on the sidewalk (with many others) to rope drop RSR in the past.

Then we hopped on mater. One grown up had to ride by herself.

I see no grown up sitting by themselves?

I’m so sorry I disappointed you Max. It won’t happen again.

I am sorry that you felt that you had to apologize for this.

Max