A loooooong trip report - A 25-years long dream came true

I love trip reports with photos. Loving it so far!

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Loving the trip report- your first day looks great! I agree with @SallyEppcot, the two of you look so happy!

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Thank you guys. I’am happy to hear you like what I write. HS and AK will follow soon!

Day 3 – Hollywood Studios

I now know why people don’t like the park. It is not awful, but DHS and I will not become friends. A few rides, some nice shows and a lot of Star Wars. As long as it is in its current state we won’t be back. We are not into Star Wars so we could skip all that stuff, but still it was not easy to build up a working touring plan with all the show times. Again TP was far off in its predictions. Our first stop that morning was Rock’n’Roller Coaster with a predicted wait time of 14 minutes. We ended up waiting 45 minutes, but hey, the coaster is pretty good and one of the best at Disneyworld.

We headed over to TSMM to use our Fastpasses and I think it was a waste to use them here. The ride is nice, but I wouldn’t do it again. Seems like I am too stupid to hit the marks. We were already pretty late by that time, so we skipped One Man’s Dream and walked to the Great Movie Ride. Again, the wait time was off (I think we waited around 30 minutes, while TP predicted 14 minutes). I really liked the ride. Somehow dated, but that is what makes it special in my opinion.

We now met Mickey & Minnie. I’ve got the feeling that one of our goals was to meet as many Mickey’s as possible. Haven’t counted yet, but I think we saw Mickey in 7 different costumes and all of them were so cute when they saw my Mickey tattoo.

We somehow managed to get a seat at the Frozen Sing-a-long a few minutes before the show started. I liked the historians (is that what they are called?), they were really good, but I don’t get why Elsa is on stage for only five minutes or so. For some reason, I expected Anna and Elsa to be on stage during all the songs. It’s a cute show but maybe we will skip it next time.

We skipped our break and just had a quick Mickey pretzel to get to the Beauty and the Beast show on time. This show is a lesson in “how to press a 90-minute story into 30 minutes”. But it’s a cute show. Before the show started an older guy sang a song from the new live action movie for a father and his daughter. This was soooooo cute and I really had to fight the tears. The song was awesome. I wished Lumiere and Cogsworth would meet somewhere in those costumes.
Now it was time for a voyage under the sea with Ariel. We got a seat in the front row which wasn’t a good choice. You get wet and a stiff neck. The show is nice, but the scenes from the movie definitely need to be updated. They look pretty dated and it can’t be too difficult to update to HD.
Next stop: Indiana Jones. I got a Fastpass for this simply because I didn’t want the third Fastpass to get wasted. I was so bored. The beginning is nice, but the rest of the show is so boring. Another show I wouldn’t see again.
We had some time left now so we walked over to One Man’s Dream. Nice exhibition. I understand why they show a sneak-peek for the new Beauty and the Beast live action movie here, but I don’t understand the effort they put into making sure you don’t use your smartphones there. There were eight cast members and security people walking through the auditorium and looking for people filming the preview. But that is one of the things I was amazed by the whole week. There are so many Cast Members everywhere.

We now had a reservation at Hollywood & Vine for the Fantasmic! Dinner package. I enjoyed the interaction with the characters here. I asked Daisy to marry me, because Donald still hadn’t asked her and got a big duck-kiss ;-).

The other characters were fun as well. I hadn’t expected so many hugs. One thing I learned through this week: Character meet-and-greets are not only for kids and there is nothing to you need to be embarrassed by while at Disney. If you like to start singing and dancing in the middle of the street the worst that can happen is that other people sing and dance with you. I loved it.

The food at H&V was ok, but mostly cold and nothing special. The desserts were good. I am not sure if we will do this again.

After dinner I had scheduled Fastpass number 3 for today: Tower of Terror. Again, something I was really looking forward to do, as I’ve never done it in Paris. This is one of the rides I would wait two hours in line for. Very, very cool. Let’s just hope it will still be ToT when we come back and it won’t get a new theming like the Disneyland one.
My highlight of the day was Fantasmic. What a wonderful show. Thanks to the dining package we had pretty good seats in the center of the theatre, while standby was only standing at the time we arrived. And I enjoyed every second of this wonderful show.

I didn’t expect to find a spot for the Star Wars fireworks right after Fantasmic, but we found one behind a trash can with a slightly obstructed view. I didn’t like the projections here (mainly because it’s Star Wars), but the fireworks are awesome.
Again, we had to fight the crowds as we made our way to the Muppets 3D-show. This is nice but nothing more.

In the end we got to see everything we wanted and the day wasn’t as bad as expected after we had started the day with very long wait times.

Back at the hotel we got our Rapid Refill Mugs. Mainly we got them because they were included in the dining plan, but I would never buy them. We used them two or three times. Most times we were simply too tired for another walk to the food court and in the mornings we used the coffeemaker in the room and slept a few minutes more instead of walking to the food court to get the mugs filled. Maybe they are worth getting during a longer stay with more time at the resort.

Next up: Animal Kingdom

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HS is our favourite park, we spent 2.5 days there last trip!

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Hollywood Studios is my least favorite park too. I’ve figured out that I’m happiest doing just a few hours there, followed by a nice long lunch with a cocktail.

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I miss the filmmaking aspect that was there when the park first opened, but I agree. It still gets high marks in our book! It is rough with the construction and updates happening right now, I can’t wait till the 2019 trip when quite a bit of that is hopefully complete!

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We’re hoping to visit in 2019 too.

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Can’t wait to read more!!

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Such great pictures!

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Thanks for sharing, great pictures! Love your M&G’s, looks like they really made the trip special.

I miss that about HS too!

Animal Kingdom:

This day was originally planned as our off day, but it was the only day with a chance to see Rivers of Light, so I switched days a week before our trip.

Finally, I woke up with the nasty cold I had waited for thanks to all the air conditioning we are not used to. But we had things planned, so we boarded the bus for EMH at AK. Well, first we waited for a bus. This was the only time we waited more than 10 minutes at the bus stop. In the end, we were a little late and I had messed up my touring plan because I hit optimize instead of evaluate, but again we somehow managed to see everything we wanted. Again, TP was off in the predictions. AK had a predicted CL of 6 and in the end it was CL8.

We started the day with Dinosaur. We just left the pre-show, when the ride broke down. We had to wait around 10 minutes until we finally boarded a car, so nothing too awful, but still we were issued a fastpass for any attraction. Pretty cool! The ride itself is really good. Too shaky for DH, but I will do it again. Can’t remember what we saw when the picture was taken, but must have been something terrible :wink:

Due to Dinosaur taking longer than expected, we had to hurry to still beat the crowds on Expedition Everest. We had to wait about 15 minutes or so. What a cool rollercoaster. I love the backwards part.
Our first fastpass was for Kali River Rapids, but we decided to skip it, as I didn’t want to get wet and we saw soaked people getting off the ride.
Instead we started doing the trails and took our time. I had planned 20 minutes each, but it took far more. They are so interesting and there is so much to see. I really enjoyed strolling around and the explanations of the Cast Members.
My tip for It’s tough to be a Bug: Get a seat in the center of the theatre. We sat all the way to the left and the 3D-effect didn’t work at all for us. Could have been a good show.

Did I ever mention that I love fastpass? We used the fastpass we got for Dinosaur on the Mickey and Minnie meet-n-greet, which was a good idea, as the posted wait time was 40 minutes and we were up to meet the mice within a few minutes and so could make it to Flights of Wonder. I enjoyed the show, but I had a feeling that the younger children around us were bored.

Now it was time for lunch at Tiffins. We checked in a few minutes early and were seated on time. I would absolutely do this again in terms of food. I had the Lobster-Popcorn Thai Curry Soup, which was really good and I like the way it is served. As entrée I had the Wagyu Strip Loin and Braised Short Rib. The meat was cooked to perfection and I even liked the asparagus (something I would never eat at home). With 67$ per person for the Rivers of Light dining package it was a pretty good value.
I wouldn’t do Tiffins again in terms of service. Yes, the service is good, but our server that afternoon was so annoying. She handed us the menu, gave us her recommendations and was back thirty seconds later to take our orders. I told her we would need a few minutes more, as I had to translate some things for DH and again, she was back after thirty seconds. We played this game 3 or 4 times until we finally had decided on something. In total, it seems like a good decision to go for Tiffins instead of Tusker House, as the food was really good.

We took the Wildlife Express Train over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, which is a nice area. Most animals were in their “break-area”, so nothing to pet, but I liked the backstage glimpses you can get during the train ride.

We had a fastpass for Kilimanjaro Safari now. A cool idea if there had been animals. Most of them weren’t there or lying lazy in the sun. Seems like we will have to this again in the morning when the animals are more active.

Last fastpass of the day was for Finding Nemo – The Musical as I really wanted to see this show and it was absolutely worth it. Lovely songs, great show, good actors and really funny.

We took our time to explore the park now and got in line for Baloo. I loved the reaction of the Cast Member when she asked why DH didn’t want to get in the picture and I told her that he doesn’t like the Jungle Book. So funny!

On our way to Tamu Tamu to get an ice cream sandwich we got in line to meet Russell. I really hadn’t planned on some many character meets, but they are all fun and the lines were mostly not that long. The ice cream sandwich at Tamu Tamu was good and totally filled me up for the rest of the evening. Something I learned pretty fast: If you are on the dining plan, you won’t get hungry. Most portions are so huge and filling.

Finally, it was time for Rivers of Light. In my opinion this is the worst of the evening shows at Disneyworld. It is nice that we saw it, but it is not worth coming back.

I don’t know why people consider Animal Kingdom a half-day park. There is so much to see and explore and we could have easily spent another day there.

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Loving your trip report
great photos too
thanks for taking us along


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The Baloo picture is awesome, I love Jungle book!!

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Day 5 – Epcot

Ask two different Cast Members at the Concierge Desk how you can get to Epcot for a pre-RD reservation on the morning of the Princess Half Marathon and you will get three different answers.

1.) Busses start running at 8am, so you will get there late, but

2.) You could take an uber
3.) Take the bus to MK, hop on the monorail to TTC and then to Epcot

We decided to go for the bus and Monorail version. In the end, everything was so much easier. The bus didn’t go to MK, but dropped us off at the TTC, so we could board the monorail to Epcot directly and got there much earlier than expected. Most people were on their way to see the runners and there were only a few families checking in for breakfast with us at the entrance. We made our way to Garden Grill, checked in and were seated immediately. There was only one other couple, so I think most people canceled their reservations. It wasn’t even crowded by the time we finished our meal.
The restaurant itself is somehow dated, but nice. Our server, the characters and the food were great. Chip’n’Dale were so funny when I asked them who of them is who and I could have eaten a complete sticky bun on my own. So delicious! Our server even told us that we will have an advantage for Soarin’ as we would be allowed to enter the line at 8:45.

Soarin’ is so cool. I loved it and was surprised by the grass smell in Africa.
Living with the Land is pretty interesting, the Circle of Life is sooo dated and boring, but a really good place for a nap.
We were far ahead of our plan, so we boarded the Nemo ride. The real fish together with Nemo and Dorie is so cool.
We now had a fastpass for the Character spot. This time I asked Minnie to marry me :slight_smile:

Unfortunately, the Photopass-photographers seemed to take a break and we had to take our own pictures. They were back when we had finished meeting with all three characters. Spontaneously, we got in line for Joy and Sadness. What a good decision this was. Sadness was so cute.
It seemed like I had chosen the right t-shirt for that day. Most characters pointed to it and many Cast Members told me they liked it. I had chosen it mainly because I knew we would meet Anna & Elsa.

We used the next fastpass on Figment and walked over to ride Test Track. The posted wait time was about 60 minutes, so we used the single ride line. Again, the ride broke down while we waited and it took nearly 45 minutes until we boarded our car. But TT is worth waiting so long. What a cool ride.
When we exited Test Track I began to discover how beautiful Epcot is. I mean, I don’t know how it looks, when there is no Flower&Garden Festival in preparation, but the day we were there it was simply astonishing.

It was time for a journey around the world now, which we started in Mexico. Nice pavilion, nice boat ride, but nothing special here.

Norway seems to be interesting only because of Frozen. We got in line for Anna & Elsa and had to wait 25 minutes. I didn’t like this meet and greet. Elsa talked without a pause, smiled for a picture and we were send over to Anna. Anna at least asked if we had seen Olaf and was very amused when I pointed to my shirt. We had a fastpass for the Frozen ride now. The animatronics are fantastic, but I would never wait an hour or more for this ride. I’m glad we did it, but it’s nothing special.

We slowly made our way through the different countries and enjoyed the atmosphere. I really enjoyed Germany. Karamell-KĂŒche is a lovely place for chocolate lovers like me. I mean, the prices are ridiculous if you know what Toffifay or Werther’s cost here in Germany, but hey, we are at Disney.
Oh, by the way. I’ve never heard of the tradition to put a pickle on Christmas Trees. I’d love to work here a year or so, but unfortunately Disney still does not allow tattoos. We got in line for Snow White and waited about five minutes, just to be told that the family in front of us was the last family. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand that characters need a break, but the Cast Member had definitely seen that we got in line, so why not let us know immediately? However, we got in line again 20 minutes later and were among the first when Snow came back. She was so cute and totally amazed that we were from Germany.

Originally, I had planned on meeting Belle, but her line was horribly long, so we decided on skipping her and simply moved on through the countries.

In UK we met the first of three Mary Poppins throughout our vacation and she was by far the worst. It seemed like she didn’t enjoy standing in the sun, meeting children and I had a feeling she didn’t like her job at all.
We checked in for our reservation at Rose&Crown now. The food here was really good, but it was so cold inside the restaurant that I couldn’t really enjoy the meal and somehow hurried through eating just to get out there.
I didn’t feel well by the time we were finished and still was freezing even in the sun, so we decided to take a break after we did some shopping at Mouse Gear and went back to the hotel to get me a pair of jeans and a jacket.

We got back to Epcot just in time to use the fastpass for Illuminations that I had gotten us right after Frozen. Another brilliant evening show.

Day 6 – Chef Mickey’s, Blizzard Beach, MK and California Grill

Why did I make a reservation for Chef Mickey’s? In retrospect I don’t know, but it must have been something about an easy way to meet characters. The Unofficial Guide describes Chef Mickey’s as a madhouse and that’s what it is. The food is good, the character interaction nice, but it’s loud and noisy and waving with our napkins and singing the Mickey Mouse Club song (I love this tune and sang along proudly) was a bit too much for DH.
I really get that tips are important and I’ve got no problem with tipping for good service, but when the server mentions that you shouldn’t forget to tip first thing at your table, I think that’s a little bit too much. I’m sure we won’t do Chef Mickey’s again.

We boarded a bus to AK and from there to Blizzard Beach.
Another “don’t get me wrong”. I’ve got no problem to pay for things I use. But 15$ for a locker that couldn’t even take our two bags? I mean, we somehow squeezed everything into our “big” locker, but 15$ seems somehow ridiculous.
The park itself is great and I really enjoyed it. First things we did were Slush’n’Gusher and Summit Plummet. Both slides are really cool, but DH still has bruises on his back from Summit Plummet. We enjoyed the park a little more, played a quick round of mini golf and went back to the hotel to take our first and only midday break, which was a good idea as I snored for like two hours.

In the afternoon we went back to MK, before we headed over to California Grill. We were seated immediately and our server Wendy is the best example for how good service works. She was attentive, but stayed in the background as long we didn’t need her. She gave us all the time it took to make our decisions.
We saw Wishes from the observation deck, which is a really cool perspective. I was totally amazed how far behind the castle the fireworks is set off. If you stand in front it looks like everything is happening directly behind.

We sat down after the fireworks and our oak-fired filets of beef arrived. This was by far the best piece of meat I’ve ever eaten. It was so smooth, I could even cut it with the fork. The red wine Wendy had recommended went along perfectly. In the end, this was by far the best dining experience we had this week.

We walked over to MK again, because I had fastpasses scheduled I couldn’t squeeze in otherwise. BTMRR is a pretty cool ride.
While we waited for our FPP window for Tomorrowland Speedway I saw that Space Mountain was closed and we hopped on the Transit Authority Peoplemover to get a pretty cool look at Space Mountain with the maintenance lights on.


Tomorrowland Speedway could have been a nice ride if the guy in front of us would have gone any faster than a ladybug.

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Day 7 – MK again

Our last day began with breakfast at BOG again. This time I had the assorted cured meats and cheeses and was very disappointed. Not worth 24$. It was an Extra Magic Morning day, so we couldn’t get onto any attractions before 9am, but got in line for Peter Pan at 8:50 to make sure, we were the first. The Cast Member waiting with us was so funny. He told us how amazing it was to be first in line that morning and that he was working there for a long time now and still didn’t understand how the shadow tricks in the queue work. Again, we only discovered the shadow play with the bells, but nothing with Hook and a head, the guy talked about. By the time we got off Peter Pan the Disney guest Wi-Fi had stopped working and I couldn’t access my TP or our FPP times, so we had to be flexible again.
We took advantage of the low crowds to explore It’s a small World, Haunted Mansion and BTMRR again. By the time we walked over to the Castle to see Mickey’s Royal Friendship Fare Mary Poppins was just beginning a break. I hoped she would be back by 10:30 so we waited at her gazebo and were the first in line when she returned. This was Mary number 2 during our trip and by far the funniest. She made us “Step in Time”, explained in detail why our room does not clean at a snap and made us walk out like penguins. She was brilliant and even the Cast Members watching us had fun.


We than caught the rest of the Caste stage show and walked over to Space Mountain for our fastpass, just to find out that it was down again. While we waited we discovered a Cast Member who painted Mickey and Minnie faces with a broom and water onto the concrete. Absolutely amazing!

Instead of Space Mountain we walked onto the Carousel of Progress, which is somehow a funny show and I the song they are singing was stuck in my head all day. By the time we left Carousel of Progress Space Mountain opened again and we were among the first in line.
Space Mountain is by far the worst thing I’ve ever done and I don’t get why it is so popular. I am really used to rollercoaster (I’ve ridden the biggest coaster in the world and other coasters in the dark), but SM gave me a stiff neck and left me totally dizzy. Never ever will I do this again! Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin is another ride I wouldn’t do again. DH gave up shooting halfway through it and I was bored too. TSMM is much better.
We walked through Fantasyland and got in line for Alice. She was so funny. We had a tea party, made our best happy faces and watered the flowers.

Despite all the bad reviews we had a reservation for Tony’s Town Square Restaurant because
of the parade package and I somehow hoped it wouldn’t be that bad. We got an outside
table and had a wonderful view over Town Square. In the end, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. I had the Caesar Salad, Chicken Parmigiana and Gelato. The chicken was good, the spaghetti were cooked far too long. The Gelato was just two scoops of chocolate ice cream and nothing special.

Another good decision was to get a fastpass for Mickey Mouse. The posted wait time was 60 minutes, TP had predicted 20 minutes. Does anybody know how this works? Is there a Cast Member backstage hitting buttons with the right answer or is it the Cast Member in the costume?

We had planned on Tinkerbell right after Mickey but she had posted wait time of 70 minutes and the Cast Member at the entrance assured that it would take so long, so we skipped on this. Instead we met Snow White next to Guest Relations.

The Wi-Fi still didn’t work, so we had to use the FPP kiosks, which were pretty crowded of course, to get us a fastpass for a second journey with Ariel that afternoon. Well, I chose The Little Mermaid ride because it wasn’t possible to get a fastpass for another park at the kiosks.
It was so hot this afternoon that we found a spot in the shadows to watch the parade, but it got more and more crowded so went over to the flag pole to use our special viewing tickets. Did I mention that it was hot and humidity was high? We were sweating like pigs and the only disadvantage of this viewing spot is that it is in the sun all the time. I still don’t know how Cast Members survive standing there in their costumes. The parade is fun watching, but fairly short.

We walked over to Fantasyland again to use the fastpasses for the Ariel ride and when we got off, the Wi-Fi was finally working again and I could snag a fastpass for Fantasmic! in the evening. Before we boarded a bus over to Hollywood Studios we had an iced coffee float in Tomorrowland which was really good and cooling on this hot day.

Over at HS we met Olaf and got in line for Fantasmic! I still think it’s the best evening show at WDW.
I hoped to find a notification with our pick up from DME when we got back to the hotel, but of course it wasn’t there. So we walked over to the Concierge Desk again and the nice lady there printed the notification for us. Of course our pick up time was wrong. 5:40am for a 5:20pm flight seemed a little early. So we got back in line and the concierge took care of it and we got a new pick up time.

Day 7 – Departure Day
For some reason I thought that our DME pick up time was 12:10, when it was actually 1:10. We had a breakfast scheduled at 1900 Park Fare for 10:15 which I cancelled the evening before, because I thought it would be to tight. When I discovered that our actual pick up time is 1:10 I got us an 11am reservation and decided to go there early. While we waited for a boat at MK I was able to reschedule the reservation to 10:15 again. What a chaos! We had a wonderful boat ride to the Grand Floridian and were still early, but seated immediately. Our server this morning was Helen and she was great. My glass magically never got empty and was always filled with juice. The food here is so much better than at Chef Mickey’s.
The first characters we met were Pooh and Tigger, but the most fun we had with Alice again. It was the exact same Cast Member as the day before in Magic Kingdom and she even remembered us. I mean, she meets thousands of people a day and she still remembered us.

The third Mary Poppins we met was
 well
 I think nice is the best word to describe. I got the feeling that she hadn’t played the role very often so far as she seemed lost sometimes. When we were finished we had the opportunity to meet the Mad Hatter, who wasn’t as mad as expected, but quite funny when he discovered that it was our unbirthday.

This is where a wonderful week comes to an end. We were picked up by DME exactly at 1:10pm and I’ve got no clue how Disney manages to be on time with most everything. We had some trouble checking in at the airport and I got horribly sick during the flight, but in total it was the most wonderful week I’ve ever had.

Will we come back? Yes, yes and yes again. During our vacation we already discussed when we will be back. DH said in about five years, I said in about a year. Now it seems it will be back next year during Christmas season, but we will see.

I will close this trip report with some thoughts:
Dining plan: We had the free quick service dining plan and upgraded to the regular one because of all the Character meals we planned on doing and I am so glad we didn’t upgrade to the deluxe one. It is so much food. I am very good eater and even I was full all the time. Would I get the plan again? Yes. Mostly it was a good value for us.

Disney Transportation: Not as bad as expected. Mostly we didn’t wait more than 10 or 15 minutes.

Walking at CBR: Another point that wasn’t as worse as I thought. The Concierge Lady said it would be too far to walk from Jamaica to the Custom House. Okay, if a 10-minute walk is far I don’t want to know how she would describe my daily dog-walk. In my opinion this is something were the unofficial guide is too hard as well. The distances within CBR aren’t that bad.

Character Meets: Mostly absolute worth waiting for and not only for kids. We had so much fun with most of the characters.

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I’m so glad you will be returning! Sounds like you had a fabulous trip!

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I loved reading through your trip report, so detailed and informative! Thanks for sharing!

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Glad you liked it :slight_smile: