You did so much!! Great day and pics. Enjoy HS!
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I know! I can do a Dole Whip, though, so I’ll be getting one of those in AK!
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We did everything we wanted to. I wish the girls had wanted to ride LWTL…it was a walk-on after our last Soarin’ ride. It was brutal on our legs, though…mine are still aching after a good nights sleep!
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Long, hot day in HS! Here’s the recap:
We woke the girls up around 6:45. Walked out the door towards the front of our resort at 7:45. Our Lyft arrived right at 7:55, dropped us off at the Speedway on Buena Vista Drive at 8:00, and we started walking to HS, arriving at 8:16. We were about 7 groups back.
They held us until 8:47 at which point we headed to the temperature screenings and were held there. This is where all the best laid plans go wrong.
While standing there DD10 says she really needs to go to the bathrooms. Which we’ve been standing right next to for the last 40 minutes. So I ask a CM if it would be quicker to take her back to the ones we left or to wait and she said they won’t open until 9:15.
She lied.
DD and I were gone not even a minute before they let everyone in. DH didn’t know where we were going so waited on us. And we didn’t get to MMRR until 9:18 so waited 25 minutes to ride, despite being thisclose to the first people in line to get in.
We found a bench near the entrance to TSL to try for BG. No luck. It spun and spun populating my party. We went to TSMM which was an 8 minute wait. And then the day got hot.
At 10:36 we were in line for for RnRC. Waited 45 minutes but this queue is brutal, so hot.
At 11:30 we got in line for ToT and waited an hour. This at least had a lot of shade. We got caught in a cleaning cycle. So we ate lunch while in line and socially distanced and not moving. It worked out alright I guess.
After this we headed to Animation Courtyard (I think…in front of MMRR area) and waited in the shade. I got a poisoned apple (blah) and a carrot cake cookie (yum!) from Trolley Car Cafe and we snacked on them while waiting for the Frozen Sing Along. While waiting we saw the Disney Junior cavalcade. We got in line for Frozen at 1:05 or so for a 1:30 show. You could wait a little longer but it was already halfway full by that point.
I left the show at 1:50 to try for a BG. Once again, no luck. I was bummed considering my BG2 from the resort the other day but it’s ok. We likely will not return to HS until there’s a better way. I’m glad it wasn’t “do or die” for us but still would like to get to ride at some point.
At this point we wanted to ride the Skyliner for a break so headed to the front of the park. Asked someone at the front and she said they weren’t currently running so we should wait. The girls shopped a bit and we saw the Incredibles/Toy Story cavalcade.
We headed to SDD. Line looked long but not as long as earlier in the day. But it started to sprinkle on us so we quickly left and went to watch the Mickey Vacation short films at 2:40. These were cute and our legs appreciated sitting.
We headed to MuppetVision but 25 min wait was not gonna happen. Wandered through GE on the way to TSL. Got in line for SDD at 3:30. Line for TSMM was super short so DH took the girls while I waited. They were back in 15 minutes and I had barely moved. Must have been a cleaning cycle. So I took them to ride again and we were back in 20 minutes because we got caught in a cleaning cycle. DH was waiting at the main entrance to SDD…we lost 3-4 minutes there but that part of the queue is so hot I just couldn’t let the girls wait there. DH was not allowed in the main queue without all of us.
We were on the ride at 4:37, so waited a little over an hour. If the line is to the exit of TSL it’s an hour wait unless you luck out and no cleaning cycle. As soon as we got off SDD there was a serious downpour for about 3 minutes. Then we ran to the bathrooms because DD10 really had to go. We all went and DH took DD8 and DD6 with him to get in line for MF. DD10 and I joined maybe 5 minutes later, catching 15 seconds of another downpour as we rushed to meet him in line. We waited from 5:00-5:25 and went to MuppetVision after MF.
Everyone was starving and we didn’t want to backtrack into GE so mobile ordered from Rosie’s. Not the best food ever but everyone was full afterwards. We hopped in line for MMRR again at 6:48 with a 60 minute wait posted. We were on at 7:22. The girls shopped on our way out, each buying something small. We took the Skyliner to Riveria and then a Lyft back to WBC from there.
That’s the recap of the day…I’ll add thoughts on the last two days from my computer tomorrow. We are going nowhere except the pool tomorrow and my legs need it!
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I’m so bummed that you missed out on ROTR! You did all the right things to start your day! I must say the walking in to HS sounds so much better. We drove both times last trip and were in lines for our first ride at 10:00 both times rather than off the first ride. Was it quicker to walk from the Speedway than from Swan/Dolphin? I’ll have to try to find the thread with the map that was posted recently. Trying to understand what took the app so long for Rise…was it trying to determine who was in the park? Would it be quicker to just click each person yourself, or is that even an option anymore? I am glad though that you seem to have pushed that aside and had a great day anyway! I am really enjoying following your trip and hope you are all having a great time!
ETA: Your girls are just so adorable! Love the shirts and matching masks!!
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Here it is…hoping this works as a link…
That’s so annoying not to get a BG! And the bathroom issue at the start of your day. But the rest sounds pretty great!
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I think that if you’re Ubering from elsewhere that the Speedway is a little closer. It looked closer on the map and I knew we’d be walking a lot so wanted to save a few steps, plus it was closer to us so $1 or so cheaper. I’m not sure I’d do it with a stroller or littles, though…we did have to run across that road between Speedway and the BW resorts. On the map it looked like there was a path but there’s not. It’s not a large road but I still wouldn’t do it with a stroller.
We actually paid less for our 2 Lyft rides and $4 tips than we would have paid for parking, so it was a good move for us. Of course, we walked a little more than if we had driven.
When the app finally populated my party we were all already selected. It just took awhile for it to populate. It’s never done that before when practicing. I was so annoyed. The second time it populated quickly but I got the red “Boarding Gates are full” or whatever at the bottom. It’s really ok, although of course we would have liked to ride. When we headed to the front of the park there was a long line of people at Guest Relations, almost all that we heard were fussing about not getting a BG. I do think that Disney needs to come up with something else (I think let people line up outside the park as early as they’re willing to. Add a BG to people on a first come, first serve basis. You cannot ride another ride until your BG has been called, so it’s like you’re standing in line. You can leave the park and come back later or stay in the park and shop and eat, but no riding anything) but people should not be mad at Disney for not getting to do something that Disney says you may not get to do.
The shirts were a surprise from our friends we saw at DH’s speaking engagement the other day! Well, actually we didn’t see them because they’re the ones who came down with Covid, but they delivered a package for us and it had the shirts and gatorade, haha! My stepmom made the masks for us. They’re hot but I switched to a paper one while in line for SDD and it was just as hot.
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Turns out she didn’t go before we left the resort. I was like ?!?!?!?!?!?!? You’re 10! You should know better! Oh well. We still got to ride everything even with the bathroom mishap!
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Ok, here are my thoughts on the last two days. Epcot is fine, at least on a weekday. It was not that crowded even though TP says our day turned out to be a 3. The only lines over 30 minutes we waited in were…TT. I think that’s it. The rest were under (or maybe FEA was right at) 30 minutes. Epcot just kills me because of all the walking. And the sun does us in. Really I think our main accomplishment has been 2 park days and no sunburn.
HS is…not really crowded, per se. It did not feel like there was a mass of humanity in the park. The lines were just long and are all in the sun, except for ToT which goes back towards the Fantasmic amphitheater so is shaded. All of the rest of them (maybe not MF…we rode that right after the rain and I joined DH 5 minutes in so am not sure where the queue begins) are in direct sun. It is just hot. You can ride everything in a day. We could have fit in ST and RotR as well had we wanted to/gotten a BG. If we had gotten a BG we would likely have saved SDD for park close and not done MMRR again. That ride is super cute, and I like that it’s 5-6 minutes long, so you don’t feel like you waited an hour for a 2-minute ride. Honestly that and MF are the only rides that DD6 didn’t immediately say, “That’s it?” when finished. She seemed ok with waiting but when the ride was over in 2 minutes she was disappointed.
Our previous HS day 2 years ago was a CL4. We did the Frozen SA, BaTB, Little Mermaid, RnRC, ToT, TSMM, Muppets/ST, SDD x2, and JBJB! in about 10 hours. 9 things plus nighttime show. This time we did Frozen SA, Mickey Shorts, Muppets, SDD, TSMM x3, MF, RnRC, ToT, MF, MMRR x2 in 12 hours. 13 things. Comparable. Just a little more miserable because of the heat.
So, anyways, our HS turned out to be a CL2. Feels accurate. Food lines did not seem overly long…I waited like 2 minutes in Trolley Car Cafe at 12:45 or so. Our Rosie’s order was ready before I got there. We were hot. Our legs were/are tired. We didn’t get a BG. But it was a good day. Don’t hinge all your hopes on a BG and you can have an awesome day.
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Today so far…we slept in! I woke up around 7:00, the girls around 8:45. We have had a super slow morning and my legs and hips are thanking me. My toes, too…I ended up with two blisters even though I’m wearing my running shoes and have run 8 miles in them before with no blisters. Anyways, we are hanging here today. Girls are playing Minecraft. DH is planning on watching football all day. I got laundry going and am now doing this:
And trying to get motivated to make a TP for Monday in MK. I know it’s going to be a madhouse and I just don’t wanna mess with it. But I need to.
After lunch I’ll take the girls swimming. Tacos for dinner. And that is all. I don’t know how people go and go and go when in WDW. I’m thin and in fairly good shape and am hurting.
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Your vacation sounds so lovely! I’m thinking I need to plan these break days on future trips. Enjoy the pool!
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I love the breaks. My legs and hips already feel so much better today since I haven’t been standing all day. We are fortunate in that since we have weird jobs we can take 2 weeks off without a problem, doing a little computer work on off days. I know a lot of people can’t do that.
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After lunch I took the girls to the pool and they swam until 5:00. We bought tubes for the lazy river and they made some friends. The pool was busy today, so much busier than early in the week.
After swimming we came back and ate and showered. I left and went to AKL with the mom friend who had come to visit on Tuesday morning with her husband and kids. She had mentioned Sana’a yesterday at HS (we met up with them for the Frozen SA) and how she’d like to try it but her husband poopoo-ed the idea, and I also wanted to try it so she picked me up and we mobile ordered and ate in one of the rooms off of the lobby. It made a good dinner for the two of us but my DH would have been disappointed. 
Came back to the news that park hours for Monday have been extended…MK is open 8-8! We will either leave in the middle of the day or watch CBJ ten times. Probably that one. DH really didn’t like leaving the park two years ago so we’ll probably stay and try to take it easy when the heat and crowds are the worst.
Tomorrow is more swimming and maybe a quick grocery store run for more bottled water and ice cream. Oh, and milk and fruit. But mostly lactose-free ice cream. 
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It’s bedtime here but for the record…our day. With not a single picture. 
Everyone slept in until almost 9, which was fantastic. Lazy morning. DH went for a run, and then we went to…dum dum dum…a timeshare presentation. For our time we received a free week at a Wyndham resort of our choice to use by next November. We decided that was worth a couple of hours.
Afterwards we came back and had lunch (and started Star Wars episode 1). Then DH took the girls mini golfing, and I stayed and did some computer work. That mid-afternoon storm that @eeeevah mentioned came while they were golfing, and they just played through it and came back soaked. Then they all went swimming and I continued to work and then did the puzzle a bit. They came back around 5:30, we ate dinner while watching SW, got cleaned up, and got everyone in bed by 8:30/9:00. Tomorrow is an early wake up call for 8 am MK opening!
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Everyone in bed by 8:30/9:00?! You’re a champ!
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One of my fondest vacation memories was 2007 when we arrived to FL (after a taxing flight with four kids 7 and under and four car seats and a plane change), and got everyone in bed by 8ish and then realized it was the night to turn the clocks back. It was a stellar way to start vacation! An extra hour of sleep!!
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Sweet sweet victory!! Although the kids’ internal clocks don’t so much recognize that extra hour of sleep which slightly mitigates the usefulness of falling back, BUT, still a sweet sweet victory
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My kids have historically been great sleepers after about 12 months old, thankfully. I never mind people being up early and it’s great for rope dropping. 
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Falling back has yet to equate to an extra hour of sleep for us, but we’ve only been parents for 2 “falling backs.”
And of course waking up early is great at Disney! I certainly don’t mind it either, though I miss the connection to an extra hour of sleep. It’s still early and my brain is just getting fired up, so I probably just missed it.
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