Can’t wait to read the rest!
1 Like
Really looking forward to the rest of this!
1 Like
EPCOT Order of Events:
13. Traded for Orange Bird pin
14. Soarin’
15. Met Vanellope
16. Pixar Films
17. Mission Space Orange (DS17)
18. Olaf’s Strawberry Lemonade Juice Bar
19. Picture with Spaceship Earth
20. Magic Shots
21. Took Monorail round trip and then to TTC
22. Took Monorail to Magic Kingdom
Details: We took the Friendship Boat to EPCOT, stopping twice to collect more passengers. When we got to EPCOT, we got through security quickly, and we were in. DS17 immediately saw a CM with a pin lanyard, so we asked to trade a pin. We got an Orange Bird pin – it’s so cute (p.s. I’m one of those pin traders that doesn’t care if I trade for more value. I just trade for what I like). The CM managing RD from the International Gateway was really good. He had clear instructions, and he kept everyone orderly. After a while of waiting just a little way inside the park, he allowed us to move up into United Kingdom. We were right at the front. After a while he let us go, and we made the mad dash (without running, of course) to Soarin’. We basically walked onto Soarin’, only waiting a bit for the pre-show. After our world tour, we headed to Pixar films to see a show. There was about a 10 minute wait, so we decided to see if we could see Ralph and Vanellope again (even though we had just seen them the day before), since they were so close. Vanellope was there by herself, but we could get right in to see her, so that worked.
After meeting Vanellope, who was also excited about our challenge, we headed back to see the Pixar films again. DS17 was suggesting we go to Turtle Talk with Crush again, but I thought this would be less crowded, and easier to get out of, plus I like it better. After Pixar films, we headed over to Mission Space. I have never ridden Orange, and I don’t think I ever will. I have ridden Green, and I can live without doing that again. DS17 wanted to do Orange – he says, “if I’m going to do it, I might as well do it right”, so I waited on a bench outside of the Pavilion, and in he went. We only needed to eat something and get our photos done at this point, so we headed toward the front of the park. We got an Olaf’s Strawberry Lemonade Juice Bar to share (neither of us were hungry, and I had eaten the rest of our Nutella pasty from Woody’s Lunchbox during the Pixar films), so this fit the bill.
At the entrance area, we got in line to get our picture taken with Spaceship Earth. This turned out to be the longest line we stood in all day. Our photographer was chatty and a bit slow, so we also probably picked the wrong line. At first our photographer made the mistake of thinking we were a couple (only time that happened). When he was posing us for the first picture, I said “he’s my son”, and he laughed and said “I’ve made that mistake before”. Anyway, he took a bunch of pictures, and at least four magic shots, so mission accomplished. When we were done, we walked up to the monorail and waited. We were about 45 minutes ahead of schedule at this point. I really wanted to ride the monorail through Epcot, so we stayed on after we reached the TTC the first time, and then got off there the second time. At the TTC, DS17 used the restroom, and I traded another pin with a CM there. She was asking me about our challenge. We then got in a relatively long line to take the monorail to Magic Kingdom.
9 Likes
I love how enthusiastic your son is in all the pictures!!
3 Likes
He was a great sport. He generally is, but he was having a lot of fun, and it made it easier…
4 Likes
Magic Kingdom Order of Events:
23. Traded for France pin
24. Met Mickey
25. Picture in front of castle
26. Magic Shot
27. Laugh Floor
28. Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train
29. The Plaza Restaurant
30. Took bus to Animal Kingdom
Details: When we were on the monorail to MK, our car was fully packed. There were two women sitting to the left of DS17, and they saw our shirts and asked him about what we were doing. He had the full car listening while he was explaining our challenge for the entire ride. The women were fascinated, and were saying that we were making them tired just hearing about it. DS17 was having fun, and it was awesome to hear him talk about something with that kind of interest. When we got to MK, we didn’t go through security, which I found odd, but I guess we never left a secured area. We got into the park, and immediately found someone to trade a pin with again. We had a FPP to meet Mickey at 11:50) and we entered right about then. As soon as we scanned our pass, I modified our Mad Tea Party FPP to Laugh Floor, so we could hit that before Seven Dwarfs (at 1:05).
The Mickey Meet and Greet was DS17’s highlight of the day. The handler in the room was hilarious – her name was Jessica. As soon as we were let in, the woman in the outer room said “I enjoyed meeting your twin sister Betty yesterday.” Automatically I assumed she had a twin sister, and automatically DS17 assumed that she forgot her nametag the day before. He was right, of course. They immediately hit it off based on that commonality. DS17 is not the most organized creature, and often forgets his nametag at work, and also is teased about it. She was young, energetic, and snorted when she laughed at herself. She immediately noticed our shirt and started asking about what we had already done. When it was our turn to see Mickey, she and Mickey got into an argument about who we would take with us to ride on Seven Dwarfs – she said we would take her, because she was the first to talk to us, and he thought we should take him, because he’s well, Mickey. She challenged him to the hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog dance, which had DS17 in stitches, because he used to watch that Disney Channel show obsessively. She even did the dance, and of course snorted when she was laughing during it. I suggested we all go to Seven Dwarfs after out meet, but alas, they had to say and work. It was a lot of fun.
We stopped up in Main Street and watched a little bit of a music show. I’m not sure what it was exactly, maybe the Main Street players. We then walked toward the castle to get our pictures taken before we went to Laugh Floor. We had the best photographer. He asked us what park this was, and had us hold up three fingers for a couple of pictures, and then he walked toward us and said that since we were doing this challenge he wanted to stall for a minute, because fireworks would go off during the show behind us shortly. He caught several pictures of us with fireworks over the castle too. It was so fun. Next stop, Laugh Floor. We were hoping to get selected, but it wasn’t our day for that… It was a fun show, though. This was the only thing we had missed at MK that we’d wanted to do. We went into Laugh Floor during our MNSSHP, but it’s a different experience.
Our FPP was now open for Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train, so we headed there and got on and off very quickly. I enjoy this ride, but I prefer Big Thunder. Same with DS17. This trip was the first time either of us had ridden though, so I made sure to have several FPP for it. It was just after one and our last task was to eat something. We had ADRs at 1:45 at The Plaza Restaurant, so we headed there. They got us in pretty quickly. DS17 got the never ending milkshake, and started with strawberry and I ordered an iced tea. DS17 ordered the Honey-Barbequed Beef Brisket Burger and I ordered the Baked Honey-Barbequed Brisket Macaroni and Cheese. We enjoyed our meal. The service was not great, but it was fine. We left MK about 2 hours ahead of schedule and caught a bus to Animal Kingdom.
11 Likes
I’ve been seeing this trip report pop up the last week or so but didn’t start reading until today! Glad I did! With the added bonus that I don’t have to wait as long for the remaining posts. By my count, you still have part 4 of your 4-park challenge, one full touring day, and a travel day left? That was impressive to be in 3 parks before noon!
2 Likes
Yes, but there’s also a part five of the 4-park challenge, and some summarizing. I hope to finish uploading this weekend at the latest.
3 Likes
Animal Kingdom Order of Events:
31. Picture in front of Tree of Life
32. Magic Shot
33. Pin trade in Africa
34. Kilimanjaro Safari
35. Adventure Outpost with Mickey & Minnie
36. Frozen banana (me); frozen lemonade (DS17)
37. Up
38. Took bus to Hollywood Studios
Details: The bus ride to Animal Kingdom was completely uneventful. We got through security quickly, and were in the park about 3:30 (about an hour and a half before schedule). We found a park photographer right away and got our picture taken in front of the tree and a magic shot. It was fun seeing all of the different magic shot options that photographers used. We had a couple of repeats, but overwhelmingly they were new shots. We also did a picture showing four fingers for park 4. As we headed back into Africa, we saw the tail end (see what I did there?) of a live bird show. The parrots had just flown up to where the show was. They were so beautiful. I had made a FPP for Kilimanjaro Safaris for 3:45 as soon as we tapped into Seven Dwarfs, so we headed there. On the way, we traded a pin with a CM in Africa. I love the Safari ride, because you can always see something different. It was a beautiful day (even though it was hot), and we saw a lot of animals. The best was rhinos in the road, on this particular safari. They had to be moved out by researchers.
After we tapped into the safari, I made a FPP for Adventure Outposts, to see characters. We were able to head to that as soon as we were finished with the safari. Mickey and Minnie were great, and noticed our shirts, and asked us how it was going. We were almost done. We still need to eat something and see a show in AK, and then head back to HS to see a show. After meeting Mickey and Minnie, we got something to eat – DS17 got a frozen lemonade and I got a frozen banana, and we went to wait to be let into the UP show. I love seeing the birds, but I think the show is a major downgrade from Flight of Wonder, which we both absolutely loved when we were here prior. We left Animal Kingdom at approximately the time we were supposed to arrive. We headed to the bus stop for Hollywood Studios, where we had a bit of a wait.
7 Likes
Hollywood Studios (round 2) Order of Events:
39. Maleficent Preview
40. Pictures with Chinese Theater
41. Magic shot at Chinese Theater
42. Skyliner to Pop Century
Details: When we got to Hollywood Studios, DS17 had 3D glasses that he forgot to turn in after Toy Story Mania confiscated by security, after going through security at EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom with the same glasses. We had already decided that our show here would be the movie preview at Walt Disney Presents. This was something we missed on our HS day, and we had wanted to do it, but couldn’t fit it in. We found out when the movie would start, and looked around the exhibit until it was time. We both enjoyed the preview of Maleficent and now we want to see the movie. While we were waiting to enter the theater, a CM stopped to talk to us, and she said she always wanted to do a four park challenge, and she was impressed with what we had accomplished. After the show we headed out, and I saw a park photographer, and asked DS17 if he would kill me if we stopped, and he said as long as we could act really tired. I thought that was appropriate. So, we got an extra park icon shot in HS and an extra magic shot (even though we didn’t ask for one). The final step was taking the Skyliner back to Pop Century, using the fourth and final form of free transportation.
A few closing thoughts about the four park challenge: Oh my gosh, we had so much fun. We were tired, but we would both totally do this again. It surely helped to have the Extra Extra Magic Hours at Hollywood Studios, because it allowed us to RD two parks, and get our FPP at the third park. I’m sure that saved us so much time. It was also great having t-shirts made for us. Many people talked to us about our challenge, including so many Cast Members. They were all so great and supportive. We decided on purpose to do this late in our trip, and I think it was a good decision. We had already been to all of the parks, so we knew our way around, and we knew what we could reasonably do with shorter waits. We purposefully scheduled a light and early day the day before, as well. Finally, it was hot! If it had been cooler, we probably could have done even more, but the heat was hard for us Northwesterners. I want to do a four park challenge every time I got to WDW in the future.
Total Steps: 26,168
Highlights: Mickey at MK (DS17); Completing the challenge (me)
Total time: 5:00 am to 7:15 pm (left hotel room to returned to hotel room)
14 Likes
You did so much!! And so quickly!
1 Like
That was an amazing day. Great pics!
1 Like
Thanks! Did you spot the hidden Mickey?
Day 11 –October 31, 2019 – Disney Springs
Plan: Go to Magic Kingdom, repeat favorites 7:00 am – 6:00 pm; ADRs at Liberty Tree Tavern at 11:05 and Be Our Guest at 5:25 (we canceled LTT just before we left and moved it to Monday, October 28, which we canceled during our trip); FPP for Meet Cinderella and Ella at 8:10, Peter Pan’s Flight at 9:20, and Space Mountain at 10:20.
Actual: Earlier in the week, we cancelled our Be Our Guest reservation and replaced it with Raglan Road. We wanted to spend some time at Disney Springs, and we both really enjoyed Raglan Road, and had a second menu item we wanted to try, so we checked and found a reservation that would work for us on Thursday, and neither of us were married to dinner at Be Our Guest after our breakfast experience (I’m sure they are very different, and maybe someday we will do it, but not this trip). We slept in, did our laundry, and headed to Disney Springs around 3:00. We shopped in many of the stores, and purchased some gifts for friends at World of Disney, and three ornaments (a Mary Poppins bag, which I had seen in United Kingdom earlier in the trip, and was coveting, a Toy Story Land Mickey Ears ornament, and an Epcot Mickey Ears) at the Christmas store. I love buying Christmas ornaments on vacation. We have a ton, and when we unpack them every year at Christmas it brings back so many memories. We had dinner at Raglan Road again and asked to be seated in the main room, which just involved an extra few minutes wait. I didn’t mind that at all – totally worth it… DS17 had the fish and chips and I had the risotto and the brussel sprouts. The brussel sprouts were yummy, but I didn’t really care for the risotto. We also shared the scallops appetizer and the bread pudding for dessert. We went out to the buses after dinner and there was a huge line for Pop Century, but no line for Art of Animation, and both queues had buses, so we hopped on AoA, and walked back to Pop from there.
We think we beat the other bus (and we got seats), so don’t tell us otherwise… We never entered a park this day, which meant we over purchased on our tickets, but the difference at that point is very little, and I think we needed this day.
Total Steps: 13, 532
10 Likes
Two more installments coming: Final day (and some wonderful magic) and final summary/thoughts. Thanks to those of you who are reading along!
6 Likes
Day 12 –November 1, 2019 – Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom; Travel Home
Plan: Choose between doing the Yule Tide Tour which I had booked or spend the morning and early afternoon at EPCOT; ADRs at Rose and Crown at 12:30; FPP at Mission Space at 9:30, Test Track at 11:00, and Spaceship Earth at 1:25; Yule Tide Tour from 9:00 – 12:00; back to Pop by 3:00 for ME at 4:05 (I like to be early for things like this). During our trip, we changed our plans for this day many times, and eventually cancelled everything. On Thursday, we finally decided that what we really wanted to do was to ride Slinky Dog Dash again, so HS and 4:30 am it was.
Actual: On our last day, we decided to get up at 4:30 and rope drop Hollywood Studios. We wanted to ride Slinky Dog Dash one (or two) more times. We were near the front of the line, but enough people got in front of us that we weren’t in the first car, but when we got in the entry queue, they started having people get out. It was down. Womp womp!
We headed to Toy Story Mania. DS17 scored 148,700 and I scored 117,600. We then ate at Woody’s Lunchbox, hoping that Slinky Dog would reopen. No luck, so back to Toy Story Mania (165,500 for DS17; 119,200 for me). We went back to Slinky to try to wait it out. We talked to the CMs, DS17 hula hooped with them, and we waited, and waited, and waited… Eventually, DS17 said, “I don’t want this to be the last thing we do (the waiting); I want to ride something today.” So, we gave up and went to Tower of Terror and while we were in line for ToT, I was checking MDE, and noticed it came back up.
DS17 decided to ride Rock 'n Roller Coaster one last time, while I headed back to Slinky Dog Dash to check it out. When I got there, the line was 60 minutes and increased to 85. I called Disney to request a late check out so we could ride and still have time to shower and finish packing, letting them know that we got up at 4:30, so we could ride SDD one last time, and that it was down all morning and was now back up with a long wait. The person I spoke to said they would get in touch with Housekeeping and they would call me back to let me know. After I got off the phone, one of the CMs who we were hanging out with in the morning came up to me and asked if I wanted to ride. I said yes, but that I was waiting for DS17. As soon as he got there, she walked us up to the FPP line and asked the CM there to let us in. That was amazing! We asked if we could ride in the last row, because that’s what they were telling us was the best place to ride that morning. When we finished the ride, another CM who remembered us from the morning asked if we wanted to go again. Of course we said yes, and she walked us right back in through the exit, and got us in the back row for the next ride. Magic at the end of our trip. While we were riding, housekeeping called and said we had until 1:00 to check out. Yay!
We left Hollywood Studios, went back to Pop via Skyliner to shower, relax, and check out. Meanwhile, I got a FPP for Flight of Passage with a same day drop at 11:01. We left the room around 11:45, checked out, and headed to Animal Kingdom to ride FOP and then ate at Flame Tree Barbecue. DS17 wanted to ride EE one last time too, and headed there, and I shopped a little. The plan was to meet up near the exit. We took the bus to Art of Animation, and walked back to Pop Century to wait for our 4:05 Tragical Express to the Airport. DS17 used up all of his credits in the arcade, while we waited. Our 7:05 flight back to Seattle was uneventful, DH picked us up at the airport, and we got home by 11:00 pm Seattle time. It was a long day, but fun! And we were also glad to be home. We had such a great trip but we were both missing our real life people and activities.
Total Steps: 18,468
Highlights: The magic of riding Slinky Dog Dash twice (DS17 and me)
10 Likes
Overall Favorites:
Day: Four Park Challenge (DS17 and me)
Park: Magic Kingdom (DS17); Hollywood Studios (me, which, by the way shocked me), followed by Animal Kingdom as a very close second
Meal (food): Grand Floridian Café (DS17); Restaurant Marrakesh (me), followed closely by Skipper Canteen
Meal (overall experience): Skipper Canteen (DS17); Raglan Road (me)
Ride in MK: Splash (DS17 and me)
Ride in EPCOT: Soarin’ (DS17 and me)
Ride in HS: Slinky Dog Dash (DS17 and me), followed closely by Toy Story Mania (me)
Ride in AK: Expedition Everest (DS17); Flight of Passage (me)
Nighttime Show: Boo to You Fireworks (DS17); Happily Ever After (me)
Other Show: Lion King (DS17); Frozen Sing Along (me), followed closely by Finding Nemo
Favorite Meet and Greet: Mickey in MK on Four Park Challenge day (DS17 and me), followed closely by Stitch (DS17)
6 Likes
Overall Statistics:
Park days: 11
Total Steps: 236,083
Number of Attractions Enjoyed: 141 (this includes rides and shows and attractions at Typhoon Lagoon, but excludes nighttime fireworks shows)
Most frequently enjoyed attractions:
- Flight of Passage: 3
- Na’vi River Journey: 2
- Kilimanjaro Safari: 3
- Expedition Everest: 3 (10 for DS17)
- Soarin’: 3
- Frozen Ever After: 2
- Pixar Films: 2
- Slinky Dog Dash: 6
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster: 2 (5 for DS17)
- Tower of Terror: 3
- Toy Story Mania: 5
- Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train: 4 (5 for DS17)
- Mad Tea Party: 2 (3 for DS17)
- It’s a Small World: 3
- Buzz Lightyear: 4
- Haunted Mansion: 2
- Pirates of the Caribbean: 2
- Jungle Cruise: 2
Longest wait: 30 minutes (once)
Number of Rope Drops: 6
Number of Firework/Nighttime Shows: 5
Number of Character Meet and Greets: 28
Number of Meals:
- Table Service: 13
- Counter Service or Quick Service: 8
- Snacks: 8
Number of times using Disney Transportation (including ME):
- Buses: 28
- Skyliner: 9
- Monorail: 4
- Boats: 2
Number of times using any paid form of Transportation: 0
Number of extras (includes Oga’s Cantina, Caring for Giants, Candy Sushi Making Class, Dessert Parties, Parties, etc.): 8
Number of postcards sent: 55
Things we missed that we wanted to do:
- Mexico Pavilion
- Star Wars Fireworks Show
- More eating through Food & Wine
- Celebrate with the Incredibles at Pixar Pier
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy
- Maharaja Jungle Trek
- Divine
- Tree of Life Awakenings (although we did see parts of this walking by several times)
- And I wish DS17 would have seen Finding Nemo
- I would have liked to have met Moana at MNSSHP
Well, there you have it. I’m finishing up this trip report just as I’m finishing my last box of treats from the world - I just ate one of the last Mickey shortbread cookies. We had a great trip. Thanks for reading. I’m happy to answer any questions you have.
19 Likes
i’ve been following along and wanted to thank you for sharing your trip—and with so many details. it was fun to read and i loved your summary at the end. from the outside looking in, it looked like it was a very special, memorable trip with your son!
3 Likes
Thank you. Yes it was! And we needed it.
1 Like