I’ll be back in Orlando in just over a week, and I’m weirdly not all that excited about it. This is not wholly out of character — I often get a strange depression in the immediate run up to a trip.
One thing I know I suffer from a lot is FOMO and I get stressed out at the thought of not being able to do That Big Thing that I really want to do and which will Ruin The Entire Trip if I don’t get to do it. I’m currently very focussed on doing Tron, for example, which I missed out on in March, despite the best efforts of @JuliaMc to make it happen.
But we all know that it’s about so much more than riding some headline attraction for two minutes. So this thread is an opportunity for you to share your stories of the highlights of trips you’ve taken, which were totalled unplanned and unexpected and couldn’t have been booked in advance or obsessed over.
I’ll start.
During my Christmas 2018 trip, I had a reservation at Artist Point. I got to WL early to enjoy the festive theming. Then, from nowhere, a troupe (?) choir (?) orchestra (?) of bell-ringers began playing. It was utterly enchanting and magical.
Not that it is “unplanned”, but DW and I were headed to Narcoose’s for dinner, and as we passed through the lobby of the Grand Floridian, we took 10 minutes to stop and listen to the pianist playing in the lobby.
We love the songbook of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and more …
Because we made the time to slow down, stop and listen to this man play the piano game it added a level of enjoyment to our evening. That’s the thing about disney, you almost have to force yourself to stop for those unexpected moments.
On our first trip, we were finishing up fries from Mr. Kamal’s before going into FOTLK when a cast member approached us and ushered us into the theatre to special seats in the front row. It was totally unexpected but now has been a favorite family memory.
I took my younger two to GF for afternoon tea. It was a spring break trip and that meal was a little oasis of peace in the middle of a hectic week and my kids were trying to have grown up manners. It was lovely.
One of DD19’s favorite memories of that trip was going to the evening movie at CR and being given an entire bag of SmartPop brand “Movie style” popcorn.
One which might stir your FOMO was back when we could get a pre-park, QS breakfast at BOG and get on 7DMT prior to rope drop – my kids loved that.
It feels like I’m fortunate enough to have these moments every trip.
My last trip (which you were missed), was the impromptu hang sessions with Amazing Unnamed Liner #1 and later, @JuliaMc who is an absolute treasure and magic maker irl.
My other favorite was when we had the Stretching Room to ourselves with an extra playful CM.
Come to think of it… ALL of my favorite FOMO moments happened completely unplanned. If I had my schedule jam packed with “must-do’s”, I’d never have had the time to meet some of the genuinely nicest people ever.
The story that comes to mind was when I was like 14 my family was in Epcot hanging out in the America pavilion and this guy in Revolutionary garb came up to us and invited us to the American Express suite upstairs where there was popcorn and soda and Alice in Wonderland read us a story, along with 4-5 other families. Totally random but cool experience.
We only ride Soarin, Test Track, Mission Space and Spaceship Earth. We did Soarin pre RD after GG breakfast, and we had FPs for all the others - TT first, and it was down. I had checked before we started walking, so we decided to do something close before heading in that direction. You could tell the CMs thought we were nutters
My daughter and husband are roller coaster people, my son and I are not. So in 2016 they roped dropped RnRR and we rope dropped . . . Star Tours. Followed by the mini Jedi movie they were playing. We sat down super early, front row for the Star Wars parade / show thing they were doing as my sons favorite character was Captain Phasma and that was the only way to see her. A cast member asked if it was just the two of us and to follow him.
We ended up in the parade, standing in the best spot for the show, and then got to follow Phasma and the storm troopers out and we shown to the front of the line to meet Chewie, Kylo Ren, and BB8. It was great.
I think Rope dropping the unexpected can be fun! In Disneyland my favortir memory is going from dark ride to dark ride in the morning. DH had such a good time and we ended up being so silly, he joined us for the tea cups, which he never does.
At MK our favorite unexpected moment was watching rhe Gaston meet and greet. My daughter stayed for 45 mins, she thought he was hilarious, but did not want to meet him herself.
