Trip report - 13 adults

Walt Disney World Trip Reports
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Context
Me and 12 women I know were attending the same conference in Orlando on October 1st - 4th. Ages ranged from 22 to 34. Most have never been to a theme park before. The way vacation works in Brazil made everyone decide to use just the weekends, Monday and part of Tuesday to see the parks. Not everyone was together all the time.

Arrival - Friday, September 27th
Lots of different arrival times. Part of the group went to MNSSHP at night, I didn’t, so I can’t give you many details. I did schedule FPs for them (Space, SplM, BTMRR) and apparently those worked well, and a lot of photopass photos were taken (we were sharing Memory Maker, my account being the owner). We were staying at Disney Springs hotels, for EEMH and 60 days FPs. Sharing 3 rooms amongst 13 people :scream: A terrible idea that ended up working quite well. I walked to Disney Springs and had dinner at D-Luxe, loved the garlic sauce.

Saturday Sep 28th - Magic Kingdom

We managed to arrive at the park before 7am, but due to some ticket complications and a lot of stops for photos we were only halfway into Main Street by 7:40am. We had BOG at 8am (no one had gone before), so we headed there and ate breakfast before doing any rides. Everyone ordered a kids meal, and it was still too much food.

After breakfast we went to:

Under the sea (walk on)

Barnstormer (walk on) - it was the first rollercoaster of the trip and we actually found it exciting at the time :laughing: we did coasters on crescent order of excitement

Buzz (walk on)

Magic Carpets (walk on)

PoC (20 min wait)

Then part of the group went to use a FP for SplM, while the rest (including me) walked on to BTMRR (we ran for it as soon as it reopened, after some temporary closure)

We needed a break, so we bought dole whips and went to TSI.

FP for BTMRR

Country bear jamboree and Mickey’s phillarmagic for some AC seating.

SM FP

We left the park and took the boat to Poly for lunch at Capt Cook’s (and some time away from the park)

Then I decided to head back to the park. From this point on the group was reduced to just me and my DFriend - a group went for a hotel nap, another was chasing characters and another was doing rides the whole day.

I managed to snag SDFP for 7DMT at 6pm (one of my friends was able to snag 3 more for other people, she was awesome with SDFPs).

DFr and me did MonsILF and people mover while we waited. We still had an hour to kill and it was DFr’s first time at the parks, so we went to IASM - our longest wait of the day at 25 min :laughing:

We used our FP on 7DMT. I was thinking “OMG! This is amazing, how come this was not my favorite coaster last time? Oh, it is over”. So good, but it is so short.

Then we started going with the flow for FPs. We did UTS, Barnstormer (DFr was sleeping when I went the first time on those), Dumbo (a first for me), SM.

It was then time for fireworks. I am definitely not a fireworks person, I was really bored.

It took us an hour to get to the hotel, leaving MK at firework’s rush is a nightmare. Boat to TTC + Uber, the worst part was the line for boats

After this very tiring day I managed to sleep like a rock, even though I was sharing a double bed with a co-worker I have only meet recently - and that I now know is an awesome person, nothing like a Disney trip to strengthen bounds :slight_smile:

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Sunday Sep 29th - Animal Kingdom

We arrived a little after 7am and went straight to Na’vi. It was a walk on and we rode 2 times, the entire group felt that it was the best dark ride in WDW.

Calm breakfast at Pongu Pongu followed by FOP FPs at 8am. It was my second time on the ride and it was just as amazing as I remembered (and slightly blurry). The rest of the group had not ridden it before and were completely mesmerized. Then:

  • Dinousaur (walk on)
  • EE (FP)
  • KRR (walk on after it opened)
  • KS (FP)

At the 11:01 drop we got FPs for FOP (most people were in charge of getting for themselves, with some help)

We watched the 12pm FOTLK show and went for a very slow lunch at Satu’li (FOP FPs intersected at precisely 1:50pm). After the second time on FOP people were complaining that it was not worth going a third time and having to watch the pre-show again.

We got another FP for EE and went there.

After that was Nemo. I had never watched it and found it really cute.

Another FP for EE.

Most of the group left to go outlet shopping. I stayed with (a different) DFr. We spent around an hour relaxing on a sacred place that shouldn’t be named, were we shared the bread service, which was amazing. I got us another FOP FP (not at a drop time) and we went there. It was alright, but we agreed we wouldn’t want to go again even if it was a walk on, we got FOP fatigue.

We walked around Pandora waiting for the sunset and then admired the land at night. Another first for me, and it was gorgeous.

We went on EE at night (FP) and 2 more times as SRs. The first time at night was the best of the day, but after the third time in a row we both agreed the ride had gotten slower : smile:

We headed back to the hotel, watching a tree of like awakening in our way. There was a hotel shuttle at the Uber pick up spot, so we used that. The bus stopped by Epcot and we got to see a very little bit of Illuminations.

The day was pretty much perfect. No lines, great food, not that much walking and we went on everything as many times as we wanted (which was 0 for ITTBAB). I really love AK.

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Monday Sep 30th - DHS

We were inside the park at 5:55am. At the very back of the RD pack, but that was OK since we were heading to SDD. By 6:45am we had gone twice on SDD (we loved that coaster), and we moved on to SWGE. Breakfast at DB7 followed by MFSR. That was, by far, the longest line of the trip and also the biggest disappointment. The line was cute, but no one liked the ride that much.

After that some people went to Sunset Boulevard (2x walk ons ToT, RnR FP) , some people went character chasing, and I went alone to ride ST 3 times (walk ons). I love that ride!

I rejoined part of the group on VotLM (cute! Loved the water effects). Then everyone got together to watch BatB (10:30 FP). Followed by a 11am FP for ST. The ride broke the first time, so we changed theaters and saw the all-new-trilogy movie, that ends arriving on Batuu.

Now all pre-scheduled FPs were gone and everyone knew how to use MDE. There was a lot of availability for SDFP on DHS (everything was easy to get except for SDD, thanks new tiers!).

We took the skyliner to CBR, just to try it out. The atmosphere was pleasant, so we stay there for lunch at Spyglass grill. My burger was good, but some of my friends tried the yuca bowl and that was terrible, it inexplicably had a lot of water on the bottom.

We went back to the park by skyliner after a relaxing slow lunch.

During lunch we got a SDFP for SDD, so we went directly to that. TSL during the day is soooo hot. I think we also used a SDFP for TSM right after, but I am not sure. I discovered that I actually like TSM when I try to play the game. When I rode it before I just ignored the game and thought the ride wasn’t fun.

The heat had really gotten to us by this point, so we bought ice cream and went to frozen sing along. We spent 30 minutes in the shade and then AC waiting for the show, and we really needed it. The show itself was fun, I was just disappointed because no one was singing!

We got a FP for ST, and once more I loved the ride. I like ST much better than MFSR.

We stopped by the Brown Derby lounge, but they no longer served the dessert trio :cry: so we went to do FPs for TSM x 2.

I got some last minute F! FPs so we went there. I tried sitting as far back as possible so I wouldn’t be late for Oga’s at 9pm. I loved the fire on water and most special effects, but I was really bored by all the projections on water, that bubbles scene was endless.

Walk back to Oga’s was pleasant enough, but I got really stressed out because the entire party needed to be there and part of my group stopped for characters pictures. So me and a couple of friends were waiting standing in the rain for them.

Oga’s was really good. Everyone tried everyone else’s drinks, they were really pretty and different and the atmosphere was amazing. It would have been the perfect way to end the Disney portion of the trip.

Except it was time for the Star Wars fireworks and we decided to stop and watch them. They were so bad. It took a long time to get an Uber back to our hotel.

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All of this sounds fantastic, until the sharing drinks at Oga’s. How did you manage that without everyone sharing germs and getting sick?!?

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:laughing:

After 3 days of sharing 3 rooms with 13 people we just accepted that everyone had everyone else’s germs. I am still really surprised that everything worked out even though we were really pushing the limits of what a reasonable trip should be

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Wow you did amazing with the SDFP! Do you remember what time the lights turned on on Pandora in the evening? Trying to figure out if we can see Pandora before ROL or need to wait until after. I’ve heard it’s hard to maneuver when it’s completely dark out!

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Universal Orlando

Tuesday - October 1st

This was the first conference day, so we moved to the conference hotel. We had a choice of hotels to pick, so we stayed at Loews Royal Pacific. We spent the day at Universal before attending the conference opening event at night.

On my last trip I liked Universal better than Disney, mostly because it was less walking and less lines and rides were almost as good. This time I was really disappointed in Universal, after being spoiled with no lines and not that much walking at Disney. This is with a free Express pass for Universal.

We rode: Minions, Mummy, Jimmy Fallon, Fast and Furious (so bad), MIB, Simpsons, Gringotts, HE, FJ, FoH, Jurassic Park, Ripsaw Falls x 2 (we were so soaked). Hagrid’s was closed the entire time.

Friday October 4th - Islands of adventure

We got to the park at 5:30pm, after the conference ended. They went on Hulk, I waited. Spider Man, FJ x 2, FOH. We saw a big commotion near Hagrid’s and they seemed to be running a test car. We waited with the crowd for 10 minutes, they reopened the ride. We had a 20 minute wait and were able to get on - it was an amazing ride, my favourite of the week. We finished the day with dinner at Toothsome. It took us 20 minutes of waiting to get a table, but it was worth it. Food was delicious and the place was gorgeous.

Saturday October 5th - Universal Orlando

Check out day. We got to Universal Studios at 11am, after checking out and leaving the bags with luggage services. Quick breakfast at Starbucks followed by Mummy (lovely coaster!), Sherek (how come this isn’t funny? I love the movies), pictures with Back to the Future’s DeLorean. HE to IOA, FJ, we tried to ride Kong but the express line was so long, so we gave up. I got all the way to Dr Doom’s before giving up, I can’t do free falls. My friends went. We ended up with a late lunch at Cowfish. Great burger.

Everyone else had to go catch a plane, so I had a night and morning by myself.

I started by going to Mummy again. Due to HHN the pathway to the rest of the park was closed, so I gave up on the rest of the park and walked to IOA. Did Hagrid’s twice on the standby line, both times posted 120 minutes, first time took 50, second took 90. And with that I finished my time in Orlando theme parks :slight_smile:

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Since we were all adults, each person was trying for themselves and maybe one extra person, which made getting SDFPs really easy. It usually took around 5 minutes of repeatedly clicking on modify to find what I wanted.

Also, with the new tiers, everything but SDD was really easy to get at DHS

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Sunset was at 7:14pm we stayed until 8pm to see the full glowing effect.

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