Great trip report…
Must haz moar reporting!!!
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Just came across your trip report and read the whole thing! It sounds like you had a great trip so far (even with a couple little snags) and I can’t wait to read more! Your writing style is awesome! Thanks for sharing with us!
OK, first off - sorry for the delay and for pretty much abandoning this thread for a bit. Yadda yadda work, blah blah real life. At any rate, I had some spare time and made a little more progress. Thanks for all your kind words! With that, I bring you…
Wednesday – May 4th
“That day it rained”
Wednesday was originally going to be our Animal Kingdom day and while we did go there, it wasn’t for as long as we had hoped when we were sketching out plans for the trip initially. We had planned to make this a “full day” at AK when it was announced that Rivers of Light (and all the other new evening entertainment) was going to debut on 4/22. We were pretty psyched to see what AK had to offer after dark so originally we were going to go there in the AM, take an afternoon break, then return in the evening to everything. Disney threw a wrench in the plan when they delayed all the new nighttime entertainment. Oh well, something to look forward to on our next trip. We switched the plans when we heard of the postponement and just planned to go back to MK in the evening instead.
Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday I woke up a few times to the sounds of rain and thunder. I was hoping it would blow over, but when we woke up that morning it was pretty clear Mother Nature had other plans. If I remember right, I actually Googled whether or not the attractions at AK ran when it was raining and the consensus seemed to be that not only was stuff probably going to be running (barring any lightning) but that the animals would likely be more active due to the cooler temps and rain. I convinced my family that it would be fun anyway and we decided to make the best of it.
You know how there’s all those “Disney Packing Lists” on the internets? And how they all include cheap ponchos? Yeah. Well, we did buy 8 or 10 ponchos… which we forgot at home. Oops. So I figured I would suck it up and pay whatever they were asking for the official Disney ponchos. I made my way down to the lobby and found what I was looking for. At $10 each, I gritted my teeth, tapped my magic band, and was on my way back to the room. The price you pay for being forgetful, I suppose.
We got ready to go, ate some breakfast in the room, packed up our golden ponchos, and headed to the bus stop. We didn’t have much of a wait for the bus, and there was not much in the way of crowds waiting at the bus stop. This was to become a theme for the day, in a very good way. We got to AK right around opening time. I believe it was my oldest son’s turn to play the game of “Blue Tapstile Bingo” this morning. Got that sorted out and we were off to Expedition Everest. My family loves this coaster and has fond memories of riding it 3x in a row last trip when we hit AK at/near rope drop. That was our plan again this morning.
We headed to the right and made our way over to EE. Another confession - I’m “directionally challenged” at AK also. This was only my 2nd time in the park so I’m not saying that I should have been an expert by any means, but I’m just admitting that I was That Guy that pulled over to the side of the path to look at a park map from time to time. We did make our way to EE and I even managed to avoid veering off into Dinoland. That part of the park does nothing for us, no matter how much the otherwise great Mr. Rhode goes on about it’s back story.
Speaking of Mr. Rohde, he and his team are to be commended for the work they did in integrating the RoL seating into the existing landscape. This is an extremely pretty area of the park and if they can pull of this level of detail at AK it gives me great hope to see what the new Avatar and Star Wars areas are going to be like.
After passing by the new RoL area we arrived at EE to find that it wasn’t yet running. There were CMs out front to inform people of this and they indicated there was no ETA for when it would open. There was on and off light rain by then, but it seemed like it should be capable of running. We decided to take a Safari ride and then return to EE later. The park was not at all crowded yet and we were hoping the lines wouldn’t be too bad later on since we had intentionally not made any FPs for the morning at AK, choosing instead to make them for MK later in the evening.
We made our way over to Kilimanjaro Safari and on the way it continued raining off and on. Nothing too bad, just a nagging drizzle that didn’t seem to warrant getting out the Platinum Ponchos just yet. When we arrived at around 9:40 AM we found it was a walk on. Soon we were on our vehicle and off into the forest.
The rain might keep humans away from the park, but it does wonders to draw out the animals! This was only our 2nd ever ride on KS but it was WAY better than the first time. All the animals seemed to be motivated to get out and enjoy the rainy weather. The only drawback was because of the rain I left the big camera in the room and only had my phone’s camera. In a way that was nicer, though, as it forced me to take it all in as opposed to living through my viewfinder. The ride went by pretty quickly and before we knew it we were back in the park, headed back to see if EE was open.
And… it was! We arrived to find a 5 or 10 minute posted wait for EE and it was also a walk on. We rode that twice in a row with the only wait being the time it took to walk the amazingly detailed queue. After the 2nd ride the rain started to increase a bit. We decided to head over to Festival of the Lion King since we’d never seen it before. Plus… it’s inside. We got there in time to get a good spot in the line and had a minimal wait to get in. The show was pretty good in my book but my 11 & 9 year old sons were in solid “meh” territory on it.
As the doors to the theater opened after the show we could tell it was now raining harder than it had been all morning. We finally decided that the weather warranted breaking out our Fine Corinthian Leather Ponchos. Once we were equipped in Disney’s highest profit margin items we headed out into the park. We had initially planned to eat lunch at Flame Tree since my oldest loves ribs but at this point my little fella wanted pizza. We momentarily considered splitting up and going to Flame Tree and Pizzafari but we sort of collectively agreed we would just rather be back at the hotel for lunch. We’d seen the things at AK that were “must dos” for us and although we still haven’t fully explored Discovery Island it will just have to remain on the list for next time.
Having made our decision to leave we got out of the park pretty quickly and headed to the bus stop. While we waited, I did my best to fold our Top Shelf Ponchos back into the flat formations they were when I purchased them, lest they get balled up and offended at my ham handed ways. Precious Plastics secured, we boarded the bus and headed back to the resort.
We were good and hungry by the time we got back so we headed right for Captain Cook’s when we got back to the resort. My little guy got his pizza (or do I have to refer to it as a flatbread?) and the rest of us had… something. I can’t really remember. Then it was back to the room to regroup.
We knew we were going to MK that night and it was an EMH night, open till 1 AM. I didn’t think we could hang quite that late, but I thought we’d try to stay out later than we had before. To help with this, it felt like some quiet time was in order. So we changed into some dry clothes, out came the books, and we read/lounged/snoozed for a while. That felt like enough of a recharge that it should get us through the evening.
Got got ready and headed to the Monorail stop for a quick trip to the MK. We arrived at MK around 4:15 PM and while it was not yet raining, it looked it it might at any point. If you’ll remember, earlier in the week we had gotten some extra Fastpasses that we in turn had moved to this day when we couldn’t use them at Epcot. So for the evening at MK we had 3 scheduled FPP and 2 “whenever” offerings. Spoiler alert - it turned out we didn’t really need them.
I had read it in the past - head to the park on a rainy day because crowds will be light. How correct was this? Well, the official crowd calendar for the date (LINK) had this to say:
What we predicted: 5 out of 10
What we saw: 1 out of 10
I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced a crowd level 1 to know what it feels like, but I will say that this evening was the least crowded I have ever seen MK. I was taking notes all week for what rides we rode each day - those are what eventually became this trip report. I can also put some times together with the rides since I took pictures and can refer to the timestamps. Knowing that we stepped off the Monorail at 4:16 PM (and yes, I capitalize Monorail. Maybe not consistently, but you must respect the highway in the sky.), here’s what we rode and if applicable, the times we rode them:
Quick Starbucks stop for caffeine
Space Mountain (4:55 PM)
Tomorrowland Speedway
It was at this point that things got wet. We had the Daddy Warbucks Ponchos with us but hadn’t yet put them on. While we were riding the Speedway it starting coming down. We scrambled off of it and put our FancyPlastic on in the “grandstands” at the Speedway. From there we continued onward.
Tea cups (5:34 PM)
Laugh floor
Buzz (6:27 PM)
Peter Pan
Small world (7:00 PM)
We knew that some family friends were going to be in WDW the same week as us and we had loosely said we’d try to meet up. We got a text from them saying they would be in MK that evening and it was around this point where we got in touch and realized we were all in Fantasyland. We doubled back to meet them at Winnie the Pooh. From there we rode the following as a big group.
Winnie the Pooh
Haunted Mansion
Big Thunder Mountain x2
Splash Mountain (8:32 PM)
Let me remind you, dear reader, that this was all in the rain. And also almost ALL a walk on! I’m sure we used some of our Fastpasses as the night went on, but I didn’t keep note of what we used and when. We just kind of wandered around and rode whatever we felt like!
After Splash mountain we were in the mood for some food and decided to say goodbye to our friends. We headed to Pecos Bill’s and had a quick bite. It was not much to write home about, but at least the toppings bar was fully stocked! It was also around this time that my youngest discovered that the neck area of his poncho had ripped. shock horror
In one of those complete “it doesn’t hurt to ask” moments, I remembered seeing signs at the Pecos Bill’s registers that said they sold ponchos. I went up and said that we had bought these ponchos that day and my son’s already ripped, and asked if they’d be willing to replace it. The first guy wanted to help but couldn’t find any so he called over another CM who rooted around a bit and found one. She exchanged it on the spot, no muss no fuss. So if I look at it like it’s not just a $10 poncho, but a $10 poncho with a replacement policy, then we’re talking a solid BARGAIN!
Fresh plastic in place we headed back out into the park.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Dumbo (9:41 PM)
Astro orbiter (9:56 PM)
Space Mountain
Peoplemover
Magic Carpets of Aladdin
And with that, we were pretty well done for the night. I want to say we ended up leaving around 11, but unfortunately I don’t have any photographic evidence to confirm that. Bit let’s call it 11 PM. That means we experienced all of the above in under 6 hours at MK. Yeah, yeah, we got wet. But we also had SO. MUCH. FUN! The off and on rain really didn’t bother us because we were too busy enjoying ourselves. If you are ever in this situation, I highly recommend making the most of it and just going to the parks and having a blast. It’s the closest thing to a VIP experience I’ll probably ever get!
We made our way out and hopped on the monorail. After a quick wet ride we were back at the resort. I spread all our stuff out to dry and we headed to bed. We could use a good rest at this point since the next day was scheduled to be our 2nd water park day, this time giving Typhoon Lagoon a try.
To be continued…
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Since you posted an update today I went back to read your report from the beginning again. I discovered the “call center” issue when I was at AKL and Poly about a week before your trip. I think more people should be aware of this. Many seem to think they can call a resort directly and I do not think that is possible these days!
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Thanks for the new installment…so good that you braved the rain and had a great time too…
Looking forward to the next one…
Isn’t it so true, the bit about living behind the viewfinder vs taking it all in?? On our last trip I did just that. And it was such an experience! Sure, I still took a decent number of pics but I spent far less time thinking about preserving the moment and much more time LIVING it.
I love the ponchos and their nicknames. DH and I have a “just us” trip coming in September and I keep worrying that it is going to rain on our solo-together parade. This post almost has me hoping it does.
Thanks for this most recent installment. Loving every word of it!!!
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I suppose I can see both sides of it. Disney obviously operates a LOT of hotel rooms in the area. It would make sense to centralize operations as much as possible from a cost perspective. But from a customer’s point of view it is annoying as can be to stay in a $400+/night* hotel and not be able to speak to someone when you need to. I’ve stayed in much cheaper locales in the real world and still been able to get a human after a few rings.
-Brett.
*There I go exaggerating. Silly me, it was only $379.17/night after a 30% off PIN code offer!
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Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’d hope for it! Things get a little soggy after a while, especially since I’m a devout tennis shoe guy and don’t own a pair of flip flops. But if it does happen, it for sure doesn’t mean the day is ruined!
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I had an issue in my AKL room. I called at 7:30. An hour later when I called again they told me that could see the work order was assigned. I picked up the phone at Poly. They actually asked me what hotel I was in. I have always been able to press a button and actually talk to someone in the resort. I honestly do not know why this bothers me so much!
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What an awesome and exciting trip report! Thanks for the entertainment; can’t wait for the next installment!!
Oh. My. So it seems I’ve neglected this trip report! Summer had hit and our family’s been a little busy. And just maybe the problem is that writing this trip report has been a fun way to stretch out the vacation a little bit in my mind, and if I bring it to a conclusion I’ll have to face the fact that the trip is over!
Anyway, without further delay…
Thursday – May 5th
Another day, another water park. However, this was to be a much different experience than our Blizzard Beach day. For one thing the prior day’s rains had cooled things off a bit. Ordinarily I would not complain at all about slightly cooler temps at Disney but when it’s a water park day that’s not exactly a great combination. Seeing as how we couldn’t control the weather we decided to go ahead with the existing plans and check out Typhoon Lagoon. In hindsight, the right thing to do would have been to call an audible and try another park but we had it in our heads that we wanted to experience both water parks and with only 2 days of vacation left it was now or never.
We got up and ready in good time and headed down to the bus stop. I think we were down there around 9:30 AM and the park opened at 10. The bus initially said 9:45 or so which would have been great. This reminds me… I completely forgot to mention the new monitors in the bus stops! These were a new addition since our last trip in 2014 and they are a welcome change. For better or worse you can see when your bus will be getting there. In our case, the bus to Typhoon Lagoon just kept slipping further and further behind. In the end I think it arrived right around 10 AM, you know… when the park was opening. I was kind of worried that this would mean we wouldn’t find a decent chair and we be stuck in the blazing sun or something.
We ended up getting to the park at maybe 10:15 or so and tried to get ourselves oriented. I say “tried” because for whatever reason the layout of this park just wasn’t working for us. A small example was turning left after coming in the park and heading down what we thought was the path to some seating, only to hit a dead end near a restaurant and have to double back to find a bridge over the lazy river. We managed to find some chairs in the shade in the kiddie area which wasn’t ideal but between getting there later than expected and our navigational issues it was the best we could expect. We got our stuff situated and headed off to ride some slides.
We decided to try Crush ‘n’ Gusher first since it was something completely different than what we had ridden at Blizzard Beach earlier in the week. After another case of walking further than needed (curse those bridges over the lazy river) we found the coaster. Then we found out that you have to carry the rafts up yourself. This wouldn’t have been a problem if this was the first water park we went to that week, but we had gotten ourselves spoiled at Blizzard Beach earlier in the week with their mostly automated systems to deliver rafts to the top of their rides. So we each grabbed a raft and headed up the stairs to see what this coaster was all about.
I don’t know if it was the schlepping of the rafts, the preexisting grumpiness due to the park’s layout, or the cooler temperature of the day, but the end result was that my wife and I didn’t enjoy Crush ‘n’ Gusher at all. It seemed short and in the end we were just left with a “that’s it?” feeling. Being soured on that ride, my wife and I made the decision that we were pretty well over the idea of riding slides. But our boys weren’t so we just let them lead the way. Which leads me to another contrast between Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon – the majority of the slides at BB originate from a small area clustered around the “mountain”. At TL the starting points for things are way more spread out. Again, it’s probably a personal preference thing but we enjoyed the layout of BB much more than that of TL.
One thing that was a hit for at least one of us at TL was the Shark Reef. My oldest had been wanting to give that a try since he first heard about it and so we made a point to give it a go. The rest of us had no interest because of the cold and (in my case) the whole “not a good swimmer” and also “sharks”. But my boys are great swimmers and sometimes I’m honestly surprised by how adventurous they are. So we all walked over that way and got in line. We waited with him until the “chicken exit” and then we bailed. He continued on and had a great time checking out the sights. No issues other than him reporting that the water was, in fact, unheated. And cold. And not warm. But he really did enjoy it!
I didn’t take any notes on what else we rode at TL that day. I know the boys tried the wave pool and some of the other slides. My wife and I hung out and did some people watching but in general we started to feel like we were wasting valuable vacation time and decided to call it a day after lunch. To which the boys did not resist. We had a pretty forgettable meal at Typhoon Tilly’s (I think that’s the name of it) and got out of there. We waited 15-20 minutes for a bus but I’m guessing this was also due to the fact that we were leaving at an odd time.
Here’s where things took a turn for the better!
Back on Monday we had an abbreviated evening at Epcot due to a wrong turn, some transportation issues, and some torrential rains. That was scheduled to be our only Epcot time, and it left me a little bummed out. I know that Epcot is a shell of what it once was but my nostalgia knows no bounds and my very intuitive wife could tell it was bothering me. Our original plans were to finish Thursday evening back at Magic Kingdom, but she made the astute observation that we’d been to MK a bunch and why not punt and go to Epcot that evening. Or rather, why didn’t the boys and I go to Epcot while she hung out at the resort pool? That sounded like a plan to me!
The boys and I got changed and headed off to the monorail station while my wife stayed behind for some much-deserved lounge time at the pool. The first sign that things were going to go well was that I avenged my navigation blunder from earlier in the week and successfully made it to the TTC from our room. The boys were most impressed. We took the monorail to Epcot and enjoyed how smoothly things went. I just love the design of the approach from the monorail, how it takes you on a loop through Future World, even if the narration is for attractions that themselves are a bit outdated. Or a lot outdated. Whatever. I like the ride in, that’s what I’m trying to say!
Having made it to Epcot, our first stop was Test Track. This was to be a Fastpass-free evening, since originally our FPP selections were for Magic Kingdom and we gave that up when we switched parks. Despite the lack of FPP, we got on Test Track without a memorable wait and had a fun time. After that, I dragged the boys over to Figment so I could wallow in my memories of what once was. We rode that and did a little browsing in the gift shops for a bit.
Around this time, my wife and I were texting back and forth. I sent her some picture of the boys, she sent me pics from the pool of her margarita. A fair trade. But it did seem like she was a little lonely. And then she texted me that she was going to come over, and to not ruin the surprise for the boys! I had planned to take a lap around the World Showcase and take in some attractions that we hadn’t done before. So we made loose plans to meet up at the American pavilion when she arrived.
The boys and I strolled back into WS and poked around France for a bit, then headed off to catch a showing of The American Experience. I rather enjoyed it; my little guy made sure to let me know it was a great spot for a nap. I think my oldest kind of enjoyed it, so 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. I stalled for a bit when the show was over, trying to figure out a meeting spot where my wife could catch up with us. Eventually we decided on Italy since the Friendship boats were done for the evening and she was coming from the Mexico end of WS.
The boys and I were walking through Italy when my wife spotted us. I saw her but the boys didn’t so she came running up and gave them a hug… completely catching them off guard. They were actually a little scared, but a LOT excited to see her! We realized that we hadn’t eaten yet, so we decided to try and find a quick service restaurant that worked for everyone. We went to China and my wife and the boys got a little something there, while I ran back to Germany for my dinner. I brought it back and we all ate together in China. After dinner, we wandered over to take in Reflections of China since we’d never seen it.
After the movie we headed back up to Future World with the idea of taking in Ellen’s Energy Adventure but realized it closed earlier than the rest of the park. I guess the animatronic dinosaurs must have a good union contract? After realizing that wasn’t happening we decided to take another spin on Test Track. By the time we got out of TT, it was getting later and Illuminations was going to start soon. Nobody seemed to have an interest in staying for that so we just meandered around FW for a bit. That area of the park really is beautiful after dark. We stood around and marveled at the light-up pavement for a bit, got a new “You Are Here” mug from Starbucks, and checked out the Baymax/Joy & Sadness areas. We’re not into character meetings for the most part, but we did love Inside Out and in particular Sadness. So it was neat to see her, if even from a distance. That was about the end of the evening, so we headed back up to the front of the park for another monorail ride.
This day’s lesson, for me, was all about flexibility. We all had a sense early on that it wasn’t the right day for a water park, but we pressed on because that’s what we had planned to do. Funny enough, that part of the day wasn’t all that great. But when we switched things up and decided that Epcot was the right fit for the evening, things just fell into place and we all ended up getting to do things we wanted. Be that a margarita poolside or a trip on Figment or just lingering for a while in the gift shop and buying a set of fake Donald Duck lips that had a duck call in them (because you’re 11 years old and these gift cards aren’t going to spend themselves!).
We headed back to the resort with a slight feeling of melancholy coming over us since tomorrow was the last day. But thanks to a later flight, it wasn’t going to be a boring one!
To be continued…
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Thank you for returning to your report! I have not spent much time in FW at night- I think I need to correct that!
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Argh! You left off with a cliffhanger!! Can’t wait to read about the later flight! And thanks for coming back to the report!!
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Yay!! So glad you are back 
These stories are amazing! You will have to go back soon 
I just discovered your posts, binge-read them all, and now I’m hoping you will continue soon!