Trip Report - Solo Trip #2 of 2019 (including ALL the photos)

[erinmorgenthal]

After February’s solo success, I knew I had to go back by myself again! I had work training Aug. 26-28 in Orlando so I flew down a couple of days early to experience the world by myself again.
I decided to try Yacht Club this trip and it did NOT disappoint. LOVE the ability to walk to Epcot and HS. We are staying there as a family in March and I am SO excited for the kids to experience Stormalong Bay!!

I flew down on Saturday morning, the 24th, from ORD and arrived at MCO at 2pm. The wait for ME was brief and I was one of the last on the bus so I made it to the resort by 3. My room wasn’t ready so I dropped my bags and walked over to Epcot. My plan was to focus on world showcase and then do the Frozen dessert party.

I had a fast pass for Soarin’ starting at 4:15 so I started by grabbing a pear cider in UK pavilion to enjoy along the (hot) walk.

While I was waiting in line for Soarin’, I got an odd message from Disney regarding my room. I didn’t want to leave the park to figure out what was up so I hoped it wasn’t anything serious and went about my evening.

After Soarin’, I walked over to Living with the Land because the wait was short and I wasn’t ready to step back into the oven that is a sunny August afternoon in Epcot.
Someday I will do the Behind the Seeds tour. Next solo trip, maybe…

After Living with the Land, I walked over to the Visa character greet and said hi to Mickey and Goofy. There was NO ONE in there so it’s definitely preferable to the Character Spot wait if you have the Disney Visa.

After greeting two of the boys, I headed over for a quick spin with Figment and then a snack in the DVC lounge. I filled up my water bottle with COLD water while I was up there.
FYI - this collapsible water bottle I bought was awesome. I could roll it up and put it in the pocket of my backpack when I wasn’t using it. It also worked nicely to cool off my neck when I got super hot.

There was a photopass photographer on my way back into world showcase so I stopped to cheese it up again.

Once I was done in Future World for the day, it was only 4:30 so I decided to forget my touring plan and start my trip around the world in Mexico.
Three Caballeros was a 10 minute wait so I gave that a spin. I so wanted to take this kitty home. I don’t remember seeing them last month!! Are they new?

The wait to meet Anna and Elsa was short (15 minutes) so I stopped there to say hi to the girls and have them sign a feel better card for my daughter (she broke her arm a few days before I left).
Elsa and I had a great talk connecting over our little sisters driving us nuts.

I shopped my way through the countries, stopping in France to get some ice cream for dinner.

Had my picture taken in Paris

Stopped and visited with Aurora at the gazebo (There were only 2 families in front of me)

I checked in for the Frozen Dessert party after that and was seated near the sweets table (WIN!). Fantastic seats for the last time I would see Illuminations (CRY!) and the food/drink selection was very nice! The park music wasn’t turned off for the show so it was SUPER distracting with a speaker right behind us. The table next to me mentioned it to me as well and we talked to one of the CMs. They were very nice about it.
After Illuminations ended, and the crowds leaving thinned out a bit, we were walked over to Frozen Ever After where we walked on for a ride. I asked if I could sit in front (YOLO SOLO) and was given front and center.

After the ride, I made the walk back to Yacht Club to find out whether I had a room for the night.

The Skyliner looks highly claustrophic BTW.

Yacht Club, on the other hand, does not. It looks beautiful at night!

When I went to the front desk, they acted like they didn’t know why I would get that message and gave me my room number. I had booked a standard room but was given a corner garden view King room. BONUS! My balcony view was of the pool/windmill. Pretty sweet!

Next up - my epic 16 hour park day…

[julsie]

Was it hard to find the cardholder meet & greet? I’ve heard it’s not marked very well.

[erinmorgenthal]

Sunday Funday at Epcot & Magic Kingdom!!!

I had an 8:10am reservation at Garden Grill (no sharing of the cinnamon rolls for me!) and, since I was so close (5 minute walk), I didn’t leave Yacht Club until 7:45. Total game changer.

Once I got to Garden Grill, I was seated pretty much immediately. Service was slow, though. It took a good 10 minutes before I saw my server for the first time. I didn’t get to get pictures with Pluto or Mickey since no one was around to take the pictures. It’s okay though - I was mostly there for the cinnamon roll and coffee.

Walked over after breakfast and got in line for Soarin’ again (LOVE that ride). We go on the first ride of the day and then I was on my way out by 9:05.

My first fast pass of the day was Spaceship Earth. As I was walking that direction, I noticed there was NO line for Baymax/Joy & Sadness so I stopped in to visit with them.

Walked over to my Spaceship Earth fast pass and then back over to The Land pavilion to hop on The Seas (FP). At this point, I was just going with the flow so I walked over and rode with Figment again before walking across to Test Track. I had a fast pass but went Single Rider line and was on in less than 10 minutes. Then I got back in line for a second round (FP).

At some point in all of this running around, I did wait in line at Character Spot because I love the pictures I get with Minnie there. She didn’t disappoint.

It was around 1 when I hopped on the monorail and headed over to Magic Kingdom…

[erinmorgenthal]

I got held up at TTC when they held the monorail to MK for “routine maintenance”.
It was SO flippin’ hot. And I ran out of water.

FINALLY made it to Magic Kingdom and decided to see just how many fast passes I could get by the end of the day. I knew I should probably go to bed early since I had a full day on Monday but YOLO SOLO!!

I was closing the park down!

First up was Haunted Mansion. I love the photo op on the ride there!!!

Next was Pirates (FP) where I was stuck in the back row (boo).
While in line for Pirates, I got a FP for Ariel - I had taken a picture with her in December and wanted a new one for a comparison (I’ve lost 35 pounds since then).

Grabbed an Under The Sea FP while waiting to meet Ariel so rode that.
After tapping in there I picked up a Winnie the Pooh FP since I was right there.
Next up was Jungle Cruise (FP) and Pirates again (FP) before getting some food. I had a bacon mac & cheese hot dog at Casey’s before heading over to Tomorrowland.
I was getting hot and tired by this point so I waited about 5 minutes in line to ride Peoplemover. Did my TRON coaster check and enjoyed a quick powernap.

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin was next (FP) and while I didn’t get Galactic Hero, I took my shooting quite seriously.

It was about 4:30pm by this point. I walked over to Space Mountain, even though I didn’t have a fast pass, I broke my cardinal Disney rule and waited standby for about 40 minutes to ride.
It was SO worth it because the little boys in front of me were SCREAMING the whole time. I was laughing so hard (I’m awful, I know). They were asking to ride again when we were done so I guess it wasn’t THAT bad.
I got a FP for Mad Tea Party while I was waiting in line at Space so I headed that direction.
It was a whirlwind at that point with back to back fast passes for Mad Tea Party, It’s A Small World and Splash Mountain.

When I was waiting to get on Splash, I picked up a Thunder Mtn RR FP so I waited by catching Country Bear Jamboree in a nearly empty theater and then having a Mickey pretzel for “dinner”. I started to wait at Peter Pan’s Flight but the ride stopped and I was NOT waiting 50+ minutes for that ride. I don’t even really like it!

I was walking back over to see how Mine Train was and noticed it was shut down. I sat in the standby queue for about an hour, hoping it would reopen and we would walk on. I wasn’t in a hurry since I had ridden so much already. I had a fast pass for Space Mountain at 8 so I just relaxed and enjoyed a conversation with the family in front of me who were visiting from the UK. My patience here would pay off later…

I left the mine train line at 7:55 and walked over to Space Mountain for another spin (FP).
A Peter Pan FP popped up so I grabbed that and took a spin around Tomorrowland on peoplemover again.

It was like 8:40 at this point so I walked back over for my Peter Pan fast pass. When I was done there, they were prepping for fireworks so I decided to spend the last hour of the night waiting to ride Mine Train.

I walked over and the wait time said “60”. But, having been so many times I knew… that was NOT a 60 minute queue. So I walked in…and walked…and walked…through the outside portion, through the overhang portion and into the mine portion. Around the barrels and all the way up.
MINE TRAIN WAS A WALK ON AT 9PM ON A SUNDAY?!?! WHAAAAAT?!
The CM at the front said “I have no idea what is going on but it is NOT normal.”

Got off the ride, walked down the exit and went right back through the queue to WALK ON A SECOND TIME!!

This time I got to watch the fireworks from the ride and they stopped the train outside for the finale. It was BEAUTIFUL!

It was the perfect ending to the night. I took my time walking back through the park and walked to the YC bus stop. It was SO backed up. The Boardwalk stop next door was empty so when the Boardwalk bus showed up, I went that route instead. A few people followed me, knowing they were going to have to wait for at least a second bus at the YC stop.
The driver was great - when he stopped at Boardwalk, he told us to sit tight and he would drive us around to YC/BC. SUCH a nice guy.

I had intended on falling into bed when I got back to Yacht Club but the siren call of football on the TV in Ale & Compass Lounge won me over so I ended the night with a beer and some preseason football.

I ended up falling asleep around midnight, knowing I was going to have to get up before dawn for Early Morning Magic at Hollywood Studios.

[erinmorgenthal]

Final Fast pass count for that day was 16.
Definitely a first for me - traveling alone has its advantages!

[erinmorgenthal]

I only had a few hours of park time on Monday before I had to get to work so I lucked out and picked up a ticket for Early Morning Magic at Hollywood Studios.
I left my bags at bell services and grabbed a Lyft at 6:15am. FYI - there was a bus headed for Hollywood Studios that pulled up at the same time I was getting in my Lyft so the bus WILL run that early.
We waited at the security gate until 6:45 before going through the metal detectors and being held at the tap points.
At 6:55, I was the first person to tap into Hollywood Studios and walk through to Backlot Express for breakfast. It was AWESOME!

I grabbed a quick bite and some coffee from Backlot and then walked over to where we were being held before going into Toy Story Land at 7:30.

At 7:30, on the nose, we were walked back to Toy Story Land.

While 80% of the crowd went to Slinky Dog Dash, I went left and followed the CMs into Toy Story Mania. First one through the line and onto the ride, I planned to ride twice before going to Slinky Dog so that the initial crowds would die down. It was a good plan as the wait was down to 20 minutes when I walked over to SDD.

I rode Slinky Dog three times before I started the walk over to Rock n Roller Coaster & Tower of Terror to rope drop there. When they walked us over to RNRC, I went into the single rider line and got right on.

Walked around and through the single rider line again to get on in just a few minutes.

I had a Star Tours FP so I walked over there next and when I was in line for Star Tours, I was able to pick up a Tower of Terror FP.

I needed to be at Disney Springs for a lunch at 11:45 so I ran to my Tower of Terror FP at 11 and then out the door to get a Lyft to DS.

I got back home on Wednesday night but will be returning with two of the kiddos next month for their birthday trip!

[erinmorgenthal]

No, not hard to find the meet & greet. It is not well marked but if you know what area to look in, it’s pretty obvious.

[WImom]

you accomplished alot in a small amount of time, awesome job!

[Meech]

That was a great trip report. I love my solo trips…just went on one for the Star Wars AP preview, but I usually skip my favorite sit down meals (hate to slow down when I can accomplish so much on my own). So I love that you went to Garden Grill. I will need to add it to my solo to do list next time. Glad you got pixie dusted on the room - nice when an ominous Disney message turns out well.

[OBNurseNH]

What a wonderful surprise to come home to at the end of a long day!

[OBNurseNH]

How awesome to be the first one to tap in at HS! That empty street is amazing!

[Figment20]

Loved your report! SOLO YOLO cracked me up. Thanks for writing!

[erinmorgenthal]

It was pretty cool. I’m wishing I had taken advantage of those EMM dates more while I could.

[cbalusek]

I love your FastPass Princess shirt!!!

[erinmorgenthal]

Thank you!
I can’t remember which site I found it on.

[pufferfish]

Love the buzz lightyear picture!

[goofygal315]

I really enjoyed this report. A Solo trip is on my bucket list.