Hindsight is 2020 - A VERY late trip report (NYE and Feb/March cruise) - Updated 8/27-Off the cruise and a VIP Tour!

[vamassey1]

I just love the pictures of Baby Yoda enjoying the sights. Your placement is perfect. I would have wanted to fix the painted squares too

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like you were having a great Epcot day!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Glad you are back to finish up this trip report!

 

[Lesley Wake]

I just love the pictures of Baby Yoda enjoying the sights. Your placement is perfect. I would have wanted to fix the painted squares too

It was fun taking his photos! And yeah, I was so OCD about trying to fix all the squares lol! At the end of the day that's actually what they had people doing instead of just painting new squares.

Sounds like you were having a great Epcot day!!

It was fun!

Glad you are back to finish up this trip report!

Yeah, I feel so bad delaying it so much! But you understand that too!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Part 2: Wandering the world showcase plus a concert!

Photopass in Mexico

And some more Figment searching

Another fastpass in Norway.

Baby loved the ride!

I always feel bad when I see photos like this where a little kid gets blocked. I definitely didn’t ask for the front row, that’s just where they usually sit me… And I also rarely raise my hands or anything to “Mike Wasoski” someone else.

Someday my prince will come. I think the well itself was roped off, or else Baby would have had a photoshoot!

I missed this chalk art the previous day

And this photopass

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[Lesley Wake]

Time for the Broadway concert! Zach got there early enough to get us really good seats.

Since it was the final day of the festival, they had 4 performers, with Ashley Brown, Josh Strickland, Syndee Winters, and Michael James Scott. I knew Zach loved most of these, but I really haven’t followed any of their careers. But this concert was AMAZING! Just so much fun and such great talent!

I think my favorite was Josh Strickland.

It was cool to watch them since they are all obviously great friends!

Just so great!

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[Lesley Wake]

Afterwards, some more festival time. Food at The Artist’s Table. Beef Wellington with mushroom bordelaise, fennel cream, and roasted baby vegetables. I remember not loving this the previous year, but I gave it another shot. I don’t think I’ll give it a third try – just some weird spice that I don’t love with the meat.

Of course photopass, chalk art, and figment hunting.

My favorite chalk art – Gelatoni and Duffy! Please, please Disney, bring these guys to WDW!

Japan at night is lovely lit

Another photopass in France.

And final food, at L’Art de la Cuisine Francaise. Crème de Brie en Petit Pain (warm creamy brie in a house-made bread bowl), Molten Chocolate Cake with pure origin valrohona chocolates, and Frozen French Martini (grey goose, vodka, chambord liqueur, pineapple, orange, and grape juice with lemon-lime foam). All very good, though I wish they had brought back the Frozen Tangerine slushy they had last year, which was DELICIOUS!

And then I headed back to the resort. I didn’t bother sticking around for Epcot Forever as I had seen it twice in December (and that was enough). Though looking back now, I wish I had just gone to DHS to see Star Wars fireworks or even all the way to MK to see HEA… but who could have predicted how life would have changed only a few weeks later!

Coming up: A Disney wedding (not on Disney property)​

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Yeah, I feel so bad delaying it so much! But you understand that too!

Yeah... I need to get working on my trip report again...

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a great afternoon/evening! I'm glad the concert was so enjoyable!

 

[vamassey1]

I have to ask, did Baby Yoda get wet on Frozen?

Great finish to your day. You really did a lot and saw a lot and ate some yummy food.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Yeah... I need to get working on my trip report again...

I am sooo far behind on reading anyone's reports!

Sounds like a great afternoon/evening! I'm glad the concert was so enjoyable!

Yeah, it was really amazing!

I have to ask, did Baby Yoda get wet on Frozen?

Great finish to your day. You really did a lot and saw a lot and ate some yummy food.

Haha, I don't think he got that wet; at least he didn't complain to me!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Day 3 – February 25, 2020
Acting like Animals at a Theme Park and a Wedding

Today was Mardi Gras! And the wedding day! It would have been cool to see the mini parade they would have at Port Orleans, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

Dina showed up around midnight (she was only in town for less than 48 hrs for the wedding). And we headed to Animal Kingdom.

Along with a little stowaway. (Don’t you love that kid in the green just staring at Baby…)

Gotta take photos with the Tree of Life!

We also ran into the end of the Winged Encounters.

Stopped in the Otter Grotto. I think they were eating, and I had to stop Baby from joining in!

Into Pandora. Probably not Baby’s first time on an alien planet!

While the barriers made it more crowded in the land, they provided easier photo spots for Baby!

Fastpass at Flight of Passage (Standby 210 minutes).

Baby wanted to… um… fly!

But he was left behind…

He did get his flying in afterwards though!

And Hide & Seek, Round 2!

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[Lesley Wake]

More animal shots. I think these were the tamarins?

And into Africa, where we had to wait a minute for our next fastpass; I don’t think I had eaten any food so we stopped for a cupcake!

And Safari time!

Animal spam…

More animals, including the baby zebra (the first one, not the newest one)!

Um… I thought this was supposed to be a family friendly ride… (Sorry – I was laughing too hard to take a centered photo)

Continuing the animal journey

I think the lioness was looking at an animal off to the side! Maybe the annoying ostriches?

Another lovely safari!​

 

[Lesley Wake]

Over to Maharajah Jungle Trek.

Baby wondered if this was a relative?

The tiger was pacing, but I think it was feeding time.

The other tiger was already eating.

Over to Everest!

Baby loved it!

For food I stopped at Yak and Yeti Local Foods Café. Looks like Teriyaki beef, and I got the Chicken Fried Rice to-go as a snack in the hotel either at night or the next morning (helpful with the villas having a microwave). I think Dina probably went to Satuli and we met back up at the front of the park?

Back at the room we got cleaned up and all pretty for the wedding! And forgot to take any more photos for the rest of the day…

The wedding was lovely, filled with lots of fun people and more importantly, two friends getting married (also it helped that the bridal party walked down the aisle to the “Avengers” theme and then the first dance was an instrumental “Darth Vader March”). It was over at the Rosen Shingle Creek (near Universal), which was nice and significantly cheaper than a Disney wedding. I didn’t really know anyone there besides the couple and Dina, though Craig and Ryno from the Dis Unplugged showed up (they are also friends with Dina and the couple), so we hung out with them and their partners, which was fun! Oh and during the ceremony, all hell broke loose when it was announced that Iger was officially resigning (there were a lot of CMs at the wedding, so it was hilarious watching everyone react to the news).

Some non-guest photos I did grab from the couple’s facebook wedding album…

Coming up: even more Disney time! ​

 

[missangelalexis]

More great pics of Baby, I especially love when he's on Everest!

Sounds like a really nice day at AK and a lovely time at the wedding!

 

[Lesley Wake]

More great pics of Baby, I especially love when he's on Everest!

Sounds like a really nice day at AK and a lovely time at the wedding!

Yeah, I had a strong grip with him on Everest though!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Day 4, Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Part 1 – Abandoning MK for Blizzard Beach

These next two days were a bit “off” with planning. Really a byproduct of the whole 60+ day FPP as after I got those I was pretty locked into certain parks at certain times, but then other things also came up where I would have liked to do those differently.

So, I started this day at Magic Kingdom (Dina was leaving that evening and I think she park hopped around before heading to the airport; I still am impressed that she is able to do this quick-burn trips when needed!)

This magic shot didn’t quite line up…

And it looked like birds were gathering at MK too this morning!

Showing Baby the castle…

And some GIGANTIC statues (I did a couple of these later in the day but am including them all here)

I do love this magic shot!

First fastpass, 7DMT, 120 minute standby (eep!)

How cute is this kid in front of us!

Baby had fun on the ride! (though it looks like our ride shots must not have shown up on MDE, since I don’t have it)

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[Lesley Wake]

And gotta ride Peoplemover!

Love how much construction has progressed on this, though I still don’t understand why they haven’t sped things up to reopen in time for the 50th!

Second fastpass – Haunted Mansion. I discovered the ride bars are magnetic, though not strong enough to hold Baby for too long!

For food, I stopped at Columbia Harbor House and got some typical Disney chicken tenders (I got the kids meal so I got fries and a drink). I think there was a longer delay so the CM at the front gave me extra fries?

I don’t remember what my last fastpass was, but I think it was further off timewise. And the standby times were pretty ridiculous. I thought more about what I wanted to do, and I decided to change things up…

First, Hide and Seek, Round 3… (First ones are fairly easy… last two more expert level!)

Solution

And a photopass where I introduced Baby to Roy.

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[Lesley Wake]

Back at the resort I checked on some animals.

And then, despite the overcast weather, I headed to Blizzard Beach!

I had never been here, but my AP included water parks, so I thought I’d give it a shot. It wasn’t cold but also wasn’t super hot, so it was also a pretty empty park! (Oh and Baby stayed at the hotel for a nap)

I was able to grab a chair under cover (good because there were some drizzles). I didn’t do a lot of slides, mostly because several of them take multiple people. I do know I took the chair lift up to the top of the hill. I skipped Summit Plummet as I’m too much of a chicken!

A lot of the rides require you to bring a tube up from the bottom, so first I went down one of the Snow Stormers, as the mats were already at the top. I did make a fool of myself though, as I went down on the mat too soon, so ended up having to try and wiggle my way further down (I felt like a beached whale). And then when I got onto the slide, I was partially off the mat, so it wasn’t super comfortable down the slide… oh well!

I did one tube slide – Runoff Rapids. It was a tall walk up the hill so I would have loved to do all three of the runs, but could only make that climb once. I think I did the enclosed version, which was pretty fun!

I also did a loop on the lazy river, though I think I was the only one, lol! (And I overheard some CMs talking about wanting to go home, which wasn’t exactly welcoming… The river also had a lot of floating leaves and debris, so it wasn't that great)

After swimming, I stopped for a snack of the classic donuts with chocolate sauce.

More photos around the park.

Cute decorations!

Overall, Blizzard Beach was fine. I went to Typhoon Lagoon in May 2019 and think I preferred that park for theme. The tropical atmosphere just fits more with water park, plus the foliage makes it feel more organic. Blizzard Beach does have better slides, but so much of the park is concrete or fiberglass. I probably wouldn’t bother paying extra money to visit either of them though. I am curious about Volcano Bay as it looks like fun, but water parks are better with other people and so many of my trips are solo. Maybe one day!

It started to rain, so I decided to head back to the hotel and get cleaned up for my evening plans. (One thing is the buses back from the water park really suck. I had that experience at Typhoon Lagoon too, but this one felt ridiculous since AKL was literally down the street. I would have taken an Uber but was still a bit wet from swimming so I didn’t want to be rude!)

Over at the resort, the animals were also trying to cover from the rain!

Coming up: A wet night in Animal Kingdom!​

 

[Lesley Wake]

Part 2 – Circle of Flavors

And time for my evening plans, back at Animal Kingdom (this is why I would have liked if I had my FPs here during the day instead of at MK).

Zach and I met up (he may have even picked me up at Kidani), and took some photopass pics.

Today we were doing Circle of Flavors, Harambe at Night.

I had heard about this the previous summer but had never visited when it was happening. So when I realized they added winter/spring dates that coincided with my trip, I convinced Zach to join in (considering there was a big Lion King theme… he was always going to be in, lol). Obviously, they aren’t doing this right now, but hopefully they will in the future!

If you didn’t know, this event is a 3-hour progressive dinner that is a celebration of the flavor of the African continent as well as the Big 5 animals in Africa. It includes lots of small dishes and is all-you-care-to-eat, and also drink.

It starts at the Harambe Train Station, where there is a “light reception”.

To eat, there were Charcutamata Ndogo (grapes and cheese), Bread and hummus (pomegranate molasses focaccia with peppadew hummus and smoked olive oil), meat pie (minced beef pastry with tomato-date jam), and Kitfo (mitmita-spiced ahi tuna with ginger aioli).

I’m not a grape fan so ate the cheese and Baby had the grapes…

To drink, there was a Harambellini, which is a combination of POG juice and African sparkling wine. Also some beer and wine available. A nonalcoholic option is the Kitamu cooler (mango and pineapple juices infused with chipotle peppers). I partook in the POG juice and Kitamu cooler, which was really good.

There also was a musician walking around. (This was an uncrowded event, partially due to the weather, which was raining most of the time we were there.)

And gorgeous tapestries decorating the station (I think other guests must have been standing in front of the other animals so I don’t have photos of them).

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