UO & WDW Holiday 2017-18 Trip Report

[BetaCygni]

Pre-Trip Planning
Our Crew
Our crew was me, my wife (DW) and our twin 20-year-old children (DS & DD). DD and I are the real Disney fanatics in the family. DS loves going on rides and the whole Disney experience. DW is not as enthusiastic as the rest of us but enjoys going on family vacations and likes most of the rides and the loves the entertainment.

We’d been to WDW twice, once for a cruise (including 4 days in the parks) in 2004 when DS & DD were 7 and again in 2010 when they were 13 (and ready to ride all the thrill rides). We’ve been to Disneyland as a family three times, and DD & I went for a couple of days in June of 2017.

Why are we going to WDW?
We realized that after DS & DD went off to college and had summer jobs, the only block of time we know they are free is Winter Break. DW has always wanted to visit Atlanta, so we decided to go to Atlanta, Universal Orlando, and WDW. We aren’t sure how many more family vacations we’ll be able to do for a while when DD & DS graduate and start their own lives. This was a perfect chance to build some more family memories. With that in mind, it was a no-brainer to add the Memory Maker package to our WDW trip.

We got a taste of Harry Potter when we visited Universal Studios Hollywood and wanted to see the more elaborate version in FL. So, we allocated 1.5 days at Universal before going onto WDW.

The last time we were in WDW was 2010 when DD & DS were 13 years old, so it’s been 7 years and a number of exciting attractions have been added to the resort.

Since were visiting during the holidays for the first time, (a bucket list item for me), we’d get to see all the holiday decorations and shows. We could be in EPCOT on New Year’s Eve! (Spoiler alert: once was enough! )

Planning Tools
We’ve always used the Unofficial Guide book to plan our trips to the Disney parks. I’ve also been listening to the Dis-Unplugged podcasts for many years. They are a great (and fun) source of up-to-date info about the parks. Since we were going to Universal Orlando too, I subscribed to the Dis-Unplugged Universal podcast. A lot of that didn’t apply, but there were nuggets of good ideas sprinkled around. I also bought the new Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando (UO) (there is a section on it in the Unofficial Guide to WDW, but in 2017 they came out with a separate book.

The last few times we’ve gone to a Disney Park, we’ve gotten a subscription to the TouringPlans.com website that goes along with the Unofficial Guide books. It can optimize a custom touring plan for you! It will even suggest which Fast Pass Plus (FP+) reservations to get. That was an enormous help to us since we hadn’t used FP+ before. The optimized touring plans at UO & WDW worked exceptionally well as you’ll see.

Where to Stay?
At UO, I knew we needed front of the line privileges if we had any chance of seeing everything we wanted in 1.5 days. That led me to pick Loew’s Royal Pacific Hotel. It is within walking distance of both parks and CityWalk and has a water taxi (which we ended up using quite a bit). Staying at the Royal Pacific gives you the Universal Express front-of-the line privileges.

At WDW, we chose at the Polynesian Resort. The Poly is a good choice for us since the room is big and has a day bed, so DS & DD can each have their own bed and we don’t have to get a second room. The bathroom has two sinks which helped speed up getting ready in the morning. The monorail station at the resort was a convenient way to get to and from MK and EPCOT (especially on New Year’s Eve!). The downside was that the Animal Kingdom (AK) was a 30-minute bus ride away. We spent a lot of time at AK on this trip, so that was significant.

Notes on Planning
From July through December, I reserved ADRs and Fastpass+, etc. Here are the main takeaways:

1) If at first you don’t succeed: try, try again. I significantly improved our ADR times and attraction return window times by checking back later and modifying my existing FP+/ADRs.

2) Keep checking park hours/open attractions. I had to adjust plans as some attractions were shut down and more Extra Magic Hours were added.

 

[BetaCygni]

Detailed planning notes. These are probably too much for most people, but DD and I are detailed Disney planners. We always allow times for spontaneous activities, but we like to work out everything else ahead of time. Since DD was busy at college, I did almost all the planning this time.

Sunday 7/2/17 – ADR Day
I had to get up at 2:00 AM so I’d be awake enough at 3:00 AM to execute my plan. I got almost everything I wanted, including reservations at Be Our Guest and the Kona Café.

We are planning on meeting DW’s cousins and their two kids (one college age and the other recently graduated) on our first day at WDW for dinner (non-park day). I wanted to get a reservation at ‘Ohana at the Poly where we’ll be staying, but I could only get one at the Kona Café. That turned out to be fine. It was fun seeing them and catching up after a lot of years.

Wednesday 7/5/2017
Kept trying for MK Fireworks Dessert Party on our final day and I scored it a week after ADR’s opened! Don’t give up!

Thursday 8/17/2017
I was able to get a 12:15 PM lunch reservation for Be Out Guest so I cancelled our 11:20 AM reservation. 12:15 works much better with our touring plan for that morning. We have a comfortable 39 minutes of free time after out last ride of the morning before lunch. That gives us time to shop, relax, or handle any delays in our plan.

Thursday 10/12/17
I heard that the Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire VR experience would open in Disney Springs two weeks before our trip! Enough time to work out the bugs!! J Disneyland wouldn’t get its version until January 2018. I immediately signed up for tickets for our Disney Springs afternoon (12/30). After watching the trailer, I was over the moon with excitement.

Sunday (10/22/17)
They finally extended the Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party at Disney's Hollywood Studios dates to after the first of the year! Nabbed a 6:30 PM reservation!! Whoo Hoo! For us it is all about time management. With only 5 days in the parks, to see what we want to see and do what we want to do, we didn’t have any time to wait for primo spots for the Star Wars Fireworks. We are huge Star Wars fans, so for us the cost was worth it. Especially when it turned out to be 30-40 degrees the evening we were there. I doubt we would have hung out in the cold for 30+ minutes waiting for the show.

Wednesday (10/25/17)
The Touring Plans Reservation finder found a 12:50 PM reservation for Be Our Guest! Usually when those have shown up, by the time I noticed it and clicked through, it was already gone. But not this time!! Score!

By shifting this from 12:15 to 12:50, we can squeeze in Enchanted Tales with Belle before lunch and have just 25 minutes of free time. The reason I know this will work is the custom touring plan I keep updating on the TouringPlans.Com website.

Monday (10/30/17) – FP+ Day!
This was my first FP+ experience. Since we live on the west coast, I had to get up 3:35 AM to get ready for the 4:00 AM start. At least it wasn’t as early as the ADRs. Woo Hoo!

In the days prior, I’d used our Touring Plans membership to optimize our day in each park. As they say about war plans, they don’t survive first contact with the enemy! I had carefully plotted out what times we need FP+ for, but when I went onto the website, the FP+ times were scattered around, not in every 5-minute intervals like the Touring Plan software lets you set.

At this point, the MK was listed as opening at 9:00 AM on 12/30/17.

Seven Dwarves Mine train wasn’t available on our first day (12/30/17) until the late afternoon. I assume guests who are starting their vacation earlier had scooped the early ones up. So I had to scramble and move rides from Saturday (12/30/17) to Wednesday (1/3/18) our other morning in the MK. I also had to move Big Thunder Mountain to Wednesday. Switching to Monday were: Peter Pan (there was an early morning FP+ on12/30/17 for that), Mickey’s Philarmagic, and Dumbo (I was able to get a FP+ for that just before lunch on Saturday).

So on Saturday (12/30/17) I grabbed FP+ for Peter Pan (9:25), Pirates (10:25) and Dumbo (11:55).

On Wednesday (1/4/18) I grabbed FP+ for Seven Dwarves (9:00 AM), Big Thunder (10;45 AM, and Splash Mountain (12:25 PM).

Those FP+ times weren’t the exact ones I got when I first grabbed them. They were the ones shown on the webpage that seemed like they might work with the modified touring plan.

However after entering the first FP+ times I got into our Touring Plan, I found I needed to adjust some of them to eliminate free time (other than scheduled breaks) and/or wait times for attractions for which we didn’t have FP+. When I started adjusting them, I was surprised to find quite a few more FP+ times available that weren’t there the first time I went in.

The best example is Avatar Flight of Passage. We were planning on that being the grand finale to the evening in AK which closes at 8 PM on Tuesday 1/2/18. When I first tried to get a FP+ for that, there none past 6:30 or so. We also wanted to see Rivers of Light which has a 5:50 PM FP+ for a 6:30 PM show. So I had to go with early afternoon for Avatar Flight of Passage. When I came back later, I was able to get 6:45 PM which the website allowed me to do even though it is less than 1 hour after 5:50 PM FP+ for Rivers of Light. Even later in the morning I was able to get a 6:50 PM FP+ which was perfect for us since the ride time in our touring plan is 7:31 PM.

In fact I just realized that if we want we can ride Flight of Passage using our FP+ and then get right back in the regular line and ride it again since we should be done with our first ride by 7:56 PM. If we get back in line before the park closes, we can get one more ride in! J

I don’t know if they just open more time slots later or if other people were modifying their FP+ reservations like me and they just opened. It is just a big black box to me. According to Jim Hill of the Disney Dish podcast, Disney manipulates the FP+ availability to direct guests to pick the rides that benefit Disney’s operational priorities. I wonder how sophisticated their algorithm really is?

Anyway, I found I was able significantly improve our plan both with ride order (eliminating wait times) and positioning the start time of our FP+ window so that the ride time was close the middle of the window, so we have more flexibility in case something happens to delay us or speed us up.

So, my suggestion to the reader is keep refining your plan in the hours after FP+ opens up for your trip and you’ll probably find that when modifying an existing FP+, more slots will be available than were there when you added it.

Having those two mornings at the park made it possible to get everything we wanted. That makes sense after the fact because the MK has the most rides and many of them low capacity and highly competitive for FP+.

The FP+ reservations for the EPCOT touring plan for New Year’s Eve were the only one that didn’t require much manipulation. I did adjust a few of them to better position the Touring Plan ride time in the middle of the one-hour window.

Friday (12/15/17) – WDW Keeps Adding Park Hours!
Two weeks to WDW!

For the second time, WDW has added park hours during out trip. The first time was a couple of weeks ago when they added 1 hour to MK opening time on 12/30/17 (our first park day) PLUS an Extra Magic Hour (EMH)! That gave us 2 more early morning hours (previous opening was 9 AM, now it was 7 AM with EMH). This completely changed our plans for touring the parks on that day and our last day (our other MK day). We were able to fit a lot more rides in the first day and have a more flexible and relaxed 2nd day.

The headache was I had to decide whether to keep our existing FP+ on those two days or switch them up. I ended up change a few of them, but most had to stay as-is since for things like the Seven Dwarves Mine Train, there are no more open FP+ so I couldn’t get one at a different time.

The good news is the once again the TouringPlans.Com software came through and helped me optimize our days. I had to do some manual manipulation to get it to come out just right, but it helped with figuring out how long waiting times were to minimize them by changing the order of the rides and which day we rode them.

Today WDW added an extra hour to the opening time for AK on Tuesday 1/2/18. This allowed us to squeeze Dinosaur in that morning and still be done with plenty of time for lunch before heading over to our main Hollywood Studios afternoon/evening.

The lesson here is that monitor the opening and closing times of the parks in the weeks leading up to your visit. You’ll probably find some changes.

Also look for attraction closures! We originally had Flights of Wonder at AK on our plan, but just a few weeks before our trip it was shutdown. This required changing our AK touring plan for that day. It ended up making it more relaxed, so it was a plus since we’d seen FoW before and won’t miss it that much.

So now we have our revised plans. How will they work? We’ll see. We put a lot of faith in the TouringPlans.com site and it has worked for us every time before, so it should work this time during the busiest time of the year.

Wednesday (12/20/17) – WDW Canceled Voices of Liberty Performances in the Afternoon on 12/31/17!
More changes by Disney causing me to reorder our touring plan. I went to the Touringplans.com website to evaluate our plans to see if anything changed. Our NYE plan at EPCOT had one more minute of waiting in line, but I couldn’t see exactly where it was. Then I noticed that the Voices of Liberty weren’t performing at 3PM like before. The last performance is now 2:00PM! I verified this on the WDW website.

That meant we had to move up Voices of Liberty and the American Adventure to just after Spaceship Earth after lunch. I decided to let Touringplans.com optimize the day to see what else should be moved. The best way to do this is to remove the attractions you have FP+ for and let the software add them back in.

It moved quite a few things around and eliminated about half the wait for Nemo and Friends by moving it to the late afternoon. It put Spaceship Earth (which we have a FP+ for just after lunch) to the very end of the day (after midnight). I moved that back to where it could use the FP+ and put the Voices of Liberty and the American Adventure just after. That worked just right. We have a long walk for Spaceship Earth to the American Pavilion (24 minutes), but we make the last (2PM) VoL performance by 2 minutes and then only have to wait 1 minute for the American Adventure. We’ll probably be a little earlier than that since I expect we’ll get to EPCOT a little earlier than the plan which I made conservative by saying we won’t get to EPCOT until 9:45 AM.

The moral is: Keep evaluating your touring plans up until the day of the plan! Disney is always changing things. The Touringplans.com seems to be right on top of the changes.

Thursday (12/21/17) – 8 days to WDW! – Configured our room request FAX on the TouringPlans.Com website
TouringPlans.Com will let configure a room request FAX that they will send for you 5 days before check-in. The filtering for which room you can select is a little confusing, and some of the terminology has changed. Touringplans.com will show a room photo and verify how many beds are in it.

We requested room 2814, which is on the east end of the Rarotonga building. We wanted a room close to the Ticket and Transportation center, and on the second floor so it would be quieter. We also requested two queen beds. We had never requested a specific room before, so we crossed our fingers…

Friday (12/22/17) Refining Touring Plans
Put in hints about what food is good at the different restaurants and where to watch parades and fireworks.

 

[BetaCygni]

Tuesday (12/26/17)
The first part of the trip was visiting Atlanta. We spent a day and a half there after flying out Christmas Day.
Here are the highlights:
On the first day we visited:
CNN and took the studio tour. Very cool to see how news programs are made.

Centers for Disease Control: They had a large section on combating the recent outbreak of the Ebola virus in Africa. DW is in health research and some of her grant money comes from the CDC!

After lunch we went to the National Center for Human and Civil Rights which has very interesting displays of the history of the civil right struggle in the U.S. There was an interactive spot where you could sit at a simulated lunch counter, put on headphones, and listen to people berating you for sitting there. It was very effective at giving you a very small taste of what it must have been like. Nothing like the real thing of course.

On the upper floor there was information about civil and human rights struggles around the world. My favorite sign was one that said:
The worst thing about censorship is XXXXXXXXXXXX.

After that we went over to the World of Coca Cola which is across the park form the museum. That was mobbed. We waited in line for about an hour to get in.
It was interesting, especially the room where you could taste different Coke products from around the world (including the infamous Beverley from Italy). I didn’t’ try that but DS did. He didn’t recommend it and said he’d never forget what it tasted like. My favorite was a mango one from South America.
Dinner
We wanted to have BBQ while we were in GA and fortunately there was a very highly rated (on Trip Advisor) BBQ place just 2 blocks from the hotel called: Twin Smokers BBQ. What great food. I had ribs which were excellent and everyone else liked what they ordered as well. For dessert we tried the banana pudding. DS and I agreed that this was the best dessert we had on the whole trip including UO and WDW! It was only $3 and came in a plastic drinking cup. It had banana pudding, sliced bananas, and vanilla wafers layered in. It had been made in advance, so the vanilla wafers were soft and chewy.

Wednesday (12/27/17)
We had a half a day left to explore Atlanta and then it was off to the airport to catch our 3 PM flight to Orlando.

While doing my research about what to do in Atlanta, I ran across the Center for Puppetry Arts. They are a group which puts on puppet shows all year long and has workshops for people to learn how to operate puppets. When I found out they have an annual Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer show based on the famous stop-action TV show I knew what I wanted to do! I grew up watching that show and we’ve watched it as a family every year when the kids were growing up as well.

Unfortunately, no one else was enthusiastic about it, so we decided to split up on the last half-day.

After breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and I drove DW, DD, & DS to the Martin Luther King National Historical Site which opens at 9 AM and then I went onto the Rudolph show which started at 10:00 AM.

I can’t rave enough about the Rudolph show. It was really first rate. The puppets were fantastic and puppetry superb. The show included live singing by the puppeteers and the classic soundtrack.

After the show was over (around 11:10 AM), I drove down and picked up the rest of the crew (who thought the MLK area was full of things to see and learn first hand and went onto the Atlanta Airport. We had lunch there.

Time to enter the Theme Park part of our trip!

 

[BetaCygni]

Wednesday (12/27/17)
Continued...

Rental Car
I rented a minivan from Alamo to drive from the Orlando airport to UO and later WDW. At WDW, I would drop the car off at the Swan Hotel’s Alamo. While at WDW, we’d use Disney transportation. We would use Disney’s Magical Express to get back to the airport on our last day.

Because we drove, we could get groceries along the way. When touring theme parks, we always show up at rope drop for the “golden hour” when you can do 3-4 of the most popular rides with little to no wait. That means eating breakfast in your room or perhaps a grab and go breakfast to eat while waiting for transportation.

We stopped at Publix and bought cereal, bananas, milk, and some snacks. We arrived at the Royal Pacific Hotel. The lobby had an elaborate Minions Christmas Display.


I went in the lobby, checked in, and printed out our two-day park hopper tickets. This worked okay, but I prefer the all-in-one system at Disney where your MagicBand is your door key and park ticket. We had to show both room key and ticket to get in for early entry. DS, DD, and I (who are Disneyland veterans) quickly realized we would need to get a lanyard with a ticket holder when we were in the parks.

Dinner
I’d read good things about Toothsome’s Chocolate Emporium and DW is a huge chocolate fan, so that was the plan for dinner. I wanted to try one of their elaborate milkshakes (key lime) for dessert. They don’t take reservations. When we showed up around 6:30 PM they said it was a 90-minute wait. That wasn’t going to work. We decided to eat elsewhere and then come back for dessert. The Hard Rock Café next door had a 30-minute wait, but at that point we wanted something faster. We went to Red Brick Oven Pizza on the other side of the lagoon. That turned out to be a good choice. We shared a medium pizza and caesar salad.

For dessert, DD got a cup from Cold Stone Creamery nearby. The rest of us opted for Toothsome’s. I ordered the Key Lime Milkshake (with a piece of key lime pie on top), DS ordered a cookie milkshake (with a huge chocolate cookie on top), and DW ordered a cookie sundae.

We waited and waited. We saw the sundae go up on the counter, but not our milkshakes. Finally, I asked the guy working there if our order was still in the system. No. The way they queue up orders and mark them done is very haphazard. The people working behind the counter were working very fast, but they weren’t making the desserts in the right order.

Our order was deleted by mistake and it took another 15 minutes to get it (a total of about 50 minutes from the time we ordered). Bad show!

I’m a huge key-lime pie fan, but the milkshake was sort of a bust. I’d read mediocre reviews about the milkshakes, but I wanted to try it anyway. Oh well. Lesson learned. DS liked his a lot but couldn’t finish it. Ditto for DW.

We were all pretty tired and needed to get up early the next morning, so it was off to bed. We had two queen beds and I brought along an inflatable camping sleep pad. I had heard bad things about the rollaway beds at the Royal Pacific, so our system worked well.

 

[BetaCygni]

Thursday (12/28/17)
Only the Harry Potter (HP) area is open from 7-8 AM for UO resort guests, so I thought it would be fun to start at Universal Studios FL (USF) first and ride the new Escape from Gringotts ride and then take the train to Islands of Adventure to ride the other Harry Potter ride (Forbidden Journey). That worked out great.

We were planning on doing a lot of park hopping since the parks are so close to the hotel and each other, so we bought 2-day park hopper tickets.

We woke up at 5:30 AM and after breakfast, etc. we were out of the room around 6:15 AM. We took the water taxi and we were in line at USF by 6:30 AM. That proved plenty early enough.

NOTE: We were fortunate to have stayed a couple of days in the Eastern time zone (in Atlanta) before we got to FL. That made it a little easier to get up early.

Everyone made a bee-line for Diagon Alley, and we power-walked with the crowd. One downside to Universal is that they don’t design their ride vehicles to hold your stuff. You have to use a locker. This turns out to be somewhat stressful. With four backpacks among us, we had to get two lockers.

We accidentally got in the regular line for Escape from Gringotts instead of the Universal Express one, but it didn’t matter at that early hour. We all enjoyed the ride. It was very thrilling without being too jerky. The 3-D effects worked well.

Then boarded the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9 ¾ for our trip to Hogwarts! I didn’t notice it, but DS saw a cool mirror effect where it appeared that people were walking through a brick wall to get onto the platform. Here our front of the line passes worked well and we were quickly on our way to the other park.

Once there we rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We’d ridden the one in CA while it was still using 3-D. That turned out to be very blurry and not very fun. It was more enjoyable in 2-D, but still pretty jerky and confusing. We all thought that Escape from Gringotts was much better.

Unfortunately, the Dragon Challenge ride was closed in the months leading up to our trip so we never got to ride that even in its previous incarnation as Dueling Dragons. We’d decided to skip Flight of the Hippogriff since it is just a kiddie coaster with light theming, so we were done with Harry Potter rides at IOA.

At this point the parks were open to all guests. The optimized touring plan from TouringPlans.com was working pretty well, but the wait times they calculated for people with Universal Express were about 50% too low. We were spending about twice as much time waiting in line as they predicted. That meant we had to skip some stuff during the day, but it worked for us overall.

The next ride was The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. I’d heard a lot about this ride and was really looking forward to it. Theme park aficionados have long considered it one of the best rides ever. I thought it was a lot of fun and had some really funny parts, but I had some problems with the 3-D effects being blurry in a few places.

It was still pretty early and cold, but our next ride was the Jurassic Park River Adventure. We’d ridden the one at USH, but I’d read that this one was slightly different. It was all very predictable (we get pushed into the restricted area), but fun nonetheless. We got a little wet. I’d bought disposable ponchos for everyone.

We had to skip the Tri-wizard Rally because we were running behind schedule, so we got in line for Poseidon’s Fury. I’d read mixed reviews of this, but we all thought it was one of the best attractions. We had an excellent guide. It reminded me of the Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but in this case the guide has even more to do. Fortunately, all the effects worked. Highly recommended!

We had to skip the Frog Choir. We caught a glimpse of it the next day and it was nothing special.

DS & DD boycott the live action Grinch (too creepy they say) so they went off on their own. DS rode the Hulk roller coaster (he raved about it later), while DW & I got in line for the 11:00 AM Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular. The Unofficial Guide lists this as a “Not to be missed” attraction. Other reviews (like the guys on the Dis-Unplugged Universal podcast) say it is pretty cheesy, but they still go once a year anyway. It is loosely based on the “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” Dr. Seuss cartoon, but they’ve added a lot of songs and some dance numbers. The Grinch cartoon is another fond memory for me growing up, so I enjoyed the show. The Grinch is creepy, but he and the rest of the cast gave great performances.

We met DS & DD at the Raptor Encounter, our last activity before lunch. We were extremely fortunate to be the last group before the raptor had to go on break to be fed (according to the cast member (CM)). This was one of our favorite things at the park. I’d seen some videos of this, but it is nothing like being there. Another highly recommended attraction. There was a CM at the line explaining to people that this wasn’t a ride. It wasn’t but it is not to be missed!

On the way to lunch, we caught the 12:00 noon Tri-Wizard Rally. It was fun but nothing too exciting. The performers did a great job.

We waited about 45 minutes to get our food at The Three Broomsticks, but it is the best food in the park. I had Shepard’s Pie with potted butterbeer for dessert. Yum! Oh yeah, I also had frozen butterbeer. It was great even though it wasn’t hot outside.

Then it was time for a break back at the hotel. We’d done 9 attractions (including the Tri-Wizard Rally) so far. Not bad. That is the power of the TouringPlans software (and the willingness to get up at 5:30 AM while you are on vacation!).

On the way back, DS & I stopped at the remnant of the Berlin Wall that is behind the Hard Rock Café. He’d never seen a piece of the wall before, and I wanted a photo there. The location is a virtual geocache, the only one at Universal Studios Florida. We found most of the ones at Walt Disney World on our last trip.

DW & DD were too tired to tour in the early afternoon, so DS & I went out after an hour or so of resting. We just made the 3:30 PM show of Animal Actors at USF. Even though the gags are familiar, I really like them. One of the coolest acts was a cat climbing a chain. It probably wasn’t a metal chain, but it looked cool anyway. They don’t always have cats in this type of show. And the birds flying over your head from behind is always exciting. The gags with kids who volunteered from the audience were great too.

Then it was on to the Simpsons ride. DW and I had ridden the Back to the Future ride in SoCal many years ago, so I was looking forward to this one. Once again, the wait time for Universal Express was about twice what the TouringPlans.com optimizer calculated. And once again, we had to put our stuff in lockers. I enjoyed the ride, but DS didn’t. He said that rides like this upset his stomach.

We had time before dinner to ride Men in Black. I’d been looking forward to riding this ever since I heard about it. You get really cool-looking space guns. I think it is much better than Buzz Lightyear at Disney. You don’t have to hit those teeny-tiny targets with a gun you can’t aim very well and the trigger on the space gun was a lot easier to pull than it is to push that stiff button on the back of the ray guns on Buzz. DS had no problem beating me, but my excuse is I completely forgot where you were supposed to aim at the aliens (top of head to neck). Anyway, it didn’t matter since you are scored by comparing your car’s average to your opponent’s. I shot their spin target a couple of times which was fun. If you hit it, their car spins around and they obviously have trouble aiming! We won

Then it was time to meet DW & DD for dinner. Originally, I wanted to eat at Mythos, but for some reason in the weeks leading up to our trip I couldn’t make an on-line reservation for that restaurant after 4 PM. I nabbed a 5:30 PM reservation at Vivo’s Italian restaurant in CityWalk. Everyone was happy we had a reservation that night, after the long waits of the night before. The food was fantastic and the service was great.

After dinner we still had time for more attractions! I scheduled Skull Island: Reign of Kong at night since I figured it would be spookier. I was right! It was a very cool ride. We’d done the backlot tour at Universal Studios Hollywood a couple of years ago and they have a Kong section, but this one was so much better.

I had read a little about the ride ahead of time and heard that there were different drivers of the autonomous vehicles. I thought that there would be audio-animatronic drivers that you could see, but apparently they just use different voices in the vehicle speakers. A little disappointing, but the Kong animatronic at the end was even more breathtaking than I expected after reading about it. No one else on the trip knew about it so they were surprised.

Next, we went to see the Christmas projections on Hogwarts castle that I’d read so much about. We tried to get into Hogsmeade, but it was completely packed even after a show concluded. I quickly realized we’d have to spend about an hour pushing our way in there while the show plays again and again to get a good viewing spot. That wasn’t going to work, so we moved to the bridge to the Jurassic Park area. It was an okay backup spot, but a number of trees obscured the lower part of the castle. It was way better than nothing (you didn’t have to show up early), but we were still disappointed we didn’t’ get a great view.

Then we took the train from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley. We’d ridden it the other way this morning. This way was not as dramatic, but still fun.

Finally, we walked quickly to the New York section of USF to try and catch the nighttime parade that features some of the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade floats. I’d always wanted to see that and we got a nice taste with this parade. As we approached I saw “Louis’” restaurant/building/whatever this is, which I’d read was a good place to see the parade without having to wait a long time. That turned out to be a great spot. The curb was high so we could see over the people in front. There is a hairpin turn, so the floats have to slow down. It was a lot of fun seeing the parade and now I don’t have to go to New York to see it!

DW, DD, and I headed back to the hotel, but DS wanted to ride Hulk at night. He really enjoyed it in a different way at night. This time he was ready for the various twists and turns.

 

[BetaCygni]

Friday (12/29/17)
Up at 5:30 AM again. We ate breakfast in the room. I was happy to see I got an email checkout message from the hotel, so we got to skip going to the desk. We just had to pack our bags and leave them in the car for the morning.

Once again, only the Harry Potter (HP) area is open from 7-8 AM for UO resort guests. We went back to USF and headed for Diagon Alley. I’d heard that Olivander’s there is bigger than the one in Hogsmeade, so we got into an early show of the wand experience.

DD asked me if I was going to record it, and I said, “Only if you get picked.” What do you know, she got picked! That made the show (which we’d already seen in USH) even more special.

She wasn’t going to buy the wand afterwards, but I bought it for her as an early birthday present. She had fun the rest of the morning doing the interactive things around Diagon Alley. I had bought a wand when we visited US Hollywood, but left it at home. Argh! But DD let me use hers, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

Now that we’ve gone to both USH and USF, we probably won’t go back to Universal anytime soon. If they open up a Ministry of Magic attraction as has been rumored, then we might consider it. If they do, then I’ll make sure I bring my wand!!!

Next on the plan was Escape from Gringotts again. Quite a line had built up after going to Olivander’s, even with Universal Express. DW decided not to ride again, but didn’t want to hold all our backpacks, so we entered the locker zone. By now, they were only letting one person from each party in there, so I went in and jammed our three bags into a single locker. After about 20 minutes or so, we got on the ride and enjoyed it just as much the second time. It is definitely a much better ride than Forbidden Journey, since it feels like you are in the middle of the story.

We had a few minutes before 8 AM when the rest of the park opened, so we stopped by the Knight Bus and had a talk with Dre Head, the shrunken head from Prisoner of Azkaban. That was pretty funny, but we should have thought up some lines ahead of time.

We headed over to the New York area of USF for the Race through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon ride. This ride had been panned by many podcasts I’ve listened to, but I actually enjoyed it. You don’t spend a lot of time in New York, but it was inventive and everyone liked it.

Back to Diagon Alley to catch the 9:00 AM show of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. This was a terrific show. Not to be missed. We got the tale of the Three Brothers and the Deathly Hallows. The performers did a great job. They do other stories as well, so try and catch more than one if you have time.

We also had time to wander around Diagon Alley and do some shopping. DS decided to ride Rip-Ride-Rockit while we were looking around.

DW got a Harry Potter t-shirt and Puffskein keychain for our neighbor’s kids who are watching our cat this week. DD did some more interactive wanding. She has a knack for it. She was able to cast the spell successfully almost always on the first try and always on the second.

It was cold, so I opted for a hot butterbeer. The line was pretty long, but I enjoyed it. After having regular butterbeer at USH, frozen butterbeer yesterday at lunch and now hot butterbeer. I’d say frozen is the best, hot second, potted cream two and-a-half, and regular third. I still need to try butterbeer ice cream!

We were on schedule at this point, so we had time for the 10:30 performance of Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees. This act has been highly rated by all commentators and it lived up to its reputation. Lots of energy and great singing.

DS made it back from his Rip-Ride-Rockit ride just in time. He had to wait 30 minutes even with Universal Express, and then his car got stuck on the vertical part for about a minute. I asked him if that was part of the ride, and he shook his head.

Originally we planned to see the 11:00 AM Blues Brothers Christmas Show and then come back for lunch. But since we’d been eating breakfast so early, it made a lot more sense to go to lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and then catch the 12:00 PM show on our way out of the park.

I’m a big hot dog/sausage fan, so I was going to order the “Toad in the Hole”, but DW suggested the Banger Pub Style Sandwich since it comes with Mustard Aioli (I love mustard!). It was tasty, but the roll was a little big and dry. I had to eat it with a knife and fork. I decided to have pumpkin juice for lunch since I’d never tried it before. It was refreshing, but I’d pick frozen butterbeer in a flash next time.

We ate lunch on our two days in the two Harry Potter themed restaurants. It was a great choice. The food is tasty, there are different menus at each one, and it isn’t typical burgers-and-fries fare.

After lunch we had just enough time to get back to the New York area for the Blues Brothers Christmas Show. At lunch DD was wondering what was so great about it. I said it’s got blues and the crazy blues brothers, so it HAS to be good.

It turned out much better than I expected. Really a first-class production all around. The two guys were better singers than Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. It was really funny with some cute audience participation.

That was it for the UO parks. We’d done everything we wanted to do in a day and half. The keys were:

1. Getting up early for rope drop

2. Universal Express (front of the line)

3. TouringPlans.com optimized touring plan.

4. Resting after lunch so we could get up the next morning!

We have a family mini-golf tournament every year with a trophy that is engraved with the winner, what course we played, and the low score. I heard good reviews of the mini-golf course at CityWalk, so we headed over there. We picked the Sci-Fi side and a ton of fun playing! No one had practiced, but we all did very well, with the lead shifting through the first 12 holes or so. There were lots of very inventive obstacles. Our favorite hole was the one where you could push a button and a door would whoosh open just like on the Starship Enterprise!

DS had built up a small lead, but I’d caught up and on the 17th hole I got a hole in one! I was feeling pretty good until he got one too! We were tied going into the 18th hole. He hit a great shot that got onto the rotating disk with the hole in it and he easily sunk his putt for a 2. I missed the disk and couldn’t make my putt, so he won by one stroke (41-42)! It was his first win so he got his name on the trophy when we got back home.

We headed for the car to start on our Walt Disney World Adventure! Part III of our trip!

We stopped at Goodlings on the way to the Polynesian Resort and got milk, cereal, bananas, and a few snacks. By then it was 3 PM and I got a text from Disney saying our room was ready! That meant we could go directly to our room and open it with our MagicBands!

We drove to the Poly and I dropped everyone off at the entrance with the luggage. They went right up to the room using their Magic Bands to get in. Meanwhile I drove the rental car to the Swan hotel with the Alamo Rental Car office. When I got there, one of the valets gave me a ticket with the mileage and how much gas was in it. Then I was off to the bus stop to take a bus to MK! It was slick. My one-way rental plan worked perfectly!

I arrived at MK and took a quick picture of the train station. Then I rode the monorail to the Poly. I got there around 4:30 PM.

The rest of the crew was already in the room. We got into the Rarotonga building on the side opposite the monorail, so the room request FAX sent by TouringPlans worked! Yay! That put us as close as possible to the Ticket and Transportation Center and the Monorail to EPCOT.

We had enough time to take showers and freshen up before meeting DW’s cousin and his family for dinner at the Kona Café. I tried mightily to get a reservation at ‘Ohana, but for 8 people on the first day of our Disney trip it was a long shot from the beginning.

It was fun meeting DW’s cousin, his DW & DS & DD. His DS is just out of college and working and his DD is still in college and is the same age as our “kids”.

The Kona Café had something everyone wanted to eat, and I was able to special order the ‘Ohana bread pudding for dessert! Super Yummy! But not quite as good as the banana pudding I had in Atlanta at the BBQ place.

For dinner I ordered the Mango-Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast. I thought it was okay. The chicken was a little dry.

After dinner we talked for a while and took some pictures with the Christmas decorations in the lobby.

We went back to the room and settled on getting up at 5:30 AM to catch the first monorail (@ 6:30 AM) to MK tomorrow.

I went out to see the MK fireworks from the beach at the Poly @ 9PM and to my surprise, the Electrical Water Pageant was going! I texted DD who was really interested in seeing it, but she was too tired. The pageant was fun. The fireworks were a bust because of the low-lying clouds.

 

[BetaCygni]

Saturday (12/30/17) – MK Day + Star Wars VR!
The alarm went off at 5:30 AM and I was the first one up. We all did what we needed to get ready, including eating breakfast in the room. We were out the door by 6:20 AM. Our building (Rarotonga) was right next to the Great Ceremonial House, so we were up on the second floor where the monorail is in a jiffy. There was one waiting for us! Unfortunately, we found out that the monorail was down that morning. We headed for the bus stop, but there was no indication on the video screen saying that a MK bus was coming (in retrospect it probably was. We should have asked someone, but I guess we weren’t thinking clearly after getting up so early 3 days in a row). I remembered that the Poly has a boat to get to/from the MK, so we headed for the boat dock.

At the dock was a guy in a small pontoon boat. We asked him if there was a MK launch coming. He called on his radio and found out that sent the boat from Fort Wilderness our way! He said the bigger launches had been rerouted that morning because of the monorail outage. When I filled out the Disney survey we got at the end of our trip, I made sure I mentioned his Disney Magic.

We were the only people on the launch. We sped by the Grand Floridian because no one was waiting on the dock. We got to the MK around 6:45 AM and entered the Magic Kingdom where all our cares of the real world melted away for a few hours.


By then they had let a lot of people into the park, so we power-walked up Main Street towards the castle. It was all decked out in its Christmas lights and looked very magical. We reached a spot where they were holding people until 7AM. At that hour they dropped the rope and we headed straight for Peter Pan’s Flight. It was a walk-on. This version is more elaborate than the one at Disneyland and looked great.



Next was Winnie the Pooh, a family favorite. DW loves Tigger! This version is better than the one at Disneyland because it the ride vehicle bounces in the Tigger room.

DS was excited about the next ride: Space Mountain. We had a short wait, but our invisible oxygen domes check out and we headed out into the galaxy. Kind of jerky but fun. I almost got whiplash a couple of times. I realized later that the WDW version doesn’t have headrests like the Disneyland one. Hmmm. When I rode it later in the week, I scrunched my neck down to avoid this problem.


Anyway, it is not as much fun as the Disneyland version because the music is better out there. I did some research and the WDW version doesn’t have in-car music and a newer track which is smoother. Score one for Disneyland! So far, for 3 rides, WDW 2, Disneyland 1.

NOTE: I didn’t plan on having a competition between Disneyland & WDW’s MK, but since DD and I went to Disneyland/DCA earlier this year when I picked her up after college let out in June, it is fresh in our minds. Game on!!

At this point we’d hoped to sneak in a ride on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (SDMT) when it should have had short wait according to our touring plan), but the ride was down. Luckily I had a FP+ for our second MK day at the end of the trip.

Onward!

It was getting close to 8 AM now so we crossed Fantasyland (which is mind-bogglingly HUGE compared to the one at Disneyland) and waited at another rope line to get into Frontierland. On the way we stopped at the elaborately themed Tangled bathrooms we’d been hearing so much about.


Our plan (particularly having skipped SDMT) was working perfectly.

Over to another of everyone’s favorites: Big Thunder Mountain. It had a very short wait. It doesn’t have the big explosion scene on the last lift hill like Disneyland’s version does, but it was still a *blast* early in the morning. But comparing the two, I’d have to give this one to Disneyland: 2-2!

After that we headed to Adventureland for DS & my favorite ride: Pirates of the Caribbean! We moved through the queue quickly (I think it said there was a 10-minute wait). All the show scenes look great. The ride photo flash was kind of annoying. I thought someone was taking flash photography. I guess it was supposed to be part of the lightning scene with the skeleton at the wheel. They still had the wench auction scene which is going away soon (I thought it was already gone). Everyone knows that Disneyland’s version of this is much better. Disneyland takes the lead 3-2!

We backtracked to the Haunted Mansion. We had a little bit of a wait (longer than the touring plan, perhaps because of the people not riding SDMT), but not too bad. I noticed a few things I hadn’t seen before (or perhaps they are differences between DL & WDW), but everything was funny/scary. Still, I have to give DL the edge on this one because we have the awesome Hat Box Ghost! 4-2 DL.

We crossed Fantasyland again to get to Dumbo, which was a complete walk-on. I think only one side was running. Usually this is a bottleneck at Disneyland, but I think 7DMT sucks up a lot people in WDW. Lots of fun as usual. It is one of DD and my must do rides. She’s loved it from our first trip to Disneyland so that makes it one of my favorites too. She likes orange, so she always tries to find an orange elephant. No problem this morning.

At WDW this has a small pre-show to help with waiting, but I’ll call this ride a tie since the environment at DL is better with Casey Junior and the Storybook Canal boats right next door, so still 4-2 DL.

Then it was time to go Under the Sea with Ariel. This is always a fun ride because of the music and is basically the same as the one at DL. Still 4-2 DL.

At around 10:00 AM it was finally time to use our first FP+ of the day. This is key to visiting the most attractions on your visit. There is no reason to get a FP+ first thing in the morning, when many popular rides are a walk-on.

DD & I were super excited to go to Enchanted Tales with Belle. We got a FP+ for it, which is apparently the only practical way to do it. We had to wait about 10 minutes to go into the pre-show.

I’d read a little about it, especially the amazing special effect at the beginning, but I was blown away by how great the whole experience was. It may have helped that I was picked to be a knight in the play! The hostess said that anyone who wanted to be a knight should start marching. Nothing happened, so she said that adults could try too, so I started marching and got picked.

DD (who got picked at USF for the wand experience) & I have both been very lucky on this trip so far. Universal/Disney Magic!

This is Disney storytelling at its finest. I liked how they had parts that anyone could play if they didn’t get picked for a main part. It was all very cute with the kids (and kids at heart like me) playing the story of Beauty and the Beast. The Beast had a great roar!

We got a PhotoPass card we could use to link all the photos they took to our Memory Maker Account. There was a very nice photo of the two Knights (who were the only adults in the play) with Belle. This attraction is a massive win for WDW since DL has nothing like this, so the score is now 4-3 in favor of DL.

FP+ #2 was up next: Small World. Not our favorite ride, but I wanted to see the WDW version. We hadn’t done it since 2004. It was fun, but quite different than the Disneyland version. There is no outdoor section and Disneyland’s has many more (smaller dolls). I’d have to give the edge to Disneyland on this one particularly because it is the one there was actually in the 1964 N.Y. World’s Fair. 5-3 for DL.

Next was supposed to be the Hall of Presidents, but we just missed a show, so we caught an earlier show of the The Muppets Present…Great Moments in American History. I’d read this was going to be a temporary show, but it was so popular that it is now permanent. I can see why. What a great show. Very funny and well-acted by all. DL doesn’t have any shows like this. Big thumbs up, making the score 5-4 for DL.

We moved right over to the Hall of Presidents and had to wait about 10 minutes for the next show. I really like the revised show. It is more about the office of the Presidency and what it means to America. There were no demonstrations when President Trump spoke, and I thought what he said was fine. Score another for WDW since DL doesn’t have this attraction: 5-5 all tied up!!.

Time for our 3rd and last FP+ of the day (see a pattern?). Over to Tomorrowland for a ride on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. This is a family favorite with some friendly competition for the high score. DW and I rode together, and DS&DD did the same. “The Kids” vs. “The Parents”.

I had heard that you can get a score of 999,999 if you shoot a particular target when you go downhill if you turn around. If you succeed, you get a special badge. I dutifully turned around when we started downhill and tried to shoot at any targets I saw. By the end, DW had gotten 999,999!! She doesn’t remember how she did it. We asked the CMs at the exit about the special prize and she got a big sticker to brag that she was a “Galactic Hero”. Needless to say, our car won.

I found out later that it is not one target that gets you the score of 999,999, but there are a number of 100,000 targets throughout the ride. I also learned that you don’t have to keep pressing the trigger! I wish I had known that before! My biggest complaint about the ride is how hard you have to press it the button to get the gun to fire. My thumb always gets. Compared with Toy Story Mania, this design is poor. Also, after riding the Men in Black Ride with its cool “Buck Rogers” style space guns, the ones on Buzz look kind of pedestrian. This ride is basically the same at both parks, so the park-to-park competition is still tied at 5-5 and this was our last attraction of the day (more on that later), we’ll just call it a tie and say the both the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland are magical in their own ways.

Starting at 7 AM and going until 12:30 PM, we’d done 13 attractions. Not bad for half a day.

Time for lunch. We had an ADR for the Be Our Guest restaurant at 12:50 PM. This was a must-do for DD. If you read my Pre-Trip planning section, you’ll see that we originally had one before noon. This timing worked out great since we arrived about 20 minutes early and had a short wait before being escorted in.

While we were waiting we looked at the menu on our My Disney Experience App. I knew what I wanted: the braised pork (based on the Disney Food Blog’s (DFB) recommendation). This is only available at lunchtime. I also ordered the Master’s Cupcake with the Grey Stuff, which I really wanted to try after hearing how delicious it was.

The ordering experience at the kiosks was fun, and I got to use my MagicBand to pay for the first time.

We went in to pick out our table. I steered us to the dark and gloomy West Wing since I’d read there was a great falling rose petal effect. The effect was cool, but in retrospect it would have been a better choice to eat in the well-lit main ballroom and just drop by the West Wing to visit.

The pork was great (+1 for DFB), but the Grey Stuff was really disappointing. It is a huge stretch to call it “mousse”: it was almost all air and had little flavor. A big letdown. My Grey Stuff recipe would use Oreo cream with some Oreo cookie crumbs blended in. DD had it as well and had the same reaction. More on the Grey Stuff on the last day, so stay tuned.

After lunch it was back to the hotel for rest and laundry!

By now the Monorail was running, so we got to take that back to the Poly.

Instead of going back to the parks tonight, we’d scheduled an evening at Disney Springs. DD & DS wanted to eat at Earl of Sandwich. Then I read that the Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire brand-new VR experience was opening. That sealed the plan.

While the rest of the crew rested, I volunteered to put our clothes in the laundry they have at the Poly and wait for them to finish washing so I could put them in the dryer before returning to the room. There were cartoons playing at the laundry and I brought a book to read. They were in the dryer around 3 PM. I went back up to the room and let everyone know we needed to leave the room by 4 PM to make sure could get to Disney Springs in time to make our 5:15 PM reservation time for the Star Wars VR experience.

By 4:15 we were on our way to Disney Springs. What a difference from the last time we were there. It looks like a regular outdoor shopping mall! I’m not impressed.

Since the VR experience was so new it isn’t on any of the maps we could find before our trip. We asked a CM for directions where were somewhat vague. It’s far away from the bus drop-off in the Marketplace Area. Eventually we found it in plenty of time. We filled out our release forms and queued up to get in. We had a group of four, which is ideal since it is set up for four people at a time.

The pre-show builds the excitement. After a brief technical hiccup, we were gearing up for our turn. The equipment goes on pretty easily. I was pleasantly surprised how clear the test VR looked since I wear glasses.

We flipped up our visors and headed into the loading room. The operator told us to each stand in a corner and flip down our visor. I’m not going to spoil the rest of the experience, but I started laughing out loud when I saw what everyone looked like.

We worked well as a team even though we had no idea what was going to happen. I had a few clues since I’d seen the trailer, but I’d avoided reading any detailed reviews.

If you are a Star Wars fan, you should definitely do this. I would try this mission again because I’m sure we’d work together more effectively next time. I also hope that they’ll release new missions going forward.

By now we were getting hungry, so we went over to Earl of Sandwich. I’d scored a coupon in one of their contests a few weeks ago and it was expiring soon, so this visit was perfect. I usually get the Original 1762 sandwich, but this time I tried the Full Montagu. I like mustard and that comes with mustard sauce, plus it has some veggies. It was very yummy. It will be a tough choice in the future between that and the Original.

I tried paying with my MagicBand, but it wanted a PIN number that I either didn’t remember or never set up. So I just used my credit card.

After dinner we did a little shopping at World of Disney. I found some Mickey Pancake rings I’d been thinking about getting for a while and a Goofy knit cap complete with ears. Goofy is my favorite Fab-Five character. It came in handy since it was very cold for the rest of the trip. I got a number of compliments while wearing it in the parks.

DD & DS were tired and headed back to the room. DW & I went to Ghirardelli for dessert. The Master’s cupcake was so disappointing that I no longer considered it my dessert for the day. We split the Chrissy Field Sundae, which is super yummy. We’d had it once before in Hollywood at the El Capitan Theater on the “Behind the Magic” Adventures by Disney Tour a couple of years ago. One of the perks of the tour is that you could order anything you want at the Ghirardelli Shop!

We waited quite a while for a bus. It is a long ride from Disney Springs to the Poly. I don’t think I’d go there again if I was staying at the Magic Kingdom Resorts unless we were going into the parks at all that day. Another option might be Uber/Lyft or a Minnie Van. They should be faster than waiting for the bus.

I set up a wake-up call for 5:30 again. Tomorrow was another 7AM park opening (fortunately the last one of the trip!).

 

[BetaCygni]

Sunday (12/31/17) – New Year’s Eve!
The wake-up call was from Mickey. I never heard it since DD was closest to the phone. Last time we stayed at the Poly it was Stitch, because the Lilo and Stitch movie had come out a couple of years before. It was very strange getting a wake-up call from Stitch I can tell you! A-BABA!

We wanted to ring in the New Year at EPCOT. So today’s schedule was oriented around that. We also wanted to ride the new Pandora rides, especially Flight of Passage. AK had an early entry time of 7:00 AM. It made sense to head there for those two rides, park hop over to EPCOT for some FP+, take a break, and come back for dinner and the night at EPCOT.

The buses to AK start 45 minutes before park opening. We got the bus stop right at 6:15 AM and the AK bus rolled up less than a minute later. After about 30 minutes, we exited the bus and power-walked to the entrance, got through security and headed left like everyone else.

I decided to do the Na’vi River Journey first and then ride Flight of Passage. I wanted us to experience the FoP queue at a reasonable pace. Later in the week we planned on riding it again with a FP+ and bypassing the queue. According to our touring plan for AK, we should have a 5-minute wait to get on the Na’vi River Journey and then about 45 minutes on FoP.

Almost everyone was headed for FoP, so we walked on the boat ride. It was better than I expected after reading the reviews and even seeing some of the ride video. In person, the projection effects looked very realistic. It also didn’t seem short to me. It was totally engrossing with so much to see. As everyone has reported, the AA figure at the end is spectacular. As part of our preparation for the trip we’d watched the original Avatar movie to refresh our memory of the characters. I think that was worthwhile. The special effects in the movie still hold up well after eight years.

After that we headed over to the end of the FoP line, which by then had extended to almost all the way to the Festival of the Lion King theater. There was grumbling in the crew about how we were going to spend 2 hours in line and we should have gotten into this line first. I said the that the Touring Plans software was predicting a 54-minute wait at this point. Disney didn’t offer a prediction at the end of the line, so I don’t know what was posted. In any case, I told everyone, or original touring plan for today assumed that AK opened at 8 AM, so our FP+ times at EPCOT were still fine even if we waited an hour longer than planned. We were only here this early because Disney added an extra magic hour for AK this morning after our FP+ times were set.

The line moved in spurts, but once we got close to the Pandora rockwork it moved briskly for a while. I assume they opened up more of the internal queue. At that point, the wait was not boring because we could marvel at the floating mountains, the waterfalls, and the plants that surrounded us. Once we got inside, we moved slowly but steadily. We had plenty of time to view all the lab equipment, including some surprises.

Soon we were put into a queue for one of the show buildings (there are four) and our real adventure began. Flying on a banshee was one of the most magical experiences I’ve had. The 3-D was perfectly clear even with my glasses. I really felt like I was flying. It’s a complete home run by the Imagineers and easily the best theme park ride I’ve ever been on.

We only waited 55 minutes. Not a bad prediction by the TouringPlans app. And the time in the queue really added to the overall experience. It is definitely worth doing the river ride first so you get to see the queue for Flights of Passage.

After our brief visit to Pandora, we sped out of the park to the bus stops. Because it was New Year’s Eve, there was a special bus that would take riders wherever they wanted to go. Score! I’d read on the Disney Tourist Blog’s website that the best way to get from AK to EPCOT is go to the Yacht/Beach Club hotel and walk to EPCOT through the International Gateway. That worked perfectly. It turned out that was the first stop for the special bus. We went through security and got the rope line around 8:45 AM (15 minutes before EPCOT opened).

Our first attraction was Living with the Land. It is always interesting to see how they grow the plants as you cruise along in the boat. This time, they had examples of aquaculture (fish) mixing with agriculture that I don’t remember the last time we were here.

Our next ride was Test Track, but our FP+ window wasn’t until 10:00 AM. We had enough time to get a PhotoPass picture in front of Spaceship: Earth holding up a 2018 sign. The others went on to do some shopping in MouseGear while I got my picture taken with a topiary of Goofy.

We all found something to buy in MouseGear. I spotted an EPCOT blanket that had flags of all the countries in World Showcase. Since I forgot to pack our seat cushions for waiting for fireworks, I figured it would make a good cushion for the trip and a great souvenir for home. Double! I decided to buy it later so I wouldn’t have to carry it around all day.

By then our FP+ window had opened, and we zoomed onto Test Track. This was our first time seeing the revised ride. It was a lot of fun in a different way. DS & DW teamed up to design a car and DD & I designed another one. We went for Speed & Power all the way!

The ride is fun, especially the outside portion. There were the four of us and another mother and her son in our car. The son was sitting up in the front with DD & me. He was about 7 years old and needed some help with his seatbelt. He was super excited about the ride. “We’re going to go FAST!” he said.

DD’s and my car was the highest-rated in our group, beating DS & DW’s car by one point: 94-93. Whoo Hoo!

We headed for the Mexico Pavilion to see the Coco exhibit (Coco is my favorite Pixar movie after The Incredibles) and ride the Three Caballeros boat ride. Donald Duck is always funny.

We backtracked over to Mission: Space. I got a photo with a geocaching Travel Bug called “Disney World or Bust!” that I’d picked up back home. It is a Lego piece that I spotted in one of the caches I’d found. When I saw its name, I knew I had to grab it and take to Walt Disney World! It finally made it after four years of travelling, starting in Ohio.

Here it is with a Lego Mickey and another Travel Bug called “The Golden Minifigure”.


We had a FP+ for the Orange side of Mission:Space. Another first for us was the new pre-show featuring Gina Torres from one of our favorite TV shows: Firefly. We’d all forgotten how many G’s you feel on the ride, but it was very interesting to struggle to move your hand to hit your. After it was over, we all agreed that it might be the last time we do the Orange side. I’d hoped to do the Green side (completely new) later, but we never had time. Oh well, something for next time.

It was time for lunch. We’d picked Sunshine Seasons since everyone could get what they wanted. We wanted to rest in the shade after our trip to space so we found a bench nearby. This was our first use of mobile ordering. We entered the order while sitting outside and then headed for the Land pavilion. As we walked up the ramp I tapped the “we are here” button. The group seating area inside was pretty crowded, but we found a table. It took a little while to figure out where the pickup window was, but DS and I grabbed the food and soon we were eating lunch. I got the Chicken Caesar Salad and it was good.

After lunch we had our last FP+ for Spaceship: Earth at 12:30 PM. This was the first time we’ve seen the revised show, and we all enjoyed it. A nice relaxing attraction after our lunch.

The original plan was to stay in the park all day and watch all the movies in the pavilions. I’d read before the trip that some parks (mostly MK) can close to guests on NYE and I didn’t want to get shut out. After some consideration, it made a lot more sense to go back to the hotel at this point to rest before our dinner reservation at Restaurant Marrakesh for 6:30 PM. EPCOT is so big that I found it hard to imagine it closing. We were also resort guests and had an ADR, so I was sure we could return later.

It all worked out fine. We had a nice shower and rest. I headed back first. I wanted to see the Grand Floridian’s Christmas Decorations and buy something at the Gingerbread shop in the lobby. I’d seen pictures of the shop over the years and I was anxious to see it in person. Somehow I’d convinced myself that customers could go inside, but instead there were cast members selling goods from a window on one side. They had a special: 2 mickey gingerbread cookies for the price of one. I got those and saved one to give to our neighbors and the other for a late-night snack tonight. There was a PhotoPass photographer taking pictures of people in front of the house, so I stood in line for that, and then I was back on the monorail to the TTC.

I switched to the EPCOT line at the TTC and then was surprised that I had to go back through security at EPCOT even though I hadn’t left the security bubble. I guess there are some weak points somewhere and they are being extra careful.

I had some time before our dinner reservation, so I went to the Disney Visa character meet and great over by the Imagination Pavilion. There were only a few people in line, but it took quite a while to get into the photo area. To my surprise, Mickey and GOOFY were there. Goofy immediately noticed my Goofy knit cap and started gesturing wildly. I got a fun picture with the two of them.

Then I headed for MouseGear and bought the EPCOT blanket I’d spotted earlier. After that I texted everyone that I was going to Morocco, and we met up there about 5:45 PM. I checked in and we waited outside until we were seated right around 6:30 PM.

Our server was very nice. I ordered the Roast Lamb Meshoui which was yummy and a Moroccan Sunrise to drink.

Just before 7PM, just as I’d planned, they announced that would soon be 2018 in Morocco time! The cast members sang, danced, and celebrated. A magical experience.

After dinner we planned the rest of the evening. DD, DS, and I wanted to watch the fireworks by Norway, since we were planning to hop on the Frozen Ever After ride afterward. Frozen is one of DD’s favorite movies, so this was a must do for her.

We decided to see all the pavilion movies between Morocco and Norway. We started in Canada. This was a new (for us) circle vision movie with Martin Short and was very funny.

Next up was France. That movie hasn’t changed, but now they introduce it as a nostalgic look at France.

There is no show or movie in Japan, so we did some window shopping.

We decided to skip the American Adventure since we’d seen it twice before on previous trips.

We skipped Italy because I wanted to hurry over to Germany and get my dessert for the day: a Mickey Rice Krispy Treat with caramel at Karamell-Kuche! It was good as I’d read about on the Disney Food Blog!

Next stop: China. We noticed a number of people lounging in the waiting area for the movie. It was pretty empty. Another circle vision movie that keeps you looking in all directions. Someday I hope to go on the Adventures by Disney tour to China and see all those sights, as well as Hong Kong & Shanghai Disneyland! Speaking of Shanghai Disneyland, they had an exhibit in the pavilion with some models and photos that kept us occupied for a while.

It was around 10:30 PM now. DW decided she’d had enough and went back to the hotel. The rest of us huddled in the Norway area trying to keep warm. I pulled out my gingerbread mickey from the Grand Floridian. It was a little stale which I guess is why it was 2 for 1. The gingerbread was okay, but the best part was the chocolate covered ears.

Eventually we got a place to sit down, but soon thereafter it was close to 11:30 PM. Everyone was heading to the water to see Illuminations followed by the NYE fireworks. We got pretty good spots behind some strollers and watched Illuminations from the side for the first time (the last time we were in Italy). The show is nice with good music. Right after, the NYE fireworks went off. It just got louder and louder until people started counting down and then there was the largest concentration of fireworks I’ve ever seen in my life! Totally worth staying up late!!

I’d already decided that I was too tired to wait around for the Frozen ride. But DD & DS got right in line and only waited 15 minutes or so. They both enjoyed it.

The Frozen ride will still be there the next time I’m here, so I’ll see it then. Maybe it will be easier to get on then, or I’ll get a FP+.

I headed for the park entrance and just went with the crowd, which was dumb. I should have taken the bypass route from World Showcase (I blame it on lack of sleep ), but we shuffled along until we got to the Communicore and things spread out. I exited and went up to the monorail platform. A train was waiting, and the CM said “Keep going and you can make it!” I got on and was able to find a seat.

The plan for tomorrow was originally to go to AK for the morning and then park hop to the Studios for the afternoon and evening with no break. AK opened at 8 AM the next morning. I realized that was crazy, so I adjusted the plan to go back to EPCOT at 9am to ride Soarin’, Then we would park-hop to the Studios. Everyone got an extra hour of sleep. It also changed the following day’s plan.

RECAP: A really fun day starting off with the new Avatar rides and culminating with NYE’s fireworks at EPCOT. Lots of laughs, excitement, and wonderful family memories along the way.

Before the trip, I’d read that just moving from one part of EPCOT to another on NYE is a huge accomplishment. I would say it was very crowded but not overwhelmingly so. It only felt really jammed up while I was leaving.

 

[BetaCygni]

Monday (1/1/18) – Happy New Year!
Hello 2018!

Originally this morning we were getting up at 6:30 AM to catch the 7:15 bus to AK which opens at 8 AM. When I was making the plan a few months ago, I concentrated on the earliest opening park on each day, figuring that others wouldn’t want to get up as early as we would. Normally that’s true, but today, we were part of the “other” group.

So instead we rode the monorail to EPCOT around 8:20 AM. We walked to the TTC from our room (a great perk for staying at the Poly) and hopped on. We got the entrance about 15 minutes before the park opened.

It was raining, so we all brought our rain gear.

The Jammitors were entertaining the crowd while we waited. At rope drop, we power-walked to Soarin’ and boarded with only a 10-minute wait. We got in the center section, which made everything look great. We ooh’d and aah’d around the world at the all the beautiful sights. DD and I had ridden the new version at DCA earlier this year, but that time we were along the edge and noticed some of the pin cushioning effect I’ve read about.

We all liked the new version, but I wish they showed the original at DCA at least some of the time.

That was it for EPCOT. Soarin’ was the last major ride we hadn’t done at EPCOT, so it was time to park hop to DHS. We exited the park at the international gateway and there was a boat waiting for us. They warned us it would take 30 minutes to get to DHS since we’d be stopping at all the hotels, but we didn’t mind. It would take about that long to walk, we weren’t in a hurry, and we’d never ridden the boat all the way from EPCOT to DHS before.

There were two rides at DHS that were not part of the schedule because it was unclear exactly when we’d be able to ride them: Rock-n-Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. We thought that it would be more fun to ride Tower of Terror at night, so we headed for Rock-n-Roller Coaster this morning upon entering. Unfortunately, it was down, so we switched to ToT. The posted wait time was 45 minutes, but it only took us about 30 minutes to get to the area in front of the elevators.

Apparently there was a problem with our elevator car (we never found out what), so the group before us unloaded and went to the elevator next door. The CM cycled our elevator and when the doors opened again, he ushered us in. It was a little disconcerting since we didn’t know what the problem was last time, but our trip to the Twilight Zone went off without a hitch and we all screamed as we rocketed up and down over and over. My stomach wasn’t too happy, but I didn’t feel as bad as I did after Mission:Space.

Since DD and I had been on Mission:Breakout at DCA, it was interesting to compare the two. We both really liked the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. Perhaps because of the ride profile or the super-realistic looking movies, my stomach wasn’t bothered at all by the Guardians ride. I’m really glad the original ToT in FL has stayed the same. It is now a classic Disney attraction with storytelling at its best. We got a pretty good ride photo. When I got home I downloaded it with a ToT border and modified it to be black and white in the spirit of the ride.

Rock-n-Roller Coaster was open now, but had over an hour standby time, so that was out. We headed up Sunset Boulevard back towards the Chinese Theater. The 10:00 AM March of the First Order up Hollywood Blvd was about to begin. I knew that right afterwards would be a performance of Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away at the stage in front of the theater. I positioned us right at the corner of Sunset & Hollywood, figuring the First Order would march right by us. Alas, Captain Phasma got some intel that there was a rebel patrol in the area and they turned around about 2/3 of the way up Hollywood Blvd. We could see them, but it wasn’t as cool as watching them march by.

Disappointed, we turned to the stage and got a front row spot for the 10:30 AM Star Wars stage show. We waited and waited. Techs came out and tested the surface to see how slippery it was with the rain. At about 10:35 they announced that the show had been cancelled.

DD was very disappointed. She’d been really looking forward to the show. Me too. We did a little bit of shopping and then headed to Fairfax Faire for lunch around 11:30 AM. We found a table under a roof and used mobile ordering again. I had the chili dog which was very yummy but enormous! It must have been a half pound hot dog! I could only eat a little over half of it and DD took a few bites. Definitely splittable.

After lunch it was still raining, so we headed for the Star Wars Launch Bay. We all got our pictures taken with Kylo Ren & BB-8. It was cool seeing all the props from the movies. I brought my 1” tall BB-8 die cast figure to show Kylo Ren, telling him that I found the droid he was looking for. They seem to have canned responses, so he couldn’t react directly. He said we’d better join the First Order or suffer the consequences-- and he pointed to my BB-8.

When I showed my mini BB-8 to BB-8 himself he got very excited with lots of beeps and boops!

When we exited, it was around 2:15. As we returned to the central plaza, it looked like they might put on the 2:30 performance of the Star Wars stage show. We waited in front again and the techs were scurrying around checking the surfaces like last time. The same guy who said the show was cancelled last time was wandering around in front of the stage with his earpiece.

This time the show went on! Disney Magic strikes again. It was a really exciting show with lots of characters, lots of movie clips, the great soundtrack, and some cool flame and steam effects.

We didn’t have time to wait around for March of the First Order again because it was time for our first FP+ of the day. DD has always wanted to be in the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. We’ve watched it each time we’ve come because it is very entertaining and a nice way to take a break for 30 minutes or so by sitting down under a roof.

We got a FP+ so we’d have a better chance to be close to the front and DD was more likely to be noticed. Today, with the rain, that plan was out the window. Many people were already in the stands. We were close to the end of the FP+ window because we’d stopped to watch the Star Wars stage show. So we did the best we could with a center seat about 2/3 of the way up.

She was wearing her Mickey Tie-Dye shirt, but of course that was covered up with her raincoat. I figured there was no way she’d get picked now, but when the director first called for volunteers, DD shot up in the air and screamed while she waved her arms. The casting director picked her right away!!!

Wow, we’ve been super lucky on the trip! Between DD and myself, we’ve been picked to be in three different shows (Harry Potter Wand Ceremony, Beauty and the Beast, and now the Indy Stunt Show).

DD was over the moon as she hurried down towards the stage and off to wardrobe. I’ll let her fill in the details…

DS here: After signing our livers away, Cheryl the casting director gave us instructions. My favorite quote from her was “Don’t feel the need to touch a stunt person. You will endanger their safety.” I got to be semi-featured in the show. I held a jar of dates and stood next to the acrobatic assassins for a bit. Then I had to run over with the rest of the group and react to all the action. I had a blast!

Because of the rain, they couldn’t do the outside portions of the show with the village and the airplane. They did do the bit with the fake volunteer getting hit by the stunt coordinator. The truck scene with the explosives didn’t work out. The director said “We’ll fix it in post.”

But none of that mattered because DD was having the time of her life on the stage of the Indiana Jones EPIC Stunt Spectacular!



Next up was our FP+ for Toy Story Midway Mania, a family favorite. We got lost on the way because of all the construction and ended up at the future entrance to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Again, it was “the kids” vs. the “the parents” and the kids won again. I came in behind DS for individual score. We always enjoy this attraction although my wrist gets tired at the end and I have to switch hands!

We had a little time before our third and final FP+ for Star Tours at 4:45 PM, so we split up for a while. I got a snack and did some shopping. I’d read about the carrot cake cookie at Sweet Spells on the Disney Food Blog. I went over there and after a few minutes I was munching on carrot cake and cream cheese frosting goodness! Later I wished I’d eaten half of it and saved the rest for later!

We met up outside Star Tours and it had started raining again. But they were still doing the Jedi Training Academy. That looks like a lot of fun. Too bad they didn’t start until DS & DD were too old. Maybe they’ll have an adult version when Galaxy’s Edge opens!

I knew what to expect with our Star Tours ride, but no one else had read anything about it. DD and I had gotten the Jar Jar Binks scene twice when we were at DL, so she was lamenting that we’d get him again. I knew that both locations were locked in and the final destination was a big surprise. We started on Jakku and then jumped to Crait from the Last Jedi movie (which we’d seen before we headed to FL). We ended up in a backwater trading post that no one else recognized but I knew was Batuu, the site of the new Galaxy’s Edge Star Wars Land! Super fun. I can hardly wait to visit.

We looked around the gift shop at the exit to the ride, but no one found anything they liked. Then it was time to head for the Sci-Fi Dine-In for our dinner reservation. I’d eaten there in 2006 when I came out for the WDW marathon, but no one else had eaten there before.

Everyone wanted to get out of the rain so there were no seats inside, but they had free popcorn. Our reservation was for 5:25 PM, but we weren’t seated until about 5:40 PM. I had the Classic American Burger that came with cheese and bacon and it was excellent.

We skipped dessert because we’d signed up for the Star Wars Dessert Party. This turned out to be a life-saver. It was cold, wet and windy outside, so it would have been miserable waiting for the show to begin.

There were no chairs at the dessert party, which was annoying since we’d been standing for most of the day. The desserts were okay, but not great I’d say. They had flash frozen Nutella which was interesting. I wandered around and accidently got my picture taken with Kylo Ren again. I brought out my BB-8 figure, but he didn’t really react this time. Then I went to get a picture with Chewbacca. I pulled out my BB-8 figure and he went wild. The CM wondered out loud what number BB unit that was since it was so small. I said it was BB-One-Half.

By the time I got out it was time to move to see the Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular Show. We were escorted by some Storm Troopers. As we exited we received a souvenir mug of Captain Phasma’s helmet. This is a cool mug. Much better than the Chewy Mug they used to give out. It was kind of creepy to lift the top of Chewy’s head up to drink something out of it. On the other hand, it seems fine to do it Captain Phasma’s helmet. Go figure.

We were led to an area just in front of the Chinese Theater that was roped off for us. We found a good spot in the middle behind some trash cans that were too high for little kids to look over.

We got a bonus pre-show I hadn’t read about called Disney Movie Magic. It consisted of clips from all their movies except Star Wars. The Pirates of the Caribbean segment was especially fun with fire effects. Then it was time for the main event. There were lots of cool laser and fireworks effects as they showed numerous clips from the movies projected onto the Chinese Theater and adjacent screens. Way too many to see it all.

We had a great spot and with the cold/wet/wind, the dessert party worked out great for us. We’d gotten lanyards when we checked in, but t hey didn’t collect them when we left, so I guess they are a souvenir.

Afterwards no one wanted to try and ride Rock-n-Roller coaster, so we headed back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep. We’ll save it for next time.

 

[BetaCygni]

Tuesday (1/2/18) – AK Day!
We originally planned to do all four parks in one day. We would go to DHS to ride Rock-n-Roller Coaster at rope drop, walk to EPCOT to ride Soarin’, then go to AK for the rest of the morning through lunch. We would ride the Carousel of Progress at MK after lunch. After a quick break, we would return to AK for the night.

In retrospect it was kind of a crazy plan. Being forced to reevaluate our ideas after staying up late on NYE meant we were more rested and could enjoy the rest of our vacation more. So I’m happy the way things turned out. DS was a little put out, saying he was looking forward to going to four parks in one day. I told him that can be his future quest.

So instead of splitting up AK over two days, we had a dedicated AK day. AK had an 8:00 AM opening and we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the 7:15 AM AK bus, so we woke up at 6:20 AM to give us a little slack. At least we had no more 5:30 AM wake-up days.

The plan as usual was to get there at rope drop, but this morning, instead of turning left to Pandora, we headed right to go to Expedition Everest (EE). We power walked through Dinoland since I’d read once it was shorter. At least it was less crowded.

EE was a walk-on and we sped through the queue. I was disappointed that the steam effect wasn’t working on the “engine” attached to the cars. This is a fun coaster. At the point where the tracks are ripped out, the bird didn’t appear over the top of the hill. Another disappointment. On the plus side, I got a great view of the stationary Yeti and a fun ride photo. On the minus side, the Yeti is stationary!


We backtracked to Dinosaur, which was another walk-on. Pandora was sucking all the people over to that end of the park even after being open for seven months! I can’t imagine what Galaxy’s Edge is going to do in 2019. I don’t enjoy Dinosaur as much as Indiana Jones at Disneyland (which uses the same track and vehicles), since so much of the Dinosaur ride is in the dark. Pretty good ride picture with DD covering her face and DW holding up her hat to block the view. DS is looking the other way and I’m just looking blankly in that direction. . A helpful CM took a family picture of us in front the T-Rex skeleton.


We crossed the park to get Kilimanjaro Safaris, which was a 10-minute wait. It was still a little cold out so some animals weren’t showing themselves (like the rhino). The male lion was sitting up on his heated rock, so that was cool. Other animals that were out were: hippos in the water, giraffes, watusi cattle, elands, hyenas, elephants, ostriches, and cheetahs (which is DD’s favorite African animal). We got a really good view of the cheetahs since they stopped the truck. There was one guest who kept standing up while the truck was moving and almost gave the driver a heart attack.


Note to self: don’t take video while the truck is moving, unless you bring a steady cam. Almost all of my video footage was worthless.

After the safari, DD got picked (along with a number of others) to dance along with the performers in Harambe. She had lots of fun. It was her third time being picked on this trip!

Then we walked the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail. It was too cold for the gorillas, but we saw them last time. In one of the buildings, we saw the naked mole rats. They were swarming over each other in their burrow trying to stay warm. (DD here: the naked mole rats were smaller than we thought. I overheard one guy say “Kim Possible lied to us.”) We also saw some zebras and meerkats which of course were cute!

It was too cold for the fruit bats (we also saw them last time), but many of the birds were flying around in the aviary section. DS really enjoyed this part.

We ended up spending more time than we planned on the Gorilla Falls Trail. By the time we realized it, it was already 9:45 AM. We rushed over to try and catch the 10:00 AM showing of The Festival of the Lion King. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the standby line was already so long that they said it was unlikely we’d get in.

We switched gears. I rushed over to the Tree of Life for It’s Tough to Be a Bug while everyone else did some shopping. I couldn’t use my FP+ for 11 AM yet, so I got in the standby line and we flowed into the theater. The show was even funnier than I remembered. There was one effect at the end that I’d forgotten about that really cracked me up (not the one where you get poked in the back which I definitely remembered!).

As I exited the show, I noticed some insistent texting from DS saying they are already in line for the 11:00 AM Lion King show. So I rushed over there and snuck into line with them. As we entered there were no obvious spots to go to, but then an usher told us to go to the reserved row since it was empty. Nice! The show was great as usual (we’ve seen it twice before): great music, singing, and high energy performances. We were in the Lion group, so we got to “work on our ROAR!”.

After that it was time for lunch. We used mobile ordering for Flame Tree BBQ. As recommended by the Disney Food Blog (see a pattern here? ), I ordered the Baked Mac & Cheese with Pulled pork, which was yummy. I love Key Lime Pie, so I ordered the Lime mousse. That was just okay, nothing to brag about. To drink I ordered the Mandarin Orange Lemonade, which was great.

After lunch we headed over the Maharaja Jungle Trek. I’d read that baby tigers had been born a few months ago and we were in luck since they were out in the tiger area! It was great fun watching them romp around together.

The original plan after this was to take the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. We’ve never done this because it seems like it is not worth the effort. It proved again to be not worth it to any of us. Maybe they’ll turn it into a Zootopia land (a rumor I’ve heard) the next time we come; we loved that movie!

Instead, DS and I headed back to the hotel to take a shower and rest. DW did some shopping before going back for a break. DD stayed to watch Finding Nemo: The Musical, which she loved.

I’d been hoping to go to the Poly pool this week, but it was just too cold and rainy. I doubt we’ll stay at the Poly again any time soon, so that was a disappointment. I drowned my sorrows in a Dole Whip at Pineapple Lanai.

After our rest, we headed back on the bus to AK and arrived around 5 PM. We headed over to Pandora to have dinner at Satu’li Canteen. There was a sign up where you had to wait to get into Pandora, but that wasn’t required this time of day. Many more people were streaming out than were going in.

All of us were looking forward to Satu’li’s unique offerings. We used mobile ordering again and had our food in a jiffy. They wouldn’t let us grab a table (our usual method) before we had our food, which was annoying. There were no inside tables, so we found one outside under a heater.

I ordered the Chopped Wood-Grilled Chicken Bowl with mixed whole grains & rice for a base and creamy herb sauce. Wow! It was excellent!!! Really a great combination of flavors. To drink I got the Pandoran Sunrise which was very refreshing, and for dessert I got Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse. The Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse was a great way to top off the meal. It was much better than the Lime Mousse I had at the Flame Tree BBQ for lunch today.


After dinner we walked slowly over to Asia for the 6:30 PM Rivers of Light Show. I got us FP+ for this show (which we probably didn’t need), but it was nice to be able to sit down right away since we spent many hours today standing and walking. On the way over we stopped for a picture of DW & me with Everest in the background.

The Rivers of Light show was beautiful and the projections of animals on the trees in the background were unexpected and fascinating. But overall I’d give a C+. They have a terrific venue with the stadium seating so I’m sure they’ll come up with something great eventually. The same thing happened at DCA at the Disneyland Resort. It took them a couple of tries before they came up with World of Color.

After the show it was time for FP+ for Avatar: Flights of Passage. DW decided she didn’t want to ride again, so she headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately, this time DD and I had trouble with the 3-D effect. I think we were positioned on the far edge of the screen whereas the last time, we were right in the middle. So it wasn’t as magical this time. But it is still the greatest theme park ride I’ve ever been on.

From what I’ve heard, it will only hold that title for a couple of years until the Star Wars rides open in 2019. The big question will be: how long can I wait before I have to go to DL and experience Batuu??? My current plan is to go at Halloween time in 2019. The land should have been open at least 3 or 4 months by then. Plus I’ve never seen any of the Holiday overlays at DL before, so that will be fun. DW said it would be fun to go trick-or-treating in DL, so we’ll see if she wants to go too.

After the ride, DS & DD went back to the hotel after a cursory look through the gift shop. I wanted to get an Alpha Centauri Expeditions t-shirt since I think their logo is cool. They only had one shirt, but I liked the design, so I got that. I spent time looking at all the other items in the shop. Eventually I decided to make DW a necklace. It took a while to find the combinations of pieces I wanted, but eventually I got something I liked. It has a green stone in the middle (her favorite color), with blue and white beads, green stone, and wooden pieces symmetrically arranged on either side of the central stone. That brought my total to over $50, so I got 10% off with my Disney Visa Card. Score!

When I left the park, it was after closing time. As I walked slowly through Pandora I let the soundscape wash over me and I marveled at the bioluminescent plants. At the entrance to the land there is a large plant arching over from the right and it has some exposed sections that glow. I’d noticed someone else touching the pink exposed area, so I went up and tried it. The plant started vibrating like a beating heart and the pink area glowed. It was a magical way to end my visit to Pandora. Apparently it also puts out steam, which I couldn’t see at night.

I’ve since learned there are other interactive plants in the land that I’ll have to try next time.

We all wanted a good night’s sleep tonight because tomorrow was our last day. DD put this note on the touring plan for tomorrow: “Go Big or Go Home!”.

 

[BetaCygni]

Wednesday (1/3/18) – MK Day! Last Park Day! Go Big or Go Home!
MK park hours were 8 AM to 2 AM the next day! As usual, we got up early and had breakfast in the room. We got on the monorail at 7:30 AM.


We started out in Tomorrowland. The touring plan said to ride Buzz Lightyear first, but we decided to go for Space Mountain, figuring the line will only get longer. Unfortunately, we got the same side (Alpha) as last time. It was so early in the morning that only one side was running again. I guess I should have figured that out. This time I was ready for the head snapping and scrunched my head down in between my shoulders. I’m anxious to ride Disneyland’s version again, but I’m not in any hurry to ride this one again until they refurbish it. I definitely won’t schedule 2 rides on it next time.

It was raining, but the next on the list was the Astro Orbiter. I was surprised it was running. I think the CM was surprised that we wanted to ride it! There was only one other person besides the four of us. There were about 2 inches of water in the bottom of the rockets (why don’t they have a drain hole?), so it was hard not to get your shoes wet. We had fun anyway. This ride is better at night, but I never got around to riding it again. Also when you are an adult and you run the rocket all the way to the top, you are tipping pretty far over the side because the momentum isn’t enough to keep you to the outside; this makes it a little bit scary! The one at WDW is much better than the one at DL since you are way up high instead of on the ground like another version of Dumbo. I want DL to revive the Peoplemover and put the rocket jets back up on top of the building. We can only hope.


We went back toward the hub to ride Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. I like to schedule two rides of the competition attractions (like this and Toy Story Midway mania) if possible so you can have a chance to redeem yourself. This time DW didn’t get 999,999 and DS took the crown (as usual ). I can hardly wait until the next time I ride this (likely at DL) and I know I can just keep my thumb mashed down on the button!

The Mad Tea Party was next. When DS & DD were little we used to all fit in one teacup, but no more . DW and I shared a cup and DD & DS took another. We spun and spun and laughed and laughed as we went around. This was under a roof, so we didn’t get wet, which probably added to the happiness.

No such luck on our next ride: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We’d been excited to ride this ever since we heard about it. It is a really cool terrain coaster with some magical special effects at the end. The side to side rocking motion just makes it more fun. We zoomed through the FP+ line and got in our car. DD & DS were in the front row and we were right behind them. We quickly zipped up our raincoats as soon as we went outside. It was raining hard! DD was filming it with her phone anyway, but DW and I cowered under the hoods of our raincoats. I did manage to raise my hands on the drop. They put in a really fun pause before the drop and that makes the ride special. You aren’t sure how much you are going to drop, and then you glide down smoothly into the next turn.] A great ride all around.

Hopefully this type of coaster will come to DL in the next redo of Fantasyland (which I hear is coming just after Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens to take some pressure off that part of the park). Disney wants to start minting money in CA with a “Be Our Guest” restaurant like the one in FL. The latest rumor I heard that seems credible is that a Frozen and Beauty and the Beast area will take over the Wonderland theater and Toontown. The Frozen ride at ECPOT would likely be replicated, but they could apply a Beauty and the Beast theme to the mine train ride I’m sure. This all sounds great except they have to figure out where Mickey, Minnie and his pals are going to live. Tomorrowland at DL gets the short end of the stick again.

Soon after we finished Mine Train we got a notification on the MyDisneyExperience app saying that the ride was closed and if you didn’t use your FP+ you could use it anytime the rest of the day. That didn’t apply to us, but I’m sure it made the lines a lot longer the rest of the day. Another reason not to go during the winter: rides are more likely to be down due to weather.

Across the park to Pirates of the Caribbean next. This one is inferior to DL, but we enjoy it anyway. It is my favorite ride and DS really likes it too, which is why we rode it a second time on the trip. DW & DD like it too, but not as much as us. At least it was inside so we could avoid the rain.

By the time we exited, the rain had let up a bit. We had a FP+ for Big Thunder Mountain. This is DW’s favorite ride at the MK and we all like it a lot, so everyone was glad we were riding it again.

We wanted to go to Country Bear Jamboree next, but for some reason it wasn’t opening on time this morning. We did some reconnaissance and found out that the Tiki Room was open. This one is shorter than the DL one, but at least they got rid of the dumb “Under New Management” junk. It rained (like it always does in the Tiki room) but we didn’t get wet.


Country Bear still wasn’t quite open yet so DS & DW did some shopping while DD & I got our picture taken with Jasmine and Aladdin. That was fun. Jasmine almost messed up and said that her tiger doesn’t like the rain (tigers can swim), but quickly caught herself.


DD was really interested in seeing Country Bears since it is a classic Disney attraction. We saw it in DL when she was little, but she doesn’t remember. We both thought this version was very tired and not that much fun. I remember the DL version (before it went away) having much better songs and being funnier overall. I’ll have to watch a video of each to compare. It may be that the DL version had “Ghost Riders in the Sky” which is one of my favorite songs!

We went back to Fantasyland to see the Mickey’s PhillarMagic movie. That is always a lot of fun since Donald tries to take over and wacky things happen. Plus it was inside!

It was time for lunch, so we used mobile ordering for Columbia Harbour House. Most guides (and the Disney Food Blog! ) rate this restaurant very high for lunch. We put in our order, but it never showed up at the pickup window. I think it got lost in the system. We had to show them our order on the app and eventually they gave us our food, but it took 45 minutes. Big fail for mobile ordering. The food was okay, but nothing special. I’d go somewhere else next time. DD liked the shrimp mac and cheese.

We had one more FP+ for the day, which was Splash Mountain. No one else wanted to go, so only I went on it. Everyone else headed back to the room for a break.

Because of the rain, I didn’t need a FP+; it was a walk-on. I didn’t stop walking until I got into a log. This is one of my favorite rides because I love the story of Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox. Plus the music is a lot of fun. I didn’t get wet from the ride (they must have had the splash at the end dialed down). It wasn’t really raining at that point, it was just misting.

We all wanted to see the Jingle Cruise and agreed that the ride is more fun at night, so I looked for a FP+ for later that night. I was lucky to score one at 8:50-9:50, after the fireworks.

I could have used a break too, but I wanted to see the Festival of Fantasy parade with the steampunk fire-breathing Maleficent dragon. That began at 3 PM, so I had about 90 minutes to kill.

By this time it had stopped raining and the sun came out. Yay!

First I was going to ride the train from Frontierland to Fantasyland, but I just missed it and they only come every 20 minutes (I think the DL trains come more often than that. Maybe they only had one train running because of the rain). So I walked to Tomorrowland and rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which is one of my favorite attractions (I’m still mad they got rid of the PeopleMover at DL!) I was lucky because just as I returned to the station, the ride shut down. I was able to just get out of my car and walk to the exit while others were stuck until it got going again.

I wanted to ride the train, so I walked to the Fantasyland station and waited about 10 minutes. The last time I rode the train here (may have been 2004), the area between the Fantasyland station and Main Street wasn’t themed (you could see the backstage area). I thought it was really bad show, especially since the DL train has so much to look at during each segment. They must have redone this area in the meantime because I didn’t notice an un-themed area this time. I got a good view of where the Tron Coaster is going for the 50th anniversary of the MK in 2021. There is plenty of room back there. I’m definitely not coming back to WDW until all the 50th anniversary stuff is done. It will be great then.

I was pretty tired, but luckily I found a bench to sit on in front of city hall where I could wait for the parade. The Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Street Party came by which was high energy and fun. But I was low energy

The Festival of Fantasy parade ends at Town Square, so it took about 15 minutes for me to hear the music. Then I stood up and used my usual technique of trying to stand behind someone with a stroller because they’ll invariably kneel down to interact with their child during the parade. Worked again!

The parade floats and the performers were all great. The dragon exceeded my expectations (I’d only seen photos). I figured out when it was going to shoot fire and it did it right in front of me and I got a great photo.


NOTE: A few months later, the dragon malfunctioned and caught on fire! I’m glad I saw it when I did, because who knows when it will be back online.

I was glad I waited for the parade, but now all I wanted to do was go back to the room and take a nap. I exited the park and took the resort monorail back to the room. Everyone else was resting or taking a shower. I took a nap until 5:30. Everyone else had already gone back to the parks. I took a quick shower and rode the monorail to MK to join them for the big finale of our trip!

I put on my eyeshades and put in my earplugs and set a wakeup call for 5:30 PM and my alarm for the same. I have a vague recollection of everyone else leaving for the parks while I was resting, but I drifted off to sleep.

The wake-up call never came for some reason, but luckily I heard my alarm even with my earplugs in. I took a quick shower and headed for the monorail to ride to the MK for the big finale of our trip!

As I was walking up Main Street I finally noticed a text from DS saying they were at the Skipper Canteen for our dinner reservation. They wanted to make sure I was awake. I said I was steps away, and soon we were checked in. Our reservation was for 6:20 PM, but it took a while to be seated. I ordered Dr. Falls’ Signature Grilled Steak. It was delicious. I like mango, so I ordered the Punch Line Punch. Our server asked if I wanted to get it in a souvenir cup. Originally I was going to say no, but I decided it would make a cool souvenir, so I went for it. I’m glad I did. It is sitting on my desk right now with the Captain Phasma mug we got from the Star Wars Dessert Part at DHS on top. They go together perfectly!


While we were waiting for our food, some of us read the titles of the books in the library as the guide books had recommended. They were hilarious. My favorite was “The Overwhelming Dodo Population”.


We skipped dessert because we’d scored a reservation for the Happily Ever After Fireworks Dessert Party.

The food and theming of the Skipper Canteen was great. I was disappointed our server didn’t crack any jokes like a Jungle Cruise Skipper. Maybe she was filling in? Anyway, bad show.

DD, DS, and I all wanted to go on the Carousel of Progress since it is a classic Disney ride. We rode this back in 2004, but of course they don’t remember it. DW wanted to get a photo in front of the castle of all of us, but the line was long and we didn’t have enough time. Also they would have had to use flash since it was dark outside, and we have a blinking problem in our family.

We got into the CoP with a short wait and spent the next 20 minutes (the CMs really emphasized how long the show was going to be I guess because people want to leave in the middle if they find it boring) traveling through time and technology. The last scene has been updated fairly recently and involves virtual reality and an oven that responds to voice commands. It was very clever if predictable. I like the song “Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”, so I had a lot of fun reliving my past visits to this attraction. and I liked the updated ending.

Then it was over to the Dessert Party at Tomorrowland Terrace. We checked in and got our wrist bands. I thought the desserts here were much better than the ones at the Star Wars dessert party. The best was the Oreo cookie with the Grey Stuff on top. It had the proper consistency. The Oreo flavor was really enhanced by the Gray Stuff mousse.


We’d gotten there about 15 minutes after it started, and people were already heading for the fireworks viewing area. After about 15 minutes we went back to the check-in desk and were escorted over to area of the hub that was roped off for us. It is one of the areas with AstroTurf, which was nice to sit on while we were waiting. There was a family of four with two small kids next to us who all had light up shoes. I hadn’t seen those for adults before. They looked good at night, and I guess made it easier to keep track of everyone.

The Happily Ever After fireworks were great, with spectacular projections on the castle complemented by the music and pyro.

After the show we swam through the crowd back to Adventureland and used our FP+ for the Jingle Cruise! This was one of my must do’s on this trip. They didn’t do the Christmas Overlay at the Jungle Cruise in DL this year, so I was glad we were here to see it. As we entered the queue, a cast member sang us a more ominous rendition of “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town:” “You better watch out!!!! You better watch out!!!!” Our skipper was great and made lots of fun jokes with a holiday twist. Best of all the sound quality was excellent. The last time I was at DL, I couldn’t hear what the skipper was saying because I think she had the microphone too close to her mouth and there was a lot of distortion.

At this point the schedule read:

Ride Till You Drop!

DW decided she’d had enough and went back to the room to sleep. DD & I wanted to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine train without the rain, so we got in the standby line. The official sign said a 120 minute wait, but the TouringPlans app said 64 minutes.

DS went off on his own at this point. He started with the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. It goes fast, so he had to bundle up since it was getting cold! He also rode the Astro Orbiter, his second ride of that today! Early in the morning and late at night. It is always better at night. He shifted to the other side of the park to ride a couple of his favorite rides: Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Back to DD and me. The line moved very slowly. When we got to the gem sorting screens, some kids didn’t want to leave so they had squeeze past after their parents finally convinced them to get back in line. A mother and her son were right in front of us and she brought a book to read, which was a good idea.

It was getting pretty cold at this point. Most of the queue is outside, which didn’t help. I was very glad I had my balaclava and my Goofy hat! DD had gloves which was a good idea.

It seemed a lot longer, but we actually waited 65 minutes. Not a bad prediction. The ride was a lot of fun at night and more enjoyable without the rain. I can see why it is so popular.

It was a fun father-daughter experience that hearkened back our first trip to DL when we rode Dumbo together more than once.


We split up at this point.

DD went off to ride one of her favorite rides: Peter Pan! Then it was back to the hotel.

I love the Autopia at DL and I wanted to ride the Indy Speedway here, so I got in line for that. It was about a 20-minute wait (posted as 30). The drive here is much shorter than at DL, so it isn’t as much fun, but I really enjoyed it at night. I had to keep backing off the accelerator because the car in front of me was slower or the driver wasn’t flooring it like I was!

I walked back to the hub with a really good feeling that this had been a great trip. I decided to get my picture taken in front of the lit-up castle. As soon as I got in line a got a tap on the shoulder and who could be there but DS! He noticed my Goofy hat and wondered how many people would be wearing one tonight. We got our picture taken together in front of the castle and again on Main Street with the Christmas Tree in the background.

It was a magical finish to a magical day of a magical trip at Walt Disney World!

We kept going to the monorail station and rode our last ride back to the Poly. I got in bed right around midnight.

 

[BetaCygni]

Thursday (1/4/18) –Last Day Until Next Time
I’d been looking forward to this breakfast since I started planning this trip. In 2004 when we stayed at the Poly I had the Tonga Toast and it was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had in my life. This time it was terrible. It was dry, not very sweet (last time the server warned me to try it before putting any syrup on), and had hardly any bananas in the middle. After I got back, I found that they changed the recipe a few years go (using a cheaper kind of bread). For the worse as everyone else has commented!

What a letdown. to an otherwise almost perfect trip. Oh well. It didn’t diminish my overall great feeling about this family vacation.

WDW had recently instituted a policy that you had to board the Disney Magical Express four hours before your flight. Apparently this was just for the holiday period, since they dropped it back to 3 hours soon after we got home. Our flight wasn’t until 1:05 PM, so we had plenty of time in the morning to sleep in a little, eat breakfast at the Kona Café, check out and get on our bus to the airport.

The best thing about the Magical Express is that you can check your bags at the hotel and get your boarding passes. Once you arrive at the airport, you can go right to the gate. That makes it curious why you have leave the resort 4 hours before since you don’t need that much time at the airport. Oh well.

On the plus side, since we were flying Southwest, I paid for early check-in. That way I didn’t have to worry about checking in for our flights yesterday while we were enjoying the parks. That was $60 well spent.

On the MASSIVE plus side, for some reason, we were all (even DS who is 20 years old and male) assigned to TSA Pre-Check on all our flights for this trip. That was a godsend. Or maybe I’ll just chalk it up to more Disney Magic.

We boarded the bus and had an easy trip to the airport, entertained by Disney cartoons and commercials.

The flight back through ATL to OAK was uneventful and our car was waiting for us at the airport to take us home. I wasn’t very tired (that came later) so I drove. It was nice to sleep in our beds that night.

Wrap-up
It was definitely a blast to see WDW with all the Christmas decorations up and especially the NYE fireworks at EPCOT. This was probably the best year to visit during the holidays since Disney announced so many upgrades at the D23 expo earlier in 2017 that I’m sure many people are waiting to until some or all of those (at least Star Wars Land!) are done.

However, I doubt I’ll ever go to WDW during the holiday season again. For one thing it was cold and rainy and we couldn’t use the pool, but the big reason is the crowds. Without young kids we don’t need to go during school breaks anymore.

All in all a great vacation from the worries of the world to the Second (after Disneyland of course!) Happiest Place on Earth.

Until next time…

 

[wmoon]

What a great trip report. We have just booked to go 12/24 to 1/4 so this has been very useful. Thanks

 

[BetaCygni]

What a great trip report. We have just booked to go 12/24 to 1/4 so this has been very useful. Thanks

Thanks! We had a lot of fun. Even with the holiday crowds, we were able to get a lot done with some careful planning (and getting up early! )
We aren't planning on going back to WDW until after the 50th anniversary when all the new stuff is done and SWL has been open a while.
We'll visit the Disneyland version of SWL next fall after it's been open a while.
Good luck with your trip!