Disney World Trip Report (Sept. 2022)

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Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Late Night on Main Street

Post by Jabroniville »

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The wall at the candy store.

LATE NIGHT ON MAIN STREET:
-At park closing, I never actually LEAVE the parks- there's few better chances for "Park Ambiance" than to hang out on Main Street after dark. NOTHING feels more "Disney" than this, to me- nothing in Fantasyland, Adventureland or Frontierland. Just lots of crowded streets and crowded shops as the people who waited all day to buy stuff finally invade the stores. I broke my 2021 routine, which was to go to the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor every single MK night. There, I got recognized the 4 times I did this by the staff, and it was a great "Magical CM Moment" kind of thing. This time around, I didn't see them- they might have gone or moved to other departments. I got a waffle-bowl once but generally ate elsewhere at this time.

Despite the great candy store being here, I almost never buy stuff from there- a lot of park snacks are a very bland kind of chocolate to me, and they just cake it over plainer materials to make the treats look larger. Yes I'm a candy snob, lol. I got something the first day, and I think cotton candy more than once, but that's about it. It's definitely one of the best-looking stores on property, though. The Emporium on the other side is one of the most epic Disney Stores ever, though, with the occasional bits of merch you'll only find here (oddly laid out and spread EVERYWHERE, so good luck finding it). There's a hat section (I went looking for the phone where you could hear conversations on Main Street, but never found it).

Sadly, one big chunk of Main Street was taken up by roadwork on the ground- this killed the "sounds of Main Street" section in that little alcove that usually had a stand or two, but mostly side entrances to other shops and a lot of ambient noise to make this look like a real place.

The "Disney Jail" YouTube video that recently dropped detailed what actually goes down in the upper sections here, which fascinates me. Various park VPs actually have their offices above these shops, while "Disney Jail" (just a few chairs and a desk with a computer) sits above the Gibson Girl- that's where they take thieves, drug-dealers and ruffians, giving them their lifetime bans and handing them over to the "real police".
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Day Three (Magic Kingdom)

Post by Jabroniville »

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DAY THREE (MAGIC KINGDOM):
-Another fifteen-hour park day after the previous one! Unfortunately, today I made the cardinal mistake of forgetting my sunscreen. And of course had to wait for parades and the Magical Friendship Faire repeatedly through the day, so I just BAKED on this one. Like a pure, agonizing Florida sun just killing you from directly overhead. I would have brought a hat, but I didn't feel like lugging one around, nor dealing with the tanlines that happen when you have no hair and have to wear one. In retrospect, I might as well just do it next time because this is murder, lol. "But Jabroniville" you ask, "Why didn't you just buy sunscreen at the park?" Well, see, I was a dope and didn't want to pay the exorbitant fee, plus carry it around all day, just in case it rained or got cloudy at points.

I again saw the Magical Friendship Faire repeatedly, which is probably why I mega-tanned (in the way a lobster is tanned) this day. Thankfully I avoided the worst of the peeling- it took a few days and was more flaky than full death.

Today the Mine Train got a huge line immediately (I was a trifle bit behind getting in the line), so I bailed and went to Peter Pan instead- despite being old and infamous for its own line, I do enjoy this more than almost anything in the park- no dark rides bring you THIS CLOSE to stuff- the twirling movements and going from scene to scene makes it feel more immersive and "alive" than any of the other rides, and it has that great scene of shooting over London's streets. I like looking over the edge of the boat to see the tiny moving lights to indicate moving cars.

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The neat castle decorations appearing all over on the projection platforms that are disguised as random castle bits in front of the big castle.

I tried to get a Lightning Lane pass for the Mine Train, but curiously found that Genie+ never worked for this ONCE- not during my entire trip in any park. Every single time, it would let me get all the way to trying to pay, then suddenly go "This has sold out" or whatever and make me go back to the beginning. The best theory Guest Relations could come up with was that I was on the park wifi... since I'm Canadian I couldn't just turn that off, so I was hooped. Thankfully a CM just gave me a free LL pass for this day for any attraction (at HS later I just paid for a Star Wars: ROTR one at the GR booth).

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Tomorrowland by the PeopleMover.

The PeopleMover is fun as always- some great views of the parks and a great "quality of life" thing- it's a huge people-eater and gobbles up crowds that would otherwise be clogging up other stuff. Disneyland has been cursing removing its PM ever since. The narrator's voice is ridiculously soothing... though it occurs to me the poor shop people and stuff beneath the speakers can hear the same comments being uttered EVERY TEN SECONDS OR SO, which has to be annoying. Imagine here "Except for actual stars. Those are no longer sold" that often.

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I don't remember the two horse guys.

So today I finally did many of the "things I'd missed last time" (two attempts at a COVID test in 2021 diminished my "afternoon time" in the parks), which included going to see the Country Bears show (it's kind of funny this is the only real thing involved on this one stretch of road on the way to Splash Mountain)- I actually missed the line that caused the host to say "Yes, folks, we only have high-class stuff on this show" and wanted to go back, but always had something else to do (... for the three additional days I was at this park. Yeah, I know). Turns out the line is "Mama, don’t whup little Buford/ Mama, don’t pound on his head/ Mama, don’t whup little Buford… I think you should shoot him instead."

I also did Tom Sawyer's Island and did the cave exploration, which... was fine. Though I THINK I went through all of it but it still felt a bit smaller than it was on past trips. Either they got rid of stuff or I'm just remembering wrong (or mixing it up with the Paris park's). I can't remember if they had that deep cavern or not this time around, or I missed it. I'm just big enough that I kept slamming into walls trying to get around :). The fort on the other side of the bridge has more stuff than I remembered (I only remembered the sleeping guard, not the horses and horsemen), but I was still checking around corners trying to see if I was missing anyting. It'd only been three years since I was here, but I still doubted myself at times. Around this time (it was near-closing time for the Island) I saw the back end of one of the Cavalcade parades that happen later in the day (more on those later).

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I caught one of the "Mickey Parades", which is just the Big Six (Mickey & friends, if you include Daisy).
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Be Our Guest Restaurant

Post by Jabroniville »

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The only decent picture of the interior I got- iPhones hate strong lighting.

BE OUR GUEST RESTAURANT:
-So 60 days before my trip, I checked the site and was surprised to see EVERY DAY of my trip had popped up, not just the immediate day ahead. Turns out your entire vacation's booking window opens up for every restaurant. No wonder people have issues booking these things if people with long vacations can book so far ahead. In my case, Cinderella's Royal Table AND this were both booked up all through supper! All they had was lunch, which to me wasn't QUITE ideal, but it's actually a kind of better thing for park travel, as you can get the heavy, time-consuming meal earlier when it's busier and then be more free for 6pm.

So BOG is my big go-to- I'd missed out in 2014 in favore of CRT, but every time thereafter I went here, as it's much nicer-looking and has better food. I remember not being too into the lamb that I had in 2019, and went with the filet mignon in 2021, but this time around I went with a weird pork cutlet thing, just to be different. But I STARTED with something truly weird... ESCARGOT.

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Yeah, I ate a plate full of snails (the server told me it was brand-new to the menu and they were hearing good things about it). I always wonder who the first dude was to be like "Hey, I wonder what THESE things taste like?" looking at this horrifying, wriggly gastropod. But it's snooty French food and this place mimics a snooty French place, so what the hey? I mean, it was the appetizer- what did I care if it sucked? But it turns out that escargot is mostly about the sauce (in this case, a very green "herbed-garlic butter") and the meat is just the delivery system for it. So I read a website on "how to eat escargot" rapidly like a total pleb and had at 'er- pretty good stuff! Wayyyyy crunchier than I expected- I was expecting more like a mushroom (a tactile experience I despite, hence me never trying escargot before), but it's solid food.

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Yes, those are PORK RINDS. On a meal that cost $65, lol.

The pork thing (pork tenderloin?) was interesting- it's 3-4 different ways of cooking pork, cut all small and fancy-like so you know you're in a class grub joint because they're little squares and someone probably measured this stuff. And it has PORK RINDS on it. Super-interesting! Like... fancy pork rinds, cuz they just fried up small bits of it at a time instead of giving you a bag of it. The dessert tray is different now- you no longer eat an effigy of Chip full of "the grey stuff"- you get a PILE of it in this chocolate-looking ring slab. Like, there's quite a bit of it.

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The Chip design is now one of those "discs". Plus there's a macaron "hamburger" and one of those "chocolate things with nuts on it" which I wasn't that taken by.

Also my drink was rad- a blue slush with a glowing "ice cube" that reflected lights through the drink! And I got to keep the cube! It was decked out with the Nautilus and other 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea stuff. I was the envy of every child who walked by my table and marveled at my $12 slushy drink, going "I want that!". Because nothing says Disney like eating like a five-year old with limitless money.

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The best pics of him I could get- I swear.

Another plus of this place: The BEAST comes to visit you! It was a meet & greet with PhotoPass in 2019, then he just kinda walked by once in a while last year, but this time he'll actually come up and greet you. All my pictures look like total butt since I can NOT figure out how to take pictures in here with an iPhone, much less of someone who's constantly moving, but he came up and I GOT TO SHAKE HIS PAW, YOU GUYS!!! Came right up to my table and looked me in the eye (probably the performer's forehead was pointing at me) and he shook my hand! When I was checking out the den (the dark room off to the side), trying to stay out of servers' ways, he actually came by again, noticed me, and put his paw on my shoulder in a "heya, man" kind of way, lol.

A primary issue with having lunch at a big restaurant is one I'd soon figure out... you miss a parade! And a Fantasy Faire or two! In fact, I actually left a bit earlier than I otherwise might have in order to catch the MFF again... though it was actually rather busy in the restaurant, to the point where I couldn't go up against the amazing "windows looking into the snowy courtyard", lest I disturb other diners. Too bad the tables are parked so close there. The side room was mostly empty and I took some pictures there (not that I didn't take a billion on my last two trips, of course...), and I checked out the Beast's Den as well. I'd kind of like to eat here at some point, though I don't know if they have single tables. And it's VERY packed in there, with a lot of servers bolting to available stations and moving trays around.

The only bad thing was I didn't see my old waiter- it was fun seeing him again in 2021 after my 2019 trip. Shorter Latino-looking guy.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Parades & Rain

Post by Jabroniville »

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I did catch at least one performance of the parade. And probably 3-4 Magical Friendship Faires, lol. Enough to memorize the choreography and thus know the perfect times to wave to characters to get them to wave back!

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This one is suspiciously good, but I swear it's actually off my phone camera, because I have the lamer pics surrounding it, lol.

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See? The surrounding pictures!

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I met Cinderella & Elena, probably twice each! And the Tiana & Rapunzel side, too.

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And look- a PETER PAN sighting! The only wandering character in all the Parks! I've never actually seen him before, which was weird. He didn't really have a line- he just kind of bolted around and engaged with kids.

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Almost a decent shot of the castle in the rain.

LATE NIGHT RAIN:
-So here the rain finally happened- and it POURED. Just flattening, pounding rain for a solid hour or so. Annoyingly, I couldn't find an outlet for my phone (my extra battery was already empty), and the families around me had gobbled up every available chair, so I had to eat my taco trio on a garbage can at Pecos Bill's. I moved around that and the adjacent Tortuga Tavern while the rain pounded down before finally getting sick of it and heading to I think the Fairytale Hall or something.

FIREWORKS (and the non-existant fairy):
This night was my second time seeing the fireworks show, and I wanted to see Tinker Bell come out of the castle... so of course it rained and rained and rained, lol. At first it merely delayed the show (though wouldn't cancel it- only if there's wind do they cancel it), but then about 9:17... it started up for 20 seconds and then the projections FROZE on the castle! Then they had to delay it again. A woman beside me, desperate to bring her friends over to her position (lifting an umbrella up and down to "signal" them in a crowded area) muttered that "this would be the perfect end to a terrible day" as I wonder who these people are that manage to have a crap time HERE of all places. A disappointment or two, sure, but like... LOOK at all this stuff!

Thankfully, the show started up again, and I had a GREAT position to view it, as the crowd had cleared out in the massive wait until it finally started after 9:30 at night... and I then realized that the projections look fuzzy and worse during the constant sprinkling rain, haha! Aaaaaaaaaaand then Tink didn't pop out at all near the end. Well, good thing it was a 15-hour park day, or I'd have been choked about blowing nearly an hour waiting around for all this. As it stood, it wasn't the BEST, but whatever.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Animal Kingdom

Post by Jabroniville »

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DAY FOUR (ANIMAL KINGDOM):
-So with my "Big Two" parks down, I set up for a day at Animal Kingdom! Granted, after two straight 15-hour days at Magic Kingdom I was like "UGH" about waking up at 6 in the freakin' morning and rope-dropping the Avatar ride, but the heck with it. Grabbed my energy drink and was off... rope-drop went off without a hitch, though I got on Flight of Passage so quickly I missed the floating Na'vi avatar floating in the room! The ride's still amazing, though. I got Genie+ again- not something I usually do at this park (which has only a few measly rides), but...

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An obvious highlight: seeing the rhino up THIS close.

I bolt for Kilimanjaro Safaris- experience taught me that one gets busy quickly and never lets up, and the WiFi over there cuts out so the line is AWFUL. Thankfully A) there was not much of a line, and B) the WiFi works now! They somehow fixed it! The Safaris has gone down as something I do endlessly if I can- at least twice on each trip (though I think I managed only one last time)- this was why I grabbed G+, because otherwise the lines for this are DREADFUL, and this allows for repeated journeys, and it's often a very different experience each time. And this one REALLY paid off- between the three trips I managed that day (an early-morning, G+ and a rainy visit), I saw giraffes passing in front of the vehicle, elephants not too far away, and a ton of rhinoceros sightings. Those aren't that common, and this time there was a baby bustling back and forth while it's mom tried to control it. Lil' dude had the "scoots" something fierce and was just tearing all over the place.

One of the drivers mentioned the fact that the roars in The Lion King are all TIGER roars, "one of many ways Disney lies to you" or whatever he said XD.

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Hippos!

THE OTHER STUFF:
-So I singled rider'd Expedition Everest this time around, and then found the Kali River Rapids (which were closed last year) with a really short wait. I must have FP'd this in the past because I do NOT remember this queue at all- I walked in there and was like "LOOK AT ALL THIS STUFF!" with giant tiger statues and all sorts of other cool stuff. The weird thing was this area was a total walk-on (my entire wait was because I was standing around taking pictures of this winding, incredible queue)... but when I checked by later, the line was 40-60 minutes! Like everyone had crammed onto every OTHER attraction in the park, leaving this until all that was done, finally leaving it with lines.

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The Okapi! You don't find these in zoos very often. One of the most unique animals in the world.

I went on the African Trek next- a great series of enclosures, though I was starting to feel wiped out. Three coast-to-coast park days in a row, with about 42 hours in three days in the parks, and maybe four hours of sleep the night before, and I was like "dang...". So next to the building with the naked mole rat exhibit, I parked on a bench in the shade and just sat there for like 30 minutes. I wasn't QUITE asleep (a bit too much movement around you for that) but it was good enough to handle the rest of the day without issue- I just shut straight down on that spot. There's something magical about being able to veg out in a park with thousands of people surrounding you :).

The mole rat room is cool, as always- I got a good view of them and a keeper was talking about how to take care of them. When I asked why this was the ONLY place I ever saw them, she pointed out the difficulties like how if you take one away for veterinary care, the others will reject it, as it no longer smells like them (they have to rub it in pee from the colony to make it smell "right"). I saw the Hidden Jafar (now a bit covered by plant matter), the gorillas (the baby is now toddler-ish- last year I saw him he was a big-headed lil' baby), and more.

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I did the Maharajah Jungle Trek next. This is something I sometimes think of doing twice, but as always, ya just run out of time (especially doing the Safari repeatedly). The tiger pen remains an all-time zoo habitat- VERY big and sprawling, with great deatils throughout. Too bad there's only ever one tiger in here, it seems- they don't seem to split up the different areas.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Disney World Trip Report (Sept. 2022)

Post by Jabroniville »

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The huge Neytiri is one of the coolest things found this close in any Disney shop... maybe the most risque, too! There are presumably good angles you can find for pictures of the floating rocks, but I couldn't find them this trip, haha.

I went back to Pandora once or twice, admiring the landscaping and went on the River Journey. Oddly the first time I went here in 2019 I managed to ride this three times with only a 40-minute wait one time... every other trip has been "once only" beacuse it's jam-packed now. The animatronic at the end is Disney's best for sure, though. Pandora itself looks great but manages to be a bit of a maze that the crowds don't help, so I often feel like I'm missing out on something that I accidetally skipped over. I also finally saw the "Three Handprints" of James Cameron, Jim Rhode (who built this park and Pandora) and the producer of Avatar whose name I'm too lazy to look up.

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The handprints and initials.

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Dinosaur! Which... I only do as a last kind of thing. The whole dino area looks really bad with all the stuff taken out, and this is SO far out of the way. I only went on it when the whole park was just ANNIHILATED by a torrential downpour. I ended up soaked to the skin again (one day I'll bother to actually bring one of those ponchos), drying off a tad in the queue, which I likely LL'd. I skipped most of the museum stuff here, so probably. The ride is full of rubbery, non-moving dinos- I think it's seen better days. The skeletons are really the hightlight of the area.

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Kevin! Sadly I don't think the bird show is back yet.

Overall, I didn't eat fancy today- I had the... ribs, I think, from the African area's food court. Then at the Pandora area I went with the old standby- the rice/meat dish with the little jelly spheres in it. Honestly I only did Yak & Yeti once- in 2014. I liked it, but I never went back because it just seems to take a while.

This time around, I tried to enjoy the sights of the Africa area a little more. This is something that's easy to "miss" while criss-crossing this giant park, so I try to spend some time just appreciating the details in it, like the chintzy Mickey painting on the wall and how "fake weathered" everything is. I know I did bits of this last year as well, but it's always worth just living in it for a bit.

I THINK I did some of the animal exhibits around the Tree of Life, but not all of them. It's a very winding path and I think by the time I was getting around to it, stuff was roped off.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Animal Kingdom Finale

Post by Jabroniville »

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Half hour of waiting and I think this was the best Pocahontas shot I got.

THE SAGA OF TRYING TO SEE BOAT CHARACTERS:
-So there's about 4 boats that drive by around the Tree of Life- each with a different set of characters. There's a Mickey one, a band one, a Carl one from Up!, and Pocahontas. I REALLY wanted to get a pic of Pocahontas (the only princess that's so hard to find; there's no meet & greet right now) but for whatever reason the boat was impossible to find. Nobody around seemed to know just when they all came out, and I think she skipped one, but I sat there for like 20-30 minutes waiting before she FINALLY arrived... and of course was too far away for a clear shot, haha. Naturally I realized she was on one of the MK parades a day later so this was pointless. But I managed to at least stand in the shade and try to tan the underside of my arms so the tops being beet-red from the sun wouldn't stand out so much.

Near the end of the day, it started raining- not that hard, but enough. The last trip I took on the Safaris was thanks to this, as the wait time seemed suspiciously short and I wasn't sure if they were running it... so I went over to check and they were like "Yeah, nobody ever comes on because they think it closes in the rain" so I got a trip with only three people in the truck! However, this makes things a LOT bumpier. I think all three of my Safari hosts were pretty good- they obviously relay a lot of the same information, but it was three very different trips each time- a true rarity and I think what keeps people coming back here.

I saw one of the last showings of the newly-returned Finding Nemo musical- one of the former Elena/parade performers I follow now does a side role in this show, after waiting for years post-COVID to re-enter the Disney family (I've found this is quite common). I missed the first song or two owing to poor timing but made it down. You have to re-tell the whole movie in a small handful of scenes, so it's more of a "you've seen it before, right?" experience, but okay enough. The puppets are really impressive, but I was never as taken with the songs (which are by the same duo who does all the Frozen stuff).

OVERALL:
-AK is such a weird park- in 2014, I called it "a mediocre theme park mixed with a mediocre zoo" and I still KIND OF hold to that, but it's now a bit more full of an assortment of things and has a few more attractions. It struggles with limited things still, though- resulting in an extraordinarily vast park with only a handful of rides, which means it has huge lines all the time and it's hard to criss-cross things to minimize that. I appreciate the scenery a lot more these days, though even then I feel I have to force myself to do it.

BACK TO EPCOT:
-So Animal Kingdom closes super-early these days once again, meaning I usually have hours left at the end of the day. Like I did last year, I ended up going back to Epcot, though unfortunately I left AK around 7-ish and then the buses took a THOUSAND YEARS to arrive for some reason. Seriously, it was like a 20-30 minute wait for anything to come to bring us to Epcot, so the night was rapidly winding down by the time I got there.

I mostly only got a single ride in on Frozen Ever After or two before I had to leave again. Thankfully this time Elsa actually sang the song- I was worried it'd still be down or something, haha.

In retrospect I should have gone to the Mexico Pavilion or something, too, but time was of the essence.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Hollywood Studios

Post by Jabroniville »

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DAY FIVE (HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS):
-To the Studios!! This one is a bit of a varied park for me- in 2014 I found myself loving it a lot... in 2019 I actually found it very boring, having done most everything the first time. But then they added Galaxy's Edge and it became a proper "full day park" again. My Frozenmania still makes this one a must-do for the Frozen Singalong, though this time I probably overdid that one due to being tired, lol. Four jam-packed days in a row had left me feeling like just sitting around for once, and I never quite got as many good shots as I wanted of the Singalong.

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GALAXY'S EDGE:
-I rope-dropped again this day, and thankfully my "Do Rise of the Resistance immediately" plan WORKED this time- last year I tried that, but it broke and was down for three hours, resulting in me wasting all that time for nothing. This day, it was a straight walk-on through the main queue for Rise, which continues to be great. Sadly I never truly get "wowed" by the full Stormtrooper Room because I think I saw it in pictures or short videos before I went to the attraction (the Disney Food Blog, for example, often shows the room during their daily videos), but overall it's hard to beat this thing. Sending you through multiple queues, CMs "in character" and more, it's great. In the Stormtrooper Room, everyone taking pictures resulted in one guy spouting "Move along people; there will be plenty of time to document your FAILURE later".

I was again unable to access the "Individual LL" part of the app- NOTHING would work. I eventually had to go to a CM table outside Galaxy's Edge (for ambiance, none are actually within that region) and I was able to apy for a ride in the afternoon. And miracle of miracles, at the very end of the night, I went in AGAIN and was able to walk right in! So maybe 20 minutes of waiting combined and I rode Rise THREE TIMES in one day! Not bad!

The best one was maybe the middle one, where I heard the Dark Order CM holler something about bags to the people at the front of the line, then came over to me. And he promptly did this LONG sigh, lowered his head, and went "I JUST TOLD EVERYONE to keep their bags and other items at their waist!". Not having heard him that time, I dropped my side-satchel off my shoulder and went "I'M SORRY." "You SHOULD be" he muttered as he walked off. "I want HIS job" a guy beside me said as he went away.

Some features are said to not work anymore- I realize now that the cannons now do NOT fire when you move between them- you hear the "Boom!" sound but they don't actually move anymore. There's so many moving parts to this it's inevitable that some stuff wouldn't work, but it's strange that an attraction so new would still have things that aren't operational anymore. Still better than Disneyland's version, which has a LOT of things missing (the security droid won't move there, I here). However, the Droid Shop's conveyor belt above you no longer works, either, and when I asked a CM about it, they said it hadn't been operational for a bit. So THAT's also broken, which really alters the "life" of the attraction/shop, as it resulted in a lot of chaotic movement that's now static.

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Galaxy's Edge itself is still cool, but felt a bit more lifeless this time, maybe? I saw some Stormtroopers moving about and questioning people, but not as much from Kylo Ren or the other characters- I guess I just missed them a lot (I only came here 2-3 times maybe, and was usually just moving throught these areas). I still feel like there should be more to DO, though. I went on Smugger's Run a couple of times, and got my best-ever rating as an Engineer- the second-highest. Granted that's the one they stick you in if you're late or a Single Rider, but still.

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My... meat and potatoes thing! And whatever this pink drink was! I liked all of this! Woo, I'm a food-blogger now!

This time around, I actually ate in the quick service lounge, which has some good creature heads and stuff as decor! I think last time I figured this for an actual restaurant and didn't go in (it's blocked by doors so you can't see in most of the time). Quality food, at the usual exorbitant prices! The other places here are quite cool-looking but the food isn't to my liking- I love the robot moving the hideous roasting creature around (and this part actually worked better this time around).

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I also finally saw the "Baby Millennium Falcon" in the real Falcon- it's on the underside near a pipe, though it's almost impossible to make out details at that distance, or take a good picture. I bought a die-cast Falcon as my lone souvenir of the place.
Shock
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:27 pm
Location: Connecticut USA

Re: Disney World Trip Report (Sept. 2022)

Post by Shock »

I would die for a walk in Millenium Falcon exhibit. Though I imagine with the amount of traffic it would get, you'd need a half dozen to keep them from being overrun
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Disney World Trip Report (Sept. 2022)

Post by Jabroniville »

Shock wrote: Thu Dec 01, 2022 2:19 pm I would die for a walk in Millenium Falcon exhibit. Though I imagine with the amount of traffic it would get, you'd need a half dozen to keep them from being overrun
The Falcon "Smuggler's Run" ride is the closest you get, as it looks like the inner hallways of it and you get to sit in the cockpit.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The Frozen Singalong!

Post by Jabroniville »

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See, it's only via looking at my pictures that I realize this was at least two different Elsas, haha.

THE FROZEN SINGALONG:
-So "Karaoke but with Frozen and some weird hosts telling you a quick version of the story" continues! And the theater is packed almost every single time, so it's still popular! Like I said, I was pretty wiped out today, so I'd often do a ride or two, then pop back to this- thankfully, the WiFi NOW WORKS in the theater! This was a major nuisance in previous years, as it'd cut out and I'd just have to sit there instead of checking Lightning Lanes or whatever. But yes, I did this four times in one day because I'm a weirdo.

I noted in 2021 that it'd been long enough since I'd seen Frozen that I'd actually forgotten how good the soundtrack really WAS, but now I was more used to it again. Humorously, this still keeps up to the original's continuity- there have been no updates at all, so Anna is still identified as the "Princess" and is playing this obvious second-fiddle role. I still love her imitation of Elsa's magic ("PEW! PEW!"). Eric & Aria are still the names of the hosts, and I saw the standard "different actors on later shows". The same pair in the morning and a different pair in the afternoon, though I'm not sure if the other performers swapped out. Elsa is wearing enough gear that she can easily "swap" between performances and I wouldn't know it, especially as she's only in at the very end. It's kinda funny they do the movie version of "Let It Go" and then do it AGAIN with a live singer at the very end, with "snoap" (soap made to look like snow) falling around.

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You can hear the "PEW PEW PEW!" in Anna's voice with this one.

The first time, I was able to sit at the very front because nobody else was there, but in later shows I was stuck 2-3 rows back- I got VERY good at entering the theater at the right time to sit dead center, at least... this show is a very, very peculiar one for the fact that early entries are punished because they have to go all the way to the end of the row. Nobody WANTS to do this because the far left is a crappy view, so it ends up being a struggle between the guests and the CMs in attendance going "go all the way to the end of the row, please!". So I started waiting for a while until going in, thus hitting a pretty good center position- in past visits I typically entered too soon first, and then "corrected" for the second show.

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Anna is such an unfortunate also-ran in Frozen-themed stuff at the parks since Elsa is such a more popular character, but I feel they make up for it by letting the performers just totally goof off in a way other Princess face characters can't. You'll never see CINDERELLA doing this.

Eric & Aria's repartee is still very fun- Aria's ridiculous thirst for Hans is always amusing, and will change to be more topical apparently, as last year she was "flossing" while looking at his picture, and then this year she was singing "My Boo" at him. They’ve mostly cut out her drooling over Kristoff and now it’s both hosts teasing him but only going with Anna because he was in love with her and him trying to deflect or deny that rather than fend off Aria's advances. It's interesting how sometimes they'll add in jokes, or drop them- other things have the same jokes, even between different performers. Seems like there's bits of improv, or just things they do to shake things up and keep in spontaneous. Eric only once called out the one oddly smiling guy in the scene where Elsa horrifies the townspeople with her sorcery (in 2019 he went "Except this guy- he's oddly into it").

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Elsa's entrance.

One interesting thing is the whole ending has been completely changed- In prior trips, they always RAPIDLY re-told the ending, thus confusing Aria as they charge through all the plot twists because they're running out of time. Now they just say Olaf did the saving by himself! Elsa now walks in and goes "The ending seemed a little different".

The first time I saw the show in 2019 it was even MORE different, with a male narrator making these completely insane faces during "Love is an Open Door" just going wild pantomiming "DOOOO-OOOOORRRRR!". The only problem this time was that Elsa never ended up waving to me- I got everyone else BUT her, lol. Four times! She's probably trained to focus in on the kids and not weird adults, lol.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Other HS Stuff

Post by Jabroniville »

TOY STORY LAND:
-This whole area is such a stopgap for me, haha. There's two good things here but I often just barrel through and hit the attractions I want. This time I hit the standby queue for Slinky Dog, as it wasn't SO bad and I got to the shaded part right away. It was by far the longest wait of the day, though, with a 30-ish minute wait. The queue has some stuff in it, but I mostly wiped out my phone's battery supply waiting. The attraction isn't so thrilling but looks nice, and I managed a later trip at night, probably using LL. I also LL'd the Midway Mania ride, doing mostly okay- I'm never quite as good at this one as I've never ridden it enough to learn all the tricks. And the lines are too long to bother doing it more than once per day.

I've only done the Saucers once, in 2019 (when I had a bad batch of FPs this day because I swapped days too late to get the good stuff)- it's just a long enough wait to be avoided any other time, and now there's WAY too much big stuff that requires LLs to skip lines to bother using one for this attraction. I did manage to use this as a quick way to get to Galaxy's Edge a time or two- it's kind of funny because this area is actually REALLY SMALL when you look at it- the road in and out is bigger than the actual "land", which is just three attractions squished together.

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OTHER STUFF:
-I had considered doing the Beauty and the Beast show, but it's always timed very poorly here- you'd end up missing TWO Frozen performances in the meantime, and it has fewer performances overall (once in 2019 I missed it entirely because I could only hit the last one, and it was cancelled last minute). And it's a pretty chintzy, dated-looking show to be honest, with some barebones versions of the big songs and a rapid retelling of the story (one problematic thing is shortening the Belle/Beast story wrecks the whole narrative because they just fall in love outta nowhere!).

Later at night, I finally did the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror- a great attraction, but this one had an issue. I LL'd it, but my whole group got stuck! So it created a funny thing where we went up the elevator, we saw the stuff move around... and then we just sat there. Then went back down. Got told repeatedly to remain seated, etc. and a few newbie riders were like "uhhhhhh what?" and confusion reigned for a while. And it got even more bizarre because the dude beside me was LIVE-BLOGGING with his camera pointed at him and everything, communicating to all his YouTube followers ("They're all wondering why nobody here is panicking" he joked) and everyone chatted each other up, talking to the YouTube guy and my neighbors talking to me about stuff. The two smoking-hot black girls next to me were quite nice, asking about what the ride had in store and if it was too crazy ("I won't grab your hand, I swear!" or apologizing if she bogarted my handrail or something, lol), and even asked "Are you doing Rock 'n' Rollercoaster after this?"- I was curious why they'd ask that, thinking they wanted me to join them or something- a friend suggested "Maybe they want to harvest your organs". Alas, I had a Lightning Lane for Slinky Dog at night so I'll never know! Afterwards, one joked "You can lose your virginity on that shit", and we were on our way!

I've heard that the original Star Wars ride here is still lined up a lot, but I never ONCE saw it over 5 minutes! This time I actually rode it, and finally didn't get the Gungan scene or things like that. It was all New Trilogy stuff I believe. Kylo Ren is now the one who stops you and tries to prevent you from leaving. One scene was the new "Not Hoth" planet with the white sand turning red when it's touched.

Sadly because of the various lineups and my Frozen dealie I had to skip "One Man's Dream", but to be fair it hasn't changed much and all I really liked anymore was the various miniaturized mock-ups of the parks and attractions near the end. It's a good historical tour, though- it was honestly the highlight of my 2014 trip to this park.

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I went and saw the Muppets thing- I think I missed this in 2021 unfortunately, and it's too bad because it's a funny show. Lots of sight gags, and WAY more interactive theatrical stuff than before, with various puppets shooting up all over the place, Statler and Waldorf snarking on everything live, and even a live appearance by Sweetums! There's even a key under the mat that I never found before- it's announced via a piece of paper at the desk here, but I never read that until it was mentioned in a "Disney Easter Eggs" site. And there it is! It's chained to the floor so you can't grab it, but the mat is easily lifted off.

My eating at the Studios is always my least interesting- I did the Star Wars one and that's almost it... my old standby was the ship diner on Echo Lake, which usually has good quick service... but the menu had changed! There were some "crab fries" or whatever, and I was like "Ooh crab!" but sadly I misread what the deal was, and instead it was like... crinkle fries with DIP that was meat-oriented. So I paid like 16 bucks for basically a fancy fry meal. What a waste! I've always wanted to try one of the other diners here, but they're always a no-go- I never book one ahead of time, and day-of they are IMPOSSIBLE to get. I should probably just decide ahead of time where I want to go, but I kinda liked making "day-of" reservations once in a while. But I'll never get to see the Prime Time Cafe or things like that at this rate. I haven't even been to the Sci-Fi Diner since 2014!

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THE STUDIOS OVERALL:
-I'm always on the fence with this place- there's so many freakin' attractions here I can never do them all in one day anymore. Which by definition should make it a "plus", but I'm never fully satisfied after a day here. I love the Frozen Singalong but I do find the odd placement of its showings means I miss other shows if I do them. I chose to visit the shows repeatedly but of course that prevents some other things. And the food ends up disappointing me because it's so hard to find a good reservation.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Dec 16, 2022 11:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Shock
Posts: 2978
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:27 pm
Location: Connecticut USA

Re: Disney World Trip Report (Sept. 2022)

Post by Shock »

Yay Sweetums!
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The BEST DISNEY STORE EVERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Post by Jabroniville »

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The flaw of park-going solo- the only pictures of you are ones other people took or when you get selfies with the characters.

DAY SIX (MAGIC KINGDOM):
-Back to the Magic Kingdom! This time around, I had a bit of an unusual vacation, as instead of 2-3 MK days, I had FIVE! This is kind of nutty, but I was thankful for it, as various things can happen to otherwise wreck a day- it's not so bad having everything rain out on your MK day when you have four more!

Today, I believe I forgoed the Mine Train and instead rope-dropped Peter Pan, which otherwise manages one of the most ridonkulous lines in all WDW all day long. Then I just sat there and waited for rope-drop to the OTHER half of the park, netting me a walk-on of the Haunted Mansion! I think it was during this day that I skipped over to Splash Mountain, which boasted a short line!.... aaaaaaaaand quickly revealed that the projected wait time was a BUNDLE OF LIES, because sure enough I was stuck in the massive winding queue. And then I realized it was dangerously close to the start time of the Magical Friendship Faire! So I did what any respectable park-goer would do- I waited until the queue reached the edge of the exit area and hauled my 200+-lb. frame over the fence and into the exit line and bailed XD. And boy, was I glad I did, because...

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THE BEST DISNEY STORY EVER:
-SO, during the first day's MFF, I waited sort of to the right of where I normally do, because I got there a bit later (because of the Splash Mountain Queue of Lies up above). But no worries, because the family beside me had a tale to tell! So they were talking to a husband & wife about the show, and the mom let slip that "Our daughter's in the show!" and pointed to the shirts of herself, her husband and their son... revealing the face of ELSA- aka Eternal Best Girl! The wife gasped and I nerded out internally as she talked about how their daughter had been downsized with everyone else during COVID, and that "they were all given the choice- do you want to leave or do you want to stay? She she said she wanted to STAY, so she had to take an extra job just to stay on". She then described her second workplace, where she worked in a vaguely-similar context- the Medieval Times restaurant ("She's the QUEEN").

And the mom's reactions during the MFF were priceless, as her daughter comes on stage, notices them, and does a little heart with her hands at them during the two numbers she gets during the show. The mom in tears as she watches her daughter be the star of the show for a time. And I nerd out like crazy extra-hard cuz she's the best and all that, maybe more than usual because now I have this extra insight into the show.

Naturally, when the show was over, I had to interject (attempting to avoid saying I was obviously eavesdropping, lol) "I overheard you a bit and that is AWESOME- Elsa is my favorite character!" and the mom ran up and HUGGED me. When I went on about the movie and the movie's actress playing the character being my favorite and such the dad was like "People like YOU are the reason they do it!". The dad explained "She's a BFA (Bachelor in Fine Arts), and can actually sing this song!". He even asked "Do you work here?" and I said "No- you just make no MONEY" and he was all "yeah, but you LOVE IT" or "They LOVE it" or something, because I'm often having Disneyphiles try to convince me I should work in the parks, lol. A very nice family, and the person talking to them was the one who took the picture of me in front of the castle up above.

The family explained they were there from Texas for a short time and were seeing all the shows. Tragically, I had to miss the next show because I got Cinderella's Royal Table reservations and explained this, but I showed up a couple hours later, and I managed to get down just as the parade was starting, so I got to see all of that... and THEN the best part of the story happens!

So at the next Magical Friendship Faire (around 1pm), I stand more to the left- I didn't want to invade the family's privacy like a weirdo (again) or intrude upon their special time or whatever, but right before the show, the dad comes up to me and says "Just so you know, you were noticed. (the girl's name) said 'wow that guy beside you was REALLY excited!'"!!! "Do you think he's coming to the next show?" he says! He had to tell her that "I don't think he's at the next one, but probably later!".

And sure enough, once the show starts and her bit comes on, Elsa actually DOES THE FREAKING HEART WITH HER HANDS AT ME DURING THE SHOW! Like does the lil' heart and pushes it at me!

I nerded out over this to the family after the show- they said the performers love it when adults go nuts during the show (one of the lyrics literally says "for the child inside!", after all). On the next show I saw, she did one of the standard "walks across the stage" and even did this "Oh HIIIIIII!" reaction/wave to me when she spotted me! So my favorite character gave me special acknowledgement she otherwise only did with her own freakin' FAMILY, and that is my greatest Disney story ever.

Unfortunately that was the last show as it got rained out the time before that, and I think the one after. But nothing was beating THAT. Unfortunately again, she wasn't there on either of the other days I went to the parks (some actors only seemed to perform this Saturday). But still, beat THAT for a vacation happening!
Jabroniville
Posts: 24693
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Disney World Trip Report (Sept. 2022)

Post by Jabroniville »

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The lovely (but cramped) restaurant! Cinderella! And pics I got of her seated on her "Resting Stool"! One of them even turned out!

CINDERELLA'S ROYAL TABLE:
-So I got reservations for this one because I hadn't been since 2014. I knew the experience was diminished a tad, but some things were still there, and I wanted to see the inside of the castle once again, and to peer down at the park from above. I was HOPING they'd have added more Character Dining since it'd reopened with none, but alas, there was none to be had. And unfortunately the only reservation I got was around noon. I was fine with this at first because eating during peak hours at supper time is kind of annoying, but I realized while at the park what a mistake this was, as this puts you in long sit-down restaurants for the duration of the PARADE (which is at noon) or a Magical Friendship Faire- in this case, I missed the second MFF (with the cool family and the performer I mentioned before) and only barely made the parade. Something I hadn't considered during my planning, but oh well.

One advantage of this place is you get to meet Cinderella beforehand, but in the special "Castle Entranceway"- right around the corner of the table manned by two staffers (who have to spend all day telling people they're screwed if they want to get in there day-of). Here, you find a long red carpet and wait in line to meet Cinderella herself, which you do before you're called to your table. I forget what we talked about, but halfway through the conversation she went "Oh right- we've talked before!" and I had to pretend I remembered which interaction that was! See, Cinderella's costume is among the most concealing in terms of outfit/wig/etc. so she actually tends to look alike between performers a lot- it wasn't until I looked at my vacation photos later that I realized which one she was. This is the kind of awkwardness that awaits those who do multiple meet & greets throughout the week, lol.

Then there was a bit where the line died down and so she just sat on her royal cushion or whatever- I ran back up and asked for a pic like that, which stands out as a bit unique (neither really turned out well, but whatever). I also spotted Gus & Jacques up in the walls, and pointed them out to some kids (I find that kids are usually pretty bad at noticing stuff like that, so I try to help out distracted families sometimes).

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Gus & Jacques in blurry photos cuz iPhones can't project that far!

It's a prix fix menu, and I got some meat thing with... oysters, I think? The server was nice, but almost kind of nervous, as if he'd never done this before and wanted to be SURE he got it right. Thankfully/unfortunately I didn't get the classic "Loser Single Person Table" which is usually shoved into a corner or alongside the edge, but I realized that the tables alongside the edge get the best view of outside, while I was in the middle like... beside a post. It seemed like a table they just sorta shoved in there wherever it would fit to milk the most out of their seating. The food was fine, but not really worth the price- character dining can be fun and it's an easier way to meet characters with no lineup, but I know that performers tend to hate that job ("You always MISS a table and the guests get offended!" "sometimes they put the really BAD character attendants in there and it's miserable!") and it's kinda funny to meet Snow White or whatever when you're stuffing your face. Plus the one time in 2014 Snow called me out for being single "Are you here ALL BY YOURSELF?!" "Are you still looking for that special someone?" "Oh, I'm sure you'll meet them soon enough!".

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Oysters! I'm adventurous on vacation (which is funny, cuz these prices should really make me want "Safe Bets". And my dessert, which was a fondant thing and this chocolate hockey puck dealie!

In any case, I charged my phone while eating, tried to deal with my fading memory resources, and fretted over possibly meeting the parade and not wanting to bail on this EXPENSIVE meal before I'd taken enough pictures or enjoyed the actual ambiance of what is, honestly, one of the best-looking restaurants on property. I mean, it's not worth it if you bail early, right? Thankfully I still met the parade after spending a decent amount of time here.
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