Disney World Trip Report (Sept. 2022)

[Jabroniville]

THE OTHER STUFF:
-See, spending five days here and being more than a month removed, I probably forget a lot of what I did on each day without pictorial reference. Heck, I'm not even sure if this was the day I bailed on Splash Mountain to go to the MFF like I said it was!













I finally decided to see what the one "Adventure Cavalcade" was all about... but it was rained out today. I eventually saw it a bit later but today you just get the cars. It's mostly the minority characters here- including Pistole Pete & Joe Carioca... and some Jungle Book characters. Well I guess they're from India, even if they have Southern US & English accents. Also Merida gets to be here! Because... I guess her float died in the Festival of Fantasy parade? Because they used to have one!

Unfortunately, this parade kinda sucks for taking pictures in the rain, because everyone's deep inside a vehicle ("The costumes are VERY expensive, and we can NOT get them wet!" parade attendants tell me) so you get a lot of "Princess Elena... with the dividers between windows on one side of her face!" unless you're a master photographer or just hammer the thing repeatedly, which is tough when you're also trying to take in the parade and not just view it behind a lens. I managed to beat the vehicle down Main Street and got the other side, and still the pictures weren't great. Thankfully my chances were much better two days later. I'm pretty sure this is the same Elena who recognized me from the parade float last year- she spotted me a few times one day and shouted "You came back! So lovely to see you again!".




I took a picture of this courtyard because I think it's neat. I dunno- it's RIGHT next to the castle (you can SEE IT just by turning around) so it's weird in terms of ambiance but it's like this little constantly-empty part of the park right next to its busiest portion. This is like... backstage stuff or the outside of the Liberty Tree Tavern or something and there's nothing else much here since Meet & Greets are more assigned elsewhere, so it's a fun little do-nothing area now. Not a lot of those left.



When the Princess catches you taking the photo when they're not looking.

The fun part of multiple days in the parks is you can freely spend more time doing things like the meet & greets... where you can occasionally meet the same performer! Which sometimes catches you by surprise because you can't always tell on-sight who was whom.






It's hit & miss whether the attendant is close by or able to take photos- sometimes the Princess will try to get their attention and they're off doing something else, and I swear once or twice they were like "no" XD. I do miss PhotoPass being here, because while that does crowd the room a LOT, it makes paying for the PP photos a bit of a better deal, especially as I was in here a TON. So I have an interesting mix of "Princess Candids", close-ups, inopportune close-ups (where they start moving towards you and you click when not looking and end up taking a picture up their nose or something), selfies and proper "Princess Poses". I usually make sure I take a few actual posed photos at the end as well.

A video of one of the parades: https://jabroniville.smugmug.com/Disney ... /i-Htm5FbW

THE FIREWORKS:
-This was a bit of a funny one- my third attempt at the fireworks and wanting to see how Tink shoots out of the window in person. Here, I sat next to a pair of women and their kid in a stroller- I noticed the little girl staring up and me and not stopping at all, and one of them noticed and said "You look like her dad" and showed me a picture of a much heftier bald guy with a beard, lol. They were kind of weirded out that she just KEPT staring and I think Facetimed the actual father so she'd get distracted. The fireworks viewing area was jam-packed, and naturally the person immediately to the side/front of me was a 6'5" guy with a child on his shoulders.

So remember when I said I wanted to see Tink come out in person? Well guess who decided to bail literally the SECOND BEFORE she came out? Yeah, the ladies decided to turn around with their stroller and leave, leading me to look down and try to shuffle out of there way... then hear the gasps as Tinker Bell swing overhead where I was, lol. WELL FOURTH TRY'S THE CHARM!!

After this, I forget what I did, but I probably ate at the ice cream parlor (sadly the people who kept noticing me come by last year appeared to be no longer there- I don't imagine many people stick around the quick-service locations for that long, as I am to understand people shoot around the parks a lot. Then it was another hour of doing shops and such after park closing. I checked out the crystal shop that nobody ever buys stuff in, and the gigantic Main Street store.

Next Up... Epcot!

[Jabroniville]

DAY SEVEN (EPCOT):
-So now, every park done and MK entirely travelled through, it was time to return to EPCOT- on my last trip, I'd actually over-Epcotted a bit because it was my fave in 2019, but I was more used to Frozen this time and "Wallcot" was getting on my nerves, so instead of making it my first & last park and going on three days I went on the first then my third-last days. Today, I rope-dropped Frozen once again (getting stuck at one of the walls by the big Disney store on property and a CM who did the "ask all the waiting guests a ton of questions" thing and telling jokes before we were off. This is an introvert's worst nightmare, so thankfully it was optional selection.









Elsa! Anna! Snow White!

This time, I met the characters again- curiously, Aurora & Belle were the same, while Snow White & Jasmine were different. By this point I'd met Belle so many times across the parks that I wasn't sure where I'd seen this one, but she recognized me. "Oh wait, when did I see you before...?" and I had to be "... was it the cottage, or here?" "HERE!" "Oh, it was last week then" because I guess she only works at Epcot, lol. I actually saw the same Elsa as last week, which was a rarity (they must have a LOT of rooms open). I ended up going into the Royal Somerhus THREE TIMES mostly because I wanted to go early, then saw a short line once, and then I think I LL'd one? I forget. In retrospect since I missed a couple things I could have cut off one of them but I wanted to tell Elsa she was the best, lol.



The English Pavilion's chandelier, I think.

The old issue with Epcot's huge size reared its head again, as when you wait for the characters, then try to head back for the big rides, then do a couple other things and have a sit-down meal, you end up running out of time! Despite like 12+ hours to do whatever you want, I still missed a couple of things because I would hang around Italy for a bit to take things in, or feel the "hollow wall" in Germany where a dark ride was supposed to go. I was like "oh yeah! the Werther's store!" in Germany but I was kinda between meals and there was a line by the time I thought to go.

And then, as I mentioned before, I left Mexico until it was way too late. I wanted to do it but literally ran out of time at 8:30-ish, because Frozen Ever After might have closed by the time I left it. Which is too bad- I learned last time that the Three Caballeros ride I'd often blown off was better than I'd remembered it, starting out as a cool dark ride through some ruins.



Unique merch! In 2021 the France pavilion had absolutely nothing for cool merchandise, despite being packed with it in 2019. Here I found an even SMALLER shop, but at least it had cool art like this on what little they did have. I really hope the shops start pickin up more unique merch, though.

I made a second trip on GOTG: Mission Rewind, and this one went a lot better- I made sure to eat fairly soon beforehand (which always struck me as odd advice, as you'd think the opposite would be true) and this was instead way smoother and I barely felt nauseous at all. I could keep my eyes open the whole time, and wasn't trying to hold anything in, which makes it a lot more fun, and you could spot all the neat background scenes and the spin around the Earth & Moon (though both look REALLY fake in that "this is obviously a piece of scenery" kind of way). They played "One Way Or Another" this time. The older dude I was in line with found it a bit more nausea-inducing- he said he probably hadn't eaten recently enough.






SPACE 220 (aka "OH MY GOD LOOK AT THESE PRICES!"- The Restaurant):
-OKAY, so when researching this trip, I knew about this, but I also knew how hard it was to get in. I kind of glossed it over, and honestly knew nothing about it save some videos on the DFB YouTube videos. But when I went looking for restaurants... I found it available! Surprised, I grabbed it before looking stuff up. So I went in blind on this one, and kind of wanted to be surprised. And boy, was I!

So the whole set-up is quite interesting- you scoot in behind the "Mission to Mars" ride and meet an attendant, who brings you to a central table (the girl of course nerded out over my Wicked shirt). They assign you a seat or whatever, then you sit and wait for your name to be called. Then you're invited into an elevator, which brings you to an "elevator"- actually just a regular room with images above and below to make it look like you're shooting on a miles-long platform into outer space. You walk by a room with "lettuce" hydroponics and a giant wall of wine, and enter a singular room- tables on three tiers, with a REALLY long bar, each section manned by a different guy.

I was placed along the bar, next to one couple and a trio of girls who were admittedly fussy (one couldn't eat ANYTHING). The bartender was pretty cool and mostly chatted with them, which suits me just fine. The place itself does look very "current ideas of what space will be like" with bright, clean uniforms and silver metal everywhere, and there's a huge viewscreen with tons of things to see- mostly ships flying around, spacemen doing spacewalks, etc. I never did see Mickey, despite sticking around for several minutes after eating to see if he showed up (I know he sometimes does).

And once I sat down... I finally looked at the menu. And HOLY CRAP this place is expensive! Something like $79 for the full three-course meal! Now I wish I'd checked it out beforehand! I'd have eaten a smaller meal earlier (I had a pork bun in Japan's "Food & Wine" booth and that was mostly it), but by this point I hadn't eaten in so long I didn't want to split the meals up, as I'd waste both time and probably pay the same to add an extra bit on. So I went with the three courses. The food was perfectly fine, of course, and worth a bunch of money... maybe not THIS much, but still. It was nice to do this as a one-off I suppose, but this is the kind of meal where you think about your wallet the whole time, haha.

I had salmon I believe, with calamari as an appetizer. Good stuff, but the most fascinating part was the cocktail, which was like a blue slushy drink but with POP ROCKS added in. Now I had to be careful here, as occasionally it's a light fizzle, and the rest of the time it EXPLODES- at one point bursting out half a foot away from my plate and coming dangerously close to the girls beside me at the bar! I usually had my hands guarding things and they were more interested in what that was that disturbed that I was about to soak them in blue syrup, but yeah.

[Shock]

And of course there's a booty shot of Mrs. Incredible.

[Jabroniville]

And of course there's a booty shot of Mrs. Incredible.

I ASSURE you I was trying to capture all three characters at once!

Plus that suit is padded. THE BUTTOCKS IS A LIE.

[Arkrite]

And of course there's a booty shot of Mrs. Incredible.

I ASSURE you I was trying to capture all three characters at once!

Plus that suit is padded. THE BUTTOCKS IS A LIE.

Yeah, I noticed that it was padding too.
Uh, I mean, uh, for shame. Booty shots. *innocent whistle*

[Jabroniville]

Belle desperately trying to keep her hair intact while the wind roiled up.

LATER IN THE DAY:
The weather turned REALLY bad at one point (around 5pm), but actually shockingly didn't turn into rain. Lightning in the distance shut down nearly the entire Food & Wine Festival, however, sending CMs scurrying everywhere. Poor Belle's hair was flying around and she had to bail before returning- they always do wig touch-ups behind the scenes. Oddly the falling hair was more fitting, as in the movie it's always falling down (a way the animators tried to make the perfect, flawless Belle seem a bit more "human" and flawed). I tried to impress this upon her and the guests in line, but she was obviously desperately trying to keep the strands in place while maintaining her Princess poise.




The Rock Mickey in the aquarium.

I made sure to check out the aquarium again, though unfortunately I forgot to come in during the day. That was mostly to see the manatee/s awake and see the attendant talk about them. The issues with having such a massive park and then going "... oh yeah!". This happened last year, too!





When you catch a princess doing a "Mean Girls" pose by accident.

An unfortunate thing happened near 6pm when a mother came to see Aurora with her daughter- the attendant had already cut off the line and sent people away- "oh PLEASE!" the mother begged, but the CM had to tell her she'd already said no to a lot of other families. I saw them a bit later and told them Belle was still around, but nope- they'd already seen her yesterday. I felt bad for the kid, as the mom explained "Aurora's her FAVORITE princess!" and it's like... on one hand I wasn't sure why she waited until SIX to visit if it was that big a deal, but then a lot of people can't figure out all the rules and things to do. For all I knew they weren't even here earlier in the day. And I've noted that they do NOT advertise the meet & greets properly- most of the time I had to ask the CMs under the blue umbrellas when the characters even SHOWED UP! The poor girl had such a "hanging lower lip" about it, too.

Near the end of the night, I was gonna go on Ratatouille for one last time, using LL, but right as I was about to get on, it broke down. The lights came up and everyone was in a temporary "okay, what now?" about it, and ultimately they evacuated it. A man beside me was practically LIVID over this after all that waiting, with his wife admonishing him to watch his temper ("Well don't UPSET them!" she lectured- "it's not THEIR fault it broke down!"). I eventually waited for the staff to look less worried before asking if I could just bail (I wanted to get one last Frozen ride in)- they were like "do you not want a FastPass for another ride?" I was ready to go out wherever the evacuation line is (they were directing me, but it's against the flow of normal traffic), but there in fact was a CM who was tapping MagicBands to give us an extra ride. So I hauled over to Frozen (the literal opposite end of the World Showcase, mind you) and decided ultimately on using my pass for that, lest I wait too long and become unable to ride it again. I don't remember if I had time to or not, but it's fine.

Fun Fact: I had never actually noticed there were PUFFINS on this ride before. They're part of the original Maelstrom ride, and were repurposed here. I always skipped them as it's right after Elsa's song and before Marshmallow shows up, and there's other stuff to look at, so I'd never spotted them. This time I made sure to. I mean, they're not fancy, but it's kinda neat.

[Jabroniville]

DAY EIGHT (Magic Kingdom)- aka "Wait, why is it BUSY?", finally seeing Tink shoot out the castle, and that time I helped a dude propose:
-Okay! So this is the second last day of my vacation, and by this point I'd already been at the MK for three days, so I was pretty much done all my to-do lists and everything. This was the most I'd ever been at WDW, so these were essentially "extra" days and I could take them at my leisure. This day kinda runs into the next one, as both were spent at MK and I won't remember what happened when, but these days were puncuated by a fair bit of:

* Mid-day rainstorms wrecking parades and the Magical Friendship Faire
* The Adventure Cavalcade actually showing up!

So this time around I skipped the Mine Train as I was kind of tired of it- I think I did Peter Pan, or this was the day I did It's A Small World (yes, I rope-dropped that once, lol). See, the issue on today (which was a Monday) was that for some reason, the park was immensely BUSY. As the previous whole week had been decently-crowded but hardly a mess, I was extremely surprised to enter a jam-packed queue to get in, a MASSIVE line down Tomorrowland (I knew at this point that if you were by the start of the Cheshire Cat Cafe, you were too far back to get into the Mine Train queue) and more. I asked around a bit, and was informed by guests & Cms that apparently weekends are now the QUIET times at Disney World, which hadn't shown up on any of the tourism sites that I'd seen (in fact, most still have things like "Don't visit Hollywood Studios on the WEEKEND if you really want to do ROTR!"). This would hold true for both days, though, as I would get hammered by crowds on Sept. 19-20th.

Between this and the massive amount of rain hitting at peak times, I was REALLY happy I'd done the whole week beforehand, as this was just a "gravy" day that mattered a whole lot less.



The Nautilus! I swear I couldn't find this on ANY of my prior visits, despite CM assistance at points. Turns out it's gigantic and easy to see- I was looking for a tiny one!



Woo- I saw Merida again! As I mentioned before, Merida is the least convenient Princess for me to meet, despite having her booth right next to the castle- there was nearly ALWAYS a parade or MFF about to happen around then, and she bails quickly.








So the Magical Friendship Faire got rained out at least 2-3 times each day, I think. At one point, rain started to pitter-patter during the Tangled bit and IMMEDIATELY everyone bailed as the music stopped- like, without a word they just hightailed it outta there. I don't know if they have a cue for that or what but it was SLICK. After a long delay, the rain let up a tad and so they did a different version of the final number, skipping all the other bits (like the Frozen one)- in this version, the choreography is MUCH simpler, as characters aren't spinning and twirling around what was now a damp stage- instead they just sorta did tiny hops left and right while the same song played.






I caught Anna & Elsa in mid "Let it Goooo! Let it Gooooo!" sashay.




I believe a single parade ran on Monday- on Tuesday the rain was absolutely non-stop and NOTHING ran, disappointing a ton of guests (I don't know how many ONLY do one day at MK, but I registered a lot of people in the dumps over that). A Rainy Day Cavalcade that happened featured some characters in covered vehicles, and the Princesses in the "Rolling Gazebo of Doom".




Since the Haunted Mansion stops running more than any ride in the parks, there's a lot of opportunities for even an iPhone to capture the ride's features. Kind of.

I rode the Haunted Mansion a TON on these days. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but it became my old standby, as it loads quickly, LLs were easy to get, and it never had the massive lines of the other attractions. Since they open up this area AFTER the "Early Morning Magic" ends, it rope-drops separately, and I was there both days to walk right in. Later I'd get another LL (I average 4/day now- slightly more than I got under FastPass+) and then probably hit it up later in the day.

Didja know Madame Leota pops up in the mirror in "Momento Mori"? It rarely happens but I finally saw it a couple of times, lol.

[Jabroniville]

The Disney Adventure Cavalcade is a small parade that runs in the second half of the day, shortly before it gets dark. It's similar to the ones they ran during the Covid stuff, where you just get the two long floats. The theme here is obviously "The Minority Characters", though you also see Merida with the group (since she lost her main float) and tons of little-seen animal Head Characters. First up is Woody and Mr. & Mrs. Incredible walking about. The first float is Merida & Elena of Avalor in the front, Miguel from Coco up top, and Nick & Judy from Zootopia in the back.













There's also a long float with the Princesses- this one features Mirabel from Encanto in the prime position up top, doing a really elaborate (and probably exhausting) dance, twirling her long skirt about. Pistol Pete & Joe Carioca from The Three Caballeros are on the front, and Mulan and Pocahontas make up the rear. This is the ONLY time you'll get a good view of Pocahontas anywhere, so if you wanted to snap all the characters it's your best bet. Following behind all of them is a handful of animal characters like Max Goof, the female cat from Aristocats, Baloo, Terk from Tarzan (!!) and... oh hey, there's Moana! The only time you'll see HER, too! Aladdin & Jasmine also make up this crew... along with Mary Poppins & the Chimney-Sweep. They stick out like sore thumbs amidst all the foreign-themed characters, lol.



Oh, thank goodness I actually caught her doing the bow, lol. I'm not making it up!

The best interactions here came with Mulan noticing me, then giving the big formal "fist in the hand then deep bow" thing, and I responded in kind- she laughed when she came up and saw that I'd bowed, too. Mirabel, when doing her big dance, actually noticed my glasses and did the "OMG me too!" thing, grabbing her own to emphasize them. Elena also recognized me the second time I hit the float, and Mulan laughed when I managed to beat the float TWICE down Main Street to get better shots of the characters. Apparently even parade performers are doing safety, because at one point Elastigirl rushed over to the side and picked up a kid to put them back on the curb.





Mirabel noticing my glasses!

Adorably, each Cavalcade featured a teeny tiny little girl in a Mirabel costume as the "rope-holder"- they must have found one each time.





The gazebo of doom during one of the rainy days, and Cinderella in the Fairytale Hall.

[Batgirl III]

I don’t know why, precisely, but the fact that Elasti-Woman is a costume character and not a “face character,” like the princes and princesses is just… Uncanny Valley.

[A]long with Mary Poppins & the Chimney-Sweep. They stick out like sore thumbs amidst all the foreign-themed characters, lol.

You do know that a pack of Edwardian Englishmen and a Gallifreyan Time Lady are also a “foreign-themed” characters, right?

[Shock]

I don’t know why, precisely, but the fact that Elasti-Woman is a costume character and not a “face character,” like the princes and princesses is just… Uncanny Valley.

I had nearly the same thought as I scrolled by her.

[Jabroniville]

You do know that a pack of Edwardian Englishmen and a Gallifreyan Time Lady are also a “foreign-themed” characters, right?

I think I meant "minority" characters, as I mentioned in the beginning, but changed the wording on myself. But that still leaves Merida up front. And like... most of the Princesses are European in intent (if not accent). So it's kind of a weird thing where it's "the minorities, plus the character who doesn't get to be in the regular parade" since Merida's float doesn't exist anymore. I noted in the first paragraph that it's a weird mish-mash, as Pixar folks also show up in the very beginning.

Like you can see an obvious theme going when Elena, Miguel, Mulan, Pocahontas & Mirabel get all this attention... and then Aladdin & Jasmine are on-theme with that... but there's Merida and Nick/Judy. Plus Jungle Book characters (I mean, that's INDIA I guess). Then the two English ones shoved in the back?

Overall it's kind of a "people who weren't in the first parade, but mostly the brown ones".

[Batgirl III]

Hey, it’s still more acknowledgment than Eilonwy ever gets…

[Jabroniville]

Hey, it’s still more acknowledgment than Eilonwy ever gets…

Her movie nearly killing off Disney Animation for good is why that happens XD. The only ref I see in the parks is the old "Horned King" thing in the basement of the castle in Tokyo.

[Jabroniville]

During these last few days, I did the "Hidden Pascale" thing- he's quite well-hidden through much of the "Tangled Bathrooms" choke-point in the park. Some are on trees, another's on this post here, some are under buildings, and they put a pile of them in the river area.



I saw this guy playing piano over on Main Street! I'm not sure how often he's there, but that piano's covered whenever there isn't someone playing it, and it's easy to miss. One peculiar thing I notice is that I almost never hit Main Street in the middle part of the day, when things like this are more likely to happen- I typically only show up around night time when things are busy or shutting down elsewhere- that's typically when I shop, too. So I've never seen the flag ceremony, and only barely see the Dapper Dans.




Only those TRULY in the know realize just how epic a sight this is. It's Princess Aurora... but in the FAIRYTALE HALL! This NEVER happens! When I told a CM about it, they were astonished- "Oh wow, AURORA in the Fairytale Hall? That's truly special!". I mean, literally every time I've visited this Hall in 2019, 2021 & 2022, it's been Cinderella & Elena in this room. So you can imagine my shock when I popped in on Monday night and saw AURORA there! Ironically, despite Aurora being a famous Princess and Elena rather obscure, she was meeting a little girl DRESSED as Elena who 100% was probably hoping Elena would be in here, because they were talking about Elena at the time, lol. It's kind of funny watching one of the "big name" Princesses have to make chit-chat regarding another character from Disney TV.



THE FIREWORKS (and FINALLY Seeing Tinker Bell!):
-So if you followed from the beginning of this Trip Report, you'll recall that I REALLY wanted to see Tink actually burst out of the castle during the fireworks show- ever since I overheard someone say they could spot someone moving about in the large parapet, I wanted to catch the same thing. Now, on Day One, this failed (I actually sorta forgot about it and had wandered off to use the washroom as the show was winding down, then missed her passing under a tree). On Day Two, it was raining and she didn't come out at all. On Day Three, I missed it because the people beside me decided RIGHT THEN was an appropriate time to turn their strollers around and leave. So I decided THIS time I'd actually pull it off!

However, the central corridor was jam-packed by my arrival- CMs were waving people down Main Street and not letting anyone sit in the main area anymore. However, I found a perfect vantage point for the exact spot I needed... on the bridge to Fantasyland! Here, I stood between two rectangular trees and waited- I saw the projections on the sides of the castle, which removes most of the magic (they show SOME but nothing like what people at the centre get to see). But then, wonder of wonders, I see her! Out of the blackness in the parapet comes a girl, she actually LEAPS off the platform, and scoots out Superman style (almost parallel to the ground)... and lights up! The lights don't come on until she's about ten feet out! So I get to see the whole Tink arrival at long last! Only took FOUR TRIES, lol!

So coming down from that, I'm stopped by some young dude who wants me to take a picture of him and his girlfriend. I'm like "oh yeah, sure" and get ready... and when I look through the screen, I see he's down on one of his knees. I'm like "Oh crap, why's he on one knee- did he trip? Is he OH CRAP HE'S PROPOSING OH MY GOD WHAT THE HE--" and I immediately hammer the button as many times as I can in a row desperately trying to capture the moment. His phone has some kinda timer preventing just a staccato burst of photos so I'm having a heart attack the whole time (plus people are literally walking in front of me) but I manage to get it all. I shake the guy's hand and make him check the camera ("I hope they all turned out!" I said. "Oh yeah, ME TOO!") and thankfully "They came out PERFECT!" so yay- I helped someone propose, lol.

Seriously though, that's a lot of pressure XD! What if I'd screwed up? Or hit the wrong button and gone out of the photos app on a mystery phone I've never touched before! He must've been there alone with her, cuz that's a heck of a thing to trust a stranger with !

[Batgirl III]

Hey, it’s still more acknowledgment than Eilonwy ever gets…

Her movie nearly killing off Disney Animation for good is why that happens XD. The only ref I see in the parks is the old "Horned King" thing in the basement of the castle in Tokyo.

I suspect it also has to do with ‘The Chronicles of Prydain’ novels being one of approximately seventeen things left on Earth that aren’t owned by The Walt Disney Company. They’d probably have to gasp! pay royalties! swoon! to use her in their Disney Princess merch and other product lines.

The fact that her movie kinda flopped and I seem to be its only fan doesn’t help either.