PJsLife Post Trip Report (photos added)

Trip Report Sunday and Monday

We drove down to Orlando Sunday. It was raining on and off but the trip was fine. We had a room for one night at the Courtyard Marriott on Lake Beauna Vista Drive. We checked in and it was obvious we were tired from traveling. I suggested we rest and Dave looked at me and said...Let's go to Downtown Disney. The construction at DTD is pretty overwhelming. So many of the sidewalks are blocked with fences so at night DTD seems really closed in. However, we wanted to eat at the Earl of Sandwich so we headed down there. Thanks to some sage advice from guardian146, we approached DTD from the good direction and parked within minutes in the cast member parking and walked across the street to DTD. We weaved our way through the hoards of people to the Earl of Sandwich to find the line at least 30 minutes long to order and supremely crowded. As we walked into DTD, Dave saw a food truck and was amazed. He also saw that the food truck served Corn Dogs. This is one of his most favorite foods. He rarely eats them so when he gets one it is a real treat. He turned me around and we promptly ordered corn dogs from the Disney Food Truck and ate them sitting on the ledge while watching the Stilt walkers dressed like Toy Soldiers.

After we ate we walked over to the Co-Op store to check it out. I was excited about the store until I walked in and the heat was BLARING. Ugh. I hate being hot. We wondered around and looked at all of the great merchandise. We made our way over the the Art Store and looked at all of the paintings. I purchased my Disney Autograph Book and Pen in preparation for collecting Autographs. After that we headed back to the hotel.

Monday morning, we woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel (yuck), checked out and headed over to the All Star Movies to check in. We knew we would be checking in really early. We had actually checked in on line and requested a room in the Love Bug section facing the landscaping FAR away from the pool. Magic Bands at the ready we checked in and stowed our luggage and headed to EPCOT to start our trip. It was around 10:30 am so the park was open and lots of people were there. It didn't seem too crowded. I chose not to make any Fast Pass reservations on Monday simply because I was not sure when we would actually make it to the park. The wait times were CRAZY, but I was expecting that. We had FP for Thursday for Test Track, The EPCOT Character Spot and Space Ship Earth. So we basically just ignored those. As we passed the stand by line for Space Ship Earth was 45 minutes! UN REAL to me since that is a continual loading ride. We walked through both sides of Innoventions (nothing new for us) and headed to the World Showcase. We started with Fake Canada & watched their 365 degree movie, walked through the shops. We watched a few minutes of the Canadian Lumberjack show and by then we were hungry for some lunch and ate at the Electronic Umbrella Quick Service. After lunch we headed to Fake Mexico. I wanted to ride amaz0n_princess's favorite ride, The Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros . We headed through the World Showcase. Fake Norway was so sad with the Frozen Movie Take Over. We watched the 365 degree movie in Fake China, walked through Fake Italy and Fake Germany. We decided to rest outside of Fake Morocco and wait for our ADRs at the Restaurant Marrakesh. Our Dinner was great. Couscous and chicken, the salad appetizer and for me Mint Tea. YUM. The dinner show was a belly dancer and the music was great.

We had received a text earlier that our room was ready. So we went back to the hotel and finished unloading the car. By then, I was whooped so we decided to rest and prep for Tuesday. Watching the weather report we knew it was going to be interesting and sloppy.

We had no idea.

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Trip Report Tuesday:

Otherwise known as Poncho Day!

We understood ahead of time that our trip would encounter rain. I even packed poncho's from CVS. We planned accordingly with extra shoes, socks, clothes and hats. What we were not prepared for was Winter Storm Cato. Holy Smokes. Winter Storm Cato tested our metal as Disney Fans.

Tuesday was Ohana Breakfast with Stitch and Friends.** We got up EARLY and rode the bus to MK with 4 other people and hopped the Monorail to the Poly. So far so good, light rain. During the time it took us to eat breakfast and character greet the rain started. It was coming down in BUCKETS. Front Loaders even. We hopped the monorail back to MK and donned our CVS Ponchos and headed in. We didn't even look at the MDE app and headed to Stitch's Great Escape. Waited as we drip dried. Once the ride was over we decided to head to the Haunted Mansion. We didn't have a FP but the standby line was 10 minutes. Not so bad. More Drip Drying in the queue line while the rain got harder and harder. It wasn't until then that Dave noticed all of the ride closures on MDE. After the Haunted Mansion we hunted down some Disney Ponchos. 1. They were longer 2. They snapped up the side 3. They were thicker and the bonnet was better. $19 later we headed out to see what we could do. We found a covered spot and huddled over the MDE app and a park map. By this time not much was open but the rain *seemed* to be slacking off. We were wondering around and decided to get a Dole Whip to cheer ourselves up. David had never had one and now is wishing he would have listened to me all those prior visits. HA! After we had some Poncho Day pictures made with Photopass we headed over to Big Thundermountian. The ride was open and I wanted to ride it, since it meant so much to lordofhaladin. We should have NEVER ridden this ride. The rain was too hard and the ride is too bumpy for Dave. Three concussions and one stint in the hospital for head trauma means you don't ride spiny, bumpy, bouncy rides. He almost passed out on the ride and then twice once we got off the ride. The CMs were great to let us stay there and gave us a place to rest. Once Dave's head stopped spinning and he wasn't seeing double, we promptly booked it back to the hotel. We had lunch at the Resort and then crashed for several hours, listening to the lightening and rain storm to lull us to sleep.

**Ohana Breakfast with Stitch and Friends. Hummm. I wanted this character breakfast to see Stitch. I <3 Stitch. But the set up was 100% different than 2012. There was no pre meal photo and I was bummed. Then the chef came to talk about my allergies and it seems they use SOY in everything. The only thing he offered was to cook my eggs w/o the soy margarine. I was not offered a different bread. Nor was I offered a juice w/o mango's. The last time I was offered apple or grape juice. (at that time I didn't realize I had a soy allergy). I got extra bacon and sausage which made other table's jealous plus I got lots of pineapple and cantaloupe. The characters started around and we tried to get pictures. Lilo didn't even stay long enough to get a picture. We were in a spot with bad lighting. So. Needless to say I was ultra disappointed. I want to say I wont do this breakfast again but...STITCH...**

Afer our much needed rest, Dave was better and the weather had cleared up a lot. It was still misty and sprinkling but nothing like it was that morning. We headed back to MK and tried to fill in what we didn't do earlier. We saw Mickey and Tinkerbell at the Town Theater. IMO. Talking Mickey is creepy. Way too creepy. Tink was great and much like you would expect her to be. We rode the Tomorrowland People Mover and then went to Cosmic Rays for dinner. I am not a huge fan of Cosmic Rays but it was inside, dry and clean. After we ate, we walked through the stores and down to the New Fantasy Land. It looked great at night. Nothing was really running, no Dumbo or the like. I was getting cold b/c I wouldn't take a jacket from the hotel so Dave bought me a light jacket with Minnie Mouse and we went to ride the WDW Train around once and then back to the entrance. While we were riding a HUGE bolt of lightening crackled in the sky and at the next stop the train engineer asked everyone to get off. We happened to be at the entrance to MK so we headed back to the bus. The lightening just kept getting worse and we knew it would not be long before another band of rain would come in. We made it back to the hotel and got settled in. Dave monitored the weather on the Internet and I texted with guardian146 as we planned to meet up with her at the Animal Kingdom Wednesday.

I have to say that the CMs at MK did everything w/in their power to make the day fun. Water was ponding everywhere including inside some stores. Maintenance CMs were every where trying to keep the water at bay and the walkways safe. All in all this was our first ever Poncho day. It was not perfect but it was fun all the same. The resort CMs had started a ton of inside fun activities for kids. I saw movies and games. I was glad to see that. The arcade at the resort also saw an uptick in use. Many of the tweens and teens spent the day playing video games.

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Trip Report Wednesday Animal Kingdom/DTD

I had been looking forward to this day the WHOLE Trip. guardian146 is one my most favorite people. I am so blessed to have her in my life. We got up early and ate breakfast at the hotel. Dave was keeping steely eye on the weather. We knew it would stop raining and become very cold sometime during the day. It was actually cool that morning, cool enough that I wore my Air Force Hockey Hoodie, a Skirtsports base layer and pants. Melissa met us just inside the security ring at AK. Despite our best efforts it took us a long while to get a bus. We had 9 am Kilimanjaro Safari Fast Passes and we high tailed it over to there to find out the opening was delayed due to storm recovery. The ride Savanna was flooded along with a lot of the walking trails. The animals were just coming out of the enclosures. They were being tempted out with treats and food. We walked the Pangani Walking Trail. We rode the Dinosaur ride where I promptly bruised my knee and then walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek before going to find my precious noodles. On a whim we decided to see if we could get into the Yak and Yeti Table Service Restaurant and BAM we got in right away. (I credit Melissa, I am sure she worked some kind of magic). I ordered some hot green tea (so good) and NOODLES. The food was so good. We didn't even care that we payed out of pocket. SO MUCH YUM.

The whole time, Melissa was teaching me the ins and outs of pin trading. All of these years buying and collecting pins, I had never really traded any. I had a great time trading with CMs (who I found out can't say no) and one little girl who ran me down to trade for a Stitch pin. (I have two more at home!).

We finally got to ride the Kilimanjaro Safari and it was fun. Some of the fun was listening to the Drive make up stuff about animals not being there. But the animals were slowly coming out and we ended up with a great bunch of pictures.

Done with AK we decided to go to Downtown Disney for shopping and pin trading. We had a great time wondering around DTD during the day. We parted with Melissa (sad panda) and headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for Dinner at Boma. Once at the lodge we had our picture made in front of the AK tree and shopped in their store. Boma was PACKED but we were seated promptly and the chef came and gave me a tour of the buffet. Once again my soy intolerance was kicking my butt. There were lots of things I could eat and they were super delicious, there were plenty of things I could not eat, like the hummus! Boo! The Pomegranate Lemonade was delish! I tried an infamous Zebra Dome but ICKY. The Apple Cobbler was much better and not so sticky sweet. We headed back to EPCOT to get a bus to our resort to rest up and relax for the night.

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OMG. I can not express how yummy the food was at the Yak and Yeti. SO GOOD.

Okay Talking Mickey. I understand now that only the Town Theater Mickey talks at the time I was not aware he talked. No one said anything to us, CM or otherwise. I came in expecting it be just like any other character encounter with hand gestures, hugs and a photo op. We came in and Mickey backed away and started talking to me. It sounded like Mickey. the mouth and eyes moved. I answered him but I was so taken back, I stammered around. It was totally interactive. He asked questions and could hear your answers. It was weird. As we walked out my husband and I said simultaneously - That was creepy.

This was our 13th trip and the first time it has ever even rained on us. So...why not make it fun!

Pooh and Tigger Character Encounter Monday, November 24th.

This one of those stories that needs it own Trip Report. I was strolling their the World Showcase looking for Character Encounters. Especially ones with very few strollers and accompanying chaos. Pooh has always been my favorite, even more than Stitch so I will make time to see him. He was appearing in Christopher Robins Play Room and the line was very short.

While Dave and I were waiting for the previous family to gather their belongings and leave the play room, I was speaking with the CM about how Pooh had always been my favorite, even from childhood. I had my back to the play room and all of a sudden the CM started laughing. As I turned around Pooh was making a bee line for me and started hugging me. I was trying to get my Autographs and Pooh kept pulling me away every time Tigger got near us. So Tigger decided to hide in the corner, then behind the curtain. We heard a crash and we turned around and Tigger was holding the light that he had knocked off the wall. Not knowing what to do with it, he just laid it down on the floor. I finally got my pictures with both Pooh and Tigger, then Tigger realized they had left Dave out of the pictures, so Dave had to get his own solo pictures. During which Tigger kept making kissy sounds in Dave's ear.

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Trip Report: Thursday.

Thanksgiving Day. Marvel Shirt Day.

The weather was finally starting to clear up so we could finally wear the Marvel Shirts I had made for us. I actually made them before Labor Day and we debuted them at Dragon Con but we did not wear ours on the same day during the Convention. It was a little cool in the morning so I initially wore a light jacket with the expectation I would be able to take it off later.

Breakfast was at the hotel & off to the bus stop. Once we made it to the park, I was warm enough to take off my jacket and that is when the fun started. So many people stopped us and commented on the shirts. One lady took a picture because "her brother would not belive her". A rather hairy (fear the beard) gentlemen said. " Mame, I don't normally approve of matching shirts, but those are outstanding!" We had FP for the EPCOT Character Spot so we headed that way. Appearing that day were Mickey, Goofy and Minnie. All 3 of the Characters seemed to appreciate the shirts. Minnie especially did. Perhaps Minnie is a seamstress as well!. We left the Character Spot and went directly to our Test Track Fast Passes. I designed a yellow sparkly smart car the finished 2nd over-all. I was impressed.

We decided to finish our shopping in the World Showcase and because the weather was nice there were tons of Photopass photographers out. We took a lot of pictures that day. We stopped for a pretzel in Fake Germany for our snack. (Those things are HUGE!). We rode the boat a couple of times. Dave stopped in Fake Italy to buy his Mom some chocolate and I sat outside watching a group very intoxicated males harass women as they walked by. This is one of my peeviest of pet peeves and it is the one downfall of the World Showcase becoming one huge beer garden. Come one Dude Bros, stop with the cat calling. Idiots.

We made our way back through Fake Canada and headed toward The Land Pavilion. I wanted to ride the Living with the Land ride, humm no. a 45 minute standby line. So we found a bench in the sun and waited until check in time at the Garden Grill. Thanksgiving Dinner would be hosted by Chip and Dale along with Farmer Mickey and his dog Pluto.

Dinner was fabulous. Turkey, dressing, veggies, mashed potatoes, beef roast, salad, bread and two desserts. The food there is always fabulous. The only allergy "change" was we were not offered the fish. I asked about the butter and Chef Ricardo said "We use real butter". All of the characters were so much fun. We really had a great time. Dale tried to swap me his "shirt" for my shirt but then decided maybe that wouldn't be a good idea. At one time Mickey and Pluto were actually playing catch in the little hallway. It was hilarious.

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Thanks and I will find a pretzel picture for you.

Thank You!

The Pretzel

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Friday: Disney Hollywood Studios

It seemed that weather was in control of our trip this time. I am grateful we over packed! We kept having to sort and change outfits for the weather. I had initially wanted to wear a Khaki colored skirt on this day but it was SO cool, I had to switch to pants.

Also Phineas and Ferb Shirt Day.

With all the attention the Marvel Shirts were given, we were kind of surprised that the P/F shirts were not nearly as popular. It could have been that the shirts didn't actually match. I have to say that Phineas and Ferb totally loved Dave's shirt and took the time to find their images on the shirt. I just got thumbs up for Perry! The comment we heard the most was "Are you the Perry Family?" I did get one man that said "Oh there you are Perry!". While we were queued up for Hiro and Baymax several kids commented to their parents about David's shirt. Regardless they were fun and comfy.

This was the park I was most worried about. I was surprised to still see the Hat was up. I don't think Disney plans to dismantle it until January. Indy & the Extreme Action Stunt Show are still open. There are a lot of empty buildings and it is kind of sad. However....We started our day with FP for Toy Story Mania and it was broken. Yep. I was momentarily let down but we kept walking and found Phineas and Ferb out with an extremely short line. Of course we wanted to have our pictures taken with P/F. It was so much fun. They hopped around and pointed at Dave's Shirt. Ferb gave me a big hug and a huge thumbs up for Perry. We were lucky to see Ferb because after our session he left and didn't return. I am not sure what was wrong but the rest of the day Phineas was running solo. After this we walked through the Walt Disney One Man hall and watched the movie at the end of the exhibit. It was a 10 minute recap of Walt Disney's life. For some reason they skipped or left out the parts about Disney Studios making propaganda films for WWII. It didn't ruin the show but it was an interesting exclusion. We made our way to the Animation Studios and went to see if Hiro and Baymax were taking visitors. They were and we hopped into the line. There was no FP available and we waited right at an hour. They CMs have not worked out the kinks yet for this one. It felt like the guests had control of the speed of the encounter and not the CMs. One hold up was the disappointment for the kids that Hiro and Baymax don't sign or stamp autographs.

Hiro and Baymax were AWESOME. Baymax is a big hugger! After we left the queue, I had stopped at the BH6 pressed penny machine and we just happened to see Hiro and Baymax leaving to recharge (Baymax even said Low Battery). As they walked up to the door Baymax played out the scene where Hiro wants him to open the door and it didn't work. It was hilarious and only just a few people saw it. It was like these two CMs played the scene out for their own pleasure.

By now we were hungry and started looking for a place to eat. OMG at the crowds. DHS has huge cafeteria style Quick Service and more than two but all of them were PACKED. We settled on Bill & Mims Dockside Diner. I ordered us each a pretzel dog and it came with a chips, a drink and a chocolate shake (as our QS dining credits). OMG those pretzel dogs were SO GOOOOOOD. After lunch we made our way over to Toy Story Mania. We had received notice via MDE app that the ride was open and redeeming FPs. We got in the line which looked HUGE but was really moving very quickly. The stand by line was over 2 hours and people kept pouring into that line. We had a FP for Star Tours. The ride is great. The store that it dumps out into is NOT SO MUCH. It is so small and they set up the build-a-droid station right at the end of the ramp off the ride. Plus they had queued people up to come in the store and that dumped into the build-a-lightsaber station. I know DHS has plans to expand the Star Wars stuff but they need to kick that into hyper drive.

After that I hopped into a Daisy Duck line. She was great and tried to trade me her hair bow for my Penny Blossom. Following our Daisy visit we walked around to the TOT store and the Rocking Roller coaster Store. Not much there that is interesting but I had not been to that section of the park. I try and stay away since I have no interest in riding the rides. By then we headed to the entrance to get our picture made with the DHS Christmas Tree.

We found the bus for the Poly and headed to our Ohana Dinner ADR. Oh boy. I had eaten here last April with Melissa and Cookie and I loved it. We were seated and the chef came to discuss my allergies. Soy, Soy, SOY. I had to have alternate bread, chicken wings and roasted pork. I ate the noodles and the beef and the salad just fine. The problem was that our sever would not come around and offer Dave any food. He was angry and I was pissed off. I said something to our waiter THREE times and it never got better. I finally found a server and suggested that SOMEONE bring him some food. On the way out I spotted the restaurant manager and pulled him aside. I told him, while I appreciated their handling of my food allergies, my husband didn't have allergies and needed to eat and was being ignored. He said that the Chef made the wait staff consult him before serving any table with food allergies. I told him that it was too strict and that we paid 80 dollars for a meal where we had to run down our own food. I suggested (I tried to be polite but I am not sure it worked) that the Chef ease up a bit. The managers was gracious and took my grumping in stride. He did speak to David and apologize personally and promised that he would address it. Both my meals at Ohana were marginal. It might have something to do with the construction or it might be a change in the head chef but both meals were 100% different that we had encountered them in the past. In the end David got food and ate it. I doubt we will do the Ohana Dinner again. There is not the temptation of seeing Stitch to pull me there.

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Me too but what can you do? I did send an follow up email to customer service for WDW with my ADR #s and information. Either it will get better or it wont. I can always go see Pooh at the Crystal Palace! hee hee hee

Thanks BB! I already want to go back.