300 PhotoPass pictures later, here we are.... A May/June 2017 TR! Updated 8/15!

[Spacecow]

Wow, your castle fireworks pictures are amazing! Loving the report.

Thanks! I was happy with how they turned out

 

[Spacecow]

Part 6- EMH in the Magic Kingdom ft. Be Our Guest

So when I last left off we had just gotten off Space Mountain. Since my plan of staying at Hollywood Studios until our 6:50 Be Our Guest ADR didn't work for us, we were basically just killing time. We walked around a little and ended up getting fruit slushy things from the quick serve thing by Columbia Harbor House (super specific, I know)

We walked a little further and ducked in to some place closer to Aventureland to drink. The skies were super foreboding at this point so we wanted to get under shelter before the daily rainstorm. I had FPs for Big Thunder Mountain around 5 and I was concerned that the ride would close in the rain and we wouldn't be able to use them. Well, I was right. We decided we would keep the anytime FP and use it once Big Thunder opened again.

We killed more time walking through gift shops and such, slowly making our way over to Fantasyland. On the way, the rain stopped and we saw a double rainbow!

We rode It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, and the Little Mermaid (all with FPs!). Then it was finally time for Be our Guest!

I was really excited for this dinner, and after our exceedingly mediocre experience at Cinderella's Royal Table I was hoping that this would be everything I wanted it to be. Going 0/2 on dinner ADR experiences didn't seem like a good way to start the trip.

We didn't have to wait long before we got to go inside, and I immediately knew that the ambiance was 100% living up to my expectations. I'd seen a bunch of pictures, but it's even more beautiful in person! I was smiling like crazy the whole time the waiter was walking us to our table. We were seated in the main dining area/ballroom, which was exactly what I wanted.

I loved all the designs and the little details like the snow falling outside the windows. It's really such a beautiful restaurant, I know I'm probably the millionth person to rave about how beautiful it is but it really defies expectations! Like I said before, pictures don't even do it justice.

It was time to order. I had the steak and french fries..... I mean pomme frites . My sister had the shrimp and scallops. Now I'm not a foodie by any means (I'm the type that could easily exist on chicken nuggets and french fries alone) but I thought the food was really good! My sister really liked hers too. The sauce that came with my food was really good, but I prefer ketchup with fries..... So I asked for some, even though i felt silly asking for ketchup at such a fancy restaurant.

Since I'm 21 and ordering wine at restaurants still makes me feel super cool and grown up, I got a glass of the Enchanted Rose.... Because it was one of the cheaper ones . It was really good though!

The only downside of Be our Guest was that it was soooooo cold in there! This was the only day of our trip that I didn't bring a light jacket with me- which was a huge mistake. They really BLAST the air conditioning in the buildings at WDW, which I should've expected. I ended up ordering hot tea with dessert so I could warm myself up a little. But before that I was basically shivering the whole time.

Here's my "I'm having dinner at Be our Guest and freezing my butt off" selfie:

Speaking of dessert, I love how they bring around the cute little dessert cart. All the options looked really good, but we decided on sharing the grey stuff (because how can you go to BOG and not try the grey stuff!) and the strawberry cupcake.

These were both really good, but the strawberry cupcake was AMAZING!

All in all our meal here was a great experience. I think this will be a staple of any future trips I go on. The food was great, the ambiance was amazing, it was just great all the way around. I loved every second of it, even if it was super cold in there. I know a lot of people think Be our Guest is overrated but I honestly don't feel that at all. It was worth every bit of hype, and then some. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

We got the check, then went to go wait to meet the beast. Just as we got to the front of the line he left to go "check on the kitchen", and the cast member said I could sit in his chair until he got back. So I did.

He came back and we got our pictures. He was very soft and cuddly, like Chewbacca. And of course, he was a very courteous host!

I was sad to leave Be our Guest, but we had FPs to go meet Rapunzel and Tiana that I was excited about. The Princess and the Frog is one of my favorite Disney movies, but I had never managed to meet Tiana at Disneyland before.

She was a ton of fun! I don't remember what we were talking about here

Then we got a nice posed pic:

Also, you'll notice in these pics I have a jacket on. After we left dinner we went to the nearest gift shop and I bought one of those souvenir 2017 jackets. It was a lot more money than I wanted to spend but I was cold and desperate. It was cool enough that I wore it for the rest of the night.

We met Rapunzel next. She was cute:

We decided to go over and use our anytime FP for Big Thunder Mountain. While we were waiting to get on Big Thunder I got us a FP for, wait for it.... Space Mountain of course!

For our final FP of the day, I scored one for Peter Pan. Neither of us are too crazy about that ride, but I was happy that I got a FP for it because the lines are always so crazy. It's cute, but not worth the wait at all.

By this point we were both feeling tired, but we were determined to make it through EMH from 11-1. So we went down main street and made a Starbucks run, and then found a place to sit and relax for a second.

It was about 11 at that point, so we watched the masses leave the park before heading back over to Big Thunder Mountain. It was a walk on, so we rode it twice. Then we saw that the wait for 7 Dwarves was only 30 minutes so we went over there. The wait ended up being closer to 60

The flash was not loving me in these pics this ride was a lot more fun than the first time because we were near the back and we finally mastered how to swing the carts

For our last big EMH ride we went back to, what else, Space Mountain:

We were celebrating being seated in the front, after being put in the back for most of the other rides.


We did the astro orbiter on the way out, and then made our way to the buses. Our evening at the Magic Kingdom was complete! On the bus ride back I moved our first FP of the next day, Kilimanjaro Safaris, back by an hour so we could sleep just a little bit more. I knew that there was no way rope drop was happening (serious props to those of you who can hit rope drop multiple days in a row), and I was planning on staying at the Animal Kingdom all day so we could see Pandora during the EMH. Things didn't quite work that way, but we did have an amazing day at the Animal Kingdom! But I'll save that for the next update

 

[Spacecow]

Soooo I've set a bit of a goal for myself. My photopass pictures expire on July 16, and while I've already downloaded them I use the website's timestamps to remind me where we were and when, which is super helpful for this report. So my goal is to have this report complete (or mostly complete) by the 16th! Seems reasonable, right? With that being said, on to the next update:

Part 7- Animal Kingdom Part 1

I was super excited for our Animal Kingdom day, because we had FPs for Flights of Passage and I was hyped to see Pandora. But all the hype in the world wasn't going to get us to rope drop that day, because we were both exhausted. So we "slept in" and arrived at the park around 10:30.

We bought animal ears to mark the occasion. The photographer noticed and told us to make animal claws. A lot of the pics that we took this day ended up being my favorites!

We headed up to our first FP, the safari. I was a bit nervous because I heard that the number of animals you see can change a lot depending on what time you get on, but I think we got pretty lucky!

We were right up front too, so we could feel the cool air that was blowing on the driver, which was a bonus.

This giraffe stood right in the middle of the road and then walked right next to us. It was so cool to see it up close!

We also saw a family of elephants:

And some zebras:

We saw the lions too but I didn't take a pic of them since they were just sleeping

All in all it was a fun safari ride! We took a moment to sit and do our mobile ordering for Satuli Canteen before it was time to head to Pandora! Our flight of passage FP started at 11:20 and I wanted to be there right away because I wasn't sure what to expect as far as wait times.

Pandora is even more beautiful in person, pictures really don't do it justice. We got in line for Flights of Passage right at 11:20, and we were out at exactly 11:50. The only real wait we had was before the preshow, when the cast member has to count and divide us into groups, and it wasn't that long. We both loved the ride, but for some reason the 3D effect didn't work too well for me at times. It felt like my glasses weren't focused or something. It went away, but it did kind of put a damper on things a little. Still, it was an amazing ride! I think the "Soarin on steroids" description is accurate. You really feel like you're on a banshee, drops and all. I'm so glad we had FPs for it. I think I had the advantage because my FP day was in late March, before Pandora opened and before a lot of the hype. There was a ton of availability, and that's definitely not the case now from what I've read on the DIS.

Side note: When we got on the ride a guy in our room lost their magic band in the ride. He dropped it and it fell underneath the ride vehicle and into the ride itself according to what he said. I felt really bad for him, but my (selfish) first thought was "I hope they don't close the ride or anything while they look for it". There seemed to be a delay as the cast member walked into our room, walked out, closed the door, opened the door again, walked through again, and then left.... But then the ride went on as usual.

After we got off the ride we backtracked over to the floating mountains to get a photopass pic:

.... And we tried to point in the general direction of the banshee, but I think it looks a litttle off

I got the notification that our mobile orders were ready, so we went to go pick those up.

Mobile ordering was sooooo convenient! We skipped the entire line and maybe waited 5 minutes. We managed to get a table inside too. It seemed like they were really trying to crack down on people saving tables while their party was in line, and they had a cast member helping people find tables once they had their food.

I ordered the bowl with beef as my protein, romaine and kale as my base, and creamy herb dressing as my sauce. I kept the vegetable slaw but got it without the boba balls because I think they're disgusting. I don't 100% remember (and neither does she) what my sister had but I think she had the chicken, with the quinoa and vegetable base, and the creamy herb dressing. I'm pretty sure the quinoa & vegetable part is correct because I remember looking at her order after she put it in on my phone and asking "..... Did you really mean to pick that?" because I think quinoa is BEYOND gross.

Anyway, here's what my bowl looked like:

I'm not even exaggerating (ok maybe a tiny bit) when I saw that this was AMAZING. Like, to the point of it being one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. The dressing was SO. GOOD. The greens were fresh, the beef was tender, everything worked so well together and it was amazingly refreshing. And this is coming from someone who's a super picky eater. I basically have the taste pallet of a very picky toddler. I could live on chicken tenders, french fries, and pizza if you let me (and i basically did when i got to college.... The freshmen 15 is REAL people). I was really worried I wouldn't like anything at Satuli but I was soooooo wrong. I'm usually not a big fan of most vegetables but whatever they make the vegetable slaw out of is so good! I loved this meal from beginning to end. Even looking at this pic now is making me hungry. I've legitimately had dreams about this meal, that's now good it was. I can't recommend this place enough.

We took some time to let our food settle before heading out of Pandora to explore the rest of the park. We still had some time to kill before our Expedition Everest FP.


So of course we stopped for photopass pics!

This is probably my favorite picture of the whole trip! I love everything about it. When I sent it to my parents my dad asked if we matched our ears to our hair color on purpose. We totally didn't, but that makes it even better!

Dinosaur had pretty short waits at this point so we decided to go check it and Dino Land USA out before heading to Everest.

Dinosaur was cool! I know it's the same ride system as Indiana Jones in Disneyland, but I thought this one was rougher and more fun. Here's our ride pic.... I don't even remember at what point the ride took the picture!

We headed over to Dinoland to ride Primeval Whirl, which we both loved. We looooove Wild Mouse coasters. The pain is part of the fun!

We STILL had more time to kill before our Everest FP, so we got frozen lemonades and sat down to cool off. I went through Snapchat's Pandora filters while we waited:

Then we headed over to Everest finally, but of course we stopped for some photo pass pics:

Not sure what the butterfly has to do with Everest, but it's cute!

We didn't have long of a wait in the FP line, and soon enough we were on Everest. I was super excited for this ride, and it definitely lived up to expectations. I just wish the section where you go backwards was longer or steeper, I really thought it would be more intense based on the videos I'd seen. Don't get me wrong, I love that part of the ride though.

Anyway here's the ride pic:

I quickly hopped on the app and got us another FP that started soon after, so we rode it again:

By this point we were sort of out of things to do, as far as rides go. It was too hot to do any of the trails in my opinion, so I got back on the app to see what our next move would be. I considered going to see the Lion King show, which I hear is really good, so I wanted to see if I could get a FP for that. I wasn't seeing any availability that was soon enough for me so I decided to check the other parks too, since we had the Express Transportation pass and I wanted to get my money's worth.

By complete luck, I found us FPs at EPCOT for Soarin! Then, the wheels in my brain started turning. My plan for the next day was for us to rope drop EPCOT and ride Soarin and Test Track, since I used our tier 1 FP on Frozen. Buuutttt if we managed to ride both of those ahead of time, we wouldn't have to rope drop or even show up to EPCOT until at least 12 for our Frozen FP. Since I value sleep more than anything else, I decided that was what we were going to try. So the plan was: express bus over to EPCOT, ride Soarin, hopefully get a FP for Test Track and ride that too, maybe have dinner, then bus it back over to the Animal Kingdom for the evening.

So I booked the FPs and we headed over to the express bus to EPCOT! I'll start the next post with that portion of our day

 

[Felicis]

Oh the expression on the kid behind you on Everest, classic!

So many great pics!

 

[Newsies]

So, so late but here to stay for the rest of the TR!

First of all, all of your photos came out lovely!

Thank you so much for your reviews of Pandora and your experience with the express transportation! My family is going back to WDW at the end of the month and we haven't been to Pandora yet, and we're thinking about buying into the express transportation option. Seeing you rave about both is super helpful!

You guys did SO much in the time you were in WDW. You packed so many rides and characters into every day, and your dining reservations were great!

Awesome TR!

 

[Spacecow]

Oh the expression on the kid behind you on Everest, classic!

So many great pics!

Lol, I know right! A huge part of the fun of ride photos is seeing the other people's reactions Glad you like the pics!

So, so late but here to stay for the rest of the TR!

First of all, all of your photos came out lovely!

Thank you so much for your reviews of Pandora and your experience with the express transportation! My family is going back to WDW at the end of the month and we haven't been to Pandora yet, and we're thinking about buying into the express transportation option. Seeing you rave about both is super helpful!

You guys did SO much in the time you were in WDW. You packed so many rides and characters into every day, and your dining reservations were great!

Awesome TR!

Glad to have you along! I couldn't imagine park hopping without express transportation. We wouldn't have been able to squeeze in as much as we did without it, especially when we hopped from EPCOT- Magic Kingdom - Animal Kingdom in one evening (as you'll see in my next update, lol)

We really wanted to "go big or go home" with this trip, lol. I'm glad we accomplished so much but it was exhausting, I needed like a week to recover! On my next trip, whenever that may be, I'd like it to be a longer trip so we could go at a slower pace. 5 days at Disneyland is nice and leisurely but 5 days at WDW felt like a whirlwind.

 

[Spacecow]

Part 8- Express Hopping to EPCOT, because why not? Plus a quick trip to Space

After making the spur of the moment decision to pop over to EPCOT and use our newly acquired FPs for Soarin', we headed over to the express transportation bus. We were the only ones on the bus this time, which was kinda cool. I can't help but think Disney would save a little money by using smaller buses for the express transportation, because the buses were usually empty or close to empty every time we used them. But hey, maybe they know something I don't.

We arrived at EPCOT and immediately went to get some photopass pics:

Tinkerbell decided to grace us with some pixie dust:

And we got a cool shot with the monorail in the background! One thing we didn't do on this trip was ride the monorail we rarely ever ride it at Disneyland either. Side note for any Simpsons fans out there, all I can think of whenever I see a monorail is the Marge vs. The Monorail episode. I sing the song in my head every time

Since I suffer from a complete inability to read maps, I wasn't exactly sure where to find Soarin'. We wandered a little bit, and found another photopass photographer:

After he scanned my band I asked him if he knew where Soarin' was. He said yes, but didn't elaborate. So I asked him if he would tell us where Soarin' was, and then he gave us directions.

We got to the land pavilion and got in the fastpass line for Soarin'. This was probably our longest fastpass wait of the whole trip, actually. I was so worried about having a long wait in Pandora, when I should've been worried about Soarin'. We waited close to 20 minutes! But that gave me plenty of time to refresh the app and try to get us a FP for Test Track. It took a while and I was starting to lose hope but I managed to get one that was about an hour away. I figured that was fine, given how long of an experience Soarin' was turning out to be.

We finally got on the ride, and it was..... Alright. We like Soarin' at California Adventure but usually skip it because of the long lines. The new film was cool, but they reaalllyyy need to do something about how much the experience sucks if you're on the edges, like we were. Everything was crooked! And not even a little crooked- the Eiffel Tower looked like it was bending in half. You'd think they'd want a ride that looks good for all the guests riding it, not just the ones in the center. For how long we waited, it was disappointing. But I'm glad we had FPs and didn't wait even longer in standby.

We still had some time to kill before our Test Track FP so we decided to get dinner at Sunshine Seasons. I wasn't super hungry, so I just had the caesar salad and whatever that pastry is, I can't really remember. It was good though.

While we were sitting and eating we noticed a lot of people coming in wearing rain ponchos. The daily rainstorm had begun unfortunately, which spelled trouble for our Test Track FPs . Sure enough, I checked the app and it was closed. We rode living with the land and then checked again. Nope, still closed. So we put on our rain ponchos and walked over to the Seas to kill some time. The rain was super light by this point so I figured Test Track would be back sooner rather than later.

So this might sound silly but I had no idea the Seas had such a big aquarium in it! I thought it was just the nemo ride. We were really surprised, and really liked watching the dolphins. We had a good time there, and time passed by quickly. Then Test Track was FINALLY back, so we rushed over there- I was scared it would start raining again.

Test Track was another ride I was really excited about. Radiator Springs Racers is really fun and I knew Test Track would be even faster, which is always better We had a ton of fun designing a ridiculous car, that we affectionately named Big Purple:

I don't remember how well Big Purple did in all the tests on the ride, but I think she won at least once! Here's our ride photo, it's not the best since my sister blocked my face lol:

But the ride was a ton of fun! I had no idea it would be THAT fast. It just kept accelerating!! I loved it.

Now that our two tasks at EPCOT were complete, I started plotting our next move. I didn't want to spend much more time at EPCOT because that was our plan for the next day, and we had dinner reservations at Via Napoli too so I wanted to save the evening activities for tomorrow. We went over to the Starbucks to refuel and reassess. It was after 8pm by this point, and I wanted us to be back at Pandora for the EMH starting at 11. Then were was Rivers of Light, which I wasn't 100% sold on seeing since I had read that it pretty much always needs a fastpass and I don't like to use fastpasses on shows.

So to kill some time before heading back to the Animal Kingdom, I did what I do best..... Got on the app and got us fastpasses for Space Mountain, of course! We decided it would be "our thing" this trip to ride Space Mountain every day.

The express transportation made it super convenient to hop on the bus from EPCOT to the Magic Kingdom. By 9, we were posing for photopass pics in front of our favorite ride:

Side note: Even though we were at Space Mountain every night, we only saw this photographer this one time. I wonder how they decide where the photographers should be and when? It's a cool shot, I wish it had been there more often.

Baymax made an appearance too, which seemed a little random but who am I to complain!

Then it was time to do what we do best, ride Space Mountain...... And here's the place that I would put our ride picture, only I just recently noticed that we never got the picture from this night's ride! We have all the others, just this one's missing. It kind of bummed me out! I could've sworn we claimed it at the end of the ride, like we did every other time. Oh well. It's lost in cyberspace

While we were waiting to get on Space Mountain I got back on the app to plan our next move. I found a fastpass for the second showing of Rivers of Light, and I figured we might as well watch it. It's a 10:30 showing and a 15 minute show, which would give us time to head back over to Pandora after it ended. So with that plan in mind, we got on the next express bus back to the Animal Kingdom. I'll start off the next post with our evening with Rivers of Light, Everest, and Pandora

 

[meganc]

The express transportation made it super convenient to hop on the bus from EPCOT to the Magic Kingdom. By 9, we were posing for photopass pics in front of our favorite ride

REALLY making me consider purchasing express transportation passes for my upcoming trip! I've always been of the mindset that it was a waste of money since it's already a free service they're providing, but I hate standing in the bus lines and being packed in there, hot and sweaty!

 

[Spacecow]

REALLY making me consider purchasing express transportation passes for my upcoming trip! I've always been of the mindset that it was a waste of money since it's already a free service they're providing, but I hate standing in the bus lines and being packed in there, hot and sweaty!

I think it's 100% worth it, especially in the heat! The buses were always right on schedule, so if you time it right you can walk right on for a nice empty bus ride in the AC.

 

[earfulofmagic]

It tickles me pink to see y'all rode Space Mountain every day, sometimes multiple times in a row it's always good to love something that much, and seriously, an awesome use of the express transportation/FP+ strategy!

 

[Lesley Wake]

I'm loving this trip report! It's especially helpful because it will be so similar to the trip I'm taking in September-me and my sister, who care more about rides, and we're planning on doing the express bus! Also, we're both DLR vets so the comparisons help!

 

[Spacecow]

I'm loving this trip report! It's especially helpful because it will be so similar to the trip I'm taking in September-me and my sister, who care more about rides, and we're planning on doing the express bus! Also, we're both DLR vets so the comparisons help!

Yay, I'm glad to hear that this has been helpful for you! I just popped over and read your PTR- how exciting that it's your first trip! I had soooo much fun planning mine, now that it's over I feel like there's a huge hole in my life lol. Your plans seem great, I wish I had that long of a trip. WDW is great with just 2 people, you guys will have a great time It's a whole different animal than Disneyland, but still tons of fun.

 

[Spacecow]

Part 9- Animal Kingdom Evening + a 20 Minute Wait in Pandora!

When I last left off we were express hopping back to the Animal Kingdom, with plans to watch Rivers of Light and then go check out the EMH in Pandora. When we arrived, we of course took a minute for a photopass pic:

And then we walked down to the Tree of Life, which looks so pretty all lit up at night! So naturally we got a picture:

Then it was about time to go watch Rivers of Light. I had heard mixed things about the show, but we both liked it. It's not amazing by any means, but it was well done. That being said, I wouldn't wait to watch it in standby and I wouldn't use any of my initial 3 FPs on it. Every night that I checked, I found FPs for the second show. So if you want to see it, I'd recommend waiting for the second show. It wasn't full at all, and we got great spots just by showing up 10 minutes before it started. I didn't take any pictures (boo, I know!). There was a woman in front of us who took pictures with her iPad THE WHOLE TIME, with the shutter noise on. That was just a littttle bit annoying

The show ended at 10:45ish and we immediately headed over to get a ride on Everest. This was probably the longest wait we had for Everest the whole trip, it was about 15 minutes (we were so spoiled with short wait times, lol). This was also the only time we got to see all off the Standby queue. Everest is so much fun at night!!

Here's the ride pic, we decided to look scared :

According to the photopass website this pic was taken right at 11. We got off the ride and started heading to Pandora. Along the way, we encountered a lot of annoyed/confused people who thought the whole park was open for EMH, not just Pandora. I think Disney did a good enough job making that clear, but maybe not.

I was really excited to see Pandora at night. I was cautious about potential crowds and long lines, but I figured we didn't really have anything else to do so waiting in line wouldn't be so bad. This was the only way we were going to ride the River Journey ride either way, because despite my skills with the app I never had any luck finding a same day FP for either of the Pandora rides.

Pandora at night definitely lives up to the hype.... But you'll have to take my word for it, because I didn't get any decent pics we got a couple photopass pics the next night (spoiler alert, we did back to back Pandora EMHs lol), so I'll share those sometime in the next few updates. But on this night, we didn't see any photographers.

This one's super blurry because I was walking, but at least you can see the lights a little:

We got to the River Journey and saw that it was a 50 minute wait. We figured that was about as good as we were gonna get, especially considering we took our time getting there. So we got in line. The queue for this ride isn't interesting, so there really wasn't anything to pass the time other than standing there buried in our phones.

We moved through the queue and got to a point that looked like the entrance to a cave. There was a cast member there asking how many we had in our party. I said two, and she waved us through. I was ready to see another endless mass of queue ropes when I looked inside, but instead... I saw the loading area! The ride was RIGHT THERE! I legitimately gasped, and checked my phone. We had only been waiting for 20 minutes!! That's right, the posted wait time was 30 minutes off. I couldn't believe it. We REALLY lucked out.

The ride was beautiful, but short. I definitely wouldn't wait longer than we did for it. I really was only interested in riding it to see the Shaman animatronic, which is even more amazing in person. It really feels like a giant Navi is right there. Like, to the point where I could see it scaring kids- it kinda scared me! It looked SO realistic.

I took just this one pic on the ride, it really is so pretty:

Still in shock over how short our wait was, we got off the ride and headed over to try the drinks at Pongu Pongu. My sister had the non-alcoholic night blossom and I had the Mo'ara Margarita. No pics again (boo!) but it was very good, just strong. And I HATED that it came with boba balls. I'm not sure why everything in Pandora has those stupid boba balls in it! They're so gross

We walked around with our drinks and just absorbed the ambiance. I considered getting in line for Flight of Passage but the line stretched waaaay past the start of the queue. As we were walking, someone approached us and asked if we had been on the river ride yet. I said yes, and figured they were going to ask for directions (side note: Pandora is a bit confusing to navigate at night. It's very dark) but instead he gave us two rider swap return passes, saying that his family wasn't going to use them. I was really touched! He disappeared into the darkness before I could get a good look at him but we made sure and thanked him. There was a girl with him, and she sounded young-ish but I didn't see her either.

We decided that we would use one of the passes the next night, and pay it forward by giving the other one away to a random family at some point during the rest of our trip. Since we didn't want to wait for Flight of Passage we decided to call it a night and headed for the bus back to Riverside at about 12:30.

Since we had knocked out Soarin and Test Track there really wasn't any reason to rope drop EPCOT the next day, and our Frozen Ever After FP was from 12:30-1:30, so the plan was to sleep in a bit and start the day around noon. Which sounded AMAZING after going so hard the first couple days of our trip. I said this earlier, but seriously, props to anyone who can handle starting right at rope drop multiple days in a row. I just like sleep waaaaay too much to make early mornings happen, even at Disney.

When we got back to the room I was surfing through the channels and stumbled on Avatar. They had it on repeat on the resort TVs, which I thought was a nice touch. I hadn't seen it since it came out in 2009, and I remember thinking it wasn't that great. I think it was only so successful because of how well done the 3D was- I don't think any other movie managed to do that better. But story wise, it's pretty meh. I decided to give it a little bit of a second chance, and it was cool to see the little details that made their way to Pandora. I didn't mean to watch a lot of it, but next thing I knew the movie was over and it was nearly 3am! I still think it's not that great of a movie, but apparently I liked it enough to watch all of it.

I'll start off the next update with our late start day at EPCOT.

 

[Spacecow]

Okay, so my plan of finishing this by the 17th obviously isn't happening. July has been super busy for me actually, the company I've been interning for hired me full time and I just signed for a new apartment! But enough about that, let's get back to the TR....

Part 10- Rolling up to Epcot at noon

Like I said in the previous part, I was able to move our FPs back to the afternoon and since we already rode Soarin' and Test Track there was no need to rope drop Epcot. Since this was day 4 of our trip we were feeling pretty sluggish so it was great to sleep in. We took our time getting to the park and arrived at around 12:30, during our Frozen FP window.

I stopped to buy new Minnie ears at the enterance, and then we headed over to Norway. We didn't have long of a wait before we got on the ride:

Not exactly the greatest ride picture, seeing as how we were in the back and my sister's face was covered. But despite my expression I really enjoyed the ride! I thought it was very cute and well done. The Elsa animatronic was very cool. That being said, I wouldn't want to wait very long for it and I'm glad I had a fastpass.

We had some time to kill before our next fastpass at the character spot so we rode the Mexico ride and then went over to the La Cantina de San Angel for lunch. The tacos I had were really good, and I'm usually not one who loves Mexican food. We got to sit inside too, which was a big plus since it was hot hot HOTT outside.

After lunch, we headed over to the character spot and stopped to take some photopass pics along the way:

Tinkerbell made another appearance:

And then it was time to meet the characters! Since there aren't a lot of good tier 2 options in Epcot I was super limited, but I figured characters are always fun and it was a good way to get inside. As you can see, the sky was looking very foreboding by this point.

Even with our fastpass we still had about a 20 minute wait. But it went by quickly and before I knew it, it was our turn.

First we met Mickey:

Then Goofy:

Then last but not least, Minnie:

Since we were already in the area and had some time before our fastpass for Spaceship Earth, we decided to head over and meet Baymax and Joy and Sadness. There wasn't much of a wait for Baymax, which was good.

He was a lot of fun! I still don't know what the deal with him is. Is he a robot? Is there someone in the costume? I couldn't tell. We had plenty of time to contemplate that while we waited for Joy and Sadness. I had read that their lines were long, and while our line wasn't that long the wait itself was because they were spending so much time with each person. It was about a 30 minute wait but it was so worth it! They were so much fun.

Sadness is soooo cute! This was probably my favorite character meet and greet of the whole trip.

We went and rode Spaceship Earth, and I decided that this was a good point in the day for our daily express trip to the Magic Kingdom. So we hopped on the bus and headed for our usual stop- a fastpass ride on Space Mountain:

Maybe we should've told the woman behind us that the theme was "look serious"

By this point the sky was looking suuuuper cloudy and I knew the daily rainstorm wasn't far off. We had dinner reservations at Via Napoli and I wanted to spend some time walking around the world showcase, so we hopped back to Epcot. We got there right before the rain started, but didn't get far before it started pouring. So we put on our ponchos..... And found a photopass photographer:

This is actually one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip! And yes, I know it looks silly for us to wear our backpacks on the front but it makes it so much easier to get to your stuff when you're wearing a poncho!

We walked around the world showcase until it was time for dinner at Via Napoli. I didn't take any food pictures here but we both really liked it! We shared an order of spaghetti and a personal sized pizza. It's definitely good pizza, probably not the best I've ever had though. All in all, a good dinner. It rained throughout dinner which made me nervous for the Test Track fast passes I managed to snag, but it let up enough by the time we were done that we were able to get right on.

The ride is a lot of fun in the dark and the ride photo we got this time was much better than the first time around!

It was around 9pm by this point and we didn't really have any interest in watching Illuminations, so we express hopped over to the Animal Kingdom for another night in Pandora. We planned on using the rider swap FP that the kind stranger gave us the night before, and taking some pictures since we didn't get around to it the first night. I'll start off the next update with that

 

[thumper*]

Hello just found your TR and am following along.

Aren't you two so stinking cute. You guys took alot of great pictures.

"Winnie the Pooh and friends are ready to welcome *family name*" when your table is ready.

That's neat I'd never heard about thatin all of the reports I've read.

the company I've been interning for hired me full time and I just signed for a new apartment!

How exciting congratulations on this big life experience.

You just might have convinced me about the express transport. I'm amazed at how much you guys got accomplished. Space Mountain daily.....how awesome.

 

[cinderaimee]

Loving your TR! Just found it today and read the whole thing! Congratulations on your graduation and the new job!

You and your sister are adorable and your report is really making me long for a trip to WDW with my sisters

 

[Spacecow]

Part 11- Coming back after a long absence.... And our second night in Pandora

Okkaaayyy it's time I dust off this TR! Life has been crazy busy lately. Now that I'm working 9-5 I don't have time for most things, much less the DIS! But that's being an adult I guess. But enough about me, let's get back to the trip.

We got on our express transportation bus to the Animal Kingdom, and soon enough we were there. Before heading to Pandora for the EMH we decided to get in a few rides on Everest.

It's actually really difficult to hold an unimpressed face on Everest, since the picture gets taken right as you start that big drop. I started screaming immediately after I saw the flash go off, lol. By this point the park was closing so we said goodbye to Everest (with only one day left in our trip, we didn't have any more park hopping planned and I had booked for last FPs in the Magic Kingdom) and started making the trek over to Pandora. Just like the night before we encountered a lot of confused and angry guests who didn't realize that the evening EMH was just for Pandora. Props to the cast members who had to deal with that.

As soon as we got to Pandora, we went on a mission to find photopass photographers and take advantage of the opportunity to get some pretty night pics:

And a magic shot of course:

Then we headed over to use the rider swap FP that we were given by that kind stranger the night before. The line was long by this point and it felt really good to just walk right up and get on- I was worried at first that we couldn't use it during EMH but that wasn't a problem. This time, we were seated behind a family of two parents and four small children. One was a baby, but it was probably the most people I've ever seen in one row. I couldn't help but think that I would've been SO terrified of the Navi shaman when I was little.... Honestly I'm a little afraid of her now! It's just. So. Lifelike.

After we got off the ride we walked around a little, enjoying the ambiance, and briefly considered riding FOP again...... But we just couldn't justify waiting in that long line, especially when we were both so tired after another long day (which wasn't really that long, since we slept til noon, but whatever). I still kinda regret not seeing the queue, but that's a goal for next time I guess

We said our final goodbyes to Pandora, and to the Animal Kingdom, and headed for the buses. I remember this being a looonngggg bus ride for whatever reason. You would think that it would've been less crowded because of the EMH but we had a long wait to even get on the bus, and it was completely packed. After what felt like forever, we finally got back to our room.

And so our 4th day was finished. The plan for our 5th and final day was to spend the morning at Blizzard Beach and then end the trip with an afternoon/evening in the Magic Kingdom. It felt bittersweet, as last days always do, but I was excited for Blizzard Beach. I made my sister promise that she would do Summit Plummet with me. I was super excited for that one, I love waterslides and had never really had the chance to go on BIG slides. The local waterparks in Phoenix are fun, but they don't have anything near the level of Summit Plummet. So with that to look forward to, we went to sleep.

I'll start off the next update with all things Blizzard Beach, because luckily for us (although I really didn't expect it) they had plenty of photopass photographers there!

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Really enjoying your report! You're a star at getting fast pssses!

 

[Spacecow]

Really enjoying your report! You're a star at getting fast pssses!

Thanks! I still can't believe how well we did with getting fastpasses but I guess being willing to rapidly refresh the app pays off

 

[amg13]

Just joining in to this report. You are great with the fastpasses, and all your pics are great - both PhotoPass and your own. The fireworks pics are some of the best I've seen. And btw even when you say it is a bad pic you're still super cute. Plus Space Mountain every day - AWESOME!

Anyway, I'm usually more of a reader and don't comment too often, but I went to CU for grad school so I had to say congrats on your graduation and Go Buffs!