"At Least The Disasters Are Magical!" A January TR (CRAZY SEAGULL ATTACK update 5/11)

[LuvEeyore]

Glad you had such a good day at AK. JIKO is a great place. We really enjoyed it in January when we went.

 

[wdwcarla]

Glad you had such a good day at AK. JIKO is a great place. We really enjoyed it in January when we went.

Jiko was amazing! I'm really excited to try it again!

 

[Sneezie]

My family is from Alexandria! What part are you from?

Hi, I'm further South. Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I work in Baton Rouge.

 

[wdwcarla]

Hi, I'm further South. Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I work in Baton Rouge.

That's awesome! And lucky that you get to be in between two amazing cities.

 

[wdwcarla]

Hello everyone! Welcome back to the show!​

It’s been a while, and I’m sorry! School kind of took over my entire life for a sec there. On the bright side, only 6 weeks left and I will have an undergrad!

Picking up where I left off: We’re starting a new day! But this was the day when the best laid plans started going awry. It started off from the very beginning. We woke up late. I don’t know what happened! We were just so tired! But I should have just gotten us up at 7 am instead of almost 8:30 am. Everything kind of got thrown off from that point.

So we rushed to get breakfast (same as every day) and rushed to Hollywood Studios. We made it there at around 9:45, which was totally NOT good. So our time at HS was supposed to be from 8:30-10:15am and now we only had about 30 mins for HS. At first I didn’t think that was a huge problem because HS is our least favorite park. I always have a hard time fitting it into our plans anyway. This was probably the worst planning, though.

It was the first time I had ever seen an Army guy in person!​

When we showed up at HS, we went to our first FP+ at Toy Story Mania. This is one of my favorite rides, mostly because it’s 3D that doesn’t make me sick.

Mr. Potato Head was SO funny!​

The line actually wasn’t so long, after the FP+ so we rode it again. That second time kind of wiped me out for some reason! I felt pretty nauseous afterwards. It was especially frustrating because I am usually 100% OK on this ride. I guess riding it twice is not a good idea. But I beat Grant the second time around! That’s the important part.

After that we were kind of clueless on what to do. We had no time to do everything that we were supposed to do, so we kind of had to pick one other thing.

We decided to do something that we haven’t done before and we went to make a droid! It was kind of awkward because there was a weird line in the middle of the store to get to the droid building section and a handler there. So I couldn’t even really take any pictures because I felt so rushed.

The one picture I did take!​

The line handler did NOT like that I was taking time to photograph things and pretty much asked me not to do that. So after this it was basically time to go.

Ok, so you guys might be really disappointed in me, but we strayed from our plans again. I still felt sick so we decided to just go back to the hotel and rest up. The original plan was to go straight to MK and take a break on Tom Sawyer Island. So we left the park at 10:45ish and went home and straight to sleep.

Guess what happened, guys. We overslept AGAIN. And at first I didn’t panic when I saw the clock at 12:15pm, but then I immediately panicked. We had a reservation at Be Our Guest at 1:00pm!

I don’t even know how to describe how fast we tried to get to Magic Kingdom. It was NUTS. I was already upset because I had felt sick all morning and I just steadily got more upset. So we decided to cheat to get into MK quickly. We skipped the TTC and parked at the Contemporary. We rushed in to get on the monorail. We had 12 minutes to get there, by that point. But at the Contemporary, one of the monorails was out and we were ushered into another one going to opposite direction. So instead of going straight to MK, we stopped at all the other resorts first.

I will admit: I did cry. I was SO excited to see Be Our Guest. I ended up cancelling the reservation just as we got off the monorail at MK. In hindsight, we could have made it if we ran, but I was still kind of sleepy/sick.

We decided to go back to the Contemporary (this time taking the walkway, which was much faster) to move our car from the resort to the TTC and monorail back into MK.

When we got back to MK, Grant and I kind of awkwardly stood around trying to figure out what to do. We ended up kind of blaming each other, but you know, that’s what couples do! Thankfully, we kind of got over it pretty quickly. We were at Disney World after all! And in my favorite park!

So we ended up going to the Columbia Harbour House for lunch. I got the salmon (out of curiousity) and Grant got a tuna sandwich. I know I mentioned this before but we both are pescatarian. We will only eat fish if we are feeling low on the energy side (like today!).

The salmon was pretty good for the price! And Grant said he enjoyed his sandwich. We got a nice quiet seat by the window and kind of relaxed. Next time I’ll get Be Our Guest hopefully.

The day was only half over at this point but my plans were way, way off. I’ll be back soon with the second part of this day! Thanks for reading!

 

[Sailormoon2]

Great updates so far. It's such a pain travelling with motion sickness, I too have suffered with it my entire life. Even standing on a dock (on thewater) will make me nauseous! But I come from a family of ride commandos (then married one) so in order to feel included I have conditioned myself to ride anyways. I am Canadian and take a product called Gravol (I believe it is essentially the same as Dramamine) and it does an impressive job. I can ride all rollercoasters (including loops) and although I don't feel "wonderful" after I can manage. August will be our first trip to Disney and US and am really worried about the motion simulator rides-I find these way worse than any coaster!!! So I may try a whole assortment of products, including your herbal recommendation (if I can find it!). Reading this report will really hlep me pin point which days I will definitely need to stock up. So far looks like MK will be a breeze...but I may be "medicated" through all of US: As a die-hard Potter fan I am not missing out. LOL!

 

[MagentaMulan]

Sorry you two missed BOG. I wonder if you could have checked in late and still be able to get a table. When we were there, we were also late to BOG dinner, like 10 minutes past our reservation. I made a very Disney newbie mistake of taking the wdw railroad from Main Street over to Fantasyland. It took a lot longer than i thought. Luckily the CM told me they were running behind, so we were kinda on time and didn't wait to long to be seated.

 

[wdwcarla]

Hello everyone! So, here is a quick TR update. I didn't know how to write this out because the end of this day was pretty short and pretty upsetting. But here goes!

So after eating lunch and trying to be super bummed out about BOG, we had to reevaluate our plans. We were totally off in terms of ride plans and such. I was trying not to get irritated as I searched for open FP on the kiosks and I could find none that would work. So we just hung around and waited to watch Festival of Fantasy.

We stopped in Fronteirland because I wanted to test out the parade watching theory that crowds would be lower and the floats would be easier to see. In my opinion, we were still pretty cramped. There were storefronts behind us, so we really couldn't move otherwise we would be blocking the entrances. Next to us, there was a couple with a child and the mother was basically sitting on Grant's foot. As me and him tried to squeeze in so that we were next to each other (and not one behind the other) she gave us the meanest look. I don't understand why there was plenty of space if they could just stand like everyone else. Maybe I'm judging too harshly. But eventually a castmember came over and asked them to stand to give other people some space, so it worked out.

On the other side of us there was an off duty castmember and a friend so we got an earful of some interesting conversation!

Also, it was pretty cold. I had a thick wool sweater on and was still freezing!

The actual parade was wonderful. It's my favorite parade. But I would still prefer to sit in front of the castle or on Main Street while I watch, because it makes for a much better backdrop. And I realized that I prefer to be the floats a bit farther away from me so I can get good full shots. Eventually, I just put the camera down and enjoyed the parade.

There was a moment where I tried to take a good photo of Snow White. She came up to say hello to the castmember next to us and almost broke character. She ran over and gave him a hug! Some of the lost boys also came over, but they had no problem with breaking character. I thought it was pretty cute.

After the parade, things went downhill. The fatigue just hit me. The plan was to stay until Wishes, but I knew that I was just going to be aggravated and cold. So we decided that it would be best if we just left and went back to the hotel.

I was very sad that I couldn't watch Wishes on this trip and that my planning had gotten so messed up. We just wanted to get some rest and hit it hard the next day!

 

[wdwcarla]

Great updates so far. It's such a pain travelling with motion sickness, I too have suffered with it my entire life. Even standing on a dock (on thewater) will make me nauseous! But I come from a family of ride commandos (then married one) so in order to feel included I have conditioned myself to ride anyways. I am Canadian and take a product called Gravol (I believe it is essentially the same as Dramamine) and it does an impressive job. I can ride all rollercoasters (including loops) and although I don't feel "wonderful" after I can manage. August will be our first trip to Disney and US and am really worried about the motion simulator rides-I find these way worse than any coaster!!! So I may try a whole assortment of products, including your herbal recommendation (if I can find it!). Reading this report will really hlep me pin point which days I will definitely need to stock up. So far looks like MK will be a breeze...but I may be "medicated" through all of US: As a die-hard Potter fan I am not missing out. LOL!

I will check out that product! I would love to be able to just manage so I could at least enjoy the ride. The motion simulators are not so good, but thankfully Disney World has many different types of rides. If you go to Universal, you might not be so lucky. MK is usually very easy on me. I can ride pretty much everything. Thankfully, the Harry Potter section is also good for just walking around, taking it in and shopping, which is exactly what Diagon Alley was for, right?

 

[wdwcarla]

Sorry you two missed BOG. I wonder if you could have checked in late and still be able to get a table. When we were there, we were also late to BOG dinner, like 10 minutes past our reservation. I made a very Disney newbie mistake of taking the wdw railroad from Main Street over to Fantasyland. It took a lot longer than i thought. Luckily the CM told me they were running behind, so we were kinda on time and didn't wait to long to be seated.

That's so lucky! I'm thinking now that we could have made it. Next time, I will definitely plan better!

 

[irene_dsc]

Joining in! We just got back from our trip that included a couple days at the Dark Side - mainly for the Harry Potter stuff, of course. If you go back, check out more of the shows. Disaster was a lot of fun, for instance. But don't try Minions. The 3d was not great for (although we were right up front in the no motion seats, to avoid the line).

I also felt like I should've prepared more for our Universal days than I did...

 

[wdwcarla]

Joining in! We just got back from our trip that included a couple days at the Dark Side - mainly for the Harry Potter stuff, of course. If you go back, check out more of the shows. Disaster was a lot of fun, for instance. But don't try Minions. The 3d was not great for (although we were right up front in the no motion seats, to avoid the line).

I also felt like I should've prepared more for our Universal days than I did...

Welcome! Planning for Universal is still so hard for me. I'm going again soon, and I still get confused/lost with things like timing and food options.

 

[wdwcarla]

Hello everyone! Welcome back!​

So I left off with an end to a disastrous day at HS and MK. I was not happy. But on the plus side, I was able to catch up on sleep and woke up feeling a lot better. No leg pain on this day! Another plus was that there was no real rush to wake up early because I had planned to have a full day at Epcot starting at around 10:00am. We had plenty of time to get ready in the morning.

The first thing we did at Epcot was get lattes. I still can’t believe there was a Starbucks. I know some people don’t like it but I love me a caramel latte! But we mostly got hot drinks because it was freezing outside! It was 45 degrees or so and WINDY and we were not prepared. Many people had gloves, scarves, and hats. We walked around a bit, waiting for our 11:45 reservation, but got so cold that we decided to sit in Canada where the large buildings were blocking the wind.

It was also pretttyyyy empty in many little spots around Epcot.​

Eventually, it got a little warmer and we headed over to France! On the way we spotted Alice.

And this very cool sounding band!

We got to Chefs the France just in time for our reservation. The restaurant sat us very quickly, even though we were a bit early. It was so pretty!! And so festive.

Grant got veggie lasagna, which I had a few bites of. It was so good!

I got a smoked salmon salad after finding out the crepes couldn’t be made without the meat since they were prepackaged. But this salad actually kept me pretty full until dinner.

The only bad thing about dinner was the group of people that were sitting behind us. They were complaining about everything, and the poor waitress was getting pretty flustered. After we left the restaurant we headed back to Future World to use up our FP+ selections. We had to pick some selections that definitely didn’t need it, but you know, Disney does make us pick three. First up was Living With the Land! It was actually our first time on this one and it was actually quite inspiring. I almost wanted to go out and farm stuff. Almost.

During this ride, Grant was checking out the park map. Towards the end he leaned over and basically begged me to go on Captain EO. I really wasn’t interested in Captain EO, but Grant was way too excited. Unfortunately, the 3D gave me a bit of a headache, so I had to close my eyes for a few parts. It was worth it though, just because Grant liked it so much.

After EO, it was time for one of my favorites! Spaceship Earth! It’s a classic.

Then we took a pit stop at the aquarium that was connected to the Nemo ride. Very exciting stuff was going on there and we actually ended up spending a lot of time there.

A diver was coming out of a tank!

I found Dory ​

After this, it was time for some food! We stopped by a food cart in England, and grabbed some fish and chips. We walked around the corner and found a cute little spot with empty seats overlooking the water. It was almost too good to be true.

We started walking towards the area but then DISASTER.

That innocent little seagull you saw sitting there? Yeah, he turned around stared at us dead in the eyes and then immediately took flight STRAIGHT TOWARDS US. And then out of nowhere came literally a dozen other seagulls. They all dived towards our fish and chips, grabbed the first piece of fish right out of my hands and onto the floor. It was traumatizing. I don’t think anyone witnessed it, but someone probably heard me scream. We went back to get see if we could get a replacement fish and they graciously obliged.

The second batch!
​

Even though we went to sit down in another area, on the sidewalk, closer to a building, they still came swooping down trying to take our food away! It was unreal. We both ended up scarfing it down quickly. But now we were ready to face the rest of the evening! Stay tuned for the final TR post this week!

 

[irene_dsc]

Oh my gosh, that's just crazy! Those seagulls must've figured out that it was a good spot for lunch!!! Glad you got a replacement lunch!

 

[she's_a_funny_girl]

I just started watching this thread, yay! Love the pictures and your writing!!

Good gravy, that's pretty scary!! Seagulls can be really aggressive, I'm glad you got a replacement lunch, though!

 

[ursalita]

Hi! Just found your report and I enjoyed reading through it. You got some great pics. I hope you don't mind but I quoted some stuff so I would remember what I wanted to comment on.

So we headed over to Pecos Bill because I knew they had veggie burgers and it probably wasn’t going to be as crowded as other places

Ooh, thanks for the tip. I didn't know they had veggie burgers. I'll have to remember that for next time.

I didn’t really have time to ask the castmember about how fast it went or how big the drops were. This was something I probably should have looked at before. So I just thought, “Whatever, it can't be that bad.” I mean, look at how cute these ride vehicles are.

Isn't that the worst? You stand in the line and the whole time they're shouting at you about how scary the ride is. Then you go on the ride and it's not that bad. Turns out the line is scarier than the ride.

If you’re not a big eater, definitely check out the kid’s options.

I'll have to do that next time. I always think they won't let me order a kids meal because I'm not a kid. I also like your idea of going to the food carts (the falafel at AK).

I think if my boys get into Harry Potter when they get older we'll go to Universal but I was older when Harry Potter came out so I'm not that familiar with it.

​

Now this brings back my childhood.

But I couldn’t tell you how the actual ride went because my eyes were closed and my head was down the entire time! Some of it was fun, though, and Grant was very excited. He loved that ride. Next time, I’ll be better prepared.

I'm glad you and Grant got to experience it.

This little guy was running around like crazy. I wish I had filmed him.

Beautiful. Wish we'd seen him.

I actually don't think I've ever seen an owl up close before this moment, to be honest.

I've seen them in zoos but never in the wild. I hope I see one someday.

The line actually wasn’t so long, after the FP+ so we rode it again.

That was lucky. I've never seen standby under an hour.

I will admit: I did cry. I was SO excited to see Be Our Guest. I ended up cancelling the reservation just as we got off the monorail at MK. In hindsight, we could have made it if we ran, but I was still kind of sleepy/sick.

That's too bad.

I was very sad that I couldn't watch Wishes on this trip and that my planning had gotten so messed up. We just wanted to get some rest and hit it hard the next day!

Sorry you missed out on BOG and Wishes but I'm glad you were able to get some rest.

OMG. Both your meals look delicious. I'll have to add this place to my list to try even though DH doesn't like French food.

That innocent little seagull you saw sitting there? Yeah, he turned around stared at us dead in the eyes and then immediately took flight STRAIGHT TOWARDS US. And then out of nowhere came literally a dozen other seagulls. They all dived towards our fish and chips, grabbed the first piece of fish right out of my hands and onto the floor. It was traumatizing. I don’t think anyone witnessed it, but someone probably heard me scream. We went back to get see if we could get a replacement fish and they graciously obliged.

That's a crazy story but I'm glad they replaced the food. It must happen a lot.

 

[wdwcarla]

Oh my gosh, that's just crazy! Those seagulls must've figured out that it was a good spot for lunch!!! Glad you got a replacement lunch!

It's like they were waiting for us!

 

[wdwcarla]

I just started watching this thread, yay! Love the pictures and your writing!!

Good gravy, that's pretty scary!! Seagulls can be really aggressive, I'm glad you got a replacement lunch, though!

Thank you for reading! I did hear that seagulls at Epcot do that often in the winter, apparently. I'll make sure to eat inside a restaurant if I go to Epcot.

 

[princessraquel]

Hi i'm following along! Can't wait to read more!

 

[LuvEeyore]

Your updates are great. Try Be Our Guest for lunch. We really enjoyed it.
Sorry about the hungry birds. Those fish and chips were very good when we were there in January.