Updated 7/28 - SWGE Preview trip planning! - Coooo-rrect! Mom/Daughter Do WDW—A Feb 2019 TR

[kclark9830]

That is an awesome experience at ToT! How fun all around.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love all your ToT pictures, what an awesome night. I always think the ToT CM’s are so good and in character!

 

[Araminta18]

What an amazing day with your fun dining experience and then HS DAH. LOVE how rode ToT back to back so many times like that. And barely waited for Slinky! And Toy Story! Definitely got your money's worth! Your Mom is a hoot. How cool she loves the crazy rides just like you.

We *definitely* got outer money’s worth! I think it’s sad you have to pay to have these fun experiences but conversely I’m glad they’re available st all. It really started our trip off on a super high note!

That's one hell of a first day, wow!

It's my partners family first visit to WDW in August, I'm going to surprise her with the pin at check in and see what else I can squeeze in.

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip

Definitely get the pins!! Don’t expect a ton, cause it really varies, but sometimes you can get amazingly lucky with the pixie dust . I hope they have a great time!!

That is an awesome experience at ToT! How fun all around.

So much fun!! I was worried Mom might get motion sick or something but I must get my iron stomach from her—she just kept wanting to go again and again

I love all your ToT pictures, what an awesome night. I always think the ToT CM’s are so good and in character!

ToT CMs are the best, I completely agree! They’re so funny in character. Lots of the ones tonight weren’t but like I said, there were still a few doing the whole shtick

 

[amberdc1987]

Awesome start!! Great upgrade! To bad your didn't have time to enjoy it more, but still awesome for the time you did have it!
CM's can really make or break a trip and that over sounds amazing! You can really tell the ones that love their job . I'm so glad your mom was able to join you! Mother, daughter time is important. I can't wait to read more. Keep it coming!

 

[Araminta18]

Awesome start!! Great upgrade! To bad your didn't have time to enjoy it more, but still awesome for the time you did have it!
CM's can really make or break a trip and that over sounds amazing! You can really tell the ones that love their job . I'm so glad your mom was able to join you! Mother, daughter time is important. I can't wait to read more. Keep it coming!

It really was--we loved it! I had such a great time with Mom, but I think you're right--great CMs can really make a trip. I feel like they made a big difference this trip!

 

[Araminta18]

A Rainy Epcot Morning!
Sunday February 10th (part 1)​

Mom and I fell into bed at 12:45am. We probably should have gone to bed earlier, but we had to get a little bit settled in. Mostly though, since we were checking out the next morning and had an early ADR, I wanted to get everything as ready as possible so I could sleep in as late as possible (I'm more of a night owl than early bird). Which ended up meaning no sleep until 12:45. Oh well!

I don't know what was going on, but I woke up at 4 am, and was up for 20 minutes or so, then woke up again at 6 am for 15 minutes or so, and then finally got up at 7:30am. I don't know why I was having such trouble sleeping, but *shrugs* Oh well.

The reason we were up at 7:30am was because we had an pre-park open ADR at Garden Grill. I think it was at 8:50? Doesn't really matter 'cause all PPO ADRs are kind of treated the same... *shrugs* Can't remember. I booked it for the Broadway Concert Series dining package--I wanted to make sure we had reserved seats for the concert that night 'cause it was the last night Heidi Blickenstaff and Gavin Lee were performing. Anyways. PPO breakfast meant no sleeping in. I did offer to change it but Mom was all "whatever you want to do is fine with me!" so....up early it was!

We couldn't bear to leave without checking out the lounge one more time, so we decided to pre-game before our Garden Grill breakfast. it was a pretty good spread! The red juice below (geyser grog) was cinnamon-apple cranberry juice. I was not expecting the strong cinnamon taste ('cause I didn't read the label!) and did not really enjoy it. Mom liked it though.

The chocolate chip muffins and croissants and the fruit (especially the raspberries) were delicious. Yum. If we weren't heading to Garden Grill we could have had a great and filling breakfast. As it was, we had a delicious pre-breakfast.

We dropped our bags off at Bell Services, and since the app said we had about 5 minutes before the next bus to Epcot, we looked in the gift shop a little bit. Mostly 'cause I can't resist a gift shop and this one had some really fun Snow White stuff and resort specific stuff. (Also the ability to check bus times on the app? Fantastic. Totally love it!)

The app bus times were correct, so we were at the bus stop for only 30 seconds or so and the bus pulled up. It was sprinkling when we got to Epcot but we found a short security line and to tap our bands to enter the park, and soon we were seeing...

We of course grabbed some a photopass picture (which Mom is also not into... )

and then headed over to Garden Grill. It was really nice to be able to walk past the rope drop crowd and head into the park all by ourselves. Mom really liked it--made the morning feel really relaxing, especially after the chaos of security/rope drop crowd.

We checked in at Garden Grill and ended up waiting about 10 minutes or so to be seated, but on the bright side, the wait meant we got to see the craziness of rope drop: Mom had never seen rope drop before, and I think she was a bit flabbergasted. Mostly just made me happy we weren't planning on doing that!

Soon enough we were seated, and it felt like we were the only people in our section! We were on the bottom part, right next to the wall so we could see into the Living with the Land ride, so that was nice.

Our server was nice, and soon enough she brought this beauty:

Not the fruit (though that was fine) but the CINNAMON ROLL! SO good. Best part of breakfast hands down.

I loved that the drinks came in mason jars. Also you can tell Mom and I are related: my default drink is milk, hers (at least on vacation) is chocolate milk.

Our meal started with a view of Living with the Land, and we finished up right as our table started facing the normal boring wall, so a really good seat! Mom and I had a lot of fun looking at what we could see of the ride. See?

I also really appreciated how quickly the characters came out. There was no one seated around us, and I think we must have been at the end of the character rotation. They were nice, but we didn't have any kind of special or lengthy interaction.

This was our first time meeting Mickey, and he gave Mom a birthday kiss! Also, Mickey is shorter than I expected.

Somewhere in the middle there we got our food

We'd kind of already filled up on carbs, but man that bacon was crispy and good. And of course Mickey waffles! Somewhere in there meeting the characters I also lost one of my pens...I brought special sharpie pens that don't smear on photo paper, and I had 3 of them 'cause they were each different thicknesses. The one I liked best rolled between the back of the bench and the seat and disappeared into the bench. Glad I had 2 more 'cause I don't think I could have gotten it back! Way to go me for being prepared.

I also loved that Mom got a birthday card! She really seemed to like it too, despite her face in the picture.

We ate pretty quickly: I think we were done at about 9:35/9:40, and we got seated right around 9. Quick eaters! It was actually really nice, lots of time for rides. We decided to hit up Living with the Land first, cause there was no wait. At all. Cause who rope drops Living with the Land? These gals!

One of the screens in the barn (right before you actually head into the greenhouse) was just showing a blue screen. Come on Disney, that's an easy thing to make sure is working. But the greenhouses were cool--still researching that Venus Fly Trap!

After Living with the Land, we decided to venture out of the safety of The Land pavilion and head to Spaceship Earth. We had a 10 am fastpass for it. It was sprinkling, but not raining hard. I heard a guy mentioning watching the radar as we left the pavilion, and that reminded me that was a resource I should be checking! So I tucked that away in my head, 'cause at the moment, it wasn't too bad.

When we got to Spaceship Earth, there was a HUGE tour group in the fastpass line. It was absolutely bonkers, and as we were standing there deciding, it started raining a bit harder and most of the SE fastpass line is not under cover. So Mom and I bailed and decided to do some quick shopping in Mouse Gears while we waited for the tour group to make their way through the FP line.

I got some Mickey rice krispies to take back to people at work, and of course had to get my Figment AP magnet! We even got to see the Jamminators play a little bit. We spent 15 minutes or so looking around, and then headed back to Spaceship Earth, where the fastpass line was still longer than I would have liked, but not bonkers like before. So we hopped on at about 10:30.

We had a fun ride, seeing all the advances in communication:

and seeing our future!

I love how the camera kind of captured my Up ears.

After Spaceship Earth, we had a fastpass for Mission Space, but we weren't really feeling it, so we scanned our fastpasses but decided not ride and headed to the Festival Center instead. Pictures first!

As you can tell, it was definitely raining hard! I kept checking the radar and every time I checked, it seemed like they extended the time it would be raining another 30 minutes. At this point, it looked like it would clear up around noon.

At the Festival Center, we got in line for the Disney Store workshop that would start at 11:30, and while Mom waited in line (it wasn't really necessary, but Mom wanted to sit and dry off a bit) I looked around the Festival Center. I ended up buying a screen-printed t-shirt there (it said "Festival of the Arts" and then had the Evil Queen from Snow White on it), and then looking around the gift shop. Look what I found!!

Not only a cool phone case for my new phone, but a Hercules one at that! We need more Hercules merchandise. You best believe I popped my $5 case from 5 Below off and put this beauty on right then.

Then I decided we needed some food, so I got the

• Trio of Savory Croissant Doughnuts:
  • Whipped Boursin® Garlic & Fine Herbs Cheese with Fresh Herbs (V)
  • Chicken Salad with Shaved Fennel and Fresh Herbs
  • Spicy Tuna with Wasabi and Seaweed Salad

These were really good! I had to eat them quickly 'cause the workshop was starting and you couldn't take food in, but I really liked them. Even the tuna, and I don't like seafood.

I also got the Gallery Bites: A Trio of Hors d’Oeuvres

• Chilled Shrimp with Cucumber Cream Cheese on a Crostini
• Traditional Deviled Egg with Candied Bacon
• Crispy Truffled Risotto Ball with Truffle Aïoli (V)

Also delicious! Though I can't speak for the shrimp--that I gave to Mom. The risotto ball was bigger than I expected! So unfortunately I didn't get to finish all these cause the workshop was starting, but they were delicious.

The seminar was two women who work in merchandise or something--essentially they do the stores at the parks. They talked about designing the new gift shop at Coronado springs and the new build a lightsaber kiosk-thing at Tatooine Traders. It was interesting, lots of fun little details, but not quite what I was expecting. Too be honest, I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it was a nice interlude. Mom said she got a little bit of a nap.

I kept checking the radar and by the end of the seminar, it was saying the rain wouldn't end til 1 pm. And looking out the window it was raining pretty hard! But it was time for our Soarin' fastpass, so we put our ponchos back on and headed back to The Land pavilion.

Would Mom like Soarin'? Would the rain ever end? Tune back in next time!

 

[barbieb21]

Loving the phone case, I agree that we need more Hercules stuff. I might have to try to find that one too.

 

[Lesley Wake]

You see that gentleman in the front of our the elevator? He told Mom that you catch more air if you keep your seatbelt loose. This blew Mom's mind--she loved the flying feeling--and she wanted to try it immediately. We headed back around (the normal way this time) and while putting our seatbelts on, Mom forgot to hold the seatbelt loose so it wouldn't automatically tighten. So she asks the CM if he can please reset the seatbelts 'cause she wants to keep her's loose. He looks at her like she's crazy and is basically like "um no, can't do that, cause you know, safety" Mom's response: "But then I can't fly!" The CM: "Coooo--rrect!" and he immediately shuts the elevator door and starts the ride. Mom and I were both *dying* laughing the entire ride--the CM's delivery was just deadpan perfect. "Coooo-rrect!" *slam* Mom still didn't have a loose seatbelt, but worth it. And yes, we totally quoted "Coooooo--rrect" to each other the entire trip.

That is pretty hilarious!

If she liked ToT at DHS, you have to bring her on the Guardians version at California Adventure! Even with a tight seatbelt it feels like you are flying a foot in the air (even with a full car)! Basically they upgraded the whole mechanism so the cars never stop fully moving!

 

[PAsFab5]

This is the best trip so far!! You and your mom look like you are having the time of your life!!!! Can’t wait to hear more!!!!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Thanks for the review of DHS AH! I'm doing one with my Mom and sister on 3/16 and I think we're going to enjoy it! I'm looking forward to getting on TOT multiple times! It kills me that I usually only get one ride per trip now!

 

[Araminta18]

Loving the phone case, I agree that we need more Hercules stuff. I might have to try to find that one too.

Yay Hercules fan!!

That is pretty hilarious!

If she liked ToT at DHS, you have to bring her on the Guardians version at California Adventure! Even with a tight seatbelt it feels like you are flying a foot in the air (even with a full car)! Basically they upgraded the whole mechanism so the cars never stop fully moving!

Wow, really? That sounds awesome! Might have to talk Mom into a trip to the West Coast....

This is the best trip so far!! You and your mom look like you are having the time of your life!!!! Can’t wait to hear more!!!!

It was super fun! Glad you're enjoying it

Thanks for the review of DHS AH! I'm doing one with my Mom and sister on 3/16 and I think we're going to enjoy it! I'm looking forward to getting on TOT multiple times! It kills me that I usually only get one ride per trip now!

Ooh you're going to have so much fun! If you ever ride ToT just with you three, be sure to ask the CM at the end if you can ride again. It's so much quicker!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Ooh you're going to have so much fun! If you ever ride ToT just with you three, be sure to ask the CM at the end if you can ride again. It's so much quicker!

That's a great tip! I hope we get lucky like that! Although I'm keeping my hopes lower since I think the TOT elevator refurb may have started but hopefully we'll still get lucky!

Honestly though, I'll just be happy to not have to watch the preshows every time!

 

[Bama Mom]

Just now joining in. How cool to get upgraded to club level at WL. Maybe hubby and I will get that kind of Pixie dust in August

 

[TNGirlwCamera]

Looks like a fun trip! Glad your mom was able to go with you. It's fun being with someone who is seeing Disney for the first time.

 

[Araminta18]

That's a great tip! I hope we get lucky like that! Although I'm keeping my hopes lower since I think the TOT elevator refurb may have started but hopefully we'll still get lucky!

Honestly though, I'll just be happy to not have to watch the preshows every time!

Oooh right, I forgot about that. Well still, keep it in mind--you never know!

Just now joining in. How cool to get upgraded to club level at WL. Maybe hubby and I will get that kind of Pixie dust in August

It was awesome! Hopefully you get some pixie dust of your own--you never know!

Looks like a fun trip! Glad your mom was able to go with you. It's fun being with someone who is seeing Disney for the first time.

It really was! Seeing her excitement was great fun, if a bit stressful trying to make it all work out!

 

[evre13]

This trip looks so fun - and I'm so happy your mom was able to join you!

 

[SweetSerenity]

How did you like Garden Grill?

 

[Araminta18]

This trip looks so fun - and I'm so happy your mom was able to join you!

Me too! Having Mom come really made it lots of fun.

How did you like Garden Grill?

I liked it, especially that cinnamon roll. Yum. But I don't know that it was worth the money (though that was probably partially cause we had some of the food from the lounge before we went and so weren't as hungry as normally would be, and perhaps also because it was more expensive than normal since it was the Broadway concert series dining package), and while the characters were nice the interactions felt a bit rushed. Overall good, but not one of my favorites or anything. Might do it again in the future as just a regular breakfast if Trevor wanted to try it (but for regular price this time. )

 

[Araminta18]

How Many Festival of the Arts Photo Spots Can We Do?
Sunday February 10th (part 2)​

So after the seminar we were heading back to The Land pavilion. Why did we brave the rain? We had a Soarin' fastpass!! The fastpass line was quite long, not sure why. We made it even a bit longer on ourselves because I requested B1--center section, and top row. Wanted to make sure Mom's first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower wasn't it all bent in half!

The verdict? Mom loved(!!) it. Soarin' is definitely one of my favorite rides, but Mom really really really loved it. After riding, she wanted to ride again so I pulled up the app and was able to snag another fastpass for it for 1:30--30 minutes in the future at that point. We figured we hadn't eaten yet, so might as well grab a snack from Sunshine Seasons while waiting (we still had hopes that the rain would stop and we could eat lunch from the festival booths...)

We ended up getting the rose gold cupcake. Per the Disney Parks blog, it's "a beautiful vanilla cupcake with hazelnut swirl, rose gold buttercream, fondant ears, edible glitter and chocolate pearls". We really enjoyed this one, actually! So much frosting, and Mom and I are both big frosting fans. Wasn't too dry, and was just the right size for splitting. Unsurprisingly at 1 pm, the food court was really crowded, but we didn't have too much trouble finding a table.

When we were done eating, fastpass time! We hopped back in line for Soarin, and again did center and top row. Just as fun the second time. (Very dark selfie to commemorate it...)

After that, joy of joys, it stopped raining! And the radar said it was done for the day--huzzah! Mom was a little skeptical, and carried our ponchos around for another couple of hours but we didn't need them again, 'cause the rain was over. Boom.

Anyways, with the rain stopped, we decided it was time for food booths and festival activities! We walked out of The Land and ended up right by the mural, so we painted that with no wait (no idea if there are normally waits or not, but we just waltzed right up). We were painting the monorail, and it was almost done. It's a pretty neat activity.

Afterwards, we headed to Decadent Delights just 'cause of proximity. We got the White Chocolate and Purple Sweet Potato Mousse, Caramel, Coconut and Maple Meringue and the Lemon and Blood Orange Tart. Both of these looked gorgeous, but honestly they were a bit of a miss for us. Not horrible, but not all that great either. We didn't finish either one.

I ran into the Port of Entry gift shop to get one of the Festival of the Arts gift cards, but the CM told me they were sold out everywhere! No! But I remembered I'd seen a couple over in the Festival Pavilion, so figured I'd keep my eyes open and see if any of the booths had them hanging around...Would my luck hold? You'll have to wait and see...

Next booth was the Deconstructed Dish. Here, we got the Deconstructed BLT with Crispy Pork Belly, Tomato Jam and Soft Poached Egg and the Deconstructed Reuben with Shredded Corned Beef, Thousand Island Dressing, Pickled Red Cabbage and a Rye Curl.

Both of these were really good--I think I liked the reuben slightly better, but they were both yummy. The Reuben was a bit hard to eat, but that was kind of part of the fun, I think. We also got the Pop-Artsicle: Red, White and Blue Frozen Slushy (non-alcoholic) 'cause I'm a sucker for slushies (did you know that Ikea has a lingonberry slushy? quite good when mixed with blue raspberry) which I also liked.

Next up: Masterpiece Kitchen (aka Canada). I had wanted to get the charcuterie, but we were getting full at this point, so all we got was the Wild Mushroom Risotto, Aged Parmesan, Truffle Shavings and Zinfandel Reduction. Yum! I would have liked more parmesan, but Mom ate the mushrooms and we were all good.

We started looking in some of the art booths, and I ended up getting some postcard size prints, including one by Ashley Taylor which I was able to get signed! I wasn't familiar with her work, but she was super nice and friendly.

As we made our way around Epcot, I found my Festival of the Arts gift card! Huzzah! Moral of the story: do not trust random CMs. We looked in lots of the art booths, which I really enjoyed but why do hardly any of them have postcard size prints? Most of the booths only had the bigger $50 prints, and who even has the wall space/money for all the pretties? I would have spent way more if there were more postcard size prints. ARE YOU LISTENING DISNEY ART PEOPLE? I didn't end up buying any of the bigger prints, but I really enjoyed looking.

In Canada, Mom got distracted by one of the souvenir carts, specifically this pajama shirt. She kept cracking up, but saying she didn't want it. I got it for her, as a birthday present. 'Cause it's hilarious.

I believe walking to the UK is also where we encountered the first of the Festival of the Arts photo spots! If you haven't picked up on the theme yet, the theme is Mom doesn't want to take pictures but does because Tiffany wants to. She was the pirate.

We continued to meander, taking pictures and looking at the art in all the booths.

We stopped in Japan to listen to the drummers but that was only 'cause there was a miscommunication. Mom thought there was going to be a show, and when she realized it was just drums, decided she was ready to move on. Probably also had something to do with the fact that the only seat we found was in the sun...

More Festival of the Arts photos...

We thought about getting more food in Italy but we decided we were still full. So, we watched a little bit of the Italy juggler and then, you guessed it, more photos!

The little Disney bag Mom is holding? That's our ponchos. She was still a bit wary about whether or not it would rain some more. I did eventually convince her it wasn't going to rain any more.

When we made it to China, it was only about 5 minutes before the Jewelled Acrobats were going to perform, so of course we stopped. They were performing inside the temple though, rather than outside, so no roller skate stunts. Still really neat to see their acrobatics though. We also spent a good amount of time looking in the gift shop and around the pavilion, seeing if there was anything that caught Mom's eye, but she was strong and didn't end up buying anything. She has more willpower than I!

We pressed on to Mexico, stopping for one last festival of the arts photo on the way... Hello Frida Kahlo!

The line for Gran Fiesta Tour was surprisingly long--backed up outside the entrance and then wrapping around 3 or 4 times. But it only took about 15 minutes to wait through, and we didn't have anything to rush to, so we decided to wait.

How can you resist these cute three caballeros?!

And after riding, it was time for our Frozen fastpass! I'd snagged this earlier in the day (after riding Soarin) and the timing ended up working out quite well.

The only bad thing about the back row is that you don't get a very good picture! Oh well.

Mom made a friend though, which is always good! Always need more friends.

After Frozen, we were walking back towards the American Pavilion when we walked by China and noticed that they were setting up for the acrobats to do their show outside! Mom wanted to watch them again, but I had a couple things I wanted to get done before our passes to the 6:45 pm Broadway concert. So...we split up!

Find out what I did next time on Tiffany's uber-dramatic, very suspenseful trip report!

 

[Tinkerbella1111]

Following along! Glad the rain finally stopped in Epcot! What an awesome trip you’ve had so far!