disneysteve
DIS meet junkie
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2002
I always think about posting a trip report and just never seem to do it. Part of the problem is I tend to go into so much detail that it ends up being a novel by the time I'm done and I figure nobody wants to sit through that. But we just got back from a whirlwind visit where we were onsite for less than 48 hours and so much happened worth sharing, so here goes....
DIS 20th Anniversary Party trip
May 31 to June 2, 2017
Cast of Characters: Me (52), DW (53), and DD (21)
Flew roundtrip from Philadelphia on Frontier
Magical Express to and from MCO
Stayed at Pop Century room 1121
Day One: Arrival and Animal Kingdom including Pandora
Day Two: Epcot including DIS 20th party
Day Three: Wandered around Pop and Art of Animation until it was time to leave
Day One:
We had an 11:20am flight from Philadelphia to Orlando, nonstop (or so we thought) on Frontier airline. We got to the airport, parked in the economy lot, and hopped the shuttle to the terminal. We did online check in so were able to go straight to security. I discovered that a large bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans apparently concerns the TSA folks as it shows up as an unidentifiable blob on the x-ray machine. A quick hand search of the bag and we were on our way to the gate.
Flight was pretty close to on time, not enough to complain about. This was our first time flying Frontier (well, DD had flown them once before but DW and I hadn't). The crew was very friendly, the plane was comfortable. We had no issues with them at all.
I'm not sure of the exact timing but maybe 45 minutes into the flight, a flight attendant came on the speaker asking if there were any doctors or medical folks onboard. I'm a Family Practice and Urgent Care physician so I rang my call bell. I quickly realized that the issue was with a passenger just 2 rows ahead of us. I got out and went up to see what was going on. Another passenger, an EMT, also responded. There was an elderly man (87) who had become unresponsive. He was breathing but neither of us could find a pulse. They brought us the medical kit and the EMT was unable to hear a blood pressure. I had the flight attendant ask if anyone had a sugar meter. Someone did volunteer one and I checked the man's sugar, which was normal. At that point, he was still unconscious so we decided to get him out of his seat and lie him down so we could hook up the AED to check his heart rhythm. Fortunately, he was seated immediately in front of the exit row and nobody was in those seats so there was open floor space to lie him down. The AED showed a decent heartbeat and didn't advise a shock. After a short time on the floor, we were able to feel a pulse, and he began to wake up. And by the way, while all of this was going on, his daughter passed out in the aisle. She was fine, but for a short time, there were 2 unconscious passengers sprawled out on the floor of the plane. While we were in the midst of checking him out, the flight attendant asked if they should divert the plane and the EMT and I both agreed they should. So our nonstop flight ended up with an unplanned layover in Raleigh, NC.
When we landed, an emergency crew came onboard. We gave a report on everything that had happened and they took the man off the plane. The process to get back in the air after an unplanned stop like that took a little longer than I would have thought. They need to file a new flight plan, refuel the plane, and also had to restock the AED and medical kit since we had used both. It was almost 2 hours total before we were in the air again. The crew was very thankful and offered me and my family anything we wanted as far as drinks and snacks which was very nice of them.
We finally got to Orlando and headed for Magical Express, our first time using it. There was almost nobody there so we checked in and got in line with only one couple ahead of us. We were directed to a bus just a couple minutes later. We did sit at the terminal for what I thought was a long time, waiting for other passengers I suppose, before finally pulling out and heading to Disney.
While on the bus, DW was on her phone and saw someone post to the DIS 20th Facebook page that they were also on Magical Express on their way to Pop. She showed me and I said to look at the person's profile. She did and it turned out to be the couple that had been in front of us in line and were seated right behind DW and DD. Of course, we introduced ourselves and had a laugh about that.
I had done online check in for Pop and around 2:30pm had gotten an email that our room wasn't quite ready and they'd send another message when it was. By the time we were approaching the hotel, I hadn't heard anything so we went to the desk to check in. As soon as the CM pulled up our reservation, he got a concerned look on his face. That's never good. The system was showing that our room wasn't ready. He called someone (housekeeping, I assume) to see what was up. That took a while and didn't seem to get him anywhere. He had another CM check and still no luck. Finally, he gave up and said he was upgrading us to building 1 (right near the main building). We got a 1st floor courtyard view room. We were really pressed for time because of our late arrival and our Flight of Passage FastPass time rapidly approaching and we didn't want to miss it. Even after assigning us a new room, he couldn't get our Magic Bands linked to open the door so he gave us a key card instead. We dumped our stuff, changed into shorts, and headed right back out.
An Animal Kingdom bus was just pulling up so we hopped on and headed for the park. Our FP was 5:50-6:50pm. We got through security at 6:09 and headed straight for Pandora. We didn't do the leisurely entrance I would have liked to suck it all in but went right to FoP instead. Even there, things didn't go smoothly. It was just one of those days. We went into the pre-show room, got all the way through the spiel, and then nothing happened. The door didn't open to proceed to the ride. After a minute or two of us all standing there wondering what was happening, a CM came in and said that room was down and they needed to move us to another room. He led us back out to the lobby area and we waited until another room opened up. We had to listen to the pre-show again (it's not really worth hearing twice) but then finally got on the ride. FoP is awesome, pure Disney magic, definitely a new E-ticket attraction. I won't give details but this should absolutely be on everyone's must-do list for your next visit.
From there, we went to Santuli Canteen for dinner. I had the tofu bowl on quinoa with the onion sauce. DW had the chicken bowl on quinoa with the creamy herb sauce. We both thought these were excellent. DD got the vegetable curry buns. She didn't care for them but she is an extremely picky eater. I actually ended up eating those, too. I thought they were very tasty.
We were doing one of the "unofficial" 20th anniversary meets to see Rivers of Light together so we headed over to Flights of Wonder to meet the group. We didn't know anyone else so it was nice to meet a bunch of new DISers. We moved on to the theater and enjoyed the show. It was our first time seeing it and we thought it was wonderful, a well done addition to the nighttime entertainment.
After ROL, we all went back into Pandora. The bio-luminescence thing is neat, but I have to say that I don't think Disney can continue to keep the park as dark as it currently is, even if that means sacrificing some of the lighting effects. Anyone with any diminished vision would be in real trouble. My wife and I can see just fine and we had trouble. I definitely wouldn't want to be trying to keep track of little kids there. It's just way too dark. I actually got separated from my wife and had to text her to find her. It was just too dark to see her along the pathway. I'm sure someone is going to fall and get hurt or lose a kid or something like that and force Disney to brighten up the lighting.
Most of the group wanted to do FoP but we didn't want to get in a 2-hour line so a few of us strolled around instead and stopped in Santuli for cold drinks (it was hot and very humid). My wife tried their blue sangria and it was pretty bad. She described it as tasting like watered down cough syrup which we all agreed was pretty accurate. They also have a frozen slushy thing that a couple of people got and said was disgustingly sweet, like drinking pure sugar.
We then headed to Navi River Journey. It had a posted 60 minute wait and we decided to go for it as it was our only opportunity to ride it this trip. We all chatted in line and the time went by quickly. It ended up only being about 40 minutes before we boarded. As for the ride, I'll give it a solid "Meh". There really isn't much to it. The animatronic at the end is fantastic and it's worth riding once just to see it, but that's about it. The rest of the ride is pointless. There is no story line and there's really nothing to see but a bunch of fake plants and a couple of screens with animation on them. We probably wouldn't do it again unless it was a walk-on. I think Disney missed the mark on this one.
All day, there had been about a 30-minute line to get into the gift shop, Windtraders, which is nuts. Finally, after midnight, we were able to walk in. Honestly, we didn't see what all the fuss was about. We didn't want one of those $50 toy banshees. We didn't want to have a custom avatar figure made for $70. The rest of the stuff was pretty standard gift shop crap with Pandora stamped on it. We were in and out of there in a few minutes, and at that point, it was close to 1:00am and time to head out. We had been on the go since 7:00am.
We made our way to the bus stop back to Pop. Mind you we always drive to Disney and use our car to get around. Depending on Disney transportation is not our norm - and we didn't care for it one bit. We waited about 15 minutes for a bus to come, which seemed even longer given the time of day. Finally got back and realized nothing is open as far as getting food so we munched on a couple of little snacks we happened to have with us, showered, and went to bed.
Day Two:
We slept in, having not turned out the lights Wednesday night until about 3:30am and knowing we'd be out just as late this night. Once we were all up and around, we headed over to the food court for breakfast. I got an omelette which was fine and the CMs at the counter were nice, though I was the only guest there. My wife and daughter ran into more difficulty at the waffle and pancake counter which was more crowded. The CMs were not particularly friendly and very disorganized. I went to pay and the first cashier I approached, who was still checking out a guest, snapped at me "I'm closed." Even my daughter, who was with me, thought that was rather rude. We moved to a different register and the cashier greeted us with, "Are you on the dining plan?" No "Good morning" or "Hello" or "How are you today?"
After breakfast, we hung out in the room for a bit. Coming back, my daughter tried to open the door and discovered that her band wouldn't do it. DW checked and hers wouldn't either. Only mine worked. Since we arrived later than planned on Wednesday, we hadn't gotten to pick up our credentials. So around noon, we headed to the lobby to first get the Magic Bands working right and then go over to the Boardwalk. The CM at the desk was very nice but was unable to get the key situation fixed. She got DD's working but when she clicked to fix DW's, it made hers work and made mine stop working. She couldn't get all 3 programmed at the same time. We finally gave up as it really didn't matter at that point. We were only there for another 24 hours and I still had the key card.
I ordered an Uber to take us over to Boardwalk (since Disney doesn't offer resort to resort transportation). He was there in about 4 minutes and dropped us off right at the convention center entrance. Well worth the $6 it cost us. We headed in, picked up our credentials, and spent some time catching up with John, Kevin, Ryno, Craig, Steve, Kathy, Theresa, Jackie, Michael, Tom, and others (Jennifer and Stania from the Welcome Center, etc.).
Time for lunch. We walked over to the Boardwalk Bakery and got sandwiches. It was pretty hot out but we got seats in that covered brick area at the back of the hotel. It was somewhat cooler in there. After lunch, we took the boat over to Epcot. We headed to the left around World Showcase and decided to do some stuff in Future World that wouldn't be open during the party. DD and I like Mission:Space but it had a 40-minute wait so that was out. We decided to do Universe of Energy just in case it was the last time we'd see it. Rumors are swirling about the ride so for all we know, it will be gone by our next trip. We stopped in Electric Umbrella for a quick snack and then went into Art of Disney to browse but didn't buy anything. We had FPs for Spaceship Earth so just hung out a bit until it was time for that. While we were waiting, we found out fellow DIS friends were also in the park and we had overlapping Frozen Ever After FP times so we made plans to meet up and ride together a bit later. After Spaceship Earth, we headed to the Land to have dinner at Sunshine Seasons, one of our favorites.
We then made our way toward World Showcase to meet up with them in Norway. It was raining at that point so we hung out in the bakery seating area until it was time to ride. This was our 2nd time riding FEA. It's a fun ride. Not my favorite but worth doing when there isn't a long wait or you have a FP, although I think it has one of the longest FP lines around.
We spent the rest of the evening hanging with our friends, got some pictures taken, hit MouseGears for some shopping, and went back to Electric Umbrella to munch and relax until it was time to leave the park at 9:00.
The place to re-enter the park for the DIS part was the far left of the entry area so we started gathering there. We ran into a number of fellow DISers who we hadn't seen yet as well as connecting with several others who had already seen but had spent the day elsewhere. Finally, 10:00pm came and we were let into the park. By the way, while we were hanging at Electric Umbrella, we got the notice that Disney was going with the rain contingency plan for the party. That meant that the food would be set up in the Land food court area and the Jodi Benson concert would be held at World Showplace. Both of those things were supposed to be outdoors.
My crew went straight to the Land to check out the food and see the DIS team. Well, first we rode Soarin. Kind of neat to have it be a walk on. Then we checked out the food. It was a nice spread with multiple stations throughout that ground floor so there was never a line to get anything. There were also multiple bars as well as drink stations for water, iced tea, and hot beverages. We hung out there, stuffed our faces a bit, and chatted with everyone. After a while, we were talking about going over to ride Test Track, but just as we were getting up to do that, a CM came around to remind everyone that the Jodi Benson concert was starting in 15 minutes. It takes a while to walk from the Land to World Showplace (the former Millennium Village building between Canada and UK) so off we went. Some people had lined up there earlier to get close to the stage but we really didn't care. We heard some stories of people pushing and shoving to get in at the beginning so we were glad not to have been there for that. There were only about 1,000 people there so nobody was all that far from the stage.
First, the MC Billy Flannigan spoke. He's an entertainment CM who has been with Disney for 35 years and has appeared in many of their shows and is currently in the Finding Nemo cast. Then Pete and John spoke briefly and thanked everyone for coming. Then it was time for Jodi Benson. What a treat that was! She only sang a handful of songs but she was amazing. Hearing THE Little Mermaid sing Part of your World was a once in a lifetime experience. There were a lot of tears in that room.
All too soon, the concert was over. We made our way out and headed toward the railing around the lagoon to watch the private showing of Illuminations. Our group had access to the space from Canada around to Mexico, so a pretty good stretch. And again, there were only about 1,000 people, so everyone got a front row seat. That'll never happen again.
When the show ended, we finally got to head over and ride Test Track. The couple we met on the bus ended up right behind us in line so we all rode together. It was nice because they didn't have the photo package but we have APs so I sent them a copy of the ride photo.
We ended the evening back at the Land hanging out with old and new friends. Got to see a number of people there we hadn't seen yet, like Julie, Kylie, Pete, and other fellow DISers who we know from other events. The 3 hours of the party went by way too quickly. It was after 1:00 before we knew it and folks started heading out. None of us wanted to leave but we knew they'd throw us out soon.
We had booked the DIS-arranged bus transportation to get back to Pop. There were folks directing everyone, which was nice, and we got right to our bus. The only problem was we then sat there for quite some time waiting for others. Apparently, what they must have done was planned to only make one trip for everyone who had signed up for that route. So they didn't want to leave without everyone on the list. I wasn't close enough to the front to hear what was happening but I think they eventually just decided to leave even though some people were missing. By the time we got back to Pop (after a stop at CBR), showered, and got ready for bed, it was about 3:00am when we turned out the lights, but what an awesome day it had been.
Day Three:
We couldn't sleep in too late on Friday since checkout is 11:00am. We got up around 9:00am and started getting our stuff packed up. We left the room about 10:00am and checked our bags with the luggage desk. Then we had breakfast at Pop food court. Once again, my experience was fine, except for the surly cashier greeting me with "Are you on the dining plan?" My wife, however, had even more trouble than she had the day before. She went to the counter serving egg sandwiches and ordered one - but never actually got it. The crew was just horribly disorganized and after waiting entirely too long and asking about it twice, she finally gave up and said to just give her French toast, which they had ready. So instead of a freshly made egg sandwich, she had lukewarm French toast and cold bacon. Yum. I think that was the point at which she swore she would never stay there again and will tell everyone she knows not to stay there either.
Our Magical Express pick up time was 3:35pm so we didn't really have enough time to do anything major since we didn't have a car. No way were we going anywhere and having to depend on Disney transportation to get us back to Pop on time. It made for a wasted day unfortunately. If we had a car, we would have gone over to Disney Springs for a couple of hours. Instead, we walked over to Art of Animation just to have something to do. It was too hot and humid to really hang out outdoors but we walked around a bit, then went inside, browsed through the gift shop, and sat in the food court for a while with some cold drinks. Then we went back to Pop and relaxed in the lobby and charged our phones. Around 3:00pm, I retrieved our bags and we all changed back into pants for the trip home.
At the airport, we went to the little food court and got something for dinner and ran into another DIS friend, who hadn't been at the party and we hadn't seen all trip. We chatted with her for a while before heading to our gate. Flight was pretty much on time and off we went for the trip home. Thankfully, the return flight was uneventful and we landed in Philly around 9:00pm. We were back in our house before 10:00 after a whirlwind adventure.
DIS 20th Anniversary Party trip
May 31 to June 2, 2017
Cast of Characters: Me (52), DW (53), and DD (21)
Flew roundtrip from Philadelphia on Frontier
Magical Express to and from MCO
Stayed at Pop Century room 1121
Day One: Arrival and Animal Kingdom including Pandora
Day Two: Epcot including DIS 20th party
Day Three: Wandered around Pop and Art of Animation until it was time to leave
Day One:
We had an 11:20am flight from Philadelphia to Orlando, nonstop (or so we thought) on Frontier airline. We got to the airport, parked in the economy lot, and hopped the shuttle to the terminal. We did online check in so were able to go straight to security. I discovered that a large bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans apparently concerns the TSA folks as it shows up as an unidentifiable blob on the x-ray machine. A quick hand search of the bag and we were on our way to the gate.
Flight was pretty close to on time, not enough to complain about. This was our first time flying Frontier (well, DD had flown them once before but DW and I hadn't). The crew was very friendly, the plane was comfortable. We had no issues with them at all.
I'm not sure of the exact timing but maybe 45 minutes into the flight, a flight attendant came on the speaker asking if there were any doctors or medical folks onboard. I'm a Family Practice and Urgent Care physician so I rang my call bell. I quickly realized that the issue was with a passenger just 2 rows ahead of us. I got out and went up to see what was going on. Another passenger, an EMT, also responded. There was an elderly man (87) who had become unresponsive. He was breathing but neither of us could find a pulse. They brought us the medical kit and the EMT was unable to hear a blood pressure. I had the flight attendant ask if anyone had a sugar meter. Someone did volunteer one and I checked the man's sugar, which was normal. At that point, he was still unconscious so we decided to get him out of his seat and lie him down so we could hook up the AED to check his heart rhythm. Fortunately, he was seated immediately in front of the exit row and nobody was in those seats so there was open floor space to lie him down. The AED showed a decent heartbeat and didn't advise a shock. After a short time on the floor, we were able to feel a pulse, and he began to wake up. And by the way, while all of this was going on, his daughter passed out in the aisle. She was fine, but for a short time, there were 2 unconscious passengers sprawled out on the floor of the plane. While we were in the midst of checking him out, the flight attendant asked if they should divert the plane and the EMT and I both agreed they should. So our nonstop flight ended up with an unplanned layover in Raleigh, NC.
When we landed, an emergency crew came onboard. We gave a report on everything that had happened and they took the man off the plane. The process to get back in the air after an unplanned stop like that took a little longer than I would have thought. They need to file a new flight plan, refuel the plane, and also had to restock the AED and medical kit since we had used both. It was almost 2 hours total before we were in the air again. The crew was very thankful and offered me and my family anything we wanted as far as drinks and snacks which was very nice of them.
We finally got to Orlando and headed for Magical Express, our first time using it. There was almost nobody there so we checked in and got in line with only one couple ahead of us. We were directed to a bus just a couple minutes later. We did sit at the terminal for what I thought was a long time, waiting for other passengers I suppose, before finally pulling out and heading to Disney.
While on the bus, DW was on her phone and saw someone post to the DIS 20th Facebook page that they were also on Magical Express on their way to Pop. She showed me and I said to look at the person's profile. She did and it turned out to be the couple that had been in front of us in line and were seated right behind DW and DD. Of course, we introduced ourselves and had a laugh about that.
I had done online check in for Pop and around 2:30pm had gotten an email that our room wasn't quite ready and they'd send another message when it was. By the time we were approaching the hotel, I hadn't heard anything so we went to the desk to check in. As soon as the CM pulled up our reservation, he got a concerned look on his face. That's never good. The system was showing that our room wasn't ready. He called someone (housekeeping, I assume) to see what was up. That took a while and didn't seem to get him anywhere. He had another CM check and still no luck. Finally, he gave up and said he was upgrading us to building 1 (right near the main building). We got a 1st floor courtyard view room. We were really pressed for time because of our late arrival and our Flight of Passage FastPass time rapidly approaching and we didn't want to miss it. Even after assigning us a new room, he couldn't get our Magic Bands linked to open the door so he gave us a key card instead. We dumped our stuff, changed into shorts, and headed right back out.
An Animal Kingdom bus was just pulling up so we hopped on and headed for the park. Our FP was 5:50-6:50pm. We got through security at 6:09 and headed straight for Pandora. We didn't do the leisurely entrance I would have liked to suck it all in but went right to FoP instead. Even there, things didn't go smoothly. It was just one of those days. We went into the pre-show room, got all the way through the spiel, and then nothing happened. The door didn't open to proceed to the ride. After a minute or two of us all standing there wondering what was happening, a CM came in and said that room was down and they needed to move us to another room. He led us back out to the lobby area and we waited until another room opened up. We had to listen to the pre-show again (it's not really worth hearing twice) but then finally got on the ride. FoP is awesome, pure Disney magic, definitely a new E-ticket attraction. I won't give details but this should absolutely be on everyone's must-do list for your next visit.
From there, we went to Santuli Canteen for dinner. I had the tofu bowl on quinoa with the onion sauce. DW had the chicken bowl on quinoa with the creamy herb sauce. We both thought these were excellent. DD got the vegetable curry buns. She didn't care for them but she is an extremely picky eater. I actually ended up eating those, too. I thought they were very tasty.
We were doing one of the "unofficial" 20th anniversary meets to see Rivers of Light together so we headed over to Flights of Wonder to meet the group. We didn't know anyone else so it was nice to meet a bunch of new DISers. We moved on to the theater and enjoyed the show. It was our first time seeing it and we thought it was wonderful, a well done addition to the nighttime entertainment.
After ROL, we all went back into Pandora. The bio-luminescence thing is neat, but I have to say that I don't think Disney can continue to keep the park as dark as it currently is, even if that means sacrificing some of the lighting effects. Anyone with any diminished vision would be in real trouble. My wife and I can see just fine and we had trouble. I definitely wouldn't want to be trying to keep track of little kids there. It's just way too dark. I actually got separated from my wife and had to text her to find her. It was just too dark to see her along the pathway. I'm sure someone is going to fall and get hurt or lose a kid or something like that and force Disney to brighten up the lighting.
Most of the group wanted to do FoP but we didn't want to get in a 2-hour line so a few of us strolled around instead and stopped in Santuli for cold drinks (it was hot and very humid). My wife tried their blue sangria and it was pretty bad. She described it as tasting like watered down cough syrup which we all agreed was pretty accurate. They also have a frozen slushy thing that a couple of people got and said was disgustingly sweet, like drinking pure sugar.
We then headed to Navi River Journey. It had a posted 60 minute wait and we decided to go for it as it was our only opportunity to ride it this trip. We all chatted in line and the time went by quickly. It ended up only being about 40 minutes before we boarded. As for the ride, I'll give it a solid "Meh". There really isn't much to it. The animatronic at the end is fantastic and it's worth riding once just to see it, but that's about it. The rest of the ride is pointless. There is no story line and there's really nothing to see but a bunch of fake plants and a couple of screens with animation on them. We probably wouldn't do it again unless it was a walk-on. I think Disney missed the mark on this one.
All day, there had been about a 30-minute line to get into the gift shop, Windtraders, which is nuts. Finally, after midnight, we were able to walk in. Honestly, we didn't see what all the fuss was about. We didn't want one of those $50 toy banshees. We didn't want to have a custom avatar figure made for $70. The rest of the stuff was pretty standard gift shop crap with Pandora stamped on it. We were in and out of there in a few minutes, and at that point, it was close to 1:00am and time to head out. We had been on the go since 7:00am.
We made our way to the bus stop back to Pop. Mind you we always drive to Disney and use our car to get around. Depending on Disney transportation is not our norm - and we didn't care for it one bit. We waited about 15 minutes for a bus to come, which seemed even longer given the time of day. Finally got back and realized nothing is open as far as getting food so we munched on a couple of little snacks we happened to have with us, showered, and went to bed.
Day Two:
We slept in, having not turned out the lights Wednesday night until about 3:30am and knowing we'd be out just as late this night. Once we were all up and around, we headed over to the food court for breakfast. I got an omelette which was fine and the CMs at the counter were nice, though I was the only guest there. My wife and daughter ran into more difficulty at the waffle and pancake counter which was more crowded. The CMs were not particularly friendly and very disorganized. I went to pay and the first cashier I approached, who was still checking out a guest, snapped at me "I'm closed." Even my daughter, who was with me, thought that was rather rude. We moved to a different register and the cashier greeted us with, "Are you on the dining plan?" No "Good morning" or "Hello" or "How are you today?"
After breakfast, we hung out in the room for a bit. Coming back, my daughter tried to open the door and discovered that her band wouldn't do it. DW checked and hers wouldn't either. Only mine worked. Since we arrived later than planned on Wednesday, we hadn't gotten to pick up our credentials. So around noon, we headed to the lobby to first get the Magic Bands working right and then go over to the Boardwalk. The CM at the desk was very nice but was unable to get the key situation fixed. She got DD's working but when she clicked to fix DW's, it made hers work and made mine stop working. She couldn't get all 3 programmed at the same time. We finally gave up as it really didn't matter at that point. We were only there for another 24 hours and I still had the key card.
I ordered an Uber to take us over to Boardwalk (since Disney doesn't offer resort to resort transportation). He was there in about 4 minutes and dropped us off right at the convention center entrance. Well worth the $6 it cost us. We headed in, picked up our credentials, and spent some time catching up with John, Kevin, Ryno, Craig, Steve, Kathy, Theresa, Jackie, Michael, Tom, and others (Jennifer and Stania from the Welcome Center, etc.).
Time for lunch. We walked over to the Boardwalk Bakery and got sandwiches. It was pretty hot out but we got seats in that covered brick area at the back of the hotel. It was somewhat cooler in there. After lunch, we took the boat over to Epcot. We headed to the left around World Showcase and decided to do some stuff in Future World that wouldn't be open during the party. DD and I like Mission:Space but it had a 40-minute wait so that was out. We decided to do Universe of Energy just in case it was the last time we'd see it. Rumors are swirling about the ride so for all we know, it will be gone by our next trip. We stopped in Electric Umbrella for a quick snack and then went into Art of Disney to browse but didn't buy anything. We had FPs for Spaceship Earth so just hung out a bit until it was time for that. While we were waiting, we found out fellow DIS friends were also in the park and we had overlapping Frozen Ever After FP times so we made plans to meet up and ride together a bit later. After Spaceship Earth, we headed to the Land to have dinner at Sunshine Seasons, one of our favorites.
We then made our way toward World Showcase to meet up with them in Norway. It was raining at that point so we hung out in the bakery seating area until it was time to ride. This was our 2nd time riding FEA. It's a fun ride. Not my favorite but worth doing when there isn't a long wait or you have a FP, although I think it has one of the longest FP lines around.
We spent the rest of the evening hanging with our friends, got some pictures taken, hit MouseGears for some shopping, and went back to Electric Umbrella to munch and relax until it was time to leave the park at 9:00.
The place to re-enter the park for the DIS part was the far left of the entry area so we started gathering there. We ran into a number of fellow DISers who we hadn't seen yet as well as connecting with several others who had already seen but had spent the day elsewhere. Finally, 10:00pm came and we were let into the park. By the way, while we were hanging at Electric Umbrella, we got the notice that Disney was going with the rain contingency plan for the party. That meant that the food would be set up in the Land food court area and the Jodi Benson concert would be held at World Showplace. Both of those things were supposed to be outdoors.
My crew went straight to the Land to check out the food and see the DIS team. Well, first we rode Soarin. Kind of neat to have it be a walk on. Then we checked out the food. It was a nice spread with multiple stations throughout that ground floor so there was never a line to get anything. There were also multiple bars as well as drink stations for water, iced tea, and hot beverages. We hung out there, stuffed our faces a bit, and chatted with everyone. After a while, we were talking about going over to ride Test Track, but just as we were getting up to do that, a CM came around to remind everyone that the Jodi Benson concert was starting in 15 minutes. It takes a while to walk from the Land to World Showplace (the former Millennium Village building between Canada and UK) so off we went. Some people had lined up there earlier to get close to the stage but we really didn't care. We heard some stories of people pushing and shoving to get in at the beginning so we were glad not to have been there for that. There were only about 1,000 people there so nobody was all that far from the stage.
First, the MC Billy Flannigan spoke. He's an entertainment CM who has been with Disney for 35 years and has appeared in many of their shows and is currently in the Finding Nemo cast. Then Pete and John spoke briefly and thanked everyone for coming. Then it was time for Jodi Benson. What a treat that was! She only sang a handful of songs but she was amazing. Hearing THE Little Mermaid sing Part of your World was a once in a lifetime experience. There were a lot of tears in that room.
All too soon, the concert was over. We made our way out and headed toward the railing around the lagoon to watch the private showing of Illuminations. Our group had access to the space from Canada around to Mexico, so a pretty good stretch. And again, there were only about 1,000 people, so everyone got a front row seat. That'll never happen again.
When the show ended, we finally got to head over and ride Test Track. The couple we met on the bus ended up right behind us in line so we all rode together. It was nice because they didn't have the photo package but we have APs so I sent them a copy of the ride photo.
We ended the evening back at the Land hanging out with old and new friends. Got to see a number of people there we hadn't seen yet, like Julie, Kylie, Pete, and other fellow DISers who we know from other events. The 3 hours of the party went by way too quickly. It was after 1:00 before we knew it and folks started heading out. None of us wanted to leave but we knew they'd throw us out soon.
We had booked the DIS-arranged bus transportation to get back to Pop. There were folks directing everyone, which was nice, and we got right to our bus. The only problem was we then sat there for quite some time waiting for others. Apparently, what they must have done was planned to only make one trip for everyone who had signed up for that route. So they didn't want to leave without everyone on the list. I wasn't close enough to the front to hear what was happening but I think they eventually just decided to leave even though some people were missing. By the time we got back to Pop (after a stop at CBR), showered, and got ready for bed, it was about 3:00am when we turned out the lights, but what an awesome day it had been.
Day Three:
We couldn't sleep in too late on Friday since checkout is 11:00am. We got up around 9:00am and started getting our stuff packed up. We left the room about 10:00am and checked our bags with the luggage desk. Then we had breakfast at Pop food court. Once again, my experience was fine, except for the surly cashier greeting me with "Are you on the dining plan?" My wife, however, had even more trouble than she had the day before. She went to the counter serving egg sandwiches and ordered one - but never actually got it. The crew was just horribly disorganized and after waiting entirely too long and asking about it twice, she finally gave up and said to just give her French toast, which they had ready. So instead of a freshly made egg sandwich, she had lukewarm French toast and cold bacon. Yum. I think that was the point at which she swore she would never stay there again and will tell everyone she knows not to stay there either.
Our Magical Express pick up time was 3:35pm so we didn't really have enough time to do anything major since we didn't have a car. No way were we going anywhere and having to depend on Disney transportation to get us back to Pop on time. It made for a wasted day unfortunately. If we had a car, we would have gone over to Disney Springs for a couple of hours. Instead, we walked over to Art of Animation just to have something to do. It was too hot and humid to really hang out outdoors but we walked around a bit, then went inside, browsed through the gift shop, and sat in the food court for a while with some cold drinks. Then we went back to Pop and relaxed in the lobby and charged our phones. Around 3:00pm, I retrieved our bags and we all changed back into pants for the trip home.
At the airport, we went to the little food court and got something for dinner and ran into another DIS friend, who hadn't been at the party and we hadn't seen all trip. We chatted with her for a while before heading to our gate. Flight was pretty much on time and off we went for the trip home. Thankfully, the return flight was uneventful and we landed in Philly around 9:00pm. We were back in our house before 10:00 after a whirlwind adventure.
