Everything I touch turns to broken. A fantastic Festival of the Arts Trip – January 2023 (Updated 6/22!!)

[VAtink]

So you broke the lady too. She will never recover.

I really do need to stop breaking things...and people

 

[VAtink]

Oh dear. How awkward. Although I will say that I definitely prefer being by myself. In my case, I'm a bit wider with pretty long legs and the ride vehicle is so tight (in my opinion) that I'm incredibly self-conscious that I'll be encroaching on their space and/or that they're judging me. I have issues. But do totally get that when it's crowded, they want to fill each train to reduce wait time.

Oh yeah, I totally would prefer to ride alone, especially on that ride since the seats are so small. Still, I wouldn't be that upset if someone sat with me!

Hanging out at the dessert party with some wine while the crowd dissipates is so awesome. Between that and not having to stake out a spot in advance it's worth the price of admission to me and the sweets and wine is just a bonus.

It was so nice! I don't think I've seen them offering drinks after the fireworks ended before, although we may have just run out so fast that we never noticed. It was so nice being able to grab another one and have a calm place to sit while the crowds dispersed.

Buzz seems to be showing its age a bit as it seems like a lot of the guns aren't fully functional. ~15 years ago, I maxed out the score -- absolutely no idea how I did it and have never ever come close to doing it again.

Yeah, I hope the refurb it sometime, it's one of our favorites in MK. We may be slightly competitive.

 

[VAtink]

Crazy about that lady. She does look angry, but makes it a funny pic. When I was there in 2021 solo, I was put with a group of 4 on the Millennium Falcon as an engineer. We go to board and the father turns and looks at me and asks why I was going with them. Ummm, because I was assigned to and told I was with your group. I think he felt I was impeding on his family. Hey - we all had masks and there was still a plastic thing between our seats, I think this will be ok. I kind of wonder if they were planning to take their masks off it was just going to be them. Cast member told him that I was supposed to be there.

Yeah, she was very angry, it was crazy. I do love the picture though! It's so awkward when you get put with other guests who are upset you've been assigned to ride with them. I can totally see with that family you rode with wanting to take off their masks once on the ride. It's wild how people can get in Disney!

 

[VAtink]

At least you had a good time.

Haha, yeah it was still a fun ride! Too bad she didn't see it that way!

 

[VAtink]

I had a father yell at me for sitting with his 12 or 13 year old son on Everest when I used the single rider line. I felt bad for the kid. He was so embarrassed. We were already seated, so we couldn't change the arrangement.

Woah, that is crazy! How awkward. Maybe Disney should make it clearer that you may be sat with strangers on rides, especially those with single rider lines. Kind of blows my mind that people don't realize that this happens.

 

[VAtink]

I am dying at that lady's face literally looks like a toddler who didn't get her way!

HAAAAA, that is perfect! 100% what she looked like!

 

[VAtink]

It occurred to me that I forgot to add my list of broken things from Day 4 in my last post. Here’s the impressive list:

• Genie+
• The weather (why was it in the 40s?!? brrrr!)
• Buzz
• PPF
• Pirates
• Philharmagic
• The camera on Pirates
• The monorail (for multiple days, sorry everyone!)
• Guardians
• The poor woman next to me on 7DMT

 

[erinch]

When does the update machine start again? Still broken?

 

[VAtink]

When does the update machine start again? Still broken?

Haha, yup, still broken! Hopefully will be repaired by this weekend.

 

[VAtink]

Day 5, Part 1: Until Next Time, Disney!​

I once again didn’t sleep great with the club level lounge noise, but at least it was my last night before sleeping in my own bed!

I got up super early this morning to get ready and finish getting everything packed.

Around 6:45 I headed downstairs and called for an Uber. I got one right away and he was only 5 minutes away.

This morning I was flying Jetblue, so was going to finally see the new terminal C!

It was a pretty quick ride over and I had a chatty driver so we talked the whole way.

Once I was dropped off at terminal C I was shocked to see I was the only one there! Seriously, the place was a ghost town.

The uber driver did mention that would be the case, apparently since the terminal is mostly used for international flights, it’s pretty empty in the morning. Not bad for me though!

I quickly found the security and the TSA precheck line, although I could have gone into either line since I was still the only traveler there. It was wild. (although I have zero desire to take off my shoes or unpack liquids, so precheck line won)

Security was super quick and once through I found a gift shop to pick up a bottle of water for the flight.

I then went to find my gate.



It was still pretty empty in there. There was one flight to Brazil that was leaving that morning, but that was it before my flight.

Now, I had gotten to the airport early since I wasn’t sure what to expect with terminal C, and I knew how slow it is to get through the main terminal, but it turns out I got there waaay too early.

My flight wasn’t until about 10, and I was at my gate by 7:40. Oops!

Oh well, now I know. At least I wasn’t stressed out about being late!

The flight was uneventful, thankfully, and soon I was back in DC!

When it gets to my turn to exit the plane, I reach up to unlatch the overhead bin, but it won’t unlatch.

Hm.

So the guy across the aisle tries, but he can’t get it open either. We both try again a few times, but it will not budge, so I yell up to the flight attendant that the overhead bin is stuck, so she tells us to sit back down and she’ll call for someone.

Great.

So I sit back down and watch everyone else deplane. About half the people walking by tried their best to open the overhead bin, but no one could get it open. I did appreciate the effort though!

Fortunately, maintenance arrived pretty quickly, and the guy literally does this quick tap tap clunk with his hand to the bin and it pops open.

Those are some specialized skills folks.

Since I didn’t have a checked bag I made my way out to get an Uber, and soon after was at my house! (I will once again say, living less than 10 minutes from the airport has its advantages!)

Once home I said hi to my cat, Ham, then headed back out to go pick up my dog Dug.





It was nice coming back on a Saturday so I had all day on Sunday to do laundry and start going through pictures.

Overall it was such a great trip, even though everything seemed to want to break! I really want to make going in January a yearly thing now, just need more vacation time and more money to make that a reality!

For now though I have two trips to look forward to, our yearly September Food and Wine trip, and our big December trip! (This would have been a great year to have an AP…..)

Anyways, that's it for the FARTs extravaganza! Now back to finishing up the F&W TR...that I started 4 months before this TR...

Broken Things:

Overhead bin on plane
​

 

[Sacahara]

lol can't believe that you even broke the bin!
Great report! It made me absolutely HAVE to go to FARTs back in Feb when I first started reading it. I had no choice

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Argh, the noise from the lounge sounds so frustrating. I love my sleep and really need it in Disney. Though I never sleep well when I know I need to be up early -- am always worried about missing it. Great tip on Jet Blue and the early morning flights - sounds delightful (other than 2 hours at the gate). Thank goodness the overhead bin was a quick fix. I agree with you on FArts ... it's become my favorite. September and December sound like fun!!

 

[VAtink]

lol can't believe that you even broke the bin!

Right? I was really on a roll with breaking everything!

Great report! It made me absolutely HAVE to go to FARTs back in Feb when I first started reading it. I had no choice

Thank you! It is such a fun festival, I really wish I could go back this year. Trying to save up so maybe I can make it back in 2025!

 

[VAtink]

Argh, the noise from the lounge sounds so frustrating. I love my sleep and really need it in Disney. Though I never sleep well when I know I need to be up early -- am always worried about missing it. Great tip on Jet Blue and the early morning flights - sounds delightful (other than 2 hours at the gate). Thank goodness the overhead bin was a quick fix. I agree with you on FArts ... it's become my favorite. September and December sound like fun!!

Yeah, the noise from the lounge was pretty bad. I even changed our September trip from standard view to garden view after getting home to ensure we would not get that room again. Of course shortly after they recategorized the rooms and now standard and garden are lumped together. Just my luck! (I will complain if we get assigned a standard view this trip though, I didn't pay extra to get bumped back down!)

Terminal C in the morning is glorious! I will try to fly out of it every trip now, I couldn't believe how empty it was!

FARTs was so amazing, I really wish I could go again this year, but I guess having the September and December trip will more than make up for it! Hoping for a 2025 trip back!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Our Mears Connect picked up at Terminal C during our February trip. There were only a few people waiting for pickup. I didn't even know that it was open for business.

Our cat used to give us the cold shoulder for a day when we returned from a trip. It was kind of funny.

We used to go to WDW in January but now go the first part of February instead. The weather has a better chance of being a very tiny bit warmer than January. We always catch the last days of the Value rates.

We will be at POR in September with my sister and DH's sister. I hope my sister doesn't tell my sister-in-law all of our secrets. We only see his sister a few times a year while my sister lives 20 minutes away from us. It will be our first time traveling with his sister. It should be fun as long as we don't get a hurricane.

 

[jfulcer]

cool.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Omg the dog with the Halloween ears is adorable