We are wrapping up our second full day of our trip. Sorry it got long but here are the first two days.
We flew in from LAX on American on crowded flights. I think the worst part was they apparently aren’t springing for turning on the air conditioning while at the gate. Boarding and waiting for takeoff with masks in that heat was awful. That will be the last American flight I book for a long time.
We landed at 12:15 am and didn’t get to Wilderness Lodge until 2, mostly due to picking up the rental car. Note: If you are a new Budget Fastbreak member, you can’t proceed directly to the garage until your 2nd rental. Oops. Also, the middle of the night crew is not fast and the closure of Terminal B services was a pain. Only minivans and trucks were left so we got an upgrade.
Wilderness Lodge is beautiful even at night. I’m sure the signs to guest rooms are fine normally, but for the bleary eyed entering a completely empty lobby (not a soul in sight), they took a few minutes of wandering to find the Copper Creek rooms.
We loved the studio and took a few to unpack before heading to bed. We also called down for our Instacart order and they brought it up very quickly. Instacart was a bust: they’d texted me while on the plane and substituted over a third of my order with things I didn’t really want, but when I went through it, another third was missing. Also there were items I hadn’t ordered that will go to waste.
Day 1 (Saturday) we slept until about 10 and grabbed brunch at Roaring Fork, a cheeseburger, pulled pork sandwich and chicken and waffles. Everyone enjoyed their food. DH especially enjoyed the sandwich.
After lunch we tried both pools. They weren’t crowded and we found chairs in the shade. Everyone kept their distance. The slide may not be the best on property, but we still laughed our way down several times each. It was a great way to start the trip.
We drove over to Animal Kingdom around 3 pm (closing at 6) and after some pics, we waited for Dinosaur. Wait time said 20 and would have been that, but they started a cleaning cycle when we were 3 parties from boarding. It took about 7 minutes. Then we headed for some otter viewing and a Starbucks break and then Flight of Passage. It said 50 minutes and we waited that to close the park. This is our favorite ride although they stopped the audio after a minute to tell people to put on their masks. It definitely took us out of the moment, but I’m glad they are enforcing it.
When we got back to the hotel, we stopped by the front desk to check in on the issue we’d reported earlier with the fold out couch folding upward any time DS moved at all. I had a message from housekeeping that they couldn’t duplicate the problem we were having and wanted to meet us in our room. We met the supervisor who was great and was going to try to fix it or add a mattress while we were at dinner at Geyser Point. The wait for that was 90 minutes but that’s no problem when your room is only a few steps away.
We shared the charcuterie board, cheesy brisket and bacon cheeseburger. All amazing and we finished just before 10. I had some Homer Simpson moments eating the brisket. So good. We left the charcuterie board empty too.
The supervisor called while we were there and said they couldn’t fix the couch without taking it all apart but would upgrade us to a 1 bedroom!!! We were so excited and the 1 bedroom is AMAZING!! Packing cubes for the win and even with our overpacking, we were moved in about 30 minutes. It was at the end of the hall overlooking Geyser Point and a view of the lake (pic above).
The mattresses are more comfortable than the studio’s on both beds, we love the bathroom “window,” my boys can’t get enough of the bathtub and it’s enormous. DS has already made me promise we will get a 1 bedroom here in a future year.
We got settled in and both DH and DS decided to take advantage of the tub with bubbles. They finished up and we headed to bed. Supposedly. All quiet until the tub jets switched on so we switched them off. Back to bed and 20 minutes later, there they go again. I finally called the front desk who had to call specialists in who broke into a lock for a door covering the breakers so they could switch them off until they could fix it the next day. By then it was 1:30 which was rough for our early breakfast wake up, but whatever. We love this room and the CMs been so kind and helpful through all of this. The supervisor even texted me the next day to say she was so sorry to hear about the tub trouble and ask if we needed anything. Sweetest lady.
Day 2 (Sunday) was an early day. We had breakfast planned for Ale & Compass to take advantage of the walk to HS. We ordered the eggs Benedict, apple caramel french toast and bacon blueberry pancakes. The eggs Benedict were decent. The sauce was a little bland and I’m not sure I love the roasted pork element. It was a little tough which made it hard to cut with the butter knife and chew and the charred flavor overwhelmed the rest. DH said the French toast was more raisin than apple and wasn’t enthusiastic about the dish. DS said the pancakes were good, but he ordered apple juice and between that and the side sausage which DH said was spicy, I think it was just too much for his stomach at that hour. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there again, but it was decent. The service was excellent. Our server left a pot of coffee with us and brought a pitcher of water to fill our water bottles when I asked for a cup. He also had the check ready.
Then we headed off to HS where I saw the Skyliner moving and buses going to HS and wondered if walking wouldn’t be an advantage this day. However neither was actually moving guests yet. We arrived at 8:48. I’ve included a picture of the line at that time. It was maybe 50-60 people. They held us there until 9 and then brought us to lines in front of the temperature tents on the left. At 9:03 people started arriving on the Skyliner and the line of cars in appeared. They directed Skyliner people to the still empty temp check lines on the right.
At 9:10 they started letting everyone into the temp check tents and we walked quickly through security. I’d read you should hold your water bottle and umbrella in front of you. A security guard saw me and demonstrated I should hold them as far from me as possible so they were farther from my body than the scan panels are wide. No beeps and we sailed though.
We walked quickly to MMRR and were loading at 9:21. Such a cute ride! We love the shorts and loved this. We moved quickly from there to Slinky and were in line for that by 9:36.
Fortunately, we were still about 10 groups from boarding when 10:00 came and DH counted down while DS and I tried for RoTR. I clicked through quickly assuming all our names would be checked but apparently only I got BG1. I went back and hit join again and got BG38 for DH and DS.
Since my group was already called, we headed that direction and stopped by the GET umbrella on the way. They were able to move them into my group, although before the cm with an iPad could help me, his supervisor had asked me what I needed and he was saying multiple people must have been trying on my account because there was no way one person could get through twice. I explained I got them both. He was shocked.
Here are my suggestions: use cell service instead of WiFi as long as you have good reception where you are. Josh from easywdw said to turn off the location services so I did. I do notice it slows me up other times while it takes a second to locate me so I think that helped. And I did it by staying on the home page screen and waiting to click on Join under the two AT-ATs right as my husband said it was 10 by following the time on an app that shows the seconds.
We pretty much walked through the whole ROTR line and were into the preshow quickly. On the transport section, the front and back screens were broken and still showing the planet scene so that part wasn’t as immersive. DS and I had ridden it at
Disneyland but this was DH’s first time. Other things were missing or out of sync but I don’t want to give anything away by explaining. Hopefully they have it running smoothly soon.
None of these ruined anything, but I will say between it all working and the amazing CMs at Disneyland where I’ve ridden it before , when the doors opened to the scene right before you board, I actually felt nervous for a minute. I don’t think I’d ever felt more like I was living in the story of any ride than in that moment. It wasn’t not good today. It just wasn’t quite that level I’d experienced at Disneyland.
After that, we exited to the heat just being overwhelming. Hot and so sticky. It was 93 with a real feel of 101. Just ewww. We drank lots of water but DS said he was hungry. We had a lunch reservation for Brown Derby at 1:25 and it was around 11, but between lack of sleep, the heat and never knowing if you’ve forced enough water on the kid, we decided to stop to get him a kids meal from Docking Bay 7. We had to wait 15 minutes for an open time slot but we’d accomplished 3 big rides so we decided to just hunker down in the shade.
When we picked up DS’s chicken tip yip, the CM said they’d made an extra pot roast and offered it to us. I had a few bites and it was very good. DH inhaled it. I think we were all a little off so the break was nice although the a/c was so cold we were all shivering. DS orders the chicken every time we eat there in Disneyland and it was gone in seconds.
Then it was time for Savi’s. After a lot of go here and there in a hot courtyard with a little shade, we were directed inside by the poor CMs who have so much to explain and coordinate with all this social distancing. I think it took about 20-25 minutes to go through and get inside and about that agin for the rest. The ceremony was great and the CMs were wonderful about helping DS11 get everything together. When I saw another family with their 4 kids and dad doing it, I was very grateful we got off with just $400. I love Star Wars but getting a saber isn’t my thing, probably because I’m not going to spend any time whacking someone else with it. However DH and DS have already spent the evening doing that so money well spent.
Then it was time for Brown Derby (first visit). I ordered the cobb and DS got a hot dog. DH was still full but ordered a French press pot and was in heaven. Unpopular opinion: I wasn’t crazy about the cobb. It was very egg forward with tiny bits of lettuce. I prefer the tangy cheese and dressing parts so it was just ok for me. I couldn’t finish it and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get a slice of the grapefruit cake down as well, which bummed me out since I’d read about it so many times. The waiter asked if we wanted dessert and I said sorry, I’m sad there’s no room for the cake because I hear it’s delicious. He asked, you’ve never had it?, and I told him no. When he reappeared he brought me a small piece they must use for celebrations! Sweet man! It was sooo good. I turned away for a second to say something to DH and DS had snatched the rest of it. Kids! We all 3 really liked it. I would definitely eat here again.
We walked back outside into the wall of liquid heat. Everything had caught up with us and we headed back to the hotel for a rest. On our way to get the car from YC, we took the Skyliner back to Epcot, which made us even more excited to move to our home resort at Riviera on Tuesday.
Well that rest turned into a nap and mutiny. Lol. No one was up for going back (even though it was open until 8 and cooler at that point) so we headed to the pool, checked out Whispering Canyon (one hour wait at 7:45) and opted for Roaring Fork. The boys got the pork sandwich and burger again and I got the tuna sandwich, which was good. They both got the campfire cupcake and loved them. I tried a bite of the cake and even though I usually favor white cake, this was really good and moist. I got the magic cookie bar. It was good but sooo sweet. I ate a few bites and imagine it will stretch over a few days.
Overall there have been a few bumps, but so much pixie dust and Disney is always worth it to me. The masks are brutal but so is the heat without them. When it’s not sweltering or we’re in a/c, I forget I’m wearing one sometimes. I’ve been favoring ones I have from Athleta and Toes on the Nose.
I’ll keep reporting while I’m here though next Sunday if people are interested.
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) and one week in an offsite condo (family of 6 so nothing on-site really fits us for a decent price except the campground). We went to Hollywood studios on Friday and it was a great time. Most rides were about half the posted wait time. We did wait once for slinky (rode it twice!) and for tot/smugglers run and Mickey’s runaway. We look forward to what this week has for us! I will say the worst part was the masks with the heat. I normally go from open to close even in August heat with no issue but the mask in the heat was really hard for me. I switched to a paper mask which did help some but it was pretty miserable.
