Our first October Disney vacay!! A full week at Fort Wilderness, golf cart included, with Genie+ dropping during the trip!

[jvz82]

Well, as you can tell from the title of my TR, "The Drive from Hell and then Sunk by the Nautilus," we had a terrible drive down and back. Never again! We'll fly if things ever get back to near normal. Your weather in Oct. is too hot for my blood. How was the humidity? We had gorgeous weather on our trip. The first day we were at SSR the high was 72 and it increased by only a degree or two over the next 8 days. Our last two days it reached 78 and then 80, but we had no rain.

You did seem to get a lot done in the parks. We were met with enormous crowds and terrible lines, but we also didn't get anywhere very early.

I love the title of your TR! The drive isn't for everyone, that's for sure. There are so many times I think we should just fly but ughhhh the cost and there's so much less flexibility.

We had hot weather, but not humid at all! It was mid to high 80s but it never really felt unbearably hot to me. I would say our Epcot day was the day where I felt the hottest. It was also probably the most crowded day so maybe that was part of it. We had no rain, it was just sunny the entire trip. I absolutely LOVED the weather.

Thanks for reading!

Caught up! You're getting a lot done on your park days but nice you can work in some down time. I love your enthusiasm and positive vibe! We'll be in Ft. Wilderness in 60 days! We stayed in cabins twice before when our boys were younger. Now we're taking the whole crew which includes 2 grandsons 3 and 5 3 of our group will be first timers. I think the cabins will be perfect for our group!

Oh you're going to have a blast! We just love the cabins. They feel like a home away from home.

I am a fairly positive and enthusiastic Disney traveler but I have my moments too lol. Traveling with 4 kids, it's not always sunshine and rainbows, that's for sure!

 

[jvz82]

I'm back! Ready to pretend that I'm back on that ferry in the Florida sunshine. It is currently a windchill of -26 in Minnesota. #save me

We passed the Contemporary as we cruised by on the lake and I snapped a quick picture.


We then arrived at the happiest place on earth!!! This was one of those super hard moments, being so close to the castle but not getting to go inside yet. I just love this view, pulling up on the ferry with the monorail, train station, and castle in front of the lake. <3



But we were on our way to see Mickey, so we had to focus on that and make our way to the monorail station.


My 12 year old with his monorail t-shirt lol.




This was my first time taking the monorail into the Contemporary. It's so cool how it pulls right into the resort!

We did a little exploring of the resort and went into a couple of gifts shops because it wasn't quite time for our reservation yet. Then as we were waiting, my 6 year old decided to go up and down the escalator with my mom because he was bored.




We were one of the first reservations of the evening so we got in pretty quickly!





Our server was amazing! He was so attentive to all of the kids. He explained that it used to be a buffet at Chef Mickey's, but now they just brought all the food to your table and you could take what you wanted. I actually thought I liked that better because I was trying foods that I maybe wouldn't ordinarily try. And seriously, the food was so good!

 

[jvz82]

Mickey showed up right away! I was so excited to see him! Of course they make you stand a few feet away. I do really miss getting hugs from the characters.

















We were seriously stuffed! Every single thing I tried was so delicious. It was hard to stop eating! I snapped a couple pictures of Mickey shaped food.





On our way out, we stopped at a gift shop and argued with some kids who wanted to spend all their money and tried to convince them not to buy anything. My dad bought a Contemporary bathrobe, knowing he'd be having surgery to remove his cancer in December (surgery was successful, by the way) and wanting a cozy robe to spend time in. My husband bought a "My other ride is a monorail" bumper sticker.

And then we were back on the monorail, heading back to Magic Kingdom!

 

[jvz82]

As we climbed off the monorail, we randomly decided that it might be fun to get some pictures taken in front of Magic Kingdom while we were there knowing that we'd be in a hurry on our Magic Kingdom day! Plus it wasn't too crowded in the early evening.

I seem to have a vague memory of my children fighting when this picture was taken. I think I specifically had to sit between two boys were couldn't stop arguing. At least the picture is cute.



The 50th cake!!!



And a picture of the monorail as it zoomed by.


And with that, we were back to the boat launch to take the ferry back to Fort Wilderness!

We had heard the fireworks every evening from Magic kingdom (we were usually in bed) but we decided that night that we were going to go down to the boat launch to watch the fireworks across the lake since we didn't have to be up quite so early the next day (Epcot didn't open until 10:30).

By the time we arrived back, it was already getting late. We all found the bathrooms and got some water and hung out at the park while we waited. It was super crowded down by the beach because there were food trucks set up all around. While my 6 year old played at the park, I chatted with a woman who said they had just spent like 27 days at Disney. Jealous!! There were tons of mosquitos and she commented that these were the first mosquitos she'd seen in 27 days.

Finally it was getting close to firework time so we walked all the way down to the end of the dock to watch. Someone was piping in music on the beach, so while it wasn't quite as spectacular as being in the park, it was still really amazing.







We had considered not staying to see the fireworks at Magic Kingdom and heading out early, but seeing the fireworks on the dock reminded me that I just HAD to stay for fireworks. I love them too much!

Once they were done, we climbed back onto our golf carts and back to the cabin we went.

Up next: Food and wine, and food and wine, and more food and wine and then sooooo hot.

 

[DisneyyDaydream]

Such great news about your dad’s surgery!

 

[jvz82]

Such great news about your dad’s surgery!

Thank you so much!! He is about one month out from surgery and everything is looking great. No more signs of cancer found at all.

 

[jvz82]

It's Epcot day! We hadn't been to Epcot in 5 years so most of my kids barely remembered the rides, and the last time we had gone we had barely even hit any of the countries. So this time around we had big plans for the Food and Wine festival!

But first things first. I had to wake up early and try to get in the virtual queue for Remy, and we were successful!


I used all the "tips and tricks" I had been reading about. I disconnected from the resort Wifi, watched the second hand on my phone's clock and the second it hit 7 am I refreshed to get in line. Success!

We didn't have to get moving quite as early as usual though because Epcot didn't open until 11 (10:30 for resort guests). But we still wanted to be there early so we took our golf carts down to the bus stop and caught a bus for Epcot!

They made us wait for quite a while before letting us in the gates. They had lines going for resort guests and for non-resort guests and were checking the magic bands closely. We waited for quite a while and they finally funneled us in through the front gates.

I had read that Epcot was under construction so I was prepared for it, but still having the giant walls up everywhere were kind of a bummer. Still, we got to see the big ball!



We didn't make it very far before they stopped us. We had to wait right up until 10:30 when they finally let us into the actual park. We started booking it right for Frozen Ever After, and it seemed like that's where everyone was headed. My app told me that FEA was already a 60 minute wait!!! I told my family about the long wait, asked if we even wanted to do it and we agreed to just go and see what happened. I had to admit that I was feeling pretty grumpy about waiting in a 60 minute RD line.



The line outside was already winding, so my mom ran into one of the shops and bought some lefse. If we were going to try all the foods on our list today, we needed to start right away! We shared the lefse while we waited in line. Tasty!





We moved quickly through the line so I relaxed more as we went. We made it into Oaken's Trading post and took some pictures.



All in all, I think we only ended up waiting in line for 20 minutes. I have to wonder if they posted the wait time at 60 minutes to discourage people from hitting the ride first thing. Mostly I was just relieved not to have to be in line for an hour.

After Frozen, we walked all the way back across the park to go to Soarin because it had a low wait time and we thought we had time for one more thing before going over to Remy's ride.



After Soarin, we then hiked BACK across the park and started heading to France for Remy. I'm not sure if that was the best decision! My oldest son seemed already exhausted with the walking and the heat. By the time it was after 11:30 and the sun was hot. We were also just slightly in a hurry because we had to get to our virtual queue by a certain time.

We finally made it!




But then? Disaster struck. As we're literally walking up to scan our magic bands, I realize that my magic band was missing!!! I was soooo disappointed, it was my special 50th anniversary band that I spent too much money on. And it was gone. I also didn't have any other way to check in to the ride. The cast member took us all aside and directed me on how to get it onto my phone, so that took a while. Finally it was set up, and we were able to all tap into the virtual queue.

I've heard some people say that they had to wait a long time with Remy, but once we tapped in it wasn't too long of a wait. Maybe 15-20 minutes. And the ride was adorable and we all really enjoyed it!

After we got done with Remy, we decided it was time to find lunch. We all had different ideas of what we wanted to eat. My parents and son wanted to go to a food stand in France, while my daughter had been longing for macarons from the bakery. So I took 3 of my kids and we stood in a super long line in the bakery to get macarons and baguette sandwiches.

Meanwhile, my son got "Beignet aux Trois Fromages", and my parents got coq au vin with puffed potatoes. I sampled a little bit of everyone's food and it was all delicious!

My daughter and her beloved macarons:


And after taking a break with our food, we headed off around the world showcase towards Morocco!

 

[jvz82]

After our delicious lunch in France, we headed for Morocco!



My 6 year old is a huge Aladdin fan and immediately when we entered Morocco, he was determined to find a magic lamp.

As we wandered around, we did actually find a sign for a lamp store but the sign seemed to go nowhere. We came across a cast member and asked her about it, but she said the store was closed temporarily. Kind of a bummer!

The kids were posing with my mom and being silly.





After Morocco, we headed towards Japan. My daughter had been extremely excited about Japan! She's been really into Anime style drawing and art. She wanted to go into the huge gift shop.





She wasn't happy that I made everyone do a group picture when she was ready to shop.

We spent a considerable amount of time in the gift shop. Everyone picked out a small thing, including some Japanese candy that my son wanted to bring back to share with his class.

We went through the America area next but we must not have spent much time there because I don't have any pictures and I don't have any memories!

Then we were onto Italy! There were some foods and drinks that we were excited to try. Most of the crew found a shady spot while my mom and I waited in line.

We tried some bombolinis, which were soooo good. Kind of like a donut with sauce in the middle. We also got some ravioli. My mom and I got drinks, I think I got Moscato.



We checked out the trains over in Germany next.


China was next! My daughter was looking forward to trying boba tea at the food stand so we waited in line for that.



While the 6 year old shopped.


At this point, it was mid afternoon and it was HOT. We'd all been eating a lot of food, I had had a few drinks.

I can't remember the exact order of things, but I'm pretty sure that the wait times at Test Track were down so we decided to head over that direction next. We scooted through Norway and Mexico towards Test Track, looking forward to getting out of the sun.

 

[rdkeim]

Did you have to pay for Remy? Sorry I'm not up on all the new stuff!

 

[jvz82]

Did you have to pay for Remy? Sorry I'm not up on all the new stuff!

Nope! We did the virtual queue at 7 am. Our trip was a couple of months ago now but I think they're still doing the virtual queue for Remy, or you can pay for the lightning lane.

 

[rdkeim]

Got it - thanks!

 

[jvz82]

So, from the Mexico end of the world showcase, we then made our way to Test Track! It was predicted at a 20 minute wait, which was the shortest I had seen all day so we just went for it.

I think 20 minutes was pretty accurate. I bet it was only 10-15 minutes to get through the actual line into the part where we design our car.

I had actually never been on Test Track! We had chosen to skip it when we came 5 years ago, and prior to that trip I hadn't been to Epcot in a few years so Test Track wasn't there. I really enjoyed it!! I think all of us did.





After Test Track, we decided to hit up Figment, which was my favorite as a kid.





My mom bought a big Figment poster for her basement at the gift shop. I was surprised that they didn't have any plush Figments in the gift shop! What the heck? A missed opportunity for sure.

After Figment, we separated. I don't remember why. I know that I took my 6 year old and my mom over to one of the gift shops, but I don't remember where everyone else went.

My 6 year old bought this new backpack.


So the rest of the day we sang "I can be your backpack while you run" (when you know, you know).

Then we met up with everyone and decided to hit Spaceship Earth because it was a short wait!


After Spaceship earth, it was time for dinner. I had been dying to try the pretzel rolls and beer cheese soup over in Canada so we headed that direction! My parents kept going towards England to get fish and chips.

The pretzel roll and soup did NOT disappoint. Oh man, definitely my favorite of the day!

We met up over in England. I took a picture of my kids on this adorable little street.



As we started heading towards France again, we noticed Mary Poppins! I just had to go meet her! None of my kids were interested.






I've always loved Mary Poppins. It was such a beautiful area!

Up next: We hit France again!

 

[Hubie]

Wow! Looks like you had a day like we used to a few years ago. You must have covered about 6 miles or more. Glad to hear that your dad's surgery was successful.

 

[cheryllarsen]

How fun!!

 

[cheryllarsen]

Thanks for posting. Enjoyed the read!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Then as we were waiting, my 6 year old decided to go up and down the escalator with my mom because he was bored.

Hey, whatever works..

I love it!

My dad bought a Contemporary bathrobe, knowing he'd be having surgery to remove his cancer in December (surgery was successful, by the way) and wanting a cozy robe to spend time in.

Good for him. And glad to hear it went well.

I seem to have a vague memory of my children fighting when this picture was taken. I think I specifically had to sit between two boys were couldn't stop arguing. At least the picture is cute.

You would never know there was all that argueing.

I had read that Epcot was under construction so I was prepared for it, but still having the giant walls up everywhere were kind of a bummer.

The walls are so bad!

All in all, I think we only ended up waiting in line for 20 minutes. I have to wonder if they posted the wait time at 60 minutes to discourage people from hitting the ride first thing. Mostly I was just relieved not to have to be in line for an hour.

I think they do it for both reasons. It is nice when it is shorter than expected and keep some people away.

 

[MickeyMouseLove]

I have loved reading your trip report! So much fun!
I also love all your shirts—they look wonderful! What did you use to make them?

 

[jvz82]

Wow! Looks like you had a day like we used to a few years ago. You must have covered about 6 miles or more. Glad to hear that your dad's surgery was successful.

Thank you for reading! Yes, we covered a LOT of miles that day. It was so hot!

How fun!!

It was a great day, thank you for reading!

Thanks for posting. Enjoyed the read!

Happy you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!

Hey, whatever works..


I love it!


Good for him. And glad to hear it went well.


You would never know there was all that argueing.


The walls are so bad!


I think they do it for both reasons. It is nice when it is shorter than expected and keep some people away.

Who knew the escalator would be such a fun "ride" for a 6 year old? Lol. Thanks for reading.

I have loved reading your trip report! So much fun!
I also love all your shirts—they look wonderful! What did you use to make them?

Thank you! I have a Cricut so for the shirts I used printable vinyl or layers of vinyl that was cut on the Cricut, and a heat press to apply the vinyl. I love making the shirts!

 

[jvz82]

I'm back to finish off our Epcot day!

When I left off, we had just eaten some food in Canada and England and were heading towards France. My kids hadn't eaten yet, and most of them desperately wanted crepes. My husband and my dad decided to bring the 3 younger kids to the restaurant in France to get crepes. My mom and my oldest son and I veered off to a guest services area to see if they had happened to find my magic band and turned it in there. It was not.

We went to the same food stand we'd been to for lunch because my son wanted more of the "Beignet aux Trois Fromages" that he loved so much. My mom and I had already eaten so we got drinks, of course. And dessert!



After food and drinks, my son wanted to go shopping. The rest of the crew was in a sit-down restaurant eating crepes and apparently they were loving them. After several shops, my oldest son finally decided he needed a beret. He does love unique hats so it made sense for him to get one.



After we all got together again, many of us were getting tired but my daughter was not ready to leave. We thought Living with the Land would be fun and relaxing so we headed in that direction. On the way out, my daughter started throwing a fit because she hadn't gotten an ice cream that was on her list of foods to try. I don't say no at Disney very often, but we had eaten so much food and she had just finished a gigantic crepe dinner. So she was grump as we headed back over to Living with the lands.

There was no wait for the ride and the a/c felt amazing.




I know it's not the most exciting ride, but I always enjoy this one.

Afterwards, it was getting dark. We decided to go on the Finding Nemo ride because the wait time was short and we had to head that direction anyway.

Obligatory photo in Bruce the shark lol.


After spending some time in the aquariums, it was pretty much decided that everyone was ready to go except my daughter. We started heading towards the exit but I stayed behind with my daughter who was crying and saying she didn't want to leave. It was becoming clear that leaving the parks was just really triggering for her. We had a nice conversation about how hard it is to say good-bye to Disney every day knowing how fast our trips go by. Then we bought a popsicle and caught up with the rest of the family.

My mom wanted to make one more attempt to find my lost magic band (it was so expensive! It sucked to lose it). So she went to the main guest services area, and the rest of us waited on some benches near the big Epcot ball. We enjoyed watching it turn different colors.







And then my mom appeared, very dramatically as the ball started lighting up and music was playing, and she had my magic band! It's a disney miracle!

And with that, it was time to leave Epcot.

Up next: On our last day at Disney, we finally get to see the castle!

 

[Hubie]

Wow! Great that someone not only turned in your band, but that your mom was persistent on checking out Guest Services one more time. I lost my camera at Universal back in 1/2020 and fortunately got it back the following day.