Spur of the moment Quick trip 7/19-23! Bye Bye GMR, Lots of Characters and ADR's

[boilermaker1]

This is my first Trip Report so thought a little history might be in order first

About the Fletchers
fam by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

We are a family of four April(DW), Mallory (DD 14) , Ava (DD 12) and Chad( myself), all of us are AP holders for last 5 years. WE currently live in South GA, when you enter TTC into the GPS we are exactly 4 hours door to door. So we have a big luxury most don't. If I had to guess at days spent on WWD property I would guess DW-40, Mallory-50, Ava 70 and myself somewhere over 500. I had the luxury of growing up in the same area as we are now with a mom and dad that also loved Disney, well primarily my mom. So over the last 38 year I've averaged out somewhere around 20-30 days a years on site. So I guess I'm "Disney dork" as my wife calls me. My wife enjoys going but she is way more laid back and likes to take it easy, my daughter Mallory is in between fast and laid back, but my Ava and myself are certifiably crazy. Our moto is "rope drop until lights out". The majority of our trips are spur of the moment due to my oldest daughters schedule. She plays travel fast pitch softball all over the country and is currently getting offers for college so we stay on the road with her. So we go when we can. We don't normally stay on site for two reasons (1) we own a 2 week time share down there at a resort or we are so spur of the moment all we are worried about it somewhere to bathe and sleep.

Trip Report July 20-23, AK, MK, HS and Epcot with ADR's

So as things normally happen a chance arose for a trip. My oldest Mallory and my wife were visiting colleges all week in 2 states so Ava (DD 12) and myself were at home all week. When late Wednesday night she comes in the living room and says "Hey dad why don't you take me to Disney this weekend?". She already knew I didn't need a excuse to go, so of course I said lets go (also the pleasure of being your own boss). So I got out my phone went to MDE app and proceeded to look for rooms, was having issues using the AP discount so called them and within 15 minutes I had us set up for (3) night at Pop Century. Now we do not normally on stay on property but I figured this would be out best way to get a chance at Pandora. A few minutes after that was done we spent a little time on MDE getting the FP's we could on such short notice. I was actually shocked at some that we got on such a short notice. So we were set. Went and packed to be ready to leave out the next day

 

[boilermaker1]

Day 1- The drive and Pandora FOP and NRJ 7/20

Day 1 started like any normal day for me. Off to work at 8 and doing the same ole 8-5 routine. I had told Ava to be ready at 4PM cause we were headed south. Little did I know I would have "crap hit the fan" at the office. I finally rolled in the driveway about 5PM. Ran inside kicked off the work clothes, through on some shorts, shirts and sandals and was back at the door in 10 minutes with her in tow. Entered the address (out of the saved ones, of course) and we were on our way. And at 9:22 ,4 hours and 12 minutes later we were pulling into park in a almost empty lot. It rained on us the majority of the way down, and we got there the pay window was closed, and there was no CM's at all in the parking lot. We actually parked in the first row over by Handicapped section is and the "pick up/drop" lot.

I was lucky enough and smart enough to grab (2) FP's for Thursday night when I was setting everything up on Wednesday night. I had a 8-9 Dino and 9-10 Everest. Well we missed the Dino cause we were late. Once we get in the park we head straight to Everest only to get near and not hear it running, bout that time get email with a complimentary fast pass cause it was down for the night. Then as luck would have it Dino was a walk on , so now we had a Free FP to use tomorrow at MK.

First picture of the trip. Our first stop is always for a Mickey Bar and frozen banana. Stopped for a quick picture in front of Everest. Then onto ride Dino before headed to try our luck in Pandora.

everest by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

 

[boilermaker1]

Pandora , FOP and NRJ

My daughter took all the pictures so I am still waiting on her to text me all of them so I can add them

We headed over to FOP around 9:45. As we start to head that way there huge numbers of people leaving the park, but even bigger numbers entering Pandora. Guess all the EMH guests had the same plans we did. Checked the app and NRJ showed 40 minutes at 10PM, so that was our first stop. We in line and out in about 25 minutes. Overall I was pretty "blah" about it. Way short, lacks creativity as far as storyline and animatronics Disney is known for. Give is a 6 out of 10. As we were walking it out I wanted to go check out the store and Pongu Pongu. We decided to share a "Night Blossom" and got them to also throw a scoop of the Strawberry "boba" balls on it to. I have to say it was very good actually really good. Those "boba" balls caught me off guard, I was expecting like a gummy bear, and was pleasantly shocked when they basically exploded. I will say the Passion fruit were not my favorite and next time I will ask for the strawberry ones only. Word to the wise the straw is a perfect size for accidentally sucking up a "boba" ball down your throat causing a instant choking reaction and the spitting of said boba ball in another persons direction. Also straw works perfectly enough for your DD to shoot the boba balls at you like you used to do spit balls in class. Makes a interesting splatter effect when shot at your head at 150 MPH

By now its about 10:45 or so. FOP has posted 140 minutes, and Touring plan app shows 120. I was a little reluctant and was even trying to talk her into leaving but she was all about doing it. We jumped in line and much to my surprise we were walking out the front gate at 12 AM. I was extremely impressed, from the overall theming of the ride, the lab area was awesome and I know I missed 90% of the details. And the actual ride was great. A m0tion simulator with really high end graphics and movements. As much as I hate to say it but something you would expect from Universal. Not the normal bland Star Tours/Soarin stuff from Disney. I gladly would have waited another hour just to do it again.

Overall the land was awesome. Its very dark in there at night so you couldn't see a lot of details. But all the lighting and effects they do are very good indeed and make the world worth just walking through at night. I will be glad when I get to return during the day and see it in full detail

Only pics I have are these two of the "night blossom" drink about half way done
bobo by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr
bobo2 by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

 

[1983DisneyFanatic]

Can't see any of your pictures.

 

[boilermaker1]

I think I got them fixed now using Flickr

Can't see any of your pictures.

 

[1983DisneyFanatic]

Still not showing up?

No. Originally, where was supposed to be a photo, there was a message that the photobucket subscriber needed to upgrade their account for third party sites. Now, there is nothing there.

 

[boilermaker1]

Day 2 -Majic Kingdom - Oops forgot to set the alarm!!

Well after a long day at work, a long drive, and not getting into bed until after 1. Things tend to be forgotten, yep sadly this time is was setting the alarm on my phone. Our initial plan was to rope drop for SDMT but if you don't get up until 10 thats hard to. And you also are left scrambling to modify your first FP so you don't loose it to.

Here was out itinerary as planned

Rope drop SDMT
1st FP -SM 10:15
2nd FP- PC 11:30
3rd FP - HM 12:45

Well I was able to scramble and change the 10:15 FP to a 2:15 SM wow crisis averted on that one. Se being we were already running late we stopped at the POP food court for you guessed it Mickey Waffles and bacon. Can't go to Disney without eating at least one Mickey waffle. We finally arrived in MK around 11:15 and head straight to PC. Went through FP line and waited about 5 minutes and was on and off. PC is still one of my all time fav's, even though I still hate the addition of the Jonny Depp crap. Beings we had time to walk around we decided to walk over to Tommorow Land which is my favorite place. Stopped on the bridge for a quick photo

tomland by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

We then head to People Mover to waste some time. Noticed the wind was blowing pretty good as we get on. Well when we came out of Space Mountain it was pouring rain, I mean in buckets. Watching from the up there as people are scrambling for cover is actually pretty durn fun to do. Wish I could have made another round to watch some more. For us no big deal, we are troopers riding down the belt reach in the bag through on the rain jackets and head off. Original plan was to eat lunch around this time but guess what that just be came everyone's new plan to get out of the rain. Everywhere was slammed. WE found some quick cover at IASW pulled out the phone and started looking for any ADR's , yep Crystal Place in 10 minutes. That'll do. Wasn't planning on spending this much for lunch. But what the heck great buffet and characters what more could a 12 year old girl ask for. Everyone pretty much already knows the food here. Its a solid 7 out of 10 for me. Beef loin is always good, for some reason I enjoy the kids nuggets and there honey mustard sauce to. There Mashed potatoes are also very good. Over all pleasant experience and got out of the rain for a hour or so

Character Selfies

piglet by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

tigger by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

pooh by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

eor by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

 

[boilermaker1]

Day 2- Continued

After Lunch when we come outside the skies have cleared a little but its still raining. But the temperature was so much better. It was easily hovering around 90-92 before the rain. According to my weather app is was not 85. I kept telling my daughter on the way HM, that its gone be horrible when the sun comes out. Well I can say to my happiness it never did. Temp hovered in the mid 80's to upper 70's until we left that evening. Can't ask for much better than that.

We headed over to HM for our next FP. I think there was a 45 minute posted time, FP took about 10 minutes and we were walking off. We had a good hour or so before our next FP at SM. So we decided to bite the bullet and go to BTMR with a hour posted time. Well that ended up taking way longer than a hour. It took almost 90 minutes to finally get to the load dock. When we get to the staging CM, DD asks to sit in the very back. He tells us hold and he will get us on the next train. He only needed (2) people for the very front row to fill the train, asks for any doubles behind us nobody call back to him. He says if you do me a favor I will do you one back. Daughter says ok. He reaches in his pocket and then tells here "Do me a big one and take that front row, and you can take these and come back and ride in the back two more times whenever you want!". Then proceeds to slip here two paper FP's. I don't know if its because I came so much and have gotten a little "jaded" to the little things cast members do for guests but this one really stuck out to me. So crisis avoided here we come SDMT.

Its now about time to head to SM for the FP time. I think it was somewhere in the 120-180 minute range, even FP took a good 20 minutes. Overall still the best ride in all the parks. Simply a fun and thrilling classic everytime. Plus its a good place to catch a nap

spacesleep by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

After we got off it was still on and off sprinkling so I forced my daughter to so CP, she hates it but its the pure nostalgia thing for me. Nice to see they did update to a laptop in the last scene. But if she's supposedly "programming the voice activated" stuff there should probably be something showing on the laptop instead of a blank black screen. But maybe they are trying to make some changes. But still one of my favorites.

From memory I would say its somewhere around 3:30 or so. We take another ride on the People Mover and start heading over the bridge back toward the castle. Stop for another quick photo. "where the heck did those balloons come from"
micketballons by Chad Fletcher, on Flickr

 

[boilermaker1]

Day 2- Round 3


I'm honestly kind of lost track or time and space by now. So I will just shortly wrap it. We ended up riding TS on a FP around 5. And messing around using FP over and over for Dumbo, IASW, Alladin and barn stormer. Then used a paper FP for SM, and then scored another for SM while waiting in line for 20 minutes later. It was somewhere around 8 PM and we decided to go home and crash. We head out take the monorail back to TTC and head back to the Pop for a light dinner in the food court. Well when we get to the room my DD says "dad we forgot SDMT and we have this FP". Oh well crisis not averted we didn't do it after all. We run non stop and our brains sometimes loose track of all things real, lol. Onto bed and day 3 at the Studios

 

[1983DisneyFanatic]

I can see the pictures now! Following along and laughing about the Bobba balls.

 

[boilermaker1]

saved

 

[boilermaker1]

saved

 

[boilermaker1]

saved

 

[Daisybelle]

You get the fun dad award! What a treat to plan a last minute trip like that for just you and your daughter.