August 2018: A Summer Solo Disney Trip: Day 5, Part 1

Day 5, Sunday, August 12, 2018

I think the alarm went off around 6. There was, somehow, still ice in the ice bag by the bed, so I started the day icing my ankle, which looked less swollen than the previous day. Then I got ready for the day, and iced one more time, while eating breakfast in the room, before heading for the bus stop, by way of the refill station in the food court. Always pre-game for hot summer days in Animal Kingdom with Powerade. Hydrate in advance!

I must have made it on a bus to the Animal Kingdom shortly after 8, because my facebook check in from there is prior to 8:30. I do remember that I was waved over to an empty bag check line, next to Rainforest Cafe, so my security experience this morning (despite carrying the big camera for the first time in days) was pretty relaxed. No wait, pleasant security guys, and while they were VERY thorough with my bag, they totally missed the straw in my refillable mug.

Once through the metal detector, I only had to wait in a short line for a couple of minutes before they started letting us into the park. I think it was probably 8:30 when they let us in. Once in the park, I headed straight for Pandora, for a spin on Na’vi River Journey.

Obviously 99% of the park was also heading to Pandora. They held us at the bridge into Pandora for about 5 minutes, and then they led us in. I enjoyed a nice leisurely stroll to Na’vi River Journey once the masses veered toward Flight of Passage. I even got to see some Pandoran drummers.

Na’vi River Journey was a walk on, but the CM directed me to be person number 4 in the second row...in a boat with a family of 7. I sat with the family’s 3 older daughters (early elementary to pre-teen age, I think). That was a little weird, but the boat ride was great, as usual.

Na’vi River Journey complete, I took a few pictures around Pandora.

Picture taking complete for a few minutes, I headed for Safaris. And found a (miniscule by Disney standards) crowd waiting to be allowed into Africa, right at the Africa gates. I looked at my watch and realized it still wasn’t 9. Guess they’re only letting people into Pandora before official park open.

Right at 9, the cast members walked us to Africa, thankfully, without any oath-taking. And since all the likely to be runners were still in Pandora, it was a leisurely stroll to Safaris, followed by a walk through “line”.

I was directed to the back row for a truck, and was joined by a mother with her young adult daughter. Animal Kingdom is definitely working harder at crowd control than the Magic Kingdom this week! It ended up being a really fun safaris, both chatting with them, and animal watching. The mother daughter duo was from Connecticut, and the mom is a high school Spanish teacher. We chatted between picture taking. There were some decent animal sightings on this safari. 

Upon returning to Harambe, I directed the Connecticut folks to the gorilla falls trail, and I made my way to Asia. Time for a tiger update!

For those who haven’t been to Animal Kingdom in awhile, Disney welcomed twin tiger cubs about a year ago. They made their public debut last winter. I’ve been watching them grow this year. My sister and I saw them in February, when they were about 6 months old. Then I saw them with Nick in April. Time to see if I could see them again.

My first stop revealed just the adult male tiger, but the CM said the boy cub was visible, with his mother over the bridge. And, as luck would have it, I managed some good pictures, of both the adult male, and the youngin’! It really was a good animal picture taking day!

August 2018: A Summer Solo Disney Trip: Day 4, Part 2

Day 4, Saturday August 11, 2018, Part 2

I really don’t remember anything about the bus wait or the bus ride back to the hotel (well...probably to Music), so they must have been fairly uneventful.

When I got back to the room (which obviously hadn’t yet been visited by housekeeping), I iced my ankle and relaxed for a bit, before heading back out for the afternoon.

I headed for the bus stop where I don’t remember waiting very long for a bus to Disney Springs (you would think this was more than 2 weeks ago with how much I’m struggling to remember!). I do remember the bus arrived at Disney Springs about 3:05, so I was hopeful that I’d make it into the 3:30 showing of Christopher Robin. But, if I didn’t, there was another one at 4. And like 10 more after that…

I limped along to what I thought was the movie theater entrance. It actually was only the entrance to the dine in side of the movie theater, but, the girl at the ticket counter (where there was NO line) said I could buy my ticket there. My mind was blown when the ticket seat map popped up on the screen in front of me. The theater had 3 sections! The (rather bored) ticket girl had to explain the layout of the theater to me. Basically, the lowest section is floor seating. I think I remember that being rows A-K. Then stadium seating begins for “Tier 2” and “The balcony”. She did say it was one of their biggest theaters (theater 12, I believe).

I ended up grabbing a seat on the aisle in the 2nd or 3rd row of “Tier 1”. Then the girl directed me to the real entrance, “Take a left out of these doors, a left at the corner of the building, and it’ll be right around the corner on the left”.

By right around the corner, she actually meant like half a mile, but, I made it eventually. And it was seriously the biggest movie theater I’d ever been in. Both the complex and the theater where the movie was being shown. I ALMOST took a picture because it’s just indescribable.

I’m sure you’re wondering why I was actually wasting precious park time seeing a movie. Yes, we do have movie theaters in NH. I’d been wanting to see Christopher Robin. Nick was less inclined to see it, because, apparently he cried through Pete’s Dragon while I was away on some previous vacation, and was afraid this movie would cause a similar scene. I hadn’t seen Christopher Robin yet, and the weather was pretty unsettled. Also, I needed to stay off my feet as much as possible to allow me to not need a midday break the next day. So...movie time it is!

I made it to my seat only a few minutes before movie time. I enjoyed the movie, and it was less emotional than Nick was afraid it would be. Or, at least, I didn’t cry. It really was a cute, sweet movie, with a good message.

Once the movie ended, I braved Disney Springs for a bit. This time the crowds were NOT due to lack of crowd control.

I explored the new store by the entrance to the dine in theater (Disney Style?), before venturing over to the Marketplace. As much as I’d loved going to Chicken Guy the other day, it just wasn’t a Disney trip without Earl of Sandwich.

The line at Earl of Sandwich was shorter than I’d expected given the crowds walking around Disney Springs. Seconds after stepping in line, the people behind me were asking me if I’d gone to UNH. I was wearing a UNH shirt. Turns out one of them had graduated from UNH the spring before I started there. We had a great conversation the entire time we were in line.

Because we were talking, I didn’t realize until I got to the dude taking orders that my favorite, the All American was no longer on the menu. He knew as soon as I asked “do you not have…” what I was looking for, paused my question, and said “we can still make that”. Woohoo!

The UNH conversation continued through the line to pay. I’m pretty sure that girl is crazy though. She went to UNH as a student who had been born and raised in FLORIDA. Needless to say, she moved back to FL after her time at UNH was done.

As usual, I enjoyed my All American Sandwich. I hope that, like a few years ago, this is just a temporary mistake on their part, removing it from the menu, and that it will return. But I’m very glad they still were able to make it for me.

After dinner, I had one more stop at Disney Springs before I escaped the madness that is a Saturday night there. And I had to look at a map to figure out where I was going!

Next stop? Amorette’s for a very specific pastry. News of the new whipped pineapple eclair had just made it to my radar, and that wasn’t anything that could be ignored. Because dole whip met eclair. Or...dole whip flavor anyway.

It was fantastic. I tried figuring out how to bring some home, but knew that that just wasn’t realistic.

Once I’d inhaled my eclair, I headed for the buses. I have no idea what the wait was like. What I do know is that I went back to my hotel and stayed there. I was done with people for the day, and my ankle was huge again. So I spent the evening texting, reading, watching TV, icing the ankle, and fell asleep by 9. I’ve suddenly become so OLD!

August 2018: A Summer Solo Disney Trip: Day 4, Part 1

Day 4, Saturday, August 11, 2018, part 1

This morning’s alarm went off later than it had the whole trip! I was actually going to a regular 9 am park opening, for the first time this trip!

The morning started with ice on my ankle and a breakfast of a coconut butter breakfast biscuit in bed. Then I got ready for the day, before icing my ankle one more time.

I headed for the bus stop a little after 8, not really in a huge hurry (not that I could have hurried anyway…), because I knew most of the people at the front of the pack would be headed to Frozen, and I would be headed to Soarin. So you know what happened, right? Yup, a bus pulled up as I was walking to the bus line and I walked right onto a loading bus.

The trip to Epcot seemed pretty short, and security was the lightest of the entire trip (but still not nearly as light as previous trips), so pretty soon I was in line to enter the park. Within a surprisingly short amount of time, they started letting us into the park. All of a sudden, dozens of “family members” started appearing out of nowhere to “join their family” at the head of the line. What the bleep. And, obviously, none of them actually knew how to use the touch points either. When I finally reached a touch point and turned Mickey green on the first try, the CM looked over at me and thanked me haha.

As I got to the rope at Spaceship Earth, the crowds felt lighter than the last time I’d been here. For one thing, I actually had a spot in the shade to wait. Hallelujah! But also, as the Jammitors appeared, I could actually sort of see them, without staring at other people’s iPads (seriously...WHEN are people going to learn those don’t actually take good pictures?!).

The Jammitors performed for about 10 minutes, and then someone from the park had everyone take an oath that “We will walk. We will not run. We will walk with a purpose”. Once the oath had been ignored by most of the crowd, they dropped the rope and let us the rest of the way into the park.

Chuckling about the blatantly ignored oath of “walking with a purpose”, I followed the walking minority to Soarin. The running majority was on their way to Frozen. I limped along and was at Soarin pretty quickly, with what felt like a surprisingly small crowd of people.

I ended up in a front row again, and for a change, as a solo, I wasn’t in the absolute last seat of the row! Given the curvature of some of the structures shown in the video, every seat in makes a difference.

Once my flight was over, I checked out Sunshine Seasons for any sign of edible breakfast food. For some reason I was starving! Unfortunately, nothing they were serving looked like a good idea.

Since I was enjoying the air conditioning, I decided to go for a spin on The Land boat ride. They seemed to have more fish in the tanks than the last few times I’ve ridden.

After the trip through the greenhouses, I wandered back into Future World. After a quick look at the wait times, I decided to ride Journey into the Imagination in Nick’s honor. Those who read my April trip report may remember he found this ride to be a very traumatic experience. So, obviously, I had to let him know I was thinking of him!

Following the lab open house, I wandered around Mousegear for a bit, and ended up getting a bit of Christmas shopping done. Then I hung out on one of the benches under the roof outside Mousegear, evaluating menu choices for lunch. Told you I was hungry!

Pretty soon, it was late enough to head for World Showcase. I quickly became a little jealous, and wished I was coming back to fall, when, not only did I see all of the Food and Wine Festival booths already set up, but there were a whole bunch of people wearing badges that made it clear Disney was doing their festival preview for the media today.

I limped through World Showcase, to France. In the bakery here I got the ham and cheese croissant (toasted) and a fruit parfait for lunch. It was a huge, cheap, and DELICIOUS lunch! 

Lunch consumed, I headed back into World Showcase, to make my way to the American Adventure. It was sprinkling a bit, but nothing horrible, and really only around France. I took the walk slow (didn’t have much choice) and took in the views, including the view of the construction on the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. That’s going to be one big ride building. 

I got to the American Adventure a bit early for the Voices of Liberty set, so I poked around the gift shop, resisting buying myself a shirt, and then explored the gallery and some of the artwork inside the building. 

I also observed one particular woman sit down to wait for the performance, remove a set of knitting needles from her backpack, and spend her wait knitting something. Say what?! The security guards have been examining my sunglass case for the missing sunglasses (hey you check my head!), questioning the clip from my fitbit on my shorts pocket, and even examining the tampons stashed in backpack pockets that are so hidden I’d forgotten the tampons were in there! How the hell did she get in the park with knitting needles?!

Shortly before the Voices of Liberty set, the sky opened up. It continued to rain like this for most of the (excellent, as always) performance.

Once the Voices of Liberty had finished performing, I debated, and decided against seeing the movie. Once every 10 years or so is enough, in light of the 9/11 scenes. So, I headed back outside, figuring the rain would lighten up quickly. It’s FL afterall.

I ended up hanging out outside until the beginning of the next set. Surprisingly, I really was on of the few hanging out under the overhang, and I picked a corner, so no CM bothered me about blocking anything. One CM, though, did somehow see the tiny passholder thing attached to my magic band and came over to tell me that as a passholder, I can get wristbands for reserved seating at the Guardians of the Galaxy concert that takes place at the stage across the way. Thanks, I’ll get right on that…

With another set starting soon, and no sign of the rain letting up before the music would end, I headed back inside for a 2nd Voices of Liberty set. Once again, I enjoyed it very much!

After the 2nd set, I headed back outside, where the rain had gotten considerably lighter. I waited a few more minutes, debating my game plan, until the rain turned to just sprinkles and the sun emerged. Then I made my way to the front of the park, and headed for the buses. It was time for a break!

August 2018: A Summer Solo Disney Trip: Day 3, Part 2

Day 3, Part 2

A bus came along fairly quickly. There were only a few of us on the bus, and it didn’t seem like a terribly long ride back to Music. From Music, it was a short walk to my room, which...shocker! hadn’t seen housekeeping yet. It wasn’t even noon yet.

I found the ice machine, and did a couple rounds of icing of the ankle before I fell asleep. As we know from the earlier ride pictures, the nap was much needed.

When I woke up, I iced the anke once more, and then headed over to the food court at Music for a late lunch. As I was leaving, housekeeping was arriving at my room. The housekeeper looked downright worried when I told her that no, I did not need any more towels (there were like 7 in my room). But then I remembered that some more ice bags would be good, and she was delighted to find some for me. I told her she could put those in my room, but not to worry about making the room up. That seemed to make her happy, so I continued on to the food court. Phew, I didn’t tick off housekeeping! That puts me ahead of April’s trip!

At the food court at Music, I got a “southwest bowl”. I’m pretty sure the CM making mine was new, because she was offering me every option, and that didn’t really go along with the “pick one from category a, one from category b…” thing the menu had going, but I wasn’t complaining. My southwest bowl consisted of rice, black beans, chicken, queso (essentially melted cheddar), and shredded cheese. I got a go cover on it, filled my mug (thank goodness these are no longer resort specific) and headed back to my room to eat.

Upon my return to my room, I found a fresh stack of ice bags, right next to the ice bucket that I had parked on the nightstand. Perfect! I enjoyed my late lunch, and after some more icing, was pretty sure I could conquer the world. I chilled for a couple more hours though to play it safe. It probably also rained in that time period. It is Florida in the summer after all.

Sometime after 5, I got my stuff together and headed for the bus stop. It was time for an evening in the Kingdom of Animals! And I JUST missed the bus…

I killed time texting, and eventually another bus came along. The bus ride to Animal Kingdom was relatively short, which was a very good thing, since that was, by far, the coldest bus ride ever. I was really wishing for the long sleeve shirt that was in my suitcase!

Once at the Animal Kingdom, I only needed to kill a little time before my fastpass for Flight of Passage, so I browsed some stores. Ended up buying a couple of items and having them sent back to the hotel which (spoiler alert!), I ended up forgetting about until the day before check out!

Shopping done, it was time to head toward Pandora. Since I still had a couple of minutes before my fastpass, I stopped for a photo op, realizing after the fact that that was not the outfit to be photographed in…

Finally, it was time for a banshee flight. I walked as quickly as my (rapidly swelling) ankle would allow through the nearly empty fastpass line, and was directed into the row they pull singles from to finish off rooms, just in time to be directed into the last spot in a loading pre-show room. WOOHOO. BTW, the wait time posted outside was nearly 2 hours, at about 7 PM.

Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed Flight of Passage. Actually, I think I enjoyed it more this flight than in April, because I only looked straight ahead. At one point in April, I looked down. Don’t do that.

After flying on the banshee, I browsed the exit store for a couple of minutes, and then decided it was time for dinner. Tonight’s dinner? Pulled pork french fries and mandarin orange lemonade at Flame Tree. Although there was not nearly as much pulled pork on the fries tonight as there was in April, they were still delicious. And I could drink that lemonade by the gallon. 

After dinner, I realized I’d made a critical error. I should have ridden Everest and then eaten heavy food. Now, Everest was not really an option. A look at the wait times, and the only attractions with low-ish wait times in the park were Dinosaur and Bugs Life. I dealt with Bugs Life in April, so Dinosaur it is!

Dinosaur actually ended up being pretty close to its posted 25 minute wait. I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise that they were only running one load zone side. Despite my best efforts coming out of the pre-show to ditch them, I spent most of my time in line behind a group that was pure white trash. Truly obnoxious. They were a group of 5. Close to the load zone, I was able to get some space between myself and them. However, then a CM went looking for single riders. Low and behold, they wanted to fill that one spot in the group of 5. The CM looked apologetic when she placed me with them, so clearly, it wasn’t just me thinking not the best of them.

I’d forgotten, from the one time I rode this one 10 years ago, just how bumpy this ride is. Thanks to the combination of short legs with feet that just barely touched the floor, and an ankle that was pretty useless for balance, I had to hang on to the grab bar. That, combined with the antics of the others in my ride vehicle made for a charming ride photo.

After Dinosaur, I headed back to Asia. It was time to enter the fastpass area for Rivers of Light. There was still well over half an hour to kill before showtime, so I passed the time texting, and taking in the changing sky, and also the changing light colors on the Tree of Life and surrounding trees. Unfortunately, because of lights in the stadium, these things couldn’t really be captured by my phone camera.

The show started at 9:15. I had heard REALLY mixed reviews, so I wanted to see for myself. And, honestly, I liked it. Does it have the storyline of Illuminations? No. But visually, it’s spectacular, especially for a show that can’t use any fireworks, the music is great, and, there is some purpose behind the show. Is it something I need to see every trip? Probably not. Would I be willing to see it again? Yes.

When Rivers of Light ended about 9:30, I joined the masses exiting the park. By now the ankle was easily the most swollen it had been, so I was moving pretty slowly. But honestly, most people were. So I wasn’t holding up traffic!

When I got to the bus stops, the line for Music was WAY shorter, and I knew it’d be a much shorter walk to my room, so I hopped in that line, instead of the line for Movies. As luck would have it, buses for both hotels showed up about the same time. Even luckier for those close to the front of the line, about the same time it became apparent that loading an ECV was going to be more difficult than usual, thanks to the weird positioning of the bus and a gutter, another bus pulled up alongside to double load. I’m pretty sure we were back at Music before they ever got that ECV loaded. That outside bus driver was a task master. It was fantastic.

I limped back to my room, got fresh ice, iced my ankle for a bit, and then got ready for bed, mentally mapping out a slower day for Saturday.

August 2018: A Summer Solo Disney Trip: Day 3, Part 1

Day 3, Friday August 10, 2018

I think the alarm went off about 6:15 this morning. I played on my phone a bit before I was brave enough to check my ankle. It wasn’t pretty. Not QUITE as swollen as when I’d gone to bed, but, there was a distinct difference between left and right.

I got ready for the day, mentally evaluating my plans. I had breakfast in the room, a coconut butter breakfast biscuit thing I had brought from home, and headed for the bus stop, probably unwisely choosing the stop at Movies over the one at Music.

If I remember correctly, a bus to the Magic Kingdom was actively loading when I got there. I was able to get a seat, and had a nice conversation with the lady sitting next to me for the majority of the ride. Because it was a bit earlier in the day, the construction impact wasn’t quite as bad, and we arrived at the Magic Kingdom in good time.

Security moved surprisingly quickly, and pretty soon, I was being waved over to the left side of the entrance, which explained why CMs were standing twiddling their thumbs at the right entrance, but there were lines to the left. There were several CMs lined up by where bag check used to be, scanning magic bands for the morning EMH. Then the entrance was open for business. I actually managed to pick a line that wasn’t wicked slow moving!

Once in the park, I took a quick picture of the entrance, and then joined the group in the shade, waiting to be let into the park.

About 7:40 or so, they let us into the park, after reminders to hydrate and take advantage of the air conditioned rides and stores, since it was going to be a hot one. Then, they let us into the park, guiding us directly to the sun, to the various bridges to Tomorrowland. And they held us there until 8 exactly. It got very hot, but...at least the view was good?

When they finally let us deeper into the park, I limped along with the masses to Fantasyland. Unlike the masses, however, Seven Dwarves was not my destination. Been there, done that, all done.

My first stop? Peter Pan’s Flight. I very quickly got an idea of how many people were in this park today, when I ended up waiting about 10 minutes and hiking through multiple queue areas, to ride this at park opening, during morning extra magic hours. This is usually a complete walk on.

Once I’d returned from Neverland, it was off to Buzz Lightyear. There, I walked onto the ride. I THINK I achieved my highest score ever. It was in the 344,000 range. And when I saw the picture, I realized that I might need a nap break today.

Zurg conquered, it was back to Fantasyland, where I decided I had just enough time to get my Under the Sea fix, before waiting for regular park opening. Little Mermaid was a walk on, and had great air conditioning! Oh, and a catchy song that I don’t hate anymore…

From Little Mermaid, I walked toward Liberty Square, until I ran into a wall of people next to Peter Pan and the Tangled bathrooms. Thankfully, I was in the shade, AND the wait was only a couple of minutes, before they dropped the rope, and walked the masses very slowly toward Frontierland.

Frontierland is where I really felt the crowds. Or, really, the lack of crowd control. When the masses split between Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, I followed the Big Thunder Mountain mass. And then stopped. And waited. And waited. It must have taken 10 minutes just to get to the actual standby entrance once the CMs let us fend for ourselves.

Once inside, they were only utilizing half the queue rope AND one of the 2 loading docks. Needless to say, it was about 9:30 when I made it on a train. I’ve NEVER seen that at park opening. Nor have I ever had time at park opening to actually take pictures while in line. 

By the time I got off Big Thunder Mountain, the line was still extending out past the entrance, and the wait was posted at 35 minutes. Splash Mountain wasn’t any better. Where the heck is the crowd control?!

I limped my way toward Pirates. It showed a 15 minute wait, and I wasn’t really convinced because the line extended almost to the standby wait sign (shocker, right?), but I decided to get in line because the line for Pirates is dark and cool.

I was correct; the wait was absolutely more than 15 minutes. More like 25. And, it should come as no surprise that they were only using one load zone. But hey, it was good air conditioning, and the scene with the removed redhead wasn’t as awkward as I was expecting. Oh, and did you know they now take your picture on Pirates? I didn't either. I got busted staring off into space in the last row. Yeah, it might be almost time for a nap.

By the time I exited Pirates, it was well after 10. Yup...just 2 attractions in over an hour. Can we say bad crowd control?! Since it was late enough for a mid-morning snack, I made my way to Sunshine whatever, home of the not-so-great Citrus Swirl. Also home of the new orange cream float. That’s what I was going for. 

That beauty is a swirl soft serve ice cream that tastes just like an orange creamsicle, floating in orange soda. It’s a bit messy, because the orange soda Disney uses (Fanta, I think) is super bubbly, and when it’s mixed with ice cream, it’s really bubbly. But it was worth the initial race to drink some of the soda to get the spillage to stop. The pineapple float (with vanilla) is still my absolute favorite Disney float, but this one is a definite winner.

By the time I’d finished my float, I’d come to the realization that it was time to get off my feet. So, I dragged myself out of the park, against the mobs entering, doing a small amount of shopping on my way.

When I got to the bus stop, I grabbed a spot in line for the bus to Music, remembering how wonderfully short the walk was from there to my room. Ankle? Definitely getting bigger.