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Old 10 Mar 21, 01:56 PM  
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Silvercat
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Join Date: Apr 08
WDW 2019 - days 15 & 16

Previous day is here

DAY 15 – Wednesday 11 December

Plan : Typhoon Lagoon, Epcot
Actual : A cloudy, humid and warm day. We woke up a bit late, and as per usual we decided not to go to Typhoon Lagoon today. We always build a water park day into our plans, and then decide in the end to leave it until next year, preferring to use the pool at our hotel. I can only assume this is down to laziness, as we really do like the Disney water parks, and enjoy ourselves when we do go to them. Although this year, we were a bit worried about getting sand in the ulcer on DH’s leg, so that did make us hesitate, then we checked the weather report and rain was forecast, so that made us decide not to go. We opted instead to just relax in our room for the morning; DH watched TV and napped, I played online games and unwound a little. I made us some coffee, and we nibbled on snacks, (I had some Cheetos, yum!).

At 2.30 p.m. we set off for the Skyliner to travel to Epcot, and really enjoyed the journey, something we can’t normally say when we travel to the parks. We had FastPasses for rides later in the day, so decided to potter about a bit first. We turned right at the crossroads and headed for the Canada pavilion, as I was on the lookout for a pair of pyjamas I had seen someone had bought, called “pyjamoose” which I thought looked really cute, but there was no sign of them in the Canada store, and a Cast Member told me that they had been something that they sold a year or so ago, which was a shame. From there we walked back to the International Gateway to check out the store there, as I was still on the hunt for the red Christmas Spirit Jersey, but again they only had size XS left. I had a look at the blue one, which had Chip & Dale and strings of Christmas lights on and was quite nice, but those were only available in XS as well! We walked to Mousegear for another fruitless Christmas Jersey search, then exited the store at the back and went to Test Track, where I booked a GA Pass which opened up 20 mins later, but we were told we could use it at any time after that. We were pleased to see that the park seemed a lot quieter today, with less crowds.

We needed proper food, so went to our staple at Epcot, the Electric Umbrella. Oh how we will miss this place when it goes! DH went off in search of seating, and I went straight up to the counters with no queues, and ordered an Angus bacon cheeseburger with fries and coffee for DH, and chicken tenders with fries and a frozen strawberry margarita for me. I also picked up a Mickey gingerbread man reusable straw as a Christmas gift for our granddaughter. The food was really good, as usual, and we enjoyed our mid-afternoon meal.

When we had finished eating, DH went to the smoking area out of the park, while I went back into Mousegear and bought a different Christmas Spirit Jersey, a black one with a peppermint candy striped Mickey silhouette on the front, and WDW on the back in the same stripe pattern. I also bought our granddaughter a spinning Elsa with a light-up skirt, which we know she’ll love. I completed the form and had it all sent back to our resort.

DH returned and we went to ride Test Track with our GA Pass, which was fun as always. Spaceship Earth was showing a 5 minute standby but was actually a straight walk-on, so we rode this – finally our photos were taken and showing up this time! Our first FastPass time was approaching, so we walked towards The Land pavilion, but on the way there I happened to mention to DH that I’d always wanted to meet Baymax, and we knew he appeared in a Character Spot on the way, so we popped in to see what was going on. The queue to meet him wasn’t too long, but as we walked towards the queue, Baymax went on a battery recharge break, so we left it and carried on round to The Land.

We noticed that Living with the Land was a walk-on, so it felt like a waste of a FastPass but we tapped it anyway. The ride was so lovely, this is one of our favourite Disney rides, it is just so relaxing and we love the plant biomes. Soarin’ was next, again this looked like a walk-on although it was showing 20 mins standby, so we used our FastPass and got row 2. However, the ride was somewhat spoilt by a young off-duty Cast Member who was with a small group of what looked like his friends – in the ride queue he kept yelling, “It’s Joe Swanson!” all the way through Patrick Warburton’s speech, along with another name that I think was “Kronk”, I presume the character from “The Emperor’s New Groove” film. This guy was so loud! We tried to ignore him, but when we were seated, he sat next to DH and then proceeded to point everything out and describe it loudly to his friends. Eventually, I leaned over DH and asked the guy to keep it down a bit, please. He apologised and lowered his volume, but still didn’t shut up completely. When we got off the ride we had a quick restroom visit, then went back on Soarin’ through the standby line, which showed 15 minutes but was indeed a straight walk-on. This was a much better ride without Mouth Almighty telling all us stupid people what we were looking at!

After this we took a cake and coffee break at Sunshine Seasons. DH had a red velvet Whoopie Pie, and I had Key Lime Pie with soft meringue on top, which was really sharp tasting and delicious. All very good, and we enjoyed our break.

We walked back to the Character Spot and went inside to meet some characters, something we don’t normally do. It was fairly quiet in there and we joined a short queue to meet Mickey Mouse, followed by Goofy, and then Minnie Mouse, and we had Photopass pictures taken with all of them. They were fun to meet and interact with, Goofy was particularly playful with DH, and Minnie loved my Minnie ears, that day I was wearing ears made of a pale pink and orange geometric design, called sunset Epcot, which I’d purchased from a private crafter. We then joined the queue to meet Baymax, and he was really lovely! We both fist-bumped him in the way he does in the film, which was fun, and then I asked if I could give him a gentle hug so I didn’t squash him, which his handler said was okay. I had so much fun meeting him, it was brilliant, and again we got Photopass pictures with him.

After this it was time for our final FastPass of the day, for Spaceship Earth, but again the ride was a walk-on and we didn’t really need our FastPass, the park was really quiet today! We walked back over to the Seven Seas Lagoon to find a spot to watch the Epcot Forever fireworks show, and easily found a good space near Canada. We hadn’t seen this show before, it was the temporary replacement for Illuminations - Reflections of Earth and we were quite excited to see it. Well, it certainly didn’t disappoint – we loved it! There were fireworks, voiceover quotes from Walt, clips of music from old rides and shows, (such as clips of some of the scenes from Horizons!), lasers, and these amazing kites being towed by what looked like jet-ski riders, with moving lights and fireworks actually on the kites, they were fantastic. It was a great show and we really, really enjoyed it. We thought it was gorgeous, and a fitting filler show until the new one is ready to be launched.

Once the show was over, we took a slow stroll back to the Skyliner station, and made our way back to our resort. We had really enjoyed today, a bit of a relax and rest to start with, then we had explored our favourite Disney park in a leisurely manner, ridden our favourite rides, eaten well, and even met some characters! Bed.

DAY 16 - Thursday 12 December

Plan : Animal Kingdom
Actual : We got up this morning to a cloudy and rainy day, not ideal for visiting the least sheltered Disney park! However, we persevered with our plans and drove to the Animal Kingdom, finding the car park quite busy again. We grabbed our umbrellas out of the boot as when we arrived, the rain was pouring down, although it did get a bit lighter as we entered the park.

Pandora was our first destination this morning, we had a FastPass for Flight of Passage. The standby line was already at 120 mins, and we were quite early arriving today, although not quite at rope drop. Luckily, the FastPass queue was totally empty, so we were quickly in the briefing room where there were a handful of other guests. We stashed our bags at the back of the room, and boarded our banshees. This ride is just breathtaking! Every time I ride this, it makes me want to cry – the feeling of freedom, total exhilaration, the occasional scents and light water spray, the sensation of flying, it is just incredible.

After the ride, we realised we were near the Pongu Pongu food kiosk so I checked if they had Pongu Lumpia today, and they did! So we finally got to try these treats, and they were gorgeous. Warm and soft, pineapple in cream cheese, surrounded by crispy spring roll – yum! These awakened our bodies into needing more food, so we went into Satu’li Canteen for coffee and breakfast. I had the peppermint mousse again, and picked up a blueberry cream cheese mousse for DH, and we found seating inside the Canteen to relax and enjoy our quick break.

After we had finished, we left Pandora and walked back to the park entrance, pausing to watch some otters frolicking in their enclosure – they were so cute! DH popped to the smoking area, and I waited for him on a nearby bench. Then it was time for our next FastPass, which was for Expedition Everest, so we took a stroll over to Asia. The weather was extremely warm and humid today, lots of cloud cover resulted in a number of rain showers, some of which were quite heavy. I was glad I’d worn my trainers today instead of my usual Croc flip-flops, as my feet slide all over the place in them when it rains, making walking very difficult.

Our Expedition Everest ride was fun, although a bit stingy in the rain! After the ride, we went into Zuri’s Sweets to pick up some Lion King themed popcorn for our daughter in law, and also some Lion King gummies. We were still a bit too early for our next FastPass, so we took a 20 min break on the nearby seating, making sure we weren’t taking up a table and seats from anyone who needed them for dining. Once our FastPass time opened, we headed into the Kilimanjaro Safari, and were soon on our journey. There weren’t too many animals about today, probably due to the weather, but we did see a LOT of rhino, both black and white. Apparently, the black are rarer and don’t often loiter in areas where they can be seen easily, so we felt lucky to have seen them today. There was no sign of any cheetah, and we could only see the odd lion leg or top of head, they were very well hidden!

We had done everything we wanted to here today, and the rain was preventing us from exploring any further, so we took a slow stroll out of the park and drove back to our resort. We decided to eat at Old Port Royale, and I got DH a turkey sandwich and fries, while I had chicken tenders and fries. I also got us both a mango smoothie, but they were horrible! The flavour was nice, fresh and fruity, but the texture was really weird, almost jelly-like, and we struggled through about half each before giving up and chucking them away. We filled our refillable mugs with coffee, then DH took these back to the car while I went into the resort store and spent 10 counter service credits on $178-worth of Goofy’s candies, rice krispie treats, cookies, and tubs of Chip & Dale cheesy biscuits. We were nearly at the end of our trip, and knew we wouldn’t have chance to spend all of the counter service credits we had left, even if I used some of them to “pay” for other guests’ meals, which we’ve done before. Therefore, I wanted to get some things we could use as gifts for family and friends on our return.

Back at our room, we set about packing two of our cases with all our purchases from this trip, and luckily everything fitted! This only took 40 mins to do, too. I took some washing over to the laundry room nearby, and left it to wash while we watched some TV and relaxed. Then I put the washing in the dryer, and went back to make some coffee and hot chocolate, which we had with a small fruit pie each from Walmart, (we really love these little pies, it’s just a shame they don’t keep otherwise we would try and bring some home). I collected the washing once it was dry, folded it ready for packing tomorrow, and we finally turned in for some much needed sleep.

Next day is here
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Silvercat
Disney fanatic and trip report e-book writer!

Edited at 03:47 PM.
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