Completed 1/13 - Monoraaaaaaaail! - August 2023 Trip Report

[Ellester]

We thought CowFish was just OK. I had a great Bloody Mary with a little slider attached! But the service was very slow. Sushi wasn’t any better than anywhere else and double the price. My son’s medium burger was so raw that he couldn’t eat it (and he loves rare steak). They did comp the burger but I’m not sure we would make the trip there again. I’ll make a second guess of Toothsome!

 

[Araminta18]

We thought CowFish was just OK. I had a great Bloody Mary with a little slider attached! But the service was very slow. Sushi wasn’t any better than anywhere else and double the price. My son’s medium burger was so raw that he couldn’t eat it (and he loves rare steak). They did comp the burger but I’m not sure we would make the trip there again. I’ll make a second guess of Toothsome!

View attachment 810277

WOW that is a crazy bloody mary!! Sad about the experience otherwise.

Nope, not Toothsome's either though that was a close second!!

 

[Araminta18]

Real life/pre trip report update!​

Our December trip is less than a month away! I'm so excited - it'll be a bit more lowkey of a trip for us, mostly to see the Christmas decorations and everything. We're doing MVMCP for the first time and I'm already gaming out the characters I want to see (Princess Aurora and Prince Philip!); hoping the timing all works out! We're also doing Jollywood Nights...we'll see how it goes.

Anyways, this week was a crazy one for us - we saw The Fugitive at Alamo Drafthouse on Tuesday (yay Harrison Ford and seeing old movies on the big screen!), and then saw Brett Goldstein doing his stand up on Thursday (he's Roy Kent in the tv show Ted Lasso), and then Friday night we went to a screening of The Princess Bride that included a Q&A with Cary Elwes (Wesley) afterwards. Friday was also the release of Lorcana cards (the second series) and I'm way too into that, so I made Trevor stop by a store with me to try and get some cards (which I did get- yay!). Then yesterday was Trevor's birthday but the car stopped working; luckily we were able to jump it but that was a bit of a heart attack we didn't need. AND, the most relevant part - Disney released the lineup for the Broadway Concert series for Festival of the Arts! That was all I was waiting for in order to finalize our trip for the festival so I spent a good amount of time figuring out our hotel room and everything and then flights, etc. But we're all set - Jan 14-18th, at Beach Club! Can't wait.

All that to say, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a bit, and it'll probably be another couple of days at least. But I promise I'll post as soon as I can.

 

[Mollydolly334]

OK... I've only read through the first day so far.... but let me just say... YOU GUYS ARE MY PEOPLE! Love all of the sweet treats; I have such a sweet tooth as well and I was absolutely DROOLING reading about all of the stuff you grabbed from Disney Springs!

 

[Araminta18]

OK... I've only read through the first day so far.... but let me just say... YOU GUYS ARE MY PEOPLE! Love all of the sweet treats; I have such a sweet tooth as well and I was absolutely DROOLING reading about all of the stuff you grabbed from Disney Springs!

YAAAAAAAAAS welcome!! Treats are the beeeeeeeeeeeest. We still have Gideon's cookies in our freezer.

 

[Araminta18]

Too Much Garlic?! - Wednesday August 16, 2023 (part 4)​

Trevor quickly found me in the store, and we took advantage of the break in the rain to head over to our dinner reservation: Antojitos!

When we were here in January we got the tableside guacamole, which was so fresh and delicious, and even had garlic in it! For whatever reason, it just really hit the spot, so that was the plan today - tableside guac!

Well chips and salsa, AND tableside guac.

It was delicious this time too - though we asked for extra guacamole and (I think I'm saying this for the first time in my life) there was a bit too much garlic! Oh well. Still yummy.

Afterwards, it was about 6:30, and it seemed like the rain had totally let up!

See? You almost couldn't tell at all!

So Trevor headed back into the park - he was gonna see what Hagrid's wait time was and see if he could quickly jump in line there, or if he would go for something else 'cause the line was long. I was heading over to the Disney outlet right there by Universal, and then back to Disney.

Unfortunately Hagrid's was 90 minutes so Trevor decided to do SpiderMan instead. Despite what I thought in the above picture, he thought it would rain again before he could get on, if he decided to brave the line. So he did SpiderMan, and then essentially walked on King Kong, so not a bad choice!

At the outlets I didn't really find anything interesting (they had a couple t-shirts that were also at the other outlet but I decided to get them) so I didn't stay too long. I then grabbed an uber to the Target right by Disney to pick up a couple things (like tupperware containers for the Gideon's cookies and cakes!, and a small container of ibuprofen because we forgot ours, like amateurs!). Trevor was right - by that point it was POURING again. Honestly though I'd take the rain over the crazy oppressive heat.

Trevor though did head over to Hagrid's and decided to test his luck with the single rider line.

So pretty! He said it was still posting 90 minutes, and the single rider line was just outside the building, but he didn't know how much was left inside because we'd never done single rider. He was starting to secondguess himself because he was reading online that the single rider almost always rode in the sidecar, and Trevor wanted to ride the motorcycle (lookit him, being a total thrill junkie now ). He thought about hopping out and doing standby, but decided against it because better to ride in the sidecar than not at all if it got shutdown for rain, and also it was 7:58 and the ride closed at 8 and he wasn't sure he could make it back to the beginning and over to standby before the ride closed! So he stayed where he was....on a staircase.

By 8:08 (10 min later) he was in the room with the motorbikes driving above you, so pretty close to the loading area! I was on my way back to the Contemporary after the Target stop, and it was raining, though apparently Hagrid's was still running despite the rain. Phew! They were apparently making announcements about being prepared to experience rain while on the ride.

The next text I had from Trevor was once he got off the ride, at 8:27 -- apparently the guy he got paired with really wanted to ride in the sidecar, so he got to ride the motorcycle after all, and the rain was mostly fun (though it did sting a bit when they were going fast). So not too bad!! He slowly made his way out of the park.

So pretty all lit up and the ground all wet.

Selfie!

His plan was to do some shopping before coming back - I wasn't even the bad influence this time!

Meanwhile, I was back at the hotel and had put away all the cookies and cakes and such. There were evening extended hours at MK that night, but I was debating on whether or not I wanted to go back to MK for them. That was the original plan, but I was a bit tired. While I was debating, I realized it was time for fireworks! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see them or not, but I put on the tv channel that broadcast the fireworks music, and then leaned out my balcony/window to see what I could see. I could feel the booms, and then...

Over the top of the tower I could see some of the fireworks!

Not an amazing view, but it was awesome to be in the room, hearing the music, and seeing a bit of the fireworks. It was so nice. I was definitely singing along. I can only imagine what it must be like in the Main Tower with a fireworks view!

Trevor was debating on if he should get a Hufflepuff hat, tie, and socks, or just one, or two...indecision struck him. But eventually he decided just to get the baseball cap and the socks, cause the tie was just the colors and not the badger too. He then hopped in an uber back to the hotel, while I decided to go ahead and head over to Magic Kingdom. Monorail!!!!!! So convenient - the monorail is amazing. I love it. Took about 17 minutes to get to the Magic Kingdom but I wasn't in a rush.

I was texting with Trevor the whole time, cause he was in his uber and I was in the monorail. What was I texting him about? Snacks! There was a new Jack-Jack cookie num num cupcake at Contempo Cafe, so I was texting him that you know, if he wanted to mobile order a snack...he could... He was thinking he'd probably stay at the hotel instead of coming over to the Magic Kingdom to join me for extended hours, but then he realized that the hours went from 10 to midnight, not 9 to 11 like he thought, so he was back to trying to decide.

In the meantime, I didn't realize that it was still raining, though luckily only lightly sprinkling.

The mass of people leaving!

No one was going in, but again - look at the mass of people leaving!

It was 9:45...what to do? the park was my oyster!

 

[Araminta18]

All the Boat Rides! - Wednesday, August 16, 2023 (part 5)​

I had to take a picture of the train station all lit up and gorgeous.

So pretty!

I just kind of meandered in and up Main Street, enjoying the lights and the music. I loved the view of the carousel through the castle, so took a quick video:

I decided to go for Jungle Cruise, so made my way over there. They had a photographer out at the Adventureland sign, but none of the photos turned out so not adding them here.

I got in line at Jungle Cruise - it looked pretty busy ahead of me but I figured it would move pretty quick.

What I didn't realize is that Jungle Cruise wasn't part of the Extended Hours and that they closed the line right after I got in! I think there were 4 or 5 people behind me. Good timing!

I only waited about 8/10 minutes, which actually was perfect cause I got to look at some of the theming in the queue.

Alberta's office.

Just fun theming in the office.

I never noticed these floats before, with the names of the ship they belong with. So cool!

I ended up being on the last boat - the skippers were very determined to get us all on, so it was a bit of a crowded boat but not bad.

Always a fun Jungle Cruise!

In the meantime, Trevor had made it back to the hotel and had stopped at Contempo Cafe to get the cookie dough cupcake -

So cute! No review yet 'cause he didn't eat it, just took a picture. Cause I've trained him well.

Back at the park, I got off Jungle Cruise at 10:21 - also noticed these suitcases I've never seen before.

I kind of wish we still did luggage like this with the stickers.

I decided to go for Pirates next, cause it was right there.

And looked so pretty all lit up!

I don't remember what it was posted but I assumed it was inflated. But no, I ended up waiting 23 minutes - I guess everyone was going to Pirates!

Such a weird bit of theming, to have a cannon pointing directly at the loading area.


such an awkwardly placed photo - never sure how to pose, and I still got caught with my eyes closed.

I got off Pirates at 10:55...what to do next? And would Trevor join me or stay at the hotel?

 

[Araminta18]

Magic Kingdom Nighttime - Wednesday, August 16, 2023 (part 6)
​

Honestly, my only real "plan" for the night was to ride the Carousel - I love riding the Carousel at night when it's all lit up and the music and just everything. So I started heading that way (honestly guys it was SO nice after the rainstorm...still hot but not as bad), but then I noticed...Aloha Isle was open!!! A Dole Whip sounded awesome.

a little blurry but YUM. That was a nice surprise.

And then Trevor texted that since he'd had a little rest, he was thinking he would pop over to Magic Kingdom and meet up with me! Huzzah!

As I headed up to Fantasyland, I saw a line for Peter Pan in the extended queue, which caught my attention because it was pretty late for there to be that long of a line. But it turns out that they were doing the Rapunzel lantern photo op there! I'd never seen it there before, so figured eh, might as well hop in line.

Maybe about 6 or 7 parties in front of me? About a 7 min wait. Not too bad!


It must have been because of the rain that they were under here - it's not as good of a pic with the lanterns so far behind, but still fun.

Then, over to the Carousel!

So pretty.

There was, unsurprisingly, no line.

I got on as soon as the current ride ended, and stayed on for like 4 or 5 rides. Honestly, it was so nice, just chilling on the ride and listening to the music. There were a bunch of people trying to pull the sword out of the stone, and it was fun to watch them all try - everyone was super into it and cheering for each other. No one managed it, but it was great fun to watch.

And then Trevor found me!

I got off, and we decided to hop in line for Seven Dwarfs. As we were heading over there, we saw the rocket launch going! I didn't grab a picture, but it was kind of neat to see it streaking across the sky.

We ended up waiting about 25 minutes for Seven Dwarfs, which isn't too bad! It was fun.


We got off just after midnight, which meant the extended hours were over!

 

[Araminta18]

Good Night! - Wednesday, August 16, 2023 (part 7)​

It was time to meander out of the park, so we did just that - slowly made our way out, enjoying the music and the lights and the whole atmosphere.

Hello part of the castle!

Hello all of the castle! The back is so pretty to me.

We walked through the castle, cause why not. And I love this shot facing Main Street with it all lit up.

I kind of totally want to run out and dance on that stage.

Hello pretty Main Street!

They still had photographers out which was really nice, so we got some.


And just continued to meander our way out...I did take a random pic of the pumpkin folks there by the train station.


There was a bit of a wait for the resort monorail, which is to be expected considering it was extended evening hours for the deluxe resort guests. But even so, only 10 minutes! And then 3 minutes later we were at the hotel. Honestly, the monorail is the BEST. I'm a convert. We love it. Monoraaaaaaail!

Then back in the room we may or may not have broken into the Jack Jack cookie num num cupcake (chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate chip cookie dough mousse). This was delicious! Highly recommend, if it's still there. A good way to end the night.

Tomorrow, my last day of class and Epcot After Hours!

Oooh I forgot to put this in earlier - a couple clips Trevor took from his Universal day!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 14682 steps (6 miles) - well, for me. Trevor had more
Ride count: 7 for me (Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Carousel x4, and Seven Dwarfs); 12 for Trevor (Men in Black, Fast and Furious, Gringotts, Race through New York, VillainCon, Mummy, Hogwarts Express, Forbidden Journey, Spiderman, King Kong, Hagrids, and Seven Dwarfs)
Savings due to AP discount: $2.06 (off our food at Antojito's; Trevor got a small discount on powerades too but he DIDN'T SAVE THE RECEIPTS. I know we are all shocked. )

 

[Araminta18]

Animal Kingdom Field Trip - Thursday August 17, 2023 (part 1)​

Thursday morning dawned bright and early - the last day of class! We started off on a good note though - Mickey waffles for breakfast! Though apparently I didn't take a picture. Oops! Class started early, because we were going on a field trip to Animal Kingdom first thing!

I got stuck at security...oops!

We didn't ride any rides or anything, but it was lots of fun wandering around. And I took lots of pictures!

I love this shot with the Bambi statue and the Tree of Life.


I never noticed this before - do YOU have all necessary documentation?


Beautiful floating mountains! I realize that everyone has seen pictures of the floating mountains a bajillion times, but I couldn't help it. Prepare yourself for more Pandora...


Such a bummer this effect no longer works!


Ok, that concludes the Pandora pictures. Sorry. Well, not sorry.

We were back in the classroom by 10, and they had a treat waiting for us -

Who doesn't love the smell of popcorn?

This was about the time that Trevor got up and was texting me about his plans for the day - he was gonna start by heading over to Disney Springs and Gideon's! But then he sent me this picture, of him "checking his fit". Nerd.

 

[Araminta18]

Disney Springs Morning - Thursday, August 17, 2023 (part 2)​

His fit all checked, and me still in class, Trevor headed over to Disney Springs! He didn't have bus luck, so he didn't make it there til about 11:15, to find this line:

Which actually isn't bad at all! He only waited 15 minutes before he saw this lovely sight:

Cake!! Cookie butter and marshmallow chocolate chip. These were DELICIOUS, though we liked the marshmallow chocolate chip better than cookie butter.

Afterwards, Trevor wandered over to World of Disney to see if they had the mini-light up pumpkins. They didn't, but they did have:

the giant ones! I did think it was funny that DisneyWorld had lots of the big light up pumpkins and no little ones, while Disneyland sold out of the big ones faster. I guess that's what happens when you're a vacation destination, and those pumpkins are HUGE!

And then since Trevor was at World of Disney, he *had* to stop into the Star Wars shop there, cause it was just right there! He spent some time looking around at the lightsabers cause they were on sale, but then finally decided no, he was fine, and instead he wanted food, so Jock Lindsay's it was!

Love that theming!!

I haven't been here in a while...next trip (like in 2 WEEKS!) we have to go back I think!

Trevor got the "Poisonless dart"

Soda Water with Mint, Simple Syrup, and fresh Lime Juice.

Then for food, he got the pretzel:

One that looks yummy and two THE HANGER IS AN AIRPLANE!! Adorbs.

No AP discount here, but guys - the drink and the pretzel, INCLUDING TIP, was $17. Not bad at all!

I want to do an air tour!

After lunch, Trevor stopped by the M&M store to see if he could find crispy M&Ms for me (those are my favorites), but no dice. However, he found something else -

Hi there Red M&M! Apparently there was no line so Trevor was like, why not!

At that point, Trevor was hot and tired and so back to the room he went. He passed the AMC and they had the red carpet out for the Haunted Mansion, so he took a picture for me.

I love all the posters! So fun.

Next up - what was happening with me in class!

 

[Paulaparm]

You've got Trevor trained pretty well at taking pictures
And marshmallow chocolate chip sounds amazing!!

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Following! And I like all the pictures!!!

 

[Araminta18]

All the Mickeys! - Thursday, August 17, 2023 (part 3)​

While Trevor was enjoying Disney Springs, back in class we were wrapping up and enjoying our snack: Mickey ice cream!

Mickey premium bar! How could you say no to that?

Gotta start with eating the ears!

They also brought in the Mickey ice cream sandwiches and no shame, I totally grabbed one.

They feed you super well in these trainings! We had pog juice at breakfast most days and on this last day (admittedly, after we asked ) they brought in a jug of pog juice for us to get during class. Brilliant!

As we were finishing up, guess who walked in?

The Big Cheese himself!

It was a really fun way to end - we all got to get pictures with Mickey and we got our own graduation Mickey Ears.

Yay!

Mickey clapping for all of us.

And with that, the training was over. Honestly, this was *bonkers* expensive, so I don't know that it's worth the full cost, but it was definitely a good training. It went over familiar concepts in a slightly new/re-framed way (or new to me) that helped me understand/internalize it a bit more, and obviously it was neat seeing how the concepts were applied at Disney. Obviously there are pockets that are good and pockets that are not, but it was inspiring seeing the "good" parts. And the instructors - man, the instructors were *fantastic*. High energy, great stories, good classroom management - so good. I'm really glad I got to take the class.

Class finished up at about 3:15, so I headed back to the room to meet up with Trevor. We rested for a bit (we were going to have a late night!), and then at about 5:30 we decided to head out and take the monorail to Epcot for our dinner and nighttime plans. Where do you think we were going for dinner?

The rain had thankfully let up, thought it was a bit cloudy. Lovely view though!

Water bridge!

Bye Magic Kingdom!

Who's the prettiest girl in school? It's the Epcot ball...

We video'ed the part of the ride inside Epcot, hoping to get a bit of a glimpse of Moana, way of water. We got a bit of it!

I'm excited to experience it in person NEXT WEEK! (side note, our Christmas trip is next week and this is the first time I won't have finished a trip report before the next trip!)

Once at Epcot, there was a bit of a line to get in, so Trevor and I split up again to see which of us would choose the the faster line. And guys - guess what? It was me!! I choose the faster line! That absolutely never happens, so I'm taking the win where I can.

Where were we headed?

Space 220 Lounge!

 

[Araminta18]

You've got Trevor trained pretty well at taking pictures
And marshmallow chocolate chip sounds amazing!!

I know, right?

It was DELICIOUS! Highly recommend.

Following! And I like all the pictures!!!

Welcome! And thank you! I get worried now that I have to split them up into so many posts, so I'm glad you're enjoying them.

 

[Araminta18]

Space 220 Lounge Dinner - Thursday August 17, 2023 (part 4)​

We'd eaten at Space 220 Lounge back in January and really liked it, so decided to go here again. I also figured it'd be a good start to the Epcot After Hours event.

I do love these fun little boarding passes.

We were seated in the center area (really close to where we were sat back in January, actually).

Gotta love that view!

But we were hungry, so dove right into that menu. We started off with mocktails:

I got the Moon Rocks: lemon juice, blue cotton candy syrup, sprite, pineapple juice, pop rocks. Kind of fun!

Trevor decided to try the Solar Flare Sour:

This was made with lyre's agave blanco, mango, lime juice, grapefruit bitters, fever tree tonic water. This was an interesting one - it said it was no alcohol but you also had to be 21 in order to try it. Then once we got it, Trevor didn't really like it - the taste just wasn't for him. Our waiter was fantastic and swapped it out for the Starship Lemonade: butterfly pea flower, lemonade, sprite, glow cube.

That was more like it! But I appreciate that they had the options.

Then food! We got the Blue Moon Cauliflower:

Tempura fried cauliflower, housemade hot sauce, blue cheese dust. I don't like the hot sauce, but the rest - DELICIOUS. So good.

Then, the Astro Deviled Eggs:

Free-range eggs, maple glazed bacon, scallion, pickled shallots, micro cilantro. Very good as well - especially that bacon, though Trevor is weird and he didn't like the bacon (he doesn't like to mix his sweet and salty).

And finally, the short rib sliders:

white cheddar cheese, red pepper citrus aioli, lettuce, tomato, butter pickles. Yum!

Overall, a good amount of food for us to split, and be pleasantly full. I've never tried the full Space 220 restaurant, but I highly recommend the lounge. And you still get to see the all the theming! Trevor took a time lapse:

Got blocked a little bit, but still fun.

We finished and left around 7:15 pm. Epcot After Hours didn't start until 10 pm, so we had a bit of time to kill! But first we wanted to get our After Hours wristbands, so we headed over to the Guest Experience umbrella on the bridge from Future World into the World Showcase. There was no line, so that was nice. And then we noticed a photopass photographer up there on the bridge, where I'd never seen a photographer before! So of course I made us stop:


We were definitely at that weird time for lighting but they still turned out fun, I think.

 

[Araminta18]

Epcot Pre-After Hours - Thursday August 17, 2023 (part 5)​

And one more magic shot - hi TinkerBell!

Always enjoy seeing photographers in new/unusual spots.

It was 7:30, so we had some time to kill before the event started, so we decided to try and go ride Soarin! But when we hopped in line we joined with the line WAAAAY early so we bailed and decided to do Living with the Land.

A much better line!

Living with the Land is always a great ride (and relaxing ), and I got really excited because they were studying new things in the lab! I thought they never changed the sign but...

Studying Banana, Cassava, and Grape - no more Venus Fly Trap.

Afterwards, it was just after 8, and we were like "meh, let's do The Seas with Nemo!"

No wait, and that fun little fish mural thing.

Shelfie! poor Trevor...just a teeny bit tired. I may or may not have sung along the whole time. The biiiiiig blue wooooooooorld.

We got off and were kind of meandering over to Guardians of the Galaxy, but first we ran into SpaceShip Earth which was a walk on.

So we had to do it. Always a great experience. And for your fun - our future!

Then over to Guardians we made it!

Only to find CRAZY lines - the Lightning Lane was backed up to where we were in this picture, basically. Earlier in the day the CM in class had warned me that Guardians had been having issues all day so to maybe do other things first when we got to the park, but I was hoping that would be cleared up for After Hours event. And I was (sorry not sorry) also kind of trying to see if we could hop into the Lightning Lane with our wristbands, even a bit before the event started. But with that line, no way. Didn't bode well....

So, it was a bit before 9, so we decided hey, let's go catch the fireworks! But then I saw the Refreshment Station with banana icee so stopped and grabbed that, thank you very much.

Then hurried over a bit to Mexico and just hung out to watch the fireworks.

Hey there Epcot Forever!

Trevor filmed a bit of it - and even tried to capture some of the MagicBand+ interactivity/lighting up.

After the fireworks, it was just a bit after 9 so we were like you know what, screw it, let's go for Soarin. So we ran over there and look what we saw:

10 minute wait! Would it turn out to actually be that? We'll see....

 

[Araminta18]

How Many Times Can We Ride Guardians? - Thursday August 17, 2023 (part 6)​

Well, 3 minutes til we saw this sight:

And we could have gotten on there but we were picky and asked to wait for B1.

We had no shame - sat right on down to wait. 8 minutes later, I took this selfie:

Not too shabby! Soarin is always fantastic - I like to be irritating and point out to Trevor the things I've seen without him (like the Taj Mahal. ) (At least we've both been to Neushwanstein, so he's not totally out in the cold ;D)

We were off the ride at about 9:40, so we decided to run back over to Guardians to start our After Hours/be ready to start our After Hours at 10 with just looping Guardians. When we got there they sent us in the standby/virtual queue, but at least the Lightning Lane wasn't backed up as far as we could tell. And now, welcome to the heavy-metrics part of my trip report!

Ride #1 on Guardians:

• 14 minutes to get to the first room (the one where you wait and then the doors open and you go into the second room where Glenn Close/Nova Prime talks to you), and then we waited there for 4 minutes (so 18 min)
• 10 minutes later we were in the funnel, at the top of the ramp.
• boarded 8 minutes later
• Total time in line: 32 minutes
• Song: Disco Inferno

We got off and immediately ran back around and got in line again!
Ride #2 on Guardians:

Hi Trevor! I legit have NO shame in sitting down in the queues. Fight me.

After 17 minutes we got into the second room - hi Nova Prime!

• 18 minutes to get to the first room (the one where you wait and then the doors open and you go into the second room where Glenn Close/Nova Prime talks to you)
• 7 minutes later we were in the funnel, at the top of the ramp.
• boarded 4 minutes later
• Total time in line: 31 minutes
• Song: One Way or Another (THE LAST ONE WE NEEDED - YAY!!!)

You may notice that we're in the car with the same guys from our first ride - that was just how it worked out, with us riding together both times. Fun times!

Back around again for Ride #3 - not gonna lie we were riding really high off of getting the last song that we needed. WOOT.

Ride #3 on Guardians:

• 18 minutes to get to the first room
• 9 minutes later into the funnel at the top
• 13 minutes later we were boarding (we did wait for row 9 so that was an extra launch...maybe a minute?)
• Total time in line: 40 minutes
• Song: I Ran

We still can't figure out where that camera is. My bat came off my ears but I managed to find it in the bag and save it so we could glue it back on. Phew!

At this point it was about 11:55 - not gonna lie, 2 hours and 3 rides wasn't...my favorite stat. But we took a quick break for the bathroom, and grabbed some water/ice cream and pictures. The pictures were kind of fun!


We were back in line at 12:02...tune in to the next post to see if we had better luck with the lines! It was consistently posting 30/35 minutes all night.

 

[Araminta18]

Not as Many Times as You'd Think/Hope - Thursday, August 17, 2023 (part 7)​

This was the view while I was waiting for Trevor to finish up in the bathroom.

Not bad! There was a DJ going playing fun music, but definitely most of us were there for Guardians.

Anyways, back in line! We brought our ice cream in with us.

Mickey premium bars and Mickey Ice cream sandwich! That always helps with lines.

Ride #4 on Guardians:

• 10 minutes to get to the first room
• at the top of the funnel 12 minutes later
• 12 minutes later boarding
• Total time in line: 34 minutes
• Song: I Ran

So this was an interesting ride - we were right next to two girls who were talking about what they'd done tonight: they'd ridden 8 times on Guardians since the start of the event, and were comparing their pictures and talking about how much they'd enjoyed it and appreciated the DAS. And I'm not gonna lie, that bummed me out a little bit - they were riding literally twice as much as we were. I'm so glad DAS exists and that folks can use it, but it made me sad because by using DAS they were getting an objectively way better experience and additionally, the more times they rode, the longer it made our waits. I have no idea how DAS works during After Hours events, but I wish Disney could do something to make it slightly more equitable. I wouldn't have been as bummed if they'd ridden one or two times more, but double? For the price of this event, it was a bit disappointing.

But back around we went! Ride number 5! And I will stay that we walked out with those girls (who were on their 8th ride) and watched them go right back in through the Lightning Lane, as we headed over to the posted 30 min standby line.

Ride #5 on Guardians:

• I apparently didn't take pictures of any of the intermediate preshows for timestamps -- Total time in line: 26 minutes
• Song: Everyone Wants to Rule the World (YAY!!! Our favorite song!!!)

Not gonna lie, ending with "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was AWESOME. Also we got lucky - for the last three rides (rides 3,4 and 5, we got row 9, which is our FAVORITE). So we definitely ended on a high note.

We got off at about 1:15am, so the event was over. And they had packed up the water and ice cream, nothing was still out. Which like, fair. But they did have this photographer still out, so we were able to sneak in and get this one!

Pretty cool!! I want to take a similar shot now that the construction walls are down and not blocking Spaceship Earth.

We meandered our way out to the exit, and managed to catch a bit of the 40th anniversary show on Spaceship Earth!

It was super cute - I wish I'd gotten the whole thing. But glad we caught what we did.

As we kept going, we headed for the monorail only to find that it was closed!!!!!! That was a bummer. We had to wait for the bus - we were clearly spoiled after our lovely monorail experiences!

The bus left at 1:33 am, but it was sharing with the entire monorail loop so it was super crowded (Trevor had to stand). And of course we were the last stop, at 2:01 am. I really am not a fan of sharing buses - for the prices of these events and the hotels, I would think Disney could do better.

Back in the room a little after 2 am, we were exhausted and fell into bed.

Overall, we'd had a good time at Epcot. Definitely wouldn't do Epcot After Hours again, if the goal is to ride Guardians. $143.78 (with tax) for each of us - that breaks down to $28.76 a ride. The lightning lane is cheaper than that. Add in the one Mickey bar we each add and maybe a water, that's $10 ish more value, but you still don't come even close to breaking even (matching up/beating the Lightning Lane price). The only difference is that you then get to ride over and over which you can't do during the day, but honestly, that pre-show and the funnel where you're racing against everyone *really* start to grate after a while. Trevor especially found that his anxiety was REALLY starting to act up going round and round and having to wait in the preshow crowds where you're not really in a line or anything. But if they do it where you skip the preshow and just walk on through to the ride...that would be worth it! And again, however Disney was managing DAS--if you're using DAS Epcot After Hours might be worth it (just based on the experience of the girls we rode with).

Class being over was a bit bittersweet - I was excited to go back to vacationing, but the class was really good and I learned a lot. Highly recommend.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 21518 steps (8.7 miles)
Ride count: 9 (Guardians x5, Soarin, Spaceship Earth, The Seas, Living with the Land) (Trevor and I rode the same rides today!)
Savings due to AP discount: $0.00 (I don't remember if we asked at Space 220 Lounge and were told no, or if we didn't ask. )

 

[Araminta18]

Also guys - we go to Disney on WEDNESDAY! This is the first time I'll be on a new trip without having finished the trip report...all sorts of new experiences! I promise I'll finish this one up though - I have yet to abandon a trip report (for better or for worse ;D)