Oops, We Forgot to Leave Our Weather at Home! A Fantastic Festival of the Arts 2025 TR! (Updated 3/14!!)

[VAtink]

Oooooh I saw this too and did it with mine! You have way more magic bands than I do Guess that means I need to do more Disney trips! But it looks so good almost all full! I love it.

It's such a great way to store/display them! Kudos to whoever originally came up with the idea! And yes, more Disney trips is always recommended!

So exciting!! That is the danger of APs, but still so exciting! I hope you love GF - love to hear your thoughts when you get back (hint hint TR )

Haha, seriously, if it weren't for the APs we would never consider this many trips! I cannot wait to experience the GF club level, I loved seeing all of it on your TR, definitely ramping up the excitement to see it in person in December!

 

[VAtink]

Ooh, love your MB storage idea! Being infrequent visitors, I can't see us ever getting more than 1 MB, and I only have a small collection of ears too. I got a bunch of stick on headphone hooks (designed for computer gamers) and have stuck them on the wall in my office to display my ears. I love being surrounded by my Disney stuff while I work!

Thank you! I can't take the credit, I totally copied it from the internet, but it's really cool! And that's a good idea for the ears! I too keep most of my Disney stuff in my office, it's nice to be able to take breaks during the days I'm at home and just remember all the fun times at Disney, plus it motivates me to keep working hard to pay for more trips!

You had bad luck with rude people! But good luck with the White Rabbit and Slinky. You really can't beat those short wait times at the end of the AH party! We just missed the White Rabbit and after a pretty big day, we couldn't be bothered to wait for him to come back. I just got a quick pic as he was walking off.

Yeah, the number of rude people were kind of crazy! We did have good luck with the characters and Slinky, I was actually really surprised that the characters didn't have lines at all that night when we saw them, it was great to have so much time to interact!

 

[VAtink]

Okay I am turning 60 in sept what is this about Four Season. Please tell,

It's basically a true 5 star experience. Even the Disney deluxe hotels are only 4-stars, but the Four Seasons is a 5-star resort. A lot of the stuff offered there is a paid add-on, but it has a really nice property including a lazy river at the pool complex (and an actual lazy river, not just the lazy circle like at the Yacht and Beach Club), the rooms are large and have a lot of extras such as pillow menus, and it has a more elevated customer service than Disney typically. Plus it has twice daily room service and turn down service. You can also get a park view room (note the parks are miles away, but you can see the fireworks at night), and have room service bring dessert and drinks to your room for the fireworks. It's expensive, and not something we'd normally do for a trip, but for a special trip we'd splurge for it.

 

[Woth2982]

Your magic band wreath is amazing! I love it! May have to steal that idea. For my ears, I have them hanging on the wall in my laundry room and bathrooms as a little extra decoration. I also have cork boards in shadow boxes with my pin collections. I don't pin trade and I like finding a new pin for each trip. Makes it fun.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I love that wreath idea for magic bands. I have all my ears hanging on my bedroom wall on hooks because - wall art.

I've been debating an after hours at Hollywood Studios for the May trip. Just don't know if its worth the money for just me.

 

[VAtink]

Your magic band wreath is amazing! I love it! May have to steal that idea. For my ears, I have them hanging on the wall in my laundry room and bathrooms as a little extra decoration. I also have cork boards in shadow boxes with my pin collections. I don't pin trade and I like finding a new pin for each trip. Makes it fun.

Thank you! Oh, I never thought about putting the ears in the bathroom, that would probably be one of the last wall space I have left (I went a bit overboard with the art at FArts this year ).

 

[VAtink]

I love that wreath idea for magic bands. I have all my ears hanging on my bedroom wall on hooks because - wall art.

Isn't it so cool? I don't think I have enough wall space to hang all my ears sadly enough, although I guess I could do them along the top edge of the wall like a little ear boarder maybe.

I've been debating an after hours at Hollywood Studios for the May trip. Just don't know if its worth the money for just me.

It's a tough call, we prefer AH at MK, but we still have fun at HS. We're probably oddballs with this, but HS is our least favorite park, so we're more likely to skip it during normal hours, but we enjoy it at AH just to get on everything with little to no waits and get all the "free" snacks!

 

[VAtink]

Day 3, Part 1: The Crowds Brave the Rain!​

We ended up waking up this morning around 8:30, which doesn’t seem bad, but since we didn’t get to sleep until about 2 in the morning it was a bit rough!

We slowly got ready and had some fruit we had picked up the day before for breakfast.

This picture makes me laugh, it's one my mom took and I could not figure out why she got a random picture of the light on the balcony. Turns out she wanted to get a picture of the ceiling color since it was a pretty blue, but you can hardly tell in this picture!



Around 9:30 we headed out, and once again, it was a dreary day. The good news is it wasn’t a downpour, but it was this light rain/mist, so still a wet day.






We were shocked when we got to the IG to see the line to get in. We figured being there over an hour after early entry and about 40 minutes after regular opening the line to get in would die down. That plus the weather was super gross so we didn’t expect crowds at all this day. Well, we were wrong.

It took over 20 minutes to get through security and into the park this morning, it was wild.

We had a LL for Guardians this morning that expired at 10:10, and since it was already 10, we made our way over there.

Fortunately there was no line for the LL at Guardians this morning and we were on quickly. This time we got I Ran.



Yup, still no Disco!

After Guardians we decided to head over to check out the seas and ride the Nemo ride. As we were heading over we ran into one of those massive South American tour groups, oh no! They were heading the same way as us, so we sped up to get around them and not get stuck behind them.

Once we arrived at the Seas we were shocked at the wait time, it was 30 minutes! What!?!? I don’t think I’ve seen it get that high on our trips outside of maybe December!

Since we didn’t really feel like waiting that long for that ride we decided to head over to the Land instead since we figured LWTL would have no line, it never does!

HAAAA.

We were so wrong. LWTL had a 35 minute wait, and the line extended out of the queue, so it looked like that might be accurate! What on earth was going on this morning???? Definitely not expected mid-week on a rainy day!

I pulled up the app to check the other wait times, and they were all way up around the park. Ugh. Since we were in the Land though, my mom remembered something I wanted to do….buy a new rose to replace the one my cat ate! The previous day we were there they didn’t have the plant cultures out for sale, so I was happy this morning they did, so I got my new rose. So not an entirely unproductive morning!

At that point it was 10:50, so we decided to give up on rides and just head to WS to start eating at the festival booths.

Of course we stopped for some photopass pictures on the way!













Next up: Nothing Wrong with a Snakebite for Breakfast!​

 

[zanzibar138]

We encountered similar crowds the last Tuesday of January (it was nice weather for us though). I mean, I know that WDW gets crowded, but I had gone in expecting the less popular rides at EPCOT to be more in the vicinity of 15-20 minute waits than 30-35+! People commenting on my TR didn't seem surprised though, so I thought maybe I'd had unrealistic expectations The only ride we managed to find ALL DAY that had less than a 30 minute wait was when Journey to Imagination briefly went down to 15 minutes.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Happy Sunday everyone! I decided to do a bit of spring cleaning today, and the big task was organizing my Disney stash. Guys, I have so much Disney stuff from decades worth of trips, and I've come to realize I'm a total pack rat so don't throw anything away. I have guide maps all the way back to 1996 (which reminds me I need to work on that throwback TR again), random wrist bands from events, lanyards, about 1000 ears (I need a better way to store them, anyone have any good ideas??), and then of course magic bands. I realized that I may have a slight magic band problem....

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I'm just going to throw it out there and guess your favorite color is Blue?

Fortunately there was no line for the LL at Guardians this morning and we were on quickly. This time we got I Ran.​

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Yup, still no Disco!
​

I Ran is the best!!

 

[Wood Nymph]

We then made our way to the boat dock, and lucked out since there was a boat waiting! We squeezed on (seriously it was packed), and soon after we were off. We decided to get off at the Swalphin since it would be much faster walking to the Boardwalk than having to wait for the stop at the YC/BC before the Boardwalk stop.

Your evening looked like fun. I'm sure you were glad to make it onto the boat.

Basically it's been a big Disney weekend. We've also been discussing our upcoming trips a lot! It turns out APs are very very dangerous if you don't want to give Disney all your money.

You have to get your money's worth out of them by taking at least three trips or more.

We're probably oddballs with this, but HS is our least favorite park, so we're more likely to skip it during normal hours, but we enjoy it at AH just to get on everything with little to no waits and get all the "free" snacks!

We only spent an hour in HS last trip. There aren't enough rides that we like in there.

It took over 20 minutes to get through security and into the park this morning, it was wild.

That is crazy. I wonder what was going on.

 

[KPeterso]

I am here now. I rode guardians twice on Monday. I got disco inferno both times. Crazy since you have never gotten it.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

I am here now. I rode guardians twice on Monday. I got disco inferno both times. Crazy since you have never gotten it.

So unfair!!!

 

[VAtink]

We encountered similar crowds the last Tuesday of January (it was nice weather for us though). I mean, I know that WDW gets crowded, but I had gone in expecting the less popular rides at EPCOT to be more in the vicinity of 15-20 minute waits than 30-35+! People commenting on my TR didn't seem surprised though, so I thought maybe I'd had unrealistic expectations The only ride we managed to find ALL DAY that had less than a 30 minute wait was when Journey to Imagination briefly went down to 15 minutes.

Yeah, those wait times aren't too common for rides like Nemo or LWTL outside of times like spring break or Christmas, and especially not normal on rainy days! It looks like you were there the week after us, and considering how awful our week was with the weather, I'm not too surprised the waits jumped up the following week, but still wild to see LWTL with over a 30 minute wait when it doesn't have the holiday overlay!

 

[VAtink]

I'm just going to throw it out there and guess your favorite color is Blue?

Funny enough, it's not! I actually prefer burgundy, or more recently oxblood!

I Ran is the best!!

Haha, it's actually my least favorite song so far. My favorite is September.

 

[VAtink]

Your evening looked like fun. I'm sure you were glad to make it onto the boat.

Yeah, it was a fun time, albeit a very very cold time! I'm so happy we made that first boat, we were exhausted and were ready to get back to the room!

You have to get your money's worth out of them by taking at least three trips or more.

So true! The other day my mom was wondering if maybe we're taking too many Disney trips and I had to remind her that we had to take so many to save more money! Disney math!

We only spent an hour in HS last trip. There aren't enough rides that we like in there.

We feel the same way. We like some rides, but overall not enough that we feel like we have to go there every trip.

That is crazy. I wonder what was going on.

Right? I was shocked to see the line to get in! I wonder if maybe there was some event happening that weekend and a lot of people showed up for it on late Wednesday/early Thursday and all descended upon Epcot that morning.

 

[VAtink]

I am here now. I rode guardians twice on Monday. I got disco inferno both times. Crazy since you have never gotten it.

I'm so jealous! I can't believe I still haven't gotten it, hopefully this next trip I'll change that!

 

[VAtink]

Day 3, Part 2: Nothing Wrong with a Snakebite for Breakfast!​

We last left off heading into WS to eat at the festival booths.

Our first stop was actually not a booth, but Rose and Crown! My mom really wanted a snakebite, and I figured it we got there right at opening we’d easily get a table.

Once again, I was wrong. We arrived at 11:01, and there were tons of people there already! What?!?! Seriously, where did all these people come from? The previous few days the parks were empty, which was expected due to the rain, but it was STILL raining this day and of the past few days this was the worst weather of the three days! Why did everyone decided to come on this random rainy Thursday?

Fortunately, there was some room at the bar, so we decided to head in and grab drinks, we both ended up getting snakebites. We then found a less crowded corner to go stand in and enjoy.



After about 15 minutes, a large group cleared from two of the standing tables so we snagged one!



Gotta get a picture of the rainy day through the window!



After drinking most of our drinks so they wouldn’t slosh out of the cups when we walked, we headed out. Our first stop was the tea shop!

My mom loves tea, and was sad we didn’t make it there last trip, so it was a priority to go there this time.

We browsed a bit and mom ended up buying a bunch of tea, I got a box of peppermint tea since that’s one of the few teas I actually enjoy, and we got some more chocolate for the room as well.

After finishing our shopping trip we were getting super hungry so decided to start hitting food booths. Our next stop wasn’t until America though. Since the rain was getting pretty steady at this point, we wanted to go to a booth that had covered seating, and America does, so that’s where we decided to start.

Next up: Still Braving the Rain​

 

[Wood Nymph]

Once again, I was wrong. We arrived at 11:01, and there were tons of people there already! What?!?! Seriously, where did all these people come from?

Maybe some Disney blog had posted about the snakebit at Rose and Crown. Who knows?

 

[VAtink]

Many some Disney blog had posted Rose and Crown a must do at the opening of the day. Who knows?

Ohhhh maybe! I do see a lot of Disney bloggers and and even people just on random Disney Facebook groups spilling the beans on "secret" ways to enjoy the park. Like lately I'm seeing a ton of posts about rope dropping breakfast at Les Halles in France, and I'm like NOOOOOOOOO do not ruin that for us, that is one of our favorite secret activities, we don't need that crowded first thing in the morning now too!