Never say Neverland: Easter '18, May/June '18, July '18, Sept '18, Nov '18 TRs (8/22 UPDATE!)

I keep changing our Nov dining lol, but so far parks have stayed the same! I just have lots of "open" time since I don't know how Ricky's knee will be.
We ate at Tokyo Dining a couple years ago and loved it! The menu has changed since then but I haven't heard anything negative and I have clients eat there and they love it, too. Is that for the day after Thanksgiving? If so we'll both be in Epcot then :thumbsup2
 


I keep changing our Nov dining lol, but so far parks have stayed the same! I just have lots of "open" time since I don't know how Ricky's knee will be.
We ate at Tokyo Dining a couple years ago and loved it! The menu has changed since then but I haven't heard anything negative and I have clients eat there and they love it, too. Is that for the day after Thanksgiving? If so we'll both be in Epcot then :thumbsup2

Same. I have changed dining lots of times, but not the parks or Fastpasses...well the parks haven't changed but I've managed to mod a few of the fastpasses for better options.

Yes Tokyo Dining is for the day after Thanksgiving and that is great news about it...now that I've changed it to I *THINK* Ale and Compass now. We used to love Ale and Compass as it's former name...so we'll see and I'm still not even sure we'll keep that. However we do have plans for now to maybe do AK in the morning then head to EPCOT for the afternoon/evening, but that's only because I have FPs for FOP on Friday morning now. Don't worry, it may change again as that Friday is still somewhat up in the air.


 
So November is closing in FAST...hard to believe isn't it? Today this girl of mine turns SIXTEEN...also very hard to believe:

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This was taken before the Homecoming dance over the weekend. My how time does fly!

I've managed to do a little bit of tweaking on our plans and I still have some I want to do. Before a class I had this week I was spending time looking over my plans and just thinking of the changes I wanted to make. A week or so ago I was considering looking into the Dining plan because we have a few character meals and I started thinking we just might come out ahead if we have a dining plan and keep all of those. Now I am thinking of dropping quite a few of them and only keeping a handful and that negates any value in the dining plan.

Anyway here are my current thoughts with changes in RED.

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SATURDAY:
Arrive 9:15am MCO airport. Check-in at Shades of Green for one night. Breakfast at The Plaza OR Lunch at Tony's Town Square. We have fastpass reservations at MK for Pirates, BTMRR and Peter Pan with the last one around 3pm. We will then drop my FIL off at AoA since that is where he is staying with my SIL and her husband and my nephew. We may hang around at Shades of Green until my brother and family arrive for check-in and just have dinner there.
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SUNDAY: Check-out of Shades and head over to Magic Kingdom. Ride a few rides there standby before leaving around 11:15am to head over to the Contemporary for breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Hopefully it will be fun celebrating Mickey's 90th birthday there! Afterwards back over to MK to use our FPs for a few rides there (BTMRR and SpaceMT). Either have early dinner at The Plaza or leave around 4pm and head over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for check-in and then hang out there. Maybe have dinner at Sanaa? Maybe some late time at Animal Kingdom Park?
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MONDAY
Spend the morning at EPCOT. Arrive close to 9am opening and ride Soarin’ standby, followed by The Seas with Nemo. Head to Test Track followed by Spaceship Earth and Mission: Space. Maybe try to squeeze in a ride on FEA after Soarin'? Grab some snacks at some of the food booths setup around EPCOT for the holidays. Leave around 2:30pm and head to Disney Springs to have an early dinner at T-Rex Cafe. Evening option at any park.
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TUESDAY:
Arrive at Animal Kingdom close to 8am opening. Ride Na’vi River Journey standby, then head to Expedition Everest and ride standby. Head to Dinoland and do rides there plus Dinosaur. Catch showing of Festival of the Lion King then lunch at Satu’li. Ride Safari. Break in afternoon. Possibly pick up DS at airport. Maybe head to AK park for the evening and catch Rivers of Light. I have also booked the Jingle Bell Jingle BAM! dessert party for this night...debating if I'll keep it since it's for a large group of us (not including my SIL and family or my FIL).
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WEDNESDAY:
Arrive close to 9am opening of Magic Kingdom. Then head to ride SpaceMt (standby), Buzz, TTA, and then head over to ride BTMRR using FP+. Lunch for all at Liberty Tree Tavern. Next ride Peter Pan and any other Fantasyland attractions. Break at resort for the evening. Maybe head to EPCOT and try some food booths there again. OPTIONAL: Dinner at Sanaa OR Rose and Crown Pub for dessert only and Illuminations Viewing.
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THURSDAY:
Arrive close to 8am for opening at Hollywood Studios and head to Toy Story Land immediately to ride Slinky Dog, Alien Saucers and Toy Story Mania all standby. Afterwards head to Tower of Terror and possibly Rock N’roller Coaster. Ride SlinkyDog again at 2:30pm with FP+. then head to Animal Kingdom Lodge for Thanksgiving Dinner. Evening maybe at HS for Fantasmic! OR at Magic Kingdom for final night.
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FRIDAY:
Check out of Animal Kingdom Lodge. Head to Animal Kingdom park for final rides (FP for FOP, EE and Dinosaur). Head over to EPCOT as we have optional meals at the following: CP breakfast, CP lunch at Tutto Italia (all for 5pm CP show). Spend the day at EPCOT, see 5pm CP, then maybe a few final hours at EPCOT or AK. Drive to hotel near airport that evening for final night.
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As of today we are just less than 19 days away from vacation!
 


So...now that birthday week madness has subsided...a few updates for you. I sent an email out to my brother and SIL this week about the potential of cancelling a few ADRs and about the dessert party. My brother responded (shocking) that he was good with cancelling the ADRs that we had for Garden Grill (just for them) and Tusker House...and to keep the dessert party, which I am sorta looking forward to trying. Now I did NOT include the LARGER party for dessert and as I checked earlier this week, right now there are no more spots for the date we have booked so I'm glad I have it solidified.

And so, this seems pretty solid:
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SATURDAY:
Arrive 9:15am MCO airport. Check-in at Shades of Green for one night. Breakfast at The Plaza OR Lunch at Tony's Town Square. We have fastpass reservations at MK for Pirates, BTMRR and Peter Pan with the last one around 3pm. We will then drop my FIL off at AoA since that is where he is staying with my SIL and her husband and my nephew. We may hang around at Shades of Green until my brother and family arrive for check-in and just have dinner there. *I WOULD love to maybe sneak off this night, if they are there early enough, and try to catch the 8pm showing of Fantasmic! but we'd probably have to do it standby. I think we would be okay. I think the boys would LOVE it. It would mean my brother and family adding an extra day to their 5-day passes but that shouldn't be too expensive. I even considered the dessert VIP experience for this which is currently still available, but since they will be traveling that day, I don't want to book that for them in case they aren't there in time.
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SUNDAY: Check-out of Shades and head over to Magic Kingdom. Ride a few rides there standby before leaving around 11:15am to head over to the Contemporary for breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Hopefully it will be fun celebrating Mickey's 90th birthday there! Afterwards back over to MK to use our FPs for a few rides there (BTMRR and SpaceMT). Either have early dinner at The Plaza or leave around 4pm and head over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for check-in and then hang out there. Maybe have dinner at Sanaa? Maybe some late time at Animal Kingdom Park? *I booked an 8pm reservation at T-Rex Cafe on this day as well, thinking maybe we could just go there for dessert to give us that experience. I probably won't keep it. I'm debating calling to try to book T-Rex for more of us (because the online limit is 8) since my dad should be checking into SSR sometime that evening.
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MONDAY
Spend the morning at EPCOT. Arrive close to 9am opening and ride Soarin’ standby, followed by *Frozen Ever After because yes my nephews are fans of Anna and Elsa, then backtrack to The Seas with Nemo. Head to Test Track followed by Spaceship Earth and Mission: Space. Grab some snacks at some of the food booths setup around EPCOT for the holidays. Leave around 2:30pm and head to Disney Springs to have an early dinner at T-Rex Cafe. Evening option at any park. *NOT too late since we will have an early morning on Tuesday at AK*
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TUESDAY:
Arrive at Animal Kingdom close to 8am opening. Ride Na’vi River Journey standby, then head to Expedition Everest and ride standby. Head to Dinoland and do rides there plus Dinosaur. Catch showing of Festival of the Lion King then lunch at Satu’li. Ride Safari. Break in afternoon. Possibly pick up DS at airport. Maybe head to AK park for the evening and catch Rivers of Light. I have also booked the Jingle Bell Jingle BAM! dessert party for this night...debating if I'll keep it since it's for a large group of us (not including my SIL and family or my FIL).
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WEDNESDAY:
Arrive close to 9am opening of Magic Kingdom. Then head to ride SpaceMt (standby), Buzz, TTA, and then head over to ride BTMRR using FP+. Lunch for all at Liberty Tree Tavern. Next ride Peter Pan and any other Fantasyland attractions. Break at resort for the evening. Maybe head to EPCOT and try some food booths there again. OPTIONAL: Dinner at Sanaa OR Rose and Crown Pub for dessert only and Illuminations Viewing. *I would really like to see Illuminations again, and having the option to view it at Rose & Crown is a bonus!*
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THURSDAY:
Arrive close to 8am for opening at Hollywood Studios and head to Toy Story Land immediately to ride Slinky Dog, Alien Saucers and Toy Story Mania all standby. Afterwards head to Tower of Terror and possibly Rock N’roller Coaster. Ride SlinkyDog again at 2:30pm with FP+. then head to Animal Kingdom Lodge for Thanksgiving Dinner. Evening maybe at HS for Fantasmic! OR at Magic Kingdom for final night.
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FRIDAY:
Check out of Animal Kingdom Lodge. Head to Animal Kingdom park for final rides (FP for FOP, EE and Dinosaur). Head over to EPCOT as we have optional meals at the following: CP breakfast, CP lunch at Tutto Italia (all for 5pm CP show). Spend the day at EPCOT, see 5pm CP, then maybe a few final hours at EPCOT or AK. Drive to hotel near airport that evening for final night.
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THANKSGIVING TRIP - T-MINUS 12 DAYS!!!

Really can't wait for this trip, which will most likely be our last WDW trip for at least a year or more. Everybody keeps asking me when the trip after this one will be, and I've told them it won't be happening. We have gotten our money's worth out of our Annual Passes with our trips in Dec 2017, March 2018, May 2018, July 2018, October 2018 and now November 2018. I'm happy with that, but of course if I could sneak away this weekend or even December for a few days I would do it. My husband...he wouldn't though as I think he's burnt out a bit.

So my SIL from California called me on Saturday to discuss the email I sent her regarding our plans. She has opted out of brunch with Chef Mickey on Sunday because "I HAVE to ride my beloved Tower because they ruined the one in California". Ok then. Anybody want to join a crazy group of people for Chef Mickey on Nov 18th? I have a table for 16 and I only need 8 people now.

We also discussed other plans and I had to hear about how "well I just have been to Disneyland so much now that I can't remember...can I get from lunch at Liberty Tree to our Space Mountain fastpass?". Seriously? I mean really...even from one corner to another the walk isn't that much different.

You may be able to tell she is simply not my favorite person. I LOVED when she droned on and ON about how hard it's been to find stuff in their new house because the nanny did the packing and now she can't find things and all about the guest house they have already set up for my father-in-law when he visits in January and how her husband #3 has the TV in there already for him. Do I care? Nope. Oh and how about how she is just so busy what with working and with going to school for her master's degree. Then she actually said to me "oh your brother and family are going to be there?" to which I replied "YES since I planned this trip with them in DECEMBER of last year" and (in my head) "and you weren't invited back then but of course you have invited yourself to this one". IN. MY. HEAD. I guess now that we've mentioned extended our trip another day (we are flying home Saturday instead of Friday as originally planned) she also said they are working on trying to extend their trip to Saturday too...and she will just call Disney and ask them to extend their reservation for one more night. Pretty sure there's a VERY VERY tiny chance that will happen...that they won't already be booked solid the FRIDAY after Thanksgiving at the resort...if not most of them. I've checked and there are a few on-site places open but not many. But of course that's only if they can change the flights because "well you know we booked it on points, one of the advantages of traveling so much for work, so we have to see if we can use our points to change the flights". I'm thinking that's going to be tough as well, but who knows. As I DID tell her, we aren't even staying in a Disney resort that last night because there really isn't any point. We fly out early Saturday morning, so no advantage to being on Disney property just for one night. I love that our hotel is actually about 5 minutes from the airport and has free breakfast...that works out for us!

You would think that when somebody drones on and on about their life with little response from the person they are talking to, they would get the hint that I really don't care...but that doesn't seem to be the case. Ugh. I just listen and nod "uh huh" a zillion times until she finally says her goodbyes. So our time with them in November should be pretty limited as of right now...like maybe we'll see them Wednesday at MK and at lunch for the day, then Thursday just for Thanksgiving dinner since they have ONE FP that day, a 5:45pm at Flight of Passage AND then they want to try to go to EPCOT to catch the Candlelight Processional at 8pm via standby (basically that means they will be standing way outside the theater I'm sure and just listening...can't imagine they have hopes of being close enough to see any of it). She mentioned that she *THOUGHT* she booked a Candlelight Processional dinner at Via Napoli (when...I have no idea since we have Thanksgiving dinner that day) but when she logged in it had disappeared and when she called Disney they told her she had booked something for September. They credited her the no-show fees back at least but no hopes of her getting something now, especially on Thanksgiving. We have a lunch booked for Friday, but it just the five of my family plus my FIL...not her and family. I'm kinda hoping they don't extend their trip as wrong as that sounds. I'm just up for limiting my time spent with them as much as possible.

However I can't wait to spend time with my family, my brother and other SIL and my nephews, and even my dad and girlfriend. I think we've got a great plan in place and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.
 
THANKS! I should also add for Thanksgiving Day "Meet @ariane37 at dinner" because that is DEFINITELY in the plans!

YAY!!! I really cannot wait for this :cheer2:
Depending on how many more times you change your plans lol it looks like we'll both be in MK Sunday afternoon after you eat at Chef Mickey's too. I plan to,get there by 11 and probably stay until 3ish.

Sorry about your SIL! Don't we all have family like that? You can't choose them :sad2:
 
Oh, come on!!! We still need to do a DIS meet...:flower:

I think all your plans sound fabulous and you will all have a great time!!!!

Someday for sure...and thanks! I plan to make the most of these one. We have some fun first-time events planned!

YAY!!! I really cannot wait for this :cheer2:
Depending on how many more times you change your plans lol it looks like we'll both be in MK Sunday afternoon after you eat at Chef Mickey's too. I plan to,get there by 11 and probably stay until 3ish.

Sorry about your SIL! Don't we all have family like that? You can't choose them :sad2:

I can't wait either. It will probably be a bit crazy with my group of...I think it's gonna be 16 now...but we should be easy enough to spot there!

We definitely plan to be at MK on Sunday. I'm hoping to start out there if my brother and family can get it together to get checked out...tough with two small kids. We'll leave around 11:15am, but hoping to return close to 1:30pm. We have a 2:10pm FP for Big Thunder and a 3:20pm FP for Space Mountain. I'm hoping the little boys will be up for both. We probably won't stay too long after that Space FP because I'd like to get checked in at AK Lodge if the room is ready. Plus depending on when my dad and his girlfriend o_O arrive we'd like to try to meet up with them that night. They have 5-day passes so really would like to get them to a park that night if possible, even if it's just to HS maybe for Fantasmic! or something.

At this point, remaining FPs are pretty slim unless you want to change them to after 7pm or 8pm so i guess we are pretty set in what we have for this trip.

I have rebooked my rental car at least 3 or 4 more times, dropping the price a little bit more each time. I also THOUGHT I was going to be able to rebook my SWA flights because when I checked two days ago it looked like I could get a refund. However the system wouldn't process it and then when I really went to check the fares they actually looked higher when I price out new ones. It was weird. Last night I did go ahead and get EarlyBird for both my DH and FIL. At $40 each (RT, $20 per flight) I figure they can each get on the plane together and hold seats for the rest of us. My FIL wanted me to just get it for ALL of us and he would pay for it...but that meant he'd shell out $240 total...which is nuts. I think this is fine, and next Friday I'll get online early enough to checkin the rest of us and try to get us the best group possible. None of the flights are sold out yet so that's a good sign. I'm hoping taking an early Saturday flight will work out well for us both ways.

Once this trip is over, I really need to figure out what's next for us. It's hard to function daily with no "next" trip to look forward to, even if it isn't a Disney trip.

 
Thanks to @ariane37 I've made more changes to our trip. I'm not sure I'll keep them. She is such a bad influence. :lmao::rotfl::rotfl2:

So what are these changes? Well I went ahead and booked EMM at Hollywood Studios for Monday November 19th. I have a few reasons for this change.

For one, I think the boys will LOVE the TSL rides and want to do them a few times. I love them myself. I'm a little concerned that $69 for breakfast for a 4 and 6 year old is a bit steep though. Here is my updated MONDAY plan now:

Hollywood Studios EMM booked: arrive at HS by 7am for 7:30am for event. Ride TSL rides & have breakfast until 10am. Depart @10:30am and head to EPCOT. If the above is cancelled, then arrive close to 9am at EPCOT, Ride FEA and Soarin’ (standby) then ride Test Track (FP). Ride the Land and The Seas & Mission:Space (FP). On the way out ride Spaceship Earth with FP. Leave around 3pm and head to Disney Springs for a late lunch/early dinner at T-Rex Cafe. Check out The VOID at Disney Springs. Evening rest for pool or option at park of choice (not too late...early morning planned Tuesday).

We still have FPs at EPCOT, but the first one isn't until 10:20am and since the parks are so close together, if we drive we can easily do both.

The second reason is that I had us getting up bright and early on Thanksgiving Day to try to hit Hollywood Studios to do the Toy Story Land rides as well. It might be nice to not have to rush that day...or to have the option to visit another park instead (of course we have FPs now at HS). Our current SDD Fastpass is at 2:30pm on Thanksgiving Day, which is right before our 3:30pm Thanksgiving Dinner. So doing this would mean we can do something else on Thanksgiving Day (probably without Fastpasses...but it is the last day for many of us). We could also maybe make Wednesday night a late night (MK is open until 11am) and then sleep in on Thanksgiving day a little bit.

So why is this @ariane37 's fault? Because I was reading one of her TRs and saw she was looking at booking this (I think). I'm not sure which day, but it just made me look into it.

If we keep this, it will of course affect our day on Monday and Thursday. If we decide to drop it, then our plans will go back to how they were before. As it is, keeping this means we may risk not being able to do both Soarin' and FEA, since we don't have FPs for either of those rides currently and my original Monday plan had us arriving close to EPCOT park opening on Monday and doing both of those rides Standby first thing.

We can all agree I've lost my mind a bit on these "extra" events...so we'll see what happens. Forking over the pre-payment for those parties is nuts.

Just did it again...a Fantasmic! Dessert party on Sunday.

I think I need an intervention.


 
So why is this @ariane37 's fault? Because I was reading one of her TRs and saw she was looking at booking this (I think). I'm not sure which day, but it just made me look into it.
It's all my fault, I take total responsibility :rotfl2: Yup, I booked HS EMM but for the 21st, we're in Universal on the 19th. I was only able to get one SDD FP for our whole trip and it's on the 23rd so I think the boys will be happy with this because I really think they're going to enjoy SDD and Chris loves TSM.
BTW, I'm also trying to get the Up Close with Rhinos tour but it's fully booked for every day I want it, so there's a slight chance my plans will still change again, too!
 
July 2018 Celebration of Life - Day 5

After a nice morning and afternoon at the water park, it was now time for dinner and some evening park time. First up was dinner at one of our favorites...Sanaa.


I love hanging out looking at the animals on the safari before dinner:

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Yeah not that one...but these:
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We had a delicious meal, and somehow my son decided he was going to eat this huge rack of lamb:
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I'm not sure if he succeeded but I think DH may have helped him finish it. After wall, once we get through with that bread service, we never want our meals. We should learn our lesson and just have the bread service. :)

Dinner completed, we headed off to Animal Kingdom for our FPs for the evening. First up, the safari...more animals!
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I recall as we rounded the bend near the big cats, I was hoping we'd see them. It was around 6pm or so and we usually do morning or afternoon safaris. It's rare that we see the cats.

Well this time we saw them...and BOY did we see them in ACTION:
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Can you make out that blurb of cats. Yes our entire vehicle was practically in hysterical laughter. Our "guide" was trying not to laugh...and telling us to look on the right side...which had nothing of course.

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Cue the kitty porn music! I guess the cat on the left was enjoying the show too!

We also had a FP for Flight of Passage, so that was the next thing on our agenda. So thankful for a Fastpass for this one always. Here we are being decontaminated:
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I know we also had rides on EE and Dinosaur, though I only have the Dinosaur photo:
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After a pretty complete evening, we headed back to our room. I'm sure I probably searched for dessert again, although maybe this was the night that my daughter and I headed off to Disney Springs alone to search for some dessert. We ended up at a small bakery with lots of gluten free and dairy free items and I got a few things there that were pretty good.

We still had a few more vacation days to go!
 
July 2018 Celebration of Life - Day 6

We were well into vacation so far and we had done quite a bit. It was time for another leisurely break. We had some late morning FPs at HS plus a meal at Sci-Fi Dine-In for the day. There was no rush, and so for the morning the boys went off to the movies. The girls hung out here:

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We pretty much had the whole pool to ourselves. We listened to music, swam and just chilled. It was nice. When we got hungry, we rode the internal bus over to Spyglass Grill. That's a chilly bus ride in the summer, and long to get there from our location but a short ride back. I got this KIDS salad:
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It was the perfect size and amount of food for me. My daughter got a sandwich she wasn't thrilled about but ate some of it anyway. Then we headed back to the room to wait for the rest of the family to return.

Around 4pm or so we headed out to Hollywood Studios. I'm pretty sure we had a FP for ToT first thing, resulting in this:
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We may have had RnRC next:
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Next up I think we headed over to Star Tours. I vaguely recall it showing a wait, but remembering that I knew it wouldn't be as long as it showed and it wasn't. We may have also done Muppets 3D. I'm not totally sure but it seems there were kids complaining at some point about it.

We tried to head over to our Sci-Fi Dine-In reservation early, but there was still quite a wait. We were told we could wait at the new BaseLine Taphouse next door next, so that's what we did.


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We enjoyed some refreshments while waiting for our table for dinner. We really like this place.

Soon enough we were seated at Sci-Fi Dine-In, a place we haven't been to in probably 10 years. I have to say, I'm not in a rush to go back. It was okay, but not that great. It's still a fun atmosphere though:
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Dinner completed, it was off to do some more Studios stuff!
 

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