She's A Disney Adult and Feeling Artsy, a February 2020 Trip Report (Updated 6/15)

Awesome when you catch those unscheduled characters at the right time!

I've always heard great things about Voices of Liberty but never managed to see them. I've also only stopped for the American Adventure once and I fell asleep through the whole thing. :scared:

Your meal at Yachtsman sounds delicious!
It was a great afternoon and evening at our favorite park. Characters, Disney Art, and Epcot combined to make it great. The food and experience were great at Yachtsman, we loved it.

So you all are not the only ones that waited so long to tour the American Pavilion...the only thing I have seen there is Voices of Liberty. I also have never seen Country Bear Jamboree. I know, the shame....

Great update!
Ahh, I don't feel too bad. If the Homeland Security people show up though I'll tell them we're not the only ones...
I saw Country Bear Jamboree when I was 6, and my mom loves it. They have been back to see it a few times more recently.
Thanks for the compliment, we love writing about the trips.

That discount was great. It also had the benefit of giving us 13 months on our annual pass. That changed our expiration date from Nov 30th to Dec 30th. We have been able to take several December trips since then because of that special discount period. For a long time they had the AP discount at Flame Tree Barbecue but that ended a couple years ago. I hope they bring it back for the big anniversary coming up. :)
Yes, we'd love some good discounts. They probably aren't going to need them to bring people in though...

That is always fun. Our first big character palooza was at POR with six characters. Since then it has just been one character at a time.
I wonder why they don't like to have Chip and Dale together?
It was neat, and the crowds were really light at the time. The no Chip and Dale together thing came from Garden Grill where one character handler was aggressively trying to keep things on schedule and allowed no character overlap, even though they were interacting with each other.

That is a weird looking character. He must be on some recent Disney show because I'm not familiar with him.
I'm impressed!
Launchpad McQuack was from the Duck Tales TV show from 1987-1990. I didn't watch it much, but Melissa did. Marshall hasn't seen it much either, but just liked the guy...

That was really sweet of that lady to make Allie feel special. It is always hard to be the older sister who has a younger sibling who attracts a lot of attention.
It was neat because Allie was being pretty quiet and subtle about it just killing time and the lady noticed. Allie was proud and had a great conversation with her.

It also works for getting warmed up on a cold January day.:)
And gave some needed rest mid-day after a long arrival day.

And now you can't imagine life without him. :)
That is true. There's times Allie would prefer life without him, but that's just a sibling thing...

They started the big character meet and greet when they opened the Skyliner. Prior to that there were only occasional characters in training hanging around that area. I remember seeing Prince Charming there, or one of those Princes. :) We almost never get pictures with the characters because we don't like to wait in long lines. But we now have some very cute pictures with Minnie. For some reason, she doesn't seem as popular as she should be.
It is odd that people freak out to try to get to meet Mickey, when we really know who's in charge. The character handlers with Minnie were joking about that fact too.

The two resorts are roughly mirror images of each other in their layout.
Yeah, we have explored the Beach Club side of it, but hadn't spent much time at Yacht Club. We hope to experience both quite a bit next trip.

Happy Birthday! It is nice that Disney does a little extra for the birthdays.
It is neat. I felt a little strange since it was a few weeks after my birthday, but were definitely celebrating.

I've never heard of hasselback potatoes.
Neither had I, but basically it was a sliced baked potato with pulled pork topping. It was excellent.

Our daughter from Colorado had her kids swimming in the WL Hidden Springs pool when it was 50 degrees out. The hard part is getting out of the water.

When you live in a place with long winters you have to take advantage of these opportunities when you can. :)
Yeah. We definitely swam less in February than in September, but we did make it to the pool later. I'm not sure we would have if it didn't warm up though.

We used the Skyliner as transportation to AKL for dinner at Boma and to get back to POR when we had breakfast at Ale and Compass. DHS is a great staging place for resort to resort transportation, especially now that they have the Skyliner.
It is a very nice ride and I really hope Disney expands it to include other resorts. :)
I wasn't sure about the Skyliner, but it does seem to be very efficient. The biggest winner seems to be Carribean Beach, which went from being somewhat remote to right on the line with two easily accessible stops. We'd sure be more excited about staying there now.

That was good timing to beat the fireworks crowd.
Sometimes you get lucky. I feared the long trip home but this one was fun and efficient.

How cool that you bumped into Character Palooza at Epcot.
We had heard of these type of things but we literally walked right into this one. The characters were all great and friendly.

Your dinner looks delicious. Hubby and I ate at the lounge attached to Yachtsman one night and it was delicious!
It was great. The restaurant was bigger and brighter than we expected, and the kitchen was definitely busy. They did a great job.

I'm glad to hear the skyliner experience wasn't as scary as you were expecting. Sometimes it's worse when you have too much time to build things up in your head.
Yeah, and the incident a few weeks after it opened didn't help matters. We all held our breath a little bit as the cabs came into the station.

Hi, I haven't been commenting much, as I'm still in Orlando one more night. Regarding passholder discounts at quick-service places, they do have them at the Revive coffee stand in Tomorrowland, and at Polite Pig at Disney Springs. Regarding winter weather, it really is all over the place with some warm days and some cold days and an occasional windy day and sometimes a rainy day. You have to be prepared for anything, but hopefully you will have at least one good weather day at the Beach Club where the kids can enjoy Stormalong Bay.
Hopefully you are enjoying your trip. This will all be here when you get back and are looking for a Disney fix. It is hard to keep up with the discounts, especially only going once a year. Between DVC and AP discounts there is just enough randomness to it to make it worth checking every time.
We liked the winter weather, and got to see some variety. It was just nice to not have it consistently oppressively hot. Hopefully we can experience Stormalong Bay, but if not at least we'll have a short walk into Epcot. Wind was an issue one night we were there, and resulted in them shutting down the Skyliner for a bit, and delaying Fireworks, but that cleared up nicely.
 
Woohoo, another trip officially on the books;

If everything goes as planned, in four months we will modify the first portion of the reservation to a 2 bedroom at Beach Club.

We love the convenience of the Crescent Lake resorts. Walking into HS and EP is awesome. Plus, in the cooler weather, the walk can actually be pleasant :-). Fingers crossed!
 
New to your TRs and following! Sounds like a great trip so far. Taking the redeye in and trekking all day is impressive!

I haven't stayed at Beach Club, but stayed at Boardwalk in 2019, and LOVED being able to walk to Epcot & HS!
 


What a fun writing style! Love the collaboration!

I think I mentioned in someone else’s TR that I never realized just how many adults only TRs there are here (and I do still enjoy them) til I started planning our first trip with our daughter (she’ll be 16 months when we go in May). I’m going to have to attack your list of links to prior reports and get my fill of TRs with kids!
 
Walking in to that lobby for the first time of a trip is amazing. It is special no matter how many times you've gotten to fdo it, but even more impressive for the first time.
It really is breathtaking! I am taking my oldest son for his 20th birthday trip this summer and can't wait to see his reaction when he walks in the lobby!
We all shared the pretzel and it was great as usual. Three days later I found part of Marshall's portion stuffed in the stroller, maybe he was saving it for later.
That is one big pretzel!
Lol, it went from a soft pretzel to a hard one pretty quickly. As we headed towards America, we saw a bunch of characters coming out of the walkway.
So fun! This is an area that they often use for character training.
Oh that's true! She said the only way to get them together was to do one of the parties at the Magic Kingdom...
I've had pics with both Chip and Dale at HS and AK.
Yeah they claimed the sound was much better. Having experienced it both ways I’m not convinced, and I told them they did just fine sitting on the benches. After their performance Allie met a nice lady who saw that she was dancing around and asked about her classes. We had a nice conversation and I was proud of my girl for doing something somewhat sophisticated.
Good for Allie!
Originally I wanted the peanut butter and jelly one but I wasn't really in the mood for it on this day so we settled for just an old fashioned plain one.
Mmmmm, funnel cake!
Speaking of nuts, we wound up following these guys out for a stroll in their robes.
What????? Some people are special friends......
You really can’t have too many potatoes in my opinion. The hasselback potatoes were the star of the show. Seriously just order it. Skip the fries, they weren’t anything special.
What are hasselback potatoes?
His first of the trip! Our waiter went out of his way to make sure the candle was lit too because Marshall kept blowout the candle on our table he borrowed the candle from a neighboring table.
Nice!
Seriously it was a chilly night and the lifeguards were wearing parkas and beanies. Maybe 50 degrees is swimming weather when it’s in the teens at home.
Haha! That was us on our first trip in 2009. The CM walking by us was in a parka while our three boys were in the pool and we were in the hot tub. She took one look at us and said "Ya'll must be Canadian!" We laughed over that so much!
I went out for a mug refill and caught the end of the EWP from Geyser Point. It was a great first full day and we were in bed by 10:45.
Perfect way to end the day. :)
Yes, they signed up once agin for the fun, and that means we are again staying in a 2 bedroom. We will go back to booking the dedicated unit, and will probably throw in a high floor room request again just to emphasize it.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who enjoyed the location of the ground floor room but I'm game for whatever room location. It will be nice to have the bigger closet that you get with the dedicated two bedroom, we missed having the extra closet and bathroom space this time.

My parents are planning on coming along as well, so we will be a party of 8.
Sweet! Happy trip planning!
 
It is very exciting to hear that you have booked part 1 of your next trip. I hope you are able to get a Beach Club Villa. The BC is not as beautiful as the WL but the location is great. :)
We are excited and looking forward to it. We booked the second part of the trip today, the 5 nights that we are planning on keeping at WL.

Woohoo, another trip officially on the books;

We love the convenience of the Crescent Lake resorts. Walking into HS and EP is awesome. Plus, in the cooler weather, the walk can actually be pleasant :-). Fingers crossed!
Yes, it is great to know exactly when we will be back. We are glad that we don't have to wait any longer than a year. We should have a great time getting to have "home" be at Beach club for the first part of the trip.

New to your TRs and following! Sounds like a great trip so far. Taking the redeye in and trekking all day is impressive!
Great, we are glad that you are here and enjoying it along with us. The red eye worked for us as a way to save some money and maximize time at Disney. We're even open to doing it again for next trip.

I haven't stayed at Beach Club, but stayed at Boardwalk in 2019, and LOVED being able to walk to Epcot & HS!
We visited Boardwalk on our honeymoon and thought it would be a fun location. We still haven't gotten to stay in the area, so it should be great.

What a fun writing style! Love the collaboration!
Thanks! We both wanted to contribute, so we found this and have had a lot of fun with it.

I think I mentioned in someone else’s TR that I never realized just how many adults only TRs there are here (and I do still enjoy them) til I started planning our first trip with our daughter (she’ll be 16 months when we go in May). I’m going to have to attack your list of links to prior reports and get my fill of TRs with kids!
Marshall was 9 months old on his first trip, and we had a great time (and it was a fun report too). When we really started following reports our favorite ones were from couples without kids. We were glad to still be able to do the "adult" stuff like shopping and finding snacks while Allie slept during her early trips.

It really is breathtaking! I am taking my oldest son for his 20th birthday trip this summer and can't wait to see his reaction when he walks in the lobby!
It should be great, have a great trip.

That is one big pretzel!
It is, and it is GOOD! My favorite soft pretzel anywhere.

So fun! This is an area that they often use for character training.
We are pretty sure that's what was going on, but the characters were fantastic and we had a great time.

I've had pics with both Chip and Dale at HS and AK.
We did see them both at Rafiki's Planet Watch too. We just had a character handler at Garden Grill who made a big deal out of it...
We did see them both at the campfire at Fort Wilderness, but in that case they weren't together though.

Good for Allie!
We are proud parents. She gets to do a Tap solo in June at her recital.

Mmmmm, funnel cake!
It felt like the Fair to us. Good stuff.

What????? Some people are special friends......
We don't judge, but we are glad the robes stayed in place.

What are hasselback potatoes?
I didn't know either, but when the waiter described it is sounded good. They are a type of baked potato cut about halfway through in fan like slices to create more surface area for flavor and additional texture. This example was topped with bacon and cheese like a loaded baked potato and was just delicious.

Haha! That was us on our first trip in 2009. The CM walking by us was in a parka while our three boys were in the pool and we were in the hot tub. She took one look at us and said "Ya'll must be Canadian!" We laughed over that so much!
Yeah that's funny. We will be there in January. The hot tub sounds like a plan.

Perfect way to end the day. :)
Yes, Geyser Point is a great spot to end the night, whether you are enjoying something from the bar or just a fountain refill.

Sweet! Happy trip planning!
We are excited, we will be back, and can't wait to share that one too.
 


We are excited and looking forward to it. We booked the second part of the trip today, the 5 nights that we are planning on keeping at WL.
I think that it is a good plan to put WL as the part 2 of your trip. Did you book something for part 1 as a placeholder or are you waiting until the 7 month window opens?
 
I think that it is a good plan to put WL as the part 2 of your trip. Did you book something for part 1 as a placeholder or are you waiting until the 7 month window opens?
We all agreed that finishing up at WL would be cool. We did make two separate reservations at Copper Creek for two bedrooms. If we don’t change anything, we will try to have the same room all the way through. Also this way we can attempt to switch resorts for the first portion of the stay without affecting the rest of the trip and we can do it without risk of loosing our reservation.
 
On Saturday, I got up with the alarm at 5:45. We knew we wanted to get to HS before 8AM, so I got ready and went out early.

I stopped by the front desk to apply a gift card to the room balance, and got some more lobby shots.




Then I went down to Roaring Fork and filled my mug.


Then I got some early courtyard pics, but I didn't hand out long because it was 47 degrees outside and I only had a T shirt on.



Back at the room Allie was slow to get up, but she did it and we made it out of the room at 6:50.

I made a pot of coffee and Jon and I took cups to go. It was nice on a chilly morning.


We got to the bus stop at 6:55, and the screen showed a HS bus at 6:58. It arrived at 7:02, but went directly to the park arriving at 7:16.


Our plan was to get in the park, get our boarding pass and then get breakfast.

When we got to the park, we clearly weren't alone. The security line wasn't too bad, but there were quite a few people lined up to get into the park. We finally made it in at 7:31


We walked through the shops on the main street, and they were packed with people camping out to avoid the cold.


There were people all over just sitting in the stores making it super difficult to get the stroller through.

We turned towards Tower of Terror to get away from some of the crowd, which was generally pushing towards Galaxy's Edge.

We headed over toward Tower of Terror and hopped in the Pandora store.


We at least were able to move around in the Pandora store and attached gift shop. Based on the bartender's advice, we had turned off WiFi and made sure that we had good cell service.

I did some shopping and found a ring I liked and came super close to buying. I decided not to because I was afraid of loosing it. Turns out my fears were founded, stay tuned for that...

I was the designated person to get our spot, so I had my phone ready to go. We got in the virtual queue right at 8:00 and wound up with boarding group 79. While we were glad to have a group, I was concerned because I knew that only the first 60-70 groups were guaranteed, and that meant we were in backup territory.

We had done our best though, and it was up to luck of the draw. We moved deeper into the park, where we saw that Slinky Dog Dash was showing a 5 minute wait.


In a moment of spontaneity where we should have known better, we decided to head for Toy Story Land.

It was a pretty spontaneous decision for us but we headed to the back of the park.

We hit the line for Slinky Dog at the entrance of Toy Story land and it was obviously not a 5 minute wait.

The ride was down, and they weren’t setting up an official line but they had such a crowd they set up a potential line in case the ride re-opened.


Since that didn’t look like fun, we decided to look for something else to do. Then Marshall said he wanted to ride the Alien ride.

So we decided to wait in line for that. It was nice that the morning was chilly and Marshall was really excited about riding it.


The sign showed 50 minutes, but we made it to the Fastpass split at 8:48. It was fun, and just like Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree at CA Adventure.

Normally we don't wait in lines that long and if it was warm I wouldnt have wanted to wait.

It was probably our longest line of the trip.




After the ride (actually while we were waiting in line) we decided to mobile order some breakfast. We saw what Woody’s Lunchbox had and decided to try it.

The kids got S'more French toast and Paul and I split a breakfast bowl.


I wasn’t sure about gravy on tater tots, but it was pretty good.

It was! I'd order it again. I tried a bite of the kids french toast sandwich and I'm not sure that's a winner for me though.

From there we went to use our Fastpasses at Rockin Roller Coaster. We got there at 9:20, and Brandy offered to wait with the kids while Jon, Melissa, and I rode it. We were behind a 12 year old girl and her mom who was riding it for the first time, and she was nervous about it.

It was pretty adorable and she ended up loving the ride.

We got to ride in the back which was a first for us, I enjoyed it though because you could see better what was coming.


It also didn’t slow down and pulled us right through the loops and twists. As we got off we found that Marshall had made a friend on a bench outside. He even gave her a hug when we left.


He's very precocious and makes friends wherever he goes.

From there we headed back to Galaxy’s Edge to build the droids. We had originally scheduled this for Friday, but instead moved it up when we rearranged the schedule to try for Rise of the Resistance.


I had hoped that we could bring two people in to accompany each droid builder, but instead we found that the two people included the builder, so Jon and Brandy couldn’t get in.

We each took a kid and followed them through the process. You pay up front and then are led with a basket over to the conveyer belt of parts.


The process was pretty cool. First you pick parts from the conveyor belt then go to an assembly station. Building was pretty easy, with only two screws.



Both kids decided to build the B series droid despite Paul and I both wanting an R series for nostalgia purposes.


The R series are the cylindrical ones like R2-D2, while the BB ones have spherical bodies that actually roll. This was too cool for the kids to pass up and they each wanted one of the newer style droids.

The experience and the length of it is really what you make of it. If you wanted you could probably be out of there in 5 minutes but I encouraged Allie to drag her feet and enjoy the process.


Marshall enjoyed putting it together, but there was a problem with the body he picked. The lady “helping” us said I must have done it wrong and stuck it together.

After everything gets built they have an area outside for them to roll around. It's really just a mat but it's cute and the kids get to play with their toys.


I was super glad to see that they had somewhere where they could play with them, and this was what both kids enjoyed this the most.

While Marshall was playing with his it kept coming apart. There was no way I was gonna put up with it so I walked the droid back into the droid depot and they were able to replace the plastic outside ball.

Mom to the rescue. I should have insisted on that while we were building it.

It wasn't a big deal to take it back in, but seriously we are paying so much for just plastic crap really it should at least not fall apart.

They played for quite a while, and while Melissa was inside they lined the kids up for a Droid race. Melissa got back just in time to give Marshall his.

It was super cute Rey and Chewie were both there organizing and cheering the kids on.




It was a lot of fun and we had to pull them away to go get lunch. We promised that we would be back after eating.
For food, we wanted to try Ronto Wraps. We were too late for the breakfast version, but who needs eggs anyway.

I'm not the biggest fan of eggs anyway.


The wraps were really good. I thought the sausage would be the star, but the other meat was a perfect accompaniment to it.


They were definatley good, and the kids were able to split.

It was a pretty expensive meal, and despite sharing it wound up being one of the more expensive QS meals of the trip.

We only bought 3 of them and two large drinks

After eating, all Marshall wanted to do was play with the droid, so we went over there for another 30 minutes. Marshall made friends with the CM who was supervising things after the Rey and Chewie had left.




We had Allie's droid shipped back to the resort so we wouldnt have to carry it around. Marshall insisted on bringing his with us though. They are really good about letting the kids play with the droid and then you just take them back in the depot to do resort delivery.

Marshall was too fond of his to give it up though. Since the boarding groups were still in the low 50s, we decided to go take a daylight Skyliner tour.
Read more about that in our next update.
 
The security line wasn't too bad, but there were quite a few people lined up to get into the park. We finally made it in at 7:31
The secret is to line up to the far right. The line moves fastest over there. :)
The R series are the cylindrical ones like R2-D2, while the BB ones have spherical bodies that actually roll. This was too cool for the kids to pass up and they each wanted one of the newer style droids.
The BB ones are really cute. I would think they would move around a lot more, too.
hey played for quite a while, and while Melissa was inside they lined the kids up for a Droid race. Melissa got back just in time to give Marshall his.

It was super cute Rey and Chewie were both there organizing and cheering the kids on.
Its nice that they have set aside a play area for the droids. Were any adults joining in the fun with their droids?
The wraps were really good. I thought the sausage would be the star, but the other meat was a perfect accompaniment to it.
I have heard only positive comments about the ronto wraps.
 
The boarding group process seems so stressful. I hope you guys got to ride!

The droid building looks cute and the kids look like they had a great time playing with them! I'm tempted to build one myself but it's hard to justify the price tag.
 
The whole droid experience sounds so cool. Having Chewy and Rey cheering them on must have been a real trip!
It was pretty neat. You definitely are paying for the experience, but it makes it worth it. Being able to play for a bit and then ship the droid back to the resort was pretty nice.

The secret is to line up to the far right. The line moves fastest over there. :)
Yeah, they did a good job evening out the lines, but it was luck of the draw as far as which security guard decided to be super thorough.

The BB ones are really cute. I would think they would move around a lot more, too.
Its nice that they have set aside a play area for the droids. Were any adults joining in the fun with their droids?
The BB ones are neat, and can roll over slightly bigger stuff since they are a giant ball. They have a motor mechanism with wheels inside that makes the big ball roll. The head is held in place on top using a magnet, and that lets you know which way it is headed. Marshall liked driving his around without the head though, which was far more unpredictable. There were some adults playing too, either with their own droids or with their kids. The Cast Member assigned to supervise the area had one of her own to play with too, which was a really neat touch.

I have heard only positive comments about the ronto wraps.
Mmm hmm, they were good.

The boarding group process seems so stressful. I hope you guys got to ride!
So did we! We shifted our schedule to try this early in the trip so that we could come try again if necessary. I don't know what they could do to make it better, but the randomness and luck of the draw does make it a little stressful.

The droid building looks cute and the kids look like they had a great time playing with them! I'm tempted to build one myself but it's hard to justify the price tag.
Yes. We considered doing a third one so we could have an R-Series, but the cost and having to get it home kept us from doing it. I am sure glad that each kid got to do one though, since sharing would not have gone well.

The droid building sounds fun. It is great that you were able to play and then send it back to the resort.
It was a neat thing. We wanted to do it last time, but were not able to get an advance reservation for it. This time quite a few people were making it in without reservations, but it was still at capacity. The kids really had fun getting to build and play with them there. Shipping it back to the resort worked really nice, and I am glad they made it easy to get to play with it first because that was definitely the best part of the whole experience for them. I understand Marshall not being willing to give his up though, and he kept it with him the rest of the day, and got to play with it sooner in the hotel room before hers arrived. It was really big to carry though, and was a bit of a pain at Security, but that's still to come...
 
When we left off, we were headed to the Skyliner to kill some time while waiting for Rise of the Resistance.

The park was insanely crowded and there wasn't much we wanted to hang around for.


Besides we had our mugs and wanted to do some Aerial resort hopping. We headed out and got on the Skyliner.




Our first stop was Caribbean Beach. We had never visited this resort before. Brandy stopped to watch the Skyliner transfer mechanism, which was pretty cool.


We started walking from the Skyliner station towards the lobby, but since it was a long ways we stopped at a bench along the beach. Allie enjoyed the hammocks.



Brandy also took a nap in a hammock while Marsh and Allie played in the sand.

Eventally another hammock opened up and I couldn't resist so I also may have closed my eyes momentarily and also got too much sun on my face but it felt really good.


I was on a mission to see what the lobby was like, and Jon came with me.


I got a mug refill and saw that they have a big QS area with both regular and Freestyle coke machines.


We also checked out the gift shop, and Jon got a Pina Colada at the bar.


We got a good view of Riviera since it is just across the bay.


When we had our fill of the sandy beach we decided to hop back on the skyliner.

We decided to go check out Art of Animation and show Marsh the Cars section. We figured he'd get a kick out of all of the life size cars.

It was a new leg of the Skyliner for us, and completed our tour.

We got off and turned right on the bridge to go see AoA. We hadn’t been there since our first trip in 2012, right after it opened.

Allie immediatley fell in love with the pool and both kids wanted to play on the equipment that's right outside the pool area.

We checked out the gift shop.


Then we walked over to the Cars section. The kids loved seeing the cars and posing with them. Sometimes it is the simple things.








We saw that they were getting closer to 70 in the boarding groups, so we hopped on the Skyliner and went back to the park.




We got there at 2:45, and had to go through Security. We had to take the droid apart, and I don’t think they see many of them coming back into the park. It was fine though, and we made it in by 3:00.

We still had some time to kill so we walked over to Lightning McQueen's racing academy. Marshall was asleep when we rolled up but we woke him up for it.


Lightning is his favorite, and he was excited to get to see him. It was a really cute show, and we all enjoyed it.


He will tell you that he's a racer and he was trained by Lightning McQueen.


It is really cute. Afterward we looked at the shops but decided to wait on picking out a car.


We did decide not to wait any more for ice cream though.


We debated on whether or not to wait in line but it ended up being perfect.

At 3:45 our boarding group was called, and we ate the ice cream on our walk towards Rise of the Resistance.

I was excited we were going to get to ride it. We weren't sure it was going to happen this trip, let alone on our first try.


As the planner of the trip the whole Rise thing threw a curve ball at us, and all we could do was give it our best shot. It worked out perfectly though, and we finally got to check it out.

Check back to follow our ride experience in the next update.
 
I got a mug refill and saw that they have a big QS area with both regular and Freestyle coke machines.
I wish more resorts had both options. The freestyle machines can back up with people learning how to use them and making their choices. The regular dispensers are a lot faster but it is also nice to have the options available from the freestyle machines.
Then we walked over to the Cars section. The kids loved seeing the cars and posing with them. Sometimes it is the simple things.
The Art of Animation resort impressed us with the cars section and other decorations. I can see why kids would want to stay here.
We still had some time to kill so we walked over to Lightning McQueen's racing academy. Marshall was asleep when we rolled up but we woke him up for it.
We have never gone here. We don't even know where it is! I think we need pick up a park map. :)
 
Smart idea to work a Skyliner tour into your DHS tour- I'm thinking we'll do a Skyliner bar crawl in May. Frustrating that you had to take the droid apart in security though.
 
I wish more resorts had both options. The freestyle machines can back up with people learning how to use them and making their choices. The regular dispensers are a lot faster but it is also nice to have the options available from the freestyle machines.
Yeah, some people take forever on the Freestyle machines. We prefer the regular ones, but having options is nice.

The Art of Animation resort impressed us with the cars section and other decorations. I can see why kids would want to stay here.
Yeah, it is a neat resort. The price of the cars rooms approaches the WL cost though, so we’ve never stayed there.

We have never gone here. We don't even know where it is! I think we need pick up a park map. :)
It is pretty new, I think it had just opened in September. It is in the building just beyond Rockin Roller Coaster that they used to use for special events. We’re not sure how long it will stay, but Marshall loves it.

Smart idea to work a Skyliner tour into your DHS tour- I'm thinking we'll do a Skyliner bar crawl in May. Frustrating that you had to take the droid apart in security though.
Yeah the Skyliner was one of our favorite new rides. It really is efficient, and makes Caribbean Beach a much more desirable resort.
I was surprised at having to take the droid apart, but I guess it is a pretty big sphere we could be smuggling stuff in.
 
I got a mug refill and saw that they have a big QS area with both regular and Freestyle coke machines.

This made me more excited than I'd care to admit. It's the perfect balance. You want your diet cherry root beer, you wait; you want quick but boring options, have at it!

It's funny that you stopped for a rest walking through CBR. I've looked at it a few times, what with it being one of the cheapest ways to sleep 5, but the layout just seems so spread out.

I think AoA is on our future list, too. For prices comparable to a deluxe, I'd personally rather stay somewhere like Crescent Lake, but you can't beat that theming with young kids.

We had to take the droid apart, and I don’t think they see many of them coming back into the park.

This seems odd to me. You'd think plenty of people are park hopping with these in tow.
 

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