January 2018 Disney Trip Report Day Three
My mom and I just returned from our annual trip to Disney World to celebrate my birthday. This was the last of my birthday celebrations for the year, so it was a great one to end on! I already wrote all about the planning that was involved, so now I want to fill you in on how the trip actually went! Below is day three - Sunday, January 28th!
We set our alarm for 6:45 am. We had a pre-park breakfast reservation, so we wanted to make sure and beat the crowds. We made it to the bus stop around 7:30, and we were at Epcot by 7:50. I was slightly concerned that they wouldn't let us in yet, but we went ahead and got in line with the other people who had a breakfast reservation. Our actual reservation wasn't until 8:40. We left early in case there was a delay in the bus. So that put us at the park way earlier than we needed. However, the Castmember didn't even question it when he scanned our MagicBands. He just waved us through!
We made it inside the park by 8 am. Since we had a little bit of time before our reservation, I decided to take some pictures of an empty Epcot. Normally we are rushing to our reservation, so this was great opportunity.
Even with the stops to take some pictures, we made it to Garden Grill at 8:10, and we were seated immediately. I wasn't too thrilled with our seating arrangement. I was happy that we were on the outside ring. The last few times we went with Melody, we were on the inside ring due to the highchairs. The booths on the outside ring are "U" shaped and have better views of Living with the Land. There was a family already seated on part of the "U". I believe it was 4 adults and 3 kids. The kids were on the very outside, and the adults were along the wall. My mom and I were seated next to them. I didn't notice the inconvenience of the seating arrangement when we arrived. I sat against the wall, and my mom sat on the outside. Well one of the adults came back to their table. He was literally sitting in the middle of the aisle. This meant I really couldn't get out and interact with characters without making either him or my mom get up. He barely even had any table space. It really wasn't fair to us for him to crowd our space due to their lack of space on their side. I am not sure if Disney tried to cram too many people in one booth, or if they were just taking up more space than usual. Either way, it was really frustrating. They did leave in time for me to get a few pictures though.
Aside from the seating situation, the food was stellar as usual. The sticky bun is to die for. It is gooey and covered in delicious icing. All of the main breakfast food was really good too, and we got extra tater tots and bacon.
Oh and the characters were great!
We finished up and headed straight to Soarin'. We missed the first ride of the day by seconds :(. We were in line by 8:55, and we were on at exactly 9. Due to the short lines, we decided to ride it one more time. The wait did end up being 20 minutes from entering the line until we were on the ride vehicle.
We used our Fastpass for Living with the Land next. It wasn't necessary due to the lines, but we had to use it to possibly get more later that day.
At this point, I updated our Spaceship Earth Fastpass time to be better convenient to our day. I wanted to move it earlier than it was previously scheduled.
We went and rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends. The posted wait time was 20 minutes, but as usual the wait was really only 5 minutes.
Next up was our Fastpass for Spaceship Earth. Apparently everyone was cashing in their Fastpass at this point too. Unfortunately it did not get our photo when the ride first started so we didn't have a cute photo in our video at the end of the ride. That was disappointing.
We went to MouseGear and did some more shopping, and we went and walked around the World Showcase.
I went and did some souvenir shopping for Brad at Mitsukoshi. After getting the items together that I wanted to buy him, I went to check out. The cashier scanned all of my items, I then scanned my MagicBand. The register printed a receipt, but she had to call her manager. Apparently their system showed my MagicBand was declined. The manager claims that there is a max amount that can be charged to your room, and I probably hit that amount. Well I knew this was false. I mean there could be a max amount, but we barely charged anything in the 2 1/2 days we had been there. Brad and I have taken 6 day trips and never had anything declined. Well the manager called guest services and told me to speak with them. As I was waiting, I looked up my room charges in the My Disney Experience App. I noticed that it already showed a charge to my room for the items I purchased. I showed the manager, but he claimed that unless it prints out a recipe from their system, it won't hit my account. Even the lady on the phone that I finally spoke to said the same thing I was saying. He was slightly surprised that she wasn't any help, but there was nothing wrong with my account. He then voided the transaction, and he gave me a void receipt in case the charge never went away from my account. He then re-scanned everything, and I charged my band again. This time it worked.
So just to skip ahead to how this played out...both charges continued to show up on my room account. Since we checked out the next day, I decided to go to the front desk at my hotel and discuss it with a Castmember. He was actually really helpful and credited my account the extra charge. I am still convinced I was charged the first time. How else would it show up and still be there? Oh well!
So after that fiasco, we went and had lunch at Teppan Edo. It was around 12:30, and we were ready! We love the food, but I hate the seating arrangement. I have rarely found that we sit with super friendly people. Each group at the table talks amongst themselves. But we go for the food for sure. And they always make a deal out my birthday!
We finished up lunch around 1:30, and we started to make our way back to Norway. We looked around some, then we went and used our Fastpass at Frozen at 1:45.
As soon as we scanned our MagicBands, I started to look for a 4th Fastpass to Toy Story Mania. Our plan was to leave Epcot through the International Gateway after Frozen. We had dinner reservations at Hollywood Studios, and the only ride we really wanted to do was Toy Story Mania. Sure, I would like to do Tower of Terror or even Rockin' Roller Coaster; but with the construction going on and the lack of rides, the lines were insane. We had to pick one ride, and Toy Story Mania was the one we most wanted to do. Unfortunately I couldn't find a Fastpass for it.
We took the boat from the International Gateway to Hollywood Studios. It was a nice relaxing ride, but it was a little warm. During our walk and boat ride, I continued to check for a Fastpass. Then I miraculously got one while we were on the boat! It was for 4 pm. It worked perfectly for our dinner plans. The key is to keep checking My Disney Experience!!
We made it to Hollywood Studios at 3 pm. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by Stormtroopers. We waited them out, then we went and did some shopping for Melody. There is a store called The Studio Store that has a lot more Disney Jr. centric things. I ended up getting her a cute car and a shirt. Don't get me wrong, you can find a lot of the things at this store at other stores. But there are a few additional Disney Jr. things I don't always see. Like a blanket my mom got Melody I had never seen anywhere else.
We found a bench and sat while I better organized my bags and purse. We saw more Star Wars characters as we sat. Hollywood Studios is really trying to push and get people excited about Star Wars.
We then went and refilled our popcorn bucket, and the cashier was nice enough to have Mickey pay for mine since I was celebrating my birthday! Then we went and used our Fastpass at Toy Story Mania. We literally used it right at 4. We still had to wait about 15 minutes. The construction really has this area so messed up, including the lines.
When we finished up at Toy Story Mania, it started to rain. We grabbed us a coke, and we went and stood under a tree while we came up with a game plan. Since the rain wasn't letting up, we decided to go ahead and go to Sweet Spells and get the Mickey apple we wanted for after dinner. This provided us a place to wait inside for a bit out of the rain. It seemed like everyone else had the same idea. The line was pretty long, but it actually moved really fast.
After we purchased our apple (and a cake pop), we went and grabbed a seat where Starring Rolls Cafe used to be. While the cafe itself has closed, the tables and umbrellas still remain. The umbrellas were perfect to sit under due to the rain. There were so many open seats too. I was kind of surprised because I saw numerous people just standing under windows with awnings to stay out of the rain instead of sitting under these nice umbrellas. We snacked on some popcorn, and we looked back over the menu at Hollywood Brown Derby while we rested until our dinner reservation.
We decided to go ahead and check in for our dinner reservation at Hollywood Brown Derby. I have eaten here twice. Once with Brad on our anniversary, then a second time with mom at the lounge outside. Both times I got the Cobb Salad. It is literally the only reason I made the reservation here. I knew it was supposed to rain, and I hated to sit outside at the lounge during it. Brad didn't care for it, so the only time it made sense was to go with mom.
The salad was great, as always. And we also got margaritas that were really good. But our waiter was awful. This was the same thing that happened to Brad and me when we went. I don't really understand it. We received our drinks and food very quickly, but it took forever for him to bring the check. Not that we were in a super hurry, but we wanted to avoid as much rain as possible. He did bring me a piece of cake for my birthday, but honestly, it was awful. I think it was the grapefruit cake. Yuck!
We finally left HBD around 6:40, and we went and did some shopping before leaving Hollywood Studios. We didn't end up buying anything, so we headed out in the rain and went to our bus stop. It did take a little while before our bus showed up, but we were able to stand under an awning at the bus stop and stay dry.
We made it back to the hotel around 7:45. I went straight to the front desk to deal with my double charge issue at Mitsukoshi. Then I went and did some last minute shopping. I wanted to finish out the gift cards I had at our hotel gift shop. I bought some pens (I love the Minnie Mouse shaped pens!), and I also bought some of their shampoo and conditioner. The new stuff that they have recently started putting in rooms is amazing. Both Brad and I love it, so I bit the bullet and bought a bottle of each.
After our shopping, we headed back to the room to start packing. While we packed, we had some coke and ate both our Mickey apple and cake pop. The apple was delicious as always. It is my favorite, but I can't eat the entire thing, so I hate to spend $11 on an apple just for me. The cake pop was amazing. It was chocolate cake covered in white chocolate. It tasted like a fudge brownie covered in chocolate. It was so yummy.
After we finished packing and showered, we finally went to bed around 11. We weren't really sure what our plans were for tomorrow yet. Part of me wanted to sleep in since that is a rarity at home with Melody, but the other part of me wanted one more day at the parks. I was able to find a breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest for 8 am (the park didn't open until 9). But we decided to just play it by ear, and if we woke up early enough and the reservation was still available, we would head that way.
