Month: February 2023

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Five Friday 13th January 

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Friday 13th January

Here we go with another one of our infamous “rest days”. No parks today so there was no rush to be awake, up or dressed. That did not stop my body being aroused (not like that) annoyingly early again. We lazed in bed for some time before hunger drove Emily and I to get up. Louise wanted to stay in bed so we got ready and walked over to the main building at the resort in search of breakfast.

Being a master of multi-tasking, on the way to eat we dropped off a washer load of dirty clothes into a suitable machine and left that to do its thing whilst we ate.

I had left the camera back at the room so you are spared more blurry food photos of Emily’s Avocado on Toast and my Bacon & Cheese Bagel. Both were very acceptable for food court fare and we set off back to the room, with another bagel in the bag (literally) for Louise. It was coldish and a bit drizzly on our walk back but still significantly warmer than back in the UK.

Whilst Louise ate and got ready I transferred the washing to a dryer and then when that was done, collected it and brought it back to the room.

Our plans today were Disney Springs, mainly as the weather meant we couldn’t do anything related to sitting by a pool. We parked in Lime as ever and I once again got pulled at security.

After watching more vlogs on it than probably any other subject in the last few years and still having never done it, our first job was Gideon’s. It was now, as we stood by the fountain at the bottom of the stairs from Lime garage, that I realised that I had absolutely no clue where it was. I broke Google Maps out and followed it.

The virtual queue was “only” an hour so we checked in. Not having a US phone number meant we could not get a text alert, so we just had to come back at the relevant time.

To fill that hour we walked down towards Splitsville and browsed stuff in that area. We got Freddie a T-shirt and Facetimed Rebecca from outside of the M&M store.

We walked back to Gideon’s at the appropriate time and waited a few minutes in the queue to get our cookies. Mad isn’t it?

Well yes, but they are spectacular and the shop is very well-themed and interesting.

These were our choices.

I had the Pistachio Toffee.

Emily the Banana Bread Chocolate Chip.

Louise had a “piece” of cake. The Peanut Butter one….

Emily and I had the Peanut Butter Nitros just in case there wasn’t enough sweet stuff going on.

Is it worth all the hype and waiting? Well, yes, if you take it in the right spirit. This is an experience, not just grabbing a cookie. They are superb and very, very delicious. Of course, it is expensive but as a one-off “on holiday” thing, yes, absolutely worth it. We sat on a nearby bench and enjoyed them. I finished mine, but Emily and Louise saved a good deal of theirs for later. I will save you the bother of wondering. I ate the rest of Louise’s cake at some point in the coming days.

We continued to browse many shops and bought very little. Some hours passed (yep, I don’t make good notes about shopping), and around 3pm we had a “light snack” at the Earl of Sandwich.

I seem to have taken one photo and have no clue which one it was so….

that was either a Veggie (Emily), Chipotle Chicken (Louise) or an Earl (me). We sat inside as it was still a bit chilly, mainly wondering how we were going to get ourselves hungry for our dinner reservation in a few hours.

A bit more browsing happened as we made our way back to the car. Back at the room, resting and napping happened before we got ready to go and eat again. At around 7.15 we set off for the Skyliner for what would be one of the most well-executed journeys ever conducted on Disney property.

It was proper cold by now which made everything blurry.

We boarded a Skyliner gondola heading for Epcot, on our way to The Swan for our reservation at Il Mulino at 8pm. The ride was a little rocky as the wind was getting up, but we arrived safely and we were ready for the chilly stroll around to the Swan. As we came down the exit ramp we spotted a Friendship boat boarding and decided to get on that instead.

As we sat down, the doors closed and off we went. It was getting close to 8pm now and I figured we’d be a few minutes late arriving at the restaurant once we had called at the Boardwalk and Yacht Club. It’s always lovely to travel around this area at night, no matter how you do it, so we enjoyed the ride.

We docked at The Swan and walked into the restaurant, arriving at 7.59. This journey will be written about in the history of WDW as how to perfectly execute a multi-vehicle trip. Feeling very proud of myself I checked in and we were seated in a few minutes.

If you read about our experience here during our last trip you will know that we loved it, twice. It’s funny how an experience can change on different visits. We still very much enjoyed tonight but had it been our first time we would not have raved about it, as we did previously.

The place was much busier/noisier for a start and we were sat in a different part of the restaurant which didn’t feel as intimate. The food was still fab.

Bread service to start and I of course ordered the Rice Balls, as I have on every visit now as they are superb.

Louise had the same and Emily just polished off the bread. Emily and I had a Corona and Louise ordered a bottle of red.

I failed again with the food photos.

Louise and I both had the Rigatoni Funghi and Emily had Ravioli. We thought we were ordering the same as we had last time, but it didn’t seem to be when it arrived. Again, it was lovely, just not what we experienced last time.

I ended with some Gelato.

It was a dear do at $230 including a tip. Again, the service tonight was fine, just not exceptional as we found it last time.

Fighting every urge to just go home and let our tired, full bodies go to bed, we undertook a very chilly walk to Jellyrolls.

There were no tables free so we loitered at the back near some stools (honestly, the cleaning standards in WDW these days!!) having a drink and enjoying the music.

After a while, a table looked to be becoming available as the folks on it started to get ready to leave. I made a bee-line for it, feeling slightly guilty for the people I excused myself past who were discussing if they should go and sit there.

The view was better. Overall we stayed for a couple of hours before making our way out. I was aware we had a theme park day tomorrow and didn’t want us to be out too late.

Using the Lyft app, I ordered a Minnie Van from the Boardwalk entrance which arrived in seconds. We had a lovely driver in a stunning Suburban. I thought I wanted one until I googled how much they are. She took us back to the resort via some back roads through Pop Century I think and it cost us about $30.

Despite being in a foreign country, and being driven by someone who does it for a living, I could not fight the urge to mansplain to our driver that actually we were staying at Caribbean Beach and not Pop Century and she was going the wrong way. Bless her, she explained that she knew a shortcut ever so politely and managed to save her cursing of me until we left the vehicle no doubt. We were home and in bed by 12.

Till the next time……

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Four Thursday 12th January

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Thursday 12th January

I won’t go on about how I was awake at 2.40am. I’ll just mention it once. Nobody wants to hear about my interrupted sleep pattern, do they? Granted, that was very early, but I should just crack on and not linger on this boring detail. Especially as, after a pee, I slept on until 5. Yeah, best not to mention it.

That was just my body clock naturally making sure I was awake in time to undertake all the admin required on the Disney app to try and get on some rides. When the relevant time slots came around I bagged a boarding group for Guardians and bought Genie+ again. Disney, you robbing bar stewards.

We were all ready and out of the door by 7.45 and did the short drive to Epcot. We were one of the first to arrive and parked right down at the front. There was, it may not shock you to learn, a decent queue at the “turnstiles” so we picked a line that would naturally move slower than all the others.

Our ability to select the line that sees the party ahead of us have issues with their tickets, fingers, magic bands and competence levels is top-notch. At one point the CM was taking photos of them all with their iPad thing, hopefully, to go on their criminal record for holding us up. We used an alternative scanner thing, leaving them there. I still don’t think they are in the park.

We arrived at the front, scanned a band, laid a finger down, and were in.

Early entry time again so we waited about ten minutes for a rope to drop and headed, at a brisk walking pace, to the Land with Soarin’ on our minds. This chap was on the scrim boarding near the rope drop.

Despite hordes of folks heading the same way as us, very few actually turned into The Land which surprised me. Where were they headed? Probably up to O Canada to wait for it to open at 11, right?

Despite knowing by this stage that we would be able to just walk on to Soarin’, the urge to walk faster was almost irresistible for me. Louise loves that.

We did indeed walk straight on and after a briefing from Patrick, we took our seats.

Join us as we ride Soarin’.

I allowed breakfast now. We went to the only just opened food court in The Land and got three breakfast sandwiches, one without Ham for Emily and I had some overnight oats. I’m sure CVS have a cream for that though. $38.

With Genie+ in the bag and a feeling that today wasn’t going to be that busy, we went on Living With The Land for the first time in about two decades. It was very interesting and much better than we remembered.

It would turn out that our Genie+ purchase today wasn’t essential. The only queues all day looked to be Remy and Test Track. We walked down to Spaceship Earth next and tolerated a fifteen-minute wait to board. There should be a refund option by a certain time of the day in these situations.

Restrooms next for Louise so Emily and I went into Club Cool and tried a couple of weird sodas.

Once we had Louise back we walked over to the Seas and rode Nemo. That’s the sequel you won’t see on Disney+.

A ten-minute wait for the shells. We disem-shelled and didn’t do anything else in there as we normally might as our LL for Test Track was now imminent. On our journey over there we could see the progress on the build of the “Moana thing”. It’s this level of detail that you read this crap for, right?

and whatever this will be.

I also booked another LL as we walked, this time for Mission Space, for “now” so we could ride that immediately after Test Track.

We didn’t bypass too much of a standby wait before joining the main queue to design our car.

Once that was done we spilt out of that room into the next part of the queue which is a real mess. All the doors dump you into a corridor where you have to jostle for position and everyone tries and fails to keep their parties together whilst not wanting to appear rude.

After enjoying the ride we made the short trip across to Mission Space where it was absolutely fine that Emily chose the Orange side and not the Green, honestly.

I still miss Gary Sinise’s hair in the old briefing, to be honest, but I was just glad to enjoy the ride and not feel like I wanted to revisit my breakfast afterwards. We got a couple of coffees and a water and had a sit down for a bit near Guardians and did some people watching for about forty minutes. We were just killing time until our boarding group came up and that happened at 1.25. It took about half an hour to get through the queue and pre-shows. Having ridden it once before we knew that it’s better to be over on the right in the pre-show room as that is where the door opens.

What I had forgotten was that there are two pre-show rooms. In another episode of “you couldn’t write it”, I was standing up against the door on the right in what turned out to be the first of two rooms (I had forgotten that fact from our one previous ride). As that show came to an end, literally to the second, behind me the doors opened and I turned ready to Dad walk to the ride. Turns out that a CM just happened to be coming in through that door at that exact time and said, politely, “Where are you going?” as I tried to go into what was clearly a backstage area.

I assumed the same position in the next room and did manage to get us down to the ride ahead of 95% of the folks in our group. Top tip, stand to the right, but in the second room.

Anywho, the ride was tremendous again and we got Tears for Fears this time.

Having conquered most of Future World, I allowed us to walk up to World Showcase now. Being the Festival of the Arts, we wandered past a lot of art.

Breaking every rule in the book, we bypassed several countries and went to China. Louise needed food for her medication and the quick service in China seemed the best option based on the queues we saw in Mexico and there only being cakes in Norway. Today was not our official World Showcase day so it was almost OK to do things abnormally.

We were amazed to find zero vegetarian options for Emily other than a full meal of a veg stir-fry thing. Louise and I shared some pot stickers and egg rolls which allowed her to take her tablets. I may have over-ordered.

Conscious that Emily hadn’t eaten in at least a few hours, we left Louise to finish up and Emily and I speed-walked over to Italy with the intention of getting Emily a slice of pizza from the window at Via Napoli. It was of course closed. Onwards we marched, determined to find something that did not include meat. You can imagine that the BBQ place in America was not the one, but just past that Emily settled on a funnel cake as a nutritious way to fill a gap. I left her to buy that whilst I restroomed. I may have helped finish it off as we sat at a table outside the American pavilion and we messaged Louise to tell her where we were, which was not Italy as we had said. She didn’t reply for a worrying amount of time so we walked back to Italy hoping to find her there.

We did. She was oblivious to our search around the world for food, as her phone was in Ryan and he was on my back.

We went back to America again as the Voices of Liberty were due to start. We even managed to get a seat.

I did a Facebook live of this if you wanted to watch their show.

After watching this and the drummer folks in Japan, again this was starting to feel like “old WDW” may be returning in some ways.

We continued our wander around World Showcase.

We just browsed in most pavilions along the way.

before making our way down through the park to the exit.

We drove back to the resort for showers and readying and headed out for tea at Bahama Breeze. We were not starving it has to be said but we’re on holiday so who cares.

We were seated immediately and served by a Scottish chap called Euan who we struggled to understand so heaven help the Americans.

Cocktails for the ladies.

and a lovely Diet Coke for me.

No appetisers tonight, just straight to the mains.

Me – Chicken Tostada Salad (again).

Emily and Louise had the jerk pasta, one without chicken.

The bill was $119ish and we paid using the device on the table as we needed to be on our way. We were headed to Port Orleans to watch Yeeha’ Bob!

We were incredibly lucky to find just one table left in the bar as we arrived so we bagged that and ordered some drinks. Bob did his usual wander around the tables gathering information on where folks are from etc.

I had Pomegranate Lemonade, Louise, wine and various cocktails for Emily.

If you want to see videos of almost his entire show, head over to Louise on Facebook, as she posted them all there!

We loved the show and Emily enjoyed it for the first time.

We did witness some absolute shithousery from a couple in front of us.

Not long into the show a table emptied and a couple came to claim it. It was a large table which could easily seat eight people. It was in fact two tables pushed together. Not long afterwards another lady wandered up and very politely asked the lady from the first couple if she minded if they took the other half of the table.

Well, the first lady did mind, very much, but couldn’t bring herself to say so. You could see her mind racing, looking for a reason to say no, but she could not. Instead, she just literally said “Whatever” and then proceeded to try and wrestle the two tables apart for about five minutes, failing miserably. She sat there with a face like a slapped arse.

Her partner returned to the table and they proceeded to look at the food menu. After quite some time and several chats with their server, the chef appeared. He had a long conversation with them, taking copious notes and nodding earnestly as this couple talked at him. He went way to construct what would no doubt be the world’s most complex meal, despite the menu only offering bar snacks.

Then their server brought their drinks. That order had taken about ten minutes too and the minute the drinks hit the table the man took one sniff (yes, sniff) of his drink and handed it back. The server showed him her pad where she had clearly written down his exacting request, but no, he was not having it.

“I never usually send things back,” he said as the server wandered away back to the bar.

Eventually, he was happy with his drink and their food arrived. What had been the result of their long consultation with the chef?

Wings.

Look, I know folks have allergies etc, but these two were bellends who just wanted to feel important. Their entire demeanour was horrible and there was just no need for it. It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice, right?

Thankfully they buggered off soon after, leaving the other family on the table to enjoy the rest of the show.

Whilst that was an interesting diversion it did not stop us from enjoying Bob’s show and we left around 11pm. The drive home was thankfully short and sleep did not have trouble finding us.

Till the next time……

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Three Wednesday 11th January

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Wednesday 11th January

At the risk of these becoming a daily journal of me moaning about my sleep patterns, again my rest was fitful. I was awake at 2.40am, went to the loo and then managed a glorious sleep until 8am. Today was a rest day so this was fitting.

I say rest day. Regular readers will know this is seldom the case for a full day. It was a relaxed start to the day, so we lounged in bed for a bit. In fact, it was 10am before we were up and doing stuff. That stuff involved showering and thinking about where we may go for breakfast with no park to go to…yet.

We kept it simple and went to Dennys. It was the one next to the Olive Garden we went to a couple of days ago at Lake Buena Vista. There was no waiting for a table and we were in and ordering by 10.30.

Louise – Some skillet thing

Me – A dipping beef sandwich thing

Emily – A Beyond Cheeseburger

It was very tasty and as we were finishing up we Facetimed Rebecca. As we were doing the obligatory silly noises and waving at Dougie, our server returned to the table and joined us in doing so. She was lovely and earned herself a 22% tip, which still only made the bill $65. It isn’t fine dining, but if you want filling up with decent food for a good price, Dennys will do that for you.

Whilst we had dined, discussions turned to Louise’s ongoing condition. She had an ear infection and despite going to the doctor a few days prior to travel, had not been able to secure any antibiotics, probably as the UK seemed to have run out of them! It was causing her some grief and we made the decision to bite the bullet on this rest day and go and see our old friends at Centracare which was across the road from where we were eating. It would be good to catch up with them all again and use our frequent visitor discount!

The whole thing took 90 minutes and $336 but we emerged with what turned out to be the strongest antibiotics known to man and they sorted Louise out in short order in the coming days. Despite being told by our UK GP that “it would clear up by itself” the American doctor assured us it wouldn’t and it needed killing with fire, or with the more powerful drugs they prescribed.

We went back to the resort to “take care of business” and we were out again around 1pm and heading for the Skyliner. It was a ten-minute walk from the room and we were headed for Hollywood Studios. I had secured a Fantasmic Dinner Package for today so the plan was to do that around 3.30 and do what we could in the park until the show later that night.

The journey to DHS was short and enjoyable. It was Louise’s first Skyliner experience and despite her absolute fear of heights, all went well.

After a nice journey to the park, once we got in, the place was a mess. The wait times were horrific for everything and my conclusion now is that of all the parks, DHS suffers the most from Genie+ and whatever else is going on.

The only thing we could do was Muppets so we did.

With every other wait time being over an hour at best we decided to go to the Tap House for a drink and sit down.

I had a beer flight as the Skyliner meant I was not driving.

The ladies had some Tequila thing.

We stayed there until about 3.30 and it is a lovely place to “hang out”. It was time for our ADR at Mama Melrose so we wandered over there and checked in.

We were seated immediately

and our Dinner Package included two courses. We were still pretty full from Dennys earlier but if we’d paid for two courses, we were eating two courses. We started with Fried Mozzarella

oh, and a bread service!

Me – Chicken Parm

Emily – Mama’s Pasta

Louise – Meatballs

It was all very tasty but a bit quick and we were out in less than an hour. The Fantasmic Package is $54 each. A bit pricey for the food involved but it saves any long waits to get into Fantasmic and you have good reserved seating right in the middle.

Our early finish meant we could make the 5pm Beauty and the Beast show so we walked over to that now. We stopped on the way to get some water so that Emily could take some painkillers. Her face had gone inexplicably flushed and we could only put it down to the Tequila thing she had at the Tap House.

We were sat behind the desk so I could check that they started on time, and they did.

The wait times for almost everything were still silly, but Star Tours was down to ten minutes so we did that next.

The ride was ruined by some kids behind us. There were four of them, probably ranging from six to twelve, riding with their parents who managed to ignore them despite their ridiculous racket. It’ll sound like I’m over egging it now, but they literally screamed and shouted at the top of their voices for not only the entire ride, but the queue and the pre-ride instructions. Once we got going we could hear nothing but…

“Aurora!” screamed by the boy of the group repeatedly and endlessly at a decibel level not good for human ears. I know they are kids at WDW and probably excited but these were just horrible and well done to the parents for completely ignoring them ruining the experience for everyone in that “ship”.

After that, we needed a drink so we went back to the Tap House.

Emily moved away from the tequila and had California Sunsets instead. I had a cider.

Despite the cooler temperatures, this was still a lovely place to sit and people-watch from.

We stayed there until 7pm. I had a wee and we wandered down to the Fantasmic “stadium”. The wait times were still silly by the way.

We waited for about half an hour.

We got a bit bored and demonstrated why we don’t include many photos of ourselves in these posts.

At 8pm the show started. Now, I have to admit that emotions were felt. Emily blubbered through the entire thing and I have to say I felt a lump in the throat. This felt like “old school” Disney and our trips in the past. My Dad came to mind.

I posted a couple of videos if you wanted to see some of them. The start of the show and the end.

This was another sign and reminder of WDW getting it right again and nobody or nowhere else being able to come close in my view. Did I mention that we loved this? The changes to the show have also enhanced it. It’s punchier now, with less of the water projection stuff and more live action.

We did the slow shuffle out of the show in the big crowds, feeling all warm and a-glow.

There was a decent queue for the Skyliner but it was soon over and we were airborne and on our way back to the resort.

On the way home we could see the Epcot fireworks going off and I photographed them badly.

We were back at the resort and room in no time. I managed to read until all of 10pm, until sleep took me.

Till the next time……

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Two Tuesday 10th January

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Tuesday 10th January

There’s no such thing as too early when it comes to being awake, up and ready to get to the theme park on your first day to maximise that time difference. Unless it’s 2am. Then it stinks.

I managed to get back to sleep until 3.45 and that was it. Emily and Louise started getting ready around 5am and during that saga I was on the app booking expensive stuff in the hope of a decent day in the park. For reasons I cannot explain I was able to buy Genie+ at 6.15 and not 7am. Once 7am rolled around I booked our first LL. We were out the door by 7.20 and did the short drive to Magic Kingdom.

I know we’d been awake for hours now, but it was still pleasing to be at the TTC at such an early hour. As you can see, my post-wake-up exercise regime had already burned an impressive amount of calories.

Whether you were last here a few months ago or a few decades, there is something quite special about that moment when you get through the turnstiles and see this.

Prior to this, we had walked in from our very near the front parking space (Aladdin) and I had been pulled at security again, this time due to a glasses case and we had taken the monorail, which involved no queue. A good sign compared to last year.

We did the usual walk up Main Street, full of smiles, relief and anticipation for the holiday ahead and took a clumsy Facebook live video which you can probably still see on the Mkingdon Facebook page if you wish.

We were using our special on-site early entry access at this time. This is not something we have been able to do too often over the years as we are typically off-site idiots and treated accordingly by Disney. So I was pretty excited to get at least a dozen rides in during this half an hour special period.

My conclusion about Early Entry? It’s bobbins. Here’s how it went.

Because we had the audacity to wander up the castle and have a look around, there were huge crowds gathered at all the rope drop locations by the time we figured out this was a thing.

We joined the back of one of the rope drop crowds and waited about fifteen minutes for 8.30 to roll around. At that point, it quickly became apparent that only a handful of attractions were open and they all immediately gained huge queues as all the on-site folks piled onto them. The Seven Dwarves coaster for example saw its queue end somewhere around Dumbo within minutes of the rope drop. We walked down towards Haunted Mansion, seeing any ride that was open being attacked by a swarm of on-site early entry folks only to discover that it was not on the list of rides opening early and so we joined another rope drop crowd until 9am.

We were right up at the rope for this one, so we were within the first dozen or so folks to get onto the ride that day. Come on Disney. Either do Early Entry properly or don’t do it at all. This is a chocolate teapot for most people. It should be for an hour and all rides should be open. Unless I’m staying off-site then it shouldn’t exist at all. Capiche?

Having been on WDW property since around 7.30 and having conquered zero rides in early entry and one by 9.10, breakfast was the next priority. There was literally nowhere to get food anywhere in Frontierland or Fantasyland so we walked back to Sleepy Hollow and joined a very large queue there. Why have early entry and have nothing open?

We eventually got one of these each and a coffee.

I had made a 9.45 LL for Splash earlier so that was our destination now. It was a priority as we knew its days were numbered. Louise decided not to ride as she did not want to get wet in the current temperatures.

I took more photos than I normally might for posterity, which did nothing to improve their quality.

I was particularly proud of this one.

Now moist, we headed over to the Buzz LL I had booked since entering Splash. You just have to be constantly thinking about when and what you can book next to get any value out of the extra expense for Genie+.

I moan about this a lot, but again on this trip, we were beset with line ditherers. This is people approaching the LL entrance with no clue or concept as to what they were doing. They engage in endless conversations with the CM on duty about who knows what, causing us to stand and twiddle our thumbs waiting to get in.

You either have LL or you don’t. There is no conversation. Also, have your tickets out ready to scan, or FFS get a magic band. The number of people we stood behind whilst they searched desperately for their park ticket at the bottom of the largest bag on the planet was incredible. Just a little bit of thought and preparation means that everyone gets on stuff nice and quickly.

So yes, this happened now at Buzz.

Here he is recreating my expression whilst we waited for a family of 27 to try and scan their blockbuster video cards at the entrance to the ride.

All this vexed me enough to inspire my highest-ever score (I think).

Emily and Louise accepted defeat graciously. Emily and I walked over to Philharmagic now as Louise needed to evacuate and it was wise to be as far away from that as possible. We grabbed a water on the way and booked another LL, this time for Pirates for 12.15 and then sat on a bench waiting for Louise.

I like to get a lot of stuff done whenever we are in a park, but it is also nice to sit and people-watch at times. Just for a few minutes though and then we have to get back to it!

After Philharmagic it was parade time so we walked over to the Diamond Horseshoe to watch from there. I went live on Facebook again, so you can watch the parade if you wish.

We made the short trip across to Pirates next. You’ve probably already spotted that today has been a much easier and more pleasant experience than last January? The post-pandemic calm-down seems to be happening and whilst there are still lots of things “not quite right” yet, the signs of a return to what we all know and love are growing. One of those little things happened now.

As we were approaching the ride Emily got a tap on the shoulder and Captain Jack was there, asking her what “that thing in her nose was” (she has a piercing). Despite Emily going as red as a beetroot, this brief interaction and thirty-second chat were lovely. It just couldn’t happen last year (in my view) as things were so busy and of course, characters being out and about at that time wasn’t a thing. It put a smile on all our faces and was a really encouraging sign that the future may get close to the past.

Once we had ridden, getting much wetter than I can ever remember due to those canon shots, food was next on the agenda. I mobile ordered from Caseys as we walked in that direction and waited about five minutes for it to be ready once we got there. Louise went off to search for a table and found one over by the Plaza across the street.

Me – Corn Dog Nuggets

Louise – Chill Cheese Dog

Emily – Plant-based slaw dog

It was all very tasty. Over to Tomorrowland now and Laugh Floor. In between the LL bookings, we were able to mop up the show-type stuff, which typically were walk-ins, so this was working pretty well, with the exception that we shouldn’t have to pay extra for Genie+.

Emily considered Laugh Floor a success as once again we managed to avoid getting on camera.

Onto the People Mover now and the longest queue of our day at 20 minutes.

Everyone was grateful for the sit-down.

As ever I tried to capture the latest shots of Tron.

It feels like this has been in construction for about a decade now.

Of course, we now have an opening date which is awesome.

Continuing our tour of stuff that usually has no wait, we did Carousel Of Progress next and experienced a first. Due to technical issues, we had to watch the first scene twice.

See….

It extended the resting for us and I think I almost fell asleep at one point. I was able to do so as we had walked all the way to the end of the row, despite the attraction not being full and therefore I was at peace.

Earlier I had booked Space Mountain for 2.50 so Emily and I went on that next. Louise declined due to the rides increasing roughness or maybe that’s our increasing age.

I was convinced the seats had changed recently?

Regardless, the need to clench for the entire ride has not changed as you can see. I’m not sure what the chap behind me is sat on, but it seems I had a lucky escape.

At this point, we were done and headed for the exit around 3.15. We browsed some shops on Main Street and took the monorail over to the Poly.

We were hoping to get a drink and sit down for a bit. We tried Trader Sams’s but there was a three-hour wait to get in, so instead, we went outside onto the patio area and ordered some drinks. I was on the mocktails but the ladies had a number of harder options.

This was our view.

My pretend cocktail

and real ones

I think we had three, maybe four rounds of drinks. Perhaps it’s because I don’t drink much at home and I am out of touch but I do find the cost of drinking in WDW especially a bit crazy. Those rounds cost us $170!! We were to experience similar on the cruise later, but I’ll moan more about that at the relevant time.

We got the monorail and looped all the way around to the TTC.

After a cocktail-induced restroom for Louise, we walked out to the car. We had a reservation at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner and those Nachos were calling. We were actually an hour early for our reservation but bless them they seated us within five minutes. We were served by the excellent Jo and started with the bread service and more drinks.

This was my lemonade.

We ordered two lots of Nachos, one with meat and one without between the three of us.

More cocktails….

and absolutely no room for dessert. We were ashamed of the lost opportunity to have cheesecake. The bill, including wine, cocktails and food was $110 including a good tip. We drove home, full and sleepy. I don’t know how the other dwarves got home though.

We were in bed by 8.30! It had been a long day.

Till the next time……