Pack your big suitcase of patience and ponchos! Feb 14 - 18 | President's Day Weekend

"What do I do? I stop and take pictures." LOL. I thought for a sec you were gonna say someone shouted when you got super close to the camera! You guys are getting so much done.
 
"What do I do? I stop and take pictures." LOL. I thought for a sec you were gonna say someone shouted when you got super close to the camera! You guys are getting so much done.
I mean, if you can't harass your kids, why have them. Trust me, he dishes it out all the time!
 
Our little rest stop and impromptu show was closing the gap on our Haunted Mansion LL. There was a small line, even for LL, but I always feel like this line moves fast. We get into the stretching room and the lights go off. People are always moving around, so I didn't give it much thought. My son has moved to stand right in front of me, face to face, (we are almost the exact same height), so when the lights come on, his face is RIGHT THERE. He knew it would scare me. Pay backs for the Chip and Dale incident. 🐿️👻

I had warned my son and hubby that I wanted the Memory Maker pictures when you exit Haunted Mansion. I'm not sure why the grumble every time. They know I want to stop. Super cute! They have magic shots, be sure to stop!

So now we have about 40 minutes until our dinner reservation. My son is looking for a gift for his girlfriend. We decide to look through a few shops and slowly make our way over to Skipper Canteen. I've also been picking up Genie+ selections for after dinner, Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Dinner is great, I had the fresh fish of the day and the boys had steaks. We even ordered dessert!

When we leave Skipper Canteen, fireworks are just starting. We have a LL for Pirates, but the wait is super short, so we do the stand by line. When we come out, fireworks are done and the lines are getting busy, so we use our LL to loop Pirates. Not a ride you would normally loop, but why not.
 
We have been waiting to ride Big Thunder, it's been down, it was super busy. We decide, okay, let's try now. Nope. The after fireworks crowd has gathered, plus I think everyone that still had their multi-experience LL. We head over to Haunted Mansion for a second ride, posted wait is about 25 minutes.

We have our LL for Jungle Cruise, so we head that direction. We only had to wait because a full boat had just left. So maybe 5 minutes. Our skipper was great, she spent a lot of time laughing at herself.

FINALLY, now it is time for Big Thunder. The crowds have thinned and the chaos of exiting after the fireworks has probably died down. We head to Big Thunder and use our LL. And the line is short, we loop for one final ride of the night.

We stop for pictures by the castle on the way out. It is probably about 10:00. We have one more day of park fun. We are ready to head back and sleep!
 


Final list of rides and fun!
- Space Mountain - rope drop
- Buzz Lightyear
- Astro Orbiter
- Tron - VQ
- It's a Small World
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Tea Cups
- PeopleMover
- Lunch
- Space Mountain - LL
- Speedway
- Tron - ILL
- Dumbo
- Seven Dwarf Mine Train - ILL
- Chip & Dale Dance Party
- Haunted Mansion - LL
- Skipper Canteen
- Pirates of the Caribbean x2 - one was LL
- Haunted Mansion
- Jungle Cruise - LL
- Big Thunder Rail Road x2 - one was LL
 
Saturday of President's Day weekend is always a bit chaotic. We've been to Disney over this weekend during previous trips. I always say, never again, but then something happens and it is our only open dates. So we just embrace the chaos.

We have a plan, which is almost immediately thrown out the window. It is also supposed to rain and rain some more, basically all day long.

Ponchos ✔️
Water proof bag✔️
Plan ✔️

But let's start with the water proof bag. We have a back pack, but if it is going to rain, like the weather predicts, everything is going to be soaked. At the last minute while packing, I grab the water bag from our outdoor gear. We use it normally for canoeing or going to the beach.

We pack the phone charger, cables, and our small pouch of tissues, eye drops inside the water proof bag. Which then goes in the back pack. It isn't raining yet, so rain coats, a couple of snack items are in the back pack. We figure once it starts raining, we can just roll up the back pack and put it inside the water proof bag. I will say, this ended up working great and I will forever put the water proof bag in whenever we travel!

Animal Kingdom opens for Early Entry at 7:30 am. Once again, up and out early!
 


Final list of rides and fun!
- Space Mountain - rope drop
- Buzz Lightyear
- Astro Orbiter
- Tron - VQ
- It's a Small World
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Tea Cups
- PeopleMover
- Lunch
- Space Mountain - LL
- Speedway
- Tron - ILL
- Dumbo
- Seven Dwarf Mine Train - ILL
- Chip & Dale Dance Party
- Haunted Mansion - LL
- Skipper Canteen
- Pirates of the Caribbean x2 - one was LL
- Haunted Mansion
- Jungle Cruise - LL
- Big Thunder Rail Road x2 - one was LL
I can't believe how much you are doing!
 
Just now getting caught up. It cracks me up that your son is afraid of chip and dale. I also love that you took pictures of your son in the same pot each year! I love the way you can see how much he has grown.
 
I can't believe how much you are doing!
Keep in mind, we only have 3 people and we aren't stopping to see characters or princesses. We used to go see characters, when my son was younger, but not any more. We also have a few rides we always skip, Peter Pan, Pooh, Magic Carpets, Barnstormer. And with our lunch reservation, we never have to decide where are we going to eat. Lots of things on that list that can take up time!
 
Our Animal Kingdom plan WAS
Buy Flight of Passage for 8:00ish, book Safari, ride Navi River Journey, ride Flight of Passage, loop Everest, ride Safari and then have lunch at 10:45am so we can hop over to EPCOT.

Nope, didn't happen, at all.

We arrive before park opening, get through security and are lined up to tap in. We decide to rope drop flight of passage since we are so close to the front of the line. We know the routine, tap in, get scanned as onsite guest, hustle to Pandora.

While in line, I go to book Flight Passage, it is stated for 8:20 am. I select it, and go to pay, it has already bumped me to 12:30 pm!!! I thought they fixed this a couple of years ago. I buy it, but that really messes with us getting to EPCOT. I book Safari for 9:15ish and buy Guardians for 3:00 pm, knowing we can get to EPCOT by that time.

The rope drop wasn't horrible. They held us on the bridge going into Pandora and walked us through some of the different areas. This helped spread out the crowd. We walked all the way through the stand by areas into the underground loading area. They were looking for a party of 3! That's us!

We get loaded in, the ride starts. We have never rope dropped this ride, I can not believe how smooth it went. What was funny was the water that sprays you during the ride, I've never gotten that wet before. Must be because the reservoirs were completely full!

We exit Flight of Passage and are fully prepared to go ride Everest, over and over and over. NOPE, it's down. We look at Navi and it is already 40 minutes. So somehow my hubby talks me into Dinosaur. But first coffee! :coffee: There is no line at Starbucks. While he is getting coffee, I stop at Customer Relations (blue umbrella), to discuss my Flight of Passage paid LL. Nothing they can do. He says the didn't fix it. I don't argue, but it really should lock in the time when you select it.

Off to Dinosaur. We rode this years ago. We are convinced they toned down the animatronic dinosaur. Regardless, not my favorite, but hubs likes it. We have time before Safari, we stop at Joffrey's for more coffee and a donut the size of my head for my son. On our way, we check in at Everest, ask a few questions. They expect the ride to open, not sure exactly when.
 
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We tap into Safari, Everest is still not up. It is sprinkling, some animals are loving it, they are out a about. We get off Safari and of course, Everest is now up. I manage to grab a LL. But it is at 10:45, which is our lunch reservation. I am very persistent. I keep refreshing and can modify it to 10:15 am.

It is starting to rain and rain hard. Out come the rain coats and we repack any remaining items into the water proof bag. So glad I packed it!! We walk through some shops to look, stay dry and kill just a little bit of time, and then get in line for Everest. As soon as we tap in, I book Test Track at EPCOT for the afternoon.

Because Everest was down for so long, our plans to loop a couple of times didn't work out. But we still got to ride, so I'll take that as a positive.

Rain makes people cranky. They walk in front of you, run past you, block door ways, bump into you, and it did get worse as it rained harder. I saw people that had rain booties for their shoes. I might look into those. It just kept raining.
 
We were up so early, having an early lunch reservation worked out! We were able to get out of the rain, dry off (some) and then make further plans.

I am watching Test Track, it is down. I also know it often stays down during rain. I decide to gamble. I know if I have a LL while the ride is down, it will automatically switch to a Multi-experience option. I move my LL for Test Track from 4:00 to 12:00. Sure enough, the ride was still down and it switched to multi-experience. I was watching it. Had it come up, I was ready to move it to later. I wouldn't recommend this on a sunny day. I think it worked because the rain caused people to somewhat change their plans.

We still have our $LL for Flight of Passage at 12:30. I convince my family to go see Nemo. It is a 35 minute show that starts at 11:45 am. Perfect, fill the gap and get out of the rain.

The one Memory Maker picture I wanted was the aquarium pic outside of the Nemo theatre. No photographers because of the rain. I did get the rest of the pictures I wanted, so I can't be too disappointed.

We head off to our second ride on Flight of Passage and then we decide to stop back at the room. Even with rain coats, we were wet. Plus we could drop the back pack and any extras we knew we wouldn't need.
 
Animal Kingdom
Flight of Passage - Rope Drop
Dinosaur
Safari - LL
Everest - LL
Lunch - Yak and Yeti
Nemo show
Flight of Passage - $LL
Left the park about 1:00 pm
 
We didn't spend too much time in the room. My son switched shoes and we did actually use the hair dryer to dry the insoles of our shoes. My pants were damp where my rain coat stopped, so again, the hair dryer did the trick.

We grabbed just few things and put them in the water proof bag. It has a long strap so it can be a cross body bag. We walked over to the Skyliner and headed off to EPCOT.

Our plans were to use our Multi-experience from Test Track on Remi's. I wanted to do Pick-a-Pearl in Japan, ride Guardians and then hop on the monorail to MK.

But seeing how none of our other plans for the day worked out, why would this. 🤦‍♀️

We get int he park, Remi's is down. So we head to Japan. I pay for my spot, there are 5 people in front of me. Hubby and son go walk around just a bit and come back in time. I loved the pearl experience. I grew up in NE Ohio and we had Sea World, where there were Japanese divers that would go down and an get your oyster, I always wanted to get a pearl, but it was not in the budget. Well as an adult it is in the budget and my son's birthstone is pearl. I ended up with a 7 1/4 mm pearl, the said one of the largest that day. The girl in front of me ended up with twin pearls that were blueish!!

Remi's is still down and our Guardians $LL is coming up. So we head through through the countries. It is Saturday and the last weekend of Festival of the Arts. The rain is not keeping people away!

We get to Guardians. We love this ride!! My son really wants to ride Remi's. It is up, so we walk to the back of the park, stand in line and finally scan in. The tap style turns blue. We don't stop, we just keep moving and they didn't stop us. I am sure with the ride being down for so long they were just getting all the LLs on the ride. Turns out, and I HONESTLY DID NOT KNOW, that my Test Track Multi-Experience LL did not include Remi's. OOPS.

We have dinner reservations at Tony's at MK. So back to the front of the park and we get on the monorail. We walked more steps on Saturday, than any other day. So much crisscrossing, but we didn't have a choice.
 
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We get to MK, just in time for the sky to open up and really start raining. Up to this point it was just raining, now I would put it in the down pour category.

We get through security and into the tunnel. My hubby and son say they didn't hear me, but we all had our rain hoods up. I yelled, let's go see Mickey. We had to get out of the rain, the wait was fairly short (25 minutes) and we had about 50 minutes until our dinner reservation.

Yea, they were thrilled with this decision. Mickey is the only character I insist on seeing every year. We were out of the rain and able to get dry.

We are too early to check in at Tony's, I tried. The rain has let up so we walk over to the Main Street Confectionery. My son still hasn't found a gift for his girlfriend. We wanted a Tangled Lantern. No where to be found. Decided on cute Mickey & Minnie chocolates.

We walk back over to Tony's. They let us check in. They almost immediately call our name. Would we like to sit outside on the covered patio? That would be no. They find us another table.

I know a lot of people aren't huge fans to Tony's, but we like it. All of our meals were good. Plus we were inside, out of the rain and staying dry.
 
During the day, I was watching my Genie+ booking times. It was a crazy mess. Between booking and using and booking, then multi pass. I just looked at the app and it would tell me what time I could book.

Because of the rain, wait times were down, but there were still lots of people.

During the day, I picked up Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion.

While at dinner, I booked Buzz Lightyear for right after dinner. Once we tapped in I was able to grab Space Mountain. We had to use up a little bit of time, so we rode the PeopleMover, which is one of my son's favorites.

We rode Space Mountain, and I think I picked up Pirates (which we ended up not using). Tea Cups, no wait, Carousel, no wait. Then we had a LL for Haunted Mansion.

It is still raining, but my son is not giving up. We have a LL for Big Thunder. Off we go.
OMG, have you ever ridden an outdoor roller coaster in the rain. The seats are wet, your butt is wet, your legs are wet. I tighten down my rain hood and off we go. 🌧️🌧️🌧️ My son wants to go again. Why not, we're already wet. We loop 2 more times! We are laughing the entire time. The ride is almost a walk-on. I think we wait less than 5 minutes each time. It is also starting to rain harder.

After the 3rd ride, my hubby and I have had enough. It was great, it was so much fun. But we were all getting cold.

I cancel our last LL of the night and we start walking. I did grab a few pictures, because the park at night in the rain is just magical.
 
Final count of soaking wet fun
EPCOT Arrived about 2:00
Pick a Pearl
Guardians - $LL
Remy's - LL (multi-experience)
Monorail to MK
Magic Kingdom Arrived about 5:30
Mickey
Tony's for dinner
Buzz - LL
PeopleMover
Space Mountain - LL
Tea Cups
Carousel
Haunted Mansion - LL
Big Thunder x3 - 1 LL, 2 stand by
 

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