Our Magic Bands for this trip were Rey and Kylo Ren (admittedly a character I despised after The Force Awakens, but have softened on since seeing The Last Jedi!), and we flew down to Orlando on Friday afternoon. The
"mascot" for our Frontier flight was Chocolate the Moose and I know it's such a silly little thing, but I
have come to look forward to the mascot on every one of our Frontier flights!
I'm not sure if it's a coincidence that I'm from Canada and I love moose, but I
really do, so I figured this was a good omen for the trip!
The flight was uneventful (the best kind of flight,
obviously), and we had each only brought along a backpack, so there was no
luggage to contend with, meaning we were off the plane and heading to the car
rental area. I really don't understand why this is such an antiquated system…why
is this always some sort of ordeal, regardless of the company we rent from? The
renting of a car of is, without a doubt, my least favorite part of any travel
we do. After sorting things out with the less-than-helpful employees, we were
in the car and on our way!
We arrived at WDW
and checked into Pop Century. The
resort is undergoing a major refurbishment, and we were really hoping to get an
updated room, but unfortunately, that did not happen. Actually, the room we
were assigned was very musty and humid, so I called the front desk and asked
for a room change, a request that was quickly accommodated. It still wasn't an
updated room, but sooner or later, we are bound to get assigned to one of the
new rooms!
After getting settled (which took no time whatsoever, as we
were traveling very lightly for this trip!), we went over to Disney Springs to grab some lunch at Blaze Pizza and then we drove over to TTC. Before going to MK, we stopped at Polynesian for Dole whip floats. So good!
We hadn't been to MK
in a year! AN ENTIRE YEAR. Seriously! The last time we were there was
January 27, 2017! It is difficult to believe this, as there have been years during which we have spent 45 nights at WDW!
Although we went to WDW
over the summer after our cruise on the Fantasy,
you may recall that we left after six hours due to my debilitating sunburn. Then
my mom and I went to WDW both before
and after our cruise on the Dream in
August, but we did not spend any time in the parks.
Why? We have not had annual passes for almost a year now! If
you've read any of my posts from the past year or so, you will have noticed
that we've been busy traveling elsewhere…Tokyo,
Copenhagen, Prague, Edinburgh, and Paris, in addition to smaller, weekend
trips. Knowing we had those big trips on our calendar, we decided not to renew
our annual passes until we'd be able to take full advantage of them with
several trips to Florida and California. Actually, our plan was to
buy new Premier Passports, which
cover both WDW and Disneyland, in
December, when we were supposed to go to California.
I say "supposed to go" because we had our flights and a room booked
at the Disneyland Hotel for the
second weekend in December, and then Maddy got sick and needed surgery the day after Thanksgiving. We cancelled the trip and put our plans for annual passes
on hold.
We had purchased tickets for the After Hours event at MK
back in the fall, so we decided to not buy annual passes on this trip, either,
but instead to go to MK for the
event on Friday night and spend Saturday taking it easy and wandering around
Disney Springs. This worked out
beautifully and we had a fabulous trip!
This was our third time attending the After Hours event, with the first being in May 2016 and the second
being in January 2017. These events are worth every penny! I read on line that
30,000 tickets are sold for each of the Halloween
and Christmas parties, but that only
3,000 tickets are sold for each of the After
Hours events. I don't know if that is accurate or not, but having attended
each of the special nights on multiple occasions, I am inclined to believe it
because MK has been practically empty
during the three After Hours events
we've attended! It is AMAZING. Non-existent wait times for attractions,
unlimited popcorn, ice cream, water, and soda, the feeling that you are the
only two people in the park…I could go on and on. We have also lucked out with
fantastic weather all three times; this third time was a little on the chilly
side, but no complaints here! One time
it rained when we attended Mickey's
Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, and I'm not going to lie – it was not great. So
a little chill in the air still constitutes great weather as far as these two
northerners are concerned!
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| January 2018 |
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| May 2016 |
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| January 2017 |
As you can see from the photos, we had an awesome time! With
the parks seemingly busier and busier and the apparent demise of
"low" season, we cannot recommend these types of events strongly
enough! The official hours were from 8:00-11:00 pm, but we were able to enter
the park a little before 7:00 pm, which was great. The fact that for the first
two times we attended we had annual passes but were still willing to pay the
extra money for the After Hours
event should speak volumes about how much we think of it!
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| We loved this personal greeting at "it's a small world"! |
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| There are no words for how much I love this man! |
As the night came to a close, we slowly made our way to Main Street, USA and watched The Kiss Goodnight before taking the
ferry back to the TTC and returning
to our resort. Another fabulous night at MK
in the books!
Saturday, January 28
We slept in, then drove over to Disney Springs for lunch at Blaze
Pizza. Yes, again! What can I say? We love the pizza there!
After lunch, I had an idea about a picture that I wanted
from Epcot. We weren't planning on
going in to the park, but I'd seen a ton of photos on Instagram about the International Festival of the Arts. We
attended last year, and loved it, but again, with no annual passes, we were not
about to buy one-day tickets just so we could go again this year! The photos
I'd see on IG were of the Figment
topiary in front of Spaceship Earth,
surrounded by rainbows. I have a well-documented and long-standing love affair
with Figment, dating back to March 1983, and I typically answer the question,
"What's your favorite color?" with "Rainbow!"…so obviously
I was very eager to try to capture all of this for myself! We decided to drive
to Epcot, then take the monorail to MK and return back to Epcot. Not only it is just fun to ride
the monorail; we would go right past the entrance to Epcot on our return ride! The photos I got exceeded my every
expectation!
After this monorail adventure, we drove past the Wedding Pavilion (ahhh…happy, happy
memories!) and went over to Port Orleans
French Quarter for beignets before taking the boat back to Disney Springs. We spent the rest of
the day there, which is something we probably haven't done in close to 20
years, and then we grabbed a quick dinner at Art of Animation, where we also wandered around because it was
another beautiful night. We then ended the night with a visit to Animal Kingdom Lodge. A pretty
spectacular day from start to finish!
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| SOOOOO cute!!! |
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| A little treat from the staff at Pop Century for being returning guests! |
Sunday, January 28
We were up early because our flight home was scheduled to
leave Orlando at 9:20 am. They announced at 8:10 am, when we were already
sitting at the gate, that the plane was delayed. I will spare you the boring
details of passing time sitting in an airport, and fast forward to the part
where we finally left Orlando around 3:10 pm. It was a long day. That's all I
will say about it! The good news is that
we received travel vouchers for the inconvenience, so we have a fun weekend
trip already planned for somewhere new next month! Definitely the silver lining!
We'll be back to WDW
in June, although I'm not sure if we're going to get annual passes on that trip
or not. We are so lucky to have been many, many times, and we can always find
tons of things to do that don't involve the parks (and by extension, the
crowds!). Until then, we'll be reliving our perfect night at MK!
I'd be remiss to not thank my mom, who is always up for a
weekend of watching our two little furry gals! Best Fairy Dogmother Ever!
Happy Tails to you!
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