Dates: November 29 – December 6, 2017
Resort: Pop Century – Standard Room
Visitors: Me, myself, and I -- 55 and proud to be a Disney Phanatic!


Yes, it has been a while since I returned from this trip and I am remiss in writing up a trip report.

Just finished up getting all my photos – PhotoPass and cell phone – sorted out and posted to my facebook page (at least a portion to facebook, I had almost 400 to go through.)

Started out bright and ugly Wednesday, Nov. 29th. Out of bed at 3:45am to be down at Thurgood Marshall Airport (Baltimore Washington International – BWI) by 6:00am for my 8:00am flight on Southwest. Luckily, I took the day before off of work so that I could be somewhat rested. Absolutely no problems on the drive down and security was a breeze. Flight was uneventful and arrival at McCoy Airfield (Orlando International Airport – MCO) was a little earlier than projected. So far, so good!!!

Short wait for DME bus to Pop, and I am on my way! Text message that my room wasn’t ready yet, but I was expecting that, so I checked my backpack at the resort and hopped the first bus to EPCOT. [Side note: Doing something different on this trip and wearing my Garmin vivoSmart HR to track steps, calories burned, etc.]

First thing I wanted to do when I got in the park was to go to Customer Relations and upgrade my 7-day Park Hopper to an Annual Pass. Well, it wasn’t actually the FIRST thing I did, but after getting a few PhotoPass pics in front of Spaceship Earth, with the first Magic Shot (turned out to be Tink, with a video to boot,) I made it and got my upgrade. Cost me less than I expected, so this was my first unexpected ‘magic’ on this trip.

I didn’t have FastPass+ options for EPCOT this day, but I wanted to get a Magner’s Pear Cider and pics at INTERCOT Gary’s Post in the UK Pavilion for my sister. This has turned out to be a ‘must do’ and running gag on the first day of each trip.

Moved on to DHS, after my drink and pics, to get ready for my FastPass+ options – Star Tours, Frozen Sing Along and Toy Story Mania. “Frozen Sing Along” was a lot more fun and interesting that I had expected it to be. Glad I got this one in. All went smoothly and was able to get another FP+ after TSM for Fantasmic! More “Magic!” Got great seat for Fantasmic! and once again enjoyed the show. There have been numerous upgrades to the ‘floats’ in the show and almost all of the effects were working. (Boats during Pocohantas scene had problems with the torches, but everything else went off without a hitch.)

Back to the room to put my weary body to bed around 11:30pm. Long day, but a good day!!!

Thursday: Up at 6:30am, I was planning to go to EPCOT for EMH morning (8am,) but ended up going to Magic Kingdom, which also opened at 8am, instead. The park was ‘empty’ when I got there, so I wandered around on Main Street USA for a bit before making a decision….I am going to get all the character/princess/etc. photos that I can, if the queues are short. Got over to Princess Fairytale Hall and found that neither queue was longer than 30 minutes (listed.) This was going to be a theme for the entire trip – short lines for photo ops. Rapunzel, Tiana, Cinderella and Elena were my first Princess shots.

After leaving PFH, I walked by Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and found the queue listed at 30 minutes, so I jumped in line and got my first (ever) ride on it. Other than being a bit tight on my wide hips, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. It was a bit more than I expected. A short ride, but very well done. Afterward, I was ready for a bit of nicotine (yes, I am still ‘one of those’) and a coffee, so I headed toward the FantasyLand Train Station and the ‘smokers trail.’ On the way, “Under The Sea” had no line, so I hopped in and got a quick ride through Ariel’s story. On the way out, I jumped in the queue for pics with Ariel and was very happy to add her to my Princess album.

[Another side note: All these photo ops surprised me with the amount of time each Princess and Character spent with me and the ‘face characters’ willingness to crack jokes and hold a real conversation. Maybe this was due to the short queues, but I was suitably impressed.]

Spent the rest of the morning hitting my favorites throughout MK with very short queues before heading over to EPCOT for my afternoon FP+ options. (Yes, I broke the ‘rules’ by getting most of my FP+ options for afternoons and evenings. It worked great for me on this trip, “your results may vary.”)

At EPCOT, I decided to hit the Character Spot and get a few pics with Goofy, Mickey and Minnie. Didn’t realize (on this visit) that there was another Character Spot in the opposite building. Silly me, not looking around at everything. FP+ options were for Mission: Space, Living With The Land, then Frozen Ever After. OK, I was a big Maelstrom fan and was very disappointed with its closure, but this ‘update’ was more than worth it! The ride path might be mostly the same, but they really ‘plussed’ this ride. Very impressive. I really wanted to hang around for Illuminations, but my feet were bothering me (not blisters, just wear and tear of walking over 9 miles and 25,000 steps making them ache) so I left shortly before 9pm. Heard the early parts of the show while standing in the queue for the bus back to the resort.

---to be continued...