Well HI (said like the viral cat video)
We are obviously back from Disney and I’m still recovering. I had WANTED to post about the trip on Monday (before I forgot everything…) but I was lazy over the weekend and didn’t download our pics. I got my iphone pics downloaded Monday and then had to struggle through individually downloading photopass pics from disney’s site yesterday. Why don’t they have a “download all” button?! (because they want you to pay for the USB drive with them all on it.) Also I am still missing one set of photos – I haven’t downloaded the pics off my “real” camera yet, but they’re just photos of my outfits in the hotel room that I specifically took for the portfolio pages, so not really missing anything here. Didn’t take the camera into the parks at all.
As always, let’s start at the beginning…
We left Thursday afternoon – and yep, I put my hair in pin curls Wednesday night and kept them in pin curls until Friday evening in an attempt to have curls for dinner friday night LOL It was SO irritating having all this stuff on my head for the entire drive. But i did have a cute bandanna scarf around it at least.
So yeah we left Thursday afternoon and the drive to Columbus was actually really nice except for the moment I thought I was getting pulled over (thankfully it was the guy in front of me). We got to our overnight hotel around 10 which is way earlier than normal (but we left earlier than normal soooo)
Next morning we were up and on the road again and again it was a nice drive. SADLY google maps took us into disney property the BACK WAY instead of through the front so I never got a pic of the Disney World gate.
We could make out Space Mountain beyond the cast member parking lot…
We checked in on the app that morning and got the text that our room wasn’t ready yet. As we were pulling into the Grand Floridian (just after 3 — check-in time) we STILL hadn’t gotten a text with our room number. I remembered this happening when we stayed at the Poly last time I dug into the app and found our room number in there. Yay.
We were in the building next to Narcossee’s – look at our view!
We didn’t have park tickets or plans for that day, which I really liked because I didn’t feel like I was “missing” doing anything that day and didn’t feel in a hurry to get there. After we got checked in and unpacked, we went back over to look in the stores to see if they had some shorts Chase liked.
Also note my hair STILL IN PIN CURLS It’d been about 48 hours at this point LOL
Then we went to the pool for a while and I read while Chase sat in the hot tub.
Dinner was at Narcoossee’s that night. So it was finally time to take the pin curls down and how did they do…
Ok overall. They held up during dinner at least. A little fuzzy but ok.
I made the mistake of posting about my curl journey on tiktok AFTER I was already halfway through the ride with my pin curls in – I should’ve posted it before because I got a lot of advice I couldn’t use LOL. Also I was going for more of a brushed out wavy vintage look and not individual curls.
Dinner! Chase had a salad and I had the bisque. Yummy:
And then we both got steaks but he got scallops and I had lobster.
It was soooo good. And we got to watch the water pagaent!
Curls after dinner. Not really a thing anymore LOL but at least it’s not stick straight.
Saturday was dapper day!
First up, we got these clear masks to wear with our outfits and we started off with them.
But after just walking from our room to the lobby there was a ton of condensation on the inside of them. Yeah they didn’t fog up… but very visible water droplets were forming on the inside which was kinda gross. I had put our matching backup masks in my bag so we switched to those and didn’t mess with the clear masks again.
And by the time we got to the lobby Chase realized the brown shoes he’d gotten for Chip weren’t going to work with his back problems. So he had to walk back to the room and change into non-matching shoes. Which is why you see blue shoes in our photos and not brown LOL
But we had SO MUCH FUN in Chip and Dale and got so many nice compliments!
And the weather was nice all morning if a bit windy which kept me having to hold onto my hat – even though it was pinned like crazy and wasn’t going anywhere LOL
We had breakfast at Sleepy Hollow, took a bunch of pics, walked through some stores, had a Dole Whip, went to the Tiki Room. Here’s some photopass pics.
After 4 hours in heels my feet were killing me so we took the boat back over to the room to change. We had lunch at Gasparilla Grill – pretty good. Doing mobile orders for quick service was really nice the whole trip.
Chase wanted to find a drug store to find some stuff for his back, so we changed and went OFF PROPERTY *gasp*. Found a Walgreen’s and I did the best thing I’ve ever done at Disney – bought a six pack of mini cokes to keep in the hotel room mini fridge. And that little fridge got them super cold. So much better (and cheaper) than a lukewarm coke from the gift store. I should’ve gotten 2 packs!!
Then we headed to Disney Springs for the rest of the night. We shopped a bit and decided to go get drinks at Jock Lindsey’s since we had time to kill before dinner. After a 20 minute wait we got seated… in the diving bell!!
LUCKY!
I had the “Anything Goes” which I really liked, Chase had sangria. We also had the nachos. Might have been a mistake on the nachos because we had dinner at Morimoto’s just an hour later LOL
Also this was the night I wore my Star Wars toile shirt, mask and ears LOL
Dinner at Morimoto’s…
I’ve been waiting to have this ramen again since 2019!!!
Sunday morning was dapper day part 2.
We looked at ordering room service breakfast this morning but #1 it was expensive and #2, what are these breakfast sides?? We think somebody copied and pasted lunch sides by mistake…
We ended up doing a mobile order at Gasparilla again and bringing it back to the room.
Kid’s meal ftw!
So I planned to wear heels again Sunday but my feet were still hurting from the day before, so I switched to my back-up flats.
Which turned out to be slightly too big and rubbing my feet so I had to put on the “no show” socks I brought along for my padme shoes. They were NOT “no show” here LOL. But I didn’t want blisters on only the second day.
It ended up starting to rain just as we were going to leave the room… so we hung out in the room for about a half hour to let it pass before we left for Epcot.
Chase and I BOTH took change of shoes in a bag (flipflops for me so I didn’t get my flats totally soaked just walking through the parking lot) so we rented a locker to put the bag in.
Throwback!
Also a woman asked Chase a question about the lockers as we were leaving and he told her he didn’t know. She said “You work here don’t you?” and he was like… no. LMAO guess the dapper outfit was too much.
He do be looking cute tho
It ended up feeling way more hot and humid this day than the day before. We were both super sweaty within an hour. We both agreed – for the whole of the trip, not just this day – that the masks make you 10 degrees hotter. Without a mask the weather would have been bearable. With a mask it was miserable. So yeah we only lasted for about 2 hours. And most of that 2 hours was spent walking around the maze of construction walls in future world, getting a few pics, and trying to duck into stores to cool off.
So here’s the photopass pics…
Also I 100% shooped my shocks out of these photos. I regret nothing.
THIS PHOTOPASS PHOTOG WAS THE BEST!! We had so much fun with him.
So after we got some good pics we decided let’s get out of here, go get into something comfortable and come back in a bit. We decided that instead of driving back to Epcot, we’d uber over to Riviera, take the skyliner and then uber back to the hotel that night.
I went with Avengers theme that night.
The Riviera resort is gorgeous! It’s not super “Disney” but it very much feels like the set of a 60s James Bond movie. I’d love to stay here… if they had bathtubs. I just have to have a hot soak after walking in the park all day.
Beautiful mosaics
The skyliner was so fun! You get a nice little breeze moving through it when it’s in motion. And it’s a relaxing ride.
Back in Epcot, first thing we did was stop in Japan for a snack at the flower and garden booth – we had the “Shrimp and Crab” and it was yummy. Then we pressed on to Germany so I could look in the dapper day pop up shop before it closed. I got a fan and a pin!
Then we slowly made our way back through World Showcase. Popped into the American pavilion to look at the Soul exhibit. Then back to Italy for dinner.
~~YUM~~
It was weird being in Tutto Italia with it half empty and weirdly quiet. But the food was of course yummy as always.
Ok so I had a mini-rant here about the fact I nearly passed out Sunday night but i’ll save it for later because it’s just kind of a black hole of negativity in the middle of my happy disney post.
Also the new harmonious barges are ugly.
Monday! Hollywood Studios! Galaxy’s Edge, finally!
Started off the morning by NOT getting a Rise of the Resistance boarding group. Boo. That kinda threw my plans for a loop. I’d been planning on wearing Leia Monday because I wanted to wear it for Rise. I decided to wear Padme that day instead and move Leia to tuesday.
Also have to say this setting spray is AMAZING and my makeup didn’t budge all day even sweating under a mask!
Galaxy’s Edge was SO COOL and so much bigger than I expected. Even after running around Batuu in the Sims expansion LOL.
We immediately went and got in line for Smuggler’s Run. it was about an hour wait and at least most of it was in the shade or inside!
Chase and I were both engineers in the back row with a family in the front. we didn’t love it…. thinking it may be better if you’re not in the backrow behind plexiglass trying to smash buttons on the side the entire time – trying to look at buttons while being tossed around and looking back a chaotic flying scene through plexiglass wasn’t the best experience. Looking forward to riding again in the future and hopefully sitting in a different area. (Speaking of… I can’t WAIT to take Kevin here. he will flip.)
After that we checked in at Oga’s!
Chase had the Fuzzy Tauntaun and I had the Yub Nub because I wanted the cup. It was so cool in here, probably my fav experience of the day.
We went in Dok Ondar’s so i could get the one thing I wanted – the Padme travel headpiece!! It fits my head great!
We had lunch at Ronto Roaster’s, and after that we decided to go back to the hotel, take a nap and a break before heading back. I discovered that the blue of the disney bag my Padme headpiece was in had rubbed blue marks ALL OVER MY LEGS.
At first I thought it was dye from my cape and was kinda freaking out because I’ve never had that kind of dye-transfer before – but no, the colour I wiped off with my makeup remover was definitely the blue of the bag and not a colour that was even on my cape. (and once I wasn’t carrying that bag around anymore, no more issues…)
We headed back for dinner at Primetime cafe…
Wishing I had a Wanda disneybound outfit…
At 1pm that day we’d tried for a Rise boarding group again and this time got a backup group. So we were hoping to get called and hung around waiting to see… but they cut off 3 groups before ours. Boo.
We did get to ride Runaway Railway before dinner though – it was cute! We both really enjoyed it.
Photopass pics for the day…
Also Chase didn’t pack a single Star Wars shirt, he had to buy one for the next day LOL
Another great photopass photographer, had some fun doing some cape flips for him.
(that reminds me… I need to get Chase’s photos from his phone. So i guess I’ll have a part 2 with camera photos and Chase photos.)
After we didn’t make the cut for Rise, we headed off – we headed over to Beach Club because we had late night “second dinner” reservations. We parked there and then had some time to kill, so we walked over to Epcot’s international gateway, rode the skyliner over to Riviera and then back to Epcot, and came back just in time to check in for Beaches and Cream.
Apparently I didn’t take any pics at beaches and cream… but Chase had a sundae and I had fries LOL. Our dessert choices.
tuesday, Hollywood day 2!
And this morning was successful!
I realized my issue from the day before — I was waiting til 7AM (or 1pm) on the dot to hit “join” on the main page, when I should’ve already been on the page “join” takes you to refreshing.
So Leia it is today!
Doing the buns while considering having to get a mask off and on, and sunglasses, was tricky… LOL
Also Tuesday was the first day Chase decided to rent a scooter. He’d done ok with his back Saturday and Sunday but had some issues Monday. So he decided to stop pushing it and got a scooter. It was nice to have a basket to keep stuff in LOL
After some shopping first thing on the list was my Savi’s reservation! Here’s my saber. I picked a green kyber crystal, and later in the trip got a blue and a purple at disney springs so I could switch out.
Again i reallllly want to take Kevin back so he can do this too. It’s all i thought of the whole time, how much he’d love all this. (BTW the only thing he wanted me to bring him from the trip was cookies. So I got him a giant Mickey shaped cookie and a Sprite from galaxy’s edge.)
After that it was time for our Rise group…
And here I present the entire reason I made this new disneybound. Because I wanted a photo here.
Just kind of a bummer I had to have a mask on at the same time. Hopefully next year’s back to normal and I can wear it again for more pics.
Anyway Rise of the Resistance was very cool. I look forward to doing it again.
After that we walked around some other areas of Hollywood Studios but didn’t really ride anything else.. not even Slinky Dog or Tower. Chase didn’t feel up to waiting in Slinky Dog’s line and I didn’t feel like standing in tower’s line alone since Chase won’t ride it LOL
Photopass pics of the day…
Here’s the shirt Chase bought the day before so he could match me LOL
So cool
We headed back to the hotel to change because dinner was at disney springs again…
Tonight’s theme is Captain Marvel LOL
Dinner was at Raglan Road. We’ve never eaten there because it’s similar to Rose and Crown and we pretty much always eat at Rose and Crown every trip. We decided oh well, who cares if we eat fish and chips twice.
BOXTY POTATOES SO GOOD
Chase had fish and chips and I had this beef sandwich that was too big to pick up and eat so I ate it with a fork… it was soooo yummy.
We absolutely loved Raglan Road and I’m disappointed in myself for not eating here sooner LOL.
OHHH this pic of this magnet just reminded me. As we were walking through security at Disney Springs, there was this woman screaming at the security guards and swinging her stroller around. She was yelling “HITLER! HITLER!” at one of the guards. Wow.
In the Grand Flo lobby. This is all CHOCOLATE
Thursday! Finally back at Magic Kingdom
Breakfast was a cinnamon roll at gaston’s
Outfit that day was the Stitch look with the Stitch/Grogu ears and mask. Also my lashes still looking good.
Am I doing the disney influencer thing right?
We rode Haunted Mansion twice, had a citrus swirl (dole whip is better), rode peoplemover twice (IT’S BACK), carousel of progress, and I rode Space Mountain by myself LOL Lunch at peco’s bill!
Our Stitch looks
Tron construction
Happy place!
After an afternoon break I added my Stitch shawl and switched to my other stitch mask.
Also rode Peter Pan and facetimed kevin so he could “ride” it too.
The only good pic I’ve ever taken in Haunted Mansion. Terrifying!
Photopass from the day!
Also the Stitch outfit was 100% the comfiest thing I’ve ever worn in a disney park.
We tried to stay til the kiss goodnight but didn’t quite make it.
We decided to take the new walkway from MK to the Grand flo. It was a pleasant walk especially at night. We ended up getting stuck at the bridge for a few minutes while they put the water pagaent barges away – it was neat to see!
Thursday… last day! At Epcot.
I got up early that morning and washed my hair because it needed it. Wore it in pin curls for about 2 hours just to try to get a little bit of wave for the day.
Before leaving hotel..
Arriving at Epcot… lol
This was the only day I didn’t have an outfit planned so I just went for comfort.
“Breakfast” was crispy pork belly LOL
And then the brisket slider.
Excited to see the new Ratatouille stuff open.
Despite the fact I was dressed for comfort this day more than any others, this was the worst day for me. I was hot, miserable, my legs hurt. Chase was fine because he was in a scooter again. We ended up going back to the festival center and I laid on the floor in the AC and the dark for an hour. I just could not cool off all day. Yuck.
Dinner was Rose and Crown! I had fish and chips this time LOL. Chase had the burger (which we both love)
And on the way out we saw a bun.
Photopass!
And after Epcot it was back over to disney springs where I mostly laid on a bench because my legs hurt until time for our wine bar george reservation…
Flaming Saganaki!!
I wasn’t feeling up to having a “DRINK drink” so I had a coke with the flaming cheese, and Chase had a sangria.
Friday… up at sunrise to go home.
Also can I just say every hotel room should have a hamper?? this was so nice.
The bellhop loaded our stuff up, drove us directly to our car in a golf cart, and loaded the car for us. How nice???
And immediately Chase realized he left his airpods in the room and had to go all the way back LOL. Just glad we hadn’t left-left yet.
I don’t know WHY but it took us like 8 hours to get from the Florida stateline to Atlanta. There was traffic. Maps rerouted us to backroads. Stuck behind road work vehicles. Stuck behind slow cars. But still… we left Florida at 7:30 AM and didn’t get to Atlanta until like FIVE that evening!!! WTF.
Did a quick run through Fine Fabrics and got some fabric. Nothing major. I’ll post about it later. Ran to West Elm so Chase could try sitting in a chair before we buy it online. Then since we were by a Shake Shack we decided to give that a try.
It was good! Mostly enjoyed eating a good burger, crinkle fries and a shake going through historical atlanta neighborhoods. That was fun.
So we didn’t leave Atlanta til after 6… so we didn’t get home til after midnight. LOOOONG day.
Spoils of war…
Of COURSE I’m coming home with every single thing the Grand Flo sits out in the room.
The Padme headpiece! i’ll post pics of it on later.
Dapper Day fan and pin
Ornament for the christmas tree
Yub Nub cup for the tiki collection since we couldn’t go to Trader Sam’s
You KNOW I had to get that Amidala figure when I saw it at Disney Springs. Also a Batuu coke, a Wandavision magnet, and a Lion King print for the stairway.
And of course my lightsaber. But I don’t have pics of that for some reason??
Ok part 2 coming tomorrow when I get more pics. But that’s the trip report. YAY!