Disney World 2022 day 1 August 2- Pretty Small World Queue-mpah

On the final day of packing, scrambling and otherwise freaking out, Kim and I both saw the airport website tell us to get there THREE hours before a domestic flight. We’d never seen that suggested before. Both our family’s trip to Denver and Dave’s to Alaska were made with the normal two hour arrival window from the same airport.

Therefore, Kim and I panicked about it separately most of the day, before I called her. We then panicked together, and decided the limo should come earlier than the time it was booked for.

Grandma had originally wanted it to come earlier, and therefore she was able to say, “I told you so,” to us. Additionally she got to blame us when she called the car service and asked them to arrive when she first thought they should.

Her vacation was starting on a positive note already.

We woke up well before Stupid O’clock in the morning, (assuming any of us slept) and our and Kim’s families drove to Grandma’s. Bambi and his mother were on her road as we pulled in- a good sign if there ever was one.

Due to bringing masks this time, (industrial strength for the flying bus of germs and regular for indoors in the World) I thought I set a new record by losing a copy of The Grid before we left her house. However, I just folded it stupidly. Ta-da!

The driver demonstrated his skill by backing the massive vehicle down Grandma’s tiny street and into her driveway without demolishing any of our vehicles.

The “Yay!”s had an early start on this trip.

We were excited and awake, but hazy through the slightly damp early hours trip to Newark Airport. Once out of the van and assembled we were told there was enough of us to use group check in. However, we already had started fiddling with the kiosks at regular check in because there was no line. (Take the early flight to Disney, kids!)

There was some confusion concerning if Dave’s free bags were based on his travelling, or if it was from my credit card being applied randomly to the group. Then, to ramp up our already built in travel anxiety, the machine died in the middle of printing our boarding passes.

Fortunately, it died after printing the ones for people who didn’t already have the passes on their phones and we could go to security.

So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.

Derek was a fantastic and fun security worker directing everyone through the maze like lines leading all around the hallways to the single, normal person, security entrance. He was fanning himself, and dancing up a storm. It prepared us for the fun lines to come.

Rosa and Dave had their bags pulled aside to search as we went through the scanners.

Rosa’s was because of a small plastic box of wipes. Dave’s was because of a book. 

Perhaps it contained dangerous ideas. (HA!)

The flight took off on time with no issues and landed on schedule.

YAAY!

Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:

(For the large percentage of people who do not have the energy or inclination to read our extensive Disney Planning log, these are about the “Why”s not the “What”s.)

Let me repeat- Take the early flight to Disney, kids! The cascade of issues that inevitably plague airports, particularly in the New York area, will not have time to pile up yet.

Kim had continued giving the flight crew chocolate, as she started when flying with multiple tiny children. After all the crap they’ve gone through over the past couple of years, these people deserve any benefits they can get. They are always appreciative, and this time gave Kim one of the fancy packs that First Class gets.

Anabelle read half of the Scarlet Pimpernel on the way down. I did some proof reading of the Denver story but was too excited to sleep and too tired to focus. (That sums me up for a majority of this trip.) Much of the rest of the family leaned more toward the latter side and slept.

To get seats in a clump, we all sat in the back of the plane. The four kids were across the back in a line with the aisle between them. This is where the “Spider-Dave, you better behave!” song premiered for the trip.

It followed us throughout the entire vacation.

Perhaps there are some down sides to the early flight.

Thanks to our location, we were the last ones off the plane. Thanks to it being us, there were several other delays as we worked out way through Orlando International Airport. Because of these delays, our bags were nicely arranged off of the carousel for us to grab.

So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.

It was still very weird having to pick up our own bags though, especially since the Mears Shuttle station was in the exact same place with the exact same coding as Magic Express used to be.

We now pause for a moment of silence.

From the side window, Anabelle watched the driver take her suitcase behind the bus where a smaller van was parked. We have no idea why he did this as the van went somewhere else, and her bag was under the bus with all of ours when we arrived at our destination.

We now pause for a moment of unneeded concern, panic...

And me running off the bus to ask several questions.

Establishing his pattern for any time he stopped walking, Morgan konked out on the bus, meaning he missed seeing the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Our driver drove through it for fun as far as we could tell. No one boarded or left the bus at that Deluxe Resort.

Anabelle and Aurora playing the “Filling Fridges” game on buses started here. Aurora would take any opportunity to point out Anabelle’s lack of skill at the game after this as we traveled the World.

We took our traditional failed pictures of the purple signs, which had not been replaced as we were led to believe (YAAY!) and arrived at the All Star Movies Resort.

*Insert angelic chorus here*

Our room was ready and their two weren’t, meaning we dumped all the luggage into ours. In the middle of settling into the “swanky” location, (Translation via the kids- “newly renovated”) Kim’s room next door was revealed as good to go. We moved her bags into it, along with Grandma’s since her room (one more door down) wasn’t done yet.

Aside- It was fortuitous that the renovated rooms had a Murphy bed for one of the queen sized beds in there. This allowed all nine of us and our luggage shenanigans to almost fit in the one room without causing bodily harm or structural damage…

Fine, without causing grievous bodily harm or massive structural damage

Then we went to eat before we all passed out.

The hotel’s theming showed why Disney has leaned more towards its classic or popular films rather than its recent ones when making these choices for current construction and updates. The area around the main pool was themed to the groundbreaking Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. The two other areas closest to the main building were themed to the beloved 101 Dalmatians and Toy Story. The other further away section and ours were themed to the far from highly celebrated Mighty Ducks and Herbie the Love Bug. We were in the “Herbie’s Butt” section of the hotel.

Lovely.

It’s amazing that without the meal plan, we were all just as confused picking out our mugs and first food selections as we were with a plan. (Possibly, perhaps less than amazing for anyone who has met us.) Anabelle grabbed her highlighted shrimp salad from the menu printouts, Rosa was introduced to how allergy friendly the food Cast Members were and I made the mistake of having an Impossible Burger with fries. (It was excellent, the mistake reason would come up later. Yes, I’m still pretending to be literary by using foreshadowing.) Grandma claimed to have a sandwich… which was actually an Uncrustable. We pointed out that, officially, Disney considered that a side, but we knew she’d have a big dinner with dessert and let it slide this time. Everyone was happy with what they ended up eating, however.

So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.

Rosa also bought the Christmas ornament with all four Parks in a Mickey globe she was determined not to forget this time and Anabelle did the same with a Donald and Daisy Anniversary pin. We got the store to hold them, preventing us from having to lug them around all day.

Then Kim realized she forgot something, I went with her to the rooms and we dropped off all the mugs…and Rosa’s ornament and Anabelle’s pin. The Awesome Happy Disney Cast Members easily brought them back for us from storage, indicating they knew us well. By this point Grandma’s room was ready too, but she was back in the main building.

There was some wandering around the store, and Kim got Morgan a Mickey bubble wand to replace the Ariel one he had back when he visited Disney in a stroller.

We got onto the line for our first Disney Bus.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:

About the write up in this case- There will be various length “YAY”s in this story. In broad general strokes, the length of the YAY has some relationship to the excitement factor, but also includes how I felt at the moment of writing, what kind of speed I was spewing out elements of our adventure, and what else I was thinking about. In spite of my usual levels of insane Disney ranking, surveying and Gridding, the “YAY”s are not calibrated.

We waited while busses came for every other Park and destination, including nearly six-hundred for Typhoon Lagoon alone.

Alas.

Initially the kids were hoping for a character bus but quickly decided they didn’t care. We did get a Lightning McQueen bus though.

KA CHOW!!!!!

After our first Disney bus ride, we entered the Magic Kingdom.

*Cue HUGE ANGELIC CHORUS!*

After going through the new x-ray security scanner and starting the trend having random members of our group pulled aside for bag searches that we never fully established the causes of.

*cue small kazoo band*

IT WAS HOT!

I probably won’t clutter up the story with pointing this out too often, but we noticed it constantly. It didn’t decrease our enjoyment of the Most Magical Place On Earth, but for those lacking in the required internal Disney Magic to allow that, August may not be the best time for them to visit.

(“NO!!!!”- Uncle Dave)

But first, the Main Street Sigh of happiness:

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:

Our trips to Disney World are filled with inside jokes, bizarre references and strange ways to name certain things. We (and those who’ve followed along our other adventures) will understand them immediately. Most of them are easy enough to figure out through context, and as for the rest… I’ve stopped caring.

Good luck!

As sleep deprived as we were, it was clear that we should really start out by going on a beloved ride. 

Several folks wandered off to watch performances on Main Street. (Like the Dapper Dans and the Castle Show) Before that, as we were grabbing maps at the Pre-Main Street tunnel, some major malfunction happened with the refilling of Morgan’s bubble wand. Finally, it took a bit to get back into the swing of jumping in and out of PhotoPass shots, and EVERYONE was snippy with everyone else.

Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:

It feels very important about deciding on the first Disney attraction. Honestly, it probably isn’t, as long as everyone is together, and no one despises it. Given our level of exhaustion though, continuing along the lines of free form wandering without a plan would have been catastrophic. Choosing an attraction everyone ranked really highly set a good tone and “evened the keel” so to speak.

We made it to the Haunted Mansion, I took the required photo of the “Here Lies Fred” headstone, several of us caught the Leota Tomb with her eyes open, and the joy and fun began in full swing.

So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.

We planned to see the parade this first day, but it would have been silly given our state of being sleepless and completely worn down (which is exactly how you want to begin at Disney) to try to run even part way across the Park for it. Instead, we took advantage of other people going to see it and went to the shortened line for the Winnie the Pooh ride.

YAAAAY!

They skipped a car loading us in. This wasn’t due to the Cast Member, but due to two stupid Guests who wouldn’t listen. The result was the same as our last trip on this ride, leading to us abandoning our children.

AAAAAH!

The Cast Member was normal levels of Awesome and Happy, making sure we knew this was totally not our, or his, fault.

It was on this line we learned that Veronica thought Roo was his last name, first name “Lee."

This was due to Kanga telling him, “Hold tight Lee Roo.” It was also on this line where Anabelle was singing “The Rain Rain Rain” song where Veronica asked, isn’t that the one that ends, “La la la, damp Piglet?” This meant every time someone got wet on this trip, one of them would say, “Damp Piglet,” because we can never have too many Disney World Weird Inside Jokes in our family.

Kim brought the already defunct bubble wand to the post Pooh gift shop and Awesome Happy Disney Cast Members either got it replaced or fixed. (I was certainly not getting involved in the bubble wand issues at this stage.)

We all went over to Filmore’s Magic! YAAAAAAAAAAY! Based on the mess when we were separated in this theater on the same trip they made us abandon our children on Pooh, starting here we tried to “make a chain.” That is- we tried holding hands whenever we needed to enter this kind of large theater venue. We quickly realized Cast Member directions are not conducive to “making a chain.” After I, and several others, emitted cries of, “I don’t bend that way,” we found different ways of linking up but still sat together in each show.

So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.

The new Coco scene was worked in seamlessly. We all sang and danced along. With only a little extra concentration, I could get the 3D to work for my newly lasered eye. When the Flute first appeared, Anabelle shouted, “It’s Fillmore!”

Aurora, who had called it that to explain our family’s title of the attraction, covered her mouth with her hands and blurted out, “I forgot I named him!”

Then it’s a small world needed to be ridden because…it’s right there!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!

Anabelle took ten separate pictures of the newly colorfully repainted clock outer portion while we were on the line. Kim told her kids to keep their hands to themselves with the great parenting statement of, “Don’t fondle the small world.”

The kids wanted to sit together in the boat and Aurora figured the rest of us would be fine because, “They’re adults…they can manage.”

When seeing us enter the craft and all nearly pitch into the coin filled water, she added, “Maybe not.”

After finishing floating and singing along with the happiest cruise around the world, Aurora grabbed an ice tea. When I pointed out that sugar and caffeine were two of the four food groups, Anabelle and Aurora informed me the other two were, “Ambition and Courage.

Crossing Fantasyland to pass through the Castle, (YAAAAAAAAAAY!) we saw a little girl thrilled when Excalibur pulled out of the stone (anvil) as she grabbed it. I hadn’t seen it move since the old Merlin show that got canned years ago. Nice to know they still kept an eye on it.

We passed through the Castle (YAAAAAAAAAAY!) to choose a spot on Main Street to watch the Adventure Friends Cavalcade.

It never came.

Alas.

Some ominous rumbling in the sky explained why it never came.

When Anabelle complained that she wanted to see Mirabel, Aurora stuck her own face directly in Anabelle’s and said, “I am Mirabel!” She would do this regularly throughout the rest of the trip.

At the Plaza I began our new tradition of explaining to Cast Members that we had two separate reservations but were really one group of nine. They started Disney’s new tradition of telling us they couldn’t promise anything about seating us at the time of the reservation or together…then calling us all back in a very short amount of time to seat us together.

As we love to keep our Disney traditions…Morgan face planted and fell asleep on the table again. This time, however, it was as soon as we sat down. He woke up when the food came, but was suddenly chilled from being unconscious in the air conditioning. Aurora took him outside before the rain could start to warm him up. She also entertained him with foot hula-hoop tricks thanks to a random Cast Member who had a bunch of them, as a substitute for the Cavalcade, I guess.

My obsessive need to copy and distribute all of the menus before a trip came in handy for a change. Plague times meant almost all menus were now accessed with a QR code. With a third of our gang still carrying flip phones, this was an issue. However, Anabelle, Grandma and Kim all brought the menu print outs (highlighted in Grandma and Anabelle's cases) with them to the Parks (and some others, including mine and Rosa’s were in the rooms as back up) allowing normal menu perusal.

Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:

These sit down meals were important-

Because we could stop moving and refuel all together before we died.

Having them be at lunch most of the time set this moment early in the day and contributed greatly to the fact that we didn’t kill each other, a noble accomplishment.

Additionally, they were important because that’s where I could steer the conversation as to what the goal of the next morning’s Extra Magic Hour Half Hour would be, since the limited time meant if we waited to decide, we’d burn up our allotment. Amazingly, most days we even followed the plan! YAAY!

Anabelle and Rosa had fantastic Impossible Burgers and fries. My steak salad was also very good, but I regretted cashing in my occasional sandwich and fries meal at lunch this day. Theirs were magnificent and were multiple steps above the one I had earlier. Rosa began her collection of little “Allergy” flags from her meal, another of many signs of how well Disney handles allergens. Kim's family showed their New Jersey heritage by beginning the trip with their traditional disco fries. 

Outside, the rumbling that cancelled the Cavalcade bloomed into a full blown Florida hellstorm, complete with lightning and hailstones. The always slow, but friendly, service at the Plaza shielded us from the effects for quite a while. This was especially true since it continues to have the best ice cream on property and we needed dessert. Most of us had small sundaes or shakes. Grandma had her trip required banana split. Anabelle learned chopping up a banana into a vanilla shake does not a banana shake make.

Pirates of the Caribbean had a miniscule wait as less Disney focused (or perhaps less insane) people fled the storm back to their resorts. The ride was a straight shot across Main Street and into Adventureland. We donned the Mears Shuttle provided ponchos and sloshed half way across the Park. There was a brief stop next to the Dole Whip stand to hide under an awning for a moment to get my bearings. While it is my favorite land of the Magic Kingdom, Adventureland is also the one in which I most easily get lost. With my entire family slogging through torrential rains and following me, I didn’t want to go the wrong way. The stop led to people thinking I did go the wrong way…so that helped.

Most of the Mears ponchos exploded on the run. Luckily, we had all packed our own, sturdier versions. In case it’s not obvious, we take Disney planning excessively seriously. Because of soggy feet from the run, Veronica started talking about her “Pruney Toes.” This was another odd reference that would continue to surface throughout the trip.

We rode Pirates with almost no wait! 

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

It is still my favorite attraction and would remain so after experiencing multiple new rides this time!

Even the sky is impressive on this one, but everything else is so cool it’s easy not to notice.

Rosa ended up in a seat previously used by someone who must have been caught in the storm without a poncho. She didn’t have to wait for the drop to get wet.

We wandered around the store a little, and then for three very good reasons:

1) It’s us!

2) It’s here!

3) It’s Pirates! 

We rode it again with no wait!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.

There was some more pirate store wandering, but not really buying anything.

Attention Disney- It has been well over a decade since I have purchased a shirt or hat from my absolute favorite ride because I haven’t seen any that were worth it. In this same time period, I have bought about four from my number two attraction, The Haunted Mansion. Someone in marketing is not doing their job correctly.

Staying in Adventureland, again because it’s us, it was time for the Tiki Room!

YAAAAAY!

The coolest thing about the Tiki Room is when you walk in; you can see everything that’s going to be part of the show…

Yet it’s still surprising when they all start moving and singing.

Grandma went back to the room, and Dave must have a little bit after our photo shoots as well due to what happened.

I know, “Great information there, Jeff, as always.”

We crossed through Fantasyland toward Ariel’s ride as the rain slowed and got some PhotoPass pictures in front of the Beast’s and Prince Eric’s castles on the way.

During those photo shoots, one of the kids asked about eating in the “Feast Ala Beast” place. When I informed them that selection was removed from the menu, they expressed abject horror.

And rightly so.

After Ariel’s ride, there was a bit of confusion as to who wanted a run on the Barnstormer. Anabelle and Aurora were waiting for the fireworks to end because they were far too loud. When I pointed out my “old man hips” didn’t fit right on that ride. Veronica pointed out that I just had “Old Man Bones” which was the initiation of a running gag where everyone would complain about their “Old Man Bones” getting rattled on different rides for the rest of the vacation.

We’re not really a family; we’re a connection of running gags and inside jokes wandering around theme Parks.

Eventually everyone rode on the Barnstormer who wanted to. In between, Kim ran over to grab a Dumbo ride, and learned why it closes in the rain. Her butt got wetter than it did shortly after when the rain and the lateness dropped the Splash Mountain wait, and water from the flying elephant completely filled her shoes. The route to that mountain on the far side of Frontierland was a tortuous one.

Everyone but Rosa and I originally talked about using the now shortened line to go on Space Mountain. Rosa, Anabelle and I also noted the Cinderella and Eleanor line was only ten or fifteen minutes long and we all jumped on it. Post jumping, we did not move at all. After a bit, the Space Mountain group went to do that. Rosa and I stayed where we were, and continued to not move one tiny bit. We did notice the Space Mountain line shot up to over an hour, but Splash Mountain had dropped significantly.

Kim and all the kids reversed course close to when they would reach Space Mountain and ran across the Park to get on Splash Mountain before Park closing, and succeeded. Kim likely detoured them into CircusLand as no matter where she was trying to get in the Magic Kingdom, she ended up in CircusLand.

So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway

I think this was when Dave left. (Highlighting his penchant for having bursts of sanity early on.) This was helpful, as when Grandma got back to the hotel she couldn’t get into her room with her Magic Band. When they supposedly fixed it, she could only get into our room, which makes zero sense. She was exhausted and flustered but eventually the front desk Awesome Happy Disney People fixed it allowing her to gain access.

Really, we should have learned by now to not let Grandma go back to the hotel alone. Since we were kids and it was somehow our fault that she got lost at the International Gateway it has never gone well.

Rosa and I took a more leisurely pace across the Park, protecting our daughter from seeing us take mushy pictures by the Castle and stealing an extra Haunted Mansion ride.

Because you can never have too many Haunted Mansion rides.

On the way to Splash Mountain, there was a quick pass by the Rapunzel Tower Potty. Some may have stopped for its supposed purpose. None of us were able to use it for its real purpose. That would be the elusive Rapunzel Tower Potty PhotoPass. It is elusive, because the line is always insanely long…

Yes, for a picture in front of a toilet. Disney fans are unique in many ways.

We met up with the rest of the gang when they finished the terrifying plummet in Frontierland. On the way out, as the Park was closing, a giant frog hopped into one of the stores. Clearly, this was not an issue for me to deal with. Aurora was planning to help until it leapt behind the counter and she gave up too.

Mickey and Minnie were up on the train station waving goodbye to the masses.

This is due to the fact that they are awesome.

There were several busses with what I thought was a “Jesusy” name on them, meaning I immediately thought they were chartered for a Christian group.

This is due to the fact that…

I am a fool.

Chartered busses are not allowed near the Magic Kingdom itself, especially in the Disney bus lanes. They were Mears shuttle like extra busses with a coincidental name, which Disney pulled in to handle extra end of day crowds.

Because they are awesome.

The three of us and Kim and her kids all just barely made it onto the bus after exiting at our first Park closing of many to come.

Back at the All Star Movies, I went for the first mug run of the trip. With the Kingdom open until eleven our kick off night, because Disney loves to exhaust us, the cafeteria and most beverage stations were closed.

I got Rosa a Sprite and Water mix, and Anabelle her hot chocolate made from a packet - with coffee creamer of course. I guess the hot chocolate machines broke so often they gave up on them.

Alas.

My plan was to down vast quantities of PowerAde to hydrate myself while filling their mugs, then bring a Coke Zero to power up the following morning. The issue with this plan was the only drink stand open had no PowerAde. It had Acai blueberry vitamin water.

BLEAH!

The need to hydrate remained, but still…

BLEAH!

We cleaned up our stuff, unpacked as quickly as possible and dove into unconsciousness for a brief period before one of the earliest starts of the trip.

18080 steps. 7 miles

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