This will be slightly off topic, but this is the recap of our short trip down to WDW from the 25th-28th.
We started driving down Friday evening, but we ended up stopping a little outside of Jacksonville which allowed us to finally experience Buc-Ee's and it's as good as people claim. I'm from NJ and everyone from NJ raves about Wawa, holy crap Wawa cannot hold a candle to Buc-Ee's. It was the middle of the night we ended up getting a few of their snacks, and some of their BBQ. For a gas station chain their pulled pork sandwich was actually pretty and massive for the price. We didn't get Beaver Nuggets but we did their White Chocolate Peanut Butter Overbite, a few of their trail mix blends, and the Pineapple Creme soda they have on tap was to quote Ginn super "refreshing and delicious"
We crashed at a cheap hotel in Jacksonville, woke up fairly early Saturday morning and stopped at Disney Springs as we had Epcot Park Pass Reservations and had to kill some time between 9 and 11AM. We tried the Homecomin Brunch as a walk up and as seated pretty much immediately. We love Homecomin and have yet to have a bad meal there, this continued the streak. We shared the Donuts and the Hallelujah Biscuit and it was more than enough food for the both of us. Megan was super upset she wanted to get the new Jerrod Maruyama Dooney bag, when they first came out the one she wanted was $198, we found them to be marked up to now be $278, she ended up deciding against it and got the Tomorrowland Dress Shop Dress instead.
Let me tell you that getting into the parking lot was an absolute disaster...I never waited so long to get in through the Epcot toll plaza and then into the parking lot and into a space. The biggest issue was 4 lanes went down to 3, but you didn't know that until about 5 feet out from where a CM was directing traffic by pretty flailing jazz hands pointing people left and right. It was a piss poor effort, and not to bash the CMs but the one that was there was pretty much useless. They should have had someone about 500 yards ahead of where this CM was, or put a sign out saying X lane is ending.
We had AP reservations for the Remy Preview by the time we got into the park it was our time to go starting at 12PM. We walked right in, rode Ratatouille in the back half of the ride vehicle getting stuck behind 2 people who filmed the entire ride on iPads. The wait time was less than 5 minutes so we went back on and requested the front half of the ride vehicle so we could enjoy it without having to view it through someone elses iPad. We did a bunch of shopping at the Creations Shop, got the new Epcot Jacket, the Spaceship Earth ornament, and the Epcot Pavilion Jigsaw Puzzle. I wanted the SE Vase but they were sold out of those. We rode Living With the Land, and Soarin, took a water break at Sunshine Seasons, went out rode SE, and then we left to go back to our hotel room at All Stars Movies which was ready. We snagged a Hotwire Hot Deal where we got a standard room at ASMovies for a shade over $80 a night with taxes so I can't complain about being able to stay on Disney property for less than a $100 a night. We had dinner reservations for Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge, and to quote PMM I became the "Master of the Meat Sweats" I had to eat nearly a dozen of the piggy wings. The food is nothing fancy but it's plentiful and delicious. We were disappointed they were sold out of the Wilderness Lodge Corkcicle, we're hoping they will be back in stock when we are down again in November.
Sunday was our Studios Day, and it was the first day of them doing the early entry for resort guests. We got there nice and early and were able to snag a electric charging spot which got us pretty much right next to the front gate. Taking advantage of the early entry we were able to pound out a ton of rides very quickly. By a little after 11AM we were able to ride; Mickey and Minnie, ASSx3, Slinky Dog, Star Toursx2, Smugglers Run, and Rise of the Resistance. We left the Studios, stopped at Publix to get some room drinks, snacks, and a Pub Sub for lunch. We rested at the hotel for a bit, had a quick swim, and then headed out to Animal Kingdom a little before 5PM. We were able to ride Dinosaur 3x, Safari, we stopped at Satuli for a quick snack splitting the Cheeseburger Pods Kids Meal and the Blueberry Cheesecake Mousse. After that we got into line to close out the night of Flight of Passage. I will say there is nothing better than seeing other guests completely lose their mind when they experience an attraction like that for the first time.
Monday we went out for breakfast at Ale and Compass, and it was a good solid meal. I got the Blueberry Bacon Pancakes, Megan got the Salted Caramel Apple French Toast. Since this was a last minute trip and Megan couldn't really take vacation time, she would work from the hotel room while I went out to MK. I was able to hop on a bus from Yacht Club and get to MK in time for the early entry at 8:30. It is kind of crappy they only open Fantasy and Tomorrowland for the early entry. I ended up riding Buzz a couple times, People Mover, and Peter Pan during the early entry period. Once Adventureland and Liberty Square opened I ran over Haunted rode it twice, shuffled over to Pirates, rode that twice then mobile ordered the Raspberry Swirl Dole Whip, enjoyed that, looked around at some of the 50th statues, then headed out to do some resort hopping via the monorail.
The new Contemporary Lobby is absolutely breath taking in person. It's my aesthetic to a tee, I absolutely adore mid-century modern design elements/furniture and the new lobby just exudes that. Did a little pin trading, and shopping then hopped back onto the monorail went to the Poly, did some more shopping by this time is a little after lunch time so from the Poly I hopped on the Disney Springs bus and placed a mobile order for Polite Pig. Had Megan drive to Springs to pick me up at the Orange Garage once the food was ready. Honestly the flavors were good, but the brisket was super dry. Megan liked their pulled pork sandwich. We split a side of mac and cheese which was pretty good. Since we moved to NC I will say the BBQ at Polite Pig is just alright, it's overpriced for what it is, though not as overpriced and sad as Brooklyn BBQ. I think for 15-17 a sandwich they should at least come with a side included, like potato salad, cole slaw, chips or fries. There is a local place near us in NC, called the Smoke Pit for 14 dollars I can get this massive sandwich that includes burnt ends, pulled pork, smoked sausage, slaw and it comes with one side and includes pickles. We still need to try Regal Eagle and will most likely do that in November. We ate the food back at the hotel, and I took some time to relax as I was getting a massive blister, so I went for a swim and soak in the pool for a bit as Megan finished her work for the day.
Dinner that night was at Sebastian's Bistro. The food was pretty good, I liked it more than Megan, but she's just a super picky eater. The pull apart rolls and guava butter was to die for, as was the Pineapple Bread Pudding dessert. After dinner we hopped on the Skyliner to Epcot to get into Club Cool, and do any last minute shopping as it was our last night at Disney. We were able to get into Club Cool with only a 10 minute wait, when we were previously there on Saturday we were quoted 60-90 minutes just to get, and then it could be another 15-30. The new drinks are okay, I really miss my Melon Frosty. We went back to the Creations Shop to see if anything restocked, it didn't. We made a beeline to the Skyliner as the second to last showing of Epcot Forever went off getting back to the Skyliner Station as the show wrapped up. I am not a fan of them putting multiple parties in each gondola, I get at park close/opening they want to push as many people through, but when we left they were putting 8-10 people in each cabin. Honestly it should be limited to 2 unique parties per cabin, as the two parties can sit on their own benches. When we left we were put into a cabin with a party of 4, another party of 2, and a party of 1. Also if you get stuck with people who can't be decent human beings for 10-15 minutes and keep their masks on, there isn't anything you can do. If you are on a bus or boat and the people next to you absolutely refuse to wear a mask, there is at least a CM on the vehicle that could potentially do something.
Tuesday we had to make the drive back to NC. We didn't know what we wanted to do, so we went to Disney Springs a little after 9AM. Megan worked from a table with an umbrella out near the Disney Style as I got into the Gideon's Line. I was in line at 9:15 and was behind 2 parties of 2. We got the PB Crunch, Coffee Cake, and the Lemon Poppyseed Seasonal cookies. Nothing irks me more than people who can spend 45-60 minutes waiting and then when it's their turn they have no idea what they want. That's what one of the parties of 2 did ahead of me. They asked questions about EVERY SINGLE DAMN COOKIE. I brought the cookies back to Megan and then I went back into Springs to do more shopping, hit up World of Disney, Basin, The Lego Store, and the Co-Op Marketplace. We made reservations for The Boathouse around 11:45 but they were able to take us a bit early. It was our first time at the Boathouse, and it didn't disappoint. We shared the Dips and Duo which was Pimento Cheese and Salsa with tortilla chips. Super simple, but very good nonetheless. Megan got the Yacht Club Sandwich and I got the Gibson's Burger. Very good portions, really love their fries reminded me of McDonalds fries but with skins and a bit crispier. We got the Strawberry Shortcake to share as a dessert and oh boy was it good. When we made the reservation the menu didn't have the shortcake on it, the one dessert was wanted to try was the Orange Creme Brulee but that wasn't on the menu when we were there.
After lunch we went back to the car and made the drive back to NC. Drive wasn't bad at all, took a little over 8 hours. I absolutely love our Hyundai Ioniq PHEV can make the trip on one tank of gas. Roughly 563 miles to Disney from our place in NC, and we still had gas in the tank, averaged nearly 55MPG.
So it was a short trip, but a good trip. Only disappointing thing was the parking situation at Epcot on our first day. We didn't even get to try anything from the Food and Wine Booths, but we'll take care of that when we are back down in November. It was quite hot, which made things a bit uncomfortable at times. It is nice being able to be maskless outside especially when you have room to being physically distant. Mask compliance inside was alright. When we were in line for Smugglers a guy pretty much ate an entire bag of smoked sausages throughout the entire queue. On Test Track we were seated with a group that took their masks off right after the seatbelt check.
Anyway thanks for reading my giant wall of text. So here is a giant selfie of me in front of the Tiiki Shrug Statue.
is 
This one guy said he was shaking when he met Tim. Wtf? He is a dude who records videos at theme parks. This is the stupidest shit I have ever heard. 
