October 2018 D-Cot Meet 10/12-10/21/18 – day 2

Saturday 10/13/18

Let me just start by saying it was a beautiful morning! Hurricane Michael had cleared the atmosphere and it wasn’t the humid that we would get later. Kelly and Cammie got to Studios just before we did and got a spot right at the front of one of the touchpoints, with us arriving just after them and just before 8:00 am. It was so good to see them again! Huge hugs with Kelly ensued but Cammie didn’t remember us from last year so she was wondering who this strange guy was hugging her mom! It didn’t take long for her to warm up to us though. Fortunately we didn’t have a long wait before they let us to the “rope”, or rather line in the pavement on Hollywood Blvd at 8:20. We were right at the front of that. They led us all, yep all, I think five people may have went down Sunset!, back to Toy Story Land at 8:45. I wanted to make sure Kelly and Cammie stayed in front of us so we didn’t lose track of that little girl. She did great keeping up! We were still right near the front by the time we got back there for Slinky Dog! It wasn’t nearly as bad as the Running of the Dwarfs but I felt it was worse than the Banshee Stampede, probably because of how far back it is and the number of turns. We were on Slinky Dog before 9:00! We were near the front, rows two and three. Oh my gosh, such a fun ride! I love the “boing” sounds and the double launch! I can’t wait to ride it again already! As a bit of a thrill ride junkie this was so much fun for me, I laughed and whooped the whole time! I was so proud of Kathy too, she only screamed a couple times I think, and she said she’d ride again! It is so smooth! From there we all went right over to Alien Swirling Saucers and rode with very minimal wait. It is a very fun ride, just like Towmater’s Junkyard Jamboree, we just found it a little short. We found Toy Story Land to be very well done and loved all the touches and ways they make it look like Andy’s backyard!

We left Toy Story Land and Cammie and Kathy found a spot to relax while Kelly and I rode Tower of Terror. Oh my gosh, Kelly is such a fun person to ride with! We had an absolutely fantastic ride with lots of random drops! Up and down and up part way and hold and down again, over an over! The last one really held the weightlessness and Kelly’s sunglasses actually flew up and hit her in the mouth! It was time for Kathy and me to use our Toy Story Mania FP before it expired so we took our leave of Kelly and Cammie and went to do that. I scored best in car with 170,600! Kathy got a very good score of 112,900. I love the new exit, and we even met up with a photopass photographer there. We met up with Kelly and Cammie for all of us to use our Star Tours FP. While waiting to board Kelly was able to score a FP for me to match her Rock-n-Roller Coaster FP for 11:15! Woohoo! She had been trying all morning, and even before that! I was going to be able to complete all 6 rides at Studios in a morning! Back to Star Tours, when they put us in a row, which was about midway in the vehicle, Kelly and Cammie were at the end, first to go in. While waiting I had an idea that I hoped would work. I had them switch with us, with Cammie going in last of us four, Kathy on the end, me, Kelly, and Cammie. I had hopes of her being chosen as the Rebel Spy. Well it worked! Cammie was the Rebel Spy! It was so cool! Now both of us are rebel spies! We had a bit of time before our window for RnRC opened so we walked over and I used our Disney Visa for all of us to meet Kylo Ren. Kelly didn’t even know that Visa meet existed in the Star Wars Launch Bay! Not many others do either it seems because it’s never crowded or a wait. Cammie was a bit scared so she hung back and when Kylo gets all up in your face, I think Kelly was a little bit scared too! It’s such a fun meet and Kylo has always been very much in character! Kelly and I then left Cammie and Kathy to go used our FP for RnRC. We got a photopass together just entering the courtyard. The lines were pretty backed up, even FP so we played Heads Up Disney on Kelly’s phone for a bit. Such a fun game! We laughed and had a good time! Then Cammie started texting me from Kathy’s phone! Oh my gosh we both laughed at her texts so much! We finally got to our limo and had just a great ride! Kelly is so much fun to ride these with! She was giggling the whole time I think! We met up with Kathy and Cammie at the exit and then walked them as far as Hollywood Blvd where we split, them to lunch at Sci-Fi and us to the buses to go back to Pop. We saw a Pop bus pulling out through the stops so we caught a bus to AoA that was at the stop. This is where a tip learned from our kids the previous month started to pay off. They had experienced some delays with Pop buses and had started to take AoA buses when available. It worked great! I think we probably did that at least three or maybe four times throughout our trip, and where our room was in Pop, it worked great for us! We would fill our mug at AoA drink stations and it was a quick walk past the pool to the bridge and a quick left to our room. I think we saved quite a bit of time doing that! So pro tip for anyone staying at Pop. Or AoA for that matter. If you can, take the first bus for either resort, especially if one is already at the stop! We had a delicious lunch of pot roast, splitting one adult and one kids, for about 2/3 of an adult meal each. Perfect amount of food and lunch for 2 for $20! Kathy jumped in the shower to freshen up for the meet. While back at home I scored a FP for Soarin for 8:30 – 9:30! I texted Heather and she was able to get one for her and Ryan starting at 8:20! Team Pooh Tigger so totally rocks!

Once Kathy was ready I plugged in the lights so they would be lit for the evening and when we got home and we took the bus to DS where we shopped a bit with a purpose of finding some gifts, which we did. Then it was time for the D-Cot meet! We had a great time with everybody! It was so awesome to meet more D-Cotters! I think there were probably about 10 of us there. We played the trivia game that I had made for the meet, which Heather won! We took some pictures and chatted for quite a bit, longer than I even expected! Since the four of us wanted to get to Epcot we quickly finished shopping with Heather and Ryan and caught the boat to POFQ. By strange, wonderful happenstance Stephen texted Heather and me that they were boarding a boat at OKW for DS! We were able to wave to him from our boat as we passed! That was such an unexpected and great surprise! Such a relaxing boat ride, especially in the evening right around sunset! We got back to their resort and Kathy got her knees taped and checked by Dr. Ryan. Thank you Ryan! They worked great! We filled the mugs and headed for Epcot. We could tell it was Saturday night during Food & Wine! Although the food booths weren’t backed up too badly, there were for sure quite a number of people there! We enjoyed some samplings of food, Kathy and I loving the chicken from Thailand and we all really liked the pasta with ham and cheese from Germany! So good! We then made our way up to use our FP for Soarin’. After flying around the world we were all tired and ready to call it a night! We headed out and said goodnight to Heather and Ryan at the buses for the second time in two days. I liked this habit this was becoming! We were able to catch a bus pretty quickly and were home by 10:15. The lights looked great when we got back! A very fun day, but boy were we tired!

Steps: 31,046
Miles: 14.02
Wheel spin: 10