Newsies' Quest for the Unicorn Pinata - A Julaugust TR - FINISHED 9/21!

**UPDATE BEGINS HERE**

Alright you guys, let's get some real life stuff out of the way first!

I am, indeed, back in NYC for the semester. Moved in yesterday. Whoop-whoop!

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(Peep those Disney-themed letters my big gave me last year!)

This leaves us with good news and bad news. Should we get the bad news out of the way first?

So the bad news is that it looks like I'm really going to hit the ground running on Wednesday when classes actually begin. Professors are beginning to email their syllabus and lesson plans, there are at least three major events coming up for my sorority this month (one of which I actually programmed as a g-board chair holder), Broadway tickets are being purchased, and I'm not even going to be around from the 13-17. Tuesday is my worst day this semester with 3 classes (2 of which are 3-hour lectures), but I only have one class Thursday and no Friday classes.

Obviously, this is where things go downhill for the TR :sad1:. However, I do have quite a bit of free time between today and Wednesday, and I'm projected to finish writing the TR today. :banana: I have about 3 updates left to write, not including the conclusion, so there are about 5 updates left to post for you guys! Here's the rest of my Hollywood Studios day!


The Lackluster Luau
August 3 cont.
Before I went back to the room, I grabbed dad’s new DVC member card and stopped in BouTiki. I decided that the best way to commemorate this new journey would be to buy a keychain of our new home resort with our new DVC discount!

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I went back to the room, quickly put on my bathing suit, then joined my family at the “quiet” Poly pool for an hour or two. It was so nice to relax in the pool for a bit on the tail end of a long vacation.

When we got out, I took my shower first, then got dressed and went to the collect our tickets for tonight’s dinner: The Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show!

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By the time I had gotten back to the room, everyone else was pretty much ready in about 15 minutes. Then we headed off to the Great Ceremonial House so that we could get to Luau Cove!

This was my most anticipated experience of the trip, but the weather that night was… concerning. The clouds were getting darker and darker and I knew the sky was going to open up any minute, and I was getting really worried that our show might get cancelled. We arrived alongside the crowd at 5:00 for our show and almost as soon as we reached Luau Cove, the sky opened up. We ran to the verandah and waited to be brought to our seats!

I don’t know how many of you have ever gone through sorority recruitment, but the way you’re seated for Spirit of Aloha is definitely exactly the way that fomal recruitment works: All of the waiters were standing in a line and as you approached them with your party, the first one in line got out to show you to your seats. It’s so hard to describe but that’s the best way I can describe it.

We sat down and I was immediately irritated because it was still raining and it was really steamy underneath the seating area so my camera wasn’t cooperating. Our waiter brought out the appetizers first: these really nice coconut rolls, some pineapple, some mixed greens, and some cold noodles. I seem to remember everything being okay here, especially the rolls.

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They weren’t out for long before we got our dinner.

My camera was now getting over it’s little hissy fit due to the rain!


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There’s some mixed vegetables, some pulled pork, some rice, some ribs, and some roasted chicken. I remember the pulled pork being really good… and I don’t remember much else.

All of us were disappointed with the dinner. It was pretty mediocre. You can make the argument that you’re paying for the show and not the food, but Hoop-Dee-Doo had arguably MUCH better food than Spirit of Aloha. I was honestly surprised.

Dessert was pretty good, so it did end on a positive note. They had this really nice vanilla cake with a guava filling and chocolate crunchies on top of vanilla icing. It was a little too small for our table and our waiter immediately offered to bring more out, but we had kind of had enough of the food here. I was actually expecting the volcano mousse dessert and didn’t realize they had changed it, but I loved the cake! “Guava” was the name of the game for me this trip, it seems to be in EVERY dessert at the Poly, and I wasn’t mad at it.

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The coffee was also very good, and I really enjoyed sipping on it throughout the show!

Speaking of the show, let’s talk about the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show!

Spirit of Aloha is split up into two halves. The first half sets up a pretty basic, easy-to-follow albeit forgettable plot. Some hula student is going to the mainland and her auntie is throwing her a luau to celebrate. There’s a wacky, eccentric duo composed of a boy and a girl and the boy falls in love with her or something, and they’re all planning this luau for this really pretty hula dancer. It’s peppered with songs from Elvis Presley, 9/10 of them are featured in Lilo and Stitch. The second half is what you’re really here for: it’s the portion of the show that includes performances of authentic dances from Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand and Hawaii.

So what did we think of it?

The first half is bad. Like, really bad. Like, mom-and-dad-are-roasting-me-in-the-family-group-chat-while-the-show-is-happening bad. Grace and I are sending each other memes because we can’t bring ourselves to pay attention to the cringey, forced romance between the boy and the girl character on stage. Mom’s direct words were, “I say we take Kaitlyn off the deed for this one.” I NEVER text while a show is going on but I seriously couldn’t handle this. Admittedly, it’s not for us. It’s for the young children who will enjoy the basic comedy and easy-to-comprehend plot.

I thought the second half was terrific. All of the dances were beautiful and the Samoan fire and knife performer is just amazing. I was mesmerized by the beautiful costumes and gorgeous dances from the Polynesian culture. If the show was JUST the second half, things would have gone a lot better for us.

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At the end of the day, Spirit of Aloha wasn’t for us. That’s disappointing because all of us were looking forward to it and we spent 2 TS credits on it. Young children were really entertained by it, so if you have young children with you and you’re looking for a unique way to spend a night, by all means make a reservation for them. They’ll laugh and dance along and enjoy some standard children’s fare for dinner. But if you’re a family with older kids or just plain kids-at-heart: take your business over to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue for a funnier, more interactive show with more palatable food.

Oh, Spirit of Aloha. You weren’t my favorite, but thanks for the beautiful dancing and the yummy guava cake.

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I wanted to get to Epcot that evening because the piñata was still on my mind, but it wasn’t happening. The park was closing in an hour and a half and I still had to walk all the way over to the other side of Poly, change into a different outfit, put on sneakers, hike it over to the TTC and then walk from the main entrance all the way to Mexico. And I didn’t even know what time the temple closed! Plus, it was threatening to rain again and rain + my pretty paper unicorn wouldn’t mix well.

I stopped mom, dad, and Grace at the beach to take some pictures.

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Then I took some pictures of the resort on our way back. Our new home is so gorgeous.

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Grace and mom decided that they wanted a Dole Whip and with ample snack credits to spare, I got one as well.

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Then we went back to the room, I finished the Dole Whip and took a nap.

I set my timer for half an hour and when I woke up, mom had just texted me asking me to come up to the lounge for desserts and fireworks.

Here’s my plate for the night.

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They had some great options that. The strawberry mousse cake, which was that little pink thing, was delicious. And that éclair in the bottom was probably my favorite thing from either dessert service! The two tartlets on the right are s’more tarts, which were wonderful. On the left, there’s a mini cherry pie tart thing which I appreciated because it was different and I love cherry pie filling!

After dinner, mom and I decided that we wanted to go to the Contemporary. I brought my camera with me so that I could snap some pics of my second favorite resort.

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First we went to BVG. We looked around for a while. Mom almost got a DVC Alex and Ani bangle and I almost bought this little guy:

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Ultimately, we decided against these purchases and went over to Fantasia gifts.

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I got a LOT of things here. I bought two pins, one for my big and one for my best friend. I bought two of the VHS notebooks for my friends who were hosting me overnight for the Newsies reunion. And finally… I caved and bought Lucifer for myself. And now I’m holding Lucifer on my lap as I type this update, his long tail cascading onto the ground.

We didn’t spend too long at the Contemporary after that. I’m pretty sure we just went back to the hotel so that we could get to sleep. I had to be up early the next morning so that I could sign the deed to our DVC!

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(Click here to continue!)
 
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So sorry you didn't have a good luau experience! That's good to know though. We went on our 2005 trip and it was great, but that was obviously a very long time ago. I actually went to a real luau in Hawaii in 2012 and distinctly remember thinking that Disney's luau and food was better than the real Hawaiian one, so things must've changed a lot.
 
So sorry you didn't have a good luau experience! That's good to know though. We went on our 2005 trip and it was great, but that was obviously a very long time ago. I actually went to a real luau in Hawaii in 2012 and distinctly remember thinking that Disney's luau and food was better than the real Hawaiian one, so things must've changed a lot.

Eh, you win some, you lose some. At least that's one more thing we can cross off of our bucket list. I've heard that the luau was great in years past! In its prime, I'm sure it was a truly not-to-miss experience!
 


Oh man, sorry the Spirit of Aloha was such a bust! But you wouldn't have known if you didn't try it!

Lucifer looks so cute on your lap :) Good luck with school!
 
Oh man, sorry the Spirit of Aloha was such a bust! But you wouldn't have known if you didn't try it!

Lucifer looks so cute on your lap :) Good luck with school!

Exactly! That's a really positive take on it all!

Thank you so much!
 


The Momentous Morning
August 4
Our final day at Walt Disney World started super early. I got up at 8:30 so that I could sign papers at 9:15. I was a little upset because that didn’t leave us with much of a window for breakfast, but I was so tired that waking up any earlier was out of the question.

Thankfully, when we got over to the Grand Ceremonial House to check in with DVC, our agent wasn’t ready yet. That left us with time to grab breakfast after all!

Any guesses as to what I ordered from Captain Cooks?

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You guessed it!

Tonga toast is one of my favorite breakfast items, the toast is really fluffy and it’s great with cinnamon sugar. But it wasn’t as good as it is with the strawberry compote you get at the Kona café. I would pay extra to have some of that to just dip a little bit of my toast in at Captain Cooks! I also had a cup of coffee, which was just okay.

After our quick breakfast, we returned to the DVC stand at the Great Ceremonial House and took a seat for a few minutes. After 5 or so minutes went by, we were collected by Katie, who walked us over to Pago Pago! She was a DVC member who did her college program in 2011. She was lovely!

We were brought into a room where we sat down and Rob got our paperwork started. He explained everything to me as I went through the many, many forms I had to sign.

About 10 minutes into the paperwork, Derrick came in. Derrick was the DVC expert who sold my family the club yesterday and he came in with a Mickey Mouse rice krispie treat for me! I was told about how kind he was the day before, so I was excited to meet him.

“Can I get you guys a ride after this?” He asked, which I thought was really sweet because they’re really only obligated to offer us a ride in a DVC van after the tour!

I was actually hoping to go to Epcot before DAK so I could snatch that piñata before our first FP+, but I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to go to DAK with my family in a DVC van.

The paper work was finished in about 40 minutes and before we had a van called for us, I asked to see one of the display studios since I had only seen the Bungalows before. I didn’t take any photos, but I can assure you all that they were lovely and I was so excited to call them my home!

Derrick came in with four of these sweet little tote bags for us and I gasped because I fell in love with them.

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Sorry that's not the best picture! As you can tell, I've already been using it as a book bag!

He packaged them up in these boxes and decorated them for us right there like a pro. When we got back to the room, I noticed that he brought it back to the boss so that he could congratulate us himself!

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Derrick was a true professional and we really appreciated having him as our DVC expert. He was incredibly courteous and really went the extra mile for us!

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We spoke to a couple as we waited for our van. They were retired military and their daughter was gearing up to apply for the Spring 2018 DCP, so I gave them some advice to pass along to her and wished her luck.

Soon enough we were on a van headed towards Disney’s Animal Kingdom!

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We arrived in about 15 minutes, but security was a nightmare this day. It took us about 10 minutes to push through and the turnstiles had some really long lines going on. DAK was just unreasonably crowded and I wasn’t quite sure why.

We pushed through and decided to take a trip to Pandora, even though our first FP+ there wasn’t for a few hours.

Who’s ready for some Pandora pics?

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Leave it to Disney to make something so mundane as contract signing so FUN! Derrick sounds like he was awesome and I love the bags you guys got!!
 
Omg my agnostic heart actually wants to pray for you after seeing your schedule. This is why I'm taking 14 credits and essentially doing very little so I actually can sleep for once in my life. I love that picture tho, but whose butt is Shelly Mae sniffing?

I'm sorry to hear Spirit of Aloha wasn't up to snuff. I was very surprised over how excited you were to see it. I've heard some very meh things about it. It's the reason why Hoop-Dee-Doo is always talked about on Instagram but never Spirit of Aloha. I'm sorry that never made its way around to you sooner.

Yay for buying it all up in Fantasia merch. I'm lowkey bitter you didn't buy your Disney Bff one of those VHS notebooks that he was drooling over when you bought your lesser friends one, but it’s fine it’s fine. I’ll get something better eventually.

Omg what a cute way to sign your DVC contract! Derrick sounds like a bomb CM. Maybe he’d be able to convince my parents to get DVC… probably not, but you know.

Hoping Pandora goes a lot better than I think you told me it did and you just were in PDD mode and that you get your little piñata BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT!
 
Leave it to Disney to make something so mundane as contract signing so FUN! Derrick sounds like he was awesome and I love the bags you guys got!!

Disney really goes the extra mile for stuff like this! Derrick was great, we sincerely appreciated how welcomed he made us feel!

Omg my agnostic heart actually wants to pray for you after seeing your schedule. This is why I'm taking 14 credits and essentially doing very little so I actually can sleep for once in my life. I love that picture tho, but whose butt is Shelly Mae sniffing?

I'm sorry to hear Spirit of Aloha wasn't up to snuff. I was very surprised over how excited you were to see it. I've heard some very meh things about it. It's the reason why Hoop-Dee-Doo is always talked about on Instagram but never Spirit of Aloha. I'm sorry that never made its way around to you sooner.

Yay for buying it all up in Fantasia merch. I'm lowkey bitter you didn't buy your Disney Bff one of those VHS notebooks that he was drooling over when you bought your lesser friends one, but it’s fine it’s fine. I’ll get something better eventually.

Omg what a cute way to sign your DVC contract! Derrick sounds like a bomb CM. Maybe he’d be able to convince my parents to get DVC… probably not, but you know.

Hoping Pandora goes a lot better than I think you told me it did and you just were in PDD mode and that you get your little piñata BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT!

HAHAHAHA I'm switching things around as we speak. One of those 3-hour lectures has to go because I just found out it's a full year course so I can't really take it.

LMFAOOOO Shellie Mae is sniffing my stuffed bunny, whomnst is named Bunny :rotfl:

Honestly, when my fictional Disney insta comes to life, I'm considering becoming a fake #stan! of Spirit of Aloha just because it's much more aesthetically pleasing than Hoop de Doo. I could be a #trendsetter! I had actually heard mixed things about SoA but I was more looking forward to the show which ended up being worse than anyone could have ever relayed in words.

Baeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... I'll buy a notebook for you when we go together. I PROMISE.

Honestly Derrick was amazing and I actually hope your family speaks to him, because he can convince anyone to do anything at any time so I'm sure he could get them on board the DVC train.

Looking back now, Pandora was.... still about the same as I described it to you. I'll talk about it.
 
The Horrible Heat
August 4 cont.
Greetings from Wildwood, NJ! I'm down here to celebrate my father and the rest of my town's volunteer fire company at the NJ State Firefighter's Convention. We went to Cape May this morning and took a stroll on the boardwalk last night. I have a moment of unexpected downtime, so here's the latest update.

I can finally share the bittersweet news that I have, in fact, completed this TR! All that's left is two more updates after this, plus the conclusion which I'll write when I get to it.

This TR will probably have been posted in its entirety by this time next week. Thanks for joining along, here's some AK fun!


Here we go!

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First we stopped at a pretty lonely PP CM and got a family pic taken.

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Then we walked around for a little bit, taking some pics of the scenery.

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I was obsessed immediately. Pandora is BREATH TAKING. So much craftsmanship was put into this land. I wasn’t excited for Pandora when it was first announced, but as it was coming along I got more and more into it.

We walked into Windtraders. I REALLY, REALLY wanted a Banshee but I had the self-restraint to walk away from a robot bird that I would never wear again in my life. A really COOL robot bird, but a robot bird nonetheless.

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There was a cute moss wall and I made Grace take a photo by it.

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We started walking around Animal Kingdom with pretty much no idea what we were doing because we had seriously like 2 or 3 hours until our actual Pandora FP+.

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I wanted to go to Africa because I wanted to find a certain wall…

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Fichwa!

This was a really popular wall during my program and I was desperate to get a photo with it. I tried to find the “you are most beautiful” wall as well, but I couldn’t find it.

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We continued our walk through Asia. I wanted to do Expedition Everest, but the line was over an hour long and nobody else wanted to do it, so I decided maybe the best thing for us to do would be to sit and watch Nemo. I switched around some after-dinner FP+ plans and got us a FP+ for the next showing.

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At this point, it was apparent that my family was not going to want to stick around for Yak & Yeti, which they mentioned this morning. The heat is always unbearable at DAK, but the crowds were just too much today. Nobody wanted to be stuck at this park, so we sat down near Nemo and I cancelled our Y&Y reservation ☹. The curse of Yak & Yeti continued: for the third year in a row, our plans to dine at Y&Y had been thwarted!

Because I mentioned that my dad wasn’t feeling well, the lovely CM on the other end of the phone waived the $10 fee.

They still wanted to do a TS dinner, so I picked out something more lowkey for us: The Wave at the Contemporary Resort. We wanted to see the Top of the World Lounge at BLT with our new DVC membership, so that would be perfect for us!

Soon our FP+ window for Nemo was open and we got in the FP+ line.

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It’s a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuue woooooooooooooooooooooorld.

We sat really close to the front of the stage, and I was pressed right up against the side of the runway! There was this big, awesome Canadian family who was cracking us up before the show started!

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I love Nemo. I actually like it a lot better than FotLK… oops! Sorry, but “Go With the Flow” is the ultimate bop and probably my favorite song in all of Walt Disney World.

Once we got out of Nemo, we decided it was time for a little snack, so we stopped at the ice cream cart closest to us.

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Another unpopular opinion: Mickey’s Premium Ice Cream Sandwich > Mickey’s Premium Ice Cream Bar.

It was getting close to our Pandora FP+ time, so we made our way over there.

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We got in line for Na’vi River Journey and it was about 10 minutes before we were on a boat. We were all super pumped for it!

What was our final verdict on Na’vi River Journey? It was… fine. It was very beautiful and the animatronics were out of this world! I just wish there had been a little more substance. This is Disney’s second cutesy little boat ride in the past two years, and even Frozen had a drop and a PP picture taken. My family ultimately got off the ride a little disappointed.

At this point, we were over DAK so we started making our way out of the park.

Mom, dad, and Grace got on the bus to the Polynesian. But I had unfinished business in another park and it was now or never.

(Click here to continue!)
 
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Beautiful Pandora pics!

I definitely have a mental note to find the You are Most Beautiful wall on my upcoming trip- I hope I find it!

I'm sorry you weren't able to get to Y&Y yet again!

Are you finally going to get your pinata?!?!
 
could not agree with you more!

Glad to hear I'm not alone!

Beautiful Pandora pics!

I definitely have a mental note to find the You are Most Beautiful wall on my upcoming trip- I hope I find it!

I'm sorry you weren't able to get to Y&Y yet again!

Are you finally going to get your pinata?!?!

Thank you so much, I was really excited to take my camera to DAK this day!

It's definitely one of the most popular walls in WDW, and super fun to look for!

That's alright... I think next trip, I'll put DAK at the front of the trip and do a lunch ADR for Yak and Yeti so that we're SURE to go. We'll get there!

Maaaaaybe. You'll have to wait and see!
 
No FoP?! Am I forgetting and you already rode this?

No FoP this trip unfortunately :sad:

I had to choose between FoP and NRJ for FP+ for the day, and dad can't do FoP (nor would mom or Grace enjoy it), so I just did NRJ. The intention was to rope drop FoP by myself so that I could get on it, and sadly, that never happened because I had to sign the paperwork for the DVC, so I missed rope drop. Next trip FOR SURE I will get on FoP! I really wanted to go!

FINALLY all caught up!! Your AK pics are fabulous! And I agree with you about the Mickey ice cream sandwich...crap, now I want one! :lovestruc:lovestruc

Awww, thank you! And yes, they're addicting. Now I want one too!
 

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