TSR6
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2005
Hello! Welcome to my media-heavy trip report!
Our trip started with a nice leisurely drive from Wisconsin. I stopped at a couple places on my drive down to Florida for work... so we had no rush. We arrived at Pop Century on 10/17, checked in, and then headed over to the Orlando Brewing Company for some good local Orlando beer. Our Pop Century stay was from Saturday until a Monday morning check out... see below to where we went next!
Sunday was another non-park day, so we headed over to Disney Springs...aka...Downtown Disney. This gave us a chance to check out the new parking garage (which is awesome). I have to give a lot of credit to Disney on these new parking garages. They're easy to enter, easy to find open spots, and easy to exit. It's nothing like what the old parking lot. Once you enter the garage, they even have LED signs showing you how many parking spots are available and the lower levels all have overhead red and green LEDs to show which spots are open, so you'll never have the "mini-cooper between two SUV's" issue.
Here's my video driving into the parking structure:
Once in Downtown Disney, I'm very impressed with the state of the construction - there's still a lot going on, but unlike my last trip, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel - and it looks good. I can't wait until the old Pleasure Island is finished up. We ended up going to Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar for some drinks and appetizers to hold us over until dinner. The place had a really cool atmosphere and stuff hanging on the walls. I really like what they did with the place. Just don't go there starving... we weren't aware they didn't have full meals there, so we had some appetizers to tide us over. We chose the pretzels with beer cheese & mustard (great!) and the tacos (ok... didnt realize they were vegi tacos..lol) - and they also had a great drink and beer selection.
Here's a video of the exterior and inside Jock Lindsey's Hanger bar:
Afterwards, we headed over to the Wilderness Campgrounds to check out the horse stables. If you have a spare day... I would recommend checking them out. I didnt take much for video or pictures over there - but it's where all the WDW horses stay, and they also have an area for pony rides and such. It was cool to check that out. While we were over there, we also decided to check and see what it could cost to add a park day to finish the day at EPCOT. $20 worth of ticket upgrades later, we were headed to Food & Wine a day early.
We REALLY enjoyed Food & Wine. Some favorites include:
After Sunday night, we checked out of the Pop Century Resort.
BOARDWALK
Our original stay was at the Boardwalk Resort from Sunday until Saturday - but when the discounts came out, our TA noticed she could set us up for a split stay between Pop Century and Boardwalk on their Club Level and add on the extra day (Saturday) to our pop stay for the same cost. So we did it!
The Boardwalk Club level was absolutely fantastic. We enjoyed having an included breakfast each morning, snacks the couple times we came back to BWI, and then having deserts and drinks at night after the parks on the nights we were back before 10pm was nice - especially since we were in EPCOT most of the time, and walking distance from the room. We also had a fantastic view - our room overlooked the main courtyard and the Boardwalk. Check out the view from our room's balcony here:
This is the 2nd time we've had a "Boardwalk view" at BWI, and I have had people ask and/or comment about Boardwalk noise outside... It's not bad. If you sleep in, the Friendship boats do start running before the parks open, and they do use their horns - however, I never noticed them until after our alarm went off. At night, the Boardwalk gets pretty quiet after 11pm, so I've never had an issue with having a Boardwalk view room.
Why do we choose Boardwalk? We really like EPCOT, especially during Food & Wine. We walk to the parks. It's a nice short walk. If you haven't done it before? Check out the walk in real time - I didnt edit this at all for speed - it shows the entire walk. It's not that bad at all!
Overall, the stay was pretty seemless...no issues with the stay. The beds were amazing.
The absolute only problem we had during our stay was with the in-room delivery of some wine glasses we bought. They were delivered to the room on our last full day at the parks - the day before checkout. The wine glasses were broken, and we didnt get back to the room to find out the problem until nearly midnight. This made for a fun visit to concierge at 7am the next morning - but thankfully due to some Disney magic, we had replacements delivered to our room by 9:30am and we were on the road headed home shortly afterwards.
Magic Kingdom:
Our main highlight at the Magic Kingdom was the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. While it was pretty busy early on, the park emptied out pretty early. We were pretty disappointed that the castle's light show was discontinued. We hit every ride and attraction we wanted to hit that was open during the Halloween Party....and the candy lines worked out pretty well. We bought home plenty of loot! If you hit up a MNSSHP, don't forget to seek out the Dapper Dan's special night time performance.... they turn into the Cadaver Dans at night!
EPCOT:
F&W...and F&W....and F&W.... oh, and we occasionaly ventured outside the World Showcase. We hit up Living with the Land, Garden Grill (I LOVE their food), Soarin', Test Track, Spaceship Earth and the character spot. We also got very lucky... the only day of our trip that it rained, we headed over to The Seas with Nemo & Friends as it was getting cloudy and road the ride there - by the time we got off, it was pouring outside, so we checked out the fish tanks and got to watch the manatee's inside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8mtMmYvJSw
We also did the "Pick A Pearl" in Japan again... for $17 you get to pick an oyster for them to open and reveal your pearl to take home!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ewky9Bua4I
Hollywood Studios (MGM!):
This was a short day for us... We hit Tower of Terror and Star Tours with FP's, Rockin' Roller Coaster through the single rider line, and then Light's Motor's Action in the director's VIP seats! LMA was definitely the highlight of the day at the Studios.
Animal Kingdom:
Another partial park date... We hit Everest, Tough to be a Bug....and then just me...myself...and I rode the Kali River Rapids. My wife didn't want to get wet. I got soaked....
Trader Sam's:
Hello awesome! We really enjoyed Trader Sam's at the Polynesian Resort. The drinks were absolutely fantastic, and the atmosphere inside was fun! We ended up at Trader Sam's twice during our trip... and did some of the souvenir glasses.
We also went to Ohana's the one night after Trader Sam's - and timed it right to be able to watch Hallowishes from Ohana's! The food...as always... was fantastic.
...all in all, we had a fantastic trip. We had a blast... and I can't wait for our next Food & Wine trip. We'll see when that will be.
Our trip started with a nice leisurely drive from Wisconsin. I stopped at a couple places on my drive down to Florida for work... so we had no rush. We arrived at Pop Century on 10/17, checked in, and then headed over to the Orlando Brewing Company for some good local Orlando beer. Our Pop Century stay was from Saturday until a Monday morning check out... see below to where we went next!
Sunday was another non-park day, so we headed over to Disney Springs...aka...Downtown Disney. This gave us a chance to check out the new parking garage (which is awesome). I have to give a lot of credit to Disney on these new parking garages. They're easy to enter, easy to find open spots, and easy to exit. It's nothing like what the old parking lot. Once you enter the garage, they even have LED signs showing you how many parking spots are available and the lower levels all have overhead red and green LEDs to show which spots are open, so you'll never have the "mini-cooper between two SUV's" issue.
Here's my video driving into the parking structure:
Once in Downtown Disney, I'm very impressed with the state of the construction - there's still a lot going on, but unlike my last trip, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel - and it looks good. I can't wait until the old Pleasure Island is finished up. We ended up going to Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar for some drinks and appetizers to hold us over until dinner. The place had a really cool atmosphere and stuff hanging on the walls. I really like what they did with the place. Just don't go there starving... we weren't aware they didn't have full meals there, so we had some appetizers to tide us over. We chose the pretzels with beer cheese & mustard (great!) and the tacos (ok... didnt realize they were vegi tacos..lol) - and they also had a great drink and beer selection.
Here's a video of the exterior and inside Jock Lindsey's Hanger bar:
Afterwards, we headed over to the Wilderness Campgrounds to check out the horse stables. If you have a spare day... I would recommend checking them out. I didnt take much for video or pictures over there - but it's where all the WDW horses stay, and they also have an area for pony rides and such. It was cool to check that out. While we were over there, we also decided to check and see what it could cost to add a park day to finish the day at EPCOT. $20 worth of ticket upgrades later, we were headed to Food & Wine a day early.
We REALLY enjoyed Food & Wine. Some favorites include:
- Canada's Steak & Beer Cheese
- New Zealand's Venison
- Australia's Lamb
- Italy's Muscato
- Scotland's Scallops
- The Craft Beer Pavilion
After Sunday night, we checked out of the Pop Century Resort.
BOARDWALK
Our original stay was at the Boardwalk Resort from Sunday until Saturday - but when the discounts came out, our TA noticed she could set us up for a split stay between Pop Century and Boardwalk on their Club Level and add on the extra day (Saturday) to our pop stay for the same cost. So we did it!
The Boardwalk Club level was absolutely fantastic. We enjoyed having an included breakfast each morning, snacks the couple times we came back to BWI, and then having deserts and drinks at night after the parks on the nights we were back before 10pm was nice - especially since we were in EPCOT most of the time, and walking distance from the room. We also had a fantastic view - our room overlooked the main courtyard and the Boardwalk. Check out the view from our room's balcony here:
This is the 2nd time we've had a "Boardwalk view" at BWI, and I have had people ask and/or comment about Boardwalk noise outside... It's not bad. If you sleep in, the Friendship boats do start running before the parks open, and they do use their horns - however, I never noticed them until after our alarm went off. At night, the Boardwalk gets pretty quiet after 11pm, so I've never had an issue with having a Boardwalk view room.
Why do we choose Boardwalk? We really like EPCOT, especially during Food & Wine. We walk to the parks. It's a nice short walk. If you haven't done it before? Check out the walk in real time - I didnt edit this at all for speed - it shows the entire walk. It's not that bad at all!
Overall, the stay was pretty seemless...no issues with the stay. The beds were amazing.
The absolute only problem we had during our stay was with the in-room delivery of some wine glasses we bought. They were delivered to the room on our last full day at the parks - the day before checkout. The wine glasses were broken, and we didnt get back to the room to find out the problem until nearly midnight. This made for a fun visit to concierge at 7am the next morning - but thankfully due to some Disney magic, we had replacements delivered to our room by 9:30am and we were on the road headed home shortly afterwards.
Magic Kingdom:
Our main highlight at the Magic Kingdom was the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. While it was pretty busy early on, the park emptied out pretty early. We were pretty disappointed that the castle's light show was discontinued. We hit every ride and attraction we wanted to hit that was open during the Halloween Party....and the candy lines worked out pretty well. We bought home plenty of loot! If you hit up a MNSSHP, don't forget to seek out the Dapper Dan's special night time performance.... they turn into the Cadaver Dans at night!
EPCOT:
F&W...and F&W....and F&W.... oh, and we occasionaly ventured outside the World Showcase. We hit up Living with the Land, Garden Grill (I LOVE their food), Soarin', Test Track, Spaceship Earth and the character spot. We also got very lucky... the only day of our trip that it rained, we headed over to The Seas with Nemo & Friends as it was getting cloudy and road the ride there - by the time we got off, it was pouring outside, so we checked out the fish tanks and got to watch the manatee's inside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8mtMmYvJSw
We also did the "Pick A Pearl" in Japan again... for $17 you get to pick an oyster for them to open and reveal your pearl to take home!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ewky9Bua4I
Hollywood Studios (MGM!):
This was a short day for us... We hit Tower of Terror and Star Tours with FP's, Rockin' Roller Coaster through the single rider line, and then Light's Motor's Action in the director's VIP seats! LMA was definitely the highlight of the day at the Studios.
Animal Kingdom:
Another partial park date... We hit Everest, Tough to be a Bug....and then just me...myself...and I rode the Kali River Rapids. My wife didn't want to get wet. I got soaked....
Trader Sam's:
Hello awesome! We really enjoyed Trader Sam's at the Polynesian Resort. The drinks were absolutely fantastic, and the atmosphere inside was fun! We ended up at Trader Sam's twice during our trip... and did some of the souvenir glasses.
We also went to Ohana's the one night after Trader Sam's - and timed it right to be able to watch Hallowishes from Ohana's! The food...as always... was fantastic.
...all in all, we had a fantastic trip. We had a blast... and I can't wait for our next Food & Wine trip. We'll see when that will be.
