The Florida Project! 12 Days @ WDW for our 10th Anniversary! UPDATED 9/23

[annie170]

That's too bad your lunch was disappointing, but at least you had a great pizza at Via Napoli for dinner.

How cool to walk through an empty Epcot at night! I'm curious, was the park closed at that point?

Your vlogs are fun! Do you ever do any talking or just Jeremy?

 

[cajunfan]

Sounds like you guys closed down Epcot! We did that with Magic Kingdom once...they actually cheered when we left and the poor monorail people cheered when we appeared on the ramp (while walking out two managers were doing a sweep behind us and they started a conversation with us to find out where we were staying and what mode of transportation we needed. )

 

[AAshleySEG]

I think for our first time at Via Napoli we were both tired and the service wasn't good and it was very crowded and noisy. This time around we're going there on our arrival day so I think we'll be in a better frame of mind. I love to hang back after Illuminations and wait till the crowds are mostly gone. It just seems so peaceful and the background music adds to the ambience. Looking forward to your next day!

I can totally understand, it is sort of loud in there, especially at the major dinner time! It is sort of cavernous so the sound echos a lot with the loud voices..haha! It is definitely peaceful in Epcot at night, being in World Showcase with all the pavilions lit up! It is pretty magical!

 

[AAshleySEG]

That's too bad your lunch was disappointing, but at least you had a great pizza at Via Napoli for dinner.

How cool to walk through an empty Epcot at night! I'm curious, was the park closed at that point?

Your vlogs are fun! Do you ever do any talking or just Jeremy?

Yeah, you win some and lose some on dining options, but at least we know now for the future that we didn't really enjoy that one! I still want to try Liberty Inn again to give it a fair shot, just maybe eat something different...lol! But yes, that dinner at Via Napoli was fantastic!

I think the park closed at 9:00 that night, so basically right after Illuminations was over people left, so with out late dinner reservation we were in there really late it seemed, and it wasn't that the food took a long time or anything like that, it was probably a combination of our fault and our servers fault because we literally talked to her for 45 minutes or so I bet! It was definitely one of the best conversations with a cast member we have had in a long time! We can talk anytime about traveling! So I am pretty sure that the park was definitely closed, I mean...we didn't see anyone until we got out.

Thanks! I am glad you are enjoying the vlogs! I can't remember if I do anymore talking in these particular ones or not, this time around I gave the control over to Jeremy so we could get his perspective on the trip since we usually only get mine...lol! I know I popped up in the earlier ones though for at least a little bit, I was usually taking photos while he was vlogging! =D Team effort...haha!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Sounds like you guys closed down Epcot! We did that with Magic Kingdom once...they actually cheered when we left and the poor monorail people cheered when we appeared on the ramp (while walking out two managers were doing a sweep behind us and they started a conversation with us to find out where we were staying and what mode of transportation we needed. )

It was pretty amusing, we didn't even realize we were closing it down until we got outside the restaurant! Haha! That's funny that they cheered when you left! We always have such great conversations with cast members late at night. I think we have only been to Magic Kingdom for the Goodnight Kiss one time out of all the times we have been, but I know we have definitely been at Epcot twice after late dinners!

 

[cajunfan]

Our late exit was just a fluke. It was an E-Night (pre-curser of EMH ). We had gone and the boys had met up with a friend from school to ride Splash Mountain. The friend did not know where the camera was for taking the picture. He was not facing it in the picture so we asked if we could ride again...they were in the process of getting logs offline...they let us, and we wanted a print of it, so we went to the gift shop (at the time where they printed them). Well they had trouble with the printer...so we literally were the last guest out of the park. I have fun conversations all the time with park CM...but then my family says I will talk to a brick wall...

 

[AAshleySEG]

Our late exit was just a fluke. It was an E-Night (pre-curser of EMH ). We had gone and the boys had met up with a friend from school to ride Splash Mountain. The friend did not know where the camera was for taking the picture. He was not facing it in the picture so we asked if we could ride again...they were in the process of getting logs offline...they let us, and we wanted a print of it, so we went to the gift shop (at the time where they printed them). Well they had trouble with the printer...so we literally were the last guest out of the park. I have fun conversations all the time with park CM...but then my family says I will talk to a brick wall...

Oh wow! Those good ole days when you would go and get a photo printed out and buy a cool frame to go with it! I need to find one I took with my grandmother back in 1997 with the Splash Mountain frame! Lots of memories like that, I remember one year, Jeremy and I got a poster printed of us on Expedition Everest, its so funny that almost all our photos now are always digital, I do have a few random printed photos framed around the house, mostly they are from the Disney Cruise to Alaska though!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Tuesday, June 13, 2017 - A Grand View & A Disappointing Favorite

Last night we had decided that today would be a lazy day. We were switching resorts for the last time and didn't really want to have anything planned after a few full days of activities. I woke up at around 6:00 am but after realizing what time it was decided to get some more sleep. At around 8:30 am we decided we better get up and start packing and getting ready to leave Saratoga Springs. We didn't have a breakfast reservation or anything for this morning so I decided to check the app and see what I could find. It was really lucky that I found a breakfast/lunch/brunch reservation for Ohana at 11:30! That would allow us to focus on packing but still give us some time to bridge the gap between arrival time at Grand Floridian! We got all of our things packed up and watched TV for just a bit until it was time to leave. We drove over to the Polynesian since we had all of our stuff in the car now and went upstairs to check-in for our reservation. There was a really long line to check-in and it took about 10 minutes or so just to get through that line. Once we finally got checked in, the cast member informed us that they were running about 30 minutes behind as well.

We walked over toward the bar seating area and sat down on a couch and maybe 15 minutes later our buzzer was going off and we were quickly taken to our table. Out server brought out our juice and one of the best parts of the meal the Pineapple Hawaiian Bread!

We planned to tell the server we did not want any meat on the platter, but everything was brought out so quickly we didn't even get a chance! The first plate came with some fruit (grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, and watermelon) with yogurt and tapioca pudding! It was very delicious and the fruit was very yummy!Jeremy was not a fan of the tapioca pudding, but then again he doesn't really like yogurt or anything like that normally.

Of the platter we ate the eggs, biscuits, potatoes, and stitch waffles with syrup! The food was really good and we quickly went through the entire portion, with the exception of the meats.

Once we finished eating we got to meet up with Lilo, Pluto, and Mickey, Stitch was taking quite a bit of time so we decided to head out before greeting him, but overall it was a great last minute dining option and we had fun, best of all for me is always the juice...it never fails to satisfy me!!

I know everyone is thinking, why are there no photos of me...I can't help myself. We weren't really planning on taking photos at all for breakfast, and as the resident photo taker of the two of us sometimes we just really don't take photos of me at all, I have so many photos of me at the Ohana breakfast and everywhere else in all of Disney World really, we do have the odd one every once in a while, and I really need to get better at handing the camera over to Jeremy instead of hogging it all to myself...haha! One day I will, I am sure! Speaking of photos of me...next we headed downstairs after breakfast and we took turns taking photos with the Surfboard! And look...one of them is me peeking out from behind it!!

We walked around and looked in a few of the shops at the Polynesian and before long we were making our way out to the front. We were going to be headed toward Disney Springs for a bit to make use of the covered parking garage so our stuff wouldn't get to hot in the Florida heat!

I finally decided to make a splurge purchase while we were there. I carry a cross-body Vera Bradley bag, 99% of the time. It was given to me by a great friend of mine a few years ago, and by now it has seen its better days, so we thought it would be a good time to replace it. So I ended up getting two more different cross-body bags in the Santiago and Rumba patterns, I also grabbed a toiletry bag since we were planning on doing a lot of traveling in the near future, and it was in the Miny Tody Birds pattern!

We had been walking a bit and worked up a tiny appetite for a snack and decided to try out the cupcake ATM at Sprinkles, there wasn't really a line or anything to get in, but we thought it would be fun to get one out of the ATM for the first time! We chose a Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake and headed back to the car! We were going to wait a bit to eat it, but instead as soon as we got back to the car we gobbled it down because it was so good...haha! It was almost time we thought to head over to Grand Floridian and as we were driving over we got the room number text message! It was perfect timing! We got parked, grabbed our stuff and headed up to the room!!

We stayed in a DVC Studio this time and we were going to be in it for 5 nights! Let me tell you, this resort is always high on my list as first to check whenever we come to Disney, before this one was built, we always used to stay at Kidani Village, but now, we absolutely love this resort, probably our favorite at the moment, at least until we get a chance to stay in those cabins over at Wilderness Lodge! The decor in these rooms is so pretty and comfortable and the lobby is great too, just all around awesome, the only dislike we have might be the parking, but that is such a small thing, and it is better than a few of the others in the parking area so we aren't too worried about it!

The studio come with a split bathroom, the shower and sink in one side, and the toilet and bath tub area in the other side, which we really like, one of us can use the shower area and the other side of the bathroom is free for use too!

It also has the perfect size kitchenette for us to use!

The beds are so comfortable and it has a pull-out sofa and another small bed inside of the dresser area that pulls down so it can actually sleep 5 people which is really helpful if you have kids or even friends with you. It is a very comfortable room size, especially since there is only two of us!

The best surprise for us out of everything though! The view!! The monorail is like, my favorite thing to do at Disney, and I love watching them go by and seeing all of the people on their way to and from Magic Kingdom or the various resorts on them, so when we saw outside our balcony how close we were going to be to seeing it, I was seriously giddy, it was so much fun to sit out there and see it pass by, and you would think it would be loud, but the rooms are so well sound-proofed, you don't even hear it!

Once we had gotten everything unpacked, we thought about going to the pool, but when Jeremy walked down there it was closed due to weather at the moment, so that idea went out the window. So we started trying to figure out what we wanted to eat for dinner and checking what places had open reservations. We decided on sushi at Kona! Our first stop was over at the Tambu Lounge to have a drink. Jeremy had Kona Longboard while I got myself a Pina Colava. After just a bit, our table was ready and once we were seated at one of our favorite restaurants on Disney property, it all started going downhill from there. We checked the menu before we came to the resort, on the Disney website, and allears menus. Once we were seated the sushi menu was different, so they must have changed it VERY recently. Now we didn't really know what we wanted to eat since the sushi menu had changed so drastically. We figured out an alternative, which was actually something I had eaten before and really enjoyed and that was the Asian Stir-Fry with no chicken or tofu. Once we ordered, our server brought out what we really were excited for which was the Hawaiian Bread with Macadamia Nut Butter. Well...that was now different too. We were expecting a loaf of the bread and what came out was more like King's Hawaiian Rolls...Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with those, we eat them at home all the time, but it definitely was not what we expected and instead of them tasting like fresh bread, they didn't. So now, we know that that is different as well, and for us it wasn't a different that was an improvement, it was something that made it not as good for us. Dinner arrived just a couple minutes later and it looked really good! Jeremy took a bite and he said it had an off-putting flavor in it, so I was curious to try it too, I got a mouthful and it was exactly the same as he had described...we each ate maybe half of our dishes at the most and were kind of over it by this point.

We paid for our dinner and headed back over to Grand Floridian. It was very sad since Kona has always been a must visit restaurant every single time we go to Disney World. Our meal this evening was so off-putting that we cancelled our breakfast reservation for the next morning there. We are really hoping that it was just a fluke experience. We will probably give it one more try when we go back to see if it is the quality that has gone down or if they just had a bad night...(later on in the vacation we spoke to someone else that loved Kona too, she went the week before and said the food wasn't good either, so I'm not really sure what happened)
We were tired...after our lazy day...apparently, and when we made it back to the hotel, it was time for bed! I think tomorrow we wanted to go to Typhoon Lagoon?? We will see what happens with the weather!!

Video for this day is a combo with another day! Will put it up after that post so there are no spoilers...haha!

​

 

[AAshleySEG]

Last Trip Report I did a budget post so we could see how we did in relation to how much I budgeted for our trip. We got a lot of positive feedback on it, so I am going to do the same thing this time, only a tad differently. Instead of doing a budget post at the end of each post, I am going to do one for an entire day once I am finished with it. That way, with it being in a separate post, if someone wants to read it they can, and if not they can just skip over it! ​

Our total budget we have saved for this vacation is $3500.00 in the savings account, the day we left we transferred that to checking and kept all of our receipts along the way, we also tallied everything up for each day at the end. Anytime we would have additional cash from other sources we would add that to a vacation envelope and we also always toss all change into a jar and so the change was converted into cash too, we were thinking we would use the cash for anything not budgeted for, souvenirs, snacks, things of that nature, in total we ended up with $578.00 in our cash envelope to take with us! So the totals at the bottom represent how we are doing as far as budgeted vs actual, and then below that, the cash is what we have left of the original $578.00. If you have any questions about how we budgeted for the trip or anything, just let me know!​

Tuesday, June 13, 2017 Budget!
Today we had planned on going to Volcano Bay, but with the way the weather was going to be, we decided we didn't want to spend the money for all of the attractions to be closed with the lightning, so we skipped it, which is why we had a bunch left over in the budget today!​

Budgeted Amounts
Breakfast - $30
Volcano Bay Tickets $140
Parking @ Universal Orlando - $20
Lunch - $50 - Volcano Bay
Dinner - $50 - Volcano Bay
Premium Seating Chairs - $60
Total: $350.00

Actual Spent
Breakfast/Brunch - Ohana - $75.00
Gas & Car Wash - $38.00
Drinks at Tambu Lounge - $35.00
Dinner - Kona Cafe - $50.00
Total: $198.00

CASH - Vera Bradley - $160.82
​

Budget Status
$152.00 Under for Today
$295.06 Under Budget Overall ​

($343.33) Remaining In Saved Up Cash for Extras​

 

[annie170]

Skipping Volcano Bay freed up quite a bit of money for the day. Did you ever make it there? It looks just awesome.

I love Ohana, breakfast or dinner. I'm drooling over the bread.

I love the Santiago pattern in Vera Bradley. I only buy my Vera Bradley at TJ Maxx or the outlet. Unfortunately, those places generally just carry the discontinued patterns, so if there is something current that I like, I have to wait. I don't know why, but I just have trouble splurging on myself. I can do it for my daughters, but not myself. I do enjoy a good deal, though!

How disappointing that your meals were not good at Kona. Did the server offer to bring you something else?

 

[Sailormoon2]

Actually seems like a great price for 2 VB bags!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Skipping Volcano Bay freed up quite a bit of money for the day. Did you ever make it there? It looks just awesome.

I love Ohana, breakfast or dinner. I'm drooling over the bread.

I love the Santiago pattern in Vera Bradley. I only buy my Vera Bradley at TJ Maxx or the outlet. Unfortunately, those places generally just carry the discontinued patterns, so if there is something current that I like, I have to wait. I don't know why, but I just have trouble splurging on myself. I can do it for my daughters, but not myself. I do enjoy a good deal, though!

How disappointing that your meals were not good at Kona. Did the server offer to bring you something else?

Sadly we didn't make it to Volcano Bay with our other plans and the weather, we just couldn't get ourselves to spend that much for maybe a half day worth of stuff there, we definitely want to check it out in the future though, maybe next time we go it will be less crowded considering it just opened, and maybe it won't be storming so much..LOL

That bread was so good, we probably could have just eaten that and been happy! We used to go to Ohana all the time, but at one point it was losing its quality being so busy all the time, but I think they have picked it back up now because it was really good! Definitely good luck for us that they had an open reservation that morning!

I wish we had a TJ Maxx near us, I think the closest thing like that to us is about 45 minutes to an hour away. I have never even been to a Vera Bradley store until the one at Disney Springs this time! The only VB thing I had was the Disney bag my friend had gotten me! I am with you, it is rare that I splurge like that one something for myself, usually I wear things out until they are no longer usable before I get anything else, which is kind of what happened with these bags, and I still wasn't even convinced to buy them, I had to get a bunch of nudges for Jeremy who was threatening to go back and get them for me anyway if I didn't...haha!

Kona was always one of our Top 5 restaurants at Disney so we were so sad that it was not very good this day. We didn't ask for anything else, I think we were so disappointed and ready to go by that point, and that the things on the menu weren't really what we wanted. The server was actually pretty busy it seemed as well, she didn't offer us anything else, but could definitely tell that our plates were still pretty much full. Oh well, looking back on this one, this was definitely not the worst meal/experience of this trip...LOL, that one comes up pretty soon...haha!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Actually seems like a great price for 2 VB bags!

I was actually surprised, compared to the Dooney & Burke bags, for me anyway these were really reasonable. The travel/make-up bag is actually larger than the two regular bags I got too, so for pretty much 3 bags I was really happy with the cost!

 

[rdkeim]

It's sad when an old favorite disappoints. Last time we had breakfast there the service was lacking but the food was still good.

I promise I'm not a stalker but I saw the link to your 2012 Alaska trip so I read that TR. It was fun to read because we did an Alaskan cruise in 2015 (not Disney). When I was finished with that one, I went to the May 2015 cruise - maybe I'm missing a page but I don't see that one was finished? Wondering if you wrote a TR for your Iceland trip? I'd love to hear about that one and see your pictures!

 

[AAshleySEG]

It's sad when an old favorite disappoints. Last time we had breakfast there the service was lacking but the food was still good.

I promise I'm not a stalker but I saw the link to your 2012 Alaska trip so I read that TR. It was fun to read because we did an Alaskan cruise in 2015 (not Disney). When I was finished with that one, I went to the May 2015 cruise - maybe I'm missing a page but I don't see that one was finished? Wondering if you wrote a TR for your Iceland trip? I'd love to hear about that one and see your pictures!

It really made us sad, because of how much we love going there, we are still going to go again I am sure, just not at dinner anymore. We will more than likely keep it as our breakfast place when we are staying at the MK resorts.

That's so cool that you read the Cruise TRs! Gosh, that Alaska cruise was on our 5th Anniversary, and this one is our 10th Anniversary! So funny how time flies! But actually Teetah convinced me to write a blog about our Iceland Trip, I kept notes and photos and everything for it so right before this trip I started a blog which you can read here ICELAND BLOG, it starts with Part 1 and continues, I put links to each chapter at the bottom of each installment so it is easy to click through to find the next chapter...it is still a work in progress. I am almost finished with it, but have been trying to get this one finished before I go back to it, it isn't missing too much though at the moment, only like 2 days of the trip left on that one. Once this TR is finished I am going to hop back over there and finish that blog up! If you have any problems getting to it let me know!

 

[rdkeim]

Thanks for the Iceland link! You guys are adventurers! I'll comment on the blog - don't want to hijack this TR with Iceland talk

 

[AAshleySEG]

**Quick Update* We will be going out of town for a short weekend getaway, the TR will resume when we get back on Monday!! =D See you guys then!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Wednesday, June 14, 2017 - Part One - The Lightning Policy

We woke up this morning to a favorable day to go to Typhoon Lagoon! We put on our bathing suits and tried to figure out quick breakfast choices in the area. We finally decided to just stopping by McDonald's, it had a drive-thru and it would be pretty quick so we could get there early! We ended up getting big breakfast platters minus the sausage. Afterwards we drove over to Typhoon Lagoon and as we pulled in to the parking lot we noticed a difference in how they park guests now that there is only the one bus stop. We sat in the car for a few minutes eating our breakfast and deciding what we wanted to do first, then we got out of the car and went up to the window to buy our tickets.

This time around we were able to get a special DVC deal for our tickets so they were around $45 per person, so we were really happy about that. I did so much research before this one to find all of the ticket deals that were going on, we were really lucky that we fell in to these time frames for the 4-Park Magic Tickets, the DVC Water Park Tickets, and later on the discounted La Nouba tickets! So anyway, our first stop inside was at Singapore Sals where we needed two new beach towels and we also went ahead and rented our locker while we were there too. Since our last visit to TL, there had been a few upgrades, and the first one was the digital lockers. We stuffed everything into the lockers...even the waterproof camera for some reason...??? We put on sunscreen and headed for Crush N Gusher! Our first trip was down the Pineapple and that really got us started on our soaked day!

After that, I reminded Jeremy of the newest attraction at TL, which was Miss Adventure Falls! We were really excited to go and try that as our next stop. The friendly parrot was asleep today so we didn't get a chance to see him at the beginning of the ride, and this was definitely a fun one! All of the remaining dry spots on us were easily fixed on this one! After we finished up with this one we went on the two other sides of Crush N Gusher! It is definitely one of our favorites! We took a walk over to the North Shore and rode the Storm Slides, Jeremy wanted to go on Humunga Kowabunga...that one isn't for me, so I waited down at the bottom while we climbed up and rode down! I never realized how out of shape I am until I go to TL or somewhere like that with tons of steps!! We were pretty tired after all of the steps so we made our way over to the lazy river, to be a little lazy! After one full time around it, I could tell that I was going to need to stop back by the locker and put on some more sunscreen, so we jumped out and went back to the lockers to do just that.

Once that was accomplished we headed straight over to the wave pool!! This time the waves seemed more constant and larger than we remembered them being in the past? Maybe they changed them up in the summer or something?? It was getting around lunch time and hunger was starting to set in so we set off for Leaning Palms to grab out favorite little round pizzas! After lunch we wanted to go and ride Miss Adventure Falls again and so we went in that direction. The line was a little longer but we decided to wait anyway. While we were in the line, the sky started turning really dark, and with the lightning in the area, they shut the rides/park down temporarily.

Well...we needed to leave in the next hour or two anyway because we had dinner reservations tonight at Artist Point, so we headed to the lockers grabbed our stuff...and the camera so I could actually take a few photos on the way out. We stopped by the gator on the way out and Jeremy was a little disappointed that we had to leave early, but Florida weather in summer...what can you do!

We got back in the car and started making our way back to the resort to get showers and everything before tonight. It definitely started to rain on our way out and the thunder was booming all around and we started seeing lightning too, so we were glad we decided to go ahead and head back to the resort instead of sticking it out in the park and hoping the weather would change.

We started getting hungry a little early so we changed our reservation to 6:00 pm instead of the original 7:00. The rain was still sprinkling a little on our way out, it didn't really matter though because we had decided to drive over to Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge! We had a lot of fun on our short little trip to Typhoon Lagoon. It is definitely our favorite of the water parks at the moment! I am really curious to see how we will like Volcano Bay, one day we will get there to see!



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[cajunfan]

Love Typhoon Lagoon too! Although I have yet to make it over to Blizzard Beach.

 

[rdkeim]

Well, sounds like you accomplished a lot even with a shortened day. Do you feel like you got your money's worth? It's good you were able to get discounted tickets! I'm interested to read about your Artist Point dinner. WL is my sentimental favorite place to stay but we've not been to AP yet.