Trip Reports

I did , I did ! I'll write out a little report this coming weekend. Did 6 nights Deluxe plan at BWV and 2 nights Savanna view with Sunset safari at AKV.
 
So we've never written a trip report before, so please don't expect much! :thumbsup2 This was our first trip to WDW in over 20 years, and our first "real" vacation as a couple. Needless to say we were both excited and nervous. Shorter vacations have been known to cause divorce and when you throw a trip to Disney into the equation ya never know what might happen!

Day One, January 18th The alarm was set for stupid o'clock, but we both ended up waking up at stupidER o'clock prolly due to nerves/excitement. We must have packed and unpaced a hundred times before we actually loaded the car. Anyway, first line of business was to take the dogs to the kennel (see their pic in our avatar). This was traumatic. We've never left them alone for this long before. Don't tell but I actually cried after we dropped them off. But anyway.....

Back to the house to pack up the truck. We still had several hours before our flight left but we were restless and couldn't wait. We took the long way to the airport, but still got there way early. Oh well.

The flight arrived on time and landed on time! We were finally in FL after months of planning and waiting. We got in line for ME and a lady in tres fashionable khaki skirt told us that only one could wait in line. There were like 2 people ahead of us. Oh well. Off to the chairs I went while Steve checked us in. After he returned we made our way through the ropes to the front where we were told where to go, and were actually escorted to the coach for our trip to POP. The bus ride was pleasant with a cute video on the way. Next thing we knew, we arrived!

As we walked into the lobby at POP all the CMs were in the middle of the lobby doing the Hustle with corresponding music blaring overhead. I wasn't expecting that. I felt a little awkward walking in front the floor show to get to the line to check in, but se la vie (or however you spell it, i took spanish).

There was no line to check in. The CM who checked us in was extremely efficient. So efficient that I don't think she took a breath. Its a good thing I didn't have any questions! LOL. Anyway she was very nice and the whole process took less than five minutes. We were given a map to our room in the 60's building and off we went. We were behind baloo's giant behind.

Here's our room number:
poproom3.jpg


For some reason I can't find the room interior pics, sorry about that. Dang photobucket! I'm sure ya'll have seen them a million times before tho. It was small, but clean. The beds could have been more comfortable but it was just for one night so who cares!~

So we jumped on the bus to MK. Steve had never seen EPCOT so I wanted to take him on the monorail so he get a look at it. Our monorail had a very distinct odor to it...think dirty gym sock meets old diaper. It was bad! :sad2: Needless to say Steve didn't want to ride a monorail again, although he did enjoy the view of Epcot.

Back to POP....we were hungry! After a long day of travels we wanted some grub, so we hit the food court. I had this:
diningpop.jpg

Its a philly cheese steak wrap with pretzels and fries (YaY starch!)...also had a beer!
Steve had this:
diningpop2.jpg

Its shrimp lo mein and he had a coke or tea, can't remember which. Neither of us were expecting much as we had read that food court food wasn't that great. We were surprised! This meal was one of the best food court meals we had all trip! This meal was out of pocket, the DDP kicked in the next day. After we ate we hung out by Petals (the pop bar) and drank beer and mai tais. Also hit the gift shop to buy lanyards and fast pass holders...boy did they come in handy! We went to bed pretty early--had a busy morning coming up. On the am agenda: transfer to POR and check in, meet the grocery delivery man and make it to Boatwrights by 10am for our breakfast ressie. We opted to sleep in a bit and take a cab rather than use the busses and deal with mult transfers. Turned out to be a good choice! POP to POR isn't very far.

That's it for this installment...more to come pirate:
 
Any TR that includes beer and Mai Tai's poolside is a great TR! :cool1:
 


Any trip that includes a pool, a pool bar, and drinks is a great trip!

I think the Pop Food court is great. I have eaten at most all of the values, mods and AKL, CR, & olynesian ones and it really is good. I know it's a lot of the same food, but they just do it better?

Can't wait to read some more.
 


Great start...with food porn and everything...what more can a gal ask for?! Can't wait for the next installment!:thumbsup2
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone! Much appreciated!

Day 2, Saturday Jan 19

OK. So out of bed by 7.30, showered and ready to go to POR. We had decided the day before to sleep in a bit and use a taxi instead of busses so we didn't miss our delivery/breakfast.

Check out went smoothly, the CM was kind enough to call a cab for us and by the time we made it out of the lobby he was there! So cool.

Anyway we pull into POR about 10 minutes later (had no idea it was so close!) and head to the check in counter. What a pretty lobby! Fran from Brooklyn checked us in. Southern Splendor and a New Yorker, too funny! She was great tho and answered all our questions. On top of that, our room was ready! Mind you this is at 8.30 in the morning, how cool is that?! We had prepared and were looking forward to a room in the Mansions sections, as we had read that Alligator Bayou rooms were reserved for families of 5. Imagine our surprise when we told we would be in AB! I think Steve was a little upset at first, but I was happy about it. The AB section just looks more lush and vacationy to me. He ended up loving it tho. The only problem is that we were in building 37.....about as far as you can get from the main building. We were close to the north depot and the quiet pool tho, so it was a fair trade.

Here's where we were:
riversidebuilding.jpg

This pic was taken at night on a later day obviously. We were in room 3711, nice garden view.

This little guy was waiting in the window when we went in:
riversidetowelanimal3.jpg


Steve says its a squirrel, I say its a beaver (he's prolly right). I choose to call him squeaver as a compromise. He sat next to the TV during our stay, and currently resides in our guest room (shhh don't tell mickey).

Other pics of the room:
riversideroom.jpg

riversideroom2.jpg

Loved this place, couldn't be happier. I think we made a good choice for our first on site resort.

So I called Eric from wegoshop and let him know we had arrived. He showed up about 30 mins later with our order of oranges, granola bars, wine, bottled water, coffee, creamer and beer. Just the necessities :thumbsup2

After he left it was about time for our Boatwright's Breakfast ressie so we headed down. Yes, its a loud restaraunt but we didn't care, it was our first TS meal! We checked in about 20 minutes early and were seated in less than 10. Our server Alfredo (like the sauce? as steve said) was ok. Nothing spectacular but we didn't have to wait long for refills and our food came out pretty quickly.
I had this:
diningboatwrights.jpg

Its banana stuffed french toast with strawberry sauce and bacon. The french toast itself was really good, but something tells me that really wasn't bacon. I wanted this cuz I was told it was just like tonga toast which sounded so delish! The coffee was good too.
Steve had this:
diningboatwrights2.jpg

Its the eggs benedict with potatoes and sweet tea. He really enjoyed this meal. I stole a few potatoes from him and they were tasty! This meal was OOP.

So what next? Off to a park of course! As our first choice we decided on:
epcot3.jpg

Steve had never been here, and the last time I was it was brand new, all of WS wasn't even open yet!

First off we went to The Land and got fast passes for Soarin'. While we waited we went on Living with the Land boatride, which I enjoyed much more than when I was a pre teen. Here's a pic:
epcotlandboatride7.jpg

Then off to:
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This was AMAZING! We rode the Orange side despite the trazillion death warnings, and wow was it worth it! We rode this again later in the week. The standby line was listed at 40 mins I think, but it didn't take nearly that long to get there. We were paired with a married couple, the lady was to be our engineer that flight. She bolted at the last minute but we still landed safely!
Back to The Land to ride Soarin'!
epcotsoarin.jpg

What a rush! I know some people can't stand it but we thought it was pretty cool. The only thing I wish they would change is the film quality, its a bit grainy. With a clearer picture the ride would be simply incredible.

Ok so by this time we were hungry again, and decided to eat at Sunshine Seasons. I had this the vegetable sandwich with chips and a chocolate cake. Steve had (I think) a turkey/cheese sammie with the same dessert. We both agreed that my sandwich was awesome! So far the best counter service! Bear in mind this is only day 2 tho! LOL.

So we hit the rest of future world, seeing literally all the attractions. Waits were non existant. The only thing I believe we didn't see of the major ones was Honey I Shrunk the Audience. No biggie, we'll catch it next time.

Steve suggests we head to WS and look around. Sure, I say, let's go. Well the skies were starting to cloud over a bit and the wind was picking up but no worries, I brought ponchos and extra socks! Ummm....wrong. We started in Mexico and were about to Japan when it hit. It being a monster storm, not one your typical Florida showers. It was crazy! Serious wind gusts, people closing up shop, people running for cover. We put on our ponchos and headed back to the entrance. Jumped in a few puddles, felt like a kid again. It was fun :)
When we got back to POR we saw on the news that there had been a tornado warning in effect :scared1: How crazy is that? Here I am skipping through puddles in Canada and I coulda ended up in Oz? Oh well, we survived.

BTW, we both agreed that our favorite attraction at Epcot is Test Track! If you haven't been on I highly recommend it!

epcotsign.jpg

More to come! Thanks so much for reading!
 
From what I have heard the Towel animals are made of the old towels that are about to be "recycled" so they are ok to take home. But I haven't heard that "officially" of course.
 
Great pics! You're doin' a great job with your report. Can't wait to hear more.:cheer2:
 
Keep it coming!! Our trips overlapped...its neat seeing the same time from your perspective!!
 
Love the report, the pics are great and glad to hear nice things about POR, that is where we are staying in late Sept/early Oct
 
Hey Barely Jack,
You are off to a great start on the report. I am enjoying it! I gotta agree that Mission Space is one fantastic ride. Kudos for taking the orange route your first time out (we were there on passholder previes way back when so it was the only option when we started:) ) Alas my age is cathing up with me and I feel the after effects too long to ride the "real" side any longer. DD11, on the otehr hand, will happily ride it over and over and . . .

I am glad to hear a bit about Boatwrightes as we are considering dining there in September.
 
You guys are the best, thanks so much for keeping reading and for the kind words. I'll do the best I can on this installment, but I'm fighting the flu bug so bear with me :sick:

Day 3, Sunday Jan 20

So after our thorough soaking at Epcot the previous night we slept in. Well, Steve slept in I should say. I'm an early riser by nature and almost always woke up before the wake up call LOL. We had planned on going to MK this day, and had ressies at LTT for dinner that night.

After a bit of a late start, we headed to the classic park:

mkentrance4.jpg


I just love this sign; to me it says "Vacation!" :thumbsup2

Steve's family had a tradition of getting pix of the train station and mickey flower head for each trip so he grabbed a few shots. Here's one:

MKentrance.jpg


So what can I say about the MK that hasn't already been said? Its absolutely beautiful and just LOADS of fun. Waits were pretty long, but it was the Sunday before MLK day as well as a PM EMH night. Despite Tour Guide Mikes warnings we went. Heck, we were there for 9 days and figured we'd have enough time to see what we wanted to see. This was a vacation, not a commando mission. But I digress.

Here's a couple more pics I took that day:

MKfirestation.jpg


I had no idea there was a gift shop in there! I don't recall ever having seen it open before, so we wandered in. Great stop if you have a firefighter in your family.

I really like this pic, just think it looks neat with moon rising next to the castle:

MKcastlemoon.jpg


I HAD to try a dole whip float; the way everyone here raves about them you'd think its the legal form of crack! So I tried one, and Steve had the traditional whip:
dining-dolewhip.jpg


I must say it was tres tasty! I imaging on a hot summer day this is totally refreshing. Its been added to the list for next trip :thumbsup2

We wandered aimlesslessly around the park and enjoyed some attractions. The Tiki birds was a cute show, Haunted Mansion rocks as always, and the Jungle Cruise was so fun! Neither of us had been on it before; lines were too long on past trips and parents wanted to skip it! We got fastpasses this time and sure am glad we did. Our tour guide was Chris and he was Hilarious! Good times....

We had lunch at Columbia Harbor House. I wanted to try this place after hearing so many good things about it on this board. We were not disappointed! Steve told me what he wanted and went upstairs to snag a table while I ordered. We had this:

diningharborhouse.jpg


Steve had the sandwich, I had the soup and sandwich combo. Both were delicious! My soup was suppose to come with the Anchors Aweigh (tuna) but they messed up and I ended up with same as Steve, the Starboard Deck. I wasn't about to fight the lines again for some tuna salad. It was good tho, so I was happy. We both really enjoyed this place and will surely return!

We saw Captain Jack:

MKcaptjack2.jpg


And a possible Hidden Mickey. Steve spotted this one in the rocks in adventureland...can anyone verify?

MKhiddenmickey.jpg


So we head to LTT for dinner. We were both excited about this one, our first Disney Dinner table service EVER. Our server was Craig, he was super! (and cute, as evil queen pointed out in another thread ;) ) They called out our name in the lobby...."Now seating the M*** party from the great state of Tennessee!" Cute. The food was gut busting! Nothing 5 star or anything, but on a chilly day it was great comfort food! I know the MK doesn't serve alcohol, but I think it strange to name a place a Tavern and not at least have beer! Anyway....it was a great meal and the characters were fantastic! We saw Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Chip and Dale. Chip and Dale are my faves, just love em. Steve loves Goofy.



So it was EMH this night from 11-2. After dinner we wandered discussing what to do. Wandered into Tomorrowland and checked out the Carousel of Progress. Neat ride except for one thing. It broke down while we were on it. Everything started as planned: no wait, right in, song starts. "Theres a great big beautiful tomorrow..." and so on. So were spinning through the decades and we get to the last scene. As we enter the future with the voice activiated christmas tree and oven, the carousel jerks to a halt a little over 3/4 of the way around. During the scene we can hear and partially see part of the scene we just left. A voice comes on "Ladies and Gentlemen, blah blah blah have to repeat the scene you just saw blah blah blah". Yikes. No big deal really, this is a neat attraction. I just wish we could've sat through ANY scene other than the one we did. Grandma playing video games is just weird to me.

So we exit the ride and they are passing out EMH wristbands. We figure, what the heck, we're on vacation. Prior to this I can't tell you the last time I was up past 11. Glad we stayed tho. In two hours we rode: SM twice, BTMRR twice, POTC, TTA, Winnie the Pooh, Teacups, Dumbo, Peter Pan's Flight, Stitch's Great Escape, and Buzz Lightyear. We did more in EMH that we had done all day. Yeah, we were tired but had a blast! There were literally NO lines.

It was a great day, but we were exhausted. Later we saw what I think was the "Kiss goodnight" mini show at the castle. On our way out I snapped this:

MKcastlenight.jpg


Well I guess that's it for now. Time to take some more medicine and try and get some rest. Hope you all enjoy!
 
Hope your feeling better!

I'm loving the trip report!

Keep it up!:thumbsup2
 
I love your pics and the TR!!! I am really wanting to go back NOW!
We all loved soarin too. lots of fun!
 

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