05/04/2009-05/14/2009 WDW Vacation at POFQ: Lots of pics, food, and fun!!

[BigGreen73]

Well, we're back. Got back on Thursday from a great WDW vacation. It was our first stay at POFQ, and were there to celebrate our 12 yr wedding anniversary. I thought that I would do a day by day trip report, this isn't our 1st WDW trip but it is the first trip report. My DW and I have been 6 times now, but with this trip, we had a few firsts and a very good time so I thought I would do a trip report to share with the dis community. Before I go into day one, I thought that I would share a few quick highlights/ notes about this trip.

1. It was HOT, and I mean HOT every day. Orlando was at record temps or near record temps every there day we were there (mid 90's+). Ugh!!. And being from Maine, where it has only been in the 50's-60's, it felt even worse.

2. I am glad that I do not use touringplans or go by the crowd calendars. A lot of folks on these boards were freaking our because the crowd calendars changed the days in May to all 8-9 crowd levels. Well at least for my weeks. I have to say that crowd levels were no where near those levels, they were at the same levels that we experienced in May 07. Matter of fact, I think the crowds were even lower than in 07. The posted waits for rides were as follows BTMR <10mins, Splash mtn <10-15mins, Buzz Lightyear<10mins, Test Track <15-20mins, Kal. Safari <30mins, and the list goes on. The longest waits I saw were for the fantasyland rides, ie Peter Pan, Dumbo etc and characters. The Fairies were regulary 45-90mins. Even Soarin and Toy Story Mania were at 30 mins late afternoon. And on top of that, many of the posted times were higher than what the true wait was. IE Splash said 30mins, we got on in 10mins, the wait for the Fairies was 45mins but we saw them in 17 minutes. I hope the overblown crowd calendar #'s didn't affect how folks planned their May trips. We got in everything we wanted to with ease, the crowds were a non factor for us.

3. POFQ was fabulous. The resort was clean, quiet, and very intimate. The boats to DTD was a nice perk and relaxing on the hot days. The buses were great. Never waited more that 10mins for a bus, all bus rides were a max of 10-15 to each park, and we only had to stand once. POFQ only shared a bus with Riverside on Sat and Sun, and when they did, POFQ was first pick up and drop off.

Well, that's it for quick thoughts. Here is a high level of were we went each day.

Mon 05/04: Arrival (post #3)
Tues 05/05: Epcot. AM EMH (post #6)
Weds 05/06: MK. Breakfast @ Chef Mickeys
Thurs 05/07: MK. AM EMH
Fri 05/08: AK. Dinner @ Boma
Sat 05/09: Epcot. Breakfast @ Akershus
Sun 05/10: AK. Breakfast @ Tusker House
Mon 05/11: DHS
Tues 05/12: MK. Breakfast @ Crystal Palace
Weds 05/13: MK. Breakdfast @ Ohana. Dinner @ 1900 park fare.

So feel free to subscribe or ask any questions about the trip or anything really, I would be glad to answer. Enjoy!!

Now on to Day 1.

 

[tiggerfan6]

Welcome Home! Can't wait to read your TR!
Erica

 

[BigGreen73]

Well, it's Monday morning at 3am and the DW and I are up and getting ready to head to the Portland, Me jetport for our 6am flight. My sister is picking us up and dropping us off at the jetport and I must say I was grateful for that as when we got to the airport, all the parking costs went up. Well, dodged that bullet.

When we got to the jetport, we were about 3 in line. I wanted to get there early as I was fearing the security lines. I traveled to WDW in Apr 08 for work and the security lines were a nightmare so I wanted to be prepared. Well we checked in, we are flying Delta, and headed for security. Low and behold, we were the only ones there. It took us about 30 seconds to get through. Our flights were on time and we were off.

We had a connect through JFK and arrived there a little early so it gave us a chance to grab a quick breakfast. Our flight to Orlando was on time as well and we were off.

One quick thing. Swine flu evidence was non existant at the airports. We saw one person wearing a mask in JFK. That was it.

Anyway, we arrived at the Orlando airport around 11am. We got off the plane, collected ourselves and went to Magical Express to get our bus. Again, I was expecting a huge line for Magical Express. When we went in Dec 07, the line for Magical Express was past all the car rental places. When we got to the Magical Express area, there was two families in line. TWO, that's it. We flew through Magical Express, walked on the bus (no wait) are were off to POFQ.

So far so good. We got to POFQ around 12:30ish and checked in. Our room was not ready, which was a first for us. We paid for a room with a king bed which is why it wasn't ready. They had plenty of regular rooms ready but none with a king bed. No big deal. We dropped off our bags and decided to go to DTD.

We took the boats which were very convenient and we loved them.

It takes about 20mins from POFQ to DTD via the boat, it was very relaxing and a good opener to out trip. Once we arrived, we unloaded and walked over to Planet Hollywood for lunch to use our $15 voucher.

The place was slow and we were seated as soon as we walked in the door. My DW has the Turkey Club:

And I went for the Grilled Chicken:

The food and service were great. No complaints here. After the meal we wandered around DTD and took some pics. Here is one of our favorites of me and the DW:

After walking off lunch, we called the resort around 3pm and the room was ready. We headed back, again via boat. We picked up our bags and headed to our room which was located in building 1:

Room 1232:

Our room was very nice:

With a great view:

When we got there, our checked bag was already there too. We unpacked and headed to the pool for a swim.

After the swim, we changed and boated back to DTD. The views from the boat are great.

We did some shopping, had to use those disney rewards, had dinner at earl of sandwich, sorry no pics, and had a couple of ice cream cones at Ghirardelli's. Yummy!!

Headed back to the resort after that. Just checked out the resort a bit and called it a night. Been up since 3am so we have been up almost 18-20 hours.

Next, day 2 @ Epcot.

 

[Candice30]

woo hoo...can't believe i caught a trip report on day 1! going back to read more.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Signing on for more! I often say that trip reports and picture are what keep me sane until our next WDW vacation. Thanks for your contribution to my sanity.

 

[BigGreen73]

We got up early this morning, probably around 5am. Couldn't sleep as it was the first night on the POFQ bed, it was actually pretty comfy, and we were a little excited about getting our WDW vacation under way.

We did a little more resort exploration and headed to the food court for breakfast at 6am. We didn't have a big breakfast but did try the Beignets. They were okay. We have fried dough here in Maine and we find that better, but that just may be us. After breakfast we went back to our room to drop off our mugs, and pick up anything we needed for the day.

Epcot is having AM EMH today so that's where we are headed. We caught the bus and were off. We arrived at Epcot about 7:30am and there was really no one in line to get in. At 8am, the lines were a little longer, but it was a quiet EMH.

The gates opened around 7:50am and we were going in. We were greated with this beautiful view:

We love the flower and garden time of year and this year's was no exception as everything was beautiful. For our AM EMH we headed to the Land...

to get in Soarin first.

We walked right on Soarin and got a FP after. We then rode Living with the Land and headed over to ......

to ride the Nemo attraction. We rode Nemo, check out the exhibits and went back to Soarin for our FP. And we had to get the pic of ....

Once we were done, off to Test Track. We got a FP, went and rode Spaceship Earth, love the updates, and went for lunch at the Electric Umbrella.

The DW had the toasted Turkey and Bacon..

and I had the bacon double...

Both were very good. But here is where I started to see cut back impacts. We ate at 11am-11:15am and there were lines. Not because of it being busy, but because, there were only two on the registers taking orders and only two serving. They didn't add to this until after 12pm and the lines were quite deep by that time.

Anyway, lunch was good and we went back to Test Track after to use our FP, as we were getting in line for FP a woman came up to me and gave me 2 FP's that she wasn't going to use. Sweet!! We used ours, they got off and used the 2nd FP's right after. Stuff like this happened to us the entire trip.

We now interrupt for a random pic...

We did another round of Spaceship Earth and then headed to the World. In our sites, Beaches and cream!! It was still REALLY HOT so we were looking forward to some ice cream. We got to Yacht and Beach and walked around a bit. Went to Beaches and Cream and we each ordered the Milky Way Sundae...

I had no idea how big this was when we ordered it. It was HUGE and very good. I finished mine, and the DW almost finished hers. I want another one next time we go to WDW.

It was mid afternoon by this point and we headed to the world to spend the rest of the afternoon. Here is a pic from China that I really like...

Where I had an interesting run in with Mulan...

We spent a few more hours and went back to our resort for a swim and dinner. We had dinner at the food court and each had chicken parm. Didn't take any pictures, forget, but it was average at best so your not missing much. Finished off the day with some late night shopping.

With this trip, we decided to forgo FW's. We have seen every FW's show many, many times and just didn't feel like dealing with the late night crowds leaving after close. This was a great decision for us as we didn't miss the FW's at all, and leaving the parks around 8 gave us time to actually enjoy our resort for once or go play at DTD. Usually we go until after close each night and don't have an opportunity to enjoy our resorts. Plus we were a lot more rested for the next days excitement!!!

See you soon for Day 3 - MK w/ breakfast at Chef Mickeys