8 Nites Of Practically Perfect Pop!!! NEW PICTURES, PAGE 13!!!

[MissK]

Actually, speaking of guidebooks, I kind of am a...ahem...collector, shall we say, of Disney guidebooks...I usually buy at least the Unoffical Guide and the Official Guide...ummm..even if we *don't* have a tripped planned. Does anyone else do that?? (Please say yes, so I don't feel like I'm the only Disney-nerd!)

Hehehe, I do that too! Still haven't managed to pick up a Passporter though, will probably do that soon as I plan on going to WDW next year. Currently am going to pick up the Luxury Guide to WDW too.

Also I lurve your trip report! And everytime I see you post I automatically think of my mom because her first name is Donna and our last name starts with a W too! LOL

 

[jtnsami]

subscribing! Got me hooked

 

[Pdowning98]

What a wonderful TR and that you had a good time, can't wait for more. We stayed at POP the same week you did, 4/29-5/6, 50's building. We were celebrating our 3rd Anniversary! We loved it, and are planning our second trip for Feb. I always truly feel I am at Disney when I walk down Main Street and see the castle for the first time, it brings it all together.

Don't feel bad, my husband had the same problem at MK with his ticket and had to have it replaced each time we went!

 

[DonnaW]

Anyone still with me here?? If so, thx! I appreciate it!

So, our happy couple (well, not so happy at the moment, I really wanted DH to finish that lunch...so it was like "are you done yet"?..."are you done now?" and so on and so forth) is in the Animal Kingdom, and ready to move on to the next adventure. It's getting a tad late in the day now and the River Rapid ride is one I really wanted to try on this trip, so I thought we'd head in that direction and get a FastPass. When we got to the machine that spits out the passes, guess what? No more available for the day! (I *TOLD* you that you were taking too long to eat!!--don't you hate the wife who says I TOLD you so--I so do *not* want to be that person! sorry, dear). And the standby line was a tad too long for my comfort zone. Okay, let's go on another one of those animal trail thingies...I wouldn't mind seeing a tiger.

We go to the Trek trail (wait a sec, here it is...my trusty PassPorter says it's called Maharajah Jungle Trek), and I walk quickly thru the bat area (ick, sorry), the aviary (not fond of birds), on my quest to see a tiger! Well, I saw one...yep..a grand total of one. You know, we're not really having our best Disney day here at the Animal Kingdom and I'm thinking maybe we should just leave the park.

Before we leave, we pass by the River Rapid Ride again and it looks there is a fairly short line...hmmmm...should we try it? I ask the cast member how long the wait is and he says it's about 20 minutes. We've never done this one before, and I really, really wanted to give it a try, so we decide to go for it. As we hop into the standby line, ready to wind our way up to where the boats are,a very kind person shouts out to us, "do you want some FastPasses?" and hands us two FastPasses! Thank you, very kind person, you've made my day! (You know the drill, big Disney smile!)

By now, I'm seeing all these signs that say, "you may get wet" and this is a "rough ride" and all that stuff. I'm so not into thrill rides that I'm beginning to wonder if this was such a good idea, after all, when it's our turn to get into the boat/raft. We are told to put things we want to protect in the covered area in the middle of the raft, so in went our five hundred things we had with us (sorry everyone else on the raft with us that we took up so much space!)

This ride was a blast! We are floating down the river, turning forwards and backwards, passing themed areas, getting a bit wet, until...we get to this drop! Now, mind you, this is *not* a big drop (nothing like, say, Splash Mountain), but we are going *backwards* down this drop. I am screaming and laughing and having a great time and all the sudden, I am also SOAKED!!! I mean SLOSHED, SOAKED, LOOKED LIKE I TOOK A SHOWER SOAKED!!! I look over at Mark and he is in the same condition I am...no, maybe he's in worse condition! Oh my gosh, I never expected to get THAT wet!!! The other people in our raft did not get nearly as wet as we did, so I think they were having a good ol' time laughing at us (thinking, I am sure, *that* will teach them for taking up all the room in the storage space!)

We sloshed our way off that ride, and I gotta tell ya, it redeemed my day at the AK!!! (Mark, not so much, as I don't think he liked gettin' quite that wet!) But, I was way beyond the Disney smile stage...I just couldn't stop laughing!!!!! That was just too, too much fun!!!

Now we really were thinking it was time to head out (and dry out!), but we had to pass the area where Mickey's Jammin' Jungle parade went by and everyone was kind of standing there, creating a sort of road block....so we just kind of dripped there and watched the parade. What a...what word to use...shall I say...strange...parade??

 

[DonnaW]

At least the parade had Mickey Mouse in it, so that was a redeeming quality! It was just a bit odd. (If you ever saw the Tapestry of Nations show at Epcot, I think they use the same "puppet" things in the parade from that show in this parade).

After the parade, we (well, at least I) was a bit dryer, and I still just couldn't stop laughing, but we headed out towards the exit of the park...but wait, we had to pass by "It's Tough to Be a Bug" the 3-D show in the Tree of Life before we could leave...and wait, there is no line! None, I tell you!!! I asked the cast member if it was closed or what and he said no, the show starts in like 3 minutes. Great! So, we slosh our way into the Tree, kind of quickly admiring the carvings along the way, and get ready to be entertained by the bugs! My mood was still good, cuz I laughed almost thru this entire show. (I could see, though, how this could be frightening to small children, and heard a few crying, so please be careful with this one).

Having been drenched, entertained...?? I guess?? ...by the parade... and attacked by the bugs, we finally decided yep, that was enuff of the Animal Kingdom and headed for the exit. When we got outside the park, who should we see posing for pictures??? Yep, it was *him*!!! The Big Cheese, the main man...good ol' Mickey Mouse himself!!!! Ya gotta get a picture with Mickey, so we got in to the (really short) line and when it was my turn, Mickey gave me a kiss!!! And a hug!!!! YIPPEE!!! I am in Disney heaven!!!!

Our Animal Kingdom day turned out to be better than I had anticipated, because of the way it ended up, but it's still not my favorite park. I can't help feeling sorry for the animals (even though Disney keeps saying "notazoo", I think it is, sort of), and we also have a really good zoo here in Chicago, where I have seen tons more animals!

I still think Animal Kingdom is worth experiencing, and I love the Lion King show and the River Ride...and if we liked thrill rides, Expedition Everest, I am sure is great, too, so I think everyone has to go, at least once!!!

 

[DonnaW]

We took the bus back to POP, and this had to be the longest ride of the whole, entire trip. They are doing some sort of road construction on the highway near the AK and apparently this driver didn't know how to avoid it, cuz it took us like, I don't know...forever comes to mind...to get back to POP and it's really, truly not that far. (It could have been that we were still a bit wet, and anxious to get back to the room that made this ride seem a tad long, too).

I told Mark to go ahead and take a nap in the room for awhile (see I can be a nice wife, can't I??) and I got my trusty mug and headed off to the food court/gift shop and then to the pool to just sit and enjoy the sun some more! (I also brought my shorts with me--and set them on a chair to help dry them out, so if anyone saw the crazy woman sitting next to a pair of shorts, that was me!)

I thought it might be fun to have dinner at Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club, but hadn't booked an ADR for it, so I went back to the concierge desk to see if anything was available around 7ish..they did have an opening, so I went ahead and booked it, and then headed back to the room to tell Mark we were going there. I told ya he loves the meal experiences at Disney, so he was kind of glad, but wishing he hadn't had that lunch earlier, as Cape May is an all-you-can-eat event (no, I will NOT say I told you so!! I won't do it, I tell you, I won't do it!!...see Donna bite tongue!!!)

 

[DonnaW]

After our experience on that last bus, we decided to drive over to the Beach Club. Hello, car, how've ya been? Can't say we've missed ya!!

The security guy over at the Beach Club checked Mark's driver's license...again, I'm not sure what that accomplishes, exactly?. ..and when we told him we were going to Cape May, said "excellent choice". Well, thanks, I thought so, too!

The Beach Club is another beautiful Disney hotel, but again, it reminds me too much of some of the hotels I have been to in Downtown Chicago. The lobby is all creams and pastels, but I also saw quite a few people in business clothes and realized there was some sort of convention going on there (I think it was the McDonald's convention??) I really prefer to see people "on vacation" when we're on vacation, so I'm thinking to myself again, I LOVE POP Century!

I heard the hostess telling people the wait time was like an hour and a half for walk-ins, so I was way glad I had an ADR. We still waited around 15 minutes or so, so that was time to walk outside and take a few pictures of the flowers that are at the resort, and the view of the Boardwalk across the way.

We really like the food at the Cape May Cafe buffet. There are a lot of great choices, even if, like me, you might not be all that fond of fish. Our server was extremely friendly and when it was time for desert, I saw they had one of the "Happiest Celebration on Earth" deserts out there! How cool was that! (I am sure people waiting to get their desert thought I was a bit nuts taking pictures of the desert buffet!) I also took pictures of the various "sand castles" thruout the restaurant.

Extremely stuffed, we waddled out to the area behind the Beach Club that looks out over the Boardwalk area. We thought we might be able to get over to Epcot to see some of the fireworks show, so we wandered in that general direction, but just kind of walking slowly and enjoying the evening. When we got to the Epcot area, the fireworks were just starting. We didn't want to go in to Epcot, so just stood there and watched a bit of them, knowing we would come back and see it all another night. It was getting a bit cool and breezy now that the sun had gone to sleep, so we decided to walk on back to the car and head back "home" for the night.

When we got back to POP, I, of course, had to make a detour (yes, to the gift shop!) and Mark headed for the room! I soon joined him and we turned on our white noise and soon were dreaming of the next Disney day.....

up next, the Keys to the Kingdom...stay tuned!!! Thx again for reading!

 

[taurus8012]

This report has me thinking that I am there with you. I cant wait to go back in October. My wife thinks I'm "NUTS" because all I think about is Disney. I wished that my wife Loves Disney as much as I do...........Keep that report coming

 

[mecllap]

Donna -- thanks bunches for your wonderful reports -- I'm trying to "kill" time until I can go to bed and get up in the morning to get on the plane, on my way to PopC! It's been a real treat to read your humorous writing about a fun trip (hope ours goes as well! --- I expect it to). I've been on the boards for hours today -- and your reports have been well worth the time I'm camping here. Thanks!

 

[Twinklee]

Donna, I'm lovin' your trip report. After the last few days I've had its nice to finally get excited about our trip again. After this I'm planning to pop over to the Resorts board and read your report on Pop Century. I hope we like it as much as you did.

You actually filled out your Passporter? I found my old one from 2002 and it had something like two days filled out. There just didn't seem to be enough time in the day to take time out to work on it. Maybe I'll do better this trip since it seems like such a waste to buy the thing and not use it. I guess I should learn not to keep buying new guidebooks that I really don't need.

The same thing happened to me and Chelsey on Kali River Rapids. We were the ones that went down backwards and were soaked to the skin and Greg was barely wet at all. Last trip we didn't even go on it since we didn't want to be that wet again.

I'm looking forward to the rest of your report. I hope you add your days at Daytona to the end of it.

Toni

 

[mkjmom]

Great report!

We are staying at Pop for the first time in September, so I love hearing about your experiences there. Thank you for sharing it with us!

 

[DonnaW]

Okay, people, hang on...Mark is gonna help me post a few more pics..hope they turn out!

 

[DonnaW]

This is the big wheel outside of the 70's building we were in...our room was sort of in the back of this hallway.

 

[DonnaW]

This is the "lady" from the 50's building. awww..how cute is she! Over here, there is a bowling pin pool!

 

[DonnaW]

This is our "tunnel of love" pic from Epcot!! YIPPEEE!! We don't look like giants!!!!

 

[DonnaW]

And here we are getting hugged by a coupla Chipmunks!!! Insert BIG Disney smile!

 

[DonnaW]

Thx to Mark, the other computer xpert, for getting those pics posted!

 

[Philadisney]

i am loving your report so far! your writing style is great and i am always so impressed by people who can remember such details about their trips. your report is really helping me get through those torturous few days before leaving for disney, and although i am usually a moderates girl, you've even got me considering POP for a future trip! thanks for a wonderful report!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reports ~ Lovely piccies.

 

[DonnaW]

Moving on...it's now Wednesday, May 3rd...

Don't you just have to LOVE a place where you can run up and get hugged by Chipmunks?? Chipmunks!!!! I mean, come on, where else but Disney can two fairly mature adults act like such children??? I LOVE Disney World!!!!

Today was the only day I actually had planned for us to do something that required us to get up at a certain time. I actually set the "wake up call" thing on the phone, and fell asleep, dreaming of waking up to my boyfriend's voice (well, okay, not my *real* boyfriend, but my Disney boyfriend, you know the one, yep, Mickey Mouse! ) When the phone rang, I was already awake, and picked it up to hear a somewhat garbled greeting that sounded at first like the Mickey call I was expecting, but then it actually sounded like Stitch was with him! Stitch??? HUH? Hello...why are YOU calling me?? With apologies to those who love the critter, Stitch is so *not* my favorite Disney character, I'm like anyone else, please, a princess, Chip, Dale, Goofy, Pluto...anybody...but why Stitch?? Did I imagine that?? Does Stitch actually "contribute" to the wake up calls now??

Stitch aside, today's plan was to do the Keys to the Kingdom tour at the Magic Kingdom and I was like totally excited, psyched, pumped up, ready to do cartwheels...well, you get the picture! When I booked this, they told me we needed to "report" to the Guided Tour Check In (like good little soldiers) a bit early, so I wanted to make sure we were on an early bus to the park.

When we got to the Magic Kingdom, I skipped happily up to where everyone else was waiting to be let in to the (not yet open) park. The cast members were telling everyone who had an *early* breakfast ADR to see them and they would be let in. I'm thinking, hmmmmpppfff, why are *they* so special! A lady with a clipboard was scanning the crowd and I saw her talking to someone and writing things on her clipboard, and I'm thinking..."pick me, pick me"...she headed towards us and I put on my best Disney smile , but she totally ignored me and walked up to Mark!!!! This was some kind of survey thing, how many days are you visiting Disney, is it your first trip, where are ya staying, yadda, yadda. So he very patiently answers all this stuff, and I'm very impatiently wishing we could go in the park already, when all the sudden, ding, a little bell goes off in my head. Ummmm...we don't have an early breakfast, but we DO have an early TOUR booked, so I run over and tell the cast member and they say, "yep, go right on in, slide right on under this rope!" Oh, golly, gee whiz we're IN!!!! Before the crowds!!! Before the hordes!!! Before the masses!!! And, we almost MISSED the opportunity!!!!

I have NEVER ever seen the Magic Kingdom so empty! There were like maybe 4 or 5 people walking around the main entrance and looking down Main Street at the Castle, there was like...ummmmm...no one! So I took a few pics, and then we headed over to where the big sign was that said "TOUR CHECK IN". We registered and got special lanyards that said "guest" on them that we were told would have to be returned at the end of the tour, and a Keys to the Kingdom name badge that we were told we could keep. Thank you! Lunch at Columbia Harbor House is included with the tour, and they had a laminated menu for us and asked us to pick what entree we wanted for lunch. They had bottled water and coffee set out and told us to help ourselves and to feel free to wander around a bit before the tour was scheduled to start (and before the rest of the crowd came in)!

I gotta tell ya, walking down Main Street and seeing the castle with like no one there was totally awesome! It was a true highlight of the trip for me, and I am *so* glad we had the opportunity to do this! The Disney photopass person took a picture of us in front of the castle, and looking closely at the picture, you can actually see that there are Disney people *sweeping* the steps of the castle behind us in the picture! It was so peaceful and wonderful, and just practically perfect and full of Disney Magic!!!!