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

[Bunchkin]

Great trip report, Donna!!!

I would love to do the tour you did!!! Maybe when the kids are bigger!!

We love POP too!!!!

 

[DonnaW]

Thank you all, again, for the nice comments about the report. It's fun to share our practically perfect trip with you all!

 

[DonnaW]

Thursday, May 4

Still with me, guys? If you are, thanks so much, I appreciate it! So, our happy couple (and this time they really *are* happy!), settle in to their ever-so-cutely themed room in the 70's section of POP Century and turn on the white noise machine, and begin to fall asleep counting twirly-thingies instead of sheep!

After yesterday's rude call from the Stitch dude, we decided to just relax again this morning and enjoy the resort. (Do you notice a sort of pattern here?? We used to do the park commando thing, but now we are wiser. Yes, oh, master Obi-Wan...look at the wise people who booked POP Century and discovered it was a great resort! ) Want to hear a few more good things about POP? (If you don't, just skip ahead a few paragraphs!)

I would always leave a thank you note with our tip for the housekeeper each day--the first day I said how much we loved the towel animals and lo and behold, what to our wondering eyes should appear in our window...yep, yet another towel animal!!! Insert big Disney smile! We also asked for some extra Mickey Mouse soap one day...and guess what?? Extra Mickey Mouse face soap, bath soap and shampoo appeared on our counter like magic...oh, I don't know...just about every other day!!! Ya just gotta LOVE POP Century, don't ya??

My sister Lisa called us at POP, and told me when she asked for our room, instead of just "thank you", the operator said, "have a Magical Day!" Awww... Where else but Disney??? How sweet was that????

In my PassPorter for this day, I wrote in great big letters..."I WANT TO LIVE AT DISNEY WORLD!" But, alas, it was *already* Thursday!!! When it gets to be *already* Thursday and we are checking out on Sunday (insert sad Disney face) ...I start to become a wee bit depressed. Now, I know we have 3 nights left, and I should learn to "live in the moment", so I try to shake off the sad feeling and get on with the Disney day!!!!!

 

[DonnaW]

It's *already* Thursday and we still haven't gone to Universal Studios. So Mark and I have a little chat...should we, shouldn't we?? Well, ummmm...let's see...it's *already* Thursday and we haven't gone to Disney/MGM yet, either. And, we have park tickets for Disney. And we have transportation all over Disney. And, we really don't want to get in the car and fight traffic. And, I could go on, but I think you probably already figured out we didn't go to Universal on Thursday!

Instead, after our usual routine of enjoying the poolside sunshine complete with the happy, upbeat, peppy music, we hopped on the bus headed for Disney MGM. My trusty weather channel and the sign in the POP gift shop had both told me it was going to be another beautiful day, but a tad warmer. That's okay, we can cope with warm weather on vacation!!!

 

[DonnaW]

Okay, real life is intruding here...gotta go to work...but stay tuned...

coming attractions...MGM stuff, meeting Eeyore and Cinderella in the *same* day....

 

[declansdad]

great report! I hope you get to post more pictures.

 

[DonnaW]

Home for a while, so let's continue...(my sister wants to know if the trip will EVER end...yep, it will, I promise!! )

MGM...right after we got let in to the entrance area, what to my wondering eyes should appear but another one of those official looking people with the clipboards. Now this time I really didn't care if she picked me or not, since I knew it wasn't gonna get me a free week at Disney or anything, but, of course, this time I did get picked, and this time, I very patiently answered all the questions...Mark was waaayyy ahead of me by now, busily snapping pictures with his brand new camera.

I LOVE when you first go into MGM and you hear all the Hollywood-type music on the speakers. (Yeah, I've got a thing for the music--our son is a hs music director, maybe that's why??) Anyway, we just kind of soaked in that special sound, and since we had no particular place to go (no need to rush to Tower of Terror or RockNRoller Coaster, no thrill rides for us), we just headed in the general direction of the Big Hat. (I remember the first time I saw the Big Hat, I was like...who came up with *that* thing?? ) We kinda veered off and saw that the Little Mermaid was gettin' ready to do her thing, so we hopped into the theater. I love that show, insert big Disney smile! Then it was time for the Great Movie Ride...I heard that they may revamp this whole attraction, which I think would be a shame, because we always really enjoy it. Coming out and passing back under the Big Hat (what exactly does that represent, anyway??? ), we saw Mickey Mouse giving out hugs. Well, by now, you know me, so I had to run over and get a hug from the Main Mouse!!!

After taking some pics with the Big Cheese, we headed back over to the Animation Tour. The last time we were at Disney, this was closed for rehab, so we were curious to see what they had done with it. It was cute and all, but I'm really not quite sure it's any *better* than it used to be?? The best part of this, for me, was afterwards, they had some Disney characters posing for pics and giving out hugs, and I got to stand by my Eeyore pal again!!! Then the next best part of this was the chat we had with one of the Disney animator cm's, who was drawing a picture of Donald Duck! He actually *gave* us the picture when he was finished drawing it...awwww..how sweet was that....signed and all! We wandered into the store they have at the end of the tour, and the kind cm's there packaged the picture to be sent back to the resort for us.

 

[fakereadhed]

Love your trip report!!!!!!

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

still with ya, still lovin' it!

 

[Nite0wl71]

Where are you Donna, I want to read the rest

 

[DonnaW]

HI Mark and I snuck up to Lake Geneva, WI (my "other" happy place!) We're back and I hope to update the trip report soon!!!

 

[MagicMe]

Just loving this report. Can't wait to read the rest!!!!

 

[Patio]

I LOVE POP CENTURY TOO!!!
I can't wait to read the rest and see more pictures. You and your husband make a cute couple!

 

[jaycns]

Having fun reading about your trip! Thanks for sharing!

 

[6ofus2]

I am hooked! Keep up the good work, this is a great read!

 

[DonnaW]

So, where were we? Oh, yeah, we're at MGM...and we just had our Donald Duck drawing ever-so-kindly packaged up to be sent back to the restort.

We wanted to go to the-- imported DIRECT (direct, I tell you!!!) from Disneyland Paris!!!-- Lights, Motors, Action! !!! stunt show, so we consulted the handy-dandy times guide and found out it was gonna start soon, so we kinda race-walked back to the HUGE Theater. Mark seemed to think this was an okay show. I was kind of thinking they could export this show * back *to Disneyland Paris, thank you very much. (However, a boy between the ages of about say 6 and maybe 11, would probably LOVE it! And I know Disney needs a few more things for the boys in the crowd, don't they?? )

It was now about lunchtime, and we decided to just do the fast food thing, so we choose the ABC Commissary. Ummm...big mistake. This had to be the single worst meal of the Disney week. 'Nuff said.

It was then off to one of my favorite MGM attractions, the Muppets!!! I have loved the Muppets for years and years and think the 3-D movie at MGM is just priceless! Cheered me right up!!!!

Next we went to "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire??" Ummmmm...who doesn't??? It's so cool how they have the thing set up to be *just* like the stage and stuff on the tv show, and my favorite part is when the lucky person in the hot seat gets to "phone a complete stranger"!! AND, I actually saw that *my* seat number made the top 10 list...TA, DA!!! (Does anyone remember "Super Star Television??" That was where they used to do little skits from soap operas?? Was that in the same building where Millionaire is now? I got picked to do the skit from General Hospital one time and that was a total blast!!! Ah....memories!!!)

 

[DonnaW]

After coming to grips with the reality that we were not gonna be millionaires <at least not today> (or even get a Disney pin, or anything, boo-hoo!), we moved on to see the "Chronicles of Narnia" exhibit. Since we had seen the movie, we were kind of looking forward to this, and when we saw the big door to the wardrobe, we're like, wow! And then it opened in to the forest with all the glistening trees, and we're like, wow! And, then the Snow Queen made some sort of speech, which we could hardly hear and afterward, clips of the movie (ummm...we already *saw* the movie, hello??) were played and we're like...not so wow. Then we just walked thru and looked at a few different exhibits behind glass, until the cm said the lights were going to go off in a minute or two. I thought it meant there was gonna be more to the exhibit when the lights went out, but what it really meant was move on, get out, it's time for the next group to come thru now. Okay...again, not so wow. I honestly think they could have done so much more with this exhibit, so it was a tad disappointing.

It was almost time for the next showing of "Beauty and the Beast". This is a gorgeous live stage production and if you have a little girl, ever were a little girl, or want to feel like a little girl again, don't miss this one! I love the music, I love the costumes, I love the story....and I love Mark for going with me to watch it!!!

 

[DonnaW]

Along that same "I want to be a little girl again" theme, we had dinner plans to go to 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian, so we left MGM, headed back to POP Century so we could "chill" and "fill"...gotta get a drink in those mugs! --and then headed off to the Grand Floridian.

The Grand Floridian is truly....grand. The lobby is very, very impressive. Everything is white and elegant and gracious-looking. There was a band playing, and the glass elevator was operating and we saw the place where they put up the Gingerbread House display at Christmas (as seen on tv!!! ).

When we got seated in the (a tad noisy) restaurant, the hostess cm made the comment, "looking for a nice quiet evening, right?" 1900 Park Fare is a beautiful restaurant, in keeping with the Victorian theme. There is a calliope (at least I think that's what it's called (?)--a "player" organ), and the whole place is just gorgeous. A wonderful setting for Cinderella and Prince Charming!!! In between visits to the buffet (the food was *excellent*), our table was visited by Cinderella's mice-helpers and the Prince and, yes! Cinderella herself , and of course, we took lots of pics!!! It was also way beyond cool to watch all the children having a great, great time here! (and most especially, to see all the little girls dressed as princesses! Awwww..how sweet were they... ) We found when we were finished that there was no one waiting to visit with the Fairy Godmother in the lobby, so we stopped and had a coupla pictures taken with her as well.

We then kind of wandered around the Grand Floridian...the band was done, and now a woman was playing the piano, and then I saw those stairs that looked like they had come right out of the set of "Gone with the Wind"! and I had to go stand on them so I could do the Scarlett O'Hara thing! And, of course, I *needed* to take a ride on that glass elevator!!! We then walked outside and took some more pics of the flowers and the view of the castle. We decided that was enough of being "grand" for us...our comfort zone is waaaayyy more POP Century than Grand!

 

[DonnaW]

We headed back to Epcot cuz we wanted to see Illuminations from inside the park...what a concept...and we managed to get there a few minutes before it was gonna start. We asked a cm if the view from where we were holding up a piece of the railing was going to be a good one, and she said it would be okay, but shortly after the show started, we kinda realized we had a big ol' tree blocking part of our view, so we moved a little further along the lagoon and ended up watching the show from in front of the France pavilion. Have they changed Illuminations recently? It was good and all, but just not the way we remembered it as being. It still absolutely amazes me that Disney puts on all these fantastic fireworks shows, in the 3 big parks, like every night! WOW!

After the show, we meandered along the Boardwalk area (do people stay in those rooms that look out over the Boardwalk?) for a bit, and took in the sights and sounds. We ended up kind of stumbling upon the Atlantic Dance Hall. This was like a total blast from the past! They had a giant disco ball (remember those?) and a DJ was playing all kinds of "oldies" and there were a few brave souls actually out on the dance floor! And, wonder of wonders, it was a non-smoking club, what a treat!! We stayed there for awhile, reliving our past, but soon we decided we were ready to call it a night and headed back over to POP Century.

Ahhhh...our Disney home!!! I LOVE heading in to the resort and seeing all the bright colors and hearing the cheerful music and heading in to our practically perfect room in the 70's section. We turned on our white noise machine and dreamed of our next Disney Day!

 

[burly]

Thanks for posting. Waiting patiently for more. Loving your TR.