A Relaxing WDW Trip? Is it Even Possible?

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It has been YEARS since I wrote a proper trip report, and so I thought that this might be a good trip to write one for. I feel like if I post it on the Dis than I will have a better chance of actually keeping up with it!

The Basics: This is our 16th Trip to WDW. We are going for 9 nights and ten days. It was in early November; November 11th-November 20th to be exact. We stayed in a 1-bedroom at BCV for the whole trip. We took side trips to Discovery Cove and Sea World. It was basically my husband and I, but we did have a few different sets of friends down there. A little bit about us:

Me: 30, education consultant from MI. I’m a huge lover of Walt Disney World, but not necessarily Disney. I have fond memories of the movies from my childhood, and I like the newer ones that I see, but I am not character crazy. I think what appeals to me the most about WDW is that it is huge, with lots of fun things to do, but it is not SO huge that it is overwhelming. The other thing that I love about WDW is that it always represents vacation to me. It is clean there, and I just love it!

DH: 32, gov’t relations director, also from MI. His name is Matt, and he is a huge lover of anything and everything relating to the Michigan State Spartans. WDW is his other obsession. He is crazy about the fireworks, and loves to try lots of different food when we are at WDW. Matt’s parents own at DVC, but have sort of outgrown their points, now the like to travel abroad and to Hawaii and much more exciting places, so they let us use their points! Yes, we DO realize just how lucky we are!

Day One:
We decided early on that since this was going to be such a long trip that we did not need to kill ourselves on the first day, and take the earliest flight possible. We had spent the night at Matt’s parent’s house because they live a little closer to the airport than we do. We also have them watch our dog, so it makes sense. We still woke up around 7:00 and headed to the airport. Our flight was at 10:00 am.

We decided to fly Airtran for this trip, and we also decided to upgrade to business class! Yay for cozy flights! We went to the Coney Island in the airport for breakfast and then headed over to our gate. Since we were not flying Delta we couldn’t wait in the Delta lounge, which was a bummer, but it was fine. Our flight was pretty uneventful, Matt watched a movie, and I watched a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Before we knew it: We were there!

We went to collect our bags, which took an HOUR! Grrrrr, and then headed straight to Alamo. I got an insane rate for the car. We had a Fullsize for the ten days for $107. Insane! We had a bunch of choices in the aisle. I saw a leather outfitted Grand Marquis that I would have liked, but Matt really wanted to try the Chrysler 200, so we got that. The car smelled, but it was a nice little car. I was a little disappointed in the selection at Alamo, MANY cars that were not manufactured in the US. Being from MI; that is something we consider when we purchase cars, and even when we pick rental cars.

Soon enough though, we were headed under those amazing arches that are so popular!

We went straight to BCV and we were able to check in! Our room was ready! We didn’t stick around too long though. We headed out to our favorite local grocery store to pick up our essentials for the trip. It was mostly drinks for the room! We got beer, milk, chocolate milk, cereal, water, golden double stuff oreos, and most importantly for us was Diet Coke.

A few pictures of our room, and it is finally time to hit the parks!

 

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We headed out of our villa to Epcot. That is hands down my favorite walk in the world! It is quick and easy, and there is lots of wonderful things to look at. I also enjoy that as you get closer to the park the atmosphere kind of starts to engulf you. You hear the music first, and then start to see the elaborate landscaping of the World Showcase, and soon you can even smell the park. It is an amazing walk each and every time we do it! Holding hands is mandatory, which I like, Matt usually is against this 

We had decided to get DVC annual passes, and we picked them up at the Guest Relations window. It was a busy time there though. A mother had been separated from her kids and husband, and had no clue if they were together. I felt terrible for her, she was freaking out. It turned out they were at their ADR at the Beach Club so it had a Happy Ending! I could tell she was terrified though.

This slowed the line down, but I was okay with it, because we had plenty of interesting things to look at! There were some Christmas decorations up!

I thought these trees were SO cute, trimmed to look like Christmas Trees!

We waited a long time, but it ended up being fine. We purchased our DVC annual passes and the Tables in Wonderland card. She noticed when she took my ID that my Birthday was coming up, and she gave us fastpasses and a button! It was a great surprise!

Soon enough we were able to ACTUALLY enter the park! Boy oh Boy! Was it ever busy! I was immediately overwhelmed with the number of people in the WS. I knew it would be busy, as weekends are always insane during Food and Wine, but it was insane! It was okay for us though. We really didn’t have any agenda, or plans. We had a dinner ADR at Via Napoli at 7:00 and that was it!

Our traditional first order of business at Epcot is always making our way over to the France Pavilion and getting a delicious glass of Champagne to celebrate and toast to our vacation. This trip would be no exception. There was a huge line for the F&W booth, but the kiosk with the drinks did not have much of a line.
I am not going to lie, the lines I was seeing were very intimidating to me. I was thinking they would all be at least 15 or 20 min. That was okay though, tonight was not our night for the F&W food, tonight was Via Napoli!
We WERE hungry though, we had not had anything substantial to eat since breakfast, so we noticed that the line for the Japan booth was pretty empty. We stopped and got a shredded pork dish, kakuni, that was absolutely delicious! It was vinegary and amazing! We split one, and I think we could have each had four, and wanted more! Alas, we stopped at sharing one.

As we walked by the American Pavilion, we saw that Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was starting their set, so we popped in and watched them for awhile. It brought back fun memories for us. We started dating in 1997, and these guys were famous in probably 1998ish? We had seen them before. Matt was a HUGE fan of ska music, and we used to go to these shows all the time (he would yell at me if I called them concerts lol) In an event, watching them was a good rest and a fun walk down memory lane!

Then we started making our way to dinner. It was a beautiful evening at Epcot.

When we arrived at Via Napoli I started to freak out a bit, there was a huge line! I learned quickly that it was a line for walk ins. We had an ADR, so we didn’t have to wait! Yay! We were seated pretty quickly, and very soon we had delicious Rosa Regal in front of us!!!

We had a delicious and relaxing dinner. We started with prosciutto and melons and then we split a pizza with ham and mushrooms and a pasta dish. Everything was delicious. I really think this place has some of the better quality food in the World Showcase. Everything always seems freshly prepared, and not at all mass produced.

They even took note of my Birthday button and brought us this surprise!

It looks MUCH better than it tastes, but still very sweet!
After dinner we didn’t really know what to do. Normally we would watch Illuminations, but since F&W was going on, it didn’t start until 10:00 and it was only 8:00 now. We didn’t really have much that we wanted to do there at that point.

There was also this thing going on that had been a source of contention for us before the trip… Matt and I are both really big Michigan State fans. Matt, However; is a MUCH bigger sports fan than I am, and in our everyday lives we plan each and every life event around MSU sports. This can grow tiresome for me after a while. SO….. when Matt asked me before our trip where we were going to watch the basketball game, I may have flipped out on him, I think I told him that this vacation was a vacation from sports for me! In any event, we had fought about it.

At this point though, there was nothing better to do, and it WAS a pretty special game. It was 11/11/11 and MSU had been selected, along with UNC to play each other on an aircraft carrier, the Carl C. Vincent. It really was a once in a lifetime game… I was fine watching it since it DID end up fitting into our schedule. I just didn’t want to plan our evening around MSU basketball…. So, we decided to walk over to the Boardwalk, and see if ESPN was playing it.

The game was on outside, but there was no audio. The bar had it playing on various tvs, but it didn’t seem to be being featured, so we decided to just walk to our room and watch it there. That was FINE by me! I unpack and took a bath, and Matt drank some of his beer. This game was a big deal! The President and his family were there! We ended up watching most of the game together. MSU lost, but that was okay, we were not really expecting to win, and it was actually closer than we thought it might be. Oh well! I just read that Tom Izzo is looking to set up another game like that, so maybe that will go in our favor.

When the game was over we gratefully went to bed!

 

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Day 2 Saturday November 12, 2012

Usually we are EXHAUSTED after a travel day, but we reall didn’t overdo anything the day before. I woke up around 8:00 on my own. I love not setting an alarm clock! Matt and I had veryexciting plans for today! We were going to go to Downtown Disne for Festival of the Masters! I was VERY excited for this.

I had an exceptionall leisurely morning. I took a shower, did my hair and makeup, made a little breakfast, and it was all slow, and without any rush to get anywhere. That is luxurious to me! Plus, as I was getting ready I wasn’t looking at m room thinking “ugg I really need to wash the windows in here” or any of those nagging thoughts that interrupt my normal daily routine.

We headed out to Downtown Disney at around 10:00 am. For those of you who do not know, Festival of the Masters is just an art fair, but it is at Walt Disney World. I am a big fan of art fairs, and all of my favorite pieces in our home come from various art fairs in MI. This might shock any sports fans who are reading this, but I actually grew up in Ann Arbor MI, which in addition to being home to the University of MI, is also home to one of the biggest and best art fairs in the country. The Ann Arbor Art fair is HUGE and there are always a ton of artists there. I go every year, and it is always a great time.

We arrived at Downtown Disney just as the booths were opening up. There were many artists there from all over the place, but many were from FL. There were a few from MI, so we made sure to introduce ourselves to them. We browsed the booths for 90 min or so. It was a great art show, but I think I am spoiled with the Ann Arbor fair, this one seemed kind of dinky in comparison. There were several nice pieces though, and the artists all seemed talented.

After we got our fill of art I suggested we see if we could find a spot to watch the MSU game. It was a football Saturday after all! We were playing Iowa. We were not sure where to watch. ESPN would seem like the obvious choice, but we figured it would be too crowded, and that the audio would probably be with another game. We decided to try to stay in Downtown Disney.

I suggested we try Rainforest Café, since I knew they had a decent bar area. Sure enough they did have three or four tvs, and so we got the bartender to switch it to our game. We ordered some beverages and cheese sticks and set to watching the game. I had a few beverages; the bartended was pretty generous with his pours, so I was fine hanging out there for a while. About halfway through the second quarter we ordered burgers, which were good. MSU was CRUSHING Iowa, so we decided to leave at halftime. I was starting to worry that if we stayed there too much longer I would spend way too much money, and maybe get drunk!

Back at the room we rested for a while, and Matt watched the rest of the game. Around 5:00 we headed back to Epcot!

Matt works in government relations, and his work “social” life and his personal social life kind of bleed into one another. It is very much like high school in his work environment. The Legislator in MI takes off two weeks in November for hunting season (true story). While Matt doesn’t actually officially get those two weeks off, it ends up being a good time to travel, because he refuses to be away from work when they are in session. Matt is not alone in this opinion, so there were quite a few of our friends that were going to be at WDW while we were there. It was our plan to meet up with a few of them, and their families tonight at Epcot.

We were not doing that until later though. Early in the evening we just wanted to tour the park a bit. I wanted to see the cranberry bog that they had set up, and just spend some time in the park, maybe do a few of the rides with shorter waits.

It was insane when we walked in! Wall-to-wall people!

We headed over to the Cranberry Bog, and even though it was only around 5:30 or so it was starting to get a little dark, so it was kind of hard to see. It was also not as exciting as I thought it would be. I always think they look so pretty, this was pretty small, but certainly an interesting look at something that I wouldn’t otherwise get to see.

After we saw that I realized I had a fastpass burning a hole in my pocket. The one that we got at guest relations had to be used at Epcot, so we headed over to our fav:

We had a great ride! We got lucky and ended up in the first row, which is always my preference. When we finished there we headed over to Living with the Land, which was fun to do at night.

Then we decided to head towards the middle of the park to see if we could meet up with our friends. There were two families traveling together. One of the families recently moved away from MI, so I was eager to see them. I have missed them since they left. It became clear though that it might be hard to find a good spot to meet them, since they were not really familiar with the park.

We ended up accidently bumping into them though! It worked out well. It was clear to us that we had different ideas as to how to spend the evening. We were planning to just work our way around WS and sample from all the booths for dinner. They were looking for chicken fingers for their kids. We told them that we would catch up with them, and then started making our way around the WS and we started eating.

The lines looked long, but they actually moved really fast. We tried several dishes. Empanada (okay)and Beef w/chimichurri (delish)at Argentina,
Ropa Vieja (amazing)at Caribbean, Swedish meatballs and rice pudding (matt likes both, I like neither)at Scandinavia, Pot stickers (okay)at China, Sausage (yummy)in Germany and pirogue and stuffed cabbage(both were fine) in Poland

Now we were not starving anymore. We ran into our friends again near Poland, and spent the rest of the night strolling around with them, and eating and drinking. It was VERY low key, and there were kids so it was family friendly. One of our friends met up with her Aunt and Uncle, who live in FL. Our friends actually left, but her Uncle bought us all Champagne, and we stuck around WS and hung out with them! They were pretty cool people! We watched Illuminations, and then headed back to the room; we had a BIG ay coming up the next day: Discovery Cove!

 

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Sunday November 13th

If you are not a fan of non Disney Updates, than this one is NOT going to appeal to you. Today is our day at Discovery Cove!!!!!!

I REALLY went back and forth about whether to book this or not. I have actually wanted to go there for a long time. I REALLY wanted to go when we went on our Honeymoon, but decided not to, since it was so expensive. For this trip it seemed to make sense, because we had so many days in FL, but it concerned me on a few levels. I did not want to feel rushed at all, and if you get tickets to Discovery Cove, you also get tickets to Sea World, and I figured since we have done neither of them, we would want to, and I was worried it would make us feel very rushed. I was also concerned about money, since this was such a long trip; it was also going to be expensive, especially since we were getting APs. In the end though, it just seemed like the right time, so we bought them!

We wanted to get there by 8:30 so we left BCV around 8:00. Even when we are heading to a potentially fun place, I always hate leaving the Disney Bubble! On the drive we called my parent’s. They had just traveled to Indiana to watch U of M play football there. They go to one away game a year, and are trying to hit all of the Big Ten stadiums. They had a nice trip.

Pulling into DC was beautiful, it really feels tucked away.

I wanted to get lots of photos, I assumed that based on the price tag, we would not be back here soon!

Once we walked into the welcome building we were directed to a check in area. This is when I learned that I made a huge mistake! We had reserved tickets to DC on MONDAY, not SUNDAY! ARG! The lady checking us in was very nice, and let us know that she could try to get us spots today, but it was not guaranteed. She called some folks, and sure enough it was fine for us to stay! Yay! Crisis averted.

At the end of the day, I think I know what happened. I asked Matt when he wanted to go, and he said Monday, but I wanted to go on Sunday. I clearly made the reservation for when he wanted to go, but never really adjusted my brain! Whoops!

From there the sent us to get our photo taken, and we could start our day!

Breakfast and lunch are both provided here as part of your admission. The park was not officially open until 9:00, but we could get breakfast, which is what we did. It was only okay.

From there I wanted to go to the aviary, since I had heard that it is best in the morning, when the birds are hungry. We had a great time in here. The birds ate a ton of food, and even landed on us and climbed all over us! It was great!

Once we were done at the aviary We headed to the locker rooms to change. I ditched my camera at this point, so no more photos.

We changed into our borrowed wet suits (mandatory) and then walked over to the Grand Reef area to snorkel. I have never done this before, and I loved it. Matt enjoyed it, but not as much as me!

We played around in the snorkeling area until it was time for our dolphin experience. Then we went and met up for that.

You start with a quick safety video, and then they break you up into groups. Our dolphin was a 7 year-old female named Morea. She had one baby named Luna, who was also there that day. We touched her back and belly, fed her, and gave her a few commands, and then we got a quick ride, which I was intimidated by and couldn’t relax! I was stiff as a board! Overall though? It was amazing, and I am so glad I did it!

After the dolphin encounter we ordered some photos, and then headed to lunch! I tried many of the lunch entrée items, but mostly my favorites were the chicken tenders and French fries! I am just a six-year-old at heart I suppose! I DID have a delicious piece of Red Velvet cake for dessert. That was really yummy!

Then we headed back and snorkeled a bit more. When we were done there we headed over to the last river, and went around it twice. After that It was around 3:00. The park closed at 4:30 or 5:00. We debated staying longer, since it was so expensive to be there, but neither of us are big on sitting around on a lounge chair, and we had done everything else…. So we took showers and left!

DC has really nice showers and shower products BTW. I enjoyed my shower, and they provide the full line of Crabtree and Evelyn LaSource line. My hair was super soft and smelled great when I was done there!

We left around 3:30, which was early, but we had done everything we wanted!