A Tall Food and Wine Festival Mixed with MNSSHP; Oct 13-20th: ~~COMPLETED~~

[10_Kyle_10]

Ugh...haha, here it is my first (hopefully not last) trip report! The plan was to do this trip report right when we got back in mid October but of course the holidays caught up with me and postponed it till now. So, happy new year to everyone and I hope you all had a great holiday....Here goes nothing!

Cast:

Me: Kyle, 24
- Disney lover since my first trip in the 1st grade!
- As a kid I was very fortunate to have awesome parents willing to do anything to make a family vacation possible.
- Fort Wilderness was our second home as it gave us the opportunity to visit WDW on a small budget!
- 80% of my trips to WDW have been via car...1400miles from door to door
- Plan-a-holic

DGF: Jess, 24
- Disney Lover since first trip in 2007!
- Loves Beauty and the Beast!
- Owns a basket making company!
- Scrap booking queen!
- Smart, creative, and beautiful (inside and out).

This is our second trip together and the first alone. In 2007 we went with another couple and had a fantastic time! When it came to planning for our 2008 vacation we looked no further than WDW. Like many others its incredibly hard to plan a vacation without having Disney consistently top the list. Our friends were invited but due to the tough economic times they decided it was best for us to start planning alone. Last year we stayed at All-Star Music and loved pretty much everything about it. This year we decided to check out POP as it was in our budget and because of the continued hype/love here on the DIS.

This was not only our second trip in a row it was our second trip during the month of October. Prior to 2007 I have been to WDW all times of the year except for Halloween. Well we loved it so much in 07' we figured why not, lets do it in 08'. A huge part of why we picked to visit again in October was “Disney's Food and Wine Festival”. More to come on this in later posts but its so much fun!

Last year we were on the dinning plan and loved every minute of it. I loved the fact that we could pay for it in advance and not have to worry about where or what we could eat. Like many of you know, last year was the last year for Tips/appetizers included in the price of the DDP. Well after looking at our options we still figured the DDP was the best option for us. Being under 25 we are unable to rent a car so our off site dinning options aren't an option so we are forced to dine on site 100% of the time. In this trip report ill also include our dinning reviews as well.

OK enough talking and onto the good stuff!

 

[tazdev3225]

I left the day you arrived. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Day 1:
We arrived around 11am Monday October 13th and of course got lost heading to the magical express. For some reason I completely went the wrong way....this after having no problem the year before. Oh well, thankfully there are a ton of ME employees all over the airport guiding you to the check in.
Check in was a breeze for the second year in a row. I read a lot of nightmare stories this year but we again had a pleasant experience with minimal wait times. I have nothing but good things to say and would suggest anyone to take advantage of this free service.

We got to POP and we in love with what we saw immediately BUT..... I did a little review when we returned and I feel it would be a good time to post that here for anyone curious how our POP experience was.
OK here goes nothing:

Overall the resort is very nice but we wont be staying there again! The lake is a great touch for the value resort as it feels like you have something other that buildings and pools to "look" at. The grounds are well maintained and the pools were clean! Everything POP is huge and that was a great upgrade from the All Star Resorts which have much smaller and more limited options for both food and merchandise. Buses seemed to be pretty good, we never waited more than 20 Min's. I enjoyed only making 1 stop instead of 2 or 3 like the other values. FYI POP is the furthest bus stop from most park and attraction entrances (steps from the other values).

OK that wasn't soo bad, now for the things we didn't like:
The ROOMS. We stayed in two different rooms during our stay of 7 nights. The first night (and only night we stayed in this room) we stayed in a 60's room Standard double beds with a lake view, 3rd floor . The room was clean but the beds were terrible. Ive read reports of mattresses being replaced? Hasn't happened here yet! They were so bouncy and broken in it wasn't comfortable at all. One side of the bed was actually tilted so you were sliding toward ground. Next the water pressure in the sink was so low you couldn't get the hair out of you shaving razor or clean the tooth brush after use very easily. Last but not least the NOISE...This room was very loud and we got woken up many times throughout the night by a whistling noise which my guess was showers being used around us cause it would shut off around 20 Min's from the start of it. Ive read many complaints about this in the past and we did take the suggestion and closed the bathroom door but non the less we still heard the noise straight through the walls.

OK room 1 done, Room 2 next!
Room two was better but still not good...We had a Standard King Room, 2nd Floor building #1 facing the Bowling pin pool. The bed was better but there was a VISIBLE "W" in the bed showing exactly where its been broken in. Needless to say this mattress too wasn't recently replaced. Water pressure was the same in the sink but like room 1 but the shower was fine? Weird....OK back to the NOISE. The noise from the showers we heard in room 1 were gone, great. The standard flushing noises were there but they are understandable and easy to deal with. We slept in twice all trip, and by sleeping in I mean 9AM. First day we woke up to the music by the pool. I was shocked how loud it was and how clearly we could hear kids talking (screaming) at the pool. I could honestly sing along with the music this is how loud and clear the music was. The second time we tried sleeping in we got woken up by maintenance washing the floors with power washers outside of the rooms. I understand this is their job and I'm glad they were doing it but at 9am? Another consistent noise we heard while getting ready each morning was mouse keeping wheeling their carts around. Again I know its their jobs and its not "their" fault but when they wheeled the cart over the cracks it makes an incredibly loud thud in the rooms. I know these are pretty standard and include employees doing their jobs (not their fault nor am I blaming them) but I was just shocked at the amount of noise entering through the door.

Some left over notes/comments:

- Last year at ASM we heard toilets too...I think this is going to be a standard throughout values as they have turbo flushes! Try closing the door at night as it does cut down slightly on the noise.
- Pre leaving we heard and read many reports of mattresses being changed. We stayed in two room in two different locations and nether mattresses were close to new. We also didn't see any mattresses being changed throughout the resort.
- At POP I loved that they left a towel cart near the elevators for us to use at night for the pools or extra showers...I don't remember ASmu doing that last year.
- At POP One day we tried sleeping in we put our "privacy please" on our door and forgot to take it out...When we return at night there was a huge bag full of extra toilet paper, towels, soap, shampoo, etc...This was a nice touch that I hadn't experienced before.
- Towel animals are a huge questions/topic...Our first room had one when we arrived. The room next to us had about 5 in the window. We moved after staying only 1 night so I couldn't tell you if we would have received more. The 2nd room we stayed at we didn't get any throughout the stay. Rooms around us had them but only 1 or 2. I don't know if they take into consideration we are a couple without kids or not but they were around in the windows.
- I would stay at POP again ONLY if the All Star resorts were booked as I feel ASmu was on a different level in so many ways.

Here's a couple pictures of our window:

Sorry about getting off track...

Day 1 (cont.): After we were all checked in at POP we figured we would take the bus down to DTD and check out the recent closing of Pleasure island. We were shocked to see they had already painted over a lot of the signs etc.

Heres a picture of the new T-Rex restaurant:

We were both little Hungary now but didn't want something to spoil our dinner so we went with the many positive reviews of Wolf Gang Puck Express and it didn't disappoint. We shared the Barbecue Chicken Pizza!

Downtown Disney Crowds:

After we shopped alittle after lunch but we didn't want to be too late for our 4:00pm ADR's to our favorite overall restaurant at WDW, Ohana. We fell in love with this place last year as we thought it was exactly was Disney represents; fun, family, and great food/drinks. On that note I guess I should show you our drinks pre-dinner:

(Plenty of more drinks to come in this trip report!)

Ohana is a beautiful restaurant located in my dream hotel "poly" that overlooks the lagoon and MK. We were so lucky last year to get one of the only 2-person tables by the windows we were tempted to wait again as it truly is an amazing view. Guess what? it must have been our lucky day (it was my birthday after all) we got seated in the exact same table as last year!
Views from our table:

OK onto the food (and a couple drinks ):
Dinner drinks and salad:

My lonely plate and the last piece of my pineapple bread:

Mm mm Chicken Wings:

Pot Stickers:

I just realized I missed (or ate) the main courses before I snapped a Picture of them. I'm sure you can find others on here with some pictures...FYI, yes they are as good as they look!

My birthday Cupcake:

My banana Bread:

Jess's Pineapple and Carmel dipping sauce:

After dinner we stumbled over to DHS for the early showing of Fantasmic!
This was by far the largest crowd Ive ever seen at a showing of Fantasmic.

MM sighting! (sorry bad quality picture)

After the show we headed straight to bed as we were planing on being up early for the Magic Kingdom!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

I left the day you arrived. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Thanks for jumping on board...Looks like we dont have many friends jk im sure they will jump on board soon!


- Does anyone know how to update my title to say when Ive last updated the trip report?
- Does anyone know how to add links in post 1 to jump directly to each day in the trip report?

Thanks in advance, I think ill be doing day 2 today so look out for that !

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Man o Man no one jumping on board? I need some motivation to keep this going!

 

[mrskckitty]

Man o Man no one jumping on board? I need some motivation to keep this going!

I'm reading and enjoying your report! I'm going to WDW this Tuesday and can't wait! My Aunt and Uncle are DVC members at Saratoga Springs, so all I have to pay for is my flight and part ticket.

 

[Scambone]

Great pictures! Keep them coming!

 

[RMAMom]

Great report! We were there the same time as you were. Can't wait to read what happens next!

Can you tell me what is in the back scratcher drink? DH and I stopped at the poly for a drink and saw the backscratchers on the bar and wondered about them.

Thanks!

 

[cathy0124]

I'm in

Cathy

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Ok guys it looks like you have convinced me to keep this going! I cant promise ill get another chapter done today but im going to shoot for doing it tonight! Does anyone have the answers I asked a couple posts before? Here they are if you missed it:

- How can I add links in my post 1 that directly connects to the particular chapters?
- How can I edit my title to say "updated..."
- (new?) How do I change the link in my signature to say words instead of the adress?

*Update*
Thanks to sand2270 I now have these answers!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Magic Kingdom here we come!

We arrived at MK at rope drop! Yes, Rope drop!!!

This was my first ever rope drop and I have to say it does indeed pay off as you are able to get on every attraction with minimal waits before the rest of the crowds get there.
Our plan of attack was pretty simple: Hit space mountain, pirates of the Caribbean, thunder mountain, then splash mountain right away in that order. This plan worked out great and left us some much needed rest mid morning to walk around and enjoy the many Halloween Decorations MK has around the park!

Being as we were up early and able to hit the major attractions we planned going into the day to collect some fast passes to use later in the day when the crowds got alittle larger. This worked out great and at one point we were holding 3 different fast passes each.

I know alot of people want to see crowd pictures so here is one taken today which was October 14, 2008:

As we all know MK is lacking counter service restaurants so when it came down to choosing a lunch spot we looked no further than Cosmic Rays! The restaurant is very large and offers a wide variety of foods ranging from BBQ ribs to veggie wraps. One suggestion/comment Id like to make is to walk around and look at each station as the menus are different! Sorry bout the picture below but we clearly enjoyed the meal and thought it was a great value! Ps. Look for a second visit to cosmic rays is a future post!

We took the rest of the afternoon easy and hit the rest of the rides that we wanted. As we were crossing the HUB we noticed the "share a dream come true" show was about to begin so we stuck around and watched it!

Once again we took off for dinner fairly early as we had ADR's for 5:40pm at the newest Disney restaurant the Wave! Before we left for Disney we were tossing this restaurant in and out of our plans. The previous year we went to the concourse steak house at the contemporary and LOVED it. We read nothing but positive reviews here on the DIS regarding the wave so we figured what the heck lets try it out. For those of you who don't know about the wave yet heres a brief description: The restaurant’s theme is the wave of American cuisine and focuses on food that is locally grown as well as being organic and sustainable. The emphasis is on serving great tasting food and drink that is both satisfying and environmentally friendly.
The restaurant is located on the first floor just off the lobby and let me just say its beautiful inside. Here are a couple pictures:
- Entrance

- Waiting Lounge

The food was very different but we both we extremely happy with this restaurant and were glad we stuck with our plans! Now for some more pictures:
- Jess's Blond Ale:

- My Blackwater Dry Porter:

- Pre Dinner Bread

- Jess's Braised Chicken Pot Pie:

- My Grilled Pork Tenderloin:

We both picked off each others desserts:
- Creamy Indulgence:

- Decadent Flavors:

The food was very good as I stated before but it is alittle on the pricey side if your not on the dinning plan. I wouldn't hesitate to order either entrées again and I loved the pineapple rice served with the Pork. The one downfall to this restaurant IMO is their deserts. They were very tasty and allowed for some taste tasting but Id like to see some specialized individual desserts.

Some bonus pictures:

- We were walking by the Aladdin Ride and saw this:

- Funny Photo pass spot outside of POTC:

- Some birds by the water/flowers:

- Jess and I in front of the castle:

Day 3 will take us Around the world and a dinner at Le Cellier Steak House, see you then!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Good morning all, Just bumping this for all the morning crowd!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Bump for the afternoon crowd? No love for my trip report?

 

[RMAMom]

Thanks for the update!

Loved your Wave review.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[10_Kyle_10]

I'm reading and enjoying your report! I'm going to WDW this Tuesday and can't wait! My Aunt and Uncle are DVC members at Saratoga Springs, so all I have to pay for is my flight and part ticket.

Hope you had a safe flight and your having a great time on your trip! Looking forward to reading your report when you get back!

Great pictures! Keep them coming!

Thanks, I recently got a pretty expense camera and I'm so happy with the pictures and I'm glad you are too. Ill have many many more pictures to come! I think I have more pictures in my report than I do views

I'm in

Cathy

Thanks for jumping on board, I look forward to hearing somemore comments!

Thanks for the update!

Loved your Wave review.

Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks for the kind words....We really did enjoy the wave! We didn't know what to expect as it was such a new restaurant but I'm glad we stuck with it. The place is just stunning; great design, beautiful colors, and just overall relaxing...its pretty quiet and intimate. Looking forward to somemore of your comments in future posts!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Great report! We were there the same time as you were. Can't wait to read what happens next!

Can you tell me what is in the back scratcher drink? DH and I stopped at the poly for a drink and saw the backscratchers on the bar and wondered about them.

Thanks!

So sorry I missed this post! Here's whats in a Back Scratcher:
- Light and Dark Rum
- Passion Fruit Juice
- Jack Daniels.

How did you like it during this time? Any complaints? Have you been any other times and liked it more?

 

[PrincessNewsie]

i'm in

 

[SoScary'09]

I'm so in~

Heya, Kyle! Scary here ^_^ Your trip report's great, and since I'll be going to MNSSHP this year you've got my curiousity piqued. Hope you don't mind if I've got a dumb newbie question for you now and again lol *subscribes*

 

[10_Kyle_10]

I'm in

Thanks for joining in on the fun! These reports take allot of motivation and everyone that joins and contributes makes it worth it IMO.

I'm so in~

Heya, Kyle! Scary here ^_^ Your trip report's great, and since I'll be going to MNSSHP this year you've got my curiosity piqued. Hope you don't mind if I've got a dumb newbie question for you now and again lol *subscribes*

Hey Scary glad you found my report!! We did go to MNSSHP and we have plenty of pictures to show you and the rest of the gang so keep your eyes peeled in future chapters! Feel free to ask away, no question is a dumb question. We were all newbies at one point and you found the right person to ask questions as we have been to WDW 2 years in a row during the month of Oct.

Anyone else with questions comments feel free to speak up, ill do my best to help answer any and all questions you might have!

 

[RMAMom]

So sorry I missed this post! Here's whats in a Back Scratcher:
- Light and Dark Rum
- Passion Fruit Juice
- Jack Daniels.

Thanks it sounds great. I'll have to try it when we go back in March.

How did you like it during this time? Any complaints? Have you been any other times and liked it more?

We usually only go in the fall and we love it. Great weather, low crowds, F&W! What's not to like. DH and I are planning a trip the first week in March to celebrate our 25th. We are looking forward to warm weather and praying it doesn't rain!