A Whole New World! – An April 2018 Trip Report - Completed 3/1/19!

[bettymae1121]

A Whole New World! – An April 2018 Trip Report

Cast of Characters

Bettymae – Yours truly! 41 year old wife, mother, and WDW fan. This is my 8th trip to WDW (9th if you want to count a short business trip a few years ago).

Grumpy – Also known as DH. 46 years old, loves WDW - but doesn’t want to admit it most of the time. This will be his 4th WDW trip.

Her Most Royal Majesty, Dr. Princess-Jedi-Ninja DD - age 6. A princess, and a Jedi/Ninja? Yup. Also a future scientist, doctor and police officer. Hey, she has goals! This will be her first trip to Disney!

Author’s Note – I had planned on completing and posting this trip report by May of 2018. Oops! Once we returned to reality, life (as it tends to do) got in the way and it wasn’t until I started planning our next two (!) Disney adventures that I decided to make more of an effort to complete the report (I had the first 3rd or so written already). But with DISers starting to look forward to their own April 2019 trips, some of you may find this useful, and perhaps mildly entertaining.

Without further ado…

Trip Report Part 1: Final trip prep plus planes, trains, and automobiles (and a limo!)

So you may remember me from such posts as “A Whole New World! – An April 2018 Pre-Trip Report”. No? Well here are the links if you’d like to read the full background:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

For those that don’t care to read novels, the “too long – didn’t read” version is that after poop-tastic 2017, I decided my little family needed a WDW vacation. But even though this wasn’t my first rodeo, after a long 7-year absence from the World, I needed to do a lot of research and re-learn the fine art of WDW vacation planning. This is why I decided to title my reports “A Whole New World”, because a lot of this was really new to us!

Our trip was to be 8 nights, from Saturday April 21, 2018 through Sunday the 29th at the Dolphin with the following schedule:

Saturday, Day 1: Fly to Orlando, grocery stop, check in, settle into room, dinner at Garden Grove, then swim or mini-golf before early-ish bed time.

Day 2: RD at MK (9 AM) tour Fantasyland and Tomorrowland until our dinner at CRT @ 4:30 PM, depart park after dinner.

Day 3: RD at Epcot, start at Soarin’ then work clockwise until lunch at San Angel Inn, afternoon break then return for dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh. Tour WS until Frozen/Illuminations desert party.

Day 4: Sleep in, arrive DHS ~ 11 AM, tour until dinner at Sci-Fi, then stay for evening shows or leave if tired.

Day 5: Pool day! Sleep in, hang out at pool/arcade/playground. Lunch pool side. Then return to Epcot mid to late afternoon for more WS touring and dinner at Biergarten, and a FP for FEA.

Day 6: Return to MK! RD and tour “the other half” of the park. Lunch at Columbia Harbor House and dinner at Skipper Canteen. Leave park after dinner.

Day 7: RD at AK, dash to Na’vi River then tour rest of park until dinner at Tiffins, leave after dinner. Lunch at closest quick service location to us when we decide we are hungry.

Day 8: Final full day of vacation! Epcot in morning then monorail to Poly for lunch at Kona Café, then to MK to re-ride any favorites or hit anything we hadn’t gotten to previously. Dinner at Casey’s, more touring then HEA desert party, Plaza viewing.

Sunday, Day 9: Breakfast at hotel then fly home.

Picking up where my pre-trip report novel left off, the Thursday before our departure (this is mid-April mind you!) I woke up and saw this outside my window:



What can I say, that’s life in the upper-Midwest, where if you don’t like the weather just wait a minute, it will change.

Fortunately, it did actually change - the forecast for Saturday was sunny and clear for both Chicago and Orlando so I wasn’t too worried about our flight operating on time.

Anyway, I work from home so between work duties I was running loads of laundry for DD and I (Grumpy does his own), making my packing list and checking it twice, hauling the suitcases out of the closet, that sort of thing. Once I was done with work for the day I wanted to hit the ground running with packing. I had also taken Friday off from work so I’d have additional time to run any last-minute errands and take DD to the bank and cash in this little fellow for her spending money:





Don’t worry, he survived the experience! The little porker had over $30 in him too, so between that and some paper money DD had socked away, she had $60 to spend on the trip. I also took out $100 in cash, $30 alone in singles and the rest $5’s and $10’s. I wanted to make sure I had what I needed to tip both the hotel maid and the town car drivers, plus anyone else that had earned it. I operate nearly 100% on credit cards so I really had to consciously make sure I had cash on me.

By the time the dinner hour on Friday had rolled around we were fully packed and ready to go. On past trips I’ve been up as late as midnight getting ready (and that was pre-kid) so I worked hard to make sure that I would be able to relax the evening before our departure.

We decided to go to a local amusement complex for dinner, glow-bowling and arcade games. DD was about the trip so we felt this was a good way to kick off our vacation a bit early.

Plus I didn’t have to cook or clean up after the meal. Bonus!



Finally it was Departure Day! Got up about 6 AM so we’d be ready to go by 7 AM. The car service I use tends to be on the early side, so even though the pick-up was to be 7:30 (for a 10 AM flight) I wanted to make sure we were good to go. We were going to let DD sleep a bit longer but she heard us get up, so we all got ready. Grumpy got the bags to the front door.



I think I did a great job packing. We checked the two big bags and only had DD’s little Pullman and a backpack each for DH and me for carry-on. My backpack was the “Mom” bag, it had petty cash, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, Tide to-go, Kleenex, a small drug store’s worth of OTC meds (headache? motion sickness? gas pain? I got ya covered!), crayons and paper for DD and my iPad for me, our chargers/plugs/cords for various devices, and head phones for DD and me. It also had a change of clothes for DD and me (in case the checked bags wound up in Kathmandu). And most importantly, our Magic Bands, which since it was linked to our admission tickets was just a wee bit too important to trust to the airline baggage gods.

So 7 AM rolls around, then 7:15, then 7:25. The driver wasn’t late but it was unusual that he wasn’t early. Then DD heard something and looked out the window.

“Mama, it’s the limo!”

Now I had ordered just a town car so I figured DD was confused. I opened the front door.

Nope she was correct, it was a stretch limo all right!

I found out later that the owner of the service (who I know personally) felt bad he couldn’t pick us up himself so he sent a stretch (at the sedan rate!) to make it up to me. Pixie dust already and we haven’t even left the house yet!

We get to the airport in style (and in good time), check our bags, go through security, and make our way through the “rainbow tunnel” from B to C concourse at O’Hare’s Terminal 1. For those that haven’t had the pleasure of seeing it in person, click here. I didn’t want to paste the picture directly in, don’t want to violate any copyrights.

I never feel like I’ve truly traveled unless I get to go through here, so I’m always happy to see my flight is departing/arriving at a C gate.

And I’m going to pause right here for a second and just say this: Every airline and TSA employee we encountered at both O’Hare and Orlando was not only professional and competent, but down right friendly. Both the airlines and TSA get their fair share of complaints, but we could not have had a better experience.

Once on C concourse we stopped for breakfast.



I think I caught DD “mid-chew” in this picture because she was still pretty excited. After breakfast we hit the bathrooms and then Grumpy and DD headed to the gate while I went to Starbucks for some coffee, water, and snacks for the flight. Now I wasn’t expecting breeze right through but the line was really, really

L

O

N

G

So long in fact that after a while Grumpy and DD come to find me, DD was crying because I had been away for so long and she was scared I’d miss the flight. Poor kiddo. After I calmed DD down they waited just off to the side until it was my turn. I got the coffee, water, two (huge) sandwiches and two bags of chips. United only offers snack boxes to purchase on flights under 3 hours, and it would be a long time until dinner. Cheese and crackers wasn’t going to cut it. I figured I’d get DD the kids snack box and I’d share my sandwich and chips with her if it wasn’t enough.

By the time I had the food they were just starting to board, so that worked out well. We got to our seats and settled down for the 2+ hour flight.

The flight was uneventful and we landed a bit ahead of schedule. Got off the plane, stopped for a bathroom break, then took the train to the main concourse and headed for baggage claim. As we were walking towards our claim area my cell phone rang. It was Darren from FL Tours letting me know he was there and waiting for us. Just as I spotted him I also spotted our bags on the belt (talk about timing!), so I grabbed them both, handed them to Darren and he escorted us to his sedan. Darren offered to let me sit in front (which is good because I can get car sick in the back, I’d taken Bonnine for the flight but still…) and we chatted about all things Disney on the way to the grocery stop at Publix. I had a shopping list ready to go, this was mainly breakfast items plus some adult beverages.

As it turns out I got too much food but the types of foods I got worked really well, here is a list if you’re looking for ideas:

• Bananas
  
• Prepared cut fresh fruit (strawberries in this case)
  
• Granola bars
  
• Smallest jars peanut butter and jelly available
  
• Bread
  
• Milk
  
• Half n Half (for coffee – that powdered “creamer” is just – no.)
  
• Yogurt
  
• Pre-made hard boiled eggs
  
• Instant oatmeal
  
• Beer, wine, and a cork screw

What I did forget was cutlery, so I wound up having to “borrow” some from various quick service locations. And next time, I’ll do either the yogurt OR the oatmeal, and bananas OR cut fruit, not both – wound up leaving behind more food than I anticipated (or liked). However, I did buy just the right amount of adult beverages!

I pushed my cart outside where Darren loaded my purchases into the trunk and then we were off to the Dolphin! Bell Services took our bags and held them while we checked in. Check in took a bit, even though I’m Starwood Gold all the front desk agents had guests. But I got my turn, and the agent was able to find an upgrade to a balcony fireworks view (DHS) for $20 a night (we’d booked a standard double on points). But it would not be available until the official check-in time of 4 PM and it was only about 3 or so. They would text me when the room was ready and I could go back to either the main desk or concierge to pick up my room keys. The agent also gave DD a coupon for a free ice cream at Fountain’s, my free drink coupon for being with Starwood, plus two more free drink coupons! More pixie dust!

So we headed to the lobby bar and relaxed with drinks, and DD entertained us with hula dancing! Why yes, that is her blankie being used as a sarong.



By the time the floor show was over and the drinks were consumed, I got the text that our room was ready. The front desk was still hopping so we went to Concierge where the agent there issued our room keys and let Bell Services know to send up the bags.

The room was nice, it was the typical Dolphin double layout (true doubles, not queens) along with a twin rollaway, which was there either through luck or the nice front desk agent because I hadn’t requested it. DD was going to squeeze in with me so Grumpy could have more space but this way we each got our own bed (Grumpy and I don’t do well sharing unless it’s a king, I toss, turn, and kick in my sleep. Even in a king I’ll still kick him awake at least once a week – oddly enough I don’t do it when DD is sharing).

The balcony was tiny but would work just fine, all I wanted was a place to sit and relax after a day in the park with a glass of wine.

I had just opened the balcony door to check it out when Bell Services arrived with our luggage and groceries. The bell man showed us around the room a bit and set up the rollaway for us. I put the groceries away in short order and then got us all unpacked (I hate living out of a suitcase if I’m staying longer than a night or two, so all the clothes went into drawers, toiletries in the bathroom, and suitcases put into the closet to serve as make shift hampers). I also repacked my backpack to take to the parks the next day, taking out things like headphones and iPads and adding things like sunscreen and Mickey ears. I removed my change of clothes but kept DD’s in there (never know when a kid will run head long into a splash pad or get drenched on a water ride). But there also was a lot of cross over between “Mom bag – airport edition” and “Mom bag – theme park edition”. I’m stupidly proud of my bag, throughout the week we used everything in it at least once, so I neither over nor under packed, yet I wasn’t the walking pack mule you’ll often see around WDW (moms and dads both).

With a place for everything and everything in it’s place, it was time to head down for dinner. The Garden Grove is located in the Swan, a short walk out the Dolphin’s “back door”. On weekends GG serves a seafood buffet and I was excited to try it.

Unfortunately, the food was disappointing (steak was tough, crab/lobster way over cooked, etc.), but the great service made up for it (plus the deserts were decent so that helped it end on a high note). It was also a character meal and Pluto and Goofy were in great moods and had wonderful interactions with DD (and Grumpy and me too).



After dinner Grumpy wanted to go to bed early (I should mention here that Grumpy works 3rd shift in the real world for the last 25 years so he’s really used to sleeping during the day, it’s hard for him to switch his wake/sleep schedule) so DD and I took a quick dip in the pool. Quick because the water was freezing and it wasn’t all that warm out by that time of the evening. Plus it was after 6 so the water slide was closed. We went back to the room for quick bath (DD) and shower (me) and we both turned in rather early ourselves.

For tomorrow the vacation would truly begin!

To Be Continued in Part 2!

 

[bettymae1121]

Trip Report Part 2: Park day #1 – Magic Kingdom – It was a “Beauty-full” day!

Magic Kingdom had a 9 AM opening, so I set the alarm for 7 AM, which sucked a little because our home is in the Central time zone, so it “felt” like 6 AM. One neat feature of the Dolphin is that the TVs in the room are “smart” and have both Netflix and Hulu available, all you have to do is use your account credentials to log in. So DD binged on “Phineas and Ferb” in the mornings before the parks and in the evenings before bed the whole week. I gave her an open faced PB&J, a banana, and milk every morning (it was a big hit actually – she didn’t want to eat anything else we had. It’s more or less healthy so whatevs). Grumpy and I ate too while we got dressed. I sprayed DD and I down with sunscreen and then drank my coffee on the way to the bus stop.

A MK bus pulled up just a few minutes after we arrived at the stop. Not long after, we arrived at MK, went through security and the turnstiles (our first experience using Magic Bands, very cool!) and then rented a locker for DD’s Belle dress. I hadn’t planned on DD dressing up on the trip but once she saw other girls in the Disney WDW promotional videos (that we watched a few weeks before the trip) dressed up, that was the end of that, and Belle is her favorite (mine too!). She didn’t want to wear it until it was time to meet Belle at Enchanted Tales and eat at BoG and I didn’t want to lug it around all morning, so we sprung $10 for a small locker.

But before we knew it we are standing on Main Street!

DD was very excited to see everything, we popped in and out of a few stores while walking towards the castle. I noticed that there were Photo Pass photographers all along Main Street, and the closer you got to the castle the shorter the lines were for the photographer. So we picked the one closest to the castle, right at the point where the Hub starts, and got this little beauty:





With that little piece of business out of the way, we went a bit closer to the castle stage and waited a few short minutes for the opening ceremony to start. Our plan was to hit Barn Stormer first, so I wanted to be close-ish so we could cut through the castle to Fantasyland.

While waiting:




Grumpy and DD enjoying the show:




Fairy Godmother opened the park with a “Bippity, Boppity, Boo” and some fireworks and then it was off to our first ride.

We spent the morning in Fantasyland, riding Barn Stormer and Dumbo first. Then the next ride was to be Under the Sea but we weren’t paying attention to which attraction we were entering and wound up meeting Ariel in her grotto accidentally:



But that was fine because DD got her first autograph, and the wait was only about 5-10 minutes. We then found the right entrance to Under the Sea, then it was off to Small World. Part of my enjoyment this trip was watching DD experience WDW:



By then it was time for our first FP+ of the trip, 7DMT! This was a first for Grumpy and I too, as the Fantasyland expansion was still under construction on our last trip. It was a fun coaster as you can see by the picture below, but I don’t understand the huge lines - I don’t think I’d wait more than 30 minutes for it if I couldn’t get a FP. That said, if you can get a FP, do it! Still I love the look on Grumpy’s face, this is now my favorite ride picture of all time:





Next up was Tea Cups for DD and Grumpy. Even with motion sickness meds, Tea Cups are just too much for me so I took this opportunity to run back to the locker and grab DD’s dress. I got back just as they started riding. When done, I located the nearest restroom and DD transformed to this beautiful, delicate flower…



…who was upset that the sun was in her eyes.

We didn’t have enough time to do Enchanted Tales with Belle before our BoG lunch reservation, but it was a still too early to check in for it too. So, DD and Grumpy went into the gift shop near Gaston’s while I tried to (unsuccessfully) pre-order our food. That got me very irritated very quickly (didn’t help I was hangry). Abby found a Belle notebook that she talked conned Grumpy into buying with his money rather than her own. At least it wasn’t a toy and small enough to take with us. Unlike the other item she wanted, a Mrs. Pots tea set. Grumpy told her to wait and ask me. I went in to take a look at it, and it was $30 - about half the money she had. I explained it was only the first day and she might want to wait and look around more but she was pretty insistent. So we paid and then she had a fit when I asked for resort delivery. She wanted to take it with us so she could have a tea party that day. But it was too big to fit in the backpack and while we still had the locker rental I had no inclination to run back to the front of the park and back again. Suck it up buttercup!

We headed over to BoG, checked in, ordered our food (which was a bit of an ordeal, try to pre-order if you can), and found a table in the ball room (tried for West Wing but it was full, still we enjoyed looking around).

We got a table near the back of the ball room, near the window where you could see the snow. DD was very proud of her new notebook.




And I was proud of the hairstyle I was able to do on the fly sitting on a park bench:



The hair was really very simple. After brushing her hair and smoothing back some fly-a-ways, I just took the half pony tail I’d given her that morning at the hotel and then used a bun maker to make it into a bun, but left the hair left over from the bun maker hanging down rather than wrapping it around the base of the bun like you normally would. I then secured the loose hair from the bun to the back of her head with a fancy hair clip. It took all of 3 minutes, and used no hair pins, just some hair spray to help with the fly-a-ways. And it held up very well all afternoon, as DD refused to take the dress off the rest of the day.

If anyone is curious about her outfit, from crown to shoes the whole costume cost me $50. The itself dress was only $25, the gloves/crown/jewelry were a package set and combined with the shoes made up the other $25, and it all was ordered from Amazon. The hair clip and bun maker I already owned. The dress was amazing quality and I didn’t see any better (and few it’s equal) our whole time there.

Now back to our lunch. I have to say I’ve heard mixed reviews on BoG and my reaction was also mixed. The food wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. I had the croque monsieur, DD had grilled cheese, and Grumpy had the French dip. The cupcakes were better than I’d heard reported though. DD had chocolate, I had lemon, and Grumpy had the strawberry. I understand there is a new kitchen under construction but the current kitchen is still in use, I hope the food quality improves with the new kitchen.

One the way out, more pictures!



Speaking of pictures, due to the number I’m going to stop here and continue in another post.

To Be Continued in Part 3

 

[bettymae1121]

Trip Report Part 3: Park day #1 – Magic Kingdom – It was a “Beauty-full” day! – continued.

We went over to Enchanted Tales, and DD got to meet her favorite princess, and was cast as Maurice. Unfortunately, on this occasion Belle wasn’t signing autographs, something we rectified later in the trip. Still, DD got a bookmark (perfect for her new notebook) and we got some great photos!




Next up was our final ride in Fantasyland for the day and our next FP, Peter Pan and we also saw Mickey’s Philharmagic, DD loved them both. Once that was done it was off to Tomorrowland. Touring plan said to do Speedway first, which we did (DD still in her ball gown!) and by then it was time for our final FP for the day, Space Mountain. By then DD was about done for the day so we skipped Astro Orbiter and just did Carousel of Progress.

Turns out, CoP is DD’s favorite WDW attraction. She spent the rest of the week singing “It’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”. You think IASW gets stuck in a loop in your brain?

After CoP DD was still pretty pooped so we killed the last bit of time before our early dinner reservation for CRT (or Cindy’s as we call it) by browsing in Sir Mickey’s. DD had fun with a sword and shield:



And Grumpy got in on the action:




Finally it was time to check in. We met Cindy for the first (but not the last) time:





And then we were shown to our table, it was off to the side, up against one of the walls of the castle (not a window). Actually it was a good spot, we had a great view of the room but it wasn’t as busy around us since it was in a more out of the way spot. Abby got her wishing star and wand, then met some of Cindy’s friends who happened to be visiting the castle that day. Abby got to know Snow White, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, and Ariel stopped by in her human form.



The food overall was very good although I didn’t care for the appetizer that much, we ordered the Tasting Plate, the cheese was good but I like lots of crackers/bread when I eat cheese and that was lacking, the meats were so-so. DH and I both ordered the beef, they were both cooked exactly to order and were delicious. DD had the chicken nuggets and said “good” when I asked her how they were. She ate a decent amount so usually that’s a sign of a job well done. For desert I had:



Which was a fruit covered cheese cake with apple compote and caramel. It took me a minute but I realized it looked like the poisoned apple from Snow White! Again, delicious. I can’t remember what Grumpy had, and DD had the decorate your own cupcake.

By then DD was “stick a fork in her” done so we headed back to the hotel and had one of only two long waits for a bus the whole trip. It was a solid half hour. We got back to the room, DD and I changed and Grumpy went to bed (still adjusting to being awake in the day, he went to bed as soon as we got back to the room each day of the trip).

Now for what comes next, here’s a little back story. When I first told DD about the trip, I told her all about what we’d be doing each day and then showed her the big map of WDW, the one that shows all four parks, the water parks, Disney Springs, the resorts, and the golf courses. Now, what do you suppose caught DD’s eye when she looked at the map? Magic Kingdom? Epcot? Ha ha ha, no.

“Mommy, when are we going golfing?”

Uh, hadn’t really planned on it?

Fortunately, Swolphin is near the Fantasia Gardens mini-golf so I told her that one day during the trip we’d go.

She’s been asking about it multiple times a day ever since, including through out the day today. Basically, she wouldn’t shut up about it.

After we’d changed she insisted we golf, right now. I looked up the hours, open until 11. Great! So Grumpy hit the hay and DD and I headed out. It was a short walk and a dash across a busy road (I flashed back to my youth playing Frogger on my brother’s Atari 2600). We paid, got our clubs and balls, and hit the links.

About the 4th hole, DD’s ball got stuck in one of the contraptions. No biggie, went back to the start and got another one from the desk. But the couple playing behind us happened to knock it loose when they played, and gave it back to DD. A move they are still probably regretting because DD feels that strangers are just BFF’s she hasn’t met yet.

She talked to them.

Constantly.

For the next 14 holes.

I couldn’t stop it.

Nice people behind us…I’m so sorry.

They were great sports about it and they seemed to enjoy talking to DD, but I still feel bad that we encroached on their evening. We finished up and headed back to the room to get ready for bed. Because tomorrow was a big full day at Epcot.

Except…where’s my credit card?

To Be Continued in Part 4!

 

[bettymae1121]

Trip Report Part 4: Park day #2 – Epcot “Just keep holding, holding, holding”.

Prior to the trip I got a new case for my iPhone that has space to store 4 credit cards. I had my American Express card (Amex), my debit card w/Visa logo, my driver’s license, and my hotel key stored in the phone case. I had also heard that Apple Pay was accepted all over WDW property, so I set myself up with that prior to the trip as well, to limit the amount of times I’d have to pull out my card to pay for stuff (almost as good as a Magic Band, which in case you are wondering we couldn’t use to pay for stuff as we were staying at the Dolphin). When I went to get the key card out to get into the room after we’d come back from mini-golf, I noticed my Amex was missing.

I’d used Apple Pay to pay for mini-golf, so it wasn’t left there. Then what happened to it? I thought back and the last place I used it was at Cindy’s to pay for my alcoholic drink (since it’s not included in the pre-paid price). I didn’t use it any other time between then and getting back to the room.

Oh crud. (only I didn’t say “crud”).

I looked up the number to WDW Lost and Found, they closed at 7 and would reopen at 9 tomorrow. I then looked up a number for WDW guest services and the nice CM said that the restaurant would forward the card to central L&F, but she’d try to patch me through the restaurant to see if they could hold it so I could run back to MK to get it that evening. She patched me through but no one answered (they are crazy busy there so I get it).

Once I thought it through I calmed down a bit. Because of Apple Pay, every time a charge hits the card I get an instant alert on my phone, so I can easily monitor it for fraud. If I notice anything weird I can cancel the card and use my debit card instead for the rest of the trip (had plenty of cash in checking so no worries there). Meanwhile I could continue to use Apple Pay or Grumpy’s Amex (which he had wisely not lost like I had). I would call L&F once they opened the next day and see about getting it back. Easy peasy right?

Well…you’ll see.

So the next morning dawned with what became our morning routine of waking up, getting dressed, in-room breakfast, coffee, cartoon watching, sun screen spraying, and passing out of Magic Bands. I talked Grumpy in to walking to Epcot when it became obvious we’d just missed a boat. A walk which he declared “too long” and I wasn’t able to talk him into walking again the rest of the trip, even if waiting for a boat (or a bus to BC/YC/BW) would be longer than the walk. Fortunately we had pretty good luck the rest of our stay in the “making the bus/boat” department so it wasn’t really an issue. We got to Int’l Gateway just after RD and we made our way to Soarin’, and it was all but a walk on.

DD loved it! When I described it she didn’t seem too sure but I told her if she got scared to just close her eyes and that Grumpy and I would be right next to her the whole time. But she thought it was amazing. Which was good because we had FP for FoP booked for later in the trip, and while FoP is in another galaxy compared to Soarin’, it’s still probably the closest comparison and if she had a problem today then FoP might not be looking too good.

After that we did The Land, which we all enjoyed (it’s actually somewhat educational, which is what Epcot used to be. I’m sad Disney has all but thrown in the towel on the educational aspect of Epcot. I came in ’83 at the age of 7 and thought it was an amazing place and had a great time, very little was “boring” to me – I’ve never understood guest complaints about it, it was never intended to be MK v.2). Then we headed over to The Seas for Finding Nemo (DD had a fit because she wanted to see the fish tanks first but I was worried the line for the ride would explode if we delayed, as it was it was lines were already building – she was NOT happy but once on the ride she calmed down and loved it). We could not talk her into doing Turtle Talk before seeing the tanks though, so Grumpy stayed with her to see the fish while I went outside to get a signal so I could call L&F about my wayward Amex. By now it was about, oh 10 AM or so I think.

I called and was told by the recording that due to high call volume I had to put on hold. Ok fine. In my pre-trip report I mentioned I’m a travel agent. About 20% of my job is sitting on hold waiting to talk to one airline or another so long hold times are nothing new.

You know how Dory sings “just keep swimming, swimming, swimming”? I just kept holding, holding, holding. 45 minutes later, and still no sign of getting a human being, I gave up. I was not going to spend my precious vacation time waiting on hold to retrieve a credit card I didn’t actually need to have. I figured nothing had changed since last night. I’d keep a close eye out for fraud, cancel ASAP if I saw any, but otherwise just keep using Apple Pay and Grumpy’s physical card. I’d deal with it when I got home. And ultimately that’s exactly what happened, no fraud occurred, I used Apple Pay or Grumpy’s card, and I dealt with Amex after the trip.

By the time I was done with holding, DD had her fill of the tanks and said she still didn’t want to talk to Crush. Fine, we needed to head to Spaceship Earth anyway to make our FP window, as it was now almost 11 and the window expired at 11:10. I know you get a grace period but I didn’t want to count on it.

That done it was time for our Test Track FP, which DD was very much excited about – although we did stop for a picture…



…as well as at a popcorn cart for a quick snack before heading into the pavilion. I’d told her she’d get to design her own car and test it out and she just thought that was awesome. She took her design during the pre-show VERY seriously, too serious in fact because she got truly upset when she “goofed up” drawing the outline of the car with her finger (she’s a lefty so part of her wrist or arm or something touched the screen and zig-zagged the line her finger was drawing). Fortunately, the system fixed it for her and we got a pretty cool looking design. We let her pick out the rest of the features then Grumpy and I went back and added our own ideas since there was still some time left.

We tested our car (this ride is way more fun than I remember, by the way). Even with FP, the was a bit of a wait and of course the pre-show is rather lengthy, so by the time we left the pavilion it was time for our lunch reservation at San Angel Inn.

I’m going to say right here that I wound up not taking very many pictures of our food, mainly because by the time I thought to do so we’d already eaten it. So sorry, not much food porn in this trip report! Our waiter was wonderful and so was the food. San Angel Inn was another place I’d heard mostly bad reviews of, but rumor had it that there had been some management changes and things were on the upswing. I always eat here for sentimental reasons, so I decided to risk it. If our meal is any indication then I’d say the rumors were true. I can’t speak to how authentic the food is, I know nearly nothing of Mexican cuisine, like most Americans when I think “Mexican” it’s actually American Tex-Mex. But authentic or Americanized or something in between, everything we ordered was delicious. I can’t rave enough of the Sopa Azteca (tortilla soup), it was absolutely delightful. Just be warned, the soup comes out with all the chicken, avocado, tortilla strips, cilantro, etc. in the soup bowl WITHOUT any broth, then after the waiter places the bowl in front of you, pours the broth over the “dry” ingredients. This way it doesn’t get all soggy before you get a chance to eat it. I figured it out almost instantly but Grumpy had a very confused look on his face until the waiter poured the broth (I had a better view of the food tray and spotted the pitchers of broth, I don’t think Grumpy saw them from his angle). While we inhaled our soup, DD had a bowl of mixed berries (which were fantastic, I stole a couple).

For entrees Grumpy had the Mole Poblano, I had the Tacos de Carne and DD had the kid’s quesadilla. All were terrific!

After lunch we rolled ourselves over to the Three Caballeros ride and searched for Donald all over Mexico (found him just in time for the show, how about that?) and then looked around a bit in the pavilion. And of course tried on a hat…



I have no idea why she is making that face.

By then DD was about done and the skies were looking rather…ominous. We took a Friendship boat across the lagoon to the Morocco landing, walked to the Int’l Gateway boat launch and had a nice cruise back to the Dolphin. It started raining on the way back but it let up a bit by the time we docked, and started again once we got inside (our luck with timing was incredible the whole week!) Grumpy went up to the room while Abby and I went to the gift shop to pick up her Mrs. Pots tea set so she could FINALLY have her tea party (she’d been asking about it nearly non-stop all morning).

Tea party? You want a tea party? Okay then let’s DO this thing!

I brewed an actual cup of tea in the room and set it aside to cool, opened a bunch of sugar packets and put them in the toy sugar bowl, used some of my half and half to fill the toy creamer pitcher. And DD and I sat on the floor and sipped real tea out of toy tea cups for our tea party! Actually it was pretty good, I used the half and half to both cool the tea and help the flavor, I don’t care for hot brewed tea normally but with the cream and sugar it wasn’t half bad.

Once the party was over we washed up (DD insisted she would wash and I had to dry) and relaxed for a bit while Grumpy continued his nap. Eventually though it was time to head back, I didn’t want to be late for our dinner reservation at Restaurant Marrakesh.

To Continued in Part 5!

 

[bettymae1121]

Trip Report Part 5: Park day #2 cont. – Epcot “Agent P, Pikachu and Elsa walk into a party…”.

Link to part 4.

So we took the boat back to Int’l Gateway and headed to dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh. DH and I had eaten here before on a previous trip and DH loves it (I find the food just okay, although I like the atmosphere and service). We both had lamb shank and DD had a burger. But the highlight is the belly dancer and live music – and the kids are encouraged to get in on the act!




After dinner, we explored the Morocco pavilion for a bit, while DH and I were browsing in one of the stores, DD started coloring Duffy at one of the Kidcot stations. After a while, a CM came over and asked Abby if she’d like to meet Princess Jasmine, who would be making an appearance shortly just next door. DD got up and ran over so fast I think she broke Usain Bolt’s Olympic sprint record. We caught up with DD and waited a few short minutes and got another picture and autograph.






After that, we went to the France Pavilion and played a round of Agent P. We are all huge Phineas and Ferb fans so we had been especially looking forward to doing one of the missions. After successfully foiling Dr. Doofenshmirtz, DD posed for this shot when we saw Agent P’s symbol.




And then we wandered over to Japan to look around in the department store for a bit and caught Pikachu!




Then we started to walk over towards the check-in for the Frozen Desert Party, pausing to buy DD a light up toy and take some pictures on a beautiful evening in Epcot.




After a bit of confusion about where to check in, we finally got to the Frozen Desert Party. The party includes desert (obviously) plus adult beverages (!) and tabled seating for a perfect view of Illuminations. As I mentioned in my pre-trip report, after over a half dozen trips to WDW over the years I was *done* with lining up for an hour or more of spot holding for shows and parades. I’d much rather pay the premium to get a guaranteed (and generally more comfortable) spot with the bonus of some yummy treats and be able to use more of our valuable vacation time park touring.

Wanting to savor the experience and remain “in the moment”, I did not take any photos the rest of the night, but here’s how it went.

Unless you have a large party, you have to share your table with other guests. Our table mates were a nice couple with a very young toddler boy who had very little interest in sitting still. We introduced ourselves to each other but didn’t really interact otherwise. Unfortunately, their boy really cranked it up to 11 and they decided to depart before the show started as to not ruin it for other guests (which was really great of them, this is not a cheap event and I felt bad they couldn’t see it through). On the other hand, we got our own table for the rest of the party.

The Frozen themed deserts were only so-so but the adult beverages made up for that. The view of the show was exceptional. And the highlight of the Frozen Party is that after Illuminations is over, the whole party moves to the Norway Pavilion to ride FEA without a wait!

The ride is amazing. Fans of the old Viking ride will find it familiar as it uses the same track (complete with the backwards plunge) but it has truly been transformed into a journey through the movie. DD’s favorite princess may be Belle but her favorite queen is Elsa!

After the ride we had a quiet walk through a nearly empty Epcot back to our boat to the Dolphin.

 

[bettymae1121]

Trip Report Part 6: Park day #3 – Disney Studios “Half a theme park for the price of one!”

At the time of our trip, DS really was just half a park. Toy Story was still closed as it was in the final stages of completion, and ground had broken not that long before on SW:GE. Looking back on it, it almost would have been worth skipping so we could have done a 2nd day at AK. Of course, now (winter of 2019) TSL is open so naturally that makes a difference. And I did get one of my favorite photos of the whole trip, and what turned out to be my last ride on RnRC now that Aerosmith has been served eviction papers, so in the end I’m glad we did it. Also, having less park to tour worked to our advantage as it allowed us to sleep in after the previous two early mornings and a relatively late night the evening before. In short, a half a park was about all we were up for!

So we got the chance to sleep in and got to the park about 10 AM. We did have to sacrifice any hope of TSM (no FPs available as the had closed one of the tracks in preparation of moving the entrance of the ride to the TSL side of the park) and also didn’t bother with Jedi Training for DD (she didn’t know it was a thing and what she doesn’t know about she can’t whine about – anyway we do have to save some things for our next Disney trip!).

Our first stop was Disney Jr. Live. DD was just young enough to still enjoy this, she was a regular viewer of three of the four tv programs included the show (Mickey Mouse Club House, Doc McStuffins, Sophia, and Jake and the Pirates). After that it was just about time for our FP to RnRC. This I was a bit anxious about. At home DD measured just a bit under the minimum height requirement for the ride. I had warned DD that she was likely too short to ride but we would try, if she was too short then Grumpy and I would switch off using Baby Swap and she would have to wait. But the rock ‘n roll gods were with us because she just measured up. This wasn’t her first major coaster, she’d ridden a steal up-side-down coaster a year prior at Hershey Park in PA so I knew she could handle the ride as long as she was let on. And she was! She was (understandably) re-measured again just before getting into our super stretch limo and we had a blast, making it to the arena in time for the show!



Exiting into the gift shop, we tried on some more hats and wigs, and got what is now one of my favorite pictures of DD of all time.



This next one was pretty rock ‘n roll too!





Not long after this shot was taken, I’d noticed something wet inside my Mom bag. Setting it down to inspect further, I’d discovered that when the bag was jammed at my feet for the ride in the super stretch limo, my foot (or something) pressed into the top of sun screen spray bottle, which then discharged completely into my bag (turns out twisting the top to lock it prevents things like that. Who knew?). So that was a bit of a mess, and a waste of a nearly full bottle of sun screen (I will NOT tell you how much it cost to replace at the hotel gift shop….). No real harm done other than our Mickey ears all smelled like sun screen the rest of the trip.

By now we were hungry and stopped at a quick service counter for some lunch, then over to see Beauty and the Beast, followed by a visit in a galaxy far, far away where we met up with a droid we weren’t looking for, a walking carpet, and the leader of the First Order.




After this we headed over to our FP for Tower of Terror. Now in general I love thrill rides but ToT is not my favorite. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very well-done thrill ride, equal to any major thrill ride in any theme park anywhere on the globe, even after all of these years. My issue is that my least favorite part of any roller coaster is that big drop at the start of the ride. That intense feeling in your stomach during the drop? I haaaaate that. I put up with it because, generally, there is only one really big drop per ride, and smaller drops I don’t mind so much.

ToT? It’s big drop after big drop. I actually had no desire to do this ride but it’s one of Grumpy’s favorites and DD really wanted to try it too, even though I thought it might be too much even for her, and she was a pretty plucky kid when it comes to thrill rides. So, I sucked it up. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as I remembered.

Nope. It was!

But DD loved it, and we got a cool ride picture out of it so I guess it was worth it.




After making back from…The Twilight Zone…we head over to the Commissary for a snack inside some air conditioning before heading over for Little Mermaid. OMG is that show dated! It really needs to either be refreshed or retired for another attraction. No offence to the performers, but it just hasn’t aged well.

After that we still had some time to kill before our planned dinner at a certain drive-in, so we decided to visit with Minnie and Mickey!




A quick note about Photo Pass. We purchased Memory Maker so we could get ALL the shots on our trip, and overall, I was thrilled with the quality of the photos. So much that by this point in the trip I stopped taking my own photos during character interactions and just took video instead. The issue was with our one and only encounter with Minnie. I don’t know what the issue was but the Disney photographer did not get any decent shots with Minnie, the one I included above was the best of the bunch. In short, if you can, try to get at least one shot of your own as back up if the Disney photographer isn’t on their game that day.

By now it was time to check in for our reservation for SciFi Theater. I’d always wanted to eat here, but pre-kid DH and I tended to do Brown Derby instead. This trip I was determined to try it, plus I figured DD would have more fun here than at the Derby. We had a short wait before being shown to our car. All three of us ordered burgers and they were fine. Wasn’t thrilled with our waiter, can’t put my finger on it but he just rubbed me the wrong way, probably the only negative CM interaction we had. In all my trips this was the first time I’d eaten here so I was excited to try something I’d heard so much about. Definitely come for the atmosphere over the food. It’s not bad but for the price it could be better.

I’d kicked around the idea of staying for F! but by then we were all wiped. And again, I’d seen the show a half dozen times over the years and had no desire to see it again, at least this go around, and DD didn’t know about it so she wasn’t going to be upset if we skipped out. So, we decided to call it an early day and headed back to the room.

 

[bettymae1121]

Trip Report Part 7: Day #4 – Pool Day and Epcot Night

So if there is a thing I’ve learned after all of my Disney trips it’s this: Always build in a day (at least!) to just hang out at your resort. It gives you a day off your feet, a day to sleep in, and a day to really appreciate the place you’re spending a not-so-small fortune to call home for the length of your trip. Then in the evening tour a park or head to Disney Springs. In our case I felt we were short changing Epcot (especially being so close to it) so I’d originally made plans for another round of Agent P, dinner at Biergarten, and another boat ride through Arendelle.

But something was bugging me though. DD’s favorite princess was Belle, and so far, Belle was the only princess autograph she wasn’t able to get, as Belle doesn’t sign them at Enchanted Tales at MK. The only way I knew for sure to get one was to book the princess meal in Akershus in Norway at Epcot. So the day before, after conferring with DH about the additional cost, we decided that if we could get a reservation for tonight we’d make the switch. I had pulled up MDX and sure enough, we could make it happen.

So on our “pool day”, after sleeping in late we eventually got up for the day (well, some of us did). After a quick in-boom breakfast, DD and I headed down to the pool for some swim and play time while DH caught up on his sleep. He would meet us for lunch at the pool side restaurant.

Rather than describe our day of fun in the sun, I’ll just show you!




After we were done playing at the pool we headed back to the room (stopping at Fountain’s for ice cream along the way as you saw from the photos!) to change, and head back to Epcot.

We helped Agent P defeat Doofenshmitz, this time in the UK pavilion, where we also did a bit of shopping, then slowly toured WS as we made our way over to Norway. We spent some time at the China pavilion, which I don’t normally do as I’ve visited the real China but DH wanted to look around. I wish I’d taken a photo of the can, as DH bought a delicious canned soft drink that tasted like peaches, very refreshing and I want to try and get it again next time around. Anyway, we eventually made it to Norway, first for our FP on FEA and then to look around some of Norway’s shops, stopping for a quick picture - although some troll-ish looking guy with a big nose photo-bombed us…



Then DD and I ducked into a conveniently placed rest room for a quick change into DD’s Belle costume for her big moment with Belle herself. We checked in at the host stand and a few minutes later were escorted into the receiving room.




After meeting with Belle (who noticed and commented on how I did DD’s hair, woo hoo! Mama for the win!) we enjoyed our meal. So for anyone trying to decide between CRT and Akershus. Food-wise I think it’s a toss-up, both are pretty good. I think it boils down to the princesses your child wants to see vs. wanting to dine in Cinderella’s castle. While Akershus is a lovely location for a meal, the castle still wins in that department. If your child is dead set on getting Belle’s autograph, Akershus wins. If however your child is content with just meeting Belle and a John Hancock is not required, you could do Enchanted Tales combined with CRT (which was my original plan until DD decided collecting autographs was a must). At least at our dinner at Akershus, Cinderella was present at both. Actually with the exception of Belle and Rapunzel (who was only at CRT) I believe the line up of princesses was the same (Snow White, Aurora, and human Ariel). I’m glad we did both so DD could both eat inside Cindy’s castle AND get Belle’s autograph, but good golly was it expensive! We won’t ever do both on the same trip again, next time DD can choose (although if we can get away with it, maybe we won’t do any, DD will be 10 by our next WDW trip so she might be over it by then).

By the time dinner wrapped up we decided just to meander back through WS to our room. Tomorrow was going to be an early day, after all we had the other half of MK to tour!

 

[bettymae1121]

Trip Report Part 8: Day #5 – MK part deux! “It’s a duck world, and we’re just livin’ in it.”

Our first full park day at the beginning of the trip was at MK, but as you may have noticed we’d only visited Fantasyland and Tomorrowland that day. That was on purpose, those two lands combined is roughly half the park which was all I figured we could cover in a day. So for our second day at MK our plan was to see the rest of the lands.

We rope dropped and headed to Adventureland, where we embarked for our Jungle Cruise. The boat just filled up as we got up to the front, so we were first in line for the next boat. While waiting for our skipper to pull our boat up, I noticed that a family of ducks was just across the way from us, totally oblivious to the boats with the loud motors, the CMs, the guests waiting in line, all of it. I thought about getting a picture but I was afraid I’d fumble my phone into the water, given my luck with losing things this week I didn’t want to chance it. A CM was nearby and I casually said to her “Those ducks just don’t even care, do they?” She laughed and replied “Nope, it’s a duck’s world and we’re just livin’ in it”. After a good chuckle we boarded our boat and saw such rare sights as the back side of water.

After that were the Magic Carpets and the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, then we set sail on yet another boat voyage, PoC. I’ll spare you the ride photo, it was one of the few lousy ones of the trip. After the ride DD did battle with a scallywag in the gift shop and I did get a photo of that (you didn’t think you’d get off that easy, did you?)…




..and also picked up a few souvenirs as well (what’s that again about a people trap designed by a mouse?).

Then we headed over to our first FP, BTMRR followed by Splash (we killed some time in the play area in the tunnel near Splash between FP’s). Here is the required ride photo!





Being in the front row, DD got s-o-a-k-e-d, and turns out DD only likes being wet when in a swim suit and swimming pool, so she was NOT happy (she loved the ride, just not the getting wet part). “Mom Bag” to the rescue! We ducked into the nearby rest rooms for a quick change (while I made a mental note to have DD wear a poncho if we rode it again later in the trip). By now we were famished so we had lunch at Columbia Harbor House (sitting upstairs).

After lunch we took the raft over to TSI. All of my previous trips had been adults only, so this was my first visit to the island. What a fun place! DD had a blast running all over the fort and made a few instant friends as well. My only issue with visiting the island is the wait for the rafts, that’s a bit annoying.

At some point (not sure when) we had one of the Photo Pass guys take these scenic pics, and Tink photobombed us in one:





By now it was getting to be time for our last FP reservation of the day, HM. The day was getting hot and DD noticed an ice cream cart right by the entrance to HM. I wound up promising a round of Mickey Bars after we were done riding (no seriously, twist my arm already). It was so hot that we took our tasty treats back over to Columbia Harbor House to enjoy inside some air conditioning (actually snagging the same upstairs table we had at lunch).

So at this point DD was really wanting to go back to the hotel. But I had planned on dinner at Skipper Canteen and we still had a few hours to go and there wasn’t enough time to go back to the resort for a break, it was either stick it out or skip the dinner reservation. I wanted to stick it out, but on the other hand I did not want to become one of those parents.

You know the ones. We’ve all seen them. The ones so hell-bent on “getting their money’s worth” that they make the rest of the family down right miserable, dragging melting down children from ride to ride. Ugh no. No ugliness on this trip!

I figured as long as we picked rides with short waits (or available FPs with fast return times, we’d used our three so I could book more) we could probably keep DD in good enough spirits to push through. If it came down to brass tacks though, we’d throw in the towel and head back to the room. So using MDX, I grabbed a FP for one ride while in a (short air conditioned) line for another, we’d be done with that ride and the FP window would open. Some of the rides we hit were Mickey’s Philharmagic, IASW, and the carousel (which is of course not air conditioned, but the line was in the shade and DD wanted to ride. And I have to say she really hung in there!





Then it was on to Barnstormer with another FP, then a stop at Donald’s boat to splash around a bit (I guess DD is okay with being wet as long as she’s the one in control) before it was time to head back to Adventureland for our dinner at Skipper Canteen.

Which was yum! And hey look, I managed to get a picture of my lamb chops before I inhaled them.





After we ate, we headed back to the room and called it a night. Tomorrow we had to be up early to head over to Animal Kingdom.

 

[bettymae1121]

Trip Report Part 9: Day #6 – AK - “Insert witty chapter sub-title here”

So far, our trip had pretty much gone according to plan. No rides had broken down, the weather was perfect (even the rain on our Epcot day timed it self to happen over our mid-day resort break), with the help of FPs and Touring Plans all the wait times were manageable. Really we couldn’t have asked for better. Our day at AK however, well…

Overall the day was fine, let’s just get that out of the way. But I already felt bad we only had one day to dedicate to AK (I think if you really want to appreciate it, it needs 2 days) and it was going to have be another day where we left around dinner time as DD couldn’t do rope drop to close, meaning we’d miss Pandora at night. But there was no help for it, I wanted to do a full day at MK the following day and that meant taking it as easy as possible today. The plan was heavy on the “trails” and “treks” which we could take at our own pace with no lines. Basically structure without (much) schedule. Here was what I had set up in Touring Plans:

· Na’vi River (rope drop dash)
· Kali River
· Tricera Top Spin
· Dinosaur
· Boneyard
· Lunch at Flame Tree
· Tough to Be a Bug
· FoP (FP)
· Discovery Island Trails
· Maharajah Trek
· Expedition Everest (FP)
· Gorilla Falls
· Kilimanjaro Safaris
· Lion King
· Tiffins for dinner (4:45 PM)​

As soon as we got past the turnstiles, I noticed on either MDX or the Touring Plans app that Na’vi River was down, and expected to be down all day. So right out of the gate the touring plan was going to be out the window. I knew from past experience that the wait for Kilimanjaro was shortest first thing, so I pointed our crew in that direction and as we were walking, re-did the Touring Plan via the app on the fly. It basically moved all the rides to the front of the day (including moving Safaris to Step 1, which I’d figured it would) and after we were done with the rides, we’d do the “treks and trails” to fill in the time between the last ride and dinner at Tiffins. I also nixed Kali Rapids as DD had shown over the course of the trip that water rides are not her thing. This is what Touring Plans gave me:

· Kilimanjaro Safaris
· Dinosaur
· Primeval Whirl
· Tricera Top Spin
· Boneyard
· Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ
· FoP (FP)
· Expedition Everest (FP)
· Blank gap (to be used for trails)
· Dinner at Tiffins​

So the morning went fine, exactly as planned on-the-fly by Touring Plans, except we decided to eat at Restrauntosaurus instead of Flame Tree (we were hungry, it was close, ‘nuff said). We saw a ton of animals on the safari (including one giraffe who really seemed to like our truck, he/she followed us around the giraffe enclosure) and got some great shots. Afterward the safari, Grumpy and DD played some drums.



Then we rode Dinosaur, and we made it back to the future without getting eaten…although by the looks on our faces it must have been a close call!



And DD had fun playing in the Boneyard!



After lunch, it was time to head over to Pandora for our FoP FP. I can’t even describe the ride. It was just amazing. I’m not big on waiting in line for rides but I would actually wait standby for this ride. It’s that good! Even with FP I’d say our wait was at least 20-30 minutes (the lengthy “pre-show” doesn’t help). And it was a decently long ride too, if it had been half as long as it was I’d have been satisfied, I’m so glad Disney didn’t cut corners by making it a shorter experience.

Pandora itself was mobbed, the weather was really hot (what is it about AK that makes it seem 10 degrees hotter than anywhere else on property?) and EE was showing it was down. After a pretty lengthy “window shopping” session in the gift shop you exit into after FoP, all three of us were ready to call it quits. I didn’t even want to bother to stay for dinner.

So, in the end, AK was a mixed bag. We did get most of the rides we wanted done, especially FoP, but we didn’t do nearly the amount of touring I wanted to do, and missed one of the meals I most looked forward to. But had we pressed on I think we’d have regretted it more.

Next time, as Mickey as my witness, we’ll set aside two days for AK touring (and plan on going back to the resort for breaks to miss the afternoon heat).

Oh yes, as mentioned at the beginning of this report, a return to WDW is in the works - stay tuned for late-breaking details!

So we retreated back to the hotel and rested in the air conditioning for a bit. But then we had to figure out what to do for dinner, since we’d scraped our Tiffin’s plans. Fortunately the Dolphin and Swan have a few culinary options to choose from, so we decided to drop in on Il Mulino at the Swan. No pics (I’m sorry, I’m usually starving when I get my meal and by the time I remember to take a picture I’ve shoved half of it down my gullet already) but the food was pretty good.

After that DD had conned Grumpy and I into another round of golf at Fantasia Gardens.



Then we headed back to the room, we had another big day tomorrow.

Tomorrow was our last full day of vacation.

Tomorrow we’d say goodbye to WDW with another visit to MK.

 

[bettymae1121]

Trip Report Part 10: Day #7 – Last Day at MK - “And a good time was had by all”!

Back at the room, as DD was getting ready for bed, I looked at my Touring Plan for Epcot and MK for the next day. The original plan was to hit a few rides in Epcot, take the monorail to Poly, have lunch, and then spend the rest of the day in MK through the fireworks. Based on how the rest of the week had gone, DD was not going to make a full day. So, I canceled lunch at Kona Café (next trip, I swear!) and scraped the Epcot plan, we’d just spend the morning in MK then Grumpy would take DD back to the hotel at lunch time for a break while I did some shopping on Main Street. Then we’d return to MK for dinner, a few more rides, and the fireworks. With that outlined, I asked Abby what her favorite rides were and what she’d like to do, and I checked available FP times, and basically re-arranged the whole thing with her input and help from Touring Plans. Here was the new plan for the morning:

• Peter Pan
• BTMRR
• Splash Mountain
• Buzz
• Space Mountain
• Barnstormer
• Dumbo
• Tea Party
• HM (FP)
• POTC (FP)

Basically we ran around the park and played all morning, and thanks to being at the Castle for rope drop, Touring Plans and FPs, we had very little wait for anything. At about lunch time Grumpy took DD back to the room while I stayed and shopped on Main Street. I wanted to pick up a few t-shirts and souvenirs for everyone and that's a lot easier when I'm not having to keep track them, as they tend to wander in different directions (DH can disappear faster than a toddler in a toy store, I actually have more trouble losing him than DD!). Loaded down with bags, I headed back to the Dolphin myself. Grumpy was napping and DD was watching TV while I started the packing process. By late afternoon I was as packed as I could get us, and we headed back to MK for the evening.

We had some dogs at Casey’s, then headed over to Tomorrowland to ride the People Mover. DD really had to be talked into for some reason, but since it was a ride I’d really wanted to do but hadn’t had a chance to yet, we basically told her to suck it up. Once we were on it she loved it of course.

We played around the park some more until it was time to check in for our Fireworks (garden plaza view) desert party. Now this I managed to get some photos of!



The quality of the deserts was very good, much better than the Frozen desert party at Epcot. We got our wrist bands and headed down to the viewing area. I’m so glad we did this party, it gave us much more time to play in MK on our last night, we got some yummy treats, and we had a great view of the castle for the show.



After the show we made our way back to the Dolphin, our flight was the next morning. In the morning we got up, packed up the last bit of belongings and left our bags with Bell Services while we had the only breakfast we’d purchased since we left Chicago. Darren at FL Tours picked us up promptly, and we headed home.

Life since the trip has been pretty good (if you made it through my pre-trip report, you know we had a rough time of it in 2017). About a month after we got back, we bought a new house (a dream of mine for years) and spent the summer packing, moving, and selling the old house – all without a hitch (although now that I think about it, that’s probably why I was too busy to finish this trip report)! DD started 1st grade at her new school. We’re all happy and healthy!

But like most Disney addicts, I’m not 100% happy unless I have at least one future trip in the works. As you no doubt have noticed from my signature, we have two planed! 2020 to DLR for 8 nights (Courtyard Inn just across from DLR, it’s got its own mini water park!). But the big trip will be in 2022 for our return to WDW. We’ll be staying a whopping 12 nights (!) with a split stay between Poly Villas and either BCV or BWV. We’ll be renting DVC points for both resorts to keep the costs down, plus the kitchenette in the studios will be nice since this is such a long trip. It’s always been a dream of mine to spend 2 weeks in the World. We’ll have time to see and do so much but still be able to keep a relaxing pace.

The tentative plan is 3 days MK, 2 days Epcot, 2 days (finally!) at AK, and 1 day at DHS, plus two pool days (one at each resort) and one water park day on our resort hop day. Since we’re likely going in June (as much as I hate hate hate hate hate the heat and humidity, I can’t bring myself to take DD out of school that long) we will plan on having afternoon breaks at the resort each day we’re at a park. And DD will be older too, so not only should she have more stamina, she might even be the one dragging her tantruming parents around the parks!

The 2022 WDW could very well be DD’s last Disney trip as a child. The next Orlando trip after that will be to Universal in ’24 or ‘25, and after that DD will be in jr. high and high school, when it's tougher to travel with school and jobs and other activities. As she gets older I’d like to take her on other trips around the US and maybe even Europe. By the time we get back there, if we travel to WDW with DD at all she’d be a young adult.

This is one of the last pictures I took on the trip, during the fireworks at MK. It’s been the lock screen on my phone ever since. If a single photo could summarize our entire vacation, this would be it. I think it’s the perfect way to end my trip report.

Thank you for sharing our journey!