Biscuit's Grand Adventure | An epic tale three decades in the making!

[GreatBiscuit]

Speaking of reading fun TRs, whatever happened to Mrs. The King??? I miss her pithy wit!

Here, here! Where is MTK of late?

I guess I must be crazy too. I have entire notebooks filled with "very important" information such as what you describe, too!

My career?

Okay, that one had me cracking up. I can TOTALLY relate.

Rule 21.3 of Fuzzy Disney Math... there's always an option C out there!

Good to know!

My DH would argue this statement was about me. I have spreadsheets and even a calendar I put together to show the rest of my brood where we were going when and where we were eating!

I blame the Dining Plan. Cause after all, it FORCES you to pre-plan.

I hear you on this arguement. DS9 was just 3 about to be 4 on our first trip. He does remember it, but I wonder if he will when he's 30? Fortunately for him he has other trips to remember too now. In Nov. we took DS5 for his first trip. He loved it and is now part of the chirping bird pack that repeats "when are we going back".

Awesome! I’m hoping that the scrapbooks / video / photos / Trip Report will help them lock in some memories.

(except it's really a snack size bag of stale cheeto's)

Sinus going all batty today, so I’m just sipping some sweet iced tea. (The mother’s milk of all true Texans)

"Over the years I’ve read some pretty crazy reports. Canned corn, emu legs, register journals, run away wheel chairs, Xanax, Ip-Dips, crazed squirrels, daring ducks, DMVC and Jigglers have all given me endless hours of laughter and entertainment." -- Great Biscuit



Me: Hi, my name is Normangirls, and I'm a Disaholic.

Everyone: Hi, Normangirls.

Hi Normangirls!

Me: I've been on the boards for over a year now, and I just had to have another conversation with DH. You know the one. He just doesn't understand that I Dis because I NEED to Dis. It's like breathing air.

Oh, it started out innocently enough. You know, looking up dates for MNSSHP, checking out reviews for a new hotel to try (on-site, of course). Then I found the trip reports.

It’s always those pesky TR’s that trip us DIS’ers up and turn us into addicts.

Next thing I know, I'm snickering out loud at work, mumbling things about mugs being refillable for life, talking to co-workers about, "The Jiggler did the FUNNIEST thing the other day!"

Then the addiction kicked in. I got the DT's if 1000thHappyHaunt didn't update her report. I'd see a McDonald's with free wi-fi, and I had to fight the urge to pull in and see who was winning the "battle for my wallet." Things unrelated to Disney seemed to morph into logical topics for the Community board ("Does anyone have a good long-distance provider?").

What is it with co-workers not getting the Jiggler references?

The last straw was when I began saying things like "Carp!" and "Borg, dude, totally borg."

DED

Help me before I buy DVC!

At this point, it may be too late. I’m not sure an intervention would help. Especially since we're all enablers.

Welcome to the TR! And glad to have you here!

 

[BewwyBootiful]

I just read the entire report in one sitting..you are a VERY talented writer, and you seem like a great guy - I can't wait to read more!

 

[GreatBiscuit]

I just read the entire report in one sitting..you are a VERY talented writer, and you seem like a great guy - I can't wait to read more!

Thanks! I appreciate the kudos! Glad to have you aboard! That's a lot to read in one sitting! (100+ pages in MS Word). Looking forward to seeing you here!

 

[chicagoshannon]

You're going at just about the perfect ages for your girls! I can't wait to see all of the things you're planning!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Hi, GB, back from my trip and all caught up.

Glad you found your counterbalance to your inner park beast and excited to hear you will keep us entertained with your pre-trip report until you leave.

Having your dad post a trip report from years past would be totally cool, hope he does it.

 

[burly]

I am jumping in the Pandora box to say that i waited until my youngest was 7 to go. it was great, she was tall enough for everything. and it gave me almost exactly 5 years to save. barely enough time. i have 4 kids and the hubby. lots of people. ASMU saved me so much with the suites..
going to stay in Pop in exactly 2 weeks from today for my oldest h.s. graduation.........

 

[brookelizabeth]

I think the ages you have chosen for your children are the PERFECT Disney ages.

Anywhere between 5 and 8.

And I say that with having a 20 month old who has been twice.

Your latest posts made me tear up. Praise God about that rain storm! I LOVE seeing him work like that!

And I'm very excited about the new inner tour guide you discovered. Experiencing Disney as it comes, and through the eyes of your kids is priceless. It's amazing. It truly makes the trip. Some of our best moments were watching Henry with the ducks. Or you know, while it wasn't the best moment, it certainly was memorable--Ghetto Gas We laugh at it and even did in the moment!

I'm looking forward to hearing about all your plans!

 

[GreatBiscuit]

You're going at just about the perfect ages for your girls! I can't wait to see all of the things you're planning!

Thanks! When I look at it as 10 episodes away, it seems so far ahead. But when I look at it as 36 days, well it doesn’t quite seem so bad.

Hi, GB, back from my trip and all caught up.

Glad you found your counterbalance to your inner park beast and excited to hear you will keep us entertained with your pre-trip report until you leave.

Having your dad post a trip report from years past would be totally cool, hope he does it.

Welcome home BSG! Hope all is going well for you at the House of Mouse. I am SOOOO bugging my dad to follow through on that one.

I am jumping in the Pandora box to say that i waited until my youngest was 7 to go. it was great, she was tall enough for everything. and it gave me almost exactly 5 years to save. barely enough time. i have 4 kids and the hubby. lots of people. ASMU saved me so much with the suites..
going to stay in Pop in exactly 2 weeks from today for my oldest h.s. graduation.........

I definitely can’t wait. It may be tough on a couple of attractions in that the oldest is over 44 inches, but the youngest is not. But for the most part, I think we’ll do well.

I think the ages you have chosen for your children are the PERFECT Disney ages.

Anywhere between 5 and 8.

And I say that with having a 20 month old who has been twice.

That one had me cracking up. Oh, BTW, I FINALLY watched your You Tube clip on the resort tour and had to smile at the “Finding the Sippy Cup in the Cupboard” scene. The “bring with” part reminded me of when I first met Tracy and for the longest time would crack up over the whole “with” thing. Now that I’ve been in the family for 12 years and spent a year living in Minnesota, it’s grown on me. Of course she still finds plenty to crack up about when it comes to my Texan dialect. (Particularly when I refer to the thing you push around the grocery store as a “buggy”.)

Your latest posts made me tear up. Praise God about that rain storm! I LOVE seeing him work like that!

Me too!

And I'm very excited about the new inner tour guide you discovered. Experiencing Disney as it comes, and through the eyes of your kids is priceless. It's amazing. It truly makes the trip. Some of our best moments were watching Henry with the ducks. Or you know, while it wasn't the best moment, it certainly was memorable--Ghetto Gas We laugh at it and even did in the moment!

I'm looking forward to hearing about all your plans!

I am SO stoked about this trip, I can’t hardly stand it.

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Episode 37 - Picking the Pop

Previously on Biscuit’s Grand Adventure, the DIS was discovered, I planned tips for others, and I was weighing my options for our summer journey. As I was closing up the previous episode, I had come to the conclusion that my best option would be to rent DVC points and spend 4 nights in a studio. I was all settled into that plan when a vagrant TV commercial caught my eye. Perhaps you saw it too. “Now, when you book four nights we’ll give you three nights free.” What did they just say?

This intelligence threw a proverbial wrench in the works. I went back to the planning board, did some searching, and finally decided that the prospect of 8 days at the World was too good to pass up. After reviewing the budget and being realistic about what we could and could not afford, I decided to book us at a Value Resort on the 4/3 plan.

My sister in law had spent her honeymoon at All Star Music and had a great experience. (“Thanks for ‘The Plan’ GB!” “No problem Tammy, glad to be of service! Hopefully it makes up for the refrigerator incident”)

After deciding to go for the 4/3 package, I was leaning towards either The Pop Century or the All Stars Music as our resort. I wanted to be fair however, and so I began to research the boards. I had perused many Trip Reports which sang the accolades of the Pop Century and decided to see what all the fuss was about.

When I first heard about the concept for Disney’s Pop Century Resort, my initial reaction was “What were they thinking?” A resort based on the popular culture of the 20th century? Talk about a snoozer. This establishment quickly went to bottom of my resort list as the “Only if there are no other rooms on property” option.

Then the resort finally opened and I checked out Deb Wills' photos on All Ears. The place didn’t look quite as bad as I thought it would, but still, it was not rising any higher on my resort list.

As the years went by I began to read more and more Trip Reports from those who had stayed at this resort. One thing that I noticed was that the VAST majority of the reviews were positive. It seemed that for whatever reason, people really loved this place. As the time for our trip approached, I began digging a little deeper. It seemed that of all the value resorts, the Pop Century had the most favorable reviews when it came to the food court and the bus service.

In the end, I decided that since this trip was going to be all about the girls, I would let them be the ones to pick. (Dangerous I know.) I knew going in that concepts such as bus service, layout and food court options were a bit too abstract for a then 4 and 6 year old to deal with. Instead, I found about a dozen photos of each, put them all together in a power point and one evening, we sat down as a family and I showed them on the TV.

The kids sat through it all and their hands down favorite was the Pop Century. The pools were the deal breakers for both. Tahli was absolutely IN LOVE with the Hippy Dippy pool. That girl loves all things flowers and couldn’t wait to swim in it. Hailee was just getting into Wii bowling at the time and thought the Bowling Pin pool was the coolest thing ever. Wii sidebar – how is it a four year old could out bowl me on that thing? Tracy was leaning more towards All Star Movies and I have to say that mine a was split vote. In the end though, we went with the girls’ suggestion and never looked back.

Question number two: “Which tickets do we get?” I pretty well ruled out the water parks option. After all, we’d be swimming at the resort, and during our “Training Run” we found that the water park, while fun for a while, was really not something we can enjoy quite yet. The girls aren’t there as far as age, height and swimming skills.

I didn’t care too much about non-expiring tickets either so this left me with one thing. “To Hop or Not to Hop. That is the Question.” After mulling it over for about 2.873432 seconds, I decided to Hop. The main reason being that this trip is about flexibility and down time. I need to be able to switch gears on the fly. If the girls get their heart set on going to the Magic Kingdom, I do not want to have to face the potential meltdown that would erupt when having to explain that we can’t because we already visited Epcot. One thing having two daughters has taught me is that the more drama you can avoid, the better.

With our resort and ticket’s now settled upon, I then began thinking over my next dilemma. Dining. Should we or should we not do the dining plan? I starting thinking about where I would like to eat, looked at several menus, ran some basic numbers and decided that it made sense for us to go ahead and add the dining plan.

The final piece of the booking puzzle that remained was the time frame for our journey. I tossed a few dates back and forth, but eventually we decided to book June 19th-June 26th. (At the time, the 26th was the last day the 4/3 deal was good for.) This gives us two weeks after the end of the school year to get ready for our trip. The package we wound up booking is as follows:

Arriving : Friday 06/19/2009
Departing : Friday 06/26/2009 for 7 nights
Resort Name : Disney's Pop Century Resort
Park Tickets : 8-Day Magic Your Way Ticket with Park Hopper®
Package Type : Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining
Special Rate Type : 7-Night Magic Your Way Plus Dining January-June Offer

With our booking completed and our deposit paid, I found myself welling up with excitement inside. Could this REALLY be happening? There was only one minor detail remaining, namely transportation. At the time we booked our resort package, plane tickets were running around $450 each. Obviously that ain't gonna happen. I kept checking prices, waiting for them to drop. I knew that if tickets stayed where they were, we would be driving. Yet, I still had hope.

We are fortunate enough to live within 1-3 hours of four major airports so usually, with patience, you can find a deal. During Spring Break, I got an email from Southwest Airlines about a Fun Saver deal, and was able to book our tickets for $198 round trip each out of Houston Hobby. There was only one catch. We had to take an EARLY flight into Orlando. This was good in that it would give us lots of park time, but bad in that it would require us to get up at O’dark thirty and fly out at the butt crack of dawn.

Our plane leaves Houston at 6:20 AM and arrives in Orlando at 9:35 AM. We are using Disney’s Magical Express, and it seems in the TR’s that I have been reading that the time frame from the plane landing to the bus reaching the resort averages around 90 minutes.

My hope is to be at the resort around 11ish. If a room is ready, we’ll go ahead and settle in, if not, we’ll head straight to the Magic Kingdom and return for a nap when the room is available. We do have a dining reservation that evening, but I can’t talk about that right now. It’s very hush-hush you know.

I guess that about does it for the travel and lodging. Hopefully I haven’t bored you to tears.

Coming up on Episode 38 – Well…..um…..I haven’t decided yet. How’s that for forward thinking?

 

[stinkerbell007]

cool.

I'll be at POP with my sis (burly, to you) and niece soon.

..been lurking, and not posting.

 

[All7OfUs]

Cool Beans! The Pop! Your girls should love that place a lot. And yeah, it's an early flight, but just think- TONS of extra time at the park. If you hadn't gotten in until say, 2:00- that'd be it. Pretty much only a little bit of a day, given you have an ADR that night. BTW, can't wait to see WHERE you've chosen for that!

Isn't it interesting how the packages, and in particular the dining plan works out so differently for different people?? I did up my numbers too, and thought I'd pay more WITH it. But, I hear with kids it works out to be a better deal.

So, did you want to expound upon the fridge incident?? or are you still too traumatized??

 

[Vexorg]

So, did you want to expound upon the fridge incident?? or are you still too traumatized??

Well,it doesn't seem to be capitalized and/or bolded (eg "The Refrigeratior Incident!!!!!(TM)" so it probably isn't anything all that horrendous.

I thought about the Pop for my December trip, but ultimately I ended up at the DTD Hilton instead. The Pop probably would have actually been cheaper, but since I lucked out and got an unusually large room for $99 a night (it would have been nice if I could afforded anything at the hotel besides my room. but that's beside the point) I can;t complain too much. The place was definitely a tad deficient in the freakishly huge rubiks cube department though...

 

[GreatBiscuit]

cool.

I'll be at POP with my sis (burly, to you) and niece soon.

..been lurking, and not posting.

Hey Stinkerbell! It's always nice to have you post! Have a great time on your trip!

Cool Beans! The Pop! Your girls should love that place a lot. And yeah, it's an early flight, but just think- TONS of extra time at the park. If you hadn't gotten in until say, 2:00- that'd be it. Pretty much only a little bit of a day, given you have an ADR that night. BTW, can't wait to see WHERE you've chosen for that!

I fairly sure that the excitement of FINALLY arriving at The World will override any lingering fatigue.

Isn't it interesting how the packages, and in particular the dining plan works out so differently for different people?? I did up my numbers too, and thought I'd pay more WITH it. But, I hear with kids it works out to be a better deal.

It definitely worked out for us as we wanted to do some character meals and table service options.

So, did you want to expound upon the fridge incident?? or are you still too traumatized??

That was in reference to the incident at the end of Episode 21.

I thought about the Pop for my December trip, but ultimately I ended up at the DTD Hilton instead. The Pop probably would have actually been cheaper, but since I lucked out and got an unusually large room for $99 a night (it would have been nice if I could afforded anything at the hotel besides my room. but that's beside the point) I can;t complain too much. The place was definitely a tad deficient in the freakishly huge rubiks cube department though...

You may not have had a freakishly huge cube, but you did have that nifty view of the dumpster. I guess that counts for something anyway.

 

[jcc0621]

( Hopefully it makes up for the refrigerator incident”)

I hope this means you are going to tell us about the "refrigerator incident"

The Hippy Dippy Pool{/QUOTE]

THis is my DS's FAVORITE part of Pop. WHen I tried to talk he and DH into upgrading to a mod this year I got thoroughly outvoted

, plane tickets were running around $450 each.

reading that the time frame from the plane landing to the bus reaching the resort averages around 90 minutes

That sounds about right

It’s very hush-hush you know

Coming up on Episode 39 – Well…..um…..I haven’t decided yet. How’s that for forward thinking?

 

[brookelizabeth]

I recall the refridgerator incident with SIL Tammy.

Tammy and First Lady Mrs. Biscuit are twin sisters. One day Tammy was bent over at the fridge and in walks GB seeing a familar heiny at the fridge.

Unfortunatly that was a twin heiny...and he found out about 0.8 seconds after a little squeeze on said heiny...OOPS!

There ya go GB - did I remember it pretty well?

SCORE on extra days! Extra days at Disney surpasses a Studio DVC. We stayed for one night at Pop in November. It was even prettier in person. It's a really, really neat resort. And has some really beautiful parts! The only thing I didn't like was the INSANITY of the food court during peak meal hours. It's flooded with people, strollers, kids climbing and laying everywhere.

But the choices at the food court are awesome. Plus, you can get frozen Cokes in your refillable mug there! Hello, yummy! Just be prepared for mayhem at peak meal times.

That one had me cracking up. Oh, BTW, I FINALLY watched your You Tube clip on the resort tour and had to smile at the “Finding the Sippy Cup in the Cupboard” scene. The “bring with” part reminded me of when I first met Tracy and for the longest time would crack up over the whole “with” thing. Now that I’ve been in the family for 12 years and spent a year living in Minnesota, it’s grown on me. Of course she still finds plenty to crack up about when it comes to my Texan dialect. (Particularly when I refer to the thing you push around the grocery store as a “buggy”.)

Me too!

I am SO stoked about this trip, I can’t hardly stand it.

When the first person commented on how Minnesotans ended our sentences with prepositions, I was so confused. But yep. We end our sentences all the time with...with!

I don't recall saying it in the sippy cup in the cabinet scene-but I'm guessing it went something like "Oh, that's ours, I better bring it with."

It's a cart GB!

People from Wisconsin call drinking fountains bubblers. Now THAT is weird.

 

[Disneymom3304]

I am so happy you chose POP! My DD5 love love loves the Hippy Dippy Pool! We just returned from the POP and we had another great stay! I am so excited for your daughters they are going to love it! On a side note make sure you have some time to stop by the arcade, my daughter loved it in there too! Enjoy!

 

[whogirl'smom]

We thought Pop was great when we stayed there two years ago. DD was 6 and enjoyed everything! We were in the 50's section and swam at the bowling pin pool most of the time, except when dh took dd over to try out the Hippy Dippy. They both decided it was too crowded that day and returned to our never-crowded bowling pin. Also, the food court had lots and lots of options with the dining plan!

I can't believe you're just a month away--waiting till Dec. is pure torture here!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

What'ya kbow, I worked at POP for about 1 1/2 years. Stuff like that happens when you work at a place for 37 years. Anyway, very cool place, you'll love it!

Try the adult breakfast platter and the Chciken meditteranian flatbread..

 

[chicagoshannon]

leaving at o'dark thirty before the butt crack of dawn (haven't heard those phrases is a while but they made me chuckle!) will be tough but it's not like you'll be able to sleep that night anyway so might as well be on your way!

 

[bedillamouse]

Well let life interfere with Dis surfing and GB post not 1 but 3 new posts! Our family has no plans (as of yet I'm still working on DH) as to when we'll go back to WDW but I'm feeling the excitement of your family's trip. I'm so excited for your girls to experience it all.

Now I do have to give you kuddos....whether you are still in "Basics" or in the more advanced levels of training at least you know you need training...my DH on the other hand still believes he is in charge of all that happens in our house. Did I mention that we have 2 girls.....yeah he's so not in charge....in fact he's just being dragged along by one hand on the good days.
But that's okay cuz both girls are daddy's girls and we all love him so we let him think he's in charge!

Another great update!