Decidedly Unfancy Trip Report From Our May 2013 Bonus Trip

[jrtoastyman]

Some of the trip reports you folks do are quite impressive. This will not be one of those trip reports, however, as I lack that skill set and this trip didn't really lend itself to a detailed TR anyway because it was so short. With that said, though, I wanted to do a little something to document it, so here goes:

This TR actually begins last Thursday, April 25. My wife and I were already planning on going to SW Florida for my grandmother's 90th birthday cheer2: ), but it was just to be a quick trip, coming in Friday afternoon, heading back Sunday morning. We purchased annual passes this year because we'd moved our next trip back a couple of weeks so we'd be within 12 months of one another and could avoid buying park tickets for our second trip. We were kinda wondering aloud whether there was a way to sneak in a quick trip at some point over the course of the year to take further advantage of the passes. I believe this is also known as "Disneylogic," but whatever. This conversation (paraphrasing) followed:

Me: We should try to get down to WDW for a long weekend sometime between now and December.
Wife: We're going to be in Florida next weekend, we could just go then.
Both: *laughter*

A few raised eyebrows later, however, we both got that "this could really be doable" look in our eyes, and shortly thereafter, I had learned that:

1. I had enough Starwood points for a room at the Dolphin, and they had availability.
2. A car rental between SW Florida and the Dolphin was not going to cost much at all
3. We'd actually get points back from the flight we'd originally booked to fly back home out of Orlando instead.

Simply stated, it was on. We decided not to tell DD4 right away and figured we'd let her know at some later point closer to arrival time. That time kept getting pushed further and further until we were actually making the roughly 3 hour drive on Sunday around lunchtime and she still had no idea where we were going.

The GPS betrayed us, however, announcing as we were getting off of I-4 that I needed to "Take the Exit On The Right Towards Disney World." She asked about it and, thinking the jig was up, told her we were actually going to Disney World right now. She surprised us by essentially not believing us at all. A few minutes later, though, we hit the main gate, she saw the big images of Mickey, Minnie et al, and we got the reaction we'd been hoping for -- she got VERY excited!

 

[jrtoastyman]

Day 1: The Quest for Oz

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Great start to your report looking forward to more!

 

[jrtoastyman]

Day 1: The Quest for Oz

Our arrival to the Dolphin went smoothly with one small hiccup. One of the great things about the way this all worked out was that we rented through Alamo, and the Alamo car rental location is the Dolphin itself. That meant that I didn't have to waste a bunch of time messing with disposing of a rental car, I could just give it to the valet and go.

Unfortunately, in our excitement to get there, I completely blanked on refueling the vehicle, which I noticed right as I was walking away from the car. The valet suggested that there was a gas station nearby that I could use to go fuel up, but at that point, the bags were out of the car and I was already in "heading to EPCOT mode" mentally, so I opted to just pay the gaudy rates to have Alamo fuel it for me. Besides, I'd only used a half a tank, so I figured I was looking at about $20 more than I'd pay to fuel it up myself, and at that point, that seemed a small price to pay to be able to move forward with our trip post-haste!

First, a little background. We were last in WDW in January of 2013. At that time, they were in the process of constructing the Oz playground over on the west side of FutureWorld near Canada. It was obscured behind some tall shrubs, but it was visible. As soon as we saw it, we thought (1) that looks like something DD4 would really love, and (2) we need to make sure she doesn't notice it so we don't have to explain why she can't play on it.

On this trip, of course, we had no such problems. We walked through the International Gateway, made a beeline through UK and Canada, and arrived at the Oz playground. DD4 was delighted, and we probably spent our first 20 minutes sitting in the shaded Adirondack chairs while she blew off some energy stored up from the 3 hour car ride.

We knew coming into this trip that for it would be a little different from other trips in that we wouldn't have time to focus on attractions, and would instead try to soak up as much of the Disney atmosphere as possible (particularly the Flower & Garden festival) while giving DD4 the opportunity to try some rides that she hadn't ridden before. She's still only 39", so many of the bigger rides remained off limits, but there were still some new milestones for her to cross. With that in mind, we left the Oz playground to check out some topiaries and work our way towards some rides that she would like.

We started at Tinkerbell's Butterfly House. We're actually very fortunate in St. Louis to have a couple of really spectacular butterfly houses, and this one frankly paled in comparison, at least from a butterfly standpoint. With that said, however, there were some awesome fairy topiaries in there, and DD4 had a blast identifying them all.

We then went over to ride Figment. Although the ride is much maligned in the Disney community (particularly as compared to earlier incarnations), Figment will always have a special place in our heart, as it was the first ride in all of WDW that DD4 really loved back when we were there for her 3rd bday. It was therefore an obvious place to start as sort of a warm-up to the trip.

After confirming that she was, indeed, still too short for Soarin, we went on down to the Seas to experience Turtle Talk with Crush. DD4 got right down there in the front row and sure enough, she got called on. Funny thing, the last time we were there, she didn't get called on, and that upset her. This time, she did get called on, and when the audience laughed at her question ("how do you go potty?"), she got embarrassed and THAT upset her. Of course, she's 4, so she was over it and on to other things shortly thereafter.

From there, we we off to Spaceship Earth. You wouldn't think that riding this would be a milestone in anyone's Disney evolution, but given the length of the ride and the fact that we thought she might get bored, we had not tried it before this trip. She loved it and wanted to turn around and do it again! Great news!

At this point, we worked our way over to Mexico in WS and began to nibble our way around the world at the Flower & Garden Festival's kiosks. I won't go through them all, but highlights were the Tostada in Mexico, everything at Florida Fresh, and the Salmon Tartare Biscuit in the UK. There were several misses, too, but none as far off the mark as the vegetable dumpling in China. Simply wretched. I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to serve that to people, but they should be fired and likely arrested, IMO.

One noteworthy part of the food component of the trip -- at the first stop, I grabbed a Margarita. A few moments later, while still holding said Margarita, I was at Florida Fresh where I grabbed some Shrimp & Grits and the Watermelon Salad, both of which are the sort of things that require a dedicated hand to hold them. Unfortunately, my wife and DD had already headed out to find a place to sit. 3 items, two hands. Obvious problem.

I wish I had recognized that this was a problem, but at the time, I was all about creative solutions, and that solution was to hold the Margarita in my teeth (even though the plastic cup had no lid to grab with my teeth) and hold each of the other things with a hand. Maybe two steps after beginning my journey to meet up with the clan, the Margarita falls out of my mouth, lands in the Shrimp & Grits and splashes a combination of grits, sauce, and margarita down the front of my shirt. If that's tough to visualize, just imagine a dude that has just vomited on himself, and that's exactly what I looked like. I'm thinking "Awesome, I've had 2 sips of margarita, and it looks like I'm the guy that overdid it with the booze at 5 pm on a family trip." Suffice it to say that I almost immediately became the proud owner of a new EPCOT T-shirt!

My only real disappointment with the food setup in WS was that there was very little there that was kid-friendly. My daughter is a pretty picky eater, and we really had to struggle to find things she would even try. She loved the Frushi in Japan, but that was about it. We actually ended up leaving earlier than we probably would have otherwise because she was famished and we wanted to get back to the hotel to get her some grub. As a result, though, she was kinda bored while we were slowly making our way around WS, and I don't really blame her. Thank goodness for Snow White in Germany -- giving her the opportunity to meet her bought us some time.

Leaving shortly before Illuminations, we closed it out with a stroll down the Boardwalk back to our hotel. As we passed by the Boardwalk Villa DVC Model room, we were inspired to pop our heads in to check it out, since we've been thinking of getting some points at one of the EPCOT area resorts at some point. This stop, in turn, inspired DD4 to have an urgent need to use the restroom, which regrettably ended up happening IN the model unit. I'm thankful they had actual running water rather than just a mockup so the situation wasn't worse, but it was still rather embarrassing having to stand outside of the bathroom that was supposedly just for show and explain to people that they couldn't see it right now because my 4 year old was christening it. Sigh.

Ultimately, the evening was more about BEING in Disney World than DOING Disney World, which was fine with us. Was a nice evening of strolling around, seeing the gorgeous topiaries, and just taking in the atmosphere. The next day, at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, was much more like a traditional trip for us, but the opening night was all about R&R (or as much R&R as one can get while walking miles more than normal).

More later!

 

[bluejasmine]

Can't wait to read more!

ASMU/POR Dec 16-22, 2012 & POFQ Sept 8-15, 2013