Disney Makes My Butt Happy - A Jan 2011 TR-reason for trip name revealed-Updated 2/13

[jecskc]

Welcome to our quick January weekend Trip Report !! This was a birthday trip for me - YAY !! Psst .... it was a good reason to go to Disney, right ?? And it helped convince DH that it should happen.

When: January 27, 2011 - January 30, 2011

Where: Pop Century for one night and then Wilderness Lodge - CLUB LEVEL !!!

Cast of Characters:

Me - 43 yr old Irrigation Designer for a Landscape Architect and DS 11 - Video game master

DH - 58 yr old - Works in upper management for a chemical company

DD8 - Lover of all things Disney and maybe some Webkinz and other stuff thrown in.

More later !! I have to do the supper, laundry, homework thing. I'll be back when I've uploaded all of my photos to Photo Bucket. FYI, it takes FOREVER to upload 300+ photos - GAH !!!

 

[jennyf2]

WOW am I 1st????? Can't wait to read your report

 

[jecskc]

WOW am I 1st????? Can't wait to read your report

You ARE !!! Will post more later !!! And, I need to figure out how to resize my pictures !!

 

[jecskc]

So, this is our fourth trip to Disney World. We have always stayed off property because we have a time share that offers us a VERY inexpensive week - anywhere !! Which is the reason why we bought into the time share. After our second trip, I became a follower of the disboards and after seeing everyone's posts and trip reports, I have become enchanted with the idea of staying on site.

We bought an annual pass last October and when a promotion for 45% off deluxe resort, room only became available, I didn't waste any time calling Disney and booking 3 nights at the Wilderness Lodge - Club Level for my Birthday.

DH, who is the bean counter in our relationship began grumbling about money, so I compromised and switched our first night to Pop Century since we were getting in so late that first night and leaving so early that morning.

The general plan was to drive down the 27th (Thursday), stay at Pop Century and then hit Magic Kingdom in the AM of the 28th (Friday), check into Wilderness Lodge and then EMH at Epcot that evening. The next day (Saturday) we had planned on hitting up EMH at Hollywood Studios in the AM, going back to the Lodge for some resort time and then returning to Magic Kingdom for the parade and fireworks. Then on Sunday (our departure day) we had planned on EMH at Animal Kingdom.

The best laid plans ............ read on to see if we stuck to the plan and how I came up with the name of this trip report.

 

[jecskc]

So, DH and I worked part of the day and when the kids got out of school, we loaded up the car and headed out of town. I was so excited to be staying on Disney property and so were the kids. After 7 LONG hours in the car, we arrived at Pop Century. It was about 10:30 PM and the resort was hoppin'. I checked us in while DH and the kids checked out Everything Pop !!

I have to say that I really like this resort. The kids claimed it was "fully awesome" and even DH thought it was cool. We stayed in this room

Which was in the 60's section and front and center was the Hippy Dippy pool. DH and I both remarked that if we were there during the summer or generally when it was warmer, this would have been the primo location.

Our building

.

The kids checked out the arcade

And we all went back to Everything Pop, which seemed to have a really good selection of things.

We had an overnight bag packed for just this night. We did some exploring and then settled in for some sleep.

I love this resort and I wish we had more time to explore it. I would love to come back sometime as well. It has a real positive energy that I really liked. I will say, however, that the ONE thing that would keep me from coming back would be the size of the beds. WAAAYYYY too small. OK for one night, but for a week ..... I dunno.

A couple more shots of the resort (DH took all of these photos the following morning after we woke up.)

 

[hotcarib]

I'm in

Great pics...and a belated Happy Birthday!

 

[jecskc]

I'm in

Great pics...and a belated Happy Birthday!

...... and thanks !! Still trying to resize them all.

 

[hotcarib]

...... and thanks !! Still trying to resize them all.

I use tinypic..they give you the option for message boards, email, direct layout etc.

 

[jecskc]

Got the resizing thing figured out. Will post a new update shortly

 

[jecskc]

We woke up about 7:00 AM, and had breakfast at Everything Pop. DH and I split the Bounty Platter, DD had the Pop waffle and DS had french toast. It was pretty good. All of that and 4 drinks was about $26. It filled us up.

Next, I went into the gift shop and got two holders for our ID's and passes to put on our lanyards. And I also got a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter. Can't wait to use that. We checked out and decided to head over to Wilderness Lodge to see if we could park our car there and just catch the boat to Magic Kingdom and then later, come back and check in.

We got to the gate and the guard there said no problem, we could park there and who knows? Maybe our room was ready.

Some photos we took when we arrived

 

[jecskc]

When we walked into the lobby, DH and the kids all said .... "Wow" Our first time here and I will say that pictures just don't do it justice. Here are some we took of the lobby. Not the best photos, but worth a look.

Totem Pole in front of the gift shop

They say that if you rub Humphrey's nose - bottom character on the totem - you will get good luck. DD made a point of doing this every day. The gift store was nice and had a good selection of things

Some lobby pictures - sorry they are so blurry

I just love those TeePee lights. They are much more impressive in person.

I checked in at the desk to get a parking pass until our room was ready. And after handing me my birthday button, the CM told me that in fact our room WAS ready. YAY !!! And I didn't specify what type of room I wanted, but they gave us courtyard view ... with BUNK BEDS. I was THRILLED !! The CM escorted us up to our room and to show us the concierge desk on the 7th floor.


Lights in the hallway

Hallway carpet

Pictures of the room:

Queen sized bed - MUCH better than the full sized beds at Pop

Detail of the headboard:

Coat hooks - these came in very handy

Detail of light over desk

Chocolate canoe - very yummy. This didn't last long

Vanity area

continued next post .....

 

[jecskc]

Some more pictures of the room

Bunk beds

Light over bunks

View from our balcony - all Club Level rooms are on the 7th floor, you even need a special key to insert into the elevator to even get access to the seventh floor

I tried to explain to DH what Club Level was. He thought that we would have a full breakfast lunch and dinner the entire time we stayed there, but that wasn't the case. Breakfast and the appetizers were pretty good, but the snacks and the desserts and cordials were just OK.


View to the right

straight ahead

to the left

niiiccee !!!

Next, we were escorted to the Club Lounge.

DS in front of the lounge

And DH

And DD

Inside looking out towards the elevators and the concierge desk

We were just in time for breakfast. Here are the offerings:

Just inside to the left were:

Oatmeal in the red pot with raisins, brown sugar and craisins (dried, sweetened cranberries) for topping.

Four choices of cereal to the right of that were Fruit Loops, Rice Crispies, Frosted Flakes and Raisin Bran. To the right of that was fruit - pineapple, bananas, apples, honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon.

And then milk, juice and yogurt

On the opposite side of the room were:

Cinnamon rolls (mini), mini muffins, croissants and bagels. There were jellies, butter and cream cheese

Coffee station. DH liked the variety of the flavored coffees and hot chocolate. I liked the brewed coffee - black and LOTS of it, please !!

There was also some orange juice, apple juice and cranberry juice - I didn't get a picture of that.

Anyhow, we went to the car and got some of our stuff to put in the room and then went down to the boat dock to catch the boat to Magic Kingdom !!!

 

[jecskc]

I use tinypic..they give you the option for message boards, email, direct layout etc.

THANKS !! I will try that next time !! I think I made them too small now

 

[jecskc]

Will update later today

 

[jecskc]

So we packed up the backpack and headed down to the dock to catch the boat to Magic Kingdom.

Here are some photos we took of Wilderness Lodge on the way down there.

Stairway to pool area

Pool area

Silver Creek Falls

Waiting on the dock for the boat

We loved that fact that we could just jump on the boat over to Magic Kingdom. It is a nice ride with lovely scenery. I will say, however, on three separate occasions that JUST as we are approaching the dock, the boat captain would pull up the rope and take off with an nearly empty boat. Just couldn't wait ten more seconds, no sir. One time people waiting for the resort launch remarked on it and how stinky it was of them to do that. No one was behind us either. So we had to about 15 min. for the next boat.

DD and I on the boat

DH and DS on the boat

Some photos Dh took on the way to MK

And .... we are here !!!

I wanted to get there by rope drop, but when we found out our room was actually ready, we had to see that. So we got there about 9:45 AM. Not too bad.

First, we had to head to Tomorrowland to get fastpasses for Space Mountain. When we got there, the wait was 10 min., so we rode and got fastpasses for later. DD wanted to head straight to Toontown, but I wanted to ride the Peoplemover, or, as we call it .. "The Blue Train".

Right before we got on, we saw these guys with only ONE person in line:

DS was too cool to get his picture taken right then, but he loosened up later in the trip.

So we rode the Blue Train ... paging Mr. Morrow .....

After that we rode Buzz Lightyear ... only 15 minutes. I got a cruddy score because I took a lot of pictures that didn't turn out well at all ... oh well, it was fun. DD was really bugging us to go to Toontown, so DD, DS and I took the back way to Toontown while DH went to Peter Pan to get fastpasses for that. Here are some pictures he took along the way:

Next up .... saying goodbye to Toontown ...

 

[Pixie Princess]

Well I guess I will have to read your trip report since you did not pick me up in the pre-determined hitch hiking location. I wore my pink ears and everything! I don't know how you managed to drive right on by me.

Looks like fun so far my dear friend. Love the title, and I bet I know where it came from if your fb posts were any indication. (helping build the suspense.)

 

[Pixie Princess]

Meant to also say..isn't POP great?! I really like it there. We're staying there again in March. I like it better for a short trip than a week long one myself, but if DD had her way, we'd stay there all the time. We've stayed in the 50s and 90s.

Okay, now I'm done and waiting on more deets.

 

[jecskc]

So, we headed over to Toontown while DH scored us some fastpasses for Peter Pan.

DD wanted to ride the Barnstormer one last time so we did. Here is a photo:

DS got some lollipops with his gift card while we rode the Barnstormer

DH was back and DD wanted to do some pressed pennies which we save up for and she loves to do:

Then we went into the big gift shop and DH got DS one of those tubes with the powder in it and DD got a marshmallow Minnie

She said it tasted like those peeps you get at Easter.

DS got a hat and

DD got one too

Next, she wanted to see Mickey and Minnie's houses one last time:

Mickey's house

Mickey's bedroom

Mickey's living room

Notice the "mickey" shaped antenna on the TV

Mickey's Playroom

 

[jecskc]

Mickey's kitchen - He's got a mess happenin'. You suppose he eats at Minnie's house ??

Pluto's House

Mickey's garden

Mickey's Garage

Minnie's House next post

 

[jecskc]

Meant to also say..isn't POP great?! I really like it there. We're staying there again in March. I like it better for a short trip than a week long one myself, but if DD had her way, we'd stay there all the time. We've stayed in the 50s and 90s.

Okay, now I'm done and waiting on more deets.

We really did like it. I would say for two people it would be great, but the four of us ??? Those beds are too small for me. I liked the queen size ones at WL MUCH better. I will say the only thing I didn;t like about POP was the beds. I would go back for a short trip. BTW, we drove right by the exit and didn't see you in your pink ears. DH said to text you to ask you where you were. We will coordinate a trip together sometime soon !!!