First Trip to Pop, July 19-26, 2011

[BCV09_Saratoga10]

Hello everybody, I just got back from my trip yesterday. This is my first trip report so I hope I do everything OK.

Here's who went:

Me, DS16. I've been to Disney World a lot. I love it at WDW. It's the homeland, the mothership. I took more control of the planning process this year than I have in previous years. I organized everything according to regular park hours and EMH schedules. I made the ADRs for everything (restaurants and a Beachcomber Shack at TL) myself (at exactly 7:00 am 180 days before!). I'm already thinking about next year's trip; weird, huh?

DF56. He loves WDW but would never admit it. He got a little too wrapped up in work while on the trip but I didn't mind it terribly. He actually bought the Internet service on this trip, which surprised me! He usually tries to use his phone as a router or a hotspot. He couldn't figure it out though at Pop Century because the service was very, very odd. He left about halfway through our trip (Saturday morning) because he had to get back to work, no big deal.

DM55. She loves WDW as much as DF but might admit it. She stayed the whole time with me. She was designated the task of carrying my stuff and DF's stuff. She also joked that her job was to "sit on benches" while waiting for DF and me.

Here's our vacation day-by-day breakdown:

Tuesday, July 19: Arrive, BoardWalk
Wednesday, July 20: Animal Kingdom, EMH Morning
Thursday, July 21: Typhoon Lagoon
Friday, July 22: Epcot, EMH Morning
Saturday, July 23: MGM, EMH Morning
Sunday, July 24: Magic Kingdom Day 1
Monday, July 25: Magic Kingdom Day 2
Tuesday, July 26: Leave, sadly

I'll put each day as a different post. Stay tuned!

 

[BCV09_Saratoga10]

We all woke up at around 4:30 am. Our flight was at 7:20 am, but we wanted to finish all of our packing. The taxi arrived at 5:30 am, and we were at the airport by 5:45 am. We left Warwick (the airport's in Warwick, not Providence ) and arrived in Atlanta. Our next flight was from Atlanta to Orlando, and we arrived between 1:00 pm and 1:30 pm. We ate lunch in the airport, then headed down to the DME Welcome Center. We didn't have to check in at the DME desk like I had thought we would have had to. Instead, the DME CMs scanned our DME booklet and we were sent to the POP queue. We stayed in the queue for about a minute, then we were sent to our bus. Our bus was actually a DCL bus, not a DME bus. It added a little magical twist to our beginning of the vacation (I don't know why though).

The bus stopped at Caribbean Beach first. A few people got off. The next stop was POP. Almost everybody got off. The bus was then headed for AKL. I'm not sure if it was going to Kidani Village. It might have been.

DF and I checked in. DM looked around the lobby. The wait for check-in wasn't terribly long. We waited about 7-8 minutes to proceed to the front desk. I asked to be in the '90s section and not on the first floor. We were placed in '80s Building 7. I pointed out that it was not the '90s, but the CM replied that "it's all the same section." I didn't feel like arguing with her, so we took our standard room #7333. We then went to our room to check it out.

The room was nice. It was small compared to the studios in Saratoga Springs and the BCV (we've rented points the last two years). Being our first stay in a value resort, we were really nervous that we were going to be cramped our disappointed. We were not by any means.

I headed to the pool while DF set up his computer and DM relaxed in the room. I went to the computer pool. (I had packed my bathing suit in my carry-on [my backpack].) The pool was very nice. It was my favorite out of all the three. It felt more relaxed the the Hippy Dippy pool and the bowling pin pool.

After my swim, I returned to the room. DF was getting aggravated that our luggage had not arrived three hours after our flight. I pointed out that it was three hours after we checked in, which was about an hour after our flight had arrived. He calmed down and went to Everything Pop. About 5 minutes after he left, the luggage arrived. DM and I were a little happy it had.

Once DF returned, we headed out the BoardWalk. To get there, we took a bus to MGM and then a boat to the BoardWalk. Clever, no? We ate at the ESPN Club for dinner. The food was good. They played the Red Sox game on one of the TVs per our request. The service could have been a little better. After DM and I finished we walked around the BoardWalk taking pictures and looking in the stores. Then we met DF by Atlantic Dance and walked over to Beaches & Cream at the Beach Club. The wait time to sit down and get ice cream was 20-30 minutes. At 7:30 pm, we just wanted our ice cream. So we got it to go. A little on the expensive side ($3.19 for a single scoop?!), but it was delicious. We then got on a boat back to MGM and took a bus back to POP. That was our relaxed (or not) first day of our weeklong WDW adventure. Up the next day was AK and a 6:00 am wake-up call.

 

[heaven2dc]

I'm in!! Great TR so far - you stayed at our all time favorite place any pics soon?

 

[heaven2dc]

Oops - I goofed - I thought you stayed at BWV but Pop is a great resort. I alway wonder how to get back and forth between resorts and never thought of taking buses from the parks (we took a bus to DTD from HS on our last trip so it makes sense to take a bus to other resorts or use the monorail or boat).

 

[BCV09_Saratoga10]

I'm in!! Great TR so far - you stayed at our all time favorite place any pics soon?

I'm going to try to get pics up soon, if I have the time. I don't have many of the resort though, but I'll see what I can dig up!

Oops - I goofed - I thought you stayed at BWV but Pop is a great resort. I alway wonder how to get back and forth between resorts and never thought of taking buses from the parks (we took a bus to DTD from HS on our last trip so it makes sense to take a bus to other resorts or use the monorail or boat).

Hopefully we'll end up at BWV next year! DF promised me that we could stay there next year and I'm very excited. We stayed at the Dolphin for five years straight so we knew about the boats and figure taking a bus to MGM then transferring to the boat was the best way. Transferring at DTD is too much of a hassle for me - if you get off at the Marketplace when you get back on you go to PI first, then you may stop at TL along the way. Bus to boat is much easier for us.

 

[BCV09_Saratoga10]

Sorry for the delay, I've been very busy the last few days.

So, Day 2 was our AK day. EMH was in the morning starting at 8:00 am. We got a wake-up call for 6:00 am. We were down in the food court by 6:30 am. We ate breakfast and we're out at the bus stop by 7:00 am. The bus came around 7:05-7:10 am. We were at AK by 7:20 am. I think we were one of the first buses there, as there were not many people lined up yet. So we got in line to get into the turnstiles. We all waited there for the whole time.

What surprised me about our wait was that they didn't let us into the Oasis earlier, around 7:45 am. They just let us all in at 8:00 am, right on the dot. There was no opening celebration, nor were there any characters. Very surprising - is Disney cutting costs?

Well, we rushed over to Everest, only to find out that it's down?! So we got FPs. This kinda messed up my whole game plan though, having to go back and forth through Asia. After getting our FPs, we headed to Dinoland, U.S.A. We rode Dinosaur. Next we headed to Discovery Island. DF got an apple cinnamon muffin, which I ended up getting later. It was delicious. We couldn't find them anywhere else though. We saw It's Tough to be a Bug! and then went back to Asia. DF had to make some phone calls, so DM and I went on Kali River Rapids. Neither of us was in the soak seat, but we still got very, very wet. Oh, after It's Tough to be a Bug! DM and I went to the Rainforest Cafe to change our lunch reservation from 12:00 pm to 12:30 pm. We weren't going to make the 12:00 pm reservation based on our timing plans.

We went back to Everest and rode it. So glad we got FPs. Then we decided to go check out the Festival of the Lion King in Camp Minnie-Mickey. Too bad the line to get in was really, really long. What annoyed me the most was that all of these tour groups just got in line next to us although we'd been waiting for, like, a half hour. Then some of the members tried to push their way to the front of the line. A CM came out and told us we all might not make the show. We went to Africa to see what the wait was for Kilimanjaro Safaris. 40 minutes, and the FP was for when we would be eating lunch. We went on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, but it got really hot. So we decided to just head out to Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

The queueing system for Rainforest Cafe before seating is terrible. You just all stand around the aquarium. It's also very loud and you can't always hear your name being called. That's something I would fix.

Lunch was delicious, albeit pricey. I had the salmon, DF had the portobello sandwich with ribs, and DM had the Cobb salad. I also had a Rainforest Ricky to drink. Boy, was it good! It was so refreshing after a hot day at AK.

After lunch we headed back to POP. I went in the computer pool while DM and DF relaxed in the room and took naps. We headed back around 3:30 pm. I went on Everest again, utilizing the SR line. We went back to Africa, but the wait for the safari was still too long. So we decided to go see the Festival of the Lion King for 5:30 pm. I'm so glad we saw it; it was amazing. We all loved it. Now we would go on the safari - there was no wait at all! We got right on and had the absolute best safari ever. Our guide Adrianna was great, and we just had a safari full of great people. Definite highlight of the trip.

Dinner was consumed at Pizzafari. I love the food there! Saved money too by not getting the salad. There were two female CMs working the register. I think the register was the trainee and the other one was giving the training. The one giving the training kept joking with us, like "Disney and savings in the same sentence?" and "They have one with Eyeore but it's an elephant and I'm just like no, that doesn't work." (I was wearing a Tigger, is that you? shirt with Pooh on it.) DM and I both had pizza while DF had a salad. We all shared the breadsticks.

After dinner, DF went back to the hotel while DM and I looked around for souvenirs. I got a shirt for me and one for my friend. I also got a small painting of the Tree of Life and Everest from Harambe Village. $20, not bad. We had all our purchases sent back to our room - gotta love package delivery.

DM and I went back to the hotel. I refilled my mug, and DM bought her own mug outright. We went back to the room, relaxed, and went to bed. Our next day was TL and DTD (part 1).