Here's to a DRAMA-FREE vacation! A Sept. 2013 PTR, FINAL UPDATE, 9/1!!

[klacey1]

Tuesday was another super early morning. I was at our conference all day and around 6, some coworkers and I started making dinner plans. Some of us were getting a little claustrophobic at the Dolphin. We had been there since Sunday around 10:00 a.m. and had not left the property in three days!! I recommended a trip to DTD and Raglan Road-- fortunately, we were able to nab reservations for 8:30.

We all got salads to counteract all of the heavy food we had been eating, which was refreshing! I had the steak salad. The horseradish dressing was really good and the greens were very fresh. We also got a few garlic parmesan truffle fries to share for the table-- these were HUGE portions and the six of us didnt even finish one basket! I had been really excited to try them, but honestly, they werent great. You couldnt taste the garlic or truffle at all. The only taste came from the (minimal) chunks of parmesan. We are going to Raglan Road in September, as I mentioned, and I had planned to pay for these fries OOP. Im so glad I got a chance to try them on my companys dime, as I dont plan on getting them now!!

We stopped at the bathrooms closest to the bus stop on our way out of DTD-- ICK! I dont know when the last time these were cleaned, but they were DISGUSTING! The floors were nasty!

A coworker and I ended up going to Kimonos in the Swan for karaoke! It was absolutely packed with people from my conference! There were several people who clearly had a few too many who got up and sang-- it was entertaining to say the least! I got a sangria here-- it was not too strong, and had a good flavor without being too sweet. The only negative was all of the seeds at the bottom! I guess they do use fresh fruit, but my last couple of strawfulls of drink were full of some kind of seed-- maybe raspberry? Not the greatest!

Wednesday was my favorite day thus far-- I was finally going to a park! My conference concluded around noon and we had a debrief until 3:00. My coworkers and I had a chance to change after the conference ended, so we attended the debrief meeting in park wear, ready to hit Epcot! One of my friends had never been to WDW at all, so she was especially excited.

My friends all knew I was the Disney expert and happily gave me the reigns as far as leading them around the parks and deciding what we should do. I resisted initially-- I didnt want to seem too in charge, but apparently thats what they wanted!

After walking through the International Gateway entrance, we headed left out of Canada & the UK and went to Future World! Mission Space was our first ride. We did the green side, but I think that was even a little too intense for some of my coworkers!

We took it down a notch and did Spaceship Earth next, which everyone loved!
Our future!

After, we headed to Nemo & Friends, which was also beloved! We spent a few minutes looking at the manatees, who were being adorable as always!

When I told everyone about Club Cool, they were game. This turned out to be a not great idea...but everything ended up being okay!

We sampled a few things-- Mexico is my favorite! No one hated Beverly that much-- I was shocked! Unfortunately, the floor around the soda fountains was soooo sticky! Even moreso than usual. This is kind of hard to explain, but when I went to take a step, the sole of my flip flop stuck to the floor & the toe separator broke off!! I was SO upset-- these were really nice flip flops (Havaianas) and more importantly-- were comfy and broken in for the parks!

When I told the cashier in Club Cool, he could not care less. Exasperated, I took off my shoes (I know, not allowed) and sprinted to Mouse Gears. Ouch! The June pavement was hot!! I selected the cheapest, simplest pair of flip flops I could find (black strap, colorful Mickeys on the base) and went up to the register. When I explained my story to Caitlin from the College Program, she immediately called a supervisor, Diane, who punched something in the computer, cut the tags off the flip flops and gave them to me for free! Way to go Disney for making things right! I cant believe they did that for me-- I simply explained (nicely) why I was buying the new shoes and without question, they helped me out. It was very sweet!

It was around 5 pm at this point. I looked at the weather on my phone-- 95, feels like 101! Ack! A cooling treat was definitely in order-- we picked up ice creams in waffle cones from the new shop in France. Oh my goodness-- these were amazing! I forgot to see if these were snack credits on the DDP (I suspect not), but regardless, Ill be getting another in September. I had hazelnut-- soooo delicious!

We took our portable treats and walked around the WS, stopping in stores along the way. Everyone loved Japan, and surprisingly, China (I rarely go into China when Zach & I go). I stopped for an Octoberfest to cool down in Germany-- it was okay, probably wouldnt get it again. We had to hit Maelstrom, one of my favorite things about the WS! As predicted, everyone thought it was hysterical! Zach and I quote Nor shall you be the last at each other quite frequently!

When we left Maelstrom, we could hear thunder clouds, so despite the fact that it wasnt raining yet, we decided to leave the park and go back to the hotel. We stopped on the Boardwalk to see if we could get into Big River Grille for dinner-- nope, a 90 minute wait! No one liked Kouzzinas menu either. We decided to call Il Mulino and see what the wait was there-- none! I reserved a table for 5 and we headed right over!

Two of my coworkers were actually about to order food in the bar, and we checked to see if we could add them to our party-- not a problem! I loved how not-busy the restaurants not on the DDP were this trip! I had a prosecco and peach bellini with my dinner-- prosecco was good, bellini was eh. It didnt really taste like peaches.

My dinner on the other hand-- another winner! I had the mushroom risotto:

What a HUGE portion! I ate this for about 40 minutes and it still didnt look like I put a dent in it! It was so flavorful and creamy, with the right amount of truffle and fresh parmesan! I wrapped this, but as the Dolphin does not have a food court with a microwave, I couldnt reheat it and ended up throwing the leftovers away :-(

We went back to Kimonos after dinner-- there may or may not be video evidence of some coworkers and I singing I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys...;-) This night was a lot of fun-- the bartender was a lot of fun and very creative. I told him I liked pineapple and he created a delicious cocktail. Yum!!

My next update will include Thursday, our full park day, and Friday, my relaxing DTD/shopping/sleep in day. Stay tuned!

 

[Mrs T 2009]

Even though you had to work done of this trip, it seems like it was nice and relaxing!!!

Boo to the cashier at club cool, but that for the cms at mousegears for fixing the situation!!!

That mushroom risotto looks like a huge portion!!! Looks delish though!!!!

 

[jenny105]

Hey Jenny! Ooo, I hope you get to go in August!! It was interesting being there for work, but fun!
I found the BOG on my phone in the app, but then got an error message when I tried to book. I frantically called the reservation phone line and fortunately it was still there! I'd hate to let it go, but I'm also not crazy about eating dinner at 4:30...decisions, decisions...

I did get approved! I'm so excited. Even more excited about where we are staying - Yacht Club! I love that whole area.

Ick. Sorry about your flip flop. That's gross. I love Disney but I notice everytime I go that little by little their quality is starting to slip. Maybe it's just me.

 

[princess_momma]

You really had the most perfect view EVER. Like my dream view. I would've died and gone to heaven. AMAZING.

Also, I made a ressie for Raglan Road after all! Thanks for the tip, can't wait to try it!

I have always wanted to try the Swan & Dolphin restaurants! They look SO amazing. I actually have tried Il Mulino, except it was the one in Aspen, CO. YUM!! I've been dying for bluezoo though. It looks so unique AND delicious.

Disney is great about making things right most of the time. I can't believe the guy in Club Cool didn't care. Glad someone made it right eventually. Sucks that your Havianas broke though!

 

[klacey1]

Even though you had to work done of this trip, it seems like it was nice and relaxing!!!

Boo to the cashier at club cool, but that for the cms at mousegears for fixing the situation!!!

That mushroom risotto looks like a huge portion!!! Looks delish though!!!!

The work part of the trip was definitely stressful and hectic! It was SUCH a nice break from the office.
I can't get over how much food was in that bowl-- I have an admittedly huge appetite and I cannot imagine even eating half of that risotto!

I did get approved! I'm so excited. Even more excited about where we are staying - Yacht Club! I love that whole area.

Ick. Sorry about your flip flop. That's gross. I love Disney but I notice everytime I go that little by little their quality is starting to slip. Maybe it's just me.

YAY-- AWESOME! I loved staying in the Epcot area-- I never appreciated the Boardwalk until this past trip!
Yeah, I honestly was NOT thrilled. There's honestly no excuse for a floor getting that disgusting!

You really had the most perfect view EVER. Like my dream view. I would've died and gone to heaven. AMAZING.

Also, I made a ressie for Raglan Road after all! Thanks for the tip, can't wait to try it!

I have always wanted to try the Swan & Dolphin restaurants! They look SO amazing. I actually have tried Il Mulino, except it was the one in Aspen, CO. YUM!! I've been dying for bluezoo though. It looks so unique AND delicious.

Disney is great about making things right most of the time. I can't believe the guy in Club Cool didn't care. Glad someone made it right eventually. Sucks that your Havianas broke though!

It was AMAZING! I loved getting ready in the morning and just seeing ToT! I've never been one to pay for a view, but that was soooo nice (especially since I didn't have to pay for it! )
You won't regret eating at Raglan Road!
If you like seafood, you will LOVE bluezoo. It's soooo good!
Yeah, honestly, a crappy $15 pair of Disney flip flops that gave me a terrible blister and that I probably won't wear again isn't exactly a great replacement for my comfortable, kind of pricey flip flops that I wore all the time...

So, readers, I am actually about to abandon you all for almost a week again! I volunteer at this youth leadership conference-- something I attended in high school and have been volunteering for ever since. It's a very tiring, hectic week, but some of my co-volunteers are some of my favorite people in the world, so it'll be fun, too! When I return on Friday, I'll post the final update of my work trip and discuss more details about my September trip, too!! I hope everyone has a great rest of weekend and week!

 

[librarygeek]

I'm glad they gave you the flip flops for free!! Definitely something that they should do to make up for that.

And I can't wait to try the new ice cream place in France! I'm headed down to the World in 2 days!!

 

[RachelNinja]

Wow, I don't often read things about the Dolphin, but the hotel looks and sounds impressive! I like that whole $5 gift card thing because I never like having my towels changed during a stay. That money would come in handy for a restaurant!

Your bluezoo review sounds so delicious! We have gift certificates to bluezoo (one of those pay $2 for $25 deals that Howard was able to snag), but we haven't made it over there yet. I would TOTALLY get the exact meal you ordered. It's so difficult to find GOOD scallops sometimes!

I'm glad that they were able to give you the flip flops for free! I can't believe that the person at Club Cool wasn't even the slightest bit helpful.

I hope you enjoy your time helping out at the youth leadership conference!

 

[klacey1]

I'm glad they gave you the flip flops for free!! Definitely something that they should do to make up for that.

And I can't wait to try the new ice cream place in France! I'm headed down to the World in 2 days!!

I was definitely thankful for the new flip flops!

I think you have gone & come home from WDW by now-- I hope you had a great time!! Are you doing a TR?

Wow, I don't often read things about the Dolphin, but the hotel looks and sounds impressive! I like that whole $5 gift card thing because I never like having my towels changed during a stay. That money would come in handy for a restaurant!

Your bluezoo review sounds so delicious! We have gift certificates to bluezoo (one of those pay $2 for $25 deals that Howard was able to snag), but we haven't made it over there yet. I would TOTALLY get the exact meal you ordered. It's so difficult to find GOOD scallops sometimes!

I'm glad that they were able to give you the flip flops for free! I can't believe that the person at Club Cool wasn't even the slightest bit helpful.

I hope you enjoy your time helping out at the youth leadership conference!

The Dolphin was great! And with such pricey restaurants, those gift cards definitely come in handy! The scallops were expensive, but 100% worth it.

I had a wonderful time at the conference, thanks for asking!!

Hi all, sorry I've been MIA. I returned late on Thursday from my conference and have been trying to catch up on sleep ever since! I was averaging about 3 hours each night, so you can imagine how exhausted I am.

So my pay due date for our September trip is fast approaching. I have approximately $600 left to pay and I am waiting for my June Disney Reward Dollars kick into my account. I'll have probably about $200 to put toward the final payment. I LOVE having my Disney Visa-- the rewards really rack up when you put everything on it. I've never done the character photo in Epcot though-- what are everyone's experiences with that?

I'll be back tomorrow with the final update on my work trip!

 

[Dancegrl624]

So my pay due date for our September trip is fast approaching. I have approximately $600 left to pay and I am waiting for my June Disney Reward Dollars kick into my account. I'll have probably about $200 to put toward the final payment. I LOVE having my Disney Visa-- the rewards really rack up when you put everything on it. I've never done the character photo in Epcot though-- what are everyone's experiences with that?

I'll be back tomorrow with the final update on my work trip!

I love my Disney Visa! We use it for everything and we use it for souvenirs.

We love the Visa Meet and Greet at Epcot. You don't have to use the free 5x7 on the Visa pics either. You can choose any Photopass picture that you've had taken until that point (from what I've heard). You can get one 5x7 per day and we did it twice in September. I have always selected our Visa photo because it comes out great. We have met mostly two characters, but I think we met three once!

 

[klacey1]

Sorry for the gap in updates! This will be my final piece on my work trip; after this Ill get back to the PTR details for my September trip!

I had warned my co-workers that if we wanted to make EMH for the Magic Kingdom, we needed to be at the Dolphin bus stop by 7:00. Two decided getting up this earlier was worth it, the other two that had park tickets decided to sleep in.

We waited until 7:30 before I had HAD it-- I have to say, the Dolphin busses were just AWFUL! Even in slower times at POR, I never waited for a bus for so long. One of my coworkers was flying out that day and had to leave the MK at 1:00 p.m.-- she really wanted to get to the park and maximize her time there, so we made the decision to catch a cab. I had sort of forgotten that MK is the WORST park to take a cab to! If I could have redone it, I would have just taken one to the Contemporary and then walked. As it was, we took the ferry from the TTC to the MK. We could see the fireworks for the opening show going off as we sailed toward the MK. :-( I do have to say, it was pretty nice taking the ferry. I dont think Ive done that since I was seven years old!


My coworkers really wanted to ride Splash, so we headed to the left when we got to the front gates. I dont know if this is a recent change or what, but apparently only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland are open during EMH now?! I had no idea! I didnt think that was the case in August 2011 (the last time I stayed on property). So already sweaty, we houghed it over to Tomorrowland. Space Mountain was experiencing technical difficulties & the line for Buzz was already 35 minutes long at around 8:30! Grrr. New game plan!

We decided to check out New Fantasyland and go on a ride that was new to all of us-- Voyage of the Little Mermaid! I thought it was a very cute dark ride, but Im more excited for the Dwarves Mine Coaster!


By this time EMH was nearly over, so we walked over to the rope separating Fantasyland & Liberty Square. When it dropped, we briskly walked with the crowds over to Splash-- ALSO experiencing technical difficulties! Augh! Undaunted, we went on the Haunted Mansion instead. My coworkers were surprised about how much they enjoyed it! I always love it! We followed it up with a personal favorite, Pirates, which was a walk on. The CM working this ride lived about a half hour away from where our office is-- too cool! We checked Splash after Pirates-- it was running again, but the wait was already 90 minutes, so we decided to FP it. Reading this now, I realize how much we crossed the park. Whew! Lots of walking-- and this day was blisteringly hot at 10 a.m.

We were getting hungry around this time, so we walked over to Sleepy Hollow. My coworkers got the regular waffles with powdered sugar, and I got the savory waffle sandwich with eggs, cheese, and prosciutto. I wasnt crazy about the eggs (I pretty much only egg whites), but the prosciutto combined with the waffle was sooo good!

With some food in our stomachs, we headed over to Fantasyland and rode some classics-- IASW and Philharmagic.

I thought my coworkers would like Philharmagic more, but they thought it was just okay.

Our Splash FPs were open at this time, so we headed over around 12:50 and rode. Its actually been awhile since Ive ridden it, so I was sooo happy! It was fantastic, as always. After we got off, my one coworker left to go to the airport & we got a text from the other two, saying they were in the park now. They had went to get Splash FPs, so we were right near each other. When we met up, a nice man gave us four FPs valid for right then! His family was leaving the park and couldnt use them-- we were thrilled, as my other coworkers FPs werent valid until after 5!

After Splash, we ate lunch at Columbia Harbour House. My chicken and fish were so yummy! As we ate, I checked the My Disney Experience app for reservations for dinner. Options were limited in DTD. I tried pushing for Paradiso 37, but apparently my coworkers boss said Bongos was amazing. The group voted for the latter-- I was not so thrilled.

Always a wonderful sight...


Leaving the park, two things happened. First, my coworker realized she lost her phone. I told her to check CHH and Id check guest services. Even though we had only left CHH maybe 15 minutes prior, GS already had the phone! Love Disneys efficiency! The other thing was that we got to watch a proposal happen right on Main Street! The couple was adorable and had about four photopass photographers taking pictures. We also caught a few minutes of the afternoon parade on our way out:


After the longest bus ride in history (it stopped at Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Swan and THEN the Dolphin!), we hurriedly got ready and headed to the bus stop. We were unfortunately 15 minutes late to dinner due to another insanely long bus ride, but the restaurant wasnt too busy. I had these fried mashed potato balls and shredded beef, neither of which I liked that much. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their meals, but I still wish we had went to Paradiso 37!
We walked through to the Marketplace bus stop and caught a bus to the Contemporary. I wanted to walk to the MK, as I knew it would be faster, but the group wanted to try the monorail, which is totally understandable!


By the time we got in the park, it was about 20 minutes before MSEP, so we staked out a spot. Wow, were people pushy tonight! I had a kid lunging over my shoulder to try to take pictures. My coworker was leaning on the trashcan and a woman literally used her child to shove her off and stand in her place! As usual, I thought the parade was just okay. I really prefer Spectromagic!

Wishes, on the other hand, was wonderful as always! Genie, I wish for your freedom! is always the line that makes me cry!

We managed to ride Winnie the Pooh & Buzz on the way out, both of which had a 10 minute wait We were pretty tired at this point (11:00 p.m., an hour before closing) and decided to grab some popcorn and head out. That popcorn really hit the spot! However, when we saw the Swan/Dolphin/Boardwalk bus line, our Disney euphoria just died. Eek! It stretched all the way back to where the Contemporary walkway starts! Another cab it was! We got back to the Dolphin around 11:45 and I know we all crashed!

I was departing Friday at 6:30, so I hadnt bothered with a park ticket for this day. Instead, I thought Id sleep in, leisurely pack, and then head to DTD for some last minute shopping. Unfortunately, the people in the room next to me had other plans. They started having a conversation around 6:00 a.m. at screaming-level volume. I am not kidding. I couldnt fall back asleep and decided to get up. I was completely done packing by 8:00 a.m. and wished I had gotten a park ticket! I could have had a nice couple of hours at AK!

Instead, I went downstairs and checked out. Then I had a HUGE scare with car insurance. Essentially, I thought my license was going to be suspended due to the actions of others...LONG STORY! So anyway, I was incredibly stressed and spent about 2 hours in the Dolphin lobby sorting it all out. Not fun!

Eventually, I took the bus to DTD. After checking out Trend-D, Basin, and Arribas Brothers, I was ready for a bite to eat. WPE sounded perfect, so I stopped in and had a delicious pasta alfredo with bacon and chicken. This was sooo good and it was relaxing to get off my feet and browse on my phone for awhile. I followed it up with dessert from Goofys:

Unfortunately, the brownie part of this treat was way too dry. I ended up chucking most of it out.

While I had a lot of fun hanging out with my coworkers at dinners and the parks, I really didnt enjoy being at DTD by myself. The last hour just dragged and I was constantly checking my phone to see the time. It was honestly very lonely :-( My tickets actually had a bonus visit to either of the water parks or Disney Quest, so I could have gone to DQ, but I didnt particularly feel like walking all the way over there. Also-- Im not sure how much fun it would have been alone...

I left DTD around 2, bussed it back to the Dolphin, and hopped in a cab to the airport. My flight took off and landed on time and was totally uneventful besides some initial turbulence. I fortunately was able to fly into our local airport, only a half hour away from our house. Zach was there to pick me up. Apparently a few minutes before I got off my plane, Mark Messier had gotten off a different plane! As Rangers fans, this was very exciting. Zach says unfortunately he looked pretty angry, so Zach didnt want to approach him at all. Oh well!

So that wraps up my work trip! Ill be back soon to discuss some of my daily plans for the September trip!

 

[klacey1]

I love my Disney Visa! We use it for everything and we use it for souvenirs.

We love the Visa Meet and Greet at Epcot. You don't have to use the free 5x7 on the Visa pics either. You can choose any Photopass picture that you've had taken until that point (from what I've heard). You can get one 5x7 per day and we did it twice in September. I have always selected our Visa photo because it comes out great. We have met mostly two characters, but I think we met three once!

I had no idea you could use any PhotoPass picture! Where do you go to pick up the free 5x7??

 

[Dancegrl624]

I had no idea you could use any PhotoPass picture! Where do you go to pick up the free 5x7??

The Camera Center under Spaceship Earth. They will give you a voucher when you get to the front of the meet and greet line that you take to the Camera Center (I believe you have to wait to pick it up until a certain time).

 

[jenny105]

I love my Disney Visa! We use it for everything and we use it for souvenirs.

We love the Visa Meet and Greet at Epcot. You don't have to use the free 5x7 on the Visa pics either. You can choose any Photopass picture that you've had taken until that point (from what I've heard). You can get one 5x7 per day and we did it twice in September. I have always selected our Visa photo because it comes out great. We have met mostly two characters, but I think we met three once!

I had no idea you could use it for any PP picture either! Thanks for the tip!

I love the Epcot resort area but I am NOT looking forward to the bus service. I stayed at the Beach Club once for a couple of nights and I hated stopping at every resort on the way. The boat service drives me crazy too!

 

[Dancegrl624]

I had no idea you could use it for any PP picture either! Thanks for the tip!

I'm pretty sure you can, but we've only ever chosen a picture from our meet & greet session. You can even add a border, enhancements, etc at the Camera Center. It's awesome and I have all of our Visa pics displayed around my house.

 

[glaserjm]

It seems like you ended up getting a good amount of WDW in on your work trip...even with the long hours spent at the conference!

I'm glad they replaced the flip-flops for you...they really need to figure something out with the floor...it's ALWAYS like that. I get that the nature of soda is going to cause stickiness and that it's hard to constantly mop b/c you don't want people slipping, but there's got to be a better way!

 

[klacey1]

The Camera Center under Spaceship Earth. They will give you a voucher when you get to the front of the meet and greet line that you take to the Camera Center (I believe you have to wait to pick it up until a certain time).

Thanks for the tip!!

I had no idea you could use it for any PP picture either! Thanks for the tip!

I love the Epcot resort area but I am NOT looking forward to the bus service. I stayed at the Beach Club once for a couple of nights and I hated stopping at every resort on the way. The boat service drives me crazy too!

Augh I know! The only parks the Epcot resorts are convenient for are Epcot and DHS!

I'm pretty sure you can, but we've only ever chosen a picture from our meet & greet session. You can even add a border, enhancements, etc at the Camera Center. It's awesome and I have all of our Visa pics displayed around my house.

I definitely want to make sure to take advantage of this! We only have small photos in our house-- a 5x7 would be lovely!

It seems like you ended up getting a good amount of WDW in on your work trip...even with the long hours spent at the conference!

I'm glad they replaced the flip-flops for you...they really need to figure something out with the floor...it's ALWAYS like that. I get that the nature of soda is going to cause stickiness and that it's hard to constantly mop b/c you don't want people slipping, but there's got to be a better way!

Yes, I definitely got a good fix in! Augh, I know. There has to be a better way-- the floor is disgusting, damage to my shoes aside!

 

[RachelNinja]

Aww, too bad you couldn't go to Paradiso 37! I have that on my list of restaurants to try too. It just seems like it has a lot of really good "bad for you" food, haha.

It must have been so different going from being with a ton of your coworkers to being alone when you were at DTD! I would totally think it's fun to go with a group of people to hit certain rides and such, but I also know that big groups can be a little difficult to manage. Glad you were able to have some Disney fun because of work though!

 

[klacey1]

Hello everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July!! We had a fantastic day-- five friends came over and Zach cooked up yummy burgers (with cheese, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, peppers, and onions) and Italian sausage. I made a Caesar salad and huge chicory/arugula salad. The Caesar was completely gobbled up, but no one touched the other, so now I have a giant bowl of salad in my fridge. No way will I be able to finish it-- grr!! We went to Zach's parents house for dessert and fireworks. Overall it was really fun-- I'm glad I was able to work from home today, as my commute into work/getting through the work day in the office would have been awful! (Lots of craft beers and punch were consumed at this house!)

In other personal news, last week I picked up my new car! I've never really been a "car person," but I've always had a dream car. My Saturn was never really quite fixed from the accident my dad put it through in 2011 and driving in the rain had started becoming quite scary! So, I decided it was time to purchase my dream car: a green Mini Cooper S. Here's my new baby:


So, in September trip news! I was a busy bee today and booked our hotel for Universal! We'll be staying right in the middle of our trip, on Thursday, September 5 and then going to the parks on Friday. I have a few mixed feelings about this. 1) It's kind of a waste of money because I don't want to do a split stay at WDW, so we're going to be paying for a room at WDW that we won't be using. 2) On a positive note, when we did this in 2011, IOA/US were so empty that we finished everything we wanted to do by 3:00 p.m. When we headed back to POR, the go-go-go of our first few days had really caught up to us and we really enjoyed just having a relaxing night in the middle of the trip. I hadn't booked an ADR that night because I thought we'd be at IOA/US until dark-- even though that didn't end up happening, I'm glad I planned nothing for this night! I think going to IOA/US in the smack middle of our trip is smart for us. 3) I am nervous about crowds!! We are staying onsite solely for the FOTL access, which was amazing our last trip. Although I've gone to IOA/US without the FOTL more times than not, when you are trying to cram both parks into one day, it's definitely a HUGE convenience! However, I've heard Fridays are very busy at these parks. I don't know if I've ever been on a Friday, and never in September. Logic would preclude that the first week of September should be less busy than the last week of August, but the unknown has me worrying!! Anyone have experience with this time of year??

Something else I've been thinking about-- we have a bit more money to play with for our trip than I initially thought and I'm considering doing a bit of an upgrade. To where...?















The Wilderness Lodge!! We had two meals here last trip (Artist Point and WCC, both for dinner) and simply fell in love with the grounds and general feeling of the hotel. I have the fondest memories of Zach and I settling into rocking chairs as we waited for our ADR time at WCC. It was soooo relaxing! I also love the idea of taking a boat to the MK. We're typically not boat people, but when we took it to the MK after our meals last year, we were sold. It was a very romantic little ride. The idea of staying there makes me really happy!



What does everyone think?? Honestly, I can't think of anything else I'd like to spend this money on. (To be fair, I could also be extra super responsible and just save the money and not spend it!) We're not big souvenir people and while I'm intrigued by the deluxe DDP, it sounds like an insane amount of food. The only other hotel I'm be very interested in switching to would be the Contemporary, which I could afford, but I'm not sure I could reconcile spending that much in my mind. AHHH!!

 

[klacey1]

Augh, sorry about the size of the photos! I definitely just resized them!

Aww, too bad you couldn't go to Paradiso 37! I have that on my list of restaurants to try too. It just seems like it has a lot of really good "bad for you" food, haha.

It must have been so different going from being with a ton of your coworkers to being alone when you were at DTD! I would totally think it's fun to go with a group of people to hit certain rides and such, but I also know that big groups can be a little difficult to manage. Glad you were able to have some Disney fun because of work though!

I know!! I really wanted to try some unhealthy Mexican foods, not unhealthy/not good Cuban food!

It certainly was a shock from being with a ton of people all the time to being by myself! Fortunately, the largest group I toured the parks with was four other people, which wasn't too overwhelming.

 

[blabbermouth]

Ok, I've only read the PTR portions so far

Wow, your last trip! This one will definitely be better, but let's not jinx it!

Too bad we're going to Universal on the 9th, so we'll miss you there. Your ADRs sound yummy. I think I'd do BOG first night and Rose and Crown later.

Oh oh, I LOVE Minis, congratulations!

I'd switch to WL if you really don't mind the extra money. It reminds me of the Grand Californian in DL which we love and will probably never be able to afford (or choose to spend that much). It's a really relaxing resort, I think.