"I brushed my teeth, and I don't have cooties." An August DFTW and Disneymoon TR

I've found the ones where we stick to a budget seem to be working better because then we have money for more trips!

This!! The more trips, the better...

That said, we found on our last couple of trips that we were almost feeling like it might be more magical to wait longer between trips and build up anticipation, and then splurge a little more on them...but I feel like the longer we wait between trips, the more I'll want to go back to more frequent budget trips...the grass is always greener!

I loved doing this! Now that they do the security checks I've heard denying housekeeping can be troublesome though. Did you have any issues with that? I still want to do the gift card next time, but not if it's any trouble.

Nope, we had no troubles. I seem to remember seeing somewhere that someone who declined mousekeeping had a video camera in their room and caught it on tape that once a day someone from security just opened the door and popped their head inside, then left. So I'm guessing they just do something like this.

:rotfl: That's so Photopass. And so is the "sisters" pose they had you do. I thought I quoted it, but I didn't. They've made us do that before too and I call it the "sassy twin pose" :laughing:

Hahah "sassy twin pose" is super accurate! Friends who are gay were complaining that they were wearing their happily ever after buttons on their trip, and that they never got any cute relationship-type photos...but they got quite an impressive collection of sassy twin photos! I think it's a go-to for a lot of PP photographers, especially if they don't want to embarrass someone by wrongly inferring that they're in a relationship.

While we had a really good meal at Jiko, I'm not sure if that's the norm. I've heard from quite a few people recently that their filet was overcooked, and the meal wasn't great.

Josh loved the food at Hoop De Doo too, I think he ate his weight in ribs :rotfl:

Interesting! Yeah, I'm not sure about Jiko. I'd much rather just go back to Sanaa or Boma and spend less money for a meal that's consistently been enjoyable in past.

We thought the food was great at HDD—Nathan especially did! The ribs were really good on the day we were there!!

They didn't offer it to us during our stay at the Grand but they did at POFQ.

I wonder if they don't offer it at Deluxes? I feel like I may have heard that somewhere. And it would make sense. But we had to ask for it at ASSp, it wasn't offered automatically, so hard to say.

I see your starting to wear sunglasses.

I've used them on previous trips, but I have to keep switching between my regular glasses and sunglasses whenever I go inside because I need them both to be prescription, so it's usually a bit of a pain. It was sunny enough this time to make it worth it!

We finally just had one open here in the Indy area. Still haven't been though.

It's kind of like a piece of Canadian culture. It still weirds me out to see them expanding into the states, but I'm always happy to find one on my US travels!
 
Wow, I didn't realize how far behind I had gotten!

I wouldn't worry about what people think of you based on which resort you stay at. I tell my kids all the time, there are people FAR better off and FAR worse off than we are. Even when we are staying deluxe, there are people staying club level, or in a Walt Disney suite, etc…they are not my concern. We also like POP a lot and have stayed there many times. Anyone should consider them lucky who gets to actually go to such an amazing place. I grew up super poor and never took a vacation until I started working and paying for it myself. I think it makes it even sweeter :lovestruc

Your wall pictures are ALL so adorable! I think you got them all…even ones I never heard of!

I am so jealous that you got to meet Paige O'Hara :worship::love: It looks like she's an amazing artist, too.

That Jiko dinner sounds super disappointing. I'm glad they took it off your bill.

And OMG, I was LOL at your experience at Boma :rotfl:What a weird experience!

You're going to have to tell me your secret on Buzz…i totally suck at that one :crazy2:

That's a really great way of thinking about things! And you're totally right. Nathan's family wasn't ever able to take them on family vacations when he was young, and now that we're adults and having to save for our own trips and are able to do these things together, it's all the sweeter!

Meeting Paige O'Hara was a huge highlight! She was lovely, and I love the print we got! We're hunting for a frame for it now so we can get it up on the wall.

The Boma experience was weird! The worst part was that we looked over later on and found that our favourite server, Theresa, was actually on that morning anyway. We could have avoided that whole weird situation. But then we never would have gotten such a laugh out of it all I guess!

N's purple wall selfie game is really strong!! Glad you made him do it :)

I thought so, too! He's not much of a selfie-taker, but maybe it's a hidden talent he doesn't know he has!

Your meal at HDD sounds like it was great!

Your sunset pic from the boat is gorgeous!

Cute PP pics at night at MK! Love the 2 lantern shots :)

We had a great experience at HDD! Would definitely consider going back again sometime. And thanks! I really like some of the pictures from this day!
 
Meghan, so sorry I"m so behind here. Yours is the very next one I need to camp on and catch up. I'll get here, but won't be until tomorrow at this point. Hope classes are going well!
 


Meghan, so sorry I"m so behind here. Yours is the very next one I need to camp on and catch up. I'll get here, but won't be until tomorrow at this point. Hope classes are going well!

No worries, Liesa! I've been flash-updating a lot lately to get everything from this past trip down while it's fresh! I'm still not caught up with your TR either, but it's coming up on my list very soon! And thank you—we're all surviving, just one thing at a time...
 
This!! The more trips, the better...

That said, we found on our last couple of trips that we were almost feeling like it might be more magical to wait longer between trips and build up anticipation, and then splurge a little more on them...but I feel like the longer we wait between trips, the more I'll want to go back to more frequent budget trips...the grass is always greener!

I guess we always have a bit of a wait because of how we have to space them since I only have 2 weeks off work a year. At least it feels like it :rotfl:

Nope, we had no troubles. I seem to remember seeing somewhere that someone who declined mousekeeping had a video camera in their room and caught it on tape that once a day someone from security just opened the door and popped their head inside, then left. So I'm guessing they just do something like this.

I was hoping that was all. I have read some horror stories though about the security checks, and we end up sleeping in/in the room midday a lot so I'm afraid it might be disruptive.

Hahah "sassy twin pose" is super accurate! Friends who are gay were complaining that they were wearing their happily ever after buttons on their trip, and that they never got any cute relationship-type photos...but they got quite an impressive collection of sassy twin photos! I think it's a go-to for a lot of PP photographers, especially if they don't want to embarrass someone by wrongly inferring that they're in a relationship.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if they try not to infer it about anyone unless it's super obvious? The first trip we went on Josh and I were told to kiss for a picture several times, but ever since then no one's ever suggested we do much more than friendly poses unless we suggested it ourselves.
 
I was hoping that was all. I have read some horror stories though about the security checks, and we end up sleeping in/in the room midday a lot so I'm afraid it might be disruptive.

I worry about this, too. We had a sign for our door that said that the room was occupied (rather than "do not disturb," which isn't a thing anymore) but I still worried that they'd try to come in anyway.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if they try not to infer it about anyone unless it's super obvious? The first trip we went on Josh and I were told to kiss for a picture several times, but ever since then no one's ever suggested we do much more than friendly poses unless we suggested it ourselves.

I kinda thought about this, too. And on our first trip, technically Nathan and I weren't a couple at that point. We'd be on a break before/after my neurosurgery so I could focus on my own stuff, and we ended up getting back together by the end of the Disney trip. (lol) But a lot of photopass photographers would assume we were a couple and ask us to kiss, and we had to be like "we're not that kind of friends!" :laughing: We've had people tell us to kiss recently, but maybe they did a quick check and saw us wearing wedding rings and assumed it was safe, because it seems to be much less frequently done than it was a few years ago...
 


I have never been to the Hoop-De-Doo BBQ. It gets raves and I know a lot of people love it. It doesn't seem to be my cup of tea.

I have heard of Chef TJ- was he at the Poly (Ohana) awhile ago?


We headed back to the MK on the boat right around sunset.

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This is absolutely stunning!!!


Fun night at MK.

Love both of the lantern shots.

That is a cool border for the Mine Train ride. I haven't seen it before.

Not World's best Splash ride photo!

:sad2:
 
I have never been to the Hoop-De-Doo BBQ. It gets raves and I know a lot of people love it. It doesn't seem to be my cup of tea.

I have heard of Chef TJ- was he at the Poly (Ohana) awhile ago?




This is absolutely stunning!!!


Fun night at MK.

Love both of the lantern shots.

That is a cool border for the Mine Train ride. I haven't seen it before.

Not World's best Splash ride photo!

:sad2:

I'm not sure if Chef TJ was at the Poly or not, but it's entirely possible, because I've heard that they have to keep shuffling him around so people aren't always harassing him for elaborate allergy meals.

The border for that photo I thought was kind of cool, but it just appeared on my photo in memory maker, so I didn't get a choice. It seems to be a relatively new development.

I was pretty disappointed with our Splash photo, since we planned what we'd do for it, and then got totally blocked by the arms in front of us. :(
 
Took me a while to catch up!
We were delayed because the plane from Orlando had arrived late, so the WestJet employees decided to get all the kids (and some big kids!) to line up at the window and wave to the pilot as he finally pulled in.
That's pretty cute! I love all the things Westjet does, especially their Christmas surprise videos!
We did our FP on Test Track, and then waited in a long-ish line to get photopass pictures with a cool light effect they were doing for the festival. We'd stay totally still for a period of time (which is why we don't have super natural expressions on our faces) while a CM walked behind us with a light-emitting rod and waved it in different patterns. They use a long exposure on the camera, so it gives a neat effect.
I love that photo! I hope they do it again next year!
Pinocchio's was a perfect example of the allergy kids' meal being a better option. I ordered the kids' allergy pizza with pepperoni. I got a side of fries, and applesauce, and a tiny bottle of water. I paid about $7.50. N got a regular adults' pizza, and ordered an extra bottle of water to drink. He paid about $15.

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I had more food for half the price!
OMG-that's insane the difference in food!
 
N was just reading one of the updates on here, and he informed me that he had pictures of the taco piñata and the poop emoji mug from our visit to Walmart on our August trip! Apparently I took them on his phone and not mine! They're certainly not my best work, but here they are:

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"ENJOY! YUMMY, YUMMY!" — A WDW February Trip
Day 6 — Part 1
It was time for Epcot, part 2, and I had secured an early morning PPO breakfast at Akershus at the last minute two days prior when somebody had seemingly cancelled right before their ADR drop-date. I had been thinking about doing this meal for our upcoming August trip, so I was excited to get a chance to give it a try early. I also just wanted to get some early-morning empty-Epcot photos. This was moderately successful...with a little bit of extra magic from my good friend, Photoshop. I was also excited to see that they'd already started bringing in some of the topiaries and things for Flower and Garden, which is my favourite time of year at WDW, and which was to start a few days after we left.

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We went to our Akershus reservation, and we got to meet the gorgeous princess Belle. I was all prepared to ask her all about what she's been reading, etc, but sadly, it ended up being a real love-and-shove kind of encounter. I guess possibly because it was busy that day, and we were two adults, and there were lots of kids in line behind us to meet her. No matter why, it was no big deal because our meets with all the other roaming princesses were awesome interactions, and I took fun selfies to commemorate them (my fave being the one with Ariel). The food here was just okay—probably slightly-better-than-okay for non-allergy food, and a little-less-than-okay for allergy food. But it was fine, and I loved getting into Epcot early, so it worked out. I'm glad we figured that out this time though, because I ended up cancelling our ADR for August and replacing it with a PPO Garden Grill breakfast!

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After this, N wanted to try the custard-filled horn-shaped pastry at the bakery in Norway that he'd seen the day before when he got his school bread. He liked it, but slightly preferred the school bread. I admired World Showcase while he bought it. Then we rode Frozen Ever After with a short wait. We made our way over to start using some FPs, and rode Spaceship Earth, Soarin', and Living with the Land.

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By this time, somehow we'd managed to make room for more food in our bellies, and we were off toward the International Gateway...​
 
"ENJOY! YUMMY, YUMMY!" — A WDW February Trip
Day 6 — Part 2

We'd made it across the International Gateway to the Beach Club, after having stopped for photopass photos on the way, and we were having lunch at Beaches and Cream. We weren't starving after our Akershus breakfast, so we split the allergy-friendly burger, and a gluten/dairy-free version of the No Way Jose. This ice cream is GINORMOUS and DELICIOUS.

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We waddled back to Epcot, and I waited and idiodorously long time for a monorail to come by, so I could take this:

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Flower and Garden was making my life this day.

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We rode Journey into Imagination, and we noticed that there's a painting of Figment as the Mona Lisa, which we'd seen in merch for the festival earlier. Then we drove back to the resort for a break, and then to the Grand (and during our drive we raced a monorail!)

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We had a dinner at Citricos that night, and I was looking forward to it after @ariane37's great reviews. We didn't end up having Ariane's favourite server, Rony, but our server, Ty, was also excellent. Ty asked us what kind of water we wanted, and that's when I first realized I was out of my league in Fancytown. :eek: Fortunately, I was planning to get a bottle of Pellegrino or something similar anyway, so I recovered quickly. :laughing: I got a salad (though I didn't finish it because some of the greens looked questionably like spinach, which I can't eat) and the dressing was super delicious. And I NEVER dress my salad. Nathan got the flatbread, which was bigger than he expected, and also delicious. Then Nathan ordered the halibut, on Ty's recommendation, even though he doesn't often order fish when we go out, and he said it was excellent. I got the tuna because it was the easiest to make for my allergies. I'm usually wary of ordering tuna, so when he asked me how I wanted it cooked, "medium rare? medium?" I went with medium. That was my only regret because I think it would have been better medium rare. Otherwise, it was an excellent dish. For dessert, I made N order the key lime pie because Ariane had such a good experience with it, and he liked it. I had a cup of tea called "harmony," which was peppermint and chamomile, served with raw sugar cubes. It was such a lovely dinner! For me, it still doesn't top some of our very favourite dining experiences, like Tiffins, or le Cellier, or even Sanaa or Boma. But it was a really awesome, classy, but still leisurely meal, and we wouldn't hesitate to go back again. I'd also recommend our server, Ty, as she was really great, knew the menu intricately, and treated us very well!

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That night we went back to Disney Springs to pick up a few more Erin McKenna's snacks, and while we were there we were discussing how we'd been coming in pretty far under budget for dining to this point...and so we stopped in to browse somewhere...and I found a way to spend the discrepancy in that budget...

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Oh my gosh, guys. I'm in love. :lovestruc:lovestruc Mary Poppins is my jam, and this bag is beautiful. It's almost as miraculous as my sketch backpack. This is a super terrible and expensive addiction, and I NEED to stop...like, NOW...but I'm glad I didn't stop before making this bag my baby. :lovestruc
 
"ENJOY! YUMMY, YUMMY!" — A WDW February Trip
Day 7 — Part 1

This was our last park day, and N was going to have to leave in the afternoon to make the drive to Tennessee for work that weekend. We started our day at the Grand Floridian Cafe for breakfast. I felt fancy, because I was wearing black stretch shorts (obviously super nice attire!) and was given a black napkin to avoid getting white lint on them. #fancypants :goodvibes I'll save the lengthy review, but I'll just say that our food was good here, but our server, Robert, was super strange and not fabulous. It may have just been this day, but he was slow, barely said a word to us, and had to come back to re-confirm our entree order even after our "appertizer" shrimp cocktail had already hit the table. He kept asking whether we'd moved tables, because apparently there had been a mix-up with our table. He didn't say much at all...until he saw my little maple syrup packets...and then he flipped out and was SO excited. It was night and day. He kept kind of yelling and drawing attention to the table. So weird.

Anyway, we split the shrimp cocktail. Then N got the lobster egg's benny, on my recommendation, which he thought was pretty good, and I got allergy-friendly pancakes, because they're a novelty for me. (Usually the only option is Mickey waffles, which are amazing, but a Disney staple for me.)

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#fancypants

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The we took the monorail over to the MK, and we hit Buzz (where, sadly, I wasn't a Galactic Hero,) then the Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh, Country Bears, and Pirates.

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We had an ADR at Skipper Canteen for lunch, and we'd had a less-than-stellar experience here in December, so we wanted to redeem it. And it was successful! Our skipper, Kim, was awesome. I got the Tastes Like Chicken, and N got the lamb. Kim also told us to make sure we checked out the book titles on the bookshelf if we hadn't already, and it was incredibly entertaining.

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Then I was off to Fort Wilderness for my appointment for a trail ride, while N was going to go pack up his stuff at the resort.

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I checked in 30 minutes early, met the CMs helping us saddle up, and also met our trail guides. One point of note here is that they do weigh you at check in, and there's a strict 250lb weight restriction to ride, so this could definitely be a deterrent/problem for some guests. I know this is for the health and safety of the horses, who likely have to do several rides throughout the day, but it seems pretty restrictive for a fair number of adults. It would also be important to be aware of that in advance, because it would be really upsetting to get there ready for a ride and be turned away. I jumped up onto my horse, Lincoln. Turns out that he was the slowest of the group, and he was on a special diet because he was a little rounder than the other horses. :rotfl: He tried to test me and stop for a snack a few times on the trail, and I had to pull him back and get his head back in the game. They give you instructions and safety information, and then you're off! The trail ride was a great break from the parks, and I had a lot of fun! I was only slightly saddle-sore the next day, so I consider that a win! Every so often, the leader would have to stop and wait for Lincoln to catch up with the horse in front of us. :rotfl: The horses were old hats at the trail ride thing, so it's a great experience for beginners because there's not much you really have to do in the saddle, and it's almost impossible to screw it up because the horses are kind of on auto-pilot. I had a good time, and was glad to have booked it!
 

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