More Adventures in WDW: June, November and December Trip Reports

[meeko_33785]

After three wonderful days, our Christmas vacation was quickly coming to an end. We had one morning left and, as has become traditional for us when staying Port Orleans, we would spend it heading over to the French Quarter for breakfast and beignets.

Before heading over to the French Quarter, I got took one more walk to the Riverside lobby and back to get a few last photos.

I’m almost certain that the print above the fireplace used to be in all the guest rooms before they were replaced by the New Orleans Square prints. It looked very familiar.

Once the whole family was ready, we headed down the Carriage Path that goes between the two resorts and found ourselves in the French Quarter. From our room in Parterre Place, it was about a 5 minute walk.

Some of the rooms in the French Quarter looked like they were getting refurbished.

Of course, our main reason for being at the French Quarter was breakfast, so the Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory was our first stop. For the most part, the breakfast menu here is fairly basic- pretty much everything that you’d find at any other resort food court. It’s been so long that can’t remember exactly what I got anymore. I’m sure it was pancakes or waffles or something.

The main attraction here for us though is its beignets, those squares of fried dough covered in powdered sugar. As I’ve said before, we discovered beignets on our very first stay at Port Orleans many years ago, and having beignets on the last day of the trip has become a tradition for us when staying at French Quarter and Riverside (and, occasionally, other resorts as well). We got a basket of six to split between us and enjoyed them.

We spent a little time looking around the lobby at their Christmas decorations. I would have loved to spend more time exploring the resort, but unfortunately it was almost time to go home.

Along the way back to Riverside, I took a few more pictures of the Carriage Path.

After returning to Parterre Place one last time, we gathered the luggage from our room and left Walt Disney World for the last time in 2010.



Next chapter: End-of trip reflections

 

[Jennifer48]

Thats a strange combo. Where did you see them together like this?

Hmm beignets. Not a bad way to end a Disney vacation!

 

[Lady Lallie]

Your pictures are making me Riverside/French Quarter make me miss those resort very much! I just love that area of Disney, it just makes me happy. I really want to stay at French Quarter again, I only stayed there for a few nights so I'd love to explore it more next time.

 

[meeko_33785]

Thats a strange combo. Where did you see them together like this?

Hmm beignets. Not a bad way to end a Disney vacation!

That picture was taken back at the old Expo Hall on Main Street where Mickey's new meet-and-greet is now. Back in the day it used to be a hot spot for random character sighting like this.

Your pictures are making me Riverside/French Quarter make me miss those resort very much! I just love that area of Disney, it just makes me happy. I really want to stay at French Quarter again, I only stayed there for a few nights so I'd love to explore it more next time.

French Quarter really is fantastic. After the Boardwalk, it just might be my favorite Disney resort.

 

[meeko_33785]

Well, it’s been nearly 8 months since we took this Christmas trip, but the report is finally finished. A usual, here are a few last reflections on the trip:


Weather and Crowds:

After a pretty rainy Christmas trip in 2009, it was wonderful to have a trip with plenty of blue skies and not a drop of rain to spoil our fun. It was cool for most of the trip and occasionally a bit windy, but nothing compared to the near-freezing temperatures that we would have in Florida later in the winter. We were all fine in jackets, but hats, scarfs and gloves would have been a bit excessive. All in all, it was extremely pleasant.

Since we focused more on recreation beyond the parks, enjoying the Christmas decorations and seeing street entertainment on this trip instead of trying to go on a lot of rides and see a bunch of shows, we didn’t really worry about the crowds in general. The only times we really felt it was it was at Soarin’ (a 20-30 minute wait at rope drop), the Candlelight Processional (which didn’t matter to us since we had reserved seating because of the Dinner Package) and occasionally at the resort food court or bus stop. Even when we did experience the crowds, it wasn’t too bad since it was still early in December andmost schools had not let out and many of the large tour groups and Pop Warner teams that usually show up later in the month hadn’t arrived yet.


Port Orleans Riverside:

Port Orleans Riverside is one of our family’s favorite Disney resorts, and this visit certainly didn’t disappoint us. In general, the whole resort is beautifully themed and fun to explore. Parterre Place, the “mansion” that we stayed in, was great and the grounds around it was beautiful. Its location was also fantastic since it was just a short walk from the lobby and restaurants and only a 5 minute walk from the French Quarter as well.

As far as specific highlights of our stay at Riverside, our Sassagoula River Cruise from Downtown Disney Marketplace back to the resort was one of my favorite memories. Not only was it a relaxing trip through the waters around Port Orleans and Saratoga Springs, but it also gave us a wonderful view of the fireworks of Illiminations rising above the trees. Getting to do some exploring in the Alligator Bayou area of the resort, an area we have never spent very much time in since we’ve only stayed in the mansions, was also a fun new experience for us.


Attraction Highlights:

As a change of pace for this trip, we shifted our focus away from spending as much time as possible in the theme parks and trying to see more of what Disney has to offer. This really gave us a chance to revisit places that we hadn’t been to in a while and try some things we had always wanted to do but never seemed to find the time, like Winter Summerland Miniature Golf. We had a blast playing here. Even if you’re like me and not very good at mini golf, it’s such a fun place with wonderfully whimsical and humorous theming that the end score doesn’t matter- you’ll still have a great time. Another beyond-the-parks highlight for us was spending an evening at Downtown Disney and getting to see some of the street entertainment. There was really a good amount of acts to see throughout West Side and Pleasure Island including one of our all-time favorite groups to see at Disney, Nova Era.

Of course, we also went on a few rides during our day at EPCOT. Soarin’ was wonderful as usual. We had a great time at The Seas with Nemo and Friends including seeing both Turtle Talk and one of the dolphin training presentations. Of course we can’t forget the Gran Fiesta Tour at Mexico. It may be a somewhat simple little boat ride, but it’s one of our favorite rides at EPCOT.


Dining:

We had some wonderful dining experiences on this trip. The biggest hit for us was Saana at Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Kidani Village. Both the décor and the service were top notch, and the food was delicious and definitely not the same types of foods you’d find at many other places around Disney. And, to pass on the tip we got before eating there, definitely try the Indian Style Bread appetizer- especially the Naan bread. At EPCOT, we enjoyed our meal at San Angel Inn with its wonderful atmosphere and food. While in general not as memorable of a meal as Saana or San Angel, Big River Grill at the Boardwalk was a nice spot to get burgers and sandwiches. I do have to admit though that their Chocolate Confusion might just be one of my new favorite desserts at Disney.

As for the counter service restaurants, Poll Campero, the new Latin chicken restaurant at Downtown Disney Marketplace, was great, and it’s nice to have a counter service restaurant that has things like sweet plantains and horchata available at Disney World. I can see us coming back here in the future. We decided to bypass getting up and heading down to the food court for breakfast by bringing things to eat in the room, but we made an exception for a breakfast at the French Quarter’s Sassagoula Floatworks on our last morning. Most of the food is the typical fare you would find at any resort food court, but it was worth the trip for us for the beignets. Our remaining meals were eaten at the Riverside Mill food court at our resort. The muffaletta sandwiches here are quickly becoming a new Port Orleans tradition for us.


Characters:

With only one day at a theme park, there wasn’t as much opportunities for character meet-and-greets on this trip, but I still ended up meeting eight different characters while exploring EPCOT, two of which- Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts (a randomly-spotted character hanging out next to the exit of the Character Spot) and Duffy the Disney Bear (a recent addition to the park)- were new finds for me. Other character highlights included seeing Caballero Donald Duck at his wonderful new photo backdrop in Mexico and a fun interaction with Aladdin and Jasmine in Morocco.


Holiday Events and Decorations:

A big part of the trip was going around and checking out all the Christmas decorations, and we saw a bunch! We hadn’t done a whole lot of resort hopping on other recent trips, but it was great being able to go and see the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Boardwalk, Yacht Club, Beach Club and French Quarter all decorated for the Holiday- not to mention Riverside. Out of all of them, I think I’d have to give the coolest tree award to Jambo House at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but in general, I’d have to say the Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach were the most decked out. Downtown Disney, especially the Marketplace, looked nice as well, and with the exception of the odd-looking “Christmas Trees” EPCOT had at its entrance, the park seemed to be more decorated than I remember it being in the past few years.

Throughout the trip, we also enjoyed a good amount of special Holiday entertainment around the World. The highlight would have to be the wonderful Candlelight Processional at EPCOT, but we liked many of the smaller acts as well. New for us this year was Joyful, a gospel-filled Christmas celebration at EPCOT’s fountain stage that featured Christmas classics and contemporary praise-and-worship music. Of course, we also saw a number of the Holiday Storytellers around World Showcase, and we were pleasantly surprised to find some Christmas carolers among the entertainment offerings at Downtown Disney West Side as well.



I feel like I’ve just went through and raved about everything and that there must be something I didn’t like from this trip, but beyond the weird looking faux-trees at EPCOT’s entrance, that it took half the trip to find any sort of Tangled pin, and the fact that Duffy the Disney Bear is fairly overhyped, I can’t think of anything. If those little things are the only near-complaints I can even think of, that should give you some sort of idea of how much we enjoyed this trip. It was relaxing, festive and fun, and I can see this model of spending less time in the theme parks and spending more time with recreation at the resorts and beyond continuing on future family vacations. In fact, on our next trip, we don’t have any theme park visits planned at all, but I’ll think I’ll save more about that until I start up my next trip report.


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This brings us to the end of my 2010 Disney trip reports. Thank you to all of those who have been following along for the past 14 ( ) months. 2010 was a fun year, but there’s a lot more trip reports to come. Not only do I have four day trips already this year to write about (including a day at Islands of Adventure for all of you Wizarding World of Harry Potter fans out there), but very soon, the whole family will be heading to Disney for a summer vacation at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I’ll be posting my new trip report thread soon, so if you enjoyed this one, keep an eye out for it. Again, thanks for reading, and see ya real soon.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Great wrap-up as always. I'm glad you were finally able to try Winter Summerland. It is really fun. And your recap of the holiday events/decorations pretty much sums up why it's one of my favorite times to visit. I am still a bit sad about missing out on the decorations again this year since we did end up cancelling that reservation. One of these years though, I WILL get back!

Looking forward to hearing about your next trip(s)...

 

[dawnbu40]

Thank you for sharing another wonderful TR. You know I am a huge fan of your pictures, what kind of camera +/or photo editing program do you use?

Let me know when the next one starts!

 

[meeko_33785]

Great wrap-up as always. I'm glad you were finally able to try Winter Summerland. It is really fun. And your recap of the holiday events/decorations pretty much sums up why it's one of my favorite times to visit. I am still a bit sad about missing out on the decorations again this year since we did end up cancelling that reservation. One of these years though, I WILL get back!

Looking forward to hearing about your next trip(s)...

Winter Summerland really turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. Someday, I'd like to go back and maybe try the Winter side as well.

Thank you for sharing another wonderful TR. You know I am a huge fan of your pictures, what kind of camera +/or photo editing program do you use?

Let me know when the next one starts!

Thanks Dawn. Thank you for all the kind comments you always give when it comes to my photos. Even when I'm not as happy with my my photography as I would like to be, it's encouraging to know that you and others still enjoy the pics. For the past few years, I've been using Canon Powershot cameras. My current one is an A1100. Part of me would love to upgrade from a point-and-shoot to an SLR, but I just can't imagine having to carry one around the parks. When resizing or editing my photos, I use Photoshop Elements.

I'm debating whethere to start the next trip report before I leave on my next trip or wait until after I get back. Either way, I'll be sure to let you know.

 

[Jennifer48]

As always, great report Meeko! I always enjoy your photos, descriptions and wrap-ups.

Looking forward to any future TRs!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm sad to see your trip report end but I'm happy to know that I will have more of your trips to read about soon! Especially the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I am a huge Harry Potter fan and haven't really read too much about that yet.

 

[meeko_33785]

As always, great report Meeko! I always enjoy your photos, descriptions and wrap-ups.

Looking forward to any future TRs!

Thanks Jennifer. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I'm sad to see your trip report end but I'm happy to know that I will have more of your trips to read about soon! Especially the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I am a huge Harry Potter fan and haven't really read too much about that yet.

Glad to hear you'll be around for another TR. I'll actually be starting the next one off with the Wizarding World, so you shouldn't have too long to wait for it.

 

[meeko_33785]

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let all of you know that my new 2011 trip report is now up. Hope to see you there!

A Year of Disney (and Universal) Trips- 2011 Trip Reports

 

[jenseib]

Another great year! Thanks so much for sharing. I am on my way to start reading your new one!

 

[meeko_33785]

Another great year! Thanks so much for sharing. I am on my way to start reading your new one!

Thanks for reading along. See you at the new report.