My Not So Clever, Funny or Witty Trip Report, but perhaps you'll read it anyway

[Honeibee]

Hello everyone

Let me just say right up front if you’ve come here in search of one of those hysterically funny, side-splitting, make you spit your coffee on the screen trip reports, well, it won’t be. Sorry. I’m no Vette Chick. But I will tell you a little about one of the best weeks in my life. You just won’t have to run for paper towels to clean up afterwards.

But before we start, a couple of things….
First off, I want to thank Pete for an outstanding website. I am on here every day (Yes, when I should be working.) I have learned so much here and that really enhanced our vacation. Many thanks to all of you for sharing your stories, hints and tips, suggestions, experiences and ideas. I heart the DIS!

Just a little background….only a little, I promise…..
This trip was just my husband and I. We are both in our mid-40’s. He had been to WDW once before me, with his four children when they were very young. I had been many times. Many many day trips and some on-site stays. We love WDW! Obviously, as we chose to be married there last year.

After our wedding week in June 2005, we said our next trip was going to be park-free. There is so much to do that we never get too! Well…you can see how well that worked out. Instead, this trip, we decided to focus on doing different things. Eat at places we’d never eaten at, go on rides we hadn’t ever been on. That worked, to a certain extent, as you will see. This was inspired by the demise of TimeKeeper, which, in all my trips to WDW, I had never seen. Alas, now it is too late…

One more thing and then we’ll get going.
We booked this trip about a year in advance. Five nights at the Yacht Club (Which I had never even seen before. Never been to that part of the World.) with MYW Park Hoppers and the DDP. When they announced Free Dining I called to ask if we could get it, and they took $400.00 off our total. Nice!! BTW we were also flying for free since American messed us up so bad on our flights to Antigua last fall. They gave us two free flights, which naturally, I booked for Orlando. This stunned most of my friends. Why didn’t we go to Hawaii or California? The rest of my friends understood completely.

And so we begin.
We left New York and flew on American into Orlando without a hitch. It wasn’t much of a wait to get on the ME bus. However, once we were on, we waited about ten minutes then the driver – who apparently was new – couldn’t get the bus to back up. I wanted to tell her to take off the emergency brake, but, well, what do I know. So we finally got going and we were off to the All Star Movie Resort.

 

[Honeibee]

The All Star Movie Resort.
Since our package didn’t start until Sunday, in order to maximize it, we spent the first night at ASMo. We checked in and had some lunch. I always find the value resorts food court food to be so good. But $9.19 and an iced tea and a tiny pizza! Ouch. Thank goodness tomorrow it’s free!

We headed to DTD since we had Cirque tickets for that night. I don’t know if it was because it was the last night of Night of Joy, or because it was a Saturday night but DTD was sooo crowded! We walked around a bit, but ended up not having much time.

Cirque De Soleil was great! A little weird, but great! We had front-row center seats, so my DH ended up getting involved with the show twice. It was funny, amazing and greatly entertaining. If you can get over the weirdness factor, it’s a great show!

After that we had HUGE sundaes at Ghirdellis and went back to the resort.

Our room at ASMo was really convenient and if we had been staying there I would have been very happy with it. It was small, and not fancy, but it was also one third the price of our YC room. So, you get what you pay for but there was certainly nothing wrong with it.

My only other comment about the ASMo was when we were checking in we asked four different CMs if they knew when the CDS box office opened and no one knew. One lady attempted to call but got no answer.

One Of My Favorite Parts.
I love doing this. We did it when we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge the first time. It’s one of my most favorite memories. We are early risers anyway so for us to be up at 6:00am on a vacation day is really like sleeping in. We had arranged a taxi to pick us up from the ASMo and take us to the Yacht Club at 6:15am. When we arrived at the YC the sun was just starting to come up…..OMG, it was sooooo beautiful. The YC is gorgeous. I was stunned. I just kept saying over and over “OMG, it’s so beautiful!” And that was even before we got inside.

When we walked in the lobby I felt a little underdressed. It’s really gorgeous. I was very impressed but felt like I should be wearing something a little nicer. Our room wasn’t ready but we didn’t expect it to be. (Although this did happen the first time we stayed at the WL. We were in our room by 7:00am!) So, we headed off to the Poly for some Tonga Toast! Since there is no resort-to-resort transportation we took the taxi again.

Ahhhh, Tonga Toast!
Sometimes I think Tonga Toast is the only reason my DH goes to WDW. That, and DiveQuest and he is a happy man. The Kona Café is one of our favorite places to have breakfast. As usual, it was awesome!

 

[Honeibee]

Sunday
We then took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. After waiting 15 months to hear it I was very disappointed to hear a NEW ANNOUNCEMENT! AHHHHHHH! No more “Please stand clear of the doors”???????? Alas, I found it later in the week on the Epcot monorail. Phew. It’s the little things, know what I mean?

The Magic Kingdom is so much fun! I could live there and be perfectly happy. Since the crowds were so light we walked on every ride. We did an awful lot by 1:00, which was when I had my secret lunch hardstop, because I had a trick up my sleeve. We had lunch at Cosmic Rays, which was a lot of fun and the food was really great! How could I have never eaten there??? (You’ll probably hear that a lot.)

Then we sauntered (or so I made it look) down Main Street and out to the bus. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we went out to Hurricane Hannah’s and got drinks and took a seat by the pool. Soon, DH was closing his eyes so I told him to take a nap and I’d check on the room in a little while. As soon as he was out I snuck over to the marina, where I had reservations for The Breathless. DH LOVES wooden boats and he didn’t even know The Breathless existed! I was so looking forward to surprising him with a cruise around the lake. I love doing stuff like this for him!

So I went to the Marina and paid for it and told the ladies it was a surprise. They wanted to know what the occasion was so I told them because I had the best husband in the world! They all thought that was so sweet and were looking forward to his reaction. Me too! The Breathless was out but they told me Mike would be back in a few minutes.

When I got back I woke him up and told him I was going in to check on our room. He said he’d come in too. When we got close to the door I told him “Oh come here I want to show you something!” and whisked him away from the door and towards the marina. As luck would have it, The Breathless was just coming across the lake, all gleaming brass and polished wood. What a sight! DH was like “WOW! Look at that! That’s some boat! I’d love to see it! I wonder whose it is? It’s beautiful!” I just kind of quietly snickered and said “Yeah, it looks nice.”

So as he is watching it come across the lake I am leading him to the dock. He’s so absorbed in watching The Breathless come in he forgets to ask me what I wanted to show him. The ladies working at the marina were watching him watch the boat. It was all such a pip! So then Mike hops out and walks up the dock and I put out my hand and say “Hi Mike!” like I’ve known him for years. DH is now totally confused. Mike asks me “You guys feel like taking a spin?” I say “Suuure!” Poor DH is like “Huh??” He asks me “Whats going on?” I said “Get in. We’re going for a cruise!” He couldn’t believe it! Gosh, why don’t I think to have the camera to get the look on his face at times like this!? I’m a dolt.

Well, Mike putted us out of the no-wake zone, over towards D/MGM before he opened the throttle. HOLY COW THAT THING IS FAST! I think it was the best ride we were on all week! He took us all over, doing spins and turns. We were laughing, soaked, loving every second of it! I had paid for half an hour but he took us out for a little longer. Then when he took us back he took pictures of us. Mike was really super and he did a great job giving us a heck of a ride! It was so much fun!

Now it’s way after check-in time so we rush back to the YC and try to get our room. It still wasn’t ready. So, OK fine, we headed over to Epcot because DH had DiveQuest at 4:30 then we had dinner at Le Cellier at 7:00.

 

[Honeibee]

DiveQuest
I’ve never done this, I have no interest in SCUBA, but DH loves to dive and is all kinds of certified. This was his third DQ. He always has such a great time! He says it one of the most professionally run programs he’s ever seen. He highly recommends it! Since I had seen him do it before, I thought I’d stroll around Epcot by myself for a bit then join him in Canada.

So, in a moment of disbelief, here I am, standing in the middle of Epcot, all by myself! How exciting can it get!?!?!?! I don’t know what to do first! So, naturally, I head off to Soaring.

Le Cellier
I’m a vegetarian, so Le Cellier was never high on my list of places to try. However, in my quest to “Try All Things New” this trip, and since everyone keeps saying how fabulous it is, and since they had a vegetarian entrée on the menu, I booked it.

I have only one thing to say about Le Cellier...

IT WAS THE BEST MEAL I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE ANYWHERE ON THE PLANET IN ALL OF TIME.

I had a sort of mushroom ravioli, but they don’t call it that. It’s TOO GOOD for such a boring name. OMG, it had such taste, so many flavors! I dream of it all day now. What a meal! I could go on and on and I might!

Our meal was enhanced by our waiter, Joseph. If you get lucky enough to sit in his section, then you ARE lucky! He’s very knowledgeable about wines and helped us select some and also let us taste a few others. His service was impeccable. He was amazing, actually. So friendly, helpful, entertaining. I’m sending Guest Services a letter about him. He was fabulous!

Finally, yes, a room!
Back to the YC with high hopes that our room is available! But, no, it’s not. This time we got someone who just came on their shift so we had to explain the whole thing to her and she was appalled. She asked me “why didn’t they just give you another room?” I didn’t know. Anyway, she called someone and got us another room. Not an upgrade but I didn’t care. I was so happy to have a room. Any room!

So, we’re on the fourth floor, right by the elevators. As it turned out being by the elevators was a great convenience and we were not disturbed by any late night noise at all.

It was a beautiful room! Oh my, so fancy! I really should have taken more pictures. We had a full-size balcony but a somewhat cramped view of the back of the resort but you could see the lake a little if you looked. We could see Illuminations over the trees, which was cool. The bathroom area was very lovely. The room, in fact the entire resort looked brand new. I loved it!

And look...Towel Animals!

 

[Honeibee]

D/MGM
The next day we were off to the Studios. A ten minute boat ride. How convenient! I love D/MGM. I just love being there, if you know what I mean. The atmosphere. Just walking down the street is cool. The streetmosphere characters were out many times while were there, which is always fun. We did ToT three times and as much as I love that ride I was so disappointed to see the letters were taken out of the message box. This was something else I had never seen. And now I missed it. When the CM saw me looking in there he said it was gone and that I should write to GS and complain! I just might do that!

We had breakfast at The Writer’s Stop, which – and I don’t know how I had done this so many times – I had never seen, nor I had ever passed by the Sci-Fi Dine In. Now, how is that possible? Anyway the Writer’s Stop has bagels and great coffee which you can get on the DDP as a snack. Great quick breakfast! And the CM that worked there that morning was such a doll! She was so nice.

Lunch was at Backlot Express, which was delicious! I highly recommend it!

Note the DIS Shirt...

Dinner was at the Sci-Fi Drive In. Now, I know this restaurant doesn’t have a lot of fans, and I’ll say right now it wasn’t the best meal we had all week. (See Le Cellier above) But…..this was so much fun! The food was good, not great. It was on par with diner food. But good diner food. And the one bad thing was that they put us in the car right by the door, so we always had people coming and going in front of us. Our waitress was cute and funny and did a great job. But we were really distracted by people who were waiting for table and just came in to look and by people being seated and leaving. So next time I’ll ask for a car in the middle. I had great fun here and liked it a lot.

The park was not at all crowded and we hit pretty much everything. There were characters all over. It was a great day. How could it not be?

If It’s Tuesday We Must Be Going To The Magic Kingdom Again! YAY!
I must confess I had some trepidation about booking the Keys To The Kingdom Tour. I didn’t want to know too much! A lot of what I love about the MK is the magic. I didn’t want that taken away. But I can assure you that did not happen.

Since we had a tour we were allowed to go into the park first thing. We bypassed a huge crowd and checked in at the Tour Desk. We had some time to kill so we took this fabulous opportunity to wander Main Street practically alone! It was wonderful! When it was just about time to assemble to meet our Tour Guide, we stood in front of City Hall and listened to the opening ceremonies. Then…it happened. One of the coolest things I had ever seen!

OK, go ahead. Call me simple minded, goofy, dorky, whatever you want. I had never seen the park opening from “the other side”. And to watch them drop the rope and see the throngs of people come thru those arches…OMG it made me cry! It was such a sight! We stood there with our mouths open, watching as probably thousands of people came streaming thru. People with big smiles and happy faces, all full of excitement and possibility. It was so great, so incredibly cool! I will always remember it. OK, weird to say but it was one of the highlights of my trip. It was so incredibly cool.

Our Tour Guide was Matthew. And I can’t say enough wonderful things about him! I don’t want to give too much away but he took us to all sorts of places. We learned so much from him. He was so patient with me, Miss Know-It-All who kept answering his questions before they were even finished. Can I help if it I learn so much from the DIS?? Anyway, he was fabulous and patient and funny as anything! He truly enjoys his work and had a real passion for the heritage of Disney, and it shows. We had lunch at Columbia Harbor House which was excellent! They took our orders in the morning and had it waiting for us in a private dining room upstairs at CHH. The sandwiches were delicious! I learned so much from Matthew, really. The tour was 4 ½ hours long but it went by so fast. It was over way too soon. He was great and MATTHEW, I HOPE YOU ARE READING THIS! Thank you so much! I’m sending GS a letter about you too!!

After our tour we had strawberry shortcake (DDP Snack) at the Main Street Bakery. See all the great things you can get as snacks now!

Again, the crowd was so light (Where did all those people from this morning go??) that we were able to walk right on all the rides.

We had dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern at Goofy’s Liberate Your Appetite Character Dinner. It was a lot of fun. The characters are always so great, especially considering we are both middle-aged adults and have no kids at the table, they still come around and make us laugh so much! I don’t know how they do it since they can’t even talk. The food was very good, and there was a lot of it. The mac and cheese was a little pasty, but still good.

 

[Honeibee]

The Animal Kingdom and Our Change Of Plans
OK one really had nothing to do with the other but this was our Wednesday…

The day started with Donald’s Breakfastasauras before the park even opened. It was good and a lot of fun. But it was obvious that most people just went to get into the park early, because not that long after it started the place emptied out. Apparently people book it so they can get to EE first. Well, most of them apparently didn’t know about my little shortcut to Asia. Ha ha! We were among the last to leave at breakfast and got on the first car of the morning on EE!

OK, let me be the first to admit that was poor planning. Here’s some expert advice…don’t eat breakfast THEN go on EE. I repeat….I’m a dolt.

EE is a lot of fun! We went on it three times that day. We walked right on every time.

I hate to say it, as I really love animals, but AK is not my favorite park. Maybe because we were tired that day and it seemed like so much walking. I don’t know. Maybe I just wasn’t into it. I felt bad because it really is a great park, but I don’t know, maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. We didn’t even do all that much, although we did go on the Safari and that was great. And we did go to Rafiki’s Planet Watch and saw a surgery procedure and I had great fun in the Affection Section, which I just love. And saw It’s Tough To Be A Bug, which is always great.

Midden Mickey in the Affection Section...

OK, well, maybe in hindsight it wasn’t so bad. We did have a lot of fun.

Oh except for one thing….The Festival of the Lion King! OMG! How can you guys sit thru that????? It was on my must-do list since I had never seen it. I could only take it for about ten minutes. IT WAS SO LOUD! We had to leave! My ears were ringing for half an hour after we left.

Lunch was at the Tusker House. The food was great but, well, the CMs working there seemed to be in a trance. Like it was the Stepford CMs or something. Weird. The girl that was preparing our order was in another world. I said to her, with a big smile “You OK today?” Then she sort of shook herself and gave me a big smile and said “Oh yes, just thinking!”

We originally had ADR’s at Boma (On my must-do list since I had never even been to the AKL) at 6:20. But since it was early in the afternoon and we were done at the AK we were at a loss for what to do until then. We really were tired so we cancelled Boma and moved our Chip and Dale’s Harvest Feast reservations from Thursday to Wednesday. At least at Epcot we were within a few minutes walk to the YC.

The Garden Grill at The Land was great! It was so much fun that it revolved! At least I got to see part of The Land boat ride, which I love and it was closed for rehab. I had a fabulous green pea risotto – Yum! I highly recommend The Garden Grill!

We watched Illuminations and walked back to our room. Only to find a message that our Segway Tour for Friday was cancelled. Oh no! We were so looking forward to it! We had done it in June but wanted to do it again because it was so much fun. Darn it! We didn’t know at the time but apparently Segway had a recall and WDW had to retool or change the software in all the Segways. From what I hear the tours were only cancelled for two days. Figures. Grrrr.

 

[Honeibee]

Thursday
So, instead, we booked trail riding! YAY! We had done this twice before and it’s kind of like a busman’s holiday for me, since I have two horses of my own. But since it’s my dream job to work at the Tri-Circle D Ranch someday I relish any opportunity to find out all I can about how to get a job there.

Plus the horses are great. I rode one I had ridden last time and I tried to take him home with me, he’s such a doll. It was just DH and I and the guide and she was fabulous. She knew we were horse-people and we talked the whole way. It was a great relaxing trail ride. I could do it every day.

Which brings me to one of my other most favorite moments….Fort Wilderness in the early morning. Is there any other better place in the world? I think not.

We spent an hour wandering around by the pony rides, the petting farm, or what is left of it, the stables, the farrier’s barn. I could have stayed there all day.

Then we had breakfast at Trail’s End. They were having a run thru of Hoop-De-Do, and they told us to come on in and see it for free. No food was served but we got to see part of the show, and watch the managers reviewing it. That was kind cool. I felt like I worked there.

Hunger drove us next door, where we received a bit if Pixie Dust in the form of a two-for-one breakfast! That was mighty kind of the cashier lady. She took pity on us since we only had two more table service meals left and we were going to pay for this breakfast with cash. Thank you very nice cashier CM!

Then we headed over to Epcot, did a whirlwind tour of WS, during which we did not do it justice at all. I missed a lot. Have to go back, I guess. DH had another DQ but this time I stayed to watch. I felt bad because all the other “SCUBA wives” had stayed earlier in the week. But, geez, come on, this was his forth time! But I was glad I did because for some reason this time they allowed us (non-participants) to go behind the scenes too and upstairs which was so much fun! What a nice SCUBA lounge they have up there! They really do a fabulous job!

Then we headed over to the MK just in time for SpectroMagic. OK I can’t be the only adult that cries and jumps up and down when it starts. Am I? Am I? I LOVE SpectroMagic and if they ever take it away I will be very upset. How magical is Main Street with all the lights off and the parade going on? It’s wonderful!

Then we had dinner at Tony’s Town Square. In my quest to try “All Things New” I felt, although I had read quite a few bad reviews of TTS, that in all fairness I would give it a try.

I wish I hadn’t.

Although the place was cute and the service excellent, I have to ask…what do they do to the food to extract ALL the taste out of it? I had eggplant rollatini and I still can’t understand how you can make it with absolutely no taste at all! I don’t get it. Italian food is kinda hard to mess up. Even the tira misu wasn’t all that. What a disappointment. And that was out last TS meal on the free dining plan. Bummer.

 

[Honeibee]

A Little Pixie Dust Here and There
We only got to swim in StormAlong Bay once. Which is too bad because that pool is worth the price of admission! We went to buy noodles so I could float around the Lazy River and strike De-Vine poses in the deep part and just as we were walking up to buy them, someone walked up and returned one he had bought earlier. So when we told the CM we wanted to buy noodles she gave us that one! Then she went in the back and came out with another that someone had just returned! Free noodles! So before we left we gave them to a family with two young children. They were so excited! Apparently they were just on their way to the pool! Perfect timing.

One other bit of Pixie Dust happened in the Studios. We finally stopped to talk to a DVC CM. We had been meaning to the entire trip because we are thinking about it. We didn’t want to go to the presentation since it was our last day at the parks, but we ended up talking to the CM for half an hour anyway. Then he gave us a little something. I won’t give away the secret but it was really nice of him. And had it been a busier time of the year I would have loved it even more! We passed it along to a lovely older couple traveling with their son and grandson and they were thrilled.

I love pixie Dust.

BTW, did you ever get a Surprise FastPass? I never had until this trip. We got them at Test Track and our popped two additional FPs for Mission:Space. Since DH had already been on it and I didn’t want to go, we gave them to a couple that was passing by.

You really didn’t even need FPs this trip because there were literally no lines, but it felt good to do something nice to a complete stranger.



Our Last Day
Well, since the Segway tour that was supposed to be on Friday was cancelled we now had an entire day free. ME was picking us up at 5:30pm, so we went to D/MGM in the morning then over to Epcot in the afternoon. It’s so easy to park-hop between those two. I never knew that. See what you learn staying on the other side of town once in a while.

A couple more rides, more walking around, but somehow…the last day isn’t quite like the first. I was dragging, melancholy, sad…..


So, there you have it. It was a fabulous vacation. I can’t wait to go back. We’re going back in January, staying at POR for the Half Marathon, but we’ll only be there for four days, and something tells me the day after the Half I won’t be seeing much.

Thank you for reading this rather lengthy TR. I enjoyed typing it!

 

[LgTmDisFan]

Loved your report we too are in our mid fourties, we are going the end of Oct. with the family (12) I was going to skip Le Cellers, now I know I will make the extra effort to get ADR's, also to set up a tour for the whole family.
Once again Thank you for your detailed report.

 

[redheaded mama]

Great Trip report. I loved the pictures. My husband loves Disney, but he does not want to go without the kids. Reading your trip report makes me want to start planning a romantic get away at WDW. What a different experience that would be.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

LOVED, and I mean LOVED your report!!! Wowie!! Sooo much fun reading about your wonderful trip! And your pics are terrific, too! I'm guessing you will be enlarging the Breathless photo of you two love birds and hanging it on your wall in a place of honor -- it is SUPERB!!

Thanks for taking the time to write your report. Again, I loved it!!

 

[desiab]

I enjoyed your trip report and pictures. DH and I will be in the world without kids in 9 days and after reading your report, I think that I should book some tours that we would not normally get to do.

Edited to add: I posted then I looked at my countdown clock. We are taking the kids to WDW in 3 days, coming home to drop off the kids, and then going back by ourselves.

 

[OhMari]

I am totally impressed you got this done in one swoop and it was a great report.

Love the blue Croc's, I have mine on order from my kids for Christmas, or the almost brown ones. I told my kids to surprise me.

So you didn't like Tony's, hmmm. I really don't like Italian food either.

 

[cyjmhill]

Aweseom Trip report!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[HMHunters]

Nice TR - and bonus points for getting the whole thing done so quickly!

I'll see you at the half! We'll be at POFQ for that one. Happy training!

 

[Cass]

You and your hubby are adorable! Loved the Breathless surprise you gave him, how sweet.

Thanks for the great report, you have me worried about Tony's now - it was all I could get for the time slot I had (before MVMCP)

Any more pics of your room? (besides the sink) lol

 

[bornwiththeears]

Loved your report and pictures!! Our trip is in 54 days (who's counting) and your pictures were so good - I just cannot wait.

 

[Maherae]

Absolutely FABULOUS trip report, Judy!! So glad you both had such a great time!! Just sorry you had to come back sick!

 

[UtahMama]

OHHH!
I cant believe you did this all in one fell swoop!

I am so glad I stumbled upon your TR before I head off to bed!

You did so much! All the "expensive" sstuff we're saving for when our kids get older or we can afford to hire a sitter!

I wished you could have eaten at BOMA! Soooo flaverful! I agree about Le Cellier! I'll have to do that again without 4 kids in tow! THEN I could concentrate on eating that de-licious food!

I LOVE your TR!

Thank You So Much for Sharing!

UtahMama

 

[Minnie]

Judy - I am soooo glad to here that u are feeling better

You really do need to change the name of this trip report though cause I thought you did an awesome job