My solo birthday trip PTR! 10 days of DxDP!

[dawnhaze]

I've started publishing my photos to a shared public photo stream through my phone, so I thought I'd post the link here. https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6GfnH8tGuDLbR - I hope this works, I don't often post links on the board.

Today has been good so far. I got to Hollywood Studios at about 7:45AM and waited for rope drop. I got in 3 rides on TSMM, 3 on RnRC, and 4 on ToT. I guess I'm one of those "uberusers" or whatever keeps coming up in the FP+ threads, haha. There were a lot of Brazilian tour groups in the park, but avoiding them wasn't hard.

I also did some character meets - the Incredibles & Wreck-it Ralph. I figured since I have Photopass+ I may as well be in some pics!

My lunch at Brown Derby was great. I had the Cobb salad, the filet, and the chocolate trio. Lots of food for 11:30am but hey. The server offered me a glass of champagne for my birthday but I can't drink alcohol so I had to decline.

I also saw the afternoon parade for the first time - a goal of this trip is to see all the parades - and that was surprisingly fun. I found a seat on the steps of American Idol.

After I was done at Studios, I took the bus over to AKL. I was early for dinner at Jiko but I sat outside for a while and got a bit of rest since I didn't take an afternoon break today. AKL is a really peaceful resort.

While writing this, I'm waiting for my meal at Jiko. I just ate the wild boar appetizer and it was very tasty. I ordered the filet here too - I love steak so I'm going to eat a lot of it on this trip!

Bad news: I'm developing the beginnings of a cold. Sneezing, runny nose, etc. I packed OTC meds for all occasions plus some vitamin C cough drops so I hope I can head it off. My health is horrible, I'm sick almost weekly these days.

 

[dawnhaze]

Update on the evening:

Jiko had one of the best filets of beef I've ever had, and the service was out of this world. I would absolutely go back there again. I tried the sweet potato bread pudding for dessert, at my server's recommendation, and it was just as excellent as all the rest of the food. The flavors were very unique and I enjoyed it a lot. I would recommend Jiko to anybody looking for a really unique dining experience with top of the line service. I was given a free sample of their pumpkin soup and one of their other desserts (I forgot which) for my birthday so I really got a ton of food.

The bus to DTD, I did not enjoy, and I'm not usually one to gripe about buses. I'm a large person, so I either try to sit at the end of a row, or just stand. I would never try to cram in between two other large people. Unfortunately a guy on the bus didn't have the same rule for himself, so I ended up with him in my lap for what felt like the longest bus ride on property. (AKL to DTD feels like FOREVER!) I ended up with sore ribs from leaning away form him the whole ride.

Cirque was not what I was expecting. I don't know what I was expecting, actually. Parts were very entertaining - the bike stuff, the silks - and parts were just weird. I'm not sure I'd do it again, but I enjoyed it once. It just wasn't my kind of thing. Oh well, it was worth the experience!

Since I still have no wifi in my room despite calling to complain, I'm writing this by the LM pool on my iPad while using my phone as a hotspot. I'm way too Internet addicted for this poor connectivity. Funnily enough, the in park wifi has been working great for me.

Overall, today was pretty good. Looking forward to tomorrow!

 

[dawnhaze]

Animal Kingdom day! Well... Sort of.

AK is probably my least favorite park because it's hot, spread out, and lacks things I like to do. But I visit every trip to ride Everest and the Safari!

Breakfast at Tusker House was pretty good. The food was good for a buffet - I stuffed myself with waffles, yogurt, bacon, and fruit. The character interaction was fun too. I was under the impression that Photopass photographers were present at character meals (not just outside), but the character handlers were willing to take pics with my phone, so I'm happy with that.

I did get some good ride pics on Everest. Screaming, pretending to be asleep, pretending to be texting (the guy next to me in that one actually was texting through the entire ride, which gave me the idea).

I also got to meet Pocahontas since the line was super short when I wandered over there. The pics from my phone weren't the best for that one so I hope the PP photographer got better ones with his camera, I'll have to check my account, haha.

I made an unplanned hop over to Epcot around 11:30am. I had wanted to stay at AK until the afternoon parade but I couldn't make myself watch shows I've already seen multiple times. I'll hop back over there another afternoon to see the parade.

At Epcot, I finally rode the new Test Track. I never rode the old one so I can't compare them. It was a lot of fun, and I used the single rider line to accumulate 3 or 4 ride photos. At one point, a tour group entered single rider ahead of me and the leader pitched a fit when they got to the front and realized they'd be split up, but CMs didn't give in to them.

I was going to do some character greetings in Epcot as well, but the afternoon sun chased me out of World Showcase and onto the boat for Hollywood Studios. It was a hopping kind of day. Unfortunately, RnRC was having technical issues, so I just rode ToT a few times and then wandered around trading pins with CMs for a bit.

Since I'm still feeling kind of head-cold-y, I moved my dinner reservation up to 6:30. Thanks to the greeter at Flying Fish who helped me out with that. She also had me seated at the chef's counter, which was a cool experience. I ordered the crab cake appetizer and the steak/snapper duo, and it was all fantastic. The crab cake was a little spicy for my taste but still excellent. I haven't ordered dessert yet.

After I'm done with dinner, I'm headed back to AoA to relax by the LM pool for a while and then go to bed. Hopefully the Claritin I paid $10.50 for will help my head cold!

 

[dawnhaze]

Today was mostly a waste. I'm still sick and feeling even worse.

I dragged myself out of bed for my 8AM reservation at CRT, which was fun. I wasn't feeling too bad then. I wish my nose wasn't bright red in the pic with Cinderella - it really shows in the professional pictures, not so much in the ones on my phone, at least.

While at CRT, I looked at the weather and saw that today would be hot. So I left MK immediately after breakfast and went back to AoA to fetch swimwear, because I wanted to go see Typhoon Lagoon.

Once there, I rented a locker and crammed my backpack into it. In hindsight I probably should have just brought less stuff, because the backpack BARELY fit into a small locker. Oops.

I only did a couple slides before realizing I hate water slides. I hadn't been on one in 15 years! I don't find walking up stairs barefoot and having to take off my glasses much fun at all, plus the wedgies and sore butt! So I hung out in the wave pool for about an hour instead. That was pretty awesome.

Around noon I started to feel really tired and sick, so I left TL and went back to the resort. I slept all day. Literally, I woke up at 7pm and panicked because I had an 8:15 reservation at Citricos. I got there early, thankfully, due to good luck with the bus and monorail.

I had the braised veal shank for dinner and it was pretty good, as shanks of anything go. I skipped the appetizer because nothing looked appetizing, and I probably won't order dessert because I feel like eating about as much as I feel like running in the marathon - not at all.

I hope tomorrow will be better. I'm so depressed at the way this trip has been going so far.

 

[BsAngel]

I just joined your report I hope you feel better in some of the gift shops they have those instant soups you can take to your room .

 

[dawnhaze]

I just joined your report I hope you feel better in some of the gift shops they have those instant soups you can take to your room .

Thanks. I'm actually feeling a lot better today - I think, knock on wood, that whatever this illness is peaked yesterday. After dinner last night my head hurt so bad I was crying on the bus back from MK. I'm very glad for the nice man who gave me his seat.

I'll write today's report tonight, but for now, I'll just note this: I will never, ever, ever schedule an 8am breakfast at Epcot on marathon weekend again!

 

[dawnhaze]

I'm waiting for Illuminations right now, so I figured I'll write today's report!

First off: I'm feeling much better physically. I didn't have to wipe my nose on my shirt all day, at least. (Ew.)

The day started badly. I was assured by a CM at AoA that I would have no issues getting to Epcot by 8am using Disney transportation, despite the marathon, as long as I was at the bus stop by 6:30am or so. I was at the bus stop at 6:25. No Epcot bus came until 7, and the driver informed me that he was going to the TTC, not Epcot, and that the monorail wouldn't be running until 8am. (Which I found out later was untrue.) He directed me to the marathon shuttle to the finish line, which nobody could tell me the exact location of. When I got there, I asked another CM how to get into Epcot, and his reply was "through the main entrance!" I was a bit short with him after that, and he sensed my frustration and gave me real directions. I did make it to my 8:15am breakfast at Akershus with a minute to spare.

I was wearing a Ravenclaw Quidditch t-shirt at breakfast, and several of the princesses commented on it. Aurora got scared and asked if I knew Maleficent, since she has a raven. Ariel asked if there was a team with a fish as a mascot. Cinderella said she'd heard of that sport because Prince Charming is a sports fan and they've read about it in Belle's library. I thought that was super cute.

After breakfast, I went over to Sum Of All Thrills, then Test Track and Mission Space, and then Soarin and Nemo. Once WS opened I ran over to China to meet Mulan, too.

It got HOT today, so I ditched the park around 11:30 and took a swim and a nap. After the rest, I went back to Animal Kingdom to see the parade and ride Everest again. I was seated next to a very young girl who was also riding alone, which made me mildly uncomfortable - I'm not sure if she was.

The ride from AK to Epcot was crowded. It took 2 buses before I got on one - I guess the whole park was hopping to Epcot after the parade!

My dinner reservation was at Monsieur Paul, and the food was a bit too rich for me. I ordered the ham appetizer, duck breast entree, and triple chocolate dessert. I don't know that I'd eat there again - I definitely wouldn't order the same things.

Right now, I've staked out a spot for Illuminations near the front boat dock. There are a lot of obnoxious drunks wandering around. This is why I usually avoid World Showcase after dark!

 

[dawnhaze]

I met some resort snobs this morning!

There was a small group of women wandering around making comments like "well, it looks nice enough, but look at the kind of people who stay here! I could never!"

I don't hold my tongue well, so I approached the one who said that and asked her what kind of people that would be, exactly. She got all fussy and said she didn't mean it like THAT, and I told her to next time say what she means so everyone knows what kind of person SHE is.

And then I walked away, because I have a breakfast reservation and life is too short to argue with snooty-patooties.

 

[dawnhaze]

Low-key Sunday report!

I slept in until about 7:30am (I'm normally up at 6:30 when I'm here). I probably would have slept another half hour but there were people screaming bloody murder right outside my door for absolutely no reason. I have earplugs, and I have no idea why I wasn't wearing them, but I don't know what good it would have done. Oh well.

I hung around the resort until 8:30 because I had a late breakfast ADR and that's the time when the pin board comes out in the gift shop. I did a little trading with CMs and then hopped on the bus to MK and the monorail over to the GF. I got lucky with transit again and arrived about 45 minutes early. I wasn't called for breakfast until my actual ADR time, which rarely happens, but I'm ok with that. They weren't late, I was just early!

The characters were neat at 1900 Park Fare, the setting was quite pretty, and the food was about the same as every other breakfast I've had this week (except the French toast thing at CRT) - I've had lots of bacon, yogurt, pastries, and fruit. The bad part is that almost all my pics are blurry. I'll see Pooh and Tigger again at Crystal Palace but I really did want nice pics with Mary Poppins and Alice. I may have to hunt them down in the parks for better shots.

After breakfast, I decided to abandon my DTD plan for the day and just go back to MK, since I was right there anyhow. I went to the Town Square princess meet, since I wanted to get a picture with Rapunzel and she's not at any meals that I'm aware of. It was nice to get Photopass pics with Aurora and Cinderella as well. After that, I went over to where Tiana meets and got in a short line for her. Some folks tried to cut in the line, which I wasn't letting slide. I walked over to the Merida meet, but her line was a good 40 minutes long according to the CM, and I met her in October, so I gave that one a pass.

BTMRR was down when I got over to it, but they were still dispensing FPs, so I grabbed one and then went and rode PotC and Jungle Cruise. By then, BTMRR was back up and it was my FP time, so I did that. And then something super cool happened: I went into the Splash Mountain gift shop to buy some water, and the CM who checked me out was from my hometown - we went to high school together! Small world, etc. I traded a couple of pins with her.

I took a ride on the train over to Fantasyland and walked to Space Mountain, and basically traded off between Space and Buzz for a while, using FPs and riding People Mover in between to kill time. My goal was to accumulate ride photos for my PP+, so on Space I would be sleeping, texting, making wacky faces, etc. I also did some more pin trading... I know I picked up some scrappers, but they're collections I wanted, so I can deal with it.

I had a 6pm ADR at Garden Grill in Epcot, so I hopped on the monorail about 4:30 to head over there. I got there early (I always try to get places early, I feel less stress that way), so I rode Living With The Land as a timesink. I still checked in early, and they seated me early as well. The food was good (but there was way too much of it for me!), the character interaction was fun, but I didn't get any pics because no one was around to take them. I'll say again, I wish there were photographers at character meals. I know they'd probably get in people's way and whatnot but...

After dinner I went over to Sum Of All Thrills again, since they were 15 minutes from closing and I doubted there'd be a line. I was right. It's actually my favorite ride in Epcot - I like to make it as fast and loopy as I can manage! And then, since Test Track was actually up and running, I ran through the single rider line and got another ride photo from there.

I was going to monorail it back over to MK for EMH, but I remembered I had to do laundry tonight, so I grabbed a bus back to AoA around 8pm. Laundry got done, a shower was taken, and I soaked my feet in the pool while waiting for the dryers to finish. For some reason unknown to me, a large number of people were just hanging out in the laundry room. No machines were in use except for mine, so your guess is as good as mine as to what those folks were doing in there.

 

[dawnhaze]

Today started off nicely. The bus driver for Hollywood Studios took us straight to Beach Club since everyone on the bus was going to Cape May Cafe for breakfast. As a result, I arrived about an hour early and was seated promptly. Minnie came to my table immediately, Donald came by soon after, and Goofy was the last one I saw. The servers took pictures for me without my having to ask, which I really appreciated and rewarded with a larger tip.

I got over to Studios in time to grab a 12:30pm Fastpass for TSM, so while I was waiting for that, I finally saw the Studio Backlot Tour after skipping it on previous trips, and it was fun. Seeing the costuming department section was my favorite part. I'm glad I made the time for it. I also did some more pin trading - it was an excellent morning for that. I got some more hidden Mickey princess pins I had been hunting for, as well as a couple of cast lanyard pins and even a couple from Disneyland. I also got in one more ride on ToT and RnRC, using FP and single rider respectively. More ride pics on my Photopass! I also had a photographer take a shot of me in front of the hat, and he took several including some magic shots.

After running around Studios, I went back to the resort in mid-afternoon for a nap, since I stayed up too late last night arguing with people on the internet. (I finally got internet access in my room by setting my Verizon iPad in the window and turning on Personal Hotspot, the resort wifi and my phone reception are both still useless.) I also bought a new toothbrush in the gift shop since I didn't want to re-infect myself with the flu.

After the nap, I came to MK again, since I want to see the MSEP tonight. I used FP to hit Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh, and rode the teacups in between. I was going to go meet Tinkerbell but her wait was 40 minutes and I don't like her THAT much, haha. I can do it tomorrow morning after Crystal Palace breakfast. Right now I'm camped out near the Riverboat waiting for MSEP. I got here an hour early for front row positioning.

After this, I have a voucher and a reservation for the AAA viewing area for Wishes and then a late dinner at Narcoosee's. Will post again after that stuff, but I wanted to kill some time by writing this post.

 

[dawnhaze]

MSEP was great! By far my favorite parade of the trip. The AAA viewing area for Wishes was pretty darn good as well. I'm glad I finally took the time to see these things. I'd never seen the castle show either and was pleasantly surprised by that since I didn't know what to expect.

My dinner at Narcoosee's was FANTASTIC. I had the crab cake appetizer and the steak and lobster entree. The steak was cooked exactly the way I prefer it, so that was excellent. I didn't order dessert because I was just plain stuffed. (Yes, I know it's not a good use of DxDP to skip desserts.)

I got super lucky with buses - a DTD bus pulled up at the GF as I was walking up to the stop, and an AoA bus showed up at DTD moments after I arrived. I know this is definitely NOT the norm for resort to resort trips via DTD!

I'm exhausted - I can't wait to take a shower and drop into bed. Tomorrow is Crystal Palace at 8am, and then I'm going to dig deep into New Fantasyland!

 

[dawnhaze]

Oops, I forgot to post my Tuesday report! Well, not much happened, so we'll make it a 2 in one

Tuesday was a bit of a slow day. I had breakfast at Crystal Palace, which was pretty great. The breakfast lasagna was interesting and the character interaction was good.

As soon as 9am hit, I went straight for ETWB, since the line gets so long. I was in the first group in. It was a neat attraction but not something I'd wait a long time for.

After a couple hours in MK, I got on the monorail to the Contemporary and the bus to DTD. I went to the pin trading shop in hopes of finding the board open but I never do. So I walked over to DisneyQuest to give it a shot.

DQ seems like a place that would be more fun with other people. I did enjoy the pinball machines, old school arcade games, and Cyberspace Mountain... But I couldn't spend more than a few hours in there.

I took an afternoon nap, hung out at the resort for a while, and then made my way over to the Poly for the 8pm Spirit of Aloha... Which isn't something I'd do again, truthfully. The food was mediocre, the show was mediocre, and I was glad when it ended. The fire dancer was the only really impressive part of the whole thing.

Oh, and the post-show buses took FOREVER!

Today I went to Universal for my birthday since I'm a Harry Potter nut... And the first thing I see when I get to Islands of Adventure is that Dragon Challenge (the dueling coasters in HP land) is closed. I wanted those for my coaster credit list. I did get to ride Forbidden Journey and the kiddy coaster, as well as the Marvel rides... Then I hopped over to the other park and did all the headliners I was interested in (RRR twice, Mummy, Simpsons, MIB). I went back to the Harry Potter area at the end of the day to shop, because I didn't want to have to mess with putting a shopping bag in lockers for rides. It was bad enough locking up my waist pack for RRR.

Mears transport was punctual and useful. Thumbs up.

Right now I'm on my way to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner at Artist Point. I hope they can seat me early because I am way too tired and hungry to wait until later to eat!

 

[dawnhaze]

The food on Wednesday night at Artist Point was fantastic. I had the buffalo strip steak and I don't usually like meat cooked that rare, but it was quite good. Probably the third best meal of the trip.

I spent yesterday revisiting all my favorite stuff. I started at Ohana for breakfast, where I was disappointed by the character interaction and got zero pictures once again. at least the food was good. After breakfast, I went to Animal Kingdom to re-ride EE, and to finally see the Flights of Wonder show. I'd totally recommend that to anyone, btw.

While walking into AK, I observed a cast member in her full uniform talking on a cell phone, loudly proclaiming F-this and F-that and everything is BS and lots of other obscenities. Definitely the most "...what?" moment of the trip. I got her name from her nametag and mentioned it at guest relations - if I walked into my job in uniform talking like that, I'd be fired, and I don't even work in a "family atmosphere." But anyway...

After AK, I went back to Studios and rode all the headliners except TSM. Also saw Lights Motors Action, which was fun but not that cool. Teenage boys would probably like it more than I did. He weather got cold and misty in the afternoon and people freaked out and bundled up in coats and ponchos.

Dinner was Yachtsman Steakhouse, which was the best service I had all week. The strip steak was great, but I still preferred Jiko's filet.

After dinner I headed to Epcot for an hour to get in one last ride on Test Track.

This morning I went to Chef Mickey for breakfast, and again got zero pictures. This was partially on me since I was feeling pretty over character meals by today. I'm at the MK right now and it's cool and misty again, but people aren't freaking out so much.

I have a fastpass for Little Mermaid at 1:30 and then I'm headed back to AoA for my DME pickup. Back to the real world I go...