Paw and Maw's Quick Trip to WDW (Many Pictures!)

[MIGrandma]

Background: DH and I are both 53 and have been to Disney a few times over the 35 years we've been married. My last trip was in March 2009, where I spent a week at Port Orleans Riverside with my Mom. She is in her 70's and wanted to "go to Disney one more time" before she dies. DH had not been to Disney in 10 years. His last trip was when we stayed 4 nights at the Contemporary in January 2001 just before our 7-night Disney Magic cruise to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

We were able to get cheap-cheap-cheap ($29 each way) airfare on Spirit from Detroit to Orlando so we jumped on that back in October. Then it was time to plan what we were going to do, and I suggested a few days at Disney. He agreed and we booked a short 3-night stay at Port Orleans. I loved the resort when I stayed there with Mom, and wanted him to experience it too.

We flew down on January 18 and landed in Orlando at 11:45 a.m. It was partly sunny and 67 degrees but got warmer in the afternoon. We were able to skip baggage claim (Disney took care of our luggage) and went right to the Magical Express Bus area. It took a couple of minutes to check in, then we waited about 10 minutes to get on a bus and another 20 minutes before the bus left. There were only about 20 people on the bus. We got to Port Orleans Riverside about 1:00 and had a super fast and easy check-in as I had done the on-line check-in a few days earlier. We were met by a CM right when we walked in and he walked us over to the On-line check in counter. I had called a few days earlier to request a room in either Oak or Magnolia, and on the third floor, and both of those requests were met. We had room #8911, no view but we didn't pay extra for it so I knew that.

The room had two double beds, a round table and 2 chairs, a padded seat (we put luggage/bags on that), armoire with TV, nightstand, and it had a split bathroom with two pedestal sinks near by beds along with a shelf, iron/ironing board and the second part of the bathroom had the toilet, tub and shower. It was decorated in a Southern mansion style.

We had a cute little towel critter on our table.

 

[MIGrandma]

After dropping off our carry on bags in our room, we went to the concierge desk to upgrade our park tickets. I inadvertently clicked on base tickets when I made the original reservation on-line and didn't realize it until much later that we didn't have park hopper passes so we needed to make the change. It cost us $115 to do that, but we knew we needed to make the change since we only had 3 days there.

We hadn't eaten lunch yet so we decided to go to the food court at the resort. I think Port Orleans has a very nice, large food court.

DH had a burger and fries, while I had a small side salad and fruit cup. I'm diabetic (type 2) and gluten intolerant so my choices were somewhat limited. We also got the refillable mugs which were $13.99 each. The total for our lunch was $46.91, it's not cheap to eat at Disney.

After we took our mugs back to the room, we walked to the East Depot which was right behind our building just past the parking lot, very nice and convenient.

Here's a view of our building, Magnolia Terrace

This gazebo is at the walkway leading to the front of Magnolia Terrace

This is me standing in front of the sign for our building

As we got to the bus stop, a bus to Epcot was just pulling up, perfect timing! We were the ONLY two people on the bus. Really felt strange, especially since when I was there with Mom it was always so crowded and many times we had to stand.

 

[MIGrandma]

We got to Epcot about 3:00, and I had my picture taken with Sitch right away (see signature pic). There was no line, just walk right up. He is one of my favorite characters so I was thrilled to see him the very first thing.

We had hoped to ride Soarin' but fast passes were gone and it was a 75-minute stand-by wait so we decided to walk to the back and look around. DH had really been looking forward to walking around, Epcot is his favorite of all four parks.

We saw the circle vision movies at China and Canada and we rode the boat rides in Mexico and Norway. It wasn't crowded at all and we just enjoyed walking around looking at everything.

DH was disappointed because he really wanted to eat some German food, but he just wasn't hungry since we'd had a late lunch. Poor planning on our part. So we went back up to the front and did Journey Into Imagination with Figment, and Captain EO (3D movie with Michael Jackson). Captain EO was new to me, as Honey I Shrunk the Kids had been there the last time I was there. After that we went on Spaceship Earth, we enjoyed the little computer generated images of our faces on the screen as the ride progressed. The wait times for Soarin' and Test Track were still long so we left about 7:30 to get a bus back to POR. One was pulling away just as we got there, we ran but didn't make it in time. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for the next one to come along. There were very few people on, no need to stand during the ride back. We got back to the resort at 8:00, went to our room and got our mugs (saw that our luggage had been delivered too) and we went to the food court for supper.

We didn't take advantage of the free dining, or make any kind of dining reservations. We aren't all that interested in the food aspect of Disney, and don't care that much about sit-down dinners. We would rather grab something at the food court or a counter service place in the park. I just had an order of French fries and DH had the create-your-own-pasta, which came to $19.42. After eating we came back to the room and unpacked and went to sleep, it had been a long day.

 

[MIGrandma]

Double Post

 

[MIGrandma]

The alarm went off at 6:00, we didn't want to miss any of our time at Disney by sleeping late. The beds were comfortable and we slept quite well. At 7:00 we walked over to the food court. We always took the bridge through the main pool area, so it was a very short walk. We each had a ham and cheese and mushroom (DH had onions too) omelet and potatoes (the potatoes were cold). DH had bacon as well, which is paper thin. For the prices Disney charges for their food, it seems like they could offer better bacon. He also went back for oatmeal with fruit, so breakfast was $22.63. We filled our mugs with coffee at the filling station.

After eating we went to the airport check-in to get bus transportation arranged to go back to the airport on the 21st. When I called a few days before our trip to arrange it going down they said they hadn't sent the info to us because they were waiting for our flight information. I added that information right to my original reservation so there was a mix-up somewhere but after we received our Disney packet of info and it said the bus info would be arriving separately I waited, and waited, and waited. It never came so I finally called and was told they didn't have our flight info. So I gave it to them and then wanted to make arrangements for the bus back to the airport and she said we couldn't do that until we were given our room upon check-in. So we asked when we checked in and the CM said we had to go to airport check-in and they were only open 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. so we had to wait until the second day. Long story short, they said we had to go to the concierge counter to do that. So back inside we went, and there was quite a line at the concierge so we had to wait awhile. We finally got it handled and she printed out the paper we would need to board the bus.

About 10:00 we went to catch a bus to Animal Kingdom but none came. We waited 20 minutes, and watched buses for all of the other parks come and go, and finally when a second Magic Kingdom bus came we decided to go there instead. We were able to sit in the front seats of the bus, so managed to get a good picture of the sign.

 

[MIGrandma]

When we got to the Magic Kingdom we went right to The Haunted Mansion and had a wait time of only 10 minutes. This has always been one of my very favorite rides. We also saw the Hall of Presidents. This attraction was closed when I was there with Mom, as they were adding Obama. To me it is a very interesting attraction.

We also rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This is where we had our longest wait of the entire trip, 30 minutes. Most of the time we could either walk right on, or had a 5-10 minute wait. We love how the parks are so un-crowded during the month of January!

We saw the Country Bear Jamboree, rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Stitch's Great Escape (also had my picture taken with him again ), and one of my all time favorites Carousel of Progress. We rode the Transit Authority People Mover (they were working on the Space Mountain roller coaster so it was lighted when we went through, usually it is dark and you can't see so it was interesting). We had orange pineapple Dole Whips (learned about them here on the Disboards!) and those were awesome!!

We thought we could take a bus from the Magic Kingdom over to Animal Kingdom but we couldn't, so we went back to our resort. Freshened up a bit then hopped on the bus going to Animal Kingdom.

 

[MIGrandma]

We got to Animal Kingdom about 4:45 and went right to It's Tough to be a Bug, another favorite. The park closed at 5:00, but stayed open until 8:00 for resort guests. We had to show our Key to the World card for each ride and attraction, and one CM was having a hard time trying to explain to someone who must not have spoken English that they couldn't ride because they weren't a resort guest.

We went on the Expedition Everest roller coaster twice (walked on both times, no wait at all). I had been skeptical of this ride because I am usually not a fan of roller coasters, at least ones that have tall hills and long drops. But I asked, here, about it and was reassured by many that it would be fine. Plus one poster directed me to a You Tube video and after watching that I had decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did, it was fun!

We went on the Dinosaur ride, and we were going to do the safari but it had closed at 5:00 so shortly after 6:00 we decided to go back to the resort. DH was tired of walking. It was sunny and about 75 degrees today, really beautiful. We got off the bus at the main stop, forgetting we needed to go back to the room for our mugs, so DH had a drink at the bar while I walked back to get them. We again went to the food court for supper. We each went to the Carving Station and had roast beef (they gave us each 4 large slices), with mashed potatoes (DH had gravy on his but because of my gluten intolerance I just had butter), and vegetables (carrots, green beans and onions) $11.39 each and DH had a piece of strawberry cheesecake $4.15. For "fast food" the food was very good. On our way back to our room I took several night time pictures, since there was a full moon that night.

After our walk and picture taking we went back to the room to relax and watch TV. The resort is so peaceful and quiet, and so uncrowded. There are usually very few people at the food court when we're there as well.

 

[MIGrandma]

Here are a few more pictures from Animal Kingdom.

We didn't walk the trail, and there were some rides we didn't go on this time. Animal Kingdom is DH's least favorite park and he felt like he'd "been there and done that" and since I was just there not too long ago with my Mom I didn't mind missing some things this trip.

 

[MIGrandma]

We were up at 5:30 this morning and walked over to the food court for breakfast at 6:30. We didn't realize they didn't start serving hot breakfast items until 7:00, so DH got a bagel and a chocolate muffin and we both filled our mugs with coffee and sat down. The food court was extremely empty and quiet at this time of the morning. At 7:00 DH went up and got breakfast platters for us. I had scrambled eggs, 2 strips of paper-thin bacon, a sausage link and potatoes (the potatoes were hot this time). DH had the same plus a Mickey waffle and a biscuit (plus he finished my eggs and potatoes), $14.47.

About 9:30 we hopped onto a bus and went to Epcot. We quickly walked right to Soarin', and only had a 10-minute wait. We were in the 3rd row, so could still see feet above us (I think that's kind of distracting) but it was fun and we loved smelling the orange groves as we "flew" over them. We got fast passes on our way out, to come back between 11:09 and 12:09 to ride again.

We quickly walked over to Test Track and had no wait at all for it. We were in the back seat of the "car", it would have been more fun sitting in front I think but we still enjoyed it. We tried to get fast passes for it on our way out but I had forgotten you can't get them back to back so we were going to have to wait an hour just to get them. So we decided to just get right back on and ride again. We had no sound in our "car" the second time. It is a fun ride though. We did have a single rider riding with us this time. I can see how the single rider line would be attractive to someone going on alone, and not having to wait in a long line with others usually.

We went back to Soarin' at 11:30, didn't have to wait long and we were in the front row this time. No feet!! There was a larger (27 people) tour group next to us and they were quite loud, and the CM was even encouraging them to be louder! We went to The Land and rode through that, DH always enjoys seeing their farming practices since he is one himself. Here are a few pictures of the things we saw growing.

After Soarin' and The Land, we did the "green side" of Mission Space.

DH wanted to ride on the Monorail so we rode that to the Ticket & Transportation Center and got on another one going to the Polynesian, Grand Floridian and Contemporary resorts before going to the Magic Kingdom. Then we took a bus back to POR around 3:00.

 

[MIGrandma]

We got our mugs and walked over to the food court for a late lunch, we were both starving. The ice machines weren't working as they'd had a repairman come to fix them, and he forgot to turn them back on. I had a grilled chicken sandwich without the bun, fries and a gluten free brownie (it was delicious, wish I could remember the name of the company, it was Meadow something) $12.98. Kirk had a beef and bleu sandwich with pasta salad $9.79 and a piece of chocolate cake $3.83.

After eating we went to the quiet pool by our building to relax on loungers and read awhile. Unfortunately there was one loud family there. The Mom loudly announced she was going back to the room to take a shower and get beer. The Dad dropped the F-bomb several times and their young son and daughter were both extremely loud and obnoxious as well. There were several other people around the pool who were polite and quiet, but this one family just kind of ruined it. Especially with the use of the language. We didn't stay long, they were just too annoying.

We made a stop at our room to grab sweatshirts and hopped on to the boat to go to Downtown Disney. That is one of the really nice things at Port Orleans, the boat ride to DTD. Very enjoyable. We made a stop at the French Quarter to pick up a few people then we were on our way for our 25-minute ride. Very nice and relaxing. When we got closer to the dock at DTD we saw a lot of birds standing statue-like still on the edge of the river bank. Our boat driver said they were waiting for fish that the boat churned up. I was mesmerized by them, and completely forgot to take a picture.

We walked the entire downtown area. I didn't do much shopping, as with flying I wasn't able to buy a lot of souvenirs since I didn't have space to get them home. DH always loves that part of flying. It was fun seeing all of the different shops, restaurants and bars though. I bought a bag of popcorn to munch on while we walked and we took the boat back to POR just before 8:00.

And here is a picture of the French Quarter before we docked to pick up more passengers to go to DTD.

Upon getting back to POR we stopped at the food court and bought a fruit cup, carrots/celery and Ranch dip, a Mickey ice cream bar, 2 bottles of juice and a large bottle of water $20.56 and came back to the room to watch The Big Bang Theory, Bleep My Dad Says and CSI. It felt good to relax after a long day of walking and enjoying the park.

 

[MIGrandma]

We slept well, but I heard thunder around 3:30. We woke up about 6:30 and went to the food court for breakfast. It had rained, but wasn't raining at the moment, just dripping from the trees. DH had a breakfast platter with eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and a biscuit and I had oatmeal with strawberries, raspberries, cranberries and brown sugar, $12.28. We filled our mugs with coffee. He also went back later for a chocolate croissant, $2.98. We went back to our room to pack up about 8:00, it was sprinkling rain. We took our luggage down about 10:00 (stopped raining, thankfully) to wait for our Magical Express bus to go back to the airport. One bus dropped off some people so we started to walk over to it but the driver shut the door and waved us off, wouldn't even talk to us. I thought that was odd. Another bus came along and DH went to talk to the driver (I stayed seated with our luggage) and that was our bus so we got on. The bus made 3 more stops to pick up more people so it took about an hour to get back to the airport.

We headed right over to Budget as we were renting a car (ended up with a red Ford Mustang convertible after upgrading ) to continue with our vacation by spending a couple nights at Daytona Beach, then a night at Cape Canaveral followed by a 4-night Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas cruise, 2 nights visiting DH's Dad and Stepmom near Tampa, and went back to Orlando after that for 2 more nights before our scheduled flight home on February 1st. But! Our flight was cancelled because of the bad, bad snowstorm in Detroit and much of the rest of the country as well. So we spent 2 extra days in sunny Florida before flying home on the 3rd.

Loved our time at Disney, but DH isn't as big a fan of Disney as I am so who knows when we'll go back. Hopefully we will though.

Here are a few other random photos.

 

[MIGrandma]

I guess I shouldn't have even bothered.

 

[sweetpea29488]

Thanks for the trip report. I loved all your photos, especially the one of you and stitch.

 

[teentoddlermom]

Thank you for your report and pictures!
How nice you had a get-a-way January trip! Lucky you on the airfare