Seven Years and No Itch: Becky and Steve Return to the World! Lots of Pictures

[BeckyEsq]

Quick Facts:

Cast Members: Becky, lawyer, age 32 (trip report author)
Steve, teacher, age 32 (my husband)
Date of Trip: August 6-9, 2006
Resort: The Wilderness Lodge
Reason for Trip: Celebrating our 7th Wedding anniversary!!

Intro: Steve and I both took our first trip to WDW for our honeymoon in 1999. Both of us had wanted to go to Disney World since we were children, but our parents had never taken us. We had a wonderful time on our honeymoon -- six nights at Dixie Landings (Now Port Orleans Riverside) in a Mansion Room, length of stay passes, and meals at Cinderella's Royal Table, The Garden Grill, San Angel Inn, Alfredo's, Fulton's Crab House, and the Liberty Tree Tavern. Just for fun, here's a picture of us on our honeymoon:

The following year we went to London for ten days, then for our second anniversary we took a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas. In February 2002, we went for a long weekend (it's hard for us to travel during the school year). We got an amazing rate of $49 a night at All Star Movies. That trip convinced us that Florida is next door to heaven during the winter compared to Pittsburgh. But, on that trip, we knew we were going to be starting a family soon, and we decided not to go to WDW again until after we had children. At the time, we thought that within a couple of years, we would be returning to WDW with a toddler. Little did we know what we were in for! More than four years later, we have just completed our adoption application process, and we are now waiting to be matched with a birth parent. For a long time, the idea of Disney World was very depressing for us, because it hurt so much to see all the happy families. We stuck to some more "adult" trips during that time -- las Vegas, another Royal Caribbean cruise, New Orleans, an adults-only all-inclusive resort in Cancun. This year, we finally felt like we could return to WDW and enjoy ourselves, knowing that it should only be a matter of time before we have a child of our own to take to the Happiest Place on Earth. So this trip was something of a celebration for us not only of our 7th anniversary, but of completing the very long adoption application process (home study and creating a profile) -- and also hoping that, again, this would be our last trip without children.

I planned this trip just about a month before we left. I pretty much just picked up the phone and called WDW and booked it. We decided to do the dining plan instead of using our AAA rate. I got our flights free with my miles on US Air.

I should mention that this was my first vacation with a digital camera, and it showed -- I took 340 pictures in four days!!! So this report will have a lot of pictures.

I hope you all enjoy my report! More to follow below.

 

[BeckyEsq]

Day one, part one: Sunday, August 6, 2006

The night before our trip, we went to a casual reception for my best friend, who had gotten married a few weeks earlier in the Bahamas. So we got to bed pretty late, and I was packing right up until I hit the hay (work had been busy the week before and I just didn't get as much done as I would have liked). Our flight was at 7:30 am, but luckily we live ten minutes from the airport. So we were up at 5 am and out the door by 6 am. We put our Bichon, Wesley, in his crate, and my mom came by and picked him up a few hours later to take him to her house while we were gone.

We got to the airport and parked in extended stay parking, then lugged everything to check in -- we had two rolling suitcases which we checked, and we each had a duffle bag and a small back pack (mine was a Baggallini, which I must say worked out great!) There was a pretty long line at security but luckily we can use priority check in and the priority security line, so we got through pretty quickly. Our flight boarded right on time and there were a lot of kids on the flight. When we took off, the kids' had the best reactions -- lots of ooohing, ahhing, and excitement, it was pretty cute!

ASIDE: I wanted to add a review of my Baggallini bag. I got it the messenger sling bag in black nylon and I was very glad I did. I have used sling bags before and I actually really like the way they hang, and I like not having to slide both arms through since I think it is faster to take on and off that way, and I also like how a sling bag can be slid around to the front in order to access the pockets without actually taking it off. I kept my Key to the World pass in one of the front pockets, along with some gum and lip balm, and kept my camera bag in the main pocket, along with my makeup bag (yes, I carry makeup to WDW -- but it also holds a Shout wipe, hairtyers, eye drops, and antibacterial sanitizing gel). I kept my sunglasses in one of the side pockets, and kept my cell phone in the shoulder strap. This was great because I knew I would feel it vibrating if it rang since it was lying right against my chest. (We carried our cell phones in case we ever got separated, but we never did use them. I did use it to call home and check on Wesley a couple of times though). ETA: The other great thing about this bag was that it was small enough to fit into the net pouches in a lot of the rides where you are supposed to stow your stuff, whereas Steve's backpack, which was a little bigger, was hard to fit in there. So for that reason alone I would recommend it for WDW.

We landed around 9:30 am and headed to the Magical Express counter. There was no line there and we walked right on to a bus that was waiting. we watched a video during the ride that featured a lot of the characters acting like they were arriving at the airport and checking in to the resort as guests. One of the characters was Stitch and the little boy in front of us was so excited to see Stitch he was bouncing up and down in his seat -- I can imagine what he did when he actually met him, which I hope he did! Here's the obligatory picture as we entered the World:

Our bus stopped at the Polynesian, then the second stop was the Wilderness Lodge, around 10:40 am (not bad).

We checked in and were told we did get our request of a King room, but it would be handicapped (with a roll-in shower). I asked if it was a refurbished room and she told me that ALL of their rooms had just been refurbished. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we camped out on a couch in the lobby to get organized. I changed out of the capris I was wearing into a skort, and lathered up with sunblock. We left our bags with bell services, and headed to the bus stop to get the bus for Epcot.

The ride to Epcot took around 20 minutes, mainly because it stopped at Fort Wilderness on the way there. We arrived around 12:00 and Epcot didn't seem too crowded at all. We got our picture taken and got our Photopass card. The weather was beautiful -- hot, but the humidity wasn't too bad, as you can tell by the blue sky and lack of haze:

The first thing we did was head to The Land to get a fast pass for Soarin'. Our fast pass was for 3:50, and we also got a "Surprise" fast pass for The Land, but we never used it since that ride is pretty boring! While we were at The Land we decided to get lunch since we were starving. We went to the Sunshine Seasons food court which had a wonderful selection of food.

We decided to split one Quick Service Meal. We got a diet coke, a grilled Cuban vegetable sandwich which I asked them to cut in half for us, a side dish of potato salad, and strawberry shortcake. Cost if we hadn't used a meal credit: $17.10.

All of it was very fresh and good:

After lunch we decided to head to the Living Seas, which believe it or not we had never set foot in. On our previous trips, we had spent the better part of our time in World Showcase, so on this trip we tried to spend a bit more time in Future World. We got in line for Turtle Talk with Crush, which was probably one of our longer lines of the trip, around 30 minutes. The show was very cute, but not really a must-see for adults. The kids seemed to love it though!

After Crush we decided to ride Spaceship Earth, which was a walk-on. We both really love this ride. I know it's a bit dated but I love the concept of the history of communication and I like the fact that it is a relaxing ride. It is annoying how often it breaks down though (twice during our ride).

After this I spotted the Character Connection area and dragged Steve inside for a few pictures:

I thought the Character Connection was a really great addition to Future World. We only waited in line around five minutes and the available characters were Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck (we had never even seen him before!!), Pluto and Chip and Dale. Add this to the fact that it was indoors with nice backgrounds and it is a great experience and an easy way to get pictures, especially for adults who don't want to go out of their way with a character breakfast or a long line just to get a quick snapshot.

ASIDE: I should note here that we noticed a lot more characters around WDW than we had in the past. It seemed the characters were everywhere, and we saw characters we had never seen before, such as Donald and Daisy. There were a constant stream of characters in the Character Connection in Epcot, as well as at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom and around the Sorcerer's Hat in MGM. I will try to note the locations where we saw characters throughout this report, even when we didn't stop for pictures.

After that, we split up for awhile so Steve could ride Test Track and Mission: Space. I spent the time browsing in Mouse Gears but didn't buy anything. I was feeling pretty hot, sweaty and tired at this point. Once Steve and I met up again, we decided to ride Journey into Imagination, another first for us. This ride was cute and a nice way to cool off, and it was also a walk-on, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it without kids.

After this it was finally time for our fast pass to Soarin. We rode Soarin' at California Adventure last summer and we both loved it, so we were really looking forward to this, and it didn't disappoint. In fact I think I enjoyed it more this time since I knew what to expect and wasn't nervous. I have a tendency to get motion sick but this ride didn't bother me much, it really is a great ride. I think it would be nice if they used the technology to create various shows -- using the hanggliding equipment but having different movies so you can "soar" over areas other than California.

At some point we also stopped and used a snack credit for a Mickey ice cream bar. This was delicious but started melting almost instantly and we had to eat it really fast!

More of Day One in the next post!

 

[OhMari]

Thanks Becky for starting your Trip Report. It is nice to see long time members come to the Trip Report and share your trip with us. Where are you staying?

 

[DawnA401]

Great report.. Love the pictures..Waiting for more..

 

[BeckyEsq]

After Soarin' we headed to World Showcase. We were getting pretty hungry but our ADR at Le Cellier wasn't until 7:10. We wandered around the Canada pavillion for awhile and I bought an Anne of Green Gables ornament in the store there. Then we went to see O Canada. I really like this movie and it always makes me want to visit Canada (I think the Florida heat makes me think that a cooler vacation would be a nice change!)

When we came out of the movie, Kenai and Koda from Brother Bear were outside. This is one of my favorite Disney movies so I was pretty excited:

If I had known we were going to run into so many characters, I would have dressed a little better, but oh well!

We wandered around the United Kingdom pavillion for awhile and I stopped into a restroom to change my shirt. I knew we wouldn't be returning to the resort for a break this day, so I carried a clean shirt and some deodorant in my bag so I could freshen up a little before dinner.

When we got to Le Cellier we had to wait around 15 minutes to be seated (but we had arrived fifteen minutes early, so that was fair). One of the hostesses played a trivia game with us about Canada, which was fun and helped to pass the time. Le Cellier was beautiful but it was a bit crowded and we got a seat at the banquette so we had other families on either side of us pretty close to us, not exactly private. The service was a little slow, which was nice for relaxing but took a bigger chunk out of our time in World Showcase than we would have liked. But our food was amazing! We used two Table Service credits here so we both had drinks, appetizers, entrees and dessert. I had iced tea and Steve had diet coke, I had the cheddar cheese soup (delicious!) and Steve had a salad which was also very good. For our entrees I had the 7 oz filet mignon, which had a maple barbecue sauce on it and was served with cream cheese potatoes. I ordered it medium and it was perfectly cooked, tender and probably one of the best steaks I have ever had! Steve's strip steak was also very good. You can see our steaks in this picture -- not sure what kind of face Steve is making here!

We also enjoyed the bread, especially the pretzel bread. For dessert I had the maple creme brulee -- again, this was amazing! Steve had the balsamic ice cream with strawberries which was also delicious. Here's a picture:

The cost of this meal if we hadn't used TS credits: $101.00.

After dinner, we waddled around World Showcase to the American Adventure and decided to see the 8:30 show. We had a few minutes and took a bathroom break, and on the way to the bathroom we saw a "domestic incident." A couple was having a screaming match, right in front of their kids. The man was literally screaming at his wife -- from what I could gather, they got separated and he claimed she told him she was going to one area but actually went to another. I couldn't believe how loud this guy was yelling. I think he liked having an audience of all the people walking by.

The American Adventure was fun as usual, and brought a tear to my patriotic eye. Steve fell asleep. LOL Not that he isn't a patriotic history buff -- he was just really tired from the long day and the big dinner. After dinner we headed to Germany to find a spot to watch Illuminations. We were amazed by how empty World Showcase seemed. We were able to find numerous spots along the fence along the lagoon with just five minutes to go until Illuminations.

After Illuminations, we were sad that the park was closing so early (9:00). We followed the crowd out of the park to the bus stop. The first bus was full so we had to wait around 10 minutes for the next one. Overall though, Epcot was a lot less crowded than we had experienced in the past, maybe because it was a Sunday night. Also I think there were EMH that morning, so maybe everyone had left the park early that day.

When we got back to our hotel we headed to our room, 1015. This turned out to be on the level below the lobby. We took the ramp down past Roaring Forks and our room was a very short walk from there. Again, this was a non-smoking King room that was handicapped accessible. We were a bit disappointed that we only had one sink since we tend to trip over each other in the morning. I thought the decor of the room was very nice, and we loved the new flat-screen TV, but the bed was uncomfortable -- I am used to king-sized feather pillows and I guess I am spoiled because we have 400 thread count sheets, and the sheets here felt like sandpaper in comparison. Also I didn't like how the bottom sheet was not fitted and not even tucked in -- I can't stand it when the flat sheet moves around when you are trying to sleep on it. But our room had a great location so we didn't complain. Here's a picture:

We went to Roaring Forks and bought our refillable mugs. Since this was a short trip they probably weren't a great bargain ($11.99 each) but we like to get them as a souvenir, and these were great because they will fit in our car's cupholder:

We were pretty wound up but I think we were asleep around midnight.

To be continued . . .

 

[ely3857]

Great so far & Congratulations on your adoption approval



Jodie

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Awesome report so far! I think I might have to get myself a Baggallini!

 

[BeckyEsq]

Day Two, Part One: Monday, August 7, 2006

OUR SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY!!!

Our wake-up call from Stitch came at 7 am. We caught the bus to Animal Kingdom around 8:20 am. Our plan was to spend the day here, see the parade at 4 pm, and then head back to our resort for dinner at Artist Pointe. We have never spent a whole day at AK before so we were looking forward to it. We were at Animal Kingdom when it opened at 9 am and got our picture taken with photopass both in front of the entrance and in front of the Tree of Life. We saw the opening show (Mickey and friends on some kind of jeep) but we were pretty far back in the crowd and couldn't see very well.

When the rope dropped we headed to Expedition Everest to get a fast pass. There was quite a crowd there already, the standby line was long and so were the lines to get a fast pass. We got one for 10:05 and then headed to Dinosaur. This is one of our favorite rides -- we rode it in 1999 when it was still Countdown to Extinction. This was where we saw our first episode of really bad parenting on this trip. A couple was literally dragging their sound, who looked to be around 6 years old, kicking and screaming into the line for this ride. I mean, they each had an arm and his feet weren't on the ground, and he was screaming bloody murder. When we got into our ride vehicle, they were in the row behind us, and he was still screaming, and screamed the entire time. I have to wonder why they thought this was a good idea??? I mean the ride was a walk-on, they could have taken turns riding if they wanted to ride it that bad, without traumatizing the kid for life. Dinosaur is a pretty intense ride with moments of complete darkness, loud noises and scary dinosaurs. Of course, WE loved every minute of it! I love the idea of being in the Cretaceous period right before the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, and I actually started to feel sorry for the dinosaurs! LOL Here's Steve outside the ride entrance:

After Dinosaur, it was close to 10 so we headed back to ride Expedition Everest with our fast passes:

This ride was awesome! I loved how the Yeti was chasing us. I did get kind of sick from going backwards though, and I had to sit down for a few minutes afterwards. But it was worth it! This was a great addition to the park, plus it looks really neat towering over Asia.

We looked around for Stitch a bit since I had heard he would be in Asia, but we couldn't find him. Stitch is my new favorite character since I recently bought the Lilo and Stitch DVD.

We headed to Camp Minnie-Mickey to see Festival of the Lion King. We had seen this show twice before but it is definitely worth seeing again. Here are a few pictures from the show:

When we came out of Festival of the Lion King, I was pretty excited to run into De Vine for the first time:

At this point we were pretty hungry since we hadn't had breakfast.

ASIDE: We aren't big breakfast eaters. Most days I had a slimfast bar that I brought with me, and Steve had nothing. We did fill up our refillable mugs every morning with diet coke though to get us moving!

So I gave Steve a choice between Tusker House and Pizzafari, and he chose pizza. We used two counter service credits here. I had a chicken caesar salad, diet coke, and apple pie. Steve had a cheese pizza, diet coke, and frozen strawberry lemonade. We actually split everything so we could both taste everything. Here's Steve with our lunch:

Pizzafari was great. It wasn't 12:00 yet and it was empty -- we had one of the rooms completely to ourselves to eat. The food was good too -- the salad was fresh, the apple pie seemed to have been freshly baked and was still warm, and the pizza was good and hot.

After lunch we picked up a fast pass for Kilmanjaro Safari and then decided to take the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch, something we had never done. We went to Conservation Station and spent some time talking to one of the zookeepers, who told us that the baby elephants had been fathered by an elephant from the Pittsburgh Zoo. This was kind of a bust and not really worth the time, but for me it was worth it because we got to see Rafiki! I've been wanting a picture with him for at least 7 years so I was pretty excited:

After we got back to Africa we got in line for the Safari, and while we were in the fast pass line, it started raining. This was good timing since we were in the covered part of the line! The safari was great and we saw pretty much all the animals except the elephants. I had trouble getting pictures though b/c we were moving too fast! Anyway here are a few:

After the safari, it was still drizzling rain. we walked the Paganani Trail, but only saw ONE animal! It was only around 1:30, and we didn't feel there was enough left for us to do in the park to pass the time until the parade at 4:00, so we decided to go back to the resort. I was a little sad about missing the parade, but there just wasn't enough for us to do in Animal Kingdom -- we didn't feel like getting soaked on Kali, or seeing It's Tough to Be a Bug again. On our way out though, we got lucky and ran into Stitch!!! He was in the area near Pizzafari. Here's a picture:

More on Day Two in my next post.

 

[BeckyEsq]

We arrived back at the Wilderness Lodge around 2:30 pm. We were a little hungry since we had lunch early and weren't having dinner until 7:10, so we went to Roaring Forks and split a chicken fingers and fries meal, using one of our CS credits. Since we had refillable mugs, we got a bottle of Dasani water as the drink, and we got a mickey rice krispie treat with chocolate ears for dessert. We sat in the Roaring Forks dining room to share our meal. It was nice in there and quiet -- much calmer than what I remember from the food courts at Dixie Landings or All Star Movies. However, there wasn't much variety and I would not want to eat here more than a couple of times. The chicken strips and fries were good and hot and there were plenty of dips to choose from -- barbecue sauce, honey dijon, sweet and sour, and ranch.

After that we changed into our bathing suits. At this point we discovered we could walk right out on our patio to take a short cut to the pool if we sneaked around the bushes. Here's the "view" from our patio:

We never did sit out there.

The pool was closed when we first got there because of the lightening. Here's a picture:

Once it reopened, people came out of nowhere and it was PACKED within minutes. We found seats but ended up only spending about an hour out here. It was ridiculously crowded and the water was lukewarm, which wasn't very refreshing considering it was in the 90's outside with scorching sun.

ASIDE: We really liked the Wilderness Lodge. It had a great location, quick transportation, beautiful decor, good restaurants and a pleasant atmosphere. However, we did have a few complaints, and probably the biggest was the pool. The pool area is WAY too small for the number of people staying here. At the very least the WL should have another quiet pool (the one at the Villas was also packed). The main pool has a slide so it's a magnet for kids and not at all relaxing. Since this resort is billed as being one of the "romantic" resorts for adults, there should be an adults-only quiet pool.

We hung out in our room for awhile and then exchanged our anniversary cards and gifts. I got Steve sterling silver Mickey cuff links. He got me a sterling silver "R" necklace (for Rebecca). Here's a picture:

Then we got dressed up a bit for our dinner at Artist Pointe. We wandered outside for pictures which I think turned out great. You can really see how beautiful the WL is in these pictures:

We arrived ten minutes early for our 7:10 ADR at Artist Pointe and requested a quiet table. We were seated immediately:

This restaurant was very quiet, I would say it was only 25% full, which was surprising given the busy time of year!

A meal at Artist Pointe costs two TS credits, so we decided that only Steve would use credits and we would pay for my entree OOP, and share his appetizer and dessert. We got a loaf of warm bread, and our appetizer was a delicious portabello soup. I would love to get the recipe for that! It was really amazing, with a light smokey flavor to it. For our entrees I had the cedar-plank roasted salmon, and Steve had the buffalo. My salmon was very good, prepared medium, and served on a bed of vegetables, including asparagus, and tender little potatoes. Steve's buffalo had a delicious onion jam on it, and was served with a sweet potato dish that was also delicious:

For dessert, we shared the Berry Cobbler. The "cobbler" was nothing special, but the berries and cream were delicious:

We really liked Artist Pointe. It was a bit expensive, even with the dining plan, but worth it for a special dinner on our anniversary. Every bite of food was really exquisite, except perhaps for the cobbler, which I found to be a bit dry. We paid OOP for my salmon, my glass of Riesling, and Steve's Miller Lite, for a total of $46.60, before gratuity. Steve's meal, if we had not used the two TS credits, would have been $61.24.

After dinner, we did a little shopping in the gift shop and then filled up our refillable mugs and headed down to the beach to watch the Electrical Water Pageant. This is something we had never done before but we really enjoyed. The beach was so relaxing and quiet and there were comfy lounge chairs to sit on, and we could hear the music perfectly. The show was very cute.

We sat at the beach for awhile afterward enjoying the quiet. When we were leaving, we noticed someone had drawn a hidden mickey in the sand:

This was a perfect way to end our anniversary evening. It was relaxing and romantic, and we didn't notice the mosquito bites until the next morning. LOL

Coming up on Day Three: Magic Kingdom day!

 

[pumba]

what a fantastic trip report........thanks so much for taking the time to show us and tell us about it all......Loved the photos of the FOOD especially.....I too love the cheddar cheese soup at le Cellier and the pretzel bread too.....your anniversary necklace is beautiful .....shows someone ( ) has good taste.......thanks again for your report

 

[tinkerbell87512]

Cant wait to read more! im loving this report!

happy late anniversary!

 

[Catrin]

Thank you so much for sharing your report!

My husband and I are going to Disney Labor Day weekend - we want to do those special things, watching the parade from the beach, sharing meals etc.

Sounds like a wonderful trip!
Catrin

 

[BeautyNBeast]

I cannot wait to hear more!

Congrats on the approval for the adoption. You both must be so happy about it.

 

[DeterminedOne]

Great pics! Looks like you are having a great time to this point. Can't wait to read more.

 

[carri5317]

This is great. I love a trip report with lots of details, keep it comming!

 

[MissMagnolia]

I really like your report and the photos make it extra special. Thanks!

 

[eeyorelori]

Another tr im hooked on ...Congrads on the adoption...

 

[Disney owl]

Great report

thanks for sharing your photos

 

[AussieAngel]

I'm loving your trip report, too!

You look like such a nice, happy couple!

Thanks for all the photos! Especially the photo of Steve with his angry face at Le Cellier. I got the giggles for at least 5 minutes wondering why he was making that face. I thought it must have been because he didn't like his food!

 

[disneycutie84]

Great report!