She's A Disney Adult and Feeling Artsy, a February 2020 Trip Report (Updated 6/15)
- Thread starter GrandCalifornian
- Start date
GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
Welcome, we're glad that you found us and are joining in. It was a neat time to be there, although there were more people around than I expected. We spent some more time over at Beach Club this trip, as we often do, and are considering it for a potential split stay next time. It seems that MB access issues can happen anywhere.
GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
On our first full day, I got up at 5:40 and took a shower. I really liked the shower tub combo. I want shower doors like that at home.
We are actually going to remodel our bathroom and I'm looking for similar doors. I would really love the rain shower too but I don't know if it's gonna happen this time around.
I left the room at 6:00 and went out to take pictures with the good camera.
I went to Roaring Fork for a mug refill first, then went up to the lobby.
It was so strange to have it be cold outside, as it was 47 degrees. It was also still pretty dark at 6am.
I worked my way back down towards Geyser Point as it was getting lighter outside.
Then I got pictures of the 7:00 Geyser before heading back to the room.
I slept through all of this. Marshall did crawl in bed with me while Paul was out and we just cuddled until he got back.
After Melissa and Marshall were up, I left the room at 8:30 to go pick up some breakfast from Roaring Fork. I decided not to do mobile order to try to get a discount, but I found they don’t have any in person either. I got an order of Mickey Waffles and a breakfast platter for us to share. I was disappointed to see that the toppings are no longer included with the waffles like they were in September. They were still good though.
Breakfast was great! Without our favorite strawberry toppings my favorite breakfast thing was the biscuits.
We ate in the room as we got Allie up and ready. She decided to move for some bacon.
She's pretty easy to motivate with bacon.
We left the room at 9:40 and went to the front desk to get our bands reprogrammed. I had borrowed Allie’s to get back in the room from my morning walk.
It was inconvenient to have to go back up to the desk but all in all didn't take too long and that way everything worked the way it should for the rest of the trip.
We got to the bus stop at 10:03. No times were showing on the screen, which was pretty common this trip. At 10:05 a bus showed up showing All Stars, but switched to Epcot and we got on it and left at 10:07.
It went directly to the park and got there at 10:16.
We were all anxious to see what was newly closed off with construction at Epcot. They had moved the walkway over and the new security area was great. We were excited to get to use the Passholder entrance to get into the park.
It was pretty crowded as we got in the park, and we saw there was a long line for Spaceship Earth. Fortunately we had fast passes for it, which saved us a bunch of time.
We got to see our familiar friends and perhaps even say goodbye.
We saw that Mouse Gear was totally closed down and moved to a temporary location behind Electric Umbrella. We were headed for Mission Space but wanted a potty stop first.
The bathrooms that were over by Mouse Gear were closed off so we went back to the ones in Electric Umbrella. We only mention this because the smell about knocked us over when we walked in the door.
It was really bad. It smelled like wet socks. Totally unappealing for us.
Jon thought Lima Beans but whatever it was it was overwhelming and completely not appetizing.
It turned out that the restaurant closed a few days later, so this was our last experience with it open.
At Mission Space we decided to do the Green side so that Allie would go on it. She was a little scared but willing to try it. Jon offered to watch Marshall in the play area.
The four of us successfully completed our mission around the Earth and landed safely back in Florida. Allie was totally fine with the ride and really enjoyed it. Maybe we'll get to try the orange side next time.
We were starting to get hungry, so we went in search of food. On the way we followed the signs to get the passholder magnets for Festival of the Arts.
This just led us in the far side of the new Mouse Gear location, I thought we were going somewhere special.
At least we all got magnets. We also walked through the small store, but we decided to focus on food first before shopping more.
We didn't want hangry people.
We headed towards the festival booths and tried a couple things. Then I had another work call to call in for, so I met with our COO from World Showcase.
We tried Sopas de Barbacoa and the Pork belly dish from El Artisa Hambriento. The Sopas were ok and none of us really cared for the pork belly. We are super spoiled with good Mexican food her in So Cal. With Paul on his call and the rest of us wanting more food and a place to sit we went over to La Cantina De San Angel and ordered some Empanadas and I'm pretty sure Jon and Brandy got Nachos.
We were able to find a table inside to eat which was nice because it was windy and a little chilly out. I didn't even know that seating area was there but it was a great place to grab a bite and take a break.
This was a really neat area that we have never been to. I was able to listen in to the call and go sit with everyone. Once it was done I had some of the empanadas and enjoyed a Diet Coke Melissa had gotten me. It was nice to be done with work for a bit. It definitely takes you out of the bubble to have to deal with work stuff.
Work is what pays for the fun though so I guess it's fair that we have to bring it with us sometimes.
From there we continued on around to Norway, where we had fast passes for Frozen Ever After.
The Fastpasses saved a bunch of time here too, and we only had to wait a couple of minutes to get on.
Its an adorable ride. We originally didn't have it on the itinerary because Allison has been so anti Frozen lately but with Frozen II out she decided that it was a must do.
As we got off the ride we checked out the dump shop, and were surprised to find Larry Dotson had set up a booth and was signing his prints. We had wanted to get one more to fill a space we had next to our others at home that we finally got hung this year.
It's embarrassing how long we've had these prints sitting around but they're on the wall now with an empty spot that needed filled.
He signed the little castle print that we picked out, and we got to chatting about Wilderness Lodge. I asked if he had any big prints of the courtyard, and he knew that he did but figured out they must have sold. He offered to sign one later and bring it in the next day. Brandy decided he wanted one too, so we went ahead and ordered those for resort delivery.
We even got them custom matted with the mickeys in the corners.
They are beautiful, and were a neat way to jump into Festival of the Arts.
Check back for more in our next update, as we finally check out the host pavilion, then continue our steakhouse quest...
We are actually going to remodel our bathroom and I'm looking for similar doors. I would really love the rain shower too but I don't know if it's gonna happen this time around.
I left the room at 6:00 and went out to take pictures with the good camera.
I went to Roaring Fork for a mug refill first, then went up to the lobby.
It was so strange to have it be cold outside, as it was 47 degrees. It was also still pretty dark at 6am.
I worked my way back down towards Geyser Point as it was getting lighter outside.
Then I got pictures of the 7:00 Geyser before heading back to the room.
I slept through all of this. Marshall did crawl in bed with me while Paul was out and we just cuddled until he got back.
After Melissa and Marshall were up, I left the room at 8:30 to go pick up some breakfast from Roaring Fork. I decided not to do mobile order to try to get a discount, but I found they don’t have any in person either. I got an order of Mickey Waffles and a breakfast platter for us to share. I was disappointed to see that the toppings are no longer included with the waffles like they were in September. They were still good though.
Breakfast was great! Without our favorite strawberry toppings my favorite breakfast thing was the biscuits.
We ate in the room as we got Allie up and ready. She decided to move for some bacon.
She's pretty easy to motivate with bacon.
We left the room at 9:40 and went to the front desk to get our bands reprogrammed. I had borrowed Allie’s to get back in the room from my morning walk.
It was inconvenient to have to go back up to the desk but all in all didn't take too long and that way everything worked the way it should for the rest of the trip.
We got to the bus stop at 10:03. No times were showing on the screen, which was pretty common this trip. At 10:05 a bus showed up showing All Stars, but switched to Epcot and we got on it and left at 10:07.
It went directly to the park and got there at 10:16.
We were all anxious to see what was newly closed off with construction at Epcot. They had moved the walkway over and the new security area was great. We were excited to get to use the Passholder entrance to get into the park.
It was pretty crowded as we got in the park, and we saw there was a long line for Spaceship Earth. Fortunately we had fast passes for it, which saved us a bunch of time.
We got to see our familiar friends and perhaps even say goodbye.
We saw that Mouse Gear was totally closed down and moved to a temporary location behind Electric Umbrella. We were headed for Mission Space but wanted a potty stop first.
The bathrooms that were over by Mouse Gear were closed off so we went back to the ones in Electric Umbrella. We only mention this because the smell about knocked us over when we walked in the door.
It was really bad. It smelled like wet socks. Totally unappealing for us.
Jon thought Lima Beans but whatever it was it was overwhelming and completely not appetizing.
It turned out that the restaurant closed a few days later, so this was our last experience with it open.
At Mission Space we decided to do the Green side so that Allie would go on it. She was a little scared but willing to try it. Jon offered to watch Marshall in the play area.
The four of us successfully completed our mission around the Earth and landed safely back in Florida. Allie was totally fine with the ride and really enjoyed it. Maybe we'll get to try the orange side next time.
We were starting to get hungry, so we went in search of food. On the way we followed the signs to get the passholder magnets for Festival of the Arts.
This just led us in the far side of the new Mouse Gear location, I thought we were going somewhere special.
At least we all got magnets. We also walked through the small store, but we decided to focus on food first before shopping more.
We didn't want hangry people.
We headed towards the festival booths and tried a couple things. Then I had another work call to call in for, so I met with our COO from World Showcase.
We tried Sopas de Barbacoa and the Pork belly dish from El Artisa Hambriento. The Sopas were ok and none of us really cared for the pork belly. We are super spoiled with good Mexican food her in So Cal. With Paul on his call and the rest of us wanting more food and a place to sit we went over to La Cantina De San Angel and ordered some Empanadas and I'm pretty sure Jon and Brandy got Nachos.
We were able to find a table inside to eat which was nice because it was windy and a little chilly out. I didn't even know that seating area was there but it was a great place to grab a bite and take a break.
This was a really neat area that we have never been to. I was able to listen in to the call and go sit with everyone. Once it was done I had some of the empanadas and enjoyed a Diet Coke Melissa had gotten me. It was nice to be done with work for a bit. It definitely takes you out of the bubble to have to deal with work stuff.
Work is what pays for the fun though so I guess it's fair that we have to bring it with us sometimes.
From there we continued on around to Norway, where we had fast passes for Frozen Ever After.
The Fastpasses saved a bunch of time here too, and we only had to wait a couple of minutes to get on.
Its an adorable ride. We originally didn't have it on the itinerary because Allison has been so anti Frozen lately but with Frozen II out she decided that it was a must do.
As we got off the ride we checked out the dump shop, and were surprised to find Larry Dotson had set up a booth and was signing his prints. We had wanted to get one more to fill a space we had next to our others at home that we finally got hung this year.
It's embarrassing how long we've had these prints sitting around but they're on the wall now with an empty spot that needed filled.
He signed the little castle print that we picked out, and we got to chatting about Wilderness Lodge. I asked if he had any big prints of the courtyard, and he knew that he did but figured out they must have sold. He offered to sign one later and bring it in the next day. Brandy decided he wanted one too, so we went ahead and ordered those for resort delivery.
We even got them custom matted with the mickeys in the corners.
They are beautiful, and were a neat way to jump into Festival of the Arts.
Check back for more in our next update, as we finally check out the host pavilion, then continue our steakhouse quest...
TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
Your morning pictures are always so gorgeous! They make me want to stay at WL.
I had no idea they even had inside seating there. Good to know.
How fun that you found your print at the end of the ride. Perfect timing!
I had no idea they even had inside seating there. Good to know.
How fun that you found your print at the end of the ride. Perfect timing!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Love the early morning Wilderness Lodge pictures!
GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
Aww thanks, it's not me though, it is just such a beautiful place, especially before everyone else is up.
I'm glad we weren't the only ones who didn't know it was there!
It was actually something we had on our list to look for. I'm glad we decided to get the big WL print too. I'll have to post a pic of it soon.
Thanks, they're my favorite part too.
Thanks so much. I really love getting up and going out to take them. I did it every day this trip, so there's lots more to come.
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suse66
When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true!
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2008
Love that lobby!
Beautiful! I can't wait to see my son's reaction to WL when we stay there in July!
I am going to miss SE so much but am looking forward to seeing how they reimagine it.
La Cantina is always a solid choice.
They are lovely!
Wood Nymph
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2012
Our daughter remodeled their bathroom and bought a shower head that included a rain shower head, rather than install the rain shower head in the ceiling. It was a cheaper option for them.
We have clear glass shower doors in our recently remodeled bathroom, which I love. But I also obsessively clean them so they stay new looking. Frosted shower doors would have been less work.
This is a brand new experience for you. How did you like the cooler weather?
What kind of a discount were you hoping for? Was it a DVC discount?
Epcot needed a bigger bag check area. It was about time they did this.
We had a pork belly dish at Josh Lindsay's Hangar Bar and we hated it. We will never order pork belly again.
If it makes you fell any better, we didn't know that the restaurant was open for guests to sit in until two years ago, and we have been going to Epcot since it opened. It is nice to have the indoor seating when it is cold out.
Melissa, Jon and Brandy look a little Frozen this morning.
I would love a picture of the WL courtyard, too. You got really lucky to have gotten it signed and framed by the artist.
Do you ever frame and hang your photographs?
GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
Walking in to that lobby for the first time of a trip is amazing. It is special no matter how many times you've gotten to fdo it, but even more impressive for the first time.
Yes, we will see what they do to SE, and are already eagerly awaiting its return (and it isn't even gone yet).
We had been scared off by Florida Mexican food, but it wasn't bad at all.
Thanks, we love his work.
Ahh yeah. We can plumb in a rain shower head if she wants, but I don't tend to like it, especially when it drips cold water on me. We'll see. The doors are so pretty, but I could see going with a frosted version since we only have one bathroom and it gets a lot of use. Nobody has time to keep them pretty...
We loved it. It was surprisingly chilly at first, but then warmed up some and was perfect. It made us all want to come back in the winter.
DVC or AP, whatever they had. We got spoiled when they had an AP discount a few years ago and now always want to check. Turns out there's nothing on QS right now, but that's ok.
Yes! This is one improvement that was really needed, and we are glad they got it done early.
Aww, that's a bummer. We had a really good pork belly dish somewhere, but others have just been ok. We'll probably still give it a shot again sometime though.
That does make us feel better, and it was a great spot we will be back to.If it makes you fell any better, we didn't know that the restaurant was open for guests to sit in until two years ago, and we have been going to Epcot since it opened. It is nice to have the indoor seating when it is cold out.
Lol yes they do...Melissa, Jon and Brandy look a little Frozen this morning.
I can't wait to get the new big print hung. It is so cool. We have framed some pictures we took of the kids. It might be neat to take some of the WL ones and frame them too... Hmmm.I would love a picture of the WL courtyard, too. You got really lucky to have gotten it signed and framed by the artist.
Do you ever frame and hang your photographs?
That's great. We'd love to stay home and just write about the trip, but going to work to pay for the next one just gets in the way. We will have a good double update today though, so stay tuned...
Awesome, that's neat. Thanks for joining in.
GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
When we left off, we had taken a Frozen ride.
We continued on around the circle, stopping in Germany for a pretzel.
We all shared the pretzel and it was great as usual. Three days later I found part of Marshall's portion stuffed in the stroller, maybe he was saving it for later.
Lol, it went from a soft pretzel to a hard one pretty quickly. As we headed towards America, we saw a bunch of characters coming out of the walkway.
We stumbled upon Character Palooza!
I didn’t know about this, but it turned out to be really neat.
Somehow the stars aligned and the kids were not only willing to take pictures but both smiled too.
Even Jon and Brandy got in on the fun, taking pictures with Chip and Dale together.
I couldn’t help but think of the character handler a few years ago who said that could not be done.
Oh that's true! She said the only way to get them together was to do one of the parties at the Magic Kingdom...
And this was free! It was really fun. Marshall even got to take pictures with Launchpad McQuack, who he didn’t know but really liked.
They are kindred spirits
After the characters, we went on to check out the America pavilion. We had just never spent any time here and figured it was time.
Outside the pavillion they had a photo thing where you could insert yourself in Washington Crosses the Delaware. I thought it was a fitting opportunity for our group.
We went inside and had about 10 minutes before the voices of liberty performance. We walked around and checked out the exhibits. Marshall wanted us to read all the signs.
He made me read every single sign. At least he was interested but also made me afraid to take him to a museum until he can read on his own.
As the singers came out we gathered in the rotunda. (I’ve never said that before.)
Lol they lured Paul to the floor, I sat on a bench with Jon and Brandy. If I did end up on the floor there was little chance I was going to be able to get up without rolling around on the floor.
Yeah they claimed the sound was much better. Having experienced it both ways I’m not convinced, and I told them they did just fine sitting on the benches. After their performance Allie met a nice lady who saw that she was dancing around and asked about her classes. We had a nice conversation and I was proud of my girl for doing something somewhat sophisticated.
She was practicing her tap time steps and the sweet lady recognized what she was doing and they chatted about tap and dance. Allie appreciated the attention.
It also filled the time until we could start heading in for the show.
It's embarassing that we've never done this show before and had no idea what kind of show it was or what to expect.
I knew that Disney does patriotism very well, and I was impressed with this show.
It was nicely done and gives you all the patriotic feels at the end. It's for sure a must do thing before your 9th Disney trip.
It would also be a nice break to chill in the AC or nurse a baby if you're needing that kind of downtime.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure we should be investigated by homeland security as unpatriotic Americans for not having done it sooner. We were able to stay awake for it, despite it being dark and comfortable, only one day after our red eye flight.
I'm not sure he stayed awake for the whole thing but we have no proof so....
It was close in the middle, but we walked out invigorated and rested. It was a win-win.
After an appropriate dose of red, white, and blue Allie and I decided we needed a funnel cake.
Originally I wanted the peanut butter and jelly one but I wasn't really in the mood for it on this day so we settled for just an old fashioned plain one.
It was perfect. Nothing exceptional, just a funnel cake but we don't eat them every day so it was a treat. It cracks me up how the entire inside of that building is just covered in powdered sugar.
We were covered in our share of it after enjoying the snack. We had a leisurely walk towards International Gateway. We munched on the Funnel cake and checked out some art booths. We really enjoyed seeing the artists.
Long time trip report followers will remember this print:
It can partially be credited with the existance of Marshall.
We saw a cool Epcot print from Greg McCulloch, then saw that he was right there signing autographs.
We admired his work, in particular his hidden figure and hidden mickey peices.
We saw his tree one and didn’t appreciate it as much until we studied it a bit and started looking for hidden characters. It became one of our new favorites as we studied it.
Then, he mentioned that the next one in the series will be a castle. We were intrigued, and he pulled out his phone and shows us a digital proof version.
It is absolutely beatiful. I can't wait until that piece comes out.
With our last name, it is awesome.
We decided we'd think about the two pieces in the series that had already been released and come back later for them.
We continued our walk around World Showcase, and walked briefly through Allie’s favorite dress shop in France. They didn’t have any new colors, so she decided she didn’t need a third one.
We left France empty handed.
We decided to head on out so we wouldn’t have to rush.
On the way we saw Minnie and since she didn’t have a line we got some pics.
We rarely wait and take pictures with characters but it was nice to get a bunch of them in. Marshall was sure enjoying it.
Then we walked through that gift shop and out of the park. We got to see the Skyliner running and figured out that we could ride it after dinner. This freaked Melissa out, who thought she had a couple more days to get ready to ride it.
I hadn't prepared myself mentally or emotionally yet.
It looked like fun to the rest of us. But we continued on towards Yacht Club.
They're all nuts.
Speaking of nuts, we wound up following these guys out for a stroll in their robes.
That is an odd thing with Beach Club, you have a very public walkway out by the pool. We thought he was gonna open the robe at one point, but things stayed covered.
I dunno, I think a towel might have been less weird, or just swim attire is fine. Robes leave too much to the imagination.
Thank goodness they kept their robes on and we maintained our appetite.
We were headed for the Yachtsman Steakhouse.
This is the highly anticipated end of our steak house tour.
We went in the Yacht Club lobby and walked around a bit.
We found a map and saw that we had to follow the hallway back towards Beach Club, which was part of the resort we had never seen.
We haven’t spent much time in the Yacht Club lobby and it feels a lot like Beach Club. Everything is just a little darker.
It is neat to visit new places at Disney resorts. Soon we found Yachtsman and checked in for our 5:15 reservation. The lady was super nice, and asked if we wanted to keep the stroller with us. Since Marshall was awake we didn’t need to.
Check back for how it went in the next update (but you won't have to wait long...)
We continued on around the circle, stopping in Germany for a pretzel.
We all shared the pretzel and it was great as usual. Three days later I found part of Marshall's portion stuffed in the stroller, maybe he was saving it for later.
Lol, it went from a soft pretzel to a hard one pretty quickly. As we headed towards America, we saw a bunch of characters coming out of the walkway.
We stumbled upon Character Palooza!
I didn’t know about this, but it turned out to be really neat.
Somehow the stars aligned and the kids were not only willing to take pictures but both smiled too.
Even Jon and Brandy got in on the fun, taking pictures with Chip and Dale together.
I couldn’t help but think of the character handler a few years ago who said that could not be done.
Oh that's true! She said the only way to get them together was to do one of the parties at the Magic Kingdom...
And this was free! It was really fun. Marshall even got to take pictures with Launchpad McQuack, who he didn’t know but really liked.
They are kindred spirits
After the characters, we went on to check out the America pavilion. We had just never spent any time here and figured it was time.
Outside the pavillion they had a photo thing where you could insert yourself in Washington Crosses the Delaware. I thought it was a fitting opportunity for our group.
We went inside and had about 10 minutes before the voices of liberty performance. We walked around and checked out the exhibits. Marshall wanted us to read all the signs.
He made me read every single sign. At least he was interested but also made me afraid to take him to a museum until he can read on his own.
As the singers came out we gathered in the rotunda. (I’ve never said that before.)
Lol they lured Paul to the floor, I sat on a bench with Jon and Brandy. If I did end up on the floor there was little chance I was going to be able to get up without rolling around on the floor.
Yeah they claimed the sound was much better. Having experienced it both ways I’m not convinced, and I told them they did just fine sitting on the benches. After their performance Allie met a nice lady who saw that she was dancing around and asked about her classes. We had a nice conversation and I was proud of my girl for doing something somewhat sophisticated.
She was practicing her tap time steps and the sweet lady recognized what she was doing and they chatted about tap and dance. Allie appreciated the attention.
It also filled the time until we could start heading in for the show.
It's embarassing that we've never done this show before and had no idea what kind of show it was or what to expect.
I knew that Disney does patriotism very well, and I was impressed with this show.
It was nicely done and gives you all the patriotic feels at the end. It's for sure a must do thing before your 9th Disney trip.
It would also be a nice break to chill in the AC or nurse a baby if you're needing that kind of downtime.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure we should be investigated by homeland security as unpatriotic Americans for not having done it sooner. We were able to stay awake for it, despite it being dark and comfortable, only one day after our red eye flight.
I'm not sure he stayed awake for the whole thing but we have no proof so....
It was close in the middle, but we walked out invigorated and rested. It was a win-win.
After an appropriate dose of red, white, and blue Allie and I decided we needed a funnel cake.
Originally I wanted the peanut butter and jelly one but I wasn't really in the mood for it on this day so we settled for just an old fashioned plain one.
It was perfect. Nothing exceptional, just a funnel cake but we don't eat them every day so it was a treat. It cracks me up how the entire inside of that building is just covered in powdered sugar.
We were covered in our share of it after enjoying the snack. We had a leisurely walk towards International Gateway. We munched on the Funnel cake and checked out some art booths. We really enjoyed seeing the artists.
Long time trip report followers will remember this print:
It can partially be credited with the existance of Marshall.
We saw a cool Epcot print from Greg McCulloch, then saw that he was right there signing autographs.
We admired his work, in particular his hidden figure and hidden mickey peices.
We saw his tree one and didn’t appreciate it as much until we studied it a bit and started looking for hidden characters. It became one of our new favorites as we studied it.
Then, he mentioned that the next one in the series will be a castle. We were intrigued, and he pulled out his phone and shows us a digital proof version.
It is absolutely beatiful. I can't wait until that piece comes out.
With our last name, it is awesome.
We decided we'd think about the two pieces in the series that had already been released and come back later for them.
We continued our walk around World Showcase, and walked briefly through Allie’s favorite dress shop in France. They didn’t have any new colors, so she decided she didn’t need a third one.
We left France empty handed.
We decided to head on out so we wouldn’t have to rush.
On the way we saw Minnie and since she didn’t have a line we got some pics.
We rarely wait and take pictures with characters but it was nice to get a bunch of them in. Marshall was sure enjoying it.
Then we walked through that gift shop and out of the park. We got to see the Skyliner running and figured out that we could ride it after dinner. This freaked Melissa out, who thought she had a couple more days to get ready to ride it.
I hadn't prepared myself mentally or emotionally yet.
It looked like fun to the rest of us. But we continued on towards Yacht Club.
They're all nuts.
Speaking of nuts, we wound up following these guys out for a stroll in their robes.
That is an odd thing with Beach Club, you have a very public walkway out by the pool. We thought he was gonna open the robe at one point, but things stayed covered.
I dunno, I think a towel might have been less weird, or just swim attire is fine. Robes leave too much to the imagination.
Thank goodness they kept their robes on and we maintained our appetite.
We were headed for the Yachtsman Steakhouse.
This is the highly anticipated end of our steak house tour.
We went in the Yacht Club lobby and walked around a bit.
We found a map and saw that we had to follow the hallway back towards Beach Club, which was part of the resort we had never seen.
We haven’t spent much time in the Yacht Club lobby and it feels a lot like Beach Club. Everything is just a little darker.
It is neat to visit new places at Disney resorts. Soon we found Yachtsman and checked in for our 5:15 reservation. The lady was super nice, and asked if we wanted to keep the stroller with us. Since Marshall was awake we didn’t need to.
Check back for how it went in the next update (but you won't have to wait long...)
GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
When we left off, we had just arrived at Yachtsman.
It felt super relaxed and way more comfortable than our experience at Shulas.
It was still nice, but definitely more family friendly. We were seated at a nice big table near the kitchen with David, a nice waiter with over 20 years experience at Disney.
I even got a happy birthday menu. It was the first perk of wearing my Birthday Button.
Small sidebar here. Paul just celebrated a milestone birthday, he turned 40 in January so we were celebrating his birthday on the trip. When we were dealing with our magic bands that morning I asked for a birthday button for him and made him wear it all trip.
And I did. I got countless Happy Birthdays from Cast Members. The food was a little slow to come but we were having a nice time just hanging out. It was well worth the wait.
The meal was great. We shared a Rib Eye steak and a wedge salad.
For sides we got Hasselback potato and mashed potatoes, and fries. All the potatoes.
You really can’t have too many potatoes in my opinion. The hasselback potatoes were the star of the show. Seriously just order it. Skip the fries, they weren’t anything special.
They were my favorite side dish of the trip.
Very good stuff. The steak was good too, and it was a very enjoyable meal.
Allie got the French Onion soup, and enjoyed it quite a bit.
For dessert the kids got cookies you can paint. For some reason I agreed to this. Allison ended up painting her lips black and Marsh covered his cookie in all the paint.
They had a ball with them though, which helped pass the time without them getting too restless.
We went a slightly more sophisticated route and got the s’mores dessert. I also got a birthday treat.
His first of the trip! Our waiter went out of his way to make sure the candle was lit too because Marshall kept blowout the candle on our table he borrowed the candle from a neighboring table.
He was good. It was a great meal, and I think we have a winning steakhouse.
Yes I agree. It is our top pick for steakhouse at WDW. Keep in mind this does not mean it’s our top pick for steak.
That is a key distinction, as we know how much I love Teppan Edo Filet. After dinner we headed out at 7:35. We continued through the hallways towards Beach Club. We finally got to see Beaches and Cream, which had reopened since our last trip.
We also saw that the Disney lifeguards had jackets on, but people were still swimming.
Seriously it was a chilly night and the lifeguards were wearing parkas and beanies. Maybe 50 degrees is swimming weather when it’s in the teens at home.
We continued through Beach club and checked out the Marketplace store there. It is one of our favorites to visit.
Its a nice gift shop and they often have DVC stuff there.
We continued on through the maze of Beach Club Villas hallways.
Then we headed towards the Skyliner. It was time to take flight.
Okay so I really don’t like heights. I get uncomfortable on bridges and balconies and the thought of the Skyliner was just not exciting.
At least we wouldn’t be too hot if it got stuck.
I mean I liked the transportation concept but wasn’t entirely looking forward to riding on it.
The rest of us have been waiting to ride it since we first heard about it, and we figured it would be a great way to solve the resort to resort transportation dilemma to get back to WL.
So we headed to Hollywood Studios.
As the Skyliner took off we were impressed at how quiet and smooth it was.
It looks worse from the ground. There isn’t much bounce as it reaches the pylons, but Marshall liked pointing out that we were going over the pulleys.
Honestly the ride didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Luckily we didn’t get stuck and everyone was sensitive to my anxiety and didn’t move around too much and rock the cab.
I tried to get pictures but it was tough with reflections and glare, even though we had a cab without window graphics.
And it was dark. And they move pretty fast.
On the way we made our brief stop at Riviera. We didn’t get off, but we knew we would be back later in the trip.
Then we made our first ever visit to Caribbean Beach, where we switched lines to head for HS.
As we got closer to HS we could see fireworks and we were able to beat the post fireworks rush to the busses.
We got to HS as the fireworks were ending, and we had a decent view of some of them.
We wound up with a head start on the main park rush and made it to a waiting WL bus.
We got to ride the bus with the most adorable service dog. He was such a good boy.
Yeah he was neat, and just looked like he was having fun at work. It was slick pulling off the two mode resort to resort transportation with no extra delay.
We really couldn’t have planned it better.
We got back to the resort and went to the room for a bit, then Jon and Brandy went to Geyser Point while we got the kids washed.
They were getting stinky. I threw in a load of laundry too. I ended up doing a load about every other day this trip. The washer and dryer were different in the accessible room.
They weren’t the stacking ones in a normal room.
I was excited to use them. They are Bosch front loading machines. In the end though I real ended up not caring for them. The capacity was less than the ones that are in the regular rooms I thought and I never really figured out the dryer.
Oh well, at least we had clean clothes, and room in the luggage for all the stuff we would buy...
Yes we still managed. I’m not the only one, Jon couldn’t figure it out either.
I went out for a mug refill and caught the end of the EWP from Geyser Point. It was a great first full day and we were in bed by 10:45.
Stay tuned for Saturday shenanigans. Where we try for a Rise of the Resistance boarding group and make it to Disney Springs for dinner.
It felt super relaxed and way more comfortable than our experience at Shulas.
It was still nice, but definitely more family friendly. We were seated at a nice big table near the kitchen with David, a nice waiter with over 20 years experience at Disney.
I even got a happy birthday menu. It was the first perk of wearing my Birthday Button.
Small sidebar here. Paul just celebrated a milestone birthday, he turned 40 in January so we were celebrating his birthday on the trip. When we were dealing with our magic bands that morning I asked for a birthday button for him and made him wear it all trip.
And I did. I got countless Happy Birthdays from Cast Members. The food was a little slow to come but we were having a nice time just hanging out. It was well worth the wait.
The meal was great. We shared a Rib Eye steak and a wedge salad.
For sides we got Hasselback potato and mashed potatoes, and fries. All the potatoes.
You really can’t have too many potatoes in my opinion. The hasselback potatoes were the star of the show. Seriously just order it. Skip the fries, they weren’t anything special.
They were my favorite side dish of the trip.
Very good stuff. The steak was good too, and it was a very enjoyable meal.
Allie got the French Onion soup, and enjoyed it quite a bit.
For dessert the kids got cookies you can paint. For some reason I agreed to this. Allison ended up painting her lips black and Marsh covered his cookie in all the paint.
They had a ball with them though, which helped pass the time without them getting too restless.
We went a slightly more sophisticated route and got the s’mores dessert. I also got a birthday treat.
His first of the trip! Our waiter went out of his way to make sure the candle was lit too because Marshall kept blowout the candle on our table he borrowed the candle from a neighboring table.
He was good. It was a great meal, and I think we have a winning steakhouse.
Yes I agree. It is our top pick for steakhouse at WDW. Keep in mind this does not mean it’s our top pick for steak.
That is a key distinction, as we know how much I love Teppan Edo Filet. After dinner we headed out at 7:35. We continued through the hallways towards Beach Club. We finally got to see Beaches and Cream, which had reopened since our last trip.
We also saw that the Disney lifeguards had jackets on, but people were still swimming.
Seriously it was a chilly night and the lifeguards were wearing parkas and beanies. Maybe 50 degrees is swimming weather when it’s in the teens at home.
We continued through Beach club and checked out the Marketplace store there. It is one of our favorites to visit.
Its a nice gift shop and they often have DVC stuff there.
We continued on through the maze of Beach Club Villas hallways.
Then we headed towards the Skyliner. It was time to take flight.
Okay so I really don’t like heights. I get uncomfortable on bridges and balconies and the thought of the Skyliner was just not exciting.
At least we wouldn’t be too hot if it got stuck.
I mean I liked the transportation concept but wasn’t entirely looking forward to riding on it.
The rest of us have been waiting to ride it since we first heard about it, and we figured it would be a great way to solve the resort to resort transportation dilemma to get back to WL.
So we headed to Hollywood Studios.
As the Skyliner took off we were impressed at how quiet and smooth it was.
It looks worse from the ground. There isn’t much bounce as it reaches the pylons, but Marshall liked pointing out that we were going over the pulleys.
Honestly the ride didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Luckily we didn’t get stuck and everyone was sensitive to my anxiety and didn’t move around too much and rock the cab.
I tried to get pictures but it was tough with reflections and glare, even though we had a cab without window graphics.
And it was dark. And they move pretty fast.
On the way we made our brief stop at Riviera. We didn’t get off, but we knew we would be back later in the trip.
Then we made our first ever visit to Caribbean Beach, where we switched lines to head for HS.
As we got closer to HS we could see fireworks and we were able to beat the post fireworks rush to the busses.
We got to HS as the fireworks were ending, and we had a decent view of some of them.
We wound up with a head start on the main park rush and made it to a waiting WL bus.
We got to ride the bus with the most adorable service dog. He was such a good boy.
Yeah he was neat, and just looked like he was having fun at work. It was slick pulling off the two mode resort to resort transportation with no extra delay.
We really couldn’t have planned it better.
We got back to the resort and went to the room for a bit, then Jon and Brandy went to Geyser Point while we got the kids washed.
They were getting stinky. I threw in a load of laundry too. I ended up doing a load about every other day this trip. The washer and dryer were different in the accessible room.
They weren’t the stacking ones in a normal room.
I was excited to use them. They are Bosch front loading machines. In the end though I real ended up not caring for them. The capacity was less than the ones that are in the regular rooms I thought and I never really figured out the dryer.
Oh well, at least we had clean clothes, and room in the luggage for all the stuff we would buy...
Yes we still managed. I’m not the only one, Jon couldn’t figure it out either.
I went out for a mug refill and caught the end of the EWP from Geyser Point. It was a great first full day and we were in bed by 10:45.
Stay tuned for Saturday shenanigans. Where we try for a Rise of the Resistance boarding group and make it to Disney Springs for dinner.
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Awesome when you catch those unscheduled characters at the right time!
I've always heard great things about Voices of Liberty but never managed to see them. I've also only stopped for the American Adventure once and I fell asleep through the whole thing.
Your meal at Yachtsman sounds delicious!
I've always heard great things about Voices of Liberty but never managed to see them. I've also only stopped for the American Adventure once and I fell asleep through the whole thing.
Your meal at Yachtsman sounds delicious!
Wood Nymph
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2012
That discount was great. It also had the benefit of giving us 13 months on our annual pass. That changed our expiration date from Nov 30th to Dec 30th. We have been able to take several December trips since then because of that special discount period. For a long time they had the AP discount at Flame Tree Barbecue but that ended a couple years ago. I hope they bring it back for the big anniversary coming up.
That is always fun. Our first big character palooza was at POR with six characters. Since then it has just been one character at a time.
I wonder why they don't like to have Chip and Dale together?
That is a weird looking character. He must be on some recent Disney show because I'm not familiar with him.
I'm impressed!
That was really sweet of that lady to make Allie feel special. It is always hard to be the older sister who has a younger sibling who attracts a lot of attention.
It also works for getting warmed up on a cold January day.
And now you can't imagine life without him.
They started the big character meet and greet when they opened the Skyliner. Prior to that there were only occasional characters in training hanging around that area. I remember seeing Prince Charming there, or one of those Princes.
We almost never get pictures with the characters because we don't like to wait in long lines. But we now have some very cute pictures with Minnie. For some reason, she doesn't seem as popular as she should be.The two resorts are roughly mirror images of each other in their layout.
Happy Birthday! It is nice that Disney does a little extra for the birthdays.
I've never heard of hasselback potatoes.
Our daughter from Colorado had her kids swimming in the WL Hidden Springs pool when it was 50 degrees out. The hard part is getting out of the water.
When you live in a place with long winters you have to take advantage of these opportunities when you can.
We used the Skyliner as transportation to AKL for dinner at Boma and to get back to POR when we had breakfast at Ale and Compass. DHS is a great staging place for resort to resort transportation, especially now that they have the Skyliner.
It is a very nice ride and I really hope Disney expands it to include other resorts.
That was good timing to beat the fireworks crowd.
TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
How cool that you bumped into Character Palooza at Epcot.
Your dinner looks delicious. Hubby and I ate at the lounge attached to Yachtsman one night and it was delicious!
I'm glad to hear the skyliner experience wasn't as scary as you were expecting. Sometimes it's worse when you have too much time to build things up in your head.
Your dinner looks delicious. Hubby and I ate at the lounge attached to Yachtsman one night and it was delicious!
I'm glad to hear the skyliner experience wasn't as scary as you were expecting. Sometimes it's worse when you have too much time to build things up in your head.
GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
Today was another milestone day for our Disney trip: The day where we book the next one! Yep, we decided on our dates and are returning from January 28 through February 6, 2021!
We really loved the cooler weather and we're moving the trip up a bit to try and avoid President's weekend.
Our Disney buddies Jon and Brandy are joining us again and we're so excited they're coming.
Yes, they signed up once agin for the fun, and that means we are again staying in a 2 bedroom. We will go back to booking the dedicated unit, and will probably throw in a high floor room request again just to emphasize it.
I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who enjoyed the location of the ground floor room but I'm game for whatever room location. It will be nice to have the bigger closet that you get with the dedicated two bedroom, we missed having the extra closet and bathroom space this time.
My parents are planning on coming along as well, so we will be a party of 8.
We also only booked four nights initially, because we are planning to do a split stay. If everything goes as planned, in four months we will modify the first portion of the reservation to a 2 bedroom at Beach Club. We know availability can be tight, but it should be a decent time of year, and we don't have to risk our entire reservation to make the switch.
Fingers crossed we can get in at Beach Club. It is something completely different for us and being so close to Epcot is gonna be awesome. We've never been able to just walk to a park before.
We really enjoy visiting Beach Club and have always wanted to try an Epcot resort. Allie wants to get to enjoy Stormalong Bay, even though it may be a bit chilly.
I'm sure we'll at least play in the sand at Stormalong bay, maybe I'll get the kids wetsuits.
My requirement for the trip though was that we spend a good part of it at Copper Creek, so we will still have 5 nights there.
It should be a great time, and after this trip we can't wait to go back. Now we rejoin our trip report already in progress...
We really loved the cooler weather and we're moving the trip up a bit to try and avoid President's weekend.
Our Disney buddies Jon and Brandy are joining us again and we're so excited they're coming.
Yes, they signed up once agin for the fun, and that means we are again staying in a 2 bedroom. We will go back to booking the dedicated unit, and will probably throw in a high floor room request again just to emphasize it.
I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who enjoyed the location of the ground floor room but I'm game for whatever room location. It will be nice to have the bigger closet that you get with the dedicated two bedroom, we missed having the extra closet and bathroom space this time.
My parents are planning on coming along as well, so we will be a party of 8.
We also only booked four nights initially, because we are planning to do a split stay. If everything goes as planned, in four months we will modify the first portion of the reservation to a 2 bedroom at Beach Club. We know availability can be tight, but it should be a decent time of year, and we don't have to risk our entire reservation to make the switch.
Fingers crossed we can get in at Beach Club. It is something completely different for us and being so close to Epcot is gonna be awesome. We've never been able to just walk to a park before.
We really enjoy visiting Beach Club and have always wanted to try an Epcot resort. Allie wants to get to enjoy Stormalong Bay, even though it may be a bit chilly.
I'm sure we'll at least play in the sand at Stormalong bay, maybe I'll get the kids wetsuits.
My requirement for the trip though was that we spend a good part of it at Copper Creek, so we will still have 5 nights there.
It should be a great time, and after this trip we can't wait to go back. Now we rejoin our trip report already in progress...
DaisyDuck001
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2006
Hi, I haven't been commenting much, as I'm still in Orlando one more night. Regarding passholder discounts at quick-service places, they do have them at the Revive coffee stand in Tomorrowland, and at Polite Pig at Disney Springs. Regarding winter weather, it really is all over the place with some warm days and some cold days and an occasional windy day and sometimes a rainy day. You have to be prepared for anything, but hopefully you will have at least one good weather day at the Beach Club where the kids can enjoy Stormalong Bay.
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