She's Collecting Castles and Staying at Copper Creek, a January-February 2021 Trip Report (Completed 5/7, Updated 5/17)

[GrandCalifornian]

I love those mornings...it reminds me of our first trip in January of 2009 when all our mornings were exactly like this.

Nice! Winter at WL is just neat, especially for the few days each year where it actually feels like it.

I love that, so special! ❤

It just was meant to be, and makes us smile.

They look amazing!

The barns are super impressive, and the best part is the public has just as much access as before, which is cool.

I love the pictures in the fog and that was a lot of frost on the pool chairs. We've stayed at the WL many times when there was frost and the plants were covered. The horses never seem to mind the cold, though.

Yeah, I bet they had been bundled up the night before though, or at least they were hanging out in the warm barn.

It is an excellent hiding spot. I never knew that the barrel opened.

He was very proud of that discovery, and even more proud that he fit inside with the door shut.

That was well worth the price.

Yes! We have only recently discovered that for big items it is totally worth having them shipped home. We don't have to worry about making room in the luggage and keeping them safe, and then we get a nice surprise from UPS a few days after we get home. We had everything (both paintings and the christmas ornament) within a week of us getting home.

I love when things like that happen.

Yeah, it is even cooer than if we had actively tried to get that number. Sometimes it just is meant to be.

An hour and a half is a long time, especially when the boat ride would have been five minutes long - if the boats were running. I've decided that any trip involving two forms of Disney transportation is usually too long.

Yeah, it was a trek, but we had fun. The "two modes is too many" rule is a good rule of thumb because if it takes two modes it becomes more of an event. This time we had two modes each way (counting walking), and it added up.

The barns are gorgeous. Now I can see a reason to hop on the FW bus next time we are at WL.

Yes, and it is a quick bus now that they don't have to go the long way around. It will be even better once thye have the Blue Flag boats running again and it is just a short pretty boat ride away.

He is adorable. Allie must have been really excited to see him.

SHe was, but she loved seeing all the horses. I think the big white one, Tyson, was her favorite. She is all into horses, as many 11 year old girls are.

I'm glad that they are still offering pony rides. So many things have been shut down for the pandemic.

Yes, between the pandemic and having to change locations twice due to construction we were really glad to see they had a new home. They are a neat cheap thing for young kids to do.

I am loving your photos, thank you for sharing.
The foggy morning pictures are amazing!!

Thanks so much for commenting! We are glad that you enjoy the pictures, we enjoy taking them and looking back at them too.

Great to see pictures of the new barn, wow very nice! Did they have paddocks for turnout surrounding the barn?
Our barn is yet to be built, inspiration haha

Ahh yes, there paddocks surrounding the barn, and then the pony trail is beyond that. They have a lot more space here than they did at the old barn, despite being just a short distance from where it used to be. There are lots of inspiring ideas there for barns. They even have a drop down projector screen at the end of one of the aisles, which they can use for special events. It is also cool that they have the exhibit stall with the Walt Disney and horses display just like they used to have.

Thanks for the response about the pictures. I did see the two sample ones you posted, and then I went back, and the ones that previously didn't show up for me, were finally visible. I don't understand why they weren't showing up in my view before, as I'd already checked a few times. As usual, all your pictures were great and they enhance your story, so I'm glad I could see them at last.

The cardboard car kids' meal containers at the Boathouse are so cute! What a nice place for Donald and Daisy to hang out.

I'm glad the picture deal worked itself out. We have seen that before where we didn't see any pictures from the DIS on certain pages, but it seems to clear up later. I'm glad it did in this case, because the report isn't nearly as interesting without them!

The kids meal car is cute, and Allie brought it home and still has it. I wish they had some sort of toy version of the Amphicars, I would want that. We do have one of the rubber duck ones, and Marshall uses it as a bath toy.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Yes, and it is a quick bus now that they don't have to go the long way around. It will be even better once thye have the Blue Flag boats running again and it is just a short pretty boat ride away.

Does the FW bus travel down the road that is adjacent to the walking path? I really miss not being able to walk to FW. Does it look like they may open the walking path again?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Does the FW bus travel down the road that is adjacent to the walking path? I really miss not being able to walk to FW. Does it look like they may open the walking path again?

Yes, it takes the direct road from the South cabin parking lot along next to the walking path straight to the barn area. The walking path is there and looks to be in tact, but did have closed area and "No Trespassing" signs at the start of it.
Based on what I saw from the bus, there is no major reason they couldn't open the walking path back up, so hopefully they will choose to do so soon.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

After Marshall's pony ride we decided to check out the rest of the settlement area. We saw that the Trail's End name has been removed from the sign, since the restaurant is all take out for now. This was our first trip to WDW where we didn't get to eat here.


I checked out the store, and we all got Cokes.

The kids also noticed that the playground was open and there were kids playing. Since parks at home were still closed they were so excited to get to go play.

Even Allie who sometimes decides she's too old for playgrounds.




It was their first playground time in 10 months at least. This is always such a nice relaxing place for us, and the kids just have a ball enjoying the simple things.

We let them play for quite a while and then rounded them up for the treck to the other side of Ft. Wilderness to catch a bus to Animal Kingdom.

We got on an Orange Fort Wilderness bus at 1:21, and went through the park checking out the RV sites and pools, arriving at the Outpost end of the park at 1:38. We waited by the trail ride barn until 1:57, when an AK bus arrived.


It was a straight forward bus ride to the park. We decided we hadn't done Navi'i River Journey yet so that was on our list Jon and Brandy were already in the park waiting for us to arrive.

We left FW at 2:00, and again had a bus to ourselves. It was a quick trip, and arrived at 2:18. Jon and Brandy were getting off of Flights of Passage, and heading to Navi River Journey. We headed that way too, but were about 30 minutes behind them.

We had never waited in this queue either and I enjoyed seeing it. We did spend the whole line though trying to figure out plans for our next trip.


I was looking at point rental options and calculating how many nights we could get at each resort, both on our own in a 1 bedroom or studio, and with Jon and Brandy in a 2 bedroom.


It took us about 45 minutes to get through the line. I'm not sure I'd wait for this ride for this long again. I love it, it's beautiful but I don't think I need to wait that long to do it again.

We got on the ride at 3:28, then walked through Pandora after we got off the ride. We checked out the Flights of Passage store, which wasn't too crowded.

We didn't find anything we couldn't live without but Allie did try on the new Avatar ears.


After Pandora we decided we wanted to go say hi to the tigers.

We took the back path towards Africa, and on the way saw Donald and Daisy on a pontoon boat.


It was really cute. I love the random character appearances so much.

They are so much more fun than scheduled crowded parades. We then made it to the Tiger trail just before 4:00, and got to see the bats on the way in for the night.

That was so cute, they open the door and all the bats just make their way inside. It's the most we've ever seen them move.

Then we went to see the Tigers, and got another picture of Allie with her tiger painting. She is getting so big.



Truly, she was so little when we brought her the first time.

Younger than Marshall is now which is hard to wrap my head around. We arrived at Yak and Yeti right on time and met up with Jon and Brandy.


They had a table for 8 available, which worked out perfectly for us because we had to split into two parties to get the reservations.

Dinner was so good, service was a little slow but it felt like we had the restaurant to ourselves. It was so quiet.

It was a great meal, and showed us why this has become a must do for us. I got the ribs, Melissa got the Korean beef, Jon got the burger, and Brady got the Rib Eye, while Grandpa got the full rack of ribs. Everything was great, and it now is our longest running continuous restaurant streak.



We all got dessert, I got my favorite the mango pie, Paul got the wontons, and most funny Marshall got an icecream cookie sandwich.


We always debate which dessert is best here, and neither of us is willing to give in and order the other one, so we always have to order both. Marshall's ice cream sandwich was a Blue Bunny sandwich served in the package, but it was truly his favorite dessert of the trip.


He said it was the best dessert he'd ever had. The kid is easy to please.

We were the last party in the restaurant, and thanked the manager on our way out. Marshall made sure to mention how perfect his dessert was. When we got outside, the Cast Members that were sweeping the park were waiting for us outside to follow us out of the park, since it was now closed.


We were escorted all the way up to Discovery Island. It fun to close out that part of the park.


We continued on out of the park, and got to the bus stop at 6:00.


A WL bus was waiting empty for us, and then we got on and left at 6:03.


We watched the sunset as we headed back to WL, and arrived there at 6:17.

We decided to stop by the front desk, because some charges had started to show up on Melissa's card.


Our front desk saga continued... It really amazes me how hard they make it all.

Yes, as it turns out, despite their assurances that we would each be charged for the items we individually charged, we discovered that once Jon and Brandy's charged items reached a certain amount they just started putting everything on our card. We had already planned to pay off balances with gift card to even it out, so we were having them pay for meals.


After 45 minutes we thought they had it all figured out, charges reversed, charged, reapplied. So complicated...turns out they still didn't get it right we finally got it all straightened out just a couple weeks ago.

While the front desk worked on it, I migrated around and took pictures.


Jon hung out with the kids and watched cartoons.


Our next goal was to head to Disney Springs for Marshall's Amphicar ride, so after a quick stop at the room we headed back out.

It made for kind of a busy day overall but we didn't want him to miss out. Grandpa Jim tagged along and Brandy and Jon decided to stay and hang out at Geyser Point.

We left the room at 7:10, and got to the bus stop at 7:14 and a bus pulled right in. It left with us and one other family on board, and we got to Disney Springs at 7:32.

We really only had the one task at Disney Springs so we headed straight over to Boathouse.


We were glad to see that they were running the cars, and only had about a 20 minute wait. We got on the second car to go out, a teal one. I went on it with the kids, and Melissa and Grandpa took pictures. It would have been too tight to squeeze one more person in, but the key thing was both kids got to go, and we all had a good time.




It was neat to have Paul take them, I really don't need to ride in one. I don't tempt fate like that.



Melissa only tolerates our own boat and isn't thrilled with being on the water, but Marshall loved it, and Allie had fun too. Marshall loved asking the boat (car?) Captain a bunch of questions and decided that he was really good at history (in Marshall's words).


We did the lap around the lake and it was a much prettier night than the night before.


It was a beautiful night for sure. It was neat watching the kids have so much fun.

Marshall still talks about it, as he has a love for all things amphibious right now and this fit right in. After the ride, we walked through the Havianas store and over to the World of Disney.

We stopped and looked at more nuiMo clothes. They had an outfit that Allie had wanted first thing during the trip but I had encouraged her to wait, then of course we couldn't find it again. Anyway so then we HAD to buy it now.


I also got a denim jacket with Mickey on the back. I love that thing, I wear it all the time.

It was a good wrap up at Disney Springs, and we felt that we really got to spend enough time there for a change this time. We got to the bus stop at 9:11 and there was one group ahead of us. We had a decent wait, with the bus arriving at 9:30. We still made it to WL by 9:46, which gave Grandpa and me time to go down for mug refills, without the sprint this time.

We spent the rest of the evening sorting out room charges and folding laundry. It was a packed full Disney day but so fun.

Join us in our next update as we start our last full day at our still favorite park, Epcot...

 

[Wood Nymph]

Even Allie who sometimes decides she's too old for playgrounds.

My 11 year old granddaughter was visiting us a couple weeks ago and wanted to go to the playground in our neighborhood. She talked about all the things she used to play on when she was a "kid", and then proceeded to play on them again. It was cute. Her birthday is July 7th, so just a little bit older than Allie.

They are so much more fun than scheduled crowded parades. We then made it to the Tiger trail just before 4:00, and got to see the bats on the way in for the night.

I think we saw four different character boats when we were there. They are fun and it would be nice if they kept doing them.

I didn't know that they had bats, but it would be fun to see them when they were released.

We were the last party in the restaurant, and thanked the manager on our way out. Marshall made sure to mention how perfect his dessert was. When we got outside, the Cast Members that were sweeping the park were waiting for us outside to follow us out of the park, since it was now closed.

It is funny to think that you were closing down the park at 6 pm, when it was still light out. We had a late dinner at Yak & Yeti once and it was so dark that we didn't know where the park exit was. It was a good thing there were CM's guiding the way to the exit.

We were glad to see that they were running the cars, and only had about a 20 minute wait. We got on the second car to go out, a teal one. I went on it with the kids, and Melissa and Grandpa took pictures. It would have been too tight to squeeze one more person in, but the key thing was both kids got to go, and we all had a good time.

It was a good thing that you were able to ride the amphicars. Marshall would have been very disappointed if they weren't running that night.

It was a packed full Disney day but so fun.

You did a huge variety of things today. My favorite trips are when we do things outside the parks.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

My 11 year old granddaughter was visiting us a couple weeks ago and wanted to go to the playground in our neighborhood. She talked about all the things she used to play on when she was a "kid", and then proceeded to play on them again. It was cute. Her birthday is July 7th, so just a little bit older than Allie.

It is a fun in between age. You never know exactly what you are going to get...

I think we saw four different character boats when we were there. They are fun and it would be nice if they kept doing them.

Yeah, I love how Disney does these little extra touches, and we do prefer them to traditional crowded parades.

I didn't know that they had bats, but it would be fun to see them when they were released.

Normally they are very quiet and just hang there, upside down. We had never seen them move like that. Some of them are pretty big, Melissa even calls them gigantic.

It is funny to think that you were closing down the park at 6 pm, when it was still light out. We had a late dinner at Yak & Yeti once and it was so dark that we didn't know where the park exit was. It was a good thing there were CM's guiding the way to the exit.

Yes, it felt very early for the park to be closing, but it was neat to have the restaurant to ourselves. We all enjpyed the sunset and getting back to WL while it was still light out.

It was a good thing that you were able to ride the amphicars. Marshall would have been very disappointed if they weren't running that night.

Yeah, we had to make it over there one more time to give it a try. I think it set a record for number of Disney Springs visits during a trip, but we all had fun.

You did a huge variety of things today. My favorite trips are when we do things outside the parks.

Exactly! We love doing things beyond the parks, and it is all part of the WDW fun for us. That is the stuff we talk about more when we get home than just spending another day in the parks.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

On Friday, I got up just after 6AM and went out at 6:30.



Everyone with any sense was still asleep, but I knew it was my second to last morning and I wanted to go explore. I walked out by the front parking lot and then around to the South side cabins.


I saw the old walking trail to Fort Wilderness, although I was careful not to take any pictures beyond the sign...


As I got down to the last cabin, I was surprised to see that the old lakefront trail is almost totally overgrown now, since they keep the gate locked and there's nobody in the area.



Plants grow 10x faster in Florida than in California.

I then made my way back to the main pool courtyard, via Geyser Point where I got some pretty pictures of the pre-sunrise sky.



I also stalked a bird as he was hanging out in the stream.




Then I went and got a mug refill at 7:22, and it was the first time they really checked my photo that I used to get it, but it worked fine.

When I got back up to the room, the DME doorhangers of doom were there to greet me, serving as a reminder that the trip was coming to a close.


I got back in the room about 8:00, and Marshall got up but nobody else was up yet. Soon Melissa got up and then we ordered breakfast from Roaring Fork a little before 9:00.

Marshall and I went down to pick up breakfast, and he led me the whole way without taking an elevator. We also stopped by the front desk to apply a gift card to the balance, and it was clear that they still had two open accounts on the room, despite the work from the night before.

I decided to try the bagel sandwich on this morning and am glad I did. It was really tasty.


I really enjoyed the sandwich, and it was just as good as the day before. Melissa and I spent the morning looking at point transfers and started contemplating a May trip. It then became frustrating that the front desk had over $2000 extra tied up on Melissa's card.

We are for sure not letting the front desk do our accounting next trip.

One account, period, no matter who promises what...

Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa came over about 10:00, and we all hung out for a while while everybody got ready. We left the room at 10:28, and a bus came at 10:35.



There were two ECVs including Grandma, so loading took a minute but we left by 10:45, and arrived at Epcot at 10:54.

Our arrival was timed perfectly, and we walked right into the park and went to Spaceship Earth for the first time of the trip.

We were all glad we got to ride this again after they announced the retheming. We used the alternative access entrance with Grandma on the scooter. It worked pretty well


It was particularly fun after doing homeschool history with Allie this year. I noticed more things than usual, and so did she, making it a great field trip.


We were also glad to see the boots one more time.


It's always a fun time, I rode with Marshall and he really enjoyed the ride.


After that we ventured into another area for the first time of the trip, the (Living) Seas. (I know, I'm showing my age here...) Actually the funny thing here is we barely were able to talk Allie into riding this terrifying ride. Somehow she decided when she was little that the Nemo ride is scary, and really didn't want to ride it. She eventually decided to go with us, instead of going in the exit like in some years past.

This gave the opportunity for us to take some pictures of each other at the same time.



She is a nut, surprisingly she survived the ride and was able to enjoy the aquariums and the fish. The dolphins weren't out but there were divers cleaning their tank and they were fun to watch.



We all love the inside of this attraction, and it impresses us every time. I remember it being Grandpa's favorite when we came when I was 6 years old, barely older than Marshall.


Then we checked out the Manatees before our stomachs decided it was lunch time, and we made a run for more Fish and Chips.


It's a little odd to eat fish after visiting The Seas but it's so delicious.


I again swung the dang chair into my shin when I was moving it from another table but the food was great.

Grandma and Grandpa instead went to check out the land one more time since they weren't ready for lunch yet. We got to have a nice planning session for next year's trip, and came to agreement that we should come in late January and split 2 bedrooms at Beach Club and Copper Creek.

We found a point transfer contract and put in an inquiry on that while we were at lunch.

The food was great as usual, and it felt like we were making up for lost time after not coming here for a few trips. After lunch, we met up with Grandma and Grandpa and went to the Festival Building to see more of the Festival of The Arts stuff.

Jon and Brandy decided to head around world showcase for a frozen drink tour.

There were a couple of new artists with their booths set up. We stopped and watched the acrobats perform and Marshall was just in awe.


Marshall was mesmerized by the acrobat show, and was super excited, and perhaps in love. We got to see it again before we left, and he gave her a standing ovation in his stroller.



We also checked out the art displays, and saw the progress that Tim Rogerson made on a large original during the week. We also noticed that nobody had bought Mickey and Minnie, but it was still outside our budget.


I didn't get a second job while on the trip to pay for it, maybe someday it'll be a more mass produced piece.

We also saw Stephen Fishwick whom we had seen paint on stage earlier in the week. Marshall had a whole conversation with him and we all enjoyed chatting with him.

He was so cute with the kids. Marshall asked him what inspired him to do art. He enjoyed chatting with Marshall, and we decided to get a copy of the Sorcerer Mickey to have him sign it. He signed it to Marshall, and now it has a home on our Disney Wall.



It is such a fun memory, in talking with him we learned he is local here to Southern California and his work is featured also at the San Diego Zoo. We haven't been down there since we've been home from Disney but we'll for sure look for his work when we're down there next time

Grandma and Grandpa also decided their walls needed a decoration, and they bought a Noah picture of Mickey sketching Walt as a self portrait. Everybody was getting into the art!


We did also notice another castle that caught Melissa's eye...


I also finally found a piece for my new office that was perfect. It has the 7 dwarves with the Snow White castle behind them in the distance. I just can hear them singing High Ho when I look at it. It is perfect and I love being able to have it at work with me.

It just seemed perfect for work, and I loved that it did have a castle on it. The extra AP discount applied on it too, which was really nice.

Check back for more of our day in the next update, where we still visit another park to squeeze in a few more rides, and then come back to catch an old favorite...

We hope all of you have a fantastic Easter weekend!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

It's always nice to see Lt. Uhura on the Spaceship Earth ride. I'm glad they included her in the ride on the history of communications, since she is the communications officer.

OK, what inspired Stephen Fishwick to do art?

 

[Wood Nymph]

As I got down to the last cabin, I was surprised to see that the old lakefront trail is almost totally overgrown now, since they keep the gate locked and there's nobody in the area.

Thanks for posting the pictures of the trail. Maybe they will reopen the walking path after they remove the construction trailers from the Reflections site.

Plants grow 10x faster in Florida than in California.

It must be all the rain.

It's a little odd to eat fish after visiting The Seas but it's so delicious.

We love Yorkshire Fish. It is especially nice that they have tables near the water.

We got to have a nice planning session for next year's trip, and came to agreement that we should come in late January and split 2 bedrooms at Beach Club and Copper Creek.

It's really nice to have someone to share a 2 br villa with so both groups can take advantage of the kitchen and living room. And you have the two best resorts.

We stopped and watched the acrobats perform and Marshall was just in awe.

I didn't know that they had acrobats. That would be fun to watch.

He signed it to Marshall, and now it has a home on our Disney Wall.

That is so cute.

It has the 7 dwarves with the Snow White castle behind them in the distance.

Snow White is one of my favorites. I love the painting.

 

[Paulaparm]

I love that Mickey denim jacket!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

It's always nice to see Lt. Uhura on the Spaceship Earth ride. I'm glad they included her in the ride on the history of communications, since she is the communications officer.

Yep, there you go. Here tenure was indefinitely extended, we'll see how much longer she is on duty.

OK, what inspired Stephen Fishwick to do art?

He was excited that it was something people told him he was good at, and he liked to draw Spider Man, so he just kept doing it. He also mentioned that it was something where it was ok to be different.

Thanks for posting the pictures of the trail. Maybe they will reopen the walking path after they remove the construction trailers from the Reflections site.

Our fingers are crossed. Once Reflections is officially not a construction site they shouldn't have anything to keep people away from and the jogging path can hopefully reopen. I am not optimistic that we will ever be able to walk down by the water again, but I'll take what we can get.

It must be all the rain.

And the humidity... The plants get water all the time even when it isn't falling from the sky...

We love Yorkshire Fish. It is especially nice that they have tables near the water.

Yes, having the relaxation station with nice seating right there made it perfect for this trip, where QS seating was tough to find.

It's really nice to have someone to share a 2 br villa with so both groups can take advantage of the kitchen and living room. And you have the two best resorts.

It is a great setup, and we are so excited for next year's trip with those two perfect resorts. It is gonna be great!

I didn't know that they had acrobats. That would be fun to watch.

Neither did we, but we walked in and there they were. There's always surprises at Disney, and Marshall was impressed.

Snow White is one of my favorites. I love the painting.

Melissa loves it too, and it fits her work so well. It just seemed perfect, and now she has a little bit of Disney at the office.

I love that Mickey denim jacket!

So does Melissa! She wore it today, and is so glad that she got it.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

When we left off, we were just finishing up in the Festival Building during our last afternoon in Epcot.

After we were done in the festival building we decided to head out and check out the DVC model at Beach Club since we had pretty much decided to stay there.



We still wanted to go take advantage of the chance to see a two bedroom there, and we always enjoy hanging out over there anyway.


The villa was beautful as expected. We are so excited to get to stay here next trip. It'll be different then Wilderness Lodge for sure but being so close to Epcot and then having Stormalong Bay and the Skyliner right there will be fun.




It was great to get to walk through and see the room, and while the resort itself is no WL, the location will be great. We also liked the layout of the room, and think it will be neat.

After we were done touring the villa we decided it was time for a snack.


We stopped by Beach Club Marketplace for a couple of cupcakes and some photo based mug refills. They were really quite good, although Marshall spilled Melissa's coke on her lap.



It was unfortunate and my lap got completely soaked. Luckily my pants were black.

While she got dried off, I got her another refill, and then we finished our snack. After that, Grandma and Grandpa headed back into Epcot to get their Noah painting signed.


We were headed to Hollywood Studios for another round of Rockin Roller Coaster. Our chosen transportation method was the Skyliner.


On the way in to the park we did some shopping, and Marshall found a school set with pens and pencils and stuff that he really wanted, and we just couldn't say no.


It was a fun trip over to Hollywood Studios. It turns out I may have lied before about visiting Lightning McQueens Racing Academy. It was this day while they rode Rockin Roller Coaster that Marshall and I went over there while they were riding.



We were able to walk right in and sit in the front row. Marsh was just so into the whole show it was cute. After we took some pictures with the cars outside.



Allie enjoyed the ride, and we met up just as we got off the ride. Then we went in search of more snacks, grabbing some popcorn, a pretzel, and a couple of large Cokes.



We enjoyed our little snack.

We caught a bit of a parade while we ate, then we sat for a while and I made the payment to the point transfer company for next year.


Little spoiler alert here, this point transfer didn't end up coming through. We'll talk about that more in our next PTR so you'll just have to keep coming back for more.

We did want to catch one more ride, so we then headed over to Runaway Railway to ride it again. We got to the ride at 5:56, and we were off the ride at 6:12.


The kids really like this ride and we do too. It was neat to ride it twice this trip.

After that, we headed out of the park at 6:20. We stopped at the restrooms, then walked right on a friendship boat at 6:30. We had fun chatting with the Captain, and it was a relaxing break. We got to the Dolphin, then the Beach Club at 6:46, then Boardwalk, then Epcot at 6:57.


When we got into Epcot we headed to the food booth that sells the slush in the Orange Bird Sipper. Allie had been wanting it and we finally caved.


We weren't sure that we could re-hop back into the same park, but we had no problem returning to Epcot.

On our walk across the park we realized we hadn't visited Figment yet.

We realized that we still had time, so we turned left and got to Figment at 7:26. It showed a 10 minute wait, but we walked right on. It was a fun ride to round out our Epcot trip.


After saying hi to Figment and smelling some smelly skunk smell we headed out of the park. We got a cute family group shot on the way out.



We made it to the bus stop at 7:57, and a bus came at 8:06.


It was a quick trip back, and we got to WL at 8:17, then up to the room by 8:25.

It was time to pack up our stuff and find room for all of the treasures.

But first...dinner.

oh Dinner...
When we got back to the lodge we dropped our stroller off back at the room and decided to go check out the wait at Geyser Point. Jon and Brandy had been at the bar for a while when we got down there.


We met up with Grandma and Grandpa and checked on the wait time for a table, but it would have been 40-50 minutes, so we decided to order food to go. As we walked around we saw they had a movie going by the boat rental dock.



It was only about 20 minutes to get food to go and then we took it over to the Roarin' Fork patio to eat.


We watched the 9:00 Geyser then got our food at about 9:10 and took it to the patio outside Roaring Fork. The Bison Burgers were great, even better than D Luxe which was a great compliment.

It turned out to be a great dinner and something I would totally recommend if you can't get a table at Geyser Point. The food is so good it's worth ordering to go.


As we were finishing up dinner, we heard the EWP approaching, so the kids and I ran down to the transportation boat dock to check it out.


After dinner we walked up the ramp to the lobby and to the Mercantile. We bought some last items, including donuts for the next morning.

I also got the shampoo and conditioner that they have in the rooms for the kids hair. It worked so nice on Allie's hair while we were there I figured it'd be nice to bring some home.

We closed down the Mercantile at 10:00, then headed up to the room to finish our packing. It didn't take too long, and we were ready for bed by 11:00.

We are finally getting in a packing groove and we didn't have to sit on any suitcases to get them to close.

We did have to use the extra carryon that we nested on the way there, but we had room for everything we acquired.

Hey everything fit.

And we made it to bed before midnight, a win win!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

In that Beach Club two-bedroom villa, it looks like there is seating for maybe three people at the breakfast bar, and three more at the other table? No table where six people could all sit together?

It's amazing that you had such a short wait to get on the Runaway Railway ride, yay!

It looks like you all got some really cool souvenirs!

The EWP is always fun, even if you only caught the tail end of it this time.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

It looks like you had yet another nice day in the parks.

I'm curious to know how the points rental falling through impacts your trip plans. I'll have to keep an eye out for your PTR.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

In that Beach Club two-bedroom villa, it looks like there is seating for maybe three people at the breakfast bar, and three more at the other table? No table where six people could all sit together?

Exactly, the kitchen is turned sideways from Copper Creek, which gives you the bar but takes away the space for the big table with seating on both sides. You could move the chairs over to the table and sit in the walkway, but we likely won't.
We love the Copper Creek layout, but some don't like the Galley kitchen, so like anything house related, there's pros and cons of each.

It's amazing that you had such a short wait to get on the Runaway Railway ride, yay!

Yeah, with that short of a wait we HAD to do it again. Allie was really excited to make it back to Hollywood Studios and ride Rockin Roller Coaster again, since we hadn't planned to be back.

It looks like you all got some really cool souvenirs!

That we did, and the big ones were shipped home. It was a great trip for collecting stuff.

The EWP is always fun, even if you only caught the tail end of it this time.

Yeah, we had seen it from the room earlier in the trip, but wanted to run down and catch it during dinner. The kids enjoyed the excuse to run...

It looks like you had yet another nice day in the parks.

We really did, and it was one of our only two-park days, and with hopping back to Epcot we had three park entries.

I'm curious to know how the points rental falling through impacts your trip plans. I'll have to keep an eye out for your PTR.

We won't keep you waiting that long. We paid for the transfer but the seller never came through with transferring the points to our account. The broker took care of it though, and issued us a complete refund about four weeks later. By then we were just about to when booking windows would open. No other transfers were available for it, so we went with a traditional point rental through David's, and it is all booked and set up for us.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

We won't keep you waiting that long. We paid for the transfer but the seller never came through with transferring the points to our account. The broker took care of it though, and issued us a complete refund about four weeks later. By then we were just about to when booking windows would open. No other transfers were available for it, so we went with a traditional point rental through David's, and it is all booked and set up for us.

What a mess! It's good you went through a broker to have some recourse.

Were you still able to book Beach Club?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

What a mess! It's good you went through a broker to have some recourse.

Were you still able to book Beach Club?

Yes we were. The rental reservation is for a Beach Club 2 bedroom and we have our name on the reservation so we feel good.
The transfer would have been Beach Club points into our DVC account, but oh well, we accomplished what we needed and the inconvenience was minimized.

 

[rdkeim]

Love reading about your Disney trips. Sometimes traveling with a group doesn't work out but it seems to work well for you. You had so many great moments that will be memories to look back on. Marshall's standing ovation - so cute! The 2 bedroom at the BC looks so nice. Great location for sure. We were there early March and boots lady was missing - I was confused. Not sure what the plan is for Spaceship Earth? Anyway, really enjoy your TR's!

 

[Wood Nymph]

After we were done in the festival building we decided to head out and check out the DVC model at Beach Club since we had pretty much decided to stay there.

We haven't stay in the 2 br villa since it has been remodeled. It looks really nice. Is this the first time you toured it?

We did want to catch one more ride, so we then headed over to Runaway Railway to ride it again. We got to the ride at 5:56, and we were off the ride at 6:12.

That is a really short wait. I guess that the crowds really thin down near closing time.

After that, we headed out of the park at 6:20. We stopped at the restrooms, then walked right on a friendship boat at 6:30. We had fun chatting with the Captain, and it was a relaxing break. We got to the Dolphin, then the Beach Club at 6:46, then Boardwalk, then Epcot at 6:57.

The Friendship boats are great when you are tired and don't want to walk anymore. But they are not as nice as the boats they use at WL.

We watched the 9:00 Geyser then got our food at about 9:10 and took it to the patio outside Roaring Fork. The Bison Burgers were great, even better than D Luxe which was a great compliment.

It turned out to be a great dinner and something I would totally recommend if you can't get a table at Geyser Point. The food is so good it's worth ordering to go.

That is high praise for the Bison Burger. We love the food at Geyser Point. My favorite is the smoked turkey sandwich. We might be going to Geyser Point for dinner next week, so it is good to know that we can mobile order if the restaurant is crowded.

In that Beach Club two-bedroom villa, it looks like there is seating for maybe three people at the breakfast bar, and three more at the other table? No table where six people could all sit together?

You can pull the desk chair in from the master bedroom for a sixth chair. If you are serving a meal then just pull the three chairs to the table and six can fit comfortably. We have also squeezed four people on the bench. There is a high chair in the closet which can be used for a toddler or small child and fits at the end of the table. We have held two birthdays parties with 7 adults at that table.

 

[cajunfan]

Well, I am very late to the party here! But wonderful trip reporting again! I can not get over how grown up Marshall is looking!

Again, thanks for sharing!