Some people ARE worth melting for ….. 40 Disney days – the trip of a lifetime updated October 10

[Grumpy's Wife]

What a nice and relaxing dinner with good friends.

I always love reading your trip reports because you spend so much time at Disney that you are able to tour at a leisurely pace. I'm always rush, rush, rush that I don't take time to stop and smell the roses so to speak. I need a do over.

 

[UKDisneyJoe]

Recnetly discovered your trip report and enjoying it. Thats some holiday you booked and looking forward to reading more of it

 

[dizneeat]

Sounds like a nice relaxing day at AK.

It was, bittersweet as we knew it was our last day at AK, but there were so many great things still to come.

That dinner is a crazy amount of food. When you mentioned the appetizers I figured that was good with the cake you brought, with salad, pasta, and then rolled flank steak, that's a ton of food! Nothing better than relaxing around a nice meal with friends!

It was an unbelievable amount of food, but a lot of it got consumed, there were two 20 somethings at the table and as skinny as Vito Jr and Hannah are, they can dig in.

BTW, we had flank steak for dinner last night, but instead of stuffing it, I sliced it into 1 inch strips, rolled it up, and then wrapped it with bacon, and cooked it on the grill!

Definitely one of your best cereal selections here! I'm not a fan of some of the others that Tom didn't like, like lucky charms, but honey nut cheerios are a good choice!

We do have honey nut cornflakes here, which are quite nice and the loops were nice too, just a tad too sweet still.

This is fun! I love watching first timers' reactions to ITTBAB. My fiance was hilarious the first time he saw the show. He was so mad I didn't warn him about the bugs leaving the theatre.

OMG, watching the first timers is the best thing ever on ITTBAB. Had to LOL when you mentioned that your fiance was mad about not being warned of the bugs leaving the theatre.

This always baffles me, when people spend time waiting in line only to start thinking about what they want once they get up to order. Oh well.

Funnily enough we seem to have those parties in front of us pretty often, especially if the line is loooooooong. But those CM that you order from are so incredibly patient.

Sounds like you had a nice day at AK, and a really lovely dinner with friends.

We had such a nice morning and dinner with Michelle and friends was just awesome. Can you believe we met here on the DIS on a cruise meet thread? And we have been very good friends ever since.

 

[Disneyhayes]

2 farewells in one 1 day can be a lot. It's good you got to spend time with friends though during your trip.

 

[dizneeat]

This is pretty much my dream vacation... to bad my fiance would not have it!

We go to WDW or 10 days every year and he is ready to go by day 3!

It was a really nice vacation. No rush and so many different things to look forward to. Thankfully my brother is as much a lover all things Disney as I am - so he is game for my longish vacation plans and enjoys every minute of it.
Your fiance needs to really get bitten by the Disney bug though.

Sounds like a fun Animal Kingdom day. I love Flame Tree, so yummy. Trying to get it across to my kids to not feed the birds is another thing though

It definitely was a nice end to that part of the trip.
And as far as feeding the birds .... it is kind of fun see parents struggle to tell their kids not to and then do it themselves by brushing crumbs off the table. Not saying you do that, but we had such a laugh when a mum told her kid not to throw pieces of burger bun towards a bird and then she would just brush off all the crumbs and the kid just looked at her and told her off. It was hilarious.

How nice to have such a great dinner with good friends

We could not believe how welcome we were at Michelle's house and then the amount of food. We spent about three hours at the table, but everything was SO delicious!

Aww sounds delicious and how amazing you got to see some friends and have dinner together while in Florida!

This trip it was all about friends and Michelle really outdid herself with her invitation. Being at their home gave us all time to relax, catch up on things and share a lot of laughs.

What a nice and relaxing dinner with good friends

We are truly blessed with the friends we have made through Disney and the DISboards. That is what we call the true Disney Magic - making friends for life and spending time with them, even outside of the parks.

I always love reading your trip reports because you spend so much time at Disney that you are able to tour at a leisurely pace. I'm always rush, rush, rush that I don't take time to stop and smell the roses so to speak. I need a do over.

We had our fair share of rush, rush, rush, but once you have been for a certain amount of visits it's easier to slow down and those long trips really help to unwind, enjoy the resorts and just hop to a park for a few hours.
It's hard first to pace yourself, but I am pretty sure, if you try it and have gotten to a certain age, you will stick with the leisurely pace.

Recnetly discovered your trip report and enjoying it. Thats some holiday you booked and looking forward to reading more of it

to my trip report. I am glad you have enjoyed it so far - there is lots more to come and some pretty nice surprises as well.

2 farewells in one 1 day can be a lot. It's good you got to spend time with friends though during your trip.

Funnily enough we had had so much time at the beginning of our trip, but time just flew by and it was sad to have to say goodbye to our happy place, even though we were moving on to more happy places. But spending one of our last evenings there with Michelle was such a wonderful experience. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 15, August 17

I can’t believe this is our view - Part 1

We didn’t get up early that day and took our time to finish off leftovers for breakfast, then we checked everywhere for forgotten items and packed up the few pieces that were still around.
We hauled the four big pieces of luggage down to the car and drove it to bell services to send it off to Bay Lake Tower, the last resort we would stay at during the first part of our vacation. A few minutes later we returned to our villa, took out the trash and finished off a last drink before we took our carry ons to the car, closed the door behind us and went to the car to leave Old Key West.
Since we were pretty sure there was no way a room at Bay Lake Tower would be ready in the morning we had decided to spend most of the morning at Disney Springs. So we drove there, went to the lime garage and parked our car. We arrived there at around half past 10 and Disney Springs was still empty.

We walked over to the World of Disney and had a good look around. Tom insisted on asking about a special Pandora bead I was looking for but it had been sold out, so we walked over to some of the other new shops and looked for it. We then walked over to the newer part of the Springs and looked around the new shops and restaurants.

Before we knew it, it was noon and we decided to look for a restaurant to have lunch. Now, a lot of new restaurants had opened since we had been in Orlando last in March and one of them was D-Luxe Burger. There are not many burger restaurants in Austria apart from the usual quick service ones, so this was something that had peeked our interest.
We walked around for a while and could not find it.
So we walked back quite a way to pick up a map and then finally, having directions, we found the restaurant. Thankfully there were some people ahead of us, so we had time to check out the menu

and work out how things worked there. And then we placed our order, were handed a receipt and a beeper and sent off to find a table. We went to the room at the back, found a booth and got settled in.

Tom went to get some drinks and then we just sat there waiting for our food and taking in the restaurant. Soon our beeper went off and I went to pick up our food. Tom had ordered the

Barbecue Classic Burger, a beef patty topped with a fried onion ring, smoked Gouda, bacon, barbecue sauce, onion and lettuce, while I was even less adventurous and had ordered the

Classic Cheeseburger, a beef patty topped with cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle and we both had opted for small fries. We got two dipping sauces with it, Chipotle Mayo and Curry ketchup. The burgers were really good, even though hard to eat, and the fries were just wonderful, crisp on the outside and soft inside. And the burgers as well as the fries were generous orders. We sat there for quite a while

enjoying our food before we headed out into the heat again. We walked through Disney Springs and passed a DVC center, where we were greeted and asked to come in as they wanted to explain everything to us. To their great surprise we told them that we were already members and were given some lovely stickers.

To be continued ....​

 

[KathyM2]

Sounds like a nice leisurely morning at DS so far!

 

[Disneyhayes]

I've read from a few people that the portions at D-luxe were rather large. How did Tom like his burger? It's sounds delicious

 

[rdkeim]

Caught up with your TR! I'm mostly a lurker but I really enjoy reading about your adventures. What a nice, long vacation! Sounds like you have a lot to look forward to even after you move on from Disney. I'll be following along!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Hi Karin! I'm all caught up again! Thanks for waiting.

How nice you could have a long relaxed evening with Michelle and family! I'm glad you got some of the cake.

Those burgers look really good. Looking forward to more. Must be almost time for your next vacation.

 

[dizneeat]

Sounds like a nice leisurely morning at DS so far!

It was! Not crowded and easy to move, if only we had looked at a map beforehandwe had to do a few d-tours. But it was a really nice morning.

I've read from a few people that the portions at D-luxe were rather large. How did Tom like his burger? It's sounds delicious

The burgers were quite big and filling - thank god we only had had leftovers for breakfast. The fries were huge and very yummy. Well, since you asked how Tom liked his burger ...... he made it a point to return this summer hope that answers your question.

Caught up with your TR! I'm mostly a lurker but I really enjoy reading about your adventures.

Glad you enjoy reading about our vacations. Very happy that you came out of lurkdome.

What a nice, long vacation! Sounds like you have a lot to look forward to even after you move on from Disney. I'll be following along

It was a really wonderful vacation. And there were a lot of other wonderful Disney adventures to come our way.

Hi Karin! I'm all caught up again! Thanks for waiting.

No problem! But now that I know you are here, I might sneak in another update.

How nice you could have a long relaxed evening with Michelle and family! I'm glad you got some of the cake.

It was such a blessing to be able to go and visit with them. They are the nicest people and so welcoming. We loved spending time with them.
As for the cake - Angelina LOVES Mickey and we thought in those circumstances a Mickey head cake would be perfect. Little did we know that she was going to claim it all to herself. It was so funny when Vito showed her the cake and her eyes all lit up.
The cake was super yummy, very chocolatey - chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling covered in chocolate ganache, , so moist, but you could only eat a small piece.

Those burgers look really good. Looking forward to more. Must be almost time for your next vacation.

The burgers were really good - hard to eat as they were pretty big and the fries were so good. Loved the dipping sauces as well and we are looking forward to having another one of their burgers in a little over 90 days. It's coming up quickly, and we are so looking forward to it.

 

[Pinkocto]

I thought I had replied but it must have booted me out before accepting the other day.

Your morning at AK was full of fun and relaxing. Very annoying people in front of you at Flametree. It always amazes me people don't spend the time in line deciding what they want. Unless they can't read the menu??? It just doesn't make sense.

How lovely to spend the evening with Michelle and her family. The meal sounds like an absolute feast!

Your morning in an empty Disney Springs sounds quite lovely. Aren't those Lego creations something else!

 

[Pinkocto]

Yes, I think it was! We really loved that stateroom from the very beginning (esp. since it has 626 in it )
But for OUR cruise we will be pretty far apart. You are on the other end of the ship - but then it will give us some exercise to walk off those calories.

I am so pleased we snagged this stateroom, it is monstrous!

626 just makes me smile every time, that little Alien is fantastic!

I have already planned for the Brown Derby Lounge for us! I am pretty sure you'll enjoy it as much as we did. So looking forward to it.

Excellent! That will be great fun

 

[franandaj]

I'm amazed with how much you two move around. I don't mind it, but Fran hates resort hopping, the few hours in the day where you are homeless drive her crazy!

D-luxe Burger looks good! I'm sure we would split one instead of ordering our own. There are so many new places there that I want to try!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I spent a lot of time at Disney Springs on our past 2 May trips and it was really nice to get away from the heat of the parks and just relax and walk around. There are so many new stores, it's so hard to see everything! I also like how there are some photopass photographers at Disney Springs now. I didn't notice them before. Also if you go to the Coca cola experience you can meet the polar bear and it will be loaded onto your memory maker for you. D-Luxe burger looks surprisingly good so that will be on our radar for our August trip.

 

[momof3princes]

I can't wait to explore Disney Springs on my next trip, so many great shops and restaurants!
Love how you try so many different resorts, so fun!

 

[jenseib]

How nice to spend the evening with friends. It sounds like she is an excellent cook. My mouth was watering as you described it all.

I ate at Dluxe in Feb and it was really good....we got milkshakes too. It was hard to eat it all though...huge portions!

 

[MomofaPrincessLover]

I'm so jealous of you!

 

[dizneeat]

I thought I had replied but it must have booted me out before accepting the other day.

Happens to me quite often.

Your morning at AK was full of fun and relaxing. Very annoying people in front of you at Flametree. It always amazes me people don't spend the time in line deciding what they want. Unless they can't read the menu??? It just doesn't make sense.

Ak was fun that morning, even though we were sad we had to say goodbye to the parks. Ah, don't remind me of those people at Flametree and as annoying as it is for the people waiting behind them, I really pitied the person behind the cashier's desk, as she had the patient of a saint and even apologized for having to call out a manager.

How lovely to spend the evening with Michelle and her family. The meal sounds like an absolute feast!

It was soooooo nice. They are such nice people. I really hope that they can join us one day when you are at WDW with us. You would love them too. And she IS an awesome cook - the food was really wonderful, so tasty.

Your morning in an empty Disney Springs sounds quite lovely. Aren't those Lego creations something else!

It was so different when it was empty. So nice and peaceful. We did go once later in the day and it was swamped. So DS in the morning it is for us. And as far as Lego goes, I was pretty happy we don't have anyone who "collects" it, as there were just too many awesome things to buy.

I am so pleased we snagged this stateroom, it is monstrous!

Even more reason to come visit.

I'm amazed with how much you two move around. I don't mind it, but Fran hates resort hopping, the few hours in the day where you are homeless drive her crazy!

That comes from not being able to make our mind up. No, honestly we did not start out with so many resorts, but we tweaked here and there and it worked out easier for us that way. I do understand that Fran might not like it, but as long as Disney was hauling my luggage from one resort to another and we were free to go and play it was okay - and it gave us enough time to wander offsite or to Disney Springs.

D-luxe Burger looks good! I'm sure we would split one instead of ordering our own. There are so many new places there that I want to try!

You definitely could split the order. I guess next time we will split the order of fries, not sure I will give up that burger - they were really good. Tom asked to go back this summer.

I spent a lot of time at Disney Springs on our past 2 May trips and it was really nice to get away from the heat of the parks and just relax and walk around.

We really enjoyed exploring the area, it looked so different and in the morning, even though some of the stores were still closed, it was so relaxing as there were little to no people.

There are so many new stores, it's so hard to see everything!

There definitely are, so many that we got lost. Guess next time we will have to look at the map before heading there.

I also like how there are some photopass photographers at Disney Springs now. I didn't notice them before

There are? There were none when we were there. That is really good to know. Thanks for sharing.

Also if you go to the Coca cola experience you can meet the polar bear and it will be loaded onto your memory maker for you.

We have to check out the Coca Cola Experience - we never made it there last time. And I think a photo with the polar bear would be fun.

D-Luxe burger looks surprisingly good so that will be on our radar for our August trip.

The burgers were really good. They are freshly made, and big enough for two if you are not VERY hungry.

 

[dizneeat]

I can't wait to explore Disney Springs on my next trip, so many great shops and restaurants!

Just make sure you have enough time - there is so much new there, we barely saw a tiny bit of it, even though we strolled through for quite a bit. And bring a good appetite, there are lots of yummy new places to eat at. I am really looking forward to Aristocrepes and the Poutine place.

Love how you try so many different resorts, so fun!

When we had first started planning we had far less resorts on our list, but then with time it just grew, and we are lazy, we moved to our last resort because we didn't want to drive around too much on our last park night.

How nice to spend the evening with friends. It sounds like she is an excellent cook. My mouth was watering as you described it all.

It was such an awesome experience. Michelle and her family are such nice and generous people. You would think we have been friends forever and just met in 2012 when we cruised together. She is an unbelievable cook. We were in foody heaven.

I ate at Dluxe in Feb and it was really good....we got milkshakes too. It was hard to eat it all though...huge portions!

Couldn't agree with you more!

I'm so jealous of you!