Split-Split Stay - Turning 21 at Disney (sort of)

[Chuck96]

My wife is busy working (very hard) for the first three weeks of the month for JCCIC (Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies), so that's no fun for her. To get out of her hair, my son and I are headed to Disney for a week to celebrate his 21st birthday (which was on Christmas Day). He loves Disney, and he is excited to finally be there and be "of age". We can grind the schedule a little harder without his mother there, and I can finally test a split-stay.

We are checking into SSR on Sunday (5th Jan), shifting to OKW on Wednesday (8th Jan), and finally spending one last night at BRV on Friday night (10th Jan) before heading back home on Saturday. Hence the double split. I booked pretty late, but I am happy to finally be staying at SSR and OKW. I paid the extra point per night to stay in Congress Park, so we can walk to Disney Springs. Here is the schedule to far:

5 Jan: Disney Springs, undecided for lunch (we land just after noon), Morimoto for dinner (SSR)
6 Jan: DAK and then MK (and maybe EPCOT late) (SSR)
7 Jan: Universal Day (no reservation yet, but maybe Wine Bar George for late dinner - unless we find a CityWalk option) (SSR)
8 Jan: Disney Springs day, sleep in at SSR, wcheck out, walk over to DS, Boathouse for lunch, Citricos for dinner (he LOVES their steak), walk over and see the new Poly Tower, maybe grab a drink) (OKW)
9 Jan: DHS and EPCOT, Olivia's Cafe for dinner (OKW)
10 Jan: DAK and MK, Geyser Point for dinner (BRV)
11 Jan: DS (or a resort Breakfast somewhere) in the AM, then HOME

I probably would have preferred our down day to not be a "split" day, but the availability didn't work out that way. I didn't want the down day to be Tuesday or Thursday, so this is how I worked it out. We've never done Geyser Point, or Olivia's, or Morimoto, or even The Boathouse (which amazes everyone - we're usually Jaleo people). Kept a little dinner flexibility for Monday and Tuesday nights. Open to suggestions! Anyways, I'm fully a fossil at 50, with a young energetic 21 year old to manage. Wife will FOMO away at home. I probably won't be able to do in situ reports as the days progress, but I'll try, and then do a gagger once I return home. Excited about staying at "new" resorts for us (except Wilderness, we love that place and have stayed there a few times in cash rooms), and trying some new restaurants. Neither of us are BIG drinkers, but niether are we teetotallers either. Interested to see how switching hotels works out. I've always wanted to do it, and my wife never has This is my big chance.

 

[Chuck96]

We are almost a week back from the big 21st birthday celebration boys trip (more like old man and young man trip). I managed to get some day-by-day notes jotted down, and I intend on doing a single post for each single day visited - which I will write over the next week or so. But ultimately, the trip went well, I learned some things, stayed at a few new resorts, and my son had a great time on his first adult visit.

 

[Chuck96]

Day One - 5 January - Sunday - Travel to Orlando

Thanks for the patience, been very busy on the return, so I'm glad I took notes. We had a mid-morning flight at Reagan National Airport (DCA) just outside of DC. My wife (FOMOing in a big way) dropped my son and I at the airport, ready for JetBlue. Boring flight to MCO (fortunately into the new terminal, which I like much better than the one we'd (all) been using up until 2022), but managed to watch True Grit (2010, Coen Brothers version) on the flight. Not Disney, but spectacular (as always) nonetheless.

After what felt like an interminable wait for our baggage (seriously, it was more than 30 minutes after we deplaned that the luggage conveyer started to move - I'd never waited that long, but little did I know on that sunny Orlando day that I would wait even longer after our return flight). After finally grabbing the stuff, we wandered over to the Rental Car location, and after a bit more waiting, got ourselves into a Hyundai Elantra, which was comfortable to drive, since we all drive Hyundai vehicles as our POVs. We were fairly hungry at the point and decided to head right to Disney Springs to get some JALEO before checking in. I hit that lovely LIME parking, and noticed it was pretty busy. I specifically chose this week to catch the World after the Christmas birds had flown home. I was in for a bit of a surprise. Had a nice lunch at JALEO: my son enjoys the charcuterie there, and I enjoy the Salt Air Margaritas.



Then wandered back to our car and headed over to WINN DIXIE to grab some soda for the week. With three resorts over six days and no rooms close to the mug machines, I decided 20 oz bottles would be sufficient for the room. After our quick trip down International Drive, finally headed to Saratoga Springs (our resort for the first half of this stay). I didn’t book this trip until pretty late, so I had to jigsaw some rooms together over the week. I had always wanted to stay at SSR, because Disney Springs is usually a key part of our trips here. I love to eat, and my wife loves to shop, and I have some pretty fond memories of the place. I first visited all the way back in 1996, when I first saw The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the AMC here (as a recent college grad and Navy student who was stationed here for six months [June-Dec 1996]). Anyways, I had elected for the Congress Park location so we could walk there. I called to request a room close to the walking path, but it was not to be. We were in room 2636, which was about as far as you could be in Congress Park from the walking path! I still liked the room…the pulldown bed was great for my 21 year old, and the view wasn’t too bad. But it was a long walk to DS…we could have swum there faster!







Anyways, we wandered over to DS, to check out the DVC Lounge…our first time there. Disney Springs was even more packed on Sunday night, but we finally found the Gateway, checked in and headed up. Wandered through the Riviera 2BR on display (which was quite snazzy), had a quick soda (no working ice, but beggars can’t be choosers), and grabbed a few pins for my wife. I took a BUNCH of pictures for her throughout the week. She got snowed in right after we left and had plenty of work to do that week, which is why it was only my son and I on the trip. We wanted her to feel included, so we texted her plenty of pictures to keep her with us in spirit! After leaving the lounge we had a few minutes before our reservation, so did some window shopping for his new girlfriend (another big Disney fan).

A first for us, our dinner reservation was at Morimoto’s. I explained to my son how huge Chef Morimoto had been in the early 2000s, as Iron Chef was huge and he was the best of them. We were there for the meat. He got Orange Chicken, and I got the Mongolian filet (we shared). I splurged and got us some Wagyu for his birthday (which was a bit earlier…he is a Christmas baby).



We got a Sake flight (ok, not outstanding), and just had a nice time. I think some NFL games were in progress, so we chatted about that, future traveling, and our week ahead. After dinner, we grabbed a glass of wine from the Wine Bar George walk-up window, wandered through World of Disney on our way to Ghirardelli, and each got a milkshake to finish the night. Enjoyed the walk back to SSR and got ourselves ready for Day Two (MK and AK). Early night.

 

[Chuck96]

Day Two - 6 January - Monday – SSR/DAK/MK/Jiko/SSR

Although I took two ZZZQuil chewies, I woke up at 3:40 AM and could not get back to sleep. I didn’t want to bother my son, so I just read for a while, surfed the internet, and thought about our plans for the day. I had gotten our LLSP rides for early afternoon at MK (a mistake that I would figure out on our next Disney park day on Thursday), so we were going to muscle through the lines at DAK in the morning (we had LLSP for Flight of Passage and Tron that day). The crowds at DS the previous evening gave me pause, and I decided to test drive Premier Pass at DAK. It makes ABSOLUTELY no sense financially to get a PP at DAK – there are only six rides and three shows it makes use of. But I expected to be tired thanks to my early morning. And so with my son still sleeping, I pulled the trigger at 6:25 AM and bought it for DAK that day. It was the cheapest way I could test drive the Premier Pass experience, at our favorite park, and I could let him sleep in a bit. It also changed our morning strategy a bit, for the better. But it was wildly expensive (even for two people…a splurge I likely won’t repeat very often at all). Nonetheless, at around 6:45, I got up and decided to head over and see the main SSR building. It was a brisk walk from my end of Congress Park. Lots of beautiful birds in trees.





I found the laundry room (for later), the closed Senses Spa, and the main pool. I checked out Artists Palette and the little store. Having been up for a while, I was hungry so I grabbed bagel for myself and one to take back for my son. It was getting to be that time, so I walked back to our room (a quick few minutes) so we could head out. As usual, I rented a car for trips within in the bubble. I’m too old (and impatient) to wait for buses, and I like having the freedom a car gives us.

We made it into DAK right after normal opening (i.e. 30 minutes after resort guests could start riding). Pandora lines were already pretty long and growing. It was going to be a busy day at the parks. Secure in our PP, we headed over to Expedition Everest to ride that (non-LL) while the lines were short.



Got an extra ride of EE before starting our “big” PP day with the Safari. Safari was fun, great views of hippos and lions. My son and I got our own row alone, first row. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. We’ve been on it a million times in the last 24 years, but it remains a stalwart favorite. We were on a quick pace for the morning, since I wanted to get to MK by early afternoon, when our LLMP started opening up.



After Safari, we headed to Pandora to knock out the first of our two FoP LL trips. I was curious how the machine would react (since we had a normal LLSP for early afternoon) as well as the LLPP “anytime.” I don’t know how DISTECH® registered the magicband, but it scanned it green. After that ride, we hustled to our reservation at Nomad lounge. Unfortunately, they sat us in the back room (we’d eaten in there before with a Tiffins reservation), so our first Lounge experience was only ok. We got a drink, grabbed a big snack, and enjoyed being off our feet (well, I did...he’s 21, so he probably didn’t even register it). Following our lunch, we headed all the way over to Dinosaur. This was my son’s favorite ride at Disney for a few years, before he got big enough for the coasters. We know it is going away (to be rethemed), so I had already booked a Friday LL. With the PP we had an additional one for Monday. It was super dark, but fun enough anyway.



We came back through EE (with our LL) before heading back to Pandora. Knocked out Na’vi RJ and our second FoP (scanned green this time as well) before heading to the park exit. We also managed to do the Gorilla Trail as well (after the Safari) and got some pretty good looks at a few wonderful gorillas as well as some other wildlife.

Then it was time to head over to MK. Here we were just hitting some classics that I had booked LL for: Tron, Pirates, Tiana’s (his first ride on the retheme), and Haunted Mansion. Crowds were incredibly heavy, so we only did the rides for which we had LL. I did manage to get him some beignets, and he really enjoyed Tiana’s. That said, we got SOAKED and it wasn’t a warm day. We finished at HM (which we often do), and then bickered about dinner for a while. I tried and failed to get Le Cellier, but we both agreed that Jiko sounded great. Got a res for us, and we headed over to AKL.



It’s one of my favorite resorts, and Jiko is one of my favorite restaurants at Disney. We sat down at Victoria Falls to get a pre-dinner drink, but the staff was so busy, we just quietly exited before being seen. Waited a few minutes to get seated for dinner downstairs, but not long enough to get a drink at the small Jiko bar. Once seated in that very comfortable restaurant, my son got a glass of red wine, and I got a Mount Kilamarita (their margarita). No joke, it was probably the best Margarita I’ve ever had. Just incredibly tasty.



We probably overordered, because we were pretty hungry. My son got the Peri-Peri chicken, which wasn’t quite spicy enough for him. I got the filet, which was outstanding, and the bobotie mac/cheese. I liked it well enough, but it wasn’t quite for me. We each got a 3 oz pour of one of the South African reds as a dessert, and both were outstanding. My favorite meal of the week. My son’s fave was elsewhere. After that, we headed back, mostly so I could get some sleep (I’d been awake about 17 hours at that point). We had an early morning for Universal.

 

[pinkxray]

Thanks for sharing about your trip. We are taking a family trip next fall and short on points, so SSR it will be. My daughter is turning 21 the month before we go, so I’m looking forward to checking out some lounges we have never been to before.

 

[Chuck96]

Day Three - 7 January - Tuesday – SSR/Universal/Bigfire/Jaleo/SSR

We were both up pretty early Tuesday morning, even though Universal would not be open to us until 9. Nonetheless, we got ourselves ready and headed out a little before 7:45. This was the coldest day of the week, and certainly the coldest morning. Honestly, it was probably the coldest I’d ever been in Orlando – hovered around freezing for much of the early morning. We arrived and parked and wandered towards CityWalk to get our entry and express passes. It was quite frigid and we ended up inside of the Epic Universe preview shop (between Vivo Italian and Bigfire) for about twenty minutes before wandering over to the entrance. They had a beautiful scale model of Epic Universe taking up most of the floor space. I took about a million pictures of it. I love models, and I love monsters, and I love theme parks.





At around 8:30, we headed over to get in line for the entrance. It was a relatively bad experience. We were all suitably lined up behind a dozen or so entrances. At 8:50 or so, the workers monitoring the back of line announced that everyone needed to squeeze into the front portion, but somehow stay in line. As that was an impossible request, all that happened was that people who had shown up well after us were pushed up into the space to our left and right, effectively moving us (and everyone else who’d showed up alongside us) well back in line from where we’d queued up when we had arrived almost twenty minutes earlier. I guess I could have rushed up out of line myself, but I am vehemently against line jumping, so I just ate the turd sandwich. To make matters even more unfair, once our gates opened, the Universal hotel guests kiosks to our left starting letting general admission folks enter at about 9:02, so folks just walking up ran over there and got in 10-15 minutes before we did. It wasn’t organized, and it wasn’t fair, so that was frustrating. Oh well.

We hopped in and headed right for Velocicoaster. I wanted to get my Express Pass value, so we road that twice, our face freezing in the wind. It’s such a fun and exhilarating ride, though. Great start to the day, once we were in. I won’t bury the lede, Universal has grown enough that one day (even with Express) is insufficient to cover it. Next time we visit, we will allot more time to classic universal, much less Epic Universe. Nonetheless, this trip was a single day, so we tried to be as efficient as possible. After VC, we headed over to Hogsmeade, rode Forbidden Journey, grabbed some Butterbeer, and checked the wait time for Hagrids. It was a reasonable 90 minutes, so we jumped in. Unfortunately, after 70 minutes, the ride went down for about 25 minutes, which we toughed out in the small room before the final snaking queue room. My kidneys were not happy, but we eventually got our ride. After that, we hopped the Hogwarts Express (short line) over to the Studios. First thing off the train was riding The Mummy twice. I don’t get much out of this one, but my son loves it. By then we were hungry, and not much looked great. The park was pretty busy, so we just grabbed a pretzel. I had never ridden the Transformers ride, but decided I wanted to check that box. So we experienced that (basically just the Spidey ride with Bay Transformers), but overall, I liked it. Not bad. I was excited to see a Grimlock popcorn bucket (he’s the Dinobot leader, one of my favorite toys from my youth in the 80s) afterwards but refrained from buying it. We then headed over to Diagon Alley for some shopping and Gringotts.



And another butterbeer. I enjoyed Gringotts this time more than usual. I dug the statue outside of the lockers. Never noticed he was standing ona stack of gold coins like a boss. We explored a bit, visiting the Borgin and Burkes store (which we’d never been in). And then decided to head back to IoA. The wait for the return train was quite a bit longer. Our dinner reservation was getting closer, but I decided to get one more ride in: Velocicoaster for the third time. Still a blast. We then walked over to the Marvel area for a while, but didn’t ride anything. Just window shopped some stores. I had hoped to move our dinner back an hour to get a little more time in the park, but it wasn’t meant to be.



Having never eaten in Citywalk, my son got recommendations from friends, and we ate at Bigfire that evening. It’s essentially a midwestern steakhouse, upscaled a bit. Food was decent, service was quite good. Night was still chilly. Since it was early, after getting back to SS (our last night there), we decided to walk back over to Disney Springs one last time and get a post-dinner snack (Jaleo again). My son was still getting those glasses of red. Sat at the exact table my wife and I were seated at the previous September.



Nonetheless, day four was pretty exciting (for me). A down day of Disney Springs, and moving to another new (to us) resort – the original, Old Key West.

 

[Chuck96]

Day Four – 8 January – Wednesday – Springs/Laundry/Boathouse/OKW/Citricos

As usual, I was hoping to sleep in without any early morning obligation, but woke up early anyway. The price of having a dog at home that usually get walked when the sun comes up. I wanted my son to sleep for a while, so I decided to go get some laundry done! It was empty the entire time I was there – it was a Wednesday at 9 AM, so I’m not surprised. But it was nice refreshing our inventory of clean socks, pants, and some drawers. It lets us change a bit more frequently. During the washer/dryer cycle, I walked the main building, got some breakfast, and bought our obligatory resort magnet. Once it was done, I went back and rousted my son for checkout. Although spending the day at DS, we were going to load the car, park near the walkway over to DS, and enjoy our day. It was warmer than Tuesday, which was a relief. Still cool, but not quite cold. While in the main building (near check-in), I finally figured out that this was runDisney week, which would probably explain the crowds we had experienced on Monday (and would remain until we left). I booked this 2 man vacation on the hop in the late fall, so I just wanted to be on the other side of K-12 starting back up. Didn’t check for any other big events. But that is ok.



Took a few pictures of the room (to show my wife) before we left. I have not succumbed yet to add-on-it is. I’ve dabbled with scouting out resale contracts (mostly at AK, WL, or BC), but never got farther. I had not really considered SSR…until our visit. Great price point for the points, and great points cost for the rooms, and very solid availability. As I mentioned earlier, we are Disney Springs people, so a resort close to that is pretty attractive. If we decide to get more points, SSR is near the top of the list. Overall, I dug the resort, and would probably try to stay Preferred again. It’s nice to walk to DS and the main building. I never tried the restaurant/bar, having heard it was only OK. Please let me know if I’m wrong…the menu looked good. I was sad to be leaving, but it was time to finally split-stay. As I said in the lead post, I bit the bullet and decided we’d split on our “down” day, which meant we’d be rambling around with no hotel for a few hours. But I needn’t have worried.

We entered DS having done plenty of window shopping the night before. My son wanted to get a few items for his girlfriend, so we went shopping for him in advance of our lunch reservation. It’s amazing to me that we had never tried the Boathouse. I realized from a little pre-vacation research how well-respected it is, and I love seafood. So this was probably one of the events on this trip I was most excited for. It was quiet when we came in, which was pretty much right after it opened. The rolls were as good as we had heard and read.



I was a bit nervous to try the oysters. I’m pretty finicky and they were certainly pricey. I decided to get four. The oysters I had had at Morimoto on arrival night weren't that good. Well, these were absolutely wonderful and I ended up ordering even more. Yes, they are expensive with the Disney tax, but they were outstanding. My son got the filet sliders and said he liked them, but he didn’t finish them. I had one, but I was there for the seafood. Long story short, we will be back at the Boathouse on most visits. After our delicious lunch (with great drinks as well), we started another DS wander. Took pictures of the some of the themed Christmas trees. Went to the huge Coca Cola store, and got some drinks on the “roof.” I actually had not had a Coke Float in decades, so I ordered one. It was magnificent, and I should be ashamed it took me so long to get it. You can see my kid on his phone – I guess the mid-4 figure vacation in his honor wasn’t entertaining enough. Constant. But he was happy and that was the point.



We finally did our shopping, since we weren’t sure we’d be back…the next two days were parks and new resorts. Walking over had been a breeze. Finally, our room at OKW was ready. I’d been anticipating this for some time. I had never even really seen OKW, but I knew a lot of stalwarts loved it. We walked back to our car, said our SSR goodbyes, and drove the very short road down to OKW. Stopped at the main building to check it out. I quite liked what I saw. My son looked at the Menu for Olivias (where we had a rez on Thursday night) and told me there was nothing he was really excited about. So I ended up cancelling our rez ☹ I’ll take my wife at some point, because I thought it looked pretty, pretty good myself. Checked out the pool, got my bearings, and drove out to our room. And it was a bit of a drive. We were definitely going to be on the fringes, but that was fine by me. Sort of.



After hunting down our closest ice machine (it was out of order), I finally just paid for some machine cokes, and we got ready to head over to Citricos. This is my son’s favorite restaurant on property – by a wide margin. It’s also at our home resort, so it was going to be nice to visit (even though I had just been there back in September). We drove over but were in for a (not so great) surprise. And I understand it intellectually, but it still sticks in my craw. We pulled up about 30 minutes before our dinner reservation, and the front gate handed me a temporary parking pass that aligned with our dinner reservation (I think it was either two or three hours). I didn’t mind a temp pass, but it pushed us across the street. Now the weather was alright, but it did make me feel like a bit of a second-class citizen (which I admittedly am). Even more frustrating as VGF is my home resort. The nerve!





But we found a parking spot and walked the few hundred yards to the front. I got us a drink at the bar as we waited to be seated. We’d eaten at Citricos before, but this was our first time in enormous circular back room! We both ordered the filet mignon, and my son had this amazing after dinner cocktail (pretty sure it was the Royal Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos Tokaji-Hegyalja, Hungary). This was his “official” birthday dinner with me, so we splurged a bit. Afterwards, we wanted to walk the grounds a bit, including a quick jaunt over to the newly opened Poly Tower. We were also fortunate that the grand piano was being (excellently) played in the lobby, so we stopped to listen to that for a few minutes. As we were winding past the Wedding Prison Chapel, fireworks started, so we got to enjoy those on the short path over to the Tower. We stayed on the lake side of the Tower to enjoy them for a moment, before browsing the lobby and finally walking over to the main Poly lobby. My son wanted to grab a Dole Whip, and we finished the fireworks there. It was a lovely evening, as filled with Disney energy as we could have hoped for. We had an early morning the next morning (DHS), so we hoofed it back to VGF for one last lobby lookaround before heading back to the car and to our OKW room.

 

[Lori Duck]

We are planning my son's 21st birthday trip for November, so I'm watching your excellent post! Wondering if there will be any "drinking ATW" at Epcot!

 

[Chuck96]

Day Five – 9 January – Thursday – DHS/Skyliner/EPCOT/Riviera/DHS/TotW Lounge/S71

Woke up pretty early for DHS, and amazingly my son did as well. Since we were up, we got dressed (warmly again) and got going. It’s got a few of my kid’s favorite rides, and I expected to Skyline between DHS and EPCOT, so we wanted to be there before opening, and heck even before Deluxe guests could get on the rides. We succeeded and beelined to the pre-opening line for RnR. My son really loves this ride, and I wanted him to get a ride or two on it this trip, not knowing if he would be back before the Muppets retheme (which won’t bother me in the least…but this might have been his first coaster coaster, so he will have some feelings about it). It was a beautiful, if chilly, morning. Success. Towards the end of our wait, they eventually started a second RnR line (for regular opening) next to us.





True to Disney form, they started letting guests in and on a few minutes early, so we walked right through the screen pre-show right into the queue. We were on and through before the end of our 30 minute Deluxe hotel window. So he ran to ToT (alone, I no longer take joy in drop rides) to get a quick ride in before we headed further into the park. I’m pretty certain I had a Slinky res, so we headed over for other rides. Found that Toy Story Mania had a short line just after official opening time, so we jumped in that. Since it is usually three of us, I was happy to finally ride with my son so we could talk trash to one another. We are usually there as a triad, and I almost always let my wife and son ride together. It was nice to finally be next to him. I lost, but it was close, which isn’t bad for a 50 year old gamer with his 21 year old gamer son.



Lines for the other TS rides were growing rapidly, so we decided to wander over to GE. After my not great experience with Smuggler’s Run in the fall, I wasn’t pushing to ride that or Rise, and my son was content to simply walk through GE. I got my obligatory Millenium Falcon picture (it is the Millenium Falcon, after all) and we wandered over towards the Star Wars ride we do like…Star Tours. Lines were getting long, but this still said 5-10 minutes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. It was closer to 25 minutes, so we heard a few heated guests arguing with CMs. I wasn’t happy about it either, but it wasn’t the CMs fault. Disney is usually pretty good about the wait times, so they must have been having a rough morning. We weren’t thrilled with this ride…I forget which scenes we got, but it wasn’t what we wanted. When we rode it again (shortly thereafter) with our LL, we got a great set…I know it included Hoth, so we decided to roll with near perfection and not try our luck again. After that, it was back to TSM for our LL ride…I think I lost again, but it was pretty close. One last LL for the day, and we had a wait. We headed over to try for a character greeting. My wife absolutely loves Edna Mode, and she was doing meet and greets. I decided a picture of our son with Edna would make her day, so we got into the short line and waited our turn. Well worth it. After that, headed to our last LL of the day at DHS (until that evening…I had gotten one last RnR for early evening after we Skylined back) – Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. This is a new favorite…the one ride I feel like we have to do when we visit DHS. It is creative and whimsical and puts you in a classic cartoon in all the right ways. The kind of ride you only get from Disney.





Then we were off to EPCOT. I always enjoy the Skyliner. It’s a nice peaceful transition, and I prefer entering EPCOT from the International Gateway. That way, we can get right to the drinks and food. We went right to France for some crepes and a glass of wine. It was just past noon, and the day was comfortable now (not warm, but comfy), and we were just going to walk the country showcases, get a few drinks, and look around. We did get a violet sake. Somewhere in all of that, we did get a ride on Guardians, got a pretzel and some beer in Germany, and wandered through quite a few stores. Our phones were close to dying, so we Skylined over to Riviera to look around (I don’t want to own there – price per point is a bit too high, and points chart also a bit too high – but I do hope to stay there at some point). And get a fuel rod. This got our phones back to safe, and then we rode back to DHS, let my son enjoy one more RnR (though I think he is going back with his Mom in May so he’s yet to have his last ride on it – we didn’t know that then), and then headed over to Contemporary for our dinner rez. We were quite early, and I was worried (after the previous night’s parking policy with VGF) we’d have to circle or wait. But they let us right in. I parked over by the BLT. We had time to run up to TotW and get a drink! Hadn’t been there in some time, but it was nice to head up, sit in the lounge, and then catch some views outside, including of Tomorrowland, the A-frame, and the new Poly Tower. We were well before the fireworks, so it wasn’t busy.



Then we were off to Steakhouse 71. I liked this ok a few years ago, but I was hankering for a burger and had read that they had one of the best on property. But there was no burger on the menu. Alas, our server told me it was still available, and I was quite happy finally getting it. My son got a great steak and a big piece of chocolate cake, so the evening was a success. Back to OKW to pack, since Friday was our last full day there, and we were moving (yet again), this time to Copper Creek.

So here is where I share the news: we didn’t like OKW. I know many people love it, especially those that have owned there for decades. I really wanted to like it, but I felt out of the bubble. The room was nice, although an outside light shone into the bathroom all night through a small circular window. I think my issue is that it is so spread out. That’s no doubt a feature for some people, but I like to leave my room and walk to the lobby. I like to be on the campus. Anyways, I’m still glad I stayed, and I absolutely need to hit Olivias at some point. I just don’t believe I’ll be staying at OKW again.

 

[Chuck96]

Day 6 & 7 – 10/11 Jan – Fri & Sat - DAK/Tree/Tiffins/EPCOT/Picture/Copper/Boat/MK/Geyser/Outro

Figured I’d handle the last 36 hours in one post, foregoing my established 1 post = 1 day rubric. I’m also sorry it took so long to post the last few days. It’s been a rough first quarter of the year. The second quarter started with a surprise Disney Cruise so that’s good. It’s part of what motivated me to get this finished.

Day six started at OKW and finished at Copper Creek, but it was a pretty big park day in-between. I made the foolish decision to "three park" it on the last day. Mission accomplished, but with so much travel time between everything, we just got bite sized things done at each park. Still a great day, but a bit exhausting. I had mentioned elsewhere I thought it a good idea to ease out of vacations (which we did in the fall of 2021 at Beach Club) with a slightly slower and calmer day on the last full day. I should have taken my own advice. It was productive, at least.

We started at DAK (our favorite park) to do the faves. Crowds remained pretty hefty, so we just rode what we had LLs for (with one exception). We hit the Safari first (since I believe mornings are best for that experience), and we got a panoply: hippos, rhinos, giraffes, elephants, a cheetah, and lions…pretty great experience. After that, we went to EE, a coaster we always love. Then we stopped by Triceratops-Spin, since they were shutting it down on Sunday (this was Friday). We were definitely too old to be on it, but tough.





My son has some S’Mores-like hot cocoa that he really wanted, so we got him that before heading back into Dinoland. Then onto what I thought would be my son’s last ride on Dinosaur, but I believe he will get back to Disney (not once, but TWICE – he has a Mom trip next month, and a girlfriend trip in late July) before they shut it down for the IJ refurb. Well, it was certainly my last ride on it. After that, I wanted to take the walking path below the Tree of Life. Hadn’t done that in many years and ended up really, REALLY enjoying it. There are some beautiful and creative sculptures that you can get quite close to. Then our last FoP of the trip. We had gotten lucky with seating and/or glasses earlier in the week, but not so lucky this time. Still pretty blurry. I need to register a gentle complaint about that. Anyways, then we got a quick beer at Pongu Pongu and finished up DAK with a lunch at Tiffins (ordering the exact same thing – butter chicken).





EPCOT was next, and we hit it on the sprint, just trying to get a few drinks, and let my son try the pizza from the window at Pizza al Taglio. The line was huge, but it was worth it. I got my favorite picture of the trip. It’s probably a bit hard to explain: watching your 21 year old only child eat a slice of pizza near the end of a week with him at his favorite place in the world when he doesn’t know you are looking (because I went to try and get a limoncello but the line was too long – I snapped this walking back to him). We went through a few of the shops to see if there was something we wanted – saw lots of great stuff, but nothing we needed to buy. Got one last ride on Guardians in, before driving over and checking into Copper Creek. We’ve stayed at WL several times. It’s a beautiful resort. We’d never stayed ay BRV or CC, though. We got a pretty nice room, and then immediately beelined over to the boat.







It was pretty nice taking the boat from WL to MK. Peaceful, and I got some great looks at the Contemporary and the Seven Seas Lagoon. We weren’t going to have much time at MK, but we wanted to get some favorites in – a dole whip for my son and a ride on HM. Our ride on HM ended up being quite a bit longer than expected. It shut down a few times during our ride, so I spent several minutes looking at the dueling paintings in the ballroom (that’s why I took the picture – I would never do that ordinarily).



After that, we just wandered a bit, before heading back to the boat. We were both pretty tired. I had really wanted to try out Geyser Point (and there were some bowl games on). Geyser Point was alright, but we ended up waiting about 30 minutes to be seated (they said it would be 10), and then they didn’t have the one thing I wanted to order. Also had to get up and switch laundry out once. Still, not bad. I’d like to try it again. We got ourselves packed, settled in for some football, and got ready for checkout day.

I was up early (again), but wanted to let my son sleep in for a while. We were going to stop by DS on the way out (a tradition, a depressing one), so I went over to QS and got a mediocre breakfast. Then I walked the beautiful lobby for a minute or two, got my son up, and headed to the car! Unfortunately, we had to sit and wait and DS until 11 for the Dole Whip stand to open, but that’s ok. Draggggging out the goodbye. But he got his Dole Whip, then we filled up the rental vehicle and headed to the airport. It was absolutely freezing at home, and my wife had to work on the 12th (Sunday), but we could at least rest one day before I headed back to work.

We sort of threw this together, and I tried to get my wife to come a few times (even on day one or two when she was frustrated at her work commitment). In the end, I am thrilled we did it. It was a special way to spend a week with your child – even if that child is 21 (but still loves Disney). I dug the split-staying (to a point) and would do it again if I could get two complementary resort stays that made sense for what we were doing. But I’d much rather split on definite park days that work within your plans. I am occasionally stalking those SSR or AKL points, but still content where we are with the points we have. Thank you to any person who read any of these. I appreciate you!

 

[Mich123]

Great report! I’m a fan of the split stay, my family not so much. Heading to OKW next week for a short stay—kind of worried about the resort layout but hoping it will be ok for 2 nights.

 

[Lori Duck]

Thank you for this fun report! Such a sweet relationship you have with your son, and it’s lovely that you could make so many memories in one trip! I don’t mind split stays as much as my son does, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Thank you for sharing.