The $6,688.00 Disney World Trip - It's a wrap 6/30, Has it really been a year? 3/2 Link to new TR 4/18

[franandaj]

The $6,688 Disneyworld Trip​

Welcome to another franandaj Trip Report. You might be wondering about the title...don’t worry, we will get to that eventually, but for now you’ll have to be content to follow along. Before I get to the introductions, for those who don’t already know who we are, let’s get into a little bit of background as to how this trip came about and why it was planned in the manner that it was.


So a while back, say 2018, we had decided that we weren’t going to visit WDW in 2020. We had two trips planned for 2019, we had visited the World for a day and a half in 2018 before a cruise. We went with my parents for over a week last March, and we came back in October of 2019 for a bonus trip due to a conference we had scheduled in Orlando. Knowing this, between December 2018 and February 2019, I rented out all our remaining points for our September 2019 UY. We were a little short on cash and since we weren’t going to need them anyways, it was a great way to make a win win situation. Right?


If you were following along on the last TR with the conference, you’ll have realized that Fran was not pleased with the brevity of that trip to WDW. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that our previous trip had been with my parents. On that trip, she didn’t get to do exactly what she wanted to do, you might remember that she feigned illness to go back to the room, and then I GPS tracked her all over Epcot shopping and “doing her thing.” Well, take that experience of her freedom limited by family in tow, and combine that with a trip where we only had 4 full days in the parks, and that’s a frustrated Fran. She wanted to shop at her leisure, visit Trader Sam’s maybe more than once, get a lot of caramels in Germany, and so many other things. But with only 5 nights and needing to catch up on sleep from a couple stressful weeks before we left, she didn’t get hardly anything-she-wanted-to done. So she laid down the law.


“We are NOT skipping a visit to WDW in 2020!!!”


Now this was a bit of a problem because when we had made that decision, I had already rented out all our 2019 UY points. So we needed to borrow from 2020, not a big problem, we sort of have enough points to go around. But there was another situation. We don’t visit between May and September, it’s just too darned hot. We have a cruise in April, and we don’t like to travel more than twice in one month. We have a weekend at the Grand in March, plus she needs that time to work on the taxes. Band Concerts usually take place in late October, plus we’ve been to F&W in 2019 and 2017, I wanted a change.


It was either going to be February or November. I really didn’t want to wait until November to tell the truth. I kinda wanted to come back sooner too! So I began looking at DVC accessible one bedrooms with availability. It was really hard to find one where we didn’t have to switch three times in a 10 day period. I searched all the way from the last week in January until the last week in March, and pretty much the only period I found was Feb 3-13 at SSR. We could have the one bedroom that whole week plus.


Well, we pulled the trigger, booked it, booked the airfare and the trip was set. I really wasn’t too interested in making a bunch of plans, we didn’t want to be tied to an itinerary and just kinda wanted to wing it. I just wanted to be there. We started looking up restaurants that didn’t require ADRs and there were a few that sounded really good. Of course we made our 1900 Park Fare reservation, and I was able to snag a reservation at ‘Ohana one night at 7:50PM which was better than the 9:30 reservations that were available every other night.


Back in November Michael (@Flossbolna's husband) told me about a Midnight Magic event (which conflicted with my ‘Ohana reservation), and I booked that too. We had basically decided that we would play app roulette, wake up in the morning, see what places had availability and book them if we wanted. I also came up with a compromise for ‘Ohana. What I really wanted was the Bread Pudding, and since you can get that at the Tambu Lounge, I told her that if we got the Bread Pudding before the reservation, i would cancel ‘Ohana.


Then we heard that Le Cellier would be hosting a brunch during our time there. We booked that one right on the spot for a late Saturday morning during our trip. Then I started thinking, we don’t want to play app roulette on Saturday night cause that will be busy. We know that one night we want to eat at Jaleo, so let’s just do that one on Saturday night. And Jill mentioned to me that Beaches & Cream reopened in their new remodeled space, so that went on the list. A couple weeks before we left, Scot texted me and asked if we wanted to eat at Yachtsman with him and Vinny. This unplanned trip was starting to become pretty planned now!


And then a couple days before we left, I decided that since we would be staying at Saratoga Springs, I might as well book a spa treatment there. It was during that time that I was trying to nail down our meet ups with Pam and her Mom, but I got it all figured out, or so I thought. That was the extent of the plans, well a few FP+ here and there, but that’s about where I left it. There were still quite a few nights without ADRs and the opportunity for flexibility.


So now onto introductions….I’m not quite sure what to say, so many of you know both Fran and I and our travel styles and such. I may or may not enjoy some ice cream from time to time…..




I was once attacked by giant bugs.




I may also keep some strange company




I play in a band, and against my better judgement began marching again 2 years ago.




OK, well enough about me, now onto Fran. She may or may not enjoy her tiki mugs and might possibly be willing to wait 4 hours in line to get one.




The kitties really like her a lot!




She likes her cars, this is us with our 1959 Ford Ranchero at a Car Club Event




Well...enough about us! Let’s get on with the trip at hand. If you have followed before, you’ll know that the day before, I almost always get no sleep, am a total mess on the plane trip and the day before is entirely chaotic. So let’s see if this trip is anything like the others…..


The day before we left went way better than planned! Even though Fran didn't give me her clothes until that morning, I was pretty much all packed by 1:00PM, read that PM (with the exception of a few things that were still in the dryer.) We needed gas in the car and I wanted to try and find an arthritis cream that our Dr. had recommended Fran try. I had to go to three stores to find it and I made the mistake of being in a grocery store two hours before the Super Bowl. I never saw so much beer and potato chips flying out the door!


I was able to wrap up the packing and even got the scooters and suitcases in the car before we ate our dinner. It was sort of late, but only 7:15 which is when I normally like dinner. We always argue because Fran likes it sooner.


Before completely packing up the suitcases I did this.



Every single time we fly the TSA searches my luggage and they never relock the locks. There are thieves out there, and I don't want them stealing my stuff! I carry my jewelry and meds in my carry on, but still there is stuff in there I like!


But just to get ahead of myself a little bit here. They searched every one of my suitcases and you know what? They locked every single one of them back up! How many of you get your bags searched and not locked back up?


Anyways….I'm still trying to figure out how late it was when I went to bed. But I think it was around 10:30 or 11PM. So without further Adieu, let’s get this party started!


Day 1


The Alarm went off at 5AM. It was still dark out. Normally we close our bedroom curtains at night to keep the morning sun out, but we left them open in case we over slept. We didn’t bounce right out of bed, but we didn't linger. I had picked out my travel outfit in advance so that was easy. And pretty soon I was feeding the kitties. Fran hadn't put her carry on together the night before, but that actually came together rather quickly as well.


We were on the freeway before 7AM for our 9:40 flight. That was a good thing. While the freeway traffic wasn't really bad, we got to the airport proximity by 7:40. It took nearly half an hour just to get to our terminal! We did the normal get out the scooters, have a sky cap look at my ID, check the luggage. While Fran waits, I go park the car. The economy lot is MUCH farther away now. It took me a solid 40 minutes to go, park, wait for the bus, and get back to the airport.


As I'm approaching the airport on the shuttle bus, I get a call from a 407 number. My caller ID (which I love!!!!) says Disney Institute. Huh. That's been gone for years, decades, maybe.


But I'm on my way to Disney and if they're calling I better answer it!


I've had this call before. There is a problem at SSR and they are going to need to transfer me to a different resort.



Aaaagh!



When I booked this trip, I actually wanted just about any other resort, if possible, but it just wasn't, no availability for an HA room for all 10 nights as I mentioned earlier. However, once I booked at SSR, I began to see the benefits. We could just motor on over to Disney Springs. There's a lot of new restaurants I want to try, and many are QS. Plus I realized that they have a spa, and I had booked a nice milk bath treatment with a sugar scrub and massage. By the time the trip rolled around I had embraced my SSR reservation, and now this woman wanted to take it away from me!


However, she wasn't just talking about moving us to OKW (which I would have taken in a heartbeat!) Or BW or BC villas. She was going to send us to the Riviera! On SSR point values! By this point in the conversation I had exited the bus, and was going up the elevator. I told her about the spa reservation and she got hung up on that one. Once I exited the elevator I found Fran as fast as I could and gave her the short version of what was going on. She thought it sounded great, so I told the lady I would work out the spa situation later and we'd take the room. She said that she would handle switching my Owner's Locker, grocery delivery, and luggage to the new resort. And we headed to security.


No box cutter nightmare here, and soon we were heading to the gate. I had brought us lunchables to eat on the plane, but I wanted something else so I got a fruit cup. I got a Sprite zero for Fran. I ate my half of the fruit cup waiting to board and she finished hers once we were in our seats. We ate the first lunchable while waiting to take off.



We were both starving (no Mickey D's on the way to the airport) so as soon as we leveled off we ate the second one.



I always get so fun struck when I can see my house from the plane. OK maybe I didn’t actually see my house, but I did see my neighborhood and could make out the busy street that runs behind my house. See that little yellow circle that’s the proximity of where my house is located.



Luckily the flights were uneventful and I just played my game most of the time. We had about 45 mins of useable time in Dallas between flights and we used that to potty and get some food. We got Chinese. It tasted kinda funny. I guess that's Texas airport Chinese food for you. Doesn't taste like California Chinese food. We didn’t finish it and ended up dumping it at the airport in Orlando.



Then we boarded the final leg to Orlando. No problems, plane was on time. Both flights were completely full so there was no refund on the third seat this time either. Oh well, so worth it for our own comfort. I used my free drink coupons for a glass of wine.



And we began our descent.



We arrived just on time, picked up our scooters at the gate and headed out. There was only a small mishap at the DME check in. Their scanners were down and they were checking manual confirmations. I had left mine at home. Normally I make a little folder with all the details and confirmations from our trip, and place those in sheet protectors, but I didn't have the time for that. It wouldn't have mattered anyways because the confirmation would have been wrong. It thought we were going to SSR when only eight hours ago our plans were completely changed.


Our new plans were sorted out and pretty soon we were on our bus to our new home for the next week or so. Throughout the day in between flights I was communicating with various friends. Amidst the congratulations on the upgrade and other messages there was some speculation as to Disney's motives in changing our plans. It was Michael @Flosbolna's husband who echoed my thoughts. "They likely are using the SSR renovations as a handy excuse to move Guests they feel are most likely to spend on Riviera." Well, we will see. I have my 1000 points and don't really need anymore, but it will be nice to experience this brand new resort at SSR point prices.




[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]


When we arrived the resort was all sparkly and fancy lit up. I was already questioning how comfortable I would feel here. Kind of like @Captain_Oblivious feels at swanky golf courses or other places like that, and I’m a person who is comfortable in swanky places.

We were greeted by a Concierge of sorts who brought us into the lobby. He was friendly enough but I'm pretty sure he couldn't find our reservation in his little iPad so he brought us inside where we waited in a virtual queue for someone to help us. Throughout the evening we had no less than three people looking for our groceries, our OL, and our luggage. What they did do for us was link our MBs (lucky we brought them from the last trip) because I'm sure the ones that were supposed to be waiting for us at our hotel were sitting at SSR getting lonely.


They gave us a map told us our room # and some directions to the QS restaurant as the fancy place on the roof was no longer showing availability on the app for reservations. At the airport there was a 9PM and 9:15, but now that it was 9:30 they probably stopped seating. Our room is indicated by the yellow arrow, and the two restaurants are indicated by the red circles.



We went up to the room. It was very spacious. And the kitchen was very well laid out.





The living room area was very nice.



These pictures are from another day, but I realized as we were going out to get our dinner, that the middle section of the couch was a murphy bed. I’m not sure how I would feel about that if I had kids staying here, it was hard to pull down and put back. I didn’t pull it all the way down cause I didn’t want to have to move the coffee table.





Here’s looking back towards the front door of the Villa.



The bedroom is very spacious, and somewhat elegant. Notice the picture on the wall behind my lamp. There is a white cat which alludes to being Marie and the cat in the Grammaphone alludes to Berlioz. Also notice the hidden Mickey in the wrought iron. I thought that was a nice touch!



Looking back from the tub/vanity half of the bathroom into the bedroom. Nice size TV!



I was so happy to still have a tub with bubbles!





The toilet/shower room:





They were already on the cost saving shampoo that you can’t steal. Disney says they are being environmentally conscious and that’s why they are doing it…..



I was so relieved that there were separate washer and dryers, and that they were full size! See that thing on top of the washer, that’s a collapsible laundry basket! So cool!



Now on the last couple TRs one thing I griped about was laundry, how sometimes it didn't dry and how the stupid machine-in-one washer/dryer didn't work. There will be none of that here. As I got towards the end of writing this TR I realized that I never mentioned the four loads of laundry I ended up doing throughout the week, because they were a non-issue. I would start the load, say before breakfast and it was done before we left, so I hung up the shirts and put the other stuff in the dryer. One of the days i did two loads in the wash and put the second load in the dryer while we got back from the parks. There was only one issue with something drying and that was Fran's rugby shirt which was fairly heavy and the stupid sensors in the dryer's think everything is dry when it's not. We have the same problem with our dryer at home. But otherwise laundry turned out to be a very simple experience with these nice machines.


OK onto this last closet, I don’t know who vacuums on vacation! I suppose if you have little ones that spill cereal all over the place, you’ll need to vacuum it up, but I don’t even vacuum at home, certainly not doing it on vacation!



This was our balcony….



It was nice, but I requested a roll in shower. I was set to call the desk and complain, but Fran tried to see if she could get into it, and she said she would cope. So with nothing but our carryons to our possession, we went off in search of dinner. Our only option for food was to go down to the QS on the first floor. Primo Piatti



Fran was rather cranky by this point and didn't understand that this was a QS. She was a little put off that we weren't going to be seated at a table and get menus. We placed our order and found a table. It wasn’t very hard to find one, the hardest choice was which one to pick.



In all honesty it was just after 10PM. The Skyliner closes at 10PM and there is a huge backup coming from DHS and Epcot so shortly after we got our food, the place started to fill up with hungry folks who had been in the parks all day.

We finally decided on a couple Croque Monsieurs. One with fries.



One with Tomato Basil Soup.



I got a can of wine.



I had never seen a Croque Monsieur made quite like this. And it was odd the ham was thicker in the middle than on the edges and as a result I kinda ate the middle and left the sides of the sandwich, prompting Fran to ask what was wrong with it. I ate about ⅔ and let her finish the rest of it. She had already wolfed down her own sandwich.

The soup was the clear winner here. It was hot and tasty. I might have been happier with a large bowl of that and some crusty bread. The real loser here was the fries. They were cold, needed salt and just generally disappointing. We weren't going to complain though. We rarely do over stuff like this, sometimes it's just too much work to complain. It takes too long for them to make the food all over. And we were tired, but at least we weren't hungry anymore.

On our way back to the room we stopped by the lobby. One of the CMs that I spoke to earlier in the evening had asked for the claim numbers for our bags from Southwest. The skycap had put the stickers on the back of our boarding passes rather than staple them all together. I could only find one boarding pass with stickers when I was on the phone with her. But after I hung up I found the other one. I had left her a message, and she had called back while we were on our way to dinner but it went to voicemail.

When we spoke in the lobby they assured us that the OL and groceries were on their way and would arrive within the hour. They had also located the bags and they were in a crate on the way, but couldn't give us a time estimate on their arrival.

We stopped in the gift shop/market and Fran picked out these goodies.



The hallways of this resort are very generic and sterile. One of the first things I noticed and didn’t care for so much about the place.



Back in the room our groceries and OL showed up just a few minutes later, so I started unpacking all that. Fran turned on the TV and found this. OK, maybe I doctored it a little bit, but you get the idea.



I got things settled at least the groceries and OL, cold stuff in the fridge, and all my comforts of home in place. We watched Stephen Colbert's monologue, and I waited a few more minutes to see if the suitcases would arrive, but ended up giving up and decided to take a bath. At least I had some bath salts in the Owner’s Locker, so I could enjoy that. When I got out of the tub, all the suitcases were in the foyer, that was probably after midnight.

I didn't want to fully unpack, but there were some things in each of the suitcases that I needed, like my pillow, my scooter charging cord, and our contact phone chargers. Well I didn't need those, the plug ins from my carry on were working just fine, but I like the contact style ones better.

Partially settled I climbed into bed. Fran was already sound asleep.

 

[franandaj]

Quick Links

Day 2 The only way to get there is how?
Day 3 Part 1 The Title of the TR is discovered
Day 3 Part 2 A Yummy Dinner
Day 4 Part 1 We're Back Again at the Booths
Day 4 Part 2 Gotta Love that Skyliner!
Day 5 From Space to our Happy Place
Day 6 All we did today is eat?
Day 7 Yes, Chocolate is a food group Part 1, Part 2
Day 8 Come Together with the Force
Day 9 Part 1 Everyone's a Character
. . . . . . Part 2 Moonlight Magic
Day 10 Last Day, Back at AK
Day 11 It's a Wrap

 

[SG131]

Hi! I’ve followed along with a couple of your trip reports to get my Disney fix though I never commented. Was your beaches and cream reservation last Thursday? I think I saw you on your way out!

 

[rentayenta]

I’m here!

Great start!

 

[jedijill]

I’m here!

Jill in CO

 

[juniorbugman]

I'm here ready to read along. Good news on the room upgrade.

 

[ACDSNY]

Here for the fun! What no jacuzzi tub for you?

I think we're going in February next year.

 

[pooh'smate]

Joining in!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I'm here! Nice on the move from SSR but oh what a hassle with the OL/Groceries/Luggage especially when it was supposed to be taken care of. It just feels better to get settled in!

 

[a742246]

Here's another one joining in..........

 

[rentayenta]

I’m here!

Jill in CO

I got a notification you posted! I am determined not to fall behind! #LoyalCrew

 

[EJ4Disney]

I’m here. I can’t wait for this one..

 

[afwdwfan]

This unplanned trip was starting to become pretty planned now!

Funny how quickly that happens.

If you have followed before, you’ll know that the day before, I almost always get no sleep, am a total mess on the plane trip and the day before is entirely chaotic.

I had to go to three stores to find it and I made the mistake of being in a grocery store two hours before the Super Bowl. I never saw so much beer and potato chips flying out the door

So I'm guessing you avoided the beer and chip aisles...

But just to get ahead of myself a little bit here. They searched every one of my suitcases and you know what? They locked every single one of them back up!

Well, I guess it worked then!

Anyways….I'm still trying to figure out how late it was when I went to bed. But I think it was around 10:30 or 11PM.

Not bad at all for one of your pre-departure days.

She was going to send us to the Riviera! On SSR point values!

Nice!!!

Amidst the congratulations on the upgrade and other messages there was some speculation as to Disney's motives in changing our plans. It was Michael @Flosbolna's husband who echoed my thoughts. "They likely are using the SSR renovations as a handy excuse to move Guests they feel are most likely to spend on Riviera." Well, we will see. I have my 1000 points and don't really need anymore, but it will be nice to experience this brand new resort at SSR point prices.

Kind of wondered that myself... the new shiny resort had a room open so, hey, lets fill it and see if we can sell more DVC!

They were already on the cost saving shampoo that you can’t steal. Disney says they are being environmentally conscious and that’s why they are doing it…..

It's all fine and good until the pump doesn't work...

It was nice, but I requested a roll in shower. I was set to call the desk and complain, but Fran tried to see if she could get into it, and she said she would cope.

I kind of wondered about that after you mentioned how hard it was to find and accessible room for the stretch of time you needed. Sorry they didn't accommodate you with the same room type that you booked, but glad it could at least work for you.

The soup was the clear winner here. It was hot and tasty. I might have been happier with a large bowl of that and some crusty bread. The real loser here was the fries. They were cold, needed salt and just generally disappointing. We weren't going to complain though. We rarely do over stuff like this, sometimes it's just too much work to complain. It takes too long for them to make the food all over. And we were tired, but at least we weren't hungry anymore.

Well, I mean quick service fries in a restaurant that isn't busy... they've probably been sitting under a lamp for 45 minutes and complaining or taking them back would probably get you nowhere.

I got things settled at least the groceries and OL, cold stuff in the fridge, and all my comforts of home in place. We watched Stephen Colbert's monologue, and I waited a few more minutes to see if the suitcases would arrive, but ended up giving up and decided to take a bath. At least I had some bath salts in the Owner’s Locker, so I could enjoy that. When I got out of the tub, all the suitcases were in the foyer, that was probably after midnight.

Glad it all finally made it, but that's too bad that it was so late. I always feel like I'm better able to relax after I've unpacked and settled in for the week.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I'm here!

Perhaps it had to do with the fact that our previous trip had been with my parents. On that trip, she didn’t get to do exactly what she wanted to do, you might remember that she feigned illness to go back to the room, and then I GPS tracked her all over Epcot shopping and “doing her thing.”

I get it. We were trying to plan to go back after traveling with my extended family, too.

“We are NOT skipping a visit to WDW in 2020!!!”

Allrighty then.

This unplanned trip was starting to become pretty planned now!

Yeah, your calendar filled up quickly!

I may or may not enjoy some ice cream from time to time…..

I mean, who doesn't?

I was once attacked by giant bugs.

Hate it when that happens.

She may or may not enjoy her tiki mugs and might possibly be willing to wait 4 hours in line to get one.

If it's 4 hours, that mug better be packed with $1,000 bills.

I had to go to three stores to find it and I made the mistake of being in a grocery store two hours before the Super Bowl. I never saw so much beer and potato chips flying out the door!

I'm surprised they still had some left!

The economy lot is MUCH farther away now. It took me a solid 40 minutes to go, park, wait for the bus, and get back to the airport.

Yikes. That's not great.

She was going to send us to the Riviera!

Hey, cool! Always fun to check out the new places.

See that little yellow circle that’s the proximity of where my house is located.

Eagle eyes!

It was Michael @Flosbolna's husband who echoed my thoughts. "They likely are using the SSR renovations as a handy excuse to move Guests they feel are most likely to spend on Riviera."

Michael always has a good DIsney conspiracy theory ready.

When we arrived the resort was all sparkly and fancy lit up. I was already questioning how comfortable I would feel here. Kind of like @Captain_Oblivious feels at swanky golf courses or other places like that, and I’m a person who is comfortable in swanky places.

Sounds like you'd do better than I would. I'd be counting down the minutes waiting for someone to kick me out.

These pictures are from another day, but I realized as we were going out to get our dinner, that the middle section of the couch was a murphy bed. I’m not sure how I would feel about that if I had kids staying here, it was hard to pull down and put back. I didn’t pull it all the way down cause I didn’t want to have to move the coffee table.

I'm sure we'd make it work!

They were already on the cost saving shampoo that you can’t steal. Disney says they are being environmentally conscious and that’s why they are doing it…..

Uh huh.

OK onto this last closet, I don’t know who vacuums on vacation!

No way! Not in a million years!

The hallways of this resort are very generic and sterile. One of the first things I noticed and didn’t care for so much about the place.

I kind of feel like the exterior is generic and sterile, too. Not my favorite theme. The room looked really nice, though.

 

[pkondz]

Here!
Back to read later, I'm catching up as I can!

 

[rndmr2]

I'm here! great start, Cool that you got to stay at the new resort. The room is beautiful. I do agree about the plain hallways. Can't wait to read more!

 

[DVCjj]

Was having kinda a crumby day and then I saw you had a new Trip Report plus that adorable picture of Fran with all the kitties on her (awww) and the day got better.

Thanks.

 

[dvc at last !]

I am in .......
Great start with a stay at RR !

 

[pkondz]

You might be wondering about the title...don’t worry, we will get to that eventually, but for now you’ll have to be content to follow along.

I demand answers now!!!

I rented out all our remaining points for our September 2019 UY.

What does "UY" stand for?

If you were following along on the last TR with the conference, you’ll have realized that Fran was not pleased with the brevity of that trip to WDW.

I remember.

get a lot of caramels in Germany,

I approve of this plan!

“We are NOT skipping a visit to WDW in 2020!!!”

That's music to my ears.

We don’t visit between May and September, it’s just too darned hot.

Yeah... I noticed that, last few times...

I really wasn’t too interested in making a bunch of plans, we didn’t want to be tied to an itinerary and just kinda wanted to wing it.

Sometimes no plans are the best plans. Especially if you've been a few times before and there's not that need to DO ALL THE THINGS.

Of course we made our 1900 Park Fare reservation

Of course. That strawberry soup isn't going to eat itself.

Then we heard that Le Cellier would be hosting a brunch during our time there.

I remember you mentioning that.

Beaches & Cream reopened in their new remodeled space,

Oh! Is it in the same place?

I may or may not enjoy some ice cream from time to time…..

Oh really? I'm shocked! Shocked!

I was once attacked by giant bugs.

And lived to tell the tale!

She may or may not enjoy her tiki mugs

I love this photo!

If you have followed before, you’ll know that the day before, I almost always get no sleep, am a total mess on the plane trip and the day before is entirely chaotic.

I was pretty much all packed by 1:00PM, read that PM

I'm sorry, what??? Who even are you???

Before completely packing up the suitcases I did this.

Oh! Smart idea. And...

They searched every one of my suitcases and you know what? They locked every single one of them back up!

...it worked!!

The Alarm went off at 5AM.

Not bad at all. That's my normal alarm time when I work a day shift.

The economy lot is MUCH farther away now. It took me a solid 40 minutes to go, park, wait for the bus, and get back to the airport.

You don't mention it, so probably not, but were you getting stressed as the time kept ticking along?

I've had this call before. There is a problem at SSR and they are going to need to transfer me to a different resort.

Oh, no.

She said that she would handle switching my Owner's Locker, grocery delivery, and luggage to the new resort.

Nice service!
Glad you wound up being happy with the switch.

No box cutter nightmare here,

I always get so fun struck when I can see my house from the plane.

I've never done that. My house is near the edge of the city so when we come in that way, even if I'm seated on the correct side of the plane, by the time I figure out where we are, we've passed it. I've seen my folks' place a couple times though and that's fun.

It tasted kinda funny. I guess that's Texas airport Chinese food for you.

Or maybe it's just... airport food.

Both flights were completely full so there was no refund on the third seat this time either. Oh well, so worth it for our own comfort.

I can see that! I love flying "Plus" on WestJet where the middle seat is empty. (Actually it has a small table buckled into it. But plenty of elbow room.)

There was only a small mishap at the DME check in. Their scanners were down and they were checking manual confirmations.

This is never an issue for me as in the past I've never had a magic band with me so I've had to bring my confirmation letter along.

"They likely are using the SSR renovations as a handy excuse to move Guests they feel are most likely to spend on Riviera

Oh! Yeah, I can see that.

Throughout the evening we had no less than three people looking for our groceries, our OL, and our luggage.

Our room is indicated by the yellow arrow, and the two restaurants are indicated by the red circles.

Far away. Did you find it so when going between them?

We went up to the room. It was very spacious.

That place is huge! Very nice!

I was so happy to still have a tub with bubbles!

It does? I do see the soaker tub and it looks great, but I don't see the jets?

Disney says they are being environmentally conscious and that’s why they are doing it…..

Yeah, right. Same reason they don't wash towels unless you ask. Or change the bedding every day.
It has 100% zero to do with environment. Yes, hotels sell it to you as an enticement to do so... but it all comes down to saving money. If it was good for the environment to wash the towels twice a day... they'd say it was "hotel policy" or some such to only do them every other day.

See that thing on top of the washer, that’s a collapsible laundry basket! So cool!

That is cool! Glad you had no laundry issues (mostly) this trip.

, I don’t know who vacuums on vacation!

Definitely not me! What the heck!?!?

This was our balcony….

Nice!

We placed our order and found a table. It wasn’t very hard to find one, the hardest choice was which one to pick.

That place is dead!

We finally decided on a couple Croque Monsieurs.

Um... those look... unappetizing.

I got a can of wine.

This is the first time I've seen "can" and "wine" in a single sentence.

The real loser here was the fries. They were cold, needed salt and just generally disappointing.

Ew. Cold fries. Gross.

The hallways of this resort are very generic and sterile. One of the first things I noticed and didn’t care for so much about the place.

Interesting comment. I typically don't really care about the hallways. (Although I do notice if they're nicer or not.)

OK, maybe I doctored it a little bit, but you get the idea.

Nice job. I can't see the mod.