The Florida Project! 12 Days @ WDW for our 10th Anniversary! UPDATED 9/23

[annie170]

I love Wilderness Lodge. I think it is just beautiful and can't get over how big that kitchen is in the villa!

I enjoyed your vlog. Your southern accents are cute. You know, we midwesterners don't speak with an accent. Everyone else does!

Thanks for doing the budgeting again. I enjoy seeing how others plan for their trips financially.

 

[Raeven]

I feel like I was reading your PTR, but might have missed some at the end; but I'm following along on your TR. We started vlogging this trip too and I put your vlogs on my to watch list

 

[AAshleySEG]

Love the budgetting info!! Totally onboard for this trip report! WL is definitely a bucket list hotel for me-but one that I want to do with my neice and nephew, not when we go just DH and I.

Awesome, thank you! The budgeting definitely helps me out, and I am glad that you are enjoying it too! So happy to have you along for the ride! Yeah Wilderness Lodge is so amazing! My niece absolutely loved it when we went, back then we even had a room with a bunk bed and she thought it was the coolest thing ever...haha!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Great trip report so far!

Thanks!! And, thank you for reading along!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Following along! I also love the budgeting info. Thanks for sharing. I hope to stay at WL when we go in 2018.

Awesome!! So glad you are enjoying the budgeting info, it helps us out so much for the current trip and for future reference, we are hoping that it can help others out too! Wilderness Lodge is a really lovely resort, and I hope you get a chance to stay there next year! All of the new areas will be open by then and it will be even better than it is now!! Thanks for joining in and reading along!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Following along! Love the budgeting!

Thank you so much for joining in! I appreciate the feedback on the budgeting, I know it is definitely not for everyone, but I am really happy that you are enjoying it!

 

[AAshleySEG]

I love Wilderness Lodge. I think it is just beautiful and can't get over how big that kitchen is in the villa!

I enjoyed your vlog. Your southern accents are cute. You know, we midwesterners don't speak with an accent. Everyone else does!

Thanks for doing the budgeting again. I enjoy seeing how others plan for their trips financially.

Wilderness Lodge is the best, and oh my gosh yes, those 1-bedroom villa kitchens are huge! One day I really want to actually make meals in there, I can really see how they would be really useful, so far we have only used the fridges really, and I think one time somewhere we used the microwave...haha!

Glad you enjoyed the vlog! This way, I get a chance to write everything down from my perspective, and you also get a chance to see Jeremy's perspective since he is pretty much the filmer of those! Yep, we still have not managed to lose our accents just yet, maybe one day...LOL!

Thanks for the budgeting feedback! It is really helpful for us, so I am hoping that it will at least be a little helpful for everyone else who may be budgeting or considering doing a trip budget!

 

[AAshleySEG]

I feel like I was reading your PTR, but might have missed some at the end; but I'm following along on your TR. We started vlogging this trip too and I put your vlogs on my to watch list

Cool! Yeah the PTR is quite different than the trip actually turned out...haha, so if you did read it, things as always, are going in a somewhat opposite direction...LOL! Thanks for joining in and reading along! That is great that you started vlogging too! It is pretty cool too because on the TR you sort of get my perspective on the vacation, and on the vlog, even though I am in them, you get Jeremy's perspective on it!

 

[3cmom]

Love the budgeting aspect! People always ask how we can afford to go to Disney and I tell them it's because we budget for it and plan ahead!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Thursday, June 8, 2017 - There's a Peacock on that Jeep!

We woke up this morning to a dreary looking day outside our windows at about 7:30 am. We were planning on walking over to Geyser Point Bar & Grill for a little breakfast before heading out on our adventure. Once we finished getting ready we first took our bags out to the car since we were switching resorts this afternoon and then started walking out toward the restaurant! It was really quiet this morning and we got caught up in the quiet pathways and flowing waterfalls and the really nice butterfly garden they had recently added in!

Geyser Point is sort of a quick service/table service bar restaurant, not really sure how to describe it. For breakfast, we went up to the counter to order, then they give you a number to set on your table and your food is delivered to you. So basically we went up and ordered our Maple Cinnamon Pancakes with Apple Compote. It comes with a meat, so in exchange we asked for a different side and ended up substituting fruit. We filled up our drinks and then chose a table to wait for our food to come out!

It was mostly empty, so it didn't take long at all for our food to be brought over. There was a ton of seating, most of it shaded and really comfortable chairs with cushions. You could also have a seat nearer the water, really nice lake views here, just a fantastic location for an outdoor restaurant, but it is covered though, so that was great if it happened to start raining.

These pancakes were delicious!! Probably one of the best quick service breakfasts we have had in a very long time, if not the best one ever. Even the fruit was fresh, ripe, and juicy, so flavorful! We would highly recommend these if you are planning on heading over there. They entire menu looks pretty good, and like I mentioned before, I think these either come with bacon or sausage, we just substituted the fruit, but if you are over there, check this place out!

Once we were finished eating, and pretty full we walked over to the backside where the new pool area and villas were going to be opening pretty soon! Of course everything was still covered with the construction walls, but it looked like it was about 99% complete behind them...we took a little peek...LOL!

Afterwards, we started making our way back to the lobby to head out. It was a great one night stay here, definitely we want to stay again when all of the new areas have been opened up, if I only had enough points or people with us to warrant staying in one of those freaking awesome cabins! They look so good, I can't even tell you! Having seen the bungalows at the Poly and now these cabins, they are like the best of the bungalows, being on the lake and the layout, combined with the woodlands and rustic touches of the treehouse villas over at Saratoga. They are probably going to be at the top of my list of places to try and book for a future stay! We will be back at Wilderness Lodge next week for dinner at Artist Point and to see Vivianna again, so we are really looking forward to that, but for now it was time to say goodbye!

Next up on our to-do list this morning was a stop at Target. I think we drove over and were there by like 9:30 am. We picked up an umbrella because, the one we had at home had recently broken and we had yet to pick up a new one, and we knew we wanted to have one in case of a torrential downpour. We used to do the poncho thing, but with the heat of the summer, they just make us really hot, so this time the umbrella was the easier alternative. Also while we were there, because of where we were headed, we didn't know if we would need any bug repellent, so we grabbed a can of Bullfrog combo sunscreen/repellent, just in case. I had gotten plenty of sunscreen before, but didn't get any bug repellent. Side Note: Disney provides repellent in all of the guest rooms, but we forgot to grab it before we left, so that was our fault!

It took us about an hour to drive there, so not too bad, but we made it to Wild Florida!!

We drove down a really long road to get there and the entire way giant bugs were just smashing into the windshield, I think we dubbed it "Bug Rain" because it sounded exactly like rain drops and there were so many of them, it was crazy. They were not the biting/stinging kind of bugs though, just the nuisance kind that buzz around your face or land on your clothes. We made it into the parking lot and got parked and the wildlife had already come out to welcome us, there was a peacock standing on top of the car next to us!

I think we found out about this place by watching TheTimTracker on youtube. I am pretty sure they took their friends there for an airboat ride in one of the episodes. We had never been on an airboat ride before and it looked like something fun to do for an extra day in the area. Originally we were planning on driving to Tampa for an RV show today, but as luck would have it, we already knew which rv we were planning on buying now, so we no longer needed to go there. We checked out the website for Wild Florida and the park is actually FREE to get in to! The only things they charge for are the airboat tours, jeep tours, and animal encounters. We definitely wanted to try out the airboat tour, so we headed inside to get signed up!

We walked into the gift shop/tour area and looked around for a second, decided on whether we wanted to do the 30 minute or 1 hour tour. We decided on the 30 minute and then went up, paid and got our wristbands for it. We had just a little bit of time to kill before our tour so we looked around at some more of the shop and then headed out back to wait on the covered patio for the tour to begin! While we were sitting out enjoying the nice breeze, we looked over the map and tried to figure out what we wanted to do first when we got back from the tour!

Our tour started at 11:30, as we were waiting they came out and started calling group names, finally it was our turn to walk down and get on our airboat, as we got down to the dock area the sun started peeking out a little, and I was really glad I had put sunscreen on beforehand! Even though it was cloudy out, I knew I needed to do it just in case. Plus it did help that the bug repellent was in there too! Jeremy has some video of the airboat tour on the blog, so once this day's post is finished I will link to that if you are interested in seeing it.

The tour was really fun! It lasted about 30 minutes and we got to see some alligators and birds in their natural habitat.

The weather was great also! It was nice, breezy, and in the high 70s. For June, that is pretty fantastic! We got really lucky with that because it looked really gloomy and rainy on our way out here. After the airboat ride was over it was time to head over to the park area and check out some animals!

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[AAshleySEG]

Love the budgeting aspect! People always ask how we can afford to go to Disney and I tell them it's because we budget for it and plan ahead!

That is so true! It is all about priorities for vacationing! No matter where you are going, it is so helpful for us to have a budget, to some it is more of a bad word like it is limiting what you can do or something, but for us it is all about planning for everything we want to do, then saving accordingly! Thank you so much for the feedback, I am really happy that you are enjoying the budget inclusion!

 

[Sailormoon2]

since we were switching resorts this afternoon

How did all your split stays impact your ADRs and FPs??

 

[AAshleySEG]

How did all your split stays impact your ADRs and FPs??

Not at all! Since we have the My Disney Experience account and app on our phone as well we didn't even notice anything. As far as making reservations, we didn't really make any of these far in advance. The ones that we did make more than a month out didn't have any problems with the resort hopping either. We made a few of them while we were on property with the app, and made tons of FPs with the app as well. I guess if you were trying to make the Fast Passes and ADRs as soon as possible, it would possibly alter which days you could make them, but it didn't have any effect on anything for us. Originally we weren't planning on going to the parks so our fast passes were literally made a few days before we arrived.

It was also really simple for us to change resorts too, since we had done all of the online check-ins we would just get a text or email when our rooms were ready and we could go straight to them when we got the text if we happened to be at a park or other activity, we could finish what we were doing and kind of went with the flow of using that time as our afternoon rest before heading back out!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Joining in! DH and I leave in less than 3 weeks am and reading TR's is the only thing getting me through!

Loving your report so far! The budgeting aspect is very interesting, too (Especially since we are attempting our upcoming trip as a budget conscious vacay).

 

[Teetah]

While we were driving along, minding our own business, we saw probably the largest tire we have ever seen in our lives. We still are not really sure what it would even go on?? But literally, the tire was larger/taller than the truck that was carrying it!! It was GIGANTIC!

A little while later and we had made it through SC and into Georgia! We decided to stop at the new Georgia Visitor Center Rest Area and man are we glad we did! They have tons of cool photo ops inside, TONS of information, fantastic bathrooms, charging stations, and it is really fantastic if you happen to be on I-95 South. Highly recommended and especially if you are planning on visiting Georgia, stop by there!

Since we had gotten up earlier than we planned, and left about an hour earlier as well, we totally missed our favorite lunch stop in Mt Pleasant, SC, Pickled Palate. If you have read one of the previous TRs you will have seen it! We love that place but it doesn't open until 11:00 am, so this time it wasn't in the cards, we were way past SC and into Georgia around lunch, so we decided to stop at another old favorite of ours! The Panera Bread in Pooler, GA! We got our favorite Mediterranean Veggie Sandwiches with Chips and Tea and Water. Instead of eating inside, we just decided to go through the drive-thru to keep making good time on the way to Disney
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Yay you're back and at it!!! So, the tire could be for a variety of pieces of equipment typically used in construction or some sort of mining. They are off road - so they aren't used for anything you would see on the street. I only know this because I used to be in large equipment.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 (Part Two) - Pardon Our Pixie Dust!

By 4:45 pm we were passing this sign. We did have a little discussion about with everything else being updated and changing in the parks and area that they have yet to update these entry signs that seem a tad 90's. They are pretty classic though, and I remember them from every trip we take...and of course always try to take photos of them! Shortly after we were passing Disney Springs and turning right heading towards the resort. We can't wait to spend some time there with all of the new shops and restaurants having been opened since the last time we had been down!


It was now right around 5:00 pm and we had made it to Disney's Wilderness Lodge!! We had already gotten our room number and checked in online so we could just park and head straight for the room instead of going by the front desk, so we grabbed our bags and headed in that direction! I had stayed at the regular resort part of Wilderness Lodge before with my mom and niece a few years back. Jeremy and myself had been to Wilderness Lodge together a few times for dinners and things but he had never stayed there overnight, so he was really looking forward to it! I was excited to see the older DVC portion so when the time came we could compare it to the new Copper Creek Villas portion! But for tonight, we were in the Boulder Ridge Villas!

When we got into the room we saw this little welcome thing on the table, we knew they were doing construction around the property but we definitely did not expect this!

When we opened it up! We found that they had given us a little gift of construction pins! They are so freakin' adorable. It is always so cool to me that Disney does all of these little extra things for their guests that are so unexpected. A few years ago I sold most of my pin collection online, it was literally hundreds of pins before, now I still do have a smaller collection of pins, mostly some exclusive and limited edition ones, as well as one from all of the resorts we have stayed at. These would definitely be a fun addition to that collection!

So we were staying in a 1-Bedroom Villa, the decor was great and I love the size you get in the one-bedrooms versus the studios, even though we mostly stay in studios, every once in a while we get a chance to stay in the larger rooms. I can really tell how valuable the space would be for families. Or even if you happened to be cooking meals in them. This room was really nice, and Jeremy liked it a lot!

(Living Room)

(Kitchen)

(Bedroom)

(Tub Portion of the Bathroom)

For some strange reason, I did not take a photo of the other side of the bathroom. So anyways, we put our bags down and found a change of clothes and started getting ready for dinner. I had budgeted our entire trip and tonight, we had a 15% off coupon plus a gift card for Outback Steakhouse, and there actually was one pretty close by. All of the other days and nights of the trip we were going to be eating on Disney property and this was just an easy way for the first night to have a little dinner that would be less expensive than the others. So after we were ready we headed down the hallway and out!

For dinner, we ended up eating at the bar so we didn't have to wait and watching some basketball on the tv, we don't really watch basketball but it was playing so what the heck. For our appetizer we had some Bloom Petals, and then for entrees I had the Grilled Salmon with vegetables and Jeremy had Fried Shrimp with Volcano Sauce and fries. After we finished up with dinner we headed back towards the resort to snap a few photos and head over to the Territory Lounge to see one of our friends there.

I absolutely love the landscaping here, the flowers and scents are amazing! It really feels like you have stumbled upon some secret lodge in the Northwest, well except for the heat, but it really is gorgeous! The lobby is stunning too with the huge expanse in the center and then the fireplace and bubbling stream inside!

We walked through the lobby and made it to the Territory Lounge, it was still a little early so not too many people in there just yet. We found a table and Jeremy ordered a Kona Longboard and I had a Magical Star Cocktail, and it was really good!! We asked our server to let Vivianna know we were there and she came and we got to catch up and talk with her four a really nice chat! It was very relaxing in there, later on in the vacation we were going to be coming back to have dinner at Artist Point to see her again, so it was great to be able to see her now too!

We finally left there around 11:00 pm and started walking around just a bit, she told us to go and see the newest addition Geyser Point at night, since it sat right on the lake! It looked awesome, and we were planning on having breakfast there in the morning, so to see it at night was really cool!

After that, we slowly made our way back toward the room. We stopped in the lounge area at the villas and checked out a lot of the train memorabilia in there as well as sat by the fireplace for a few minutes to talk about the day. It was quiet and cozy, and at this time of time, completely empty, well except for us!

We finally started heading upstairs to go to bed. At the time we were still unsure of what we were going to do tomorrow, originally we had planned to go to Tampa for an RV show, but we had pretty much already decided on which RV we wanted, so we were thinking about going somewhere or trying something we have never done before since tomorrow was a bonus day we added on to the trip last minute!

Here is our VLOG from Day One if you are interested!

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I know what you mean about the sign, but I love them! I would hate for all of them to go.

Those cabins are awesome!!!!!!!! We have never stayed here, but it might have to go on the list! I think Tim would really like it.

I've never been a pin trader, but I could totally see myself getting into it if we went more often. Those construction ones are adorable! Disney really does it right!

I LOVE the vlog!!!! How fun!!!! So glad to see this - just a nice added element to the TR! Can't wait to get through all of them!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Joining in! DH and I leave in less than 3 weeks am and reading TR's is the only thing getting me through!

Loving your report so far! The budgeting aspect is very interesting, too (Especially since we are attempting our upcoming trip as a budget conscious vacay).

Thanks for joining!!! 3 Weeks is no time at all! When the countdown gets that low, the days seem to crawl by at a snail's pace! I can totally relate, TRs and youtube videos kept me going as we were counting down and I always get more and more excited the more things I see!! Thank you so much, I am glad you are enjoying the TR so far! Budgeting is very important to us as of late, we are planning on doing a lot of travel in the near future, so it is a great way to make sure what we want to do we can, and still have funds left for things in the future!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Yay you're back and at it!!! So, the tire could be for a variety of pieces of equipment typically used in construction or some sort of mining. They are off road - so they aren't used for anything you would see on the street. I only know this because I used to be in large equipment.

That's so cool to know, yeah when we saw that tire, we have never seen anything like that being hauled down the road before, it was definitely a sight to see in front of us, especially since we drive a beetle, that made it probably look much larger than it might have been!

I know what you mean about the sign, but I love them! I would hate for all of them to go.

Those cabins are awesome!!!!!!!! We have never stayed here, but it might have to go on the list! I think Tim would really like it.

I've never been a pin trader, but I could totally see myself getting into it if we went more often. Those construction ones are adorable! Disney really does it right!

I LOVE the vlog!!!! How fun!!!! So glad to see this - just a nice added element to the TR! Can't wait to get through all of them!

Those signs hold so much nostalgia for me, and it would definitely be sad to see them go, I just can't imagine them not updating them considering all of the updating they are doing to the rest of the entire place, who knows, maybe they will keep them, there was so much construction going on everywhere this time I have no idea what is going to be updated and what will stay the same?

Yeah, Wilderness Lodge is so cool! Jeremy and I want to at least try and stay one night in one of the new cabins, maybe a night/day where we do nothing else but stay in the room to use the little fireplace, maybe in the winter, or relax out by the lake, but definitely when we can take full advantage of them!

I'm glad you like the VLOG, it is really fun too because you get to see Jeremy's perspective, which I really like! It is fun to read what I say, and then hop over and see what he says! I am trying to edit/upload them to youtube a little before the tr posts, just so once I finish a day, I can link the video at the bottom!

So glad you are here and reading along, I am still thinking about you guys going to Hawaii! That is going to come up before you know it!!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Hi I think I've read a trip report or two of yours before.

I'm looking forward to reading along.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Hi I think I've read a trip report or two of yours before.

I'm looking forward to reading along.

Hi!! Welcome Back! I hope this one lives up to the other ones...HAHA! Thank you so much for joining in and following along!!

 

[Raeven]

Cool! Yeah the PTR is quite different than the trip actually turned out...haha, so if you did read it, things as always, are going in a somewhat opposite direction...LOL! Thanks for joining in and reading along! That is great that you started vlogging too! It is pretty cool too because on the TR you sort of get my perspective on the vacation, and on the vlog, even though I am in them, you get Jeremy's perspective on it!

It does seem different from what I read haha. That's fun! I still have to watch the vlogs. My smart TV has decided that Youtube no longer is a supported app since it updated, but I love watching vlogs and podcasts on the TV so now I'm waiting for an Amazon Fire Stick.

So basically we went up and ordered our Maple Cinnamon Pancakes with Apple Compote.

That's what I would've gotten too!

This is a really good picture of pancakes. Like your photo taking ability not the pancakes (but they look good too). That probably sounds weird, but I just had to say it.

I think we found out about this place by watching TheTimTracker on youtube. I am pretty sure they took their friends there for an airboat ride in one of the episodes.

I think I saw that one too!