The Last-Minute Super-Bargain Bonus Trip ~ 9/11 Update: The $$$

[Dugette]

We walked back into Italy and it looked like Via Napoli had always been there:

By now, it was about 3pm. Pretty late lunch. We put our name on the list and had a seat in the lobby. I was watching them flip pizza dough in the air, since I could see the prep area. Dug took a pic of the pretty chandelier:

After maybe 5 minutes, we were seated. They sat us at the giant party-sized table in the middle. I wasn’t so sure about this, but it turned out to be a great spot to see everything from. Here’s where we were seated:

Here’s a look around:

Look, a giant pile of mozzarella cheese! Yum!:

Our waiter was Marco from Como, Italy. We told him that we had visited there on our honeymoon, almost 5 years ago. Talked about the yummy gelato we’d had there! Marco was nice and brought out our water. Unfortunately, since it was all we had to drink, he was not very good at refilling the water, even when asked (just once, at the end of our meal), but the glasses were pretty cool-looking:

We ordered exactly what we had planned to in the PTR. Got the Arancini for the appetizer (fried saffron risotto balls with mozzarella and meat ragu). The reviews we’d heard said that they were really good but expensive, at $10 for four of them. However, after we’d enjoyed their warm, cheesy yumminess, Dug said he happily would have paid $5 for his half. Here’s the before, during, and after:

We ordered an individual size Quattro Stagioni pizza to share (eggplant, artichokes, prosciutto, mushrooms). Size-wise, the individual worked perfectly for us to share. If it’s just two of you, and especially if you plan on an appetizer and/or dessert, you probably don’t need anything bigger, despite the recommendations on the menu. If you have a large group, the family at the end of our giant table had one of the ½ meters and it appeared to be feeding 5 adults and 2 kids decently. Here’s our pizza (sorry, we’d already dug in):

We thought it was interesting that this pizza was served with the four toppings separated. Each had its own quadrant of the pizza. Not what we expected. We mixed them together ourselves. The pizza was good, but I’d probably try a different kind next time. Lots of good options on the menu.

Then it was time for our two desserts. When you can’t decide, get both, right? We got Zeppole di Catarina (ricotta cheese fritters with whipped cream and chocolate sauce) and Coppa Di Brutti Ma Buoni (Amarena cherry and vanilla gelato sundae with cookies):

They were both great, though I have to say I preferred the gelato, but that’s probably because I am more of an ice cream person than a doughnut person. And the cherries on it were great!

Dug also got a cappuccino. This was all that was left when he took the pic:

So, during this meal, there was a couple sitting across (slightly diagonal) from us at this large table. Guess who? The same couple that semi-cut in line at the boat dock!

What a coincidence! Turned out that they were actually very friendly. We didn’t talk to them (or really even realize they were there) until towards the end of the meal, when they offered to take our picture:

Turns out that they were from Texas. The guy was going to be in Italy soon and hoped to stay a month! (I think they were retired). He also said that he was trying to convince his wife to get a summer home in Italy. Apparently, they saw the same episode of House Hunters International that I happened to catch recently, where the family gets a summer condo in Calabria. Fun chatting with them.

We really enjoyed our meal and it was about a quarter after 4pm when we decided to roll ourselves on out of Italy and have some fun in the rest of the world!

Up next: Godzilla attacks the little train town! And more boat rides!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

I have Via Napoli on the short list for our next trip but after seeing those pics....it's going to move up higher on the list

How were the crowds by the way? The FPs return time is a little scary but the pics don't look like the crowds are too bad!

 

[karebear23]

Oh! Everything looks sooo good. We are hoping to try Via Napoli in October...but maybe sooner. I'm so tempted to drive over there now! Maybe after dd's school one day this week? Hmmmm...

Funny about the couple...strange that they moved up in front of everyone. Thats great they turned out to be nice.

I thought it was kind of strange that they have that big table in there. I'm not sure how I feel about sitting with strangers. But when we have before we meet some interesting people.

Can't wait too see more!

 

[Dugette]

I have Via Napoli on the short list for our next trip but after seeing those pics....it's going to move up higher on the list

How were the crowds by the way? The FPs return time is a little scary but the pics don't look like the crowds are too bad!

for Via Napoli! Especially the appetizers and desserts! (The pizza's good too, but didn't blow us away the way the other things did).

Crowds didn't seem too bad. Our FP time was late since we didn't get there until 12:45pm or so. It wasn't the quietest we've seen things, but it wasn't overly crowded either. I don't think we really waited for anything.

Oh! Everything looks sooo good. We are hoping to try Via Napoli in October...but maybe sooner. I'm so tempted to drive over there now! Maybe after dd's school one day this week? Hmmmm...

Funny about the couple...strange that they moved up in front of everyone. Thats great they turned out to be nice.

I thought it was kind of strange that they have that big table in there. I'm not sure how I feel about sitting with strangers. But when we have before we meet some interesting people.

Can't wait too see more!

That is so cool you could go out to Via Napoli for dinner! You should go, just make sure you're hungry!

I was surprised they sat us at the big table, since I thought they'd be using it for big groups. It wasn't bad, though. We weren't packed in, so there were empty spaces around us...it didn't feel Biergarten-style since they spaced us out. And the view of the pizza ovens was good!

 

[reelmom]

The food looks incredible. I can't wait to go back so we can eat there.

 

[Dugette]

The food looks incredible. I can't wait to go back so we can eat there.

I would say it's worth a visit! We have ADRs for Via Napoli for our November and December trips and I think we'll probably keep one of them (good enough to go again!). Probably switch the other one out for the new Mexican place, when it opens.

 

[Dugette]

After leaving Italy, we came across the little train village. However, no train was running today. And the river was dried up:

Maybe it was because the village was being attacked by Godzilla :

Okay, we can’t take credit for that idea. The Hidden Magic book mentioned that it’s pretty comical when you see a little lizard on top of a little house. I didn’t think we’d actually see one, but sure enough, they were all over the place!

Since no trains were running, there were fewer people around and we were able to check out all the little scenes more thoroughly than usual. For instance, what’s going on at this church? Did a wedding just take place?:

Oh, looks like the bride tackled the groom! :

Look, there’s a couple making out in the gazebo! :

A flock of sheep:

Hey, it’s just like Iowa! Piggies!:

After our fun with miniatures, we made our way over to China:

We had never actually gone into China and looked around before, so we made it a point to do so now:

Next, we headed over to Norway for the Maelstrom:

The line was actually fairly long (45 minutes, maybe?), but the Fast Pass return window was short. In fact, it was only as long as the line. So, why were people waiting in a 45 minute line when they could take a Fast Pass, do something fun for 45 minutes, then come back and ride without a line?!?! I don’t get it. We got Fast Passes, then headed over to Mexico for the boat ride there:

Mexican Donald was doing meet and greets:

There was a little band performing right near the entrance for the boat ride queue. Perhaps it was scaring people away, because there were people gathered around, but once we walked past them, there was no line at all. Hopped right onto a boat and enjoyed the ride.

Exited the pyramid and snagged another shot of the new restaurant going up:

By the way, some of the Hidden Magic things popped into my head while we were there. For one, the entrance to the pyramid was originally supposed to be around to the side, which is currently the wheelchair entrance. The idea was to take people on a winding path through the jungle. However, guests were getting confused about how to get in, so they had to put an entrance on front. Also, the big picture on front of the pyramid is there because it blocks the daredevils who want to climb the dangerous steps to the top of the pyramid.

After Mexico, we went back to Norway and handed in our Fast Passes. They gave us each one of the little red cards that are used to time the waits. Which was kind-of funny, considering that this was the Fast Pass Return line and there was no wait at all. So, it was really just timing how fast we could walk through the queue and give someone our cards.

We enjoyed the Maelstrom. We were lucky that, when we exited, the movie was not in progress, so we were able to walk straight through. We did watch it once on another trip, but that was enough for us. There were a lot of people sitting in there waiting for the movie to start, though.

Up next: Future World (after hours?), exploring a moderate resort, and Raglan Road!

 

[Dugette]

It was getting late and we wanted to get back to Future World and ride Spaceship Earth before using our Soarin’ Fast Passes:

We were happy to see that Spaceship Earth was a walk-on. Got in our car and started our ascent. Sitting there in the dark, picking our locations and such, I remembered that the Hidden Magic book said to take a quick flash photo of a certain wall (opposite some certain scene) to get a surprise in the picture. I pulled the book out of the backpack, but it was too dark to find the info. So, Dug just took a picture of a few random walls that we thought might be it. We think this is probably the one they were referring to:

Unfortunately, probably because they saw a couple flashes from our car, the girls in the car behind us were taking constant flash photos. Which was particularly obnoxious when the cars spun backwards and we were facing them. Oh, well.

The video at the end was fun. Here are a few shots:

We went to the booth outside so that we could email the video to my dad and step-mom (and to ourselves). Had to wait in line a bit, but got it done. Would have been fun to try out whatever games in there we hadn’t yet done, but we had a date with Soarin’.

Headed into the Land pavilion and were very happy that we had gotten those FPs. The line was 100 minutes long!!! :

We didn’t have to wait too long in the FP line, but a bit. We ended up sitting in the first row, but on the very left side of the left section. Still cool, though! Love that ride! We even saw the Hidden Mickey on the golf ball that comes at you. Cool!

As we were leaving Soarin’, I heard someone saying that their Soarin’ FPs were for 7-something-pm. Huh? I thought Future World closed at 7pm tonight. We went and checked the wait-time board. Saw that some things were remaining open! We decided we had enough time to go hop in a Clamobile, then see Crush.

No line at all to find Nemo. Enjoyed the ride, then took a few minutes to wander the aquarium again, because we hadn’t done that since our September trip. Fun.

Went to line up for Crush. Sat by the tank near the door and waited to get in. Getting tired. There was a dad with a little toddler girl nearby. She was pressing her face up to the glass on the aquarium to look in.

They opened the doors and we took our seats for the show. Early on, the same little girl we saw outside at the aquarium ran up to Crush. Tried to put her face against that “aquarium” too. Her dad had to run up and retrieve her.

We enjoyed Turtle Talk, once again (3rd time we’ve seen it now).

At this point, it was time to head out. We had to get to Downtown Disney for our 9:45pm ADR at Raglan Road. Since we had to go to a resort to transfer to Downtown Disney, we took it as an opportunity to explore a new place. We headed to the bus stop for Caribbean Beach.

Once we got there, we weren’t sure which bus stop to get off at. Dug was able to pull up a map on his iPhone, though, and we figured out which was the main building’s stop. I think it would be hard to stay at a resort with so many bus stops. At least for the directionally-challenged like me.

We went into the building and checked out the food court area:

Then just walked around outside and checked out the pools:

Wandered across the little island and back:

It was a pretty resort. Nice theming around the pools.

By now, we knew we needed to catch a Downtown Disney bus, so we made our way back to a bus stop. A Downtown Disney bus had just gone through, so we had to wait maybe 10 minutes for another. When one came, we took it to Pleasure Island. First time going to that section of Downtown Disney.

We got to Raglan Road at almost exactly 9:45pm. Checked in and went to use the restrooms while we waited. They told us it would be a few extra minutes because we asked to be seated where we could see the entertainment (singing/dancing).

We were soon seated in a half-booth/half-table. Since only the booth side faced the entertainment, we sat next to each other on that side.

We both got waters and Dug ordered a chocolate beer:

He liked it! Since I’m not crazy about a lot of the types of food on their menu, I got something not-too-Irish, the Raglan Risotto (Risotto with shiitake mushrooms, garden peas, shaved parmesan & rocket lettuce With Chicken). I thought the chicken would be little bite-size pieces of chicken. Nope, they ended up being two grilled chicken breasts…way more chicken than I needed! The risotto was very good and I really liked the shaved parmesan:

Dug ordered based on our waitress’ recommendation: Bangers & Booz (Guinness & onion bangers on mash, topped with caramelized onions & beef stew). He said it was really good:

Here’s a look around the place:

There was entertainment:

I guess we don’t have a picture of all the dancers together, but there was one guy and two girls and they were very good Irish step dancers.

After our meal, we stayed put for a bit to catch a little more of the entertainment. There were some little kids that had been dancing around. One of them ran smack into our table, which shook it, which caused my (empty except ice) water glass to fly off the table and shatter all over the floor. Yikes! Luckily, no one got hurt and they cleaned up the glass quickly. And the mom did ask us if her son had done it, before taking off. Well, that was exciting!

The singers were taking requests and Dug yelled out, “Drunken Sailor!” They fulfilled his request! Very cool!

We finally decided to head out, as it was getting late. There wasn’t enough time to get over to the Marketplace area for any shopping, so we just decided to wander around Pleasure Island a bit. Cool to see all the stuff there. There was a Spanish guitar performance going on in the square. There was a store full of magnets that we went through, but we didn’t see any of Disney characters! Saw the movie theater. We walked back next to the parking lot. Seemed like an awful lot of car alarms were going off. When I saw someone going to their car, I think I figured out why. I think people were having trouble finding their cars in the big parking lot and were setting off the alarms to locate them!

We made it to the bus stop and were greeted by a CRAZY long line for the All Stars. Uggggg. A bus eventually came and it was clear that we would not make it on this one, but probably the next one. Well, lucky us, another bus pulled up even before the first one left the spot! We happily took a seat on the second bus and were soon back at All Star Music.

As we walked up to our building, there was a guy playing guitar from the second floor balcony. All Star Music sure was living up to its name!

The next day, we had to catch the Magical Express at 1:25pm. We had arranged for late check-out (1pm), so that we could leave our bags in the room and change after the parks.

Speaking of the parks, we had some CRAZY plans for the next day. Dug thought it would be fun to start the morning at the 8am Epcot EMH, do Soarin’ (again) and Test Track, then hop to the MK to hopefully make 9am rope drop (yes, rope drop in two parks in one day!), then do all 3 mountains. When he was telling me about it that night, he said something after that, but I didn’t hear what he said. When I asked him to repeat what was next, he said he didn’t remember anymore. He was clearly very tired. I don’t find out until the next day that he has a THIRD park in mind!

Anyway, we were sound asleep in that nice King bed before long.

Up next: I think we are just downright crazy!!!

 

[reelmom]

Great update. Loved the Spaceship Earth pictures. I am so glad that they added the video at the end. It is so much fun. Future World does close at 7 but most rides remain operational until 9. Good to know next time you go.

 

[jc040404]

What a great weekend so far! Loving your TR. MK sounds so nice so late at night. Someday I'll manage to keep my guys there that late. We had every intention of staying until midnight this last saturday night, but then everything started closing at ten? Oops! I had the park hours all mixed up. Staying til 3am sounds like so much fun! Those lines, minus Haunted Mansion, sound heavenly. I did not know the characters run around like that so late either!

I love all the little train pics! How cute! I don't think I've ever really looked at it. Too funny about the bride and groom, too!

All your food pics drive me nuts. I'm so hungry right now! Via Napoli looks good. That's hilarious that the people from the boat were across from you. I wouldn't have been able to say anything! Shows you that even almost line cutters can be nice though, right?

Can't wait to see this next day!

 

[estherhead]

After our meal, we stayed put for a bit to catch a little more of the entertainment. There were some little kids that had been dancing around. One of them ran smack into our table, which shook it, which caused my (empty except ice) water glass to fly off the table and shatter all over the floor. Yikes! Luckily, no one got hurt and they cleaned up the glass quickly. And the mom did ask us if her son had done it, before taking off. Well, that was exciting!

Great update! I love Raglan Road.

I had to laugh at the above story though, as shattered glass in public places is nothing in my life. I have 3 kids & my sister has 4. Just today at Wendy's my mom, sister, and I, along with our 2 & 3 year olds, were enjoying lunch. The kids were done eating and we were chitchatting while they ran around our table screaming and screeching. I didn't even notice it's so much a part of my life. Then my sister came to her senses and got up grabbed them & said, "You guys need to learn this week to not run around restaurants screeching because we'll be the people at Disney World that Disboards write about!"

Nope, not exciting and wouldn't phase me.

 

[Dugette]

Great update. Loved the Spaceship Earth pictures. I am so glad that they added the video at the end. It is so much fun. Future World does close at 7 but most rides remain operational until 9. Good to know next time you go.

The video was a nice addition! I think this was my favorite of the ones we've gotten. That's interesting about FW staying open like that. I guess I had this vague sense of having heard that somewhere, but clearly didn't know well enough to make plans around it. But it turned out to be a nice bonus.

What a great weekend so far! Loving your TR. MK sounds so nice so late at night. Someday I'll manage to keep my guys there that late. We had every intention of staying until midnight this last saturday night, but then everything started closing at ten? Oops! I had the park hours all mixed up. Staying til 3am sounds like so much fun! Those lines, minus Haunted Mansion, sound heavenly. I did not know the characters run around like that so late either!

I love all the little train pics! How cute! I don't think I've ever really looked at it. Too funny about the bride and groom, too!

All your food pics drive me nuts. I'm so hungry right now! Via Napoli looks good. That's hilarious that the people from the boat were across from you. I wouldn't have been able to say anything! Shows you that even almost line cutters can be nice though, right?

Can't wait to see this next day!

You should definitely spend a late night at the MK if you get the chance! Do you have plans the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend? MK is open till 1am (EMH) and Via Napoli will still be in the walk-in only phase. And to find the characters riding things at night, I think Dumbo and the Carousel are the best bets...we've seen them there multiple times, especially Goofy, Pluto, and Chip & Dale. And all the walk-on rides close to closing are nice!

It was definitely fun to take a better look at the train setting/miniatures. I'm excited for our December trip because I've heard that they decorate that village for the holidays too!

Oh, and these semi-line-cutters were very nice! It's tomorrow's line-cutters that cause more frustration!

Great update! I love Raglan Road.

I had to laugh at the above story though, as shattered glass in public places is nothing in my life. I have 3 kids & my sister has 4. Just today at Wendy's my mom, sister, and I, along with our 2 & 3 year olds, were enjoying lunch. The kids were done eating and we were chitchatting while they ran around our table screaming and screeching. I didn't even notice it's so much a part of my life. Then my sister came to her senses and got up grabbed them & said, "You guys need to learn this week to not run around restaurants screeching because we'll be the people at Disney World that Disboards write about!"

Nope, not exciting and wouldn't phase me.

That story is hilarious! Nothing like the threat of being mentioned on the Disboards to keep kids in line!

For what it's worth, I didn't go into this much detail in the TR, but here's why the incident was "exciting" for me: I had my head in my hands and my eyes closed at the time, since my shoulder/neck was hurting and Dug was rubbing it for me. All of a sudden, our table comes flying directly at me! I think the kid literally plowed straight into it. Then, the water glass shattered into hundreds of little, flying shards of glass right next to my bare leg (wearing shorts). I was lucky I wasn't any further to the left. Okay, so still not exciting for your life, but slightly more dramatic...

 

[jc040404]

You should definitely spend a late night at the MK if you get the chance! Do you have plans the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend? MK is open till 1am (EMH) and Via Napoli will still be in the walk-in only phase. And to find the characters riding things at night, I think Dumbo and the Carousel are the best bets...we've seen them there multiple times, especially Goofy, Pluto, and Chip & Dale. And all the walk-on rides close to closing are nice!

It was definitely fun to take a better look at the train setting/miniatures. I'm excited for our December trip because I've heard that they decorate that village for the holidays too!

Oh, and these semi-line-cutters were very nice! It's tomorrow's line-cutters that cause more frustration!

Ooohh.. Can't wait to find out about the next line cutters. I hope it wasn't too bad. They just get worse and worse, it seems.

I wanted to check out Via Napoli this last weekend, but we ended up doing Yak & Yeti for some reason instead of going to Epcot. We don't really have any overnight Disney plans until October. No late fun EMH for me! I wish the park stayed open late all year long. We'll check it out yet.

 

[canoe86]

good report.

You guys have a TON of energy.

 

[Dugette]

Ooohh.. Can't wait to find out about the next line cutters. I hope it wasn't too bad. They just get worse and worse, it seems.

I wanted to check out Via Napoli this last weekend, but we ended up doing Yak & Yeti for some reason instead of going to Epcot. We don't really have any overnight Disney plans until October. No late fun EMH for me! I wish the park stayed open late all year long. We'll check it out yet.

Well, I'm sure you'll get to Via Napoli sometime this year! For non-summer late hours, we did the Sunday before MLK day in January earlier this year and it was a 2am night.

good report.

You guys have a TON of energy.

Thank you! I don't know that we have a ton of energy so much as a willingness to go without sleep in Disney. We pay for it afterwards, though.

 

[Dugette]

We were up and out early this morning, as we had 8am EMH at Epcot to get to. Of course, that makes it sound like we jumped out of bed enthusiastically, kind of like my Spaceship Earth animation. I can’t speak for Dug on this, but I know that I was having a waking-up dialogue in my head that consisted mostly of things like, “I know I’m in WDW and there are lots of cool things to do, but this bed is great. I can still do cool things after sleeping some more. Sleep…Test Track…Sleep…Test Track??” Sleep almost won, but Dug managed to get me up.

On the way out, Dug snapped a picture of the water feature at the pool that I thought was cool. It’s way cooler when it’s shooting out water, though:

So, I should explain our plans for this day. You may remember, the previous night, we’d come up with the idea of hitting the big two at Epcot, then doing the triple-mountain-whammy at MK. Well, the part that Dug was too sleepy to repeat that night was that he also wanted to hit DHS and ride Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (Toy Story Mania was closed). And somehow still get back to World Showcase to get the bakery items that I wanted to try. Whew! I don’t think I would have agreed to all that if I’d known the night before. But now, our plans were kind of set. I guess let’s try this, huh?

We were on a bus to Epcot by 7:30am. Because we expected to attain some sort of pastry or sweet treat for a late breakfast, all we ate that morning were some Disney fruit snacks that I’d packed (we had the Classics and the Toy Story ones). Although yummy and well-themed, not that filling.

We were greeted by an unusual and unpleasant sight at Epcot. Crazy lines! They were not running tickets and gathering people inside for rope drop. They were holding everyone outside the ticket gates. We went to the end of one of the lines, which was out under the monorail entrance:

After a bit, since the lines were completely out of control, a CM came over and moved our line into one that wrapped around, rather than going straight back:

We waited for what felt like a long time, chatting with the people around us a bit. Pretty shortly before opening, they started spreading the beginning of the line out among turn-styles (still not letting anyone through). This caused our line to move up. We ended up just behind that corner you see in the upper left of the last picture. We had to stand there until park open.

While we were standing there, we saw one family contemplate jumping into the line at the corner, but thankfully they changed their minds. However, there was a young couple that did not have the same moral character. They decided to just hop into the line upon their arrival, right at that corner, despite the fact that those of us behind them had been waiting in that line for what felt like an eternity. The guy was really the instigator, but the girl followed him without argument. Although we didn’t get one of the guy, Dug got a picture of the girl with his iPhone:

Just because you wear a tiara doesn’t mean that you can cut in line! Another family near us also took pictures of them. And everyone near us was loudly talking about jerks who cut in lines. Either these two were completely oblivious to people taking flash photos of them and talking about them, or they were very good at ignoring it. They really had everybody’s blood boiling, though, because it was clear that they knew what they were doing and it was not an accident that they got in line there.

Finally, the park opened and we made our way to the gates. I ended up going through the gate right next to the line-cutter. I could actually see his name on his KTTW card (although I don’t remember it now).

We had arrived:

Once in the park, we made our way to Soarin’. It was different than normal because the crowd was more dispersed than when they do a traditional rope drop. Luckily, we got on quickly. We were seated in the center of the back row. We were next to a family that was riding for the first time. They were asking us about the ride beforehand and ended up loving it! It was another great ride on Soarin’.

While we were waiting for Soarin’, some other guests told us that they’d gone to Test Track first and it was down. We hoped it would be back up, as we had an agenda this day. We got there at about 8:30am or so and were happy to hear the zooming sounds coming from it. Because of our time constraints, we got in the single rider line. Talked to a guy ahead of us who didn’t seem to think 3 parks in ½ day was too crazy. He was telling us tales of riding TT and RnRC many times in a row with the single rider line. We got through pretty quickly and I ended up a couple cars before Dug. I love Test Track! So fun!

Once we were done with Test Track, we made our way out of the park. It was funny to already be passing back through that area where we had been waiting in line not even an hour before. We were on the monorail to the TTC at 8:59am. At the TTC, we transferred to the Express Monorail to the MK.

We missed rope drop here, but not by all that much, considering. Went straight to Tomorrowland for Space Mountain. It was about 9:30am. Space Mountain looks kinda quiet:

It was down. Uh oh, how will we do the triple-mountain-whammy? The CMs said to get Fast Passes, but the time on them was too late for us.

We checked to see if the Lunching Pad was open yet (cream cheese pretzel was on the “would like to try” list). Closed. Well, time to cross the park to the other mountains then. Since I walk faster than Dug, I went ahead in search of some ice waters for us (from any counter service place with fountain drinks). You can see me rushing past future Fantasyland here:

No luck finding any open CS places for water. Oh, well, we’ll wait. By about 9:40am, we were walking onto Big Thunder!

Less than 10 minutes later, we were waiting to board Splash:

Only had to wait a few minutes. Asked for the last seat and got it. We got hit by the water cannons early on, but it was okay since this was a hot day! Enjoyed the ride!

After Splash, about 10:10am, Dug checked his “Lines” iPhone app and it showed that Space Mountain was open now. So, I set off at super-speed to try to obtain water and a cream cheese pretzel for us on the way. I found the doors to Columbia Harbor House had been opened (made me think of you, jc040404). Nobody was there, except CMs (and I don’t think they were serving yet), but I was able to walk right in and get two big glasses of ice water:

However, no such luck with the pretzel, as the Lunching Pad was still closed. They should really open earlier, as there were a lot of people gathered around it peering in the windows and such.

Finished our waters as we walked through the queue in Space Mountain. There was almost no line. Just waited a couple minutes at the loading area. We made sure to request a front seat, so that I’d have room for the backpack (you may remember the leg-crushing fun I had on a previous trip).

This was a different ride on Space. It was dark. Really, really dark. As in, not very many stars in the sky. Some, but not many. Made it even scarier to be in the front car…not even any glowing pinpoints to let you know where you’ll be going.

So, around 10:35am we had completed the triple-mountain-whammy and were on our way back to the bus stop. On our way down Main Street, we checked out the bakery (since the Lunching Pad still wasn’t open and we were hungry). We got in line for a minute, but it wasn’t moving very fast and we decided that we couldn’t spare the time to wait.

Here is where Dug and I had a difference of opinion. I thought we should take the monorail to the TTC, then catch a bus to DHS. I figured that the buses would be running frequently from the TTC this early in the day. However, Dug thought there might be a bus directly to DHS from the MK. When we got to the bus stops and found that there was not, Dug wanted to take a bus to one of the Epcot resorts and make our way to DHS from there. I reluctantly went along with the plan.

We got in the bus queue for Boardwalk (first ones in line). Debated if this was the best line to be in. These ducks were also confused as to what bus they needed to get in line for:

They kept wandering from queue to queue and lining up. Amusing!

A bus pulled up and unloaded. But it was not going to Boardwalk! It left. More people had joined our line. We waited and waited, not so patiently. Dug talked to the transportation CMs about getting a bus here. With the time ticking away, I told Dug that I was not sure that I wanted to go to DHS. I’d agreed to do so earlier, thinking we’d get back to Epcot for the bakery items I wanted to try. But now, with this precious time slipping through our fingers, that was looking highly unlikely. I told Dug that I wanted to take the monorail to Epcot. I reminded him that he’d said this was “my trip”, so we would do what I wanted. Somehow, that didn’t work. Instead, we continued to wait, with the promise that we could easily get to either DHS or World Showcase from the Boardwalk. Finally, a bus arrived for Boardwalk.

We arrived around 11:15am:

At this point, we (mostly I) decided to do Epcot and skip DHS. I hadn’t originally planned on going to DHS this trip, so I didn’t really feel like I was missing anything. But I had been dreaming of bakery items in WS for awhile, so I was glad to not miss out on them again.

As we were walking along the boardwalk, I remembered reading good things on the Dis about the yogurt parfaits at the Boardwalk Bakery. We stopped in, but there was a short wait, so we decided to forge on.

I hustled ahead along the boardwalk to get to the bakery in France:

Dug took it a bit slower and got a pic of the next resort we’ll be staying at (in November for Food & Wine):

Can’t wait to stay at the Beach Club Villas!

Dug arrived in France, just as I was checking out at the bakery:

I got the long-anticipated Napoleon (recommended by Sunset Cliffs in her TR). I also got a ham and cheese croissant, but found it disappointing that it was served cold. We have a French bakery locally that heats them up and they are amazing warm! I also got a couple of ice waters. Here are the treats:

We sat in here to eat:

We ate quick, since we had limited time, but still enjoyed the food. Especially the Napoleon. It was as yummy as we were expecting, if not more!

After eating, we decided to split up to obtain more treats. Dug would go to Germany for a pretzel and I would go to Norway for School Bread.

On his way past, Dug noticed that the trains were running again today:

Uh oh, looks like Godzilla got to this one:

While waiting in Norway (the people ahead of me were all getting delicious-looking hot sandwiches, which took awhile), I debated getting something in addition to the School Bread. I’d heard that Rice Cream was good. I’d also read recently (on cdotla’s TR) that the Cloudberry Horn was a must-try. I didn’t think I could carry all three, so I got the School Bread and a Cloudberry Horn. Also just one water, as I didn’t have Dug to help carry things.

Dug arrived just as I was finishing up. He grabbed us a seat by the exit of the bakery. By the time he got there, the pretzel from Germany looked like this:

He let me eat that part, though, and it was delish! And I don’t even like pretzels all that much.

Here’s the School Bread:

And the Cloudberry Horn:

After sitting for a moment, we decided to eat and walk. We had limited time to get out of Epcot. Luckily, these snacks were easily transportable. Despite our hurry, we strolled into Club Cool at 12:28pm, needing to wash down the yummy treats (By the way, Dug said that, as far as donut-like things go, the School Bread was right up his alley. I think I liked the Cloudberry Horn a bit better, but both were good).

Our amusing moment this time was also due to a little boy. He was mixing multiple drink flavors together in his little cup. His parents came up and asked what he was doing. He let out an evil-sounding, “Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…” It was pretty funny.

After our refreshments, we had to head out of Epcot. Goodbye for now, Epcot!:

At 12:40pm, we walked up to the All Star bus stop and a bus immediately pulled up. Whew, the good bus karma (which we’d enjoyed for most of the trip) was back!

We got back to our room just before 1pm. Got a call from a CM to confirm our late checkout. We told them we were just grabbing our stuff and would be out. Of course, we didn’t actually get out of the room until 1:10pm (changing clothes, packing, etc.) All was fine, though, as our ME wasn’t until 1:25pm.

I debated stopping into the food court for some waters, but decided we didn’t have enough time. (We probably would have been fine, but oh well). We sat on the benches outside ASMu and waited for the ME to arrive. While we were there, I re-arranged my toiletries to conform to airline carry-on standards, as I’d just thrown everything in one bag before to get out of the room quickly.

The Magical Express arrived and we loaded on, towards the front. Dug and I sat on opposite sides of the aisle so that we could each put our carry-on bag on the seat next to us. Within minutes, we were both passed out on the ME. Wow, were we tired!

The bus stopped at Coronado Springs (in addition to the other All Stars, I think). I forced myself to open my eyes and attain consciousness long enough to briefly take in Coronado Springs. Then passed right back out.

I woke up near the airport, with the end of the departure video playing. Enjoyed that last few moments of Disney. As we pulled into the airport, I leaned over and woke Dug up. We got off at the first stop.

After checking in for our flight, we had some time to kill, so we wandered the Disney stores in the airport. Dug wanted to find a pillow to use on the plane. He came to me with a stuffed Winnie the Pooh saying that it would be a good pillow. Cute! He put it back, though. Never did find a pillow. But I enjoyed looking at the Disney souvenirs, since we hadn’t had a chance to do any shopping this trip. And, this being the super-bargain trip that it was, we didn’t buy anything in the stores this time.

We decided to head through security. Thankfully, it was a much shorter line than our last trip, which had a long wait.

Once through security, we found another Disney store. They had a talking Dug dog! I was tempted to get it, but it was really hard to hear what it was saying. Maybe next time?

We were somewhat hungry still, so decided to find a quick meal. Ended up at some sort of Italian place. Got a Spinach Stromboli to share. Dug got a lemonade and I had a water. We brought the food to our gate and sat down to eat. We should have had maybe 20 minutes until boarding, according to what the employee told us at check-in (she was the same person doing the boarding…the fun of a small airline!) However, she ended up starting the boarding early, right after we sat down to eat. And she was cruising through it. Calling rows before the previous rows even had a chance to get to the gate. So, we ended up bringing our food and drinks on board with us.

We found our seats way towards the back of the plane. Surprisingly, they were bulkhead seats. Lots of legroom, but no seat in front of us to put our bags under. Also no pockets for books and no trays. Luckily, we were able to quickly snag some overhead space for our bags. We ate our food quickly. I had to ask a flight attendant to throw things out, as we had no place to put our empty box and cups.

We taxied away from the gate only a few minutes late. However, we then sat for a long time, as the airport had put out a ground stop, due to some nasty weather nearby. We ended up sitting there for about an hour before take-offs were allowed to resume. Finally, we were on our way! We both slept a lot on the plane. I think the headrests were more comfortable on this plane than on the previous one. Either that or we were just that much more tired!

I think we landed in Des Moines around 7:15pm or so. Just over an hour later than planned. It took awhile to get off the plane, since we were so far back. We would have to move quickly in order to get home at a reasonable hour for picking up our dog.

Since we had no checked luggage, we proceeded straight to the shuttle pick-up area. A parking shuttle arrived and we boarded. There was a family on board that had just gone to the Harry Potter world at Universal and they loved it. Soon, we were being dropped off at our car.

We got on the road and didn’t stop until we reached Clear Lake, Iowa. We gassed up the car and made a quick stop at Culver’s. I got a Snack Pack with a Cheddar Butterburger. Dug got a Black Pepper Burger. And we split an order of Cheese Curds (and we split the fries from my Snack Pack). We ate in the car, while back on the interstate. The cheese curds were particularly good at this Culver’s! Yummy!

We made it home around 11:30pm, I think. Stopped at my dad and step-mom’s house to pick up Bailey. She was thrilled to see us!

We went home and greeted Kitty. She was also happy to see us, mostly for our food-dispensing abilities.

Since I had to work some extra hours later in the upcoming week (accounting month-end work), I was clever enough to request Monday morning off to offset those hours. So, I got to sleep in the next morning. Much needed!

And that was it!

I will put together a final post with the $$$ totals.

 

[jc040404]

Sadness. You're done already! I can't wait to see how much it cost. Think you'll plan another of these? It seems so rushed but so much fun!

How did you like ASMu? Would you stay there again? I was considering that one for our last weekend, but went with CBR. The all star resorts scare me, but I know it's only because of what I've read recently on here. Nothing terrible happened the two times we stayed at ASMo! Silly DISboards. It'll make you afraid of just about everything.

Epcot looks nuts that morning! It hardly seems like a smart way to set that up. And the line cutters... People like that suck. I can't believe they just ignored it all.

@ you thinking of me. We always stop in there if we're at MK for water before they start serving actually. Too funny!

Great trip! I love how the two of you do WDW. It sounds so fun, but reeeeeally makes me wish dh & I had done more before the kiddos!

 

[Dugette]

Sadness. You're done already! I can't wait to see how much it cost. Think you'll plan another of these? It seems so rushed but so much fun!

It was quite the quick little trip! I'll put together the cost stuff next. I'd consider doing another one of these. Our only real option would probably be MLK weekend in January, which is a year from our kick-off trip and the same weekend that our APs expire. I've been keeping an eye on airfare, but not seeing much yet. It definitely was rushed, but very fun. You can sure make a lot of memories in a short time at WDW.

How did you like ASMu? Would you stay there again? I was considering that one for our last weekend, but went with CBR. The all star resorts scare me, but I know it's only because of what I've read recently on here. Nothing terrible happened the two times we stayed at ASMo! Silly DISboards. It'll make you afraid of just about everything.

We liked ASMu okay. We liked the refurbed room. And the Calypso building was very close to everything (which is why it's preferred, obviously). We weren't really there long enough to have a strong opinion on the place, but it was better than I thought it would be. I think we'd both still get a refurbed '80's room at Pop before ASMu, though. I don't know what you saw on the DIS that was scary, but now I'm scared.

Epcot looks nuts that morning! It hardly seems like a smart way to set that up. And the line cutters... People like that suck. I can't believe they just ignored it all.

Epcot was nuts that morning, at least until we got inside. Have you ever seen a rope drop where they didn't let anyone through the gates before opening? We were baffled by it. I can't believe the line cutters. The little girl from another family walking right up to them and taking a pic was pretty funny...they didn't appear to notice.

@ you thinking of me. We always stop in there if we're at MK for water before they start serving actually. Too funny!

Great trip! I love how the two of you do WDW. It sounds so fun, but reeeeeally makes me wish dh & I had done more before the kiddos!

Funny about CHH. I was tempted to grab a sandwich, but I think it was too early. We'll see if we end up there on our Nov or Dec trip. It was never in our plans, but you guys seem to like it an awful lot!

I was apparently reading your TR while you were reading mine. I was just thinking about how much fun it would be to do Disney with little kids, experiencing all those firsts with them. I guess we can live vicariously through each-other's TRs!

 

[Dugette]

As promised, here's the breakdown of the "super-bargain" trip:

Travel:

Gas

60.00 (estimate)​

Parking

11.00 (at airport)​

Airfare

252.74 cool1​

Travel Subtotal:

323.74​

Lodging:

ASMu Room

157.18 (2 nights)​

Mousekeeping

4.50 (tips)​

Lodging Subtotal:

161.68​

Food:

Drinks

3.59 (pop/juice on drive down)​

Wendy's

5.15 (in Iowa on the way)​

Casey's Corner

9.57 (first night)​

Aloha Isle

4.25 (first night)​

ASMu Food Ct.

16.22 (next morning; could have used Tables in Wonderland, but forgot)​

Via Napoli

55.00 (day 2 lunch; TiW discount)​

Raglan Road

48.00 (day 2 dinner; TiW discount)​

France Bakery

7.41 (day 3 brunch)​

Germany Pretzel

4.50 (day 3 brunch)​

Norway Bakery

5.42 (day 3 brunch)​

Stromboli

8.50 (at airport)​

Culver's

11.16 (in Iowa on way home)​

Food Subtotal:

178.77​

Grand Total:

664.19 thumbsup2)​

As a sidenote, admission was free, thanks to our APs!

Well, that pretty much wraps it up. I seem to never need to do closing thoughts, as I always have another TR going. Maybe I'll come up with something profound to say at the end of our Year of Disney. But, for now, I'll send you back to the TR already in progress: "Star Wars Nightastically Delicious!"

Thanks for joining us on this journey!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

I just read through everything on this TR, thanks for posting it here!

I like to read about budget trips and cost breakdowns...I think I'm going to have to take myself to WDW sometime in the near future, DBF is just not as into it as I'd like!