UnCut and UnPlugged at the WL and Poly: A picture-rific Christmas report! New Day 3!

[TiggerAllie]

Introduction and Day 1: Dec 2

The participants in this trip report are me & DP: 30 yr old Disney lovers! We just got our first APs (actually PAPs) at the end of July, and we are making the most of them! Last year we went to WDW (stayed at CSR) for MNSSHP and Food & Wine, so this year we thought we’d try MVMCP and see the Christmas decorations (along with a few other trips). We took almost 450 pictures this trip, so expect to see a lot!

I really wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge because I had heard such wonderful things about the Christmas decorations. When I first called for a reservation, we were unable to get WL for the week we wanted to go (Dec 2-9). So, we ended up booking a week at the Polynesian instead. I kept looking for availability at the WL and AP rates. We ended up with: 2 nights at the WL in a Standard View room and 5 nights at the Poly on an AP rate in a Garden View room.

This time, we decided to rent a car and skip Magical Express. We tried using the bus system at AKL this past October (see my previous trip report), but we missed the freedom the rental car gave us. So, even though Magical Express worked great last time, we decided to manage our own bags. Before heading downstairs, we stopped off at Lush—an excellent all natural bath product store that has only recently moved from Canada into the US This turned out to be just fine, as the baggage claim area was quiet. We walked right through and picked out a car from the National Emerald Aisle—you just walk up and get in any car and drive away!

We decided to stop by Downtown Disney on our way to the Wilderness Lodge. We needed to pick up some festive Christmas ears to wear! DTD was crazy-busy! It was wall to wall people! We were able to find Minnie headband ears and Tigger ears on a Santa hat. It was so crazy, we had to get our of there! It was time to head out to WL!

We arrived and checked-in with no wait. To our surprise, the Cast Member there told us we had been upgraded from Standard View to a Courtyard View room! We were given room 6119, on the South Wing, overlooking the inner courtyard and the Silver Springs Creek.

We loved the newly renovated rooms! The flat screen TV was so nice, and it made for so much more space in the room! Here are a couple of pictures:

We were hungry, so we decided to get a late lunch/snack at Roaring Forks. I was surprised with how small it is! The Mara at AKL was HUGE in comparison! Fortunately, we were between lunch and dinner, so there were hardly any people there. We had the Tomato Bisque soup and, because they didn’t have any rolls, they gave us a piece of focaccia bread instead. It was quite yummy! We skipped the refillable mug, because it wasn’t very cute. We decided to hold out for the mug at the Poly.

We didn’t really have enough time to head over to the Magic Kingdom before dinner (besides, we didn’t want to get caught in the crush of parade taping), so we decided to walk around the hotel and check out the decor.

First, we went out to the boat dock and watched the boats come in and out. We could see the monorail go by, and I was surprised at how close the Contemporary was, even though it was well hidden by trees.

Even the boat dock was decorated for Christmas!

My DP

We saw some interesting birds at the water’s edge of Bay Lake.
Aren’t these wreathes both cute and well-themed?

We got a few pictures of the lobby Christmas tree.

We found the cat carving!

Here's us before dinner:

And we rubbed Humphrey’s nose for good luck!

Since it was still warm (in the 80s) and the weather was supposed to turn cooler in the next week, we decided it would be a great day to go swimming. The water was SO WARM! I was shocked! And it was really fun to hang out in the part of the pool where the Silver Springs Creek flows into the pool. Even the hot tubs were extra hot! We were nice and warm, and it was time to head upstairs to get ready for our dinner at Citricos.

We’d never been to Citricos before, so this was an exciting meal for us! We decided to drive over, because our dinner reservation was for 6:50PM, and we thought we might have time to catch Illuminations over at Epcot at 9:30PM if we drove to the Beach Club right after dinner. We were a bit early, so we decided to wander around the Grand Floridian and look at the some of the decorations there. The place was hopping! They had a band playing up on the second floor, and there were even some folks there taking wedding pictures. We peaked at the tree and gingerbread house and then headed over to Citricos to check-in.

We didn’t have the Dining Plan—we used it once, and we found we could never eat as much food as they gave us. So, we opted for the Disney Dining Experience card, which works much better for us, because this way we get 20% off the alcohol as well as the meal.

To drink, we started with the Year of a Million Dreams Blue Glow-Tini and the Lemon Drop. Our waiter was Jaime, and he was a great waiter. We like to split a lot of things, and he always brought the food out on two separate plates. Plus, they were generous with the portions. We ordered the arancini appetizer (delicious!), and he gave us 4 instead of 3, so he could have 2 on each plate. Then, we split the goat cheese salad, and since the goat cheese came in a little “pouch” he put one on each plate. We ordered Sonoma Cutrer chardonnay to go with dinner—the wild Virginia striped bass with mushroom risotto and the swordfish Provencal with mussels. Finally, we split the banana chocolate tart with carmelized bananas for dessert. All of the food was wonderful, and we really liked the décor and styling of the restaurant. We learned it was designed by the same person who did California Grill, so it makes sense that we liked this one as well.

At the end of all this, we realized it had been a 2 hour meal! However, we still had 40 minutes to get to Illuminations… no problem, I thought. We’ll just get our car from the valet and be on our way. We go up to the valet, give him our receipt, and he starts looking for our keys. He seems a bit concerned and starts opening a few more drawers. “What kind of car was it?” A red Impala, with Maryland plates was about all I remembered of the rental car we had just picked up that afternoon. He calls the valet who parked the car (who is on break). They see the car in the lot but still can’t find the keys. So, they send someone out to the lot with a flashlight, to see if the keys were left in the car or in the door. The valet at the stand starts opening every single drawer looking for the keys in a very methodical way. Half an hour later, they find the envelope with our keys at the bottom of one of the drawers (under the wrong letter of course). The valet is very apologetic and offers to give us the parking for free, but we already had free valet with the DDE card. Oh well, no Illuminations tonight. We decided to head back to the Wilderness Lodge and just relax after our travel day. We missed the Electrical Water Pageant, but we did get to watch the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We didn’t have a “privacy” sign for our door (and there would be no alarm clock tomorrow!), so we called down to mousekeeping. They just had someone stop by and hang it on our door for us.

 

[Ronald Duck]

Hi TiggerAllie! With our own mid-month trip, I forgot about your first-week-of-December trip (when you successfully escaped the ONLY cold air of the whole month!).

Your trip report is (and will be) loads of fun for us to read, since WL and Poly are our #1 and #1a faves (with AKL close behind) and in '07 our only trip will be to one (or both) of them:

We took almost 450 pictures this trip, so expect to see a lot!

Isn't it amazing how many good photos you can take in one trip to WDW (even when you go a lot)? I'll be enjoying the ones I took for months to come...RAH RAH digital photography!

We walked right through and picked out a car from the National Emerald Aisle—you just walk up and get in any car and drive away!

How kewl is that (you can tell I don't rent cars much)! We're tiring of ME, so we may go Emerald the next time. Do you do all the "paperwork" online?

To our surprise, the Cast Member there told us we had been upgraded from Standard View to a Courtyard View room! We were given room 6119, on the South Wing, overlooking the inner courtyard and the Silver Springs Creek.

In our two WL stays, we've booked Standard and have been upgraded to South Wing Courtyard each time! I've read that WL gives you the best chance of an upgrade, because they overbook the very limited # of Standard View rooms they have. In June, we were just down the hall (to the left) and around the corner. We loved the location!

We loved the newly renovated rooms! The flat screen TV was so nice, and it made for so much more space in the room!

You said it! The AKL room we had last week seemed SOOO small in comparison!

We were hungry, so we decided to get a late lunch/snack at Roaring Forks. I was surprised with how small it is! The Mara at AKL was HUGE in comparison!

It's amazing how different the two quick food places are, isn't it? And, it was even more cramped before the renovation! Of course, WL is quite a bit smaller in terms of #s of rooms.

We could see the monorail go by, and I was surprised at how close the Contemporary was, even though it was well hidden by trees.

HA! That really shocked us too the first time we stayed there...a triumph of Disney Imagineering!

...we opted for the Disney Dining Experience card, which works much better for us, because this way we get 20% off the alcohol as well as the meal.

We just got a DDE before our trip, and it worked great for us...it has already paid for itself, and is good thru next December. Another beast to feed!

Looking forward to more.

 

[TiggerAllie]

Hi TiggerAllie! With our own mid-month trip, I forgot about your first-week-of-December trip (when you successfully escaped the ONLY cold air of the whole month!).
...
How kewl is that (you can tell I don't rent cars much)! We're tiring of ME, so we may go Emerald the next time. Do you do all the "paperwork" online?
...
It's amazing how different the two quick food places are, isn't it? And, it was even more cramped before the renovation! Of course, WL is quite a bit smaller in terms of #s of rooms.

Well, we escaped the cold air up north, but had our share of "cold" air for FL, as you'll see.

As far as the car rental goes, I think you can still get free Emerald Club membership through mousesavers (.com). You may have to sign up for the newsletter. There are a couple of other ways to get it too, otherwise it costs $50 I think. You just pick your dates online and enter your info and you are good to go.

Is WL really that much smaller? I don't have a sense of # of rooms at WL, # at VWL, and number at AKL....

I definitely enjoyed your "pictoral" report on the AKL thread. Thank goodness for digital photography!

 

[OhMari]

Hello fellow TR cheerleader-
Thanks for taking the time to share your TR with us.
Didn't you get upset waiting that long for them to find your keys?

 

[TiggerAllie]

Hello fellow TR cheerleader-
Thanks for taking the time to share your TR with us.
Didn't you get upset waiting that long for them to find your keys?

Maybe if it had been our last chance to see Illuminations (I really wanted to see the special holiday ending) I would have been more upset. But, I figured we could just move stuff around and figure out a chance to go.

At first, I was pretty worried thinking that they lost the rental car, but once I knew it was actually in the parking lot and not given away to someone else (I've heard horror stories of that!) I figured they'd find the keys eventually (or pay to have new ones made).

Since we were only staying at WL for the first 2 nights, we had packed 2 separate suitcases (DME-style)--one for WL and one we hadn't unpacked for the Poly. Thankfully, I decided to be "safe" and bring both suitcases into our room at WL and hadn't left (the bigger) one in the car.

The valet was really nice about. I suppose I could have made a big stink, and had I been a guest at the hotel, maybe they would have comp'ed us something, but I wasn't really worried about it. Actually, aren't the GF valets now an out-sourced group?

I will be sure to mention it in my survey response. (I just got a card from WL. I suppose it isn't about the WL, but if I remember correctly from the AKL survey we did, there's a place to put other comments, too.) I figure they should know about it, especially since this was Saturday night, and I think some of the "big stars" from the parade taping were staying at GF.

 

[lklasing]

Looking forward to hearing more, especially about your time at the Poly! Hope to see lots of pictures!

Leslie

 

[TiggerAllie]

The next morning, we woke up, sans alarm, to a beautiful day! I knew the geyser went off on the hour, so I opened the sliding glass doors to take a few pictures.

Since we hadn’t bought the refillable mug, I started up the coffee pot for DP. We did have a very convenient location to Roaring Fork, as we could go straight down the elevator and across the courtyard.

We decided that today we would buck the crowds and go to MGM. We had slighted this park in the past, and it had been quite some time since we had ridden some of the rides. Plus, there were many things we had never done at MGM! Also, last time we realized MGM is a character gold mine! So, we were off to MGM.

We said goodbye to the Wilderness Lodge for the day

and got in our rental car. After the previous night’s escapade with the valet, we decided it would be a good idea to take a picture of the car and license plate.

I loved all the topiary at WL. We saw these buffalo as we walked down to the parking lot.

And these geese were along the side of the road as you entered the Lodge grounds.

When we entered MGM, it was not that crowded. As we entered, we saw their giant tree:

First off, we headed to the Hat. This has always been Character central, and this trip it did not disappoint! We met Chip and Dale and Clarice.

Then we saw Lightening McQueen and Mater.
We had never seen the Indiana Jones Stunt Show before, so we made sure to get to the first showing of the day. We had some time to kill, and we hadn’t eaten breakfast. So, we thought it would be a good idea to eat something. We knew that there were slim pickings at MGM, so we had low expectations. The ABC commissary was nearby, so we decided to give it a try. We split the Tabbouleh Wrap. It was a bland tortilla filled with hummus and tabbouleh, but the raw onion and black bean salad served with it was awful. Afterwards, we decided “gas salad” was really a better name. My stomach is gurgling just thinking of it. Ick. It was time for Indiana Jones, so we headed on in. This was a really great show! I hope it sticks around. I think if you get there early, you can volunteer to be one of the audience participants.

Next, we took a trip on Star Tours. None of these rides had any wait. We headed over to meet Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc. They had a special area set up out of the main traffic areas.

We decided we would see Muppetvision 3D again, but since there was a 20 minute wait until the next show started, we ducked into the Christmas shop there. We found excellent ornaments and Christmas cards! There was this really cute throw on hold for someone behind the counter—it had Mickey in a sleigh flying over the moon. We tried to find it the whole trip, but they were all sold out. We had our packages sent to the front of the park and went off to see the Muppets!

Next, we went on the good ol’ Backlot Tour. We noticed that since we had been on it last time, you could now see the backstage area for the Lights Motors Action show, which was kind of interesting, as one of the shows was ending as our ride was getting started.

It’s a shame you can’t actually get a tour of some of the costuming rooms you drive through. I don’t know if this is a part of any of the MGM tours. I guess we’ll just have to try some day.

When we exited the ride, we stumbled upon another character gold mine—Mickey Avenue! Usually, just the Playhouse Disney characters are here—the Little Einsteins, JoJo and Goliath. Today, we saw 3 more character “stations” where we met (and danced with) Gideon and FowlFeather (from Pinocchio), saw Eeyore, and met Mr. Penguin.

It was really funny to hear all of the parents and kids referring to poor Mr. Penguin (from Mary Poppins) as “Happy Feet”. But, after March of the Penguins and Happy Feet, and I am glad to see penguins coming back in to favor again!

Over Thanksgiving, we had watched (for the first time) The Chronicles of Narnia. So, since they had reopened the Journey into Narnia “walking tour”, we decided to duck in and see it, as it was just starting. For those who’ve seen the movie, it’s pretty cool. It might be a little confusing if you haven’t seen it, though they do show a summary/extended trailer. There’s the wardrobe, the lamppost, and the White Witch, among other things. It also “snows”… if you are interested in the Disney “snow”. More on Disney “snow” later.

We had never seen the MGM parade before, and it was just starting, so we snagged a spot for the Hollywood Holly-day Parade. This is a cute parade with a lot of characters. As I said, usually we slight MGM, so we had never seen the Stars and Motor Cars version.

We ended our day at MGM by seeing the Magic of Disney Animation (where we met Mr. and Mrs. Incredible) and One Man’s Dream. This was a really great movie. We even saw that they had characters at the premier of Snow White! It’s a must see for any Disney-phile. Before you get to the movie, you walk through and see all this cool memorabilia. They have all the early merchandizing products that Roy Disney came up with to sell. People say that Disney is all about merchandise now, but there was tons of stuff to buy from the get-go! They have a mock-up of Walt Disney’s office (with 3 ashtrays!). We saw an original Tiki Bird too.

Even though we were headed back to Wilderness Lodge for dinner, we needed to have a pretzel and soda snack to settle our stomachs from the horrible Gas Salad at the ABC commissary. We stopped at the main store in the front to ask about the Passholder lithograph, but they told us we had to pick it up way on the other side of the park by the Backlot Tour. We didn’t have time to go back, so we decided to wait for another day, when we would come back to see the Osbourne lights. We picked up our packages and headed back to WL.

Tonight we were going to enjoy Christmas at WL! We had a dinner scheduled at Artist’s Point followed by a Christmas Sleigh ride.

 

[TiggerAllie]

In order to really experience the Wilderness Lodge, we decided to have dinner at Artist’s Point followed by the sleigh ride.
We saw this cute wreath on our way to Artist’s Point.

Now, my understanding is that Artist’s Point is considered a “Signature Restaurant” and is 2 TS credits on the Disney Dining Plan. Also, I was told when I made the reservation that it was considered “Business Casual” attire. As described on one website:
“No hats, swim suits, swim suit coveralls, tank tops, T-shirts, torn clothing or flip-flops. You can wear - dress shorts, pants, jean pants, collared shirts, blouses, sweaters, pants.”
As you can see from our pictures, we like to dress up for dinner, which is why we go to a lot of the signature dining restaurants (among other reasons). So, when a family walks in wearing sweatsuits, it’s kind of disappointing. There were plenty of guests in hats and logo t-shirts that were not turned away. I also think that we didn’t get a great table—right up near the front by the host stand—so we didn’t get a great view of the restaurant. It didn’t help that there was a lot of scaffolding up over the restaurant windows. At least we had a half booth. So, I was not impressed with the ambiance of Artist’s Point.

On to the food… we started with an Appletini for DP and the Northwest Exposure (a Baileys/chocolately cocktail) for me. We decided to split the Venison Spring Rolls because we had heard good things about them. They were tasty and interesting. For dinner, DP had the Potato Chive Potstickers and I had the Cedar Planked Salmon. Both were yummy. For dessert, we split Coffee Two Ways: Moccachino bread pudding and Coffee crème brulee. That was also good. (One of these days I’ll remember to take pictures of the food. I feel a bit self conscious about it, and usually I’m enjoying the meal too much to remember.)

Our final take on Artist’s Point: We liked it, but it wasn’t outstanding. I definitely didn’t get the feeling that it was a signature dining experience. It seemed more like a nicer restaurant for guests of the resort. This is in contrast to Citricos, which seems like a more special experience. I don’t know that I would use 2 TS credits here, but we would eat here again (yay DDE!). I did get a good WL vibe from the restaurant. I hear rumors there’s a fireplace in the restaurant and the window views are good, so maybe we’ll go back again and be able to see more of the restaurant. Maybe next time I will try the wine pairings you can get with each course. I didn’t this time, because we were planning on getting a glass of wine in the Territory Lounge to take with us on the Sleigh Ride!

We had scheduled the Sleigh Ride for 2 hours after our Artist’s Point ADR, which was just perfect (even though the service at Artist’s Point was a bit slow). We went into the TL and ordered 2 glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon. It was kind of funny, because we just got done having drinks at AP, but the bartender decided to card us (even though we’re 30). I did tell her that we were going to take the wine on the Sleigh Ride, and she gave us plastic glasses instead of real ones, which was nice.

We walked out to the front area of WL (Porte Cochere) and two “sleighs” were approaching. There was another family there that was also waiting for a sleigh. Once the previous guests “disembarked” we decided to just approach one of the drivers, even though it was early.

It was quite dark as we pulled away from WL. It was also very quiet. (We tried to take some pictures, but they didn’t come out well.) We clip-clopped down the road a bit, and then crossed the street on to a paved path that headed out to Fort Wilderness. It was the night before the full moon, and it was beautiful in the woods. It was also cool, but not cold, so we were perfectly comfortable sipping our wine in the carriage. We made it about halfway to FW when we reached the point at which we turned around and headed back. We had about a 25 minute ride. When we got back to WL, we said goodbye to our horse Charlie

and our driver Jon, and thanked them for a wonderful trip!

The previous night, we had been driving back into WL in the dark, and I stopped suddenly, because I saw what looked like 3 people carrying a strand of rope-lighting on their shoulders waiting to cross the road. As we got closer, I realized it was the horse and sleigh! Still, it was kind of scary, because you couldn’t tell what it was and if it was something that was really going to wait for you (as the cars had no stop sign) before crossing the road. Good thing those horses are well-trained! I was a bit nervous when we were on the sleigh waiting to cross the road because I knew any on-coming cars couldn’t see us very well.

After our relaxing evening, we decided to head back up to our room. We opened the sliding glass door because it was such a nice night, and we were happily surprised to hear the Electrical Water Pageant coming by!

I really enjoy the music for the EWP.

We had a really great view from our free upgrade courtyard view room!

Magic Kingdom was open until 11PM, but we were too tired to head over. I forgot to leave the door open to see the MK fireworks (since we could kind of see them over the top of the WL’s North Wing).

We had a wonderful relaxing last night at WL and caught the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We’d have to say goodbye to the WL tomorrow morning and head off to the Poly. I’ll post my WL summary in the next installment.

Bonus:
Here’s a question for all you WL experts… does something go in this space?

I thought it was a very weird space that looked like it was supposed to have a bench or something (like in the Beach Club). Or maybe it’s the hole where there is sometimes the connecting-room door? I don’t know. Please post your ideas!

 

[TiggerAllie]

Does anyone have any opinions on the "empty space" in the WL room shown at the end of the post above? Was our room just missing some piece of furniture?
Please post your answers while I work on the next installment....
"Good-bye WL, Hello Poly!"

 

[susieq76]

Just wanted to let you know how much I am enjoying your TR. I read your October one too. So glad we chose WL over AKL now

 

[TiggerAllie]

Just wanted to let you know how much I am enjoying your TR. I read your October one too. So glad we chose WL over AKL now

I'm so glad you are enjoying it! For us, we definitely felt that WL was more our style than AKL. However, that wouldn't stop us from trying AKL again.... we'll just probably go back to WL first.
It looks like you are leaving on your WL trip soon! Have a wonderful time! I hope it stays "warmish" long enough for you to go swimming, cuz the pool at WL was really nice. And, it looks like you'll get in before the pool renovations.
I'll try to get a few more installments in before you leave!

 

[OhMari]

Does anyone have any opinions on the "empty space" in the WL room shown above? Was our room just missing some piece of furniture?
Please post your answers while I work on the next installment....
"Good-bye WL, Hello Poly!"

My guess would be a nice chair or a Butler's stand.

 

[TiggerAllie]

My guess would be a nice chair or a Butler's stand.

That would have been nice to have in the room. I wonder if anyone has any pictures from their rooms from their trips showing something in this same space... ?

 

[campinggal]

Does anyone have any opinions on the "empty space" in the WL room shown at the end of the post above? Was our room just missing some piece of furniture?
Please post your answers while I work on the next installment....
"Good-bye WL, Hello Poly!"

Fun report so far- looks like you had a great time!

I don't think it was missing a piece of furniture. In a room that has an adjoining door- that space is where the door is.

We use that space to put the luggage rack since the drawers/closet are never big enough to totally 'unpack'. That space worked perfectly for it.

 

[jlcd]

Looking forward to your Poly reoprt and pics!!

 

[solgent]

I'm enjoying your TR.

Very good tip to take a photo of the rental car & lic plate!

Last year my rental was towed off the streets of NYC (don't ask!) and the officer we approached to track it down asked, what is the plate number? I panicked and said, "I don't know; it was a rental!" Luckily my SIL who was with me was more clear-headed and pointed out that the plate number would be on the key fob. We were able to retrieve the car.

But I am reminded by your story that there are times when you might surrender the keys and then you'd have no idea!

It was really nice of you to stay calm and cool through that situation.

 

[denisekayt]

Just wanted to post that the empty space is where we put our luggage rack too...if we hang clothes in the closet you really don't seem to have room to put the suitcase on a rack in there, so you have to bring it out into the room

Great trip report! We were at WL from 12/7-12/16 and also ate at Artist Point, I agree with your assessment, nice, but not signature dining. Looking forward to your Poly report, we plan on staying there in January 2008!

 

[MA pigletfan]

great reporting! we have ADRs for AP in June, perhaps we will just pay OOP for that one, and save our 2 TS credits for something else..thanks for the heads up!
Looking forward to the Poly review!!

 

[TiggerAllie]

Yeah, I love DDE much more than DDP

I also saw a great idea on another thread: Have 1 person use the 2 TS credits to get the appy, entree, and dessert, and have person #2 just get an entree and pay OOP. That way you can both share the appy and dessert and "conserve" credits.

Gotta get back to the next installment!

 

[TiggerAllie]

Well Hello Poly, Yes Hello Poly…! Ok, well, not yet! First, we had to pack up and say goodbye to the wonderful Wilderness Lodge. We saw the geyser again this morning.

What a wonderful view! I loved sitting out on our balcony. It was also a great way to check the weather. Today was going to be a little cooler, but still a beautiful day.

Today we would be heading to Epcot! Wonders of Life was open, and we had made reservations the night before for a late lunch at Mitsukoshi Teppanyaki. Then, we were off to the Poly to check-in before heading over to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. It was going to be a busy day!

We had express check-out, so all we had to do was check the receipt and pack up our stuff. While we weren’t looking that hard for Hidden Mickeys, we did find these two in the carpet and on the wallpaper at the Lodge:

We packed up the car, waved goodbye to the Lodge, and headed of to Epcot.

Before I get on with the trip report, I want to give a summary of our stay at WL. We loved it! It was wonderful! The Lodge was so beautiful, and the Christmas décor just enhanced it. We actually spent time walking around and seeing the Lodge. We “toured” the lobby on the floor and from above. There is a cute little seating area across from the Concierge lounge and a few floors down. We also walked over to the areas with the Standard and Woods views, to see what the other views were like. The standard view was not very nice…. We were so glad to have the upgrade! We also peaked at the castle view area of the Woodsview rooms. They have a large assortment of recreational activities—different things you can rent and drive around. The grounds are so pretty—I really wish we would have had time to rent a bike and ride over to Fort Wilderness. I guess that will have to be for next time! The food at WL is pretty good—Roaring Forks was pretty small, and we liked the food at Artist’s Point. We’ll have to go back once the construction is done, and maybe get to see more of the restaurant. There were only 2 areas at WL left with scaffolding up as they were repainting. Hopefully they’ll be done soon! We ate at Whispering Canyon once before—actually, it was just as Hurricane Wilma was bearing down on WDW. (We had just been drenched at a cancelled Fantasmic Show and needed to find dinner before heading back to our room at Coranado Springs. I didn’t know about writing trip reports then, but that would have been quite a trip to detail!) The skillet was excellent! Yum yum. We’ll definitely be eating there again. I was so jealous at the time that we weren’t staying at WL (especially because during the hurricane would have been a great time to be in a resort that is a single building). All in all, we will definitely be heading back to WL again! I was little sad that we were leaving it, but it was like we were starting a whole new vacation now at the Poly.

On to Epcot! We headed over to the Land to get a Fast Pass for Soarin’ and check out the new Living with the Land ride. We hadn’t be on it since they changed over from boats with “guides” to a recording. I always like that ride. It is still good, even without the CMs on each boat. We had been on the Behind the Seeds tour about a year ago, and we got to see how much bigger some of the new vegetable trees were that they had just started when we were last there. Next we went over to The Seas to see the new Nemo ride. The last time we were here we just missed the AP preview days, so we were exciting to finally ride Nemo! (Nemo is one of our favorite characters. We even named our cat after him, because he is orange and stripey too—but no “special” fin/paw.)
Here is our Nemo:

As we were heading over to the new entrance to the Seas, we saw Goofy there in a special beach outfit. He was filming a little promo ad with someone from the Weather Channel’s Road Crew. We watched them film it before we went in. I love the Weather Channel (RonaldDuck will understand), and I kept watching to see this ad, but I never did. Maybe someone else out there did?

The Nemo ride was really cute and really well done. It has a very long queuing area which is as if you started walking along the beach, then walked into the water, then kept walking until you were swimming underwater. The ceiling is made to look as if you are underwater, and the queuing lines are made to look like rusty bars. The one thing I don’t like is that they ruin the illusion because you actually enter the ride and can see the rest of the Seas pavilion (where all the people line up for Turtle Talk). The ride itself is very cute. It’s rather short—but I guess they didn’t change the track from the SeaCabs ride, so they did what the could with what they had. The animation in the tanks was very cool. I remember the Living Seas pavilion being bigger… I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t more area they could open up but they haven’t used it yet. Also, I can’t believe they haven’t come up with a better queuing place for Turtle Talk. They have people just lined up in the middle of the pavilion, which makes it hard to walk around and see the other things. They need to come up with a better place for people to wait.

After Nemo, we grabbed a fast pass for Test Track went over to see the Wonders of Life!

This pavilion was finally open, after being closed for sooooooo long! It was very quiet in there, and not everything was working (like the exercise bikes or the swing analysis). Some things were kind of broken (like where you tested your senses). But, we did get to ride Body Wars (which is surprisingly more jerky and nauseating than Star Tours) and see Cranium Command! This audioanimatronics movie is so funny! Some of the scenes in the movies are a bit dated, but it still works very well!

Here is the view from inside Wonders of Life:

And here is the back of the sign as you exit the Wonders of Life:

We figured we should get these pictures, because we may never be inside Wonders of Life again! I really wish they could get a sponsor to update this pavilion. With all of the new advances in medicine and life sciences, it seems outrageous not to have this area represented at Epcot. (Or maybe we are just biased because we work in these areas!)

We went on to the World Showcase to check out characters and make our way over to lunch in Japan. We saw Mulan in China, Snow White in Germany, Belle, the Beast, and Aurora in France, and Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie in Morocco. We stopped to see the model train near Germany. It was all decked out for Christmas!

Even Japan had a Christmas tree in the entrance of Mitsukoshi Teppanyaki.

Our Teppanyaki chef was Tom. He was actually from Hawaii, and we learned he was the originator of the Mickey Mouse volcano! (If you’ve ever been to the hibachi table, you can guess what this might look like.) He had been working there for 11 years, and he did a very good job. He was impressed with our use of chopsticks. We eat Japanese food quite often and have been to many different hibachi restaurants. We thought this one was up there with the best of them! We had heard mixed reviews before we went (it’s just like Benihana), but since it was going to close for many months we wanted to get in before it closed. Also, we are trying to eat at all the restaurants of Epcot. Previously we had eaten at Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, France, Morocco, and Canada. (You can read about Norway and Canada in our previous trip report.) Now, we had added Japan! We had the chicken and shrimp, which was very good. We also got the soup and salad to go with it. All in all, an excellent meal. The hibachi tables each sat 8 people. We had another couple at our table and a family of 4 with a son and daughter. They were from Pittsburgh and were on their first trip to Disney World. So, we got to give them all sorts of advice that we had learned from our experience and the DISboards! It was funny—they reminded me of my family on our first trip to Disney World (when I was 10 and my brother was 6).

After lunch, we used our fast passes on Test Track and Soarin’. We just had time to stop at Innoventions West to try out the new model of the Segways. They let you ride on them for about 2-3 minutes. We had done the Segway tour in October on the old models, and it was fun to try out the new ones. I think they are more intuitive for turning. We also saw where the Disney Visa character Meet-and-Greet was, but we didn’t have time to stop for it. We needed to get over to the Poly so that we could get checked in and get to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!

I’ll stop now and post our first sight of the Poly and MVMCP in the next installment!