Updated: Feb Trip plans "It's a Bit Less Humid Today, Right?" - a September 2018 Trip Report

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Yeah! you made it!

 

[Araminta18]

Cute shirts. The outlets are pretty hit or miss but sometimes you can find some cute stuff.

Thanks! Yea, they were a bit of a miss for me this trip, but DH had luck. But even so it's still fun to look

Looks like a good first day! Glad you had light crowds on the plane and a good day shopping the outlets! Even if Florence made you leave a little early, you totally made the most of it!

It really was--after all the stress, so nice to just be down there. I'm actually grateful we got to leave early! We never would have been able to do the outlets, Disney Springs, and Hollywood Studios in one day like I originally had planned.

I would have been in the same obsessive panic as you! I'm so glad everything worked out.

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it!

Nothing will stop us obsessive Disney planners, not even hurricanes!

Happy to hear everything went well on Day #1!
Your airport room looks really nice, too.

Thanks! It was a great start to the vacation after all the stress. The room was really nice too--if you need an airport hotel I highly recommend that one!

I'm thinking of hitting both Disney outlets on my upcoming trip? How expensive would that be in an Uber? (We are staying at an All Star resort when we first arrive.) How far apart are they from each other?

....and *sigh*.... having that middle seat between you EMPTY?!?! Travel Bliss!

The Vineland outlets are probably only about a $10 ride from the All Stars, and then we paid $14 to go from one to the other (they're about 11 miles apart). I'd budget $50 just to be on the safe side? There may be surge pricing. *shrugs*

YES! It was awesome to have that empty seat. Total travel bliss!

You should make a motivational video about how you lost 95 pounds to ride Flight of Passage. I agree with renting DVC points to stay at deluxe resorts. I wanted to stay at Contemporary but I wouldnt pay $400+ per night so I rented BLT for $280 per night (no tax)

Lol I'm no good with videos--and I totally acknowledge that Flight of Passage was the impetus but a lot of things lined up to make it possible.

Oooh that's awesome! What a discount. I would love to do that--stay so close to the Magic Kingdom? yes please!

Yeah! you made it!

Yay!!

 

[Dentam]

Just found your report and joining in! I rented DVC points to stay at the Boardwalk this month also - during Labor Day week! I loved it there and would definitely rent points to stay there again someday!

Congrats on your amazing weight loss! I'm looking forward to reading more about your trip!

 

[Araminta18]

Thursday, September 13th (part 1)

I woke up bright and early, 'cause DISNEY! Trevor slept in a bit, but we were on the 9:15 shuttle to the airport (we just missed the 9 am one). Waiting for airport shuffle-selfie! Rocking our matching "I Love You"/"I Know" Star Wars shirts...


The airport shuttle dropped us off at Terminal B and we could see all the lovely Magical Express buses just waiting to whisk us all away to Walt Disney World...we check in and were directed to our lane. There was a little girl in front of us who kept trying to leave the line and go for the buses. Kiddo, that's how we all feel! Let's get on the bus! At least the lines weren't long...


We actually started boarding fairly quickly, maybe a 5 minute wait? We got the second row, right behind the reserved row, and proceeded to....

wait. Oh well. Bus selfie!



My magic bandit!

We didn't leave until 9:54am, and in the meantime we got our room ready text! So that was nice. The bus went to Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, French Quarter, and then Riverside. It wasn't bad actually. And I love the video they play when you're heading to Disney World on the Magical Express--it's just so happy! And since we were the third stop, we got to see a bit of OKW and SS, which I've never seen before, so that was cool.

My best version of the sign picture...not great. Oh well!
​

We arrived at French Quarter at 10:37.


They must have been busy since there really weren't any CMs who came out to greet us or welcome us like last time. That was ok with us though--we just immediately went to our room: 5143. It was a garden view; I didn't even realized that's what we booked when I booked the room--I was just focused on making sure we had a room! But we liked it. The garden was quiet and it was close to the main building. No complaints. It was kind of nice not having to go up stairs to get to our room, and we didn't think it was loud at all. Obligatory room pics!

(so...didn't love the big toiletries, but didn't hate them. It was nice to know I could use all the shampoo I wanted though...)​

Oops, hit the picture limit...part 2 coming shortly!)

 

[Araminta18]

Thursday, September 13th (part 2)
​

Once we dumped our stuff in the room, it was breakfast time! And what does one get for breakfast at French Quarter?

Beignets! and Mickey Beignets at that! Apparently they had pumpkin spice beignets too but we stuck with the classic (no sauce, just lots of powdered sugar).

​

They also had the Halloween refillable mug and we were weak and bought it. Do you think we got our money's worth? (spoiler alert: no! i think we filled it up 3 times? Maybe 4? oh well--it's a cute souvenir)

Then we headed directly to the dock to catch the boat to Disney Springs while eating our uber-healthy breakfast of beignets and root beer. Our good luck continued--the boat arrived at the same time we did! And breakfast was YUM. Those beignets--man, awesome.

It was our first time taking the boat to Disney Springs and with the breeze from the movement, it was really nice. We also liked seeing the treehouses. But mostly eating beignets.

​

Once at Disney Springs, we went to the Welcome Center for an important transaction: adding an extra day to Trevor's ticket (so we could go to the parks today!), and upgrading my ticket to an Annual Pass! I'd researched it and figured we might be able to break even, what with discounts and Memory Maker and such, if we upgraded just one of us to an AP. (spoiler alert: we did! I'll include an accounting at the end). So I hung out on Robo's ticket thread and figured out exactly how much it should cost, and was ready to ask for another CM or something if i didn't get that number. But the CM was on it, and quoted me exactly what I had figured. That was nice. All the CMs at the Welcome Center were plaids, and none were earning their ears, so this may be a good place to go rather than a ticketing window. *shrugs*

After I had my AP card (important for all the discounts!), it was around 11. Our lunch reservation wasn't until noon, so we decided since the weather was nice, we would knock the first major first off our list: the Amphicar!

There was no wait, so we paid (first instance of using my shiny new AP discounts--total with tax was $113.60) and got right in a car. I didn't realize they took a bunch of pictures, so that was neat (and found out afterwards all the pictures were included with Memory Maker, so that was even cooler).


Then off we went! It was pretty neat to drive into the water, though it might have been cooler to have a bit more of the driving experience on land before going into the water, just for the contrast.


The boat rides pretty low, but we were warned by the driver to not put our fingers in the water (he said snapping turtles? not sure if that's true or not, but the water did look a bit gross). Unfortunately, it got really hot really quickly, with no shade or cloud cover. But we enjoyed the ride--our driver was a wealth of information about the Amphicars and Disney Springs. I feel like your experience with the Amphicar would be pretty dependent on the quality of your driver--once you get over the initial excitement of "I'm in a floating car!", you have about 15 minutes of floating around (they don't go very fast), so a driver who is a good conversationalist/tour guide is essential.


Our tour guide was great; he was the tour guide featured on the cover of the Disney Springs magazine that was in all the rooms this trip! That was cool. Really, aside from the blazing heat of the sun beating down on us, it was super fun.

(The driver on that magazine is our Amphicar driver! Also bonus hidden mickey...well not-so-hidden I guess...)​

After the ride we got our pictures and then headed to our ADR at The Edison (i actually got online at opentable and pushed the reservation back 15 minutes to 12:15, so we were right on time. Interestingly enough, when I tried (on Wednesday) to make a reservation for Thursday at noon using Disney's site, Disney showed no availability. OpenTable however had plenty of availability at every time slot. And when we walked in the restaurant, there were maybe 7 or 8 other parties? They were just using the small room in front of the stage--there was practically no one there.

We liked the atmosphere, all the industrial details and the videos projected on to the walls, but the food was a bit of a miss for the most part--it tried to be more ambitious and interesting rather than tasty. We decided to each get an appetizer and then split an entree. I got the Deviled Eggs: there was way too much filling for each egg, and it was oddly sweet. I didn't really care for it at all. We asked the server later and she said it was a honey mustard which gave it the taste...I didn't like it. My husband got the Loaded Fries, which we both liked.


He also got a Raspberry Lemonade mocktail--it had an interesting kick at the end, like ginger or cinnamon? Definitely a drink made for sipping.


The regular cups were the bottom half of bottles, which was pretty cool. Trevor made me take a picture.


The entree was a Turkey Club which was delicious. It was on a sweet bread (with raisins), but even though DH doesn't like raisins, he liked this bread and sandwich, though he said part of that was the ratio--a ton of meat/filling to the bread. It was fresh and light and delicious.


The server disappeared a lot and was pretty slow, surprising considering the emptiness of the restaurant. Overall we were glad we tried it, but wouldn't necessarily go back.

(and hello there picture limit! I guess we're going to a part 3. Apparently I am quite verbose...)

 

[dizneefan13]

Dang picture limit! lol
Nice your room was ready when you got to the resort.
We had reservations for the FQ for our first week, but couldn't pass up the great deal through mousesavers
at a Disney springs hotel. The more I read about The B, the more I am looking forward to staying there.
A ten minute walk to DS... works for me!

Tiffany, was MDE working ok for you during your trip? Lots of people still complaining about how sketchy it is.
I have all our plans and reservations printed out just in case there are times when MDE is not working well.

Can't wait for thurs part 2! LOL! didn't have to wait long! Here it is now

Ohhhh the amphicar looks like a blast! too bad they don't have little canopies!

 

[Araminta18]

Thursday, September 13th (part 3)​

After lunch, it was time to shop! We ventured all around Disney Springs, including the hipster Disney clothing store DisneyStyle. I bought really cute "Up" earrings. At World of Disney (add my voice to the chorus that misses the fun Disney characters in the rafters!), we bought Trevor Scrooge and Darkwing Duck socks. The Darkwing Duck socks have capes!! We stopped in the Dooney and Burke store there and they had two of the cute Haunted Mansion bags (the cartoony ones)--the only time I saw that pattern in person! According to the CM, they were sold out everywhere else and she didn't expect them to last long there.

We stopped by Amorette's Patisserie and got the Avant-Garde to eat right then (all the chocolate! so yummy. and rich. I love chocolate mousse) and ordered one of their seasonal cakes to pick up later that afternoon on our way out of Disney Springs. The cake was a "princess" cake--it looks like Belle! Adorable.



Eventually we worked our way over to the virtual reality space: Star Wars: The Void. DH is a huge Star Wars fan (I'm a fan, but less so with the whole relaunch/Disney thing), and this got rave reviews both here and elsewhere, so we decided to try it. We didn't buy tickets in advance, just walked right up and bought the tickets and started--no wait at all. We were put in a group with another couple and got outfitted in our rig and then started the experience. You're disguised as stormtroopers sneaking into an Imperial facility to retrieve an artifact--the VR was really cool. There was a bit of a lag in me moving and then my VR avatar moving, but other than that, I didn't notice any lag (ie, I pressed the trigger on my gun and it fired immediately). It was really cool! I inadvertently fired my weapon early which I thought made the whole base aware of us, but according to the attendant afterwards, if I hadn't fired early, we would have been "discovered" in just a few seconds anyways. That made me feel a lot better! I thought I'd ruined it. DH really loved it, even the part where you're on a platform flying high above rocks and lava (he doesn't like heights). If it was cheaper, we might have done it again. I highly recommend it! The only sad part was paying the $16 for a photo at the end--not part of Memory Maker.

We finished that right around 4 pm, and we had our dinner reservation at the Brown Derby in Hollywood Studios at 5:30 pm, so we quickly looked around that side of Disney Springs. I got a cool book on the imagineering of the Haunted Mansion at The Art of Disney, and was entranced by the animators drawing in person (but ultimately decided against purchasing a sketch). While looking in The Art of Disney we got our first afternoon shower, but it passed pretty quickly.

We stopped by the Ganachery and got their chocolate chiller: basically a cold hot chocolate. SO GOOD. Per their social media, it's "caramel, dark and milk chocolate topped with whipped cream and crispy pearls". I also got one of their small bars of dark chocolate, and then we each got a test tube of the crispy chocolate pearls. Those things are addictive.

They gave us a small ice pack to keep the chocolate cool, so after that we ran back to Amorette's and picked up our princess cake, then back to the boat launch to catch the boat back to French Quarter. We were lucky--there was a boat right there as we ran up. So we got to enjoy a lovely boat ride back to French Quarter. So convenient!

At French Quarter we dropped our purchases in the room, took a bathroom break and then headed to the bus stop to catch a bus to Hollywood Studios. Unfortunately, there was no bus there and none looking to come for quite a while. So after about 10 minutes, we decided to grab an uber instead. That was easy and quick, and we were pulling into Hollywood Studios at 5:13 pm.

Due to the slightly long walk, we ended up being right on time to our 5:30 ADR. We checked in and got seated almost immediately, on the upper level of the far side of the dining room. At least we weren't next to the waiter doing seating assignments this time! And the room was a lot quieter than it was last time (no screaming children. ).

Tired Trevor...luckily he was just joking--if he was this tired after one day, we'd have a problem!

Our waiter was super nice: friendly and efficient. We decided to get more mocktails: Trevor got the "Maliblue Beach" (basically blue raspberry lemonade) and I got a Shirley temple. They came with glow cubes! We totally started a glow cube collection.


The bread (and fancy red-salted butter) was amazing, as always. Honestly this was one of the things we were most looking forward to, that we just loved last time we were here. And it was fantastic.


I got the steak, which was amazing. Super tender, cooked well..just yum. And I loved the sauce.


Trevor decided to get appetizers for his dinner: the Crab wonton (I'd say "wontons" but it's just one giant wonton. Honestly to me it tasted like the filling for a tuna fish sandwich in a wonton wrapper but Trevor liked it.), the Ahi Tuna, and the Beef Carpaccio. All the appetizers were fairly small so this was a good idea (shout out to the server who recommended it!). He liked being able to try the different things without having a huge heavy meal. A wonderful meal, that lived up to Trevor's fond memory of it. We'll definitely be back. (no dessert here...we were full!)


Crab Wonton


Ahi Tuna on the left; Beef Carpaccio on the right

After dinner, we caught a part of the Star Wars stage show (and I had a lady ask where I got my shirt, since her husband had his version but she hadn't been able to find the female version), but then we had places to be: Slinky Dog fastpasses! I was lucky enough to be refreshing and score some for 7 pm. Walking into Toy Story Land was super cool--it was just starting to be twilight, so we were still able to see all the details (and phew, no shade indeed! Glad the sun was setting). Woody saying hello to everyone, all the plants made to look like bigger versions of backyard plants...I loved it! And then Slinky Dog--wow. Trevor was a little nervous waiting in line, but after riding he liked it. I did distract him a bit on the big hill by pointing out Star Wars land, so he focused on that for a minute . Really the only complaint I have is that the ride photo SUCKS and desperately needs to be fixed. It's too dark and badly calibrated...*sigh* But we loved the fast launch and being able to see all over the land.


Afterwards, I started looking for more Slinky fastpasses! I'd booked us some other tier 2 fastpasses for earlier in the day, so they had expired by the time we actually made it to the park. Which meant I was good to go to look for more Toy Story fastpasses! I actually got super lucky and found another pair for 7:30, but Trevor decided he'd rather ride Star Tours (since the standby line was super short. Maybe 10 minutes?) So he gave me his band and wandered out to ride Star Tours. I got to ride Slinky twice in a row, and the last time it was really getting dark. SO COOL. I decided (with my limited experience) that I liked Toy Story land better in the dark, but I liked it really either way.


Hello picture limit again! Only one more post, I promise....

 

[Araminta18]

Thursday, September 13th (part 4)
​

I texted Trevor when I was getting on Slinky my second time, and so after finishing his Star Tours ride, he wandered back to Toy Story Land and we rode Alien Swirling Saucers. I thought we'd gotten super lucky that he was able to find those as he refreshed on his way back to Toy Story land, and I guess we did, but after looking for Alien Saucers fastpasses later in the trip, those are *way* easy to find. The ride was fun (especially the part where you really get whipped around), but even with a fastpass, it loads super slow. We waited about 15 minutes, I think? Kind of crazy.


We got done about 20 minutes before the park closed, so we decided to run over to Star Tours for one last ride. But as we got off the ride, we ran into one of the Green Soldier Men!


We also grabbed a quick photopass picture:


(also bonus photopass picture from when we first entered Toy Story Land: )



After that, we headed over to Star Tours, since the line was so short. There was like no one in line, actually. I was able to get this photo of Trevor (sorry for the low lighting) with no problem.


I don't remember what planets we went to (maybe Naboo? it feels like its *always* Naboo. )

After the ride, it was super hot and we were staying for the fireworks, so we bought a frozen strawberry lemonade and sat down in the courtyard to watch Disney Movie Magic and the Star Wars fireworks. There was a storm front moving in, so they started both of those a bit early, but we had a great view, and loved it. There weren't very many "big" fireworks, and I thought I'd remembered seeing some big ones when I was at DisneyWorld with my friend last year, so either they changed the show entirely, or just modified it 'cause of the storm, or I'm just remember wrong. It was still neat, with the lasers representing laser beams and the real fire, and the projects. Awesome. I loved the ending with the throne room music and the posters for each movie...just great. I don't have any pictures, cause we were engrossed in just watching it. But I'm sure the full show is on youtube, if you feel so inclined.

Then we joined the mass of humanity heading out to the buses. We were sharing with Riverside and had to wait for a bus (a bus was there and pulled out, full, a bit after we got there, and it took like 15 minutes for the next bus to come...blech), but we got a seat! Bus stop selfie!


Once on the bus, French Quarter was the first stop. So that was cool. What was cooler? The beignet ice cream sundae we got from the food court!


I read about the beignet sundae on the Disney Food Blog, I think? I really wanted to try it so I'd tried to plan it in on one of our not-so-late nights, that we could swing by French Quarter and pick it up. But with us staying at French Quarter this first night, it just worked out perfectly. And guys, SO YUMMY. Huge, and really should be served on some kind of a platter so you can dig into it properly without making a huge mess, but really good. The beignets were fresh out of the fryer, so the drastic hot/cold contrast was a bit weird for my sensitive teeth, but worth it. I definitely recommend it--if you can share it between people, or if you get it by yourself and don't have a problem not finishing it all. It's Disney--decadent foods are the order of the day.

Afterwards, Trevor filled up our mug again, and then we headed back to the room, showered, and fell into bed to sleep. We usually shower in the morning but it was so hot and we got so sweaty that we showered at night every day of the trip. It also had the bonus of making it so we could get ready super quickly in the mornings!

Overall, a great first day. We got everything done at Disney Springs that we wanted, and got to see the Star Wars fireworks (which freed up our day later in the trip where I'd planned for us to see them--now we could attend a second MNSSHP if our first one got rained out, or just do whatever...), and got to ride Slinky! We also got a lot of comments on our buttons: I bought a bunch off Etsy to wear this trip. Today, Trevor wore his Great Movie Ride button, and I wore my "It's a Jolly Holiday" button. Lots of people liked mine, but Trevor's was the winner--everyone misses the Great Movie Ride! Even one of the CMs working with the Amphicar--she used to work at the Great Movie Ride and was all excited to see his button. So that was neat--add a little surprise to everyone's day with our different buttons.

Tomorrow, we move to the Boardwalk!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 19, 817 (8 miles)
Total AP discount (with food and merchandise and everything): $54.90
Ride Total Tiffany: 5 (3 Slinky, 1 Alien, 1 Star Tours)
Ride Total Trevor: 4 (1 Slinky, 1 Alien, 1 Star Tours)

 

[dizneefan13]

Loving TR so far!
Uber sounds like the way to go when trying to make an ADR. Fares appear to be pretty reasonable.
I'm so excited (8 more days!) I can hardly stand it! Your TR is helping time go by in a pleasant way!

 

[Araminta18]

Just found your report and joining in! I rented DVC points to stay at the Boardwalk this month also - during Labor Day week! I loved it there and would definitely rent points to stay there again someday!

Congrats on your amazing weight loss! I'm looking forward to reading more about your trip!

Isn't the Boardwalk amazing? We loved it too--definitely want to go back!

Thank you!

Dang picture limit! lol
Nice your room was ready when you got to the resort.
We had reservations for the FQ for our first week, but couldn't pass up the great deal through mousesavers
at a Disney springs hotel. The more I read about The B, the more I am looking forward to staying there.
A ten minute walk to DS... works for me!

Tiffany, was MDE working ok for you during your trip? Lots of people still complaining about how sketchy it is.
I have all our plans and reservations printed out just in case there are times when MDE is not working well.

Can't wait for thurs part 2! LOL! didn't have to wait long! Here it is now

Ohhhh the amphicar looks like a blast! too bad they don't have little canopies!

Seriously picture limit is cramping my style!

Yea, it was super nice. But a 10 minute walk to DS? That'll be awesome! And you avoid the crappy bus service back to the resort (bus service there really is not great...a walk is definitely better!)

So, I heard reports and got popups on the app that it wasn't working, but we didn't have any problems with it. I'd screenshotted all my fastpasses and reservations too, but didn't need it. In fact I was able to get last minute awesome fastpasses, so if anything it was working better for me. Hopefully it's all back to normal for your trip!

I did read somewhere that the amphicar does have canopies, but our driver didn't mention it. Maybe you have to ask? I dunno. Still lots of fun though

 

[Araminta18]

Loving TR so far!
Uber sounds like the way to go when trying to make an ADR. Fares appear to be pretty reasonable.
I'm so excited (8 more days!) I can hardly stand it! Your TR is helping time go by in a pleasant way!

oh good!

Yea, we were pleasantly surprised with uber. It wasn't very expensive, and it's a nice backup for those times when the buses just aren't coming. Pro-tip: when you uber to the Magic Kingdom, have them drop you off at the Contemporary and then walk over, 'cause otherwise they have to drop you at the Transportation and Ticketing Center.

you're so close!!! It's gonna be amazing!

 

[dizneefan13]

Minnie vans just started going to Disney Springs resorts, so we will be using it when we go to MK for our EMM.
Expensive, but that's okay, MV's drop you right at the park, no TTC or walk from Contemporary, which we are happy with so early in the morning!

Glad to hear MDE worked so well for you. I am counting on it doing the same for me

 

[Leopardchucks]

Holy Mackerel! That's a ginormous sundae!

 

[kclark9830]

What a great first day! Yay! That beignet sundae looks SO yummy. I want to stay at POFQ someday. When Micheal and I got married, I wanted to go to New Orleans for our honeymoon, but we let some people talk us out of it. Shouldn't have listened to them .

I was surprised at how slowly aliens loaded, too! But I ended up enjoying it, which also surprised me .

 

[Araminta18]

Friday, September 14th (part 1):
All the selfies--good, bad, and ugly! ​

I woke up around 7, though we didn't really get up and start getting ready for the day until around 7:45 or 8 am. Cause vacation! We got ready for the day; I walked to the main building and got some milk and some moleskin while Trevor was getting ready, and then it was time for breakfast.

And what were we having for breakfast? Cake! The princess cake from Amorette's that we got yesterday. It was decorated like Belle, and it was chocolate chiffon cake with raspberry mousse, dark chocolate mousse, and white chocolate crisp pearls. It was really good--a bit rich, but not too heavy or anything. I even liked the fondant (though I liked the fondant on our wedding cake too so maybe I just like fondant?). Definitely a good, healthy, Disney breakfast. We didn't want to eat it all that morning, but we didn't want to carry it around all day and were worried that if we stuck it in our bags for bell services to transfer for us, it would melt or something. So, breakfast it was!

After breakfast, we checked out and dropped our bags at Bell Services to transfer to Boardwalk for us, then headed to the bus stops. Where were we going? Magic Kingdom! Trevor and I had been talking on Thursday about what to do with our newly-freed up Friday, and how if we stuck to the plan, we'd be hitting Magic Kingdom last. I also commented that that was funny since MK is my favorite park. So Trevor was like "well, we don't have any plans for the morning, and since we don't really have a hotel room for that morning, we can go to the Magic Kingdom in the morning and then continue to Epcot for Food and Wine for lunch". And I was like "yes!" So Thursday night I looked around for some last minute fastpasses and got lucky: got one for Big Thunder Mountain at about 9:20, one around 10 for Haunted Mansion, and one around 11 for Peter Pan.

We got to the bus stop at 8:55, and they were loading a Magic Kingdom bus right as we walked up, so no wait! Awesome. We were walking under the train station at 9:17. This was our first experience with the Halloween decorations--they're so cute! I love the Mickey pumpkin wreaths.

We first stopped by the Fire House and re-activated my Sorcerers game and got my cards, then slowly strolled up Main Street and headed towards Adventureland, where we cut through to Fantasyland and ran into one of the janitors drawing a picture with water! I'd seen this mentioned on all sorts of disney blogs, but never seen it in person. So we stopped and watched (Guys there was no one around--it was lovely.) Neat to see!

Then as we kept walking, we ran into one of his earlier works of art--Goofy! We were kind of surprised that it hadn't evaporated or faded away in the crazy heat ('cause it was indeed crazy hot).

We continued on to Big Thunder and honestly didn't really need a fastpass, cause even at 9:30 it was still a walk on. But we had it so we used it anyways. This was Trevor's first time riding Big Thunder--he doesn't like heights or coasters, so he avoided it last time. But during this trip planning I showed him a video of the ride and described it a bit, and he decided he'd try it.

My attempts to take a selfie to document the occasion!

Verdict? He really liked it! He like the theming and that it wasn't too intense, but still fun. Yay! One more coaster he not only can tolerate, but likes!

After Big Thunder we played a little of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom in Frontierland, and got to see some of the Country Bears wandering around. There were so few people -- I loved it . We then wandered up to the Haunted Mansion for our first ride there of the trip. It was a little sad to see river partially drained, but they filled it in a bit later in our trip so that was good. Trevor was prepared with his glow in the dark custom Haunted Mansion magic band, but we couldn't get a great picture--this one is the best one we got. But as always, a fun ride! We love the Haunted Mansion.

We were done right around 10:10, so we looked in Memento Mori (I ended up buying a Haunted Mansion purse...I LOVE IT! It's very haunted mansion themed, but subtle, not in your face. I've already used it at work.

We played a little bit more Sorcerers, and then realized we were right in time for the Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History! I think it was the 10:30 show: the Declaration of Independence. We *loved* it. So funny, especially with Sam the Eagle ("Hello fellow Americans....and others *epic sideeye*"), and just a cool treat to see the Muppets live and in person. I know everyone says its a great show. They're right. I would definitely make time to see it--grab a dole whip or a snack from Sleepy Hollow and grab a seat in the shade and watch this show. It was one of our favorite things this trip.

After the show, we were killing time before our 11ish Peter Pan fastpass, and It's a Small World had a 5 minute line, so we decided to go for it. I mean, you kind of have to ride it at least once. There were two girls training service dogs that came down the fastpass line and ended up in our boat, and one of the poor dogs was terrified of water. Poor thing just stopped on the ramp multiple times--she had to carry him onto the boat. He was fine on the boat--just sat and had his head in his handler's lap. That added a bit of interest to the standard It's a Small World experience. The boats were backed up at the end, but I got my name on the screens!

Afterwards, it was time for our Peter Pan fastpass! Unfortunately the fastpass line was long--about 15 minutes. But a fun ride, and better than the long standby line!

At that point it was around 11:25, so we headed out of the Magic Kingdom and over to Epcot for Food and Wine!

(our MK photopass shot of the day )

This became kind of a saga. I did not realize that there was no bus directly to Epcot, only the monorail. So we left security and then realized there was no bus. And the security lines were insane, so we didn't want to go back through security to get to the monorail. So we decided to walk over to the Contemporary and ended up walking to the end of the bus stops then cutting across the street and through a gap in the fence (under a rope) to get onto that walking path. Don't do that--be smart and just go to that path directly from the MK without exiting security. But we made it over to the Contemporary and were going to take an Epcot bus from there, and then discovered that there is also no bus to Epcot from the Contemporary, you have to take the monorail. However, right as we realized that from the board, a Hollywood Studios bus pulled up and we decided to just take the bus to HS and then take the boat to Epcot. Mostly, let's be honest, we just wanted some air conditioning!

However, once we got to Hollywood Studios, we realized there'd be that long walk to the front of Hollywood Studios and the boats, and there was a sign right there pointing to the walking path to the Boardwalk and Epcot, so we decided heck, why not? Let's walk.

Despite the heat and humidity, this actually wasn't a horrible idea. We got to enjoy that walk and slowly come up on the Boardwalk. We got to a point where we needed to cut through the hotel to get to the Boardwalk ('cause we didn't know that if we kept walking we'd eventually be able to cut through to the Boardwalk without having to go in the hotel), and while our magic bands didn't work to let us in, I was able to successfully let us in with my phone! Score That was kind of neat. We hadn't gotten our "room ready" text yet, and I knew that DVC rooms rarely are ready early, so we didn't even try to check in or see about our room. We just headed right to the Boardwalk.

It was our first glimpse of the Boardwalk and we were blown away! So fun looking, and there was practically no one around, so we were able to just take it in. It made us all the more excited to actually be staying there. But we continued walking and were walking through the International Gateway (for the first time! No lines...lovely ) at 12:20ish.

We loved this sign but never saw a photopass photographer there! Bummer--a missed opportunity.

By this time we were super hungry, and decided to jump right into the Food and Wine booths. (even though we got our room ready text at the Boardwalk right about now! Oh well, we were hungry). First up was Ireland! We only planned to get something here if there was no line (since we don't drink and most of the food items there involved a lot of alcohol), and wouldn't you know it, there was absolutely no line. So we got the Roasted Irish Sausage with Colcannon Potatoes and Onion Gravy. (also I'm really proud that I'm pretty sure I remembered to take pictures of *all* of our food--boom, good trip reporter!)

This was good, but a bit too hot and heavy for the weather. But we were yummy and it was good. The sausage was basically a breakfast sausage, but the onion gravy was good. We had no problem finding a seat in the shade nearby to eat our food. This was our view--so nice! A great first experience with food and wine

Next up was Canada. I was bracing for huge lines, but nothing. No lines at all. We got the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup with Pretzel Roll and the
Le Cellier Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon with Truffle Butter Sauce. Again, no problem finding a seat in the shade (yay!).

We loved both of these dishes. We got a great cut of filet mignon and that truffle butter...yum! And while the soup was too hot for the day, still good! If we had had stomach space, we probably would have gone back for seconds on this.

After Canada, it was New Zealand. There we got Lamb Meatball with Spicy Tomato Chutney and the Seared Venison Sausage with Kumara Purée and Wild Mushroom Marsala Sauce. Ah dang, I just bragged about taking pictures of everything and we ate the sausage before taking a picture. Oops!

Mostly I remember these being hot. The meats were good though--I think Trevor liked them more than me, but both were good.

At that point we needed something cold. So we went to the Almond Orchard and got the Banana soft serve sundae. This was good, but it was mostly the banana soft serve that we liked--the toppings were meh. (spoiler alert; I think this was the only thing we got twice, cause when we went back we just asked for banana soft serve with not toppings and it was AWESOME).

Next we still wanted something cold and we were heading towards our Soarin fastpass that I was able to get for around 1:30ish? I don't remember exactly. But we passed the Chocolate booth and they have that frozen chocolate almond nitro truffle thing, and again no line, so we stopped and grabbed that. That was one of my favorites--another thing I would have liked to get again, but no space in my stomach.

Somewhere in there we also got the Remy Hide and Squeak map too.

After that truffle, it was time for Soarin'! The line wasn't line, especially with a fastpass, so we didn't mind waiting the extra round for a seat in B 1. I really wanted us to be in the center for Trevor's first ride (didn't want the Eiffel Tower to be bent in half ) and we were. It was great--despite Trevor's fear of heights, he liked it a lot.

From there we took a bathroom break, charged our phones a bit in that lounge/lobby area by the Soarin' exit. We just rested for 15 minutes or so, enjoying the a/c. Cause it was CRAZY hot, with the sun just beating down. Hence the focus on air conditioning.

After our little rest (during which I got lucky and scored a Frozen fastpass!), we headed across the park to ride Frozen. Pictures on the way!

This was Trevor's first time riding it, so I was extra excited to find the fastpass. As for the ride itself, he liked it! We agreed on the lack of any real "story" to the ride, but he liked the animatronics and the whole going backwards part. I call it a success!

(some selfies are good...some are not...this was definitely not one of my better ones! )

I'll emphasize again how uncrowded it was--after Frozen, as we headed towards the Festival Center, I was able to get a fastpass for pretty soon at Test Track. We got hot (surprise surprise) as we were walking that way, so we stopped at the "Cool Wash" drink stand and got a Blue Raspberry Icee. It was perfect We took it through the Test Track queue (the queue was kind of long, even with a fastpass!), sucking down every last bit before we entered the design studio.

In the design studio we didn't realize we wouldn't each get to design a car, so I let Trevor do it, since he's more into cars than me. Something must have been wrong with the whole "test your car" thing, cause it didn't show up on any of the boards. Oh well! It was still a fun ride.

After Test Track, we got the pancake milkshake from Taste Track. I liked the whipped cream and sprinkles on top best! Otherwise it was a pretty standard vanilla milkshake, though the strawberries inside were a nice treat. More strawberries would have been good. Trevor let me drink this one almost entirely on my own though, cause we were heading for Mission Space: Orange, and Trevor didn't want any stomach troubles!

Last time he only rode the green side 'cause all the warnings freaked him out, and afterwards was like "psh, totally should have done orange". So this time, he did orange with me. We safely made it to Mars, and didn't see any crying kids on our way this time (last time the warnings freaked out this poor kid so much he started bawling once inside the capsule and had to leave. Those Mission Space warnings are way over the top!)

After the ride, we went to the Festival Center for, you guessed it, air conditioning! Also to get my AP magnet and to try the frozen apple pie from Shimmering Sips and to look at the chocolate sculptures...a lot of things really. But mostly the air conditioning.

We saw the Shimmering Sips booth first so we got a chocolate croissant and the frozen apple pie. I liked it, but Trevor really only liked the apple pie bits on top. I'm really not picky when it comes to frozen slushies.

(I took this after eating [you'll notice the bites out of the croissant...] so the apple pie bits from the top of the slushie are long gone)

Then I got my magnet and we looked a bit at the chocolate sculptures, which were super neat! I liked the Headless Horseman one best. And cause I know people have been talking about this on the Food and Wine thread, there was no CM there handing out Ghiradelhi samples.

From there we were heading out to ride Spaceship Earth. On our way out I saw the festival center booth (don't remember the name) and decided to pick up the cheese tray there. La Bottega di BelGioioso® Cheese Plate: Crescenza-Stracchino®, CreamyGorg® Gorgonzola Dolce, and Artigiano® Vino Rosso Cheeses. This looked like a hot mess, but the cheese wasn't bad. Needed more crackers though.

I finished that on our way to ride Spaceship Earth! Once again, no real line. I enjoyed the A/C and sitting down for a bit, even if our photos did come out missing half of our faces. Very creepy.

Stay tuned for part 2, since apparently there is a limit of 35 pictures per post. I really am verbose...sorry!

 

[Araminta18]

Friday, September 14th (part 2):​

At that point, we were pretty tuckered out, and we knew we had a room at the Boardwalk, so we decided to head over there. We grabbed one of the Friendship boats to take us across the lagoon:

(this is captioned, why does my wife keep taking my picture?)

and then walked from Morocco to the Boardwalk.

I wanted to check in at the front desk just because, since it was our first time and everything, and to ask after our bags. Our only room request was high floor, and we got room 5031--high floor and close to the center! I was ecstatic! The lady helping us at the desk was a bit slow, especially trying to add a pin to Trevor's magic band, but oh well--I was still over the moon that we got a room on the 5th floor.

We then checked with Bell Services, who said they didn't have our bags yet, so the transfer from FQ must just be taking a while and to check back later. So we decided not to push it and headed upstairs to our room. (Side note: the smell of the Boardwalk lobby? Heavenly. I can't describe it, but I love it).

The first walk to our room felt like it took a while, but when we walked in and saw the room and that view, we were just overjoyed. What a perfect room to call home for the next 8 days! (warning, tons of pics of the room incoming! this was a dedicated studio villa, not a lockoff)

As you walk in, there's a little alcove to the left (kind of behind the door), with this mirror. It proved a good, out of the way place to stash our suitcases.

Bad lighting in this pic of the view of the room from the front door:

The bathroom, a little bit in and to the right of the front door:

Toilet/tub (if you're facing the above mirror, it's on the right):

Closet (if you're facing the bathroom mirror above, it's on the left):

Kitchenette (if you're facing the bathroom mirror, it's behind you).

Into the room, looking to the right:

On the left side of the room (these are in order, going towards the balcony):

My favorite part, the balcony and the view!

We rested/chilled in the room for 45 minutes or so, and then decided to head out to Hollywood Studios. I wanted to see Toy Story Land in the dark again! We decided to take the boat, and took a selfie with the Boardwalk (and our room circled in red!) in the background.

The boat took longer than I would have liked ('cause we had to stop at Beach/Yacht Club and Swan/Dolphin), but there was a slight breeze and the sun was going down...it was nice.
Hollywood Studios didn't seem to crowded either, even in Toy Story Land (apologize for the bad lighting in the picture!)

On the way over I'd been working that MDE and got us a Toy Story Mania fastpass, but the line wasn't too long, so we rode twice in a row. I love this queue and all the fun elements.

The first ride I beat Trevor (145,800 to 107,800) and then the second time he beat me AND got best in car (144,700 to my 132,800). I say "lame" cause my first score was higher than his winning second score, but the rest of our car was strong so I didn't get best in car I'm not a sore loser, not at all!

I kept refreshing and eventually managed to get a Slinky fastpass for the end of the night! Huzzah! That ride is super fun in the dark, even if you don't get as good a view into Star Wars land.

We decided to end the night with the slow loading Alien Swirling Saucers and complete the Toy Story Land trifecta. It was a good end to our time in Toy Story land.

We then meandered out of the park and caught a boat back to the Boardwalk. It was our first sight of it all lit up--so gorgeous! But we didn't just gawk for too long, we had places to be!

Our reservation was at 9:25, I think? Apparently they stop taking reservations at 9:30...oops! But we made it in time and were seated at a table near the kitchen and the bar, the only table the bartender is responsible for. I was a little worried about being seated so late and then having the bartender be our waiter, but it was actually one of our favorite meals of the trip, in large part due to our waiter!

(ignore my crazy hair...)

We took advantage of having the bartender as our waiter and asked him to make up some mocktails for us, and they were amazing. I told him I liked raspberries so he made me a raspberry fizz that had lots of real raspberries in it.

Trevor got a black cherry limeade/smash.

These were both really good--more interesting than normal soda and really refreshing.

We then got bread and butter. The bread had seaweed baked into it, and there's seaweed salt sprinkled on the butter too. The seaweed just adds a very slight additional hint of flavor--it was very good. We ate all of it

We then got our salads: grilled romaine with house made ranch dressing. Delicious! Fresh flavors...just yum.

About 15 minutes later, our entrees: I got the Wagyu filet mignon. I didn't take a picture of the menu so I can't tell you exactly what the dishes were (sadly), but they were both delicious. I don't like seafood, so we booked this restaurant for Trevor (who doesn't get seafood often because of my dislike--he really only gets it when we go out to eat), but my steak was *delicious*. Tender and perfectly cooked--I didn't even need a steak knife. And the sauce just added a beautiful dimension of flavor.

and Trevor got the Swordfish with a cream sauce. Per him, it was delicious. Perfectly cooked, a great accompanying sauce...just yum. But he said (after having a bite of my steak) that my steak was better. He wanted seafood and so was happy to have the swordfish, but my steak was objectively a bit better. 'cause it was YUM.

We didn't want dessert 'cause we were super full, but our waiter (Joshua, the bartender), brought me a birthday dessert! It was a light chocolate mousse with chocolate cake crumbles and a raspberry sauce in there. Absolutely delicious--and delightfully light, with interesting textures. A great end to the meal.

Overall, it was one of our favorite dinners. We loved the ambiance, with the outline of the fish in the candleholder, and the fish scale pattern on the cutlery, and the empty bottles above the bar and the fish sculptures flying above. Joshua, our waiter, was fantastic (we tweeted a CastCompliment for him to WDWToday). I got up at one point to go to the ladies' room and while I was gone he folded my napkin into a rose! He also gave me a glow cube for my birthday/just for fun, and then of course the birthday dessert. He was really friendly and attentive, and we loved that he came up with mocktails for us. It wasn't a perfect dinner--the pacing was a bit slow, and when we ordered our entrees he asked if we wanted salads or soup to start and the way it was phrased we didn't realize those were separate appetizers/not included with the entree. We should have, but the way he phrased it, it didn't sound that way. They were good though, so we weren't upset. But even with those, we'd definitely go back.

We absolutely loved being able to just walk to our room after the meal, with no waiting for buses or the boat or anything. Just enjoy the Boardwalk ambiance as we headed to our room. Amazing.

We checked with Bell Services and they said they had our bags, and would send them up in the next few minutes. So we headed up to our room, and after about half an hour, Trevor called down, 'cause they hadn't arrived and it was getting kind of late and we wanted our stuff to go to bed. The person that Trevor talked to said they'd check into it, so we waited about 20 more minutes and still nothing, so Trevor had to go down and talk to them again, and this time the guy at Bell Services loaded up the bags and came up with Trevor, so we'd be sure to get our bags! I wasn't very happy about that wait, especially at the end of a long day, but as that was the last time we'd really need to interact with Bell Services, that's ok.

I should have just gone to bed once we got our bags, but I really wanted to unpack and move in, so I spent probably half an hour or 45 minutes unpacking and getting us settled. Didn't end up going to bed until about 1 am. Foolish mortal! But when I did go to bed, we were all unpacked and ready for the next day.

Overall, a fantastic day. I wore my Mary Poppins Broadway shirt, and got lots of compliments on it, and Trevor wore a Winnie the Pooh "There's a Rumbly in my Tumbly" button that also got lots of compliments (especially at Epcot and the Food and Wine booths). Dinner was fantastic, and we got an *AMAZING* room at the Boardwalk. Our whole vacation stretched in front of us and we couldn't wait.

Fun with Metrics!
Steps walked: 24,812 steps (9.6 miles)
Total AP discount (food/merchandise, etc): $30.84
Ride Total: 13 (Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Peter Pan, Soarin, Frozen, Test Track, Mission Space Orange, Spaceship Earth, 2 Toy Story Mania, Slinky Dog Dash, Alien Swirling Saucers)

 

[Araminta18]

Minnie vans just started going to Disney Springs resorts, so we will be using it when we go to MK for our EMM.
Expensive, but that's okay, MV's drop you right at the park, no TTC or walk from Contemporary, which we are happy with so early in the morning!

Glad to hear MDE worked so well for you. I am counting on it doing the same for me

Oh nice! We thought about the Minnie vans, but decided uber was a bit more cost effective for us. But they're so cute! I'm sure you'll love it.

I'm pulling for you! It's ridiculous that Disney basically makes it mandatory to use MDE, but then it breaks all the time. *sigh*

Holy Mackerel! That's a ginormous sundae!

right? even with the two of us I think we only ate half of it. It's huge. but so yummy....

What a great first day! Yay! That beignet sundae looks SO yummy. I want to stay at POFQ someday. When Micheal and I got married, I wanted to go to New Orleans for our honeymoon, but we let some people talk us out of it. Shouldn't have listened to them .

I was surprised at how slowly aliens loaded, too! But I ended up enjoying it, which also surprised me .

It really was! Hopefully you can stay there some time--it's so cute and small, so it has a bit of a deluxe feel without being too expensive. It can be a kind of make up honeymoon! Never listen to people trying to talk you out of things like New Orleans...silly people!

We liked it, but I didn't think the wait (even with a fastpass was worth it). I also think I would have liked it better had there been more of the real serious whips where you get whipped around, rather than one of those and then two or three of the slight jostles each time. But then I fully acknowledge I am not their target demographic!

 

[kclark9830]

Your view at the BW was fantastic! I loved it there so much. And you f&w foods look so yummy. I'm still bitter that I didn't get to try more.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

We were there at the same time! The heat and humidity were crazy but the low crowds made up for it. Can't wait to see the rest of your report.

 

[Araminta18]

Your view at the BW was fantastic! I loved it there so much. And you f&w foods look so yummy. I'm still bitter that I didn't get to try more.

We loved it too--just a fantastic resort.

Shoot, I'm still bitter we didn't get to try *everything* on our list. Guess that means we have to go back

We were there at the same time! The heat and humidity were crazy but the low crowds made up for it. Can't wait to see the rest of your report.

Hey! That's cool! I totally agree--heat/humidity were insane, but at least the crowds were super low.