Welcome Home...Three Years Later! A June 2021 PTR (Updated 6/21)

[cstorm65]

Summer Trip - Day 8 Plans

Day 8 brings us to the end of our stay at Pop Century and as you can tell we spent a lot of our time over the past week in Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We are super excited about the Skyliner and having easy access to those parks. I know getting to HS is a little tricky early in the morning, so any advice you all have for while we will be on a Skyliner Resort would be great. Anyway, we scheduled Epcot for today as we thought that would be a good fit since it doesn’t open until 11 AM. This gives us time to finish any packing up we needed and get our bags to bell services to transfer to our new resort. So, this morning be our final ride on the Skyliner of the trip:

We plan on staying in Epcot for four hours or so and waiting on the room text at our new resort. We will certainly plan on doing Test Track today as DS9 loves that one and I think DS5 will enjoy it a lot as well. We will also probably just spend some time doing the things we like in Future World like Nemo and Spaceship Earth.

We had planned on leaving straight away and going to our new resort, but today was the only day in the entire first week I could find a reservation at Beaches and Cream. I got a 5:00 dinner, so we may just hang around until that time or if we’ve gotten a bunch done at Epcot by 3:00 or so we may go get checked in if the room is ready and come back for dinner. We LOVE dinner at Beaches and Cream and can’t wait to get back here for both the food and the ice cream!

After that we will just get settled into our new resort and probably do some swimming. We are checking in for our DVC stay at Bay Lake Tower!

We looked at several resort options for this trip and have changed the reservation a few times, but Bay Lake ended up being a good option. We want to not be as dependent on the busses as we normally are since capacity is down due to COVID and we don’t want to have to wait super long. So, we have saved a majority of our Magic Kingdom time for this trip for while we are staying here.

No park time tonight though, just getting the room settled and ready for the week!

Next Up: Summer Trip - Day 9 Plans​

 

[cstorm65]

Summer Trip - Day 9 Plans

Well, this will be our first morning to wake up at Bay Lake Tower and we are going to take full advantage of our week here by spending a lot of time in Magic Kingdom! Today we are getting up and walking over for rope drop. This will only be our 2nd Magic Kingdom day so far on this trip, which is weird for us, but we will have a lot of them while at Bay Lake Tower.

I haven’t even begun looking at touring plans yet, which is again, strange for me, but with no fastpasses or anything I’m not really in that big of a hurry and not sure specific touring plans are as needed. We will see as we get closer if anything changes. I know we will probably want to head over first thing and get a ride on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. This will be DS5’s first trip to ride this and so he is super excited!

While we are in Fantasyland we will probably go ahead with some other favorites like Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, and Barnstormer. For lunch I tentatively have down Cosmic Rays. We don’t love it, but don’t hate it either. With Columbia Harbor House closed at Magic Kingdom the quick service options are more limited so a place like this is back in play! We will see though, something else may speak to us! Any quick service recommendations from you experts other than the main places like Pecos Bills or Pinocchio Village Haus?

After lunch we will be taking a midday break. Now that Magic Kingdom hours have been extended to 9:00 PM and because we are within walking distance this will be possible! We will probably just nap and enjoy some pool time at Bay Lake Tower.

After a break we will head back to Magic Kingdom by 5:00 because we have dinner reservations at a first time restaurant for us:

We’ve had this on our plans before and it just has never worked out and so we are determined to try it this time. Any suggestions for good things to get here are welcomed!

After dinner we will tour the park some more, hitting some of our favorite attractions before heading out to head to bed. Again, the close location of Bay Lake is going to be so awesome!

Bonus Throwback Magic Kingdom Pictures

Up Next: Summer 2020 Mini Trip Report Part 4​

 

[brookelizabeth]

We did stop and eat lunch at Lamberts Cafe on the way, if you’ve never eaten here do it! You won’t leave hungry and yes, they throw rolls at you from across the restaurant. DS4 was mimicking the workers yelling, “Hot Rolls, Hot Rolls, who wants some hot rolls.”

I have eaten here once and it was SO good!!!!! I had catfish and okra for the first time there too! Oh, good memories.

a couple of nights at Great Wolf Lodge!

What an AWESOME surprise!

We are checking in for our DVC stay at Bay Lake Tower!

Any quick service recommendations from you experts other than the main places like Pecos Bills or Pinocchio Village Haus?

I find the QS at MK a bit lacking as well... currently our plan is to do Sleepy Hollow. I will do the corn dog and my DH and DS will probably do the waffle sandwiches.

 

[cstorm65]

I have eaten here once and it was SO good!!!!! I had catfish and okra for the first time there too! Oh, good memories.

Yes!! Everything there is so good. I got catfish this time too!!

What an AWESOME surprise!

DW really outdid herself in finding this great deal. We loved our time there!

Very excited!!!

I find the QS at MK a bit lacking as well... currently our plan is to do Sleepy Hollow. I will do the corn dog and my DH and DS will probably do the waffle sandwiches.

I agree for sure! Sometimes the waffle sandwiches just hit the spot. I also don't mind the loaded tots over at Friar's Nook. I mean they aren't anything super special, but they are sometimes just nice for a change from the normal places.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Well, DW happened to check the one in Kansas City, which is a little further away from us and we got it for about $180 per night

Now THAT is a DEAL!!!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I know getting to HS is a little tricky early in the morning, so any advice you all have for while we will be on a Skyliner Resort would be great.

It sounds like the best strategy is to just get there early to be at the front-is of the line for when they start loading. I have also heard, that they might let you get on before folks if you have a dinning reservation. (that might apply for the Caribbean Beach potion, but still good to know)

I haven’t even begun looking at touring plans yet, which is again, strange for me, but with no fastpasses or anything I’m not really in that big of a hurry and not sure specific touring plans are as needed.

Sounds like it is just mostly getting on the rides that will have the biggest wait the quickest, but really we all know which ones those are.

Any quick service recommendations from you experts other than the main places like Pecos Bills or Pinocchio Village Haus?

We have started making a meal out of candied bacon, a couple egg rolls from the egg roll cart, and a chicken waffle sandwich. It's a little bit of divide and conquer but all so yummy. Oh, add in some tots too! yum!

After lunch we will be taking a midday break. Now that Magic Kingdom hours have been extended to 9:00 PM and because we are within walking distance this will be possible! We will probably just nap and enjoy some pool time at Bay Lake Tower.

If you are planning on leaving after lunch, you could also go to one of the counter service places at the hotels. Possibly Captin Cooks at the Poly for the nachos there and a dole whip? Can you do that right now?

Any suggestions for good things to get here are welcomed!

You HAVE To get the Brazian Cheese Bread! It's on the Secret Menu and soooo good! It's better than what they serve at food and wine. There are some yummy Sangria's on the secret menu as well.

 

[cstorm65]

Now THAT is a DEAL!!!!

I know! It was so cheap we couldn't afford not to do it! haha

It sounds like the best strategy is to just get there early to be at the front-is of the line for when they start loading. I have also heard, that they might let you get on before folks if you have a dinning reservation. (that might apply for the Caribbean Beach potion, but still good to know)

That's what I've read other places to. Get there early!

Sounds like it is just mostly getting on the rides that will have the biggest wait the quickest, but really we all know which ones those are.

Yeah, I guess the philosophy of getting there at rope drop is still the same as it's always been, you just don't have to worry about FP's and the lines may not be quite as long as normal. Although, who knows now that capacity may be increasing.

We have started making a meal out of candied bacon, a couple egg rolls from the egg roll cart, and a chicken waffle sandwich. It's a little bit of divide and conquer but all so yummy. Oh, add in some tots too! yum!

Ummm...where do you get candied bacon? I think I remember reading about it in your trip reports, but I have no idea where to get it.

If you are planning on leaving after lunch, you could also go to one of the counter service places at the hotels. Possibly Captin Cooks at the Poly for the nachos there and a dole whip? Can you do that right now?

I think you can still do it, although with no monorail stop at the Poly it's probably a little less convenient having to take the boat. Although, it's definitely worth looking in to.

You HAVE To get the Brazian Cheese Bread! It's on the Secret Menu and soooo good! It's better than what they serve at food and wine. There are some yummy Sangria's on the secret menu as well.

Noted! Didn't know they had a secret menu!!! That's awesome!

 

[cstorm65]

Summer 2020 Mini Trip Report Part 4

Ok, we’ve been so busy over the last two weeks with the end of school and all, but I am so happy to report...we are on summer break!!! It’s this time of year that we love being in Oklahoma. I seriously think we get to summer break before almost everyone else in the country. I mean I’m sure we go back to school before everyone too, so it evens out, but it is sure nice to be on summer break!

I need to get moving on finishing up this PTR as our trip is in less than 40 days, but I want to also finish posting about our last minute summer 2020 vacation to Branson and Kansas City. I left off with us getting to Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City and so I’m going to post the rest of our pictures from there:

After our time at Great Wolf we headed out and had lunch in Kansas City at a place called Fritz’s. It is a place where you order on a telephone in the booth and then model trains bring your food to your table. It was cool, the food was good, and the boys loved it!

Finally, we were staying in Kansas City so we could do Worlds of Fun on our last full day. Unfortunately, DW woke up the next day with a migraine and she was not up to a theme park. DS8 was also wanting to stay back, he’s a mommy’s boy and didn’t want to leave her alone. So, DS4 and I headed to Worlds of Fun on our own and had a great time.

We headed home the next day to close our nice last minute vacation after our Disney trip was canceled with COVID happening.

Up Next: Day 10 Plans​

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

After our time at Great Wolf we headed out and had lunch in Kansas City at a place called Fritz’s. It is a place where you order on a telephone in the booth and then model trains bring your food to your table. It was cool, the food was good, and the boys loved it!

That sounds amazing!!!! I love it.

How cute is he!!!??!!! I want lots of these photos of him in Disney!

 

[cstorm65]

That sounds amazing!!!! I love it.


How cute is he!!!??!!! I want lots of these photos of him in Disney!

Oh, we'll take all kinds of pictures, especially since now we get to take pictures without masks!!!

 

[cstorm65]

Summer Trip - Day 10 Plans

Alright, back to making some plans because we are getting closer to an actual trip!! For Day 10 we will get up in the morning and head back to Hollywood Studios. I’m sure we will try and get a Rise of the Resistance Boarding group at 7 AM. This will be our 3rd morning at Hollywood Studios, so we will probably just see what major rides the boys want to do when the park opens! I’m betting on this for DS9:

And I’m betting on this for DS5:

I guess we’ll see what happens!

After a morning of touring the parks I’m not really sure where we’ll eat lunch at the park. There’s not a lot of great quick service options at Hollywood Studios, so we may end up back over at Docking Bay 7 if we enjoyed it earlier in the trip.

We will continue touring the park, hopefully while waiting on a boarding group. Hopefully we can be out of the park by 2:00 or so and back to rest up a bit at Bay Lake Tower. This evening we are having dinner at a place we’ve never been, but I am super excited for as we’ve heard a lot of good things recently about this place:

I can’t wait to try the Bacon & Eggs as well as some of the other great things on the menu! And, an added bonus that we can just walk here and not have to worry about transportation or buses or anything like that!

That’ll do it for Day 10 as we have an early day tomorrow! I’ll leave you with some more throwback pictures from Hollywood Studios.

Up Next: Summer Trip - Day 11 Plans​

 

[brookelizabeth]

I love dining in the hotel we are staying in - it just makes for a relaxing and easy evening.

 

[cstorm65]

I love dining in the hotel we are staying in - it just makes for a relaxing and easy evening.

No doubt! Traveling to other resorts can be a paid, although sometimes worth it for places we like! haha

 

[cstorm65]

Summer Trip - Day 11 Plans

We are back for some more trip planning! We are getting so close...today is 30 days from the trip!!! On to Day #11:

So, Day 11 will be a morning where we will head over to Animal Kingdom. They are opening at 8 AM, so it will probably be an early morning and we will just stay until we have done everything we want to do. That will of course include a visit to Flight of Passage and also a visit to Expedition Everest.

I think we will probably have lunch today at Sa’tuli Canteen. We definitely like this place and will probably do it here today. I enjoy the cheeseburger pods, but we actually all enjoy the kids hot dog that is in kind of a croissant type bun wrapped around it, kind of like a pig in a blanket. It is actually really good!

After lunch, I don’t know how long we will stay around, but this is our last day at Animal Kingdom, so probably until we’ve done what we want to here for this trip. With all of the unknown regarding how long lines will be without fastpass it's really hard to plan our park time, so you kind of just have to wing it. So, we’ll just enjoy being here and do what we can!

When we are done we’ll head back to Bay Lake and give DS5 a chance to nap a little bit and then probably do some afternoon swimming.

Also, the plan for tonight is to head over to Wilderness Lodge and have dinner somewhere I have been dreaming about for over two years. It opened just after we were last at Disney World, Geyser Point. I have heard so many great stories about that bison burger and I am so excited to try it.

Over on our Universal trip report I talked about the great burger at Bigfire at Citywalk, so I’m excited to see how this compares!

Now, hopefully the boat is back to running between Contemporary, Wilderness Lodge, and Fort Wilderness. I just don’t understand how not running that boat helps prevent COVID spread? It makes no sense to me. The only thing I can think of is they just don’t have enough staff willing to work to have all of the routes going, which may be the case. Anyways, we will probably just Uber over if they don’t have that running. I think that will be easier than walking to the Magic Kingdom and catching a Wilderness Lodge Bus.

We also might see if they are doing S'mores at the Contemporary or something tonight and do that before heading off to bed. It will have been an early morning, so I’m sure bedtime will come pretty early!

Thanks for reading along. Here are few throwback pictures from past trips:

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Up Next: Summer Trip - Day 12 Plans​

 

[brookelizabeth]

I think we will probably have lunch today at Sa’tuli Canteen. We definitely like this place and will probably do it here today. I enjoy the cheeseburger pods, but we actually all enjoy the kids hot dog that is in kind of a croissant type bun wrapped around it, kind of like a pig in a blanket. It is actually really good!

That kids meal looks delish! I didn't know that was on the menu. Sa'tuli is great though, one of our favorites too.

You are in the final stretch now!! We are 54 days away from our Florida trip, but headed to EuropaPark this week (a theme park in Germany), and I'm so excited for it! We haven't ever been, and it will give us a little theme park fix.

 

[cstorm65]

That kids meal looks delish! I didn't know that was on the menu. Sa'tuli is great though, one of our favorites too.

You are in the final stretch now!! We are 54 days away from our Florida trip, but headed to EuropaPark this week (a theme park in Germany), and I'm so excited for it! We haven't ever been, and it will give us a little theme park fix.

I know what you mean about needing that theme park fix! I've got DS9 and one of his friends in Dallas for a few days doing Hurricane Harbor and Six Flags Over Texas. They aren't Disney, but it's still a fun time! Thanks for reading along!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

So, I was watching Tim Tracker the other day, and he mentioned that the Candied Bacon wasn't back in the park yet. But keep an eye out for it! Also, he got tots from Friar's Nook and it looks like they have made the portion size smaller. Hopefully that was just a fluke but something to note, just in case you want to make a meal out of one of those bowls. It looked more snack size than meal size.

 

[cstorm65]

So, I was watching Tim Tracker the other day, and he mentioned that the Candied Bacon wasn't back in the park yet. But keep an eye out for it! Also, he got tots from Friar's Nook and it looks like they have made the portion size smaller. Hopefully that was just a fluke but something to note, just in case you want to make a meal out of one of those bowls. It looked more snack size than meal size.

Both good things to know and both a little disappointing. Fingers crossed for the candied bacon to be back soon!

 

[cstorm65]

Summer Trip - Day 12 Plans

We are moving on to Day 12 of our trip and this will be a morning that we plan on just spending hanging around the resort. We will definitely spend some time swimming and also have a breakfast reservation back at The Wave.

We will have just eaten dinner here a few nights before, but we’ve heard so much good about this place we want to try it for breakfast too.

After breakfast it will definitely be time to hit up the pool for a little relaxing time in the water! The boys will definitely enjoy spending time here:

Our park time today will include heading over to the Magic Kingdom sometime in the later afternoon, maybe around 4:00 or so. Planning your time in the parks is so hard right now without fastpass as we have no idea what the park will look like or how long lines will be, but we plan on just doing what we can and enjoying an evening in the park. We have penciled in dinner for this night at a quick service place we’ve come to like fairly well at Magic Kingdom, Pinocchio Village Haus.

The park is currently open until 9:00 and since we are walking distance at Bay Lake Tower, even if we stay until 9:00 we can still get in bed at a pretty decent hour, so we will probably stay here until the park closes. That’s it! Pretty easy for Day 12. Here are some throwback pictures as always.

Up Next: Summer Trip - Day 13 Plans​

 

[brookelizabeth]

A nice mix of relaxing and park time - usually my favorite days! By Day 12 you'll be covering little things you missed and repeating favorites, so you can just go about things at such a relaxed pace. So wonderful.

I am also curious how things will be for our July trip without FastPass. I've never done Disney without it!