"Wow, that's a skinny squirrel!" - January 2012 TR *Updated 05/09

[archdandy]

Jambo everybody and welcome to my first trip report! This trip first came about in September when DH and I started school. We were having a rough time adjusting because neither of us had been in college/university before (he's in college and I'm in university) and we didn't like having so little free time anymore. Not to mention we moved and that was a huge hassle with our previous landlord and we had a death in the family. We don't deal with stress very well (we get cranky ). So it was then decided that we would take a Disney trip at the end of our first semester as a reward and as a way to just unwind. You can read all about the planning from my PTR:http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2811327.

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside from January 8-15. We used the DDXP and I will be doing a dining report as well (I'll put the link in when I start it). Now let's introduce the cast members of this trip!

Me - My name's Jennifer and I am 22 years old. I'm currently in school full time majoring in Anthropology. My favorite park is Hollywood Studios, favorite character is Belle, favorite snack is the peanut butter cups.

DH - He is 26 years old and works full time as a manager of a payday loan and cash converters store. He also goes to school part time for animal law enforcement. His favorite park is Hollywood Studios, favorite character is Goofy and favorite food was the porterhouse steak from Yachstmans!

 

[archdandy]

Day 0/Day 1: Let's go! Let's go! http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43947954&postcount=8

Day 1: We're here! We're here! http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44489161&postcount=14

Day 1: I lurve me some chocolate cake http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44618707&postcount=18

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Joining in! We were there at the same time, how funny is that? Can't wait to read more about your trip!

 

[Nermel9]

Joining in! Can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[jecskc]

Joining in!! Can't wait to read about your trip.

 

[archdandy]

Joining in! We were there at the same time, how funny is that? Can't wait to read more about your trip!

That is pretty funny! How did you and Wingnut find the weather? We're from Canada and it's mid-winter here but even we found it to be pretty cold some days!

Joining in! Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Welcome! I can't wait to get started. I should hopefully have something up this weekend, maybe even tonight!

Joining in!! Can't wait to read about your trip.

Welcome aboard!

 

[archdandy]

I'm just uploading my pictures to photo bucket now. Hopefully I will have an update for you guys today or tommorow.

 

[archdandy]

This isn't technically the day we left for Disney, hence day 0, but for me it was when the trip began so I'm starting here. It was January 7 and DH had been at work all day and I was at home packing last minute things and cleaning the house so it was nice and purdy for when we got home. Finally after a long day of trying to keep the ants in my pants four thirty rolled around. I was supposed to go and drop off our house key to my sister in law so she could come take care of our cats. So I packed my suit case into the car (DH had put his in this morning) and said goodbye to the cats!

(I don't know if you can see that well enough but the time says 4:30pm exactly!)

I got to my sister in laws house but nobody was answering the door so I just left the key in her mail box and got DH to text her to let her know. I arrived at DH's work a bit early since the drive there only took about 10 minutes with the trip to the sister in laws! So I waited around with our friend who was visiting DH at work. When we were ready to leave DH asked for the address of the hotel in Toronto we were going to be staying in for the night. But I had completely forgotten to write it down. So our friend suggested that we go to his house and use his computer to get the address. We agreed and drove to his house. It took us a little while to get his internet working and then finally we got the address! "Let's Go! Let's Go!" I couldn't keep my enthusiasm in, we were already behind schedule by half an hour and we had to stop for gas

After filling up the tank and getting on the highway it was 5:30. As soon as we hit the highway I put on some music and bounced in my seat the whole time. (We listened to a couple older AFI c.d.'s) We stopped about half an hour away from Toronto at a Tim Hortons for dinner around 6:30.

And we both got turkey sandwiches with cookies for dessert! They were typical Tim Horton's, which is good, but I was too excited to savour my cookies and unfourtunatley I gave them to DH later in the night.

We got back on the road around 7 and it only took us another 20 minutes to get to the hotel We checked in and got our room key. Then we had to go all the way back to the car which was in a back lot with very poor lighting so we kind of ran the way there and hurried with our luggage to the side door on the way back. We made it safely though!

It took us a bit to find our room and then when we did the key card didn't work! We tried it for about 5 minutes until my frustrated DH went back down to the lobby. He came back with a new key card and said the desk guy had given us the wrong room number. So we finally got the right room and opened the door without hassle this time.

The room had a king bed which I wasn't expecting! So that was a nice surprise. Hopefully a omen of the pixie dust to come!

I had to take a shower and do some last minute things like finish painting my nails (I know I'm a neurotic weirdo) so DH just relaxed and watched some TV. While we were exploring the room we came across this weird remote.

There was no N64 in the room so we think it might have been for pay per view? And yes we thought this was weird enough to take a picture of!

We finally got settled into bed around 9pm. It was the worst sleep ever! I couldn't fall asleep knowing I had to get up 2am. So I tossed and turned all night! At last 2am arrived and we both got up and were pretty groggy.
Which means that it was Disney departure day! I didn't have to pull off a sheet from my Disney calendar because Saturday and Sundays share a page!

We got our stuff together and sluggishly made our way to the lobby to check out.

Check out went fine and we were told to wait in the lobby for the van to come pick us up and take us to the airport. We waited, and waited, and waited. The van wa supposed to come at 2:30 because we had to be at the aiport by 3. Others had come to the lobby to wait for the van as well. Finally it came around 3:15 I believe. I was pretty mad because I thought we would have a long line at the check in counter at the aiport for sure.

Everybody got loaded into the van and we set out for the airport! There was a group of Germans who reminded me of my childhood and it was nice listening to them talk to each other. I have German grandparents that I spent a lot of time with when I was younger. My oma recently passed away in the fall so it made me sad but happy at the same time.

We finally got to the airport around 3:30 and luckily the line for check in was short. They still had their Christmas decorations up!

It only took about 10 minutes for us to get through. Then we had to wait for customs to open which surprisingly didn't take as long as I remember it taking last time. But the actual line for customs took quite a while. At least half an hour. We made it through eventually and security wasn't too bad. The beeper didn't go off for me this time which usually it does. It went off for DH though which was unusual. It turns out he forgot he had nail clippers in his pocket! They made him throw them out and he was a bit sad about that because it was his good pair

After all that we had about an hour and a half wait until our flight. So we decided to use this time to find something for breakfast as we knew there wouldn't be anything served on the flight. There wasn't a whole lot open at this time but we managed to find a little cafe type thing.

I got a yogurt with a muffin.

DH got a chocolate croissant with a sausage! (Yup, a sausage! )

This was possibly the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth! The yogurt was fine as it was a brand name yogurt. The muffin however was disgusting. I don't even know how I ate it looking back on it. It tasted like cardboard and had no flavor. It was super dry and just blech! I saw another couple who looked pretty disgusted with their muffin as well. My DH said his croissant was gross as well. The chocolate inside was hard and it just didn't taste good. I wish I could remember the name of the place we ate so I could warn others away but I can't!

After that rather unpleasant meal we headed towards our gate and sat down to watch a movie. We started to watch The Incredibles but only got about half way through before we started boarding. Our plane was about 15 minutes late for take off because we had to wait for a passenger. After that everything was smooth sailing!

Our flight was supposed to be two and a half hours long and we left at 6:30am.

Did we arrived on time? Will we find the magical express? You'll have to wait until next time to find out!

 

[KatMark]

I'm late, but I'm here. I'll be back to catch up later.

 

[KatMark]

Okay, I'm back and caught up (I was afraid I'd come back and you had done two or more updates ).

Great start. Sorry about the yucky food at the airport (I find most airport food to be yucky).

Can't wait to see if you land on time and find the ME.

 

[IheartDDuck]

I'm joining! Off to a great start so far.

Ick, yucky muffin. I hate that. It looked good too! Don't you hate it when something looks good, you're just expecting that it's going to taste good, and then it's terrible? Argh, that stinks.

 

[SenecaWolf]

We live near Buffalo and Timmy's is a necessity whenever we leave the house lol. The N64 remote thingy you see is for pay per play video games on your tv. IIRC they were kinda pricey.

Cant wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

 

[archdandy]

Okay, I'm back and caught up (I was afraid I'd come back and you had done two or more updates ).

Great start. Sorry about the yucky food at the airport (I find most airport food to be yucky).

Can't wait to see if you land on time and find the ME.

Nope, still just the one post! I am in the middle of uploading all of my pictures right now to photobucket so I can have them already uploaded and hopefully get this trip report back on track.

I'm joining! Off to a great start so far.

Ick, yucky muffin. I hate that. It looked good too! Don't you hate it when something looks good, you're just expecting that it's going to taste good, and then it's terrible? Argh, that stinks.

Yes, I do hate that! So very much! Luckily we had a weeks worth of yummy Disney food to look forward to!

We live near Buffalo and Timmy's is a necessity whenever we leave the house lol. The N64 remote thingy you see is for pay per play video games on your tv. IIRC they were kinda pricey.

Cant wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

Ohh, yes! Timmy's is a regular thing when we leave the house here! We live in a smaller town and we still have 6 Tim Horton's here


So like I said I am in the middle of getting my photos uploaded and hopefully will be able to get this trip report back on track soon. I've been so busy with school but we are done in three weeks. I may even be starting a new PTR soon

 

[archdandy]

We last left off with us being on the plane waiting to see what time we would land because we had a late take off.

We started our descent at 9:17 am.

And by the time we actually landed it was around 9:30am. We were supposed to arrive at 9:00am. So we were half an hour late but we were okay with it. We were just excited to finally be in Florida!

We stopped to use the bathroom and then made our way to the airport monorail. We took our time going through the aiport on the way to the Magical Express and stopped in to the Universal Studios store. We are both huge fans of Harry Potter and couldn't resist! We thought about buying a couple of the wands because they had a lot more of them now then when we went to Universal in 2010. In the end we decided against it and moved on.

So you'd think that because we have been on the Magical Express twiec before that we would remember where it is. But you'd be wrong Last time and this time as well we didn't get our Magical Express tickets in the mail so we had to go to front desk of Magical Express to check in. So we didn't have the actual paperwork with us to tell us where to go. We had been one floor up looking around for it because we knew it was at the end of the floor but it wasn't there this time Haha, we were so confused! Eventually we ended up asking somebody and she directed us to the floor below us. We checked in at the desk and finally got the Port Orleans Riverside line!

We finally boarded the ME at 11:30am (two hours after our flight landed!) and my excitement was growing by the minute. Can you tell? Haha.

We got the real ME bus and our driver was named James. We would be stopping at the Yacht Club, Beach Club and then Riverside. James was really great. He encouraged people to get excited when he saw the big purple gates and even said we could form a line at the front of the bus to get closer to take pictures! He must have met a couple of DISers during his career! Luckily we were in the front seat and didn't need to stand up to get a great shot (well, great to me) of the gates!

The bus drive was short and within half an hour we had arrived at Port Orleans Riverside! Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a shot of the name decoration thingy

For some reason, I guess due to excitement, this was the only picture of the lobby I got that day.

Yup, a chandelier!

We checked in fine and I didn't even have to request to be placed in the newly renovated rooms because the CM's had gotten my request from the week earlier and made sure we were accommodated!

The CM marked on the map where our room was and it took us a while to get there. At first we thought it was just because we had taken the long way around but as the week went on we realized there was no shorter way. I've heard a lot of complaints against Coronado Springs being huge but we honestly felt like this resort was a longer walk to the amenities. Maybe it was just the way the resort was laid out? Anyways, we finally made it to our room. We were in Magnolia Terrace.

After looking around the room for a bit we realized that time had gotten away from us and our ADR for Rainforest Cafe downtown was fast approaching. When I made this ADR I figured it would give us plenty of time to get there since our flight was at 6:30am. I guess I was wrong. I'll know better for next time not to make any lunch ADR's for arrival day!

We quickly made our way out to the bus stop figuring if they couldn't take us in late we would find somewhere else to eat. Okay maybe we didn't go quite as fast as we should have as we stopped to take some pictures!

Look at how huge that leaf is!

The fan at the bus station. Isn't it funny how we think something is a good idea to take a picture of but then looking back you can't remember why you would ever take that picture?

The bus came in a decent amount of time and we were one of two families who got on. The bus wasn't crowded which was a relief and soon we were on our way to Downtown Disney!

Will we make it to our ADR on time? Will the food be good? Tune in next time to find out!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Here I am at your report!!! When we went in 2010, we stayed in Magnolia Terrace, too! Awesome start to your report!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Hi just joining in.

 

[archdandy]

Hi just joining in.

Welcome! I hope you enjoy it!

Here I am at your report!!! When we went in 2010, we stayed in Magnolia Terrace, too! Awesome start to your report!

Welcome! It was a nice building to stay in. I just wish it had been close to the main building.

 

[archdandy]

So we last left off with us on the bus to downtown disney for our lunch ADR at the Rainforest Cafe.

The bus arrived downtown and we booked it to the restaurant. We only ended up being 15 minutes late for our ADR which was good! I thought maybe they wouldn't take us but luckily I was wrong. I was excited to try this place out because I had never been to a Rainforest Cafe before and it always looked so cool from outside! And now that they were on the dining plan I could finally go inside!

It did not disappoint. The inside was totally awesome! We had two thunderstorms while were there. Our waitress was really great and explained to us that this was only the second time she was using the dining plan. It made the meal a little slower but we didn't mind. We were just happy to be in Disney again.

For out appetizers we ordered:

Mozzarella Sticks (DH)​

Chimi-Cha-Cha's (me)​

DH said his cheese sticks were good, nothing special. My chimi-cha-cha's were really good. They were hot and tasty! The only thing I didn't like about them was that there was a certain spice that was too much in it, I think it was cumin. But they were still good and I would order them again.

For our appetizers we ordered:

Caribbean Coconut Shrimp (me)​

Chicken Fried Chicken (DH)​

My meal was pretty good. The rice was okay, it was just rice with a little bit of seasoning. The same with the veggies. But the shrimp were really tasty! They were perfectly crunchy and the mango sauce was delicious!

DH said his meal was okay. The chicken batter didn't have a lot of flavor and DH really like his fried chicken to be seasoned properly. He didn't try the gravy because he doesn't like it.

Next up was dessert (yeah we couldn't wait and took some bites!):

Tribal Cheesecake​

Chocolate Diablo Cake​

DH really loved his chocolate cake. He lurves chocolate cake and raspberry so this was perfect for him! The cheesecake I had was pretty good. I don't really remember anything else about it so it must not have stood out very much.

While we were waiting for the bill I looked over and saw this weird looking fish. I thought it was hilarious because it looked like it had a nose!

I was feeling artsy and in a good mood from being in Disney so I took this picture for a keepsake.

After our bill was settled we decided to check out the gift shop and while we were doing that our waitress came back up to us because she hadn't charged our card properly. She apologized profusely but we didn't mind as we knew she didn't have a lot of experience with the plan.

Once that was finished we explored downtown a bit. We went to Basin as I had never been and I always mean to but always end up skipping it. I bought a three pack of bath salt balls. We went to most of the stores in the Market Place but didn't really venture past there. I took a lot of pictures of the different statues and murals in the stores.

I also took a picture of a couple of the different statues I wanted but were way too expensive to buy.

I also finally got a good picture of the dragon in the water by the Lego store! It only took three trips!

We stayed downtown the whole afternoon but as evening approached we decided to take the boat back to the resort.

This was our first time taking Disney transportation other than the buses and it was fun! We really enjoyed having the wind in our hair.

Once back at the resort we stopped in the lobby to see if they could print off a list of ADR's. I forgot to print them off before we left. It wasn't a problem and we now had the list for the rest of the week. Then we went to the food court to get our mugs. After filling them up we headed back to the room and showered and got cleaned up for our ADR at Yachtsmans Steakhouse.

This is where I will leave this update. But stay tuned for the next installment to see if Yachtsmans lived up the hype and if we would make it through the evening without falling asleep!

 

[archdandy]

When we last left off we were about to leave our room to make our ADR for Yachstmans Steakhouse. I was really looking forward to this meal because DH and I both love a good steak. We took the bus downtown and then took the bus downtown to the Yacht Club resort. This was our first time being in this resort. We had been to the Beach Club before but never wandered over to the other resorts.

We were a little confused at first as to where the restaurant actually was and it took us a little while to find it. But we eventually made it and checked in for our reservation.

We didn't have a long wait and our host stopped by this window so we could view the different cuts of steak.

I didn't really pay attention because cuts of meat don't really mean anything to me but apparently DH did pay attention, more on that later.

We were seated near the back of the restaurant which was fine by us and then our waiter came and took our drink orders. I got tea and DH got pop. Our bread came out shortly after and I was excited to try it because I love fresh bread! It didn't disappoint. It was soft and the onion flavor was nice. I wished I had more room in my stomach for more bread.

Bread basket at Yachstmans Steakhouse​

We finally ordered our meals and DH went with a ceaser salad for an app and I just nibbled on bread.

Ceaser Salad at Yachtsmans Steakhouse​

He said it was good. It wasn't spectacular but he ate most of it. Here we are waiting for our entree's!

And what did we order?

8-oz Center Cut Filet Mignon (Me)​

24-oz Center Cut Porterhouse (DH)​

So remember how I said that I didn't pay any attention to the cuts of meat but DH did? Well I should have followed his example. His porterhouse steak was heavenly! It was so tender and had a really good flavor. Don't get me wrong, my filet mignon was delicious as well but it couldn't even hold a candle next to the porterhouse! I can feel my mouth watering just thinking about it.

DH didn't even touch his paprika fries, I think he was too full. My mashed potatoes were good, just mashed potatoes though. We opted to not get dessert as we were both pretty stuffed. I didn't write down our servers name but I wrote a little note saying he was excellent! We got our bill settled and headed out full and happy.

We went to the bus depot and waited for the bus back to Downtown. It only ended taking us an hour travel combined which was really great. I remember last trip it took us an hour and a half to get to Beach Club from the Coronado We got off the west depot at Riverside so we could stop at the food court and get some snacks. DH ended up getting this:

Coffee Cake from Riverside Mill​

And I ended up just getting a mickey ice cream head, which was delicious by the way.

DH didn't really like his cake. It had a weird cream cheese filling to it and thats not what we are used to with coffee cake.

After that we watched t.v. for a bit and then just crashed. It had been a long first day at Disney and we had to get up for our morning ADR at The Wave!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I've never been to Yatchsmen Steakhouse before. The foods looks wonderful.