Trip Report How ELSE do you turn 30??? In DISNEY WORLD of course!

(A little pre-curser to this report. My wife and I went on a 2-day, 1-night trip to Disney World for my 30th birthday. This entire trip report was written by her, because, well, she is much more eloquent than I am. Enjoy!)

In stark contradiction to what the world tells us to feel about reaching the 30 mark, and despite my “old man” teasing of my husband, I am super excited that we are reaching our 30’s. We have done a LOT during our 20’s and they feel complete. I feel excitedly ready to find out what the next decade will hold for us. Maybe it’s because we were married so young, and started our family so young, but I feel like our age hasn’t necessarily matched our maturity in years past, and maybe now that we are starting our 30’s we will finally be viewed as grown ups {whatever those are}.

Friday 3:30am, we awoke from a restless night’s sleep on my mother’s couch and loveseat. We had spent the night there since we were leaving the children in her charge while we were gone. A wash of the face, a brush of the teeth {notice I didn’t say hair}, and a change into clothes rendered us ready for a quick drive and almost equally as quick flight to Disney World. Tim had found a stellar deal for $49 tickets to Orlando, which spurred on the idea for a last minute birthday bash. Since we are annual pass holders, it was a big “DUH!” as to whether or not we should go.

If you have the chance to go to Disney, you go. “DUH!”

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Our flight landed at 7:30am. We caught the Magical Express {Disney’s complimentary transportation to those who are staying on Disney property} and arrived at the Boardwalk Inn by 8:40ish. Although we are DVC Members, we paid cash for this room because all of this year’s points are currently tied up and Tim found {yet another} amazing deal. We were able to book a studio at the Boardwalk for only about $80 more than a night at the Allstar Resorts. {Is it possible to say “DUH!” too many times in a post? Okay, good.} Since the Boardwalk is just a short walk away from Epcot, it was Tim’s 30th birthday we were celebrating, and Epcot just happens to be his favorite park, you guessed it, it was a big fat “DUH!” that we booked our one-night stay there.

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We were happily greeted at the door when we walked up by a woman saying, “Are you Mr. and Mrs. Elrod?” {How do they do that? This Disney Magic stuff is no joke.} She escorted us to the front desk where they checked us in, took our luggage, and we literally walked straight out of the lobby and walked into the back entrance of Epcot by 9:04. Epcot opened at 9:00am.

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The first thing we did was take a stroll hand-in-hand to France where we shared a chocolate croissant. Magnifique! [kisses fingertips]

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Tim, being the fantastically thorough Disney-planner that he is, had already booked us fastpasses for Soarin’ starting at 9:30, so we headed towards The Land. We knocked out Soarin’ and Living with the Land, then passed up our fastpasses for Journey into Imagination in exchange for a ride on Spaceship Earth. {Can I just say how much I love Spaceship Earth? I always forget this ride in the talks of “What’s Your Favorite Disney World Attraction?”, but man. I am just such a history nerd. I get all the feels every time Judi Dench says into my sound-wired headrest, “After 30,000 years of time travel, here we are, a truly global community, poised to shape the future of this, our Spaceship Earth.” Watch out, Elrod kids. Homeschool is about to go Disney.}

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Tim’s face in our future lives had me belly-laughing!

Content with skipping rides we’ve ridden so many times, we took an hour or so to just brows World Showcase. We debated lunch in many countries, but decided to stop and eat in China at Lotus Blossom Cafe. We split the orange chicken and drank tap water, because we’re so thrifty like that.

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timelrod

Member
Original Poster
At this time, the Florida heat and humidity was starting to bear down so we decided to head back to the Boardwalk to find our room and take a dip in the scary clown pool {Y’all. They don’t even put a picture of this pool on the Disney website because it’s so scary ugly. Google it.} Thanks to a fellow Periscoper, we were easily talked into a stop at Beaches & Cream at the Beach Club on the way back.

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Now we come to the part where I have one of my few Disney complaints: For the most part, we Elrods are Disney optimists. We are certainly opinionated, but we like to look for the best in a company that is dear to our hearts and in which obviously have a lot of literal stock. But the woman who escorted us to the front desk and the gentleman that checked us in when we first arrived were wonderful. The guy that checked our bag, not so much. He acted like it was such a chore, and we have never encountered this before. Usually our concierge guys at Wilderness Lodge and Bay Lake Tower are super accommodating and friendly. Tim almost always over-tips them because they are so personable. Well, when we went back to see if our room was ready, the quiet girl at the desk, immediately got a snippy older woman to come and assist her, who informed us as, if we had been complaining, that, “Check-in is NOT until 4:00, so there is nothing I can do.”

[And all the DIsney-goers go, “Gasp!”]

Seriously guys, we have never run into this type of customer service in Disney before. Sometimes I wonder if Disney makes their employees take mandatory “happy pills” before work because they are usually so chipper. {However, having previously been a Cast Member, I know this isn’t so.} But this woman was so rude, right off the bat. We were both pretty offended. We asked for our one suitcase from the concierge desk and he, once again, begrudgingly got us the bag that he had to tote nowhere, and we slipped off to the public bathroom to change into our swim suits. As if we weren’t already a little put-off, as soon as we sat down by the pool, it began to downpour. We grabbed our bag and hustled it back up the huge porch located on the backside of the lobby to take haven from the rain, since we had to room in which to retreat. Another family that shared our situation followed.

If we had had our children with us, this could have been a potential nightmare, but surprisingly, sitting there on the porch overlooking the lake between the Boardwalk and Beach and Yacht Club, it was so relaxing. We charged our phones, chatted, people-watched, Tim took a nap, I read it a book; it was an introvert’s Disney Dream and I loved it.

After about an hour, the woman of the party that shared in our roomless delight, came barging out of the side door to where her family sat nearby. Y’all. Disney makes for the best people-watching. She was wearing a white maxi skirt and dark tank with a big, floppy, black hat, and big gestures of outrage to match. {Now, this is meant to be read aloud in your best Jersey accent. C’mon, just play along. It was so entertaining, I wish I could act it out for you.} “I can’t believe it!” she said loudly, and all heads on the porch turned to look. “Our room is ready! Our room has been ready! I didn’t get a text!”

At this Tim jumped up and went inside to check the status of our own room. I was left to witness the rest.

“She’s givin’ me some story about an emergency fire drill and it messed up the system, but I ain’t buyin’ it! Not for what I’m payin’ here a night!! Sittin’ out here like we’re some kinda homeless people! [wild arms flying around her head] Getcha stuff, lets go! [Mostly to herself as she crossed in front of me to gesture to her other grown son sitting on the other side of the porch] Not for what I’m payin’ here a night!!”

[insert all the laughing-to-tears emoji faces]

Not to burst your bubble, but our room still wasn’t ready. Tim finagled his way into a different room with a less desirable location and we headed that way to change for dinner. Dinner plans included steak and the famously cheesy potato soup at Le Cellier in the Canada pavilion, so we were pretty anxious to get there. We gave ourselves forty minutes to walk from our room to the restaurant, which ended up being about twenty minutes too much. We dawdled around the UK and Canada, got pictures made by a Photopass Photographer, watched Canadian burly-men {and woman} throw axes at a block of wood, that sort of thing. Once our reservation time rolled around, we went in and got seated immediately at Le Cellier.

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We ordered the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup and the Le Cellier Poutine {french fries with canadian cheddar, black truffle, and red wine reduction on top!} for appetizers, then split the filet mignon that came on top of a wild mushroom risotto with heirloom tomatoes in a truffle-butter sauce. So delicious. All of it. So delicious. It was so nice just sitting there, chatting about work, kids, adoption, Disney, dreaming about our future; I love my man and spending time with him one-on-one is just the best. Also, I should mention that we had a fantastic waiter. He was gracious, informative, prompt, and friendly. When dining in World Showcase, I always try to make it a point to ask about the waiter’s home county. The staff in the pavilions in World Showcase are here on work visas from the country they’re working in, so it’s always interesting hearing stories about their home and their take on America. {Just so you know, on authority from a lovely waiter at Via Napoli, pepperoni and grated parmesan are completely Americanways to eat pizza, so I make a point not to order that while dining in Italy. “We onlee haz zat here because, you know, zee Americans like eet.”}

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After we ate, Tim decided he wanted to go to Magic Kingdom. This was such a shocker because Illuminations is his favorite nighttime firework display and I just knew he was going to want to see it sans kids. Nope. We headed over to Magic Kingdom for some Starbucks, a ride on the People Mover, Haunted Mansion, Dumbo…whatever had a short wait, honestly. About halfway through our tour of Fantasyland, I decided I needed a LeFou’s brew, so we stopped to charge our phones in Gaston’s Tavern. Upon ordering, the guy at the register noticed Tim’s Birthday button and gave him the LeFou’s brew and a cinnamon roll on the house! Whaaa? Happy Birthday to me {because Tim could care less about either}!

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timelrod

Member
Original Poster
Once the sun started setting, we monorailed {yes, I just used monorail as a verb} over to the Contemporary and then walked to Bay Lake Tower for drinks and an appetizer at the Top of the World Lounge. I had a white sangria and Tim went for a mule. We also ordered the Bay Lake Tower BLT Flatbread. At 10pm, Wishes started at Magic Kingdom and we watched from the Top of the World viewing area. It was magical, to say the least.

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After Wishes, we high-stepped it back to the monorail because Epcot had extra-magic hours that night and was open until 11pm. We made it there at about 10:40, so we were able to stroll one last time through Epcot and stopped for cronuts on the way back to the Boardwalk. We seriously ate all the food on this trip…but it was so worth the calories and subtle tummy-ache.

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We fell into bed for a five hour snooze, ready to start the Disney madness all over again the next day.

Check back in the next day or two for day 2 of our trip. :happy:
 

timelrod

Member
Original Poster
Enjoying your trip report! I have definitely got to go for some croissants in France! Those looked AMAZING!

Yes! I had heard that the bakery back there was open at 9am when the park opens. We always enter from the main gate at EPCOT, so it didn't really make sense. But I figured since we were entering from the Boardwalk this time, we had to! They had SO MANY yummy options for breakfast, I would recommend it for sure! And the cast members were great.
 

Mom@disney

Well-Known Member
Happy Birthday! What a great way to celebrate in DisneyWorld! Im loving this report (you were right to have your wife write it...she is very entertaining) You 2 remind me of my hubby and I...we also got married very young (age 19) and started our family early (1year after that) and we are HUGE fans of all things Disney! Looking foward to more
 

myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady
Disney World is the ONLY place to celebrate your 30th!! I did a last minute-ish trip to the World for mine back in 2008.

My hubster and I will be staying at the Boardwalk in 19 days; hopefully we will not get the rude woman!?

Lovely trip report, reading along! Y'all are so cute btw.
 

timelrod

Member
Original Poster
Happy Birthday! What a great way to celebrate in DisneyWorld! Im loving this report (you were right to have your wife write it...she is very entertaining) You 2 remind me of my hubby and I...we also got married very young (age 19) and started our family early (1year after that) and we are HUGE fans of all things Disney! Looking foward to more

Thanks! And yay for marrying young, right?? :)
 

timelrod

Member
Original Poster
Disney World is the ONLY place to celebrate your 30th!! I did a last minute-ish trip to the World for mine back in 2008.

My hubster and I will be staying at the Boardwalk in 19 days; hopefully we will not get the rude woman!?

Lovely trip report, reading along! Y'all are so cute btw.

Thank you! And yes, hopefully no rude cast members for you. That's such a rarity, but not fun when encountered. Enjoy your trip!!!
 

timelrod

Member
Original Poster
Picking up where we put down, Tim and I woke up quite early on the second {and last!} day of our trip. Magic Kingdom opened at 9:00 and we wanted to be there for rope drop. We were up and at ’em by 7:00. We, once again, checked our bag with the concierge since we would be leaving for the airport later that afternoon, and headed down to the BoardWalk Bakery for breakfast. Tim got an iced coffee and I got a hot coffee and Mickey-shaped chocolate chip muffin…because I mean, DISNEY WORLD!

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We sat out on the BoardWalk overlooking the lake and Beach and Yacht Club to enjoy our caffeine for a moment. The day was overcast, which was nice, but the threat of rain made us a little nervous. My breakfast was tasty, but Tim’s coffee was terrible. It was some pre-mixed iced coffee junk and was way too sweet for us coffee snobs. After tossing that glycemic nightmare in the garbage, I was forced to share my warm addiction as we headed toward the bus stop to hitch a ride to Magic Kingdom.

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Here I will pause for a second to talk about our feelings towards the BoardWalk, considering this was our first experience staying there. Would we stay there again? Absolutely. The proximity to Epcot was too spectacular to say otherwise. The room was meh…we didn’t even take pictures of it, so that should say something. The tile was dated, the counters were laminate; it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything to brag about either. We have seen pictures of a recently updated two bedroom there, however, and it was gorgeous. If our studio had looked like that, we would have had a photoshoot in the room; hair and makeup and prom dresses, you name it. Fingers crossed that it’s in the plans to update all of the rooms like that soon.

The grounds and lobby of the resort were very nice and, of course, the BoardWalk itself is amazing. Our one hang-up is that it just isn’t convenient. Granted, we are admittedly spoiled in the convenience department, staying mostly at Bay Lake Tower and the Wilderness Lodge. Both are smaller, more compact DVC areas with covered walkways to both transportation and quick service restaurants. The BoardWalk is another story. I know that they are wanting to maintain the charm and feel of Atlantic City, but when you want to get a drink for your RapidFill mug, you have to walk all the way down to the BoardWalk Bakery, which isn’t even on one of the convenient corners of the lobby courtyard. The bakery is in the opposite direction of bus transportation and it is a mostly uncovered walk, so if it’s raining you better have your poncho! The resort is pretty spread out, so it’s a fair amount of walking, but this is neither here nor there to most. Once again, we are just spoiled.

The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem. Or is it having the desire to want to recover? Because if that’s the case, then there’s no hope for us…

Overall, on a scale of 1-10, we’d give it a We’d-Rather-Stay-At-Bay-Lake-Or-Wilderness-Lodge-But-Its-A-GREAT-Option-If-Your-Trip-Is-Going-To-Include-A-Lot-Of-Time-In-Epcot. No wonder the rooms are impossible to get during the Food & Wine and Flower & Garden!

Moving on, we arrived at Magic Kingdom with about thirty minutes to spare. We slowly wiggled our way up to the right-hand gate and ignored the Slink’n Slide since our kids weren’t with us. As gates opened, we stayed in step with Cast Members set to take us to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

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timelrod

Member
Original Poster
We quietly mocked those pushing and shoving like the Armageddon was quickly approaching, and made it towards the front of the line and quickly got seated on the back-end of the train. The last few cars are the best on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train! It’s almost a completely difference experience than the first few cars. Once we passed the cackling, haggard Evil Queen with her poisoned apple, we exited and moved on to other Fantasyland attractions. If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times: Even during the busy times, if you get there at park open, you can get so much done! Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Anna and Elsa, and Space Mountain pull all of the crowds away, enabling you to do so much with very little wait time for the good first hour to even two hours, sometimes!

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We headed to Frontierland after Fantasyland, giving ride-alongs and chatting occasionally with other Disney Periscopers {sidenote: every time someone from Brazil would join in with a, “Hi from Brazil!” Tim and I would both fight the urge to chant, “Brah-zil! Brah-zil! Brah-zil!” They love to do that in Disney, for some reason.} After a plunge down Splash Mountain, we decided a mid-morning snack would be nice. And what makes for a better mid-morning snack than french fries? I know! You can’t think of anything, right?! And also, FYI, Periscoping sucks up a lot of battery life!

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Next we spent some time in Tomorrowland {“Paging Mr. Morrow, Mr. Tom Morrow”} and, like Anna, for the first time in forever, Tim beat me on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. My gun must have been broken or something. Or he was asking all my tips and prime targets as we were going…

Bitter party of one? Oh yeah, that’s me.

On the way out of Magic Kingdom, Tim grabbed a legit iced coffee and I blew a kiss to my castle-away-home on our way down Main Street.

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timelrod

Member
Original Poster
We hopped the monorail and transferred at the Transportation Center for a ride back to Epcot. We had lunch reservations at Via Napoli that we didn’t want to miss!

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The first thing we did in Epcot was hop in the single-rider line for Test Track. Right as we were about to get through seatbelt check, we were stopped because of incliment weather. Luckily, they sent both of our cars through before the bottom let out. We waited out the hard rains in Mouse Gear, and once it let up a bit we tread water over into World Showcase and wasted time in Mexico.

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We had the best time in Mexico! We rode the Three Caballeros and then as we were getting off, a mariachi band started to play in front of San Angel Inn. We watched them for a moment, and just as we were about to step away to head towards Italy, the front-man called Tim out of the crowd. He acknowledged his birthday button and asked if they could sing him a traditional Mexican birthday celebration song, followed by Happy Birthday. Of course, Tim jumped at the chance! We were both all smiles, and Tim did not skip the chance for a mariachi Birthday selfie!

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Once that bit of Disney magic fizzled out, we tromped our way through accumulating puddles to Italy. We were hoping the rain would have let up by now, but instead, it was only letting us down. We made it to Via Napoli almost without event, as long as you don’t include the moment where Tim almost slipped and busted his butt outside of the restaurant! So scary.

Even in arriving super early for our reservation, we were seated somewhat quickly. We love Via Napoli. This was our fourth time dining there and we were looking forward to splitting a pizza to wait out the rains.

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This is my Minnie Mouse Bachelorette Pensive Pizza picture for all you fellow trash TV consumers. Imagine a voiceover of me saying something like, “I feel like the luckiest girl alive, but this journey is so much harder than I ever expected. I am truly here to find the perfect slice of pizza and I have confidence that my future dinner is in this room.”
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Now the picture above is basically the epitome of our experience. Empty plates. And not in the good way. Once again, we have never experienced this type of service at Via Napoli. We have always had the best wait staff here; so friendly, helpful, and conversational. Remember how I said in my last post that we had even had a waiter share with us the inauthentic menu items they provide?

Well, this time we had Anna Kendrick serving us {and that is meant as no disrespect. I should have gotten a picture of her, she seriously looked just like Anna Kendrick, only she possessed that thick Italian accent common to the pavilion}. She was sweet as can be, but something went wrong in communications with hot-mouthed ‘ol Vesuvio over there, and we waited forever for our pizza. Things got awkward and she acknowledged the wait and apologized and said our pizza should be coming right out. It did. It was wrong. It was sent back and then we waited even longer than the first time for the second one! If it hadn’t of been raining, we might have been upset, but surprisingly we were pretty serene. Finally, it came and Anna {no that wasn’t really her name, I’m just calling her that} informed us that our whole meal was comped because of the inconvenience!

Well okay then!

We braved a little more time {and Tim a second chocolate croissant from France} before heading back to the resort to pick up our bag and head to the airport. The rain never did let up all the way, even as we boarded the Magical Express for the second time in twenty-four hours.

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These were our sad faces, not only because we were leaving, but because that ride back to the airport made both of us so motion sick! Bleh!

Unfortunately, our plane was delayed by a whopping two and a half hours! Tim was pretty stressed out, seeing as how he had to be at work the next morning at 6:30am! We made it home though, safe and sound, knowing that in just a few short hours it would be back to reality as his iPhone alarm woke him and three little toddler alarms woke me.

It seriously took us two good nights of sleep to catch up on what was lost during his birthday celebrations, but it was so worth it. Spending time with the man that makes me incandescently happy at the Happiest Place on Earth is a beautiful thing. I am truly grateful that we get to live such a wonderful life.

“I wish I had a million dollars. HOT DOG!”

P.S. See. That random It’s A Wonderful Life quote at the end is the perfect example of my late night brain wanderings. You’re welcome. Maybe, “George Bailey, I’ll love you ’til the day I die!” would have been more appropriate…I’ll let you decide.
 

timelrod

Member
Original Poster
Thanks for reading along! We actually leave 3 weeks from tomorrow to head back down to the best place on earth. This is time our kids and my mom will be with us, as well as our in-laws. Should be a rip roaring good time (hopefully). :happy:

This time we will be staying at our home resort, the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge. Maybe I can talk Mal into writing up a trip report for this one as well.
 

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