Trip Report Double Double Dip Trip June 2017 (Completed!)

Hello all and welcome to my trip report. My husband, Brad, and I just got back from a WDW trip and a Disney cruise on the Dream. Why am I calling it a double double dip? Well, we checked in and out of WDW twice, our cruise was a double dip (2 stops at Castaway Cay), and we had 2 birthdays to celebrate. So sit back and relax and enjoy my trip report.

Dates of vacation: June 18 to July 1

Resort: Pop Century (both times)

Cruise: Disney Dream

Travelers: Me (Amy) and my husband (Brad)

I'm tagging a few people that have followed my past reports. If I missed you, sorry, but please follow anyway. If you are new, welcome. And if I tagged you and you don't want to read, no problem!

@figmentfan423 @MinnieM123 @Cesar R M @donaldtoo @MySmallWorldof4 @MOXOMUMD @JenniferS @PacNWTigger @Tuvalu @Gabe1 @betty rose @Songbird76 @sheriffwoody @bee @blgauger @BuddyThomas @fractal @93boomer @MouseDreaming @Wrangler-Rick @PUSH @Mr Ferret 88 @amjt660 @Minnesota disney fan


June 18: Our first day of vacation was not a Disney day. We live near Minneapolis (about 1 hour 15 min from the airport) and we decided to spend the night before at a hotel so we didn't have to get up so early. When my husband got home from work around noon we headed over to Minneapolis and went to one of our favorite spots, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. We go here a lot and I was hoping to catch the peonies in full bloom but we missed the full bloom by about 4 days. That was disappointing as it is my favorite flower, but there were still some peonies and the roses were blooming nicely. We had a nice time walking around, and a local symphony was giving a concert so we listened to that for a bit. Hubby was pleased when they played a Star Wars medley. So here are some pictures.

The peony walk, as you can see not in full bloom.

Some of the roses.

The Arboretum often has changing botanical displays and so for these might be my favorite. It is a kaleidoscope and the bowl with the flowers spins, it is fun to look through.

After the Arboretum we headed to the Mall of America and did the Flying over America attraction since I had a 50% coupon. It is a take on Disney's Soarin. We had done the America version here before and they were running a limited showing of Flying over Canada so we opted for that. It was fine but no Disney. Although the seats at the Mall of America version are more comfortable.

Dinner that night was a the Hard Rock Cafe, we hadn't eaten at a Hard Rock in years. Neither of us could make a decision about where to eat so we settled on this since it was a few steps away from the exit of Flying over America. Now when I say settled, that soon changed when we started eating our burgers, hubs got a special Memphis burger and I had a Guinness burger. We both had herbed fries. And the meal was fantastic. Sorry no food pics of this, perhaps on another visit.

 

[DryerLintFan]

In the Netherlands, you would just share the table. It's completely common for people to approach a table that is not full and ask to sit down in the extra chairs. Not in a sit down type restaurant where you are seated by a host, but in a cafe or something like that, absolutely. That took some getting used to when I moved here...sitting with total strangers because there's a lack of tables. Had I been Brad, I probably would have just put my plate down and sat, but I would have mentioned we weren't using the rest of the table and they were welcome to share with us as it was really crowded. But I wouldn't have done that 15 years ago before moving here.

We do this too, especially in crowded locations. I think in that scenario with the crowded cantina and the folks grabbing tables without food, my bet would be that they had family in line that they needed room for though. So even if there were two open chairs at their table, they might have needed them for the other members of their party.

I've been wondering how the spas were on property. Maybe I'll check them out sometime. The thing is I don't want to be even gently offered products. If I want to buy something I will ask for it. But it is good to know that the Mandara spa has a soft sales approach.

Agreed!! Don't sell me anything. I hate the sales pitch that comes with massages and hair cuts.

 

[DryerLintFan]

I told him about all of you people who have agreed with me and he still claims it was a tie. He knows I stink at sports and he is good at golf so the couple times I have beaten him at mini-golf he hates it. I don't think he will ever concede defeat to this.

The male ego is a funny thing. My husband won't play Words With Friends with me ever again because I beat him by 300 points

 

[MouseDreaming]

I told him about all of you people who have agreed with me and he still claims it was a tie. He knows I stink at sports and he is good at golf so the couple times I have beaten him at mini-golf he hates it. I don't think he will ever concede defeat to this.

The important thing is you both can get a chuckle out of it.

Spoiler: Look at this while Brad has a rum and Coke

And know who truly won.

 

[DryerLintFan]

After lunch we watched Muppets and then moved on to our next fast pass at Toy Story.

This reminds me of a great parenting moment we saw on our way over to PizzaRizzo. So here's the story: we were walking past the Chinese Theater by the bathrooms and in the direction of Star Tours/Muppets, when the music starts to play for the March of the First Order (or the parade of the Storm troopers as I call it). Anyway, this dad and his little girl (probably about 5-6 years old) are walking in the opposite direction. The music starts and the guy grabs the little girl's hand and starts to run saying "hurry up we gotta see them" (the storm troopers weren't even visible or even close to that area yet only the music is playing). Then the little girl stumbles but the dad doesn't slow down, and is dragging this girl on the ground for about probably a good 15-20 feet and finally her cries reach his ears and he realized she was dragging on the ground. By now her knees are bleeding and she is rightfully sobbing, all so this grown man could watch Storm troopers. It made me so angry. I know he didn't do it on purpose, but geez buddy the world wasn't going to end if you didn't get a first row look at the Storm troopers that weren't even close to that area yet. Hubs and I just watched in horror, it was like it was slow motion. I felt so bad for that little girl, now her day was ruined and would be in pain for days because of her dad. I wanted to go tell the guy how stupid he was to run for something like that and that she deserved at least a nice ice cream treat, but he did look very concerned about his daughter and was doing a nice job of comforting her. I just hope he realizes how stupid he was.


Then we rode Toy Story. I won again, someone was a little upset and was "yelling" at me to tell him my secrets. Not really yelling but forcefully asking.
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I saw this cute little scene near the little shop area.
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And looked at this area and thought about how it would be a lot different next year at this time.
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We went into One Man's Dream to enjoy the AC, kill some time before our next fast pass, and for me enjoy the old Disney artifacts.
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I found a picture of Flynn to admire. Brad caught me in the act. #cartoonboyfriend
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We still had some more time to kill and the line for Starlord and Baby Groot was about 20 minutes so that was the perfect amount of time. I really didn't care about meeting Starlord, well unless it would have really been Chris Pratt then that would have been different ., but I loved Baby Groot in Guardians Vol. 2. I love that he is so cute, and I just love it when Baby Groot dances! We have similar moves. I would have been just fine with just us and Baby Groot in the picture, but it seemed rude to ask Star Lord to step out of the way. So I let him be in the picture too.
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Talking to Baby Groot
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And Baby Groot! I AM GROOT! I am Groot? I am Groot.
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I don't think it was stupid to run for the Storm Trooper parade or whatever, because lord knows getting to shows at the right time is difficult. That said..... he should have picked the little girl up and ran with her in his arms if it was that important to him. This whole scenario sounds horrifying.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Ok, time to finish up the report. Today was our last day but our flight wasn't until 8pm (got delayed until 9 later in the day. Why? Who knows there didn't seem to be weather issues). Anyway, we had lots of time to still play today.

This brings me to the question that hubs and I have gotten asked by people....Is it better to go on the cruise first and then Disney or do Disney and then cruise? Let me tell you, the crowds weren't any worse than before we went on the cruise and the weather was about the same, but going to the Disney parks after the cruise is just exhausting! On the cruise mellowed and relaxed that it was just difficult to get back into park "go" mode. So we took it easy these two days after the cruise, but we would say do most of the Disney parks days before a cruise.

Anyway, our last day to play and we both start the day with Mickey waffles. A kids meal for us, what you don't see is that the cast member gave us both sausage and bacon (two of each) even though we only asked for bacon. But we just went with it, and the cast member at the register didn't end up charging us for extra meat. Deal!

Ready at the bus stop.

And our day to play was at the beautiful Magic Kingdom!

We were there an hour before park opening. I do miss the show in front of the train station but it is really nice to wander around Main Street in the morning too. I sat on a bench for a little while by City Hall, it was a lovely bench.

And I enjoyed the view for awhile. I really do miss the benches in the hub of the MK.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Our first stop today was going to be Big Thunder and ride that a few times, but we had to wait. So we waited over by the Advertureland bridge and there is a stone bench around a tree that we were lucky enough to sit on (and in some shade). I killed some of the waiting time taking pictures, hubs played games on his phone.

Once the park opened we had a nice guided walk to Big Thunder Mountain and rode it about 4 times before moving on. Next stop, Pirates. The removal of the Redhead scene had just been announced and we wanted to see it.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I don't think it was stupid to run for the Storm Trooper parade or whatever, because lord knows getting to shows at the right time is difficult. That said..... he should have picked the little girl up and ran with her in his arms if it was that important to him. This whole scenario sounds horrifying.

Perhaps he was not a frequent guest to the parks and didn't realize that he had plenty of time to walk the short distance from the bathroom area to where the Storm troopers would eventually be. Maybe he didn't know there were other times he could watch them. And didn't know they weren't close by yet, but I don't think that is an excuse to run in the park. This guy broke into a full out sprint too, so it wasn't a little jog/walk. Running in areas where there are crowds of people, motorized scooters, and strollers isn't a good idea. It can be dangerous to many people, and ended up injuring his daughter. Disney, in their opening announcements, asks people to walk to their destination. I've seen cast members ask people to stop running, it isn't something that shouldn't be encouraged in the parks. Sorry, but it is foolish.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Our first fast pass was 7D and towards the end we got stopped for a minute, so picture time! This was not one of our regularly scheduled fast passes, but our freebie from Big Thunder going down last night.

I rode the teacups! Got my favorite green one! You can see hubs over to the side, patiently waiting for me to have my spin.

We did Buzz with a fast pass and then the best attraction in Tomorrowland...

We got stopped in the Space Mountain tunnel. Not much to see here.

Then continued to see a show.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Next up was our Big Thunder fast pass and then lunch at the Columbia Harbour House. My intent there was to sit upstairs by one of the windows, but there were a lot of tables free downstairs when we got our food and neither of us felt like walking upstairs (post-cruise laziness!)

We both got the chicken nugget platter. No fish ever for me, and hubs thought about chicken and fish but just went the chicken route in the end. He gets picky about battered/breaded fish he likes fish grilled or baked without breading so he was afraid (chicken perhaps) that he wouldn't like it.

We hadn't seen Philharmagic yet so that was our next destination after lunch. Then it was time to use our fast pass for Peter Pan. And Fantasyland was getting busy!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

The Peter Pan fast pass line was a bit of a slow pass, we were in line for about 20 minutes. Not much to see but I took a few pictures.

I don't remember much of what else we did that afternoon, maybe Jungle Cruise and Peoplemover again. I do know that we went to see the Dapper Dans on Main Street but we never found them. And believe me Brad looked all around Main Street and had me camped out on one end by the Emporium so I could see inside and see the Fire station. It was disappointing.

We consoled ourselves with a trip to Frontierland via train. We split up for snacks, with our meeting point being the stone bench by Adventureland that we were on this morning, then we would have to head out to go back to the Pop to catch the ME. He went for popcorn and I went to get a citrus swirl. I was really happy when I saw there wasn't a line for a citrus swirl! Then as I ordered my swirl the cm said that their ice cream machine was down and I couldn't have my swirl! Sure enough they were cleaning the machine. Maybe they should get another machine! Anyway, I walked into the hub, dismissing the idea of going further into Adventureland for a Dole Whip and I settled for a Mickey Premium bar.

I got to the meeting area before Brad and enjoyed my second choice snack.

We headed back to the Pop and waited for the Magical Express. By the time it arrived there was a light rain. So even Florida was crying that we had to leave.

So back to the airport we went. There was a big crash on the road back to the airport and our bus got detoured so it took a little longer than usual. But we arrived still in plenty of time, and our flight ended up delayed. At the airport as we waited in our security line our tablemate from the cruise spotted us in line and came to say hello. We chatted for a bit about our post cruise days, and said see ya real soon, because we would be seeing her in California in a couple weeks. The fight went fine and we arrived home later than expected but safe. It had been an excellent Double Double Dip trip!

So that's it folks! At least for this trip. A few weeks after this we headed to California and the D23 Expo, so I'll start that report soon. But thanks for following along and all the feedback! You folks are the BEST!

 

[DryerLintFan]

Loved this trip report!! Thank you for sharing!! Sad that on your last snack there you could not get the snack you wanted, though! You and Brad seem to travel really well together, too!!

 

[DryerLintFan]

I am curious though.... why didn't you get off the boat at Nassau?

 

[MouseDreaming]

We were there an hour before park opening. I do miss the show in front of the train station but it is really nice to wander around Main Street in the morning too. I sat on a bench for a little while by City Hall, it was a lovely bench.
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Oh, you have found the Holy Grail! A bench that is shaded!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I am curious though.... why didn't you get off the boat at Nassau?

We didn't get off the boat in Nassau because we had been into the town on a previous cruise, we had walked around town and up to an old fort. While it was interesting there wasn't much else we wanted to do there. Any beach stuff was done at Castaway Cay. Neither one of us felt like going through the gauntlet of all the vendors and hawkers at the port either. So we decided to stay on the ship and enjoy that.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Loved this trip report!! Thank you for sharing!! Sad that on your last snack there you could not get the snack you wanted, though! You and Brad seem to travel really well together, too!!

Thanks! We do travel well together which I'm grateful for. Many of my friends husband's & wives have some different ideas of how to travel and tour but we basically agree on most things and are willing to compromise. Fights and disagreements between us are few and far between even at home.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Oh, you have found the Holy Grail! A bench that is shaded!

I know, don't tell Disney they might remove it!

 

[susan lees]

The Peter Pan fast pass line was a bit of a slow pass, we were in line for about 20 minutes. Not much to see but I took a few pictures.
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I don't remember much of what else we did that afternoon, maybe Jungle Cruise and Peoplemover again. I do know that we went to see the Dapper Dans on Main Street but we never found them. And believe me Brad looked all around Main Street and had me camped out on one end by the Emporium so I could see inside and see the Fire station. It was disappointing.
View attachment 223066

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We consoled ourselves with a trip to Frontierland via train. We split up for snacks, with our meeting point being the stone bench by Adventureland that we were on this morning, then we would have to head out to go back to the Pop to catch the ME. He went for popcorn and I went to get a citrus swirl. I was really happy when I saw there wasn't a line for a citrus swirl! Then as I ordered my swirl the cm said that their ice cream machine was down and I couldn't have my swirl! Sure enough they were cleaning the machine. Maybe they should get another machine! Anyway, I walked into the hub, dismissing the idea of going further into Adventureland for a Dole Whip and I settled for a Mickey Premium bar.

I got to the meeting area before Brad and enjoyed my second choice snack.
View attachment 223068

We headed back to the Pop and waited for the Magical Express. By the time it arrived there was a light rain. So even Florida was crying that we had to leave.
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So back to the airport we went. There was a big crash on the road back to the airport and our bus got detoured so it took a little longer than usual. But we arrived still in plenty of time, and our flight ended up delayed. At the airport as we waited in our security line our tablemate from the cruise spotted us in line and came to say hello. We chatted for a bit about our post cruise days, and said see ya real soon, because we would be seeing her in California in a couple weeks. The fight went fine and we arrived home later than expected but safe. It had been an excellent Double Double Dip trip!

So that's it folks! At least for this trip. A few weeks after this we headed to California and the D23 Expo, so I'll start that report soon. But thanks for following along and all the feedback! You folks are the BEST!

Great report thanks. Looking forward to hearing about California

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

At the airport as we waited in our security line our tablemate from the cruise spotted us in line and came to say hello. We chatted for a bit about our post cruise days, and said see ya real soon, because we would be seeing her in California in a couple weeks.

That's cool that you saw your tablemate again. We have also meet up with tablemates of ours from a previous cruise and may do so again next month.

 

[PacNWTigger]

Another awesome trip in the bag! Looking forward to hearing more about your D23 experience!

 

[rshell68]

So that's it folks! At least for this trip. A few weeks after this we headed to California and the D23 Expo, so I'll start that report soon. But thanks for following along and all the feedback! You folks are the BEST![/QUOTE]

YAY! I was hoping we'd hear about your D23 experience!!