I have been to WDW before, but this was my first experience staying on property and this is my first time posting a trip report. Prior to this trip (and with the exception of my very first visit as a pre-teen in 1987), I had always stayed in the same Super 8 motel on Vine Street in Kissimmee. I stayed there with some friends the first time, just to spend as little as possible on the room so as to have more money to spend in Florida. Being the sentimental person that I am, I thought it would be cool to stay in the same motel on our honeymoon in 2003, again, with the thinking that we won't be in the room much anyway, so why pay more for the room when I could save that money to use on activities. So, the wife and I stayed at that same motel the next two times that we went to Florida. However, this time, we wanted to try the full WDW Resort experience, so we booked a room at Port Orleans Riverside. And, despite all the complaining that I will do at various times in this trip report, overall I had a very good time and totally hope to return and do it again next year. And, I found out that the saying is true that "once you stay on property, you never go back". I had originally planned on going back to Kissimmee next year and staying in the ol' Super 8 again, so as to save money and do Sea World, Bush Gardens and Universal again as well as a couple days at Disney. But now I think I want to stay on property again! Anyway, we bought 10 day parkhopper passes with no expiration, with the intent of only using 6 days and thereby coming home with 4 unused days to use later. But, as I will explain later, we only used 5 days, so now I have a 5 day, prepaid parkhopper to use next year, or whenever it is we may go next! :sohappy: Anyway, enough with the introductory stuff and on with the trip report!
Sunday April 22
Got up at 4 AM to get ready for our big road trip. We got the baby to the wife's parents', while I had to run up to Walmart real quick to get a can of formula, as that can wouldn't have lasted throughout the day, let alone the whole week. That gave the wife a chance to say her goodbyes to him while I was at Walmart. We left about 6:30 AM (Central Standard Time), right on schedule. Surprisingly, my wife did very well and didn't cry at all about leaving the baby for a week. Driving through south through Southern Illinois, we saw traffic majorly backed up in the Northbound lane and I wondered if that pleasant situation would still be awaiting me on our return back home. It was. :brick: I'll get back to that later. Drove through Kentucky and Tennessee and Georgia, and finally stopped at around 10:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time) in a town just over the Florida State line. Got a motel room for the night and picked up the final few hours the next morning.
Monday April 23
Checked into Port Orleans, Riverside around 10 or 10:30 or so. Beautiful Resort. We both loved it. Room wasn't ready, nor had I expected it to be, since check in isn't until 3 PM. I got our key to the world cards and we went about checking out our resort. We went into the gift shop and bought some souveniers right off the bat, including a lanyard for myself, a Port Orleans Riverside pin, and a box of cheap, starter pins. I traded on pin with a woman in the gift shop that day, then decided that of the remaining six pins, I would trade one per day until Sunday, which was our last full day there. We then walked over to French Quarter and looked around. We both liked ours better, although the wife didn't really care for FQ at all, whereas I still thought it was nice. We got lunch in the Food Court at FQ. We ran into Kissimmee to get some sparkling grape juice at the same Walmart where it is our tradition to visit on every trip. The wife wanted to drink sparkling grape juice in the gazeebo right outside of our mansion that night. We went back to WDW property and drove by Pop Century, but neither of us were impressed enough to explore further by getting out of the van. So we just looked as we drove by and commented how there is really nothing to do outside except walk through the parking lot. Neither of us cared much for it, but then again, that's why it's a "value" resort: you get what you pay for and if you want the pretty atmosphere, you pay for it by staying at a higher priced resort. We drove into Coronado Springs and stopped and got out of the van to look around. We both liked it. I really wouldn't mind staying there sometime, although I really loved POR and would just as soon stay there again. I called to check on the room again and it still wasn't ready. So we concluded that they probably don't tell you it's ready until 3 PM...which is about when they did tell me it is ready. We got to our room and unpacked and really liked the grounds and our room.
We went to the Contemporary Resort for a 6 PM ADR at Chef Mickey's. We got there a little bit early so we could ride the monorail and look around the resort a little. My wife totally didn't like the resort. She thought it was ugly and tacky. I didn't completely agree, but I do think that it is kind of bland. But yet, sort of cool looking, too. It would be one of my last picks based on atmosphere and theming, but it's close proximity and easy access to MK definitely earns it some points. We really enjoyed Chef Mickey's. Good food and good atmosphere, and we got some pictures of each other with some characters. After supper, we went to Kissimmee to play mini-golf at Pirates Island, where we always play when we come to Florida. Had a good time as always.
I had originally planned to take my wife to the Poly to watch Wishes at 10, but she seemed to prefer to spend the evening at our own resort instead. Since the whole point was to do something I thought she would find romantic, I figured we may as well do what she wants to do, so we went back to the grounds and spend the rest of the evening at POR, and we drank that Sparkling grape juice in the gazeebo. We also took the boat ride to Downtown Disney, although we did not look around. The wife didn't care to go to Downtown Disney, so all we did was get off the boat (since we were told it was one way only at that time of evening) and then get right back on the next boat to head back to Riverside. We did not enter any theme parks that day.
Tuesday April 24
It was morning EMH day at Epcot, so we went there at 8 AM or so and spent the entire day, finishing with Illuminations. Did several "firsts" that day. Prior to this visit, we had never done the China Movie, the American Adventure, O Canada, The Circle of Life or Journey into Imagination. Also, it was our first time back since 2005, so it was our first time doing "The Seas with Nemo", the new Grand Fiesta in Mexico and the new version of "Living with the Land" with the automated spiel. For reasons I will explain in a minute, we missed out on O Canada and the Circle of Life on Tuesday's visit. I never even new that Journey into Imagination was a ride. I was expecting a movie or a walkthrough thing, but was surprised to see that it was a ride and that I had totally missed it all these times. I guess I've been in too much of a hurry in the past, perhaps in part because of the limited time I have had in the Disney parks, as opposed to the whole week on property that I had this time. Anyway, there are a couple reasons we didn't get all these things done on that day. One reason was that I was trying to go at a slower pace, allowing us both (especially my wife) to enjoy it a little more, instead of my usual pace of "dragging her around" as my wife says, and wearing her out. Secondly, I have noticed that I have seen this guy named Art Lark on TV (in the Samantha Brown Great Hotels show), as well as in a couple of publications, so I thought it would be neat to go meet him in person. On the Great Hotels episode where Samantha visits the Yacht and Beach Club, she meets Art at the lobby and they discuss pin trading. So, I thought it would be awesome to walk over there and meet him and trade a pin. My wife griped at me the whole way over there about me dragging her over there, and told me that he'd better be on duty that day, or she's just gonna sit there for an hour and rest and make me wait for her. :lol: Well, fortunately for me, Art was on duty. I was thrilled to be able to meet him in person, so I went up to him and introduced myself and shook hands, and I told him how I had seen him on TV and had wanted to meet him. He was such a wonderful, nice man, and he told me that he felt very blessed to know that I made a point to come over and meet him. I traded a pin with him, and the pin I got from him was shaped like a book and said "Illuminations" on it, with 6 little "stamps" on it. The next day, at Animal Kingdom, a cast member told me that that pin is actually worth a lot of money. Maybe, maybe not, but it's worth alot to me, just knowing that everytime I watch that episode and see Art, I'll know that I met him in person and got a pin from him. So, we weren't able to do everything in Epcot that day, but that didn't bother me since I knew we would be back for supper a couple times that week.
We did Grand Fiesta twice that day. It was okay, but I still miss El Rio. We did Maelstrom twice, and in one of our waits in line for that ride, we actually met a poster from this message board. I was wearing one of my wdwmagic.com shirts and he happened to be standing right by us in line and he approached me about it. He said his screen name is some abbreviated version of "breaking news". We talked for a while in line, then he got on the boatload before our group. We waved as he sailed off, then he was still there waiting for the doors to open when we got off our boat. We sat down for the movie, and he walked out the door, and the last time we saw him was in the Norway gift shops. We had a nice visit in line and he seemed like a nice guy.
The new Nemo ride was okay, but being the purist that I tend to be, I wish they would have just left it the heck alone. I miss the Living Seas, but I guess all I can do is just roll with the changes.
We ate supper at Alfredo's in Italy. I wasn't impressed but the wife loved it. My food was good, mind you. I was just dissappointed in a couple of things. For one, they were out of the Calamari Appetizer, so that gave me a bad impression right off the bat. Secondly, I ordered the "wild boar" main course that was supposed to come with Italian Sausages (note the plural there). Now, in my mind, since wild boar is basically a wild pig, when I picture a wild boar main course in my mind, I'm thinking of a big pork roast thing with some italian sausages on the side. Imagine my surprise, when my plate comes out and all there is are two sausages. One bigger than the other. I asked if that was the wild boar and he said it was. I could only conclude that the bigger sausage was the wild boar and the smaller one was the Italian sausage. But, according to the menu, the wild boar was supposed to be accompanied by the plural of Italian Sausage, which means that if one of the sausages was the wild boar, then there should have been two sausages on the side, for a total of three. Either that, or they gave me the sausages and forgot to give me the wild boar. Either way, I did not leave with a favorable impression of this restaraunt, despite the fact that everything tasted fine. But I like the taste of catfish, too, but I would still be dissapointed if I ordered a New York Strip steak and instead got a plate of catfish. We stood in line forever at the bus station to go back to POR. I think everyone that visits Epcot must be from POR, because there were hardly any lines for the other resorts. However, we got to visiting with the couple in front of us, and chatted with them all the way back to property, although it was sometimes hard to hear with the squalling little demon girl a seat or two back, screaming bloody murder all the way from Epcot to Port Orleans. We got off at French Quarter, partly because I wanted to enjoy the pretty walk, and partly because I didn't want to have to listen to demon girl squalling in my ear any longer.
Well, this trip report thing is taking longer than I thought, as I am just now finishing my first full day there. I'm going to take a break and continue in a little while. See ya'll then!
Sunday April 22
Got up at 4 AM to get ready for our big road trip. We got the baby to the wife's parents', while I had to run up to Walmart real quick to get a can of formula, as that can wouldn't have lasted throughout the day, let alone the whole week. That gave the wife a chance to say her goodbyes to him while I was at Walmart. We left about 6:30 AM (Central Standard Time), right on schedule. Surprisingly, my wife did very well and didn't cry at all about leaving the baby for a week. Driving through south through Southern Illinois, we saw traffic majorly backed up in the Northbound lane and I wondered if that pleasant situation would still be awaiting me on our return back home. It was. :brick: I'll get back to that later. Drove through Kentucky and Tennessee and Georgia, and finally stopped at around 10:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time) in a town just over the Florida State line. Got a motel room for the night and picked up the final few hours the next morning.
Monday April 23
Checked into Port Orleans, Riverside around 10 or 10:30 or so. Beautiful Resort. We both loved it. Room wasn't ready, nor had I expected it to be, since check in isn't until 3 PM. I got our key to the world cards and we went about checking out our resort. We went into the gift shop and bought some souveniers right off the bat, including a lanyard for myself, a Port Orleans Riverside pin, and a box of cheap, starter pins. I traded on pin with a woman in the gift shop that day, then decided that of the remaining six pins, I would trade one per day until Sunday, which was our last full day there. We then walked over to French Quarter and looked around. We both liked ours better, although the wife didn't really care for FQ at all, whereas I still thought it was nice. We got lunch in the Food Court at FQ. We ran into Kissimmee to get some sparkling grape juice at the same Walmart where it is our tradition to visit on every trip. The wife wanted to drink sparkling grape juice in the gazeebo right outside of our mansion that night. We went back to WDW property and drove by Pop Century, but neither of us were impressed enough to explore further by getting out of the van. So we just looked as we drove by and commented how there is really nothing to do outside except walk through the parking lot. Neither of us cared much for it, but then again, that's why it's a "value" resort: you get what you pay for and if you want the pretty atmosphere, you pay for it by staying at a higher priced resort. We drove into Coronado Springs and stopped and got out of the van to look around. We both liked it. I really wouldn't mind staying there sometime, although I really loved POR and would just as soon stay there again. I called to check on the room again and it still wasn't ready. So we concluded that they probably don't tell you it's ready until 3 PM...which is about when they did tell me it is ready. We got to our room and unpacked and really liked the grounds and our room.
We went to the Contemporary Resort for a 6 PM ADR at Chef Mickey's. We got there a little bit early so we could ride the monorail and look around the resort a little. My wife totally didn't like the resort. She thought it was ugly and tacky. I didn't completely agree, but I do think that it is kind of bland. But yet, sort of cool looking, too. It would be one of my last picks based on atmosphere and theming, but it's close proximity and easy access to MK definitely earns it some points. We really enjoyed Chef Mickey's. Good food and good atmosphere, and we got some pictures of each other with some characters. After supper, we went to Kissimmee to play mini-golf at Pirates Island, where we always play when we come to Florida. Had a good time as always.
I had originally planned to take my wife to the Poly to watch Wishes at 10, but she seemed to prefer to spend the evening at our own resort instead. Since the whole point was to do something I thought she would find romantic, I figured we may as well do what she wants to do, so we went back to the grounds and spend the rest of the evening at POR, and we drank that Sparkling grape juice in the gazeebo. We also took the boat ride to Downtown Disney, although we did not look around. The wife didn't care to go to Downtown Disney, so all we did was get off the boat (since we were told it was one way only at that time of evening) and then get right back on the next boat to head back to Riverside. We did not enter any theme parks that day.
Tuesday April 24
It was morning EMH day at Epcot, so we went there at 8 AM or so and spent the entire day, finishing with Illuminations. Did several "firsts" that day. Prior to this visit, we had never done the China Movie, the American Adventure, O Canada, The Circle of Life or Journey into Imagination. Also, it was our first time back since 2005, so it was our first time doing "The Seas with Nemo", the new Grand Fiesta in Mexico and the new version of "Living with the Land" with the automated spiel. For reasons I will explain in a minute, we missed out on O Canada and the Circle of Life on Tuesday's visit. I never even new that Journey into Imagination was a ride. I was expecting a movie or a walkthrough thing, but was surprised to see that it was a ride and that I had totally missed it all these times. I guess I've been in too much of a hurry in the past, perhaps in part because of the limited time I have had in the Disney parks, as opposed to the whole week on property that I had this time. Anyway, there are a couple reasons we didn't get all these things done on that day. One reason was that I was trying to go at a slower pace, allowing us both (especially my wife) to enjoy it a little more, instead of my usual pace of "dragging her around" as my wife says, and wearing her out. Secondly, I have noticed that I have seen this guy named Art Lark on TV (in the Samantha Brown Great Hotels show), as well as in a couple of publications, so I thought it would be neat to go meet him in person. On the Great Hotels episode where Samantha visits the Yacht and Beach Club, she meets Art at the lobby and they discuss pin trading. So, I thought it would be awesome to walk over there and meet him and trade a pin. My wife griped at me the whole way over there about me dragging her over there, and told me that he'd better be on duty that day, or she's just gonna sit there for an hour and rest and make me wait for her. :lol: Well, fortunately for me, Art was on duty. I was thrilled to be able to meet him in person, so I went up to him and introduced myself and shook hands, and I told him how I had seen him on TV and had wanted to meet him. He was such a wonderful, nice man, and he told me that he felt very blessed to know that I made a point to come over and meet him. I traded a pin with him, and the pin I got from him was shaped like a book and said "Illuminations" on it, with 6 little "stamps" on it. The next day, at Animal Kingdom, a cast member told me that that pin is actually worth a lot of money. Maybe, maybe not, but it's worth alot to me, just knowing that everytime I watch that episode and see Art, I'll know that I met him in person and got a pin from him. So, we weren't able to do everything in Epcot that day, but that didn't bother me since I knew we would be back for supper a couple times that week.
We did Grand Fiesta twice that day. It was okay, but I still miss El Rio. We did Maelstrom twice, and in one of our waits in line for that ride, we actually met a poster from this message board. I was wearing one of my wdwmagic.com shirts and he happened to be standing right by us in line and he approached me about it. He said his screen name is some abbreviated version of "breaking news". We talked for a while in line, then he got on the boatload before our group. We waved as he sailed off, then he was still there waiting for the doors to open when we got off our boat. We sat down for the movie, and he walked out the door, and the last time we saw him was in the Norway gift shops. We had a nice visit in line and he seemed like a nice guy.
The new Nemo ride was okay, but being the purist that I tend to be, I wish they would have just left it the heck alone. I miss the Living Seas, but I guess all I can do is just roll with the changes.
We ate supper at Alfredo's in Italy. I wasn't impressed but the wife loved it. My food was good, mind you. I was just dissappointed in a couple of things. For one, they were out of the Calamari Appetizer, so that gave me a bad impression right off the bat. Secondly, I ordered the "wild boar" main course that was supposed to come with Italian Sausages (note the plural there). Now, in my mind, since wild boar is basically a wild pig, when I picture a wild boar main course in my mind, I'm thinking of a big pork roast thing with some italian sausages on the side. Imagine my surprise, when my plate comes out and all there is are two sausages. One bigger than the other. I asked if that was the wild boar and he said it was. I could only conclude that the bigger sausage was the wild boar and the smaller one was the Italian sausage. But, according to the menu, the wild boar was supposed to be accompanied by the plural of Italian Sausage, which means that if one of the sausages was the wild boar, then there should have been two sausages on the side, for a total of three. Either that, or they gave me the sausages and forgot to give me the wild boar. Either way, I did not leave with a favorable impression of this restaraunt, despite the fact that everything tasted fine. But I like the taste of catfish, too, but I would still be dissapointed if I ordered a New York Strip steak and instead got a plate of catfish. We stood in line forever at the bus station to go back to POR. I think everyone that visits Epcot must be from POR, because there were hardly any lines for the other resorts. However, we got to visiting with the couple in front of us, and chatted with them all the way back to property, although it was sometimes hard to hear with the squalling little demon girl a seat or two back, screaming bloody murder all the way from Epcot to Port Orleans. We got off at French Quarter, partly because I wanted to enjoy the pretty walk, and partly because I didn't want to have to listen to demon girl squalling in my ear any longer.
Well, this trip report thing is taking longer than I thought, as I am just now finishing my first full day there. I'm going to take a break and continue in a little while. See ya'll then!
We also did Country Bear Jamboree for the first time, and probably the last time as well. I know alot of you swear by it and so does a lady at work who highly recommended it, but we thought it was just plain dumb and much ado about nothing. About all the good I saw in it was a cool, dark place to come in and sit out of the hot sun for a while, but that was about it. We ate lunch at Pecos Bills Cafe, as always.
