Trip Report Getting the Most Out of Our APs...or True Dedication: 2 Solo-ish Weekend Trips in a Row! COMPLETED

Hi everybody!! This trip report will be a little different for us, well, me. I had the opportunity (?) To drive myself 7 hours each way from North GA to WDW for two weekends in a row, just getting back tonight from the second.

Since DH (Mrhappyplace) and I became AP holders in December, we have been in planning overdrive!! We have a week-long trip in May planned, and now (spoiler alert) booked the bounceback offer this weekend for a 4 day trip in September. Definitely trying to get our money's worth!

My sister Chrissy, her husband, and my 6- and 4-year-old nephews were spending a week in WDW (they are there until this Wednesday), so DH suggested that I should go down for the weekend to surprise the boys. This sounded like a great idea, so my agent was able to book me a Disney Visa preferred room at All Star Movies, which was great because I wanted to do it on the cheap as much as I could. Fantastic!

Then, about a month ago, my best friend, whom I haven't seen in almost 3 years, texted me, telling me that she had a work trip to Orlando coming up, and to see if I wanted to join her for a weekend trip? Her name is Penny, and she is the person that created this beast. Penny took me to Disney for the first time ever back in 2001. Now, as we like to joke, the student has surpassed the master...but could I drive 14 hours round trip, 2 weekends in a row to demonstrate my Disney love??!!

Stay tuned!! I will continue tomorrow night...

 

[amjt660]

Hi everybody!! This trip report will be a little different for us, well, me. I had the opportunity (?) To drive myself 7 hours each way from North GA to WDW for two weekends in a row, just getting back tonight from the second.

Since DH (Mrhappyplace) and I became AP holders in December, we have been in planning overdrive!! We have a week-long trip in May planned, and now (spoiler alert) booked the bounceback offer this weekend for a 4 day trip in September. Definitely trying to get our money's worth!

My sister Chrissy, her husband, and my 6- and 4-year-old nephews were spending a week in WDW (they are there until this Wednesday), so DH suggested that I should go down for the weekend to surprise the boys. This sounded like a great idea, so my agent was able to book me a Disney Visa preferred room at All Star Movies, which was great because I wanted to do it on the cheap as much as I could. Fantastic!

Then, about a month ago, my best friend, whom I haven't seen in almost 3 years, texted me, telling me that she had a work trip to Orlando coming up, and to see if I wanted to join her for a weekend trip? Her name is Penny, and she is the person that created this beast. Penny took me to Disney for the first time ever back in 2001. Now, as we like to joke, the student has surpassed the master...but could I drive 14 hours round trip, 2 weekends in a row to demonstrate my Disney love??!!

Stay tuned!! I will continue tomorrow night...

Following along
Sounds like two fun weekends

Max

 

[myhappyplace]

Following along
Sounds like two fun weekends

Max

They sure were! Thanks for reading along!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Funny I just did that two weeks ago (DH had work in Tampa so I went solo) and going again in a few days while he is working in Orlando!

 

[myhappyplace]

Weekend #1:

Friday, February 17th- Since this was more of a last minute trip, I didn't feel I should ask to leave work early (I am a child care teacher, so proper ratios have to be maintained, and substitutes need to be found). My management did know I was heading down to WDW, so they were able to get me out at 3:00. By 3:15, not even on the highway yet, I had already spilled my cup of water all down my right leg, under my butt, and in my right shoe. So typical of me

Atlanta had some traffic, and in other news the sky is blue. Google maps had the drive at about 7 hours. Cops were out and about, being Presidents' Day weekend. Made a couple of stops; sang cheesy 80s music, Adele, and old-school country at the top of my lungs; ate snacks and got to the Hilton Buena Vista around 11. My friend Penny and her coworker Jen were in the bar going over their notes from that day's events, so I met them up there. They had some vouchers for drinks, so I enjoyed a Yuengling while they finished up. Then Penny and I headed up to our room, made our plans for the next day, and chatted until we fell asleep. Much needed best friend time!!

Penny went to Disney several times as a child and teenager, and in 2001, she took me for my first time! And I fell in love with WDW, and the rest is history. Here we are on that trip, 16 years ago.



Saturday, February 18th- We were up and ready, in time to Uber to the Boardwalk, and walk over to the International Gateway...we had a mission of Frozen Ever After on our minds. We were let through the ticket stiles at 8:30ish (if not sooner, can't remember) and then held at the edge of the World Showcase Promenade.



We passed the time taking some best friend selfies:


There was a time when I could wear flip-flops all day long through the parks, and scoffed at the people who were baffled that I could do so. My 38-year-old body apparently can't do that anymore. When they dropped the rope, we speed walked (unlike the people who RAN) to the left, around World Showcase from the Mexico side. My feet were already hurting, this is not good!

Sign said 10 minutes. We were boarding at 9:08!!


It was a beautiful day!


We then hopped in line to meet Anna and Elsa...I believe the wait was 20 minutes, but we thought, what else were we going to do?


Actual meet photos on next post...

 

[myhappyplace]

Funny I just did that two weeks ago (DH had work in Tampa so I went solo) and going again in a few days while he is working in Orlando!

So fun! I really enjoyed having the ability to do it, because of the AP, and yet not worry that I didn't have FPs and such, because I knew I'd be down again soon. It was also nice to travel solo, but meet up with people so I wasn't by myself the entire time. Though I did enjoy that too

 

[myhappyplace]

I think it was while in line for Anna & Elsa that I discovered my left foot was swollen, and it felt like there was something loose in my foot, or that it needed to crack or something. Just a weird feeling, but I was wishing I had worn different shoes. I really think I just tweaked it funny as I was trying to hurry. It stayed a bit swollen the rest of the day, but pain free, and even that weird feeling in it went away. ( I did ice it that night, and it was fine the next morning)

Anyway, this meet & greet was fun. We talked about how we like our hot cocoa with Elsa- extra chocolate and little marshmallows, and then Elsa tried to see if the photopass photographer would get that order for us. And Olaf. I loved that even though we are adults, the interactions are no less fun, nor do they act as if we shouldn't be meeting characters.

We were in deep hot chocolate discussion here:










This last one is the photopass photographer


I forget what we talked about with Anna, but it was equally fun. I didn't hand my camera off to the attendant here



After our Frozen Fun, we were getting a titch hungry, but we didn't want to spoil our appetite for the Festival of the Arts offerings, so we headed toward The Land.


Some of the pretty flowers already in place






Penny requested Sunshine Seasons because she remembers eating in there years ago. She chose a kids breakfast and I went with a mozzarella/tomato salad.

 

[myhappyplace]

It was still a little too soon for World Showcase to be open, so we did Imagination. Penny has ALWAYS loved Figment.

Monorail photo on the way




Not-so-hidden Buzz


After that, it was time for us to head to World Showcase. On the way, we passed this couple. I was trying to be super stealthy, but I snapped the pic at the wrong moment, and the man was partially covered. Their hats were hilarious!


On the way, on the fountain stage, a man was fingerpainting while dancing. We watched him for a bit, but could not for the life of us determine what he was painting, until it suddenly hit us...can you see it?




Donald Duck, upside down!


I see you American Adventure!






We didn't get very far when we discovered what we wanted to eat first:

Choriqueso


Um. Yum.

 

[amjt660]

Weekend #1:

Friday, February 17th- Since this was more of a last minute trip, I didn't feel I should ask to leave work early (I am a child care teacher, so proper ratios have to be maintained, and substitutes need to be found). My management did know I was heading down to WDW, so they were able to get me out at 3:00. By 3:15, not even on the highway yet, I had already spilled my cup of water all down my right leg, under my butt, and in my right shoe. So typical of me

Atlanta had some traffic, and in other news the sky is blue. Google maps had the drive at about 7 hours. Cops were out and about, being Presidents' Day weekend. Made a couple of stops; sang cheesy 80s music, Adele, and old-school country at the top of my lungs; ate snacks and got to the Hilton Buena Vista around 11. My friend Penny and her coworker Jen were in the bar going over their notes from that day's events, so I met them up there. They had some vouchers for drinks, so I enjoyed a Yuengling while they finished up. Then Penny and I headed up to our room, made our plans for the next day, and chatted until we fell asleep. Much needed best friend time!!

Penny went to Disney several times as a child and teenager, and in 2001, she took me for my first time! And I fell in love with WDW, and the rest is history. Here we are on that trip, 16 years ago.



Saturday, February 18th- We were up and ready, in time to Uber to the Boardwalk, and walk over to the International Gateway...we had a mission of Frozen Ever After on our minds. We were let through the ticket stiles at 8:30ish (if not sooner, can't remember) and then held at the edge of the World Showcase Promenade.



We passed the time taking some best friend selfies:


There was a time when I could wear flip-flops all day long through the parks, and scoffed at the people who were baffled that I could do so. My 38-year-old body apparently can't do that anymore. When they dropped the rope, we speed walked (unlike the people who RAN) to the left, around World Showcase from the Mexico side. My feet were already hurting, this is not good!

Sign said 10 minutes. We were boarding at 9:08!!


It was a beautiful day!


We then hopped in line to meet Anna and Elsa...I believe the wait was 20 minutes, but we thought, what else were we going to do?


Actual meet photos on next post...

Love the traffic joke
And I do the same thing when I drive solo
I cannot sing but when it is just me I belt it out and it helps me be able to drive further without breaks
Loving the report so far

Max

 

[myhappyplace]

This was Penny's purchase (we both shared)


Back past Norway again, we spotted this topiary


Penny couldn't remember ever looking back in China, so we did that


Of course I had to try to get all artsy


I liked this structure, then Penny noticed the Mickey sticker on it




Chalk art


When we reached American Adventure, we had two missions: try the cocoa flight, and see Voices of Liberty.

Never would I ever have thought I'd say...the flight (while absolutely delicious) was too much chocolate for us to finish!!

This is the chocolate with the chambourd, which is my favorite liqueur (also introduced to me by Penny, funnily enough)


Woody topiary just in front of the booth


The chocolate flight




I luuuurve me some Voices of Liberty, and of course they didn't disappoint! They even sang "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes", which was beautiful!

 

[myhappyplace]

Love the traffic joke
And I do the same thing when I drive solo
I cannot sing but when it is just me I belt it out and it helps me be able to drive further without breaks
Loving the report so far

Max

I can carry a tune decently enough (granted my repertoire consists mostly of toddler songs) but yes it does make the time go by a bit faster.

Thank you!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Cool trip report so far! I know what you mean about the flip flops, that is all I used to wear in the park too. About a year ago I started wearing my tennis shoes more and flip flops less, that was I was 38. So it must be a 38 year old thing!

Love the Festival the Arts pictures, that festival looked like fun!

 

[myhappyplace]

Cool trip report so far! I know what you mean about the flip flops, that is all I used to wear in the park too. About a year ago I started wearing my tennis shoes more and flip flops less, that was I was 38. So it must be a 38 year old thing!

Love the Festival the Arts pictures, that festival looked like fun!

Girl, yes. I think 38 is the year my body went nope. I mean, nothing major, and I'm healthy, but yeah my feet and knees ache all the time now.

 

[myhappyplace]

A fun thing included in the Festival of the Arts were famous pieces of art, which you could stand inside/behind, like a photo prop. These were the ones from Italy, but I'll just include them here because I forgot last night




There was one of Washington crossing the Delaware outside of American Adventure.
We thought we were being so creative with Penny's pose, but later talked with Jen (Penny's coworker who went to Epcot with her sister later that day), and they did the same!


Continuing around World Showcase...
I always find myself taking bird photos.


Morocco...Penners wanted to get henna tattoos, but I wavered, because I had work on Monday.


I also love lights at Disney


We looked at the art booths. I took this to show my 4 Star Wars-obsessed nephews


The photobooth in Great Britain


While we were waiting in line, we saw Mary Poppins walking along with a little girl dressed just like her! It was too cute!


Tinker Bell!

 

[myhappyplace]

In Canada, I knew I wanted to try the Wild Mushroom Risotto with aged parmesan, truffle shavings, and zin reduction. Penny opted for the Smoked Salmon Tartare with caviar, crisp lavash and traditional accompaniments. She went and nabbed us a table, while I ordered. I received my risotto, and was waiting for the tartare. The chef then announced that it would be 5 minutes for risotto, and the woman behind me was clearly upset that it was going to take that time, as she had somewhere to be. I gave her my risotto, and told her I would wait for the new order.

Risotto, it was very good!


Penny's Tartare..I wasn't brave enough/ It was a little heavy on the onions for her


We then wrapped back around World Showcase because there was something Penny wanted to get...Sous Vide Venison. We shared this but honestly probably should have each gotten our own, it was SO tender! We also split the Almond Frangipane Cake with Raspberry Jam...delish!!


Artsy photos




We then thought we'd pop into the Mexican pavilion, but it was so full of people! And the Gran Fiesta Tour had such a long wait, so that was a no.

We went to the Outpost for Penny's next selection, which was the Chilled Shrimp, Quinoa, Layered Vegetables, Spiced Yogurt and Red Pepper Coulis. Again she scraped off the layer of onion after this photo. I tasted the quinoa/sauce/yogurt (I'm not a seafood gal, so no shrimp on my bites!) and it was decent. It tasted like a taco salad to me.


So, again, we were drawn to China, and discovered Mulan didn't have much of a queue in the temple, so in we went.










After that, we decided to go see what we wanted to do in Future World, if anything. Test Track had a very long single rider line, even! I believe it was 50 minutes, so we said no to that. We did see the Jammitors, though, who Penny hadn't seen before





We did a bit of shopping in Mouse Gears, Penny debated but ultimately didn't buy the Figment Festival of the Arts mug she had been eyeing. When we came out...it was POURING!! We decided to leave Epcot and head over to the Poly to see if we could get into Trader Sam's...would we?

 

[myhappyplace]

We juuuust missed a monorail, but it didn't take long for another to come along. However, when we got the the TTC station, our monorail doors didn't open. And didn't open. And didn't open. And I was getting warm. This was our "waiting for the monorail doors to open" look...



Since I've heard @Tuvalu talk about the walk between the Poly and the TTC, we inquired where it was, and did that.


Because we are actually 12.



We put our names in, though there were quite a few people in front of us. We did a little shopping in the gift shops, and then sat in the lobby. I had just begun charging my phone, when our buzzer went off! We went in and couldn't really find a place to sit at a table, so we just sat on the bench along the wall nearest the bar. There was a family (Mom, Dad, and little girl) at the table next to us. Dad was trying to get the little girl into saying all of the responses, but she wasn't really into it. We realized going into a place like this would have a learning curve, but we were able to pick in up fairly quickly.

For our first drink, we split an Uh Oa, which we really enjoyed the presentation of...I don't want to ruin all of the fun little chants and things, but I would highly recommend going here!






The servers are all hilarious!!


There's one point where it "rains", and the server behind the bar got out his "umbrella"


As we finished that drink, the family next to us was leaving, and offered the table to us, which we gladly took. Our next drinks were a Hippopotomaitai for me, and a Krakotoa Punch for Pen. We utilized the really long straws from our first drink, and the straws these came with, and each took sips from both drinks at the same time!










Needless to say...we were enjoying the rum muchly.

We were joined at this point by Charles and Theresa, from Long Island. We had a BLAST chatting with them...it's why I love these places, it sort of "forces" you to interact with others, and it is usually a better time!


I wasn't going to get anymore after this but Penny made me. It was all her fault. We decided to split a Zombie.


We might have stayed after that, but we had a ADR to get to at Artist Point...so we said our goodbyes to Debbie our server, and Charles & Theresa, and monorailed to MK to catch a boat to the WL. Still very happy from the rum, of course.

Artist Point is somewhere I've wanted to try, but DH wasn't so interested. So it seemed perfect to try it on this quick weekend with Pen. There was quite a line at check-in, and they said they were running about 25 minutes behind, but we got in pretty quick.


Our server was a wonderful gentleman, very soft-spoken, kind and helpful. I loved the decor here, as well.


Yummy bread service


Poor Penny was already feeling very tired, from her busy work week, and the drinks we'd already had, so she didn't order any wine, and I'm not a wine drinker, so we stuck to water.

We both had the DELICIOUS mushroom bisque, I swear I would walk to Artist Point just to have this again so good.


I had a steak, and Penny went with the Buffalo steak. I didn't get a pic of hers, but here is mine


No room for dessert, sadly. We took an Uber back to our hotel, where we were quickly in bed for the night.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I

Wow, I really love this picture. I like the blur of the ceiling behind it.

 

[Tuvalu]

Looks like you had a great time at Trader Sam's . Em and I are due for another visit.
Did you only see the one chalk art at Epcot? We saw that one and wondered if we had missed others. Of course when the rain blew in, any chalk art would have washed away!
LOVED the pic of Mary Poppins and her mini-me.

 

[blreinsel]

I am soooooo hoping we can get into Trader Sam's in June! What a riot! I love your utilization of the long straws.

 

[myhappyplace]

Wow, I really love this picture. I like the blur of the ceiling behind it.

Thank you! I loved blurred backgrounds.

Looks like you had a great time at Trader Sam's . Em and I are due for another visit.
Did you only see the one chalk art at Epcot? We saw that one and wondered if we had missed others. Of course when the rain blew in, any chalk art would have washed away!
LOVED the pic of Mary Poppins and her mini-me.

We sure did! I think DH and I are going to try to get in during our May trip.
That was the only one we spotted yes, and as I recall, we asked each other "were there more we missed?"
If I was that child's parents, I'd be in tears at the happy memory this girl will have! Heck, I was almost in tears as it was

I am soooooo hoping we can get into Trader Sam's in June! What a riot! I love your utilization of the long straws.

You MUST try to get there! Highly recommended! Ha, yes, we thought that would be smart, as the flavors mixed well together.