Trip Report COMPLETED (finally!)....Did we move to WDW? Nope just a two week trip!

Hello WDW Magic friends and welcome to my trip report. I have done a few trip reports in the past of both WDW and Disneyland. My most recent report was a Spring Break trip to WDW. So if you've read one of my reports before....welcome back friends! If you haven't read one before....welcome new friend!

A little background information

People going: Me (Amy) and my husband (Brad), you'll see enough of our pictures later.

"People" we are leaving behind to go on our trip: Our miniature schnauzer Kapono, she keeps trying to come with us though. She stays with my sister and her family and Kapono has some fur cousins to play with there and is well taken care of which is a relief for me and Brad too I guess.
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Our travel days July 4 -July 19. The days actually spent in WDW would be the 5th-19th. We live in Wisconsin but very close to Minneapolis/St. Paul so we fly from there. It wouldn't be a bad drive to the airport in the morning, but I like to stay near the airport the night before departure.

Since we were going to be in WDW for so long we got a lot of comments from friends joking with us that we must be moving in, hence the title of the report here.

Our Resort: All Star Movies. We don't spend much time in the room so all we need is a clean place to sleep, shower, and store our stuff. We really aren't pool people, although we do use the pool, but if we built in a lot of pool time we would stay at the Beach Club again! Side note: The first time we ever tried to stay at the Movies we were upgraded upon check in to the Beach Club! We didn't ask for it, the magic just happened, it was the best deluxe accommodations for All Star prices! So now whenever we stay at the Movies we keep our fingers crossed on check in day!

Okay so let's start shall we....

On July 4th we spent most of the day with my sister and her family and left Kapono at her "vacation home" for the next two weeks. We drove up to the Minneapolis airport area by the Mall of America, and made a quick stop at Sam's Club for one more discount Disney gift card. The Sam's Club was closing, actually it was 10 minutes before their posted close time and the lady at the door didn't want to let us in. We literally had to go over to a stand near the register and get a gift card, she even called her manager who said it was okay to let us in. We departed the store 3 minutes before for the posted close time! Take that lady! Anyway, it was dinner time but neither of us wanted to sit in a restaurant we just wanted to relax in the hotel room for the night. So there was a sub place and a Lee Ann Chin (Minnesota based Chinese take out chain), and Chinese won out. So we got our take out and checked into the hotel for the night and ate our take out, and watched a Capital Fourth on PBS. Which was fantastic this year with John Stamos as the host. :inlove:

Us with our Chinese take out!
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Our flight left early, but we are early birds so despite being 5 minutes away from the terminal we got there early. Plus we were too excited to sleep! Funny thing, we flipped on the tv while we were getting ready and the Steve Harvey show was on and it was one of the Epcot episodes from earlier in the year that he was recording when we were there in March. We don't normally watch that show and we didn't go to the recording but we saw it being on as a good sign that the Disney gods were with us!
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We arrived in Orlando after an uneventful flight. We enjoyed some movies and tried to nap but again we were just too excited to sleep!
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Magical Express load went quick and soon we were HOME!
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And despite doing online check in and requesting early arrival our room wasn't ready. But that was fine, we had to stop at the front desk any way. I had lots of gift cards in my purse that we wanted to put on our account, we wanted to decline Mousekeeping, and make sure our room had a good position for the 2 weeks. Now we did decline Mousekeeping but we did have our room serviced twice while we were there. We are fairly neat, and I'm always tidying up the room anyway even with Mousekeeping so we figured we could survive without having it every day. Plus with the extra money we would be able to enjoy a good meal or some good drinks at Trader Sam's. So with all that squared away we put our carry ons with bell services and headed to the bus stop with a quick gander at the gift shop.

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Next up: Disney Springs!
 

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
A few more pictures from the bird show. And review: I am a little torn about this show. I really am not a big bird fan but I enjoyed Flights of Wonder. It seems like the addition of the characters are cute, but it seems that more focus has been put on Russell and Doug and they don't show as many birds as they used to. I'm glad I saw it, but I wouldn't necessarily carve out a spot for it in my touring plan. And if I do watch it again, I'd be okay with that too. Thoughts of others?

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After the bird show we had a fast pass for Flights of Passage. I do like this ride, but I haven't fallen head over heels with it as others have. I never get motion sick on rides but something about this one makes me a little queasy, I think it is the smell it is a nauseatingly sweet smell. So the sick passes quickly as I get away from the attraction rooms. So I think it is fine, fun, but I'd rather ride Expedition Everest.
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After Everest we snagged a fast pass to use immediately for Navi River Journey, it is a fine little river journey. I wish at loading they wouldn't try to pack as many people as they can into the boats. We ended up with another couple in the back of our boat with us, and it was cozy! After Navi it was time for a little rest/nap at the hotel before an evening of fun.
My family and I preferred Flights of Wonder as well. We thought like you did that Doug and Russell ended up being the stars of the show and not the birds. We probably will skip it from now on.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
My family and I preferred Flights of Wonder as well. We thought like you did that Doug and Russell ended up being the stars of the show and not the birds. We probably will skip it from now on.

I remembered them having birds fly around more, and fly out to the audience areas more which was more spectacular to me. I have heard they are going to add some Diwali stuff for the holiday season to the show, that would be interesting. So maybe that is a hint that they are eager to improve the show from time to time.
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
There is not a ton of walking on the tour. Once our guide met us we walked backstage to a tour bus and we were driven to where the elephants are. Then we did walk up a ramp to the elephant viewing area. The viewing area was shady and there was a bench, to sit on in that area. We did take steps back to the bus but the guide asked us if we were okay with steps otherwise we could have used the ramp again. I don't know if the bus could accomodate a scooter, but a quick call could probably answer that when you book. The tour only took an hour and it was an hour well spent.

As for eating at the California Grill, we are early eaters and normally get our reservation at 5-5:30pm. This time our reservation was for 7:15pm. We have never been rushed through any of our meals there. I think if you are seated by the window in a time frame in which the fireworks will be starting soon the server probably expects you to stay in that spot. There are two large viewing platforms for the restaurant too that you can watch from. As long as you have been a customer of the restaurant that day you can return to the restaurant to view the fireworks, this works for brunch as well. Just show your receipt.

And congratulations on your 50th anniversary!

Thank you for the well thought out reply! I know I had a lot of questions and you just answered them all. Again, thanks for taking the time to do so:)
 

krause

Well-Known Member
We got some poutine, it was kind of artsy poutine in that there was a glob of goat cheese instead of the normal cheese curds that are on poutine. This was good, I wish I hadn't had to share!

I’m going to pull the 🇨🇦 card and say that is NOT poutine. Simply fries and gravy and cheese does not a poutine make. It’s gotta be melty stringy cheese curds with the gravy on TOP to get the right meltiness :joyfull: Glad it still tasted good though!

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Did I get it?
 

LeighM

Well-Known Member
I can't imagine riding Navi with more than 3 people in a row. When I was there, crowds were low so my husband and I got one row and my BIL/SIL had another. It would've been too tight with all four of us. When we did have to be in tight quarters it seemed like the brothers always put us females in the middle for some reason lol.
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
Day 2 Continued....

We got up from our nap and decided to head to Trader Sam's. Once we got to the Magic Kingdom it started to sprinkle and when we were close to the monorail it started to pour. We escaped without getting too wet. Once at the Polynesian and to Trader Sam's we found the inside packed and a 45 minute wait. No thanks. Hubs wanted to go to the bar at the Wave but that didn't seem very scenic to me so I suggested Mizer's at the Grand Floridian.

We had a view outside and were able to hear the band for most of our time there. The bar wasn't that busy but the waiter was really slow and seemed to screw up everyone's orders around us. We never got the waters we asked for a couple of times but it wasn't a huge deal. We had a nice time and enjoyed the music especially. I had a local beer and Brad got a Rum and Coke (so boring I didn't even take a picture of that).
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We had to head out after awhile to make our dinner reservation. We missed one monorail but another came shortly afterwards.
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Our dinner reservation was at the California Grill. We never request a table by the window, but we do request not be be seated at the long banquette area (where one person stares at at large wooden carving on a wall), and we are always willing to wait if needed. But no extra waiting and I was thrilled with the table we were seated at.

This was the view: YAY! I guess we would be able to watch the fireworks from our table tonight!
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I had a beer from Miami. I liked the sound of the name and the can it came in was pretty interesting. It was okay taste-wise.
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B got a Mai Tai, which I'm always amazed he likes because he professes to hate pineapple.
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I decided on the Sonoma Goat Cheese ravioli and it was really tasty. I was hesitant about the mushrooms but they were crispy which gave the dish a fun texture.
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And Brad got the tuna three ways as he appetizer. He loves this dish.
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ohh california grill.. def would go back (if I had money lol )
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
Once in Dinoland our goal was not to ride Dinosaur but to get character pictures. Getting my picture with Launchpad McQuack and Scrooge McDuck was a must do at some point on this trip, well that some point was today. And I was super excited, Ducktales was one of my favorites as a kid and I do like the reboot but the original is best.

I loved the back drops too there were so many cool details, we went back another day when it was empty to look a little more closely.
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And I always love interacting with Chip and Dale but with them in their Dino costumes, it was almost too cute!
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We we did tear ourselves away from cuteness and headed back to Africa for a safari.
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After the safari we had the Caring For Giants tour lined up. Oh my, I can not say enough good things about this tour. We loved having some up close time to observe and learn more about the elephants. Plus we were the only ones on this tour so we didn't have anyone asking annoying questions, it felt very VIP. The price is very economical (I think under $30), the proceeds go to the wildlife conservation fund, you learn cool stuff about elephants and Africa, and it is only an hour so very easy to fit into your day.

Here are some pictures from the tour.
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And I thought this was interesting, it is a model of a an elephants foot. Look at all that padding in the foot! I wish my feet had that much cushion for walking around Disney parks!
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Omg, chip and dale with that dino costume.. so cute!!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I’m going to pull the 🇨🇦 card and say that is NOT poutine. Simply fries and gravy and cheese does not a poutine make. It’s gotta be melty stringy cheese curds with the gravy on TOP to get the right meltiness :joyfull: Glad it still tasted good though!

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Did I get it?

I agree it isn't true poutine, but tasty cheese/gravy fries they were.

That isn't the hidden Mickey but I can see why you circled it.

Ok, I give up???? Where is it? I'm going crazy trying to make hidden Mickeys out of nothing:)
I completely understand! I’ve actually sat in Disney restaurants staring at walls searching for hidden Mickeys to the point I’ve given myself headaches! o_O
But... as @ajrwdwgirl captured this beauty, maybe she’ll drop in and help. ;)
The sky's the limit to what they'll do to hide a Mickey!

As for the hidden Mickey sorry I haven't gotten back to check on responses.....but as @Nemo14 look to the clouds. (Upper right of the mural)
 

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