Trip Report Tales From the Two Goofs Vault

Greetings again my friends. During my large amount of available free time, I have been working to digitally backup some of our old photos, as well as track down and backup any digital files as well. So far I have come across 3 Disney trips that I haven’t shared on these boards before. One from March 2019, one from September 2016, and another from June 2015. I will be doing these TRs from newest to oldest. Please note that I have no notes on our activities, so the pictures will likely not be in perfect order. I will try and provide commentary on things I do remember. So let’s get started!

Trip 1.

When: March 8-11, 2019

Who: Myself and A as always, plus our closest friends C and M.
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Where: POFQ for just one night, and Coronado Springs(more on why we did a split stay on such a short trip later).

Why: A top secret mission to photograph and celebrate C and M’s engagement.

A little background on how this trip happened.

C is one of A’s oldest and closest friends, he is the closest thing she has to a brother, and she does refer to him as her brother. He had been dating M for about a year at this point, and we all knew she was perfect for him. He’d decided to pop the question on their spring break trip to Disney. For months he had been asking A and I to come down with them to take pictures of the big event, and to celebrate with them(or console him if she said no!). It didn’t look like we would both be able to make the trip though. I finally agreed to at least get A a plane ticket and she was going to go alone for just the weekend and return.

Well as fate would have it, right at the 60 day mark I was finally able to secure the 4 days off needed to take the trip. Unfortunately there was extremely limited availability at the resorts. The only resort with full availability for the weekend was grand Floridian, which was at a non discount rate. We finally found 2 nights at Coronado, and one night at French quarter. We also purchased APs because we had already planned on being at WDW for several day’s in the summer, so it ended up being less to get the AP rather than buying separate tickets for each trip. I was also able to get the AP spring discount applied to our reservations.

With all of that business out of the way, we were able to make FP reservations right at 60 days! C wanted it to be a surprise for M that we were going to be there. We went along with this plan, but boy was it hard not to spill the beans at our super bowl party that year!

Day 0/Night1:

While I was able to get Friday-Monday off, A had no such luck, and had to work a half day Friday. This meant taking a later flight than normal. We had a 7:15 flight out of Dallas Love Field. Our plan was to be at the airport around 5:30. 5:30 on a Friday driving through downtown Dallas, what could possibly go wrong?! Fortunately while traffic was pretty heavy, and my phone told me to take the wrong exit one time, we still made it to the airport on time.

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Already a little tired before takeoff!

Our flight down went smoothly and a few hours later we landed in Orlando. Because of the time change, by the time we got down to DME it was approaching 11 pm. We were both more than ready to get to our room and get a few hours of sleep. Our bus only had a few parties on it. We stopped at riverside first, then French Quarter. Our room had been ready since lunch time of that day, so we went straight to our room. It was well after midnight when we made it to our room.

Apparently we knew that @Nunu would like some room photos at the time!😜
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Another boring redesigned room.

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The beads were a nice touch!

We finally got showered and in bed just before 1 am.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday June 18.

We were up bright and early for our day at Animal Kingdom. I really don’t remember much from this day, but according to time stamps we were there for park opening. Our first attraction was dinosaur. Looks like we were still sleepy.
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Next up was Everest. As someone who actually was lucky enough to experience this attraction with a working yeti, it’s kind of disappointing to see disco yeti. Still a great attraction, but i know it could be better.
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Checking out Tree of Life.
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We caught an early showing of Lion King.
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We ended up back in Asia. We did Kali rapids before checking out Maharaja Jungle Trek.
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We stopped for picks on our way to lunch. A’s shirt does confirm that we did the river rapids attraction.
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Lunch was at Harambe Market. We shared an order of ribs. These were very good! Similar to our local BBQ joint(although not as good), they used a dry rub instead of sauce, which I prefer.
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Coming up: Finishing up at AK.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday June 18, 2015 Continued.

After lunch it was time for our safari. I guess because it was so hot and sunny, most of the animals were staying in the shade. This caused most of our pictures to turn out even more terrible than usual, so I’ll only share a few.
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We did the gorilla falls trail after our safari. They had just recently let this baby gorilla out with the others. He drew quite a crowd!
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It was really really hot that day!
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We decided to head back to the hotel. It was getting extremely hot, and we’d done all of the shows and attractions we wanted. We stopped to meet Dug and Russell on the way out. They were really funny, and we had a good time cutting up with them!
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Another fine half day at WDW’s half day park!
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Coming up: A night at MK.
 

Mainahman

Well-Known Member
Thursday June 18, 2015 Continued.

After lunch it was time for our safari. I guess because it was so hot and sunny, most of the animals were staying in the shade. This caused most of our pictures to turn out even more terrible than usual, so I’ll only share a few.
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We did the gorilla falls trail after our safari. They had just recently let this baby gorilla out with the others. He drew quite a crowd!
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It was really really hot that day!
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We decided to head back to the hotel. It was getting extremely hot, and we’d done all of the shows and attractions we wanted. We stopped to meet Dug and Russell on the way out. They were really funny, and we had a good time cutting up with them!
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Another fine half day at WDW’s half day park!
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Coming up: A night at MK.
Love AK safari!! The last one we had last year every one was hiding too :(
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday June 18, 2015 continued.

We spent the afternoon swimming at the WL feature pool before taking the boat over to MK for the evening. We had time for A to beat me at a round of buzz before dinner.
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Dinner was at Be Our Guest. This was the hardest reservation to score at the time, and we were lucky to have found one on such short notice. A is a huge Beauty and The Beast fan, so she was really excited for this dinner! We were seated quickly after checking in.
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Our table was in the main ballroom, near the entrance to the west wing room.
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The food here was fine, but probably not worth the fuss of trying to get a reservation at the time. I was tempted to order a seafood dish of some kind, but decided against it since it can sometimes make me feel bad. I think this was probably a good choice. We both ended up ordering the strip steak. A was more impressed with hers than I was.
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We of course had to try the grey stuff! It was in fact delicious. The cake thing it was served on top of was not.
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The room where Beast meets was nice.
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A was really fangirling over the Beast!
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We had a really nice time at dinner. Our server was named Emily, and she was phenomenal! Despite the great service and atmosphere, I found the food to be lacking. We never did return here for dinner before it became a signature meal. The new menu doesn’t appeal to either one of us, so a return in the near future seems unlikely.
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Coming up: Finishing the night at MK.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday June 18, 2015 Continued.

After dinner we were able to get a FP for splash mountain. We had a very lively group!
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Pirates was going through a refurb, so A was unable to get her first ride on this trip. We stopped for pictures out front anyways!
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The fireworks went off when we were at dinner, but we did catch a later MSEP!
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I loved this parade. I really hope someday, post corona, they will bring back a nighttime parade.
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We had a great night at the Magic Kingdom!
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
You might have been able to get away with it being Paris if A wasn’t so close to the Eiffel Tower 😉
Haha. That and the cowboy hat might be a dead giveaway, or the fact that it’s sitting in a corn field! 🤣
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Hmmm, possible new trip report title. "Pickles Goes To Paris." Have fun, hope it's not too hot today.
How hot is too hot?
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It’s hard to see but that thermometer is showing nearly 120 degrees. Our car was showing 110, but it tends to be a few degrees cool, so it was probably around 112 degrees! Needless to say we enjoyed our trip to palo duro canyon mostly from our car!
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Road trip update.
A few pictures from our blazing hot adventure into Palo Duro Canyon the other day. The wind was really whipping up on the top. I nearly lost my hat and glasses! A of course refused to come out towards the edge with me and was convinced I was close to plummeting to my death!
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We made a brief stop in New Mexico for a little hiking and to just get out of the car yesterday. We were advised to be on the lookout for bears and cougars. Thankfully we didn’t see either, although a mule deer came running towards us to give us quite a scare!
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Our home for the week is quite small, but works for us. It is on a working horse farm, and it’s cool to see the horses and their babies.
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The view from the front porch isn’t too shabby.
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The nearby creek is pretty as well.
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We drove this road yesterday evening. It’s one tiny lane with very steep drop offs on either side and no guard rails. Certainly not for the faint of heart!
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Last edited:

Mainahman

Well-Known Member
Road trip update.
A few pictures from our blazing hot adventure into Palo Duro Canyon the other day. The wind was really whipping up on the top. I nearly lost my hat and glasses! A of course refused to come out towards the edge with me and was convinced I was close to plummeting to my death!
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We made a brief stop in New Mexico for a little hiking and to just get out of the car yesterday. We were advised to be on the lookout for bears and cougars. Thankfully we didn’t see either, although a mule deer came running towards us to give us quite a scare!
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Our home for the week is quite small, but works for us. It is on a working horse farm, and it’s cool to see the horses and their babies.
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The view from the front porch isn’t too shabby.
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The nearby creek is pretty as well.
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We drove this road yesterday evening. It’s one tiny lane with very steep drop offs on either side and no guard rails. Certainly not for the faint of heart!
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This is beautiful! I see that road as a challenge, my wife would be petrified! Love it!
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
This is beautiful! I see that road as a challenge, my wife would be petrified! Love it!
It was actually really fun to drive! Almost like driving a roller coaster! In fact I liked it so much we did it again today! This is the very top. Straight down on both sides.
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I’m with A—I wouldn’t have went to that ledge either!! And that road—heck no!!
I’m hope you’re both having fun & enjoying yourselves otherwise!!
She’s so odd about things like that. The ledge was a big no no but the road she was ok with. As long as she’s not out in the open she’s ok with heights. She would not join me on this rock today.
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And just look at the view she missed! Pictures don’t do it justice!
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