Trip Report A 4 Day Quick Hit

My company had their National Sales meeting at the Hilton Lake Buena Vista on 5/15-5/19 and I decided to have my wife come out from California to extend the trip for an additional 4 days at WDW. Below is a combination of the things I experienced during the sales meeting and after once she arrived.

5/15 - Finally a visit to Trader Sam's Grog Grotto. As a regular at the West Coast version, I was anxious to get to this one not only to see the differences but also pick up the remaining mugs missing from my collection. The upside of being there on a company trip was that both the Nautilus "mug" and pearl (white) cost me zero (thanks boss). Nautilus drink was very good, pearl was not IMO. I did ask about getting a black pearl and one of the girls said she would see what she could do. Told her I would be back on Friday with my wife...more on that later. By the way, I fell in love with the Poly. If cash were no object, I would stay there every time. I love polynesian culture and the hotel was oozing it. Left the poly, headed to the springs and had a late dinner at Splitsville. Grilled chicken sandwich was good but nothing special.

5/16 - First day of our meeting but was able to squeeze in a quick lunch with a buddy at Practical Pig. Had the brisket sandwich which was good. Side was the mac n cheese, also good. But again, nothing overly great where I would gush about it. I can get cheaper, better BBQ in So Cal. As for Disney Springs, really, really like what the've done with most of it. The Landing area is my favorite part, the Town Center is a bit too much like every outdoor shopping center we have in So Cal.

5/19 - Last day of meeting and my wife arrives. Lunch at the observatory...yeah, I know, not the best place but we are suckers for the rare opportunity to eat Captain Crunch Chicken. It was great, the grilled chicken breast sandwich was a mess. One we had later was better, and from a place that others also tend to poo poo. More on that later. Finished up with a drink at Jock Lindsey's and man, I fell in love with the place right from the start. I truly do enjoy highly themed dining/bars like Jock's and Sam's and this one was great. Had the Cool Headed Monkey and of course, picked up the collectors mug. Headed back to the Hilton and moved over to Pop Century. Requested a King bed, got to doubles which actually worked out ok as we were generally dead tired most every day and the extra space for us to spread out and sleep worked out great. Dinner that night was at Trail's end which we got to via uber. Uber was a godsend at times and we didn't mind paying a little extra to not have to deal with buses occasionally. As for Trail's end, loved it. Reasonable price, fantastic food, especially for a buffet. Really loved the whole Fort Wilderness area and would strongly consider renting one of the cabins. Fantastic setting. Finished dinner, headed via boat to the Contemporary and then via Monorail to Sam's so my wife could visit. As soon as we walked in the door, the cast member from Monday immediately recognized me and said "hi Steve, I have a surprise for you." Yes, she had found me a black pearl. Picked up the Sam's Grog Grotto version of the Mai Tai glass as well and collection (what is currently available at both Sam's locations) is now complete. As much as I love the Sam's in Anaheim, the WDW counterpart is better. The layout has more space (plus a much larger outside area) and the CM's at WDW were much more interactive. All in all, a great first day for both my wife and I and we headed back to POP for a much needed rest before what we knew was going to be a hot 3 days in the parks...little did we know how hot. Our days in the parks coming up in part 2.
 
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Stevek

Stevek

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Part 2, the Parks.

5/20 - Animal Kingdom (AM EMH). Up early at POP to grab a blueberry muffin (it was very good) and on our bus to Animal Kingdom. Straight to the Safari via standby which only took us roughly 15 minutes. Always enjoy the safari and saw a reasonably good selection of animals. Got off, did the Gorilla Falls exploration trail and then headed over for the 10am Festival of the Lion King which was great as always. Next up was our FP+ for Everest which was my wife's first time riding...and her last. Great coaster, just not her cup of tea. Headed over to Kali River Rapids which had a 30min standby wait but was more like 50 minutes...much of it in the sun. This was the first time riding it for both of us and I wasn't overly impressed. My personal opinion is that Grizzly River Run at DCA is much, much better. From there, decided to get lunch at...Restaurantosaurus (collective moan). Yes, not a fan favorite but I will say that the grilled chicken sandwich was surprisingly good, much better than the previously mentioned one at the Observatory. After lunch, headed over to the Nemo Musical which was good (we've seen it before) but doesn't resonate with me like Legend of the Lion King does. Had a 2pm FP for Dinosaur...it was broken down. At that point, made the executive decision to head back to the hotel for a shower and couple hour nap. The heat and humidity was taking a toll on us. We have never been ones to head back for an afternoon break but we were literally melting as while we have heat in So Cal, we don't have that level of humidity. It was a great choice, the break had us both rested and ready to head back to AK to finish out our night. A quick ride on Dinosaur (it's fun but pales compared to something like Indy at DL) and dinner at Yak and Yeti counterservice. I had a burger (very meh) and my wife had the fried rice (poor) and egg rolls (just ok). Finished up, grabbed a couple cold beers and it was time for our FP+ for Rivers of Light. Had great seats about 5 rows up from the water, close to center. Show itself was visually great but really didn't hook me in like other Disney nighttime spectaculars. Not sure if it's because of the narrative (doesn't feel like there is a storyline per se, I'm sure there is) or that I'm so used to Disney night shows featuring Disney characters (Illuminations being the exception). In any case, still enjoyable. Time to leave and unfortunately have our worst bus experience of the trip. Packed, no AC, sweaty and stinky. It sucked. The most disappointing aspect of the day though was the inability to visit Pandora. I had tried to sign up via the D23 preview but unfortunately did not get in. Meanwhile, bloggers like Tommy Coreless are busy bragging about the 20+ hours they've spent visiting via DVC, AP and D23 previews, taking space from those who might have their only opportunity ever to visit. My distaste for WDW bloggers ramped up considerably during this trip.

5/21 - Epcot. Up early again and made it to EPCOT for opening. Quickly headed to Test Track single rider line and I ended up in a car, all by myself. Ride started and then there were some delays at the seatbelt check. Started eventually and then the dreaded 101 with evac. Had to wait a while for them to come get me which, being by myself with the only other car in view behind me being empty, was a bit odd to say the least. We were given a paper FP which we could use on any ride (excluding Frozen). Ended up riding SSE (loved it), Living with the Land (loved it), Nemo (good), Ellen (showing it's age, needs to go) and Figment (I still enjoy it) and then had a very good lunch at Sunshine Seasons. Made our way over to World Showcase stopping for a couple drinks along the way and rode 3 Caballeros followed by a FP for Frozen. I thought it was incredibly well done, very enjoyable. Would have loved to have ridden it a second time. Hit a couple of the WS pavillions and had a couple more drinks before our 5:30 reservation at Via Napoli. We've only been to WDW 4 times and this is always a must for us. Absolutely love the pizza, perhaps my favorite thin crust pizza anywhere, ever. Finished up dinner and made our way through the rest of WS. Both of us were hitting the wall (again, hot and humid) and we made the difficult decision to not stay for Illuminations. Very tough for me as it's my favorite Disney fireworks show. Stopped for one last ride on SSE and headed back to the hotel.

5/22 - Magic Kingdom. Once again up early for opening and thankfully got on a bus right away, zero waiting at POP. Headed to the Castle for the welcome show and then into Fantasyland. We had a 9:05 FP+ for 7 Dwarf's (had never ridden) but decided to head to Pan instead. Waited about 5 minutes (it's better than Disneyland's) and then rode Pooh (again, better than DL) before using our FP+ for 7DMT. What a great family ride. The combo of coaster and dark ride work really well together and we were both really impressed. Got off, looked at the app and both Thunder (we had FP+) and Splash had 10 minute waits. Moved Thunder FP+ to Mansion and rode Splash (walked on) and Thunder (15 min) before heading back to Mansion which now had a 30+ minute wait so we used our FP+. Still had 1 FP+ which we used for Pirates later. In the first 90 minutes, we hit much of what we wanted to. After Mansion had a dole Whip float (skull mug), did some shopping in TL, rode Peoplemover, Pirates & Country Bears before heading to our lunch reservation at Be Our Guest. I had the Croque Monsieur which was great and for dessert, the Master's Cupcake (grey stuff cupcake). Having only tried the "grey stuff" at Disneyland, I was eager to compare to one of the WDW versions. Gotta say, I thought the DL version (with red velvet cake) was far superior. Finished lunch and we once again decided that if we really wanted to see Happily Every After, we were going to need to take another rest break. Headed back to hotel for much needed nap, waking up a couple hours later to the sound of a nearby Thunderstorm. Hopped on the bus back to the MK as the T-Storm hit the area. Thankfully, my the time we got to the MK, the storm had not yet gotten there...but it was coming. Made our way toward Tomorrowland and just as we hit the entry to the land, the storm hit. Thunder, lightning, pouring rain...it was great! Thankfully, we had umbrellas unlike most folks (us California's are kinda smart like that). The downpour was the perfect reason (like we need one) to visit Carousel of Progress which was great as always. After that, we rode Mermaid (the queue is amazing compared to DCA, same ride) and IASW before staking out a spot on Main Street for Happily Every After...which was delayed multiple times due to inclement weather. What weather we kept asking? There wasn't any rain...and then about 20 minutes after scheduled start, there was tons of rain. The mass exodus began and thankfully we did not leave. I happened upon a CM near the hub who told me the show, despite the now lighter rain, would be starting any minute. We absolutely loved the show. The use of the castle as a canvas combined with the amazing fireworks...much better than Wishes (which we loved too). Decided it was time to go and luckily, once again, got right on a bus to POP without any waiting. Beyond the stinky hot bus coming from AK, we really had great luck with the buses. Had a late dinner at POP (very average pizza) and off to bed.

5/23 - Got a late checkout and headed to breakfast at Art of Animation. Meh, hotel theming for the various buildings is reasonably nice but I'm just fine with our cheap old POP. We've stayed there twice, been happy both times considering how little time we actually spend in the room. Our flight didn't leave until 6pm (eventually left at 7pm) so we decided to head back to the Poly to do a visit to Poly, Grand and Contemporary. Then we discovered the Tambu Lounge and a Lapu Lapu later, forgot about heading to the other two hotels. Spent a relaxing bit of time at the Tambu before heading back to POP and our Magical Express trip back to MCO.

Overall, really a fun trip but the heat and humidity got the best of us at times despite drinking a ton of water. That and the fact that between the sales meeting and the WDW trip meant that I had been away from home (and my daughters) for 9 days made heading home a welcoming thought. I have a feeling it will be a couple years before we consider going back. It's never a trip that I consider to be relaxing, by choice of course, and after just hitting 50 in December I can't quite go commando from opening to close each day. The good thing is that by the time we do go back, we'll likely have some new things to experience (SW Land, Toy Story Land, Pandora), hopefully with our daughters next time. I will say that all the CM's we came across were fantastic which was great considering we've heard folks say they are sub-par compared to Disneyland CM's. So that's that though I will leave you with one parting note, likely characterized as TMI : ). Anyone every notice the difference in toilet paper between levels of resorts (public restrooms)? At Pop, it was the thinnest tissue paper like TP you can imagine but at Poly, it was much thicker and "plush." Like I said, TMI : )

Until next time.
 
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littleroo

littleroo

Well-Known Member
gsrjedi said:
Definitely check out the one at the Poly. Disneyland's version is terrible. Never go there. Never.

(tries to convince people to not go to Trader Sam's in Disneyland so it'll be not so busy and I can get a seat easier)
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Lmao!! You are safe with me at least until my children get a little older!!
 

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