Trip Report A Friend Like Her *COMPLETED*

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
~ Forrest Gump

Ah, February. The month of heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. The month of romance and love. The month of someone’s Valentine birthday.

The month of the crappiest weather in 95 percent of the country. Including Florida.

The month in which another mother/daughter jaunt to WDW brought unexpected surprises.....some great, some not-so-great....much like biting into a piece of boxed chocolate.

Much like life itself.

I’d LOVE to have you follow along on our long-weekend adventure.

Who: Tuvalu and Em (with special appearances by a dear friend)
When: January 31 - February 4, 2020
Where: Disney’s Pop Century Resort

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

It was THE FORCE.......


Seems like you spend much of your "no life" at WDW.....just sayin'.


You are 4th! But shouldn't you be packing?

I know, I pack and remove and repack and remove. LOL! I'm trying to rest a little and do the final final packing tomorrow

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Rocketing in here at #1000, to read Tuvalu's newest TR!

Hey Minnie, you have taken my usual spot! Hang in there, it's only taken me 1000 TR's to get #4!!!!!

 

[Mickey Waffles]

I’m here!! Already on page 3 of this report I see but I’ll stay til the end!!

 

[Tuvalu]

Also DH and I are willing to trade one of our local Qdobas for a Chick-fil-A or a The Varsity...

Take all The Varsitys you want! (Not my thing.)
And I’ll happily trade one CFA. There are 5 within a ten minute radius of my house.

Glad to be of service in recommending Qdoba. There's one near where I work; I'm there about once a month at least.

Jelly!

I’m here!! Already on page 3 of this report I see but I’ll stay til the end!!

Yay!

 

[Tuvalu]

Friday, con’t

Airtime between ATL and MCO is roughly one hour so beverage service must be done quickly....if at all. I’ve been on flights in perfect weather where beverage service has been cancelled. So it came as no surprise that due to “turbulence” the stewards would be doing “a water run only.” (Translation: water poured into cups from a giant bottle. And a package of Biscoff cookies.....which are awesome BTW.)

What was surprising was the actual turbulence! It was so intense that I was shocked the flight attendants were able to serve us passengers at all. Props to them!

Shortly after landing we were aboard the fonorail.

We made our way to Baggage Claim where Em was so startled by a water park advertisement that she had to take a picture:

“Mom, that guy looks NAKED!”

So much for a family-friendly airport!

My suitcase arrived first.

Em’s was close behind.

I think this is the default sign now.

We stepped up to the desk and scanned our bands. DME had no record of our reservation. Either my TA forgot or I forgot, so it took a few minutes to put us in the system. I was glad no one was behind us, as I would have felt awful being “that person” who held up the line.

We waited 10 minutes for a bus and then waited 20 more minutes once onboard (no one else got on) so the sign was accurate.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Take all The Varsitys you want! (Not my thing.)
And I’ll happily trade one CFA. There are 5 within a ten minute radius of my house.

I remember nothing of The Varsity’s food but those Frosted Orange milkshakes... mmm... if our flight times to or from the in-laws allow I try to get one at the airport.
[/QUOTE]

 

[Tuvalu]

After stops at All Star Movies followed by All Star Music (weird drop-off order since Music is before Movies), then Coronado Springs, we finally arrived at Pop Century at 11 pm. Though I’d received our room text at 2 pm that afternoon, we still stopped at the Front Desk to see if our MagicBands worked (they didn’t). It took several minutes for the CM to code them all (3 each). Em and I were so tired at this point we just wanted to get to bed!

My online room requests had been ignored but I didn’t realize how much this would impact our stay until we trudged in the dark to the furthest 50s Building, past the Bowling Pin pool. Not only was this third floor room in Timbuktu, it was in a building chock full of 15-year-old girls from South America. Two of the first floor rooms we passed were marked as “Medical” in Portuguese.

I’d bitten into a bad chocolate but was too exhausted to truck all the way back to the Front Desk and inquire about a room change.

Meanwhile Em pulled down the Murphy bed and was quickly in it!

I however wanted to unpack and touch base with Woody before turning in. When I finally did....well past midnight....I was kept awake by a loud group of girls below us, cheering (chanting?) in Portuguese. Eventually sleep won out, but morning came only a few hours later.

 

[MissViv]

Do they have Qdoba in the Orlando airport?

 

[krisri18]

After stops at All Star Movies followed by All Star Music (weird drop-off order since Music is before Movies), then Coronado Springs, we finally arrived at Pop Century at 11 pm. Though I’d received our room text at 2 pm that afternoon, we still stopped at the Front Desk to see if our MagicBands worked (they didn’t). It took several minutes for the CM to code them all (3 each). Em and I were so tired at this point we just wanted to get to bed!

My online room requests had been ignored but I didn’t realize how much this would impact our stay until we trudged in the dark to the furthest 50s Building, past the Bowling Pin pool. Not only was this third floor room in Timbuktu, it was in a building chock full of 15-year-old girls from South America. Two of the first floor rooms we passed were marked as “Medical” in Portuguese.

I’d bitten into a bad chocolate but was too exhausted to truck all the way back to the Front Desk and inquire about a room change.

Meanwhile Em pulled down the Murphy bed and was quickly in it!

View attachment 451362

I however wanted to unpack and touch base with Woody before turning in. When I finally did....well past midnight....I was kept awake by a loud group of girls below us, cheering (chanting?) in Portuguese. Eventually sleep won out, but morning came only a few hours later.

I'm hoping that the chanting isn't a 24 hour soundtrack to your stay

 

[Tuvalu]

Do they have Qdoba in the Orlando airport?

Google says yes but I have never seen it. Perhaps it’s in a different terminal from where I arrive/depart.

I'm hoping that the chanting isn't a 24 hour soundtrack to your stay

Thankfully it was not. Perhaps due to the fact that room doors were taped shut after a certain time. (Broken tape would indicate to chaperones that girls had left their room. It’s an old youth retreat trick!)

 

[DisneyGigi]

I haven’t made it through the last trip report yet but saw this one and had to throw in my ‘late again, but here’ post.
Here is to hoping I have a couple of quiet days to catch up on trip reports.

 

[k8einwdw]

Yay! A new Tuvalu and Em TR!!!


Also...

Qdoba! I could put their queso diablo on anything.

Also DH and I are willing to trade one of our local Qdobas for a Chick-fil-A or a The Varsity...

Take all The Varsitys you want! (Not my thing.)
And I’ll happily trade one CFA. There are 5 within a ten minute radius of my house.

You can have the Varsity! The Frosted Orange is the only thing worth getting there!

 

[Tuvalu]

Saturday, February 1

It was still dark when I got up, but we had places to be and things to do! I decided to be “Best Mom in the (Disney) World” and trek to the food court for coffee and muffins while Em showered.

In a scene reminiscent of our recent trip, I opened the door to RAIN.

I was met by a sea of pink in the food court.

Getting breakfast to go was the way to go!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wow, that food court. We’ve been lucky and managed to avoid the crazy tour groups at the resorts, even though we’re quite often there that time of year. Really hoping that’s all you saw (or heard) of them, while they’re still half asleep.

 

[Tuvalu]

While the Murphy bed is a nice feature in that it becomes a table when folded against the wall, in reality the act of de-pillowing the bed and pushing the mattress up in order to use said table is a kind of a pain. So we awkwardly ate on the bed (Em) and in a chair (me), missing the small table that we used to use for breakfast.

Our goal was to be at the bus stop by 8 am as we were meeting my friend Kelly at rope drop in the MK.

Kelly and I have been friends for over 20 years. She’s a native California girl like you @Darstarr and grew up going to Disneyland. After moving East as an adult, she visited WDW but not nearly as often as she wanted to. Our shared love of Disney parks was one of the reasons we became fast friends. We’d been wanting to visit WDW together for YEARS, but the stars never aligned for us to do so.

Then, in 2018, Kelly and her husband moved from GA to FL. Losing her was hard. But I’m in FL a lot, right? Surely we’d see each other at Disney?

Except that Kelly travels A LOT. She’s a part-time caretaker for her dad who still lives in CA. She has children on both coasts. And she enjoys traveling for pleasure all over the (not Disney) world. Over the past two years we’d made plans to get together at Disney several times which did not come to fruition.

Until now.

En route on the bus I received a text from Kelly that she was in front of City Hall. Our Disney Day was finally happening!

Em and I were bagless and went quickly through security. We snapped a selfie before heading into the park.

Shouts of glee and big hugs all around when we reunited at City Hall. There’s mutual adoration between Em and Kel too.
None of us would allow a little rain to spoil our Disney parade!

Although we did decide on an indoor attraction for our first ride.

Another classic Pirates photo.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I'm in for a new trip report! Sorry I'm late.

 

[Tuvalu]

I haven’t made it through the last trip report yet but saw this one and had to throw in my ‘late again, but here’ post.
Here is to hoping I have a couple of quiet days to catch up on trip reports.

Hope you get to ketchup!

Wow, that food court. We’ve been lucky and managed to avoid the crazy tour groups at the resorts, even though we’re quite often there that time of year. Really hoping that’s all you saw (or heard) of them, while they’re still half asleep.

I only went to the food court that one morning. On purpose.

I'm in for a new trip report! Sorry I'm late.

No worries, we’re just getting started!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Do they have Qdoba in the Orlando airport?

I don’t recall the gate numbers but it’s in the food area of the gates that service Spirit.

 

[Tuvalu]

Kelly was able to (mostly) match her FPs to ours with her seasonal pass. The window for our first FP had opened and we didn’t have far to go.

This was a good thing since the “little rain” had become a full-fledged downpour!

Over the course of our park touring, we discovered several attractions that Kel had either:
1) Never done
2) Did in CA but not in FL
3) Did in FL years ago but couldn’t remember the details

For Em and I, it was like being with a newbie and watching the wonder and excitement on Kelly’s face made us fall in love with Disney all over again. What happened on Jungle Cruise was priceless.

As you can see we were up front on the port side, separated from starboard by the center crates, very close to the skipper.

Look at that rain!!!

Our guide was very amusing and Kel laughed at every joke. As we docked, our skipper gave the usual safety warning about exiting the same way we entered and “Please do not cross over the center crates.”

What did Kelly do? She immediately jumped up, crossed over the center crate (causing a moment of panic on the skipper’s face) and enthusiastically extended her hand to our guide.

“Great job!” Kelly gushed. “Let me shake your hand!”

Rather than scold her for breaking the rule, our skipper beamed in response.

And we reminded Kel later of the importance of obeying safety instructions. (Which literally fell on deaf ears.)

 

[Nunu]

Biscoff cookies.....which are awesome BTW.)

Those are some good cookies! We always get them on American Airlines. Good thing we like them, for that's the only thing we get nowadays!

Em was so startled by a water park advertisement that she had to take a picture
“Mom, that guy looks NAKED!”

He does look naked! I like Em.

the furthest 50s Building, past the Bowling Pin pool.

That's the room location we got on our first POP stay, behind the jukebox icon, past the bowling pool. Poor Frank, he walked all the way to the foodcourt every morning to get our coffee. You're both sweet to do that for Em and me.