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!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
If I ever go through with my Solo trip, taking a backstage tour sounds like a great thing to do.

Solo trips are fun! And the tour would be a great part of any trip.

thanks for the additions! The bacon is on our bucket list :)

Can't go wrong with bacon!

I am loving your trip report!

Thanks!:)

Really? Not even an "I'm sorry"?"Ooops, didn't realize."? Some people.:banghead:

Nope, nothing. That's why I was a little glad (I'm evil) when they couldn't find a table to sit at and had to eat their snacks standing up hovering over their double wide stroller!
 

LeighM

Well-Known Member
Loved hearing about the backstage tour. It's one I've often thought about but haven't yet done. And I ALWAYS have issues with the morning bus to Epcot. It's happened every single trip - at both POR and CSR. Our wait is always 40 minutes or more but we never have that issue with any other morning park bus. I wish I could convince my husband to take a half a day away in the middle of the trip but he never wants to separate as he's worried about getting lost. All I would really need is a few hours to myself for one day lol. The closest I came to having time any time apart was this last trip with my inlaws. My SIL and I did the Spike hunt around World Showcase while the brothers did their own thing. And funny you should mention the Disney info channel as the nap channel because that's what I listen to at home when I'm having a hard time getting to sleep. I downloaded the WDW Today app which plays that channel loop.
 

Gurt

Well-Known Member
The tour sounds great not sure I could drop the dollars on it though it's an expensive tour. I agree with the WOD new signage I do not like it. A do you own thing day seems like a good idea, there is always the 3 of us on our trips, me, Chris & my mum we have already decided that we need to do our own things and separate, bless my mum she is not as quick on her feet as she used to be thanks to arthritis and she definitely can't do the early starts to late nights anymore and she is happy to take things at her own pace as long as we still get to do most things together.
 

93boomer

Premium Member
Continuing July 12: My Backstage Magic Tour!

Our next stop was one of the laundry facilities. I wasn't expecting much, but it was actually really neat to see how it is run and to see the laundry bins on large overhead conveyors reminded me of the door scene from Monster's Inc. There are 4 facilities and we went to the one that does the laundry for the deluxe resorts but the other facilities are run similarly. It also was really hot in the building but our guide told us that the laundry facility has the highest cast member satisfaction rate on property.

Another picture spot.
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After laundry we went to our lunch stop of Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge. It was a nice meal and my tablemates were pleasant to talk to.
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After lunch was the stop I was looking forward to the most, central shops! It is here testing, fixing, painting, building of some attraction things for the parks goes on. Again, there was so much I wanted to take pictures of but couldn't. It is strange but I just got so excited to see a Doombuggy, a Teacup, and a Spaceship Earth ride vehicle all next to each other. I think they took us through when most people were on breaks or they were told to take a break when the tour came through because we didn't see anyone actually working on anything here. When we did see some people on the floor in one of the shops they were just sitting around and on their phones. I guess I can understand that. We did get to see an elephant from the Jungle Cruise from the Africa scene being refurbed and most of the "skin" had been stripped away.

I had hoped we would actually go into the Animatronic Shop but we didn't we did see two displays outside the shop. Mindy asked a question about Animatronics and no one knew the answer, I knew it though. I waited though to answer because I didn't want to be the know-it-all on the tour but when no one answered I piped up and I was right and given the reward of pressing the button to operate the tiki bird (seen in the top part of the picture below). But the big display was the polar bear from the Maelstrom! I was super excited to see that and get my picture take with it. I was pretty bummed when I saw my picture later and saw that Peter had taken a blurry picture. But it is still fun to have the picture.
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So after the excitement of Central Shops we headed to our last stop of the Utilidoors under the Magic Kingdom. On the way we passed the land clearing for Tron, since we were on a road that anyone can travel on I figured I could take some pictures. It was just land clearing so not really too exciting.

Here was the roundhouse for the trains.
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Tron land clearing
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Once in the Magic Kingdom we entered on onstage for a comfort break. Picture time!
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My sneaky picture of onstage and off stage at the same time. This was by the "backstage" area that is used by the Plaza area during crowded periods or as entrances to the holiday parties. So we did go down into the utilidoor area under Main Street. We walked the whole Main Street area. I had been in the utilidoor area before on the Keys to the Kingdom tour and I didn't really learn anything knew here. But it was neat to see it again and for longer than the Keys tour had been. I kept on alert for the Dapper Dans, I think it would have been cool to run into them down there. I didn't see them but we did see the marching band members.
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After the utilidoors we boarded the bus and headed back to Epcot. There was a little more information on the way back but the tour was basically done. Back at Epcot the guides gave us our pin and code to get pictures and encouraged us to take as many cookies and waters as we wanted. So I stocked up.
That is such a cool tour! May have to do it!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Loved hearing about the backstage tour. It's one I've often thought about but haven't yet done. And I ALWAYS have issues with the morning bus to Epcot. It's happened every single trip - at both POR and CSR. Our wait is always 40 minutes or more but we never have that issue with any other morning park bus. I wish I could convince my husband to take a half a day away in the middle of the trip but he never wants to separate as he's worried about getting lost. All I would really need is a few hours to myself for one day lol. The closest I came to having time any time apart was this last trip with my inlaws. My SIL and I did the Spike hunt around World Showcase while the brothers did their own thing. And funny you should mention the Disney info channel as the nap channel because that's what I listen to at home when I'm having a hard time getting to sleep. I downloaded the WDW Today app which plays that channel loop.

I think next time I need to go to Epcot early I might take an Uber, I've run into this problem a couple times as well. The first time we did the time apart on a trip I thought it would be weird but it is fun and just what we need sometimes. Even if he does a quick round of golf for a couple hours and I do park time, it gives a nice little break and something new to talk about when we meet up.

I actually used a youtube converter to download the WDW Today music to put into my iTunes. I was listening to it at work and got sleepy. I guess I'm trained to fall asleep to it!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
The tour sounds great not sure I could drop the dollars on it though it's an expensive tour. I agree with the WOD new signage I do not like it. A do you own thing day seems like a good idea, there is always the 3 of us on our trips, me, Chris & my mum we have already decided that we need to do our own things and separate, bless my mum she is not as quick on her feet as she used to be thanks to arthritis and she definitely can't do the early starts to late nights anymore and she is happy to take things at her own pace as long as we still get to do most things together.

Yeah, the tour is pricey that is why I have put it off for so many years. But I'm so glad that I finally did it. Seeing some of the behind the scenes makes WDW more special knowing how some of it works. If I would have paid for more people to do the tour than just me, it might have been a different story on its value though! ;)
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Okay I left off with us going to have dinner at Chefs de France after our time apart (me on Backstage Magic and him golfing & laundry). Once we were seated we finally starting sharing our stories.

The meal on my end was: food = fine, but atmosphere a little torturous. I don't think it had anything to do with the restaurant at all I think it was me and my food choices. I got a beer and the prixe fixe menu and I got the French onion soup. It was delicious, but I think it caused me to overheat. Somethings I get hot when my blood sugar is off, but it wasn't that because I had checked it on the Friendship over. Between the beer and the soup I was hot! I just couldn't cool down and I even went to the bathroom to splash some cool water on some pulse points, it just didn't help. So I was uncomfortable and just looking forward to being done with the meal. Brad on the other hand (who is always hot) was comfortable and enjoyed his food more. I suppose eating hot soup in hot weather wasn't a good idea. It really bummed me out too because I was really looking forward to this meal.

Oh I didn't get a picture of B's drink, but you can probably guess what it was.....yep a rum and Coke.

Anyway here is a look at our Chefs de France meal.
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French onion soup
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Brad's tuna tartare
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He got a brioche bun with the tuna.
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I got the beef bourguignon. (it could have used a bit more sauce the noodles really soaked it up)
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B got steak and potatoes. This was really tasty.
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Me trying to be happy, but dying inside with heat.
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My dessert that I shared with Brad. The ice cream was some welcome coolness.
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And a blurry picture of the restaurant.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After diner we made our way over to the Studios via a Friendship. We were lucky enough to get a back row spot. With the cool breeze in back I was able to cool down by the time we got to the Studios.

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Someone didn't want their picture taken so he made funny faces at me.
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Gondola construction.
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When we got to the Studios we made our way to TSL because we had a fast pass for Mania. When we got there it was down and we saw this on MDE.
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Most of the attractions were down so we stood in about a 20 minute line for Saucers, which was fine because there wasn't much else to do yet and now we got to experience it at night. We liked it better at night when the lights were flashing and glowing, it was like a Toy Story disco.
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After we thought about slinky dog but the line was long and by now Mania was up and running so we headed to that.
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And I won.
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Then made our way to TOT.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
A quick back track to TSL, a couple cool night pictures to share.
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Now back to Sunset Boulevard....
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We got a fast pass to the second Fantastmic, we totally didn't need the fast pass, there was plenty of space. But with the pass we had a good centered section and luckily people didn't cram in next to us. The space all around us was free of people. I have a love/hate feelings about Fantasmic. Disneyland's even the new version is just so much better and has better effects, I just always feel a little sad about Hollywood Studios version. HS's version has the nice theater and has the potential to be so much better but just misses. Disneyland's is a must do every time, even though I have to sit on the ground, HS's is not a must do every time. I am still entertained but it just could be better.

The sections to my left were even more empty. Some sections didn't even have people in them once the show started.
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And now for some poor pictures of Fantasmic.
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After Fantasmic, we were able to hop on a bus right away (with seats) and had a good nights sleep at the hotel.
 

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