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!
 

worldfanatic

Well-Known Member
I tried for years and years to get on that damn balloon before finally having success last year.
I'm not kidding when I say I checked on it at least 10 times before, and every single time it was closed due to wind or some other reason..
Unfortunately Tracy was still back at our hotel, Saratoga Springs, when I came across it open. I called her, but she said to just go ahead and do it without her.

I suppose I shouldn't have bought the picture without her, but I was just so excited that I finally got to ride it. Lol
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 11: July 15

Today was an Epcot day! The plan was to rope drop Test Track, but we were waiting near the front of the rope a CM started telling people that Test Track wouldn't be opening right away. So we diverted to Soarin'.
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While we were waiting the Jammitors came to perform which was awesome. I don't think the the teens in front of me were impressed with them they kept saying that "these guys should shut up already" and "why don't they let us through to get away from this". Ugh, I just rolled my eye, apparently the teens didn't know a classy act when they see it.
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As we headed to Soarin' I snapped a picture of the old Circle of Life waiting area, for some reason the carpet on the wall seems groovy to me.


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Then we got to the load area of Soarin and we were directed to the side section and the lady in front of me starts freaking out. She said she couldn't sit on the side because her son need the exact middle otherwise he would be violently motion sick. Really lady?:rolleyes: The exact middle? Well she threw such a fit and I do mean fit that the cm lead them off. The husband looked embarrassed as he walked off. It turned out okay for us though, sure we were on the side but it we had seats right next to the middle so really nothing looked super wonky on the screen.
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Then it was time to meet some characters!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 11 July 15

All the characters were enamored with Brad's shirt. So much so that Goofy all but ignored me. The big cheese Mickey was still as gentlemanly as ever though.
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Then we headed back to the Land for Livin' with the Land.
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We also met up with some friend at the Seasons restaurant for a quick visit before continuing on to World Showcase.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
July 15 Day 11

Since we were in Mexico we decided to stop into La Cava for some chips and a margarita. We both went for the avocado one. I was glad he listened to me this time on his margarita choice this time, then I didn't have to hear him whine about him picking the wrong flavor. The plan was to use our Frozen fast pass after margaritas but while we were enjoying our drinks we got a notice that Frozen was down.
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So we continued on to the American Adventure. We could see a little of the new exhibit in the rotunda area. It looks very interesting but it wasn't officially open so we could only peek through the window.
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We also enjoyed the Voice of Liberty before the show.
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Then it was time to head out.
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Out the International Gateway and a peek at gondola construction.
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To the Beach Club to their bus stop for a ride to Disney Springs.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
July 15 Day 11

The bus to the Springs arrived quickly and soon we were on our way to brunch at Homecoming!

The Springs were looking pretty today.
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On the journey to Homecomin' we noticed that the Aerophile was running. Of course it would be when we didn't have time to stop before brunch. So we hoped it would still be going after brunch.
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Time for brunch! And it was yummy. We shared the appetizer doughnuts. Then he got the friend chicken with doughnuts and I got the hallelujah biscuit (bacon, fried chicken, gravy, pimento cheese , biscuit & eggs)! It was a meal of undetermined but probably millions of calories but it was so worth it!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 11 July 15

We left Homecomin' stuffed and saw the Aerophile in the air! We were excited that we might actually be able to use the voucher @Zipitidoda gave us! The line didn't look too long, only about 5 groups ahead of us but it took over 20 minutes to get to the ticket window. The lady was so slow and she was chatting on the phone to someone at the same time. Ugh! We declined to buy the picture, we figured we could take a picture of us with the balloon in the background ourselves.

We made it into the balloon and there is definatley not a lot of space in the basket area. It is just a walkway. There is a little space to pass by people but it is awkward. We luckily got a spot looking over towards Epcot and the MK so we didn't move from that area. The ride is smooth, and we were told when there would be bumps. I'm a little afraid of heights but I was okay in this, it is all netted. Actually I didn't realize we were so far up until I really looked down. For most of the ride I was looking ahead trying to see Epcot, HS & MK, while at the same time Hubs was busy studying the nearby Lake Buena Vista golf course! Once we both truly looked down we did a "Whoa!" at about the same time. The ride lasted about 10 minutes or maybe less. It seemed to go by really fast. I was glad I did it, and very thankful for the voucher but I don't feel the need to do it again.

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They all look like tiny little ants!
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Zoom to Epcot!
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After the Aerophile we headed back to the resort for a nap.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
July 15 Day 11

On the way back to the movies we passed the Star Wars construction and hubs was fast asleep. I couldn't resist a picture of him sleeping while passing it by because he is SO excited about this new land. I think it is funny that he looks a little sad/angry in the picture too.
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Once we woke up from our nap we headed over to Epcot our goal was to make it to the 6:45pm Guardians show. We knew we were cutting it a little close on time, but as long as a bus arrived within about 10 minutes of us getting to the bus stop we would be okay. Well we arrived and the bus time said the bus would be there soon, then all of a sudden the bus time was 20 minutes from then. Ummm, that was not going to work. So I ordered a Lyft and the driver had just dropped someone off at the Sports so it was picking us up literally less than 2 minutes after I ordered. He was a fun driver and dropped us off at the Beach Club and we were at the Guardians show with time to spare! I had seen the show in June with my friend and enjoyed it and it was just as fun the second time.

Oh while we were waiting we saw some people sit in the handicap area ahead of us and they did not have anyone in a wheelchair with them. They were all asked to vacate the area when people with chairs arrived. One group did not take it well and started to put up a bit of a fuss and then they saw the little girl in the wheelchair. Then they shut up and moved, it was a little funny to watch them sit in the spot thinking they had scored special seats, then be upset, and then quickly swallow their discontent when they actually saw who was taking "their" spot.

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After Guardians we had a fast pass to use from earlier in the day. This time it was easy peasy.
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And we checked out the new display in the Stave Church.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 11 July 15

After Norway we headed over to the Boardwalk to get some Ample Hills ice cream. It was National Ice Cream Day so it seemed like the right thing to do. .....Side note we were supposed to eat at Boma this evening but after we got back to our resort in the afternoon after Homecoming it was clear that we wouldn't be able to do the buffet justice so we floated it to another night but ultimately canceled it. It made us sad because we had been looking forward to it.

Anyway, back to Ample Hills, I guess a lot of other people were celebrating Ice Cream day because the line was long, but it moved fast.
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The answer is always yes! Right @Longers
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Brad's ice cream. I told him to get a cup, even with his cone. He didn't listen to me. We got outside and I sat down at a table steps away from the door and he started to sit and then looked down at his cone then said to me, "my cone is starting to come apart" and looked at me helplessly. I told him to go in and ask for a bowl, he did and I didn't even say I told you so. He got chocolate milk and cookies.
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I got....Oatmeal Cookie of course.
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We had a pleasant time with our ice cream, then took the boat to Hollywood Studios. We headed to Toy Storyland and decided to share the brisket sandwich at Woody's Lunchbox. It was okay. The meat was good but the bread had a strange burnt garlic taste to it. There were only 8 tots to share.
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Then we caught the Star Wars fireworks. We might have ridden something but it was either Alien or Mania, I don't have a picture so maybe we didn't.....
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Then we wandered out of the park and back to the resort for a good night's sleep.
 

Longers

Well-Known Member
Day 11 July 15

After Norway we headed over to the Boardwalk to get some Ample Hills ice cream. It was National Ice Cream Day so it seemed like the right thing to do. .....Side note we were supposed to eat at Boma this evening but after we got back to our resort in the afternoon after Homecoming it was clear that we wouldn't be able to do the buffet justice so we floated it to another night but ultimately canceled it. It made us sad because we had been looking forward to it.

Anyway, back to Ample Hills, I guess a lot of other people were celebrating Ice Cream day because the line was long, but it moved fast.
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The answer is always yes! Right @Longers
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Brad's ice cream. I told him to get a cup, even with his cone. He didn't listen to me. We got outside and I sat down at a table steps away from the door and he started to sit and then looked down at his cone then said to me, "my cone is starting to come apart" and looked at me helplessly. I told him to go in and ask for a bowl, he did and I didn't even say I told you so. He got chocolate milk and cookies.
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I got....Oatmeal Cookie of course.
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We had a pleasant time with our ice cream, then took the boat to Hollywood Studios. We headed to Toy Storyland and decided to share the brisket sandwich at Woody's Lunchbox. It was okay. The meat was good but the bread had a strange burnt garlic taste to it. There were only 8 tots to share.
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Then we caught the Star Wars fireworks. We might have ridden something but it was either Alien or Mania, I don't have a picture so maybe we didn't.....
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Then we wandered out of the park and back to the resort for a good night's sleep.

Silly question!

Of course the answer is always


Yes!
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
A couple other early morning shots of Animal Kingdom.

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I thought these were cute, but I don't need a plush and if I gave it to my dog she would "kill" it within a couple minutes.
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Cute? Scary? Interesting and cool, that's for sure.
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And hubs took this on the way into the park.
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MAn, so good photos! awesome read so far!
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
More of day 10 July 14

Lunch today was at Sanaa. It was a new restaurant for us and we were excited to try it. In short, the food was fantastic, we had a good server, but our table didn't have a fantastic view. We were kind of tucked into a corner area, so that was disappointing. I would ask for a better table next time, but by the time we got here (despite our snack) we were hungry.

It was also our first time at Kidani Village too.
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This was taken from the main lobby of Kidani Village.
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Bread service with all the dips. Yum!
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I got the Sanaa burger with seasoned house made chips. Yummy!
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Here's a look at the inside of it.
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At one point I wandered over to the main window area to take a picture of the view, we couldn't see this from our table at all.
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This was the smaller window that was closest to us, but still we couldn't see any of the view from our table.
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B got the AFrican sausage. He enjoyed it. Overall we loved the food but would wait for a better table next time.
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After our lunch we caught a bus back to AK to get back to the All Stars. The bus to AK came within about a minutes and we were let off in the same area of our All Star bus which also came within a couple minutes.
Sanaa is def worth it. but everytime I've been there.. its full to the seams! All good tables gets taken fast.

btw, try the curry combo sampler ( I think it has 3 curries), really good.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
MAn, so good photos! awesome read so far!
Hey! they even added the hints to Della Duck;s from the new Ducktales show.
Sanaa is def worth it. but everytime I've been there.. its full to the seams! All good tables gets taken fast.

btw, try the curry combo sampler ( I think it has 3 curries), really good.

Thanks! I enjoyed the details in the backdrops and Della Duck hint too. It was nice to see the effort going into something that few people would take the time to look at up close. We did think about the curry combo but a burger sound good and it had enough out of the ordinary stuff on it to be special. And hubs, I can't remember why he picked the sausage. Oh well, just something to try the next time.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 12 July 16

Sorry for the delay on updating. The last couple weeks have been busy and I had a cold and blah blah blah. Anyway, here we go...

Today Brad spent the morning golfing. He went back to Lake Buena Vista and didn't take any pictures. He had a good time with the guys he got paired with. At the end of his second round he ran into the Belgians he had golfed with a few days ago and they waved him over to have a couple drinks with them. So he had a great morning of golf.


So since I was on my own, and I had woken up when he did to go golfing. I decided to hit up Hollywood Studios and got there a little before 6:30. The crowd was a little more pushy today walking to Slinky Dog. I was walking at a nice even pace and this guy kept trying to push past me and eventually stepped on the back of my foot/ankle taking off part of my shoe which shows how close he got. He wasn't sorry at all and told me that is what I should expect in crowds. Ummm, no there is no reason to expect that you should be pushing at me and stepping on my foot. I did quickly get my shoe back on, and in the end I got on Slinky Dog before him which I found to be pleasant justice.

During our Dine with our Imagineer meal our Imagineer made a special reference to the T-Rex box in the queue so I made sure to pay more attention to it this time. He had mentioned the price on the price tag was the year Toy Story came out and some other features like the "fun facts". Which the super annoying guy at our lunch had criticized because they weren't totally factual and questioned why the facts weren't more actual facts. And our Imgaineer responded with because it is meant to be a TOY box for children.

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After Slinky Dog I was going to ride again but the line was really long today, so I went to Alien and other parts of the land.
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I had a super awkward meet and greet with Woody and Jessie. I didn't like my picture so I didn't post that but they looked good in a solo picture.
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I had a fun spin on Mania and we got stuck at the end so I took a couple pictures of the area. Mr Potatohead was up in the queue which I was surprised about since it was so early.
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Then I headed off to Tower of Terror and rode that a few times in a row.
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The misters were going which actually made the area more humid.
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Then I decided to do a ride that I rarely do because going upside tends to give me headaches. And after the ride my head did hurt a little. At least I was able to do solo rider and got through in about 10 minutes total.
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