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
You have more restraint than I :joyfull: I would’ve walked up all giddy and excited and been like “hi there, Disney forum internet Friend that I’m envious of because she gets to Disney-it-up so often AND her cooler than cool youth pastor husband!” It would have been like seeing a celebrity for me. :cool: I probably would’ve frightened them. :oops:

Edit: once at CR I could’ve swore I saw @ajrwdwgirl. I kept trying to check the lady out and see if Brad was nearby. When 4 little ones came walking up to her with their dad in tow, I realized it wasn’t her. The lady probably thought I was crazy :facepalm:

I would be just as excited to meet you! Meeting people from these forums has been fun, it is always fun to chat Disney with people who totally "get it".

I think you mentioned the story before of thinking you recognized me. Funny! :)
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
I love the photos you took at the Contemporary -- what a fun breakfast with the characters. I also really like your matching t-shirts that day! :happy:

Thanks for the very nice close-ups of parts of the Mary Blair tile, in the Grand Canyon concourse. The MB tile is one of my classic favorites, and any time I happy to get over to the Contemporary, I just stand there and look up, and STARE in awe! What an incredible piece of artwork.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I love the photos you took at the Contemporary -- what a fun breakfast with the characters. I also really like your matching t-shirts that day! :happy:

Thanks for the very nice close-ups of parts of the Mary Blair tile, in the Grand Canyon concourse. The MB tile is one of my classic favorites, and any time I happy to get over to the Contemporary, I just stand there and look up, and STARE in awe! What an incredible piece of artwork.

Thank Minnie! I actually thought about you whenever I've seen the mural in the Grand Canyon concourse, I remember you saying how much you loved it.
 

Laurenciaa

Well-Known Member
Oh man! I'm so bummed now! It would have been so cool to meet you. And it wouldn't have been awkward, you could have just said you were from the wdwmagic boards. My hubs had met another forum member with me previously on the trip so he wouldn't have thought anything of it. Which picture are in the background of?

Anyway, it is cool that I had been recognized. I'm just glad I was behaving myself! I am also glad that you had a fun time at Chef Mickey's and on your trip. Who knows maybe we crossed paths at some other point on our trips. Where did you stay?

We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort but did some resort hopping during our morning Chararcter Breakfasts ! Next time, I'm greeting all of you if I spot one of the fellow WDWmagic members !

Thanks again for sharing! It makes my mornings in Belgium a bit less dull!
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
You can decline Mousekeeping at the All Stars for sure and I think Pop Century as well and maybe some of the moderates. I don't believe it is offered at all at the deluxe resorts. I like the extra money ($10 a night) that I turn around and give Disney (well, duh it's on a gift card), and we are fairly neat people so it isn't like the place is a pig sty. :)

If you decline Mousekeeping, are you still able to receive fresh towels & washcloths? We wouldn't need new towels every day as we use them three to four times before switching to a new one, but we do like a fresh washcloth every day (I know the last thing I wash in the shower, and I'm not washing my face the next day with the same cloth :eek:)
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort but did some resort hopping during our morning Chararcter Breakfasts ! Next time, I'm greeting all of you if I spot one of the fellow WDWmagic members !

Thanks again for sharing! It makes my mornings in Belgium a bit less dull!

The Coronado is a nice resort, a friend and I stayed there in June and I was reminded of how much I liked it.

I don’t know, Belgium doesn’t sound boring to me but I’m glad you are enjoying my report. 😊
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
If you decline Mousekeeping, are you still able to receive fresh towels & washcloths? We wouldn't need new towels every day as we use them three to four times before switching to a new one, but we do like a fresh washcloth every day (I know the last thing I wash in the shower, and I'm not washing my face the next day with the same cloth :eek:)

Yes if you decline mousekeeping you can still call to request more towels, washcloths, soap, etc... I like having a fresh washcloth every day too. Just call housekeeping and let them know how many you would like delivered.

We did get request full cleaning service for our room two other days when we were there. So they just added $10 for each full service back to our bill.
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Yes if you decline mousekeeping you can still call to request more towels, washcloths, soap, etc... I like having a fresh washcloth every day too. Just call housekeeping and let them know how many you would like delivered.

We did get request full cleaning service for our room two other days when we were there. So they just added $10 for each full service back to our bill.

Thanks for the info! We're DVC members so we're used to not having daily service, but I'm trying to talk DH in to a cash trip soon, so this is very helpful!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
More of Day 6 July 10
After lounging a bit in the Yacht Club lobby we were finally ready to head to dessert....
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We headed to the Boardwalk for Ample Hills.
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And there is only one flavor for me....Nona's Oatmeal Lace cookie. Nom nom nom nom:hungry:
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Then we headed off to Hollywood Studios to check out Toy Story land at night. Here's a look at the gondola area at the Studios from the boat.
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We did ride Slinky but we were delayed because of lightning in the area. The ride is fun at night, the lighting is cool on the track.

And that was the end of day 6!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 7: July 11

Once again we headed to the Studios, but we went later than 6:00 am this morning. We had a fast pass for Slinky this morning so we didn't see the need to rush to it first thing. We had a more leisurely approach to the morning.
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The wait time was short (walk on for Mania) so we rode that twice. I won both times. It was nice to see Mr. Potatohead again in line!
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We did had some time before Slinky and we ended up on a bench by the bathroom and B pointed out that the sun on the blocks by the bathroom (I think this was at the bottom of the boys sign blocks) looked like the Tangled sun.
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We wandered around and did the usual Tower of Terror and Star Tours. But we also checked out Walt Disney Presents.
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We checked out the expanded Galaxy's Edge model. We saw the full model at D23 Expo last year, but it is still neat to check out what they are showing of this one.
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Then we had to check out the gate.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 7 July 11 Continued...

We went to Baseline Taphouse shortly after it opened. I got a flight, I let B choose my beers. He got a rum and coke, and we got a pretzel. We enjoyed the view and the air conditioning!
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After Baseline we wandered around and did a couple attractions but around noon we headed to the Brown Derby for Dine with an Imagineer. I had done this lunch on my own a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. This was Brad's first experience with it. It was a great experience. The Imagineer we got was in graphic design and had recently worked on Toy Story land and Pandora. It was interesting hearing him talk about the challenges of design, he said one of the major challenges he had in TSL was with the Swirling Saucers marquee because of all the stuff they had to put in for it to function but it also had space issues.

The only irritation of the experience was two of our fellow tablemates. Everyone was an adult at the table but we had two guys that were kind of know-it-alls and seemed to want to show off their Disney knowledge instead of learning from Matt, our Imagineer. The one guy was with his wife, sister, and mom and dad. The mom and dad asked some very interesting questions but the guy was busy either showing off his knowledge, was critical of the designs Matt had worked on, or was asking questions that weren't relevant and sometimes repeating questions that Matt had either already answered or said he didn't know. Example: In the Slinky Dog queue, right where the ride starts is a TRex toy box and there are "facts" on the box. The guys asked why the facts were so vague and didn't offer for real facts to educate about dinosaurs. Matt, was very patient with this guy, but I think he was getting a little annoyed too and answered back with it was designed as a real toy box would be. The guy also started asking questions about Spaceship Earth (noting our Imagineer had even worked with) and critiquing what he would change about things. Eventually I think his family told him to cool it because he eventually pulled out a drawing pad and didn't say much more. Also Brad later overheard a conversation in the men's room with the guy and his dad where the guy was complaining about not getting to ask all his questions and the dad told him he had dominated the conversation enough anyway.

The other kind of annoying guy was across from me. He actually had good questions. The part that annoyed me is he kept kicking my feet and legs under the table and I didn't have my legs stretched out either. My legs were tight against my chair especially after I was kicked the first time. He didn't seem to notice he was kicking me and not a table leg and I didn't want to make a scene but I did shoot him a couple looks which he didn't seem to pick up on. I guess I thought he would figure it out. About halfway through the meal he ended up pressing down really hard on my food and I was sick of being kicked so I kicked back and then he looked surprised and the kicking my legs and feet stopped.

So anyway, we predicted that there would be some annoyances, it seems as if there is one in every crowd. We were happy that the conversation wasn't dominated by someone trying to get a job at WDI like I've read some others have experienced. And the food was good too. The last time I did this lunch we got a signed plate but this time we didn't, which is fine. We did take our picture with him though. I would recommend the experience.
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After lunch it was time to head back to the resort for some rest.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
More of day 7:

Once we got back to our resort there was a friend waiting outside our elevator area waiting for us!
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We actually think he was there to greet the large girls tour group from Argentina that took up residence in a large part of the Mighty Ducks section for the rest of the week. When we saw them moving in, including into the room next to ours we were ready for a terrible experience. They actually were very quiet in their rooms and didn't bother us around the area at all, at least not much. They seemed to not know how to let people off of an elevator before trying to enter it though. And one day at the pool (we were getting ready to leave anyway) many of them brought portable speakers down and blasted their music. But both of those things could happen even with non-tour groups.


Coming up: the rest of Day 7 with a lounge tour at Disney Springs!
 

susan lees

Well-Known Member
Yes if you decline mousekeeping you can still call to request more towels, washcloths, soap, etc... I like having a fresh washcloth every day too. Just call housekeeping and let them know how many you would like delivered.

We did get request full cleaning service for our room two other days when we were there. So they just added $10 for each full service back to our bill.
Is that new? I remember reading somewhere that it was an all or nothing deal.
 

susan lees

Well-Known Member
More of Day 6 July 10
After lounging a bit in the Yacht Club lobby we were finally ready to head to dessert....
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We headed to the Boardwalk for Ample Hills.
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And there is only one flavor for me....Nona's Oatmeal Lace cookie. Nom nom nom nom:hungry:
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Then we headed off to Hollywood Studios to check out Toy Story land at night. Here's a look at the gondola area at the Studios from the boat.
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We did ride Slinky but we were delayed because of lightning in the area. The ride is fun at night, the lighting is cool on the track.

And that was the end of day 6!
I really love the parks after dark, it's like getting a whole new park :happy:
 

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