Trip Report Completed: March 5-14, 2020: Our Return to WDW and the "Hips and Elbows People, Hips and Elbows!" edition

Hello everyone! It has been one month since we made our return to Walt Disney World, it was 593 days since we had been there. We hadn't been without Disney trips, we were annual passholders of Disneyland during that time. More info in my pre-trip report. Needless to say we were were excited to return. I was a little apprehensive for a few reasons: 1. what if I didn't like WDW as much any more after being away so long and maybe I had fallen too much in love with Disneyland. 2. I was slightly worried about this corona virus thing (maybe I should have been more worried), but I was hopeful we would get through the trip without having to think about it.

In case you don't want to go back to my pre-trip report let me give you a few more details:

Who: Amy and Brad (my husband)
Resort: Pop Century



Let's begin:

March 5, 2020

We had an early morning flight, it is a pain getting up at 3 am but we do like getting to our destination early and being able to spend a lot of our day at our vacation destination. Plus we were early birds so it wasn't too bad. Luckily there wasn't a snow storm and our flight out of Minneapolis was on schedule!

Not much was open so early but Caribou coffee!

Coming up more of our journey and lots of fun, food and beer!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 6, 2020

After the area around the Tower we went to explore more of the grounds. It was lovely and we enjoyed the tropical types of plants. It would have been lovely any time of year, but to us leaving the frozen tundra of Wisconsin and seeing "dead" plants for months it is always a thrill to see green plants and lovely flowers in the spring.

There were a few trails but we elected to do the one that took us through the swampy pond area. It think we both hoped to see a gator, but no gators for us. It was a nice walk though.

We saw these and Brad thought they were oranges. I thought they were kumquats but we were both incorrect, although I was more on track than he was. They are loquats which are related to kumquats.

Then we went to the children's garden and it was a neat nature area for kids and families.

Brad can't pass up an opportunity to play.

There were these types of pavers in the children's area with different creatures on them and I thought the stone work was neat.

Soon it was around lunch time and we had passed an interesting BBQ and Soul Food joint on the way in and we decided to try it out. The food was pretty good. The sauces were tasty but the ribs were a bit oversauced for us and the chicken was a bit dry. We shared the meats and a serving of fries. After lunch we headed back to WDW and stopped at a Publix for some water, seltzers, and a couple bottles of beer.

And we were back!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 6, 2020

And back to the Pop, our room was in the 70's building, to relax for a little bit and change our outfits before we headed out. But where are we going now?

Back to the Polynesian!!! Remember how I had found out that Trader Sam's now opens at 3pm....Brad was as thrilled as I was and we headed a little after 2 pm and got our names on the list maybe around 2:30. We were not the first ones waiting to get on the list either we were about the 5 group. While we waited for 3pm and our text to come we sat outside and enjoyed the view.

And we are in!

I got the Zombie. I wanted the Castaway Crush but it isn't on the menu anymore. I asked our waitress if I could still get it and she said yes if the bartender knew how to make it. As you can see, the bartender didn't know. But I enjoyed the Zombie.

We shared our table area with a nice couple from Ohio. It was fun to chat with them, they were there for a short trip. Oh and Brad got the Mai Tai.

After Trader Sam's we headed to the Swan and Dolphin for dinner. We didn't have any more plans to use the rental car anymore this trip so we returned it to the Dolphin and then had dinner at Il Mulino. We had never tried Il Mulino and we've heard that it is is fantastic to just ho hum. So we decided to try it for ourselves. Any guesses by our outfits where we might be headed after dinner?

My pre-dinner beer. It was okay, I'm not a grapefruit fan so that kind of put me off of it a little. I didn't see it had grapefruit until it came otherwise I wouldn't have ordered it. But it was fine, no beer can go to waste so I drank it.

 

[Zipadeelady]

I haven't had any disney blues since my last trip at the end of summer last year. That is until I saw your early morning walkway pictures. They are beautiful. I miss the landscaping.... I guess I didn't even realize it until i saw your pictures. As I'm scrolling through them taking my time, up came your picture with the Tiki!! I nearly lost a mouthful of cereal onto my laptop. Best picture yet!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 6, 2020

So dinner at Il Mulino....

We started with meats and cheeses. This was very good. We are meats and cheeses types of people. Off to a good start Il Mulino!

I ordered the chicken parm. WOW was it huge!!! Literally the size of my head! It was very good but I couldn't eat all of it and made Brad eat some.

He got the saltimbocca, and this was really good too. We had considered both dishes and decided we would share. He ended up getting almost 1/2 of mine but I only got a couple bites of his, whenever I asked he seemed to forget that we were supposed to share and he got a little salty about it so I gave up. He sometimes does that when we are supposed to share something and he ends up liking what he "ordered" better than what I ordered and forgets the plan.

We also got some pasta to share. This was just okay, the pasta was a little harder than I cook mine and we both would have liked more sauce and ricotta on it.

Inside the restaurants. So what is our verdict on Il Mulino? We enjoyed our meal very much. The food was tasty and a decent value for what we got and could share (if someone remembers to share) in the future. The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice too and we couldn't fault the service. Actually we overheard the lady at the table behind us and she had a huge list of allergies and things that couldn't be in her food and the waiter (who was ours too) was very good about it; made a list, got the chef out, and checked with her many times to make sure everything was okay for her requests. I have had better Italian food before, there are two places in St.Paul MN that are much better but for Italian food at WDW it is good. It won't be on the regular rotation, but we would eat here again.

Alright, it was after dinner. We ate at 5pm because I was able to get fastpasses at the Magic Kingdom before the Villains Party officially started. Because we were going to the Villains Party! Did anyone guess that? I was able to secure fastpasses for Big Thunder Mt., Jungle Cruise, and Buzz so we did those before enjoying party things.

And here it is...Cinderella Castle! We've missed you!

We were going to watch Happily Ever After from the spot I took the picture of the Liberty Belle (almost said Mark Twain, a Disneyland brain moment...) but we were unsure if we would be able to hear the music okay. We we ended up in Fantasyland and found a spot to sit at the gate are behind the carousel. It was nice to sit down and watch from that spot.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 6, 2020

A couple more pictures from Happily Ever After. We enjoy this show a lot more with the projections but we still enjoyed it.

And time to groove on. There was no wait at the teacups so I was ready to spin. I am the type of person who LOVES spinning fast in the teacups and that was one thing I missed at Disneyland. For some reason their cups do not spin fast, the center area to make them spin is really tight and I can only get a couple decent twirls at the corners. So I usually just sit in the cup at Disneyland and enjoy a lame spin and enjoy the scenery. B will ride the teacups at Disneyland because they are tame in the spinning but he will not go on them at the MK because they spin faster. So he did not join me. I was able to get my green and purple teacup. I love the color green and I have found that the green and purple teacups tend to spin faster than some of the other colors.

So spin I did, I was so happy after I got off the attraction. That was worth the trip alone!

After the cups we noticed one of the first special little things put up for the Villains party.

Then we checked out the merchandise and didn't end up buying any. We just didn't care for any of the designs and it was disappointing not to have a pin available for purchase. I did like the design of this but I didn't like the flutter style sleeves.

It was just a couple minutes before the party officially started so we decided to go to Space Mountain since they were doing the special ride in total darkness and had the voices of villains during the ride.

Neither of us like Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom, it is too bumpy and I almost died on it. I was riding it once with my sister and I was in the back and we hit a bump, I had gum in my mouth and the gum got lodged in my throat. It happened near the start of the ride and I finally stopped choking on my gum near the end. That taught me not to chew gum on any coaster.

But anyway, we don't ride it, maybe once every 5 trips because it is just so uncomfortable. Which is people's main complaint about the Matterhorn in Disneyland (bumpy and uncomfortable), yet we love riding the Matterhorn. So because it was special for the party we rode it. Yeah, we don't need to do that again. It was dark, meh. And the villains voices, we really couldn't hear much of what they were saying. We actually heard the villains voices more clearly when we rode through on the Peoplemover later that night.

A quick Space Mt. selfie before going into the dark. Which is good because our pictures never showed up in our photopass.

Coming up soon: more of the Villains Party.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I haven't had any disney blues since my last trip at the end of summer last year. That is until I saw your early morning walkway pictures. They are beautiful. I miss the landscaping.... I guess I didn't even realize it until i saw your pictures. As I'm scrolling through them taking my time, up came your picture with the Tiki!! I nearly lost a mouthful of cereal onto my laptop. Best picture yet!

Sorry to give you a little Disney blues, hopefully you can enjoy the walk soon and take your own crazy tiki pictures.

 

[Tuvalu]

I guessed the Villains Party!

For future reference, you can clearly hear the soundtrack for HEA from most areas of the park....especially near the Liberty Belle.

 

[RememberWhen]

I first had a loco moco at Cafe 100 in Hilo, have you been there? They had many varieties and so many were so cheap and huge portions. I'm not always a fan of fried eggs (I don't like to get runny yolk so it has to be fried hard) so I usually get scrambled. I also like soy sauce on it too. I usually ask for soy sauce at Kona Cafe, and I get an odd look. I asked for soy sauce this last time, and I got it delivered to my table but for some reason none would shake out, I was glad I got the extra gravy.

I was at UH Mānoa on Oahu. I did go to Hilo for a couple days to see Kilauea, but sadly didn’t explore the town too much. My favorite island was Molokai. We took a field trip there and went camping. It was awesome. Highly recommend study “abroad” in Hawaii!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I guessed the Villains Party!

For future reference, you can clearly hear the soundtrack for HEA from most areas of the park....especially near the Liberty Belle.

Congrats on the right guess! I thought I had remembered from your reports that that area would be a good spot and a place to hear the music but I didn't know if I remembered right. We've only watched from in front of the castle or Main Street.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I was at UH Mānoa on Oahu. I did go to Hilo for a couple days to see Kilauea, but sadly didn’t explore the town too much. My favorite island was Molokai. We took a field trip there and went camping. It was awesome. Highly recommend study “abroad” in Hawaii!

That would have been a fun place to study. Molokai was the only island that we haven't been to of the main islands that anyone can go to. I wanted to fit it in but just didn't have the time. Maybe another visit is in order.

 

[Sillysidewalker]

Friday March 6, 2020

A couple more pictures from Happily Ever After. We enjoy this show a lot more with the projections but we still enjoyed it.
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And time to groove on. There was no wait at the teacups so I was ready to spin. I am the type of person who LOVES spinning fast in the teacups and that was one thing I missed at Disneyland. For some reason their cups do not spin fast, the center area to make them spin is really tight and I can only get a couple decent twirls at the corners. So I usually just sit in the cup at Disneyland and enjoy a lame spin and enjoy the scenery. B will ride the teacups at Disneyland because they are tame in the spinning but he will not go on them at the MK because they spin faster. So he did not join me. I was able to get my green and purple teacup. I love the color green and I have found that the green and purple teacups tend to spin faster than some of the other colors.

So spin I did, I was so happy after I got off the attraction. That was worth the trip alone!
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After the cups we noticed one of the first special little things put up for the Villains party.
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Then we checked out the merchandise and didn't end up buying any. We just didn't care for any of the designs and it was disappointing not to have a pin available for purchase. I did like the design of this but I didn't like the flutter style sleeves.
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It was just a couple minutes before the party officially started so we decided to go to Space Mountain since they were doing the special ride in total darkness and had the voices of villains during the ride.

Neither of us like Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom, it is too bumpy and I almost died on it. I was riding it once with my sister and I was in the back and we hit a bump, I had gum in my mouth and the gum got lodged in my throat. It happened near the start of the ride and I finally stopped choking on my gum near the end. That taught me not to chew gum on any coaster.

But anyway, we don't ride it, maybe once every 5 trips because it is just so uncomfortable. Which is people's main complaint about the Matterhorn in Disneyland (bumpy and uncomfortable), yet we love riding the Matterhorn. So because it was special for the party we rode it. Yeah, we don't need to do that again. It was dark, meh. And the villains voices, we really couldn't hear much of what they were saying. We actually heard the villains voices more clearly when we rode through on the Peoplemover later that night.
View attachment 462327

A quick Space Mt. selfie before going into the dark. Which is good because our pictures never showed up in our photopass.
View attachment 462328

Coming up soon: more of the Villains Party.

Green is my favorite color and I love spinning rides! We would make good teacup partners!!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Green is my favorite color and I love spinning rides! We would make good teacup partners!!!

Well if we are ever there at the same time, I'll ride the teacups with you!

 

[Kiwiduck]

Friday March 6, 2020

More on my journey to the Grand Floridian. I was excited to have a close up view of the wedding pavillion. I had wanted to get married at WDW but at the time Brad wasn't as into Disney parks as he is now, and with him being a new pastor he thought that the best way to get married was in a church. Now he has different views. So we compromised and had our honeymoon at WDW, which until we got there he wasn't that thrilled about it. He had been to WDW twice with his family and didn't remember much from the first trip and the second trip was after his dad had passed away and he said his mom and sisters just wanted to be by the pool and not ride many rides; not even Thunder Mt! In the end I'm glad we just had our honeymoon at WDW, a wedding there would have been fun but much more expensive than the wedding we had.

Anyway, the wedding pavillion is very pretty. It would have been nice to go inside but it was locked up tight. Yes, I checked!

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View of the castle from here.
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made it to the GF
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I spent some time on the dock. It was very relaxing and quiet. I could hear the monorail spiel faintly in the distance.
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Your morning photos are so beautiful - In a non Covid world I would be gearing up now for my stay at the Poly in May and your photos made me feel so wistful for my lost trip (and Money ).

 

[MinnieM123]

I'm thrilled that you got to see Bok Tower and the gorgeous gardens!! That's one place I'd love to see.

(Outside of the "Bubble" I've been to the Florida Citrus Tower and tour up in Clermont, and also I've seen the old classic, Cypress Gardens -- but, well before it got sold to some other company and it all changed, and not for the better, years ago).

There are other places I've been as well, but those two stood out in my mind. Both were side trips a number of years ago.

 

[Sabrina1705]

All caught up! Following along for the rest of your report.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Your morning photos are so beautiful - In a non Covid world I would be gearing up now for my stay at the Poly in May and your photos made me feel so wistful for my lost trip (and Money ).

Thanks, it is a lovely walk. Hopefully you will enjoy a stay at the Poly in the near future.

All caught up! Following along for the rest of your report.

Thanks for following.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Friday March 6, 2020

After the area around the Tower we went to explore more of the grounds. It was lovely and we enjoyed the tropical types of plants. It would have been lovely any time of year, but to us leaving the frozen tundra of Wisconsin and seeing "dead" plants for months it is always a thrill to see green plants and lovely flowers in the spring.

Lovely gardens pics. We also were thrilled to see green plants during our February trip. I bet the locals are amused by us Northerners being so excited about flowers or air that doesn’t hurt etc.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I'm thrilled that you got to see Bok Tower and the gorgeous gardens!! That's one place I'd love to see.

(Outside of the "Bubble" I've been to the Florida Citrus Tower and tour up in Clermont, and also I've seen the old classic, Cypress Gardens -- but, well before it got sold to some other company and it all changed, and not for the better, years ago).

There are other places I've been as well, but those two stood out in my mind. Both were side trips a number of years ago.

It was nice to see something else outside the "Bubble". If we are able to take our June trip we are thinking of renting a car again for one day, mostly because we will need to go to Walgreens to pick up one of my medications. So there are a couple more botanical gardens in the Orlando area that are included with our Arboretum membership so we might do that. I might have to keep the Citrus Tower in mind. When I was younger we went to Cypress Gardens a few times. I remember seeing the ski show and I have a picture of my dad standing next to some girl in a big Southern Belle type outfit, so that must have been a thing there.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Lovely gardens pics. We also were thrilled to see green plants during our February trip. I bet the locals are amused by us Northerners being so excited about flowers or air that doesn’t hurt etc.

Thank you! I'm sure they are a little amused by our excitement over plants, and our willingness to wear shorts in 60 degree temps!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Friday March 6, 2020

Soon it was time for the first showing of the Villains stage show, so we headed over there. It was a cute show, we had thought about maybe seeing it twice if we really liked it but we both agreed that once was enough for the night. Don't get me wrong, we both enjoyed the show but wanted to do other stuff too. I liked how the projections on the castle really enhanced the story and highlighted each Villain. Basically the story of the show was that Hades and the other Villains have a chance to control the world (or something like that ) when the planets align and then join together.