Trip Report COMPLETED: The Cold(s) Didn't Bother Us Anyway

...well, maybe it / they did bother us a little bit, but we can get into that later!

If you missed my pre-trip report, you can find it here: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/what-am-i-getting-myself-into.934410/

Now let's get into the details:
WHO: Me (Kelli), my husband (Tim), son #1 (SJ) & son #2 (H)

WHEN: 1/15-1/20
WHERE: Disney's Pop Century Resort
WHY: Again, let's be real, this isn't necessary! But, if we really need a reason, I couldn't stand being away from my most favorite place any longer!! And, the kiddos were both "free" (as in, we didn't have to pay for tickets - but they eat about as much as a grown adult), so we had to take advantage before SJ turned 3. Also, on a personal note, the past couple of years have not necessarily been smooth sailing. We have overcome quite a lot of challenges, and we wanted to do something to celebrate! I can't think of any better way than to go to the happiest place on earth!

So, clearly we survived our crazy adventure, but did we stick to the plans, or did we wing it?! Was it "better than we expected"? (points for movie reference)

Only time will tell....

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

How exciting for his first roller coaster! My two year old had the same reaction when he went on his first roller coaster but then he asked to ride again. Now on your next trip hopefully all four f you can ride together

Glad it wasn’t just us! Can’t wait for the next trip already!

I'm so mad we were literally SO close to meeting!! According to my time stamps on my pictures, we were at the Tangled bathrooms at 5:40pm, and HM around 8:30

My Tangled picture was at 5:58! No picture of HM, but we were exiting the ride just as EMH were starting!

 

[becca_]

My Tangled picture was at 5:58! No picture of HM, but we were exiting the ride just as EMH were starting!

Omg hahaha we literally just missed each other!!

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

We were on a mission for the treat that allows Tim to put up with my non-stop Disney talk!

Circa 2012 from our Disneymoon. He could not wait to get his hands (or teeth) on this piece of meaty goodness. It was love at first bite!
Me, not so much! It wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was 90+ degrees and we were sitting directly in the sun. The last thing I wanted was a greasy, hot leg of meat!
Off to Frontierland we go! We get to the cart that we normally buy the turkey leg, but it wasn’t on the menu. Tim asked where we could get one, and they directed us to Tortuga Tavern. See ya later Frontierland, hope the pirates didn’t steal Tim’s treasure! When we got to Tortuga Tavern, it was closed! I think Tim felt the same as Clark Griswold!

Who knew that restaurants closed at 6pm in January!? Apparently not me!
Thankfully, there were still some cast members at Tortuga Tavern that knew a different place to get the coveted turkey leg. Back to Liberty Square we go! Third times a charm, right!? Yes it was! Tim finally got his beloved turkey leg...and I didn’t even capture the moment! I was more concerned about the food paradise I was about to be in!
My turn! For any of you that read the Disney Food Blog, I’m sure you know the term “plastic cheese”. I could not wait to try this fake, ooey gooey cup of liquid gold! So, I placed my mobile order for Casey’s Corner while we walked back to Main Street. Again, mobile ordering is pretty much the greatest thing ever invented! I waited maybe 2 minutes when I arrived before my food was ready. I got my food and met Tim outside.

Sorry...I was way too excited to eat this and didn’t get a picture (thanks DFB). The corn nuggets were the perfect mix of salty and sweet. But that cheese!! SO GOOD! I’m pretty sure there probably isn’t anything that actually qualifies this as a cheese product, but I don’t care. I would drink that liquid cheese any day, although my arteries would probably hate me if I did that. And, you can’t beat this view mid heart attack!

The boys were finally awake, but I don’t remember what (or if) we fed them. Oops! While they were sleeping, I grabbed a FP for IASM, so we headed back to Fantasyland. We parked the strollers in the Tangled area and scanned our bands. Who’s ready for the happiest cruise that ever sailed!?

I know this attraction gets a lot of complaints (not from people on here of course) because the song gets very old very fast, but it does not bother me one bit! We got off and back on because the boys loved it so much! It was so fun to not only watch them enjoy themselves, but to find something new each part of the ride that I missed the last time. Our names showed up on the board, but, clearly I didn’t get a picture!
It was super cold this night, and us Michiganders thought we could survive a Florida winter, but we were wrong! We ended up going to Fantasy Faire to find a blanket for the boys. We got them this super cute IASM blanket, and H still sleeps with it every night! Is it bad that I’m jealous he gets to have the blanket??

Magic Kingdom had EMH tonight, so I was hoping that we would try to take advantage of that. We left Fantasyland and took a ride with some happy haunts. I was a little nervous about how the boys would do with this one. SJ got a little scared in the stretching room, but other than that, he was fine. When we left the mansion, it was about 8pm. We discussed what we wanted to do, and we decided to head out. It was just too cold, so we trekked all the way to Tomorrowland to take the path behind Main Street. HEA had already started, but I purposely didn’t turn around to watch it because I wanted to wait until the last night. We got to the hub, and I heard “you’ll be in my heart”. I didn’t watch HEA before our trip, so I had no idea how it was different than Wishes. “You’ll Be In My Heart” is super special to me (it was part of our wedding), and right then and there I knew I was going to lose it when we watch it on Friday. I channeled my inner Dory. Just keep walking, just keep walking.
There was a Pop Century bus when we arrived, so we were soon back to our resort. We did the usual routine: baths, pjs, and food court for a snack and to refill the mug. We got back to the room and we were asleep in no time. Sweet dreams boys, because tomorrow a new adventure awaits!

 

[Doc Disney]

This is one of Tim’s favorites because it is the only place he can get his beloved Beverly! So gross!

He was looking forward to torturing our kids with the nasty stuff, but, they liked it! H even asked for seconds (and thirds)!

Both of my sisters, my Dad and my nephew like it My one sister hated it until she tried it when she was pregnant (and loved it) and tried it again after she had my nephew and still loved it...thought that was super weird haha


Sorry to hear about your VN experience! Those women sounded SO rude! I'm glad you at least liked the food

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

1/18/18
I think our plans (well, the plans I made for us) for today changed a million times. I scored a lunch ADR thanks to Touring Plans for Beaches and Cream at 12:30, so I had to plan around leaving a park to head to the Yacht Club. To go to HS, or skip it this trip, that is the question. Well, we decided to give it a try. I knew the kids would love TSMM, and we planned to check out Disney Junior Live, but other than that, we didn’t have much planned.
We took our time in the morning, and man, it was freezing! Literally! It was 29 degrees when we woke up!
We bundled ourselves up and headed out. I was not prepared for this kind of cold! I laughed when we were seeing people a couple days earlier with hats and gloves. Now I was envious of them.
From what I remember, the boys did not behave well on the bus ride to HS. I just remember being “not happy” and the cold was starting to get to me. Elsa, you are freezing the wrong place! Our FP window for TSMM was coming to a close, so we booked it to Pixar Place, but the boys were getting hangry. My hands were ice cold from pushing the stroller and all I wanted was a warm coffee. There was a Joffreys stand right by TSMM, but they didn’t have any food. Back we went to find Starbucks. It was packed! We got our usual order of chocolate croissant for me and blueberry muffin for Tim. I got a lightly sweetened chai tea latte and I don’t know what Tim got. We quickly ate before going back out into the cold. It was a little better now that I had a warm drink to hold.
We made it to TSMM with minutes to spare!

“Look ma, army men”! I didn’t get a picture of them because it was just as we were heading in. I remember when Tim and I rode this for the first time, he got really claustrophobic in the circus tent part. Thankfully, that didn’t happen this time. We had lots of fun spinning and playing carnival games, but I’m pretty sure Tim got best in vehicle!
Next up, Disney Junior Live! I didn’t realize that there weren’t actually seats for this show and sitting on the floor was the only option. I just remember wondering why they don’t put some kind of padding in the floor. Must be my old age! That’s gonna be sore in the morning!
Waiting for the show!

While we were waiting, we struck up a conversation with a lady behind us who we thought was with her son. Nope, not her son. She is his nanny! She has been nannying for the same family for years, so I thought, oh that’s nice they bring you on vacation with them. I just assumed maybe the older kids were riding TOT or something, and she offered to take the youngest to DJL. Wrong again! She says, “the other kids were mad when I brought them to school this morning because they knew we were coming to Disney World!”
I have no words! Sorry boys, your day care sucks!
The show started and it was pretty cute. I thought the girl hosting it had a really annoying voice though. I guess when you are keeping the attention of a bunch of little kids you have to talk like a baby?! @blgauger and @TrolleyFollower91 I’m assuming you can confirm this isn’t true!
We exited the show and headed to our final FP at HS. These guys were following Tim on the way. Pretty sure he was guilty!

Now, it was time to sing along to all my favorite Frozen songs. The boys were hamming it up with the ladies behind us before the show started.

The show started, and wouldn’t you know they fell asleep. And by they, I mean all 3! Guess I will be belting out tunes on my own. I don’t remember who our historians were, but I thought the guy was much better than the girl. I thought I read another trip report that said they sang a song from the newer Olaf movie (can’t think of the name), but we didn’t have any new song.
This is where you cue my stupidity because I didn’t even think of how long this show might last. We exited the theater and it was exactly 12:00. How on earth are we going to get from HS to the Yacht Club in 30 minutes???
I started getting anxious! Boat or bus? My original plan was to walk, but that wasn’t an option. We booked it out of HS, and thankfully a friendship boat was waiting for us. How friendly!

I thought we were golden, but then we had to stop at the Swolphin. Were we going to make it in time!?

 

[ScarletBegonias]

UGH! The lady at VN! What is wrong with people?? You are in a CHILD CENTRIC place! I'm sorry you were made to feel that way!

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

Both of my sisters, my Dad and my nephew like it My one sister hated it until she tried it when she was pregnant (and loved it) and tried it again after she had my nephew and still loved it...thought that was super weird haha


Sorry to hear about your VN experience! Those women sounded SO rude! I'm glad you at least liked the food

Crazy what pregnancy does to you!

UGH! The lady at VN! What is wrong with people?? You are in a CHILD CENTRIC place! I'm sorry you were made to feel that way!

My thoughts exactly!

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

We left the Swolphin and sailed away to the Yacht & Beach Club. We got off the boat and headed for Beaches & Cream. Or so we thought! Why did I listen to Tim when it came to Disney directions?! We took the wrong way, went around the Beach Club pool and into the lobby. The look on our faces said lost, and a sweet cast member pointed us in the right direction. Thankfully, we were only a couple of minutes late! Who’s ready for some food!?

They handed us a pager and we only had to wait about 5 or 10 minutes. We stood by the pool (which was closed due to the freezing temps). It looked like it would be refreshing on a hot Florida day!

While we were waiting, a high heel-wearing mom and her son (who was probably 2) came up to the attendant to request a table. She didn’t have an ADR. I think I saw her eyes roll from the back of her head. They gave her the option to sit at the bar, so that’s what she did. But then, a couple minutes later, she was back outside with her son. “He’s 2! A booster won’t work for him. He HAS to sit in a high chair!” It was a big ordeal that included hair flips and more eye rolls. We were seated at a table and chairs in the corner. Shortly after, mama was seated at a table across from us, with a high chair. How is this even possible?! I had to use Touring Plans to get this ADR! Whatevs!
I knew ahead of time what I was ordering, but Tim still had to decide. Our waitress came and took our order, and we requested that the boys get their food first. This method is a life saver when dining with our boys. Feed the little hogs first, then we can enjoy our meal. We love Beaches & Cream!!

While we waited for our food, an older lady and her friend were seated at the table behind us. It was the sweet old lady that we met on the bus the morning before on our way to EPCOT! She remembered our boys, and chatted with them for a minute!
I don’t have food pictures, but SJ had a hot dog and H had the mac n cheese. Tim had the Rueben and I had the grilled cheese and tomato bisque. Delicious!! While we ate, I couldn’t help but watch the mom and son from earlier. Tim and I always talk about how we don’t want to be one of those couples (or families) that have dinner together and don’t talk or just look at our phones. It was sad to see her and this little boy not have any sort of interaction. I felt bad, because I feel like I am constantly talking to the boys. But, my kids are always doing things they shouldn’t be and I’m usually just telling them no all the time!
Anywho, there were also two kitchen sinks that were ordered while we ate. One was for a pretty large family, and the other was for two college girls. I don’t think either of them finished.
Soon enough, our waitress came with two of these!

I WANT ONE!!! That little cherry stem tail! Adorbs!
However, we did not order dessert because I had something else in mind! The boys ate their sundaes and then we bundled up to take on the cold once more. I forgot to mention earlier that both Tim and H woke up with colds, hence the TR title. Tim was coughing uncontrollably....like, do you really need to be so loud?! If anyone has ever watched Everybody Loves Raymond, there is an episode where Ray and Debra get in an argument and start making fun of each others sneezes. That is exactly how it was!

 

[Tuvalu]

I’m betting high heel mama was some sort of vip (note that I did not capitalize vip!)

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

Our plans were to spend some more time at EPCOT this afternoon, but we took our time getting there. Did I mention it was freezing?!?!

Trying to channel my inner @fractal and @sheriffwoody! I leave the artsy picture taking to the professionals!

I love spending time on the boardwalk. We practically had Shirley status because of the weather. It was so quiet and peaceful. I could barely feel my hands, but there was no way I was passing this up!

I knew ahead of time that we were getting the ice cream flight. How can you choose just one flavor?!? And, for only 9 bucks!! Can’t go wrong there! I let Tim choose the last flavor, but he couldn’t make up his mind, so the lady gave us another scoop for free. I guess it pays to be indecisive! We found a table outside in the sun to enjoy our treat. No sharing with you boys, you already had ice cream!

We got the following flavors: Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, PB Wins the Cup, Coffee Toffee Coffee, Nonna D's Oatmeal Lace, Baked/Unbaked, Dark Chocolate, and Butter Pecan Brittle. I can’t begin to tell you how good they all were! I don’t even know if I could pick out a favorite. I wish I could have this right now!
With bellies overfull, we continued our walk to EPCOT. I was able to snag a FP for TT during our walk, but it wasn’t for about another hour, so we decided to make our way around WS. Despite the cold, it was still super busy. SJ was getting antsy, and I was hoping he would take a tip from his bro and take a nap, but he wasn’t having that. We decided to just walk through WS all the way to Mexico so we could ride Gran Fiesta Tour. H was still sleeping!

He slept the whole ride! By the time we were done, it was close to our FP time, so off we went to FW. “I’ll help you dad!”

I rode TT first, and then Tim took his turn. This might be my favorite ride in all of DW!! It had recently opened when I took my first ever Disney trip. I’m not sure I like the new upgrades though. I miss the crash test dummies! This was one ride that i was bummed I couldn’t ride with Tim. The people in my car were lame! C’mon people! Were going 60+ mph and practically on our sides! I didn’t even save my ride photo because it was so boring.
While Tim rode I was able to get a FP for Nemo, so we headed there next.

After this we discussed what we should do next. I really wanted to check out more of the festival, but SJ was so over the stroller at this point, and there weren’t many more rides they could ride without a long wait. We decided to head out and spend the evening at MK. But not before some more Photopass pictures! We decided to do some without the kids this time.

Figment!!!

It was now time to say goodbye to EPCOT for the trip! There is never enough time here no matter how long you stay!

 

[DisneyDaver]

View attachment 266208
We got the following flavors: Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, PB Wins the Cup, Coffee Toffee Coffee, Nonna D's Oatmeal Lace, Baked/Unbaked, Dark Chocolate, and Butter Pecan Brittle. I can’t begin to tell you how good they all were! I don’t even know if I could pick out a favorite. I wish I could have this right now!

That looks/sounds so good! Our tentative plans for our November trip do not include a stop there ... I'm not sure we can fit it in to a packed 4 day schedule, but now I want to at least try!

 

[fractal]

Nice pic of the crane, but I really like the one of the boys looking into the fish tank!

I think I gained 2lbs just looking and reading about that ice cream flight- yum!

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

I’m betting high heel mama was some sort of vip (note that I did not capitalize vip!)

Haha yes! There are real VIPs coming soon!

That looks/sounds so good! Our tentative plans for our November trip do not include a stop there ... I'm not sure we can fit it in to a packed 4 day schedule, but now I want to at least try!

You should try! It’s so worth it!

Nice pic of the crane, but I really like the one of the boys looking into the fish tank!

I think I gained 2lbs just looking and reading about that ice cream flight- yum!

Thanks! Reading your trip reports makes me want to take a trip to just take in all the details!
As for the ice cream, I felt like I gained two pounds after finishing (and we shared it)! So worth it though!

 

[MerMom1981]

I had the exact same Friendship ferry to Beaches & Cream struggle back in 2015! We took the wrong path and did the tour around the pool, through the lobby, past Cape May, down the hall, out the doors and finally found it!
Unfortunately, out hostess was not as accommodating, and we lost our table
We made it the following summer though!

Glad you got to enjoy lunch at such a fun spot!
I'm dying to try Ample Hills!

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

I had the exact same Friendship ferry to Beaches & Cream struggle back in 2015! We took the wrong path and did the tour around the pool, through the lobby, past Cape May, down the hall, out the doors and finally found it!
Unfortunately, out hostess was not as accommodating, and we lost our table
We made it the following summer though!
View attachment 266355

Glad you got to enjoy lunch at such a fun spot!
I'm dying to try Ample Hills!

Glad I’m not the only one that can’t find it! How was the kitchen sink?! You have to try Amplehills!

 

[blreinsel]

I guess when you are keeping the attention of a bunch of little kids you have to talk like a baby?! @blgauger and @TrolleyFollower91 I’m assuming you can confirm this isn’t true!

Ha! No need for baby talk. Just a solid "teacher voice."

 

[DisneyDaver]

You should try! It’s so worth it!

Showed my wife the ice cream flight and it now appears a visit to Ample Hills is the highest priority on her list for our WDW trip (she is ok with going to WDW, but I am the big WDW fan in the family). Guess I have to adjust my planned schedule!

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

Ha! No need for baby talk. Just a solid "teacher voice."

That’s what I figured!

Showed my wife the ice cream flight and it now appears a visit to Ample Hills is the highest priority on her list for our WDW trip (she is ok with going to WDW, but I am the big WDW fan in the family). Guess I have to adjust my planned schedule!

YOU CAN DO IT! Then maybe she will love it so much she will want to go back more often!

 

[MerMom1981]

Glad I’m not the only one that can’t find it! How was the kitchen sink?! You have to try Amplehills!

The Kitchen Sink was absurd and delicious and everything I wanted it to be! The kids especially loved the whole experience
There were cookies and brownies and sponge cake pieces, and all the other toppings. I think maybe there were more toppings than ice cream.
It took 9 of us to take it on, and I don't think we completely finished it.
I had a serious food baby going on

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

The Kitchen Sink was absurd and delicious and everything I wanted it to be! The kids especially loved the whole experience
There were cookies and brownies and sponge cake pieces, and all the other toppings. I think maybe there were more toppings than ice cream.
It took 9 of us to take it on, and I don't think we completely finished it.
I had a serious food baby going on

That sounds delicious! I would be waddling our right alongside you!