Trip Report **COMPLETED** The Tale of Two Trips (finally moving on from the PTR)

Hello everyone!!! I'm sorry for the long delay, but I am finally starting my TR I apologize in advance for the insane amount of pictures I got a new camera and took over 3000 pictures and videos! If you did not read my PTR I went on two trips in the span of a few weeks...hence the title I will split them in two but keep it all in the same thread. Also, I have a lot of last minute residency requirements to navigate through the next few weeks or so so I'm sorry if this takes me forever! Anyway, enough of me rambling - let's begin!

First trip!
Who?
From left to right: Me (Megan), my Mom (Mary), and my sister (Jill)

When?
March 11, 2017 - March 18, 2017

Where?
First time staying an entire trip here...the Polynesian!

Why?
I had to take an exam in Kissimmee on the 14th and I got the whole week off from work to go My Mom and sister came along for the ride.

 

[littleroo]

Great start to your second trip! Seems like everything is going your way!!Ya!!

 

[sheriffwoody]

I LOVE those pictures of Wishes from behind the Contemporary! It's always cool to see something different in the foreground.

 

[blreinsel]

Hooray for a great start to the second trip! Oh WL... it never fails to take my breath away.

 

[Doc Disney]

Great start to your second trip! Seems like everything is going your way!!Ya!!

Thank you! I feel like in general we were lucky this trip with things falling into place for us

Hooray for a great start to the second trip! Oh WL... it never fails to take my breath away.

It really is so beautiful inside! (and out).

 

[Doc Disney]

I LOVE those pictures of Wishes from behind the Contemporary! It's always cool to see something different in the foreground.

Thank you! My photography skills are clearly no where near yours though

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2
Shockingly (not) we "slept in" until 7 am. To be fair, my family doesn't actually allow us to sleep in on vacation because almost every morning someone would call or text us which would wake us up .
We were worried about where we were going to eat this trip since Roaring Fork was closed, but the Territory Lounge had some bagels, croissants, cereal, pastries, etc in the mornings so that worked out really well for us. My Mom and I grabbed some croissants and headed outside to eat them

Sitting outside in those rocking chairs was so peaceful. That is one thing I just love about the WL....you forget where you are sometimes

After eating we headed to the front desk to change some credit cards around...we waited quite a bit of time but when it was all said and done it was time to head to the MK! Personally I feel like the bus to the MK in the mornings is way quicker than the boat so we headed to the bus stop.

Today was the last day of the old security for the MK but luckily it was still a short wait and the AP line again saved us some time
Before we had any clue they were filming a show here we were so confused by this Town Square thing...

We actually unintentionally caught the new opening show

That was super meh....for some reason this morning didn't even have any fireworks. I wish with the change in security they would bring back the old Opening Show....it was so much better.
We rope dropped to one of our favorites

We went on a second time and my gun was broken, hence the thumbs down

I mean Buzz was pretty upset about it

Next up: more MK

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued
We did head over to Space Mountain to check out the wait but it was 45 minutes so we moved on. We figured the teacups would have a short wait so we headed over there.
Alice was coming out for a M and G just as we got over there so we hopped in her two person line

Its always fun when you catch a character just as they are coming out
Onto the teacups!

We headed to Dumbo after this since my Mom was wearing her Dumbo shirt

The line was too long though so we settled for the photo spot

Our first FP was for IASW so we headed there...however on our way we noticed Under the Sea had a short wait so we stopped in

Next up: more Ariel

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued

IASW was next!

This is my favorite room I think

Next up was BTMR!

We had a great ride as always, I feel like BTMR is inching its way up to become my favorite ride
We stopped for some PP pictures after this and met a super nice CM who really loved his job. Thats nice to see because I feel like more and more we are seeing some disgruntled CMs

For some reason after BTMR we ended up here...

Next up: Tiki Room

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued

Oh man, the Tiki Room is something else. We probably won't be back for awhile
After the show we sat in the shade to wait for our next FP

Where was our next FP?

We have not been on the regular Jungle Cruise in forever...just the Jingle Cruise

We were super hungry after this so we decided to try a place we have never been before. But first, a glimpse of the stage show from afar

Next up: more and more MK

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued

We found a PP spot along the way but his camera wasn't working. He really wanted to get some shots of us with the stage show fireworks so before I actually knew what he was doing he grabbed my camera and took some pictures

I thought that was super cool of him to do
Anyway, we have surprisingly have never eaten at Cosmic Rays so thats where we headed !
My Mom got us a table while I grabbed the food because it was so crowded in there. I ordered the Falafel Burger

I actually don't know what even possessed me to order this but it was super good!
My Mom, unsurprisingly, had chicken nuggets

For some reason this is the only picture I have of Sonny. My Mom actually had no idea Sonny was a thing so she was surprised that we were serenaded

We wanted a treat after lunch and since we were planning on heading out after lunch anyway we grabbed some treats from the Bakery.
My Mom had a cupcake and I had a marshmallow wand

There was a little girl in line with us for the boat who saw my Mom's cupcake and kept begging her Grandma/Mom? for one. The Grandma/Mom? said yes but after she eats lunch. The little girl then proceeded to stare at my Mom the entire time we were on the boat. Like it was getting ridiculous

Next up: boat rides

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued

Said little girl is in the background

Back in the room we ate our treats and unpacked our stuff into drawers! Then, we headed down to the pool!
I think my Mom was making this face because even though it was like 85 degrees out the water was cold

I have zero ideas why I have glasses on

For some reason the pool music this day was on point so we sat in the sun enjoying the tunes and the warmth
After relaxing we had quite a bit of time before dinner so we headed to DS

I don't have a ton of pictures but we wandered around a bit and headed to World of Disney and the Co-Op so I could pick some stuff up for my friend Jake (who was just there for like 3 weeks...don't know why he didn't get it himself).
We also checked out Pandora, the crystal shop (to try and find earrings for my Mom), Christmas store, and the new dress store at the co-op. We didn't end up buying anything at any of these places but the dress shop was super cute. I'm so mad that I didn't buy anything! It was rather expensive though...
We decided to check out Paddlefish after this. When we walked in I asked if we could go upstairs for a drink and they told me it wasn't open yet but they would call and ask when it would open. I saw people up there so I knew it was open which she confirmed when she called up
Their cocktail menu looks cool but its also super expensive so we just went with wine for me and a Whiskey Sour for my Mom

There is a ton of seating upstairs so we chose a table for two overlooking the water

It was a wee bit windy, but it was a warm breeze so thats nice
We were able to watch all the Amphicars from up there too!

Next up: wandering around for a bit

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued
After our drinks we headed out and just in time since it started pouring rain. Our final destination was the Polynesian so we took that bus back.
I was on a mission to find some monorail socks (on Jakes list) that we saw when we were at the GF for V and A. The Polynesian gift shops did not have any so we grabbed a quick snack of candy then figured we had enough time for a monorail loop to look for them.
Next stop was the GF, obviously

We stopped in the exact shop we originally saw the socks in, but the CM said they ran out of them
Next stop was the Contemporary. Sadly they didn't have the socks either and we encountered a very long monorail wait on top of it

I think we like to abuse our legs because we got off at the TTC and walked to the Poly

We spent a bit of time in the lobby

Then, we finally checked in for dinner

Surprisingly we were seated early which I feel like never happens

Next up: 'Ohana

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued

Salad first, we didn't eat too much of this like we did last time

Then the noodles, veggies, dumplings and wings

We LOVE the noodles. I hate that this picture is blurry because we asked for more noodles and my Mom was so excited when we got a whole bowl of them

Chicken

Steak

We avoided the shrimp because we don't like it at 'Ohana The chicken was great, but the steak was so-so
Mmmm bread pudding

There was a table next to us who finished their meal before we even got there and they were STILL sitting there when we were finishing up over an hour later . I knew they were doing it to see Wishes but I felt like it was kind of rude. Oh well, I didn't let it bother me as we enjoyed Wishes from our table which was just one row back from the window I did not take any pictures this time
Overall we really enjoyed our meal at 'Ohana. That being said, however, we decided to put off going back until we are there with a bigger group and/or my Dad. We are not huge eaters and we really struggle with eating late at night so its almost like a waste for us because by the time the meat comes we are too full (partially the noodles fault I'm sure ).

Next up: getting home

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued
We decided to take the monorail to the Contemporary and take the boat back to the WL. This time we had no wait since there was a boat waiting for us

Back at the WL

My camera would NOT focus on my Mom...I have like 10 pictures and they all turned out the same

So a few months before we left I ordered my Mom some flowers as a thank you gift for her putting up with my Disney obsession and being my travel buddy (not that she doesn't love it too) throughout residency. I actually forgot about it until I walked in . It took my Mom forever to notice the flowers actually but when she finally did she was so surprised!

They came in a cute Pooh mug
Anyway, we were pretty sleepy after this so off to bed we went !

Next up: Day 3

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3
This morning "George" aka the baby/toddler next door woke us up at 6:30 screaming! Oh well, earlier to the parks I guess
We headed down to the Territory Lounge and grabbed some more croissants

The weird thing about all the construction at WL was that it was mostly empty on the buses...like this morning there were only 4 people on the Epcot bus like 30 minutes before the park opened . Believe me, I'm not complaining!
The security lines were insane this morning and once we got through we were again grateful for the AP line so that we could slide right in
We headed to Test Track, but so did everyone else and the line was back at Innoventions. We ended up waiting only 5 minutes then ditching the line to see if they had any cool AP merchandise for the Flower and Garden Festival. They didn't have anything particularly exciting but we did get some ornaments.
Then, I decided we could earn a new thing check by doing Colortopia.
This is semi-awkward when its you and two other people and the CM is speaking like he's talking to a big crowd
I realize this picture is kind of creepy

Colortopia was cool (especially the last room), but I'm not sure that I would do it again.
Our first FP was for the character M and G

Goofy was really acting up and photobombing everyones pictures. He was also quite smitten with my Mom

We headed towards the front of the park so that we could get a PP picture. The CM taking our picture was getting SO mad at all the people who kept cutting in front of us or edging into our picture. He said he couldn't tell people to move so told my Mom to and she did

Next up: 100 more PP pictures

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued

We headed on over to Spaceship Earth!

Well, we got stuck on Spaceship Earth for 30 minutes, kept on staring at this scene

It was so odd....at some point a CM actually walked by us
I stretched around a bit to get some other pictures...meanwhile the person in the back of our car was sleeping

This guy never gets any love

Finally we made it off SE and we were able to head over towards our next FP

Next up: Mexico !

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued
Our last FP was for Frozen, but I saw on the Touring Plans app that it was closed so we decided to get lunch instead.
Oh, I forgot! My Mom decided she wanted an egg so we started the Easter egg hunt again Instead of just cheating and putting the stickers where we knew the eggs were we insisted on finding them again! So we went inside Mexico to find the egg
Doesn't feel like the same picture without my sisters.

We decided to eat lunch at La Cantina
I got the Nachos

My Mom (who clearly took her own food picture) got the kids Empanadas

It was a lovely day to sit outside! We love La Cantina...the food never disappoints.

My Mom back at it with her professional photography skills

Frozen was back up after lunch so we headed over there (after checking out the Norway egg )

Ahaha why are the Frozen pictures so funny . The women behind us loved the ride so much, I think she was mored excited than her daughters
I was really insistent that I get as many Flower and Garden Passport stamps as possible so I wanted to get something from the China booth
(Lotus House). I tried the Beijing-Style Candied Strawberries

These were good, but between the two of us we only ate two strawberries...too sweet!
We wandered around World Showcase after this collecting egg stickers

Next up: World Showcase continued

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued

In Germany my Mom got a sea salted caramel chocolate, but since she has these everyday I didn't take a picture

I overheard someone ask if these drummers were Mulan? What? That doesn't make any sense

Still on the hunt for more passport stickers I got the Desert Rose (Sparkling Wine topped with Pomegranate Liqueur) from the Moroccan booth (Taste of Marrakesh)

This was OK, but not great. Definitely not worth the $8
My Mom got the Grand Marnier and Grey Goose slushy (not a booth item so no sticker for us )

It was actually quite warm at this point so we sat in a bit of shade by the fountain in France and maybe splashed ourselves with water every now and again

I briefly thought I wanted an ice cream macaroon sandwich so we went in the France ice cream shop.
I then acknowledged that like every other sweet I buy I would be over it in 2 minutes so I moved on
Cool Mickeys though!

Next up: finishing off World Showcase

 

[Courtney6682]

MMM!! Candied strawberries and that Desert Rose sound AMAZING! Too bad you didn't care for them!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued

We ended up skipping the Canadian egg again
We turned in my Mom's map and she picked out a Minnie egg. No fancy photo shoot for her though, we were too hot
In fact we didn't even take a picture until the bus, and even then forgot to take her out of the plastic

Back at the hotel we headed down to the pool. We clearly didn't realize there were so many water spots on the lens

The water was cold again, but it was so hot it felt good
This part of the pool that has the stream coming in from the lobby is so cool

We briefly went into the hot tub after the pool then we found some chairs under umbrellas and sat and enjoyed the beautiful weather. At some point I decided to get us some fries from Geyser Point
These were so delicious!!

After our pool time we got ready and headed back to the MK via the boat

This was the first day of the new MK security...look how empty it is!!!

The new security is a dream, especially coming off a boat it takes like 2 seconds to get through

Next up: MK!