Trip Report Cycling through Celebration, a cream cheese covered remote and the Closed Wallet Rebellion of 2016.

So last week we spent seven nights in a one-bedroom at Saratoga Springs Resort in the Congress Park section. We like Congress Park and have stayed in that section before. The walk over to Disney Springs is fun and since the new section just opened with several new shops and restaurants, we walked over several times during the week.
I think the first evening there is when I declared the wallet closed and decided to try to save a dollar or two this trip. What started it was sticker shock at some of the prices I was seeing.
But let's start at the beginning and I'll go into more detail later.
We got an early start and arrived to WDW via the 535 entrance to Hotel Plaza Blvd.:

 

[epcotisbest]

Many campers bring their own golf carts to Fort Wilderness. This one caught my eye. Kinda sharp and I like the hood ornament:

 

[epcotisbest]

My wife just sent me an email showing where she is having lunch today:

 

[epcotisbest]

So I am going to end today's posts with one of my favorite photos from this trip. It is something I spotted while riding around the camping loops. We rode through every single loop, down all the pathways and spent several hours at Fort Wilderness. While riding through one loop I saw this banner hanging from a fifth wheel camper. What I saw just in front of the banner made me laugh. I stopped the bike and slowly and quietly snapped this photo. I think I sometimes just get lucky with timing and sometimes spot things I am glad I did not just ride right past. Anyway, this photo makes me smile:

 

[Tuvalu]

So as I logged out for the evening I noticed she had emailed me a photo earlier with the caption "Guess where I am?"
Apparently she is taking a tour before going on to her destination.
Much too arid for Venice.
I'm gonna say maybe the Grand Canyon, or Mozambique or perhaps the French Alps.
Any guesses?

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Wifey's in California...I can see the HOLLYWOOD sign .

 

[epcotisbest]

Wifey's in California...I can see the HOLLYWOOD sign .

She is in Ventura, CA after doing the Hollywood and Beverly Hills tour yesterday. Today, she and a co-worker drove from Ventura down the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu and had lunch. She said the drive along the ocean was wonderfully scenic. Then, they had to be back for the beginning of her conference, so not a lot of time to explore Malibu.
She said the seafood place was wonderful and extremely fresh. She asked what I had for lunch and I told her I had some extremely fresh Vienna sausages right from the can.

 

[acrab3t]

I am enjoying this TR very much. Hands down the most relaxing one I have ever read. A nice way to spend my Sunday evening. I have always been curious to see what Celebration looked like. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Tuvalu]

Having dinner with friends at Earl of Sandwich on Saturday, so we'll have five sandwiches to compare for flavor and quality...will let you know!

So here was my Holiday turkey sandwich:

Mostly stuffing and cranberry ~ only 2 slices of turkey! The bread was "crackled" as you mentioned as well. It was disappointing.

My companions said their sandwiches were okay, but not the stellar experience Earl's used to be.

 

[epcotisbest]

So here was my Holiday turkey sandwich:

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Mostly stuffing and cranberry ~ only 2 slices of turkey! The bread was "crackled" as you mentioned as well. It was disappointing.

My companions said their sandwiches were okay, but not the stellar experience Earl's used to be.

Well, that kinda saddens me. I was hoping mine was an anomaly. With the new high end places like STK and others, there needs to be a more reasonable alternative. Now, more reasonable still needs to be good, and Earl used to be very good. Thanks for remembering and following up on this. Hope you are having a great trip.

 

[epcotisbest]

I am enjoying this TR very much. Hands down the most relaxing one I have ever read. A nice way to spend my Sunday evening. I have always been curious to see what Celebration looked like. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for reading along. We used to go from daylight until way past dark, but that kind of theme park approach no longer appeals to either of us. We still enjoy the resorts very much. We can, and do go to other places, but find that we still enjoy just being at WDW, and we will be going back to the parks in the future, probably to see the new stuff in a year or two.

 

[epcotisbest]

So by now we have had several days of leisure and relaxation with hardly a care in the world. With no real agenda and no plans other than taking it easy, it makes for a nice week, not doing any rushing to make a fastpass time or ADR.
So as the week begins to wind down, so do we. We will do some more pool time, reading and riding, hop a boat or two and stroll the SSR grounds hand in hand just having some quiet, quality time, and that is not something I would trade for much of anything.
A few more photos to come later then I will close out this trip report and see what the summer has in store for us.
Thanks for reading this far.

 

[epcotisbest]

So here is an early morning stroll over to the Congress Park quiet pool. Took a few photos of the grounds then a few of the crowd at the pool.

 

[epcotisbest]

They must do some test flights early. Maybe a safety check or something before opening time:

 

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[fractal]

Great update. Love the different resort trails! "nuthouse" photo made me lol.

 

[epcotisbest]

So after the quiet pool at SSR, it is pool hopping time. Now I know this is one of those hot-button topics and is widely frowned upon, and expressly forbidden except for the DVC perk. It is a DVC perk that I am guessing will be rolled back and probably eliminated at some point. Since it is still allowed and we still enjoy, we will take advantage of it. It is fun to try different pools, especially if you have plenty of time and your own transportation, like we do on this trip.