Trip Report Double Double Dip Trip June 2017 (Completed!)

Hello all and welcome to my trip report. My husband, Brad, and I just got back from a WDW trip and a Disney cruise on the Dream. Why am I calling it a double double dip? Well, we checked in and out of WDW twice, our cruise was a double dip (2 stops at Castaway Cay), and we had 2 birthdays to celebrate. So sit back and relax and enjoy my trip report.

Dates of vacation: June 18 to July 1

Resort: Pop Century (both times)

Cruise: Disney Dream

Travelers: Me (Amy) and my husband (Brad)

I'm tagging a few people that have followed my past reports. If I missed you, sorry, but please follow anyway. If you are new, welcome. And if I tagged you and you don't want to read, no problem!

@figmentfan423 @MinnieM123 @Cesar R M @donaldtoo @MySmallWorldof4 @MOXOMUMD @JenniferS @PacNWTigger @Tuvalu @Gabe1 @betty rose @Songbird76 @sheriffwoody @bee @blgauger @BuddyThomas @fractal @93boomer @MouseDreaming @Wrangler-Rick @PUSH @Mr Ferret 88 @amjt660 @Minnesota disney fan


June 18: Our first day of vacation was not a Disney day. We live near Minneapolis (about 1 hour 15 min from the airport) and we decided to spend the night before at a hotel so we didn't have to get up so early. When my husband got home from work around noon we headed over to Minneapolis and went to one of our favorite spots, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. We go here a lot and I was hoping to catch the peonies in full bloom but we missed the full bloom by about 4 days. That was disappointing as it is my favorite flower, but there were still some peonies and the roses were blooming nicely. We had a nice time walking around, and a local symphony was giving a concert so we listened to that for a bit. Hubby was pleased when they played a Star Wars medley. So here are some pictures.

The peony walk, as you can see not in full bloom.

Some of the roses.

The Arboretum often has changing botanical displays and so for these might be my favorite. It is a kaleidoscope and the bowl with the flowers spins, it is fun to look through.

After the Arboretum we headed to the Mall of America and did the Flying over America attraction since I had a 50% coupon. It is a take on Disney's Soarin. We had done the America version here before and they were running a limited showing of Flying over Canada so we opted for that. It was fine but no Disney. Although the seats at the Mall of America version are more comfortable.

Dinner that night was a the Hard Rock Cafe, we hadn't eaten at a Hard Rock in years. Neither of us could make a decision about where to eat so we settled on this since it was a few steps away from the exit of Flying over America. Now when I say settled, that soon changed when we started eating our burgers, hubs got a special Memphis burger and I had a Guinness burger. We both had herbed fries. And the meal was fantastic. Sorry no food pics of this, perhaps on another visit.

 

[susan lees]

There are so many cute things to buy at Disney, if I bought them all I would be in debt forever. So I just take pictures, this way I have them forever and cheaply too. Here are a few of the shirt designs I found cute.

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I've always meant to buy some nice Disney tees and then never got round to it. Next year I'm definitely going to start a collection​

 

[Go.Nijntje]

I am enjoying your TR and I am hungry for hush puppies. I will have to add them to my "must try" list for my next trip.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Following!! So excited you loved homecomin', it looks amazing and I really haven't heard a bad review which makes me excited for my ADR in January

Can't wait to read more

It was our second time eating here and I was a little worried that the first time was a fluke and that I would hate it the second time. Nope, I'm already looking forward to the next time. I've actually requested some of his cookbooks from our local library, so maybe I will learn some of his secrets. One of the cookbooks I requested is a healthy comfort food, so that should be interesting. I was actually a little surprised that he didn't have some more healthy dishes on his restaurant menu since I know he is a diabetic. Not that I probably would have ordered them, I mean fried chicken!

As always, thanks for the tag!
Tomorrow's Half-Friday, so I'll do some ketchup on your report then...!

No problem, enjoy your half-day Friday!

Following along! We are eating at homecomin' as well in December! We literally just finished looking at the menu tonight trying to decide on what to eat. So many great choices.

Lots of great choices! And thanks for following along.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I've always meant to buy some nice Disney tees and then never got round to it. Next year I'm definitely going to start a collection​

It's a collection that could get to be addicting!

I am enjoying your TR and I am hungry for hush puppies. I will have to add them to my "must try" list for my next trip.

They were good, I was hesitant to try the pepper jelly but it compliments the puppy and the cheese really well and isn't too spicy.

 

[MouseDreaming]

Thanks for the tag! What a great way to start a trip. Those roses are beautiful, but I am also a peony lover.

 

[PacNWTigger]

Thanks for the tag! I'm definitely along for the ride with you guys. I always enjoy your pics!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Thanks for the tag! What a great way to start a trip. Those roses are beautiful, but I am also a peony lover.

Thanks for joining in. And good choice in being a peony lover. Mine at home didn't bloom last year but this year they did and I was pretty excited.

Thanks for the tag! I'm definitely along for the ride with you guys. I always enjoy your pics!

Thanks for following, it's always good to have you aboard! By the way are you still planning your big blowout trip this fall?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Our first Pandora attraction was the river journey and it was pretty impressive with the details. Here are a couple pictures, the shaman is a little blurry in the picture, but to be honest I was more into watching it than taking a decent picture.

The drums were pretty cool, Brad was happy because he loves playing on the drums in the Africa section.

We also checked out the shop. By the way Flights of Passage was about 150 minutes so there was no way were were standing in line for that, we had fast passes for later in the week. The shop had a lot of cool details in it too. Again for me, more picture taking in the shop and not a lot of shopping.

Next up we decided to relax a little at the Nomad Lounge. It was pretty busy in there when we first arrived and then it cleared out. We like the food there but we were still really full from Homecomin' so we just had a drink.

I had the beer sampler and really enjoyed the Kungaloosh one. It had spices in it so I didn't think I would.

And Brad skipped his normal rum and coke and got the Lambu Libation.

 

[fractal]

thanks for the tag.

Following along! Really like the looks of the Nomad lounge.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Here's what is in a Lambu Libation:

A close up at the beer flight

And there was a special guest at the bar. I guess since beastly kingdom didn't pan out, the dragon decided to make his home at the Nomad Lounge.

Then we continued on our journey and next stop was Expedition Everest.

Then Dinosaur

After Dinosaur we were kind of hungry so we decided to share some ribs at the Flame Tree. There was a band going on nearby when we ordered and it was really loud. I don't think we heard the cast member correctly when she read back the order and she didn't hear us correctly so somehow when hubby ordered the St. Louis ribs we ended up with the sampler platter. Hubby was a little peeved that we didn't get all ribs. They offered to just give us ribs, but the sampler costs more so I said that what we had was fine and in the end hubby had no problem with the different meats. He also wasn't too happy that I wanted onion rings and not fries, but the onion rings at the Flame Tree are great. He had no problem eating his share of them either.

We had a nice view of Everest while eating.

And when we left some of the lighting was starting for the first Rivers of Life show. You can see the blue light on the tree to the left. I thought this looked pretty cool.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

thanks for the tag.

Following along! Really like the looks of the Nomad lounge.

It is a very relaxing lounge and nice place to get a snack and beverage away from crowds. The background music has a nice vibe too, I wish that loop was available on youtube.

 

[PacNWTigger]

Thanks for following, it's always good to have you aboard! By the way are you still planning your big blowout trip this fall?

I moved the trip to April/May so we can enjoy the flowers at EPCOT along with all of the lovely food there is to offer. Just waiting for better airfares to really book the trip, and still wavering between Poly and AKL...any suggestions?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

After the Flame Tree we checked out Pandora at night. The area does not disappoint in the nighttime either. So many interesting details to see. I mean you could probably spend the whole night looking at the luminescent of the ground. But try to be aware of your surroundings there are some steps in the area, and I can imagine being caught up in the atmosphere and someone taking an unexpected trip. Here are some pictures of the area.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I moved the trip to April/May so we can enjoy the flowers at EPCOT along with all of the lovely food there is to offer. Just waiting for better airfares to really book the trip, and still wavering between Poly and AKL...any suggestions?

Oh Flower and Garden Festival will be so nice for you. We are planning our next WDW trip together for that festival as well, but in March. It has been a long time since I stayed at the Poly and it is so nice there, and I haven't stayed at AKL yet but I really want to. Both good choices, maybe you could do a split stay. The restaurants at both are great. And the Poly has Trader Sam's, which is a must do for me.

 

[PacNWTigger]

I thought about the split stay, but since I'm not an AP holder it would be two separate bookings which is a pain. There are things that I love about both, and we haven't stayed in either place. Actually Steve has never stayed in the bubble at WDW, and I have a feeling he will be hooked once he does. My biggest obstacle will be the ADR's because he's soooo picky, but I want to try some new (nice) places since in essence my grandma is footing the bill.

 

[Mander]

And upon first impressions I was impressed. Well done Disney. And it made me excited to see what would be done with Star Wars, a movie people actually care about.

This made me laugh! I'm still skeptical about Pandora because I never really loved the movie. Glad to hear it's still impressive anyway. I'm also very excited for Star Wars!

Enjoying your TR so far!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Then it was back to the Everest area and we used our fast pass for Rivers of Light. We really like the Rivers of Light show, and I enjoy the music. Which much to my delight was available this trip on CD (I found it at a cart near Tough to Be a Bug). We got a seat three rows from the river and luckily behind people with small/normal sized heads so we had a nice view.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

A couple more pictures of Rivers of Light....

After Rivers we watched a little of a Tree Awakening and thought about going to see if Flights of Passage or the river journey had acceptable wait times but in the end we decided to call it a night. It had been a long but fun day.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I thought about the split stay, but since I'm not an AP holder it would be two separate bookings which is a pain. There are things that I love about both, and we haven't stayed in either place. Actually Steve has never stayed in the bubble at WDW, and I have a feeling he will be hooked once he does. My biggest obstacle will be the ADR's because he's soooo picky, but I want to try some new (nice) places since in essence my grandma is footing the bill.

Yeah a split stay can be a little bit of a pain so I see your point there. I think Steve will really like staying in the bubble, it is nice just to have Disney take us where we want to go. There are so many restaurants that I think Steve will be able to find something. If he likes steak I would really recommend the Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club, it is so good. And then pair it with dessert at Ample Hills Creamery at the Boardwalk, oh my goodness....when can I go back!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

This made me laugh! I'm still skeptical about Pandora because I never really loved the movie. Glad to hear it's still impressive anyway. I'm also very excited for Star Wars!

Enjoying your TR so far!

Thanks!