Dreams do come true...November 6-11

Ok so we just got back from the World yesterday and I decided to start a little bit on my trip report today. Bear with me, as I will only be able to work on this at my mom's, I do not yet have my computer hooked up at my house.

Who: Myself, Brett (my 7 yo), and Stephanie (my BFF)
When: Nov. 6-11
Where: Pop Century/Wilderness Lodge
Why: Because the MD I work for took a vacation, so therefore, I had to take mine too! haha

This was our "super surprise trip" for Brett. We took advantage of free dining and cheap airfare, and have been planning for about 4 months. We kept it a secret up until we landed in Orlando on Fri evening (although he cheated and asked a guy at the gate in St. Louis where the plane was going b/c we wouldn't tell him...cheater lol)

My vacation technically began on Thursday at noon when I left work to meet Steph at my house. I had been preoccupied for a few weeks, and hadn't begun to pack and she came to help me stay focused so I didn't forget anything. On Fri I woke up at 4 am with my gum swollen completely over my tooth and hurting like you know what. Apparently, I had gotten something stuck down deep in my gum and didn't realize it. I was in a panic thinking I was going to have to go to the dentist, as this has never happened to me before. By the time we left though, it was better. But my service engine light came on in my car. I ignored it. At noon, we picked up Brett from school, and headed to Steph's parents house in Mt. Olive, approx. 1 hour from STL airport.

Brett in the car on the way to Mt. Olive

We arrived about 2 hr. before our flight, checked our bags, and went through security...all of which took about 10 min. So we had a little time to kill. We grabbed some dinner at Chili's.

And proceeded to wait for our DELAYED flight.

It only ran about 20-30 min late, so not bad. It was at this point my stomach started to bother me. Don't know if it was Chilli's or nerves, but either way, I didn't feel good so I took out my comtacts, using this little bottle of contact cleaner to put them in, which later proved to NOT be a good idea AT ALL. More about that in a min.

Boarding the plane

The flight was quick and uneventful. I like how flying from St. Louis to Orlando is so fast, as soon as you have made your ascent, it's time to go back down. I think you have maybe 10-15 min actually in the air. And Orlando is beautiful at night. I just love city lights from the air. I also love Orlando airport. I think b/c everytime I get there, I'm going to Disney lol. But we landed, made a quick stop to let Brett open the envelope to show him where we were going, and his face was priceless when I told him we were going to MVMCP. I don't have pictures, b/c I recorded it. But then that 1st tape disappeared from our room so now I have nothing :-(

They sent us our ME booklet in the mail, but only 2 luggage tags. We checked 5 bags. So we just picked up our bags at baggage claim. One of my suitcases had a HUGE hole burned in the side, and the plastic nubs on the bottom were melted. I don't know if they tried to set it on fire, or what. Luckily nothing inside was damaged or missing, I don't know how, but of course everything was closed and I couldn't report it. Duct tape is a wonderful thing.

Walking to the bus stop

Line for Pop Century

We were tired. It was almost 10:00 and I was mad about my bag and my stomach and tooth hurt and I was less than magical. Once we got on the bus, we had to wait for 30 min before we left. Thankfully, we were the first stop.

Checking in was easy, as I had already done it online. We were in the 80's building, which was fine b/c we were only staying the night. I felt bad asking the lady at the front desk what we should do about our bags the next day to get them transferred to the Wilderness Lodge, like I was saying "we're too good for this place" but really, I like the Pop. It's like all things Disney. I would stay there again if need be, but I am really spoiled when it comes to Disney resorts.

My bag weighed about a thousand pounds, so it was hard to wrestle it to the 80's building. But I was already in a bad mood so what difference did it make? We stopped to get our mugs and...

I LOOOOOVE this stuff! I thought it would just be cheesecake (which I love) but it's also red velvet cake (which I love more!) So the night wasn't a total wash lol.

Our room

 

[meganw1985]

The Pop rooms are decent, but TINY. Steph and I each had a big suitcase and a smaller one, Brett had his little one, and we each had a carryon bag. The luggage took up all available space not taken by beds or the table. We had to climb over the bed to get to the door b/c of the bags. The picture was taken with my back smashed against the wall. The bathroom is also tiny, you could practically take a shower and go to the bathroom at the same time haha.

I have extreme clausterphobia so that also contributes to my obsession with the tininess of the room, but for one night it was fine. But I cannot see staying here for a whole week with a whole family. If it was just Brett and I, fine. But any more people and we'd be upgrading or getting more than one room.

Tired boy

The next morning we got up and I promised Brett we would swim. I went to put my contacts in and it felt like I had squirted straight dishwashing liquid in my eye. I am not joking, I don't remember anything ever hurting so bad. I rushed to the shower and ran water in my eye and squirted saline in it and everything. My left eye was completely red and swollen so bad I couldn't blink. It took about 5-10 min to get it to stop hurting so we could go eat and swim. The contact cleaner was apparently not for storing contacts, which it did not say on the bottle. I wore my glasses that day. Haha.

We grabbed some breakfast

Mine

Brett's

And headed to the pool

I LOVE the Play Doh guys!

The view across the lake at the unused buildings is rather depressing. I wish they would do something with this!

 

[blackthidot]

Those waffles look great!

 

[meganw1985]

We dragged our bags to the front, and this is where my cluelessness came in handy. I went out the front doors and saw a Pop Century guy standing there and walked up and said "we need our bags transferred to the Wilderness Lodge, what do we need to do?" He looked at me kind of funny and then said to wait there and he could help us. He came back and tagged our bags and it was then I saw the line over around the corner where he had come from for luggage assistance. I felt so awful. He was very helpful though, and I apologized, and gave him a huge tip. After I wrangled up my little hippie...

We hopped a bus to Hollywood Studios to catch the WL bus.

We have terrible bus luck at Hollywood Studios. When we stayed at the CS in April, we had to wait for over an hour once. This time we only had to wait for about 30 min, but still. I took this time to call my dad and my grandma to check in. The CB resort however has buses LINING up at HS. What's up with that???

Waiting not as patiently as he looks

We arrived at the WL and walked up to the lobby. I have been here to eat before, about 4 or 5 years ago. But I didn't remember how beautiful it was. It's very...majestic. Steph and I had just got done talking about how we liked the Pop, and maybe a value wouldn't be so bad, and then we got here and that idea flew right out of the window.

I checked in, and had requested a high floor, woods view. The lady at the desk said we could either wait for a room on the 6th floor (the 7th is club level only) or take a room on the 4th floor right then. I said we would wait, and they could text me when it was ready. We walked outside to check out the most important part of any hotel to Brett...the pool! We took a few pics.

It was seriously not 2 min later that I got a text saying our room was ready. Room 6026. So we took the elevator by Roaring Fork up to the 6th floor, and our room was the 4th one. Perfect location! We never once had to wait for an elevator and the snack place was right downstairs and the pool right past it! Now comes the best part. The first place I always go is the balcony to check the view. I knew we would have a woods view, but didn't expect this.

We could see the Contemporary and the Astro Orbiter and the Castle through the trees! It was definately an obstructed view, but a view nontheless! We were starting to get hungry, so we went to get a bite at Roaring Fork.

Turkey and Havarti dill sandwich YUM!!!

 

[meganw1985]

Our original plan was to go to DTD to do some shopping and stuff. But we were so excited, we decided to just hit the MK! The boat was wonderful. We hardly ever had to wait, and it was a short ride. I love boats anyway, so I just really liked this.

Walkway to the boat dock

Views from Bay Lake

The Magic Kingdom!

Terribly sad sign

First ride as always...TTA!

He said "Mommy! I got it loose!" haha

Pirates was next

to be continued...

 

[tiaragirl]

Aw, what a great surprise for him =) My parents tried to do that once, but they *had* to tell us... Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[luvlifeinfl]

The pics are awesome! Love the report make me feel like I am there instead of sititng behind this desk here @ work.

 

[monkeysammich]

Great report! I've never seen the chess playing skeletons before... I should look out for it next time

 

[meganw1985]

Aw, what a great surprise for him =) My parents tried to do that once, but they *had* to tell us... Can't wait to read the rest!

It was SO hard! I had to tell him that I didn't know where we were going either so he wouldn't guilt it out of me. lol

Great report! I've never seen the chess playing skeletons before... I should look out for it next time

I think it's on the right side line. I had always gone through the left side line and that one time I got to go the other way.

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Thanks for sharing your great TR!

I've always wanted to see the two PoTC prisoners playing chess and that turkey sandwich looks so good!

 

[meganw1985]

So next we decided to ride the monorail (or modarail as Brett calls it over the the GF to try and see the gingerbread house in the lobby. Do they work on it in the kitchens until the last minute or something? It wasn't there that we could see. And we really didn't feel like walking around forever to try and find it.

We went back "home" to get ready to go to Epcot for the evening. Here are a couple pics of our room.

Something strange happened while we were gone. I don't know if housekeeping didn't think the room had been cleaned or what, but when we got back, the applesauce, pasta salad, and chocolate milk leftover from our lunches were gone from the fridge, Steph's phone charger had mysteriously made its way to the bottom drawer where she did not put it, and one of my videotapes and our welcome packet were gone. We called to the front desk and they said we would have to file a complaint against housekeeping but probably everything was thrown away anyway, so we didn't b/c we didn't want anyone to get in serious trouble, surely it was just a mistake? I don't know. I'm really ticked about my first tape of the plane ride, the surprise, and the Pop Century being gone!

Anyway, we had ADR's for the Garden Grill. Let me tell you, the bus system at WL is anything but desirable. Every bus that picks you up takes you through Fort Wilderness first. Which takes forever b/c there are about 1,000,000 buses floating around that place. I don't understand why, b/c they have their own buses too I think? And there's a bus from WL to FW so why does every other bus have to take you there too? Either way, we were late for our ADR's. I was prepared to give the hostess a big story about why we were late, but they didn't even ask. She handed me a buzzer and said it should be 15 min or less. It was right at 15 min I know a lot of people give this place some negative reviews, but we LOVED IT! The salad with the bacon dressing was DELISH!

Cluster rolls and DELICIOUS honey butter!

Bubby and I acting ridiculous...

Flank steak, turkey with cranberry relish sauce and dressing, crusted mahi mahi, YUMMY potatoes, vegetables (sorry that everything is already somewhat eaten...that is a theme this trip as we were so hungry and almost forgot to take pictures!)

Brett got chicken nuggets, fries, and mac & cheese. He is TOTALLY into the hidden Mickey thing and tries to turn anything with 3 shapes (they don't even have to be circles) into one. He was kinda right about the nugget.

 

[harveyt0206]

Great TR so far. I too love the Wilderness Lodge and think that the boat ride to and from the MK is one of the best parts of staying there. Riding that boat back at night in the dark is always such a peaceful way to end the day. Great pics.

 

[meganw1985]

This was a character meal so they did come around. We decided not to do autographs this time, as our trip was shorter and we didn't have time to be waiting in line for characters so we just took pictures.

Dale is Brett's favorite, and since this is the only character meal left with them since they left Cape May, we had to do it. And will probably do it again.

Blueberry muffin cobbler

I tried to take pictures of the scenery, but they don't really look like anything unless you're there. I have a fascination with restaurants that are parts of rides. That's the other reason we ate here Only negative thing is that the service was SLOW. It wasn't our waiter's fault really though. We had a party of ten people sitting behind us and they were really demanding and time consuming. After they had already paid (which was an ordeal that they had him re-do like 5 times), they demanded coffee and tea in to go cups for everyone. Obviously for free, since they had already paid. I don't know if this is allowed or what, but I was not raised thinking that was ok. I'm one of those people who won't ask for a refill and then a to go cup in a restaurant, even if there are unlimited refills. Anyhoo, the waiter got the 10 to go cups for them and because of that, we had to wait about 20 min to pay. I left him a little extra tip though, b/c I felt sorry for him. I'm sure the automatic gratuity from the other party didn't make up for their pain-in-the-you-know-what-ness.

It was Saturday, and F&W festival ended the next day, so we checked out the "headquarters" at WOL pavilion. All F&W merch was 50% off! YAY T SHIRTS! I love t shirts! So Steph and I got F&W t shirts and these packs of Wonderland tea (I also love tea) and Brett got a Chef Mickey stuffed toy.

It was here that we encountered some more rude-ness. There was a guy checking us out (who was white I might add) and there was a register next to him with a girl working at it (she was African American). While I was paying, some other people walked up to the girl and asked her something, and he replied with "don't ask her, she's from Africa. She doesn't know anything" (her nametag said hometown of Orlando, FL). We all just kind of looked at each other and couldn't tell if he was joking or not, as both of them just ignored each other. Even if he was joking, what kind of a joke IS that?! I was uncomfortable and got out of there ASAP before he said something else like that.

I was tired of dealing with people, so we decided it was ride time! We hit up Mission:Space (green team, as I cannot do the spinny round & round thing)

And Brett's fav from last trip: Test Track!

I think we also rode SSE and Imagination (I LOVE Figment! or Thinment as Brett calls him...he is notorious for misunderstanding words!) and the Seas with Nemo before heading back to get some much needed rest.

On the bus going back

 

[meganw1985]

We had 7:30 am ADR's for Chef Mickey's. THE best place for breakfast in ALL of the world...not just Disney World! It was so convenient to have a boat that could take us straight to the Contemporary!

Waiting for the boat (Chef Mickey of course had to come along to his restaurant!)

As soon as we sat down, the characters started coming! We had 4 of the 5 down before we could even go get food!

Donald is my fav

We try and eat Mickey waffles as much as possible every trip, as anything Mickey shaped tastes better than just regular. I have to say though, I think the cheesy potatoes have the waffles beat hands down. Also, all Disney bacon is cooked to the most precise and delicious crispness.

Our waitress was awful. We were supposed to pay for this OOP, as it was an extra ADR and breakfast is always cheaper than dinner. So when she asked if we were on the DDP, we said firmly NO, as it is easier to do this than try to explain yes, but we don't want to use it. I have found that it is almost too much for them to handle. She used our dining credits instead, and we didn't even know until we tried to use them for Ohana later in the trip and had to pay for it OOP, which was a pretty penny. We also bought the picture package that they bring to your table. It was pricey, but super cute, and it is our fav breakfast.

 

[meganw1985]

We walked to the MK for rope drop.

It's a longer trek than I would have thought! But we made it with about 10 min to spare before opening.

Waiting for Casey Jr. (he thinks that's what the train is)

Everyone in their holiday garb opening the MK!

I have only done one other rope drop in my life, and that was several years ago at the MK. THIS IS THE WAY TO GO!!! Go to bed early, get up early so you can be at the park when it opens. We got SO much more accomplished within the first hour & half of the park being open than when we stayed late. There was literally not another soul in Liberty Square when we were.

We walked onto BTMRR

And Splash Mountain (which Brett is scared to death of for some reason and we couldn't get him on it again and had to child swap to ride it again)

And Haunted Mansion (which we tried to ride the day before, but was shut down due to technical difficulties)

We had gotten FP's for Peter Pan first thing, so we used them. It wasn't a terrible stand by wait though, like 10-15 min I think.

 

[meganw1985]

We also rode IASW, even though Steph and I both get annoyed by it. I can only do it about every 2nd or 3rd trip.

It was about time to eat and head back for some swimming so we headed for one of the best QS locations ever...

Double bacon cheeseburger with super toppings: mushrooms, onions, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup, and mayo. Disgustingly delicious! This is one of those places where you always get messy!

Time to upload some more pics, so it might be a little while for my next post!

 

[meganw1985]

On our way out, we stopped at the crystal store on Main Street, so Steph could buy her Aladdin light box. I wandered into the art store and bought 2 Vinylmation toys, 1 for me and 1 for Brett. WE GOT THE SAME STINKIN ONE! lol. Mickey Monkey or Monkey Mouse as we call him. Anyway, I'm hooked on the Vinylmations. I played with him the rest of the trip.

When we got back, we decided to rent a couple Sea Racers, b/c we had both always wanted to do one. Brett and I rode in one, Steph in the other. We drove around out by FW so I could see the sad remains of River Country, and around Discovery Island past the Contemporary, to Seven Seas Lagoon past MK, GF, and Poly, and then back. The whole trip took about 30 min, and that was with stopping to take pics.

Brett fell asleep, and missed most of the ride lol. I loved renting these boats, and will definately do it again. Although at one point I really thought we were going overboard, which would have been bad considering I had my purse with both cameras, wallet, and cell phone in it! If you ever drive one of these DO NOT get caught in the wake of someone else. We almost flipped over when we were trying to get out of Steph's waves!

He was very thirsty

Back to Epcot for...

My plate YUM

Monkey Mouse with his beer flight

 

[meganw1985]

He shared a little, and the wheat beer was very yummy! Almost fruity tasting.

We loved the band, and although Brett wouldn't polka with me, he participated in the toasting.

This was the only night of our trip for Fantasmic, so we took the boat over. Which takes no less than FOREVER! We were in SRO, so of course, I had a not-so-small 7yo on my shoulders for the whole thing.

Waiting for it to start

We took the boat back to Epcot, and I really wanted to watch Los Lobos, but we had a major "I'm tired" meltdown, and had to go back to the hotel before things got too out of hand. (this was 1st trip without a stroller, so he really was tired)

The next morning we had 7:30 am ADR's for Kona, but skipped them so we could try and get to AK by 8 for EMH. We still went to the Poly for Tonga Toast at Capt. Cook's since everyone raves about it and we had never had it.

Now everyone prepare to scold me...it was good, but I prefer Mickey waffles and breakfast potatoes. I mainly ate the bananas out of the middle and scarfed down the potatoes. I also spilled coffee all over myself. I was a bit of a disaster the last few days.

We didn't get done in time to get to AK, so we headed to HS for their 9am opening. We were the 6th, 7th, and 8th people waiting to get in

As toys, we walked back to TSMM behind the CM's supposedly so people didn't get trampled on. That's a joke, as I got run over by a wheelchair. And a couple of angry moms. I loudly explained to Brett that just b/c other people step on you and cut line, it doesn't make it ok for us to, b/c we are not RUDE PEOPLE. Which got me a few glares but I didn't care. It's horribly rude and not to mention dangerous to do what some of these people do. We ran into the green army men at the gate to the ride, which scared Brett to death when they started moving. I thought it was GREAT! One of the best parts of the trip!

We did child swap in ToT, b/c Brett is scared of the ghosts. He had to go through the library room which he was not so happy about, but he did it. After that, he decided he wanted to try RNRC, which I was a little leery about taking him on, since he is scared of both ToT and Splash Mountain. But he wanted to, so we went. Get this. He loved it. It's his new fav ride. He talked about it the whole rest of the trip. Go figure.

 

[tiaragirl]

Loving this trip report =) Makes me want to be there right now! Seems like he's a seasoned vetran.. 730AM ADRs and no complaints? I'm impressed =)

 

[Disney<333]

I'm here and I'm enjoying your TR! Brent is so cute. I'm going to Disney next Saturday so reading your TR is helpful.
Donald is my favorite character too.:sohappy:
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