Trip Report DVC, Dinosaurs, Buckets & Booze! Now with added London & Paris! COMPLETE!

Hello and welcome to my trip report! The title will make sense I promise… eventually!

We’ve actually been home almost 3 weeks now and I’ve been writing this report for about 2. I just haven’t sorted through all my photos (and had the Disney blues, which always makes visiting the Trip Report forum hard!) but I’ve got a nice free Saturday now to sort through the photos and feel ready to post :)

So I guess the DVC and booze part of the title is self-explanatory, so I’ll start with that! Having bought into DVC on our last trip… what better way to try out all the options now available to us then making this a super-split-stay… and staying in 6 different resorts!! o_O Ok this wasn’t all completely intentional; it just kind of worked out this way (which will be explained shortly!)
It may sound crazy to some, but we actually loved trying out a bunch of different resorts over the 16 nights of this trip! 16 nights meant there was plenty of time to do so!

Now the booze element of the title… well, there was a liiiittle bit of drinking involved! If you’ve read any of my previous reports you’ll know we like a Disney Drink… or monorail crawl! It adds a little extra magic to the already magical day…

Originally I had wanted to name this report When You Wish Upon a Cronut, as leading up to the trip I had been day dreaming about all the delicious Disney food that exists in the magical bubble (don’t we all?!) and the Cronut in all it’s delicious-sugar-filled-butter-pastry-delicious glory is just one of the items that had been most on my mind! I’d not found one over here (in the UK) and there’s just something about sitting down and looking over World Showcase whilst increasing my blood sugar levels & calorie intake by a bajllion with that crazy pastry! Just one of those little ways of knowing I’M HOME when doing so.
However, I didn’t even end up getting a Cronut once this trip!! Despite being there for 16 nights this kind of became a theme of the trip in that some of the things we’d been daydreaming about and talking about doing or eating before the trip- along with some Disney staples- we somehow forgot to do or completely missed! So much so that back home our go-to joke phrase that we say or randomly message each other throughout the day is “Did we even Disney?!” that sometimes goes to “Did we even America?!” “Did we even plane?!” :joyfull:

Don’t get me wrong though, we still had an awesome time and the Disney blues are hitting HARD. It never gets any easier! I literally want to walk out of work every second (yep I’ve been writing this at work… when I can… ssh… who doesn’t go on the boards when at work?!) go get my husband and grab our passports and board a plane back to my real home. If I had the money to do so I wouldn’t look back!

So with all that info already (these first few posts are going to be wordy, sorry!) let’s get onto the who, the when & the where (x6 :joyfull: )

Who: Me (Sam) and my husband Russ

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Ok how about a non drinking in Disney photo:

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We’re from the UK and this was our 11th trip to WDW together (I grew up going, Russ’ first trip was with me) and our first full trip as DVC members! We purchased DVC on the last trip- and actually used a few points right there and then- but this felt like the first “official” DVC trip!

Now onto the when and where…
September 21st-October 7th
16 days of glorious WDW. I can’t believe that it’s over a month now since we left for the trip!

So our last trip was in November/December 2018 and of course the Disney blues had hit hard as soon as we were home and it all felt like FOREVER ago within a month of being back! Although we had some tentative plans in place already for this year, by March/April we had to get bookings secured and make it real so that the Disney blues could become Disney excitement!

So first a little background, because this trip had some changes! And it will also explain the amount of resorts…
Originally we had a Disney Cruise booked for September 28th-Oct 5th. We planned to do a week in WDW before that and stay another 2 nights after the cruise. Having bought into DVC on our last trip (woo hoo!) we decided we wanted to try 2 different resorts in that first week. We quite like split stays and we wanted to try out places we hadn’t stayed before, which now being DVC members allowed us to do. So our original plan was for 3 nights at Copper Creek (our home resort) and 4 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge, before embarking on our cruise and returning for 2 nights at the Beach Club (our favourite resort which we have previously stayed at).

Then along came a slight spanner in the works. We secured Copper Creek for our first 3 nights and Beach Club for the last 2 nights after the cruise. However, AKL was only available for 3 nights- leaving our last night before the cruise without somewhere to stay. We thought we would waitlist AKL, but then I noticed a Theme Park View Studio at Bay Lake Tower was available for that night- and we thought why not? We were planning to do MNSSHP that night anyway, so it would be convenient for that- and we have also done split stays many times before, including 3 resorts in 5 nights once and we actually don’t find it that much of a hassle. So that became our new plan!

Then as happens sometimes, a second much larger spanner was thrown into the works. In May, a bit of a family emergency/situation came up that made it seem like we might have to postpone our trip. As it was quite up in the air whether we would be able to go- along with slight financial pressures- it seemed cancelling the cruise would be for the best. If it later turned out we could still go away, a WDW trip would be more than welcome. So we went ahead and cancelled the cruise, but decided to keep the DVC bookings since they were less of a commitment at that time.

We weren’t too sure until August whether we would be going ahead, when the family situation had settled and we knew we would be ok to take our trip! Whilst we were disappointed to not be cruising with DCL again (we’ve been trying to go again ever since we took our first Disney Cruise as part of our honeymoon nearly 4 years ago) it now meant we had over 2 weeks to enjoy WDW! It had been a good few years since we had stayed solely in Orlando for that long and we can’t wait! 16 days for all the parks, dining and resort time seemed like bliss! We had thought it felt a little rushed the past 3 or 4 trips as they had been shorter and/or filled with plans in & out of WDW (not that those hadn’t been great, we’d just been craving a long WDW trip). There are always so many things we want to repeat alongside new things to try- there never seems to be enough time no matter how long we’re there! And, as we’ve just found out anyway from this trip- 16 nights still isn’t long enough!! I think we actually did less than we’d planned for this trip than on our shorter trips!

So now that we knew we were going and that it would be 16 nights just in Orlando- the only issue was sorting rooms for the week that we originally thought we would be on the cruise for. This was a little more of a headache now with being way into the DVC booking window- and the announcement that Galaxies Edge would be open at that time!
We could only get 3 nights at Saratoga Springs for Oct 1st-4th. We booked it and waitlisted Beach Club/Boardwalk for those nights and hoped it would open up and swap us- and that the night of the 4th would become available either with points or the cash discount. Then I could align those nights with our DVC booking for the 5th and 6th Oct. We had our fingers crossed that we would get our waitlist for Beach Club and end up with 6 nights in a row there at the end!

That just left the 28th Sept - 1st Oct with nowhere booked (and no more points left!). So we decided to do those 3 nights offsite, to save money along with that we also wanted to visit some of the other non-Disney Orlando parks (sshh!) as well as some shopping and relaxing. Even this didn’t work out how we planned! I’ll explain when I get into that part of the trip, but we didn’t get to any off-site parks lol!

So, the waitlist literally 10 days out of the trip moved us to Boardwalk for the 1st-4th! That still left the night of the 4th to book somewhere before the 5th & 6th that we had locked down for Beach Club (are you still following?! o_O). There was no availability with points and no decent discounts for the night of the 4th at the Beach Club or Boardwalk- and since it was just one night it didn’t seem worth the rack rate- so we went for 1 night at Coronado Springs instead! A little crazy when being at the Boardwalk and then moving to Beach Club that we were then popping elsewhere on property for one night in between, but when the Boardwalk/Beach Club rates were near $600 and Coronado was $200… it was worth it. Plus we had wanted to visit Coronado during the trip anyway to see the new tower and restaurants. So for us, it was perfect!

And so, that was our crazy itinerary! :joyfull: For some it might seem like a nightmare, but we do actually like seeing and staying in different resorts- we’d done it before so we knew what it entailed- and as it’s just the two of us we don’t find it too bothersome. In fact, in some ways it makes the trip seem longer and more exciting getting to experience different resorts! We actually enjoyed waking up, calling bell services to collect our bags, heading out to a park and then coming back to a new resort afterwards! When we switched to AKL from Copper Creek our room was ready when we were back and we already had magic bands, so we simply went straight to our new room. It doesn’t usually take much time anyway to pop to check in on the way back from a park if need be- we usually time it so we arrive after check-in time anyway- and our bags have always arrived in a timely fashion after calling, if not having already been in our rooms! The only slight inconvenient time we had was when we moved on and off-site, as this meant we had to grab an Uber (we hadn’t hired a car) and take our luggage with us rather than being able to transfer. At Disney it was easy!

We actually a few years ago spent 3 months travelling- and most of our stays in various cities were for 3 or 4 nights! A couple were even 2 nights- so simply moving around WDW a few times over 2 weeks compared to new cities and countries every few days for 3 months was nothing really!

Ok, finally, here is what the itinerary actually was:
Sept 21st-24th Copper Creek at Wilderness Lodge
Sept 24th-27th Animal Kingdom Lodge
Sept 27th-28th Bay Lake Tower
Sept 28th-Oct 1st Off-site
Oct 1st-Oct 4th Boardwalk Resort
Oct 4th-5th Coronado Springs
Oct 5th-7th Beach Club Resort

I’ll get started on the report soon- I’ll just give a little info on what the trip plans entailed in the next post!
 

Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wednesday September 25th

Our alarms went off at 6.55am and Alisa and I excitedly got up and started getting ready for the morning. Russ just hid his head under a pillow, I think looking forward to a lie in and some peace and quiet once we left!

We took a peek at the morning- another beautiful day in Disney! No animals about just yet though.

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Now, throwing back to last year in Mexico- during the trip Alisa and I had ended up having espresso martinis every morning (hey, vacation!) and we’d been waiting to cheers with these again together in Disney. Then somehow we had been talking about how it would be perfect if they sold espresso martinis in Magic Kingdom so we could cheers on the hub grass looking at the castle. Obviously, they don’t serve alcohol outside of restaurants at the MK... but… they do have a Starbucks. And I had bought us each the perfect “magical water” receptacle back in England from Primark (Primark rules!) which would help transform these Starbucks into adult beverage Starbucks… not quite espresso martinis but close! So that became our mission.

Magical water *cough* vodka *cough* refill? Of course!

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I said goodbye to Russ (I’m pretty sure he just replied “eh” from beneath the duvet) and arranged to meet him later on. And off we went (singing “I’m a Dinosaur” to the tune of the Jurassic Park score multiple times of course).

We headed out to the bus stop and a bus turned up fairly quickly- it was quite crowded, but we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom for our Disney Twin Day!

We arrived and got through security- almost there! Alisa was already documenting Twin Day on Instagram!

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We also got through the gates fairly quickly and the Trolley Show was playing. We paused for a moment and then proceeded to take a wonder up Main Street together.

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First stop of course, Starbucks! We had a mission remember? Coffees in hand we headed to the hub grass to add a little something to our drinks and begin our espresso martini-style cheers.

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Hub grass and chill!

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Success! We were finally at the Magic Kingdom and staring at the castle together, something we’d been planning for months. We wish we could do this every week!! We sat for about ½ an hour talking and taking in the morning sights and sounds of the hub. We’re probably in several of the zoom-in/out hub photopass photos that were taken that morning!
 

Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our first FP for Space Mountain was coming up in the next 30 minutes, so we decided to head to another attraction first- Astro Orbitor!

As always, I love this ride- it’s always so much faster and more fun than it seems! I also love just looking over MK from up high when you’re up there.

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Hold on to your ears Alisa!

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After the ride it was time for Space! I was at the front and was laughing and screaming all the way!

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We spent a little while in the gift shop trying to find the photo booth as we wanted to take some pictures in there, but it seems it’s no longer there! So we looked a little more around the shop and then headed back out into Tomorrowland.

We’d finished our coffees whilst queuing for Astro Orbitor, but still had some magical water left, so we made a stop at the Launching Pad to buy some sodas. Then it was onto the Peoplemover!

Cheers!

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Tron construction sponsored by Primark! 😂

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We were having the best morning- laughing and being silly and just enjoying the Magic Kingdom! We actually had become so relaxed on the Peoplemover we almost forgot to get out when we returned to the station!

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After this we decided to walk around to Fantasyland for a flight on Dumbo!

Both doing it for the ‘gram… :rolleyes:😂

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
From here we continued our magical morning and decided to ride the Carousel as it’s not something I tend to do with Russ!

We were rocking our Disney promotional poses today!

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This could have been the title of my report too! :joyfull:

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We did have a FP for Big Thunder Mountain originally, but I think it was our first FP and we missed it. Either way our next FP was to meet Mickey and Minnie! We headed round the castle and stopped for a few photos from a really unenthusiastic Photopass photographer. She literally sighed a heavy sigh when we went up to her and took two photos without a word and then held her magicband device out. They weren’t very good either. Not so great selfies it is then!

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Now it was coming up to the time to meet the big cheese himself! And Minnie of course! Russ was also on his way now and would be meeting us soon. We didn’t have to wait long before entering and we got big hugs! Minnie was excited to see my shoes which had red bows and white spots, Primark again coming in for the Disney apparel win!

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This morning had been perfect. So much fun! We had also been making plans for dinner too, originally we had Boma booked since we were staying at AKL, but we all felt like being outside of the resort this evening since we did that last night with Sanaa. Whilst queuing for Astro Orbitor we had been checking MDE to modify Boma to a later date to then cancel without charge- and see what was available for tonight. At first we were excited to book Artist’s Point when a reservation popped up. That seemed like a Twin Day type meal! Russ was not so keen when I texted him however and suggested California Grill- that’s fine with me! So we started refreshing the app to look for one. There wasn’t one yet available so I used the Touring Plans reservation finder- two actually came through, but I kept missing the notifications and they would be gone when I checked!

Anyhow, after meeting Mickey and Minnie we popped into the Emporium as there were two mugs we needed to buy! The Belle ones with our tattoo phrase of course! Perfect twin mugs. Russ was arriving at this point and we let him know where we were. Even though Russ had just entered the MK, we decided to head over to the Polynesian for lunch. We made a stop at Guest Relations for some celebration badges first though- because we were celebrating Twin Day! Russ got one as well that said he was celebrating being a Twin Day Hanger-On. Ahh you weren’t a hanger-on Russ!

This photo on the boat over to the Poly made me laugh though as it looks like Russ realised he had a full afternoon of Alisa and I singing I’m a Dinosaur ahead of him! 😂😂

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We also had a nice empty boat 😊

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Also whilst Alisa was writing on her badge in Guest Relations I was checking MDE and a California Grill reservation for 5.25pm appeared! Yes! That would be perfect as we wanted to watch HEA from the park, so this would allow us to have dinner and then relax a little before heading into the park later.

Tambooooo! I’m sensing a theme with what I call certain places in Disney…

I can’t remember what this drink was, but it was tasty! I wish I had gone for a Lapu Lapu like usual though as we never got back to Tambu this trip of course!)

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We sat at the bar and looked at the menu. Then we realised you couldn’t order food until 4pm! Rookie mistake! However, we had the genius realisation that we could mobile order from Captain Cooks and bring that to eat at the bar when it was ready! The barman had no problem with that, so we ordered our drinks, ordered the food through MDE and then waited for it to be ready.

Perfect! Alisa had the pork fried rice and Russ and I shared the pulled pork sandwich.

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After we had finished eating we decided some pool time back at AKL was needed, before heading back out to The Contemporary for our dinner later.

So we took a wander out through the Poly and caught an Uber back to AKL.

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I love these lanterns at the entrance to Kidani Village lobby!

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Back at the room, omg the love bugs on the balcony!! It wasn’t even love bug season but there were a lot about this trip.

We got ourselves ready for the pool and decided to go over to Jambo House as it’s the main pool. Russ and I discovered the next day that the nearer Kidani pool was just as nice, perhaps even a nicer bar with QS and a better pool slide! Anyway, for today we were over at Jambo. We spent about an hour swimming and sunbathing. We also discussed the random announcement that the next Jurassic movie had been announced and the original cast were going to return! I feel like Alisa and I made that happen… :D

It was once again so hot and sunny today with no humidity or clouds! When it was around 3.30pm we headed back over to Kidani to get ready for the meal at CG. We were ready by 4.45pm and in a Lyft over to the Contemporary soon after. At the Contemporary we checked in on the second floor and when they asked what we were celebrating when trying to read our badges, we explained the premise of Disney Twin Day! We were right on time as we entered the lift to go up, so when we stepped out at the top our table was already ready.

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They actually gave us confetti for Twin Day! And a perfect window side table. And then our server brought us all 3 complimentary champagnes for Twin Day! :joyfull: Ha ha I don’t think she understood- she looked a little confused when we were explaining the premise. Most people when they here Twin Day look at the two of us and scratch their heads, but we’re Disney and life twins, hello! I think maybe our server just thought the three of us were an unconventional family as we cheered our glasses to Disney Twin Day :hilarious:

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The blinds were down as the sun was shining through at this moment, but I kept lifting it up for photos! It was for the gram!

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Out came the bread. Must not… fill up… on bread! Then we all chose a form of sushi to start. It was sooo good. Mine was called Crudo and was basically like sashimi, there was tuna, salmon and two other types of fish with sauces and accompaniments that were just PERFECT. I can never get over how good the sushi is here. I’m craving it right now!

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Russ and Alisa's sushi dishes:

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For entrees I had the filet with mac and cheese, Russ had the bison and Alisa had the pork. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad meal at CG; it’s all just so good.

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I'd already had a Side Car and now I was trying the Lemon Drop Blueberry Martini, sweet but tasty! Russ had a couple of Left Hand Milk Stouts and Alisa had regular Martinis.

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The sunset was getting pretty!

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We had spent a leisurely couple of hours here eating and drinking and after we paid we decided to head over to Top of the World lounge for a drink before heading into MK, as we still had time and Alisa had never been to this lounge.

What a view! The sky was this amazing yellow (although it looks more pink/orange in photos) and the sunset was just beautiful. A perfect sunset for a perfect Twin Day! A fellow “jolly” guest was happy to take a photo for us.

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We had the weirdest server in this lounge- he kept just appearing at the table out of nowhere as if he’d creeped up behind us and he also spoke really strangely. I can’t explain it, it was just a really slow pace he spoke at and would end every sentence with “you’re welcooooooome” and not in a Maui type way! He also didn’t seem to know much about drinks when Russ was asking about the whiskey selection, which seemed odd for a server. Anyhoo.

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We had a round of drinks and it was now coming up to the FP window time I had made earlier for Splash Mountain. Russ decided he would let Alisa and I complete Twin Day on our own and headed back to AKL to chill. Twinosaurs headed over to MK and walked briskly to Fronteirland as our FP window was closing. Always a fun ride- and we posed as silly T-Rex’s on the big drop!

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Not without a castle selfie

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As we were making our way back to the hub, in a rush at it was HEA time- the opening bars started and we sprinted through Liberty Square and past Sleepy Hollow to the hub. Alisa actually leaped over several parked (empty) strollers as they were blocking the path! I moved between them and caught up with Alisa and we managed to find a spot just off to the left side of the hub, but near the castle. It was actually a great spot for the fireworks- a great clear view of the projections and right up close to the fireworks. We both thought we spotted new things on the castle and elements of the show, but that may have been due to our better view than previous viewings.

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We laughed and cried at the awesome as always fireworks- and sang never had a Twin like me along to the Never Had a Friend Like Me part (I have no idea why Russ chose to spend the evening back at the resort!) and before we knew it the show had ended and the tree lights were twinkling.

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We decided to head back around to Fantasyland for a couple more rides. We had a look at Seven Dwarfs, but of course the line was still too long. So back around to Under the Sea it was!

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From here we noticed that Ariel’s meet and greet wait time was only 15 minutes, so we decided to go and meet her. After about ten minutes in line with no movement though, we realised this was going to be longer than 15 minutes and we were starting to get a little tired at the end of our magical day. We decided to skip meeting Ariel and head out of the park- Alisa also wanted some popcorn so we tried to find a cart, but they all seemed to be closing up for the night. As we got to the hub the projection show was playing, I forget what it’s called, but as we passed the Beauty and the Beast segment was playing so of course we had to stop and watch. We tried to take some selfies as the small fireworks went off at the end- we perfectly timed it actually, however a day of Twin fun and magical water was definitely starting to show on our faces! I am proud at the timing though so I will share the tops of our heads 😂 These would have been perfect end of day photos lol! Although they are quite funny if you actually see our faces.

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Tired but happy we made our way out to the buses. Goodnight beautiful Magic Kingdom! Thank you for giving us a perfect Twin Day!

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There were quite a lot of people in the AKL queue, but a bus came fairly swiftly. We were too far back in the queue to fit on this bus though, so we had to wait for the next one. We contemplated a Minnie Van, but the app was quoting us $40! So… no. After about 20 minutes another bus appeared (or to be more accurate a bus that had been parked on the island opposite drove over to us… it was there the whole time, why was it waiting so long?) and a bus driver who was helping to load a scooter on informed the line not to worry, the first 2 lines of people (which we were in) would definitely get on and maybe even half of the 3rd line. He loaded on the scooter and then let the line start to load. About halfway through the second line (where we were) the bus had pretty much filled and just before Alisa and I stepped on, the bus driver told us to wait. I could see space to squeeze on and said to the other bus driver (who was actually driving the bus) that I could see space that we could squeeze in, please, we don’t mind squashing in! She said ok and Alisa and I stood at the front of the bus just behind the line. As the bus started moving people shuffled about and there ended up being plenty of space. Hooray for not having to wait for a 3rd bus! But silly that everyone had not moved around correctly so more guests could have got on!

Back at Kidani Alisa still fancied a snack so we perused the gift shop a little and bought some character cookies. We made our way down the marathon-esque hallways and eventually got to our room, singing a weary version of I’m a Dinosaur and laughing- I failed to get my magicband to open the door, but Russ could hear us singing so came to open it. A couple of drinks later and some more laughing and joking and we were ready to go to sleep. This had been the most perfect Twin Day and so much fun. Perfect Disney magic. And Russ was a trooper! 😂 We’re already planning our next one, whenever it may be! I miss you @dclfan ! ❤

Coming up next, Alisa heads home for now and Russ and I head back to Food & Wine!
 
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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday September 26th

We didn’t have any real set plans today so no early alarms were set. Alisa had to get back to Tampa for work so had to leave about 11.30am so we got up and over to the Mara at Jambo house for breakfast before she had to leave. We actually ended up making it there at 11.00am and we were in the queue as the boards changed from breakfast to lunch, but they were still happy to serve us breakfast and Mickey Waffles which was the most important thing! I actually had the full Breakfast Platter which came with Mickey Waffles and also a side of grits which had an African Salsa topping. It was all very good!

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I also got a can of Hard Cider… not going to waste the alcohol credit with the QS meal point even if it’s at breakfast!

After breakfast it was time for Alisa to leave… it wasn’t too sad though as of course we would see her again soon!

After saying goodbye Russ and I spent some time in Jambo house to have a look around and peruse the gift shop. We spent 10 or so minutes having a look around the store and then made our way back over to Kidani as we had decided on a pool morning at Kidani’s pool. Russ poured some of our beers into our refillable mugs and we got changed and headed to the pool. It wasn’t far- down the hallway a little and then a lift down to almost right outside the pool gates.

Man were the love-bugs out and about here! Every time we tried to sunbathe we were covered in them! We had a nice swim though and eventually found a slightly less love-bug attracted area to sit. After a while we decided we should head out to a park- we had a Slinky Dog FP for later so we thought we’d head to Epcot first to try some more Food & Wine booths before heading to DHS.

After heading back to the room and getting changed for the rest of the day, we headed to the bus stop to get a bus to Epcot- and we had the appropriate magicbands!

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Once again security really was a surprising breeze and we were through the gates before we knew it. First up, Spaceship Earth! We didn’t do this last trip so it’s been over a year! We had to take a ride before the big refurb of course. There were quite a few stops, but it was nice to re-ride and see it one more time.

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From here we headed round to World Showcase to sample a lot more of the Food & Wine booths! First up, the Pork Taco from Mexico. It wasn’t as nice as the beef we had previously tried, but it was still tasty.

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From here a drink was in order so we headed into the Mexican pavilion and into La Cava del Tequila. I can’t remember which one I went with, but it was tasty!

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Next we continued on walking and decided upon the Venison Stew at The Alps booth next. It was tasty- this was good!

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More eats- the China booth for Ribs and Dumplings! These were both delicious, but the ribs were really, really good. Flavourful & juicy. Almost tied with the pork slider from Hawaii, if not tied!

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From here we carried on round until we got to Africa- the Kenyan Coffee BBQ Beef was next on the list! This was really good too. It needed a little more sauce, but apart from that it was tasty.

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Now I needed something sweet… Karamel Kuche it was! Loooove this oatmeal & apple caramel cookie every time, anything from Karamel Kuche is good! Weird thing when I was ordering the cookie- I at first chose the wrong one and as she handed it to me I apologised and said sorry, I actually meant this other one and asked if it was possible to swap. I also had my phone out recording the treats case (Instagram!) and the CM paused, looked at the camera, looked at me and then leant over and whispered sometime to another CM and then after looking back at me and not saying anything for about ten seconds said ok she would change the cookie. I don’t know if she thought I was recording her or something but she seemed really defensive/weird about the cookie exchange!

Anyway, delicious cookie acquired:

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Still in a sweet mood I grabbed the Arendale Aqua Lemonade with I think blueberry moonshine from the American drinks stand whilst Russ got another Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale.

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Still so much we wanted to try from the various booths, but now we had little hunger or room left! So we continued on round to leave at International Gateway, with a stop at one of the event/fireworks viewing sections first to finish our drinks before then exiting to make our way over to Hollywood Studios. As we exited we could see that cast member previews were happening on the buckets! I wanted to try! It wouldn’t be long though!

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Being slightly full and in the hot sunshine, when we reached the Yacht Club we decided to catch a friendship boat the rest of the way.

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Sitting here, I kid you not someone started whistling the Jurassic Park tune- our dinosaur theme tune! “Even Russ turned to me and said do you here that? Seriously??” I texted Alisa!

Once we had arrived at DHS we made our way around to Toy Story Land since it was coming up to our Slinky Dog window.

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Loving life on Slinky Dog Dash! (Almost nailed the looking directly at the camera!)

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After leaving Toy Story Land we popped into One Man’s Dream- I had also wanted to meet Mike & Sulley, but the queue was huge and the area super busy! Always love looking at the Disneyland model. I need to get back to Disneyland! :inlove:

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After this we headed over to Baseline Taphouse for some drinks before heading on to our Star Tours FP (not that we actually needed a FP for this, the line was non-existent!). We actually spent about an hour in Baseline in the end, we love sitting and relaxing outside and people watching with a drink in hand!

I like these details inside Baseline.

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Here was my attempt of portrait mode selfies with Russ (he was not as willing a participant as Alisa for multiple photos!):joyfull:

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After this we headed onto Star Tours. Enjoyable as always! In the shop we looked out for the holiday droid- it’s become kind of a tradition for us to buy a holiday droid each time we go- and this time we got the Halloween one! Called R5-B0019 😁
Once we had left Star Tours we contemplated going back into Galaxies Edge as we had another Oga’s Cantina reservation, but we both decided we could wait until the next one and fancied relaxing back at the resort instead. So we started to make our way out of the park. I took a video of Gertie whilst singing our theme tune to send to Alisa.

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I love walking around the parks at dusk! Especially DHS.

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From here we headed on back for a chilled evening at AKL.

My attempt at a photo of the lanterns in full!

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It was about 8.30pm by the time we got to our room and we were feeling a little hungry, so decided to try out the QS options at the Kidani pool. They were on to their late night menu now, but the options were still good. We shared the roasted turkey sandwich which came with chips and we also got a mickey pretzel with cheese and the watermelon salad (which actually just turned out to be giant slices of watermelon with some fennel & a few pickled cucumber slices- it was still tasty though!. We took these back up to the room along with a couple of drinks and enjoyed it all whilst watching some TV until we were ready for bed.

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Up next- resort number 3! And a very crowded MNSHHP!
 

Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday September 2

This morning we woke up and had a relaxed morning once again. I facetimed my sister and niece and was showing them the Savannah from our balcony and catching up with what we’d both been doing the past week.

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The giraffes were finally out!

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Afterwards Russ and I packed up, washed and dressed and headed out to drop our bags at Bell Services and then head out to Animal Kingdom where our first FP started at 12pm.

Once again this was a really quick and smooth process just dropping our bags off and then heading out to a park! The bus was there within a few minutes and we were soon entering Animal Kingdom!

Refillable mugs are useful beer receptacles 😁🍻

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This is our lion pose fail! :joyfull:

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After entering we headed to Starbucks first for a caffeine fix. Today I tried the “Cinderella Latte” that has been trending on instagram, which is basically a pumpkin spice latte but you sub ½ the pumpkin spice syrup for white chocolate mocha. It was nice, not too different I thought, but still tasty.

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From here we headed on over to our first FP- Kilimanjaro Safaris. It was a pretty sparse safari to be honest, a lot of the animals were hidden and there were no lions even sleeping to be seen- this was probably due to the midday heat! Oh well, it was still fun and we still saw giraffes, rhinos and elephants.

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
From here we headed onto the next FP- Everest!

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Russ doing his Stacey impression about there being no more track!

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Back row of course and fun as always!

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We were hungry after this and I was craving another Mickey Pretzel, so we decided to grab one along with trying out the snack size Yak & Yeti chicken fried rice- and then take these to the Dawa Bar to pair with a couple of Golden Monkeys!

A great brunch!

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We sat and people watched for a little before taking a wander over to Pandora, via the Lion King Photo-op.

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We took our time wandering the entrance to Pandora. Then it was FoP time! No nausea this time! I just love this ride. Now we wished we were at After Hours riding over and over!

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I liked this bag in the shop lol! Sivako!

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
By this time we were nearing check-in time for Bay Lake Tower so we decided to head over and see if our room would be ready. We grabbed a bus to The Contemporary and went to reception to check-in. Room was ready!

New magicband!

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We made our way to BLT via the back of the Contemporary and headed on in. This was a new resort to us! We had been to the Top of the World Lounge and so had seen some of the resort, but never stayed.

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I liked this picture of Mickey in a rocket!

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This view will do!!

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We called Bell Services for our bags and they were in our room within 20 minutes. After having a beer on the balcony and taking in the sights of the monorail and the castle and the sounds outside the Magic Kingdom and across Bay Lake, we took a wander over the bridge that connects BLT to the Contemporary and had a look around the shops. Then we decided to grab a drink at one of favourite spots- the bar at The Wave!

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I can’t remember what my first drink was, a cocktail of some sort! Russ had an old fashioned and then a stout, and I then had a Magical Star Cocktail.

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We were starting to get a little peckish and decided to use our last QS point from the AKL dining plan at Contempo Cafe. We grabbed the Beef Melt Sandwich (to share) to go and headed back to relax in the room for an hour or so before getting ready and making our way over to MNSSHP!

These decorations on a BLT balcony amused me!

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Now originally, we had wanted to go to the party later to miss the earlier crowds, see the fireworks and second parade and do the rides and treat trails later on. I wish we had stuck to this plan!! We were too impatient in the end. We decided to get ready and head over at about 7.15pm. We didn’t have costumes- our plan was to have Day of the Dead crystal skull make-up, however we HIGHLY over-estimated our face-painting skills! 😂 So we ended up taking that off and just going without costumes.

Spooky station!

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We headed in and through the main entrance for the party. We could already tell it was VERY crowded. As we moved into Tomorrowland we headed to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor Treat Trail and the queue was huge! I was regretting getting here so early, but oh well.

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The paths in Tomorrowland were pretty crowded- more than a usual day- along with wait-times for rides being like a busy MK day. We made our way through the hub to see if it was less busy in Frontierland.

At least this bridge was clear! And the sky perfect!

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After a (slow) tour of the treat trails in Frontierland (and after seeing Splash & thunder were both 50 mins wait) we decided to go see the first Hocus Pocus show in the hub.

It was dark now!

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Now this was definitely a highlight and I’m glad we came to the party if just for this- I LOVED Hocus Pocus growing up; I literally rented it from Blockbusters every week for a year when I was 8 years old! And the Sanderson Sisters were amazing- they looked just like them! I loved everything about the show- Oogie Boogie was also awesome, and then with I Put A Spell On You at the end to finish the show- just frickin amazing. I was so happy after watching this!

After the show it wasn’t too long until the first parade, so we started to head to Fronteirland to find a spot (thinking if we waited in the hub or Main Street, you always end up waiting for ages for it to arrive after it starts). It was SOOOO crowded getting to Fronteirland though that we didn’t really find a good spot. We were a few people back and couldn’t look to the right, down at the parade arriving as we were also next to a food cart which blocked that view, so we just had a straight on view which wasn’t the best. I grabbed a Mickey Pretzel from the cart anyway (2nd of the day- 3rd in 24 hours!) and we waited for it to start.

One of the only (zoomed in!) photos I took!

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I liked the Boo to You theme, this was the first time I’d actually heard it and we were humming it the rest of the evening. I also liked the Headless Horseman, however the crowds around us made it a little less enjoyable and we decided to walk alongside the parade towards the end so that we could exit Fro before everyone else tried to. Frustrated at the crowds we decided that since we’d have a view of the fireworks from our room and the music piped in, that some alcoholic drinks and our candy haul on our balcony sounded like a nicer proposition than fighting the crowds in the hub! It was a shame to miss the new show and the projections, but neither of us wanted to wait around.

We stopped at a few more treat trails and started to make our way out. I was disappointed overall as we have enjoyed the Christmas Parties before with lower crowd levels. I knew it may be crowded though and I should have stuck to our plan of going later. Anyway, we had really enjoyed the Hocus Pocus show and getting lots of candy- and were happy to have tried it. We wouldn’t want to go on a sold out night again though! And if we do go to another we will definitely stick to our original plan of going later!

Bye MNSSHP!

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Back at BLT we had about 20 minutes to the fireworks- Russ had decided he needed ice cream (because we obviously didn’t have enough sugar with the candy haul!) and so as the walkway bridge was a couple of doors down from our room, we knew we had time and popped over to The Contemporary. Russ grabbed some soft serve from Contempo Café and I went and bought some vodka from the gift store for our fireworks drinks.

We made it back to the room with a few minutes to spare, found the channel for the music and sat on the balcony to enjoy the show. It had some nice pyrotechnics and the soundtrack was fun. I guess we missed out on the show since we couldn’t see the projections, but we were happy with our choice to come back to the room. I even mixed some of the soft serve with vodka and had a hard milkshake for the show! Bonus.

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After the fireworks I contemplated running back over for the next Hocus Pocus show, but didn’t in the end. We were a little tired now. We relaxed in the room until we were ready for bed, ready for a couple of days off-site from the next morning!
 

Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Saturday 28th - Sunday 29th September

So for the next 3 nights we were staying at a friend’s house in Orlando! We had the house to ourselves, so got to pretend we were living as Floridians for a couple of days! We didn’t actually get up to too much this weekend, we’d had plans to go to Seaworld and do some shopping, maybe International Drive, but we ended up just relaxing at the house, shopping at Publix and going out to Millers Ale House! So there’s not much to report here.

Nice pool for a couple days!

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Oh except an alligator crossed our paths on the Saturday on our way to dinner!! 😮 I took a video (maybe not the best idea in hindsight!) but here are some screenshots:

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On Sunday Alisa actually came and joined us, as we were going to be spending the next day together and Alisa was checking in to the Beach Club! Jerome would be joining us from tomorrow evening also.
 

Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday September 30th

What were our plans today? Illuminations and THE BUCKETS of course!! The buckets were open! And Russ had said if he had had enough alcohol he maaaay give them a try. It was the last night for Illuminations and we had a table at Spice Road Table booked! Alisa and I also had a pedicure booked at the spa at Yacht & Beach Club, so we had a full day ahead! First up, we all drove over from offsite and Alisa checked in to Beach Club.

Yaaaaaaaaay! Back home! 2 days offsite was too long 😂

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It was 10am, but Alisa’s room was ready! After we had all gone to see her room, she decided to see if a room with a larger balcony was available, as she’d landed a room with one of the tiny ones. Luck would have it that one was- but it wasn’t ready yet. Alisa was happy to wait though and left her bags with Bell Services before we all headed on over to Epcot for breakfast.

The buckets are open!!

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Photo time!

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Alisa grabbed a frozen slush drink from the France booth and we then all stopped at Brazil’s booth for a breakfast of cheese breads! Russ and I also had some more of that magical water mixed with orange juice with us, so we were fine for drinks for now. The breads were delicious and a good choice for our day of drinking!

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Oh look R2 has reappeared!

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We continued on around World Showcase and headed into the Japan store when we arrived at the pavilion. We had a look around and then made our way back outside where Alisa and I tried on some flags.

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We’ve all been to Japan (separately) and this area really does capture some of Japan’s essence compared to the over idealised versions in some of the other pavilions (as we’re clearly demonstrating with the flag headbands... 🙄😂 )

We continued on round the world and Russ got another of his Kentucky Bourbon Ales.

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I think Alisa got one of the Kenyan Coffee BBQ Beef things in Africa and I stopped in Mexico’s Choza de Tequila for a frozen margarita.

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We started to head back around the showcase to get back to International Gateway, as our spa appointment was coming up. As we were near the exit Alisa received a text that her room was ready, so we decided to check that out first.

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She’d bagged an upgrade to a partial water/Boardwalk view! *cough* I had bagged her the upgrade *cough* :p Alisa had wanted me to use my British accent to see if it helped when calling about whether another room was available- so that’s what I did and politely enquired. And the result was this view and a large balcony! Go my voice!

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It was actually almost directly one floor below a room Russ and I had here 2 years ago, on the trip where we all met! The room did however; come with a toilet that clearly had been used by the maid to empty the vacuum and then not flushed… :depressed: This was very swiftly sorted at the front desk though, when we showed a photo. Apologies were given and a $300 room credit applied to Alisa’s account! The hair and dirt was all gone with a flush of the toilet, so Alisa was happy with the room credit! I joked that I hoped for the same toilet when we checked into the Beach Club later this week. I mean it’s still gross and ridiculous for the room price, but mistakes happen and $300 is $300!

So anyhow, Alisa and I made our way to the spa- and Russ left to go explore Galaxies Edge whilst we did so.

I love this entrance to the lobby from the first floor!

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Champagne at the spa!

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We also tried to explain our Disney Twins situation to the therapists, which they half understood. We had a nice relaxing hour though (and pretty feet!) and the pedicure chairs looked over Stormalong Bay. The DVC discount is 25% off so even with a glass of champagne and tip we found it quite reasonable!
 

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