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
Walking with our now pretty feet we headed back to Alisa’s room for some drinks and to meet back with Russ. What would we do next…? BUCKETS!!

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More drinks in hand (vodka and grapefruit juice- we’d meant to buy cranberry juice, but apparently none of us noticed until later in the day when we went to add more juice!) we headed on in… Russ too! He didn’t look to excited…

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Alisa’s face shows how we felt though!

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Alisa and I LOVED the buckets!! We were so excited to finally ride 😂 They’re so quick and fun and easy. And Russ actually enjoyed them and we rode quite a few times (up until the incident lol!) Even after the incident later on I’d still ride. Russ, not so much (yet!) but I’d have no problem getting back on.

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We were being very silly and having lots of laughs on the Skyliner and had fun looking down at Caribbean Beach at the rooms we had stayed in last July on our joint trip! We decided to get out at the Caribbean Beach stop to grab drinks and a bite to eat at Banana Cabana. We really like this bar, it’s fun and the drinks are nice. Unfortunately the food is always a bit meh which is a shame as it’s such a nice little spot and the menu always seems so promising. We had sweet potato fries topped with pulled pork and some jerk chicken wings. They were all ok, though a little bland, and a little too much char on the wings. They satiated our hunger though!

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We rode the buckets back over to International Gateway and went to collect some more drinks from the room. I think… I can’t quite remember actually, but the next photos on my phone we are on the bench swings at the Beach Club so I think we must have!

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We then returned to Epcot for the evening and headed to our Soarin fastpass first! Via a wine flight for Alisa from the Australia booth! We asked for section B row 1 this time and said we didn’t mind waiting. We had to wait for the next ride and had fun chatting to the CMs in the meantime.

Pretty pedicured feet queuing for Soarin! :joyfull:

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Perfect centre view! Loved flying once again!

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The day seemed to now be going really fast, we didn’t actually have too much time now until our Spice Road Table reservation, so we started to make our way round there. On route we got caught in the only rainstorm there was for our whole trip! And it only lasted 5-10 minutes. Enough to soak us through though! Before long we were checking in to Spice Road- and lucked out with the perfect table for the last Illuminations!

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Jerome was on his way (he literally was flying into Orlando after coming back from his job) but would still be another 30 minutes or so, so we started with some drinks and the hummus/dips and olives and bread! Tasty.

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Jerome arrived and we spent the hour catching up, enjoying drinks and protecting our table from people trying to literally sit on top of us for Illuminations! We had a selection of appetisers that we all shared and I had the tuna for my entrée. As on our last trip here, all the food was tasty!

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And now time for the main event! This was one of Alisa’s favourite shows, so she was quite emotional.

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We all enjoyed the last ever Illuminations and Russ and Jerome also had the pleasure of a lady from another table pulling herself up to the end of ours for the better view, placing her drink down and squashing in so close that she was bumping knees with both of them! Ok lady, help yourself! If you’d have just asked at least…

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Plenty of drinks were had and we were then all very full and sleepy after the show, so we decided to make our way out of Epcot and back to the resort.

Somehow at this point though we diverted to Crews Cup Lounge at the Yacht Club… for another 3 hours!! Ha ha ha we’d all been ready to wind down… and then ended up drinking and laughing together for another 3 hours!

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I think Alisa and I were singing our 180479th round of I’m a dinosaur here and Russ’ face says how he feels about it 😂

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I don’t even know when abouts Jerome ordered food and Russ helped with photos by posing with it, but apparently that happened! :joyfull:

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We were one of the last groups of people in there (the other was actually Bibidi Bobidi Brooke and some friends, if anyone knows her from instagram. That was kind of interesting seeing her “behind the scenes” and from the other side of her iPhone!)

They even locked the doors to the lounge and let us stay until we were ready to leave. By the time we were ready we were verrrry under the influence- and our offsite home seemed a long way away! Alisa and Jerome had already decided that we were crashing in their room for tonight rather than finding our way back to the house, so that’s what we did! Bonus night at Beach Club- thanks guys! 😁

Coming up next…a bit of a blurry morning! But a check-in to the Boardwalk!
 
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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ummm can we momentarily pause this trip report to discuss the random airfare/trip we just planned for NEXT WEEK. I think the people would like to know.

Ok @dclfan I had literally just written this as an end entry to the trip report which I’ve finally finished writing (just need to upload with pictures!)

But we can interrupt here instead impatient Twin 😂

So...

Disney/Twin update… it’s not WDW and it’s not Florida… but… Alisa is coming over to the UK for a week! NEXT WEEK!

Kind of a last minute trip, although Alisa’s wanted to visit for a while. The dates just worked out and I’m able to take the time off work for some Twin adventures in our hometown, in London and… in DISNEYLAND PARIS! 😮😁🇫🇷

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Yep, we’re taking a Twin trip to Disneyland Paris! Only for a day- we’re flying in late afternoon/early evening and will then have the next day in the parks. We’re even going to try to see a tiny bit of Paris itself in the early evening when we arrive! I’ve been to Paris several times so I have an idea of a whistle-stop tour. Alisa’s never been, but as long as we see the Eiffel Tower and sit drinking wine at a Bistro I think we’ll be happy! I don’t even like wine lol!

So some very exciting adventures to come! Russ is working for most of the time Alisa is here unfortunately and won’t be coming to Disneyland- but as she’s staying with us there’s still going to be some time where we all hang out. He’s probably happy to be avoiding Twin Day take 2 though! :joyfull:

I think I’ll do a mini trip report of Paris, so stay tuned. The tale of WDW Magic members who will now have BOTH crossed the seas to meet up!
 
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Rista1313

Well-Known Member
Ok @dclfan I had literally just written this as an end entry to the trip report which I’ve finally finished writing (just need to upload with pictures!)

But we can interrupt here instead impatient Twin 😂

So...

Disney/Twin update… it’s not WDW and it’s not Florida… but… Alisa is coming over to the UK for a week! NEXT WEEK!

Kind of a last minute trip, although Alisa’s wanted to visit for a while. The dates just worked out and I’m able to take the time off work for some Twin adventures in our hometown, in London and… in DISNEYLAND PARIS! 😮😁🇫🇷

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Yep, we’re taking a Twin trip to Disneyland Paris! Only for a day- we’re flying in late afternoon/early evening and will then have the next day in the parks. We’re even going to try to see a tiny bit of Paris itself in the early evening when we arrive! I’ve been to Paris several times so I have an idea of a whistle-stop tour. Alisa’s never been, but as long as we see the Eiffel Tower and sit drinking wine at a Bistro I think we’ll be happy! I don’t even like wine lol!

So some very exciting adventures to come! Russ is working for most of the time Alisa is here unfortunately and won’t be coming to Disneyland- but as she’s staying with us there’s still going to be some time where we all hang out. He’s probably happy to be avoiding Twin Day take 2 though! :joyfull:

I think I’ll do a mini trip report of Paris, so stay tuned. The tale of WDW Magic members who will now have BOTH crossed the seas to meet up!
OOO that is exciting! I can't wait for that report!
 

dclfan

Well-Known Member
EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK I can't believe I'm leaving for London a week from tomorrow for a FULL WEEK OF TWIN ADVENTURES IN LONDON AND PARIS. Is this real life? It still doesn't feel like I am really coming but I am so excited. AND DISNEYLAND PARIS. Another stop on Mickeys World Tour and with Twin. <3
 

Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ok let’s get the trip report going again and see if I can get it all posted before Alisa arrives in 5 days! 😁

Tuesday, October 1st

Barely a few hours later, Jerome and Alisa managed to get themselves up and out for EMH at DHS! And another Ogas Cantina reservation I had booked for all 4 of us. There was no way Russ and I could manage that though, so we stayed asleep until nearer 9am before getting up and dressed to grab a Lyft back to our offsite house to pack up. It seemed to take us forever to get everything together at the house however and then head to Publix to stock up on a few more provisions for the next week onsite! Eventually around 1pm we were ready though and got a Lyft back over to the Boardwalk for our next check-in! Our room wasn’t ready yet so we grabbed our swimming stuff from our bags, checked them with Bell Services and headed over to the Beach Club to meet Alisa and Jerome at one of the quiet pools. (I don’t have many photos from this morning, I think we were distracted getting sorted).

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On our way over. Love the Boardwalk!

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Alisa & Jerome were now at Stormalong Bay- we did try a quick “well we’re staying here in a couple of days ourselves and these guys are here now, could we join them?” but we were met with a no bueno of course, so headed to one of the quiet pools to swim. We swam and hung out for about an hour before I had a room ready message and we decided to head back to change before meeting again at Abracadabar for drinks before dinner. Dinner tonight was at Yachtsman Steakhouse- yum!

Our room was on the same floor as the lobby- and literally one of the first rooms after the elevators! I loved this view!

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We’d booked a standard room so I was happy with this. We did have a wheelchair accessible bathroom, but because I was happy with the view and convenience of the location, we didn’t mind. We really enjoyed our stay here, especially as it’s one of the lowest point bookings! The first night the noise from the hallway/elevators bothered me- but I placed a pillow by the gap in the door the next 2 nights and either that worked or there wasn’t so much noise as from then on it was quite peaceful.

Washed and changed for dinner, Alisa and Jerome got to the Boardwalk Pool and waved at us on our balcony- I see you twin!

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Then we went downstairs and made our way to Abracadabar.

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This bar is fun and has tasty drinks! We found a table near the back and ordered. Apparently I didn’t take any photos in here- or much this day in total! Unusual for me lol!

After about 30 mins it was already time to head over for our Yachtsman reservation as we had booked a slightly earlier dinner so that we could catch the first showing of Epcot Forever later tonight.

STEAKS!

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I didn’t take many pictures at dinner tonight- but I know that I got a Martini today like Alisa as I fancied some olives! Then it was the bit almost as good as the steaks- the onion bread and whole roasted garlic!! I must have been too excited to take a picture. I was the most excited on our table about the garlic- and was perfectly fine with that!

We all ordered our appetisers- I had the tuna and Russ had the short rib pasta something- both were SO good! Our server was kind of amusing; she was a bit forgetful, but in an endearing way. She would take our orders, write them down- and then come back a moment or so later saying I’m so sorry dear, what did you say again? She did this for both the food and the drinks!

For entrees I had the Filet and Russ had the Rib-eye. Del.Ii.Cious! The menu is a little limited for a steakhouse I think, but we’ve never had a bad meal, and the service and atmosphere is always friendly and relaxed. We weren’t on the dining plan this evening though, so had to face the numbers ourselves- ouch!

Apparently the only photos I took were of my tuna and Russ’ steak!

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Bellies stuffed we made our way over to Epcot for the evening. It was coming up to the time Sugar Ray were playing at Eat to the Beat, so we headed that way and grabbed some drinks (another Bourbon Barrel Ale for Russ- and a Cherry Hard Cider for me) on the way. I also dashed to the Italy Pavilion as Alisa on our last trip kept wanting to try Limoncello, but never got round to it so I went there to buy her a surprise one. It was a terrible Limoncello though (not that I like the drink anyway, but this one was really bad) so we all tried to drink the shot between us with grimaced faces.

Sugar Ray were great! Entertaining and self-deprecating which made it humorous too, plus it was only 20 minutes so it didn’t feel like it went on too long. I did take a video but I found out afterwards I had filmed it in slo-mo mode 😂

By the time it finished we headed to find a spot for Epcot Forever. Alisa grabbed a wine flight from Spain and Jerome a charcuterie cone after we found a spot to watch the show nearby. We found the child voiced announcements weird lol. And then the show… was interesting! We liked the kites, but as the rest of the reviews have described by now, it wasn’t a great show. Maybe because I don’t have huge nostalgia for Epcot- and Russ had never been in those times- but it just felt really disjointed. I’m not sure I’d bother to go and see it again, but I’m looking forward to the permanent replacement!

My only photo of the show lol:

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From here we kept walking round World Showcase as we all wanted to try the new Donut Box. Everything was closing up though- including the Donut Box! And Russ was gruuumpy. Today was one of those days where the crowds, long days (and the alcohol!!) were not a good mix. He actually went ahead to go back to the room quicker, and Alisa, Jerome and I took a more leisurely pace out of the park. Since Russ had retired early I left Alisa and Jerome to go back to our room, and have an earlier night (well, it was already 10pm but that seemed early compared to yesterday!).

Coming up next, more Galaxies Edge, more Epcot, more drinks, more Disney Springs and more photos this day!
 
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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wednesday October 2nd

I got up first this morning- the plan was to meet Alisa and Jerome outside and walk to DHS together. We were running behind though and so I told Alisa and Jerome to go ahead and we would meet them there. I actually left before Russ as he was being super slow (and I was still annoyed with him for being grumpy yesterday. This passed quickly though 😊) so I went ahead to meet Jerome and Alisa first, with Russ joining us in a bit.

They were in one of the gift shops on Hollywood Blvd when I arrived, so I went and found them before we all walked to Galaxies Edge. We took a wonder around and then headed in to Oga’s Cantina- instead of the later reservation that we had- yet another one we didn’t need! We were sat at a booth and got chatting to some other guests who had been to the Disneyland version. I ordered a Jedi Mind Trick this time, Jerome had the Jet Juice and Alisa had one of the ones that had dry ice and boba balls.

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Russ was ready to come and join us now, so after our drinks we paid up and started walking to meet him, exiting through Toy Story Land and watching the Green Men Army playing drums for a while. We’d also seen Kylo Ren entering along with an Imperial Guard and some Storm Troopers at the ship on the way out. Alisa was trying to catch a photo with Kylo ( @dclfan do you want to post your selfie-game win photo here? 😂 )

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We met up with Russ on Hollywood Blvd and decided to go to the Tune Inn Lounge at the Prime Time Café for our next round of drinks! We had an awesome bartender who we were talking about Oga’s Cantina- and the prices- with and who also made the excellent recommendation of adding grapefruit liqueur to the Schofferhofer Grapefruit Beers that we ordered, since the beers are only 2%! Our kind of bartender! She also took a group photo for us.

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We sat and drank and decided on the plans for the rest of the day. Originally we had a Jaleo booking at 2pm and a Slinky Dog back here at 5pm. We all had changed our minds on Jaleo (Russ and I were in actual Spain in early September, where we had a lot of authentic Spanish tapas and some of the menu items at Jaleo we had eaten in Spain- at about 1/10th of the price!) We still want to try it, but we felt maybe we should go somewhere else today, maybe even an appetiser crawl around Disney Springs. So we decided we would do that this evening and we all fancied eating/drinking around the world at Epcot this afternoon- and coming back over to DHS for Slinky felt like a bit too much back and forth, so we let the Slinky FP’s go. We realised later in this trip that although we rode a few rides, the 4 of us mainly ate and drank together at various parks for these few days… we realised perhaps we should of hung out in Tampa for all the eating and drinking with much cheaper prices… and then have come back to do Disney properly! Lol. You can’t beat hanging out at Disney though, even if you don’t do many rides together!
 
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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So off we went to Epcot- via the buckets of course!

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We arrived safe and sound at International Gateway and walked straight into a Minnie meet and greet!

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We then headed for the Rose and Crown. Russ thought the bartender was faking her British accent lol! I had a Black and Tan and Russ had a Guinness.

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We continued on round and I think Alisa and Jerome got some food from Canada and Australia, but I can’t remember as I didn’t take any photos.

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Russ and I also then got the empanada from the Caribbean booth. This was quite tasty but nothing amazing.

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We then decided to head to our first meeting place- La Cava de Tequila!

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We got a table and we had drinks and the chips and dips. I was sure I had taken photos here, but it doesn’t seem that I did! Russ and I had the Jalapeno Margaritas- and they were spicy and delicious! The chips and dips were so good too.

We spent about an hour almost in the Mexico pavilion altogether- before heading back into the sunshine and continuing our way around the world. I know Alisa and Jerome had a few more bites to eat- and I had one of the Schofferhofer Pomegranate Beers from Germany and Russ of course had his Bourbon Barrel Ale from America.

Around 4pm we headed back to our rooms to get ready to go to Disney Springs for the evening. We planned to meet at Wine Bar George at 6pm.

I do like the Boardwalk lobby ceiling!

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And I quite like seeing the gondolas from the bus now!

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
you forgot our cheese fries from the refreshment port @Ariel1986 :hungry:

Omg how did I forget? And how did I not take any photos? We had the Duck Confit Poutine I think it was? With a fig jam I think. It was tasty! My brain was not in gear these few days (nothing to do with any alcohol of course :joyfull:)
 
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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Russ and I got to Disney Springs first and were a little early so we took a wonder around. Before long it was 6pm and we met Alisa and Jerome at Wine Bar George for drinks and our first appetisers!

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Alisa and I were back playing with the selfie mode on my camera...

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I had a real Espresso Martini at last- the ones at Wine Bar George are delicious!

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Our first appetiser was the Cheese and Chacuterie Board- now this was delicious, all the cheeses and meats- and the honeycomb, omg- were so good, but the price… $59!! Yikes. It was definitely not worth the price.

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Now Russ doesn’t like wine, and Alisa and Jerome had bet that their favourite bartender at Wine Bar George would be able to find him one- and if he didn’t they’d pay the tab. Well… the bartender couldn’t! I think he gave up in the end as Russ didn’t like any of them, one was better than the rest, but he still didn’t really like it. He was probably being a little cheeky- he didn’t hate them all, and I think the point was to find one he didn’t mind rather than loved. But Alisa still paid the tab! Thanks Twin! Russ and I grabbed the tab at the next stop; Boathouse though, so we all felt the sting this evening! Drinking around Tampa instead is sounding even more of an alternative plan now…

So next up was The Boathouse! Alisa and I shared the Calamari with Hoisin sauce, some of the Honey Rolls and Jerome and Russ got some seafood- lots of oysters and prawns! I think the drinks had kicked in here as I have no more photos in Disney Springs (apart from of a chocolate from the ganachery lol!) :facepalm:

I’d never tried oysters- but Jerome loves seafood and was sure he could find ones I would like. And he did! I tried two, I only really liked one, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought! The other was a little too seafood-y for me, but the first one was actually quite tasty. I have no photos or memory of what they were though! Unfortunately, the calamari was not good. We should have said something, but we didn’t. It was overcooked and SO garlicky! I love garlic, but this was verging on gross, so we didn’t finish it. The rolls however were as delicious as always.

Russ also accidentally knocked over and broke a glass here, and the bartenders brought him over one of the kid’s cups with a lid as a joke as he couldn’t have the grown up glasses now. He carried that kid cup round with him all night- we even brought it home!

From here we headed to Jock’s. Of course! Golden Monkey’s for Russ and I. One thing we always forget when food crawling- you get too full too quickly! Every time. None of us were hungry now for anything else- so we had one more round at Jock’s and decided to make our way back to the Boardwalk to go and drink in Belle Vue Lounge. Alisa and I stopped via The Ganachery on the way back to the bus to try and get the (still) horrible garlic taste from the calamari away. Cute!

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We grabbed some of the sofas at Belle Vue and ordered some drinks. I asked for something chocolaty from the bartender and he brought back a great drink that tasted delicious. I have no idea what was in it though! I think maybe the Godiva liquors and Bailey’s maybe. We actually sat here for about 2 hours almost I think- and laughed and chatted with the bartender and other guests until quite late. We did try to then walk over to Crews Cup again- but stopped at the photo booths on the Boardwalk for some very drunken photos, to which we then realised that Russ and Jerome were a little too jolly to go for any more drinks!

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So we arranged to meet in the morning again and made our way back to our different resorts.

Next up- we say goodbye to Jerome and Alisa (already?!) and do we actually go a day without drinking?!
 
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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday 3rd October

Alisa had booked breakfast at the Ale and Compass this morning, but Russ and I woke up a little later and didn’t feel too hungry so we said we would come and meet them afterwards- and then we would all walk to DHS. We had decided we wanted to visit Galaxies Edge together and ride Smugglers Run for our last morning altogether. As we woke up Russ also realised his phone was missing! So this took up some time where we searched the room and Russ went and retraced his steps, as he had it at the Belle Vue Lounge. He couldn’t find it and said the furniture had been rearranged at the lounge so he didn’t even know what chair it was. Hmm. We rang lost property who hadn’t found it- so after we had washed and dressed we went to meet Alisa and Jerome, but via the lounge again so I could help to look this time. It hadn’t been moved around! LOL Russ! Everything was in the same place- I found the chair Russ was sat in the night before and low and behold, under the cushion was Russ’ phone. Phew!

We text the guys to let them know we had found the phone and were on our way.

We got to the Ale and Compass just as they were finishing up. We began making our way out of the Yachtsman and towards the walking path to DHS. It was another hot day today! So we stopped at the Boardwalk pool to grab some cups of water from the water cooler at the pool bar.

Once inside DHS we wondered up Hollywood Blvd and stopped for a photo with a Galaxies Edge border prop. The photopass photographer was so random! Whilst we were in line, before the photographer took the group in front’s photo he paused and then started circling them whilst slow clapping. Then he went back to the front and took their pictures. It was so weird! When it came to us he literally took about 30 photos really quickly (see below just one MDE screenshot!) and kept running up close to us then back away. Okeydokey then!

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From our random photopass photographer attack we carried on walking around towards Galaxies Edge. Alisa noticed that one of the bars near the Indiana Jones Stunt Show was open as we passed and decided to get a drink. I had thought I wouldn’t drink today or at least until after midday… ha ha nope! A Lost Jewel (I think) cocktail for me it was then! It was actually really refreshing in this heat! Russ decided to not drink yet.

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Once we were in Galaxies Edge we wandered around for a little before Russ and I grabbed a Rontos Wrap each for breakfast and then we all headed over towards the Falcon to ride once again.

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Not before a “force” photo! Some of the new photopass magic shots here are awesome; this photo was part of one of the zoom in/zoom out magic shots.

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The queue for Smugglers Run said 45 minutes and I would guess it took about 30. We requested Pilots this time for Russ and I, so we got to fly the ship! And we did so… terribly! Ha ha it’s harder than it looks!

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Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Whilst we had been in the queue we had been looking at FPs and we managed a RNRC for all of us within the next hour. So over to Sunset Blvd it was!

We stopped in the new Pandora shop whilst going down Sunset Blvd and also took a look at the $600 designer ears by Heidi Klum. Yikes! They looked heavy. Although, with a DVC discount they would be $480… bargain!

Time for RNRC! How many times has everyone done this? :joyfull:

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Now I don’t know how many times I have ridden RNRC, too many to count, just like Alisa- but as we were watching the pre-show, I noticed that on the side next to the dancing plant… there was a toy dinosaur!! What? How long has that been there?!

This is the only pic I could find online and the Dino is clearer in person lol!

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Alisa and I attempted Dinosaur poses on the ride once again…

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As we exited, we realised it was time to start leaving the park as Alisa and Jerome had to leave soonish. Noooo!

Russ stopped on the way back down Sunset Blvd for some ice cream (diversion tactic) and then as we passed some balloons Alisa offered to buy me one (I love Disney balloons!). Last trip we had got a pink and purple balloon each so I chose a yellow one this time and called him Reymundo. We had asked as a joke whether the balloons can go on planes and the CM then tried to demonstrate to us how to deflate the balloons- as they can be deflated and then re-inflated if you do it a certain way. However she did it really quickly without warning and was staring at us the whole time, the balloon sounded like it burst and deflated in barely a second- it was like she killed the balloon in front of us with no emotion lol. We had to shield Reymundo’s eyes and assure him he would not come to the same fate...

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From here we took the slow walk out of the park and once we had reached the buckets decided we would ride them together one more time. Plus it was SO HOT none of us could be bothered to walk!

Reymundo enjoyed the buckets! Actually with the breeze he was flying about everywhere, like he was trying to escape. We were joking he was like Forky from Toy Story and proclaiming “Trash??” 😂

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Once we had made our loop and reached International Gateway, Jerome had wanted to collect his AP Food & Wine coasters, so we popped into Epcot to get those. We also just about had time to make another trip to Hawaii to get the pork sliders and tuna once more. Then it really was time to make our way back to the Beach Club to say goodbye to Alisa and Jerome.

Alisa spent some time saying goodbye to Reymundo.

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And with that it was goodbye once again… we keep asking why it was that Alisa and I met on this board and have such a good friendship with so many things in common- that we can only see each other once or twice a year? Why do you part us Atlantic Ocean! We always say if I lived in Tampa we would be hanging out every day. ‘Till next time twin… (which now I know is only 5 days away! Woo! 😁)
 
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