Trip Report Food and Rain Festival, Polynesian, 5th Anniversary!

Thanks to fall break, I got my photos edited and uploaded already. Yay!

Cast: Me and my husband, R
Where: Polynesian DVC villa (rental)
When: Oct 4-10
Why: 5th wedding anniversary

When we were planning this trip, I was unable to find any decent rates for our flight down on the 5th. I ended up finding a late Delta flight on the 4th that would get us there after midnight. It was around $70 as opposed to the ~$250 Southwest flights I was finding. I figured I wouldn't be able to add a night at the Poly, and frankly, I wouldn't want to pay that much for a room we didn't need until the wee hours of the morning. So I booked a room at All-Star Sports with some Disney rewards points. Score!

Ok now on to the trip. I left work a couple of hours early, took Chipper to his sitter's house and got home to get all the bags ready. R got home a little earlier than planned, and we were able to leave the house a little before 4pm.

We got to the Memphis airport in great time. I don't have TSA pre-check, and they sent me through a line where they were training someone. It. took. forever. I already get super anxious during the security check, and additional waiting makes it worse. Once I'm through and I KNOW I'm at my gate, I'm fine. But enough about my issues...

We had a plane change in Atlanta. Not a long layover. They were already starting to board when we got there. Atlanta had this cool art installation that reminded me of Pandora.



We got to Orlando before 12:30 and headed to claim our bag. It was weird seeing MCO completely empty.




Our bag came out almost immediately, so we grabbed it and made our way to the busses. We were headed to All-Star Sports at about ten till 1. Me = sleepy and cranky. Slanky? (not creepy...). Unfortunately it hit me that we never got a room text, which meant we'd have to stop at the desk. ARGH.

We were the 3rd drop off and got off the bus at 1:40. There was only one person at the desk, and the two people in front of us seemed to be taking forever. It was about 15 minutes before a second person finally came out and we got our room number in less than a minute. Would have been nice to have just GOTTEN A TEXT. I guess maybe when I did online checkin I put that we'd be there late? I don't understand why that would make them not text us though.

Whatever. We got to sleep about 2:15am and I was OUT.

Sorry this is so text heavy. One more story, then I promise I'll do more pictures.

At 6am the freaking in-room alarm goes off. I turned it off (I thought)
At 6:10am the freaking in-room alarm goes off . I unplugged it
At 6:20am the freaking in-room alarm goes off . I briefly considered throwing it off the balcony, but R took it from me and started trying to figure it out. You needed a screwdriver to get to the batteries, but he figured out how to actually turn it off. Thankfully that worked.

We fell back asleep and didn't get up until 9. After we were up and moving, I took some pictures. Apologies for the slept-in beds (we sleep in a king bed at home, so in these doubles, we split up...no shame)



Donald I liked the room instantly because of this.



I thought the headboards were cool.






Honestly, I liked this room better than our Pop room last spring! I would totally stay here again. I think I'd request being closer to the main building. We were about as far as you could get in the baseball section. It didn't matter for us, but for a longer stay it would.

I headed out to get coffee and look for a rain jacket for R (we forgot to get one for him before). Sorry all iphone pictures...I forgot my camera. *Edited to add - after reviewing this post, I realize I took the room pictures AFTER getting coffee. Oops. Bad note taking.





It was raining steadily. It was a light rain, but heavy enough that I needed my jacket on with the hood up.

No luck with the jacket. I headed back to the room with only my $3 coffee.

We finished getting ready, packed back up and called at Lyft at 10. Jose took us over to the Poly. We had a great conversation! Unfortunately, this was the most expensive Lyft I've had, and it wasn't even that long. Ugh. No idea why there was surge pricing at 10am on a Friday. Whatever.

We walked into the Poly at about 10:30 and our room text came in! I couldn't believe it!




I love this lobby so much and it smells soooooooo good What I wouldn't give to smell it right now.

We were in Moorea, so we headed there. I knew it would be on the far end, so we headed that way and when we ran across a map, we charted our course.

 

[fractal]

Awesome photos!

 

[farrellbarrel]

I LOVE all your ears and tee shirts!! SO cute, and the dress you wore to Victoria & Albert's is SO beautiful! Love the report.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Late to the game as usual, but enjoying your trip report so much! I love the fall pictures of Main Street. Always our favorite part of going in the fall.
Congratulations on your 5th anniversary
Our 50th is next year, so we are a "little" ahead of you! LOL (yes, we are that old
Can't wait to read more and see your great pictures. Makes waiting til next Feb a little easier to celebrate our anniversary!

 

[sheriffwoody]

Sorry I've been slacking

We were actually a little early checking in for the dessert party, but we could see that a bunch of other people were checking in, so we went ahead. We were walking into the Tomorrowland Terrace area and shown around the buffet. The cast members were super friendly and made sure we knew exactly what was going on. We were told that when we were ready, we could find one of them and be escorted to the Plaza Garden viewing. They also showed us to a table, so I guess you don't pick your spot.

Since my camera had been put up because of the rain, I forgot to take pictures of our food until the end.



My fruit... haha

I took a bunch of pictures of the buffet on my phone, but for some reason they didn't make it over to my computer. There were several options available for little treats, then there was ice cream and a cookie station with icing to decorate with. There were also several beverages. I tried one of the juices and had some coffee. The sparkling cider stuff was good too!



It was still raining about 10 minutes before the show, though not pouring like it had been. We went ahead and made our way to the viewing spot with about 10 other people. It rained on and off, and the show was delayed by about 10 minutes. It was worth the wait! I took a few pictures here and there, but I mostly just stood there in the rain with a big, goofy grin on my face.








Got some rain on my lens...oops








Ok I actually took a lot of pictures... haha. I was soaked to the bone, but I didn't care one bit. The show was simply amazing.



This was a PERFECT way to experience Happily Ever After for the first time. We had a great view of the castle, and the people around us were courteous (probably because we were spread out instead of standing on top of each other). If I'm being honest, I wouldn't pay for this again even though I enjoyed it. The desserts were ok at best, and that price isn't worth just the good view. I don't regret doing it once, but it won't be a repeat.

After the show, we made our way out via the back alley. They've really spruced it up back there since the last time we used it.



Goodnight MK!

Up next: AK

 

[MinnieM123]

There were several options available for little treats, then there was ice cream and a cookie station with icing to decorate with. There were also several beverages. I tried one of the juices and had some coffee. The sparkling cider stuff was good too!

Those ice cream cups look kinda dinky. How much did they charge you for this?

 

[sheriffwoody]

Those ice cream cups look kinda dinky. How much did they charge you for this?

hahaha it ain't cheap! But to be fair, I could have had as many dinky cups of ice cream as I wanted

 

[sheriffwoody]

Day 5

I was up at 7:30 again, my body was really in a rhythm. I did something that I'm not proud of, but I'm also not sorry for... I took yesterday's coffee cup to Captain Cooks and filled it up. I think if you're going to make the DVC rooms serviced only every 4 days (unless requested) you should go ahead and put 4 days worth of coffee in there! I kept my eye our for a mousekeeper to get some from, but never saw one, so I basically just stole my coffee this morning.

I read on the patio until about 8:15. We got out the door by 9 and got right on a bus. The traffic this morning was crazy backed up, and it took us 40 minutes to get to Animal Kingdom. I think it's usually closer to 25 minutes.

When we finally got to bag check, I had the most ridiculous bag check lady. She literally made me take everything out of my backpack I was NOT in the mood for her shenanigans. And of course I don't want to clog up the line while I try to get everything back in, so I had to scoop everything up and go sit on the ground trying to get my bag packed back up. I was so mad....I'm usually pretty chill about security, but this woman got to me. R was telling me I better chill or they would do a body cavity search on me



Finally!!

Also I remember when I was walking in, right after the turnstiles/mickey heads, a cast member was waving and saying good morning to everyone and I said "it is NOT good" I did feel bad about that later. Poor guy. haha

I had made us a FP for a ride we'd never done before, so we cut over to Dinoland









There wasn't much of a wait, so we didn't need a FP, but I figured I may as well use one up. I attempted to take photos on the ride, and only about 2 came out ok That think jerks you around like crazy! We enjoyed it. I was laughing the whole time.



While we were in the area, we hopped in line for Dinosaur. It was about a 15 minute wait. Neither of us are big fans of this ride, but we enjoy doing it once in a while.




Earlier I had seen a food item I thought sounded good at one of those stands (Trilobites?), but we checked and it still wasn't open, so we headed to our next FP - Everest.

OH I just remembered, on our way to Primeval Whirl, a DVC guy cornered us. I noticed these sales people were a lot more aggressive this trip. I don't mean they were pushy, just that they were coming out and flagging people down instead of just being there if someone approached them. I wasn't a fan. With the guy in the Poly lobby one day, I told him we were loving our stay in Moorea knowing he'd take that to mean we were already owners I'm crafty. With this AK guy, I just said we were almost late for our FP and he backed off. Whew!

Ok, so Everest.



I swear...I have started looking the wrong way on half the rides now, and I blame you people. I never had this problem until @Tuvalu made it a thing.

We walked back to Dinoland for me to get the buffalo chicken chips from Trilobites. We waited a bit for them to open, and when she opened the blinds, I went to the window she'd opened. Then she opened the other side, and some guy hopped up there and she took his order instead of telling me to come to that side She was not one of those cast members who seemed to enjoy being there. She looked super annoyed. Whatever. I wasn't having good luck with CMs this morning!

I waited way too long, but I got my chips.



They were good, but I probably wouldn't get them again. There were way too many chips! The toppings were quite tasty though. It really hit the spot!

I really wanted to go see the next Lion King show, but R was complaining about it. He doesn't love it as much as I do, and I've made him go every trip so far. So I let it go. He wanted to watch the stupid bird show instead I think he just doesn't like the process of getting in and out of the FotLK theater...which I can agree is kind of a mess.








After the show, we headed to Pandora via the path from Africa.

Up next: Pandora!

 

[Diesel Dan]

Great report & photos. Like your picture with George W, Also what blue frosty lookin drink did you have by the pool?

 

[sheriffwoody]

Great report & photos. Like your picture with George W, Also what blue frosty lookin drink did you have by the pool?

Thanks for reading! I believe it was the moscato colada. That's the only one that's blue on the menu I didn't write it down though, so I'm not 100% sure.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Love the blue dress!! So pretty. Glad your dinner at V&A was everything you expected it to be.

I was going to say the same thing! Beautiful dress, beautiful couple!

 

[BuddyThomas]

I don't have a lot of time before I have to go photograph a wedding, but here's one more update before I go!

I woke up at 7:15 (this was a theme this trip. Every day I woke up at 7:15/30 with no alarm) and piddled around. I made coffee in the room, and unfortunately there was only one package of coffee, and DVC rooms don't get serviced until day 4, so this was my only in-room coffee for a while. I read on the patio with my coffee and enjoyed the view.

R got up around 8 and we got ready. We headed to the bus stop at 8:45 and got right on the bus. There was a bus there, but quite a few people and 3 ECVs. Thankfully another bus pulled up right behind it, so those of us without ECVs went on that bus, and it filled up. So far so good with buses at the Poly! Though it did seem like the other people at the stop had been waiting a while. Nearly everyone there got on for Hollywood.



When we got there, we headed toward Rock N Roller Coaster since we didn't have a FP. I traded a pin on the board they put out in the morning on Hollywood Blvd.

In the queue, R's name showed up! You can see what his name actually is . The main reason I don't type it here is because I don't want these to come up on google searches of our names. I just like this to be for fellow Disnerds



The posted wait was 10 minutes, but it was actually a 30 minute wait. No worries for us because our first FP would be open when we got out. I guess it takes a while for them to get the wait times accurate in the morning.



We hopped over to our first FP next. The posted wait was 30 min for this, but there was NO ONE in line. In FP or standby. So weird.



My hair was flying everywhere I was trying to hold it back out of my face. Note to self, pull it back on Tower of Terror!

Ok, I'm out of time. More tomorrow!

Sorry that I am late to the party -but - MY GOD!!! Your pictures!!! Are you a professional photographer? Every shot is so amazing. Mine are mainly like click and SPLAT, whatever my crappy phone creates, that's it. Yours are sooo good.

Anyway, late, but following along. Thanks for the report!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Your fireworks shots are stunning - including the one with raindrops on the lens!

 

[sheriffwoody]

I was going to say the same thing! Beautiful dress, beautiful couple!

So kind!! Thanks so much

Sorry that I am late to the party -but - MY GOD!!! Your pictures!!! Are you a professional photographer? Every shot is so amazing. Mine are mainly like click and SPLAT, whatever my crappy phone creates, that's it. Yours are sooo good.

Anyway, late, but following along. Thanks for the report!

Thanks for reading!! I am about to go see what new entries have been made in your lively report You make me sound so boring by comparison!! Also yes I'm a professional photographer. I work as a staff photographer at a university, and I do a bunch of freelance on the side. Thanks for the compliment! Disney is such a fun place to photograph!

Your fireworks shots are stunning - including the one with raindrops on the lens!

Thank you! I liked that one too. It's hard to make fireworks shots unique without doing a long-exposure (which I don't have the patience for...or willingness to bring a tripod) so I felt like it added a little something extra

 

[sheriffwoody]

Love this view you can now enjoy walking back from Pandora. We weren't walking back though, we were headed in!




Got my Y'all shirt from Magical Trading Post. We had about 20 minutes to kill before our FP, so we just walked around a bit.












Soooooo much to look at!!



This picture


The photographer made me return the favor So goofy.

We finally got on Flight of Passage and loved it again. My glasses weren't so loose this time, so that was good. Maybe just some of them are because folks with bigger noggins have stretched them out.

We headed out at about 1, and hopped on a bus to Epcot. This is where my notes stop, so I'll have to do the rest from memory/pictures

 

[sheriffwoody]

Based on the time of my next photo, it took us an hour to get to Epcot. I think I remember the bag check line being pretty long, so that probably didn't help. That seemed to be a theme at Epcot.



We stopped by the Chocolate Studio first.

• Sweet Dark Chocolate Raspberry Torte with Whipped Cream and Raspberry Dust – $4.25

This was good! I liked it better than the liquid nitro thing, which I think is overrated.

We walked over to The Cheese Studio next. I got my last little AP button from this stand. Hooray! Dunno what I'm going to do with them. Last year's passholder gift was soooooo nice, and this year we got lousy buttons.

• Braised Beef “Stroganoff” with Tiny Egg Noodles, Wild Mushroom, and Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs Cheese Sauce – $5.00

I don't remember much about this, but I think it was good. The tiny egg noodles didn't seem very noodle-like if I recall.



Caught the monorail going by! I had good luck catching it this trip.

We stopped at New Zealand next for R's favorite offering from the festival

• Lamb Meatball with Spicy Tomato Chutney – $5.25

I like this ok, so I took a bite, but I let him eat most of it. I am not as big a fan as he is.

Next we stopped at Ireland to get something I'd really been looking forward to!

• Warm Irish Cheddar Cheese and Stout Dip with Irish Brown Bread – $4.75

This may have been my least favorite thing we had Just like everyone has said, there's not nearly enough bread for all that dip. Seems so wasteful. But also the dip was just super salty to us. I was disappointed, but I guess that's just part of it! So far in the trip, I'd only disliked two things we tried, so that's not bad.

We just continued walking around World Showcase looking for booths we hadn't stopped at yet.




Watched the trains for a minute.

We didn't end up stopping anywhere else, we just headed on out. It was a quick trip into Epcot, and we were ready to rest a bit.


I had to heavily edit this one. His flash wasn't filling very well. I'm sure they have those things set on automatic power settings, and sometimes the camera system does mis-judge the power needed.



Up next, back to Epcot for dinner!

 

[sheriffwoody]

You guys still with me?

I've been busy and not on the forums that much. I need to finish this report though!

When we got back to Epcot, there was a beautiful rainbow! I just happened to catch the monorail going by, which NEVER happens.




One for instagram stories:


It was so pretty! We weren't heading that far in...we had dinner plans in Mexico! We popped in the pyramid, even though that wasn't our destination.



Learned a lot about Dia de los Muertos from Coco!

While we were there, we took a little ride.







After the ride, it was close enough to our ADR that we hopped over to La Hacienda de San Angel. We weren't seated right by the window, but we had a good view while this big table was empty.




So far, I loved the ambiance here.

We both got margs...duh. R got the taco sampler for his entree. It was recommended by someone I was chatting with on Instagram, and he enjoyed it!



I got the pollo al pastor. It was delicious! Too much food, but it was good.





After a wonderful dinner, we headed out. I kind of wanted to stay for Illuminations, but if I remember right, it was raining (shocker), so we headed out.

I watched Happily Ever After (I think? Maybe Hallowishes) from the patio.

 

[sheriffwoody]

The next morning, we had a breakfast ADR that I was pumped about! I'd been wanting to try tonga toast forever, and since we were staying at the Poly, it was the perfect time for a Kona breakfast.





R was wearing his cool new band. He got it the previous evening before we headed out of the park. I debated on it, but I ultimately passed. I like it a lot, but I already spend too much at Disney R doesn't get many souvenirs, so I'm glad he found something he wanted.


First things first! I liked the french press coffee a lot. R not so much...more for me!



I ended up getting the Loco Moco because R was wanting to try the tonga toast. It was SO GOOD. Oh my gosh, you guys. If I ate breakfast regularly, this is totally what I'd eat. Here's the description: "Traditional Island Brunch staple which features a tower of Rice, grilled Hamburger Patty, House-made Chorizo Gravy, Two Eggs-Any Style, and topped with Tomato Salsa" It was FIRE. R ate a few bites too, because unfortunately neither of us fell in love with the tonga toast.



It wasn't bad, but we didn't love it as much as we hoped. I guess that's the bad thing about hype...sometimes stuff doesn't live up to expectations!



Such a gorgeous resort

We were STUFFED, but we headed to MK after breakfast. Caught my fav show on the way in...






Up next: more MK!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Last time I had breakfast at Kona I got the Loco Moco and the press pot coffee too, it was so tasty!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Ok now I’m confused about the Tonga toast - what’s that on top of it?

 

[Bullseye1967]

You guys still with me?

I've been busy and not on the forums that much. I need to finish this report though!

When we got back to Epcot, there was a beautiful rainbow! I just happened to catch the monorail going by, which NEVER happens.




One for instagram stories:


It was so pretty! We weren't heading that far in...we had dinner plans in Mexico! We popped in the pyramid, even though that wasn't our destination.



Learned a lot about Dia de los Muertos from Coco!

While we were there, we took a little ride.







After the ride, it was close enough to our ADR that we hopped over to La Hacienda de San Angel. We weren't seated right by the window, but we had a good view while this big table was empty.




So far, I loved the ambiance here.

We both got margs...duh. R got the taco sampler for his entree. It was recommended by someone I was chatting with on Instagram, and he enjoyed it!



I got the pollo al pastor. It was delicious! Too much food, but it was good.





After a wonderful dinner, we headed out. I kind of wanted to stay for Illuminations, but if I remember right, it was raining (shocker), so we headed out.

I watched Happily Ever After (I think? Maybe Hallowishes) from the patio.

Unreal pics with the monorail and the rainbow!!!!