Trip Report For The LAST Time In Forever - September 2021 TR

Welcome! Hopefully you followed along with my PTR here, but if not - I will go into the full introductions!

Who: Me (of course)! Annie. Mainer and mom to be, along with my husband Ian (the dad to be)!

When: September 24th - October 2nd, 2021

Where: Pop Century Resort (first time! also, Ian's first time not at a deluxe...)

Why: WHY NOT? But actually.. for our babymoon

I am going to jump right into Day 1, because I have 20 minutes of work left to kill time so.. LET'S GO!!



Day 1: September 24th

The start of this trip was a bit... rough. Our pup, Gus, was sick the entire week before we left. I mean, mess of the house and carpet every time we had to leave him to go to work kind of sick. Poor Gus and poor us. I had him at the vet up until the day before we left where he finally started showing improvement. The guy has a delicate stomach, what can I say?! I also felt better knowing my parents were the ones caring for him while we were gone.

We woke up at 3 AM on Friday the 24th (yuck) to get picked up by my mom to head to the airport in Boston. We always put our Magic Bands on first thing in the morning to start the trip off on a good note!

We live in Maine, but typically find much better and cheaper flights out of Boston (which is only about an hour and a half away). Before long my mom had her car loaded up with our suitcases and we were on our way!

We had an uneventful ride to the airport. Our flight was scheduled to board at 7 AM and we pulled up at 530..............

Only to then receive a text that our flight was completely cancelled, we couldn't rebook online or on the JetBlue app, and to see an agent at the airport. UM. OKAY? My mom and Ian were both telling me not to panic (read: don't cry) but I was struggling.

My mom dropped us off with promises that she would come back for us if need be, and off we went inside... To the longest line I've seen at Logan Airport in YEARS. There was no option but to stand in the customer service line and wait to be assisted. Apparently there was a physical plane issue. As we were standing in line, Ian and I discovered that there was only one JetBlue flight to MCO remaining for the day and there were only a handful of seats. We couldn't find anything on United, Delta, American or even Spirit. I was freaking out. We had Boo Bash tickets for that evening that we were SO looking forward to. How were we going to make it?!

Well.. as I stood there hyperventilating in my mask and trying to stay calm for this growing baby in my belly, Ian had found ONE flight on Frontier for 10 AM that would get us to MCO in time. It was PRICEY. There was no telling what refund we would get from JetBlue. But he wanted us to make it and have the best babymoon and vacation together. So he bit the bullet. I wanted to cry. I love this guy so much. If this is how he spoils me, our daughter is a goner!!!!

Naturally, I have no photos of this time period. After an hour or so we made it to the desk, they told us we had been rebooked for the earliest next flight on JetBlue... 4 PM the next day. NO THANKS. We requested a refund and they told us it would only be given in airline credit. Whatever. My brother is getting married next October, I'm sure we will use it.

Time to navigate to the complete opposite side of the airport to Frontier..

And by that I mean the international terminal because Frontier doesn't actually have it's own area at Logan.

A rough start, but thank goodness this guy keeps a cool head and focuses on what he can control (I could learn a thing or two)

Nearly everyone in our line waiting for the Frontier desk had switched from the cancelled JetBlue flight and had intentions of making it to Disney that day. We were all sharing our grievances and feeling grateful for this flight. We eventually made it through the baggage steps, security and found the gate. Only to find the plane was delayed an hour. AHHHHHHH.

Just sitting there wondering if this babymoon would EVER happen.

Side note: a man traveling alone with his baby asked if I could watch his son for a second while he went to the bathroom. He was gone for probably 25 minutes. I told Ian that if he ever flies alone with baby girl I would LOSE MY MIND if he did this. I get that it is so difficult to travel alone with children, but there are family restrooms and handicap stalls in the airport I've seen them myself...

After what felt like eternity, we finally boarded around 11 AM. After being awake since 3 AM. Time to squeeze into the tiny folding chairs that make up Frontier flights.

Tight squeeze for a fluffy guy and a pregnant gal, but we were just happy to be boarded and on our way. Besides feeling SO squished, we survived the flight. I made sure to get up and move a couple times over the course of the 3 hours as well.

Just before 3 PM we made it to MCO! A quick fonorail ride and we started seeing signs that we were home

To be continued...

 

[annienevells]

Thursday, September 30th

Time for another MK day! I went to grab us some sodas to wake up (our preferred method of caffeine) while Ian hopped in the shower.

This day started with the title of this TR. Ian was in high spirits, singing away in the shower. I heard him go "For the LAST time in forever, there'll be music there'll be light" (from Frozen) ... I opened the door and told him that wasn't right, it was for the FIRST time. And he said no no no, because this will be our last time in forever in MK. I laughed for a second then got REALLY sad!! I love ending our trip with MK, but we were not even planning to attempt it the next day with it being the first day of the 50th celebration.

Oh well.. guess we will make our "LAST time in forever" as special as possible!

After the singing and showering, we quickly caught a bus to MK and made it in time for Early Entry.

Quick stop for a photo!

We then made our way in with no issues and low crowds.

I asked Ian if we could take a glance into the newly renovated Confectionary (and this is the only picture I have.. the outside LOL)

I think @Tuvalu expressed my same feelings: a bit commercial and sterile in here. I'm sure kids will love the big Mars branded M&M silos, but it just didn't hit me in the right way.

Moving on..

We scanned in around the hub to prove that we were resort guests, and corralled for a few minutes before heading to our destination of choice. You may recall that we did not do Peter Pan during our After Hours event, so we were rope dropping there on this morning!

We walked right through the queue, pausing only for a photo or two

We both enjoyed our morning flight, and moved on to the next item on the agenda.

I really wanted to focus this day on attractions we have not hit yet on this trip.

For us, this meant the carousel was up next

A quiet and nearly empty ride, we felt like little kids and were all smiles!

No luck for me pulling the sword from the stone.

(trying to imagine myself doing this NOW at 37 weeks pregnant is making me laugh to myself writing this)

We snagged a quick selfie in a rarely empty area before moving on to the next item on the agenda

 

[annienevells]

Early Entry time was about to end, so we lined up with others preparing to get to the other parts of the park that were not yet open.

Our plan was to head directly to Jungle Cruise, as the line was always long and we wanted to check it off our list

The line had already reached 20 minutes by the time we walked over there, but it wasn't too bad apart from the fact that it was already getting HOT.

We boarded the Ganges Gertie and enjoyed a very dry and sarcastic skipper who did a fantastic job!

After our cruise, we decided to take a magic flying carpet ride as it was still on the list for this trip and had no wait.

I do enjoy the views from the carpets!

We headed to Pirates next. Not on our "haven't accomplished yet" list, but one of our favorites.

After our journey, it was time for a rest for me and thrilling adventures for Ian. I insisted he get in one more ride on Splash and BTMRR while I had a water and people watched.

He enjoyed his thrills, but again said it's not the same without me

Ian suggested doing the Riverboat which was an all time first for him, and trip first for me. I'm in!

We came across a cavalcade on our way over

Hi Goofy!

We made it to the boat just in time, as we pulled away right after boarding

Spotted from the riverboat!

Ian was really enjoying the view from the boat and walked around taking it all in. I was getting a bit tired and hungry so I decided to rest a bit.

We made our way back to Liberty Square just in time to check in for our lunch reservation. Any guesses on where? It was going to be a first for BOTH of us!

 

[Tuvalu]

I’m going with Liberty Tree Tavern since it’s the only TS in Liberty Square.

 

[cgersic]

I have no idea why the carpets get such a bad rap! I LOVE them!!! The views, the spitting camels, the up and down! I'm giggling the whole time I'm on it! The pic of Ian on the carousel is adorable!! Too bad there's not one of you too!

 

[danyoung56]

I have no idea why the carpets get such a bad rap! I LOVE them!!!

It's not so much about the ride, but about the congestion in what used to be a very pleasant, wide open space.

 

[annienevells]

I’m going with Liberty Tree Tavern since it’s the only TS in Liberty Square.

DING DING DING!

I have drooled over @Tuvalu's TR photos from LTT for too long, so this was one of the first reservations I made when planning this trip. A first for both of us, so we were excited. And hungry!

After checking in, we were seated within 5 minutes in the George Washington room. I explained the family style menu to Ian, and told him to try to save room for dessert!

We were both hot and dehydrated, so we started off with waters to accompany our usual Diet Cokes.

Our salad and bread came out quickly after that.

Light and perfectly dressed for tastes.

Ian was a big fan of the rolls.

Let's take on the good stuff now!

Everything was excellent. The turkey was moist, meats cooked well, and all of the sides hit perfectly. We were SO happy with this meal, and Ian kept saying "we need to come back here" - AGREED!

But before we start planning our next visit, time for dessert.

The ooey gooey toffee cake was worth saving room for. Warm and tasty, we left with big smiles on our faces after this meal.

We had a few more things we wanted to accomplish before our afternoon break.

Quick selfie stop on the way

First up - Laugh Floor! We were happy to see the return of this show, as it is a must do for us.

I don't know if it's because I'm always wearing a hat and thus stand out more, but I'm always picked for something during crowd work in this show!

We decided to end our final MK visit with our favorite

We spent our final cruise around Tomorrowland reminiscing about all of our fun memories from the trip thus far. We did still have a day and a half to go!

Ian requested a picture on Main Street before exiting the park

 

[Tuvalu]

I’m so happy you and Ian loved LTT!

 

[annienevells]

After our little photoshoot, we made our way out to the exit.

We decided to end on a high note with MK this afternoon because the park was closing early and there was no fireworks show in between the end of HEA and the start of the 50th celebration. We had been hoping maybe they would announce an early showing last minute on this day, but no dice.

We ran into some friends on our way out

Reminding me of some handmade familiar friends gifted to me for baby girl's nursery

So cute!

Time to head back to Pop

There was an empty bus waiting for us when we got to our station, and we took off right after climbing aboard.

Ian was feeling a BIT tired y'all

I woke Ian up when we arrived back at Pop so that he could go back to the room and restart his bus nap!

I opted for some pool relaxation instead

A bit busy but I got a chair and read my book for a couple hours enjoying the sunshine

I took this to send to my mom back in Maine - palm trees!

After returning to the room and a well rested husband, I asked Ian what he would like to do for the evening. His request was a final ride of FoP. The whole week we had enjoyed cruising the app looking at wait times in shock across all of the parks, often times seeing rides like FoP or RoR at 20 minute waits. We knew we may not get THAT lucky, but were willing to give it a shot.

We cleaned up a bit and headed out.

The time stamp on this photo shows that we arrived at 5:45 PM. With the park closing at 7, we did not have much time!

We arrived in Pandora to find a 30 minute wait. We'll take it!

It was also a chance to take in all of the line details, although we did basically move non stop for the majority of the time - which was nice!

Yes. As I've mentioned, this pregnant lady went on FoP. A stationary ride. No harm to my babe lol

We enjoyed our ride, and exited quickly hoping to catch the last safari of the day.

Unfortunately, we were a TOUCH too slow and got there at 6:35 for a final excursion of 6:30. BUMMER.

Though disappointed, we comforted ourselves with a favorite

 

[annienevells]

After our snack we slowly made our way out of the park, stopping for a few photos along the way

We said our final goodbyes to AK for the trip, and made our way to wait for a bus. And wait... and wait... and wait

UGH.

Our bus luck was terrible on this trip.

Finally, a coach bus arrived to bring us weary travelers home.

We returned to the saddest sight in WDW

While it bummed me out, we were determined to have a fantastic final day. Up next!

 

[annienevells]

Friday, October 1st

Last full non-travel day!

And the start of the 50th. As I mentioned, we would not be going to MK at this day. 1) we did not get a park reservation and 2) while we did have park hoppers, we did not want our last day to be spent fighting the crowds. Our park reservation for the day was for DHS!

While Ian got up and showered, I headed to Everything Pop on a mission right at opening. I didn't want for much in terms of 50th merch, but we always use our refillable mugs and I REALLY wanted the new ones.

I couldn't believe the bus line for MK that early in the morning, but it really shouldn't have surprised me. Easily over 100 people waiting.

I approached Everything Pop to similar crowds. YIKES. Right when they opened I quickly snagged my two cups and purchased while the mad dash continued. I made it back to the room before doing my full inspection of the goods

I love them!!!

Also, as much as I was sad to not end our trip at MK, seeing the craziness made me happier with our plan for the day.

After finishing our morning caffeine intake of diet coke, we headed out to the Skyliner

We approached the entrance right before Early Entry hours were to begin

Things were fairly quiet as we made our way into the park

I asked Ian what he would like to do, and he requested RoR. Let's do it!

Felt strange to be in such a long line pre-park opening when we had such a short wait in the middle of the day earlier in the week, but I knew on a day like today if we wanted to ride this was our safest bet!

We waited for a bit for EE to officially begin, and at that time the line started moving quickly.

Time stamps show that it took about 40 minutes for us to get on the ride!

A great ride as always, and a perfect way to start our final day.

As we exited, we saw that the wait had jumped to nearly two hours. Yikes!

We decided to head to a classic, and somewhere we had yet to visit.

 

[annienevells]

We were treated to Shirley status and had our very own show!

Where to next?

Another brand new experience for the both of us!

MMRR!

And only about a 15 minute wait

Wow! We REALLY enjoyed this ride and kept saying that we hoped to get another go at it before the day was over! We left with big smiles on our faces.

3 attractions done and the park had barely just opened for regular hours.

Time for a snack. I bet you can guess what we chose..

I had DEFINITELY lost count of our pretzel consumption at this point!

We headed toward ToT for Ian, with the plan to see the return of the BatB stage show at 11:30.

First, some photos!

I felt like we had plenty of time with low waits, so I told Ian to go ahead and ride both ToT and RnR

I saw his picture pop up in MDE, so I knew he was on his way to the next one. I was enjoying just sitting on the bench and people watching.

The line for RnR was a bit longer, but Ian was going single rider so I hoped it would move quickly.

I was getting a little antsy because we were getting closer and closer to 1130 and no sign of Ian yet. Finally he emerged at 11:32 and we rushed into the theater with the show just having started.

We were in full sunshine so were a bit sweaty, but we enjoyed the slightly truncated show. It always makes us misty eyed!

After our sweaty viewing, we wanted a cold treat before our afternoon break.

Frozen lemonade to the rescue!

 

[annienevells]

Satisfied and cooled down, we headed out to the Skyliner, passing a cavalcade on the way out!

We had a nice relaxing and quiet ride back to Pop. On our way, we were looking at Twitter and saw all of the crowds at MK crowding Main St and merch locations. No thank you! I did see the low wait times, which I'm sure was nice for those of you who were in the park that day.

Upon our return, Ian headed for his afternoon nap while I went to my typical rest spot at the pool.

Ian joined me after about an hour to cool down and enjoy the sunshine.

After a couple of hours we got ourselves cleaned up, as we had a dinner reservation that was a first for Ian!

Back in the park, we had time before dinner.

More statues!

We decided to start in Toy Story Land, as the waits there were very low.

We moved on to A.S.S. - it always makes us laugh like little kids

We had about 45 minutes until dinner, and MMRR was at a 20 minute wait.. let's do this!

We were excited to get another ride in, and enjoyed it just as much on round two.

We finished in perfect time to check in early as we headed over for supper.

 

[annienevells]

Where were we headed?

A first for Ian, and a couple years since I had been!

We waited maybe 5 minutes before being seated. We were a little confused at being told we had to wear our masks at ALL times except when directly eating or drinking. I'm fine with rules, just odd in that it was different from every other dining location we had been to so far (which simply instructed to have the mask on except when at the table).

I told Ian, a huge PB lover, that we needed to share the PBJ milkshake

SO. GOOD. Ian had the bulk of this, as he just loved it so much.

Our server (cousin) was great, and our food was out in no time.

Everything was perfect and hit the spot, and we both were clean plate club awardees.

Oops, no mask despite not eating or drinking - but you can see I had it at the ready!!

After dinner, there were just two things I wanted to do before heading back to Pop.

First, I wanted to see ToT lit up for the 50th:

We liked seeing the shadow people dancing in the top right windows!

Next: I had seen a pumpkin chocolate mousse 50th treat that I wanted for dessert:

Double check! (though a bit melty)

Having accomplished everything on our lists, we took the Skyliner back before park closing to avoid the crowds and enjoy a stress free final evening.

The next day - final farewells and the journey home

 

[amjt660]

Great call going to DHS on Oct 1 - MK drew the big crowds away for you!!


Max

 

[annienevells]

Saturday, October 2nd

Travel home day but we purposely booked a later flight to get some final fun in on this morning!

We started out by sleeping in a bit and getting packed up.

We at least wanted to be NEAR Magic Kingdom on our final day, so we had booked a 9 AM breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe. We hopped on a MK bus from Pop, and jumped on the resort monorail to head to the GF.

I took the above photo, and then Ian decided I needed another with the bump lol

Ian had only ever explored the grounds of the Grand, so I was excited to show him around inside.

While it is certainly not his style, he was impressed by the grandeur!

We had a little bit of time before we could even check in, so we headed outside to walk around for a while

It was already getting pretty hot, so we headed back inside to wait. Once we checked in, we were brought to our table right away! We had been chatting with our hostess that along with being on our babymoon, it was also our 2 year wedding anniversary!

As a result, our server came out with buttons for us

I thought this was very sweet!

 

[annienevells]

As a huge bread lover, I was excited to start the meal off with the biscuits and citrus butter

Yum! This really hit the spot.

We put in our order, and it came out rather quickly. Ian went with the steak and eggs

And more carbs for me

(that side of bacon is also for me, protein!)

We both really enjoyed our laid back meal and the atmosphere. It was relatively quiet in there, and a good ending meal to our trip.

Before the check came out, our server brought out a special treat!

Another nice touch that we both were touched by!

After this, we headed back to the monorail to make our reverse trip back to Pop.

Upon our return we still had some time before our Tragical Express, so we played some games in the arcade

Not much to report after this! Unlike our trip to MCO, we had no issues headed back to Boston. I was a bit emotional at the airport, not knowing when we would return.

Final thoughts:

We had a truly magical trip. I recognize now how perfectly timed this trip was. Pre-Genie + we had short waits, easy dining booking, etc. The weather was amazing. I LOVED the spontaneous distanced character meets. While we will likely hope to return to the Poly for our first trip with baby Nora, we actually mostly enjoyed Pop (apart from the bus situation) and really liked being on the Skyliner route.

I'm sad even just wrapping this up because I just don't know when we will be back. My younger brother is getting married across the country next fall, so that will be our "vacation" in 2022. So, I suppose I am hoping and planning on 2023 for our next trip and first trip with baby. In the meantime, I will be reading your TRs religiously!

I am due with baby in 9 days, so I will be sure to share her arrival with you all as an update here!

Thank you for reading as always!

 

[cgersic]

View attachment 608950

This picture is sooooo cute! Congratulations on the new arrival in a few days and Merry Christmas to you and yours! Thanks for such an entertaining trip report and I will be right with you reading everyone else's reports since I won't be back for awhile either.

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks for bringing us along . And I hope when baby Nora decides to show up, it is quick and easy

 

[RememberWhen]

Looking forward to that first trip report with baby Nora! 2023 is pretty far off, but for my middle kiddo’s (she’s 4.5 now) first trip she was about 18 months old and it was awesome. She was scared of the characters at first but then she came around and loved them. She desperately wants to go back (I don’t think she really remembers but we’ve talked about it so much and looked at the pictures so much that she thinks she does) and doesn’t know that we’re hoping to go in February!
Sending you good wishes for a quick and easy birth.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Thank you for sharing and I can't wait to hear about baby Nora.