Trip Report Frozen No More: a live birthday TR *Completed*

What: A mother/daughter long weekend to celebrate a Valentine birthday
Who: Myself (Tuvalu) and Emily (@TrolleyFollower91)
Where: POP! (70s building, yeah!)
When: Feb. 13-17, 2014
Why: I have never posted a trip report but was inspired by @coachwnh and @disneysince71 to go live!

Until about six hours ago, when our plane actually departed, I wasn't sure this trip was actually gonna happen. We live in Atlanta, a place that is not equipped to handle winter storms. You may have seen photos from "Snowjam/Snowmaggedon" (as the locals called it) from a couple weeks ago, where thousands of commuters were trapped in their vehicles from 8-12 hours and schoolchildren had to spend the night in their schools since the buses were unable to transport them home. Emily's usual 15 minute ride home from the elementary school where she student teaches took her over 3 hours, including having to abandon her car and walk the remaining two miles home.

After that storm blew over (so to speak!) I remarked to Emily how fortunate we were that the storm didn't happen the day we were scheduled to fly to Orlando. She replied, "Don't worry, that won't happen again."

Until this week.

Monday the forecasters began predicting a "catastrophic" snow and ice storm (I hear all you northerners laughing!) The governor of GA declared a state of emergency through the weekend. Schools and businesses
were closed beginning Tuesday. We began to see our long-awaited trip drift away...

Our Wednesday flight was cancelled at lunchtime on Tuesday. Sleet and freezing rain began that night and everything was frozen Wednesday morning.

Wednesday was a mix of sleet and snow. I was able to rebook our flight for late Thursday afternoon, doubtful we'd get to leave. And this is what we woke up to this morning:

 
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Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
We shopped in Island Mercantile. That store is one of our favorites as it has items you can't find anywhere else. Gone are the days when Disney stocked different merchandise in their gift stores. Now it seems all the stuff is the same everywhere :(

We felt like salmon swimming upstream as we tried to exit AK and make our way to the bus depot to catch a bus to Epcot. Surprisingly, we were not the only ones on the bus to Epcot from AK.

Entering Epcot wasn't too bad. Future World was busy, but we were on our way to World Showcase. We noticed they have begun the plantings for the Flower and Garden Festival.




We arrived at Mexico as the CMs were doing the brief "opening ceremony" for the pavilion. Anyone else ever see it?

We reunited Donald with Pancho and Jose before moving on to Norway.
 
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Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
We caught a brief glimpse of Anna and Elsa through the open door of the meet and greet area. While it would have been cool to say hello in person, it was not worth the hours-long line. We opted to ride Maelstrom, where three bad trolls sent us "Back, back, over the falls!"

The sun finally came out and it became a beautiful day. Still a cool breeze, so we were comfortable in our sweatshirts. We saw plenty of folks in tank tops, shorts and sandals who were probably coveting our sweatshirts. There are people who simply refuse to believe that Florida can be cold. They expect it to always be 75 degrees or higher.

Of course if they came from someplace where it was 10 degrees, then 62 is warm ;)

We walked around the lagoon to our lunch destination, Chefs de France. We like to make our ADR for opening time in order to request a window table. We got one, though not a "prime" spot.

Our view:



I have tried many items on the menu and have liked each one. For our last couple of visits, Emily has ordered the burger and French fries. She has raved about it, so I decided to try it. What is so special about a burger in France?

Four words: Brioche bun. Bernaise sauce. 'Nuff said.
 
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Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
The chanting teen girls from Argentina followed us through Future World (okay, not exactly, but it seemed that way.) One or two cheers is okay, but non-stop pushes our patience limit. And it is the adult chaperones who get them started!

Rant over.

We were in the mood for Earl of Sandwich for dinner and knew we had to get their early in order to avoid a mob scene. And we knew we could not take a direct bus from Epcot to DTD to get there. So we said goodbye to Epcot and walked to the bus depot, where we took a bus to POFQ and then rode the water taxi from POFQ to DTD. The water taxi ride was delightful. We enjoy the serenity of the Sassagoola :inlove:

DTD is a mess though, with all the construction. And the crowds. Earl's was mobbed. And the cashier made a mistake with our order, charging us for 3 sandwiches instead of two. Despite the promise of "If your receipt is incorrect, your order is free" mounted on each register, I was only refunded the cost of the extra sandwich. I wasn't expecting a free meal, but then that promise should not be displayed if it is not honored.

Second rant over.

We always follow Earl's with Ghirardelli sundaes. You forgot we had ice cream earlier in the day, didn't you? You remember? Well then let's just say that we forgot. ;)

Though we're not sure the pleasure of those icy treats was worth the bus ride back to Pop. See @TrolleyFollower91 's post above.

Well it's late and the alarm is set for 6 a.m. again tomorrow. Want to catch the 8 a.m. MK welcome show!
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Catching up from the events of the past few days! Happy Belated Birthday and seems like you had a great day!!!!!! :) Glad to see everything was great today as well, besides the DtD mess...it always seems to be crazy over there no matter if there is construction going on or not!

Have a great night! It's been awesome to read a live trip report!



And this makes me sooooo happy!!! going back in May and only have 30% the Beach Club so this will definitely save us some extra $$$$ :) Hoping it's in our room next week at the Poly!
Thanks! If the offer is not in your room, dial ext. 8844 and ask for booking code JOY.
 

jlsHouston

Well-Known Member
I love your TR. I almost decided I would rather be in line for 140 minutes for Soaring today rather than home with all this laundry and housework I needed to get after..then I came to my senses and decided I can wait 20 days where I can FP+ myself and I got the bathrooms cleaned and 2 loads of laundry done.
We use to have a maid...I miss her...
It seems like even with the crowds you are getting a lot done. I loved your safari pics.
Can't wait for more MK tomorrow!
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Scoop Sanderson, citizen of Main Street, welcomed us today. A family from Peru opened the park with Mickey. It was apparent they did not understand what was going on. Mom and Dad smiled but the young girls looked terrified.

 
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Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
We literally experienced the "rope drop" into Fantasyland. Hopped on Pooh for a quick adventure before going to Gaston's.

I find LeFou's Brew to be a refreshing beverage for breakfast (I'm not a coffee person). We usually sit in the room with the fireplace, but today chose the other room and found a fun surprise ... There is a dart stuck to a beam in the ceiling!

 
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ratherbeinwdw

Well-Known Member
We shopped in Island Mercantile. That store is one of our favorites as it has items you can't find anywhere else. Gone are the days when Disney stocked different merchandise in their gift stores. Now it seems all the stuff is the same everywhere :(

We felt like salmon swimming upstream as we tried to exit AK and make our way to the bus depot to catch a bus to Epcot. Surprisingly, we were not the only ones on the bus to Epcot from AK.

Entering Epcot wasn't too bad. Future World was busy, but we were on our way to World Showcase. We noticed they have begun the plantings for the Flower and Garden Festival.



Untitled
by tuvalu14, on Flickr

We arrived at Mexico as the CMs were doing the brief "opening ceremony" for the pavilion. Anyone else ever see it?

We reunited Donald with Pancho and Jose before moving on to Norway.
So, you can now take a bus from from AK to EPCOT. Can you go park to park from other parks?
 

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