Trip Report Hyped on Coffee Flavored Powerade, a delayed 2018 Trip Report (Honeymoon/First Time!)

Hello and welcome to my VERY delayed 2018 Trip Report! You can View Pre-Trip Post HERE for my planned itinerary prior to our trip. I'll post the main deets again below as well since this is so long ago. I took great notes and remember this trip with so many fond memories so I really look forward to sharing it with you all and I hope you enjoy it! <3

Who:
- My husband, Jason (31, now 33)
- Myself, Kristen (28, now 30)

When:
September 28th - October 5th, 2018

Why:
[Wrote this back in 2018] Even though we go to Disneyland once a year, I have always dreamt of going to Walt Disney World! Now that I graduated college this past March and have my first full-time job, I felt like I needed to treat myself and go to WDW. Jason and I have a lot to celebrate this year: we got married in May, I graduated in March, I got my first full-time job, he's doing awesome at work, and my birthday is on October 9th right after our trip ends. Sounds like a great time to go and celebrate!
[Update 2020] Back when I wrote this Pre-Trip, I hadn't realized I was going to get laid off of work about a month later and go into a depressive state up until our vacation. It came at a very much-needed time for me! Fast forward 2 years later, I'm working full-time again and am happy and am planning a trip with my brother for 2021! Anywho, back to THIS trip:

Where:
We are trying to keep things on the cheaper side so we are staying at POP.

 

[Kizlit]

Day 1 - Redeye from LAX - MCO, Breakfast, Lunch, & Disney Springs

First thing first - getting my nails ready for a week-long trip to the happiest place on earth! Since this was the 2nd half of our honeymoon, I had to show off my ring in the nail picture. I wanted to get Disney nails but my gel manicure usually lasts a month and I had interviews when I got back so I stuck to my favorite go-to french tips <3

Showing off my fresh french trip manicure, wedding ring, and DISNEY luggage tags!!

We were flying out of LAX to catch a redeye to MCO. My parents were nice enough and volunteered to take us to the airport and even took us to one of our favorite places for dinner in Los Angeles - Tam O'Shanter! My husband and I split the roast beef with mashed potatoes, gravy, and mushy peas. I had a Guinness to celebrate the start to our trip!

A pre-flight beer should ALWAYS be a thing, imo

We arrived to the airport with no problems, checked in, gave them our bags, used the restroom, then it was already time to board our plane for the evening! This was probably the most amazing airport experience I had ever had as the timing was PERFECT. The flight was also one of the best I had ever had. I apologize to the people that were sitting around my husband and I as it was a redeye arriving in Orlando ~6:30am, but we talked the whole flight and enjoyed ourselves immensely. We played sudoku for a while, watched a few Mickey cartoons, and before we knew it - we were in Florida! Smelling all the wonderful coffee at that point was driving me crazy but we had to go get our bags and board the Magical Express. We were headed to our hotel for our trip, Pop Century and were the ONLY ones on the bus that morning. The driver was nice and laughed with us about a few things during the drive. I enjoyed looking outside as I had never been to Florida before!

Showing off our magic bands while on the magical express - so magical!

Finally, after a 2 hour drive to LAX + 5 Hour flight + 1 hour for baggage claim / bus to Pop - we were finally there! We arrived to POP Century Resort and the grounds were beautiful. We did the scavenger hunt around the hotel and I got a prize for filling out the whole thing! I think the CM thought I was strange as I wanted the cheap little toy but I was excited to get something .

We took pictures at each of the scavenger hunt stops. This one was my favorite

Proof of completion!

We ended up staying in the 90's building and the hotel was very clean and the grounds were nice to walk around - very open. My only complaint is that it was SO difficult to sleep every night with so many people walking by and kids yelling/running. The walls are WAY too thin! The thought of staying at a different hotel next time is definitely on our minds.

Anyway, we cleaned up a bit then had our first breakfast at the food court. My go-to breakfast is ALWAYS Mickey Waffles whenever I'm at Disney! (I live less than an hour away from Disneyland). So I enjoyed my breakfast of Mickey Waffles and my husband had eggs, & hash browns. We got our souvenir mugs which were a very memorable thing from our trip as they always had the flavor of Joffrey Coffee and Powerade, thus the name for the blog. We had coffee every morning and Powerade everyday we got back to help with all the sweating we did throughout the day. We literally could not clean the flavors out of these cups no matter how much soap and hot water we used lol but it didn't bother us and is still a joke 2 years later!

Me being super excited to be at WDW! My breakfast: Mickey Waffles, bacon, strawberry stuff & my husband had scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, a biscuit, and french toast. And no, he couldn't finish it all

After enjoying our breakfast, we got our second wind. We took the bus to Disney Springs, walked around for a few hours and did some shopping. We stopped by the diamond store to talk to one of the salespeople about some diamond earrings to go with my beautiful wedding ring. However, I was mainly just there to get the free necklace they offer on the back of the Disney Map lol. Then we went to Earl of Sandwich for an early lunch! We both got our favorite roast beef sandwiches, ate half (saved the other half for breakfast another morning). I then had us stop by a place I had been DYING to go - Amorette's Pasterie! I got the Mickey Cake I had been wanting for my Birthday for the past year and it lived up to the expectations of being completely AMAZING.

After filling ourselves up with yummy food, we said goodbye to Disney Springs. Went back to POP, cleaned up, and crashed around 5pm. We had to get rest as the next day will consist of our first ADR - 50's Sci-Fi and I was so crazy excited as my brother had talked this place up like crazy!!

 

[Kizlit]

Day 2 - Hollywood Studios, ADR @ Sci-Fi Diner, a Peek @ Epcot, Exhaustion & Netflix

Our first official full-day of WDW was finally here! It was easy enough to get out of bed this morning since we went to bed so early the night before. We got around then headed over to the POP Food Court for a simple breakfast of pastries, fruit, and coffee since we had ADR at 11am for Sci-Fi Diner.

Breakfast @ POP Food Court, Pastries, Coffee, & Fruit

We arrived to Hollywood Studios around 9am. The line wasn't terribly long and I was just so excited to finally be in a brand new amusement park! All of this excitement + the redeye the day before + the stress of life in general had hit me at this point... for some reason I had a really weird brain fart and I thought we had a FP+ reservation that we didn't actually have... I all of a sudden started saying that we were going to miss our Toy Story Mania FP+ reservation! I was completely freaking out about this and grabbed my husband's hand as we ran to the back of the park to get to these reservations. We got to the line just in time according to my tired-brain, scanned our magic bands, and the CM said that we didn't have a FP+ for right now. I was stunned and couldn't believe it.. I told her I'm pretty sure we did but maybe the bands weren't working? She scanned it again and it didn't work. I looked at my husband in disbelief thinking this was the start to our trip and I did something to ruin our schedule and I was almost in tears - then it hit me. WE DIDN'T HAVE A RESERVATION RIGHT NOW!! I have NO CLUE what came over me and why I thought we did. I apologized to the CM for my mistake, wished her a good day, and we were on our way. Even though Toy Story Land was new at this point, this was the only time we saw it and I was too freaked out to even look around. I guess I'll need to check it out the next time I'm in WDW! As we were walking away, I looked at my phone and realized our TSM FP+ was for 12:20pm and it was only 9:30am at this point. I swear.. I'm such a worrier some times.

The large crowd heading towards the newly opened Toy Story Land

Some water art done by one of the janitors at the park! Very cool. We found out that this tradition was started by an intern at Disneyland.

Anyway. To cool down from this, I was dying to get on a ride so we ended up going on Space Tours since there was hardly any queue. We went on Space Tours and LOVED the outside queue! It was very different from California until we stepped in and then things looked like home. We rode Star Tours, sat down for a while to watch the little Padwons do their show with Darth Vader, and then we went to our reservations at the Sci-Fi Diner.

We got to our reservations early and were seated right at 11am in the first car of the day. We were the designated "Birthday" Car as everyone in it had a Birthday going on! We sat in the back together and both ordered a cherry coke (I heard they make it with grenadine which is my preferred method so I was excited for this coke!). The other couples in our car all ordered an oreo shake so when the waitress brought us our cokes, she also brought us a shake to split for free - yay pixie dust! The shake was SO GOOD and refreshing and so was the cherry coke <3

We had a blast sitting there and watching all of the old movies. We both got a hamburger and it was SO much food that I wish we would've split it. The flavor was okay, nothing too special but it certainly hit the spot. After our burgers, the waitress gave me a birthday cupcake which was delicious! (2nd Birthday Dessert of the tip)

After our lunch that left us completely full, we decided to go watch The Muppets since we no longer have the show here in California. I always like watching it, it's so cute. We wandered a bit, saw Beauty & The Beast, Indiana Jones, and then went to our FP+ of Rock'N Rollercoaster...

I love this picture I got of someone's Beauty & The Beast ears sitting in front of us while watching Beauty & the Beast

This was probably the most scared I have ever been of a ride since I was little. I was excited for the ride as I heard so many good things but the second we stepped into the cage area where you watch the coaster just speed up and zoom off, I started freaking out. I was fidgeting in line, asking my husband if maybe we shouldn't go on it, and the guy behind us in line was also freaking out! We were both really considering not going on the ride but we sucked it up and went on it anyway. OMG! NO ONE told me how FAST this ride is!! I lost my breath from all the screaming at the beginning then spent the rest of the ride with my eyes closed except for the occasional peek. This ride was crazy fun but crazy scary lol!

Once we left Rock'N Roller Coaster, we were going to call it an early evening as we were still tried from the day before but instead of sleeping like normal people would, we took the boat from HS to Epcot instead.

It was such a beautiful day for a boat ride <3

We took the boat which was a very nice and relaxing ride and we ended up in the world showcase of Epcot. We wandered around a tiny bit - and then I saw it...

The beer cheddar soup from the Canadian booth at the Food & Wine festival. A soup I have been wanting to try for YEARS! I quickly got in line, ordered a cup, along with a beer, and my husband got a Guinness/Baileys shake from the Ireland booth. We found a nice little table over looking the water to indulge in our snackage. I took one bite of the soup and fell in LOVE - it was simply amazing. I wanted to eat it for every meal after that one bite but sadly I had to try other foods on the trip. I will definitely be getting a bowl of this stuff in a future trip, though!

After our snack, we decided to listen to our tired bodies and head back to the hotel. We dropped by the POP Food Court to grab some dinner and then we watched "Once Upon a Time" on Netflix since that's what we were currently binging prior to our trip. After dinner and half an episode - I was out cold.

POP Food Court Dinner: I got the chicken parmesan, potato chips, bread, ceasar salad and my 3rd birthday dessert - Minnie Whoopie Pie! My husband got the same thing except mac & cheese instead of chips.

Tomorrow we were going to AK and hopefully after a good night's rest, right?

 

[Darstarr]

I love the red eye from LAX too. Its the most peaceful!!! But I usually sleep.
Reading and waiting for the crash...

 

[Kizlit]

I love the red eye from LAX too. Its the most peaceful!!! But I usually sleep.
Reading and waiting for the crash...

Spoiler Alert - You don't have to wait too much longer for it! haha <3 Thanks for reading! I'll be posting more tomorrow or the day after

 

[Kizlit]

Day 3 - Animal Kingdom, a lost hat, & an unfortunate experience @ California Grill

The next day/early morning, I ended up waking up at 4am so I decided to take a long bath, watch some Netflix, then get around for our day at Animal Kingdom. I'm the kind of person that will get so excited for things that I literally cannot sleep! I went to the food court to fill up our mugs with coffee to help wake up my husband. I really enjoyed this quiet walk! One of my favorite things on vacation is to be up before anyone else and take a walk.

Coffee & Roast Beef Sandwich for Breakfast!

We got around then enjoyed our other half of our Roast Beef Sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich along with our coffee before leaving to AK for the day. We ended up doing a rope drop for the Safari ride which we both really enjoyed! Back in the early 2000's, I went on an actual Safari in Tanzania, Africa and I was surprised to see this Disney ride was pretty realistic compared to that! Even better because you were much closer to the animals and could actually see them.

Me checking out some of the animal with my cooling towel, fan, and hat!

Then we went to Avatar Land for our FP+ and went on Na'Vi River Journey. We both loved this ride as it was nice, chill, and filled with pretty neon colors! Once we got off the boat, we booked it to our FP+ for Expedition Everest. This was my FAVORITE ride in WDW and one of the only ones we went on multiple times during the trip. I had such a blast from the ride that when we got off, as I was walking away my husband noticed his Mickey Hat was missing - oh no! We went back to ask a CM if they could check for us. It took about 30 minutes for our train to come back around but once it did, a CM ran to us with his hat - he was SO relieved!! I'm so glad no one took it.

Husband got his hat back and was so happy!

Now it was time for lunch at the Flame Tree BBQ! We tried the new mobile ordering system here and enjoyed being able to do that rather than wait in line. We got to relax in the picnic area with all of the birds and enjoy our lunch for a while. It was EXTREMELY hot and humid which we aren't used to so we had been dying the whole day of SO0O much sweat I'm so glad we brought fans and cooling towels for this trip!

Both got chicken and coleslaw. Quite yummy!

After lunch, we went and watched the Lion King which I wasn't too impressed with but maybe because I was hot and our seats weren't the best. The crowd seemed to really enjoy it, though! Once the show was over, I went and got one of those pretty fruitty drinks with boba from Avatar land which was incredibly too sweet for me so I gave it to my husband to enjoy but he also thought it was too sweet.

Such a pretty drink but WAY too sweet for me!

Now it was time to head back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for our ADR at California Grill! I had really been looking forward to this meal as a highlight of the trip but sadly things went down hill from here so fast and so hard...

 

[Kizlit]

Day 3, Continued - California Grill ADR

With my dress on and my husband in a nice dress shirt, we headed to Magic Kingdom from POP so we could board the monorail to the Grand Floridian. Well, we boarded the wrong monorail and went the opposite direction. Then once we got going the right way, it broke down. It broke down for 30-45 minutes and we were sweating since they turned off the air. We were staying optimistic (although I was FREAKING out as I'm really into sticking to the schedule) and the woman next to us was out loud just complaining about EVERYTHING so that made things difficult. Anyway, we finally arrived to GF. I asked for a certain table but they said they can't accommodate only 2 people there - fine. We sat down with me facing the completely GORGEOUS view of the sunset and my husband facing the completely gorgeous view of - me. He's fine with that but really wanted to see the view too.

My husband and I both ordered a beer, they gave my husband the wrong one then told him that it's what he ordered even though it wasn't. We had the big ravioli which was okay. I asked to keep our bread but they took it away, I asked for some more after they took it and it never came. I tried to talk with our waiter and joke with him but he wasn't having it and ended up ignoring our table so our service was incredibly bad.

Our meals came and for me, the flavor of my dinner made this whole fiasco totally worth it - it was mouth watering amazing-ness. It was the pork done 3 ways with cheesy grits in a wonderful sauce. Every bite was incredible. My husband had the chicken with rice and his chicken was dry and rice waas crunchy. At this point, I think the exhaustion from the past few days had finally hit us and we were both extremely grouchy towards each other. We postponed our dessert so we could watch the fireworks but the evening was pretty tainted by that point. Someone proposed before the fireworks which was sweet, though! I wanted to hold my husband's hand while the fireworks were going on but he wasn't having it and said he didn't care for the show.

Not the prettiest meal but so so SO good!

Our dessert came and our waiter never said "Happy Birthday". He just gave me my cake, the check, and walked away without a word. I'm really not sure what was up with this as we were very nice to our waiter but this all resulted in my husband and I quietly arguing on our way back to the tram then couldn't stand together on the bus due to limited space so it was a quiet and lonely ride back.

Okay guys, enough of this depressing evening we had. We really did have an amazing trip so I blocked this night out of my mind for the most part but honestly, these things happen in life and I honestly appreciate when people leave the negatives in their trip reports as it makes it more realistic.

Tomorrow is our first full day in Epcot, we wake up refreshed, we made up, and are ready for an AMAZING day to make up for a our previous night