Trip Report I know, Disney is just SO horrible (alternate title: Is there a sign on my scooter?) - COMPLETED

Who: My husband Scott and I
When: May 5th-11th, 2018
Where: Pop Century Resort

This is my first trip report, so please forgive me if I make an trip report faux pas!

DAY 1

Up at 4am to get a morning shower (it's my equivalent of coffee)
got ready and woke hubby up at 430am.

Scott's mom picked us up at 5am to shuttle us to the airport (she's a trooper)! We got to the airport about 530am and we were number one in the queue for Southwest. Sent off our luggage, and we had reserved a wheelchair for hubs because he's disabled, and although he can walk, he can't DISNEY walk, and in the airports we just find it easier. It also allows us to board first on Southwest, so that works out great. But before we got the wheelchair, he wanted to go outside to smoke his pipe for a bit, since we were so early (the flight was at 720am, but I worked for the airlines for 13 years, and you are suppose to be at the airport 2 hours prior to departure... I can't break that habit, and I don't like to feel late!

wow, what a wrinkly sleeve!

While we were outside, there was a dude out there dancing and facebook live-ing it.... ok then. You do you dude!

Went back to the Southwest desk to call for a skycap with a wheelchair, and we were whisked thru pre-check/handicap security really quickly.

edited to add: I did get stopped at security because of my splint on my arm/hand. the lady inspected it, wanded it, and drug tested it. All which took about 1 minute or less.

Here we are at the gate, waiting for boarding... hubby looks thrilled.

mandatory plane picture

We were off right on time. From Grand Rapids, MI, we had to change planes in Chicago Midway.

This was an interesting relic to see there:

Everything was also on time to MCO, the flight was full however, and I refuse to sit in a middle seat. Usually, I get hubby to sit aisles across from eachother, but he was being ornery this morning, so he was sitting at the window, and I'm on the aisle in the same row, with a confused person between us. She tried to get each of us at separate times to move over next to eachother, but each of us refused. Sorry lady, you were almost the last person on the plane... you get the middle seat!

Next: Day 1 continued...

 

[fractal]

Need to spend time in The Seas on our next trip.

I still get my kids on the Beverly trick.

That slushie looks perfect!

 

[Rista1313]

Day 3 cont..

Here's a few pictures of our wanderings... I think I bypassed yesterday. The first stop was check out the phone booth in canada

We also peeked in the shops of the UK... and bought a few goodies

and a stop in Morrocco. I was soaking my frog togg in the pretty fountain when Jasmine floated by and waved at hubby and I.... she moved so fast I didn't even have time to snap a picture.

by then it was time for another snack, so at the Taste of Marrakesh booth we got an order of Fried Cauliflower

Cauliflower is my favorite veggies, so I didn't share many of these =D

I can't believe my memory is already fading... So I'll do the best I can to recall how things went.... I know between Morocco and Japan we stopped for a smoke break. Then in Japan we went into a few awesome shops ... surprisingly I didn't buy anything but Scott bought a hat... a never cool hat.... I might have modeled in one morning last week at home.

It's big on my head, but really cute.

We wandered thru the cute exhibit...

Then we stopped in Italy..... I was not impressed with Italy. Mostly eateries.. and only 1 shop (that we saw) that seemed snooty?
I think this was the best thing we saw there.

We looked at all the shops in Germany, and hubby traded pins... but I did not take one picture in there.

Our next stop was China... what a gorgeous building. We didn't catch any of the shows outside, but we did wander around these shops too. By this time, I was starting to overheat... which is not good... I ended up getting a pop because I needed something colder than my lukewarm water Id been hydrating myself with all day.

After this I think I rode the scooter for awhile and hubby walked (he was good about letting me ride when I became too hot or my hip/knee became to hurty.)

By this time it was almost 6pm, and we had a dining reservation in France at 635p.. so we were going to have to skip Norway and Mexico for now, and backtrack to France. We just barely made it there in time... but they seemed to be running a few minutes behind, so they didn't get seated for 5-10 minutes after. The cool restaurant felt good, and I was finally cooling off. Are waiter didn't show up for quite awhile.... which I thought was odd... and we were seated at a tiny two top in the middle of the restaurant, right between the two rooms. As others have said, the tables are very close together.

I ordered the Prix Fixe menu... 1st course French Onion soup... coming up on the next entry!

 

[Rista1313]

Day 3 cont..

I dipped my warm baguette in this...it was so tasty... I didn't want to eat a ton of it though, I was afraid I'd be too full for my main entree.

I got Beef Bourguignon and hubby got the Cherise Duck

We were both happy with our selections.

For dessert, hubby decided he just wanted coffee, and I went with the Meringue Fruit because I had a plan for another dessert later in the night.

After dinner there was a huge crash besides us, where a waiter had dropped a whole tray of dishes... this is the 1st of 2 times we would witness this on our trip, and Disney's hurry to get it cleaned up so fast you hardly know it happened.

After dinner, the sun had set some, and it had cooled off tremendously. Hubby wanted to smoke his pipe again.. so we headed back to morocco/japan area..... we were relaxing there, and decided just to stay in that area to watch illuminations, instead of going to the fast pass seating I had set..

After Illuminations.... Next.

 

[Tuvalu]

The filet with peppercorn sauce and au gratin potatoes at Chefs de France was superb!

 

[Rista1313]

After illuminations, it was time for 2nd dessert. We wandered around until we finally found the international gateway to head towards the beach club... do you know where we are going?

If you guess beaches and cream you are right! I got a 10pm reservation, and we decided to split a No way Jose... in the end, when we finished it, we contemplated ordering a 2nd one... but in the end, decided 1 was enough.

Getting back to PoP is where the night gets a little tricky... we could have rode the bus to disney springs and changed buses... etc.. but I had heard that the Minnie Vans had 2 EVC compatible vans in the fleet. The tricky part was that you couldn't order them thru the Lyft app. I was on the disabilities board before our trip, and given a number for the van garage. It was not the right number =/ Ut oh... so I went to the guest services desk hoping they would have the number... surprisingly they did not... but luckily a bellman was there.. and fished around in his pocket, came out with a stack of business cards... luckily he had one to the Minnie Van garage... I called, and ten minutes later.. our chariot came to get us.

It was a great ride... the driver knew just what he was doing loading the scooter, and it only cost the $25... worth it so I didn't have to ride 2 buses! I was chatting with the driver and I found out not many people are requesting these, so they aren't very busy. I mentioned I was afraid with all the ECV in the park, that they would be so in demand that we might have trouble getting a ride! Made it back to POP for another comfy evening of sleep in the new beds!

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

Glad to have you join!

I'll be in Rochester MN at the middle of June for a week. I sure hope it starts to warm up soon!

I live close to Rochester (actually lived there for a bit) and my sister lives there. It's been plenty warm here lately so you'll be fine. What will you be doing while you're there (if you don't mind me asking)?

 

[Rista1313]

I live close to Rochester (actually lived there for a bit) and my sister lives there. It's been plenty warm here lately so you'll be fine. What will you be doing while you're there (if you don't mind me asking)?

I attend a knitting retreat every year called Zombie Knitpocalypse. 200 of my closest friends knitting and buying yarn at the doubletree.

 

[MinnieM123]

Getting back to PoP is where the night gets a little tricky... we could have rode the bus to disney springs and changed buses... etc.. but I had heard that the Minnie Vans had 2 EVC compatible vans in the fleet. The tricky part was that you couldn't order them thru the Lyft app. I was on the disabilities board before our trip, and given a number for the van garage. It was not the right number =/ Ut oh... so I went to the guest services desk hoping they would have the number... surprisingly they did not... but luckily a bellman was there.. and fished around in his pocket, came out with a stack of business cards... luckily he had one to the Minnie Van garage... I called, and ten minutes later.. our chariot came to get us.

It was a great ride... the driver knew just what he was doing loading the scooter, and it only cost the $25... worth it so I didn't have to ride 2 buses! I was chatting with the driver and I found out not many people are requesting these, so they aren't very busy. I mentioned I was afraid with all the ECV in the park, that they would be so in demand that we might have trouble getting a ride! Made it back to POP for another comfy evening of sleep in the new beds!

Sounds like they need to get the word out about the ECV-fitted, Minnie vans. (I was surprised that it took multiple inquiries to get the answer you needed.)

As you said, there are quite a few ECVs in the parks these days, and if a guest had more than one bus connection needed to get to a destination (such as a dinner reservation, for example), there are some people who would absolutely pay the money for the service. Although I walk everywhere and take the buses, etc., I realize that for some guests and their families, this service would be a welcome option -- particularly, for specific locations, and/or time constraints.

 

[Songbird76]

After illuminations, it was time for 2nd dessert. We wandered around until we finally found the international gateway to head towards the beach club... do you know where we are going?

View attachment 286748

If you guess beaches and cream you are right! I got a 10pm reservation, and we decided to split a No way Jose... in the end, when we finished it, we contemplated ordering a 2nd one... but in the end, decided 1 was enough.

Getting back to PoP is where the night gets a little tricky... we could have rode the bus to disney springs and changed buses... etc.. but I had heard that the Minnie Vans had 2 EVC compatible vans in the fleet. The tricky part was that you couldn't order them thru the Lyft app. I was on the disabilities board before our trip, and given a number for the van garage. It was not the right number =/ Ut oh... so I went to the guest services desk hoping they would have the number... surprisingly they did not... but luckily a bellman was there.. and fished around in his pocket, came out with a stack of business cards... luckily he had one to the Minnie Van garage... I called, and ten minutes later.. our chariot came to get us.

View attachment 286749

It was a great ride... the driver knew just what he was doing loading the scooter, and it only cost the $25... worth it so I didn't have to ride 2 buses! I was chatting with the driver and I found out not many people are requesting these, so they aren't very busy. I mentioned I was afraid with all the ECV in the park, that they would be so in demand that we might have trouble getting a ride! Made it back to POP for another comfy evening of sleep in the new beds!

Well judging by how much effort it took to order one, I'm guessing it's not something people know about. If even Guest Services was unaware, they aren't something that's well known. Glad at least SOMEONE knew how to get the number!!!

 

[Rista1313]

Sounds like they need to get the word out about the ECV-fitted, Minnie vans. (I was surprised that it took multiple inquiries to get the answer you needed.)

As you said, there are quite a few ECVs in the parks these days, and if a guest had more than one bus connection needed to get to a destination (such as a dinner reservation, for example), there are some people who would absolutely pay the money for the service. Although I walk everywhere and take the buses, etc., I realize that for some guests and their families, this service would be a welcome option -- particularly, for specific locations, and/or time constraints.

nooo shhhhhh if we get the word out..it'll be harder to get one!

 

[Rista1313]

Day 4 - Rest Day

We decided to do what all the podcasts say to do, and take a rest day in the middle of our trip. Well sorta.... I can't say it was really restful!

We had originally planned to meet my cousin in Disney Springs for lunch, but she had to cancel, and then we were going to be @dclfan for lunch, but she got a migraine and had to cancel.. (sniffs self... do I smell?) So we slept in a little... I think I got up at 830am.. and we decided to try a little breakfast at Everything Pop foodcourt... we each got the Bounty Platter... Scott with pancakes, and I with Mickey waffles. Neither of us were very impressed, everything was just meh... but we ate it anyway.... and we shared with this little guy.

Here was our view from our table... I just love the bright colors of POP!

You can see the crane in the background for the gondola thingies, but we never heard any construction noise while we were there. In fact.. our room is right to the right of this picture... right next to the hippie dippie pool on the bottom floor.... and it could be super loud at the pool, but when we closed the door, it was almost soundproof!

After Breakfast we hopped on the bus to Disney springs... Hubby decided not to bring the scooter this day, and later in the day, he said he was almost regretting it.

I didn't take too many photos in DS.. so this may be a bit text heavy.. I do have a few...

When we got there... we went to the right... and found Polite pig where we would be having lunch...

Then we stopped by Amarette's because... I love french patisseries... however it said, "Closed for a private event" oh lord... I was about to throw a fit. But you'll see later, it was a blessing in disguise. Went next door to the World of Disney and both Scott and I bought a few things. He got this awesome coffee cup (and the most expensive coffee cup ever!) and I got a cinch backpack. I think we also got a tshirt for Scott's youngest son who lives with us (he's 19)

Then I deposit hubby at the Lego store, and I went over to Basin. Why aren't there more Basin stores? 4 in the US... gah... I bought a shampoo bar, got some mini bath bombs, and some Satsuma perfume. (and I sent it all back to the room so Scott couldn't give me a hard time about buying smell stuff!)

Picked him back up at the Lego store... he showed me a few items he thought were cool, and then we went in search for this Hat store he had read about called Chapel Hats. The man loves hats... in fact I think he bought 6 this trip... crazy... but he had been saving his money for expensive hats.. and he has a big head, so sometimes it's hard for him to find cool hats. He ended up buying a winter fedora, and a summer straw/woven type fedora.

Here he is sporting the woven one the next day.

Wandering aimlessly, we ended up in the boathouse giftshop... where I found a magnetic pad (if I collect anything, this is what I collect) and a notebook with the great lakes (Michigan) all over it. Who buys Michigan stuff in Florida? This girl right here!

Hubby also wanted to go to the cigar shop in Disney Springs... on our way there, we stopped at the brand new store Disney Style, that apparently had just opened the day before, we didn't even know it! It had a lot of cute things in there.. included some Orange Bird shirts/sweatshirts, that I made myself resist!

While Hubby went into the Cigar store... I sat under the pavillion type thing in the shade and waited for him... like all the days we were in Florida...it was once again over 90 and I was overheating. While I was sitting there.. I decided to snap a random shot.

After hubby decided to join me in sitting under the pavillion for a bit, where we consulted our handy dandy map to see where we wanted to go next... we were both getting tired, and there were just a few things left on our list...... we chose to make the long walk to the other end of the universe to Goofy's candy company and the art of disney... on the bridge over to goofy's... hubby found his mom's mothers day present...it was tile with 2 manatee's on it.. she could use for a trivet, or to hang on the wall or whatever... Mother's day present.. CHECK! (mine was already taken care of before we left)

At goofy's we both got a little bulk candy, and I got this monstrosity:

and DH got one of the big rice crispy treats with an edible picture on it.. neither of which got eaten until we got home to Michigan... just perked the cookie up in the micro for a few... I'm sure it wasn't near as good as if we ate it fresh, but it was still tasty. Hubby wanted to go in the art of disney again... this time I was really starting to overheat... so I sat on a bench while he wandered around inside. He came out blathering about some drawing he wanted.... at this point... I was just uh huh.. yeah... Can we go now? I need pooltime!

Oh wait.. back up... I forgot lunch... at some point we backtracked to polite pig and finally had our lunch. I can dare say I think it was my favorite meal of the whole trip! And for 1 QS credit, I got all THIS:

And hubby got this:

For our sides, I got the brussel sprouts and he got the sweet potato tots and we split them. But this Froze' thing was so refreshing...

 

[Rista1313]

OK.. back to our return from The Art of disney, on our way to the bus stop, ... Amarette's was back open! And since it was the ONE thing at Disney Spring that I wanted to see/do/eat, we stopped. It was everything I expected and more! Hubby ended up getting an Iced coffee, and we each picked out a treat to take back to the room with us:

I was once again happy! (In hindsight, it was good that they were closed in the morning, otherwise I would have stupidly carried pastries all day, and they would have been a melty mess) After amarette's, we made the looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong walk to the Pop bus stop.. good lord this was the longest walk ever.

I'm pretty sure not all my lines are accurate, but here's what our day looked line. Rest day?

When we got back to the hotel... Hubby went for the nap, and I went for the pool!

I opted for the bowling pin pool because the main pool was crazy with kids and loud. It was nice and quiet over here, and as you can see almost empty.

After about an hour.. hubby filled our drink mugs and came over to partake in the water for a little bit before we had to get ready for what was suppose to be our best ADR of the trip...

 

[LeighM]

I had the veggie plate option at Polite Pig and I was in shock over the portion sizes LOL. If I had known they were that generous, I definitely would've ordered less! I think I had the mac and cheese, brussel sprouts (which I usually don't like but these were great), and cauliflower. Plus, I helped R with the sweet potato tots. After the end of the meal, I felt like I had to be rolled away

 

[Rista1313]

I had the veggie plate option at Polite Pig and I was in shock over the portion sizes LOL. If I had known they were that generous, I definitely would've ordered less! I think I had the mac and cheese, brussel sprouts (which I usually don't like but these were great), and cauliflower. Plus, I helped R with the sweet potato tots. After the end of the meal, I felt like I had to be rolled away

for sure... the portions were huge. a veggie plate sounds great... but that brisket was really good too!

 

[Rista1313]

I forgot to post my Lego pictures...

 

[Skibum1970]

We wandered over to the bridge to AoA and it had rained that day, so there were lots of these out:

You should really be careful with these guys. They tend to steal your car, break out of jail, and make the friends, the Rat, Badger, and Mole worry a great deal

 

[Rista1313]

You should really be careful with these guys. They tend to steal your car, break out of jail, and make the friends, the Rat, Badger, and Mole worry a great deal

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

I attend a knitting retreat every year called Zombie Knitpocalypse. 200 of my closest friends knitting and buying yarn at the doubletree.

That's really neat! I know ALOT of knitters around here. It's a big deal. I tried it once but it was an epic failure with me dropping ALL my stitches and laughing hysterically after redoing them and then dropping them again. _
I opted to stay with crocheting, at least I know what I'm doing
Have a great time in Minnesota. I live in the far, far north part of the state, so trips to the Cities are few and far between.

 

[Rista1313]

That's really neat! I know ALOT of knitters around here. It's a big deal. I tried it once but it was an epic failure with me dropping ALL my stitches and laughing hysterically after redoing them and then dropping them again. _
I opted to stay with crocheting, at least I know what I'm doing
Have a great time in Minnesota. I live in the far, far north part of the state, so trips to the Cities are few and far between.

Crocheters welcome to... I do both =D

 

[Rista1313]

Day 4 cont...

After changing clothes we headed off to Epcot again, to catch:

The Monorail to the Poly...

Tonight we were eating at Ohana'

Our reservation was at 750pm and we checked in and sat down in the waiting area, we didn't wait long at all, we were called after maybe 5 minutes wait. We were brought to a window table the faces the marina. My original plan was to ask for a fireworks table... but even if I had this meal was was RUSHED, we would have been too early.

Sadly, this bread did not live up to the hype..it was tough and ice cold.

I wanted a glow cube... and since we were on the dining plan, I ordered this drink. I can't seem to find the name of it... I want to say it had the word Star in it. It was too strong, and I barely drank any of it (not a huge drinker)

Next they brought us a salad... of which I only had 2 forkfuls of... didn't want to fill up on that! Almost immediately the Pu Pu style platter came out... everything on that was so tasty... but we were already getting full... ut oh. Before we barely got to try anything off the platter, they were already coming around with meats... steak and chicken. The steak was good, I wasn't impressed with the chicken, and Scott was getting impatient because his real love is shrimp... and they weren't bringing it.

Our waiter came buy.. and seemed sad that we were already getting full, I think he had higher expectations of us, given that we are fluffy people... Hubby mentioned we still hadn't had shrimp yet... shortly after, finally some appeared.

After just a few shrimps... I was done... I knew their was some bread pudding coming next... and I wanted to be able to have some.

We couldn't finish it =( I was regretting that we must have eaten lunch too late today... but I don't regret the Polite Pig... I actually enjoyed it more than this meal!

Because we were wearing our anniversary buttons, the waiter brought us leis and another dessert.

I made an attempt to eat one bite... but I was sooo full, there was no way this cupcake was getting eaten.

Hubby and I actually felt bad about this dinner... we felt we didn't get our moneys worth, we felt rushed, and we felt like the food didn't live up to the hype. I don't know if we would go back. Even the waiter seemed upset that we didn't eat enough.

Afterwards, we wandered around the hotel gift shop, and then decided since Epcot had extended magic hours that evening, we would go finish up, what we didn't get to the day before.

After wandering around in the dark, we finally made our way to the TTC, thru Security,(the security was really nice and joking with us) and to Epcot. We headed to the left towards Mexico.. because we only had Mexico and Norway left to do.

For some reason Hubby had been looking forward to Mexico, though I have no idea why, other than going on the 3 Cabellero's

I had never been on this ride, and it felt a little bit like it's a small world, with the dolls. But I liked it!

I rushed Scott out of Mexico, as we only had a little bit more time for Norway. Unfortunately, everything was closed?! OK, I don't understand the point of extended magic hours, if you are going to close everything.

We kept walking, and made it to the karamel kuche, they were still open... I went in to get some Karamel Korn, and magic happened and they gave me a 2nd bag free. We were bummed later though, the korn was stale it seemed... We did end up taking it home, and I threw it in the oven for a refresh... this sort of worked.

So we STILL didn't get to see everything we wanted to see. Admitting defeat, we headed back to the resort.