Trip Report If you don't have a bag "entah" through the "centah"

dclfan · Dec 28, 2017

Day one Continued:

We were seated within about 5 minutes of checking in at the podium and I had Pineapple Coconut Bread in my mouth within seconds. My mouth is watering just thinking about the bread now. Soon enough the salad arrived along with the dumplings, chicken wings, lo-mein and another round of drinks. You had us hooked smoked turkeys. I actually think we all stopped talking and just focused on eating for 30 minutes because I have literally 0 pictures or memories of anything that happened after the food arrived. I know we all thoroughly enjoyed the appetizers along with the Shrimp, Steak, and chicken skewers that followed. I did manage to crawl out of my food coma long enough to take this terrible photo of our half eaten 'Ohana Bread Pudding.

I love you so much bread pudding :inlove:

I wish I could eat you right this second. Soon after we asked our lovely server to take a photo of the gang commemorating our first night of vacation.

Insert joke here about getting lei'd at 'Ohana.

After dinner we decided to do a little more shopping at the resort before heading outside to take a stroll down to the beach and check out the new bungalows. My mom happened to notice the Christmas tree in the club lounge and asked what that was. I started telling her all about staying club level and she seemed to be very intrigued especially when I mentioned the wine in the lounge. Who knows maybe a club level stay will be in my families future. haha

After our stroll we stopped back into BouTIKI so my sister could pick up a Vans windbreaker jacket she has been eying earlier in the evening. We also took a few photos with the Tiki God and the Polynesian Christmas tree.

Aren't my parents just the cutest?!? Notice the tattoo on me dad's forearm. It is a scroll with a Walt Disney Quote and a small Mickey Mouse.

After our photo shoot we all decided to call it a night and head back to the French Quarter. It had been a long travel day for everyone and everyone wanted to be up bright and early to hit the parks. I fell asleep fairly quickly once back in the room but found myself wide awake at around 3:00 am to excited to sleep. I made a silent deal with myself to stay in bed until 5:00 and then I could get dressed and get ready for the day. Well I remember it being 4:30 and then the alarm went off at 7:00 so I must have fallen back asleep. I woke up at 7:00 so proud of myself for falling back asleep and so excited for our first full day in the parks.

Up Next: Day 2, In-Law's arrival, and DHS

dclfan · Dec 29, 2017

Friday, December 8th Day 2: First Full Day at DHS

YAY!!!! The first park day. That's how I woke up this morning. Bless Jerome for putting up with me when we are in Disney World lol. I got dressed fast and was ready to roll in under an hour (record time for me). It's crazy how the prospect of spending a day out and about in Disney will get you moving. WDW TV told me it was going to be a beautiful 80 degree day so once again it was a shorts day. I think only northerners get this excited for shorts days.

If you remember from my pre-trip report we had originally booked our trip from the 8th-14th. The vacation creep happened and we ended up flying in on the 7th and adding on a room only reservation at the French Quarter. Well when we got home the night before we had a message from the front desk with check out instructions. I wanted to stop by the front desk quickly and make sure we were all set to stay in our current room for the remainder of our trip. All was good and they explained how the phone calls go our automatically. Satisfied that we would be able to get into our room later this evening we headed to the food court to meet up with my parents who were eating breakfast. Nervous that my Dad would end up back on International Drive I decided to drive with my parents in their rental car to DHS.

Once we got to the park Jerome and I made a quick detour to buy our tickets for Galactic Nights on the 16th. With that taken care of we headed into the park for a magical day at the movies....

dclfan · Jan 2, 2018

Day 2 Continued:

Once in the park we decided to make a beeline for Rock N' Roller Coaster since we did not have a FP+ lined up for this ride today. We got there a little after 9:00 and guess what? There was no line.

We walked right into the pre-show with Steven Tyler and the gang :inlove:

. We requested to ride front row and that's what we got. The photo wasn't working when we pulled up to the concert which was kind of a bummer but it was still an epic first ride of the trip. After Rock N' Roller coaster me and J needed our caffeine fix and headed over to Starbucks. There was about 8 1/2 million people in line ahead of us but since we are addicts we waited. My dad is very much a park commando so he kept popping his head in every 10 minutes to yell about valuable park time lost lol. With coffee in hand we headed over to Hollywood Boulevard to catch the first "March of the First Order" of the day. Me and J are obsessed with this show and were happy to get a good view. This was the first time my parents and sister were seeing the show and I think they enjoyed it.

After the show my Mom was dying to get on a ride since she doesn't do rollercoasters so we headed over to Toy Story. We had a FP+ for later in the day but since the wait was only 25 minutes we decided to jump in line. You can never really ride this too many times anyway. My whole family is super competitive so it's always fun to see who wins.

Spoiler Alert:
Jerome WON

I came in second and my Dad came in third. My sister was fourth and poor Mom came in last. I was very disappointed in myself for letting Jerome beat me but I at least could brag that my dad was losing his touch.

hehe. Next up we headed to the Launch Bay. My sister, and fiancé are huge Star Wars buffs and my sister had not been to Disney since launch bay opened. Kylo Ren was doing a Disney Visa Card M&G so we headed there to avoid the stand-by line with him. I think we only waited about 5 minutes. Last visited Kylo was my favorite M&G and I am happy to report he was awesome the 2nd time around as well.

I love my Mom in these photos she looks like she is trying to be on her best behavior. After he asked us to join the first order my sister showed Kylo her Princess Leia ankle tattoo and said look "I have a tattoo of your mom" and he said "were done here" and asked us to leave. This of course drew huge laughs from my whole family. It was a great M&G and a great start to our time in Launch Bay.

mcstensrud · Jan 2, 2018

Loving your TR so far!
We are MA/NH border neighbors.
Also looking into moving to FL soon but will be East Coast for us.
Following Along for more fun in the sun.

dclfan · Jan 2, 2018

mcstensrud said:
Loving your TR so far!
We are MA/NH border neighbors.
Also looking into moving to FL soon but will be East Coast for us.
Following Along for more fun in the sun.

Thank you so much for following along. Such a small world, great to meet a fellow northerner How have you been dealing with this cold? I can't believe they are saying it's going to get colder this Thursday during the storm

. I don't want to spoil too much but we did find a house while we were in Florida.

. We're so excited.

Bullseye1967 · Jan 2, 2018

dclfan said:
Day One Continued:

After about an hour of fishing we still didn't catch anything but we still had a great time down at the Riverside. It was a great way to spend the morning and by the time we were heading back to the French Quarter the fog and gloom of the morning was starting to melt away. On our walk back I pulled up a map of the french Quarter to see where I room was located and it turns out we had a "premo" location. We were in building 4 which was the building directly to the left when you walked out back from the food court. We were on level 3 but that didn't matter much to us. All that mattered was proximity to food and buses and it was excellent. Our room number was 4239 (at least that's what we think, memory is a little foggy) and a text a few minutes later showed that my parents room was directly next to us. I actually remembered to take a few room photos before our stuff exploded all over the place. Jerome even managed to pose for you in one of them.View attachment 252210
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Loved this photo.
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cute story. When I was over at my in-laws house they had all the mardi-gras beads from the hotel wrapped around their tree. I think I succeeded in converting them to Disney people.
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I'm a sucker for details and the marble shelf and double mirrors really stole my heart. It was so easy to get dressed in the morning when we both had our own zone.
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Subway Tiles?!? Yes, please

After our quick room photo shoot we relaxed for a little bit while watching the "must-do's" and I changed into shorts since it was shaping up to be a warm day. We decided to take the boat down to Disney Springs for some shopping. Just as we walked up the boat was pulling in so it was perfect timing. The boat ride was lovely and super convenient. It dropped us off right in the old Marketplace. I don't have a ton of photos but I think we hit the Star Wars store first before fueling up on some Starbucks. I know starbucks in the park was kind of a sore subject but it was a lifesaver on this trip. I don't know if I we would have been able to keep going some days without our caffeine fix. By the end of the trip we were even ordering extra shots of espresso.

Anyway back to the Springs. After coffee we went to the D-Tech store and Jerome made a custom Star Wars magic band with a stormtrooper logo. While we waited for the band to be ready we stopped in a few more stores including World of Disney and Uniqlo. I fell in love with this Satin Bomber Jacket that said Mickey Mouse World Tour on the back and had all of the locations of Disney Parks around the world but of course it was sold out in every color in my size.

While we were in the Springs my parents texted that they had landed in MCO and were making their way to the French Quarter. Their flight had been super delayed so instead of them getting to the hotel at 1:00 it was now pushing 3:00. We decided to just meet up with them at Polynesian at 4:30 for drinks before our 5:45 reservation at O'hanas. This ended up being the right plan because they proceeded to get SUPER lost getting to the hotel. My parents had been to Disney for 25+ times but this was the first time they had gone from the airport to Disney without me in the rental car. Well according to my dad he didn't get lost but according to my mom and sister he had no idea where he was going without me. This was the first of many issues they would have with the rental car this trip. My sister has a smart phone so I'm not sure why they weren't using GPS but I digress. I'm glad we didn't plan to meet them any earlier then 4:30.

Up Next: Would my parents make it to the Polynesian....

My father never got lost a day in his life. Frequently he just decided to take "the scenic route"

dclfan · Jan 2, 2018

Day 2 Continued:

After leaving Kylo we headed over to meet everyone 3rd favorite droid BB8.

He didn't say much but it was still a fun M&G. After BB8 we joined the 30 minute line to meet my absolute favorite, Chewbacca. On our trip last year Chewbacca was one of the first people we told about our engagement. He was very happy for us and did his signature Chewbacca yell and cheer. While we waited online we had a visit from a few stormtroopers. :inlove:

Finally it was time to meet Chewbacca and it was AMAZING. I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time I was in the M&G with him. First up I stopped to take a few selfies and Chewbacca was happy to play along.

But here comes the good part. Chewbacca flat out refused to even look at Jerome. J was wearing a Darth Vader T-Shirt combined with his VERY visible stormtrooper Tattoo made Chewy a very angry wookie. He would point at the shirt and shake his head. Poor Jerome kept trying to speak with him and he turned his back on him and strictly paid attention to us. Chewbacca is a rebel through and through.

Family photo sans Jerome

When my Mom asked Chewy if he would take a photo with her son-in-law this is what we got hahaha

This was by far one of of my favorite parts of the day. Not only was Chewbacca totally in character but I feel like we had such a long conversation with a character that can't even speak. My sister said how she was missing Han and Chewy nodded like he missed Han too and started looking sad. We asked if we could come back and visit him again and he nodded yes but then pointed to Jerome and said no.

On our way out my poor fiancé was actually upset that Chewbacca didn't like him on this visit and made me take him back later in the week with a different shirt for a more positive meet and greet hahahaha. Chewy is one of his favorites.

I know DHS get's a lot of negativity and people call it a "half day park" but I think thats far from the truth. I hope people take the time to visit attractions such as the Launch Bay. I know it's not a ride but if you skip over it I really think your missing out. There is so much to experience in terms of character interactions, shows, and streetmosphere all over DHS. My family had to plan a second day back here to get everything done. It's one of our favorite parks even with all of the closures. I think DHS is one of my favorite places to walk around as it has a really great vibe for me. It's more laid back and compact which I love.

Anyway after leaving the Launch Bay it was after noon and our FP+ window for Star Tours was opened so we headed that way. We had a lovely tour through hyperspace and were happy to see the new scene for the Last Jedi. It got us super excited for later in the week when we had tickets to see the movie over at the Springs.

up next... Baseline TapHouse and the In-Laws Arrive

sheriffwoody · Jan 2, 2018

I'm following along! Loving it so far.

dclfan · Jan 2, 2018

Bullseye1967 said:
My father never got lost a day in his life. Frequently he just decided to take "the scenic route"

haha must be a Dad thing. He kept saying on this trip that "Disney was re-rerouting him"

dclfan · Jan 2, 2018

sheriffwoody said:
I'm following along! Loving it so far.

Yay!!! Glad to have you. I always love reading your reports.

becca_ · Jan 2, 2018

I love the interaction between J & Chewie :hilarious:

Great TR so far!!

dclfan · Jan 2, 2018

Day 2 Continued:

After leaving Star Tours we all agreed that an adult beverage and a few snacks were in order. I was so excited when Baseline TapHouse was announced and was psyched to finally get to try it out in person. We were lucky to snag a table for 8 out in the sun. We were loving the 80 degree weather in December and were trying to soak it up as much as possible since the weather for the remainder of the trip was looking uncertain. Jerome, My Mom, and my Sister held down the table while my dad and I headed inside to place our order. We got one of every snack on the menu ( Bavarian Pretzel, Spiced Almonds, and California Cheese and Charcuterie Plate). My mom and I went with the St. Francis Chardonnay on Tap. My dad and Jerome had the ACE Pineapple Hard Cider and my sister went with an Absolut Citron with cranberry. Please excuse my terrible trip reporting skills but I have zero pictures of any of this. I can tell you this we absolutely love the addition to DHS. We used to stop at the bar attached to the Studio Catering Co. and the Baseline is a huge upgrade. It was a nice mix of sun and shady tables and a great break spot when your out in the parks all day. That being said the wine was meh and no one liked the Pineapple Hard Cider. Hopefully the wine on tap either rotates or they add more selections moving forward.

While we were enjoying our drinks at the TapHouse my in-laws called and said they were in the front of the park. Since they had never been to WDW before I decided to walk to the front of the park and walk them back over to the table. I was hoping to find them crying in awe over the wonder that was WDW. They weren't crying but they also looked pretty happy and relieved to finally be in Disney after a 5 AM flight that morning. Once we got back to the table we all went inside for another round while we chatted about their morning and arrival. They were pleasantly pleased with the Magical Express service and were happy to find their room ready text upon landing. I was so proud of them for finding their way from the airport to the French Quarter to DHS. If you remember from my pre-trip report. This was not only their first trip to WDW but also their first vacation and trip on a plane EVER. Before we left a typed up Traveling Guide for them and put in a folder with directions to the Magical Express and bustop once at the hotel. I was happy to see they had no issues. I love my in-laws and wanted them to have a positive first visit with no room for complaining from my FIL lol.

I forgot to mention. While we were in the Launch Bay my sister designed a custom Magic Band. Sometime while I was picking up my in-laws my sister went and picked up the finished product. Jerome and Jill then took this sweet shot of their matching bands. Star Wars Unite.

After our drinks our FP+ window for Toy Story was opened so we all headed over for our first FP+ as a group. Toy Story was a huge success but once again Jerome was victorious. :banghead:

. I came in 2nd while my father was once again trailing behind in 3rd. I even think Jerome got best in vehicle for the hour.

After Toy Story we stopped to take a few group PhotoPass shots.

Next up we decided to see what the wait was for Rock N' Roller Coaster. Friends of my in-laws had told them about RN'R and it was one of their must do's for the trip. The wait was over an hour but we jumped in the single rider's line which looked promising. While in the que our names came up on the posters. This was a first for us and very magical to see. Disney is watching and I'm oddly ok with that. My In-Laws were very impressed as they tried to figure out how Disney knew where we were. It was nice for this to happen on of the first rides of their trip.

Single Rider ended up taking about 30 minutes which wasn't to bad as we were all chit chatting in line together.

dclfan · Jan 2, 2018

post continued:

The ride was fantastic as always and really lived up to the hype for my in-laws. After the ride we stopped off at that little stand near Rock N' Roller Coaster and re-fueled with some beverages. I believe it was 2 Angry Orchards and one Jack N Coke for pops.

With drinks in hand we stopped for some PhotoPass pictures.

We were all so happy and excited to be in Disney. Also judging by this photo prior to riding RN'R we stopped off on Sunset to get my MIL a pair of Rose Gold Ears.

Up Next: Tower of Terror and Dinner

dclfan · Jan 2, 2018

becca_ said:
I love the interaction between J & Chewie
Great TR so far!!

It was probably one of the best M&G ever. Chewy was great and really fun to interact with. None of us are children and I still feel like he went out of his way to make our interaction memorable. Thanks for following along.

Ariel1986 · Jan 3, 2018

Loving this report!

That meet & greet with Chewie and Jerome sounds hilarious :hilarious:

We really liked Baseline Taphouse too, even though Russ says the beers were also a little meh. The snacks & atmosphere however are great.

dclfan · Jan 3, 2018

Ariel1986 said:
Loving this report! That meet & greet with Chewie and Jerome sounds hilarious
We really liked Baseline Taphouse too, even though Russ says the beers were also a little meh. The snacks & atmosphere however are great.

It was so good. We were dying laughing. Next time all 4 of us will visit.

Totally agree with you (of course) snacks and atmosphere were incredible. We will still stop on our next visit.

Ariel1986 · Jan 3, 2018

dclfan said:
It was so good. We were dying laughing. Next time all 4 of us will visit.

Totally agree with you (of course) snacks and atmosphere were incredible. We will still stop on our next visit.

Ha ha yep another thing to add to the list of hundreds of things we all need to do together next time!

dclfan · Jan 3, 2018

Ariel1986 said:
Ha ha yep another thing to add to the list of hundreds of things we all need to do together next time!

Well by then we will be living in Florida together so it will easier to get everything accomplished

dclfan · Jan 3, 2018

Day 2 Continued:

Last we left off we had drinks in hand and were heading towards the TOT. I can tell my MIL was a little apprehensive but J pretty much forced her to ride so off we went with our FP+. My Dad being the park commando that he is didn't let us finish our drinks and instead said we would finish them in line. We were on the FP+ line however so we ended up having to pull off to the side by the waterless water feature and chug. At least we had a killer view. I love love love the theming of TOT.

Soon we were in our elevator. Another fabulous ride and I even got to check out some of the construction over in Toy Story Land. After the ride we went to check out our ride photo and were met with the cutest photo of life. Please look at my in-laws faces. After 25 years of marriage and barreling towards the basement of a decrepit hotel on the wrong side of Hollywood they still only have eyes for each other :inlove:

Don't mind my dad totally third wheeling their cute moment. haha

After TOT we met up with Mom who was shopping while we rode and took a few PhotoPass photos. Isn't the tower purty? :inlove:

We had about 30 minutes to spare before our ADR so we slowly made our way over to Mama Melrose's via Echo Lake. I wanted to check out the new holiday decor everyone was raving about and it did not disappoint. Too Cute! Once we got to Mama's we had about a 15 minutes wait before they seated us which was odd because there were tons of empty tables. Either way we got to sit inside and drink some free water so no one really complained.

Up Next: Mama Melrose's and Nighttime at the Studios

LeighM · Jan 3, 2018

The story about your dad getting lost reminds me of my grandfather on a family vacation. Him, Grandma, Mom, and I (age 9 or so) were trying to get back to the hotel after dinner. "Trying" being the important word because he was determined he knew where he was going. I was sitting in the back seat looking at the map and I kept telling him he needed to take a certain exit. Of course, he refused to listen to me because I was just a kid after all LOL. Well after getting lost and seeing the same bridge for like the 7th time (!!!), Grandma forced him to listen to me. And you know what? We quickly found our way back to where we were staying

I actually didn't even need the map at that point because I had memorized it after seeing those same roads so many times!

Trip Report If you don't have a bag "entah" through the "centah"

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