Kramerica's Early September Trip Report

I got back from our longest Disney trip to date a couple weeks ago, and as always, had an amazing time. I'm not really sure how, but every trip seems to get better than the last. So I could argue that this was my best trip yet. I don't know if I would go that far, but I really enjoyed myself. As far as my trip report goes, This is my first. So don't expect it to be poetry. And quite frankly, it's been too long since I got back to remember my trip day to day. So I'm just going to upload pictures one by one and give any commentary on them and anything that they remind me of. So, in advance, sorry if my report isn't all the way up to par. Anyway, let's get started.

So our trip was from The first of September through the 11th. We left from Portland international just as the sun was coming up, and got to our First of two resorts, Pop Century, that evening. As a lot of you know, I have a fear of flying. So by the time we got there, I was pretty loopy and not game for going to a park. So we decided instead to go check out Art of Animation.

The bridge is really a beautiful piece of architecture. It's a fitting gateway to the amazing eye candy of a resort we were about to be treated to next.

Disney has seriously outdone themselves with this newest value resort. It's so immersive and incredible. And everything has been put together so well and smart. You can really tell they listened to their guests when building this one. Which leads me to my next picture. The food they sell in their food court.

I got a build your own burger. And I couldn't believe it. Thick bacon! It's not those paper thin strips they usually try and get away with in their food courts. The burger was scrumptious. And real silverware, with metal baskets were a refreshing change. I approve! While walking around a little more, we decided to ask if we could check out a family suite. Turns out they give tours each morning. We eagerly signed up.

The next morning we head back to Art of Animation and into the lobby. Another visual feast that this resort offers.

Really a cool lobby. We meet our guide, who tells us some fun facts about the resort. First he shows us some blown up sketches on the opposite wall to the check in desks. Turns out, these are all actual sketches of Disney characters from inception to the final product.

The pictures of Dory in the right corner had a funny story to it. During the original concept sketching, they asked Ellen to read the script of Little Mermaid in slow motion so that they could see her mouth patterns with different words. They laughed so hard, those three sketches were all they could come up with. This is also where they got the idea of Dory speaking whale.

The rooms at the Art of Animation are seriously cool. And everything in them with the exception of the televisions are made in America. Good for you Disney!

After checking out the rest of the resort, it was off to the parks. To be continued!

 

[Kramerica]

So I know this is kind of strange, but I have a habit out of trying to capture life's strange little moments on camera. So if you see anything that's not exactly related to Disney, sorry. But I like to share funny things when they're captured on camera. First is a guy who obviously didn't know how to use a belt who was walking infront of us on the way to our courtesy tram at Epcot.

We had a good first part of the day at Epcot. But if I'm going to be honest, on this trip, I felt like there wasn't a whole lot to do at Epcot. I still spent a lot of time there drinking around the world and soaking it all in. But with Test Track down, it's really hard to justify going there more than a few times. Anyway, I digress. We had lunch that day at Whispering canyon. A personal favorite.


While waiting for our table, I decided to try and fight my fear of heights and hike on up the stairs for some pictures.

Even though I have s'mores at home on a fairly regular basis, I still think this is one of the most satisfying deserts in Disneyworld.

Crowd levels during the week were low to moderate. Very manageable. Tour groups were there, but nothing that was really affecting my enjoyment. And this night, A really cool Disney first happened to me. See, I'm going to call this trip "The trip of Rock n Roller Coaster firsts" This night, I decided that I was going to marathon the ride. Probably doing it around forty or so times this night. The cast members, of course, started taking notice. By the end of the night, there was nobody but me and a couple stragglers getting on the ride every other time or so. They couldn't get enough people to keep the trains full. After they closed the ride, a cast member, I'm assuming the manager of the ride, came up to me and asked if I wanted one more ride. She unlocked the gift shop door and let me through the back hallway. I got to ride by myself, with no music. This ride is oddly quiet. So that was a really magical Disney moment for me. One of a few that happened this trip.

The next day we were back at Epcot for lunch. Garden Grill was the restaurant of the day. I love this place, but my eating habits are somewhat like a seven year old. I don't like fruits or vegetables. And this is alot of what you get at Garden Grill.. Our waiter told us that we could order the kids menu items for no extra charge. Which I did, and I really liked. Just a helpful hint for you guys.

We had another excellent evening at Epcot.

On this trip, in my mind I wanted to spend as little time back at the room as possible. So if there were no really late extra magic hours going on, I would just hit downtown Disney for drinks and socializing.

By the way, whoever said that adults couldn't have fun in Disneyworld obviously hasn't been there before.

Anyway, despite being up late, I was always up early the next morning. The next day we hit Typhoon Lagoon The weather for the first week or so of our trip was perfect. Apart from an isolated cloud from time to time. It was sunny skies the whole time.

Sorry, I just loved walking around snapping pictures with the 'ol iPhone. Typhoon is just such a cool park. Anyway, that afternoon was back to Epcot for Dinner. Noticing a trend yet? Coral Reef this time.

Love rare steaks..

To be continued..

 

[Kramerica]

Let's skip forward to the next day. I've already done the Segway tour before. But my dad hadn't. I can never get enough of zipping around on one of those things, so I of course volunteered to do it again. I've heard people talk about this cast member before, and he certainly lives up to his reputation. Elton is great. Could not have asked for a better tour guide.

By mid week, the parks were dead. Here's a little example at Epcot.

Later that day it was on to the Animal Kingdom.

Might I mention that I absolutely love the smell in this room? It just screams Disney to me. Similar to the smell in Splash Mountain.

I love Rafiki's Planet Watch simply because of the petting zoo they have there. Petting the llamas and pigs just never gets old to me for some reason.

Oh, Also-

Hidden Mickey!

So we decided to go back to the room before dinner at Ohana. But right when we got to our resort, I got a glimpse of this guy.

Where in the world do you think this is popular? I mean really. Kind of wild. Anyway, on with dinner.

The next day marks the day we switch resorts from Pop Century, to The Wilderness Lodge. And it also, sadly, marked the halfway point of our trip. It's where you start to realize that you're going to have to soon return to reality. But you try your hardest to keep it in the back of your mind and to stay occupied.

Not a terrible view. We were on the forth floor overlooking the bus stop.

I loved how little the crowds were this whole trip. Look at this visit to the Magic Kingdom. You'll notice a distinctive lack of people.

And before I leave to go to bed and then finish this report up tomorrow. I wanted to let all of you know that the tablet photo problem continues to grow. Here's a couple I was able to snag while there.

 

[wiigirl]

GREAT Pics!

 

[WDW_Princess24]

So glad you enjoyed AoA, the pics are awesome! I can't wait to stay there in November. Keep it coming!

 

[emarie13]

I saw a lot of people taking pictures with their ipads when I was there in May. I found it a little ridiculous. Great trip report, by the way!

 

[Britt]

HAHAHA I love it when people take pics of their people watching. I know some people hate it, but I love it. The iPads/tablets are hilarious.

 

[acrab3t]

An iPad seems too bulky to carry around all day. I associate them with work and can't imagine why anyone would want to take it with them to WDW.

 

[Joshua&CalebDad]

Death to the tablet I say!

 

[Briangwen7]

Why Would you want to take photos with a huge contraption at DISNEY WORLD,​

I mean I think It's Showing off! ​

 

[lebeau]

You have me really psyched for our upcoming AoA stay!

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

Nice report dude!

 

[englanddg]

Tablet photos...hahaha!

I saw those all over on my last trip. People trying to video with them, etc.

I'm like, really? Put those things away!

Oh, I get it. You are at Disney, filming a parade, and you'd rather watch it on your iPad "live" as opposed to LIVE!

Meh, give me a go pro and a head mount and I'm good!

 

[Kramerica]

On with the show..

So, let me give you a little bit of a back story. my thoughts on eating when I'm on a vacation at Disneyworld. I eat what I want. When I want. And feel no guilt. I diet and exercise year round, just so that when I go to Florida I can force myself into a food coma on a regular basis. It's one of my favorite things about going. You gotta love food with no calories, eh?

One of my favorite meals in Disneyworld. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only two places that these are available are at Casey's and at the stand near Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller coaster in Hollywood Studios. This one was purchased at Casey's. Love it.

So let's go from one food picture right into another.

The breakfast skillet at Whispering Canyon. It's the kind of breakfast that you wake up early for. And then after you eat it you wanna crawl back into bed. It's so good. The Mickey Waffles are my single favorite food item in Disney World. And I think I ordered three refills of them on this particular breakfast. On a side note, we ate here for breakfast three times while staying there. And every time, I don't think even half the tables were filled. Was this just because it was a slow time of the year, or is breakfast just not a popular meal here?

So, where do you go after you stuff your face full of food?

Blizzard Beach! Not my favorite of the two water parks. But a great place to be nonetheless.

So later that day, it was to the Magic Kingdom. I don't feel like I got to spend enough time there on this last trip. And I'm not sure what was going on. But they were really having a hard time keeping the rides running on this particular day. Why? No idea. The crowds were low. Nothing crazy happening. But Splash Mountain was down the whole day.

When I got to load onto Pirates, the ride broke down and we had to wait 45 minutes or so. It was one of those things where you say to yourself "well, I've already waited ten minutes, if I leave now, it'll start and I'll miss it" And before you know it you've almost waited an hour.. We finally got to ride. But after that and I went to go ride Space Mountain. Loaded no problem. But on the lift section of the ride, right as you are going past the "control towers", we broke down. It was back up in a few minutes. But still. At this point I was going crazy wondering what was wrong with the Magic Kingdom.

Nothing a calorie free cinnamon roll can't fix, though!

The next day, the weather was kind of overcast. Raining on and off. I wasn't sad, though. I'm from the Northwest. I don't care! So I went out and enjoyed the hot tub to myself. Infact, the entire resort swimming area I had to myself.

Later that day it was on to Hollywood Studios and to eat at Sci Fi Theatre. One of my personal favorites. I feel like people on these forums like to hate on this place. Sure, the food isn't amazing. It's standard diner food. But it's not bad. And I love love love the atmosphere. How much cooler can it get, really?

I was at Hollwood Studios. I figured I would attempt another Rock n Roller Coaster marathon. Just as I started, the ride was shut down for a couple hours, due to a kid that decided she would squeeze her arms into the middle of the harness. I saw the pictures of her after the ride. Needless to say. I wanted to find her. Oh well, the ride opened back up later, and on with the marathon. It was getting late at this point. So again, almost no crowds. So what do they let us do? They let us stay in the train and just ride through three times in a row. It was such a cool thing for the cast members to do for us.

I kept riding. I lost track. After awhile you can lean into the corners before you know they're coming. But I still enjoyed every ride. At the end of the night it was me, the same cast members, and another couple who were very loud and probably a little drunk. It was a good time. The last ride of the night the cast member decided instead of sticking to the script in the recording studio, he was just scream and dance. And so did the drunk couple. It was a mess. But something I'll remember, that's for sure.

Random cupcake picture!

After the last ride of Rock n Roller coaster, this is what it looked like outside. I love being one of the last people in the park.

This was the last night being here. I was getting the post Disney depression bad. I really didn't want to go to sleep and come to terms with the fact that I was going home the next day. I ended up riding the bus back to the resort and just walking around for awhile. Taking pictures and trying to capture as many little memories as I could before going home.

These ducks lived in our pool..

I love this place. I really do. It's not just roller coasters and churros. Disney is a frame of mind. It's a small corner of the universe that is dedicated to ideals that seemed to have been lost in the world today.To be honest, even though this is far from home, I get homesick for this place. Is it something in the air? I don't know. But one day I will call this place my permanent home. Mark my words.

The next morning, fully depressed, I try to cover up my sorrows with the most unhealthy breakfast I can put together.

Mickey waffles with whipped cream. Brown sugar. Syrup. And peanut butter. With bacon and chocolate milk. It helped.

We hopped over to Magic Kingdom for a few last hours in the world. But all too soon. It was time to say goodbye.

Goodbye sweet, sweet mainstreet.

We arrived home without incident. Is it just me, or does coming back from a vacation to Disneyworld not leave you feeling refreshed and ready to work. But rather, makes you as depressed as you can be that you've entered back into reality?

Anyway. Thanks for reading if you did. I know, I'm not the best photographer and writer. But this was fun. Keep posting those reports!

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

LOVE this TR!! The food pics, YUMMMMMM!!!! I love to people watch, and the few times I took pics of out-of-the-ordinary antics, I got caught LOL.

 

[Briangwen7]

Loved it. Last day is the worst! Lol ​

 

[myhappyplace]

I so want to stay at WL someday, it is my goal!!

 

[Kramerica]

I so want to stay at WL someday, it is my goal!!

It's a really really cool resort. I loved it, but I'm going to be honest with you, because of where I live, it wasn't all that... Special? I don't know if that's the right word. But it felt like I was back home. I think for the price I'd rather stay at animal kingdom, but for anyone else who doesn't call the northwest home, it's really crazy how accurately they depict it.

 

[maryszhi]

loved reading this. that waffle and cinnamon roll looked amazing!

 

[Tinkerbella16]

Awesome trip report! Love the pics! And I am really jealous that you were there when the parks were practically empty! I just got back last night, and we arrived on 9/23.. it was so crowded all week! I couldn't believe how big the crowds were during this "slow time of year". I'm sure it had something to do with free dining, but we were just shocked at how many kids were at WDW and not at school so early in the school year. We had an amazing time though and we rarely ever waited long for any ride since we utilized fast passes really well, and we did the Fast Pass Plus the first day so we walked right on everything. Glad you had a great time! I am seriously considering the first week in September next time.