Trip Report Last WDW trip of the year (probably), but not our last Disney-related trip.

You may remember us (and @wdisney9000 ) from such trip reports as "I said I'd never go during Spring Break again, but yet...," and our land/sea reports with DCL.

Yes, that's right. It's the forum's very own @lostpro9het and @imahistorygeek. This time, we're going to the parks!

The deets:

When: June 29 - July 5
Where: Disney's Polynesian Village Resort

We've got parks and meals planned, plus some first-time dining at Jaleo. We will also be in MK on July 4.

This will more than likely be our last WDW for this year. We were hoping AP sales would resume before our trip, but that looks like a no-go from Disney. I do not want to pay Disney any more money for park tickets, especially with reduced experiences.

We do have a lot planned this fall and will be documenting our travels. We will be sailing DCL in October to Bermuda. There will probably be a trip report. If that falls through, maybe Celebrity during the same time or back to TRS Coral in Mexico (I feel like this pandemic has made me have backup trips for every trip). In November, we will be sailing Virgin Voyages. This is the cruise line with no children! I'm also digging the cruise lines that include drinks, tips, and wifi in their cruise fares. We also have some West Coast Disney adventures planned for Spring 2022 and the Disney Wish in Fall 2022.

You can find us both on IG at the same usernames if you wish to follow along on our adventures.

So, in the meantime, I'm making a list of Flower & Garden drinks and dishes I want to try and walking almost every day of the week in my Disney sandals in order to prepare for our trip.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I hope you had a safe journey home! It was awesome meeting you two!

 

[imahistorygeek]

I hope you had a safe journey home! It was awesome meeting you two!

It was great meeting y'all as well! We have a possible meet up idea for the future, but it's still in the very early stages of planning.

 

[dclfan]

Travel safe. We had a blast at enchanted rose together. Hope to meet up again. Fingers crossed for your next cruise.

 

[imahistorygeek]

So we are finally home and unpacked. An early flight has its distinct advantages and disadvantages, as I will detail below.

We got to the airport at 4:30 am. This meant getting up at 3:30 am in order to make sure we didn't have to rush out. NEVER AGAIN. I'm an early riser, but not that early. I made sure I asked the Hertz employee what time they opened. He said 4 am. Mind you, we've never rented from Hertz. Our main go-to is National. The cars are nice and I have status with a credit card. However, National is not the cheapest game in town. As I mentioned before, I got a really good flight/hotel/rental car deal, and this deal included Hertz. I had to go to the desk to pick it up. The line was minimal when I got there and the transaction was smooth. The only add-on was the pre-pay fuel option. I know you're paying for the convenience of it and it was helpful to have at 4am in the morning.

The car itself was a Nissan Sentra. No issue with the type of car, but this thing was in rough shape. It had approx. 30k miles and ran rough, and the collision system wasn't working correctly. It also had a lot of scratches, which I took pictures of before we left, just in case. It was a good car for the week.

The Poly was great as usual. The rooms were nice, but the carpet is showing a bit of wear. It was pretty quiet all week. The biggest issue was no monorail and no access to the walkway to MK. We made it work.

The parks were not terribly busy (busy, but not holiday busy) and I think we rode and experienced everything we wanted to ride and experience. Food, for the most part, was good. Morimoto was the standout this trip. Kona breakfast was also very good. The Big Kahuna isn't on the menu, but it seems as through you can still get it.

Oh, I did do mobile order for Kona express on our last night. I ordered a rainbow roll. It was by far the worst sushi I've ever had in my life, which means it was worse then grocery store sushi (which can be good). The tuna was canned tuna in mayo!

Back to today. We get to the airport at 4:30 am. Follow the signs to Hertz drop off. No one is there. Another customer kindly informed us that everyone was just parking their cars and leaving the keys. There were no signs or anything saying to do this, so we just followed the crowd. I guess it was the right thing to do because I received my receipt on our way home. I'm the type of person that needs to know exactly what to do. I hate when I have no idea what to do. This experience fit the bill. However, I really did like getting home before noon.

Thanks for following along and our next Disney trip will be April 2022 during the first week of April. We're doing a few days at DLR and ending with a DCL Baja itinerary. Our next cruise is on the Celebrity Edge in late October and Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady in November. If you want to see those pictures when (if) it happens, you know where to find us!

 

[imahistorygeek]

Travel safe. We had a blast at enchanted rose together. Hope to meet up again. Fingers crossed for your next cruise.

It was great meeting up with y'all as well!

 

[coachwnh]

Great to meet you guys. A definite highlight of our trip

 

[RememberWhen]

Looking forward to the next report! I’m interested in how the cruises go. Here’s hoping DCL also gets going again soon.

 

[LadyBelle]

As always, thank you for another fantastic trip report!

 

[fractal]

Thanks for another great report!

 

[MickeyCB]

Loved following along, thanks for sharing!

 

[Bullseye1967]

Great TR! Thank you for bringing us along!!

 

[lostpro9het]

Great to meet you guys. A definite highlight of our trip

Ditto! Stay Awesome, my friend!

Looking forward to the next report! I’m interested in how the cruises go. Here’s hoping DCL also gets going again soon.

You and me both! I'm hoping DCL lets us go.

As always, thank you for another fantastic trip report!

Thank you, ma'am!

Thanks for another great report!

Thanks, sir! I hope the iPhone 12 camera lens did a good enough job!

Loved following along, thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much!

Great TR! Thank you for bringing us along!!

Thanks for tagging along!

 

[DisneyJeff]

Chefs De France is complete and short of the mint mouthwash braised fruit dessert it was very good and repeatable. The soup was excellent.
View attachment 569053View attachment 569054View attachment 569055View attachment 569056View attachment 569057View attachment 569058View attachment 569059

We did CdF for our anniversary dinner on 6/24 and were not impressed. Started off with getting a bad table all the way in the back. Then, we both ordered the steak and they arrived in approximately 5.2 minutes after ordering. I wasn't aware that it was a quick-serve place!! My bride had to send her steak back because it wasn't WELL done. (To be fair, she has to do this at most places.) When she did get it back, it was much better and I enjoyed my steak as well. The last bit of annoyance was the lack of any "Happy Anniversary!!" from anyone. We aren't wearing these stupid buttons for nothing!!!
Here’s what my steak looked like. No complaints here!!

 

[imahistorygeek]

We did CdF for our anniversary dinner on 6/24 and were not impressed. Started off with getting a bad table all the way in the back. Then, we both ordered the steak and they arrived in approximately 5.2 minutes after ordering. I wasn't aware that it was a quick-serve place!! My bride had to send her steak back because it wasn't WELL done. (To be fair, she has to do this at most places.) When she did get it back, it was much better and I enjoyed my steak as well. The last bit of annoyance was the lack of any "Happy Anniversary!!" from anyone. We aren't wearing these stupid buttons for nothing!!!
Here’s what my steak looked like. No complaints here!!
View attachment 569969

Your steak looked a lot better than mine. It was almost like pieces of steak fused together with weird bits of fat in between the sections. I ordered medium and it came out medium well.

 

[cgersic]

Thanks for taking us on your adventures!! Can't wait to hear about a meet up that I can hopefully attend?! I know you kids are cruisers, but I'd love to meet up in the parks some day!

 

[lostpro9het]

Thanks for taking us on your adventures!! Can't wait to hear about a meet up that I can hopefully attend?! I know you kids are cruisers, but I'd love to meet up in the parks some day!

Ditto! Meeting up with other WDWmagicers is so much fun, even funner when beers are exchanged ;-). Might be a long shot but we will be DLR in April for a few days prior to a cruise.
Thanks for tagging along!

 

[Loco_driver]

Great report as usual. Hope DCL starts back up soon for you guys!

 

[Rista1313]

Another great WDWMagic meetup at Tamboooooooo. @Big Hair killed it with his beer exchange that included a small batch brewer’s special checking in at 16% abv! He also came with a great idea for a future get together, VIP style.
View attachment 568772

Look at all those Michigan Beers.. I'm proud!

 

[BrerWayne]

So we are finally home and unpacked. An early flight has its distinct advantages and disadvantages, as I will detail below.

We got to the airport at 4:30 am. This meant getting up at 3:30 am in order to make sure we didn't have to rush out. NEVER AGAIN. I'm an early riser, but not that early. I made sure I asked the Hertz employee what time they opened. He said 4 am. Mind you, we've never rented from Hertz. Our main go-to is National. The cars are nice and I have status with a credit card. However, National is not the cheapest game in town. As I mentioned before, I got a really good flight/hotel/rental car deal, and this deal included Hertz. I had to go to the desk to pick it up. The line was minimal when I got there and the transaction was smooth. The only add-on was the pre-pay fuel option. I know you're paying for the convenience of it and it was helpful to have at 4am in the morning.

The car itself was a Nissan Sentra. No issue with the type of car, but this thing was in rough shape. It had approx. 30k miles and ran rough, and the collision system wasn't working correctly. It also had a lot of scratches, which I took pictures of before we left, just in case. It was a good car for the week.

The Poly was great as usual. The rooms were nice, but the carpet is showing a bit of wear. It was pretty quiet all week. The biggest issue was no monorail and no access to the walkway to MK. We made it work.

The parks were not terribly busy (busy, but not holiday busy) and I think we rode and experienced everything we wanted to ride and experience. Food, for the most part, was good. Morimoto was the standout this trip. Kona breakfast was also very good. The Big Kahuna isn't on the menu, but it seems as through you can still get it.

Oh, I did do mobile order for Kona express on our last night. I ordered a rainbow roll. It was by far the worst sushi I've ever had in my life, which means it was worse then grocery store sushi (which can be good). The tuna was canned tuna in mayo!
View attachment 569488

Back to today. We get to the airport at 4:30 am. Follow the signs to Hertz drop off. No one is there. Another customer kindly informed us that everyone was just parking their cars and leaving the keys. There were no signs or anything saying to do this, so we just followed the crowd. I guess it was the right thing to do because I received my receipt on our way home. I'm the type of person that needs to know exactly what to do. I hate when I have no idea what to do. This experience fit the bill. However, I really did like getting home before noon.

Thanks for following along and our next Disney trip will be April 2022 during the first week of April. We're doing a few days at DLR and ending with a DCL Baja itinerary. Our next cruise is on the Celebrity Edge in late October and Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady in November. If you want to see those pictures when (if) it happens, you know where to find us!

We just left as well. Had a 6:30 flight. Tragical express picked us up for 3:10 am. I was back at my house for 7:45 CST. That was nice to do laundry etc. but I was hating life at 2:30 am but it was nice to have time to unpack and do laundry.

 

[amjt660]

Great TR as always
Thanks for sharing

Max