LeafsFanNL smacked in the face with a hot mop trip report

Prelude


Most of you were kind enough to read my PTR that I posted last June. For those who haven't my family of four booked a trip from August 25th to September 4th. This ten night trip would be our longest to date. It would be a split stay. From August 25th to August 27th we would stay at POP, from the 28th to the 4th we would stay at POR. The split stay came about when we found out that there would be free dining from the 28th on. We decided to add some more days to give us a longer trip than our usual Easter school break trip. We decided to give Pop Century a chance because it is so popular in the Disney Internet Community. We also wondered if the values would be good enough so that we could move down from our usual moderate level and not miss enough to justify the extra expense. We would have a car for the Pop stay and for the move to POR.
Our plans for the free dining was mainly to try some newer places. In doing so we would give up such favourites as Flying Fish, Narcoosee's and especially Yachtsman, which in my opinion is the best food on property.

Thursday 25th August 2011


We left St. John's about 1:30 pm for the three hour flight to Montreal. The flight was uneventful, and I watched the remake of True Grit which was very good. A quick turnaround in Montreal Airport was followed by the late afternoon flight to Orlando. There was a lot of T-storms on the way down, and it was a bumpy ride. We arrived on time about 7:30 pm. DME was pretty good, a 15 minute wait on the bus was ameliorated by being dropped off at Pop first right after dusk. It should be noted that heading over to the bus, and in walking into the Pop lobby, we really got a flavour of how hot it would be.


We checked in and were given our room keys. This was a little different in that on previous family trips our KTTW cards would have dining plan and parks tickets on the cards. This section of the trip the cards had neither, we even forgot to put charging on them. So we headed over to our room which was 5137, a preferred room in building 5 in the 60's. This trip in part was a celebration of our 14th wedding anniversary, which was in the 14th, but we had held off celebrating the occasion. When we got to the room there was a nice card and a call from Mickey. That was nice but we were very surprised to see how far from the pool a preferred room could be. I had promised the boys that they could swim as soon as we arrived. I must say that DW and I were not at all satisfied with the room, and while I got the kids ready for the pool she was calling the front desk to see if something was available.


While I took the boys to the pool about 9:15 pm a few minutes later DW came by pulling all our carry-on baggage, which she deposited with me while she went back to the lobby to get keys to a much better room. She was given 5107 which overlooked the baby pool and was about 20 seconds from the Hippy Dippy Pool. DW headed over to the food court to get a bite for us all, as we were quite hungry. When the pool closed at 10pm, I got the boys out of the water and we sat at a table outside and had a quick bite from the food court. Interestingly, when DW got to the cash register, she remembered that she could not charge the food to the room and had no US cash on her. The lady kindly provided the 25 dollar meal, gratis. Disney Magic at work. After we ate we turned in pretty early around 11 pm or so.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Fantasmic is my favorite night-time entertainment on property!!

 

[NewfieFan]

Reading along! Wow, you met lots of Newfies! We've only encountered them once while waiting for a bus, as soon as we heard them speak we asked are you from NL. You can pick Newfies out of the crowd!

It's horrible when someone gets sick on vacay! I feel for your son, though. Almost our whole party got sick this past trip. And it was a bad cold or flu! It knocked out everyone who got it for at least a couple of days! I'm actually still recovering and my kids still have these yucky sounding coughs.

The heat in Sept. wasn't any better... we got hit with the hot mop too!!!

Good report, look forward to the rest...

 

[LeafsFanNL]

Friday 2nd September 2011


This was our third day with DS1 back on his feet. We had hit MK on Wednesday and AK on Thursday, as well as EPCOT the previous Sunday. This was going to be our HS morning. As was by now the norm, I went over to the food court and grabbed food for the four of us. We had to take more time than usual to get ready as DS1 was far from well, but there was no stopping him from going, we just had to do pretty much everything at a slower pace. By now we had figured out that there was a shortcut from building sixteen to the south bus depot, which avoided going through the lobby, I am not sure that it saves a lot of time, but it is shorter. Memory is getting spotty, but I'd say we were about 15 minutes past rope drop



Upon arrival we derived a plan. I headed over to get FP's for TSMM while the kids and DW waited in a shop near the intersection of Holywood and Sunset. When I got up to the FP machine the FP's were for 1:30, ouch. A lady standing by the line had FP's for 12:30 and was looking to swap to make her ADR at Holywood and Vine, I was happy to oblige. After meeting up with my family, we headed down Sunset Blvd. DS1 wanted to do Tower of Terror but DS2 and DW wanted to sit it out. They sat and had an ice cream, while DS1 and I stood in the standby line. It said 20 minutes but was more like a 10 minute wait. DS1 just loved it, and I am sure ToT will be on our must do list in future trips. Both boys wanted to do R&RRC but after Space Mountain, this father most emphatically was not getting on that thing. We then decided to try out Star Tours. The wait was about 15 minutes. Our scooter took us to the wookie world followed by an underwater world. (I am not a Star Wars geek). It was a much better ride than the previous iteration.



After a brief stay in the shop, we headed over to see the Phineas and Ferb meet and greet. As has been mentioned the boys are big fans of the show. The line was about 1/2 hour long but we waited. After we finished we went into the Muppets store looking for more P&F merch. I was unable to find the Perry hat the boys had seen on Wednesday. The boys bought a shirt each, DS1 got a cool Doofenschmirtz shirt.



We had been trying to eat new places all week. This also included counter service, so for lunch we ate at Pizza Planet. Everyone else had the pizza I had the Meatball sub. Everyone seemed to like it.



When we finished lunch it was getting close to our FP time for Toy Story, DW was getting hot and I could tell she was done. The kids however were another story, so we decided to try something new. DW would head home after Toy Story while the boys and I at the very least would see LMA. We did Toy Story and said our goodbyes.



Later on I found out that DW had a nap, did a little bit of laundry and was in the pool when we returned.



We noted that it was very hot on the way over to see LMA. Interestingly, looking back on it, I am sure we were now as acclimatized as we could ever be. I am a little surprised how well the boys and I we were handling the heat on these last few days.




We hadn't seen LMA in at least a couple of years, and the boys were keen so we went to the show early in the afternoon. I thought the Cars bit was pretty good and made the show better. When we left, the boys asked if we could go to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. This was another attraction we had not seen before. We spent a half an hour there. I decided it was now time to think about heading back to POR. It was probably 2 pm or so when we left.



Our Dinner Reservatons for this evening were at Les Chef de France. We had a lunch adr during our last Easter trip in 2010, and we had one of our better meals and experiences at Les Chefs on that trip. We were looking for a similar experience. The boys and I were in the pool for quite a while this evening, and we had cut it close getting out and ready for the evening. We decided to grab a cab to Beach Club. and headed over to France via the International Gateway. It cost us $15 with tip and took no more than 20 minutes including the wait for the cab.



It was cool going into the lobby of the BC again after our surreptitious stay back in December (See trip report). We walked right through, and out the back. DW cryptically asked where our room had been. I was able to find it by noting where the beach volleyball pit is.



I love this whole area and I soaked it all in on our way to the International Gateway. This is I think a good tip. I will be back.



If you have a meal in the back of WS, a taxi to BC can get you there quick. Not too expensive either.



I usually don't get an appetizer, but I splurged for the onion soup which was very good. I had the same meal as last time, the short ribs and pasta. It was lovely just like 2010. I finished the meal with a very nice creme brulee. When we came out of the restaurant, Illuminations had just began.



The boys were on a mission to fill in as many countries as they could in their EPCOT passports. It was an extra magic evening, so we had the time to do so. I was on a mission to watch as much of Illuminations as I could while supervising the stamping of passports and the squishing of pennies. They had taken care of France before our dinner. While the boys were taking care of Morocco, I stood behind an archway watching the fireworks. It was amazing how the archway framed the view of the show. The memory will stay with me a while.




We spent a few minutes in Japan, followed by the US. The boys finished off their passports for that night at China. We then proceeded to Future World and we noted that people were still exiting like it was a normal night. We did not want to get caught up in the normal EPCOT exodus, so we decided to ride a few rides before we left. Test Track still had a 60 minute wait, so we headed over to Spaceship Earth. After riding SE, we let the boys play in the exhibits for 20 minutes or so.




We exited about 10:30 pm, there were far fewer people waiting in line than on Wednesday night, but far fewer buses seemed to be coming. This was the only long wait we had the whole week. In total the wait was almost 30 minutes. When we arrived back at the room and the boys in bed, DW and I had a long conversation about DS1 and herself. We pretty much came to the conclusion that we would probably have to call for the doctor again.

 

[LeafsFanNL]

Saturday September 3rd

I always find it hard recollecting last days of Disney trips. We enjoy these trips so much, and there is always the concern about how long it might be before we get to come back.

The plan for the day was going to be built about hitting some favourites, dining, and sadly, how well DS1 and DW was feeling. When we got up DW was not feeling well with a cold and some ear pain, and DS1 was still quite congested. We called the insurance company again, were cleared to call the doctor again and we arranged a appointment for 6pm that evening.

After missing some dining earlier in the week we still had nine TS credits, and this would be our last full day to use them. Making our breakfast and Lunch ADR's was going to be a priority.



It was tough getting all hands in gear, and we quickly realized that we could not make our 7:45 ADR at Kona. We did not want to miss Kona altogether as eating our breakfast there last December was a highlight. We managed to make another ADR for around 9:30 IIRC. It was getting close to that time when we were ready to go. We ended up grabbing a cab, making it there just in time. The boys just could not get over the Tonga Toast, I had to pretend I had not had it before. The server brought DW a lei after she found out about our setbacks during the trip. She was very nice. I must say that we lingered over the food.




When we got to the MK it was well after opening. The crowds were not that bad and we started touring. It's probably pretty obvious, but are left side of the park people. We started off getting Big Thunder FP's. which were only about 40 minutes out. We then rode Pirates and Jungle cruise standby. This whole time I am entering wait times like a lunatic. I was trying to get as many badges as I could. I was also trying to get to 100 times entered legitimately. It was time to ride Big Thunder which the three of us did, (DW sat out). When we finished FP's for Splash were for a reasonable time about 12 :30 I believe. So we grabbed them. While we were waiting for that time to come we did the Tiki Room as a whole family, DS2 and I had done it the Monday before. I cannot give the attraction enough praise. To me it is a must do for the Magic Kingdom. We also rode the Haunted Mansion and circumnavigated the park on the railroad before three of us rode Splash.



We were planning to head over to EPCOT mainly for our 2:45 ADR at Le Cellier, so after riding Splash it was getting close to the time to head over. We hadn't had our Dole Whip for the day so we quickly grabbed some on our way out.



I was a little concerned that we might be cutting it close for our ADR but we were lucky getting the express monorail, and the EPCOT monorail as they waited in the stations. When we arrived in EPCOT DW and the boys headed right over to Canada, while I grabbed Test Track FP's. We made it and we were seated by about 3pm. This was a lunch ADR, and it looked like we were just about the last people seated for lunch. As we ate the place emptied out, and we actually saw the staff prepare for dinner. We just caught the first few families who were eating dinner being seated. I had the most wonderful filet with risotto followed by the maple creme brulee. The meal was probably the best meal we had the whole week!!




Just like the day before, DW bailed after our lunch. It was now just after 4pm. The boys and I would have liked to stay for several hours, probably until 7 or 8 pm, but we that appointment at 6 pm. So we did not have a lot of time. The boys really wanted to finish their EPCOT passports, and we only had Canada and the UK to go. We weren't long getting both stamps in their passports. It was time for the FP's for Test Track. The boys and I rode Test Track, which was the last ride we experienced on the trip. It was the first ride we did a week earlier as well. Test Track served as the bookends for our trip.



We then went into Mouse Gear to get a 40th anniversary shirt that I had wanted to pick up all week. I had hesitated due to the price, but I bit the biscuit and got it.



As we passed by Spaceship Earth, I entered the wait time, and realized that It was #100.



The doctor arrived checked out the two victims and proclaimed that we could fly the following day.



By this time it was about 8 pm. The rest of the evening was spent in the pool, and then packing.



It had been a busy day. We had done a lot, eaten at Kona and Le Cellier, did most of our favorites at MK and managed to sneak in TT at Epcot. The kids had finished their passports, and had a good night time swim.



Sunday September 4th




We were getting picked up at around 9:30 am for DME to MCO. We were up early, grabbed breakfast using our last TS credit and last snack. DW did some last minute shopping at the store, buying some towels for relatives. All was very normal.



One different thing was that we got to spend about 15 minutes in the NASA store at MCO. I am a real space geek and had always wanted to go in there. Time issues had stopped me in the past. Anyway, I had picked out a cool t-shirt with all the Apollo mission patches, when DW went mad picking out all kinds of stuff to buy. She got two thermos coffee cups, a deck of cards, an Apollo 13 mouse pad for me, A book for the plane, freeze dried ice cream for the kids. It was fun. Our flight to Montreal was uneventful, but our flight to St. John's was delayed about 2 hours and we never got in our house until almost 3 am.



Concluding thoughts to come.

 

[LeafsFanNL]

So here I am, looking back on things almost two months after coming back. I have had time to think about things. I suppose the next few posts could be thought of concluding remarks.

Accomodations.

We still are big fans of on site stays. the EMH, and DME are big plusses for us. I just would rather not have a car when I am down there, and you need a car for off property.

I'd be really surprised if we ever stayed at a value again. While there were aspects of Pop we liked, the main negative was the room size. We spend a fair bit of time in our room, and with two tween boys....enough said.

We are very happy with moderate accomodations. One thing that has changed is that DW finally agrees with me that POFQ is the best choice. We had stayed in Magnolia Bend at POR, we liked it but it was a bit far from the main lobby. This trip we stayed in AB in building 16. We thought it would be very close, but it is deceptively far from things. We both agree that POFQ is our "Go To" resort.