Trip Report **Completed** Leave for Disney World on Friday The 13th They Said. It'll Be Fun They Said. A July 2018 Trip Report.

Hello Disney Friends. Welcome to my long overdue trip report!

My daughter @TheMARVELousAllieBrown posted a pre-trip report for this trip.

Here's whatcha need to know:
Who: DD Allie @TheMARVELousAllieBrown, Me Lisa @LisaBelle , DH Paul, my sister Tina @TangledTina, my BIL Mark, my nephew Spence and DS Adam

When: Friday, July 13 :eek:-Sunday, July 22, 2018
Where: The Contemporary Resort Garden Wing
Why: Ten Year Anniversary of our last whole family vacation, Allie's high school graduation and Paul & Lisa's 29th anniversary. In the pre-trip we dubbed it our Vacaygraduversary Trip!
How: Road Trip!
I created treat bags for every state that we would drive through. The idea being that as we crossed the state line we would open the bag and enjoy a treat that is representative of that state. For Ohio, naturally I chose Buckeyes candy.

For Kentucky I chose Ale 8 soda. Bourbon would have been the obvious choice, but since not everyone was of legal drinking age I had to go with a soft drink.

For Tennessee it was Goo Goo Clusters

Georgia was Peanut M & Ms

And Florida would be orange juice from the Florida Welcome Center.
Because we were driving, I placed the small bags inside of an insulated cooler bag to keep the chocolate from melting. I made one bag for our car and one bag for Tina's.

Day 1 Friday, July 13, 2018
Tina and her family live about an hour north of us. They planned to leave home around 7, drive toward Cincy and meet us at the Chick-fil-A at our exit around 8. We were hoping to have breakfast and be on the road by 9. We would spend the night in Valdosta, Georgia and arrive at Disney around check in time on Saturday. Sounds like a great plan, right?
Tina has a tendency to run late, so when she hadn't texted by 7:15 to say that they were on the road, I wasn't too concerned. When I still hadn't heard from her by 7:30 I texted to see how things were coming. Instead of a text, I get a call saying, "Maybe you guys should just leave without us." What????!!!!!! And there goes the plan!
Because there was a medical situation they would be taking a short trip to the hospital before they could leave for the trip to Disney. We decided we would wait it out for a bit so when we left they would not be too far behind us. With bellies full of Chick-fil-A, we were finally on the road at about 12 (about 3 hours behind schedule so not too bad). A bumpy start but glad to finally be en route to the happiest place on earth. We crossed the border into Kentucky about 15 minutes later. We opened our first treat and continued on our way. We had just passed Lexington, KY when Tina called to say that they were on their way! We figured that we should be able to meet up somewhere down the road.
We stopped for an early dinner at a Subway in Knoxville, TN. Back in the car to continue our journey, we decided to enjoy our Goo Goo Clusters for dessert. We noticed the car was not getting cooler. We turned the a/c off and back on again. No cool air. We pulled into a parking lot, turned the car off and back on again. Still no cool air. By now the Goo Goo Clusters and M& Ms are starting to melt and it is approaching 5pm on a Friday night. Adam and Allie researched nearby Firestone Auto Repair shops. The closest one said their a/c charger was not charging. We found another one about 15 minutes away. It was July in Tennessee. It was a lovely sunny day and the temperature was well into the nineties! We were melting by the time we arrived at Firestone.

We arrived hopeful and left with our spirits dashed as the problem was not something they could fix and it would have to be repaired at the dealership. On the road again, we were looking forward to nightfall and hopefully cooler temps. We were forced to ride in style with our windows down to avoid heatstroke. This prevented us from hearing the dialogue from our dvd player. To keep up morale Allie had the aux and we jammed out. We were headed further south and although our spirits were high, the temperature was higher. Our unsuccessful Firestone detour allowed Tina's family to close the gap a bit. By now we were only about an hour ahead of them. Fast forward an hour and Tina's a/c also went out as they drove through Knoxville. Lucky for them, their's was an easy fix and Mark was able to re-charge their a/c. Just before sundown we stopped for gas. At this point we decided it was vital to document our misery. Please enjoy this photo at a gas station somewhere between Knoxville and Atlanta.

Paul and Adam smiling through the pain. So proud of our little troopers!
We forged on and eventually were able to meet up with Tina's crew at a truck stop with a Wendy's around 11pm.

We rallied after our Wendy's pit stop (which was the longest wait at Wendy's on record) and finally made it to our hotel in Valdosta at 3am. Let me say that a shower and air conditioning have never felt so good!
Due to our late arrival we decided to sleep in a bit and would check out at 11 and grab lunch before hitting the road.
 
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LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Those birds are aggressive little thieves! They jumped up on our table at Typhoon Lagoon and stole the fish off DS's plate and flew off.

They weren't at all afraid to help themselves! I am not a fan of them at all.

Lovely night at Epcot! I love exploring all the pathways of Morocco back there! Can't believe your standby time was 10 minutes. We felt lucky waiting only 35 for Frozen Ever After!

It was evening EMH so it was late and the park was very empty by that point. We were pumped that it was such a short standby wait. I'm sure Spence and possibly others might not have ridden had we had a longer wait.
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Great Epcot pictures
Glad you enjoyed Frozen Ever After
I like the ride but not a fan of the placement

Max
Thanks Max! I do my best with the iPhone pics! Too lazy to carry a “real” camera anymore.
I agree about the placement of FEA. That was our one & only ride on FEA this trip. I liked it enough to ride it again in the future.
 

Spash007

Well-Known Member
Adam ordered the Gratin de Macaroni. I tried to warn him that it wouldn't be the ooey gooey type of macaroni he loves, but once he had the idea of macaroni and cheese in his head he couldn't resist ordering it. He was disappointed. It was very dry, not even enough cream sauce to coat the macaroni.

This is the same experience we had last year. The macaroni was so highly recommended, and one of the reasons we chose Chefs de France was because we figured I could split it with our daughter. It was awful - dry and had absolutely no flavor to it
 

Rista1313

Well-Known Member
This is the same experience we had last year. The macaroni was so highly recommended, and one of the reasons we chose Chefs de France was because we figured I could split it with our daughter. It was awful - dry and had absolutely no flavor to it

I heard it was good a few years ago, but lately, this is the story I hear!
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
This is the same experience we had last year. The macaroni was so highly recommended, and one of the reasons we chose Chefs de France was because we figured I could split it with our daughter. It was awful - dry and had absolutely no flavor to it

Sorry that you were let down as well. Adam was soooo disappointed because he LOVES mac & cheese!

I heard it was good a few years ago, but lately, this is the story I hear!

Disappointing for sure , but we still had a fun meal.
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Day 5 Continued
We arrived at Epcot and decided to commemorate our visit with a few Photopass pictures.





Tink wanted to join us!


We noticed that Daisy was out so we went to visit her.



We didn't really have a plan. Our Fastpasses were scheduled for later so we were mainly hoping to shop and maybe try a few new things.

After our visit with Daisy we ran into these guys. We'd never seen the Muppet Lab, so we enjoyed our first experience with them. Beaker is my husband's favorite Muppet character. I was a little bummed that he missed them, but I sent him a picture.





It was hot and we'd never tried the pop in Club Cool so we headed there next.



Tina was the first to grab a cup. Allie and I watched in astonishment as she reached for the Beverly. We glanced at one another, didn't she know? We were giddy with anticipation but didn't want to give it away. I got my camera ready. Would she like it or hate it?





I think the pictures speak for themselves :hilarious:. I hate to admit it, but I knew those images were trip report gold! Sorry to laugh at your misery @TangledTina !

Love it!
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Thumbs up carrying on the golf tradition!

My Father had Alzheimer's for 4 years before he passed. I can painfully relate to what you went through.

Love the photos and stories of your evening in Epcot. Bummer about the mac & cheese. I hear it used to be great.
 
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LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

It was so funny!

Thumbs up carrying on the golf tradition!

My Father had Alzheimer's for 4 years before he past. I can painfully relate to what you went through.

Love the photos and stories of your evening in Epcot. Bummer about the mac & cheese. I hear it used to be great.

I'm really happy that our dad was able to pass his love of golf on to his grandsons. It skipped a generation with me and Tina. We both know how to play, but don't really enjoy it.
Alzheimer's is a horrible disease. 😢Sorry to hear you had to experience it, too. I hope that researchers can find a cure soon!
Thanks, we really enjoyed our night at Epcot. So much potential to love that meal. It was a disappointment for sure.
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
When we returned to the hotel Adam found a surprise in his backpack.



Purse (Bag) apples!

With that we went to bed.

Day 6 July 18
We had another busy day planned today. We were beginning at Epcot. We planned to finish up the things we hadn't checked off our Epcot list the day before. We were planning to head back to the resort for a break before heading to MK for evening EMH. Will we accomplish everything we have planned? Let's find out!

We woke up to see a feathered friend out on our patio.



We boarded the monorail and headed to Epcot. Soon we were seeing this.
Good Morning Beautiful!





Today was Ohio University day! During our trip Allie was celebrating her high school graduation. She had been accepted at Ohio University and is now a freshman there. We celebrated by wearing our OU shirts. We used this picture on our Christmas card.



Our first stop was another ride on Soarin.





We enjoyed our trip around the world, but our seats were not as good this time. I'd heard about the crooked Eiffel Tower, but I was still surprised by how crooked it looked.

We'd skipped breakfast in order to make it to our Soarin FP+. We decided to grab some breakfast at Sunshine Seasons before heading to our next attraction. Paul and I shared a breakfast platter. It looks like someone also shared a piece of coffee cake with us. I'm not sure what anyone else ate as I have no pictures.



Bellies full, we headed to Test Track. Maybe not the best idea to ride Test Track with a full stomach, but it was FP+ time so what else could we do? Spence was really looking forward to this attraction.



Tina and I made this beauty!

 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 6 continued

Paul, Adam and Allie made this beast.







I don't have a picture of Mark and Spence's car. I don't remember all the details, but I know we waited quite awhile to board our ride vehicle. As we were about to board the ride there was some confusion about which row to stand in. I think we were all talking and it was loud in there so we didn't hear the CM when he directed our groups to the boarding rows. We annoyed the cast member when we were confused about which rows to stand in. He wasn't very helpful, but we eventually all boarded a car. For some reason this is the only ride photo that made it's way into our account. I asked for them to look for the other photo, but it wasn't found :(.



Fun Fact. The flash from the ride photos bothers Paul so he likes to cover his eyes. This will be a theme that you will notice in several other on-ride photos :hilarious:.

I was really bummed that the ride photo with Mark, Spence, Tina and I did not make it into our account. But as a bonus we did have a photo of these lovely people!



Continuing the throwback photo theme, here is a picture of the first time Paul, Adam and Allie rode Test Track. I somehow ended up in a different car that time. Allie was 8 and Adam was 12. Adam does not look very excited. He was really looking forward to riding TT because on our previous trip we hadn't been able to get a FP and the stand by time was always over an hour. I remember him being disappointed in this ride. I think he thought the fast part of the ride would last longer and it was a let down after waiting so long to finally ride it.



After our ride we spent some time in the Chevrolet commercial.
Allie chauffeured Paul and Adam. Quote of the day, "I'm gonna soccer mom so hard in this car!"





Spence enjoyed trying out the Camaro.





Then a truck. Not as cool as the Camaro, but fun none the less!

 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After TT we headed to SSE. We had a FP+ but the FP line was more like a slow pass. Mark bailed but the rest of us stuck it out. The ride had been down so both lines were really long. It was sooo hot. We were in the sun for a large part of the queue and we were dripping.







We were relieved to finally head inside.







A glimpse into our future! Paul had his hand up to block the flash and he ended up with a hand print on his face.










Up next: Finishing SSE and moving into World Showcase
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I never manage to get a photo of our faces on the map at the end of the ride. I was so proud that I finally did it!!





By the end of the ride it was POURING. We hung around just outside the exit. Mark had balked at the length of the queue, so he was trying to wait out the rain in a shop. I think Tina made a mad dash to a shop to purchase ponchos because at least one person had forgotten their poncho.

It was just a little windy!





The rain let up a bit and we headed to World Showcase. We didn't make it to Mexico the previous night, so we headed there first. Adam bought a pair of maracas for his friend and then we went on a boat ride to look for Donald.



We had an ADR to get to so we headed to Germany.




We went to the desk to check in and they couldn't find our reservation :jawdrop:. Then they asked if the reservation could be under a different name and Tina remembered that she has made this ADR. Problem solved. Tina and I had been here before but it was new to everyone else. We were seated right away. Since we had such a big group we were seated by ourselves instead of being seated with another family. Our server was Emily. She took our drink orders being sure to ask those of us of age if we wanted "German beers" (1 liter) or "lady beers" (1/2 liter). I had to go with the "lady sized" Shofferhofer Pink Grapefruit Hefeweizen. I had to save room for all the food I was about to chow down. :inlove:The Shofferhofer is my favorite. The first time I had it was when Tina and I came to Biergarten on our sister's trip in 2016. I know that Tina and Adam had "German" beers but I am not sure which one they chose. I want to say they both went with the Konig Ludwig Weissbier because they usually order it when we go to our local Oktoberfest. After she took our drink orders we headed for round 1 of the buffet. Everything was sooooo good. Our dad was born in Germany and he and his family came to the US when he was 16. Several of the dishes reminded me and Tina of the things our Oma (German for Grandma) used to make for us when we visited. Spence, Allie and Adam enjoyed tasting many of the German delicacies for the first time. I'm not sure whose plate this is but it gives you an idea of some of the offerings on the buffet.



Desserts! Mmmmmm :hungry:!


Tina and Spence were enjoying their experience at Biergarten.

 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Adam and Allie were enjoying their food, drinks and the show.





We still had a number of things to accomplish so it was time to say Auf Wiedersehen to Biergarten, but not before the kids took a selfie with Emily. She was a lot of fun.



Although we were stuffed to the brim, we had a few more Epcot treats that we wanted to try today. The first was The American Dream which is a strawberry and blue raspberry slushy with vanilla soft serve drink at the Fife and Drum tavern in America. I'd been dying to try one since I'd seen one in @Longers TR. We all shared it. It was very refreshing. As you can see, the ponchos were back. It was raining off and on and after taking them off and on a few times we decided to just keep them on. It was very sticky, so we were all annoyed to be wearing them.



We then made our way to France. Allie and I LOVE macarons! She couldn't wait to try the macaron ice cream sandwich from L' Artisan des Glaces. It did not disappoint.





Adam tried the Ice Cream Martini. Two scoops of ice cream with Grand Marnier. He let us try a bite and it was delicious.



I can't remember if anyone else got ice cream or other French treats, but Adam, Spence, Allie and I were standing in the courtyard enjoying our treats when Tina called to us to pose for a picture.




I imagine that right about now you are saying to yourself, "But @LisaBelle you aren't in that picture!" Take a closer look....



Can you see me now? If not, let me give you a hint. I am to the left of Allie. You can only see my ears!

Up next: Even more World Showcase!
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I love this view.





We finished up our tour in Canada. Paul wanted to look at the Gardens and take a picture by the waterfall.



Here is a picture of us in front of the waterfall in Canada on our honeymoon in 1989. It's not the greatest quality as it is a photo of an old photo.



And here we are 29 years later!



I take a picture of these lights every time.





After Canada Mark, Tina and Spence were heading back to the Contemporary, but our family had a few more stops to make. Before splitting up we took a family PP picture to commemorate our OU day. I think this one is funny.



Tina, Mark and Spence headed back to the Contemporary for a rest because we were planning to head to MK for evening extra magic hours that night. Paul, Adam, Allie and I were headed to Norway, but decided to make a stop in Mexico for a coconut margarita for me. Adam wanted a margarita as well so he and Allie got in line and Paul and I were standing off to the side waiting for them. A guest noticed our OU t-shirts and said, "What's up with the Ohio U shirts?" We told him that our daughter would be a freshman at OU in the fall and we were celebrating her high school graduation and OU acceptance by wearing our OU shirts. It turns out that he and his wife were OU alumni. About that time Adam and Allie joined us and she talked with the other guests about OU. The man said that he felt like all people who went to Ohio U felt a connection to Epcot, because it is one big pub crawl, just like in Athens (where OU is located)! The man said that he'd seen some other people in Ohio U shirts earlier. We told him it was probably the rest of our family! It was a very fun and unexpected interaction.

A few years ago, Adam tried the Norwegian club sandwich and it immediately became one of his favorite Epcot foods. Allie tried it on the next trip and she loved it too. We were too late to get one the night before so even though they were still pretty full from lunch they wanted to get a sandwich before we left Epcot. The Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe was closed for refurbishment, but they had an outdoor location and the Norwegian Club was on the menu.

So happy!



Unfortunately, their happiness quickly turned to disappointment. It didn't taste nearly as good as it had in 2014 :arghh:. The originals were grilled or toasted, which I guess they couldn't really do in their temporary location. I think this was the biggest disappointment of the trip for Adam and Allie. To make matters worse, we were all getting tired and grumpy. We'd stayed at Epcot much longer than we'd planned, partially so the kids would have a chance to get the sandwich and now it hadn't been worth the extra walking. I think we popped into Mouse Gear and then headed for the monorail. At least it should be a quick trip back to the Contemporary, right? Wrong. Oh. So. Wrong!

We didn't have to wait very long to board the monorail at Epcot. Then when it came time to transfer monorails we reached the top of the ramp just as the doors closed and the monorail pulled away. We debated walking back to the Contemporary but we were beat and knew we had a lot more walking to do at MK that night so we waited and waited and waited. Finally a resort monorail came and we made it back to the Contemporary. Adam was so tired that he said he didn't even think he wanted to go to MK. He was planning to play golf again the next day and wanted to be able to enjoy his golf game. Allie and I were tired too, but there was no way we were missing evening EMH at MK. We decided that after a rest, Allie and I would head to MK with Tina, Mark and Spence and then Paul and possibly Adam would join us later after they'd had a longer rest.

Bedtime has come and gone, so I better stop for tonight.

Up next: Evening EMH at MK!
 

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