Trip Report Mad dash for Lunch with my Valentine

My first pre-trip report. Previously I wondered what would happen if my trip report turned out dull? I could just skip posting it altogether - but not if I've already announced it with a pre-trip report.

And who wants read a pre-trip report that basically says the same things as the actual trip report, sans details?

Let's stick to the entire pre-trip era LOL.

The set-up: this will be our last planned WDW trip until at least December 2016/more likely January 2017. Caveat: Our Tables in Wonderland card is good through the fall, so we may make a non-park trip, or do a holiday party, or a combo Uni-Dis trip for a few days in 2016.

Our annual passes expire on the 13th of this month, and from the two phone calls I've had with WDW cast members, that means we can go to the parks on the 13th.

We were torn between doing a little extra since we won't be back so soon vs. saving money because...bills and stuff.

We also wanted it to be unrushed, easy, stay at one hotel the whole time, and maybe get an extra night out of the deal.

Almost booked CBR. Almost booked offsite. Almost booked offsite first night or two and then CBR for a couple of nights. Compromise: we booked Pop Century for the first time, for three nights.

Originally this was to be Sunday night through Thursday, but Brian has to be home for work Thursday morning. so we switched it to Sunday day through Wednesday.

We've lately been driving up from Fort Lauderdale late on Sunday nights after Brian works an 18 hour day at a Dolphin's Game. I work Sundays, too, but I don't come close to that level of exhaustion. So I get to drive the whole 3 or so hours myself at night, while he sleeps.

I was hoping for more of a - let's both take Sunday off, wake up when we wake up, try to get out the door by 9 or 10AM, but 11 is fine, and take turns driving without rushing. (And I can work a little when he drives.)

Our AP's are weekday only anyway, so when we get there, we can explore Pop and AoA, and we can go to Disney Springs, but no parks. I kind of liked that idea - again, less rushed, relax a bit, get to really explore Disney Springs with all the new stuff without feeling like I'm missing something at MK. A leisurely pace of strolling, shopping, eating...maybe the hot air balloon thingy?? I've had my eye on that for a few years.

We booked Morimoto for our first dinner. Likely will have lunch at the resort.

Who knows if that will work out to have us waking up early and making our first rope drop? One can hope.

Day one - relaxing day.

Which leaves us scrambling today and yesterday and the day before...
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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That's Brian trying to tell me pics won't look right in this lighting.

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That's me attempting to prove him wrong.

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And him proving his own point by taking this dark pic of me. Ok, nobody can take a good pic tonight!!

DS is seriously crowded (last night of marathon weekend) and it's kinda chilly, so it's back to the room to watch the golden globes...well, I'll watch. Someone is snoring already...

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Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
OK so, quickly, dinner...

First of all, as you know, we left home after 11AM and got up here about 2:30PM. We were absolutely starving and even though we had dinner reservations for 5:15PM, we had to grab sandwiches at the POP Century food court. (I got a "Johnny Appleseed" which was pulled pork with apple - not bad - and Brian got a nice turkey sandwich. Oh and we got our first ever "refillable mug." Just one. That will come in handy for mixers at the room over 4 days lol.)

So the point was - we were not starving when we got to Morimoto's. (I know, for shame!) So, no appetizers. :( It just didn't make sense.

But...the sake flight was awesome - I'm not usually that crazy about sake. But it was very similar to a wine flight, and was designed to taste the different flavors with the food like you would with wine. Very cool hearing all the explanations of how they are made, etc. It was $35, but was basically 4 drinks. So, that works. We both like to try new things and that fit the bill. We talked about doing flights everywhere this whole trip - beer, scotch, wine...we'll see!!

Entrees: I'll do Brian's first because it's kinda boring - chicken pad thai. However, it was easily the best pad thai we've ever had. (We always taste each others' dishes - and this is a regular fave of his.) Very often they come out too sweet. This was very peanutty, slightly spiced, more nuanced flavor, and not too sweet at all.

My entree - almost everything in the description spoke to me, so I had to order it:

Duck "Nasi Goreng"
indonesian style duck fried rice, shrimp chips, mango papaya slaw, sunny side egg

I am a big fan of nicely cooked (moist) duck. Who doesn't like fried rice? "Shrimp chips" - big fan of "shrimp toast" and this was a similar flavor (while just being an actual chip - I think you can get something in a similar vein at EPCOT China but these were great.) Love mango/papaya/tropical. The egg was just a nice touch.

This was a fabulous dish - very strong flavors - I was actually really glad I had the sake to pair with it. Not a huge amount of duck, just little bites like if you were to order pork fried rice. I asked if they could use brown rice for me and they did. The rice/duck comes in a mound with the sunny side egg on top, so you cut through the egg and the yolk runs down over the rice. The slaw had so many more ingredients than papaya and mango - red pepper, basil, other herbs, some things I couldn't even identify but made each bite taste different. The whole thing hit all the right notes for me.

and all paid for with gift cards (you'll see a recurring theme in that regard this trip.)

So, a successful dinner! That's basically all we did today LOL.

So far Pop is fine. Sitting in the room, you don't notice a whole lot of difference between this and a moderate except the room is smaller. It's kind of loud outside, it's kind of loud between walls (as in you can hear your neighbors, but we've experienced that at CBR also.) These are only intermittent interruptions. I'd probably request higher than first floor next time just to avoid so many people/children walking by. We are in the 70's building (how fitting) which I requested as part of my reservation. It's cute.

Golden Globes - Ricky Gervais was hysterical! Gaga forgot to thank me! LOL.

Thinking about a walk over to the pool bar if it isn't too cold...
 

catmom46

Well-Known Member
Yum, that duck dish sounds delish! :hungry: I don't usually eat duck, but I might make an exception next time, and especially if it's not a large amount anyway. I'm also not a fan of mango and papaya, but it doesn't sound like that will be a problem for me, based on your assessment.

I'm glad to hear the chicken pad thai wasn't too sweet - that's the main reason why I don't eat a lot of Thai food, as it's usually way too sweet.
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yum, that duck dish sounds delish! :hungry: I don't usually eat duck, but I might make an exception next time, and especially if it's not a large amount anyway. I'm also not a fan of mango and papaya, but it doesn't sound like that will be a problem for me, based on your assessment.

I'm glad to hear the chicken pad thai wasn't too sweet - that's the main reason why I don't eat a lot of Thai food, as it's usually way too sweet.

So many restaurants "cheat" by loading stuff down with sugar and salt rather than developing flavors.
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
OK Sunday night - right around 11:30PM, we took a quick (chilly) walk over to the Pop food court before they closed. Brian forgot his refillable mug (more on that later. We only got one, but I consider it his. I don't drink much other than water and alcohol. LOL.)

Overall, the food court is on the weak side. The seating areas are kind of nice, the little gift shop area is kind of nice. The food choices are hit or miss. I don't know what possessed me to order the chicken parm with pasta - knowing how I am (spoiled with NJ Italian food growing up) and it was just not great. The pasta was comparable to Cici's pizza buffet (which you can get for $6 for two people with a coupon and eat all you want LOL.) The chicken was good. Brian got pizza. I wanted hot chocolate, but Brian forgot his refillable mug LOL.

Loving that they take Tables in Wonderland cards at the food court, though. It brings the high prices closer to the realm of normal when you are getting 20% off. I'd say that's a good value for WDW.

We haven't spent any money yet other than gift cards and rewards points - yay! Probably will have to today, though.

Someone on another TR mentioned the shampoo/conditioner combo bottle at the Value resorts vs. separate bottles at the Mods. I can confirm this experience. I guess a woman can explain to me why this matters. To me, it's just easier to use both at once!! LOL. Thanks, Pop Century!

I had a rough time sleeping Sunday night. It happens sometimes here. I was hoping for a rope drop at some point on this trip (for the first time) but didn't really get to sleep until close to 4AM and then slept until almost 10AM. Brian will just keep sleeping forever until I wake him up, no matter what time he went to bed LOL.

Oh! So on the way back, Brian almost got a soda from the vending machine. :banghead:

I was like, "NO!" He looked confused. I said, "Why do you think I paid $16.99 for a refillable mug?!?" That mug needs to pay for itself LOL. Get the mug from the room, you still have time to go fill it and come back.

So he goes back by himself, and I feel a little bad because with the diabetes, walking can be an issue at times, and because it was cold out.

He comes back a few minutes later - with hot chocolate in the mug. :angelic: He drank his soda on site, and then refilled it with HC for me.:joyfull:
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Oh, the days in my 30's when I would go from park open to park close every day!!

Monday we had a slight outline of plans - most likely a "full day" at the "half day park" of HS. We had a few fastpasses - namely, Toy Story (which we had never done before because of lines) and Sci-Fi Dine-In (also had never done in all these years) and the rest was to wander around, stop at Tune-In Lounge (50s Prime Time's bar) and hope Julie was there (she was not there on our last trip so we didn't stop) and I will follow-up to let you know how that all went! (Hint: I totally passed out in the afternoon.)

So that's a mini pre-trip report within the trip report.

Oh - and it's freaking cold!!!

Catch up with you guys later. Thanks for reading! Miss my puppy.
 

Figgy1

Well-Known Member
Oh, the days in my 30's when I would go from park open to park close every day!!

Monday we had a slight outline of plans - most likely a "full day" at the "half day park" of HS. We had a few fastpasses - namely, Toy Story (which we had never done before because of lines) and Sci-Fi Dine-In (also had never done in all these years) and the rest was to wander around, stop at Tune-In Lounge (50s Prime Time's bar) and hope Julie was there (she was not there on our last trip so we didn't stop) and I will follow-up to let you know how that all went! (Hint: I totally passed out in the afternoon.)

So that's a mini pre-trip report within the trip report.

Oh - and it's freaking cold!!!

Catch up with you guys later. Thanks for reading! Miss my puppy.
I understand about the pasta! Growing up spitting distance from Newark I won't eat any Italian food in Florida.
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
To recap and catch up - Monday, slept thru rope drop, got to HS around lunch o'clock, but had an early res at Sci-Fi for dinner at 4:15, so didn't want to overeat. Stopped at the Tune-In Lounge (50s Prime Time's bar) and Julie was there - yay! Our fave bartender.

It was not crowded and we got seats at the bar after a few minutes. Got our first drinks and split a pot roast entree. Got our second drinks and split some onion rings. Nursed our second drinks (holy cow Julie was trying to kill us!) and split a no sugar added slice of cheesecake. We had the best time, though, chatting with other "Disney rebels" who were drinking while their other family members were standing in lines with children LOL, and teasing Julie that they would have her in a Princess Leia costume soon.

Fun afternoon. Where did the time go? Drank through that Little Mermaid FP. But made it just in time for our Muppet FP - good thing, because the standby line was a whole 5 minutes long! Really, the only reason we did any FP was for Toy Story, but they make you get 3 so...

TS midway mania was fun!! And we loved walking past the 80 minute wait line. Pretty similar to the TS game/ride at MK, except Brian always kicks my hiney in that one. Not this time!!

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My score is the one on the right - you'll just have to take my word for it. But really, it is.
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
TSMM FP was 3:55 and Sci-Fi was 4:15 - had to hustle but got there right on time.

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This was cool to experience - I'm always amazed how much we've never done. Brian had a burger with pulled pork on top, and I had the veggie shepard's pie. It was ok. He stopped drinking, I had a sangria. Oops.

At this point I had what I like to call "a very polite buzz."
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
On our way out - no way I was going to make it til 8pm Star Wars fireworks - we stumble across the DJ set up. I had never seen this before, and it was not there when we walked in at lunchtime. I told Brian this was what people on this site had been complaining about (he thinks everyone here just whines about Disney all day because I tell him about all the threads where that happens lol.

Omg the DJ thing was adorable!!! People, chill out!! It was not too loud, not hardcore club music, and there were Stitch, Pluto, Baloo(?) and Chip & Dale dancing their butts off! We loved it. And loved watching people who obviously don't go to clubs just get into it and make some attempt at a wiggle or something. Kids loved it. We loved it. We did not dance. But here's Pluto!

Well, it's not letting me upload the video - will have to try to figure that out later...
 

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