Trip Report Meet the Floridians

Hello humans!

Most of you know me by now, but for those of you who haven't followed my past TR's (particularly my most recent), I'll do some brief introductions. Feel free to check out my past reports (in my signature) if you'd like!

Who: I'm Brittany! I'm 25 and completely Disney obsessed. My better half is Dylan, also 25 and not quite as Disney obsessed. Prior to meeting me, he had never been to WDW! It was obviously top priority to remedy that.

This is our baby, Tink. She also loves Disney.

We got engaged in Magic Kingdom in June.. my dream come true! Though our wedding won't take place in Disney, it will be Disney themed.

While we were enjoying our time in the World, I accepted a 1st grade teaching position in Osceola County, Florida. Fast forward a month, and we packed up a U-Haul to relocate from Pennsylvania to the Sunshine State!

We currently live 20 minutes from Disney property, and one of our first purchases should come as no surprise. This report will be a collection of our adventures as annual passholders, and I'll update it with a Table of Contents as we go. Now, without further ado...

To all who come to this happy place, welcome!

 

[Gurt]

Sorry for the like overload I love catching up with your report how have you never seen Voices of Liberty the are amazing, I highly recommend seeing them at Christmas time. Dino Chip & Dale are so cute iv never seen those outfits before. Have a great anniversary at Yacht Club.

 

[riverside]

Have a great time!!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I can't wait for every detail about Yacht Club!!!!!

 

[blreinsel]

Congrats on finishing your first year of teaching! I just completed my 18th school year! We are survivors!

Thank you! Survivors is a great way to put it! Lol

Have an awesome time at Yacht Club! Can’t wait to read all about it!

Have a great time!!

I can't wait for every detail about Yacht Club!!!!!

We had an amazing time! Getting ready to write all about it!

I’m disappointed that you haven’t been to the parks in almost a week. What a slacker

But so proud that you are all caught up

I'll make up for it this week while you're cruisin' it up!

Have an amazing time at the Yacht club!!! Also, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!

We absolutely did!

YES! I knew I liked you.

I'm so surprised you've never seen VoL before!! They are amazing. My daughter and I spent an entire afternoon watching them one day on our last trip. The woman all the way to the left, Elodie, was so so nice to us! I would LOVE to sing with them. I'm glad you finally experienced the wonder that is the Voices of Liberty! They also perform outside the parks sometimes and there's a group called Voctave made up of former and current VoL members. They have some pretty amazing renditions of songs from the Disney movies, etc.

That's really cool! I enjoyed them immensely.

Sorry for the like overload I love catching up with your report how have you never seen Voices of Liberty the are amazing, I highly recommend seeing them at Christmas time. Dino Chip & Dale are so cute iv never seen those outfits before. Have a great anniversary at Yacht Club.

No worries! I'm looking forward to seeing them at Christmas time! They were incredible.

They've only been wearing those outfits for a few weeks to celebrate Donald's Dino Bash (the summer promotion at AK). Some of the other characters were out and about in cute outfits too but we didn't have time to meet them. They're all adorable!

We had a great time!

 

[blreinsel]

Thursday, June 7

Well, I failed at live updates from Yacht Club. But I'm here to share all of the details now!

One year ago on June 7, I woke up in my happy place. I was ecstatic to share it with Dylan and knew that this would be a trip unlike any other. What I didn't know was that I would be returning home an engaged woman. Getting engaged in Magic Kingdom has been my dream for as long as I can remember and I'll never stop marveling at the fact that Dylan made that dream (and many others) come true. So much has changed for us in the last year, but so much has also stayed the same. Many of you joke that I'm "living the dream," but I really, truly am. I'm engaged to my very own Prince Charming, teaching in Florida, and make weekly trips to Disney. What more could a girl ask for?

When we originally booked our stay at Yacht Club, we planned to take Tink along with us since it's one of the pet friendly resorts. We ultimately decided to leave her with a friend so we could enjoy our stay and not have to worry about her being in the room, going back to take her outside, etc. I felt a little bit of regret when I saw other dogs walking through the lobby, but I know it was the right decision. We dropped her off and then were on our way around 12:30pm (I had to teach summer school in the morning)!

Walking into the lobby, I still couldn't believe we were staying here! Disney still makes me giddy. I had gotten a text saying that our room was not ready, but we decided to go to the desk and double check anyway.

We were greeted with the glorious smell and the beautiful, yet modest appearance of the lobby. The CM at the desk attempted to find us another room that was available immediately but was unsuccessful. He said that Mousekeeping was sending somebody to clean our room right then and double checked my phone number so they could sent another text when it was ready. We checked our bags with bell services before heading outside!

We stepped into the Ale and Compass Lounge to briefly look around first. A theme that I noticed about this resort is that everything is very dark and masculine. It's absolutely beautiful but may not be everybody's cup of tea.

We quickly changed in the bathroom and then made our way to the pool. The CM scanned our Magic Bands to confirm that we were resort guests and then gave us bright, multicolored bracelets to wear so we didn't have to be scanned again if we went outside of the gates. The pool was pretty busy and chairs were limited, especially chairs together. We decided to head up the stairs to the "lookout tower" and were some of the only people up there!

We dropped our things and then went back downstairs to Hurricane Hanna's to grab some drinks! I was so excited to see my beloved Pina Colava on the menu! Dylan got a beer and we returned to our chairs.

We've been getting A LOT of rain for the last month or so.. and not just the quick afternoon showers that you all are accustomed to. It typically starts around noon and continues for HOURS.. sometimes all the way into the night. I was so worried that the rain would ruin our pool plans, but we lucked into an absolutely gorgeous day! We soaked up the sun as we enjoyed our drinks and then returned to the bar for another when our cups were dry.

We both went with the Storm Chaser Skyy Vodka, Bacardi Superior Rum, Blue Curaçao, Sweet-and-Sour and Sprite) for round 2.

After finishing our second drinks, we decided to go cool off in the water. We went into the shallow pool first and relaxed in the sand.. can we agree that these are the COOLEST pools ever? Dylan was most excited about trying the slide, so after a few minutes in the pool we headed that way. He insisted on trying what I called the baby slide first to "get warmed up." I was so embarrassed and was convinced that the lifeguard was going to yell at him, but he just let him go lol. We did the slide a few times and then floated around in the lazy river for quite some time.

We returned to our chairs on the deck, but not before grabbing another drink. I had a Frozen Strawberry Margarita and Dylan had another beer. Living my best life.

 

[blreinsel]

Thursday, June 7 cont.

I had gotten the text that our room was ready, so we relaxed for a little bit longer before going to check out our digs for the night! We spent about 3 hours at the pool and I still didn't want to leave. Dylan was anxious to see our room though, and I did need to start getting cleaned up for dinner.

Though I had gotten my room ready text, it didn't give me a room number, but rather told me to return to the front desk for our room assignment. What's the point? Anyway, I went to deal with that and Dylan grabbed our bags from bell services. We were on the first floor which worried me (our first floor room at All Star Sports had been really noisy with people passing by), but we didn't have any issues here!

We made the short walk to our room and Dylan commented on how soft the carpet felt. I then decided to take a page from @fractal's book and took my shoes off for the rest of the walk. You sir are exactly right... it felt great on my bare feet!

Welcome to our beautiful room!

This shower was incredible.. I took possibly the longest shower of my life. Also, I finally understand what all the the rage is behind the deluxe hygiene products. I made sure to throw them in my bag for Yacht Club inspired showers at home.

The beds were super comfortable, but I seriously considered smuggling those pillows out of the room in our bags. They were AMAZING!

There was lots of information about DS and the parks laying on the desk, as well as the current bounce back offers.

 

[blreinsel]

Thursday, June 7 cont.
I stepped onto our patio to check out the beautiful view. Even with such close proximity to the boardwalk, we really didn't notice any sort of noise.

I took a minute to appreciate the cool wall art when I walked back inside.

We got cleaned up and ready for dinner - probably the most anticipated part of our stay for me! We had a 6:35pm reservation for Yachstman! It was so nice to be able to walk right down the hall and be there rather than getting on a bus, monorail, or boat. I've never really given much thought to the travel time required for many ADR's before now, but this was super convenient. It had started pouring (hence the lifeguard standing by the door in the picture below), so our timing had been just about perfect!

We checked in and chatted with the CM for a few moments. She acknowledged that it was our first time trying Yachtsman and said that we were taking a risk trying somewhere new to celebrate our anniversary, but she ensured us that we wouldn't be disappointed. DISNEY. TOUCHES. YA'LL. We sat down to wait for just a few minutes and it was then that Dylan showed me the socks he had chosen for our date. I sent this picture to my parents and they didn't see a problem with it. I'm alone in the Steelers-loving family.

We were soon greeted by another CM who walked us to our table. It was off to the side and away from other tables, so that was nice! The ceiling and light fixture were so cool. Off to a great start!

Our server stopped by shortly after and presented us with our personalized menus. However, because the reservation was made under my name, it said "The Gauger's" on it. I still thought it was a really nice gesture, but Dylan wasn't satisfied. When she returned to the table, he casually started asking about how they make the customized menus and then asked her if she could do him a favor and reprint them with his last name instead. He explained that we were celebrating our engagement anniversary but that it would be a nice souvenir since we'll be married in a year. She happily obliged and I was a happy camper.

She wrapped them up with a bow and stuck a couple of Mickey straws in the bundle for good measure. I took these at home so the straws aren't there - lol.

She brought out some bread service and I tried my best to not fill up on it. But guys - OH MY WORD - the onion bread was INCREDIBLE. I can't even describe it. The sour dough was pretty good too, but I could have literally eaten an entire meal of the onion. Dylan was intrigued by the garlic.. talked about it for most of our meal. It was great, as was the butter!

 

[blreinsel]

Thursday, June 7 cont.

We perused the menus and didn't really have much trouble deciding on our entrees. I really tried to convince myself that I didn't need it, but I just couldn't pass up the French Onion Soup. I know that I would have regretted it if I hadn't ordered it, so I guess I made the right decision. The broth was oddly sweet, so it took me a few spoonfuls to adjust to the flavor. But once they did It tasted great with the onion bread, too.

Our entrees came out pretty quickly. Dylan ordered the Roast Prime Rib which came with the Sweet Potato Casserole. I tried both and they were delicious.

I ordered the Black Angus Filet Mignon with mashed potatoes. It came smothered in a delicious Cabernet Wine Sauce that was to die for. My entire meal was AMAZING. Even the mashed potatoes were the best I've ever had.

We also ordered the Truffle Mac & Cheese to share. I was actually pretty disappointed in this.. it tasted just plain weird. Dylan ate what we couldn't finish later on in the room and seemed to like it a little better than I did. Side note: He was very annoyed by the lack of a microwave in our room.

Our server came back around with the dessert menu and though we were tempted, we decided to skip dessert. She came back a few minutes later with this, so we ended up with dessert anyway. I have no idea what it was, but it was SO GOOD. Some sort of rich, chocolatey mousse with caramel and some sort of fruity sauce. We struggled to finish it, but we managed to push through.

Our server was kind enough to snap a picture for us before we headed out.

The CM that checks guests in offered to take another one for us when we exited the restaurant.

Thoughts on Yachtsman: THE BEST Disney restaurant I have ever eaten at... seriously. It blows California Grill out of the water as far as I'm concerned. My steak was seasoned perfectly, the bread service was way better, the portion sizes of our sides were huge, and the dessert was incredible. Our bill wasn't nearly as high as we expected it to be, so that was a nice surprise as well.. we got a lot of bang for our buck. The view was a little meh as others have mentioned (you just can't beat the view at CG), and it was a little noisier than I expected it to be. But other than that, we were highly impressed. If I had to choose one Disney restaurant to eat at for the rest of my life, this would be it.

We made the short walk back to our room and sat outside on the patio for a little while. This guy was crawling around under my chair, and another was crawling up the wall. They were the biggest snails I've ever seen! Lol. There were also some bunnies hopping around in the grass, so we had lots of entertainment.

We enjoyed the beautiful evening while we waited for Illuminations to start.

 

[blreinsel]

Thursday, June 7 cont.

Illuminations soon started and we had a pretty great view! We couldn't see some of the lower fireworks, but that wasn't a big deal. The music was just loud enough for us to hear, so we were pretty satisfied with our after dinner entertainment.

We went back inside after Illuminations ended to relax and watch TV for a little while. We weren't ready to turn in for the night yet, so we decided to walk over to the Boardwalk to find something to do.

The Dance Hall seemed pretty lively, as did Jellyrolls, but Dylan didn't want to pay a cover charge to just pop in for an hour or so. We agreed that we would come back another time and make a full evening of it so we could get our money's worth. I suggested AbracadaBar, but when we walked past it looked like it was closed. We took a closer look and noticed one other couple inside, so we decided to skip the awkward encounter lol. We made the full loop and ended up back at the Ale & Compass Lounge. There was hardly anybody there either, and they were getting ready to close (at a surprisingly early hour for a bar), so we didn't linger for very long.

I snapped a few pictures of the lobby as we passed through. The second picture is clearer, but I have to include the first because of the annoyed look on Dylan's face. If I had a dime for every time I said "it's for the trip report" during our stay, I could afford a full week at Yacht Club.

We returned to the room and watched some Stacey before drifting off to sleep on our cloud-like pillows.

 

[blreinsel]

Friday, June 8

We woke up around 8:30am and decided to take advantage of our short walk to Epcot to grab some breakfast! It was quiet and the weather was absolutely perfect.

I've been dying to eat breakfast from the bakery but always forget about it. Today was the day!

SO. MANY. CHOICES.

This is the display case that really had me struggling. I want it all!

We decided to share the Croissant Jambon Fromage (Ham, Cheese and Béchamel in a Croissant) and the Mousse au Chocolat (Chocolate Mousse). I also ordered an Iced Cappuccino.

We agreed that the croissant was the best we've ever had. It was soft and flaky, and the flavors all just worked together really well. The mousse was AMAZING as well! When I went to take a drink of the cappuccino, nothing came out. I took the lid off and realized that it was completely frozen. We let it melt a little bit and then mixed it up. I took a sip and wanted to spit it right back out. It was terrible.. so bitter and just nasty. Dylan drank a little bit of it but barely made a dent before it went in the trash. I should have had orange juice.

There were barely any other people around, so other than the nasty cappuccino, we had a perfect breakfast with a view. We had planned to just go back to the resort and head to the pool, but Dylan said that we should at least check wait times and see if there were any fast passes available. Waits were high for everything worth riding, but I happened upon a FP+ for Frozen in about 20 minutes!

We backtracked and headed toward Norway. An empty WS is the best WS.

We arrived in Norway and noticed that the doors to the queue were closed. I hopped on the app and realized that the ride was down. We were given a wildcard FP+ so decided to use it on Soarin' instead. Off to The Land! We passed through the back part of the building that Club Cool is in (the name is escaping me) and stopped to look at this cool timeline of Epcot over the years. Dylan loves history, I love Disney, and this combined our loves into one great conversation piece. He joked that I secretly love history as we walked away, and I corrected him by pointing out that I love DISNEY history.

As we walked into The Land, a lady passing by asked if we wanted fast passes for Soarin'. Dylan accepted them (they were Child Swap passes) and suggested that we use those now and then use our wildcard FP+ for Test Track. Two E-ticket FP+ rides in one morning? Don't mind if we do.

It was getting pretty hot at this point and we needed to get back to the room as we were quickly approaching our noon checkout time (I had called to request a later checkout that morning). We headed back through the International Gateway and soon arrived back at our room. We quickly finished packing up our things and Dylan ran them out to the car while I bought a pin in the gift shop.

 

[blreinsel]

Friday, June 8 cont.

Just because we had checked out didn't mean we were ready to head home. Back to the pool! It was a lot less busy than the day before.. I assume most people were still at the parks that early in the day. We were able to find some chairs right beside the pool, giving us a great view of the entertainment.

Goofy was trying to toss beanbags over his shoulder and into a bucket and was very proud of himself when he did it.

We sat in the hot tub for a few minutes, just to say that we did, and then floated around in the lazy river for quite some time. We eventually got out and grabbed one last drink from Hurricane Hanna's. What else would I get? Side note: The color/pattern of the pool bracelets changes by the day to prevent people from sneaking back in with bracelets from days earlier. Well played Disney.

We spent a few hours at the pool before finally deciding that it was time for us to leave. We walked back through the lobby one more time, taking in all of the sights and smells!

Our staycation at Yacht Club was absolutely incredible and I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to do so. We loved everything about it and can't wait to continue this tradition year after year. It was the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary and I will never stop being amazed that we have the ability to come to one of the top tourist destinations for every celebration we have.

We stopped by my friend's house to pick up our baby, and she was more than ready to get home and nap.

 

[Matt and Kelly]

What an amazing anniversary, and I love that you will get to do it every year. I have never seen characters at the pool before! And now we will have to put the yachtsman on our list of to do's.

 

[blreinsel]

Saturday, June 9

Yesterday, @wishes2013 and I got to participate in one of the coolest professional development opportunities I've ever experienced known as EdCampMagic. There are EdCamps all over the country, but a Disney-inspired one wasn't something we were going to pass up. We sat in two sessions with former Imagineer Brian Collins, learning about how to bring Disney into the classroom in authentic ways. He was on the team that developed the idea for Blizzard Beach, wrote jokes for Jungle Cruise, and wrote the scripts/backstories for the characters in The Great Movie Ride. He shared so many interesting facts about Imagineering in general and many of the neat Disney touches in different areas of the parks. We were absolutely beside ourselves listening to him speak lol.

We also got to sit in a session with Jeff Barnes, also known as Dr. Disneyland. He teaches a one of a kind class at California Baptist University: The History of Disneyland. Aside from the lecture part of the class, students get to go on a field trip to Disneyland and to the animatronics factory that supply those used in Disney attractions. ARE YOU SERIOUS!? He offered to send me the syllabus for the class, and I'll definitely be taking him up on that offer. He asked if anybody would consider taking the class if it ever became an online offering, and @wishes2013 and I couldn't raise our hands fast enough. His knowledge about Walt Disney and the parks is incredible, and he was incredibly inspiring. He encouraged us to go through life as Walt did, making decisions like moving to California with $40, one suitcase, and a one-way ticket. If that's not a motto to live by then I don't know what is. In addition to his many other accomplishments, he has written two books that I'm now the proud owner of. I can't wait to start reading them!

Some other pictures from his session...

He shared the story about Roy being the first person to purchase a ticket on Disneyland's opening day. Cue the tears.

During lunch, everybody was invited to play a Disney trivia Kahoot (a popular game for classrooms). 1st and 2nd place winners got $25 Disney gift cards and for the majority of the game, @wishes2013 and I were in the running for them. A few off the wall questions threw us for a loop and we ended up 4th and 5th. Out of 130 people, I'd say that's still pretty good. At least we made the leader board!

After a day of talking about Disney, I couldn't stay away from MK! I met Dylan when he got off of work and we headed over for a few hours. One of my college professors (who became a friend) was there with her kids, so we were able to meet up and spend the evening together!

Before we met up, Dylan and I had a FP+ for Space Mountain and grabbed some dinner at Cosmic Ray's.

I did mobile ordering and didn't realize that I wasn't getting a pulled pork sandwich until I picked up my order. It was all still very good, but I wish they'd bring the sandwich variation back. The cornbread was dry and didn't have much flavor, so that part was disappointing. I wish I would have ordered one of the special Incredibles offerings instead.

Speaking of The Incredibles, Tomorrowland has been completely taken over by them for the summer promotion. I didn't think to take any pictures, but I'll take some next time I'm there.

We met up with my friend and chatted for a few minutes before deciding to go see Hall of Presidents.

When we excited, we had about 20 minutes until Happily Ever After started so made our way to Main Street. We opted for a spot at the end of Main Street so we could leave ahead of the crowd when the show ended. This was her first time seeing it and was was amazed, naturally. Dylan and I ended up really liking this spot too.. it's amazing how much bigger the fireworks are when you have the full view of them. Being as short as I am, I couldn't see most of the projections, but other than that, it was a really cool view!

We zipped out ahead of everybody as soon as it was over and made it back to our cars pretty quickly.

 

[blreinsel]

What an amazing anniversary, and I love that you will get to do it every year. I have never seen characters at the pool before! And now we will have to put the yachtsman on our list of to do's.

It really was amazing! We had so much fun. The characters came out to help with the games the CM's play with the kids, but I was surprised that they would come out that close to the water! It was a nice touch and the kids got so excited each time somebody new arrived.

Yachtsman is a definite must do! I'm already scheming about how/when I can get back.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

It sounds like your stay at the Yacht Club was fantastic! And I'm so glad you loved you Yachtsman meal, that is one of our favorite restaurants too.

 

[lostpro9het]

View attachment 289274

Love the socks, have a pair myself. Offer still stands, give me 7-11 months and I'll put you in the Poly on the cheap for a night on your next anniversary.

 

[blreinsel]

It sounds like your stay at the Yacht Club was fantastic! And I'm so glad you loved you Yachtsman meal, that is one of our favorite restaurants too.

It really was! Yachtsman was sooo worth it!

Love the socks, have a pair myself. Offer still stands, give me 7-11 months and I'll put you in the Poly on the cheap for a night on your next anniversary.

I am totally taking you up on that offer! That will likely be our 2020 anniversary celebration since next year will be a cruise for our honeymoon!

 

[becca_]

What a great anniversary celebration!! I am not jealous at all and I am also TOTALLY NOT trying to convince Daniel that Florida is the best state to live in

 

[blreinsel]

What a great anniversary celebration!! I am not jealous at all and I am also TOTALLY NOT trying to convince Daniel that Florida is the best state to live in

There are really only two main factors that anyone needs to consider when thinking about a move to FL...

1. No snow
2. DISNEY WHENEVER YOU WANT.

 

[fractal]

Happy Anniversary and what a great tradition you are starting!

You really have me missing the Yacht Club! I tried walking around barefoot on the carpets in our house last night, but it's not even close.