Trip Report Movin' In? Two Weeks in the World!

Hello! My husband (Brad) and I (Amy) just got back from a 2 week trip to Walt Disney World, and had a blast! We are frequent visitors and last year we decided to stay at WDW for 2 weeks so we could take touring slow and do things we've wanted to do but never had time to put in the schedule. It was heavenly to have so much time to play with, and of course in the end when it came time to leave we weren't quite ready (although our wallets were!).

I hope you enjoy a recap of our adventures, please share any thoughts or questions you might have! It will be full of pictures too (including food!).

I am going to take a brief break to tag a few people here on the boards that have expressed interest in my travels and some that might be. If I missed anyone sorry, but everyone is welcome!
@figmentfan423 @Songbird76 @betty rose @donaldtoo @PacNWTigger @MouseDreaming @Tuvalu @JenniferS @StarWarsGirl @MinnieM123 @PUSH @Mr Ferret 88 @MOXOMUMD @Gabe1 @BuddyThomas @Cesar R M

Here are also some links to the other trip reports I've done.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/back-to-disneyland-ringin-in-2016.909039/
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...ts-wdw-november-2015-lots-of-pictures.907613/
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/springin-into-wdw-solo-march-2016.911995/

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Cool! Always wanted to play golf at WDW as well, but never wanted to sacrifice park time. Early 9 makes so much sense.

He said he might consider the sunrise 9 again. He texted me that he was done with that at at little after 7:30, so he could do that and still make it to the parks early. And depending on opening maybe even by rope drop.

Loving your trip report (with the exception of the Cubs hat ) Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks! I'm not a big fan of the Cubs hat either. I'm a Twins fan, but I'm a little ashamed to say that this year.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Ok, so as Brad went golfing I went back to sleep. When I got up I headed over to the Studios. I got there at opening but I had a not so fun experience at the All Star bus stop. I did have a nice walk from my room to the main building

After I had breakfast and made it to the bus stop but there was no way I was making this bus. There was a glimmer of hope, I missed it by 4 people. We usually leave for park open so early I've never seen the bus stop so packed in the morning.

Well, made it to the park and I had fast passes for my 3 favorite rides at the park...Star Tours, Tower of Terror, and Toy Story. I also decided to single rider Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, it didn't take long. I typically avoid it because going upside a lot can give me headaches. I was fine this time. I also walked past the Mickey and Minnie meet and greet and it was 5 minutes, so it would have been rude not to go say hi!

I had never taken a picture at the top of Tower so I thought I would give it a shot since I was in the back row and the screen wouldn't really bother anyone. As you can see it wasn't too successful. My photopass has my camera in front of my face, which hubby thought was funny. I think he thinks it is always in front of my face at Disney anyway!
[

Someday this view will probably be gone with the new Toy Storyland. And I'm okay with that.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

After Toy Story I just hung out a little until it was time to check in to the Brown Derby for the Dining with and Imagineer lunch. I was pretty nervous for the Dine with an Imagineer. I can be pretty shy and anxious in new social situations and stay pretty quiet. I am definitely more of an observer than the outgoing one. So Brad told me that I had to ask at least one question if I was going to do the lunch. (He is the outgoing one would have had no anxiousness about this.)

Anyway, the lunch was fantastic. Our imagineer was Cindy Cohe and she does show design in the parks, especially for the Studios. She had been with the Studios since its construction days. It was really interesting to hear her stories and how she worked her way up through the company. There were 9 of us with her, and turns out that I and another lady were the talkative ones! Once she got going with her stories, I had a lot of questions. I think the others might have been more shy than I am! Lunch was fantastic and the service was great. It felt special since we were in the private Bamboo Room, the wait even addressed me by name. I only took a couple pictures of the food because no one else was, and I didn't want to fly my freak flag too early. I would love to do the Dine program again, I really like learning about the history of Disney and the company so this is right up my alley. We even got a signed plate as a souvenir, I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I will and post a pictures later.

Lobby of the Derby

A sneak peek into the restaurant before they started seating people.

I liked looking at the drawings of the celebs, I didn't know them all but I knew a large number. My mom had watched the original Mickey Mouse Club as a kid so she made certain I knew who Jimmie Dodd was!

I loved that the lighting were little derby hats. I was pretty pleased that I noticed this detail, as sometimes it takes me awhile to notice such details.

Lunch consisted of corn bisque (with a little sirracha oil, yum), cobb salad (which was a full portion, and it was huge!), a main dish, and a dessert trio.

My steak. It was good. There were mushrooms in my mashed potatoes though. I had misunderstood the menu and thought they were just on the side or on top of the steak, and I figured I could push them aside. Had I known I would have asked them to leave them out. What a way to ruin mashed potatoes! I hate all mushrooms, unless they are black truffles and they are in my mac and cheese.

Dessert trio... left to right: grapefruit cake (a little sweet but a lot of bitter), creme brulee (excellent) and a chocolate mousse kind of cake with a apricot filling (didn't need the filling but it was good)

My and my new bestie (just kidding), Cindy.

Lunch got over a little before 3pm, so we weren't rushed at all which was really nice. After lunch I headed back to the All Star bus stop to meet Brad back at the room. He had finished his golfing about 15 minutes before we finished lunch. And I waited, and waited.....I was able to do my journaling for the day while waiting though. The wait seemed to last forever but it was over 15 minutes, which seemed a lifetime, it was the longest wait I had in like 3 trips.

 

[MinnieM123]

I WANT that golf cart, and I've never played golf in my life! HA!

So happy for you (and maybe just a little jealous . . . ) that you got to Dine with an Imagineer. I really enjoyed reading your comments about that special experience. I've GOT to somehow do this once in my lifetime!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Our plan for the night was to do a monorail lounge crawl and that involved sampling of food and drink. A friend of mine lives in Tampa and I was hoping that she and her husband would be able to join us because it never seems to work out to meet up when we are there. Well it didn't this time either, ironically she was on a 2 week trip as well, but to California (and she didn't go to Disneyland! I don't know if we can be friends now).

So we bussed it to the MK and hopped on the monorail and you'd think our first stop would be the Contemporary but it wasn't. We were just chomping at the bit to go to Trader Sam's Grog Grotto. We love the one in Disneyland and hadn't been able to try WDW's yet. Well, we LOVED it! Disneyland's might have a slight edge (it has Chinese long beans) but both are relaxing, have fun details, and good food and drinks. One thing we noticed about the staff at WDW's Trader Sam's is that they really got into the roles and kitsch-ed it up a lot. At Disneyland the staff is great but is really down to business.

Hey Magic Kingdom....maybe we will see you later (nope didn't make it there, too stuffed and tired)

MONORAIL!!! Love the monorail, once when we visited as a family we rode the monorail round and round for over an hour before park open. My dad didn't want to stand and wait for open when he had a seat on the monorail!

At the Polynesian

Another reason we started at Trader Sam's is we were afraid we wouldn't get a table inside right away, so we thought if we started there we could just keep trying. Turns out there were lots of spots, we got a nice little table in the corner.

Bartender is getting my pearl

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

We got our drinks at Trader Sam's. I got the pearl (it had rum chatta and was a bit fruity too, yummy, but a little small) and Brad got the rum flight and a Coke. He tasted some rum and then made a very "exotic" Rum and Coke. For snacks we got the pork tacos (yum) and the battered Portuguese sausages (slightly spicy but yum).

Someone got a drink that made this happen.

Kalua pork tacos

sausages

We dragged ourselves away from Trader Sam's and wandered around Boutiki and looked around the lobby. The new lobby doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would when it was announced. I do have fond memories of my family posing around the old center, and trying to take a picture of us and getting mostly the flash from the mirror, which we wouldn't see until we got the film developed

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Here's a better view of Brad's rum flight glasses, which we did take home with us. Sadly the surf board they were on didn't come with them.

We moved up to the the Tambu Lounge, which is next to 'Ohana. Fortunately we were able to find a spot, it wasn't too overrun with restaurant goers.

I switched over to beer, but I tried to try different ones than what I can get at home. I got Magic Hat because we were in Disney World, and it is "magical". Brad got (drum roll).....a rum and coke.

We shared the honey coriander wings from 'Ohana. They were okay, I would have liked a little more sauce but at least the skin was somewhat crisp.

Then we headed over to the Grand Floridian and to Mizner's Lounge. I think this and Trader Sam's were our favorites.

.

View from the window

A new beer for me, and I bet you can guess what Brad got so I'm not going to bother to type it.....

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Here is my beer actually in the glass....

I think Mizner's shares a kitchen with Citrico's (and we enjoyed the food so now Citrico's is on the list)
We got arrancini (fried rice balls), and a flatbread with sauasge and it had potatoes too which is a little strange but not bad on "pizza".
The snack mix that is free and Brad's exotic drink....

There was some bread brought to the table, and if you see the napkin you'll see why I thought the kitchen was shared.

The band they are pretty awesome. Even if you don't want to do the lounge, just sitting in the lobby listening would be awesome.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

So the big question after leaving the Grand Floridian was which lounge to go to at the Contemporary. I highly doubted that we would get a spot at the California Grill since it was getting closer to fireworks time. We had never done the Wave (so I kind of wanted to do that), and the Outer Rim I don't think serves food. So we agreed that we to try California Grill and then do the Wave as a back up. Well, we were able to get into the California Grill. We both love the food and the view there so it all worked out.

The view from our table, it was a fantastic sunset.

Our table in the lounge area

The bar

I decided to get the sake-tini. It was delightful. I could have had a ton of these, the liquor was there but not very detectable. And Brad went "exotic" again too.

We got the pork belly nigiri, cheese plate, and charcuterie. I thought we should space it out since I didn't think everything would fit. Brad said we would be fine. I was right, it didn't fit, some stuff (like the bread for the meats) had to go on the chair by Brad. It was all very tasty, and it was a nice way to end the monorail crawl.

 

[dclfan]

I absolutely loved your monorail crawl. That's exactly how I always wanted to do it. Going to each lounge and snacking and drinking. I'm always so heistant to give up an ADR to do it though. I think I need to add more days onto my trips.

I love your report.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

To end the night we went out on the observation deck. We thought about staying for the fireworks, but after the nice mellow night we had neither one of us wanted to fight the after fireworks crowd. So we left and walked over to the MK bus stop and our bus was pulling away as Wishes began. The California Grill is a fantastic place to watch fireworks from though, and we had reservations for the California Grill for July 4th so we were okay with missing the fireworks tonight.

Here are some views from the Observation deck.

And I had mentioned earlier in the Broadway section of the All Star Music Goofy is the ticket taker in the window, so here is a picture showing that.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I WANT that golf cart, and I've never played golf in my life! HA!

So happy for you (and maybe just a little jealous . . . ) that you got to Dine with an Imagineer. I really enjoyed reading your comments about that special experience. I've GOT to somehow do this once in my lifetime!!

The cart is cute. You should do the Dine with an Imagineer, it is a little pricey but along the lines of a fancy restaurant. You just have to be persistent to look for an opening.

I absolutely loved your monorail crawl. That's exactly how I always wanted to do it. Going to each lounge and snacking and drinking. I'm always so heistant to give up an ADR to do it though. I think I need to add more days onto my trips.

I love your report.

Thanks. The tour was fun. I was hesitant about giving up an ADR too, but in the end we got to try a bunch of stuff. At California Grill you can order off the full menu. And having more days makes it easier to do, I didn't feel guilty about losing park time either then.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Day 8: My Birthday and moving day (moving to the Caribbean Beach)

We woke a little earlier today because it was moving day, over to the Caribbean Beach. We hadn't stayed there since our honeymoon 11 years ago and before that I had stayed there with my family many times. So it was kind of like going back to my hometown. Once those bags were dropped off, it was off to the Magic Kingdom. Where else would I choose to spend my birthday! We had pre-park open reservations for Be Our Guest, but it was also one of those paid Magic Mornings so there were a few more people there than I expected. But those people rushed to the rides and we just meandered down Main Street enjoying a close to empty park.

 

[MouseDreaming]

View attachment 151080

After Toy Story I just hung out a little until it was time to check in to the Brown Derby for the Dining with and Imagineer lunch. I was pretty nervous for the Dine with an Imagineer. I can be pretty shy and anxious in new social situations and stay pretty quiet. I am definitely more of an observer than the outgoing one. So Brad told me that I had to ask at least one question if I was going to do the lunch. (He is the outgoing one would have had no anxiousness about this.)

Anyway, the lunch was fantastic. Our imagineer was Cindy Cohe and she does show design in the parks, especially for the Studios. She had been with the Studios since its construction days. It was really interesting to hear her stories and how she worked her way up through the company. There were 9 of us with her, and turns out that I and another lady were the talkative ones! Once she got going with her stories, I had a lot of questions. I think the others might have been more shy than I am! Lunch was fantastic and the service was great. It felt special since we were in the private Bamboo Room, the wait even addressed me by name. I only took a couple pictures of the food because no one else was, and I didn't want to fly my freak flag too early. I would love to do the Dine program again, I really like learning about the history of Disney and the company so this is right up my alley. We even got a signed plate as a souvenir, I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I will and post a pictures later.

Lobby of the Derby
View attachment 151081

A sneak peek into the restaurant before they started seating people.
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I liked looking at the drawings of the celebs, I didn't know them all but I knew a large number. My mom had watched the original Mickey Mouse Club as a kid so she made certain I knew who Jimmie Dodd was!
View attachment 151082

I loved that the lighting were little derby hats. I was pretty pleased that I noticed this detail, as sometimes it takes me awhile to notice such details.
View attachment 151083

Lunch consisted of corn bisque (with a little sirracha oil, yum), cobb salad (which was a full portion, and it was huge!), a main dish, and a dessert trio.

My steak. It was good. There were mushrooms in my mashed potatoes though. I had misunderstood the menu and thought they were just on the side or on top of the steak, and I figured I could push them aside. Had I known I would have asked them to leave them out. What a way to ruin mashed potatoes! I hate all mushrooms, unless they are black truffles and they are in my mac and cheese.
View attachment 151087

Dessert trio... left to right: grapefruit cake (a little sweet but a lot of bitter), creme brulee (excellent) and a chocolate mousse kind of cake with a apricot filling (didn't need the filling but it was good)
View attachment 151088

My and my new bestie (just kidding), Cindy.
View attachment 151084

Lunch got over a little before 3pm, so we weren't rushed at all which was really nice. After lunch I headed back to the All Star bus stop to meet Brad back at the room. He had finished his golfing about 15 minutes before we finished lunch. And I waited, and waited.....I was able to do my journaling for the day while waiting though. The wait seemed to last forever but it was over 15 minutes, which seemed a lifetime, it was the longest wait I had in like 3 trips.
View attachment 151085

Mushrooms in the mashed potatoes? Why? Yuck. I do not enjoy any fungi as a rule. And it is interesting about your wait, because it seems like I always wait a long time for a bus back to PO when I am there.

Looks like you made good use of your mini solo day!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I wasn't expecting much for the breakfast at Be Our Guest, but it was pretty enjoyable. We both got the Gaston's feast, it had a lot of meat on it and when it arrived it didn't look like a lot of food for $24 a person but we both left full. I don't think it is something to do every time we go but maybe again if we want a pre-park entry.

Brad ordering the feast...

We always sit in the ballroom, I think it is the prettiest in that room. The West Wing is dark and seems crowded and the other room (the library?) is okay but that was closed off until we got our room anyway.

Gaston's Feast

The shared pastries, the croissant was pretty good. Disney's are usually dry and this was flaky and buttery.

By the time we exited the restaurant, the opening announcement was just finishing. So we popped into the 7D line, it was really cool to walk through with it being empty. As we rounded the corner by the vault we could see the hordes of people making the dash to 7D.

 

[MouseDreaming]

Here is my beer actually in the glass....
View attachment 151128

I think Mizner's shares a kitchen with Citrico's (and we enjoyed the food so now Citrico's is on the list)
We got arrancini (fried rice balls), and a flatbread with sauasge and it had potatoes too which is a little strange but not bad on "pizza".
The snack mix that is free and Brad's exotic drink....
View attachment 151129

View attachment 151130

View attachment 151131

There was some bread brought to the table, and if you see the napkin you'll see why I thought the kitchen was shared.
View attachment 151133

The band they are pretty awesome. Even if you don't want to do the lounge, just sitting in the lobby listening would be awesome.
View attachment 151134

That is one of my favorite things we have ever done at WDW. Just sitting in the lobby, and enjoying the GFSO.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

It was pretty much a Fantasyland morning, a couple spins on the Tea Party, carousel, small world, Peter Pan, and a venture into Tomorrowland for Buzz and to Liberty Square in Haunted Mansion. It was a great way to spend my birthday!

My galactic hero

The step sisters were riding the carousel too, they are pretty funny. They were quite a few rows behind us but I managed to get this decent shot.

I like the new goodbye in small world. Sometimes our good bye was on separate screens and sometimes together.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Since Brad was wearing his Dapper Dans shirt that I got him for Christmas we defintily had to go to Main Street to see them. We were really lucky and got to see Scoop, the ladies, and the mayor. The lady (I can't remember her name) was really taken with Brad's shirt and insisted that we meet the mayor and when we met the Dans they thought his shirt was cool. They even invited him to sing with them, as a treat for my birthday.

Scoop was a hoot, he grabbed my hand and went like he was going to kiss it and ended up kissing his own hand.

The Move it Shake it parade thing went past us. I like the idea of this parade and the songs are snappy, but it was just too hot to dance. The Dans are more my speed.

.

Brad in the middle of his song with the Dans. The song was "Let Me Call You Sweetheart". It was a real thrill for Brad to sing with them. He loves them and basically stalks them at the MK and at Disneyland when we go (creepy I know). He was really nervous about being on key. I was going to video it, but ended up just audio recording it. He did a good job.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Then it was almost time to for the new Mickey's Friendship Faire show to start. I don't think we ever watched a full showing of Dream Along with Mickey but this show sounded fun. Mostly because it featured Tangled, that is my favorite modern day Disney film. The show was really enjoyable, except that the sun was beating down on us. I kept thinking that Disney really should have built a theater to do these kinds of shows in the Fantasyland expansion, at Disneyland there is a nice theater area tucked in back where they show Mickey and the Magical Map (excellent show). Even if the theater wasn't air conditioned at WDW, this Friendship Faire show would have been more enjoyable if there just would have been a little shade. Or even a bench to enjoy it from.....I do think the new hub area is functional and upon a cursory glance pretty but it is really just a wasteland. There is no shade and no where really to sit and enjoy the castle area. Sure there are the new garden areas but it is difficult for people of a variety of ages and conditions to sit on the ground, a bench or two would be appreciated. Anyway......

Pictures of the show:

Ahhhh...Flynn (Eugene?)..nah Flynn Rider

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

After the show we did, 7D again and Big Thunder and rode the train grand circle from Frontierland plus a station (getting off at Fantasyland).

Then a birthday lunch at Cosmic Ray's, a few people showed up to party with me, Brad, and Sonny Eclipse. We found a prime table to enjoy the music and fine eats.

Then a relaxing after lunch spin on the Peoplemover!

We were hoping to get a text that our room was ready at the Caribbean by the time we were done with the Peoplemover, but we didn't so we made a fast pass for Winnie the Pooh (our least favorite disney character) and we had a nice but full show for the Carousel of Progress. Full meaning over 30 people, in the theater.

Then we got an email letting us know that Pooh was down but by the time we walked over there and saw the email Pooh had opened. It is a cute ride but we don't like Pooh, but we both like Eeyore.....