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

acrab3t · Jul 10, 2016

I am enjoying your TR! Thank you for sharing your Garden Grill photos. I have made a reservation there for my trip in November and was wondering what the breakfast looks like. Looks like it is a wise choice! Do they let you line up for soaring before the gates open? That could save a fast pass! I have the avacado margarita on my to do list too. I can't believe I still haven't tried it! I'm looking forward to the rest of your TR!

Tinkerbell397 · Jul 10, 2016

Thoroughly enjoying living vicariously through you and your trip report! Thanks..... :cat:

Beckett · Jul 10, 2016

Loving your trip report! Your pictures are making me hungry :hungry:

wow, two weeks, that would be heaven for my daughter and me!

MouseDreaming · Jul 10, 2016

Thanks for the tag, and the arm chair vacation. You always take great pictures. Looking forward to more!

KikoKea · Jul 10, 2016

Great pics and report!

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 10, 2016

acrab3t said:
I am enjoying your TR! Thank you for sharing your Garden Grill photos. I have made a reservation there for my trip in November and was wondering what the breakfast looks like. Looks like it is a wise choice! Do they let you line up for soaring before the gates open? That could save a fast pass! I have the avacado margarita on my to do list too. I can't believe I still haven't tried it! I'm looking forward to the rest of your TR!

The Garden Grill is a nice option for breakfast. I would assume that if Soarin' isn't open because the park isn't open yet they will let you hang around and wait. That was our plan, so we used the fast pass for Test Track instead. By the time we got done with breakfast we were expecting to just wait and we were surprised it was open and boarding before the park officially opened.

Tinkerbell397 said:
Thoroughly enjoying living vicariously through you and your trip report! Thanks.....

Thanks and enjoy!

Beckett said:
Loving your trip report! Your pictures are making me hungry wow, two weeks, that would be heaven for my daughter and me!

Thanks! Two weeks were heaven, although I had to keep reminding my husband that we had all that time. He kept wanting to tour at the pace we usually do when we just have a couple days.

MouseDreaming said:
Thanks for the tag, and the arm chair vacation. You always take great pictures. Looking forward to more!

Glad I can provide an armchair vacation! Thanks for the picture compliment.

KikoKea said:
Great pics and report!

Thank you!

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 10, 2016

Ok continuing on...
After a little margarita time we went over to Norway to see how long the Frozen line was, we weren't planning to ride as we didn't want to wait a long time and we had a fast pass in a couple of days. The wait was only open to people with fast pass as the ride had been down earlier but it still looked fairly long. It was interesting that they had water out for people. We actually noticed water jugs out in different locations at WDW, especially at counter service restaurants.

The Frozen line.

I was sad to see the waterfall fully closed. I have a picture of me as a kid in front of the falls, I thought it would be fun to stand in the same spot for a picture. I thought the picture of me as a kid was on my computer but I can't find it.

I know it is around somewhere though.

We wandered around the new area. It is nicely done. We also noticed that the meet and greet for Ana and Elsa was 10 minutes so we hopped in the line. The meet and greet was nice and the girls were fun to talk to but it was just really awkward. It reminded us of why we only meet fur characters.

Sorry if this is weird (but no one was around), but the new Norway bathrooms are really nice. THey have fun theming, lots of stalls, and were really clean all the time. Oh and the AC was always top notch here too.

Hidden Mickey in the pavement.

A couple scenes inside the Sommerhaus.

This queue for the girls was really detailed. I loved that they had a tapestry honoring the trolls from the Maelstrom.

And our pictures of meeting Ana and Elsa are strange, we just look uncomfortable, so here is a picture of Ana looking at the Kingdom.

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 10, 2016

So we headed out of Epcot and went back the Music for a swim and nap. Let me tell you the information channel on the tv (that lists all the hours and stuff for the parks) has great music for a nap. All instrumental and peaceful. :happy:

The Music was fine to stay in, it was clean and buses ran fine, but it is my least favorite of the All Stars. I think that the Sports and Movies have more Disney character statues around the resort and give it a more Disney feel. But for our needs the value is functional, and I like the fact that they are cheaper. (That means I can go more often!)

A last look at Epcot for the afternoon.

And here is a little tour of the Music...

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 10, 2016

The piano pool area, this is the resort's quiet pool. There was some good oldies music played here.

We stayed in the Broadway area. At night Goofy (or at least his shadow) is in the window of the ticket booth.

After a swim and a nap we headed to Disney Springs to go to Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar. As a big Indiana Jones fan it was a must do for me. I enjoyed the Indy touches.

my mojito. I would have put a pictures up of Brad's but he just got a boring rum and coke.

the wings were really well seasoned. There were more food items that sounded good but we also wanted to try another restaurant so it was just the wings here for us.

Next we stopped at Cooke's of Dublin and shared the battered hamburger with fries/chips and a cheesy bacon dipping sauce. It was really good, but I'm glad we shared as it was rich and heavy food.

Up next: back to the STudios for some dessert and Star Wars fireworks!

Matt and Kelly · Jul 10, 2016

Enjoying your trip report and all the great pictures! Getting us excited for our trip in August!

MouseDreaming · Jul 11, 2016

Thanks for the resort pictures. Our family wouldn't "fit comfortably" in a value with the full sized beds, but I always thought my DS would love to stay in the jazz rooms.

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 11, 2016

Matty30 said:
Enjoying your trip report and all the great pictures! Getting us excited for our trip in August!

Thanks! I hope you enjoy your August trip!

MouseDreaming said:
Thanks for the resort pictures. Our family wouldn't "fit comfortably" in a value with the full sized beds, but I always thought my DS would love to stay in the jazz rooms.

I don't think I would want more that 2 people in the standard value rooms either. A full size bed is big enough for me to sleep comfortable, I wouldn't want to share it if I didn't have to. Although, last year when we were in Paris I didn't really pay attention to the size of a bed when I booked the room. Turns out it was a full size bed and the room was so tiny there weren't any room for a cot (or really for someone to sleep on the floor). So hubby and I shared that full size bed for 5 nights, luckily we were so tired at night from sightseeing we basically just fell into the bed and went out like a light!

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 11, 2016

We had originally booked the Wishes dessert party but we had done it before and I decided to switch to the Star Wars dessert party. Turned out to be a good choice. We both liked the variety of desserts and liked that there were both sweet and savory items. The food was plentiful and there were still some offerings left that we could have taken with us on the way out. So if you go, go hungry. There were also alcoholic beverages, I tried one. I tried the blood orange drink and it had Malibu in it. The bartender was not skimpy at all on the Malibu which could be good and bad, but the coconut flavor overpowered the orange. It was also super sweet, and strange to say at a dessert party, but the super sweetness of it was a turn off.

One of my favorite desserts was the nutella mousse dipped in the liquid nitro.

A plate of goodies, sorry it is a little blurry.. I also really liked the C3-PO cheddar cracker. It had a buttery flavor to it. It was really crumbly though. I had thought about taking a few to go (actually one cast member was urging people to take desserts with them) but the crackers would have been all crumbles. There was a pesto toast that was tasty too.

Now for some of the show. It was really well done. I had seen the old Star Wars fireworks show in March and enjoyed them. But with the projections these were much better. Brad is a big Star Wars fan and he got a little teary. I can't judge, Wishes always makes me tear up.

Love Han Solo (aka Indiana Jones!)

On thing I worry about with this show is the palm trees in front of the Chinese Theater. I really hope people don't complain about the trees "ruining" the view of the show. The palm trees are lovely in that area the rest of the day.

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 11, 2016

After the fireworks we hung out for awhile...meaning this middle aged couple needed to sit on a bench after standing at the dessert party for so long! We had sat on the ground for awhile, but that is not as comfortable as a bench! The park cleared out pretty fast, it was like we had it to ourselves.

We browsed the gift shop a little too before heading out to the bus.

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 11, 2016

Day Three: June 23

We started the day with relaxation. We slept in until 8am! Caught a little breakfast at the food court, we shared a banana (I think it was like $2 for the banana, I could buy a whole bunch for that....) and a breakfast sandwich. The breakfast sandwich was actually pretty good. It was a biscuit with a piece of fried chicken, bacon, cheese and a maple sauce. The sauce really made the sandwich, and it came with tots. It was kind of impressive, I'm usually very disappointed in Disney's breakfast sandwiches.

Then we headed over to Blizzard Beach. We haven't been to the water parks since either our honeymoon in 2005 or the year after in 2006. Since we were there for so long and it was included with the AP we figured why not! Hubby wanted to do a few slides before settling into the lazy river. I was game, but I do got nervous on water slides. I worry about my swimming abilities, and I'm always scared I'm going to trip at the top of a slide and have a very uncomfortable journey down the slide. Now I'm a decent swimmer, and I've never fallen down a slide, so I don't know why I worry. Also, I didn't mind the slides on the tube, but I didn't care for the tobbaggon slides that had me going face first down the slide!

Anyway, we didn't take our phones or the regular camera but we had a cheap digital water camera with us so there are a few water spots on pictures.
Here's Brad on the lazy river.

The lazy river is my favorite part of water parks.

One of the "fun" water features along the river, they are cute but I guess they are added to make sure no one falls asleep for hours on their tube. I actually don't mind them or the waterfalls in the the cave, but the water is SO COLD!

No Summit Plummit for either of us this time. With my fear of falling of the start of slides, once in my lifetime was enough. And hubby said he didn't want to, something about discomfort in the lower regions of his body was his deterrent. That's fine, I'd rather relax in the lazy river, lounger, or wave pool anyway.

We got lunch here. We shared chicken strips and the pepperoni flatbread. The flatbread was ho-hum, it needed some spice to the sauce. The chicken was good, it was fresh and the breading was extra crispy. the music in the area and really the whole park was nice, very beachy. This summer they were doing Frozen summer games from time to time and that was fun to see (except when it woke me up from my nap because we had inadvertently picked loungers close to the area).

Mid-afternoon we packed up and changed into dry clothes and headed over to Winter-Summerland for a little mini-golf.

I thought this was a cute detail on the retail shop on the way out.

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 11, 2016

Mini golf at Winter-Summerland is a fun experience. If you enjoy mini golf give it a whirl. There are so many fun details and gags on both sides of the course it provides some laughs. We like the winter side of the course better. Brad usually wins at mini golf but I give him a good run. We both got a couple holes in one.

After "golf" and an ice cream treat, we went back into the water park to retrieve our swim gear and headed back to the resort to get cleaned up for our evening at Animal Kingdom. It is kind of strange that after spending all day at a water park to feel dirty and gross, it must have been all that hard work mini-golfing! Funny thing, as we were sitting at the bus stop everyone who was waiting started talking and it turned out one lady was related to one of my college roommates. Kind of strange, but proves its a small world!

joshsprincess921 · Jul 11, 2016

Love your report. Following along!

Minnesota disney fan · Jul 11, 2016

Thanks for your great report. It's just my husband and me on our trips now, and we love it. Good to hear from a couple who tour without kids. We haven't don't a water park for ages, but might try now after reading your report. Also always curious about the minigolf, but never tried it. We will be sure to next time.
Will be following

DiSnEyF@n · Jul 11, 2016

Following... I love that you got to spend 2 weeks at HOME!!!! The most we've ever stayed is 10 days and it was spectacular. I'm enjoying your trip report and can't wait to read more!!!

ajrwdwgirl · Jul 11, 2016

joshsprincess921 said:
Love your report. Following along!

Thank you!

Minnesota disney fan said:
Thanks for your great report. It's just my husband and me on our trips now, and we love it. Good to hear from a couple who tour without kids. We haven't don't a water park for ages, but might try now after reading your report. Also always curious about the minigolf, but never tried it. We will be sure to next time.
Will be following

Thanks! We went to Typhoon Lagoon too. I like the theming of Lagoon a little better but both are fun.

DiSnEyF@n said:
Following... I love that you got to spend 2 weeks at HOME!!!! The most we've ever stayed is 10 days and it was spectacular. I'm enjoying your trip report and can't wait to read more!!!

It was really nice to have the 2 weeks of time to play with. We will probably go again for that length of time, but not for awhile. We have shorter trips planned for next year. I'm glad you are enjoying the report.

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

acrab3t

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Tinkerbell397

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Beckett

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MouseDreaming

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KikoKea

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ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Matt and Kelly

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MouseDreaming

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ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

joshsprincess921

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Minnesota disney fan

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DiSnEyF@n

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ajrwdwgirl