Trip Report Oi! 25 years will give you such a crick in the neck! *Completed*

Alternate title: Good thing I'm flexible since I did so many splits this stay!
Trip dates: June 14-26, 2019
Greetings, my fellow WDWMagic-ers! To those of you who continue reading, I thank you. It's how I get my validation!
This trip was just myself and DH (MSUJafar). For this report, I'll call him E. Pretty sure that's what I called him in my last report too!
Our 25th wedding anniversary is in August, but because of E's Naval Post Graduate schedule, this was the only time we could squeeze in a trip. I felt kind of fraudulent celebrating so early, but I'm pretty sure we'll still be together in August!
We Disneymooned at the Poly back in 1994. Here is some photographic evidence:

I'll leave you for today chuckling at our sweet outfits!

 

[Bullseye1967]

Following along!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Laughing at the bodysuit comment!! I was a young teen when they were really popular and had to beg my Mom to let me buy one. I thought they looked fantastic with jean shorts. Heck, I actually still like the way body suits look with jeans LOL. Mom tried to warn me that I wouldn't like it but I wanted one. I quickly learned that the placement of those metal snap buttons was baaaaaad I was fine for the first couple hours or so but after that I really wanted to change clothes

I guess when you're young, you have a higher tolerance for sacrificing comfort for "fashion"!

Following along!

Happy to have you!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Sunday, June 16th
We "slept in" again this morning and prepared for our first move to BWV. Packing up was super easy even with the groceries. I brought an Ikea bag to put all of the groceries in and it was very convenient.
Looking at my pictures, it appears that we headed to Epcot for breakfast. I also realized that I forgot to post a few from DS the previous day.
It had rained everyday so far, but this is the only photo I took of the rain:

There's more rain in today's story.
Some shopping shenanigans:

Back to today! As I mentioned before, we have been watching several vloggers. DFB with A.J. is one of them. Hey A.J.! So on her recommendation, as well as the recommendations of some of the members here, we NEEDED to go to Les Halles! Spoiler alert...this would not be our last time there.
I had this little beauty! E had the ham and cheese croissant and he loved it. We shared the Napoleon.

We decided to head over to BW and officially check in so that we could charge to our room since at this moment, we were technically homeless. Much to our surprise, our room was ready. I tried to get Boardwalk view for 5 nights, but only ended up getting it for 3. So for our first two nights there, we had a pool view. This was our view for all of you creepy clown pool lovers:

We really liked this room. In fact, we liked it better than our boardwalk view room, but more on that when we move again.
It was still fairly early, and we knew our bags would not have been transferred yet, so after locating our room, we went down to the bus stop to go back to DS.
I had been wanting a rain jacket, and now that we had a room, we could have packages delivered. So we did some damage at World of Disney. In hindsight, I should have kept the rain jacket with me.
E wanted to see if they had frozen Jack and Coke at the rooftop bar at the Coke store. I found us a seat while he ordered his drink and while we were there, the heavens opened up! We're used to it raining, but this was a torrential sideways rain kind of thing. Luckily we were pretty much under cover, but we were stuck there for awhile.
Our hunger finally got the better of us, so we donned our ponchos (Oh new rain jacket, how I need you!) and headed over to a new to us dining experience. The Polite Pig!
I really didn't think we would get a seat since it was STILL raining, but as luck would have it, a table opened up right as we walked in.
They had a couple of different frozen drinks and one of them had peach, which I hate. So I chose the other option, but I can't remember exactly what was in it. It was delicious though!

I had ribs and E had a pulled pork sandwich. Both meals were good and we were happy we tried it, but it may be a one and done for us.

Another stroke of luck was that it was right around 4:00 when E was waiting in line, and they brought out the Gideon's chocolate chip cookies. I had told myself that if the timing was right and we got a cookie, that would be great. However, I wasn't going to plan a trip to the Polite Pig just to get a cookie. I am glad that it worked out though, just to see this:

E is quite competitive, and nothing makes him happier than getting something that is a "limited release"!

Up next: We finally meet Slinky Dog!

 

[Rista1313]

Your packing cubes are prettier than mine - when I bought mine years ago it was only boring solid colors

Mine too.. I just have 2 sets of ebags ones... one purple set and one lime green set.

 

[Rista1313]

Sunday, June 16th
We "slept in" again this morning and prepared for our first move to BWV. Packing up was super easy even with the groceries. I brought an Ikea bag to put all of the groceries in and it was very convenient.
Looking at my pictures, it appears that we headed to Epcot for breakfast. I also realized that I forgot to post a few from DS the previous day.
It had rained everyday so far, but this is the only photo I took of the rain:
View attachment 388013
There's more rain in today's story.
Some shopping shenanigans:
View attachment 388014View attachment 388015
Back to today! As I mentioned before, we have been watching several vloggers. DFB with A.J. is one of them. Hey A.J.! So on her recommendation, as well as the recommendations of some of the members here, we NEEDED to go to Les Halles! Spoiler alert...this would not be our last time there.
I had this little beauty! E had the ham and cheese croissant and he loved it. We shared the Napoleon.
View attachment 388016
View attachment 388017
We decided to head over to BW and officially check in so that we could charge to our room since at this moment, we were technically homeless. Much to our surprise, our room was ready. I tried to get Boardwalk view for 5 nights, but only ended up getting it for 3. So for our first two nights there, we had a pool view. This was our view for all of you creepy clown pool lovers:
View attachment 388018
We really liked this room. In fact, we liked it better than our boardwalk view room, but more on that when we move again.
It was still fairly early, and we knew our bags would not have been transferred yet, so after locating our room, we went down to the bus stop to go back to DS.
I had been wanting a rain jacket, and now that we had a room, we could have packages delivered. So we did some damage at World of Disney. In hindsight, I should have kept the rain jacket with me.
E wanted to see if they had frozen Jack and Coke at the rooftop bar at the Coke store. I found us a seat while he ordered his drink and while we were there, the heavens opened up! We're used to it raining, but this was a torrential sideways rain kind of thing. Luckily we were pretty much under cover, but we were stuck there for awhile.
Our hunger finally got the better of us, so we donned our ponchos (Oh new rain jacket, how I need you!) and headed over to a new to us dining experience. The Polite Pig!
I really didn't think we would get a seat since it was STILL raining, but as luck would have it, a table opened up right as we walked in.
They had a couple of different frozen drinks and one of them had peach, which I hate. So I chose the other option, but I can't remember exactly what was in it. It was delicious though!
View attachment 388019
I had ribs and E had a pulled pork sandwich. Both meals were good and we were happy we tried it, but it may be a one and done for us.
View attachment 388020View attachment 388021
Another stroke of luck was that it was right around 4:00 when E was waiting in line, and they brought out the Gideon's chocolate chip cookies. I had told myself that if the timing was right and we got a cookie, that would be great. However, I wasn't going to plan a trip to the Polite Pig just to get a cookie. I am glad that it worked out though, just to see this:
View attachment 388022
E is quite competitive, and nothing makes him happier than getting something that is a "limited release"!

Up next: We finally meet Slinky Dog!

It looks like you may have pick some of the wrong sides at Polite pig! The Brussel sprouts are to die for, as well as the sweet potato tater tots! That along with the brisket is my favorite meal!

and YAY for more Michigan peeps...... I noticed your hubby's shirt right away.... no Pine nob anymore....DTE now! I have tickets to see Hootie and the blowfish is August... but because of the construction over there and some other factors, I don't think we are going to go. Which makes me sad!

Edited: because the other spelling of nob is a bad word and it was starred out!

 

[Swissmiss]

It looks like you may have pick some of the wrong sides at Polite pig! The Brussel sprouts are to die for, as well as the sweet potato tater tots! That along with the brisket is my favorite meal!

and YAY for more Michigan peeps...... I noticed your hubby's shirt right away.... no Pine nob anymore....DTE now! I have tickets to see Hootie and the blowfish is August... but because of the construction over there and some other factors, I don't think we are going to go. Which makes me sad!

Edited: because the other spelling of nob is a bad word and it was starred out!

Sweet potato tater tots?! I think I need to put this on a must-do list when we are at WDW at the end of the year.

 

[PineapplePrincess]

It looks like you may have pick some of the wrong sides at Polite pig! The Brussel sprouts are to die for, as well as the sweet potato tater tots! That along with the brisket is my favorite meal!

and YAY for more Michigan peeps...... I noticed your hubby's shirt right away.... no Pine nob anymore....DTE now! I have tickets to see Hootie and the blowfish is August... but because of the construction over there and some other factors, I don't think we are going to go. Which makes me sad!

Edited: because the other spelling of nob is a bad word and it was starred out!

I really had planned on the Brussel Sprouts, but I knew I would regret it if I didn't try the mac and cheese. I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes, so the tots were not even on my radar.
E definitely has his weird habits. He has quite a t-shirt collection, but will only wear his Disney ones at home (or on the plane) and he likes to wear his Detroit/Michigan ones at Disney. It is comical that *nob is considered a bad word!
We would love to see Hootie, but the thought of going to DTE gives me anxiety!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Sunday, June 16th continued...Slinky Dog, we meet at last!
After our dinner (we saved the cookie for later since we were stuffed), I believe it was still raining, but we had our first FPs of the trip to use! E was really antsy because we had been in the bubble for almost 48 hours and had not stepped on a ride yet. He was also antsy because we missed the opening of Toy Story Land by 2 days on last year's trip!
Even though we paid for Early Morning Magic in Toy Story Land for the next morning, we wanted to ride SDD at night, so we took a boat to OKW and hopped on a bus to HS.
Due to the rain, I have no photos of the evening. I didn't even download any of the PP ride photos because they were not good!
We had FPs for Star Tours, ToT and SDD.
My first impression of Toy Story Land was marred by the fact that it was still sprinkling. I was holding my ripped old poncho under my chin and cursing myself for sending my lovely new rain jacket to the gift shop.
We were hoping it wouldn't thunder before we made it on. It didn't and our first ride on SDD was fun, but TSMM is still my favorite ride in that land.
After SDD, we called it an early night, since we had EMM the next morning.

Next: a fun morning with some fellow toys

 

[sheriffwoody]

Following along!! Making notes of drinks to try We are going to Wine Bar George in October! Can't wait.

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Following along!! Making notes of drinks to try We are going to Wine Bar George in October! Can't wait.

Thanks for following! E and I swear most of our money at Disney is spent on alcohol!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Monday, June 17th
We were up and at 'em pretty early this morning. We generally don't love walking to HS, but we weren't sure if the boats would be running that early, so it was a nice leisurely walk for us. Early morning magic is from 7:30-9:00. It includes breakfast at Backlot Express and breakfast is served until 10:00.
Some early morning photos:

We went straight to SDD. We made it through the queue fairly quickly, so I didn't take any photos the first time around. E was determined to ride it "at least 5 times". Did we? You'll find out soon enough!

Our first ride on A*S*S. We thought it was fun, but we only rode it a couple of times. No flying purses for me! @Tuvalu

I just loved this "map"! It reminds me of my students and how detailed they can get when they are doing something they enjoy.

Obligatory SDD selfie!

On our third ride, we got stuck right here. Not the most exciting evacuation, but we got free water and a fastpass for our troubles. Then, since the ride was down for awhile, we were informed that our wristbands would act as a FP and allow us to ride SDD up until 12:00.

We rode TSMM a couple of times and did the Instagram wall pics on the way out. I don't like how they turned out, so I'm not sharing!
E got his photo with Forky.

And saw some green army men.

Then it was about time to head to breakfast. There was a buffet section, and you can also order an entree. I really do think this particular EMM was worth it. We were still pretty salty about missing the opening of the land last year by two days, so it allowed us to spend some time enjoying it without huge crowds. We did not spend any time waiting for character photos. After seeing the movie, I really wish we would have waited for Bo Peep though.
Coming soon: more HS

 

[PineapplePrincess]

June 17th cont.
We had FPs for TSMM, Star Tours:

and ToT:

I kept checking Instagram to see if Ben was performing in the Frozen Singalong. He wasn't today, so we took a boat back to BWV to have a little nap.

I had myself a Captain's Seaside Sensation from Boardwalk Joe's, which is a pineapple smoothie with Captain Morgan's spiced rum. It was tasty and refreshing and really helped with my nap.
Our ADR for dinner was at Hollywood Brown Derby. We both love it and it's always a must do for us. This was the only ADR I had to call to secure because when I did them online, it was only giving me lunch times. Anyway, it's also the only one where I had indicated that we were celebrating our anniversary.
I only mention that because we ended up getting a terrible table. We don't like to be "those people" so we didn't ask to be moved, but we will definitely request a different spot next time. It was a tiny two top, and I get that we are just two people, but there were a lot of open tables. Also through no fault of Disney, we were seated next to a really loud group of 6. Bad table aside, we enjoyed our meal as always. I had the entree portion of the Cobb salad.

E got the filet.

And we shared the grapefruit cake for dessert.

It was divine as always, but I do miss the candied grapefruit slice garnish. They gave us some anniversary champagne which went well with the cake.

I don't pin trade, but I thought it was really cute how they display their pins.

After dinner, we went back to the Boardwalk and up to the Bellvue Lounge for a couple drinks before calling it a night. The Bellvue Cosmo:

On deck: AK and more rain, but our timing couldn't have been better!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Tuesday, June 18th-AK
I have been slacking on my report. I mean, as a teacher on break, I'm just so...what's that word that ends in "y" that I'm thinking of? Busy? Nope, that's not it. LAZY! That's the one!

We didn't feel the need to rope drop anything at AK. Nonetheless, we arrived just about when the park opened. I grabbed a coffee, and the nice CM noticed my button and wrote this on my cup.

I had planned on saying Pineapple Princess whenever they asked my name at Starbucks, but I kept forgetting. The one time I remembered, the CM looked at me like I was a loon, so I sheepishly gave her my real name!

We walked through Gorilla Falls trying to get a peek at Baby Grace. Can you see her hanging off her mama?

Not really, huh? Well the CM assured us that's what we were seeing!
Our first FP was for the Safari. I was trying to enjoy it and not take so many photos, but here are a few.

We wandered over to Pandora for our FoP FP.

Looks like I got somebody's elbow!
Selfie in the FoP queue!

FoP was incredible as always! I never gets old.

 

[PineapplePrincess]

June 18th continued.
I had heard somewhere that the Pineapple Lumpia might be going away, so we shared one.

We had a FP for EE, so we trudged over to Asia. In hindsight I should have gotten a FP for FoTLK instead. We really just don't enjoy EE anymore. We look so happy here, but after the ride...not so much!

We were done for the day at AK, but there was one more stop we had to make. And we needed to get there fast because the rain was coming AGAIN! Never fear though, I had my new raincoat to protect me. Our destination? (pic is from last year):

It wasn't so nice a sunny this year.
It hadn't started raining too hard yet, so we were lucky to get there before the masses and snagged 2 seats at the bar.

This was E's drink and I have no idea what it was. I'm sure I had Sauvignon Blanc. We shared the chicken satay (with extra peanut sauce).

We ended up getting a second order of this. The rain took quite awhile to let up, so we enjoyed our time there. We made a donation and got one of the tags that are hanging in there. I wrote something about our anniversary and how DD was born the same month and year that AK opened. I know I'll never see it hanging up there, but I feel like we are a part of the Nomad Lounge now!

I have no photos of the rest of the day/evening. We had dinner at Frontera Cocina. Our ADR was at 6:00, but I remember going on MDE and moving it up. It was okay and I'm glad we tried it, but not a repeater for us.

Coming up: A day at Epcot, a tornado, and an illuminating dessert party.

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Ugh! Yet another PineapplePrincess fail!
I forgot to include that the day we went to AK was also the day we moved again. We were just moving to a different room view. It was pretty painless. We just had to call bell services to pick up our stuff and store it. We also had to stop by the front desk to check out and check back in so we could use our MagicBands to charge stuff.
I posted our pool view earlier in the report and this was our Boardwalk view:

See the wall cutting across the bottom?! Yeah, we couldn't really see the actual boardwalk due to the wall. It appears that there are only four rooms in the whole resort with this issue. We were on the 5th floor and there was no cover over our balcony.

Ours was one of the two rooms on the top floor in the middle of the red section. Don't get me wrong, the view was still stunning. We just couldn't people watch on the boardwalk. Here are some more shots of the view:

Coming soon: Epcot

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Wednesday, June 19th
Ironically, as I type this, I have an actual crick in my neck! I'm headed to the chiropractor shortly.

As we were leaving for Epcot, there was a boat pulling in. We had really good transportation timing on this trip!
Entering Epcot through the International Gateway is so relaxing....for now! We were up toward the front of the group to get in and didn't have to wait too long before heading toward the Land. Even though we had a FP for Soarin', we rope dropped it so we could ride twice.

Not sure if you can tell, but we were in row 1, but off to the side. I will ride Soarin' anywhere, anytime, but I still get excited to be in row 1!
After Soarin', it was Living With the Land:

I'm sure this CM really appreciated people taking her picture while she was hard at work!

I hope they never change this ride...I just love it!
Our other FPs were for SSE and MS (which I always skip). I moved our SSE one up a bit because we were getting hungry and Les Halles was calling our names!

The first time we ride SSE, we always choose the actual future we want. Then on subsequent rides, we'll choose random answers. Does anyone else do that?
We made a stop at Club Cool probably for the last time.

Normally we skip Beverly, but we had to have it one last time!

I didn't get a photo of us clinking Beverly cups, but we commemorated it with a hearty "Kungaloosh"! We REALLY miss Adventurer's Club!

I believe I was able to move our MS FP up as well, so that once we made our way to World Showcase, we didn't have to go back.
Our timing was perfect again and we took the boat across to WS. In all our trips, we had never done that before!
At Les Halles, we both had the ham and cheese croissant and it was delicious!
Bellies full, we got some PP photos taken.

On deck: more WS, an oblivious nap, and FEA Sparkling Dessert Party!

 

[heatherhy01]

Following along! Great report so far! Happy 25th anniversary. Hubby and I celebrate our 20th this coming October and will be celebrating at Disney in December.

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Following along! Great report so far! Happy 25th anniversary. Hubby and I celebrate our 20th this coming October and will be celebrating at Disney in December.

Welcome! Happy early Anniversary to you!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

June 19th cont.

We meandered around WS for awhile before stopping at La Cava del Tequila.
Avocado for me and Jalapeno for E.

We made our way back around to Rose & Crown where a nice couple offered to share their table. Thanks, Eric and Ann! We had a couple of beers and shared some fish & chips, meaning I ate the fish and E ate the chips.

A nap was in order since we were doing the FEA dessert party tonight, so off we went back to BW. As we were just falling asleep, the balcony door blew open. I accused E of not shutting it, so he got up to shut it, only to have it blow open again. After the second time, he made sure to lock it and we enjoyed a blissful nap. Little did we know we were napping right through a tornado warning!

Check in time for the dessert party was 8:00. It must have been sprinkling still because I remember wearing my rain jacket. The dessert portion of the party was held indoors because of the weather. I should have taken photos so I could remember better, but we were led upstairs through some doors just to the left of FEA entrance. They had some good savory and sweet options, but I really didn't book for the food. I wanted to make sure we had a good spot for our last viewing of Illuminations.
After snacking for about an hour, we were rounded up and led to our viewing place. I did not take any photographs as I was determined to just enjoy the show. They gave us some 3D glasses that were meant to make the fireworks look like snowflakes, but I left mine off.
After the show, as part of the party, you get to ride Frozen Ever After. This is a ride we usually skip, but it was nice to ride it with no line!

After our ride, we headed back to BW. We had an early breakfast ADR for the next morning.

Up next: Kona Cafe and after 6 days, we finally set foot in the Magic Kingdom!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Thursday, June 20th
Our ADR at Kona Cafe was for 7:30, so we ordered an Uber. Soon we were entering the lovely Poly lobby. We were seated right away. We ALWAYS share the pineapple/macadamia pancakes with extra butter and pineapple sauce (maple syrup + pineapple pancakes = gross), along with a press pot of coffee. It was amazing as usual!

Oh how I wish you were in front of me right now!
After breakfast, we made our way through security to wait for the monorail. It was our first monorail ride of the trip!
Just for fun, we hopped in the Paddy Wagon for a ride up Main Street to the castle.

We hadn't really intended to rope drop, but it was only about 8:50 at this point, so we found a spot in the shade and waited to enter my favorite land:

We had FPs for HM, Jungle Cruise and SDMT. Neither one of us enjoys Space anymore and it was too early for Splash, so we rope dropped PoTC.

I would like to have this fountain in my backyard, please!
We waited until close to the end of our FP window for HM. I will not insert the ride photo because it was evident that we did not know where the camera was! I told E to pretend like he was petting the invisible horse.

On our way back to Adventureland for Jungle Cruise, we came across Wendell ( I think) pretending like he was sticking his head in the garbage can. I wasn't fast enough to capture it, but I did at least catch a quick photo of him.

I was trying to capture some little details that often are overlooked, but now that I'm thinking about it, I can't remember exactly where this is! Some JC queue photos: