Trip Report Our Fall 2014 Visit to WDW 9/26-10/4

Hello, everyone. I've been a member for a couple of years, but didn't start posting until a few months ago; I was anticipating our trip to WDW, and really enjoyed reading your Trip Reports and viewing all the photos. Thanks! I'll share some of the photos from our recent trip, in the hopes they might help rekindle memories, or build anticipation.

Brief Intro: My DH and I are retired and are DVC members. We live in South Florida, but spend summers in Maine. This trip took place from 9/26 to 10/4, and was our first visit to the Food & Wine Festival. We stayed at Bay Lake Tower for the first two nights, then moved to The Boardwalk Villas for the last five nights. I completed chemo treatments for breast cancer at the end of June, so my stamina was about 70-80% of normal (note- everything is going great, prognosis is good. I only mention it because you might wonder why we seemed to tour at such a relaxed pace).

Arrival Day - we arrived late Friday afternoon at BLT. After getting settled, we explored the resort and visited the Top of the World Lounge. This was a first for us. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a snack - house made chips with gorgonzola.

Later than planned, I took the monorail to the MK for MNSSHP, and took some photos of the Castle Projection Show and Hallowishes. I had a ticket to the Villain's Soirée, but chose not to go to the dessert party. I was disappointed to miss both Boo to You Parades, but there is always next time. The reserved area for the Parade and Fireworks was more crowded at the 9/26 Party than previous ones because it was sold out. I found a good spot to set up my tripod, and even had a seat on a bench.

The spot was great for the Projection Show, but really too close for Hallowishes photos. It was very immersive, even if the bursts show behind the castle. I'll continue with fireworks photos in the next post.

 

[Disney Shib]

Your pictures are amazing. I can't wait to see more.

 

[SharonD]

Your pictures are amazing. I can't wait to see more.

Thanks! More coming right up. It's easy to take good photos at Disney - there is so much to see.

 

[SharonD]

Dinner at Artist Point

Before I jump into the dinner review, I'll share a photo of the two of us, taken a little later in the trip. I know I always like to put faces to those in a trip report - sorry there are no cute kids along for this trip:

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We spent the afternoon napping and relaxing, and checking out the view from our room. We had reserved a Lake View One-bedroom Villa at BLT. We ended up in the North Tower, with one of the even numbered rooms with a partial theme park view.

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Even though rain was threatening, we went down to the dock to catch the boat over to the Wilderness Lodge. Lou had only one dining request for the trip - Artist Point. WLV is our home DVC resort, and we always try to have at least one dinner at Artist Point if we can.

A peek through the trees at the Lodge - the swimming pool and geyser area refurb is in full swing - they really have the place torn up:

We got there in plenty of time to enjoy a drink in the Territory Lounge, another tradition.

Right on time, we were seated at a nice table in a quiet spot by the side window. We could see people returning from their day - many soaked, as I guess it rained off and on.

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Dinner was once again very good. Lou decided to go with the pork dish - he liked it, but said he prefers the bison. I chose the filet, and it was excellent. I always have the Portobello Mushroom Soup, and Lou had the crab cake for a starter:

Even the butter was good, as was the warm bread served before dinner:

I was too full for dessert, but Lou ordered the Artisanal Cheese Plate, and we both had coffee. I'm not sure why this is an "Artisanal" cheese plate instead of a regular cheese plate, but I took an "artsy" photo to share:

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A word about food photos - I really enjoy documenting our meals when we are at Disney or on a cruise. It's a challenge in the low light of most dining venues, and I try to be very quick, so as not to be too annoying. I do, however, understand that some people find the practice odd, so fair warning that there are more food photos coming up in this report.


We very much enjoyed our night at Artist Point. The boat ride back to The Contemporary was pleasant transport - we even had a singing Captain. Once back at the room, I debated going to ToTWL for the fireworks, but wasn't sure if they would be happening because of the rain. I wedged my tripod onto the corner of the balcony and watched the show from our room. A different perspective:

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Up Next: Going on a Wild Africa Trek and Checking into The Boardwalk

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[myhappyplace]

Hey no worries about not having cute kiddos, you two are just adorable! Loving the photos, and you've inspired me to try Artist Point some time in the future!

 

[Mickey2006]

I love food pictures! Great photos overall too!

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

thanks for the report, Sharon. I usually don't read all the way through them, but really liked yours so much. I'm so glad of the good prognosis I know how difficult it is to conquer the parks when you are feeling tired, so I admire you! I am a senior too and have health problem also, so we do pretty much what you do. We get up with the chickens, tour the parks til noon, eat a nice dinner, then back to our resort for rest. If we feel like it, we then go to another park or dtd for a while. I didn't know that you could catch a boat ride to WL from the MK. We will be at the Poly so will take it to the WL, never been there. My husband and I are going in November, 39 days, yeah! Hope you have a great time and am awaiting your next report

 

[MickeyMom Caren]

I love your report - was wondering if you had the chance to see Walt Disney's model train set which is in the lobby at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge! Definitely worth checking out! Your pictures are breathtaking!

 

[MickeyMom Caren]

thanks for the report, Sharon. I usually don't read all the way through them, but really liked yours so much. I'm so glad of the good prognosis I know how difficult it is to conquer the parks when you are feeling tired, so I admire you! I am a senior too and have health problem also, so we do pretty much what you do. We get up with the chickens, tour the parks til noon, eat a nice dinner, then back to our resort for rest. If we feel like it, we then go to another park or dtd for a while. I didn't know that you could catch a boat ride to WL from the MK. We will be at the Poly so will take it to the WL, never been there. My husband and I are going in November, 39 days, yeah! Hope you have a great time and am awaiting your next report

Definitely check out WL they have beautiful Christmas decorations!!

 

[fractal]

I've seen thousands of pictures from WDW from almost every different angle and yet you've managed to present some great new perspectives with your shots!

Great photos and wonderful start to the TR!

 

[SharonD]

Hey no worries about not having cute kiddos, you two are just adorable! Loving the photos, and you've inspired me to try Artist Point some time in the future!

Thanks . Artist Point is definitely worth trying.

I love food pictures! Great photos overall too!

Thank you, Mickey

thanks for the report, Sharon. I usually don't read all the way through them, but really liked yours so much. I'm so glad of the good prognosis I know how difficult it is to conquer the parks when you are feeling tired, so I admire you! I am a senior too and have health problem also, so we do pretty much what you do. We get up with the chickens, tour the parks til noon, eat a nice dinner, then back to our resort for rest. If we feel like it, we then go to another park or dtd for a while. I didn't know that you could catch a boat ride to WL from the MK. We will be at the Poly so will take it to the WL, never been there. My husband and I are going in November, 39 days, yeah! Hope you have a great time and am awaiting your next report

Thank you for the kind words. I was frustrated at first, with the slower pace, then I realized I was doing OK considering the past year! I hope you have a great trip.

I love your report - was wondering if you had the chance to see Walt Disney's model train set which is in the lobby at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge! Definitely worth checking out! Your pictures are breathtaking!

We have stayed at WL during Christmas time - love the decorations and atmosphere.

I've seen thousands of pictures from WDW from almost every different angle and yet you've managed to present some great new perspectives with your shots!

Great photos and wonderful start to the TR!

Thank you very much. I've been admiring your photos for awhile now.


Just wanted to report that we are going to Acadia National park for a couple of days, but I will get back to the report as soon as we return.

 

[bmarkelon]

Keep the food photos coming, I prefer to have a little bit of drooling while reading trip reports!

 

[Mom@disney]

Following along and enjoying the gorgeous photos! I'm glad that your prognosis is good and hope for the best. You two are such a cute couple. Can't wait to hear more!

 

[SharonD]

The Wild Africa Trek

The weather was brilliant on Sunday morning - a little warm and humid, but no rain in sight. We checked out of BLT, loaded the car, and drove over to Animal Kingdom. We were early enough to have a quick breakfast at Pizzafari before the 10:15am Trek. We checked in at 10am as requested, and were outfitted with safety vests, given a locker to store all of our valuables, and waited for the last couple to arrive. I purposely scheduled a Trek after 10am to give us time for a leisurely check out of BLT - we were moving to The Boardwalk today.

One thing many people are nervous about is the "weigh-in" process. I can report this is done very discreetly. Even you don't know what the results are, as long as you are less than 300 pounds. Here's Lou getting weighed:

We only had 6 people on our Trek! This was awesome, and one advantage to not booking the very first tours in the morning (I wanted to give us a chance to check out of BLT in a relaxed way, with no rushing involved). After getting fitted for our vests, we hiked the Pangani Forest Trail. The highlight was seeing one of the baby gorillas - soooo cute!

Anyone on the trail could see the baby - the Trek had not yet separated into it's own area. The guides said the babies were out only a couple hours each day, and they didn't announce the times. Total Luck!


We then went behind a private gate, where we put our vests on, and were strung up in the contraption for the safety harness. It looked a little uncomfortable, but was fine. We hiked a short distance on a small trail to an overlook where we saw the hippos.

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One of the keepers was there to tell us all about the hippos, and feed them some lettuce to get them to wake up from their nap. While he was talking, we were all attached to the safety line, so we didn't become a hippo snack:

After we finished with the hippos, we made a short trek through the wilds to get to the next stop:

After a short hike (none of the hiking was strenuous), normally the Trek stops to check out the crocs. The crocodiles had moved somewhere else, so we didn't see them - that was ok, as it made crossing the suspension bridges a little less stressful

Some of the boards on the bridge were spaced far apart. Lou is 6'5" and you can see he is stretching to make his next step:

We all survived crossing the two suspension bridges!!! I can see where this would be a challenge if one is afraid of heights. Another short hike, and we boarded our special safari truck for the ride to the Boma for lunch. On the way, we saw the same animals you would see on the regular safari, but we did get to pull over and stop in several areas:

 

[SharonD]

Wild Africa Trek - Continued ...

You may pay extra for the WAT, but you still get to see a lot of animal backsides:

This wildebeest was lying about 20 yards from the Boma where we had lunch, and never looked at us the entire time:

And, this handsome threesome was even closer to the Boma, but I'm sure they thought the grass was keeping them out of sight:

If you've researched the WAT, or read other TRs, you've seen the cute tins they use to serve lunch. Lunch was quite good, and is prepared by the staff at Jiko:

You'll notice I'm soaked - even though I didn't think it was too hot, the humidity was a bit of a knock out for me. I did fine, but will definitely repeat the Trek on a future trip, because I don't think I took advantage of all the photo opportunities. Some of the photos included in this update are from those taken by our guides. They did a good job with photos, and you can certainly enjoy the WAT without even taking any of your own photos.


After lunch, we had a visit by one of the giraffe keepers, and she was very interesting. A highlight of the Trek was being able to interact with several different experts along the way.

Our safari truck was comfortable, and we were allowed to stand up for photography when the truck was stopped and our driver gave the OK. Again, having a small group was so nice.

An example of the types of photo ops we got from the truck:

And, as the rhinos went running past us, this ostrich came screaming by on the other side:

We stopped for quite awhile to see if the Cheetahs would do anything besides lounge:

And then, we waited ... and waited ... and waited ... for the lions to show, but no luck. They must have been napping deep within the rocks. Next time ...



Our final wildlife sighting:

Too soon, we were headed back to Harambe, where it was time to say good bye to new friends and thank our guides for a great expedition. We will definitely do this again!!!

We had a Fast Pass for the Lion King Show, and I really wanted to see the new theater, but we made the smart decision to head out of the park. My energy level was a little low at this point

We found our way to the car, safely navigated outside the World to a store where we picked up some supplies for the week. Our next step was checking into the Boardwalk.

In summary, we thoroughly enjoyed the Wild Africa Trek. It's something we've been wanting to do ever since it first opened, and we weren't disappointed. We've seen more animals on a regular safari, but this was a special experience that wasn't dependent on seeing every animal on the plains or the savannah.

 

[SharonD]

Keep the food photos coming, I prefer to have a little bit of drooling while reading trip reports!

Thanks - there will be more food photos coming in the next update.

Following along and enjoying the gorgeous photos! I'm glad that your prognosis is good and hope for the best. You two are such a cute couple. Can't wait to hear more!

Thanks, much. It feels good to be getting back to "regular life" and the trip to WDW certainly helped.

 

[SharonD]

An Evening at Epcot:

We checked into the Boardwalk Villas at 2:30pm and our room was ready. I'll include a separate post with the details of our accommodations at BLT and BWV, but happy to say our room did not disappoint. We had a one bedroom, boardwalk view room and it was just fine. We relaxed during the afternoon, watching the action from our balcony:

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At 6:30pm, we walked over to Epcot for our dinner ADR at Rose & Crown. This is a traditional start to our Epcot vacations, as this is one of the first restaurants we visited when Epcot first opened. We waited for awhile in the patio area, and were then called. I hadn't bothered to request an outside table, since I thought we were a little early to linger for Illuminations. Naturally, we were seated at one of the best tables for Illuminations viewing - at the edge of the outside patio, with a great view of the Lagoon:

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Our server, Matt, was only in his first week on the job, but he was excellent. We ended up stretching out our meal and enjoying Illuminations from our table - this was Matt's suggestion, as we were all having a good time. We eat here for nostalgia, not generally for the food. BUT, the fish & chips was absolutely the best we've had in ages. Lou ordered the Steak and Fish, and he enjoyed the steak as well. We started with a couple of appetizers:

As Illuminations was starting, I was able to set up my tripod by the table. I did ask the couple behind us if this would bother them, and they said it was just fine. My original plan was to try and capture the Frozen Fireworks from Epcot before Illuminations, but I settled for a view of them under the patio awning. Here are some photos from our Illuminations viewing:

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It turned out to be quite a nice evening at The Rose & Crown, and I'm sure it will stay on our dining rotation.


Up Next: Our First Visit to the Epcot Food & Wine Festival

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[Mom@disney]

What a lovely day you had! The WAT looked very adventurous, yet relaxing ( if that makes sense) there is something about Animal Kingdom that I just love. It always feels like you have been transported to a whole new Jungke world. Your dinner view was awesome...makes me want try Rose & Crown one day!

 

[dancingtodisney]

I absolutely love this trip report, your photos are incredible! The Steam Train tour looks great and it's something my boyf would love but sadly the train is out of service for most of our trip but I'm going to ring disney and check because it's due to be back up and running for our last few days and I'm hoping they'll be doing the tour then!

 

[emh1960]

Wow! I'm so glad I found your report! Absolutely fantastic pictures and narration. As another poster said, you've captured so many different images of a familiar place to me, but they all seem new and dynamic! Thank you!

 

[LisaBelle]

Wow! Your photos continue to take my breath away. WAT looks amazing. I showed your photos to my daughter and she has decided we should do WAT on our next trip. How nice that you got to stretch out your meal and watch Illuminations from your table. I am looking forward to your next post!