Trip Report Shortest Retirement in History?

Justin Bieber lasted 2 weeks.

Tom Brady lasted 40 days.

I, Tuvalu, outlasted them both. Not by much, mind you. Yet if not for the encouragement of some forum friends - along with some unusual circumstances - you wouldn’t be reading this.

Unusual circumstances, you say?

Around Thanksgiving my beloved Woody learned his presence was required at a work conference. In Orlando. At Universal.
Just down the road from Walt Disney World.

Woody said I could accompany him if he drove (rather than flew) to Florida. And that we could leave a couple days early and have some Disney time together.

Well you don’t have to ask me twice!

I’d be on my own during the conference. Since the majority of Universal’s attractions don’t appeal to me, it didn’t make sense for me to buy Uni tickets when I could visit WDW for free with my AP. Being solo, I thought it might be fun to do a live trip report so y’all could be my virtual companions!

Turns out I won’t be alone while Woody is occupied after all. Some friends that you have seen in my previous TRs (and one you haven’t) have offered to play with me. I can’t wait!

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Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Wednesday, June 12

I expected to hear the drip, drip, drop of morning rain when I awakened.

Instead I was greeted with this.

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Lifeguards were having a training session at the pool.

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This was not the forecasted weather! It looked like our planned pool day was back on!

We decided to celebrate with Mickey waffles for breakfast. We’d brought Nutella from home (we’re not syrup fans) and wanted eat in our room so I mobile ordered.

Houston, we have a problem.

IMG_3450.jpeg


The to-go bag I picked up had two small boxes with waffles and bacon. The bags of grapes were loose. I’d thrown in napkins and cutlery from the self-serve station before returning to the room.

Do you see the problem? The waffles and bacon were stacked and filled the tiny box. There were no plates in our room or at the self-serve station. If you eat at Roaring Fork your food arrives on a non-disposable plate.
How were we supposed to cut and eat the waffles? Thank goodness we don’t use syrup - those paper boxes would be a slimy mess!

We used extra washcloths as “plates”, spread the Nutella on top then ate the waffle as if it were a donut.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

After breakfast we packed up for the pool and stayed until early afternoon.

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We had the place mostly to ourselves. The sun was in and out and dark sky did chase us out eventually.

It worked out in our favor as you’ll soon see.
 
93boomer

93boomer

Premium Member
Tuvalu said:
Wednesday, June 12

I expected to hear the drip, drip, drop of morning rain when I awakened.

Instead I was greeted with this.

View attachment 794987

Lifeguards were having a training session at the pool.

View attachment 794989

This was not the forecasted weather! It looked like our planned pool day was back on!

We decided to celebrate with Mickey waffles for breakfast. We’d brought Nutella from home (we’re not syrup fans) and wanted eat in our room so I mobile ordered.

Houston, we have a problem.

View attachment 794988

The to-go bag I picked up had two small boxes with waffles and bacon. The bags of grapes were loose. I’d thrown in napkins and cutlery from the self-serve station before returning to the room.

Do you see the problem? The waffles and bacon were stacked and filled the tiny box. There were no plates in our room or at the self-serve station. If you eat at Roaring Fork your food arrives on a non-disposable plate.
How were we supposed to cut and eat the waffles? Thank goodness we don’t use syrup - those paper boxes would be a slimy mess!

We used extra washcloths as “plates”, spread the Nutella on top then ate the waffle as if it were a donut.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

After breakfast we packed up for the pool and stayed until early afternoon.

View attachment 794990

View attachment 794991

We had the place mostly to ourselves. The sun was in and out and dark sky did chase us out eventually.

It worked out in our favor as you’ll soon see.
Click to expand...
That would’ve been a mess with syrup.
Yayyy pool day!! Love @TrolleyFollower91 coverup!!
 
lindawdw

lindawdw

Well-Known Member
Bummer that the rain ensued at MK but sometimes it's nice to hunker down at the resort and just have some down time. I love when you wake up at WDW and open the curtains to find a beautiful morning!!! I'm so glad you got some nice pool time during the morning hours! Crazy that they didn't provide paper plates at Roaring Forks for your mobile order breakfast. :oops: Can't wait to hear about the rest of your day!
 
Bullseye1967

Bullseye1967

Is that who I am?
Premium Member
Tuvalu said:
There were no plates in our room or at the self-serve station. If you eat at Roaring Fork your food arrives on a non-disposable plate.
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My wife is just short of a doomsday prepper when we travel. She always has a "kit" for everything. The "eating kit" would have paper plates and bowls, plastic cutlery, many condiments, including salt and pepper in small packets, napkins, and wipes. I tend to poke fun at her, but in reality such has saved our butts many times with her assortment of "kits".
 
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Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Bullseye1967 said:
My wife is just short of a doomsday prepper when we travel. She always has a "kit" for everything. The "eating kit" would have paper plates and bowls, plastic cutlery, many condiments, including salt and pepper in small packets, napkins, and wipes. I tend to poke fun at her, but in reality such has saved our butts many times were her assortment of "kits".
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Guilty.
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Wednesday, con’t

Just as we do not enjoy pool time in the rain, we do not enjoy Disney Springs in the rain.

To be honest, we don’t enjoy Disney Springs in the sun either. It’s not Disney Springs’ fault - we didn’t enjoy Downtown Disney or (way back) Disney Village Marketplace. It’s not our jam. Once in a while something will pull us there and we’ll have a good time for an hour or so and then are ready to leave.

Thankfully the sun was out when we boarded the Disney Springs bus. You already know the reason for our going.

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It was an absolute delight seeing @TheMouseFan and her family again. We would have enjoyed a longer visit but this poor family was spent and they needed to get to their resort after a long day.

As tempting as it was for us to head out ourselves (the sky was black!) we decided to pop in a few places since we were there. I bought a Vera Bradley tumbler on clearance and Em had her first Gideon’s experience. We only waited 15 minutes until it was our turn. The inside theming impressed me just as much as it did my first time.

We limited ourselves to three cookies.

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Cookie Butter Butterscotch for Em (middle), Coffee Cake for me (right) and triple chocolate to share.

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We were tempted to check out the cookie bar at Summer House, but decided that would be too much gluttony for one trip!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
lindawdw said:
I love that you got to meet up with @TheMouseFan this trip! I've never had a Gideon cookie because I just won't wait in line for one and most reviews are always that they are just OK. Hope you enjoyed them though!!!
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If there had been a VQ wait list or more than a 20 minute wait for Gideon’s we would have passed and gone to the cookie bar at Summer House instead.

Gideon’s uses too many chocolate chips for my taste. However their coffee cake cookie is unlike anything else I have ever tasted - a whole different level of yumminess - and I am not above paying family/friends to get one for me. 🤣
 
lindawdw

lindawdw

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
If there had been a VQ wait list or more than a 20 minute wait for Gideon’s we would have passed and gone to the cookie bar at Summer House instead.

Gideon’s uses too many chocolate chips for my taste. However their coffee cake cookie is unlike anything else I have ever tasted - a whole different level of yumminess - and I am not above paying family/friends to get one for me. 🤣
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I'll have to remember your tip about the coffee cake cookie if I ever visit Gideon's. We had a Summer House cookie last year when we dined there which was delicious.
 
wdisney9000

wdisney9000

Truindenashendubapreser
Premium Member
Tuvalu said:
We may have set a Buc-ee’s record today - fueled, 3 minutes in and out of the store, ate our tacos while parked and were back on the interstate in under 15 minutes.
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Those are rookie numbers! I've been in and out in under 5 minutes. Granted, I didn't get food. Just fuel and bathroom. But 15 minutes is very impressive when you include eating. Well done!

I recall posting on my Instagram stories that I was just getting gas and leaving. I had several people who respnded and were quite flomoxed by the concept of not going in and buying food, t shirt, crocs, rocking chair, etc.
 
93boomer

93boomer

Premium Member
wdisney9000 said:
Those are rookie numbers! I've been in and out in under 5 minutes. Granted, I didn't get food. Just fuel and bathroom. But 15 minutes is very impressive when you include eating. Well done!

I recall posting on my Instagram stories that I was just getting gas and leaving. I had several people who respnded and were quite flomoxed by the concept of not going in and buying food, t shirt, crocs, rocking chair, etc.
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We bought stickers one time and trail mix. The only other time was gas and restroom break. 🤣
 

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