Trip Report Spoiler Alert. No Pandora, but Flowers and Gardens and Waves Galore.

Time for my first trip report!!! Exciting! First off going to tag some people in no particular order. @21stamps , @figmentfan423 , @Gabe1 , @betty rose , @littleroo, @Tony the Tigger , @donaldtoo, @Mr Ferret 88 , @Tuvalu , @TheMouseFan , @blgauger , @bee , @Cesar R M , @Songbird76 , @StarWarsGirl , @MinnieM123 , @MOXOMUMD , @ajrwdwgirl , @93boomer , @Courtney6682 , @amjt660 , @Doc Disney , @Goofyernmost @everybody

If you haven't read the ptr here is a link to it.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/our-hopefully-pandora-thrown-in-f-g-trip-2017.925406/

The planning for this trip May 19-27 started in November last year after I received a precious pin code in my email. I couldn't say no to that.

Eventually I ended up getting a better rate when the AP discounts came out(dh had an AP at the time), so I rebooked for the same resort, The Cabins at Fort Wilderness.

Who was going: me, dh, and the 4 kiddos(dd15, ds13, dd9, dd6). Who we were leaving at home(3 dogs, 3 cats, 1 cockatiel, and a dear SIL who was housesitting for a price. )

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Thank goodness you thought of SSR. You know, we all nuts here for WDW, and we all know different and helpful information. My non-Disney pals think I'm crazy (I am).

But, seriously, without a park veteran like yourself, who had all this Disney knowledge in her head--I can only imagine that your hubs would have flipped out, trying to figure out where the heck to go for dinner that night. So good for you--you saved the day!! Well done, fellow WDW fan!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! (Takes a bow.) It is definitely helpful to really know your way around The World.

AP upgrade you say?

Best. Disney Day. Ever

Max

I know, right?! Somehow we were able to upgrade our water parks and more to just a premium and not plus pass. I didn't want to add the water parks. That saved close to $600 right there.

 

[PrincessL]

Great pictures!

Sun poisoning is no joke Hope it didnt dampen DDs trip.

That's exciting that you upgrades to APs!! Who wouldn't want to spend their birthday at Disney?!?

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Great pictures!

Sun poisoning is no joke Hope it didnt dampen DDs trip.

That's exciting that you upgrades to APs!! Who wouldn't want to spend their birthday at Disney?!?

Yeah the sun poisoning was rough. It wasn't like she was able to wear long sleeves during the day outside. It has made her more aware of needing sun protection. I had previously bought her long sleeved rash guards and she refused to wear them saying she hated how hard they were to take off when they were wet, and they were uncomfortable, yada, yada, yada. After this episode though she asked me to get her one. I did find a long sleeved one that actually zips up and she likes it.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Again great report (now that I caught up!). Typhoon and Blizzard Beach are so much fun. I am a big fan of the lazy rivers.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

We walked past Germany and the heat was starting to get to ds. So I said what if we get some of...,

this down here? So we picked up some Kakigori for some of us. Two others wanted..

this. Frushi.

I wanted this. The falafel from Morocco was on my radar They were good and I really liked the pickled beets that came with them.

We contemplated the Key Lime pie from Florida Fresh, but we were too full.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

We walked to Canada and enjoyed the cooling spray from the waterfall. We caught Martin Short in O'Canada.

The 2 little dd's played with the wooden animal statues by the DVC kiosk near Canada.

On our way to SSE we caught the mobile Muppet Lab. I thought it was well done. It was hot though and dd15 was complaining about the heat on her arms. So it was time to go indoors.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

We had no technical issues on SSE.

After SSE we headed back to FW.

This really big turtle was hanging out chomping on the grass in an area next to the parking lot.I was tempted to move him back closer to the woods but figured he had gotten that big on his own and probably didn't need any help.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Next up was a monorail ride to CR for some dinner. The kids enjoyed an empty car.

I snapped a couple of pictures from the walkway of Bay Lake Tower.

Then he headed for our ADR the Wave. We hadn't eaten here since it opened. I was looking forward to this meal after reading good reviews about it. We only waited about 2 minutes before we were seated.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

The bread was really good and gone in a flash.

Dh started with the Caesar salad. He had a steak for dinner and really liked it.

I really enjoyed the gnocchi. I even ate the mushrooms, which I usually tend to avoid.

The kids all ate their meals and I have to say this restaurant was a nice surprise. It was given the double thumbs up by all. Between the food and service an A plus in my book.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

You have to love the pretty Mary Blair murals.

The lone bunny.

The loan duck.

Not a lone cabin.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

This was the street view from the deck of the cabin.

We took a sundown golf cart ride.

The cabin across from us had decorated. They put up a banner and had Christmas lights around the deck.

 

[Minnie1986]

Love your pix! May have to upgrade to the 7. I especially love all the water pix!!
Yayy for the snow leopard to find a home. They are my favorite.

I was just thinking this same thing. This report has sold me on getting a 7 before my trip in September. And yes, Snow Leopards are awesome!

 

[21stamps]

Finally catching up! Lovin' this report!!

Before we rode the kids wanted to go inside and make their cars. So we went in the showroom building snd they got to make new cars. Since there are 6 of us, only 3 would probably be able to design new cars on the ride, so that us why we did this.
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Ds ended up getting the high score from all riders that day so far.

I LOVE the top design!!!!

After a pleasant cruise through the coolest green houses ever, it was time to try some of the food offerings of the festival. First we passed some beautiful topiaries.
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I had been curious about the vegan crabcake, so that was where we were headed. I had previously tried to make a vegetarian version of a crabcake and let's just say that it did not turn out well. This on the other hand was amazing!!! Dh and dd15 tried it as well and they gave it 2 thumbs up. I wish I could get that recipe. So if anyone knows it, please share.
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After eating the not crabcake, I got the violet lemonade. Sooooo gooood. And sooooo refreshing.
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The crab cake looks delicious!

We had no wait and rode it two times in a row.
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We always request the back View attachment 210467 View attachment 210468 View attachment 210469

The back seat is our favorite on coasters! We will wait several trains for it, second favorite is front seat, we don't do anything in between..
Unless we're at WDW, then we're forced to
Congrats on getting your request!

When we got back to our cabin, we saw that stitch had been looking out the window waiting for us.
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All the cabins have this Bambi and Thumper print in the hallway.
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We decided to head for Winter Summerland this afternoon. We wanted to play Winter but there was a huge group we would have had to wait behind so we decided to play Summer.
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I think the theming of these 2 courses are the best I had ever seen. The teeny Airstreams are so cute!
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I have tried to get all the kids to sit nicely for a photo by this fireplace a few times to no avail. Wanted to use it for a Christmas card. Never happened.
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By the way @21stamps and @betty rose , no snakes seen today.

Ha! Lucky!! I love your girls' dresses btw!!!

I'm hoping we do Mickey's Winter Summerland next trip, and that T doesn't choose Thr Fairways again.. I think Mickey's WinterSummerland is adorable. Did you play in the water? It was great to cool off for us!

To be honest, I was pretty impressed with the fireworks pictures taken with my iPhone.
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I haven't watched any videos of this show, want to experience it for the first time live. Love the photos.. I can't wait!

Question- was this all in the same day,
MK-GF-FW-Minigolf-Poly-MK?

 

[21stamps]

After breakfast we made our way to EE where 3 of us had a FP. I signed up 6 but 2 didn't want to go on and dh decided to stay with them.
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The imagineers loaded the queue with some really cool relics. Sometimes when you are in line for a coaster you forget that there is a lot of effort actually put into those queues.View attachment 211279 View attachment 211280 View attachment 211281
I sat with dd9 and dd15 got a single rider with her.View attachment 211282
Guess who used her brown eyes to sucker daddy into getting her a snow leopard.
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Oh my gosh that face would be impossible to say "no" to!

I had an android prior to the 7 plus. The reason I wanted the 7 plus was because of the camera. I figured a great camera would cost a bundle and would be cumbersome. I love having a great camera in a small package. I have gone from the Canon Sure Shot to the Sony Cyber Shot. I liked that they were small but they were so unresponsive and indoor pix were terrible. I never would have gotten great shots of the fireworks with either of those. I totally recommend the 7 plus. The 7's screen is too small for me and the battery lasts longer in the 7 plus.


Ha! So true! But not complaining about it. It should be that way.

I also like the camera in the 7plus better than mine in the 7.. I just can't bring myself to purchase a phablet! The regular iPhones fit in my pockets, a plus won't. . Only a few more months til the 7s!!! My countdown has started, hopefully the camera is better than the standard 7!

Our bellies were growling so we searched for a place where all would eat without a fuss. Restaurantasaurus fit the bill. The decor inside and out is fun.
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These guys were waiting for handouts.
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I had the black bean burger. It was yummy and so were the pickles.
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I've never eaten there..but that sandwich sounds and looks delicious!

 

[21stamps]

After lunch we went to Dinoland Dd6 was so looking forward to going on Primeval Whirl. She even said that she had crocs on to make her taller. View attachment 211478
But hete is her poor little face when she saw that she was still about 4 inches too short. Not even her new snow leopard friend could cheer her up. I felt bad for her but dh offered to have her play some carnival games while the others went on the ride. She was okay with that.
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When the other kids got off PW we saw that we could catch Nemo(ha ha).
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Oh I feel so bad for her!!

I have never seen the Nemo show, how was it?

I had signed up dh for a Passholder preview at 2, The rest of us did not have AP's when I signed him up.
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In any case this was just one part of that line and dh said there was no way he was going to wait. I could not blame him. So we made our way outside the park.View attachment 211485
But first we looked at these guys before we left.View attachment 211486 View attachment 211487
Spoonbills are so pretty.
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I Don't blame him!

We did make it back to AK after dinner to make out FP for ROL. I thought the Tree of Life looked spectacular at night. We had never been there at night so this was all new.View attachment 211950 View attachment 211951 View attachment 211952
Undortunately it started to drizzle a few minutes after we got seated. Dh looked at the weather radar on his phone and said that it did not look good and we did not have rain gear. 5 minutes after the show started it got heavier and so we made the decision to leave. We ran into the store where EE lets out. There were a couple of people in there also hiding from the rain. We hung out there for a few minutes and when the rain lightened up we made our way to the front of the park. Here are a couple of pictures I did take. I took a few more, but there are better pics from other TR's not taken in the rain. View attachment 211953 View attachment 211954
We did catch the show at The Tree of Life as we left since the rain had mostly stopped. I am glad we saw it.

Wow, ok so, how do you get so much done in one day?!? Seriously?! Can you plan my trips?!

 

[21stamps]

We went to lunch at Leaning Palms. No pics but I had a black bean plantain burger and it was delicious. The kids had chicken tenders and a hot dog. Don't remember what dh had but everything got eaten. The kids meals all came in sand pails so that worked great for the sand at the wave pool which is where we went after lunch. View attachment 212031
Dd6 decided she wanted to make a sandcastle and soon enough made friends with a couple of other youngsters. While she was playing dd15 came by with a nice scrape that was bleeding. She got knocked over by a wave and the rough ground scraped her skin. Luckily one of the moms whose kid was playing with mine had bandaids in her stroller. This saved me a trip to first aid. View attachment 212032 View attachment 212033 View attachment 212034
I got myself a Pomegranate drink after we were done with the wave pool from Joffries. It was really good. I would love one now.
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Stitch was waiting for us again by the window.View attachment 212036

T isn't even aware that Disney has water parks.. I can't show him these photos or he would beg to go. Look like a wonderful day!
Your black bean and plantain burger + pomegranate drink sound delish. Actually, your trip report is making me extremely hungry.lol

The Stitch at the window is too adorable! I bet the kids were excited!

After we got cleaned up dh wanted to go off property to eat. I know blasphemous. But dd15 had been craving deep dish pizza and we knew there was Chicago style pizza place near enough. Giordano's. So we went to the one we remembered. Unfortunatel when we got there it was closed for renovations! Disappointment set in but I used the handy phone and found there was another one further east off I-4. I called to make sure we wouldn't need a reservation since it was 5 by then and the person who answered said we would be fine. So 15 minutes later I think we were there. The location was a bit older looking then the first one but it didn't matter since we were hungry. There was an outdoor eating area and another family was just seated there. We had considered eating out there but dh said it looked like it would rain. About 5 minutes after we were seated the skies opened and the other family came inside.

Anyway we ordered fried mozzarella, garlic bread with cheese, a stuffed cheese pizza, and a stuffed broccoli and spinach pizza. The pizza's were both small. We ended up basically having one full pizza to take. We could not finish it. I guess we don't eat much. Well we know better for next time because there will be. The food was delicious.
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Omg and now this post. Yeah, my stomach is growling.lol

 

[21stamps]

We took a spin around some more loops and snapped a few pics of decorations some had put outside their RV's/ motor homes.
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Oh we didn't see any Star Wars inflatable when we were there.. so cool!

When it came close to dinner time ds wanted to rest in the room and did not want to leave, so dh and I decided to head to The Settlement and pick him up something to eat. Passed these umbrella weilding wagon riders on the way.
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Ok so here goes a long story about our adventure to get dinner this night. If you remember this was May 24th. It was the press event day for the opening of Pandora. It ended up being a rainy evening. There originally had been plans for an outdoor soiree for all the "important" people that evening. The rain put a damper on that apparently.

I said we could eat at POFQ. It was close to FW by car. WL was out of the question because Roaring Forks was closed. We had no problem parking but as soon as we walked in Sassagoula Floatworks we were met by hoards of people. Dh said there was no way he was waiting on line there because of course we would be splitting to different counters. So back in the car we went.

We headed to CR thinking we could eat at the Contempo Cafe. As we got closer we noticed a lot of police cars on the road leading to the resort. Then we noticed very large charter buses in the lot. Dh said this did not look good. That is when the whole Pandora opening flashed in my head. We get to the gate and asked the guard if we could eat there and were told that if we didn't have an ADR we were not getting in. He said there was a special event. We asked if it was because of Pandora and he said yes. The weather had caused a venue change and actually we would not be able to access The Poly or GF. Dh was ready to blow a gasket. By this point we had been out for close to an hour. The sun had started to go down.

I put on my Disney Resort thinking cap and came up with Artist Palette at SSR. I said to dh that no one would be there. Everyone goes to DS now. He had some choice words for what this evening was turning into but drove to SSR. I texted ds about what was going on. He just wanted us to bring back chocolate cake with Mickey sprinkles.

Luckily, I was right in my hunch. We had no problem getting into SSR to eat. We parked and made our way to Artist Palette. EMPTY!!!!

They have cool light fixtures.
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I ended up getting a flatbread a.k.a. pizza and a chocolate cake for myself. Yes there was one for ds.
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Some pics of SSR. Didn't take too many on the way in and during our long journey to get there.
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Oh goodness, I bet that was frustrating! Glad you finally found somewhere!

It was nice and quiet still so the most difficult part of being here was deciding what to eat. But who is kidding who. This was me. One Pain au Chocolate. Like I was going to get something else.
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Dd15 had the brie and apple sandwich.
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Dd6 wanted macarons.
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I'm with your dd15 again!
I was just at a 4th of July bash last weekend, lots of food trucks there.. we were checking out all of the menus and T spots one that has "Darth Reuben" listed. Of course we had to stop at that truck.lol. We ordered the Darth Rueben and a "Grannie Brie"- apples, apple butter, and of course- brie. omg it was DELICIOUS!! We shared the 2 sandwiches.. both were amazing.

 

[21stamps]

Snapped this pucture of SSE after we got out of The Land.
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Then we went to the butterfly house which we had yet to visit this trip.
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We didn't find all the different kinds of butterflies but we had fun trying. My only pet peeve with this are parents who see their kids touching a butterfly and not reprimanding them. There are signs that say not to touch them.

Sorry, but people are so dumb. We go to a butterfly exhibit annually.. the butterflies land all over you, and you're given something to hold for them to land on as well.. BUT- you are not allowed to touch their wings... and yet, so many parents let their kids do it. So dumb.
Rant over.

In all honesty, I like this ride. Everything was working. Last year when we had ridden, there had been issues.
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The kids got accosted by some friendly vkings while waiting for dh to come out with dd6 from the Kringla bakery. She wanted a cream filled horn. Well she didn't like the Mickey shaped oreo cheesecake and too much sugar cannot hurt on vacation, right @21stamps?
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Ha ha.. especially if you need to

We walked past Germany and the heat was starting to get to ds. So I said what if we get some of...,
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this down here? So we picked up some Kakigori for some of us. Two others wanted..
View attachment 213648

this. Frushi.
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I wanted this. The falafel from Morocco was on my radar They were good and I really liked the pickled beets that came with them. View attachment 213652
We contemplated the Key Lime pie from Florida Fresh, but we were too full.
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Wait a minute, too full for key lime pie?!?
I don't even know how those words fit in the same sentence. Wow, just wow.

All of the food you had looks so yummy though!

This was the street view from the deck of the cabin.
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We took a sundown golf cart ride.
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The cabin across from us had decorated. They put up a banner and had Christmas lights around the deck.
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You are really making me second guess AKL..
The cabins really do look like so much fun!

 

[21stamps]

Whew, I'm caught up!! Apologies for blowing up your notifications.. can't wait to read more!

Oh here's a photo of the Darth Rueben and Grannie Brie. I'm going to find the recipes and try to make them sometime, the latter is pretty self explanatory though..just need to wait til fall for good apple butter.

 

[MinnieM123]

You have to love the pretty Mary Blair murals.

The lone bunny.

Thank you for sharing your photos of the Mary Blair tilework. I love her art, and on more than one occasion, I've stood there in the concourse, and just stared up at it--in wonder and awe. What a talented person she was.