Trip Report The “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket…or Two….or Three” Christmas Experience.**Completed**

So here we are again for another fun filled journey that is sure to include some poor spelling, beer, poor grammar, great food, beer, plenty of animals, a fourth wheel, park visits, beer, and judgement for said poor spelling and grammar. For those ignorant to the primer for this journey you may read all the funivities HERE. The Cliff’s Notes version is we’ve got five nights in the bubble at one of the most beautiful resorts on property and are accompanied by two teens that can watch each other so lets get this ball rolling!!!


Sunday December 17th


So yesterday after a viewing of The Last Jedi we made our way to the half way point, Tifton, for a night’s stay. Not being a complete barbarian, insensitive to his three female traveling companions, I offered to get up this morning at 04:45 to get breakfast for the tres muchachas while they get ready because, you know, ladies be taking forever to get ready in the AM. Hats off to the trio as they were downstairs by 05:30 and we were on our way to the bubble. A very uneventful three and a half hours and we hit the Super Target on 192 to pick up some cold staples before making our way home!
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After dropping our gear off with bell services I needed to head to the front desk to make sure the 4th wheel’s band and charging privileges would work, OH BOY, what an ordeal!!! What should have been simple ended up taking an hour with an overly confident CM, Jeff. At one point he had lost the 5-day hopper pass associated to her band and had to call IT to get it back! He instructed me that he had set 4thWheel’s limit at $400, corrected her band, and that all our bands were ready to use. A bonus of it taking so long was our room became available while we waited and it wasn’t even 11:00!!! During my interaction with Jeff I specifically asked that he verify that all bands would work. I even made mention that “I guarantee at least one of these bands will not open our door”. He thought all the issues he was having with charging and losing the ticket had me worried, I assured him it was experience that had me worried. So, with Jeff’s assurance we made for room 5130! Guess what? 3 of the 4 bands WOULD NOT open our door! So I told the ladies to head inside, call bell services, and I would take care of the bands. I made my way back down to see Jeff who was probably tired of seeing me by now and politely let him know. Jeff said one thing that really bothered me and that was “You have too many magic bands and that is why you can’t get into your room”. He followed that up with “You do know you can decline the bands, you don’t have to get one each time”. He then proceeded to count all the bands I had on my MDE account. I didn’t care for being blamed for Disney’s lack of foresight or design so I asked Jeff if Disney had a rule on the number of bands a guest may have associated with an MDE account to which he answered “no”. So then I pointed out that I was playing by the rules and the number of bands should have no bearing. So another 10 minutes and he assured me the bands where set and then asked where we were headed this evening. I told him HS and he gave us our first golden ticket of the day to ride RnR.
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So back up I went and thankfully the bands worked! Bell services had arrived and the teens were itching to get to MK so the DW and I said go! That’s when the 4th wheel informed us that her ticket was no longer showing up on her MDE account!!! Back to see Jeff! Another 15 minutes with Jeff and the ticket was back with further reassurances that it would work. This lead to our second golden ticket of the hour! Jeff gave the girls a golden ticket for 7DMT and they made their way to MK but not before being forced into taking one of the only picture we would get of them this trip
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Still to come: Room 5130, Sanaa, our third Golden Ticket, and I promise a lot fewer issues going forward.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday December 18th cont.


Since we drove to AK we figured we would just drive to DTD. It was a welcome sight to see that most all of the road construction near there was complete which made the drive very quick! For those that have never driven there since they opened the new parking decks let me tell you, they are nice! As you enter the parking deck there is a digital sign letting you know how many open spots are open and on which level! As you turn into the level each lane of the level has a sign informing you of how many spots are open in that lane! There is a sensor with a red/green light above each spot, red=occupied, green=open. All this to say we foud an open spot on the second level, quickly, near the elevators. Soon we were exiting the escalator by the fountain and notice our lunch spot wasn’t open yet.

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We decide to look around a bit when we saw this:

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Of all the places in the bubble they could go and we end up bumping into them again! They were on their way to get an ATM cupcake. We creeped them for a bit, sending them some texts about what they were doing before finally walking up on them. They were on a lunch mission too but in an opposite direction. Speaking of lunch, its about time!

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Polite pig, along with Blaze, is one of our favorite new additions. The portions are decent, the beer is good, and they give DVC discount! Our only regret of this visit is not sharing! We were absolutely STUFFED after having lunch. The DW went with the BBQ Cheddar Sausage with Crispy Brussels Sprouts

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I went with the pork shoulder and polite baked beans

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What we also forgot was that each meal also came with slaw and a corn muffin so there was a lot to eat! An additional bonus of TPP is their craft beer selection! They have several taps with beer you aren’t going to find all over property. We shared a flight and a 22oz Porter.

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My Untappd notes of the flight(LtoR) and the porter:

Cask & Larder Five Points IPA: 3.75/5 Very floral and lightly fruity but in a good way. Repeatable.
Cask & Larder Lone Palm Golden Ale: 1.75/5 Florida water has more flavor
Cask & Larder Red Drum Ale: 2.5/5 Very middle of the road red.
Cigar City Brewing Florida Cracker White Ale: 3.75/5 Ooooh this is good. Its like a mild Golden Monkey.
Cask & Larder Working Man Porter: 3.75/5 Solid Porter I’d repeat

We probably sat and enjoyed our lunch for a good hour and it was excellent as usual. We were so full we needed that time to let the food settle before waddling out! #foodcoma

Up next: DTD shopping, flag retreat, and hanging 10 for dinner.
 
Last edited:

DisneyJeff

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I was thinking it was a little creepy. :cautious::hilarious:

There's a fine line between Hilarious and Creepy!! :hilarious:

Since we drove to AK we figured we would just drive to DTD. It was a welcome sight to see that most all of the road construction near there was complete which made the drive very quick! For those that have never driven there since they opened the new parking decks let me tell you, they are nice! As you enter the parking deck there is a digital sign letting you know how many open spots are open and on which level! As you turn into the level each lane of the level has a sign informing you of how many spots are open in that lane! There is a sensor with a red/green light above each spot, red=occupied, green=open. All this to say we foud an open spot on the second level, quickly, near the elevators. Soon we were exiting the escalator by the fountain and notice our lunch spot wasn’t open yet.

I don't think it's called Downtown Disney anymore... I believe it is called Disney Springs now. ;)
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday December 18th cont.


So after an excellent lunch we decide to walk around and do some shopping. We walked to the other end of the area near P37 to check out the Savannah Bee Company
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Like many shops here, SBC is new. They did have a kiosk before but not an actual store front so we decided to check it out. The DW enjoys trying new honey and I don’t mind it either. The shop has an array of honey, mead, honeycomb, and other products produced from bees to sample. We tasted all the honey and even the honeycomb. The DW made her purchases, woot woot DVC discount, and made for more shopping. We ended up walking to the other end of the district to check out Basin.
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While the DW did her shopping I had fun with hand scrubs. While I was getting my exfoliating on the DW decided there wasn’t anything she wanted, can you believe that, and we left for the CO OP.
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This is a fun place to look around. The amount of Disney themed clothing, houseware, and other unique collectables is high. I mean, where else am I going to find this gem?

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New car, it smells like new car.
I also enjoy the Disney themed art. Two of my favorites of this trip are:

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It was pushing 2:00 and the pool was calling us so we decided to bid adieu to DTD and make for some pool time.

Up next: Déjà pool, the most controversial piece of nothing, and great dinner on the fly.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday December 18th cont.

Did I mention how much I appreciate the construction being done around DTD? The car ride back to AK was quick and painless! It wasn’t long before we were back at the pool! We were so fortunate this trip to have five consecutive days without rain and afternoon temps ranging from 75-82 making everyday a pool day!
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It was warm enough for this little fella to brave the pool too!
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While we were lounging we decided to push and pull some ADRs around to try to work in an ADR for CG later in the week. We ended up moving Tiffins to Tuesday, Jiko to Wednesday in hopes of getting an ADR over the next 3 days for CG…time will tell. While working the logistics out we decided to grab an ADR for The Wave for tonight. We consider The Wave a not so hidden gem. The food is consistently good and the menu is always changing with fresh, seasonal, offerings. Anyhow, we grabbed our ADR. While researching dinner options I noticed there was a buzz on social media about a MK attraction opening back up so we grabbed some animal pictures and made for the room to change and head out.
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Up next: Retreat, Hillary Rodham Trump, and some creepy table side carolers.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Monday December 18th cont.

For all the flak AK gets for busses this was another “what are they talking about” trip as we never waited more than 10 minutes for any bus ride to and from the parks. Actually, I’m starting to appreciate the AK haters who cry about how AK has terrible busses and is located on the outskirts of Tampa. This just means more room for us! All this to say, we made our way from the room to the bus stop and were headed to MK in roughly 5 minutes! The bus ride was without incident but we were closing in on five o’clock and I was worried we were going to miss the flag retreat. We hustled to the train station just I time for five only to realize that MK would be doing retreat at 5:15 today! No worries we took some picture while we waited.
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I’ve got no pics of the actual retreat as I was streaming it live for my social media peeps. Still, the experience is a fantastic one and if you’ve never done it you should, just checks the time because retreat time varies by day.

Social media was still blowing up with news of HoP conducting a small soft opening today. We we’re hopeful to be one of the few allowed in during the day but was also up against a Peter Pan FP that was close to expiring. We made for HoP but the park was hopping.
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As we arrived at HoP we noticed there was no queue and the doors were still open, win! This feeling was quickly drained when we were greeted at the door by a CM who said, sorry, you’ll need to wait for the next showing in 30 minutes. 30 minutes?!?!? This was not conducive to us making our PP FP and Wave ADR. The doors were still open and there was plenty of room inside so we batted our eyes and pleaded with the CM to kindly allow us in for this show. She, thankfully, obliged and allowed us in while closing the doors behind us! While the room was busy with people in actuality there were only enough people to fill about quarter of the auditorium when seated, maybe less. Soon we were seated and the show began. To quote myself from the HoP rumor thread:

“Folks the show was phenomenal. The overriding message is what people need to focus on. Our show opened and closed with thunderous applause. If you allow 90 seconds to ruin that patriotic experience then thats on you! Videos do not do the experience justice! I look forward to seeing it again. I feel the animatronic was poorly done but, again, the message of the experience is what is important.”
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I still stand by my post show sentiment. The message and experience was outstanding. Now in retrospect, and maybe the foil hat folks have me swayed, Disney did a HORRIBLE job on the animatronic. So much so that I’m believing they fully intended to install a HRC president and then did their “best” to make that animatronic work when she didn’t. My pictures of the animatronic are about as bad as the animatronic itself but if you’ve spent any time online since the opening you’ve seen better examples of it.

Up next: The Wave, finishing out a MK night, and an EC rope drop.
 

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