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!
IMG_1168.JPG

IMG_1169.JPG



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.
IMG_1207_edit.jpg



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
IMG_1173.JPG



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
Thursday December 21st cont.:

As dinner was concluding we decided to pass on desserts in favor of drinks at Victoria Falls. Our server reminded us that we could get vouchers to come back later in the evening to watch the HEA fireworks from the CG balcony if we would like. We politely passed and settled up our bill. We did spend a few minutes out on the balcony enjoying the beautiful views.
IMG_1614.JPG


IMG_1615.JPG


IMG_1616.JPG


IMG_1618.JPG


IMG_1619.JPG


We took a few photos for a family also taking in the scenery and they were kind enough to pay forward for us as well. We really appreciated that since our selfie came out so poorly.
IMG_1617.JPG


We took a leisurely stroll out of the restaurant and through the resort lobby inhaling deeply before saying goodbye to the CR.

An uneventful drive back home found us participating in our new normal closing night activities, drinks at Victoria Falls.
IMG_1620.JPG


It wasn’t super late and there was still plenty of chatter and aromas flowing up from Boma. While its off the path a bit there is still a decent amount of people watching to be had here. As for drinks, we each tried something new tonight. The DW went with the watermelon margarita.
IMG_1621.JPG


For me, I went with a drink that I bet @dclfan can Identify.
IMG_1622.JPG

Smoked turkey

Both drinks were excellent! We relaxed for a while thinking about the great time and weather we had this trip. We were already counting down the days to the next visit and day dreaming of our Fantasy trip after that. We decided to forego our usual morning at AK on the last day in effort to get us back to the peach state earlier the next day. With that we decided to make for the room but not without one final view of the spectacular lobby AKL offers up.
IMG_1623.JPG


Whelp, we’re done! We got up bright and early the next morning thanks to a Dunkin Donuts bribe to the teen monsters. We cruised home, less the devil’s parkway in Henry county GA which slowed us down…again…for no reason! I’ll probably make one more post to cover our next two trips as opposed to a PTR since we are so close to both of them. If you're still following along after all this time thanks and I hope you enjoyed!


Up next: Whats next?
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Thursday December 21st cont.:

As dinner was concluding we decided to pass on desserts in favor of drinks at Victoria Falls. Our server reminded us that we could get vouchers to come back later in the evening to watch the HEA fireworks from the CG balcony if we would like. We politely passed and settled up our bill. We did spend a few minutes out on the balcony enjoying the beautiful views.
View attachment 268515

View attachment 268516

View attachment 268517

View attachment 268519

View attachment 268520

We took a few photos for a family also taking in the scenery and they were kind enough to pay forward for us as well. We really appreciated that since our selfie came out so poorly.
View attachment 268518

We took a leisurely stroll out of the restaurant and through the resort lobby inhaling deeply before saying goodbye to the CR.

An uneventful drive back home found us participating in our new normal closing night activities, drinks at Victoria Falls.
View attachment 268521

It wasn’t super late and there was still plenty of chatter and aromas flowing up from Boma. While its off the path a bit there is still a decent amount of people watching to be had here. As for drinks, we each tried something new tonight. The DW went with the watermelon margarita.
View attachment 268522

For me, I went with a drink that I bet @dclfan can Identify.
View attachment 268523
Smoked turkey

Both drinks were excellent! We relaxed for a while thinking about the great time and weather we had this trip. We were already counting down the days to the next visit and day dreaming of our Fantasy trip after that. We decided to forego our usual morning at AK on the last day in effort to get us back to the peach state earlier the next day. With that we decided to make for the room but not without one final view of the spectacular lobby AKL offers up.
View attachment 268524

Whelp, we’re done! We got up bright and early the next morning thanks to a Dunkin Donuts bribe to the teen monsters. We cruised home, less the devil’s parkway in Henry county GA which slowed us down…again…for no reason! I’ll probably make one more post to cover our next two trips as opposed to a PTR since we are so close to both of them. If you're still following along after all this time thanks and I hope you enjoyed!


Up next: Whats next?

You two always photograph so nicely together.

I love the different lighting colors on top of Space Mountain. What an incredible view from that outdoor observation deck.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Great report. I can live vicariously through your food and beverage choices. You & @imahistorygeek are adorable together.
Thanks so much! Im thankful my bride overflows with adorable to compensate for the inequality ;)

Great TR im looking forward to the next 2! that steak at CG looked terrible which is a shame.
Thank you! It was amazing how our two visits where so different in just a few months’ time.

Clearly they knew what was on the dinner menu for the Jingle Cruise crew!
That they did! Its like they subscribed to the Bubba Gump philosophy on menu design.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Another great report from @lostpro9het and @imahistorygeek! We seem to have similar taste in restaurants (if not necessarily food since I'm a vegetarian) so I always enjoy your reviews. Looking forward to the next TRs!
Thanks for following the carnivores ;):D

We have at least one "new to us" dining experience planned for April so I'll keep this food train runnin!

You absolutely must get a room in AKL sometime. Spend a few days grazing between Sanaa and Jiko :hungry: while enjoying the pools they have.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So I’ll wrap this up with a couple mini PTRs for the future.

Mini PTR part 1, The Devil’s Week:
We are 21 days out from our next round of funtivities during the “Devil’s Week”…Spring Break. The DD is heading on a band trip for the week to our nation’s capital so we thought it a good time for another couples trip. My new gig at the school system has me enjoying all the school holidays off as the kiddos do so what else should we do with a week off other than visit the bubble!
Who:
The Parents!
When:
April 1-5
Where:
We’re taking advantage of some deep discounts at the CBR during their war zon…I mean refurbishments. It will be our first time at CBR and we are more staying there to check it off the WDW resort list than we are for the discounts. We’d like to stay at all the resorts at one point. CBR will be our 12th different resort stay so we are getting close to our goal, it’s just so darn hard deviating from the Deluxes. I know, I know...woe is me, first world Disney problems and all.

The plan is to drop the DD off with a bandmate before hopping on a JetBlue flight for the bubble. We’ll have at least half a day the first day to enjoy AK at night. As far as getting around, we debated on renting a car and did our best to figure out how much driving we would need to be doing during the trip first. We decided it would be cheaper for us to just get an Uber gift card and use that to get around during the week so that’s the plan. We’ve locked in a few ADRs that include Boathouse, Artist’s Point, and Yachtsman. Boathouse is new for us and I’ve enjoyed a few vlogs and reviews I’ve see on it so we’re looking forward to that. No dining plans that first night, yet.

So there’s the Cliff’s Notes version of our first trip. I’ll probably do a live TR for that one since its short n sweet and because I’d only have 4 weeks to get a proper TR done before the next trip and my track record says that aint happening.

Mini PTR part 2 coming up next
 

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
Well, I'm going to have to go through more of my Epcot pics from the 19th because that's where we were. We even hit Soarin' at rope drop too, but were coming in via the IG so we were probably behind you. We rode Test Track and Imagination that morning too, but I think our timing was different since there was no line for Figment when we were there.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well, I'm going to have to go through more of my Epcot pics from the 19th because that's where we were. We even hit Soarin' at rope drop too, but were coming in via the IG so we were probably behind you. We rode Test Track and Imagination that morning too, but I think our timing was different since there was no line for Figment when we were there.
:geek: Looking forward to stalking your TR for hidden pro9hets!
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom