Trip Report The "This is a relaxing and resorting trip, not a running trip!" Trip

We're back!

Basic info:
Cast: Bee (me-32), M (my wife-32), Jay (my brother-26), MIL (M's mom), FIL (M's dad)
Dates: August 16-25
Resorts: Contemporary and Swan split stay (M and me), offsite (Jay, MIL, FIL)
Tickets: 4-day, no hopper, plus DAH Boo Bash
Park plans: 8/17 Boo Bash, 8/19 MK, 8/20 Epcot, 8/22 DHS, 8/24 Epcot

PTR here.

This was a rather different trip that what we're used to, for various reasons which will be explained throughout the TR. Lots of things went really well, and a few things didn't go so well. Keep reading for food, drinks, surprises, and DRAMMA!

 

[Laura Loves Tigger]

Following along! Love both sets of nails, very Disney!

 

[RememberWhen]

Can’t wait to hear all about it! I love/hate annoying families at Disney. I’m 100% sure my family is annoying to others at times.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

With your initial post I was going to comment “Let’s not start a trend of putting adult’s ages in TRs… ” but I can see why you did based on the next post.

As a fellow mistaken-for-younger-person I look forward to reading about your (hopefully) amusing assumed age tales.

Also both of your glasses are great! Love the shapes and designs.

 

[ArmoredRodent]

I think I took this because there was a roach on the floor? But it moved before I actually got the photo.

What a beautiful sight!!

Well ... because the foreground in this picture was the same as in the "There was a roach, but he moved" picture ... I first thought it was a picture of the roach.

Great photos, btw. Please keep them up, along with the fun commentary.

 

[bee]

Day 1, cont.

We have visited the Contemporary dozens of times to eat, drink, shop, and just hang out. Walking into the lobby and knowing we were staying there this time instead of just visiting was surreal. I know the theming (or lack of theming) of the Contemporary doesn't appeal to a lot of people, but we have always liked it and dreamed of staying there. And our dream was finally coming true!

A CM greeted us as we walked into the lobby. We knew from construction updates and photos that there were a ton of walls so we were not surprised to have to go through a bit of a maze to get through the lobby and on to the Garden Wing. We made it there and entered the door nearest where we thought our room would be. Since we were on the second floor and had bags we needed to find an elevator.

Anyone else think this carpet looks like eggs?

Well we wandered for a LONG time before actually finding an elevator. It turns out the entire Garden Wing only has two elevators. Based on my photo timestamps, it took us a whole ten minutes from initially entering the building to actually finding our room.

Room photo time!

Sent this to @Darstarr upon seeing the lotion!

I guess I neglected to get a photo of the pullout couch? Whoops.

We were in room 6201, which is a Standard View Queen room. The view was so, er, standard, that I apparently didn't even get a photo of it. It was just a view of part of the building. If we craned our necks we could see a bit of water.

By this point we were QUITE hungry. That DD sandwich was a long time ago! So we headed back to the main building to get some lunch at Contempo Cafe.

Up next: WALLS! And food!

 

[bee]

I live in NJ and always take our flights out of Newark so I know exactly how chaotic this airport can be!!! It seems to have gotten a lot worse with COVID and the airport staff isn't exactly informative when it comes to what lines are for what purpose! I never understand why people feel the need to stand on top of each other right away when the plane parks at the gate. If everyone just waits until it's time for their row to exit then it would be so orderly. Glad to hear that things got better when you reached Florida!

It makes me so mad every time I go somewhere with a competent airport and then come back to...that.

I’m here & looking forward to this!!
Sorry for your rough start—not a fun way to start a trip!!

Welcome! It gets better!

Following along! Love both sets of nails, very Disney!

Thank you!

Can’t wait to hear all about it! I love/hate annoying families at Disney. I’m 100% sure my family is annoying to others at times.

I try to find humor in the annoying families rather than getting too upset about them.

With your initial post I was going to comment “Let’s not start a trend of putting adult’s ages in TRs… ” but I can see why you did based on the next post.

As a fellow mistaken-for-younger-person I look forward to reading about your (hopefully) amusing assumed age tales.

Also both of your glasses are great! Love the shapes and designs.

Haha, I'm sure at some point I will stop putting our ages in trip reports...

M and I both used to substitute teach when we were 25-26, usually in high schools. We both got mistaken for students at least once. Once when I was subbing in a middle school an eighth grade boy asked me on a date.

And thank you! M also has the rainbow frames and sometimes we both wore them on the same day.

Well ... because the foreground in this picture was the same as in the "There was a roach, but he moved" picture ... I first thought it was a picture of the roach.

Great photos, btw. Please keep them up, along with the fun commentary.

Hahaha! Thank you!

 

[bee]

Day 1, cont.

We found our way back through the maze and to the elevator. We were a little bummed that the covered walkway from the tower to our wing was closed due to construction, but we also knew that the construction everywhere was the reason we were able to get the room rate we got!

RIP The Wave

Going up!

Once we arrived at Contempo Café I placed a mobile order for two plant-based entrees and a cupcake. We also purchased two resort mugs from a CM at the register. It was really strange to see the current setup where you can't just walk up and order like before.

MUG TIME!

Throughout the trip we almost always sat at "our table" which was the one closest to the drink station by the order/pickup area. The perks of sitting here included: 1) We were always close to drink refills and 2) People actually had to wear masks by the refill area (as opposed to while sitting and eating) and they MOSTLY followed the rules.

I admired the Mary Blair mural while we waited for our mobile order.

It was ready soon and I picked it up! I don't know how I managed not to get a photo of one of the entrees we shared. Here is the Kale Greens Power Salad:

Grilled Tofu Bowl (photo from VeganDisneyFood.com)

These were both REALLY good. They were super flavorful and a LOT of food. On a normal day (not a long travel day) we could have shared just one, but we were extra hungry so we liked having two items. I think even omnivores would enjoy either of these.

And of course we HAD to try the Monorail Cupcake!

The cupcake was pretty good. The cake itself was nothing special, but the frosting and filling were tasty. And of course there was a WHITE CHOCOLATE MONORAIL ON TOP!!! This is definitely a sharing dessert.

Up next: RELAXING AND RESORTING!

 

[bee]

Day 1, cont.

After lunch we stopped at BVG to check out the merch.

Love seeing all the Pride merch!

These shirts always make me think of @Tuvalu and @TrolleyFollower91

I'm going to pretend this was an intentional placement of two "Bride" hats together to celebrate Pride.

After this we headed back to the room.

Nice view from the second floor!

Free umbrella! (We did not take it)

Egg carpet!

In the room we watched a little TV. This began our trip-long obsession with HLN true crime shows, especially Forensic Files.

I'm in this photo! Sort of...

Since this was a relaxing and resorting trip we decided to take full advantage of our resort amenities and visit the pool! I braided M's hair and then my own so our hair wouldn't get too tangled in the pool. I didn't get a photo of her hair this time but here's mine:

It's a little off-center but not bad for doing my own hair haha

We got our suits and sunscreen on and headed out. We found that there was a staircase just down the hall from our room which was much easier to access than either of the elevators. As we walked toward the pool a girl of maybe 12 asked, "Are you going to the pool? Because it's closed for lightning right now!" I thanked her for telling us so we didn't walk all the way there. M was super bummed since we had spent so much time putting on sunscreen.

We decided to sit by the Bay Lake beach and wait for the pool to (hopefully) reopen. On our way we saw a bunny enjoying the grass outside our building. As we sat at the beach we saw lots of boats go by and saw several birds as well. Of course I didn't get photos because I didn't bring my phone because we were intending to swim.

Up next: Will we swim or give up??

 

[RememberWhen]

Two things:
1) definitely egg carpet. Good eggs. Bad eggs and very bad eggs.
2) I just turned 38. About 10 years ago my mom, my wife and I were entering AK at rope drop. I was about 15 weeks pregnant, but not showing. We had “I’m celebrating” pins on and I had a Star of David necklace on. The CM at the entrance asked me “Hey! Are you here celebrating your Bat Mitzvah?” I definitely just stared at him for a solid 15 seconds before mumbling something like “Um, no, not my Bat Mitzvah…” (For those who don’t know, typically someone celebrating their Bat Mitzvah would be 13…)

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I got carded for an R movie just before I turned 31.

 

[lindawdw]

That was some bus tale you told of the multi-generational family along with the line cutters! I haven't taken the magical express since they reopened but I've heard a lot the wait times have been really long. We stayed in the garden wing of the Contemporary with our daughters back in 1996 and loved facing the water which allowed us an upfront personal view of the electrical water float parade at night! I hope the lightning cleared up so you could enjoy the pool!

 

[bee]

Two things:
1) definitely egg carpet. Good eggs. Bad eggs and very bad eggs.
2) I just turned 38. About 10 years ago my mom, my wife and I were entering AK at rope drop. I was about 15 weeks pregnant, but not showing. We had “I’m celebrating” pins on and I had a Star of David necklace on. The CM at the entrance asked me “Hey! Are you here celebrating your Bat Mitzvah?” I definitely just stared at him for a solid 15 seconds before mumbling something like “Um, no, not my Bat Mitzvah…” (For those who don’t know, typically someone celebrating their Bat Mitzvah would be 13…)

OMG that's amazing!

I got carded for an R movie just before I turned 31.

That's hilarious! I only get carded for anything in Florida. They must have stricter punishments for violators than other parts of the country.

That was some bus tale you told of the multi-generational family along with the line cutters! I haven't taken the magical express since they reopened but I've heard a lot the wait times have been really long. We stayed in the garden wing of the Contemporary with our daughters back in 1996 and loved facing the water which allowed us an upfront personal view of the electrical water float parade at night! I hope the lightning cleared up so you could enjoy the pool!

Spoiler: We did get to see the Water Pageant on this trip! Not from our room, though.

 

[bee]

Day 1, cont.

After we had sat outside for awhile it actually started to rain so we gave up on swimming and went back to the room. M was sooo sad that we had put on the sunscreen for nothing. We were starting to get hungry so we decided to get dressed and go to Trader Sam's Tiki Terrace for some dinner and drinks.

On the way we saw more bunnies!

Still closed

The five-legged goat!

We boarded the monorail after a few minutes and were on our way.

As we approached the TTC we saw two deer! I was not quick enough with my phone to get a photo though.

The conductor announced that the Poly station was closed (which we knew) and told anyone who wanted to go to the Poly to get off at the TTC and take the path. We had been planning to get off at the GF, but we followed the conductor's instructions.

We soon found the Poly path and enjoyed our walk through the resort. We arrived at Trader Sam's and were happy to see plenty of tables available. We ended up right by the water:

Our waiter Shane greeted us and pointed us to the QR code to scan for the menu. In the weeks leading up to the trip I knew I wanted at least one Mai Tai because it's a vacation drink and something I would probably not make at home. Here was my chance! I ordered the Hipppotomai-tai and M ordered the Mosquito Mojito (also a vacation drink!). Our waiter, Shane, did NOT ask for our IDs!

We were both surprised we didn't get IDed! My conclusion was that our server must have been a CP kid, and he could tell we were older than him, so we must be of legal drinking age!

We also order food:

Tofu lettuce cups

Veggie rainbow roll, but they were out of avocado so it's missing that

While we were eating we saw some EMS bring a stretcher through the outdoor dining area and into the main building. I hope the person was okay!

Knowing that a lot of Disney entertainment has been cut since the COVID reopening, we were pleasantly surprised to see a singer/ukulele player take a seat at the microphone.

I wish I remembered his name but he was very good and was a native Hawaiian. It was so nice to just sit and enjoy some music by the water. I haven't mentioned this yet but the weather didn't feel too bad today. Even though it was hot, there was enough cloud coverage that the sun wasn't blasting, and it wasn't *TOO* humid.

We decided we didn't want another drink at Trader Sam's, but we DID want to check out the Enchanted Rose at the GF, so we headed toward the walkway between the two resorts.

Anybody know what these Mickey letter signs are? We saw them all over various resorts.

BUNNY!

ANOTHER BUNNY!

Hi, home for the next few days!

I'm noticing now that the clouds in these photos look rather threatening, but I don't remember it seeming like it was going to rain.

It was a good day for bunnies!

Up next: At the Gluten Free!

 

[bee]

Here are some missing pictures from this day’s lunch. I don’t know why I couldn’t find them before.

 

[bee]

Day 1, cont.

We approached the Gluten Free (I started calling it that as a joke years ago and it has stuck!) and found our way to the main building.

We took the elevator to the second floor. On our way up we noticed that there was a pianist played on the ground floor of the lobby.

The piano was surrounded by several barriers to keep guests out of the pianist's personal space, but the one guest above was getting a little too close for comfort. He must have made a request, because soon we heard the opening notes of "The Entertainer."

We found Enchanted Rose and saw that the seating was open, so we picked a table as far away from everyone else as possible.

Laurie was our main server and Chelsea was training under her. M ordered the Lavender Fog and I had the Rye Not?

We both really liked our drinks. The Lavender Fog was especially delicious and unique, and the Rye Not? is a great choice for fans of rye.

Both our servers were great, especially Laurie, whom we got to chat with for awhile. We recounted our tales of having to go through security twice and she told us that technically any boarding pass can get you into any terminal of the airport. She used to work for an airline and would sometimes go into a different gate area to get better food than the choices in her actual gate area. You learn something new every day!

Though we had come primarily for the drinks, the Truffle Fries on the menu were calling our names!

We even got a personal ketchup!

The fries were soooo good but they were a LOT. Not wanting to waste food we took about half of them in a to-go box to enjoy later.

During our last few minutes at Enchanted Rose we enjoyed a bit of the sunset.

Surprise cherry!

I will admit I was very skeptical about Enchanted Rose. The theming seems rather out of place at the GF and the prices of the drinks are on the high end. But they drinks were great and service was excellent so in the end we didn't care about the theme.

And with that we made our way back to the monorail to go back to the Contemporary.

Up next: "Are those houses?"

 

[dizfan917]

We always liked having a drink at Mizner's before Narcoossee's or California Grill and listening to the band. We're hoping to try ER before Narcoossee's on my birthday. We'll try to be open minded...

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

That's hilarious! I only get carded for anything in Florida. They must have stricter punishments for violators than other parts of the country.

For booze I totally get it but the movie thing really threw me for a loop.

I think I’ve aged double or triple during the last 18 months so I couldn’t pull that off now.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

What a nice way to spend time at Disney, Trader Sams and Enchanted Rose! I really enjoyed the truffle fries as well.

 

[lindawdw]

Sounds like a nice way to spend your afternoon since you weren't able to enjoy pool time! The Beauty and the Beast Lounge at GF is very pretty but we really miss the coziness that you felt at Mizner's Lounge.

 

[bee]

For booze I totally get it but the movie thing really threw me for a loop.

I think I’ve aged double or triple during the last 18 months so I couldn’t pull that off now.

I think that's part of why people think we are younger as well. During the last 18 months we have loved working from home and have been (in many ways) happier. Plus we are both exercising more regularly and consistently now than we were before. So where other people have been way more stressed and possibly unable to do their best to take care of themselves, we have actually been happier and healthier.

What a nice way to spend time at Disney, Trader Sams and Enchanted Rose! I really enjoyed the truffle fries as well.

Yes, it was a nice evening!

We always liked having a drink at Mizner's before Narcoossee's or California Grill and listening to the band. We're hoping to try ER before Narcoossee's on my birthday. We'll try to be open minded...

Sounds like a nice way to spend your afternoon since you weren't able to enjoy pool time! The Beauty and the Beast Lounge at GF is very pretty but we really miss the coziness that you felt at Mizner's Lounge.

We only went to Mizner's once and didn't have a great experience. It was an extra busy night and they were understaffed so the service was sloooooooow. I know this isn't typical and lots of people loved Mizner's, but we have no nostalgia or fond memories of the place.