Trip Report Two broke guys & a dog (for the last time.) (now with Christmas 2024!)

No, I’m not mad at Disney. We’ll be back (in fact, it can’t be soon enough.) But this turned out to be our last trip together as a family.

Who: Brian (R) Tony (L) and Kylie.

When: May, 2023.

Can’t tease this, so I’ll just come out with it.

We’ve posted TRs over the years under the “Two broke guys & a dog” banner (and other titles.) Our May trip was short, and we had already booked August for my birthday (complete with a planned meet up with @Tuvalu) so I thought I’d make one double TR after August.

I ended up with Covid mid-month and we had to postpone to December for Brian’s birthday.

In the meantime, Kylie, our 14 year old German Shepherd/Chow Chow was diagnosed with heart failure. That “heads up” turned out to be a gift and a blessing that allowed us to spend so much extra quality time with her.

Kylie’s 14th bday on Halloween:

She stayed with us through the holidays, rubbing on the Christmas tree when she walked past it, per usual (like a cat lol) and was really doing well - eating, going for walks, snuggling. I expected more of a slow, gradual decline…but she passed yesterday. Now my heart is failing.

I don’t know how far I’ll get with this today. It might actually be too soon. But I thought it could be therapeutic, and a nice tribute.

For some reason, since my 30s, if I cry even a little, my eyelids swell up and it’s hard to undo. Ice helps only temporarily. I fear typing all this out will continue the waterworks (it already has) and prolong that condition. OTOH, they’re already swollen, so WTH? I’ll play it by ear, if that’s ok.

This is my love letter to my pup.

 

[Tuvalu]

But wait - there’s more…

These are my two favorites (in addition to the one I posted in real time.)

View attachment 831193

That feels straight out of Mary Poppins to me.

And…

View attachment 831194

It’s like winter! Very Christmasy. Love it. Can’t say I did it on purpose, or knew what I was doing, or edited it in any way, not even cropping.

Oh, @Tuvalu ! You’re pretty much the only reason I even think to take pictures of fireworks. I hope you enjoyed them! And thank you, because I enjoyed them.

I guess that phone setting change works.

Loved every one of them, my friend!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Great fireworks pictures. I hope you enjoyed the Rosen crown dinner. I always like it there.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I’d say that was a pretty stellar day one.

Normally, we take a break in the afternoon, but our traveling companions kept us going, and since they left at 8, we figured we might as well stay to the end.

They texted us while we were at dinner to say they made their train with 2 minutes to spare(!) but they RAN. (Emphasis theirs.) I was relieved for them.

Our new BFF (she thinks) who works at Rose & Crown (who we’d never met until 8:45pm that day) was oversharing a smidge, but also saying she wished we could make it in to see her on Christmas Day, and practically ordered us to see her on January 13th.



She’s young, she’s away from her family, I get it. Now go get drunk with strangers like the rest of us did when we were in that situation, and enjoy your holiday tips! (US only.)

I already forget her name.

But, as I told her when we were leaving, she had been lovely.

Now that I’m a professional photographer, and the dreaded peeeeple were leaving (not fast enough) I tried for more shots of the streets of England with the decorated street lamps.

I’ll choose just one:

Much better than the one posted earlier.

Obligatory “leaving but don’t want to leave” on our way out in a cloud of firework smoke pics:

That would be nice with the Christmas tree if Godzilla hadn’t set Orlando on fire and caused that awful backdrop!

Did you hear about that thing with the gingerbread thing like the geodesic Epcot ball?

So did we, but the Communicore place was locked up.

But my zoom knows no boundaries (with windows!)

OK, we didn’t really see it, but we kind of saw it. Check. And $22 Lyft back to the Hotel Delta by Marriott…for what should have been an uneventful night.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Great fireworks pictures. I hope you enjoyed the Rosen crown dinner. I always like it there.

It’s become one of our more regular stops over the last decade or so…but, coincidentally, we’ve only ever been seated outdoors!

We both enjoyed our meals, per usual. Their Old Fashioned…

 

[93boomer]

But wait - there’s more…

These are my two favorites (in addition to the one I posted in real time.)

View attachment 831193

That feels straight out of Mary Poppins to me.

And…

View attachment 831194

It’s like winter! Very Christmasy. Love it. Can’t say I did it on purpose, or knew what I was doing, or edited it in any way, not even cropping.

Oh, @Tuvalu ! You’re pretty much the only reason I even think to take pictures of fireworks. I hope you enjoyed them! And thank you, because I enjoyed them.

I guess that phone setting change works.

And I thought your pictures couldn’t get any better!! These two are my favs. Great job!!

 

[Swissmiss]

Your pictures are fantastic - what was the setting change that was suggested to you?

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Your pictures are fantastic - what was the setting change that was suggested to you?

On your iPhone, go to settings, then click on Camera. Scroll almost to the bottom and you’ll see “Prioritize faster shooting,” which is most likely turned on by default. Toggle it off. Voila!

 

[93boomer]

On your iPhone, go to settings, then click on Camera. Scroll almost to the bottom and you’ll see “Prioritize faster shooting,” which is most likely turned on by default. Toggle it off. Voila!

Ooo nice tip! Thanks!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

what should have been an uneventful night.

Should have been. Warning: here comes Jersey Tony (with a slight buzz.)

For context, I had one drink at 3pm lunch (I think we can rule that out as having any effect at 11pm) the one weird Jager thing during the night…and oh, yeah! I suggested the group stop at the full bar at Spice Road Table (each got a drink to go.) That had to be around 7pm. One drink with dinner. I’ll stand by the statement that I was only slightly buzzed by 11pm.

Now, when we arrived at the Marriott that afternoon, we just dropped our bags and went to the parks.

Btw, the room:

The downstairs bar - cool, but we had no occasion to use it.

When we got back to the room, naturally the first thing I wanted to do is turn on the TV. But where was the remote?

We hadn’t touched it earlier. We looked in the usual places. We even looked in every drawer, on the floor, etc.

I picked up our room phone and dialed “0.” I thought I heard something, and then, “click.”
I dialed zero again: click. A third time: click.

I clicked the button on the phone that specifically said, “front desk.“ Click.

I dialed the button on the phone that said it was for “service.”

Someone answered: “Front desk.”

I politely explained that we checked in this afternoon “and dropped our bags to go to the parks while our Uber was waiting.” As a Disney Good Neighbor hotel, I figured they’d understand the context.

I said we couldn’t find the remote to turn the TV on.

“Oh, the only one we have is for the front desk and we need that.”



Oh, and it’s late, and this and that. I reminded her that I paid for this room for two nights, and was I expected to not watch TV?

She began to say, “You need to contact the…” and Jersey Tony cut her off with, “No, YOU need to contact the.” (Jersey Tony didn’t care what came after the “the.”)

Next thing I know, there was a knock at the door, and a man handed me a remote. He said, “This is the front desk remote. Would you please return it to the front desk when you check out?”

Brian and I had a good chuckle about that request afterwards.

I kept wondering how brilliant they would have to be to just take one from an empty room?!

In the morning, with all the things on my nightstand, my eyeglasses fell on the floor. When I picked them up, this caught my eye:

Can you see that? The original remote was kind of behind the bed/between the bed and the nightstand.

Not reasonable to expect I would have found it there. Why didn’t (?) housekeeping report it missing? Why don’t they have extra remotes?

At any rate, when we went down the next morning, I returned the front desk remote. Jersey Tony also informed them what a **** the night person was.

(To Brian’s dismay) I can’t fall asleep without my TV on!

 

[luvinthemajik]

Should have been. Warning: here comes Jersey Tony (with a slight buzz.)

For context, I had one drink at 3pm lunch (I think we can rule that out as having any effect at 11pm) the one weird Jager thing during the night…and oh, yeah! I suggested the full bar at Spice Road Table to the group (each got a drink to go.) That had to be around 7pm. One drink with dinner. I’ll stand by the statement that I was only slightly buzzed by 11pm.

Now, when we arrived at the Marriott that afternoon, we just dropped our bags and went to the parks.

Btw, the room:
View attachment 831241

The downstairs bar - cool, but we had no occasion to use it.
View attachment 831242

When we got back to the room, naturally the first thing I wanted to do is turn on the TV. But where was the remote?

We hadn’t touched it earlier. We looked in the usual places. We even looked in every drawer, on the floor, etc.

I picked up our room phone and dialed “0.” I thought I heard something, and then, “click.”
I dialed zero again: click. A third time: click.

I clicked the button on the phone that specifically said, “front desk.“ Click.

I dialed the button on the phone that said it was for “service.”

Someone answered: “Front desk.”

I politely explained that we checked in this afternoon “and dropped our bags to go to the parks while our Uber was waiting.” As a Disney Good Neighbor hotel, I figured they’d understand the context.

I said we couldn’t find the remote to turn the TV on.

“Oh, the only one we have is for the front desk and we need that.”



Oh, and it’s late, and this and that. I reminded her that I paid for this room for two nights, and was I expected to not watch TV?

She began to say, “You need to contact the…” and Jersey Tony cut her off with, “No, YOU need to contact the.” (Jersey Tony didn’t care what came after the “the.”)

Next thing I know, there was a knock at the door, and a man handed me a remote. He said, “This is the front desk remote. Would you please return it to the front desk when you check out?”

Brian and I had a good chuckle about that request afterwards.

I kept wondering how brilliant they would have to be to just take one from an empty room?!

In the morning, with all the things on my nightstand, my eyeglasses fell on the floor. When I picked them up, this caught my eye:

View attachment 831244

Can you see that? The original remote was kind of behind the bed/between the bed and the nightstand.

Not reasonable to expect I would have found it there. Why didn’t (?) housekeeping report it missing? Why don’t they have extra remotes?

At any rate, when we went down the next morning, I returned the front desk remote. Jersey Tony also informed them what a **** the night person was.

(To Brian’s dismay) I can’t fall asleep without my TV on!

My Bostonian side loves your Jersey side, I would have reacted in the same way, and done an eye roll upon finding the remote

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I did not let RemoteGate ruin my night. Brian was asleep before I found the Hallmark channel which reliably shows me mindless, impossible, formulaic nonsense (but no news!) so I can drift off with a pleasant subconscious notion of Canadian lumberjacks in the general vicinity.

This time, Brian slept well; I was a little under on sleep time, even for me. Previous TR’s will bear out that’s the norm. I get like a little kid on Christmas Eve. (What will I be like on actual Christmas Eve at WDW? I don’t know, but I’m bringing melatonin.)

I told him he was not sleeping until noon. He slept 11 hours! We are no longer dropping Kylie off at BFPC by 11 - we should be getting to the parks by 11!

We got into the Lyft at 12:28.

However, we (I) had brilliantly chosen MK on a party night (the last party night?) and we hit the sweet spot between the morning warriors passing us by en masse on our way in, and 4pm when the hordes of revelers would arrive.

Wait times were relatively tame! And our first attraction was one we had never done, but I’ve mentioned attempting to do in this TR.

What is it?

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I should know by now to review my pics before posting so I don’t skip things.

The hotel shuttle schedule was kind of useless.

It was a beautiful, warm, partly cloudy day…

…so naturally, we took the ferry.

Brian, being an awful person said the Dwarfs must run the engine.

And since we were going from MK to Cali Grill at 5:20 (hopefully at the bar) we brought polo shirts in my backpack, and got a locker for that.

Ten bucks for the day. All good.

So then what was that first (and new to us) attraction?

 

[93boomer]

Should have been. Warning: here comes Jersey Tony (with a slight buzz.)

For context, I had one drink at 3pm lunch (I think we can rule that out as having any effect at 11pm) the one weird Jager thing during the night…and oh, yeah! I suggested the full bar at Spice Road Table to the group (each got a drink to go.) That had to be around 7pm. One drink with dinner. I’ll stand by the statement that I was only slightly buzzed by 11pm.

Now, when we arrived at the Marriott that afternoon, we just dropped our bags and went to the parks.

Btw, the room:
View attachment 831241

The downstairs bar - cool, but we had no occasion to use it.
View attachment 831242

When we got back to the room, naturally the first thing I wanted to do is turn on the TV. But where was the remote?

We hadn’t touched it earlier. We looked in the usual places. We even looked in every drawer, on the floor, etc.

I picked up our room phone and dialed “0.” I thought I heard something, and then, “click.”
I dialed zero again: click. A third time: click.

I clicked the button on the phone that specifically said, “front desk.“ Click.

I dialed the button on the phone that said it was for “service.”

Someone answered: “Front desk.”

I politely explained that we checked in this afternoon “and dropped our bags to go to the parks while our Uber was waiting.” As a Disney Good Neighbor hotel, I figured they’d understand the context.

I said we couldn’t find the remote to turn the TV on.

“Oh, the only one we have is for the front desk and we need that.”



Oh, and it’s late, and this and that. I reminded her that I paid for this room for two nights, and was I expected to not watch TV?

She began to say, “You need to contact the…” and Jersey Tony cut her off with, “No, YOU need to contact the.” (Jersey Tony didn’t care what came after the “the.”)

Next thing I know, there was a knock at the door, and a man handed me a remote. He said, “This is the front desk remote. Would you please return it to the front desk when you check out?”

Brian and I had a good chuckle about that request afterwards.

I kept wondering how brilliant they would have to be to just take one from an empty room?!

In the morning, with all the things on my nightstand, my eyeglasses fell on the floor. When I picked them up, this caught my eye:

View attachment 831244

Can you see that? The original remote was kind of behind the bed/between the bed and the nightstand.

Not reasonable to expect I would have found it there. Why didn’t (?) housekeeping report it missing? Why don’t they have extra remotes?

At any rate, when we went down the next morning, I returned the front desk remote. Jersey Tony also informed them what a **** the night person was.

(To Brian’s dismay) I can’t fall asleep without my TV on!

Good for you!!!
Wow I am so confused why housekeeping didn’t see that?? And when did they just take remotes out of rooms. Oh yeah my Southern lady voice would have definitely come out over that!

 

[93boomer]

I did not let RemoteGate ruin my night. Brian was asleep before I found the Hallmark channel which reliably shows me mindless, impossible, formulaic nonsense (but no news!) so I can drift off with a pleasant subconscious notion of Canadian lumberjacks in the general vicinity.

This time, Brian slept well; I was a little under on sleep time, even for me. Previous TR’s will bear out that’s the norm. I get like a little kid on Christmas Eve. (What will I be like on actual Christmas Eve at WDW? I don’t know, but I’m bringing melatonin.)

I told him he was not sleeping until noon. He slept 11 hours! We are no longer dropping Kylie off at BFPC by 11 - we should be getting to the parks by 11!

We got into the Lyft at 12:28.

However, we (I) had brilliantly chosen MK on a party night (the last party night?) and we hit the sweet spot between the morning warriors passing us by en masse on our way in, and 4pm when the hordes of revelers would arrive.

Wait times were relatively tame! And our first attraction was one we had never done, but I’ve mentioned attempting to do in this TR.

What is it?

Geez I’m just going to guess . I have no idea.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train?

 

[93boomer]

I did not let RemoteGate ruin my night. Brian was asleep before I found the Hallmark channel which reliably shows me mindless, impossible, formulaic nonsense (but no news!) so I can drift off with a pleasant subconscious notion of Canadian lumberjacks in the general vicinity.

This time, Brian slept well; I was a little under on sleep time, even for me. Previous TR’s will bear out that’s the norm. I get like a little kid on Christmas Eve. (What will I be like on actual Christmas Eve at WDW? I don’t know, but I’m bringing melatonin.)

I told him he was not sleeping until noon. He slept 11 hours! We are no longer dropping Kylie off at BFPC by 11 - we should be getting to the parks by 11!

We got into the Lyft at 12:28.

However, we (I) had brilliantly chosen MK on a party night (the last party night?) and we hit the sweet spot between the morning warriors passing us by en masse on our way in, and 4pm when the hordes of revelers would arrive.

Wait times were relatively tame! And our first attraction was one we had never done, but I’ve mentioned attempting to do in this TR.

What is it?

This made me laugh out loud. I can’t get the Canadian lumberjacks out of mind now! Thank you for that!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Geez I’m just going to guess . I have no idea.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train?

Good guess, but I believe we rode 7DMT in this very report. I’m guessing early in the year(?) late night at MK. Got in line just before park closing with a 20ish minute wait.

Hint: The sun’ll come out…

 

[93boomer]

Good guess, but I believe we rode 7DMT in this very report. I’m guessing early in the year(?) late night at MK. Got in line just before park closing with a 20ish minute wait.

Hint: The sun’ll come out…

How did I miss that?? Senior brain kicking in !

 

[93boomer]

Good guess, but I believe we rode 7DMT in this very report. I’m guessing early in the year(?) late night at MK. Got in line just before park closing with a 20ish minute wait.

Hint: The sun’ll come out…

Ooo is that a clue?
Tomorrowland? Speedway?? I give.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Ooo is that a clue?
Tomorrowland? Speedway?? I give.

I was afraid that clue might be too specific. You’re in the correct land!

 

[93boomer]

I was afraid that clue might be too specific. You’re in the correct land!