Trip Report Two broke guys & a dog (for the last time.) (Once more, with feelings. 1/13/25.)

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.
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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:
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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.
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Click to expand...
Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The outdoors of the Delta hotel reminded us of AKL, where you have to walk through outdoor foliage to get to the gym and other buildings.

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If this is a thing, then I guess you all know about it already, but they must be tracking us for room ready texts. In retrospect, it may have been going on for awhile.

Last month, when we pulled up at the OKW lobby, we got our room ready text.

Today, when our Lyft pulled up at ASM, we got a room not ready text.

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Goofy gave that a big middle(ish) finger!

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Actually, without asking, and fully prepared to use bell services, the CM outdoors said we should go in and double-check.

Lo and behold, they had a room for us. Broadway section.

Why ya gotta put the gay guys in the Broadway section? 🤔

😆

We walked about 20 miles to our room. Why is this monkey trying to cut down this tree?

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Welcome!

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Plenty of room for @Tuvalu !

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Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
As we walked back through the lobby, the bus for AK rolled up. What luck! And we were the only ones on it, Shirley.

Hi, Pluto!
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The Christmas decorations are still up, and it’s definitely not dead. 30 min wait for the safari, 55 for Pandora.

Here’s a flamingo impersonator:
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These guys…the behavior was so much like dogs - like many animals, I guess. We watched for a bit.
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At one point, one of them pulled a totally Kylie move:

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She used to do that on carpet, in dirt. Lol. Thank you, not really pigs!

We headed over to Yak & Yeti, but there was no room at the bar.

Starving, and knowing the Nomad Lounge/Tiffins were nowhere near around the corner, we stopped at the QS next door. While in line, and concerned the entrees were all too sweet for my husband, we decided to just order drinks and apps and then head to the other places.

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We ordered egg rolls (2) pot stickers (4) sangria for me, and a bottled water for B. It was all…meh. And $14 for sangria with no fruit, in a cup full of ice without much liquid. Not worth pictures. But at least we weren’t starving anymore. 😋

I did not bother ordering the banana parfait, and that was probably a good idea!
 
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Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I used the app to get on the waitlist for Nomad lounge - about 30 minutes. That gave us a chance to shop, and to see the parrots and macaws demo.

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Not those. These:

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That was just outside Tiffins, and well-timed for our ready text at Nomad Lounge. The bar was full, so for the first time, we were seated outdoors. Glad it wasn’t 50 degrees! It was very nice - felt like sitting in the middle of the woods, fairly private despite other tables.

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93boomer

93boomer

Premium Member
Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
OK, I give up. Been awake since 3am. Clearly going to stay that way.

I thought we’d take a lot more Lyfts on this trip (spoiled!) but continued to give the bus the first shot, and one shot was enough. It was an easy ride from AK to Disney’s Fort Wilderness resort, and an almost immediate transfer to the intra-resort bus up to Crockett’s Tavern at Pioneer Hall. As many times as we’d stayed here, we never saw this part. We always had our car and dog, and cars can’t reach this part of the resort. (Does anyone remember the TR when I placed a mobile order and then couldn’t get to it by car?!🤣)

As we rode, we passed spots we remembered, like when we walked (with Kylie) to pick up food at the Meadow station, and saw the turkeys(?) in the trees. Cue choking up on the bus. And now.

We exited the bus at what appeared to be a temporary stop, with lots of construction walls. I asked a CM where to find the Tavern, and he said, “Go to the sidewalk and take a left.”

We did that, and a family walked ahead of us. We saw a second CM guide them towards what appeared to be the back area of a show building. Again, I assumed this was temporary during construction. We didn’t watch to see where they went, kind of wanted to avoid them anyway, and that didn’t look like the back of a Tavern.

We walked to the next building. It didn’t look right, but there was a sign that could have been on stage (meaning it was fancy enough) which read, “Welcome, y’all” and listed Pioneer Hall, Crockett’s Tavern, and a couple of others. We opened the door and went inside.

Clearly we were backstage, I thought there’d be obvious signage to cut through to the front. Nope. We walked a bit, turned a corner, walked past a few interesting looking rooms, and Brian said, “We’re in the kitchen.” 😆😆😆

A CM greeted us and asked if we were guests. I explained, and another CM graciously showed us how to get where we were going.

It was kind of amazing we were able to get as far as we had! Alas, no pictures were taken. I thought I had taken one of the sign, but I guess not.

We were supposed to check in for our ride at/near the Tavern by 5:45. It was now between 5:15-5:30. We went to the walk-up window at the Tavern.

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Brian ordered the Gullywhumper and I the Bear-y Buckle (with half the sugar.) What a personality on that bartender! I think we’d enjoy sitting indoors with him at some point. And yes, we could bring our drinks on the carriage.

A toast to Kylie! This is where we drink:
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And this is where the horse drinks:

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…which is where we waited for the carriage. I was so glad it wasn’t cold. It would have been a different day. We were very lucky after all those freezing forecasts! And to think I considered canceling.

And here comes our ride.

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So handsome! Meet Pirate (and Shannon.)
 

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