We are back from another action pack, yet surprisingly relaxing, Disney World adventure. Our latest trip took place September 1st thru the 8th and had us residing in a studio at the Beach Club Villas. It had been a while since we stayed in our home resort and it felt so nice to be back. Let’s face it though, it was nice to be back in Disney at all. There was a gap of nine whole months in between trips this time. Usually we try to schedule the trips about 6 months apart. This keeps it so once you are back home it isn’t too sad as there is already another trip to look forward too. When we got back from our trip last January we didn’t even have this trip scheduled yet…very depressing.
Many times when we go to Disney, it is with extended family that can number over 20 people at one time. This trip however we kept it small with only my parents, my sister and I. This was very different for us, but it was a fun trip. Although it felt very relaxing we were able to do just about everything that we wanted.
So who am I? My name is Lindsay and I am a 26 year old vegan. I have been going to Disney with my family often since I was little and although the nature of the trips has changed somewhat, my love for the place has not. This is my third trip to Disney as a vegan, but I was concerned since I had learned that many of the old standby foods had been replaced with non vegan alternatives.
My sister will also be appearing often in this report though this was not technically a vacation for her, more on that later. She is 22 , just graduated from college and has recently moved to the Orlando area for a while. This is actually one of the reasons for the gap between trips, we timed this vacation so that we can visit.
An afternoon us swimming helped us work up and appetite. This evening we were splitting up. My mom and sister, who both love seafood, were going to Cape May Café. My father and I were trying someplace new, Sanaa. I was sooo excited to be able to eat here as I had heard they had a vegan only menu. I get to have a menu and pick anything off of it that I want. If you don’t have any allergies or special diets you have no idea how fantastic that is.
I ordered an eco-tini for a drink and it was delicious. Bonus, it comes with a bracelet for no additional charge. A drink and jewelry, win!
For my meal, I got the spicy cauliflower and the veggies in a green curry sauce with basmati rice. It was soooooo good. The picture does it no justice.
After dinner we went back to the room to meet up with my mom and sister. My sister and I had big plans for tonight. We were drinking around the world.
My sister met me in the lobby and we walked straight over to Epcot. Once we walked through the gates, we saw Mary Poppins with no line. We quickly made our way over.
Now that we got our nightly character picture out of the way it was time to get down to business. We started walking in the direction of France. We never get anything in France as is all seems so over priced, even for Disney. I had read about the new stall in Japan that service sake cocktails. So I suggested we go there first. My sister wanted the grenadine and I got the green apple. I’m a big fan of green apple drinks in general so this was right up my alley.
I would post the picture, but photobucket is being difficult right now....
We continued to walk with our drinks and look around. Before we knew it we were back in England. Our drinks having been finished a few countries before we decided to stop by the pub for another round. I got a Cider and Black, it is cider with a shot of black current juice. It was sweet and delicious. I would definitely get it again. We took our drinks to explore the shops around the UK. It was getting close to illuminations time and we wanted to stick close to the UK/France bridge. After a bit of exploring we found ourselves back outside with is starting to rain. We ran back into the Rose and Crown to wait out the weather. It wasn’t turning around so we decided to make the most of it and order another round, this time we both went with the cider.
Turns out that Illuminations goes off even in the rain. We were able to watch some of it from the window of the Rose and Crown, but it’s not the best view. We were feeling okay at this point so it didn’t really matter…plus we have seen the show numerous times before.
After the show is was still raining, so we sat down for a while longer. Soon enough the rain let up and we were able to walk outside. Not sure what to do with ourselves we walked the long way all the way around the lake before heading out.
We met a family on the way who weren’t sure what the best way to walk out was so we walked with them and chatted for a while. We left them safely at the bridge between future world and world showcase and finally made our way out of the park. We were not ready for bed yet so we decided that now was as good and any time to see what the Boardwalk nightlife had to offer.
First we tried Jellyrolls, but they had a cover. If we can avoid it we try not to pay covers at bars. Most of the bars around home only charge covers starting late or just to men. So before we paid to enter a place to pay for drinks, we tried Atlantic City Dance Hall. This is a make your own fun kind of place. My sister and I are good at this so we decided to stick around. Now the reason I call it a make your own fun place is that there are few people there and the music selection is really bad. Like we had to beg, literally, to get them to play just on song recorded after the year 2000. It was all bad 80s and 90s music. So with all of that its one of those places that you just have to embrace the badness of the place and make it your own. I am not sure if we will go back, but we were able to have a surprisingly good time hanging out and dancing badly to bad music
We slept in this morning do to coming in late the night before. I woke up around 9 as I had booked massages at the Mandara Spa in the Dolphin for my mom and myself as a treat for her birthday which was Sunday for 10. We had never been to this spa before and were excited to try it. We had been to the one in the Grand Floridian a few years before and enjoyed it. The spa was really easy to find which was nice, because we were worried about that. We were greeted as soon as we walked in. We checked in and were shown to the changing room. The room they have you wait in for your treatments is really nice. I didn’t have my camera with my but I stole this picture from the website.
I believe we were the first appointments of the day as it was just the two of us in the waiting area for most of the time. Due to the spa being so easy to find we were about 10 minutes early. They had water and tea available for you as you wait. Soon enough it was time and we were led to the treatment rooms that you located right off the waiting area. I had a Swedish massage for 50 minutes. It was nice and very relaxing.
After my massage I was lead to another room for relaxing after. My mom was already there she was done a few minutes before me. It was very nice to just sit and relax. The room looks out over the water. After massages I am always what I like to call zen-ed out, so it was nice just to sit and look out over the water and chat with my mom.
Soon enough we made our way out of the spa as it was getting close to time to meet the others. We met my sister in DTD for some shopping and Babycakes.
We ended up with 6 cupcake tops as they were 2 for 2 dollars. How could we pass that up? They were delicious and we snacked on them for the rest of the trip.
We continued shopping for a while before deciding to go back to the hotel to swim for a little while, this thought was finished though when it started to rain on the way back. We hung around the room and noticed that it was later than we thought it was. It was around dinner time and my sister said that she would like to go to Red Lobster for dinner so that is where we went. This time I got two baked potatoes (two because they were small, hate that). The rain found us again during dinner. It managed to let us just enough for us to make it back out to the car not looking like we had just stepped off Kali.
By the time we got back to the hotel the rain had cleared up and they were going to be opening the pool back up. We quickly changed into our swimsuits and made our way to the pool. It was nearly dark when we got down there and there were very few people around. For about a half hour we had the whole pool just about to ourselves.
We were down there for a while only realizing the time when we saw Illuminations start going off. We watched the first bit from the pool and made our way back to the room for the second half. It was a nice way to finish a relaxing day.
haha...the weird thing about them is they are really the tops of cupcakes....you can see where they cut them. I would like to know what happend to the bottoms
When I woke up that Thursday morning, I could hardly believe it. We only had 2 days left in Disney and there was still so much that we wanted to do. Given this today was going to make up for lost time. This morning we wanted to go to Epcot as the first day we didn’t really do all that much in Future World. I think with coming and going from the back entrance you tend to forget about some of the things that are there once you ride the big rides.
We arrived for rope drop, then proceed to wait and wait some more. For some reason with the back entrance they do not start letting you through until exactly opening time, even though they let the people in the front of the park in and up to a certain point. This always bothers me. Anyway, we finally were let into the park and saw…no one. There was hardly a person to be found.
We headed straight for Soar’in with the idea to pick up fast passes and if we were quick enough also make in onto the ride. We were not prepared for what we saw when we arrived.
Yes, that is a five minute wait time. Now I know that the park just opened, but Soarin starts with a half hour wait and just goes up from there. I have never before seen this. Needless to say we headed straight for the stand by line.
We walked all the way up to the loading area. There was already a family in the front row of B so we ask to sit in the front of C. They CMs were very nice and pointed us over. Soon it was time for our flight. It was enjoyable as always and I couldn’t wait to ride it again.
Surprise….we didn’t have to wait at all. When we started to unbuckle our seat belts a CM came over and asked if we want to ride again. There was no one waiting to sit in glider C so we got to go again. I have had this happen on rides like The Peoplemover, but never even dreamed that it would ever happen on Soarin.
Two rides in a row satisfied our Soarin fix for a while so we decided to make our exit.
After that kind of experience on Soarin, we felt pretty confident that we would be able to get on Mission Space with little wait, so we headed in that.
Holy moly! Yeah I can honestly say I've never heard of that kind of "reride" situation at Soarin'. I said it before but I'm saying it again... I seriously need to rethink our vacation months! LOL!
After our deep space training we found ourselves quite hungry. I guess a space trip to Mars and back can do that to a girl. Good this we had breakfast reservations at Kona Café in the Polynesian. I was sooo excited for this reservation as I didn’t know what I was going to order, but was happy with the choices. We took the monorail over to the TTC then over to Poly. My dad met us there and was already waiting at a table for us. While everyone was looking over the menu, the chief came out to go over my options. I asked is the Tonga Toast could be veganized. My answer was yes and no. He said that technically no because they couldn’t speak to cross contamination. But he even it that is okay with you it’s still not recommended as it just doesn’t taste as good because of the ingredients that needed to be left off.
That was okay as I had seen a picture of the fruit plate and was equally excited for that. Since it came with sausage or bacon I asked if I could get Mickey waffles instead….they even brought me non-dairy butter!
Everything was really good. The fruit was juicy and fresh and the Mickey waffles were very yummy. Once everyone was done eating my sister and I excused ourselves to go back to Epcot to get some more rides in.
Our first ride choice was SSE. Like living with the land, this is another ride I can just do over and over again.
My sister sat in the first row or the car and I sat behind her. This way we were both able to pick our futures.
WOW! you made me soooo much more excited for my breakfast ADR at Kona!!! that fruit plate arrangement was beautiful. my trip can't come soon enough I'm glad your eating options seemed to work out so well for you on this trip
Another place my sister and I love to play is Innoventions. I seriously don’t think we will ever grow out of this place. Our first stop was the Vision House. This is the latest version of Disney environmentally friendly home. I love this stuff and can’t wait to employ some of the techniques in my home one day.
After learning how to make our hypothetical homes greener we decided it was probably a good idea to learn how to keep it from burning down on us.
And since we wanted our dream homes to become a reality one day, we learned how to save up for them.
By now it was getting close to 1 o’clock. Every time we are in Innoventions we say that we are going to go to the Disney Chase Visa character meet and greet and get out picture taken and every time we don’t. It is only open from 1-3 pm and we are usually out of the parks in the afternoon. This time we were still there and I was determined that we were going to get our picture this time. When we arrived about 15 minutes before it opened, there was already a small line forming so we hopped right in. Soon it was open and the line began moving, then it was our turn J
After getting meeting Mickey and Co, we were just hungry enough to warrant a snack. We stopped by the electric umbrella for some fries. The fries here are always cooked in their own fryer so you don’t have to worry about cross contamination.
After our snack we headed toward the front of the park so see if we could have our picture printed out already. We were in luck and were able to pick it with us. They must send the photopass pictures digitally, because we were able to pick up the photo about 15 minutes after we had is taken.
Picture in hand it was time to make our way back to the BCV as my sister had to leave.
After hanging out for a few in the hotel, my mom and I decided it to make our way back into Epcot for a few more rides before dinner. We started by making a right to go through the countries. We stopped in America to listen to the Voices or Liberty. I love listening to this group and try to catch them at least once a trip. I never take pictures inside though, because I you end up sitting so close to the group.
We started towards the Land as we knew we were going to be eating at Sunshine Season. As we were making our way down I couldn’t help but take a look at the wait time for Soar’in. Can you believe it at around 4:30pm the wait time for this was only 10 minutes. I didn’t remember to take a picture this time as I think I was in shock, so you are just going to have to take my word for it. Even with the short wait time we decided to pass as we had already gotten our fill that morning. We made our way to look at what was on offer at Sunshine Season. It was now that we were acquainted with the fact that the menu has change. Usually I get the vegetarian platter with the items that are vegan. This time the items offered was just sad. The tofu is usually fresh and prepared on site, this time I was give defrosted tofu nuggets that I have to make my mother try for me because they looked so much like fast food chicken nuggets. My mother got beef and broccoli and was just as disappointed. The sketchy neighborhood Chinese place makes better. Needless to say we are crossing Sunshine Season off our list until the food quality goes back up to where it used to be.
I know that I took a bite on one of the nuggets, but this was even to me looking this pathetic. We stopped for one more ride on Spaceship Earth before making our way out and onto the monorail.
We were going to spend the rest of our evening at Magic Kingdom.
Hi all....hopefully I should be able to have an update for you soon. Things have been crazy here in jersey, sandy hit us pretty hard. The power is coming back on slowly, but the clean up is massive. I'll try to post once I have more Internet connection. I hope that everyone else affected by the storm is safe. Hang in there.
Im so sorry to hear about your gf's neighborhood. Sandy def wasnt kind during her stay. Now of course we are preparing this new storm tomorrow. Nj just cant seem to catch a break lately...
Soon enough we found ourselves walking through to the MK
I wanted to go take some pictures by the wishing well, so we headed in that direction. As we were walking we passed the Merida meet. She was just ending so I got a picture as she was on her way out.
Finally we made it to the fountain.
The lines were short in Fantasyland so we opted for a spin on Dumbo so we could see the new line system. There is a play around where the kids can play instead of standing in line.
Almost as soon as we sat down it was our turn.
After Dumbo we walked further into FL passing by Winnie the Pooh. I haven’t rode this in forever and the line was only about 20 minutes so we gave it a go.
The ride was cute and I would ride again assuming the line was short. Our last ride for the evening was Small World.
After our boat ride we slowing made our way to the front of the park, stopping in the shops along the way.
Our last full day was spent for the most part at Animal Kingdom.
We stared our day in Dinoland, with a ride that we could all enjoy, The Primeval Whirl.
After that my father and I split up with my mom and sis. They went to get some breakfast as we went to Dinosaur. My mom and sis don’t like this one very much.
There was no line and we were on and off fairly quickly.
We met up with my mom and sis by Pizzafari, one of the only places open for them to get food. We then split up again. This time it was my mother and I, with my dad and sister going to ride Everest. We spent our time wandering around Camp Minnie Mickey and getting some character meets in.
Now it wasn’t so hot this morning, but for some reason they had the fan misters running. This put so many water drop in the air that it ruined most of the pictures that we managed to take that morning.
My dad and sis we done with their ride about now and wanted in on the action.
We were planning on seeing the next Lion King show so we didn’t want to stray too far. So we wandered the area for a while. I picked up a Pineapple bar.
Soon enough it was time to get in line for the show. It was very entertaining and always.
After the show we split up again. This time it was for a very good reason. My sister and I were going on the Wild Africa Trek! It was time for us to go to the meeting area.
We checked in and about 15 minutes before the tour as recommended. The rest of our group soon arrived. It was a small group this time, there were only six of us. This was nice as it didn’t feel crowded and we were able to ask any questions that we wanted. Warning, they took a lot of picture for us during the tour so this part is picture heavy.
The tour started with us being taken behind scenes to be fit with all of our gear.
They first took us through the Pangani trail. They gave us a guided tour and taught us a lot about the animals in the area. We spent some time with the bird and learning about their habits. They were really beautiful and it was nice to have someone pointing out the different types.
