50 and fabulous - A November, 2021 trip report - Updated 08-12-22 - FINISHED

[Ruthie5671]

Hello friends!!!!
​

I am so excited to finally be able to start writing this trip report. I hope that my friends who were reading my pre-trip report are still hanging in there because I was AWFUL in maintaining that report. And when I say awful, I really, really mean it. I hope to be much better in the actual trip report because, well, I have pictures from the trip and things to talk about and memories to share.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Ruthie and if you cannot tell from the trip report title, this trip was to celebrate my birthday (even though it was this past May) and to celebrate Disney's birthday (even though it was in October).

This is me



And this is my fabulous husband Tony





We are from Frankort, KY and love, love, love going to Disney. This has been our go-to vacation for the past five years (three times). I have previously written court reports, so feel free to look those up and read all about the craziness that is our vacation. This trip was all about "firsts" for us. It was our first split stay, first time on the sky liner (or as I called it - the flying tin of death), our first after hours party and our first time going right in the middle of the holiday season.

As with any vacation, there were a ton of high moments and a few low moments and several in-between. I like to give a detailed and balanced trip report where I talk about driving down from KY, having two ECV's, managing the weather and fitting in all the magic possible. There will be lots of pictures and plenty of humor.

Here are a few things to look forward to -

The up's and down's of Florida weather.
Food and wine and wine and food
Sleeping for free at the Grand Floridian
Not quite getting on all the rides we wanted to
Fireworks and a PARADE!

It was a great trip and I'm looking forward to getting started. Coming up next - we are driving and driving and driving!



#50andfabulous

 

[Bama Mom]

YAY! So glad to hear you guys had a good trip. Can't wait to read all about it.

 

[rdkeim]

Anxious to read about your trip!

 

[footballmouse]

 

[starousse]

So glad you're trip is finally here. Looking forward to hearing about it.

 

[nascargirl]

Looking forward to reading your report

 

[Paulaparm]

Joining in and looking forward to reading

 

[Ruthie5671]

November 14th - Departure Day!!!
​

So if you have read any of my previous trip reports, you know that your method of travel is driving. Yes friends, we drive from Frankfort, KY to Orlando, FL. All in total, it is about a 16 hour drive and we split it up in two days. Historically I do all the driving because Tony drives like he's the winner of the Indy 500. However, this year I decided that I would reluctantly share the driving responsibilities. I figured I could take that time to sleep and wouldn't realize how fast he was driving! That was my hope anyway. In reality, I drove the whole way down and he drove the whole way home. But we will get to that part later!

The day before we left was a tornado of packing, cleaning, doing laundry, getting the trash out and getting the van loaded. My plan was that we would go to sleep really early Saturday night and get up and be on the road by 3:00 AM on the morning of the 14th. This plan would have been much easier to pull of if the University of KY football team wasn't playing that Saturday night with a 7:00 kickoff. I went to bed nice and early as planned, but Tony stayed up way too late and ended up only sleeping about three hours. We loaded up the last few things in the van and made sure we had caffeine at the ready and with a last check of the house and locking of the door, we were on our way south. And not a moment too soon because it was cold outside!





I begged Tony to shave, but he felt that the "slightly homeless mountain man" look was the way to go.

I-75 South is quite the boring road. Thankfully, it was a Sunday and given it was basically in the middle of the night, there was practically no traffic. Thanks to Amazon Prime, we binged watched "Amazing Race" and watched the sun come up over the mountains of Tennessee. It is actually a very pretty ride and since Tony was snoring the majority of the time, I just enjoyed the scenery and drove and drove. We stopped for breakfast at a Denny's somewhere in Tennessee. Nothing special but the eggs were hot and the bathrooms were clean. Back on the road and soon we were in Georgia. Now driving thru Georgia is a very deceptive state. You think once you get thru the living hell of Atlanta that Georgia is done. That would be a solid no. There are still hours and hours and miles and miles to go. We did encounter some traffic in Atlanta, but nothing too terrible. And before we knew it - or a lot of hours later - we had arrived in Valdosta. This would be our stopping point for the night.

I had made a reservation at Holiday Inn and Suites in Valdosta off exit #18. I had enough points to make the room free so that is what we did. We had a king sized bed handicapped accessible room so that there would be a shower with a shower chair and no step in tub. Tony has mobility issues due to a previous stroke, so I like to make sure that he can be safe when we travel. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the room. It was very nice, with a little kitchenette area and a super comfortable king sized bed. To say we were exhausted would be an understatement. We had arrived at around 4:00 that afternoon and decided that going back out was just not in the cards for us. We were exhausted, so we Door Dashed some Panda Express, took showers and had a super early night.

My only complaint about the room was the bathroom. It was plenty big enough and the shower was great. But water went everywhere!!! I had to use about 5 towels on the floor to gather up all the water. Thankfully nobody went sliding across the bathroom, but it could have been quite the scene. Other than that, we both slept like babies and nobody heard a peep from us until the next morning.

November 15th - we have arrived!
​

We didn't set any alarms knowing full well that my internal alarm and my bladder would wake me up at normal work time and I was right. At about 8:00 I started moving around and getting ready because today was arrival day!!!! It had been 2 1/2 years since our last trip and we had saved and saved for this trip to make it as wonderful as possible. So it might have been my non-stop chatter or not so quiet singing that woke Tony up. We got dressed, loaded the van and was on the road pretty quickly and looking much better than when we left the house the day before!



Look - Tony shaved! And I put on make-up and fixed my hair! Miracles do happen.

With only four hours on the road ahead of us, I was very excited to snap pictures of my two most favorite signs!



I wasn't quite ready for this one. I was probably still chattering away and it snuck up on me, so it isn't the best picture ever. However, I pulled over and focused for the next one!



I tried to get the picture with no other vehicles on the road, but that was an impossible task. And Tony was getting impatient with me, so I snapped the picture and we were back on the road.

Up next - checking in and shopping!

 

[Ruthie5671]

YAY! So glad to hear you guys had a good trip. Can't wait to read all about it.

I'm glad you're still with me! Just posted an update!

Anxious to read about your trip!

A post is up!!! Glad you're reading along!

So glad you're trip is finally here. Looking forward to hearing about it.

I just put up a post. We are on the way!

Looking forward to reading your report

Joining in and looking forward to reading

 

[Ruthie5671]

November 15th - checking in!
​

When we last left off, we had finally arrived at Disney and I was - as always - snapping way too many pictures of the most magical sign. Our destination (the first of our split stay) was POP Century. As was the theme for this trip, we had never stayed here before and it was the first time that we had moved away from the true value resorts.



I was excited to stay here, as the themes are so cute and I love everything retro. And I'm an 80's girl at heart! Prior to checking in, I had requested a ground floor room in a centralized location. In reality, the only real request that was important was a ground floor room. For some reason, Tony gets twitchy when has has to get in an elevator in an ECV. He's an odd bird.

Speaking of ECV's, Tony and I both use ECV's and we rent them from an offsite company so that we can use them from the beginning of vacay until the end. We had previously rented from Gold Mobility and Buena Vista. Both were good companies with comparable prices, so I decided to go with Gold Mobility. When I went to book with them, in order to rent the "Maxima" scooter that I would need, I had to make the reservation over the phone. Sure, no problem. I called. And called. And left messages. And called. This went on for well over a week with no contact with them. That was not how I like to do business, so I just moved onto Buena Vista Scooters. They answered the phone on the first attempt, gave me a discount for being a repeat customer and the reservation was made. We had to meet them at the resort at 1:30 on check in day to pick up the ECV's. That was in perfect timing of our arrival.

We arrived at POP at around 1:00 PM that afternoon and pulled up to bell services to unload the van. They helped Tony unload (I'm a delicate flower - I don't do those kinds of things!!!), tagged all of our bags and Tony parked the car. All while that was happening, I received a call from Buena Vista scooters that they were about five minutes out and would meet me in front of the resort. Perfect - that's where I was sitting. I was also chatting with a nice lady who was traveling with her huge family and I helped her entertain a grandkid while she was wrangling luggage. I'm a social worker, so I have that "I'm not a crazy person" look that people can trust me to play peek-a-boo with a toddler. After just a few minutes our ECV's arrived. We got a quick tutorial about how they worked, I gave them a tip and they were off. And while I didn't realize it when I made the reservation - Tony was pixie dusted with the "GALACTIC ECV". What is a galactic ECV you ask?



Yes, he was a storm trooper!!! It was very cool - and I'm not a Star Wars fan - and he was given more compliments during the entire trip than I had ever seen. Some people even took his picture! Nobody asked for his autograph though.

At this point, our plan was to catch a bus to Disney Springs and spend the rest of the afternoon/evening there. But just as we were headed to the bathroom in the main lobby of the resort, I got the text that our room was ready! SCORE!!! We were in the 70's section, building 10, room 103. This was supposed to be a fully handicapped accessible - roll in shower - king sized bed room. And that is exactly what we got.





As we went into the room, the bed was directly in front of us and the dresser, table, chairs and refridgerator/coffee area was to the left. The room was clean and comfortable and had plenty of space for us, our two ECV's and our luggage. And for those that are wondering, the bed was lower than an "average" hotel bed which would be helpful for those who have significant mobility issues.



I was a little worried about the bench seat since the seat was some kind of mesh material and I was worried I was a little too much for the seat. Thankfully that was not the case and I had no issues. And you can see just at the bottom of the picture that there was a good sized barrier between the shower and the rest of the bathroom floor. No problem at all with a crazy wet floor. It was perfect. And of course, it had the best shower, conditioner and soap on the planet!



I love this stuff!

We called bell services and asked them to bring up our luggage and they had it to us within 15 minutes. I had heard horror stories about lengthy waits for luggage, but we did not have that experience at all. I did just a little bit of organizing the room and we were out the door and headed to the busses. It was a beautiful afternoon and Tony and I were ready for some shopping!

Up next - Disney Springs!

 

[rdkeim]

Yay you made it! I love reading about travel days. Hope your stay at Pop was a good one. We stayed there in March and we were mostly happy with it. The food court wasn't the best but there are plenty of places to get food in Disney I would like to try going in November. Can't wait to read about your experience!

 

[Paulaparm]

We stayed at POP 3 nights for a quick trip last year. We really liked it!

 

[Ruthie5671]

Arrival day - Disney Springs
​

Sorry for the long delay between posts. With work and the holidays, it has been super crazy busy! I will try to be better about at least one or two posts a week. But keep reading friends! There is so much more to cover.

When we last left off, Tony and I had checked out our room and were headed to the buses to go to Disney Springs. This is always our first day spot. We usually arrive to Disney mid-day and I hate to waste a park day on just a few hours, so we were going to the Springs. Now if you have read any of my previous reports, you know how much Tony loves to shop. He has been saving his change for over a year and had about $150 to just spend on "whatever he wanted". He was ready to buy things without me putting restrictions on him. I did talk him out of spending all of his money on Oakley sunglasses. Or at least I thought I had. You'll need to stay tuned . . . .

We caught the bus with just a small wait and loaded up with ease. I have to say one of the things that is great about POP is that they do not share busses with other resorts. However, this was the only time leaving the resort that we had just a small wait. Any other times we rode the bus (including back to the resort that night) we were knee deep in a long line of ECV's and not every bus was ECV accessible. Those charter busses cannot load ECV's and that was particularly frustrating.

After arriving to the Springs, I knew that I wanted to go to World of Disney first. And I wanted to spend time looking at all of the decorated Christmas trees throughout the area.



A very nice guest took this picture for us. A selfie just wasn't happening with such a tall tree. The Springs were not too crowded and the sun was making the day comfortable and warm. Tony is always cold and thankfully had his Disney jacket (one of many) with him. With a check of the map to make sure we were headed in the right direction, we were off to World of Disney. I absolutely love this store and could easily spend hours looking at everything. I look and can stick to a budget. My partner in crime - not so much. I did have some Christmas shopping to do and picked up gifts for my peeps at the office and my adorable three great-nephews. And while I thought that the Springs wasn't crowded, it was because everyone was at WOD. I mean seriously, it was people on top of people. I thankfully had the help of the sweetest cast member who was able to find me different sizes of holiday shirts so that my precious boys could be matching. I didn't catch her name, but wish I did so I could have left her a cast compliment. She was super helpful. I also loved the 50th anniversary section.





This was actually projected on the floor. I waited about 10 minutes for a clear shot. I surprisingly didn't get any anniversary merchandise. A lot of it was cute, but I just didn't see anything that was screaming "bring me home". Sometimes things just need to speak to me.

After I finished my shopping and browsed the household section - oh how I would love a Disney kitchen - I found Tony. He had a big grin on his face and I knew that meant trouble and big dent in his budget. Tony loves to buy sweatshirts and zip up hoodies and he found a gray hoodie with a Disney logo on the front and it had a sherpa lining. He started with something like "honey, I really love you and I know you said no more hoodies - but look". I had to admit that it was toasty warm. But it was also $80. That seemed excessive to me, but this was his whatever money, so up to the register I went and it came home with us. Actually he wore it several times during the trip since most nights were chilly. I will have to make note of it when I find a picture.

After WOD, we just cruised around and looked at the different trees and decor.







There were so many trees and we just didn't make enough time to see them all. About this time, Tony said that he wanted to ride the hot air balloon, so we scooted over to that side of the Springs so he could ride. Me - absolutely not. I am very afraid of heights and was not about to get on this thing since I didn't absolutely have to. So Tony got into line and I found a spot to take some good pictures. A few minutes later, Tony was right beside me with a pouty look on his face. He decided not to ride. When I asked him why, he said that he wasn't going to pay $25 for a 10 minute ride. Huh? We're at Disney World honey - what do you expect? He didn't ride. Maybe next time?

Up next - photo pass pictures and dinner!

#50andfabulous

 

[Ruthie5671]

Yay you made it! I love reading about travel days. Hope your stay at Pop was a good one. We stayed there in March and we were mostly happy with it. The food court wasn't the best but there are plenty of places to get food in Disney I would like to try going in November. Can't wait to read about your experience!

We really liked POP and will stay there again when we go back in 2023. We did visit the food court one time and it wasn't anything spectacular, but it wasn't awful either.

We stayed at POP 3 nights for a quick trip last year. We really liked it!

POP was great. I cannot wait to go back!

 

[Hubie]

I'm glad you're still with me! Just posted an update!







A post is up!!! Glad you're reading along!



I just put up a post. We are on the way!

I'm following. You had a much better drive than we did from Valdosta the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We lost two hrs. from there in stop and go traffic. Check out my TR, when you have time, titled, "The Road Trip from Hell and then Sunk by the Nautilus.

 

[rdkeim]

Good start to your trip! Glad you liked your Pop room. It makes sense to start off with DS. Park tickets are too pricey to only go for a couple hours. A hoodie with sherpa lining - that sounds fabulous! Sorry your bus service wasn't great. Interested to hear how the park crowds were. And to see your photopass pictures and where you dined!

 

[Ruthie5671]

Disney Springs - continued
​

When we last left off, we were still roaming around the Springs just browsing and enjoying the day and the fact that neither one of us were at work. This was a nice change since we normally are pretty busy every day. Prior to the trip I joined a memory maker share group to save a ton of money on the photo pass pictures. I love taking pictures but do not want to spend a ton of money on the PP pictures. I found the share group a few trips ago and go back to it every time. Now Tony would go the entire trip without stopping for a PP picture, but that was clearly not the plan. I knew there was an inside PP stop (we had been there before) so before we made our way to dinner, we had to stop. A cast member came to the doorway as we approached and reminded us that we had to wear our masks indoors - and that meant in the pictures. Sure thing - our masks are adorable.







I loved the holiday backgrounds. There was no line and we were done in less than 10 minutes. Which was a good thing, because we were getting hungry. This was our first trip without the dining plan (not currently available) so we decided that we would do a few sit down reservations, but for the most part just do quick service. For Disney Springs, we decided to go to Paddlefish. We had never eaten there before and since this was a trip of "firsts" it seemed appropriate to dine there on our first day.



This is not my picture. Thanks Google.

They had both indoor and outdoor seating. But the sun was going down and it was getting chilly outside, so we choose indoor seating. We were seated immediately, ordered some water and began to review the menu.



Now I don't take pictures of food because I think it's weird. Unless it's something spectacularly decorated or festive. We were pretty hungry having not eaten much at all that day, so we started with an appetizer - "Calamari - with shishito and peppadew piri piri". Those were just dipping sauces. I'm a simple girl. For our entree's Tony ordered "Crispy shrimp - flash fried, cocktail sauce, skin on fries" and I ordered "Stuffed cod - shrimp and scallop corn bread stuffing, asparagus, red potato, mustard cream sauce". Both meals were very good and quite large. We were overly full by the time we finished and we waddled out of there satisfied.

After dinner, our plan was to check out the Coke and M&M's store. But I realized that my ECV was rapidly losing charge and giving me the flashing signal that the battery was struggling. Now I wasn't sure if it was because it wasn't fully charged upon arrival (it looked like it was) or if it was because we had done a lot of moving that day, but we decided that the best plan was to head back to the resort. I was pretty bummed about this plan, as was Tony, but I didn't want to be stuck with a non-working ECV. We took a few more pictures on our way out.







We made our way back over to the busses, but it took a while for a bus to get there that would accommodate the ECV's. The charter busses that are being frequently used now do not have that capability. Even though the cast member was requesting a Disney bus, it still took a while. But we got back to the resort and back to the room without incident and my ECV made it while flashing and beeping the entire way. I put it on the charger immediately and crossed my fingers that it would be working fine in the morning. It had been a long day of driving and shopping so we were asleep pretty quickly.

Up next - did the ECV keep a charge? And it was time to face my fears!

 

[Ruthie5671]

I'm following. You had a much better drive than we did from Valdosta the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We lost two hrs. from there in stop and go traffic. Check out my TR, when you have time, titled, "The Road Trip from Hell and then Sunk by the Nautilus.

I just read your trip report and yes, you had quite a few traveling obstacles. That is so frustrating! Thanks for reading along on our adventure.

Good start to your trip! Glad you liked your Pop room. It makes sense to start off with DS. Park tickets are too pricey to only go for a couple hours. A hoodie with sherpa lining - that sounds fabulous! Sorry your bus service wasn't great. Interested to hear how the park crowds were. And to see your photopass pictures and where you dined!

We always start with Disney Springs first. I always worry about getting there late for some reason and then just being in a part for a short time. And it's a nice, easy way to start vacation. Yes, the hoodie is really nice and he's worn it about every day since we've been home. I just posted a new update!

 

[Heluvsme]

A fellow Kentuckian Here! Northern Kentucky, just 8ish Miles south of Cincinnati.
Great report so far, you two are cute and I adore your love of Disney!

We also drive and break it up into 2 days. We sometimes will stop in Warner Robins on our way down, sometimes Macon.
Can't wait to read more!
Dawn

 

[Ruthie5671]

EPCOT - Part one
​

We woke up on our first full day at Disney rested, relaxed and ready to go. Our plan was to do EPCOT on day one and the last day so that we can fully experience the Food and Wine Festival. I had spent a lot of time reading up on the different booths and figuring out what we would like and dislike (Tony has a sensitive tummy), so we were ready to jump on the day. We got ready to go, hopped on our ECV's and headed to the main building to refill our mugs.

It took about five minutes for my ECV to start flashing and beeping at me again.



I had it on the charger all night so this could only mean there was some kind of malfunction. I immediately called Buena Vista Scooters and the very nice person put me in touch with someone who could bring me another ECV.

In about an hour.

Now we weren't in any kind of hurry. But this was day one and I wanted to get things moving along. Instead, we just waited around in the lobby for the ECV dude. It actually wasn't too bad because the nostalgia displays in the lobby were really cool. Tony and I kept saying "I had one of those"!. It took right at about an hour and they brought me a new ECV. They apologized quite a bit for the inconvenience and I was good to go. This one worked perfectly and I didn't have another issue the remainder of the trip.

Normally it would be about this time we would be heading to the busses. But when you stay at POP, there is only one way to get to EPCOT. The Sky Liner (insert doom and gloom music). Now let me share with you - my friends - that I am ridiculously afraid of heights. I like my feet firmly planted on the ground. I have done things like the Orlando Eye and was miserable the entire time. My sweet husband loves flying high and going fast. Me - not so much. I even told Tony that if for some reason the Sky Liner stopped mid-air, I would be blaming him and he would be walking home.

He should be home any day now.

The boarding station for the Sky Liner - AKA the Flying Tin of Death - was all the way in the back of the resort. It is a shared spot with Art of Animation resort. For those of us in ECV's, you load up in a different spot towards the exit. They pull the cars off in a separate spot to load the ECV's. And there is only one ECV allowed in each car. And of course, in order to get to EPCOT, you flew from POP to Caribbean Beach and got on a different line to get to EPCOT. Since we had to ride separately, I decided to go first. That way if I plunged to my death, Tony would be able to see it up close and in person and I would haunt him forever.

Yes, dramatic I know. But when you're scared - you're scared.



The views were actually really nice and it was blissfully quiet up there. I was surprised there was no music piped in. That would have been cool.



I did not like going over the water. Or the highway. It was just too much for me to process.





You can see my hair flying around in the reflection of this picture. It gets breezy up there once you get moving.

I got to the transfer station and waited about five minutes for Tony. We then got into the next line and the Flying Tin of Death (FToD) swept us off to EPCOT. Now I have to admit that the coolest part was coming in for a landing and getting a sky view of Remy's and France. I forgot to take a picture as I was gripping the handles because the stops were very bumpy!!! Our plan was to do some things in Future World (yes I know it has a new name - I haven't learned it yet) and then work our way back to the countries to eat and drink. Would that happen? How much drinking and eating would we do? You'll have to stay tuned!

#50andfabulous