THKKPorter
Hakuna Matata
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2011
Oh my gosh. I'm in love with Kingdom Camera. Amazing site. I will definitely be using them. Thanks for sharing.
GoPro'ing around the World: a ten day split stay report - VIDEO ADDED - update 10/20
- Thread starter CaptainCook
- Start date
Oh my gosh. I'm in love with Kingdom Camera. Amazing site. I will definitely be using them. Thanks for sharing.
SimplyGoofy
"You are not Mickey Mouse... you are a rat!"
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2011
What an excellent trip report!
Your pictures are beautiful and your kids seem great! I'm super impressed that you do so much resort hopping - I hope to do the same thing on my next trip!
I'm looking forward to your next day...
Your pictures are beautiful and your kids seem great! I'm super impressed that you do so much resort hopping - I hope to do the same thing on my next trip!
I'm looking forward to your next day...
alizas3figs
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2014
You trip report is making me more excited for my family's upcoming trip. (If that's even possible) I was trying to decide if I should bring my DSLR on our trip and your TR has pretty much made my decision! How could I leave it behind? Especially for my family's first trip to DW! Looking forward to seeing more of your adventures!
CaptainCook
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 7, 2009
It has been ages since my last update! But I am determined to finish this report! So without further ado, onto Day 8!
August 26th we let everyone sleep in after the last couple of late nights out on the Boardwalk. Also, our plans for the day included a trip to Typhoon Lagoon, which doesnt open until 10 a.m. I got up early and went for a run. I had packed my running clothes fully intending to use them, but it took me until Day 8 of the trip to do so! I love running around Crescent Lake in the morning and yet it took me until our last morning there to make it happen. Oh well, at least I did squeeze it in once!
We packed up and checked out of the Boardwalk. Sad trombone. Moving day is sad when you are moving to the last resort of the trip. We picked up our last breakfast at Boardwalk Bakery and caught the bus to the park in time for opening.
Having learned from our time at Blizzard Beach just how quickly the lines for the water slides can build, we made sure to prioritize the slides early in the day to leave our late morning/early afternoon hours free for the lazy river and wave pool. There were not as many Photopass photographers at Typhoon Lagoon as there were at Blizzard Beach, but they did manage to catch a few great shots for us.
Im glad we did Blizzard Beach before Typhoon Lagoon, because the water park feature that the kids loved most of all was the wave pool, and the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon is far superior to the one at Blizzard Beach, at least in terms of thrills. Blizzard Beach was a great warm up for Typhoon Lagoon. We probably spent half our time at Typhoon Lagoon on slides, and the other half in the wave pool, it was that much of a hit.
We picked up our lunch at Typhoon Tillys the turkey pesto sandwich was very good. But the highlight was the dessert that we picked up after lunch, the ice cream pail sundae:
Be forewarned that if you get one of these, every person who sees you carrying it or who passes by while you are eating it will stop you to ask where you can find it (Happy Landings!)
When we finally were able to drag the kids out of the wave pool, we took the bus to Epcot, where we transferred to the monorail to get to our new home resort The Contemporary.
We checked in and wound up with a small upgrade we had paid for a parking lot view room, and we wound up with a lake view. So there you go 3 resorts, all upgraded, though we had never been upgraded at Disney before on any of our 4 prior trips! Its random.
As we checked in, and I asked the concierge if there was a caricature artist who worked at The Contemporary and she told me NO. Another sad trombone! I was starting to get frantic about getting my caricatures done!
Anyway, we cleaned up after our day in the sun, and got ready for a night at the Magic Kingdom. More to come!
August 26th we let everyone sleep in after the last couple of late nights out on the Boardwalk. Also, our plans for the day included a trip to Typhoon Lagoon, which doesnt open until 10 a.m. I got up early and went for a run. I had packed my running clothes fully intending to use them, but it took me until Day 8 of the trip to do so! I love running around Crescent Lake in the morning and yet it took me until our last morning there to make it happen. Oh well, at least I did squeeze it in once!
We packed up and checked out of the Boardwalk. Sad trombone. Moving day is sad when you are moving to the last resort of the trip. We picked up our last breakfast at Boardwalk Bakery and caught the bus to the park in time for opening.
Having learned from our time at Blizzard Beach just how quickly the lines for the water slides can build, we made sure to prioritize the slides early in the day to leave our late morning/early afternoon hours free for the lazy river and wave pool. There were not as many Photopass photographers at Typhoon Lagoon as there were at Blizzard Beach, but they did manage to catch a few great shots for us.
Im glad we did Blizzard Beach before Typhoon Lagoon, because the water park feature that the kids loved most of all was the wave pool, and the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon is far superior to the one at Blizzard Beach, at least in terms of thrills. Blizzard Beach was a great warm up for Typhoon Lagoon. We probably spent half our time at Typhoon Lagoon on slides, and the other half in the wave pool, it was that much of a hit.
We picked up our lunch at Typhoon Tillys the turkey pesto sandwich was very good. But the highlight was the dessert that we picked up after lunch, the ice cream pail sundae:
Be forewarned that if you get one of these, every person who sees you carrying it or who passes by while you are eating it will stop you to ask where you can find it (Happy Landings!)
When we finally were able to drag the kids out of the wave pool, we took the bus to Epcot, where we transferred to the monorail to get to our new home resort The Contemporary.
We checked in and wound up with a small upgrade we had paid for a parking lot view room, and we wound up with a lake view. So there you go 3 resorts, all upgraded, though we had never been upgraded at Disney before on any of our 4 prior trips! Its random.
As we checked in, and I asked the concierge if there was a caricature artist who worked at The Contemporary and she told me NO. Another sad trombone! I was starting to get frantic about getting my caricatures done!
Anyway, we cleaned up after our day in the sun, and got ready for a night at the Magic Kingdom. More to come!
ProudMommyof2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2007
All caught up!!! I agree Typhoon Lagoon wins with that wave pool as well as Crushin Gusher.
CaptainCook
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 7, 2009
Since I'm now at the part of the trip where we have landed at our last resort, I thought I would share some thoughts on the resorts we stayed at on this trip and our experience with Disney resorts in general. I have now been to Disney World five times. On two of those, I stayed at the All Stars resorts, and once I stayed at Coronado Springs. This trip and last trip, we did a split stay between three deluxe resorts. On this trip, it was obviously The Contemporary, The Boardwalk and Animal Kingdom Lodge. On our last trip it was Wilderness Lodge, Beach Club and the Polynesian.
On our last trip, we thought we were doing a once-in-a-lifetime trip, which is partly how we justified upgrading to the deluxe resorts (ha ha little did we know!) We picked our top three resorts to stay at. We did consider location and other variables (i.e. we wanted one close to the MK and one close to Epcot, and we wanted one on the monorail loop) but it was also the three resorts that just appealed to us the most.
(Yes, I like monorails!) On this trip, I was worried that the resorts would be a bit of a letdown. We picked the three resorts we stayed at to try three new resorts. We stuck with the idea of at least one near MK/one near Epcot, and one on the monorail loop, but since the last three resorts were our favourite resorts, part of me worried that this trip would never live up to our last one.
It turns out that I am glad that we tried the new resorts. I don't know if I could name a favourite Disney resort, because they are just all so different. I love the theming at both Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge, as I think they are the ones with the best attention to detail that really transport you to another place. I love the pool area at the Beach Club the best, since it's so vast and has so many features, though I think the hotel decor is a bit stuffier/not as much fun as WL and AKL. I found The Boardwalk to be very similar to the BC in terms of the indoor decor, and the pool area at Boardwalk is not nearly as elaborate as BC's; but man oh man, did I enjoy our nights strolling around on the Boardwalk. It was so great to have that entertainment right outside our door. And I think the Crescent Lake area is a really convenient place to stay. (My only complaint about The Boardwalk is that yes, the drink refills really ARE a mile away from your room!)
The Polynesian felt like a great, classic Disney place to stay - thankfully, this was pre-construction. Chad grew up camping at Fort Wilderness so for him to get to stay at the Poly was kind of childhood dream come true. I didn't think the rooms at the Poly were anything special, and the pool area is (was?) small, but the grounds were lovely. The convenience of the monorail was great. And we loved having Dole Whips at our resort!
That brings me to The Contemporary. This is really the only disappointing place I have stayed at Disney, and I knew I would be disappointed by the hotel itself before we even got there. The concourse with the monorails was pretty cool, but overall the hotel felt very much like any other hotel in any other city in the world. It was not very theme-y and so to me, it was not very Disney. It was a perfectly fine room and there is nothing specific I would complain about; it was just no WL or AKL.
Even being able to watch the MK fireworks from the Contemporary property didn't make it up for me.
Having said that, the convenience of being walking distance to MK was wonderful. This was particularly true on the last night of our trip, when Mallory didn't feel well after dinner at 'Ohana. Chad took Liam into the MK while Mallory and I rode the monorail back to our resort. An hour later she felt better, and ten minutes after that we were in the park, texting Chad to find a place to meet up. Had we been staying at a resort that we'd have to bus to and from the MK on our last night, it would have been super easy to throw in the towel and just call it a night once we were back in our room.
Anyway didn't mean to go off on a tangent, but thought I would give an opinion on the resorts. Next up - back to the trip report!
DisneyisMARVELous
Who Doesn't Love Wall-E
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2014
I just purchased a GoPro. What housing did you use for it during your trip?
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