Have airline credit, Must travel: a mostly non-Disney park August 2019 adventure (11/29/19 update)

[Jenny Sanders]

How awesome that you get to go to Disney again!!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

How awesome that you get to go to Disney again!!!!

I know right? This NON-Disney park year is turning out to be filled with a few Disney parks now. My plan for December is just EPCOT, but we'll see as the other two are pushing for extending our last day there and doing another park that day as well.

 

[kittylady1972]

We now return you to our regular trip report in progress....

DAY 4: Drinks and Naps

So Monday was our first day of being able to sleep in with no big plans for the most part. This was nice. I think we made breakfast in our room and then decided to hop a boat over to Disney Springs. It was just before 10am...when we arrived at the dock and realized the boats don't run until 10am there. So we waited and soon we were on our way:

Walking to the boat launch


And on the boat.

This is such a nice ride. We were dropped off before we knew it and just spent some time wandering around Disney Springs, no real plans, just doing some shopping. It was definitely an August day in Florida so we were getting pretty warm pretty fast, and I had something I wanted to try to cool off:



Yes this is the Dole Whip Froscato from Wine Bar George and yes it was quite delicious. Not a ton of alcohol in it but it was nice to walk around and enjoy on a hot Florida day. We did check in on doing the Void but the Star Wars version was down and the guys didn't want to do Wreck-It Ralph. So back on the boat and soon our treehouse was in sight:


I think we may have changed our soaking wet with sweat shirts a bit to freshen up for the next thing we did have planned for the day...which was supposed to be the DVC Craft Cocktails Speak Easy event at Wilderness Lodge. The adults headed over to the WL via car, leaving the kids behind. They had plans to come over a bit later and they were going to rent some speed boats at WL around the time we were finished. DH was sure the must-be-18-or-with-a-guardian meant our 19yo could bring the 15yo and 16yo siblings along and sign for them. That would not be the case.

We decided to grab a bite to eat before our event because we weren't sure about the food situation. So we headed to Roaring Fork at WL first as we had some time before our 1:30pm event. DH and I decided to split this:

Warm Roast Beef Sandwich
Roast Beef drenched in warm Au Jus topped with Arugula, Blue Cheese, and Buttermilk-Chive Dressing served with House-made Chips


OH. MY. GOSH. Just seeing this photo:



My mouth is watering and I want to go back! This was one of the BEST sandwiches I've had on Disney property ever. Right now I'm thinking in October we will have to go back just for this.

We filled our bellies and then headed out to find the place where our event would be taking place, no easy feat but eventually we got there. We were welcomed to our seats and found this:



It was such a lovely presentation and I was all caught up in the moment. We had an entire room to ourselves here...there were the 3 of us (me, DH, FIL) and one other couple...and that was all for our event. There were people there to go over how things would work and then we had the guy giving us the talk...all about wines...which was just before it struck me that...wait a minute...this was supposed to be CRAFT COCKTAILS. See this event alternates between these two:

• Speak Easy Craft Cocktails: Sample lively libations as you immerse yourself in the era of prohibition and create homemade cocktails with a little help from our bootleggers!
• New World Wines: Sample wine varietals from the Pacific during an immersive and interactive tasting session.

Each tasting session also includes a small-plate food pairing that complements the beverage served.


And when I called to book several weeks earlier I was told ours would be the first one...and it clearly wasn't. However I seemed to be the only one concerned about this (the other couple didn't seem confused at all) so then I thought maybe i just got it wrong. I would find out later I did not...and I'm still not happy about it.

Now I'm okay with wine...but honestly didn't have much of an interest in learning that much about it. This was still a very interesting event and very well done and if you like wine it's great. This was about a 2 hour presentation and we probably ended a little before that. Let me say at this point I was so glad we had some food...and still all that wine...well afterwards I needed a nap!

Once it was done, we got in the touch with the kids who had made their way over and were letting us know that we had to approve them to be able to drive boats. So we met them on the dock and filled out paperwork and decided each adult would ride with a kid driver...so I got DD and DH ended up with the 19yo. Doesn't he look thrilled?



And me and DD:



This would also prove to be disappointing as we discovered we were unable to go over the water bridge and check out the Magic Kingdom, which is fun. We had to stay in a smaller area of water, which really was okay but not what we had in mind.

I think we had 45 minutes on the water, but we were probably ready to be done a little before that...and even if we hadn't been a storm was brewing in the area and they started kicking people off the water anyway.

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY 4: Drinks and Naps Continued

Back inside we decided to enjoy some time at the lodge as we had a 5:20pm dinner at Whisperiing Canyon Cafe. Some of the family headed to the arcade:



I decided to take advantage of the many empty comfy couches inside the lodge...and I curled up shoes off and took a little nap:



Hopefully my snoring wasn't mistaken for bears, but my 19yo was also hanging on a nearby couch. Soon the rain ended up driving people back to the hotel, and that meant they had some characters wandering the lobby. I woke from my nap to see a family talking to DALE...only they weren't sure which it was and with no handler there...and non-talking chipmunks...they clearly needed somebody to help which is when I did, as I like to do, starting talking to random strangers and explaining to them that they were in fact hanging with Dale and how they could tell them apart. And then I made my 19yo wander over and take MY photo with one of those lovable chipmunks:



It wasn't too long before it was time for our dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe and we were seated pretty quickly. DH needed refills at some point:



So he was set for the evening. Our server was nice...there weren't a ton of antics happening but that's okay. My FIL ordered a burger and though he insisted he didn't need catsup...well I had a different opinion:

(Sorry I haven't quite figured out the logistics of embedding a video...so you'll have to click the link below to see)

We Need Catsup


This resulted in this:



We had a great dinner here but SO MUCH FOOD and we just weren't all that hungry. I'm glad we did this again but not sure it is a must do in the future.

I think afterwards we just headed back to the resort to chill for the evening.

 

[DLo]

Bummer about the craft cocktail event being wine instead. I would have been disappointed too. Wine gives me a headache ( the sulfates I think ) and much prefer beer or a cocktail. Ugh re the boats. Sorry this day didn’t go as planned . Hopefully , the rest of the trip is better for y’all .

 

[kittylady1972]

Bummer about the craft cocktail event being wine instead. I would have been disappointed too. Wine gives me a headache ( the sulfates I think ) and much prefer beer or a cocktail. Ugh re the boats. Sorry this day didn’t go as planned . Hopefully , the rest of the trip is better for y’all .

Yes it was a bummer. What I didn't mention was that after the event DH mentioned that the other couple said a week or so earlier they got a call from DVC letting them know the event was being changed to the Wine event instead...and asking if that was okay. We didn't get the same call. I actually emailed DVC Member Services and basically got a call of "thanks for your feedback" and that's it. I was pretty disappointed in that response. And just didn't know what else to do.

The trip overall was fantastic despite these little hiccups. Coming up next I'll have our ONE Disney park day and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party which went very well.

Hopefully I'll get another update soon. I'd like to add a few videos to the TR if possible but I'm editing those now.

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY 5: Our First Disney Park of 2019

So despite this being our 2nd visit to Orlando in 2019, and our second time staying on Disney property in 2019, we had yet to do a Disney park in 2019. We had decided early on in this trip planning that the ONE park we would do would be Magic Kingdom simply for a do-over of Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party since the last time we attended the party several years earlier it rained before it ended and the one thing we didn't get to do was see the parade. We would not let that happen this time.

A bonus for us to purchasing MNSSHP party tickets was that we would also get to enter at 2pm for the party, giving us a good 10 hours to hang at the park. Plus we could make a few FP+ reservations in the first few hours.

This was another day where we could simply hang out for a while with no need to rush off. However my DD16 is not a sit in the room and chill kid at all. While the others were okay watching TV, she wanted to get out...and so I made the decision to take her and I out to get pedicures. Something you don't know about me...I do not like having my feet touched...and I have NEVER had a pedicure. However I found one that got good reviews and we went...and were the only ones there. It was pretty clear that we both had no idea what we were doing, and pretty sure the people taking care of us and speaking a foreign language probably realized that too...but they were nice. It was an okay experience and our toes did look nice...and DDH16 got a manicure also.

Before heading back to our Treehouse we contacted the family to say we were going to pick up lunch from a favorite...Panera...so they placed some orders and we went to get food to bring back.

Sorry no photos of the toes or lunch...but soon it was around 1pm and it was time to head out to Magic Kingdom for our event!

On the tram:


And the special check-in line for us:


I was hoping they would let us in a little bit early but this was taken at 1:56pm and they definitely waited until 2pm before we went through the gates and got our wristbands. Here was my commentary on our wait:

Melting in Line

I know we had Fastpasses first thing so that was priority. More video:
FastPass Space Mission

And with that our first ride was done:




As you can see, the 77 year old probably has more fun than all of us.

First ride complete, we had plenty of time until our next FP and thought we should just hang around Tomorrowland for a bit and do some rides there. Plus it looked like some rain was coming in and the best rides for rain are Carousel of Progress and Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We ended up doing both.




The coolest thing about this ride right now is the view you get of the new TRON coaster being built:



Who else is excited about this ride?

I think we also decided to duck into Buzz Lightyear as that had a short line:




I think after this we decided to head over to the area of our next FastPasses for Pirates and Jungle Cruise. We wanted to wait until close to the end of the first one before riding so we could do them back to back.

So Pirates:


And then Jungle Cruise:



We were getting in quite a bit so far with having been in the park for 2.5 hours. So what next now that FastPasses were done and it was after 4pm which meant the "regular" party crowds would be entering.

 

[kittylady1972]

Ok so no time to get to another segment here as after a day of football watching (Go RAVENS) I am now off to get ready to play some tennis for an 8:30pm match. Hoping to work off the food.

Hopefully I can finish this up during the week.

 

[ariane37]

That's too bad about the Craft Cocktails even though I Would have enjoyed the wine. But it's not always fun to be surprised!
On the other hand getting to see your friends son AND NPH narrate the CP in Dec. is definitely a nice surprise! We've done the CP twice and he narrated the 2nd time, loved it.
So why couldn't you go by MK with the searaycers? We rented them from CR in July and were able to go everywhere including by MK and WL. Does it depend where you rent from?

 

[kittylady1972]

That's too bad about the Craft Cocktails even though I Would have enjoyed the wine. But it's not always fun to be surprised!
On the other hand getting to see your friends son AND NPH narrate the CP in Dec. is definitely a nice surprise! We've done the CP twice and he narrated the 2nd time, loved it.
So why couldn't you go by MK with the searaycers? We rented them from CR in July and were able to go everywhere including by MK and WL. Does it depend where you rent from?

Yes the wine was okay...just not my thing and we were looking forward to the craft cocktails and speak easy stuff.

AGREED about CP and seeing NPH. This will be my 3rd time in 3 years seeing the CP (and 4th time overall) but first seeing him. Our first time we saw Andy Garcia which was cool and in 2017 it was Kurt Russel who was also pretty cool. I really do enjoy the show. I'm worried about the weather a bit since in early Dec 2017 it was COLD COLD and last year (Thanksgiving week) it actually was pretty nice. It's just such a mystery as to what weather we'll get there.

As for the SeaRaycers...for some reason they had patrol boats out keeping people from crossing over. Yes this was our first time renting at WL (we've done rentals at Contemporary and Poly in the past) but even with those you have full scope of the water...just have to watch out for the MK ferry boats! So I think it was just something going on that day but had we known...well not sure if we would have still done it.

 

[kittylady1972]

DECEMBER 2019 PLANNING UPDATE

So we now have a group of 4 ladies total for our December 2019 quick trip for Candlelight Processional. Since my one friend really wants to maximize her time there, we are going to fly out somewhat early on Dec. 4th and return really late on Dec. 6th. The flights aren't booked but I'm stalking them and I don't expect them to increase in price anytime soon. We'll probably purchase tickets in about another month and I expect our total RT price will be about $80 or less.

With 4 women going now instead of 3, we decided 2 rooms (and more importantly 2 bathrooms) would be a good thing. Unfortunately SOG has no availability once again even though I had booked one room last week. Fortunately Pop Century did open up for our timeframe so I've booked one room there for 2 of us and told my friends to book a 2nd room for them. The one friend who has joined us...I really didn't expect to go...but she is looking forward to it. Should be interesting as while the rest of us are pretty easy going and go with the flow she is...not so much. Hopefully she can hang as I know we are going to be pushing the limits to get as much done as possible while there.

I've given them all "homework" to complete regarding a CP Dining package. I want everybody to pick their top 3 choices (for lunch or dinner) and then I will work on trying to book a CP package. There are still plenty available but it's so tricky to get the TIME that you want for those shows, especially if you book a lunch, so I want to have time to get that done.

I'll probably get park tickets for everybody when I'm down there in a few weeks since I'll be staying at Shades of Green, but we may pre-order them. Right now we are looking at 2 day 2 park tickets and NOT hopping, but there is the possibility of hopping a bit on Friday maybe between 2 parks. I'm leaving that up to the group. I'm okay with whatever we do.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

This trip is really starting to come together. YAY!

 

[kittylady1972]

It would really great if people FOLLOWED DIRECTIONS. I told the other two ladies over the weekend that are going with us...decide which one of you will book a room and do it soon.

Email from one of them Saturday 9pm:

Hi. So should I jump on a room at Pop Century as soon as I see one available?

Email from me Sunday at 12pm:
If you have decided to book for you and XXXXX, then yes. There are some available right now.


Last week there was nothing available (at Value Resorts) and so no telling what might happen. Today I look...and see Pop is no longer available and as I'm about to check on my friends to verify they did book something I get an email:

Hello,
So I goofed up. Saw a room available at Pop Century this weekend and did not jump to reserve it. Now I am seeing no availability. If anyone sees one open up, please text me! I will keep checking as well. Thanks!!!!

Why don't people listen?

Now I'm not really worried, there is still plenty of time and most likely something will open up between now and two months from now. Still...frustrating. Now I'll have to keep looking for something to open up.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I was hoping for CL at Destino Towers. I procrastinated this morning and by early afternoon it was gone. Sigh. I should know better!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

So my procrastinator friend emailed me yesterday that she has booked a room at Caribbean Beach for now so at least if we want to do 60 day FP reservations (which we can do NOW...if we had tickets) we can do that. As much as I am trying to make this a quick and cheap trip, now I'm even considering taking an early flight out on Wednesday so we get a full day there as well...and maybe we could do a park that day too. We will see as I'm in no rush to book flights right now.

I guess we should at least figure out tickets and park days soon. I'm just not pushing it right now. I'm working on getting back on a strict budget at home to knock out some bills and this isn't helping.

I'm also stalking some DVC reservations as I think it would be just as cost effective to do a DVC rental split between the 4 of us depending on the room.

Sadly I haven't really focused much at all on the trip that's happening THIS month. I'm still not sure if we'll do any Disney parks right now. I haven't bought any tickets at all other than flights. I think our only plan right now is to have a nice dinner at Jiko (DH's choice) and perhaps do HHN. Anything beyond that we will just be playing it by ear I guess.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

DVC would be a great idea!

 

[kittylady1972]

DVC would be a great idea!

Yes it would be...but unfortunately no availability right now for anything.

Out of curiosity I called DVC Member Services tonight to see what options might be open for cash reservations. I'm still laughing. The only thing for my 2 nights is a cabin at Copper Creek...for the SMALL price of $4238 for 2 nights.

Yeah...that's not happening.

So we will continue to stalk and wait and see what comes up. I have no doubt eventually we'll get some other options.

 

[kittylady1972]

Oh and on another note...today I booked Story Book Dining at Artist Point for next weekend. I just really want to try this out and I think it will be fun. Now we will see if I keep it as it actually is DURING the Ravens football game so I have to be okay with missing some of the game I guess.

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY 5: Our First Disney Park of 2019 (Continued)

So we last left off at Jungle Cruise and it was approaching 4pm and we had no more FastPasses. I can't recall what we did next exactly but I do know that I think we decided to do something we hadn't done in a LONG time...and my FIL wasn't sure he had ever done this:



This was fun to walk around but the fort was closed which made DH sad.

Next we decided to go ahead and hop in the standby line of BTMRR, which I think was about 30 minutes? We knew it was just going to be lines for the rest of the evening but it was all good.






Doesn't the 19 year old look thrilled...as does his 16yo sister behind us.

I think we debated Splash Mountain but the line was pretty crazy...and so we headed over to this instead:



Any guesses?



I put these up on FB and people cracked up at the guy behind us...this guy of course:



As you can tell, he's still not having any fun.

We were still working our way around the park, and so we headed to do Pooh next with a little bit of wait, followed by this:



At some point I know we got some snacks...because we didn't want to fill out before our dessert party.

I think after the teacups we headed over to the Tomorrowland Terrace for our party. We could not wait to get our dessert on here.

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY 5: Our First Disney Park of 2019 (Continued)

So we last left off getting ready to enter the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party. We selected the Garden version which would allow us to go to the more private area in the center of the hub to view the Halloween fireworks. But first...food!

We had been saving ourselves all day for this one...or maybe I was at least. On arrival we got a lovely drink...in some beautiful plastic champagne glasses. These would be useful later as you will see.



This was just one of my plates, and I didn't eat a ton. I enjoyed some of the sweets as well as the savory items. This was a better look:



I probably ate my weight in the chocolate covered strawberries...always my favorite. As you can see, we certainly were enjoying ourselves:






After eating we may have gotten a bit bored:



I titled this "How to get yourself thrown out of a Disney dessert party" on a FB post. People didn't realize that these were plastic and my FIL with that cup is trying to figure out of he can put that on the top. Spoiler: he didn't.

I think after this we went off and rode a few other rides...of which I can't recall. I think we did the Haunted Mansion at least as that was a must do:




I have no idea where they take this photo...yet.

After this I think we headed back to the dessert party area and got our "escort" back to the Garden Plaza viewing area, which was just SO NICE. We could SIT on the grass and view the fireworks the entire time. Gosh it is so worth it.



I suppose I'll spare you the fireworks photos...as we've all seen those I'm sure. After this I think we ended up making our way over to get a good place to view the parade...this was a MUST of course. Our last Halloween Party we waited to view the second parade...and it ended up getting rained out. It was so disappointing as the kids had never seen the parade or at least didn't remember.

I think this was the last time Nicolas saw the parade: