There's No Place Like Home......

[DisneyKid4Life]

Well hello posting machine. Even though you were late to start, you're sure making up for lost time. Which is a good thing, because more to read!

Hmmm, see my first thought regarding the luggage would be that the bags that arrived would be the same bags that you didn't check. So even if you only checked half the bags, the half you checked are the ones still missing. It's convoluted, but it works for me.
Haha, of course I was also sure the rest would be found quickly.

Oh God I have seen the fish in these waters being fed and it is absolutely an entertaining experience. They're crazy!

I was actually just wondering since it looked initially like there were some empty seats. With the extra stop it now makes sense.

 

[scholastica]

Hello there! I'm joining in! I absolutely adored your Disneyland TR so I went back to read your 2013 one and saw you had a current one! So yay! I am glad to be following along. It sounds like fun so far!

 

[JDUB]

Love POR whole feel. Especially for our family of five. Kids were battling for fold down bed.
Glad you tried the surrey bike. We wanted to try paddle boats but POR doesn't rent them there.
We loved the boat ride to DTD our first day too. Too funny! we are staying at Old Key a West this Christmas and will try the boats again.
Where oh where could you guys be eating at DTD?

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Joining in!

I absolutely understand the excitement of getting to the Magical Express site in the airport. It's like the official beginning of the vacation!

POR is a very pretty resort. I stayed there many years ago, and it's on the short list of resorts for my upcoming trip. I'm not sure if I'm going to spring for a Royal Room, but I do agree that they're pretty spectacular.

Another big draw for POR is the relaxing boat ride to Downtown Disney. Given the views along the way (as well as the parking lot construction), I think that may be the best way to go.

 

[amandaw]

Glad they were able to find your luggage quickly! I am the same exact way....always jumping to the worst conclusion right away.

The boat ride seems nice....once y'all got on & got going. I wanted to take the boat from SSR to DTD a few weeks ago but I didn't feel like waiting & made my DH drive us.

 

[thornton0511]

Well hello posting machine. Even though you were late to start, you're sure making up for lost time. Which is a good thing, because more to read!
lol I seem to be able to write a lot in spurts on the weekends when I am not working. Thus no updates in several days
Hmmm, see my first thought regarding the luggage would be that the bags that arrived would be the same bags that you didn't check. So even if you only checked half the bags, the half you checked are the ones still missing. It's convoluted, but it works for me.
Haha, of course I was also sure the rest would be found quickly.
wow you lost me on that one Rob ha!
Oh God I have seen the fish in these waters being fed and it is absolutely an entertaining experience. They're crazy!
it's probably because people are feeding them potato chips
I was actually just wondering since it looked initially like there were some empty seats. With the extra stop it now makes sense.

you are correct sir

Hello there! I'm joining in! I absolutely adored your Disneyland TR so I went back to read your 2013 one and saw you had a current one! So yay! I am glad to be following along. It sounds like fun so far!

Well welcome aboard the crazy train lol! I am so glad that you found me and that is so sweet that you read my past reports too, I feel like I should give you a Mickey Ice Cream bar or something for getting through all of that reading lol Happy to have you follow along

Love POR whole feel. Especially for our family of five. Kids were battling for fold down bed.
Oh yeah I bet that works out great with 3 kids. I gotta tell ya I know so many families that have more than 2 kiddos and I am really glad to finally see Disney making it easier for families without it costing an arm and a leg. I think they just added the fold down bed with the CBR remodel too along with queen beds instead of doubles. Now it they would just do that with more deluxe resorts (like the day bed couches that they have in some) that would be amazing
Glad you tried the surrey bike. We wanted to try paddle boats but POR doesn't rent them there.
oh yeah they don't. That sounds like fun too
We loved the boat ride to DTD our first day too. Too funny! we are staying at Old Key a West this Christmas and will try the boats again.
Oohh Old Key West.....bucket list! That is so cool. Isn't that the resort with the sandcastle slide/pool?
Where oh where could you guys be eating at DTD?

have to wait and see lol

Joining in!

I absolutely understand the excitement of getting to the Magical Express site in the airport. It's like the official beginning of the vacation!
yes it is the moment when I have so much excitement that I feel like I might just explode lol
POR is a very pretty resort. I stayed there many years ago, and it's on the short list of resorts for my upcoming trip. I'm not sure if I'm going to spring for a Royal Room, but I do agree that they're pretty spectacular.
it really is just a nice quiet place and I am in love
Another big draw for POR is the relaxing boat ride to Downtown Disney. Given the views along the way (as well as the parking lot construction), I think that may be the best way to go.

I completely agree

Glad they were able to find your luggage quickly! I am the same exact way....always jumping to the worst conclusion right away.
lol glad to see that I am not alone in that
The boat ride seems nice....once y'all got on & got going. I wanted to take the boat from SSR to DTD a few weeks ago but I didn't feel like waiting & made my DH drive us.

ha that is too funny

Hope to get some more updates this weekend so thank you all for being patient and hanging in there with me ​

 

[thornton0511]

Dinner at DTD

It was now 6:15pm and we had just arrived at Downtown Disney. It was also dinner time. We were not incredibly hungry due to our lunch at the Mill earlier which is a shame because there are so many places to eat here. But we also love DTD and usually always end up here at some point on our arrival day to Disney. It's a thing. We made our way through Marketplace (which is my favorite area) and when we passed Goofy's Candy Co we noticed that they were handing out free samples of banana slush.

Neither of my kids are a fan of anything banana but that did not seem to stop Sydney from trying. This child will never pass up a free sample opportunity. She said it was not too bad. Without even looking up I asked Cory if he would like to try one……Cory?........Cory? ……..the lack of response forced me to look up at my child and that's when I got this……

Seriously mom? You know I hate banana. Why would you even ask that? Lol!! Obviously Cory passed. We continued ahead toward our choice of restaurant for dinner. By the time we reached the World of Disney and the Lego Store we ran into…..dum dum dum…..DTD construction walls. Wow. It was then that I realized what people were talking about. They were everywhere. Everything just looked so different and not in a magical way lol. I know that the end product will be Disney amazing and all worth it but I could see how people would get frustrated with the present state. I felt like a rat trying to navigate through a maze to get to the cheese….along with what seemed hundreds of other rats in a bottleneck. Ah what do ya do?

Finally we had arrived at our dinner location. No reservation needed as we had our trusty Landry's Select Card for priority seating.

We put our name in and waited patiently for our turn. The skies started to look a bit dark and it seemed as though a rain storm might start at any time. Thankfully our name was called within a few minutes before the rain could start.

T-Rex Café is our go to OOP here at DTD. We usually eat at Rainforest in Dallas when we are home so usually we skip it and go with the dinos in Disney.
We did not put in any request this time as we were fine with wherever they put us. So imagine our surprise and luck when she started heading to……

The Ice Room! Yay for pixie dust!! This is our favorite area to sit since the cave changes colors while you eat and it’s just awesome. The kids put on their dino hats and we were ready for some grub! Like I mentioned earlier since we were not on the DDP until tomorrow this meal would be OOP for us. However we did score a Landry's gift card several months ago so this meal was technically not costing us anything. Always a plus!
Now for the food!! Portions here are huge.

Sydney went with kids pasta topped with Alfredo sauce and bread. For her side she went with corn. She gave it two thumbs up.

Cory went with the kids ribs and fruit and somehow also ended up with a huge bowl of potato chips. He also gave the ribs two thumb up.

DH and I decided to split the appetizer sampler and added a side of ribs to it. This was also when the kids decided that they would photobomb my pictures. It became a trend as the week went on.
Now notice in the picture above how close the appetizer stand is to the middle of the two tables? Apparently worse place ever to place a towering stand of food. DH went to scoot his chair in a bit and somehow the leg of the chair caught the table and caused the two tables to separate……and down came the tower of food as the leg of the stand fell between the space. Crash and bang. Bruschetta, Quesadillas, and Queso went flying while Onion Rings rolled away. Thankfully no one got splattered with food or cut by broken plates. Our server looked mortified but we reassured her that is was not a big deal at all. But I get it. This is a server's worst nightmare….well one of a few anyway. Within a blink of an eye someone was on a walkie and it was if the TRex S.W. A.T. team was called in lol. Out of nowhere employees came with buckets and brooms and it was as if nothing had happened, all within a minute of the crash. And literally as soon as we sat back down there was another tower of food sitting on the table. But not in the crease of the table this time lol. I have never in my life seen such a fast, well constructed team of employees react to something like this. I mean do you have like meetings with drills for this kind of thing? Ha!
We finished our meal and somehow managed to bypass the rain all together. Our timing was great. We then headed back in the direction of the boat dock at Marketplace. It was getting late and we wanted an early start tomorrow. But I just had to make one stop before we could get on that boat.

Marketplace Co Op. I have dreamed about this since the store opened. I had no intention of buying anything just yet but I wanted to window shop really really bad. At one store in particular…

Disney Centerpiece. I had officially died and gone to decorate your entire house Disney style heaven!

It was a bit smaller than I had imagined it would be and there were a lot of people crammed into this area. This made it a bit difficult to navigate around while watching to make sure that you do not knock over a ceramic jungle cruise elephant or a tiki tumbler.
I seriously could have bought everything in this store but alas I left empty handed. Thankfully you can purchase a lot of this stuff online at the Disney store so I did not leave in vain. But you can bet on what my Christmas wish list will look like this year! I think my absolute favorite item in the store was the Aloha Isle Dole Whip sign but I don't know if the $150 price tag attached to it is justified, especially since it seems to be made of tin and not wood. I dunno just my opinion.

Once I had been dragged out by my family we did a quick walkthrough of the rest of the store. I really liked these chairs and the family really liked sitting in them while I walked around lol. Then we made our way out. I really, really liked all of it and it was such a neat concept. I hope that this one sticks around for awhile.

While we waited for the boat to take us home Sydney passed the time by making duck calls. Apparently this is a new talent she has found she has. Surprising she makes a pretty good duck call too, even if no ducks paid her a visit.

We made it back to Riverside after a nice relaxing boat ride. That's when I noticed that this resort is equally as beautiful at night as it is during the day. Officially obsessed.
Normally at this point in our day it would have made perfect sense to call in a night and head back to our room. After all we had been up since 2am. But this was our only day/night here and there was still one more thing we had to do before going to sleep…….
To be continued


​

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

I really think DTD on arrival day really is a thing. So many people with X number of day tickets don't want to waste a day, so DTD is the perfect solution.

Clearly Sydney is just flat out smart. You do NOT turn down free stuff EVER.

Oh lord the DTD construction. I have never seen such a mess. Like you said I'm sure it will be great, but it really does feel like a rat in a maze. Good analogy.

What?? Rain??? Nah. Not in Florida.

OK, you got into T-Rex with no reservation? What is this "Landry's Select Card" you speak of?

GAH look at all that food.

I didn't notice the tables together at first, but YIKES at the tumbling food. Pretty amazing how quick the response was.

WOW the Co-Op is so popular. I think it's here to stay.

Aha... CLIFFHANGER!!!

 

[scottny]

Oh how I love POR. Missing it now. LOL.

The room is very pretty.

Riverside Mill is so great to eat at especially when you get a window seat.

Sitting in the basket like E.T., LOL. Glad it worked out and she was able to sit in the back.

Love that boat ride to DTD.

LOL. The T-Rex swat team. That is funny.

Caught up again.

 

[thornton0511]

I really think DTD on arrival day really is a thing. So many people with X number of day tickets don't want to waste a day, so DTD is the perfect solution.
you pretty much nailed it Rob! Plus it is such great way to introduce yourself back to Disney too
Clearly Sydney is just flat out smart. You do NOT turn down free stuff EVER.
lol this is true. you should see this child at the grocery store on a Saturday...she can sniff out a lady with a free sample booth like a hound dog
Oh lord the DTD construction. I have never seen such a mess. Like you said I'm sure it will be great, but it really does feel like a rat in a maze. Good analogy.
it really was. I know that you will understand this but I could not believe all of the construction....everywhere. I know it will all be awesome and I am so happy that Disney is a company that is always improving but man it was EVERYWHERE lol
What?? Rain??? Nah. Not in Florida.
lol poor Rob. I heard that the week you went it was like a typhoon attacked Disney
OK, you got into T-Rex with no reservation? What is this "Landry's Select Card" you speak of?
Ah yes the Landrys's Select Card. It basically replaced the old club card they used to have. This one you can get online through their website or sign up a one of their restaurants. What happens is you pay an up front $25. They immediately transfer the $25 on your new card. (So it's basically free since you are getting the money put back on the card) It cost nothing to keep the card, there are no fees involved and every year on your birthday month (which you can really choose any month for your birthday month) they will load a free $25 on your card to spend. Also you can use your card and walk up to any Landry's restaurant and you get front of the line seating which means you are put at the top of the list. It really is a great thing to have and you can use the card (and the reward dollars) at any Landry's owned restaurant. This includes Rainforest, TRex, Bubba Gump, Yak and Yeti, the list goes on and on.
GAH look at all that food.
I know right?!
I didn't notice the tables together at first, but YIKES at the tumbling food. Pretty amazing how quick the response was.
Yeah I was impressed
WOW the Co-Op is so popular. I think it's here to stay.
oh how I love Co-Op
Aha... CLIFFHANGER!!!

bum bum bum.....lol

Oh how I love POR. Missing it now. LOL.
meee tooooo!!!!
The room is very pretty.
yes we were spoiled by the royal room lol. no moderate room will ever be the same after this
Riverside Mill is so great to eat at especially when you get a window seat.
Favorites
Sitting in the basket like E.T., LOL. Glad it worked out and she was able to sit in the back.
ha me too. I was proud of my ET reference
Love that boat ride to DTD.
it was super relaxing
LOL. The T-Rex swat team. That is funny.
it really felt like that lol
Caught up again.

Aw hopefully more to come soon

 

[catherines_mama]

So excited to see this report up and running! Your trip sounds amazing so far.. Looking forward to following along.

 

[amandaw]

Sounds like a fun but relaxed evening!

I am in love with that section of the Co-op store!! I bought the plates with the different MK lands. I use them almost daily and it makes me so happy! It's the little things, right?

 

[Elevationist]

OMG! What was the one more thing you had to do before going to sleep?! I can't handle the anticipation!

I really liked reading about your experience at T-Rex, despite the disaster! I am planning to eat here for the first time on my next trip. Can you really request the Ice Room?

Thanks for the details about the boat launch from POR, too! Right now my next trip is booked for AoA, but depending on what promotions and discounts are released over the next year, I am hoping to upgrade to POFQ. If I do, I'll definitely be taking the boat to DTD! (And I don't even like boats, but I make an exception at Disney!)

Can't wait to read more!

 

[thornton0511]

So excited to see this report up and running! Your trip sounds amazing so far.. Looking forward to following along.

Thank you! So happy to have you here!!

Sounds like a fun but relaxed evening!

I am in love with that section of the Co-op store!! I bought the plates with the different MK lands. I use them almost daily and it makes me so happy! It's the little things, right?

Oh I know those plates!! They are on my Christmas list lol yes it is the little things...spot on!

OMG! What was the one more thing you had to do before going to sleep?! I can't handle the anticipation!
ha lol
I really liked reading about your experience at T-Rex, despite the disaster! I am planning to eat here for the first time on my next trip. Can you really request the Ice Room?
Oh you are going to love it! It is very loud so consider yourself warned lol....but after all it is a place themed with dinosaurs so....
Yes you can absolutely request the ice room, just expect a bit of a longer wait possibly! Definitely worth it IMO!
Thanks for the details about the boat launch from POR, too! Right now my next trip is booked for AoA, but depending on what promotions and discounts are released over the next year, I am hoping to upgrade to POFQ. If I do, I'll definitely be taking the boat to DTD! (And I don't even like boats, but I make an exception at Disney!)
Ha! That sounds awesome. We really did enjoy the boat ride. Very nice. AoA looks like an awesome resort too! I would love to stay in one of the Little Mermaid rooms sometime, they just need to stop leaving those out of the promos lol!
Can't wait to read more!

Thank you!

 

[thornton0511]

And They Call Him YEHAA Bob!

As we got off the boat at the dock I informed the family of something that no stay at Riverside could be complete without, even if it was for only one night. And it could only be found in evenings at the River Roost attached to the main lobby. And they call him YEHAA Bob. I have wanted an excuse to see him and his show in person for some time now and this seemed like the perfect chance.

The show had already started when we arrived but we found a place off to the side in the back to stand. The place was already packed. The family was unsure of what I was dragging them into when we first walked in but within minutes they understood. It was one of those moments you guys. Another Disney memory that we will add to our "this is why we come to Disney file".
We were too far back to get any good pictures so DH just started recording. Below is one of my favorites. I loved the energy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux_ndsxKffo&feature=youtu.be
Then Yehaa Bob went into a melody of Disney classics!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTD4yxboEv8&list=UUqwvEQxKT2KKC5BRow38CgA
Only in the magical world of Disney can a group of mainly adults (and some children) in a lounge setting start singing along to M-I-C-K-E-Y . GAH! I honestly started to get a little emotional. It just hit me and I was like THIS! This is what it is all about. This is why people choose to come here and get away from it all. Disney is such an amazing place you guys!
It was getting late and Yehaa Bob did not seem to be getting close to quittin time but I knew that we needed to call it a night. I hated to walk away….we all did. We honestly could have stayed there all night long being entertained. I walked around to get the kids.

I wish I had taken this picture earlier because this wall was lined with kids, including mine. The place was so packed that all of the kids found by standing on the ledge and poking their head through the windows they could still see Yehaa Bob doing his thing. I thought this was epic. That's entertainment.
As we were getting ready to walk out he began singing Country Road and so we stopped for just a while longer….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKyI5W1S48E&feature=youtu.be
It seemed like a good note to end our day on. County roads take me home to the place I belong…..

We made our way back to the room and on the way noticed a Disney movie playing on the lawn area by our buildings. I remember thinking to myself that this place, this Disney world, is so unlike any other place on earth….it truly is a magical place. Today had been an incredible day and it felt so good to be home.
​

 

[Purpleblanket]

Just found your trip report! sounds like a great beginning! I'll be following
along. love the pics!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

YEEHAW BOB!!!! I still have yet to see him and that is just criminal. I know that his act absolutely transcends Disney, one of those little hidden treasures. Everything you described (and videoed) is everything I've heard. Just pure magic. So glad you made a point to visit with him.

 

[thornton0511]

Just found your trip report! sounds like a great beginning! I'll be following
along. love the pics!

so glad to have you join!

YEEHAW BOB!!!! I still have yet to see him and that is just criminal. I know that his act absolutely transcends Disney, one of those little hidden treasures. Everything you described (and videoed) is everything I've heard. Just pure magic. So glad you made a point to visit with him.

Oh Rob he was awesome! I am already excited to go back next year and see him again, for the whole show too!! You have definitely got to make time to see him next time!

 

[thornton0511]

Sassagoula Floatworks for a Breakfast Treat

We woke up fairly early this morning because we had a lot to accomplish. First thing was to check out of Riverside. We had our bags packed and ready to be transferred and completely checked out by 7:15am. We were doing good on time.
The next thing on our list was breakfast….of sorts. Since we were so incredibly close to POFQ we decided to make the walk to Sassagoula Floatworks to grab a bite.

Ideally we would have taken the boat, but since it was so early in the morning the boats were not transporting anyone, so we walked. It really quite a nice walk too. Despite the humidity, the temperature was not too bad yet. It took just under 15 minutes for us to walk from POR to POFQ. This resort did seem very quaint and very well themed. Not sure if I would stay here or not but I could see why many people find it charming.

Finally we had arrived…….

And greeted by this guy. Since he technically is in the clown family by my classifications I found him very creepy.
Even though technically we had checked out of POR and today started our free dining package we decided still to pay OOP for our breakfast choice today. We did this type of split stay last December where we stayed one night as a room only reservation and switched resorts to start a package the following day. This gave us two sets of MB's (one for each reservation) and the only issue we ran into during that trip was when we tried to use our bands for dining credit before we had checked into our package resort. We had no problem getting into the park, but we did with food charges. It ended up being only that I had forgotten that I set a PIN ahead of time and did not remember this piece of info until we had left the park to go all the way to the resort to check in. OOPS! Looking back now if we had used our bands for this meal expense it would have saved us some grief we would experience later….there's some more of that foreshadowing folks.
In the meantime we ordered our breakfast and found a table while we waited for our food to be prepared.

While we waited the kids were extremely distracted by their surroundings

Gigantic mardi gras heads can be distracting….just sayin
Within no time our healthy choice for breakfast was ready

Beignets. And only one place to get them here. Nom Nom Nom.
We inhaled our yummy beignets, being ever so careful to not inhale the powdered sugar while eating.

Once finished we stopped by the gift shop area quickly to see if they had medical tape that DH could use to try and tape his big toe to his other toe to keep it from moving. It was a bit better but still sore when it moved around in his shoe. Then we were off to catch a bus. We had some park touring to do and if we were lucky we could still make rope drop!
​

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I'm REALLY excited about wandering through the Co-op. Everyone seems to be raving about it.

I'd LOVE to see Yee-Haw Bob one of these trips! I haven't stayed at POR for years (was he performing then?), but I'd love to get over there and check him out sometime.

Mmm, beignets.

Oh no on the food issue foreshadowing. Many folks seem to have issues with the dining plan becoming active at their second resort...