“Please Don’t Pop My Disney Bubble!” TR 8/11-8/20 *New 1/1, It’s a wrap!!

[ariane37]

We came home every night to the beds turned down, chocolate on the pillow, and the wonderful WDW info channel playing the familiar music, it was so nice!

We did get this last year when we stayed CL at WL, it's awesome. And of course we just had it on our recent GF trip Not that I'm showing off or anything

Uniqlo

We bought stuff here for the first time this trip! I've been in before but nothing ever caught my eye. Can't beat the prices!

For those of you reading along about our epic Dis meet trip in May, that trip will have me trying some much reviewed alcohol drinks!!

Can't wait

I'm sure we will be consuming quite a bit of alcohol on our Epic Girl's trip...

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Ummm, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Joining in!

The start of the trip worrying about the room would have been stressful but what a reward to be upgraded to GF!

I hope to be at Disney during DAH some day, looks great!

Love the lantern photos!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Not that I'm showing off or anything

Oh you show off!How amazing for you two, that was awesome. So excited to hear all about it. We did love our stay! I really missed the automatic turn down this time. The first time I experienced it at GF I was in heaven, ahh the little things!!

We bought stuff here for the first time this trip! I've been in before but nothing ever caught my eye. Can't beat the prices

I love looking in Uniqlo and I have no trouble finding 1 or 2 things, haha!

Excited for the Epic meet, this will be so fun!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Ummm, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Same here!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in!

The start of the trip worrying about the room would have been stressful but what a reward to be upgraded to GF!

I hope to be at Disney during DAH some day, looks great!

Love the lantern photos!

Thanks for joining in! I love reading your reports!
It was stressful the first day, yikes. I had put in a fax request for a room away from the lobby and I also wrote how excited we were to stay here and the most important request was a quiet room. I have had success with the room fax before, this time not at all, oh well!
DAH is so worth the AP price, best bang for your money in my opinion!
Thank you! I am so glad I made Andi wait to do this, she hates waiting! Teens

 

[dnllmz]

I'm all caught up! Nice upgrade to GF. I feel like my kids are too young for GF. I'd be nervous they'd run around like animals and make a ton of noise and it's too fancy for that. My kids don't really behave like that but it'd be just my like if they did and we were staying there. I've been wanting to stay at the WL for a while now. I keep saying maybe next trip but then wind up booking somewhere else. We're staying at AKL for a few days before our cruise but WL was my 2nd choice. I'm thinking about doing a split stay next year so maybe we'll finally get to WL.

DAH sounds really cool. I'm glad you guys were able to enjoy it after such a long travel day. Love the lantern pictures. I wanted to do them with dd but I never get there early enough. The line is always too long. Once again it goes on the maybe next time list. That list is getting really long.

 

[cwiklamama]

Fellow Minnesotan, yay!! We live in Duluth and take skyline shuttle. It is very convenient and the cost is reasonable. I’m not sure what part of MN you live in, skyline is local to Duluth. The shuttle makes like 14 trips a day to MSP. It drops us off right at the airport. I like to start my hassle free trip right from the start. I love not having to drive for the whole time I’m on vacation. I like having a driver. Thanks for joining in!

That sounds so convenient. We love Duluth. We are in Moorhead and I haven't heard of anything similar near here. Thanks for the info though.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I'm all caught up! Nice upgrade to GF. I feel like my kids are too young for GF. I'd be nervous they'd run around like animals and make a ton of noise and it's too fancy for that. My kids don't really behave like that but it'd be just my like if they did and we were staying there. I've been wanting to stay at the WL for a while now. I keep saying maybe next trip but then wind up booking somewhere else. We're staying at AKL for a few days before our cruise but WL was my 2nd choice. I'm thinking about doing a split stay next year so maybe we'll finally get to WL.

DAH sounds really cool. I'm glad you guys were able to enjoy it after such a long travel day. Love the lantern pictures. I wanted to do them with dd but I never get there early enough. The line is always too long. Once again it goes on the maybe next time list. That list is getting really long.

Yay! The GF is so nice, for young and old! The first time we went to look at the GF lobby, Andi thought it was stuffy and wasn’t sure she would want to stay here. She loved both our stays, it really is not stuffy, just beautiful!!
DAH is so fun, I will do it again if it works out for us! The lantern picture was on my to do list forever, very glad I was able to check it off!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hello Everyone!! It is time for another update! This will cover Day 2, Part 2. Pandora in the rain!

Plans include AK in the evening! FP for Dinosaur, Safari, & FoP. Dinner at Satu’li Canteen.

We had a nice rest at GF for a few hours. Mousekeeping came during our rest and offered to come back in the evening, yay turn down service. I know there is much controversy and threads on here about the security room checks. I have found a strategy which works great for us. Try it and I think you will be pleased with the results.

I call the housekeeping number and request mousekeeping service for every morning. I explain we are always gone in the morning and we come back in the afternoon for a rest. I do ask if I need to call each day for the request and I have always been told no, they will make a note for this request. This has worked great for us, and we never get any other type of security check. I always leave a tip and a note of thanks and I believe this helps as well for the consistent morning mousekeeping!

We used the handy bus time app on MDE and headed out to an AK bus, no wait! The skies looked ominous! I had my rain poncho and Andi had her Mickey rain jacket. No rain upon arrival, we headed to Dinoland, our first FP was for Dinosaur! One of my favorite rides, why I can’t say, haha!
It is bumpy, jerky, and I always think my back is going to go out but I love it anyway!! Our picture was horrid, I look like I have the Black Plague creeping up my face, yuck! Check out the guy behind us, funny!


We were able to get a picture by Donald’s truck before the rain started.

We made it to the big dinosaur and the rain began. I put on my new poncho. It was a button down one with sleeves and a hood. I am so short it worked well for me, it covered most of my legs! It was purple, one of my favorite colors ever!! Andi is to cool for ponchos. Thank goodness it wasn’t raining very hard, we were able to keep walking around. We headed up to Asia and made our way all the way around to Starbucks. Andi had the new strawberry cream frappe and I had the SA refresher. Yummy! We hung out in Starbucks for a little while. The CM spelled Andi with a y. Like Toy Story!


The rain was much lighter so we checked out a few shops and went to A bugs life. I love how scared everyone gets in here, it is so funny! The lady in front of us freaked when the maggots and cockroaches left before us!

It was time for our Safari FP, I wasn’t sure it would be running with the rain. Good news it was! I thought the animals would be more active in the rain except this was not the case. It was actually a little boring, shhh, don’t tell anyone! We enjoyed our driver, she was really good. We noticed the park crowds were getting less and less with the rain.


It was time to check out Pandora in the rain The sb line for FoP was the shortest I have ever seen. It was almost inside! We did our FP, loved it as much as before. The gift shop was not to crowded and we were able to get a picture in here.


We decided to eat next since the rain was coming down a little harder now. Satu’li was pretty quiet. I decided to go with a kids meal. I did the bowl with the wood-grilled chicken and salad. This came with a small water. I also decided to finally try the Blueberry cream cheese mousse. Andi had the regular bowl with chicken, rice, beans, and creamy herb dressing. Can I just say, yummy. My little salad had so much flavor, it was delicious and the dessert was so yummy, the mango curd on top really added to this dessert.


The rain was still coming down and it was putting a damper on the Pandora atmosphere. We decided to head out of the park. We did have to wait over 20 minutes for the bus back to GF. We had a clean room, with turn down service and chocolates on our pillows, lovely! Andi filled her mug and we decided to make it an early night. We had a wake up time of 5:15am the next day! I bet you all know why!!
Here are food totals for Day 1:
Chick-fil-A= $15.00.
Refillable mug=$18.99
Cosmic Rays=$26.08
Total=$60.07
Day 2:
Gasparilla Grill=$4.04
Homecomin=$44.73
Starbucks=$11.50
Satu’li=$25.85
Total=$86.12
We use AP discount whenever possible!
Stay tune for Day 3, Part 1 “Slinky dog, here we are in Andy’s yard!”

 

[xlsm]

Check out the guy behind us, funny!

He is living his best instagram life, for sure!!

and went to A bugs life. I love how scared everyone gets in here, it is so funny! The lady in front of us freaked when the maggots and cockroaches left before us!

People crack me up in this show!! I don't have any kind of real bug phobia, and since it's all so cartoony I don't get the freak outs, but WOW sometimes people just really can't handle it, LOL!! The only part I think is scary is waiting until the holding area fills up before they let you in the theater

I'm sorry the rain cut your Pandora experience short, but it's nice that Satu'li wasn't crowded and you got some yummy food. I'm so glad they added it with the land, it's one of my favorites now!!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I have found a strategy which works great for us. Try it and I think you will be pleased with the results.

I call the housekeeping number and request mousekeeping service for every morning. I explain we are always gone in the morning and we come back in the afternoon for a rest. I do ask if I need to call each day for the request and I have always been told no, they will make a note for this request. This has worked great for us, and we never get any other type of security check. I always leave a tip and a note of thanks and I believe this helps as well for the consistent morning mousekeeping!

Interesting! I'd never even thought to ask for this before, since we usually take afternoon breaks, too!

I love that you went to Satu'li Canteen. I'm a big fan!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We used the handy bus time app on MDE and headed out to an AK bus, no wait!

So useful! This came into effect right after we left in June. I can't wait to try it out in the future!

We had a clean room, with turn down service and chocolates on our pillows,

Sounds lovely!

 

[kastoney]

Page 9????? I finally get back on here and find your report and you are on page 9?

All caught up now and looking forward to more. I can't believe your room troubles, but major pixie dust getting moved over to GF!!!!

 

[pepperandchips]

Back to catch up! I'm sure I will leave you too many comments. Sorry about that!

We were directly above the WCC restaurant. We could hear clapping and whooping like it was right next to us

Oh no!!!! I know people were very upset when they heard that Disney was trying to tone down the antics but if it renders these rooms virtually uninhabitable I can't imagine Disney will let that level of noise in WCC go on. We love the WL but I do hate how noisy it can get in the lobby occasionally. Most of the time it is quiet and heavenly!

. We were able to check it out and it was yucky, the room smelled of stale old bbq sauce and was so dark

Ew! Glad you didn't accept it blindly!

The manager was so nice, she asked if we would be okay with moving to a different deluxe resort and then she says how about GF at no additional cost!

Oh my goodness that is AMAZING!

Your room looks beautiful

We were very tired and ready to nap before our DAH event. I know many love the WL and I am sure we would have if we would have had a different room. I was really bummed and then I was really happy and relieved all in the span of a few hours

What an odd check in experience and a loooooong travel day. But it looks like the bumps were worth it in the end! Amazing pixie dust!!

 

[buzzrelly]

Our picture was horrid, I look like I have the Black Plague creeping up my face, yuck!

Haha! What is that? A shadow?

We decided to eat next since the rain was coming down a little harder now. Satu’li was pretty quiet. I decided to go with a kids meal. I did the bowl with the wood-grilled chicken and salad. This came with a small water. I also decided to finally try the Blueberry cream cheese mousse. Andi had the regular bowl with chicken, rice, beans, and creamy herb dressing.

That looks great! Maybe I'll finally try this place in October since it'll just be Mike and me

 

[pepperandchips]

Still catching up. Soooo many cute photopass pictures from DAH! It looks great

We did get priority having the DAH bands so we rode again, no problem.

That's really cool. Unlimited anytime fp!

We drank our water and soon it was our turn for the lantern pictures! I am glad we waited, the pictures turned our nice!

They did come out so cute. I need to make a point to wait for this one.

We took a little break to enjoy this before we did PotC. There was only a few people in our boat! The couple behind us did a kiss for the photo

Well that's sweet and all but personally I love your pirate hooks (we do that too, argh!)

We decided to do Buzz and the picture of me says it allI don’t remember my score, I was so tired.

Too funny! You were dead on your feet I'm sure, you'd been up about 24 hours straight!

 

[pepperandchips]

I'm so close to being caught up but my coffee is getting cold and I have to go to work so I will save the rest for another day! It has been fun this morning "going on vacation" with you and Andi! I couldn't get the quote to work from you welcoming me to your report (7 pages late haha) but yes we will DEFINITELY meet up in May! I wish our meet would have worked out in August as well but as you know it was so hot and it's always harder wrangling more people. Plus I know there were some complications on your end too so I will have to wait to see how the end of your trip turned out!

I didn’t realize how much food these 2 appetizers would be and most of all how many biscuits!

Haha! That's too funny. Yes I feel like an appetizer is entree sized there and an entree is enough for 2! Of course my eyes are usually bigger than my stomach so we overorder every time...

The biscuits were flaky, soft, and so good. You can tell biscuit making is their thing here!!

So true! They are so yummy!!!

I am not a big fried chicken fan and this trip report could be called how many fried chicken sandwiches can Caroline eat.

I feel like that happens to me too when I write my reports. I promise at home I don't just eat fried chicken and hamburgers! Lol

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a nice time in AK, despite the rain! I love the shirt you are wearing, perfect for that park!

 

[Terra Nova guy]

I call the housekeeping number and request mousekeeping service for every morning. I explain we are always gone in the morning and we come back in the afternoon for a rest.

Interesting. I never thought of doing this either. I wonder if all resorts would be as efficient. This was a bit of a problem for us on our last trip. Since our room was at the far end, mousekeeping often didn't make it until mid-afternoon, right when we wanted to take our break.