Hello, dear readers! This report was originally written with other Disney World junkies (also known as pixie dust snorters) in mind. I have tried to accommodate people who are less familiar by using links and trying to define terms a little more fully. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. I hope you enjoy this trip report as much as I enjoyed writing it!
We look super fancy here because the photo was taken on our anniversary Disney Cruise earlier this year. The photos in this trip report will not be this fancy. In fact, we look pretty rough in most of our pictures this time because we went from open to close most days – something we’ve never done before this trip.
Anyway, Coda just finished a year-long process of upgrading to his Third Mate’s license (he’s a US Merchant Marine) and I’ve seen him for a grand total of about five months out of the last year. A trip together was much-needed! But since this trip was booked so last-minute, we were unable to get a room through the Disney Vacation Club (a Disney timeshare) and ended up booking five nights at Pop Century (a “value” resort) instead.
With annual passes and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets purchased and two reservations made (Beaches and Cream and Cinderella’s Royal Table) we were ready to hit the road to Walt Disney World!
Usually I skip the travel days in my trip reports. However, this one was kind of unique as far as travel goes… mostly because it started at one in the morning. Unfortunately, day one is also very, very light on pictures, so I hope you’ll bear with me! I promise the pictures pick up as the days go on! 🙂
So, like I was saying, we were up and moving at one in the morning. Coda, who obviously hates Disney World, convinced me to drive through the night so we could have an extra day of vacation time! We were in the car and on the road by 1:30 and I promptly passed out. I was awoken at 4am when we stopped to get gas and I was informed that it was my turn to drive. I hopped in the driver’s seat and manned the wheel for a few hours until it was Coda’s turn again. He took us through the final stretch and finally I saw one of my favorite sights in the world.
The sky was a little scary looking, but we were undeterred! By 12pm, we were pulling into Epcot.
Our first stop was to pick up our Annual Passes, which had already been linked to our magic bands (basically a ticket/room key/credit card on your wrist). Speaking of magic bands, mine was decorated ahead of time. I used purple nail polish followed by temporary tattoos and, finally, a clear coat.
Unfortunately, this was not a good plan. I had read tons of posts from others who had done the same, but my bands ended up getting cracked and peely. I remedied my magic band situation later in the trip (pics come later)!
Once inside the park, we headed straight for Nemo with our FP+ (FastPass Plus – pretty much a reservation for a ride)! Coda loved using his magic band for his fast pass, by the way. We were both pleasantly surprised to see that all of the effects on the Finding Nemo ride were working perfectly! Even some I’d rarely seen in action were up and running – the creepy angler fish, for example.
After Nemo, we were starving! Well, we were starving before, but Nemo… Lunch had been decided on hours earlier. Les Halles, for sure! The line was very short and it took only a minute to get our orders. I had the quiche, as always, and Coda got a ham and cheese sandwich on a croissant with lobster bisque. There weren’t any sit down tables available, but we were able to grab one of the standing only tables and that worked just fine for us. The food was, of course, amazing!
Next we decided to stop off at The American Adventure. Now, this was the first time we’d ever seen this show. I know, I know! This was the first time in seven trips over five years that I’ve stopped into the American pavilion. I’m sorry to say it’ll probably be the last time. I know I might catch a lot of heat for this, but I guess that’s how it works with opinions. Let me preface this next paragraph by telling you I served in the US Air Force for four years and went on one tour to Afghanistan, so I’m as American as the next person. Alright, now that I have that out of the way, if you’ve never seen the show, here’s a video of the finale:
While the animatronics are awesome, the show was kind of… almost embarrassing. The “history” presented is so glossed over and glorified. It’s honestly a little ridiculous. The pilgrim story is quickly mentioned and the only time Native Americans come up is for Chief Joseph to agree with the government. Wars are also made to look much more romantic than they were. I get that it’s the American show, but… I’d really like to get a poll of reactions from people who were there visiting from other countries. My husband and I both had to try really hard to keep straight faces and agreed that we probably wouldn’t go back.
By this time it was 3pm and time to check into our hotel. We hit Spaceship Earth on the way out and, for the first time ever, Coda smelled the burning libraries of Alexandria! Everything seemed to be working perfectly!
We checked into Pop Century around 3:30. The check-in went smoothly and we were very lucky to receive a room with a king sized bed, which we’d requested upon booking. The room seemed to be fine on first glance, though much smaller than the DVC rooms we usually get to stay in. I didn’t get a picture, but I found an identical one via Google.
It’s definitely more of, I guess, a “normal” hotel room. The Disney Magic was not as strong with this one. We passed out on top of the covers for a few hours before heading back to Epcot for the evening.
When we arrived, we were totally shocked to see that Soarin’ had absolutely no line at all and we were able to walk right on without a wait. We got the back row of the middle “hang glider,” which was a pretty awesome view! The video needs a serious cleaning, as always, but it’s so refreshing to watch people who have never seen it before and realize how amazing the ride actually is. I cannot wait until they upgrade the video to 4k!
By this time, we were getting hungry again. It was our first time at the Food and Wine festival so we definitely wanted to take advantage of all the food! We stopped in Greece first for the griddled Greek cheese with pistachios and honey. The cheese and honey were so good! I probably would have been happy without the pistachios, but it was good either way. Next, Coda ran off to Canada where he got wild mushroom filet mignon with truffle butter sauce. It was awesome! But it was also tiny. So he went to find more food… in Hawaii. He got the tuna poke with seaweed salad, which he loved. I took his word for it because… gross. Last, but certainly not least, I stopped in Mexico for a rib eye taco, which was delicious! Somehow, Coda was still hungry. We made a detour through China so he could stop at the Lotus Blossom Cafe for some orange chicken.
Finally, it was time for our Test Track FP+! The ride was super awesome, of course! I love the new queue, even if the ride is super similar to the original Test Track. The queue is so much quieter and more fluid (if that makes sense). Afterwards we played some of the games in the aftershow and took pictures with our car. I’m not sure what the deal is with their lighting situation.
With Illuminations: Reflections of Earth (fireworks) set to start in about 45 minutes, we headed back through the World Showcase to pick up some drinks. We’d seen the chai tea with baileys on the Food and Wine menu and that was where we went! Of course, I was the only one carded. Such is life…
Here’s an awesome video of Illuminations for anyone who hasn’t seen it!
Illuminations was just as epic as it always is and, after the fireworks, it was time to get back to the room. I was totally exhausted!
This was where my hotel room issues started. When I pulled back the covers (and I have a pretty serious issue with sheets being spotless), there were black and orange marks on the sheets. When I pulled them back further I found hair. I promptly grabbed a sweatshirt out of my suitcase and switched which side of the bed I was on since my husband isn’t fazed by things like this.
We got to sleep around midnight, with thoughts of Kilimanjaro Safaris in our heads…
After quickly changing clothes, we were ready to head over to Beaches and Cream for ice cream! We did have the foresight to change into rain boots this time.
I found mine literally two days before the trip… in the kids section at Target. It was the only place I was able to find any! Since I don’t own any skinny jeans, it was interesting trying to find ways to keep my pants in.
After checking in, we walked over to the arcade (we were still kind of early). We got a ton of compliments on our rain boots! A lot of, “they know how to plan!” comments. Haha! Finally it was time to go in. Our waitress seemed kind of irritated that we were only having ice cream (is this common?). We made reservations, though, since last time we went we walked up without a reservation and got dirty looks that way too. She did take our orders though. We both got water, I got coffee, and for the ice cream, I got the No Way Jose and Coda got some chocolately brownie thing.
It was awesome! Coda ate all of his and half of mine. I really just get it for the peanut butter… Our drinks though… they hadn’t showed up. It took asking twice and probably 20 minutes for our waitress to finally get another waitress to bring our drinks. She didn’t get the greatest tip. After we were done, it was time for Downtown Disney. I loved the new magic mirror in World of Disney!
Haha! Coda did it too, but he won’t let me post his picture. While we were there, Coda got me a new pearl and a Cinderella’s carriage to put it in. We also got some Mickey earrings for our seven year old niece. After a quick stop in the Christmas store, Disney’s Days of Christmas, to get a new ornament and order personalization (pictures later!) we were ready to go back “home.”
That night we really wanted to walk around the Art of Animation Resort, which was next door to our own! It was so cool! I loved the larger-than-life characters!
One interesting thing was noticing the difference at the Little Mermaid area. It was very obviously the part of Pop Century that was never completed. The remaining three sections were completely different – most noticeably the fact that they were hotel style vs. motel. Anyway, it was really fun! We had dinner while we were there and we really loved their food court. Coda spent the walk back “saving” snails from the sidewalk.
We got back to the hotel and settled in for the night. The next day would bring some fun, new experiences!
