TBT: Walt Disney World November 2011, Part 3

By Nick

Back before I blogged, I participated regularly in the DVC News Forums where I would post trip reports, such as this one from November of 2011. Any current commentary will be in italics.

PART 3 : 11/13/11 

         Part 2 can be found here.

 Sunday, November 13th

Who?
Me, my wife, Barbie, and our friend's Josh and Jill.
Where?
The Cabin's at Fort Wilderness.Sunday, November 13th

I awoke to find a surprise from Josh and Jill. They had picked me a Vinylmation Park Starz figure. When I opened it, it was the figure I wanted the most, the Haunted Mansion Bride!



Barbie and I did rope drop at Epcot, while our friends slept in.
We rode Soarin, and got Fastpasses. Barbie and I had breakfast at Sunshine Seasons. Josh and Jill met us there, and Josh and I used the Fastpasses to ride Soarin. We then took the Living With the Land ride.
We got FPs for Test Track, did some shopping, and I got my pic with Baloo.



Then, it was back to World Showcase to enjoy the last day of the Food and Wine Festival.

I had been good on Friday, but really let loose this day with the beer sampling.



Lobster Roll and Sam Adams Festival Beer.

Linda Bean, Lobster restauranteur, and grand-daughter of merchant L.L. Bean, was there meeting and greeting people. I was eating "her" lobster roll while I happened to be wearing pants and shoes from her families store, so I just had to get a picture with her.



By the time we got around to the other side of World Showcase, I was feeling no pain.

The dessert trio from the Dessert and Champagne Booth.



Barbie enjoying the Ice Wine from Canada.



After this we rode Test Track and Spaceship Earth.

We headed for Downtown Disney, where we shopped for a few hours.
Outside the Lego Store.



For a late snack, we had sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich.

At Goofy's Candy Company, I concocted a Chocolate Fudge Cookie covered in dark chocolate with M&Ms with chocolate drizzle monstrosity that took me 3 days to finish, it was so dense.



We somehow made it back to cabin where I passed out.

 Please come back next Thursday for part 4!

TBT: Walt Disney World November 2011, Part 2

By Nick

Back before I blogged, I participated regularly in the DVC News Forums where I would post trip reports, such as this one from November of 2011. Any current commentary will be in italics.

PART 2 : 11/12/11 
Part 1 can be found here

  
Saturday, November 12th:

We were up early, as we had 8AM breakfast at the Crystal Palace. We took the boat to the Contemporary, and the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom.



The great thing about these early reservations, is having Main Street mostly to yourself.









Breakfast was, as usual, great. Our friend Jill LOVES Tigger, and was very excited when he came around.



After breakfast we rode, Pirates, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion, watched Philharmagic, and rode Pooh.

The weather was, as the day before, perfect.



We then to the boat to the Wilderness Lodge, so Josh and Jill could see the resort.

Then it was back to the Cabins to nap a bit before heading to the Disney Hollywood Studios for dinner at The Brown Derby.
Dinner was amazing. I had the Lobster Bisque and the Duck. Delicious. And we had a great booth, looking out towards the main entrance.





After dinner, we spent well over an hour just wandering around the Osborne Lights. It was chilly that evening, just adding to the experience.







While there a Facebook friend recognized me and said hello! We met some of her friends, now new Facebook friends too.
We chatted with them for a bit, walked around more, and headed out.
Barbie and I retired to the cabin, while Josh and Jill went to the Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours.

Please stop back next week for Part 3.

TBT: Walt Disney World November 2011, Part 1

By Nick

Back before I blogged, I participated regularly in the DVC News Forums where I would post trip reports, such as this one from November of 2011. Any current commentary will be in italics.

PART 1 : 11/11/11

Who?
Me, my wife, Barbie, and our friend's Josh and Jill.
Where?
The Cabin's at Fort Wilderness.

Friday, November 11th:

We flew into Orlando from Philly, and took Magical Express to Fort Wilderness, checked in, and proceeded to our cabin.

We were in cabin 2768, which is very close to the main road, and one of the many bus stops throughout the grounds.
It is also a fairly short walk to the Outpost Depot, which is where you get a bus to Downtown Disney and all the parks except the Magic Kingdom, which is reached by boat.

Our cabin:







You walk into the kitchen area straight ahead.



To the right is the living room. There is a Murphy bed, which is where my wife and I slept.





This is very comfortable, perhaps more comfortable than other resorts beds. It is a double however, so some may find it a little small.
The hallway.



The bathroom. I felt the water pressure was also better than some resorts.



The bedroom.



A couple of things of note. I think this may have been one of the cleanest and most well kept of the rooms we've stayed in! Mouse Keeping was exceptional.

Also, one of the things I got the most feedback about, was the bus service. Many suggested we rent a car, but our friends decided that wasn't necessary. The bus service was the best of any other resort we've stayed at, with the exception of one late evening, after returning via boat from the Magic Kingdom, when we had to wait about 20 minutes for a bus. Even the internal bus service was often arriving just as we would approach both our local bus stop or the main Outpost stop. On only a couple of occasions was a bus not at the ready, and we opted to simply walk either to the main depot, or our cabin.

The pools, we did not try, but our friends enjoyed the heated quiet pool and hot tub.

Me, my wife, and our friends all agree, we would absolutely stay at the cabins again.

A big thank you to Jill for getting the interior pics for us after we left, mine didn't come out very well.

We dropped off our bags, and headed right to Epcot for some Food and Wine.
Josh, my wife Barbie, and Jill.



The weather was absolutely perfect. The Christmas decorations were already appearing, and the Christmas loops were playing.



Loved the Lamp Chop from Australia.



2 other great choices were the Steak Taco and Flan from Mexico.



Just so-so were the ravioli's from Italy.






We got our pics with Beauty and the Beast. I'd never even seen the Beast there before! We didn't get one picture where we were all looking at the same camera, as the PhotoPass person, Josh and Jill were all taking pics at the same time. 

I did a post about this, which can be found here.



A Torontopolitan from a cart in front of Canada.



Having made our way around World Showcase, we headed for Future World, and rode Imagination and the Seas With Nemo, and explored the Seas.
By now, it was almost time to head back to World Showcase. We were attending the 3D Dessert party, which was at 8PM.
On the way there, we ran into a co-worker of my wife, Mary! From New Jersey! And this wouldn't be the only time!!
.
The Dessert party:

We lined up about 730, and were admitted not to soon afterwards. We waited in front of a curtain, which was parted at 8, and all rushed for tables, which really wasn't necessary, as there were plenty.
I picked out a table, and next to our table was Barbie's co-worker, Mary! What are the odds?!



The room was beautiful.







There was an excellent live band playing songs such as "Sweet Caroline", "Sweet Child of Mine", "Sweet Home Alabama", you get the picture.



There was a lot of drink choices, coffees, teas, and many adult beverages, wine, punches, etc., and our favorite, the DeKuyper liquors.





There was also a savory station of dried meats and cheeses, as well as fruit.

Sadly the most disappointing thing about the dessert party were the desserts.



The best thing, and almost worth the price of admission alone, was the Flambeed Cinnamon Doughnuts with Red Stag Infused Sundried Cherries served with Red Stag Ice Cream.





Most of the rest of the desserts were fairly pedestrian. We all agreed the dessert trio from the Food and Wine Dessert and Champagne Booth was far superior.

At about 930, there was an announcement that we would be going to the Illuminations viewing area, located between the 2 shops at the entrance of World Showcase. On the way out, we were each handed a gift bag with a Merci Chocolate assortment, as well as some other goodies. We were also provide special glasses that made small Mickey heads out of the fireworks.



All in all, it was absolutely worth experiencing once, but we agreed we wouldn't do it again.

Please stop back next Thursday for Part 2!

Throwback Thursday: Walt Disney World - October 2009 - Part 5

By Nick 

Back in the day, my social media outlet was the DVC News Forums. I would write trip reports for each of our visits to Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and I'm sharing them here.

Some trip reports were more in depth than others, and this one is on the more descriptive side. Also, as this was a "live" trip report, I jump back in forth in time, making live comments and then going on to describe activities earlier in the day.
Any commentary I make will be in italics.

Part Five: Sunday 10/06/09 
Part Four can be found here.

Day 5 - 10/6 - 530PM

Got up this morning at about 730AM. Had a great night sleep, the 1st in a week!
Got to the Magic Kingdom in time for rope drop.



Rode Peter Pan, watched Philharmagic twice, rode Haunted Mansion, watched Hall of Presidents, which is fantastic, and, lastly, we rode Pirates.



All by 11AM.
We walked up to Main Street, just as the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate Parade started.
So we did.







But it was super hot, so we stopped.
Hopped on the Monorail to Epcot.
Ate and drank at several more booths.
We both agree that the food this year is better than last year.
The highlights today were the Mexico selections, which last year were my least favorite.



I will most likely do a separate thread for the Festival, as I've taken pics of everything we've eaten and have taken notes.
Watched American Adventure.
After that on the way back to the room, Barbie had a mint tea, I had a Tangerine Mimosa Royale. Awesome.





Barbie took a nap, while I went to Stormalong Bay for a couple hours.
This evening we are going to O'hana for dinner, an 850PM ADR, so we are just relaxing till then.

Our evening didn't go as planned, but we still had fun.
We left around 630, and walked through Epcot. The place was packed.
We rode Spaceship Earth.



Then hopped a monorail over to the TTA. We took the path to the Polynesian. This was even more crowded than Epcot.
It was a Luau night. It was crazy. We were an hour early, but we were very hungry, so Barbie went and got us a couple chairs in the lounge while I waited in line at the check in desk. When I got up there, they told me at that time there was no way we would be getting in early, and they were in fact 25-40 minutes behind.
So, I cancelled the ADR, and we had sushi at the Kona sushi bar. It was very good, but, even though my wallet was $35 lighter, I was still hungry.



So we took the monorail to the MK, and then the 1st bus we came to, going to the Boardwalk.
We picked up some items for breakfast from the Boardwalk Bakery, then walked around to Beaches and Cream.
They were playing the Hannah Montana (boy, Miley has changed drastically!) movie on the beach. I remember someone here asking where they set up the screen.
It is right next to the water slide.



At Beaches and Cream, we sat at the counter and watched a Kitchen Sink being made for a family of 4.



I got a No Way Jose, Barbie a strawberry shortcake.



Back to the room to crash from the sugar.





Please come back next Thursday for Part 6!