You're going back to Disney? Again?!? A July, 2018 TR - Updated 11-15 - THE END

Nice that the company was quick about the ECV!! We stayed at All Star Sports for a quick trip and enjoyed it!!
 
Non-Disney folks just don't understand why we wanted to go back to Disney again after just getting home. Why are you going back so soon? Isn't it crazy expensive? There are so many other places to go. I cannot explain it if you just don't already get it. So when I was asked about 20 times "you're going back to Disney again?" the answer was a loud and proud "YES".

Tuesday July 3 - Travel day


I hate to fly. I can say that since I have flown before and I do not like it and will likely never change my mind. Too many restrictions. Too tiny of seats. Way too tiny bathrooms. And I have a real fear of heights, so it is just not a good thing for me to fly. So we drive. We have a fabulous 2010 Chrystler Town and Country mini-van that is comfortable and always at the ready to hit the road. And while driving from Kentucky to Florida is a relatively easy drive (get on I-75 south and just keep trucking) there is the mind numbing area that is known as Atlanta.

Cue dramatic music . . .

When we drove down last time, we did not time it well and we were stuck in traffic for about two hours. It was horrible and my honorary title of the mayor of grumpy town was shining brightly. So I had a fantastic plan. We will leave the house at the butt-crack of dawn and be able to time it so that we get to Atlanta around 11:00 AM and the traffic won't be too bad. Since Tony does none of the driving, he was completely on board with this plan. So on Monday night, Tony loaded up the big suitcase and the extra drinks leaving only our small suitcase (with toiletries and medicine) and the cooler to go in the van the next morning. We both got showered, layed out our clothes for the next morning, loaded up on Melatonin and went to bed early.

I couldn't sleep. Even with the medication assistance, the "we're leaving for Disney in the morning" excitement was bubbling up inside me. It was closer to midnight before I finally fell asleep and the alarm was set for 3:00 AM. Shockingly, I was pretty awake when the alarm went off and we went about getting ready and packing up the last items in the van. After a quick check of the thermostat and ensuring the house was secure, we were out the door. But not quite to the interstate just yet. The first stop was to Speedway for caffeine and ice for the cooler. And then we were on the road. What time do you ask?


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4:10 AM and we were on the road. Not too bad if you ask me! We also had my angel dream catcher. Mom likes to ride along with us.

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Not much prettiness happening at that hour of the morning. Tony thinks he needs his shades before the sun comes up.

So with Pandora playing and podcasts at the ready, we went down the road. Since there was little traffic, getting thru Kentucky and onto Tennessee was fairly painless. We watched the sun come up over the Knoxville area and just before the Tennessee/Georgia border, we decided to stop for a quick breakfast and to fill up the van. We both had a craving for pancakes, so we stopped at Denny's for a grand slam of yumminess/carb overload. We're on vacation, so calories do not count!!! As we got closer to Atlanta, it was around 11:00, so the plan I had put in my head was working. Would we hit traffic? Was I going to have road rage?

The answer was no - to both questions.

Shockingly, our timing was about as close to perfect as it possibly could be. There were some slow down and delayed areas, but overall, it was not bad. We really only lost about 30 minutes.

Our final destination for the evening was the Candlewood Inn and Suites in Valdosta, Georgia. This is a very new hotel. So much so that there is not one single sign pointing you in the direction of the property. I pulled up my confirmation e-mail and it routed me to the hotel. We got there at around 3:30 PM, which was what I had expected. Go me! The hotel was about 1 1/2 miles off of the interstate.

Sorry, I took no pictures. I was so tired at this point that all I wanted to do was stretch out in the bed and take a nap. After checking in Tony unloaded the van and we got into the room. It was a king-sized room with a nice sized work area and a full kitchen and huge bathroom. But here is my issue, which was a small theme for the trip. While I appreciate the large pillow top bed, my legs are not very long. And the bed was pretty high. Without some assistance from Tony, it was close to impossible to get up in the bed. But with some pulling and tugging I got in the bed and took a little nap. I didn't want to sleep too much or I would have never slept that night. We had an early dinner at Olive Garden and a blissful sleep in the super-high bed. It really was comfortable despite the height.

Up next - Happy Birthday America - let's go to Disney!
Good for you! I just finished your last trip report and I’m excited to read this one!
 


July 4th - continued . . .

Since we had about an hour to kill until Buena Vista Scooters came back, we decided a little bite of lunch was in order. We were hungry, but knew that we had a big dinner ahead of us, so we didn't want to eat too much. We went back to the food court and realized that the word crowded could not aptly describe how busy this area was. Part of the food court was being remodeled, so that cut off so much seating. There were actually tables and chairs in the arcade. It was very overwhelming, which seems silly as I write this, because it was just lunch in a food court. Oh well, we browsed the menu and decided.


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I ordered the bacon macaroni and cheese. I also got a container of grapes and my refillable mug.

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Tony got the turkey and muenster focaccia with house made chips and his refillable mug. My lunch was "meh". It took us a while to find a table (I didn't know about the tables in the arcade until a day later), so my food was lukewarm. I picked at it and ate half of Tony's chips. Those were yummy. And the grapes were fresh. Disney has the best fruit.

I took no food pictures. I didn't take any the entire trip. I can find pictures of most of the food we ate on my friend Auntie Google.

We headed over back to the front of the resort to the bell hop stand and our timing could not have been more perfect as the truck from Buena Vista was pulling up. I showed them the problem it was having and they switched me out for another ECV. It was fully charged and ready to go. Just remember this, as it won't be the only time we've had to do a switch-a-roo for the ECV.

We rounded the corner and waited for a bus to Disney Springs. For this trip, as in previous trips, we use all Disney transportation while on property. When we were there in January, there was hardly any wait for any busses. It seemed to be a little slower this time around. But it was a major holiday and things were crazy crowded, so I just put on some patience. Not my best skill for sure! We loaded up and shortly we were at Disney Springs. I had read online that there were special July 4th backgrounds at the Photo Pass place at the Springs, so that was where I wanted to go first.

A little back story - Tony hates to get his picture taken. I'm not in love with the idea, but I like pictures of us together. I did a photo pass share and that saved us a ton of money. But I didn't tell Tony that taking these pictures was the first thing on the agenda today, especially since I didn't think we would get to do them today. So we grabbed a map and I found the location and I gave Tony my best eye flutter and sweet voice and asked him if he would do me a teeny, tiny favor.


Yup, I went there.

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After picture torture, we spent time wandering in and out of the stores. It was nice to go at a leisurely pace with no real destination. We went over to World of Disney and decided to wait for this store for another day. It was so crowded. My favorite store we stumbled upon was the Christmas store. Never have I seen such beautiful ornaments. And if I had an unlimited bank roll I would have the prettiest tree in all of the world. I settled for a picture of some cuteness.

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About that time, we started to hear the rumble of thunder. Historically, Mother Nature hates us. She gave us crazy cold weather on the last trip, and while I know that it rains most every day in Florida, the skies looked bad and then the rain started coming down. We stayed in the Christmas store until the worst part of the rain passed, which was at least 30 minutes. After it was over we did some more exploring.

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I know we didn't buy anything because I knew we would be back over here in a few days. I ended up not buying myself anything the entire trip. I've got champagne taste on a beer budget. I'm talking to you Dooney purses!

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All the hype over rose gold ears? I just don't see it.

Up next - dinner with the main mouse and will we see fireworks?
 
Loving your trip report. I rented an ECV last year we stayed in Port Oreans and had the same issue with less room in the room when you park the ECV.
Staying at Sports in Sept. so I can save money and do Deluxe Dining Plan. I am pretty excited about staying here. We usually stay moderate or Deluxe when we take our week long trips (cause we live in FL and do not need to pay to fly or drive) We do stay value for our overnight trips but not sure we will any more since they charge for parking.
I really feel like I am more in The Disney Bubble when I stay value because of the theming and cause I am nuts that way.
Loving your trip report.

They waived our parking fee when I showed them proof of our vehicle handicapped tag. You should try that. Renting an ECV for us just saves the trip.

Congrats on your accomplishment! :rotfl:

Yeah, I get the emails too, not the texts. I also get my Annual Passholder emails sent to my work email, which has never been associated with an AP! Gotta love Disney IT!

Getting that picture was vital since I missed it last time. I felt very proud of me! :) :) :)

Good to know that the ECV was not a problem and it was taken care of fast.

Love that you said " then I'm Tony's worst nightmare. "

Buena Vista Scooters were great. I'd recommend them easily.

I can be Tony's worst nightmare. Thankfully he overlooks that on most days!


That is a very long trip but lovely to be able to do it in your own time and not be tied down.
I am with you on the WDW sign. I am never convinced I am going to get to Disney until we pass under there.
I always reckon I could pull my case to my resort from there if necessary
Looking forward to the rest

It is a long drive, but the freedom we have by driving is worth it. Thanks for reading along.

Following! I read your last TR and back for this one!

:welcome:

Glad to have found this new TR! I enjoyed your last one :).

:welcome:

Following! You and your husband are adorable!

:welcome: and :thanks:

Nice that the company was quick about the ECV!! We stayed at All Star Sports for a quick trip and enjoyed it!!

The resort was fine. Not my favorite theming, but it was clean and within our budget.

Following along. I just binge read your last report. Can't wait to read more!

:welcome:

Good for you! I just finished your last trip report and I’m excited to read this one!

:welcome:
 
I just love those pictures at Disney Springs! You guys are adorable!! :love: Where do you get these done?

The rose gold ears look good on you! But I guess I like the traditional ears best!
 


Following! I read your last report and came over from there. Really enjoying reading about your adventures! I really hope you saw fireworks on the fourth somewhere. Guess we’ll know soon.
 
Sounds like a fun trip so far. I always love the Christmas store in both Magic Kingdom and Disney Springs. I actually have enough ornaments to fill one whole tree as just Disney. Yes, I have a problem.
 
July 4th continued - dinner and fireworks . . .

I really wanted Tony to be able to experience the Magic Kingdom fireworks on July 4th. I have seen them before and there is one thing that Disney does perfectly - fireworks. But we weren't going to the park that day. So I wanted us to have a dinner reservation that would have us as close to the Magic Kingdom as possible without actually being inside. I had done my research and learned that there were places that you could see the fireworks and the music was piped in. One of those places was the Contemporary. Well that sounds fabulous - let's have dinner there. There were a couple of issues with that. First, a reservation at Chef Mickey's was challenging to get. It's a pretty popular place. And secondly, my dear husband does not like character meals.

I'll pause a minute while you deal with the shock of that information. I still love him despite this.

The original plan was to just grab something quick/counter service and then go to the Contemporary or as close to the main gate as possible to watch the fireworks. But then as I was stalking - oh I mean casually glancing - at the Disney website, I found the impossible. A 7:20 dinner reservation at Chef Mickey's. On July 4th. It was fate (or so I told myself), so I grabbed it. Surprisingly when I told Tony about it, he was okay with the plan. I may have batted my eyes at him though.

So as we left Disney Springs, we hopped on a bus to the Contemporary. If I remember correctly, the bus also stopped at the Wilderness Lodge, so we got to see that also. Such a beautiful resort. When we got to the Contemporary we had to go down the long walkway and then into the hotel.

Wow.

We had plenty of time before our reservation, so we looked around and explored. Surprisingly, I took no pictures of the hotel or the views of the lake. But we went into all the shops and saw the unique things they had. And the crazy price tags to go along with the items. At around 7, we made our way over to Chef Mickey's and checked in. They gave us a pager and said that we would have a photo opportunity with the ceramic Mickey before we sat down if we wanted to. I knew that would be a hard no for us. We waited about 15 minutes until we were buzzed over. Our hostess gave us a brief tour of the buffet and the timing of the characters. Our waiter (name unknown - sorry) was nice and efficient. He brought us over our Diet Coke's and other than refills of beverages and taking away plates, he wasn't seen. And that is fine. It is a buffet, I don't need much. I know that the reviews for CM's are not always great. But I was very happy with dinner. The hot food was hot and the cold food was fresh. I mean really, peel and eat shrimp and carved prime rib - what more do you need? Oh, I know - characters!


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We both enjoyed dinner and although Tony claims to not like character dining, he sure did cheese it up with Goofy. I'm just saying . . .

After dinner we made our way to the observation deck to scope out a spot for fireworks. There were already quite a few people out there, but we easily managed to find a spot and began to wait. But it began to sprinkle. Nothing too bad at first, but security came out to say that if the rain got worse they would close the observation deck since the monorail was right above it and it could be dangerous. I kept my fingers crossed and our ponchos handy and waited. And it rained harder. We put on our ponchos, but security had not come back to say we had to move. Until they did a few minutes later. Fireworks were delayed and we all had to move inside.

Really?????

We went inside with about 150 of our closest friends to wait. And wait. And wait. One poor cast member kept telling us the fireworks were delayed and to just be patient. After about 45 minutes after the scheduled start time, Tony decided he had enough waiting and it was time to head back to our resort. Nobody could really say when, or if, the fireworks would start. I agreed that just sitting there was silly so we headed downstairs and back to the bus station. We needed to catch a bus back to Disney Springs and then another bus back to All-Star Sports. While waiting we thought about taking the walking path to the Magic Kingdom and catching transportation from there, but it was still raining pretty good. And guess what happened while we were waiting for a bus?


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They were really pretty. Unfortunately we couldn't hear any of the music from the bus station.

We waited forever for a bus. Well it seemed like forever since we had already waited forever for the fireworks to start. A bus finally came to take us back to Disney Springs and then we waited for and rode another bus back to the resort. It really took over an hour for both bus rides. We got back to the resort, refilled our mugs and went back to the room for what I hoped to be blissful sleep.

There was a small problem. Tall bed. Short legs. It was quite a struggle - and by struggle I mean Tony pulling and tugging on me - to get in the bed. But I finally got there and situated and sleep was good.

Up next - we finally get into a park!
 
I just love those pictures at Disney Springs! You guys are adorable!! :love: Where do you get these done?

The rose gold ears look good on you! But I guess I like the traditional ears best!

Awww, thanks. The photo pass place is by the BBB.

I'm just not a ears wearing person. They're not very practical in the real world!


Love all the pictures. You have such a fun personality. This is gonna be fun!

Thanks so much!!!

Those are great 4th of July photos!

:thanks:

Following! I read your last report and came over from there. Really enjoying reading about your adventures! I really hope you saw fireworks on the fourth somewhere. Guess we’ll know soon.

:welcome: Glad you're with us. The fireworks story has been posted!

Following along. I love your reviews.

:thanks:

Sounds like a fun trip so far. I always love the Christmas store in both Magic Kingdom and Disney Springs. I actually have enough ornaments to fill one whole tree as just Disney. Yes, I have a problem.

It's not a bad problem to have, just an expensive one!!!!!

I love those backdrops for your 4th of July pictures! Very cute!

:thanks:

Following along! Super excited to hear more about your trip!

Another update has been posted!
 
Great updates!

I don't mind the All Star Resorts at all, except the food courts during peak times. They are just TOO much for me. So if half of it was under construction that would be worse!

Glad you ended up having a nice dinner at Chef Mickey's- the photos definitely seem like he was having a good time!

Are you able to tell me more about the parking being free at the resort due to a handicap placard? We are going to be bringing my MIL who has a handicap placard and were thinking about renting a car to get her from place to place easier, but weren't sure if it was worth it with the additional fees adding up (we'd be going for 10 nights).
 
Love Tony's smile in the picture with Goofy! He looks so happy! I think he really does enjoy character meals!!:)

Too bad about the delay with the fireworks! You had a wonderful 4th though!! :thumbsup2
 
July 5th - EPCOT

When we were planning the trip, we decided that we needed two days in EPCOT. There is just too much to see and do in one day. And while it is a long standing family tradition to do Magic Kingdom on the first park day, we decided (well I decided, Tony just mostly nods and says "cool") to start out with EPCOT. Since we are not rope drop kind of people (I like my sleep), our plan was to get there by 10:00 to do attractions in Future World first and then take our time around World Showcase. After a good night of sleep and morning caffeine, we were ready to start the day.

But first, Tony had to have a classic ESPN moment . . .

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HE COULD GO ALL THE WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!

Our normal routine of refilling mugs accomplished, we went out to catch a bus. I don't remember it taking an extremely long time, so I will assume that it was nothing out of the ordinary. We also had a soft sided cooler with us filled with water and frozen washcloths in a baggie. We used the washcloths throughout the day and it really helped. Because it was July. And it was hot. Not miserable, but July in Florida. Well, you get the idea.

Anyway, we went thru security and bag check and into EPCOT. Our first fast pass for the day was Spaceship Earth, but we had to take a picture first.

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You can't really tell in this picture, but we were totally matching today. I was wearing white capris and blue tennis shoes and Tony was wearing blue shorts and white tennis shoes. We looked really cute.

Although we had a fast pass for Spaceship Earth, with having the ECV's, we didn't need it. Instead of getting in the main line, we go in the side entrance and actually enter the line from the exit spot. There were a few people ahead of us, so there was a small wait. And we also wanted to wait for the ride vehicle with the wider doors so that we could get in and out easier. Just as a side note, the cast members are fabulous with requests for assistance. They stopped the moving walk way for us both getting on and off the ride and they had no problem letting us use the specific ride vehicle. I know that some people are nervous to ask for something special to make the rides easier. Don't be that person - just ask - the cast members are always willing to help.

After Spaceship Earth, we had some time before our next FP, so we went over to see Figment. We had to wait in line, but it moved along pretty nicely, and we waited about 25 minutes before boarding. But it was air conditioned, so it wasn't terrible. The ride is cute and the song was buzzing in my head for a while after we were done.

A quick hat moment in the Figment dump shop.

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He would absolutely kill me if he knew I was putting this picture up on these boards. It will be our secret.

Our next stop was some time in The Land for a flight over the world. It was time for Soarin'. I was honestly pretty worried about this ride. There was a 50/50 chance that I was not going to be able to fit. I had done my research and knew that there was a seatbelt and little side handle bars that might be too restricting for me. Neither one of us had ever ridden this before, so I was hoping that all of the tips and tricks I was armed with would help me get on the ride. I asked to sit on the end and I pulled the seatbelt all the way out before sitting down. But as soon as I tried to wiggle in between those handle bars, I knew it was a no-go. Tony and the cast member tried to help, but the seatbelt was just too short. I left Tony to fly over the world and waited for him at the exit. I was admittedly disappointed. But Tony LOVED the ride and was all smiles when he got off. So I was happy for him.

After Soarin' we went over to Sunshine Seasons for lunch. We had already peeked at the menu and both wanted Asian food. I sent Tony to get drinks and fruit while I got the main dishes.

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I had the beef and fried rice and Tony got shrimp and vegetables.

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We also had some grapes, watermelon and I think a yogurt parfait. It was a really good meal. Our next FP was for Mission Space, but we had some time, so I wanted to wander around the art store. Please, don't let me break anything!

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Oh, how I wish we had an unlimited budget. My house would be filled with Disney stuff.

Now there was no way I was getting on Mission Space. I do not like the jerky motion rides, so I took a hard pass. Tony rode and I watched the Jamminators play and just people watched. He went on the side that was less intensive and he said it was just enough motion and anything more would have been a revisit of lunch. Good to know.

Up next - alcohol and 80's music!
 

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