Category Archives: Disney

Disney, Travel

May 1, 2019

We arrived at Old Key West, and headed in to the main lobby to pick up our new Magicbands – blue for me, red for Luke. The cast member helping us let us know our room was not yet ready – not a huge surprise seeing as it was just a little past 11:30am by this point. While we were on the Magical Express I had received a text message from my boss asking for my help with something, so I sat down on a bench in the lobby and pulled out my work laptop which I had brought with me. Luke decided to go check out the little store and enjoy some of the free lemon water in the lobby. It didn’t take me too long to finish up what I had to do, and we went out to drop off our carry-ons with bell services. We called our first Lyft of the trip, and headed off to the Vineland Outlets. I’m not much of a shopper these days, but I do enjoy starting our vacation with a trip to the Disney Outlet there!

A trip to the Disney Outlet (I believe it’s actually called the Disney Character Warehouse) can be hit or miss – you never really know what you’ll find when you visit). We had decent luck on this trip, and I found a single Monsters University spirit jersey in my exact size for $20! Luke also found the Wall-E zip-up hoody he’d been looking at last year in his size for $20, and a Dark Wing Duck mug for $5. I also picked up an Epcot 35 ornament for $5, a Pascal baseball hat for $8 and a Minnie Mouse baseball hat for $5.

We were hungry, so we decided to just eat in the food court there. It was nothing exciting, but Luke had a burrito and I went to Charley’s Philly Cheesesteaks.

After eating, we called a Lyft to take us to our next stop – Walmart! So exciting, right?! We love browsing and seeing what is different than in Canada, and picking up a few supplies for our trip. Water is like $4/bottle in the parks, or a case of 40 bottles was $4 at Walmart. We picked up a few of the unique to the US items we love (like Garlic Butter Ritz, Big Chewy Nerds, Almond Joy chocolate bars, etc) and took our time going up and down each aisle. We always enjoy looking at the prices of alcohol, it’s so cheap compared to Canada! (For comparison, that same bottle of wine is $12-$15).

I always ask my coworkers if they’d like anything, and they always ask for unique candy. So I picked up these three kinds of Twizzlers that I’ve never seen up here for them (the orange ones are seriously amazing! The watermelon ones were gross, and the cherry and citrus ones were good).

Luke also ran to the liquor store next to Walmart and picked up a small bottle of Bailey’s – when on vacation why not start your day with a Bailey’s and coffee!

Once we finished up our shopping, we called an Uber XL to get back to OKW. We arrived back there around 3:45, but our room still wasn’t ready so we passed the time by chatting to some of the bell services people (check in for a DVC room is 4pm). I kept refreshing my email and at 3:57 I finally found out our room number! I was very excited to see we were in building 35, as that’s the same building we’ve been in every single time we’ve stayed at OKW. I love that Disney tries to keep it familiar when you do repeat stays at resorts, although I’m not sure if they just do that for DVC stays?

Our other luggage had arrived with the Magical Express tags, so one of the cast members from Bell Services drove us to our room in a golf cart with all of our luggage and Walmart purchases. Of course, once we arrived our Magicbands wouldn’t work – but he was able to open the door with his master key so we could at least drop off all our stuff (I showed him the My Disney Experience app to confirm we were at the correct room that had been assigned to us). He then drove us back to the main building so we could figure out our Magicband issue. Since we were there, we also took some time to walk around the main pool area since we’d never really checked it out before (all of our previous stays at OKW have been in January when it’s too cold for us to go swimming). We started walking the 7-8 minutes back to our building when the same bell services saw us and pulled over, motioning for us to hop back in his golf cart. I guess it was worth it to tip him generously when he dropped us off the first time!

Once we got back, I took obligatory room pictures before we made a huge mess by unpacking. Our room was 3526 and it had been recently renovated, so the beds were new. I prefer the new style, it’s nice to be able to shove a suitcase underneath the bed out of the way. The carpet looked like the same old stuff, but it was fine.

The bathrooms had been completely renovated, and were really nice! The flooring was nice, and the bathroom felt very big. It did now have the wall-attached shampoo/conditioner instead of the travel-sized ones from years past, but we don’t mind that.

We were on the second floor, and I loved our view from our balcony!

Luke took a shower while I unpacked a bit and changed into clean clothes for supper – including my new MU spirit jersey from the outlet. These were still being sold on property for full price, so I have no idea why this one was at the outlet, I haven’t been able to find anything wrong with it… but for $20 I’m very happy to have found it! For those interested, my leggings are from Silver Icing, which is one of the multi-level selling companies but they are some of the nicest leggings I own (I’d say comparable in price and quality to Lulu Lemon).

Our dining reservation was in Disney Springs, so we decided we wanted to take the boat (there is an option for a bus from OKW as well). The only place to catch the boat is from the main building, so we walked back out there. I enjoyed this Captain Marvel bus way too much, and had to take a picture of it…

We had perfect timing, and the boat pulled up to the dock about 90 seconds after we arrived.

Taking the boat from OKW to Disney Springs is such a nice, relaxing way to spend 20 minutes! We arrived and our first stop was the new ticket center. My annual pass had been active since December, but Luke had purchased a 10-day Park Hopper ticket with the Canadian discount for this trip. The next morning we had very specific plans so we made sure his tickets were active tonight.

We then headed off to our supper reservation at our favourite Disney restaurant – Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ (or Che Fartsmith if you will…).

After eating, we were exhausted so we hopped a bus back to OKW and went straight to bed after I took a shower. Tomorrow promised to be a very exciting day!

I also took screenshots of my Fitbit data for each day. I’m positive mine doesn’t read correctly, Luke will always have a few thousand more steps than I will in a day at Disney, but it’s not like he’s running laps around me …

Disney, Food Review, Travel

Charley’s Philly Steaks – May 1, 2019

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While we were at the Vineland Outlets, we were hungry and decided to just grab something from the food court there. There isn’t a huge selection, but we each found something. Luke grabbed a burrito from Currito (sorry, no pictures) and I went to Charley’s Philly Steaks because it’s not something we have in Canada.

I ordered a regular Philly Cheesesteak with nothing on it – no onions, mushrooms, green peppers, tomato, pickles, lettuce or mayo. I honestly would have been fine with mayo, but the cashier seemed a bit confused when I was saying what I didn’t want on it, so it was just easier to say nothing except the meat and cheese.

I also made it into a combo with the Ultimate Fries and a drink.

They went a little crazy with the bacon on the fries – I actually had to scrape some off, it was just too much. You can’t really tell, but these also had that weird plastic cheese sauce America loves and ranch dressing.

Total was $14.82. The food was ok, nothing really special(but we didn’t expect spectacular from a food court). It was food, and it held us over until our dining reservation that evening.

Disney, Travel

April 30th/May 1st 2019

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On April 29th, we headed out to my best friend’s acreage and dropped off our dogs. Just because I think they are adorable, here’s pictures of them…

Magoo always has to grab something when it’s time to go for a walk…on this particular night, it was a hand towel from the pile of clean laundry I was folding…
Jax hates the rain – but he hates his jacket even more…

On April 30th, Luke and I both had to work for the full day. The hours dragged, but we both got home around 5pm and started putting together our last minute things – packing our toothbrushes, phone chargers, etc. We cleaned the litter boxes, loaded up my SUV, made sure our cats and degu had plenty of food and treats (my Mom was going to be checking on them daily) and then headed out around 9:30pm.

After a quick stop for gas, we were on the highway to the airport and arrived at our preferred parking lot just shortly after 10pm. We took the shuttle to the terminal, checked our bags, made it through security quickly and found ourselves with lots of time before our flight left. I’m the type of person who is late for everything – except flights. I’d rather sit at my gate early than have to run to catch my flight (which happened on the last flight I took before this one, due to a system crash and the longest check-in line I’ve ever seen. The lady checking my bag told me I “should have been more responsible and been there earlier” despite the fact I was over 90 minutes early for a domestic flight *facepalm*).

Anyways, back to this trip… we decided we had more than enough time to sit down to eat. There’s a few options in the Edmonton airport, but we headed over to my old-faithful, Boston Pizza. Click on that name to take you to my review of our late-night snacks 🙂

While we were sitting there, we saw on the departure board that our flight was delayed by about 20 minutes. Once we finished eating, we headed off to our gate and found a pair of seats – only to hear an announcement a few minutes later that our flight would now be departing from a different gate. I always think it’s hilarious when you’re sitting in an airport and you see an entire herd of people changing gates, and now I was one of those people hahaha.

We eventually boarded, and left about half an hour past our original departure time. We both managed to get a bit of sleep – but not much. We landed in Toronto, and they made an announcement that anyone not connecting to Orlando was to remain seated, and anyone heading to Orlando – head straight to customs. We were cutting it close, but we made it through security and customs quickly, and made it to our gate while they were still pre-boarding!

Our flight from Toronto to Orlando was uneventful, and we landed around 10:30am on May 1st. We took the Fake-O-Rail to the main terminal and headed straight to the Magical Express.

Since we’re Canadian, Disney won’t mail us our Magicbands before a trip. To get on the Magical Express we typically have a letter that’s mailed out to us, but then I’m always struggling to get it out of my bag when we get there – so this time I was thinking ahead and brought one of my Magicbands from our December trip and it made things so much easier! We didn’t have to wait too long and we were boarding a bus for our first hotel of the trip! Of course I had to take a selfie to document the moment 😉

Exactly 31 minutes after taking that selfie, I took this picture of the sign for hotel #1 – one of our favourite places to stay on Disney property!

Disney, Travel

Introduction – May 2019 Trip

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A few years ago when I was starting to plan our first WDW trip, I found the Disboards – an online forum filled with Disney lovers sharing stories of their trips, reviews of the food they ate, etc. I was immediately hooked! I created an account, and started commenting on other trip/dining reports before I began writing my own.

Last summer, I was working night shift. The hours were long, the crew was small and I had down time. Of course, this led to me thinking about future Disney trips… I had already completed #Disneymath and knew I was going to be purchasing an Annual Pass for our trip in December, so of course I wanted to figure out how to get at least one more trip out of it. I reached out to a few of the ladies I knew from the Disboards who I was Facebook friends with, and the Epic Trip was born! It evolved from a few people into almost 30, and was definitely a trip to remember! The theme of our trip was Friendship and Food, and there was no shortage of either! It’s so wonderful when internet friends become real friends 🙂

Originally our trip was going to be a week or so, but we kept extending it until it was finally 12 nights/13 days.

Dates: May 1-13th, 2019
Hotels: Old Key West (May 1-6), Animal Kingdom Lodge (May 6-11), Pop Century (May 11-13)
Tickets: I had an AP, Luke had 10-day hoppers​

Disney, Food Review

Boma – January 2, 2018

One of Luke’s favourite meals from our 2017 trip was breakfast at Boma, so we made a reservation to return there. Our reservation was early, 7:30am, but we were there on time and were seated in a fairly empty restaurant.                



Our waitress took our drink order (juice for both of us – I can’t remember what they call it at Boma, but it’s the same delicious POG juice they serve at many other locations on property, and a coffee for Luke). We went then went up to the buffet.

My first plate, starting at the top and going clockwise: a plantain, strawberries and grapes, bread pudding with pecan caramel sauce, asparagus, carved turkey and tater tots. Not overly exciting, but everything was really good, I especially love that sauce for the bread pudding!

My second plate: made to order omelet with bacon, ham and mozzarella. I don’t typically eat eggs, but I just can’t pass up the opportunity to have an omelet that’s made to order. I didn’t finish this entire thing, as eggs are a food that bother my stomach (I have GI issues), but I did enjoy what I ate of this!

Luke’s first plate, starting at the top and going clockwise: goat cheese and chives scrambled eggs, turkey bobotie, asparagus, bacon, ham, tater tots and smoked salmon. The bobotie was one of the main reasons he loved this place so much, and he really enjoyed it again.

Also – proof of our drinks haha –

Luke also had a bowl of African fruit salad

Luke had a second plate of food, but I obviously didn’t take a picture of it, and it was so long ago now that neither one of us remember what he had -opps.

The cost for this meal was $27/each (it’s probably more now, most buffet prices seem to have increased since this trip). I was able to use my Tables in Wonderland card again (after being blacked out the previous two days), so our total bill came to $55.73 with the 18% gratuity added in.

This is a great option for breakfast, although it is a bit out of the way. We did skip it on our last trip to Disney (December 2018), but we are staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge on our upcoming trip (May 2019), so we do have plans to eat both breakfast and supper at Boma 🙂

Tables in Wonderland original cost: $150                                                    Break Even Point Before this meal: $130.60                                            Savings this Meal: $10.80                                                                                     Total Until Breaking Even: $119.80

Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip)       Estimated Cost of this meal: $53.25                                                                   Actual Cost: $46.01 (before tip)                                                     Over/Under: Under by $7.24                                                             Remaining: $2143.45

Disney, Musings

Musin9s – Jan 4, 2019

1) Xmas seems like a smokescreen to distract from the hardship of winter

2) It should be a requirement to have a 5 minute buffer between getting home from work and having any social interaction whatsoever

3) April 30th should be deemed “Practice Halloween”

4) If I ignore my cat when he’s trying to get my attention too often – he’ll piss on something. I am SO jealous he gets to do that.

5) I’m sad but not like, “tell a successful person to die in a fire to feel better about my worthless life” sad or anything

6) I was last week years old when I learned the word for the day after tomorrow was overmorrow

7) As I was drifting off last night I had a clever thought about the movie Coco that I was all “Oh yeah that’s good – I’ll definitely remember that tomorrow” that I definitely forgot today 

8) I’m not racist or anything… but cookies are delicious 

9) Spotify/Apple Music – have access to stream essentially any song/album ever. Netflix – have access to stream former direct to DVD movies, stuff that wasn’t good enough for HBO or Showtime, and Iron Man 2 but not Iron Man 1 or 3 (for 4 months)

Disney, Musings

Musin9s – Jan 3, 2019

I’ve always struggled with my relationship with writing. It’s something I generally feel I’m good at, and others seem to appreciate what I put out there, but it can often seem like a chore. But it’s undeniable that I’m in a better state when I’m typing things out that I enjoy. So my goal for 2019 is to make it a priority to churn something out as frequently as I’m able. So in an effort to combine things I enjoy (lists, creativity) with things I probably need (gratitude, an outlet) I came up with this idea this morning for a series of listicle style posts I’m going to call “Musin9s” – a list of 9 thoughts that came across my mind over the course of the day. Why 9? Because it’s a top 10 with 10% off. I dunno. I like 9. Cut me some slack.

Here goes:
1) I’m at my happiest when I’m spending the least time possible on my social media networks

2) I know many people who feel compelled to be genuinely upset over which NHL players made the All Star Team without recognizing having this as a problem means they must not have any actual problems at the moment

3) Money is the root of all evil… but bad guy wrestlers always seem to be having the most fun

4) This morning I saw a guy driving a Hyundai who almost smashed into a boulevard because they were in so much of a hurry, which was weird because no one who drives a Hyundai is important enough to need to be anywhere that quickly.

5) Yellow is nobody’s favourite colour 

6)The easiest way to become disappointed in yourself is to let down your dog.

7) How come Mother Gothel just didn’t tell Rapunzel her birthday was literally any other date than the one the floating lanterns were released for the missing princess?

8) It’s not that I don’t think people are good. I believe we all aspire to be good people in life. I just don’t think that’s mankind’s default setting. Being an admirable human is really hard.

9) The fastest thing in the universe is the speed of light. The second fastest? A cat who just realized you’re typing on your computer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

jjjjj

Disney, Food Review

Saana – January 2, 2018

Possibly my favourite meal from our 2017 trip was at Saana, so it was a no-brainer for us to return there. We did the same thing we did on the previous trip, and made a late reservation for after the park closed. (Technically I think Animal Kingdom was open until 9pm that night, but we left after the early show of Rivers of Light and headed over to AKL for our 8pm reservation).

We arrived a little early to check in, around 7:40, but they were running behind and we were handed a pager. We found a bench to sit on, and then we waited. It was pretty much 8pm on the nose before we were called and led to a two-top table by a window. It would have been a fantastic spot to animal watch if it wasn’t already dark out…

First up were drinks. I kept it simple with a Coke, but Luke ordered a Kande Coconut Cooler – a refreshing combination of Starr African rum, coconut, vanilla ice cream and orange juice, $10.

 We knew exactly what we wanted to eat, and wasted no time ordering their Indian Style Bread Service –  Traditional Naan, Garlic Ginger Naan, Spiced Naan, Onion Kulcha and Paneer Paratha with Red Chile Sambal, Cucumber Raita, Coriander Chutney, Mango Chutney, Tomato-Date Jam, Garlic Pickle, Spicy Jalapeno-lime pickle, Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Tamarind Chutney, $16. There is one type of bread I don’t care for, but I can never remember which one it is so we just order them all (Luke likes all of them). I do wish they offered a coconut naan though, that’s my absolute favourite whenever I go to an Indian restaurant.

This was just as delicious as we remembered, and we really enjoyed taking our time trying out each bread with each dip – I even tried the super spicy ones. The hummus was much better than I remembered it being, but my favourite was probably the Tamarind Chutney – which isn’t a huge surprise, I eat that all the time with Vegetable Pakoras. Luke loves spicy, and his favourite was the Garlic Pickle.

For our main meal, we decided to share the Potje Inspired. I don’t see it on the menu, but they allowed us to choose 3 items (2 meat, 1 veg) for an additional cost – I don’t know if this has been discontinued or if you just need to ask for it. We were charged $37 for this. We actually ordered the exact same three items as we had the year before, the butter chicken, the chickpea wat and the braised beef. I somehow forgot to take pictures of any of it, we were hungry and started digging in as soon as it was brought to our table haha. So, here is a picture of what it looked like in 2017 when we ate there…

I love that chickpea Wat, it’s full of flavour, but isn’t too spicy. The butter chicken is ok, I’ve had better (we live in a neighbourhood that is predominantly Indian, so there are some amazing restaurants around us with incredible butter chicken, vindaloo, tikka masala, etc). The braised beef is tender and delicious.

This was another great meal at Saana, and it is one I’d have a difficult time skipping. Maybe next trip we’ll book an earlier supper so we can see the animals!

Tables in Wonderland original cost: $150                                                 Break Even Point Before this meal: $110.18                                         Savings this Meal: $12.60                                                                                   Total Until Breaking Even: $97.58

Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip)       Estimated Cost of this meal: $98.52                                                         Actual Cost: $53.68                                                                               Over/Under: Under by $44.84                                                               Remaining: $2048.75

Disney, Travel

January 1, 2018 – Part Two

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Our Uber arrived, and off we went once again to Give Kids the World! Today we had opted to do a different task, and had signed up for Food Delivery (I think it had a different, cute name, but I don’t remember what it was now). We were early this day, and knew where we were going – hurray for us! We checked in for our 11am-2:30pm shift, and were directed on where to go. Once we arrived, we were given a run-down on what to do. This was a little more extensive than yesterday’s instructions (scoop ice cream, wash your hands, wear a hair net, keep the place/scoops/blenders clean, don’t eat the food, etc). Today we were stationed in a little room by the main dining hall, with some telephones and computer screens. The families staying at the Village are allotted a certain amount of dining credits for their week (much like the Disney dining plan), and they are allowed to use these credits for delivery (basically like room service). They would call, Luke or I would answer the phone, ask for their room number and their order, and everything would get punched into the computer. The order would print out on a receipt in the main kitchen, where the volunteers working there would prepare it. The receipt would also print in the room Luke and I were in, and it was our responsibility to gather the drinks requested (cans of pop, bottles of water, milk, juice, etc). Once the order was ready, someone from the kitchen would bring it over to us, and one of us had to go deliver it. Before starting our shift, a manager had made us do a short little training course to prove we knew how to drive a golf cart, and then provided us with site maps so we knew where to go.

We started our shift just as the lunch rush started, so it was actually steadily busy.  I really didn’t love this volunteer shift, I hate talking on the phone and every time I drive a golf cart I feel like I’m going to flip it (I know, I’m weird). Luke used to work at a golf course, so he was much more comfortable driving the cart, so I let him take most of the deliveries. I did enjoy seeing some of the painted fire hydrants around the village though, they are so adorable!

At 2:30, our shift was over and we were relieved by the next set of volunteers. We took our time walking back to the main building, taking some pictures of the village as we walked (since it was dark out when we left the night before).

We called an Uber, and had him drop us off at a Walmart close by. We wanted to pick up a few drinks/snacks to include in our welcome bags for our family, as well as a few things for ourselves to snack on. We figured we’d be there for an hour, maybe an hour and a half… that turned in to over three hours since we were enjoying looking at all of the unique things we don’t have in Canada. We went a little overboard on snacks for our friends and family, and I picked up some cute Disney souvenirs for a fraction of the cost in the parks (like a Mickey Mouse zip-up hoody for $24 – which does show up in later pictures on this trip!) We also picked up some alcohol (because that is sold in Walmart – crazy! Also the prices, so cheap!!

*No, I didn’t buy this, but $3 wine?! Seriously?!

I grabbed the necessities for making Mimosas on the wedding morning, as well as some plastic Disney Princess cups to drink them out of. #Fancy – but they looked cute in our getting ready pictures! (Sneak peek of more wedding pics)

Finally, 3 hours and over $400 later, we made our way out of Walmart pushing an overflowing shopping cart -oops! We knew we couldn’t fit everything into a regular Uber/Lyft, so we decided to stop being cheapskates and ordered the Uber XL (or whatever it’s called)…naturally a 15-person van pulled up for us hahaha. Luke and I just looked at each and laughed, shrugged and said “at least all of our stuff will fit in it”.

By this point, we were behind schedule, so when we pulled up at our hotel for the night, I immediately grabbed a luggage cart for our insane amount of Walmart purchases and a bell services attendant came over to assist. I explained that we were checking in for the night, but we had a dining reservation we were running late for, so we would come grab our stuff after we ate (we also hadn’t ate since our expensive sandwiches that morning, so we were hungry!).  This wasn’t an issue at all, and we headed off to our ADR – 1900 Park Fare!

For some reason, we also had a reservation at California Grill that night, so we headed straight there after finishing up at 1900 Park Fare.

Once we finished our second meal, we headed back to the Grand Floridian to finally check in for a few hours of sleep. I’m a little sad we didn’t have much time to really the room, but it was the most comfortable bed we’ve ever slept in on Disney property. The room was also huge by hotel standards, and it was only a studio (not a 1-bedroom or anything).

                               The view from our room was pretty great!

As great as this room was, I don’t think we’ll ever pay to stay here. It’s very expensive, and – unpopular opinion – it felt a little uppity for us. The night we were there, it was over $800 – we stayed there for free. When you book a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding and set up a room block, the bride and groom are given a free night in any resort of their choice once they hit a certain number of confirmed room nights. We knew we’d never be able to afford to stay at the Grand on our own, so we were quick to choose this as our freebie.

Fitbit Steps: 7670