Stress, Celebration and early departures now live from Disney 8/22 complete

[chocolateMinnie]

Welcome to a (hopefully) live dining report (if WiFi is kind).
We have been booked for 18 months to stay at Port Orleans Riverside. Our 10th trip to WDW (celebration #1) but our first time at WDW.
I am always a stressed traveler and never believe that I am going to go to WDW until I pass under the gate.
We are currently at our first airport of the day and if we have luck on our side we will arrive at All-Stars Sports in just under 24hours.
Yes, All-Stars Sports!!!
The extra stress this trip came from the planned Heathrow strikes. So rather than travelling to Orlando via Boston tomorrow we are heading out a day earlier via Atlanta today which with plane timings should give us an extra 2 nights or 16 in total at WDW. Our plans only changed 36 hours ago so stress in full throttle.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

So that’s the stress and early departures taken care of.
Now for Celebrations.
A trip to Disney is a celebration in itself in my book but additionally it is our 10th trip and we will celebrate our 100th day at Disney while at All-stars and our 100th night at POR.
My DS has just turned 21 and also just graduated.
DD has just passed her driving test and will be 18 on her next birthday.
I just turned 50 and last year saw my Silver Wedding Anniversary (although as my DH no longer joins us as he won’t fly that celebration is clearly pushing it!)
Will I have any buttons? No, but I know I’m celebrating!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

This trip will hopefully also be our first dismeet on Disney property with Tracerroo.
We ‘met’ on disboards about 9 years ago and having bonded over a mutual love of Disney, Cadbury’s chocolate and American Girl,have met multiple times in London, Edinburgh and most recently, last weekend, her DD stayed with us as she and my DD are now also good friends. All thanks to the boards. However, we have never managed a trip WDW together. She is planning to come with her DD to WDW for the last weekend of our trip.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

So, 3 airports in each direction, 2 days oop at All-Stars and 14 nights qsdp. Hopefully, lots of photos although having just eaten our first breakfast at Heathrow and already forgotten to take photos......
So we ate in Spuntino and I had a nice pot of black tea, NYC bagel with avocado and potatoes.
DS has poached eggs on sourdough and a cranberry juice. DD went for hash browns and still water.
Will try to do better with photos from now on. All was actually really good for airport food.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

 

[Mich123]

Following! Looks like fun! My daughter will be traveling from London to Orlando in December, she had been thinking of connecting through JFK, but now I'm going to check out Boston, too.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Yay made it to Atlanta and what a fantastic airport. Have a long layover so just had a meal at TGI Fridays. Hate plane food so didn’t eat onboard.
Delta and Atlanta staff have made this very easy so far. Let’s hope it continues

 

[chocolateMinnie]

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Seems like a great time to explain the family’s eating habits. I had my gallbladder removed last year and so I’m intending to be ‘fairly’ healthy. So I went for the BBQ chicken salad. This was amazing and I didn’t need the extra dressing.
DS is an all or nothing eater. He will literally eat nothing for ages and then suddenly wade in. He had the southern fried chicken sandwich.
DD eats most thinks but not sauces(or as she prefers to term it ‘gunk’) so orders everything without mayo/dressing/sauce. She went for the chicken tenders and fries and replaced the coleslaw with more fries. We have been up for 18 hours at this point and not eaten during our 9.5 hour flight!
With three soft drinks came to $60 including tax and tip.
Our server was an absolute star!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Following! Looks like fun! My daughter will be traveling from London to Orlando in December, she had been thinking of connecting through JFK, but now I'm going to check out Boston, too.

Thanks for following. So far I can highly recommend Atlanta! I’ll give you more feedback tomorrow. We go home via JFK so I can give your daughter a comparison.

 

[Mich123]

@chocolateMinnie I'll check out Atlanta flights, too! I look forward to your report!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

@chocolateMinnie I'll check out Atlanta flights, too! I look forward to your report!

Definitely look at Atlanta. As long as she has plenty of time between flights we found it very easy and the delta flight only took an hour to Orlando!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

8/5 is our non-qsdp day. AKA as Mum is not spending too many $$$.
I was up earlier than the kids and popped down to the food court here at Sports. Caffeine for me. Donuts at $1.99 each for the kids plus drinks.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Lunch at Earl of Sandwich.All for under $30.
You can upgrade any salad or sandwich for a combo meal when paying oop for $3.79 to include a fountain drink and a packet of chips.
DS hd his favourite ‘The Holiday’. DD had a BLT without mayo naturally! I had the Greek Salad which was nice although I wasn’t a huge fan of the vinaigrette dressing.

 

[poppinsmomof2]

Lunch at Earl of Sandwich.All for under $30.
You can upgrade any salad or sandwich for a combo meal when paying oop for $3.79 to include a fountain drink and a packet of chips.
DS hd his favourite ‘The Holiday’. DD had a BLT without mayo naturally! I had the Greek Salad which was nice although I wasn’t a huge fan of the vinaigrette dressing.
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Great start to your trip report!

We love eating at Earl of Sandwich when we are paying OOP. It's yummy food for a decent price!

 

[kastoney]

Man you are ambitious to take on a live report, but doing great so far. Glad you arrived safely and can't wait to see what else is in store for you all.

 

[Mich123]

Glad you made it to Disney! Looks like a yummy lunch!

 

[stace1214]

Have a fab trip! Looking forward to following along!!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Great start to your trip report!

We love eating at Earl of Sandwich when we are paying OOP. It's yummy food for a decent price!

Yes I agree. I always feel it’s bad value on dining plan but we have always had reasonable food there and it is one of my DS favourite.

Man you are ambitious to take on a live report, but doing great so far. Glad you arrived safely and can't wait to see what else is in store for you all.

Not promising that it will be up to the standards of your reports. More photos than wit from me I’m afraid.

Have a fab trip! Looking forward to following along!!

Thank you.
Thanks to all of you for following.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

So last night we voted to head to Captain Cooks at the Poly. It is somewhere that we haven’t been for years and as our park tickets don’t click in until today we figured we could watch the water pageant and fireworks from the beach.
I ordered the Aloha pork sandwich. This was good. Not amazing but tasty and filled with pulled pork and veg. Somehow I thought it was also going to be.very sweet with pineapple but it wasn’t at all.
DD and DS decided to split the chicken stir fry and pork fried rice.
They loved the stir fry and the pot (which looks tiny) was actually plenty for them to split and at 21 and 17 they can eat!
The pork rice has now been named cake rice! I didn’t quite believe it until I tried it myself but it did indeed both smell and taste of cake. Who knew? Not a hit and most was left behind.
Unfortunately the service here was some of the worst we have ever had at Disney.
They initially got my order wrong (I know I have a British accent) but it was really hard to find someone to change it. In the end it cost me a $2 too much but we did get the right order.
There were about 4 cast members stood around but all the tables were dirty. I ended up cleaning mine before we ate.
There was a guy just walking around but refusing to help anyone.
Shame as this is a great counter service in a lovely resort. Cost $36 for 3 meals and one Diet Coke.