The 999'th Haunt stole my bra Completed 7-20, Final thoughts added 8-20

Thanks for sharing your adventures and please, please, please try and keep your bra away from those pesky ghosts next time.
:rotfl:

I enjoyed reading about everything you and Mark got to do on this vacation. :)
Thank you and now I have to get over to your TR and get caught up. Still loving your hair. It actually inspired me to go Platinum.

Well I just spent a good portion of my weekend reading your tr! Thank you so much for sharing, very enjoyable to read. What an amazing trip you had! BUUUTTTT....it gave me butterflys in my tummy and makes me want to get there as soon as possible! My husband and I did a trip last year just the two of us and it was amazing! I wont be back until March of 2019...I am going on a Y.E.S. trip with my youngest son and his business class. This will be the first time I have no control of my trip. It is making me crazy! Planning is almost as fun as going! lol But how could I turn down the experience! Thank you again I enjoyed your adventures!
Thanks for compliment hope you'll be able to enjoy your trip. I agree about the planning being fun, but did find something good almost everytime our plans got changed.
 
Thank you and now I have to get over to your TR and get caught up. Still loving your hair. It actually inspired me to go Platinum.

Thanks! That's great! I'm all for having fun with hair. Best case scenario, you love it. Worst case, you don't, and it always can be re-dyed or it'll grow back. :)
 
At this point I was feeling that all of my planning for the party was for not as we didn’t get to do much of what I planned.

Sorry to hear that.

We had originally had ADR’s at Jungle Skipper Canteen, but they had changed the menu shortly upon our arrival and nothing on it sounded like anything we were interested in

You didn't miss much, IMHO. I've been and... while the interaction with the server was mildly fun (lots of puns. Think Jungle Cruise tableside.) the food was only so so.

I've been pretty busy with life and a lot of senior parent health issues, that nobody wants to hear about.

Hope everything's okay. :hug:

Marks vintage MM hat (circa mid 70's) has been found in the deep recess of his grandmothers basement and found it's way back to Mark. Looks like it's seen a little wear but brings a smile to my face everytime I imagine on lil Marks head.

Nice!

AK and the most sought after FP

Yep! Those ITTBAB FP's are hard to get!

I woke up before Mark and went down for a quite rendezvous with my new morning lover Cappy (the Cappuccino machine).

:laughing:

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Wants that, huh?
(Who doesn't?)

Once at AK I only had 5 min left of my FP window for EE and decided not to run there to make it.

Yeah... that's what single rider lines are for.

Our safari was pretty boring today with the exception of the male lion standing,

So they got the animatronic lion to stand now?


Huh.




That's not a lion. It's an arm.
Can't fool me.

My opinion of the ride is it is great, but it is not worth the hours long wait many have when riding stand by.

Agreed. No ride is.

I will also tell you that the second ride was much more interactive. The scents were stronger and the mist was much heavier, it was awesome.

Really! I wonder why that was?

I was hungry and grabbed another Kingfisher Beer and my 1 and only Mickey Bar of the trip, Ah lunch of champions.

:laughing:

you can Poly guess what's next

Yes! Wilderness Lodge!


No?

This is where we had the rudest Cl staff encounter. We asked for a few beers and he told us that cocktail hour starts at 5pm, but I’ll go grab you one. At this point I spoke up and asked for 2 each so we wouldn’t have to make another trip down. I don’t remember his name, I think I did have it in the GF review I posted shortly after our return home. I do remember that he was from Monticello Illinois, not far from my home town. I already had a few sour thoughts on the Cl but this one solidified my believe.

You'll have to explain that. Alcohol isn't served before 5? Or?


Don't know about the doo-doo, but... I'm liking his afro haircut. ;)

this would be a good time to hit up the gift shop and buy Mark a Tiki mug.

Good choice. :)

Our seats were at the bar and the bartender was making fun of my for being by myself. I got to enjoy the lively antics in Trader Sams for about 10-15 minutes before Mark made it. When Mark arrived the bartender started making fun of him for leaving me alone.

:laughing: Sounds like fun.

When I ordered the Krakatoa Punch an interactive picture of a volcano on the wall started erupting.

::yes:: Do the same in California.

we got to watch them lighting the tiki torches outside as the sun was setting. What a wonderful last sunset at the World.

Nice!

These nacho’s have been on my must try list for a while and all I can say is OMG I can’t believe it took this long to try them. They may have been one of the best things we ate the entire week we were here.

Thanks for the tip! Just put it on my list. :)
 


Catching back up!

I look forward to reading about your stay at the Grand. I still have never stepped foot in the resort.

How wonderful that you got a chance to meet Richard.

I hear great things about the Harmony Barber Shop for all ages. You had a nice spot for watching the Main Street happenings while waiting for the appointment.

The holiday décor on Main Street is amazing. You got lots of great pictures in front of the castle.

:goodvibes
 


CHH is my favorite restaurant at MK. I get the seafood (now shrimp) mac and cheese, and I don't even like mac and cheese that much. I love lobster rolls, but I have read too many negative things about the ones there. Coming from New England, I have access to excellent lobster rolls, including ones I make myself, so I don't want to bother with disappointing ones.

Weird to hear that your HM experience was missing some of the features.

I love your SDMT photos. Too funny about the woman who was scared during the ride.

I really like the perspective of your parade photos. The one with the rainbow/Peter Pan's ship, the dragon and especially Mickey and Minnie alongside the castle are very cool.


"Grand" day- sorry that you ran into so many problems at the Grand. A noisy room especially is problematic.

I have to say that the sweets offered at tea time looked spectacular!

ETA from next post- WOW! The breakfast selections look great too. I would not have any trouble finding plenty to fill me up. The berries looked really great, especially for December!

The alarm clock thing really ticks me off. They got rid of them in the Yacht & Beach resort too and probably in most of the Disney resorts. I like having a clock in the room so I can see what time it is without looking at my phone. I rarely use an alarm, but when I need to, I would prefer to use an alarm clock to my phone.

That is funny about Mark wanting to take home the pillows. I have read that guests on Disney cruises were taking home the pillows there and getting charged like $200 bucks or something like that!

That would have been an expensive souvenir!!!
 
I spent all morning reading (re-reading since I found my post on page 9!!) I knew I had started and lost track!


I know most people think that ROL is one and done but I just loved this show. I enjoyed all of the light's and shadows on the trees on the other side especially the fireflies. This show is a visual delight that I look forward to seeing again, that is if it's still playing then.

I still haven't gotten to it even though it's been there for my last two trips. Maybe we'll try harder to see it in October ::yes::

While Mark was in the bathroom this morning I hung up the cheap stockings I bought from Goodwill last January for 70 cents. A little Christmas décor for the holiday. We hope our next visit to Disney will be in December again and we want to bring battery powered Christmas lights to hang on our balcony. Later in the trip you'll see our make shift Christmas lights.

Those are cute! Every time I read a TR about Christmas, I immediately start dying to go again at Christmas. I told my DH this morning that maybe we're going to have to do that for our next trip!

and some of the not so good ones. AKWARD!!!!

Haha! Love that one!

Next we were off to the Outpost in search of a Warm Caramel-Stuffed Salted Pretzel with Soft-Serve Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce – $6.49. I walked up to the counter and asked the CM if this is where I could find this pretzel. After he said yes I started to say I would like one and changed it to I HAVE try it. He laughed and went and made me one. While he was gone I put my $ on the counter and patiently waited for him to return with my fantasy of a pretzel. He came back saw my money pushed it back to me and said it was on Mickey today. Awesome got me some Pixie Dust.
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That looks good, too bad it was disappointing. It was so nice of the guy to give it to you free :thumbsup2

( I had to laugh when looking at my notes and this is what I wrote “Lamb Cafta good but horrible value for only 3 lil balls)”

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This picture just doesn't really show how tiny those balls were.

:rotfl:

I had previously rode TOT once. On my last visit the belt wouldn’t fasten and I couldn’t get the CM’s attention before they started the ride, so I tried to tie it in a knot and hold on for dear live. I will say that it is terrorizing not knowing what is going to happen and afraid you’re going to fly out of your seat.

OMG! Really??? And you still go on? That's one of my BIGGEST fears about that ride, but I tell myself that they would know if my seatbelt wasn't buckled. I guess not :scared1: I wouldn't be able to go on that ever again…it didn't even happen to me and I think I may be done with TOT!

But first a photo of my precious Tazzy. *Here is my plug to encourage anyone considering getting a pet to please adopt from the Humane Society or a rescue group.* pluto:
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:love:

At the stop light near our condo we had an alligator sighting in another StayBridges pond.

He's a big one!!

As we’re cruising down the road Mark and I get startled as a motorcyclist loudly sped by us. We’re cruising at about 75MH and he must have been going at least 100 MH, but he at least he wasn’t weaving in between cars like the crotch rocket on day one. Mark starts to loudly complain nonstop about it. It took about 5 minutes to get him to calm down and then all of sudden it happened all over again. This time a convoy of about 5 Corvettes and Porsches raced by at about 100MH. Kinda scary being pulled over to their side of the road with the suction from their speed. At this point we start to think we must be on a race track.:car: Reminded me of our driving an RV on the Autobahn and being passed by speeding exotic sports cars. This was not our last encounter with a speeding motorcyclist. On our drive home to Indy we were passed by another motorcyclist weaving in between traffic in Atlanta. :moped:

I hate driving and this is why. People drive like nutcases!

Soon we're at DS and disembark our boat and head into DS, but not with out Mark making another friend first. Mark saw this gentleman walking to the boat dock and had to stop and get a picture. This made everyone around us laugh.
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So funny!

I then saw the Minnie Mouse Apron that I had asked Mark to get me on our 2014 trip that he didn’t get. I had told my MIL about it prior to leaving on vacay so she told me if I saw it this time to get it and it would be a Christmas present from her. So in no time I found one and had it in my hands.
minnie-apron-jpg.299710

I love it! I may have to get that for myself for Christmas. After last Christmas, I told my DH he can get his stuff and I'll get my own stuff because he's so bad at presents!

Once outside we discuss our options and I paint the picture for Mark and availability for the restaurants at DS on a Saturday nt. We decide to walk back over to The Boathouse deck and see if there are any tables available and of course they are all full, it is about 6pm after all. The host tells us it would be a 2 hour wait if we put our name in now. Somewhere in here I check MDE for any ressy’s for tonight but of course nothing is available. At this point I would have been perfectly happy going to Girhdelli for an ice cream Sundae

I would have gone to Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express at that point.

At the end of the boat ride I discovered that she is also on the Dis boards.:wave2: Hello Diane @didilovesdisney. Once we were off the boat the three of us stood outside the back entrance to POFQ and talked for about 45 minutes.

Small World!

I was surprised at how much outside noise could be heard in our room. I believe that our location on the first floor and in a high traffic area right next to the lobby and food court didn’t help or having a corner room with two windows. In 2014 we loved our room location at POR and it was so quite. So I was surprised with the noise at POFQ. I enjoyed POFQ and would stay here again in a heart beat but would request a room in an area away from the lobby and the boat dock. The boats always sound their horns as they are pulling into the docks and I sure wouldn’t want to hear that up to 11pm at nt. I actually enjoyed both POFQ and POR and believe price would be the deciding factor to help us choose on our next visit.

I booked a 3-night stay at POFQ for next April before our Fantasy cruise. I'll try to stay away from that area, I guess!

We had been anxiously waiting to try the Beignets we’ve heard so much about. He was all for this, so I went back and got in line for the Beignets.

Can't wait to have those!

Mickey was up first. LOL doesn’t it look like I’m getting ready to say “Mickey my eyes are up here” thanks PP. He was actually admiring my new shirt. This shirt might look familiar to Caroline @disneyAndi14 since she bought the same one. Great minds think alike.
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Cute shirt, and great pics!

He was full, tired and now freezing and didn’t want to stay for Illuminations. I told him to drive back to POFQ and I’d take the bus back, but he didn’t want to leave w/o me. So, I tried to talk him into going to Mouse Gears for a sweat shirt. No, he didn’t want to do that. We were sitting on a bench next to the Port of Entry Shop and I told him to go in and buy the fleece Mickey & Minnie blanket he wanted last night at DTD. No, he didn’t want to do that either. At this point he was still trying to talk me out of staying. I made it very clear to him that I was staying and watching the holiday version of Illuminations and he was big boy (not that he was acting like it) and he could do anything he wanted. I left him sitting on the bench and went into the Port of entry to buy the blanket but they didin't have them. I then went and got a beer from a beer cart for myself, he was done drinking. We sat and people watched and I was rubbing his arms to try to keep him warm. I sure was glad I had my new long sleeve shirt on, but I was cold too. It was finally time for Illuminations I enjoyed it as much as I could with a grump at my side.

That's funny! Men!

We met the gracious Richard and I had to pose with him. He is such an icon at the Grand and I wanted photographic proof that I had met him. I was disappointed when I couldn’t find these pictures. But had forgotten Mark took them on his phone. I was so delighted to find them.
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:love: RIP, Richard.



I swear someone grabbed my knee and I literally jumped in my seat. I was on the end of the seat and there was nobody next to me. It really surprised me. Mark was looking at me with bewilderment on his face and I told him what happened. He joked and said that it was one of the hitch hiking ghost. :hmghost:LOL.:lmao:

:laughing:

They are pretty rooms I’ll say that but the pictures don’t show the wear. We paid full rack rates of over $700 a nt and I expected better. Sorry for all of you GF lovers out there. I don’t know if I’d ever stay there again. There is something to be said for the ease to and from the MK. But I would only stay again if I got a deep discount. However, it is a dream we have marked off our bucket list.

That is super disappointing, to pay all that for a room and to not love it :sad2:

I had previously changed out of my daytime clothes and was relaxing in lounge wear so I went to put my clothes on in the dark room. As I’m feeling around and searching in the dark around my luggage I can’t find my bra. I tell Mark the 999’th ghost stole my bra.
ghosot-gif.325326

After all of our cocktails this was hilarious to us.:rotfl2:

Oh my!
:rotfl:
One of the guys just glared at me and stood there while the other silently just stepped to the side. Soon a third man came and joined the one standing in front of us. Soon the guy that sat next to us shouted MOVE very loudly. I was horrified. :o
Not only that but the guy that yelled it was in a power wheel chair. Not like he was going to get anywhere fast if he needed to retreat from a possible butt whooping. Of course, the one guy continued standing there while his smart friend stepped over next to the other guys who was nice enough to move. He kept turning around and glaring at us but did eventually move.

Yikes! That's terrible. Some people are so rude!

Love the TR! Sorry it took me so long to finish :P
 
Ok I guess I should add a final thoughts post. I’m sorry that I haven’t done this sooner, but I was so happy to be done with this TR so that I could get back to finish all of the TR’s that I had booked marked for over 6 mo’s. I definitely enjoy reading all of your TR’s vs writing mine. Though I will admit I enjoyed rereading my last TR before we took this trip. It also reminded me of several tips I had forgotten since writing it.

Things I loved

AK

All of Pandora and of course FOP, Pandora is just breathtaking after dark.

ROL but would arrive earlier for better seating even though we had FP’s.

Nomads Lounge, can’t wait to get back and eat the Octopus Appy in Tiffins wish they served it at Nomads.


Epcot

As always, LA Cava for Jalepeno Margarita, a tequila flight & chips w/ queso, just the best way to start out World Showcase.

Germany’s Altenmuster Oktoberfest and Warsteiner Dunkel Bier.

New Years Buckwheat Soba noodles at Japans Hokkaido Holiday Kitchen.

Daisy M&G, Pluto and Daisey in Character spot were hilarious.

Chefs De France.

I think Epcot had the best PP photographers.


DHS

Snow on Hollywood Boulevard and the overall Christmas Decorations, IMO best Christmas decorated Disney park.

TOT Love it when the seat belts work.

Star Tours even though I’m not a SW fan.

JBJB fireworks.

In the past we did not enjoy DHS but we do now. Looking forward to checking out Toystory land on our next visit.

MK

The first view of the castle is loved by most all of us here on the Dis and the feeling of Main street.

Pixie Dust from MS barber shop-though I’m sure GF housekeeping wasn’t happy with it all over.

Visiting with the CM’s.

Columbia Harbor House Mac & Cheese w/ shrimp.

Parades

Fireworks

Space Mountain


Musing about our resorts

POFQ I really like this resort even if our location wasn’t conducive to peace and quiet, but we did have easy access to the food court and the pool had we used it. Beignets were good. I would stay here again, and it is in the running for our next trip. We love the boats to DS.

GF is a gorgeous resort even if it is very busy and loud. I feel that we over paid for the quality of room that we got. But we did get a lot of use out of the balcony. I would do CL again as we did take advantage of the offerings. Just loved staying on the monorail, it was so convenient. I also enjoyed watching HEA from the resort. I’m glad that I can mark this off my bucket list but, at this point I prefer AKL to GF.

The time share resort we stayed at was close and it was easy to drive to the parks but, there’s just something about staying on Disney Property


Miscellaneous musings


No one favorite park we enjoy all of them and were surprised that we want to return to AK & DHS again.

Alarm clocks……..argh aren’t in most resorts, will have to borrow a travel alarm clock for next WDW stay.

We enjoyed DS and still didn’t see half of it.

We would be more than happy to take the friendship boats from DHS to Epcot anytime a good 25 mins relaxing break.


Foods/Cocktails & restaurants we loved


Nomads Lounge

Peking Duck at Morimoto’s

Buckwheat Soba Noodles Japan Kitchen Epcot

Jalepeno Margaritas a LA Cava Epcot

Chefs De France

Beaches and Cream

Trader Sams Grog Grotto and the Shrunken Zombie Head & Krakatoa Punch

Pulled Pork Nacho’s at Tambu Lounge

Filet Mignon Sliders at Boathouse

Mark and I decided that we want to come back to celebrate MK’s 50’th in 2021 and we are looking forward to it. It will be nice to attempt a more relaxed laid back visit where we aren’t racing around everywhere. We discovered on this trip that we can do that and we aren’t really missing anything.

Since that discussion I discovered The Epic Girls only Dis Meet thread and got excited. By the time I finished reading the first 6 pages or so I was hooked. I started pricing flights and rooms. On a whim I booked a refundable room off site for those dates. I figured I could afford 3 nt’s by splitting a room w/ someone and not buying park tickets. I planted the seed with Mark when I told him about the girls trip and how exciting it looked. He sarcastically said well you better book it and I responded with I’m considering it. So I wait a few more days until we’re relaxing on the boat having a few beers and I bring it back up to him and that I crunched the numbers and it’s doable. To my surprise he says that’s fine but I’m going to. After talking a bit he sets a few goals of how many boats he needs to sell ( he got a new job selling boats in February) and how many houses I have to sell. I agreed with him. But here’s the kicker I could do this trip solo for fewer days w/o park tix and flying down than with him coming and paying full price for the room, plus 2 extra nights of hotel lodging for the drive down and back, and the extra cost of park tix he’s wanting. Also He wants to add days to the Disney stay, 3 nt’s weren’t enough. So needless to say if we don’t make our goals I’m still going as I can afford a solo trip. :duck: I’m really excited to have another Disney trip in the works and can’t wait to meet all of these great Dissers on here. :jumping1:

Maybe just maybe I might get another Dismeet before this. One of our favorite Canadian Dissers @pkondz may be passing through Indy this fall and if so we’re planning on meeting up. YAY.:dancer:
 
Enjoyed reading your summary of what, specifically, you enjoyed and the best food you both tried on the trip.

I'm happy to hear you'll be making it back to Disney for the girl's trip in May! It sounds like it's going to be a ton of fun, and I'm sure you'll have a blast, whether you'll be solo or with Mark!
 
Mark and I decided that we want to come back to celebrate MK’s 50’th in 2021

I'll be going multiple times that year. We have a big trip in 2019 with 3 nights at POFQ then 7 nights on the Fantasy. I'm totally skipping 2020 so I can save all of our points for 2021. I'm planning on getting an AP and getting a lot of use out of it that year. And I'll definitely be there for the week of the actual 50th. I'm thinking of getting there a few days before October 1st and staying until the 7th, or so :cool1:

needless to say if we don’t make our goals I’m still going as I can afford a solo trip. :duck: I’m really excited to have another Disney trip in the works and can’t wait to meet all of these great Dissers on here. :jumping1:

That's awesome! I wish I could go, but as I just mentioned above, I am already doing a big trip in April. We literally fly home on April 13th…I don't think I could go back 3 weeks later :sad1:
 
I was so happy to be done with this TR so that I could get back to finish all of the TR’s that I had booked marked for over 6 mo’s.

:laughing: I feel your pain.

Alarm clocks……..argh aren’t in most resorts, will have to borrow a travel alarm clock for next WDW stay.

There's always the wake up call... just sayin'.

Maybe just maybe I might get another Dismeet before this. One of our favorite Canadian Dissers @pkondz may be passing through Indy this fall and if so we’re planning on meeting up. YAY.:dancer:

:wave:
 
And I'll definitely be there for the week of the actual 50th. I'm thinking of getting there a few days before October 1st and staying until the 7th, or so
Humm maybe a dis meet then

There's always the wake up call... just sayin'.
Yeah but I want to know the time when I roll over in the middle of the night w/o picking up my phone, that wakes me too much then I struggle to fall back asleep until half hour before it's time to wake up.
 
Yeah but I want to know the time when I roll over in the middle of the night w/o picking up my phone, that wakes me too much then I struggle to fall back asleep until half hour before it's time to wake up.

Oh, geez. Is that all? That's easy!

Make Mark do it.

"Mark."
zzzzzzz
"Mark."
zzzzzzzzzz
"Mark!"
"Huh? Wha? What???"
"What time is it?"
"Time? What? It's 6:34!"
"Kay. zzzzzz."

Then you drift blissfully back off to sleep.




Of course now Mark can't sleep... but that's his problem.
 
Since that discussion I discovered The Epic Girls only Dis Meet thread and got excited. By the time I finished reading the first 6 pages or so I was hooked. I started pricing flights and rooms. On a whim I booked a refundable room off site for those dates. I figured I could afford 3 nt’s by splitting a room w/ someone and not buying park tickets. I planted the seed with Mark when I told him about the girls trip and how exciting it looked. He sarcastically said well you better book it and I responded with I’m considering it. So I wait a few more days until we’re relaxing on the boat having a few beers and I bring it back up to him and that I crunched the numbers and it’s doable.

I’m really excited to have another Disney trip in the works and can’t wait to meet all of these great Dissers on here. :jumping1:

Finally had a mostly free day to binge read and enjoy your report! What a great trip you had! I loved the recap especially and have to agree whole-heartedly that the Nomad is the bomb diggity! Love it there!

Looks like you will indeed be joining us in May and I'm super excited to meet you too! Hopefully, you'll join in for the group activities. :)
 
Looks like you will indeed be joining us in May and I'm super excited to meet you too! Hopefully, you'll join in for the group activities. :)
Def for the pub crawl on the 3'rd. I think I'll be waiting to get into Trader Sams at 3:30pm to get the drinking started.
 

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