The Really, really, really late September 2017 Trip report

CatNipRules

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
Okay, I've been wanting to do this trip report for the longest time. I've been putting it off due to the fact that my camera had a major fail during the trip. 1 day into the trip. This was just the latest in a series of awful things that happened before the trip and right up until the first day.

When: September 10th thru the 25th
Who: First there is me

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Disney lover extraordinaire. Planner of all things Disney related. Almost obsessive in my plans. Therefore, I drive my son nuts. He gets that you have to plan. Does it mean that he likes it? Not really. LOL!! This will all come out in the trip report.

Next up: Is my son Chris

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This is him with Goofy. It was his dad's favorite character. Always a bitter sweet picture to look at. He loves Disney just as much as I do. He is definitely not a planner. If he had his way he would wing his way through all of our Disney trips.

Then there is his friend Jordan.

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Yeah. So this is the look that Jordan had on his face during 75% of the trip. My son asked to bring him along and I said yes. Lets just say that he was starting to annoy me before the trip even began.

Where: It was a split stay. We did 3ish days at Universal and 10 days at Disney. We stayed at Hard Rock for the Universal portion of the trip and then we drove to Disney and stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge. We also had the deluxe dining plan. Lordy, it was a lot of food....

Why: Family trip.

Okay, so the Universal part will be a little spotty. I don't have many pictures because my phones battery died 1 day into the trip. It was just another bit of drama to add to the drama that was our 2017 trip. Because we didn't arrive at Universal until around noon on September 11th. Why? Because of Hurricane Irma.

We were originally going to drive down on September 9th and check into the hotel on the 10th. Well, Irma put a little kink in the plans.I wasn't ready to cancel, so I just put it back a day.

Sooooo...We packed up the car early on the 10th. Then we filled up 2 5 gallon gas cans.We left around 9 pm. It rained the entire way down. Which I'm good with driving in the rain. Since I wasn't sure how the gas situation would be, I stopped every time the tank got to about half full. that way, if needed when we got to Florida I could use the gas cans.

So we got to the hotel around noon on September 11th. Was I exhausted? Yes. Did I want to go to sleep? Yes.

So, what did we do?

We got our express passes and our tickets and took our luggage up to our room. Despite the bed calling my name, we headed over to Universal Studios.

Again, there won't be much to the Universal trip report since my phone decided to quit on me. We did have a meetup with some other Dis members, but most of this will be Disney report.

Up Next: Toothsome Meet up
 
Okay, so the first day was kind of a blur. I do remember that we ate at Thunder Falls Terrace. We've always loved this restaurant. Sure, the food is average, but I am a huge Jurassic Park fan and love looking through the gift shop. There's just something awesome about it.

That was when my phone died. Very annoying, but it wasn't actually dead. The battery just decided that it didn't want the phone to work when the phone was charged. So fast forward to Friday the 15th of September. That was one of the best parts of the US part. That is when we met up with @Raeven and Josh and @amalone1013 from here. We had been planning on getting together sooner since we were both going to be there at the same time, but thanks to the hurricane, we had to put it off. They were flying you see and their flights were cancelled. Boo... LOL!! So, we pushed it back until Friday.

That was when we ate at the one place I'd been dying to try since I heard they were opening.

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This place is just the most amazing place ever. The food is great and the atmosphere is amazing. We had one of the best unintentional character interactions ever. My son is not that outgoing. He does good at Disney and Universal because he pretty much grew up going there. Well, this had everyone in stitches. And when he smiles like this it makes me so happy. Especially after the last year and a half.

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I can't really give the permission to view the video that @Raeven took, but it's extremely funny and I definitely recommend trying it. I'm pretty sure that it doesn't happen to everyone and it was definitely amazeballs. LOL!!

Even Jordan was having an amazing time with his key lime milkshake:
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And it had a lot to do with Jacques. If you have the chance and he's milling about, you need to wait for him to come to the table. I hadn't smiled too much up until that point. For various reasons the trip had been hard.This made me, made us remember why we love the theme parks so much.
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I didn't tell you this, but I wanted to thank you for welcoming me @Raeven I'm honored to have met you and been able to share a small piece of our trip together. Hopefully sometime in the future we can get together again. It was an amazing time and I'll be forever grateful.

Okay, so we finished the meal, which was great. I highly recommend it to everyone.Then, because it was the opening night of HHN at Universal, Josh and Raeven hurried over to USO. Chris, Jordan and I were off to our next destination.

If you followed along on my pre-trip report for this one, you will know that I was keeping the actual destination a secret. Chris and Jordan both thought we were staying at Port Orleans Riverside. The truth was much, much better.

Until next time..... Lions and tigers and oh wait....It's zebras.....
 


That was one of the best parts of the US part. That is when we met up with @Raeven and Josh and @amalone1013 from here.

This was such a fun meal! It really was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

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We had been planning on getting together sooner since we were both going to be there at the same time, but thanks to the hurricane, we had to put it off. They were flying you see and their flights were cancelled. Boo... LOL!! So, we pushed it back until Friday.

I know! I was so disappointed we missed eating that giant cake together, but I think we may have gotten in more time this way.

We had one of the best unintentional character interactions ever. My son is not that outgoing. He does good at Disney and Universal because he pretty much grew up going there. Well, this had everyone in stitches

The character interactions were so amazing! We'd been to Toothsome a couple times before and the characters never made it to our table, so I was really amazed.

I can't really give the permission to view the video that @Raeven took, but it's extremely funny and I definitely recommend trying it. I'm pretty sure that it doesn't happen to everyone and it was definitely amazeballs. LOL!!

Of course you have my permission to share the video of our lunch!


And it had a lot to do with Jacques. If you have the chance and he's milling about, you need to wait for him to come to the table. I hadn't smiled too much up until that point. For various reasons the trip had been hard.This made me, made us remember why we love the theme parks so much.

Jacques was the best, and I loved Chris's reaction :rotfl:

I didn't tell you this, but I wanted to thank you for welcoming me @Raeven I'm honored to have met you and been able to share a small piece of our trip together. Hopefully sometime in the future we can get together again. It was an amazing time and I'll be forever grateful.

Aw. :hug: I'm glad we got to meet too. (I know I'm skipping ahead a little) But I'm also really glad we got together the next day too. I had a great time talking to you, and I'm really glad I had someone to sit in the shade with! I had so much fun with you guys,aAnd it was so nice to meet after planning all that time, I know we had a very stressful 2 weeks prior to the trip with planning around the hurricane. For awhile I wasn't even sure if we'd be able to get down there for that weekend. I also hope we're there at the same time again in the future! I'm sad we'll miss you on your next trip.

If you followed along on my pre-trip report for this one, you will know that I was keeping the actual destination a secret. Chris and Jordan both thought we were staying at Port Orleans Riverside. The truth was much, much better.

Ooo :hyper: I know we talked about this at the time, but I'm still excited to hear the full story.
 
Chris' reaction was the best. LOL!! He looked terrified, but I'm glad that he played along with it. LOL!!
 


Okay, so when we last left off we had left Universal and we headed towards our next destination. Chris and Jordan thought that we were staying at Port Orleans Riverside. Since we have stayed there before, he kind of knows the way. Well, he sees the signs that say Riverside this exit. Mom keeps going. He looks at me and says, "You do know that you missed the exit right."

I am trying to control my excitement and my laughter. I told him, "I know. I figured that we would go to Downtown Disney first."

He gives me a look. I can tell that he doesn't believe me. At this point, Jordan is asking where we are going. Chris is like, "I'm not sure. I think mom is lost. Because we were supposed to go to Port Orleans Riverside."

LOL!!

So, I follow the signs and we finally pull up to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Chris looked at me and then looked at the surroundings and finally said, "No way? We're staying here?"

"Yeah."

Chris and Jordan both respond with, "Awesome!"

There were a few times that I thought my cover was blown. Mostly because of comments that Chris had made before the trip. Mostly talking about how he would like to stay at AKL one day. How cool it would be to stay there. Things like that.

Score one for mom. LOL!!

So, we go to the hotel and check in. I decided to use bell services to get our luggage up to the room. Mostly because we were all tired of lugging it around. LOL!! I hadn't gotten a text that our room was ready. So, I headed to the front desk to check in. I think there was one person in front of us. I know that it wasn't very long at all and then we were up to our room.

We get in the room and I plop on the bed for the week. The first think I realized was that it was hot in the room. So, I turned the AC down. After about 10 minutes it wasn't getting any better. Then I went into the bathroom and there was no light in the bathroom. LOL!! So, I called the front desk and they sent someone up. I was going to have them check the AC, but it started working and getting cooler in the room. He changed the light and we are good to go.

For those of you that don't know, I have fibromyalgia. Which can make walking long distances a challenge. So, I had reserved an ECV for the trip. I have rented from Walker Mobility in the past and decided to go with them again. They called me at about 4. They weren't supposed to drop it off until 7, but they were in the area, so they wanted to know if I wanted it early. Sure! So, I head downstairs with Chris, Jordan waited in the room for the luggage and we got down there and had a short wait for the ECV.

We checked out the outside of the hotel and Chris was in love with it.

So, we get the ECV and head back upstairs. The luggage hadn't gotten there yet, but no biggie. It was only about 5 minutes later and they were there.So, we decided to head to Downtown Disney for dinner.

Up next: We are dining with the dinosaurs.....
 
Following. Seems like a nice long trip:) You are brave driving down during the hurricane. Glad everything went well.
 
Following. Seems like a nice long trip:) You are brave driving down during the hurricane. Glad everything went well.

Not really that brave. Lol. Although I'm from Florida so we kinda learn to drive during bad weather. Lol. Thanks for joining in.
 
Okay, so when we last left off we were headed to Downtown Disney. We pretty much had the bus to ourselves. One small gripe here.

I'm not one to complain about people at Disney. However, when the bus drivers open the back door, why do other guests think it's okay to cut in front of the ECV's and rush the bus? I'm not sure if they think that is a new way to get on the bus or what. However, it happened more than once during this trip. Then, the guests argued with the bus driver asking why they opened the back door. When they explained about the ECV, I got tons of dirty looks. I just smiled and waved. LOL!!

So, we get to Downtown Disney and get off the bus. I'm so thankful that Chris and Jordan were with me. My sense of direction that first night was awful. LOL!! I started going one way and Chris was like, "Mom, it's this way."

So we get to the restaurant and check in. The wait was maybe 5 minutes since we had an ADR. So, where are we at??

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Borrowed this picture from online.

If you remember from my pre-trip report we have a love hate relationship with T-Rex. We love the atmosphere, but sometimes the food and service leave a lot to be desired. Last year the steak that Chris had last year had to be sent back 3 times. He finally just decided to eat it because he was so hungry.

I'm happy to report that this year the food and the service we much approved.Chris' steak came out and it was perfect. Our appetizers we brought out. The only issue is me finding something that was safe for me to eat. This year the chef actually came out to talk to me. Which didn't happen last year. He advised me that none of the fried foods were safe to eat.Since they have fried shrimp and it's cooked in the same oil as the other appetizers, they couldn't promise that it would be safe. Okay.... So, none of the other appetizers looked appealing. So, I asked if it would be possible to get a ceaser salad. I wasn't counting on it, but was pleasantly surprised. The waiter took my order for it and said no problem.

Wow...That was amazing. I got the lemon salmon. I love salmon, but find most places have a hard time cooking it. This one was soooooo good!!

Chris, got the steak of course. I believe Jordan got the fish and chips. Nothing remarkable about that. Since dessert is included in the deluxe dining, we managed to stuff ourselves full. I got key lime pie and Chris and Jordan shared the donut holes.

We managed to stumble out of there. Jordan made the comment that he was stuffed. Chris laughed and said, "Just think we have 3 meals a day just like this." Jordan groaned and said that he is going to weigh 500 pounds by the end of the trip...LOL!!

We walked around Downtown Disney for awhile and then headed to the bus area.

Up Next: Dismeet at EPCOT and can we really eat three meals a day????
 

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