WDW November 2016

Our Magic Bands for this trip were Tiana and Naveen from The Princess and the Frog.  Since we were staying at Port Orleans Riverside, the names were perfect!  I also did my nails with Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto designs for the trip!

Friday, November 11

We drove to BWI for our late morning flight and arrived in Orlando around 1:30 pm.  There were no issues with the flight, but the car rental process was as ridiculous as always.  This is a huge pet peeve of ours.  In this day and age of technology, how is renting a car such an archaic process?!?  The car rental companies really need to get it together.  We rent a lot of cars over the course of a year and it seems like the process could be easily streamlined to run more smoothly.  And I say that as people who don't have to stand at the counter!  We go straight out to the garage and still it is beyond all understanding why these companies haven't come up with a more efficient system!  So absurd!

When we finally got out of the airport garage, we drove straight over to Port Orleans Riverside to check in.  Luckily our room was ready, so we were able to drop off our backpacks immediately.  We stayed in one of the Royal Guest Rooms – "all things royal whenever possible" is a personal motto of mine – and even though we've stayed in these rooms several times during previous trips, I still took photos of almost everything in the room.  I really can't say enough good things about the theming of these rooms – yes, the pirate rooms at Caribbean Beach where we stayed last month were awesome, but these princess rooms are just perfection.  The best feature is the light-up headboard that looks like fireworks – so pretty!

We went over to the main building to grab a bite for lunch before heading over to DHS.  We watched the Star Wars stage show, which, I am saddened to report, was kind of lame, and then went over to Toy Story Mania because we had fast passes for it.  I never ever get sick of this ride and I wish I could go on it over and over!  Everything about it is adorable! As usual, C had no difficulty beating my score.  This is partially due to the fact that he is a lot better at the games than I am, and partially due to the fact that I am focused on getting a good accuracy score.  And we got one of the Slinky ride vehicles, unscientifically proven to be the best!

After TSM, we went to One Man's Dream and I was dismayed to see that some of it is blocked off.  I hope they are just adding more fabulous things and not preparing to close it down, which is a rumor that will not die!  A preview of Moana was showing in the theater, so we watched that, and I've got to say, I hope it lives up to my expectations because it looks really, really good!

We walked from DHS over to Boardwalk because we were having dinner at a new-to-us restaurant – Trattoria Al Forno.  We were a little nervous because there did not appear to be much in the way of vegetarian options, but we got a fabulous waiter who knew the menu inside and out and made some great recommendations, including an item called Pizza di Verdure, which had artichokes and onions on it.  Yum, yum, yum.  So delicious!

After dinner, we walked around Boardwalk for a while and stopped in for dessert at Ample Hills Creamery – our recently discovered go-to ice cream place.  The weather was just perfect for a evening of strolling around eating ice cream and it was a great way to end our day before heading back to Port Orleans Riverside.

Saturday, November 12

We got up a little on the early side because we had breakfast reservations over at Animal Kingdom Lodge at another new-to-us restaurant, Boma.  I have nothing but praise for the food, but the check in process and flow in the restaurant (it is a buffet) is less than ideal.  The layout was just not good, with servers having to cut through the line of people at the buffet to get to the kitchen.  Not sure we will return there because there are so many great restaurants to choose from, but the food itself was really delicious.  After breakfast, we hung out at the resort for a while and watched the giraffes roam around and eat.  I love giraffes!  I fully admit that I am a sucker for all animals in general, but giraffes are definitely on my list of favorites.

It was such a beautiful morning that we decided to go over to the All Star Resorts because we hadn't been over there in quite a long time.  We ended up at All Star Movies, and I'd forgotten just how cute it is over there!  Disney theming at its finest.

We went back to Port Orleans Riverside,with plans to take a quick nap.  It turned into a three-hour nap, which was awesome because we were not feeling that great – C had been battling a cold for the past few weeks and I had just come down with some kind of bug the day before our trip – the sleep was very much needed and we woke up feeling reenergized.

We took the bus over to MK with intentions to spend the entire night there, but that did not materialize because there was filming going on for the holiday shows and the park was packed.  Wall-to-wall people everywhere!  I really wanted to see the Christmas lights on Cinderella Castle, but they were doing rehearsals for the holiday shows and there was recording equipment around the castle and crowds of people cheering at various times (I assume they were being prompted by a producer/director).  They would turn the lights on for a few seconds at a time, but never long enough for me to get a photo.  We ended up riding TTA and wandering around a little before deciding to leave because there really were just too many people.  A 35-minute wait for "it's a small world" is a bit much!  On the upside, we saw a beautiful sunset, a mama duck and her nine ducklings, and the Christmas decorations around the park!  Hopefully when we go next month, I'll be able to get some nice pictures of those castle lights!

After an excruciatingly long wait for the bus back to Port Orleans Riverside (have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the buses?!?), we drove over to Art of Animation for a late dinner before calling it a night.

Sunday, November 13

Unfortunately, it was return-to-reality time, so we packed and checked out of the resort.  We ended up back at Art of Animation for breakfast because our favorite food court is there and then we decided against going to any parks because neither of us was really feeling up to it.  We wandered around Port Orleans French Quarter because it is so picturesque and the weather was perfect for just taking it easy.  It was a nice, relaxing way to end our weekend and we are already looking forward to next month's trip!

Happy Tails to you!