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!
