WDW June 2018

Tuesday, June 12

We drove to WDW from Savannah and arrived around 1:00 pm. We checked in to Pop Century and were excited to finally get a refurbished room! We really like this resort and now that the overhaul of the rooms is almost complete, it is definitely our go-to in the "value" category. We loved our room and our Magic Bands for this trip were Imelda and Hector from Coco!

Imelda & Hector

Some people are very unhappy with these, but I loved
having unlimited conditioner! LOL

These remind me of Ginny and Maddy!

Our first order of business was to take the bus to MK to buy our annual passes. We haven't had them for a while…we bought WDW annual passes in March 2016, which then expired in March 2017. We kept putting off renewing our passes because we had other travel planned and when we buy passes, we want to get the most bang for our buck.

We took the bus from PC to MK and bought Premier Passports, which are annual passes for both WDW and Disneyland Resort. And as of right now, we have six trips planned in the next six months (4 to WDW and 2 to DLR, and I have an additional trip to WDW planned with my mom), so we are really working on getting our money's worth from these passes!

We grabbed a drink at Starbucks on Main Street, USA, and as usual, I put character names on the cups! This time, I chose Franny and Lewis, from Meet the Robinsons, which is a seriously underrated Disney movie. We made our first attractions with the new passes the PeopleMover – the best! – and then Carousel of Progress. Honestly two of my favorites!

Edna Mode!

Since we hadn't eaten lunch, we went over to Sleepy Hollow for a Nutella waffle, and noticed something on the menu we hadn't tried before – a churro ice cream sandwich! It was so good! We then wandered around the park for a while before taking the bus over to Beach Club, and then we walked over to Epcot. We got some ice cream in France, then went over to Italy to watch Illuminations. This is hardly my favorite nighttime show, but I do love the music!

We spotted a rainbow walking over to Epcot!

After leaving Epcot, we grabbed some pizza at Boardwalk and then went to Jellyrolls for the rest of the night. We'd been keeping an eye on the schedule and when we saw that my beloved Scotty was playing, we knew we'd be going that night for sure! As always, it was highly entertaining! I'm completely biased in favor of Scotty, but all of the pianists are incredibly talented and the variety of songs they know is nothing short of astounding. Scotty played two of my favorites, "Shake It Off" and "Mean" by Taylor Swift, but he also played something I'd never heard him do before – "At Last" by Etta James – and I was speechless. Absolutely amazing!

We stayed until closing and it was wonderful to visit with Scotty before taking the bus back to PC at 2:00 am. What a great day!!!

Wednesday, June 13

We slept in and then went over to Disney Springs for lunch at Blaze Pizza and some shopping. We also went to Amorette's because they have the cutest pastries and desserts there! Seriously adorable!

My shirt of the day!

I already own far too many Disney mugs,
but I loved this one and am regretting not buying it!

I love that the cast member asked, "Did I spell it right?" and
when I told her she hadn't, but that it was fine,
she said, "No, names are important. I want to get it right."

This was as delicious as it was beautiful!

We drove over to the character warehouse because we'd never been there before and had heard many good things about it. Well, it was a bit of a madhouse. Like TJ Maxx or Marshall's, but for Disney. Apparently the inventory changes all the time, so you never really know what you're going to find. Unfortunately, we didn't come across anything of interest, but I'm glad we finally went over there.

On our way back, we stopped at Port Orleans French Quarter for beignets, then returned to PC for a nap and to watch The Incredibles, because we had tickets to see The Incredibles 2 the next day.

We drove over the Beach Club for our dinner reservation at Beaches and Cream before driving over to MK to watch Happily Ever After and then Once Upon a Time. We also got popcorn and ate it in "our" chairs over in Liberty Square while the park started to clear out for Extra Magic Hours. We rounded out the night with Mickey's Philharmagic, Under the Sea, Dumbo, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (on which I continued my streak of very low scores). Finally, we got drinks at Starbucks and sat to watch The Kiss Goodnight. So magical!

We've been eating at Beaches and Cream for what seems like forever...
including during our wedding trip in 1994...so many fabulous memories here!

Love, love, love these chairs!

Thursday, June 14

After sleeping in again, we drove to Epcot and even though it was hotter than either of us like, the sunshine and blue skies made for some beautiful photos! We wandered around Future World for a while before heading back to World Showcase, where we stopped at the Mexico pavilion for some relief from the heat. Little did I know that there was an exhibit about Coco and Dia De Muertos! It was beautiful and moving and I cried and cried. I loved it!

My shirt of the day!

My favorite Minnie of all time...
from the opening day of EPCOT Center in 1982!

Miguel & Dante

We had lunch at Via Napoli, which is one of our favorite restaurants at WDW! As a bonus, we had kind of a long wait for our pizza, so our server gave us each a free dessert to make up for the wait! We never have dessert there because we are always so stuffed from the pizza, so these were such a nice little surprise! Although truth be told, we had no complaints about how long the pizza took because it is worth the wait!

After spending some time wandering around the park, we drove back to PC for a break from the heat before heading over to Disney Springs to see The Incredibles 2. Even though it would have been great no matter where we saw it, there was an added level of excitement being in a Disney crowd…lots of cheering and clapping, which made for a very fun movie-going experience!

Finally, we spent our last night back at Jellyrolls because Scotty was performing again. I really could spend every night there! It was nice to be able to go on a Tuesday and a Thursday during this trip because both nights were much less crowded than Fridays and Saturdays typically are, which resulted in more interaction with the performers and fewer rowdy people (I know, I know…I'm kind of an old fuddy-duddy).

After getting back to our room around 2 am, we packed up our things because we were leaving the next morning for Port Canaveral and our Disney Cruise!

Happy Tails to you!