"Look at all these sunny balls!" - WDW/Uni TR Feb 17-26th 2018 (6/18 Wrap-up and DVC review)

[DDuck4Life]

Thanks for the input @skier_pete we basically came to the same conclusion. While the allure of cheap is certainty a selling point we are just not sure the pros outweigh the cons. Now to study your availability charts.

 

[skier_pete]

Thanks for the input @skier_pete we basically came to the same conclusion. While the allure of cheap is certainty a selling point we are just not sure the pros outweigh the cons. Now to study your availability charts.

You're welcome! And as I said, feel free to PM me with any questions. (If you want a sneak peek at the updated charts - they are about 95% complete - PM me your e-mail.)

 

[rdkeim]

Enjoying your TR! I absolutely love the WL and it's a real sentimental favorite. Our first few trips with our boys were at the WL. They are now grown but some day I'd love to take our grandson there. One of these days I'll look at renting points and see how that all works.

 

[skier_pete]

Enjoying your TR! I absolutely love the WL and it's a real sentimental favorite. Our first few trips with our boys were at the WL. They are now grown but some day I'd love to take our grandson there. One of these days I'll look at renting points and see how that all works.

Thanks. We enjoyed our first stay at Wilderness Lodge quite a bit. If you are going to rent points I would recommend going through a rental company, unless there is someone you know that owns and wants to rent their points. We were fortunate that we had a friend that rents out some of their points and had some available for us to rent.

 

[Aurora1972]

I guess I got a little behind. I guess I haven't been giving the dis the time it deserves! We have never stayed deluxe. However, I always thought the lobby at Wilderness Lodged looked amazing. I was also disappointed in the themeing on your room. It did look kind of blah. Definitely would not be my first choice if we ever rented DVC points.

We loved Tusker House on our last trip. I'm really looking forward to the mealy pap and the watermelon salad type dish. 21 days until my trip and 25 till I'm eating at Tusker House!

 

[skier_pete]

I guess I got a little behind. I guess I haven't been giving the dis the time it deserves! We have never stayed deluxe. However, I always thought the lobby at Wilderness Lodged looked amazing. I was also disappointed in the themeing on your room. It did look kind of blah. Definitely would not be my first choice if we ever rented DVC points.

We loved Tusker House on our last trip. I'm really looking forward to the mealy pap and the watermelon salad type dish. 21 days until my trip and 25 till I'm eating at Tusker House!

We did enjoy the food - just disappointed the Samosas were gone as that was a favorite of ours. Overall though the quality was still very high and I love the very unique choices.

 

[skier_pete]

Day 7 - conclusion.

After the Lion King - we headed over to Pandora – finally getting a chance to ride the Flights of Passage.

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Standby was something like 3 hours long. I couldn’t imagine standing in line that long.

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Once inside the “bunker” it was very sterile looking, but that wasn’t a surprise.

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They bring you into the first of two preshow rooms for “decontamination”.

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I put away the camera after that. The ride is really spectacular. They do a very clever reveal of the transfer into your Avatar, and as long as you don’t look around too much, it feels pretty immersive – like you really are flying. The animal breathing between your legs is a neat effect. I will be curious to see how it holds up on repeat viewings, because like much of Universal it’s primarily a screen ride, and they sometimes lack re-ridability to me, but overall this seemed like one of the greatest rides at Disney right now, and probably well deserved of it’s line.

On the way out we had to go back through the gift shop. DD saw the banshees and decided she wanted one. We tried to dissuade her but it was her own money she spent, so we let her get it. It still (as of May) has not been taken out of the box since we got home.

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That image makes me think “In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room…”
I forgot we also did a photo op coming through Pandora:

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Post Flights of Passage we had a last FastPass for the Safari at twilight. I think I said earlier in a reply that we like doing the Safari twice a trip, once in the morning, and then once just has darkness is starting to fall. I mostly just enjoyed the ride and the low light made it hard to get pictures from a moving vehicle, but there were a couple of very close animal encounters that I snapped.

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We again passed through Pandora on our way to the front of the park.

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Such a beautiful land I wish there was a little more to do here. DD and DW were planning on heading back to the hotel, while I wanted to FINALLY ride Everest. I headed over and went in the single rider line. Wait was maybe 2 minutes at most. Rivers of Light was actually running while I was riding the ride! It was a great view. This was also the first time I rode at right, and it was kind of neat with your eyes being night-adjusted the whole time. Made disco Yeti at the end much more notable. I had also snagged a FP+ for Dinosaur, but in the end I got off Everest just as ROL was wrapping up, and decided to try and beat the crowds to the buses. I was able to get on a bus with almost no wait. (I almost thought I would catch DD and DW but they must’ve gotten an earlier bus.) Made it out of the park and back to our resort very quickly. Just spent the evening relaxing in our room before an EARLY start the next day.

Up next - we finally spend time in the OG park - Magic Kingdom!

 

[tammy]

Awesome update! 2 more sleeps and I'll be there...very excited to see Pandora at night!

 

[Cowgirl_Jessie]

We did enjoy the food - just disappointed the Samosas were gone as that was a favorite of ours. Overall though the quality was still very high and I love the very unique choices.

The samosas were a happy surprise when we had lunch at Tusker House; they were fantastic!! Tusker House's food is different, but really accessible still. My husband wasn't the biggest Indian food fan the first time we went; however, he was able to find a lot of things that he enjoyed. DS has some dietary restrictions and it works for him as well. Tusker is a bit like hitting the jackpot for something different from the usual fare but that can work for everyone.

 

[rteetz]

Glad you enjoyed Flight of Passage. I say the ride holds up in re-rideability after 9 times now.

I also have a banshee but I got it opening weekend when they were $10 cheaper. It sits on its perch in my room.

 

[khertz]

Great update! I just can't seem to get myself too excited about Pandora and even FOP, despite everyone saying how amazing it is. Hopefully once I do finally get a chance to get there and ride it, I will understand the hype! lol Just not a big Avatar fan, but I do have trust in Joe Rohde so I'm going to go in with an open mind. It does look really pretty at night!

Everest at night is SO fun! One of the best ways to ride it.

 

[franandaj]

Before I read any further I need to comment on what I've read before I forget about it!

It's never fun when you're "homeless" but it seems you all made the best of it and it's nice you didn't have to wait too long.

Thanks for the tour of the cabins, I think they are going to be in my future! I know you were balking at the prices, but for me with almost 600 points for use at WDW, I could easily do 5 nights in a cabin! And with a jacuzzi built into the patio, heaven! I wouldn't even need to go to the parks! Were there two bathrooms or three?

Sorry that WCC wasn't your cup of tea. We were subject to antics on our trip in a serious way. I'm curious how good the BBQ really is based on the fact that as I'm reading this I am OD'ing on BBQ in one of the BBQ capitals of America!

I haven't seen HEA and may not have an opportunity (other than from TOTWL at BLT in August) until next year. And even then, I'm not sure if my parents will be up to the challenge.

OK just be getting on with today...be back to finish reading and comment again!

 

[skier_pete]

The samosas were a happy surprise when we had lunch at Tusker House; they were fantastic!! Tusker House's food is different, but really accessible still. My husband wasn't the biggest Indian food fan the first time we went; however, he was able to find a lot of things that he enjoyed. DS has some dietary restrictions and it works for him as well. Tusker is a bit like hitting the jackpot for something different from the usual fare but that can work for everyone.

I really miss the Samosas! We have an friend that makes them homemade - and while they were not THAT good, they were actually pretty great. Sanaa still has them on the menu at least!

And yes, I do agree it is a nice mix of what the average american will eat and a little bit of exotic. We don't do the buffets too often anymore since (a) we don't need character greets and (b) our bellies don't hold as much as they used to, but Tusker House remains one of our favorites.

Great update! I just can't seem to get myself too excited about Pandora and even FOP, despite everyone saying how amazing it is. Hopefully once I do finally get a chance to get there and ride it, I will understand the hype! lol Just not a big Avatar fan, but I do have trust in Joe Rohde so I'm going to go in with an open mind. It does look really pretty at night!

Everest at night is SO fun! One of the best ways to ride it.

Agree that I am not a big fan of the movie (is there anyone that is?) but the ride is beyond impressive. I get the comparison to Soarin' in that it's a bunch of people looking at a big screen - but I think Forbidden Journey is closer to the experience if you only did the parts of FJ that were on the screens. The effect of having the smells and the water and the way they have the animal you are riding breathing makes for a very immersive experience and very thrilling without being nauseating. (FJ is a better ride, but I get off of FJ and I couldn't ride it again right away without losing my lunch.)

Before I read any further I need to comment on what I've read before I forget about it!

It's never fun when you're "homeless" but it seems you all made the best of it and it's nice you didn't have to wait too long.

Thanks for the tour of the cabins, I think they are going to be in my future! I know you were balking at the prices, but for me with almost 600 points for use at WDW, I could easily do 5 nights in a cabin! And with a jacuzzi built into the patio, heaven! I wouldn't even need to go to the parks! Were there two bathrooms or three?

Sorry that WCC wasn't your cup of tea. We were subject to antics on our trip in a serious way. I'm curious how good the BBQ really is based on the fact that as I'm reading this I am OD'ing on BBQ in one of the BBQ capitals of America!

I haven't seen HEA and may not have an opportunity (other than from TOTWL at BLT in August) until next year. And even then, I'm not sure if my parents will be up to the challenge.

OK just be getting on with today...be back to finish reading and comment again!

That's why my feeling on split stays is kind of "one per trip" is enough. That homeless day isn't the greatest, but it sort of resets the vacation for me - almost makes it feel like two separate vacations, especially when you go between resorts as different as Boardwalk and Wilderness Lodge. This trip there was WAAAYY too much moving between hotels. Looking forward to our upcoming trip with 4 nights at AKV and 5 nights at BCV. Just one move in the middle is JUST RIGHT.

While I don't live in one of the top BBQ locations - I do know what good BBQ taste like. I thought the BBQ there was pretty good...certainly not great but I have had worse many places.

The cabins - yeah you and Fran are about the only people I know that have the points to pull off a stay in the cabins. I think if I was paying those point rates, I wouldn't even want to go to the parks. I think they did a really good job of making the cabins feel "woodsy" for Florida as well. There were only two bathrooms in the cabins that I remember, the main en suite and then a second. Both are very large though - one with a tub and shower, and then second with a large shower.

HEA is great, but the way they work the projections into the show, it makes it harder to get the full experience from different locations.

 

[skier_pete]

Day 8 (Fool me once – shame on me…)

Today was our only other rope drop day, but I wasn’t going to be fooled again. I specifically checked the hours the day before, and wouldn’t you know it, they did the same thing here – opening the park at 8 AM instead of 9 AM. Hey, at least I learn, right? We headed down to the boat dock at 7:15, because we thought they’d be running the boats, but the first boat arrived at 7:30 AM.

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The sunny ball was barely over the horizon, but it was another clear and sunny day. We hopped on and made the rope drop in plenty of time.

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Now I’m going to point out that to this point, we’ve ridden a grand total of about 12 rides at WDW in 5 days. (zero on the first, 2 on the second, 4 on the third, 3 on the fourth, 3 on the fifth) Today we are at MK, and that usually means more rides.

So we decided as a family to hit 7DMT first. We already had a FP for it later, but decided we would go for it twice. We piled into the crowd right of the castle, and heard the new(er) opening show for the first time. I really miss the train station show. The nice thing about that one is you could position for the charge and still see the show. Here’s us in the rope drop crowd.

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We certainly weren’t first in line 7DMT – but maybe in the first 200 people. The wait was I’d say less than 10 minutes and we were zooming around the mine train. I like this ride more and more every time I ride it. When you first ride it you notice how short it is, but once you’ve done it a few times, the shortness becomes ingrained in, and really what’s left is that it’s a fun little coaster. One thing I really love is if you can get all four in your car to do it is you can really get the car swinging ride to side during the internal part of the ride.

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Next was one I wasn’t really all that keen on doing this early since there’s rarely a big line, but DD wanted to ride the Little Mermaid. At least it was nearby…we hopped over to the ride. I decided I was going to snap a picture every time I saw an Ariel AA. So here you go….#1:

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#2
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#3
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And #4:
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Here’s a shot of Fantasyland at 8:30 AM. Not many people around yet. The Carousel was also under a scrim, but was actually operating under there.
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We headed out of Fantasyland and the wait at Haunted Mansion was a flat ZERO, so we got in line and rode. After that we headed over to ride Jungle Cruise next. There a very short wait so we got right on.

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Say it with me kids!

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We continued across the park after a potty break and headed to Big Thunder Mountain. Always a favorite!

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DW and DD both didn’t want to ride Splash Mountain because they didn’t want to get wet. Ugh, what wimps. I had to go on by myself. This left DW to get pictures:

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I only had my phone on me – so I only took a couple of shots:
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I always try to do something fun for my photopass picture, especially when I’m alone. This time, I tried to do something really different! Take a SELFIE!

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And here’s the photo! Camera didn’t adjust well to the light.

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Lastly, here’s DWs picture of me going down the big drop!

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Next update - we still have our 3 FP to go...

 

[ADLFAN]

Love the pictures! Especially your Splash Mountain enthusiasm!

 

[skier_pete]

Love the pictures! Especially your Splash Mountain enthusiasm!

Thanks, I didn't know my DW was taking the picture - but I was waving so she could see me coming through.

 

[skier_pete]

Our 7th ride of the morning was also our first FastPass of the day.

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The ride broke down at one point, so I risked taking a flash picture. DW rode this one by herself while DD and I rode together.

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We decided to get into line a ride Small World. We were actually getting kind of hungry, but the line was only about 15 minutes and we decided to take advantage of it. I decided since we were seeing SO many sunny balls this trip – I would take a picture of all the suns on the ride. Sure the song says “There is just one moon, and one golden sun, but in fact I counted a total of SEVEN suns! The first one I didn’t get too well, it is in the upper right corner of this shot.

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Number 2:
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Number3 came out a bit blurry:
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#6
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But in fact there IS just one moon!
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A few bonus shots:
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And hey we got on the board in the last room!
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It was like 11:30 AM and it was definitely time to eat. DD wanted to eat at Pinocchio’s Village Haus. They had switched out the awful Disney pizza for the much better Disney flatbread – so we all ordered flatbreads. Here’s the gamut!

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Our second FP of the day was up next – a second ride on the Mine Train! It was just as fun the second time!

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Our original plans were to have our 3rd FP of the day at Buzz Lightyear, but after the announcement they were changing Pirates, I ended up swapping our 3rd FP to Pirates, so we had a little time before we could ride that. One of my very favorite things at WDW is Philharmagic. It’s on my top 10 list – don’t judge me!

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We then headed over to Adventureland again to fit in our FP. This time I ran a video of the auction scene – so that’s what we had.
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Last but not least – we couldn’t resist a walk through the Tiki Birds! This was around 1 PM.
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It was getting really hot by this point probably in the high eighties today – those sunny balls were just beating down on us. In addition – we hadn’t ridden / experienced TWELVE attractions by just after one PM. So to recap – 12 attractions in first 5 day : 12 attractions in 5 hours on day 6! So what do you do when you double your attraction count on your 6th day! Why – you head to the pool!

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I had neglected to mention that the WL pool was under refurb the first few days we were there, and this was the first day it was open again for use. DW actually stayed at the park a little longer to shop while DD and I went back for a swim.

To be continued in next post...

 

[skier_pete]

Day 8 - conclusion...

One small piece of trivia about WL that I only learned a few years ago – from the lake, the lodge is designed to look like a bear, with the main part of the lodge it’s head and the two branches of rooms its arms. This shot shows pretty good depiction of this – with the triangular windows on the roof the eyes, and the lower arch the snout of the bear.

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The new territory lounge area:
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It’s pretty impressive how they manage to make swampy Florida feel at least somewhat foresty.

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I thought sure at some point I got a picture of the baby Bison.

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We spent the afternoon at the pool followed by some relaxation in the room. DW came back with a bunch of packages as well. Then we had a dinner planned at Artists Point.

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I may have mentioned this earlier but we are pretty big fans of the Arts and Crafts style. A lot of our furniture in our house has this feel. The Artists Point dining area definitely had that feel.

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The meal started with some bread:
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I wanted to try the charcuterie board. DW was a little leary, since it was mostly made up of weird meats like boar and buffalo. I thought it was great, but since she didn’t really want to do anything more than give everything a little taste, it was a lot of one person to eat!

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DW ordered the Smoked Mushroom Bisque, which she really like a lot.
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For our main course, I got the Buffalo Filet while DW got the Hangar Steak. Both of these were really quite tasty.
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For sides we got the Pee Wee Potatoes and the Roasted Brussel Sprouts.
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I was super duper full at this point because of the Charcutiere board. We didn’t really see anything on the menu that particularly caught our eye.
So overall, the meal was really, really good. But I wouldn’t quite call it fantastic, and at the price point of Signature dining. Dinner cost us $152 with our TIW 20% discount, and for that price I want a fantastic-level meal – and I didn’t think this quite reached those heights. And I don’t want to discourage people from trying it – the staff was wonderful and there a good selection of food, but it just wasn’t something that we would rush back to try again. I would put the other Signature restaurants we've tried to date (Yachtsman, Jiko, and California Grill) all ahead of this.

With that – we had debated about going back to the park or going over to Top of The World to watch the fireworks, but in the end, we just decided to call it a night. At least that’s what my photo files tell me!

Next time - our LAST Day. *Sniff Sniff*

 

[cstorm65]

Great update! What a productive morning at Magic Kingdom!! Those flatbreads at Pinocchio's don't look all that bad, we may have to try that place coming up. I'm not a huge flatbread fan, but DW really likes them.

 

[skier_pete]

Great update! What a productive morning at Magic Kingdom!! Those flatbreads at Pinocchio's don't look all that bad, we may have to try that place coming up. I'm not a huge flatbread fan, but DW really likes them.

I know - we got so much done. The 8 AM open helped a lot, as I think we had 6 rides in by 10 AM. We didn't do a lot of Commando touring this trip, but this morning we really went all out. Was really the only time for this trip we did this.