12 More Miles: WDW in September, Day 1

Well, we’ve been home from our September trip for a week and a half now, so I suppose it’s time to cut through the post-trip depression and write it up. In summary, this was a fantastic trip. Best ever, maybe. There were a couple of minor hiccups, but if you’re one of those people (I am!) who enjoy reading about trips that absolutely fall apart, this one probably won’t satisfy your schadenfreude. It will, however, entertain (I hope) with reviews of resorts, dining, and backstage tours, lots of photos and commentary, and a healthy dose of snark.

12 more miles, you might ask? You’ll see.

Ready? Onward!

Wednesday, September 12

CP and I were up early this morning (5am) after a surprisingly good night’s sleep. Sleeping well the night before a trip is difficult; in addition to the excitement, there’s also the worry – will our flight be delayed? Turbulent? Will they lose our luggage? Will one of us wake up projectile vomiting and derail the trip? Luckily for us, travel day would be a smooth one. We gathered our last-minute belongings, finished packing and were out the door by 5:45. We made a quick stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for some coffee and then proceeded to make the 30 mile drive to the airport. The sun was just coming up and traffic was light, and so our drive to the airport was painless. In fact, just about everything this morning was painless: the parking was painless (a lot right outside the terminal for $8 dollars a day; I love living in a secondary market!) and even check in and security were quick and painless – as long as you weren’t one of the many dumb people who clearly don’t know how to get themselves through security.

In spite of my normal internal clock that gets us to the airport with well over an hour and a half to sit and wait, we only had about 30 minutes to wait before boarding. I was pleased to see that our gate was full of mostly adults; with an early September flight, there weren’t many children to be found. I breathed a sigh of relief, until I heard a loud, staccato park. Tiny dog alert! And, of course, the tiny dog would be flying with us in the cabin to Orlando. As we boarded the plane and took our seats, the dog barked nonstop. As we took off I calculated how many bourbons I might need to make it through the flight, but luckily the dog quieted after takeoff and didn’t make a peep until we landed. Whew!

Our flight was another wonderful jetBlue experience – seats were comfortable, the snacks and TV were welcome distractions, and we left and arrived early. Once off the plane, we headed straight to Starbucks, where I have a little trouble with my debit card. Annoyance Strike One. Drinks in hand we strike off for baggage claim, where our bags mercifully arrive in one piece and quite quickly to boot. Next it’s off to Alamo to pick up our car. Typically I rent through National and thus can walk right out to the garage and pick out a car without stopping at a counter, but National wanted $400 bucks to the $150 Alamo wanted, so my allegiance turned out to be flexible. Knowing that Alamo is usually pretty busy (seeing as it’s the Official Rental Car of Walt Disney World(tm)), I head to an Alamo self-serve kiosk. The first one is broken. The second and third won’t read my license, so I’m forced to join the long line. Annoyance Strike Two. Alamo lady tries to upsell me on everything, finally convincing me to prepay for gas. (This actually turned out to be a good idea, but at the time it was Annoyance Strike 2.5)

Finally we can proceed to the parking garage, where an attendant motions for us to have our pick of cars on the full size row. We select a purple-grey Toyota Camry and are on our way. We make a wrong turn out of the airport and end up heading north on 436, but we turn around and are quickly on 417. At our first toll both, I roll down my window to pay and a flash of black catches in the corner of my eye. I think it’s just my hair, but after we depart the toll both we hear an ominous buzzing from the backseat – we have obviously picked up an unwanted passenger at the toll booth. Annoyance Strike Three. (It turned out to be a relatively harmless dragonfly, but when unable to lay eyes on it, it sounded like a creature from the second circle of hell!)

Apparently Grumpy is quite popular this year?

This was not the happy, excited, cheerful Orlando arrival we were anticipating, but we try to brush off these relatively minor annoyances and head on our way. Our plan is to stop at the Orlando Premium Outlets to make a quick run to the lululemon outlet and the Disney outlet. By the time we reach the mall the skies have opened with September rain, and we get quite soaked dashing into the stores. Our trip is unproductive, and so the crankiness ratchets up. Realizing that maybe what we’re experiencing is partially due to hunger, we head to Downtown Disney for a sandwich at the Earl. It doesn’t disappoint, and is probably the best EOS we’ve had in a long time, PLUS there was no line to speak of. Downtown Disney itself is pretty dead, a good sign that brings some optimism back to our outlook. After lunch, we browse the pin store, Tren-D, Team Mickey, and World of Disney to look for Oswald merch and see what’s new. Nothing speaks to us, so eventually we decide to try our luck at checking in at the Contemporary before 3pm. Annoyance starts to give way to excitement.

The Contemporary lobby is pretty dead when we arrive, and since we did online check-in we walk right up to the desk. Francine checks us in quickly, makes me a first-rate

Room 4741.

birthday button, and lets us know our room is ready. Both of my requests were met, so we have a high floor, odd numbered room – 4741. This means I will get my birthday wish to lay in bed and look at the Castle! The room is lovely, although a bit banged up – lots of scuffs on the furniture, peeling paint on the balcony, lights out in the bathroom and over the beds. I fight the crankiness and try hard not to think about how much I’m paying for the room; when that doesn’t work, I try and remind myself that we’re paying as much for location and convenience as we are for the room itself. That helps…a little.

Bad show, Disney, bad show.

Once inside the room CP instantly crashes (power down!), so I unpack, take pictures, watch some Ellen, and then I take a nap, too. We make a quick stop at the Contempo Cafe to pick up our refillable mugs and look around the 4th floor. Around 3:30 we decide to run to the MK to take a ride on BTMRR before our dinner at Jiko. Big Thunder was closed on our April trip, and CP is itching to get back to her favorite ride. We decide to take the monorail over to MK (gonna get my money’s worth out of a monorail resort!), which stalls at the TTC and makes me nervous we won’t have time for our plan. By the time we reach the MK, I decide we’ll brave it. We then decide to take the train to Frontierland, and luckily one pulls into the station just as we do, so we’re to BTMRR in no time. The line is pretty much a walk-on, and we’re seated near the back. A great ride! Effects look visibly restored, more bells and whistles are functional, and the ride itself feels a lot faster and more fun than it did before the refurb. We’re pleased.

The Wildest Ride In The Wilderness(TM), now with slightly more Wild.

We walk out through Adventureland and then down Main Street and jump on the monorail back to the Contemporary. We freshen up and jump in the car to head to AKL. We’re running a touch late, and I take a wrong turn and we end up behind a slow-moving bus toward Ft. Wilderness. Eventually we lose the bus, and despite a huge circle-tour we end up arriving at AKL just about on time – 5:46 for a 5:45 reservation. I can live with that. Any angst I feel about the day dissolves when we walk in the lobby, and I’m reminded anew of just how much I like the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We’re seated quickly in the main dining room and are given rosewater-scented hand towels. Janet is our server, and she’s bright and positive and energetic. She tells us how the deluxe dining plan works, suggests some of her favorites, and then takes our order for a pomegranate lemonade (me) and a sunrise

My cheesecake, full of win.

non-alcoholic cocktail for CP. We are then visited by Chef Jennifer, who counsels me on what to avoid with a shellfish energy. She then throws all of our choices into question when she suggests other apps and entrees different than what we were thinking; somewhat surprisingly, she recommended we not have the filet, something she feels diners can better experience in their own homes. We eventually decide to split the wild boar tenderloin and the cheese plate for our appetizers, and then I order the peanut-encrusted short ribs, and CP the pork tenderloin. I also get a Black Pearl red wine blend to go with my entree.

Although my short ribs are delicious, CP’s entree is the winner – it rivals the pork tenderloin at the California Grill, which is one of my favorite meals anywhere, let alone at Disney. For dessert, she gets the black forest cake, me the cheesecake, and we share a press pot of coffee. The cheesecake is transcendent – I win the dessert round. We make small talk with the couple next to us, who are visiting from New Brunswick and who aren’t keen on Florida seafood. We suggest they buy Zebra Domes at the store since they were sad they couldn’t have them for dessert. Everyone agrees that a perk of visiting WDW is how nice we’re all treated here. We settle up and are on our way to browse the Arusha overlook and see the animals, stopping to strike up a conversation with an Australian man who is visiting WDW with his daughter, who lives and works in Florida. We take their picture and make some jokes. In all, a lovely evening at AKL.

Full and content, we head back to CR to fill up our mugs and browse the stores. Upon returning to the room we realize the CP’s room key doesn’t work, so we head down to the lobby where a very friendly (and suspiciously flirtatious) CM named Ryan helps us straighten things out. He ends up accompanying us back up to the room to make sure that the lock itself doesn’t have to be reprogrammed (these are the new RFID locks), but the problem appears to be solved. (Appears to be. This will come back later.) It’s soon time to catch Wishes from the balcony. I don’t bother tuning the television to the Wishes soundtrack because we’re close enough that we can catch strains of it from the Magic Kingdom itself. The experience is magical, marred only by some balcony smokers above us. Tired and happy, we turn in shortly thereafter, but I’m too excited to sleep. The trip has finally begun!

A few more pictures from our first day: