January 4, 2015
Hello beautiful! Finally, we arrived on Disney property. Tonight we stay at the Art of Animation resort! Our official Disney stay didn't start until January 5th since that's the first day the winter discount opened. We were originally planning on staying in Orlando tonight but with New Years over and holiday room rates gone it was actually just as inexpensive to stay at Disney. Perfect opportunity for me & Mom to check this resort out!
The best part of vacationing in early January is being greeted by sights like this. Disney and Christmas both have such magic... having them together is amazing.
We were checking in around lunch so we explored the main building and headed to the food court. I promised myself we would remember to make pictures of every meal, but hear I am with 0 for this lunch. I'm assuming everyone was so hungry we just couldn't focus! After we ate, we headed to our room.
Wow! I could write a whole post about this room. Maybe I will someday! It was perfectly themed for The Little Mermaid. I mean I have a bubble light on my headboard! The Art of Animation resort is mostly suites but if you stay in The Little Mermaid section you can get a standard room.
Our package didn't start until tomorrow so no theme parks for us today. That was fine by us since we really wanted to explore the resort. There's some amazing photo ops here!
Mom showing off Ariel. I don't think she can really be considered the LITTLE Mermaid in this situation. Disney you have amazing resorts! Me and Feav also walked over to Pop Century food court. I had read about a must try desert Disney only served there.
Tie Dyed Cheesecake! I'll be honest.. I'm a cheesecake connoisseur at Disney and I gotta say this was good, but not necessarily better than the other Quick Serve cheesecakes. It has way more style points but tastes about the same.
Our trip across to Pop Century actually helped me make a sad discovery. You guys know I'm all about Disney because it's sooooooo wheelchair friendly. The Pop Century disappointed me. We went through the big pool area headed to the food court and were met my steps. We actually had to find the ramp which seemed oddly out of the way. Another problem we ran into was at the desert line itself. They had one of those rope dividers up that companies use to form lines but it wasn't wide enough for my chair to go though. I actually sat to the side while Feav got my cheesecake. Not cool Disney! What's up with that Pop Century?
As night closed in we headed to a new place for us. Downtown Disney! Hard to believe it took us this long but there's so much to do at Disney that we never had time before. This trip we scheduled it!
Unfortunately for us we picked the year the Disney Springs construction was underway. We planned on going to the part called the Marketplace. Once Upon A Toy, World of Disney, and a lot of other little stores were on that end. Normally you can park at either end but we were directed to the parking garage at the opposite end of Downtown Disney. The hike took forever when paired with darkness, crowds, and paths that were narrowed by construction. I imagine that's what happened to this guy. He didn't realize the magnitude of the construction either!
We did finally make it and checked out a few stores. The World of Disney is the largest Disney store. It had everything including HUGE crowds. Families, let's talk a minute. I understand your kid may need a stroller. I also understand your kid might want out of said stroller while in a huge Disney store. Please though parents remember it's not okay to pick a walkway to park your stroller in the middle of! There were so many inconsiderate people and uncontrolled children that we didn't stick around long.
Another store we checked out was Once Upon A Toy. If you've never been you should definitely check it out. We went for one thing... Mr. Potato Head parts! That's right you can fill a box full of Disney Potato Head parts for a flat rate. It's as many pieces as you can fit in the box so we didn't get a body, just special Disney pieces. The lady at the checkout even repacked Mom's box so Mom had more space for a few more pieces! After fighting strollers and getting Potato body parts, the crew was hungry so we went to another "Must Do" according to the forums.
Earl of Sandwich here we come! Feav had some kind of wrap which he thought was okay but nothing special. That's not why we were here though! We were here for this beautiful beast! The Holiday Turkey Sandwich - Turkey, cornbread stuffing, turkey gravy, cranberry sauce & mayonnaise. The forums always talk about this so we had to try it. Mom said it was worth the Downtown Disney trip for! She absolutely loved it!
After Earl of Sandwich we slowly wandered back toward the parking garage taking pictures and checking out a few stores along the way. We FINALLY got to the van, loaded up, and were heading back to the resort when it happened. The story inspiring thhe trip report title!
We were driving along... heading to Art of Animation with the windows down. We stopped at a red light and another car pulled up in the lane by us. We're waiting on it to change when we heard "SON OF A B#@!*!!!!!!!!!" We looked at each other like, "Did we just hear that?" It was followed by "I FORGOT MY SHAMPOO!!!!!!!" The light changed and we drove away laughing. I guess someone didn't want to pay Disney prices!
