We Definitely Need a Vacation! - TR - 5/6-5/16 - UPDATED 7/21 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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We Definitely Need a Vacation! - TR - 5/6-5/16 - UPDATED 7/21
I can't believe we've been home for almost a month and I'm just now uploading the first installment of our TR...big time fail on my part!
Anyone who is interested in the planning of this trip can see our PTR here!
Here's a quick overview of all the important upfront details: Cast
Shena 26 – 8th trip
Ryan 28 – 8th trip Dates
May 6th – May 16th Reason
The awesome D23 events scheduled to commemorate WDW 40th & because we've had a busy year (and "Definitely Need a Vacation")! Dining plan FREE Quick Service Lodging
Pop Century--1st Time, so fingers crossed going in! Day 1 - Friday, 5/6/11
Since we were not leaving until late that night Ryan had to workL. So while he was at work I finished up packing and cleaning the house before we left. Ryan got home around 3:30 and we loaded the car up and headed to the airport. We pulled into the parking lot and boarded a shuttle to take us to the main terminal. After standing in line for 10 minutes to check bags (no big lines on Friday evening) we headed to grab some dinner at the airport. The options at our local airport are not that fantastic, settled for Burger King. Then we headed towards the gate to go through security and then went and found a seat by our gate and waited to load the plane. We were right on schedule and took off for MCO at 6:35. The pilot came on and to tell us that we would be arriving ahead of schedule.
We were scheduled to land at MCO at 10:15 But arrived at 9:50 So we headed down to pick up our luggage and rental car. Now a word of advice to anyone arriving late on a Friday night--there are not a lot of cars to choose from! When we got outside to pick up our Mid-size car from Alamo we had a total of 5 to choose from. Not thinking that we were in Florida and it would be hot and sunny we ended up with a black car with leather seats!!!.
We then drove to POP Century and arrived around 10:45. Since it was late we thought that the check-in process would be quick and painless but that wasn't the case. We did online check-in and were so stoked when we walked into the lobby and were the only ones in that line! However...we stood in line for 20 minutes while people cut in front of us and the front desk just let it happen After our 20 minute wait a nice gentleman that was on the other end of the counter saw us waiting and brought us down to his window and helped get us checked in. When we were all settled with room keys and such, we headed to Everything POP and grabbed our refillable mugs and grabbed a drink before we headed our room.
Our room was in the 70s building with a view of the lake and the Art of Animation resort. This was our first time staying at a value so we were pretty apprehensive going in, but we were pleasantly surprised with the room, and you could definitely tell we stepped back into the 70s...although neither of us have 1st hand experience with that decade.... Anyway, we always like to unpack and get settled shortly after check-in so we can feel like we've really "arrived" so to speak, so that's what we did, even though it was already after midnight After we were all settled, we turned in for the night to rest up for our busy trip.
More to come!
__________________
*Shena & Ryan*
Check out our PTR for our upcoming Christmas trip to see Mickey!
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
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First of all, holy smokes!!! We never anticipated this many responses and I'm completely and totally blown away! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all of your kind words and encouragement! We most definitely will keep the updates coming (the plan is one a day until we make it through everything, but we'll see how that works out...I like to bite off more than I can chew sometimes).
Quote:
Originally Posted by mojjo
Great start!!! I'm glad a CM saw what was going on and helped you.
Yeah, he was the best! He apologized profusely and made things all better in my opinion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nimros
Hey there - great start!!! I'm going back to read up on your PTR...
So glad to see you guys are back--hope you had a great trip! I need to get caught up on yours as well!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneyfan1219
We love PoP. This is were we usually stay. Can't wait for more.
We were so pleasantly surprised by it! It is definitely somewhere we'd stay again!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Yeah!!! Great Start!!! No worries on starting so long after trip!! Now you can re-live it!!!
That makes me feel so much better The way I see it, at least I'm posting it, which is more than I can say for past trips!
Day 2 - Saturday, 5/7/11
Our first full day in FLORIDA--and Disney was not on the docket at all..., I know it sounds like a crime, but in our 7 prior trips, we'd never managed to made it to the beach so we made that a priority for this visit (I mean, hello, it's FLORIDA). 2 hour drive down I-4 to Tampa, here we come! The day started out with breakfast at Everything POP where I had a Bounty Platter (ok, really I only ate the french toast sticks, a couple of bites of egg and some potatoes...that's A TON of food and I eat like a bird ) and Ryan had the Key West omelet (which he ) Then it was time to get out the maps and find our way to the Tampa Aquarium. This is something that Ryan had found out about online and was super excited to explore. We arrived at the aquarium around 10:00 to find that we were right in the middle of the port of Tampa and there was a cruise ship that was in port getting ready to embark that day ! Apparently we didn't research the surrounding area fully enough beforehand . Luckily the aquarium had their own parking lot so parking was not an issue. The aquarium was very cool we saw everything from ducks and sharks and jellyfish...oh my! (Ok, we're from the Midwest and I couldn't resist the poorly done Wizard of Oz reference.) If the aquarium is something you haven't done and you have any interest in marine life, we would highly recommend it. When we were done at the aquarium it was around 12:00 and we were getting hungry so we walked around the port but nothing tickled our taste buds so we loaded back in the car and headed for ClearwaterBeach--finally, the BEACH!!!
We arrived at the beach about 1:00 and were surprised at the lack of parking that was available but we finally found a spot and off to the beach it was (like I said, we hadn't made it to the beach until this trip...we're amateurs .) We spotted a beach side café called The Palm Pavilion and the food was great--and right on the beach. We will definitely go back here next time! After lunch we walked down the beach to the water and spotted the pier off in the distance and decided to take the walk on the beach to the pier. We decide about 3:30 that we were ready to leave the beach as it was 95 degrees out--no need to overdo things on our first full day. On our way back to Disney we stopped by Target to grab hangers, they never have enough hangers in the room and we didn’t pack enough! On our long drive back we discovered the Trivia Game on the Disney Mobile Magic App on Ryan's phone and entertained ourselves the whole way back answering questions.
The Palm Pavillion Inn Restaurant:
Clearwater Beach shore:
Once we got back to the hotel, we changed into some clean, non-sand encrusted clothes and headed to EPCOT (see, we did manage to fit some Disney in ). We needed to find dinner stat because we were after spending the afternoon in the sun. We had dinner at the Lotus Blossom Cafe, another first for us. I had the orange chicken, which was so good, and Ryan had the vegetable stir fry, which he wasn't a huge fan of. He ate more of mine than I did I think . After that we walked around world showcase, watched the show at the American Adventure for the first time--a HUGE oversight on our part that we hadn't seen it until now, rode the Seas with Nemo and Friends and Spaceship Earth on our way out of the park. We stopped by Downtown Disney wanting to take a quick look at the latest and greatest, but we forgot it was Saturday night...not our best move! Needless to say, we didn't stay at DTD too long and headed back to the resort. We took a quick dip in the pool when we got back to relax, but that didn't last long because the water was COLD! After that, we went to bed fairly early for us to get a good night's sleep before our first full day in the parks the next day.
Day 3 should be up soon!
__________________
*Shena & Ryan*
Check out our PTR for our upcoming Christmas trip to see Mickey!
About This Page: 
After our 20 minute wait a nice gentleman that was on the other end of the counter saw us waiting and brought us down to his window and helped get us checked in. When we were all settled with room keys and such, we headed to Everything POP and grabbed our refillable mugs and grabbed a drink before we headed our room. 
After we were all settled, we turned in for the night to rest up for our busy trip.
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Thank
Pixie Dust
- great start!!! I'm going back to read up on your PTR...
PassPorter Guide Author
Jyl
The way I see it, at least I'm posting it, which is more than I can say for past trips!
, I know it sounds like a crime, but in our 7 prior trips, we'd never managed to made it to the beach so we made that a priority for this visit (I mean, hello, it's FLORIDA). 2 hour drive down I-4 to Tampa, here we come! The day started out with breakfast at Everything POP where I had a Bounty Platter (ok, really I only ate the french toast sticks, a couple of bites of egg and some potatoes...that's A TON of food and I eat like a bird 
) and Ryan had the Key West omelet (which he 
) Then it was time to get out the maps and find our way to the Tampa Aquarium. This is something that Ryan had found out about online and was super excited to explore. We arrived at the aquarium around 10:00 to find that we were right in the middle of the port of Tampa and there was a cruise ship that was in port getting ready to embark that day 
. Luckily the aquarium had their own parking lot so parking was not an issue. The aquarium was very cool we saw everything from ducks and sharks and jellyfish...oh my! (Ok, we're from the Midwest and I couldn't resist the poorly done Wizard of Oz reference.) If the aquarium is something you haven't done and you have any interest in marine life, we would highly recommend it. When we were done at the aquarium it was around 12:00 and we were getting hungry so we walked around the port but nothing tickled our taste buds so we loaded back in the car and headed for ClearwaterBeach--finally, the BEACH!!! 
after spending the afternoon in the sun. We had dinner at the Lotus Blossom Cafe, another first for us. I had the orange chicken, which was so good, and Ryan had the vegetable stir fry, which he wasn't a huge fan of. He ate more of mine than I did I think 
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