pamrob & DH - September 2007

September 04, 2007
DAY 1:

First, a little history. This was my third trip to WDW. This trip is unusual in that my husband and I went sans children. We have been on two prior Disney trips with one or more of our children. Our first trip was in 1998 when we took our oldest dd at the age of 5. We stayed off property in a two bedroom villa which was a great experience. Our vacation was early December. We had a fantastic time and became instant Disney fans. We had three girls at that time and our family eventually grew to five girls.

Early 2006 I was looking into a another Disney trip when I discovered that at the magic age of 10 our dear little ones became adults in the eyes of Disney. Yikes! I had one turning 10 in Jan. of 2007 and one already over the line. Fortunately free dining came out and we quickly put together a September 2006 vacation for all seven of us. Although we originally booked Pop Century, I later changed our reservations to CSR. Wow! What a great trip. We enjoyed the parks, the dining and CSR.

Ok, back to present time. My husband and I have been married just about 16 years and our last trip alone was TEN years ago! Thankfully, the free dining promotion came around again and we booked a stay at the Pop Century again. I was determined this time to let my reservation stand and see how we enjoyed a value resort.

We took an early morning flight on 9/4 and touched down in Orlando around 10:45. Using Magical Express was painless and smooth. We arrived at Pop within about an hour of landing and were able to get a king (handicapped) room immediately. We updated our one day tickets and made a quick dining reservation for that evening. After checking out our room we headed to the bus stop. We were inside MGM within two hours of landing.

Our first stop was the Tower of Terror. Somehow, I had escaped this ride on the last two trips and this was my self initiated challenge. The ride was a walk on so I didn't have to wait too long. After asking my husband a million questions (I don't like to be surprised), we were underway. I must say, I loved this ride! I was very apprehensive as I generally hate vertical drops. I had ridden a drop ride at our local amusement park which I hated. Of course, that ride was outside with your feet dangling to the wind. The TOT was a great experience.

Next we headed to Star Wars. Again, walked on. Just as fun as I remembered. We then headed to the Indiana Jones show which we had never seen before either. Cute show. Next was a dining reservation at Sci Fi. My expectations weren't super high but we did want to have the opportunity to experience this location. We split some onion rings and an extremely wilted salad. Next we shared a reuben sandwich was quite tasty as well as a shake which was nice.

After this we headed to the Narnia venue. It was interesting but not overly impressive. The Stunt Show was next on the list and we meandered over that direction. Again, this was an attraction we hadn't taken the time to do in the past and it was a fun experience. We had completed our list of must dos for the day so our plans were up in the air. We decided to do another turn at the TOT and again, great experience.

On our way back up on the street from the ride we decided to stop and talk to the DVC rep. We ended up leaving and taking a tour of the DVC models for Animal Kingdom which are located at SSR. Very nice amenities and a great low pressure sales approach. If you're curious about touring, don't hesitate. It's nothing like the high pressure sales at most time shares.

Next we headed to DTD. Although we originally had ADRs at Spoodles we had cancelled and gotten reservations for Raglan Road. I had read so many positive reviews and we knew we would enjoy the live music. We were not disappointed! We were originally shown a table back in a quiet corner and asked the hostess if we could have something closer to the band. Well, closer we got! We were right next to the band. It was a bit loud but we enjoyed the show. The food was amazing. I had the steak salad appetizer which was my favorite of the entire trip. My husband had the goat cheese appetizer which was also nice. DH ordered the ham entree and I ordered the Shepard's pie. Both were well prepared and tasty. I must say the food is very well presented here - just beautiful. We were stuffed and so took our dessert to go. I had the Dunbrody Kiss and DH had the Bread Pudding. WE ate these the next morning for breakfast. All I can say is WOW! Both were great but I kind of wished I had ordered the bread pudding as well!

At this point we were exhausted from traveling and a pretty full day and so headed back to collapse. We made a quick trip into the food court to buy a mug for morning coffee and then hit the hay.

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