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Old 29 Jul 18, 04:56 PM  
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Stewboy
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Split Stay Get Away - Day 6: “Went to Hollywood Studios and rode all the rides”

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Wednesday 30th May 2018

Today we were packing up and leaving Port Orleans French Quarter and heading over to Bahama Bay Resort. I’ll share my thoughts on POFQ later, but let’s start at the beginning of the day.

The day started with coffee and croissants - procured as usual by me from Sassagoula Floatworks - which Jo and I consumed in bed. As we relaxed in the bed, we discussed plans for the rest of the week which resulted in Jo getting a Kona Cafe reservation for tomorrow night - I wanted that Kona burger again!

Isabella slept until about 9:30am and while she ate her croissant I went off to get more coffee. It had been raining when I went out this morning at about 8:30am, and over an hour later it was still raining.




Wet

Check out was before 11am, so we had already started packing before Isabella woke up. We packed the last few bits while she got ready, and by 10:30am everything was ready to go.

We did a last check around the room - although not as thoroughly as we should’ve done (more on that in a bit!) - and then we loaded up the car and said goodbye to POFQ.





Packing


Writing her trip report


Packed...


...and ready to go

So before i continue, here’s a quick summary of my thoughts on Port Orleans French Quarter.

First impressions were good, the resort looks lovely, the theming is great, especially around the lobby and quick service location.

Not getting a refurbished room was disappointing, and then to discover on closer inspection that it was dirty and in desperate need of some love (chipped furniture, marks on the walls, tried looking decor) made that disappointment even worse.

The attitude of the staff on the front desk left a lot to be desired when Jo spoke to them about potentially moving rooms - they were very unhelpful.

The neighbours were an issue. I know that’s not a Disney problem, but because this resort doesn’t have interconnecting doors, and they had two rooms next to each other, they were constantly in and out and the door was always banging (they’d put the door guard thing across so that the door wouldn’t close). On the rare occasions we were in the room for an extended period during the day, it drove us mad - they always seem to be hanging around the resort too.

And then there was the smoking. Obviously someone from the resort did speak to them, but they were still doing it. The housekeepers must have known because it’s not like they were very discreet.

And it wasn’t just them. There were a couple of times when we returned to our building to find other guests sitting on the bottom stairs smoking - there was a smoking area next to the river literally one minute walk away!

The resort itself, although pretty, was small. Somewhere like Saratoga Springs is huge, and the grounds are beautiful - I never get tired of walking around that resort. After a few days at POFQ I felt like I’d already had enough of the scenery.

But it’s not all negative…

Sassagoula Floatworks was a big plus. I really liked the food choices on offer there, and the theming of the eating area is really cool.

Doubloon Lagoon pool area was another positive, Isabella loved that slide, and the theming is really nice.

So in summary, POFQ was a disappointment, for me at least. I don’t think Jo and Isabella agree with me. Maybe I’ve been spoilt - having been fortunate enough to have stayed at Saratoga Springs more than once, and then having stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which even without the club level is a fantastic resort.

And as you can tell, it wasn’t just the resort and the room that were the issue, some of the other guests were part of the problem. I know that’s not the resorts fault, but it’s not something we’ve had during any other Disney Resort stays.

I know a lot of people love this resort, and I can see why, but maybe we were just unlucky, and obviously the weather didn’t help, nor did the fact that we were only there for five days and spent most of the time having fun at the parks - although given our neighbours I doubt I could’ve handled another week!

Back to today…

With the car loaded we were off to the Contemporary for brunch with Mickey and friends at Chef Mickey’s - something that Isabella had requested.

We parked up and went inside. As we were early we had a browse around the shops first. Whilst casually browsing, Jo suddenly looked at me in alarm as it dawned on her that we’d left a load of stuff in the room safe, including passports, house keys and car keys!


Monorail inside the contemporary

Feeling panicked, and not to mention stupid, I immediately rushed back down to the lobby where I was met by a member of the Contemporary resort staff who asked if they could help. I told them what had happened and they took me over to the guest services desk. A woman there called POFQ. After talking to a couple of different people, it turned out that our room had already been cleaned, but a housekeeping team leader would go to the room, collect our stuff from the safe, and leave it with someone at the concierge desk at POFQ for us to collect later.

With that resolved, due to some great customer service from the staff at the Contemporary, we could get on with the rest of our morning.

I returned to the shop. Isabella had been busy, she’d got a Minnie Mouse sticker from a CM, and traded a couple of pins. Jo had found a present from my nephew and his wife-to-be; their wedding was this summer and Isabella was a flower girl (it was actually a few weeks ago and it was a lovely day), and had also got a little gift for her step-brother’s baby, who we were catching up with in Epcot in a few days time.


Oops


Sticker


Wedding gift


Present for Jo's step-brother's baby






Pin trading

It was now time for our brunch at Chef Mickey’s. We checked in at about 11:50am, and after the obligatory Chef Mickey statue photo we were shown to our seat pretty much straight away.


Chef Mickey statue photo

The last couple of visits here we’ve had a seat with a great view over Bay Lake, we weren’t so lucky with the view this time, but it was a good seat for getting to the buffet.

In the past, the interactions with the characters at Chef Mickey’s have been really good (bar Mickey himself who’s usually far too busy to spend any reasonable time at the table) but today they were very disappointing.

She did get photos, autographs, and selfies with them all - we met Pluto, Donald, Goofy, Mickey & Minnie - and Mickey and Minnie did make a little bit of fuss over her Minnie dress, but it was all a bit rushed. Even Goofy, who can usually be relied upon to hang around a bit and have some fun, was very matter of fact. I’m not sure if Isabella really noticed, but we did and were a little annoyed about it. It was particularly busy in there today, which may have been part of the problem.








Meeting Pluto






Meeting Goofy










Meeting Donald


Meeting Daddy












Meeting Mickey














Meeting Minnie
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Edited at 12:58 AM.
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Old 29 Jul 18, 04:58 PM  
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Stewboy
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Despite the poor interactions, and the food (which wasn’t amazing to be honest), Isabella enjoyed it; this is her meal more than anything else so as long as she was happy then so were we.

I won’t even bother telling you what we had, except to tell you that as it was brunch, it wasn’t sure whether it was supposed to be a breakfast buffet or a lunch one, and consequently we got the worst of both!











Once our brunch was finished we made our way back to the car and then drove back to POFQ to pick up our stuff. Bearing in mind that Jo and I have been together for 17 years, have been on 17 Florida holidays, and also been on other holidays to Malta, Cyprus, Bulgaria, France etc. we have never once forgotten to check the room safe before checking out! The only excuse that I can think of is that as it was in the middle of the holiday, and we weren’t checking out to go home, we weren’t in the ‘we’re going home’ mindset… It’s possible we just forgot because we’re idiots though!

At the concierge desk, the man was professional enough not to call me an idiot (to my face anyway!), gave me my bag of unimportant items (like passports and house keys), and allowed me to leave.

Now the second half of our holiday could begin. But before we headed off to find our new ‘home’ we were going to have some theme park fun - we were off to Hollywood Studios.

It was still raining on and off and as we arrived at Hollywood Studios it was raining so hard that the CM at the car park entrance waved us straight through.

We parked and waited, hoping that would ease off. The rain was really coming down, there were literally waves of water flowing across the car park!




Rain!

After a few minutes it began to ease off, so we made our move. We were pretty close to the entrance so, rather than hang around for the tram, made our way on foot.

First ride of the day was Star Tours, which we had FastPassed and literally walked right on. Once seated, we had the following ride experience:
  • Darth Vader
  • Kashyyyk
  • Princess Leia hologram
  • Coruscant

I was pleased we didn’t end up with Naboo again, and Isabella was pleased to be the Rebel Spy again - we really need to get her the ‘I was the Rebel Spy’ t-shirt, but they didn’t have any in her size in the shop.


Marching past

Next up was a first for Isabella - Tower of Terror! She was really excited; Jo and I haven’t done this for years either, so we were excited too.

As I said, we’ve not done this ride for such a long time and it almost felt like I was riding it for the first time. I’m not really sure what I think about this ride, I wouldn’t describe it as particularly thrilling, or scary. It’s just mostly dark, with a couple of drops - I certainly don’t feel like I’ve been missing much over the last 6 or 7 years. I think Isabella enjoyed it, although she didn’t look like it on the ride, but when Jo asked her she said she had fun.










On our way to the Hollywood Tower Hotel


Excited!












And I thought our room at POFQ needed a clean!


I hope this lift is ok...


The lift was not ok!

Exiting the ride there were various Citizens of Hollywood in the Hollywood Tower Hotel lobby probably hiding from the rain, including Dara Vamp and Officer Peabody pretending to be statues; we waited for them to jump out and scare someone but they didn’t - at least not while we we were there.


Dara Vamp and Officer Peabody
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Edited at 05:17 PM.
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Old 29 Jul 18, 04:59 PM  
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Stewboy
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Walking into Tower Hotel Gifts, another Citizen - Betty Shambles - was hiding behind one of the gates at the entrance. I did a double take, and as I looked at her she asked if I was single, and winked! I was a bit lost of words, sort of smiled awkwardly, and then walked quickly away! Jo was pleased with my smooth way with the ladies.

Other Citizens were mingling in and amongst the crowd. I like these characters, they really add to the atmosphere, and I’ll never forget Isabella meeting Evie Starlight a few years ago.


Isabella meeting Evie 3 years ago

Isabella got herself a pressed penny - Goofy as a Hollywood Tower Hotel bellboy - and then we made a visit to Starbucks for a coffee, well actually it was a Peach Ice Tea (for Stewert!).

Next ride was Isabella’s new favourite: Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Despite my dislike of Aerosmith and their music, I love this ride too.


Pressed penny


Peach iced tea for Stewert!




Rock 'n' Roll!

After Aerosmith we treated Isabella to an ice cream, and then it was time to head over to Pixar Place for our Toy Story Midway Mania FastPass - it’s funny writing that now, as Pixar Place has obviously now been replaced by Toy Story Land and the Toy Story ride is now officially Toy Story Mania.

As usual on Toy Story, Jo was the winner, scoring 156,400. I sat with Isabella who got a really good score of 58,000 (with 51% accuracy - she was really pleased with the accuracy); I managed 150,500.


Isabella and her ice cream


Pixar Place: busy


Toy Story (Midway) Mania


Flying ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈






Scores: Isabella & I


Scores: Jo

Time for a snack. We headed to the Hey Howdy Hey! Takeaway - also no longer open - to get a couple of Mickey pretzels, and then wandered back to Hollywood Boulevard and caught the Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away stage show.

Having seen the characters heading up on to stage as we walked past, as the show ended we headed backstage and waited for them to walk passed us.




Pretzels from Hey Howdy Hey! Takeaway






















Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away

It was almost 5pm, and time to leave. As we were now staying offsite our Disney Dining Plan was ending today. We had one snack credit left, which we used on a venti iced caramel macchiato from Starbucks on the way out of the park.


Cheers


Bye bye DHS


The heat had gotten to Olaf!

Back to the car, and time to head off in search of our new resort - Bahama Bay. We’d read about it this place in other Dibbers reports, and it seemed perfect for five nights.

It was only about half hour drive to the resort. It turned out to be really close to where we’d at the villa last summer - five minutes drive away in fact - we liked and knew that area of Davenport pretty well.

We found the resort, told the man at the gate we were there to check in, and he directed us to reception. We checked in and Jo made sure that we weren’t being charged the cleaning fee (which you have to pay for stays less than five nights). After filling in some forms, we had our condo number - ground floor, building 33.






Bahama Bay reception






Building 33

We made the short drive, parked up and unpacked the car.

First impressions were good, it was clean, a decent size, with a couple of decent sized bedrooms. Isabella’s room was lacking a curtain over the external door, which I remedied with the aid of one of the curtains from the other window in the bedroom (that already had a blind) and some coathangers.


Isabella's room...


...with makeshift curtain!


Our bedroom




En suite


Dining area


Kitchen


Living room


Laundry room


Outside


Publix shopping list
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Old 29 Jul 18, 04:59 PM  
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Stewboy
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Jo put on some washing, then we headed straight out to the supermarket to get some supplies including dinner. You’ll probably know by now about our love of Publix so that’s where we went.

Just as it had been all day, on and off, it was raining again as we drove back from Publix, and with the sun also out, we saw a rainbow.




Publix

Dinner was a Publix fried chicken combo meal: fried chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, and Hawaiian sweet rolls, with some popcorn, and mango chile lime flavour Harvest Snaps Black Bean crisps (these became our favourite thing on this holiday!) on the side. All washed down with a Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale - for me at least.


Rainbow


Dinner

It was a bit of a random dinner but I enjoyed it - unfortunately Jo didn’t really like the chicken. I think Isabella enjoyed it, especially when she made herself a popcorn Hawaiian sweet roll!

The condo was getting warm despite the aircon having been on all afternoon. I managed to get through to someone at maintenance and they said they’d send out a man. I was surprised that he actually he arrived within about half an hour of calling them. He identified the problem immediately; apparently it had gotten too cold, iced up, and needed to defrost a little - apparently it’s supposed to operate around 74°F and it’d been at 68°F! The guests before us had turned it too low.

After we’d left it for an hour - during which time we unpacked - we turned it back on and thankfully it was working ok.

It was late now and time for Isabella to go to bed. I gave her a bath in the bathroom next to her room, and she went to sleep. She loved her new bedroom and had laid out all her tsum tsums and Oswald on the side.

Jo and I were then able to chill out in the living room for a bit. It was nice to have lots of room, and some sofas to sit down on. I got myself another beer and we were both happy. Despite the condo looking a little tired in places, it was homely and comfortable.

After I’d written up my notes, and we’d finished the second load of washing, we called it a night. Our room had a good sized en suite bathroom with shower cubicle, which we used, and then went to sleep at about 11pm.

Another day over with. Now that we’ve gone off property that doesn’t mean the Disney holiday is over - tomorrow we’re off to play mini golf at Winter Summerland, do some shopping, have dinner at the Polynesian and then visit Magic Kingdom.

Thanks for reading.

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Old 29 Jul 18, 06:46 PM  
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clubhouse
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A great day, glad you are happy with your new accommodation- it’s great having more space (and for me a washer/dryer!).

We did the same with the safe on this holiday but fortunately remembered just in time. I’m glad Disney got it sorted for you.

Look forward to reading more, thanks for posting!

Edited at 06:46 PM. Reason: Typo
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Old 29 Jul 18, 07:25 PM  
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Jimsdadhalifax
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Great post.

Look forward to reading the next ones - I love Golf at Blizzard Beach!
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Old 29 Jul 18, 07:36 PM  
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It’s a shame you didn’t love POFQ. We were lucky to have silent neighbours and constant sunshine for our 18 night stay so that probably helped our opinion of it! Bahama Bay looks lovely and good to have all the extra space.
Great day at HS too. Love the panicked boy in front of you on TOT bless him
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Old 29 Jul 18, 07:38 PM  
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Well done to Isabella on her accuracy 👍
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Old 29 Jul 18, 08:03 PM  
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Zomax25
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What a busy day! Glad your important stuff was returned from the safe. Thanks for sharing!
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Old 29 Jul 18, 08:23 PM  
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A fab day, were also staying at pofq for 5 nights to qualify for the qs dining plan 😁
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