A Button and a Roll of Tape

[JRocker]

Just returned from our motorcycle adventure and thought I'd hammer this out before I return to the real world.

The trip there
Epic. We took six days to get to Orlando. For those of you who enjoy riding motorcycles, don't cruise the Emerald Coast on one; you will NEVER want to take a car there again. We cruised the coast from the Mississippi state line all the way past St. George island. We will do this again!

One day early
We arrived a day early and were able to get a tent site at Fort Wilderness. We spent the afternoon cruising the property by boat and monorail, slept in the next morning and made our way to POP.

Pop Century
I have heard people praise this resort as better than the other value's; I didn't see it. For us, it was on par with the All Star's (we have spent at least a week at each location), but in my opinion no better. I would almost rank it below the All-Star resorts simply because the only "theming" in the room was a Disney Seventies poster.
Day one my wife noticed mold on the shower curtain and went up front, cuz she has issues with mold. I'm a guy, so it didn't bother me, but it was still there when we checked out nine days later.
Oh, and the parking situation at POP is atrocious. If you find a spot, don't move your vehicle, or you could end up parking very, very far away.

The Food
This was an out of pocket vacation, and it went rather well. Pecos Bill saw us a few times, and it was good as usual. Tony's was our anniversary dinner and it was adequate, as usual. The quick service in the Land pavilion was excellent, two or three times. The Mexico quick service was decent, but getting a seat was an adventure.
Rain Forest Cafe will never see my business again. We ate at the DtD location and both of our burgers were still kicking when we bit into them; we ordered well done. The burgers were over-priced to begin with ($17), and then they couldn't even cook them? Lost our appetites pretty darn quick. Of course, they were gracious enough to only make us pay for half...

The Rides
The new Test Track gets a massive thumbs up from us. I like it much better than the old.
PotC had an issue with the last Cap'n Jack on one of our earlier visits, his head looked like it was attached to his shoulder. They had it fixed on a later visit.
The Little Mermaid ride was cool. Scuttle (in the queue) lost his hand and looked a bit cross-eyed, but they fixed him on a later visit.

The Crowd
What the heck? We have gone to the world the week before Memorial Day Weekend several times, and have never witnessed crowds like the ones we saw last week. It wasn't June/July/August bad, but there were a lot of peeps.

Overall
Ready to go back. We had a blast. Next trip will be in the camper I'm sure. If I stay at a value resort anytime in the future, it will probably be in one of the All-Stars.

The title of this post?
This was our anniversary trip, and the running joke between my wife and I was we went to Disney for our 25th anniversary and we got two buttons and a roll of scotch tape (for taping the parking pass to the motorcycle).

[JRocker]

Almost forgot, the Marceline to Magic Kingdom tour is well worth the money.
We learned quite a bit on this tour, including some interesting things about the interactive queue at Haunted Mansion and some easter eggs in the new fantasyland.

And...

We got to see how the ballroom scene in the Haunted Mansion works.

I would do the tour again, but I know it all now.

[GAN]

Great recap. I'm with you on Rainforest -there are too many better options.

[CanadianWDWFan]

Thanks for sharing and Happy Anniversary!!

Now we have to try the Marceline to Magic Kingdom tour.

[Mickey'sGirl]

What a fantastic report!! Thanks for posting, and happy belated anniversary to you and your wife!

[January-2007]

Thanks for reporting!

[faline]

What a great trip!

[minnie04]

[QUOTE=JRocker;2354972]
The Crowd
What the heck? We have gone to the world the week before Memorial Day Weekend several times, and have never witnessed crowds like the ones we saw last week. It wasn't June/July/August bad, but there were a lot of peeps.

I think this was the last long weekend for Florida res. passes. They expire June 7th.

[KylesMom]

Happy Belated Anniversary! Glad that your bike trip down was a good one, but what a bummer that mousekeeping couldn't correct the shower curtain.

When DS was younger, we'd typically go around this time before Memorial Day, and I distinctly remember that it wasn't bad until about Wednesday before the long weekend. Hope you were still able to see and do everything you wanted.

Thanks for posting!

[Capt_redshirt]

Almost forgot, the Marceline to Magic Kingdom tour is well worth the money.
We learned quite a bit on this tour, including some interesting things about the interactive queue at Haunted Mansion and some easter eggs in the new fantasyland.

And...

We got to see how the ballroom scene in the Haunted Mansion works.

I would do the tour again, but I know it all now.

This is a great report. I do have one question about the tour you took... what is the general topic thats discussed in the tour i've been trying to decide if i want to do that or go to MNSSHP

[JRocker]

This is a great report. I do have one question about the tour you took... what is the general topic thats discussed in the tour i've been trying to decide if i want to do that or go to MNSSHP

The general theme is how Walt's vision came to fruition in the parks and attractions, and how some of those core ideas still remain in use. Several stories are shared about how he had a knack to see hidden talents within his employees.
Sprinkled in amongst that theme are stories about some of the attractions, more in depth look at interactive queue's, a few maybe not-so-well known easter eggs, and a great opportunity to ask questions.

[Capt_redshirt]

thanks for the information

[Button1215]

Sounds like a fun trip, you are brave to do it on a motorcycle!

[dtootsie42]

Sounds like it was a great trip thanks for sharing!

We also celebrated our 25th at the World and loved celebrating there!

[vizsla]

Thanks for the report.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Great report, thanks for sharing

[emerzmom]

Sounds like an overall great trip. I have never stayed at Pop and I know many love it however it has no appeal for me.
Thanks for sharing.

Julie

[DonaldDuckUSA]

We cruised the coast from the Mississippi state line all the way past St. George island. We will do this again!

I know you posted this a while ago, but I'm a little behind on reading trip reports.

Anyway, I had to comment. I live in the Florida panhandle and I'm ALWAYS excited to see a shout out to St. George! LOVE St. George!

Wonderful trip report! Sounds like you guys had a lovely time. Thanks for posting. :-)