December 20-27 trip report. POP Century with free dining

**mechanic** · 01-03-2016, 12:16 PM

Well , I didn't keep a daily journal, so I will review restaurants and events in a literary format, instead of a timeline.

I did vlog many things on YouTube. User name darylturcott, if you care to check out my channel.

We arrived by car, late in evening on the 20th. Our oldest son, 27, had flown in and got us checked in around 1pm. First floor 9161, facing the potato heads. Easy walk to everything. My wife put away the luggage, and I set up our Christmas tree. Our vintage 5' silver aluminum tree circa 1959. With glass ornaments, including some brand new mickey ear bulbs . It got a lot of attention during the week.
Monday morning I got waffles and drinks. Decided to save qs credits for real meals. (A mistake since we had 10 meal credits left at end of trip).
Food at pop was fair to very good. Rarely used the refillable cups. Had our own supply of diet pepsi in room. Found the rfid chip cups a bit quirky, some readers weren't working properly. But the coffee, tea, and cocoa dispensers aren't computer locked so that made it easier.
Some of the best items were the big breakfast platter, (eggs, potatoes, pancakes, sausage, bacon, (all turkey meat). The homemade potato chips, nachos, cheesy flatbread, and the Reuben calzone.
Not so good were chicken pot pie, tie dyed cheese cake, and the pasta sauces.
This was our 10th trip so I concentrated on doing things we hadn't done before, or at least not in a while. At AK, I did flights of wonder, bugs life, safari, and festival of lion king. I have to say lion king was amazing. It's is on my must do list now. Get a fp though. Some folks in standby line didn't make it in. I also met my first character. Flick was out, with no wait, so I stepped up and got some pics. It was fun, and started a trend. Had lunch at yak & yeti qs. Sweet & sour chicken, white rice. Coconut pineapple cake. It was all excellent.
At epcot, we did spaceship earth, soarin (first time, loved it), mission space, test track, land, American experience, Japan pavillion, mexican pavillion, seas with nemo, and ate at cantina San angel. Nachos & churros. (Huge serving and amazing taste).
At DS we did Indiana jones, osborne lights, muppets, tower terror, one man's dream, great movie ride, TSMM, ate at Backlot express, terrible burger cold fries , but some cool Roger rabbit props. Pizza planet was good.
Magic kingdom is my favorite so I'll do separate report on that.
Played mini golf at winter Summerland and it was lots of fun.
Visited disney springs on Christmas day and it was a mad house of crowds. Nice dance party going on, lots of cool new stores, and eateries. Looking forward to returning at quieter time.
Visited character warehouse about half mile from disney springs. Located in a outlet mall. Lots of great deals there.

Took my wife parasailing at sammy Duvall watersports @contemporary resort. Had coupon for 15% off. Ended up costing about 75$ I got to ride along, enjoyed the boat ride. Wife enjoyed her flight 600 feet of rope and about 450 feet up. Great staff, will definitely do it again. Ate at Contempo cafe afterwards, possibly best food of trip . We had chicken pasta alfredo, hot turkey sandwich with Texas toast bread apples on it. pot roast with mashed potatoes and green beans. It was all amazingly good.
Ended up cashing in 8 snack credits and 10 meal credits. @ 3 snacks each, took home 38 frozen & star wars themed rice crispy treats.