Making New Friends - One Coffee Crisp At A Time! EPIC trip May 2019 Update 2/24

[fallonkendra]

It was a brilliant idea and I'm sooooo grateful to you all!!!!

Yes, they all seem to be working!

Yay!

Baaaabies! They're so sweet!

I'm biased, but I think they are pretty awesome

Ok, discrimination! Where are pictures of the cats?!

Haha, next post, I promise!

That's some lucky timing! I know you guys didn't get so lucky on the way home though, so thank goodness it wasn't both ways

Luckily even if we had missed that flight on the way down, there's at least one more Toronto to Orlando flights after that one. The way home sucked since we were supposed to be on the final Toronto-Edmonton flight of the night, but missed that

I've never stayed at OKW (it's on my list) but I sure do love Olivia's for any meal!!!! Have you been???

We love Olivia's! We only did breakfast one on this trip, but we really enjoy supper there too!

 

[fallonkendra]

I'm here! Only a little late

It's always wonderful to have you along!

I'm here to follow along too!! Next time there's an epic trip I hope to be another Canadian on board lol!!

That would be wonderful!

I'm confused...how does this work?

My old bands are still connected to my account, which is linked to my DME reservation so they just scan it same as they do for the Americans. They always seem confused when we get there and don't have bands so I started just bringing along an old band on our last trip and it just makes it more seamless.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m glad to hear you really enjoy OKW! It looks nice and the price is right! Olivias sounds good and I have read some good reviews on it!

Excited to hear more on your perspective of the Epic trip!

 

[fallonkendra]

Since it's a Holiday Monday here in Canada, I actually spent some time getting some more posts ready! I'm determined to not take forever with this report!

May 1st, 2019 - OKW, Shopping​

We arrived at Old Key West, and headed in to the main lobby to pick up our new Magicbands – blue for me, red for Luke. The cast member helping us let us know our room was not yet ready – not a huge surprise seeing as it was just a little past 11:30am by this point. While we were on the Magical Express I had received a text message from my boss asking for my help with something, so I sat down on a bench in the lobby and pulled out my work laptop which I had brought with me. Luke decided to go check out the little store and enjoy some of the free lemon water in the lobby. It didn’t take me too long to finish up what I had to do, and we went out to drop off our carry-ons with bell services. We called our first Lyft of the trip, and headed off to the Vineland Outlets. I’m not much of a shopper these days, but I do enjoy starting our vacation with a trip to the Disney Outlet there!

A trip to the Disney Outlet (I believe it’s actually called the Disney Character Warehouse) can be hit or miss – you never really know what you’ll find when you visit). We had decent luck on this trip, and I found a single Monsters University spirit jersey in my exact size for $20! Luke also found the Wall-E zip-up hoody he’d been looking at last year in his size for $20, and a Dark Wing Duck mug for $5. I also picked up an Epcot 35 ornament for $5, a Pascal baseball hat for $8 and a Minnie Mouse baseball hat for $5.​

We were hungry, so we decided to just eat in the food court there. It was nothing exciting, but Luke had a burrito and I went to Charley’s Philly Cheesesteaks.

After eating, we called a Lyft to take us to our next stop – Walmart! So exciting, right?! We love browsing and seeing what is different than in Canada, and picking up a few supplies for our trip. Water is like $4/bottle in the parks, or a case of 40 bottles was $4 at Walmart. We picked up a few of the unique to the US items we love (like Garlic Butter Ritz, Big Chewy Nerds, Almond Joy chocolate bars, etc) and took our time going up and down each aisle. We always enjoy looking at the prices of alcohol, it’s so cheap compared to Canada! (For comparison, that same bottle of wine is $12-$15 here).​

I always ask my coworkers if they’d like anything, and they always ask for unique candy. So I picked up these three kinds of Twizzlers that I’ve never seen up here for them (the orange ones are seriously amazing! The watermelon ones were gross, and the cherry and citrus ones were good).

Luke also ran to the liquor store next to Walmart and picked up a small bottle of Bailey’s – when on vacation why not start your day with a Bailey’s and coffee!

Once we finished up our shopping, we called an Uber XL to get back to OKW. We arrived back there around 3:45, but our room still wasn’t ready so we passed the time by chatting to some of the bell services people (check in for a DVC room is 4pm). I kept refreshing my email and at 3:57 I finally found out our room number! I was very excited to see we were in building 35, as that’s the same building we’ve been in every single time we’ve stayed at OKW. I love that Disney tries to keep it familiar when you do repeat stays at resorts, although I’m not sure if they just do that for DVC stays?

Our other luggage had arrived with the Magical Express tags, so one of the cast members from Bell Services drove us to our room in a golf cart with all of our luggage and Walmart purchases. Of course, once we arrived our Magicbands wouldn’t work – but he was able to open the door with his master key so we could at least drop off all our stuff (I showed him the My Disney Experience app to confirm we were at the correct room that had been assigned to us). He then drove us back to the main building so we could figure out our Magicband issue. Since we were there, we also took some time to walk around the main pool area since we’d never really checked it out before (all of our previous stays at OKW have been in January when it’s too cold for us to go swimming). We started walking the 7-8 minutes back to our building when the same bell services saw us and pulled over, motioning for us to hop back in his golf cart. I guess it was worth it to tip him generously when he dropped us off the first time!​

 

[paradesintherain]

so I sat down on a bench in the lobby and pulled out my work laptop which I had brought with me.

Nooo, work on vacation shouldn't be allowed!

We love browsing and seeing what is different than in Canada, and picking up a few supplies for our trip.

That's one of my favorite things to do in foreign countries too! So interesting

and the cherry and citrus ones were good).

These are my favorite Twizzlers! Love the goo (gross) inside!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Timmy's apartment is actually across the street from the Vineland Outlet. We totally need to get there! Great Monster's University spirit jersey find!!!

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Signing up!

 

[Chrystmasangel]

Thanks to Lesley's master list of TR's I found you! It was so nice meeting you! Can't wait to read about the trip from your perspective!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Joining in!

OKW is definitely on my list of places to stay at some point!

 

[ariane37]

I enjoy going to the outlets and you're right, it's totally hit or miss as far as what you find! I've spent nothing on visits and $100 on visits lol, but at least when I spent $100 it was for a ton of stuff

 

[fallonkendra]

I’m glad to hear you really enjoy OKW! It looks nice and the price is right! Olivias sounds good and I have read some good reviews on it!

Excited to hear more on your perspective of the Epic trip!

Nooo, work on vacation shouldn't be allowed!

I know It was nice to check my email a few times during the trip though - it made my life so much easier when I did return! Also, I'm just happy I was actually able to go on the trip

That's one of my favorite things to do in foreign countries too! So interesting

It's so fun!

These are my favorite Twizzlers! Love the goo (gross) inside!

Yes! The goo inside freaked me out at first, but it's so good!

 

[fallonkendra]

Timmy's apartment is actually across the street from the Vineland Outlet. We totally need to get there! Great Monster's University spirit jersey find!!!

Definitely check it out since he lives right there! Some days you won't find anything worth buying, but every once in awhile you get lucky!

Signing up!

Welcome! Thanks for joining in!

Thanks to Lesley's master list of TR's I found you! It was so nice meeting you! Can't wait to read about the trip from your perspective!

Yay! I'm so glad you're here! I'm so glad we got to meet!

Joining in!

OKW is definitely on my list of places to stay at some point!

Welcome and thank you for joining!

We love OKW!

I enjoy going to the outlets and you're right, it's totally hit or miss as far as what you find! I've spent nothing on visits and $100 on visits lol, but at least when I spent $100 it was for a ton of stuff

So true!

 

[fallonkendra]

May 1, 2019

Once we got back, I took obligatory room pictures before we made a huge mess by unpacking. Our room was 3526 and it had been recently renovated, so the beds were new. I prefer the new style, it’s nice to be able to shove a suitcase underneath the bed out of the way. The carpet looked like the same old stuff, but it was fine.

The bathrooms had been completely renovated, and were really nice! The flooring was nice, and the bathroom felt very big (although I know it's the same size as they've always been). It did now have the wall-attached shampoo/conditioner instead of the travel-sized ones from years past, but we don’t mind that.​

We were on the second floor, and I loved our view from our balcony!

Luke took a shower while I unpacked a bit and changed into clean clothes for supper – including my new MU spirit jersey from the outlet. These were still being sold on property for full price, so I have no idea why this one was at the outlet, I haven’t been able to find anything wrong with it… but for $20 I’m very happy to have found it! For those interested, my leggings are from Silver Icing, which is one of the multi-level selling companies but they are some of the nicest leggings I own (I’d say comparable in price and quality to Lulu Lemon). Don't worry - I don't sell, I'm just going to try and keep this report updated with where I got my outfits

Our dining reservation was in Disney Springs, so we decided we wanted to take the boat (there is an option for a bus from OKW as well). The only place to catch the boat is from the main building, so we walked back out there. I enjoyed this Captain Marvel bus way too much, and had to take a picture of it…

We had perfect timing, and the boat pulled up to the dock about 90 seconds after we arrived.

Taking the boat from OKW to Disney Springs is such a nice, relaxing way to spend 20 minutes! We arrived and our first stop was the new ticket centre. My annual pass had been active since December, but Luke had purchased a 10-day Park Hopper ticket with the Canadian discount for this trip. The next morning we had very specific plans so we made sure his tickets were active tonight to save time.

We then headed off to our supper reservation at our favourite Disney restaurant – Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ (or Che Fartsmith if you're as cool as @pepperandchips and I ).

After eating, we were exhausted so we hopped a bus back to OKW and went straight to bed after I took a shower. Tomorrow promised to be a very exciting day!

Edit: I totally forgot that I actually took screenshots from my Fitbit for each day! I’m positive mine doesn’t read correctly, Luke always has a few thousand more steps in a Disney day than I do, yet we’re usually not far away from each other...

​

 

[paradesintherain]

These beds look great! Definitely nice to have that storage space under them!

This looks so tranquil. Love it!

Taking the boat from OKW to Disney Springs is such a nice, relaxing way to spend 20 minutes!

Boats are the best form of travel! Can't wait to read about your dinner!

 

[pepperandchips]

Thanks for the tag now I have to go back and catch up!!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

The room looks lovely! I think we will stay here in January! I did put a request in for the Riviera as first choice, it was only $200 more than OKW but not sure we will get that choice!

Very cute MU jersey and leggings! The price was awesome.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Love Old Key West - such a relaxing resort. I hadn’t seen the updated rooms- they look great. And can’t beat the boat to Disney Springs. Homecomin’ is so yummy! So interesting to hear differences between Canada and US.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I have never seen pictures of Old Key West! It looks really nice.

 

[Pluto0809]

I'm here!

We share our house with our miniature zoo - 2 dogs, a dachshund named Jax and a shepherd mix named Magoo, and four cats - Hero (orange tabby), Pita (tuxedo), Loki (grey tabby) and BK (diluted calico - according to our vet). We also still have one degu

Wow and I thought 5 animals was a lot!

Just because I think they are adorable, here's pictures of them…

Awe they are cuties!

I’d rather sit at my gate early than have to run to catch my flight

This is so me! Jim is a lot more relaxed and it drives me nuts when we travel together.

a trip to the Disney Outlet there!

I've only made it to the Outlets once. I need to do this more often.

These were still being sold on property for full price, so I have no idea why this one was at the outlet, I haven’t been able to find anything wrong with it… but for $20 I’m very happy to have found it!

Awesome deal!

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Joining in for another one!
I'm really looking forward to reading all these Epic trip reports!
I would love to be able to meet up with everyone on another Epic trip. One can dream...