Trip Report - September / October 2023

[Noreen411]

Thursday 10/5/23 Continued
You can barely see the frog I’m holding in this picture, but it’s there.


I like this lamppost picture with the fall theme. Rather than the usual Halloween theme, this is just fall.



We rode Haunted Mansion still not figuring out where to look for a good picture.






Pirates is always fun, I like when there are ride photos. We didn’t get wet this time, just a little splash.


7 Dwarves Mine Train is quickly becoming one of my favorite coasters. It’s not too big, doesn’t flip over, and it‘s cute and fun to ride.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 10/5/23 Continued
Scott has been talking about wanting a hot dog from Casey’s so we went over there. We got a nice table along the railing. He ordered a hot dog, fries, and a Coke. That is a big hot dog. I had a little end of the hot dog and some fries.




On the way out of the park we stopped at the Confectionary and picked up another of those Mickey cookies Scott liked and a dipped pretzel rod. The pretzel rod reminds me of when you used to get dipped pretzel rods at Disney Springs at the candy store and you could choose your type of chocolate to dip it in, your toppings, and the drizzle and they made it right in front of you.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 10/5/23 Continued
We drove back to the resort, did some more laundry, and most of the packing. Once that was squared away we went down to the pool for a little while.

Later we showered and changed for the evening.

We drove to the Contemporary for our dinner reservation at California Grill. We went early to have pre-dinner cocktails at the bar.

When we checked in, we asked about going to the bar first. They checked and there were two seats available so we were able to go up early. I didn’t see the option in the app to reserve the bar, but maybe it’s just at the resort you can do that.

Scot had Monkey 47 Gin straight. The bartender gave him an explanation about the different types of gin. I had a San Francisco Mai Tai.


People were sitting at the bar to eat; they had a bar menu and I think you could also do the pre-fixe dinner if you want. We’ll have to look into that option for our next trip.

We were seated on time.


The bread is great here with a delicious dipping sauce.


It’s a pre-fixe meal so we made sure to order different things so we can share. We each had an appetizer, entree, and dessert.

For the appetizers we ordered the pizza (no hot peppers) and the Rainbow Roll. I ended up liking the rainbow roll more so ate most of that while Scott preferred the pizza so ate more of that. He was even putting the dipping sauce for the bread on his pizza.



For our entrees Scott ordered the Cioppino. I was thinking of the filet, but we just had filet yesterday so I ordered the Wagyu. It was good, but I prefer filet.



For dessert I ordered the crème brûlée. This was delicious, the best crème brûlée we ever had. Scott ordered the chiffon cake which was good but paled in comparison to the creme brulee.



The creme brûlée was so good Scott ordered another one to go.


We enjoyed California Grill and will definitely add it to our restaurant to return to list.

Back at the resort, we watched the end of Beverly Hills Cop. We fell asleep pretty early; probably by 10:30 or so

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 10/6/23
I went to the gym at 3am for a short workout. I wanted to do something before sitting in the car all day. Scott skipped the gym as he would get some exercise loading up the car.

We didn’t do laundry today, just jacuzzi and showers then got ourselves ready to go,

We left about 5:30am, a little later than our 5am goal.

He hit some traffic in Florida by Orlando (the city) and Jacksonville.

We were in Georgia by 8:30. Once again, we forgot to stop at Peach World.

We were in South Carolina at 10am

We were in North Carolina at 1:30pm. Often we’ll stop in North Carolina for the night but we were making good time, felt good, so drove a bit longer.

We were in Virginia at 4:20pm. We booked the Residence Inn Richmond Chester when we were about an hour away. It works well for us to just book a hotel on the fly for the night when we’re ready to stop.

We got to the hotel about 5:30pm and are in a one bedroom - room #439. The layout of the room is nice with a sort of open concept when you walk in of the living/dining/kitchen area. The bedroom is separate. The bathroom while not fully contained is a decent set up.







We headed out to dinner a little later and went to Applebees and sat at the bar.

Scott had Maker’s Bourbon and I had a White Peach Sangria. Look at the size of that Sangria.


We shared the chicken quesadilla for an appetizer.


Scott ordered a bacon cheeseburger with fries.


I ordered the Prime Rib dipper with fries. This was good but a bit on the salty side. I only ate half and we took the other half to go.


Scott ordered a blondie dessert to go that I forgot to get a picture of.

While nothing fancy, it was a solid meal at Applebees. Sometimes simple comfort food is really good.

Back at the hotel, we watched a movie and fell asleep pretty early.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 10/7/23
We didn’t go the gym today at the hotel, we just showered and got ready to go. The breakfast at the hotel didn’t start until 7 so we skipped it to get on the road. Scott always looks forward to the hotel breakfast and I like the cute waffle makers, but getting on the road sooner was a bigger draw. We left around 6:30am


We would definitely stay at this hotel again if we were in the area.

It started to pour as we were driving.

We were in Maryland by 8:50. We got off I95 in Columbia (I think) Maryland and went to pick up Starbucks. We had the healthy breakfast sandwiches along with our beverages.

There were a lot of accidents we saw on the road, including a truck in a ditch.

I forgot to mention this the day we saw it (I don’t remember which day but it was walking around World Showcase in Epcot) but a lady had a TShirt with a funny saying, instead of “I want to be where the people are” from Little Mermaid, her shirt said “I want to be where the people aren’t”. We got a laugh out of that.

We were in Delaware just before 11.

We were in New Jersey at 11:15, but at the bottom of NJ and we live near the top of NJ so knew we still have about 2.5 hours left to drive. Similar to the drive down to Disney, when we hit Florida those last few hours seem to take so long. It’s the same on the way home, we’re in NJ but still have a few hours to go and it seems like it takes forever.

We stopped at a supermarket near our house for a few items before we got home. With all our overpacking, there was no extra room in the car so the supermarket items were on my lap; just a few items for the short drive to the house from the supermarket.

We were home about 2:15; the cats were very happy to see us. It was nice being home relatively early so we started unpacking, putting stuff away, doing more laundry, going through mail, etc (all the after vacation chores). We made sure to spend extra time hanging out with and playing with the cats.

Keeping the vacation vibe going, we went out to dinner that night at Biagio’s (a casual Italian restaurant maybe 30 minutes from home) for dinner. We always enjoy coming here. We sat at the bar for dinner. We come here pretty regularly so they know us which makes it even more fun.

I had a White Sangria (they make a great white sangria) and Scott had a Martini.


Their bread is super tasty


The fried calamari is always perfectly crispy and not greasy


Scott had a pasta dish with Shrimp, Scallops, and Calamari; he always enjoys this.


I had something different than what I usually order and had the Pappardelle Bolognese. Very good but a huge portion.


We both brought leftovers home.

We didn’t order dessert at Biagio’s, instead we ate our leftover Crème Brûlée from California Grill when we got home.

 

[Noreen411]

Final Thoughts
This was a great trip. We really enjoy Disney; it’s our happy place and the magic is there.

The timeshare works well for us, giving us space to spread out and feel more like a little condo than just a hotel room.

We tried some new restaurants and still have some favorites. I’ll continue to book restaurants 60 days out, but will continue to change things as we go.

The annual passes are a great purchase for us. It helps with the flexibility knowing we’ll be back regularly. And the photopass is such a good idea; it’s nice to have pictures of both of us together, especially those magic shots.

Driving to Florida works for us; the road trip is part of the vacation.

We enjoy going for a sort of longer trip so we don’t feel rushed.

If you have any questions, please ask. I love talking about our trips.

 

[Noreen411]

I wrote a separate dining review just focused on the food. I have more detailed descriptions of what we ate; the well written descriptions I copied from the menu.

I’ll post the link here if you want to read it

https://www.disboards.com/threads/dining-review-september-october-2023.3934483/

Noreen

 

[Paulaparm]

Driving to Florida works for us; the road trip is part of the vacation.

Same for us!! We drive from northeast PA and stay overnight on the way down and back.

 

[Noreen411]

Same for us!! We drive from northeast PA and stay overnight on the way down and back.

Scott always loved a road trip. At first I didn’t think I would enjoy it, but his love of it was contagious and from the first drive to Florida, I ended up enjoying it too.