Bricker Family Disney World Trip Report – Pt 1
We had planned on returning to Old Key West the previous fall, but close monitoring of Disney Vacation Club availability enabled us to ‘move up’ to a better resort (sorry, OKW fans). Actually, I’m pretty eager for a return-stay at Old Key West.
While wandering around Old Key West, we caught a little of the Super Bowl in Gurgling Suitcase Libations & Spirits, but we didn’t stick around for long. This is the first time I’ve missed the Super Bowl in memory, but it wasn’t a huge deal. We were out of town for most of the playoffs, and after the Lions imploded heading into the post season, my level of interest had been waning for a while. It’s also difficult to maintain my enthusiasm for the NFL with the Lions breaking my heart year after year.
(Non-Disney side note: I know this won’t win me any friends, but I’m one of the few people who isn’t a fan of the Patriots, but does not hate them. I envy them, and I think most people who “hate” them do, too. Yeah, Belichick and Brady can seem pretty unlikeable, but if they became available, most fans would want their teams to pursue them. I also think the claims of them being cheaters are dramatically blown out of proportion. But that’s just me…and certainly not relevant to this Walt Disney World trip report, ha…)
We hadn’t been to Old Key West in a while, so it was a pleasant experience to revisit the resort. In many ways, it’s underrated, I think. We spent a bunch of time looking at family photos around Olivia’s (it’s so cool seeing the ones with the 25th Anniversary Cake Castle in them!). I absolutely love that these photos are still up. They are a little touch that makes Old Key West feel like a tight-knit community instead of a hotel at the world’s top tourist complex.
One of the things I really want to do at Old Key West, for some reason, is take a book (The Sun Also Rises is currently the top contender) into Papa’s Den, and just relax and read for a while.
There’s a certainly appeal in this daydream, probably because it’s a total change of pace from our normal trips.
If we end up retiring in Florida, that’s definitely going to become my reading room. Walt Disney World will probably have to kick me out as I spend time during my reading breaks regaling guests with tales from my glory days of Disney blogging and that ‘crazy’ time when Stitch TP’d Cinderella Castle.
On an unrelated note, Old Key West needs to replace the palm trees around the lighthouse; they’re throwing off the scale.
If you look at photos of Old Key West from the early 1990s, those trees are a good 3-6′ shorter than they are now. Apparently, trees can grow a bit over the course of 25 years. Who knew?
After spending around an hour just hanging out at Old Key West, we caught the bus to Magic Kingdom. It was incredibly efficient.
I’ve said it before, but I love the new digital arrival times boards for the buses–I just wish it were included in My Disney Experience so we could time when to leave our room.
We arrived there right as Wishes was starting, and I snagged an end of Main Street spot for the show. I forgot to turn off the vibration reduction on my lens and, for some reason, my Sigma lens has issues with this (I think all/most current Nikon lenses don’t have this problem). So, almost all of my fireworks photos from that night are slightly out of focus.
We had a blast at Magic Kingdom, which was pretty dead as soon as the fireworks ended. We did Big Thunder, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, and the Peoplemover all with minimal waits, and I even had time to stop for a couple of photos. Even though it was only a couple of hours, it was really pleasant.
I had stopped checking the game by this point, as it was a foregone conclusion the Falcons were going to win. However, as it got closer to closing, I saw an update on Twitter that the Patriots had closed the gap (it was still a double-digit lead).
The score kept getting closer, and suspecting this might be one of the best comebacks of all time, we left Magic Kingdom just before it closed (as opposed to our norm of staying long after closing). Our timing couldn’t have been better: the bus left almost as soon as we boarded, and it seemed we’d get back to the room in time to see the end.
This was before we accounted for the fact that we’d be stopping at Wilderness Lodge, then have to transfer to the internal bus at Fort Wilderness, and then walk back to our room. I was watching ESPN’s gamecast the entire time, and thought we’d still catch the end…until the Patriots won as we were (literally) walking to the door of our cabin. So much for catching the end of the comeback!
It probably ended up being for the best that we didn’t linger around Magic Kingdom and return to the room super late; this way, we’d be ready to go first thing the next morning and have a full day at the Epcot International Festival of the Arts. That’s where we’ll pick up with Part 2…
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Have you stayed in the Fort Wilderness cabins since they were renovated? Done brunch at Trail’s End? Done any shopping at Disney Springs or tried the new restaurants? Any thoughts on other topics we’ve covered in this installment of our Walt Disney World trip report? Share any questions, tips, or additional remarks you have in the comments!
What appears to be a new paint job on the Disney Springs balloon ride is a big improvement!
I sort of feel like a bit of a dummy even mentioning this but I have a hard time finding links to be able to go to different Parts of your trip reports. As in main part 1 to main part 2 and so on. For example, I can see easily how to go from page 1 to 2 of “Part 1” but I can’t easily find links to get to the next installment of this trip report. I went to Twitter and found it. Am I just totally blind and not seeing the link on the site?
Sometimes when I post a new installment, I forget to edit the old ones to add links so they can be read in succession. This blog is pretty poorly organized, so that’s par for the course…
Lol, I get it, it’s hard enough getting a blog post done to begin with much less going back and editing one if it’s not one that gets a ton of traffic. Speaking of traffic- if you got something in your email about something called the “SIA” that was from one of my employees. It probably looked like spam but it’s not.
I was just thinking the same thing, I can’t figure out how to get to Part 2!
Go Lions!
Huge Pats fan here! Enjoyed your story as my hubby and I are probably about your parent’s age. We’ve been DVC since 1999 but have been coming to WDW with our family since 1985. Our first two stays were in the Wilderness cabins and we have many fond memories from those trips. They updates look great! Thanks for sharing your experiences, it will hold me over until we are home in September.
Love all of the trip reports lately, but I’ve really been looking forward to this one as it’s the Disney that I do too, and we’ve been taking our parents lately. We just did spring break with the in-laws in tow, and it was definitely different than our usual pattern, but fun to be forced to slow down some.
LOVE this report. My family never went and my parents still have never been. I was always fascinated with Disney as a child, and I had to resort to taking books out from the school library to learn about it and see pictures (during the 80’s). I distinctly recall being amazed by the ghostly images from inside Haunted Mansion and wanting to see it in person. I also was enthralled with the Polynesian and wanted to stay there, especially to see the now-defunct indoor waterfall 🙁
I finally got to WDW at age 31 and have been at least half a dozen times and I’m officially hooked. If I could swing a Golden Oak home, I would do it in a heartbeat.
PS- Sorry about your Lions… I’m from MA so I was pleased with the Superbowl results!