Our trip report at WDW vacation 12/16 till 12/27 staying at POP Century with Deluxe Dining

Hello, both my girlfriend Andrea (til proposal at Jiko on 12/17) and myself have enjoyed reading the trip and dining reports and ideas that people have written so we are going to attempt to do this.
Day 1 - 16th. Left out of the house at 1am from middle of Kansas so we could catch a 410pm flight out of Chicago (going to visit her family in Michigan when we return). This flight was changed from 625am on 12/17 due to the storm. Got to the airport about 130pm, get bas checked and boarding passes, everything going ok. Then went thru security at TSA and forgot to remove my belt so the do a part down and swab my hands - a warning beeps due to chemicals is what I’m told, so then I’m taken in the back for a much more patient down and screening. My girlfriend had no idea why they took me or what is going on. The patient down this time was more intense and did a swab of the gloves he was wearing after the path down and again a warning fir same. He checked and swabbed my sneakers, shoes, laptop, and many other things and all came up clear. Eventually was allowed to travel. 410pm flight to Houston, took off at 453pm then we had to change planes to get to Orlando. Landed at gate 51 and supposed to be going to gate 41, that was changed to gate 1. We took off on time and landed 10 minutes early. Went to get our checked bags, 3 showed up after a short wait and the last one waited and waited and waited and it didn’t show up so one past bad. Southwest took the information and then said they would do their best to locate it and get it to me.
Then we went to the Magical express and checked in there. We were sent to line 7 and waited then we were allowed to board a bus. Waited then finally were on our way to POP Century. We arrived and went to check in even thou we knew it was way to early. Levi was able to do some magic and we were able to get a room on same side as our King room for almost half what we are paying a night for our room. We went up and fell asleep. End of day 1.

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That’s one crazy day.
Congrats on the engagement!

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Wow! That was an adventure just to get to Pop! I cannot wait to read the rest!

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Day 2 - 12/17. We slept in, well that is if you can call not getting to sleep until after 230am and waking up a little after 7am sleeping in. We relaxed and got showers, then I went down to the front desk to find out if our King room was ready (we were in 6252 and would be going to 6222) It wasn’t and when asked what to do with our luggage, the front desk said to just leave it in the room by the table and they would have it picked up and delivered. I went up to 6252 and we made sure we had everything by the table and ready to be moved. We then caught a bus to Disney Springs, walked around, checked it out and went to Earl Of Sandwich for lunch. Here are pictures of what we ordered - The Earl’s Club, Mac & Cheese and 1 soda and 1 Mike’s Hard Lemonade.


We split the sandwich and the Mac & Cheese. both the sandwich were good, loved the bread and for future visits plan on going back and trying many of the sandwiches. After lunch, we headed over to Vivoli IL Gelato where we each ordered a small with 2 flavors, she ordered Amarena (Black Cherry) and Menta al Cioccolato (Mint Chocolate Chip) gelato and I ordered the Amarena (Black Cherry) and Vaniglia (Vanilla Bean) gelato. We both agreed that the Amarena was the best and would order that again. This very refreshing even if it did melt way to fast due to the heat.
After this we took a Lyft to the Disney Character Warehouse (Used a Lyft promo code and got $55 off 11 trips, at $5 off each trip). Did a little shopping and then took a Lyft cab back to Pop Century. On the was back to Pop Century, I called to find out if the room was ready and after being placed on hold, was told that it would it wasn’t ready but that they would have housekeeping get it cleaned right away. Then I received a call from Southwest Airlines and was told that they had not found my bag yet. We arrived back at Pop Century at almost 3pm and spoke with Jessica at the Check In desk, was told that the room wasn’t ready. I explained that I had called and was told that they room would be cleaned right away so that we could get ready, since I was proposing to Andrea at Jiko where we had reservations for 530pm and there was no way we could go there dressed in Jeans and T-shirts, she went thru a closed door and after about 10 minutes came back out and said that the room hadn’t been clean but that they were having someone from housekeeping going to the room right away and have it cleaned. While I had been waiting on Jessica to give me some information, Magen came over and asked if I needed anything. I explained again what was going on and that about how someone was checking on when the room would be ready. Mandy really took a personal interest in doing anything that she could to make sure that we would be able to be at Jiko and to change. They told me that they would keep checking and would let me know as soon as it was done. Also Jessica said that they would give me a voucher that we would be able to use to pay for our taxis, which was a complete surprise. After checking with the front desk and keep letting them know that we had reservations at Jiko and needed to be able to get ready, I received a text at 412pm I received a text that the room was ready. I went to the front desk and explained that the room was ready but we needed our luggage that the they were holding, calls were made and we were told that they would have the luggage delivered to our room. We went up to room 6222 and no luggage. I went to the bathroom, while in there, Andrea answered a knock at the door, it was our luggage, (Well, it was luggage, just not ours), which Andrea let him know it wasn’t our luggage. I came out of the bathroom after he had left and she explained what had just happened. I then went out to try and find him, he was by our old room and I asked him if they had maybe picked up the wrong luggage to begin with, and he opened the door and and said, see your luggage isn’t in here. Went back to the room and told Andrea what was going on, then went back to the Front desk. While standing there, to speak to a CM, Megan came around the corner and looked at me and with her hands, motioned to try and find out why I was back in line and I just put my hands up and shook my heads no. She came over and when I explained that about the luggage, she went in the back, talked to someone and then came back and took me over to the department that handles the luggage. I was allowed to look at all the luggage, where I was told to just look and point out any of the luggage. Looked on every shelf and down every isle but nothing until I noticed that way back in a corner, told then that those were all our suitcases. They had someone take the luggage up to our room. Asked Megan if she could get ahold of Jiko, to let them know we would be late due to everything that had happened and she assured me that she would go take care of it right away. luggage was delivered at 520pm. We got changed and then headed to Jiko by a taxi that was being paid for by Disney. While on the way, southwest called and said that they suitcase had been found and was given to Magical Express. So finally some good news.
We made it to Animal Kingdom Lodge and then to Jiko for the special dinner and proposal.
(I will tell you all, all about the dinner and the proposal and what happened that night when we got back to the room. Let’s just say, it was magical and so special. I should have the rest of day 2 and also thinking day 3, maybe even day 4. Will be encluding pictures and our thoughts on the meal and everything).

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Oh.my.goodness. I can’t even imagine how stressful that was! And not even being able to show your partner how stressed out you really were!

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Yay for magical Levi!!!

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Wow what a lot of stress! Glad they sorted everything out for you, looking forward to reading about the proposal!!

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That luggage experience would have put me over the top! I’m glad you kept your cool and had a great night! Can’t wait to hear all about it–

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We are visiting her family but I will be posting more when we get home. There is so much to talk and share.

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Wow…not the most magical start, but well done you for keeping calm and taking it in your stride!
Looking forward to the rest and the proposal :grinning:

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I have wanted to get going on this, however, I my left ear has never popped and my sinus are going crazy, and to top that off, I am running a fever. I promise that the trip report with lots of pictures (especially from the dining locations) will be done for everyone to see. I can tell you this, almost everything after what you have read up until returning to the airport at MCO was great. Use LYFT and the promotion that they are offering right on the website, $55 credit at $5 oer ride for 11 rides, and if you are a couple each can get the promotion so that would be 22 rides at $5 off each one. Will be including the costs for any LYFTs rides we took.
NOTE : At Orlando Airport TSA, make sure your TP that you have in your pocket with a staple in it is out of it when you go thru TSA or they will flag your and do a pat down and a swab of your hands and also make sure you don;t have all your trading pins together in bag inside your carry on and not pulled out, they will go thru your carryone. How do I know, well that is what happened to me. I will be posting the remainder of 12/17 after we get back home in Kansas, then start working on each other the other days. If you love to hear and see pics about dining and the trips, stay tuned as we had deluxe dining and had 8 different 2 credit dining meals along with many other sit down locations.

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Hope you feel better soon and lots of pictures is good :grinning:

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We are feeling better and last night separated pictures of the dining into their own folders, since we had 2 phones and 1 camera we used. Also we wrote a letter to Disney to highlight certain CMs that went above and beyond what we felt were even Disney standards. We did let each of the CMs know that they have made a special memory for us and gave them a special card that we made up just for this. In giving the card we made, it also made us feel special and created a special moment. I will be including pictures of the card, front and back, along with the card we used to record information so we would make sure we were able to submit the right information to Disney for the CMs file.

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Ok, finally we have the rest of 12/17 - Jiko, the proposal and back to POP. Here is the link to it.

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Fantastic!!
I love the cards for the CMs. Great idea to offer the cake to Levi & the others.
Thanks for the pictures and Congratulations!

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Your cards for the CM’s was great. I loved them. Love the report so far

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What a great report! The photos are beautiful! I love your cards- such a thoughtful touch. Jiko was a great choice for your proposal and the ring is beautiful!

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This was so magical! All the little touches made it so special…especially the text from Mum with her blessing :grinning:
I love the cards you made too, great idea. We have never tried Jiko before, but might try it now! Your pics and descriptions were mouth watering :joy:
Congratulations :tada: and thanks for sharing.

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