Chapter 21
We’re on a Boat

(Originally posted August 2nd, 2012)

Our bus pulled into the main bus stop first on this journey. Apparently what time of day it is and which park you’re coming back from determines the order in which the bus stops at the different terminals. We stopped at Fulton’s General Store to pick up our Pluto plush from Epcot.

This store was great! They have a really nice pin board, and we did lots of trades while we were there. I wish I had taken pictures of each of our pins as we traded them, but I didn’t… And now they’re all packed away for our move so I can’t take pictures now. Maybe after the move I can take some pictures of all the pins we ended up with as a special post.

We made our way back to our room.

Here’s our room number!

Apparently I did take a few pictures of our pin lanyards as we went. Wish this were a little clearer.

We weren’t back in the room for long. We just took enough time to drop off some of our stuff and headed back out the door.

We made our way back to the main building and then back to the boat dock.

The boat to Downtown Disney pulled up and we got on board.

This was a nice little ride. It took slightly longer than I thought it would, but the views were great.

After our resort, the boat had to stop at French Quarter to let a few more people on, and we got our first glimpse of the Sea Serpent slide that we had seen so many pictures of in the past.

We started moving again and passed by the Treehouse Villas.

This is where I stayed on my two big family trips when I was young. At the time I didn’t even think much of how lucky we were to be staying in our own treehouse separated from everyone else, but I have vivid memories of how cool it was to stay here. While it’s not exactly a themed resort in the same way as, say, the Polynesian, this resort is something uniquely Disney. You really feel like you’re in a treehouse somewhere in the wilderness. It’s very Swiss Family Robinson-esque, but with all the modern amenities of a hotel. I’d love to stay there again. We caught our first glimpse of Downtown Disney.

I’m sad that Characters in Flight has been taken down, at least temporarily, because we never got to do it! I’d love to take that ride on a future trip, so I hope it comes back.

We pulled up next to the Empress Lily, aka Fulton’s Crab House, and our boat docked.

The first store we went to in Downtown Disney was Disney’s Days of Christmas.

We needed to get an ornament for this trip. There were several that we wanted, but the logical option was—of course—Duffy!

Next, we went to the Art of Disney. I love everything in that store, and would love to have Disney art all over our future house. We really liked the pumpkin sculptures at the entrance to Disneyland last year, and here were some small reproductions.

We moved on into Goofy’s Candy Company.

We got a marshmallow wand.

In Disneyland, our absolute favorite snacks were Tigger Tails from Pooh’s Corner, which were similar to these marshmallow wands but included a layer of caramel and lots of orange sprinkles. This wand was at least the next best thing, and was delicious! Plus at a value of just under $5.00, it was one of the best values for a snack credit.