Trip Report The cold never bothered me anyway!!!

DISNEYWORLD FIRST TRIP OF 2026!
TRAVEL DAY

Hello all!
It's time to start a TR on the first trip of 2026 (hopefully not the last) that occured in the very brisk month of January.

But,I lie, it was really chilly! Though a cold day at Disney is better than... fill in the blank.

The particulars-
Who-Seth and me.
When-January 13-17th.
Where-Bay Lake. As a DVC member I had originally booked Saratoga as that was all that was available but then wait listed Bay Lake and it came through! It was funny because I got an email from Disney but ignored it as it was right before Christmas and when I logged on to the site for something at the beginning of Jan. it said welcome to Bay Lake, that was a very fun surprise!

Let's get started. I have been avoiding Southwest for a variety of reasons but found they started a direct flight from Sacramento to Orlando once a day, so that was a no brainer. 5-ish hours vs 8 or 9.

Aleisha told me she would take me to the airport, and anyone that read my report from last years March trip and the crazy that occured the morning of that flight, would know I didn't hold out much hope. With that in mind I told her I needed to be picked up earlier than I really needed and jokes on me, she was early and I ended up at the airport with way more time than necessary.

I checked my bag at the curb and breezed through TSA. I went to a restaurant and had a nice breakfast/early lunch as I figured the bag of 6 pretzels we were going to get on board weren't going to tide me over with a 5 hour flight.
I bought a mini package of cheese/pepperoni snacks before boarding and ended up eating that about halfway across the US.

I left Sacramento at 11:50am pacific time and landed in Orlando 7:50pm east coast time after an uneventful flight.
My Uber (Seth) picked me up at the airport and we stopped at a Publix for a few groceries for the room.
Then we were travelling under this wonderful sign, my time stamp says 9:30.

We were pulling into Bay Lake shortly after.
This photo is from a different day, but this the entrance.

My only request for rooms was a high floor and it was so nice we did get that. We were on the 7th floor and interestingly we think it was the same room (but a slightly lower floor) than the one that we stayed in for Gary and my 30th anniversary.

This was the view from this years room and the following photo was from our stay in 2013.

I really like the rooms on this side. You get to watch the marina, and the comings and goings at the Contemporary.
That bridge connects Bay Lake to the Contemporary and is a very nice feature. It ends up on the main floor at the Contemporary where the stores, Contempo Cafe and Chef Mickey's are.

Daytime view.

And a fan favorite, the nightly Electrical Water Pageant!

We have a family joke about this parade that began back in 2013 when every single night, like it or not, the parade hits this part of the lake pretty late, maybe around 10 pm and doors don't matter, you can hear it inside!
Aleisha had headed back to her home a day or two before Seth, Gary and I that trip and we made a short recording of it and sent it to her and her response was from the Jim Carrey Grinch movie, "suffering snorkelblatz, they're relentless!"

So everytime we have an opportunity to send her a clip of the parade, that is her response and tonight was no different!

On the next post I will show some room photos as the resort has been renovated and it is quite nice.

 

[MickeyCB]

DAY 2-MK DAY!

I was really excited about today and it didn't disappoint!

We didn't bust out too early. Had a bagel and some OJ @cgersic then headed over. It's a max 10 minute walk if you are dwaddling.

They have their own small security station on the sidewalk which is great to avoid the main entrance crowds.

And oh look, a bench!!!

Within a few minutes we were here!!

And very oddly, the Christmas decorations were still up!

We headed up main street and I couldn't resist a pic of this beauty.

And then, made it to the real castle!

After that we hooked a left and headed here.

Time for a favorite boat ride. But first an awwww Disney duck hanging out on the dock!

Very shortly our transpo arrived and off we went!

 

[MickeyCB]

MK DAY CONTINUES

The cruise is always great and we got a few fun but not necessarily quality photos.

Very blurry.

Sometimes when you get to see these wonderful attractions somewhat frequently they might lose their magic. But this past March when the whole family was here I was reminded of the magic because as we went on this ride we told the girls that these animals weren't real and then later in the week when we went on the Safari ride at AK the oldest (4 at the time) asked me if those animals were real.
So, it's pretty cool I think, that they weren't quite sure what was real and what wasn't.

 

[radiorae]

And a fan favorite, the nightly Electrical Water Pageant!
View attachment 905326

We have a family joke about this parade that began back in 2013 when every single night, like it or not, the parade hits this part of the lake pretty late, maybe around 10 pm and doors don't matter, you can hear it inside!
Aleisha had headed back to her home a day or two before Seth, Gary and I that trip and we made a short recording of it and sent it to her and her response was from the Jim Carrey Grinch movie, "suffering snorkelblatz, they're relentless!"

Oh my gosh I know exactly what you mean When I stayed at the Contempory with a friend a few years ago we experienced the same thing. It is LOUD. The first night we heard it, it took us way too long to figure out what was going on.

The Electric Water Pageant demands your attention. You will witness her in all her majestic, campy glory whether you want to or not

 

[Tuvalu]

Oh my gosh I know exactly what you mean When I stayed at the Contempory with a friend a few years ago we experienced the same thing. It is LOUD. The first night we heard it, it took us way too long to figure out what was going on.

The Electric Water Pageant demands your attention. You will witness her in all her majestic, campy glory whether you want to or not

Same at WL!

 

[MickeyCB]

Oh my gosh I know exactly what you mean When I stayed at the Contempory with a friend a few years ago we experienced the same thing. It is LOUD. The first night we heard it, it took us way too long to figure out what was going on.

The Electric Water Pageant demands your attention. You will witness her in all her majestic, campy glory whether you want to or not

Da da da da da da, I don't know how to post a video so you just have to appreciate the pretend music (my favorite part of the parade!)

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

It is so nice to hear from you, haven't seen you on here for awhile.
But, I was thinking about you when our Steelers came to visit you!

Thanks I'm sure the Steelers beat our sad Vikings! We always have high hopes and they get crushed along the way, lol.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

MickeyCB:
I haven't been active for a while I travel to Orlando with my son our daughter now. My husband is unable to travel at this time, so it's me and one of the "kids". We have a great time. Although I miss WDW, we have been going to Universal for the past few years and really enjoy it. I love reading and hearing about others trip reports from Disney and of course all the beautiful photos. I admit I can't take a decent picture at all, so it's nice to see these photos.

 

[MickeyCB]

MickeyCB:
I haven't been active for a while I travel to Orlando with my son our daughter now. My husband is unable to travel at this time, so it's me and one of the "kids". We have a great time. Although I miss WDW, we have been going to Universal for the past few years and really enjoy it. I love reading and hearing about others trip reports from Disney and of course all the beautiful photos. I admit I can't take a decent picture at all, so it's nice to see these photos.

I'm sorry about your husband but glad you are enjoying time with your kids.
And if you aren't familiar with these posters, check out @fractal and his photos in his reports and newly discovered to me @ddbowdoin photos from a report he has up now. I also love @TheMouseFan and her highly detailed photos, they are all amazing!

 

[MickeyCB]

MK DAY CONTINUES

After our fun ride on JC we headed to Pirates.
While it's not normal for Seth to want to be silly on rides he decided we were going to "do things" in the ride photos (but forgot to inform me on this first one!)

My favorite scene on the ride!
I have an old Disney postcard with this scene, I love it.

We exited the ride to do a little shopping.
I had asked the girls what they would like me to bring them back and the little one, Elsa immediately said, a sword! Oh and a pirate shirt.
I have an old Pirates of the Carabean sword my kids used to play with and she wanted her own as she and her sister fight over that one.
The older one Ariel/Aurora, it changes, at first said surprise me, then said she wanted something with Belle and Bluey.
Hmmmm, I was going to have to get creative there. And the Belle request was odd because she never has showed interest in Belle prior to this.

Anyway, there are still many swords to choose from so we got Elsa one similar to the one at home, the one in the middle, and then I couldn't resist they had a sword set with a mustache so they both got one of those,and sure enough they both liked those, but it's sad because the mustache is single use with the adhesive provided.

We didn't buy them at that time because of the whole no service like they used to have with your purchases sent to the hotel, or even to the front of the park like they did for awhile.

(We watched a man in the store by the Beast castle put back a very expensive tea pot because when he asked the CM's they told him the only option was to buy it, leave it there and then he could come back for it.)
Not cool Disney. Seth and I were talking about how foolish that is on Disney's part. Just that guys teapot would have paid for several CM's hours. Pound foolish and all of that.
We had a reservation later for the Skipper Canteen towards the end of our day and we planned on buying the items then so we wouldn't have to carry them around.

After our shopping we had a reservation at the Beak and Barrel.
Seth had been here before, it was new to me, and he said they had been seated in a bad place in the room, but our seating topped that bad position.
We were tucked back into this alcove where the only thing to see was the booth across from us that was equally poorly positioned.
In our case we scooted our table and chairs out some, so we could at least see some of the room to our left.

Here are some pictures of the lounge.
This is in the first room you enter, with the Barker Bird you can see up on the shelf. He does his spiel fairly frequently. This guy's name is Rummy and is apparently a nod to the past outside the ride, from what I've read. I don't remember him.

Some other interior photos.

I think something happens with these bottles, they move.

I've run out of photo room so I'll show you the items we ordered in the next post.

 

[MickeyCB]

Some food photos from the lounge.

This was a non-alcoholic drink/treat called the Treasure Trove.
It is a mix of Ube, Lemon and Coconut served with some very sweet items (that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me) vanilla cake plank, chocolate cannonball and golden caramel popcorn.

This was the Island Provisions, plantain chips, blue corn tortillas and flatbread with several different dips.
mango chutney, garlic chimichurri, spiced guava and zesty culantro cream.
I liked the variety.

These were the cook's corn griddle cakes.
They are corn cakes with melted cheese, lime sour cream, cihili peppers and cotja.
They could be ordered with chicken or roasted corn and pablano peppers.

The problem arose because the waiter specifically asked Seth if he wanted chicken and he said no, he's a vegetarian, and they both came out with chicken. We waited awhile for him to come back but when he didn't I flagged over a CM. I did this because our waiter had been a little absent throughout our visit and I didn't want to keep waiting for new food to show up. (In his defense I think he had too many tables.)
And I forgot, like Oga's there is a time limit on the tables, they specifically tell you when you are seated you only get to park it for 45 minutes.
Anyway, she said no problem and eventually the proper order came out.

When our waiter came back, who still had not showed up till after we received our new food, I told him what had occured, and there was no, "I'm sorry" but rather, he said I know. Seriously dude?
So, minimally impressed with our waiter. Don't know about the rest of the waitstaff.

We finished up and saw this guy greeting guests outside.

After that I had to do some arm twisting but we headed to Tiana's.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I'm sorry about your husband but glad you are enjoying time with your kids.
And if you aren't familiar with these posters, check out @fractal and his photos in his reports and newly discovered to me @ddbowdoin photos from a report he has up now. I also love @TheMouseFan and her highly detailed photos, they are all amazing!

Aww, thanks Cindy!

 

[MickeyCB]

MK DAY CONTINUES

We headed over to Tiana's after much cajoling on my part. Seth was not super cooperative.
I talked him into agreeing to walk the line with me.
Then he didn't want to use one of the rain ponchos I brought for both of us, then right before the loading area he finally said, oh fine, give me one of the ponchos.

Knowing the psychology of all of this I knew better than to do the smirk I wanted to.

Anyway, here's a few pics in the queue and on the ride.

This was where a certain someone decided maybe a free poncho on a wet ride on a 50 degree day might be a good idea.

And this is where we coordinated our first team photo shenanigans.
And, do you see the lady in the front row? She got hit hard enough with the water that she lost a contact out of her eyeball!!!
And very very funny, I did not realize till just now that the 4 people in front of us did the same thing we did! I wonder if they copied us?!
Peace and love baby! Says the young boomer.

After this we headed to Haunted Mansion, and like a child I refused to look to the left at the devastation!

 

[mpaulam]

Yay! So glad to start reading about your trip!

 

[radiorae]

We headed over to Tiana's after much cajoling on my part. Seth was not super cooperative.
I talked him into agreeing to walk the line with me.
Then he didn't want to use one of the rain ponchos I brought for both of us, then right before the loading area he finally said, oh fine, give me one of the ponchos.

Knowing the psychology of all of this I knew better than to do the smirk I wanted to.

Anyway, here's a few pics in the queue and on the ride.

This was where a certain someone decided maybe a free poncho on a wet ride on a 50 degree day might be a good idea.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who enters the bayou armed with a fistful of ponchos. I can’t stand being wet in a theme park. Water park? Totally fine, you’re meant to be wet. Theme park? No, thank you.

Also… hold the phone… that lady LOST A CONTACT LENS? I know those water cannons are intense, but wow

 

[Minnie1986]

DAY 2-MK DAY!

I was really excited about today and it didn't disappoint!

We didn't bust out too early. Had a bagel and some OJ @cgersic then headed over. It's a max 10 minute walk if you are dwaddling.

They have their own small security station on the sidewalk which is great to avoid the main entrance crowds.
View attachment 905489

And oh look, a bench!!!

View attachment 905490

Within a few minutes we were here!!
View attachment 905512

And very oddly, the Christmas decorations were still up!
View attachment 905491

We headed up main street and I couldn't resist a pic of this beauty.
View attachment 905492

And then, made it to the real castle!
View attachment 905513

After that we hooked a left and headed here.
View attachment 905493

Time for a favorite boat ride. But first an awwww Disney duck hanging out on the dock!
View attachment 905494

Very shortly our transpo arrived and off we went!
View attachment 905495

View attachment 905516

I'm wondering if the holiday decorations are up longer than usual because of the Hallmark Movie filming going on.

 

[Minnie1986]

MK DAY CONTINUES

After our fun ride on JC we headed to Pirates.
While it's not normal for Seth to want to be silly on rides he decided we were going to "do things" in the ride photos (but forgot to inform me on this first one!)
View attachment 905730

My favorite scene on the ride!
I have an old Disney postcard with this scene, I love it.
View attachment 905729

We exited the ride to do a little shopping.
I had asked the girls what they would like me to bring them back and the little one, Elsa immediately said, a sword! Oh and a pirate shirt.
I have an old Pirates of the Carabean sword my kids used to play with and she wanted her own as she and her sister fight over that one.
The older one Ariel/Aurora, it changes, at first said surprise me, then said she wanted something with Belle and Bluey.
Hmmmm, I was going to have to get creative there. And the Belle request was odd because she never has showed interest in Belle prior to this.

Anyway, there are still many swords to choose from so we got Elsa one similar to the one at home, the one in the middle, and then I couldn't resist they had a sword set with a mustache so they both got one of those,and sure enough they both liked those, but it's sad because the mustache is single use with the adhesive provided.
View attachment 905723

We didn't buy them at that time because of the whole no service like they used to have with your purchases sent to the hotel, or even to the front of the park like they did for awhile.

(We watched a man in the store by the Beast castle put back a very expensive tea pot because when he asked the CM's they told him the only option was to buy it, leave it there and then he could come back for it.)
Not cool Disney. Seth and I were talking about how foolish that is on Disney's part. Just that guys teapot would have paid for several CM's hours. Pound foolish and all of that.
We had a reservation later for the Skipper Canteen towards the end of our day and we planned on buying the items then so we wouldn't have to carry them around.

After our shopping we had a reservation at the Beak and Barrel.
Seth had been here before, it was new to me, and he said they had been seated in a bad place in the room, but our seating topped that bad position.
We were tucked back into this alcove where the only thing to see was the booth across from us that was equally poorly positioned.
In our case we scooted our table and chairs out some, so we could at least see some of the room to our left.
View attachment 905728

Here are some pictures of the lounge.
This is in the first room you enter, with the Barker Bird you can see up on the shelf. He does his spiel fairly frequently. This guy's name is Rummy and is apparently a nod to the past outside the ride, from what I've read. I don't remember him.
View attachment 905733

Some other interior photos.
View attachment 905724

View attachment 905725

I think something happens with these bottles, they move.
View attachment 905726

View attachment 905727

I've run out of photo room so I'll show you the items we ordered in the next post.

We didn't buy them at that time because of the whole no service like they used to have with your purchases sent to the hotel,

It TRULY annoys me that Disney stopped doing the merch to your hotel service. Like you said, it seems like such a poor business decision, and would seemingly make people less included to buy things.

 

[Minnie1986]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who enters the bayou armed with a fistful of ponchos. I can’t stand being wet in a theme park. Water park? Totally fine, you’re meant to be wet. Theme park? No, thank you.

Also… hold the phone… that lady LOST A CONTACT LENS? I know those water cannons are intense, but wow

On my most recent trip to Disneyland, we put on ponchos as we were making our way through the queue. A woman just behind us refused her husband's request for her to wear one; as it's known how drenched you can get on the Anaheim version, and she refused (said something about not wanting to mess up her hair putting it on). Suffice to say that when we saw her coming through the exit, we had to try very hard to compose ourselves. Not only did she now look like a drowned rat, but her husband was having a great time exclaiming "I TOLD SO!" and refusing to leave the park that had only been fully opened for about three hours at this point.

 

[MickeyCB]

Yay! So glad to start reading about your trip!

Thanks for following along!

 

[MickeyCB]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who enters the bayou armed with a fistful of ponchos. I can’t stand being wet in a theme park. Water park? Totally fine, you’re meant to be wet. Theme park? No, thank you.

Also… hold the phone… that lady LOST A CONTACT LENS? I know those water cannons are intense, but wow

I think ponchos are wise here, unless you enjoy the soak, maybe in July or August?!
I don't remember if I commented in my recent Disneyland report but apparently there they have a recycle the poncho bin where people will grab used ones to ride.
I am a big proponent of reusing, but a used poncho from someone elses body is not something I can get behind!

She did. I felt so bad for her, she was trying to find it the whole time we were riding back to the exit.

 

[MickeyCB]

I'm wondering if the holiday decorations are up longer than usual because of the Hallmark Movie filming going on.

It;s a good thought. Later in my report, only a few days after this, I was going to comment on the fact that literally overnight they were all gone.