THE ULTIMATE TRAVEL GUIDE FOR
Hi humans! My name is Stan and welcome to the new section of my blog: Dog With A Travel Blog! Here, you'll be able to read about all my travels around the world with my family, because they take me with them on all of their adventures!
For my first installments on this new part of my blog, I'll be giving my readers every detail on my recent vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida! I hope you're as excited as I am! - Stan
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Hello fellow animal lovers! As you may tell from last week's post, I, Stan the Dog, have journeyed across the land to the Critter Country Campground at Walt Disney World Resort. When I first heard about it from Avery, I'll admit, I was super pumped. An entire resort supposedly run by animals, and oriented to my kind. I'd never heard of a pet-friendly resort before! Alas, my dreams have come true! When we first walked in, it was amazing. Dozens of owners and their dogs all in the same lobby (It looks suspiciously like a big log cabin though.. I'm in Florida, right?). One of the hotel staff even petted me and gave me a treat. As my humans checked us in, I overheard them saying things like "deluxe room" with "pet showers and a dog house". I'm wondering how they could add those in a simple hotel room. I also overheard another family checking into a "Pet-Unfriendly" cabin, so it looks like families looking to live in a cabin but didn't bring their pet could stay at the resort too! Avery showed me this map of the campground After checking in and a quick bark at the other dogs, we boarded a steam train near the supposedly new station to whisk us away to our hotel room (apparently they are also cabins... did not know that.). The train conductor mentioned things about the refurbished station and something about stabilized tracks. I'm not reallly sure what that means. So after that experience, we finally arrived at the fresh-looking hotel cabin. Holy biscuits, was it great. The rooms really did had dog showers and a custom-made dog house. Kibble was even provided! It has everything an exhilarated pooch like me could ever need!. It was getting late, so the humans went to bed. Thank goodness they did, since it let me write this blog post.
Uh-oh! Someone's waking up. See you all later! Hey Everyone! What an exciting day I just had! Ellen, Bennet, and the kids all went to the Magic Kingdom today, so they dropped me off at Pet Pointe Pet Care, up near the Outpost. Here is a picture of concept art that was released when this was announced: Avery told me yesterday how Pet Pointe works. Apparently, there are two options for guests. The first is for humans staying in pet-friendly cabins at Disney's Critter Country Campground®. Guests can check their pets into Pet Pointe during the day and then check them out (with a valid government ID) for the night to sleep with the family in the cabin (that's the plan I was on most nights). The other plan is for guests staying at Pet-Unfriendly cabins or other Walt Disney World Resort Hotels, which is a 24/7 plan, with the pets spending the entire time at Pet Pointe. But don't worry, the humans can visit the pets during normal operating hours (6am-midnight). There are a bunch of options for size of rooms, the biggest is almost as big as our cabin! My family booked me the Family Room, so Princess and my puppies could stay with me during the day. If you didn't know, Princess is the most beautiful poodle from back home and it just so happened her family was taking a trip to Walt Disney World at the same time as us! At night, Princess goes to the Dog Boarding wing to spend the night, since their owners are staying at the non-dog-friendly Four Seasons Resort, because they are that rich and snobbish! But I get to go home to Avery, Tyler and Chloë to sleep in their cabin! During the day, Pet Pointe had a huge amount of things we could do, but I am getting ahead of myself! I began my Pet Pointe experience at the Campground entrance after my family dropped me off for the day, as opposed to the non-resort entrance that Princess came through when she first arrived. It is on the other side of the road from the outpost near the Hundred Acre Wood Loop, which is great because I love my Tigger squeaky toy. We approached the Two Story building with lots of windows and a small garden. It looked like bigger versions of our cabins, kind of like that Wilderness Lodge hotel I saw across the big lake. We entered a nice and cozy reception area with picture frames on a mantle of Disney's famous pooches, like Lady and the Tramp, or the Hound with his fox friend. I hope they don't notice that I added another picture of Princess and I from our honeymoon to the meat factory dumpster. After Ellen gave them my papers, a nice lady wearing cargo shorts and a forest green polo with the Pet Pointe logo walked me to my room, where Princess and the puppies were already there. It looks like Ellen told them my favorite food, because it was in a bowl, with a water bowl next to it. There were three cushioned pads for resting, and the whole floor was made of this special fake grass, that automatically absorbs it when I... I mean my puppies have an accident. And even better, when Avery would normally have to get a bag, sensors sense the brown menace, and send a helper with a special scooper. Every once in a while, we were taken out to the recreation area. There was a main room with lots of toys and obstacles, where we can interact with other dogs. At one point, my buddy Rolf got a bit too aggressive, so a friend came and took him back to his room. My puppies also got to play in a special area, so big dogs like Rolf don't mess with them. We also went to the outside courtyard with a few more ramps and obstacles. On the other side there was a dog wateroark, but I will get there later. Check in soon!
Welcome back fellow animal lovers! To pick up where we left off, I had just spent an amazing day at the Pet Pointe, and had returned to my family's cabin for the night! For our third day at the Walt Disney World Resort, my humans decided they wanted to have relaxing day at Geyser River! Unfortunately, Geyser River is humans only so I couldn't tag along (don't worry, there was plenty for me to do!), so I decided to have Avery take notes for me and be today's guest blogger. So without further adieu, I give you Avery's contribution! -=+=- "Hello Dog With A Travel Blog Readers, coming to you from Critter Country Campground at the Walt Disney World Resort is Avery Jennings. Stan inquired if I could potentially take notes on Geyser River and report back for a blog post, because he couldn't attend the park, and I agreed! So, today at Geyser River I took extensive notes on our day. Our day began by waking up in our wonderful cabin, getting dressed and dropping Stan off at the Pet Pointe. We hopped on the Critter Country Express to hitch a ride to Geyser River. The park is in an extremely convenient location for guests staying at Disney's Critter Country Campground, and is also a short water taxi ride to Disney's Magic Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom Resort Area. However, I was curious how guests staying at other Walt Disney World Resort Hotels or offsite would be able to access the park so I asked a nearby cast member. He told me that guests could take a bus to the (or park at the) Critter County Campground entrance and take the train to the park entrance. However, he then described the park as not a theme park. He said that Geyser River was more of a "themed relaxation spring" than a water park. The few slides at Geyser River are mostly slow moving attractions. Most of the park's (I'm still going to call it a park for simplicity's sake) attractions are meant for deep relaxation to get away from the hustle and bustle of the main parts of the resort. We then arrived at the entrance, expecting to pay an entrance fee. But, we soon discovered that guests staying at Disney's Critter Country Campground receive free access to Geyser River, due to the lack of a pool at the campground. However, guests not staying at the campground must pay a fee. The entrance cost is 25 dollars per person per day for adults, 15 dollars per person per day for children (ages 3-9) and free for children ages two and under. Now, while I could give a play by play of everything we did that day, I have decided it could be more interesting for readers to read my notes and descriptions of everything Geyser River has to offer! Attractions NOTE: All water attractions are completely chlorinated and up to modern health/safety codes. Cavern Creek Hot Spring Creek is Geyser River's headline relaxation river. The attraction is just over a quarter of a mile in length (about half the length of Blizzard Beach's Cross Country Creek) and takes about ten minutes to complete a full circuit. Two entrances evenly spaced around the route provide optimal access. No waterfalls are located on this river, to keep relaxation at the optimal. In addition, this river travels through a cavern portion, with a glowing ceiling and special effects. And I mean it, this attraction was so relaxing! Geyser River Rapids The "action" river of the park provides some excitement to thrill seekers. Similar to action rivers at Atlantis in the Bahamas and Universal's Volcano Bay, guests can travel along the quarter of a mile river in tubes and encounter rapids along the way. Inner tubes are required at this attraction and guests 32 inches and under are not permitted. (Guests lacking a strong swimming ability are encouraged to wear life jackets, as with other attractions at Geyser Bay). When I experienced this attraction, I had to hold on for dear life, it was so much fun! Geyser Gorge This family raft ride was so much fun when we rode it! Up to five people can get in a tube and slide down this attraction. The twists and turns of this slide brought us through canopies of trees and rock work. What I liked about it was that it was on a smaller scale than the ones found at Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach; it was shorter both height and time wise. Wild Wilderness Slides The Wild Wilderness Slides is a complex of three, tame body slides. While fun, I found these short and more geared towards a younger audience. Hot Spring Runoff Slides The final set of slides at Geyser River is a complex of three tube slides, named Hot Spring Runoff. These were so much fun to ride! They twisted and turned through the trees and rock work. Geyser Basin Geyser Basin is Geyser River's main pool area. The pool itself is very large and deep as well. Hot Spring Basins The Hot Spring Basins are the extra heated, jacuzzi style pools scattered in a shaded area on the edge of the park. Lookout Basin On the edge of the park is the Lookout Basin, the park's 3rd pool. This infinity-style pool hangs over the edge of the park and looks directly out onto Bay Lake. This was my favorite pool! Dining Dining at Geyser River was relatively straight forward. With easy quick-service options and snack carts. Shopping Shopping at Geyser is super simple, with one merchandise location located at the front of the park. My Research After visiting Geyser River today, I decided it would be fun to research the history of the park! Geyser River is located on the former site of River Country, the first Walt Disney World water park. In 2001, when River Country closed, the site sat abandoned for many years. But, Disney later decided to demolish the park and rebuild an all new park named Geyser River!" Thanks for being such a great guest blogger Avery!
Hey guys, Stan here! My last two days at Pet Pointe have been a blast! Avery was a great guest blogger while I was away on my doggy spa day. The doggy spa retreat is one of many packages that they offer here. In addition, they have an on-site veteranarian with their own room, so they can make sure that we are all healthy. Yesterday, they brought in a doggy massage therapist and gave me a soothing massage. Today, Princess, the puppies, and I all got the D-Luxe Doggy grooming package we got our fur trinmed, and Princess and our daughter Gracie gots pretty bows in their hair. After a soothing bath, we played a bit more in the courtyard, but eventually got tired and took a nap, just before Tyler came to take me back to the cabin. Today was nice, soothing, and relaxing, but I cant wait to have more fun the next few days.
Today, I also met a group of dogs who apparently live at Pet Pointe, how cool it that. There are about twenty of them who claimed that they were adopted from Local shelters to live there. They have slecial helpers that teach them tricks. They star in the Backyard Barbecue and the Musical Revue shows with special tricks, and if they aren't able to, they just skip their segment in the show. Isn't that nice? But, before the day was up, my family went and saw the all new, renovated "Hoop Dee Do Musical Revue" in the settlement area. Sadly, no dogs were allowed, but by using my signature commando crawl, I was able to watch through the window, without anyone seeing me. Since I do not want to bore you with my opinions, I am going to take a note out of Avery's book, and tell you all about the show. All of the families first entered in a new lobby area, where they were checked for any allergies or needs, before they okaced their drink orders, and were given their table number, which they were then escorted to. Before the show, they met their waiter, who reminded them of the menu, and told them how the local band of thespians were coming to put on a show for them, as he served delicious cornbread (Avery brought some back in a doggy bag). Then, the show started, and here is the order of events, and list of characters. Characters: Miss Polly- Dog Trainer Bertha- Female Comedian Carl- Male Comedian Hank- Standard Hunk/ Heartthrob/ Singer Emily- Piano Player, in love with Hank, called Em John- Stage Hand, prop master, in love with Emily, very shy The Pioneer Girls- Dancers: Sunny, Sally, and Sammy The Pioneer Gents- Dancers: Sean, Scott, and Sal It starts when we hear a lot of yelling behind a translucent curtain that we can see sillhouettes lf bickering people through. Carl yells, "John, don't open the curtain yet, we aren't ready". Unable to hear him clearly over the ruckus, he responds, "Open the curtain? OK!" The curtain opens as the cast looks at the audience like a deer in the headlights. Carl takes the lead as Emily rushes the to the piano when he says, "Uh... Hit it Em." She starts as they begin the first song "Hoop De Doo" Which goes like this, "Welcome Friends to Pioneer Hall for the Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo. We have a lot to show here at the Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo. We will sing and we will dance, so you listen hear, see our troupe of thespians who hail from far and near. As we sing Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo Dah Day, Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo. Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo Dah Day, Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo. We wish you the very the very best, Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo. From you down there to those in the roost. Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo. Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo Dah Day. Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo. Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo Dah Day. Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo. Rollcall: Miss Polly, Hank, Bertha, Carl, Sammy, Sally, Sunny, Sal, Scott, Sean, Emily, John. Welcome to the: Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo Dah Day, Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo. Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo Dah Day, Hoop De Diddle Dydle Doo." Carl thanks everyone for coming, and introduces everyone to their first act, the Pioneer Dancers. They dance to the song "Shipoopi" from "The Music Man" musical, as the audience is encouraged to clap along. Carl returns, clearly designating himself as the unofficial Master of Ceremonies, as he invites the waiters to serve up the entrees as the "resident hearthrob, Hank" sings a special song to a certain audience member. He sings a song called "Love me true" to a selected audience participant, as the Pioneer Girls giggle with Emily in awe. If you listen, you can hear Emily proclaiming her love to the girls on the piano bench, eventually, leading to her joining in the song, with her part directed towards Hank, oblivious to him. We soon hear John talking to the Pioneer Gents about how he doesn't get what she sees in Hank, before he joins in, directed towards Emily, oblivious to her. They soon finish as Hank walks off, and Emily and John sing "Amazing" with the chorus, "Why can't (s)he see I am just as Amazing. I can work and love her/him." After that musical number, we see Miss Polly come out with dogs as they dance in perfect choreography, and do flips and tricks with Miss Polly and the Pioneer Dancers. Bertha and Carl then come out and put on a makeshift rendition of Robin Hood with audience help, and outrageous props from John. Emily then stands up and proclaims her love to Hank in a song "Lovely" only for him to reject her in favor of Pioneer Girl Sally. John steps in to cheer her up and proclaim his love in "Lovely (reprise)". Quickly, now that everyone is happy, they join in a finale song "Thank You and You and You", as a sweet treat (Strawberry Shortcake) is served. My family seemed to have lots of fun, and so did I when I watched it. So, on day 5 the family decided to stick together and explore the Campground. The whole Jennings–James family together again! We decided to start by checking out the "loops." Which, much to my relief, does not refer to an extreme roller coaster that goes upside down several times. No, loops refer to the different groupings of tents and cabins. They were the different areas of the campground, each themed to its own critter or concept. The theming was rather tasteful and subtle though. Mostly just some wood carvings and subtle details. When I was prepping for this travel blog (It takes a lot of work to be the dog with the best blog!), I saw a lot of pictures of the old version of the campground, Fort Wilderness. I'm happy to report that the dignity and character of the old campground has remained. The addition of more themes and characters is really well done in my opinion. I may just be a humble dog with a blog, but in my opinion the update of the campground was so well done that if it was, hypothetically, proposed by a team in an online armchair imagineering competition, that team would definitely win! *wink* Anyways, we decided to make a loop of the loops. Start with the 100 Acre Woods stuff Loop and work our way around clockwise. Here's the map of the campground again for reference: It was a magical place! Inside we saw all sorts of strange animals, at least I think they were animals. A bear that was fascinated with honey, a rabbit and his garden, an owl and his treehouse. The people staying here were very friendly too. They pet me and gave me treats. I tried to eat the bark on the tree, and then I realized the bark was fake. All the trees in the 100 Acre Woods were fake and cartoony. I guess it was to make them look animated as I soon discovered that this whole area was based on a Disney cartoon, Winnie the Pooh. Now it all makes sense. Though Avery kept trying to tell me that the dimensions of the 100 Acre Woods were actually 100 Acres and that they were 12.76 acres but I wasn't counting. We went and walked into one of the cabins that looked like the inside of Pooh's house from the old cartoon. Of course I can only see in black and white, but I took Avery's words for it that the cabin was similar in color to Pooh's house. She got really excited when she saw Pooh walk into the cabin, along with a really sad donkey, Eeyore. Yes, it seems as though the characters walk around the cabins door to door at times, and greet the visitors. That's a nice touch I guess. I enjoyed the 100 Acre Woods, even if they weren't 100 Acres, it was a fun place and a great stop during the day. Next up was Bambi's Woodlands Loop. Prety nice place. The trees were real here (and pretty much everywhere else, they must've wanted the 100 Acre Woods to be special). The tree coverage was a bit less dense here, but there was a lot of flowers and other plants. There was even a Butterfly garden nature walk that we got to walk through! All the flowers were so nice and colorful... I assume. As a dog, I'm color blind. Chloe went crazy for this place though. Next time (and we definitely plan on coming back), we'll probably try to get a cabin here for her. Then, we walked through Grizzly Park Loop. Unfortunately I wasn't able to visit Magic Kingdom with the rest of the family, but Avery was telling me that this place reminded her of the Country Bear Jamboree show. There's a small peformance stage here. Posters are up for The Country Bears, the Beaver Brothers Jug Band, and the Raccoon Rockers. All saying they're "coming soon." I think that's just decorations though. But who knows? I'm a dog with a blog, how much more ridiculous is a Raccoon with a drumset? But there are also some real human bands coming through for performances advertised. All small scale shows that end by 8 so they don't keep the campers up with noise. They keep some drums, jugs, and tamborines around for kids to play with during the day. Nice place, I'm bear-y glad I saw it! We decided to break from our loop of loops to get lunch and check out the Settlement. They had a sign up explaining how Critter Country Campground came to be. Apparently this used to be a small town where animals of all kinds lived in peace. There was a sort of truce between the predators and prey here. Years ago, Davy Crocket discovered this remarkable place. He fell in love with the peaceful wilderness. Soon, some other humans found this quaint slice of nature too. With permission from the animals, Davy and the humans set up a small town. Dedicated to the same spirit of harmony Critter Country was founded on, the Settlement was born. They got a lot of fun stuff here. Horseback rides, petting zoo, playground, arcade, the Hoopdeedoo Revue, all kinds of stuff for all kinds of people. Even boat rentals and tours down by the Duckling Docks. The family got lunch at Crocket cafe (formerly Trail's End Cafe). After that we went down to the Sherwood Forest Loop. This area was a bit denser with trees. A few of the lots were filled with some decorative medieval type tents. Felt like Robin Hood and his Merry Men were camping with us. The tents weren't really just decoration though. The medieval tents were really little booths where they handed out treats for the people staying there and let you rent different toys. They also handed out bags for humans to use when dogs like me take care of business on our walks. Naturally, this is where my family stayed. We had a cabin instead of a tent though. Also here in the Sherwood Forest Loop is an archery range. The real arrows are shot in a closed off range (you need to be 18 or 16 if your parents sign a waiver). The outdoor range had fake arrows. The tips are dipped in paint though, so you can still see where you hit. I tried to make the argument that in dog years I was old enough for the real arrows, but they wouldn't go for it. For dinner we went to Mickey's Backyard Barbecue. Great show! Not much changed from the Fort Wilderness version. They did add a section with pet tricks that was pretty nice. It featured a poodle that was also nice and pretty if I do say so myself (hopefully my wife doesn't read this blog haha). We ended our day in Friendship Meadows (formerly just the Meadows. I suppose it is less lonely now *laugh track*). Right in the center of the resort, Friendship Meadows has a shop, bike/golf cart rentals, and a pool. Also, Chip & Dales treehouse! Well, a walkthrough version of their treehouse that's a part of a playground for the kids. Chloe enjoyed it a lot! Avery told me that the cabins here were the Pet-Unfriendly cabins, for the humans that didn't bring their pets but still wanted to live in a cabin for their Walt Disney World vacation! To top off our night, we went to the campfire sing along with Chip & Dale. You should be proud of me readers. I am a civilized canine and resisted the primal urges to bark and chase the chipmunks as I have done with countless other small rodents in the past. As Avery likes to remind me, I'm a good boy. Yes I am.
They loved me so much there that they said I can video call in (they'll put me on the big screen!) and help with a song or two whenever I want! So expect me to be a part of that at going forward. Overall another great day with my family. Maybe tomorrow, I can convince them to take me to Animal Kingdom. I wanna talk to the Disco Yeti. He's a broken animatronic with a blog, I'm a dog with a blog. I think we'd have a lot in common! For now, I'm gonna log off and go walk three circles around my bed and then get some shut eye. (Disco Yeti's blog if you're interested: http://discoyeti.com ) Man, I can't believe I have been missing out on so much at Pet Pointe. Just today which my humans were having fun at Disney's Hollywood Studios, I went to the new Dog Waterpark, or WaterBark, as Disney calls it. I had lots of fun. It's a waterpark for pets! Don't worry, though, there's plenty of human supervision. There's a bunch of shallow pools and mini-slides just for us! It was great, and after a quick shower by Pet Pointe Staff, I was dry, and good as new.
My family park-hopped to Magic Kingdom that night, and were out really late. So, they checked me into Pet Pointe for the night. I even got to spend the night with Princess! The next morning, they picked me up bright and early (6am, when Pet Point's normal operating hours begin) and we headed for the airport to go back to Pasadena! Thank you so much for reading my Walt Disney World Resort adventures. Tune in this summer for my detailed account of our trip to the United Kingdom! |
Author:Hey there! My name is Stan James-Jennings and I live in Pasadena, California with my humans! Their names are Avery, Tyler, Chloe, Bennett and Ellen. They take me with them on all of their family adventures, so I've decided to create a new section of my blog that is dedicated to my exploration of the human world! ArchivesCategories |