Is It Ever Too Late For A Trip Reports? The Four Month Late TR

[princess.chell]

Is it ever too late to write a trip report? I hope not!

So last December my family took its annual trip. It was my first trip since I had found the DIS. When I got home I wanted to write a trip report, but I never got the chance. But now I’m going into a Disney relapse and spend all my free time (and even time when I’m supposed to be doing homework) reading trip reports, wishing I was in my favorite place in the world. So I decided to write a tr for my last trip because school is winding down and I have the time now.

So here’s the cast:

My family. Hailing from the western suburbs of Chicago, we’ve been to Disney once a year together since 1995. The last three years (2005, 2007, 2008 – this trip) we’ve gone over Christmas for a week. Before that, we would during October when it was slow. I would call my family a commando style touring family. We get ADR’s for each day based on park hours. We are nearly every rope drop, or close to rope drop time, every day and still as long as we can last.
Here's a picture of us from 2007. I can't seem to find a picture of all of us from this year, plus most of this years pictures will be shown later, if you all want to hear more...

Me: I’m a 17 year old junior in high school. I love Disney: the movies, the parks, everything. It is my favorite place in the whole world. The back of my iPhone is a picture of the castle. I call Disney my family’s special place. We, well at least I, forget the outside world while I’m there. I love it. I’m a self proclaimed tomboy. I used to play basketball; this winter being my first winter not playing. I snowboard now; this winter being my first full winter since I started 4 years ago. I love photography, something I got from my mom and my grandfather.

My little brother: Okay, so he’s not little anymore. He’s 15 now, 14 on our last trip. He’s about an inch taller than me (but I’ll never admit that to him). He loves Disney too, but isn’t as outward about it. When we are planning and thinking about taking a trip, we can tell he loves it, but the rest of the time it’s not so evident. He’s an athlete, ex-hockey player turned golfer and baseball player. We fight sometimes, but we are siblings and never in Disney.

My mom: She’s the one that has fostered my family’s love for Disney. The major planner, though I have started to take more and more of a part, she is ultra organized. She basically keeps this family running smoothly. She’s a breast cancer survivor of three years (I think); my favorite and most memorable trip coming while she had cancer. She’s a strong, amazing mom. We took a mom and daughter trip for a weekend when she had work meetings there a few years ago. Now every trip we take a mother daughter day together.

My dad: He’s just along for the ride. He loves Disney, but doesn’t really get into the planning like the rest of us. As long as we eat every day, he is happy. I’m not exactly sure how to describe my dad. We are pretty close, closer than my mom and I. He takes me to the local thrill park once a year to spend the day together riding the roller coasters. He’s the best dad I know. At Disney, he’ll do nearly every ride with me. He loves Tower of Terror the most.


So here’s the story:
As I said above, my family took its annual trip in December, from the 23rd till the 28th. Well, that was the plan…

 

[topdog]

Sounds good. Let the journey begins.

 

[MEK]

Looking forward to more. Nice introductions of your family.

 

[princess.chell]

The plan was we were to take the first flight out (read 6 in the morning!!) as always on Tuesday the 23rd. We were stay at our favorite hotel, our second home, the Boardwalk. But we live in Chicago. And it’s December. My mom, being my ultra planner mom that she is, watched the weather for days before we were supposed to leave. And, of course, a huge snowstorm was expected for Tuesday morning.
So, I woke up Monday afternoon (yes the afternoon, I’m on spring break and a teenager, I sleep till like 11) to zipping sounds coming from my parents’ room. My mom doesn’t even bother to say good morning as the first words out of her mouth were something like “Grab another pair of clothes for the trip. We are leaving today.” Cue the huge smile and ecstatic jumping up and down. WE WERE LEAVING EARLY!!! After I calmed down, and woke up a little bit more, I found out what I had missed.
My always prepared mom was up at 6 to check in for our plane since we fly Southwest. The storm was on track to dump snow on us Monday night, and my mom didn’t want to get postponed. She immediately jumped online to find another flight out for that day. And she did, for about 4:30 pm. Plus it was cheaper than the flight we were on. Next was a call to Disney, well multiple calls. After calls back and forth to Disney and my dad, she got us room for that night at the Boardwalk!!! How lucky right? And the money we saved on the flight went to the room! Perfect situation! We were all set!!!

Jump ahead a few hours. Everything ran smoothly from here on out. Finally we were landing in Orlando! Vacation was starting a good twelve hours before it was planned too! How much more could a girl ask for on her Christmas vacation to her favorite place on Earth? AND! It’s Monday night! Which means….Monday Night Football!!! And guess who is playing?! The Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers! And, what is on the Boardwalk? ESPN Club! What better place to watch the MNF game?!
We took the Magical Express to our home for the week and walked into to the sights and smells that are so distinctly Boardwalk: the whitewood and the veranda over looking the boardwalk itself, the gingerbread gazebo with Donald and Daisy making the whole lobby smell yummy. There is something so special about the first time you walk in each trip. I get chills. I honestly don’t think I will ever forget the image. My parents do their thing at check-in as my brother and I sit outside enjoying dusk in Florida while keeping track of the game on our iPhones. Gotta love technology.
After a quick pit stop in our rooms to drop everything off, we headed down to ESPN Club fully prepared to not get seated. But, this is our perfect day, so of course we get seating right away in the main room with every tv playing the game.
Now remember I said I’m a tomboy? Well I eat like a boy too. And I was starving by this time. I ended up ordering the Macho Nacho. I have had them before, but forgot the size of them. So out comes our order and I’ve got this huge plate of nacho chips, ground beef, cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, and probably other things. I mean this was a monster plate of nachos. My mom got a salad, my brother wings, and my dad chili. I wish I had a picture to show you because I ate the whole plate of nachos, basically by myself. If you are ever at an ESPN Club, I highly suggest the nachos. It was a great night. The atmosphere in there was great. There were a handful of Bears fans, one table of Cheese Heads, and a lot of very entertained others.
After the very filling meal, we headed back up to our room to finish off the game and head to bed. In case any one was wondering…Bears won. We were in bed by 1 am, stomachs full and happy to be in Disney.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Signing on for more!

 

[MeLaNie9]

Great start! I'm in!
I, too, am the typical tomboy...although a good deal older than you are Just so you know what you are likely to turn out like...I am a Browns season ticket holder (not my husband) and spend summer days (if possible in between work) at their training camp. I have planned our last 2 Dec Disney trips around their home schedule! On our last trip, my MIL and SIL insisted on doing MVMCP which I did NOT want to pay for since I knew my kids would be asleep early on in the festivities. So what did I do...pack my small sports radio and earbuds in preparation for sitting on a bench with the boys asleep in their strollers while MIL, SIL, and DH were in the shows and listening to Sunday night football.....and that's exactly what happened!
Anyways, looking forward to more!

 

[princess.chell]

mickeystoontown and MeLaNie9...

Thanks for reading so far! My favorite part of the year has come around AP testing and finals! YAY! ....not.
I'm almost done with the next day, but thanks to the extremely large amount of US History I have to remember (from when Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 till present day) I haven't had a huge chance to work. Should be up soon though.

In other news...my boys the Blackhawks moved on to round 2 of the playoffs and the Bulls won in 3OT tonight to send the series with Boston to game 7 (big shocker there. I'll admit I had them being swept but that is when Boston had KG playing...). Just my Chicago sports pride coming out.

 

[MEK]

Nice - an unexpected early arrival to Disney. I have always wanted to do that!

 

[princess.chell]

So there has got to be something about Disney because the next day I was up and running at 6 AM. Now remember last night I went to bed at 1 AM. That’s five hours of sleep for me, plus actually getting up at 6, like out of the bed and getting dressed. For school, I am awoken at 6:30 and don’t actually get out of bed for another 10 to 15 minutes. So for me to actually jump out of bed at 6 AM was a miracle, a Disney miracle! (Oh and by the way, for the first time EVER in the history of full family vacations I slept in my own bed! We figured out our room’s couch pulled out to bed. So after my brother and I arguing a little the night before, he graciously agreed to give me the bed while my parents slept in the other bed.) Our first park, Magic Kingdom!
My brother and I run to one of our favorite rides first, Space Mountain. My mom has an obsession with taking pictures. The rest of us go along with it, posing when she wants though normally we try to make some silly face to mess up the picture. And here is my example of doing so…

Anyway, we went over to Buzz next were the overly competitive nature of my family came out. Some where along the way we decided that the winner would get first choice of sleeping place and the rest of us would have to fight it out for the other spots. I managed to hit some magic spot and BAM! my score shot up! I win. Well my very very very competitive brother decides to protest this win. But I’m not having any thing of it. I won fair and square (okay kinda but I didn’t know where that spot was). On the way out of the ride, we see Stitch! While I maybe a tomboy 17 year old, I am actually a little kid on the inside still. So I HAVE to take my picture. Well my mom made some mom comment about her 17 year old actually being like 5 or something like that. So Stitch pantomimes that I’m very tall for my age. Going along with it, despite the other people in line, I fall to my knees and ask him if know I am the right height. Shaking his head yes I stand back up to full height to get a normal picture with him. The things I do in Disney sometimes…

After my encounter with Stitch, we ran over the other two mountains rode those a few times and then headed back over to Buzz again. My brother tried to prolong the sleeping competition but I vetoed it after I lost because I was too concentrated on finding the secret spot (I never did find it again…). At some point, my mom and I did the teacups. I haven't done the teacups in years (doing things we haven't done in a while becomes a reoccuring theme this trip). Here's my mom and me being well, my mom and me...

Now we got only about 5 hours of sleep last night. And I’m hitting a wall. I need food and a short rest. My absolute favorite restaurant in Disney is Caseys. Above Tony’s and the one in Japan, something about the hot dogs that actually taste like I’m at a Sox game. Plus the Christmas parade is going to start in like 45 minutes. My brother and me being older now we haven’t watched a parade in years. I decided I want to see it and my brother’s too tired to protest. So we grab our hot dogs and fries (yes I had two hot dogs and a thing of fries), and sit down to wait. Another thing about me is I have very little patients or ability to sit still for very long. Plus I am a photographer and there were some shots I wanted to get from this trip. After polishing off my dogs and friends in about 10 minutes I got up to wonder up and down Main Street taking pictures of the tree and castle. My favs…

I ended up taking nearly too much time and having to nearly run down Main Street to get back to my spot in time. I made it and loved the parade. So cute! The kid in me loved it.
Even though we had just rested for a good hour and half, we were still tired. GASP! Being tired in Disney! Unexpected plane rides will do that to me, and my family. So we decided to head back to the hotel to rest up as our dinner ressies were for the Japan restaurant at EPCOT anyway.
Up next…the longest wait for dinner…ever…

 

[jelloarms]

No it's never too late for TRs. The one I am writing now is over a year old but my memories are still...kinda fresh! Hehe. Just letting you know I am reading and can't wait for more! I am especially interested in your report b/c it is similar to my report in the sense that your family does not have young children. A lot of the TRs on here are done by families with young kids and while there is nothing wrong with that, it's hard to relate. Does that make sense?

 

[wannago2disney]

off to a great start looking forward to more!

 

[princess.chell]

No it's never too late for TRs. The one I am writing now is over a year old but my memories are still...kinda fresh! Hehe. Just letting you know I am reading and can't wait for more! I am especially interested in your report b/c it is similar to my report in the sense that your family does not have young children. A lot of the TRs on here are done by families with young kids and while there is nothing wrong with that, it's hard to relate. Does that make sense?

That made complete sense. I do love seeing the younger kids faces in the reports because I don't get to experience that anymore. I jumped over to your report from your link! Loving it!

 

[princess.chell]

Hmm…so I wonder if anyone is still reading this? Sorry for the long break! I had end of the year projects and finals to clear up. But now that all of that is done (well kinda I have two and half finals next week...) I can keep going and on a more regular basis. Promise! So if you out there reading lemme know and I’ll keep going.

So where did I leave off? Oh yeah first day headed back to the hotel then onto EPCOT...

This night we had dinner reservations for one of our favorite restaurants, Teppan Edo. Two years ago was the first time we had eaten there because we were on the DDP and fell in love. We decided to eat there on what was supposed to be our first night so we made really late reservations, like 8 at night, so we could make it after our plane ride. Well…when our arrival plans changed, we didn’t think about how late this was. Till about oh 5. At which point, it had been a while since we had eaten lunch, and we got hungry! And I mean hungry!

We were exploring around World Showcase, so we stopped in the counterservice place in Mexico. Tacos and nachos for our “snack”. Good food, even better time there. So the dining area is open there. And there were a ton of birds around. My little brother is very very very very afraid of a bird attacking him. But he didn’t see the birds when we sat down to eat. I wasn’t going to tell him about the bird either. Oh, the funny moments that ensued. I don’t think he sat down once in the 20 minutes we were eating. See, he dropped a nacho at his feet and the bird came over to eat it. Naturally, the bird stuck around for more food. This scared my brother more than any ride ever. He would not sit still. My mom and I didn’t make it any better either, egging him on, telling him the bird was coming to get him. Meanwhile, my dad alternated between telling my brother to grow up, telling my mom and me to stop, and laughing. My mom and I took a picture of one of the birds to show him later. It was great! We still make fun of him about it.

So for the rest of the night we walked around World Showcase. We’ve never done this before because my brother and I always found it boring. But now that we are older we actually found it interesting. I am into photography so I took a lot of pictures of different places. My brother knew information about the different places from his World Cultures class and told us about the different countries we were in. It was really interesting and cool to actually hear my brother tell us things he learned in school. My brother is your atypical boy; its all sports and no school for him.

The “Santas” were out at each country so I stopped at nearly every one. That was one of my favorite parts. I love learning about the different traditions and comparing them to the culture I live in. I found it so interesting! While we were in Mexico, my mom made us go on the boat ride there. So if you like it, skip this part, but I hated it. My brother and I were bored and kinda confused on the story line. We couldn’t figure out what was going on. So instead we practiced our school Spanish, saying hi to each other and talking about nothing. When we made our way around to Norway, my dad and brother went the Malestrom ride while my mom and I shopped and walked around.

Finally! It was time for dinner!! YAY! We were still starving. I had my normal teriyaki chicken. Teppan Edo is like Benehiannas, if you've never been there. You know the kind of restaurant where they cook in front of you. I love that its dinner and a show. Plus the food is so good! My family eats at the same restaurants every year so for this to jump into the rotation must mean its pretty good. And it is! It’s a long dinner so by time we finished up it had to be about 9ish. We decided to head back to the hotel to get some sleep tonight. I was out by 11. But it was a great day!
Sorry for the lack of pictures this time…there weren’t very many interesting pictures.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hi there! I'm still hear. I would love to see some of your Epcot pictures. I know you said they weren't very interesting but I absolutely love pictures.

 

[jelloarms]

I am afraid of birds too kind of when they are in large groups. I'm not so much afraid that they are going to gouge my eyes out...more so I am afraid that they are going to poop on my head. Ugh!

 

[princess.chell]

Hi there! I'm still hear. I would love to see some of your Epcot pictures. I know you said they weren't very interesting but I absolutely love pictures.

Some where between switching computer, I think I lost some of them. Here is my favorite/best one. I'm still searching for the rest...

My next installment (coming up as soon as I post this) will be full of photos to make up for the last one.

 

[princess.chell]

I’m still here too! With the end of school I had about ten million things to do which included but is not limited to cleaning my room (per my parents request), going to a wake with the longest line ever to get in (try 5 hours) and planning a party with my friend (which ended up a dud). Anyway, I swear to Walt that I will be more consistent now that I have found my summer schedule.

So where did I leave off? Oh yes, Day 3…

Day 3 (12/24)
Animal Kingdom had its extra magic morning hours. Now I know some people swear off extra magic hours, but my family loves them. We plan our days around them. As they say, to each their own. With the early night in, we were out the door by 6:30 AM. If you’ve ever stayed at the Boardwalk (where we are staying which I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that yet… ) then you know you can see the buses coming from the front entrance and can kinda sorta read which bus it is (and if you haven’t stayed there well now you know). So we walked out the front doors and saw a bus going through the gate into the Boardwalk lot. I couldn’t see what it says because I just put my contacts in, but my brother said “THAT’S OUR BUS!” and took off running to get to the bus thing at the bottom of the path. I had literally just woken up so I was totally confused as to what he said. My mom took off running after him as the bus is significantly faster then our walking pace and was nearly at the bus thing. My mom and brother started waving their arms at us confirming that it is the bus we want (as we have ran to the bus only to find out it is not the bus we want). At this point the bus is at the pick up thingy and my dad and I are still kinda taking our time to make it down, probably only a quarter of the way down. So we run too. We made it. I don’t even remember if anyone else got on the bus with us, but I do remember not being all to happy that I had to run about five minutes after I woke up. (See I take about five minutes to get ready in the morning when I’m at Disney. I wake up, throw on the clothes I picked out the night before, put my contacts in, brush my teeth and hair, and am ready to go. So I am always the last to be woken.)

My dad, brother, and I love roller coasters! My mom…not. She, like me, is into photography and is obsessed with trying to get our pictures on the fastest moving rides there. Not sure why but she’s done it with Splash and Big Thunder for the past like five years. I can’t even tell you how many times we’ve ridden those rides because my mom missed the picture. (Not that I’m complaining about extra rides, its just funny). Anyway, we got there at rope drop and followed the light crowd to Everest. I had never seen it in the day time; last year we did EE for extra magic night hours. So as we turned one of the corners, I found it breathtaking. There was a little bit of mist or fog or dew or something in the air that gave it a kinda like mystical look with the sun rising just off to the side of it. But my mom had my camera as my dad, brother, and I took off quicker to get in line. So my photos would have to wait. After one ride on EE I decided I had to go again. The wait wasn’t bad at all, and my mom had gotten us 4 fast passes. So my brother and I rode it again and again and again and again. Did you get that? That’s five rides in like an hour. I love that ride!

We hadn’t eaten yet so we decided to find food. I had remembered seeing, okay well smelling, a counter service as we were headed over. I smelled the most delish cinnamon rolls. I needed one! Plus it was really close. So we stopped over there. My dad got in line while the rest of us…well here’s what my mom and I did…

I’m not sure what I’m doing here or why I decided to do this, but my mom thought it was hilarious.
I ate the biggest, sweetest, yummiest cinnamon roll ever! The whole thing too! It was as good as it smelled. And I ate it fast. So while I was waiting for my family to finish eating I decided to head back to the spot where I saw the magnificent view of EE and take some photos. This place was conveniently down the path from where we were eating. Here are my two favorites…

the second one I did a little bit of editing in photoshop, just some color correcting and contrast stuff which is why it looks different than the first.

After eating we decided to go to the Safari because my mom has never been to it before. Normally, before EE, my dad and I would wake up early and go to the Safari because my brother was never interested so my mom would stay with him. But this time he wanted to go. So off to the Safari! I decided I wanted to try to take some pictures of the animals. And I’m not kidding here, nearly every picture I had is of an animal butt. I didn’t try to do this at first, but every animal I saw had its butt facing me. I don’t think they wanted their picture taken. See, here’s proof…

There were a lot of animals out, I just didn’t get many good pictures because I was too interested in watching them. Hahah oh well. After the Safari we headed into the back of the park. I wanted to do Primeval Whirl, but my brother wanted to do Dinosaur. My dad and I hate Dinosaur, but my brother hates Primeval Whirl. Some how, my family convinced me to do Dinosaur. We basically walked right on the ride, and I decided I’d give it a try with my eyes open. I remember the first ten seconds of the ride, then its all dark after that. Hahah! Oh! Wanna see how much I hate it? Here’s the picture…

My family is in the first row. From right to left, its my brother, my mom, me and my dad.
Yeah…don’t forget, I’m 17… Next we went over to Primeval Whirl. I was a happy camper after getting off that ride. My brother ended up liking it, mostly because he could slam me into the seat as we whipped around I think. My parents weren’t big fans of the spinning and whipping. Next stop, the Nemo show! I watch those Travel Channel Disney shows all the time, I’ve got them saved on my DVR so I can watch them whenever I want. And the Nemo show looked amazing to me. Plus my brother loves Nemo (yeah he’s 14). So we had to stop there. I loved it! So did my brother. What did my parents think of it you ask? Ask my dad if we even saw the show and he’ll say no. He slept through the whole thing!! My mom liked the parts she saw as she fell asleep at some point too. Oh well, just an excuse to go back and see it again! I thought it was so imaginative. I loved the puppets and the whole idea of it.
By this time we were pretty hungry. So we tried to find a restaurant that would suit our family. I swear we walked around the whole park before we ended up at the restaurant I suggested from the beginning, Pizzafari. It sounded exactly like Pizza Planet to me, and we eat there every trip. So we wasted easily an hour walking around when we could have just gone straight there. Why don’t they listen to me sometimes?
My family isn’t huge into the rest of Animal Kingdom so we decided to head out and go over to MGM (or Hollywood Studios I guess…) for our dinner reservations and the rest of the night. More to come later!