1/12 : DTD p2 - The "I DID IT! I got DBF Addicted to Disney" TR; now with FOOD PORN!

[princess_momma]

Hello!! I'm back!! I wish I would've gone to Exposition Hall!! Looks fabulous! I love when they have little scenes that you can be in and take pictures with!! We did that in Andy's Room in DHS to meet Buzz and Woody!

And I LOVE your promise ring! My friend actually gave me a committment ring for my baby shower with my son's birthstone which is also yours! So cute! I have come to love the citrine! (Is that what its called?)

I hate that crane in your pics! I'm glad it was gone by the end of your trip!! Its such an eye sore!!

And I really wish I could see the video you posted of the changes they'll do!! I'm at work so I can't!! But it sounds crazy and exciting!! Yay!!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Ugh, that stinks about the family at Philharmagic! But otherwise great update...looks like you got a lot done! The picture of Craig with Buzz is cute.

We've never gone in the Exposition Hall. I'll have to keep that in mind for our next trip...it looks pretty neat!

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Great update! I am so glad to hear how accurate Ridemax is! That's awesome! What a great way to start your vacation...nice and laid back! Perfect!

 

[Belle_princess]

LOVE your trip report! I can't wait for new updates!! Keep 'em coming!

Kristin

 

[disneyloverforchrist]

Glad to hear that your bf loved it!!!!! My hubby was the same way! We went on our honeymoon to disney and he had only been once before for like a few days and didn't like it. He FELL IN LOVE with Disney while we were there!!!! We are going for our anniversary in a few months now and he is seriously JUST as excited as I am....hopefully he thinks of an AWESOME surprise like Craig did!

Cant wait to hear more!!!

 

[ibedancin824]

Great Updates! Glad you had a better time at Park Fare!!!

Great Pics of the parade!

 

[Vallie]

Hi all! I'm just about to post part one of Sea World but I wanted to share my ridemax review with everyone, especially those interested in posting it!

I actually posted my review in the Ridemax Thread on the Theme Parks Attractions and Strategy Board so I'm just copying and pasting for you guys!!

Ridemax Review

Just wanted to say I was at Disney Aug 22-Aug 31 and I purchased and used ridemax and it was AMAZING!!

We only used it to plan parts of our days for some days (ie a morning at MK with all the fantasy land rides then left the rest of the day free)
and on somedays we used it for the whole day and it was ALWAYS right or the lines were shorter then what was on the sheet! The tips were so so helpful!

DBF and I were both a little hesitant to try it at first because we were unsure if it would work, or if we wanted our day on a schedual like that but we were so so happy we got it and are 100% satified and will definitly use it again on our next trip!! We got to do everything we wanted to do and even got to see most of the big rides twice by getting extra FPs here and there and we sometimes added in a ride or two if a line was really short or stopped and saw characters etc. we found as long as we did the rides in order suggested and around the time suggested it worked perfectly! We didnt feel rushed or annoyed to follow a schedual at all, we didnt follow it to a tee we just used the general order they suggested and it worked!! In fact DBF who was most hesitant actually said he wished he had ridemax on the days we went to SeaWorld and Universal .

One thing to keep in mind, we found it to be alot of walking from one end of the park to the other so it might not be good for people who dont want to walk all over or who have little ones but for us (two twenty-somethings) we were fine with it! I think there is a "slow" option on ridemax that keeps you in the same area tho.. so that might be a solution to cut down on some walking?

Bottomeline: WE LOVE RIDEMAX!

Bonus: One more reason for loving Ridemax is that its proving to be a huge help in helping me remember what order we did stuff in when Im doing my TR!

uP next: Sea World Part One

 

[Vallie]

Hello!! I'm back!! I wish I would've gone to Exposition Hall!! Looks fabulous! I love when they have little scenes that you can be in and take pictures with!! We did that in Andy's Room in DHS to meet Buzz and Woody!

And I LOVE your promise ring! My friend actually gave me a committment ring for my baby shower with my son's birthstone which is also yours! So cute! I have come to love the citrine! (Is that what its called?)

I hate that crane in your pics! I'm glad it was gone by the end of your trip!! Its such an eye sore!!

And I really wish I could see the video you posted of the changes they'll do!! I'm at work so I can't!! But it sounds crazy and exciting!! Yay!!

welcome back!!! im loving your TR girl!! I didnt even see Andy's room We didnt go too far into Pixar Place actually.. next time for sure!

and thank you!! when is Landon's bday!? Im not even sure what its called, I usually hate it but this ring is so pretty it actually looks nice haha

I hope u have checked out the video by now! its amazing!

Ugh, that stinks about the family at Philharmagic! But otherwise great update...looks like you got a lot done! The picture of Craig with Buzz is cute.

We've never gone in the Exposition Hall. I'll have to keep that in mind for our next trip...it looks pretty neat!

it does stink but thats okay we ended up seeing it again as the last ride of the trip and it was much more magical

you should check it out for sure. its a nice little spot

Great update! I am so glad to hear how accurate Ridemax is! That's awesome! What a great way to start your vacation...nice and laid back! Perfect!

thank you! ridemax is amazing!! and it was a great first day

LOVE your trip report! I can't wait for new updates!! Keep 'em coming!

Kristin

thank u so much they're comin up next!

Glad to hear that your bf loved it!!!!! My hubby was the same way! We went on our honeymoon to disney and he had only been once before for like a few days and didn't like it. He FELL IN LOVE with Disney while we were there!!!! We are going for our anniversary in a few months now and he is seriously JUST as excited as I am....hopefully he thinks of an AWESOME surprise like Craig did!

Cant wait to hear more!!!

aww thats so sweet!! im sure he willl!!! trust me i was super surprised that Craig was able to think that up all by himself!!

Great Updates! Glad you had a better time at Park Fare!!!

Great Pics of the parade!

thank u so much

 

[Vallie]

Day 2: Sea World Part 1

On Day 2 we decided to head out to Sea World. This was all my idea, Craig had no desire to go but of course came along to make me happy! I wasn’t sure what to expect with Sea World, we have a Marine Land near us which is the same sorta thing, whales, dolphins and roller coasters, but Marine Land is pretty brutal. Its old, theres not much to do and you can see that the animals aren’t taken care of. I originally wanted to spend this day doing

Discovery Cove to do the dolphin swim, but it was way too expensive so we decided to give Sea World a go instead.

We used Mears for transportation and they were there right on time at the front of PoP. Into our shuttle we went and a very short time later we were at Sea World.

We walked over to the front and took a pic in front of the light house. Already Craig was unimpressed, especially after being in the Magic Kingdom the day before.

We had prebought the tickets and got a great deal, we got in for the same price as kids! The tickets worked fine at the gate. So into Sea World we went.

A few minutes after we entered they played the National Anthem. Craig and I weren’t sure what to do, as we’ve never heard O Canada played at any theme park we’ve been to before, btu everyone else stopped so we did too. After that was done it was time for what I was most excited for!

The one thing I really wanted to do was feed the dolphins. We walked right over to Dolphin Cove, stopping to see the flamingos on the way.

We spent a couple minutes watching them then back on our way to Dolphin Cove. We got there pretty quickly, but it wasn’t open yet! They did have a dolphin feeding going on so we went and watched a few minutes of that.

Then we went over to the StingRay exhibit right beside it. It was pretty cool, they had baby sting rays and adult ones. It was really neat to watch the way they swim, they actually lift out of the water.

Around 9:30 they opened Dolphin Cove. We were the second ones in line so I was pretty excited! We bought our fish, and they gave us a quick review of what we needed to do and some safety rules and to the ledge we went to meet the dolphins!

Dolphin Cove was AWESOME! It was $7 for a tray of fish, but they gave us quite a bit of time with the dolphins, definitely more then we were expecting! The dolphins were very eager to eat and they were so playful and interactive! So many of them were coming up to us! Craig, who was somewhat nervous to do this had a great time too. He said it was a really fun experience. We both really liked it!!

After that we headed to our first show of the day, Horizons.

To be honest, we thought the camera had broke (turns out it was just full!) so we spent most of the show trying to figure out what was wrong with it!

So we didn’t really catch that much of the actual show, but we did catch the dolphins and the acrobatics. We liked what we did see though!

After the show we headed over to the other side of the park.

uP next: Shamu, Games and Raw Chicken!

 

[Nicole786]

Wow I can't wait to read more about sea world!! I cant wait for dolphin cove!!

 

[wdwgirl03]

LOL, we went to Sea World last May and I totally forgot they played the national anthem. That was kind of strange.

You got some awesome pictures of the dolphin cove! They are soooo cute.

 

[ibedancin824]

Seaworld looks so fun! I wish we had time to fit it in!! Where did you find tickets so cheap if you don't mind me asking??

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

That was great that they let you feed the dolphins...when we went, you couldn't do that! Did you know that you could pet the sting rays? They are so soft...they feel like velvet! Did they let you pet the dolphins while you were there or just feed them? We are undecided what to do on our last day when we go in December...maybe Sea World again! We don't fly out until 7:30 so we have most of the day!

 

[princess_momma]

welcome back!!! im loving your TR girl!! I didnt even see Andy's room We didnt go too far into Pixar Place actually.. next time for sure!

It was just a string of good luck that led us into Andy's room!! But you'll have to wait until I get to that part of my TR!!

Anyway, I'm LOVING yours too! I'm super jealous about your Sea World day. I wish we could've have one. When I was little I wanted to be a dolphin trainer or a marine biologist. I was just so in love with the ocean and I love killer whales and dolphins! I think they are just so beautiful and majestic!

I can't wait to see more. And of course, majestic or not...Sea World is still no Disney! And I'd choose Disney ANY day!! So glad you got to do both!!

 

[inkedupmomma]

Our First Taste of Disney



So after getting all out stuff packed up and recovering from the sweet surprises we were off on our way to 1900 Park Fare! I figured schedualing a late breakfast with some characters would be a great way to ease Craig into all the Disney stuff!

We took the buses to Magic Kingdom, and then headed over to the resport boat launches for the Grand Floridian Resort. The boat ride over was pretty fun, I had never been at any boat at Disney World. Craig thought it was impressive that they had boats AND monorails AND busses going to the resorts and parks! Hehe

Heres some pics of the ride over...


We got to the Grand Floridian a bit early so we went to the podium and they gave us one of those buzzers. We went to wander in the gift shops and lobby and after no time we were called. We both got our picture taken and then we were seated. We both thought the restaurant was so so pretty.

Here’s us in resturant lobby area

If you want to read my review about the food itself, you can do that by clicking HERE!!


So our waitress came over, and then we were off to get our first round of food.

Throughout the breakfast we were visited twice by Mary Poppins, Alice, the Mad Hatter, Pooh and Tigger! We both liked Mary Poppins the best! She was very in character and very sweet.



Next was Alice, she was pretty good but not as authentic as Mary Poppins. I for some reason forgot that Alice is English in the movie and I said something like, I didn’t know Alice was English and she looked at me strangely and she was like yes yes she is. And i was like o.. okay then! I was kinda outta it at that morning I don’t know how i could forget that.. even craig gave me “the look”


Next came Pooh and Tigger who were very cute, and Craigs first fuzzy character meeting!


Last to visit us was Mad Hatter! I was pretty excited to meet him! He was pretty crazy! He was talking to some teens at the table beside us about piercing their ears or something like that and we he came to us he took one look at me and looked back at them and said... and said some people even pierce their nose... and then he turned to Craig and said very loudly AND SOME EVEN TO THIER LIPS! OH MY GOD! Lol Craig wasn’t very impressed. He posed for some pics with us and then noticed I had my happy anniversary button on and yelled out well HAPPPY ANNIVERSARY! And then proceeded to very loudly asked me if I was just with him because he was rich lol I thought he was pretty funny.


After we finished eating we wandered around the resort for a bit and took some pics. The Grand Floridian is sooo beautiful! Its definitely my second choice as to where I’d like to stay next time (first choice is the Poly!)

Heres some pics we took around the Grand Floridian


And then we went and caught the resort monorail. Next stop.... The Magic Kingdom!

dont feel bad. i totally forgot she was from england too, and was like ***?? then i sat back and thought about it and relaized I was wrong..whatevs! great pics! i think 1900 has one of he best character interactions by far!

So what does everyone think of the new annoucement of the fantasyland expansion?!
Idk how I feel just yet.. kinda excited..kinda bummed they aren't going bigger and more bad ***..especially for the year 2012. glad they are ridding toon town.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08W5Os-Wnj0

I think it looks FANTASTIC and I teared up just watching it! Craig has already agreed we are definitly 100% going back in 2012 for this, the new star tours and the new harry potter land! sooo happy!

I know alot of people do not like that toontown is being demolished but personally I didnt really like toon town and felt it didnt fit in with the rest of the MK. I was very happy to hear that none of the other fantasyland rides would be touched, if that was the case I would not be supportive AT ALL!
that was my only worry! that they would get rid of snow white and peter pan.. i owulda been outraged!
I think what I'm most excited for is the Little Mermaid ride and Im sure Craig will be excited for Gastons Pub! hehe

The only thing I dont like about the expansion is the Dumbo thing. Dumbo to me is such a strong MK icon and I think the thought of two dumbos sounds kind of weird. I think the circus thing sounds really good but I think there should only be one Dumbo! And im kinda sad that Dumbo will no longer be behind the castle But I'm sure they will make it looks fantasic and I wont be complaining as soon as I see it!

Anyways whats everyone elses thoughts?!

i am sure it will be magical, but like I said, I think they could have incorporated bigger themes.. or more rides..or something. seems so cheesed down for the year 2012

 

[inkedupmomma]

After we were done in Tomorrowland we just had free time until Dinner. We first checked out one of the gift shops to try on some hats!
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Guess he doesn’t like that one!

Then we wandered on over to Toon Town to check out Mickey and Minnies Houses. We both thought they were very cute but we liked Minnie’s house better! The only thing that sucked was the crazy amount of people in there! Holy Clousterphobia!

Craig took this pic because he thought it was cute that a little bird was hiding in the mouth!

We wandered around Toon Town for a bit more but didn’t see much there. Its weird to think next time we’re there it wont exist! Kinda wished we had taken more pics!

We caught the train back to the front of the park

SO CUTE!

and went to check out Exposition Hall. It was completely empty!



We both loved it in here! So many cute photo ops, a great place to see some Disney movie history and they even play little movie clips. We saw one other person in there while we were there! We got her to take this pic of us.

We thought it was a shame that not more people came to appreciate this area.
OMG.. I totalllly forgot about Exposition Hall! even after I kept saying, don't forget to got there thsi trip Jenn! Great pics though!

After Exposition Hall we headed out to get some Taco Salads for dinner at Pecos Bill. It was sooo good and if you wanna read my review please check out my dining review!

After dinner it was time to hit Splash Mountain. I was so excited because I hadn’t been on since I was a kid, last time I went it was closed for refurbs.

We both LOVED it and the songs were caught in our head all day! We didn’t get a drop of water on us either!
We just rode that for the first time and loved it too!!
After Splash it was time for Spectro Magic. We couldn’t find a spot in front so we asked a cast member and they suggested we go to Pecos Bill and watch it. There were a couple others there and we just copied them by standing on a stool and watching over the fence.

We (well more me) were both in awe of how beautiful Spectro was! It was wonderful! I had never seen it before!
It is my fave!
Continued in Next Post.

Heres the top 10 spectro pics. They aren’t nearly as good as the day parade!

After Spectro we decided to skip Wishes because we were tired and didn’t want to be stuck in the rush afterwards so we headed back to the bus stop and soon enough we were back at POP.

We were excited because our new room was ready! We were sooo excited to have a king sized bed! and a much much closer room! it took us no time to find it! We went back to the room to watch some Stacy TV and a show on DVC membership!

Here are some pics of our wonderful preferred room!

We loved our king sized bed and especially our fridge! Yay for upgrades!!

We were both exhausted so soon enough we fell asleep.



uP next: Sea World!

AWESOME spectro pics! I love love loveee that parade!! yay for upgrades!

 

[Vallie]

LOL, we went to Sea World last May and I totally forgot they played the national anthem. That was kind of strange.

You got some awesome pictures of the dolphin cove! They are soooo cute.

haha it was kinda strange. we were like uhh.. HUH!?

they are so adorible!!

Seaworld looks so fun! I wish we had time to fit it in!! Where did you find tickets so cheap if you don't mind me asking??

it was fun! we just prebought them on the sea world orlando website. they had a special going on that you can buy adult tickets for a kids price and get a second day free for about 64 bucks. Im not sure if they still have that going on but definitly a good deal!

That was great that they let you feed the dolphins...when we went, you couldn't do that! Did you know that you could pet the sting rays? They are so soft...they feel like velvet! Did they let you pet the dolphins while you were there or just feed them? We are undecided what to do on our last day when we go in December...maybe Sea World again! We don't fly out until 7:30 so we have most of the day!

We did know we could pet the sting rays, we tried but they just kept swimming away from us! guess they didnt wanna be touched! we were gunna do the sting ray feeding too but we didnt end up getting around to it!

they did let us pet them as long as the dolphins allowed it! Craig was kinda scared to pet them so he just fed them but I got a few pats in. It was so cute!!! Its a nice place to spend the day! We went from 9am-3pm and got everything done that we wanted to do (we didnt hit any of the rides tho)

It was just a string of good luck that led us into Andy's room!! But you'll have to wait until I get to that part of my TR!!

Anyway, I'm LOVING yours too! I'm super jealous about your Sea World day. I wish we could've have one. When I was little I wanted to be a dolphin trainer or a marine biologist. I was just so in love with the ocean and I love killer whales and dolphins! I think they are just so beautiful and majestic!

I can't wait to see more. And of course, majestic or not...Sea World is still no Disney! And I'd choose Disney ANY day!! So glad you got to do both!!

I wanted to be a marine biologist too! haha dolphins are orcas are just beautiful animals! and I would def choose Disney too! no comparision!

dont feel bad. i totally forgot she was from england too, and was like ***?? then i sat back and thought about it and relaized I was wrong..whatevs! great pics! i think 1900 has one of he best character interactions by far!


i am sure it will be magical, but like I said, I think they could have incorporated bigger themes.. or more rides..or something. seems so cheesed down for the year 2012

YAYYYY you are back!!! Go start your TR now lady!!

haha okay well i dont feel too bad now. my brain just wasnt working that morning! i was too overwhelmed being there!

and 1900 PF does have great interaction!! Especially Mary Poppins!

AWESOME spectro pics! I love love loveee that parade!! yay for upgrades!

thank you!!! me too! its so magical!

 

[princess_momma]

I wanted to be a marine biologist too! haha dolphins are orcas are just beautiful animals! and I would def choose Disney too! no comparision!!

How funny! We have so much in common!!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

Hey hun!! So sorry I've been missing for like 2 weeks. All my time's been going towards school, school work, and work! I barely have time to sleep! I just caught up on all your updates though!! If you think the madd hatter is funny then look him up on youtube for disneyland, he's apparently very popular there and has like a following and he's really really funny. Ian found the videos and they're ridiculous! I'm so glad craig had so much fun! Oh I remember doing the dolphin feeding, it was so much fun! I want to do Discovery Cove too, someday! I'm glad ridemax worked out for you. Can't wait to hear more and I promise I'll try to keep up on all of them and not let weeks pass!

 

[Vallie]

How funny! We have so much in common!!

was it the movie free willy that made you wanna be a marine biologist by any chance?! cause thats what did it for me lol

Hey hun!! So sorry I've been missing for like 2 weeks. All my time's been going towards school, school work, and work! I barely have time to sleep! I just caught up on all your updates though!! If you think the madd hatter is funny then look him up on youtube for disneyland, he's apparently very popular there and has like a following and he's really really funny. Ian found the videos and they're ridiculous! I'm so glad craig had so much fun! Oh I remember doing the dolphin feeding, it was so much fun! I want to do Discovery Cove too, someday! I'm glad ridemax worked out for you. Can't wait to hear more and I promise I'll try to keep up on all of them and not let weeks pass!

heyy no problem!! Im glad everything was ok!! I was wonderign where the heck u went!! school work is obv more important and how is your new job anyways?!