A Semi-Solo Weekend Escape - Sept 11 - Finished 2/7

[onelilspark]

Hi there! Thanks for joining me! Without further ado, I'll jump into the details!

Who:
I'm Kelly, I'll be your navigator in this adventure.

About me: I've been a Disney fanatic since I was 3 and we took our first trip. My favorite ride is Haunted Mansion. I live in Upstate NY, but up until the end of last month, I had an Annual Pass to WDW!

These 2 characters are my Mom and Dad:

They'll be making a guest appearance later in the trip report. They now live in Florida, about 45 minutes from the MK gate! We're originally from the Philadelphia area. My Dad's favorite ride is Small World (no joke...but I discovered today that he shares a birthday with Mary Blair.) My Mom's favorite is the TTA.

Why:
This trip was born out of Norybell's trip to escape Wedding Bells. I'll be getting married in 8 (!) days, so I took a solo trip with about 2 months remaining to get away from some stress. My fiance, who has been to WDW with me on other trips enjoys Disney, but he's not a fanatic. I call him an enabler. I told him I wanted to go and he said I should. So he's a keeper

When:
September 9-11. Just a Friday to Sunday trip, pretty quick. I had a free ticket!

Where:
Back in February I found a great deal on a studio at Bay Lake Tower.

If everyone's neat and pretty, on with the show!

 

[rdkeim]

Looking forward to following along!

 

[KatMark]

Kelly, I'm here. Although how you can do this with the wedding so soon, I do not know.

 

[jedijill]

I'm in! Great start and congrats on getting married!

Jill in CO

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Subbing!

 

[glennbo123]

Woo hoo!

 

[mamamary]

I'm in!

 

[onelilspark]

Looking forward to following along!

Thanks for joining!

Kelly, I'm here. Although how you can do this with the wedding so soon, I do not know.

Hi Kathy! Hah...this is the equivalent of holding my fingers in my ears, shutting my eyes and going, "LA LA LA...what wedding?"

I'm in! Great start and congrats on getting married!

Jill in CO

Thanks Jill!

Subbing!

Welcome!

Woo hoo!

Hi Glenn! Thanks for joining!

I'm in!

Welcome!

 

[onelilspark]

My flight was pretty early on Friday morning. The good news about the Rochester airport is that you never have to get there terribly early...and I live 15 minutes from the airport, so while I got up at 5am, it wasn't that bad.

Of course, when you get up that early, you tend to skip breakfast...or at least I do! So after making my way to the end of the terminal, I went and found myself some breakfast.

Obviously breakfast of champions.

Shocker of all shockers, my USAIR flight was actually on time! When we arrived at DCA, I headed over to the podium at the earlier flight to Orlando. And they had room! So I jumped on the earlier flight! I shaved off about an hour and a half! Then the thing that pushes back the plane from the gate broke...and took a half hour to fix. But I was alright, I mean, I still gained an hour of Disney time!

We deplaned, I quick used the restroom (I will leave no detail out in this TR ) and I was on my way down to Magical Express! I do really enjoy traveling through airports by myself, I can get around so quickly!

Low and behold, a bus was waiting!

We loaded a family behind me, and then the bus was off! Best morning ever!

Hold on though, don't get too excited. We were the *last* stop! It was all going so well!

Even with being the last stop, I was still checking in by the time my original flight landed, so I was pretty pleased.

Lobby of the Contemporary:

I had done online check-in, so I was waiting in the appropriate line when a CM started approaching people and led them to open CMs. By the time we had walked over, he knew my name, so he said to the CM behind the desk, "We have Ms. Onelilspark here to check in." Nice touch

Before long, I was checked-in and my room was ready! Sweet!

So I decided to head over, check out the room and unpack first.

I had booked a Bay Lake View.

A few pictures:

View:

After I was satisfied with the room, I left to head out to my first park!

View from the Elevators:

Elevator Hidden Mickey!

I decided I would walk through the Contemporary so when I came back that night I would know how to get back to my room!

This was the great view from the bridge to the Contemporary!

So far, I was really digging Bay Lake Tower.

Up Next: My first park!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Wow, BLT looks awesome! I am really drawn to it mainly for those views!

Yay for your wedding being soon!

 

[hstrickland]

Kelly! Followed over from the dining report! Hope all is well...sure you are planning away!!! Not long now

 

[jwwi]

Great start to your TR. BLT looks very nice, how nice to be able to get the earlier flight. Your wedding date is getting so close now.

 

[KatMark]

Glad you wer eable to get an earlier flight. Nice pictures of your room and view.

 

[onelilspark]

Wow, BLT looks awesome! I am really drawn to it mainly for those views!

Yay for your wedding being soon!

Spoiler alert: I *loved* BLT!

Kelly! Followed over from the dining report! Hope all is well...sure you are planning away!!! Not long now

Hi! Thanks for coming over! We're now 5 days away!!

Great start to your TR. BLT looks very nice, how nice to be able to get the earlier flight. Your wedding date is getting so close now.

Thanks, I can't believe the date is almost here!

Glad you wer eable to get an earlier flight. Nice pictures of your room and view.

I was so excited when I was on the earlier flight!!

 

[onelilspark]

I made my way down to the buses to go out to my first park: Animal Kingdom

I didn't wait too long for a bus, but it did stop at other resorts first. If I was there all week, it would probably get annoying to the point that I wished I had a car. But for that day it was fine.

Animal Kingdom was really quiet that day, it was a little weird. So I didn't worry about grabbing FPs for anything and finally went to have lunch. By now it was getting close to 2 and I hadn't eaten anything since that morning!

Of course, I learned a very important lesson pretty quickly: when I'm by myself, I am the world's most indecisive person. I couldn't decide if I wanted Flame Tree, or Yak & Yeti...then I decided on Yak & Yeti, but couldn't decide if I wanted to try a walk up at the sit down restaurant or just go with counter service.

On my walk back to Yak & Yeti, I snapped a few pictures:

I eventually decided on counter service as I was pretty hungry and wanted my food quickly!

My full thoughts on my food can be found in my Dining Report, so I'll just breeze through some of the details!

I wound up getting the Honey Chicken. It was good, but had way too much sauce that wasn't distributed properly.

After lunch, I headed over to Everest...obviously a wise decision on a full stomach!

It was so quiet, the single rider line wasn't even open!

I was kind of glad the line wasn't open, it had been quite a while that I had gone through the stand-by line...I usually either jump in Single Riders (Geoff hates it!) or I use a FP. I had forgotten how beautiful some of the decor was!

I'm glad to say, I made it through Everest without getting sick! But I probably won't try to do another roller coaster on a full stomach anytime soon

After my near-Yeti experience, I headed over to the Safari.

Of course, I grabbed another picture of the Tree of Life on my way

This was the "line" at the Safari around 3pm...

CRAZY! Who knew September was so dead

Now, Geoff decided to get a new camera for our honeymoon. And he let me take it on this trip, which means I went over-board with pictures on this ride! I'm just warning/apologizing in advance!

Getting their good angle:

Continued in next post...

 

[onelilspark]

...continued from prior post

OH NO!

The little one lying down by the rock is the new baby! I was so excited!

However, the older baby was excluded from playing with the younger one. I felt bad for him. Apparently it's something that elephants do though.

So these next two are my favorite pictures with the new camera. I called Geoff when I got off and said, "I can't wait to show you the pictures I got of the wart hog!" He thought I was nuts.

After the Safari ended, I started making my way to the front of the park. I did a little window shopping...

I liked this shirt, but didn't buy it...

I also snapped this shot of Everest on my way:

The main purpose of my trek to Animal Kingdom was to see the parade. I *love* the parade. I even have the music on my iPod and I jam out to it when I'm on the highway.

Between my window shopping and trying to find the perfect parade spot, I grabbed a snack to cool me down:

Then I settled in for the parade. I thought I had a great spot, right behind a wheelchair, so I knew I'd be able to see

BUT! There was a family that came in last minute...like always and decided to push me out of the way...literally. The kids were falling on me and the mother put her hands on my hips when trying to get past me to her kids. HELLO! I do not know you, keep your hands to yourself please. (In fairness, I recognize that this a particularly American trait, especially in the North East and the family did not speak English.) And when the kids were falling on me, I turned around to see the parents were oblivious, so I made a little huffing noise but figured it probably wouldn't do anything if I said anything

I had a pretty good spot though, right across from this sign:

...continued in next post...

 

[onelilspark]

And now, here's my assortment of parade pictures!

Mickey to Rafiki, come IN Rafiki!

Once I saw the last car coming, I made a break for it. What made this spot especially great is that it was right at the exit of a shop, which I of course ducked in and was able to beat the crowds out of the Animal Kingdom!

...Until I got stopped and asked to take a survey on my food at the Animal Kingdom...would I like to give my opinion on food?! Do you KNOW ME?! So obviously I took a break and decided to give my opinion. Asked a lot of questions about healthy options and variety of those options.

Up Next: Epcot!

**Note: this will most likely be the last update before I leave to get married and on my honeymoon! So sorry in advance for the break, but I promise I'll be back!

 

[KatMark]

Great update, Kelly. And I'm with Geoff -- NO EE for me ever again, empty or full stomach.

Your pictures are great (and I won't even comment on the rude people at the parade).

But I will wish you a beautiful wedding day, a wonderful honeymoon and much happiness.

 

[onelilspark]

Great update, Kelly. And I'm with Geoff -- NO EE for me ever again, empty or full stomach.

Hah...the first time he came to the Animal Kingdom I kind of *forgot* (maybe on purpose) to tell him it went backward. I'm not sure that he's really forgiven me...

Your pictures are great (and I won't even comment on the rude people at the parade).

Thanks! I think my problem is that I was brought up to behave in a certain way. And it drives me absolutely crazy when people (kids or adults) don't act that way as well. I've come to realize though that I was lucky because my Mom and Dad really drilled manners and etiquette into me when I was young.

But I will wish you a beautiful wedding day, a wonderful honeymoon and much happiness.

Thanks Kathy I promise when I return I'll come back with pictures!

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Great pictures, espcially of the safari! I can't believe how empty the park was. I hope you have a wonderful wedding and honeymoon!