This is your 24th Anniversary? But you're so young!~A 5/12 TR!*PTR link pg 49, 9/14!*

[MEK]

So Jen I'm a little bit of a slacker, but I made and I must say I LOVE the title! I can't wait to hear how that came about. Love flat Stanley too!

 

[jojosmom23]

im here, just finished your last report!

 

[Dugette]

I'm here and ready to hear about your 24th anniversary trip!

 

[Tracy161]

I'm still catching up on your last TR, but at least I've arrived on time to this one!!! Cannot wait to read all about it! Regardless of what you say, I really love your intro picture, and your outfit is super cute!

 

[teekathepony]

Whoops! Missed that this had started! I'm here now and ready for more!!

 

[kansasdisneygal]

I'm here!!! I can't wait to hear about your "24th" anniversary trip!

I love the Flat Stanley project. In one of my education classes in college we were given a Flat Stanley and our professor gave us a a scavenger hunt to do around our small college town. All our pictures had to have the scavenger hunt place and Flat Stanley in the pictures. There were prizes for most creative photos, most completed, etc. So fun!

 

[xoktenox]

Jen, I'm here! I haven't posted on your other reports in a while but know I was there and reading, just no time to comment! If I don't comment, don't hate me lol Can't wait to hear about your trip!!!

 

[407-W-DISNEY]

Page 4!!! Yikes!
So Sorry....I'm here!

I was on vacation last week...and was trying to stay OFF the comptuer as much as I could!

Can't wait to start reading!!

edit - phew! I only missed the intro! I don't feel soo bad now!
as others have said -you do look pretty in the photo...and your dress is really pretty!
Did your DH wear his Red sox hat this time...and did he get comments like on your other trip...although they were not as bad as last Sept/Oct (ha, ha) at least I think it was you that reported that...I hope it was you...LOL

 

[Nermel9]

Count me in! How exciting

Thanks for joining!

So Jen I'm a little bit of a slacker, but I made and I must say I LOVE the title! I can't wait to hear how that came about. Love flat Stanley too!

That's ok, just glad you're here! I'm ready to post my first update soon, so you haven't missed anything!

im here, just finished your last report!

Thanks for joining!

I'm here and ready to hear about your 24th anniversary trip!

Yay, glad you're here!

I'm still catching up on your last TR, but at least I've arrived on time to this one!!! Cannot wait to read all about it! Regardless of what you say, I really love your intro picture, and your outfit is super cute!

Yay, thanks for joining, hope you're enjoying my last TR! Aww, thank you, that's so nice! I do like that dress a lot, but the rest of the picture...eh!

 

[Nermel9]

Whoops! Missed that this had started! I'm here now and ready for more!!

Yay, so happy you're here!

I'm here!!! I can't wait to hear about your "24th" anniversary trip!

I love the Flat Stanley project. In one of my education classes in college we were given a Flat Stanley and our professor gave us a a scavenger hunt to do around our small college town. All our pictures had to have the scavenger hunt place and Flat Stanley in the pictures. There were prizes for most creative photos, most completed, etc. So fun!

Yay, glad you're here!

Isn't the Flat Stanley project adorable? That's so cute, having college students do it too, what a great idea!

Jen, I'm here! I haven't posted on your other reports in a while but know I was there and reading, just no time to comment! If I don't comment, don't hate me lol Can't wait to hear about your trip!!!

Hey, so happy you're here! Don't worry, I don't mind if you don't comment a lot, I know you're busy planning your wedding and everything! Just glad you're here!

Page 4!!! Yikes!
So Sorry....I'm here!

I was on vacation last week...and was trying to stay OFF the comptuer as much as I could!

Can't wait to start reading!!

edit - phew! I only missed the intro! I don't feel soo bad now!
as others have said -you do look pretty in the photo...and your dress is really pretty!
Did your DH wear his Red sox hat this time...and did he get comments like on your other trip...although they were not as bad as last Sept/Oct (ha, ha) at least I think it was you that reported that...I hope it was you...LOL

Yay, glad you're here, I can't believe this is on page 4 already and I haven't even started!

Thank you, I actually really like that dress, it's cute, but I don't like anything else about that picture!

Haha, yep, my DH wore a Red Sox hat the whole time, and yes, people made comments...a lot of people who like the Tampa Bay Rays made horrible comments to him, and he was getting SO mad...at least with the Yankees, there is a rivalry, but Rays fans are getting out of control, hello, they've been good for like 4 years, let's not get crazy here!

I'm ready to finally do an update! I'm so excited!!!

 

[Nermel9]

The One Where WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!​

Hi everyone! Yay, I'm finally doing an update, I'm so excited to be getting started with this TR! I've decided to borrow an idea from a couple of other TR's I'm following (IheartDDuck and marDgreen88 come to mind!) for my chapter titles and do them "Friends" style and start them off with "The One Where/With..."! I'm so addicted to Friends lately, and I was constantly talking about it when we were down there, so it just seems appropriate!

(Plus, I'm really bad at coming up with cute chapter titles, and this makes it a little easier! So I hope if any of you did this first, you don't mind that I'm borrowing this idea!)

Ok, right, update!

So our trip begins like most of our other trips. Getting up at some ridiculous hour of the morning to catch the first flight out of Hartford. Every single trip, I tell myself it will be the last one, and then I plan another trip and what happens? We're taking the earliest flight to Florida. I can't help it, why should I fly down there in the middle of the day and lose all of those Disney hours when we can get there at 9:30 or 10 am and have basically the entire day?

I had my alarm set for 2:30 and went to bed around 11:30 when poor Brandon got home from work. Because I'm a paranoid freak, I had both my regular clock set, and my Iphone alarm set for a few minutes after. Then I set them and reset them and checked them about 100 times each. I'm SO OCD when it comes to alarms, I'm always so afraid they won't go off!

Before I knew it, my alarm was going off at 2:30 am...and I didn't jump out of bed! Usually when it's a Disney morning, I'm am out of bed and ready to go, but this morning, I thought "I'll just stay in bed for a few more minutes" and guess what happened? I fell back asleep!!! And then guess what happened after that?

The alarm on my Iphone didn't go off!!!

Luckily, because I'm OCD about alarms, I had Brandon set his alarm for like, 10 minutes after my first 2, so his went off and we both woke up and started to get ready. I was in shock that I almost slept in, and I already lost 10 precious minutes, so I kind of had to rush around a little bit!

Finally, we were ready and out the door and on our way to the airport! By that time I was wide awake and couldn't contain my excitement...we were on our way to DISNEY WORLD!!!!

On our drive up to the airport, we were talking about our trip, and what we wanted to do and for some reason, about halfway there, the subject of our AP's came up. Brandon said "we don't need those, right?"



Uh, what?

"Umm...yeah, we need them, how do you think we're going to get into the parks?"

"Well, we have to turn around, I didn't bring mine. I thought it was expired."

"ARE YOU INSANE, THEY DON'T EXPIRE UNTIL OCTOBER, WE CAN'T TURN AROUND NOW!!!!!"

I was about in full panic mode at that moment, until I remembered...I'm a DIS'er, I can figure this out. So I pulled out my phone, got on DIS Theme Parks and Strategies board and looked for the Tickets sticky thread...sure enough, there was a whole section on replacing lost tickets, and what to do if you lose an AP! All we would have to do was go to a ticket window and he could show his ID and get a new one printed out. Whew. Crisis averted.

Before I knew it, we were at the airport, parking in one of the economy long term lots, which might as well be in another city, they are so far from the airport, and hopping a shuttle with our luggage for the ride over to the terminal. We did all of our normal airport things, checked our luggage, went through security, ate at McDonald's and then we went over to the Southwest Gate and sat down to wait to board the plane. I got bored in about 5 minutes, so I went to the window to look at the plane.

Oooh, pretty!
​

I was watching them get ready to put the luggage on the plane, and I spotted my suitcase! So I zoomed in really close and took a picture:

See that brown one on the top with the pink zipper? Yep. That's mine.

Like the dork that I am, I ran over to Brandon and showed him that I saw my suitcase, where he proceeded to make fun of me, and THEN take his own picture of it and post it to Facebook.

Once we joked about how we really need to get lives if we were that excited about seeing my luggage, we were ready to board. We were in the A boarding group, I think we were A 45 and 46 or something, so we were some of the first ones on the plane. We grabbed our seats and I hoped no one sat with us, and somehow, we lucked out and no one did!

We took off on time and we quickly got out of the gray, rainy CT weather and were greeted with a beautiful sunrise in the clouds.

We had a great flight and we landed in Orlando 30 minutes early!!! We're here!

I get really, really impatient when we're waiting to get off the plane...people take their sweet time and it's really hard for me to wait for them...hello people, I'm ready to get to Disney World, let's GO!!!

Of course, we made it off the plane and I was all but running to the mini monorail!

After our short ride on the monorail, we grabbed our bags, checked in with Alamo and went outside to get our car. It was maybe 9:30 by then, maybe a little earlier, but it was already HOT outside!

They didn't have a great selection of cars this time, and since I don't care what car we pick, I let Brandon decide like I always do. He picked a lovely silver Chevy Malibu, which I think we've had before and liked.

We hopped in and began the short drive over to Disney World!!!

I remember when we took our first trip together in 2008, that drive from the airport to WDW felt like it took forever. I remember it being at least an hour, and we went some really weird way to get there, but now it takes maybe 25 minutes. It seemed like no time at all before we were being welcomed by the most beautiful sign in the world:

There is just something about seeing that sign that brings tears to your eyes, doesn't it? I was just SO happy to be there, I got really emotional. I was so happy to be back in my favorite place on earth!

We drove straight to the Beach Club to check in. We were assuming our room wouldn't be ready, because it was so early, but it was! And our CM gave us anniversary buttons! Woo hoo!

We went back outside, grabbed all of our bags, and went up to our room where I was prepared to open the door and instantly be in love with our room and...I was kind of disappointed. I know, I was shocked too!

Well, first of all, it only had one real bed, and then one of those weird daybeds, which I didn't like

and second, we didn't get my full balcony request. This was the balcony, this tiny little thing:

Now I understand room requests are just that, requests, and they can't all be filled, but I thought for sure we would get one. Then I got really mad at myself for not asking when we checked in if we got a full balcony, because if we didn't, we could have just waited. Oh well. I figured I could make the best of it, right? We were still at the Beach Club, the room was pretty, even if it did seem weird with only one bed

and how much time would I be spending on the balcony anyway? I decided to just suck it up and not let it get to me, and anyway, I didn't really have time to dwell on it, we had to get changed really quick and head to Epcot!

We had an 11:30 ADR at Le Cellier, and since Brandon had to get his AP situation straightened out first, we decided to hurry up and walk over to the International Gateway as soon as we got changed.

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE going into Epcot through the IG? It's so beautiful back there, I love how you can see the buildings of the France pavilion, and the walk along the water...it's so pretty and perfect, and just so Disney.

Brandon went up to a ticket window and explained his problem, and while he got that worked out, I walked around the area and looked around.

It's just so beautiful back there! It's so quiet and non-chaotic, unlike the other entrance areas to the rest of the parks!

Finally Brandon had his lovely new AP and we were about to go into Epcot! OMG, finally! EPCOT!!! The time had come that I would be going into the first park of the trip, I could barely contain myself, I had to fight back tears. (I was super emotional on this trip, I'm not sure why!) It seemed like I hadn't been there in so long, and I was just so stressed the weeks leading up to the trip, and going into Epcot was like therapy for me or something!

We swiped our AP's, went through the turnstiles, and we were in! IN A PARK! I WAS IN DISNEY WORLD!!!!

(Told you I was emotional!)

I wanted to take my time and look at the beautiful topiaries, but we had to get to Canada for our ADR!

Up next...Le Cellier!!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

I'm an over-checker of alarms too! But usually I wake up before they go off anyways!

Glad to hear that there was an easy solution to Brandon leaving his AP at home!!

I'm sorry to hear your BC room was a disappointment! The room does look a little off-balance with the daybed! Hopefully it worked out well for you!

 

[Reberella]

Following along!! I did my little cousins Flat Stanley, and it was a lot of fun! Can't wait to read more

 

[Joyciemc]

Ahhhhh! Nothing as wonderful as arriving in WDW!

That balcony is disappointing... but I think the room is very pretty! And I have major resort envy- someday I will stay at the Beach Club!

 

[xoktenox]

Ahhh you're there!!!! I think I will cry when I see the gates on our next trip...between being so overwhelmed at being back and then happiness that I'll be on my honeymoon, emotions will take over!

Epcot Can't wait to hear about your Le Cellier meal!

P.S. When are you going back?! Your dates might overlap mine!

 

[marDgreen88]

Friends titles are AWESOME. I don't even mind a little bit because it turns out it wasn't my idea first anyway! Hahah I started reading DDuck's 'Drunk Little Cucumber' TR a couple months after I started mine and I was like, oh, okay... yeah. Same thing happening. But it's cool! We can be like the Dis-Friends club. Best show ever meets best place ever.

I'm the same way with alarms! Especially if it's for something really important! OMG AP FREAKOUT. Hahah! Maybe Brandon was confused about the meaning of the world 'annual' haha!

THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN DISNEY THERAPY!!!

 

[cbcrockett]

I'm here! And I prefer to think I'm right on time since you just posted the first update (instead of being 4 pages behind)

Can't wait for more! It will help get me through the next 2 weeks and 3 days until we take DD to the World for the first time!

 

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

YAY! Another TR!! Joining in!!

 

[Missyrose]

Hi Jen, I'm here! I know you weren't thrilled with the balcony on your room, but WOW(!), that BC room is gorgeous! What a perfect backdrop for an anniversary trip.

I feel the same way you do about Disney. The more I go, the more obsessed I get (and I have the DVC contract to prove it! ). My Disney playlist is on an almost-constant loop in my car. And when I was sick with the flu last week, Franklin watched the 2012 Disney planning video with me to try and make me feel better. Speaking of Franklin, I got my "refuse to say I'm addicted to Disney" significant other onto the Dis, I think Brandon should join us!

What happened with Brandon is exactly why I love having an AP, I don't have to be so bonkers about losing it (it's ALWAYS replaceable).

And finally, I love the IG. It feels like a private entrance to Epcot. It's always so peaceful and beautiful back there. Sigh. These next 143 days need to move quicker!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I agree with Marissa, we should just have this DIS Friends club, because anything related to Friends is awesome! Case and point:

Ross: Joey what would you do if you were omnipotent?

Joey: I would kill myself!

Ross: No, OMNIpotent.

Joey: Dude, I'm so sorry.

Every day I could watch this.

That is weird that you guys had one bed. Was it at least a king bed? I'd be okay with it if it was a king bed.

Le Cellier. So good. Yet so long since I've eaten there.