*Teresa & Greg-7/1/12*Swan/Fultons/GF Marina-Epcot Character Fun-Updated*2/22*

[Icecoldpenguin]

July 5th, 2012

It was time to switch resorts for the 3rd time on this trip. What did this mean? Well it means I made a breakfast ADR early so we had to get up early and move out. I am sure my husband loved the fact that I kept doing that to him.

First things first BREAKFAST! Not just any breakfast, Chef Mickey's breakfast. This is not my favorite character breakfast but I do rather enjoy it and I have never had a bad meal. The character interaction however, well that is always so-so I think mainly because it is so kid focused. This time however we were blessed with some pixie dust! as they brought us 2 mickey cupcakes. It was a little weird to eat cupcakes at breakfast but you can bet I did it anyway.

They are always so simple but they are just so yummy!

I do love my characters and DH supports me in that endeavor so we never minds meeting them and taking pictures. We have gone to Chef Mickey's a few times now but we always love going because we get to interact with Donald, Greg's favorite character besides Brer Rabbit.

Once we left Chef Mickey's is was to to head out to Hollywood Studios. It was still busy in the parks I blame that on the holiday and that it was summer time at Disney. When we got there we had to take photopass pictures! We always take photopass pictures and especially for this trip we pre-purchased the CD. We have not always done this however so this was a new experience for us. What made it so neat for us was knowing we were going to get all the pictures we wanted we made a conscious effort to take as many photopass pictures as possible.

We had to ride Rock n Roller Coaster first! Greg loves this time and one time in off season he rode it 22 times in a row! Now I would never do that but never the less he loves the ride! The best part was trying to entertain ourselves while we waited for about 30 min. I think this guy had a great idea! Don't you?

After Rock n roller coaster we headed to Tower of Terror. I absolutely love this ride. I love creepy stuff and this ride has just enough creep without being scary. I had to take some artsy pictures first as one of the things I wanted to do was take pictures of our Bride and Groom vinyls in random places. In addition to that I just love photography and I like trying to get good shots at Disney.

While we were on the ride the cast member said something special to acknowledge our marriage. I can't remember now exactly what it was but it was something about not dying so soon!

Now it was time to go to my 2nd favorite part of the Studios...the animation building. I love it there! One of the most fun things to do is Draw and I really love getting new characters. This time around we got to draw Tigger so that was a first for me. What do you guys think?

Teresa's Tigger

Greg's Tigger

This was pretty fun to do! I also forgot that a very nice cast member stopped and asked if we wanted a picture with the Hollywood Studios sign. It is hard sometimes to get pictures of both of us and he insisted we have one so we obliged the Cast Member and I think he did a good job.

The lines were really long so we were trying to find stuff to do that would not take forever! I had never been in One Man's Dream so we went and walked around in there for a while. We actually found some pretty neat things and I rather enjoyed it the quiet.

I love the 3 Caballeros!

As we walked around the streets of america area I saw the Singing in the Rain umbrella which I had never taken a picture with so that was a must!

We finally had gotten hungry again and made a mad rush for pizza planet! I love toy story and I always forget pizza planet is there but not this time! After a late lunch we made our way over to Star Tours, my absolute favorite ride, but the lines were just far too long. I settled for a photopass picture on the speederbike since there was a photopass person there. I really wish they had a star wars magic shot.

Continues on in the next post!

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

When we left Hollywood Studios it was time to travel to the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge.

Yes we changed resorts again!

Check out this towel animal!

Once we got situated in our room we decided to take out one of the Mouser Boats. I braved taking my DSLR on the boat so I could take pictures on the water. None of the pictures are all that amazing as I did not have a great lens but I did get a few cool shots.

River Country anyone?

After we were done with the boat it was time to go and get changed to go to Epcot for dinner. We had an ADR at Le Cellier. I had heard lots of good things so I was excited to go.

While we were there I had read on the DIS that people had picked up Just Married buttons from there so I asked and they did have some that they gave me. These have been given away to another Disney Bride that wanted them though.

All I have to say is that Le Cellier was quite amazing. The pretzel breadsticks were wonderful and have only fed by soft pretzel obsession.

we had some really great food and since we had our buttons on we got some pixie dust. they brought us sparkling cider with raspberries floating in it. It was very nice.

While at Dinner we met Mike and Linda Fryer. A very nice couple from England. They were sitting at the next table during dinner and we got to talking. They were there on their anniversary I forget what number but it was a long time. They were so sweet to us and made us feel like part of their family. It was just the way they talked it was as if we were their kids. They wanted to see wedding pictures and we only had a few but we showed them. They were staying at the Grand Floridian and we were not sure we would see them again but we were blown away by their kindness.

After dinner it was time to head out and go play some putt putt! We love Fantasia Mini Golf only this time we headed out to play the fairways course which looks a lot like a normal golf course. That course is really hard!! We had a good time though even though we both finished tied at +4 over par.

After that it was time to head back to the lodge and get some shut eye!

Coming Up: Keys to the Kingdom tour...& secrets!

 

[djsmith]

loved reading ur latest trip report!

bet greg was happy wi all the early mornings to move/have breakfast but its worth it (well it would be to me anywayz)

love the little cupcakes from chef mickey's, cupcakes r great at breakfast
i was considering going here for a group meal on our wedding night, thought it'd be a great way to get pictures with the characters in our wedding attire and the cuisine is best suited to our tastes but i dunno if we'd feel a bit overdressed/out of place in our wedding outfits if the characters r geared more to kids, what other dinner interactions would u recommend and is there any particular characters that go to them?

The pictures r gr8, its actually a gd idea to prepurchase the cd an get every photo on it instead of having to pick which ones you want to purchase either at the parks or when u get home, an to loads of photos

i could ride rock n rollercoaster over an over again its always been 2 busy when i'v went to we'v riden it once then moved on2 something else. Could ride toy story midway mania all day as well but again its always too busy, tower of terror on the other hand theres been may nights where its been so quiet we'v walked on an off an on an off several times in a row until we jus couldn do it any more lol i agree its kinda creepy but not too scary so its ok for me *** i scare easily lol

i must try the animation studio next time i'm not gr8 at drawing but i'v never done it b4

the wilderness villas looks so peaceful!!!! good choice

love all the magic that the just married buttons got you, must really make ur honeymoon feel extra special.

as always i look forward to reading more

Debra
xXx

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

We never had any issues with it especially once the Dress was picked up by Carolyn Allen's to be cleaned and we sent the boxes of wedding stuff home via fed ex with the help of the concierge. We always had the bellhops come get our stuff and then they would just transfer it to the new resort then the bellhop from the new resort would bring it to our room. It was really fun and it allowed us to feel like we were on an adventure.

That sounds so easy! I'm very glad to hear it!

Your day at DHS sounds like my idea of a perfect day at Hollywood Studios. Really enjoying the TR!

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

loved reading ur latest trip report!

bet greg was happy wi all the early mornings to move/have breakfast but its worth it (well it would be to me anywayz)

love the little cupcakes from chef mickey's, cupcakes r great at breakfast
i was considering going here for a group meal on our wedding night, thought it'd be a great way to get pictures with the characters in our wedding attire and the cuisine is best suited to our tastes but i dunno if we'd feel a bit overdressed/out of place in our wedding outfits if the characters r geared more to kids, what other dinner interactions would u recommend and is there any particular characters that go to them?

The pictures r gr8, its actually a gd idea to prepurchase the cd an get every photo on it instead of having to pick which ones you want to purchase either at the parks or when u get home, an to loads of photos

i could ride rock n rollercoaster over an over again its always been 2 busy when i'v went to we'v riden it once then moved on2 something else. Could ride toy story midway mania all day as well but again its always too busy, tower of terror on the other hand theres been may nights where its been so quiet we'v walked on an off an on an off several times in a row until we jus couldn do it any more lol i agree its kinda creepy but not too scary so its ok for me *** i scare easily lol

i must try the animation studio next time i'm not gr8 at drawing but i'v never done it b4

the wilderness villas looks so peaceful!!!! good choice

love all the magic that the just married buttons got you, must really make ur honeymoon feel extra special.

as always i look forward to reading more

Debra
xXx

That sounds so easy! I'm very glad to hear it!

Your day at DHS sounds like my idea of a perfect day at Hollywood Studios. Really enjoying the TR!

Thanks guys for reading along I have really stunk at updating but I definitely want to finish. So hopefully I can get more up for you to read soon.

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

July 7th, 2012

This would be the day that we would get to go on our much anticipated Keys to the Kingdom Tour. This would also be the day that we WAKE UP LATE!!!!

This was not good because we knew that they would just start without us and what if we could not get on another tour. I was in the most panic I have ever been at in Disney World. It was horrible I wanted to cry.

We were watching the clock like HAWKS and the boat from the Wilderness Lodge could just not get there fast enough. It was on this day that I wished the monorail went to the Lodge. Normally this does not bother me but on this day OH LORDY did it.

When we got there we were about 10 min. late. We ran into city hall and they gave us our name tags took our lunch orders and gave us our little head set thingies. Luckily our tour had not left yet they were right outside by the fire house. When we got to our group our tour guide of course had to pick on us which was fine. I did not care about being teased because we had made it!

The tour began and it was so interesting to hear all of the little stories. As we made our way up main street we were about half way up when the park gates opened. One of the things I learned was that guests come in and they still try to run straight to tomorrowland. However, usually just because the park gates were opened does not mean that it is park opening time. So there are cast members at all the lands with ropes to keep guests out until the park officially opens. So even if you run back there you won't get through until it hits the exact park open time.

I actually did not take many pictures on the tour I really wanted to just enjoy it and enjoy the information that was being shared with me. I did get this one image of one of the windows that I had never noticed before.

I also got this shot of the mainstreet vehicles because this was the first time I had EVER seen them. I knew they existed but I have never been in Magic Kingdom that early before. It was very neat for me to see them.

So what scoop can I give you from the tour? Well not much actually because I did not want to spoil the tour for my reader friends so I am not going to share much with you. I will tell you that the Utilidoors are pretty cool and they help you see how everyone gets around but all in all they don't look amazing. It definitely would be neat to use them everyday though.

We did see HUNDREDS!!! of Hot dog buns down there. The tour guide told us this was just the stock of buns for Casey's Hot dogs for the day. My mouth dropped open because of the insane amount of buns there were.

We did get to ride the Jungle Cruise with our special tour guide which actually made the ride pretty fun. We also got let on the haunted mansion. I learned some cool stuff about the mansion that they actually do come and replace the spiderwebs and add more. That was pretty neat. I also got to hear the story of the mansion for the first time. This was cool to learn about the designers and how the mansion was put together. It is neat to see now how one person got part of the mansion and the theme is very evident of it being darker and creepier. The other guy got the other section and he made it more light hearted and fun.

My favorite part was the story of the statues and how when Disney World was opened how Roy and Mickey did it together and how emotional it was. Mickey can look down from the flagpole and see himself with his best friend and never be sad because they are there together in the center of Disney World. I also love and appreciate the statue of Roy with Minnie now more than I ever did before. This ending to the tour made me cry.

By the time the tour was over we were pretty darn exhausted and it was time to go back to the lodge and take a nap.

******NAP********

When we woke up we were hungry so we decided to go over to the Grand Floridian to eat something and hopefully find me a Dooney and Burke bag.

We ate at Gasparilla which was ok...nothing spectacular and we were able to find me the exact dooney that i wanted at the shop there. I just wanted the small hip bag and the wristlet that has disney buttons on it as the design.

We ate our food out on the Marina Terrace which was nice because this was where we had our dessert party and it was rather enjoyable to be able to see the castle while we ate.

When we were done we needed dessert so it was off to Narcoosse's to sit at the bar and eat Cheesecake. The almond crusted cheesecake is the best ever!

After this it was time to head to the MK so we took the boat. Now why did we go there you may ask? Well it was to play Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. While we played we beat Fantasyland and Liberty square/frontier land. Afterwards we went and rode Big Thunder Mountain and for the first time ever for me I got to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway.

From there we rode Buzz and the people mover. We could feel the exhaustion coming over us and we knew it was time to head home. So with one last look at the castle

It was off to the lodge for sleep.

Coming Up: Our Super duper lazy day with a Cali Grill ending

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

I completely forgot to put in the photopass pictures we got taken when we went back to MK that evening. So here they are!

Hope you like them.
~Teresa

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

There are virtually NO pictures from this day...why? Well because we did not do anything.

We did get up and travel over to the contemporary to eat breakfast at the wave. It was the first time I had ever eaten there and the decor was pretty cool. The food was decent but I was not blown away. I think I will stick to my character breakfasts!

The rest of the day we just went to the pool, ate lunch from the WL quick service and took 2 naps....

The close to the day though was going to the California Grill. I love the Cali Grill and really could not wait to go. We of course planned our ADR with Wishes. They even sat us by the windows which was so nice.

This was our view

Isn't he just the cutest?????

Me dressed up!

When we were seated we walked right passed our friends from Le Cellier Mike and Linda Fryer. We stopped to say hi but invited them to our table for Wishes. They came down and watched Wishes with us and then sat and talked for a while. We got so close with them that we now know a lot about their family and if we ever go to London we will probably stay with them. They were amazing. I still keep in touch with them via email.

When dessert came look what we got!

We went back to the Wilderness lodge after but we noticed something funny....there had been charges on our account from another state..can anyone say FRAUD????? So we had to stay up to take care of that! Bummer! once we we were done with the stupid fraud details it was time for sleep!

Coming Up: Splashin around at Typhoon Lagoon

 

[2012DisneyWorldBride]

Yay!! Im glad you are doing updates to your TR. Im following along. We had like 2 rainy days while on our honeymoon and it was kinda nice to be able to just relax.

Hey I also had a question.... are you doing some sort of wedding blog? I heard you were asking for pics. We just had our wedding, but I would love to be in any blog. Give me some more info My email is lilbunnichelle@gmail.com
Thanks!!!!!

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

Yay!! Im glad you are doing updates to your TR. Im following along. We had like 2 rainy days while on our honeymoon and it was kinda nice to be able to just relax.

Hey I also had a question.... are you doing some sort of wedding blog? I heard you were asking for pics. We just had our wedding, but I would love to be in any blog. Give me some more info My email is lilbunnichelle@gmail.com
Thanks!!!!!

I actually work for Randy Chapman the Disney Wedding Photographer and I write his in depth blog posts. I was looking for brides of his for those that wanted a blog post. I am currently waiting on him for images. That is probably what you saw.

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

Day 7: July 8th, 2012

This was a day that I was very excited about. We had been trying to figure out when we would go to one of the water parks for days and we finally decided to go. I had never been to the water parks at Disney before so this was an all new experience. We chose Typhoon Lagoon because we thought it would be more relaxing with some fun rides plus I was enamored by the wave pool and what I had read.

When we got there we got tickets and we went in. We went up to this place where you can see the entire park and it was just breathtaking to me. Some nice people offered to take our picture with it in the background and we had to say of course thank you. I am glad we did it is a great picture.

We were just so excited to be there!

Once we got into the park we had to figure out where everything was and what our game plan is going to be. We decided that we definitely needed a locker. So off we went to go and stick our stuff in a locker. The only issue I have with this is that I was tempted to leave my flip flops but then...the ground gets so INSANELY HOT! I am glad that they try to spray down the ground that helps but man it gets hot. I did end up leaving my flop flops though.

Another thing that I discovered is that there is Photopass in the park. They also take pictures of you in the water at the wave pool and at some of the rides. This was by far the coolest thing ever. First we had to get pictures with Stitch and Lilo because how often do you get to do this in your swimsuit!!

We of course got photopass on all the rides that we could so here we go with our fun photopass shots!

We had a blast riding all the rides and relaxing in the wave pool. The one thing we did notice though was all the Brazilians. I am not sure I would have noticed this if they all were not wearing thong bikinis. It just really caused a problem for me because I did not enjoy seeing all the stuff they wanted to bare. It sort of turned me away from the water parks in the summer time.

After we had been there most of the day it started to get stormy and then it just started POURING! We quickly gathered our stuff up I stopped and got some donuts from the little stand right at the front ( i had heard they were amazing) and we headed out to the bus. Once we got back we decided we would use our DVC perks and rent some movies. We rented Hercules and The Natural. After that we hopped over and got quick service for dinner. We took dinner back to our room and watched a movie before it was time for sleep.

All in all it was a great day and it was a great first trip to Typhoon Lagoon.

Coming Up: Epcot Character Day

 

[Wshs0127]

I'm glad you posted this because we're going to a water park during our honeymoon in April and we were leaning towards Typhoon Lagoon. We've never been to either of the water parks. That is so cool that they have Photopass and characters. I would have never guessed that. All of the pics are totally cute and you guys look like you had a blast!

I think I would have been uncomfortable with the thongs at a family place, I'm surprised Disney allows that! My kids would probably freak if they saw that, but they are sheltered lol! We live on a beach, but people don't wear thongs very often.

 

[2012DisneyWorldBride]

I actually work for Randy Chapman the Disney Wedding Photographer and I write his in depth blog posts. I was looking for brides of his for those that wanted a blog post. I am currently waiting on him for images. That is probably what you saw.

Oh! Were one of his wedding couples!

 

[tiggerfan77]

Good choice with Typhoon Lagoon! I've been to both by Typhoon is definitely my favorite. I love the atmosphere and it seems to have more shady spots than Blizzard Beach does.
I was there about 4 years ago and my son wanted to play in the sand near Crush-N-Gusher and there was a rather large Brazilian woman with a thong who decided to stand out near the edge of the sand in front of my and DS. LOL! So I know what you mean, all I could do is look away...

 

[Icecoldpenguin]

7/9/2012

This day was devoted to getting pictures with characters in Epcot. Many of the Characters I had never met before and I wanted to make sure that I got to meet them.

The pictures were split up over the course of the day that we were in EPCOT but the middle of the day was spent at The Coral Reef restaurant and the living seas. While at the Coral Reef we were given a nice table by the glass of the tank. The only thing that stinks about this are the parents that don't control their children. The kids have no sense of respect for personal space and just want to see the fish so they interrupt your meal so they can be near the glass.

After we left the restaurant we went to the aquarium area and just watched the fish for a while. We had to make a visit to Turtle talk with Crush. You just never know what is going to happen during that show.

As we walked the countries we stopped to explore all the little shops, Greg really loves walking the world showcase so I did it just for him. This however is how we got the character pictures because we just hung out in the countries and waited in the lines. When we got to the UK we caught the British Rock Band and while sitting there Pooh and Tigger were walking by to go back stage. They stopped and started dancing to the music. I was lucky enough to catch a video on my phone but I can't locate it right now or I would share it.

When it was time for dinner we ate at La Hacienda de San Angel. I unfortunately happened to get heart burn and needed to go home before I could even enjoy dessert. It was weird that that happened because I have eaten there a number of times with no problems.

So after a fun filled day we headed back to the Lodge to watch movies and get some rest.

Characters I Got to Meet:

Here are just some fun pictures that I took over the course of the day:

Coming Up: Off to the savannah of Animal Kingdom Lodge

 

[tric8783]

looks like you guys had a blast at Typhoon Lagoon! We have pictures coming down the CrushNGusher too! I wish Blizzard Beach had a water coaster- we normally prefer BB but I really like the coaster at TL! Do you think next time you will try BB or go back to TL?

You got to find so many characters in Epcot! I don't think I've even seen some of those out before, ever! Love your pictures of Epcot too, they are soo clear and well taken!

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Excellent update! I can't wait to hear about your AKL experience!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I know I'm bumping this but I'm in love with this thread I read it with a huge smile on My face @Icecoldpenguin