"Fine! We can go to Disney, but I'm not happy about it!" **08/21 X5** Complete

[MarieLightning]

Better late than never! So, it's been a few months of withdrawal and post Disney depression since our first magical trip, and I'm finally sitting down to write down this trip report. I was a bad person and didn't really write anything while we were there, but we did take over 2,500 pictures so I'm gonna rely on those and my memory skills to relate our experience.

And don't worry - nobody disliked Disney. I'll explain the title in a moment

First, let me introduce myself

My name is Marie(-Christiane), I'm 23 years old and I live in Quebec, Canada. I've loved Disney since I was little - Disney movies were a big part of my childhood, but my parents never really had the opportunity, or the budget, to take us to Disney. In my teen years, I made the decision I would go there someday, if I had to bring myself.

This year, I had the opportunity to do that. I work in the travel industry, and so getting discounts does help a lot - I probably wouldn't have been able to go otherwise. And even though I wish I'd been able to experience the magic as a child, I'm happy I was able to make my own dream come true.

I couldn't pick a favorite Disney movie, but those I tend to re-watch the most are The Princess and the Frog, Beauty and the Beast, Emperor's New Groove and Enchanted. I am also a big fan of Brave. My favorite princess is Cinderella, and my favorite park is Hollywood Studios.


Next person to join me was my wife

Her name is Amber and she's 19 years old. She officially lives in Michigan right now, but while we're going through our super fun immigration process, she spends a lot of time in Canada. And in case you were wondering - that quote in the trip report title belongs to her.

So, while I'm more the type to enjoy spending my money in a slightly careless fashion, Amber is veeery much the opposite. She saves her money, she worries about money, she hates spending money. We had, however, discussed a few times going to Disney together while we didn't have any type of monetary restraints on us like rents to pay for and such. We'd talked about November 2012 because we wanted to go during a quieter time, and she wouldn't be in college yet.

At some point, I got to talking about Disney with the other people who joined us (who I'll introduce next), and they had wanted to go as well, so we sort of started planning going together. One day in early June, I looked into some prices, found some that seemed good and talked to Amber about it. She was hesitant, but she said yes. I told her we'd talk about it more later, but in my mind, yes was yes. We'll just talk about the details

Apparently, she didn't read into in that way, so when I called her later that evening to tell her I'd told our travel partners the price and they'd said to go for it, she was less than happy. Oops. And since it was pretty much a done deal with the other people and she felt bad about my having to tell them nevermind, she ended up telling me that fine, we could go, with a very unhappy tone of voice (which her friend, who was with her at the time, was more than a little confused over). All ended well though, and she ended up loving everything about it.

Her favorite Disney movies are Tangled, Beauty and the Beast and Cars. Her favorite princess is Belle, and her favorite park is Epcot.



Finally, our last two guests - my aunt and uncle!

My aunt's name is Viviane, she's 60 years old - which she actually turned 60 *while* we were at Disney. My uncle's name is Michel, and he's 61 - he turned 61 the day before we left. This was their second trip to Disney, but the first one dated back to a little over 20 years ago, so clearly a looot of things had changed in the meantime. My aunt had always wanted to go back though, and when I told her Amber and I were talking of going in November, over the week of her birthday, she jumped right in! And once she wanted to go, my uncle pretty much had to say yes.

They were really awesome thorought the whole week of the trip. They were willing to do pretty much anything, and though we didn't spend the whole of our time together, I really loved having them there. They're pretty much my favorite set of aunt and uncle, and my wife actually calls my aunt 'my best aunt'.

My aunt's favorite Disney movie is Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and her favorite character is Goofy. My uncle doesn't necessarily have favorites per say, but he loves the Toy Story movies and he likes the fab five, Donald especially.


And now, where did we stay?

The Port Orleans French Quarter was our pick for the week!

So, technically it wasn't our pick per say - we just got really lucky. Budget conscious that we were, we were originally booked at the All Star Music, with the regular dining plan. However, shortly after we booked, the free dining plan offer came out, and since the regular dining plan is free with moderate resorts, I looked into switching. We were able to change our reservation to the Port Orleans, and it ended up costing us less because of the free dining!

We stayed a week exactly, from November 11th to November 18th. Like I mentioned, we were on the regular dining plan, and while my aunt and uncle got the Park Hopper option, Amber and I simply went for the Magic Your Way base tickets.


Fair warning - I talk (coughramblecough) a lot. But I promise there'll be plenty of pictures to make up for my babbling


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[pellegirl]

looking forward to hearing about your trip! We are looking to stay at POFQ in 2014 so can't wait to hear what you think about it.

 

[MarieLightning]

looking forward to hearing about your trip! We are looking to stay at POFQ in 2014 so can't wait to hear what you think about it.

Thanks! And I absolutely loved staying at the POFQ I have nothing to compare it to, to be fair, but honestly, I don't think of the other moderates or values, I would have wanted to pick anything else! I'll talk about it a bit more later on ​

 

[MarieLightning]

Table of Contents

Introduction
Real Life Update #1


November 11, 2012

Part 1 - "Nooo I wanna sleeeep!"
Part 2 - "Look, the street names are in French!"
Part 3 - "They give beepers here too?!"
Part 4 - "Dreams Come True!"
Part 5 - "I Don't Get This Game!"
Part 6 - "Did we just walk away from perfect fireworks viewing spot?"
Part 6.5 - Why Amber Acted Like A Jerk ((Sidenote: I had nothing to do with this, her idea XD))


November 12, 2012

Part 1 - "Why is it red on the right if hot water is on the left?!"
Part 2 - "They have seasonal cupcakes!"
Part 3 - "I wanna marry this steak"
Part 4 - "Don't take a picture of our score!"
Part 5 - "We need hat pictures!"
Part 6 - "Why do you hate my ride?"
Part 7 - "Pizza Planet's closed already?"
Part 8 - "Is that a Canada joke?"


November 13, 2012

Part 1 - "I did run! I just didn't know where I was going!"
Part 2 - "Take a picture, I wanna show my mom I ate all my veggies!"
Part 3 - "Can I just buy everything in here?"
Part 4 - "Do you really have to do this again?"
Part 5 - "Do you feel like a conqueror of the sea?"
Part 6 - "Aww man, I can't reach the higher one"
Part 7 - "Marie! The baguettes! Hurry up!"


November 14, 2012

Part 1 - "No, I'm not looking! It's gonna eat me!"
Part 2 - "Look, dragons are real too!"
Part 3 - "He's just showing off"
Part 4 - "Look at all the Christmas trees!"
Part 5 - "It's called the 'Affection Section'? That's so cute!"
Part 6 - "They're all taking an afternoon nap!"
Part 7 - "I've gotta take an iconic Mickey Bar picture!"
Part 8 - "Donald's both on the Nice and the Naughty list!"
Part 9 - "The worst that could happen is him saying no" "He said no"


November 15, 2012

Part 1 - "We probably could have planned a bit more"
Part 2 - "Paging Mr. Morrow, Mr. Tom Morrow"
Part 3 - "Wait Piglet, we want some love too!"
Part 4 - "Well, this is not creepy at all"
Part 5 - "No one demands attention and flexes like Gaston!"
Part 6 - "Bonne fête!" "Thank you! Oh, erm, wait, merci!"
Part 7 - "Aww man, I wanted to be a dancing plate!"
Part 8 - "Once Upon A Christmastime At Christmas!"
Part 9 - "I have a theory that Snow White's a vampire"


November 16, 2012

Part 1 - "How many bus stops do these guys have?!"
Part 2 - "This is half an hour of our life we're never getting back"
Part 3 - "This makes me want to cry, and I'm not even American!"
Part 4 - "Pretty lady behind you!"


November 17, 2012

Part 1 - November 17 - "When did that Christmas tree show up?!"
Part 2 - November 17 - "Give a thumbs up, we almost didn't get wet!"
Part 3 - November 17 - "That duck just stole my french fry!"
Part 4 - November 17 - "But they're so cute and fluffy!"
Part 5 - November 17 - "I gotta show that I beat you!"
Part 6 - November 17 - "Celebrate A Dream Come True!"
Part 7 - November 17 - "Can we get a princess wand, too?"
Part 8 - November 17 - "We'll make a wish, and do as dreamers do"



Conclusion




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[MarieLightning]

November 11: Part 1 - "Nooo I wanna sleeeep"

So, the night before our departure date, my aunt and uncle came up to my house so that my dad could drop us all off at the airport at the same time.

My bags were pretty much already all packed by then, because I had to work on that Saturday but had the Friday off, so everything that could be packed two days in advance was ready to go!

On Saturday night, we double checked and made sure we had everything - enough clothes, comfy shoes, our reservation information, our pins and so on! And then, much too late for our own good, Amber and I got to bed to watch Beauty and the Beast. We'd been doing a Disney movie countdown, watching one Disney movie per day during the 40 or so days leading up to our departure, and now that we were on the last one, we were definitely excited!

As it was, a little too excited to go to sleep But we managed sooner or later, and the night turned out to be pretty short as our flight was departing at 8:25 the next morning, so we planned on getting to the airport around 6, meaning we had to leave home at 5:15.

Now, I'm not much of an early riser, but for something exciting, I can definitely manage. Amber, however, is definitely not a morning person, and so she wasn't exactly happy about getting up at 4:30, especially since she gets motion sick on car rides. Of course, with the knowledge of where we were going, she managed to handle her grumpiness

Soon, we were ready to go, and not sad to leave the increasingly cold weather behind in the slightest!

We said goodbye to my mom, and my dad drove us over to the airport in Montreal. Checking in and dropping off our bags went by pretty smoothly, and then we had to go through customs and security, which was a bit of a wait, but then that's why we got there that early!

Once we finally got done with all that good stuff, we headed over to grab some breakfast, since we were all starting to get pretty hungry.

As you can see, Amber wasn't feeling too grumpy anymore!

As a Canadian stereotype, I'm more of a Tim Hortons person in the morning But Amber doesn't like breakfast food much, so that rules out anything that has sausage or bacon or eggs most of the time, and after car rides her stomach doesn't handle sweet stuff well, so that also ruled out donuts. So we settled for Burger King so she could have her hashbrowns and be happy

I went down the more traditional route and just got me a breakfast sandwich. I also took that opportunity to get myself prepared to all the food I'd have to take pictures of in the week to come!

Definitely not as appetizing as Disney food, is it?

After we finished eating, we headed over to our gate - which, of course, mainly consisted of families with young children - and I'm pretty sure we boarded on time. Good job Air Canada!

They also have those screen on the back of the chair that's in front of us which you can watch movies and tv shows on for free, so that's what Amber and I did for the most of the flight while my aunt and uncle read and slept. I watched Ice Age 4 and she watched Madagascar 3. Don't judge, there was no Disney movie option

Around 11:20, we started our descent on Orlando, and at that point we were definitely hyper! These ladies in front of us were looking out to the horizon, trying to spot the castle, though we were on the wrong side of the plane for that

Our arrival time was scheduled for 11:55, and we made it a little early. We grabbed our carry ons, got off the plane and headed off to the next step of our journey!


(Not a lot of pictures in this one, but they're coming, promise)



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[MarieLightning]

November 11: Part 2 - "Look, the street names are in French!"

Once we got off the plane, we headed straight for the ground transportation section, and we didn't even get lost! (Almost).

We didn't have any issues finding our line, and there were only two people in front of us at that point, which we didn't know if that was good or bad - maybe that meant a bus had just left, but then they loaded the very short line next to us in a bus, so I figured they just sent buses off periodically whichever way.

We were in line maybe 10 minutes when they let us on the bus, and we got a Disney Cruise Line bus! At that point I was just happy about not getting one of the regular yellow Mears buses, and as long as we got to watch the movie, I didn't care which bus we were on!

I was pretty much bouncing in my seat as we started driving away from the airport and the street signs started rolling by.

I kept a look out for the arches even from the beginning of the ride, even though I knew it would be at least half an hour or so before we got there!

In the meantime, I did manage to enjoy the welcome video, and then the old movies they played.

I honestly can't describe how excited I felt when we actually saw the arches. Most everyone in the bus were older adults, and yet everyone started moving around and trying to stretch so they could see them. I definitely felt like crying at this point, with the knowledge that I was actually there

The bus was doing four stops, and we were the third. The first resort we stopped at was Old Key West!

There weren't very many people getting off there, so we were pretty much in and out. Still got to take in some of the scenery though!

After Old Key West, we headed over to Saratoga Springs, the second stop on the list!

I really liked the looks of that resort. I'm more of a compact resort type of person in general, but I definitely wouldn't mind going a bit out of my comfort zone for any bigger Disney resort!

We got back on the road for a little bit longer, and soon enough, we finally arrived to our own final destination - Port Orleans French Quarter! Yay!

As soon as we stepped off the bus, a cast member greeted us with Mardi Gras beads, so that was definitely awesome to already put you in the mood and atmosphere of your resort! There was also a cast member holding the door who handed out plastic coins to children... mostly, because Amber got one. She does generally get thought of as younger than she is

We headed in to check in, and there wasn't any line as all, so someone right away took us to check us in, and our rooms were ready, which was good seeing as it was only a little past 1 in the afternoon, and official check in time is 3. I don't remember the name of either of the cast members who checked us in, because I didn't take any notes, but they were very nice.

I had to help my aunt and uncle a bit once Amber and I were done being checked in, because my uncle doesn't speak a word of English, and my aunt does well but he had a bit of a thicker accent than what she's used to, so she was struggling a little. When he gave them their room number though, which was 1115, my aunt went "Like my birthday!" (since she was born Nov 15th), and he got her a birthday button I also asked if he could give my uncle one, since his birthday had just been the day before, and he did.

Once we were done with our check in, we headed over to our respective rooms to see what they were like! I'd put in a request for adjoining rooms, but I guess they didn't have anything at that time. We were all in building 1 though, so that's close enough!

I really loved the looks of the resort! I was so neat, and I loved the theming, the actual streets and sidewalks we walked through, the horsies!

It had a real, nice homey feeling, and since I'm the type of person who prefers a quieter, smaller scaled type of resort, this one was sooo perfect! Honestly, I was really pleased at how easily we could get from the lobby to our room, even being in one of the buildings that are a bit further off.

As we were walking, Amber looked down and noticed the street names on the sidewalks. She pointed out that they were in French, to which I responded, Amber, this is the French Quarter. Of course it's in French! At least there were some signs my uncle would be able to read



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[amberg93]

Of course I'm here, in order to correct anything that might need correcting

 

[1000HappyWishes]

Enjoyed reading what you've had so far. I look forward to the rest of the trip.

 

[MarieLightning]

Of course I'm here, in order to correct anything that might need correcting

Anything that might need correcting? I report everything exactly the way it happened I shall have you know

Enjoyed reading what you've had so far. I look forward to the rest of the trip.

Thanks so much, I'm glad you're enjoying it! I have the day off today so I'll be writing some more for sure ^^​

 

[wiigirl]

Great TR so far....love the pictures...

 

[MarieLightning]

Great TR so far....love the pictures...

Thank you And that's good, there's plenty more to come!​

 

[MarieLightning]

November 11: Part 3 - "They give beepers here too?!"

So, after a little bit of walking around, we managed to find our room! My aunt and uncle had their room on the first level, and Amber and I were on the second floor.

As soon as we entered the room, we were both really excited to look around. We'd originally asked for one bed, but having two beds ended up being convenient since the one closest to the door is where we would throw our stuff at the end of the day before collapsing on the other one

I really, really love those rooms. I'd looked them up on Disney's website directly, and honestly, they're some of my favorite room designs from all Disney properties. I just love the design, the patterns, the feel of it. It's themed but it just feels classy. Maybe it's the mix of purple and yellow, but it felt almost royal

By then, we were definitely ready to start the Disney experience, and that was definitely helped with the voicemail we had from Mickey, welcoming us to our first visit at the world We settled down a little, putting away some of the things we had in our carry on, and then we went over to meet up with my aunt and uncle at their room. It was, of course, pretty much the same as ours, though they had a different towel Mickey!

When we got there, we helped them out with the voicemails they had on their own phone! One from Mickey and Minnie welcoming them, and the best one was for my aunt, a birthday message from Goofy! It was a really great coincidence that her favorite character was the one to wish her happy birthday!

Once we were all settled, we agreed to head over to Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory - breakfast went back to before eight in the morning, and it was getting close to two in the afternoon at that point, so we were pretty much starving!

We hadn't really entirely established what to do with dining for that first day. Originally, we were supposed to eat at the Whispering Canyon Cafe for late dinner, and we'd figured we would get a snack in the afternoon to last until then. However, doing that meant paying for one of our table service meals because of our amount of credits versus ADRs, and like I mentioned, we were on a budget.

In the end, we decided to drop that dining reservation (especially when we learned they had changed the menu), which meant we needed to eat real food at that point before we collapsed of hunger.

Since it was early in the afternoon, we figured we would probably still have dinner in our first park later on, so we chose to pay for this meal. My aunt and uncle chose to treat us on that one, which was awesome of them We all went over to order our food, and then they gave us our beeper!

I'd seen some of the table service restaurants had beepers, but I hadn't expected a quick service one to hand those out. I was ridiculously excited about a Disney food beeper too, so I took a picture of it!

Then as we waited for it to go off, I took a few more pictures of the restaurant. The theming was really awesome here too.

And we also used that time to fill up our reusable mugs for the first time!

Amber chose the blue one, and I got a pink one! If I remember correctly, my aunt also got blue, and my uncle got black. To be quite honest, we hardly ever made use of those. We didn't have breakfast very often, so we rarely ate at the resort, and since we left early in the morning and came back late at night, there wasn't really a point in walking to and from the room just to fill up mugs we wouldn't end up taking with us.

We did see some people who brought them along to the parks though, so it's really a matter of if you feel you'll need them or not. Personally, I didn't want to risk getting our backpack sticky, and I'd brought bottles of water to refill in case we got thirsty during the day and didn't want to buy a drink. However, the mugs did make a pretty cool souvenir, so that's something

After about ten minutes, the beeper finally went off! Food time!

We went to pick up our meals and that was the moment when my aunt and uncle realized every meal with me would involve me saying "Wait, I need to take a picture!" before they got to eat anything

My aunt and uncle both got a personal pepperoni pizza. My aunt let me have a bite of hers, and it was definitely tasty, though I never actually got the opportunity to order one of my own!

As for Amber and I, we both had the spaghetti with meatballs and a breadstick. Now, I'm a big fan of breadsticks, and those were definitely yummy! Not my favorites ever, but I definitely liked them. As for the spaghetti, it was also quite good. I'm very picky about spaghetti because of the sauce - I'm a bad person, so I don't like vegetables a whole lot and so usually, if there's veggies in a spaghetti sauce, I'm not as big a fan of it.

However, it was still very good. I know Amber had no issue emptying the most of her plate, and the meatballs were delicious!

Once we were done eating, we all headed back to our rooms to drop off our mugs, and when we got there, our luggage had gotten delivered! Yay!

I was especially happy because I'd made the mistake of putting our pins in the luggage instead of in our carry ons, and so I'd been disappointed with the ideas of not having them with me for the first evening. We quickly put some of them on our lanyards to have them to trade. We also took the time to unpack and put our stuffs in our drawers, because I don't really like living out of a suitcase.

My aunt and uncle ended up doing the same, so we were done and ready to go about the same time. We headed over to the bus stop, and within less than five minutes, our bus came around, so we got on and headed on the way to our very first park!



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[1000HappyWishes]

Yaay! Almost time for the FIRST PARK. Hecka yeah

 

[MarieLightning]

November 11: Part 4 - "Dreams Come True!"

So, when the time came to figure out our very first park of the trip - and for two of us, very first park ever.

The Magic Kingdom! Well, did you expect anything else?

I know, I captured the best of the essence, magic and wonder of the park by taking a line of the bag check

By then I was just totally giddy and jumpy. We went through the bag line, headed inside the park and started on the picture galore!

Main Street! You're so pretty and I miss you! *sigh*

There were some Christmas decorations up by that point, which I loved - I start getting excited for Christmas in like September, because in Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in early October, and actually it's more a day off than anything else. So having Christmas elements in Disney made it that much more awesome to me - like it needs to be more awesome right?!

Slowly, we were getting closer to that point - the point where we would round off the corner and finally see the castle. It can seem so silly to think of how I felt, how my heart beat was increased at that moment, but it's just... the one thing that makes it real I guess? For so many people, it's the symbol of Disney World. And when I first saw it... oof. My heart.

It's just so pretty, so magical, and I couldn't help but tear up. At this point I wasn't even really aware of any of my surroundings anymore - and I know my aunt was looking at me at this time, as she'd been waiting to see my reaction. It just brings your childhood right back to life.

We started walking further down Main Street USA, passing by the Main Street Philharmonic on our way!

I took an obligatory picture of the man with the mouse, because how can you not?

I'd been looking forward to taking a picture of these guys too! I mean, don't you just want to bring them home? I know I do. But they didn't fit in my back pack!

That looks so sweet, doesn't it? Don't let her fool you. She got me to take a picture of her with Pluto cause he's her brother's favorite and she wanted to brag That's right, rude! But fine, I did go along with it.

I didn't take pictures of the other fellows just then, because there were quite a few people gathered around at that point. What for? Well, apparently, we'd come in right on time for Dream Along with Mickey!

Why are you all so perfect? It's really not fair.

That's right Donald, you can be a pirate if you want to! Though, you shouldn't be. Pirates are grown ups!

This has to be one of the things that got me in the Disney mood the most at that point. Just standing there, watching the show and screaming 'Dreams Come True!' along with dozens of strangers. Where else can you do that and still pass of as a balanced adult, right?

We soon started making our way to the first section of the park we wanted to explore.

At that point, I'd wanted to try and see a bit of each section of the park on the first day, if just to have a look. However, we just got so caught up in where we were that we ended up spending the whole evening in Tomorrowland!

We walked by Stitch's Great Escape and decided to go right in. They were about to start, and why not start there anyway?

I'm glad we did it, because I wanted to say I'd done all the ride (or almost all the rides) once I got back. However, I have to say once was enough. It's really cool and quite clever, and I knew what to expect as I'd looked up a lot of the rides beforehand, so I wasn't like those people who go in not knowing what's gonna happen and get upset because they get a few droplets of water thrown at them (like really?).

Truthfully, that was my favorite part of the ride

As Stitch himself would say, "Cute and fluffy!" Man I wish I'd had an endless budget for souvenirs. I would have had to bring an extra empty suitcase just to bring them back.

Once we were done being spat and burped at by our favorite alien friend, we went and got our very first fastpasses! I would say which ride, but the picture limit forces me to wait until the next post (Though, how many rides in Tomorrowland have fastpass queues anyways? XD)



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[1000HappyWishes]

Stitch is my favourite Disney character, but from what I've read about Great Escape I think it's something I'll skip next time around. Love the plushies though. He is TOO cute.

 

[MarieLightning]

Stitch is my favourite Disney character, but from what I've read about Great Escape I think it's something I'll skip next time around. Love the plushies though. He is TOO cute.

Yeah, we did it to say we had done it, and that served its purpose XD It's an interesting ride, and my aunt and uncle did end up riding it again on their own later in the week (and were sitting next to a guy who was getting really upset because of the water droplets people right? XD). But once was enough for Amber and me, and when we go back I don't think we'll do it again​

 

[amberg93]

Hi, my name is Amber and I'm hijacking this part of the trip report! Yes, I'm the very same Amber that has thus far been involved, but given that there has been a lack of update for waaaaay too long and Marie is busy with work and such. (And such involving a Caribbean cruise last week and a week in the Dominican Republic starting Saturday!)

I'm taking over! Hold on tight kiddos, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

November 11: Part 5 - "I don't get this game!"

When we last left off there was some suspense about us and fast passes. We got some, but where to?

If you guessed Space Mountain, you're a winner! If you didn't, that's okay, I'm still a fan of you.

With our fastpasses in hand, we decided that we needed to kill some time. Eager to get another ride in under our belts, we looked around and decided that there was a way to keep the party going. Not wanting to leave Tomorrowland, we didn't walk far before we decided upon..

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin!

The standby time said something like 20 or 25 minutes and we still had a while before our fastpasses were due, so we hopped into line to wait.

It seemed like it took a while, but the line actually went pretty fast. I did have my moments of envy watching the fastpass people zoom in in front of us. But what could I do?

Here's Buzz filling us in on our duty to protect the galaxy from Zurg:

As first timers who had never played the game before there was definitely some confusion. Especially on the part of poor Marie who could not for the life of her figure anything out. Hence the chapter title. I didn't do too much better, but we all enjoyed the game nonetheless.

Behold Uncle Michel and Aunt Viviane in their redneck picture.

And of course me and Marie. I am much more intense about winning.

Clearly the rankings on the bottom were messed up because although I don't have a picture of Marie's score, it was only around 10,000 or so. It was really pitiful, but I digress.

After we exited the ride, we saw the line to meet Buzz Lightyear and of course we had to get in it! Now, we all like Buzz Lightyear, but what really excited me about meeting him was the fact that my cousin (who is 5) is a huuuuuge Buzz Lightyear fan and I know that he'd be so excited when I got home and showed him the picture.

Not to mention there were only like four people in head of us in line, so we figured it was an even more perfect time.

Me and Marie. Clearly there was some miscommunication as to which camera to look at first.

Uncle Michel and Aunt Viviane were excited too. Well, more Michel, since he's a huge Toy Story fan. Not that you can tell from this picture, but his lanyard is Toy Story!

Yay for the first character meeting!

Okay, even though we have no pictures of this (for I don't know what reason) what we did next was head over to the Carousel of Progress. I know this because, even though we didn't take notes, we did most everything in Tomorrowland our first night.

Being first timers at WDW, we did it more because we had the time on our hands and because Marie had heard that it was cool. So we got in and away we went.

We all loved it and Marie and I would be singing, "It's a great big beautiful tomorrooow." For the rest of the trip (another reason why I know we did it the first night). I'm really disappointed we took no picture when we made this choice because it was a great one.

At that point we still had time to kill, so we went ahead and got in line for the PeopleMover. Well, I say line, but it was really empty, so we walked on to get ourselves a view of Tomorrowland.

Aunt Viviane and Marie.

And of course we snapped some pictures, but none really of the surroundings because it's hard to do it in the dark and we were mostly just focused on enjoying the moment.

Obviously, I'm on a Disney high and hence why I'm so excited while everyone else is more reserved. (Marie will tell you that's just my face, but as we all saw in the first post, my face can be awfully grumpy)

Despite the darkness, we did manage one good photo that I absolutely adore.

I know it's no clear shot of the castle, but I still like it. I like that the Castle is there in the background, shining away in all of its Christmas glory. Beautiful. I think I'm going to miss all the Christmas lights on the Castle the next time we go.

When we got off the PeopleMover we finally headed over to Space Mountain to use our spiffy fastpasses!

We zipped through the queue, not even stopping to examine it. But don't worry, we'd have time for that another day. (Spoilers)

Once we got to the line they sent us to the left side. But before that, someone snapped a quick picture of others.

Enjoy your ride, random Disney World goers!

I insisted that I be in the absolute middle of the group because I was really nervous about the ride. Weird, I know, but I've got the roller coaster fears and I figured the middle would be the safest.

We all (mostly) ended up enjoying the ride, although I screamed a few times (I made sure to use Disney characters in place of swear words ). Except Aunt Viviane whose back did not fare so well and had to be on painkillers for the rest of the trip afterward .

We were too slow to redneck a picture of the rocket with Marie, Aunt Viviane, and myself in it, but we did get one of Uncle Michel.

As you can see, he had fun and wasn't scared in the slightest.

Up next: What other trouble can we get into on our first night, especially now that we've used our fastpasses?

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[MarieLightning]

I'm baaack. So yeah, as my lovely spouse has mentioned in her partial take over of this trip report, work has been pretty busy, and vacationing has been awesome. Not as awesome as if it had been a Disney trip, but what we payed for both the Cruise and the Dominican Republic week combined would not have payed for a week at Disney, so you know. Tough choices XD

I'll try and get back in the groove of things so that I can get this trip report finished before we go back! Which is a while from now, so that would be bad

So back on track!


November 11: Part 6 - "Did we just walk away from perfect fireworks viewing spot?"

After getting off Space Mountain, we didn't really have specific plans as to what we wanted to do. It wasn't very late, not even 8 by then I believe, but we were all pretty tired from being up early and traveling. Still, we didn't want to leave the park so soon!

We walked down the walkway and I tried to snatch a picture. I definitely am lacking in aiming skills.

We made it back over to Main Street USA, and I took the opportunity to take some castle pictures.

I mean, how gorgeous is it?! Amber is almost depressed at the thought of it not being all lit up when we go back, since it will be in May.

My silly camera doesn't even do it justice. I'm due to get another one soon though (the one I have dates from either Christmas 2007 or early 2008, so it's had a good run but it's starting to feel its years!) so when I get back to the kingdom, I shall hopefully be able to get some better pictures, especially in the dark!

Now, at that point, we were right about where Walt and Mickey's statue is. However, silly me had come very unprepared for this first park day - yet you should see my planning notebook! Full of notes all over the place about parades and show times, rides with fastpasses queues, counter services and snacks to try out, dinner reservations numbers and times, and so on. We'd also grabbed one of those spiffy pamphlets that has most of the information you could be looking for during the day - however, they probably had ended up either in our bag or in Amber's pockets.

People were lining the streets and the sidewalks by then, so I figured the parade must be starting some time soon! It was maybe 7:40 at that point, and I thought it must be at 8, so I asked one of the custodial cast members who was walking around to confirm what time the parade started. He answered it was at 9, so still quite a while away! I never even though of Wishes, because I thought they came on after the parade.

I informed the rest of the group and suggested we go find a snack to grab in the meantime, maybe find a seated spot as well. We started walking away and headed over to the other side of the park, walking by the Crystal Palace, and just as we were about to cross the bridge into Adventureland, an announcement comes on... for Wishes, starting in 15 minutes! *facepalm* We'd just been standing in the perfect spot for fireworks viewing, and we moved away, willingly. Bad planning will do this to you, people.

We moved back over to stand in front of the Crystal Palace, right on the other side of the small lake. Then it started, and honestly, it really didn't matter where we were - it wasn't optimal, but it was still an amazing show, and so magical. I've always gotten a funny, silly, happy feeling whenever I've watched fireworks, but watching Disney fireworks... that was just so amazing!

This is the only picture I took because, again, camera has issues with darkness, and I also didn't want to look at the whole of the fireworks show through my camera viewer.

Once it was over, we went back to our original plan of looking for food and a sitting spot for the parade. We made our way through Liberty Square, where my aunt stopped by Ye Old Christmas Shoppe to buy an ornament, and I had to keep myself from getting one too! (Or well, Amber kept me from buying one). We also saw Tiana out for greeting, but they had just closed the line and she wouldn't be back out for another 20 minutes, so we passed by.

Now, by that point, we were starting to get pretty tired, and while I'm a bit more friendly when I wake up in the morning, evening tiredness makes me cranky. As for Amber, any kind of tiredness makes her cranky XD Neither of us we fully there yet, but it was starting to make itself known.

We sat on a low wall in front of the Golden Oak Outpost, and then I went looking around for a snack. There wasn't much around though, except for popcorn and frozen lemonade, and so I came back with no food. We sat for maybe ten, fifteen minutes, and by that point we were really starting to get tired. Amber wanted to go to sleep, and she didn't feel like waiting another 20 minutes for the parade to start - she would have rather waited for Tiana, which I didn't want to do because I knew it wouldn't interest my aunt and uncle, and also, with my camera that didn't work well in the dark, it wouldn't be much worth it, so I preferred waiting until we'd come back and meet her in daylight.

After talking it over, we chose to get going. I was still hungry though, and I wanted to grab something before leaving - I decided to stop by Main Street Bakery on the way out, but the line was pretty intensive, and the delicious, but very sweet smell inside the store gave Amber a headache (which made me even grumpier because I just wanted to eat something - see how this was turning here? XD).

Once we got back out, I saw an empty spot right by the edge of the sidewalk. By then it was maybe ten minutes to the parade, and I thought it would be a waste to miss it. My aunt and uncle didn't mind, and I managed to get Amber to agree. With those few minutes to spare, I also went on my way to the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and finally got my hands on food. Yay!

I got a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich, with chocolate ice cream, which was huuuge and sooo good. I failed to take a picture of it though, but it was gone as soon as one can eat that big an ice cream sandwich. My uncle accompanied me as he was also craving something, and he got the Plaza Ice Cream Sundae, which is vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, whipped cream and cherry in a waffle cone. Yum.

And then - at long last - the Main Street Electrical Parade started!

I know a lot of people don't like it as much because of Spectromagic, but since I'd never seen that one, I really enjoyed the Electrical Parade. There's something about the song too that's really catchy, which I'm thinking is probably the point of it XD

Alice!

Fancy mice going to the ball XD They have such pretty outfits

Cinderella

Those dresses must be so heavy, honestly with how long the route they have to go is and the dancing, hats off to these ladies

It's a ship! Peter Pan, Captain Hook, stop fighting! Don't you know Disney World's the happiest place on earth?!

Next came my Aunt's favorites - the seven dwarves, and of course, Snow White!

And of course, to finish off the parade, 'Murica!

As you can easily guess, once the parade was over, we quickly made our way over to the buses! A very good point to the French Quarter is that, with it being very small, it's generally easy to get sitting space on the buses, even if you get out of the park with the crowds. We enjoyed the sound of crickets and banjo from the bus as we headed back to the resort, and that was the end of our first day at Disney World. We collapsed in bed and were asleep within minutes!


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[amberg93]

Marie is too nice to me, cause I'll be honest I can be such a jerk when I'm tired. I just get grumpy (to the extreme) when I'm tired. The worst is when I'm tired and hungry, but still. After that night I felt pretty bad the next day because I knew I'd been a jerk. Still, in the interest of better understanding what was going on, I'll tell you how I'd have written it.

So without further statement, here is:

November 11 - Part 6.5: Why Amber Acted Like a Jerk

By the time the fireworks were over, I was actually ready to leave. We'd gotten up early, we hadn't slept much the night before and we had spent time traveling. Traveling always makes me tired (partly because of my motion sickness medicine) and if I hadn't been so excited for Disney, I'd have crashed much sooner. After the fireworks seemed like the perfect time to leave to me, since people would still be waiting around for the parade.

However, other people wanted to go check out the Christmas shop and I was trying to be supportive and not a jerk. Tiana was meeting people with Naveen though and I wanted to hop in line, it'd have been our first princess meet of the trip and she'd have her prince with her! Unfortunately, she was going on break and wouldn't be back for 20 minutes. Now here's where I look like a jerk. Yes, I'd wait 20 minutes for Tiana and Naveen but not 20 minutes for the parade. Meeting Tiana would be meeting a princess and a prince and it was quiet over there, with places to sit down and just relax. Plus, after we were done we could leave while the parade was going on and miss the crowds!

That wasn't exactly what everyone else was thinking though and so we just decided to leave after the shop. Except, Marie was hungry. This made me more annoyed because we were supposed to leave and now we were stopping in the bakery? Ugh. I was the opposite of hungry, I was so not hungry that even the thought of food was bad. There were too many people around, the line was too long and the shop smelled so sweet I was getting a headache. I just wanted to be gone and I was telling people as much. After all, we'd agreed to leave.

Sidenote: In the back of my mind I was worried about the impression I was making on Marie's aunt and uncle. They'd never spent much time with us when I'd been so vocal (not speaking French leaves me quiet during family events) and this was probably the first time they'd have a chance to get an impression of who I really was and who their niece had married. I was kinda failing at that, but hopefully they'd forgive me later.

After leaving the bakery empty handed, Marie saw a spot for the parade. My logic was still in the 'we can see the parade another night, but let's beat the crowds leaving tonight'. However, I was outnumbered. Marie wanted to see the parade, her aunt and uncle were interested. I gave in because I was outnumbered, but I was super annoyed with Marie. They'd said we'd be leaving! We were supposed to be heading back to POFQ! Now we were watching a parade!

To be honest, the only thing I remember about the parade is the music and being annoyed with Marie. That's it. I know, I kinda ruined it for myself, but even if I hadn't been annoyed, I was so tired that my mind just didn't focus on it well at all.

When we finally left I could have sung praises. All I remember from that point on is the relief that sleep was near and nothing else. I couldn't tell you what conversations took place, where we sat on the bus, or even how quickly we walked to the room. I do know I was asleep pretty quick and happy to be so.

So there you have it, the explanation as to why I was being so difficult. I know it doesn't paint me in the best light, but it's the truth. At least nothing like that happened again during the trip and I was a happy camper. Yay Disney!

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[MarieLightning]

Lesson learned: Don't keep Amber up on the first day next time we go to Disney XD

Moving on


November 12: Part 1 - "Why is it red on the right if hot water is on the left?!"

We got up fairly early the next day, wanting to make it to Hollywood Studios right about opening time! This was our only day at DHS, so of course we wanted to spend as much time there as was possible. My aunt and uncle called us before they went for breakfast at the hotel's food court, and Amber and I got washed up to get ready for the day.

I got showered first, which started out as a cold shower. That was pretty weird to me - sure, it was morning, and chances were a lot of people would have been showering before their park day, but there's also generally a lot of people who prefer evening showers. How could they be out of hot water already?!

Turns out, they weren't

I don't know if you can spot the problem there, but that was my mistake. Hot water's always on the left. I mean, I know that - that's how it is at my house, my friends' house, Canada or US, that's how it is everywhere.

Why would Disney have it differently? Well, they wouldn't. 'cept whoever made up these showers didn't agree, cause to me, red is hot and blue is cold. Thankfully, about halfway through I figured it out and it saved me from taking a full on cold shower.

I got ready to go while Amber showered and then we met up my aunt and uncle at the lobby. We headed to the bus stop, and it wasn't long before a bus pulled up for Hollywood Studios! Yay!

All the parks have such awesome Christmas trees, I can't even! And I was so happy about Christmas decorations being up pretty much everywhere by then! I hadn't been sure of that since it was still rather early November, but Disney clearly takes after my own heart

We walked inside the park, and I already knew what I wanted to do. I knew the one ride we had to hurry for, from reading up on it, if we wanted to ride it at all!

Problem was, not being familiar with the park, I couldn't exactly run over to where I was headed - I wasn't even sure of where I was headed! Still took the time to stop for a hat picture though XD

I was also getting a bit antsy at this time, because everybody else was being slow! Like, come on guys, we need to hurryyyyy!

Pixar Place! How can a place not be awesome when it's called Pixar Place? It can't

And of course, Toy Story Mania was our destination! No way we could ride it right away though - the wait time was already horrendous, about an hour, and while that can be acceptable to me in certain cases, this was not one of those times. We grabbed fast passes, and return time was already for half past one in the afternoon!

Clearly, we still had a lot of time to kill before riding, but that was fine by me. There were a lot of things we wanted to see! I got a couple more pictures from the surrounding as we left Pixar Place

I mean, even the trash cans are awesome!

We headed down the road and spotted exactly what we would do next. Hello, Voyage of the Little Mermaid!

I really loved this show, it was so neat! The girl who played Ariel was adorable, and she had such a great singing voice

And then when the bubbles came down (Gaah, I can't remember when, my logic tells me it was during Under the Sea, but it could also have been at the end?), it just felt magical. Like, hello, I'm five again, let me try and catch all these bubbles!

Once the show was done, we headed off to find what else to do! We were right by the Animation Courtyard, so we went in, not really knowing what we would do once inside though. There were so many things to do with so little time! If I had to plan one thing differently, I would have for sure tried to fit in a second Hollywood Studios day - but then, I feel like the amount we spent in each other park was perfect, so I guess it worked out to the best whichever way, and now we have another reason to go back - more DHS time!

We ended up getting in line to meet Sorcerer Mickey because he was out!

We stayed around a little after that, and did the voice over thing with the Hakuna Matata clip, and the Beauty and the Beast clip. It was pretty cool, though no voice over career for me. I was baaad at it!

Once out of the building, we decided to fit in more character greetings! According to the spiffy times guide, there were plenty of characters coming out in front of the hat all morning, so we headed over there. We got right in line, and soon after, the first set of characters came out!

Goofy and Pluto! I love that picture so much, with Goofy bowing to my aunt and Pluto just giving the biggest hug to my uncle. So cute!

Amber got a big Pluto hug too, but I wasn't ready for it, so the only picture we have of her encounter is a Fastpass picture

Still adorable though!

And finally, I got my picture too!

Once we were done character greeting these two, we noticed a gathering that was starting up in front of the hat. We headed right over and watched this quick little show unfold!

We were awesome audience members, if I do say so myself XD We were just jumping up and down and screaming and clapping super loud when they went around with the 'applause' sign, the girls kept giving us thumbs up!

Once it was done, we went on our way as there didn't actually seem to be other characters out - they had all come out and gone at the same time

That was okay though - I had something else in mind that I needed to do, after reading about it so much on the Disboards!



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