DisBrides do Disney! - where I meet friends from the DIS - Feb 2013 *complete*

[librarygeek]

Hello, and welcome to my first real trip report! (I did one for my honeymoon in Sept 2011, but I tacked it on to the end of my planning journal so this is my first that is its own thread!).

About Me
I'm 24 years old, recently graduated with a master's in library science, and currently working as a tutor/looking for a library job. I'm a huge Disney lover and am very lucky that 2013 is the year that I get to go to Disney 3 times! This trip was the first of my trips this year. I also write for a blog called Come Home to Disney, where we cover ways to bring Disney into your every day life.

About the Trip
This trip was very special in many ways. My husband likes Disney but doesn't love it like I do - 3 times in one year would be too much for him. When I planned our at home, Disney themed wedding and Disney honeymoon, I discovered the DIS Boards and started posting on the Disney/honeymoon forum almost daily. I grew close to a lot of girls on there and now speak to them outside of the DIS. I asked if anyone would be interested in taking a trip with me so I could go and leave DH behind, but still have company. Well, that little suggestion turned into an organized group trip with about 15 girls! (and some husbands/fiances). We went over President's Day weekend, Feb. 14-18, and though it was pretty hectic I had a blast!

Here's our group with (almost) all the girls!

What We Had Planned
Being Disney lovers and overly ambitious, we had a lot planned for our girls' weekend!
Thursday, 2/14 - arrive, head into Magic Kingdom for a few hours
Friday, 2/15 - breakfast at Tusker House, day in Animal Kingdom, photoshoot at the Poly in the late afternoon, dinner at Ohana
Saturday, 2/16 - breakfast at Akershus, spend day in Epcot, do private dessert party for Illuminations
Sunday, 2/17 - breakfast at Whispering Canyon, photoshoot at the Grand at 1, tea at Grand at 2, head into MK, dinner at Be Our Guest, stay for late extra magic hours!
Monday, 2/18 - Hollywood Studios for the day, dinner/kitchen sink at Beaches and Cream


Thanks for reading, and I shall be posting the first day of my TR shortly!

 

[laurenvic1312959]

I'm in! Sounds like a great trip

 

[danceintherain]

I'm definitely interested to hear about your photo shoots!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Joining in! Three trips in one year! Jealous.

 

[tiggerfan77]

Joining in too! Also love following the Come Home to Disney blog!

 

[librarygeek]

I'm in! Sounds like a great trip

Thanks for joining!

I'm definitely interested to hear about your photo shoots!

They were fun! I can't wait to see all of the pics from them!

Joining in! Three trips in one year! Jealous.

I know, I am very lucky. I never thought I'd get to do something like that, but the stars just aligned for me this year!

Joining in too! Also love following the Come Home to Disney blog!

Thanks, and I'm so glad you like the blog!

 

[2012DisneyWorldBride]

Ahhhhh I didn't know about this trip!!! Keep me posted next time!!

 

[librarygeek]

Day 1 - Thursday, 2/14

As excited as I was to be off to Disney, I wasn't really looking forward to the journey! I was traveling alone, and leaving my husband behind on Valentine's Day no less! On top of that I had to switch planes in Miami, so it was going to take me 6-7 hours before I was in Disney. I got to the airport in Philly around 11am.

My first flight was very turbulent! So bad that the pilot said it was the worst flight he'd had in his 25 years. We had to stay in the air an extra hour before we could land in Miami, and by then I had to run just to catch my connecting flight! Luckily that flight only took about 45 minutes so around 6pm I was finally landing in Orlando!

How happy was I to see this:

Though in case you can't tell, it was rainy and yucky out, I was still on my way to Disney!! I was staying at Old Key West with some friends, though the ME didn't leave for another half hour or so. By the time I got there it was almost 7:30, so I checked in, got my key, and headed for the room. It was my first time at OKW:

One of my roommates, who had organized the trip, was already there and had taken up both the beds to organize all her stuff! We had t-shirts and other small goodies for everyone lol:

I also found another great surprise in the room - a Valentine's present from DH!

It was especially meaningful, as a few days before I left he gave me a bunch of roses. He said he wanted to give me them earlier so I could enjoy them before I had to leave. However, I counted and there were only 11 in the bouquet. I said to him, "who gets 11 roses instead of 12??" and he said, "Maybe I have plans for the 12th rose." So then I kept asking where the 12th rose was... once I walked into the hotel room I found it There was also a mickey box of chocolates!

Once I was settled in we decided to check out the Magic Kingdom! I was hoping to see Wishes but the fireworks were at 8 that night so we missed them by the time we got there. But I was able to turn in my AP voucher and buy Tables in Wonderland, and then I was finally in the Magic Kingdom!! The park was decorated for True Love week:

And the castle was pink with hearts!

By this point it was almost 9pm and I was starving, since I ate lunch when I arrived in the airport in Philly back at 11am. We went to Cosmic Ray's and only one Bay was open, so I got a turkey sandwich. Since I don't want to do a whole dining review since I only have pictures of my own meal, I'm going to incorporate one here:

This was actually better than I expected. It was a huge sandwich, even in my hungry state I couldn't finish it with the french fries. It's definitely something I would split with someone. The bread was actually really good, and everything tasted fresh even though it was late at night. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10.

The park was due to close at 10 so we decided to hit a few rides before heading back for the night. First we went on Buzz. I actually won, despite what the picture says! The faces we're making here are just awful lol. If it wasn't for photopass plus rest assured that I would not own this pic! haha:

We then booked it to Adventureland to get on Pirates before it closed, and then we headed back to OKW for the night. We needed to get some sleep for an early breakfast at Tusker House the next day!

 

[librarygeek]

Ahhhhh I didn't know about this trip!!! Keep me posted next time!!

I will try!! Are you on facebook? The majority of the planning happened there, I know.

 

[2012DisneyWorldBride]

I will try!! Are you on facebook? The majority of the planning happened there, I know.

No I'm not .

 

[laurenvic1312959]

Looking forward to reading some more x

 

[JessM]

Subbing! I can't wait to hear all about your trip! I have wanted to do a girls trip for years but the stars have never aligned!

 

[librarygeek]

Looking forward to reading some more x

Thanks!

Subbing! I can't wait to hear all about your trip! I have wanted to do a girls trip for years but the stars have never aligned!

Hopefully it will work out for you to do it someday - it's a bit of a different experience, I think, but definitely a lot of fun!

 

[librarygeek]

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom day

My roommate and I were up early and excited to start our day at Animal Kingdom! We had breakfast reservations with one of our other friends and her fiance at Tusker House at 8:30, so it meant we would get to go into the park early when it was empty.

We were so excited we arrived pretty early, around 8:00. The cast member in the parking booth told us that we were his first car of the day, and gave us a special "magical moment" parking pass! We got to park in a reserved section all the way up at the front - I think it was as close as you could possibly get.

After meeting up with our friends we walked through an empty AK to arrive at Tusker House.

We had our picture taken with Donald and headed on in! The food was okay - I'd heard that Tusker was a really good breakfast buffet, but there wasn't much that stood out for me aside from a carved ham and some good breads. Everything else was very standard breakfast fare. It was, after all, a $30 breakfast since it was a holiday weekend!

But of course you're really paying for the characters, who were a lot of fun. We got pictures with Daisy, Mickey, and Goofy.

From there we went on the safari. It was rather chilly that morning, so I don't know if that's why a lot of animals weren't out, but the first half of the ride was almost completely empty. By the second half we finally started seeing some animals, though.

We then went to Rafiki's Planet Watch, which I'd never done before. We explored a bit and then met a crazy Rafiki! He was making fun of the guy in our group, bragging that his beard was better, and trying to steal all the girls away, it was very funny!

After that we met up with three other girls that were in AK to go on Dinosaur. I passed on this one, as I don't like it (there are only three rides in Disney that I don't like to do, and AK has two of them - they are Dinosaur, It's Tough to be a Bug, and Tower of Terror). I went to the gift shop while they did that, where I was tempted to buy a vinylmation. I got the one that I wanted, the genie!

The group next decided to head toward It's Tough to be a Bug, but we spotted Dug and Russell along the way and had to stop for pictures with them! As we were waiting for them we also met up with another girl and her husband who had just arrived for the trip!

Once again I passed on the ride, but then we got to go to Everest which is one of my favorites! My friend's fiance was really into getting silly ride photos, and since we had the photopass plus we got to keep all of them!

We wandered around for a little while and bumped into some more people that some of us knew (My friend's fiance also had some other friends in town that week). I took some pictures while they were chatting:

I love Animal Kingdom, it's so beautiful. We finally decided to head to pizzafari around 2, but we were still pretty full from our breakfast and we knew we had a big dinner planned that night so we just ended up splitting a pizza and breadsticks. We decided to head back to the room for a bit before dinner that night at Ohana, but before we did we had to get a few more photopass pics!

 

[librarygeek]

Day 2, continued

We went back to Old Key West for about an hour before heading over to the Poly. I walked down to the main area to fill up my refillable mug and get a look at the resort a bit better.

Once everyone was ready we headed over to the Poly! This was the first time we got to meet a majority of the other girls on our trip. I'd never been to the Poly, first of all, and it was very beautiful.

We were there to meet up with photographer Regina Hyman, who did the wedding photography for a number of girls on our trip. We had a small photoshoot planned with her before we went to get dinner at Ohana. She is amazing and very sweet, so if you're getting married down there or even just want to do an anniversary shoot, engagement shoot, or family photoshoot around the resorts, I highly recommend her! Here's a glimpse at a few of the photos she did:

After the photos it was almost time for dinner! We did a small gift exchange first that some of the girls had participated in, similar to the cruise fish extender idea. I got some really neat and creative gifts.

I'd never been to Ohana, I've heard great things about it, and then I heard that some people were unhappy with the new menu. Well, in my opinion, it was absolutely amazing! I don't know what it tasted like before, but this was fantastic. It started off with the coconut pineapple bread, which was very tasty.

Next came my favorite course - the salad. I'm pretty certain they said the salad had papaya in it and a passion fruit dressing, and it was so good. Very sweet and fruity, which is what I really like. I had a few helpings of salad, even knowing that there was a lot more food coming. Honestly, I could've just had that salad and been quite happy.

I also had to order the Lapu Lapu pineapple drink! It was quite a delicious drink, and of course you can't go wrong with a drink in a pineapple at a place like Ohana!

Next came the wings and dumplings. Dumplings were great and I really liked the flavoring on the wings, even though I'm not a huge wings fan.

Then came noodles and veggies. I enjoyed the noodles a lot but was not a fan of the veggies (and I am normally a person who likes their veggies!). I don't know what it was, but it kind of tasted like there was a lot of black pepper or something on them, just something that was a bit off putting.

Then the main course - I was pretty much full by then! They came around with meat skewers that included shrimp, chicken, beef, and pork. I tried a bit of each and it was all pretty good. Honestly though, the meat was the most underwhelming part of the meal! I won't share a pic of that, because a plate of messy meats is not an attractive thing

As we were in the middle of our meats Wishes began. I didn't even realize it would be happening during our meal, but they pipe in the music and all. It was nice to watch it with dinner, even though we were towards the back of the restaurant and some inconsiderate people in front of us decided to stand up, blocking our view a bit. After Wishes we finished our meats and they brought out the bread pudding for dessert. I was so stuffed by this point, but I managed to try a bite of it and I think I would really enjoy it if I was not so full!

The only downside of the meal was getting the check worked out. Obviously we had a big group, about 15-20 people, but we told them from the start we wanted all separate checks. Well, for whatever reason it was mine that was messed up - first she forgot to put my drink on it, then she forgot to use the Tables in Wonderland discount on my check even though I had given it to her from the start, then she applied the discount to just my meal and not my drink, etc. She just kept coming back with the check and it was wrong. I literally had a pile of about 6 voided checks before I left. It was frustrating because I was literally sitting there for 20-30 minutes after most of my friends had paid and left (though a few stuck with me!). I totally understand that dealing with a big table like that isn't easy, but the amount of mistakes made on just my check was a little mind blowing!

After dinner some of the girls decided to go over to the Grand for a drink, but me and the two girls staying with me decided to go get some sleep. We were eating Breakfast at Akershus the next morning at 8am, so we had to be up early!

 

[wiigirl]

Great TR...Loving all the pics!

 

[danceintherain]

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom day

I love this alteration to the standard Stitch pop-up picture!

I'm glad you enjoyed your meal at Ohana. I'm really excited to eat there on my next trip.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I really enjoyed O'hana last year. And I learned that had to pace myself during the meal to make sure I had enough room for the bread pudding which was my favorite part of the meal.

Love the Stitch photo!

 

[tiggerfan77]

I finally have my reservations for Ohana's after years of trying to get in! I read the complaints of the menu changes and was worried so thanks for showing all the options. Everything looks delicious to me!

 

[laurenvic1312959]

I plan to eat at both Ohana and akershurs on our next trip so i'm having a great time reading along