A Disney Geek-tastic Trip to the World Updated 3/27!

[AlisaMom]

Great pictures and update! Thanks. Waiting for more!!!

 

[Ninja Mom]

Hi Missy!

I just wanted to let you know I am enjoying your trip report. The drama at Raglan Road is worthy of a Reality TV series. I can't wait to read more and I'm chiming in to egg you on. I also wanted to ask what kind of camera is Franklin using? We really need to get a new camera and that one looks like it takes pretty good pictures. Of course it's probably Franklin that is taking the great pictures so we will just have to bring him along with that camera on all of our vacations.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share such a neat trip report with us!



~NM

 

[teekathepony]

It's been so long since I've done Raglan Road, and I LOVED it then. I'd like to get back some time!
Had a good laugh at your As The Raglan Road Turns story I do that with DH all the time when we see strangers acting dramatic.
Your meals look great!
That night time view... wow.

 

[khertz]

That is so great that you made up a story for the dancers! I'm sure it made an entertaining night even better. The food there looks great! It has never been a restaurant on our radar because we don't usually eat any sit downs at DTD, but I have been reading a lot of good things about it, so maybe one day?

 

[Missyrose]

Thanks, I agree! I love planning where to eat and looking at the menus. But now that I found trip reports I am enjoying reading about everyone's trips! Thanks for the kind words about BWV. You are right if we don't get it now, we will at some point. At least we are already members, I want more points just not sure how many more....

Have you found the Dining Reviews board? Lots of fun dining reports there too.

As far as DVC goes, Franklin and I have 230 points total (150 at BWV and 80 at BLT) and I think, eventually, we'd want another 100 at BWV. But I sat down and figured out that we wouldn't need those extra points for another few years. So we decided to wait (because resale prices will continue to drop) and save the MFs on those extra points until we actually need them. It just so happened that the decision coincided with when the BWV resale market fell off a cliff and Disney got interested in ROFRing BWV again (can you believe we paid $50 a point at BWV a year ago?!?!).

Great update! Raglan Road looks delicious, I'm glad you guys finally made it there!

And Franklin, as usual, excellent pictures!

Such a good restaurant. Maybe a good place for the December trip?!?! It wasn't outrageously expensive.

Great pictures and update! Thanks. Waiting for more!!!

Fine, if you demand more... it's coming right up!

Hi Missy!

I just wanted to let you know I am enjoying your trip report. The drama at Raglan Road is worthy of a Reality TV series. I can't wait to read more and I'm chiming in to egg you on. I also wanted to ask what kind of camera is Franklin using? We really need to get a new camera and that one looks like it takes pretty good pictures. Of course it's probably Franklin that is taking the great pictures so we will just have to bring him along with that camera on all of our vacations.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share such a neat trip report with us!



~NM

The egging on has worked! I'm working on the next chapter as we speak. And Franklin will stop by to answer your question soon!

It's been so long since I've done Raglan Road, and I LOVED it then. I'd like to get back some time!
Had a good laugh at your As The Raglan Road Turns story I do that with DH all the time when we see strangers acting dramatic.
Your meals look great!
That night time view... wow.

Definitely try to get back to RR, it's well worth it (as you know). There are so many interesting people who visit Disney or work there. People watching is one of my favorite trip activity.

That is so great that you made up a story for the dancers! I'm sure it made an entertaining night even better. The food there looks great! It has never been a restaurant on our radar because we don't usually eat any sit downs at DTD, but I have been reading a lot of good things about it, so maybe one day?

DTD can be a hard place to incorporate into the Disney schedule. We tend to do one meal and some shopping there on each trip. But our rule when it comes to DTD is NO BUSES! Seriously, the bus to and from DTD can easily take an hour each way for no good reason. So we either go by rental car or cab. It makes the experience much less stressful.​

 

[Pixel Dust]

Hi Missy!

I just wanted to let you know I am enjoying your trip report. The drama at Raglan Road is worthy of a Reality TV series. I can't wait to read more and I'm chiming in to egg you on. I also wanted to ask what kind of camera is Franklin using? We really need to get a new camera and that one looks like it takes pretty good pictures. Of course it's probably Franklin that is taking the great pictures so we will just have to bring him along with that camera on all of our vacations.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share such a neat trip report with us!



~NM

I'm using a Nikon D600. It's one of the bigger DSLR cameras. I vary my lens choice quite a bit. Indoors at Raglan Road I used the ultra wide lens, Tokina 11-16mm. Food pictures are with the old Nikon 35mm f/2. If you have a specific picture you would like me to elaborate on, I would be happy to do so. Other equipment I have are in my signature.
I would be happy to tag along for another Disney trip! ​

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[disfanforlife]

We are definitely foodies! Half of the fun is planning where to eat for our trips. I have yet to cook a meal at Disney (and don't think I will be anytime soon) Except coffee! My oldest daughter and I especially love look at the menus and talking about plans. Unfortunately, she and her sister will not be able to come with us on our next trip. This will be our first trip without our girls. So, since it would be just our son with us - we decided to let him invite his best friend. Now his best friends whole family is coming too! We don't know how our trips will change. We are thinking we may try to come twice a year - once with our son and once with our daughters. The girls will both be in college next year and will have different vacation times. With our son, we usually go during veterans week and he misses a few days of school. So, that is one of the reasons we were thinking of adding on - two vacations - need more points! But, we could probably borrow and maybe skip a year every third year also. All of this depends on if our BWV for 100 goes through ROFR. We currently own 200 at AKV.

 

[Missyrose]

We are definitely foodies! Half of the fun is planning where to eat for our trips. I have yet to cook a meal at Disney (and don't think I will be anytime soon) Except coffee! My oldest daughter and I especially love look at the menus and talking about plans. Unfortunately, she and her sister will not be able to come with us on our next trip. This will be our first trip without our girls. So, since it would be just our son with us - we decided to let him invite his best friend. Now his best friends whole family is coming too! We don't know how our trips will change. We are thinking we may try to come twice a year - once with our son and once with our daughters. The girls will both be in college next year and will have different vacation times. With our son, we usually go during veterans week and he misses a few days of school. So, that is one of the reasons we were thinking of adding on - two vacations - need more points! But, we could probably borrow and maybe skip a year every third year also. All of this depends on if our BWV for 100 goes through ROFR. We currently own 200 at AKV.

I love planning our Disney dining too! Franklin also likes having a say in the dining plans, be he won't admit that to the outside world. My biggest problem is often finding that right balance of places we love and trying new restaurants. There are just too many good choices and always too few days on our trips.

That's great you can take your kids on different trips, it must really make them feel special. You must have lots of wonderful Disney memories!
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[Missyrose]

We last left off with gazing down at the glowing Boardwalk below at the end of an amazing first day at Disney. We were up bright and early the next day. I’d heard so much about how beautiful Boardwalk is in the early morning, we rushed to the balcony to check it out.

Hmmmm, not quite the sparkling sunrise I was expecting. We also quickly realized that with that kind of fog on the lake, it would be quite a while until the Friendship Boats would be up and running. So we change our plans from boating to DHS to driving the rental car. The upside to that plan was that it would take about four minutes to get to DHS and park vs. the 30-45 minutes we’d planned for on the boat. We had time for breakfast in the villa and then we set out for the park.

We arrived early, just as planned. I tweeted “Got to DHS at 8:10 and we're 5th in line! #goodstart #disney #dhs”

For those of you who don’t know, DHS now opens the turnstiles before the announced park opening time. For a 9 a.m. opening, they have been typically opening the gates between 8:35 and 8:50. It’s less of a stampede to Toy Story Mania this way. And at 8:37 that morning, they let us in!

Franklin took off for Pixar Place to grab a nice, early set of FPs.

And I met him at the standby line. The only downside to riding that early is the line moves too quickly to really enjoy that incredible queue.

The CMs at TSM now send parties of two up the right side of the stairs to fill in empty cars. It’s kind of like having a FP without a FP!

We got on the ride really quickly, in just about 10 minutes.

If you’ve read our past trip reports, you probably know that I’ve never beaten Franklin at TSM. I blame it on the fact that I spend my free time on the Dis and he plays video games. But would this day be any different?

Yeah, no.

He still kicked my butt. Sigh, one day things will change!

We next traveled to a galaxy far, far away.

We traveled all the way to the Wookie Planet and the Underwater City, and Yoda paid us a visit. An excellent journey. We browsed the gift shop after. Franklin was really interested in the “build your own droid” setup.

We also bought a few gifts for friends. We looked at the clock and realized we had some more time to kill before our TSM FPs would come due. So we looped back into the Star Tours line.

Right as we walked up the ramp, they opened the right side of the queue, so we walked directly to the loading area!

And where did we travel to this time? The Wookie Planet, the Underwater City and a visit from Yoda. Yep, we got the exact same flight on back-to-back flights. There are, what, hundreds of flight combinations on the new ride? And we got the exact same combo on rides less than 15 minutes apart. Maybe we should have bought a lottery ticket that day?

We split up after Star Tours. I headed for the hub to see if there were any characters around (there weren't). And Franklin took a stroll down Sunset Boulevard...

... to grab us a set of Rock-n-Roller Coaster FPs. We met back up at TSM for our second spin through the midway.

The first couple of screens, I was on fire. And then at the third screen, my gun wouldn’t fire. AT ALL.

They tried to load a set of kids to our seat when we pulled back around and I explained to the CM what happened. So they pulled the kids out before sending one of them into a lame game. They also told us to hang on and we could hop on again.

And here’s the embarrassing part, I ended up scoring worse on that run. My arm was tired, three rides on TSM in a matter of hours is a lot of arm use!

Franklin did worse too, so I don’t think mine was the only tired arm in that car. He also took this photo:

I have no idea how he manages to get any in-focus pictures on that ride. There’s so much spinning and jerking around.

We had spent enough time in Pixar Place that it was time to head to R-n-R for our FPs.

We had a plan for the ride photo. We were both going to point at my gorgeous engagement ring. There was a flaw in the plan. It took all my effort to not be gripping the harness during the launch, that it never dawned on me that I would have to hold my hand up higher. Oops!

Once we arrived safely at the Aerosmith concert, it was time for us to head to our lunch ADR. It was just after 11, so our tally was three rides on TSM, two on Star Tours and one on R-n-R. Not a bad morning, huh?
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[disfanforlife]

I love planning our Disney dining too! Franklin also likes having a say in the dining plans, be he won't admit that to the outside world. My biggest problem is often finding that right balance of places we love and trying new restaurants. There are just too many good choices and always too few days on our trips.

That's great you can take your kids on different trips, it must really make them feel special. You must have lots of wonderful Disney memories!
​

I agree. It is hard. I think the only new one we will try will be BOG! dH is still holding it over my head that I messed up getting us a ressie at ohana on our last trip. That is the only place he is adamant about going to. And wow, you got BWV for $50 last year. That is great! We haven't had any seperate trips with the kids yet. This November will be the first.

 

[natebenma]

We last left off with gazing down at the glowing Boardwalk below at the end of an amazing first day at Disney. We were up bright and early the next day. I’d heard so much about how beautiful Boardwalk is in the early morning, we rushed to the balcony to check it out.

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I commented on this picture before, but...

O-M-Gorgeous!!!


What a fabulous morning at HS. Hopefully we will have a similar experience on the morning we are there- with the addition of ToT.

That was smart of you to tell the CM about your broken gun on TSM. With all of the time and effort it takes to actually get onto the ride, it would be a shame for someone to have a faulty shooter.

Where is that dartboard? I don't remember seeing it.

Fashion comment! I noticed your necklace in a picture from the MK, and today's version at HS. Love it. And just so Franklin doesn't feel left out- great shirt with Animal on it. My favorite Muppet!

 

[Pixel Dust]

I commented on this picture before, but...

O-M-Gorgeous!!!

Thank you so much! I kind of got lucky with that shot. I saw the fog creeping up, ran back into the room to grab the camera and started shooting. The fog was extremely thick and moved in fast. In a couple minutes, we could barely see the boardwalk right outside our room. We didn't hear the friendship boats run for a while.​

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What a fabulous morning at HS. Hopefully we will have a similar experience on the morning we are there- with the addition of ToT.

That was smart of you to tell the CM about your broken gun on TSM. With all of the time and effort it takes to actually get onto the ride, it would be a shame for someone to have a faulty shooter.

It's nice to know that the next people won't be disappointed. The best part is that you get to ride it again. They let you wait in the exit area, against the wall, for the next available car. So, the first time around is like a warm up. But, your arm does get really tired.​

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Where is that dartboard? I don't remember seeing it.

It's at the very end.
Right after the prize booth

but before the scores.

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Fashion comment! I noticed your necklace in a picture from the MK, and today's version at HS. Love it. And just so Franklin doesn't feel left out- great shirt with Animal on it. My favorite Muppet!

Can't go wrong with the Muppets!​

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[Queenofallthings]

So happy that you guys finally made it to RR...it is one of our favourites! Funny thing tho, we've always been too early for the dancers and the band!

I love wandering aroung DTD after dinner....its just screams to me that I'm on vacation! That view from your room is amazing!

 

[PrincessAmongPrinces]

Wow! Very productive DHS morning. I absolutely love the pic of you guys on RnR - it totally made me smile!

 

[teekathepony]

Might not be a sparkling sunrise, but it's gorgeous nonetheless! I like foggy pictures.
We once did three spins on TSM in the span of about two hours, my arm was going to fall off. I think you did really well on your third go round, considering!
Can't believe you got the same Star Tour twice! What are the odds?

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I have been away from the Dis for a bit. I hopped back today to see BEAUTIFUL engagement pictures!!! If that is from your wedding photographer, you will have amazing pictures again.

Great shots as usual, and I'm loving the BW pictures. One day I'll get there, hopefully.

 

[mommyarewegoingback]

Just joined your TR. It's awesome. Your words and your fiancé 's pics really make me feel like I'm there with you. We just closed on BWV in January. We have split trip in May that will get us "home" for a few nights. But our real first trip home is a week long boardwalk view room thanksgiving week. I'm totally drooling over the pics of Boardwalk. Thanks for the great TR!

-Virginia

 

[Missyrose]

So happy that you guys finally made it to RR...it is one of our favourites! Funny thing tho, we've always been too early for the dancers and the band!

I love wandering aroung DTD after dinner....its just screams to me that I'm on vacation! That view from your room is amazing!

I know lots of people can rag on DTD as being "just" and outdoor shopping mall. But the restaurants are great, the shopping is fantastic and (at night especially) the atmosphere is awesome. We love spending time there.

Wow! Very productive DHS morning. I absolutely love the pic of you guys on RnR - it totally made me smile!

I don't know if I'll EVER be able to keep my eyes open for the R-n-R launch. But I'll keep trying.

Might not be a sparkling sunrise, but it's gorgeous nonetheless! I like foggy pictures.
We once did three spins on TSM in the span of about two hours, my arm was going to fall off. I think you did really well on your third go round, considering!
Can't believe you got the same Star Tour twice! What are the odds?

The fog was gorgeous in its own way. I especially liked the way the pirate ship looks like it's coming out of the fog.

My arm did feel like it was going to fall off! I guess one of the perks of the new FP+ system could be getting to schedule an afternoon TSM reservation, since we're usually done with that ride by 11 a.m.!

I wish I could figure out exactly what the odds are for getting the same ride twice in a row.

I have been away from the Dis for a bit. I hopped back today to see BEAUTIFUL engagement pictures!!! If that is from your wedding photographer, you will have amazing pictures again.

Great shots as usual, and I'm loving the BW pictures. One day I'll get there, hopefully.

Welcome back! Thanks, the engagement photos were taken by the couple who will shoot our wedding. It was a wonderful way for us to get to know them and them to get to know us.

Staying at Boardwalk really does feel like home to us! It's a beautiful, peaceful resort.

Just joined your TR. It's awesome. Your words and your fiancé 's pics really make me feel like I'm there with you. We just closed on BWV in January. We have split trip in May that will get us "home" for a few nights. But our real first trip home is a week long boardwalk view room thanksgiving week. I'm totally drooling over the pics of Boardwalk. Thanks for the great TR!

-Virginia

Virginia, and thank you for joining in! Congrats on the new BWV purchase. I'm sohappy to hear you get to go "home" for at least a few days next month. When in May will you be there?
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[Missyrose]

We last left off finishing up a headliners blitz at DHS. It was time for lunch at one of our Disney favorites.

The nice thing about early lunch ADRs is there’s basically no waiting for a table. They seated us immediately, back in a little nook that I had never seen before.

Our waitress was Elizabeth and she ROCKED!

There were no silly rules to keep, no yelling at us. She was just brash and loud and generally hilarious throughout the entire meal.

We started with drinks, my typical iced tea and Franklin’s peanut butter milkshake.

We split an order of yummy onion rings for an appetizer.

I just love the mini fryer they come in now!

Here’s the thing you need to know about 50s Primetime Cafe, the food is delicious, but the portions are huge. So on this day, Franklin and I decided to split an entree: the fried chicken (my favorite!).

There was one very important reason we needed to share a lunch, we needed to have enough room for dessert! Dad’s brownie sundae is one of my favorite desserts at Disney. Gooey brownie, vanilla ice cream, oodles of hot fudge, sprinkles, M&Ms and caramel corn. Seriously, its perfection. They also brought Franklin a birthday cupcake.

Then it was time to dig in, who wants one right now?

In addition to being the best waitress we've ever had at PTC, Elizabeth also was really helpful in another area. You see, I have Crohn's Disease (which came up when I made substitutions when ordering). It turns out Elizabeth's sister has Crohn's and she asked if I had gotten a Guest Assistance Card before. I told her that I'd heard of the GACs, but this was the first trip I'd made to WDW as an adult that I was dealing with active Crohn's symptoms. She told me to go to Guest Relations after lunch and get a GAC, it would alleviate some of the stress the symptoms were causing me. (She was totally right.)

After lunch, Franklin and I split up for a bit. He wanted to go ride Tower of Terror (which I wanted no part of), so I headed to GR to get the GAC then to the Writer’s Stop for some tea and to catch up on my trip journal. That’s not exactly interesting, photographically speaking, so let’s tag along with Franklin instead.

Ugh. How dare that one cloud blemish an otherwise beautiful sky?

The Tower of Terror photo spectacular is where we’ll leave off for now. A lovely DHS morning and afternoon in the books.
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[marcus.ka]

Thank you sooo much for your trip report. You both are lovely couple. Your pictures are perfection! I love every single one of them!

And our favorite is the 50's Prime Time Cafe too. And I would fly from Europe to WDW only to eat Dad’s brownie sundae. It is the most delicious dessert I have ever eaten!