Two Aussie first-timers in Disney! Lots of photos! NEW- FINAL CHAPTER! - Ch 20, Pg 30

[lisaj]

Sorry you've been ill, I've been having withdrawal symptoms waiting for the continuation of your trip report. Lovely update. Thank you.

[tazz23]

I am really enjoying your trip report.. it was actually your report that inspired me to write my delayed trip report!

We were also in the 60s building but on the opposite side on the Hippy Dippy pool.. However, the room looks exactly the same

[Marjol]

report and I'm definately enjoying it!

Wow, a 7 week trip through the USA, I'm jealous! I went on a 3 week trip last year, we visited New York, Niagara Falls, Washington DC, LA, Las Vegas, San Francisco and a lot of national parks in between. It was a wonderful trip.

This year (in exactly 44 days!) we'll be going to Orlando! I get to see Disneyworld!

Keep writing, I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

[AussieAngel]

Yay! Thanks for all your get well wishes! I'm feeling much better today - it must have been all that Disney magic!!

missmun52... Glad you're enjoying my trip report!! Thanks for stopping by!!

JeanfromBNA... More will come soon, don't worry! And I would LOVE to get married at Disney World, but I don't know what our 120 guests would have to say about paying $2000 each for their flights! Heee! Believe me, not a day goes by when I don't think, "Augh, we should have just eloped." Planning your wedding is tough!! Hee!

crzyred... Thanks for letting me know that Americans hit the sack too. Hee! And it was so nice of you to say I looked "so happy" with Pal Mickey - I think I look so tired!!

MissDisney121... What a nice compliment about those photos! Thankyou! You wanna know a secret though? I actually took about 30 photos of the fireworks, and those were some of the only few that worked out! Ha!

disneyaddicted... I read your post about butchering your own pigs and thought, "Oh, she goes to the butcher." and then I read it again, and thought, "OH!!" Images of Babe and Wilbur from Charlotte's Web are flooding my head... Heee. Anyway, Asauble River looks very pretty!!

ILMICKEY... Greasy fried fat! Hee! What can I say!?

veryblessed... Good idea on paying more for a king bed!! Pop is tricky, because you pay more for a 'preferred room', which we did, but all you can do is request a king bed - which we did, but had no luck! Oh well! We were quite comfy in our own double beds!!

Marion... Oh, we loved Pal Mickey!! We're both suckers for soft toys though. In terms of helpfulness, Pal Mickey probably wasn't that amazing. He told us when there were short lines for rides, but that was when we were in the middle of eating lunch. I think really, he's just a cute little toy to play with. Expensive, but a great souviner and keepsake! Plus, he's Pal Mickey! Our trip wouldn't have been the same without him!!

NMAmy... Thanks for your nice words!! And thanks for stopping by, when you're so busy with writing your pre-trippie! Hehee!

Ciciwoowoo... I love your name, by the way. Woowoo!! Anyway, thanks for the encouragement - I will keep going with the entire trip, don't worry!!

lisaj... Withdrawal symptoms, wow!! I promise to have my next instalment up by this time tomorrow!!

tazz23... Fantastic!! I'm so glad I helped inspire you to write your trippie! I'll go and check yours out now!

Marjol... Your trip sounds excellent! Lots of the same places we went!! What was your favourite place? And I'm very jealous that you only have 44 days til Disney!! You'll love it!!

So thanks again everybody for your nice words!! I'll have the next chapter up soon, so keep an eye out! It's the weekend, yayyy! And for the first time all year, DF and I actually have no plans! I'm so excited to just have a nice, lazy weekend.

Have a fun weekend everybody!!

[missmun52]

I must agree with you on POC, I did not see what all the fuss was about after getting on that ride, It just did not do much for DH and me. I also did not like the jungle c.

[Halloweenqueen]

Fantastic!!!

The Wishes pictures were beautiful! I had to swipe them and make a wallpaper for my kid's computer. They will love it!

Can't wait for the next installment!

[GoofyBaby]

Hi AussieAngel!

Just found your TR today and I am hooked! Glad you are feeling better too. Can't wait for your next installment! You and DF look so cute together!

[punkin413]

subbing! great report so far. me and DH are going in may and i love reading TRs of couples with no kids. nothing against the kiddies...we just don't have any and it's interesting to see how the adults w/out the kids do things! this is our first trip together and we're sooooooo excited! looking forward to your next installment...

[PrincessAlways]

Just found your report. You did say 7 weeks, right??!!! WOW - how amazing! Your TR is very entertaining. Those tears of joy are free with admission!! I've stayed at Pop & really like it. You can't beat the price, the rooms are good, the bus service is good (although very crowded at times) & it serves the purpose of "being at Disney"!!!!! Can't wait to read more!

[ben's disneymom]

Wow!! those pictures of wishes are fantastic! Do you mind telling me what kind of camera they were taken with? Our camera is on the blink and we may have to get a new one before we go, I would sure like to have pictures like yours!

[bigglesworth003]

Hello Fellow Melburnien!!!

Love the trip report and making me itch for mine in August, i thought id be able wait 2years at least between trips but i cracked and we got cheap jetstar flights to Hawaii then cheap flights to WDW!!!

And Hopefully free dining will be announced!!

The report is great will be reading it all!

Good to see another Aussie!!!

[AussieAngel]

Hey guys! I've written the next chapter, and it's all ready to go, but first let me reply to these nice people!!

missmun52... It wasn't that we didn't enjoy Pirates of The Caribbean, it just wasn't what we'd imagined it to be!! Good to see that it's not just us, though!!

Halloweenqueen... I'm flattered that you liked my Wishes photos! How did your kids like their new wallpaper?! Wow!

GoofyBaby... Thanks so much for your nice comments! I love your iGoofy picture!! Cute!

punkin413... Have a fantastic time on your first trip to Disney together! How exciting! You'll have to write a trip report all about it!!

PrincessAlways... Yep, we went for 7 weeks! And you're right about Pop - it is a great place to stay. Very cheap, and very Disney!! Thanks for popping in to my trippie!

ben's disneymom... Thanks for your nice comments on my photos! Our camera is a Canon IXUS 50. It's only a tiny little thing, but it takes great photos, and it can be as easy or as complicated as you want! I definitely recommend it! This is what it looks like...



bigglesworth003... Hey! How exciting! I remember reading your trip report last year, and loving it! Lucky you, going to Disney again in August!! We're going to Hawaii in January for our honeymoon, so Disney will have to wait til the following year, I'm afraid! Where are you staying? You should write a pre-trip report!!

Thanks again to everybody for their nice comments!! I'll have the next chapter up in a few minutes!!

[AussieAngel]

Chapter 5… Our first full Disney day!!

So today was to be our first official day at Disney World! Yay!! In our itinerary, we’d made plans to go to MGM this day. Why?! Because I thought we might still be tired, and according to lots of people on DIS, MGM is one of the least exciting parks at Disney. So I thought we’d go there first! Oh, you know what I mean. It made sense in my head at the time, anyway!!

You know what park I was most looking forward to? Animal Kingdom! I love animals, and I’ve always wanted to go to Africa, so I thought that might be the closest I’ll get to Africa for a while. I was also looking forward to heading to EPCOT, to check out all the different countries, and of course, Magic Kingdom, because it’s Magic Kingdom! But MGM? I was kinda… meh… about MGM.

So when the phone rang at 8.02am that morning, and Stitch was on the other end for our wake up call, it didn’t go down so well. Remember, I’m not a morning person. And what on earth was this dude screaming about? There may have been Mickey in there somewhere too. Really, it just sounded like one of them was strangling the other. Eventually the screaming ended, and I just stared at the phone. Weird.

But, it got us up, so I guess that was the point. We pulled ourselves out of our separate beds (heee!), quickly showered, dressed, make-uped, grabbed Pal Mickey, and headed out the brightly-coloured Pop door. Well, I make-uped. DF didn’t, don’t worry! We don’t usually do breakfast either. I know that’s bad, because breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I’ve just never been a breakfast person, and either has DF.

We made it to the Pop bus lines at 8.30, and waited around 10 minutes for a bus to MGM. Once it came, the 62 million of us who were waiting for a bus piled on, and off we went to MGM! Yahooo!

We arrived pretty much right on 9am – opening time at MGM that day, and walked into a massive crowd who seemed to be being yelled at by a guy with a megaphone. We learnt later that it was the normal production for rope drop at MGM, but we were still half-asleep and had no idea what was going on, so we just followed the crowd. Heee.

The rope eventually dropped, and yay, we were off!! You wanna guess where we were off to? It was our first time at MGM, we love rides, and we had no kids with us… Of course we were going to Tower of Terror and Rock’n’Roller coaster!! Our aim was to grab a fastpass for one of them, then run to the other. However, when we arrived at Tower of Terror, there was only a 5 minute wait, and no Fastpass machines in operation! Okay! So Tower of Terror it was then!



You know how we didn’t eat breakfast? That was SUCH a good idea. Because I can almost guarantee my breakfast would have been left behind up the top of the tower, when the rest of me went down. Ha, sorry, that’s really graphic, but WOW. I LOVED Tower of Terror! It was unlike anything else I’d ever been on! I loved the tension build-up before any of the drops happen, and of course, I loved the drops!

Somehow I’d missed out on hearing that your handbags should be placed in a secret pocket under your chair while riding Tower of Terror, because I was the nutter who kept her handbag over her shoulder. Actually, it was one of those slouch-satchel bags that go over your shoulder, and sit on your hip. So on the ride, it was in front of me, on my lap. When we dropped, my bag, of course, flew in the air and hit me on the head. Heeee. And in the photo you look at afterwards, there was a magical white bag flying in the air in front of me. Whoops!

After Tower of Terror? We were officially awake. What a way to start your day!! We both had the giggles after Tower of Terror, and were definitely ready to go straight onto Rock’n’Roller Coaster! Again, no fastpass machines - but only a 10 minute wait. Yay!



Now, this might be a good place to mention that before this trip to America, I really hadn’t been on many rides. I love them, but I hadn’t been on many. I discovered at Universal Studios in LA that on fast rides, I tend to scream. And DF tends to laugh. A LOT. I never would have picked myself to be a screamer, but there it was. It just happened on every ride. My mouth just opened automatically, and a huge scream came out! I couldn’t help it!!

So Rock’n’Roller Coaster? Yep, I SCREAMED like never before. And DF laughed his head off. We both LOVED this ride. So much in fact, that it’s probably our favourite ride at Disney World. I especially loved it because even though it goes upside down, it doesn’t seem like you’re upside down, because you can’t see! I’m a very visual person – and I don’t like heights. If this ride was outside and up high, I probably wouldn’t have done it. But because it was dark and you had no idea how high up you are, or what’s happening next, it was awesome! Plus, it’s incredibly smooth with no jerks or bumps at all. Love it!

Admittedly though, after that we had to have a little sit down. And DF had to visit the bathroom. Hee. So while I was enjoying my little sit down on a bench, a crazy lady approached me and screamed, “BE CAREFUL! Those things will give you rabies!!” I stared at her in shock and said, “Pardon? What will, this seat?” But no, apparently there was a little squirrel sitting in the bush right behind my head, ready to pounce. So of course, I freaked out, screamed, and ran away.

Oh my goodness. This was turning out to be quite a day. Stitch and Mickey strangling each other on the phone, Tower of Terror, Rock’n’Roller Coaster, and an evil, rabies-laced squirrel. And it was still only 10am. Whatever next!?

Next turned out to be the Great Movie Ride. Which wasn’t really so Great. It was cute, and the Wizard of Oz part at the end was worth it, but wow. It went for a long time. After the Average Movie Ride, we were wandering towards Star Tours, when we saw Chip & Dale posing for photos! DF loves Chip & Dale! Plus, yay, our first character opportunity! So we lined up! It wasn’t until we were in the line for a while that we realised we were the only adults in the line and everybody else came up to our hips, but never mind. It was Chip & Dale!

Or, should I say, it was Chip & Dale and an unknown girl version of Chip & Dale. Who is she? DF was most displeased that she had to be in our photo, and we still don’t know who she is. He was going to ask her to hop out of our photo, but I told him that might be a little un-Disney. So, here we are – Me, DF, Chip, Dale, and … !? Who is she? Any helpers?! Thanks guys!!



Star Tours was next, which DF loved because he’s a Star Wars nerd. I thought it was okay, but could do with a bit of a revamp! After that we headed straight onto the Backlot Tour, which was fun, but really didn’t have that much to see. In fact, I really can’t remember that much about it. Whoops!

By this stage it was about 11.30am. We’d had great luck all morning, with only about 5 minute waits everywhere. Plus, we came across lots of characters just waiting around doing nothing! Like, Mickey! How exciting! Here he is…



Straight after that, we literally walked past Pooh and Eeyore, standing by themselves. I felt sad for them all by themselves, so I jumped in for a photo with them. (You can also see my white bag in the photos, and imagine it flying up and hitting me on the head in ToT!)





We had a lunch ADR at Sci-Fi Dine-Inn at 12.30, which wasn’t too far away at this stage. We still had half an hour though, and it was getting pretty hot, so we decided to go to Voyage of The Little Mermaid. Okay, I decided we should go, and DF obligingly followed. But you know what? Voyage of the Little Mermaid was surprisingly good!! The puppets were amazing, and the whole thing was just very cool! Even DF was impressed! Plus, it was so nice and cold in there! Loved it!

After that, it was time to head to Sci-Fi. By this stage, after such a busy morning and no breakfast, we were STARVING! On our way though, we saw Sully from Monster’s Inc standing all by his lonesome in his area! Seriously, I don’t know where all the people were that morning, but they certainly weren’t at MGM! Here we are with Sully…



Next up... Sci-Fi lunch, and MGM continued!

[AussieAngel]

Chapter 5 continued… Still at MGM!

I’m just going to keep writing, since I didn’t really mean to chop this day in half – but that last post was just really long!

So it was Sci-Fi time! I was excited about this ADR. Sure, I’d heard mixed reviews about it on DIS, but it looked like fun, and something you have to try at least once! We didn’t have to wait at all – we walked straight inside and were shown to our car. We were actually hitch-hiking behind a family of four, but that was fine.

The whole restaurant was very cute, and it was just nice to be able to have a sit down and relax after such a busy morning. And wow, was there a lot of food. We hadn’t learnt to pace ourselves with Disney dining yet. We still weren’t used to the bigger servings of food in America – let alone Disney servings, which seem to be even bigger than normal American servings! Wah! But we were on the free dining plan and just hadn’t learnt to say “No thanks!” to the offer of free food!

So my meal consisted of onion rings for appetizer, followed by the chicken breast sandwich for main, then the chocolate tart for dessert. Seriously, look at the size of that chicken breast sandwich. It’s the size of me. Was I really meant to pick it up and bite into it? Heeee.







DF had the 7 bean beef chili for his appetizer, the chicken salad for main, and the hot fudge sundae for dessert. He loved it all!







We enjoyed all the food… especially the onion rings and the chocolate tart. In fact, next time we might go back and just order a chocolate tart as my main course. It was SO yummy!

Here's DF in our car after the family of 4 had left, looking VERY full and VERY tired and grumpy!! Hee! Bad photo alert!!



Heee, anyway. We pretty much rolled ourselves out of Sci-Fi. We only ate about half of our meals, but even so, we were FULL! And you know how there was nobody in MGM that morning? They’d all arrived for the afternoon. Seriously, the crowd had doubled while we were eating lunch! Yowza! Plus, it was now really hot. Eeek.

We decided to go to Sounds Dangerous to have a bit of a sit down and relax after our massive meal. DF loved Sounds Dangerous. It was cute, except it was just so tempting to close my eyes and have a little 10 minute nap in there…

We went for a little explore and shop around the park then, and had the obligatory shot in front of the hat –



We also bought one of those groovy mister fans, that shoot out water and fan you at the same time. That turned out to be our saviour all week. It was SO good!

We went to Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular after that, which was fun, except we were both seriously tired. It was around 3pm by then, and it had been a big day! I always read those tips on the DIS boards and in the PassPorter that say to go back to your hotel and have a rest in the afternoon, and thought, “Ha! We won’t need to do that!” But actually, yes we did. So, we caught a bus back to Pop, and nearly fell asleep next to the 4 year old next to us.

So after not expecting to have much fun at MGM, we LOVED it. We had SO much fun! It’s now probably our favourite park in Disney! I know not many people agree with me, but we shall forever love MGM!

Back at Pop, we had our very first swim in the flower pool! Nice! Feeling very refreshed then, we said to each other, “Nah, we don’t need a sleep! Let’s go back to the parks!” Then we lay down on the beds and fell fast asleep. Heeee.

But oh-oh, we woke up an hour later – we had an ADR for Raglan Road that night! Oh dear. We were both still full from lunch! Nevertheless, feeling refreshed and much better after our sleep, we organized ourselves and caught a bus to Pleasure Island.

You know in Bruce Almighty, when Jim Carrey (aka, Bruce) says, “Pleeeeeaaaasureable!” to Jennifer Aniston? That’s how you have to say “Pleeeaaaaaasure Island”. Well that’s how we say it, anyway.

So we arrived at Pleeeeeaaaasure Island at around 6.30. Our Raglan Road ADR wasn’t until 7, so we had half an hour to explore Pleeeeeaaaasure Island. After 5 minutes, we felt we’d seen enough. Seriously, what’s going on there!? There was lots of construction, but not much else! Not very pleeeeeaaaaasureable if you ask me!

Hehee, anyway. By the time we arrived at Raglan Road, we’d redeemed a little bit of our appetites. We weren’t starving, but we were up for another free meal, anyway! Anyway, Raglan Road was GREAT! The food was so fresh and tasty and delicious! We love a good pub (being Australian and all!), and the atmosphere in Raglan Road was awesome. Relaxed and very Irish! We’ll definitely come back here!

DF’s meal… Drunk chicken appetizer, Chicken salad entrée, and Dunbrody Kiss. All fantastic!







And my meal… Dalkey Duo (battered sausages), Keen Eye for the Shepherd’s Pie, and Baileys Crème Brulee. YUM!!! One of our favourite meals all week!







After dinner, we decided to go for a walk around Downtown Disney. We bought a few things, like some of those shrunken towels that you put in water and they grow big – you know the ones!? I used to love them when I was little. We also went to Goofy’s Candy Co., and I decided to order a treat, because I hadn’t eaten enough that day. I wrote about this in my dining report too, so sorry if you’ve already read it!

So I happily placed my order - Mickey Rice Krispie Treat, dipped in milk chocolate, with crushed m&m's, peanut butter cups, and white chocolate drizzle on top - and waited. And waited. And waited. Wow, I didn't know it would take that long. We were so exhausted from our big first day at Disney, and were ready for bed... but we continued to wait happily for my treat. And wait. And wait.

I didn't really think about the fact that they'd have to put it in the fridge to make the chocolate set. Hehee. So about 20 minutes later, they produced my masterpiece. And then he put it on some paper. And then he wrapped it in some more paper. And then he put it in a white box. And then he put a Disney sticker on the white box. And then he wrapped the white box. Then he put the wrapped white box in a bag. THEN he gave it to me. Phew!!

Remember Love, Actually, when Rowan Atkinson's character is taking forever to wrap the necklace, and Alan Rickman just wants him to hurry up!? It was exactly like that. It got to the point where DF and I were looking at each other and trying not to burst into laughter. All this for a rice krispie!!

And here it is. The masterpiece...



After that, it was home to bed. Bed, but not sleep. Because guess what. David Duchovny was going to be on Late Night with Conan O’Brien that night!! Did I mention I’m an X-Files nerd? Well, I am. And I also have a massive crush on David Duchovny. Weird, I know. So we waited up until 1am to watch him on Conan. Hehehee. Whoops.

After THAT, we really did go to sleep. For 6 hours, before the phone rang again to get us up for the Magic Kingdom. But that’s a whole new chapter…

Next up… Our first full day at Magic Kingdom!

[crzyred]

ahh you should NOT be allowed to talk about your desserts!! i gave up sweets for lent and it's killing me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! man all look delicious!!!!!!!

i'm soo glad you liked MGM. it really is a fun park!!


i'm loving the trippie!! great work!!