"Norway? More like No Way!" Goobers' Jan 12 TR! Up.x2 4/6: FINAL THOUGHTS!

[Moodyzblu]

Joining in !

LOVE the view from your room .. SO jealous. Can't wait to read more.

[Sugarlumples]

I'm in! Great start so far. What a crazy good deal on those pins!

[Fantasyland Mom]

Just subbed! I can't wait to hear more!
I just posted about that yummy strawberry shortcake on my (first ever) TR!

I also love parentheses.

[Pre]

All caught up
I am defiantly a one time poster to say hi!
I'm enjoying your TR and I your room.
I'm soooooooo glad you were able to make it to WDW before the crazy snow. We just got dumped on here in CO so the warm weather looks wonderful.

I was shaking my head first time soarin AND test track? oh well. At least you could sare your first time here.

[Pixie Princess]

Originally Posted by danimaroo

I'm a huge fan of Disney World, instagram (my name is dmags, you should follow me on there!), photography, the TV show LOST, video games, board games (I'm addicted to Ticket to Ride, no lie), and my dogs. I work in the financial industry, even though I was an English major, buuuut thankfully it's in marketing so it's not so awful.

Well if your lovely one-liner title didn't get me, the fact that you are a LOST fan did! I really miss that show!! Once Upon A Time is doing a respectable job of filling the void though.

Can't wait to read more!

[Pixie Princess]

Yea... you escaped the child eating snowmaggedon! We had a snowmageddon last year. No children were eaten, but it pretty much shut down the city of Atlanta for a week. It was quite the spectacle.

Excited to read more of your thoughts about Beach Club. In June we'll be staying at the Yacht Club. When we booked, I was excited about the location, but to be honest, I never understood all the hubub over Stormalong Bay. I didn't find it to be all that impressive when I visited Beach Club restaurants. Then I read the YC/BC thread on the resorts board, and now even I'm excited about it! (I am not the "spend time at the pool" sort) I had no idea how big it was, or what all was there.

I think I may have to put the strawberry shortcake at Sunshine Seasons on my snack list. It looked yummy!

[GretchenG]

Epcot looks so beautiful early in the morning! How cool to have the World Showcase practically to yourselves!

That strawberry shortcake looks like something I'll need to try too. Yet another thing to add to my impossibly long food list...

[danimaroo]

Originally Posted by 407-W-DISNEY

HI!
Oh, that's kind of a bummer Spaceship Earth is not lit all night
That is funny that your husband checked....that is someone my DH or I would have checked as well...LOL

DANGLIN...thats a good one!

I love the the Epcot resorts...we stayed at the Boardwalk in 2001 and one night at the Dolphin this last trip in 2011...its so cool to be able to WALK to Epcot and back to your hotel without getting on a bus!

Haha yeah, it was weird! I was kind of glad I never saw that because for some reason I just assumed they'd leave it lit up whenever it's dark... Buuuut I guess it's okay since they're saving some energy.

I thought it was pretty funny, don't get me wrong, it's a fun attraction, but I didn't feel the need to make an effort to return to it.

And yes, I agree, I'm a huge fan of the Epcot resorts! It really is wonderful being able to stroll over to Epcot in 5 minutes and be standing in England without even having to take a bus.

Originally Posted by dara00

ooh, thanks for the info that soarin' is the same as soarin' over california - I've only been on the one in disneyland and wondered about that!

that's awesome about the cheap pin to trade! I spent way too much on pins this trip only to find a set of 4 for $8 at the outlet on our last day! of course we bought those too!

Haha yeah, it's so weird! It's the exact same attraction, but they totally ditched "over California" for whatever reason. I really don't understand why.

And yeah, I was really happy about the good deal on the pin. What is funny is I never ended up trading the extra one we bought! I just couldn't find anything that was worth it since even though I got it for a good price, it's definitely a very high-quality pin. Guess I'll just save it for next time!

We spent MUCH less this time on pins, only buying ones that were LE or stuff that we just liked. I would go nuts in the outlet on pins though!! Sounds like you got amazing prices on those pins!

Originally Posted by jecskc

Love the Grape Soda pin. I love mine. Also, I love Matt's Muppet t- shirt. Animal is just so funny. And I agree about the strawberry shortcake at Sunshine Seasons. Yum. Can't wait to read more!!

It's seriously my favorite pin. I love it so much. And thanks, I will tell him that you love it. Animal is one of his favorites!

Ohhhh that strawberry shortcake really is so delicious. Glad to see someone else knows what I'm talking about.

Originally Posted by Moodyzblu

Joining in !

LOVE the view from your room .. SO jealous. Can't wait to read more.

YAY, thanks for commenting! The view really was amazing and I feel really lucky that we got it.

I can't wait to share more with everyone, I feel like there's so much more to go through.. Oh wait, because there is.

Originally Posted by Sugarlumples

I'm in! Great start so far. What a crazy good deal on those pins!

Awesome, thank you so much for popping in and saying hi. And yes, we really did get an amazing deal on them!

[danimaroo]

Originally Posted by Fantasyland Mom

Just subbed! I can't wait to hear more!
I just posted about that yummy strawberry shortcake on my (first ever) TR!

I also love parentheses.

Awesome, welcome and thanks for commenting! That shortcake is a Godsend; I will have to check out your TR then in a bit!

And yes, parentheses are so delightful. Makes throwing in little asides way more acceptable.

Originally Posted by Pre

All caught up
I am defiantly a one time poster to say hi!
I'm enjoying your TR and I your room.
I'm soooooooo glad you were able to make it to WDW before the crazy snow. We just got dumped on here in CO so the warm weather looks wonderful.

I was shaking my head first time soarin AND test track? oh well. At least you could sare your first time here.

Glad to hear you've caught up, and glad to hear you've joined, even if it's a one-time comment. We loved our room so much and felt so lucky we got it! And yes, VERY happy we made it before the snow! I would've been devastated if we hadn't made it. I like snow a lot.. just not when it's interfering with my trip to my favorite place!

Haha, I know, I know. It was kind of ridiculous. But to be honest, neither attraction really spoke to us last trip and we did a lot more walking around and enjoying the sites during our first trip with much less focus on attractions. We still had a blast, but this trip we got way way more done and experienced so many new things. It was more tiring but we really had the best time!

Originally Posted by Pixie Princess

Well if your lovely one-liner title didn't get me, the fact that you are a LOST fan did! I really miss that show!! Once Upon A Time is doing a respectable job of filling the void though.

Can't wait to read more!

YES! Another LOST fan! Wait til you hear how LOST plays into one of my favorite memories of our trip! I seriously miss LOST though. I've heard JJ Abram's new show Alcatraz is supposed to be very LOST-like, so we'll have to check it out. I've also heard OUAT is good, too!

Originally Posted by Pixie Princess

Yea... you escaped the child eating snowmaggedon! We had a snowmageddon last year. No children were eaten, but it pretty much shut down the city of Atlanta for a week. It was quite the spectacle.

Excited to read more of your thoughts about Beach Club. In June we'll be staying at the Yacht Club. When we booked, I was excited about the location, but to be honest, I never understood all the hubub over Stormalong Bay. I didn't find it to be all that impressive when I visited Beach Club restaurants. Then I read the YC/BC thread on the resorts board, and now even I'm excited about it! (I am not the "spend time at the pool" sort) I had no idea how big it was, or what all was there.

I think I may have to put the strawberry shortcake at Sunshine Seasons on my snack list. It looked yummy!

The child-eating Snowmageddon was escape. Hurrah! It's the worst when it shuts down EVERYTHING, especially in cities that just aren't prepared for it.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on Beach Club, but I've gotta say I was spoiled by it and never want to stay anywhere else. Stormalong Bay is a blast. I totally get it, though we had to deal with some construction while we were there which was a little frustrating because in order to get to the other side of pools, you had to go this totally ridiculous way.. that and the smell of shellac and paint was pretty terrible at times. But it really didn't ruin it for us and we loved floating around the lazy river, the sand-bottom pools, the waterfall, the whirlpool, etc. I think you'll really love it.

We spent WAY more time at the pool this year than last year, mainly because it was a LOT warmer. I loved relaxing by SAB, which you'll hear about later in the TR.

Originally Posted by GretchenG

Epcot looks so beautiful early in the morning! How cool to have the World Showcase practically to yourselves!

That strawberry shortcake looks like something I'll need to try too. Yet another thing to add to my impossibly long food list...

It really is amazingly beautiful in the morning and probably my favorite place to walk through in the morning, because of how quiet it is in England and Canada. You really do have the entire World Showcase to yourself!

Um yes, you must try the strawberry shortcake! I had a massive list of snacks I wanted to try and well, we'll see what I ended up actually getting to try.

[danimaroo]

Before I go on, I just wanted to let you guys know that I totally know this day is ever-lasting, but I think future days might not have as many chapters basically because this day included our arrival, check-in, seeing our room for the first time, and all that fun stuff.

Anyway, sorry if I'm being long-winded in my report, but that's just kind of how I roll and I want people to get the full experience! I think it's helpful to hear about and see photos of food, rooms, etc. I know when I was doing research for our trip, a lot of what made ours so fantastic were other people's detailed TRs. So, that's what you're getting here, and I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Anyway, on with the show...

Chapter Five: Okay, we really are finally here!
Day 1: January 18th, 2012

We made our way over to the monorail, with the plan that we were going to do our traditional monorail resort tour. This is something that Matt grew up doing and has always loved, so it'd been in our first day plans that this is what we'd be doing. We waited for a bit, excited for our first trip on the monorail!





While waiting, Matt mentioned that maybe it'd be better for us to go to Magic Kingdom and do our resort tour later. We'd seen that wait times were very low at MK, and the more we thought about it, the more sense it made to head there and save our monorail tour for another day, perhaps on our off-day from the parks. After making sure he was okay with this, we both agreed and decided to head to Magic Kingdom!

First monorail to show up was yellow, so we excitedly hopped on and heard those sweet, sweet words:

"Por favor mantengese alejadro de las puertas."



Or for those non-Spanish speaking people, "Please stand clear of the doors." Matt and I both laughed like we were five at the manly man's voice, then enjoyed our trip while listening to manly man talk about the resorts and how everyone should be celebrating something.



We zipped past the Polynesian, then made our way over to the Grand Floridian, where I snapped a photo of all the work they're doing on the new DVC villas! I'm not going to lie, it's VERY exciting they are building these and very tempting to stay there at some point. We really enjoyed Grand Floridian during our honeymoon, and it's a beautiful place to stay!





Then, before I knew it, we'd arrived at the Magic Kingdom, and I was making my way down the ramp and to the entrance!



Matt and I briefly looked at the stones out front for his family's stone that they bought in 1994, but after about 5 minutes we gave up. I'd forgotten how MANY stones there are out there, and without Matt knowing exactly where theirs was located, there was no way we were going to find it. That and um, I really wanted to see Cinderella Castle, STAT!

After getting through bag check and entering with our KTTW cards, we walked past the train station and we were finally here!



Buuuut more than anything else, I just really wanted to see the castle, so I'm pretty sure I speed-walked to a point where I could finally lay my eyes on that beautiful sight.





Oh I can't even tell you how excited we were! It really felt like we were home. I love Epcot, I really do, but there is something about seeing Magic Kingdom for the first time on your trip that just REALLY makes you feel like you are here, you're really here. And this was my moment.

Anyway, after we stared at the castle for a bit and I'm sure took a PhotoPass photo, we made our way over to our first attraction. It's something I've been looking forward to since I was a little kid, something I was so beyond disappointed wasn't open during our last visit, and Matt knew we needed to ride first thing.



If you're guessing Splash Mountain, welp, yes, you're right. I grew up being obsessed with log flume rides. I don't know why, but I just love them. I'd been to Disney World twice when I was little, but honestly there was a lot I missed out on attraction-wise. That being said, Splash Mountain was always at the top of my attraction list, because I just had a feeling I would love it.

And I did. I REALLY did. I'm pretty sure I had a smile on my face the whole time we were on it, and Matt was a trooper because he does not like anything with a massive drop... He'll tolerate it but they're not his favorite.

After having a blast on Splash Mountain, we waved goodbye to my new favorite MK attraction, but knew we'd be back before the night was over. We then made our way over to Matt's favorite attraction...





He LOVES the Haunted Mansion with a passion. He knows everything there is to know about it, pointing out fun little things to me (though there's one thing that I knew about before he did that will show up later in my TR), so it was definitely exciting to have it be our next place we headed to.

During our walk, however, it started to seriously rain, so we got out our ponchos (which we'd purchased on our last trip), and enjoyed the new queue!





I love how with these statues, it's a big riddle in trying to figure out who killed who! A CM over at Wilderness Lodge that we spoke with for awhile told us about this, and I thought it was so neat. We didn't know about it when we first went through, so later on in the trip we spent some time figuring our who killed who, with what weapon, etc. It's basically like a game of CLUE (which is my favorite classic board game), so I really thought that was a neat touch!

Anyway, maybe it was because it was pouring out, or maybe people just didn't realize it, but Matt and I were the only ones playing with stuff in the queue. It was kind of weird, since people just didn't seem to think you could touch stuff? I don't know, but I just went right over and started messing with everything, and then Matt did as well.









The line was actually moving very quickly, so we didn't get a chance to play with everything (but don't worry, we did many more times during our trip)... We headed inside for our first of many rides with our favorite 999 happy haunts and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

We headed out of Liberty Square for Fantasyland, stopping to take a photo of ourselves in our dorky ponchos.

Continued in next post

[danimaroo]

Chapter Five: Okay, we really are finally here! CONTINUED
Day 1: January 18th, 2012

I insisted we stop so I could try the Sword in the Stone, since no one was near it, but no such luck.



We left Fantasyland and made our way to one of our favorites, but as Matt has said, I sound like I'm being murdered the entire time we are on it...



Space Mountain. Okay, you guys have to understand that I LOVE roller coasters, I really do. But Space Mountain scares the crap out of me. I always feel like something is going to hit me in the head, I'm going to fly out of the spaceship and die, oooor that I'm going to break something because of how jerky it can be. It also doesn't help that my eyesight in the dark is really terrible, even moreso when switching from light to dark, so that results in purely horrifying sounds being emitted from me as we whip around Space Mountain. Matt confirmed that yet again, I did indeed sound like someone was murdering me with the blood-curling screams coming from within me. I love Space Mountain but I will say it's probably the scariest roller coaster for me to go on.

I needed some nice peace and quiet more than anything else, so we went on one of our favorite attractions because it's so relaxing... The People Mover!







Please excuse my hair in the above photo. Number one, I'd just been on Space Mountain so it was out of control. Number two, the Florida humidity was so not nice to my hair this trip, you'll noticed towards the end I gave up and pretty much always had a hat on. Number three, it was raining really hard for awhile, so yeah, those three factors meant my hair was out of control horrible.

Anyway, after a relaxing ride on the People Mover ("Paging Mr. Morrow, Mr. Tom Morrow"), we went to another one of my favorites.. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin!



Last trip, I beat Matt pretty consistently, so I allowed him to control the spinning during this ride. It resulted in a CLEAR advantage for him, and he beat me!

My score:


His score:


We then decided it was time to head over to the Main Street area, because we had a dining reservation at one of our favorite places! This little guy decided to follow along with us..



Our first ADR of the trip?



Now, what's funny is, we actually had an ADR for Crystal Palace for Thursday, but because we arrived a day early, we moved all of our plans for Thursday to Wednesday, and thus canceled our Thursday ADR at Crystal Palace and made it for Wednesday at 5. This is why I love January; you can cancel reservations and make new ones pretty last-second!

Anyway, we were seated promptly, and soon after were visited by some of our favorite friends from Hundred Acre Wood!









In between the excitement of meeting Pooh and the gang, we managed to eat a pretty delicious meal!





I'm lame and forgot to take photos of our second plates, which had more traditional dinner-type foods, but in the first photo I had a roll, some chicken nuggets and honey mustard sauce, and a Greek pasta salad to start. Matt had the same thing, but with some shrimp as well. I know we both had some chicken, mashed potatoes, and other yummy foods. Everything was served hot, fresh, and was very good. The buffet was kept well-stocked and the area was very clean. It wasn't too busy when we were there, so maybe that's why we had such a good experience (I've heard a lot of complaints about dinner at CP), but we really enjoyed ourselves.

For dessert, we got some pretty tasty items, including a hazelnut chocolate cannoli, apple crisp, and some banana hazelnut bread pudding. Everything was good, but we were so full at this point!



Stay tuned for the next update, which includes the tale of (our first) Splash Mountain incident, and one of my favorite moments of our whole trip.

Continued in the next update

[Pixie Princess]

Great tip about the statues in the HM queue! I had no idea. Will put "playing Clue" on the list for the next trip.

I also love the Peoplemover for its delightful relaxingness. It is one of my favorite attractions.

[jecskc]

Originally Posted by danimaroo

YES! Another LOST fan! Wait til you hear how LOST plays into one of my favorite memories of our trip! I seriously miss LOST though. I've heard JJ Abram's new show Alcatraz is supposed to be very LOST-like, so we'll have to check it out. I've also heard OUAT is good, too![/B][/COLOR]

She (PixiePrincess) is my BFF from middle/high school, and it is HER fault I got hooked on Disney AND LOST. OUAT is awesome. Definitely a must see.

[Pixie Princess]

Originally Posted by jecskc

She (PixiePrincess) is my BFF from middle/high school, and it is HER fault I got hooked on Disney AND LOST. OUAT is awesome. Definitely a must see.

I didn't know you were following this TR! I was several chapters late in joining so I just followed the links to each chapter, and hadn't read any comments until now!

So, I'm going to blame you for this unfortunate compulsion I now have to write TRs and now even a PTR! The latter was brought from me going in to full-on panic mode about this June trip yesterday. I may be slow at writing them, but dangit, I do enjoy it.

So, Alcatraz- I definitely want to see that! The night it premiered I was in D.C. for a conference and got back to the hotel to catch the last two minutes. Grr! I have liked most everything JJ Abrahms has done, plus it has Jorge Garcia! I'll be catching up on what I missed on-line if I can.

Definitely start watching OUAT, and catch up with the older episdoes online. It is the LOST "formula" applied to fairy tale characters. Plus they throw tons of LOST Easter eggs in the show.

[Belle83]

I just recently found your TR. I'm from Seattle so I wanted to say hi and that I'm looking forward to getting caught up!