13 years is much to long, my first trip report! *updated 10/7 with pics!*

[LionKingRules84]

I know I'm not very well known on this board, I found this place soon after I decided to plan a trip to WDW with my BF. I planned to do a pre-trip report but life got in the way, I got a new job a few months after I planned the trip and my time to do things went out the window.

I toyed with what to call my trip report but stuck with my original title I thought up before I even went on my trip because it summed up my feelings of the trip the most, 13 years is just to long to have to wait for a Disney vacation. My last trip was in 1994 and due to life just becoming to much for my family at the time we were just never able to go back, we planned to try to do trips every 4 years but it was never possible due to alot of negative experiences that hindered are attempts at planning a trip. I met my boyfriend 2 years ago and early this year he had asked me what kind of trip would I like to take this year and I mentioned Disney world, I was shocked to hear he had never been and said that I so wanted to go back for years but my family was never able to and he said he wouldn't mind paying for the trip so long as I planned it.

I was so excited he agreed on the trip I had no problems planning it, especially since at the time I came up with the idea I was unemployed. I thankfully had done most of the major planning before I got my now present job in the early summer. I had help from "Small world vacations" in getting the discounts for the hotel and tickets, they were really nice and helpful and were able to get me discounts even after I already booked the trip. Only thing I wasn't able to get was free dining for Coronado springs but that was ok. I don't know how the package availablity worked for that but when it was announced I wasn't able to get it for that resort and I really wanted to stay there so I opted not to try and get it for a different resort. Still we didn't eat much and only had ADRS for 4 major restaurants anyway.

Anyway now that I have that out of the way on with the cast of characters:

lionkingrules84 a.k.a me(female) = Been a disney fan since before I can remeber, my first trip to the world was in 1986 I was only 2 and barely remeber much of the trip except from pictures and video my Dad shot of the trip. I don't think epcot even existed then. All I can remeber is I was scared to death of the haunted mansion and never went on it again after this trip. My second visit was in 1991 I was 7 and my favorite then was a tie between Pirates of the Carribean and Horizons in Epcot, rode both atleast 3 or 4 times if memory serves me right. I also really liked Star tours for some reason. MGM was a brand new park then. Last visit was in 1994 I was ten, my new scary ride was Big thunder mountain, didn't like that for some reason, still refused to ride Haunted Mansion still loved both Horizons and Pirates. I also fancied Peter Pan's flight. Stay tuned because as you will all read in this trip report my tastes have changed dramatically!

MY BF(male of course) = Never been to Walt Disney but told me that he did happen to visit Disneyland Paris when he visited France in highschool but really didn't like it at all mostly because of the group of people he was with. I was bound to change his mind on Disney world, or atleast try to. He promised he would have a good time so long as I was and I felt that wouldn't be to hard at Disney world. I sure was terrified he wouldn't like the trip though stay tuned to see if I was successful or not.

I'll leave this as a tease for now and try my best to add the first day sometime this week maybe even as early as tomorrow. I will add pictures but none of the 2 of us because I'm just a bit paranoid of having my picture on the internet. I will share pictures of the parks I took and the parades to add to the report but just none of me unless my face isn't shown(I have a few of characters and I hugging where you can't really see my face so I'll most likely show those) Nothing againest the people on this board, I know you are all wonderful people but this forum is public which means anyone can view it even people who aren't members of the board so I'm just not comfortable showing my image on the open internet. Thanks for understanding.

Next up:

Day 1 September 19th 2007 -Off to the Airport and our night at Downtown Disney!

Stay tuned!

 

[LionKingRules84]

Made it to the airport with the help of my dad driving my bf and I there. Got in checked our bags and waited in line for security and got through that ok. Next we found our terminal where our plane would be taking off and went to find my BF a book to read and get him some coffee. Once that was taken care of we went to wait for our plane it was right on time, both taking off and landing, couldn’t be better weather for that in Philly this morning. Here are some getting ready pictures:

Our luggage all packed and ready to go:

Our arrival at the airport we were greeted by the sun rising:

Our plane has arrived:

Once we landed in Orlando the weather didn’t seem as nice though, was very overcast and rainy looking. Humid as anything to. Anyway went over to baggage claim (since we didn’t use the Magical express tags) didn’t take long. Got our luggage and we were headed off to find the Magical Express buses:

Next we were able to get a bus about 15 minutes (possibly less I didn’t keep track of time). Our luggage was stowed under the bus and our bus was stopping at Pop century, Coronado, and Animal kingdom lodge. They played a neat little video on our way to the resorts which was adorable; I wish they had had this service when I traveled years ago. I remember my last trip we used an airport shuttle service and I thought this was nicer and it was free while I believe we paid extra for the shuttle service. Anyway the bus stopped at Pop Century first then onto Coronado. Once we got there we headed to check in and by this time it was around 2p.m. We were both amazed by the beauty of this resort and both said to each other that the pictures and video of this place do not do it justice; the lobby is a site to be seen. The only other Disney resort I remember being in was Caribbean beach and while I love that resort I felt Coronado was much prettier and seemed to offer just the littlest bit more than Caribbean beach did. Only thing I didn’t like here was the food offerings but I won’t get into that quite yet. We were staying in Ranchos 7B which we weren’t totally happy about because it was quite far from El Centro but we didn’t ask for a preferred place and really out of all the Ranchos I think we got one of the best locations there. It was extremely close to the main pool which my BF loved and our balcony over looked the quiet pool for Ranchos and bus stop 4 was the shortest walk. All of you worried about the buses at this resort need not worry going to parks we never encountered a full bus same with coming back, only time it was a problem was the EMH night at Epcot we went to but again I will save that story for later. Oh yeah forgot to say I was greatly astounded by the service we got here too, everyone was extremely nice and helpful the moment we walked into the lobby to check in. We were welcomed and talked to, only hotel I’ve gone to, (besides the one in New York we stayed at) did I feel so welcomed. Safe to say we both loved the resort, here are some pictures I took as we toured after dropping the luggage off in our rooms. Oh yeah before that I should warn those staying here that they do not exaggerate when people say this is a huge resort. It didn’t bother my BF and I to to much but we got lost trying to find our room and circling Ranchos 7b with a ton of luggage wasn’t particularly fun but we managed. On with the pictures:

The main pool:

Outside the Iguana arcade:

The Pepper market:

El Centro:

The Maya Grill (We didn’t actually eat here but often used their rest room):

After we cleaned up and ate a turkey sandwich we got over at the la Tienda store we headed over to Downtown Disney to start our vacation there. We had dinner reservations at 8 for Raglan Road over in Pleasure Island which I was excited about. I really wanted to try some of the ice cream over a Ghiradelli but we never had a chance to since we both wanted to be hungry for dinner. We toured Downtown Disney came upon the Lego store and took some pictures:

Then we headed over to World of Disney where I bought myself some Pirates of the Caribbean Mickey Ears which I wore most of the vacation. Took some more pictures:

Headed over to Once Upon a toy and got my Dad and brother some souvenirs took more pictures:

Stopped by the Christmas shop, Rainforest Café, and Goofy’s candy company and the under 10 dollar store which neither my BF and I were all that impressed with, by now it was about 7 so we decided to start heading over to Pleasure Island, it also was raining on and off most of the time we were touring the stores so we opted out of trying the carousel they had there and some other things. Weird Florida weather with its sunny one minute and raining the next. Made it to pleasure island and went over to Raglan road around 7:30 and people were saying there was about a 2 hour wait to be seated and the 2 of us looked at each other and seemed a bit upset since I made reservations for this place about 6 months ago. Though we put our reservation in early it took them about 20 minutes to seat us and it was after 8 by the time that happened. They all were very nice here (which is what saved them in the end) and it was a nice atmosphere I felt my BF would really like since he is a big fan of Celtic and Irish things, especially pubs. He really liked it. We had great drinks, I ordered an ice tea which was very tasty, my BF ordered Mead and after having some of his glass I ordered my own. We shared an appetizer of drunken chicken which was tasty but the chicken was extremely dry and overcooked. Oh and keep in mind we were not on the free dining plan or any plan for that matter so we were paying out of our pockets for all our meals. Anyway My poor boyfriend also had to ask about his strange food allergy everywhere we went and we had an allergy alert on all of our reservations and most places were very nice about the whole thing and made my BF seem special and not a bother at all. They were nice here about it and they checked the ingredients for all the sauces for a particular preservative he can’t have which is called Calcium Disodium EDTA. Everyone he asked often had a hard time figuring it out what it was but no one seemed bothered or questioned it in anyway which I thought was amazing since we get weird looks all the time where we live when he asks this question and often they don’t even bother to check for him. In Disney we never encountered that at all which was great.
Anyway after our appetizer we waited patiently for our entree to come which we both decided we would again share. We ordered this chicken dish but I couldn’t remember what it was called. They had some entertainment consisting of an Irish singer and band, later they brought the most amazing violin player I had ever seen and I made sure to take a picture of her and of some of the band, also I’ll share some pictures I took of our drinks and the menu cover, I loved their logo btw:

Menu cover:

Our drinks: Mead and an Ice tea:

Picture of the violin player:

The entertainment here was amazing which I figured must be the draw here as well as awesome alcoholic drinks. After we waited it seemed forever for our entrée, when they finally brought it out it was dry and over cooked worse than our appetizer. Thier excuse for the late entree was because they had a huge group they were serving and they were trying to get everyone’s food out at the same time. They all seemed so nice and trying so hard that we decided to let it slide tough my BF did complain about it to the waiter and they had the manager come over to talk to my BF about it and he just told them what he thought and said he would pay for the meal. Before that though we did get desert. My BF had the bread and butter pudding which was too sweet for me but he loved it, I got some kind of interesting apple crisp or apple pie can’t remember. It was quite good but nothing to write home about. Honestly if I wasn’t so hungry I wouldn’t have even eaten our dinner that’s how dry and gross the chicken was. I would defiantly come back here for the drinks and the entertainment. Some of the best live Irish music I’ve ever heard. If the reservation was worth anything it was worth it for that. I was hoping the food was going to be a lot better though since I hadn’t heard of anyone having a bad meal here. It was rather disappointing. This is a great Pleasure Island spot to stop by the bar have a nice drink and enjoy the entertainment, I’m not sure I’ll ever eat here again.

We headed back to our resort after waiting a while for a bus and then we turned in to get ready for our next and first full day at the parks:

Next update: Animal Kingdom and the almost washed out Spectro Magic and Wishes…stay tuned!