Welcome to my very first trip report! We just returned last night from a AMAZING, WONDERFUL, SPECTACULAR trip to Disney World. It was full of so many magical things that I can't wait to share with you!
But first you should know I go picture heavy. You've been warned.
A Not-So-Little Intro Our trip took place from August 30 - September 7, and during that time we stayed at three different hotels (Yacht Club, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Marriott World Center), walked our way through six parks in seven days (Hollywood Studios, Typhoon Lagoon, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom x2, and Blizzard Beach), ate at some delicious restaurants, I pulled off an amazing Birthday SURPRISE for my husband, and so much more!
I'm Lauren and I'll be your host - your ghost host (sorry I had to!). I'm 30 and in my head I'm all like .
... and the guy you'll see in the photos is my husband, Josh (he turned 38 on this trip).
... We live in New York (born and raised)...
... with the two most adorable yorkies in the World! (Biased? Who me?) Love my three boys ...
... Josh and I started dating in 2006, and our first real trip together was to Toronto only a few weeks later...
Although it was love at first sight , I refused to even think about marriage until we dated for at least two years. In 2008, at almost two years to the day, Josh proposed.
... CONTINUED
... On Jan. 16, 2010 we got married. We had the most wonderful destination wedding at the Marriott World Center Resort in Orlando. We thought about Disney, but they just couldn't customize everything the way we wanted, and we have so many memories at the World Center, that there was no other option for us. We LOVED it...
... Which brings me to Disney Trips! I've been going to Disney my entire life. The Marriott World Center opened in 1984. I was born in 1985, and had my first trip there at six months old. My parents loved it so much that in 1986, when Marriott opened Sabal Palms, the timeshare that's on the grounds of the World Center, they purchased.
Through the years, and two little brothers later, our trips continued.
We took other trips as well, but Disney always remained our favorite place. While I think our parents are all "Disneyed" out, us kids simply LOVED it. We were always like, Disney, Disney, Disney. Are we going this year? Let's go!
... CONTINUED
... which brings us up to the last trip we had as a family of 5 (my parents, myself, and two brothers) in 2006...
... and in 2007, Josh became one of the family. Our very first trip to Disney World TOGETHER! Aside from our beloved Marriott, Josh and I have stayed at Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, Saratoga Springs, Wilderness Lodge, Beach Club, Boardwalk, and Grand Floridian. This trip we stayed at Yacht Club and Animal Kingdom Lodge.
It sort of shocked me how much he LOVED Disney. Prior to 2007, Josh went only once before with his high school as part of his senior trip. This past trip was our 7th trip to Disney together - his 8th overall, and my 21st. Not including the other Disney's we've been to. Our goal is to visit them ALL, but so far, aside from "The World," we've only been to Disneyland California and Disneyland Hong Kong.
Josh is a banker by day who loves horror movies and the Mets.
I used to work for a magazine, but now own my own event planning & design company, which I LOVE. While most people thought it was cool to meet and hang out with celebrities, the hours and work involved wasn't worth it.
However, my love for Justin Timberlake will never go away, and Josh fully accepts that LOL (Sorry, couldn't find the large unwatermarked copy on this computer - and how silly is it that they make you PURCHASE pictures - do they think this is some sort of Disney photopass? ).
Anyway... we BOTH love to travel and have been all over the World. I started a blog when it came time to plan for our destination wedding, which turned out to be very helpful for our guests - our not-so-small destination wedding had about 80 guests who traveled all the way to Orlando from all over! I ended up loving blogging so much, and family and friends enjoyed reading all about our adventures, that post-wedding, I kept up our little space on the web to document our travels.
While Josh LOVES Europe, and exotic destinations like Thailand, my dream trip has always been Bora Bora. In April, I FINALLY got to go, (and yes, it was just as amazing as it looks!).
No matter what though, we find ourselves always heading back to Disney. We simply love it - the magicalness (is that a word?), the food, the atmosphere - everything.
Disney Favorites My favorite thing about Disney is the characters and princesses, which makes Magic Kingdom my favorite park. My favorite princess is Belle and my favorite ride is Splash Mountain. We always seem to go in January and it's ALWAYS closed for refurbishment. Last year, we went to Disneyland in July and I got to go on the one there, but it's the one in Disney World I've been waiting for. Josh and I have never been on it together. It's a running joke, because EVERY TRIP it's ALWAYS closed. We half expected it to be randomly closed this time around too. For real, it wouldn't have surprised us. Luckily it wasn't, and we got to go on FIVE TIMES!
While Josh doesn't mind meeting characters, his favorite thing is the food and rides. He'll meet the characters with me so he can "rate the princesses" on who's accurate and who's not . His favorite park is Animal Kingdom and his favorite ride is Jungle Cruise. He loves the villains and Aladdin is his favorite Disney movie.
The Trip We had miles that were about to expire and hadn't been to Disney World since January 2014, so we figured it's time for a visit! So, finally, as my title suggests, we were there for nine days. We did six parks in seven days, stayed at three hotels, and since it was Josh's birthday, I threw him a beyond awesome surprise party! Also, with this report, you'll find a lot of pictures, details, and FOOD! Our plans & the highlights include:
Sunday: Arriving, Yacht Club, Stormalong Bay, Hollywood Studios (QS, 50's Prime Time)
Monday: Typhoon Lagoon - we rented a cabana, so I'll be sure to include details for those interested, and then Josh's birthday surprise @ Epcot! I threw him a villain themed dessert party at UK Pubside. Then, we headed over to Fez House for birthday cake & Aladdin, Jasmine, Jafar, and Genie all came out to surprise him! (Cape May Cafe, QS, Yachtsman)
Tuesday: Epcot, (Akershus, QS, Garden Grill)
Wednesday: Animal Kingdom, and moved to Animal Kingdom Lodge (Tusker House, California Grill)
Thursday: Magic Kingdom (QS, Be Our Guest)
Friday: Blizzard Beach - again, we rented a cabana, so I'll be sure to include details (QS, Jiko)
Saturday: Moved to Marriott World Center, Spa, Magic Kingdom (Falls Grill and Siro)
Sunday: Pool Day, Spa (Poolside dining, chef's table for dinner (!), wedding cake surprise)
Monday: Relaxing before heading home, and re-living our past wedding locations (Room Service)
Pre-Leaving
The week leading up to our trip was exhausting. Our flight left on Sunday at 7am out of Newark because that offered the best options for our FREE flight. And hello, it was free. I can't complain. Except for that week. The entire week I was swamped for an event on Saturday. Not to mention busy gearing up for the trip and for Josh's birthday surprise. I don't even know how I had the energy. Especially when Friday rolled around and my Disney planner called me and was all like, 'hey so there's a potential hurricane, blah, blah, blah,' while meanwhile I was hands deep in roses and coordinating this event for the next day. There came a point during that day, between our back and forth, and dealing with everyone else, when I decided to keep his birthday surprise as is.
Thankfully, the hurricane never was, but ummm... since when was I such a huge risk taker? I mean even now, I'm doing zero work. Sure, it's my lack of desire to get back to the real world, but STILL. I should be working. I have a million things to do, but instead I sit here finding the appropriate gif to accurately portray how I felt the entire week leading up to our trip. Alas, I give you this:
Given our crazy week, we attempted to start packing on Wednesday.
The dogs were less than thrilled.
So my event on Saturday happened... Josh was amazing and helped, even though he worked himself all week (but hey, that's what husbands are for)... I kid . We ended up getting home around 1am and my mother in law was already here. She AMAZINGLY stays at our condo while we're away to watch our dogs.
We got home around 1am and accidentally woke her (I blame the dogs). We finished packing, showered, and went to lay in bed around 2:30am. Josh needed it, but I would have been better completely pulling an all nighter. Once I go to sleep, if I have to get up soon, I just end up worse than I was before.
Unfortunately, I guess I fell asleep too. I have no idea what time Josh woke up, but he got me up around 3:45am to leave by 4am. I groaned and complained while pulling the covers back over my head and telling him (nicely of course) to leave me alone. My entire body ached and I was so overtired.
We didn't want to ask anyone to drive us to the airport at this ungodly hour, or pay the added cost of a car service coming so early in the morning, so we drove ourselves. Miraculously, and I have no idea how... We ended up leaving pretty much right on time...
We paid for preferred parking in the economy lot for the extra $5. It was SO WORTH being the first stop! Even though we had our boarding passes on our phones, we still had to go to the kiosk to check our luggage. We didn't have to pay, since we have the airline's credit card, but seriously, what's the point of getting your boarding pass in advance when they just print it out for you again?
We checked in (or re-checked in) without hassle, and arrived at our gate just in time to use the bathroom before boarding. Usually, I'm all nice & ready for Disney!
But this time around? I stayed comfy. I passed out as soon as my bum hit the seat and didn't wake up until we landed. Sadly, instead of being all YAY Disney I was like... hey, bed time??
Josh was feeling pretty refreshed and basically had to drag me off the plane. Then, I remembered we're going to Disney and don't have to wait in baggage claim for forever for our bags (it's little things like that which make me happy), so we headed straight to Magical Express. As soon as I saw the logo something in my completely shifted. We're in Disney!!
We fished out our magic bands from Josh's carryon (he went with orange this time around and I went with yellow, as we have the other colors). We waited for less than five minutes before boarding Magical Express. Typically, we are usually one of the first people on, and while it worked out this way once again, we didn't have to wait long (unlike last time where we were stuck sitting on a near empty bus for 30 minutes!!!).
The bus filled quickly, and we couldn't help but laugh as the driver announced he was stopping at Caribbean Beach, Boardwalk, Beach Club, and then FINALLY Yacht Club. Of course we had to be the last stop. Sooo typical.
Either I didn't pay attention last time we were on ME in 2014, or they changed the welcome video. We definitely liked the old one better. We got so excited when we passed the Marriott, eager for our stay the following weekend.
But first - Disney!
We knew we were getting close, and a minute later we were passing this:
WOOHOO!
We waited, and waited, and waited as the bus stopped, and stopped, and stopped - wondering why it takes THISLONG for some people to get off a bus. I mean really?!
Overall, it took about an hour and 15 minutes from when we got off the plane to get to our hotel. When we FINALLY pulled up to the Yacht Club, a cast member with an iPad somehow knew who we were. She greeted us by name and escorted us inside.
We've seen the lobby before (when we stayed at Beach Club), and fell in love with it back then. It didn't disappoint and still looks just as beautiful. It's so quiet and calm compared to the other Disney hotels. We absolutely LOVED IT.
So a little backstory here.... I did online check in for the first time EVER. I was under the impression that now you can BYPASS the front desk completely.
Well, I was wrong.
Despite giving my cell phone number, I was told in the confirmation that we still had to pretty much "check in" when we got there. Weird.
It ended up working out, as like I said above, a cast member greeted us and escorted us to the front desk, and aside from being a little confused prior to our arrival, check in itself was super smooth. We booked a standard view, as we got SUCH a good rate. We were immediately checked in, and our only request was a king bed, which was met. Amazingly, at only around 11:00/30, our room was ready. I don't want to jinx it, but we seem to luck out on our Disney trips and no matter how early we get there, a room is always ready for us.
It took a little while for them to get our bands going, even though we didn't put a credit card on file (there's really no point as it's not like a hotel chain where you can accrue points when charging to your room).
After a bunch of typing on their end, it was off to our room.
Even the elevator area was super cute and Yacht themed - Loved the buttons!!!
The walk to our room seemed to take forever, which it always does when you have no idea where you're going. In actuality, it wasn't far at all. As soon as we opened our door, we headed straight to the balcony, like we always do, to see our view. I wanted to make sure we didn't get one of those horrible trash views or something. I mean, we did book a standard view after all.
It wasn't the greatest view - or even a good view - but it wasn't a horrible one either. I've seen some standard views they offer, and this wasn't that bad. Most of it was of a flat portion of the roof, and then if you looked out straight ahead there were tree's and the pool in the far distance.
We took a moment to sit down and just take a deep breath. Happy we were finally HERE.
And that's when we got locked out on our balcony.
I'm not kidding.
I shut the door so bugs wouldn't get in and the AC wouldn't get out. Josh was out there with me. I left my cell and bags inside. And really, how the ?!@?!@? does a door lock when there is no one else inside to lock it?!
We tried and tried and that DOOR. WOULD. NOT. BUDGE.
In my head, I was flipping out. Maybe since the the roof is so flat we could climb over the railing and then that would get security's attention???
Then, Josh said he has his cell phone in his pocket. At first I was all - why didn't you tell me this to begin with so I didn't flip out?! But that quickly turned to . THANK GOD. There would be no roof climbing today.
We ended up calling the only number we could think of, which was the 407-W-Disney number. I asked to be transferred to the Yacht Club's front desk, and of course they tried to avoid that, and I was like, "no, you're going to want to transfer me for this. We're locked out on our balcony." He then asked if someone was inside to let us out, because we can't just get randomly locked out on our balcony. He said IT'S NOT POSSIBLE.
Do I sound that stupid?
Because thanks for making me feel like an idiot. And by the way... it IS possible!
Anyway, less than five minutes later, a cast member, one of the hotel managers, AND maintenance, all rushed into our room.
Honestly, it DID make us feel better that none of these three people could get the door open right away either. Sure, the whole thing sucked, but at the same time, at least we knew it wasn't us lol. The maintenance guy was the one who finally did it. He got the door open!!
We were saved!!
We all couldn't believe it - how one door could cause so much trouble.
So then the maintenance guy went out on the balcony and shut the door behind him.
You guessed it... he got stuck out there. Thankfully, one of the other people got it open again. The maintenance guy said he wanted to test his theory.... which was... the door was broken.
Obviously.
Needless to say, we didn't use our balcony again.
Anyway, the manager was super nice and kept asking if we were okay. She kept apologizing, and really, it wasn't THAT big of a deal. It was more funny than anything, because who the heck gets stuck out on the balcony?! Only us. We were just so happy it wasn't us being super weak or doing something wrong and they had problems with the door too lol.
Anyway, she asked if we were going to a park today, and we told her we were going to Hollywood Studios this evening. She insisted on giving us two fast passes each to be used on any ride and at any time. We told her it really wasn't that necessary. We didn't really feel like we were owed anything. The door was nobody's fault. But... she pushed and we accepted, so that was cool. Everyone could use some extra fast passes once in a while I suppose!
The room itself was nice - your standard hotel room. I was actually really nervous coming here, as I know it's due to start a refurbishment pretty much any day now. I didn't know what the rooms would hold. Thankfully, while yes, they were outdated, they were still decent! Much better than I thought they would be!!
And my goodness we can't even keep it clean for two seconds so I could take a room photo!
I quickly changed (I packed a suit in my carryon), but Josh forgot to do the same. We headed to Stormalong Bay to grab lunch, hoping that by the time we were finished, our suitcases would be delivered so Josh could change. One can hope for impossible things lol.
SAB is my favorite Disney pool complex. It's also the only pool complex in Disney that has true poolside dining.
Since Josh didn't have his suit, we opted not to dine poolside, and instead headed to Hurricane Hannah's for a quick lunch.
The food was good - typical quick service food. We split a burger and fries, as we knew we were going to eat fairly soonish again at the park.
I'm so obsessed with the whole Epcot resorts area!! We had a great view as we ate, trying to remember and point out which room we had at the Boardwalk last year.
Once finished, I went to find chairs while Josh went back to the room to see if our luggage was there yet. It took him forever because *surprise surprise* his magic band didn't work. He had to go back to the front desk to get them to fix it, but kudos to them for doing the right thing and escorting him to the room to MAKE SURE it worked this time!!
I don't know how, but our bags were there waiting for us. I've never known Disney to have bags there THIS FAST. Josh changed and met me by SAB. I found seats by the slide, which we tackled first!
Wow! Great report so far! You and your husband seem like a lot of fun
That is just crazy about the balcony door! I mean, talk about bad luck...thank goodness the staff came to your rescue so quickly. And that was so nice of the manager to offer you guys the FP's. Like you said, it doesn't hurt!
We could still use it, we just couldn't close it without being accidentally locked out. They said they would note to have someone fix it, but I have a feeling it's not a quick fix or the guy would have just done it then and there. I got the impression that after us the room would maybe be going out of commission for a bit because of it. I hope at least, because it needs to be fixed!! I'm just so thankful we had a phone out there!! Or maybe they are just going to wait for the big refurbishment? Either way, we didn't use it the rest of our time there - the view wasn't really great anyway and we got back so late each day.
Really enjoying your report...despite the fact that starting a report the day after you get back is making me look bad, when I still have yet to start mine from my June trip.
Really enjoying your report...despite the fact that starting a report the day after you get back is making me look bad, when I still have yet to start mine from my June trip.
Following along! Seriously after working like crazy and 1.5 hours of sleep, I would've needed to be carried into the airport and onto the plane. That is some true Disney dedication.
So sorry but I had to laugh at the balcony story.. and the fact that they didn't believe you! Hahah. I bet you are so relieved Josh had his phone.. ahh.
I'm with you, I just love the Epcot resorts area. There is so much to do and see there!
So I headed into the Stormalong Bay complex (which by the way my computer keeps wanting to autocorrect to "steamrolling," so if you see that, I mean Stormalong Bay LOL), while Josh was on his way back to meet me from changing into his bathing suit. We said we'd meet by the slide drop off area, so off I went.
The last time we were at SAB was in 2010, so it's been a while. I'll admit it - I got lost. Even though we were just by the slide when we ate at Hurricane Hannah's. I'm obviously directionally challenged. I ended up LEAVING Stormalong Bay, walking back to Hurricane Hannah's to spot the slide, and then walking back in that way LOL.
I stopped to see where you actually get ON the slide before heading to our designated meeting spot. We were so excited to go on it, since it was closed the last time we were here.
Josh met me soon after, and I stayed in our area with our things while he took the GoPro down the slide.
The slide was great! He didn't get a "coming off" shot for me, as I pretty much went under right away. He said all you could see was water LOL.
We didn't love the area we were in, and wanted to relax before heading to the park now that we did the slide, so we set off to search for a better place.
Here's the thing about Stormalong Bay - as awesome as it is, it's not very relaxing. Despite it not being very crowded, we couldn't find a place to "just relax."
So even though we were tired, we decided to hit the lazy river portion of the pool to "float around and relax."
That didn't work out too well either, because Josh kept falling off his tube.
Then I laughed so hard and fell off too
He finally figured it out, and we tried to chill out - we really did - but it just wasn't working.
We'll have to go to bed early tonight and deal with it the rest of the day. We're in Disney - we can do it!
You know when you're SO TIRED it feels like it's 5 or 6, but really it's like ONLY ALMOST 1pm - ugh!! One more time around to get back to our spot, and then we'd head back to the room to change before going to the park.
We were fairly quick and changed into these awesome shirts I got on Etsy. Then it was off to the dock to take the boat to Hollywood Studios!
And I can't believe I completely forgot to mention that my little brother and his girlfriend are here too, so you'll probably see them pop up in a bunch of photos.
Josh and I were planning to go to Disney for a while now, ever since we realized we had miles about to expire, and then about two weeks before we left, my brother and his girlfriend decided they wanted to come too lol. They came down the day before us and stayed at the Marriott the entire time. We did a bunch of park days with them, and Hollywood Studios was one of them!
I'm so pleased you were able to phone for help from your balcony. I did the exact same thing years ago in Tenerife but this was before cell phones. We were stuck there for hours before we saw people pass below and called for help
SAB looks like so much fun, pity you couldn't relax though.
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from a AMAZING, WONDERFUL, SPECTACULAR trip to Disney World. It was full of so many magical things that I can't wait to share with you!
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...
, I refused to even think about marriage until we dated for at least two years. In 2008, at almost two years to the day, Josh proposed. 
).
. His favorite park is Animal Kingdom and his favorite ride is Jungle Cruise. He loves the villains and Aladdin is his favorite Disney movie. 
Off We Go... 
. We ended up getting home around 1am and my mother in law was already here. She AMAZINGLY stays at our condo while we're away to watch our dogs. 
- why didn't you tell me this to begin with so I didn't flip out?! But that quickly turned to 
. THANK GOD. There would be no roof climbing today.
the door was broken. 
