"A for effort, C for execution." A September 2014 TR **07/04 THE END!*

[amberg93]

Introduction

Hello and welcome! This is the fourth trip report for the fourth ever trip to Walt Disney World for Marie and Amber. So whether you're following along for the first time or returning already knowing our story, we're glad to have you here!

Unlike our part TRs this one will be narrated a bit differently. Though we'll both be taking turns narrating in some senses, I'll be doing the bulk of the narration with Marie occasionally popping in to add her take on things or take over a chapter.

When Marie does join in, you'll know it because her posts will be written like this.


Also this time around Marie was a great instagrammer and I made some Facebook posts, so I'll be incorporating that into the TR. All social media comments will be written like this.

For those of you who don't know who we are, I'll do a quick run down of us:

Amber

That's my face right there. 21 years old, happily married to Marie for almost 2 and a half years now, studying French and hopes to be a nurse. Also, Quebec immigrant and lymphoma survivor. Disney related I love Winnie the Pooh, Cars, Beauty and the Beast and Epcot. I have a fear of Tower of Terror. I always loved Disney movies growing up and fell in love with the parks on our first trip in 2012.

Marie

My other half. 25 years old, works for a travel wholesaler, enjoys planning all sorts of trips. French is her first language but she's unfairly perfectly bilingual. She loves Soarin', Frozen, Toy Story Mania and Wishes on the Disney front. She has a fear of Dinosaur. Marie loved Disney movies growing up too and was a much bigger fan of the idea of the parks than I was to start out with.

But enough with the boring stuff, let's start getting the Disney stuff!

This trip took place from September 19th to the 28th, on property at the All-Star Movies and Port Orleans French Quarter. As with our May trip, Marie and I used our annual passes. We participated in a Memory Maker share this trip that went really well.

Like every other Disney trip we've taken this one is so different from the previous trips that it's really hard to compare to what we've experienced before but it was definitely something.

If you decide to stick around, here's what you can look forward to:
​

• 
  
  • Two MNSSHPs
  • Dis-meets
  • Rain
  • Unabashed POFQ love
  • Keys to the Kingdom
  • Rain
  • Food and Wine Festival
  • Dapper Day
  • Fab poncho pictures
  • And did I mention rain?

All of that (and, admittedly, not much more) is all going to be coming up

So, if any of those things interest you, go ahead and grab a seat for the ride. Just remember: no dancing!​

 

[amberg93]

Table of Contents

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014
Day 1: "Who else is going to Disney?

SEPTEMBER 20, 2014
Part 1: "Wait, are you serving everything?"
Part 2: "No photography, videos, selfies or social media of any kind."
Part 3: "Everyone judges my parenting!"
Part 4: "These seats are tiny."
Part 5: "That's creepy."
Part 6: "We're here again."
Part 7: "Do you know her number?

SEPTEMBER 21, 2014
Part 1: "We're going home!"
Part 2: "Your room is ready!"
Part 3: "Wait, we can sit here?!"
Part 4: "We've been waiting for you."

SEPTEMBER 22, 2014
Part 1: "That was brilliant."
Part 2: "That was a fail."
Part 3: "Let's head backstage."
Part 4: "We need a poncho picture!"
Part 5: "This is my 'We're going to be late' face."

SEPTEMBER 23, 2014
Part 1: It's Time For Fancy Feels
Part 2: The Proper Levels of Appreciation
Part 3: "Disney Dollars are so cute!"
Part 4: Port Orleans Appreciation
Part 5: "There's a flood what?"
Part 6: "This is just really weird"

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
Part 1: "Hey boss."
Part 2: "Sure, I can get you some more chicken."
Part 3: "You really need to get HBO."
Part 4: "What are the odds?"

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
Part 1: "I'll do a trade."
Part 2: "Do you see any alligators?"
Part 3: "I could stay here all day."
Part 4: "Amber and Marie are Disney World..."
Part 5: "I'm going for a sunset golden."

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
Part 1: "Is that a line?"
Part 2: "Don't forget to get a stamp!"
Part 3: "There's a clear winner here."
Part 4: "Are those new uniforms?"

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
Part 1: On a mission
Part 2: "I'd speak French but I don't want to deprive everyone else."
Part 3: "I'm ready for dessert!"
Part 4: "Wait, we hate people."
Part 5: "Well you look very dapper."

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014
The Tragical Express

WRAP UP
Overview
Final Thoughts

OTHER UPDATES
Real Life Update #1
Real Life Update #2: Holiday Wishes and Apologies
​

 

[courtneybelle]

WELP if there's no dancing then I'm out. Nice knowing you guys…

I KID OF COURSE, I wouldn't miss this! So excited to hear about MNSSHP and Keys to the Kingdom!!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Joining! And, at least a 'C' is a passing grade

Bummer about all the rain though. Excited to hear how you thought Keys to the Kingdom was though

We stayed at POFQ a few times when I was growing up and I absolutely love it! I love how it feels cozier than other moderates and the theming is great without being too over the top - well, other than those giant jesters and stuff in the food court.

Welcome back!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

YAY I'm in!!!

You had DISmeets?? Awesome! You had rain??? Not so awesome.

And just FYI... I be dancin'.

 

[DopeyDonald]

Joining in to read along! I am so sad - I missed a lot of Dis'ers trips by just a few days it seems. Later September is apparently the cool time to go! Can't wait to read more.....

 

[coloredimage]

Following along! I love your trip reports, you both have a great narration style :3

 

[TraciDisNewbie]

That first picture of you two, oh my goodness, my besties are so cute. Okay seriously stop it. And the Green is fun Excited. Gonna read it all.

 

[amberg93]

WELP if there's no dancing then I'm out. Nice knowing you guys…

I KID OF COURSE, I wouldn't miss this! So excited to hear about MNSSHP and Keys to the Kingdom!!!

Hey, I don't make the rules about no dancing on rides, I just enforce them.

But yaaay Super glad to have you here, Courtney!

Joining! And, at least a 'C' is a passing grade

Bummer about all the rain though. Excited to hear how you thought Keys to the Kingdom was though

We stayed at POFQ a few times when I was growing up and I absolutely love it! I love how it feels cozier than other moderates and the theming is great without being too over the top - well, other than those giant jesters and stuff in the food court.

Welcome back!

Phil!

And yes, C is a passing grade

Rain is ucky but Keys to the Kingdom was... nah can't tell you yet. Spoilers and all.

You and me both with the POFQ love. Everything you said. It's cozy and pretty and only has one bus stop and they give you Mardi Gras beads and for all of that I can deal with a little bit of jesters

YAY I'm in!!!

You had DISmeets?? Awesome! You had rain??? Not so awesome.

And just FYI... I be dancin'.

Well then I can you, Rob!

I know. Good and bad, every Disney trip.

I'm afraid if you don't stop dancing I'll have to stop the ride.

 

[amberg93]

Joining in to read along! I am so sad - I missed a lot of Dis'ers trips by just a few days it seems. Later September is apparently the cool time to go! Can't wait to read more.....

but aww man, what a bummer that we missed each other

Then again, I heard that your time was better in terms of crowds. I'll have to catch up on your TR tomorrow to hear about it

Following along! I love your trip reports, you both have a great narration style :3

Glad to have you here and thank you for the compliment. It's surreal sometimes that people like want to read about our trips

That first picture of you two, oh my goodness, my besties are so cute. Okay seriously stop it. And the Green is fun Excited. Gonna read it all.

Traci glad you made it this way Though it's all Marie being cute.

I thought the green was festive, so glad it's also cute.

 

[amberg93]

Day 1: "Who else is going to Disney?"

Our travel day this time around started a bit different than our travel days usually start. That's because we had an evening flight on the 19th, instead of a morning flight on the 20th like we'd originally planned. We'd booked for the 20th but due to pricing, we switched over to the 19th and even with the fee to do so we saved enough to spend an extra night at Disney and still save money.

Total score.

So around 10 in the morning, we decided that we'd finish up our movie countdown because we always countdown the days to Disney with Disney movies.

Marie even posted on Facebook:
Last movie of the countdown - with less than 12 hours to go, cause we're leaving today! Finishing up with a classic - Beauty and the Beast!

Except we didn't end up getting to watch all of it because the refrigerator had been acting up and guess when the repair guy decided to come? That's right, right in the middle of the movie and he had to turn off the power for a few minutes and then we were just going to be running too late to get there.

That's because although our flight was at 5:20 we still had to get to YUL, which meant that we left the house around 11:45 am and caught a bus at noon into Montreal. (The schedule usually has one leaving around every hour or so, so you've got to be a little open to times)

From Montreal we hopped on the 747 bus that goes to the airport. We didn't get there until around 1:45. Yeah, we were early. Marie and I are always early to airports, because I think we're just always worried about being late.

Since we were there so early, we decided to eat before we went through security because we didn't feel like our normal Burger King pre-Disney meal.

Instead, we had Subway. Marie got a bacon and chicken sub on herb and cheese bread and I got a black forest ham on Italian bread. I also got some nacho cheese Doritos and Marie got some cookies.

Once we were finished eating, we went to go drop our bag.

Once that was done, we headed through security and customs because Montreal has customs pre-clearance. Basically, it means you go through US customs in Canada so when you arrive you don't have to.

Mostly it was uneventful except when we were going through security I had to take off my headband because the bow had a metal clip on it and then the headband got like lost in the little scanner machine. It was easily retrieved though.

Marie took a picture of this Canadian goodness in the duty-free shop. You know, just so prove we're actually leaving from Canada.

Then we made our way to gate 76, which actually is pretty much just through the store.

As see, it was full of people.

Though they did do a gate change and had a flight from JFK use our gate in the time that we were waiting so for a while it was actually pretty full.

Mostly though, we just settled in by some outlets and used our electronics to pass time.

Marie is on her phone here but you can't see it.

And me on my laptop because I don't have a phone and I didn't feel like using the tablet.

Though we also played one of Marie's favorite airport games: Who Else Is Going to Disney?

Waiting at the gate and playing the game 'Who else here is going to Disney'. So far, we're going for the family with young kids and the couple with the cat.

Around 4:30 one of the gate agents comes around and starts telling people with carry ons that are rollerbags that they're going to have to check one, it'll be free but you'll have to pick it up at baggage claim. Now, Marie and I are usually the first to volunteer to check our carry on suitcases because we like not having to deal with the hassle and give other people space. However, we did not bring tags for our carry ons and if we checked them we'd have to stop by baggage claim before getting on the Magical Express.

We were not for that, so for the first time, I flat out argued with a gate agent. I told her that I wasn't going to stop at luggage claim and I didn't want to check the bag. With the majority of other people doing so, it shouldn't be a problem. She got so sassy and was like, well it's about space and if we need extra space I'll come back to you.

Which really just annoyed me because Marie and I are usually super helpful and we get why if everyone is going to be bringing carry on suitcases it'd be a problem, but we really had no plans of stopping by luggage claim.

Turned out when we got in that not all the space was even taken up, so it all worked out and we left on time at 5:20.

Anyway, our flight was with Air Canada Rouge, which is like Air Canada's economy class planes. They have less space than regular Air Canada and no free entertainment system and it bums me out because Air Canada spoiled me with space and entertainment and now I don't get it to Orlando. Like, they have an app you can use on your devices in flight for entertainment but they've got very limited android options so that means it didn't work on the tablet. Marie has an iphone 4, so she watched movies during the flight.

I took a nap, played fruit ninja on the tablet and read some of my book until we arrived into Orlando at 8:25.

We hopped onto the fake-o-rail and guess what? It was raining. Already. It was like an omen.

A nice guy who was staying at the All Star Music saw me take a picture of Marie and offered to take one of the two of us.

He was back for the first time since 2011 and very excited to meet Gaston. We chatted with him on the short ride over to the main terminal and then parted ways.

By around 9, we were seeing this awesome sight:

Except we didn't take off right away, so we had a little bit of a wait. Probably another 5 minutes, in which time I went ahead and posted the following Facebook status:

On the Magical Express! Very ready for my magic to start.

After that we left pretty quickly and Marie and I found out that they show a video that has basically part of a point of view ride through for 7DMT which we were not having because I've avoided looking at things so that I could experience it in person. So we covered our eyes and only watched when it was safe.

We stopped at Coronado first and then the All Star Sports (where I sighed sadly because it looked so nice and I wished we were getting off there), then the All Star Music and finally the All Star Movies.

I sent Marie through the check-in line and took some pictures.

They have an area for kids to watch things on TV, but it's sorta weird for me because that means that there's no desks on the left side of the lobby when you walk in from the front, unlike at the other All Stars where the concierge desks are on the left. To me it made it feel more crowded to have it all on the right.

Balloons are fun though.

Marie was still in line at 10 when she took this picture of me.

But eventually we made it through and then headed off in search of food.

Marie went to grab the food and I went to grab a table.

I also looked through our check in stuff.

I swear though it was taking her forever and I was getting more and more hangry as time went on. Especially seeing people just leaving all their trash on the tables and just being annoying and rude.

This is my hangry face. If you see it, feed me or go away. No good comes from me being hangry.

I spent much time looking around and hoping Marie was coming back with food.

Finally she did come back with the food.

She had a grilled chicken sandwich with fries and says that it was okay. I had a chicken quesadilla, but it was literally just cheese and chicken inside and the cheese was sort of greasy. I enjoyed the tortilla part of it most and was hungry enough that I ate almost all of it.

It was sprinkling when we made our way to our room, 6758, in the Love Bug section which was on the ground floor. The walk was about comparable to what we'd made in May except, you know, we weren't on the third floor.

As you can see, it was about 10:50 by the time we actually reached our room.

Since we were only going to be there for two nights, we didn't bother unpacking anything except the essentials from our carry ons and I wrote the TR updates. Since we had to wait for our luggage to arrive (and I had volunteered to do so since I wanted to avoid waiting at luggage claim that much), we flipped on the TV.

We were both exhausted by that point and I was seriously cursing myself because the luggage didn't get there until around 12:40. When it finally did arrive, I brought it in and collapsed in exhaustion on the bed. Travel days are always tiring.

Click for next post​

 

[1Grumpy9]

Joining in...can't wait to see all you explored during your trip.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

That does sound like a long day. Going at night can make it feel like it is taking forever to get to Disney - but being there an extra day certainly is worth it.

I am with you in wanting to be at the airport early (notice I said "wanting" to be there early - as my current TR indicates, we don't always actually get there early).

Nice picture of the two of you on the Fake-o-rail!

Sorry dinner wasn't better - and you had to wait a while for it.

Room was cute though and definitely seemed like it would do the job for a couple of nights

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

NICE Extra Disney time, and STILL save money. Nothing but win.

US pre-clearance. Best thing ever. Well, one of the best things ever anyway.

Haha, your gate looked like my gate.

The night of the 19th? Yup rain, I remember that well.

 

[amberg93]

Joining in...can't wait to see all you explored during your trip.

Amy! Super glad to have you here.

That does sound like a long day. Going at night can make it feel like it is taking forever to get to Disney - but being there an extra day certainly is worth it.

I am with you in wanting to be at the airport early (notice I said "wanting" to be there early - as my current TR indicates, we don't always actually get there early).

Nice picture of the two of you on the Fake-o-rail!

Sorry dinner wasn't better - and you had to wait a while for it.

Room was cute though and definitely seemed like it would do the job for a couple of nights

I think it just always feels like a long day when you're going to Disney.

To be fair, you have kids and I don't so that probably is what makes the difference

Thanks, I do like how it turned out even though I was sorta groggy at that point.

C'est la vie. Oh well, it was food and I was hungry. It did for a first meal.

It was a cute room but looking at the bed especially and comparing it to POFQ? Oof. It just doesn't look half as good

NICE Extra Disney time, and STILL save money. Nothing but win.

US pre-clearance. Best thing ever. Well, one of the best things ever anyway.

Haha, your gate looked like my gate.

The night of the 19th? Yup rain, I remember that well.

Sometimes all the pixie dust aligns and you just get all the win.

To be honest I thought everywhere had US pre-clearance and then it wasn't until like my 5th time going through customs that I was like, huh that wouldn't make sense in some countries.

Empty chairs at empty gates. That's fine, it meant we got the outlets.

Rain I should have known then and there that it'd be so much, but I was foolishly optimistic about the rain.

 

[courtneybelle]

Who Else Is Going To Disney is one of my favorite games as well! We're always a giveaway because we generally wear Disney shirts to the airport.

I also suffer from extreme hanger so I feel your pain. My family knows to stay out of my way unless they have food for me.

The Love Bug room looks very cute!!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Hi Amber! I'm here for this one too.

That's totally awesome that the guy you talked to was super excited about meeting Gaston. I mean, I would be too.

No one wants to be hangry. No one wants that. I get mean too.

 

[amberg93]

Who Else Is Going To Disney is one of my favorite games as well! We're always a giveaway because we generally wear Disney shirts to the airport.

I also suffer from extreme hanger so I feel your pain. My family knows to stay out of my way unless they have food for me.

The Love Bug room looks very cute!!

I was wearing a Disney shirt so I probably helped some people if they were playing, but it's just a fun way to pass time.

Hanger is a real issue. I don't understand people who don't suffer from hanger. Like... how are you so collected without food?

It was cute

Hi Amber! I'm here for this one too.

That's totally awesome that the guy you talked to was super excited about meeting Gaston. I mean, I would be too.

No one wants to be hangry. No one wants that. I get mean too.

Danielle! Happy to have you here.

Well who isn't excited to meet Gaston? Like, it's just common sense.

I think we all get hangry sometimes It's a forgivable offense, right

 

[DisDance]

Do so excited for this TR! I've been waiting so long!

 

[Nohal]

Looking forward to your trip report. We were there the same time as you.