A Whole New World, A Whole New Life! -- A Jan-Feb-Mar 2015 TR -- *COMPLETED* 9/29

[bbjunkie]

I'm loving your report, and I hope you don't give up on it.

I have noticed as time goes on that the quality of your photos has improved significantly! Nice job; I am loving them!! I feel the same way you do about the fountains and statues in the new hub.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Hi Shannon, I've been missing your updates! Would still like to read how your JanFebMar trip ended, as well as read about your autumn stay in a Cars suite, and MNSSHP! You left us hanging regarding who you were for Halloween! Hoping all's well with you and your family. It must be really busy with so many sisters having babies.

I've never stayed in a Cars suite. What was it like? Was everyone comfortable there?

 

[DisneyFreak98]

I'm loving your report, and I hope you don't give up on it.

I have noticed as time goes on that the quality of your photos has improved significantly! Nice job; I am loving them!! I feel the same way you do about the fountains and statues in the new hub.

Thank you so much! Not giving up, just have to find the time to keep writing

Hi Shannon, I've been missing your updates! Would still like to read how your JanFebMar trip ended, as well as read about your autumn stay in a Cars suite, and MNSSHP! You left us hanging regarding who you were for Halloween! Hoping all's well with you and your family. It must be really busy with so many sisters having babies.

I've never stayed in a Cars suite. What was it like? Was everyone comfortable there?

Hi! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long. I had finals for the online classes I take, and then I had a bunch of new classes for the new semester, and I've just been having a hard time finding time to write updates! I will hopefully be able to finish this trip up very soon, and get started on the Halloween trip report. Thank you all for staying interested!

 

[dvc at last !]

We need more - thanks !

 

[DisneyFreak98]

Today was our first day of “vacation”! We were heading to Magic Kingdom, so we got up early for the 8:00 opening. I’m not sure if any of you have heard of this before, but today was “Dapper Day” at the Magic Kingdom. Dapper Day is an unofficial event held at the Disney parks twice a year. It’s mainly locals who participate, but I heard about it through Facebook. Basically you just show up to the park in “dapper” style - fancy dresses, curled hair, slacks, and ties - and do stuff around the park with other people who are participating. You can look it up and dapperday.com if you want to know more!
Anyways, we left the RV about 7:00 and walked to the boat dock. The sunrise was beautiful this morning.

Sam and I were the only ones who dressed up, and we felt a little silly walking around the campground all fancy so early in the morning! Once we go to the boat dock it was about 10 minutes before the first boat came. It was actually a boat to the Contemporary, but we still took it and took the walking path from there to the Magic Kingdom. Once we arrived at the park and made it through bag check, we scanned our bands and found a spot in the courtyard to wait for the welcome show to start and the park to open. We saw a few other dressed-up people waiting, but we knew there would be a lot more later in the day, especially because this was early magic hours. It wasn’t too long before the show started, and we had a fun time watching and singing along. Once the final countdown was over and the park officially opened, we made our way with the rest of the crowd into the park. We were heading for the Mine Train, so we made our way to Fantasyland along with most of the other people. We were able to get there in good time, and we only had to wait about 10 minutes before boarding the ride. We had a fun ride, and we were glad we were able to get it done early because we didn’t have a Fast Pass for it.
Once we got off, we decided to do some other stuff around Fantasyland. We went over to the carousel, where we saw Anastasia, Drizella, and Lady Tremaine were in line to ride! We obviously had to get in line, too, and we were able to make it on the same cycle with them. We were sitting right behind them, and they were a riot to watch! Anastasia nearly fell off of her horse, and they all just kept yelling at each other. It was a great magical moment!

After we got off the carousel, we headed over to ride Peter Pan. The line was only about 10-15 minutes long, and we had a great ride. After that we made our way through New Fantasyland to ride the Little Mermaid. The wait was only 5-10 minutes, and it was another great ride! Once we got off that we decided to head into Tomorrowland. We got in line to ride Astro Orbiter, because that’s a ride we don’t do very often. Mom and Dad aren’t big fans though, so just the kids rode. This line usually seems to take long because of the elevator ride, but it only took about 10-15 minutes. The ride attendant commented on mine and Sam’s “dapper” outfits; she said we would have participated if she wasn’t working! Pretty soon we were boarding our rocket ships and taking off! I love riding Astro Orbiter because of the great view you get of the whole kingdom.
Once we got off of that we all headed over to ride Buzz Lightyear. That wait was just about 5 minutes, so we actually ended up riding twice. Both times were great! It was getting close to 10:00 now, so the park had been officially open for about an hour. We had Fastpasses for Space Mountain now, so we headed over to do that. We only waited about 10 minutes, and we had a lot of fun blasting through space! Once we got off it was a little after 10:00, so we made our way out of Tomorrowland and back to the castle hub. Today was the last day of the winter trolley show, so I really wanted to see it one last time! The show started at 10:15, and we were right on time! We watched them dance all the way down Main Street, and I probably took way too many pictures, but the trolley show is one of my favorite things so it’s okay!

The show ends at the train station, so we watched the last part from up on the platform, which was fun.



Once it was over we noticed that Mary Poppins happened to be meeting up there, and there was only one group of people with her, so of course we had to say hello! She really enjoyed our “dapper” outfits!


After meeting Mary, Sam and I had a little photo shoot in front of the castle, and this actually turned out to be one of my favorite photos from the entire trip.

We headed down from the station and back onto Main Street, where we started making our way back deeper inside the park. On our way to our next destination, which was Adventureland, we passed by Casey’s Corner where they were opening up the restaurant for the day. We never knew this before, but every day they do a little opening ceremony in front of Casey’s where someone throws out the “first pitch” and they hand out free bags of cracker jacks to everyone who happens to be around! As we were walking by the cast member asked Travis if he would like to throw the first pitch, and of course he agreed. They make a deal out of it, and it was all really cute!

Just the fact that they do stuff like that, making small stuff like opening a restaurant for the day an event, handing out cracker jacks, makes me love Disney even more. After we were done playing ball, we continued on our way into Adventureland. We did the Magic Carpets first, which had about a 15 minute wait. After that we decided to watch the Tiki Birds, which had about 10 minutes until their next show. It was about 11:30 when we got out, so we decided to find somewhere to eat lunch. We decided on the Harbor House, so we made our way through Frontierland into Liberty Square. It was a little busy, but not too bad, and we were sitting down with our food by noon. Most of us got either chicken nuggets or fish, and I’m pretty sure Mom got the broccoli peppercorn salad. We had a nice time eating together, and it was pretty hot today so it was a nice break from the heat inside.
After looking at the wait times around the park, which were definitely not low, we decided we would just do a couple more things before heading home. Even though it was our first day of “vacation”, we didn’t want to do too much and tire ourselves right away, especially since it was very hot today. So, even though the wait was 45 minutes (that was one of the lower times), we decided to do Jungle Cruise. We got in line, and it definitely looked lengthy, but we weren’t expecting it to take as long as it did. It felt like we were standing in that queue for an eternity, and I think it was worsened by the fact that it’s the type of queue that just snakes back-and-forth and back-and-forth. It ended up taking well over an hour, and about halfway through we were lamenting the fact that we weren’t smart enough to pick a ride that had an indoor, air-conditioned line! We made it there eventually, though, and we had a good ride.
We were all pretty done after our long, hot wait, so we decided that would be our last ride of the day. Before we exited the park though, we all agreed that Dole Whips were an excellent idea! We got in line, which wasn’t too long, and ordered our much-needed cool treats. We found a table that was at least somewhat in the shade where we enjoyed our ice cream.

Once we were all done we decided it was time to head out of the park and go home. By this time Dapper Day was in full swing, and we were seeing “dappers” everywhere! One of the things people were doing together today for Dapper Day was riding the River Boat, so we decided just to walk by and see what the line was like. Oh my goodness, I have never seen a line like that for the river boat in my life! The line stretched all the way back to the Haunted Mansion, and I’m certain everyone in that line was participating in Dapper Day, because you would have been crazy to even attempt to ride if you weren’t. We gave a hearty no to waiting in that line, and continued with our plan of heading out of the park. We stopped to take a few more pictures in front of the castle before finally exiting a little after 2:30.

We caught our boat home after waiting about 10 minutes, and by the time we got back and walked home it was around 3:00. Sam and I changed when we got back, and we all spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out and resting. Travis and I rode our bikes up to the Settlement to fill up our cups, and I’m pretty sure that was the last time we had to do that. The drink station at the pool was in its final stages of renovation, and it was just about ready to open. We still had some leftovers in our fridge, so we ate those up for dinner, and afterwards we started getting ready to go down to the campfire! They were playing Disney trivia at 7:00, then the campfire show at 8:00, followed by the movie at 8:40. Tonight they were showing Big Hero 6, which we hadn’t seen yet, so we were very excited! We walked down to the campfire a little before 7:00, and we had a lot of fun playing trivia with Chip and Dale! We didn’t win tonight, but we had fun and the activities staff was really great. After trivia the campfire was lit, and we all made s’mores together. Pretty soon the show was starting, and we had a great time singing along. Once that was over it was almost time for the movie to start! We had great seats because we had gotten there early. The movie was awesome, and we were really glad we got to see it! It was after 10:00 once it was over, so we packed up and headed back to the RV. We all got ready and headed to bed, with plans of going to Epcot for some more Flower and Garden fun!​

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Yay, the trip report is active again!

Those are especially great pictures with the Trolley show and with Mary Poppins!

At some point did you get to try the orange Dole whip before they discontinued it?

I like your and Sam's dapper outfits.

 

[esmee1sttip]

I think your dapper picture in front of the castle is the best one too! Thanks for hanging in there and continuing to fit in time to post. Most of the time I prefer to read and not post but I just wanted to give a little encouragement

 

[DisneyFreak98]

Yay, the trip report is active again!

Those are especially great pictures with the Trolley show and with Mary Poppins!

At some point did you get to try the orange Dole whip before they discontinued it?

I like your and Sam's dapper outfits.

Yes, we are! Thank you!
I've had the Citrus Swirl thing that they sell in Adventureland, is that what you mean? Or is there something else?

I think your dapper picture in front of the castle is the best one too! Thanks for hanging in there and continuing to fit in time to post. Most of the time I prefer to read and not post but I just wanted to give a little encouragement

Thank you very much!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

I've had the Citrus Swirl thing that they sell in Adventureland, is that what you mean? Or is there something else?

There used to be something else. There used to be orange Dole Whip at the same stand that sold pineapple Dole Whip, but somewhere between my last two trips in Oct. 2014 and July 2015, they discontinued it. I liked the orange even better than the pineapple. Wish they would bring it back.

 

[KathyM2]

Love your Dapper day pics!! Though I can't imagine walking around in those shoes for very long lol

 

[Captain Hook Wannabe]

Love this trip report!!! Can I ask a question? How did you know what days Scoop would be in MK. He never seems to be working on the days I am there. Thanks.

 

[DisneyFreak98]

There used to be something else. There used to be orange Dole Whip at the same stand that sold pineapple Dole Whip, but somewhere between my last two trips in Oct. 2014 and July 2015, they discontinued it. I liked the orange even better than the pineapple. Wish they would bring it back.

Hmmm, no I don't think I ever tried that. It sounds good though!

Love your Dapper day pics!! Though I can't imagine walking around in those shoes for very long lol

Thank you! It wasn't too bad up until we were standing in the Jungle Cruise line for what seemed like forever!

Love this trip report!!! Can I ask a question? How did you know what days Scoop would be in MK. He never seems to be working on the days I am there. Thanks.

Thank you so much! While we were there Scoop told us what his schedule was, but I know it has changed since then so I have no clue what days he is there right now.

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Hello again, Shannon! It's nice to see you back updating. I know how life can "get in the way" sometimes.

We never knew this before, but every day they do a little opening ceremony in front of Casey’s where someone throws out the “first pitch” and they hand out free bags of cracker jacks to everyone who happens to be around!

I had no idea they did this at Casey's! I'll have to keep it in mind for my next trip. My wife loves cracker jacks, so it would be great to get some free ones in WDW. Thanks for the tip!

 

[jandlinz]

Your Dapper Dan outfits are super cute. I love the pictures. I'm hoping you can keep updating. I love reading your trip report. It has been very helpful for planning our next trip.

 

[disneyfan007]

Loving your trip report. What a great experience for your family!!

 

[snowwhitesmom]

I just stumbled upon your trip report and spent a very enjoyable evening reading it! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[DisneyFreak98]

Hello again, Shannon! It's nice to see you back updating. I know how life can "get in the way" sometimes.


I had no idea they did this at Casey's! I'll have to keep it in mind for my next trip. My wife loves cracker jacks, so it would be great to get some free ones in WDW. Thanks for the tip!

Thank you! And you're welcome

Your Dapper Dan outfits are super cute. I love the pictures. I'm hoping you can keep updating. I love reading your trip report. It has been very helpful for planning our next trip.

Thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying it. I'm working on another update now, so hopefully that will be up soon!

Loving your trip report. What a great experience for your family!!

Thank you so much!

I just stumbled upon your trip report and spent a very enjoyable evening reading it! Can't wait to hear more!

Thank you so much, I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

 

[dlavender]

Great TR! I am extremely jealous. My wife and I homeschool our little ones, and this type of a trip would be a dream come true for us! Thanks for sharing.

 

[DisneyFreak98]

This morning we got up and got ready to head to Epcot! The park was opening at 9:00, so we were up, ready, and out the door by 8:00. We didn’t have to wait too long for either the internal or park bus to come, so we arrived right around 8:30. We made it through bag check and got in line to get into the park. Before long the gates were open and we were scanning our bands. Our first stop today was The Land to ride Soarin’ because we didn’t have a FastPass for that later. We made it there in very good time, and we only waited about 10-15 minutes. We had a great time soaring over California, and after we got off we decided to ride Living with the Land while we were already there. There was hardly a line for that, and that was a nice ride.

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Once we were done in the Land we headed out to ride Figment. We checked out some of the Flower and Garden stuff in Future World on our way over there.

We waited about 5-10 minutes for Figment, which was another good ride. Once we got off we looked around at some of the other gardens and things while we made our way to the Seas.

The wait was only 10 minutes, but we still used the FastPasses we had. We had fun searching for Nemo, and once we got off we spent some time looking around at the different fishes at the Seas. Once we got off we started making our way toward the Festival Center. We stopped and went inside the butterfly house on the way, which was super beautiful.

Everything was looking especially beautiful today, and it was just so great to be there!

Today was Sunday, so the festival center was open. We got over there and headed inside. There were some tables inside the center, and it was around noon now, so we decided to eat our packed lunch while we were in there. After we ate we checked out all of the stuff around the center. I was especially into the orchids today!

Pluto was also hanging out in the festival center.

Once we had checked out everything there was to see, we headed back out into the park. We had FastPasses for Test Track, so that’s where we headed first. We waited about 15 minutes for that, and we had a great ride! Once we got off, it was time to head into the World Showcase! We started on the Mexico side today, and of course we had to head inside and ride the Three Caballeros. That wait was not even 5 minutes, and of course we had fun searching for Donald!

Once we got off the ride and looked around the store for a while, we headed back outside where we looked around the orchid garden they had set up there. We continued on our way through the countries, visiting the shops and looking around China, Norway, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, and Morocco.

By the time we made it to Morocco it was around 4:45, and we wanted to make it all the way around back to Mexico to get dinner, so we didn’t spend too much time in the remaining countries as we made our way there. We arrived back in Mexico a little after 5:00, and we headed to the quick service restaurant to grab some food! A usual it was a little crowded, so we were able to find places to sit, but we had to split up. The boys sat at one table and Mom and I shared another. We typically have some trouble finding a place to sit there as it’s a very popular spot! I got the salad they have there, and it was very good. Everyone else either got the nachos or the taco plate, and of course they enjoyed it!

We finished up and headed back into Future World, where we decided to play around in Innoventions for a while. Everything seemed to be in bloom in Epcot, including these gorgeous trumpet trees.

They were really beautiful, but they left tons of yellow petals all over the place!
We got inside Innoventions where we got in line to play the Great Piggy Bank Adventure, which is a lot of fun. I know Innoventions has been going through some changes right now, so I actually don’t know if this is even still there, but if it is you should totally give it a try! You basically get to play fun little mini games and try to fill up your piggy bank to reach your goals.

We were going to ride Sum of All Thrills once we were done there, because that was the main reason we came back to Future World, but the wait was pretty long so we decided to pass this time. Instead we headed back outside and made our way back into the World Showcase.

This time we started in Canada so we could spend some time in the countries we passed by earlier. We spent some time in Canada, England, and France before picking up the pace and passing through the rest of the countries.

We wanted to make it back into China to catch the 7:15 acrobat show. We sure got our workout today, walking through the showcase all the way around twice! We made it to China with about 15-20 minutes to spare, so we got great seats right in the front! It wasn’t long before the acrobats came running in, and they put on an incredible show as usual.

It was nice to watch the show a little later in the day, because in times past we’ve been watching earlier in the evening and the sunset has been really brutal, shining right in our eyes. The show was amazing, and it ended right about 7:30. Illuminations started at 9:00, so we still had an hour and a half before that. You have to get a good spot early though, so we didn’t really have that much time. We decided we would just kind of mosey around for a little while until we came across a good spot for the show to camp out. We ended up back around Mexico / Norway and decided to hang out there. We sat down by the railing and just chilled out for a while. It was actually nice to have a rest!

As the time for the show got closer, we took turns getting up to go get treats. Dad got school bread from Norway, and Mom and Travis got ice cream cones. For some reason that I cannot explain, Sam and I decided to haul ourselves all the way around to Japan to get the shaved ice they have there. It’s called kakigori, and we’d never had it before so we wanted to try it. It was really, very good, so I suppose it was worth the walk all the way over there. You can get this sweet milk topping on it for only one dollar extra, and I would totally recommend that. We got our treat and made it back to our spot, where we all stayed until the fireworks started. I love Illuminations for the lasers, pyrotechnics, and fireworks, but I’m not a huge fan of the long pauses where they just project pictures on the globe sitting on the water. That part gets a little boring to me, but I really love the song they play during that part so I guess it’s okay. The show was awesome, as usual!

Once it was over the park was closed, so we made our way out of the park along with every other person there. We made it out to the bus stop around 9:35, where we only waited about 10 minutes for a bus to come. After a quick stop at Wilderness Lodge, we made it back to the Fort where we caught an internal bus home. We made it back to the RV where we all got ready and headed to bed! Today had been a busy day, and we were all tired out! We had to get rested up, because tomorrow was another full day. It was Travis and Sam’s birthday, and we planned on spending the morning in Hollywood Studios and the rest of the day at Magic Kingdom!​

 

[DisneyFreak98]

Great TR! I am extremely jealous. My wife and I homeschool our little ones, and this type of a trip would be a dream come true for us! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for reading, glad you're enjoying it!