And that was without even a single drop of rum! UPDATES 5/16 Tower of Terror 10 Mile race

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Starting a trip report is hard for me.

Picking out the right trip report title so people will even open the thing and give me a shot...

Introducing myself and my travel companions to make us sound like fun, exciting people...

Trying not to give too much preliminary information of the trip so as to bore people outright...



I'm really no good at beginnings.

So lets jump right in.



We're the 2 in the back. How did we get there? Well, lets start briefly at the beginning.

I'm Rachel, a 31 year old lawyer from Columbus Ohio. The guy holding on for dear life is my boyfriend, 30 year old Brian.

We have 2 very bad animals (bad is a term of endearment):





That is Toulouse.





And that is Sirius.

I like to put hats on the animals.

Anyway...

We have been to Disney many times. Me when I was younger with my family, Brian with me starting when I booked us a trip right after my first year of law school finals.

This latest trip was a vacation with his mom and sister to run the TOT 10 Mile race.



Aforementioned sister, Stephanie.



And their mom, Sylvia.

It was a pretty big trip for those 2. They had come with us the last year when we ran the TOT 10 mile race, they did the 5k. This year, they came prepared to run the 10 mile. They both lost weight and spent hours working out, Stephanie was at -99 pounds

We also had some big plans to attend several MNSSHPs and we were going to Universal at the tail end of the trip to make use of our Universal APs to see the new Diagon Alley.

Here was our schedule if you want to know what to get excited for

Thursday September 25:
-after a full work day for me we depart on Southwest at 3:45 pm
-arrive at Orlando at 5:50 and take the magical express
-check into All Star Music
-MK open until 10 pm

Friday September 26:
-Character Hunting Day

Saturday September 27:
-check into Art of Animation, Stephanie and her mom arrive
-AK, Ohio State game, MK open until 11 pm

Sunday September 28:
-check into Saratoga Springs
-MK and MNSSHP

Monday September 29:
-Epcot
-dinner at Garden Grill

Tuesday September 30:
-AK

Wednesday October 1:
-DHS

Thursday October 2:
-MK
-second MNSSHP

Friday October 3:
-check into the Polynesian club level
-Keys to the Kingdom tour
-Epcot
-last day of Annual Pass

Saturday October 4:
-sleep in
-Blizzard Beach
-check into All Star Music
-Tower of Terror 10 Mile run
-Villain's after party at DHS

Sunday October 5:
-sleep in
-lunch at Sanaa
-third MNSSHP

Monday October 6:
-sleep in
-Raglan Road dinner
-Downtown Disney

Tuesday October 7:
-switch over to the dark side
-check into Hard Rock Hotel club level
-pick up my friend Ashley from the airport
-Universal/IOA

Wednesday October 8:
-Universal/IOA

Thursday October 9:
-Universal/IOA
-Universal Halloween Horror Night

Friday October 10:
-Universal/IOA
-depart on Southwest at 3:25 pm



Wow, I'm exhausted typing that all out.

And yeah, we switch resorts too often.

Anyway, that is enough with beginnings. I'm more interested in the journey.

So I'll leave you with a quote:

“The children aren’t puppies, they’re people. And sooner or later Nana, people have to grow up.” – Mr. Darling from Peter Pan



Yeah, we might have to grow up. But that doesn't mean we lose sight of the kid who we once used to be. Which is what Disney is all about.

Sometimes we get to go to Neverland.














So without further ado, I present to you...

my trip report.

 

[pollyanna30]

Followed you from your other trip report and loved the introduction. It definitely got my attention and gave me a chuckle! I can't believe how many times you switched resorts. That's a lot of suitcase repacking! Looking forward to following along.

 

[stacy~**]

I have been neglecting things here on the disboards but very excited to see you started your report!

I don't think I realized how long of a trip you took! Nice work!

Looking forward to it!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

joining! and your chosen trip title did catch my attention and got me to check it out

Sounds like a fun schedule and congrats to your boyfriend's mom and sister in losing the weight and running the race!

and adults are just big kids anyway ... especially at Disney

 

[NMW]

subscribing and Go Irish

 

[Biggie Smalls]

Uh I heart you if not only for that amazing first photo! Joining in

 

[CraftyMommy]

Looks interesting so far! I am in Columbus and worked for a few law firms here. But now I'm back in school for computer science. I'm looking forward to reading your TR.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Followed you from your other trip report and loved the introduction. It definitely got my attention and gave me a chuckle! I can't believe how many times you switched resorts. That's a lot of suitcase repacking! Looking forward to following along.

Hello again

Yeah I'm actually pretty tired of so much resort switching. This trip came about in a very convoluted way. Stephanie found cheap points to rent for the Saratoga stay, but it was a set amount of days and our trip was going to be longer. So we booked Music for the remainder of the stay. Then Orbitz had a really good deal and I booked us 1 night at the Poly club to try it out. Then Brian and I decided to go a day early so we booked AOA Little Mermaid. Then we figured why not just go a few more days early, so then we booked Music because Little Mermaid rooms were sold out, but I didn't want to cancel that one because I'd been wanting to stay there.

I have been neglecting things here on the disboards but very excited to see you started your report!

I don't think I realized how long of a trip you took! Nice work!

Looking forward to it!

Glad you took some time to comment! I bet your getting super busy at the Disney store since the holidays are coming up! Do you have any good stories from work yet? Any memorable customers or Disney moments?

joining! and your chosen trip title did catch my attention and got me to check it out

Sounds like a fun schedule and congrats to your boyfriend's mom and sister in losing the weight and running the race!

and adults are just big kids anyway ... especially at Disney

Hello! I've been reading your TR and I really love it! I only commented the once because I'm so far behind and I don't want to bog down your posts with comments about stuff you wrote about a long time ago.

subscribing and Go Irish

My parents were both Pitt fans so I don't think too highly of Notre Dame lol. Even though that might be one of those rivalries where its mostly on Pitt's side. Who does Notre Dame consider to be it's biggest rivals?

Looks interesting so far! I am in Columbus and worked for a few law firms here. But now I'm back in school for computer science. I'm looking forward to reading your TR.

Hi! That is funny you went back to school, a lot of the attorneys and legal people I know are going back to school or trying to get out of the business. Columbus has waaay too many lawyers right now. Well good luck with the school, that should be a great field to be in

Uh I heart you if not only for that amazing first photo! Joining in

I'm glad you liked it! Now I'm afraid I've set the bar too high with the pictures hahaha. I do have some gems from the trip though.



Well I've finally got all my photopass pictures finished and downloaded, so it looks like its time to get started.

 

[IheartDDuck]

I'm joining! I have a Husky too. Gotta love them.

 

[NMW]

USC would be the rivalry for ND. That is funny about Pitt our oldest just got accepted there. Not sure if he will go there yet.

 

[wiscbugs]

Ready for another...go BUCKY!!!!

 

[ashw100]

Subbing in. I read your last TR an loved it. The title is great and definitely eye catching. Can't wait to here about your new adventures.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Wow I have been busy. In between Thanksgiving family traveling, unlimited hours at work (I'm a temp worker who is paid hourly, so I gotta rack up time when I can) and getting ready to move to Austin Texas I have had trouble finding time to get this going.

But I have some hours before the big ten championship so here we go.

I'm joining! I have a Husky too. Gotta love them.

Do you have any pics? What is your husky's name?

My dad went to Alaska when I was in kindergarten and he brought my older sister and I back stuffed huskys. That husky became my go to stuffed animal and I still have it, decided way back then that I wanted one.

The afternoon I finished taking the bar exam to become a licensed attorney, I found Sirius' picture online and we went and got him He is my little bar exam bought of crazy haha.

USC would be the rivalry for ND. That is funny about Pitt our oldest just got accepted there. Not sure if he will go there yet.

I think Pitt is a good school, did he get any other acceptances?

Ready for another...go BUCKY!!!!

Welcome!

Subbing in. I read your last TR an loved it. The title is great and definitely eye catching. Can't wait to here about your new adventures.

That is a sweet thing to say Welcome!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Ah. Travel day. Always so hectic and tiring. I like to get the most out of my trips so I try to schedule us to leave Thursday afternoon. That way I can get close to 40 hours in at work for the week. Which usually ends up exhausting me, working that long and trying to pack and get the house cleaned. Ah well, if I wanted a relaxing trip I wouldn't go to Disney

Our Southwest flight left at 3:45 pm and would arrive at Orlando at 5:50 pm. All of my stuff had been packed the night before, and I was just sitting at work (looking up Disboards stuff, if I know myself, and I do), waiting for Brian to finish up packing and come pick me up on the way to the airport. I work downtown in Columbus so its only about a 10 minute drive to the airport from my office.

He actually ended up arriving a little bit early. I was pretty surprised since our the packing was pretty involved this year. We had 2 costumes for MNSSHP, running outfits and costumes for the race and then all the other usual Disney stuff people need to take.

There was no traffic so the drive to the airport was short, we parked in our cheap, far off lot and a bus quickly came.

We were through airport security quickly, I don't think I've ever seen a line longer than 10 minutes for Columbus' Southwest terminal.



Hey, everyone includes boring pictures of planes on the ground at their terminals in their trip reports, its practically required. I know its boring, but now its over.

Soon enough we were at our gate and waiting for our flight. We soon discovered that it was Southwest's flyer appreciation week and they were giving away free popcorn and playing games.

One of the games involved who had the oldest penny, someone had one from the 1950's so they won a $20 Southwest gift card. We were both pretty impressed by that.

I think Southwest should do customer appreciation all the time. It cost them very little, and I think a lot of the other people in the terminal enjoyed it.

I believe we got a Donatos pizza to share on the plane. Soon we were on board and we got a sweet view of the city as we climbed high:





The flight was pretty uneventful. I tried to sleep, but I'm always too excited to sleep on the way to Disney. I had my usual window seat so I spent the trip listening to Disney music while looking out the window. I never get tired of windows on planes. I think its fascinating to look at all the landscapes and planned out towns.

Anyway, we landed on time, without incident and were soon zipping along the fake-o-rail. Brian was pretty sure he knew the way to the Magical Express terminal, I knew he was wrong but I let him take the lead anyway. May as well let him remember early on in the trip that I know everything and that he should always listen to me

After we went to the correct area, we scanned our bands and were led onto the bus, where we were able to secure seats near the front. Luckily we only had a 10 minute wait and were on our way!

Then, sadly, the fake Stacy came onto the TVs.



Blech, fake Stacy. No one is falling for your games. Such a boring video. I do like that they show old cartoons and Disney blog webisodes before and after the bad fake Stacy video.

Ugh, I can't remember his name but he is going around the parks checking stuff out and usually at some point in his shenanigans someone else says "For the record, I think this is a terrible idea and I advise against it." Which, thinking back on it, would make a great name for a trip report. Anyway...it was kind of rainy and dreary, and I got a truly dreadful picture of the welcoming arch:



The Magical Express doesn't slow down for any picture taking ahhaha.

First we stopped at Coronado. We weren't staying here, but I think Coronado is our favorite resort. Did anyone else notice that moderates used to be about $100-$130 a night about 2 years ago, and now you can't find them lower than $180?? They have pretty much priced us out for now, which is a shame because we loved the Coronado. Sigh, maybe next time Coronado.

Next stop was Sports, then it was our turn at All Stars Music! We got a pretty good deal on our room for Music, the food court is being refurbished so the rates are cheaper than usual. Which was fine by us, we don't really use the food court and we just needed a room for a few nights.

Here are some boring pictures of the room:





And our room number:



If there's a room closest to the bus stop, you're in the room that it's farthest from (little Star Wars quote humor).

We were in the Broadway section, which was very pretty at night. I wasn't too happy about it because I'd requested to be close to the bus stop. We were wearing our GPS running watches this trip, and we measured the walk from our room to the bus stop, which was almost exactly a third of a mile. Just what everyone needs after a non-stop day at the parks, right? A third of a mile walk from the bus to their room.



Looks like we stayed at the Tar Music hotel.

Anyway, we weren't too upset since we'd only be there for a few days, but it was a little annoying. We dumped our bags in the room and took off for the bus stop, I had set up 3 FP+s for our first night at the MK. The MK was open until 10 pm that night. Since it was the latest one opened it won the contest to be our first park.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Unfortunately, we arrived at the MK at 8:30 pm and ended up missing a FP+ for SDMT by about an hour. I knew it'd be a long shot to make it, but I had been hopeful. But really, no one can be sad when entering the MK at night on the first day of their trip, so we quickly forgot about it and had some pixie dust by being allowed to use our next FP+ 5 minutes late to see Mickey himself.

And...this is my first picture of the MK:



The 3 Caballeros poster in Mickey's line.

I'm always a little slow getting into my maniacal picture taking at Disney, so yep, I didn't get any of the train station of Main Street or the castle.

But I do love the 3 caballeros. I wish they had them available for meets with Mexican sombrero Donald at Mexico in Epcot.

Anyway, we were very quickly ushered into meet with the main mouse himself:



Unfortunately he wasn't talking this night, but Mickey was super excited to hear that we were fresh off the magical express and we'd come to see him first.





After that we just walked slowly toward our next FP+, taking in all the magic of the MK at night. I dare anyone reading this to come up with anything more magical than the MK at night, on your first day of your trip, walking around knowing you have plenty of time for everything ahead of you.

Our next FP+ was one that I'd hunted for months. Any guesses?

Anna and Elsa, of course! I had met them on our previous trip with Brian's mom and sister, we'd only been able to get 3 Fp+ for that trip though so Brian had never met them.

So we went to join the line when our FP+ time came up and were very confused. The CMs were trying to make us go into the regular line, even though I kept explaining that we had a FP+. And then I realized...they were doing that stupid test I'd read about on the boards where they handed out return time cards and merged the FP+ and the regular line. I was not pleased. At all.

So with a FP+ I'd looked months for, we ended up waiting 50 minutes. What a complete and utter waste. At least we made friends with the family in front of us, who also had a FP+ and were also not happy at all. Complaining is always more fun with more people

This probably was one of the two low points of the trip, so don't despair readers, most of my report will be much happier than this.

We did have a great meet and greet with the two sisters.







Anna asked how we met, then she asked if we fell in love and got engaged that first night. She leaned in and whispered, while looking at Elsa 'apparently you aren't supposed to do that'. It was hilarious. Anna is definitely my favorite of the 2.

After the long wait, we really didn't have a lot of time before the park closed. We just barely made it onto POTC and enjoyed a great ride with the Pirates.

We made it to Town Square in time to see some of the Electric Parade:



I just love this parade. The music is so incredibly catchy, in an 80s video game kind of way. And we both do love our 80s video games. I am in love with all the awkward little turtles and bees who trundle around and make their weird little noises.

We even have a little skipping walk we do when we're walking along with it.

The park was now officially closed, but I am not one to sit by and let injustices occur silently, so I insisted on going to guest services to complain about our anna and elsa FP+ debacle. Brian wandered around while I was waiting and took pictures of Halloween pumpkins on Main Street:



A little blurry, but its a pumpkin giving directions to the bathrooms hahahah:



Love it.









Brian's favorite is on the left.





The one on the right looks pretty nervous of the one on the left.









After waiting about half an hour in line, I finally get up to a guest service rep. She doesn't seem surprised at my complaint at all and just automatically rings us up 2 anytime FP+s for our next MK day. Spoiler: we will forget to use them. What a waste of time hahahah. Not cool. It made me even angrier when I went to post angrily on the DISboards back at the room that night and read that other people in the line earlier in the day had just been handed anytime FP+s by a manager in the line. Where were they when we went through?!

At least when we left after that there was no wait at the bus stop, and we were some back at our room. I took a few pictures of the pretty Broadway section:





We quickly got ready for bed while listening to Stacy. It had been a somewhat frustrating first day, but we needed to get to bed to be ready for our next day antics! Since we hadn't originally planned to be in Disney until Sunday, we considered these days bonus days and decided to take the next day and see how many characters we could meet in one day!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Glad to hear your travels were smooth ... and then you got the "bonus" travel of getting to walk 1/3 of a mile to and from your room

Oh, and why don't they just use actual Stacy instead of Fake Stacy? I mean, pretty sure they know where she lives

Bummer you missed the 7DMT FP+ but at least you knew it was dicey to begin with and didn't let it get you down.

So I didn't realize with that test they merged the actual FP+ people in with the return time people, um, that's not a FP anymore than. I thought there were still two lines, just those without FP+ got the return time rather than standing around for 3 hours. Glad to hear that Disney kinda realized it wasn't working but they shouldn't be inconsistent about giving out those anytime FPs at the line.

Oh well, at least you ended the night in good spirits with the MSEP. I know some people prefer Spectromagic much more - I tend to like both and do enjoy the music of MSEP

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I've decided to do something new with this trip report. I take so many awful pictures. Not the picture itself, but I am usually blinking or making awful faces. I am not photogenic. Its like, deep down I sense when the picture is about to be taken and just do something completely awkward. So, this trip report I am going to share all those awful photographs in the hopes of brightening others days

Since this was travel day and we didn't take too many pictures, I only have a few. But enough to give you some anticipation for whats to come.

This is what all the pictures with Mickey looked like that the CM took with our camera (which is usually just our Galaxy phones).



I'm not even sure how they weren't focused, with that phone you almost have to try not to have the picture be in focus.



I like this picture. It looks like Mickey is trying to shake hands and we're both just standing there awkwardly staring at him. But don't worry, we'd never leave Mickey hanging. Brian did end up shaking his hand. eventually.



Am I yawning?! What is my mouth doing here? Who waits an hour to meet Elsa and then yawns?! I'm embarrassing.

That's all I've got for now...but there are some gems coming up soon that I'm real excited about.

 

[stacy~**]

Moving to Austin? How exciting! When? Will we have a chance to meet up before you leave?

Happy to see you get this thing going! Love the SouthWest customer appreciation stuff. That sounded like fun!

AllStar Movies is the only resort I have never at least visited. I don't even know their section names. Seeing your pictures was interesting to me! Love the "Tar Music" hotel. Haha!

Sorry about the A&E FP mess. I'd be pretty upset over that too....at least it was early when you have the whole trip in front of you.

Ok....blooper photos are gonna take your trip report to a new level. What a fun idea! (and we ALL have those pictures!)

 

[ashw100]

Love your TR so far. Isn't funny how things can go poorly and it ends up okay because your at Disney? That really sucks about Anna and Elsa, I heard about the test but, I didn't realize it just negated people with actual FP. Love the blooper pictures...keep 'em coming. I got a good laugh.

 

[Laketravis]

Moving to Austin? Seems everyone is these days.

Enjoyed your trip report and twisted sense of humor! Try Salt Lick when you get here!