"Charlie, Everybody's HOT" - March 2012 with Mom (*Updated 10/6*)

[JessicaFaye508]

I can't wait to hear about where you ate and what you did in the parks!! YAYAYAY

 

[Reberella]

Can't wait to here about you times at the park and the restaurants!

Haha dating someone for 3 months seems a little quick to bring them on vacation for 10 days!!

Excited to read more!

 

[Anntan]

I can't wait to hear about where you ate and what you did in the parks!! YAYAYAY

Ahhhh I have some crazy insane food pictures from V&A's! it was a ridiculous experience!!!

Can't wait to here about you times at the park and the restaurants!

Haha dating someone for 3 months seems a little quick to bring them on vacation for 10 days!!

Excited to read more!

RIGHT?!?! I hope they break up after all of that. I had a whole update written but my buttface computer DESTROYED it!!! So I'll have one soon!

 

[Anntan]

REAL LIFE UPDATE

Hello, Disboards! I haven't been around at alllll lately! And I hate it!
I just wrote a whole next chapter of my trip but my buttface laptop executed it!

So I'll have to come back to that the next time I get a chance

which hopefully will be tomorrow!


I couldn't post at all this week because I had .....
MY ALL TIME FAVORITE WEEK OF THE YEAR!

For the past 5 summers I have been doing a week long musical theater camp called Camp Broadway. It's a NYC based company that travels the country all summer giving theatre loving kids in different cities the opportunity to get a taste of what it's like to be in the business. Among other programs and things they do throughout the year. It's an incredible program and I'm so sad this was my last year I've learned so much from them and made such incredible friends!

(This is how I met one of my best friends, Ellen, who introduced me to Jess [the Frump ] over facebook! Small World, huh?


On top of ALL THAT, Thursday was my 17th Birthday!!!! I celebrated in true Disney fashion.

I Even Got Mickey Mouse cupcakes made for me!!!! my friends know me so well...

It was full of wonderful people and a great day at camp doing what I love.
After camp, Ellen and I, along with our other friend Nick, went out to TGI Friday's for a birthday dinner that I will never ever forget. it was the greatest birthday I've had so far.

Camp was incredible. My Birthday was incredible. And I wish both could have lasted longer

I couldn't have asked for a better last year.

I PROMISE MORE TRIP REPORT COMING SOON! Life got in the way!

Next Chapter​

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[JessicaFaye508]

I'm so glad you had a wonderful day, girly! YAY for Ellen making an appearance in the trip report! I love that girl. The three of us need to hang out sometime! If you both ever want to come visit my college/visit me, feel free! Or we can have a sleepover at Ellen's house or something. I dunno!

I can't wait for the next part of your trip report!

 

[Anntan]

I'm so glad you had a wonderful day, girly! YAY for Ellen making an appearance in the trip report! I love that girl. The three of us need to hang out sometime! If you both ever want to come visit my college/visit me, feel free! Or we can have a sleepover at Ellen's house or something. I dunno!

I can't wait for the next part of your trip report!

It was PERFECT! haha she helped make it that way! Oh my gosh I would love that!! Hopefully I'll come to her next party! It will be up soon!! I can't wait to write what happened once I was actually ON PROPERTY!

 

[marDgreen88]

Camp Broadway! That sounds like so much fun. Do yall perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade? That juts sounds so familiar.

 

[sharingiscaring]

just subscribed. can't wait to hear more about your audition process. it's so great you can have such a wonderful time with your mom; i can't wait until my girls are older and we can have trips like this.

 

[archdandy]

I'm joining in! I can't wait to see what happens with your auditions. I hope you had a fantastic time no matter the outcome! Its so nice to be able to make memories with family.

 

[Anntan]

Camp Broadway! That sounds like so much fun. Do yall perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade? That juts sounds so familiar.

Ohhh it's so much fun! Some of my best memories are from there! Sometimes they perform in the parade! Last year I was lucky enough to be a part of it!

just subscribed. can't wait to hear more about your audition process. it's so great you can have such a wonderful time with your mom; i can't wait until my girls are older and we can have trips like this.

Welcome! I remember it very vividly! so once I get there you can read all about it. My mom and I had such an incredible time, I'm hoping to make it an annual trip

I'm joining in! I can't wait to see what happens with your auditions. I hope you had a fantastic time no matter the outcome! Its so nice to be able to make memories with family.

Hello! Welcome! It was so magical!!! Thanks for joining in

 

[Anntan]

Up And At 'Em!

Do you have an iPhone? No? Do you know someone with an iPhone? hmm... Well... you must know what the iPhone default ringtone sounds like! No? Well, for those of you who don't, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkuN9JDelVU

Listened to it?

Alright.

So now you know how annoying it is!!

Imagine your reaction to that noise blasting in your ear (literally) at around 3:30am? Pleasant? I think not.

Thankfully, I quickly remembered that the alarm did not mean just another early morning wake up call.

I Meant TODAY WAS DISNEY DAY!!

Once I realized what day it was, I was up and out of bed before I could say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

I was the first of my family members to hop in the shower (as I take the longest to get ready -___-) and once I was clean and awake, I finished up my packing while the rest of the family showered.

My brothers were also going to the airport that morning for a 7am flight to florida to see my grandparents while my Mom and I went for my audition. So it was a bit of a scramble out of the house!

Once I had packed my electronics and makeup and last minute morning items, I got dressed. I threw on leggings, my bambi tshirt, a sweater, and a scarf (just in case!) I knew once we got to our resort we would change for the parks, so my main concern was Plane comfort

We all finished getting ready, piled into the car, and Dad drove us to the airport.

If I had to choose one favorite instance in my whole life, it was that drive to the airport. It was just close to 5am, the streets were completely empty, and the streetlights reflected of the roads. I had that 5 year old's feeling that I was going to Disney, and I would be there in only a matter of hours. All those enchanting feelings rushed over me as we made the 20 or so minute drive to the airport.


When we arrived, Dad dropped us at the entrance, and since none of us were checking bags, we went straight in and to security check. (After hugging Dad goodbye of course!)

Security went quickly, and before we knew it we were parting ways with my brothers and heading to our gate. Mom asked me if I wanted any breakfast, but I couldn't eat due to my level of excitement! And I wanted my first meal of the day to be Disney food!!

When we got to our gate, we ran into the parents of my Brother's best friend, Mr & Mrs. Best, who happen to be very good family friends. They were on our Flight! (running into people is a theme of this trip!) we chatted with them, and called my brother to come over, for a while. They asked all about my audition, and I told them what little I knew about it. They said they were sure I'd be perfect for it, and wished me luck. Before we knew it, it was time to board!! Jojo and John went back to their own gate, and Mom and I waited to board the plane.

We got to our seats, and time went so quickly!!!! We took off, I threw on my ipod full of Disney music, and it seemed like only a few songs went by before we heard the pilot say we were arriving early!

Welcome to Orlando!

My heart was racing so fast!!! I couldn't believe we were finally here! I had been waiting for so long! It was unreal!

We hopped off the plane, said goodbye to The Best's, and headed off into the airport.

Then we got lost.

We didn't have any luggage checked, but we were meeting our driver (yes, we do not take the Magical Express, my parents are spoiled, we always get a driver) by the luggage claim. But We Had NO idea how to get there. Apparently we're bad sign readers. LONG STORY SHORT: we eventually found it, but then had to call and tell our driver where we were since he was lost too Once we saw the man with the "TANTILLO" sign (which my mom kept as a memento...) we knew we had made it!

He led us to the car, which was huge and beautiful and air conditioned, and we were on our way!

I have to say, this Driver was sooooo handsome! I was all a flutter! mostly from excitement...but whatever. He kept telling us about how wonderful Orlando is, and all the good reasons to live there, and things to do, and how nice the people are, and it was getting me so excited that I was trying to spend the summer working down there! My emotions were building up!

And then it hit me.... it was up ahead... I was so emotional I have zero pictures... It was the entrance archway.

My whole heart flooded over as we approached that line between fantasy and reality.

I closed my eyes, made a wish, and we crossed over onto Disney Property. ​

Next Chapter​

 

[Anntan]

A Magical Beginning

I couldn't believe it! I Was in DISNEY!
It had been TWO YEARS!

I watched in amazement as we passed Disney buses, and signs leading to various resorts and parks, but I knew which one to look out for.

Those beautiful Magic Kingdom signs.
And the one and only Magic Kingdom archway!

We passed under it and i felt another heart attack coming on.

I was in literal tears the whole drive. I couldn't help it!

Before long, We had finally reached out destination.

We pulled into the long driveway of the Grand Floridian and I took a deep breath. The view was incredible. The buildings there are just so flawless and beautiful. AND THE SMELL! I could already smell it as we were getting closer to the main entrance!

I was holding my breath as we pulled up to the doors!

The bellhop opened the door of the car and I let out a sigh.

I was home.

I jumped out of the car, and went around to grab my bag.
Of course, someone had already retrieved my bag and was ready to bring it inside for me.

My mom and I were in awe, we had forgotten just how perfect this place was!

We said thank you and goodbye to our driver and turned around to face our home for the next 3 days. And what a perfect home it was.

A Wonderful cast member, whose name I've forgotten since then, greeted us and led us to the front desk to check in. Along the way, he read our check in file he had and asked what my audition was all about. My parents had told them what I was there for when they booked the trip, and so everyone knew what I was doing. However, no one really knew anything about it! I explained what I was hoping to achieve with my audition and he wished me lots of luck and said I seemed like a great fit for the Disney family.

That made me so happy!


We had planned to store our bags once we checked in and head straight to the parks, thinking our room wouldn't be ready yet, But to our surprise, our room was ready early! And we could go to it right then! The man at the desk also wished me luck on my audition and gave me a "My Magical Triumph" pin! My mom and I headed off to our room to change and get the day going.

Our room was in the Big Pine Key building

It was sort of on the right side of the main lobby.
I had previously stayed at the Sugar Loaf building, which was RIGHT next to the dock to Magic Kingdom! which was awesome! But this was much closer to the main lobby, which was nice too!

We got to our room, and the smell hit me! If you've never been to the Grand Floridian, it's worth making a stop there just to take a big whiff! It's such a nice smell!! So clean and fresh and magical!

The room was beautiful and perfect for the two of us.

After I was done smelling the beds, I unpacked a few things and freshened up. I changed into my Pink shorts and my heart Toms and packed up my phone and my camera.

Of course I had to document...

I put on my pin and we headed back to the main lobby!

The pool was RIGHT outside our building! Super convenient!

Once we got back to the main lobby, we headed for the front desk.
Don't judge me for this, but it had been a while since I'd been to Disney, and I had forgotten how to get on the right monorail to EPCOT from GFla. So, we asked the woman at the desk, and she helped us out. We asked a few other questions regarding the location of my audition tomorrow, which she didn't really answer too well, but she tried. We thanked her, I grabbed a few park maps, and we headed upstairs to the monorail!

We admired all the lovely shops and went outside to wait or the monorail.

But not before taking a couple obligatory lobby pictures:

UGHHH So Gorgeous!

I could tell my mom was getting just as excited as I was! We joked and chatted until the monorail came.

We Were Ready To Go! ​

Next Chapter​

 

[marDgreen88]

The GF is just so gorgeous! I'm so excited to see what yall did in Epcot!

 

[Anntan]

The GF is just so gorgeous! I'm so excited to see what yall did in Epcot!

It looks almost as beautiful as it smells!!! The atmosphere there is unbelievable. Definitely one of my favorite places on the whole property.

 

[Anntan]

A New Experience

As I mentioned at the very beginning of this trip report, this was a trip filled with New Experiences! The most basic of these being that this was the first time I had ever been to Disney without the whole family. It was just Mom and I! we didn't have to worry about anyone but ourselves! And we could do ONLY what WE wanted to do!
It proved to be a very wonderful way to travel.

We made our way through the monorails and traveled over to EPCOT for the afternoon. It was just before 12 when we arrived.

We had until about 4. We had dinner reservations at 6 in order to be done and back to MK and ready for the Parade at 9 and fireworks at 10. So in order to be showered and dressed and relaxed for dinner, we wanted to leave EPCOT around 4.

But until then...

EPCOT WAS OUR PLAYGROUND!

The Flower and Garden festival was going on (ANOTHER NEW EXPERIENCE FOR US!) so our main EPCOT focus would be to walk around and see all the displays. We didn't want to worry about rides, or even going into all of the World Showcase pavilions (even though I've never fully walked through all of them) We wanted this just to be for us to relax, see the flowers, meet some characters (my favorite thing to do!) and ease into our little Disney trip.

And Boy, Where We Successful!

We did JUST what we wanted to!

By travelling just the two of us we avoided tantrums, and fighting for the most part. And we could just sort of...Go.

NATURALLY, we began at the front.

We took a while walking and examining the Fantasia flowers at the front.

We quite enjoyed being a bit silly

I'm in love with the Ostriches and with Disney Eyes...

This day just kept getting more magical by the second!

Once we realized we should probably move on to the actual park, we left the Fantasia display and headed to the next Flower display on the map. Well... On my iPhone. I used the Flower and Garden festival mobile website to pinpoint where all the flowers were and so we traveled accordingly. At least until we got to World Showcase.


We passed a few special touches on our way to find Coffee though...

We reached coffee and the festival center at the same time. And more Topiaries!

We stopped for a few moments to drink our coffees and pose with our new friends...

However, I'm not the most assertive person, and so I kept letting people take their pictures before we took ours... Mom didn't like that.

Next it was on to the Fairy Gardens to see Tinkerbell and her flower Friends!
But not before running into one of my favorite aliens...

I felt bad skipping over most of EPCOT, but I had a goal in mind, and I was hoping it wouldn't be too long before I made it back to WDW.
​

Next Chapter​

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[Anntan]

It's Contagious

Personally, I'm a big fan of the Tinkerbell franchise.

Granted, I haven't seen all of the movies yet, I like the idea. The couple ones I have seen we're definitely cute. And I love the books and the Park characters! Also, stickers. I have a Disney sticker obsession. Like, I have two books of 600, plus a pack of like 300 minis and it's really unhealthy. But there are always Fairy stickers for sale! So i like that...


The first fairy we encountered was Terrence:

I was enthusiastically explaining Terrence's fairy duties to my mother when a wonderful CM came over and complimented my knowledge. He asked if Terrence had smiled at me. I said I thought i saw that he did

The Cast member said He's usually pretty shy around the girls, to which I responded: "Not me! Never!"


Next up was Tink

And her friend Periwinkle

Mom said Periwinkle was a scraggly fairy. I don't think she liked her too much.
Although she was kinda scraggly.

I went over to see Fawn next.

And my picture turned out all orangey and cool!!

And Silvermist

Meanwhile, my mom had gone to talk to the Cast Member working on the Winter Woods part of the garden. Mom was asking about the process of getting all of the topiaries up in such a short time.

The CM told her it was a lot of overnight work, but it was also a lot of small contagious work.

Sort of like the set up for a Holiday: A Large part of the decorum goes up after hours when no guests are there. But a lot of it is gradual throughout the day. Little bits get put up at a time, so that maybe at the beginning of the day a bridge is just a bridge, but when you come back to it later, bit by bit, it has been turned into a snow-covered wonder bridge!


The next fairy was Vidia, My Favorite!!!!

Being the 'I-think-I'm-funny-but-sometimes-it-doesn't-translate' Dork that I am, I thought it would be a good Idea to sit down in front of Vidia and scowl for a picture. So I sat down, Criss-Cross-Applesauce, in the middle of the only walking passage to her area and waited for my mom to take a picture.

It didn't really go how I had hoped.

Mom couldn't get the camera right, and I tried to explain my plan to people, and then I laughed during my scowling picture and it was just a mess. But a FUN mess!

Unfortunately, the photo doesn't get the full effect of me blocking the path and people waiting on both sides

After that incident, we decided we should probably move on.
So I snapped a few more pictures of the rest of the gang, and we headed out.

I love this picture of Rosetta because I think the umbrellas in the back look like they're for her to protect her from the sun

-------------------------------


The visit with the Fairy flowers had my Neverland Never Grow Up spirits in full blast. So I basically tipped overboard when I saw this:

I'm sitting writing this TR right now in my Peter Pan shirt and I'm basically crying because I know I'll have to grow up this year by applying and then going to college. But I know with Disney, I'll never really have to grow up.

But I digress...

If there were a high you could get from snorting pixie dust (I'm sure there is somewhere out there) that's what I felt like at this point of EPCOT.

And that photo is going on my Senior Page of my yearbook this year along with my Peter Pan, Walt Disney, etc. quotes.


We were finally to the front of World Showcase!!! We always start at Mexico and work our way clockwise. So we spent some time by the lagoon and at the Mickey & Friends topiaries before getting started.


Sun in my eyes...

Gorgeous.

Nothing could stop how happy I was right then and there.

Now...

Vamos A La Mexican Pavilion! ​

Next Chapter​

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[marDgreen88]

Aww, it sounds like yall were having a magical time at Epcot!

The F&G Festival just amazes me! I've never seen it in person! You got some awesome pictures.

I know nothing about the different fairies but your 'scowling' picture made me laugh.

And btw, take it from me... you do NOT have to grow up when you go to college.

 

[JessicaFaye508]

Yay for the Grand Floridian! I stayed there when I was 13 and I just remember being so in love with my room. We had Alice and Wonderland bedding and I slept on this sofa-bed type thing and it was RIDICULOUSLY comfortable. I really hope I get to go back someday.

The Flower and Garden Festival was so beautiful this year! I just wrote an update on it and I was reminiscing about it all. I loved it!

 

[Anntan]

Aww, it sounds like yall were having a magical time at Epcot!

The F&G Festival just amazes me! I've never seen it in person! You got some awesome pictures.

I know nothing about the different fairies but your 'scowling' picture made me laugh.

And btw, take it from me... you do NOT have to grow up when you go to college.

It was INCREDIBLE and It only gets BETTER!!! there are a few more surprises coming up

I was beyond excited when I realized it coincided with my trip. It was really something magical. I'm a flower lover as it is

hahaha I just wanted to be like Vidia!! She's so cool!

And yayyyy! It freaks me out! It'll be quite the adventure.

Yay for the Grand Floridian! I stayed there when I was 13 and I just remember being so in love with my room. We had Alice and Wonderland bedding and I slept on this sofa-bed type thing and it was RIDICULOUSLY comfortable. I really hope I get to go back someday.

The Flower and Garden Festival was so beautiful this year! I just wrote an update on it and I was reminiscing about it all. I loved it!

UghdasdgndgNDLGIURHGskdjs Everything about it is so perfect! I have too many dreams about it. I feel so blessed that I've been able to stay there twice already! it's such an experience. I hope you can soon!!

I just read your latest update with Norman Jr. ^_^ So cute. You and Kristen are too funny together.

The Flowers will definitely be something I have to see again very soon!

 

[ZehnJahren]

I'm joining in to read too - I lurk a lot but I love trip reports, so I'll be here reading! Your trip has a great back story, and my cousin was also in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade last year (he was with the Zhu Zhu Pets float), so I have to keep reading since you have a lot in common with some of my family members.