It’s Time to Celebrate Youuuu! A June 2015 TR--Updated 7/19

[kgoodb00]

♫It's the time of your life
You don't want to miss out.
On right here and now
There's so many reasons why
You don't wanna stop
It's your chance, live it up
And everything you do
Celebrate you ♫


Hey everyone! I am soooo excited to finally share my first ever trip report with you!

I am an avid Disney lover who tries to head to the World at least once a year, but I have never gotten around to writing any TRs for those magical trips.


If you couldn’t tell, the theme of our trip was Celebrate You! This past year has been such a crazy one filled so many ups and downs. It is so crazy to see how much has been accomplished and achieved within my family in the past year! So I decided we should take a trip to CELEBRATE! We threw around the idea of traveling somewhere else, but our minds always wandered back to Disney! We took our first Disney trip as a family two years ago and it has been on our minds ever since! So, I am very excited to share our trip and story with you!!! First of all, lets meet the cast of this TR!


Me!





My name is Kristin. I have been going to Disney since I was born. We usually would just go to MK or MGM for the day, but in 2005 I was introduced to the fabulous concept of staying on property. And of course, it was at the amazingly smell good resort of BCV! (That trip encouraged me become the deluxe snob that I am today!!) I try to get to Disney at least once a year, because I seriously just can’t stay away. I love all the smells of Disney and my favorite park is tied between MK and EPCOT. My favorite rides include Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Spaceship Earth, and Tower of Terror! Now, what am I celebrating during this celebratory trip? I just graduated from grad school in May. I now have my Master’s in Accounting! It was a 15-month program and was the craziest 15 months of my life! But I made it and it is definitely worth celebrating!!!!


Next up is Andy!





Andy is a floor salesman who has only been to Disney once. But, I am proud to say that he is now hooked. It was pretty much his idea to take this trip (I AM SO PROUD) and he requested to stay near ESPN Club again. He loves technology and thought the magic bands were pretty cool. His favorite restaurant is Le Cellier (but we tried out Yachtsman this time, so wait for our review!) and he loves riding Test Track. So, what is Andy celebrating? He is celebrating the fact that I am done with grad school! He has been such an awesome guy these past 15-16 months and has supported me and helped when I have needed it. He also has dealt with my crabby, exhausted, emotional self and deserves to celebrate as well!


Sam



Sam is my step-son who is a whopping 14 years old! He is already 6’1 and in a size 13 ½ shoe. We are broke just thinking about all the shoes and clothes he has outgrown in the past few years!!! Sam loves video games (of course) and loves talking about cars with anyone and every one. He is also a big U.S. history buff. (Our favorite show to watch right now is Time Traveling with Brian Unger…so interesting and fun!) Sam’s favorite park is EPCOT and he loves to ride Test Track (probably because it has to do with CARS!!!) Sam is celebrating being done with middle school and achieving A/B honor roll status!!! Which is all definitely worth celebrating!! BTW, I can’t believe we will have a high schooler in our home next year…….


Lastly (according to her I saved the best for last) is Kazmira!!
(or as she prefers in our home…Princess Kazmira).





Kaz is my beautiful 11-year-old (going on 25 years old) step-daughter! She has recently discovered the whole moody, rolling her eyes, talking back every time anyone speaks to her thing. But, when in the right mood, she is the sweetest little girl who loves Disney just as much as I do! She is currently in love with listening to music on her iPhone (Mostly Taylor Swift and Katy Perry) and is a pretty artsy chic who takes tons of selfies. Her favorite park is MK and she absolutely loves to meet characters and get their autographs! Her favorite rides are Splash Mountain and Test Track (notice a trend). She is also really excited to spend her snack money on Cotton Candy, popcorn, and caramel apples. She is celebrating becoming a middle schooler!!! Her --> me-->


So there is our gang for the trip!!! So when did we go? Where did we stay??


We were in Disney from June 14th to the 20th and we stayed at the Boardwalk Villas in a 1-bedroom villa! We were sooooo incredibly blessed to be able to book a 1-bedroom villa! With the summer discounts and with a few other things in our favor, we could actually afford it. And with a 14 year old who is so over his 11-year-old sister, it was nice to have space to spread out!!


So, I hope you enjoy our story!

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Next up: How are we getting there?

 

[kgoodb00]

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[LumosQ102]

looking forward to hearing about your adventures

 

[kgoodb00]

June 13th and 14th-Travel Time

With all the craziness that was going on at work and in life, I was slacking pretty hard on packing! I started about a week before we left, and was scrambling up until the very last minute trying to get everything organized….I am still sitting here wondering what I ended up forgetting! And to be fair, this little fur ball was rebelling against our departure….



Anyway, we decided to leave for our grand adventure after Andy got off work on Saturday, the 13th. I would of loved to leave earlier, but he wanted to get some overtime in before we left. So we finally left our little town in Northwest Indiana around 2 p.m. Disney time. (our little blip up in NWI is on Central time). Our plan was to make it to Dalton, GA and stay the night. It was a pretty smooth drive with these kiddos in tow.





We finally made it to Dalton around 10:30 p.m. Disney time. Not too bad for that leg of the trip!

We stayed at Country Inn & Suites, but I have no pictures because we were exhausted. We basically checked in and passed out. We woke up the next morning around 7 and were on the road by 8:15. For my family, that is record time…well for me it’s record time—they usually take 10 minutes to get ready!


The drive was pretty boring, but around 11, we got thee email that stated our room was ready!!

With a big WOOHOO from me and the kids staring at me like I am crazy, Andy drove a little faster (or that could have been my imagination). One awesome part about have a 14 yr old that is 6 feet tall is I get to sit in the back with the DVD player so he can have more leg room!!!!


Before we knew it, we were seeing signs directing us to Disney World!!!
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And then...we were finally to our favorite place on earth!!!


We were sooo incredibly excited to finally be back!!!

We arrived at the Boardwalk around 4:30 and since our room was ready, we just walked right on up!!

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Next Up: An amazing room with an awesome view!

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[nilla]

I'm in!

Haven't read the initial posts yet, but I did click the little "Watch Thread" button.

That counts, right?

A major draw to this TR for me is the fact that you spell your name correctly.

 

[nilla]

Ok, caught up now! Great TR, especially considering it's your first. But be careful - TRs will influence how you tour in the future

I sincerely think the feds are putting something in the milk at school. Dylan now fits into my clothes, and he has a 14-year-old friend who is wearing size 14 shoes. My nephew is 17 and 6'3". It's crazy!

Can't wait to see the photos from Boardwalk! It's our neighbor's DVC home resort, so they rave about it all the time. We visited it last year after the Cape May Café, but sadly missed it this year.

Looking forward to more updates!

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

On board!

 

[kgoodb00]

looking forward to hearing about your adventures

Thanks for following along!

I'm in!

Haven't read the initial posts yet, but I did click the little "Watch Thread" button.

That counts, right?

A major draw to this TR for me is the fact that you spell your name correctly.

Haha thanks for watching my thread! And I do appreciate your wife spelling her name correctly as well!!

Ok, caught up now! Great TR, especially considering it's your first. But be careful - TRs will influence how you tour in the future

I sincerely think the feds are putting something in the milk at school. Dylan now fits into my clothes, and he has a 14-year-old friend who is wearing size 14 shoes. My nephew is 17 and 6'3". It's crazy!

Can't wait to see the photos from Boardwalk! It's our neighbor's DVC home resort, so they rave about it all the time. We visited it last year after the Cape May Café, but sadly missed it this year.

Looking forward to more updates!

I am excited to write this TR to see how crazy we really are lol Yea Sam is on his way to a size 14. We just bought him 13 1/2!! We are going to have to special order his shoes soon. There definitely has to be something in that milk!!!! We loved the Boardwalk! And we visited Cape May for breakfast on this trip! I just love the location of BW. It was such a fun atmosphere at night too!

On board!

Thanks for following along!!

 

[kgoodb00]

**I apologize if some of the pictures are huge...photobucket is not being very friendly!!**

June 14th cont’d-Our room with an awesome view!!

We left off in the last update with us heading up to our room. We had unloaded our car and gave all of our luggage to bell services so they could bring it up to our room. (12 bags to be exact…yes I am an over packer!) Since we already knew our room number, we were able to skip check-in. The kids and I headed to the lobby to wait for Andy to meet up with us after parking the car.

Side note: Andy owns a Range Rover…it is his baby…his pride and joy! With that said, he decided it was best to park allllllllllllllllll the way out in the farthest and emptiest parking lot. It took him about 20 minutes to find a spot that wasn’t near any other cars and make the long trek inside.

While he was searching for his special spot (which he literally parked in every single day), the kids and I were taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the lobby!

















I will admit that I am a smell person (not to be confused with smelly). I love Disney smells! And the lobby was no exception to being one of my favorites. In my opinion, it smelled a lot like the Beach Club (MY FAVORITE!!). I wonder if they pump the same scent in??? All in all, it was a small lobby but was very pretty.

Finally Andy came in from his trek across the Boardwalk parking lots and we headed up to the room. Before we arrived at the BW, I had looked up where I room was. It was quite a walk from the lobby!

(Our room was in the red circle on the left)

We were walking…and walking…and walking and all of a sudden I saw new carpet….and freshly painted walls which meant we had a refurbed villa! I was so excited to see what it looked like! So, without further ado, here is our room! (Btw, they were taken by Sam so they are pretty interesting, so don’t judge the quality of them lol )

























And our awesome view!!





The Tower of Terror!!!


(We could see some pretty awesome fireworks from our balcony!!)



The kids (and Andy) were soooo excited that we were actually staying in this room! Kaz was hyper and bouncing off the walls, and Sam was searching the tv to see if he could plug his PS4 in. (yes, he brought that crazy thing with us….)

Now staying in the Epcot resort area means that you are soooo incredibly close to Epcot that you might as well go there every day you are in Disney, even if it’s only for a few hours! So after we settled in for about an hour and a half (and within that time period, Sam had already started playing the PS4…..), we headed to Epcot.

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Next up: Test Track Baby!!

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[amj]

I will be following; I plan to go June 14-20, 2016 and stay in a Boardwalk 1 bedroom Villa also. Very interested in the weather and how you handled that, and I have read that the villas can involve a lot of walking. I will be taking my daughter and my 14 year old grandson. It will be a birthday trip for him (6/1) and the summer before he enters high school. I am happy you had a great time.

 

[kgoodb00]

I will be following; I plan to go June 14-20, 2016 and stay in a Boardwalk 1 bedroom Villa also. Very interested in the weather and how you handled that, and I have read that the villas can involve a lot of walking. I will be taking my daughter and my 14 year old grandson. It will be a birthday trip for him (6/1) and the summer before he enters high school. I am happy you had a great time.

Thanks for following along! That is so neat that you will be going the same time we did! It was definitely hot, but we handled it well by always walking through the shops to cool off in the A/C. Also, we took a lot of afternoon breaks. Your 14 year old grandson will have a fun time! The villas are super nice but it is definitely a long walk. I would suggest requesting a room near the elevator on the 1st floor. It will eliminate a lot of walking between the boardwalk, pool, and your room!

 

[kgoodb00]

***I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! Also, we saw Inside Out last week! We absolutely loved it and definitely think anyone and everyone should see it!! As always, enjoy reading and feel free to ask questions/comment!***


June 14th cont’d- Test Track baby!!

Our FP+ for the evening were:
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6-7pm-Journey Into Imagination with Figment (which we definitely did not need…)

7-8pm-Test Track

8-9pm-Spaceship Earth (which we didn’t need as well)​

We headed for the International Gateway around 6 and before we knew it, we were in Epcot!

We were soooo excited to be back! I couldn’t believe that we were finally in a park!

We headed to Figment and walked right on. We may be in the minority here—but we love this ride. I think Figment is so cute and the kids think the skunk part is hilarious.




(Isn't he just so cute?!)

After our quick journey into imagination, we headed over to Club Cool to try out the new pop (yep, I am from the Midwest!). We all really enjoyed the Fanta Pineapple from Greece and the Fanta Melon from Thailand. Then Andy did it…he went for the Beverly (he must of forgotten and I may not have reminded him) and he made the most hilarious face but I did not get the camera out fast enough. Then Sam decided to try it:



He said it tasted pretty good. (whatever)

We still had about 10-15 minutes to kill before our next FP+ so we headed to get our picture taken.
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Side note: We bought memory maker and ended up getting over 300 pictures! I think it was well worth it, especially since Kaz met a ton of characters!

We then headed towards Test Track. We were all excited for one of our absolute favorite rides! Kaz wanted to build a car with me so we went in together and then Andy and Sam went together.


I swear she was super excited to ride! I think she was already sick of me taking pictures...and it was only the first day!!







We had so much fun on our first Test Track ride!!

It was now around 7:30 and we were starving! We had eaten lunch around 11 which was forever ago. We decided to head to Sunshine Seasons because I was craving some strawberry shortcake!! This is one of our favorite places to eat because the variety of food is awesome!

Andy went with the Mongolian Beef and Sam got the Sweet and Sour Chicken. (sorry, I don’t have pics of their food)

Kaz and I decided to share the Oak-grilled Rotisserie Chicken. We switched the black beans and rice for mashed potatoes and green beans:



For dessert, Sam, Kaz & I shared a strawberry shortcake! Yummmm!!!



As usual, we all enjoyed our food! I definitely recommend this place for a QS meal.

After we ate, it was time for our Spaceship Earth FP+(which we didn’t even need). I absolutely love this ride. I remember riding it with my grandparents back when I was around 10 or 11. Such a great memory!





When we finished up, it was around 8:15 and Andy asked if we had time to walk around World Showcase. OF COURSE WE DO!! So we headed towards Mexico and made our way around. We stopped in Germany at Karamell-Kuche to get some yummy caramel corn and a caramel apple! We also stopped at Fife & Drum to get an American Dream



I love this drink! So yummy!! While drinking this amazing beverage, we finished our way around WS and headed back to the Boardwalk!

We were walking back as Illuminations were going off. I love Illuminations, but sadly we never fully watched them this trip!

We got back to our room around 9:20. Then, I remembered that it was the last day of SWW, and I thought to myself “Isn’t Symphony of the Stars going on”??? So, I looked up what time it started and the Disney website said 9:30. So I went on the balcony and waited and waited and finally went in (around 9:50) just in time to hear fireworks! I turned around and saw these! It was so cool seeing them (and you could hear the music). The finale was fantastic!







After we all watched the fireworks, we realized how exhausted we actually were! We all went straight to bed and dreamt about all the exciting things we were going to do during the week!!!
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Next up: A morning at Epcot! (again)

 

[xlsm]

Oh, your view is GORGEOUS.

Your 11 year old and MY 11 year old need to get together and share their mutual hatred of photos being taken, lol. I know that face! My son makes that face, lol!!
He's my oldest, getting ready to turn 12 in August, and he's starting middle school this year too. I totally understand the feelings.
Although I'm not sure what's harder...him starting middle school or my youngest starting his last year of elementary.

Kids.

They're hard on the emotions.

LOL.

I'm following along!

 

[dancingdisneydreamer]

Following along! Our trip was at the exact same time as yours, I wonder if we crossed paths!

 

[nilla]

Useless FPs? Must be Epcot! I really wish they'd take Living with the Land out of Tier One, though you don't really need an FP for that, either.

We had MANY arguments over how many photos we take.

Sunshine Seasons is the best! As you said, so much variety. Plus, I love the atmosphere. It can get crowded at times, but if you hit it early enough, you can typically find a table.

The American Dream was a hit with us, too! The June trip was dotted with a lot of slushies.

LOVE that you're doing back-to-back Epcot days. Too many people on these boards underappreciate that park. Still my favorite.

Great update!

 

[kgoodb00]

Oh, your view is GORGEOUS.

Your 11 year old and MY 11 year old need to get together and share their mutual hatred of photos being taken, lol. I know that face! My son makes that face, lol!!
He's my oldest, getting ready to turn 12 in August, and he's starting middle school this year too. I totally understand the feelings.
Although I'm not sure what's harder...him starting middle school or my youngest starting his last year of elementary.

Kids.

They're hard on the emotions.

LOL.

I'm following along!

Glad you are following along!! I am also glad someone understands the emotions running through me during this time! lol I did get sad during this past year while she was in 5th grade. So many last elementary things that we won't get to experience anymore...some which we were thankful for but most we will miss!!!

Following along! Our trip was at the exact same time as yours, I wonder if we crossed paths!

Thanks for following along!! Ya never know, we could of crossed paths. I am so bad at actually looking at people in the face as we are barreling on through the park so I never notice if I see any Disers that I know! I hope you enjoy the rest of this report!

Useless FPs? Must be Epcot! I really wish they'd take Living with the Land out of Tier One, though you don't really need an FP for that, either.

We had MANY arguments over how many photos we take.

Sunshine Seasons is the best! As you said, so much variety. Plus, I love the atmosphere. It can get crowded at times, but if you hit it early enough, you can typically find a table.

The American Dream was a hit with us, too! The June trip was dotted with a lot of slushies.

LOVE that you're doing back-to-back Epcot days. Too many people on these boards underappreciate that park. Still my favorite.

Great update!

I agree with taking Living of the Land out of tier one. There was just not enough for us to do to use all of our FP every day. I do love Epcot thought! It brings back a lot of memories for me and I love WS! There is just so much to see there. And I of course LOVE the Epcot resort area!!

 

[kgoodb00]

***Sorry I have been MIA for a little while. My boss recently quit(not necessarily a bad thing) and so I have been working like crazy to get all of our quarter end stuff done! (Oh the life an accountant...month end, quarter end, year end....it never stops!!!) Needless to say, I am exhausted and come home from work every day and crash! I am really hoping that I can do at least one update a week! So, without further ado, here is an update!!****

Monday, June 15th-A morning at Epcot

We were heading back to Epcot this morning. We normally use Josh’s crowd calendars to determine which park we are going to. Epcot was rated “Most Recommended” this day so we headed there.

FP+ for the day:

Test Track-10:10-11:10am

Character Spot-11:10-12:10am

Spaceship Earth-12:15-1:15

We got up around 8-8:30 and got ready for our day. One thing I really enjoy about FP+ is that we don’t have to rush to get to rope drop—unless we really want to hit rides hard. Since we had several days at Epcot, we were not rushing to do anything this morning.

We left our room around 9:30 and headed to the Boardwalk Bakery to get some breakfast. Andy got a chocolate croissant, I got a plain croissant, Sam got a warm cinnamon roll (which was huge), and Kaz got this cute little Mickey chocolate chip muffin:



After we were done eating the most important meal of the day, we slowly made our way on over to Epcot via the International Gateway. It was such a beautiful morning!











I just love the walk there (except when it was super super SUPER hot!) It was already pretty hot, so I knew we were in for a very warm day.

We walked straight over to TT and got in line at about 10:20.



They were so excited for our 2nd ride! They decided they were going to build a car together (Sam would build it, Kaz would pick the colors)!



And before we knew it, we were on the speeding away!



When we finished up, we still had about a half hour until our next FP at the Character Spot so we decided to cool off in the Universe of Energy. I had not been on this ride in forever! I vaguely remember it from when I was younger and I knew it was a longer ride, but we had time to kill, so why not?

We had a lot of fun on it. We love Ellen and the kids love science, so it was entertaining! (and it had A/C)

After we were done there, we headed on over to the Character Spot to meet our first characters of the trip. The standby line was maybe around 30-40 minutes. We waited around 15 minutes to go in. Kaz was sooo excited to meet some characters. It is pretty much all she requested this trip!

First we met Mickey!




(this is where memory maker was not the greatest…this was the best pic we got. I am not sure what was going on with the lighting!!)

Next up was Goofy





Last was Minnie



They were all pretty interactive and Kaz was happy she finally got some autographs in her book!

We finished up around noon and we were all starving. We still had to go grocery shopping for the week, so Andy and I made an executive decision skip our SE FP+, head back to the hotel and then off property to get some lunch and go to the grocery store. Sam was not happy--he desperately wanted Fish & Chips from the UK!! But we reassured him that we would definitely have them sometime this week!

On our way out of Epcot, we ran into Wendy Darling, so we of course had to stop and say hi!





We went and dropped our park bags off at the hotel then headed out. We ended up eating at Cracker Barrel (one of our travel traditions!!) off of 192 then headed to the Publix in Celebration.

We picked up the necessities (twizzlers and Diet Pepsi…and maybe some other things) and headed back to the resort to relax and go swimming. Kaz and I had a very fun evening planned so we got all pretty and caught a bus to MK around 4!
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Next up: A girl’s night filled with characters!

 

[nilla]

Hey, we were at MK that night

Being able to walk to Epcot would be so wonderful. We'll get there one day. Great pictures!

Fun report. Can't wait to read more.

 

[Sailormoon2]

Super delightful so far!