The "I Wasn't Going to Do a Trip Report" Trip Report!~May 2015-Update 5/10/16-New TR link!

[Nermel9]

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to my (um...well, I don't know how many trip reports I've done, and I didn't count before I started this, sooo I can't tell you the number this one is, like my 5th TR or whatever...but there's been a few!) trip report for May 2015! We were in Disney World from May 2-10 and it was absolutely perfect! The weather, the moderately low crowds, the food, everything! If I didn't love my Christmas trips so much, May would definitely be my favorite time to go to Disney!

Before I do or say anything else, let me introduce myself, I'm Jen, I love Disney World, and I hate having pictures taken of myself, and I refuse to ever take a "selfie"! So you won't see me much in this TR, sorry!

(And I have nothing against selfies, if I could take them and look cute, I would, but I look awful so I don't bother! )

Here's me and my girl Marie, one of the few pictures I don't mind of myself from this trip:

Like I said, I love Disney, and when I'm not at Disney World, I'm usually planning a trip to Disney World, or thinking of a way I can convince my husband to let me plan a trip to Disney World! I love it, I'm obsessed with it, I want to move here someday, I want to work here someday!! I know I don't have to explain it to you guys, but no, I never get sick of it, I don't want to vacation anywhere else (ok, that's not entirely true, I would like to see the world, but you know, there's only so much vacation time you're allowed, you know? ), and no it's not boring if you don't have kids. Did I answer all of the "you're going to Disney World AGAIN" questions we all get? Marie is my favorite character, Belle is my favorite princess (I even named one of my cats after her!), Epcot is my favorite park, and Soarin' and Tower of Terror are my 2 favorite rides! Le Cellier was my favorite Disney restaurant for a loooooong time, but I think California Grill bumped it to the number 2 spot!

With me on this trip was my husband Brandon, who loves Disney, but not as much as me, (not even close ) and doesn't mind having his picture taken and actually looks decent in pictures (just including that in his intro since it's a huge part of mine, haha!)

I probably should have asked him his favorites before I started this, haha, but I forgot! I know he likes Mickey and Donald, he especially likes old-timey Mickey, like Steamboat Willie era, he's always looking for shirts with classic Mickey on them! I know that Epcot is his favorite park and his favorite thing to do is drink and eat around the World! So basically, I go to Disney for the magic and fantasy, and he goes to eat and drink! Whatever works, right? I'm pretty sure Le Cellier is still his favorite restaurant, because whenever I try to leave it off the ADR list, he convinces me that we have to go there, and I have to struggle to find a last minute reservation!

I hope you will join me to relive this wonderful trip! It was so much fun, just two huge dorks running wild through Disney! (Ok,not running, because clearly we are not runners...walking quickly is more appropriate!) We did a lot of our favorite things, and a few new things as well, and I took tons of pictures of the parks, (and there will be a few of us here and there!) but especially of Epcot, because it was SO beautiful during the Flower and Garden Festival! I look forward to getting started and updating soon and chatting with old and new Disney friends, so stay tuned! ​

 

[KatMark]

I'm here...great intros. I'm glad you are doing a TR.

 

[Nermel9]

CHAPTER LINKS!!!

Arrival Day, 5/2
1. It Starts!
2. Oh But That's Nonsense. Flowers Can't Talk.

Day 2, 5/3
3. He Can Call Me a Flower if He Wants To!
4. And At Last I See The Light

Day 3, 5/4
5. I'm Almost There!
6. Be Our Guest
7. To Infinity...And Beyond!

Day 4, 5/5
8. Hakuna Matata
6. Revenge of the 5th!

Day 5, 5/6
9. Down in New Orleans, Part 1
10. Down in New Orleans, Part 2

Day 6, 5/7
11. 'Ohana Means Family

Day 7, 5/8
12. Hollywood, 1939...
13. It Glides as Softly as a Cloud!

Day 8, 5/9
13. Oh Bother, Part 1!
14. Oh Bother, Part 2!

We're Back-September Trip Update!


​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

joining in!

 

[KathyM2]

I'm in!! Looking forward to hearing about your trip!

 

[marDgreen88]

Yayyyy! I'm here, I mean duh. The intro was great! Can't wait to hear about this awesome trip!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

YAY Jen!!! I may have missed out on the PTR, but I'm here and all set for the after trip.

And I have nothing against selfies, if I could take them and look cute, I would, but I look awful so I don't bother!

Oh I feel ya! How can one be expected to take the photo and be in the photo at the same time??? It's like walking and chewing gum. MADNESS!!

 

[Mrs T 2009]

Hi!!
I'm here!!!!

Your intro is great!!!
I can't wait to hear all about your trip!

Love the picture with Marie!!!

 

[407-W-DISNEY]

Yippee! I love your trip reports!!!

 

[rdkeim]

So glad I found your TR! I absolutely love yours - you have a great writing style. I just went back and read your PTR. I'm anxious to follow along on your trip! My sister and I are planning a sister trip next May so I'm interested to see how it went with weather/crowds. I've never been in May before but my sister wants to be there for F&G. I'm a December girl but hey, I'll go whenever the opportunity comes along

 

[RachelNinja]

I'm here, Jen! Can't wait to read about your adventures!

 

[Nermel9]

I'm here...great intros. I'm glad you are doing a TR.

Yay, glad you're here! And thank you!

joining in!

Yay!!!

I'm in!! Looking forward to hearing about your trip!

Yay! Thank you!

Yayyyy! I'm here, I mean duh. The intro was great! Can't wait to hear about this awesome trip!

Yay! Thanks! Ugh I'm not a fan of the intro, but whatever! That's like my least favorite part of writing a TR!

 

[Nermel9]

YAY Jen!!! I may have missed out on the PTR, but I'm here and all set for the after trip.

Oh I feel ya! How can one be expected to take the photo and be in the photo at the same time??? It's like walking and chewing gum. MADNESS!!

Yay so glad you're here! Haha, well, even if I could master that part of it, I'd still look ridiculous! So I don't even bother!

Hi!!
I'm here!!!!

Your intro is great!!!
I can't wait to hear all about your trip!

Love the picture with Marie!!!

Yay!!!

Thanks!

Aww, my Marie, I love her so much!

Yippee! I love your trip reports!!!

Hey!! Aww, thanks!

So glad I found your TR! I absolutely love yours - you have a great writing style. I just went back and read your PTR. I'm anxious to follow along on your trip! My sister and I are planning a sister trip next May so I'm interested to see how it went with weather/crowds. I've never been in May before but my sister wants to be there for F&G. I'm a December girl but hey, I'll go whenever the opportunity comes along

Yay, glad you're here! And thank you! May is such a great time to go to Disney! I love December myself, but May is definitely my 2nd favorite time to go!

I'm here, Jen! Can't wait to read about your adventures!

Yay glad you're here!

 

[Nermel9]

It Starts!

Hi everyone! Finally time to get this thing moving! Before I do anything, I just want to apologize if my pictures seem huge, apparently I've lost the ability to DIS properly when I got my computer updated. Seriously. I was perfectly fine with my 5 year old OS, and my old IPhoto...I hate this new "Photos" thing, it's supposed to let you drag and drop pictures in, and it does NOT...not only to save from my phone or a memory card, but I can't drag and drop them onto the DIS either...so I have to use the old Photobucket method, which is a pain, because I have them all resized in Photobucket to a nice, neat, smaller size, and when I move them here, they turn huge. Never did that before I updated this stupid computer.

But at least it works, right? Ok. Moving on.

Let's rewind back to the day before this trip. Back when, if you read my PTR, you know that I wanted to pack early and get to bed early, because our flight was obscenely early, and I had this delusion in my head that we'd pack and be in bed by 10:30 at the latest.

Didn't happen.

I got home from work around 5:30, and first, before packing, we had to eat dinner, so we got takeout from somewhere, ate, and then I took a shower. I was going to start packing after I showered, but I just couldn't get motivated. So instead I dried and straightened my hair. Then finally I was ready to pack. I had a few things together from the night before, which helped, but I didn't finish by 10:30. I think I was maybe in bed by 12. If that.

So we were up at 2, I packed some last minute things, and we were out the door by 3. I had that nagging feeling that I was forgetting something important, but I always feel that way when we go to Disney.

We got to the airport, parked, and yay, there was a shuttle right there, waiting for us to go over to the terminal! So it took no time at all to get over there and get in line...where of course, it was too early for the Southwest counter to be open. Finally, it opened, and everyone took their time printing their boarding passes and checking their luggage, because no big deal, we don't all have flights to catch or anything.

(The airport stresses me out, if you can't tell. Basically until we're through security, I'm miserable. I should be excited, and I am, but I just find it all to be so aggravating! )

Finally we checked our bags, went through security, and I was calm, haha! We went to Mc Donald's, which we always do before a flight, and most of the time, I only get a hash brown, but I didn't know when we would be eating when we landed, so I got an egg mc muffin. Yum. (These are the kinds of things you guys need to know for this to be a good trip report, right? )

We got to our gate and had about an hour wait before we started boarding the plane. We were flying Southwest, so I bought the Early Bird check in to get the A boarding group, and it paid off, we were some of the first people on the plane, so we got that special row with only 2 seats instead of 3! Before I knew it, we were taking off. The flight seemed short to me because I slept on and off for some of it, and I actually bought the $8 WiFi, so when I wasn't sleeping, I was watching something on Netflix. (The Southwest WiFi is awful though, there was a good hour when nothing worked! Can't really complain I guess, since we are in the middle of the sky!)

We landed about 20 minutes early, went right downstairs to get our bags, grabbed them, and ran over to the Alamo counter to get our car. I always dread getting a rental car because they try to push you into upgrading and buying their insurance, but the guy we had was nice, not pushy at all. We went outside and chose our car, an adorable bright red VW Jetta, and we were outta there, on our way to Disney World!!!

The drive to Disney always used to seem SO long to me, but now it just seems shorter and shorter...like if I blink I might miss this wonderful sight:

AHHHHH DISNEY WORLD!!! I'll never get sick of seeing that lovely, welcoming arch. I could go every day of my life and not get sick of it.

Once we were officially in Disney, we had to decide if we wanted to check into the Wilderness Lodge first, or go to Downtown Disney to eat. I left it up to Brandon and he decided to go to the Wilderness Lodge.

My lodge!!!!! I was SO happy to be back there, it felt like a lifetime since we stayed there (the last time was 2011) and it was so nice to be home! (I consider the WL my Disney home!)

We parked and went in, and it was just as beautiful and perfect as I remembered!

We went to check in, and the CM told me I have a million active Magic Bands, and that I should deactivate some of them...ummm, sorry, I didn't know that? I told her I would when I got home, and that every time I book a trip, Disney just sends me more Magic Bands, and she's like "yeah well you should only have 3 active at a time."

Ok, sorry? Again, didn't know. I felt like I was getting in trouble. She wasn't mean about it, but it was weird the way she was saying it. She was perfectly nice though, I don't know, maybe I was too sensitive, it just kind of bothered me. Anyway, she said she had a room ready for us, but it was a first floor, and I requested a higher floor and did I want it. Brandon said yes, so of course, I had to be the jerk and say no. I just really wanted a nice balcony to sit on that was high up, overlooking...well, we had a standard room, so I assumed we'd be looking over a rooftop or the parking lot, lol, but still, I just wanted to be higher up.

And I was afraid a snake would just come into our room from the ground floor. A legitimate fear, I think.

So she said it was fine, we could wait, and she would just text me when the room was ready. Sounds good! So we got back into the car and drove over to Downtown Disney to go to one of my favorite Disney places to eat, Earl of Sandwich!

I knew DtD was a huge pain to drive to, since we were just there in December, but I had no idea it got even worse. We had to park behind the Hess gas station and take a shuttle over to the parking garage, which is about as far away from Earl of Sandwich as you could get. DtD was like a maze of walls, I felt like I had no idea where I was going. I finally navigated us over to Earl of Sandwich where we were greeted by a HUGE line. Whatever, it goes pretty fast, so Brandon got in line, and I grabbed a table near some lovely cheerleaders.

We decided in the car that we should share a sandwich, since they're huge and filling, and we had lunch reservations at 2:40. But while I was at the table by myself, I decided whatever, I want my own sandwich. So I text Brandon and tell him and he doesn't answer me. I didn't really think anything of it, since a lot of the time, I text him and he ignores me. But when he finally ordered and got our stuff, he only had one sandwich. Sigh. Oh well, guess we can share. It ended up being fine, because those things ARE actually huge and filling. We had the holiday sandwich, which is my favorite thing there, and sorry, I didn't take a picture of it, since I wasn't really in "take pictures of every single thing you eat" mode yet!

We finished and began the trek back to the garage, hoping the shuttle picked us up to go back to the car in the same spot, and luckily it did. We went over to Walgreens and bought a ton of Gatorade, since that's like, my secret to surviving the Florida heat, little cans of Pepsi, even though I gave up drinking soda, I figured the caffeine might be good to have just in case of a migraine, and I think Brandon had to get shaving cream. While we were there, we got a text that our room was ready, and that our room was on the 6th floor. I was happy, but at the same time, my plan of resting and taking a little nap before we headed over to Epcot was clearly not happening. It's amazing to me how FAST TIME GOES BY IN DISNEY!!!! We had a 6:30 flight, we arrived a little after 9, had our car at 9:30, checked into the WL around 10...how could it possibly be almost 1:00???

We drove back to the WL and went right up to our room and went in, and I was in love! This was the first time seeing the newly renovated rooms in person, and they were perfect!

What I was most excited about, though, was not the fact that we were on the 6th floor or that the room was so beautiful, it was THESE little guys:

The tiles in the shower! I know, I know, weird thing to be excited about right? I just think they are SO cute, and they are such a perfect addition the theme of the resort! And seriously, 4 of my favorite Disney animals, right there...looking at me...in the shower...

Ok well, I can't really think about that, but HOW CUTE ARE THEY?????

Anyway, I finished freaking out over bathroom tiles long enough to realize that my fantasy of taking a nap before going into the parks was just not happening, so I did some unpacking, refreshed my makeup, possibly changed (I don't remember, see how awful my notes were?) and went back down the car to drive over to our first park of the trip!!

The lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me, but who cares, I was about to go to EPCOT, my favorite park in the world!!

(Just a little preview for the next update...look at that perfect blue sky! )

Up next...Epcot!!!

(Oh, and I promise, less words, more pictures the next update! Just had to get the arrival portion out of the way, sorry about that!)


​

 

[marDgreen88]

Omg, the plans to be ready so far in advance before a Disney trip NEVER work out. I think I'm just gonna admit defeat from now on and plan to get no sleep before a trip. Like I'll bet you anything that even if I start packing TOMORROW for Disneyland that I'll still be up until 2 am the day of the trip, packing. That always happens. Always.

YAYYYYY for arriving! Downtown Disney sounds like a complete nightmare, good gosh. I thought it was bad in September, I clearly had no idea! Hahaha.

MEEKOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Obsessed.

 

[Choozee]

Joining!

 

[KatMark]

The best laid plans.... Who needs sleep when you are going to Disney?

I had the same situation at the airport...skycap wasn't even open yet.

Glad you stood your ground and got your upper floor. I do love that new tile in the bathrooms at WL.

Isn't it crazy at DTD? I can't even tell you how long it took us to take a cab there from the BWV!

Yay for arrival at your favorite park.

 

[APears]

Joining in! Wilderness Lodge looks so incredible!

 

[amazingact21]

I'm here,Jen! I saw your signature on Kathy's report and realized you'd started a report. So excited to read about your May trip.


Uh oh, not sue the feeling of forgetting something is a good omen.


Wlderness Lodge! And Earl of Sandwich! What a geat arrival. Followed up by Epcot. Sounds like the makings of a wonderful first Disney day.

 

[KathyM2]

Great TR so far!! I love the WL too...so nice. And of course the animal tiles lol. But I'm tired just reading about how you got 2 hours sleep and then left and then all the stuff you did by 1pm...gah...I think I'd fall asleep on the first ride I sat down on after that...I guess it depends what it is lol Looking forward to reading more about your trip!