To the Mothership!!! A WDW First-Timer's Trip Report! UPDATE 9/23

[PirateFish989]

Heeelllllooooooo Disney Nerds!

I’m Erin and I’m a Disney addict.

Hi Erin.

I just got back from my VERY FIRST TRIP to the World and it was AWESOME and I’m here to tell you aaaaaallllll about it!

I’ve been a huge Disney fan for years and have wanted to make the trek to the Mothership of all Disney parks for as long as I can remember. Finally, last July my boyfriend and I were talking about visiting his brother and sister-in-law in Georgia and I jokingly said “let’s take a detour to Orlando!” and the reply I got was totally unexpected.

“Let’s just skip Georgia and go to Disney World for a week.”

Hold up.

What?

Go to Disney World for a week? And entire, glorious week? I couldn’t even comprehend what he had said. Angels sang. (Disney) fireworks exploded above me. Trumpets sounded.

Since I had been planning various Disney trips (based on various budgets of course) for years, we went to AAA the next day and began planning our trip!

So here are the details!

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside from Saturday, March 1 through Saturday, March 8, leaving California from LAX (and arriving back). We used the Magical Express to get to POR and back to the airport. We had 6 day park hoppers and a plethora of dining reservations (for which I got up at 3am California time to make exactly 180 days out like the good little Disney nerd I am).

A couple months after our initial reservation was made, I got a PIN code from Disney Visa Rewards that I thought was for free dining.

Key word: thought

It wasn’t. But it WAS for an upgrade to a garden view room and after that PIN was applied, our total price was actually decreased! SCORE!

We actually did end up seeing the boy’s brother and sister-in-law. But more on that later!

And now a little about your darling host:

I’m Erin! And the boy is Jordan!





We’ve been dating for a little over a year and a half and live in Central California. We both have Disneyland Annual Passes and my love for Disney (mostly Disneyland currently) is starting to rub off on him. For whatever reasons, he puts up with my antics and still loves me when my crazy shows.



I am 24 and am a behavior therapist for autistic children and I absolutely love my job. Its challenging and rewarding and the kids I work with always seem to worm their way into my heart. Besides my love for all things Disney, I love books, tulips, the color pink, warm hugs, and chocolate. I’m a grammar nazi, queen over-packer, perfectionist and over-sharer. I am also an avid runner (possibly the most normal thing I’ve said about me yet!). I’ve run 9 half marathons and 2 full marathons. I’ve run the Tinker Bell Half Marathon at Disneyland every year since it began and it’s my favorite race. My last full marathon was nearly a year ago and when I finished, my running partner and I vowed to never run a full marathon again. I think the only one I would ever consider running (should I ever decide to run another) is the Walt Disney World Marathon.



Jordan is just a big teddy bear. He works for a major health insurance company which he loves as well. He’s an incredibly talented musician, mostly playing the guitar. He has a beautiful singing voice however rarely will sing for me, despite my begging and pleading and bribing (I make him nervous apparently). He’s a gaming nerd and generally a technology nerd. He loves internet humor and often sends me ridiculous pictures while I’m at work and shouldn’t be looking at them but I do and I start snorting with laughter and get strange looks from the people around me. He’s just a really good guy with a big heart.



Up next: CHAPTER 1: Getting there

Chapter Cheat Sheet:

Introduction (you’re already here!)
Chapter 1: Getting there

Saturday, March 1
Chapter 2: Welcome Home!

Sunday, March 2
Chapter 3: FIRST FULL DAY AT DISNEY WORLD!
Chapter 4: Ghosts and Pirates!
Chapter 5: Meltdowns and Rose Napkins
Chapter 6: We LOVE the PeopleMover!

Monday, March 3
Chapter 7: Epcot at Last!
Chapter 8: A Lunch Date in Italy!
INTERMISSION: Part 1
Chapter 9: Dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse

Tuesday, March 4
Chapter 10: Breakfast in Africa!
Chapter 11: Animals Galore!
Chapter 12: Animals! Yetis! Dinosaurs!

Wednesday, March 5
Chapter 13: Rockin' with Aerosmith
Chapter 14: Dining in a Car and Yee Haw Bob!

Thursday, March 6
Chapter 15: Wetcot, Part 1
Chapter 16: Wetcot, Part 2

 

[DanielsMom]

Looking forward to reading your report. Also, I would like to thank you for choosing to work with autistic children. My son is on the spectrum and I truly appreciate all of the great people who work with him. I hope your trip to Disney World was fantastic!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[PirateFish989]

Yay! I have followers!! Welcome! I can't wait to share about our trip! It was so much fun! There will be an update soon!

 

[huggiebear23]

I'm in!! Can't wait to read more

 

[glennbo123]

I can't resist a first-timer's report. But you've been to Disneyland a lot, so I'm not sure that you really are a first-timer. Aw, okay, that's a technicality...I'll let you off the hook. Bring it on.

 

[Credit Man]

I'm in! Let the adventure begin!!!

 

[PirateFish989]

Getting there.

I’ll be honest, the traveling portion of any trip is probably my least favorite part. Don’t get me wrong, traveling can be fun, especially when there is something completely awesome and totally fun waiting for you on the other side. However, I find flying stressful and a bit boring. And for us to get to the magical place that is Disney World, we had to drive for three hours and then navigate our way through LAX to get on the plane and then endure a five hour flight. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for the sake of Disney.

We live in Central California. Not the beautiful central coast. Oh no. We live in the lovely San Joaquin Valley. We are surrounded by farmland and dairies (a little fun fact about our lovely little county: we are the second largest agriculture producing county in the United States and are the number one producing county for dairy products). Now if you’ve been paying attention to the news, California is in a bit of a drought. Actually it’s the worst drought California has had in decades. So we are welcoming rain whenever possible. However the day we left, it poured. And poured. And poured.

We left on Friday, February 28 and drove down to LAX. We each had the day off work and were planning on leaving around 3:00. I used my time off to get my hair done and get a manicure and pack. I also managed to brave the rain and bring lunch to my mom (I'm such a good daughter).

Packing turned out to be a bit difficult for me. Packing is always a bit difficult for me. I’m a chronic over-packer. I couldn’t decide what to bring! Would I need shorts or just pants? How many sweatshirts? What kind of sweatshirts? And shoes…don’t even get me started.

I managed to figure it out and by some miracle, I packed quite perfectly! And the best part…my luggage wasn’t even 20 pounds! I had at least 20 extra pounds to spare for souvenirs!

Once I braved the rain again to carry all my luggage from my apartment to my car (the walkways were rivers!) I drove to Jordan’s and we loaded all his stuff. We were ready to go at exactly 3:00 and then we decided to stop by the bank. I had some frustrating banking issues the previous few days and had way more cash than I was planning on having on me. We decided to deposit some of my cash into his account so that we could link his debit card up to our Magic Bands and we could both charge purchases to it. It all worked out but we didn’t end up leaving town until about 4:00.

Oh well.



We stopped about half way and went through the McDonald’s drive through. We got chicken nuggets to share (because I love McDonald’s nuggets) and since it was raining, I asked Jordan to hand me a nugget to I could concentrate on not killing us. Apparently he thought that meant “put the nugget in my mouth” because next thing I know, the nugget is not in my hand like I’m expecting, but rather hovering next to my face. I turn my head slightly to ask what he’s doing and then turn my attention back to the road. He chose the exact moment I turned my head back to put the nugget in my mouth and he ended up smashing the nugget into my cheek.

It probably sounds lame but the thought of it seriously makes me crack up. This morning when I was brushing my teeth I thought of that incident and began laughing out loud.

Annnywaaayyyy…

On our way down to LA, the rain kept coming.

However, in the distance…


Looks promising, right? Well it wasn't.

We planned to spend the night at a hotel near LAX and park our car there during the length of our trip. I found a great deal online through Park n’ Fly and we decided to stay at the Hacienda Hotel which was just about a mile and a half from LAX. They had a dedicated 24 hour shuttle too which was great.

We arrived in LA around 7:30. Driving over the mountains and through LA was a nightmare in the pouring rain. But when we got off the freeway, it miraculously stopped. YAY!

There was a Ralph’s grocery store across the street so we stopped by before we went to the hotel to pick up some last minute things. Then we checked in at the hotel. We parked my car in a big, fenced/gated in lot where it would stay the duration of the trip. We went up to our room and basically just showered and got ready for bed since we had to be up early the next morning. The hotel was fine, clean and the room was large. The air conditioner was goofy and I’m not even sure it was working right. Overall, I'd stay there again and use their lot if I needed to leave my car.

The next morning, we packed up and went down to the lobby to check out and catch the shuttle to LAX. The drive was short and we got off at Terminal 7. The check in process at the airport was not overly organized. We flew United and their desk is all self-check in. The actual check-in process was fine but getting our luggage taken care of was not ideal. There were United employees (like 3 total to take care of 20+ check-in kiosks) behind the counter and since there were so few of them, it took a good 10 minutes of waiting just to get an employee to get our tags on our luggage. The lines to use the self-check in computers were growing and it wasn't helping that it took forever to complete the process.

Once that was done, we went through security which was an average security experience. Nothing exciting happened.

Moving on.

We stopped at a Wolfgang Puck Express for breakfast and got eggs, toast and bacon. The Express was along side the full-service restaurant and we were given the okay to sit at the bar while we ate. The food was good. Nothing to rave about though.



We then went to our gate and waited about 20 minutes before boarding.



Jordan decided to take a picture of my eye.


So maybe Jordan's camera skills aren't quite top notch (considering the focus in this picture is on the man in the background)...


Our flight was uneventful. Our plane had TV’s in the headrests and Jordan decided to purchase the DirecTV option on his. It just so happened that Frozen was playing on one of the channels and I convinced him to watch. Guess who’s now an Olaf fan?!?!?





We landed at MCO and took the fauxnorail to the main terminal and make our way down to the Magical Express counter.

We're here!!!


Obviously, he's super excited.


We loaded onto our bus rather quickly.





Next stop...Port Orleans Riverside!

Up next: Welcome home!

 

[PrincessJo]

I'm loving your report so far!!

Subbing

 

[TheMaxRebo]

joining! Sounds like a fun trip and yeah! for your first trip to Disney World!

That is so great that you have dedicated your life to helping autistic children

Oh, and as someone who only runs when chased I didn't find the fact that you like to run the most normal part about you .... definitely respect you for it though!

Glad your overall flight was pretty smooth and you successfully made it to the ME!

 

[PirateFish989]

Looking forward to reading your report. Also, I would like to thank you for choosing to work with autistic children. My son is on the spectrum and I truly appreciate all of the great people who work with him. I hope your trip to Disney World was fantastic!

Welcome!! And thank you! I love my job! There is truly a place in my heart for kids (especially those on the spectrum).

Following along!

Yay!!!

I'm in!! Can't wait to read more

I'm hoping to be able to update either today or tomorrow!

I can't resist a first-timer's report. But you've been to Disneyland a lot, so I'm not sure that you really are a first-timer. Aw, okay, that's a technicality...I'll let you off the hook. Bring it on.

Glennbo! I've been reading your trip reports for years!! I'm so excited you're here! And while I'm definitely not a newbie to Disney parks (I've spent plenty of time at Disneyland!) I was super excited to experience Disney World for the first time!

I'm in! Let the adventure begin!!!

I'm glad you're here!

I'm loving your report so far!! Subbing

More to come soon I hope!!

joining! Sounds like a fun trip and yeah! for your first trip to Disney World! That is so great that you have dedicated your life to helping autistic children Oh, and as someone who only runs when chased I didn't find the fact that you like to run the most normal part about you .... definitely respect you for it though! Glad your overall flight was pretty smooth and you successfully made it to the ME!

Okay so maybe my running isn't exactly normal. I happen to know an abnormal amount of people who run so I guess I consider it normal but I realize that most people don't run. I'm glad you're in!

 

[PirateFish989]

Welcome home!!!

The Magical Express made its way from Orlando International Airport to Disney World and I was sitting in the comfortably plush seat in a stupor of “is this really happening?” We watched the onboard movie which totally got me hyped and I anxiously kept leaning into the aisle to see if we were approaching the mystical Walt Disney World arch.

We finally arrived to the arch and sadly, I missed taking a picture of it. I could give the excuse that I was too far back on the bus but I wasn’t and I could see it clearly. I simply just didn’t take the picture because I was about to pee my pants with excitement.

I WAS FINALLY IN DISNEY WORLD!

The Magical Express’ first stop was Port Orleans Riverside!! We hopped off the bus and got my carry-on from the driver and walked into the lobby. Holy cow! It’s beautiful!

We had completed online check-in so we walked to the online check-in counter. We were the first people in line and gazed around the beautiful hotel that would be our home for the next week. You know that feeling you get when you’re happy? The tingly feeling in your chest? The smile that won’t disappear from your face? That was me.

A cast member called us over to the desk and check-in was really simple. We connected Jordan’s debit card up to our magic bands and chatted with the cast member for a while. She was very impressed that we had managed to get a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest (yay for me for getting up at 3am California time 180 days out to make the reservations!). She said our room wasn’t ready yet but we would get a text message when it was.

Being my mom’s daughter, I suggested we wait at the bar! We walked over to the River Roost Lounge and plopped ourselves on bar stools. The cast member who served us was incredible! We didn’t get her name though (shame on us!). We ordered the chili nachos to share and Jordan ordered the gumbo. I asked the bar tender what she could make me that was yummy and she made a Magical Star. Soooo good. Jordan asked for a recommendation for something made with Johnny Walker. She made him something very manly. I kid you not it tasted like liquid coal (not that I know what coal tastes like). I immediately went back to my Magical Star and sucked that puppy down.

The Magical Star in all its delicious glory!




I got a text that our room was ready so once we used our handy dandy Magic Bands to pay our extremely overpriced bill (ahhhh, Disney prices…) we made our way through the grounds to our room in the Alligator Bayou. We were in building 34 and there is honestly no easy way to get there. We may have gotten lost at some point but we finally made it to our room.

Finally found our building!!


Looking back at these pictures make me miss that room!


Look at this beauty!


I fell in love with our room the moment we walked in. It was so beautiful and roomy and wonderfully themed! I was one happy Disney camper.

We had big plans for dinner that night and so we got ready and made our way to the bus stop.

Where were we going, you ask?

THE CALIFORNIA GRILL.

The Magic Kingdom bus came pretty quickly and we got on our first Disney bus! My heart was all aflutter and I couldn’t stop smiling. It was dark outside at that point so we weren’t able to see much out the windows.

Having only gone to Disneyland my entire life, I’m very used to walking from our hotel to the parks or Downtown Disney. I was surprised at how long the bus ride was (it never seemed quite that long any other time we went to the Magic Kingdom so maybe it just seemed that way because I was about to pee my pants with excitement!).

When the bus pulled up to the Magic Kingdom, I may have gotten a small tear in my eye. You could see the castle from outside the park! Holy cow! Everything was so big!

We got off the bus and we debated if we should take the monorail or walk to the Contemporary. We were a little low on time and we didn’t know how long it would take for the monorail to come so we decided to walk. We managed to make it to the hotel in time but got lost getting to the check-in desk. Oops. We tried to go up to the 15th floor using a regular elevator thinking the check-in desk would be up there. It’s not. After asking someone, we went up to the second floor and checked in.

We were directed to wait in the lounge while we waited for our table and we managed to sit at a table right next to the window. We were told that the full menu is served in the lounge and we debated just eating there instead of a regular table. We ended up deciding on a regular table.

View from our table at the lounge!


When I made the reservation back in September, the fireworks for that night were scheduled for 9:00. When we checked with the host, we were told that the fireworks that night weren’t until 10:00. Our reservations were at 7:50 and we weren’t sure we could even string out dinner for two hours. Oh well.

We were seated at our table and were just taken aback by the beauty of the view. Our table wasn’t next to the window but we could see pretty well. I was struck by how incredibly lucky I was to be there with my wonderful boyfriend, sitting in a beautiful restaurant with the most amazing view of the happiest place on earth. Wow.

We each ordered sushi for dinner and ended up sharing. The sushi was incredible! So fresh and beautifully made!

We decided to get dessert. I forget the exact name but it was some delicious chocolate cake. I also ordered some chamomile tea.



After we were finished, we went out to the observation deck and admired the view for a while, taking all the magic in.

It's so pretty!!!!


Way zoomed in from the camera on my phone so not the best quality!




We made our way down to the monorail and took it around back to the Magic Kingdom where we got on a bus and went back to Port Orleans Riverside. We were still on California time so we stayed up for a while longer. A maintenance guy came to help Jordan figure out how to connect his Xbox up (yes, he brought his Xbox to Disney World. He only ended up using it like once though).

The next day we were going to MAGIC KINGDOM!!!

Up next: The most magical place on Earth!

 

[stasijane]

So let me get this straight. Your boyfriend decided to skip going to his brothers house to take you to WDW for a week??? Sounds like a keeper to me!!!! I love the report and pictures so far looks like you are having a blast

 

[TheMaxRebo]

your room looks great! And great choice with California Grill - one of our favorites! Not sure if you knew but as long as you eat there that day you can go back up to see the fireworks from there later, in case you were interested ... but I am sure you were also just excited to get to the next day and to the Magic Kingdom!

 

[huggiebear23]

Yay for California Grill!! We have an ADR in august. I'm so excited!! Your room looks awesome.. I know how you feel about the busses. I always feel like it takes forever.. Can't wait for more.

 

[PirateFish989]

So let me get this straight. Your boyfriend decided to skip going to his brothers house to take you to WDW for a week??? Sounds like a keeper to me!!!! I love the report and pictures so far looks like you are having a blast

This is true! I still can't believe it all happened! He definitely is a keeper

your room looks great! And great choice with California Grill - one of our favorites! Not sure if you knew but as long as you eat there that day you can go back up to see the fireworks from there later, in case you were interested ... but I am sure you were also just excited to get to the next day and to the Magic Kingdom!

I had no idea you could go back up later to watch the fireworks! That's really awesome! We did see the fireworks another night but it would have been so cool to see them from up there...oh well, next time!!!

Yay for California Grill!! We have an ADR in august. I'm so excited!! Your room looks awesome.. I know how you feel about the busses. I always feel like it takes forever.. Can't wait for more.

Our room was awesome! There was no direct path to get from the room to the dining hall area but it was the closest building to the west depot bus stop (the first stop for MK and AK buses) and that was fantastic! I would love to stay in the Magnolia Bend section next time, the mansions looked absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Credit Man]

Great way to start a WDW vacation!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I'm in! I can't wait to see more from a newbie's eyes!

 

[guinness408]

Joining in... Can't believe how great the view was from your table in the California grill lounge! Never been .

 

[caitlinnf]

Subbing! My DH and I are going for our first adults-only trip in October, and are staying in a POR Royal Room. Cali Grill is on our must-do list as well!