2 Haunted Mansions, 1 Day: Grand Finale & Link to Pre-Trip Report for Feb. Trip!

[lurkyloo]

This is the story of our first trip to Walt Disney World since we were married in Epcot in February ’08, and how we turned it into a race to ride the Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom and Disneyland on the same day!

It’s also the story of what happens when two people who greedily snatched up as many free desserts as they could during their honeymoon came to despise the very sight of dessert, thanks to the free Disney Dining Plan.

For the pre-trip report for this trip and the anniversary trip we’re taking in February ’09, click here.

For a sneak peek at this trip via the live blog I published from my iPhone each day, click here.

And for a sneak peek at the last day of our trip (the one we spent at Disneyland), click here!


Who We Are

Lurkyloo and Mr. Lurkyloo, longtime Disneyland annual passholders who are squeezing every last drop out of the “free” WDW annual passes that came with our Disney’s Fairy Tale Wedding (tm).

How We Came to Be at WDW Just Seven Months After We Got Married There

See “free WDW annual passes,” above. Also, when we went to WDW for our wedding-planning session in September ’07, they hooked us with a bounce-back offer for free dining in September 08. I figured it couldn’t hurt to have a cheap trip to look forward to after our honeymoon, and I was right!

More to follow...

 

[JustMickey]

Hey Carrie!! I'm in for this one! I lurked on your pre-trip report and loved the live updates. Also, can't wait to see some more photos from the Roots!

 

[reyasmommy]

I look forward to reading more!

 

[lurkyloo]

Hiya!! Thanks for reading!

So Photobucket is giving me fits, but as soon as pictures start showing up in my posts again, I'll post the next update.

Also, more pix from the Roots to come...

 

[tlhbdm]

More more!!!!!

 

[lurkyloo]

Our first day, like most people’s first days, was pretty uneventful... til we got to Walt Disney World, and then it was jammy packed!

We left LA on Saturday morning (I’ll spare you dreary shots of the security lines and drab waiting areas of the United Terminal at LAX). One cool thing – we took a shuttle using a service I found on Yelp.com – instead of parking and riding the shuttle from the EasyPark lot. This was mostly to save time when we got back - the idea was that they could shuttle us from LAX to Disneyland before it closed the following Saturday so we could complete our mission to ride both Haunted Mansions in one day. But using the shuttle also saved us a lot of time parking and transferring – cool!

The flight was uneventful, except for the irritating couple who sneaked into the empty seats in front of us so they could sit together and then shoved their seats back as far as they could go (i.e., under our chins!) for the duration of the flight.

Finally... Orlando!

Welcome to Orlando – Deposit All Your Money Here!

We got our rental car using the self-service kiosks at Alamo, a tip we stumbled on last trip, when the line for customer service was about 45 minutes long. This time instead of the rattly Oprah-mobile, we got to pick out a PT Cruiser: cute and compact, with the turning radius of an elderly yak!

Off we went! I figured this rainbow was a good sign...

Obligatory Gate Shot

We got to Pop and I went to check in while DH parked the yak. I did all the things they say you should do to request a certain room – noted it on the ressie, called three days before to reiterate, spoke to someone in the actual room-assigning department, etc. Turns out it doesn’t matter - if everyone who checks in before you requests a King room, the front desk passes ‘em out like candy until they’re gone and you end up with two teeny tiny double beds. Boooo!

Little did we know how spoiled we’d been the year before when we ended up with a handicapped-accessible king room at Pop. We foolishly thought all the rooms were that spacious and comfy, so imagine our disappointment at the tiny little closet we were assigned this time. We asked about switching rooms, but nothing was available til Tuesday. Bleh.... I decided to pretend that double beds are “cozy” and “romantic,” but the experience has definitely ended our days of staying in Value resorts at WDW.

We set off for Downtown Disney and our 7:15 ADR at Raglan Road (another tip, shared by a kind DISer – you can make ADRs at Raglan Road on Opentable.com even when 407-WDW-DINE is not making ressies for it!).

Scallop Forest - forks of scallops served with a lime dipping sauce

... they need to give you that sauce in a trough!


Serious Sirloin Steak - 10 oz sirloin topped with Irish whiskey glaze, drizzled with gresh basil oil. Served with mashed potatoes and topped with crispy fried onion strings...

We split this and had it without the whiskey sauce... which was prolly a mistake. It was kinda dry.


All through dinner this cute little lady kept making the rounds of the tables and handing out sparkly shamrock headbands in honor of it being halfway to St. Patrick’s Day... to everyone but ME! At the end of the meal I prowled the restaurant until I found her and demanded one. Perhaps this is why mine was missing one of its shamrocks (picture to come...)

After dinner we were supposed to meet Jenn from the DIS and her fella at Ghirardelli for sundaes! But unbeknownst to us, they were at that moment embroiled in the Dining Experience From Heck - I don’t wanna scoop her trip report, so I’ll leave out the details...

While we waited, we killed a little time in the shops....

Goofy’s Candy Co.

FRESH!!!

Eventually Jenn & John were able to extricate themselves from dinner to meet us at Ghirardelli, but I was sad to hear that the experience had pretty much killed their interest in dessert. However, DH and I didn’t let this stop us from getting....

Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae and... whatever DH got... Strawberry Ice Cream with Marshmallows and Chocolate Sauce?

It was really nice to finally meet Jenn in person, and John, and (bonus) their cute kids! John and Patrick took lil’ guy Jack to the Lego store to play while Jenn and her daughter Kayla and I gabbed. I feel like I shouldn’t tell you what we talked about cuz it’ll spoil the surprise for her trippie, but suffice it to say their family got a really cool bit of pixie dust on a trip that was already jammy packed with fun stuff.

Me ‘n’ Jenn in the Second Happiest Place on Earth: Ghirardelli! ...Note the lopsided shamrock headband...

Finally, we got kicked outta Downtown Disney (specifically, the Christmas shop) ‘cuz they were closing, so we got as much hyper-excited-I-can’t-believe-we-finally-met-in-person chatter in before we parted at the InkedUpFambly MiniVan. And hopefully the pic DH took of them with the character statues outside of the Marketplace makes it on their Christmas cards this year, cuz we could really use the royalites....

After that it was back to Pop for plenty of sleep so we’d be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for... Sunday at Epcot, with Celebration Cake and IllumiNations Cruise!!

 

[Disneygrl36]

I've been mostly on the DL boards lately as our upcoming trip is to California, so I was pleasantly suprised to see a trippie here that will get 2 Disney parks on opposite coasts in the same day.
I'm in..........

 

[GirTheGecko]

This sounds like a fab trip. I'm hooked!

 

[inkedupmomma]

yay me and you!! im sooo excited after all that time i got to meet you in person!! she is as cool as she comes off and patrick is just the sweetest hubs ever!! I realllly hope you get an awesome deal and decide to come back next sept!

 

[Philadisney]

Woohoo I'm caught up! Yay rainbows and ice cream!

 

[Wazzo]

This time instead of the rattly Oprah-mobile, we got to pick out a PT Cruiser: cute and compact, with the turning radius of an elderly yak!

Hmmm, does that infer a good or bad turning radius? I can't decide!

LOVING the report... I can't wait to see more pics from the ROOTS!!

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

I'm in!
You're pictures are absolutely amazing. What type of camera do you use?

 

[lurkyloo]

I've been mostly on the DL boards lately as our upcoming trip is to California, so I was pleasantly suprised to see a trippie here that will get 2 Disney parks on opposite coasts in the same day.
I'm in..........

Hooray for Disneyland! Sometimes it feels like the redheaded stepchild around these parts, so I'm glad to bring it a little more attention!

This sounds like a fab trip. I'm hooked!

yay me and you!! im sooo excited after all that time i got to meet you in person!! she is as cool as she comes off and patrick is just the sweetest hubs ever!! I realllly hope you get an awesome deal and decide to come back next sept!

Hi hi hi! I wish we'd had more time to hang out, but I'm betting you're going to make a great story out of what time we had - I can't wait to read it!

Yay rainbows and ice cream!

My favoritest things in the whole wide world!!! La la la la laaaaa!

Hmmm, does that infer a good or bad turning radius? I can't decide!

Bad.... very bad..... have you ever tried turning an elderly yak on a dime?

I'm in!
You're pictures are absolutely amazing. What type of camera do you use?

Really? Cuz about half of them were taken with my iPhone! The other half were taken with our ancient 3 megapixel Canon Powershot... which I think may have the same resoluton as the iPhone!

And here I was looking for an excuse to upgrade our camera.... I just won't tell Dh what you said!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Count me in. Can't wait for more!

 

[rottiemom]

Hey Carrie, welcome back! I hope I have the time to keep up with your trippie since I wasn't able to live vicariously through your "live from WDW" but I know that you'll keep me thoroughly entertained, no matter what.

I decided to pretend that double beds are “cozy” and “romantic,” but the experience has definitely ended our days of staying in Value resorts at WDW.

Oh I'm sorry about the beds. We sleep on a double at home so the beds at POP were fine to us. Even more spacious since we didn't have 75 lbs of rottweiler & 700 lbs of cat trying to share one with us. But I guess that if you're used to bigger accomodations a double bed is like trying to share a cot a sleep away camp.

My husband & I have realized that even if you put us in a California king we're going to end up curled up together in a corner because even after 14 years we're so much in loooooooove . No, seriously it's because my better half is so toasty warm that I always search him out & lamprey onto him.

Looking forward to more...as always .

 

[Kimberly815]

Yippee! I loved your wedding report, so count me in!

There is nothing better than an ice cream sundae to help start out a vacation!

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

Really? Cuz about half of them were taken with my iPhone! The other half were taken with our ancient 3 megapixel Canon Powershot... which I think may have the same resoluton as the iPhone!

And here I was looking for an excuse to upgrade our camera.... I just won't tell Dh what you said!

Whoopsie! Don't worry, I won't tell.
But they are really clear and nice. Honestly.

 

[Becx N Gav]

Yey Carrie Glad to see you've started a TR, and you've pointed me in the direction of inkedupmomma

I loved your blog, wish I could do one - DH was saying he wanted a better MP3/MP4 player for the plane and mentioned an Iphone, so hopefully I can get him to part with his cash and 'invest' in one of those

Those pics of Goofys Candy Co were making me so hungry

Looking forward to more........................

 

[Bounce_Tigger]

I read the title of your TR and thought to myself "Somebody tried to do that after their wedding trip..." And it was YOU. I read your wedding TR and loved it!

 

[vfair]

Really enjoying your report so far! More please...