3 Generations Of Princesses Take On The World For 9 Days! Nov./Dec. 2012 Report

[StilAPrincessAtHeart]

Well, it's been almost 4 weeks since returning from the World (11/26-12/4) And, after Post-Disney Depression, Christmas, and a Family Flu Fest, I have finally sorted through all of my photos. I'm now ready to re-live a truly special trip through my first ever DIS Trip Report!! This was mine and my DD's (11) 2nd WDW trip (our First Trip's report on my personal blog can be found in my siggy,) My Mom's first ever WDW trip, and all of our's First Ever Christmas Trip.

So, there were three of us. Three generations of princesses ready to conquer The World in just 9 days. Let me introduce us.

There's Me. I am the trip planner extraordinaire. The one who dreams of and begins planning the next Disney Vacation before the current one has even ended. I grew up in CA regularly going to DLR and took my first Family Trip to WDW in 2011. I completely fell in love with The World and have become a loyal customer. I am a Professional Photographer and love documenting as much detail of each trip as I can. But, I try not to let "getting that perfect shot" get in the way of being in the moment. So, for the most part, I consider my Disney Photos to be snapshots. Some day, I would love to take a trip just for the sole purpose of creating great photos in the park.

There's My DD (11.) She is my baby and loves WDW as much as me. Our First Trip in 2011, she cried at the end of Wishes on our last night and informed me that we couldn't leave. She is a preteen right now and caught in that in between stage of sometimes acting "grown" and sometimes still being a child. I was hoping that this trip would preserve a little of that "child" in her (at least for the week.) I was so looking forward to spending quality time with her and I wasn't disappointed.

There's my mom. She actually lives in OR, 2000 miles away from me and 3000 miles away from WDW. My first trip to DLR was when she was preggers with me, so I guess you could say we've always had quite the Disney Bond. She is also a Christmas Fanatic and was really excited that her First WDW experience would be at Christmas Time. She had quite the travel adventure getting to WDW, with about 10 hrs. of Red Eye flight/travel, and I was worried about her being too tired once she arrived. But she is young at heart and after just a short nap on our first day, she was ready to go!!

Here is a photo of all three of us at Epcot on Day 4.

Before I delve into the story of our 9 day adventure, a little background on this Trip. As stated before, our first Family Trip was in Feb. of 2011. It was a perfect vacation and I fell head over heels in love with WDW. Unfortunately, my husband did not. He didn't hate it, but he just has no desire to ever return. So, when planning this trip, I had originally planned on just me and my 2 daughters going (my oldest DD is 12 1/2.) Sadly, my oldest DD was not interested in going either. While she did enjoy our first trip, she doesn't travel well and is quite the home body. Also, the plan was that this trip would be our Christmas Present and she was not down with that. So, she stayed home and got a laptop instead. She was given it early for Christmas and, let me tell you, was not sad in the least that she didn't go with us. So, when I knew that it would be just my DD (11) and I, I immediately asked my mom if she would like to go. I'm so glad she said yes, because she fell in love with WDW too and it was so special to have her along.

Here are a few Important Details:

Where We Stayed: Pop Century (First Time Staying On Site.)

How We Ate: FREE REGULAR DINING PLAN

How We Played: 8 Day Magic Your Way, NO Hoppers


So, It's gonna take a few sittings to get this bad boy penned. I'll try to update as frequently as I can, include some good photos, and give some reviews on dining. Here's how it's gonna go down and where you can find the Links:

Day 1 (Part 1): Arrival Day- "We Can Never Eat Again!!"
Day 1 (Part 2): "We Can Never Eat Again!" (Late Night Dinner at 'Ohana)
Day 2: Magic Kingdom, MVMCP- "I Can Never Eat 'Ohana Again!" (missed MVMCP due to being sick and puking ALL Day.)
Day 3: Magic Kingdom- "Meeting The Beast All Soaking Wet." (BOG Ressie after going on Splash.)
Day 4: Epcot-"Afraid of Heights, But Not Rats."
Day 5: DHS- "These Are Not The Droids You Are Looking For."
Day 6: AK- "There's A Parrot On Your Face."
Day 7: Epcot- " I Love Being All Clangey" and "Speaking With A British Accent."
Day 8: Magic Kingdom- " Auditioning To Be A Cast Member."
Day 9: Departure Day- " What's The Cure For A Disney Hangover? Breakfast With Mary Poppins."


So, thanks for joining me, stay tuned and I hope you enjoy!

 

[afwdwfan]

I'm in! I'm always interested in seeing other TR's that overlap with our trips!

It is a shame that your husband and other daughter aren't so interested in WDW, but at least you are still able to enjoy the parks with your youngest daughter.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I'll join in! Our trips are quite similar - I went with my mom, grandma, and cousin and my DH isn't really a fan of Disney. I look forward to reading all about your trip!

 

[StilAPrincessAtHeart]

Yay! I have at least 2 readers! Hopefully, I won't bore you. Thanks for following! Working on the 1st day right now.

 

[StilAPrincessAtHeart]

Day 1 (Part 1)-Arrival Day 11/26 "We Can Never Eat Again!!" ​

Pre-Flight

Monday 11/26 was the day that I'd been dreaming of planning for for almost a year and I could not believe it was finally here! Originally, I had hoped for a really calm week leading up to departure. I don't like to start vacations stressed out and I like to have a couple of days to just relax while packing etc... So, I had made sure to not schedule any photo shoots past 11/12 so that I could make sure that all of my editing, proofing, and order fulfillments were completed before Thanksgiving Week arrived. I had also planned on a very low key/low stress Thanksgiving so that I could just concentrate on getting ready for Disney. A slight wrench was thrown into my plan though when I was informed that my in-laws would be coming to visit for Thanksgiving and leaving Sun. 11/25 (The DAY BEFORE our departure!!) I tried not to be too stressed, but it was hard and I think I started off the trip a little tired (which I will get into a little more in detail in a bit.) But, better to be tired at WDW than tired at home.

Flight and Arrival

So, as stated in my intro, my mom was traveling 3000 miles from Oregon. She lives on the south coast of the state and flew out of Portland on a Red Eye the night before. So, after a 4 hour drive the day before that to Portland, she boarded a plane at 11:00 p.m. on Sun. 11/25. She then flew to TX, had a couple hr. layover, then finally landed at MCO around 10:00 a.m. or so on 11/26. I was really worried about her being so tired and prayed that our room would be ready when she got there. I had put in our room request at POP and had then given her explicit instructions for making our request again once she got there. Not only did we get all of our requests made, but she got in the room early and took a little nap before my DD and I arrived!! I had a full 1/2 day planned (including dinner at 'Ohanas) so I knew she'd need the rest!!

My DD and I were flying out of Milwaukee on 11/26 at about 9:30 am. so we were in for a nice short flight with no layovers. Last time we traveled to WDW we drove, so this was gonna be our first time flying into MCO, taking ME, etc... so I was kind of excited to see how that all worked. Our flight was great (although delayed by about a 1/2 hour), we found MCO to be really easy, and ME could not have been simpler to use. Initially, I had gone back and forth about whether to rent a car or not, but decided not to. I just loved the whole ME experience. I still have mixed feelings about buses to the parks, but I'll save that for another post.

I have no photos from our flight, ME ride, etc... I guess I was too excited and forgot. But, managed to start clicking away once we got on property!!

Arrival At POP

My DD and I arrived at POP at about 2:00 and had already talked to my mom on the phone, so we knew that she had gotten into our room!! So, we quickly stopped by the front desk to pick up our own room keys. It was not busy at all and we walked right up to the desk. Since I had never been to any of the Disney Resorts before, I was wondering how I was going to like the Value Resort Experience. Originally, we had booked POFQ and had hoped for the Free Regular Dining Plan. But, when Free Dining came out, there were no qualifying rooms left at that resort, so we had to switch to POP and pay to upgrade the plan. I was disappointed at first, but then got used to the idea, but still wondered if we would like it. Well, we LOVED it!! It was actually much nicer than I expected and the one thing I was really worried about (The Beds) turned out to be a non-issue. The Beds were perfectly acceptable to me (and I'm a very light sleeper.)

I do have some great Photos of POP, but I took them on our last day, so I'll save the rest of them for later. But, I'll share a bunch from our little tour of AOA!!!

First Up- Tour of AOA!!!

The first thing on our agenda was to take a tour of AOA!! This was gonna be one of the only times that we would be able to spend some time exploring there and it was a priority for me to see it. I was especially excited about the Cars section as Cars is one of my favorites!!! Also, my DD and I were hungry and I wanted to try the AOA food court. Our room was in the 50's section facing the lake, so we were just a hop skip and a jump away from the Generation Gap Bridge. So, we journeyed across. I was actually surprised at how compact everything felt at both resorts, as it seems from the maps that everything is so spread out. I loved the Lake and the grounds were so nice.

Before we explored the grounds of AOA, we stopped in for a bite at Landscapes of Flavor. It was really hard to choose what to eat as everything looked delicious, but my DD and I settled on sharing a build your own BLT Burger. I really enjoy a good burger and thought that this one was better than your typical amusement park variety. Really fresh and tasty. For dessert I really wanted to try the Gelato, but my DD was too tempted by the cupcakes, so I gave in to her desires. I vowed to get back over there later in the week for some of that Gelato, but never made it. Oh well, guess I'm gonna need another trip! Sorry, no pics yet of food, but there will be lots of those as the week goes on! After we ate, we were ready to explore AOA!!

We didn't get to all of it, but we really loved the Nemo section. The pool area looked SO cool!! Immediately my daughter said she wished we could stay at AOA. "Sorry, dear no Free Dining at AOA. Maybe in a couple of years??" Our favorite part though was the CARS section!! We loved it! It felt like we were really in Radiator Springs. Finally, I broke out my camera!

One of the first Magical Experiences of our trip happened right as we walked into the Cars Section. We stopped to watch this CM who was drawing Characters all over the cement with his broom and some water. I had heard that there was a CM that does this at MK, and wondered if this was the same guy. Well, we watched him a bit and then he started interacting with us. He started a Disney Character Trivia Contest with my mom and DD. It was so much fun and he was so great, just like a seasoned game show host. I kept feeling like he was someone famous that we should know (he looked so familiar.) I think my mom ended up winning the game and I think she had a lot of fun! It was a perfect experience to introduce her to the unique interactions that are associated with Disney CMs. I told her to look forward to many more interactions like that throughout the week!! Here are some pics from the game.

Next UP

After our tour of AOA, we went back to our room to get ready for a brief stop at MK and then a late dinner at 'Ohanas!!! Stay tuned for Part 2 and to find out why we felt like we "Could Never Eat Again!"

 

[afwdwfan]

It looks like things are off to a good start! I'm glad your mom was able to get into the room and get some rest. That always helps!

The pics at AoA are great. I really want to get over there and check it all out sometime.

I always love the CM interactions at Disney. You really lucked out to find such a good one so soon!

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Love the pictures of AoA! I'm glad that your trip started out so well and with a great CM experience as well! It sounds like he was fantastic, and the pictures show this too