A Very Magical Graduation Trip *Completed*

[eagillinois]

Great Pics! We upgraded our May graduation trip to the royal rooms

 

[PippiDancer]

Great Pics! We upgraded our May graduation trip to the royal rooms

Thank you! I hope you have a great trip, you will love the royal rooms!!

 

[francis6306]

I'm just finding your TR and I am subscribing! I want to stay at POR and specifically in the Royal room! What an awesome surprise from your parents!

We went to Akershus and we had the SAME Aurora! And I'm totally jealous that you got Cindy! I didn't think she was ever there! What a bit of pixie dust! Okay, I'll catch up later!

 

[PippiDancer]

I'm just finding your TR and I am subscribing! I want to stay at POR and specifically in the Royal room! What an awesome surprise from your parents!

We went to Akershus and we had the SAME Aurora! And I'm totally jealous that you got Cindy! I didn't think she was ever there! What a bit of pixie dust! Okay, I'll catch up later!

Welcome! POR is such an amazing resort and the royal rooms are gorgeous, you'll love it there! I was really surprised to see Cinderella at Akershus but I'm glad she was there. She was the perfect first characer interaction of the trip!

 

[PippiDancer]

I was surprised when Mom woke me up about 40 minutes after she was supposed to the next morning. She told me that Dad was sick for most of the night. Oh no! Dad is never sick, never. Of course the first time he gets sick in 10 years is when we are at Disney. Being sick in Disney must be one of the worst things ever!

Mom and I got ready and headed to River Mill to get some breakfast and some supplies for Dad. We both got mickey waffles with strawberries for breakfast, which was delicious by the way. Mom used the drink that came with her meal to get Dad a Power-Ade and we used snack credits to get him some coffee cake (which he didn't eat) and a small box of ritz crackers. We wanted to fill his mug with ginger ale, but there wasn't any in the soda fountain. Mom asked a CM and he was nice enough to get some from the bar for us.

We finished eating and went back to the room to get Dad all set up. We decided that we were going to stick to our plan for the day and let Dad sleep in the room. Once we made sure that he had everything he needed, we headed for the bus stop. We didn't have to wait long for a bus and arrived at our destination for the day a little after 10:30. Hollywood Studios Although it was very strange to be there without Dad.

After taking a few hat pictures, we did what any good DISer would do and headed straight to Pixar Place for Toy Story Mania fastpasses. We did manage to get some for 3:30

I love the theming of this area, it is adorable.

Our plan for the day was to just go slow and do things as we got to them. We looked around in some of the stores and checked the map to see what rides were close by. I spotted the Backlot Tour on the map and we decided that we might as well start there.

We did have to wait in line for a little while, but not very long.

This was our first time on this ride, since we missed it on our first trip. It was kind of cool to see the behind the scenes stuff.

We still had some time before our lunch ADR, but not a lot, so we decided to wander in that direction. We looked in some more stores because where else are you going to see as much pixar stuff? Mom spotted a sign saying that the were looking for audience members to vote on videos for America's Funniest Home Videos. She loves that show, so we decided to check it out. It turned out that they had just finished a viewing and the next one was during our ADR.

We kept wandering and came across the cutest store front ever.

We looked around in there for a few minutes and decided that we had just enough time to kill before our ADR to watch Muppet Vision 3D.

We ended up towards the back all the way over to one side of the theater. So, we didn't have the best seats and I don't think the 3D effects were as good. I thought the show was cute but Mom thought it was kind of boring.

 

[francis6306]

Okay! I'm all caught up! I've been ignoring housework to read your TR! HAHA

I like that coaster at Sea World… I haven't been to Sea World since the mid-90's, but that makes me want to consider it!

Sorry your Character meals had been less than wonderful.

Boo to your dad getting sick! That just stinks! Glad the CM was able to help you out with some Ginger Ale! I wouldn't have thought about asking for it from the bar!

 

[PippiDancer]

Okay! I'm all caught up! I've been ignoring housework to read your TR! HAHA

I like that coaster at Sea World… I haven't been to Sea World since the mid-90's, but that makes me want to consider it!

Sorry your Character meals had been less than wonderful.

Boo to your dad getting sick! That just stinks! Glad the CM was able to help you out with some Ginger Ale! I wouldn't have thought about asking for it from the bar!

Thanks for reading! I've definitely done that before, ignoring responsibilities to read trip reports. Sea World is wonderful, I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you decide to go. I wouldn't have thought about getting ginger ale from the bar either, my mom just asked if they had any anywhere.

 

[PippiDancer]

Once Muppet Vision 3D was over it was time for our ADR. And we just happened to be right next door! We made reservations for the Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose

We checked in and had no problem reducing our reservation to 2 instead of 3. We had to wait about 10 minutes before we were seated.

Our waiter gave us the pass for our Fantasmic seats and explained to us how it worked. We were still debating what we wanted when he brought us our drinks and rolls, so he said he would come back. We should have just ordered then because it took him way too long to come back. At least we had some yummy bread and olive oil to eat while we were waiting.

The Fantasmic package comes with an appetizer, but there wasn't anything that I liked on the menu. I ended up just ordering a caeser salad and Mom got the same thing.

I only took a few bites because I don't like salad. I ate my crouton and Mom's crouton and gave the rest of my salad to Mom, which she didn't eat much of since she had her own.

It took forever for us to get out food. I don't know what took so long because it didn't seem that busy.

I ordered a wild mushroom flatbread.

It was delicious! The crust was perfect, soft and fluffy but a little crispy on the outside. I was a little nervous about the balsamic reduction but it was actually very good and complimented it well. I love mushrooms and was very excited about this dish. Yum!

Mom got the charred strip steak, which came with macaroni and cheese.

She really liked it, I had a bite and it was very good. She didn't really want her mac and cheese for some reason, so I ended up eating most of it. I thought that it was very tasty.

Since we had the Fantasmic package, we didn't get to choose our own dessert. We were given a sampler to share.

It had blueberry pana cotta, tiramisu, amaretto cheescake, and some chocolate thing that I don't remember what it was. The dessert was pretty underwhelming. The pana cotta tasted weird, the chocolate thing wasn't good, the amaretto cheesecake was ok, and I don't like tiramisu. I didn't know we weren't able to choose our own dessert with the Fantasmic package, so I was a little surprised by that. The dessert was also pretty small, especially for 2 people to share. I would have much rather been able to order what I wanted for dessert instead of having an appetizer I didn't eat.

Once we were done eating we had to wait awhile for our check and even longer for our waiter to process our DDP. Overall, the entrees were very good but the service was horrible.

After we were finally able to pay and leave, we stopped to take a picture of the Muppet fountain.

We spotted a pay phone next to the bathroom and Mom wanted to call Dad to see how he was doing. There was a family using it, so we waited off to the side. I think the were calling home to give an update on their trip, we patiently waited as both parents and their two kids each had a (somewhat lengthy) turn talking. They finally hung up and then picked up the phone to call someone else, so we decided it wasn't worth waiting and went on search for another phone. We couldn't use our cell phones because we didn't have service so far from home. Of course we took some scenery pictures on the way.

We couldn't find one anywhere and ended up having to go all the way to the front of the park to call from Guest Services. After checking in with Dad, who had been sleeping most of the morning, we decided to just wander. It wasn't that long before the Pixar pirade was starting, but too early to find spots. We looked through most of the stores on Hollywood Boulevard, which basically all had the same things. We ended up just deciding to get parade spots a little earlier than we planned.

 

[librarygeek]

* I'm glad you got some pixie dust to get on Peter Pan! It's a cute ride, but not worth a long wait! I hadn't been on it since I was 8 because I never wanted to wait. This past trip I finally got to do it again since we were there for extra magic hours and it was 1am.
* I saw the Electrical Parade for the first time, it was a lot of fun!
* So sorry your dad got sick That must be such a bummer.
* I love backlot tours, but that may be because twice I was picked as one of the volunteers in the beginning. Both times I was the person sitting in the chair on the phone that got water dumped on them from the side. So much fun!
* We have reservations at Mama Melrose so I was glad to see your experience. Hopefully we have better service though :/

 

[francis6306]

That is odd that they didn't let you pick your dessert. Good to know, in case we book that package in the future!

 

[PippiDancer]

After wandering through almost every store on Hollywood Boulevard we decided to find a spot for the Pixar Pal's Countdown to Fun Parade. I LOVE Disney/Pixar movies so there was no way I was missing this parade. Since there was still a while until the parade started, there weren't many people looking for spots yet. We decided to sit on the sidewalk on the shady side of the street. A few minutes after we sat down, the people sitting on the bench next to us left, so we claimed the bench for ourselves. Which was the perfect parade viewing spot.

While waiting, we were entertained by some movie stars and other quirky characters.

And took some other pictures

About 15 minutes before the parade started some CMs with a camera crew came by and announced that they wanted to do a flash mob. They taught some people a little dance and then filmed it. We decided not to participate, but might have ended up in the background, especially when they panned the sidewalks. Good thing Dad wasn't there for that, he would have run away as soon as he saw that camera.

Pretty soon the parade started!

Boo! I love her!

Russel and Dug!!

The parade was very cute, but not one of the best.

 

[francis6306]

I am not a big fan of the parades… I know it's unDisney like, but I'd rather be waiting in lines for rides rather than waiting on a parade!! But it does look like a cute parade!!!

 

[Wishes2you]

Sorry your dad was sick. That is so unfair to be sick in Disney. I love parades but unfortunately we missed this one when we were there. We were sitting eating in another area when it went through.

 

[librarygeek]

Nice that you got a bench to watch the parade from! And it looks like such a cute parade, though I've never seen it. And I guess now I won't be able to since they just stopped doing it recently!

 

[PippiDancer]

Hey Everyone!
Sorry for not updating in a while. Life got super busy between student teaching and my job as an RA and I just didn't have any spare time to write an update. I graduated last weekend and now that that is over I'll have more time to finish up this TR.

I promise that there will be an update coming soon! And to make up for it, here are some pictures of my graduation!

 

[lisagyo]

Congratulations! Looking forward to more updates, we are staying at Port Orleans French Quarter for the first time and I can't wait!

 

[librarygeek]

Congrats on graduating!! My life has been super busy too recently so I feel you on the updates! Hope to see more soon!

 

[PippiDancer]

After the parade, our fastpass window for Toy Story Mania had just opened up, but we decided to go on the Great Movie Ride first since we were right there.

The line wasn't very long, so were able to walk right through the queue, until you get to the room with the big movie screen. But I had to stop to get a picture of this gorgeous dress from Shakespare in Love.

I've never seen the movie, but like I said, the dress is gorgeous.

And of course I had to get a picture of Mary Poppin's horse

We waited for a little while and then we were off on our journey into the movies

This was the first time we had been on the ride and we both liked it.

After that we headed over to Pixar place for Toy Story Mania!

We hopped into the fastpass queue and only had to wait a few minutes. I understand why that ride is so popular, it was a lot of fun! I would have loved to go on it again, if the wait time wasn't 90 minutes.

After our 3D adventure we just decided to wander, there weren't any shows that we wanted to see so we weren't in a rush for anything. I really wanted to see Beauty and the Beast, but it was closed for refurb that week. We ended up walking through One Man's Dream. It was really interesting to look at all of the old Disney artifacts. I especially loved the models of the parks.

The movie was about to start, but we decided to pass. Although I wish we had watched it, I'm sure it would have been interesting.

We wandered around some more and stopped to take a few pictures of the Hollywood Tower Hotel

I love that it is cloudy in this pic, it makes the tower look more ominous, as it should be. And in case you are wondering, no I did not ride Tower of Terror. The idea of free falling is slightly terrifying to me and I was to chicken to try it. One day I will brave it though!

Our next stop was Rock n Roller Coaster!

There was no way that Mom was going on it, so I got into the single rider line. I think I waited about 30 minutes, which was the same as the posted wait time. And it seemed to go by slower than usual since I was alone. Once I finally got on, it was a great ride!

At that point we were starting to get hungry, but not hungry enough for a meal. I really wanted to get a cupcake from Starring Roles after reading so much about them on DIS, so that is where we headed! We got there and the door was locked, so I checked the times guide and found out that they closed at 4 So we went on the search for some other food. It seemed like a lot of things were closed, we found a few open stands but they only had barbeque, turkey legs, and other dinner foods, nothing we could have for a snack.
During the search, we passed a CM who noticed our I'm celebrating buttons and asked what we were celebrating. I told him I was graduating from college and he seemed confused and said I didn't look old enough to graduating from college. This conversation followed (or something very similar);
CM: You don't look any older than 20
Me: I'm 21
CM: Still, that dosn't seem old enough
Me: Well, I'll be 22 when I graduate in May
CM: Did you graduate from high school early or something?
Me: No...
This continued for a little while and he just couldn't get his head around it, he finally told us to have a good day and we continued our food search. It was just a really weird conversation.

We remembered seeing a funnel cake stand on the other side of the little lake, next to the giant dinosaur and decided to check there. Our plan was to get food and then find seats for Fantasmic, so it was really incovenient to walk all the way over there and then back. I'm surprised so many things were closed so early. We got a funnel cake with powdered sugar to share, which was pretty tasty, but not as good as a peanutbutter chocolate cupcake from Starring Rolls would have been...just saying.

 

[PippiDancer]

Once we managed to find food, we made our way back over to Fantasmic! to get seats. It was nice to have the the package because we didn't have to wait in line at all, but the seats aren't the best. The Fantasmic package section is way on the the side and we sat right next to the ropes because I wanted to be as close the middle as we could so we had a good view of the stage area. We ended up with less than great seats because we were in between 2 of the water screens so we were looking at both of them at a weird angle.

The view from our seats

I think we got there areound 45 minutes early and the main section was already packed.

The wait didn't seem that bad because some CMs gave us some entertainment. They were actually the same people that ran the flashmob earlier in the day. We had a sing off between 2 halfs of the stadium and then there was a trivia game and maybe some other things. Right before the show started they asked everyone to turn on any lights and wave them around, which looked pretty cool with so many people.

Then Mickey made his appearance! I couldn't get many good photos since it was so dark and the stage is so far away.

Continued in next post

 

[PippiDancer]

I love the boat at the end with all of the characters on it!

And I love that Steamboat Willy is driving!

Overall it was a very cute show!

Our original plan was to stay for Extra Magic Hours that night, which I was hoping would be a great time to go on popular rides again with shorter lines (aka Toy Story Mania). I ended up getting the park hours mixed up that night. I thought the park closed at 8 with EMH until 9 but the park actually closed at 9 with EMH until 10. So, when we got out of Fantasmic I thought the park was closing and the crowds would disappear. I wanted to go on Rock n' Rollar Coaster again and since we were right there, thats where I headed. I got into the single rider line but it was a lot longer than it had been when I went on before. I didn't feel like waiting that long by myself and since I thought EMH was about to start I decided to wait a little while for the wait to go down, so I got out of line. It took me a minute to find Mom and we decided to walk around a little bit before EMH started. I finally realized my mistake about 5 minutes later. Oops.

Mom wanted to get back to the hotel since Dad had been alone all day. We decided to check out the wait for TSM since I really really wanted to go on it again and then see what happened. Not surprisingly, the wait for TSM was posted for over 100 minutes and it didn't seem worth it to wait that long. We walked towards the Streets of America area for a few minutes and it was completely deserted and dark. It is weird that they seem to close up everything before the park closes. We decided to leave since EMH didn't start for another hour and there wasn't much to do since the lines were so long, plus Mom really wanted to get back to check on Dad. I was kind of disappointed that we didn't get to stay for EMH, but it just didn't make sense. And we decided to go to Downtown Disney for a little while after checking on Dad so we wouldn't be wasting any precious Disney time.

But we had to stop for some more Hat pictures before we left.

We got back to our room at POR before 9. Dad slept most of the day and said he was starting to feel better. Mom was hungry so she went to Rivermill to get a wrap and to get some toast and gingerale for Dad. I wasn't super hungry and decided to wait and get something in Downtown Disney, so I stayed in the room and watched some American Pickers with Dad.

Once Mom finished eating, we took the boat to DTD.

(I took this picture on a different day when it was actually light out)

The ride took about 20-30 minutes but it was a nice change from a bus and the scenery was pretty. I would definitely recommend it if you have the option.

When we decided to go to DTD we had forgotten that it was Friday night, and it was super crowded. We went into World of Disney, but it was so packed that it was hard to actually look at anything, so we didn't stay in there long. At this point I was hungry and I knew exactly what I wanted, ice cream from Gheradelli. Unfortuantely, nothing counted as a snack credit and we didn't want to spend so much on a snack when we had so many credits left, so I left empty handed So, for the second time that night we went on a hunt for food. We couldn't find anything that we could use snack credits on and didn't want to walk that far, so we head back to the boat landing. We went into Goofy's Confectionary and although there were a ton of a delicious looking treats, there wasn't anything I wanted, so we left. We decided to get in line for the boat back, but I decided that I wanted a rice crispie treat from Goofy's Confectionary afterall. We went back and I got my Mickey crispie treat with Resse's Pieces. I'm glad I decided to go back, because it was very delicious. And super cute!

Side 1

Side 2

I swear, everything tastes better when it is shaped like Mickey!!

I ate it while we waited in line, but only ate 1 ear before I was full. I ended up munching on it for the next few days. It was a lot more filling than I thought it would be.

We took the boat back, got ready for bed, and watched a little more TV before we went to sleep.