A Very, Merry November Girls only trip to Disney - the trip Report update: 4/29

[joy13]

Howdy - I'm Joy and me, my Mom (Oma to my daughter) and daughter took a girl's only trip to Disneyworld from 11/16 to 11/21. If you didn't read my pre-trip report here's a link to the introduction page to read all about us:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=42392327&postcount=1

So if you read that introduction, I said I wasn't going to write a trip report - I obviously changed my mind I'm going to give it another go - I want to relive my trip! So here goes nothing

Chapter Links:
11/16: Departure and Arrival
11/16:Grand Floridian Tour, Wishes and Chef Mickey's
11/17 A morning at DHS
11/17 Afternoon and Evening at DHS
Photopass catchup
11/18 Magic Kingdom morning

 

[B&WMickey]

Go Packers!!!!!!!

 

[joy13]

11/16 - Departure Day

Our trip began on Wed. 11/16. We were scheduled to fly out of Green Bay's airport at 6:50am and then connect in Minneapolis and arrive in Orlando at 2:15pm. The nice thing is that we only live 5 minutes from the airport and it's small, so we didn't have to be there hours before departure. We had my Mom stay over night, so that caused some changes in sleeping arrangements. My Mom slept in Maddie's bed, Maddie slept with me and my Husband slept in the spare room. Maddie's bed has a better mattress than the spare room, and my Mom has back issues sometimes, so we wanted to play it safe. Well, Maddie must have been really excited for the trip, because she woke up at 2:15 and didn't go back to sleep until almost 4:00am. That was a bummer because the alarm went off at 4:45am Thankfully, with all the excitement to go - we got up ok. We got to the airport without a hitch and our plane from Green Bay left on time.

We made it to Minneapolis and had breakfast while waiting for our next plane. We had a 2 hr layover, which ended up being a bit longer because we had to wait to get a crew from another plane. We ended up leaving about 45 minutes late. Then they had to go around a storm system as well, so that made the flight a little bit longer. Maddie slept a lot of the flight, since she had such a rough night of sleep. We ended up arriving in Orlando right around 3:00. After we got there, Maddie went into the carry-on and immediately got out a princess crown - lol!

We headed to the Magical Express and got right into line for Pop Century:

We only had to wait a few minutes and it was time to get onto the bus:

We stopped at Caribbean Beach Resort first and the Pop was the next stop

Maddie was completely entertained by the movie on the bus and the temps were wonderful compared to what we had come from. It was sunny and 84 - nice!

We arrived at Pop and there was no line for check in I was very excited to see that the Christmas Tree was up:

Empty Lobby

I checked in and was thrilled that we got our exact room requests. We were in room 4456 - which is right along the lake - back side of the Play-doh building 4. We could see the Epcot and MK fireworks from our window! We could also see the Nemo section of the new Art of Animation resort.

View from our room:

The inside, they had redone the rooms since 2009 when we were there:

New hooks:

Up next: Our evening touring resorts.

 

[joy13]

Go Packers!!!!!!!

11-0 baby!

I see you were just at Disney too? Were you there at the same time?

 

[jenseib]

Joining in! Now to back and read.....(gotta get that 1st page spot you know )

 

[aksunshine]

wooo hooo!!!

 

[the_princess]

Great TR so far, looking forward to more...

 

[wdwgirl03]

Joining in too.

 

[mom2rtk]

YEAH! Thanks for starting so early. I get a sneak peek before we leave in 10 days! ....... not that I'm counting or anything.....

 

[skier_pete]

Joining in! Looks like a good start. I like the shots of the AAR - Nemo section. We drove by many times and saw the construction from afar. (You could see the tops of the bowling pins from the bus route around CBR.) Love Pop Century - but have never been in Building 4.

SP

 

[Caretames1]

Joining in on the fun!!

 

[FosterA]

Glad to see you started a report!!

Great photos so far. Keep it up

 

[joy13]

Joining in! Now to back and read.....(gotta get that 1st page spot you know )

Being on the first page is of utmost importance!

wooo hooo!!!

Almost time for you

Great TR so far, looking forward to more...

Thanks and welcome!!!

Joining in too.

Glad to have you

YEAH! Thanks for starting so early. I get a sneak peek before we leave in 10 days! ....... not that I'm counting or anything.....

I meant it on your TR - I think you, me and Jen need to plan something!

Joining in! Looks like a good start. I like the shots of the AAR - Nemo section. We drove by many times and saw the construction from afar. (You could see the tops of the bowling pins from the bus route around CBR.) Love Pop Century - but have never been in Building 4.

SP

It's our second time in building 4 - it's a great location. Maddie wants to try the 50's next time though.

Joining in on the fun!!

Welcome! I need to get back to reading your report!

Glad to see you started a report!!

Great photos so far. Keep it up

Will do!

 

[joy13]

When I left off we had arrived to our room. The location was perfect! It was weird, when we went into the room the TV was on and when we tried to shut if off (both with the remote and the power button on the TV) it wouldn't shut off or change the channel. I also noticed that the bottom dresser drawer was broken. I called maintanence and the sent a person right up. He reset the TV and took the drawer to fix it or replace it. When we got back later that night the drawer was fixed

So I had planned on heading to Magic Kingdom for awhile this night if we got in at a decent time. We were only a little late getting in, but just even that hour made it seem too short to make it worth going into Magic Kingdom. We did have an ADR at Chef Mickey's to go to, so instead of going to MK, we just headed that way and took the Monorail to the Grand Floridian. I figured if we didn't go that night to see the Gingerbread house, we never would. So we hopped on the bus to Magic Kingdom, then took the Monorail around to the Grand Floridian. The Gingerbread house did not disappoint! (lots of Pictures ahead)

We had to get some gingerbread of course:

I just loved all the detail on this house, I'm sure there was a ton I didn't notice. It was just beautiful! Once we were done looking around it was time to head back to the monorail and make our way to the Contemporary

Continued next post:

 

[joy13]

Once we got to the Contemporary, we headed to the 4th floor observation deck to watch Wishes. Our ADR was at 8:25, so the timing was perfect. I had never been there before, so I was happy when I saw they even had benches to sit on.

View of the castle from the observation deck:

My Mom has problems with back spasms at times, and she felt her back starting to act up. This would be an issue the whole trip - though it didn't ruin the trip by any means, but I felt bad that she had to deal with that. Any way a few people were already on the benches - it was about 7:35 or so. We found seats though and a nice lady that had the front bench to herself said Maddie could come sit with her so she could see My Mom and I were entertained this whole time because we could see that Maddie talked to this lady non-stop the whole time. I don't know what they were conversing about, but I was hoping the lady didn't mind the non-stop chatter So first Magic, Memories and You was shown, but that music wasn't piped in. It looked cool though. Then Wishes started and they do pipe that music in. Tinker Bell did fly so that was nice! I'm not great at Firework pictures so I'll just post this one of just missing the heart:

When Wishes ended we thanked the lady that Maddie was sitting by and I told her I hoped she didn't mind my chatty daughter. She said it was great, she was there for a convention and her family had gone home a few days before. One of her kids is 9, so she is used to a child Maddie's age. I was glad to hear that!

We then headed down and checked in for our ADR:

It was 8:25pm, but there were a ton of people. This was the only ADR I could get for Chef Mickey's during our whole stay, so it was a popular place. We checked in and got our pictures taken. I have a copy of that on Maddie's camera, but I haven't uploaded her pictures, so I'll add that in later. I'll have to play catch-up with Photopass pictures anyway. Then we waited about 20 minutes for our table. Maddie was entertained by the Disney Channel, but by this point Mom and I were ready to eat and between being tired from a long day and my Mom's back - we just wanted to get our table. We weren't too grumpy though - LOL. We got our table and got some food right away. Our waiter was very nice and attentive

Minnie visited first:

Then Goofy:

Then the waiter brought Maddie her birthay cupcake - her birthday is 12/11.

It took awhile (especially when you have a bad back (my Mom) and are tired (all of us) LOL but Mickey finally came:

Then Pluto:

Then we had to wave napkins for the second time:

Then finally Donald!

Once dinner was done, we decided to take a cab back to Pop. It was after 10:00, MK had been closed since 8:00, so I wasn't going to take a chance of walking over to the Pop stop and find no buses. With being so tired and my Mom's back, the thought of going to DTD on a bus and then to Pop didn't seem reasonable either, so into a cab we went. That worked out really nice - it was about $20.

So our arrival day went really well, with the exception of my Mom's back acting up. We were pretty tired by the time we got back to the room though. The luggage was there, but I didn't have the energy to unpack, so we just got out what we needed and headed to bed. I'm not sure I'd do a late ADR like that on arrival day again - that makes for an awfully long day, but we did enjoy it, despite being tired.

Up next: Hollywood Studios

 

[nvsnot]

I've subscribed to your TR. I'm enjoying it so far and can't wait to read more!

 

[jenneth79]

Subbing!

What lovely pictures of the Gingerbread House over at GF, we really need to figure out a way to head down there during the holiday season one year, it's so lovely, I think I could make do with the massive crowds.

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

 

[joy13]

I've subscribed to your TR. I'm enjoying it so far and can't wait to read more!

Thank you and Welcome!!!

Subbing!

What lovely pictures of the Gingerbread House over at GF, we really need to figure out a way to head down there during the holiday season one year, it's so lovely, I think I could make do with the massive crowds.

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

Thank you and welcome to you also! If you can swing mid-november or early December, the crowds aren't bad at all The only Christmas events that weren't going on yet when we were there was Holidays around the world and the Candlelight Processional at Epcot - everything else was decorated and going on.

 

[FosterA]

nice update!!
Maddie looked so excited about that cupcake

Looking at your photos makes me want to go back sooooo bad!

 

[jenseib]

Maddie looks like she has enough energy for all of you that evening.
Seeing your pictures are REALLY making me want to stay a few days after the cruise next year....I will need to see how early Osborne Lights start, but if I can work it, I might try for a night at DHS and maybe hit the 1st or 2nd party.....I hope I can swing it... I would love to do some resort touring of Christmas decorations.