Auntie Sherry
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2010
- Messages
- 133
Sherry Cote September 22-30 2010 Pop Century - (Auntie Shows Niece the World)
Cast members
(Auntie Sherry) author- age 44, 21 trips to WDW, Disney Fanatic as well as Expert planner first time at Pop Century, Lots of energy, loves all Rides.
(Niece Nicole)- age 28 one trip to WDW at age eight, willing to try all attractions also loves to plan.
Reason for the Trip and Introduction
Well I don’t really need a reason but here it is: Over the last few years my niece Nicole and I have become very close. We are there for each other, and have discovered that we are kindred spirits. We enjoy spending time together. I was thinking how much fun it would be to go with her. She is about the only person I know who likes to plan as much as I do. When we go shopping together we actually make a plan. I also felt the need for a trip since it had been over a year. I needed to go with someone who I knew was fun and could keep up with me. Here she was right in front of me plus being 15 and half years younger than me she can easily keep up with me. Everyone I know my own age could not.
We first talked about taking the trip in the summer of 2009 after having a successful yard sale together. I mentioned we should use the money towards a Disney Vacation, and it went from there.
The Plan
Resort- I chose the Pop Century Resort because we needed a value resort to stay in our budget and I wanted to try the Pop. I have stayed at almost all the resorts but never this one. I have heard good things about it. I booked an eight day magic your way package with free quick service dining on 5/7/10. Cost-$1,271.00 we chose the base ticket to save even more money.
Transportation- I also booked this on 5/7/10. We got 2 nonstop round trip flights with Jet Blue Cost -$494.80 (I later got a $68 dollar credit when the flights went down)
Extras- We booked Mickey’s Not so scary Halloween Party on 5/11/10 for the night of 9/28/11 Cost- $114.92
Getting to the Airport Thankfully my son Stephen volunteered to drive us so we could keep in our budget. We had to leave at 3:30 am. Nicole’s husband Ryan volunteered to pick us up Thanks again to both of them!!
Total Cost= $1,880.72 of trip so far
Pre- trip Notes
Once the trip was booked we spent the summer earning the money and preparing to go. We had another yard sale in June 2010 and picked the blueberries mostly in July and one week into August. I did most of the eBay selling in August as well.
How we earned the money
$145.00---2009 yard sale
$310.00---2010 yard sale (Nicole’s Mom donated items Thanks)
$34.50—bottle deposit returns
$300.00—eBay selling (sold mostly items purchased at yard sales lots of vintage toys and pampered chef, American girl items).
$590.00—Blueberry picking (paid $10 for every 12 pints picked) picked all of July and some of August.
$30.00—Birthday gift
$479.00—Travel agent money (arrangement I have with my travel agent friend Roger) When I bring customers to him. He gives me a percentage.
Total Earned= $1,888.50
We both went to yard sales over the summer with my husband Steve. We all kept our eyes open for costumes to wear to the Halloween Party. Nicole wanted to be Tinker bell so I thought I would be Wendy. I found a Tinker bell costume at a yard sale for $2 actually it was Steve who spotted it. On the same day Nicole’s parents found her light up tinker bell wings and a wand at another yard sale. Magic must have been in the air that day. I looked online for a Wendy Costume I had no luck. So Finally I decided to make one. I sew a little so I needed help. Nicole’s Mom ( my sister Barbie )helped. We all did it in one day. Barbie had a pattern for a simple dress in her collection. I got the fabric at Joanne’s. It cost about $20. I don’t have the exact cost because I bought too much fabric. I got a blue glitter ribbon for fifty cents at a yard sale for the waist. I bought ballet slippers with silver sequence on them at sears for $19.99. Nicole got green flip flops for $4 and she made pompoms to go on top with white glitter yarn. They looked perfect.
The time went by fast because we were very busy. We both have gardens and we spent several days making pickles and canning tomatoes together. In-between that we made Mouse Keeping envelopes went shopping for trip items and even spent time practicing how to style our hair as Wendy and Tink. Being the planners we are we had a plan starting six weeks before the trip in order to get everything done. We had one day a week canning and one working on stuff for the trip. We had a packing day one week before the Trip. We planned coordinating outfits for each day. We actually had more stuff then clothes. We packed spray on glitter, Disney tattoos, and glow necklaces. We also had Halloween decorations for our room lots of sunscreen and of course costumes. We even had to squeeze in fairy wings and a magic wand into our luggage.
Now we were ready to go. The last time I went was February 2009 with my husband for our 25th anniversary. We stayed at the Grand Floridian and had the regular dining plan. The funny thing was I was just as excited for this trip and I was going from the Grand Floridian to the Pop Century. It must have been the fact that I was going with Nicole and we have fun no matter what. It felt funny not to plan any meals but it made it a lot easier. Nicole said she wanted to see everything she could so that would allow for more touring time. I didn’t care about sit down meals either, and cost was an issue. we just stayed with the free quick service dining plan. We could have paid the difference and upgraded to the full service plan. But that would also mean paying for gratuities as well.
Park Planning
I went on the Official Disney Website and made an Itinerary under the My Vacation tab. I choose one park for each day based on the Extra Magic hours. Then I began planning out a schedule for each day so we would see as many attractions as possible. When I went to the Disney website to enter the attractions, the website scrambled the order of them. I then realized I had to assign a time to each attraction to get them in the order I wanted to visit them. I was not sure if I could plan them out with an exact time but I thought it would be interesting to try this and see how close I came to being at the attraction at the specific time I had entered (I told you my planning was out of control) It took a long time to enter them all in the website. The reason I did it was so that I could access the schedule from my iPhone. I would not have to carry any paper into the parks just my phone. I was able to make the itinerary right from my phone. I did it at night while I sat on the couch watching TV. It took about an hour and a half per day. Now when I am in the parks I can just look at my phone and it tells me where to go next and if I am running on schedule.
Trip Report
We had decided to have Nicole sleep over my house the night before. She lives in the opposite direction we were headed and Stephen would have to go get her because she does not have a car right now. Nicole’s husband Ryan dropped her off at my house about 9:00 pm. She slept in the Tinker Bell bed in my Disney room. Yes I now have a Disney room. I painted the castle on one wall and the monorail around the top. I have lots of Disney memorabilia in there. I use it for my computer and crafts. I also have bunk beds one Tinker Bell and one Nemo
Nicole and I watched a calming Disney movie (Fantasia) had one glass of wine and painted our nails. Stephen still lived at home at this time. He put our luggage in his car. We tried to go to sleep around 10:30 pm we set the alarm for 2:30 am since we planned to leave at 3:30 am here is the planned itinerary under the Disney Day Planner for September 22
6:10 am flight 431
9:10 am flight arrives in Orlando
10:30 am ETA @ Pop Century Resort
10:45 am check in
11:15 am-lunch at Pop food court or Casey’s at MK
12:00 pm arrive by bus to MK
12:15 pm WDW Railroad
12:40 pm Exposition hall
1:00 pm Chapau shop
1:15 pm Main St Confectionery
1:30 pm Uptown Jewelers
1:45 pm Firehouse
2:00 pm Emporium and Crystal Arts
2:30 pm find a parade viewing spot
3:00 pm Celebrate A Dream come True Parade
3:45 pm take the boat to Wilderness Lodge Resort
4:15 pm tour Wilderness Lodge Resort
5:00 pm take the boat back to MK
5:30 pm dinner in Tomorrowland or eat later at Pop Century if not hungry yet.
6:00 pm Tomorrowland Transit Authority (Nicole wants to see space mountain before riding in the AM)
6:30 pm take the bus back to Pop Century
7:00 pm Unpack
9:00 pm Bedtime
The Real Story
I was up at 1:15am (too excited to sleep problem) Nicole slept until alarm went off. We left at 3:20 am. There was no traffic and Stephen was driving (Let’s just say he doesn’t drive slow) we arrived at 4:08 am
We made it through security by 4:56 am so we just sat and waited. We made one last trip to the restroom and boarded the plane. It took off at 6:22am
This was Nicole’s first time flying. It was a pretty smooth nice flight for her first time. She seemed to enjoy it. We touched down in Orlando at 8:56am. We checked in at Magical Express. The bus left the airport at 9:27 am.
Check in-
I had opted to do the online check in service before we left. (First time trying it out)We went to the counter at 10:15 (30 mins ahead of schedule) It took five mins. We were told our room was ready!! Wow I have only had that happen one other time.
We were in the room at 10:39. We got room number 9259. We put down our carry-on luggage and checked out the room to make sure everything was clean and in working order. We couldn’t unpack because we had to wait for our luggage to arrive. We went to get lunch at the food court. We couldn’t find it at first and then figured out we had to walk through the gift shop. Should have known they would do that. We used our first quick service meal. We both got bacon and cheese Angus burger meal and chocolate chip cookie. The burger was not so good it seemed very dry. It was huge we could only each eat half of the burger and half of the cookie The time on our receipt said 11:30 am. We got our refillable mugs that were included in the plan. We filled them up with soda. To drink now, and then we picked out a drink to be our drink with the meal. I got a bottle of lemonade and Nicole got a Pepsi. We put those in our backpacks to take with us. It was 11:54 when we finished lunch. We walked back to our room to drop off our mugs and then headed for the bus to the Magic Kingdom. At 12:17 we arrived at the bus stop (17 minutes behind schedule) Oh no I’m Late I’m Late!! The MK bus came at 12:21. We stepped off the bus at 12:38.
We followed our schedule and road the train for a circle tour around the MK. We then went to Exposition hall but it was closed for refurbishment. We went in the hat shop, candy shop, jewelry store, firehouse, and emporium. We just sort of did an overview of everything. Not any real shopping. We finished that before 2:30 so we walked through toon town. We rode Goofy’s coaster and went in Mickey and Minnie’s houses. Nicole said she remembered this area from when she was eight and that she really liked it then. She still liked Minnie’s sewing machine.
At 2:30 we sat down on the hot! pavement to wait for the parade. It was so hot it was almost burning our butts (oh sorry can we say that on this Disney site?). We had put an extra drawstring bag in our backpacks to hold our drink bottles in and keep them from sweating on things. They were free bags my husband Steve brought home from a conference he went to. We used them to sit on. They came in handy more than once. We also each got a Mickey bar to eat while we waited.
We were now back on schedule. After the 3:00 parade we exited the park. The boat was just arriving to take us to the Wilderness Lodge so we ran to make it on. We arrived at the Lodge at 3:30. I showed Nicole the pool, Lobby, gift shop, snack shop and the geyser.
We decided to walk to Fort Wilderness. It took me a minute to find the walkway. It was a hot walk. I don’t mind so much. I love the heat and knew what to expect. I lived in West Palm Beach area for a year, but this was Nicole’s first real introduction to the Florida heat and humidity. It seemed like we walked a while in the woods without seeing anyone except a rabbit. It was a little creepy. We made it in one piece and I showed her the surroundings. We went in the gift shop and then walked by the petting zoo and we went in the barn to see the horses. We took a little break on a bench and finished the drinks we brought with us.
I forgot to write what time it was when we took the boat back to the MK. It is now seven months later when I am writing this. I have a good memory but not that good. I know we did not wait long for the boat to come. When we got back to the MK we rode the TTA it was fun and relaxing It was the first time I road it with the new narration. It seemed strange but I didn’t mind it too much. It was kind of cute.
We then headed out to the bus stop. We were there at 6:16 pm. We got on the bus at 6:24 pm (6 mins ahead of schedule) we made it back to the Pop at 6:41 pm. First we went to our room to get our refillable mugs. We found a faster way to walk back and forth. Next we went to the gift shop and bought some postcards and stamps. I was sending one to my friend Sharon to thank her for a gift. She sent me a Mickey necklace to wear on the trip. Nicole was sending some out too. We got dinner at the food court. We both got the Chicken Penne Alfredo. We got one chocolate cake and one carrot cake. Everything was yummy! I got Lemonade and Nicole got sprite to have to bring in the park tomorrow. Once again it was way too much food. We brought one of the cakes back to the room. We ate it for breakfast one of the days.
Unpacking a lot of stuff in a small space
When we got back to the room we began unpacking. It took a while because we are both such neat freaks and all about organizing. We knew we would be very busy, leaving early and getting back late so we did not want to be looking around for things. We had a lot of stuff. We split up the drawers and put each days outfits in order. We had planned outfits for each day when we packed. And labeled them with sticky notes attached saying what park and what day. We used the space under the TV for first aid supplies, Disney tattoos and misc. stuff like clothes pins, plastic bags, tape, rubber bands and a bag of glow necklaces and bracelets. We also had a container of nail polish stuff. Nicole put her suitcase on top of the shelf in the closet section. I put mine on the one luggage holder. Each day we folded our dirty clothes and put them right back in the suitcases, so we would not have to do this the last day. The whole shelf over the sink was full of our makeup, lotion, glitter, hair stuff. We plugged in a power strip I brought to charge our phones and cameras. We decorated our window. We brought window clings I found at the Dollar Tree Store. They had Disney princesses in Halloween attire. And I had some Mickey Halloween lights from the Disney Store. When we finished we put our stuff out on the table and chairs for the next day and got our bags ready. Then we put out the Mouse Keeping envelopes. We also filled the ice bucket and put our two drinks in there. We did not get to bed until 11:00 pm. (Two hours later then planed) Although it was a very full day I was not that tired. I set the wakeup call for the planned 6:00 am
Cost for the Day
$2 – tip for magical express
$7.53 five postcards and five stamps
Total cost = $9.33
Happy Thought
We made it to the happy place!
We have 7 days of fun to come
No housework we have mouse keeping
Unhappy Thought
Can’t think of one
Disney Day Planner for September 23
6:00 am – Wakeup call
7:00 am – Be at the Bus Stop
8:00 am – Magic Kingdom (AM Extra Magic Hour)
8:15 am – Space Mountain
8:40 – Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
8:45 am – The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
8:50 am –Peter Pans Flight
9:00 am –Get a FP for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
9:45 am – Mickey’s PhilharMagic
10:45 am – Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
11:00 am – Lunch Columbia Harbor house
11:40 am – Pirates of the Caribbean
12:00 pm –Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA)
12:30 pm – Carousel of Progress
1:30 pm – Take the bus back to the Pop
2:15 pm – Pool time
3:30 pm – Leave Pool get ready to go back
4:00 pm – Be at the Bus Stop
4:30 pm – Return to MK
4:35 pm – Get a Fast Pass for jungle Cruise
4:45 pm – Swiss Family Tree house
5:15 pm – Dinner El pirate y elita or Pecos bill
5:45 pm – Jungle Cruise use FP
6:00 pm – The Enchanted Tiki Room
6:30 pm- Leave MK use the walkway and walk to the Contemporary for a visit
7:30 pm - Take the monorail to Polynesian Resort and visit
8:30 pm – Walk from Polynesian to Grand Floridian and visit
9:15 pm – Watch the Electric Water Pageant
10:15 pm – Take the monorail to MK then bus to pop
11:30 pm - Bedtime
The Real Story
We both slept until the phone rang. I went down and got coffee in our mugs then we got ready to go. We did not make it to the bus stop until 7:13 am. I think it took us a little longer because we were not in the swing of things yet. We waited there in a long line for the MK bus. Animal Kingdom bus came twice, Epcot and Studios came. At 7:28 am the Mk bus came. We arrived 7:45 am. We watched the opening show and headed to Space Mountain. Nicole liked it, so we rode it again. The second time on Nicole’s lanyard flew off. I heard her say oh crap! She had her key to the world card in it. I use a lanyard all the time and have never had that happen so I was very surprised. We asked the cast member what to do. They called someone and also checked the next several cars that arrived back. Nicole said she was pretty sure it had just flown off and was not in the car. They told us to return to our resort and get a new one. They were very nice but not that helpful. I thought about it and said I think we can get it replaced right here. They can’t expect people to go all the way back and waste time. We needed it for fast passes.
Because it was still Extra Magic Hour we kept going with our plan for now. We then went to Buzz Lighyear, Pooh it’s a Small World and Peter Pan. I checked the time when we got to Peter Pan and it was exactly 8:50 am right on schedule. We both enjoyed Peter Pan and said how cute it was. We went to get a FP for Big Thunder and were told it was not running and FP was shut down. We then both got hungry so we went to the candy shop (hey its Disney World we can have candy for Breakfast) we actually got a peanut butter Cookie using a snack credit. It was so big we could not even finish it. The time on the receipt was 9:29
After “breakfast” We went over to guest services. We told the cast member what happened to the lanyard. He was funny and said “oh it was lost in space”. In about one minute he issued her a new card. I think it is too bad that the cast members at Space Mountain did not know this. If this was someone’s first time they would not have had their card and would have had to make a trip back to a resort. Seems like a simple thing to know.
We decided to check out Splash Mountain it was only a 5 min wait. So we took a ride. (Thunder Mountain was still down). It was now 10:30. So we went to see Mickey’s PhilharMagic . We both enjoyed it. We then did Haunted Mansion one of Nicole’s favorites. We kept to our plan and went to get lunch at Columbia Harbor House. We were able to get my favorite table for two upstairs against the widow. I love it there. it is quiet and you can sit and watch people outside. We both got the chicken nuggets and chocolate cake. The cake had little Halloween sprinkles on it. We liked it so much we took a photo, but it ended up looking like something gross was on the food. It was 10:59 am when we sat down with our food. How‘s that for keeping to the schedule?
After lunch we went to Adventureland to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean. I asked the cast member if Captain Jack sparrow was available for photos and he said no because his female fans would mob him. So we had to settle for the fake one on the ride. 12:08 we sat on a bench and made a few trip reports note in my notebook. We headed of for Tomorrowland and were able to catch the Carousel of Progress. I always enjoy this. It is just so nostalgic. Nicole said she also enjoyed it too. We took a ride on the TTA. When we were on the TTA Nicole was looking down and she said to me” Is that trash can moving?” I said yup you will see. When we got off the TTA we were able to catch the moving talking trash can named Push. We watched for about ten minutes. It is that kind of thing that Makes Disney World so special. I guess it is the little details. We both enjoyed watching people look surprised as it starts moving and talking. We especially liked the kids’ faces.
It was now time to head back to our resort for a pool break. We were at the Pop Century bus stop at 1:17 pm. Schedule said 1:30 and the bus came at 1:27, so right on time. We went back to the room changed into bathing suits grabbed our mugs filled them up and then went to the Computer Pool. We wrote out the postcards while we sat there so that maybe they would arrive home before we did. I sent off a couple emails as well from my phone. The love bugs were swarming. It was the third time I have gone during love bug season so I knew what they were and was not too freaked out. I sent a text photo of them to my sister Sandy because the year I went with her they were horrible. We dunked in the pool a bit and laid on the lounge chairs we only had an hour total but it felt good anyway. We left the pool at 3:32
We arrived at the MK bus stop at 4:09. The bus came at 4:14 and we arrived at the MK at 4:31. We stopped on Main Street and mailed our postcards. The plan said get a FP for the Jungle Cruise we did not need one there was only a 10 minute wait. We did not enjoy it at all because the girl who was our captain was EXTREMLY loud with a screechy voice. She yelled in to the microphone. She did not even need one. We couldn’t wait to get off the boat. It’s too bad because we planned to ride again at some point but never did. We then road on Aladdin’s magic carpet it was not in the plan but there was only a 5 minute wait. After Aladdin we went right over to the Tiki birds and only had to wait 6 minutes. WOW! We were on a roll. We then walked through the tree house. I had given Nicole a list of required movie watching when we booked the trip. It had Swiss Family Robinson on it. She said she saw the movie a long time ago, but was happy she saw it as an adult recently. She said it made the attraction more enjoyable.
After walking up all those steps in the heat, I knew what we needed. It was a refreshing Dolewhip Yum!
There was a pretty long line but it moved fast and was worth it. We each got the Dolewhip float. It was now 5:43 pm. We sat at the tables and updated the trip report notebook before we forgot. It was a nice little break. We thought we would check and see if Thunder Mountain was running. It was and there was only a 5 minute wait. I love this time of year! We rode twice.
After that we decided to head out of the MK. We took the walkway to the Contemporary Resort. I wanted Nicole to see as much of the World as possible. The Contemporary is my second favorite resort. My first is the Polynesian. I showed her the pool and lobby. We headed up two the concourse. I had brought some lite up ice cubes with me. I had two packs that I bought at the BVG shop on my last trip. They were still in the package but did not work. I wanted to see if they would exchange them for me. I love them. I use them all the time. They are perfect for when I am sitting on my porch having a margarita or glass of wine. We found a cast member to help. She was very nice and she called someone for help. A woman came over from the Fantasia gift shop across the way. She said she was the manager and was there to help. My package had the price tag still on it said $5.95 and the new ones said $6.95 She walked us across to the Fantasia gift shop and told me to just take two new ones. She did not even make a register transaction. She said sorry that happened and Have a Magical Day! Wow! It is a Magical place. I put them in my backpack. While we were there we noticed they had wine coolers at the Fantasia gift shop. We only had a one serving bottle of white wine at our resort and it cost $7.99. We got two strawberry Daiquiri wine coolers to take back with us. (Receipt was stamped 7:06 pm)
We put them in our back packs and continued to the Monorail. We took it one stop to the Polynesian Resort. As soon as we stepped on the property I felt instantly relaxed at my favorite Disney resort. We were getting hungry so we went to Captain Cook’s. We both got the Hawaiian flat bread pizza and a cupcake. It was 7:40 when we ate. We sat outside at the umbrella tables. It would have been perfect except I did not like all the ducks around our feet. Nicole called her husband Ryan and I called Steve. We updated them on all the things we had done and checked in to see everything was fine at home. After we ate all the frosting off our cupcakes we were pretty full. We took a walk. I showed Nicole sunset point and my favorite room in the Tukelue building. It was a beautiful night with the Polynesian music and all the tiki torches lit. After the walk we went back in the lobby to guest services. I wanted them to check out my old passes and see if it had days left on the water parks. The cast member was helpful but she kept saying it had four park days left. I knew that was wrong. She kept trying and finally came up with one water park day on one of the passes and said the other one had none, which is what I thought.
We came out just in time to see the Electric Water Pageant. The plan said to watch it at the Grand Floridian but we were right there by the dock and it was a few minutes before nine so we just watched it there. I think it’s a better view anyways. Nicole enjoyed it. We took the brick walkway along the water to the Grand Floridian. I showed her the lobby and the pool and a quick walk through the gift shops. We took the Monorail to the MK so we could get the bus back to our resort. We saw fireworks while we waited for the bus. I forgot to write down what the time bus came, but we got back to our room at 9:47 pm. We got stuff ready for the next day and set up the wake up call. It was a great day with a lot of ground covered. We were tired LIGHTs OUT at 11:00pm
Cost for the Day
2 wine coolers
$7.99
Total cost $7.99
Happy Thought
Dolewhip
How much we can do in one day and still enjoy it!!!! (Because of planning)
Unhappy Thought
Lanyard –lost in space
Disney Day Planner for September 24
8:30 am –Wake up
9:00 am – Epcot opens
9:30 am – Bus stop
10:00 am – Get FP for Soarin
10:15 am – Spaceship Earth
10:40 am – The Seas with Nemo and Friends
11:30 am – Lunch at Electric Umbrella
12:00 pm- Soarin use FP (this is only a guess on return time)
12:30 pm - Living with the Land
1:00 pm – Mission Space
1:30 pm- Bus back to Pop Century
2:00 pm- Pool Time
3:15 pm – Leave pool get ready to go
4:15 pm - Bus back to Epcot
5:00 pm – Gran Fiesta Tour (Mexico)
5:20 pm – Maelstrom (Norway)
5:45 pm – Dinner at Lotus blossom café (China)
6:15 pm Dragon Legend Acrobats
6:45 pm – Kim Possible Adventure
7:30 pm – Germany
8:00 pm –Italy
8:30 pm – Find a viewing spot
9:00 pm – Illuminations Reflections of Earth (Extra Magic Hours began)
9:35 pm – The American Adventure
10:00 pm –Test Track
10:25 pm- Ride Soarin two or three times
11:30 pm – Spaceship Earth
12:00 pm – Epcot closes take bus back to Pop Century
1:00 am – Bedtime
Real Story
I woke up a t 5:45 am. I laid there about an hour fell back asleep until the phone rang at 8:00 am. Neither one of us felt awake we walked the wrong way to get our coffee. We got ready and left the room at 9:30 am. We got off the bus at Epcot at 9:56 am. We got the FP for Soarin. It said to come back 11:57- 12:57. I am beginning to scare myself because I guessed 12:00pm. There was no wait for Living with the Land boat ride so we did that now. We both enjoyed it but groaned when we saw the tomatoes. I canned a total of 33 quarts. No More! We walked over to Spaceship Earth. It said 10 minute wait. It was less than that. We pretty much just walked on. It was fun but we got stopped on the ride for about 15 minutes. Now we got hungry, so we ate at the Electric Umbrella. I lost my receipts for this whole day. I think we got chicken strips or burgers. We sat upstairs in front of glass windows and watched people. It was a nice spot but the AC was blaring and I was freezing. My notes say it was 11:45 when we finished lunch. By the time we walked over to the Land it was time to use our fast past. We waited to get row one. I wanted Nicole to experience row one for her first ride on Soarin. This is my favorite thing in all of Walt Disney World. She loved it too. Next we went to the Seas with Nemo. We walked right on the ride with no wait. We then waited for 10-15 minutes for Turtle Talk with Crush. Nicole enjoyed it as much as I did even though it is really for little ones. By this time it became our motto to say (just keep swimming just keep swimming), because it seemed we were always moving and upstream against the crowds. We took a few minutes to look at the fish in the large tank. It was now after two and we had not kept to our 1:30pm scheduled bus back to the pop. We made a new plan to take a quick break. We knew we were going to be out late so we should take some sort of break. We stopped at Mission Space on our way out because I wanted to do it as we were leaving the park just in case it made Nicole Sick. She said it didn’t bother her but she didn’t think it was fun. We got the bus at 2:38. It only took 10 minutes to get back to the Pop.
I forgot to mention that we had brought some breakfast bars with us and were eating one in the room each morning. We decided to get some breakfast items for the next few days using our snack options because we had so many we were not using. We stopped in the grab and go area and got a Danish and cinnamon roll to bring back to our room. The receipt said 25 snack options left. I bought a mickey straw that was on sale for 98 cents too. We took a few minutes to re-organize the room. (So much for taking a restful break). I guess we are not very good at slowing down.
We got back to Epcot at 4:43 pm. Went to Mexico and rode the boat ride. There was no wait. It was starting to rain a little. We went to China and looked through the shops. We watched the 6:15 Dragon Legend acrobat show. It was held indoors because of the rain, but as always was very impressive. Nicole seemed to really like it. After the show we got dinner at the Lotus Blossom. I don’t remember what we got (lost receipt) I do know we liked it. We had a nice table in front of the window. When we came out it was still raining a little and I actually felt cold. I put my poncho on. We also used those free drawstring bags to protect our backpacks from the rain because they were maid of nylon. We just put our packs right inside of those, so it gave them a double layer.
We then back tracked to Norway walked through the gift shop and got a Kim Possible phone. They told us our mission was in France. So off we went just keep swimming just keep swimming. We had fun doing our mission. When we finished we found the box to return it in but couldn’t figure out how to open it. Nicole hit her had on the box while we were trying to figuring it out. (She was ok) We saw someone else do it, so then we knew how. I think he was about 8 years old. That figures!
When it got dark we put on our glow bracelets we brought with us. We had a photopass done with them on and it came out great.
We found a spot in Japan just before 9:00 pm to watch Illuminations. I don’t care for this as much since it changed to reflections of earth. I think it is not as good as the original and not everyone can even see the globe. I hope they change it soon. It is been over ten years. Nicole enjoyed it enough but was not overly impressed.
After that we went to American Adventure show. The cast member said the next show was in 35 minutes. I said we will come back. He commented on how he liked my lanyard. He said that is a nice place to put it mam. Because it was now Extra Magic Hours we had to show our Key to the World Card for every attraction and mine was in my lanyard. I didn’t hear what he said and I thought he said that is a nice WAY to put it when I said we would come back. I asked Nicole what he said and why was he staring g at my chest where the lanyard was. We couldn’t stop laughing I think we were just very tired and silly because it is not so funny now. We walked through Germany, Italy and Morocco while we waited for the show to start. We went back in 30 minutes. We both enjoyed the show. After the show we did the Imagination ride and there was no wait.
I checked the app for wait times I have on my phone and it said 45 minute wait for Test Track WOW!! So much for Extra Magic Hours. This is not the first time the lines are long during the evening ones. We walked over there just in case the app was wrong. The phone app was correct it was 45 minutes we did not wait. We did the same for Soarin. It was now 11:00 pm and the Soarin line was 40 minutes. We went in the Mousegear shop instead. Nicole was looking for a sweatshirt. We didn’t find one she liked. I checked the wait time again on Soarin and it said 30 minutes so we went to Nemo again. No wait there. At 11:45 pm I checked Soarin. It was now only a 15 minute wait. It was more like 20 in the end but we got to ride again. We took our time exiting the park. We stopped at all the sparkly lights in the sidewalk and took photos. I love anything that lights up. It was 12:35 when we got on the bus. Only one other group was on with us since Epcot closed at Midnight. We got back at 12:42. We put out our stuff together for the next day which was really now today. LIGHTS OUT at 2:00 am. Another fun filled day!
Cost for the Day
$1.04- Mickey drinking straw
Total Cost = $1.04 big spenders!
Happy thought
Soarin
Still five more days of fun!!!
Unhappy thought
Long lines for Soarin
Disney Day Planner for September 25
8:15 - Wake up call
9:15 – Bus stop to Blizzard Beach
10:00 – Find a spot and set up
10:15 – Take the Chairlift
10:25 – Teamboat Springs
10:45 – Toboggan Racers
11:00 – Melt Away Bay
12:30 – Lunch at Lottawata Lodge
1:00 – Cross Country Creek and relax in chairs
3:00 – Bus Back to Pop Century
5:00 – Bus Stop to Downtown Disney
5:40 – Begin Shopping World of Disney
6:15 – LEGO Imagination Center
6:40 – Dinner at Earl of Sandwich
7:15 – Kitchen Store (forgot the name)
7:45 – Christmas Shop
8:15 – Scrapbook Store
8:45 – Once Upon a Toy Store
9:15 - $10 and under store
9:30 – Bus back to Pop Century
11:00 – Bedtime
The Real Story
I Woke at 7:50 am. I felt like I had been run over by a Truck. I guess the last few days had caught up with me and I hit the wall. That was ok because I planned this water park day in the middle of the week to relax. I went to get the much needed coffee. WOW! It was crazy in the food court. We usually are there earlier. I was thinking about, how people handle that mass confusion when they have kids with them. I think I would have one parent sit at the table with them and one get all the stuff. I could not handle that. I only have one child so I have no Idea how people do it with two or more.
When I got back to the room Nicole was up and getting ready to go. We split the Cinnamon roll for breakfast. We were at the bus stop at 9:40 am. I was feeling more awake now. We had lots of sunscreen for Nicole, she burns easily, and two towels from the room plus two drinks we saved from our last food court meal. We waited ten minutes for the bus. We arrived 10:05 and one of my old passes worked and we had to buy one new one. It was still less money than adding the water park option to our pass. We did not have any other water park days planned.
We found a spot to set up. It was near the exit to TheTeamboat Springs ride. We set our stuff on two lounge chairs. Then we took the chairlift up to the top of Mount Gushmore. There was only a 5 minute wait, and they put a boy or guy with us. We couldn’t tell how old he was. He was talking and acting very young but he had facial hair. Maybe 15 but he acted younger. Not a problem but it was weird to sit all squished in there in nothing but our bathing suits. I would rather not do that again.
It was a nice sunny day and already heating up. We rode Teamboat Springs. We both had fun but the water was COLD! Next we walked up the mountain to do the Toboggan racers. We both are not too crazy about waterslides but they were just our speed. I did Slusher Gusher once a long time ago and did not like the feeling off going airborne so I never did slummet plummet. It is the only thing I have not done in all of Disney World.
After all that excitement we did Castaway Creek (lazy river) it was so relaxing after all the running around we have been doing. It felt so nice we did it twice. We felt a little guilty that are husband were home working while we were floating around, but then we remembered it was Saturday and they were not working. Okay no guilt. Nicole said she wanted to try and call Ryan so we dragged ourselves out of the river and went back to our spot. I laid on the lounge chair and baked in the sun. I was tired and fell asleep for about 15 minutes. It was just what I needed. I felt refreshed and ready to go again. Nicole was off for a walk and talking to Ryan.
When she came back we headed over to Lottawatta Lodge and got lunch. Our receipt says we had a chicken wrap basket and turkey sandwich and 2 sodas, 2 chocolate chip cookies. The time on it was 12:31 (still keeping to our plan) after our stomachs were full we figured it was time to float in the wave pool. We did that for about an hour. It was heavenly. It took us a bit to find empty tubes though. My husband and son do not care for the water parks anymore. So, I don’t get much of a chance to do this. Nicole was having as much fun as I was. We stayed there at least an hour maybe more.
When we got out of the wave pool we got a snack. I had been wanted to get one of those snowballs I have never tried one. It was actually written on my plan, and I even picked out the flavor, cotton candy. When we arrived at the stand, there was a sign saying closed for the day. NO! Say it isn’t So! Oh Well I guess it was not a tragedy. We looked around and I found frozen lemonade. Nicole got an orange dreamsicle. They both were good and very refreshing. We now had 22 snacks options left. Come ON! It feels like it never goes down. I am not use to snacks during the day never mind two. With our drinks in hand we decided to take a walk and look around. I guess we were so used to walking all day we needed to. (Just keep swimming, Just Keep Swimming) We saw a couple of secluded picnic spots, and a spot where you could actually see a road and we saw a pick-up truck. It was interesting.
After the walk we went back to our spot. We sat a minute and figured we would get going. We gathered our stuff and left the two towels in the towel return. We were at the bus stop at 3:10 pm. We got back to the Pop and 3:25 pm. We took showers, got drinks in our refillable mugs. Then we walked around the resort and took photos of all the giant themed Icons.
We went to the bus stop at 5:30 pm for Downtown Disney. The bus came in 15 minutes. We first went to the Christmas store, then the toy store, scrapbook store. Then it was World of Disney where we actually made some purchases. Here is what we got:
Sherry
Snowman antenna topper -$4.95 for my Mother
Scarecrow antenna topper -$4.95 for my Mother
Ice cream antenna topper - $4.95 for myself
2 Mickey Icon car emblems - $5.95 each for myself
Sticker book - $10.95(going to use for scrapbook)
Beach towel -$10.95 for myself
Halloween paper garland - $6.95 for myself to hang in Disney room
Nicole
Sticker book $10.95 (for scrapbook)
Nicole and Sherry
2 piece luggage set $12.95 this was a special they were selling all over the property. They only came in one color - red and it said Walt Disney World 1971 on them. One was a wheeled carry on size with sliding handle the other was a zipped bag with two handles. I wanted the wheeled one and Nicole wanted the other one. So we split the whole $12.95 it was a great deal!
Total with tax= $91.01
We had the items sent back to our hotel and continued on with our shopping. We went in the Kitchen store we enjoyed looking but did not buy anything. We then went in the Lego store. I am a big Lego fan, but it was just too insane in there. You could not move there were so many people. It was like a frenzy kids were racing around and asking for things. If you took a minute to stand back and look it was almost funny. The parents all had this look of utter fear. I think they were all thinking, why am I here and how do I get out (especially the Dads). The parents were saying “pick something out you have one more minute” and the kids eyes were searching franticly. We made a quick exit. As much as I like Legos that is not for me. I have heard that they are expanding the store. I hope that helps.
We stopped in at Earl of Sandwich and it was also very busy. We were both not that hungry so we figured we would just eat when we got back to the resort. We were really living on the edge and going off the plan. We went in Goofy’s Candy Shop. It was a fun place to look. We asked if we could use snack options in there and they showed us what was eligible and where it was. We figured we would get some to have on hand because we had so many left. We got a bag of chips, yogurt covered pretzels and cotton candy. (Now it said 19 left). We then went to the Ten dollar and under store. They had a wall that said you could choose four items for 10 dollars we each got a white baseball hat with pink Minnie on it and a box of vintage stickers. Plus Nicole got a magnet for $6.95. We later saw the stickers and hats at other stores for full price.
Total = $18.06
After that we headed to the bus stop at 8:37 pm. we got off the bus at 9:10 pm. We went back to our room and remembered we still had those two wine coolers. We put them in our refillable mugs and went to get supper. We both got the pepperoni pizza and a Mickey Ice cream bar also two drinks again for the next day’s adventures. It was 9:35 pm on the receipt. We took our food (and wine coolers) out to the Hippy Dippy pool and sat at one of the umbrella tables. It was nice and quiet out there and pretty with palm trees and the pool all lit up. We used our glow straws in our drinks. It was a nice end to a fabulous day.
We walked through the store on our way back to our room and looked around a bit. We kept laughing at this button we found. It had a picture of Scar (from the Lion King) on it. When you pressed down it said “I am surrounded by Idiots” I think it was funny because it was in scar’s voice and it sounded so proper or could it be there were just so many times it would be appropriate . It applies to park guest, family members, and coworkers. We went back to our room and got stuff ready for the morning and I went over my notes for the next day and set the wake up call. We were asleep by 11:00 pm
Note: we found out you could get your receipt stamped and bring it back after you eat to get your dessert if it is ice cream so it won’t melt. They told us how much time you had. I can’t remember but whatever it was it was reasonable.
Cost for the day
Blizzard Beach one day admission plus tax - $48.99
Ten dollar and under store - $18.06
World of Disney - $91.01
Total Cost for the Day =158.06
Happy Thought
Wave pools, Lazy rivers and shopping oh MY!
Unhappy thought
No snowballs
Lego Store
Disney Day Planner for September 26
7:00 am –Wake up call
8:00 am – Bus stop to Hollywood Studios
9:00 am – Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
9:15 am – Get FP for Toy Story Mania
9:30 am - Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster
10:00 am – Voyage of The Little Mermaid
11:00 am – Toy Story Mania
11:15 am – get a snack
11:30 am – The Great Movie Ride
12:45 pm- Beauty and the Beast Show
1:30 pm – Bus back to Pop Century
2:00 pm – Lunch food court and pool time
3:45 pm – Back to room get ready to leave
4:15 pm – Bus stop to Hollywood Studios
5:00 pm – Studio Backlot tour
5:45 pm – Muppet Vision 3D
6:00 pm – Sounds Dangerous with Drew Carrey
7:15 pm – Get a seat for Fantasmic (bring snack)
8:00 pm – Fantasmic!
8:45 pm- Bus back to Pop
9:00 pm – Dinner food court
11:00 pm Bedtime
The Real Story
I woke up just before the phone rang at 7:00 am. We had coffee and a breakfast bar. We were at the Studios bus stop at 8:09 am. We arrived at the studios at 8:22am. We waited at the rope drop until 9:00 am. We walked quickly down the sidewalk and we were on the first ride of the day for Tower of Terror. Nicole was the most nervous about this attraction. She loved it. We did it one more time. It turned out to be her favorite attraction. We then went over to Rock n roller coaster. There was no wait so we did it twice. We wanted to go again but I felt we should go get a FP for Toy Story Mania. Good thing we did because our return time was 4:25 – 5:25pm. Next we went to The Great Movie Ride. There was only about a 10 minute wait. We both enjoyed it. I love the movie at the end.
We changed our plan and decided to do the Backlot Tour. Nicole said she remembered doing this one and was scared of catastrophe canyon at 8 years old, not so scary this time. We then got a snack a pretzel. We actually had room because lunch would be later. We now had 17 snacks left. It was time for the Beauty and Beast show. We got a pretty good seat but had tall people in front of us. That’s ok they can’t help it. We took a photopass photo in front of Tower off Terror after the show.
We went to the Pop Century bus stop at 1:27 pm to take a break. The bus was right there and we were back at the Pop at 1:36 pm. Wow that was quick! We got our mugs and got lunch. I lost that receipt too and I do not remember what we got. We sat out by the pool with our lunch. We decided not to go swimming and just take a quick break go back and see more things. We said lets go back to the room get our drinks to bring and then we will plan out what things we missed in the morning and make a plan. That is when Nicole looked at me and said” OMG we are making a plan to make a plan, I responded “I think we are sick and need help”. Oh well the first step is acknowledging you have a problem. We went back to the room regrouped and got ready to go.
We arrived at the bus stop at 3:22 pm and stepped off the bus at 3:36 pm. We headed over to Drew Carey sounds dangerous. I have always liked this attraction but it seemed like the quality of the headphones went downhill. Maybe it is getting old or maybe we just have so many more advanced things at home nowadays it doesn’t seem special anymore. I like how it gives your eyes a nice break, because most things at Disney World are so visual and everywhere you look there is so much detail to take in. We then went to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. It was extra cold in there or could be it was extra hot outside? It was now time to use our FP for Toy Story Mania. This was only my second time on it. I am not very good at shooting but who cares about that anyway. It is just plain fun. We had one more thing we wanted to do, Muppets 3D. We only had to wait five minutes. It was great fun as always!
It was now time to get a snack and head over to Fantasmic! We each got a bag of chips at one of the stands and we got a bucket of Cotton Candy to share. (14 snacks to go now) We stopped in at Mickey’s of Hollywood shop and Nicole got a Halloween Mickey bracelet she had been looking at. I got a raincoat it was blue and zipped up in a little bag. It was not raining but I thought it would be handy to have. It was a perfect night not cold not too hot and no rain. We saw they were letting people in to Fantasmic at 6:30 so we figured we would just go in get a good seat and sit and relax. We were in the Scar section. We put on our glow necklaces we had brought from home and ate our chips. We made some trip report notes while we waited and used my phone to play Disney Trivia. I have that app on it. The people sitting around us were all nice and normal. As a matter of fact the whole week was like that. It was amazing. We never saw any kids having melt downs or rude people. I guess it was part of the magic. We both really enjoyed the show. We never even ate the cotton candy so we brought it back to the room. I did make a note saying what time the fantasmic! stadium was full and it seemed to be full right about 7:30 for the 8:00 show.
We took our time walking out of there. It’s really impossible to do anything else. When we got to the Pop Century a bus was waiting. The bus stop was all the way to the end. Did I mention the
