Back from the World TR (Dec. 6-14)

[Luv4Disney]

My first trip report...EVER! So please bear with me! I'll update day by day whenever I get a chance.

The Cast:

DH and Me!

Special Guest Appearances by: Aunt Neila and Uncle John (my godparents) and Stephanie, John, and (baby) Elliot (Stephanie is my godparents daughter, John is her hubby, and Elliot is their adorable son of 9 months).

First time ever during Pop Warner

First time seeing the Candlelight Processional (only other time is when DH and I were in HS and were in the show)

First time seeing the Osbourne Lights not in previews

2nd Trip to MVMCP

3rd trip using DVC, first time at our home resort, Saratoga Springs!

First time out of our many, many trips that we met the Dream Team!

___________________________________________________________

Satuday, December 6th

Woke up at 2:30am (despite not going to bed until 11:30pm due to my company Christmas party the evening before ), quickly did everything we needed to do, packed up the car, and headed down the GSP for the hour and twenty minute ride to AC Airport. Lots of Pop Warner kids on the plane. The flight attendant asked for a cheer demonstration and that was quickly shot down by plenty of "No's!" Nothing personal, but that's just not something I want to hear at 6:00am after the most of 3 hours of sleep.

Arrived at MCO approximately 20 minutes late due to de-icing our plane. Got to Saratoga Springs around 10:15am and was extremely surprised to discover our room was actually ready!! Although it was not in the section requested, we were very pleasantly surprised by it's location. In fact, it was ideal. So ideal in fact, DH had me take pictures of the villa numbers so we could request the building in the future. After unpacking our carryons and such, we headed out to Epcot.

It was one of the warmer days of our trips and I was comfortable in my capris, tank top and light weight hoodie. I did seem to be pushing sleeves up and then pulling them back down a lot, but oh well. By the time we got to Epcot we were starving, so we headed to Yakitori House for lunch. (I guess I'll just put all my restaurant reviews in the dining section). After lunch we met up with my Aunt and Uncle. Since htey hadn't eaten yet, they ate at Sunshine Seasons while we headed to Living with the Land. DH and I were both wiped so we just followed them around since they hadn't been to Epcot in over 8 years! Test Track was down, so that was out, and my Uncle can't handle the motion type rides, so we skipped that as well. We started wandering around the countries and in the UK, we saw 2 fellow adventurer's! It was exciting. I guess some of them are now part of the World Showcase Players. We spoke with one of them and he said he was only filling in for something, maybe once, sometimes twice a week. But he was good natured about it.

We continued browsing through all the countries and eventually went on Maelstrom. After that time, it was time we went our separate ways for our dinner ADR's. They headed to Les Chefs and we were off to Tutto Italia. Before our food even came I started feeling naueseus , so DH ate and I took mine to go. I didn't even know if they would have to go boxes! DH was wiped anyway so we headed back and DH took care of me. We were unpacked and in bed asleep by 8:30pm. This was probably the smartest move because then we weren't playing catch-up with sleep for the rest of our vacation.

Is this remotely interesting to anyone? Just so I don't post the rest of the days for nothing.

 

[Luv4Disney]

Oh yeah, and if someone could detail for me how to post pics within a post, I could add those as well. Well, once I weed out the bad ones from the 800 pictures I took.

 

[happybratpack]

My fir Lots of Pop Warner kids on the plane. The flight attendant asked for a cheer demonstration and that was quickly shot down by plenty of "No's!" Nothing personal, but that's just not something I want to hear at 6:00am after the most of 3 hours of sleep.

Oh boy, that wouldn't have gone over well with us at all.

Great report so far, look forward to reading more!

 

[joeatdisney2008]

nice report...waiting to read more.

 

[Luv4Disney]

After some much needed rest, we woke up the next day to get to Animal Kingdom for rope drop. It was coooold. DH and I had on jeans, t-shirts and fleece and we were still a little chilly. So much for escaping to nice, warm Florida weather. Crazy, crazy. Even though we were there before the turnstiles officially opened, we never seem to be able to catch the beginning of the show. Oh well. We caught the end and got carried away with the left-hand side crowd towards the safari. We boarded promptly and had a great guide! The safari is one of my favorites. After that we headed to EE and grabbed a FP. The ride already had a decent line, so we went and saw the first show of Finding Nemo. We got great seats right along that center piece of the stage and overall the theatre was pretty empty. Great show! Especially the Go with the Flow song. After the show we headed to Dinosaur and rode that with about a 10 minute wait. By then it was time to head back to EE to use our FP. We grabbed another FP for EE before riding. Afterwards we headed to the Flights of Wonder show. The birds are amazing there. By that time we were starving, (this was around 12pm) but we didn't have lunch ADR's until 1pm.

We headed to Yak and Yeti to see if they would take us early. They did and they were even taking walk-ups with a 5-10 minute wait. It worked out perfectly. After lunch we headed to use our EE FP and then headed to FotLK. Wonderful show as always. Once that was done we hit Tough to be a Bug and the Pangani Trails. We didn't want to wait 45 minutes for the parade, so by that time we headed out. Our timing worked out perfectly this day. We couldn't have asked for a better day. Our longest line was probably for Dinosaur and that was a whopping 10 minutes .

We headed back to our resort to unwind a little then found the walkway to head to DtD. The line for T-Rex was enormous. We went to PH and got some drinks and appetizers. Afterwards we did some shopping and grabbed some ice cream (and a free sample of course ) from Ghiradelli. By that time it was time to cancel our 7pm ADR for Cap'n Jack's. Walk-ups were given an hour and a half wait, so luckily there was a couple looking to eat there and we were able to give them our ADR. We headed back and turned in early again to get ready for our next day at DHS! We knew we'd have to get there for rope drop if we wanted to hit TSM without a 90 minute wait. We were exhausted again from a great day, so it was off to dreamland in about 5 minutes.

 

[Luv4Disney]

On Sunday, during our break, we also went to see the Bay Lake Tower models since we added on there. And they were beautiful! It was very exciting.

 

[Luv4Disney]

Today was our DHS day! We wanted to do TSM, so of course we got there for rope drop. Once we "opened the park" with Tutti Frutti , or whatever her name was, we were whisked away with the rest of the crowd towards TSM. We rode within 5 minutes and grabbed a FP on our way out. Since there was a line for the FP, the CM manning the machine of the line I was in was just popping them out and handing out however many tickets you showed him. Since we didn't actually have to put our tickets in the machine, we headed over to ToT, got a FP for that and rode RnR. We were able to ride with a maximum of a 10 minute wait. Break time.

We headed to Starring Rolls to get some chocolate croissants. There was absolutely no seating available, so this kind man shared his table with us. We came back to reality for a little while with him talking about the economy. We were done eating by the time his wife came out with their food, so we didn't really get to meet her.

By that time it was time to use our TSM FP and were able to get another FP for TSM while there. Boy did our arms hurt after that! Headed back over to ToT to use our FP when a woman gave us 2 FP for ToT since her daughter decided not to ride it with her. We were rolling in FP's! So we used one set for ToT. One side was down, so it took a little while after exiting the library, but it wasn't that bad. We then used our other set of ToT FP and rode again a little bit later.

Lunch time! Ate at Sci-Fi and met the lovely couple who was sitting behind us. Afterwards we did One Man's Dream, the Great Movie Ride, Indiana Jones, watched HSM3, did the parade and Star Tours . We were still stuffed from lunch so we cancelled our ADR at PT. Plus, our ADR was for 6:05 and Fantasmic was at 7pm and we didn't want to miss it. We then headed over to watch the lighting of the Osbourne Lights. It was awesome! Watching them light up around you was incredible. There was "snow" too! I would highly recommend getting there for the lighting! After that was done we headed over to grab seats for Fantasmic. It was about 30 minutes prior to show time and we grabbed a seat just left of center. Of course by then we were starving. But I didn't want a pretzle or popcorn or cotton candy, so I stuck it out. Fantasmic was amazing as usual. Afterwards we caught our bus and headed back to our resort to eat at Artist's Palette. Longest line all day was maybe 10 minutes. It worked out wonderfully. Another great day!

We did have another former Adventurer sighting! Street performer at DHS.

 

[Luv4Disney]

Today was our MK and MVMCP day! Woke up early took a taxi for breakfast at Kona Cafe at 7:30am. Yum. Afterwards we took the monorail over to MK and watched the opening. We decided to head straight for Fantasyland and do the rides that get the long waits later. We did Peter Pan first, headed to Winnie the Pooh, paused to get our pic with Donald in front of his tree farm (no line!) and did the Tea Cups (which for DH is like ). Afterwards we headed to Tomorrowland and grabbed a FP for Space before hopping on board. About a 10 minute wait. Afterwards we hit Buzz, TTA and the Carousel of Progress. By that time we could use our FP and so we did. Afterwards we headed over to Haunted Mansion , grabbed a FP for Big Thunder, and then rode Big Thunder. Headed over to Adventureland and rode the Jungle Cruise (5 minute wait ) and Pirates. By this time it was time for our 12:30pm ADR at Tony's.

Incredibly enough we hit all of our "must-do's" within 3 hours. Crazy crazy. After lunch we headed over to the GF via boat to check out the gingerbread house. It smelled so good in there! There was a chef who was going to give a demonstration on how they decorate the cakes so we stayed to watch it. Afterwards she handed out the recipe and answered any questions. After that was done, we headed back to MK.

Since we had already done the whole park, we wandered around and did the TTA again (2x since I fell asleep and DH asked the CM to just let us stay on as to not disturb me ). By that time we headed to Pecos Bill. The self ordering systems works great! DH picked up the food while I sat down. I kept feeling nauseus so I didn't even wind up eating. Eventually did get sick (but in the restroom). DH wanted to go to Guest Relations to see if we could turn in our wristbands for another night (it was about 6pm) but I said to wait a little to see if I felt better. Eventually I did, so we wound up staying. We got into the 7pm show of 'Twas the Night. It's one of our favorites! We love it. Afterwards we headed to Frontierland to grab a seat for the 6:15 parade. We actually got right in front of the rope at about 20-25 minutes before the start time. DH grabbed some cookies and hot chocolate for us to snack on while we waited. Great parade, I love the soldiers. They're so great. Afterwards we did a little shopping (had to get the party pin) and watched the fireworks. After the fireworks we left. We didn't see the lines for any of the attractions. We just did the party stuff and then left since I still wasn't feeling 100% and DH was tired anyway.

Since we left early we got right on the bus. Stopped at our store to pick up a few things before heading back to our resort. Lots of sleep that night since the next day was REST DAY!!

 

[OhMari]

Where is rest day and the rest?