Best Friends' Magical Vacation 2008-- Day 1 Complete! Day 2 Comin' Up!

[JessicaFaye508]

Hi! At the end of August I got home from WDW. I haven't had any time to write a trip report yet, but I thought better late than never, right?

So, anyways here's some background about the trip and about me:
I am a teen who is obsessed with Disney World. I know a ridiculous amount of information about WDW, and it scares me sometimes. But, that's okay because I love it. I go to WDW about once a year with my family.
We left for WDW on August 24th. The last time I was there was a year before and I missed it so much! It felt so good to be back. I traveled down there with my mom, dad, brother, and my best friend, who has never been to Disney World before. We had such a fantastic time and I wanted to tell you guys about it. I hope you enjoy my first trip report!

Chapter 1: Here We Go!
Chapter 2: The Resort
Chapter 3: DBFF's First Disney Park- Epcot! Part One
Chapter 4: Our Wet Adventure around the World
To Be Continued!

 

[JessicaFaye508]

On August 24th I got out of bed. I was so excited. I hardly slept the night before, but I was wide awake and couldn't believe we were finally going to WDW. It was our last "big-bang" of the summer, so we had to make it exciting and memorable. (it was disney, so that part wasn't hard at all)

Well, I had a plain bagel for breakfast. My family and I packed up our car and headed out. Said goodbye to the cats, the house, etc. and drove to my DBFF's house. (is DBFF a term? I don't know. haha. I'll use it.) We arrived at her house and her family was all out there ready to say good bye. She was so excited, I don't even think she knew how to handle it. We couldn't believe we were going. Life is good.

So, we drove to the airport, got through security without a problem, and got to our seats. I got a danish because I wasn't too hungry when I had my little part of my bagel. We actually met up with my DB's friend's family, who was also going to WDW at the same time as us. They used one of the units of our timeshare that we weren't going to use so they could stay in WDW for their last week of summer too! It was so funny because we were planning out our dining schedule and we were so excited. We're such "disney dorks," as we called ourselves.

So, we flew down on Southwest. The whole ride we just couldn't wait to get there. I attempted to read my book for summer reading (yeah, that didn't work out too well) and my friend and I listened to my iPod the whole way down. (of course it was all Disney music. No suprise there) I told her about some of my favorite attractions and restaurants, and she just couldn't wait.

I think I forgot to mention that it was her first plane ride as well. So, it was the first time she's seen a palm tree, first time she's been far down south with such intense heat. But, she loved being there.

So, we got off the plane, super excited. We went and caught our Magical express bus. (which was actually a Disney Cruise Line Bus, but whatever) Where did we go? Saratoga Springs!

 

[JessicaFaye508]

Yes, we stayed at the beautiful Saratoga Springs. The first thing we did was check in, of course. I got my hands on the newest design of the park maps to keep for my collection. The lobby (actually the whole resort in general) was so pretty. I just kept looking at everything and snapping photos like a mad woman. DBFF never saw a Disney resort before so of course she was in awe.

We ate at Artist's Palette for lunch. I had a turkey wrap. It was really good. I wished I was more hungry so I could have eaten more of it. (don't worry, this was the only day my appetite was acting up. I ate plenty throughout the trip.) We were really amazed by the cool lamps that were hanging from the ceiling. haha

After lunch we took a golf cart to our villa in Congress Park. We stepped in the room and looked at everything! It was huge. We were so lucky and got a two bedroom villa. So, it had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen/living room area, washer/dryer, and a porch. We could see DTD from our patio. It was so nice. My DBFF and I shared the bedroom with the two queen or full size beds. They were really nice.

So, we got changed and went swimming. We first went to the quiter pool. It really wasn't too crowded. That's the pool with the spitting frogs. We would put our heads under the water coming out of it's mouth. Wow, that water pressure was high. haha

Then we headed to the larger pool. It was so nice. My DB loved the slide, as well as his friend, as us too! We also went in the hot tub, which was extremely hot. Not unbearably hot, but it was hotter than any hot tub i've ever been in before. (if that makes sense) At least the main pool seemed cooler when you would go back in. That water is ridiculously warm. You would think that in such hot months that Disney would do something like putting in ice cold water to even out the temperature of the pools. It's really not refreshing to go into water that is just as warm as the air on a 90+ degree day. Oh well. it was fun anyway.

We went to the Turf Club for dinner. Who said the best kept secret was the DVC? I swear, the Turf Club is the REAL secret! I still can not get over how good it was! We were on the DDP and it only cost one TS credit each for such an outstanding meal! We got milkshakes, (I got Vanilla and DBFF and DB got Chocolate) and we got such fancy meals like strip steak, lamb, pasta and shrimp, and prime rib! Wow they were absolutely fantastic! And for dessert we got the apple pie, which I didn't eat at the restaurant, but I took it home and ate it one night after hiking through the parks all day. Boy was that good! If you haven't eaten at the Turf Club and have an opportunity to get over to Saratoga Springs, YOU HAVE TO GO! It's probably my favorite restaurant besides Casey's Hot Dogs. But that's Quick Service

We went to the gift shop after dinner, which is adorable. It's on the smaller side for resort gift shops, in my opinion, but it had almost everything we needed.

We walked back to our room. The resort was so pretty at night. It was a great start to a wonderful vacation.

 

[the4princesses]

Yeah!! I'm the 1st to post!! Sign me up!!!
I've enjoyed reading your trip report!
We flew to WDW Sept. 1-10th on Southwest!! I love that airline!!
Where are you all from?
We are from La.

Can't wait to read more!! And Pictures??
Have a great night!!

 

[princess.chell]

Love it so far.
My best friend and I are planning a trip for Christmas of 2010 when we are freshman in college. She's never been to Disney and knows that I love it and go every year, so we are going together with maybe two other friends so I can show them Disney. =)
Can't wait to read more!

 

[JessicaFaye508]

Okay. After our little relaxing day, it's all go-go-go for the rest of the trip. haha. We woke up at 7:03 with a stitch wake-up call. By the time we were up and dressed it was a little before 8.

Another point I forgot to mention was that we made matching shirts for every day of the trip. So, our shirts for this day were Red, said "Dreams Come True," in puffy paint, had stars drawn on it, and had a mickey mouse iron-on on the bottom corner.

We got on the Epcot bus. Her first bus had orange seats. We got to Epcot around 8:20. We waited around, put our tickets in and went to the area for rope drop. This was my first rope drop so it was really exciting.

We counted down to 9 o'clock and then we were off! We headed straight to Soarin' (with every other guest in the park) It was hilarious. There was the hugest crowd of people basically walking in one group to one specific area. I never saw anything like it.

So, we went on Soarin' in the stand-by line. My DM and my DB got FP's for later. Then we went over to test track to get fast passes and went back to the land.

We met up with my DB's friend's family and went on living with the land. Unfortunately this was the most disappointing part of the trip. We got off the ride and saw the dream team members. We waited around to see what they would do, and the NEXT boat coming into the station after ours got dream fastpasses! Oh, it was so disappointing. Oh well. We moved on and still had fun anyway.

Then we went to the Circle of Life. I never realized how cheesy the jokes are in that movie, but they really are cute. I actually really like that attraction. After that we rode Soarin' again.

Then we went on Test Track. Woo-hoo! That is my DB's all time favorite ride. Thats the thing he looks forward to most when he goes to WDW. It was fun.

Then we went to the restaurant in the land, The Garden Grill. We had a reservation for 4, but we asked if my DB's friend's family could also join us and they let us change 4 to 7! That was so nice.

But let me tell you, this was another fantastic dining experience! There were mickey and friends characters greeting: Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale. I think that was my favorite character meal ever. Well, first of all, the whole restaurant rotates. I mean, how cool is that. You don't even feel it, and then all of the sudden you look out and you're looking at a totally different place than you were before! We went up to the wall and leaned up against it in the middle of the restaurant and you could feel it, but if you're just sitting there.. it was totally unnoticable for us.

So, besides that cool feature, the food was spectacular. It was served family style with steak, fried catfish, cheesy potatoes, green beans, (which I really liked) chicken, chicken nuggets, (which I also liked) fries, and macaroni and cheese. Our waiter was great and kept bringing us whatever food we wanted more of.. and it was awesome. Everything just tasted so good.

As for the characters, they each came around to us at least 3 times. Mickey walked us to our table. Chip helped us sing happy birthday to my DB's friend because it was his birthday, pluto was just too adorable, and dale made fun of my DB's friend's dad for acidentally calling him chip. (dale got DB's friend's mom to kiss him and try to make the dad jealous) They were all too cute. And, we had so much room to greet them and stand up and take tons of pictures. It was just awesome. You have got to try this restaurant.

After our long lunch we went to Journey into Imagination with Figment, which we love.

We headed to spaceship earth after to experience the new version for the first time. How cool was that quiz at the end? I forgot about it when I was riding and I was delightfully suprised to see my picture going through a futuristic scenario on the screen before me. Super cute! The only thing I really missed were the light things at the end and the movie clips. Also I liked the old narrator and music better. But it really was great! We sent our SE pictures to our emails and played one of the games in the new area. Wow, they are very high tech. I was really impressed. We played the one where you deliever the power sources to certain areas.

 

[JessicaFaye508]

Yeah!! I'm the 1st to post!! Sign me up!!!
I've enjoyed reading your trip report!
We flew to WDW Sept. 1-10th on Southwest!! I love that airline!!
Where are you all from?
We are from La.

Can't wait to read more!! And Pictures??
Have a great night!!

I love Southwest too. They were very nice.
We're from up North. Not even close to LA. haha
And I'll try to add some pictures. =]

Love it so far.
My best friend and I are planning a trip for Christmas of 2010 when we are freshman in college. She's never been to Disney and knows that I love it and go every year, so we are going together with maybe two other friends so I can show them Disney. =)
Can't wait to read more!

You will really enjoy it. My friend knew how much I loved WDW and she began to love it so much too. You will have so much fun!

I hope you guys enjoy reading!

 

[JessicaFaye508]

Okay, so after spaceship earth we went back to Test Track. Some lady got annoyed with us because we rushed towards the other side of the door and she was moving slow. That was annoying. But we sat in the front! It was fun.

Then we headed over to "The Seas with Nemo and Friends." It's cute. Then we went to Turtle Talk with Crush. We sat on the floor. haha. But, my DB's friend asked Crush a question-- "How do you celebrate birthdays under the sea?" (we told him to ask that.) So, crush relplied by saying "well, you sing the song-- 'du du du du du du, du du du du du du, I'm so glad that you hatched! du du du du du du." Then crush had by DB's friend tell him what we do and he said we sing basically the same song. So, crush had him sing it. And he sang it all with "du du du's." haha.

We went to the Imagination pavailion and took pictures for one of those picture cube things. It was $5 but they were cute.

So, then my DBFF and I wanted to see the world showcase, but my DB didn't. So, my DM & DB stayed in Future world, and we went off into the world showcase with our cell phones. (or so we thought.)

So, we started off in Mexico. We went on Gran Fiesta Tour and saw Donald Duck who was wearing a little mexican outfit with a sombrero. He was so cute because he was jealous that every thing had mickey on it, such as the pen.

After mexico, we skipped norway because we thought we would come back later. (but we didn't. oh well.)

Next was China. We went to the Kidcot Funstop and got stamps and papers to connect to our masks. At this point in time there were huge, dark, ominous clouds above us.

We went to other countries and tried to hit all of the Fun Stops. But, by the time we got to Japan it started sprinkling. We ran in and out of ship in each country trying to stay dry.

Then the torrential downpour began! We walked through the rain absolutely soaked! In germany we ended up getting bags to put our masks in. They were soaked and mostly ruined. Oh well, the memory is there.

Eventually we went to the UK. The cashier was really nice, but she saw that we were completely drenched. She told us "Here. Have a bag. We'll cut a hole in it and you can wear it like a pocho." (in an accent of course)

So, we did. We walked around the rest of the world showcase with big shopping bags wearing them like ponchos. Some people thought it was a good idea, and others stared at us.

In France the castmembers were laughing at us near the spot where you can meet Pooh and Friends. We did look very funny. No characters were out, so we asked the photopass guy to take our picture infront of the backdrop. He was glad to.

We reached Canada and we went into the little spot with the Kidcot FunStop. About 1 minute after we got under shelter I heard the hugest clap of thunder I have ever heard in my life. It basically shook the whole building. To think, 60 seconds before we were outside. Wow.

So, we waited for a little while, and then we went back in the rain and hiked to future world. So, during all this time, I was supposed to call my mom every 30 minutes. But we found out halk-way through our trip that she actually had both cell phones! So, during this whole time we are running through the world showcase laughing because of this situation. We were so concered about her being worried about us that we just kept going.

So, we got back to future world. We had to find them, now. So, we looked in MouseGear. No luck. Near Innoventions Sign, which was our meeting spot at the beginning of the day. But it was outside. So.. No Luck.

Then we went to Electric Umbrella, but once again, No Luck! So, we decided to get ice cream!

I got Vanilla and my DBFF got mint chocolate chip. It was good. So, we figured we really needed to get ahold of my DM. So, we went near the bathroom, and thank God there was a payphone! I got $1.50 in quarters at the ice cream place, and realized that it cost $2 for a phone call!

So, we didn't want to ask the same counter for 50 more cents, so we walked to the Land, thinking they might be there because they ate at seasons for dinner. We looked and looked, but couldn't find them. So, we went to the seasons register and got $1 worth of quarters. Then we called my DM.

After waiting and waiting for us they were actually in the Circle of Life to get their mind off of us being somewhere around the world. But, she answered her phone and was beyond relieved to see us.

So, we walked out of Epcot because we were soaked and tired. On our way out there was a mother who lost her little 4-year old girl either named "Jenny" or "Dannie," we couldn't tell. But, the dad found her 2 minutes later, thankfully. Poor woman.

So, we took a nice bus ride home. We showered and changed. My DB fell asleep, but my DM, DBFF and I went to the Artists Palette for Dinner. I had a pepperoni Flat Bread, DBFF had a buffalo chicken flatbread. We also got yogurt parfaits and water too.

We were considering going to DHS for EMH, but we realized we were exhausted. So, we just went back to the room.

Unfortunately, my Camera got really wet, so it stopped working! I was in a panic! So, we let it sit over night under the ceiling fan and waited to see what would happen.

 

[princess.chell]

Wow sounds like an adventure!!

I can so picture the rain part...I was in Flordia like 4 or 5 years ago in the summer with a camp and we were at Sea World when it started downpouring. My whole group decided it would be fun to walk around in the downpour and be idiots. We were wet the whole hour ride home on the bus...not very fun then.

I hope your camera works!!!!
Cant wait to read more!