knieriem
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2009
- Messages
- 531
After reading tons of trip reports I decided to write my own! This trip was for my 26th birthday. Ive been to WDW twice as a child and didnt return until my honeymoon in 2007. Since 2007 weve moved to Tampa from Louisville, KY and have become Annual Passholders! Even though weve done day trips to Disney quite a bit in the last two months its totally different when you get to go and stay there.
A little info about us!
Me: Elizabeth, now 26, still looking for a job here in the great state of Florida. I spend my days at home with our dog Miss Molly and taking care of the house.
My Husband: Andy, 29 and holding on, Software Engineer. He likes the beach and the fact that after 6 years of trying to get me to move to Florida I actually did it.
This picture is actually from our Honeymoon.
Miss Molly: Our lovely little Maltese. Shell be staying at Petsmart Pet Hotel during our trip having play time with other dogs and pampering.
I had planned on having the most amazing trip, since it was for my 26th birthday. I'm a huge Disney fan and if I could I'd live in the Magic Kingdom. We go to Disney a lot for day trips but Andy agreed for my birthday we could do a weekend there. Unfortunately the week before our trip things kept happening to me! First I lost my grandmother. She was in her upper 80's and suffering from Althimerzs (I know I probably spelled it wrong.) My family kept asking me if I was coming home but I don't fly and I couldn't drive 12 hours by myself so I had to make the decision to stay in Florida and not be there with my family. If that wasn't enough I started getting sick! I was terrified it was H1N1 so I went to the doctor. He assured me it was just sinuses and told me to get Allegra D. He was sort of right it wasn't H1N1 but it got worse and turned into bronchitis. More on that later though! So after losing my grandma and starting to get sick you'd think nothing else could happen. Wrong!! I broke my little toe. Now that may not sound like a big deal but have you ever tried walking around WDW with a broken toe? It hurts. Trust me. So now that you have some back story on with my trip report. I will put a disclaimer on this though and say that this is a very short trip report.
Day 1: Friday!
The day before my birthday! I was super excited but had a ton of stuff to do that day. I had a 10 o'clock appointment with an Animas rep to get a trial insulin pump for the weekend. Yes I decided to try it out while at Disney. What better place to take my mind off of having something attached to me? After meeting with the rep and getting all hooked up I had to rush home and finish packing. This is when it gets tough to leave. My dog Miss Molly knew something was up. The suite cases were out so she knew something was up. After getting pack and getting her calm enough to let me pick her up we were out the door and on the way to Petsmart. Now Im sure youre wondering wheres Andy? Well he had to work Friday so he was going to just meet me at our hotel. So I dropped Molly off at Petsmart and started on my way to the happiest place on earth!
After only 60 minutes (yes only an hour to Disney!) I saw this:
Dont worry I was stopped at the light and just happened to have my camera ready! We were staying at Coronado Springs. I had heard how pretty this hotel was but pictures Ive seen havent done it justice. Its gorgeous. I liked the fact that it was huge! Well I had already done online check-in so I went straight up to the counter, no line, and checked in. The CM behind the desk was really nice. He handed me my packet, gave me a birthday button and told me Id be in Casitas building 4 on the fourth floor. Said it was his favorite building, not sure if it was but it made me feel better about it. I have a problem with hotels. For one I hate staying at hotels. Theres something about walking on carpet someone else has walked on or standing in a bathtub someones used and dont get me started on sheets. I also get freaked out at hotels where your room isnt on an interior corridor. Of course CSR has exterior hallways, which I was aware of, but told myself it was Disney so Id be ok. If you ask my husband hell tell you Im the worst when it comes to staying at hotels. Anyway! The CM pulled out the map and showed me how to drive back to my building. I got in my car and as on my way. Now I knew that CSR would be rather large but I had no clue how large. I finally found my building and couldnt wait to see the room. We had a view of the quiet pool which was nice.
Now the next thing that happened I was kind of suspecting. See I planned everything that had to do with this trip so one day while I was looking over our checking account I noticed a charge to Disney that wasnt something I purchased. Then I realized it said Disney Florist. Hmmm you know what that means. My lovely husband did some research and found out that Disney had their own florist! Now I wasnt expecting to get something in the room upon arriving but I opened the door and this is what I found:
It was so cute. I opened the brown box and it had this in it:
Chocolate Mickey. Yummy.
So after calling my mom and telling her how Andy surprised me I got a call from Andy saying he was almost there and had no clue how to get to the room. I told him Id walk (well with my toe I sort of hobbled) over to the main building and show him how to get back to the room. I took these pictures on my way:
Friday night they had EMH at Animal Kingdom. Now Animal Kingdom isnt my favorite park but EE is my favorite ride and having the chance to ride it at night was perfect! We luckily were close to bus stop 2 and only had to wait about 10 minutes before we saw the Animal Kingdom bus. Surprisingly we were the only ones on the bus the whole way to AK. We got to AK just as they were doing the closing celebrations so I was able to snap a few pictures. I had never seen this before since AK is usually a park we just go to and ride EE and Dinosaur and then leave.
There were tons of people leaving the park and not many going in. We decided to see how long the wait was for Dinosaur. The wait said it was 30 minutes but we actually walked straight into the briefing room. Now we rode this for the first time back in 2007 and I dont remember it being as loud then as it is now. Every time we ride this I get put in the front row on the far right seat. Yes the seat that is right there by the huge dinosaur that screams at you when your picture is taken. You can imagine how all my pictures turn out. My hands are always over my ears. Andy always makes really scared faces, which he does on any ride that has a picture. After Dinosaur we went over to EE. Finally! It was getting dark and the lights were on the mountain. The line was the longest I had ever seen for this ride but the wait said only 15 minutes. I mean we were lined up outside the main entrance a pretty good ways. To my surprise 15 minutes was really all it took. The line moved faster than Ive ever seen it move. Now even though I say this is my favorite ride at WDW this is my least favorite line to stand in. The theme is amazing but those bells drive me insane. With a packed line everyone was hitting the bells. Bell after bell after bell kept getting hit, once while I was standing right underneath one. I looked at the person with a how dare you ring a bell over top my head look. For all you future EE riders heres a little EE line etiquette. If someone is standing under a bell, especially someone you dont know, do not ring the bell. Wait at least until they move and then youre standing under the bell! Just writing about the bells is making my ears hurt. I think hands down EE is better at night. The tunnels seem darker to me and the overall ride seems better. I still think though that this ride is too short. I never want it to be over so of course we rode it again! This time I remembered to take a picture of my little yeti buddy:
After a few rides on EE we were ready to leave. We decided it was getting late and time to eat dinner so we headed to DTD. It was packed! I mean wall to wall people. The busiest I have ever seen DTD. I told my husband after all the reviews I had read that Earl of Sandwich was the place to go. I wasnt eating however as I was starting to feel really bad and a sandwich didnt sound appealing. While he was eating I went over to the Pin store across the way to get away from his tuna melt sandwich smell. Tuna is one of those smells that just brings out the gag reflex in me. I recently got into the pins at Disney and find them to be a really cute souvenir. I made a mental note to go back and get an Eeyore pin after I got my Disney birthday gift card the next day.
By the time I was done Andy was finished eating so we headed over to the big Disney store to look around. I made some more mental notes of some things I wanted to pick up the next day. Unfortunately youll soon find out that my birthday didnt go exactly as planned but more on that later.
Now if you noticed earlier I mentioned that I was on a test pump for the weekend and some of you may have figured out I have Type 1 diabetes. I dont usually eat sweets but it was my birthday weekend and since I didnt get a birthday cake we decided we should have a birthday banana split from Ghiradelli. Now Ive never had anything from there before. My husband has but usually he goes there and eats and I go to the Disney store so I dont have to sit and drool at the ice cream. The store was packed and it took us a while to finally find a table. Heres what it looked like:
One thing I was really excited about after reading from the DIS boards was the candy at Goofys I wanted to have marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkled and covered and smothered and whatever else I could have done to them. After the banana split though we decided to come back the next day and get some when we come back to get the other stuff I had made a mental note on. Well you know how that turns out. We never made it back!
Day Two: Saturday
My Birthday! I woke up at 4am on my birthday and couldnt go back to sleep. My sinuses had worsened and I couldnt stop coughing and sneezing and I noticed when I tried to talk not much came out. So my lovely husband got up and hunted down a Walgreens at 4am! He came back with medicine and a happy birthday donut! Chocolate with sprinkles actually. It was yummy at the time but lets just say after what happened an hour later Ill never eat another chocolate covered donut again. Get the idea? I had huge plans for today. First we were supposed to be at MK for rope drop, then we had the Keys to the Kingdom tour scheduled, then we were going to ride some things at MK Id never gotten to do before, grab a dole whip, head to Epcot so I could ride my second favorite ride Test Track and then end it with dinner and shopping at DTD. Well like most people know things dont always happened as planned.
I finally got myself out of bed and dressed in time to head to MK and get to rope drop right before Mickey showed up. I was surprised to see how fast they change decorations over at MK. Last time we were there it was Halloween and fall decorations and this time it was full on Christmas, which made me feel somewhat better. Now Im not going to do a full report on the Keys to the Kingdom tour because I think it would ruin it for some of you, but I do want to however point out a few things I learned! 1. The best Hidden Mickey in all of Disney is the hidden Mickey on Walts statue in front of the castle. Its the one where he is pointing down Main Street and holding Mickeys hand. The hidden Mickey is on the ring on his finger. 2. When you get to MK in the morning go to the left first. The majority of visitors start on the right side of the park. 3. If you go on a tour and they say no photography in the backstage area they mean it. Someone took a picture of a character that was not in full character and got in trouble. They took his camera and deleted the photos.
I will say the tour was very informative even though I missed out on half of the stuff that was said because at this point I probably started looking like walking death. I really liked that the CM giving the tour wore a microphone and then we had ear pieces we wore so that we could hear him.
After the tour my husband could tell that I wasnt in good shape and convinced me to go back to the hotel and lay down to see if Id feel better. Well I wish I would have known but that would be the last time I saw MK on my birthday. Heres a picture I took while we were listening to our CM:
Now the rest of the trip was downhill from here. It involved me getting sicker and actually losing my voice 100%. That night we spent on the phone trying to find a minor emergency center and then when none were open trying to decide if I should go to the ER. After talking it over with my mom we decided I should just try to sleep it off. Luckily during the day I had the sense to call my doc and tell him to call me in an antibiotic. I spent the rest of my birthday laying in a bed at CSR watching the Jonas Brothers on the Disney Channel.
Day Three: Sunday
The plan for today was to get up and be at the rope drop for DHS so we could ride TSMM and so that I could face my fears and ride Rock n Roller Coaster then it was off for outlet mall shopping so I could spend my birthday money. As you can tell that didnt happen at all. I woke up feeling somewhat better but still no voice. Andy went to the Pepper Market and got us breakfast, which by the way is extremely expensive for what you get! We left the resort at 8:30 and headed back to Tampa which stunk especially since I had to drive myself home!
So my amazing birthday trip turned out to be the worst birthday of my entire life! I think Andy felt really bad especially when he got back to the room Saturday night from getting a snack and I was balled up in the center of the bed crying my eyes out because I wasted all the money for the room, didnt get my dole whip and never got my birthday picture with Mickey. Yesterday he told me to plan my birthday re-do weekend. Well be heading back the first weekend of December! I got us tickets for the Friday night MVMCP. Unfortunately we cant afford to stay at WDW again so I got a hotwire deal on a room at a Best Western for $36 a night. I wouldnt have personally chosen to stay there but Andy pointed out this time well be at the parks most of the time and we just need a place to rest our heads and get a shower.
A little info about us!
Me: Elizabeth, now 26, still looking for a job here in the great state of Florida. I spend my days at home with our dog Miss Molly and taking care of the house.
My Husband: Andy, 29 and holding on, Software Engineer. He likes the beach and the fact that after 6 years of trying to get me to move to Florida I actually did it.
This picture is actually from our Honeymoon.
Miss Molly: Our lovely little Maltese. Shell be staying at Petsmart Pet Hotel during our trip having play time with other dogs and pampering.
I had planned on having the most amazing trip, since it was for my 26th birthday. I'm a huge Disney fan and if I could I'd live in the Magic Kingdom. We go to Disney a lot for day trips but Andy agreed for my birthday we could do a weekend there. Unfortunately the week before our trip things kept happening to me! First I lost my grandmother. She was in her upper 80's and suffering from Althimerzs (I know I probably spelled it wrong.) My family kept asking me if I was coming home but I don't fly and I couldn't drive 12 hours by myself so I had to make the decision to stay in Florida and not be there with my family. If that wasn't enough I started getting sick! I was terrified it was H1N1 so I went to the doctor. He assured me it was just sinuses and told me to get Allegra D. He was sort of right it wasn't H1N1 but it got worse and turned into bronchitis. More on that later though! So after losing my grandma and starting to get sick you'd think nothing else could happen. Wrong!! I broke my little toe. Now that may not sound like a big deal but have you ever tried walking around WDW with a broken toe? It hurts. Trust me. So now that you have some back story on with my trip report. I will put a disclaimer on this though and say that this is a very short trip report.
Day 1: Friday!
The day before my birthday! I was super excited but had a ton of stuff to do that day. I had a 10 o'clock appointment with an Animas rep to get a trial insulin pump for the weekend. Yes I decided to try it out while at Disney. What better place to take my mind off of having something attached to me? After meeting with the rep and getting all hooked up I had to rush home and finish packing. This is when it gets tough to leave. My dog Miss Molly knew something was up. The suite cases were out so she knew something was up. After getting pack and getting her calm enough to let me pick her up we were out the door and on the way to Petsmart. Now Im sure youre wondering wheres Andy? Well he had to work Friday so he was going to just meet me at our hotel. So I dropped Molly off at Petsmart and started on my way to the happiest place on earth!
After only 60 minutes (yes only an hour to Disney!) I saw this:
Dont worry I was stopped at the light and just happened to have my camera ready! We were staying at Coronado Springs. I had heard how pretty this hotel was but pictures Ive seen havent done it justice. Its gorgeous. I liked the fact that it was huge! Well I had already done online check-in so I went straight up to the counter, no line, and checked in. The CM behind the desk was really nice. He handed me my packet, gave me a birthday button and told me Id be in Casitas building 4 on the fourth floor. Said it was his favorite building, not sure if it was but it made me feel better about it. I have a problem with hotels. For one I hate staying at hotels. Theres something about walking on carpet someone else has walked on or standing in a bathtub someones used and dont get me started on sheets. I also get freaked out at hotels where your room isnt on an interior corridor. Of course CSR has exterior hallways, which I was aware of, but told myself it was Disney so Id be ok. If you ask my husband hell tell you Im the worst when it comes to staying at hotels. Anyway! The CM pulled out the map and showed me how to drive back to my building. I got in my car and as on my way. Now I knew that CSR would be rather large but I had no clue how large. I finally found my building and couldnt wait to see the room. We had a view of the quiet pool which was nice.
Now the next thing that happened I was kind of suspecting. See I planned everything that had to do with this trip so one day while I was looking over our checking account I noticed a charge to Disney that wasnt something I purchased. Then I realized it said Disney Florist. Hmmm you know what that means. My lovely husband did some research and found out that Disney had their own florist! Now I wasnt expecting to get something in the room upon arriving but I opened the door and this is what I found:
It was so cute. I opened the brown box and it had this in it:
Chocolate Mickey. Yummy.
So after calling my mom and telling her how Andy surprised me I got a call from Andy saying he was almost there and had no clue how to get to the room. I told him Id walk (well with my toe I sort of hobbled) over to the main building and show him how to get back to the room. I took these pictures on my way:
Friday night they had EMH at Animal Kingdom. Now Animal Kingdom isnt my favorite park but EE is my favorite ride and having the chance to ride it at night was perfect! We luckily were close to bus stop 2 and only had to wait about 10 minutes before we saw the Animal Kingdom bus. Surprisingly we were the only ones on the bus the whole way to AK. We got to AK just as they were doing the closing celebrations so I was able to snap a few pictures. I had never seen this before since AK is usually a park we just go to and ride EE and Dinosaur and then leave.
There were tons of people leaving the park and not many going in. We decided to see how long the wait was for Dinosaur. The wait said it was 30 minutes but we actually walked straight into the briefing room. Now we rode this for the first time back in 2007 and I dont remember it being as loud then as it is now. Every time we ride this I get put in the front row on the far right seat. Yes the seat that is right there by the huge dinosaur that screams at you when your picture is taken. You can imagine how all my pictures turn out. My hands are always over my ears. Andy always makes really scared faces, which he does on any ride that has a picture. After Dinosaur we went over to EE. Finally! It was getting dark and the lights were on the mountain. The line was the longest I had ever seen for this ride but the wait said only 15 minutes. I mean we were lined up outside the main entrance a pretty good ways. To my surprise 15 minutes was really all it took. The line moved faster than Ive ever seen it move. Now even though I say this is my favorite ride at WDW this is my least favorite line to stand in. The theme is amazing but those bells drive me insane. With a packed line everyone was hitting the bells. Bell after bell after bell kept getting hit, once while I was standing right underneath one. I looked at the person with a how dare you ring a bell over top my head look. For all you future EE riders heres a little EE line etiquette. If someone is standing under a bell, especially someone you dont know, do not ring the bell. Wait at least until they move and then youre standing under the bell! Just writing about the bells is making my ears hurt. I think hands down EE is better at night. The tunnels seem darker to me and the overall ride seems better. I still think though that this ride is too short. I never want it to be over so of course we rode it again! This time I remembered to take a picture of my little yeti buddy:
After a few rides on EE we were ready to leave. We decided it was getting late and time to eat dinner so we headed to DTD. It was packed! I mean wall to wall people. The busiest I have ever seen DTD. I told my husband after all the reviews I had read that Earl of Sandwich was the place to go. I wasnt eating however as I was starting to feel really bad and a sandwich didnt sound appealing. While he was eating I went over to the Pin store across the way to get away from his tuna melt sandwich smell. Tuna is one of those smells that just brings out the gag reflex in me. I recently got into the pins at Disney and find them to be a really cute souvenir. I made a mental note to go back and get an Eeyore pin after I got my Disney birthday gift card the next day.
By the time I was done Andy was finished eating so we headed over to the big Disney store to look around. I made some more mental notes of some things I wanted to pick up the next day. Unfortunately youll soon find out that my birthday didnt go exactly as planned but more on that later.
Now if you noticed earlier I mentioned that I was on a test pump for the weekend and some of you may have figured out I have Type 1 diabetes. I dont usually eat sweets but it was my birthday weekend and since I didnt get a birthday cake we decided we should have a birthday banana split from Ghiradelli. Now Ive never had anything from there before. My husband has but usually he goes there and eats and I go to the Disney store so I dont have to sit and drool at the ice cream. The store was packed and it took us a while to finally find a table. Heres what it looked like:
One thing I was really excited about after reading from the DIS boards was the candy at Goofys I wanted to have marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkled and covered and smothered and whatever else I could have done to them. After the banana split though we decided to come back the next day and get some when we come back to get the other stuff I had made a mental note on. Well you know how that turns out. We never made it back!
Day Two: Saturday
My Birthday! I woke up at 4am on my birthday and couldnt go back to sleep. My sinuses had worsened and I couldnt stop coughing and sneezing and I noticed when I tried to talk not much came out. So my lovely husband got up and hunted down a Walgreens at 4am! He came back with medicine and a happy birthday donut! Chocolate with sprinkles actually. It was yummy at the time but lets just say after what happened an hour later Ill never eat another chocolate covered donut again. Get the idea? I had huge plans for today. First we were supposed to be at MK for rope drop, then we had the Keys to the Kingdom tour scheduled, then we were going to ride some things at MK Id never gotten to do before, grab a dole whip, head to Epcot so I could ride my second favorite ride Test Track and then end it with dinner and shopping at DTD. Well like most people know things dont always happened as planned.
I finally got myself out of bed and dressed in time to head to MK and get to rope drop right before Mickey showed up. I was surprised to see how fast they change decorations over at MK. Last time we were there it was Halloween and fall decorations and this time it was full on Christmas, which made me feel somewhat better. Now Im not going to do a full report on the Keys to the Kingdom tour because I think it would ruin it for some of you, but I do want to however point out a few things I learned! 1. The best Hidden Mickey in all of Disney is the hidden Mickey on Walts statue in front of the castle. Its the one where he is pointing down Main Street and holding Mickeys hand. The hidden Mickey is on the ring on his finger. 2. When you get to MK in the morning go to the left first. The majority of visitors start on the right side of the park. 3. If you go on a tour and they say no photography in the backstage area they mean it. Someone took a picture of a character that was not in full character and got in trouble. They took his camera and deleted the photos.
I will say the tour was very informative even though I missed out on half of the stuff that was said because at this point I probably started looking like walking death. I really liked that the CM giving the tour wore a microphone and then we had ear pieces we wore so that we could hear him.
After the tour my husband could tell that I wasnt in good shape and convinced me to go back to the hotel and lay down to see if Id feel better. Well I wish I would have known but that would be the last time I saw MK on my birthday. Heres a picture I took while we were listening to our CM:
Now the rest of the trip was downhill from here. It involved me getting sicker and actually losing my voice 100%. That night we spent on the phone trying to find a minor emergency center and then when none were open trying to decide if I should go to the ER. After talking it over with my mom we decided I should just try to sleep it off. Luckily during the day I had the sense to call my doc and tell him to call me in an antibiotic. I spent the rest of my birthday laying in a bed at CSR watching the Jonas Brothers on the Disney Channel.
Day Three: Sunday
The plan for today was to get up and be at the rope drop for DHS so we could ride TSMM and so that I could face my fears and ride Rock n Roller Coaster then it was off for outlet mall shopping so I could spend my birthday money. As you can tell that didnt happen at all. I woke up feeling somewhat better but still no voice. Andy went to the Pepper Market and got us breakfast, which by the way is extremely expensive for what you get! We left the resort at 8:30 and headed back to Tampa which stunk especially since I had to drive myself home!
So my amazing birthday trip turned out to be the worst birthday of my entire life! I think Andy felt really bad especially when he got back to the room Saturday night from getting a snack and I was balled up in the center of the bed crying my eyes out because I wasted all the money for the room, didnt get my dole whip and never got my birthday picture with Mickey. Yesterday he told me to plan my birthday re-do weekend. Well be heading back the first weekend of December! I got us tickets for the Friday night MVMCP. Unfortunately we cant afford to stay at WDW again so I got a hotwire deal on a room at a Best Western for $36 a night. I wouldnt have personally chosen to stay there but Andy pointed out this time well be at the parks most of the time and we just need a place to rest our heads and get a shower.
No fun being at the happiest place and not feeling well 
. I was there in Sept. for a ladies weekend and wasn't on the ground 30 minutes and ended up messing my ankle up pretty bad, bad enough that my friend had to push me in a wheel chair 
