Dacky Adventures have been UPDATED- Pg 2 Posts 24-27!

[dacky041208]

Welcome to the Adventures of Dacky! Our 2010 Trip Report

An introduction…

I’m Mrs. Dacky, otherwise known as Vicky. I’m an avid scrapbooker (you’ll find me over on the creative boards) and my Disney obsession started 2 years ago. Before that trip, I had only been once- for Spring Break with my best friends during my 2nd year of college… we were unaware of the disboards back then, and it is very obvious looking back considering how we handled the parks! Good thing I have DH to help me learn the ropes.

This is DH, otherwise known as Dave. Dave is the planner of all things Disney. He’s such a smart man, I mean, look who he married . DH has been to both the world and the land…and had traveled to the world many times as a tyke. He made the most amazing plans for each of the trips we’ve taken as a couple and this one was no different. He is the reason we are now officially vacation club members!

We were married in April of 2008 and since we both work in the Education field, we waited until June to go on our honeymoon to Disney World!

It was a wonderful 2 week honeymoon! We stayed on-site at Coronado Springs where they treated us like Prince and Princess.

We loved our Disneymoon so much that we decided to go back again and celebrate our first anniversary in June of 2009. We stay at AKL. It was just breathtaking and we had yet another magical trip.

Now, onto this trip. In the winter of 08-09, it snowed A LOT in our area.

This officially gave us the winter vacation itch so we began hunting. We first looked at places like the Bahamas, but I don’t like bathing suits and you can’t ride the Haunted Mansion there. Then we thought “well, maybe we’ll just go back to Wildwood, NJ, we did get engaged there!” But, you can’t find Mickey on that Boardwalk!

Truly, we came up with lots of ideas…but kept coming back to Disney World. It has the warmth, the sun, the fun of rides and characters and imagination… And we were stuck.

Until finally, one day DH gave in to our love of the World and booked us a trip! For the end of June and Port Orleans…FQ I think. We were SO excited!

But then (this is just the beginning of the “but thens”), as a surprise for our 2nd anniversary, DH upgraded our trip to a split stay at Poly/WL. SCORE!

But then, DH started to look into Disney Vacation Club. He studied the idea for months. He went over numbers. He asked a ton of questions on the boards. He lost a lot of sleep over this decision until finally coming to me and saying he wanted to officially join the club. It made sense for us because we’ve learned how much we love Disney and how much money it would save us if we continued to go back year after year without it.

It wasn’t difficult to convince me. Disney for the next 50 years? YES PLEASE! So we did everything you have to, bought into Bay Lake Towers and changed our reservation to our new home, oh, and pushed it back to the end of July because of our DVC contract.

But then! DH saw how many points are required for BLT and wanted a longer trip, sooooo we changed our reservation. Again. To Old Key West. **Please note, we are not normally this indecisive. We have never changed our reservation for a trip before, let alone 4 different times, but, we were just too excited!**

So we were finally set for 2 whole weeks at Old Key West! Or so we thought. Because (BUT THEN) I received a call from a school district I had applied to and they wanted me to teach their summer program which of course runs though the entire month of July. I don’t have a classroom right now, and need to network as much as possible, and this was a fantastic district, so of course I couldn’t say no. Which meant we had to either push our trip back or cut 5 days.

After much deliberation, we decided to cut our trip short. I mean, we will be going for the next 50 years. So instead of leaving Sunday, July 25, we planned to fly out Thursday, July 29th- my last day of summer school with the students.

BUT THEN (last one, I swear), because of something to do with our vacation club points, some of the points would have been wasted so DH decided to switch our reservations to Saratoga Springs. I didn’t mind because well, I was going to DISNEY WORLD.

So, after changing our resort of choice 5 times, and changing the date of the trip 3 times, we were FINALLY set- an 8 day stay at Saratoga Springs- from July 29th to August 7.

Summer school flew by, and before we knew it we were off to the airport for our 6:05 flight. We’ve never had any issues before, so we’ll be in our resort by 10 at the latest. Nothing could go wrong, right?

 

[dacky041208]

saving for a table of contents

 

[dacky041208]

July 29th

The last day of summer school was wonderful- I had some amazing little kindergartners. It flew by and as soon as I had those little munchkins on the bus (at noon), I attacked that classroom. I put every desk and table back to the original place that I found them on the first day and I pulled down everything I had hung. I was cleaned up and on my way in 20 minutes! The ride home takes 40 minutes if I am lucky…and thankfully I was home by a little after 1. DH had made us a quick lunch which I inhaled while I uploaded pictures from the last day of school for the parents and we were packed and in the car by 1:30.

We got to the PreFlight parking lot in record time and quickly jumped on a bus and were headed to the airport. Security check went rather quickly and before we knew it we were making ourselves comfortable.

We noticed the airport was really bustling…thinking back to past trips and how we always left at 7am…thinking that we’ll never do this mid-week evening thing again and then we noticed flight after flight after flight was getting delayed. Luckily ours hadn’t been. But we noticed they were pushing back the 2:45 flight to 6:30 and then to 9. Still, our flight said on time. At 5:45 we went over to check the board and it still listed our flight as on time. I ran to use the restroom and came back to a lot of groaning.

yup. Our flight was now delayed too, 3 hours. Along with everyone else’s flights. Although it was bright and sunny in Baltimore, the South was dealing was crazy lightning storms. So we made ourselves comfortable. I bought a book, DH read his, I popped in my mp3 player and was “that guy” who fell asleep on their bag on the floor in the airport. The place was swamped with people.

That picture was taken with my cell phone so the quality isn’t so great…but that was the only open area in the Southwest area. We finally boarded our plane around 9:30 and taxied for quite a bit. Finally at 10:30 we were off! We landed around midnight and trucked it to the Magical Express desk.

We had checked our bags at 2:30, after asking the ME desk staff if we should check to see if our luggage came in on our flight, they assured us that since we checked-in so early that it was surely already at our resort. (Our exhaustion had set in and we weren’t thinking about the other flights had been delayed too and as such, our luggage most likely came with us and ME wouldn’t be picking it up as that ends at 10:30pm)

We got on the Magical Express and were on our way. The ride was quiet and although we were so tired, we got right into the spirit when the video came on. Oh, how I love that video.
We made it to Saratoga Springs at about 1:30ish? (again, exhaustion made us lose track of time) and boy was the lobby empty. We waited a few minutes before a CM came out and welcomed us home but that went rather quickly and we went out and waited for a bellman. He came out eventually, grabbed our groceries that we had delivered, and we were on our way to the Paddock. Room 5101.

I think it was after 2 by the time our heads hit the pillows but we both passed out quickly. We didn’t have a chance to check out the resort or even the room; we needed the rest- we had a reservation at Crystal Palace in 6 hours!

When we woke up we realized that the wonderful CM who checked us in at 1:30 in the morning hooked us up because we woke up to this view:

Amazing.

We didn’t have much time to enjoy it yet though- we were off to Magic Kingdom!

 

[kdevoe]

Awesoooome!! Can't wait to hear about your adventures.

 

[dacky041208]

July 30

First Stop: Magic Kingdom!

So we jumped on the bus around 7:15, our bus driver thought we were crazy going that early but we had some business to attend to at the desk before heading to the breakfast line.

When the desk opened we purchased our very first annual passes using our dvc discount as well as our GAD passes.

We then jumped in line for the 8am breakfasts. We had a nice chat with a woman and her adorable granddaughter- they were going to breakfast at the Royal Table. I love that you can have those random moments with complete strangers…before we knew it we were walking down Main Street…

I love when it’s empty <3

We arrived at the Crystal Palace and were seated rather quickly! We had a beautiful view from our seats…take a look!

Our meal was of course incredibly delicious! I absolutely love the food here…the puffed toast, the potato casserole, the fruit and yogurt, just amazing. And the fact that my favorite characters are here makes this a must-do every year!

I had to say, we met Sam from CA, a wonderful character handler. She showed us her “must-dos”, marked up our map with all of her tips, and didn’t take any crap from DH haha. For example, I was wearing an Eeyore shirt and she mentioned that the characters can sign clothing, just not when you are wearing them…which was an invitation for my husband to say “So what you are saying is that women taking off their clothing is encoura….” And she cut him off real quick! It was hilarious!

And because Pooh had something go wrong, his schedule was way off and looked like we’d miss meeting him since we wanted to be out the door at 9. She came back over to us and brought us over to Pooh, took our picture for us and gave me a giant hug wishing us a magical day.

Oh Sam, you rock!

Up Next: Our adventures in Magic Kingdom!

 

[dacky041208]

Awesoooome!! Can't wait to hear about your adventures.

welcome kdevoe!

I can't wait to share!

I'm a typing machine today but I want to wait for DH to get home from work before working on the parks- get his input first!

 

[cassie1982]

yay cant wait for more! We stayed at the Saratoga Springs 3 years ago.. I loved it, it was so nice there!!

 

[dacky041208]

yay cant wait for more! We stayed at the Saratoga Springs 3 years ago.. I loved it, it was so nice there!!

Welcome Cassie!

We absolutely loved Saratoga Springs! It was so beautiful. I am pretty sure I took 100+ photos of the resort. I couldn't stop! lol

 

[dacky041208]

Well after our deliciously marvelous breakfast we were very full. Like I am talking ‘if I ride any of the mountains anytime soon, the ride will have to be stopped and cleaned’. So, armed with Sam’s must-do character spots, we went hunting! We first went looking for Anastasia, Drizella, and Lady Tremaine…with no luck. So we ran to Tomorrowland to grab fast passes for Space Mountain.

Armed with those passes, we headed to Tiana’s meet and greet. She was there with a minimal line so we jumped in!

I absolutely loved meeting her and Prince Naveen. DH, being the gentleman that he is, kissed Tiana’s hand and Naveen was truly hilarious stating “hey there, you have your own princess to kiss.”

We also talked about where we are from and their restaurant…but when we posed for pictures, Naveen asked me if I had a firefly working our picture maker- to which I replied “oh yes, Ray Jr. has been helping us out.” He stuttered on it and said “ooh good, he’s working again. I was worried he’d never find a job!” Very cute!

Well off we went to find more characters! We again searched around for the step family but couldn’t spot them! We circled the castle and came upon Snow White! She was great!

As we made our way into Fantasyland we spotted the Fairy Godmother, who is easy to miss if you don’t look back when walking through the castle!

After that we went off to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride and grabbed fast passes for Peter Pan’s Flight. We then went to Liberty Square for a quick ride on the Haunted Mansion.

We made our way to Frontierland to visit with Woody and Jesse. They came out about a half hour later then what was listed on the event schedule so after standing in the sun for 20 mins and no sign of the toys, we jumped on BTMRR.

After we got off the ride Woody and Jesse were out so we jumped in line and met them! This was our first time meeting Jesse! I was so excited!

We then headed back toward Fantasyland and using our fast passes, jumped on Peter Pan’s Flight and then It’s a Small World. We made it just in time for the hourly show on IASW! I was thrilled because I’ve never seen it!

Well, after It’s a Small World we were getting exhausted, given the whole 4 hours of sleep we both had so we figured we’d use our fast pass for Space Mountain and then head back to the resort which is exactly what we did!

Oh I forgot to mention…that whole luggage thing. Turns out we left our luggage hanging out in the airport. Luckily it got picked up by ME in the morning but only after my suitcase got a thorough inspection from the TSA. It was waiting for us at our room when we got back!

As soon as we arrived in our room, we unpacked our suitcases, I threw on pjs, and we passed out for about 3 hours! We needed it!

Next Up: An Evening in Epcot!

 

[NaLisa]

Great pics. Enjoying your TR. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Queenofallthings]

Joining in, great start on your TR!!!

 

[dacky041208]

Our evening at Epcot was a lovely one! Epcot is DH’s favorite park so we wanted to spend the first night there strolling through, enjoying the atmosphere, and taking it all in.

We headed over to the Imagination pavilion to ride one of my favorites, Journey into the Imagination with Figment! Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures…I will some day! This ride is one of the many in the World that gives me that feeling I used to get as a child the night before Christmas morning, the butterflies in my stomach-I am so excited I could burst, feeling!

We all have sparks. Imaginations. That's how our minds create creations. So they can make our wildest dreams come true. Those little sparks in me and you!

After our journey into the imagination we decided to check out Captain EO, a show that neither one of us have ever seen. Well, it was an experience, that’s for sure. We decided to move on to the World Showcase and let that be the first and last time we see Captain EO.

The World Showcase is still as beautiful as I remember…

We wandered throughout all the countries, rode Maelstrom in Norway, and before we knew it, it was almost time for Illuminations. We went to Germany and ordered a pretzel at Sommerfest to split. After we finished eating, we looked for a spot to watch the show.

Illuminations isn’t my favorite of the firework shows but DH loves it! We found a spot that was doable and hung out for the first 15 minutes then decided to head out ahead of the crowds to catch the bus back to SSR.

So glad we did this! If not, we wouldn’t have gotten any pictures. Although they aren’t the greatest, I’d say they are pretty good considering I had a low battery and a little Nikon:

After we took a few pics, we were trucking it for the exit. Our bus came rather quickly and we were back to our resort for a proper night’s sleep!


Up next: Hollywood Studios, where I ate the most delicious sandwich ever!!!

 

[dacky041208]

Welcome, NaLisa and Queenofallthings!!

 

[dsnygrl377]

Wow! I love reading your trip report and seeing your great photos!! I can't wait to read more! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[iluvuwdw]

Great report

 

[dacky041208]

July 31- A Day at Hollywood Studios!

We made it to DHS for rope drop; it was more packed than we anticipated but we made it onto Toy Story Mania and were able to get a fastpass for later! Also, while waiting in line to get inside we met a green army man!!

Here are our scores from our first ride…I am player 1 (I was rusty lol)

After TSM, we made our way over to the other E-tickets- TOT and RNRC…both of which for some reason had me shaking in my crocs. LOL! Last year I LOVED them. This year, I almost vomited on TOT right before the first fall. (That would have been a pretty picture) But I was proud of myself for getting on both. Hopefully I will be less of a chicken next trip!

After the rides, we wandered DHS for a bit, hit up some penny machines and even got a master list from guest relations that showed where all the pennies can be found (score.)! We saw the Muppet 3D show (LOVE IT!) and enjoyed the sites. Eventually found our way to Mike W. from Monster’s Inc and then took the Backlot Tour.

I took a million pictures on this tour...but I will refrain from posting them all.

Luckily, on our way out of the tour, which was awesome by the way, we got a picture with both Mike and Sully!

We made our way to the Animation Studios and met Lotso. I asked him if he was in anger management to which he replied with a strong head shake meaning a big “no” but I gave him a hug anyway (darn his pink strawberry hugable ways).

I loved his waiting area:

Around 11 I was already hungry for lunch so we stopped at Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner where we ordered the Chicken Caesar sandwich and the Frankfurter in a pretzel roll. Wow that Chicken Caesar sandwich was delicious! We both loved it and regretted not ordering two…the frankfurter was kind of odd for our taste but we will be going back to this QS again next trip!

After we ate, we wandered the shops a bit more, pressed more pennies, and then headed back to the resort. We swam in the quiet pool for quite a while. If we had to complain, it’d be that the pool was way too warm so I got in the habit of hanging out in the hot tub for 10 mins before jumping in the pool. Other than that- everything at our resort was perfect! (as a matter of fact, I may create a post just about our resort...including some of the 200+ pics I took there.) Saratoga Springs was just beautiful.

______
This post is to be continued in the next so I don't have to cut any pictures

 

[dacky041208]

Hollywood Studios continued...

Around 3:30 we headed back to DHS and straight for the Animation building since it was a non-Fantasmic night. We had a TON of fun visiting with all the characters.

First we met Mary Poppins and Mr. Penguin!! Mary asked me if my DH is my “chimney sweep” (how cute is that?).

Next, we met the Tweedles- Tweedle Dee took a liking to me (pitter patter of the heart! <3) and danced me around the entire room. LOL While we danced, DH was busy smacking Tweedle Dum around- I know, not cool. We had a lot of fun with these two.

After this we headed to the Little Mermaid show where Ariel may have butchered my favorite Little Mermaid song…sigh. The show was still awesome though and we had no wait time to get in there. They were just about to shut the doors when we came up and they let us in! (Best CMs ever!) We then tried our luck and went back to the Animation Studios…good thing we did!

We met Pocahontas and Meeko! I was SO excited to meet Meeko! After a quick picture, I had fun with him- I told him I had brought lots of biscuits but DH just finished the last one outside. He was great! As I was telling him about the biscuits, he was making lip-smacking noises and then shook his finger at DH when I gave him the bad news.

Next came Stitch who is just hilarious. I dislike his ride in the MK but he is just too cute. I may have told him that DH let one go so Stitch started making noises and waving his hand (paw?) behind himself, motioning PU and pointing at DH. Poor DH. LOL

Lastly, we met Mulan. She chatted with us for quite a while commenting on my trend-setting bright red Mickey crocs (13 bucks on clearance from the crocs website. Red wasn’t my first choice but hey, 13 dollars and no shipping? I’m in!) She also asked if we had ridden TSM and was telling us how the General beats her every time she plays against him. Wouldn’t it be a riot to see them on the ride?

After all of the meeting and greeting we were hungry again and thought we would try our luck at Sci Fi Dine In Theatre…and they were able to take us in about 15 minutes!! We got in the back seat (bow chic a bow wow ) of a car. The waitress announced us as hitchhikers to the family who was already eatting in the front 2 rows. We LOVE the atmosphere at Sci Fi!

After dinner we enjoyed our last ride on Star Tours before the redo. Although I feel like it could use an update…I love it just the way it is, well, was. I do hope they keep the robot Kermit in the waiting area!!

At some point in the evening we went back on TSM....but I can't remember exactly when (sorry about that). Here's our scores!

This time I am player 2:

Next up: Back to the Magic Kingdom...or....a look at Saratoga Springs. I am undecided.

 

[dacky041208]

Wow! I love reading your trip report and seeing your great photos!! I can't wait to read more! Thanks for sharing!!

Great report

Welcome readers!

I am so excited that you are reading and enjoying!

 

[ortholablady]

July 30

First Stop: Magic Kingdom!

So we jumped on the bus around 7:15, our bus driver thought we were crazy going that early but we had some business to attend to at the desk before heading to the breakfast line.

When the desk opened we purchased our very first annual passes using our dvc discount as well as our GAD passes.

We then jumped in line for the 8am breakfasts. We had a nice chat with a woman and her adorable granddaughter- they were going to breakfast at the Royal Table. I love that you can have those random moments with complete strangers…before we knew it we were walking down Main Street…

I love when it’s empty <3

We arrived at the Crystal Palace and were seated rather quickly! We had a beautiful view from our seats…take a look!

Our meal was of course incredibly delicious! I absolutely love the food here…the puffed toast, the potato casserole, the fruit and yogurt, just amazing. And the fact that my favorite characters are here makes this a must-do every year!

I had to say, we met Sam from CA, a wonderful character handler. She showed us her “must-dos”, marked up our map with all of her tips, and didn’t take any crap from DH haha. For example, I was wearing an Eeyore shirt and she mentioned that the characters can sign clothing, just not when you are wearing them…which was an invitation for my husband to say “So what you are saying is that women taking off their clothing is encoura….” And she cut him off real quick! It was hilarious!

And because Pooh had something go wrong, his schedule was way off and looked like we’d miss meeting him since we wanted to be out the door at 9. She came back over to us and brought us over to Pooh, took our picture for us and gave me a giant hug wishing us a magical day.

Oh Sam, you rock!

Up Next: Our adventures in Magic Kingdom!

Enjoying your TR so far. I have to ask though, am I the only one seeing the Mickey ears the lights are making behind your head in the picture with Pooh?

 

[dacky041208]

Enjoying your TR so far. I have to ask though, am I the only one seeing the Mickey ears the lights are making behind your head in the picture with Pooh?

LOL! I'm a hidden mickey!!!!