Disney 09 AKA First Time As a CM AKA The Week My BF Complained... A LOT.

[DisneyObsessive]

Hey guys! I just got back from my trip on saturday (Jan 5th-10th) and man was it quite a vacation!

I'm not completely ready to start the report, but rather wanted to hold a place for it, and also introduce you to the whole situation first. Im waiting on my friend John to upload his pictures so i can give you guys the full gamut of photo goodness!

So, i planned the trip back in the summer for myself (22), my boyfriend Pete (29) and our friend John (28). We had spent months up until December trying to find a 4th person to come a long, to no avail. Invitee # 1 had another trip planned and couldn't afford both. Invitee #2 was on the bandwagon for a while, then cancelled due to college funds. Invitee #3 said, ill try, and then disappeared. Invitee #4's mother passed away. It was just NOT to happen so we decided it would be just the three of us, as it seems thats how it was meant to be.

I was planning to go because of two reasons: 1), i had just become a cast member! I wanted to experience the world as a CM! and 2)I just finished school and am weeks away from my graduation ceremony. I wanted to celebrate finally getting my B.A in Media!

Let me explain Pete before anything. Pete is one of those cynical, nitpicking people. Its not necessarily a bad thing, he's just picky about things. Either they are amazing and blow him away or they are sub-par. Especially when it comes to theme parks.

He had never been to Disney, so this was his first trip, and needless to say, he was really bitter about it long before we even got on the plane. He had that whole thing that, he just didnt care anymore, and he was too old for it, yadda yadda. I basically turned around and said "we are going to have fun because i said so!" I also explained he'd never get a chance to go any cheaper than now while i am a CM, so he finally caved.

John, on the other hand, has been a few times but its been over 10 years since he last went. Before AK was even open! He's got a great attitude about it and we are keeping each other's excitement up, despite grumpy ol' Pete Don't get the wrong idea, I love him dearly!

So that is pretty much the set up for the trip.

Im waiting on pictures, but if i dont get John's in a couple of days, ill just have to start with the ones i have!

Stay tuned, the first day is exciting, what with the wasteful $45 cab ride to get a main gate pass that DIDNT WORK.... oh yeah. Fun stuff.

 

[skellingtonfreak]

I'm in!

 

[wannago2disney]

Im here too

 

[Stacybaeasm]

This sounds like it's going to be a good one. I'm along for the ride!

 

[DisneyObsessive]

I've finally gotten all the pictures together in one place... there are over 400 between John and i but i won't bombard you will all of them! So here we goooo! Off to Neverland!!!

So our flight was at 7:10 in the morning, and we all meet up at JFK airport at about 5:45. Pete didn't sleep the entire night before, not out of excitement, but because he normally doesnt fall asleep til 3 am most nights, and since he couldnt do that he just kept himself up. Crazy, i know!

I got about 3 hours on and off, mostly due to excitement, and John forced himself to bed at 8pm with sleeping pills so he wouldnt be up all night. Such is the way before a Disney vacation!

So here we are at the airport, excited, tired, and Pete looks like a zombie... and im barely even there....

Our flight took off about 15 minutes late yet we still arrived at Orlando on time at about 10:00.

We headed downstairs to the magical express, and im guessing because it's January and there aren't many people, we get on a bus in about 5 minutes and pull out in another 5.

Here

Coronado Springs wound up being the last stop so it took us about an hour.

And here we are!

We checked in around 11:00:

and our room was ready. But unfortunately i have to deal with a little problem.

Before i left, I was supposed to receive my maingate pass in the mail. What that is, is a pass cast members get that allow them and a certain # of guests into the parks for free. Its not an issue for me, per say, as my ID gets me in. But if John and Pete aren't to be left in the parking lot, i needed to get one, STAT.

So i speak to concierge which the cast member i spoke to, btw, was wonderful help:

And he calls me a cab to head to Celebration, where the building is that i need to get a new one.

About half an hour and $35 later, i return back to the hotel, maingate in hand. I rush up to the hotel room to find food waiting for me (thank god!) and the guys absolutely ADORING the new queen sized beds.

John looks SO TINY on this bed, because of the angle, its hysterical:

So after a 15 min power nap (Pete looks terrible already because of the lack of sleep), We decide to head out to the magic kingdom.

Our walk to the buses is nothing short of beautiful:

So we hop on the bus and you can tell Pete is REALLY excited:

And we arrive!

So we skip along to that cast member entrance gate, man do i feel all special, and i give them my main gate...swipe......swipe...

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but your maingate pass is coming up invalid."

INVALID!?!?!?!

To be continued.....

 

[noahdove]

Hey, this report sounds like some of my adventures that I have with my group of friends..there are 8 of us..all women....but, we do have fun!!!

 

[OhMari]

Please come back and update.

 

[DisneyObsessive]

I'm here, I'm here! i had no internet for a couple of weeks, LOOOONG story. But im up and running and after a couple of days of catching up on all other things, im here to update!!!!

So, indeed, invalid.

I explain to the CM that, i just took a $35 cab ride all the way to Celebration to go to the office to wait in the waiting room to get my main gate pass... literally just A HALF HOUR AGO.

Well, she really believed me, and she felt bad, so she let me in and issued the tickets fomr John and Pete.

But im still fuming, and want to get things resolved. So, for about half an hour, the two of them wait outside of mainstreet, just past the turnstiles while I speak with some other CMs about the issue, who tell me to call my manager to see if its an issue on their end.

I call my area manager, im on the phone with her, she's mad, she said they made a mistake at the office.

We come to the conclusion i have to head back the next morning, and John offers to pay for THAT cab fare. ugh, what a mess. But now that i have a plan of action, we can continue into the MK.

So We get some obligatory quick castle pictures as we head to tomorrowland:

And we head directly to Space Mountain while the 3:00 parade has just begun. The wait says 40 minutes, but we walk on in 5... my excitement walking through the mountain:

The guys are sweet and let me have front seat. We get off and John says "its not as good as i remember it" and Pete says "i barely was even aware of what just happened".

Oy. Cynics.

So we head over through Fantasyland and head to Haunted Mansion next. Where pete takes DOZENS of pics of the steamboat. He really loved the river and the boat and everything.

This is John and I's scared faces of Haunted Mansion, but he looks dumbfounded and i look confused:

And in we GO! WE got stuck in a traffic JAM because the ride went down, and they let out two "stretching" rooms out within minutes of each other, and we all bottle necked. We tried to stay together, and some old lady accused us of "butting up" in line, which became our choice of words for the week, about people "butting up" or if we should "butt up". it was funny. We weren't trying to cut anyone off, it was just a MESS and no one knew where to go.

We got on the ride and we got stopped like twice. Pete actually LIKED this ride. wow!

Splash was down for maintenance

So we got Fast passes for big thunder, my FAVORITE mountain and head to Pirates. Pete is not sure what to make of pirates. He doesn't think these are "rides", its like "experiences" that are, well, lame.

eh. I was too happy being in Disney World to care about his critique.

We see Goofy:

I did however, shortly thereafter introduce him to a dole whip. and my friends, he fell in love.

We took some pictures near the castle...you can see him enjoying the dole whip:

And then headed to Big Thunder.

No Dancing:

Yay big thunder is so much fun in the dark! I think Pete liked this one!

We then wait on an atrociously long line for Peter Pan, because it's John's FAVORITE thing at MK... and man, we were grumpy after that one. We waited about an hour for it.

We jumped on Snow White with no line, and winnie the pooh, because im amazed at the effects in Pooh.

We then head to Philharmagic, because i am breathing down their necks to see it.

Obligatory 3-d glasses picture:

Pete actually gets a bit emotional watching it. He's a BIG Donald lover, and of Peter Pan too. Yes! He's feeling a little magic!

As Wishes begins to start, we run off to the parking lot. We've done a good deal of stuff in just 5 hours, especially for a very tired group since Pete was running going on hour 40 or so of no sleep, and iwas running on 3 hours.

Some pics at we raced out:

We got back absolutely exhausted.

The plan for the next morning was that John and I were to wake up and get out by 9 AM to go back to the ticketing office to get my stuff fixed, let Pete sleep in, then come pick him up and then we'd head to Hollywood Studios for the day.

Also, the introduction of "Disney Doodoo"...

 

[DisneyObsessive]

I know its been a looong long time since an update, but i didn't want to leave this trip report unfinished. so im back, and plan to finish!

So Pete was exhausted from the no sleep he got for almost 24 hours... so John ad I headed back to fix my maingate issue. John offered to pay for the cab this time, and finally everything got sorted out.

Here I am quite happy to have a working card:

So we decide today we are going to Hollywood Studios. We get back to the hotel and apparently all 3 of us have been hit with...well what we referred to as "Disney Doo doo". I guess it was the change of food, or something, but...we were all hitting the bathroom before we left for the day. And it was not a happy experience!

So we finalyl leave and get to HS around 11ish. My card works as it should and we are happy campers!

The first ride we decide to hit is toy story mania. I've yet to go on it, and have heard of the long waits, so we head there.

The wait says 40 minutes but we waited more about 25 minutes. I loved every minute of it! It did break down at one point, so we were stuck, but it got up and running shortly. John and I sat on one side and Pete on the other. John def beat me, but we were so competitive, as we are both big video gamers.

I took a million pictures of the line... but i really loved it!

So next we headed to Muppet Vision 3D which Pete actually loved... what? He loved an attraction? Blasphemy!

We grabbed a bite to eat on the way over to Star Tours.

Always a great ride to me... Pete said he enjoyed it for the most part, although it seemed a bit corny, and when i told him there's rumor of them remodeling it with a new movie, he sounded much more interested in that.

We had time to kill before heading to catch the Lights, Motors, Action! show so we wanted to run to the great movie ride. We got stuck running into the parade instead!

We had to turn right around and go through the back way, running to get to The Great Movie Ride so we'd have time to catch the show later, cuz it was the last show for the day.

John and I adore this ride... we got a female Mugsy who was actually pretty awesome, and much more entertaining that our tour guide. Pete had a heart attack during the Alien segment... in a good way. He adores that movie!

So we run back over to Lights, Motors, Action.

Apparently the guys are sort of upset i dragged them to this... they both hated it! They thought it was really boring. Oh well!

Now we decide to hit Tower of Terror. Its a shame there is no line because the guys really want to take a look inside the hotel, but we are ushered pretty quickly into the room to watch the little pre-show.

Of course the ride terrifies me as always... and Pete comes out saying "the theming is cool... but ive been on better drop rides at six flags." I roll my eyes and prepare to keep my disney magic mood despite his cynicism.

The guys are hungry... I'm too excited for food! But they decide to have their first turkey legs.

They loved the taste... but a little while later they both said their tummies felt funny.

We get online for Rock N Rollercoaster, which at about 45 minutes, was the longest wait we had all week. There were no fastpasses left so we had to make due with the wait. The guys are starting to look tired:

We get 3rd and 4th row on the ride which is a blast as always. Its a first for the both of them, and John loves it... Pete is pissed he waited 45 min for a 2 min ride. I try to explain, well most coasters don't last that long... but he's annoyed already so there's no use. *sigh*

I tell the guys i need to head to Epcot to watch Illuminations because its sort of sentimental to me and something i do in remembrance of my mother. So.. we take a few night shots in HS

And head over to Epcot...

 

[thechesters420]

very nice!

 

[GBShorts]

Wow, you're brave to go to Disney with somebody who isn't all that "in" with it. I would have gotten my feelings hurt!

Then again I'm obnoxious that way.

Thanks for sharing your trip, I can't wait to hear the rest!

 

[DisneyObsessive]

So we hop a bus to Epcot and get there around 8:00.

Pete really seems to like the Spaceship Earth globe!

We decide not to really hit any rides, as we are coming back the next day to fully explore Epcot, so we head straight to the World Showcase.

Christmas decorations are still up, and the Epcot tree is lit up:

So we head over to the London area to watch the fireworks, and the guys get on line for a beer. This line took..FOREVER. Mostly because of the guy at the counter who seemed to be ordered for a pack of hyenas. So, Illuminations is about to start and they are still waiting for a beer... so I head off to find a good spot to stand.

The guys give up and they come walk over to watch it with me. It's every bit as beautiful as it always has been! And it's really special to me because it's something i discovered with my mom who I lost 2 years ago.

So, satisfied I caught Illuminations (but Pete not satisfied he "ran" through epcot and didnt get to see anything, even though i repeatedly told him we were going the next day!) we headed back to the hotel by 10:00.

We got something a little bit safer to eat than the quesadillas that gave us "disney do-do" but decided the Pepper Market really isn't for us, at least not for dinner. We just didn't like the food.

The guys saw a bar down by the lake and decided to get some beer there.

As they were ordering, I took a picture up by the tables we were sitting at:

I just loved the lighting at night.

A booth seat right next to the lake opened up so the three of us headed there. After a beer, I got the tastiest frozen strawberry daiquiri ive ever had.

John wanted to give it a try and thought it was far too sweet... he made the funniest faces!:

So then we decided to try the timer on John's camera for a nice group shot...

NO NO NO let's try that again....

MUCH better!

We were buzzed and tired and decided to head in for the night to tackle Epcot in full the next day!

 

[MaleDisneyBeliever]

I wouldnt be happy with all of that negativity raining down on my Disney trip! You should have put them straight on the very first day! No moaning!

 

[DisneyObsessive]

haha well i expected it. John at least had been there before, just years ago, so he had high hopes. Pete well... is Pete. Cynical and scrutinizing. I love 'im though! Besides it was fairly clear to them none of that negativity was affecting my disney magic in anyway... i was pretty much made of disney steel that week cuz nothing puts me in a bad mood when i am there!

 

[jelloarms]

Just letting you know I am reading and I await your return! It must be so much fun to go to Disney World with your friends...that is my dream!