DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM - A Spring 2013 Adventure! *COMPLETE* 11/20

The baked goods and pastries from the Andapur Tea Company are AWESOME.

Where do Dug and Russell meet?

Preston’s shirt is amazing.

FOTLK…dying.

Seems like you guys had an awesome safari. And I LOVED your giraffe photos. They are just so photogenic.

The songs from Finding Nemo are amazing. And now I have them all stuck in my head. “Just go with the FLOOOOOooooWWWWWWwww.”

FROZEN ORANGE JUICE COME TO MEEEE.

YOUR PICTURES ON EE OMG :lmao: And FOUR times?! Lucky ducks!

I JUST GOT SO EXCITED WHEN I SAW THE WORDS POLYNESIAN AND OHANA.

I was kinda upset about the menu changes at Ohana but they don’t seem to be that bad. I’m just sad about the new salad dressing. The previous one was SO GREAT. But I’m glad to hear the new one is good!

Wishes + all of that food = HEAVEN.
 
Lovew the updates. I love Preston's Oswald t-shirt and I so wanna meet Dug and Russell
 
I love reading your reports! It sure looks and sounds like alot of fun!!! I wish my son would do this, I love Disney so much!!!
 
March 6th, 2013 (Part 1) - Seeing Fish and Soaring to New Heights!

I woke up at 7:45 am today and we were out the door a little after 9 am. We got stuck waiting in the FREEZING cold shade for the bus for about 20 minutes. I was practically crying. GAHH I hate when Florida gets cold. There were buses for literally every other park besides ours. Don't you love when that happens?

The bus FINALLY got there for Epcot and we hopped onto the warm, beautiful vehicle.

dsc0718r.jpg


We arrived at Epcot and the Flower and Garden Festival was beginning today!! I absolutely LOVE the display they have for this year! It's the 20th anniversary of the festival! I will definitely be taking more pictures of the topiaries when I come back. Don't you worry!

Our first order of business was going to get Soarin' fastpasses! They were for 12:15-1:15, which was great. Matt, Preston and I grabbed some breakfast from Sunshine Seasons! I got some scrambled eggs and croissant berry pudding which were both REALLY yummy. I was extremely satisfied.

This croissant berry pudding blows me away every time. I mean, who the heck thought to make bread pudding out of croissants!? GENIUS!!!

dsc0722rj.jpg


Preston and Matt got the adult breakfast platter.

dsc0720ls.jpg


The seasons balloons!

dsc0723cl.jpg


After that we all decided to go to Figment! Alex, Karen, and Preston have never been on it before so we had to show them the beauty that is figment. They all got a big kick out of it!

dsc0724o.jpg


No dancing on Figment, sorry folks.

img9120h.jpg


IMAAAAAAGINATION!

img9123g.jpg


Then we had a unanimous decision to head towards Nemo! YAY!!! There was about a 5-10 minute line. The ride was cute though and I enjoyed it very much!

Then we all explored the Seas pavilion. I wanted to take Preston on Turtle Talk With Crush, but the last show just went in. So we went in a fish tank room and took FISHY PICTURES!!!

dsc0725ot.jpg


There was this yellow fish in one of the tanks who literally just kept swimming ridiculously fast in a circle around the tank. It was the funniest thing. We had a lot of fun trying to take a picture of him!

dsc0726re.jpg


dsc0731bc.jpg


BUBBLES!

dsc0733xc.jpg


MARLIN!

dsc0735hx.jpg


DORY!

dsc0738uv.jpg


ALL THREE!

dsc0740q.jpg


Our frog fish friend/bat fish was no where to be found ): and neither was a cast member. I just want to ask what happened to him and nobody is ever there to answer my question! This guy is the only interesting looking one left in his tank, but our (not) frog fish just cannot be replaced!!

dsc0742z.jpg


This is Mr. Lion Fish:

dsc0749jz.jpg


And this eel poked his head out and smiled for me!! WHATTA GUY!

dsc0751fx.jpg


Then in about 10-15 minutes we went back to go see Turtle Talk With Crush!

dsc0752o.jpg


dsc0753lv.jpg


All of the kids who asked questions were pretty hilarious!

From there we met back up with everybody and went on Soarin' with our fastpasses! We had to wait until the next ride, but we ended up getting the EXACT center of the top row. It was probably the best Soarin' experience I have had in my entire life.

dsc0755n.jpg


After that we went on Mission: SPACE! We wanted to do that before lunch for sure. Karen opted out but the rest of us decided to tackle the orange side!

dsc0756uh.jpg


Even though I've been on this ride about 4 times now, I was still TERRIFIED! I haven't completely built my Disney ride tolerance up for it yet, which I actually kind of like. It adds to the experience!

I was the navigator! This ride was SO fun because I actually knew every person in our space ship for once. We were just screaming and laughing the entire time. It was a VERY important mission!

dsc0757pu.jpg


I posted on twitter:
"I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO THE MARS GIFT SHOP!" - @DattMaVita #missionspace

Oh, Matt. What a joker.

Karen was chilling outside waiting for us by the Wonders of Life pavilion. At least it was nice and sunny out today!

dsc0759l.jpg


dsc0763db.jpg


The boys were tired. So why not lay in the grass? Disney grass is clean, right?

dsc0761j.jpg


Continued in Next Post
 

I know what you mean about Mission Space, we've been on in a ton of times now and yet I still get nervous before I head in!
 
Great installments, I love how you were showing the great things about each park and how you really appreciate One Man's Dream. If it wasn't for Walt we wouldn't be reading your trip report. I think everyone should got through that exhibit at least once, we go every trip.

The ride photos are fantastic especially the Expedition Everest ones :lmao: too funny!!

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.
 
catching up again.....

I just love DHS, and the Prime Time Cafe is my favorite. Your food pictures from there make me want to go back soon. And now I plan on making meatloaf for dinner tonight!:rotfl: It is freezing in WI today, where is Spring????

It is so great that Preston just loved all your favorite things at the parks. You look like you are having a blast!

Your day at AK was great, not sure if I could have repeated EE 4 times, but thanks for posting the hilarious ride pictures. So much fun.

Yummy Ohana, too bad it is impossible to get reservations there all the time.
 
Your trip report is getting me so excited for my next trip and I still have a little less than 6 months to go! Lol Looks like you had a fabulous time with your friends and you and Preston are so cute together.
 
Hey Jess, I've been reading along but haven't commented as yet (I don't think!). I just found out a few days ago that I'll be eligible for the ICP next year so I'm very keen to find out about your experiences in concierge! I love waking up each morning to seeing your updates on twitter and instagram (world time zones are the best!).

Keep up the great work, everything about this on going TR makes me so happy <3
 
Dont' the balloons at Sunshine Seasons just make you smile? :goodvibes

OMG! I love the picture of you and Preston taking a break on the grass. So beautiful.:cloud9: DH won't sit with me on that perfect Disney grass. He thinks it's immediate grounds for expulsion from the park.:rotfl2::rotfl: Now I have proof it's not.:rotfl2:

I need croissant berry pudding now!:hyper:

Thanks for the updates; I hope you're having a wonderful day.:yay:
 
Hey Jess! For some reason I can't follow you on twitter anymore. It says forbidden :( My twitter name is @LizyDoolittle My 7 year old and I love following! Not sure what happened! I feel bad bothering you when I know how busy you are.
 
I've just caught up with your trip report. I don't usually comment; I'm a lurker. However, the enjoyment I've received from following your thread demands me come out of hiding with a well-deserved "Thank you!"
 
All caught up on your report! I love the flower and garden festival. Such a great time of year to be down there. How awesome that you had a castle view and wishes at 'Ohana!! Looking forward to reading the rest!
 
Hey Jess! For some reason I can't follow you on twitter anymore. It says forbidden :( My twitter name is @LizyDoolittle My 7 year old and I love following! Not sure what happened! I feel bad bothering you when I know how busy you are.

This happen for me as well... I'm stepher83... And I miss your updates on Twitter :-(
 
I thought I had done something wrong. I was blocked on Twitter as well. I don't get on there much so I figured I did something wrong:(

I'm glad you had such a good time when your friends were visiting! I hope I get to meet you next month when we are there!
 
Loving these updates of yours, so well done, and I've found loads of little things to make the next trip more magical because of them. I was "this close" to applying for the DCP back in the day, but opted to go to grad school instead and I always regret not taking one semester for myself to do it. Good for you on following your dreams! I have a quick question, what camera do you use for all your pictures and what settings do you use for your amazing fireworks pics?
 
Loving these updates of yours, so well done, and I've found loads of little things to make the next trip more magical because of them. I was "this close" to applying for the DCP back in the day, but opted to go to grad school instead and I always regret not taking one semester for myself to do it. Good for you on following your dreams! I have a quick question, what camera do you use for all your pictures and what settings do you use for your amazing fireworks pics?

I have a Nikon D3100 and I just use no flash
 
March 6th, 2013 (Part 2) - F&G Festival

We wanted to take a quick look in the festival center since it was finally Flower and Garden season! I told everyone about how it used to be the Wonders of Life pavilion and they were interested in going inside of the building!

img9134m.jpg


img9137l.jpg


dsc0767ce.jpg


We did a quick browse around and the most exciting thing (to me) was the display of Disney Vera Bradley bags! I am sure that the majority of you have heard about this release, but I am SO GLAD this is finally happening! I seriously called it over two years ago that Disney and Vera were going to merge someday... and now it happened! The bags are available in the fall for purchase so you can't buy them in the stores yet. All of the prints are beautiful!

dsc0764ke.jpg


Then we were hungry! Karen and Alex went to eat in World Showcase but Preston, Matt, and I went back to Sunshine Seasons! I got some macaroni and cheese for my meal. It was PERFECT. Mac and Cheese is on the kids menu but they can give you a bigger cup and it counts as an entree for a quick service meal!

dsc0773r.jpg


I also had strawberry shortcake for my dessert which was an amazing choice.

dsc0779b.jpg


Preston got the turkey sandwich which he seemed to enjoy.

dsc0772s.jpg


For his dessert he got cheesecake which he LOVED. He said it was the best cheesecake he has gotten in Disney thus far. I have to say that it was REALLY good. It was so fresh and the flavor was perfection.

dsc0771ca.jpg


Matt got the Caesar salad and he got the red velvet whoopie pie for dessert. YUM AND YUM. Both of them were fabulous.

dsc0769i.jpg


dsc0768p.jpg


We left Epcot and went to the Contemporary and walked through a little bit. Then we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom! It was Matt's FIRST TIME ON THE MONORAIL. The kid has been to Disney every single year of his life and he has never been on the monorail. I just dont know what to do with him. He lives in a Yacht and Beach Club bubble.

We arrived at Magic Kingdom and Preston ran into one of his friends, John, from high school that he hasn't seen in two years! Neither of them knew they were in Disney but it was such a coincidence that they were entering/exiting the Magic Kingdom at the same time! It was too funny.

We grabbed some Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards and did some pin trading all the way down Main Street. Then we made out way to FANTASYLAND BECAUSE WE WERE GOING TO BE OUR GUEST FOR DINNER OMG. Seriously, I have been waiting for this moment. We were all JUMPING OUT OF OUR SKIN. It was so exciting.

dsc0784y.jpg


Mark and I were just planning on going to Disney for spring break, so we made this reservation back in September for Be Our Guest. However, we just decided to do the DCP and move here instead, so I took Preston and Matt there when they visited on Spring Break!

We checked in and had to wait on the bridge for a little bit.

dsc0781cy.jpg


dsc0786dc.jpg


dsc0787o.jpg


dsc0789y.jpg


dsc0792w.jpg


dsc0794vc.jpg


Then after about 5-10 minutes of waiting in the cold, it was TIME! Matt and Preston had never entered the castle before and they thought it was SO COOL.

We were brought to our table RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BALLROOM. Literally I couldn't have asked for a better location.

LOOK AT THESE MENUS!

dsc0801t.jpg


YEAH AND THE NAPKIN IS A ROSE!

dsc0798d.jpg


dsc0796n.jpg


Our server took our orders and we were just in awe of the entire place. The chandeliers looked GORGEOUS and even more elegant than usual. It was snowing outside of the window. There was just a beautiful glow to the restaurant and the atmosphere was gorgeous.

dsc0799q.jpg


We all started with our drinks. Preston ordered this all natural lemonade with wildberry foam and it was AMAZING. It was some of the best lemonade I have ever tasted. I ended up ordering one for myself because it was SO GOOD. Unfortunately there were no refills though and we were kind of sad about that because we wanted more!

dsc0806z.jpg


Continued in Next Post
 
The cookie/cake thing you guys got looks absolutely DEEEE-LISH. And your pictures are gorgeous!
 
yum. the all natural lemonade looks good to me. and I just can't wait to go into that main ball room in the Be Our Guest restaurant. I always loved that ballroom scene in the movie. The ceiling in there is so perfect! Yay Disney for making that a real place that we can visit.
Cute Philharmagic shirt! You have a wonderful collection of shirts!
 





New Posts










Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!

Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE













DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest

Back
Top