DLR veterans visit WDW for the first time! September 2015 PTR (UPDATED 6/5 HE'S FINALLY HOME!!!)

[OregonMomToWDW]

Wanted to drop in and say, "Hi." How is the new job working out?

Hope you have a great weekend!

 

[sailored]

Wanted to drop in and say, "Hi." How is the new job working out?

Hope you have a great weekend!

Hiiii! New job is great, thanks for asking! I'm working on an update right now. Well, a small detour.

 

[sailored]

*crawls out from under rock*

This past month has been a busy one, so I haven't really been on here much and I really do apologize for that. BUT! I am fiiiiinally here with an update.





WE ARE TAKING A SLIGHT DETOUR PRIOR TO DISNEY WORLD!

Where you might ask? Well . . .

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Phil and I will be visiting Disneyland June 10th & 11th!!!! I am SO SO SO excited! Phil will have POM leave for a couple weeks once he returns home from deployment and I'll request a couple days off from work. Disney's 60th anniversary kicks off on May 22nd with a 24 hour event, unfortunately Phil won't be home from deployment just yet. We haven't been to Disneyland in over a year now, which is a lifetime for us. We are both very excited to return home for a couple days. We were really trying to hold off on going until we experienced WDW but we just couldn't wait any longer.

I already booked our hotel for the trip, we are just staying at a cheap one. We will leave Lemoore on the 9th once he checks out on leave and then probably get there in the evening.

On the 10th we will park hop between the parks and probably check out the new fireworks and parade at Disneyland. We have a dining reservation at Blue Bayou for dinner, it'll be our first time eating there.

On the 11th we will park hop again throughout the day and do the dining package at Carthay Circle (another first) so we can get preferred viewing for the new World of Color show. Which I think is the thing I am most excited to see!

We would head back home on the 12th, very sad day. But, just a few months after that we will be on our way to Disney World!


Coming Up Next: Must Do's for the parks at WDW.

 

[bunnyboo]

First off, I LOVE the title of your PTR! I grew up going to DL too and can totally relate. So glad you were able to add Universal in, I'm sure you'll both have a fantastic time there. You're absolutely right, there are many places you can do a spa day at, but you can only go to USF/IoA in FL! Hoping you get that BOG ADR soon.

Yay MORE DISNEY!!! and you have everything planned already!!
I wasn't planning on going to DL anytime soon, but now I must to see the special Diamond celebration. I'm really hoping they extend the celebration to at least mid next year so I can go after instead of before my WDW trip. Looking forward to reading about your trip!

 

[lilmape]

I would love to see Disneyland! Someday we will get there. Your ADRs look great so far. There is a board on here for canceled September ADRs. You can coordinate (through private message) to get the ressies. Good luck! I'm happy with ours so far but would love to snag a BOG lunch just to see inside. I think my little one would love eating in castle (and who are we kidding, I would enjoy it too!).

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Great news about Disneyland. I have never eaten at Blue Bayou either. That would be so fun. It will be nice to be able to go, even for a couple of days. I would love to check out the special things for the celebration this year.

 

[sailored]

First off, I LOVE the title of your PTR! I grew up going to DL too and can totally relate. So glad you were able to add Universal in, I'm sure you'll both have a fantastic time there. You're absolutely right, there are many places you can do a spa day at, but you can only go to USF/IoA in FL! Hoping you get that BOG ADR soon.

Yay MORE DISNEY!!! and you have everything planned already!!
I wasn't planning on going to DL anytime soon, but now I must to see the special Diamond celebration. I'm really hoping they extend the celebration to at least mid next year so I can go after instead of before my WDW trip. Looking forward to reading about your trip!

You really should try to sneak in a trip to DL just for the diamond celebration. I believe it's going to be SO worth it! Let me know if you decide to take a detour as well.

I would love to see Disneyland! Someday we will get there. Your ADRs look great so far. There is a board on here for canceled September ADRs. You can coordinate (through private message) to get the ressies. Good luck! I'm happy with ours so far but would love to snag a BOG lunch just to see inside. I think my little one would love eating in castle (and who are we kidding, I would enjoy it too!).

We decided to skip BOG for dinner and just do lunch, as long as I get inside, I'm happy! BUT! If they offer breakfast, I will do that since I'm pretty sure it's prep-park opening. I would cancel my lunch ressie in a heartbeat!

Great news about Disneyland. I have never eaten at Blue Bayou either. That would be so fun. It will be nice to be able to go, even for a couple of days. I would love to check out the special things for the celebration this year.

I'll probably do a mini trip report for our DL trip, I'll be sure to include my thoughts on Blue Bayou! I'll take tons of pictures of the celebrations!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Disneyland - how fun!!!

I've never been to Disneyland, so I'd love to try the things you mentioned (Blue Bayou, World of Color, etc.). You guys will have such a great time!

 

[librarygeek]

How fun - you're planning your first trip to WDW and I'm planning my first to DLR!

I'm a little jealous of your AKL stay with club level! We stayed in a standard room there once with borrowed DVC points and it was absolutely amazing. My favorite resort.

Your food plans sound delicious! The only thing I would suggest, especially since you're staying at AKL, is to see if you can fit in trying one of the restaurants there. All three are some of my absolute favorites. Maybe lunch at Sanaa on your pool day?

I really hope you get BOG for the 16th, it's my absolute favorite restaurant in all of WDW. I would've kept the one on the 20th as the park doesn't empty out and the festivities don't start until 7, but I'm glad that you were able to give it to someone who is excited about it!

 

[sailored]

Disneyland - how fun!!!

I've never been to Disneyland, so I'd love to try the things you mentioned (Blue Bayou, World of Color, etc.). You guys will have such a great time!

World of Color is absolutely amazing! It's one of my ultimate favorite things that DLR has to offer. If you ever find your way west, it's definitely worth checking out. I'll be sure to give an update on my thoughts for Blue Bayou!

How fun - you're planning your first trip to WDW and I'm planning my first to DLR!

I'm a little jealous of your AKL stay with club level! We stayed in a standard room there once with borrowed DVC points and it was absolutely amazing. My favorite resort.

Your food plans sound delicious! The only thing I would suggest, especially since you're staying at AKL, is to see if you can fit in trying one of the restaurants there. All three are some of my absolute favorites. Maybe lunch at Sanaa on your pool day?

I really hope you get BOG for the 16th, it's my absolute favorite restaurant in all of WDW. I would've kept the one on the 20th as the park doesn't empty out and the festivities don't start until 7, but I'm glad that you were able to give it to someone who is excited about it!

If you need any help with DLR, feel free to ask me! I loooove helping people with DLR.

I'm way too excited to experience AKL club level, but I feel it might spoil us and make us want to do it allll the time when we go in the future haha.

We debated grabbing food at the resort, but I'm a very picky eater and the menus didn't appeal to me.

You'll have to stay tuned on BOG.

 

[sailored]

Okay, I *finally* have our Magic Kingdom (Wednesday 9/16) days finalized! I'll give a quick overview of our day, nothing too detailed because I don't want to bore everyone too much. We are doing more than what is listed, but I'm only mentioning the bigger items on our list. (None of the pictures included are my own, google is a powerful tool.)

Phil and I are rope drop people at DLR, and I'm sure we will be rope drop people at Disney World. Disneyland doesn't have a welcome show, so watching the welcome show is a must on our Magic Kingdom day.

After I wipe away my happy tears we will head over to Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan prior to riding our first FP+ (fingers crossed) ride of the day. This is one of the many rides that I am super excited for!

After we finish exploring the mines, we figured why not go ride the wildest ride in the wilderness! The first mountain visit of the day.

After that wild ride we will head on over to the next nearby mountain for a little cool down I'm absolutely terrified of this ride at Disneyland, so it's going to take major courage for me to ride it at Disney World. BUT, I'm determined. My goal is to not have Phil ride any rides alone this trip. I must face my fears.

We plan on visiting a mountain that is out of this world, and hopefully drying off on the way there. I'm really excited to see how this compares to Space Mountain at Disneyland, which is one of my favorites! This will be our second FP+ of the day if we have it our way.

I'm sure we will have worked up an appetite at this point in our day, so lunch time it is! We are no longer doing a Be Our Guest lunch (not sure if I even gave the update that we were). We decided that we much rather have our first visit there be for dinner, so the hunt for a BOG dinner ressie continues. But, we will enjoy lunch at Cosmic Rays.

A Disney trip wouldn't be complete without visiting friends that are no longer with us, so we decided to go pay our respects. This is another ride that I'm very excited to see, the one at Disneyland holds a special place in our hearts. (It was where "the question" was asked. ) This will hopefully be our third FP+ of the day.

After exploring more of the park and riding more rides, we will probably be hungry for dinner. We have a place in mind, and I've heard that the grey stuff is fantastic! WE GOT A BE OUR GUEST DINNER RESERVATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you see my excitement?!?! I was scrolling on FB before work one morning and someone tagged me in a post in a September planning group, inquiring if I was the one searching for a BOG ressie for later in the month. I politely informed her that it wasn't me, but thanked her greatly because there had been a TON of openings posted! I was able to grab a 4:20 PM reservation for the 16th!!! If it wasn't for her post, I would have never looked. Once I obtained the dinner reservation, I cancelled our lunch reservation. I am SO SO SO excited!!! I quickly emailed Phil and told him the great news.

After dinner, we are pretty much going to explore some more before our next reservation for the evening. We plan on taking the train from Fantasyland to Frontierland.

We will explore Frontierland some more and work our way towards Tomorrowland. Once there, we will hang around until we get to eat a bunch of yummy desserts and watch the fireworks.

After Wishes, we will head back "home" for the evening and get some much needed rest before exploring everything Epcot has to offer the next day.

Stay tuned! Epcot plans are next!


PS. I changed the title of my PTR so I could add whenever I update. My other title was too long. ​

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

I love the plans. The kids love Cosmic Rays. I think partly because it was the first place we ate on our first WDW trip.

We enjoy DL Space over MK Space. We still ride it, but I am interested in reading what you both think of it.

Glad you got the BOG dinner reservation! How very fun. We have done lunch there. Next time, I am going to fight to go there for dinner. My kids prefer to have dinner at the resort, after our afternoon break, before heading back to the parks.

3 out of 4 of us really like 7DMT. Jacob didn't like it, because he felt a bit too big for it. His long legs had a rather hard time squeezing into the space.

On one of our MK EMH (morning) day, we took the main street trolley. My oldest daughter had wanted to take time out at some point that day to see the Dapper Dans. Well, I happened to see 4 men on the trolley and noone else. So, I asked the driver if we could ride. Everyone else was rushing off to get to the rides. We got on the trolly, and the Dapper Dans started telling us jokes. Then they started singing. My daughter hadn't even noticed them when we got on, so she was sooo excited. She loves punny jokes and these were right up her alley, plus the singing. Definitely a magical moment. It took less than 10 minutes and we were on our way to Fantasyland. The kids ended up riding the carousel with the ugly step sisters while I stood with Lady Tremaine watching our kids go by. Then after the ride the step sisters took my youngest daughter's hand and marched her up to the front of the waiting autograph line. It was our first time really taking our time and not worrying so much about what rides we were going to ride and it was a blast.

 

[librarygeek]

Yay for Be Our Guest!! So glad that worked out for you!!

Splash Mountain is one of my absolute favorite rides so I hope you get over your fear enough to try it. It's really not that bad

I may have to bombard you with some DL questions. We are trying to figure out our daily schedule right now for that trip and I'm trying to hash it all out in my PTR!

 

[bunnyboo]

Grats on getting the BOG reservation!!

Space Mountain is my absolute favorite ride, followed by Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. IMO if you like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain will be no problem at all. You'll probably love it after the first time!

 

[lilmape]

Great plans and congrats on BOG! I have read that the train will be closed from late September through November unless they push back the rehab... Fingers crossed! Our MK day is 2 days after the scheduled rehab...

 

[Sisa]

EEEK!!!! You get to see Disneyland celebrate it's 60th Anniversary?! So stinkin jealous, I keep seeing all the photos of the castle and all the fun they are adding. It looks awesome!!!! I hope you include a DL TR in here or link it in here. I want to see pics and hear all about it since we can't go!

Your MK day looks fabulous! I too a, deathly afraid of DL's Splash Mountain, but I am determined to try it in WDW too. Oh and a HUGE congrats to getting BOG ADR!!!! That is awesome, hooray for having such great people in our FB group!

 

[sailored]

I really do need to get better at not being so MIA. BUT, it was for good reason this time. I'm going to give this surprise/update and after I will respond to comments prior to this post. I'm just so excited to share this news and need to do it before I fall asleep on the keyboard *hint*

On Monday I was sitting in my car on my break from work playing around on my phone when I received a text from my friend Gisela. She texted me asking if I had plans to go to Disneyland's 60th 24 hour celebration event. I told her no, that I wasn't visiting until June. She asked if I would want to go with her and I said sure, but we would need to leave at midnight because I have work at 8 AM the next day and we live about 4 hours away. She said nevermind and I thought that was the end of that. I was really wanting to go at that point and determined, I had no desire to go until she brought it up. I called my best friend, Dominique, who lives in San Diego to see if she wanted to go and she said yes. I also asked my co worker, Diondra, if she wanted to go and she said yes! We all convinced Gisela to go after two days of debating. DISNEYLAND 24 HOUR WAS A GO! Diondra, Gisela, and myself left Lemoore at 3:30 PM Thursday and arrived at Disneyland around 8 PM. Dominique arrived shortly after us. We still had a couple hours until they opened up the parking lot for theme park parking, so we wandered Downtown Disney.

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Our main goal for Downtown Disney was to get all our 60th shopping done now so we could just leave all our purchases in the car instead of carrying it around all night and day. World of Disney it is! The store was pretty crowded and hard to navigate, there were SO many people! It didn't stop me from getting the two things I absolutely had to purchase from there. I found what I wanted and after a CM's help, I purchased these!

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I had been wanting a pandora bracelet for a while, and I definitely wanted the 60th charm. So, I decided to go ahead and purchase both! I can't stop staring at it. I'm in love! I just want ALL the Disney charms! I told my husband gift giving will be so easy for him now, all he has to do is buy a charm. After our shopping it was time to head to the parking lot. Once we parked, we walked over to the waiting area for the parks. We started waiting in line at 10 PM. Around 2 AM is when they started moving people through security, one section at a time. At around 3:30 AM it was finally our turn! We were officially at the esplanade waiting for them to open the gates and let us on main street! During that point, I realized that I had grabbed the WRONG ENVELOPE! I grabbed some mail instead of my ticket! I quickly made my way over to the security area and asked if I would be able to run to the car really fast to get my ticket and they said I would have to get to the back of the line. That was NOT an option for me, it was almost 4 AM and we had been in line at 10 PM. You could probably imagine how big the line had become. So, I had to just buy another ticket. I emailed Disney asking if it would be possible to switch the unused voucher to my husbands name since him and I will be going in a couple weeks. Hoping for some pixie dust or else I'm out a ticket because we won't be able to use it otherwise. I went and met back up with my friends and we waited for them to open the gates. I will admit, I cried for a good 10 minutes because I was just so upset with myself. But, I eventually calmed down because I was at Disneyland after all. It also helped that they . . . OPENED THE GATES! We made our way onto main street where we would call home for the next twoish hours until the park opened.

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We weren't too far back and they had entertainment. The castle looked SO beautiful in the dark! I was completely amazed and couldn't stop staring. I can't wait until I go back with my husband and he sees how amazing they made it look. There were A LOT of people there, and I'm sure there were a ton of aren't even in the picture that I'm about to post. The little hand is where we were and if you squint or zoom in, you can see me. But, you have to be looking for me.

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After two hours of waiting, the time was finally here. Disneyland was officially open for the next 24 hours! WOOOHOOOOOOOOOO! Picture stolen from Disney.

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We headed straight towards Adventureland to ride our first ride of the day, which is ALWAYS the first ride of the day when I'm there. There just isn't another way to start. I'm sliiiiightly Disneyland controlling. We started off with Indiana Jones and worked our way throughout the park. I haven't been to Disneyland in over a year and haven't rode Big Thunder Mountain since the remodel. I LOOOOOOOOVE it! I can't wait to take Phil on it! I don't have very many pictures of the rides, we were more concerned with special picture opportunities. We also rode the improved Matterhorn and I was very impressed with the animatronics. Phil will love it! I'm clearly even more excited to go with him in a couple weeks.

After riding many more rides, we made our way to California Adventure to ride some rides there and that's when Diondra and Gisela were about done and needed a nap. They both left us to head to the car around 1 PM? Dominique and I rode a couple rides and were so tired. We decided to head back to Disneyland and just find a spot t hang out for the next five hours and wait for Paint the Night and the fireworks. Didn't happen. We got outside and Disneyland was not letting guests in. They were letting you in if you had already been in, but it was about an hour wait. My feet were on fire at this point, I felt like I was walking on bones. I was miserable. Dominique and I walked back to the car and told Diondra and Gisela about what was going on. We all decided to jsut call it a day and start the journey back home. Dominique took off to San Diego in here car and the three of us headed back to Lameoore. We left the parking lot at about 3:40 PM and didn't get home until 9 PM! The traffic in LA was absolutely ridiculous. I couldn't sleep in the car either because I kept getting sick. Once I got home I got in my car and drove to pick up my dog from the sitters.

I fell asleep in the bathtub, with the water running. I was that tired. Luckily, I woke up right as it started leaking out so I turned the water off. I fell asleep again and woke up to freezing cold water. I dragged my behind to bed and that was it. I woke up for work.

I'm bummed we left early but I'm glad we did. There is no way I would have made it if we left at midnight, especially since I discovered I can't sleep in a car because I get sick. It was a very fun day and I enjoyed every moment of it. Disney was absolutely amazing when it came to crowd control, it didn't feel overwhelmed at all. We walked onto multiple rides, such as Indiana Jones and Pirates. Our longest wait was 45 minutes for the Matterhorn and that's because it had just reopened. I have no idea where all the people were in the parks, but they clearly had a different route and I'm not complaining. I can't wait to be back in just a couple weeks with my husband! Who will be home VERY soon!! I can't give dates due to OPSEC reasons, but just know that somebody needs to pinch me because it doesn't feel real. We are unbelievably close to being done with this long deployment.

I'll go ahead and end this mini trip report with some other pictures from the trip.

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Stay tuned! I'll have another PTR update soon.

 

[KT0191]

Ahh Evie! I'm so excited to find your PTR. I'm in the Sept group (Katee Trout). Loving the report so far. Your planned days look perfect and it looks like a smooth sailing trip. Super exciting that your husband will be home soon. Did you ever finish your homecoming sign?

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Looked like you had a blast.

 

[sailored]

Hello! Once again, I have failed on updating. I have been busy preparing the house for my husbands homecoming. After 288 days, my husband is FINALLY home! Words can't begin to explain the feeling that I have, especially the feeling I had when I saw him again. This update is just a small update, nothing Disney related. Once I get some much needed time with Phil, I will be back to updating! We are going to Disneyland next week, so I will probably include a mini trip report in here. The next couple weeks will be busy though. We are going to Disneyland next week, his mom is coming to visit the following week, and a close friend is arriving the day his mom leaves to visit for the weekend. Super busy next couple weeks ahead! I don't care how busy it may be, I'm just happy to have my best friend back again. I'm going to include some pictures from homecoming yesterday.

There was a lot of back and forth with when they would arrive. It was originally suppose to be 7 PM but then a mass message was sent out saying 5:30 PM. I get to the hangar and it's changed back to 7 PM. Ten minutes later, it's now 6 PM. The CO announces that they had to change an airplane tire so now they will be landing at 7 PM again. I don't remember what time they landed, but it was around 7 PM. Here is a picture of me anxiously waiting while the plane had just landed and is turning around.

The plane was about to pull up in front of us and I was so anxious! It's funny how I was able to wait about ten months, but the last few minutes were torture.

They started to get off the plane, my husband was second off because we had won a "First Hug" raffle. Once I saw him walk off that plane, I had butterflies in my stomach.

At first I told myself that I was going to walk towards him because I had this feeling that if I ran, I would have fallen on my face. Buuuut, that all went out the window the second he got off those stairs.

For the first time in 288 days, I was finally able to hug Phil again! Best. Feeling. Ever.

Excuse the PDA, but I just had to give him a kiss!

This is definitely not the most flattering picture of me, but I don't care. Here is a picture of Phil and I with the Disney inspired homecoming sign I made him. I ran out of room and had to squeeze the last word on there.

As we were walking away, we stopped to have another kiss. I LOVE that Christina (our photographer) was able to capture this moment. I was very delighted to see this picture in the photos she sent me.

Below is a video of the homecoming itself, I apologize for the poor quality.

Here is a video of Phil and our dog, Lily, being reunited again. Please excuse our messy home.

I have made all our daily plans for all of our park days. I'll update with those once the craziness dies down here at home. I also have to get Phil up to speed on our Disney trip.

Stay tuned!​