Don't Mind the Blurry Pics * Finished 10/19/06

[BeckWhy]

I am going to type this up like a book or something that I had noticed other people were doing. As of right now, each day will be a “chapter” or something like that. I will create an index in which you can use to find the different “chapters.”

Please don't mind all the blurry pics! My camera doesn't take good pics in low light, I guess.

9/4/06 Chapter 1: Pre-Trip Report page 1/post 2
9/5/06 Chapter 2: Basic Ramblings page 1/post 5
9/7/06 Chapter 3: Basic Ramblings Continued page 1/post 6
9/17/06 Chapter 4: The Arrival Part 1 page 1/post 10
9/17/06 Chapter 5: The Arrival Part 2 page 1/post 13
9/17/06 Chapter 6: The Arrival Part 3 page 1/post 14
9/18/06 Chapter 7: Magic Kingdom Part 1 page 2/post 18
9/18/06 Chapter 8: Magic Kingdom Part 2 page 2/post 19
9/19/06 Chapter 9: Magic Kingdom Part 3 page 2/post 24
9/19/06 Chapter 10: Magic Kingdom Part 4 page 2/post 25
9/19/06 Chapter 11: Magic Kingdom Part 5 page 2/post 26
9/19/06 Chapter 12: Magic Kingdom Part 6 page 2/post 27
9/19/06 Chapter 13: Magic Kingdom Part 7 page 3/post 34
9/20/06 Chapter 14: Magic Kingdom Part 8 page 3/post 35
9/20/06 Chapter 15: Disney Studios Part 1 page 3/post 37
9/20/06 Chapter 16: Disney Studios Part 2 page 3/post 39
9/20/06 Chapter 17: Disney Studios Part 3 page 3/post 40
9/20/06 Chapter 18: Disney Studios Part 4 page 3/post 41
9/20/06 Chapter 19: Disney Studios Part 5 page 3/post 42
9/20/06 Chapter 20: Disney Studios Part 6 page 3/post 43
9/20/06 Chapter 21: Disney Studios Part 7 page 3/post 44
9/20/06 Chapter 22: Disney Studios Part 8 page 3/post 45
9/20/06 Chapter 23: Disney Studios Part 9 page 4/post 46
9/20/06 Chapter 24: Disney Studios Part 10 page 4/post 47
9/21/06 Chapter 25: Disney Studios Part 11 page 4/post 52
9/21/06 Chapter 26: Disney Studios Part 12 page 4/post 53
9/23/06 Chapter 27: Disney Studios Part 13 page 5/post 65
9/23/06 Chapter 28: Disney Studios Part 14 page 5/post 66
9/23/06 Chapter 29: Disney Studios Part 15 page 5/post 67
9/25/06 Chapter 30: Our "Relaxation" Day Part 1 page 5/post 74
9/25/06 Chapter 31: Our "Relaxation" Day Part 2 page 5/post 75
9/25/06 Chapter 32: Our "Relaxation" Day Part 3 page 6/post 76
9/25/06 Chapter 33: Our "Relaxation" Day Part 4 page 6/post 77
9/25/06 Chapter 34: Our "Relaxation" Day Part 5 page 6/post 79
9/25/06 Chapter 35: Our "Relaxation" Day Part 6 page 6/post 80
9/27/06 Chapter 36: Epcot Part 1 page 6/post 88
9/27/06 Chapter 37: Epcot Part 2 page 6/post 89
9/28/06 Chapter 38: Epcot Part 3 page 6/post 90
9/28/06 Chapter 39: Epcot Part 4 page 7/post 91
9/28/06 Chapter 40: Epcot Part 5 page 7/post 92
9/28/06 Chapter 41: Epcot Part 6 page 7/post 93
9/28/06 Chapter 42: Epcot Part 7 page 7/post 95
9/28/06 Chapter 43: Epcot Part 8 page 7/post 97
9/28/06 Chapter 44: Epcot Part 9 page 7/post 99
9/28/06 Chapter 45: Epcot Part 10 page 7/post 100
9/28/06 Chapter 46: Epcot Part 11 page 8/post 107
10/4/06 Chapter 47: Animal Kingdom Part 1 page 8/post 115
10/4/06 Chapter 48: Animal Kingdom Part 2 page 8/post 116
10/4/06 Chapter 49: Animal Kingdom Part 3 page 8/post 117
10/4/06 Chapter 50: Animal Kingdom Part 4 page 8/post 118
10/4/06 Chapter 51: Animal Kingdom Part 5 page 8/post 119
10/4/06 Chapter 52: Animal Kingdom Part 6 page 8/post 120
10/4/06 Chapter 53: Animal Kingdom Part 7 page 9/post 121
10/15/06 Chapter 54: The Last Day page 9/post 123

 

[BeckWhy]

Cast:
Me: Becky, 23, recent grad from SUNY @ Fredonia. I’m the Disney-aholic that is going on this trip (but most of my family is Disney-aholics). This current trip has been in the making since that 2004 trip. I had no one to go with, so I had to beg and beg my boyfriend to go with me.
BF: Eric, 22, entrepreneur. He hasn’t been to WDW since he was 5 (that’s what his mom told me), so I’m excited to take him again. His family has the mentality, “why are you going again? You’ve already been there!” He never wanted to go. I tried to break him in gradually over the past two years. The History Channel and Travel Channel, I think, are what changed his mind. He really got into those shows about the parks and how they work. So he’s finally psyched to go! YAY!

I forgot to add some information, but Eric and I have been dating for 4 years now. This has turned into our Anniversary Trip since our Anniversary is around the time we will be going. This is also our first official vacation (I am not kidding either).

Originally we were planning on going in December. When they released the free dining promo again this year I had to debate if we would save more money doing free dining or just a regular discount code (assuming one would have been released for December). I decided that based on our budget, we would do free dining. (BTW, the discount codes for our travel time in December have been released, and I can no verify that we did save a tremendous amount more with free dining. It cost us about $1300 for the two of us, MYW w/Dining @ Pop Century, two 4-day base tickets, and two plane tickets; the discount code that is out for December would have cost us about $1200 for MYW w/Dining @ Pop Century and two 4-day base tickets and I would have still had to purchase plane tickets which are currently about $160 a person.)

So I booked our package and most of our ADRs. I couldn’t book our TS for the day we arrived until I booked our plane tickets (flight times vary so much). I wasn’t sure what times to book our ADRs, but I booked them all between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm. That sounded like a good time to me. I got all my ADRs when I asked for them, but I was flexible with times, so if I said 6:00 and they didn’t have an opening, they would give me the next time they had an opening. I watched the trends in plane tickets for a long time (I would look once a week or something). I figured our only hope was Southwest. I saw on DIS that many people were getting good rates with AirTran through Disney. So I priced it out and it was considerably cheaper ($166 vs. $210). I made the executive decision to book those flights.

After booking the flights, I could finally book my final ADR. When I called to book Chef Mickey’s, the CM told me there was only two times available, 6:00 or 8:00. We chose the 6:00. Anyways, I booked this dinner about a week after I booked our vacation package (which I booked at the April).

Here are our flight times:
September 9: 10:46 am out of Buffalo arriving in Orlando at 1:25 pm (direct flight).
September 15: 3:25 pm out of Orlando, layover in Atlanta, and arriving in Buffalo at 7:29 pm.

Our schedule is as follows:
September 9: Arrival Day; just hang out at POP
September 10: MK (EMHE)
September 11: DS (EMHE)
September 12: “Rest Day”; just hang out at POP, DTD, BW, etc
September 13: Epcot (EMHE)
September 14: Animal Kingdom
September 15: Departure Day; just hang out at POP and go to Airport

Here are our ADRs (all of which are for dinner):
September 9: Chef Mickey’s
September 10: ‘Ohana
September 11: Sci-Fi Dine In Theater
September 12: Whispering Canyon Café
September 13: Le Cellier
September 14: Boma

 

[pumba]

thanks so much for giving us a sneak preview;..........Hope you have a spectacular trip.......remember to take notes when you are there.....right next to the phone stand is always a pen and a pad of paper........HAVE FUN

 

[BeckWhy]

thanks so much for giving us a sneak preview;..........Hope you have a spectacular trip.......remember to take notes when you are there.....right next to the phone stand is always a pen and a pad of paper........HAVE FUN

Thanks for the tip about the paper and pen in the hotel. I never thought about those. I was going to bring a little notepad that I have, but I will just use those instead. Thanks again!

 

[BeckWhy]

I was looking for a mini-backpack for our trip and knew that JanSport offered one. I ran into Finish Line to see what they had and their straps weren’t cushioned. So I decided not to get one there. Anyways, I did more research on the JanSport bag and found out it doesn’t have cushioned straps either. So I went back to Finish Line to pick up a backpack, but they were all sold out. Every time I was at the mall I would stop in Finish Line just in case. Well a couple weeks later I walked in there and was looking through their clearances and guess what was sitting on top: A MINI-BACKPACK! Yay! I was excited! I grabbed it and ran like the wind! It was only $9.99. I used it when we went to Carlisle, PA for the car show and it worked out fine. A little small, but it’s about the same size as the JanSport one, so I guess it didn’t matter.

So I randomly check AirTran to see if our flights have changed any. I hear a lot of people complain about them because of the changing in flights. Well in the middle of July AirTran was offering the same flights for $146. We paid $166 through Disney. I booked my tickets through Disney because prices seemed to stick to about $200+ a person. I didn’t think they would go anywhere near close to $166 so I booked them. I was happy with that. Anyways, I can’t believe they are offering that fare! Southwest is offering about the same fare also! Well that’s what happens. I’m not really bothered by it, though, because I still think we made a killing with our $166 fares. There was no way to predict that those prices would have dropped so drastically.

So, I now have today, tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday in which I have to occupy my time. I'm not quite sure how I am going to do that. I will repack myself Thursday or Friday before we load our bags into the car. I attempted to pack Eric, which was difficult. All I got from him was "pack whatever." That's helpful. Other than that, he just happens to wear all his t-shirts to work so they are all dirty and do not wash clean. I found just enough clean ones, but many of them are black or dark blue. I don't know what to do though.

I have purchased everything I think we will need for the trip (with the exception of Eric's deodarent. If there is anything we are missing, I don't know it yet. My mom got us some ponchos that were on clearence at one of the local grocery stores. I would have never thought to purchase them.

I must say I am fairly disappointed that we can no longer carry liquids on an airplane. I used to never check anything. Oh well. I'm only checking the liquids: shampoos, conditioners, body washes, lotions, face washes, etc. You wouldn't think, but it's a lot. With the exception of a few items, everything are those little travel bottles. That's so I can just throw the bottles away when it's empty and not have to worry about carrying it home. I'm sure I packed more than enough of everything.

So back to occupying my time. I have to figure out how to pack all of Eric's stuff in the crazy luggage he has. It's the luggage that came with one of the cars he used to own. It's really nice luggage, don't get me wrong, but the bar that attaches the handle to it takes up 1/4 of the space in the compartment. He also decided he wants to wear his Dr Martin's over his skater shoes (not sure what brand) which are considerably smaller. So I have to figure out how to manuever (sp) everything in his bag around those shoes. So far it appears like he has less clothes than I do. I wonder why. His clothes are so much bigger than mine.

I still need to vacuum my room. Once I do that, my room will be pretty much cleaned. After that I am going to go to Eric's apartment and clean up a bit. I did a lot the other day, but the kitchen and bathroom really need to be cleaned again. The living room and bedroom just need to be vacuumed.

What else can I do to occupy my time? Oh, Friday we are going to load my mom's car (she is taking us to the airport then going to my aunt's house) with a couple of dressers that she's taking to my aunt.

Oh I want to add, I bought a new digi camera (Nikon L1, LOVE IT) and have one 1-Gig & three 512-Meg memory cards. There will be MANY pictures! MUHAHAHA

 

[BeckWhy]

So pretty much everything that I was in charge of packing (which is everything but Eric's clothes, razor, magazines, etc) is packed. All that's left is my toothbrush and makeup.

I still have to finish packing the rest of Eric's stuff. That's ok, I'll do it tonight or tomorrow.

Two more sleeps... I don't know if I'm not sleeping well at night or not. I fall right asleep, but wake up to my alarm clock (usually I always wake up before it goes off) and I still feel tired. Maybe it's because I haven't been exercising. I don't know.

So my cell phone is not being cooperative lately. So many people have tried to call me and they just get my voice mail. I don't know what's wrong with it. Piece of junk. LOL! It has been through a lot though. The thing has fallen out of my bag countless times, been thrown across a room several times. It is so funny. All the clips that hold the face place and back (?) plate on are broken, so I have that blue tacky sticky stuff holding my phone together!

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but about two weeks ago or so I started having severe pains in my shoulders. My assumption is that I pinched a nerve or strained them (after talking to my dad, who has a strained shoulder, I think that's what it is). But this used to occur all the time a year ago or something. I would drive for 4 to 5 hours to visit Eric at school on the weekends and my left shoulder (my driving hand) would always end up in terrible pain. Well anyways, I think it was caused this time by sleeping incorrectly, and it never got better because I continued to sleep incorrectly on it. Anyways, I took some OTC pain killers to help and finally the pain is going away. Good, because I think it'd be really hard to be on vacation with a shoulder that hurt everytime you moved your arm.

Alright, so that's my bs for today. At least for now. Now I have to find something to occupy my time for the rest of the day!

I'm really excited!

 

[BeckWhy]

See you all next Saturday!

 

[BeckWhy]

YAY! I'm back... updates tomorrow maybe.

 

[magicgirl]

Hope you had a great time

 

[BeckWhy]

We were planning on leaving around 6:45 am to 7:00 am since they caught Bucky and we didn't have to worry about any raod blocks. Anyways, my mom's alarm clock started going off at 5:00 am. Some how (maybe all the antisipation) it woke me up. So I got up and started getting ready. I planned on braiding my hair, so I did that instead of waiting and doing it in the car. So my mom wakes up and has her coffee and stuff. At 6:00 am I call Eric to wake him up. No answer, maybe he was in the shower, I thought. No return call. So I kept calling (I know he has a tendency to sleep and not wake up). Finally he woke up about 6:30! AYE! We were supposed to leave in 15 min! My dad woke up to see us off. My mom had me drive since she was still a bit tired. We went and picked Eric up and off we were.

We drive up to Fredonia and get on I-90 there, then pulled off at Irving to get gas and ciggs (not for us, for my aunt's friend, who my mom was going to visit). Eric was a bad front seat passanger! He didn't have the toll money ready for me when we got to the tolls (he's spoiled and has an EZPass, hehe). Anyways, I was too tired and the Focus is not an easy car to drive, for me at least. The steering wheel is too small. So my mom drove to Buffalo.

We (or I) had decided we would get breakfast at McDonald's across from the airport. I got a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit with a hash brown and OJ. My mom got pancakes with coffee. And Eric got a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel with a hash brown and OJ. I lost my reciept but it was $7 and some change for my mom and I. Eric's came to $4.45. Sorry, no pics of the food from McDonald's. The food was greasy like always, but oh so delish. I knew after eating that we would be hungry again in a couple of hours!

My mom dropped us off at the airport and we had to check in. It wasn't bad, there was no line. We checked my tote that had all the liquids in it. We went and sat by our gate.
Here's Eric waiting for the plane.

Here's a pic of our plane:

It appeared that our flight was going to be full and most were going to WDW. We boarded the plane and our seats were in the very back. We didn't have a window because the jet engines were right there. I didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal at first. Well, we were waiting and the captain can online and said that the plane had a computer problem and they were going to turn off the plane and restart it and hope it remedied the problem. It didn't. He stated that we would disembark and get on another plane. But a few moments later he came back online and said they figured out the problem and we were good to go. This is where I started to get nervous. We took off, which is always the scariest part. A couple hours and several panic attacks later you could just make out the east Florida coast through some of the windows. Good we were almost there. We landed. Eric got very disoriented and didn't know we were landing.

Our flight was direct, so I had decided we would get lunch at the airport before checking in with the Magical Express. When we got off the plane, and neither of us were hungry so we skipped lunch. We checked in with the Magical Express (which I thought was easy to find), and were first in line for our bus. A cast member was giving out stickers to some of the kids and Eric said, "Oh! I feel left out!" So the cast member gave him a sticker also.

We waited only 5 or 10 mins before our bus was there to take us to Pop Century.
Here's our bus:

I know the Boardwalk Inn was also on our bus, but I can't remember who else. We got on the bus and were on our way in no time at all. The driver said that the GPS was out and so there wouldn't be a video for us to watch.
Here's some pics of the ride:

We arrived at Pop Century and went in the lobby to check in. OMG the line! Anyways, we waited about 20 min in line to check in. It was about 3:00 pm when we checked in. This was a good thing because then we could go take a nap since Eric didn't feel well. We checked in and the cast member left us for a few moments and came back. She said "I see you requested a king room, your's won't be ready until after 3:30." I figured it wasn't that big of a deal. We'll go buy our mugs and be on our merry way. She gave us a card and told us to call the number on it to get our room number at 3:30. We waited and I called.

We went and bought our mugs while lugging our luggage around. Eric also bought two Coronas at Everything Pop. They cost $9.59.

 

[MEK]

Your first day sounds hectic, but fun. Enjoying so far.

 

[BeckWhy]

Thanks... I'm working on getting the pics to work and I will continue you later!

 

[BeckWhy]

I called the 800 number because I used my cell phone since I didn't want to run around the hotel looking for a hotel phone to use. The cast member on the other line was all confused about why I was calling. I told him that at check in the cast member told me to call the number after 3:30 to get our room number. He asked me all my information again, and all of Eric's information and still didn't give me a room number. He finally transferred me to a cast member working at the front desk of Pop and he told us our room number and what building it was in.

Our room number was 3251. Not only was it a king room, but also in the 50s where I had requested it to be! It also turned out to be a room for the disabled and had a fridge and a big shower (instead of a tub). I was excited.
Here's some pictures of our room:

Here is our view:

 

[BeckWhy]

Our ADRs for Chef Mickey's were at 6:00 pm. I didn't want to be late and had no idea how long it would take to get there, so we left at 4:30.

Here are some pics of the walk to the bus stop:

Here are pics of the walk to the bus stop:
Here is a pic of the room down the hall:
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n279/beckwhy/Day%
Here's the line for the bus to the Magic Kingdom, it was at the stop just as we walked up:
[IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n279/beckwhy/Day%201/DSCN0489.jpg

Here's pics from the ride:

Eric had befriended the bus driver and he told us which rides to ride and such. He told us we could either take the monorail to the Contemporary or walk there. I had assumed on waiting for the monorail and riding it so Eric could ride up front. But Eric walked to walk. It was a nice peaceful walk.

We got the the Contemporary really early, about 5:15 pm I think. So we walked around the concourse.
Here are pics I took:

We sat down at the Outter Rim bar and got some drinks while we waited. I ordered a Cosmic Smuggler.

It was great. Eric got Bud.

The total came to $16.62 (including tip).

At 5:45 I had went and checked in at Chef Mickey's. They were taking walk-ups the entire time we were sipping on our drinks. He told me that he didn't think it would be long before we were seated. We were seated within 10 mins after that. Goofy was in our area when we got there.

The first couple of pictures came out really blurry. Goofy was getting very inpatient with me trying to take good pics!

Here's a pic of my first plate. I tried to sample everything.........

Second plate:

Dessert plate:

We were there for about 30 min to 45 min. We only waited longer for Mickey. It was an ok meal. I probably wouldn't do it again, and if I did it was only for the characters, but we seen them so many more times during our trip I don't think I would do a character meal just to see them again. The ribs and chicken fingers were good. Mac & cheese tasted like it was made with American cheese, which isn't my favorite. The chicken, whatever kind it was, was really good. Nice and juicy. I tried the salmon, even though I don't like salmon. The prime rib was dry and had no flavor. Nothing else stuck out in my mind. As for desserts, the little oreo with the mousse made too look like Mickey was cute and tasty, red velvet cake didn't do anything for me; nothing else stuck out in my mind. There was something else on the carving table, either a pork roast or turkey, I didn't try either of those, there was also a salad bar which I didn't try and they had shrimp cocktail which I didn't try. Two dinners came to $69.70.

When we left Chef Mickey's it was storming. I think the Magic Kingdom closed early that night, so we waited for the first bus to come to the Contemporary. It was for the Disney Studios. It stopped at the Polynesian and Grand Floridian before going to the Disney Studios. It was still raining when we got to the Studios, so we ran to the Pop Century bus stop and had to wait a bit (about 10 min) for a bus to come.

After that we just went back to our room, relaxed, watched TV, took showers, and went to sleep.


Total Expenses For The Day on Food and Drink:
Disney Dining Plan: $0
Out Of Pocket: $30.66 (plus the $7 something for mine and my mom's breakfast)

Total Money Saved So Far: $69.70

 

[Honeymooners1021]

Great post!

 

[KatGarcia]

Cool Trip Report... I love reading these things! Looking forward to more!!!

 

[BeckWhy]

Thanks! I'm trying my best at writing this up. I've never done this before. Anyways, I will have day 2 up as soon as the pics are uploaded.

 

[BeckWhy]

We woke up about 7:45 am since we both passed out around 10:30 the night before. I didn't sleep too well. My nose was all stuffy. My allergies must have been kicking in. Eric wanted to shower (I prefer to shower the night before). I figured we had a lot of time. I went to the food court and got us some pop (yummmmm sugar buzz in the morning). We got ready and headed out for our day at the Magic Kingdom.

We arrived at about 9:05.

We headed to City Hall to get our anniversery buttons. There was a sign outside with a list of restaurants who still had opennings.

Eric was hungry so we went to Main Street Bakery.

I had always heard there were major lines here, but there were only a couple of people in there.

I had heard great things about the French Toast Loaf so I tried to talk Eric into getting that. Of course his response is always the same "I don't want something sweet." Eric ordered a bagel with everything and a Powerade.

I'm not sure what exactly was on it, but I think there was caraway (sp) on it. It was really good. The bagels are nice and filling. I would suggest to anyone who wants a breakfast and something cheap, a bagel is a good way to go. The total came to $4.95. I didn't think about it then, but I should have used the snack credits for it.

We headed up Main Street and towards Adventureland.

 

[BeckWhy]

We walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse first. Of course, no wait there.

We went over to the Jungle Cruise, which we found out wasn't going to open until 10:30. I guess we should have looked at our Times Guide. We just walked over to Pirates of the Caribbean.

We walked right on.

I liked the new additions to the ride. They weren't over the top. Unfortunately everyone decided they wanted to take flash pics of all the new characters. Ironically, it didn't bother me that much.

Afterwards, I tried to talk Eric into buying his nefew some pirate stuff. Eric didn't like the idea.

 

[JAA'smom]

Great pics. I love reading trip reports with pictures.