From seeing our breath to buckets of sweat. A Nov 2012 TR

[InNeverlandWithPan]

Hello everyone!

Yes, this is a trip report for November of 2011, and yes, it is May 2012. On top of things aren't I? I started a report back in December, but it was a very busy time and I forgot all about it so I am just going to start over.

Let's go back to November of 2010. My best friend and I took a trip to the World together for 7 nights, and we had the most amazing time! She had never been before, and it was my 5th time. I had a blast showing her the ropes and just being away from everything. It was the first tiem I took a realy trip like that without a parent of some sort, and the first time I planned and paid for a big trip on my own. It felt so good. That trip, we chose to stay at Pop Century and there was a free dining offer. We upgraded for $10 a day tot eh regular dining plan and got to eat a lot of really great places.

Now let's fast forward to June of 2011. BFF and I were out to dinner one night talking about the 20110 trip and how fantastic everything was. She had been planning on going to New York with some other friends around Christmas time, so the idea of another Disney World trip hadn't even been brought up. Well, by the end of dinner that night, she had decided to scrap the NY trip and instead have a round 2 at the World with me! The next day I called and booked our trip. We first booked the Pop Century again, but I ended up getting a PIN so we changed to POFQ. Back in 2005 where her and I had very first started dreaming of a trip to WDW together, we really wanted to stay there. So we were super excited!

The trip was set, we would be staying for 8 nights, November 11th - November 19th at the POFQ. We added on 8-day park hoppers, and the QS dining plan. We also rented a car for 1 day and got park to park tickets for Universal so we could experience the Harry Potter park.

Now, on to the cast:

Me: I'm Lindsay, 27 years old, and I am a total Disney junkie! I work full time as a web designer/developer and content manager for a large communications company. This was my 6th time to WDW.

Favorite Food: Kona Cafe, Hollywood & Vine
Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest, Aerosmith RR
Favorite Show: Festival of the Lion King
Favorite Park: All of them!

BFF: Patty is also 27 and works as an Entertainment Editor for a large online news/gossip publication. This was her 2nd time to WDW.

Favorite Food: Kona Cafe, Cape May Cafe, Nine Dragons
Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest, The Great Movie Ride, Test Track
Favorite Show: Festival of the Lion King and Fantasmic
Favorite Park: All of them!

A couple pics of us -

So that's it for the introduction! Hopefully I will be able to get at least Day 1 up today as well. Thanks for reading!

 

[InNeverlandWithPan]

Introduction

Day 1 - High Flying and a Stroll Downtown

 

[InNeverlandWithPan]

Friday November 11th, 2011

Today was the day! Patty and I had started our count down in the triple digits and it was finally down to a big ZERO. My alarm went off at 4:00am but I was already awake. I had been for a while, guess there was too much excitement to sleep.

My boyfriend at the time, now fiance, turned over and told me to wake him when it was 20 minutes til we needed to leave. Patty and I had a 7:30 flight out of LAX and wanted to meet there by 6, meaning we had to be on the road by 5. I text Patty asking if she was awake, and the response was something along the lines of "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!11111!!!111!!" Someone else was excited too I think.

I got dressed in my "comfy" clothes for the flight, and threw the last few things into my suitcases. 4:40 rolled around and I got my cat and put him on top of my fiance to wake him. That did just the trick as my cat loves to do the marching thing, meow a lot and lick your face first thing in the morning.

Twenty minutes later we were pulling out of the driveway and I text Patty to say we were on the way. She left her house shortly after. The drive to LAX went with total ease. That early in the morning there was no traffic on the 405 so we got there in about 35 minutes. Luckily Patty had no traffic either and we were soon running to eachother and giving giant hugs. We were on the way to Disney World!

I said goodbye to my fiance, and we were through security and to our gate in about 15 minutes. Totally painless! Grabbed some coffee and a snack from Starbucks then sat at the gate and patiently waited for our gate to start boarding. After what seemed like an eternity we were finally in our seats listening to the captain prepare us for the flight.

Please excuse our tired/unkempt look.... it was early!

The flight was very smooth. We both tried to sleep but couldn't so we ended up spending about 3.5 hours watching a bunch of videos I had asked my fiance to put on his iPad (which he let us borrow, such a sweetheart! ). These videos included the Boy Meets World and Full House episodes where they go to Disney World, the Justin Bieber Never Say Never movie (don't judge) plus a ton of Nsync stuff. Nsync actually had their first televised concert on the Disney channel and it was filmed at Hollywood (MGM) Studios. That special showed them going on the Safari Ride and messing around at Disney Quest... always fun to watch.

Anyway, after about 5 hours we were off the plane and looking at this beautiful sign:

After a quick bite to eat at...

...which I had never had before (delicious!) we were looking at this even more beautiful sign!

Cue out happy faces!

In no time we were on the bus...

...which we had almost to ourselves...

...and we were on the way to POFQ! For some reason Patty and I like sitting in the very back of the bus, so I never get a good picture of the sign when entertering the World. Maybe this year I'll suggest we sit up front if we have the option.

After a quick drive and the adorable video that always gets me pumped up for the trip, we arrived at our destination, checked in with no wait, and were off to our home for the next 8 nights.

Loved walking out of the lobby and seeing this view!

Finally home!

Minnie was there to welcome us.

We spent about an hour unpacking and resting up a bit. We had already decided we didn;t want to go to a park that night since we were so tired, so instead we decided to take a boat to Downtown Disney.

We used a QS credit to grab some dinner at WGP Express... I think it was the Marketplace one. Whatever isn't the Westside. I'm bummed now realizing the one we didn't go to is the one with the better food choices. Oh well, next time!

After eating and wandering around a bit, we deicided to go to DisneyQuest. I had gone once on my first trip and thought it was a lot of fun. Plus is was half price since we were there after 7pm or something like that. We did the Mighty Ducks game, the Pirates thing adn teh Jungle Cruise. All were really fun. I can't wait to take my fiance there on our honeymoon since it is unlimited video game play. He will love it!

After about an hour of playing we were feeling really tired and decided to head back to the resort. Stopped by the food court on the way to the room to grab some yogurt and fruit for in the morning, plus pick up our refillable mugs. After showers and a bit of watching Stacy on TV, we both knocked out and had no alarm set for the next morning.

EDIT: DOH! I forgot to mention something that is very important to the title of this TR! When we were at DTD, it seemed like the temperature dropped about 20 degrees from when we went in to DQ til when we came out. It was FREEZING and a bit windy which made waiting for the POFQ bus not too fun. So as you may have guessed from the title, it was cold enough that we could see our breath! Brrr.