He Was Bitten, Bitten By The Bug! A Nov-Dec '12 TR **WRAP UP 7/26**

PhoenixStrength

Found my Prince Charming!
Joined
Oct 7, 2010


Hi all! :wave2: :welcome: For those of you who didn't read my PTR, I'll tell you a little about myself. :goodvibes

My actual name is Stephanie, and I'm a 28 year old single gal from Maryland. I'm still living in MD currently, but plan to move to Florida next year, the Bradenton/Sarasota area. This is me during this trip:


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I am, somewhat obviously, a Disney freak! princess: I have always loved everything Disney, and this trip will be my 6th trip to WDW, and the third solo trip.

I have a dog, Phoenix, who is an 8 year old Beagle/Belgian Malinois mix.


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And 4 cats:
Jag, a 10 year old Maine Coon/Ragdoll mix (here with his best buddy Phoenix). He was a rescue from the local animal control when he was 11 weeks old.


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Turk, a 10 year DSH. His momma was found, while pregnant, by a woman working in Baltimore who was very allergic to cats. She didn't want her to give birth in the city, so she caught her, brought her home, put her in the basement, and told her husband that he had to care for her and the kittens once they were born :rotfl2:. She gave birth a few days later. I got Turk at 8 weeks, and she had named him that as all the kittens had been named after Disney movies, so I kept it! :goodvibes


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Jynx, an 8 year old Torti with white. She was found by my parents with 4 of her siblings at around 6 weeks old. Their mom had been hit be a car and passed away. I kept her, my sister kept her sister and my parents kept one of her brothers. They found homes for the other 2.


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And finally Sweetie. She is a 6-ish year old DSH tabby. I found her when I was living in the boonies, and she adopted me. She went from injured and feral, to healed and sweet as can be in 2 weeks. She is difficult to get pictures of as she never stops moving, but here she is with Jag.


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I have two younger sisters and my parents are still married. We all love Disney. One of my sisters, Heather, got married last year to her boyfriend of 5 years, Jimmy. He is not as much of a Disney freak and has never been to WDW. :eek: But he tolerates Heather's love of Disney. :laughing:

I volunteer a lot with animal rescues and my job is actually animal related too. I am the Office Manager of a pet sitting company here in Maryland, and have enjoyed this job for almost 4 years now. It's a great mix of working with people and animals that works well for me.

There is a second person in part of this TR, but he is a pain about pictures (I seriously only have one that has his whole face, and even that is blurry and a horrible angle) so no pictures of him. :( But he is my best friend Steve. We met almost 8 years ago when he lived here in MD and started working where I had already been working for a few months, a kennel. He moved to Florida 5 years ago but we've kept in touch via email until earlier this year, when he and his wife finally pulled the plug on their marriage and he could talk to me without it having to be in secret (she was VERY insecure and did not want him having female friends). I'll tell you more about him as the TR goes on! :goodvibes

Well, enough blabbering about me. If you have any questions please ask, otherwise let's get this TR under way! :woohoo:



 


LINKS

DAY ONE:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three, Link One Part Three, Link Two
Part Four, Link One Part Four, Link Two Part Four, Link Three
Part Five
Part Six, Link One Part Six, Link Two
Part Seven, Link One Part Seven, Link Two Part Seven, Link Three
Part Eight, Link One Part Eight, Link Two Part Eight, Link Three
Part Nine


DAY TWO:

Part One, Link One Part One, Link Two Part One, Link Three
Part Two, Link One Part Two, Link Two
Part Three, Link One Part Three, Link Two Part Three, Link Three
Part Four, Link One Part Four, Link Two
Part Five
Part Six, Link One Part Six, Link Two
Part Seven, Link One Part Seven, Link Two Part Seven, Link Three


DAY THREE:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three, Link One Part Three, Link Two
Part Four, Link One Part Four, Link Two
Part Five, Link One Part Five, Link Two Part Five, Link Three
Part Six, Link One Part Six, Link Two


DAY FOUR:

Part One, Link One Part One, Link Two
Part Two, Link One Part Two, Link Two Part Two, Link Three
Part Three, Link One Part Three, Link Two Part Three, Link Three
Part Four
Part Five, Link One Part Five, Link Two


DAY FIVE:

Part One, Link One Part One, Link Two
Part Two, Link One Part Two, Link Two Part Two, Link Three
Part Three, Link One Part Three, Link Two
Part Four, Link One Part Four, Link Two Part Four, Link Three Part Four, Link Four
Part Five, Link One Part Five, Link Two Part Five, Link Three
Part Six, Link One Part Six, Link Two
Part Seven, Link One Part Seven, Link Two



DAY SIX:

Day Six, Link One Day Six, Link Two


 
I'm here! Awww, just look how cute and happy you look in front of Expedition Everest. And, your fur babies.....adorable!

I'm looking forward to seeing all of your pictures and hearing everything about the trip.
 


Hi Steph!:wave2: Yay! Steve finally got to go. Love the pic of you in front of EE!! Did you find a home for Hurricane?
 
SAT887 said:
Hi!

Just got home today :sad:

Looking forward to your TR!

Hi Sarah!! I know how you're feeling with getting home. Can't wait to hear about your trip too!

mickeystoontown said:
I'm here! Awww, just look how cute and happy you look in front of Expedition Everest. And, your fur babies.....adorable!

I'm looking forward to seeing all of your pictures and hearing everything about the trip.

Glad you made it Lisa! :goodvibes I can't wait to get this TR really started. I have a busy day today, but hopefully tomorrow ill get the first update up.

KatMark said:
Thanks for the heads up. I'lll catch up when we get home.

Can't wait to hear all about your trip too! What I've seen on FB so far looks like you're having a ton of fun.

Valgoof said:
Hi Steph!:wave2: Yay! Steve finally got to go. Love the pic of you in front of EE!! Did you find a home for Hurricane?

Hi Val! Yup, Steve makes an appearance during my trip :goodvibes

I did find a home for Hurricane! He lives with a couple and their 4 year old son, who adores him!
 


I'm here! Can't wait to read all about your trip!

ETA Oops, just saw someone posted almost the exact same thing as me. I'm not original at all. :rotfl:
 
I'm here! Can't wait to read all about your trip!

ETA Oops, just saw someone posted almost the exact same thing as me. I'm not original at all. :rotfl:

Hi Mel!!! :wave2: Don't worry about not being too original, there is only so much to say after just the introduction! :rotfl2:
 


Hi All!!! :wave2:

I'm going to do an update very shortly, but figured for anyone who didn't read my PTR I'd give a quick background/information dose on this trip :goodvibes

Who: Me (and a brief appearance by my friend Steve)
What: A trip to WDW of course!
When: Arrived November 29th, departed December 4th
Where: POP Century Resort at WDW
Why: Umm....why not??? :rotfl: It's WDW, do I need a reason to go? :goodvibes

I think that's all! Anything else should be covered during the TR, but if you have any questions please ask! :)

 
DAY ONE, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 29TH, PART ONE

I got up VERY early Thursday morning (3:30am) and took a quick shower, then finished packing up my toiletries. I let my dog out and fed him breakfast, then ate a small breakfast myself. My father came to take me to the airport around 4:45am. I walked into BWI to the Southwest desk at exactly 5am. My flight was leaving at 6:45am so I was happy to arrive then. I only had one person in front of me to check my bags and print my boarding pass, so I was done there in about 5-7 minutes and over to security.

Security wasn't long at all either, so I was done there and by my gate around 5:25am. Despite having lots of food options there (seriously at least a dozen places within view of my gate) none of them seemed appealing so I just went into the store and bought a bottle of water and some Chex Mix to snack on. There were only about 10 other people there when I got to my gate, and I was happy to see that instead of CNN (which has it's time and place for sure, but I don't want to hear depressing news or political stuff right before a flight) they had Cartoon Network on the TVs! :goodvibes I watched the end of Yogi Bear, then an episode of The Flintstones and the beginning of an episode of Captain Planet and the Planeteers while waiting for boarding.

Around 6:25am our plane pulled up to the gate:


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My flight info:


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Around 6:35am they started boarding. Unfortunately I was in the last boarding group. It was a full flight and only 5 people got on behind me, so seats were limited! I wound up next to a younger couple (probably 20ish), with his family (Mom, Aunt and a young kid) behind me. To say they were obnoxious is an understatement. They alternated between making out and cussing loudly while telling stories (though that was mostly him). He even cussed (mostly "F") while talking to the kid behind us, who looked to be about 5. Obviously this was not considered unacceptable as his mother did the same. I put in my headphones but for some reason the volume wasn't working on my laptop and it took until 20 minutes before we landed before I fixed it, so I got to hear the majority of their conversations about partying, friends getting arrested or killed drunk driving and other exploits. :furious:

I was determined not to let them dampen my excitement for WDW though, and thankfully my good mood was helped when we landed 24 minutes early!!! I quickly walked off the plane and headed to the Mini Monorail. I got lucky that it was there when I walked up, so I got right into the back car.

My view from inside the Mini-Monorail


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I made my way to Side A and my baggage claim turnstile. While I waited for them to get our bags there I got a couple of pictures. First up, the wreath over the baggage turnstile

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And an advertisement for a party I'd soon be at!


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Once the bags started coming I got lucky and both of my bags quickly appeared. I had to go back up and then over to Side B with them and my carry-on (which was pretty heavy) to get to DME. Along the way I passed the main tree. It was pretty tall, and quite pretty.


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I made my way to the DME desk (thanks to my TA throwing away my ME paperwork) and they were pretty busy.


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Thankfully the cruise line side was empty, so those agents started taking ME patrons and I only waited about 5 minutes to get checked in. My agent was great! I don't remember his name, though I have it at home, but he is in the picture above, on the right. He gave me my print out and I walked over to get in my line. I was only in line about 30 seconds before we (meaning me, the 7 people in front of me and the family of 5 that walked in the line behind me) were told we could walk outside to our bus.

This was only my second time I had taken ME, the first time being my trip in February earlier this year. That time I got a Cruise line bus and instead of the "official" video I watched the first 30 minutes of Toy Story 3. Don't get me wrong, I love Toy Story, but I was looking forward to that video. So this time I was really, really, really hoping for an actual Disney's Magical Express bus. So, we were walked outside and I saw my bus...


















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:cheer2: An actual DME bus! We all boarded and soon were off. Once we hit 417 the video started (which I learned it starts automatically via GPS coordinates).


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It was a nice video. Yes, I knew 99% of what they showed and the advice they gave, but it made me even more excited to be almost to the World! And I was even MORE excited to see how beautiful it was that day:


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After about 25 minutes I saw my favorite sight, the entrance to WDW!!


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We made a quick stop at CBR where a few people got off, then off to POP Century! We arrived around 10:30am.


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I made my way off the bus to the red carpet (yes, POP Century does have a red carpet to lead you off the bus into Classic Hall to check-in). Do other resorts have the red carpet?

The line was almost non-existant when I walked in. I had not done online check-in, so I got in the regular line. All of the agents were busy with someone, but I was the first in the line. While waiting to check-in I took pictures of the Christmas decorations in the lobby.


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After about 7-8 minutes of waiting I was called over to one of the Online Check-in stations, since no one else was in line over there.

Both the DIS and Photobucket are not being nice to me right now, so I'm going to stop so I get this posted and I'll come back later with another update!


NEXT TIME: WILL I GET MY ROOM REQUESTS???? :confused3




 
Finally made it here! This getting caught up at work after a Disney Trip sucks! It greatly eats into my DIS time. :lmao:

Glad you had a good time and that Steve got to come. I love seeing all of your furr babies and was going to ask about Hurricane but saw his status above.

Oh, and I'm glad to know you are Stephanie! :goodvibes When we got to Disney, I realized I didn't know your name. I kept telling my Mom I was looking for this "Phoenix" girl. As she isn't on the internet much, she didn't really get the whole "user name" thing and was kind of :confused3.

ETA that I just saw your update and decided to edit this post instead of adding a second one. Looks like you had a smooth morning except for the rude family on the plane! I'm not saying that I always have a clean mouth but I watch when I'm in a public place. Some people just have no manners!

Hope you get your room requests!
 
Wow the Cmas pictures at the Pop look amazing. I am dying to know and I am sure you will share with us later but during cmas time at Pop's do they decorate the room with a little holiday flavor?

Look forward to your next update :thumbsup2
 
Yay for the trip report update!!!

Im not sure how I'm going to do mine yet, on the thread, added to my PTR or a new TR..... I didn't take as many pics as I wanted - kids were still a handful.... Maybe next year!
 
Ugh! So sorry to hear that you had some not so friendly "neighbors" on the plane. I'm not a cursing kind of person (though I'll admit that the S word slips out when I'm really really upset) and it upsets me to see people curse like sailors in front of others and especially around kids. :mad:

Yay for making it to Pop Century! The decorations look beautiful!
 
Finally made it here! This getting caught up at work after a Disney Trip sucks! It greatly eats into my DIS time. :lmao:

Glad you had a good time and that Steve got to come. I love seeing all of your furr babies and was going to ask about Hurricane but saw his status above.

Oh, and I'm glad to know you are Stephanie! :goodvibes When we got to Disney, I realized I didn't know your name. I kept telling my Mom I was looking for this "Phoenix" girl. As she isn't on the internet much, she didn't really get the whole "user name" thing and was kind of :confused3.

ETA that I just saw your update and decided to edit this post instead of adding a second one. Looks like you had a smooth morning except for the rude family on the plane! I'm not saying that I always have a clean mouth but I watch when I'm in a public place. Some people just have no manners!

Hope you get your room requests!

Hi Ariana, glad you made it! I can't wait to hear about your trip :goodvibes

I don't always have the cleanest mouth either, but I am careful what I say around strangers and children. :sad2:

Wow the Cmas pictures at the Pop look amazing. I am dying to know and I am sure you will share with us later but during cmas time at Pop's do they decorate the room with a little holiday flavor?

Look forward to your next update :thumbsup2

Glad you made it! No rooms decorations for Christmas by the CMs, but you are already to decorate them yourself, provided you don't damage the walls or room at all (No tacks/nails, tape since it can pull off paint, etc).

Yay for the trip report update!!!

Im not sure how I'm going to do mine yet, on the thread, added to my PTR or a new TR..... I didn't take as many pics as I wanted - kids were still a handful.... Maybe next year!

I'm sure whatever pictures you did take will still be nice to see in some form of report :goodvibes

Ugh! So sorry to hear that you had some not so friendly "neighbors" on the plane. I'm not a cursing kind of person (though I'll admit that the S word slips out when I'm really really upset) and it upsets me to see people curse like sailors in front of others and especially around kids. :mad:

Yay for making it to Pop Century! The decorations look beautiful!

I'm the same way Lisa! I couldn't believe they were talking that way, and not quietly, on a plane with tons of people of all ages within hearing distance!

The decorations were great! I have more decoration pictures coming up! :santa:
 
DAY ONE: THURSDAY NOVEMBER 29TH, PART TWO

Once I got called up to check-in I actually got 2 CMs, one in training and the CM overseeing her. The trainee did great, and was able to do everything without needing any help, and she was super friendly too! She quickly got me my packet together and told me that my room was ready already, so I could go right to it. :cheer2: She showed me where it was on the map, and it was a building I had not stayed in yet.

Before I reveal where my room was, let me tell you what my requests were. I had requested a lakeview room (so glad these are considered standard rate still at POP, so I don't have to pay extra for it!), fourth floor (I hate hearing people above me) and in either the 50s or 60s sections.

So where was my room? My room was number 5417. :goodvibes What, you don't all know where that is? :rotfl2: Okay, it was in building 5, which is the 60s (request met number 1), on the fourth floor (request met number 2) and faces the lake (request met number 3)!!!! I was so shocked that all 3 of my requests were met, especially since I was checking in around 10:40am. Oh, and it was right behind Classic Hall, so it is also super close to the food court, shop and transportation. I made my 2 minute walk to my room and snapped this from in front of my building.


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And I took this from the walkway right in front of my door. Isn't it a great view?!


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I started to unpack before remembering that I needed to take room pictures, so ignore the fact that some of my stuff is all over the room in these shots!


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I finished unpacking and then headed out. My plan was to eat, then resort hop to see the decorations, then head to MK for MVMCP. First up, a shot from the other side of my building, overlooking the Hippy Dippy Pool.


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A close up of the Flower Sprayers along the edge of the pool.


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Back entrance to Classic Hall


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The tree inside Classic Hall (there are a bunch of small ones too, but this is the big one).


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I'm so glad I checked in when I did, because when I walked past the lobby the line was out the door!!


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I walked into Everything POP via the gift shop portion and took a couple of pictures of the Christmas goods, and decorations.


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It was after 11am by then, but I really wanted breakfast and they still had one station serving it so I got the Bounty Platter, which was delicious. Oh, and I got my free refillable mug since I had the Quick Service Dining Plan (for free!).


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Another of the wreaths in Classic Hall


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Then I headed out to the bus stops.


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And I got in line for Magic Kingdom. The bus appeared after only a few minutes and I got a seat. I was busy writing in my trip journal so I didn't get many pictures, though I did get one of the Epcot Monorail.


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I was surprised as we pulled up to the MK entranceway to find them painting it. Not necessarily that they were painting it really, that maintenance is to be expected. What surprised me was that they were painting it different colors!!! Instead of the old color combination of light and dark pink, it's now Blue and Yellow!!

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For comparison, here is what it looked like in February.


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The booths where you pay (if you need to pay for parking) were also being painted that blue and yellow combo. While I like it, it was definitely weird to see it looking so different from previous trips!


NEXT TIME: CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS EVERYWHERE!!!!!


 
How awesome that all your room requests were met! POP looks like so much fun to stay at, my mom stayed at ASM one night and it looked fun! We had one request at OKW and they met it only for me to ask for a GV that would be ready earlier. I felt bad but told the CM he was my hero because I had no idea that my DD1 was going to be up at 6am!

I like the blue & yellow :) I knew something looked different but couldn't figure it out. Can't wait for more updates! You went to MVMCP on Sunday too right?
 

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