Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho. It's off to the Grand Floridian We Go! (Update: TR Started)

[KelleyK75]

Thanks Kelley. Grand Floridian has been on our bucket list for a while, but I didn't see us making it there so soon. I plan to take lots and lots of pictures of the resort. As you'll see if you follow along with the trip report, my parents are amazing and generous people. So excited that that they are making this happen!!!

I'll be following along. Can't wait to see your pictures!

 

[KelleyK75]

Congrats on the Elsa dress! Isn't it crazy how the Frozen merch has been selling! Luckily I have nephews, so of course they didn't want the dresses I heard were so hard to come by. But they still loved the movie, and before our trip in March I searched everywhere to find any Frozen merch to put in our trip bags. I was finally able to get a couple of books and coloring books, then found plush Olaf and Sven's. But it's crazy trying to find anything else.

 

[PrncessA]

Okay, I am all caught up. Wow, what a group! Sounds like so much fun and a great group of people!

I love your plans for your DD's birthday. She will have a magical day! I had never heard of the trains tour, but I had to look it up because my husband builds trains for a living and is very much into them! Well he doesn't actually do the building of them, more like he is responsible to making sure they have all the parts they need to build them at the right time. Unfortunately DS is too young for the tour at 9 years old, something to save for next time!

I love all the photos as well! Looks like so many great memories.

 

[MarbleBob]

Thumbs up on Swiss Family Robinson! We always watched it as kids growing up when we visited my grandparents as they had it on tape. I have it on DVD now as well, been awhile I may need to watch it again. DBF hasn't seen it yet either, although I find a lot of people haven't which makes me sad.

Some great answers! Now I need to contemplate my own! lol

Yeah, for whatever reason, Swiss Family Robinson was my favorite as a kid. I still enjoy watching it.

I'll be following along. Can't wait to see your pictures!

Cool! I plan to take lots and lots and lots of pictures

Congrats on the Elsa dress! Isn't it crazy how the Frozen merch has been selling! Luckily I have nephews, so of course they didn't want the dresses I heard were so hard to come by. But they still loved the movie, and before our trip in March I searched everywhere to find any Frozen merch to put in our trip bags. I was finally able to get a couple of books and coloring books, then found plush Olaf and Sven's. But it's crazy trying to find anything else.

Crazy indeed. People are going nuts over this stuff.

Okay, I am all caught up. Wow, what a group! Sounds like so much fun and a great group of people!

I love your plans for your DD's birthday. She will have a magical day! I had never heard of the trains tour, but I had to look it up because my husband builds trains for a living and is very much into them! Well he doesn't actually do the building of them, more like he is responsible to making sure they have all the parts they need to build them at the right time. Unfortunately DS is too young for the tour at 9 years old, something to save for next time!

I love all the photos as well! Looks like so many great memories.

Your DH's job sounds really cool. I assume the train tour will be awesome and you guys will want to do it when your DS is old enough. I'll be sure to post a lot of photos of the tour in the trip report to help give an idea of what the tour is like.

 

[MarbleBob]

Our Initial Itinerary

We hit a big planning milestone tonight. I think we've finally got our FP+ plans about as good as they are going to get.

I have to admit that dealing with FP+ has been a less than magical experience for us, which I'm sure isn't uncommon. It would have been hard enough if it was just our family, but trying to coordinate with 4 other families has been quite the challenge!!! As a web applications developer, I find it hard to believe that Disney didn't do a better job on the "My Disney Experience" web application. There are just too many button clicks when you are trying to go back and forth between the days and make various adjustments to the FP+ selections. Combine that with the site being sluggish, issues because of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train today, and it's been a real head ache.

Well, enough whining/venting and time to get on with it...

I read somewhere recently that if you are 70% happy with a tough decision, quit agonizing over it and just go with it. So with that in mind, here's our itinerary as of today. I can't imaging it will change to much.

These plans are mostly for my family. It would be too hard to track down exactly what everyone else is doing and probably information overload to type it all here

6/3 - Tuesday

As soon as Pickle gets off the bus, hop in the car and drive to Nashville, TN.

6/4 - Wednesday

Get up early and drive to Jacksonville, FL.

6/5 - Thursday

Morning at the beach - Maybe sign up the kids for surfing lessons?
Afternoon at the skatepark
Dinner at a seafood restauraunt - TBD

6/6 - Friday

Drive to Orlando and arrive at the outlet malls around 10am.

Shop at both outlet malls and eat lunch.
Check-in at Grand Floridian around 2 or 3pm.
Explore, and then visit with family/hang out at pool. Probably eat dinner around the pool.
Spend a couple hours at Magic Kingdom

FP+ Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!!!
FP+ Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
FP+ Peter Pan's Flight

Since none of my immediate family has been to the new Fantasyland, we are going to start there. Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, it's of to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train we go!!!! The other FP+'s are gravy. And then, maybe see the parade at 9am. Not sure if we'll stay for Wishes fireworks at 10pm or call it a night and maybe watch them from the Grand Floridian.

6/7 - Saturday

We've decided to split up on our first day. None of us have been during Star Wars Weekends before. Personally, I don't want to miss the opportunity to check it out. Especially since Mark Hamil will be there. My mom and dad are also interested in it, but nobody else wants to brave the crowds on that day. So, My parents and I will do Star Wars and pretty much everyone else in the entire group will spend the day at Animal Kingdom.

Disney Studios / Star Wars
I don't think we are going to get up early for autographs. I read that you need to get in line at like 5 or 6am if you want to be sure that you'll get a ticket/pass/whatever for a celebrity autograph. If Mark Hamil was doing autographs, I'd probably get up early and do it. I'm not all that interested in getting up early for Ray Park (Darth Maul) or Billy D Williams (Lando), they are cool dudes and all, but I'm not that much of a fan boy. I guess we'll leave that to the true die hard Star Wars nerds. On the other hand, my mom got an appointment for me to do the "D-Tech Me" experience, where they take a 3D scan of your head and put it on an action figure (X-Wing Pilot, Storm Trooper, Carbonite, Princess Leia). I choose the Storm Trooper option. Still pretty nerdy, and I'm looking forward to it

In addition to our FP+ reservations, we'll do the Star Wars Motorcade parade and possibly stay late for the Symphony in the Stars.

FP+ Toy Story Midway Mania!
FP+ Star Tours - The Adventures Continue
FP+ The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

No plans for meals. We'll probably just eat quick service whenever it's convenient.

Animal Kingdom
The rest of the group will head here for early entry.

FP+ Kilimanjaro Safaris
FP+ Kali River Rapids
FP+ Expedition Everest

No plans for meals. They'll probably just eat quick service whenever it's convenient too.

6/8 Sunday

So, we've had a taste of Magic Kingdom on Friday night, and both Disney Studios and Animal Kingdom on Saturday, so it's time for Epcot. I love Epcot!!!

Since Monday is Pickle's birthday and we have it jam packed, we're thinking of not doing too much on Sunday. Head back to the resort in the mid afternoon and spend the evening relaxing at the resort. Hopefully, that way, people won't be tired on her big day.

FP+ Soarin'
FP + Living with the Land
FP+ Spaceship Earth

We plan to hit Soarin' and Living with the land first thing and then head over to the World Showcase. We'll eat quick service lunch at one of the countries. Probably just play it by ear. We'll have fun in the showcase area and then hit Spaceship Earth on the way back to the resort.

6/9 - Monday
This is going to be one of the highlights of the trip!!! So, Princess, Buddy, and I have all three spent our actual birthdays at WDW twice each. Steph has been there within a couple days of hers once, but Pickle has never been to Disney even close to her birthday. (We've gone in September, October, November, December, January, February, and even March. But we've never visited WDW in April through August. Going in the summer is a new experience for us.) Anyway, this will be a treat to spoil her on her big day, especially since so much of our family will be there to celebrate with us.

We plan to arrive about an hour before the park opens for a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointment. (I've never been a fan of how the little girls are done up by this place, but Pickle really wants to do it.... so let's do it!)

Then we've got reservations to eat breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table around 9am or so.

After that, we've got FP+ for Anna and Elsa meet and greet. (Buddy and I will skip out and ride Space Mountain while they are doing the girly stuff.)

Then FP+ for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (Yahoo!!!). And then FP+ for Haunted Mansion.

We have early dinner reservations at Be Our Guest. Really looking forward to this one!!!!

After that? Who knows. Probably get some ad-hoc FP+'s and ride a few more rides.

6/10 - Tuesday

Back to Disney Hollywood Studios for me, and for the first time this trip for Stephanie and the kiddos.

So we can only have a FP+ for Tower of Terror or Rockn' Roller Coaster, but not both. So, I think we'll book it over to Rockn' Roller Coaster first thing after rope drop. Then over to Toy Story with a FP+. A little later we'll be doing Tower of Terror (with my parents, I think.) Pickle and Steph will set that one out and use their FP+ for the Little Mermaid show. Finally, we'll hit Star Wars early afternoon. And then play the rest of the day by ear. Maybe come back a little early again and enjoy the resort.

6/11 - Wednesday

We'll spend most of the day at Epcot on Wednesday. We have a fairly early dinner reservation for 'Ohana with the entire group, so we'll probably spend most of the day in Future World.

Thinking we'll hit Mission Space first thing after rope drop. Then FP+ for Test Track, followed by FP+ Space Ship Earth, and then FP+ Nemo. We'll pepper in any other rides/attractions as time allows.

7/12 - Thursday

This is the big day for Buddy and Me. We are going to do Disney's The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour with my dad and uncle Steve. You arrive at the Magic Kingdom around 7:15 AM and they take you on a 3 hour behind the scenes tour of things related to the steam trains. You have to be at least 10 years old for this one. I've been looking forward to this since Buddy became really interested in trains as a preschooler. The tour finishes around 10:30am. I think we are going to stay split up for the first half of the day and then regroup in the afternoon. So Buddy and I will use our FP+ for the Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, and Splash Mountain.

It's early entry for the Magic Kingdom, so the girls will get up early. I'm not sure that they have their plans worked out yet, but their FP+ will include at least Enchanted Tales with Bellle and Journey of the Little Mermaid.

We'll probably all meet back at the pool mid-afternoon and then spend the rest of the day together. Either just relaxing at the resort, or maybe heading back to Epcot for the evening.

7/13 - Friday

Last day in the parks! We've decided to skip the strategy of using FP+ earlier in the day in order to have access to ad-hoc FP+ after the first three are used up. We want to finish up the trip at the Magic Kingdom and don't want to have to wait in a bunch of long lines. So.... We have FP+ for Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Our 7Dwarfs time is around 9pm. It will be fun to ride in daylight earlier in the week and then once at night.

As far as the first half of the day goes, we'll either spend it in the Magic Kingdom or somewhere else. That's the beauty of skipping the FP+ in the first part of the day, we can keep our options open.

7/14 - Saturday
Time to say good by and head home....

Well, that's the gist of it. Things will change a little. Probably mostly for Princess, as we'll be giving her the option to roam freely with Hughey and Lewey. They may even choose to visit entirely different parks from everyone else. I know they are going to have a blast!!!

Outside of Cindy, BOG, and 'Ohana, we don't have a lot of meals planned. We've done the dining plan a few times before and have our favorite restaurants, but this trip we'll be focusing more on rides and the resort. Table service meals can take a lot of time and with the summer crowds and a stricter FP+ schedule, we like the flexibility that quick service dinning will offer on this trip. That being said, Steph and I might try and squeeze in a date night at a restaurant one of the nights.

 

[MidnightParade]

Pickle is going to have the best birthday ever!!

I think the D-Tech Me experience is awesome. While I'm not a die hard Star Wars fan I like it enough to want to be a Storm Trooper. Just so very cool!!

looks like you got it all worked out! Hope that it works out with the rest of the fam!

 

[topdog]

You have a beautiful family.

I always wanted to give Grand Floridian a try but DW just doesn't want to have anything to do with it. So we always end up staying at Wilderness Lodge which is still our favorite anyway.

I would love to see your take on GF.

 

[MarbleBob]

Pickle is going to have the best birthday ever!!

I think the D-Tech Me experience is awesome. While I'm not a die hard Star Wars fan I like it enough to want to be a Storm Trooper. Just so very cool!!

looks like you got it all worked out! Hope that it works out with the rest of the fam!

Thanks I hope it works out with the rest of the family too

You have a beautiful family.

I always wanted to give Grand Floridian a try but DW just doesn't want to have anything to do with it. So we always end up staying at Wilderness Lodge which is still our favorite anyway.

I would love to see your take on GF.

Thanks topdog! I'm really excited to try GF too. I have a hard time picking a favorite resort, but so far, I think Wilderness Lodge is my favorite too. I'll take lots of photos and I look forward to being able to share my take on GF too

 

[MarbleBob]

Visiting WDW Virtually

So, we’ve got our FP+’s and ADR’s in place. We have our hotel reservations for the trip to WDW. Birthday presents purchased. Still have the Disney bug… what should we do today?

How about we make a giant toy monorail layout and set up the Disney toys?!?!? Buddy and Pickle were more than excited. Let’s do it!!!

We’ve collected various Disney World / Disneyland toys through the years. It’s been a while since we’ve got them all out at the same time, so we decided to make a giant Disney world that spanned a couple rooms.

Buddy took charge of building the track. I helped him out a bit. We kept on adding and removing curves until we were able to use all the track. Then we added the castles and attractions. I tried to set up everything all nice keeping the appropriate pieces with the corresponding sets. But Pickle kept on grabbing things and moving them from area to area. I sort of felt like the “Man upstairs” in the Lego Movie (who felt like everything had to be just right.), but then I got over it and we just had fun. I took a few pictures before everything started to get all mixed up.

I used a fisheye lens on my camera for many of these photos, that's why things often look weirdly proportioned. (Especially the ceiling on the first photo.)







I love passing through the Contemporary Resort in the real wold!!!





We got this set at a garage sale when Princess was little. It's missing pieces and the train no longer works, but it's still pretty darn cool!



Pickle suggested that this yellow balloon should be the sun.



We decided to get the little GoPro camera out and tape it on one of the monorails, and have it go for a ride.



The video turned out to be really cool. If you'd like to go on a virtual monorail ride, click here or on the photo below to be linked to the Youtube video.

 

[KelleyK75]

Your plans sound great! Your little girl is going to have an amazing birthday!!

I love the Disney set up in your house! You have some great things to make it look like you are really there. I love the picture of the Monorail looking like it's going through the Contemporary!

 

[PrncessA]

Looks like so much fun!

Our store did the Elsa dress raffle this weekend, but we were there for the dolls. They only had 17 dresses and I would say that there were at least 150 people there!

 

[MarbleBob]

Your plans sound great! Your little girl is going to have an amazing birthday!!

I love the Disney set up in your house! You have some great things to make it look like you are really there. I love the picture of the Monorail looking like it's going through the Contemporary!

Thanks! I think I might be about as excited for Pickle's birthday as she is.

Looks like so much fun!

Our store did the Elsa dress raffle this weekend, but we were there for the dolls. They only had 17 dresses and I would say that there were at least 150 people there!

Wow! That's a lot of people for not that many dresses. The supply/demand for this Frozen stuff is just crazy. Were you able to get any dolls? We still want to go back an get an Elsa Animator's Collection doll. Maybe we'll try again this coming Saturday...

 

[MarbleBob]

I'm so excited. I noticed today that they made FP+ available for the various Star Wars Weekends shows at Hollywood Studios on June 7. I was able to swap out our Toy Story Midway Mania passes for the "Stars of the Saga talk show"!!! They are expecting Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Billy Dee Williams (Land Calrissian), and Ray Park (Darth Maul) to all be there. This is going to be so cool!!!!!!!

Also, to feed more of the Disney addiction, we just placed a big order for a bunch of Retro Disneyland and Adventureland stuff on Disneystore.com.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, head over to the Disney Parks Blog for a peak at these items. They are beyond cool!!!

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...co-op-at-downtown-disney-marketplace-in-2014/

If you search wisely, most of this stuff is available online already! So cool!!!

 

[KelleyK75]

Congrats on the Stars of the Saga FP+! That sounds pretty cool!

Love the retro items! I might have to go in search of some of those.

 

[MidnightParade]

Oooooh! So what did you end up buying! I'm loving some of the new retro things coming out. Hadn't seen the pillows yet either!

Grats on the FP+! That will be pretty cool!

 

[MarbleBob]

So what did you end up buying!

Well, we may have went overboard, but we've been in our house for just about 10 years now and have only minimally decorated our dinning room. We've had some money set aside for it, but just never got around to it. We're now thinking of doing an Adventureland/Tiki theme. So, we bought a couple sets of most of the Adventureland plates/dishes, the ceramic elephants, tiki cups, etc. Got the ceramic Orange Bird while we were at it. And some of the fantasyland stuff too. Couldn't resist!! I'll post up a review on this PTR when they arrive

I have my eye on the ceramic dole whips, the colorful Adentureland glasses, and the Mr. Toad serving statue. Haven't seen any of these available online yet. Hoping that they are available soon and/or the brand-new Disney Centerpiece at the Market Co-op in Downtown Disney opens before early June!

 

[MarbleBob]

And Now for Something Completely Different.... a visit to "Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives" in Chicago

I don't have anything more to add about the June trip at the moment, so I thought that I'd backtrack for a bit. We visited Disneyland this past October and had an amazing time. Knowing that we'd be heading to WDW eight months later was nice, but we still couldn't wait until June for our Disney fix, so we took a weekend trip up to Chicago in March to see D23's Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. (That was a mouthful.) It was supposed to go until this May, but they extended it into August. If by any chance you can still make it, you should. It was awesome.

Here's a link to the official site for more information: http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/treasures-of-the-walt-disney-archives/

The first blurb on their website goes something like this

Explore nine decades of Disney history and artifacts in Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives. Presented by D23: The Official Disney Fan Club, the exhibition celebrates Disney imagination, innovation and entertainment with nearly 300 artifacts, many which have not been widely seen by the public. From clips of Walt Disney's earliest animated pre-Mickey works, to props, models and costumes from modern favorites like The Little Mermaid and Pirates of the Caribbean, the exhibition is full of childhood memories for kids of all ages.

I used to live in the northern suburbs of Chicago, so we went up and visited my old stomping grounds, did some shopping, visited Legoland Discovery Center, etc. too. It made for a nice weekend, but the Disney exhibit was the jewel of the weekend!

We arrived a few minutes after the museum opened and purchased our tickets. Entering the "foyer" area, you first see the gift shop. It had some awesome Disney theming to it.



You actually enter the Disney exhibit at ticketed times and we had 10 or 15 minutes before we could go in, so we browsed in the gift shop for a few minutes before heading upstairs.



The giant banners were pretty rad!

Almost there!!!!



Once you get up to the top of the escalators, the Disney exhibit is off to the left near all the transportation related stuff.



And then you head right and enter next to Mickey Mouse in the photo above.

Before we went in, we had to grab a photo next to the entrance.



We gave them our ticket and headed inside. First they took our picture (they try to sell it to you when you leave) and then we continued on our way. The first room was a bunch of large photos of Walt.



Princess mimicking Mickey's silhouette



After looking at the various photos (the pictures above show only a few of them), you enter a room with LCD TV's that provide a quick overview of the exhibit and a some Walt Disney history.



And then you start with a bunch of photos and write ups of Walt's childhood and the time he spent in Marceline, MO. (Marceline is awesome. See my signature for a link to a mini trip report from our visit in 2012.)



There were a TON of photos and interesting bits of history about his childhood, teenage years, time spent in the Army, etc. all the way up until his first "Laugh O Grams". Here's a photo of one of his megaphones.



The had a lot of photos and write ups of his first Alice shorts and the time spent leading up to Mickey Mouse. Too much to try and summarize here!

The next section focused on some history of the first Disney cartoons. Silly Symphonies, 3 Little Pigs, Mickey Mouse, etc. Here are few photos of some the first Disney toys







Here's one of the actual Snow White costumes worn by a model (for the animators to use as a reference.)



I was pretty stoked to see this!!! The actual storybook used in the opening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Too Cool!! pixie dust:



Lots of other stuff in this area, I'm skipping a LOT. Otherwise, it would take HOURS to write up all this stuff.

After teasing you with Snow White and other artifacts, they start into the animation making process. With exhibits and information about each step of the process from story and character development, to voice recording, animation maquettes, sketches, inking, painting, etc., all the way to animation with the multilane cameras. Lots of great stuff!!



An animators desk!



Some of the maquettes



After learning about the animation process, you move more into a "show and tell" area, with LOTS of cool treasures from the archives. Some really cool stuff. Stay tuned for another post or two. I have lots more photos to share

 

[KelleyK75]

The exhibit looks awesome, and Chicago is only about 5 hours from me, so definitely something to think about doing this summer. Thanks for posting this!

 

[MarbleBob]

The exhibit looks awesome, and Chicago is only about 5 hours from me, so definitely something to think about doing this summer. Thanks for posting this!

If you can pull it off, I highly recommend it. It was about a 5 hour drive for us too and totally worth it.

 

[MarbleBob]

A visit to "Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives" in Chicago - Part 2

So after you pass through the area explaining the animation process, you move into a lot of movie memorabilia. You sort of zig zag around, but one of the first things you see is a partial recreation of Walt's office from the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA including original furnishings and many of his personal items. Pretty amazing when you stop and think about it!



Looking off to the right, is a display of a bunch of his awards.



I thought that the Snow White story book was cool, and then... kabam!! They have the actual Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella books to?!?!?! Incredibly cool!

Oh wait, the awesomeness continues!! We are big Annette Funicello fans. Pickle loves watching her on various YouTube clips. She really loves the Pineapple Princess song. Anyway... They had one of Annette's costumes and Mickey Mouse ears!



Pickle was pretty excited about this!



They had a bunch of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie props and artwork. Again, I'm skipping stuff for the sake of not making this into a trip report of its own!

Zorro anyone?



My grandma had a Davey Crockett book when I was a kid. Whenever we visited and spent the night, my mom would read it to me and sing the theme song, "Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee..." The show was before my time, but I still have a nostalgia for it anyway. So... I was excited to see one of the coon skin hats actually worn by Fess Parker.



Turn the corner and bam! There's Mary Poppins' carpet bag!!!!



They had a whole area with photos and documentation celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mary Poppins. Including a bunch of movie props. So cool! (I wonder how many times I've typed out the words cool and awesome in the last couple posts.)



After the movies, they start heading into the history of the theme parks. I'm going to gloss over and skip a lot of stuff here and just share some of the highlights.

Here's Walt's Disneyland employee badge. #1



And here's the very first Disneyland ticket #000001, which was purchased by Roy. (Sorry for the grainy/blurry photos. It was fairly dark in there and they didn't allow flashes, so I had to use high ISO and wide apertures. Hard to focus well all the time.)



Pickle looking at the construction of the original tea cups ride.



LOVE the Mickey Mouse engineer doll!!!!! It's so awesome to think that Walt actually used and interacted with so many of the things on display here.



Here's one of the dolls from the original It's a Small World ride.



And then there was a whole exhibit full of Haunted Mansion stuff!!! I wished that we were going through the attraction in a Doom Buggy!!!



There's still more! Stay tuned