Hey, You Lions Can't Do That! This is Disney! A Frozen Harambe Trip Report! NEW 8/27!

[AAshleySEG]

Helloooo Disboards!!

Let me introduce myself! I am AAshleySEG, aka Andrea! My DH, Jeremy, and I are huge Disney fans and love to go to the World!

This photo was taken on our 7th Anniversary Trip in June of this year! We are proud DVC Members and Premium Annual Passholders and love to go to Disney as much as we possibly can! So what is this Trip Report all about you ask?? Well, lots of things!! We first stopped off in Charleston, SC on our way driving down! When we got to Disney We had a little Frozen Summer Fun! We went to eat dinner at Victoria & Albert's, celebrated the 20th Anniversary of The Lion King at Harambe Nights, and on our last day, well that you will just have to wait and see! We also did so much more! So if you want to join in on the fun and read along, please do!! I am going to get started right away!

As a special treat at the end, I am going to be making a video of our trip for everyone to watch! So stay tuned for that as well! If you would like to know more about the plans for this trip, I did a Pre-Trip Report too! You can check that out at this link!

Pre-Trip Report

Who: Jeremy and Andrea!

When: July 23-28, 2014

Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village

Why: What kind of silly question is that, you actually need a reason to go to Disney World?? I'll just say...hmmm...We had points and we needed to use our passes!

How: DVC Points, Annual Passes, Tables In Wonderland, Memory Maker, Fastpass +, Dining Reservations, My Disney Experience, Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust, and So Much More!

So with all of that out of the way, are we ready to get started?? I know I am!! I have looked through all of the Photos and Video from the trip and have narrowed down everything just for you all! (Ok, maybe a little for me too.) I have all of my receipts, and hopefully *fingers crossed* by the end, we will be under budget!

So...Let The Trip Report Begin!

Table Of Contents

Wednesday, July 23, 2014:
That's A Bunch Of Blueberries!
Liberty Square!! Wait, Not The One At Magic Kingdom??
Are Those Oyster Shells In The Walls??
FIG!! The FOOD really IS GOOD!!

Thursday, July 24, 2014:
We Need to Eat and Run! We Are Trying to Get to Frozen Summer Fun!
Is That Olaf on Tower of Terror??
I Don't Want to Wear a Helmet! It Will Mess Up My Hair!
A Sing Along...More Like A Screech Along!

Friday, July 25, 2014:
The Line Seriously Goes to There!!
Has Elsa Been In Here Today? BOG Lunch!
We Almost Did A Grand Circle Tour!
"Celebes" Coffee, Tea, & Friandises! Dinner at Victoria & Albert's

Saturday, July 26, 2014:
The Hot and the Cold Are Just So Intense! Put em' Together It Just Makes Sense!
Hey! You Lions Can't Do That! This is Disney!!
We Seem To Have Run Out of Track!
It's Time For Harambe Nights!!

Sunday, July 27, 2014 (Extra Day Yay!)
Andrea & Jeremy's Character Mania! It's Insania! Part One!
Andrea & Jeremy's Character Mania! It's Insania! Part Two!
Andrea & Jeremy's Character Mania! It's Insania! Part Three!
Andrea & Jeremy's Character Mania! Wrap Up! Part Four! It was Insania!

Monday, July 28, 2014: Going Home Day
See You Real Soon! Really Really Soon!

July 2014 Vacation Video!!
​

Budget Posts:
Wednesday July 23 Budget Report!
Thursday July 24 Budget Report!
Friday July 25 Budget Report!
Saturday July 26 Budget Report!
Sunday July 27 Budget Report!
Monday July 28 Budget Report & FINAL Budget Status!!

Want to follow along on our next adventure?? The PTR starts here:
Course by Course, One by One, 'Til You Shout "Enough I'm Done" A September 2014 PTR!​

 

[AAshleySEG]

All of our bags were definitely packed, and we were ready to go! I woke up and immediately started getting dressed and ready, because I knew it wouldn't be long before Jeremy came home from work and it would be time to get on the road!

I talked to my dad for a bit, he is taking care of all of our animal babies and our house while we are gone, so I wanted to make sure everything was settled. He is really good about knowing what needs to be done, and I definitely don't know what I would do without him! He is such a great help to us when we go out of town!

We had just washed King Candy, that is what we call our car if you have not read one of my Trip Reports before, so he was sparkly and clean and ready to go on a drive! I double, triple, quadruple checked everything so we wouldn't forget anything this time around! Last trip, we left our cash in the house and had to turn around and go back to get it! This time, I just knew I remembered to pack everything!

At about 9:15, Jeremy got home! We live really close to where he works and he just needed to go in and check on his guys before we headed out! We loaded the last few things in the car, pillows, camera, backpack, a few bottles of water, and we were ready to hit the road!

For our very first expense on the trip we had to stop by the local Murphy Express and fill up our first tank of gas! Can you tell that Jeremy was excited to go??

For each tank of Gas, I always budget $50. For tank numero uno, it cost us $50.04!! We were already 4 whole cents over budget and we just started, I hope this isn't some sort of developing trend??

As we started heading down Highway 211 out of Southport, we noticed that the sky was a little cloudy and it looked like we may be in for some rain on this drive!

Once we got all the way down to Highway 17 the skies had cleared up quite a bit, we had plans to be outside while we were in Charleston, so we were hoping that it wouldn't rain on us. We did pack an umbrella just in case!

As we were driving, I kept updating the Maps App on my phone so I could try and get a better idea of the time we were going to make it to our selected destination for lunch. The closer we got to Myrtle Beach, the more traffic started piling up! There seemed to be construction everywhere, I kept thinking that we left earlier than I expected, but I wasn't sure if I had allotted enough time for us to eat lunch AND get to Charleston on time for our planned activity!

When I was planning everything out, I had figured that we would be around Pawley's Island, SC during the lunch hours, so I did a search on Yelp to see what I could find for us to eat! After reading a bunch of reviews, we decided on this place called Landolfi's Italian Bakery! Everyone spoke really highly of it and so we definitely wanted to try it out! We don't even have to get off Highway 17 to go there, so it would be really convenient too! At 11:10, I think we were about 20 miles away, so I was still worried about having enough time to eat, and I hoped that it wouldn't be too busy when we got there!!

We made it!! We pulled into the parking lot and went inside! We got seated right away, which was great! They had this bakery case full of desserts that I knew we would want to try after we ate! We chose a Brick Oven Pizza from their menu to split between us. Jeremy got a tall glass of Sweet Tea, and I had an Ice Water!

We ordered the Wood Roasted Chicken Pizza, which had Roasted Chicken, Tomatoes, Spinach, Artichokes, Olives, and Provolone Cheese! When it got to the table, I was really glad we had chosen it! It looked so delicious!! It was only $10 too! What a great deal!

We dug right in, it didn't take us very long at all to eat it either!

We were still on a little of a time crunch but we knew we wanted dessert! There were so many things to choose from in that case, Jeremy pretty much knew what he wanted right away...I always have a hard time deciding what to get, so I asked our server what she would recommend! I will also, try anything, I am very open minded when it comes to food! She suggested that I get the Blueberry Cheesecake! Sounds Good To Me!!

When it got to the table, all I could think was Oh My Gosh! That's a Whole Bunch of Blueberries! There are even blueberries inside of it too!! Jeremy ordered the Red Velvet Cake. He said it was pretty good! He usually likes a softer red velvet cake, and this one was a little dense for his liking.

I was very happy with the cheesecake!! The blueberries were plump and fresh and there was almost like a blueberry jam inside the cheesecake which just made it taste delightfully blueberry-y!

We finished up our desserts and with tax and tip, our total came to $35, not too bad! I had budgeted $30 for lunch, so we were a little bit over, but the service was fantastic and the food was great too! For a pizza it deserved a 10 out of 10! If we are in Pawley's Island around lunch again on one of our trips down, we will more than likely stop there again!

By 12:20 we were back in the car and ready to get going! We needed to make it to Charleston by 2:00. We had tickets to go to Fort Sumter on the 2:30 Ferry and we needed to be there about 30 minutes early to pick them up!

 

[MidnightParade]

Wooooooooo!! Yay TR!!

That is allot of blueberries! Looks and sounds delicious, gotta love those awesome little bakeries!

So does Jeremy wear his sunglasses infront of his glasses? (He's wearing the sunglasses on top of his head in the sweet tea pic) Or does he swap? (Normally if I'm in my glasses I just suffer in the sun and don't have prescription sunglasses )

Hope the traffic lets up and you make it on time!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Wooooooooo!! Yay TR!!

That is allot of blueberries! Looks and sounds delicious, gotta love those awesome little bakeries!

So does Jeremy wear his sunglasses infront of his glasses? (He's wearing the sunglasses on top of his head in the sweet tea pic) Or does he swap? (Normally if I'm in my glasses I just suffer in the sun and don't have prescription sunglasses )

Hope the traffic lets up and you make it on time!!

Yay, you are here!! Banana time!!

Yeah it was tons of blueberries but so delicious! They had other fruit varieties of cheesecake too, hopefully we will get to stop here again sometime!

We both have prescription sunglasses, he has super sensitive eyes so he wears sunglasses 95% of the time, sometimes even when it is dark and there are bright lights. I used to be the same way about suffering through the sun with my regular glasses on, I have been doing the scrip sunglasses for a year or so now and I love them! They are a little bit of a hassle to put up and take back out, especially at Disney, so many inside/outside things in succession, but I still managed with them quite fine. Jeremy just keeps his on his head though

I am about to make a new post! So you will soon see whether we did!! Thanks for reading along again!! I was so excited when I saw that you commented!

 

[AAshleySEG]

On the road again on our way to Charleston, it was a pretty short ride with not very much traffic, which was great!! We ended up making it across the bridge and into the city by 1:45! That meant that we had about 15 minutes to find the parking garage on Calhoun Street. There was TONS of traffic downtown! It took us almost the whole 15 minutes just to get to the parking deck! We did make it though and found a nice space for King Candy...we have a pretty small car, could you imagine having an SUV trying to park in these spaces?? They are a little tight right??

So, there are two locations where you can take a Ferry to Fort Sumter. One of them is at a place called Patriot's Point over in Mt. Pleasant, the one we're going from was called Liberty Square!! Considering we were on our way to Disney World, that couldn't be more perfect!

It was a little bit warmer here, than at home, but we needed to get used to those 90 degree temperatures since we were going to be in Lake Buena Vista soon! I stopped for a photo-op next to the Fort Sumter sign! We made sure to take lots of photos and video of me, this time around!

This little Liberty Square courtyard area is really nicely laid out! The South Carolina Aquarium is in this area too! There are lots of manicured pathways, places to picnic, or just a nice shaded area to rest on a bench if you want!

Just a little bit further and we found where we needed to go to pick up our tickets! I didn't realize how popular this would be on a Wednesday afternoon, but there was quite a bit of a line we had to wait in to get our ferry tickets! Luckily I had purchased them online, because from the amount of people there it seemed they were almost sold out!

We picked up our tickets and went inside the air-conditioned museum. There were people everywhere. Inside this museum there was a tiny gift shop that sold some postcards, t-shirts, and other miscellaneous things. I found out there was a gift shop at the actual fort, so we decided we would go into that one since this one was so jam-packed with people! A few minutes later they announced overhead that the ferry was now boarding, so we headed outside!

I took a photo across the water of Patriot's Point and the USS Yorktown. There is a Naval & Maritime Museum over on that side, but like I said before, you can also take the Ferry to Fort Sumter from there as well!

There was a really long line underneath the museum to get onto the ferry, we were some of the last people to get down there and in line. I made sure Jeremy had our ticket, which he did!

There is a little photo crew to take your photo before you get on the ferry, I didn't think too much of it because I wasn't planning on buying it anyway, but we stopped and took the photo, then we walked down the ramp and onto the ferry! The two upper decks were already full of people so we decided, for the moment, to hang out on the lowest deck, at the forward section. When we got started going it was definitely really windy! We did have a nice view of the suspension bridge from where we were though!

I did mention it was windy right! At one point my hair was blowing everywhere!! I even had a funny hair mustache!

On our way over to Fort Sumter we passed by a little island with another fort. This one was called Castle Pinckney and it was built around 1810!

When we were about halfway to Sumter, more people kept coming outside so we chose to go inside! There was a recorded telling of history playing over the intercom system that we listened to the rest of the way over! The windows were really large, so we had a great view from inside too!

We could see it now! We had almost made it to Fort Sumter! The place where the first shots of the American Civil War were fired!

 

[DisDance]

Woo so excited for the TR!! Off to a great start, you make me want to actually drive to WDW, looks like fun!

 

[DVC Lindsay]

That pizza looks absolutely wonderful! I think I know what I'm going to try to recreate for dinner tonight Great trip report so far!

 

[katt789]

Loving the updates! I'm in!

Yay for fun stops on the way to disney, and I love that all your pictures are fun too!

Also, LOVE the Snow White disneybound in the intro post! Super cute!!

 

[HarkiQuinn]

So I want that blueberry cheesecake. >.>

Looks like you guys are having fun, totally joining!

 

[MidnightParade]

Of course I'm going to be here! I'm pretty sure that's a given now...you have a PTR or TR and I'm joining in! (Whether you want me to or not!! )

Heehee! Hair moustache! They're fun!!

Yay for getting there on time and old castles!!! Also wooo more Andrea pics!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Woo so excited for the TR!! Off to a great start, you make me want to actually drive to WDW, looks like fun!

Yay! So glad you are excited! I am excited to relive it!! We used to drive pretty much the 9 hours straight through, I am glad we now break it up on the way down! We did have fun! Sadly though, we do drive home straight through... Thank you for joining in!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

That pizza looks absolutely wonderful! I think I know what I'm going to try to recreate for dinner tonight Great trip report so far!

OMG, that pizza was sooo good! What a great idea! I should totally try to recreate it at home too!! I saw this really cool thing called kettle pizza that we want for our Weber Grill, so we can try "fired" type pizzas at home!! Thank you so much for commenting!! It's so much fun getting to talk to everyone!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Loving the updates! I'm in!

Yay for fun stops on the way to disney, and I love that all your pictures are fun too!

Also, LOVE the Snow White disneybound in the intro post! Super cute!!

Hooray!! I'm glad you love them! It's awesome that you are joining in! So thank you!!

We love taking silly photos! My poor camera though, it is pretty banged up now, on this trip a piece off it fell off at the park never to be seen again

Snow White and Prince Ferdinand Disneybound Day was so fun! Even Snow White herself got super excited when she saw me I think on that trip we did Marlin/Dory, Boba Fett/Stormtrooper for SWW, Bert/Mary Poppins, Ferdinand/Snow White, & Ralph/Vanellope! If you like Disneybounding we did it on this trip too!!! We really enjoy doing it, especially when we have Memory Maker, it makes for better photos!

 

[AAshleySEG]

So I want that blueberry cheesecake. >.>

Looks like you guys are having fun, totally joining!

Seriously! I want that Blueberry Cheesecake Again...I have contemplated driving the hour and a half just to get a slice! I wish I could somehow get it to you without it being destroyed because I totally would!

We always have a blast when we go to Disney!! Thank you so much for reading along and joining in!! It really means a lot!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Of course I'm going to be here! I'm pretty sure that's a given now...you have a PTR or TR and I'm joining in! (Whether you want me to or not!! )

Heehee! Hair moustache! They're fun!!

Yay for getting there on time and old castles!!! Also wooo more Andrea pics!!

Of course we want you here!! At least you never have to wait too long to get one from me

Yeah my hair was whipping like crazy on the front of that boat!! I was hoping it didn't go too crazy, we had to go to dinner afterwards!

Hopefully you will get to see PLENTY of photos and video of me this go round!! If not, we will try again in September

 

[DISNEY180]

I have been lurking and reading all your reports ( reading the cruise right now).. LOVE them.. It is so evident that you both love Disney and all of that incorporates

 

[Raven0207]

After seeing all of the video and pictures I personally took from the trip there should be no shortage of Andrea Pics ! I really don't think there will be a shortage of any pics now that I think about it.

 

[AAshleySEG]

I have been lurking and reading all your reports ( reading the cruise right now).. LOVE them.. It is so evident that you both love Disney and all of that incorporates

Aww! I am glad you decided to comment!! It means a lot that you are enjoying reading my Trip Reports!!

So fun that you own at SSR! We stay there quite often, we have not had to the chance to stay at a Treehouse Villa yet though...one day! If we could only find enough people to go with us, that is a challenge! Thanks again for reading! Don't be shy with those comments! No more Lurking, I know you are there now...hehe

 

[AAshleySEG]

After seeing all of the video and pictures I personally took from the trip there should be no shortage of Andrea Pics ! I really don't think there will be a shortage of any pics now that I think about it.

You are right about that! There is certainly no shortage of video or photos on this trip!

 

[AAshleySEG]

As soon as the other ferry departed we were able to dock at Fort Sumter! We waited a few minutes to let all of the other people off the boat before we decided to try. We have approximately one hour over here before the return ferry trip back! Down the ramp we went and took our first steps onto the grounds of Fort Sumter!

While everyone else was standing around in a giant mass of people waiting to hear the history talk, Jeremy and I decided to explore. We both know quite a bit about the history of Fort Sumter already, so we wanted to spend our time looking around! Our first stop was the museum, we wanted to see all of the artifacts they had inside there!

If you are planning to go to Fort Sumter, just keep in mind that it is Reeeeeally small! Originally it was about 3 levels high and now with everything in its past is sort of a crumbled shell of a place. Especially when you consider how long it was an active site! Before we walked up to the top we stopped in the little gift shop! I bought a magnet for our fridge, it is covered with magnets from almost all of the places we have been together. I also grabbed a postcard to send to my grandmother, I like her to know we are thinking about her when we are on vacation! Done inside there, we made our way to the top!

There was a really nice view of Charleston harbor from up there, there were also tons of container ships entering and leaving the harbor. It was still a bit windy though and we wanted to look around some more, so we made our way back down to the open interior of the Fort! We started looking at some of the walls and noticed that there were oyster shells in them!

Apparently the type of mortar that they used originally and in the 1870s while restoring the Fort is called "Tabby" and is uses Oyster Shells as part of its mixture! It looks pretty cool, and seemed to be pretty sturdy like concrete!

If you really take the time to think about this place, and how it came to be, it was really an eye opening experience for me about the history of our nation and how exactly it used to be in the past. For example, the bricks that were used to construct the fort. They are called "Carolina Grey" bricks. they were handmade by slaves from some of the nearby plantations in the area.

I just look at these bricks and imagine what it must have been like back in that time as a slave on a plantation. It really hits home why the Civil War was fought. Ok, sorry for the history lesson... Back to the happy photos! We are going to Disney World after all!

These photos kind of put into perspective how low the walls of the Fort are currently, originally they were around 50 ft!

It was a pretty warm and sunny day out, so we started looking around what is left of the interior areas, mostly where the cannons are kept, it was nice to be in a shady spot for a little bit! This is also the area where they were giving the history talk that was now over, so we could actually get over here to see some things now!

Next up we wanted to go around to the outside to see how everything looked from there, we had to go through this doorway though...a little "Come Into The Light" don't ya think!

It definitely does not look like a National Monument to me...it kind of looks like a broken down warehouse building or something, not really a Fort used in the Civil War?

Back inside again we were going around the last parts that we had not yet explored which was over by the cannons! There were still lots of cannons in and around the Fort and it was cool to see how they were maneuvered around.

You could even see the Charleston Harbor which was actually not too far away from where we were!

I was still looking around on the inside and Jeremy decided he wanted to go back outside again, I was trying to stay in the shade, me being fair-skinned and all, I didn't want to start the trip out with a sunburn! Funnily enough though, it turned out to be a pretty good photo op! Jeremy was walking by one of the cannon holes and it sort of framed him perfectly! So I took a few photos!

By that time we looked at our watches and noticed we only had about 10 more minutes of exploring before we needed to get back on the ferry! A bunch of people were already heading that way!

We decided to get one last photo with me and the Monument Sign before we headed to get back on the boat! I needed to actually prove I was there, I guess I could have photoshopped it though

Back to the boat we headed! Oh, the ferry boat that we were on was called Spirit Of The Lowcountry! What a fitting name! We felt like it was a very successful trip over to the Fort! We can now check that off of the list of places we need to visit!

I would definitely say it is something that everyone should do! Once you do it though, I think you will have successfully fulfilled your obligation. There isn't too much to see over there, and if you are not really too big on history, you may be a little bored. The ferry ride is definitely nice though! As we were heading back on the ferry we started noticing that the sky was growing increasingly darker...and then we started to see lightning all around! It looked like we were heading back toward some stormy weather!

When we got back to the dock at Liberty Square, Jeremy and I waited around a little before getting off, everyone was trying to rush off as fast as they could because of the storm brewing! Oh and before I forget, I took a photo of the inside of the bottom level of the ferry...does it not sort of look like some old bingo parlor or something?? I was surprised when we came in here for the first time, it was definitely not what I was expecting to see!

After most everyone had gone, we got up and started making our way off the boat to head back to the car! On the way out we saw the photos that the crew had taken earlier, and you know what, it was actually a really good photo of the two of us! I had budgeted for merchandise on this trip and I liked the photo so much that we ended up getting it! I am trying to find a scanner so I can put it on here at a better quality, but for now I will just show it to you like this...

It was now time to say So Long to Liberty Square and Fort Sumter, we had a dinner reservation to get to! We started walking back to the parking deck and just as we were reaching it, it started to sprinkle rain on us! I hope there isn't too much traffic on the way to FIG!