Hold onto you Small Fuzzy Aliens...Cuz Here We Go!!! (TR w/Pics)

[fallen_angel727]

Alright so I'm going to try my hand at this Trip report thingy...bear with me if I'm a slow

Alrighty, so I have no PTR so quickly I'll give you the basics. DBF and I wanted to take a vacation for quite some time, and somehow (still not sure how it happened) I talked him into WDW. I've been a few times before, him only once in 1992 or so, so he was all skeptical and stuff about this being a kids place etc. Well as you'll see he changed his mind soon enough lol.

The Basics:
Trip Length: Feb. 13 - Feb 21 2009
Hotel: Off-site, Days Inn Maingate
Misc: 4 flights (2 lay overs - one there, one back) + rental car + useless Orlando maps + 5 day hopper + water park & more = one exciting Adventure

Cast:
Me (Ashley, 22), DBF (Aaron, 25)

Trip Mascot (Stitch...he's always wanted to meet his idol...but more about that later, much later)

 

[fallen_angel727]

Day 1 & 2: Travel Days

SO we begin our journey on Feb. 13 in freezing cold Canada about 5:00pm. Aaron picks me up, we pack up the car and off we go...or so we think. The goal was to get to our hotel in Detoit, MI by about 9:00pm or so (after stopping at the mall for some last minute shopping). No problem right, just hop on over the boarder and we'll be good...WRONG! the drive to the bridge was wonderful and completely uneventful, meaning we were not prepared for the 1.5 hour wait at customs (a precursor to what was awaiting us in Florida). Well we finally get to the boot and cross relatively smoothly, few general questions, nothing big. Great we're on our way...WRONG again.

Now I ask, how hard is it to get a map of a relatively unknown mall (to us anyway) in a foriegn country (again, foriegn to us), well clearly for Aaron it's not necessary. After another hour of driving in circles (literally) we find the mall, eat, shop and finally get to the hotel. Well we have a surprisingly great sleep for being super excited and sleeping on a hotel bed, and to our sheer joy what do we wake up to but...

You can just imaging our joy to leaving that much snow behind.

Now jump to Valentine's Day...Feb 14. our flight leave at 3:50pm, we have to be out of the hotel and parked by noon. So we're at the airport by noon, breeze through security and settle in for a 3+ hour wait...very boring and nerve wracking as I haven't been on a plane since I was 6. Well, right on time at 3:50 we board and take off in the smallest plane ever toward Chicago.

After realizing that our flight isn't really 20 minutes and there is an hour time difference in Chicago, I settle in for a little nap on the plane. We land safely at O'Hare (which btw is the biggest airport i've ever seen) grab som Mickey D's for dinner and head off to our gate to catch our flight to Orlando. Flight #2 is again right on time (yay! ) and we're having a great flight enjoying the view of all the little light below when we hit some massive turbulence entering Florida because of some storm that passed through. Well needless to say I'm terrified of crashing so this was not so fun for me, Aaron on the other hand was having a ball

Well we land safely in Orlando to a wonderful 65 degrees...which to us Canadians was wonderfully warm weather as it was about 45 degrees warmer than what we had left. well after collecting our luggage (which I was terrified would get lost) we hopped on the shuttle to the rental car place (Hertz). After waiting about a half hour and talking to the oldest, slowest yet nicest and most helpful man ever, we we're well on our way in our 2009 fully loaded Mazda 3 (totally unexpected as we were told we would get the equivilant to a Sunfire) . So after again, getting lost and driving circles around toll roads we find our hotel. Aaron goes to check in while I wait outside. He comes back slightly pissed off (and by slightly, I mean in the 3 years we've been dating i've never seen him this angry...ever).

Turns out there was a problem with the lock on the door of our room and the rest of the hotel is full. So we ask, if they knew we were coming, and they knew we had a very late check in (after 11:00pm) why did they not save a room for us. "First come first serve" we're told. We'll we booked the trip in October...I'm sure that is pretty close to first. Well apparently to this nerdy looking pimply guy, it means whoever gets there first that day gets the room, and we were last we we're out of luck. We do get a free night at their sister hotel though, which turns out to be the biggest dump in history, I wouldn't be surpirse if drug dealers and hookers frequently were seen there. It was definately not of the same stadard as the Hotel we were supposed to stay at. Well we call the people we booked the trip through and they in turn call the original hotel. We are assured by he manager we will have a room ready by 7:00 the next morning. We suck it up, lock the door and sleep in our socks as by this time it's almost 2am and we need to be up by 7 for our new room...

I know I said this was only trave day one and two but I'll finish my hotel story and continue on with the parks later (don't worry there will be lots of park pics)...

So 7am comes and we head over to the original hotel only to be told that nothing the travel service told us was true. Well we call back the travel service, yell at the people behind the desk (we've already payed the $120 a night for the week, and by golly we're staying there), and eventually the manager on duty goes and cleans a room for us himself as the maids didn't even get there until 8am. Well our room is wonderful. Comfy beds, a huge flat screen tv and a great view. We're only on the 1st floor, but we exit the room into a garden of palms leading toward the pool, it's wonderful and the problems of the previous night are quickly forgotten (especially when the manager waves the $30 convience charge for the week...we were clearly inconvienenced) Now on this beautiful 68 degree morning what else is there to do? Grab some Mickey D's breakfast and head to Disney Hollywood Studios (which Aaron cannot bring himself to call "DHS" and will constantly refer to it as "MGM" for the rest of the trip)

Day 3 and out DHS adventure (with pics, I PROMISE!!!) to come soon...to tide you over though and build anticipation...

 

[topdog]

Sounds like this is going to be a wild ride. I will be waiting.

 

[LD NURSE]

Sorry about your room. I've had that happen before. Waiting for an update, but your off to a great start!!!!!

 

[fallen_angel727]

Thanks for the replies so quick...I'm going to ive you all the rest of day 3 because it's going to be quite a few days before i can continue because of school and projects and papers and stuff...so here we go...

Day 3 - Disney Hollywood Studios

Alrighty so when I left off we had just stopped at Mickey D's from some yummy breakfast and we're off to DHS. Well we arrive with no problems, no getting lost, nothing...except getting stuck at the longest traffic light in history (8 minutes ). We'll we make it, pay for parking and get a spot relatively close to the front (YAY). So we walk on over to the ticket will-call and get out tickets , also with no problems. We enter the park and...BOOM...

...ahh The Hat...I love that hat (and clearly from the previous pic, so does Aaron, actually this ended up beig his favourite park.

So today is relatively uneventful...we head straight to TSM and what do we get? That's right we land fastpasses (not bad for 10am). We can't come back until 4:30ish but hey we got them. So what to do now for a girl who loves disney and a boy who hasn't been there since 1992? well...

ToT of course...15 minute wait, who can go wrong with that? Well we have the ride of our lives with the help of some excellent CM's in great character. This quickly becomes Aaron's new favourite ride (see honey I told ya you'd like Disney World lol) SO after ToT we decide to explore...ok well I decide to explore, Aaron just has to follow lol. So we head over to Animation Studios where I hear Bolt will be. Well not only do we get Bolt but Mickey, Bolt, Rhino, Frozone and Mr. & Mrs. Incredible.Now I'm excited to meet Mickey and Bolt, Aaron on the other hand...so excited by Frozone. All day he went around telling me how he met Samuel L. Jackson...oh dear...not quite honey but if it'll make you happy and not cranky then ok.

After Aaron's encounter with...ahem..."Samuel L. Jackson" we head over to Star Tours. Now you all must understand, I'm dating a Star Wars Geek, loves everything aout it, can quote it...beh. Well I can't post all the pics I have because he took over 30 at that ride alone. So we que up...with some really annoying kids behind us mind you and hop onto Star Tours and get...the most boring ride of our lives??? That's correct folks, the Sart Wars Geek enjoyed the theming more than the ride, sureprise surprise. We we leave, a little disappointed when Aaron looks up and sees...

...sigh

Well I finally drag him away from his new, extremely large Star Wars friend and we hed over to Inidana Jones, another of Aaron's favourite movies. Well the Indy show was awesome, well worth it definately. While in line we had some random peole take our picture however. Apparently they were doing a scavenger hunt and I had the facial piercing they were looking for (my nose stud)...anyway great show.

After the show Aaron drags me to the Honey I Shrunk The Kids playground detrmine to play like he did back in 1992 (he's now 25). We'll much to my relief, it's closed (not sure why as it was the middle of the day). Thank goodness, the last thing I need is a broken bone, or sprain or something...maybe not from Aaron, but from some poor other kid because of him Well we settle for eating lunch at the counter service resturaunt right there (sorry can't remember the name) we both get burgers, gobble them up, and head over to the Great Movie Ride as we still have about an hour to kill before we have to come back for TSM.

Well we get in line for the 30 minute wait and get on in about 28 minutes lol (I was amazed at how accurate they were with the wait times actually). So we get in our car and begin the ride. Well we get to the first room with the creepy manaquins all stacked up and we GET STUCK...that's right the ride broke down. Well we sit with the creepy maaquins staring at us for a good 20 minutes or so before we are let off the ride for repairs. Once we get off (and are forever grateful we dont have to be stuck in the creepy room anymore) we head over to TSM hoping to kill some time near there waiting for our FP time to come. Well who do we see when we get there...none other than Woody and Buzz (sorry, pics to come when the photopass CD comes in). Well we meet Woody an Buzz...who I later find out is one of Aaron's favourites, and hed off to TSM.

Let me tell you BEST RIDE EVER, definately becomes Aaron's favourite ride of the trip. He's a couple pics of TSM

Afterwords we wandered about and tried the Great Movie Ride again...this time we get though the que, on the ride and off the ride successfully...after going through the whole ride that is lol. So by this time, all we can do is wander as it's getting late and we need some seas for F! We look around and Aaron buys an Indiana Jones Hat (again pics to come of that later) and we proceed to F!

Awesome show! I've seen it twice before, aaron has never seen it and it turned out to be his favoutire. He tried to get some pics but this was the only one that even sort of came out...

Well we went to the 8:00 F! so it by all means was not PACKED, but it was pretty full. we enjoy the show, as I laugh at the mom in front of me assuring her child that there are "no bad guys in this show", "no fireworks," "not scary at all"...just "mickey and friends"...well the poo kid left screaming when dragon Maleficent appreard (poor kid, I didn't kind of feel bad). We leave without many problems and loose the car. Yes that's right genious BF that I have forgets what the car looks like and assurs me we are not parked in the lot I think and that our car is not silver, but white. Well after finding our silver car in the Stage lot (right where I said it would be) we head on over to DTD for some exploring.

Well Aaron falls in love with the Lego store...

and I have to talk him out of buying the lego mellenium falcon (it was $500 )

we check out...and get terribly lost in the Wonderful World of Disney store, buy a couple quick souviners and head back to the hotel. we get back and collapse, exhausted. Besides we have to be and at MK tomorrow by 8:30 at the latest for rope drop...more about that in my next post...


OH and since I just found it...

...Aaron with Froz...sorry "Samuel L. Jackson"

And the rest...

 

[topdog]

Any new update yet??

 

[DWFan4Life]

I just finished reading your TR and it's great. I really enjoyed your awesome pictures. Glad that you had a great time and fun. Looking forward in hearing more.

Have a nice day everyone.