How many times on FOP in one trip? Sivako!! **NEW 10/24**

[MinnieWebster]

5th Anniversary Celebration
August 24-September 2, 2017
All Star Sports Resort​

We are (sadly) back from our longest Disney vacation yet, and I cannot wait to share our adventures.
This is my first time writing a trip report, so I'm hoping I can make it entertaining for everyone deciding to follow along

A little background: DH has been going to WDW since he was a child, he took me on my first trip to the World seven years ago when we were dating. We were married 5 years ago, and while planning the wedding and honeymoon, DH wanted to honeymoon at WDW. While that would have been extremely fun, I wanted to do something different (WDW is the only place DH ever wants to go on vacation. And while I understand, because it's awesome, there's also several places I have never been and would like to eventually visit), so we decided on a Caribbean cruise. It was awesome. We took my parents, sister and BIL on their first Disney vacation for our first anniversary and have tried to make that a tradition: celebrating our anniversary at the happiest place on Earth Which leads us to planning this trip, even though we were dealing with less vacation time than we used to have.

WELCOME!!!​

 

[ariane37]

Yay, I'm first! Looking forward to hearing all about it

 

[suse66]

Joining in too!

 

[MinnieWebster]

Yay, I'm first! Looking forward to hearing all about it

Yay!

Joining in too!

 

[Mbuksa]

Joining in as well

 

[MinnieWebster]

Joining in as well

Thanks for joining me on this journey

 

[MinnieWebster]

Arrival Day!! Started in the middle of the night with a 2.5 hour drive to Chicago Midway Airport to arrive in time for our super early 5:30am departure. DH insisted on stopping at McDonald's for breakfast when we got to Chicago (yes, at 3:30 in the morning...), so it was after 4:30am by the time we parked, hauled our suitcases across the street to the airport, checked those bags, and made it through security. I was able to get a little bit of a nap on the plane, which was nice.
Seeing the sunrise from the sky was pretty sweet.


Non-stop flight to MCO had us arriving in Orlando by 9am. ME was taking our bags to the resort for us, so we went straight to the pickup location. We waited a little while, maybe 20 minutes or so, for a bus to arrive to take us to All-Star Sports. There were a couple people in line ahead of us for check-in, but once it was our turn we were given a complimentary upgrade to a King size bed, received our "Happily Ever After" pins for our anniversary, and told our room was ready. Well, we didn't need to go to the room for anything, all we had with us was our carry-on/park bag, so we were ready to head to a park!!

After much debate (prior to the start of our trip), we decided our first park of the trip would be Animal Kingdom!! We didn't have FP+ for this day planned, because we still needed to upgrade our 8-day PH+ tickets to annual passes, which is the first thing we did upon arriving at AK. The CM was very helpful, and even quoted us a price lower than we were expecting to upgrade our tickets!
Once inside AK, I had to snag a pic of the Tree of Life, like always

So pretty
Then we headed over to Pandora, so we could walk around and get some pictures


Our first Magic Shot! Would have been nice if the photographer would have told us to point a little higher, but still cool





It was lunch time, so we decided we'd try Satu'li Canteen, since we had picked out a few different items to try from the menu.

The cupcakes were a nice surprise!
We ordered the grilled chicken bowl off the kids menu. It was really good. I'm not a huge fan of rice, and thought it was a little dry (I almost always think rice is dry...), but DH loved it and wanted it again when we ordered from there later in the week.
While we were seated in the restaurant, we took some time to select FP+ for today and our last day, since we could do that with our AP!

Which rides did we get FP+ for? Coming up...

 

[thumper*]

Hello glad to have found your TR.

or our first anniversary and have tried to make that a tradition: celebrating our anniversary at the happiest place on Earth

Ha ha when we do get to WDW it is usually to celebrate our anniversary which is mid September. This year though we going early Dec to experience it in it's Christmas glory. So glad we're not going in Sept this yr as I'm sure Irma will dampen things around the world about the same time we would be there.

Are you from the Champaign Urbana area that's originally where I'm from?

Looking forward to your updates.

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Signing up!

 

[MinnieWebster]

Hello glad to have found your TR.

when we do get to WDW it is usually to celebrate our anniversary which is mid September. This year though we going early Dec to experience it in it's Christmas glory. So glad we're not going in Sept this yr as I'm sure Irma will dampen things around the world about the same time we would be there.

Are you from the Champaign Urbana area that's originally where I'm from?

Happy Anniversary! (A little early, but it IS September now ) I loved seeing all the Christmas decorations and everything!! We lived in Tampa Sept 2015-July 2016, and went to Disney almost every weekend. We spent Christmas Day there, it was awesome. Loved it. .... Yeah, it will. I am glad that we are home before Irma hits, as we have gone in Sept before (and actually DH prefers Sept to Aug).
We are actually from Michigan (near Flint), but currently living in Peoria, IL. He has had to go to Champaign a few times for work. It seems nice. DH wants to move back to FL as soon as the opportunity arises, but we shall see

Signing up!

Yay!

 

[KathyM2]

The CM was very helpful, and even quoted us a price lower than we were expecting to upgrade our tickets!

Hey that's great news!!!

Love your Pandora pics. I would have loved to spend more time just looking around at all the detail there, but my DD didn't have the patience for that and also the heat!! I hope to go back and revisit that soon!

 

[thumper*]

but currently living in Peoria

That's DH home town, still have relatives living there. Good luck with that decision to move to FL or not that would be a tough one for me. I'd love to be in a warmer climate year round but not sure I could handle the intense summers....maybe if it was a dry heat.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hi, I found your report I am following along, we were there around the same time! Excited to hear all about it.

 

[MinnieWebster]

That's DH home town, still have relatives living there.

Oh, cool! DH likes to tell people that we never heard of the city until we moved here

Good luck with that decision to move to FL or not that would be a tough one for me. I'd love to be in a warmer climate year round but not sure I could handle the intense summers....maybe if it was a dry heat.

Haha! Yeah...we lived in Tampa for 10 months, but we skipped July and August. It was pretty hot when we left.

Hi, I found your report I am following along, we were there around the same time! Excited to hear all about it.

Hi!!

 

[MinnieWebster]

Which rides did we get FP+ for?

Okay, I'm going to admit that I am having a hard time remembering what times we got for our FP+, and I apparently wasn't keeping notes on this day... (I do better the rest of the week, I promise!)

But we did FP Safari...


We rode Kali River Rapids, either standby or with a FP, I don't remember.... then we stopped for some pictures

Good pics, despite the wet clothing
Then we rode Expedition Everest! We usually go through the single rider line, but I think we got a FP+ for it this time
We rode at the very front! DH said he forgot where the picture was taken...

He remembered the pic!! I love his crazy poses!! I have to watch out though, he's bumped me a few times posing for this ride picture, almost knocking my glasses off my face

We also rode Primeval Whirl, which DH does not like, and I told him we wouldn't have to do it again during the trip
And we went to It's Tough to be a Bug (with a FP+, which was not needed at all, but it did cut down on a little of the walking)

After that we headed for the bus stops to catch a bus to Disney Springs before our ADR. We decided that the bus for AKL would be closest/fastest, so we waited a few minutes for that bus to arrive to take us to AKL.
Of course, once there we had to wait FOREVER for a bus to Disney Springs, so I snapped a few pictures of the surrounding area, since I've never been to the resort before.

Looks pretty nice from the bus stop...

Jealous of the shaded benches at the bus stops. Definitely don't get that at AS Sports

Where are we headed for dinner? Up next...

 

[MinnieWebster]

Day 1 continued...
I forgot to mention during our ride on Primeval Whirl, DH managed to knock me in the head with his arm. It stung for a little bit. I told him it was going to leave a mark, but it didn't. Seriously have to watch that man's arms.

Anywho. We were headed to Disney Springs, for the ADR I convinced DH that we shouldn't cancel (he didn't see a point in going to DS at all after we upgraded our tickets to AP). Waited forever for a bus from AKL, not really impressed by that. Once the bus dropped us off at DS we had about 2 minutes (okay, maybe 5...) to get over to the restaurant to check in on time. Where were we going?
We made it!! I just love the atmosphere in here...


We decided to try the Jungle Safari Soup, which we thought was really good! (A little spicy, but not too bad for me). I had a root beer float, while DH tried a Key Wester. Everything was delicious!!

After our delicious meal we decided to walk around DS for a while, since this was our first time back since the middle of the remodel from Downtown Disney. Took some pictures, of course


After walking around DS for a while, we decided to head back to AS Sports to do a little unpacking before the movie (Moana) at the pool. DH kept trying to talk me into going to MK for Happily Ever After...he's not a fan of downtime or relaxing while at Disney he'd rather be at a park than the pool. But I convinced him that I wanted to stick to our original plans. We (or rather, I ) did some unpacking, we put on our swim suits and headed to the pool. We managed to find a free lounge chair, which we moved closer to the screen for the movie, and sat with our drinks. That didn't last long, however, and DH decided he wanted to go talk to the CM at the desk to try to get information about room rates. He had called the bounce back number before we went out to the pool, and got some prices for different dates for next year. So he did that. I watched the movie from our lounge chair for a little bit, then decided to get in the pool for a bit. The pool was really warm, I actually felt cold when I got out after DH returned with the information he wanted. We stayed at the pool a little longer, then went back to our room so DH could call the bounce back number again.
We ended up booking the FD for next year, Aug 18-25, staying at AS Sports again. We are still debating keeping this vs changing it to a room only reservation, because it is so much more $$$ than our room this year was. We'll see what happens though.
A little while later there was a knock at our door....who is there?!? We weren't expecting anyone or anything....



It's a little Disney Magic celebrating our anniversary!!! So sweet to receive this!


Well, that wraps up our Day 1!! It was a great day! Up early the next morning for EMH at MK!!

 

[MinnieWebster]

Day 2
We begin the day with EMH at MK. We made it out to the bus stop just before 7am and a bus arrived at 7:04 to take us to MK.


7:30 we made it to the entrance, after getting through bag check and the tapstiles. About 15-20 minutes later we were let into the park, and everyone made a mad dash toward FantasyLand. DH gets up near the front, so I went a little slower to get a pic I take every trip.... (doesn't everyone??)

Anyway, like the masses, we were going to ride 7DMT at rope drop. We were on the first train, yay! (DH's goals every day...to get us in first or with the first group...).

Then we went over to take a flight with Peter, after having a little fun in the Darling's house, of course!


DH caught a butterfly! So cool. After flying with Peter and Tink went over to TomorrowLand, hoping to ride Space Mountain. The posted wait time, however, said 55 minutes, and we didn't want to wait that long...we had a FP+ for it coming up anyway...so we decided to do Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin before our FP+ opened up. I am not a fan of this ride. I love TSM, don't really like this one. With the spinning throughout...not my thing, but we do it once in a while because DH enjoys it. His score here can't compare to what he can get on TSM though...

My score is on the right....rather hard to aim at targets when ones eyes are closed for half the ride, I guess oh well. Onto other things
It was time for FP+ numero uno! Space Mountain!!

DH is crazy. I love his poses though So fun.
Up next....back to FantasyLand!

 

[MinnieWebster]

We headed back to FantasyLand to go for a ride in the 100 acre wood with Pooh and Friends.

We then hit up FP+ #2, PPF, went on a boat ride...


Said adios....

Visited our favorite happy haunts,

and went searching for some treasure with Captain Jack Sparrow. Then we went to FrontierLand to ride Splash Mountain with FP+ #3. Super fun, we didn't get very wet.

The guy in the front is cracking me up...the kids don't look so excited
After we scanned our MB for that FP+, DH got on MDE to find our next FP+. He was able to get one for 7DMT for less than 2 hours away!! Score! (Thanks to whomever gave that up!! )
Up next we rode BTMR, one of my favorites.... I don't know if I have a favorite ride.... I love so many of them...
We sat at the charging station near Rapunzel's Tower for a little while, killing time until our next FP+ for 7DMT.

That area is so pretty
Ride #2 on 7DMT, while in line DH got us a FP+ for Aerosmith RNR later that afternoon, since we were headed to DHS after lunch.

We still have some time to kill before our lunch ADR, so we get a couple more attractions in, which I will continue with later....going to bed now Night all!

 

[rdkeim]

Enjoying your TR! You really maximize your time and got a lot done before lunch!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Great MK morning, excellent score on 7DMT as your 4th FP!