How to create a Disney Addict with Photos and Segway Goodness ***New 5/4***

[penguingirlie]

Okay all. I promise this will be long and detailed and will have some pictures included as soon as I get home to upload them.

Cast and Crew:

Me- Nicole- 26, young and married and intend to stay that way, well at least most days. I am the most polite person in the world but if you make stupid decisions and/or get in my way then I become evil. Before I get flamed for putting down people let me say this. I am talking about the intelligent people that when put in specific situations become stupid. We all know these people. Tour Guide Mike refers to these people as "them". They are the ones that just stop when you are walking down an aisle at the grocery store and look as though they just realized where they are. You want to curse them as you ram into the display or your buggy. These are the people that cause you grief in lines. A simple in and out trip to anywhere becomes this long drawn out ordeal because this person can't grasp a simple concept. I have discovered these people come out in droves at Disney World. I think they know I am coming and just wait to make me cringe. But like I said earlier I am a sweet southern girl who you would never guess was annoyed. If you only really knew what I was thinking. Oh and did I mention that I am the nosiest person around. I can’t help it. I have to eavesdrop and then determine I know a person’s life story. It gets me into way too much trouble sometimes.

Brian- DH- 31- Has the uncanny ability to be my best friend and worst enemy within a 15 minute period. He never gets excited about anything. I am the one dancing in the aisles he is rolling his eyes and hoping I stop soon. He wonders what he was thinking marrying me until I flash my sweet smile and it all comes rushing back. Never really went on vacation until our Honeymoon. This will be his first trip to Disney World!!

Trip: Okay so this was Brian’s first trip to WDW. I have been before as a child but this is my first trip since then. We are staying at the Pop Century for 6 nights. We have the dining plan and our itinerary is set.

My goals for this trip:

1. Make Brian do his signature move. If he gets really excited about something (which is not often trust me) he starts bouncing up and down. He starts to giggle and get a silly grin. Oh and by the way Brian is a tall bald guy. I frequently get asked if he is my bodyguard. Are you kidding? Okay well he would protect me in a moment’s notice but he is way too sensitive to be a bodyguard.

2. Get together with a “fellow co-captain” friend from high school who I have not seen in over 9 years. She lives in Orlando and we are meeting up with her.

3. Show Brian why I am in love with Disney. We get to go on all my favorite rides because he doesn’t have any favorite yet. See my logic here, aren’t you proud!

4. Take pictures of my food, room, random people and anything else I find interesting for you people to look at. We all love the pictures.

Okay so we are planning to drive down. I have heard it will be anywhere from a 7-10 hour drive. I use the AAA route which is different than all the rest. We both rush home from work and grab the last few essentials- the Tour Guide Mike printouts ( I get asked 4 times if I have these), we put down a huge amount of cat food and lock everything up and we are off.

Brian is a quiet reserved guy. This is an important fact for later on in the trip. I start asking him questions about Disney about an hour into the trip. Here is how the conversation goes:

Me: So what are you excited about seeing the most?
Brian: A blank stare
Me: You have to be excited about something.
Brian: Nicole, please stop asking me questions I don't know the answer to.
Me: Fine let's just turn around and go back home.
Brian: The look of death.

The silent treatment that occurs in the car after an argument ensues and we both stare out the window. I become concerned that Brian will not enjoy Disney as much as I thought and that I will have to DIS by myself.

He snaps out of the funk he was in and we relax because we are on vacation finally! The one thing I told Brian was that he wasn't allowed to do was get a speeding ticket. Well in Dawson, GA we get pulled over for speeding. Brian is mumbling under his breath and I tell him to be nice. Well Disney Magic was with us because we got a written warning. Score! We continue on our way.

I had booked us a room at the Radisson Worldgate for the Friday night we arrived. I knew it would be late and it was much cheaper than getting a Disney room. We made a quick stop by Wal-mart for last minute essentials and got to the Radisson at about 11:00 p.m. We checked in and went up to the room. I was not that impressed by the hotel. On the surface things looked fairly nice but upon closer inspection I discovered the sink was about the fall down, there were a lot of mysterious stains on the carpet and the TV was fuzzy on most channels. I would not have wanted to stay here for the week.

We awoke early because we were checking into the Pop Century today. I asked Brian how he slept and I kid you not these were his exact words, "I was too excited to sleep." I grinned thinking this was going to be a great week.

 

[GeorgiaAristocat]

Goodie! A new report to follow.

Hurry up, watcha waitin' on?

 

[horsegirl]

Penguingirlie! You are too funny! I love your description of your DH. He sounds like mine!!!!! Looking forward to more. BTW, I love penguins!

 

[mouseaddicts]

You sound exactly like me & Brian sounds like my DH! This should be a fun report to read!

BTW .... I live like 15 mins from Dawson(ville) GA & drive through there every day. Those cops LOVE "speed trap"! For anyone else making that route to WDW - beware of the PO-LICE - there are a couple speed limit changes that will trip you up every time if you aren't watching!!! The cops are ALWAYS watching in that area ......

 

[penguingirlie]

Part 2- Our First Day:

We made the quick trip over to Pop Century to check in on Saturday. We were at the front desk at about 8:30. I knew that we probably weren't going to get a room but we could get our tickets. We had no wait at all for check-in and walked up to an Earning My Ears CM. My heart stopped. I glanced around to see if I could let someone else in front of me. I panicked and tried to think of something I forgot in the car. Brian had no idea what was going on and pushed me forward causing me to trip on my shoe. I had heard the stories. I knew what could happen. I smelled the danger. I didn't want to ruin the magic that seemed to be following us. We went through the process and gave her the credit card for charges. I heard that the people next to us were going to have to wait for their room so I expected to do the same. I told her I would prefer to be in the 50's or 70's and she handed us our keys and told us our room was ready. WHAT!! I was super excited and we scurried off laughing to ourselves. Quick sidenote: I quietly did my special dance. This is a dance when I feel I am better than someone else. I like to take any wins I can so I silently do this dance in my head and sometimes not in my head. Brian hates it and thinks I am being mean. I tell him that we can't all be winners and go on. I would never do it in front of anyone. We all have happiness at the misfortune of others. Just some of us have a dance to show it. Okay sidenote over. We got a great room in the 50's close to Classic Hall. We were on the 3rd floor close to the stairs. It was perfect. I thought the room was just what we needed. We were never really in it except to sleep. The only problem was one night when we were startled by banging at midnight. Brian jumped on and went out to see what was the matter. Some little boy's brother wouldn't let him in his room. First of all I think how much energy do these kids have? Second I hope they are going to a different park than us because they are going to way tired in the morning. The situation was resolved after a few minutes and we didn't hear anything else.
Mousekeeping was not exceptional however. I left a big tip the first few days but as the trash was left on the floor and there were no towel animals the tip decreased. All in all it was a nice stay at Pop Century and we would definitely return.

Our first day we decided not to overdo it. I decided we would go to Downtown Disney, Disney Quest and then Epcot for the fireworks. We decided to drive to Downtown Disney since we weren't that far. We walked around the shops until Disney Quest opened.

Disney Quest- What a disappointment. We love arcades. One of our favorite places to go is Dave and Busters. We were excited about getting to play unlimited games. Brian is a pinball fanatic. We were disappointed there were only 4 pinballs and they were usually all crowded or the ones that weren't needed some work. Everything else was in desperate need of repair. Most of the games had controls that didn't work or were slow to react. The lines for Jungle Cruise and Pirates were really long. We even came back again later in the week and it was still a huge disappointment. We won't be returning unless it really improves. And to top off the Disney Quest experience I twisted my ankle falling down the stairs. I was busy being nosy while Brian was doing the Ride the Comix thing. I was laughing at one girl who looked as if she was swatting flies and telling him about it and I slipped. This injury continued to plague me all week. Guess it is what I deserve.

Okay so enough about what a disappointment Disney Quest was. We were off to Epcot. We left for Epcot at about 4:00 p.m. We drove because we had a AAA Diamond Pass and we got to park in the second row from the front. It was great. We got in and were going to ride Spaceship Earth but it was broken down. We went to see if Soarin or Test Track had Fast Passes left and they didn't. So we were off to the World Showcase. On my previous trips I breezed through here because it didn’t have any rides. We loved it this time. We didn’t have ADR’s for tonight because I didn’t really know what we were going to be doing. We decided to check at Le Cellier and they looked at us as if we had just stepped off the crazy wagon. We took our disappointment in stride as we had ADR’s here the last night of the trip. We ate at Marrakesh and loved it. More to come in a dining report but it was great. Afterwards we rode Maelstrom and giggled as I saw it was a Fastpass. What were they thinking? We continued our journey and realized it was Illuminations time. We found an okay spot to watch as I was unaware how early people line up. We become those people later in the week though. We both loved Illuminations. It was beautiful. On the way out to the car I asked Brian what he thought. He told me that Illuminations made him tear up. I think he is getting addicted. He cries at Illuminations. There may be hope yet.

To come:
We tackle MGM with some pros and realize that sometimes deviating from the plan is a good thing.
The dining plan is a great thing.
Pictures- lots of lots of pictures

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

ohhhhhhh can't wait for lots and lots of pictures! great report so far!

 

[bluejay2006]

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[maddhatir]

Quick sidenote: I quietly did my special dance. This is a dance when I feel I am better than someone else. I like to take any wins I can so I silently do this dance in my head and sometimes not in my head. Brian hates it and thinks I am being mean. I tell him that we can't all be winners and go on. I would never do it in front of anyone. We all have happiness at the misfortune of others. Just some of us have a dance to show it. Okay sidenote over.

I LOVE IT!! the "sorraayyyy suckaaaa" dance!

 

[heaven2dc]

Oh boy I'm hooked!! Can't wait for more and pics too.

 

[penguingirlie]

Day 2- MGM, Balloon Making and the Beginning of the Pin Quest

So today I plan to meet one of my best friends from high school. We were on the dance team together and I have not seen her in over 9 years. She and her boyfriend live and work in Orlando so we decided to spend the day with them. One thing that should be mentioned about me is that I am indecisive. Brian is also indecisive. Oh and to top the cake my friend is also indecisive. It took us several hours to decide what park to go to. I didn't care, she didn't care. Neither one of us wanted to rock the boat. I didn't want her to go to a park she didn't like as much on her day off and she didn't want to mess up my vacation. Are you pulling your hair out yet? I was ready to. I finally just yelled out MGM in the hopes no one would veto it. Agreement. It was set. Our first full day at the parks would be at MGM with the friend and her boyfriend.

I had preached to Brian how we needed to be at the parks at opening. I told him that since it was busy we needed to beat the crowds. We invented a game while waiting for the bus each morning. It involved the dance as well. It was look at the 4 busloads of people going to Animal Kingdom, Epcot etc. Aren't you really glad we aren't getting on that bus. We had a small bus load of people on the MGM bus. We got to the turnstiles at about 8:30 a.m. We were standing behind a large group of people in line and I notice that no one is standing in the Guest and Cast Member Entrance line. I see that the turnstiles are uncovered and there is a Cast Member standing there so I yank Brian and we move lines. You could hear the gasp from people as we moved. You could hear them snicker as they thought that we were going to be last to get in. I asked the CM if this was an actual line and she said it was so we stayed. Who got the last laugh now peeps. People saw us standing there and decided to move over to the smart line with us. They didn't believe it was a real line even with the now 25 people in it and had to ask over and over again. Is this a REAL Line? No buddy it is just a fake line to see how many people we can get to line up. Geez. I understand the first few people but enough was enough.

The group standing directly behind us was a DIS group. Or at least they were wearing way too much lime green not to be. I quietly began to observe them behind my sunglasses. This is the best way to observe people, behind dark sunglasses. I love people watching. This group was run by a leader. You could tell this because all questions were defaulted to the leader.
Group: I want to ride Star Tours.
Leader: We have to go in and ride the big stuff first. Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster
Group: But what if I want to ride Star Tours.
Leader: Trust me you will want to ride the other rides more.
Group: But I really want to ride Star Tours
Leader: We will have fun today but only if we do it my way.

This leader maintained control at all times and did not let go. I almost asked about the DIS but decided I didn't want to upset the leader. I let it go. We were let in and met up with my friends underneath the hat.

We rode Rockin Rollercoaster and loved it. I think it is a great ride. We began to walk aimlessly around the park not following the plan. I started to panic and realized that they day was more about spending time with friends. We went to Lights Motor Action. It was such a great stunt show. These pictures do not do it justice.

So after the stunt show we went on the Backlot Tour. This was a total waste of time. I thought the Canyon was pretty neat but overall it was a waste of time. We ventured over to the Muppet show because Brian loves the Muppets. He started to do the bouncy move before we went in and I saw the excitement building. He was excited. We loved the movie. Afterwards I wanted to look for the key. My friends had not heard of the key. Hold on stop the presses!! You mean I knew something that the AP holders didn’t know. I had more information than the people who were at the parks all the time. I was super excited and did the dance . I could die a happy person right now. Okay back to the hunt. I had heard to lift up the mat and look for the key. We were pointed in the right direction and got a kick out of the fact there was actually a key under the mat. The CM also told us to walk around the side of the building to look at the movie posters. There were all these Muppet versions of movies on the side of the building and we got to go behind the velvet ropes to see them. We felt really cool for those few minutes. Everyone thought we were someone important.

After we finished looking at the movie posters we walked around the building and saw the 2 men get really excited. Green Army Men!! They couldn’t believe that they could take their picture with an actual army man. They were completely fascinated so we took a picture.

We walked over to the Narnia exhibit. There was a 10 minute wait for this so we waited. It was such a disappointment. It took all of like 2 minutes if that. It was pretty disappointing. I loved the snow background outside you can take your picture on though.

By now it was lunch time and we ate at ABC Commissary. I knew my friends were on a budget and I didn’t want to drag them somewhere that was over their price range. The food was okay. It was my least favorite of all the counter services we had. I had a tabbouleh wrap and it didn’t really have a taste. The desserts were both great though.

On our way out we visited Star Tours and took some great pictures.

We had FP for Tower that were for 11:15 that morning that we didn’t use. I told my friend that I heard we could use them late but not early. She looked at me as if I was crazy. It says a specific time on the slip. I know all of this but I have heard differently. I was hesitant but confident. I knew everyone had faith in me to make this work. I knew if I failed I would be made fun of. I took this all in stride and felt it was worth the risk. I could take the criticism, the jokes, the “ I told you so speech that was sure to follow.” We creeped up to the FP return. I hesitantly handed over my FP and they let me in. The rest of my group stopped almost in disbelief. I had another great nugget of information that had slipped by them. I had outsmarted the AP holders twice in one day. They were beginning to look at me as though I was some sort of Disney freak. I confessed my DIS addiction and the countless hours of research I did for this trip. It was paying off and I loved every minute of it. I was proud of myself. This was going to be a great trip.

We had to head off for our ADR’s at Spoodles and decided to take our friends with us. We were having too good of a time to end the evening early. Coming up: Pictures (We took more pictures as the week went on and I will be happy to share them all if you are interested), balloons and more balloons, and the ever so long pin quest.

 

[mercydisney]

Your trip report is great! Your DH sounds like my DH in the car.
Can't wait ti read more!!

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

Coming up: Pictures (We took more pictures as the week went on and I will be happy to share them all if you are interested), balloons and more balloons, and the ever so long pin quest.

i am interested! i am interested! love your dh's crocs. my dh has the darker brown.

 

[Minniespal]

Great ~ Can't wait for more.

Fantastic piccies as well.

 

[penguingirlie]

Okay so I am working on the next installment but because of the sheer quantity of pictures it is taking forever. Does anyone have any shortcuts on uploading pictures? I am using photobucket. I do multiple pictures but that takes about an hour and one at a time is just tedious. I want to share the picture but I need help on how to make it go faster!!

 

[eemiles03]

lovin' your report!!!

 

[Shelby5514]

Lovin' the report!

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Great report so far! Don't you love how Disney can make even the most grown men happy?

 

[OhMari]

I had booked us a room at the Radisson Worldgate for the Friday night we arrived. I knew it would be late and it was much cheaper than getting a Disney room. We made a quick stop by Wal-mart for last minute essentials and got to the Radisson at about 11:00 p.m. We checked in and went up to the room. I was not that impressed by the hotel. On the surface things looked fairly nice but upon closer inspection I discovered the sink was about the fall down, there were a lot of mysterious stains on the carpet and the TV was fuzzy on most channels. I would not have wanted to stay here for the week.
QUOTE]

I stayed at this hotel while I was chaperoning 3 years ago the h.s. band. They stuck us in the back of the property where there are only 2 levels. I brought along my own sheets and pillow. My room was okay, but some of the kids rooms were deplorable, yick, yuck.

Thanks for your report. Gotta love those speed traps in GA.

 

[alabamagirl]

YESSSSSSS!!! More pictures! I have vowed to stop reading TR's without pictures, I must have them. Your DH sound similar to mine as well, we are young marrieds too (me 24, him 23 a youngun), and I tell him every day "You are going to have fun, you ARE!"

 

[penguingirlie]

Okay sorry for the delay. To expedite this trip report I will post this segment without pictures. I will add them tonight. We left off on our way to Spoodles for dinner. I had heard great things about this restaurant and was excited to see the Boardwalk. We invited our friends to eat with us. I thought we would be able to change the ADR’s from 2 to 4 and that they would let us use our dining plan for all 4 meals. I sure am glad the Magic was following us. We smiled our sweet innocent smiles to the greeter. The suspense only lasted a second because they had no problem with adding 2 people to our table. We waited about 2 minutes and went in to enjoy a great dinner. We had no problem at all using extra credits for our friends. It was nice to take them out to a dinner none of us would have ever been able to afford outside of the dining plan. Our bill was $225.00 and none of us had alcohol. Even with using extra TS credits, it was a great deal.

After eating we decided to head for Downtown Disney to do some shopping. Brian had been eyeing the pins all day long. I tried to steer him away. I told him I would get him anything but the pins. I offered to buy every Disney DVD they have out. I had pulled out all the stops. Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with pins. I think they are really neat. The problem is that Brian has way too many collections. These are money pits cleverly disguised. A few dollars here, a few there and before you know it you could have paid for your trip several times over. I love my husband more than life itself but his expensive taste and yearning for things he uses once drives me batty.

I knew I lost the battle for the pins while we were at MGM. I saw him lean towards every pin booth we passed. I would try and pull him away and like a magnet he kept getting sucked in. I decided that if I had lost the pin battle I would at least let him start his collection at a store where I could get a discount (however small it may be). I knew we had a AAA discount at World of Disney so we headed for there.

Did I mention I love my husband??? He couldn’t decide on any of the pins at the World of Disney. We spent 45 minutes in there before he finally said, “I want to go to the pin store they have here. They have better pins there.” So off we went looking for the “better pins.” We were looking at the Pin Store and saw that there was a Around the World Pin Quest. If you visited the locations on the map and got stamps at all of them you could get a free completer pin. I told Brian to grab one and we would finish it throughout the week. Then the lovely cast member said the worst words ever: “We are running out of the completer pin. You need to get it all done by Wednesday (This is Monday night) if you want to get one.”

Brian was defeated. He said never mind and gave the map back. I saw the Disney Magic leaving and I had to save it. I knew that my future trips were at risk. I grabbed the map back from my new favorite cast member and told Brian we would complete it tomorrow. I knew that visiting 4 parks, 2 hotels and Downtown Disney in one day would be tough but I had to. So we changed our plans to visit Epcot in the morning to miss what we had seen on Saturday (Soarin, Test Track and Mission: Space) and the pin quest for the afternoon. I saved the day with that. Brian got his cheesy grin back on his face and we were set for the moment.

My friend’s boyfriend makes balloons outside of Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney. He is really great at making them. If you see him there get him to make your kids balloons (or even yourself!!). He makes them for tips and the kids always love balloon animals. Make sure you tell him Brian and Nicole said hello!! He made us a Yoda balloon. It was so cool. And the great thing was that he made it in about 5 minutes. Yoda lived a happy life until he was popped by a cooler in our trunk.
I bring up the balloon animal thing because now Brian’s new obsession is balloon animals. The boyfriend told him he would teach him all the tricks and lend him his books. That night we were covered in balloons. There were balloons popping, flying through the air, exploding in the air. It was pure chaos. I looked around and saw Brian happier than I had seen him in years. I knew he was catching the Disney fever. I was proud of my husband. I knew I married him for a reason.