"I brushed my teeth, and I don't have cooties." An August DFTW and Disneymoon TR

[the2ndstar2theright]

Absolutely beautiful pictures! Can't wait to hear about your trip!!

 

[PlutosRHM55]

Omg all your photos are so pretty! I cannot wait to see more. AND YOU MET PAIGE O'HARA?! Wow, can't wait to hear about that! Glad to hear it was overall a nice trip.

 

[pkondz]

epp!! Well, except the giraffe one, and a couple of others I haven't shared yet. I have a little Canon Powershot point-and-shoot camera I take with me sometimes, and it was responsible for those ones. It's getting slow and starting to show its age though, so I mostly stuck with my phone. I'm hoping to upgrade to a more mid-range SLR at some point in the next year or so, probably a gently-used one from somewhere like Henry's, but I don't know much about them, so I'm just starting my research. I just have a Canon Rebel. And if I do upgrade, I'm hoping that my next birthday present to myself will be a beginner photography class! I'm pretty clueless when it comes to camera settings, other than the very basics, and I hang out in auto more than I'd like.

I get most of my stuff from Henry's. A class would be great! I learned a lot when i took one several hundred years ago.

I take my Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin verrrry seriously!! I'm just lucky that I've been taught which targets to aim for. I'm in the process of teaching Nathan now.

I should take that course. I suck at Buzz.

I think a Galactic Dweeb button would be an excellent idea. To wear ironically, of course.

 

[buzzrelly]

Welllp, I'm back from our February break trip! And I'm incredibly behind on everything, including [and quite especially] the Dis. I have a monster midterm coming up this week, so thats the priority for now, but once that's over I'll be able to put a little more energy into getting caught up over here, and into giving a brief-ish account of our trip! For the time-being, I'll just say that we had AMAZING summer-like weather, we were much more successful in seeing night shows than we were in December (4, compared to none), and we tried some new things and made some fun memories. I will have more details/stories/photos coming up soon in my mini report, but for now I'll leave you a teaser with my favourite photos from the trip...

For your viewing pleasure, I now preview:
"ENJOY! YUMMY, YUMMY!" — A WDW February Trip

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Welcome back! Looks like such a fun trip with lots of great pictures! Did you give up on Buzz??

Can't wait to read all about it! Good luck on your midterm!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Welcome back, wow those are great pictures, love them. I am glad you all had an awesome trip! We sure couldn’t beat the weather, it was spectacular! I came back to way to much snow, yuck, it apparently snowed the whole time we were in Florida!

Thank you!! The weather was amazing when we were there! Just a drastic difference from when we were there for the marathon weekend less than two months before. I didn't come home to much snow, thankfully, because I had a bit of a walk back to my place with only sneakers and a sweater!

Absolutely beautiful pictures! Can't wait to hear about your trip!!

Thank you!!

Omg all your photos are so pretty! I cannot wait to see more. AND YOU MET PAIGE O'HARA?! Wow, can't wait to hear about that! Glad to hear it was overall a nice trip.

Thank you!! And yes, I was absolutely living my best life in that moment. The truest of Disney royalty...

Welcome back! Looks like such a fun trip with lots of great pictures! Did you give up on Buzz??

Can't wait to read all about it! Good luck on your midterm!

Thank you!!

And I'd already maxed out on Buzz at that point and was just waiting on Nathan to finish up!

 

[missangelalexis]

Wonderful pictures!!! Can't wait to hear about it

 

[MeghanEmily]

Wonderful pictures!!! Can't wait to hear about it

Thank you!!

 

[missjackiemcg]

Oh, boy! Oh, boy! Looks like some awesomely magical times were had Love the black tshirts you and N are both wearing--so perfect!! The giraffe pic and your Rapunzel lantern pic are my favs! I forgot you did Universal, too! I just booked a super secret trip there last night, so we can surprise Jimmy with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this summer.....eep!! So exciting. Can't wait to hear more.

Good luck on your midterm!!!!!!!

 

[KaSe]

Also, it is so nice to always find a fellow HP fan and Brit TV lover! Who’s your favourite Doctor? I’ll be moving over there in Sept, so I’ll be fully immersed!

I know you weren't asking me, but I had to jump in & I agree about finding fellow Disney/HP/ Brit TV fans. I feel accepted and loved. So, in answer to your question -- #10 David Tennant. He will be my future husband; he just doesn't know it yet. (I'm kidding -- please don't call the authorities. hahahaha!!)

 

[KaSe]

Welcome home! Great pics! I also shoot with a Canon Rebel (T6), but it rarely travels with me anymore (there's just not enough room to carry everything & it gets heavy!). I use it a lot for work and school events/special events with my daughters. My Canon Powershot typically comes with me on vacation instead because it's easier to haul around and is a great mid-line camera. Hope your midterm goes well!

 

[disneyshakeygirl]

I know you weren't asking me, but I had to jump in & I agree about finding fellow Disney/HP/ Brit TV fans. I feel accepted and loved. So, in answer to your question -- #10 David Tennant. He will be my future husband; he just doesn't know it yet. (I'm kidding -- please don't call the authorities. hahahaha!!)

Lol! The more fellow fans, the better! I love Ten too! He was my first! And I won’t call,

 

[Smilelea]

Yay, you're back! Love the pictures, especially the lantern one

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I loved this pic when you posted it. Just awesome!

Nailed it!

Best Lantern photo I have seen yet.

Can't wait to hear about the trip. I am still trying to catch up myself.

 

[Tracy161]

I have a monster midterm coming up this week

Hope it goes/went well!!!

I'll just say that we had AMAZING summer-like weather

So I've heard! My dad said it's been in the 80s all month! Bit different from last month

Amazing.

This shot is a must-do (several times over ) each trip. I must have approximately 83,281 pictures of this It just doesn't get old! And you captured it perfectly

Loved all your photos! And your shirts are always awesome

 

[Steppesister]

Glad you're back! Nothing like jumping right back into school, eh?

I have a monster midterm coming up this week, so thats the priority for now, but once that's over I'll be able to put a little more energy into getting caught up over here,

Oh, I soooooo get that. Focus there, we'll all be around.

I literally just snort laughed. So funny!

Your photos are dope, but I really love this one! Nice work!

 

[MeghanEmily]

"ENJOY! YUMMY, YUMMY!" — A WDW February Trip
Some Notes & All Star Sports

So before I get into the daily reporting for this trip, just a few thoughts first...

Two things about this trip that were super were that 1) we had the most amazing weather, and 2) I didn't get sick! I felt like I was coming down with some kind of bug the few days before I left for the trip, and I wasn't thrilled about it because I'd ended up sick for most of our December trip, as well as for the winter trip we took the year before. Getting sick at Disney is always a risk with everyone who touches every surface, etc., but I've found my luck is usually worse on winter trips during heavy cold/flu seasons, and I usually end up schlepping through vacation with the plague. I ended up fighting off whatever it was this time, and all was well.

As I mentioned, we got to see a lot more night shows in this trip, which was a major highlight for me. I also got to see Happily Ever After again for the first time since our honeymoon, and I'd been spending the time leading up to this trip listening to the soundtrack and getting myself more familiar with it. Spoiler alert: I really enjoyed HEA a lot more the second time around. I still don't think it compares to Wishes for me because I had a lot of emotional attachment to that show and I liked the storyline better, but I got a lot more out of HEA the second time and it's definitely growing on me. I'm thinking maybe I'll book the dessert party for our anniversary trip in August.

Saddest part of this trip? I never got a dole whip. I can't believe it. We kept meaning to, but we were always eating so much, and it never happened. Next time, for sure.

I packed light for this trip. Like VERY light by my standards. One carry-on, and one personal item (in the form of my Disney Dooney mini backpack,) for 8-ish days. Only one pair of ears, one extra pair of shoes, etc. This meant that I didn't bother bringing a nice camera with me. That means that most of my photos are from my iPhone or from photopass, which the exception of a few I took on my small Canon Powershot point-and-shoot camera. This means that the quality is pretty understandably variable in my photos this time around, but some of them actually came out pretty great, considering! (Most of those ones were included in my "preview" from a few days ago.)

Another thing that I found interesting on this trip was experiencing the different dynamic staying at a value resort, now that we've stayed deluxe on other trips. I found on past trips that when people would ask where we were staying I would sometimes feel uncomfortable to say "the Polynesian," or "Wilderness Lodge" because I felt like people were judging us and assuming we were snobby (nope) or wealthy (hard NOPE!) This time, when people asked us where we were staying, I felt almost a little insecure saying "All Star Sports," or like I needed to justify by saying we were on a "budget trip," etc. In past, I mostly stayed in value resorts or offsite when I would come with my family, and N and I have done about half and half, and Pop Century is still one of our favourite places. We like to go nice places to eat or do activities, so we still spent a lot of time around deluxe resorts on this trip, and I was worried we were being judged there for the opposite reason I used to worry about. But...I decided that I really can't win no matter where we stay—unless maybe we start staying at moderates more?! —and that nobody's opinion really matters about it, and that most of the time they probably don't really care or have any opinion anyway and I'm just projecting.

Another new thing we tried was forfeiting mousekeeping services and getting a giftcard instead. We got a $60 giftcard for a 7-night stay, which is standard procedure. ($10 per night, minus one night.) I'm glad we saved the extra money, and it really wasn't a hardship making our own bed and hanging up our towels, so I don't regret it. I did find the room started to feel/smell a little funky by the end of the week though, and there's something nice on vacation about coming home to a freshly-cleaned room and a crisply-made bed at the end of the day. I definitely wouldn't do this if we were staying somewhere fancier (like when we're at the Grand this August), because if we're spending a lot of money on a resort I want to feel like we're getting the full vacation experience. But that giftcard paid for 2-3 QS meals for both of us this trip, so it was super appreciated!

Speaking of QS meals, I ended up ordering mainly kids' meals this trip, and it was a SUPER idea!!! I think regular kids' meals often have large enough portions for someone with a small appetite like mine anyway, but it seemed that with allergy kids' meals they really piled the food on!! Sometimes for allergies they only have one option for adults/kids, like only having one size gluten free pizza crust, so you'd get the same sized pizza either way. And they also include sides AND A SMALL DRINK! Sometimes I'd order a kids' meal for $7.50, and N would order a regular adult portion for $15+ once he included a drink, and I would have more food on my tray. I'm never going back!

I had known the dining plan wouldn't be a good value for us because of the way we'd want to structure our meals/snacks, but I decided to keep track of everything anyway to see how we did. We ate A LOT on this trip...like, a lot. We also did A TON of snacking. But I ordered a lot of kids meals, we shared some meals, and we didn't always order appetizers/desserts, etc., so I think we actually did pretty well for ourselves, considering what we ate vs. what we spent! (And I tracked signature meals as 2 TS credits each, just like if we'd been doing a dining plan.) Here's how it went down:

TS credits: 21
QS credits: 12
Snacks/Drinks: 30
Off-Disney-property: 1 meal, 4 snacks
Total spent: $950
(Not including Hoop Dee Doo, which I pre-paid when I booked: $128)

I also wanted to share the photos I took of All Star Sports. We had a good stay here! It's simple, but I found I liked our room and found it cleaner than the one we had in December at All Star Music. I did find, however, that the food court at Music was MUCH better than the one at Sports, even though they're basically exactly the same resort. N had his truck for work, so we drove most places, but the few days I used the busses here I had great bus service. N had called and added an anniversary celebration to our reservation without me knowing, which I thought was kind of cute since we were celebrating six months of marriage. Perhaps because of this, we were upgraded to a preferred room in the football-themed section, as well as given a king bed room.

Alright. I'm gonna speed my way through this now...so hang on tight!!​

 

[MeghanEmily]

"ENJOY! YUMMY, YUMMY!" — A WDW February Trip
Wall Selfies

I made a few silly goals for things I wanted to eat/do/watch this trip, (including a list of snacks for N to try so I could live vicariously through him!) and one of the most ambitious was to take as many "Disney wall selfies" as possible. On past trips, I'd plan to take photos in popular Instagram locations like MK's "purple wall," or Epcot's "bubblegum wall," and then I'd forget. So this time it was a priority! And...it kind of got a little out of control...every time I saw a unique wall, really...

So, I present them here for your viewing pleasure! (Complete with locations.)

AK

AK: Pandora (one of the moss walls)

AK: Pandora (one of the moss walls)

AK: Pandora (one of the moss walls)

AK: Pandora - this one probably shouldn't count, but this was my reaction when I tried multiple times to get a selfie in front of the famous moss wall with the pretty purple and green, and a family was sitting there and just wouldn't leave...so this was the best I could get.

AK: Pandora...more tree than wall, but I still counted it.

Epcot: bubblegum wall

Epcot: Baymax M&G line

Epcot: collaborative Figment wall mural painting

DHS: Galaxy's Edge wall

DHS: TSMM standby line

All Star Sports: wave/surf wall

All Star Sports: blue wall in football section

All Star Sports: purple wall in football section

All Star Sports: purple wall in football section

All Star Sports: yellow wall in football section

All Star Sports: green wall in football section

MK: famous "purple wall"

MK: famous "purple wall"

MK: NFL castle-y walls

MK: NFL other castle-y wall

EP: wall by Mexico

MK: "purple wall"

MK: Tangled area

MK: Tangled bathroom entrance

All Star Sports "letter"

MCO Universal Store

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[MeghanEmily]

"ENJOY! YUMMY, YUMMY!" — A WDW February Trip
Day 1 (Travel Day)

It's time to begin! My travel day was fairly uneventful, other than the fact that it was only the second time in my life that I'd flown anywhere by myself. As many of you already know, I'm a terrible flyer, so I was a little concerned about it...so I decided to give myself a little day-of upgrade to WestJet's "Plus" seats—i.e. the large seats at the front of the plane where nobody is sitting in the middle seat and you get free food and hot towels. #fancypants

The airport in Halifax has a lot of Tim Horton's, by the way. If you don't know what that is, you need more Canadian friends.

I still had a little bit of school work to do, and my mom had driven me out to the airport a few hours early over her lunch break, so I settled in with my computer.

We were delayed because the plane from Orlando had arrived late, so the WestJet employees decided to get all the kids (and some big kids!) to line up at the window and wave to the pilot as he finally pulled in.

We finally got on the plane...

...and my seat mate had an adorable service dog!

I ate lots and lots of snacks and watched the first half of the PBS American Experience special on Walt Disney, and four hours later, we were touching down, and I was seeing this...

N picked me up at the airport, and we drove to our home for the week, All Star Sports. The room was messed up when I got there because N had known to check the bed for bedbugs, etc., so this the best I could do for pictures...

Vacation was about to begin!​

 

[MeghanEmily]

"ENJOY! YUMMY, YUMMY!" — A WDW February Trip
Day 2 — Part 1

Originally, I'd considered the possibility of starting the day with morning magic hours at AK, but I decided we were too sleepy, and I was too hung over from my flying drug cocktail, so we just slept in. (I actually ended up feeling pretty sluggish and sleepy for the first half of the trip, but eventually I adjusted and made up for lost time.) I started my day with allergy Mickey waffles. Then we went to Walmart to pick up a few extra things, and then headed over to Disney Springs to do a little shopping, and get some Erin McKenna's treats. I also decided that we should split some gluten free fish and chips at Cooke's of Dublin for lunch.

That afternoon we drove over to AK, took a tram (and a tram selfie!) and had some FPs to use. We enjoyed a walk through the Oasis area, took some photopass in front of the Tree of Life, and then headed over to the safari for our first FP. We had great giraffe experiences, and we got to see baby Stella, the elephant, so it was a good safari, in my humble opinion.

The we made our way over to Pandora.

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[MeghanEmily]

"ENJOY! YUMMY, YUMMY!" — A WDW February Trip
Day 2 — Part 2

At this point, we needed to split up. I had two FPs booked, one shortly after the other, for Flight of Passage. Because I'd had such unpleasant experiences riding it and getting motion sick in past, I decided N could take my band and use both, and I would explore on my own for a bit. So he rode FOP twice, and I explored Pandora, taking selfies and photopass pictures. I walked over to Africa by way of the pathway by the Festival of the Lion King, and I got a new popcorn bucket, and then persisted to spill all my popcorn on the ground like a small child. On my way back to Pandora, I got in a short line to meet Timon, and I used some of the interaction tips from my Character Locator subscription. Timon was really into my rose gold ears, and I told him they were all the rage, and that he should get them. He suggested that "Timon gold" should be a thing instead, and I agreed, and told him that I thought this was "the start of a beautiful aquaintanceship" between us.

A supposedly-artistic photo of just Timon's face??

#ThanksPhotopass

I had been wanting to try Satuli Canteen, so I got a gluten free bowl with beef, potato hash, and chimichurri sauce, which I ate some of and shared the rest with N when he returned. Then we got some photopass together, made our way toward Asia (getting some frozen drinks on the way), and got some more photopass pictures. We had a FP for Rivers of Light, so we took our drinks into the theatre and got good seats almost at the front, about 45 minutes before the show started. The weather was beautiful, and we sat and chatted about characters from a story N is writing. Then we enjoyed the show for what it was, and I got a few pictures.

(A neat little hidden Everest. #whoneedshiddenmickeyswhenyouhavehiddenmountains)

This day was 6 months to the day since we'd gotten married, so we had booked an ADR at Jiko for our "6 month anniversary." We were both excited about it because we love the other AKL restaurants, and we love Tiffins, which is slightly similar in my brain. However, we didn't have a good experience here at all this time. I was starting to feel under the weather, so we decided to forgo appetizers and just order entrees. Our server was a little strange and off-putting. She asked if the chef talked to me about GF bread, and I told her no. She asked what I thought about it. She didn't even really tell me whether they had an option for GF bread or not, and I wasn't starving, so I said I was fine without. But then nobody ever brought regular bread for N. After a very long time, he asked another server if there was bread because he didn't have any, and they said they'd get some. Then our server returned with some and asked, "so I guess you changed your mind about bread!?" Umm...no. She just never asked N if he didn't want it either, etc. I still was fine without GF, but I didn't realize that mean N would also have to go without regular bread, and she hadn't specified. Then we waited over 50 minutes for our entrees, both steaks (mine the filet, and N's the wagyu), and when they arrived mine was cooked about medium well, even though I'd asked for medium rare, and N's was cold and tasted like it had been sitting for a long time. In the time we'd been waiting, I started to feel a lot sicker, and I wasn't willing to wait for a new meal, I just wanted to go home. I just sent mine back and asked for it to be removed from the bill, which the server said was fine. Then the manager came over and pressured me into waiting for a new steak to be cooked so they would "still be able to feed me"...and basically so they wouldn't lose the sale. I wasn't feeling like a fight, so I just said okay. I asked for it to be boxed, and as soon as it arrived, I took it out to the truck to lie back and wait for N to pay the bill. I checked my steak once I got back to the truck, and it was also over-cooked. Apparently after I left, N asserted his concerns a bit more with the server and asked to speak to the manager because he felt it was uncomfortable the way it went down, and also that most other Disney restaurants would have just left my meal off. The server went to get the manager, and then came back later to say that she wouldn't be able to come over to talk to him. So he just paid and left. While we were there the people at the table beside us seemed to also have a lot of complaints for the server and the manager visited their table several times while we were there. At first we'd assumed they were just being difficult, but now I doubt it. The only bright spot was that we noticed a few days later that the price of my meal had been credited back onto N's credit card, so it seems they decided to comp it in the end, which felt more like they'd made things right. We will probably try going back someday because people love Jiko and the menu is interesting, but not right away.

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