Well, so much for three days, huh? More than a month after we got back, I’m finally getting to this! Life has been insane, between work and getting ready to head to Disney. I’ve been making packing lists like nobody’s business, after having this dream….
It was move-in day for the College Program, which starts at 9 am, and it was 8:30. There was only one problem…. I was still in Massachusetts! Oh, and I hadn’t packed anything! And then by the time I did, I realized my bags were full but I hadn’t packed clothes yet!!! Ack.
So needless to say, the day after I woke up from that dream, I started making lists.
Anyway, I have some downtime right now, so I figured I would start my trip report! Haha.
It started off pretty early, at about 5 am. I had made a countdown calendar for Lou, and he brought it with him when he slept over the night before.
As I said, it was pretty early – he was tired. We were up late packing everything, and so didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked, but that’s okay.
The flight was uneventful, as far as I can remember. I think there may have been a bit of turbulence, but oh well. Oh, and we had this really jerky father behind us. He was so mean to his kids, and wasn’t letting them go to the bathroom, was saying they were lying… eek. I don’t know what was wrong with him, but even though his kids were kicking my seat, I didn’t want them to get in more trouble, so I didn’t say anything.
Next thing I knew, we were at MCO, and waiting in line for the Magical Express bus. Yet again, we got the Cruise Line bus, so I wasn’t able to watch the movie.. darn. But we did go in the front gate this time!
After that, we were the second stop for the resorts (All Star Music), and we went to check in. The good news? Our room was ready! More good news? We got the Country Section, which I was excited about! (I love country). The bad news? The country section is the furthest away from the bus stops and… well, everything else. Actually, that’s a lie… After we found our room (we got lost… it really was at the very back of the last building), it turns out we were right next to a swamp! Frogs croaking all night long definitely made me feel pretty country… haha. It wasn’t that bad, but we always laughed about it when we were headed back to the room, and could hear the frogs before we could see our room.
This is our room, it wasn’t too bad… I know I’m a snob about resorts, but it actually surprised me, it wasn’t as bad as other people (my mom, haha) had made it out to be. I think she went before they renovated it, that’s why.
If nothing else, the theming was really cool. I loved Broadway and Jazz Inn – Jazz Inn had the most beautiful little rose garden and fountain, reminded me of French Quarter.
We had these….
.
This is the Broadway section – it looks like a street, it’s cute!
After getting settled, we headed out to Downtown Disney. We didn’t have to wait long for a bus, which was good. Our first stop was Guest Relations, where we got our Annual Passes (mine a Premium). While there, Lou mentioned to Sean, our GR host, that I was doing the College Program, which he had actually done, and we ended up chatting for about 20 minutes. It was great! So many people we ran into had done it, and that made me really excited.
After that, we headed over to the Pin Traders store, where we promptly dropped (well, I promptly dropped) quite a bit of money. The good news was is that it was mostly gifts, so I was set for birthdays for the whole year.
Everyone got pins!
Then we headed to Earl of Sandwich for lunch, Lou got the Hawaiian BBQ, and I got the Original 1762 again.. it’s good! However, there was a fly in my Chocolate Pudding’s whipped cream, which was a little gross, but it was tiny, and I don’t eat whipped cream anyway, so I just scooped off all the whipped cream…
: …and ate the pudding. I was too hungry to complain…. haha.
After lunch, we walked around a bit more, and then headed over to Port Orleans – French Quarter, for some beignets. While waiting for the boat, we saw these!
They were sooo cute! We saw a lot of ducklings this trip, but never this many.
The boat ride was really nice, and we got to see the Treehouses at Saratoga. They’re great!
French Quarter though, stole our hearts. Lou decided that’s where he wants to stay in November when he comes down with his family, so I’ll try to get them rooms, if there are any left by the time I get down there.
So, the verdict on the beignets?
Well…. they were really hot. And it was a hot day. So they were good, but maybe it wasn’t the best day for them. Also, my first bite… well… I breathed in… and then started laughing. And they coat these things in powdered sugar. So……..
Lou took this photo. I’m surprised he could hold the camera straight; he was laughing so hard at me. I got sugar EVERYWHERE.
Then we grabbed the boat back to DTD, where I tried to exchange my 2010 jacket from online... the guy gave me a really hard time, because apparently the
Disney store online and the Disney parks stores are different things. I think I knew that in the back of my mind, but I bought it from the “Disney Parks merchandise” section of the online store, so I thought it would be okay. Turns out it has the same tags and everything, so since I hadn’t worn it, and it still had the tags, he was able to just exchange it a size up for me, as a return without receipt. I was really upset at first though, because I did not have enough room to bring the jacket back with me in the luggage if I didn’t wear it, so I’m glad he was able to do that for me.
We shopped a bit more before heading to the bus… I made the mistake of thinking we could go see the Animal Kingdom Lodge before dinner, but then realized while we were on the bus that we wouldn’t have time, so we got off at the water park stop, and switched to the Grand Floridian bus. Lou was really mad that I was wasting time….
But it all worked out. I got to go to Basin (and get nice soap!) we got to ride the monorail, and we made it in time for dinner at the Kona Café.
Kona is awesome, it was probably our favorite meal. I don’t remember exactly what we got, but it was really good, and being able to walk onto the beach right after that was awesome. We had plenty of time between dinner and the Electrical Water Pageant, so we walked around the Poly some, and I personally liked this more than French Quarter, but the pricing is just not the same… it’s so beautiful though.
After strolling, we went and grabbed two beach chairs to set up for the EWP.
As you can see, we had some pretty ominous clouds looming, but the most they did was drizzle a little bit every so often, so that was fine. I decided to go check out Captain Cook’s, to get my self-serve Dole Whip…. Yum yum yum. Turns out, I’m not so good at self-serving, so I didn’t get that much, but it was still delicioussssss.
Lou kept saying “This is like, the perfect night. The perfect temperature, and just look at that!”
That’s what he was referring to. It really was a beautiful night, and it was a great temperature, haha.
We sat there until the sun went down, and then we got to see the Electrical Water Pageant!
It really was awesome… a great night. But then we picked up our stuff and sprinted barefoot for the little water shuttle that goes to the Magic Kingdom. We were going to see if we could make it to the fireworks, since we had our Annual Passes, but on the way over, decided we were just too tired to put up with that crush of people we would have to deal with right afterwards on the bus, so we just headed home. Unfortunately, we missed meeting up with DisneyBarlans because of delays, which stunk, but I hope to remedy this later in the year, if she’s going again…
Well, that was our first day! It was lots of fun, and we did a lot without going to any parks!
Yet it was always fun.
Was it a stinky grown up decision to curb costs? Those blow.
... but NICE gate picture!
). 
