I WILL Disneyfy you! A First Birthdaymoon. *** UPDATED 3/17***

[MyGoofy26]

Welcome, all, to my first (maybe only, we’ll see if I can remember enough details to actually finish) trip report for First Birthdaymoon!​

Let’s break that down, shall we?
• My husband’s first trip to Disney
• My birthday
• Our honeymoon

And that, my friends, is how you get a First Birthdaymoon.

So let’s start at the beginning. Our cast of characters today is limited to just two. Me, Carrie, the resident Disneyphile and my husband, Zach, the victim, err, recipient of my attempts to Disneyfy.​

Hey, look! It's us!

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The idea of a Disneymoon was actually his and at first I shot it down, can you believe it? I knew it wouldn’t be a relaxing trip since I’d want to drag him from one end of property to the other. I had so much I wanted to show him. I couldn’t begin to count the trips I’d taken since I started taking them before I could count. I’m also a former CP (Indy and Star Tours merch!). I had a lot of my history to show him. So we settled on Hawaii. Then I started running numbers. It wasn’t the numbers that scared me off, it was the lack of available PTO. In early wedding planning we both had schedules where we worked weekends meaning we’d have to use up a good bit of PTO just for wedding prep and pre-events. I didn’t want to do just a week in Hawaii when two of those days were pure travel. Airfare isn’t cheap so I wanted to get our money’s worth when we do go. So we opted to postpone until we could get two weeks off.

So we circled back to Disney. We planned to start trying for a family right after the wedding so I knew if I wanted to do an adults only vacation with him there this was our one shot (Mother Nature willing).

I did feel a little guilty asking him to do my thing for our honeymoon. He had the best response. “They have Marvel. They have Star Wars. What Disney didn’t already own of my childhood they have it now. Why wouldn’t I want to go?”

Good answer, sir!
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Disney it is! So we booked for the first week of October to hit Food and Wine Festival and MNSSHP. Then discounts came out and not a single value or moderate resort had a discounted room for us on release day. Ugh. Then my car went into the shop. Then his car went into the shop. Then my car went back into the shop for four new tires thanks to a strip of nails issue from the parking garage at work. Then I took a promotion that switched me to salary plus bonus so I lost my OT.
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Since we were paying cash for the wedding it felt like the honeymoon kept getting cut to bare bones. After some tears we decided to postpone to give us more time to save. Who wants to honeymoon on a budget? But seriously. That decision was rough.
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So we survived the wedding and I promptly got a very nasty cold. Sign #1 that switching the honeymoon dates was a good idea. Then I kept checking the forums and the app and noticed how abnormally busy early October was compared to previous years. Sign #2! And then the day we were set to fly home Southwest had some sort of issue that grounded flights. Number 3, ladies and gentlemen!

Soon the Chase discounts were released for the first quarter of this year and I made a phone call. We booked at Animal Kingdom Lodge for a week with 6 day hoppers at only $100 more a night than what we’d have paid for Pop Century in October.

Then the hard part. Waiting.

But we had the holidays to keep us busy. And then I switched jobs. And about five minutes after I accepted the offer I realized I needed to ask for time off. They were incredibly nice and accommodating so I got the approval to take a week off just a month in. (Side note, I had a message from new coworkers during the trip that our firm had been named one of Fortune's Top 100 Places to Work so I got to come home to all sorts of surprises to celebrate including a bonus day off!)

 

[MyGoofy26]

A little preview of what’s to come. I didn’t make a ton of plans. I prefer a more spontaneous Disney trip so I try to make the bare minimum of reservations. There are parts of FP+ that I like—it is so much more convenient to use an app or have access to every attraction at each kiosk—I cannot begin to describe how much I loathe being expected to schedule rides two months out. It is so inflexible. I’m on vacation! I want to be able get a whim the night before or in the morning when I wake up that I’d really like to be in a certain park, but nooooo, I have super-exclusive FPs in a park I’m not feeling and if I switch all of the good FPs for my preferred park are now gone.

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Okay, vent over.

I did make some plans. Most of the FP+s were made “just in case” so we’d have something. There were a few things that were non-negotiable though.

On March 1st (birthday!) we would go to the Magic Kingdom. We had Be Our Guest lunch reservations and Ohana dinner reservations.

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On March 2nd we had Dining with an Imagineer reservations at the Brown Derby.

On either the 4th or 5th I wanted to hit Epcot for Flower and Garden Festival.

Everything else was pretty open for us, though.

We also wanted to try to get off property for a day to hit Kennedy. I hadn’t been since I was a baby so I obviously don’t remember. When I told Zach it was only an hour away his eyes lit up. We were sitting in the theater watching “Tomorrowland” when I leaned over and told him, “By the way…”

Speaking of… HOW did Disney so badly mismarket Tomorrowland?! We absolutely loved the movie and snagged a copy on BluRay for $10 on Black Friday. Since we’re in “family expansion” mode we often look at things through the lens of our theoretical children. One of our regular conversations comes up when watching childhood favorites regarding how they don’t make movies for kids like we had. We just looked at each other after that movie and Zach said, “That was an Amblin movie.” It was “The Goonies”. It was “The Rocketeer”. It was all of those fun adventure movies we watched over and over and over as kids that inspired us to think big. And for me, the overall feel was SO Disney. It was SO Tomorrowland (the park land). Especially the music. Giacchino nailed it. And Zach even commented as such as we were walking to Space Mountain.

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So if you haven’t seen it yet go find yourself a copy. It’s on Starz now too.

Let’s steer this ship back on course, okay?

So yeah, we had a few must dos and one strong we’d really really really like to do. (Spoiler alert, we did)

 

[MyGoofy26]

Chapter Links:

Introduction
Pre-trip

February 27
Departure Day - Part 1
Departure Day - Part 2

February 28
Day 2 - Part 1
Day 2 - Part 2
Day 2 - Part 3

 

[MyGoofy26]

February 27, 2016—Departure Day!
Part 1

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Our flight out of Pittsburgh didn’t leave until 3:10. I’m not used to that. I usually book the first flight out but Southwest had a much better deal on this flight. I don’t know what was going on but the flight situation was scary for a couple months. We were looking at $700 round trip EACH out of Pittsburgh. I was thisclose to booking one of the scary discount airlines out of Latrobe when Southwest FINALLY opened some more seats at more reasonable prices. We ended up flying for around $250 each nonstop. Oh how I miss the days of Ding! fares when I could fly round trip for $29 each way.

I had to teach Zach my Southwest trick and I’m pretty sure he thought I was crazy. I pack as much as I can into a smaller suitcase and then back that into the bigger suitcase. Anything that didn’t fit in the smaller got shoved into the larger to fill the empty space. Only take one bag down and you have two to bring back! But it's hard to not sound crazy when you're telling someone to pack luggage in luggage.

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So we had all morning and afternoon on Saturday to kill time. I had the house cleaned, laundry done and put away, our things were packed. Zach was taking his time (granted, we had plenty) was I couldn't wait to get this thing started. He was still lazing in bed so I posted this onto his Facebook page:

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Less than a minute later I heard him yell down, "Hint taken, Rapunzel. I'll get in the shower!"

So with both of us ready and two hours to kill we stretched out on the couch and started watching “Fuller House” on Netflix. Holy 90s flashback! I think we got three episodes in before my mom showed up to drive us to the airport. We gathered our things, said goodbye to the dog (she was having a sleepover at Grandma’s all week) and we were on our way.

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Side note on our dog. She’s a very spoiled beagle mix named Pippa. I’ve been asked if she’s named after Pippa Middleton, but no. She was named well before the royal wedding and Pippa’s derriere made headlines. She’s actually, in a very roundabout way, named after Goofy. I like Disney names for pets but I couldn’t find anything that fit her. She was almost Cleo or Tigerlily, but one day I found a chart of Disney character names and their foreign equivalents. Apparently in Italy Goofy is Pippo. So I “feminized” that a bit, called her Pippa, and boom…Italian female Goofy.

Of course I could’ve stretched that even more obscure and said I named her after the old talking recycling can, Pipa.

Where were we? Oh yeah! Airport!

We arrived, we unloaded, we said goodbyes, we made our way through secret security. I don’t know if other airports have this, but the Pittsburgh airport has this secondary security line that is often much shorter so Zach and I detoured and cut over there instead of the regular chaotic line.

Zach had only flown twice in his life so he’s still a bit nervous when it comes to the idea of flying. He wanted to check out the gate area first and then we wandered to find some food. We ended up at Bar Symon, a newish restaurant in Pittsburgh from Michael Symon. Zach’s nerves made him cautious so he went with a salad. I opted for pierogi and kielbasa (a very Pittsburgh meal for our departure, ha!). We split some fries and drowned them in the coffee BBQ sauce at the table. The Lola ketchup was kind of blah, but the coffee BBQ was delish. And that’s coming from a non-coffee drinker.

Our flight was about 10 minutes late taking off and relatively uneventful. Takeoff was a bit stressful for Zach and then he was intrigued by the view out the window.

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This was my first time on a Southwest plane with Wi-Fi so we hopped on and pulled up the Flight Tracker page. That was kind of fun, watching progress, speed, altitude, etc.

Even with the late start we landed a little early. MCO was a madhouse. It didn’t take long for me to make a mental note to go back to taking the first flight on arrival day.

We followed the crowd to the Nonorail and vacation was officially started!

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We waited forever for our bags and made our way to Alamo. We rented an Intermediate SUV and there weren’t a lot of actual SUV options on that aisle. Weirdly it was half pickup trucks. We found a Jeep Patriot and we were FINALLY on our way to our home for the week: Animal Kingdom Lodge!

The trip was pretty quick. Zach had toll money duty and I pointed out things along the way. As we neared the WDW entrance I handed him my phone.

Me: “You have a job.”

Zach: “Okay, what’s my job?”

Me: “Take a picture of the arch when we come up on it.”

You’ll all be happy to know that this Disney newb took his job very seriously.

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Once I had turned my phone back on at the airport I received texts from the resort with our room number. We had been notified a few days prior that we’d been selected for Bypass the Front Desk. So once we made it through security we parked, grabbed our bags and headed off to find our room.

We were quite a hike down the Zebra trail but we found our room. We’d booked a Standard room but still had a fantastic view of the Uzima savanna. However, we had two double beds…not very honeymoony. So we swung by the lobby concierge on our way out to see if a king room happened to be available. The CM was so friendly and helpful. He didn’t see anything so he got on the phone. While he was holding as someone else on the other end looked he hooked us up with buttons! A Birthday for me, a First Time for Zach and a Happily Ever After for each of us!

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He hung up and said he found us a king room with an upgrade to pool view! Wait, pool?

The CM went back into the office and Zach and I conferred. While I really wanted a king bed neither of us wanted to give up our view. So with guilty expressions when he walked back out we profusely apologized and asked to stay in our current room. He was totally understanding but that didn’t keep us from apologizing again and again and thanking him for looking in the first place.

Up next: Day 1 Part 2​

 

[MyGoofy26]

February 27, 2016—Departure Day!
Part 1​

It was getting close to 7 p.m. so we headed out to the bus for our first park of the trip, Zach’s first park ever! Magic Kingdom was open until midnight so we were hitting the ground running. (Note: I wasn't too camera-happy yet so I don't have a ton of pics. That will change on subsequent days.)

We didn’t wait long for a bus and the bus ride went quickly. I honestly don’t know what people are complaining about when they say Animal Kingdom Lodge is too far away, but if that keeps the crowds away so I can have a quiet and relaxing place to call home for a week then please keep perpetuating that particular rumor!

The park was a bit crowded, especially since we hit it just in time for people to be lining up for MSEP and Wishes. I made Zach stop for a moment at the end of Main Street to block out the crowd and just appreciate finally being in the park and just down the road from Cinderella Castle. I’d been waiting a long time to get him there so I needed to savor that moment.

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The clock was ticking so off to Haunted Mansion we went! I believe the wait was 45 minutes when we got there so Zach had his first taste of “cutting the line” with Fastpass. We got into our stretching room and I carefully positioned us near the exit. Now Zach has heard the Haunted Mansion audio more times than I can count, he’s heard me recite it, the phone case I had previously was one of the stretching room. Not to mention all of the Haunted Mansion coasters and wine stoppers and ornaments and who knows what else that we have around the house.

So we get through the preshow and into the line and make that last turn before loading and the ride stops. They pull a woman and child out of one of the doombuggies, a manager comes over, they all talk for a while… nothing. After about 10 minutes the ride finally starts and we load, yay! Then we stop. We’re moving again! And we stop.

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We finally made it through the ride but what a first impression, huh? He did enjoy it and loved the hitchhiking ghost effect. We stopped at the exit so I could point out Mr. Toad in the pet cemetery. By then we were starving so food was next on the agenda.

I hadn’t eaten at Columbia Harbor House in years. I think the last time I was there was lunch during the Keys to the Kingdom tour several years ago. I’m not a seafood eater and if I’m at Disney I’d rather do something besides chicken nuggets so, despite its rave reviews I always pass. Zach, however, loves salmon and never makes it because I don’t eat it (even though I tell him we can do separate things for dinner). So this was my suggestion so that he could finally get salmon. I figured I’d go with the chicken nuggets but as we were standing in line I wasn’t feeling it. By the time we ordered he was set on the salmon and I made a quick switch to the Lighthouse sandwich.

We got our food and headed upstairs where there were only two tables in use. Since I had pretty much thrown Zach into the fire (a midnight closing at MK on a Saturday?!) he appreciated the quiet. I was not quite in picture mode yet so there are no photos of this meal but it was SO good. The Lighthouse was one of my favorite things I’d eaten all week. I came home and tried to duplicate with a moderate degree of success. Zach loved his salmon. He couldn’t figure out how Disney figured out how to make a “fast food” salmon that was on par with what you’d find at a casual restaurant like Applebee’s. I wanted to kick myself for not asking to sub my fries out for broccoli. Zach was kind and let me have some of his. It was really good—as was the cous cous. What can I say? We’re CHH converts!

We briefly entertained the idea of hitting Adventureland until we walked out and saw the MSEP had just started. Fantasyland it is! Since the idea of hitting MK on arrival night was last minute (like, two days before?) we didn’t really plan anything. There was no line for it’s a small world so I gave Zach the option of hitting it now. I told him he had to go at least once—it’s a right of passage. Then we never have to do it again (until kids). So on we went. Zach was making some observations here and there. I can’t remember exactly which scene it was that he yelled out, “What’s this?! This makes no sense! I was following along until now!” Apparently the geography nerd in him was trying to find some sort of logic to IASW that was turned upside down by the existence of some random country that should not have been represented at that particular point of the ride? I was tired and a bit slap happy and found it hilarious.

We made it to the end and he swore to never ride again. But we have evidence of at least one "cruise" on IASW.

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From there we meandered through Fantasyland and found ourselves in Tomorrowland to use the second Fastpass+ at Buzz Lightyear. I gave him a quick review while in line and took over steering duties. I tried to point out the high value targets, but alas he scored just 31,000 points. He did much better on our second round a few days later.

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Wishes was started as we exited Buzz so we veered toward the hub and managed to find a good spot. Gah, seriously, Wishes gets to me. And finally getting to share it with him? Even better.

The BAD thing about being in the hub at the end of Wishes? Yep, the mass exodus. We did our salmon swimming upstream bit to cross over to Adventureland. Backstory time: Zach’s family was supposed to go to Disney when they were kids. Zach was 13 at the time. The trip ended up getting cancelled when they decided to go elsewhere. So as we’re fighting this crowd all I can hear behind me is, “Yep, Dad would’ve killed us all… He’d have left us all here and found somewhere go fishing for a week.”

We finally broke free and found refuge in a very quiet Adventureland. Pirates had a posted 10 minute wait so it was time to introduce Zach to another childhood (and adulthood) favorite! The wait was essentially the walk through the queue, however we were behind a couple who Zach quickly dubbed the “Selfie King and Queen of the Caribbean” because every few feet they stopped for pictures. No hyperbole there. Every few feet. Not even waiting for some sort of change in set design. We’re talking bare walls and all.

Toward the end the woman turned and said something to me that I couldn’t understand. It was very broken English. Then she noticed my honeymoon button and spoke again. Still couldn’t understand. Then she pointed to her button—a honeymoon button I’d seen on Etsy. I congratulated her and she got very excited and kept going. It turned into this hilarious comedy routine of charades (and to be honest a lot of grinning and nodding on my part). All I could gather from this conversation was that she was somehow comparing me to her husband since she kept pointing between us but I don’t have the faintest idea what it was. Poor Zach was very “What did I get myself into” during the whole thing.

No surprise, we were on the boat behind the Selfie Royals who at least didn’t use flash during the ride because, oh yes, the selfies continued.

It must not have been completely distracting for Zach though because as we were unloading he turned and said, “That was the hook. I was wondering what the one thing would be where it finally clicked and that was it. I get it now.”

Do you hear that, people? Less than two hours in WDW and he gets it! Mission accomplished!

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We were both exhausted as we made our way to the hub for MSEP. The park was really starting to empty by this point. We had our pick of spots in front of the castle ten minutes before the parade and when it started the entire route that I could see was a single row deep. We had planned to try to hit one or two more things but halfway through the parade Zach leaned over and said he was beat. I asked if he wanted to go when the parade was over and he warily told me yes.

The parade was fantastic, as always, and Zach enjoyed it too. He did get weirded out when, during the Pinocchio section, one of the “donkeys” came up to us. I had been leaning back against him and he had his arms around my shoulders. The guy came up and yelled, “Hey, lady! This guy is trying to strangle you!” Then he started swatting at Zach and yelling, “Sir! Don’t strangle her!” For some reason, freaked him out. He was NOT expecting audience participation.

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I reminded him we had a whole week in front of us, so after the parade we took the retail trail out of the park and found the bus back to Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Up Next: Day 2—Animal Kingdom​

 

[amberdc1987]

I can't wait to read more. I had my a Disneymoon also and it was the best. I can't wait to hear more about y'alls. Keep it coming.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Loving your TR so far!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

What a wonderful start. Congratulations on the Birthday-Honeymoon. I'm so glad Zack said he "gets it".

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I'm so glad he got so hooked so fast - lucky you!!

 

[MyGoofy26]

I can't wait to read more. I had my a Disneymoon also and it was the best. I can't wait to hear more about y'alls. Keep it coming.

Thanks! I'm hoping the schedule lets me keep up with the quick updates before I start forgetting details.

Loving your TR so far!

Thank you!

What a wonderful start. Congratulations on the Birthday-Honeymoon. I'm so glad Zack said he "gets it".

This whole trip was designed to hook him. I was quite proud that it happened early (and continued through the trip!)

I'm so glad he got so hooked so fast - lucky you!!

I already have him talking DVC

 

[MyGoofy26]

February 28—Day Two!​

Our first full park day dawned way too early. I think I was up around 6:45 but not actually awake. I finally started to quietly move around and peeked out the window to see the view. Since it was already dark when we checked in we knew we had a savanna view but we couldn’t have told you what was out there. The inch or two I pulled back the curtains woke Zach up. Oops.

Neither of us are morning people by any means but I have a quicker start when I’m in Disney. Zach? Not so much. He did stumble out of bed and we took some time to enjoy the view, scoping out the animals outside our room.

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We finally started moving later than expected so we rushed through showers and getting ready. I had to turn the TV on and get some Stacy.

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Zach wanted to grab breakfast so we stopped at the Mara. We each got a Bounty Platter (mine suffered an unfortunate rolling sausage incident halfway through my meal).

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Since our plans changed last minute after discovering MK was open late on Saturday I had changed FP+s around. MK was originally supposed to be Sunday so I switched it to AK a couple days before. Of course this meant no Kilimanjaro Safari FP+s to be had so I had hoped to get there at park opening. That didn’t happen. Between the slow start and unplanned breakfast stop we got there about 30 minutes later. I had FP+s for it later in the week so it wasn’t a huge deal.

One of the things I really wanted to do was take my time and really explore AK. I usually travel with my mom who doesn’t particularly enjoy this park so any exploration is usually pretty rushed. Since rides weren’t a priority this day we decided to explore. First stop? New restrooms by the new theater for the Lion King, hah!

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Since the safari line was already creeping up near an hour we decided to hit the trails. Since we were right next to Pangani, we started there. A keeper was out placing fresh fruit on branches to lure the birds closer to the path. You could see them hovering, waiting for him to move. Zach and I laughed that we were about to get divebombed.

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We watched them a little bit while they snacked. Zach’s dad loves birdwatching when they’re out on the trail biking so Zach sent him some pictures, took a picture of the guide for him. I think we spent a good 20-30 minutes just watching before we moved on.

To Be Continued...​

 

[MyGoofy26]

February 28—Day Two: Part 2​

We eventually made it to the gorillas where this guy was napping.

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The little ones were tumbling around further up the hill so I didn’t get good pictures but they were fun to watch. Zach got groped by a Frenchman. Good times, good times. Seriously though, the guy was trying to get his kid in front which was fine—I was letting the little ones in front anyway—but for some reason he grabbed Zach’s butt in the process. Friendly guy, I suppose.

Along the trail (I think prior to the gorillas?) we spotted a couple meerkats. Then another. Then another. This is just part of the progression but every time I took a picture another one would appear.

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We finished the trail and explored a bit more of the park. Zach made a friend in Dinoland. He was looking at a Star Wars Lego set when another man beelined right for him. “Oh my god, that’s so awesome what is it?!” (All one big run on sentence, haha)

Then Zach made another friend. Always classy I had pointed out that it looked like this dino was taking a dump. Zach walked over to pose and chickened out so I just got a normal picture. Darn.

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We hit the Maharajah Jungle Trek next, again taking our time. This guy came out just as we walked up to the window.

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We watched as he did a loop and came back around to lie down.

Our Everest Fastpass was still another hour or so away once we finished that trail. It was early afternoon and we’d explored so much of those little side trails that I’d wanted to do. Zach was starting to feel the sun on his head and wanted specific sunscreen that he hadn’t picked up at the store before we left. We decided to forego Everest this time around and run offsite for some shopping.

But first, a Photopass picture!

To Be Continued...​

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Forgo Everest? That's the nice thing about the beginning of trips. There's still more days to come and lots of time to fit things in. It's the end of the trip that's the bummer.

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

Loving your TR so far!! That's great your DH already "got" it his first night there!

My son and I are taking my boyfriend on his first Disney trip in December and I am hoping he will have a similar reaction

Looking forward to reading more!!

 

[MyGoofy26]

Forgo Everest? That's the nice thing about the beginning of trips. There's still more days to come and lots of time to fit things in. It's the end of the trip that's the bummer.

That was my thought--we still had the rest of the week. I checked my email a that afternoon and had an email that our Fastpass had changed to allow us entry to one of several other attractions because Everest ended up going down when our Fastpass window opened. I didn't feel so bad about ducking out after that!

Loving your TR so far!! That's great your DH already "got" it his first night there!

My son and I are taking my boyfriend on his first Disney trip in December and I am hoping he will have a similar reaction

Looking forward to reading more!!

Exciting! I hope he gets hooked too! Once we get a few more days into this thing you'll see where Zach really let go. OMG the Studios spoke to his inner child.

 

[MyGoofy26]

February 28—Day Two: Part 3

First, a Photopass from this morning at park open:
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We headed first over to the outlet. I again gave Zach a very important task. Every trip I try to get my mom (Mary) to stop for a photo op and every trip she looks at me like I’m crazy.

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We finally arrived at the outlet and headed straight for Character Warehouse. I picked up quite a few pieces for the kitchen from the Co-op at quite a bargain. Bonus was when we walked up to pay and the CM checked shipping costs. It was $10 to ship it all back home, then she mentioned if you ship then your purchase is tax free so it was really just a $6 difference to ship! So ship we did! I ended up with a huge box of stuff for $100 shipped to my house. She said it would be 10-12 days but my mom texted me a few days later after checking our mail to say it was there already. I believe that was four days later?

We ducked over to the Nike outlet for Zach who had been wanting a new Nike hoodie for some time and couldn’t find one he liked. They were having a big sale where the entire store was an extra 20% off so he snagged one he loves for about $20.

It was at this point I checked my phone and had notification that my Fastpasses for Everest were switched because the ride had gone down when our window opened. No more guilt! Plus a little relief—I’d have been SO annoyed if we’d hung around, risking Zach’s reddening scalp, just for the ride to not be operational when it was our time. The same thing happened the night before. We were running late getting to the MK so we missed our Space Mountain FP, but it had gone down and we were given the option of several other attractions through the evening.

Our final stop was Publix where the sunscreen Zach swore he used before for his head (some Axe product) did not exist. We also grabbed some aloe in case his head had burned, some water and other drinks for the room, and a birthday cake for me!

After getting that all back to the room we again took some time to enjoy the view again. It was around 3:30 in the afternoon and we must’ve hit right around feeding time because this time we had giraffes. We relaxed, we stretched, we posted pictures on Facebook to make our friends and family jealous of our view.

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We rallied and grudgingly put our shoes back on because we were headed to Epcot!

This time we drove to save a little time. The parking lot was pretty empty so we got a nice close spot. As we were walking toward the park, Zach was in awe of Spaceship Earth. “It doesn’t look real. It’s right there. Too bad you can’t go inside it.”

You should’ve seen the look on his face when I told him you could. Immediately followed by, “Ca—can we?”

Obviously first stop was Spaceship Earth.

I stopped to take a couple pictures and Zach stepped into my frame for one of my favorite pictures. Total awe. There was so much riding on this trip. These parks are a big part of my life so it was very important to me that it turned into something we could share. Moments like this made me so ridiculously happy.

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We got on Spaceship Earth and even though the line was nonexistent and the people behind us could’ve gone to a new car without holding anyone up they got directly behind us…and were obnoxious the whole time. They talked and made inside jokes (not even about the attraction—just random stuff about their friends) the entire time.

We did our best to ignore. Zach was in complete awe once we got to the top and started the descent. He was actually a little annoyed at the interactive screen because he just wanted to watch the lights. And then the ride stopped. And it stayed stopped for a good while. And the obnoxious duo behind us got even more obnoxious. Then the guy half of the pair threatened to get out of the car and just walk down. I think we were stopped for 15-20 minutes before it started moving again.

Do they deliberately take the worst pictures? And is it someone's job to give people strange growths protruding from their heads?

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From there we headed over to Mission: Space. I gave Zach the option of which version to ride. He chose the non-spinning figuring we’d see how that went and then try the other if he wasn’t bothered. The other never bothered me til the last trip, and even then it was only slightly. It was something my mom and I had been discussing right before Zach and I left. She was nauseated for the first time that trip too. Zach loved this one too, his inner childhood space-nerd was in heaven, but he and I both felt off. I honestly think it’s the distortion of the video that gives me motion sickness now—not actual motion. I think if it were a cleaner video I’d be fine.

The line for Test Track wasn’t very long so we headed there next. After about 10 minutes we were lined up to design our cars and then…nothing. Are you seeing a pattern here? First Haunted Mansion, then Spaceship Earth, now Test Track? Plus the two altered FPs for SM and Everest? I began dubbing it the “Trip of a Thousand Breakdowns” that night (and fortunately this was pretty much the end of it—but what a rough start, right?)

We did hop online and order pizza from Giordano’s for delivery 45-60 minutes later so we watched the clock and set our mental clocks for when we’d ditch the attraction to head back to the hotel.

We were finally allowed in to design our car and Zach used every available second to tweak. He had so much fun. There was another holdup after that but we finally made it on. Zach of course had a blast and was kicking himself for not bringing the GoPro. I reminded him we had another FP for it a few days later so he was satisfied.

So our evening at Epcot netted us three whole attractions and not a single inch of World Showcase thanks to breakdowns.

The pizza guy called as we were leaving to verify our location—Jambo or Kidani. We beat him back to the hotel by about 5 minutes so we found a quiet seat in the lobby to wait for him and enjoy just how gorgeous and impressive this resort is.

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We dove right into the pizza when we got back to the room. By that point it was 10 p.m. and we hadn’t eaten since 8:30 that morning.

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We went to bed exhausted with plans to sleep in a little bit before heading off to Kennedy for the day.

 

[DisneyGateway]

That is a rough start to the trip! But y'all seem to be making some wonderful memories! Disney does a good job converting people