"I'm Pretty Sure I Just Drank Splash Mountain Water" - An October Trip Report Updated 1/30*

rmw1313

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 17, 2016
Hello, DIS Friends!

And welcome to my first ever TR!

You can get all caught up on any PTR fun that you may have missed here:
I Finally Convinced My Husband That an AP Was the Only Option

You can also follow along on that thread because I'm going to continue using it for our next trip which is just 4 shorts months away :flower:

Like I said this is my first actual TR..mostly because I sink way too deep in to Disney depression after coming home to want to write about it. But, since getting our APs, this time feels different!


Alright, let's get on with it!

Who are we?!

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Well, I'm Rachele (pronounced Rachel..my parents hate me). And that handsome guy next to me is my husband Andrew. We're from Pittsburgh, PA and this was our 3rd trip to Disney together in the last 2 years. We just very recently became annual pass holders and are so excited to continue making magical Disney memories together.


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I'm the planner for our trips and Andrew is my diligent note taker for while we're actually there.

I love Animal Kingdom, my adorable doggo Oliver, eating and consuming alcoholic beverages, Pittsburgh sports, binge watching Netflix, and obnoxious laughter.


Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest
Favorite Park: Animal Kingdom
Favorite Princess: Ariel
Favorite Character: Pooh
Favorite Disney Restaurant: Paddlefish
Favorite Bar: Trader Sam's

Andrew and I have been together for 6.5 years and married for 2. He and I typically share photography duties . He loves thrill rides, is equally as obsessed with Disney, and is always ready to tag along on whatever crazy adventure I'm planning next.

Favorite Ride: RnR
Favorite Park: DHS
Favorite Princess: "My Wife" (JK he didn't say that:confused3) - Jasmin
Favorite Character: Goofy
Favorite Disney Restaurant: Victoria and Albert's..
I made him pick another: Be Our Guest (he loves the theming)
Favorite Bar: Tune-In Lounge or Boathouse Dock Bar

Why were we there?

Well who really needs a reason to go to Disney? :laughing: This was a very last-minute, very spur of the moment trip for us. Our jobs are very hectic during the fall and when we saw an opportunity to sneak away for a few days, we took it! Our anniversary was also September 26th, and due to our work schedules we didn't even see one another that day. So this was an extended celebration of that as well.

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Where did we stay?

So this was actually a surprise for Andrew. Originally I had booked our reservation for POP, then once I got our APs and could look at AP discounts, I decided to upgrade us to AKL without telling Andrew.. you know, like any good wife would do :laughing: Our last two trips to Disney we have stayed at the Beach Club, so I was interested to see how relying on the bus system was going to go for us. This was a complete surprise, so stay tuned to see how it went!

When were we there?

We left Pittsburgh at 7am on Sunday October 15th and returned back Wednesday October 18th at 10:30pm.

What were my original plans?

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Well, they're right here. Beautifully color-coded and laminated, as always.

Stick around to see just how much Disney, Dining and Drinking we were able to cram in to four days.
 




Day 0

"How Much Disney Can We Cram In To Four Days?"

The day before we left was most certainly a hectic one. There are always a lot of odd and end tasks that need to be done before we leave- and it didn't help the situation any that Andrew had to work until very late this day. Our morning started with us sleeping in until around 9 or so, which would have been fine, except I had forgotten to check in to our Southwest flight at 7 :upsidedow. This is an ongoing struggle between me and Southwest. For the life of me I can never remember to check in on time, and Andrew always gets mad when I forget. Every. Single. Time.

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So we got our boarding positions- C9 and C10- on a completely sold out flight to Orlando, and moved on with our day. I had a scheme cooking though to hopefully upgrade our boarding position. :flower3:
Andrew left for work, and I was left to clean, finish packing, and take Oliver to grandma and grandpa's (note: my parents actually call each other that when referring to themselves in situations with our dog). Oliver also gets really upset when we bring out our suitcases, so we try to wait as long as possible.


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Here he is hiding in the bed pillows before we left :confused3

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And here he is once we finally got to my parent's. Ignoring me in favor of my step-dad, as usual. Okay, Oliver...we'll miss you too...

Andrew ended up getting home around 10pm and we still had packing to finish and electronics to charge. We were in our guest room finishing up with our suitcases when he asked me the question I had been dreading the most, "Where are our Magical Express luggage tags?"

..UHHHH...

Quick backstory: When we agreed to take this trip we both agreed to stay at a value resort to save some money, and we booked at POP. Once I got our APs, I saw something had opened up with an AP discount at AKL- which just happens to be one of my dream resorts. I booked it, and because I made the switch less than 30 days out, we got two sets of ME luggage tags- one for POP and one for AKL. I wanted this to be a surprise for Andrew for our anniversary, because AKL is also one of his dream resorts.

Okay, back to the story..


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I left these tags sitting out and quickly said to Andrew, "Oh, they're right here..I'll put them on at the airport so they don't fall off". He picked them up and made a big stink about how they said "AK" in the Mickey and Pop Century above the bar code. I thought, "this is perfect, now he won't even recognize when I switch them at the airport"

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Sneaky, sneaky :thumbsup2

We ended up getting to sleep around 11 or so with our alarms set at 4am for the next morning.

Up Next:

*Was I able to upgrade our boarding position?*
*Did Andrew notice when I switched the tags?*

Stay Tuned pixiedust:
 
Joining in. I would love to do a surprise hotel switch for my family.

:welcome:

It was so much fun, but I'm also really bad at keeping secrets so it was tough to not cave in and spill the beans early! There were times when he was asking questions about our trip or our ADRs and I just wanted to tell him where we were staying so he could be excited with me...but I stayed tough!
 
Tuning in and just got so upset when I realized I was to the end of the posts so far! I like how you end each post with a cliffhanger, haha.
 
Day 1 Part 1

"That's What Happens When You Lie"

Finally..arrival day was here! Our alarms went off at 4am and for the first time in my life I had no issues hopping right out of bed at such a dismal hour. Andrew has this obsession with literally unplugging every single item in our home before we leave it (even if it was just for 4 days) so while he was doing his cord scavenger hunt I was getting ready.

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We ended up hitting the road a whopping seven minutes early, and 35 short minutes later we were pulling in to Pittsburgh International.

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Does anyone else do this to remember where they parked? :laughing:

We headed to the Southwest check-in to check our bags and to print our boarding pass. I got us checked in on the kiosk and while I was doing that Andrew was asking for the ME luggage tags. I handed the AKL ones to him while holding my breathe. He put them on quickly and then we started to walk over to where they weigh the bags. As he was lifting his on to the scale he stops and says, "Why does this say Animal Kingdom?".

My heart stopped. I thought I was in the clear! The words could literally not come out of my mouth. All I could think to do was shrug, hurry up and throw our bags on the scale, and make something up about the barcode.

We continued through the airport to an insanely long TSA line (cue instant pre-check envy) and he did not bring it up during the entire wait. Maybe he believed me? Maybe I could convince him that he was so tired that he was seeing things?

We made it to our gate with roughly 20 minutes to spare :scared: talk about cutting it close. I headed to the counter by the terminal with my well rehearsed story about why we simply could not board in group C.

Here's a reinactemnet:

Me: Hello, I was wondering if we could possibly upgrade our boarding position. Our wedding was yesterday and with all of the excitement I completely forgot to check in. We are on our way to our honeymoon and I'm also a nervous flyer so I will be devastated if we can't sit together on the way down.

SW Employee: We're completely sold out of upgrades.

Me: Great, thanks.
*Awkwardly walks away to a hysterically laughing husband*


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Failllll. Today was not the day that my theatre minor paid for itself. :rotfl:

I grabbed us each a bagel for the flight and we patiently we waited to board with group C.

We ended up sitting next to a man with a baby and his wife and two other children were in the row behind us. They seemed super sweet and at least we were sitting together.

*Flash Forward 30 minutes when their sweet adorable child kicked the back of my seat for the entity of the flight while the rest of them slept*
Not so cute anymore.
Andrew thought it was hilarious because the child that was sitting behind him was perfectly behaved the entire flight. He said, "That's what happens when you lie." Touche.


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Pretty plane views.

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Mandatory Magicband plane shot.

In a quick hour and 40 minutes we were wheels down in Orlando. We made our way to the ME terminal with a quick Starbucks/restroom stop along the way. The ME terminal was empty..SCORE!..we checked in pretty quickly and were two groups back in our resort line, and were boarding immediately. The cast member scanned our bands and said "Animal Kingdom Lodge?" I nodded with a giant grin on my face and he pointed us in the direction of our bus.

On our walk to the bus Andrew looks at me and says, "Umm...can we talk about that?" I started laughing. He excitedly continued, "What about our POP tags? How did you not tell me about this? Our we really going to the Animal Kingdom?"

I was full-on hysterically laughing at this point and said, "are you really surprised? Like you honestly had no idea I switched resorts?"

Andrew said, "no idea at all. I cannot believe you were able to actually keep a secret" :rotfl2:

That makes two of us, buddy.

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We each got our own ME row. And we were on our way to AKL with one quick stop at Coronado Springs in our way.

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Terrible bus picture, but it serves it's purpose.

I had booked us a standard view room with an AP discount and had only requested that we got a king bed.


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Jambo!

Up Next:

*What room do we get?*
*What Disney thing do we do first?*


Stay Tuned! :cheer2:
 
Following along! I'm planning my third trip to DW now, and am also the insane over planner while my husband just goes along with the flow. Your have a great writing voice--excited to read more! :)
 
Following along! I'm planning my third trip to DW now, and am also the insane over planner while my husband just goes along with the flow. Your have a great writing voice--excited to read more! :)

Yay! :welcome: Thank you so much! I'm going to start reading your PTR!!
 

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