"I'm tired of this, can't we go to Disney World now?" Birthday TR! 5/28 MK Part 4!!

[tink774]

Welcome to the trip report for my quick, last-minute trip to WDW not only to get a quick Disney fix, but to celebrate my birthday at the MK!

Contents:
Link to PTR
Travel/Arrival Day - Part 1
Travel/Arrival Day - Part 2
My Birthday at the MK - Part 1
My Birthday at the MK - Part 2
My Birthday at the MK - Part 2.5
My Birthday at the MK - Part 3
My Birthday at the MK - Part 4
Downtown Disney
Departure/Back to the Real World


Here are some of the details of our trip just to get the ball rolling:

When: April 20-22, 2009
Where: POP!
Why: For my 21st birthday!

Who are we?
First, there is me, Anna/Tink. I'm a huge Disney fan, and most of my friends believe me to be practically addicted to the Mouse. My first trip to WDW was at age 3, and we stayed at CBR. Since then, I have visited the Mouse at least 30 times, but I have no idea exactly how many. For several years when my sister and I were younger and easier to pull out of school for a long weekend, we had AP's and drove the few hours to WDW frequently for short trips to get our fix. But now that we're older, the trips have become far less frequent, but equally cherished! I'm a college junior living in GA, and I am definitely a classic Disney fan. My favorite Disney films include Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and many others. My favorite characters include Tinkerbell, Dale, Dopey, most of the characters from Winnie the Pooh, Belle and several other scattered film stars.

My travel companion was "dear ole" Dad, as he calls himself. I know, who celebrates their 21st birthday with a trip to WDW, and with their dad at that? Me! If you'd like to know just how this became a father/daughter adventure, the full details are included in my PTR.

I will update ASAP to get the actual report started. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope that you'll stick around!!

Take care!!
~ Anna

 

[mickeystoontown]

Readin' along and anxiously awaiting more.

 

[katiebelle21]

Welcome back! I hope you had a good birthday trip!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

I'm here! See told you I was heading right over. Can't wait to hear how your b-day went. Oh by the way thanks for stopping over at my ptr!

 

[tink774]

I'm so glad to have you all on board for my TR! I'm currently working on the Travel/Arrival Day, but there are pretty much no pictures at that point (we were driving late at night, and there really isn't anything cool to take pictures of), so I'm trying to jazz it up a little bit.

 

[tink774]

Time to start the Trip Report! I’ve finally got some good time to sit down and work on it! And I forgot how slooooooow Photobucket can be, so it’s taking forever to add pictures!

Now I warn you, I was a horrible DISer didn’t take any pictures on the official first day of our trip, deemed “Travel/Arrival Day.” The only thing we did was drive, drive, and drive some more! We were driving late at night, and the route from my hometown to Orlando is definitely not exciting anyway. So I’m going to have to jazz up my TR with some pics from past trips just to keep you entertained.

Travel/Arrival Day – Monday, April 20th, Part I

I’ll start at the beginning of the day, because I feel that it all counts as “part of the trip!” In the morning, I woke up at 9:00am as usual, because one of my roommates and I have a workout schedule. But lately, “working out” has just become eating breakfast at 9am and surfing the internet until it’s time to get ready for class. Anyway, this day was no exception. My packing was coming along slowly, as my laundry was thrown all over my bed. I needed to be packed and have the car loaded up to leave at 12:45, because I was driving to campus for class and leaving directly from there at 3:30. This way, I could leave ASAP, rather than wait until 4:00pm to get home on my bus.

Of course, I didn’t really pack this much stuff. I actually used my overnight duffle bag for this trip since it was only a two-night venture. But we’ll just use the photo of this packed suitcase from my December 2007 trip to jazz up this post a bit.

So I got my small duffle bag packed. I still hadn’t decided what I wanted to wear for my birthday, so I packed two potential outfits that I like. Then I packed up the car with everything that I was bringing, including a few books for school just in case I felt like getting some work done on the long drive home Tuesday.

I drove to campus, and went to my two classes that day. I’m telling you, I was going crazy just sitting there, knowing that I would be in WDW soon! Actually, I considered just skipping my second class and getting an earlier start. But that professor usually takes pretty strict attendance, so I ultimately decided to go ahead and go. And then he ran over time, so he decided not to take attendance that day!!! Ugh. But it was a very important lecture for the class, so I’m glad that I did go in that respect. But still, I could have gotten to WDW an hour sooner! Not that it would have made much difference, we still would have just gone straight to the room at POP and slept.

Anyway, 3:30pm finally rolls around, and I race myself to the parking garage to be on my way! On the way out, when I stopped to pay the parking fee, the woman asked me if I was a Tinkerbell fan! My car has lots of Tinkerbell accessories, such as the seat cover, the window dice, a steering wheel cover, etc. And we chatted about Disney stuff for a few seconds, but I can’t remember exactly what was said. Then I left the garage, headed for the long road home, and was on my way!!

 

[tink774]

I have a nice long update for you today about our arrival in WDW! Enjoy!

Travel/Arrival Day – Monday, April 20th, Part 2

So I proceeded on the road home to meet up with my dad, and absolutely nothing exciting happened in that hour and a half. I was in a hurry, and at the beginning there was some slow traffic. Not what you want to encounter when you’re trying to get to Disney! I arrived there just after 5:00pm, and Rob was pulling into the driveway to see me! My sister was taking a nap since she just got home from school, so I didn’t see her. But I visited with my parents and Rob for about 25 minutes before Dad said, “Well, I don’t want to be rude, but we need to jump in the car and go!” So that’s what we did!

As we were pulling out of the driveway, I realized how hungry I was. I’d eaten lunch at 12:30pm, and the only thing I’d had since then was a 100-calorie bag of baked cheetos. It was time for dinner! So we drove through the Taco Bell a minute away from our house, and then got on the highway. So at roughly 6:00pm, we were on the road to WDW!

I won’t bore you with too much about the driving stuff. We drove straight on through to about 10:00pm, when we stopped for gas, coffee, etc., and I took over the wheel for the remainder of the trip. Historically, the drive to WDW has taken us about 8 hours. But without my mom (who wants to stop every two hours or so for twenty minute breaks) it took a lot less time! The week before, when my family drove to and from WDW they were stopped for long periods of time by construction. We didn’t have this problem, and we were stopped for maybe ten minutes. Otherwise, it was just smooth driving all the way!

We got on I-4 a little after midnight, and at almost 12:30am, my phone rang. I saw that it was Robin, my best friend since age three! Well, since I was driving, I figured I would just call her back later. Sometimes one of us will call the other late at night just to chat because we’re both night owls, and I figured that’s what this was. Then I glanced at the clock, knew exactly why she was calling, and picked up excitedly.

Sure enough, the first thing I heard after saying “Hello?” was “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” What a great start to my birthday! We chatted for a little bit about summer plans, because we’re trying to make a trip to St. Augustine, FL, together mid-June. A couple of months ago, we realized that we haven’t traveled together since our Girl Scout days, and that needs to change! Then I asked a bit about her parents’ move to North Carolina for her dad’s new job. Off-topic, I get so sad when I think about that. Their house in my hometown is being sold, and even though neither Robin nor I live with our parents anymore, having your parents sell the house you grew up in is just one of those things. And since I basically spent half of my childhood there, it gets me down thinking about it.

Back to happier subjects! So we got off the phone, and by that point, we were almost to the WDW gates!! I wish I could have taken a picture, but it wouldn’t have come out very well at that point. So we go through the gates, and make our way towards POP.

Since it was too dark to take pictures, I’ll throw in a couple from a past trip just to liven up this post!

I pulled up the car to the security gate, and at that point it was right about 12:30am. Now this security guy was weird. I got my driver’s license out for him to see when we pulled up, and handed it to him when he asked. He looked at it, and was about to hand it back, then looked at it again for a minute strangely. I thought, “Oh, he’s noticed that it’s my birthday!” Nope. He told me my license was expired and I shouldn’t be driving!!

I don’t know about licenses for other states, but here’s how they are in Georgia for people under 21. You have a big red border around your picture with the worlds “UNDER 21” on it, then at the very bottom of the license in red letters is “Until (date of your 21st birthday).” So mine said, “Until 4-21-2009.” I’ve just always assumed that this meant I was under 21 until this date, at which point I could renew my license whenever I please and get a new one without all of the red underage writing on it. Then at the top, just under the big words “Driver’s License,” they have in big black letters “Expires” and the actual expiration date on it. In my case, it said, “Expires – 4-21-2011,” at which point the one I have will be completely expired if I haven’t already renewed it. This way, I have two years to get the license renewed. So the security guy didn’t quite understand the different dates, and thought the big red letters “Until 4-21-2009” meant that my license expired that day! So he basically tried to convince me that I shouldn’t be driving on my expired license. Silly me, I thought he was going to wish me happy birthday! So as I pulled the car away from the gate, Dad and I had a good eye roll over that one. But I don’t really blame him for mis-reading it, looking at so many different licenses must get confusing. I just couldn’t believe he tried to tell me I shouldn’t be the one driving.

We pulled up to the Classic Hall, and I was getting so excited at this point!! But I knew that wasn’t good, because soon I would need to be getting to sleep for the morning ahead! So I parked the car and we went up to the building to check in. There were a couple of people at the desks ahead of us, and three CMs were running the whole show. We waited for about five minutes, then as we’re walking up to the Check-In desk these two women jumped in front of us from the side and demanded that the CM give them directions to the nearest Waffle House. So he asked us politely to wait for a moment while he helped them, and then he came back, apologized, and checked us in. I wish I had remembered his name, because he was so friendly! It was almost 12:45am, so we were ready to get to our room and rest, and he was very quick and helpful.

Our room was in the 80s section, and I’ve never stayed there before so I was excited! We were put in building 7. And just before we left, the CM said, “And Anna, I want to wish you a very happy birthday!” and handed me my button! Now I’ll be honest, it still hadn’t hit me at this point that we were here, and that I was celebrating my birthday in WDW! I’ll tell you when it did later in my TR. So we thanked the CM, and headed off to park the car and bring our bags to the room. Since we hadn’t stayed in the 80s section before, we got lost for about two minutes. We were on the third floor by the Rubix (Is that spelled correctly? Doesn’t look like it…) Cube staircase. And from right outside our door, we could see the main gate!! I didn’t take a picture of it then, but I’ll have one from later in the morning when we were on the way to the MK to share.

We got into our room, and I wish I had bothered to take pictures before we threw our stuff on the floor and on the beds and made a genuine mess rather quickly. I decided that I needed a quick shower, so I took one to get ready for bed. Before I went into the bathroom, I broke out my fuzzy pink slippers and put them on. My dad cracked up at this! I’m rather strange in that I never like walking around in my bare feet, and even just socks doesn’t feel right. So I just packed my slippers for walking around the room in, and he found this very amusing. I got in the shower, put on my comfy PJs, and came out of the bathroom to climb into bed. Dad was looking at the POP resort map when I walked out, and he said, “You know… I’ve been studying this map and I think that our room is the absolute farthest away from the coffee pot in the food court that you can possibly be here!” Oh, my.

So finally, at about 1:20am, I settled into my comfy POP bed for a few hours of sleep. Of course, I was too excited to sleep! In just a few hours, I was going to be at the MK for my birthday!!!

Coming up, the first installment of my birthday at the MK!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

I pulled up the car to the security gate, and at that point it was right about 12:30am. Now this security guy was weird. I got my driver’s license out for him to see when we pulled up, and handed it to him when he asked. He looked at it, and was about to hand it back, then looked at it again for a minute strangely. I thought, “Oh, he’s noticed that it’s my birthday!” Nope. He told me my license was expired and I shouldn’t be driving!!

I don’t know about licenses for other states, but here’s how they are in Georgia for people under 21. You have a big red border around your picture with the worlds “UNDER 21” on it, then at the very bottom of the license in red letters is “Until (date of your 21st birthday).” So mine said, “Until 4-21-2009.” I’ve just always assumed that this meant I was under 21 until this date, at which point I could renew my license whenever I please and get a new one without all of the red underage writing on it. Then at the top, just under the big words “Driver’s License,” they have in big black letters “Expires” and the actual expiration date on it. In my case, it said, “Expires – 4-21-2011,” at which point the one I have will be completely expired if I haven’t already renewed it. This way, I have two years to get the license renewed. So the security guy didn’t quite understand the different dates, and thought the big red letters “Until 4-21-2009” meant that my license expired that day! So he basically tried to convince me that I shouldn’t be driving on my expired license. Silly me, I thought he was going to wish me happy birthday! So as I pulled the car away from the gate, Dad and I had a good eye roll over that one. But I don’t really blame him for mis-reading it, looking at so many different licenses must get confusing. I just couldn’t believe he tried to tell me I shouldn’t be the one driving.

Haha. I would have thought he would have wished me a happy birthday too! I don't know about Florida but in Pennsylvania our licenses are the same way. Oh well at least he let you in and hey you're at Disney World! How did you like Pop? Can't wait to hear about your birthday day!!!

 

[tinawv]

Can't wait to read more.

 

[tink774]

Haha. I would have thought he would have wished me a happy birthday too! I don't know about Florida but in Pennsylvania our licenses are the same way. Oh well at least he let you in and hey you're at Disney World! How did you like Pop? Can't wait to hear about your birthday day!!!

Glad I'm not the only one who would have expected a birthday greeting!

I loved POP! In the past, we've stayed in the 60s and 50s sections, and I could never understand the complaints from others about hearing too much noise from their neighbors. I've never heard a peep from any other rooms! You can't help but hear those turbo toilets flush, but other than that we've never had any problems with noise. In the 80s section however, I could definitely tell a difference. Our neighbors weren't loud by any means, but I was hearing more from other rooms than ever before. I guess out of all of the rooms I've stayed in at POP (this was my fourth stay), our room in building 7 was the only one where I've ever had this happen. But my only true complaint about the entire stay was the dingy towels in the bathroom. I know that towels at the Value resorts aren't going to be as thick and fluffy as others might be, but these were definitely showing some wear and tear and looked like they needed to be replaced. Other than that, the only thing I noticed that was unpleasant was that whenever our toilet flushed, it sounded like a cat was dying in it!

But Mousekeeping kept our room very clean (and they came early too!), and our stay was an overall pleasant one! I'll definitely include some more thoughts on the resort for you to read up on while preparing for your trip!

Can't wait to read more.

Glad to have you aboard!! Hope my TR will prove to be an entertaining read for you! And I'm so jealous that you're staying at the Poly! Out of all the MK resorts, it's the one I'm most anxious to try one day! Do you have a PTR?

 

[tink774]

Welcome back! I hope you had a good birthday trip!

I just noticed that you have the Yacht and Beach Club on your ticker!! Are you staying there? If so, I'd love to read a PTR if you have one. I've never stayed at any Deluxe, but the BC and YC look like they'd be fantastic resorts to try!

 

[twenty3curls]

Just found your PTR and TR from a post you made on another thread... but I can't remember which one (even though it was about 20 minutes ago)... I guess that what happens when you're sick in bed reading the Dis all day!

My DF and I were going to celebrate our May birthdays in Disney this year since they're are only 7 days apart. Alas, my brother graduates law school on DF's birthday and our friend is getting married on mine. Love your TR, so far, so I'm going to live vicariously through you!!

Can't wait for more!

 

[tink774]

Just found your PTR and TR from a post you made on another thread... but I can't remember which one (even though it was about 20 minutes ago)... I guess that what happens when you're sick in bed reading the Dis all day!

My DF and I were going to celebrate our May birthdays in Disney this year since they're are only 7 days apart. Alas, my brother graduates law school on DF's birthday and our friend is getting married on mine. Love your TR, so far, so I'm going to live vicariously through you!!

Can't wait for more!

You're getting married at Disney!! I'm going to run over to your PJ and live vicariously through you!!!!! Hopefully a Disney wedding is somewhere in my future, but not for a couple more years. Got to finish up with school and get a FT job first. Luckily DBF is all for it!

I'm sorry to hear that your trip plans fell through. I hope that another opportunity presents itself soon!! Is there any time later this year that you could go and still celebrate your birthdays, even if not on the exact dates?

 

[tink774]

Two updates in one day, wow! I guess when you have final exams to study for, nothing seems more appealing than hanging out on the DIS.

My Birthday at the Magic Kingdom!! – Tuesday, April 21, Part 1

I can’t remember exactly what time I woke up this day. I set my cell phone alarm for 7:35am, and set up the wake-up call for 7:30. Didn’t want to use the alarm clock in the room because I can’t stand those crazy bells!! Dad woke up and answered the wake-up call, and he got out of his bed right away to take a shower. I rolled over sleepily for a little while, and I think I finally got out of bed just after 7:45. By that time, Dad was showered and dressed and anxious to head up to the Classic Hall for some coffee! I had packed several of my favorite bottled Starbucks frappuccinos for the trip, so I drank one of those in bed and watched Stacey for a couple of minutes on the TV. Dad left to get some coffee and sit by the pool while I got ready.

I wanted to try and look cute today, so first I dug through my bag to pick out what to wear. I realized that I forgot to pack my Chip & Dale shirt!! Here’s a picture of me in it from Dec. 2007. Too bad that I forgot it, because it would have been fun to wear!

So instead I decided to wear my Seven Dwarfs shirt with my pink skirt. If Stacey can walk around the parks in a skirt, why not me? Then I showered, dried my hair, and finished getting ready. And I remembered to put on my birthday button! Just before 8:45am, I texted Dad to let him know that I was heading down towards the food court. But on the way, I took some pictures!!

Here was the view of the main WDW gate from right outside our door.

We got a towel animal in the window!

The girl right next door was celebrating her birthday, too!

At this point I got mildly lost… then I looked over my shoulder and saw this! (I was born in 1988).

So I had to take a picture with it!

Then I was still trying to find my way to Classic Hall (how embarrassing, I’ve never gotten lost at POP before!!) and I wandered into the field area with the Big Wheel and the giant Mickey Mouse phone.

I don’t know what they were doing, but it amused me!

Then I figured out my way and headed to Classic Hall. It took Dad and I a minute to find each other via cell phone, Then it was time for some breakfast! The food court was still pretty hoppin’, but it was starting to empty out a bit. So we went and got in line for Mickey waffles for me and a cinnamon bun for Dad. Took us a minute to find a table, but once we sat down we dug into some yummy food. While working on my second waffle, I realized that I meant to take a picture! I didn’t feel like getting out my camera, so the cell phone camera would have to do. So this is one of only two food porn pictures that I have from the trip, sorry DISers!

After a delicious and filling breakfast, we headed out to the bus stop. We had to wait for a couple of minutes. After a short wait the bus came, and we all got on. Dad and I managed to get seats, and these two adorable little boys were sitting on the floor in front of us. One of them wished me a happy birthday, and told me it was his brother’s birthday the day before. Then he asked me how old I am! Haha, I wanted to tell him that it’s not polite to ask a lady her age just to be silly. Instead I told him that I was a little bit older than he is (I think he said he was six years old). He was persistent in finding out my age, so I finally told him that I was turning 21. So he asked, “How many years of school have you done?” and I replied, “Too many.”

The bus ride was fairly quick, there wasn’t any traffic on the way to the MK. As we were riding, Dad and I discussed the different resorts we wanted to try. He said that as a birthday surprise to me, he tried to get us a room at the Contemporary Resort so that we could walk over to the park. What a sweet thought! But he said the only thing available was some kind of suite for $2,000 a night!! I would never have wanted him to spend that much, especially since our room at POP was less than $75 per night! I can be quite cheap, and the thought of spending $4,000 for two nights at a resort is insane to me. I thanked him for the thought, but I am actually glad that we didn’t stay somewhere I’d never been before. I would have wanted time to explore the resort, and unfortunately we just didn’t really have the time during this trip. And to be perfectly honest, the Contemporary Resort wouldn’t be my first choice for a Deluxe anyway. My top choices for a Deluxe would be Beach Club, Yacht Club, Poly, Boardwalk, and Wilderness Lodge. I hope to try all of the Deluxes at least once, though. So then for the rest of the trip, Dad told me about his first stay at the Contemporary, back when he and my mom brought his two nieces to WDW back in the early 1980s.

Coming up, getting into the MK!!

 

[wdwdavem]

Great update. I can't wait to hear more. Belated happy birthday to a fellow april birthday.

 

[tink774]

Great update. I can't wait to hear more. Belated happy birthday to a fellow april birthday.

Thank you! And happy belated birthday to you, too!!

 

[tink774]

My Birthday at the Magic Kingdom!! – Tuesday, April 21, Part 2

We arrived at the MK at about 9:30am, right after it opened. There was a crowd waiting to get in, but it wasn’t too bad. Dad didn’t bring any bags, so I just had to go through bag check with my purse. The security guy saw my birthday button and said, “Happy Birthday Anna! Are you turning 21?” I asked how in the world he knew, and he said that he was just guessing. I found this really funny because people almost never guess my actual age. They always think I’m much younger than I am! I suppose I’ll appreciate that as I get older, but most of the time now it’s just annoying. Quick story: When I was 19, I was working at a store in the mall of my hometown. You had to be 16 years old to work there, and I’d been there for more than a year. A guest (we called customers that just like Disney does) approached my manager and said that she didn’t think I looked old enough to work there! Really?! I was 19 years old and I didn’t even look 16?! Ugh. So it was very nice to have someone actually guess my age correctly, especially on my 21st birthday!

Anyway, I was ready at this point to just get into the MK! However, first we had to go wait in the line at Guest Relations to get my Birthday Admissions Pass! Dad bought his day ticket back at POP, so he was good to go. We went and stood in the Guest Relations line with my printed birthday registration and my driver’s license. We were in line for about 5 minutes or so, slowly weaving our way up. Then we got to the very front of the line, and they told us to turn around and go over to this special Birthday Admission building they have set up now. I get the feeling that it was brand new, and I wish we’d known about it before we stood in that line. At least they’ve designated a special area for the Birthday Admission promotion, because I can imagine Guest Relations needed the load off to deal with other things.

So we go over to the tiny building which has some decorations to resemble a cupcake. I didn’t think to take a picture. We waited for about 30 seconds before I was next in line, so I walked up to the window and gave them my documents. The person who printed up my ticket was very friendly and quick with the process. I’m sure he could sense how anxious I was to get into the park! He gave me my ticket, and I was on my way! We didn’t even think to take my picture with it, and I don’t have one on my computer right now. I’ll try to take a picture of it soon and include it in the TR, because it’s a cute admission pass. Dad and I took our tickets to the admission gate, put them through the machines, and we were finally inside the Magic Kingdom! Just as a side note, keep in mind that it still hasn’t hit me by this point. I’ve been to Disney so many times that it’s just become routine to enter the parks and it’s not something I stop and think about very often, if that makes any sense.

Now that we’re in the park, time for some photos!

I’m not crazy about this one, but it’s the first one in the park so I have to include it!

Then on Dad’s camera:

To be honest, I’m not crazy about the way my dad frames his photos. My mom is the same way. They both try to get as much as possible in the picture, so it ends up just looking busy and whatever subject they’re actually trying to capture can look lost. Sometimes they’re better about it, though. I’ve often thought about getting them a book on digital photography, not in a mean “Your photos suck” kind of way, but just to help them improve because they both enjoy taking pictures. And especially now that my dad has a better point-and-shoot camera than he did before, I feel like he could enjoy taking pictures more with a few tips. It’s funny, they don’t believe in candid photos! Like, if the person in the photo is not posing and saying “Cheese,” they just don’t find it worth taking! So I think I am going to look for a nice tips book for basic point-and-shoot photography to help them out.

We got one of the Photopass photographers to take my picture here, too, but his didn’t come out well at all. I was actually very disappointed by the Disney Photopass people on this trip. I don’t know if it’s because they were coming off of spring break/Easter crowds and were tired or if they were just lazy and grumpy, but most of the ones we encountered were pretty rude and not at all creative. When we got home, I was looking at my family’s Photopass pictures from the week before, and they had tons of photos that I thought were great. But out of the ones we took, there are maybe two that are actually worth buying. I was mainly disappointed in the photographers because they were not particularly busy that day. Any time we went up to one, they were usually standing around looking for something to do or chatting with another CM. It’s not like there were hoards of people waiting on them to finish up with us. Oh, well. I’ve enjoyed the Photopass services every other time that I’ve used them, so I won’t let this experience stop me!

After the photo stop, we walked through the tunnel towards Main Street!

I'm going to cut off this section here and put up the next one soon, because it has a ton of pictures in it.


Coming up, my first Birthday Wish of the trip!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to more.

 

[tink774]

My Birthday at the Magic Kingdom!! – Tuesday, April 21, Part 2.5

And now we come to a very important part of the Birthday TR… MY BIRTHDAY WISHES! Haha. I made out a list of things that I really wanted to try and do on this trip, from the little things like a certain snack, to the big things like certain photos I wanted to try and get. Now we’ve arrived at the very first fulfilled Birthday Wish of the trip (besides getting there, of course!).

Birthday Wish #1 – Get my picture taken with Chip and Dale!

I am a huge fan of Chip and Dale! Dale is my favorite, though. Once I was staying at CBR and in the gift shop, I bought just a Dale stuffed animal instead of the pair, and the CM at the register thought I was being very unfair to Chip. Rescue Rangers is one of my favorite television shows ever, so I was very disappointed when the chipmunks stopped appearing in their costumes from the show around the parks (Chip wore what I think was a leather jacket and an Indiana Jones-esque hat, and Dale wore a red Hawaiian shirt). But they are still two of my favorite characters to get pictures with, and it’s quickly become a tradition in the last two years to try and get one on every trip.

This one is May 2007, on the first day that Rob and I were in the MK. I wish my hat hadn’t fallen so far down my face!

Then during the December 2007 trip, I found them several times!

These were taken during EMH, and it was like 3:00am, so I look really tired.

Dale got a hold of my camera and took this one himself!

And of course, Dad got one taken, too!

Well, I didn’t manage to find the chipmunks during the New Year’s trip this past December/January, so I was determined to get a photo on my birthday! We walked into Main Street, and I immediately started looking around the area in front of City Hall for them. I saw Daisy, Pluto, and Pinocchio hanging around, but it took me a minute to find Chip and Dale. They were tucked away in a corner over by the barber shop. So we raced over to them and jumped in the line. While we waited, Dad attempted to take his first ever “Myspace” picture. I was very amused. He sees my sister and I take pictures of ourselves with things all the time, but he’d never tried it.

And I took a photo of the shoes I was wearing that day. They’re the most comfortable flip flops I’ve ever owned, and of course I had to wear shoes saying “I heart Me” on my birthday! Sorry, but it’s not a very good photo.

While in the line, Dad called my mom, who was stuck at work!! She works in Infection Control in a hospital, and she was in her office when Dad called. She was so jealous that we were back in Disney while she was working. My mom is like me, she’d probably move to Disney if she could. I know that she wanted to go along on this trip, too, but she just couldn’t get time off of work after just getting back from a week-long vacation. After we got off the phone, it was my turn to see Chip and Dale!

This is another example of my Dad getting too much in the frames of his pictures. I showed him how to work the Zoom feature on my camera, but he didn’t use it. I had to crop about half of the picture out in Photobucket just to get this snippet. I’ll probably play around with the original version in Photoshop before I get my photos printed to try and get a better cropped version. And I can’t figure out why they put the chipmunks in such a shadowy area of Main Street! It was too bad that they didn’t have Photopass photographers out with the characters, either. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. But it would have been nice, because often they’ll take really cute candid pictures of you hugging characters and stuff and their interactions with you (You know, the kinds of photos my dad doesn’t believe in taking ).

Right after my photo, the chipmunks were moved even further into the shadows to make way for the trolley as it pulled into the car barn. I hardly ever see this out anymore, so I took some pictures.

Then we moved on down Main Street, and stopped to try and get a picture in front of the Cinderella Castle. Since the sun was right in our eyes at this point in the morning, we decided to come back and try again later.

And now that we fulfilled one birthday wish, it was time to move on the next one… What will it be??

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

Glad I'm not the only one who would have expected a birthday greeting!

I loved POP! In the past, we've stayed in the 60s and 50s sections, and I could never understand the complaints from others about hearing too much noise from their neighbors. I've never heard a peep from any other rooms! You can't help but hear those turbo toilets flush, but other than that we've never had any problems with noise. In the 80s section however, I could definitely tell a difference. Our neighbors weren't loud by any means, but I was hearing more from other rooms than ever before. I guess out of all of the rooms I've stayed in at POP (this was my fourth stay), our room in building 7 was the only one where I've ever had this happen. But my only true complaint about the entire stay was the dingy towels in the bathroom. I know that towels at the Value resorts aren't going to be as thick and fluffy as others might be, but these were definitely showing some wear and tear and looked like they needed to be replaced. Other than that, the only thing I noticed that was unpleasant was that whenever our toilet flushed, it sounded like a cat was dying in it!

But Mousekeeping kept our room very clean (and they came early too!), and our stay was an overall pleasant one! I'll definitely include some more thoughts on the resort for you to read up on while preparing for your trip!

Thanks!!!! It's my first time staying at a value resort we usually stay at OKW (my family are DVC members) and I think it's going to be so much fun! I requested the 60's area because my dbf loves the 60's, so hopefully we get it. I think those toilets are at every resort, I know they're at OKW, they sound like space shuttles lifting off!!! Thanks in advance for any more thoughts!!!

My Birthday at the Magic Kingdom!! – Tuesday, April 21, Part 2

We arrived at the MK at about 9:30am, right after it opened. There was a crowd waiting to get in, but it wasn’t too bad. Dad didn’t bring any bags, so I just had to go through bag check with my purse. The security guy saw my birthday button and said, “Happy Birthday Anna! Are you turning 21?” I asked how in the world he knew, and he said that he was just guessing. I found this really funny because people almost never guess my actual age. They always think I’m much younger than I am! I suppose I’ll appreciate that as I get older, but most of the time now it’s just annoying. Quick story: When I was 19, I was working at a store in the mall of my hometown. You had to be 16 years old to work there, and I’d been there for more than a year. A guest (we called customers that just like Disney does) approached my manager and said that she didn’t think I looked old enough to work there! Really?! I was 19 years old and I didn’t even look 16?! Ugh. So it was very nice to have someone actually guess my age correctly, especially on my 21st birthday!

This happens to me all the time. Once I was shopping with my mom and a lady told me she didn't think I was any older than 13!!!! I was 21 at the time!!!! Oh well like you said we'll be thankful for that once we get older! I can't wait to hear more about your birthday day!