Is 7 Days Enough to Make a First Timer Fall in Love??--Aug'11 TR-- FINAL UPDATE 8/26

[FosterA]

It's hard to believe that your TR is almost over. boo hoo. I've really enjoyed following along and especially hearing what things BF liked since he was such a skeptic. It was also funny to see all the "snoozin' around the world" that he did.
The food at Ohana looks amazing! I'm a big shrimp fan so I would have been all over that! The bread and salad and rice appear to be just like what the Luau had and we sure loved the bread and salad.

Now you still have your Mexico trip coming up right? That's something to look forward to for sure! I just went to Cozumel a couple months ago and it was gorgeous.

 

[Leshaface]

Aw man, I was really hoping you were going to recommend the cupcake. Are there other types of cupcakes here? Perhaps my mom and I can split one. She's a MAJOR dessert fan like me!

You guys did so good on your Jiminy drawings! I've never gotten that class before...I'm hoping this is something we can do while we're at WDW, since we've never done it there before, but i'm not sure how that will work with a baby Maybe I can make it work.

And we still haven't seen the Indy show. Is it really loud? I'd also like to see Lights, Motors, Action! but imagine that's loud as well..

 

[heathsf]

It's hard to believe that your TR is almost over. boo hoo. I've really enjoyed following along and especially hearing what things BF liked since he was such a skeptic. It was also funny to see all the "snoozin' around the world" that he did.
The food at Ohana looks amazing! I'm a big shrimp fan so I would have been all over that! The bread and salad and rice appear to be just like what the Luau had and we sure loved the bread and salad.

Now you still have your Mexico trip coming up right? That's something to look forward to for sure! I just went to Cozumel a couple months ago and it was gorgeous.

I know, I can't believe I only have a couple of updates left to do! I'm so glad you've stuck around this whole time! We're going to Punta Cana in 6 days. I'm really excited. I've heard it's beautiful.

Aw man, I was really hoping you were going to recommend the cupcake. Are there other types of cupcakes here? Perhaps my mom and I can split one. She's a MAJOR dessert fan like me!

You guys did so good on your Jiminy drawings! I've never gotten that class before...I'm hoping this is something we can do while we're at WDW, since we've never done it there before, but i'm not sure how that will work with a baby Maybe I can make it work.

And we still haven't seen the Indy show. Is it really loud? I'd also like to see Lights, Motors, Action! but imagine that's loud as well..

I really don't remember if they had other cupcakes, but it would be weird if they didn't right? A lot of people on here love that cupcake so maybe you should give it a try for yourself. As for Animation Academy, I think you'll be able to do it (or maybe 2 out of the 3 of you will be able to do it anyway). You're sitting on a stool to draw but there are benches in every row as well. Both stunt shows are pretty loud and have explosions.

 

[Leshaface]

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I really don't remember if they had other cupcakes, but it would be weird if they didn't right? A lot of people on here love that cupcake so maybe you should give it a try for yourself. As for Animation Academy, I think you'll be able to do it (or maybe 2 out of the 3 of you will be able to do it anyway). You're sitting on a stool to draw but there are benches in every row as well. Both stunt shows are pretty loud and have explosions.

Oh wow, I didn't know they had stools for Animation Academy. This is what i'm used to:

Don't know who those people are btw, but they are all comfy cushioned benches and is like stadium seating. Hopefully we'll be able to do this!

 

[heathsf]

Oh wow, I didn't know they had stools for Animation Academy. This is what i'm used to:

Don't know who those people are btw, but they are all comfy cushioned benches and is like stadium seating. Hopefully we'll be able to do this!

Here's a picture of what it looks like. There are yellow stools in front of every "desk" for the people drawing but directly behind it there is a wooden bench. Nothing is cushioned.

I guess your picture is from Disneyland? It looks so different.

 

[teekathepony]

Last days are always so bitter sweet!
Too bad about the cupcake It looks so scrumptious but I can believe it was awfully rich too.
Love the drawings, I have to get myself to the Animation Academy!

 

[heathsf]

Last days are always so bitter sweet!
Too bad about the cupcake It looks so scrumptious but I can believe it was awfully rich too.
Love the drawings, I have to get myself to the Animation Academy!

This is true, and so is the end of a trip report! I'm sad but I do have another project to help me relive the memories

 

[heathsf]

We just got back on Tuesday from our trip to Punta Cana. It was so relaxing and so much fun. I thought I would share a video of our trip in case anyone was interested.

Now that this trip is over, I can finish up my TR! I'm thinking that I will make the same kind of video of our WDW trip as another project that will let me continue reliving the vacation. I just can't let go!

I have to go to my school today to prepare for some workshops next week but I'm sure I'll be able to find some time very soon for another update on the TR.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who's still sticking around. It looks like I'll finish up the TR before the 1 year mark!

Here's the link to the Punta Cana video:
Punta Cana - Majestic Elegance

 

[FosterA]

Loved the video! how cute, which program did you use? A Mac?

particularly loved the drinking competition!

What a beautiful place. I think i would like to try an all-inclusive type of resort with David sometime. you got me thinking.....

 

[heathsf]

Loved the video! how cute, which program did you use? A Mac?

particularly loved the drinking competition!

What a beautiful place. I think i would like to try an all-inclusive type of resort with David sometime. you got me thinking.....

I used iMovie to make it. It's easy and so much fun!

As much fun as we had on the trip, I heard several different people say they enjoyed Mexico more, so if we decided to do something like this again, I would keep that in mind

Although, if I had the choice of doing another all-inclusive or going to WDW, I would choose WDW hands down!

 

[heathsf]

Friday, August 26 - Part 2

We were off to the Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Playground. I suppose I cannot pass judgment since I’ve never seen Captain EO, but I was wishing Honey, I Shrunk The Audience was still playing because I’m pretty sure BF would’ve enjoyed it. We didn’t bother with Captain EO. Anyway, we headed to the playground for a little bit. BF thought it was cute, but wasn’t in the mood to go down the slide with me.

At 12:15 we decided to have lunch at the nearby Backlot Catering Co. And by “we”, I mean “I”. BF wasn’t hungry enough to eat anything. I had the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and BF shared some of my fries. I didn’t write it down but it looks like I had marble cheesecake for dessert. I also didn’t write down if I liked it. I don’t remember it being bad so I’ll go ahead and say it was good. I guess I didn’t want to spend what little precious WDW time I had left taking detailed notes at this point.

After my lunch, it was time to use our TSM FP! We walked back to Pixar Place where I had to snap a picture of some beautiful garbage cans. Gotta love Disney theming.

The standby wait time at this point was posted as 60 minutes.

Talk about theming! I love this ride, just walking into it makes me happy.

BF beat me again. We were talking about WDW a few days ago and he confirmed for me that this was his favorite ride.

Upon exiting, we saw this guy:

There was no queue, people were just walking up to him and interacting/taking pictures. I let the little children nearby have their turn and then I stepped in. I look more like I’m shielding the sun from my eyes than saluting.

At this point, we were debating whether to stay at HS or go to DTD. We hadn’t really done any shopping and our original plan was to go to DTD but we decided to stay at HS, at least for a little while longer. I checked the Lines app and Star Tours had a 5 minute wait so we started in that direction. We took our time when we got to the Great Movie Ride and spent some time checking out the handprints and names. BF seemed to be really interested in this.

When we got to Star Tours there was basically no line at all. We walked right through the queue and only had to wait for the next ride to start. We really enjoyed this ride better than our first. The scenes were great! I really love how they redid this ride!

Once again, we debated whether to stay in the park or leave for DTD and once again, we decided to stay. We headed to Animation Academy for another drawing lesson. This time we drew Minnie.
Here’s mine:

And BF’s:

Afterwards, we walked to the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Blvd to check the tip board. ToT had a posted wait time of 40 minutes. Boo. We decided to do some shopping here since we obviously weren’t going to be making it to DTD.

No, he did not buy that.

No, I did not buy that. But I wanted to!

Yes, we did buy that. But not for him, for our niece.

Up Next: Our last ride of the vacation

 

[potc]

I just read through most of your PTR and through Day 1 of this TR! I am really enjoying it! Like you I am a Disney fanatic! I have been multiple times with family, but never with my fiance! We are doing our honeymoon in Nov and he sounds just like your BF! I hope we have as much fun as you guys!

 

[teekathepony]

Hahaha love the shopping pics, esp. the Minnie bib.
I've always wanted to get my picture with a green army man!! So jealous! hahaha
Last ride coming up? Boo

 

[heathsf]

I just read through most of your PTR and through Day 1 of this TR! I am really enjoying it! Like you I am a Disney fanatic! I have been multiple times with family, but never with my fiance! We are doing our honeymoon in Nov and he sounds just like your BF! I hope we have as much fun as you guys!

How could anybody NOT love WDW right?? I'm sure your dfi will love it. I hope you have an amazing time! Will you be writing a TR?

Hahaha love the shopping pics, esp. the Minnie bib.
I've always wanted to get my picture with a green army man!! So jealous! hahaha
Last ride coming up? Boo

Boo is right!! I'm so sad just reliving it

 

[heathsf]

Friday, August 26 - Part 3

Once we finished shopping, it was just about time to leave the park I crossed my fingers as we headed toward ToT, which as a reminder, is one of my favorite rides in all of the parks.

I was really hoping to be able to ride one last time! The wait had been 40 minutes not too long ago, so I was very pleasantly surprised to find this:

Even though the wait was posted as 10 minutes, we were in the library for the preshow in less than 5 minutes. It was truly a great last ride. We got off the elevator both agreeing it was the best ToT ride of the trip!

Hmm, it's not a very exciting ride photo... We're on the right-hand side and it looks like we're just having a casual conversation..? Did we plan this? I don't remember...

We took some PP pictures in front of ToT and Mickey's Hat. The first one was with my camera compared to the second one which is the PP.

As we exited HS, our last park of the trip, we experienced a truly bittersweet moment as we spotted this Hidden Mickey

Even now, it almost brings a tear to my eye!

Up Next: Last trip back to POP

 

[FosterA]

awwww, i'm sad that it's your last day. We never ran across that Honey i Shrunk playground for some reason but i know my son would have really liked it since he likes the movies so much. yet another reason to go back.....

I'm glad you got that last TOT ride in with such a short wait time. I think the theming is amazing at that attraction even though i can live without the ride itself.

I'll be watching for your last installment. Sure going to miss your updates though.

 

[Leshaface]

AH! I loved your video! I have iMovie and don't know how you did this and I play with it all the time! How did you add the 'pages' into the movie, to make it look like a different chapter? Hope this makes sense.

Dang can your BF chug fast! Was he feeling fine after those three rounds?? Your room there looks amazing! I was showing DH this and he thinks it looks pretty neat. Is it pretty expensive? Is there an off season?

I'm so glad you were able to get on the ToT for your last ride! Oh my gosh. A hidden cloud mickey?! I would have started bawling.

 

[heathsf]

awwww, i'm sad that it's your last day. We never ran across that Honey i Shrunk playground for some reason but i know my son would have really liked it since he likes the movies so much. yet another reason to go back.....

I'm glad you got that last TOT ride in with such a short wait time. I think the theming is amazing at that attraction even though i can live without the ride itself.

I'll be watching for your last installment. Sure going to miss your updates though.

Thanks for sticking around through the entire thing!

AH! I loved your video! I have iMovie and don't know how you did this and I play with it all the time! How did you add the 'pages' into the movie, to make it look like a different chapter? Hope this makes sense.

Dang can your BF chug fast! Was he feeling fine after those three rounds?? Your room there looks amazing! I was showing DH this and he thinks it looks pretty neat. Is it pretty expensive? Is there an off season?

I'm so glad you were able to get on the ToT for your last ride! Oh my gosh. A hidden cloud mickey?! I would have started bawling.

iMovie has "themes" you can choose that add the extra animation stuff in there for you. I think my version has a film strip, a photo album, scrap book, and comic book. My version is a few years old already though so maybe you have the newer version which I'm sure has even cooler stuff. Keep playing around with it

Yeah he seriously can chug like he doesn't have to swallow. It never ceases to amaze me. He had more than those 3 rounds in the contest because there was a tie, and then a "false start" lol. So, he was feeling mighty fine by the end of the contest

The room was really nice. It was huge and way more space than we needed but we loved having the access to the private pool right from the room. We originally wanted to go in April but it was way to expensive so we moved the trip to July. I think we spent $2800 for both of us with airfare and trip insurance for 5 nights, all-inclusive. It was a lot of fun and the area was beautiful, I just wished the sit down dinners were a little better overall. It certainly wasn't Disney dining

 

[heathsf]

Friday, August 26 - Part 4

After returning to POP from HS we did a little bit more shopping. I really wanted Disney Christmas Ornaments for our tree and these were perfect:

Then we grabbed some lunch.

BF had a Bacon Cheeseburger to be followed up with an extravagant dessert. I had California Rolls.

And then it was time. The worst part of every WDW vacation. We had already checked our suitcases before leaving for the park that morning, so we just had our carry-ons which was very convenient. But I was so sad. So so so sad. Leaving in February at the end of my mother-daughter trip wasn't so bad because I knew I would be back in less than 6 months. But leaving in August, not knowing when I'd be able to go back, just stunk.

Here comes BF with his ice cream sundae.

We had a 20 minute wait for the Magical Express (which really is NOT magical at all when it's taking you back to the airport. Hmph! ) so while we waited I snapped pictures of everything I could find.

Sitting on the curb, waiting for the bus, drowning his sorrows in his ice cream...

Once the bus came and we got on board, I made BF take the obligatory "Look How Sad I Am To Be Leaving Disney" photo. I have shared the best one, but just know that I have 11 other pictures where BF is making all sorts of faces: happy, excited, fist-pumping, surprised, angry, and downright creepy, among others.

I finally got him to make a sad face, but he did succeed in cheering me up a teeny tiny bit. He may not LOVE Disney in the same way that I do, but I can't think of anyone better to share the trip with

Up Next: Wrap-up and Future Plans

 

[heathsf]

It's a funny coincidence, but exactly one year ago today was the last day of this trip. It was my favorite trip of all time, because I got to share it with my DFi. He may not have fallen as madly in love with WDW as I hoped he would, but we both had a fantastic time and he admits it was a lot more fun than he was expecting it to be.

As for our future plans, after semi-drinking his way around the world on Day 6 in Epcot, Bobby shared with me that even though he was having a great time, he didn't see himself coming back again before we have kids. Although I am planning for that to NOT be the case, we don't have any concrete plans to go back right now. It's been a year since this last trip and we definitely won't be going in the next year since we're getting married in 11 months and we are saving every penny for the wedding and honeymoon. We are planning to go to Hawaii and I am super excited about it. But perhaps there could be a WDW trip for our one year anniversary... I will have to work on it.

However, while WDW isn't in the picture for now, my best friend is getting married in LA in March and will be moving out there with her husband. About an hour from Disneyland. Yup.

As devastated as I am that she's moving across the country, the silver lining is that there will be family vacations to Disneyland in our future I have never been there before and am hoping to go just for the day when we're out there for the wedding in March.

I have one last thing to share. I just finished making a video on iMovie of our trip. It is long (25 minutes - it's even longer than the video I made of a 3 week trip to Europe!!! ) so obviously I don't expect everyone to sit around and watch it. A lot of the pictures from this TR are included as well as lots of video that wasn't. Bobby is a real character (in case you hadn't noticed ) and I couldn't help cracking up even as I put the video together because he's such a ham. Anyway, if you need a WDW fix, perhaps you'll enjoy it. Here's the link to youtube:

http://youtu.be/FKZ-Y4G0e6M

Well, I'm certainly sad to be done with this TR. Thank you to the few DISers who have actually stuck around through this entire thing, and if there are any lurkers out there who have been following along, thank you to you too! It's been a lot of fun, and hopefully I will have another TR to write in the future.

-Heather