Is this a vacation or a fun boot camp? ~ Our 1st time at Disney ~ June 2011 TR

[mrssmith06]

Continuing Wednesday June 8th...
So we had dinner at the resort food court and then headed off to Epcot for the night!

I think we got there about 7pm, maybe a little after. We still had a little daylight. We took our time walking in and looking at our surroundings. The kids went straight for the water fountain area!

Then of course we seen the Cars shrubbery and had to stop and admire it!

We made it over to Mexico and people were already packing in finding their seats for Illuminations! Eh, not us! We wanted to look around a little before we had to take seats for the show. So we spent a few minutes in Mexico.

Then we walked over to Norway & rode the Maelstrom! We all enjoyed it. I wish we would have done Mexico's boat ride now too though. We never got a chance to come back to it either. Definitely on next trip's list!

When we came out of there it had gotten dark on us! It was after 8 now. We still had a little time so we went over to China and the kids played with the puppets out front for a few minutes before we decided to find a place to watch Illuminations. We never got a chance to look inside China.

We found a decent place near China to sit and watch the show, it wasn't real close but we could see it and we weren't crowded around too many others.
We loved it, it was a nice way to end our 1st night there.

As soon as the finale was done we made our way out, walked to our car and went back to our room!

I got the kids in bed right away so we could try to rest up for Day 2! My feet were already starting to ache and we had an early ADR at Chef Mickey's the next morning!

As you can see, my plans for Day 1 changed drastically if you've looked at my PTR, LOL. My original plans were no park on this day and we would just swim or go to DTD. But as soon as we checked in I hopped over to the other desk to add a park day! We had arrived much earlier than we originally planned and I was set on getting some park time done. And we made good use of our park hopper through out this trip... But I will probably forgo the park hopping on our next trip!

UP NEXT... Day 2: Our 1st Magic Kingdom day with 2 ADR's!

 

[basketkat]

Yeah for Illuminations!

The Cars shrubbery is super cute!

Hope you all were able to rest up for Day 2!

 

[mrssmith06]

I got my Photopass CD in today!! Woohoo!!

I'll try to add my favorites from the CD in a separate post after I've reported on each day. Here are some Photopass pics from Day 1 @ HS... Enjoy!

 

[lbuzz52]

That was a busy day! I bet you guys were tired!

I also had no idea that there was a shop in the hat.

I'm glad that your surprises went well! Your daughters reaction was sweet!

 

[mtgirl29]

2 hours in Pizza Planet? That is crazy, but glad the food was good.
Your PP pics are GREAT!!!
I am happy to report that I used the Body Glide on my feet this time and not one blister. The Body Glide, however, did not help with tired, achy feet. I think that just comes with a Disney vacation, unfortunately.
Looking forward to reading more!

 

[TanzUnited99]

I've a lot to catch up on!

All Star Movies looks like a great resort - love all the pics.

Wow at the wait at Pizza Planet! Am glad you got to ride TSMM and ToT (even though you didn't like it!)

Was pleased to read that the Mickey and Minnie surprises were a hit with the kids!

Yay on ending your 1st day with Illuminations!

Great PP pics - did you think pre-ordering the CD was worthwhile?

Looking forward to reading more

 

[mrssmith06]

As much as I hated ToT, I guess I am glad that I rode it. At least I can say I've experienced it. It would take a lot to get me back on it though hahaha! I am already nervous on elevators, and then I get on something like that, doesn't help. I have issues with panic attacks and getting on rides like that makes me worry about having an attack... I wish I wasn't such a wuss, I hate to be the party pooper when it comes to the "fun" rides. It was fun after it was over though. The kids were so funny.

I took plenty of Mole skin for my feet and did end up having to use it the last few days! I started to get a couple of blisters but they never really came up, I think that Mole skin really helped a lot. My biggest problem with my achy feet was that I had an infected ingrown toenail during the entire trip. It was awful, I was limping around most of the time but I was determined not to let it stop me!!!

Tanz- Yes I would order the Photopass CD again! I wish we would have had more pictures but we still ended up with like 130+. We only came across 1 photographer in MK which really disappointed me but I didn't go hunt them down either, we just stopped if we happen to see one and there wasn't a line waiting.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Tanz- Yes I would order the Photopass CD again! I wish we would have had more pictures but we still ended up with like 130+. We only came across 1 photographer in MK which really disappointed me but I didn't go hunt them down either, we just stopped if we happen to see one and there wasn't a line waiting.

Thanks for answering my question. That is still a lot.

Only one PP photographer at MK - that sure is disappointing. I have read in other TRs about people hunting them down and just don't want to be doing that during our trip!

 

[PixieMama]

I'm here!

I've been gone for a week, so I need to go back and read but I wanted to say hi before I forgot!

 

[PixieMama]

Wow, that was quite a 1st day! We've never been to Pizza Planet before... is it always busy?

We did Park Hoppers on our first trip, but decided not to have them last year. I can see the benefit of being able to hop, but DH didn't think it was worth the extra money. And it can be a bit of a hassle, too.

 

[mrssmith06]

Wow, that was quite a 1st day! We've never been to Pizza Planet before... is it always busy?

We did Park Hoppers on our first trip, but decided not to have them last year. I can see the benefit of being able to hop, but DH didn't think it was worth the extra money. And it can be a bit of a hassle, too.

That's the only time we've ever been to Pizza Planet and we never went back by so I'm not sure if it's always that busy or if we just went at a really bad time. It makes us not want to go back though!

Yeah the hoppers are pricey and I felt like I HAD to hop around so we could "get our money's worth". Whenever we go next year there will be 5 of us instead of 4 and there is no way we would want to buy the hoppers again at that price, we'd rather use that money to stay a night or two longer in the resort!

 

[BellaBaby]

We've been to Pizza Planet several times and it's never been anywhere near that! So sorry to hear you had such a bad experience!

 

[mrssmith06]

We've been to Pizza Planet several times and it's never been anywhere near that! So sorry to hear you had such a bad experience!

That's really good to hear! We'd love to eat there again some day but we will stay away when it looks that busy!

 

[DisDreamz]

I'm late to the party (as usual ). Our stay overlapped yours!

BTW I'm with you on TOT. I refuse to go on it anymore. Both girls love it though (actually the 10yo likes it the most, the 13yo refuses to go on it either).

 

[mrssmith06]

June 9th - Thursday morning! Day 2 at Disney!

We had an ADR at Chef Mickey's for 7:35 a.m.

We got the kids up and ready much earlier than they would have preferred, but they were excited for our character breakfast!

We left our resort just a little after 7 and drove to the MK resort area!

We made it into the CR and walked up to Chef Mickey's with just a minute or two to spare! (I mean it was literally like 7:33 LOL).

We took our picture at the front (and yes we ended up buying that $30 package ), and took our seat in the waiting area. We only had to wait about 10 minutes and then they called us. Yay! The food was pretty good, the buffet had a nice variety. This was my plate:

My only real complaint is that the characters really rushed by, I felt like I was throwing our autograph books at them and scrambling to get my camera ready before they walked off. Donald never even came to our table. We had 2 other character meals on our trip and neither of those were as rushed as this one. But I was still happy with the experience. It's nice to see characters somewhere outside of the parks and the long lines!

Goofy was the first to our table and DS didn't know what to think hahaha!

Next up, Minnie!

Then DS's favorite, Mickey!

And DD's favorite, Pluto!

This the picture in the package from the Photographers at Chef Mickey's:

UP NEXT: I love you, Magic Kingdom!

 

[PixieMama]

Mmmmm, your breakfast looks yummy!

We did CM on our 2007 trip... and missed Donald, too!

 

[anjalee6]

We feel the same way about Chef Mickey's. We love seeing the characters in their chef attire, but it does always seem more rushed then any other character meal in my opinion. I will let you know how it goes for us on July 1st when we eat there for breakfast at 7:10! Yikes!

 

[basketkat]

OH I love Chef Mickey! What a bummer about Donald though...

That happened to us at 1900 Park Fare...I think Tigger had skipped us (we were in the corner all by ourselves) I told the waiter and he made sure Tigger doubled back to see us...

Yeah for Magic Kingdom....

 

[mrssmith06]

We left Chef Mickey's just after 9am and went straight to Magic Kingdom! There was EMH at MK this morning but we missed it due to our breakfast ADR, so we didn't actually make it into MK until close to 9:30am. The good part about that though is that most of the opening crowd was already through the gates so we got through bag check and the turnstiles rather quickly!

The minute we walked in we were amazed and trying to soak it all in. The best moment, of course, is seeing that beautiful castle for the 1st time!

We walked around the castle and we were (blindly) heading to Fantasyland. On our way around, trying to find the right path, we passed Fairytale gardens and seen Rapunzel and Flynn. DD wanted to see her SO bad, that was the 1 person she requested to meet... and the line was already super long... the wait was at least an hour. Not what we want to do first thing, so I asked DD if she was willing to wait an hour and she said no she'd rather go ride some stuff and we could come back later and check. *phew*, OK.

On to Fantasyland! 1st stop: Dumbo...? Eh, no, the wait was already at 35 minutes... We seen shorter lines, we will come back... Snow White's scary adventures had a 10 minute wait, so we jumped in that line!

We were almost at the boarding point, and it hit me. My tummy suddenly didn't feel so great. I guess breakfast didn't agree with me... so I had to let DH and the kids ride Snow White without me while I ran to a bathroom. I am still pretty bummed about it, I hate to miss out on things with them.

Luckily, I bounced back and felt better and was able to catch up with them soon after they got off the ride. We headed to the Prince Charming Regal Carousel! It was a walk on...no wait, yay! The kids LOVED it.

We walked over to Peter Pan to grab some Fastpasses! We were excited that it gave us bonus FPs for Mickey's PhilarMagic!!!

DS wanted to ride Buzz, so we walked toward Tomorrowland and stopped at the Mad Party tea cups on the way... it was a walk on, so we figured we better jump in! This is definitely a favorite of ours now!

Next up was Buzz! The wait said 15 minutes so we got in line... and so did everyone else. Woah. The wait ended up being over 30 minutes but it was a fun ride! We all loved it.

When we got done with Buzz, it was after 11am & time for our FP's for PhilarMagic! This was an awesome show!!! So glad we got to do this!

After that it was time to fly with Peter Pan. Another fun ride!

We went right across to ride It's a Small World next, the wait was short, I think it was 10 minutes? I thought it was a cute ride, DD said it was annoying She couldn't stand the repetitive song.

UP NEXT: Part 2 of Magic Kingdom & lunch at Crystal Palace.

 

[PixieMama]

Sounds like your first morning was off to a great start!

Hope you were able to get a chance to see Rapunzel. I don't blame you though, I wouldn't want to spend an hour in line, either!