It’s Disney, Four Hours of Sleep is Normal! Mother Daughter 2018 F&W TR! (Updated 9/22!)

[2xcited2sleep]

Love the castle band! I think it’s cool they are offering upgrades. Hurrah for being there for the last Illuminations! I will be the one sobbing uncontrollably chaining myself to one of the torches.

 

[jdd]

Oh, I love that band! Seems like Disney has found another way to get my money

 

[VAtink]

Love the castle band! I think it’s cool they are offering upgrades. Hurrah for being there for the last Illuminations! I will be the one sobbing uncontrollably chaining myself to one of the torches.

Haha, you and me both! I am going to be a mess during the last show!

 

[VAtink]

Oh, I love that band! Seems like Disney has found another way to get my money

Haha, seriously, Disney knows how to get my money! The bands are really cute though, I'm happy I got one!

 

[VAtink]

So fun RL update! Yesterday I decided to do a big clean/organization and ended up digging out some old photo albums and some were from past trips dating all the way back to 1996! Of course once I found these my cleaning came to a complete halt and I spend the rest of the day going down memory lane!

I found some real gems in there, and was surprised to see how much has changed! Figured I’d share some of these pics because it’s pretty cool to see all that is different now!

So I give you – Disney World in 1996!

First up – the view from the BC pre-villas! (also pre-soarin building!)



I much preferred the BC like this, the bus stop was sooooo much closer, just to the right of the porte cochere. Plus the resort just looked so much better and grand when arriving, the villas were wedged in on top of where the old road/bus stops used to be and just make the front of the resort look so crowded now.

Next up – Remember when HS (MGM in these pictures) had parades? I give you the Toy Story parade!





Our next picture takes you back to a very very bad decision on Disney’s part…painting the castle pepto bismol pink. Yuck. Also note all the trees that used to be there!



Last, the entrance to the MK. I honest don’t remember this at all, it looks like there used to be two tiered green spaces in front of the train station! You can see the people behind my parents up at the second tier. So weird I don’t remember this at all! Also – props to my dad for giving my mom bunny ears!



Alright, that’s all from 1996. Back then we used film cameras so we had to be very selective on what pictures we took so there aren’t many from that trip! HA!​

 

[VAtink]

Alright, jumping ahead 4 years to 2000. (apparently the pictures from 1997-1999 are still at my parents house…need to find them one of these days!)

Our first stop is on Main Street, well actually what I believe used to be Centre Street before becoming an addition to the Emporium:



Fun thing about this picture, on our last trip we did the Keys to the Kingdom tour where they talk about how there used to be a street there that was filled in, and at that time I wished we had checked it out when it existed….turns out we had! HA!

Our next stop takes us to River Country!





Even though this was the smallest and less thrilling water park, plus had the least appealing water color, it was our favorite. We would go multiple times each trip and always had such a blast there!

We now hop over to Epcot, where Disney helpfully reminded us of exactly what year it was.


Something else looks different here too....can't quite figure it out though.

Staying in Epcot, we now move on to what was a huge favorite, Tapestry of Nations!



Still so sad this isn't around anymore...at least for the time being we can hear the music from it after Illuminations!

Still staying in Epcot, apparently back in 2000 you could meet these guys from Hunchback of Notre Dame!


I noticed while going through the pictures that there used to be a LOT more character meets with what would now be "rare" characters. Wonder when they stopped having so many characters around?

We now hop over to MK and the long lost land of Mickey's Toontown!



Also from MK, remember when Dumbo was right behind the castle?



Lastly for the Y2K memories, a view of our resort that year, the Grand Floridian! This is pre-new pool and villas (obvs).



Do they still have those sail boats there????

Since in 2000 digital cameras were still I believe in their infancy, no one had them yet, so once again pictures are limited since developing pictures was expensive for a teenager! ​

 

[VAtink]

Surprise, we get to travel back in time one year to 1999! I ended up finding the pictures from our trip oddly stuck in the same album as our 2010 Europe trip(???). Guys, my organizational skills are seriously lacking.

Anyways, there are loads of things that are different in the pictures from 1999 to today. Starting with why we were even there, and no, vacation isn’t the answer!

I’ll give you a clue with our first picture of the day. This doesn’t even exist anymore!



Any guesses? No? Ok, how about this picture. No, we did not rent a house for the week, this is still on Disney property.



Ok, one last guess.



Ok, that should pretty much just give it away. Same concept, just different name. We were there to learn at the Disney Institute! (also, the inner pack-rat in me is very proud that I still have all the park guides from 1996!)

One last shot of the former villas at the institute.



Alright, moving on. Now this I don’t even know if it’s different from now, I just can’t recall seeing it recently, so here is a statue of Goofy at the MK. Seriously though, is this still around???




We’ll stay in the MK to show how different the castle looks now, all those trees are gone! Also, what amazingly low crowds back in 1999!



Now maybe I’m imagining this, but aren’t these floating flowers in Epcot only out during F&G nowadays? This picture is from mid July!



Remember what I mentioned before about all the different characters that used to be out and about? Here I am with Meeko! One of many characters that used to great at the American Adventure.



Alright, that pretty much covers all the things that have changed since then, but since I was there to learn I figured I’ll share some of the that as well! So back in high school I was obsessed with photography. Well, one year we were at our local garden center and there were signs up about a demonstration from Disney coming up. At that point we were already Disney obsessed, so decided to go to this demonstration. I can’t for the life of me remember what the demonstration was, maybe cooking? Anyways, it was all put on to inform people about the Disney Institute because back then while we had internet (dial-up), no one actually used it to find out about stuff like this! (crazy to think about today isn’t it?)

Anyways, we picked up the brochure and to my delight they had a photography class! Of course we ended up booking it. It was really cool, Disney provided everything, film, cameras, they even developed all our pictures for us! Although the biggest treat was we got to go into World Showcase pre-park opening to practice our new photography skills! So here are a few shots from that experience.






These make me laugh…almost every picture I took was looking up or super zoomed in, so it made zero difference if people were in the park or not! HA!

Alright, that’s it for 1999. Thank you for following along, hopefully you all enjoy seeing how much has changed over time as I do! ​

 

[missangelalexis]

I love seeing old Disney photos. These are great!

The last time I saw that Goofy statue in MK was in 2013- not sure if it's still around!

 

[Cloe Colton]

I love blast from the past Disney photos!! I wish my family was more organized with our photos. I usually try to put them together when I find them but I know we are missing years. Don't even let me think about the years when digital cameras were first starting and we stopped printing photos out, I have no idea where those ended up!!

Those are some great photos though. If only Disney would be that empty again lol

I also got my castle magicband in the mail! I guess we were some of the lucky ones!

 

[VAtink]

I love seeing old Disney photos. These are great!

Thanks! I love going through them all and seeing how much has changed! It's funny, most of the changes I don't remember at all!

The last time I saw that Goofy statue in MK was in 2013- not sure if it's still around!

Oh good, my memory still works! I didn't think I'd seen it for a while, but was starting to doubt my memory (see above)

 

[VAtink]

I love blast from the past Disney photos!! I wish my family was more organized with our photos. I usually try to put them together when I find them but I know we are missing years. Don't even let me think about the years when digital cameras were first starting and we stopped printing photos out, I have no idea where those ended up!!

Oh no! Well hopefully you can dig up those lost photos. It is awesome to see all the old ones, especially from the 90s. Not only seeing how much Disney has changed, but also seeing how much we have changed (especially my hair - 1996 was not a good hair year!)

Those are some great photos though. If only Disney would be that empty again lol

I know right? All my memories from our trips in the 90s were of lines no longer than 30-ish minutes. We used to be able to get SO much done which we can't seem to even come close to nowadays, even with FP+! Granted, this is the same memory that seems to have forgotten that apparently we went twice in 1998 (?) and were there for F&G that year (another ???). I found park maps from that year from both April and August, and neither myself nor my mom can remember our trip in April! HA!

I also got my castle magicband in the mail! I guess we were some of the lucky ones!

YAY! So happy it actually went through! Such poor execution on Disney's part though. Glad that it actually worked out though, especially since that one is sold out on shopDisney!

 

[annie170]

I really enjoyed your old Disney photos.

I have a photo of my three daughters sitting on that exact bench you and your mom are on! I vividly remember that little street and loved the beautiful flower carts.

I loved Tapestry of Nations, too. And why did they get rid of those fun parades in HS(MGM)? You are correct about characters roaming the parks years ago. I have so many photos of my kids with characters that we never waited more than five minutes to meet.

We never made it to River Country. Did you ever visit Discovery Island? The photos online of the two abandoned parks now are depressing and a little creepy. I'm glad they're finally going to do something with that area.

Where was the Disney Institute located? Did they turn it into something else?

 

[VAtink]

I really enjoyed your old Disney photos.

Thanks! I'm digging through some more to see if there are any others to show how much things have changed, I love going through all them, so many things I forgot about!

I have a photo of my three daughters sitting on that exact bench you and your mom are on! I vividly remember that little street and loved the beautiful flower carts.

That's awesome! I had completely forgotten about that little street, but it's so beautiful I kind of wish they left it! According to our KttK tour last year they filled it in with an addition to the Emporium to help with traffic flow, but I would still prefer it just as a pretty side street to explore!

I loved Tapestry of Nations, too. And why did they get rid of those fun parades in HS(MGM)? You are correct about characters roaming the parks years ago. I have so many photos of my kids with characters that we never waited more than five minutes to meet.

I miss Tapestry of Nations, that song is amazing. It's sad they got rid of the parades in HS, they seemed to update the parade pretty often there based on what the latest hit movie was at the time, which was really cool! Thank you for confirming my memory! I was certain back in the 90s there were SO many characters around, we never really waited to meet them!

We never made it to River Country. Did you ever visit Discovery Island? The photos online of the two abandoned parks now are depressing and a little creepy. I'm glad they're finally going to do something with that area.

YES! I loved Discovery Island! We used to go there often back when it was open! They used to let you hold some of the birds back in the day there, I loved that part!

It's sad how awful Disney let those areas get, it is nice they're finally doing something with the River Country area. I wonder what they could do with Discovery Island?

Where was the Disney Institute located? Did they turn it into something else?

It;'s actually Saratoga Springs now! The main buildings (not the guest rooms) are mostly the same from the Institute days. The bridge crossing Willow Lake is the bridge in the picture of my mom, just newer construction and minus all the previous buildings in the background!

 

[VAtink]

Quick future plans update! So we decided to book our 2020 trip today, which is super early for us! Typically we don't bother booking our next trip until closer to 9 months out (although a few times 3 months!). Also, we typically find by the time we book the standard view rooms are gone so we have to pay extra for garden or water view. So this year it was awesome to get a standard view room, even though it costs the same as our garden view room this year. Hello price increase!

Anyways, the reason we really wanted to book standard view for 2020 is because we're doing a split stay, and the second half of our trip will be our first time ever staying club level! Gotta save money somewhere, right? So we are going back....again. 6 nights at our favorite, the YC, and then 3 nights checking out club level at AKL!

 

[annie170]

Congrats on getting your trip booked and club level! Yikes on the price increases!

 

[oufpat]

I loved your pictures from the past! If I can find my old ones, I know we have a lot of the same pictures, the pink castle, EPCOT 2000 and my favorite Disney Parade at EPCOT. We even have one sitting on the bench with the flowers in the MK! The only one you have missing is with the Dream Finder at EPCOT. Now I have to pull out my old pictures and show my grandkids before our next trip!

 

[VAtink]

Congrats on getting your trip booked and club level! Yikes on the price increases!

Thanks! Yeah, we figured the price would go up, but this trip is costing about $800 more than we had expected based on this years prices. Good thing I got a decent bonus this year!

 

[VAtink]

I loved your pictures from the past! If I can find my old ones, I know we have a lot of the same pictures, the pink castle, EPCOT 2000 and my favorite Disney Parade at EPCOT. We even have one sitting on the bench with the flowers in the MK! The only one you have missing is with the Dream Finder at EPCOT. Now I have to pull out my old pictures and show my grandkids before our next trip!

Thanks! That's too funny we have so many of the same pictures! I cannot wait to visit my parents so I can get the rest of the old albums, it's so much fun seeing how things have changed!

 

[Cloe Colton]

That's an awesome trip you have planned for 2020! Have you stayed CL before? Me and DH are pretty much sold after our trip this weekend!

 

[VAtink]

I'm baaaaack!!!!

Ok, actually, I'm not all that excited to be back. Vacation world is much nicer than real world.

So where was I? Well, technically I already mentioned it here....but it's been SO long since I posted I'm sure you all forgot! MWHAHAHAAAA!

Here's a hint:


So pretty.
Anyways, if you guessed an island, you are correct!

Here's another view looking the other way:


Stunning right?

Alright, I'm sure the suspense is killing you! We were in the Azores! Sao Miguel to be exact.

This place is amazing, just amazing. I'd highly recommend, although at the same time, don't go, it's nice and pre-tourist explosion right now so I'd like to go back one more time before it gets super crazy. (Ok, some of the more touristy destinations around the island were already overrun by us non-locals, but there were still plenty of places to find some alone time...unless of course you count the cows that seemed to always be RIGHT THERE)


See. Cows.

Weird thing is, they seemed to know when you were taking pictures of them and one would always look over right when the camera came out. Got some diva cows right there.

Anyways, now that I'm back I'm finally getting back into the actual Disney part of this PTR! Sort of at least. Somehow I managed to take over 3000 pictures in the Azores...which is slightly overwhelming. And here I thought coming home from Disney with 1000 pictures was a bit much. HA!

Next up is FP+ time! Actually, I have no idea when this day is...I should probably figure it out soon since it is coming up I think in a week maybe? Yeah, gotta get back into this Disney planning!

Alight, that's it for tonight, gotta go figure out my FP+ day...

Also, if anyone is interested in seeing loads of pictures from the Azores, you can check me out on Insta @dms622. I've been posting tons of pictures (not all 3000 thank goodness) there!
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