Leaving the Kid behind- 7 Wonderful Days in the World!*COMPLETE w/link to a NEW PTR

[Gracefulskinny]

Hello One and All! Welcome to my very first trip report!!!

We got to spend 7 glorious Kid free days in the world from October 11th-17th. If you have kids and haven’t yet had the chance to go just as a couple I highly recommend doing so. It’s a completely different trip than going as a family.



Before we begin, we need to get the introductions out of the way:

This is DH (PirateFuzzball here on the boards). Before we married he was a hater of all things Disney! (I KNOW!) Slowly over the years I’ve convinced him of the wonders and magic of Disney. He can now tolerate the movies but Loves Disney World just as much as the rest of us. He just hadn’t had the chance to do it right the first time. While he had been to the world before this was his first trip back in over a decade!

This is me. I’ve been a lover of all things Disney for as long as I remember. As a kid I lived in Florida from the ages of 5-9. During that time my family made countless day trips and a few overnights. Once we moved away my only trip back was on a Band Trip in High School. This was my first trip back to the world in 10 years and the first big trip I’ve been responsible for planning.

This is our adorable, always happy DD. You won’t see her much in this trip report because we left her with my parents while we were gone. We are saving her first trip to the world for when she is 3 or 4.​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

~Day 1~
And Away We GOOOOOOO!!!! (11/11/13)
Let the relaxation begin!! (11/11/13)
Just Roll Us on Out of Here!(11/12/13)
Finishing off with a BANG!(11/12/13)

~Day 2~
Off to Hollywood!!! (Studios that is...)(11/13/13)

~Day 3~
Now This is What I Call Perfection!(11/14/13)
Being a Guest Under The Sea!!! (Part 1)(11/15/13)
Being a Guest Under The Sea!!! (Part 2)(11/15/13)

~Day 4~
Exploring with the animals and Kickin' our feet up!(12/3/13)

~Day 5~
Our Trip Into The Future(12/18/13)

~Day 6~
Attempting A World Tour(12/18/13)

~Day 7~
Departure Day(12/18/13)

~Final Thoughts~
What We'll Do Differently Next Time(12/18/13)



*PTR for the Next Trip*
Taking Little Miss to Meet the Mouse!

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[Gracefulskinny]

And Away We Goooooo!!!!!~ Day 1- Part 1

I had slowly started packing a few months before the trip and so I found myself pretty much done except the last minute essentials about 2 days ahead of time. The last day before our trip was spent finalizing the last minute details and getting final snuggles with DD. That night after dinner we went ahead and dropped off DD at my parents. That I think was the hardest part. The sadness didn’t last though because we had to get home and get to bed. We had a plane to catch the next morning!

We live only about 10-12 hours away from Disney so normally we wouldn’t even consider flying. This trip however, my wonderful and generous parents gave us plane tickets for my birthday. We decided to fly out as early as possible to give us as much time as possible in Disney. So after that early early wake up call we drove ourselves to the airport and hopped on our flight and away we went.

Because we planned on using Magical Express, once we got through TSA and had our breakfast we went ahead and put on our magic bands. It was pretty nice once we landed at MCO. Because they saw our magic bands we were waved through with just a tap on the Mickey reader. Our bus was pretty much full when we got on so we only had to wait an extra minute or two before we were off.

It wasn’t long before we were crossing under the wonderful welcome sign. Our hotel ended up being the last stop. (Or rather it would have been had the family behind us had paid attention and raised their hand when the bus driver called out their stop. Oh well. It didn’t matter! We were at Disney!

Soon we were checking in at Port Orleans Riverside! I was anxiously waiting to find out if my requests were honored. I soon found out that we did in fact get 3rd floor river view Mansion Section. We ended up not getting the fridge, but because I had done my research on the dis we weren't surprised.​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Let the relaxation begin!! Day 1- Part 2


Because it was only 11:25am when we checked in, unsurprisingly, our room was not yet available. We kind of expected this so we came prepared. We gave them our phone number and after a quick shoe swap checked our bags and off to explore and grab a boat for Downtown Disney we went!

Once we got to DTD our first stop was for a light lunch at Earl of Sandwich. We each got sandwiches and found places to sit amongst the chaos that is that restaurant. Great sandwiches at a nice cheap price, but man is it crazy in there! Afterwards we browsed around and just soaked up the atmosphere. We did stop at the Pin trading store and bought a lanyard for pin trading. We quickly decided that the book that I had wasn’t going to work for quick trades.

We slowly made our way to the west side so that we could use our vouchers over at Disney Quest.

While nifty and a nice way to stay in the a/c while waiting for our room to be ready, everything in there was a little on the dated side and neither one of us came away that impressed. We both decided that were we to have to pay for the tickets separately it wouldn’t be worth the money. Even free, we wouldn’t hurry back.

By the time that we got out of there it was nearing 5 o’clock and we still had yet to receive a text message of any kind. Tired and hot and ready for a bit of a rest we decided to head back to Riverside anyways and check on the status of our room.
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[Suziannie]

Following along!

My husband and I took a child free cruise alone when our daughter was about 14 months old. It was bliss!! I hope your Disney adventure was wonderful, can't wait to see the rest!!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Following along!

My husband and I took a child free cruise alone when our daughter was about 14 months old. It was bliss!! I hope your Disney adventure was wonderful, can't wait to see the rest!!

It was indeed blissful to have that time for us. DD was about 15 months at the time of our trip. The only hard part was seeing all the cute princesses dressed up and prancing about. DD was never far from our minds that's for sure.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Just Roll Us on Out of here!!!~Day 1-Part 3


Once we got back to our resort we went back to the check in counter and finally told our room was ready and given our room number. Apparently the first lady hadn’t keyed in our phone number correctly. So after a quick explanation of where we needed to go and where our nearest bus stop was located we were on our way to our room.

We got to our gorgeous building and took in the magical river view. We opened the door and found that Magical Express had already dropped off our checked luggage. Once in the room we took our room pictures before anything got messed up and called down to luggage services to have our other bags and the water we had shipped to the resort brought up to our room. While we waited we turned on some Stacey and settled in to the room. We had booked a king bed. Everything was beyond beautiful.

After a nice rest and some time to freshen up it was time to start our way towards dinner. We were headed to a monorail loop resort and since it was a Halloween Party night we decided it was best to give ourselves some extra time to get there. So off to the bus depot we went with the plan to catch either an Epcot or MK bus. We weren’t picky since we were planning on hoping on to the monorail and take a loop around if we had time. We didn’t wait long before a bus headed towards the Magic Kingdom rolled up. With some excitement for our first glimpse of the Castle we hopped aboard and enjoyed seeing all the different creative costumes people were wearing to the party.

We ended up timing it absolutely perfectly. We were a tad on the early side so we decided we would just ride the monorail loop twice. (Once to make a full loop, and once to actually get where we were going.) When we looped back in to the MK stop it was clear that we got on right before the final sweep of the park. Our second loop around was quiet crowded.

It wasn’t long before we were pulling up to our stop. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to check in yet because we were still on the early side (about 45 minutes early). To our surprise they went ahead and let us check in. We were given a pager and went and settled in for what we were sure was going to be a long wait. Imagine our surprise when our buzzer went off less than 10 minutes later! And just where were we eating that night?? Well if you haven’t guessed yet we were headed into…..

We were very excited for this meal because DH was born and raised in Hawaii. We were looking forward to seeing how authentic this meal really was.

Almost immediately we were served our salad and bread. And this is where DH’s downfall began. Like a good Diser, I did my research and knew ahead of time just how much food was coming our way. Due to some stomach issues I’ve dealt with over the last year I have learned how to pace myself well. I tried to warn DH. I tried to get across just how much food we were going to be given. This was all forgotten when the mass of food was put in front of us. That being said I only did marginally better.

I wasn’t very impressed by the bread and quickly left the rest alone as to not fill up on the mediocre stuff. I almost skipped the salad altogether for the same reason but boy am I glad that I didn’t! If anyone has the recipe for that salad dressing I would be most happy to get it from you. I forgot to ask about it before we left.

We both went with the Pomegranate Lemonade. It was very tasty and I am currently trying to recreate it here at home. If I end up with success I’ll let you know.

Next were the wings and the pot stickers. The wings were alright. Neither of us were that impressed by them. The pot stickers however…. We LOVED those pot stickers! We even got a second helping of them. We are suckers for good pot stickers and haven’t been able to find good ones here at home. That I think was the true down fall of the meal. Because at this point DH forgot that we had meats coming.

DH inhaled the noodles and stir fry proclaiming them “just like home”. There was a bit of a lull between the sides and the meats but I thought that ended up being a good thing. The meats themselves were okay. The steak was mixed the pieces I were given were way over cooked but DH got some that was just right.

Before we knew it desert was coming out. This was another dish that surprised me in how much I enjoyed it. You see I am not a banana fan at all. With banana in the name I assumed it was full of banana flavor. I was happy to find that as long as you avoided the solid pieces (which weren’t many) of banana there was no other taste of the fruit in the dish. We were also given a cupcake in celebration of our Anniversary.

It was all beyond tasty and we found ourselves stuffed to the brim, but our night was not quiet over yet. We still had one last thing on our list to check off for the night.
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[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Finishing off with a BANG!~ Day 1- Part 4


With overly full bellies we slowly found our way down to the beach. We had been told that they pipe the music in and you can watch the whole fireworks show from the poly beach. Well as it turns out no music was piped in but the view was downright spectacular. No pictures or youtube video can really do these fireworks justice. And to be able to watch while sitting and your feet buried in the nice cool sand was glorious!

Once the fireworks were done we decided to take the boat back over to MK and caught the next bus home. Over all it was a wonderful start to the vacation and the perfect way to get us into our vacation frame of mind.
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[Gracefulskinny]

Off to Hollywood!!!! (Studios that is!)~Day 2

So even though I was on vacation kid free and could sleep as long as I wanted I still found myself waking up about my usual time. It was alright though because that meant that I had some time to enjoy the peace and quiet of the beautiful resort for a while.

By about 9:30 I had gotten to the point where I had caught up on all I could on the Dis and facebook and had sat and soaked up the atmosphere of the resort as much as I could for the moment and Went back in to the hotel room to see if I could get DH to stir. Being the good wife that I am, I came back with some coke in hand to help him wake up.

After showers and a quick in room breakfast (we brought some pastries with us), we meandered our way down to the Bus Depot and had a wonderful chat with the CM there. Apparently the CMs that stand at the bus stops and track the buses get to choose where they go. Apparently the North Depot is a favorite spot of a few cms and there can be a bit of a race to get to it first.

Soon enough we found our way to Hollywood Studios. We checked the time and decided that our first stop would be to try and catch a Beauty and the Beast Show. We started to head in that direction but decided to stop and watch some Streetmosphere that was just beginning. By the time we got to the Beauty and the Beast show it had started so we just decided to look around some more and then headed for our first on Star Wars. I had a lot of fun in that queue looking for all the hidden Mickeys in the tree trunks.


As I write this I am realizing that somehow we ended up with ZERO pictures in the star wars area. I am scratching my head trying to figure out how that happened because DH is a BIG Star Wars fan. This was the first of many rides throughout the day for DH. I only ended up riding this once. I thought I would be okay to ride it having gotten some prescription level nausea meds from my gastroenterologist before we left on the trip. As I later found out, turns out apparently these meds do the opposite of help at least for me. They made the motion sickness worse not better. That being said… Let me pass on a golden jewel of advice I got here on the boards before my trip. If you suffer from motion sickness be sure to get one of those hand held fans to keep in your park bag just in case. The Colman brand ones found at target for $5 did the trick from me and saved me more than a few times this trip.

By the time we got out it was time to try out our first FP+ of the trip. We got over to TSM and breezed through the line. I would say less than 10 minutes after entering the line we were on the ride. We got all the way through the scoring and just as we finished the bonus round the game froze up. We never did get to find out our final score but I had gone into the bonus round with a 20,000 point lead so while DH claims he might had done enough to possibly beat me I totally claim winner for that round.

We sat there with the lights on for a few minutes before a couple of CMs came up told us we couldn’t take pictures and got us out of the ride vehicle. We then got to walk backwards through the attraction adding people behind us as we went. It was quiet the back stage tour. Apparently the only way to be able to see TSM from that advantage is under these circumstances. It was neat to see the underside of the ride mechanisms.

Once we got to the exit we were given paper fastpasses for later for us to come back and ride at any time. So in a way we basically got 2 rides off of one set of FP+ reservations. Not bad. From there we decided to check out One Man’s Dream.

We wanted to stay for the movie but we decided that I was in need of a snack before things got too late. For our first snack I decided that it was way past time for me to correct a wrong long in the making.

It was time for my very first Mickey Bar!!! (I know right?!? Not sure how I came so much as a child and never had one)

By this point we were getting somewhat close to the time to check in for our lunch reservation at Sci Fi Dine In (We’ll get to that debacle in a minute) and we realized that we weren’t far from it so we didn’t want to go too far. With the Great Movie Ride right there we decided to a nice trip through the movies in the a/c was in order.

The queue was a tad backed up so when we got out it was just about time to go check in for a late 3 o’clock lunch. This lunch was horrible from the get go. We got checked in at about 2:45 for our 3:05 reservation we weren’t seated until 3:50!!! Service was slow. Food was mediocre. And to top it off something must have been in the food because both DH and I ended up feeling off afterwards. In my case it lingered for much of the rest of the day. This dragged on so long we almost missed our next FP+. Never again will we eat there. The atmosphere inside is somewhat nifty but that is the only positive I can say about the place. We won’t be giving it another try.

So after that disastrous meal and a stop to be sure I wasn’t going to have issues from the food, we hurried off to TOT for our FP+ that was getting ready to expire thanks to the incompetence of the SCI FI Dine In. Thankfully we made it in time.

Now as far as Drop rides go I have to say that I am not one that enjoys the feeling of falling. I knew going in that TOT was probably a ride that I just wasn’t going to enjoy with great enthusiasm. That being said, DH really wanted to ride it and I wanted to experience the themeing of the ride at least once. There is also the matter of wanting to raise my daughter honestly and to be open to trying new things. And I don’t feel I can look her in the eye and push her to be open to new things if I don’t at least try them myself. So away we went. It wasn’t as horrendously horrible as I expected, and I am glad I tried it for myself at least once. That being said, in future trips I will be more than happy to sit back and watch as DH rides in the future. It’s defiantly not a ride for me. The ride picture was somewhat amusing though. However by the time we got out a phone to take a picture of it they had already switched it to a new one.
From there we had about 30 minutes to kill before our RnR FP+ was available. The timing worked to catch a Beauty and the Beast show before using our last FP+.

As far as the show goes, While the movie is one of my all time favorites the show at HS just is too condensed to be truly amazing. Its fun to hear and see the songs from the movie preformed but they really do cut out the meat of the story. I’ll be back to watch it when we take DD for sure but it’s certainly no longer a must do for me.

Leading up to the trip I was leery of RnR due to my motion sickness. But a few people close to me whose judgment I trust had assured me that while dark there is enough ambient light from the signs in the ride that you can see the track. With their assurance and nausea meds in my system (I hadn’t yet figured out that the meds made things worse) away I went to try another new experience for me.

For those with motion sickness issues… it turns out that my family members were wrong. It’s dark, like can’t see your hand in front of your face dark. I think on our next trip, I’ll just spend time taking DD to the princess shows (Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid) and Disney Junior and Daddy can go ride to his heart’s content in that area. Between the sci fi food making me feel off and RnR I was really not feeling so hot and we almost left the park then and there. After a bit, I started feeling better and we decided that if we were going to use it we better go and use our extra FPs for TSM. Because it had been broken down earlier the return line to get into TSM was quiet long.

As we were waiting we got to see the Army guy interacting with those of us in line.

And yes, that is the line to get into the TSM FP lane.

From there I was starting to get worn out but DH wanted a few more rides on Star Wars. It was basically walk on for him. The first time he went through I found a place outside to sit down and call my parents and check in on DD. They were having a blast and right before I was about to hang up DH came out and got a chance to speak to DD. After I hung up DH informed me that there is a side exit in the ride so that I could go through the queue with him and then sit in the a/c while waiting for him. The cms at the exit were quiet friendly and kept me company while DH cycled through the ride a few times. Once he was done we decided it was time to head out. We stopped for one last picture and headed for the buses.

Before we could completely leave the park we got pulled to the side and asked to take a survey about our dining experience. Due to our absolutely horrid experience we decided we probably should take the time for the survey. (Note, we never did hear back from anyone about our feedback.) Unfortunately this delay meant we were spit out with the rest of the crowds leaving fantasmic. Not a huge deal but we did end up on a extra crowded bus standing on the way back to the hotel. After a late meal at Riverside Mill (Their Pasta is great and easily split between 2 people!) we headed back to the room and crashed pretty quickly. Overall it was a great first day in the parks.
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[Gracefulskinny]

Now This is What I Call Perfection! ~ Day 3-Part 1

I think this was the day I was looking forward to most, for many reasons. Today was MK day. And for some reason, there is just something special about this park that just resonates as my favorite. Maybe it’s because I have the most memories from this park or maybe it’s just the way that first glimpse of the castle sends the bit of joy and peace through me. Maybe it’s the ability to get that magical moment of truly feeling like a princess no matter how old you are. And this trip there was a new slightly surprising element to it that requires a bit of background to explain…

You see, I have fertility issues. Our daughter is the result of 3 hard years of trying to have a child. Since I was a girl myself, I knew I wanted to be a mother and dreamed of the day where I got to experience all the mother daughter things from the mother’s side. And while they have been happening less and less as she grows older, I still have moments where it really hits home that I really do have a daughter and I am really truly going to get those special moments.

On this particular day in the Magic Kingdom, surrounded by all the adorable princesses caught up in their joy of being at a “real castle” it kept hitting home that it wouldn’t be long before my little one was at that stage and that one day that will come far faster than me or DH would really like DD will be the one so caught up in that joy. And as the full and true reality of that hit home I got near tears.

If just the reminder that I will get to have these experiences one day with DD got me that emotional I think I am going to have to prepare myself to be a full on basket case when we finally do take DD to Disney!

So here we were on Main Street and I had one particular place in mind to get to first. As soon as I found out that the new Starbucks was going to be open during our trip I had just one mission in mind. I decided that there was no better way to enjoy my annual Pumpkin Spice Latte then from inside the Magic Kingdom while staring up at Cinderella’s Castle.

Right before we entered Main Street Bakery I had to laugh. You see, DH isn’t really much of a parade person himself. He has learned the joys of enjoying DD and Me enjoying such things but doesn’t like them otherwise. Since this was an adults only trip and we knew that the next time we came it would be with DD I promised him that in all my planning I would do my best to avoid Parades. That being said, we had only been in the park long enough to find our way to entrance to Main Street Bakery and out comes the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it Parade. I just let out a laugh, DH let out a groan and we found our way inside.

Though I have to say there is something rather catchy to that parade. Without meaning to we both found ourselves kind of getting into the groove a bit.

So armed with our caffeine in hand we wandered in the general direction of the castle with our eyes on the lookout for some place to sit. We soon came across some tables and chairs with a beautiful view of the castle. As we went down to them we saw a sign that they were part of the smoking section but with no sign of smokers in sight we decided we would go ahead and give it a try.

Boy were we glad we did, because it was beyond pleasant down there. We sat there for a while enjoying the view and atmosphere. A while after our drinks were finished we noticed a few people coming to sit down and smoke. Seeing as this actually was the smoking section we didn’t mind leaving the space for them to do so.

As we left the area, we noticed an available Photopass Photographer. She was very nice didn't mind one bit using our phone to take pictures and even took a bunch for us to choose from.

From there we started our wandering towards New Fantasy Land. We had FP+ for the LM ride. But since we had some time to kill we stopped along the way for more pictures.

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[Gracefulskinny]

Being a Guest Under The Sea!! ~ Day 3-Part 2

After our mini photo shoot we made our way towards our first glimpse of New Fantasy Land. I can’t say how excited I was for this!! I had done my very best over the last few months to keep myself from getting spoiled but didn’t do so well. Turns out that it didn’t matter because seeing it for myself in person was better than any picture!!! I had to stop and just soak it in for a minute. I just couldn’t believe that I was finally, really truly here live and in person.

We ended up getting to our FB+ a tad on the early side (this quickly became a pattern on this trip.) We ended up standing outside of LM for a few minutes before we were allowed to go in. I didn’t quite mind though because there was so much to look at and see! Soon enough though, we were breezing through the FP queue. We basically walked right on. This was one of those rides that DH wasn’t really excited about but knowing my love for The Little Mermaid, happily joined me on the ride. He enjoyed himself on it though. Wouldn’t go as far to say that he was thrilled by it, nor was he quite in agreement that we go on it again later. It was fun though. The effects of it are rather nice. However I can see how the more adrenaline junkies are let down by it, but really this type of ride is just my thing. Give me a ride that can be appreciated for its musicality, creativity, and ingenuity over some random thrill for thrill’s sake any day. But I know I am in the minority in that.

After LM we just HAD to go exploring in Belle’s village! Besides Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast is up there as one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE movies period. I was in a state of Bliss and my sweet beyond wonderful husband indulged me in it without one second of impatience.

After our exploration of NFL we decided that we needed a bit of a sit down and some a/c so we headed off to Mickey’s Philharmagic. I don’t remember having seen this before, but it’s rather cute. It’s definitely a good show to catch if you want a brief break from the hot Florida sun. Once we got out, we decided to head toward Tomorrowland and stopped to take pictures along the way.

A funny thing happened as we were entering Tomorrowland, as we were walking I turned to DH and told him, “Make sure to keep an eye out for a talking trash can. His name is push and he is supposed to be really fun to interact with.”

Y’all, I’m not kidding! We didn’t walk but 2 steps and Dh points and says “You mean THAT talking trash can?”

Before I can even take notice of where he is pointing Push comes whizzing up to us and wishes us a Happy Anniversary and then keeps on going. Between my surprise of seeing him that quickly, and how fast push was moving there was no time to get a good picture. It was a fun experience though. I certainly hope to run into Push again on our next trip.

After our run in with Push we found our way over to one of my favorite rides of ALL TIME!!! The Peoplemover of course!!! Seriously, I could ride that baby all day.

After a wonderful break on the Peoplemover we got a couple of Mickey bars for a snack and then went off to our next FP+ of the day.

Not my most flattering picture I know. (I almost didn’t post it). Going in to our trip I was looking forward to Buzz. I tend to really enjoy the shooting rides, TSM at HS and MIB at US for example, but I ended up somewhat disappointed with this ride. The combination of not really knowing if you are actually hitting what you think you might be aiming at, having had no idea where I was actually shooting and the jerkiness of the spins along with the occasional flashing lights adds up to a rather underwhelming ride experience. Especially after having expectations such that it would be a rather fun ride based on numerous trip reports and my experience the day prior at TSM.

From there we went into Laugh Floor. By this point Tomorrowland was getting rather crowded, so crowded that the entrance for Laugh Floor was hard to spot and somewhat overflowing. In the chaos that was the end of the line for Laugh Floor I ended up with a family of 9 PEOPLE decided that instead of weaving their way to the very end of the line they would step on my foot and force themselves in front of me.

I very much almost said something but then decided that anything I said would be pointless to such a rude and oblivious group of people. DH and I had to fight hard to keep our zen attitudes through the queue though. Their rude obliviousness continued as they let their kids go absolutely wild throughout the confined line. As soon as the doors opened into the larger open waiting area we did our best to put as much distance from them as possible.

As far as the show itself goes, I have to say I really did enjoy it and was glad that I gave it a shot. Going into it I could have taken or left it. Monsters Inc is not high on my list of favorites. Can’t say I’m a huge fan. But the show is cute and worth doing at least once. The mostly a/c queue and seating in the show help as well.

As we were leaving Laugh Floor it was quickly determined that crowds hadn’t seemed to improve much at all. To give you an idea on crowd levels Stitch had a bit of an extended queue in use. We were starting to get hungry and it was decided to go ahead and grab some lunch before our next FP+ at BTMR.

We made our way to Pecos Bills and after the chaos of getting our food and finding a table we ended up in a nice dark and quiet spot. It was rather pleasant. From there we went off to use our BTMR fp+. The machine didn’t seem to want to recognize our bands, but apparently we weren’t the only ones with the problem and they just waved us through.

After BTMR we decided it was definitely time to get our Pirate on. So off to Adventureland we went. From there we went on to Jungle Cruise. And about this time we really started feeling like maybe going back to the hotel for a while to take a break. Unfortunately we had BOG reservations and by the time we would get back to the resort we would only have 30 min for a rest before having to come back. So we decided to do the next best thing….

We grabbed Dole Whips and took a few spins on the Peoplemover and Carousel of Progress of course!!!

By the way… DH and I cracked up and were shocked when we caught the “Dirty Ladies Picture” reference in the second scene! Pretty sure I never caught THAT before!

Next we went over to one of the few spinning rides that doesn’t actually make me sick. I always get a bit of humorous satisfaction from riding this ride. You see as a kid my Motion Sickness was so bad that I was not even allowed to watch the tea cups let alone ride them. My first time riding them was as a teenager on a band trip with friends and I felt like such a rebel the whole time I rode it! (That says something about how I was as a child that my idea of a rebellion was riding the tea cups ride.)

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[Gracefulskinny]

Being a Guest Under The Sea!! ~ Day 3-Part 3

From there it was nearing time for our Dinner reservations! I was really looking forward to this dinner. The excitement was beyond words!!! And it turned out to be a fabulous meal!! I think one of my favorite parts was when they announced The Beasts arrival a little girl dressed as Belle popped up and waved frantically at the beast from the table across from us. Beast leaned over and kissed her hand and as The Beast turned to walk away little “Belle” swooned into her mom’s arms. It had to be one of the most precious things I saw all trip.

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After dinner we headed our way towards HM and on the way DH shocked the life out of me when he suggested we go on IASW!

After a few more rides DH and I found we just couldn’t go any more and decided to call it a night.

Tired and exhausted we made our way back to hotel.
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[Gracefulskinny]

Exploring with the Animals and Kickin’ our feet up ~ Day 4


I don’t have many pictures from this particular day and not much happened. Matter of fact I have none at all until lunch. This day was our actual anniversary and so we wanted a bit of a low key day to go with it. We decided the best way to do this was Animal Kingdom in the morning and hanging out at our resort in the afternoon.


We both were looking forward to Animal Kingdom because it was the park that neither of us had really experienced much of in the past. I had only briefly visited before and had only been on the Safari and It’s a bugs life. Everest hadn’t been built yet I believe. DH had never been at all.

I have to say that both DH and I were disappointed in this park, and we both feel that it’s worth skipping in our next few trips. I was unable to ride Everest due to motion sick issues same for most rides in the dino area. It’s a bugs life is okay leaving really only the Safari as a stand out can ride together as a family ride. (*I should state for the record that we were unable to ride Dinosaur because just as we got all the way back there to ride it broke.) While we love the safari and it is a very neat experience, it’s hard to justify the price of admission just for that. It’s a park that is hard on your feet, little to no shade, and no benches that I could find anywhere so that you could just sit and enjoy the atmosphere. And with neither of us being big Avatar fans, even that is not a draw to lure us back to that park. There is just too much to see and do at the others.

With all that said, let me share the pictures from this day that I DO have…


We ate lunch here:

I will say that this spot was rather nice for lunch minus the aggressive bird that kept trying to steal our lunch.

Sometime later we went on the Safari with our FP+

After the safari we both were hot and our feet were really starting to protest after so much walking and standing for the last few days and so with nothing else really catching our attention and neither of us having the energy to stick around for or Lion King FP+ we decided it was time to just head back to our hotel and get off our feet.

When we got there we discovered that our house keeper had once again had fun with my body pillow. (She had made into the shape of a 2 on our second day) This time it was in the shape of a heart.

With us being so hot and our feet so achy we decided that we would spend some time at the pool and hot tub. We love this pool. The water that splashes down acts like a wonderful massage when you stand under it and the temperature was just right. We stayed down here quite a while and wish that we had found time to visit it again on our trip.

After we swam we went back to the room and got cleaned up for Dinner. We knew that we were going to want a low key meal this night so we decided to stay at the resort and give Boatwright’s a try. We ended up mixing up the time and ended up ready for dinner an hour before we meant to. We decide to head towards the lobby area and just take in the atmosphere. It was quiet a glorious way to do things. And it was a happy hour of rest and relaxation.

It was fun sitting back and watching all the families dressed up for MNSSHP go by. Our favorites were a family of around 10-15 smurfs. (You can see a few of them in the background of this next picture)

After dinner we took our deserts back to our room and planned on having a sparkling cider toast. Unfortunately we completely forgot a bottle opener so DH had to take our bottle up to the lounge and get them to open it for him. (They were happy to do so.)

While dinner was wonderful the desserts were rather mediocre and somewhat stale. We’ll skip them in the future.

After we toasted and enjoyed our desserts we both quickly fell asleep while watching a Netflix that we brought with us.
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[Gracefulskinny]

Our Trip into the Future ~ Day 5

For some reason, there aren’t many pictures of the rest of our trip. So the last few posts are going to be a bit more on the wordy side then picture side.

This was our Future World Day. We got up and stopped in the Riverside mill for some breakfast and discovered that every now and then (About once an hour) this song randomly blasts out at you. The tune has an annoyingly catchy beat and quickly gets stuck in your head. It caught me off guard because I had never heard anybody mention it before we went. We never caught it on video but if you are curious look up “Food Court at Port Orleans Riverside celebrate song” on YouTube. You should be able to find at least one with it playing in the background.

After we ate we wondered our way to the bus stop and made our way to Epcot. On the way we were a tad concerned for the day because the skies were a tad on the dark side. But it turned out rather nice and kept the heat and mugginess away for most of the morning and early afternoon.

By the way people… I hope you realize how silly you look when you use your ipad to take pictures.

When we first got in the park we had plenty of time to kill before our first FP+ so I was on a mission. One thing DH had expressed an interest in doing was to build and experience his own coaster. With the let down on the first day at DisneyQuest I had made it my mission to get him on Sum of all thrills first thing.

A tip for those that like their thrills: while waiting to board the CM in charge of loading him was reviewing the coaster DH had made verifying that he indeed knew and wanted the number of upside down moments that he was set for. After making the comment to the CM that he wished that he could have put in more the CM grinned and said that he could change it to give the max number possible (I forget the number but it was quite a few and DH was a happy man coming off of it) but the catch is that you lose the coaster that you have already built.

I tried to film DH while riding but the glass in the way there makes it rather hard to do so with all the reflections in the glass.

From there we went on to our first FP+ and road Soarin’. *Trick for those that get motion sickness… Request the bottom row. A lot of people don’t like it because you are low enough to see the bottom of the screen but for those that get bothered by large sweeping motions on a big screen having that edge there to focus on for brief moments helps. We both LOVED Soarin’.

From there since we were nearby we went and road Living with the Land. People may roll their eyes, but I always enjoy this ride. After that we went ahead and ate lunch since it was right there as well.

From there we went on to Test Track. We both liked it and wish we had had the chance to ride it again but we never did make it back over there unfortunately. After Test Track we had FP+ for Mission Space but we decided that I would be better off not riding. So off he went. Turns out he didn’t even need the FP since he was single rider. He went through the ride a few times and then came out to get me.

By this point I needed some a/c and a nice place to sit for a bit. We decided to go explore the festival center and take a ride on Ellen’s energy adventure.

After that we had a quick caffeine boost at Starbucks. (Can I just say how much I just LOVE having Starbucks in the parks!!) From there our day gets a little foggy. I believe that we finished exploring the Innovations areas and then found our way to the Imagination Pavilions. It was time for me to FINALLY see Captian Eo for the first time. I know, I know! I was a kid of the 80’s who LIVED in FL and was a regular at Disney but never saw Captian Eo. You see by the time that I got to go to Epcot for the first time They had just released the Honey I shrunk the Audience. So I never did see Eo.

After Captian Eo we OF COARSE had to go give my boy Figment some love. This was one ride that DH rode and tolerated for me. His sole enjoyment from it was enjoying how much I was enjoying it. He’s a good Husband what can I say.

From there I we made a quick bathroom stop and then in some order (because I really for the life of me can’t remember what we did when at this point) we went on Nemo and Spaceship Earth. I do remember being disappointed when we got off that the Manatees were no longer out. Out of everything they have in the seas pavilion they are the one thing I can’t see locally and I had missed them and had been looking forward to sharing them with DH (being a Hawaiian dude he had never really seen them before).

Soon it was time for us to start making our way over for our Dinner Reservations at Via Napoli. We got there and were seated pretty quickly.

We ordered a Mezzo Metro so we could have leftovers for the morning. The poor waiter who brought it over was so very confused when he saw it was for two people. (Although really, I don’t know why. We can’t be the first to think to do this. )

We were rather surprised at how big of a dent we were able to put in it. Guess we worked up a bit of an appetite. While good, we weren’t really impressed with this pizza. I know everybody flips out over it but we really didn’t care for it. From what we can taste they use a white wine in the sauce and neither of us are big wine drinkers so that may have a lot to do with it.

Being that I LOVE tiramisu, I knew I just had to order some. It was wonderful. And we were officially STUFFED.

Little did we know that they had yet ANOTHER dessert for us in celebration of our Anniversary! I am sure that we would have enjoyed this more had we not been as full as we were but it was tasty.

The park had closed while we were eating and we slowly made our way to the front.

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[Gracefulskinny]

Attempting a World Tour ~ Day 6

This was our last full day in the parks and because we were partaking in some Food and Wine booths we were rather bad about getting pictures this day. Our goal was to do our best to make a full circle around the showcase exploring each country as we went.

Our first stop was to a spot that we had missed the prior day. We took a brief spin around club cool and then went on our way.

**Bonus Tip Here: If you walk through the club cool doors pictured above and straight out the other side and hang a right into the building, You find yourself in a quiet gloriously 68degree room with wonderfully clean bathrooms and plenty of places to sit. (I am pretty sure this is the same building as Character Spot. ) We had found this place the day before looking for a cut through to the imagination pavilion. (It works great for that as well.) Just something to keep in mind.

From there we went on to the World Showcase. We tried both the Haggis and the Kalua Pork Sliders. The haggis was alright. It would have tasted better if it weren’t so dang hot outside. It was defiantly one of those better in the winter dishes.


As for the “Kalua Pork Sliders”….. Let me just step up on my soap box and set something straight for a moment……..

JUST BECAUSE YOU SLAP PINEAPPLE ON A DISH DOES NOT MAKE IT “Hawaiian”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a big pet peeve of ours and it happens so often. That slider is in no way close to REAL Kalua pig. Southern smoked bbq pulled pork and Kalua Pig are VERY different things with flavors that are worlds different. If you live in Georgia and want to taste what REAL Hawaiian food is like PM me and I will direct you to a place that is truly authentic.

And FYI pineapple doesn’t really play that large a role in their food. Most Hawaiian food has strong Asian influence and tends to be high in the salt factor.

Okay…. Stepping off the Soap Box now.

From there we tasted our way to Canada and then watched the film there for a break in the A/C. *Warning to those with Motion Sickness!!! This Circle Vision thing was almost worse than Star Tours! If screens mess with your motion sickness and equilibrium I might strongly think about sitting this movie out. I know I won’t be in a hurry to see it again anytime soon. *

From there we went on to England and had some fun there.

From here we went on to France and watched the movie there and then got a bite to eat. We continued on for a bit but before long our feet were giving out on us and we made it only as far as Germany? And the boat there and decided that we needed to take a bit of a break with the plan to come back to finish Food and Wine Festival and watch Illiminations.

Unfortunatly for us, I allowed a well meaning guest to second guess my knowledge and research for the Dis and allowed myself to be conviced that the f&w booths would be open during EMH. I should have known better. And for the record here…. They’re not. We ended up missing half the booths we wanted to hit because of this slip up. But we now know better for next time, and we really did need that break.

When we came back we found some good spots for Illuminations and after rode a few rides and tried some school bread (meh, nothing special) and then said good bye to Epcot.
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[Gracefulskinny]

Departure Day ~ Day 6

Today was a bittersweet day for us. It was departure day! I say bittersweet because while we were sad to be leaving by this point we were missing DD terribly and were ready to get back to her.

Our flight wasn’t until the evening so we requested a late checkout and took our time gathering our things and soaking up that last bit of magic.

We did have one glitch with the front desk involving some gift cards and a down computer system but they did their best to resolve it and assured us it would be resolved asap. (It did end up taking a few days but everything worked out in the end.)

After checking out and leaving our carryon luggage with baggage services we took one last boat ride to DTD and had some lunch and finished up our souvenir shopping.

We of coarse had to stop at Goofy’s for some custom treats. OMG!!!! Were these AMAZING!!!! And they lasted a few days as well. Highly recommend stopping there. These treats are worth the hype.

Before we knew it was time to head back to the resort and gather our things and head for the (Un)Magical Express.

Landing at our home airport we were quickly brought back to the real world when first there was an issue with finding our checked bags and then an issue with finding the shuttle back to the car. It was after midnight when we finally got home and I was so happy to just be in our own bed.

We picked up DD the next morning and then spent the rest of the day just snuggling her and enjoying being home.


Coming up… Final Thoughts and Lessons for next time​

 

[JulieODC]

Great report!! Looks like you and DH got to enjoy some quality time together@@

 

[Gracefulskinny]

~Now that we’ve been What are we doing differently Next Time?~

-Skip Animal Kingdom - There is just too much walking with not enough to draw us in another trip. We were glad that we went this trip but are both in agreement its worth skipping next time. There is just too much to see and do in other places.

-Take the training and walking BEFORE the trip more seriously- This was something that we knew we should do but always kept forgetting to follow through with. It really didn’t take long into our trip for us to regret not doing so.

-Pass on the ADRs on Park Days- There ended up just being too many times that we felt obligated to stay where we were so we could be sure to make our ADRs. Without a set ADR we can be free to eat when we want (We are fine with QS) and be free to take more breaks.

-Give Rope Drop a Try- This is one that before the trip I would never have even considered. But both DH and I feel that it would be worth a shot to give it a try for next time. Skipping Rope Drop makes it harder to take those breaks back at the hotel.

-Add more non-park rest days and actually rest- We have found that for every 2 days in the park you need 1 day of rest before striking out again. Otherwise by the end of your trip you are so exhausted you can’t enjoy anything.

- For every 2 park days have 1 rest day- This will allow us to not feel like we have to push ourselves to see everything in one day. There was lots we were able to skip this trip because it was just us and we still missed a bunch of stuff we wanted to see. It will only get worse when we have DD with us as well.

-Schedule more time for parades and fireworks- Before our trip neither one of us felt that we absolutely HAD to see the firework shows or parades. Once we were there, there were a few times that we regretted our strategy to plan to avoid them.

-Not Flying!!- While it was nice to experience it this time, we’ve decided that flying adds more hassle than it saves time. Next time we will be sure to drive. With our own car to take us home we can set our own pace for getting there and leaving. Also I won’t have to be so careful and diligent when packing and worry about tsa guidelines. Once we had finished at DTD on departure day we were just ready to head home and be on our way. We couldn’t do that because we had to do a lot of sitting and waiting around in different places.

-Skip DisneyQuest - While niffty if you have the free passes as a part of your package this place is a bit worn out and not very impressive. We won't be bothering with it in the future.
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[Denovagirl]

Great TR! Just read through the whole thing! I hope to take a trip minus the kiddos one day as well, looks like fun! I loved your pics around POR! We may upgrade to that resort, it looks lovely!