Lots of Pics, Plenty of Rum, A Few Tears... and a Bomb Scare To Boot!

[trickiwoo]

Ok, I got back from WDW a week ago, and I'm finally getting around to my TR! So here goes... My First Trip to WDW!

We left on Sunday September 13th and came home on Friday September 18th.

Here's my Pre-Trip Report if anyone is interested!


Index:

Introductions
And We're Off!
Disney's Magical Express
The Hotel!
We're On Vacation!
Downtown Disney
Big River Grille + T-Rex
More Resort Pics!
Sci-Fi
Tears, Rides and Dug!
Food And Booze!
Mai Tais & Mickey Waffles
Epcot
Drinking At The World Showcase
Tequila Bar FTW!
Animal Kingdom
Dinosaurs, Yetis and Rude Guests!
Monorail Drinking Tour Plus Lots Of Soap
One Last Drink For The Night
The Magic Starts!
Tony's Town Square Restaurant
Ride Time!
Splashing And Spinning
Columbia Harbour House and SpectroMagic
Bomb Scare Bus Chaos

 

[trickiwoo]

The cast of the WDW trip is...

Me aka Lindsay. Age 23. I'd been to Disneyland several times (though I've never been to California Adventure) but this was my first time at the World! My favorite Disney movies are The Little Mermaid and Lady and the Tramp. My favorite Disney characters are Flounder from The Little Mermaid, the White Rabbit from Alice In Wonderland and Dug from Up. I love animals and photography. I'm a major wuss and thrill rides terrify me!

The Boyfriend aka Chris. Age 24. He used to live in Florida, so he's been to WDW more times than he can remember. But before this trip he hadn't been in 10 years. He's a Disney fan, but I don't think he has a favorite movie or character. He does like Goofy! He loves video games. He also is a fan of thrill rides.

We've been together for 3 years. We live in North Carolina. Our world mostly revolves around our dog Rosie.

The Boyfriend's parents and siblings all took turns staying at the apartment taking care of Rosie while we were away! We missed her terribly while in WDW! Boy was she happy to see us when we came back!

More info and photos of us (and Rosie!) can be found in my PTR

 

[trickiwoo]

We woke up at 4 am on Sunday. I was so excited to be going to WDW that I actually woke up before the alarm went off!

We had Cinnabon for breakfast.

And because it was so early, I had an energy drink to get me going.

We took Rosie out, gave her a treat, gathered our bags and got in my car! We drove to my parents' house and my dad gave us a ride to the airport. We didn't check any luggage, so everything we packed fit in our carry-ons. We were at the airport so early that there were no lines at all for security. Then we got to ride on those neat moving sidewalks as we went to our gate.

We waited for a bit at the gate, then they started boarding the plane. As we were boarding the plane, there were TSA agents there doing random searches. It was pretty odd. Especially since all they did was open up the bag and look on top.

So we got on the plane and found our seats with no trouble. I had a window seat which gave me a very pretty sunrise view as we waited for everyone to board.

Me and The Boyfriend on the plane:

He looks really tired!

It wasn't long before we were in the air! The flight was around 1 hour long.

The view:

I listened to my iPod a little bit. And I played my Nintendo DS a little. But really the flight was so short I didn't need a lot of entertainment! The Boyfriend played his PSP.

The flight attendants came around with the snack cart. I got a Sprite and a Biscoff cookie. The Boyfriend got pretzels. They looked really good so I decided to get them on our next flight. They showed an episode of 30 Rock on the plane. I didn't really watch it. I mostly looked out the window. Pretty soon we landed in Atlanta!

We got off the plane and easily found our way to the gate for our connecting flight. We waited for a bit, then they started boarding the plane. The runway was pretty backed up, so we had to wait awhile before we could take off. The Boyfriend fell asleep. Then finally we were in the air again!

They showed the exact same episode of 30 Rock that we'd just seen on the previous flight! When the snack cart started coming around, I asked The Boyfriend how the pretzels were. He said they were good. So that's what I asked for. It wasn't until after I opened my bag of pretzels that The Boyfriend mentioned they were stale. Why he didn't tell me this when I asked how they were, I have no idea! But yes, they were stale. But I still enjoyed them. This flight was also about an hour long.

I'd never been to Florida, so I had my face pressed up to the window eager to get my first glimpse of Florida! It was pretty neat! Every house had a pool!

It wasn't long before we landed in Orlando!!!!

 

[TXAng]

Ok, I'm in! DH and I are DL vets, took our very first trip to WDW at the same time as you, and stayed at ASMu as well!

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip.

 

[trickiwoo]

Ok, I'm in! DH and I are DL vets, took our very first trip to WDW at the same time as you, and stayed at ASMu as well!

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip.

Welcome aboard!!! Ah, that is very awesome! What section of ASMu were you in?

What did you think of WDW? The Boyfriend said his goal for the trip was to get to me to like WDW more than DL! I agreed that as a whole I like WDW more than DL, but I still like DisneyLand Park more than Magic Kingdom!

 

[Candy30]

HI! We were there at the same time! I arrived on 9/16. We stayed at Pop Century. I am subbing to your trip report. Mine is in my signature. And your not a Wuss you are just thrill ride-challenged. That is what my daughter said when we were at Disney. She came around to the thrill side later. I can't wait to hear more....

 

[Sleepingbooty]

I'm in! Love first timer trip reports!

 

[TXAng]

Welcome aboard!!! Ah, that is very awesome! What section of ASMu were you in?

What did you think of WDW? The Boyfriend said his goal for the trip was to get to me to like WDW more than DL! I agreed that as a whole I like WDW more than DL, but I still like DisneyLand Park more than Magic Kingdom!

We were in the Rock Inn. Where were you?

We felt the same way - there's so much to do at WDW, and we loved it, but Magic Kingdom just doesn't feel the same as DL. Not that we didn't enjoy it, because we did, but it didn't feel like "home" the way DL does. I was mortified that I needed to use a map to find things!

 

[trickiwoo]

HI! We were there at the same time! I arrived on 9/16. We stayed at Pop Century. I am subbing to your trip report. Mine is in my signature. And your not a Wuss you are just thrill ride-challenged. That is what my daughter said when we were at Disney. She came around to the thrill side later. I can't wait to hear more....

Ride-challenged! I love it!!! That sounds like me! Thank you for subbing! I'll be sure to check out your TR as soon as I get a chance!

 

[trickiwoo]

We were in the Rock Inn. Where were you?

We were in Country Fair!

We felt the same way - there's so much to do at WDW, and we loved it, but Magic Kingdom just doesn't feel the same as DL. Not that we didn't enjoy it, because we did, but it didn't feel like "home" the way DL does. I was mortified that I needed to use a map to find things!

That is exactly how I felt!

 

[deslynnpatterson]

i jut found your TR!! Wow i cannot believe our trips are already over-- so sad I have to start my TR too-- just kinda in the disney depression mode so sad! I am enjoying your TR so far and cannot wait to read more-- i think i will get motivated to start mine this week LOL!! lets hope Wow thats awesome that you had such a short flight ours was short too-- only 2 hours 15 mins so not to bad

 

[trickiwoo]

When the plane landed, I noticed the lady in the seat next to us pulled out a DME packet! I pointed this out to The Boyfriend and said, "She's going to Disney World too!"

As soon as people started getting off the plane, I heard a little child's voice from somewhere behind me ask, "Are we at Mickey Mouse now?" and then a mother explaining that no, we were just at the airport and that we had to get on a bus to go see Mickey Mouse. I thought that was adorable!

We got our bags and got off the airplane. Then we got on the tram! I was pretty excited about that! While we were on the tram, it started pouring rain! It was really coming down hard!

After we got off the tram, we made our way to the DME! It was a fair bit of walking, and my bag was pretty heavy! So by the time we got to the DME check-in I was pretty tired and sore!

We got all checked in very quickly, but then had to wait in a pretty long line for the bus. I think it was around 30-45 min before our bus came, but it felt like ages!

The line we were in was for the bus going to all three All-Stars. The lady that was in the line in front of us was the lady that sat next to us on the airplane! And while we were in line, the rain completely stopped! The Boyfriend explained that was typical Florida weather.

Finally our bus came! We got one of the cruise line buses and not the DME buses. I liked the circle shaped windows, but I didn't like the blue seats as much as the red ones.

So I was pretty exhausted from being up since 4 am and from all the traveling and lugging around heavy bags. The Boyfriend commented that I just didn't look that excited about going to Disney World! I guess I just wasn't feeling the magic. I did smile for the camera though:

I was liking the video they were showing on the bus, but I really wanted to look out the window and see Florida! There were so many birds! It was really cool! Pretty soon we caught a glimpse of this sign:

I wasn't able to get that great of a picture of the sign, but it was pretty exciting to see it none the less. Once we were in WDW, I started to feel less tired and more excited!

Pretty soon the bus stopped at All-Star Sports and a bunch of people got off the bus. I got a few glimpses of the hotel. It was pretty neat seeing it in real life since I'd seen so many pictures before the trip!

The next stop was All-Star Music! We got off the bus to go check-in! And the lady that sat next to us on the plane got off too! She was staying in our hotel! I thought that was pretty neat!

Coming up next... hotel check-in!

 

[charming23]

Welcome Back. Hope your trip was wonderful. I can't believe they are over already. I get back to the "real world" tomorrow and it is so hard to think that Disney was just a short week ago. Can not wait to hear more.

 

[trickiwoo]

i jut found your TR!! Wow i cannot believe our trips are already over-- so sad I have to start my TR too-- just kinda in the disney depression mode so sad! I am enjoying your TR so far and cannot wait to read more-- i think i will get motivated to start mine this week LOL!! lets hope Wow thats awesome that you had such a short flight ours was short too-- only 2 hours 15 mins so not to bad

I know!! I miss Disney so much!!!! I can't wait to go again! I'm looking forward to your TR!

 

[Candy30]

I am sorry that you had a bit of a bum experience with ME. It must have been our timing. We were up at 4:00AM too. I am not a morning person. We arrived 20 minutes early and hoofed it to the ME check in. We got right on. I did notice a line at the All Stars. Keep it coming.

 

[trickiwoo]

I am sorry that you had a bit of a bum experience with ME. It must have been our timing. We were up at 4:00AM too. I am not a morning person. We arrived 20 minutes early and hoofed it to the ME check in. We got right on. I did notice a line at the All Stars. Keep it coming.

Even if I wasn't fully feeling the magic on the DME, I definitely appreciated having the transportation!!!! I hate to drive! So for me, a vacation from driving is the best kind of vacation there is!

 

[trickiwoo]

We arrived at ASMu and went in the lobby to check-in. Somehow I completely missed the whole Disney on-line check-in during all of my planning! I booked my hotel room online through AAA.com, so I'm not even sure if I was eligible to use the Disney on-line check-in. Does anyone know? I'll be sure to look into it when I plan my next trip!

The check-in line wasn't very long and soon we were talking to a Cast Member behind the desk! She checked us in and gave us a neat little folder filled with maps and info and stuff!

Now, we didn't make any requests for where we wanted to stay because we really didn't care that much and would be happy with any room with any view in any building. But The Boyfriend and I both agreed that the Country Fair section was our least favorite. The Boyfriend doesn't like Country music at all, plus he really didn't like the cowboy boots! I don't hate Country music or anything like that, but I do like Calypso, Jazz, Rock, and Broadway music more than Country music, so because of that I'd rather stay in one of the other buildings. But of course, we were assigned to the Country Fair section! Go figure.

So we gathered our heavy bags and dragged them all the way to the other side of the hotel complex to the Country Fair buildings. It felt like quite a hike! I didn't really take in any of the hotel because I just wanted to get to my room and put my bag down! I was so tired of carrying it around!

I admit I was a tiny bit disappointed when she told us we were in the Country Fair section, but as soon as I saw the building for the first time all the disappointment disappeared! And excitement starting setting in big time! I'd looked at so many pictures of the hotel online, but really seeing it for the first time was so much more amazing than the photos!

And those cowboy boots were so much bigger in real life than they looked in pictures!!

And The Boyfriend's initials are CF, so he liked that the building said "CF" all over it!

Our room was on the 2nd floor in building 5, and we found it pretty easily. We stepped in the room and dropped our bags on the floor. We were both so excited when we got in the room! The first thing we both did was grab our cameras and start snapping away!

The beds! I took the one without the towels because it was further away from the door, and I felt safer having the man closest to the door!

Towel Mickey!!!

Table and chairs

The room reflected in the mirror

The bathroom with the very loud power flush toilet! (The Boyfriend said the noise was like announcing "Somebody pooped!" whenever we heard one of the neighboring toilets flush!)

Artwork

Light fixtures (Yes, I was very thorough with my picture taking!)

And of course, the view from our room

It's official! We're on vacation now! What do we do first?

 

[Disney_Aggie]

subbin. Being from Texas, I could totally vibe with CF.

I have an August 2010 trip planned for ASMu.....how far is the walk from CF to the Food Court/bus stop area. Some say 10 min, I just walked a mile in 13 min so it's scaring me a bit .

Thx!

 

[trickiwoo]

subbin. Being from Texas, I could totally vibe with CF.

I have an August 2010 trip planned for ASMu.....how far is the walk from CF to the Food Court/bus stop area. Some say 10 min, I just walked a mile in 13 min so it's scaring me a bit .

Thx!

It's really not that far at all! I was really worried about the walk too, but it wasn't bad at all! I want to say it's about a 5 minute walk. Probably even less. Google maps says it's a 6 minute walk and it's about 1/3 of a mile.

 

[trickiwoo]

Well, considering now it was well after 1 pm and neither of us had eaten since 4 am that morning, our first priority was lunch! We headed over to the Intermission Food Court.

First we picked out our refillable mugs! We decided to get different colored lids/handles so we could tell our mugs apart. I chose black and The Boyfriend chose red. The mugs were actually a lot smaller in person than they looked in pictures I'd seen. Which was a good thing, since I don't like cups that are too big!

The Boyfriend got a bacon cheeseburger.

He said it was not very good at all. At the end of the trip, he said it was the worst thing he'd eaten on the whole trip. But at the time he was so hungry, he really didn't care.

I had the chicken alfredo pasta.

It was so good! The chicken was perfect. Probably the best quick service chicken I've ever had. The sauce was yummy. The pasta was just the right texture.

I was starting to get a little sleepy, so I filled my mug up with Vault and it woke me right up! I also tried some of the hot chocolate which was very yummy!

Then we headed back to our hotel room to drop off our mugs and figure out what we wanted to do next. The walk to our room felt much shorter when we weren't carrying around heavy luggage bags!

When we got to the room, The Boyfriend took a nap and I left to go wander around the hotel and check everything out!

The hotel was so cool!!! I had so much fun walking around taking pictures of everything.

Then I went and checked out the gift shop!!! It was pretty big and had so much cool stuff!!! Then I went and checked out the arcade! The arcade was pretty big too! It had Mario Kart which made me happy! And it had Guitar Hero which I thought was pretty cool! We never did end up having any time to play games at the arcade during the trip, but it did have a lot of really cool stuff! If only we'd had more time to spend at WDW...

Then I went around taking pictures of the flowers at the hotel.

There were lizards everywhere!!! I thought that was so cool!

I saw a dead bug on the ground that was HUGE!!!! Haha, no, I didn't get a picture since that'd be pretty gross. But I was very impressed with the size!

I did find a cute little squirrel in a tree though

At that point I was SO excited!!! I was about to burst, and I just had to share my excitement with someone! So I called my mom! She was very surprised to hear from me so early on in my trip! But I told her about how awesome the hotel was and about how Florida was making my hair super frizzy. She told me that she'd gone shopping at the grocery store where The Boyfriend's mom works and had seen her there working. They'd stopped and talked, and The Boyfriend's mom said she'd checked on Rosie before work that morning and taken her out and said that she was doing fine.

After getting off the phone with my mom, I went back to the hotel. I expected to find The Boyfriend still asleep, but he was sitting in bed watching tv. (He was watching that program they have about the Disney Must-Do's.) I told him Rosie was good and he was really confused. He asked, "You talked to my mom?" and I explained, "No, I called my mom and she saw your mom at work earlier."

Since he was up and awake and good to go, we decided to head over to Downtown Disney!