May 2010 Pre-Trip Report - Hooray! Leaving in Less than a Day!

[PolynesianLily]

The Great Movie Ride

Map of Disney's Hollywood Studios

Signage at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Decorations at Disney's Hollywood Studios

 

[Brave teacher]

I hope you had a Happy Easter as well!

The plans and the pics of DHS are all great! I totally get the countdown thing. We are leaving around lunchtime. My countdown changes number of days mid-day, so I am always trying to remember whether is its 46 days or 45 days. LOL...

 

[PolynesianLily]

Lol!

You are going soon too!!!! That must be very exciting for you as well!

 

[PolynesianLily]

I was so excited when I woke up this morning and realized that there was only 26 days left until my next trip to Walt Disney World. This was about the same time that I also realized that this trip will be my last stay at Disney's Polynesian Resort for a little while. The next few trips that we will be taking to Walt Disney World, we will be staying at Wilderness Lodge. Don't get me wrong, I love the Wilderness Lodge, but there is just something so special to me about the Polynesian.

I have stayed at the Wilderness Lodge twice before, and we visit the hotel on each of our trips. It is a beautiful resort, but again each hotel has something unique and special about it and I love both resorts for different reasons. I guess my love for the Polynesian is strong because it has been the only Disney hotel that I have stayed at since 2006.

Enough with the future trips, why don't we move on to discussing this trip that is approaching rather quickly. I know that I have stated this before, but when we first started planning this trip, it was December of 2008. Wow, when I say 2008 it seems like centuries ago! My excitement and need for a disney fix has continued to grow over these past 17 months or so.

I constantly listen to Disney music and look at my Disney pictures to get my daily fix of Disney magic. Youtube right now is my best friend, for I spend a few minutes before falling asleep each night watching some ride videos that people have taken on their trips.

26 DAYS 26 DAYS!!

 

[Brave teacher]

YAY for 26 days! I'm getting so excited. All the PTRs I am following are either in WDW now or will be soon. Sorry to hear about your last trip at the Poly for a while. We love the WL though as well.

 

[PolynesianLily]

I love looking at and reading others pre-trip reports and trip reports. Everyone is so descriptive and takes lots of pictures which makes me smile.

The next time we will be travelling to Disney will be in February 2012 and most likely that will be during the peak season, so the prices are a bit EEEK.

 

[PolynesianLily]

I began to get excited this morning when I realized that it was the 10th of April.

What's that? What does April 10th have to do with anything? Oh...well you see my birthday is on May 10th which means one month until my 19th birthday! It's not just the whole turing 19 that I am excited for, because I mean who wants to get older. Turning 19 means that I only have one more year of being a teenager . Wow, I just made myself depressed upsidedow).

Anywho, right where was I, oh yes! May 10th is the day when we are going to Les Chef de France!!! I am so excited to try this place in France at Epcot. Each year that we have passed the Les Chef De France restaurant I have always found myself wondering what it would be like to eat there.

So far we don't have very many evening plans, with the exception of the night of arrival, where we will probably be hotel hopping along the monorail.

I have decided to attempt to do a live trip report, hopefully, then a full trip report when I get back with lots of pictures.

That is all for now!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Not long now....

And then you get to do it all over again in 2012

 

[PolynesianLily]

Not long now....

And then you get to do it all over again in 2012

Haha!
Waiting this long wasn't too bad.
You have less time than me until your trip!

 

[PolynesianLily]

Welcome to my April 20th 2010 Pre-Trip Report Update!

I am officially beginning to realize that our trip to Walt Disney World is approaching, and quickly. I am extremely excited to see a palm tree, and of course, these are only visible (I think) as you are descending towards the Orlando International Airport. There is just something about seeing a palm tree as we first arrive that puts a smile on my face, and that smile never washes away until we are about to leave.

I think the first thing that really makes me realize that we are at Walt Disney World would probably be either seeing a monorail as we are driving down World Drive towards the Polynesian Resort, or seeing Space Mountain from the Polynesian. Hopefully if we get a room in the Tahiti longhouse, I will be able to see Space Mountain as we are pulling the luggage to our room.

The motto for this trip is that everything will be a picture. No matter what it is, ride signs or Disney food, I will take a picture of it. I hope to get a picture of every ride at WDW because honestly, when you compare Disney rides to the rides you find at your local amusement park, the Disney rides are extremely well themed. I am not putting down local amusement parks, but I was watching a video on Youtube of a roller coaster at a Six Flags, and the roller coaster was placed in a parking lot. There is something about the look of twisted metal that really turns me off of those amusement parks.

Anyways, from our plans that I posted a few posts previous to this one, we are going to the Magic Kingdom first. We were trying to figure out our park plans for that day, such as which ride we wanted to get a Fastpass for first. I think we have decided on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad first.

I hope to ride the monorail on the night of our arrival, since we are not going to a park for the afternoon. I was just thinking of how comforting the monorail voice is. That might sound weird but there is something about the “Please Stand Clear of the Doors” spiel that really makes me smile.

Wow, as I am writing this update I am getting myself more and more excited!! Thinking about walking into Epcot, and seeing the Flower and Garden Festival. Or heading down Sunset Boulevard, seeing the Tower of Terror and hearing the screams. It is all just so magical! I think I forgot to mention that there is only 12 days left until the trip. Yes, not this Sunday (April 25th) BUT THE NEXT SUNDAY. Wow. I cannot believe it. I cannot possibly wait any longer to see the Polynesian, or to see Space Mountain. I cannot possible wait any longer for a Dole Whip, or to explore the gift shops. I think from this we can conclude that I just cannot wait, anymore.

Well folks, this is the Transportation and Ticket Centre and our next stop Disney’s Polynesian Resort. That is...in 12 days!

I was reading the DISBoards this morning and looked at my ticker after I had made a post. I realized that it said 1 week and 5 days and I was completely in shock. Am I really going that soon? What started off as a 485 day countdown, has now turned into a 12 day countdown. This is completely exciting. I am going to post a list of my next pre-trip report updates just so I can keep up. Each day I will post a days schedule, plans, pictures of the park etc. So here's the schedule:

Wednesday, April 21: The Arrival Day Plans (05/02)
Thursday, April 22: Day 1 Plans (05/03)
Friday, April 23: Day 2 Plans (05/04)
Saturday, April 24: Day 3 Plans (05/05)
Sunday, April 25: Day 4 Plans (05/06)
**No Update Monday**
Tuesday, April 27: Day 5 Plans (05/07)
Wednesday, April 28: Day 7 Plans (05/08)
Thursday, April 29: Day 8 Plans (05/09)
Friday, April 30: Day 9 Plans (05/10)
Saturday, May 1: The Departure Day Plans (05/11)

I hope to be able to stick to this schedule, I might write out the details before hand and just copy and paste it in here if I find that I don't have that much time to keep up. As well, on Saturday, May 1st I will try to post a few pictures of the luggage, and some other surprises . . . hopefully. This is way to exciting!


Many of you might be wondering about the name of my pre-trip report title. The reason for it is because every year that I have gone to WDW I have never seen or met Winnie the Pooh. To me Winnie the Pooh is my favourite Disney character and I find him so cute!! I hope to buy a stuffed Winnie the Pooh or Safari Winnie the Pooh from either Animal Kingdom or Animal Kingdom Lodge. I find it quite strange that you can buy the same things at every park. What happened to the merchandise being unique?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Looking forward to reading your plans. Hey - you coming to Cinco de Mayo? I think a number of us may be having looong afternoon shots at the Tequila Cave.

 

[PolynesianLily]

Looking forward to reading your plans. Hey - you coming to Cinco de Mayo? I think a number of us may be having looong afternoon shots at the Tequila Cave.

Hello!! Welcome aboard!!

Unfortunately I don't think I will be able to make it. We have lunch plans at Biergarten (early). But I hope you all have an amazing time!

 

[PolynesianLily]

Hi all! As promised, by myself on my last pre-trip report update, here is the Arrival Day plans in details. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please by all means feel free to post. From here on in, my pre-trip report will be about each day’s plans. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Just as a little side note, I will be taking the perspective of this day, meaning I will be using future tense to predict how the day will go. I was not sure as to how to approach this, but I think this might work.

Sunday, May 2 2010 – The Arrival Day​

Today is Sunday, or as I like to refer to it as, the day where I find my way home, or to my second home that is. I will be super excited for this day, so who knows how much sleep I will have gotten the night before. Instead of taking our car to the airport, we have decided to take a shuttle from our house to the airport. This is because it makes it easier on us when we return – we don’t have to attempt to find our car etc. So the shuttle is expected to pick us up at 7:30am, however, I am not sure if this time is set in stone. See, we booked the service before the airports changed the security measures. We might need a little more time to get through security, and get settled in at the airport.

I’m not sure if any of you all notice this, but it seems to me that the day of arrival always seems to go by so slow. It feels like you have been awake for hours when it’s really only been like 2 hours minimum. This day is also somewhat stressful because we are dealing with very excited people who are looking forward to their vacation and would like to get to Walt Disney World as soon as possible. *Sigh* but who wouldn’t? So the “shuttle” service is expected to pick us up at 7:30am so we will just go with those plans for now. We will have printed off our boarding passes the night before, just to save us some time. If we leave our house at 7:30am then that means that we should be at the airport at approximately 8:15am or 8:30am at the latest. There is nothing like arriving at the airport knowing in 7 hours you will see a palm tree! (I seem to talk about seeing palm trees a lot).

If we arrive at 8:30am it will probably take approximately 1 hour to 1.5 hours until we are able to sit down and wait to board the airplane. If it were to take 1.5 hours, which it might or it might not, than that means that we will arrive at 10am at the gate. Eeek, that is not preferable, defiantly not. Considering the fact that the plane LEAVES at 10:30am, we are REALLY pushing it there. *Crosses fingers that it doesn’t take 1.5 hours in security etc*. Okay, slight panic attack there, but moving on.

We board the plane at 10:15 a.m. by the latest, and then we are off in the air by 10:30 a.m. This of course is the exciting/boring part. The boring part of it is, there is not much you can do when you are on the airplane. I'm hoping they might turn the TV's on, but I'm not entirely sure if they will. I know after the December fiasco at the airport, they upgraded the airport security system and some of the airlines stopped turning on the television. Regardless, I am hoping to bring my iPod, filled with some Disney tunes. The exciting part is that we will be on our way to Disney World!! The flight I think will take approximately 2 hours and 37 minutes making the approximate arrival time to be at 1:07pm. This would be an amazing time to arrive, but of course we all know delays happen.

I am pretty sure that we have scheduled to pick a rental car at 1:30pm. This of course is the stressful but exciting part as well. The stressful part is that it takes a little while to choose a car - or a brand that everyone can agree on. Of course I know absolutely nothing about cars so me helping choose would be completely pointless since I would only go for the color. The last trip we got a sapphire Impala. Now whenever I see a car just like this one, it reminds me of the December 2008 trip. Christmas in Disney is certainly something special. I love driving from the airport to Disney World because of all the signs giving directions, as well as the billboards that advertise the rides.

As I am writing this I am getting more and more excited thinking about all that I am going to see when we are driving to Disney World from the airport. It doesn't even feel like it has been a 485 wait, but rather it feels like it has only been a year or less. It's crazy how fast time flies, which means for all of you who have upcoming trips or who are planning future trips, don't worry if you have a lot of days left, time does really fly!

So let's say we arrive at the hotel at 2:30pm by the latest, that would be amazing. Hopefully if we do check in before 3:30pm, our room will be ready. If not, than that is alright. We don't have any park plans for this day because we will be arriving in the afternoon, and I don't think there is any point trying to go to a park in the middle of the afternoon after a long travel day. We probably will just take the monorail around to the hotels, I will begin my photo journey etc.

We also don't have any dinner plans for tonight besides going to Captain Cook's. At Captain Cook's (the Polynesian food court), there are dole whip machines, so that is a must have for after the delicious dinner. Of course, I can never decide what I want to eat, so it will just depend on if I eat anything large on the airplane, and if I am hungry when it comes to dinner time. We might have dinner a little bit early, so of course I will have to factor that into the equation.

We will also be watching Wishes tonight, and getting a few snacks from the little snack mart at the Polynesian. I don't think i'm going to buy any souvenirs the first night, I will most likely wait until later on in the trip. Just to see what every park has.

Anyways, those are the "quick" and confusing plans. Thank you for reading!!!

 

[PolynesianLily]

I was searching on Google for the Orlando 14 day Forecast, and it came up with a 15 days forecast. I am curious to see how it changes over the next few days but as of right now it has me super excited. I will be posting the forecast below, and comparing it to the Canadian forecast. Just so I can laugh and become even more excited for our trip to Walt Disney World.

As of Wednesday, April 21 2010 . . .
Sun. May 2: Low=70F; High=87F; Feels Like=97F
Mon. May 3: Low=69F; High=87F; Feels Like=98F
Tues. May 4: Low=69F; High=87F; Feels Like 96F
Wed. May 5: Low=65F; High=87F; Feels Like=95F

 

[PolynesianLily]

Today calls for a celebration. Today is the best day ever. Why? Because it is officially 9 days until our trip! We are no longer in the double digits, but now we are doing the single digit dance! I hope the days go by quickly, and that they don't drag on like they do sometimes. I find when you are planning for a vacation, the days pass ever so quickly. I think I have mentioned this many times before, but we started out with 485 days and now we are down to 9 days. I have no clue what happened to those 485 days, but they are no longer here, or well at least 476 arn't here anymore. I am getting excited to be able to write my first trip report, although not many people have read my pre-trip report, but that doesn't bother me. When it comes to planning, I bounce all over the place when I talk, not staying on one topic for long. You know it's getting closer to your trip when you can check the weather though! Take a look below! I am comparing two websites, and once I get back - I will say which one had more accurate predictions. Of course, I know that the trip is still 9 days away, so the weather predictions might not be totally accurate but still it is nice to see what it might be like there.

I checked the forecast again this morning but this time I found a different website. Of course it is saying something remotely different than the first website I had found on Google, but after looking at the weather up until Thursday May 6th, I am actually really excited!

Sun May 2
High: 92F
Low: 70F
Description: Warm and humid with some sun

Mon May 3
High: 92F
Low: 69F
Description: Partly sunny, warm and humid

Tues May 4
High: 91F
Low: 64F
Description: Mostly sunny, warm and humid

Wed May 5
High: 87F
Low: 66F
Description: Partly sunny and humid

Thu May 6
High: 85F
Low: 65F
Description: Sunny

As you can see, it looks like as the week goes on it will be a tad bit cooler, but probably nothing noticeable. Compared to the weather in Canada, you will NEVER find me complaining about the weather in Orlando. I am tempted to check the first sit I checked yesterday to see their weather predictions. I will post the other sites predictions below, along with what they say it will feel like with the humidity.

www.myforecast.com Weather Predictions
Sun. May 2: Low=70F; High=88F; Feels Like=103F
Mon. May 3: Low=71F; High=88F; Feels Like=99F
Tues. May 4: Low=71F; High=89F; Feels Like 98F
Wed. May 5: Low=69F; High=89F; Feels Like=102F
Thurs. May 6: Low=68F; High=87F; Feels Like=94F

As you can see, the weather predictions from the above site have changed since I checked yesterday. The weather has actually gotten a lot warmer. If it feels like 99F on Monday when we are at the Magic Kingdom, I can guarantee we will be riding Splash and Pirates many times .

We shall move on to the Monday May 3rd Plans!

Today will be our first full day at Walt Disney World. I think I am getting up at 6:30 or earlier to go for a walk with my mother. Since we are staying at the Polynesian Resort, we can use the walkway to the Grand Floridian for our morning walk. We have done this many trips before, but of course when it comes to the morning time I can get a little sleepy from all the excitement of going to the parks etc. Just thinking about the plans I can hardly believe the trip is almost here. If I scream a few times between sentences, please excuse me. I will be taking some pictures on our morning walks, and maybe even taking a video. The reason why we go for morning walks is to give my dad some time to sleep, and to get ready in the morning. After our walk we usually wait in the lobby for my father, if we are going to the Grand Floridian Cafe or the Kona Cafe for breakfast. Guess where we are going for breakfast on this morning?

Got a guess?



Did you say....the Kona Cafe?

If you did than you are completely correct. Going to the Kona Cafe for our very first breakfast is like a tradition. I think for breakfast this morning I might be splitting the Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes with my mom. As for the rest of the plans, I am not completely sure. We are going to the Magic Kingdom today, so that should be a lot of fun! I will have to discuss our park touring plans with my mom when I have time next week and update you all. We are going to the Cape May Cafe for dinner, which is our favourite dinner buffet. We tried it on our last vacation to Walt Disney World in December 2008 and fell in love with it. I also don't know our nighttime plans, I need to discuss those too. I will give another update later on today!

 

[PolynesianLily]

Weather from Accuweather:
05/02/2010
High: 86F
Low: 68F

05/03/2010
High: 87F
Low: 69F

05/04/2010
High: 87F
Low: 67F

05/05/2010
High: 87F
Low: 66F

05/06/2010
High: 88F
Low: 65F

05/07/2010
High: 82F
Low: 63F

Weather from MyForecast:
05/02/2010
High: 89F
Low: 69F

05/03/2010
High: 90F
Low: 70F

05/04/2010
High: 90F
Low: 70F

05/05/2010
High: 89F
Low: 69F

05/06/2010
High: 89F
Low: 70F

05/07/2010
High: 89F
Low: 70F

----
As you can see it is pretty hard to trust one forecast, because it changes on a daily basis, especially when it is 8-9 days out. More updates later!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Daytime temperature still looks good to me, either way. Here's hoping the rains stay away...

 

[Brave teacher]

Those are great temps to me!

 

[Brave teacher]

Just read the planf for your travel day and first park day. Everything sounds wonderful. I'm looking forward to your post today.

 

[PolynesianLily]

Thank you both so much!
I think that I have officially come to the conclusion that it will be HOT. Which means I will be packing my shorts and tank tops. I have some nice capris that are very comfortable and breezy. I know for myself, I can't stand wearing pants in the heat that stick to me. None of the days so far have shown rain, so i'm hoping as well that it stays away .

To add onto the Magic Kingdom park plans, we have decided to start off in Frontierland by getting a fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. After getting a fastpass, we will ride Splash Mountain, then ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, depending on when the fastpass return time is we mgiht even go ride Pirates of the Caribbean before Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. So here's the touring plans (I think...):

Frontierland
Adventureland
Liberty Square
LUNCH
Fantasyland
Tomorrowland
Mickey's Toontown Fair
Main Street U.S.A.

I am in search of Mr.Pooh Bear, so hopefully I will be able to find him at the Magic Kingdom .

On a side note, I am in search of the vacuum to clean my room. I finally get to come home for summer vacation on Monday.