Monsters, bugs, and Jack Sparrow!? Final Update 7/13!!!!

[irky416]

Hi! Welcome to my trip report!

We got back a little more than a week ago and I am finally ready to start my report. I had to sort through all my pictures first. All 1200 of them. As I was going through them I managed to get it down to about 950. My Photopass CD came today, though, so that will up the number again.

Needless to say, this trip report will have a lot of pictures!

The camera basically never leaves my wrist. You can see it in this picture. Unless I'm actually taking a picture, the camera never moves.

I'm irky416 and I take a lot of pictures. Now, that I've admitted it and accepted it, we can move on.

I did a pre-trip report for this trip, so I will just give a brief recap of all the pre-trip details here.

Who:

Me (26): I’m a teacher. I love Disney stuff! This is my third trip to Disney (well, specifically, MK) in a year. Before that I hadn’t been in 10 years. I’m sad to say, it will probably be another few years until I make it back at this point. Unless I go solo or convince someone else I know to go with me.

DBF (25): He’s a software engineer. Not crazy about the Disney parks, but learned to like them more than he thought he would and enjoyed himself on this trip. He likes Disney movies, though. We have a huge collection and watch them fairly often. He especially likes The Incredibles and Aladdin.

DSis (18): She just graduated form high school and is starting college in a month and a half. She doesn’t know what she wants to do yet. She likes Disney when she wants. She’ll randomly get really into it and then the next day not want to talk about it at all. She did this while we were there, too. She’s still a moody teenager…what can I say?

Here's the three of us. DSis is in the black shirt and I'm in the blue shirt.

DBF’s parents: They wanted to go on a trip with DBF and I, so we invited them along on this trip. They don’t really care about Disney one way or the other. They didn’t care about what we did either. We asked them and they said they would do whatever we wanted to do. (I don’t think they knew what they were getting in to with me – crazy planner and picture taker!)

I don't think they want their pictures on a message board, so I am not going to post too many pictures of them. Most of our pictures don't include them anyway, so it's not a big deal. They didn't really want their pictures taken too much. If they're in a picture I will probably blur them out, so I can still post it.

What: A magical trip to the Happiest Place on Earth – Walt Disney World!

When: June 19-24

Where: Windsor Hills Resort (Offsite, but only 10 minutes away from the fun!)

Why: To celebrate DSis’s graduation from high school and to take a vacation with DBF’s parents.

Our plans were all set, our ADR’s made, park schedules worked out ahead of time to maximize time in the parks with the least amount of crowds. (I didn’t subscribe to a service for this, but basically just tried to work around EMH’s.) We were ready to go!

Up Next: The Journey There

Quick Links to Chapters:
Day 1 - June 19
Chapter 1 - The Journey Begins
Chapter 2 - Arrival
Chapter 3 - Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…
Chapter 4 - Monster Encounter Numero Uno
Chapter 5 - Another bug, another monster and closing up Magic Kingdom
Day 2 - June 20
Chapter 6 – First time at Animal Kingdom
Chapter 6.5 - Safari Pictures
Chapter 7 - Terk and EE: More fun at Animal Kingdom
Chapter 8 - Goofy loves DSis but she loves Simba
Chapter 8.5 - Goofy loves DSis but she loves Simba
Chapter 9 – Rain, rain go away...
Chapter 10 – Grand Floridian and Full House
Chapter 11 – A night in MK with a Monster
Day 3 - June 21
Chapter 12 – Breakfast at Ohana
Chapter 13 – Annoyed at Epcot
Chapter 14 – Soarin and Living With the Land
Chapter 15 – Beverly
Chapter 16 – Mexico!
Chapter 17 – China!
Chapter 18 – Our first trip around the world ends
Chapter 19 – Around the world….again!
Chapter 20 - Irky416 doesn't like this ride!
Chapter 21 - Illuminations
Day 4 - June 22
Chapter 22 - Sea World
Chapter 23 - A Not So Great Idea
Chapter 23.5 - A Not So Great Idea Part 2
Day 5 - June 23
Chapter 24 - Hollywood Studios
Chapter 25 - Musical and Incredible
Chapter 26 - Scoldings and Tickets
Chapter 27 - Block Party Bash
Chapter 28 - Rides and Characters
Chapter 29 - Stunts, Props and Toys
Chapter 30 - Fantasmic!
Day 6 - June 24
Chapter 31 - The last day begins
Chapter 32 - Cars, Muppets and Anty!
Chapter 33 - Toy Story Mania!
Chapter 34 - I make a fool out of myself
Chapter 35 - We leave

Wrap Up

 

[irky416]

Without further ado...

Chapter 1 - The Journey Begins

We always pack the night before. Never earlier, never later. It takes me anywhere from 4-6 hours to get completely packed and organized. DBF on the other hand is fully packed and ready to go in less than 1, and usually more like 30 minutes!

I love packing! I think it’s the organizing everything part that makes me love it so much. I would do it professionally if I could. It took me awhile to decide what suitcases we were going to take. DBF took only a carry-on and I took a regular sized suitcase.

My mad packing skills allowed me to actually use up only about half the suitcase for my clothes. I discovered on our last trip to WDW that rolling my clothes and putting them in Ziploc bags saves so much space. I squeeze out all the air and four shirts now take up the space that one would otherwise. I don’t find it to cause any more wrinkles than cramming it all in so it fits does, so it is now my preferred method of packing.

DSis was texting me until about 1 AM asking many questions about what she should pack. Are you bringing a hair dryer? Can I pack liquids in my checked bag? What are you taking as a carry-on? These were just some of the texts I got from her until I finally told her I had to go to sleep.

Our flight left around 12:30. I wanted an earlier flight, but the only other one on Southwest that was non-stop was at 7 AM. DBF and I decided against that one since getting up so early for a flight last time threw us off and made us so tired. And we couldn't check in until 3 anyway.

We packed up the car and headed to pick up DSis around 9:30. It takes about an hour to get to the airport and I wanted to give us plenty of time. We got to the airport with plenty of time which was good because we had to park like a mile away from the airport entrance. I guess a lot of people were on vacation!

I love that there’s free wi-fi in the airport. We were able to check the weather and pass the time away on the computer.

We had secured tickets in the A boarding group, so we got boarded and got our seats. It was only DSis’s second time on an airplane and she had to go through her ritual of reading the safety card and shushing me during the flight attendants safety speech!

We settled in and had in uneventful flight. DSis loves the plane pictures so we took a few of those.

I guess now would be a good time to introduce my new travel buddy. Captain Jack Sparrow. I was inspired late last year by some of the pictures on the cruise boards. There were some people took pictures with a stuffed Fun Ship Freddy and another who used sock money. They posed them all around the ship and others had them on other trips with them as their traveling buddy. It made me want one!

I had to be original, though. I was on the lookout for a few months for my own travel buddy. It couldn’t be just any old thing; it had to speak to me! Then, I saw a picture of a little stuffed Jack Sparrow. I have a small obsession with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and as soon as I saw it, I had to have it!

I didn’t know where to get it from, though, as I had never seen one in person so I put my Google skills to the test. Finally, I found out it was a giveaway from McDonalds a few years ago. How didn’t I know about this!? I still had to have it. But how? Well, if you have the internet where else do you go to look for anything you might want? EBay! I found one and had DBF order it for me (after he teased me about it!). Captain Jack Sparrow came to me shortly there after and is now my official travel buddy.

Jack enjoys the plane ride

Jack passes the time away listening to some music

Captain Jack has been places around my city, but WDW would be his first big trip. I think he was excited, too.

We finally see Florida below us!

Anyway, we arrived in MCO on time (yay for Southwest! ) and took the “monorail” to get our luggage. We barely had to wait at all for it to come out. Next, we had to go get our rental car and find the condo rental agency and then make it to our condo.

I promise there will be more pictures soon. I tend to forget to take pictures while doing the actual traveling. One, because I’m busy worried about getting where we need to be and keeping all our stuff together and Two, because this is one of the few times on vacation when the camera isn’t attached to my wrist!

Next up: You call this an intermediate car!? And we make it to our condo!

 

[kathleen27]

YAY!!! You started!

Lots of pictures is good!!!

It takes me forever to pack.

Glad Jack enjoyed the plane ride!

Can't wait for more!

 

[jmskinner]

you started your TR. I am the same way. Take camera at security checkpoint and on our way. I end up with a lot of blurry ones because I snap as I walk! Pictures that is.

I'll be here waiting for more!

 

[irky416]

YAY!!! You started!

Lots of pictures is good!!!

It takes me forever to pack.

Glad Jack enjoyed the plane ride!

Can't wait for more!

I'm glad you came back to read this trip report!

you started your TR. I am the same way. Take camera at security checkpoint and on our way. I end up with a lot of blurry ones because I snap as I walk! Pictures that is.

I'll be here waiting for more!

I also take pictures as I'm walking! I have less blurry ones now because I have Image Stabilization on my camera. Best invention ever!

Thanks for reading!

 

[irky416]

Chapter 2: Arrival

We had rented a car from an offsite company because they were $100 cheaper than any at the airport. I was a little nervous about the shuttle taking forever to come get us. We had a bad experience with that when we got stranded in Dallas one time. It turns out, I was nervous about nothing. We called and waited maybe 15 minutes at most for the shuttle.

DSis found the sign in the shuttle amusing and insisted on me taking a picture of it.

We got to the rental place in about 10 minutes and there was no wait. We had reserved an intermediate car since we had three adults and were planning on using our car to transport DBF’s parents to the parks sometimes, too. (They rented their own car, but had reserved a compact.) The guy told us the only intermediate car they had didn’t have automatic anything. Ok, we thought, not a huge deal.

Then the problem started. He started to try to get us to upgrade for $60 more to the next higher class of car because it was much nicer and we would be more comfortable with our luggage. We said no thanks and then he started to print the paper work for the car with that had no automatic “stuff” (a Kia, maybe? I don’t remember.). While he was printing it, he said, “Oh wait. We don’t have that car now.” Umm…what?

Then, I don’t know how it happened but he ended up giving us a Ford Mustang. He printed out the information and it was $20 more than what we had reserved for. At that point, I was getting annoyed with the whole process. He said it was still an intermediate. We had been there for about 20 minutes while he was trying to figure out what to do. He had a very strong accent and he was talking very softly. We couldn’t really understand him all that well. We ended up taking the Mustang. When we got out and actually saw it, we were kind of surprised. It looked really small.

I never took a picture, but here is what it looked like: (We had the first one)

The luggage all fit ok, but when DSis tried to get in the backseat, she realized how small it was back there. There was no way we would be fitting 5 people in there! Oh well. Too late now, and we didn’t want to argue about it. It would do.

As an aside, I hated driving this car. I found it hard to see out of and DBF had to keep looking for me to see if I could merge. It didn’t accelerate well or do stop and go driving well. On the highway was fine, but except to and from the airport we weren’t on the highway. I don’t know if it was this particular car or all Mustangs, but it made me never want to buy one.

Ok, that was way too much about the car! We brought our GPS (we named him Niles and have him set up with the British accent) and set it up to get us to the rental agency where we had to go check in and pick up the keys. It took us about 45 minutes to get there from the airport. We never got lost. Thanks Niles!

After picking up our keys, we headed back to our condo. It was about 15 minutes from the rental agency. We had a little problem finding our specific building. Niles didn’t seem to know all of the little roads in the complex. We found it, though, shortly after arriving at the resort. DBF’s parents were not having the same luck. Their GPS (Evelyn) was not giving them good directions. They called DBF and he talked them though the directions from the airport.

We unpacked the car and headed into the condo. It was just as nice as what we were expecting. Before we unpacked and made a mess, I had DSis pose for some pictures of what it looked like.

Outside of our building:

Our room with the extra twin bed:

Our HUGE closet:

Our bathroom: (We have the same shower curtain at our house!)

DBF's parents bedroom complete with towel animal:

DBF's parents bathroom:

We picked this one specifically because it had an extra twin bed in the 2nd bedroom for DSis. All of the condos are decorated differently, and a lot of them have Disney decorations. I would highly recommend staying here, if you want more space than a hotel room. It only took about 10 minutes to get to Disney property.

They also had a really nice pool area, but we never made it over there to go swimming. The one night we were planning on it, the pool was closed early for maintenance. Someone said it had just closed, so I am going to guess someone had an accident in the pool and it needed to be cleaned.

We unpacked while waiting for DBF’s parents to arrive. The plan was to get dinner with them and then DBF, DSis and I were going to head to Magic Kingdom for the rest night. The plan was being threatened, however, by the ever darkening sky and abundance of dark grey clouds.

Up Next: Dinner and will we make it to MK or will we be rained out?

 

[poohangel]

Great so far. We are staying at windsor hills in April. I cant wait.

 

[irky416]

Great so far. We are staying at windor hills in April. I cant wait.

Thanks for reading! Windsor Hills was great. It was really close and we barely ever hit traffic.

 

[shera]

great pictures,love the plane photos,thanks for sharing your trip,can't wait for more

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Subbing. Can't wait to read more!

 

[tink1957]

Great pics, I'm enjoying your TR so far & can't wait to read more. Thanks for sharing.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Great start! Love your little Jack Sparrow.

 

[HappyDisneyMemories]

Love it! Can't wait for more! Your Jack Sparrow is too cute!

 

[TCKK]

Joining in!! Love all the pics.

 

[jmskinner]

Ok, I'm still here even though I am a Mustang owner! Not something I would rent on vacation though unless it was just the two of us. Plus ours is a GT, so it has more power. I had issues with my rental car company also.

The condo looks really nice. Did I miss him, was Jack in any of those photos?

 

[irky416]

great pictures,love the plane photos,thanks for sharing your trip,can't wait for more

Thanks!

Subbing. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for reading!!

Great pics, I'm enjoying your TR so far & can't wait to read more. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you. I should have the next update later today.

Great start! Love your little Jack Sparrow.

Thanks! I love him, too!

Love it! Can't wait for more! Your Jack Sparrow is too cute!

Thanks for reading!

Joining in!! Love all the pics.

Thank you and welcome!

Ok, I'm still here even though I am a Mustang owner! Not something I would rent on vacation though unless it was just the two of us. Plus ours is a GT, so it has more power. I had issues with my rental car company also.

The condo looks really nice. Did I miss him, was Jack in any of those photos?

Haha. I was waiting for the first person to come and tell me they had a Mustang and I was wrong! For the kind of driving I do at home, I don't think I would mind it, but on vacation, it was a pain. Also, at home no one rides in my backseat hardly ever. It was annoying to have to keep readjusting my seat because DSis always got in on my side. And I just hate two door cars.

You didn't miss Jack. You'll start to notice there are "clumps" of Jack pictures. Since this was his first trip, we forgot about him sometimes. He was in my bag every day but we didn't always remember to take him out.

 

[irky416]

Chapter 3: Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…

I left off as we were waiting for DBF’s parents to arrive. They arrived shortly after we were done unpacking and we decided to go out for dinner. I wanted to go to Earl of Sandwich or the Grand Floridian cafeteria for dinner. I knew neither was expensive. I really wanted to try Earl of Sandwich based on reviews on the Dis. And DSis and I had the goal of making it to the Grand Floridian before we left WDW. Why, you ask? We both love Full House and wanted to stop and see if we could find the stuff from the episode where they went to WDW. I thought we could kill two birds with one stone and just eat there also.

I was out voted, however, and everyone decided to go to Shoney’s. (Don’t ask me why.) We drove to Shoney’s and had a rather unpleasant experience. The food was mediocre and the waitress looked like she never smiled in her life. Not to mention the fact that she seemed to have no clue what was on their menu. DBF’s mom asked her what kind of salad dressing they had and the waitress looked at her like she had just asked what the capital of Yugoslavia was.

We all got free dessert with our dinner, though, which was about the only good thing about going there. I took no pictures here as there was absolutely nothing worth documenting or remembering about this dinner!

During dinner we came up with a plan for the rest of the night. DBF’s parents would head out to the grocery store and pick up some breakfast foods, snacks, and water. DBF, DSis, and I would head to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the night. DBF’s parents only had three day park passes and they were tired from traveling, so it worked out well.

As we were driving back to the resort, the sky was getting darker and darker. It looked like it was going to storm really badly. DBF’s parents dropped us off and we went inside and started to gather stuff up to head out to the park. While we were inside, we heard the rain start. It was pouring. We decided we were going to head out as planned. I was hoping to get there around 8ish so we would have 4 hours to spend. This was our only time planned for MK. DBF is not a big fan of this park and none of us had been to the other parks for a long time, but we’d been to MK much more recently.
We ran to the car in the rain. DSis and I got extra wet because I had to wait for her to climb in the back. We set up Niles for MK and headed off. Before we left, I had downloaded the Disney maps from Mousesavers into our GPS. I don’t know if Niles would have found the Disney sites without them, but for the most part it was really helpful. It poured the entire trip there. I had trouble seeing. I also did not like the Mustang in the rain, although, that was probably more due to rental car tires. It was raining really badly. So bad, that I didn’t even make DBF take a picture of the WDW gate or the MK gate. I doubt they would have turned out, the rain was coming down so hard.

It was weird, though. As we were pulling into the parking lot at MK, the rain started to slow down. As, I was parking the car, it slowed down even more. And by the time we got out and walked over to the tram, it was barely drizzling. While on the monorail, it almost looked like it was clearing up.

By the time we entered the turnstiles at MK, this was what it looked like. (excuse the darkness and the finger in the next shot...It was the first time I was trying out our new waterproof camera)

Blue sky and few clouds. It was perfect how it had worked out for us on our first day at Disney. (We wouldn’t be this lucky the rest of the week!)

We had preordered the Photopass, so our first goal was to get our picture taken. We found some photographers and started posing. I had to ask for the Tink shot, but the photographer was happy to oblige. (I think I saved every Photopass picture of s in front of a landmark with all the different borders, so I have a ton of example if anyone wants to see something specific.)

After getting our pictures taken, we decided we were going to head over towards Adventureland to ride Pirates. We got there and found a 45 minute wait. No thanks. DSis wanted to ride Splash Mountain. We headed over there and found a 65 minute wait and no Fast Passes left. Ok, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. 55 minutes with no Fast Passes either.

Hmmm….maybe I didn’t think coming to Magic Kingdom at 7:30 at night in the middle of June through all the way.

Up Next: Will we actually ride anything? And our first encounter with a monster!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Oooh, your third photopass picture...that border is SOOO neat!! I wonder if they just added it because I definitely do not remember seeing that one when I was ordering a couple of our pictures.

 

[MistyD]

Loving your TR so far!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Disney Brat]

Just found your TR! Great job! Also I am a former Mustang owner! DH and I had one, and loved it! Sorry you had a bad experience with it! Can't wait to hear more!