Mother & Daughter trip 9/23-28

[Disneynutbsv]

Cast: Me, 35, as you can tell by my name, I'm a Disneynut
DD, 9, just like me, loves disney, but likes to whine and complain a lot


September 23, 2005

Day 1

Woke up at 1:58am for an early morning flight. I felt like I had just gotten to sleep! Woke up dd and she comes out and says, “what do you want me to do??” I told her to get dressed, brush her teeth, just like any other day, lol. Finally my dh gets up and then we load my sleeping son in the car. Dh is driving me and dd to the airport. We get checked in and go to McDonalds for breakfast, which was gross btw. Then I thought I would go to Dunkin’ Donuts to get a coffee and that was gross too. This is not a great start to the day.

Finally we are able to board and my dd starts in on the “I’m bored” thing, geesh. We get to Reagan airport and I’m still hungry, so we get a pretzel at Pretzel Time which was very good. We get to board and then we are on our way. At this point, I’m actually not feeling well We finally get to MCO. We decided to skip Magical Express, I just didn’t want to wait for a bus, so I rented a car with Alamo, it was a midsize for $100/5 days, well worth it I believe. DD picked out a red Grand Am. I think the last person that drove it must have been 7 feet tall (I’m only 5 feet, lol).

Anyhow we leave and head out to WDW and get to follow a Magical Express bus! They got off at Downtown Disney, and we kept onto all star movies. Check in was extremely quick, maybe a couple of minutes...tops. We checked into Fantasia building 5 (sorcerer hat) at noon!! Room was ready too! So we drive all the way around, parked and found our room. The room number was 5820, 2nd floor, right near the elevators and ice machine. No great views, but that’s ok. Shortly after checking in we received a delivery of some snacks and a birthday balloon. Lots of snacks and a couple cans of diet coke in a cute lunch bag! A new cm named Samantha delivered it and commented on the lime green Mickey on my door. She was very nice!

Lunch was at All Star Movies Food Court. As we were on the dining plan, I didn’t want to screw anything up, so I made sure I was doing everything ok. One nice man told me, when he first started on the dining plan he felt like an idiot asking so many questions and then after a couple of days he felt like a pro! I’ll do a separate dining report. I didn’t care for the way things were run in there and it was quiet! It was just a little slow. The food we got was good, I also got a brownie for dessert and that wasn’t good, it was dry. My dd didn’t like it either. We will try it for breakfast and see how it goes tomorrow.

DD decided she wanted to go swimming. I told her I’d go down and watch her swim and get some pictures. I wished that I had changed into my suit, it was so humid!!! We spent some of the afternoon unpacking and relaxing a bit.

About 3:30 we left to find the Wilderness Lodge, after driving around looking for it, we finally found the road, but instead of going to the wilderness lodge, we ended up at the tt&c parking lot. I’m sooooo glad we left early. After taking the boat over to MK, we then got on the bus to WL. We walked around a bit. What a beautiful hotel, absolutely gorgeous! I love the river and bridge inside of the hotel. DD decided to get a Sheriff’s pin, I think she’s going to become a pin collector.



We checked into the Whispering Canyon Café and had Raging Bull. He was hysterical! He came over and sat at our table with us, threw napkins and straws at us. Food was ok, but atmosphere was awesome! We had a cake ordered for my birthday and they thought it was dd’s birthday, so they sang Happy Birthday to her. LOL, so I just let them sing to her. It was pretty funny. The chocolate cake was yummy!!! Some funny things that happened to us while there: Bobby the bandit (you’ll see him in Delswife’s trip report on badshoe) came over while my daughter was trying to hold and eat her corn. He said , let me help you. He got another fork and her fork and stuck it in each end. So she could pick it up and eat it. That was great! Somebody hollered for catsup and one other family brought the catsup over and it was about 10 single bottles and then a box of it! Finally we were done and went outside to wait for the Mk bus so that we could head to Disney quest. DD and I thought the best part was the elevator ride with the Genie! We did the virtual jungle cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. We then tried to do Aladdin’s Magic Carpet ride, but after all that food and the motion, I felt ill, so I took my headpiece off and dd did too and we ended up in the gift shop downstairs. DD bought a pin of Tinkerbell that looks like a bottle cap and says Pixie Pop. Very cute. About 8:00 we got back to All Star Movies and went straight to bed. It was a very long first day!
Next up: Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom!

 

[Disneynutbsv]

September 24, 2005

Day 2
Well Stitch woke me up this morning at 6:30 and that was little annoying. It’s still 7:10 and we are still lounging about. I guess its time to get dressed to head to AK for emh.

Getting to AK we went straight to Kilimanjaro Safaris, after that we went on the Pagoni (spelling) Trek, then fast passed Kali River Rapids. Then we walk to Dinosaur and get right on when it opens. My dd decided she didn’t want to go on ITTBAB so we went to Kali River Rapids and used our fast passes. After that we watched some music going on in Africa.

Lunch at Tusker House. Never been before and will definitely go back again. Very yummy Then we head to Camp Minnie Mickey to see the Festival of the Lion King. In all the times I’ve been to AK we’ve always skipped it. Never again! What a great show, a must see. Lots of talented performers.

Then we headed out and went back to the hotel. Walking into our room I’ve got more balloons and a birthday card from Mickey! Plus a magical moments certificate. Then we went to Magic Kingdom. I think we waited 20 minutes tops for Space Mountain and did it twice. We did the Stitch ride and as much as I get a kick out of Stitch, I wouldn’t do the ride again. Even my dd who loves Stitch said no way. We then head to get Fast Passes to Winnie the Pooh and walk into Philharmagic. Onto Frontier land and Splash mountain is down We wait about 35 minutes to BTMRR. After that we go to Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner. This is so great! Great character interaction and wonderful food

We use our fast passes to Winnie the Pooh and then we wait for Ariel in her grotto. Toon Town is next where we get Donalds autograph and pics with Donald, goofy and minnie. We rode the train to the front and walked back by LTT where we staked out a spot for the parade. So many people arguing over spots. Very un-disneylike. The cm’s from the haunted mansion came were in the street and got a game of jump rope going so dd went and played that for a bit. The parade started and WOW!!! It was fabulous!

We walked around the castle and got a spot in the rose garden for wishes. Just beautiful and it always makes me cry. Of course this is when my camcorder battery decides to die. At least I got Tink flying! It takes forever to get to the parking lot and we get back to our room around 10:45pm and off to sleep we go.

 

[Disneynutbsv]

Day 3 September 25

Today Stitch woke us up early again. We went to Crystal Palace this morning. The food was ok and we never got to see Pooh or Eeyore.
After that we went up to the rope drop inside of the castle. There was one parent with her daughter there. Her daughter was wearing a Tinkerbell outfit, she was so cute. I knew they were waiting to wake up Tink, she was so excited. They hurried up breakfast to go and wait for the rope drop. We were probably up there around 10 minutes and all of a sudden this women comes running up, with two girls behind her. I knew then that she was determined that these girls were going to wake up Tink. I’m thinking to myself...this is not going to be good. Suddenly, the rope drops and those two parents are running to the gift shop. My daughter just wanted to watch her wake up thank goodness! Anyhow it turned out that the woman that came running up behind, one of her girls got there first and then this other ladies daughters were after and then the woman who was running also had a girl that looked to be around 13 years old. Apparently she was grabbed by the other mother!! Anyhow, the family that got to wake up tink posted and I wanted to clarify what happened with them.
This is what happened with one of the families that were involved with this incident:

From HauntedManFan
Hi I'm new here and sorry to say it took people posting about my family for me to finally stop lurking and register so i could post to defend my family. I was at the MK on 9/25 with my sister and my two nieces. We had tried earlier in the week to have my 8 year old niece wake up tink and my 12 year old niece was the first one in the store but didn't speak up and another family with 2 boys got to do it-we weren't offered to share. So on 9/25 my sister and 2 nieces tried again-I was right in back of them. There was no shoving or pushing. Yes they did run-the entrance to the store is not very far-its not like they were running a race through the whole park. But this is what happened that made my family realize it wasn't worth it. When the rope dropped and everyone started running toward the store the other woman involved that had 2 young daughters sees my 12 year old niece start to run past her and grabs my niece by the shoulder and yanks her back! I get into the store my sister is agreeing that my 8 year old niece should share with these other 2 girls and then shes telling this woman that she shouldn't have touched her daughter. My 12 year old niece was crying and holding her shoulder and i tried to comfort her(I think her feelings were hurt the most though.) She was just trying to help her sister-it wasn't because she wanted to wake up tinkerbell herself. She was crying because this woman grabbed her. She was still bothered by this for sometime afterward. My sister and I agree that this is becoming a popular thing and is only going to cause more unfortunate situations to occur. This definitely did not make our morning magical. We just feel that the woman becoming physical crossed a line. I'm sorry to all of you who were witness to this that day-my sister had good intentions for my niece and would never have resorted to getting physical with anyone especially a child like this other woman did. A little while after this happened a dark haired man who had been there with his daughter in a tinkerbell outfit came up & apologized and so did my sister for words that were exchanged(he wasn't aware of the whole situation that took place) So we are sorry this happened and i'm sorry this is so long of a post. I hope you understand when i read this i couldn't just let this go without setting the record straight. The woman did not apologize for grabbing my niece either.

I'm so sorry to hear this happened, but I think after watching everything and hearing about it...I just don't think its worth it to even try. I've changed my report because what I see that happened and what actually happened with the family involved was different. Anyhow, back to the rest of my report, which remains unedited.

There was a lot of drama in those 5 minutes in the store. After those two moms left, I went up to the register and purchased something and I asked if there were altercations like that everyday. The cm said, yes, unfortunately, the mom’s get the daughters all excited about it and then if it doesn’t happen there are a lot of tears. That is not a way I’d want to start a day at Magic Kingdom, but oh well. Flame me if you want, but I’d just let the magical moments happen if they come.
Next...I booked the Family Magic Tour for my daughter for her birthday present. We had a wonderful cm named Cory. He was fantastic, he checked us in and gave us a water to drink. We went to the courtyard and waited for the tour to start. He came out with brooms and dust rags and told all the kids to start cleaning and he’ll be back as soon as he can. After that he said he had an important assignment for us. Captain Hook’s hook was missing! After many clues and walking like cats, dogs, ballerina’s doing side steps, crawling on carpet in Cosmic Ray’s we found the hook. Wendy had it!!! We ended up playing follow the leader to Mickey’s Philharmagic with Wendy and got to go in a special side entrance. It was still early so we played Duck Duck Goose with Wendy. She was such a nice person and she can talk so fast!!! At the end they gave out Magical moments certificates and said goodbye. It was a great tour and I highly recommend it to anyone!

We then had lunch at Pinnochio’s Village Haus and had pizza, it was pretty good! Then we rode on Splash Mountain, got the front row and got completely drenched. Well, little did I know that my tank top was see through once you get it wet, so we decided to go back to the hotel to get changed. I walked all the way out of the park with a plastic shopping bag in front of me. We got back to the hotel and dd decided to go swimming for a little bit, then we got back in the room, and changed to go have dinner at the Grand Floridian.
Arriving at the GF, we immediately felt like we didn’t belong there. There were $140 pair of flip flops for sale. One lady came out and asked if I’d like a pair or two...I said, no thanks not today, lol. We then went to wait for 1900 Park Fare to open. While waiting we met a really nice family from Louisiana! We talked with them for a while. Finally the doors opened and we checked in. We were just sitting there waiting when this man in a nice suit came up to us (I’m thinking...maybe he’s going to tell us to leave, he can tell we aren’t staying here), his name is Dominic and he said to my dd, “Hi princess! What is your name?” She told him and then he said, “Well, princess Meghann, what kingdom are you from?” My dd just looked at me and I told her he wanted to know what state are we from. She told him and come to find out he’s from NH too! Anyhow, he wanted to know if she knew any magic words. She told him hocus pocus. He said they had tried it but the genie showed up and made a huge mess. He asked if she knew any magic words from Cinderella. And dd said, “bibbidi bobbidi boo”. He said, “yes, that’s it!” So dd got to open the restaurant that day and the Fairy Godmother introduced my dd and walked her through the servers and chefs and walked us to the table. My dd was just so excited, she was smiling from ear to ear!!! At the end of the meal we went back to see the Fairy Godmother to get her to sign something and she took my dd, hugged her and said, “Goodbye my little princess”. Oh what a tearjerker and just so magical!! Just so unexpected!
We left and went to Epcot and rode Test Track, got dd a passport and did all the countries before illuminations. ***In Morocco there is a guy that was stamping the passports and when we asked him to stamp it he'd say, "Oh yeaahhhhhhhhhhh." Then he'd ask my dd's name and say, "Meghann?? Oh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!". Then where were we from? We'd say NH, then he's say, "Oh Yeah!!!!!!!" This was ongoing for about 5 minutes. So if you get to Morroco, make sure you say, Oh yeah, lol. ***We were so tired, we didn’t even stay for illuminations. We came back to the room and went straight to sleep.

 

[Disneynutbsv]

Day 4 9/26

Stitch is a pain in the butt we’ve found out. He’s not too easy on the ears when you half asleep. Anyhow we got up and went to the food court for breakfast and then headed to MGM. We got there a bit before it opened and watched a family open the park. That was nice. We then headed in and dd and I were the first ones on Main Street. We then waited at the rope drop. A cm comes up and starts talking to the crowd. He said, he was going to ask a Trivia question and whoever answers it correctly gets first ride on either the RNR or TOT. So he asked...what movie has both animation and live action thru the whole movie. I immediately said Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And that was wrong, there quite a few more guesses, then he gave a hint of its not at MGM or Epcot. Some people named Haunted Mansion and Pirates when I thought of Dinosaur. I told dd to say Dinosaur and she got it right! So, we got to be the first ones to ride RNR. Again, totally unexpected!

We did the first row in RNR and then rode it again, this time in the middle. Then we went to animation and went into the learn how to draw a disney character. It was only dd and I in class and we had a fantastic cm!!! We learned how to draw Pooh and he signed his and said, “I’m not supposed to do this but here you go” and gave his pic of pooh to dd! Again, more magic!!! BTW, my pooh looks like I knocked him on the side of the head and gave him a huge lump. I can’t draw!

We went on WWTBAM after that and I actually got into the top 10 twice!!! Then we went to see Mickey Mouse and he got his pics taken and signed autographs for us. We then went to Pizza planet for lunch and ewwwww, if you can, I’d skip it, it was not good. Then we went to Voyage of the little mermaid, got poohs autograph and then down to RNR...again (dd decided she really likes this ride). We went on TOT and sat down and had a water to drink and waited for Beauty & the Beast to start. What a great show!!!! I loved it!
We mailed our postcards out and then we saw Indiana Jones. Someone had a problem and had to be carried out on a stretcher. The show started about 10 minutes late. I hope that person was ok.
The show was great, the extra’s were hilarious. After this we went to Muppets, found the key under the mat and then went to Mama Melrose’s.

Mama Melrose’s was a big disappointment Our server was always in a hurry and didn’t want to take the time to take our order, it was always, I’ll be right back, or I’ll be with you in a minute. And then when we got our food, we were hurried???? It wasn’t like this back in April. The food wasn’t that great either.

Then we went back to animation. DD wanted to draw another character and our same cm was there and he even said, “welcome back!”. We learned how to draw Jiminy Cricket this time (Mine looks like he’s really mad...I tried!). DD signed hers and dated it. Then it was time to leave and dd gave the cm her picture. He said that was so nice and a perfect way to end the day. I told him he started our day on a great note and thank you. So he looked at dd and said, “thank you sweetie!”. He was nice.

We then waited for Fantasmic to start and that was a great show! We left MGM and back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. What a wonderful magical day.

 

[Disneynutbsv]

Day 5 9/27

We slept in and woke up undecided as to what we were going to do. We ended up going to Magic Kingdom. We walked right onto Buzz Lightyear, then walked onto Space Mountain. We then walked to Toon Town and it wasn’t open yet, but some characters were out there. There was maybe 10 of us total, so we did autographs and pics and then dd and I waited by the rope drop. We hadn’t got all of the characters yet, so we figured we could get the rest in Toon town. Well, little did I know that at 10:00, Mickey Mouse came out and grabbed DD and took her on a tour of his house and then they walked arm and arm into the judge’s tent!!!! Then Mickey wanted to give us Fast Passes to Buzz Lightyear. Then we did lots and lots of pictures!! This was a wonderful way to start off the day. Its just getting better and better all the time!!!

We then walked to the other autograph areas and got the princesses and eeyore. We were going to wait for Cinderellabration but it was so hot, I felt like we would melt into the sidewalk. So, we left, got a water and met up with the Marshall in frontier land. He asked if we would like his card and we told him yes and he gave us a 2 of spades, lol. We walked over to POC and that was nice and air conditioned. Then we see Peter Pan and Wendy. We got a great picture of him and Meghann. Wendy said that since we got her picture already we didn’t need it again.

We went back to frontier land and see Woody and Jessie. Jessie was fooling around and signed her name on her card and on Woody’s. So then Woody signed his card , then Jessie’s, lol. They were being pretty silly. We then decided it was just too hot and went back to the hotel for a swim.

After cooling off we get dressed and head to Epcot. We went into Innoventions to send some emails. Then onto The Land to get fast passes for Soarin’. We went into Journey into Imagination. I’ve never been on this before and it was cute. I did however plug my nose for the skunk smell. We didn’t get a chance to play inside as it was very busy and no stations were open for us to use Oh well....
We then head over to the pin trading section when the characters show up on the bus. We went and got Rafiki and Timon’s autograph and pic right away. Rafiki decides to see if there is anything in my dd’s hair and keeps checking out her Pal Mickey. After a little fooling around I finally got the picture. We then head over to see Mr. Smee. Mr. Smee loves the autograph cards we made...they have his picture on it. He immediately takes my dd’s hand and drags her over to another cm to show that it has his picture on it. (He’s going in front of people while they are taking pictures btw). So, we finally get Smee back and my dd back for a picture and he holds up the card and is all excited. That was pretty cute.

We then head over to the other Innoventions and check out a few things out. My dh decides to call me then so we head out so that I can hear him. After that we head back over to the Land for Soarin’. I was a little nervous about this as I get motion sickness. I can take any rollercoaster, but stuff like that usually makes me sick. But it was great!!!!! It was so pretty and being able to smell the oranges and the pine, wow!!! Its definately a must see and well worth it.
We then check into the Garden Grill for a fantastic meal. The food is fantastic and our server Nicholas was wonderful! Very well recommended. DD and I at first were going to head back to MK for Wishes but we are tired and then head to Downtown Disney. I get a mug made up over in Guest Relations. It has my name with Tinker bell on it and it says Attitude before coffee. Very cute! I then fill the car up with gas for our ride to the airport tomorrow. Today was out last day We’ve packed up and now its relax time before we leave. Good night Mickey!

 

[Disneynutbsv]

9/28 In conclusion....

This is a great time to go to Walt Disney World. I will probably never not stay on property again! It just made things so much easier, never mind all of the perks that you get! The dining plan was great, just make sure you book your adr’s asap! It is hot down there, so buy your misting fans during the summer season before you go, you’ll want to use them (and it will be cheaper than disney’s —$17.00 for theirs). We are already thinking of our next trip...maybe at the end of August. We’ll make it a birthday trip for dd and ds and an anniversary trip for me and dh. Just got to get him down there again. Looks like another gift certificate from Richard Petty’s Driving Experience for him. Bring comfortable walking shoes with you! Also, a break in the afternoon is great, its pretty quiet this time of year so go ahead and take a break. You won’t miss anything

 

[ocd4disney]

Hi,
sounds like you had a really great trip. I just booked my mother /daughter trip last night. We will be going Dec 8-13. My dd is 7 and so I was wondering how old is your dd?
Thanks,
Heather

 

[Disneynutbsv]

Hi,
sounds like you had a really great trip. I just booked my mother /daughter trip last night. We will be going Dec 8-13. My dd is 7 and so I was wondering how old is your dd?
Thanks,
Heather

My dd is 9

 

[tallym]

That was a really lovely report...You really got a lot of pixie dust on your trip and lots of wonderful memories

I totally agree with you about the whole wake up tink thing. I have been thinking I would try this for my dd next yr but after reading your report there is no way I want to be so competitive about it and be set up for dissapointment so I think I will forget about it...after all its probably better when the magic comes to you!

 

[cassi06403]

What a wonderful report - now I'm really excited!

Question about Soarin'... DH has a thing about heights, so he's thinking he should skip this one... Would a fear of heights make this a "stay away from" ride?

 

[eeyore45]

Thanks for the trip report - and I cant believe how HOT you say it is!! It sounds like its still the middle of summer!!!

I have to agree about the wake up Tink - it was that way LAST July!! My dd is 8, and she felt the same way, shocked!! It sounds like its time to end this ritual!! Too many adults spoil the magic!! (if you know what I mean!!)

 

[Disneynutbsv]

What a wonderful report - now I'm really excited!

Question about Soarin'... DH has a thing about heights, so he's thinking he should skip this one... Would a fear of heights make this a "stay away from" ride?

Hmmm, that's a hard one. I have a real trouble with motion sickness (but not from coasters or anything...I couldn't even take the virtual reality from aladdin's carpet ride in Downtown Disney). But this really didn't seem to bother me. There was a couple of times where I closed my eyes, but it was great!

 

[Disneynutbsv]

Thanks for the trip report - and I cant believe how HOT you say it is!! It sounds like its still the middle of summer!!!

I have to agree about the wake up Tink - it was that way LAST July!! My dd is 8, and she felt the same way, shocked!! It sounds like its time to end this ritual!! Too many adults spoil the magic!! (if you know what I mean!!)

Yes, I agree....And yes, it was so hot!!! I'm just not used to that at all!
Have a great time!!!

 

[Cinerama]

I enjoyed your report--thanks for writing! The photos were really nice too!

 

[Disneynutbsv]

I enjoyed your report--thanks for writing! The photos were really nice too!

Thanks!

 

[DaisyGirlAllTheWay]

Really enjoyed your report, it was like curling up to a good novel, you could actually see everything you wrote! I'm excited as well, when I went last month the humidity was truly overwhelming as orl was going through a heat wave (as if it isn't hot enough already in aug). Rookie me never knew about awaking tink, nice to learn something new.

So happy it was so magical for you! Between the heat and the overwhelming crowds, I truly feel that I need to experience disney without both, i'd have a better experience. Happy to hear that you took breaks easily, once again one of those perks of staying onsite. I can't wait.

 

[Disneynutbsv]

Really enjoyed your report, it was like curling up to a good novel, you could actually see everything you wrote! I'm excited as well, when I went last month the humidity was truly overwhelming as orl was going through a heat wave (as if it isn't hot enough already in aug). Rookie me never knew about awaking tink, nice to learn something new.

So happy it was so magical for you! Between the heat and the overwhelming crowds, I truly feel that I need to experience disney without both, i'd have a better experience. Happy to hear that you took breaks easily, once again one of those perks of staying onsite. I can't wait.

Awww, thanks!!!

And congratulations on the proposal

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[ScoJo15]

I really enjoyed your report! Sounds like you had a great time!

 

[PJV57]

I've never heard of the Family Magic Tour. How do you sign up for it? How long is it and what's the cost?