Much Belated Report: 5/12 - 5/21 - All Our Wishes Come True

[JRawkSteady]

Friday May 12th....
Day 1: Start of Something New
Characters: Jarrid & Teresa (both 25); Monorail Driver (in his early 50s); The Captain (???); Maureen (in her late 30s, early 40s)

Please note: This is Teresa’s first time to WDW ever!

We had showered the night before...something we normally would have never done. People tend to sweat during the night, so there is no way we could possibly stay clean during the day. Anyway, we woke up at 4:30... the car came to pick us up and Teresa was still upstairs getting ready. After loading the car up and waiting for her... .... ...forever... we drove off to LaGuardia Airport with the normal 2 hours they require you to be there for security checks. This was definitely unnecessary, for we got through security within the first 20 minutes. We headed off to Gate B5, which made Teresa laugh, because it reminded her of one of the bands on DisneyMania 4. Our plane was supposed to take off at 7:50, however, because the Captain slept in, we didn’t leave till 8:40. (Yes, he actually told us this.) I had never taken Spirit Airlines before, but it was quite an interesting experience. The crosswords in our AirBook had already been done...I kindly asked the flight attendant for a new one and she said, “No one will switch with you?” and then walked away. Needless to say, I am not taking Spirit Airlines again, after the rudeness of the staff that occurred throughout the whole flight.

I have a slight fear of flying so I wanted to keep the window on the plane closed. Teresa, however, had never been to Florida and was too excited to keep it closed. So I looked the other way. Even though I told her WDW is a no-fly zone, she still was hoping to see Spaceship Earth. We landed around 10:30 and took what I like to call the “mini-monorail” to the other side of the airport. I had never taken the Magical Express, plus they had never sent out the yellow tags and frankly, I was nervous. After checking into ME, the CM with the white Mickey gloves directed us to the bus.

The sound on the video they were showing was dead for the first 3 minutes, but finally returned. I loved the video! It just captured the essence of beginning your WDW vacation. Teresa was watching the video, but kept looking around hoping to see some beautiful landscapes. Unfortunately, as you and I know, there’s really nothing to see until you get to Walt Disney World property. Slowly, but surely, we approached the gate as Teresa began to jump up and down in her seat like a little girl. The bus only stopped at Pop and Coronado before we reached the Animal Kingdom Lodge, where we were staying.

Let me tell you, the lobby there is wondrously beautiful. There’s so much to see a that resort...if you’ve never been there, you couldn’t even imagine. It feels like you’re being taken away to an exotic land. It was better than we had expected. After checking in early, our room was ready! We could not believe the beauty of the savannah after stepping foot into that room. It was just amazing! Never being to WDW before, Teresa was already ready to jump into the parks.

I thought it would be a great idea to just walk around Magic Kingdom without necessarily doing too much. This way, she would already know where everything is beforehand. We took the bus over to the Magic Kingdom which was only a 20 minute ride. (So many people have told me it takes up to an hour to get there, but 20 minutes was the longest it took the entire vacation! Plus the bus doesn’t make any other stops.) The bus no longer drops you off at TTC, but directly in front of the Magic Kingdom. I wanted Teresa to experience the monorail first, so we took a ride around the Express Monorail...to her surprise, we were offered a chance to sit in front with the driver!! Wow! Her first monorail ride, and it’s right in the front!

Teresa was expecting to have the driver talk about the history of the park, or the sights of it. However, he did nothing but talk about sports. Teresa and I wanted to steer him away from that topic (since neither one of us really has any clue about sports) but he just insisted on talking about it. Overall, the ride in the front of the monorail was a great experience for Teresa’s first time being on it, and being at WDW. Though we just wished that we were being told more info about the parks and maybe even just anything Disney. Last time we checked, we didn’t pick ESPN Zone to be our vacation destination!

When we got off the monorail, we then headed directly to the park. I put my cast ID card in and for some odd reason it didn’t come up as a valid ID. I asked the CM at the turnstile what was wrong and they told me that it wasn’t valid, which made absolutely no sense to be since it’s definitely company issued. I showed them my Silver Pass and they took me to a turnstile at the end and then issued me a park ticket. Teresa put her cast ID in, she was able to go through with no problems. (We figured out later on in the trip that the reason why it happened is because Teresa is considered a Florida Site CM. She works at World of Disney, NYC which is owned by Florida. I, on the other hand, am considered a California CM since I work for Disney Theatrical Productions...go figure)

After we finally were able to enter the park, we were stopped by a CM who chose Teresa to be surveyed. So on her first day, on her first trip to WDW ever, she gets to ride in the front of the monorail, as well as being surveyed I bought a Mister Fan (which we found was absolutely no help) and made her close her eyes and she first stepped foot into the Magic Kingdom. She was in awe as the castle unfolded before her very eyes! She still could not believe she was there!

We walked down Main Street and decided to get a hot dog and fries at Casey’s. Yum! After eating our hot dogs, we went to ride the train around the Magic Kingdom. Upon boarding, we were told that it was conductor Bob’s birthday and we all wished him a happy birthday. The train ride was much slower than Teresa expected, though she loved the beauty of the scenic route around the park and she could not wait to explore the park more. Her camera battery died (this was the first of many occasions) during the ride, so she just took in everything without getting to capture it on camera. At the conclusion of the train ride, the parade was still going on as we got off the train.

While waiting at the railroad station for the parade to end, Teresa got a pressed quarter because I joked about it. We then headed to the firemen store to get a camera, and Teresa got a pressed coin from there as well. (Later on you will have figured out that I had created a monster!)

I wanted to just show her around the park before we went on any attractions… We walked clockwise: Adventureland (where Teresa got her first Dole Whip “It was like a tropical paradise in my mouth!”), Frontierland, Liberty Square and then Fantasyland. We went to see Mickey’s Philharmagic since there was no line. Teresa “liked Donald’s butt” at the end and said that she appreciated Donald more and thinks that it’s unfair that Mickey gets all the credit all the time.

Next stop was Toontown. We saw Mickey and Minnie’s houses. At this point Teresa was really wishing that she had a working digital camera.

We headed to Tomorrowland where we rode the TTA. Teresa thought that the ride was a lot of fun and enjoyed it tremendously. Originally we were going to save Space Mountain for our last day at the Magic Kingdom. However, after riding TTA, Teresa couldn’t wait over a week, so we went and got FastPasses for the ride. Teresa then realized that she loves Fast Pass.

Carousel of Progress was next. Teresa didn’t enjoy it as much as she should’ve. One of the audio-animatronics looked like his face was on wrong. I know this is the next to go…and I really wish it wasn’t.

We rode Space Mountain with our Fast Passes. Teresa loved it (she sat in the front). She thought that it was “so scawy.” She wanted to go on it again and again and again...

We went and rode It’s a Small World next in Fantasyland, since it was a childhood dream of Teresa’s. Teresa was actually surprised that it wasn’t as long as she thought that it was going to be.

That concluded our first day at the Magic Kingdom. We took the bus back to AKL, skipping Wishes (we were saving that for a full day of Magic). We got back at 8pm. We were greeted by our luggage that Magical Express had brought to our room (big sigh of relief). Teresa charged her camera battery. We then went to Mara to pick up our souvie mugs. We also checked out Zawadi Marketplace as well. We went back to our room and I had to check to see what channels we had on our TV…I like to know what my options are in the evening. We spent some time looking at the animals from our balcony as we got ready for dinner.

9:30pm was our priority seating reservation for Boma. We picked up our buzzy thing and then walked around pool area. At first we thought that there weren’t any whirlpools (or “spas” as Disney refers to them as), but then as we walked some more we discovered them. We went back to Boma and were buzzed.

Our server, Maureen, was not very pleasant. She would not leave us alone! She talked to us in more of an accusing manner, especially after I had given her my cast ID. It was almost like she didn’t believe me! Overall, for the meal she did not let us eat in peace. The good thing is that both Teresa and I agreed that the food was AMAZING! I had a little bit of everything, because I’m pretty adventurous (as long as there are no mushrooms or fish involved in the adventure). It was to DIE FOR!!! The steak was DELICIOUS!

T: Curry soup was unbelievable! I still dream about it every so often.

Before our vacation, we had tried some WDW recipes and we got to taste one of them! YUM! There was also a delicious array of sauces. Teresa loved the zebra domes - I liked them. We both wished that we had more room in our tummies.

We went back to our room, I set the wake up call for 6:30, we watched Zack and Cody and went to bed. Although it was hard to fall asleep knowing what was in store for tomorrow....

To Be Continued...

 

[pumba]

fantastic beginning to a great trip........thanks so much for taking the time to write it

 

[ohboyx3]

ISn't AKL wonderful???? We stayed in January. I too, thought the busses were fine. I had prepared myself for the worst. Glad you liked Boma. I guess we ate there on a bad night. I didn't really like the food and were very unimpressed by the service. The smoothies were great though. Anyways, I'm enjoying your report. It makes me miss seeing the animals outside the room. sigh.

 

[missj1975]

Great report, looking forward to the next installment.

 

[KathyRN137]

Thanks for being so descriptive about AKL. We will be staying at OKW this Nov, but plan to have dinner at Boma so we check out the Lodge....it sounds gorgeous, I can't wait!!

 

[GADISNEYGIRL]

A good start! We love Boma's. Last time we were there, we also had a strange waitress. Maybe it was Maureen?!

 

[ely3857]

Great day Shame about the waitress


Jodie

 

[javamom]

Note to self: Boma, yes.... Maureen maybe a no there. Thanks!

 

[2infinity&B-ond]

Great report, I'm loving it so far. Sounds like there were some REALLY great FIRSTS on this trip!

 

[sskem96]

Great report so far! Glad to hear I'm not the only adult who watches Suite Life!

 

[fizz13]

A great start, sounds like Theresa is gonna love every minute,
Claire xx

 

[averill94]

Thanks for taking time to post- Cant wait to read more!

 

[JRawkSteady]

Thanks for all your wonderful comments!

SSKem - Suite Life is really cute! Of course we wouldn't miss it on our trip
GADISNEYGIRL - I wish I had a picture...I could never forget that face.

I could go into 6 page detail about AKL, including all the architecture, animals, moonlit walks, food, and CMs....but I won't. hehe.

The next segment should be up later in the day..and if not, then tomorrow Thanks again everybody!

 

[JRawkSteady]

Saturday May 13th
Day 2: Remember The Magic
Characters: Jarrid & Teresa (both 25); MK rope CM (early 30s); Guillermo (late 20s), Gaggle of little girls + 1 little boy (3 - 8), fallen girl (3) & her brother (6) and mother (early 30s), Mister Kid (2) & Mom (late 30s)

Please note: Teresa is still in awe.

Ring…Ring…Ring… I like to sleep on the side closest to the door… Ring.. Ring… “Baby..” I said… Ring… <silence> It’s 6:15…Teresa didn’t pick up the phone. I was upset because she could’ve have been awoken by Stitch and Mickey Mouse… (I miss the old ones where it was just Mickey, Donald, or Goofy)…Woke up at 6:15am. She went back to sleep as I started to get ready for the day. Ring…Ring…Ring....I looked around the corner as I brushed my teeth. She picked up the phone. After she hung up, I asked, “Who was it?” “It was Stitch,” She replied.

We showered, then made our way to the food court, Mara. We both decided to get the big breakfast platters. It was actually pretty good! They had old Disney cartoons playing on the television. I had remembered this channel being in my room at Caribbean Beach last year, but it wasn’t in our room this year…I started to inquire myself about what that channel was.

After breakfast, we took the bus to the Magic Kingdom. (again, only a 20 minute ride…I don’t get why people think AKL is so far away…) I had another problem with my Cast ID, but this time they let us in early… We walked (and danced) around the deserted Main Street until we finally made our way to the castle. (the closest point to Dumbo). We had a nice conversation with the CM who was guarding the rope…I think her name was Cassandra.... She was envious of my old job (I worked at Star Tours) and we had a pretty long conversation about Star Wars Weekends. She talked a lot but she was nice (nicer than Maureen from Boma, hands down!). Teresa took a walk around the proximity of the castle as I held our spot. She snapped a lot of pictures of the castle and didn’t realize that there was a changing hologram depicting the castles from all 5 parks around the world. She found that to be quite fascinating.

When the rope dropped, we made a mad dash for Dumbo. Teresa thought that it was very cute and made her feel like a kid again. The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh was next. The ride was a lot better than Teresa had expected. She was scared that she was going to run into a wall though. She just couldn’t believe how cute it was. I love the way the honey pot moves on this ride, especially in the “water.” I feel like it is the same type of technology in Dinosaur! But I may be wrong.

We then headed over to Peter Pan’s Flight. Teresa really didn’t know what to expect, so she was quite surprised when the track had ended and she was now viewing things from PP’s perspective. It’s always such a great feeling to fly over London, and no trip is ever complete without Peter Pan’s Flight.

Now that we completed the three rides whose lines never deplete throughout the day, we then headed over to Splash Mountain. I knew Teresa would LOVE the ride, so we grabbed FastPasses and jumped directly on the non-existent standby line. On the ride, we pretended to be scared on all of the small drops to fake everyone out. I think the people behind us fell for it The turtle getting hit by drumsticks reminded Teresa of her turtle Gigi, and the ones in the geyser reminded her of giving Gigi a bath before we left. It was a lot cooler than she expected. Though she thought that she saw too much of Brer Bear (I mean, come on...how could you not think Brer Bear isn’t constantly trying to show himself off) and couldn’t stop snickering. Though the drop right before it headed to the Laughing Place (the dark one) was Teresa’s favorite because it was so unexpected and it was pitch black! We didn’t get that wet the first time on the ride (we had a log to ourselves), but we both loved the ride and couldn’t wait to experience it again.

It was time to jump onto Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We asked to ride in the front, because even though the back is more “thrilling,” the front is unexpected. Teresa didn’t realize that there was a story, which was a nice surprise. I explained how every ride has a story in WDW, no matter how small or large it is. However, she wasn’t too pleased with the anti-climactic ending. It seems like it’s building up to something great, but the end is just a few ups and downs before it slows to a complete stop.

Next up was Jungle Cruise. Teresa couldn’t find her camera, so she didn’t pay attention for the beginning of the ride. Guillermo, our skipper, was hilarious! It’s very rare to find a funny skipper who doesn’t go by the script. He made her first time on Jungle Cruise a lot more fun than expected (despite a camera that was MIA). Turns out that the camera was in a hidden compartment in my new bag. I put it in there while we were on Splash Mountain.

We returned to Splash Mountain with our Fast Passes (this time getting soaked!) and then afterwards headed back to Adventureland, to take a seat in the air conditioned Enchanted Tiki Room. A lot of the queue was being repainted, so we all had to gather into one line, almost missing the cute pre-show with Phil Hartman. The show was cute. Teresa thought it would be longer, but she thought it was cute, nonetheless. I love the talking/singing walls and plants, myself…

It was reaching noon, and I told Teresa we should sit down and grab a bite to eat. Teresa did not want to relax because she wanted to experience as much as possible since it was her first trip and all. So we headed towards Tomorrowland…on the way we saw that Snow White’s Scary Adventures did not have a wait, so we entered. I think there should be more rides like this in the park. Teresa thought it was kinda “skawy” for kids, but we definitely had fun. How could you not love cute little Dopey waving at the end!

We headed back to Tomorrowland to get a Fast Pass for Space Mountain. We were both a little hungry, and Teresa has always wanted to try a turkey leg for herself, so we went to the Lunching Pad and both got turkey legs. We were going to relax on TTA (which Teresa had taken an extreme liking to), but the Cast Member wouldn’t let us on with food. I never had a problem doing this with TTA in the past, but we decided to take a walk back through Fantasyland as we continued to eat. Every piece of meat from Teresa’s turkey leg was depleted by the time we got to Small World. No lie! That’s my baby! hehe

At this point, Liberty Square was a stone’s throw away, so we took a chance in the Haunted Mansion. This attraction reminded Teresa of Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris, however this was a lot more “cool” than “scary.” She kept on trying to figure out how things are done. As we were approaching the end of the ride where we pick up a hitchhiking ghost, the ride broke down. This was Teresa’s first time experiencing a broken down ride (or 101) at WDW. We were both playing around with our ghost (Teresa was kissing his cheek, while I was picking his nose - it was quite amusing!). Little Leota always freaks me out at the end, though… Hurry baaaaaaack.

At this point, we were debating on whether we should attend the 1:30 showing of Belle’s Storytime…We backtracked through Fantasyland making a quick stop at the teacups. Teresa for some reason was obsessed with the “teacups” months before this trip. It was one of the “must-dos” for her. I believe it met her expectations, because she was very pleased upon exiting the ride. I tend to get dizzy and can not go on rides that spin. Anything else, rollercoasters, simulators…those are fine, but if the ride spins, I cannot deal with it. Just for my baby, I spun the teacup as fast as it could go. I tried to fixate my eyes on her without looking away. We were spinning like mad-people. When the ride came to a stop, I felt the wrenching in my stomach…Luckily the turkey leg stayed down. 

We finally got over to Belle’s little Courtyard and watched as these 4 or 5 little girls (and one little boy) planned out what they were going to do when Belle arrived. They finally agreed that when they saw her, they would run away from the stage with their hands up in front of them (kind of like the raptors looked in Jurassic Park). They tried it out a few times, but one of the girls did not want to run like that. She wanted to run a different way. After arguing for a while, they decided they would run like a raptor after all. Anyway, the show was cute. The little boy they picked to play Gaston did not want to be up there, but instead of comforting him (basically improving) Belle just kept on going with the story. Eventually, they got a girl from the audience to play Gaston. Not everyone is great at improving right? I just assumed as a character, she would be… …

After the show, we walked through Cosmic Rays to listen to Sunny Eclipse for a few moments and picked up a Fast Pass for Buzz Lightyear. We jumped onto Space Mountain for the second time, but this time I was in the front! It was fun… (and of course, who doesn’t love running around the moving walkways and looking at themselves and their friends in the little television monitors at the end). We decided it was time to ride TTA again, since we couldn’t get on last time. Teresa took pictures along the way… I’m not sure when she became a TTA junkie, but I think it was yesterday about 3 minutes into the ride!

Since we had a little bit of time before Share A Dream Come True, we went over to the Country Bear Jamboree. Teresa really liked it, but we agreed that it was one of those attractions you would only do once a vacation (if that).. She was in love with the little bear holding the teddy! After the show, I was singing “Blood on the Saddle” for the rest of the night. We grabbed a spot for the parade in front of Hall of Presidents and waited. It was quite hot, so I got a drink and we were spraying ourselves with our mister constantly. There was this little boy who wanted to play with it, so Teresa and I kept shooting the mister fan at him and he would get all excited and run around! It was cute. His mom thought it was adorable too, but I think the had sunscreen on and we were accidentally spraying it off. Oops… The parade was beautiful. Teresa loved all the details. She thought it was going to be lame, but she ended up loving it! (Even though all she was doing was taking pictures)

We thought we’d run to Fantasyland to jump on another ride while the parade was still on Main Street, but we were too late, and the lines had already grown again. So we thought we’d check out Main Street a bit more. We went into all the stores on the left hand side, checking out the new VMK Central, which was not as cool as one would think. We got to the Expo Hall and took some cute pictures and video inside with the cardboard cutouts. Our favorite was the TV…we spent a lot of time doing the “News Weport.” We walked back down Main street over towards Adventureland/Frontierland to get a Fastpass at Splash, and then meandered over to the Swiss Family Treehouse when we realized we were hungry. We took lots of silly photos and got stuck behind this very annoying family who kept stopping to talk… They weren’t looking at the sights, just talking…there was about 7 of them so it was hard to get around them.. That’s okay, it gave us more time to check out the views. The great thing about the Treehouse is that it’s very detailed. A lot of people think it’s boring, but if you think about all the detail that goes into this, it’s quite amazing.

We went over to Pecos Bill’s and got burgers. Unfortunately, I hated the food here. For some reason, I remember it being a lot better. Teresa and I got the same things, yet she got literally triple the amount of fries that I did. But that was okay, because I think the fries tasted terrible…Well we rested there for a while and Teresa plugged her camera in (yay, we found an outlet!) We talked about the day and couldn’t wait to go back out there. After the camera was loaded again, we went over to Tom Sawyer’s Island. Honestly, I thought we were there for 15 minutes, but our watches proved us wrong! We’d been there 45 minutes! It was crazy! We were having so much fun, we lost track of time. I told Teresa to guide us around. I knew my way around, so it wouldn’t be as much fun. Watching her twist and turn and end up in the same place made me feel like I was a kid on an adventure, but I knew there was no treasure to actually find. The caves were pretty scawy because I’m claustrophobic…and I am waiting for the day that an actual bird or something hides out in the caves and scares the bejesus out of me! The lady rowing our raft back to shore missed and we had to go all the way back to try and dock again. I was displeased with this, because I had to use the restroom!

After bathroom breaks were taken care of, we went to Splash Mountain again, but were dismayed to see the Fastpass line just as long as the standby line… So much for that idea. We decided to look around the shops instead. We tried on hats and looked at all the pretty glass sculptures. We got another Dole Whip and headed towards Main Street. We began to watch Cinderellabration, but unlike CSC before it, this was pathetically boring. I almost fell asleep in my ice cream. That’s when a little girl’s brother accidentally pushed her over and she landed headfirst on Teresa’s shoe! If it wasn’t for Teresa’s foot, the girl would have probably cracked her head open. Teresa, shocked, couldn’t say anything! I looked down and was about to bend over and ask “Are you okay?” when the mother came by and picked her daughter up from off the ground. She yelled at the girl’s brother and walked away. Well if someone’s foot saved MY daughter’s life I would’ve said thanks.

Well, the show was boring, so we went over to Tomorrowland again and used our Fastpasses for Buzz. I still, after years and years, have not figured out how to rack up points on this ride…and I always felt I was great at video games!! Teresa and I figured when there was nothing to shoot, we would just spin our car a lot. We had a lot of fun though…just proves that it doesn’t matter if you win or lose…as long as you spin your car a lot and have a blast! Of course, Teresa begged me to go on TTA again, and since we had more than enough time, we did! After a bit more shopping, we walked back over to Hall of Presidents to get a great seat for SpectroMagic.

I honestly don’t love SpectroMagic, but it’s not the worst. I do, however, miss the Main Street Electrical Parade. Teresa went to buy us a funnel cake and we got the extra sugar all over our clothes. (I was wearing black so I looked ridiculous!) The parade began and Teresa had wasted all her pictures towards the beginning. She hated the SpectroMen or whatever they are, because they’re not Disney character’s and frankly, they’re pretty scary!! I agree with her. When the good character’s started to appear, Teresa was a bit upset that she had no film in the disposable cameras anymore (and her digital camera had died earlier). Another thing we disliked about the parade is that some of the characters only face one direction and do not turn around, so you may miss your favorite character if you happen to be on the wrong side. This is silly, because in the other parades (including MSEP) the characters always get both sides of the crowd. (sometimes they physically switch with each other which is cute.)

Now it was time for Wishes. I went to the Confectionary to get some fudge for the hotel room. (we had a fridge, so it wouldn’t melt from the Florida heat). We stood at the end of the park, closest to the exit. This way, we get to see Wishes the way it was meant to be seen AND we could leave quickly and beat the crowds. I always enjoy Wishes more than anything. It is such a beautiful show. Teresa thought it was a perfect magical way to end a perfect magical day. She was also amazed at how they can get those designs so perfect!

After Wishes, we made a mad dash to the exit and jumped on our bus to AKL. We went straight to Mara, where I got an African Stew (in a bread bowl) for my late dinner. (of course we filled up our cups, which became a nightly ritual.) We got back to the room and watched the tail end of Suite Life again, followed by Hannah Montana and fell asleep…ready for a brand new day. Disney Studios, here we come…

 

[Amy&Dan]

I am really enjoying your report, can't wait to read more. And I agree those Chucky Dolls at the beginning of Spectro are creepy!

 

[byoung]

Great reporting so far.

 

[lillygator]

wonder if we passed you while at AKL...we were there 5/16-5/21...it is gorgeous!

 

[KathyRN137]

Keep it up!!

 

[JRawkSteady]

Thanks so much again! We got out pictures back recently and there are a few we're definitely going to have to post as the trip report unfolds.

Look for Part 3 tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoying reading ~ Thanx for sharing.