My 1st PTR/TR: An unexpected trip, Disney in December 4 *Day 3 6/5 Illuminations!*

[Lady Lallie]

I will fully excuse you for reading Twilight. Isn't it great??

I am so glad you are feeling better and I can't wait for the light fixtures!

 

[Roxychica7]

I'm glad you're feeling better. So I take it the series is good. Guess I need to buckle down and read it!

THAT is an understatement, but yes, you must find time to read them

BTW, we miss you over in Gnomeland!

I miss you guys too! Let me get started on here and I shall make a full appearance in Gnomeland

I will fully excuse you for reading Twilight. Isn't it great??

I am so glad you are feeling better and I can't wait for the light fixtures!

Thanks! I do feel better. I'm trying to decide if I should just post some of my fav lights on here (you know to get the christmas feel down) and then post the rest in your thread OR post them ALL in your thread. Up to you!

 

[Roxychica7]

Hi everyone! Ok, let's start this Trip Report! I don't have an official title, I'm not very good at naming things, and since it's my first go round, just bear with me! So, to all my fellow PTR follows, welcome back! Sorry again for the delay in the start of this TR. To all those new folks, hi! If you missed the PTR, you're lucky because I'm not doing a seperate link and all you have to do is scroll back and read through whatever you want.
But, in tradition.

The cast of characters includes:

Me (Jess): 24, 25 in February. Just finished my LAST class ever (ended up with an A in my stats class ladies!) and am finishing up my thesis as so to graduate in May with my Masters in Environmental Biology.
Dbf (Blake): 24, has a few more classes left, but hopes to graduate with me in May. If he doesn't, I'll hold off and slow down the research so that we'll graduate together in August.

The inspiration for this trip?
Well, Dbf and I have been doing in December since 2005. 2007 was our 1st trip that we went by ourselves, but we had came right off of finals and drove the whole way, so we were tired and didn't have as much fun as we should of. Our 2008 trip we had lots of different things we would change (i.e. my impatience for waiting and changing plans last minute and just taking our time when we felt the need to). Disney in December is perfect for us. We have always taken it as sort of a present to not only ourselves as a fall semester wrap-up, but also our Christmas present to each other. This year is our last year that we'll still be in school and have the "vacation time" so to speak in order to go. Who knows what time of the year we'll be able to go next year, but although I do very much enjoy and now associate Disney with Christmas now, I think I am ready to see the other holidays that Disney throws together.

Our trip: December 15-20th
Staying at: All Star Sports Resort, preferred room (a first for us in both reguards)

So now that we've gotten that settled, let's take you back a day or two for the trip.

Before we left, we finished up our final (Experimental Research and Design Analysis, aka Stats part 2) thankfully we both did well and got A's in the class! We chilled out thursday night, got the rest of our things packed and together (including getting my Vera packed). She got filled with gum, tic-tacs, a pack of anti-bacterial wipes, bandaids, our ME, vouchers and welcome packet, wallet, camera, rechargable batteries and spare memory cards. Friday (the 12th) was our 5 year, 7 month anniversary. We slept in a litle, put Riley in boarding, and took seperate cars to drive to Dbf's house so that I could drive back to my house after the trip. I ended up with a stupid cold before I left and felt miserable. Thankfully I got gotten it Thursday and not later in the week so I was able to rest fri, sat and sun before getting to Orlando. Friday we spent the night at Dbf's sister's new place, I took a very long nap ater downing lots of meds and we had a big family dinner.
Saturday was Kiki's (Dbf's sister) graduation from ODU. I didn't know it was at 9am and with having to get ALL the family together and drive out there, I ended up getting up at 5:15am. Not a good start to my winter break. Their hot water heater wasn't adjusted right, so I half took a duck bath, and half washed my hair in the tub. We arrived to Dbf's mom house at 7am, and although I've never sat through graduations before other than my own, I brought "Twilight" with me "just in case"
We got to the graduation at 8am.

I brought my book out and started reading away with no intensions of getting far. I stopped only to get a cute shot of Mr. Magnus (Dbf's nephew)

and video tape Kiki's walking across the stage and continued on with my reading.
Here's Kiki in the sea of black gowns.

And another one of Mr. Magnus outside graduation.

Now Dbf has a HUGE family. He has 2 siblings, 2 step siblings (so father, mother and step-father) which includes step-grandmothers, cousins, step-father has 7 siblings, lots of people on his father's side. LOTS OF PEOPLE. Compared to my family. There's me, only child. I have 2 aunts, 3 cousins, 3 grandparents (I just lost of grandfather this March), that's it. I associate, I mingle, but wanted to relax too. I hadn't been able to read for FUN since the summer and ended up spending most of the time in the middle of the chaos, reading my book.
Here's proof

Since everyone was EXHAUSTED from getting up so early, Dbf and I took a nap and when we got up, everyone else went to bed. I stayed up to watch Dark Knight. Sunday was a lazy day. Played cards, finished my book, lounged around. The night came quickly and we relocated to Dbf's mom's house since she was taking us to the airport in the morning and I wanted my car left in front of someone's house and not in a parking lot (townhouse complex). I flipped through our ME passes and read the rules about the yellow tags.

And then wanted to show off my new bag. I still love it
My Puccini Hipster (notice Dbf's stategic placement of me in front of the X-mas tree)

I stayed up until 1:30. We got up at 4:30, I got a shower and all and left Dbf still sleeping. We grabbed some cereal and soymilk and Dbf's mom got us to the Norfolk airport by 5:40. Our flight was at 7:15, see?

The line for Southwest was kinda long but went fairly quick. It was nice though, I hate having to WAIT to get on a plane. I grabbed a bagel, and Dbf got a water after we checked through security. We split it on the plane, as I didn't realize you actually get SNACKS on Southwest. One of the captains before we got on the plane saw Dbf's VT Hokie hat/jacket and said he graduated in 1985 from the VT Corps of Cadets (like Dbf) so they bonded I took 2, ok 3 valium and I was all set. We played Disney hangman most of the way. Here's us on the plane.

The clouds so look like snow

And reaching Orlando in about 1 hr and 40 mins

As usual, the Orlando monorail was uneventful.

And I love their huge tree, got me in the Disney tree spirit

 

[Roxychica7]

The airport gift shop, first sign we're getting close right?

We were confused by the ME voucher, so just to be sure, we double checked that our luggage would not be coming out

With that confirmed, off we went to find the ME counter. It was easy, just 2 levels down and a short walk and ta-da!

The lady at the counter told us we would be leaving right away. PERFECT! It was only 9:30 and we would be getting to our destination really early, especially since there were no stops. She stamped my book for the driver to scan and Dbf had to stand in front of our sign

The driver was slightly boring and either talked or had the video on mute most of the time so I couldn't really enjoy it. He had said that there were some 40,000 that arrived via ME within the last 3 days and said it would be very crowded in the parks, but we knew better. We didn't have trouble at all. We didn't get a ME bus, but did get a Cruiseline bus, so better than a Hertz bus right?
Here's ours.

There were only about 8 of us on board and we all were going to either Sports or Music and since Sports is first, we knew we didn't have to wait.
On the bus

And a short drive later...

Not too bad over the drivers head eh?

And in an even shorter time later..

We jumped off the bus and headed right inside the lobby for check in

Next up....
What building/floor did we get?
What park did we end up going to today?

Stay tuned...

 

[Lady Lallie]

WOO HOO! I am so happy it's started!

I love that you read Twilight during his sister's graduation.

Your VB looks very cute and I like that pattern. I am glad your flight was uneventful and I can't wait to read more.

I would love for you to post the light pictures here and on the light thread!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

great start, cant wait to read more

 

[Roxychica7]

WOO HOO! I am so happy it's started!

I love that you read Twilight during his sister's graduation.

Your VB looks very cute and I like that pattern. I am glad your flight was uneventful and I can't wait to read more.

I would love for you to post the light pictures here and on the light thread!

Hey girl! Sorry I'm so behind! Not sure what's been up with me lately But thanks about my Vera, I was so worried I wasn't going to get it in time. I think the flight was uneventful due to my valium intake and I will certainly post light pictures in both threads

great start, cant wait to read more

Thanks Dan! I have a TON of catching up to do on mine. I certainly need to jump over and get my Parker fix, I'm so behind on yours too!

 

[Roxychica7]

Holy CRAP am I behind. Ok, I'm heading back to my apartment (at home still) hanging out with my dad. Yesterday (New Year's) was his birthday and today was Riley (our doggie's) birthday. She turned one! When I finally get back, I'll be updating LOTS more, especially since I'll be going back to work too. And we ALL know how productive we are at work (when it comes to finishing/reading PTR's, TR's and Food Review's of course )

So, here we go!
When we last left off, we had arrived at All Star Sports around 10:30am. We got our keys, but unfortunately we weren't able to get our room assignment because we were too early. We ended up with......
Any guesses?




Surf's Up!! We did know that we were on the 1st floor in building 6, which was on the back side of the main pool, the closest building to the food court. Man, what a difference from being literally the LAST door at the end of the resort when we stayed at Music last year. So, we had known we were going to MK this day, but wanted to slow down and not rush into heading straight to the park since it was still early. We figured that we would be busy the whole week and decided to look around at the buildings first so that we wouldn't miss any picture opportunities of the resort. Unfortunately we were already tired (from getting up at 4:30am for the flight AND still trying to catch up on sleep from Kiki's graduation). But it was all good, like I said, I was trying to tell myself to slow down this year.
So, we rounded the corner and glanced at the gift shop for a moment.

Then headed out to the pool to check it out. Unfortunately it was just a tad too chilly for me at night still, so we didn't end up swimming at all this week.

Here was our building. Fishies on the railings, appropriate for us eh?

Then we walked toward the back to see all the other buildings. Basketball (very cute!), Tennis, Football and Baseball (in no particular order of course)

While at the tennis section, I decided to challenge Donald to a match. I don't play tennis, but I do play badminton. I won 3rd place in Baltimore County's Championships in 2000 and 1st place in 2001 for women's singles. I just started back up last week actually at a club about 20 minutes away and let me just say...damn..6 years absense took my body about 4 days to recover. I was in some serious pain. Not that I'm giving excuses again for my absence this week
Our duel.

And while in the baseball section, Dbf went to go catch for the ducktales kids.

And me next to the big cheese

So then we were getting a little hungry. The plan was to split a sandwich (the one I picked out ahead of time of course) and that we did (which we got again later in the week)
We got the Turkey Focaccia sandwich with chips, we split an apple and a bottle of agua. The total was $11.81

 

[Roxychica7]

Unfortunately we still had our carry on bag with us, but Dbf ended up using it the whole week. We packed shorts in it and Dbf did his best to pack our spring jackets and our jeans into the bag when we changed into shorts for the day. We stood in line for the MK bus and within 45 seconds I swear, the bus came.
Da da daaaa!

And my side view out the bus window...ta da!

I've never paid any attention to the poinsettas they have in front of the train station at MK but they were so pretty!

Dbf made me pose with them

As we started our walk down Main Street there was a band playing. I never know where or what to take pictures of on Main Street. I swear one day I'm going to just go shop by shop, building by building and assemble pics of the whole street. We stopped by to get a quick pic of the MK tree (I think AK is my favorite, with a close 2nd by the Epcot tree)

And of course, my first X-mas light fixture pic for LL. I told Dbf later on in the day what I was doing and everytime we passed by any light, even a glum one, he would say "hey, that worthy of an LL light?" It was so cute! And I'm sure LL is loving that!

And the first glance down MS.

Yayyyy!! We also got a few photopass pics taken, which after our CD comes, I'll be posting all of them!

And another LL light

First stop???





Tomorrowland of course! It's tradition!

So, we ended up grabbing fastpasses for Buzz. And did the Monster's Inc Comedy show. Oh gosh I LOVE this one. Especially the guy they pick throughout the whole show, especially if he's embarassed. I tried my darndest to text my joke before the show but couldn't figure it out. Wanna hear it anyway? "Why do Seagulls fly over the ocean? Because if they flew over the Bay they would be called Bagels!" Get it? I've always loved that one

While we waited for our Buzz time to approach, which surprisingly was within a 1/2 hour of us getting our fastpass, we rode....TTA!! I LOVE it.
Just a great relaxing ride to let you soak up the sights of MK and let you feel like you're really there and not dreaming

Plus, I think there's SO many great picture opportunities since you ride over just about everything and even through some things. Here's 2 of our goodies.

By the time we were done TTA, it was time for Buzz.

Dbf seriously kicked my butt this whole trip. I was throughly unhappy about it

By this point, we headed to Fantasyland. When we don't feel like standing in line for characters, Dbf likes to strategically put me by the characters when they're walking from taking a break. Example with Tigger and Pooh

Fine by me on the no wait!

Then all of a sudden Dbf yells out "Do you know WHO that WAS!?" Me...obviously not paying attention says "No..who?" Then he goes nuts and I'm thinking geeze, we seeing quite a celebrity. Well, celebrity in Dbf's eyes. One of the boat captains, Sig actually, from the Show "The Deadliest Catch" where they fish for crab in the Bering Sea in Alaska, he recognizes. He makes a bee-line for the dude, but he's obviously walking too fast and there's a CM in front of them I guess making sure they don't get off course. So all I could do is get a picture from the back.
Here was my best attempt at a celebrity photo. He's next to the lady in the black dress and black boots.

 

[Roxychica7]

Oh well, Dbf contemplates taking after him again, but I get him back on track. We get fastpasses for Peter Pan, but they're not until 4:40, so we get on IASW to get it over with. Now I love the colors and all, but I can only take the ride once a visit, then I'm filled to capacity of that song to last me another whole year.

Then we head over to the Haunted Mansion.

Got yelled at for taking "Flash Photography" on this one LL, but here's a light inside HM

Sadly, in our old age, we knew that we weren't going to make it until 4:40 to ride PP. It was only about 2:30ish and we were getting hungry and wanted our Cosmic Ray's food I had shown Dbf (ribs and chicken). So, we made an executive decision to make HM our last ride, go eat CR's then head back to the resort, since I had just called to see which room we had (Surf's Up room 6123, easy to remember right?) and take a nap so that we could enjoy DD later that night.
Dbf decided against the chicken when he saw the portions they give and we both just got the ribs, with green beans and mashed potatoes and split a bottle of water. Total for the food $24.13

Oh gosh, they were SO GOOD! We've always gotten either burgers, salads or wraps at CR's, but this was a real treat. Tender meat, yummy BBQ sauce, red skinned mashed potatoes and the green beans were steamed...just yum!

On the way out, we snapped a few castle pics
Ok ok..maybe a light/castle pic

And then a few from the Garden

Then peeked our head into the Jewelry store to check out the price tag on that diamond castle. $37,500. Know how many WDW trips that is?!?!

When we got back to our room, our luggage was waiting for us. Very convenient. And guess what...



we got our King sized bed!

Bathroom shot

And Dbf

Complete with MM towel, that looks slightly more like Winnie the Pooh with the small ears

Next up....Dbf and I settle into a nice long nap before DD.
Where do we eat?
What shops do we go into?

Stay tuned!

 

[Lady Lallie]

You look absolutely adorable challenging Donald! Hehehe.

That sandwich looks really good and Sports looks neat too. I don't think I have seen many pictures of it before.

I hope you had a good New Year's!

 

[Lady Lallie]

And of course, my first X-mas light fixture pic for LL. I told Dbf later on in the day what I was doing and everytime we passed by any light, even a glum one, he would say "hey, that worthy of an LL light?" It was so cute! And I'm sure LL is loving that!

Awww! That is super cute. Love the light pictures!!

Then all of a sudden Dbf yells out "Do you know WHO that WAS!?" Me...obviously not paying attention says "No..who?" Then he goes nuts and I'm thinking geeze, we seeing quite a celebrity. Well, celebrity in Dbf's eyes. One of the boat captains, Sid actually, from the Show "The Deadliest Catch" where they fish for crab in the Bering Sea in Alaska, he recognizes. He makes a bee-line for the dude, but he's obviously walking too fast and there's a CM in front of them I guess making sure they don't get off course. So all I could do is get a picture from the back.
Here was my best attempt at a celebrity photo. He's next to the lady in the black dress and black boots.

OH MY GOD! I love Deadliest Catch, it is seriously one of my favorite shows. I am so so so jealous you saw Sig! He's my favorite captain. I am liking your Dbf more and more! Sig was at Epcot signing autographs in right before our last trip and I was so sad we missed him by a few days!! How awesome that you saw him. Can you tell I am excited?

You got a lot done on your first day! Wow! I would have been napping already!

 

[Roxychica7]

Awww! That is super cute. Love the light pictures!!


OH MY GOD! I love Deadliest Catch, it is seriously one of my favorite shows. I am so so so jealous you saw Sig! He's my favorite captain. I am liking your Dbf more and more! Sig was at Epcot signing autographs in right before our last trip and I was so sad we missed him by a few days!! How awesome that you saw him. Can you tell I am excited?

You got a lot done on your first day! Wow! I would have been napping already!

Haha, the nap is approaching faster than you think LL.
Dbf was excited too, I just wish we could have swooped in faster, I'm sure that he would have loved to get a pic with him!

 

[Roxychica7]

You look absolutely adorable challenging Donald! Hehehe.

That sandwich looks really good and Sports looks neat too. I don't think I have seen many pictures of it before.

I hope you had a good New Year's!

thanks. I felt like a dork doing it! Oh gosh the sandwich was amazing! And I hadn't seen many pics of Sports before either. There were a few sports teams there, but they were small teams and I really enjoyed it there!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Awesome updates! You and DBF are so cute! You got some fantastic pictures. I don't think I've seen pics of All Start Sports so thanks for sharing. And how cute DBF is asking if things are worthy of LL light pics! I cannot condone flash photography in the attractions... but that HM light pic is cool!

I saw the Sea Captain guy (with some other people from the show) signing autographs in the store in the Norway pavilion later in the week. The line was OUT OF CONTROL. I've never seen the show. I thought to myself I wonder if any DIS'er are into this ... I wish I'd taken pics for your DBF and LL. Sorry. I was too annoyed that they'd moved the sweaters I wanted to look at.

Looking forward to more!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I saw the Sea Captain guy (with some other people from the show) signing autographs in the store in the Norway pavilion later in the week. The line was OUT OF CONTROL. I've never seen the show. I thought to myself I wonder if any DIS'er are into this ... I wish I'd taken pics for your DBF and LL. Sorry. I was too annoyed that they'd moved the sweaters I wanted to look at.

Oh my goodness! You would think they would keep up updated when Sig was going to be there!

 

[Roxychica7]

Awesome updates! You and DBF are so cute! You got some fantastic pictures. I don't think I've seen pics of All Start Sports so thanks for sharing. And how cute DBF is asking if things are worthy of LL light pics! I cannot condone flash photography in the attractions... but that HM light pic is cool!

I saw the Sea Captain guy (with some other people from the show) signing autographs in the store in the Norway pavilion later in the week. The line was OUT OF CONTROL. I've never seen the show. I thought to myself I wonder if any DIS'er are into this ... I wish I'd taken pics for your DBF and LL. Sorry. I was too annoyed that they'd moved the sweaters I wanted to look at.

Looking forward to more!

Hey girl! Thanks for stopping by! Yes yes, Dbf is a Fisheries Science major, thus he LOVES the show. I think if I wouldn't have stopped him, he would have followed Sig around for pics

Oh my goodness! You would think they would keep up updated when Sig was going to be there!

I thought I saw they were going to be in Norway, but I could have sworn it wasn't when we were going to be there. Oh well, Dbf got a kick out of passing by him out of the blue!

 

[disneydusted]

Hey Jess!! I am so happy to see you have started and are on your way into your report!! We've been down in NC for 10 days so I kept checking the Disboards every few days on the TR thread but I kept missing your TR.
Anyway.... I will cut you total slack for being remiss in starting your TR due to the fact that finished ALL of the Twilight books!! Didn't you just love them!!?? Have you gone on Stephenie Meyer's web site and read Midnight Sun? Definately do that if you haven't... it tells the Twilight story from Edward's point of view but it isn't finished yet.
Your eyes are absolutely sparkling in your picture in the lobby of the resort, sort of the "I'm at DISNEY!!!!" sparkle!
I'm so glad you are starting with light fixture photos for LL! We all love to see them!
I agree about the TTA, one of my favorites for just soaking it all in and realizing where you are... fun, fun, fun!!!
Congratulations on your A!!! Good job!!!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

wow some good updates, looks like you got a good amount of stuff in that we ran out of time to see,

we never made it to HM, or montsers.

 

[Roxychica7]

Hey Jess!! I am so happy to see you have started and are on your way into your report!! We've been down in NC for 10 days so I kept checking the Disboards every few days on the TR thread but I kept missing your TR.
Anyway.... I will cut you total slack for being remiss in starting your TR due to the fact that finished ALL of the Twilight books!! Didn't you just love them!!?? Have you gone on Stephenie Meyer's web site and read Midnight Sun? Definately do that if you haven't... it tells the Twilight story from Edward's point of view but it isn't finished yet.
Your eyes are absolutely sparkling in your picture in the lobby of the resort, sort of the "I'm at DISNEY!!!!" sparkle!
I'm so glad you are starting with light fixture photos for LL! We all love to see them!
I agree about the TTA, one of my favorites for just soaking it all in and realizing where you are... fun, fun, fun!!!
Congratulations on your A!!! Good job!!!

Thanks girl! I've been wondering about where you had gone to as well! But yes, thank you for excusing my absence for Twilight I so want to read books 3 and 4 again. I had heard about Book 5, but that it was suspended indefinitely because the author was so upset that the book got leaked. I haven't decided yet if I wanted to read it, since it's not finished, I'll have to think about that one! But hope you had fun in NC! And thank you for all your compliments! I'm so glad that I finally started this TR too!

wow some good updates, looks like you got a good amount of stuff in that we ran out of time to see,

we never made it to HM, or montsers.

Thanks Dan! I bet whatever you got to we didn't get a chance to see and whatever we got to see, you didn't. It is amazing how many things there are to do down there!