My First Trip Home! Back from SSR

[Chellymouse]

What a week! The Cast: Me--31 and a "DisneyFreak" according to my friends!
My BFF-Dee-43 and her first trip to WDW. 8/9-8/15
ARRIVAL and Day 1:
We couldn't have scripted a better entrance. Our flight was landed and at the gate 20 minutes early, we were on ME within 20 minutes of landing and arrived at SSR by 10:20am. Check in was a breeze, our villa wasn't ready yet, no biggie, didn't think it would be, our groceries had been delivered so we grabbed some waters and made our way over to the Springs bus stop. We were heading to MK and wouldn't you know, just as we walked over the MK bus pulled up. We had to run over to the T&T so I could get my PAP converted and wound up getting to ride with the driver on the monorail over to T&T. We were walking down Main St USA at 11:45am! Of course Dee needed her Pirate Mickey ears RIGHT NOW (I had worn mine on the plane!) so we bought her ears and while we were waiting for her name to be sewn on, it started to pour. Out came the rain gear and we were heading to Casey's for lunch. We were starving. A doughnut at the airport is not what I consider a good breakfast! After lunch we made our way over to POTC, which
Dee absolutely loved. We were heading over toward Splash when a kind gentlemen gave us 2 FP for Splash for right then (they couldn't use them) so we hit Splash. By now it was time for our appts. at BBB, which was a blast. We had pink hair extensions for a couple of days. Our FGITs were wonderful and even commended us on being 'grown-up' princesses. My FGIT said she wished more adults would get into it. After that, we headed over to IASW...I know ...but Dee had to ride it for her sister who is battling a brain tumor and couldn't come with us. Wouldn't you know...a member of the Dream Squad was in the corner and stopped us to chat. She loved our pink hair and granted us the opportunity to be the Small World cruise directors. It was a blast! Then we got a front row ride on the next boat. Now we are hauling our pink hair over to GF for dinner at 1900 Park Fare which was absolutely amazing! The step-mother and step sisters were hilarious, Prince Charming was absolutely charming and Cinderella was awesome! The food and service were wonderful! We finally made our way back to SSR (with plans to go to PI, but we fell asleep) and our villa was absolutely perfect. Everything was neat and clean (including the dishes), our view of DTD was amazing (we stayed in Congress Park) and couldn't have asked for a better spot.
Day 2: Up early and actually made it to Epcot in time for RD. I will say, after reading everyone's comments about Artist Palette, I was very impressed. Apparantly, the breakfast crowd doesn't start before 9am because we didn't wait for breakfast or a table at all during our stay. I don't know how it was after 9am, but before, it was awesome! We ran to Soarin for FP and then headed over to MS. Now, I warned Dee about MS and even offered to ride the "weenie side" but she was up for the real deal! Well....we get on and needless to say, while we were fortunate her mouse waffle stayed down, we had to take it easy for a little while after that! It was time for our FP for Soarin, which she absolutely loved and where I met several Disers in line! Awesome people and hope all of you had safe trips home as well! We then picked up FP for test track and headed over to WS, which was one of Dee's faves for the trip. We had some adult beverages then headed over to TT. Then it was nearing dinner time so we hit Nemo then checked in at Coral Reef. I have to say, the food was very good, we had an aquarium side table and were also sitting next to some Disers, but the service was horrible! I would not return to that restaurant, not because of the food, but because of the service. While we were having dinner the divers started and they were quite a bit of fun. After dinner it was too late to finish WS as people were starting to line up for Illuminations, so we headed over to MK for the parade, fireworks and EMH. She hung until about 1am and then threw the mercy flag! We did get to ride quite a bit though.
Well....the lunch break is over so I'll have to update this later!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Hi! We enjoyed chatting with you guys in the Soarin' line! We were staying at SSR, too!

I hope you enjoyed the rest of your trip! We had a great time and can't wait to go back.

 

[aprince&princess]

Great report so far! It sounds like you had a wonderful time. I can't wait to get back to SSR in Oct.for MNSSHP and Food & Wine.

 

[Ducky4Disney]

What a magical first day! I love when it starts like that, hopefully it stayed with you the whole trip.

D4D

 

[SLM]

Your friend is lucky to have a great guide like you! Glad you had such a good time!

 

[moredisneyplease]

All of the starts certainly lined up for you that first day, didnt they!

Welcome back and we'll be looking for more from you soon!

 

[Chellymouse]

We had some moments, which I'll get to! It was great meeting you also! DH and I are heading back in Dec!

Hi! We enjoyed chatting with you guys in the Soarin' line! We were staying at SSR, too!

I hope you enjoyed the rest of your trip! We had a great time and can't wait to go back.

 

[Chellymouse]

I'm going to try my hand at uploading some pics when I get home!
Day 3: Well..we got a bit of a late start because I had some trouble getting Dee out of bed! We made it to breakfast before 9am then we started chatting with a DVC rep and she wound up getting a 9:30am tour. It was cool because I hadn't done one (still haven't met my guide and of course he was off today) so we didn't make it over to AK until 11am. We hit a few rides (she was having no part of EE...not a big fan of coasters that don't have shoulder harnessess) so she was our "junk holder" while I rode. By 2pm she was waving the mercy flag so we headed back to SSR and went over to the High Rock pool, which I have to say was awesome! We hung out at the pool until 4pm then went up to pick up our stuff we'd bought the day before, showered and started the journey over to Poly for dinner at Ohana. This was my first time (I know I should be flamed) eating there and I will DEFINITELY go back. The food was amazing, the service was impeccable and the Lapu Lapu well....'nuff said! After dinner we went over to DTD to shop and called it a night around 10:30pm. I honestly think Dee was ready for bed right after dinner, but she wanted to go shopping more than she wanted to sleep!

 

[CraftyMouse]

Glad you had such a great trip! Can't wait to read more! One question though...

We had to run over to the T&T so I could get my PAP converted

Weren't you able to do this right at the MK? I've always been able to go to the Guest Services window all the way to the right of the turnstiles to activate our APs.

 

[Kimmy]

Enjoying your TR! We we're at SSR the week before, 8/2-8/9. I like Artist Pallette too. How were the crowds? We thought it was very crowded. This was our first trip in the first week of August. We usually go the 3rd or 4th week of August, which is less crowded.

 

[Chellymouse]

Enjoying your TR! We we're at SSR the week before, 8/2-8/9. I like Artist Pallette too. How were the crowds? We thought it was very crowded. This was our first trip in the first week of August. We usually go the 3rd or 4th week of August, which is less crowded.

I didn't think the crowds were too bad. It's early for me to go as well. Usually we go leave around the 15th-18th and stay about 10 days. It was definitely more crowded for August than what we're used to, but most rides most of the day were 30 minutes or less. We utilized the FP quite a bit and I've been there enough so we didn't wait more than 25-30 minutes for anything.

 

[Chellymouse]

Glad you had such a great trip! Can't wait to read more! One question though...



Weren't you able to do this right at the MK? I've always been able to go to the Guest Services window all the way to the right of the turnstiles to activate our APs.

I called a couple of days before I left and they said I had to go to T&T to get the pass activated. Thankfully it didn't take long, but it would've been nice not to have to run over there. Did get to ride with the driver on the monorail though so it was worth it!

 

[CraftyMouse]

I called a couple of days before I left and they said I had to go to T&T to get the pass activated. Thankfully it didn't take long, but it would've been nice not to have to run over there. Did get to ride with the driver on the monorail though so it was worth it!

I hate to tell you this, although it may be good information for next time, but I don't think you did have to go to the T&T. You can activate APs at any park Guest Services window and at Downtown Disney's Guest Services.

Of course, as you said, you did get that up-front monorail ride so it's all good!

 

[Chellymouse]

Ok, so I've been trying to figure out how to upload some pictures and I'm at my wit's end! Does anyone have any suggestions? It keeps telling me to insert a url address! Ok, now back to our TR!
Day 4:
Today was the day! I don't know if we'd eaten pixie dust or what, but today was one of the most memorable and exciting days I've ever had at WDW!
Dee was rested so we were up and out early. Our plan for the day was to make it to AK for rope drop and do a safari right away then head over to HS for the rest of the day and hopefully make it over to Bucs training camp. I'm a HUGE football fan and even though I like the team across the river (I'm a Steeler fan living in Browns country) I thought it would be cool to see training camp. The best laid plans....well....the mouse had other plans for us today! We made it to AK for rope drop and decided not to fuss with a locker, so we're dragging our huge canvas bag, our soft cooler and my fanny pack (hey it's a necessity ) and haul it over to the Safari. So the wait is only 15 minutes and as we are getting close to boarding, I'm noticing the vehicles aren't coming in very quickly. I was excited because usually that is an indication that the animals are very active. Turns out, I was right. We boarded our vehicle and about halfway through, this huge ostrich decided to walk in front of our vehicle and had no intention of moving very quickly. Just as our driver was radioing in for assistance (and as there were at least 10 vehicles backed up behind us) the ostrich finally decided to get out of the road. We were on the safari for nearly 25 minutes before we got back. Dee was awestruck! She thought it was one of the coolest things she'd ever seen and I have to say, for the number of safaris I've done, it ranked pretty high! As we were lugging our junk out, we noticed Lilo and Stitch so of course we had to stop for pics. BTW...I broke my character pic record this trip. 25 different characters in 6 days...beat my old record of 22 in 9 days! As we are saying our farewells to Lilo and Stitch, I couldn't help but notice that many people were coming out of a walkway with dream FPs. So I told Dee we needed to walk over to see the birds. At this point, she has decided I've lost my marbles. So we looked at the flamingos and the vulture, chatted with the CM and the CM quietly advised us to exit to our left. What happens next? You guessed it! We were the proud owners of 2 dream FPs!! Now prior to this, a gentleman had stopped us and gave us 2 FPs for EE as he and his family had just won dream FPs. So it was off to the lockers to dump our gear and then to Dinoland! I stopped a newlywed couple and passed along the FPs that the kind gentleman had given us. They thanked us and were off and running to EE. Well, one of Dee's dreams this week was to meet Piglet. Piglet wasn't out the day before, well wouldn't you know, Piglet was out today. So we got in line to see the characters and there was only a 10 minute wait. She was crazy excited to meet Piglet, so after some pics, we moved on to Dinoland. Now, Dee isn't crazy about rides, especially roller coasters, but she liked Primeval Whirl because it has a harness...well sort of, but is was enough to pacify her. We hit Dinosaur and PW, then made our way over to EE. Dee wouldn't go near it, so I rode. Well, we didn't want to waste a FP so we swapped lanyards and I went on a second time. Wouldn't you know...I got the front seat! I was pumped! While I was riding and Dee was holding our junk, she took our tickets and got 2 FPs and gave them to another couple. We felt it appropriate to pass on the magic! After EE, we decided to skip Kali as we didn't have a change of clothes and didn't care to be soaked all day, so we checked with a CM and gave our Kali tabs to a mom and her son so they didn't have to wait. We then hit a second safari, which was good, but not as good as our first. We then hit Bug's Life and it looked like rain so we had used our FPs, passed along some magic and made our way over to HS. We get to HS, drop off our junk in a locker and head to TSM. Of course it's after 1pm so there were no FPs and the wait was 110 minutes so we decided to hit HS tomorrow for RD and ride then. Dee had a few requests for HS so first we grabbed FPs for RnR. Then I hit TOT, she said no way was she going on anything that dropped her 13 stories. After I was done on TOT, we hit the backlot tour. I know....but I'd heard there was quite a bit of POTC memorabilia so we went. We both love POTC. As we were walking up the ramp, a CM stopped us and asked if we wanted to be in his "show" So, we agree and got to be in the water tank. Wished they would have told us to put our hoods up! Yep... we got soaked! Maybe we should have gotten on Kali... Dee more than me! She wound up buying a change of clothes! Then we did the tour, enjoyed all of the POTC memorabilia, took a ton of pics then headed over to the Indy show. Dee is a die hard Indy fan and that was one of the few things she wanted to see. We wound up in a front row seat and when the casting call went out for extras....yep! We were 2 of the extras. Dee was on !! To make it even more interesting, one of the stuntmen had asked who was from Cuyahoga Falls.....it was me and it turns out, he was from Silver Lake which is about 5 minutes away. Now it was time for dinner...Sci-Fi.....yes I know, but Dee thought it would be cool so I obliged. The food was ok, but she loved the theming of the restaurant and we had good service so it was all good. Now it's time for RNR. Dee absolutely loved it! She was scared and excited and loved it! I was just glad she wasn't Now it's time for Fantasmic. I'm one of those crazy people that gets there the minute the gates open so I can have my 5th row center in the Mickey section. Tonight was no different. Dee has now decided I'm either brilliant or insane! So we patiently waited 90 minutes for Fantasmic to start, I scored us our carmel corn...can't see Fantasmic without my huge bucket of carmel corn! So Fantasmic starts and Dee was speechless. She even teared up with me! As we were making our way out of the pandemonium, she said that it was the best show she's ever seen. We decided to head over to TSM to see if the wait had gone down, but no such luck so we decided to call it a night and head back to SSR since we were planning on hitting HS at RD anyway. Today was an absolutely amazing day and I couldn't have asked for anything better! However....we're about to lose some of the pixie dust. Stay tuned for day 5 and someone please....help me to upload some pics!!

 

[Chellymouse]

I hate to tell you this, although it may be good information for next time, but I don't think you did have to go to the T&T. You can activate APs at any park Guest Services window and at Downtown Disney's Guest Services.

Of course, as you said, you did get that up-front monorail ride so it's all good!

Thanks for the tip! DH will have to get his pass activated when we return in December so I'm going to try it!

 

[Lexxiefern]

Fabulous report!! You really had some great moments!! Can't wait to read more

 

[Kimmy]

You lucky girl! Great update, can't wait to hear more & see your pictures. Sorry I can't help you out with the pictures, I've never added pictures.

 

[Chellymouse]

Day 5:
We made it up and out early and hit HS about 5 minutes after RD. Dee was well on her way to earning her ears so I put her in charge of dropping off our junk at a locker and I was going to run for TSM FP. She did a good job! Secured our junk and met me at Little Mermaid because we didn't see it the day before and after a 20 minute line, we had 2 FPs for TSM....at noon! TSM was very cool and I would've loved to have done it again, but there were no FPs left and it's not worth a 100 minute wait. So we caught Mermaid, then made our way over to see Lightning and Mater and Mike and Sully. We even caught up with Donald Duck. I don't know why, but Donald is not the easiest character to find. Even though Dee had loved RNR she had decided that once was enough so we grabbed some snacks, rode TSM then hit the boats to head over to Epcot. We dropped our stuff in a locker, grabbed some FPs for Soarin, had lunch, rode Soarin then went over to the other side of WS. If anyone was trying to shop....my apologies! I think Dee bought out half the stores. Then we decided we were thirsty so we grabbed some Grand Marnier slushes, which were wonderful then headed over to the pub in England so I could get a hard cidar with black currant juice. Oh I love those! Well, Dee was n't into that beverage and had struck up conversation with a group sitting next to us and the next thing I knew we were doing Irish car bombs. An Irish car bomb is evil! It's whiskey and Bailey's mixed in a shot then dropped into a pint of Guiness then chugged. Yuck! Thankfully we didn't get !! By now it was time to head over to Teppan Edo for dinner and we actually got to see the candy lady in action. That was very cool as I'd seen her on tv a few times and it was awesome getting to watch her in person. Her skill is absolutely amazing! Dinner was ok, but not great. Doubt I'll be eating there again as the Japanese places like that are way much better around home than there. During dinner is where our trip starts to get a bit ugly. Dee has been waiting all summer to find out if she will have a job in the fall and her DD called to say there was a meeting Friday morning, which of course she couldn't make unless she flew home Thurs. night. Her DD didn't take a great message so we wound up leaving dinner and Dee spent the next 3 hours calling people to find out what was going on. Turned out she didn't HAVE to be at the meeting and she found out the Monday after we returned home that she did get her old job back and would be going back to work in the fall. So, I left her at SSR to make her calls and relax and headed back out to MK around 8:45pm. I just couldn't call it a night and since I hadn't been on Space Mt yet, I went back out. Boy is parade time a nasty time to have to navigate Main St. Of course the line for space mt. is an hour long and no FP so I asked the CM if there was a single rider line. After he heard I hadn't been on all week and was by myself he pulled some new CP interns out of line and GAVE us FPs!! Thank you, thank you! And good luck to the interns!! After I had my space mt. fix I ran over to BTMM (Dee did NOT do well on this or Splash I should mention!) BTMM was walk on so after riding it twice I headed over to Splash. The line was still a bit long so I hit POTC then returned to Splash. Wouldn't you know, I'd taken my rain gear out of my bag before heading out to MK and just as we were loading into our log, the skies opened up to a torrential downpour! Soaking wet, freezing and $30 later for a towel and poncho, I was heading to the buses! The towel was well worth the $$ because the bus was absolutely freezing! I arrived home around 12:30pm, Dee left a note to tell me to have fun at BB in the am as she was NOT getting up at 6:45am to go to a waterpark and to call her when I was on my way back! Grabbed a shower, set the alarm and it was off to bed!

 

[bellazachmom]

I am really having a great time reading your trip report!!

Thanks for sharing, can't wait for more!

 

[Chellymouse]

Day 6:
This is our last day here as we will have to go home tomorrow! Dee opted to skip BB so I was up at 6:45am, fed watered and on a bus by 7:30am. Made it over to BB before they were even letting us in. Grabbed a locker and made my way up to Summit Plummet. I love this slide, even though the after effects aren't pleasant. Decided to hit it again and on the way to the top disaster struck. I was walking and talking to a fellow Diser and not paying attention and crash! Pinkie toe meets hard cement curb! Well...it hurt! Thinking it was just a stinger I proceeded down SP a second time, hit a few other slides and by the time I was getting ready to leave, realized that the pinkie toe was most definitely fractured. Now this is NOT a good way to start the day. This was also the worst time I had getting a bus. It took 1 solid hour to get back to SSR because apparently buses do not go to the resort until 11am. So after getting a bus over to AK and waiting around, dispatch finally called a bus to take 5 of us to PO, OKW and SSR. I made it home, Dee had just finished her breakfast, grabbed a shower and have now confirmed the toe is definitely broke! I taped it up as best I could, grabbed my crocs and we were out the door to MK. It was raining which was kind of nice as MK wasn't very busy. We hit POTC for the final time, grabbed FP for space mt and caught a pirate tutorial, which was awesome because we both love Jack! I coaxed Dee into riding space mt by telling her she had to finish conquering the MK MT range or I was taking her ears away, so we rode and she actually liked it. By now we are running a bit behind for our dinner at LeCellier so we stopped at guest relations to explain that I wasn't moving very quickly and to let them know we were on the way. I have to say I was a bit nervous and we got the worst CM we'd had all week. The CM refused to call over there (or even give me a phone number to call myself) and said we'd just have to take our chances and hoped we would be able to be seated. Needless to say I was NOT happy and I was really starting to hurt so we headed over to the monorail. I told Dee to give me all of our bags so she could just go, told and showed her (thank heavens for the monorail) how to get there without me (she did an amazing job!!) and off we went. I wasn't walking very well by then and just as I'd made it to Canada, Dee was calling to make sure I was on the way. The staff at LeCellier was amazing! Not only were we seated right away, they got me some ice and a little stool so I could put my foot up for awhile. The food and service were amazing as always and we had a great time at dinner. We had a newlywed couple (who were also Disers) at the table to our left and fellow DVC members at the table to our right. Our servers jokingly asked if we wanted to push our tables together. Absolutely wonderful!! After dinner we headed back to SSR to start packing up and I was bent on going to PI. So, we packed up, showered, got dressed and headed over to PI. I am sorely going to miss PI as this was my "farewell tour" I did manage to get my feet into a pair of sandals though I don't know how. We arrived at PI around 10pm and finally got home around 2:30am. Thank goodness for adult beverage otherwise I might not have made it that long!