"Oh, it's raining..let's stay another day!" - An August 2011 TR - *UPDATE: 9/15*

[celeste.]

Hi everyone!
Welcome to my third trip report!! (feel free to check out my others in my signature if you're really interested in my trips.) We just got back from Florida today and we left Disney on the 11th.
We were in Disney for eight days (it was supposed to be seven, but as you can gather from my title, we stayed an extra! ) It was a great trip with not too many crowds.

Now on to the introductions!

First up is me, Celeste. I'm 17 years old.

My favorite Disney movies are Beauty & the Beast and Toy Story! My favorite characters are Belle & Woody and my favorite rides are Space Mountain, Test Track, It's A Small World, Soarin', & Expedition Everest (which I rode for the first time this trip!).

Next is DSis, Tina. She's 20 years old.

(She's on the left in case you couldn't tell, haha)
Her favorite movie is The Little Mermaid with her favorite character being Ariel. And I think she likes Space Mountain & Tower of Terror as her favorite rides.

Our final travelers are my parents:

My Mom's favorite movie is Lady & the Tramp and her favorite character is Minnie. Her favorite rides are Soarin’, Test Track, & Toy Story Mania!
My Dad's favorite Disney movies are Pirates of the Caribbean & The Jungle Book with his favorite character being Mickey. He likes Big Thunder Mountain, Goofy’s Barnstormer, in the first row! (sadly it was closed this year), & Test Track.

We had a great week! We were in Disney for 8 days. We arrived on August 3 and left on August 11. From August 11 through August 14 we visited my grandma who lives in Florida.

Here's a look at what we did:

August 3: arrive, Epcot, dinner at POFQ, MK at night
August 4: Hollywood Studios, outlets, & Downtown Disney
August 5: MK during the day & MK (again) at night
August 6: Animal Kingdom
August 7: MK
August 8: Epcot & DTD
August 9: Hollywood Studios & MK at night
August 10: (our bonus day!) DTD & Resort Hopping
August 11: Leave Disney World!

Coming Up: Traveling & Epcot! ​

 

[StephaniexMarie]

Hello! I'm in!
We were both there the same time, and we were both at the MK on the 5th and 7th. Oh and DTD on the 8th, but we did that in the morning and then Hollywood Studios.
Beauty & the Beast is one of my favorites too!
Can't wait for more.

 

[heaven2dc]

I'm joining in! Can't wait to read all about your trip (where did you stay?)

 

[sstewart]

I'm in....Can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[celeste.]

Hello! I'm in!
We were both there the same time, and we were both at the MK on the 5th and 7th. Oh and DTD on the 8th, but we did that in the morning and then Hollywood Studios.
Beauty & the Beast is one of my favorites too!
Can't wait for more.

Thank you! I'll have to check out your TR, also!

I'm joining in! Can't wait to read all about your trip (where did you stay?)

Hi! I can't believe I forgot to put where we stayed! We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter.

I'm in....Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Thanks! A real update is coming soon!

 

[celeste.]

Day 1 - Part 1

Okay, time for the first real update!
We had a 6:00 AM flight from JFK airport.We left our house around 4:10-ish my DAunt and fellow Diser (MLInDisney) drove us to the airport!
We arrived a little over an hour before out flight and got through security with no problems. We made out way to the gate, bought water bottles, and soon we were boarding!! We were row 8 so we were one of the last to board with all those extra leg room people boarding first.
I didn't take any pictures during the flight, but it was pretty uneventful. We landed early, at around 8:30!
We carried on all our luggage so no baggage claim for us! We went right over to the car rental.
Look how empty it is by the car rentals!

A funny picture of DSis..

This is DDad at the rental car place..I think he's telling me not to take any pictures of him. Too late, Dad!

Pretty soon we were on the road & driving to Disney World!!
We made our way without getting lost and more importantly with no speeding tickets!
Anyway, soon we were approaching WDW! This is the best picture I could get from the back seat:

We started to follow the signs for Downtown Disney because we wanted to go to the Hess Station to get a few cases of water.
Downtown Disney from the road:

A very bad picture of the Hess station from the car (but you get the idea):

After getting the water and stuff, we were on our way to Port Orleans: French Quarter!

(sorry for the bad picture I was too late at taking it )
We parked and headed over to the check-in area.

let the memories begin!

DMom headed over to the check-in area, while DSis, DDad, & I waited in the lobby so we didn't get in the way.

I took some funny pictures. It's just not the start of a Disney trip without funny pictures.
DSis:

DDad eating:

DMom came back soon with good news..our room was ready! Building 6 on the ground floor! (Room 6120)
Before we headed to the room though we went to the gift shop and I bought an autograph book! The one where you can put the pictures in the slot next to the autograph!
Then we went to our room..it was a pretty short walk from the food court/check-in area.
Micket made out of towels on the bed:

The beds:

DDad loading the refrigerator with water bottles...plus DSis looking funny!

The sink area, you can see me in the mirror!

We were only in the room for a short time, though. We wanted to head to the bus stops so we could go to our very first park of the trip!!
The view when you walk out of our room:

Another pic around POFQ (there will be tons..I took so many around the resort, it was so pretty!)

Approaching the bus stops!

We barely even waited when our bus pulled up..Epcot!

We boarded and were on our way to Epcot!!

Coming Up: our day at Epcot!​

 

[MLinDisney]

TR is great so far!! The room and hotel grounds are beautiful!!! Can't wait to read this TR!!

 

[MLinDisney]

ooops posted twice.

 

[StephaniexMarie]

LOVE the start of your trip report! I can't believe we both flew out of JFK the same day! Very cool.
Great picture of the entrance sign! We were many many many rows back on the Magical Express so I didn't even attempt to get a picture of it.
POFQ looks sooo nice. I think we're going to stay there next July for 2 weeks. Should be fun, a lot of my friends have stayed there!
Can't wait for more.

 

[celeste.]

TR is great so far!! The room and hotel grounds are beautiful!!! Can't wait to read this TR!!

Thanks! The resort was great!

ooops posted twice.

Are you spamming my TR?

LOVE the start of your trip report! I can't believe we both flew out of JFK the same day! Very cool.
Great picture of the entrance sign! We were many many many rows back on the Magical Express so I didn't even attempt to get a picture of it.
POFQ looks sooo nice. I think we're going to stay there next July for 2 weeks. Should be fun, a lot of my friends have stayed there!
Can't wait for more.

Oh wow, it was the same day! that's so weird!
Oh POFQ is great..you'll love it!
-----
More on the trip tomorrow!!

 

[celeste.]

Thank you to share your journey.

Thank You for reading!

 

[celeste.]

Day 1 - Part 2

Okay so when I last left you we were boarding a bus to Epcot!
We got off the bus and we saw the Epcot ball!

Getting closer!

I love entering the first park of the trip..it's always so exciting!

We entered Epcot and went straight to The Land so we could get fastpasses for Soarin'!

Soarin'!

Our fastpasses were for later in the afternoon, but we weren't going to use them until right before we left anyway.

Next we headed over to Test Track! DMom took this lovely picture of us:

We ride on the single rider line so there wasn't a long wait at all. I was even in the same car as DMom!
Then, we were all pretty hungry since it was lunchtime and we hadn't eaten yet. So we headed over to the World Showcase.
We took a few pictures along the way!

The first country was Mexico, but we skipped this one for today because we wanted to eat at Kringla in Norway!

The World Showcase across the lake.

We made it to Norway!

We ordered our food. DMom, DSis, & I got the Norwegian Club. It was yummy!!

DDad got roast beef..I don't have a picture though. He probably scarfed it down before I could take a picture..
For dessert I got a Cloudberry Horn! It was great, it tasted almost like a Napoleon, but with more berry flavor.

DMom got the chocolate mousse cake for dessert.

DDad & DSis got sweet pretzels for dessert, you can see them in one of the above pictures behind the glass in the bakery.
The seating area is very nice.

After we were done we walked back into Norway.
Who knew you could see Paris from Norway!

We rode the Maelstrom after lunch.

For the first time in a long time a kept my eyes open during the troll part! it's really not as scary as I remembered it from when I was 6..
Here are a few poor pictures from the ride.

Of course they let you out of the ride in a gift shop!

These sweaters are so nice.

continued in next post​

 

[celeste.]

Aww Norwegian Donald!

A Maelstrom boat about to go down the big, scary drop!

We took pictures in front of the water fall.
Me & DSis

DMom & DDad

More scenery around Norway.

We decided we stayed long enough in Norway and decided to move on to the next country.
In this picture, if you look a guy is holding up his kid..I think he's reenacting The Lion King..

China's next!

Coming Up: More World Showcase!
​

 

[MomOf2Gals]

cool report. i read yours last year and enjoyed it.
looking foward to new updates.

 

[celeste.]

cool report. i read yours last year and enjoyed it.
looking foward to new updates.

Thanks for reading along again!

 

[celeste.]

.

 

[StephaniexMarie]

We made it to Norway!

Who knew you could see Paris from Norway!

Of course they let you out of the ride in a gift shop!

These sweaters are so nice.

I meant to try one of those pretzels but never got the chance! Next trip.

I never noticed that you can see France from there!

That polar bear is SOOO soft. I got one this year because I had been wanting it for a long time.

And the sweaters are expensive. But they're worth the money! I tried some on and they were so comfy.

 

[celeste.]

I meant to try one of those pretzels but never got the chance! Next trip.

I never noticed that you can see France from there!

That polar bear is SOOO soft. I got one this year because I had been wanting it for a long time.

And the sweaters are expensive. But they're worth the money! I tried some on and they were so comfy.

The pretzels are pretty yummy from Norway!

Aww the polarbears are so cute & the sweaters are expensive, but so nice!!

Thanks for reading!!

 

[celeste.]

Day 1 - Part 3

Okay..so after Norway was China. We did some looking around in there.

Mulan was either just coming out for a Meet & Greet ot going back in for a lo mein break or something.

DSis & I at the entrance the the China store:

They have so many things in this shop. it's one of my favorites in all of the World Showcase!
I was born in 1993, so I'm year of the rooster!

DSis glubbing water. (usually I take the embarassing pictures of DSis, but DMom took this one! )

Some more items in the store:

It never ceases to amaze me how happy DSis looks at all times in Disney World!

When she realized I was taking pictures, she decided to pose like a Chinese cat:

A sparkly lollipop:

These bottles were really pretty. I wound up buying one..they were only $5!!

We then exited the China shop after I bought my hand-pianted bottle.

I love these puppets outside!

Obviously DDad does too!

DMom took this picture of me & DDad:

Buddha:

Next was the Outpost.
I love these new Duffys they are selling. They have the cutest outfits for him. I especially love the Woody from Toy Story one!
When I bought a bear like that years ago it was not named Duffy, it was just the Mickey bear & at Once Upon A Toy in Downtown Disney they would tell you the story about Mickey and his bear. It was cute.

The next country was Germany!
I really wanted to try the new Caramel shop they have there after months of drooling over the pictures of it online! I originally wanted one of the cupcakes they have there, but they have so many other things there that looked good!
I wound up getting the Caramel Chewy bar after reading about it in another trip report! A picture of it will come later, when I actually ate it.
I love Werthers!

It started to rain a little bit so we went into the connecting Christmas shop.

Then it cleared up when we were done shopping!

And here it is..my Caramel Chewy bar!! It was so, so good! One of my favorite snacks in all of WDW. It was like a shortbread cookie with caramel!!

Then we went into another German shop.
Awwww:

continued in next post​

 

[celeste.]

More German items:

Next was Italy, but we didn't really look around there, but I did get the Epcot ball with some gondolas.

We went to America after that.

Here DMom got a slushie..it was a layered one with a layer of strawberry slush, vanilla ice cream, & blue raspberry slush. It looked yummy. I don't have a pictre of it though.
We wanted to see the American Adventure today:

But the next show wasn't until 1:30.

So we looked around America until showtime.
The shop there is nice. They have lots of history books and stuff.
When we exited the CM by the color-your-own Duffy stand looked lonely, so DSis decided to color a Duffy!

When we were done there, we went by the building where the show is and some entertainment was coming outside!

They played all sorts of America songs..it was great!
Pretty soon we went inside and waited for the American Adventure to start. We sat on a bench in the lobby.
DDad & I on the bench:

The ceiling:

And pretty soon The Voices of Liberty came out! They're really good! It's nice way to entertain while waiting for the show to start!

When they were done performing we took the long trek to the theater. There are some many rooms and doors to got through before you actually ge tto the theater!

We made it!

Believe it or not, this is one of my favorite shows in all of Disney World! Last year, my DParents fell asleep during this show (is that even possible during this show?!). I believe they fell asleep around Squanto, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it also could've been around George Washington. Either way, DSis and I looked over at them and they were snoring.
Anyhow, I love this show! So, i snuck a few pictures, but don't worry I didn't use my flash!

During this part, the Depression, where FDR comes out on the side and makes his speech and says "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself", the people behind me were saying "Oh, who said that? That sounds so familiar! Oh I just can't remember!" We really need to educate America better!

My only complaint is how they skip some 'pivotal' parts of history! I mean how dare they skip the William Henry Harrison, Millard Fillmore, & James Buchanan presidencies?! And I don't think I heard one thing about Martin Van Buren!
All kidding aside, this really is a great show and if you've never seen it I highly reccomend you see it next time you visit!

The next country is Japan, but we skipped it because the store was wall to wall people! I think it was all the people who just came out of the American Adventure show.
So we moved on to Morocco!

I love the shops back here..they feel really authentic!

Over here it feels like you're inside Jeannie's from 'I Dream of Jeannie' bottle!

This little sun room is nice & a bonus is nobody's ever in it!

Outside the sun room:

DSis & I in front of the fountain:

On the way to the next country:

continued in next post​