Only Disney magic saved us from.... {May 2012 TR} (UPDATED 10/19)

[kansasdisneygal]

Chapter 3
“They say if you dream a thing more than once, it’s sure to come true.” –Briar Rose


Well, last time I left you wondering if we would be getting off the motor coach at Caribbean Beach or continuing on to Pop…

For those who guessed Caribbean Beach, I am sorry to tell you that you were wrong. We were continuing on to Pop. Caribbean Beach looks really cool and my mom stayed there during a Pampered Chef conference about 10 years ago when she still sold Pampered Chef. She really liked it.

But… WE LOVE POP!!! Someday we will stay at one of the deluxe resorts, but for this time in our lives VALUE is the way to go. Sam stayed at All Star Music between our two trips and although we had stayed at Pop on our previous trip, she was not impressed with the All Stars. Thus, since Art of Animation was not open yet, we made the easy decision to stay at Pop again.

We loved Pop on our first stay. We stayed in the 90’s building, with a pool view we did not have to pay for! We loved this location on our first trip because of the proximity to the bus stops. Maybe we are the weird ones, but we have never taken the time to spend a lot of time at the resort. On our first trip we went to the pool once and on this trip we never made it to a pool. The parks are too enticing!!

On this trip we wanted to be in a different section of the resort, just for a little variety. So, on this trip we requested the 50’s section, particularly the Lady Building #1. Would we get it????

Ok… I’m rambling… Where were we??? Oh yes, on the motor coach to Pop!!!!
We sat on the right side of the motor coach, so I did not get a picture of the big Pop sign. I said I would get one on a future bus ride, but this never happened. So, this was what we saw upon entering our resort!!

I love the huge theming at Pop! Makes us feel like little kids again!!

I took a picture of the 50 as we walked in hoping that is the building we would be told we were staying in!

Check in was pretty smooth! There was hardly anyone in line and we were helped almost immediately. I had done the Online Check-In, so it really took no time at all. The CM who checked us in was super nice and made our Birthday Buttons all cute with mickey heads. She also gave us I’m Celebrating buttons because we said we were celebrating Sam’s finishing her first year of teaching and me getting my first teaching job. She then got us the package that I had shipped to the resort with our cereal and granola bars we would eat for breakfast.

Then the moment came. It was like slow motion. The CM pulled out the resort map and I knew what was coming. Our ROOM ASSIGNMENT. Did all my requesting and hoping work?? I was silently freaking out because I REALLY wanted to stay in the Lady Building. Then she said the magical words, “You will be here in the 50’s section with Lady out front.” WOHOOO!!!! Sam and I jumped up and down for a seconded and high fived. We probably totally freaked the poor CM out, but she was still smiling at us. We stopped at Everything Pop to buy some milk for our cereal and soon we were walking to this.

We were in room 1350.

And now the barrage of our room pictures. I had warned Sam several times not to mess anything up until I was done with pictures!
Our beds.

Table, Dresser, TV

The new fridges they offer at the Values. We were so happy to have this.

Vanity area.

Bathroom.

Cute comforters!!!

And that’s our room!! We were so happy to be here! Part of me just wanted to collapse and watch Stacy on TV. But then I remembered- I’M IN DISNEY!!!!

Our luggage was not yet in the room, which was fine because we had planned for this and were in comfy enough clothes to conquer the parks. We knew where we were going and what we were after for dinner. This had been planned for months and I was now craving our dinner destination. But where were we going for our first park of the trip and what were we going to eat? Well, you’ll have to wait until the next update!!

Continued in Next Post.​

 

[PixieMama]

Yay, you got the building you wanted! Woohoo for getting a little pixie dust to start your trip off right!

Can you believe I've never swum in any Disney pool?! I just realized that today! I don't think I've even bothered to pack my swimsuit for Disney trips!

 

[Happy Duck]

Hi!!! I'm excited that you are here! It was an amazing trip!

Yes, that video is AMAZING!! Makes me teary just thinking about it!

Congrats on your first teaching job!!!! Are they are hard to come by where you are as they are here? I've been searching and interviewing for 2 years. I finally got one! Bless your heart for working with the little ones! They would drive me crazy, . But I teach middle school, so maybe I'm just as crazy! ​

Teaching jobs in general are hard to find in the area, but I got extraordinarily lucky. God certainly blessed me. I just graduated in May and got a job less than 3 weeks later.

Haha. I actually was originally looking for just an elementary job! I love littles! I love how they can get excited about just about anything, when presented in the right way! Got any tips on working with middle school?

 

[marDgreen88]

Not impressed with the All Stars?! They're like the exact same as Pop, as far as rooms go!

Lady is PRECIOUS. If I ever stayed at Pop, that's the building I'd want to be in as well!

I bet you're going to... alright no clue.

 

[MHTeacher]

POP! I knew it! Glad you got your room requests honored!

 

[kansasdisneygal]

Yay, you got the building you wanted! Woohoo for getting a little pixie dust to start your trip off right!

Can you believe I've never swum in any Disney pool?! I just realized that today! I don't think I've even bothered to pack my swimsuit for Disney trips!

We were so excited to get our room request!! The pixie dust was with us on this day!

I can believe it! Sam had to talk me in to pool time on our last trip. We never even discussed it on this trip! My thoughts are... I can swim at home, I can't go to a Disney Park at home. Right?​

Teaching jobs in general are hard to find in the area, but I got extraordinarily lucky. God certainly blessed me. I just graduated in May and got a job less than 3 weeks later.

Haha. I actually was originally looking for just an elementary job! I love littles! I love how they can get excited about just about anything, when presented in the right way! Got any tips on working with middle school?

Yay! So glad it all worked out for you!! You are very lucky to get a job right out of school. When Sam would complain this past year during her 1st year, I would tell her just to be thankful, because I hadn't gotten a job yet. So when you have those tough times this year just be thankful

Middle Schoolers will test you right off. See how much they can get away with. You have to be stern right off. Stick to your rules. Music shouldn't be that bad though, because most of them want to be there. Math is totally different and many students say they hate it. So its a bit tougher to keep them engaged.​

Not impressed with the All Stars?! They're like the exact same as Pop, as far as rooms go!

Lady is PRECIOUS. If I ever stayed at Pop, that's the building I'd want to be in as well!

I bet you're going to... alright no clue.

I can't speak from experience. But Sam said she could tell the All Stars were older. A little more run down. She said the rooms were a bit more outdated. Also, she didn't like sharing busses with the other resorts.

She was precious. I wish I'd gotten a picture of Tramp, who was across the pool. But we just didn't take the time. It was a great location!!​

POP! I knew it! Glad you got your room requests honored!

Yay!! We were so excited to get our room request!! I know they are not promised, so I was pretty glad we got such a great location!!​

 

[PixieMama]

My thoughts are... I can swim at home, I can't go to a Disney Park at home. Right?

Exactly!

 

[Merida]

Subbing in!

Congrats on your teaching job! I don't think I'd be able to deal with middle schoolers all day, every day - it was hard enough doing it once (though I'd totally do middle school science again; 7th grade chemistry was the BEST).

Yay for getting the building you want! I feel like I need to take separate vacations just to explore the resorts - they're so gorgeous/neat/exciting but we always go right to the parks. Especially with Art of Animation open now; the themeing there is just so bright and fun I really want to go on a photo tour!

 

[Queenofallthings]

for getting the room you requested! We stayed in that building in 2005 and 2006...it had been awhile! Cant wait to see where you are heading next

 

[RachelNinja]

Yay for getting your requested room location! I think staying at a value makes a lot of sense if you're spending most of your time in the parks. All you need is a place to shower and sleep!

 

[kansasdisneygal]

Subbing in!

Congrats on your teaching job! I don't think I'd be able to deal with middle schoolers all day, every day - it was hard enough doing it once (though I'd totally do middle school science again; 7th grade chemistry was the BEST).

Yay for getting the building you want! I feel like I need to take separate vacations just to explore the resorts - they're so gorgeous/neat/exciting but we always go right to the parks. Especially with Art of Animation open now; the themeing there is just so bright and fun I really want to go on a photo tour!

Hi!!!!!

Thank you!! Oddly enough they are my favorite age group!

We were so excited to get the exact building we had wanted!! I think you are right about the separate vacations. Or just a LONGER one
Art of Animation does look really cool! We are thinking we are going to stay there next time in one of the Little Mermaid rooms!​

for getting the room you requested! We stayed in that building in 2005 and 2006...it had been awhile! Cant wait to see where you are heading next

I know! We were so pumped!! All the buildings are really not bad locations. None are TOO far, but we were glad to have the one we wanted!​

Yay for getting your requested room location! I think staying at a value makes a lot of sense if you're spending most of your time in the parks. All you need is a place to shower and sleep!

We were so excited!! Your reasoning is ours exactly. We used to room to sleep and shower. We don't ever spend much time at the resort. Maybe that would change if we stayed at a moderate or deluxe, but we LOVE the parks!​

 

[MEK]

I love Pop Century! Yeah for the Lady and the Tramp Room request. I do love the 50's buildings. So cute!

I forgot that there were refrigerators in the values. They probably got tired of people like me leaving a cooler of ice in the tub. Cute room!

Do they have coffee makers yet?

 

[Merida]

Hi!!!!!

Thank you!! Oddly enough they are my favorite age group!

We were so excited to get the exact building we had wanted!! I think you are right about the separate vacations. Or just a LONGER one
Art of Animation does look really cool! We are thinking we are going to stay there next time in one of the Little Mermaid rooms!​

I've been trying to get my boyfriend to agree to a value stay (we really like the moderates) and he refused - until the Art of Animation promo stuff came out. And now he wants to go there! I still can't believe he'd pick AoA over something like Pop - I think AoA is less subtle than all those enormas statues.

 

[kansasdisneygal]

I love Pop Century! Yeah for the Lady and the Tramp Room request. I do love the 50's buildings. So cute!

I forgot that there were refrigerators in the values. They probably got tired of people like me leaving a cooler of ice in the tub. Cute room!

Do they have coffee makers yet?

Pop is awesome!! I love the 50's too! The pool area is too cute with Tramp and Lady and the giant bowling pin pool!!

Yea, they just put in the fridge's in like March! We were pretty excited!

No coffee makers, yet ​

I've been trying to get my boyfriend to agree to a value stay (we really like the moderates) and he refused - until the Art of Animation promo stuff came out. And now he wants to go there! I still can't believe he'd pick AoA over something like Pop - I think AoA is less subtle than all those enormas statues.

Haha, that is funny! I really want to stay at AoA. I think the Little Mermaid rooms look adorable! But, I do love the huge statues at Pop!​

 

[kansasdisneygal]

Chapter 4

"I can show you the world; Shining, shimmering, splendid; Tell me, princess, now when did; You last let your heart decide?"

So, we were heading out of the room to go to our first park of the trip. We were so excited. At this point it was about 4pm. Perfect time to get to our park and hit our dinner destination.

Here is Sam waiting in line for the bus. (Please Note: We had been on planes all day, no makeup, and a little shabby looking. So, please excuse our somewhat non-cute pictures in this update!)

We waited for a bus for about 10 minutes. Not too bad. We were the first in line, so we figured we’d probably just missed one. Once the bus arrived, it was only us and one other family. They were so nice. It was a young couple with two little ones. They asked us to take a picture of them and then offered to take one of us.

The whole way to the park we had a lovely conversation with them. They live in Tampa and have AP. They go up to WDW on weekends mostly. One of their parents lived in Orlando, so no hotel for them, so it’s super cheap for them to go. We told them how envious we were of their proximity to WDW. They also seemed amazed we were from Kansas. Like we live in the middle of nowhere or something… For one, we live in Wichita, which is the largest city in Kansas… honestly people… it’s not THAT bad! And secondly, we have Starbucks, too! People’s reactions to Kansas amazed us for most of the trip. Anywho… enough of that!

It didn’t take long to get to the park. Our bus driver was nice enough to drop us off at the closest stop. After a quick stop through bag check and the turnstiles, we were able to see this.

Yup, that’s right. Our first park of the trip was EPCOT!! Now you can start your guesses on dinner….

We were both very hungry at this point, so we decided to head straight to our dinner destination. But we couldn’t pass up taking these cute pictures of the topiaries that were still up from the Flower and Garden Festival that we missed by like a week.

Peter Pan and Captain Hook.

Hook and the Crocodile

Mickey and Minnie

Pluto!!!

Honestly, I don’t know if these topiaries are there year round or not. We’ve only been around the Flower and Garden Festival, so I know no different.
Once we hit the International Gateway we turned right. I wish I could say we stopped in Canada and ate at Le Cellier, but we did not. But it didn’t take us much longer to get there. We stopped in England and were practically drooling when we got to the Yorkshire County Fish Shop! These fish and chips are seriously some of the best I have ever eaten. Sam and I have basically been craving them since our last trip.

Yup, first food picture of the trip and I’d already eaten most of the first fish portion. Haha! Oh well, you get the picture! They were SOOO GOOD though!!! Seriously. OMG. YUM. The fish practically melts in your mouth. The breading is very light, but so buttery and flaky. I love tartar sauce, so I used a bunch. The chips are really good also! Yum!

All the seating to the right was taken at the tables, but we noticed the area below this had a few benches looking out across the lake and no one was down there. So, we had a pretty cozy lakeside dinner spot. Here is our view across the lake.

Once finished with our English delicacies (ha!), we headed off to explore some of the World Showcase.

I love this little nook of England.

We wandered around England for a bit and then headed towards France. We were a bit toasty at this point, so we headed towards “Impressions de France.” Neither of us had seen this and honestly, we were just dying for A/C. It was actually really pretty and I enjoyed it. Near the end, though, I started to struggle to keep my eyes open. I realized how tired I was and that my 3:30am wake up was catching up with me. As we were leaving, we both agreed it was neat but I told Sam no more movies or I’d be down for the count.

As we were exiting France, we saw her. The most beautiful & smart princess of all. BELLE!!!! Belle is our favorite princess. We met her several times on this trip.

Belle Meet & Greet #1

She is just fabulous.

We continued on exploring the World Showcase. We walked through Morocco and checked out the shops. Then we continued on to Japan. We walked up around the coy pond. Then down through the Mitsukoshi Department store. That place is so fun to look around in. We contemplated buying a lucky cat, but decided against it. We also found some dinnerware that we liked but the thought of how much it would cost to ship it home deterred us.

When we left Mitsukoshi, I took some pictures of the topiaries at the front of Japan.

Lightning McQueen and Mater were so cute! I love these topiaries! The talent that Disney must employ to do all of these is amazing!

It was at this point that I told Sam we should slow down on the World Showcase a bit. We still have a full day during the week to spend here and I didn’t want to explore all the countries on just this one night. So we kept walking and didn’t really spend much time in any of the countries we passed until we got to Germany.

Sam was craving something sweet and Karamel Kuche was right there waiting for us. We went in and asked the lovely cast member what she’d recommend. She told us the Caramel Chocolate Cookie was her favorite. So that’s what we got to share.

We made our way into Germany and sat on the edge of the fountain to enjoy our cookie. (By the way, even though I didn't get a picture of Sam's nails, you can see a decent picture of her thumb nail in the picture below)

This cookie was outstanding!!! It was so yummy! It was very rich, so it’s a good thing we shared. It’s a pretty big cookie, so splitting it worked out well. The cookie was crispy on the sides and soft in the middle. It was pretty rich in chocolate flavor and the caramel on top was delicious! It was so gooey and complimented the chocolate perfectly!

We sat on the edge of the fountain for a while and were amused by a guy who had obviously had too much to drink. German beer is good, but can you imagine how expensive it would be to get that gone in WDW? Like a beer is $7 or something… I like my adult beverages as much as the rest of us, but I couldn’t spend that much money on multiple drinks in one day in WDW. Just sayin… I like remembering my days in Disney. Alright, stepping off the soap box.

After a bit of a rest, we continued on. We stopped in Mexico and decided we wanted to go on a ride. Yep, that’s right folks. Our first ride of the trip would be the Gran Fiesta Tour. I know, I know. Not the most thrilling first ride, but the Maelstrom wait was really long and we were in need of a ride fix.

We still had fun on the ride and I took a few pictures.

And then I saw a hidden mickey. I’m sure you all have seen this one before, but I haven’t spent much time reading up on where certain ones are located. So I bet this one is pretty well known, but I was pretty proud of myself for spotting it and getting the picture on the fly. See the drums.

After the ride, we headed towards Future World and decided it would be a good time to try out Mission Space. For those who did not read my PTR, I will let you know that on our previous trip, I got horribly motion sick after believing myself invincible and riding the ORANGE side of Mission Space. Sam reported back to me after her trip with her husband that the GREEN side is much better.

At this point, I had pumped myself up, popped a Dramamine, and was ready to conquer space, well, at least the GREEN side of space. Hopefully. Honestly, I was pretty nervous.

It was actually really fun!! I got to enjoy myself and not feel like puking my guts out. We rode it twice in a row because there was only a 5 minute wait.

At this point, we decided we needed to head out of the park, it was about 8:45pm. We planned on catching IllumiNations on our second Epcot day and still had another destination for the evening. We walked back through the World Showcase and caught the water launch to the Beach Club. From there, we caught the bus to DTD. I wish I had planned more time at DTD, but really we just didn’t want to sacrifice park time to go there. Maybe we are weird.

By this time, I was dead tired. But I pushed on because I knew this was our only time set aside for DTD and we really wanted to check out Tren-D and the World of Disney. Alas, we ended up buying nothing at Tren-D. Not that we didn’t try. We both tried on several things, especially some sundresses, but neither of us were impressed with the quality of the clothing. The dress I really wanted felt like the elastic in the shoulders had been stretched out. When I checked the others on the rack, I realized they were all like that from the XS-XXL. Guess that’s how they are made?!?!

So, we headed toward World of Disney. I was quickly losing steam and it was crowded. Something about my personality I am not too proud of is that I do not do well in large crowds while shopping, especially when I’m tired.

My mom had told me before the trip that she wanted me to get my dad a new Donald Duck shirt. He is my dad’s favorite character, but the shirts he has have started to get worn out. So that was my mission tonight. I found one that I really liked and started off to find Sam. Funny thing was I had the backpack on and her cell was in it. So I had no way of finding her. I searched for what felt like forever and I was getting stressed.

After I found her, I told her I was going to check out. I got up to the check out after waiting in line. Turns out the shirt I had didn’t have a price tag. So the CM asked me to go grab another and get back in line. That was it. My tired body and stressed out mind were done. I nicely told the CM ok. But I did not go back. I told Sam I was done and we had to go back to the resort. I felt bad for cutting the DTD trip short but we’d been up for about 21 hours straight, and I was just done.

Have any of you ever felt like this at the World? It is not a fun feeling to have when you’re in such a happy place. Luckily we did not have to wait long for a bus and my spirits rose a little when a really nice CM started talking to Sam and I when he saw our birthday buttons. He claimed we didn’t look 24, more like 16…really?? He was a funny one. Once we got back to our room, we practically fell into bed. We had a busy day the next day and had to be rested to go.

Continued in next post.​

 

[marDgreen88]

OH, Epcot!! Okay... I have no idea but for some reason I want to say yall are going to eat at the place in the UK??? I don't even know what it's called. So yeah... probably not though.

Aww, yall missed the Flower and Garden Fest? How sad! I guess I thought it ran through May! That topiary is awesome!

Wait, WHAT? I was RIGHT? I'm a little shocked right now, please excuse me. Hahah. I'm not usually one for fish but I must say that meal looks delicious, even half eaten!

Aww, yay for Belle! And I think the Gran Fiesta Tour is a perfectly fine first ride! It's so precious. Glad you got to enjoy Mission: Space, too! I honestly get so motion sick that I'm too afraid to even try the green side! Sigh... maybe someday ahah.

I don't think you're weird at all... I feel like Downtown Disney is a nice stop if the parks are closed or you go on your arrival day or departure day when you don't have park tickets. But I would personally never just GO in the middle of the day when I could be at any of the parks!

 

[Queenofallthings]

Great update and great pictures! I have to agree with you on the fish and chips .... super yummy!

Love the shot of you guys with Belle....p.s. .... she's my favourite princess too

 

[ireneryan]

I saw you on another trip report (MEK's Will you Chill Out if I sprinkle you with Pixie dust) so I hit your link and now I'm all caught up. You've captured my interest, I think you will make an excellent middle school teacher!

Can't wait to find out about the rest of your trip!

 

[kansasdisneygal]

OH, Epcot!! Okay... I have no idea but for some reason I want to say yall are going to eat at the place in the UK??? I don't even know what it's called. So yeah... probably not though.

Aww, yall missed the Flower and Garden Fest? How sad! I guess I thought it ran through May! That topiary is awesome!

Wait, WHAT? I was RIGHT? I'm a little shocked right now, please excuse me. Hahah. I'm not usually one for fish but I must say that meal looks delicious, even half eaten!

Aww, yay for Belle! And I think the Gran Fiesta Tour is a perfectly fine first ride! It's so precious. Glad you got to enjoy Mission: Space, too! I honestly get so motion sick that I'm too afraid to even try the green side! Sigh... maybe someday ahah.

I don't think you're weird at all... I feel like Downtown Disney is a nice stop if the parks are closed or you go on your arrival day or departure day when you don't have park tickets. But I would personally never just GO in the middle of the day when I could be at any of the parks!

Wow! You are an awesome guesser!!! How you picked the fish and chips over all the other choices in Epcot is amazing! Go you!
Yes we missed it by like a week Several topiaries were still up but I would have liked to see some of the other activities they had available.
I think the Green side was super easy. I get motion sick a little bit on Star Tours and I didn't feel a thing on the Green Side. But I highly recommend just taking a Dramamine to be on the safe side!
We have the same thoughts on DTD!! ​

Great update and great pictures! I have to agree with you on the fish and chips .... super yummy!

Love the shot of you guys with Belle....p.s. .... she's my favourite princess too

Thank you! They are SOOOOO good! Yum!!

Its a pretty decent picture, but our others are better! Just wait!! She is just perfect! ​

I saw you on another trip report (MEK's Will you Chill Out if I sprinkle you with Pixie dust) so I hit your link and now I'm all caught up. You've captured my interest, I think you will make an excellent middle school teacher!

Can't wait to find out about the rest of your trip!

Welcome!!! Super glad to have you here!

You did some major reading! I'm glad you find it interesting! Thank you, I hope I will be a good one, too!​

 

[MHTeacher]

They also seemed amazed we were from Kansas. Like we live in the middle of nowhere or something…

People’s reactins to Kansas amazed us for most of the trip. Anywho… enough of that! ​

I get that reaction lots of time when I tell someone I'm from Alabama. They seem to think that means that I married my cousin, only went through eighth grade, and walk around bare-foot all the time. For the record, I do go bare-foot a lot, but that's all that's true in those assumptions.

Have any of you ever felt like this at the World?​

LOTS of times---especially when I'm in the WORLD of Disney. We have always gone there on weekend nights, and I would literally have a nervous breakdown in there. No one answers their phone--You search for what seems like hours to locate your group. Add to that, it was your travel day, and you'd been up for over 16 hours---Yeah, I'd be finished with that too!