BluOrchid2
<font color=deeppink>Princess Aurora's Mommy<br><f
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2000
- Messages
- 1,136
I've never written a "trip report" before, but Magic has asked me for one twice, so I'll try.
We (we is me, DH, DD3, DS 13, and MIL and FIL) were vacationing at St. Pete Beach last week when DH surprised me with tickets to WDW. We had wanted to go, but had decided, or so I thought, to forego it this time to save money, and just enjoy hanging out in the sun at the beach. I should have known that neither DH or my FIL could stand to be that close to Disney and not go, LOL. So we checked out of our beach resort very early Thursday morning, the 12th, drove across I-4 to WDW, and were checked in to the Wilderness Lodge by 7:30 a.m. When we came through the front gate and the security guard said, "Welcome Home," I lost it - started tearing up. We were told upon checking in that the rooms they had planned to put us in were an upgrade, but that they weren't ready yet - no kidding! We were there at 7:30 a.m., and didn't expect the rooms to be ready. They said we could wait for the rooms they planned to give us - the upgraded ones, or we could take the standard view ones we ordered right now. No thanks, we'll wait for the nicer ones! Courtyard view!
So we were off to the MK, it was early entry day. Got there by boat just a few minutes before the park opened. Ran to ride Buzz first, then Pooh, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, split up so some of us could fulfill our FastPasses at Space Mtn. I was among those who didn't ride SM, since DD3 was taking a snooze in the stroller. I experienced a Dole Whip Float for the first time!!!! OMG, YUM! Now I understand what all the commotion is about!
Met up back at Caseys to share a hot dog since we had PS's for Liberty Tree at 4:20. Didn't want to eat too much lunch to spoil our appetites! Cruised through the entire Emporium and all the shops on that side of main street, then off to POC, Splash Mtn - my DD3's FIRST TIME!, watched the 3:00 parade, then rode BTMRR - DD3's FIRST TIME! Height requirement for those two rides is 40", and she is a very tall 41.5 inches for a 3 year old! She loved both of those rides, I was very proud of her.
Time now for our meal at LTT.....this is something we ALWAYS do on our first day at WDW, have dinner at LTT. Scrumptious, as always. The menu was the same as always, great comfort food. Starts off with a great salad with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing and bread with honey butter. Then they bring a platter of turkey, ham, and roast beef, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and snow peas. Eat until you are stuffed. Pass the plates, lather, rinse, repeat. LOL Dessert was apple cobbler, ala mode. SO glad I starved myself all day for this.
Oh, and also in keeping with tradition, it poured down rain while we were in LTT. Note - if you have a stroller, purchase one of those new clear-colored ponchos to put over the stroller if it rains. The child can see through it if it's clear, and you can cover the stroller if it rains while you're in a restaurant. We had one, but it was sunny when we went in, so we didn't cover it. MISTAKE! LOL
After eating, we cruised through the Christmas shoppe and the Americana shop, my FIL realized he'd left his digicam at LTT and ran back for it. By this time, I realized I was never going to make it till 10:30 if I didn't get some rest, so I said the baby DD3 and I were going back to the room to relax for a bit, and then come back for the fireworks later. Everyone decided to come with us.
We got into our 2nd floor, courtyard view rooms, and everything was perfect just as we'd requested. One room with bunk beds for us, connected to a room with queen beds for my inlaws. I wanted to rest, but with everyone there it was pretty much impossible........but very nice to be 'home'.
When we went back to the park, we decided to ride rides instead of watching Spectromagic. So we rode Buzz again, and since Astro Orbiter was 40" height limit too, and DD could ride it, I decided to take her on it - plus the fact that I'd never ridden it either, and had always wanted to. The wait for that ride is AWFUL - moves so slowly. We had a 45 min wait at 8:30 at night for that ride. But it was worth it, b/c DD LOVED it. Made me a little woozy......I thought it would be similar to Dumbo, but it goes around and around a WEEEEEE bit faster than Dumbo does, LOL.
By the time we got off that ride, it was time to get ready for Wishes. So glad we opted to see Wishes that night, b/c it turned out to be our only night at the parks. We only had 2-day Park Hopper passes, and the next day was Hurricane Charley Day when the parks all closed at 1:00. Wishes was amazing, I took many pictures, and got a pic of Tinkerbell, too. It wasn't my first time to see Wishes, but it always feels like the first time, and brings tears to my eyes.
The next day, we got word by phone message that all the parks were opening at 8:00 a.m., and would be closing at 1:00 except for AK which wasn't going to open at all. So we quickly grabbed some muffins from Roaring Fork and headed over to Epcot so DD could ride Figment. We got there pretty shortly after 8:00 and the park was empty! We were the only ones on Figment, and then went to the Living Seas. After enjoying just those two attractions, we decided to hoof it on over to MGM to try to ride RNR and TOT, and MAYBE keep our PS's at 50's Prime Time Cafe since we'd never eaten there before. So we cruise through the World Showcase and catch the boat at the other end of the park.
30 minutes later, we arrive at MGM. DS took off on his own to try to ride RNR while the rest of us kept our 11:05 seating at 50's PT. Unfortunately, the wait was too long and he couldn't ride b4 time to meet us back at the restaurant.
50's Prime Time - FUN! and great food. Between all of us, we ordered the meat loaf, the fried chicken, and the pot roast. I had the pot roast, and it was AWESOME, VERY GOOD. DH and FIL ordered the drinks with the glowing ice cubes in them, and then DD had to have one, too. $5.99 for a cherry-flavored sprite with one glowing ice cube in it, but you get to keep both the ice cube and the sippy cup it comes in at least. Our waiter's name was Mickey, and he reprimanded us several times for having our elbows on the table. If you like Whispering Canyon, you'd love 50's PTCafe. One lady at a nearby table had to go stand in the corner for having a potty mouth, and everyone in the room had to reprimand her, LOL. Poor lady.
Ok, done eating. It's after 12:00 now, and the park closes at 1:00. Just enough time to ride TOT. DH finds out that the height requirement on TOT is ALSO 40". Yes, we took DD3 on TOT. She didn't like it,
. Too much for her, she said it went too fast.
When we arrived back at WL, the first thing we saw when getting off the bus were all the hanging light fixtures tied up, and the benches at the bus stop stacked up and roped down in preparation for the hurricane. Kind of shocked us into reality that a serious storm was headed our way. We spent the majority of the afternoon hunkered in our rooms, watching the weather reports on TV, as the storm grew closer.
That's about it, I did post some during the storm here on the DISboard, on the hurricane update thread.
Hope this was okay for a trip report!
We (we is me, DH, DD3, DS 13, and MIL and FIL) were vacationing at St. Pete Beach last week when DH surprised me with tickets to WDW. We had wanted to go, but had decided, or so I thought, to forego it this time to save money, and just enjoy hanging out in the sun at the beach. I should have known that neither DH or my FIL could stand to be that close to Disney and not go, LOL. So we checked out of our beach resort very early Thursday morning, the 12th, drove across I-4 to WDW, and were checked in to the Wilderness Lodge by 7:30 a.m. When we came through the front gate and the security guard said, "Welcome Home," I lost it - started tearing up. We were told upon checking in that the rooms they had planned to put us in were an upgrade, but that they weren't ready yet - no kidding! We were there at 7:30 a.m., and didn't expect the rooms to be ready. They said we could wait for the rooms they planned to give us - the upgraded ones, or we could take the standard view ones we ordered right now. No thanks, we'll wait for the nicer ones! Courtyard view!
So we were off to the MK, it was early entry day. Got there by boat just a few minutes before the park opened. Ran to ride Buzz first, then Pooh, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, split up so some of us could fulfill our FastPasses at Space Mtn. I was among those who didn't ride SM, since DD3 was taking a snooze in the stroller. I experienced a Dole Whip Float for the first time!!!! OMG, YUM! Now I understand what all the commotion is about!
Met up back at Caseys to share a hot dog since we had PS's for Liberty Tree at 4:20. Didn't want to eat too much lunch to spoil our appetites! Cruised through the entire Emporium and all the shops on that side of main street, then off to POC, Splash Mtn - my DD3's FIRST TIME!, watched the 3:00 parade, then rode BTMRR - DD3's FIRST TIME! Height requirement for those two rides is 40", and she is a very tall 41.5 inches for a 3 year old! She loved both of those rides, I was very proud of her.
Time now for our meal at LTT.....this is something we ALWAYS do on our first day at WDW, have dinner at LTT. Scrumptious, as always. The menu was the same as always, great comfort food. Starts off with a great salad with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing and bread with honey butter. Then they bring a platter of turkey, ham, and roast beef, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and snow peas. Eat until you are stuffed. Pass the plates, lather, rinse, repeat. LOL Dessert was apple cobbler, ala mode. SO glad I starved myself all day for this.
Oh, and also in keeping with tradition, it poured down rain while we were in LTT. Note - if you have a stroller, purchase one of those new clear-colored ponchos to put over the stroller if it rains. The child can see through it if it's clear, and you can cover the stroller if it rains while you're in a restaurant. We had one, but it was sunny when we went in, so we didn't cover it. MISTAKE! LOL
After eating, we cruised through the Christmas shoppe and the Americana shop, my FIL realized he'd left his digicam at LTT and ran back for it. By this time, I realized I was never going to make it till 10:30 if I didn't get some rest, so I said the baby DD3 and I were going back to the room to relax for a bit, and then come back for the fireworks later. Everyone decided to come with us.
We got into our 2nd floor, courtyard view rooms, and everything was perfect just as we'd requested. One room with bunk beds for us, connected to a room with queen beds for my inlaws. I wanted to rest, but with everyone there it was pretty much impossible........but very nice to be 'home'.
When we went back to the park, we decided to ride rides instead of watching Spectromagic. So we rode Buzz again, and since Astro Orbiter was 40" height limit too, and DD could ride it, I decided to take her on it - plus the fact that I'd never ridden it either, and had always wanted to. The wait for that ride is AWFUL - moves so slowly. We had a 45 min wait at 8:30 at night for that ride. But it was worth it, b/c DD LOVED it. Made me a little woozy......I thought it would be similar to Dumbo, but it goes around and around a WEEEEEE bit faster than Dumbo does, LOL.
By the time we got off that ride, it was time to get ready for Wishes. So glad we opted to see Wishes that night, b/c it turned out to be our only night at the parks. We only had 2-day Park Hopper passes, and the next day was Hurricane Charley Day when the parks all closed at 1:00. Wishes was amazing, I took many pictures, and got a pic of Tinkerbell, too. It wasn't my first time to see Wishes, but it always feels like the first time, and brings tears to my eyes.
The next day, we got word by phone message that all the parks were opening at 8:00 a.m., and would be closing at 1:00 except for AK which wasn't going to open at all. So we quickly grabbed some muffins from Roaring Fork and headed over to Epcot so DD could ride Figment. We got there pretty shortly after 8:00 and the park was empty! We were the only ones on Figment, and then went to the Living Seas. After enjoying just those two attractions, we decided to hoof it on over to MGM to try to ride RNR and TOT, and MAYBE keep our PS's at 50's Prime Time Cafe since we'd never eaten there before. So we cruise through the World Showcase and catch the boat at the other end of the park.
30 minutes later, we arrive at MGM. DS took off on his own to try to ride RNR while the rest of us kept our 11:05 seating at 50's PT. Unfortunately, the wait was too long and he couldn't ride b4 time to meet us back at the restaurant.
50's Prime Time - FUN! and great food. Between all of us, we ordered the meat loaf, the fried chicken, and the pot roast. I had the pot roast, and it was AWESOME, VERY GOOD. DH and FIL ordered the drinks with the glowing ice cubes in them, and then DD had to have one, too. $5.99 for a cherry-flavored sprite with one glowing ice cube in it, but you get to keep both the ice cube and the sippy cup it comes in at least. Our waiter's name was Mickey, and he reprimanded us several times for having our elbows on the table. If you like Whispering Canyon, you'd love 50's PTCafe. One lady at a nearby table had to go stand in the corner for having a potty mouth, and everyone in the room had to reprimand her, LOL. Poor lady.
Ok, done eating. It's after 12:00 now, and the park closes at 1:00. Just enough time to ride TOT. DH finds out that the height requirement on TOT is ALSO 40". Yes, we took DD3 on TOT. She didn't like it,
. Too much for her, she said it went too fast. When we arrived back at WL, the first thing we saw when getting off the bus were all the hanging light fixtures tied up, and the benches at the bus stop stacked up and roped down in preparation for the hurricane. Kind of shocked us into reality that a serious storm was headed our way. We spent the majority of the afternoon hunkered in our rooms, watching the weather reports on TV, as the storm grew closer.
That's about it, I did post some during the storm here on the DISboard, on the hurricane update thread.
Hope this was okay for a trip report!
POC Cool...Thanks for posting.
