Our two week land and sea adventure! W/ LOTS OF PICS!!!(UPDATED 6/17 pg.16 post 227)

[Girldreamer02]

For anybody who didn't read my pre trippie I'll give a short little introduction to dh and myself and a little about how this trip came to be. Unbeknownst to me dh had planned a week in disney for december all the way back in june. Well december came around and we couldn't get off work so the trip had to be canceled. We were devastated. When we found out there was going to be time off at the end of january/first part of feb dh told me that we were going to be taking a two week vacation to make up for having to cancel in december. About this time the 4/3 deal came out and we booked our trip! Seven days in disney world and then a seven day disney cruise. (if you want the whole story see my siggy for the pre trippie link.) Now a bit about us.

We got married July 19th 2008 in Ohio. We live in Va currently and travel for work. We have lived in WI, northern va and now kind of the middle of Va. We'll be moving again probably sometime this summer, but we're not sure where to. We have a kitty we adopted and I named her after one of Cinderella's mice because that is my fave disney princess. Her name is Perla and she is about 9 months old. We also have a 2 year old wiener dog named Zoey that lives with my parents because she is bff's with their choc lab Charlie and we can't bare to separate them. They get depressed when they have to spend any time apart from each other. Hopefully some day we'll be able to break up the pair as I want my puppy back!

Me: I'm 25 years old and I went to disney once as a child with my parents and sister, but it was amazing and we had a wonderful time! At this time there was no AK. Only the other three parks. So when dh and I went for the first time in dec of 06' I had a blast exploring AK. As I said Cinderella is my favorite, but I have many characters that I love! Don't we all? This is the third trip dh and I have taken together, but our first trip to the world as mr. and mrs.

Dh: He is 27 and he had been to disney a few times as a kid and had actually been to AK one of those times. I don't really think he has a favorite character, but he always stands in line for meet and greets with me. He'd rather take pictures of me meeting them than actually be in the picture, but if there is a photopass person he'll get in the pic. He got me started on pin trading during our 06' trip and I think he is actually the bigger trader now. It has come to be a huge thing in our household and when we go down to disney. Many of pins have come from ebay or disney shopping. He loves to suprise me and is very good at it! He proposed to me at CRT dec 16th 2006.

Now on with our trippie! We live in Lynchburg, Va and the richmond airport was the closest to us so we decided to make the two and a half hour drive the day before our flight and stay in a hotel near the airport so that we wouldn't have to worry about traffic or anything friday morning. Also they offered a park and ride deal, which was better than us paying for parking at the airport for two weeks. We got a shuttle to the airport on friday morning. It was about five minutes away so we were really close and didn't have to rush or worry about being late or anything like that. Up next: Our travel day and how I sent up red flags with security.

 

[Girldreamer02]

Travel Day:
Richmond International Airport from our balcony at the hotel:

Our flight was suppose to be out of Richmond international airport at noon, but it got delayed by about 30-40 minutes. (They told us this when we were checking our bags.) Normally this wouldn’t be a biggie, but we had a connecting flight in Atlanta that we needed to catch. They have flights out of Atlanta to Orlando about every hour the lady told us, but we wanted to be on the flight we had because we just wanted to get there!

My tickets were in my maiden name (because we had vouchers that were in my maiden name), which apparently set off red flags as far as security is concerned so I had to go through special security, but the lady was very nice and friendly and made the process a breeze. I actually got through faster than DH. We had a bagel for breakfast and waited at our gate.

The flight was uneventful and we got to Atlanta with very little time to spare and our gate was all the way across the airport. If anyone knows the Atlanta airport then you know it is by no means small. So we were practically running to make our connecting flight. We got there when they were making the last call for boarding and got on the plane just in the nick of time.

We had first class on both flights(dh supirsed me with this…all along he had been telling me we were going to be sitting in coach unless we could upgrade at the last minute, which I didn’t really care. I just know he is more comfortable in first class because there is more room.) We flew delta, which we never had before, but since they are merging with northwest that’s the flight we got booked on. (he actually booked them on northwests site, but they put us on the delta planes.) Which is fine by me b/c on our second flight they had the tvs in front of everyones seats to watch, which I thought was really cool because I had never been on a plane that had little tvs for everybody to watch.

This flight to was uneventful and in no time we were at Orlando international riding the wanna be monorail to the other side of the terminal to check in with magical express. There was no line for magical express check in or for our bus. We got on the bus and sat for a while since we were the only two on it. Eventually we had a full bus and were on our way. First stop was Pop Century. Nobody was going to CSR so we got to skip straight to AKL!!!!

We got our $200 gift card when we checked in as part of the 4/3 deal they’re running right now. Hurray for free souvie money! We went to our room and dropped our stuff off and chilled a bit. I called my parents(separately b/c my mom was home, but my dad was at work.) and talked to them a bit and then we decided we were going to get some dinner at DTD.

We were in room:

This was waiting for us when we got to our room:

When we got there we stopped at the design a tee shop first. It was super crowded!!! I know the shop is pretty new so I kind of figured that it would be crazy busy. We stood in line forever waiting to give the cashier our tickets and to pay. Like I said though this was later at night when people were probably on their way out and stopping to pick up their shirts or doing it on their way out.

We each made a shirt that said our first trip as mr and mrs and then I made a longsleeve tee that says why yes I’m a princess. Then at the bottom where you can add your own font I put and I married my prince.

Afterwards we ate dinner at earl of sandwich. This place is so delicious! If you haven’t ate here you should! I had the Italian with no tomatoes and dh had the hawaiian bbq. Afterwards we went to look at the pin store and talked to what dh calls the “crazy people” outside. Now if you are a big trader that trades out there…it is not meant to offend…those people are just most times very hardcore and passionate about their collection and we have met a few that were even a little crazy. Hence the name.

We did trade with a few of them. They were all very nice! The one girl my age had a pin that I wanted, but she didn’t want to give it up. I understand though because there are pins I have that I wouldn’t trade for anything! We went in the Winnie the pooh store and in world of Disney and then were on our way out to catch the bus and go back to AKL since we had a early morning at MK. When we got back to the resort magical express had delivered our bags. I love them…they make the process of traveling so much easier!

Up next: Our first day in the parks...Breakfast with Pooh and friends!

 

[Girldreamer02]

We had the savannah view at AKL with a queen bed and a set of bunk beds because that is all they had, but it actually gave us a little more floor space than having two queens would and also gave us a place to sit our suitcases instead of having to pull them out of the closet every single day to get clothes and what not. I actually even used the drawers and put some things in there so I'd have to access my suitcase less.

 

[scottny]

you started.

can't wait for more.

I check in every few days so I will be here. Just not as often as used to be.

 

[Girldreamer02]

you started.

can't wait for more.

I check in every few days so I will be here. Just not as often as used to be.

Thats okay...tomorrow there won't be any posting unless I do it before we leave for ohio because its a ten hour drive and we're heading home for a few weeks, but i'll update from home b/c I always take my macbook with me! Maybe some more a little later on. I need to pack hehe.

 

[over]

wow that trip sounds amazing! i cant wait to hear more!

 

[Girldreamer02]

wow that trip sounds amazing! i cant wait to hear more!

I can't wait to share more, but first I must pack for our trip back to ohio!

 

[Disneyfan71]

YAY you started I'm glad to see your TR now!! Sorry your flight was delayed but that you got to Orlando safely. MCO is probably one of my most favorite airports in the country--I just love the hotel in the middle..it's soooo cool. And the wannabe monorail ride is fun too

 

[Girldreamer02]

YAY you started I'm glad to see your TR now!! Sorry your flight was delayed but that you got to Orlando safely. MCO is probably one of my most favorite airports in the country--I just love the hotel in the middle..it's soooo cool. And the wannabe monorail ride is fun too

Yep I'm going to update in a bit here...probably after I watch lost...we are all packed now. Yay! Going back to ohio tomorrow to visit friends and family b/c we still have some time before we have to work again. MCO is really nice especially since they finally have it refurbed. We stayed in that hotel on the way home...more about that at the end.

 

[disneymom1980]

Hey there...........just wanted to let you know that I'm here . Girl scout cookies came in today, so now it may be the weekend before I get mine started, but I promise it will be soon. Can't wait to read more. I love the view from your hotel room. It's so pretty .

 

[Lynn5700]

Hi!!! Can't wait to hear more!!! YAY for staying at AKL!!!!!

 

[Girldreamer02]

Hey there...........just wanted to let you know that I'm here . Girl scout cookies came in today, so now it may be the weekend before I get mine started, but I promise it will be soon. Can't wait to read more. I love the view from your hotel room. It's so pretty .

Man you were selling girl scout cookies and didn't tell me? I miss them so bad...I would of bought some and even paid for shipping. Thank you...it was a rather lovely view! I'm going to post another update now.

 

[Girldreamer02]

Day One: Magic Kingdom (Monday Jan. 24th)
Adr: Crystal Palace~ 9:15

Weather: High 73/ Low 51. Light breeze and mostly sunny.

Magic Kingdom opened at nine today and we just missed rope drop by seven minutes. We walked down main street usa being greeted by all the cm’s with the mickey hands waving to us. One lady was even holding a stitch plush making him wave. So cute! We bought a autograph book and set off for Crystal Palace. Our adr was for 9:15. We checked in and took a few pics while we waited. It was taking a little longer than usual, which I thought was kind of odd and just about the time I was thinking this the doors open and here comes a sea of literally 250 yellow shirts flowing out at us. Two minutes later our buzzer went off. The guy told us it was 250 brazilians that were all part of a tour group. The place was pretty much empty when we walked in since they were occupying most of it. Also there were two ladies from the group that stayed behind with a manager and they were sitting at table by us counting out all the money and what not. It was an insane amount of cash.

We had a lovely breakfast with pooh and friends and our server was very nice and kept the glasses full. I don’t recall his name, but he was very nice! Tigger was trying to get rid of his napkin so he tied it to the poll next to us. It was kind of funny that he could do that with those paws and all. Matt made a comment that he smelled something and that it wasn’t him. All of a sudden the little boy next to us got down and walked by me and I smelled it too! I’m guessing he left his father a present in his pants. For some reason dh and I couldn’t stop laughing. It was smelling up the place, but luckily we were leaving.

On our way out we took a few pics and then made our way over to Fantasy land.

I was bored so I took a pic of dh coming out of the bathroom lol

Our first ride was the same as it was last trip (not sure why…think it just happened that way.) We rode IASW and it was a walk on. Then we got fp for Peter Pan and went to ride Winnie the pooh. We decided to by pass snow white at this point in time…we like it, but thought our time was better spent on Winnie the pooh, which I love and peter pan, which we both love! Pooh was about 15-20 minutes and after we got off that we went back to use our fp’s for peter pan.

After we got off Peter Pan we were asked to do a survey. Once we were done with Fanatsy Land and got a tip from a cm about the fairy Godmother (he saw my autograph book and said are you getting lots of autographs today? I said yes we are and then he let me know the fairy Godmother would be hanging out on the side of the castle today.) So we went to check the side of the castle…we even hung out a little on a bench, but no fairy God mother!

After the disappointment of not finding the fairy godmother I needed to be cheered up so we went to the pin trading store in Liberty Square. The cms here were very friendly and chatty and we found some good pins on their lanyards. This was by far the best place we pin traded all day. After some wonderful pin trading we headed to POTC. First, we had to stop and see Mr. Smee and Captain hook because we had never met them before. Unfortunately, they had no photo pass guy with them, but the lovely cm offered to take a pic of us with them so it worked out nice.

don't mind my three layers of clothes...they were all messed up too...i made sure to try and fix this in other pictures through out the trip.

The wait for POTC said it was 20 minutes, but it wasn’t we went through the line quickly. This was the same way with Winnie the pooh. I say we waited ten minutes or so. We got stuck on pirates. It was right before the area where everything is on fire. We got stuck by the pirate trying to give the cat rum. So for about 15-20 minutes we got to listen to the pirate try to give the kitty rum. The boats actually started to go backwards a bit so we ended up hitting the boat behind us.

When we got off finally we got fast passes for whatever ride we wanted to use them on. We did the photo pass pics right outside POTC. Dh just ordered the cd yesterday so once it gets here I’ll be sure to post all the pics! The photopass guy we had for the pics was named Rafel and he was awesome! Very into his job and very nice as well! He took our picture later in front of the castle and remembered us and gave us both high fives. He told us he saw the pics from earlier and they turned out awesome. Although I’m sure he didn’t really see them besides on the back of his camera if he even did look there.

Up next: The second part of our day and almost getting trampled at Spectro?

 

[Girldreamer02]

Also I just wanted to say that we are driving back to ohio tomorrow to visit friends and family so depending on what time we get to ohio there might or might not be an update tomorrow. For sure friday though! I hope everyone is enjoying the trippie thus far! I have a bunch of more pictures to share, some video and also there will be a surprise at the end that I am going to announce.

 

[Disneyfan71]

That's not fair..we have to wait It's ok..I'm glad you had a wonderful time and be safe driving to Ohio!! I love your pictures by the way--still a little bitter that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is gone but what can you do. I hope we get to meet Captain Hook and Smee

 

[Girldreamer02]

That's not fair..we have to wait It's ok..I'm glad you had a wonderful time and be safe driving to Ohio!! I love your pictures by the way--still a little bitter that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is gone but what can you do. I hope we get to meet Captain Hook and Smee

I had not seen on the winnie the pooh ride before where toad handed the deed to owl, but I just happened to look over and see it at the right time on this trip. Kind of cool. I had never been on mr. toads wild ride...only heard about it. Dh is reading over my shoulder and was like oh you saw it? Oppsie...guess I should of pointed it out! Next time! Thank you! Dh took a lot of them, but I took some too...we had over 2000 pics from the whole vacation and thats not with photopass added in. Look for them across from POTC thats where they were hanging out!

 

[Disneyfan71]

I had not seen on the winnie the pooh ride before where toad handed the deed to owl, but I just happened to look over and see it at the right time on this trip. Kind of cool. I had never been on mr. toads wild ride...only heard about it. Dh is reading over my shoulder and was like oh you saw it? Oppsie...guess I should of pointed it out! Next time! Thank you! Dh took a lot of them, but I took some too...we had over 2000 pics from the whole vacation and thats not with photopass added in. Look for them across from POTC thats where they were hanging out!

Thanks for the heads up And the next time we ride Pooh's adventures I'll look for it. Of course I have to ride everything at least once at MK Even Dumbo's ride

 

[scottny]

great update and pics.

I CP

 

[Girldreamer02]

great update and pics.

I CP

Thanks for following along and thanks! I didn't get to post one tonight because we went to visit our friends baby they just adopted when we got into town. I got to hold her. So cute! I'll make up for it tomorrow though...i'll post a couple updates with some pics. I heart CP too! Every time on the first day we MUST have breakfast there!

 

[Girldreamer02]

After saving dh from captain hook (you’ll see in the pics.) we headed over to the jungle cruise and used our fast passes since we didn’t really think we needed them for anything else and we didn’t want to wait in the long line. I didn’t care for our skipper, but dh liked him. His mic kept cutting on and off so I couldn’t hear him and his jokes weren’t delivered very well. My favorite part was when he told everybody to get down and the whole boat got down including dh and I. I think there were a lot of first timers on there. From the Jungle Cruise we headed to HM.

The cm told a man that the wait was about 35-40 minutes from that point, but once again we only waited about 10-15 minutes and the line moved very quickly. We were quickly finding that the end of January was a nice time to come as far as wait times are concerned. Also the crowds weren’t to horrible either. Aside from all the brazilin tour groups.

Once we got in the room at HM there was a girl about my age that quoted every single word and I don’t mind the people that all quote your ghost host because the whole room did that, but this girl quoted every single word loudly and also started cackling from the room all the way to the buggies and then through out the whole ride. I understand that she loves the ride, but it was rather annoying and took away from the attraction. Besides her cackle sounded more like the wicked witch from the wizard of oz than a ghost (not that I’ve heard any ghosts cackle, but you get the point.) so she was way off. Once we were done with our visit to HM we decided to head over to Tomorrowland. Stopping to take a few photo pass pics along the way.

Taking some pics on our way over to TomorrowLand.

Taken from the rose garden...we actually visited it for the first time this trip.

What will you celebrate?

Fireworks from the show in front of the castle.

We decided it was time to relax since we had been standing in lines all morning. We grabbed a drink and got on the TTA and took a little trip around tomorrowland. I wasn’t feeling well when we got off so we took a bathroom break and then chilled on the bench and people watched. We decided we were pretty hungry so we stopped in at Comic Rays and I wanted to get a cheeseburger or pulled pork, but I got the grilled chicken because I knew it would be nicer to my stomach since it was pretty upset. (I have a sensitive stomach.)

We headed back into tomorrowland after lunch to help buzz defeat zurg on buzz lightyear space ranger spin. Of course dh beat me (he always does!) And then what would a trip to tomorrowland be without a spin on the Carousel of Progress? I know this thing is so old and a after thought to a lot of people, but for some reason I love it! We did it three times or so last trip, but only managed to get on once this trip.

I forgot to mention that we saw the step sisters and step mother from Cinderella by the castle after lunch, but they were leaving so we didn’t get to do the meet and greet with them. I was sad as they tend to be very funny to talk with. Dh reminded me that it was only the first day and that hopefully we would come across them again! We did a first on this trip that we’ve never done before. After we had our pic taken by the rose garden we actually walked around the rose garden and took some pics ourselves. We also got to see the wishing well. I kept seeing it on peoples trip reports so I wanted to see it for myself and I finally got to! I love that it has the Cinderella characters on the bottom of it. So cute!

Since we were near the castle we decided to stalk the other side of it to see if we could spot the fairy god mother, but once again no dice! I was getting really sad b/c she is hard to find and I had never met her so I was really looking forward to it! By this time it was starting to get later in the evening so we grabbed a spot on main street u.s.a. for the spectromagic parade. We sat up front right by the hub, but actually on main street.

It was a great spot for pictures. When we sat down there weren’t a lot of people around us, but then we saw a girl from a brazilin tour group holding the meeting flag and before we knew it we were surrounded by about 30-40 people. They were mostly behind us, but they didn’t speak english so we got to hear spanish the whole time and I don’t speak spanish so I was a bit annoyed just b/c if they at least spoke snglish then I could be nosey and know what they were saying.

I put my head on my knees and took a little cat nap. I think dh accidentally bumped me and that’s why I woke up otherwise I would of slept a bit longer. I was pretty tired from our long wonderful first day and it wasn’t quite over yet! Spectromagic was awesome and we got some great pics!

Then we went to the middle of mainstreet u.s.a. to view wishes…it wasn’t to crowded around us and afterwards we went to cosmic rays because I was hungry again. I had a burger, which I would come to regret later. To get there we walked past the plaza restaurant and through the area where the noodle station is, which was closed and I think is closed everytime we visit wdw. Has anybody ever seen this place open?

On the way out we walked through the shops. I got a pair of gloves because it was pretty chilly. Also I started to hear the goodnight kiss and I pulled dh out of the store…I was like it’s the goodnight kiss! He was looking at me like I was insane, but I had seen it on some other tr’s and I wanted to see it even though it wasn’t a big deal. We went back to the resort and my stomach was super mad at me for eating that burger. We looked outside at the animals (there weren’t many) and then we got ready for bed since we wanted to get to Epcot early the next day!

Up next: Some more spectro pics and some bad news from home.