Pixie Dust Overload - the day I won One More Disney Day

[lvjen777]

I've just returned from my Disney trip and have caught up with your TR on your first two days! Looking forward to reading the rest!

welcome back home! I hope your trip was wonderful !

Were the crowds really great last week??

 

[Wishes2you]

I want to start with Congrats on winning your trip! I just found your TR a couple hours ago and like a good book couldn't put it down. Well okay I had to so I could make dinner. My family ...Myself, my dear husband, dear daughter (20) and her dear boyfriend (21) were there Jan. 7-14, 2013 at CBR. Dh and I took a trip over to the Boardwalk to see everything there and it was absolutely beautiful. How many photos did you actually end up taking? I also love photography. I took 1500 photos on our trip and DD took more than me. My DD and I also scrapbook. Looking forward to the rest of your trip report. Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

[lvjen777]

I want to start with Congrats on winning your trip! I just found your TR a couple hours ago and like a good book couldn't put it down. Well okay I had to so I could make dinner. My family ...Myself, my dear husband, dear daughter (20) and her dear boyfriend (21) were there Jan. 7-14, 2013 at CBR. Dh and I took a trip over to the Boardwalk to see everything there and it was absolutely beautiful. How many photos did you actually end up taking? I also love photography. I took 1500 photos on our trip and DD took more than me. My DD and I also scrapbook. Looking forward to the rest of your trip report. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Thanks for reading along!! It sounds like we sure have a lot in common!! I took just over 2000 photos...

 

[lvjen777]

So today we were already going to be checking out of the Yacht Club and moving over to the Poly.

While I'm so excited to stay at the Poly, I've sure enjoyed this room at the Yacht Club. We packed up our stuff and gave our bags to Bell Services to switch over to the Poly. We'd never done a split-stay before, but it was super easy. They marked all the bags with our new hotel's info while we were standing there and then off we were. No worries. All the CMs we dealt with at the YC really stood out to me as professional and "on it".


Goodbye Yacht Club!


Here's our little Day Three Video.


We head to the dock to ride the boat to Hollywood Studios bright & early.

It's looking a little stormy.....


We are on the boat and it starts raining !! Wouldn't you know it.. Our 20% chance of rain today just turned into 100% chance! AND our umbrellas and ponchos are in our luggage, which are somewhere on their way to the Poly, so we won't be seeing them until after 3pm.. Hope the rain doesn't last long!!

Luckily it's just sprinkling. We get in the park right at opening and got on Toy Story right away. It was great, as always. As we were walking towards Tower of Terror, a couple of people who were walking past us offered us three fast passes for Rock & Roller Coaster , score! That was great, since the wait time for that ride was already 30min +. What luck! Speaking of luck, the rain looks like it's finally letting up & going away.. yay!


I love the inside of ToT.

This is the one ride out of all of WDW that still freaks me out a little.. the free fall is just so crazy! As you can see in the photo below, I think I spend most of the ride with my eyes closed! Ha Ha.

Then, on to RnR Coaster..

(sidenote - We had pre-purchased the PhotoPass+.. I'll write more about it later..)

So, at this point I'm feeling pretty good about surviving the two craziest rides at WDW & having them under my belt so early in the trip. On to calmer activities now... we watched the American Idol show again. That host, Cameron, was just TOO hilarious. The boys kept quoting some of his funny lines all day.

Afterwards we did the Animation Academy (one of my favorites). Our class drew Jiminy Cricket.

At 3pm, we could check into our room over at the Polynesian, so we took the Monorail over there. I was REALLY excited.

I was so happy to be walking through the Poly grounds again.. So green and lush and gorgeous.

It was just as beautiful as I remembered when we explored it on our 2011 trip. So many pretty plants and flowers everwhere. I am a plant-lover.. and I quickly noticed two of the plants that were everywhere on the grounds were the same two favorites of mine that I have growing at home!! Coincidence? Yeah, I think not! Me and the Poly are obviously meant to be!!!

Look at the size of these hibiscus'. They were like 8ft. tall.

We go inside the lobby to get checked in..

The CM helping us told us we were getting a 2nd floor, no balcony room in the Aotearoa, which was all the way at the other side of the resort....

This was my dream resort and I was SOOOO super happy to be staying here, but I suddenly wished I didnt know that previous winners had gotten Tahiti theme park view, which was right up front on the beach& I was trying not to be disappointed, but I knew deep down inside my hopes had indeed already been set on an amazing room location like that...

I'm not the outspoken type, but DBF knew I was disappointed , and mentioned to our CM that I "had been REALLY hoping for Tahiti like other winners had gotten, but we were sure wherever this was would be nice too". Ha Ha. (Smooth, babe, thanks for trying!). She just smiled, nodded and didnt even look up from the computer. waah.


She then proceeded to ask me how Id be paying for the $1500+ that was due. Huh?! This is when our check-in turned into a mess. I told her about my prize and that my reservation should be have a zero balance. She shakes her head no, and I started to stress... I sure hope this all gets straightened out! I brought a bunch of our official prize paperwork just in case something weird happened, but of course it was in our luggage, wherever that was.

I noticed that our CM's nametag noted that she was "Earning her Ears" , so while she was really nice, she seemed to be pretty new with her computer.. and perhaps her whole job... LOL. Maybe that was what the problem was.. After she went to get a manager, and them making a few phonecalls together, she told me they think they got the charges fixed. We were standing up there for a loooong time during this whole process.. However, THEN the confusion started between the two of them about our room & whether it was the view we were supposed to have. (According to our paperwork, our prize was supposed to be at least Lagoon view).



Insert major Pixie Dust here.. She said, This is such a mess, let me make another phonecall -- would you like to trade your room if I could get an opening in Tahiti?



UM, YES!!



She covered the phone receiver, and asked us, We actually DO have an opening in Tahiti. It's a first floor room, do you really want to trade for sure?

Is she really really asking me this?


UM, Let me think.. YES YES YES!!!!!


While we waited for her to finish the arrangements, I quickly jumped on Tikiman's (the Poly expert) website on my cell phone. (Hey, Im no dummy!) With all this confusion, I wanted to look up this second tentative room number to see if we were really getting what we (or she!) thought we were getting!

Everything was supposed to be handled at this point, so we went next door to the Bell desk to check on our luggage transfer from the YC. He said our bags were indeed there & he would deliver them to our room. He asked if we were heading there now, because if so, he could give us a ride since he was going there anyway! Okay! So we head out front & he seats us in a golf cart & goes to load up our luggage.. I am SO excited. Andy laughs at me, "what's so special about a golf cart?" I'm all like, "this is just SO cool!" So our driver asks us if we had ever stayed there before. We say no and he offers us to give us a tour of the whole place. Awesome! I figured with all the construction & the Hawaii building being out of commission, perhaps some of these CMs have some time on their hands since there are no CL guests to chauffer around? Whatever the reason, I thought this was the best thing EVER.

Our guide was really great, and he drove us all around, showing us the pools, the marina, the bus stop, and then finally to our longhouse.

He walked us to our room #1020, and opened up the door. I see a giant towel mickey!

I went right to the drapes..

I couldn't believe my eyes... my teary eyes. Disney, you're making me cry! This was AMAZING !!!

WOW!

The room felt so big & spacious.

Tyler's reaction: Theres so much room around the toilet! That's it? That's all you have to say about this room? The toilet?!?! (He was bugged by the bathroom door that just barely cleared the toilet at the YC).

I can't get enought of the view...

Looking up at our room from the beach..

I took like a zillion photos and walked around our patio area and the beach.

The boys were soon ready to head out & spend some more time at Epcot.. WHAT ?! Leave this hotel room?! I dont want to leave this place!!


Like EVER...

Im going to live here FOREVER !!

More Day Three.. to be continued...

 

[CopperWife]

Pixie dust galore!!!

Oh my gosh....that view is simply amazing!

 

[kimbo0569]

Really enjoying your TR so far! And I'm so envious of your stays at my two favorite resorts. I too love scrapbooking though I don't get to do it as often as i'd like. I too have a scrapbook devoted to just one DW vacation.
Congratulations on winning this trip and I can't wait to read more.

 

[lvjen777]

Really enjoying your TR so far! And I'm so envious of your stays at my two favorite resorts. I too love scrapbooking though I don't get to do it as often as i'd like. I too have a scrapbook devoted to just one DW vacation.
Congratulations on winning this trip and I can't wait to read more.

Thanks for reading along!! I'm glad you're enjoying my TR.

I'm glad you shared about your scrapbook - I'm off to go tell my family that see.. maybe I'm not so crazy after all !!

 

[JDUB]

Congrats on the winning trip!! Love the TR so far! It's nice to see your DS enjoying the trip. I hope my kids continue their love for WDW as they get older. I love all your pics....what DSLR camera are you using?
Glad you had a blast so far.

 

[arbolita]

welcome back home! I hope your trip was wonderful !

Were the crowds really great last week??

For the most part! There were a few times waits were ridiculous (40 minutes for Haunted Mansion??), but mostly waits were 20 minutes or less. There were more tour groups than I was expecting (and not just the Brazilians - seemed to be a lot of school groups too).

 

[ronnmel]

I agree, what a mess at check-in! So glad it had a happy ending though! Wow! Perfect location, perfect view, and such a big room!

 

[lvjen777]

Congrats on the winning trip!! Love the TR so far! It's nice to see your DS enjoying the trip. I hope my kids continue their love for WDW as they get older. I love all your pics....what DSLR camera are you using?
Glad you had a blast so far.

Thanks for reading along with my TR, glad you're enjoying it !

I have a Nikon D3100. I love it.

 

[gracer9977]

Wow, that room is GORGEOUS!!!! So glad that you were able to stay there and that you got the room you really wanted with that beautiful view!!!

I take tons of photos too. I would rather take 1000 pictures and not use 1/2 of them instead of taking just 300 really good ones and being home wishing I had taken pictures of this and that. I actually make lists of pictures I want to take before I even get there. Crazy I know!!

 

[kimbo0569]

Thanks for reading along!! I'm glad you're enjoying my TR.

I'm glad you shared about your scrapbook - I'm off to go tell my family that see.. maybe I'm not so crazy after all !!

Ha, My family (except for my kids, of course) often tell me there should be a Help group for me, regarding my love (or obsession as they see it) for Disney. Though my dh, as much as he protests, he supports it by everytime there is a holiday/birthday, I get a new Disney planning book.

 

[Wishes2you]

OMGosh you must have almost died when she said that amount for a bill when there shouldn't be any. Thankfully all was straightened out and you were pixie dusted for the stress. Room is gorgeous. Love your photos. I have two bulging scrapbooks for our trip 6 yrs ago. I didn't take nearly the photos I did this time. I am trying something different this time for an album though. Have no clue how to fit all the photos I want to use. Yes I am obsessed too! Looking forward to hearing more!

 

[chelle050608]

I have been lurking reading your TR but had to post that those views from your poly room are really gorgeous. Glad they got it figured out so that you got the view you wanted in the end.

 

[Izzieheartscindy]

I just found your trip report and am all caught up. It sounds amazing so far and I can't wait I hear the rest!! I'm also dying to stay at Poly. We were at Wilderness last year and were supposed to do Poly next year but decided to do a longer POR royal guest room stay this year instead since DS will still be free for flights and Disney. Poly will have to wait another 2 years so I'm loving reading about your trip!!

 

[natebenma]

That is a seriously sweet room!!!

Once again, loving your pictures. The one in the ToT hotel lobby is spectacular.

Congrats, again!!!

 

[Laracroft72]

How exciting! I love the Pixie Dust you got. I would have been in a panic at the check in desk myself. So glad that you got into such a beautiful room.

 

[Neverland Girl]

Yay, Poly pixie dust!!!

 

[lvjen777]

So.. the boys were indeed able to talk me into leaving my beloved Poly room.

We walked over to the Ticket & Transportation Center to catch the monorail to Epcot. (Loved the closeness of the Tahiti longhouse to the TTC!)

Here we are at Epcot !

We were really starting to enjoy having our Photopass+ , which I had pre-purchased before our trip. I don't know if it was because it was the one thing that I paid for out-of-pocket or what, but the boys were definitely more on-board with seeking out Photopass photographers on this trip. (yay!) We soon discovered that there is certainly a wide range of various personalities and creativity among photographers, so my advice is to not be afraid to seek out the fun ones!

We got one particular one who was quite hilarious (or perhaps un-hilarious, depending on your perspective).. We walked up to him and handed him our Photopass+ card. I say, "Hi there, Can we do some kind of fun photo?" His response (in kind of a deep mobster-type accent) was "What? Ya want a Tinkerbell or sumthin'? I'm probably the most uncreative person in this park." Really? Did he actually just say that out loud?! DBF piped up with something about the "happiest place on earth" and then DS started repeating that Tinkerbell line over and over the rest of the day. Ha ha. You sure do experience a lot of interesting people at WDW.

Speaking of "interesting people", what about the one crazy guy who boarded a completely full bus we were on. He (immediately upon boarding) started loudly badmouthing all the "so-called gentlemen" (his words!) on the bus who didn't immediately get up & offer him, his wife, and their 3 kids their seats.

OMG!

I saw tons of people (including us) give up their seats on busses or monorails to moms/babies/kids, but sometimes when it's a really packed bus, there's not much you can do, especially to find them 5 seats? If you're that hateful on Disney's "free" transportation system, I'd recommend renting a car! Okay, I'm off my soapbox now! How did I get on THAT subject - sorry!!! I just love Disney so much, I could never imagine being that psycho while on vacation!! PHEW!

Anyways, back to photo-taking, so here we are in front of Epcot & luckily we found a really fun photographer, so we ended up with quite a few cute photos .. Yay!!!

Inside Epcot, DS signed up for an Agent P mission, which he ended up really enjoying. If we had more time, he would've done it more than once.

He chose the United Kingdom pavilion for his mission.

The clues and surprises are really so clever!! This appears to be just an ordinary light......:

Nope, it's a clue !!

Disney is so cool.

After the mission, we only had time to explore a few countries (United Kingdom, Morocco, France and Japan), then it was time to return to the Poly for our dinner reservation at our all -time favorite resaurant, 'OHANA!

Goodbye Epcot, we'll be back !

Back at the Poly, we had time to watch the fireworks from our room before dinner...

what a view !!!

We were so excited to eat again at 'Ohana. Hands down, our favorite meal at WDW.

we were in full-tropical mode! : )

We were seated right by the fire-pit, which was nice for me because it was toasty warm over there & I'm always cold..

Our meal was soooo good. We loved everything.

DS for some reason is obsessed with the pot-stickers. He asked if we could have a few more & our waiter brought us seriously the HUGEST platter with WAY too many on it. DS's eyes about popped out of his head.. He was thrilled, ha ha!

We tried not to stuff ourselves too full, because we knew what was still to come.....

Normally we don't go ga-ga over desserts all that often, but this thing is absolutely AMAZING !!!!

As much as we love this restaurant, we know if we had one closer to home we'd be in big trouble !!!!

After we rolled ourselves out of there, we enjoyed a leisurely walk back to our room..

I wish I could capture the beauty of the Poly grounds at night on my camera, but I just couldn't pull it off.. I really loved walking down all the tiki torch-lined paths.. Heaven!!

DBF loves to give me a hard time about my Disney obsessions.. We are currently in the beginning stages of landscaping the backyard of our house, and as we were walking back to our longhouse, DBF asked me "So, if I can somehow figure out a way to transform our backyard into 'THIS' , does that mean I don't have to be drug all the way across the country to this place anymore?" He is so rotten!!! But hey, a Poly-themed backyard... um, yeah I can deal with that! All we need are some tiki-torches, some water and a........ volcano! --- How hard could that be!? LOL!!!! I think he better watch what he jokes about !!!

Anyways, we return to our room, and are happy to relax into bed. This has been such a great day!!