Seven Years and No Itch: Becky and Steve Return to the World! Lots of Pictures

[shelleyr25]

Great report..love the play by play with the pics!!

 

[roberrl187]

Great report.

My DH and I were married 8/14/99, honeymooned in WDW and are going back on Friday for our 7th anniversary. What a small world.

I was also glad to read about your baggallini. I bought one for this summer, and was wondering how it would be.

 

[soxnation]

great report we leave in 12 days! your report is getting me very excited!!

 

[LadyLuc361]

Love the report and love the Steelers shirt! I'm originally from Erie, so go Steelers!

 

[burly]

Loving the trip report. Looking forward to more. Congrats on the adoption thing.

 

[eeyore45]

Thank you so much for your TR!!

I have to admit I'm getting lots of valuable information, and insight with your TR!! We're going in Sept, for our 25th Wedding Anniversary, and I scheduled AP for our special night also! So, sincerely - THANK YOU!!

I love your "aside" the information is just what I was wondering about!! I also bought a bagallini, and I am about your size,, so not only was I wondering about that bag, I've also was debating on sleveless or tank top type shirts - so thank you for including the pictures - I'm going to go back to the mall today!!

CONGRATULATIONS on the adoption work - I'll keep you in our prayers, may your wait from now on be brief...

(and the amount of child trauma you witnessed - unbelievable... I will admit to 'almost' causing trauma to dd when she was 7, we had been on SM we were going to go on again (she wanted the pic!) she refused, and I didnt behave 'honorably' luckily dh put me in my place!! BUT I couldnt wrap my brain around riding a ride "alone' when I had a dh and a child!! GET OVER IT... oh yeah... *duh me moment*

 

[heaven2dc]

What a delightful reading! and am enjoying your pics - you are a beautiful couple and are glad you got to enjoy this trip before your adoption comes thru. Congratulations on the adoption and we will look forward to a future report with your new little one!

 

[tazz23]

another one loving your trip report! Cant wait to read more

 

[mikamah]

I'm enjoying your TR. I love all the pics. Thanks for sharing them with us all. Contratulations on your adoption, and I hope you are holding your precious little one real soon.

 

[Tanya90210]

wow... thank you for sharing... I can wait to read more when I get back

 

[BeckyEsq]

Thanks everyone for all the feedback, I really appreciate knowing that you are enjoying my report! More soon . . .

 

[BeckyEsq]

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Here's a picture from Monday night I forgot to post. It really shows how beautiful the detailing at the WL is.

Tuesday morning we were up early, around 6:30 am, since we planned to go to the Extra Magic Hours that morning at the Magic Kingdom. This is our favorite park so we were really looking forward to it -- like many of you, to me, the MK is Disney! Steve went to fill our mugs and found out the first bus would be at 7:15. I told him we have to make that bus if we want to be there when the park opens! We ended up running to the bus stop and we were happy to see there were other people waiting, so we hadn't missed the bus.

ASIDE: I really liked how there was a covered walkway going from the lobby of the WL to the bus stop. It was a quick walk and shady. This was a nice improvement from the other resorts we had stayed at in the past (POR and ASMo). Overall the WL was very compact and we felt like we did a lot less walking (although in all honestly, those evening walks home from the bus stop at Dixie Landings are some of my favorite memories from our honeymoon!)

The bus came around 7:20 and we were at the Magic Kingdom about five minutes later! We went through the bag check and turnstiles pretty quickly and then waited outside the train station.

A lot of people were crowding the ropes at the entrances, but we stood in the center so we could see the opening show. I didn't see how it mattered to let a few dozen people get in front of me, I wanted to see the show! The "grand marshall" (I think that's what he was called) came out first, along with some dancers dressed in turn of the century clothing, and then the train pulled in with all the characters and the lucky family who was chosen to open the park.

Then Mickey addressed the crowd and welcomed us, and they counted down and then the confetti cannons went off when the park opened. It was very cute!

We followed the crowd into the Magic Kingdom right at 8:00 am.

We took our time taking pictures on Main Street both with our camera and with the photo pass photographers. I wish I could figure out how to post those because some of them turned out great! Anyway here are a few from our camera:

We crossed the bridge to Tomorrowland and found a photopass photographer hanging out by himself there. This is a great spot for pictures!!

Our first stop was Space Mountain for a fast pass. I wish I could remember what our return time was, but it wasn't for a couple of hours, I know that. So we headed over to ride Stitch's Great Escape, which was new to us. Did I mention I am a huge Stitch fan? I still thought this ride was a little lame. But I had a blast in the gift shop afterward! I bought a Stitch Christmas ornament.

After that we headed over to Fantasyland. We pretty much walked on to Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, and Mickey's Philharmagic.

This was a really great show! The 3D effects were wonderful, and the magic carpet ride was so realistic I actually felt a little sick. LOL

After that we walked on to Peter Pan (what a great ride, I love flying over London) and It's a Small World. I took a few pictures in there (I asked first if I could and they said yes):

At this point, we had done pretty much everything we wanted to do in Fantasyland, so we headed back to Tomorrowland to use our Fast Pass for Space Mountain.

At this point (I think around 10:30), the Standby line wasn't much longer than the Fast Pass return line. We still felt like the fast pass saved us time though, because the Standby line had been pretty long at 8 am, and we got a lot done in Fantasyland before going back to use our fastpass. Steve laughed at me because I was trying to secure all of my stuff really well before going on Space Mountain -- then he reminded me that it doesn't go upside down. LOL I guess somehow in my memory I remembered going upside down??? Even without any loops, Space Mountain is a wild ride, and we enjoyed every second of it.

To be continued . . .

 

[BeckyEsq]

I'm loving your trip report, too!

You look like such a nice, happy couple!

Thanks for all the photos! Especially the photo of Steve with his angry face at Le Cellier. I got the giggles for at least 5 minutes wondering why he was making that face. I thought it must have been because he didn't like his food!

I think that was supposed to be his "hungry" face. LOL

 

[ely3857]

I have to get to MK for the opening ceremony!



Jodie

 

[BeckyEsq]

At this point, Steve and I did one of the smartest things of the entire trip: we left the park! We had an ADR at Kona Cafe at 11:00 am. Steve thought I was crazy when I told him about this but when it was time to go he was thanking me because at that point we were tired, hot, and hungry and ready for a break! So we took the monorail to the Polynesian and got there right at 11:00, and we were seated right away. In fact, the restaurant was pretty empty, and we got very fast service! Steve got ineapple macadamia nut pancakes, and really enjoyed the Kona coffee (they left a carafe on the table for him for refills).

I of course had the Tonga Toast, with bacon, and iced tea:

We paid out of pocket for this meal since it seemed silly to waste a TS credit for breakfast. Cost: $23.61. We really enjoyed this break! We don't normally take time out for breakfast since we are always anxious to get to the parks, but I wanted to have one yummy breakfast on this trip, and scheduling it at 11:00 turned out to be a great idea! I stopped in the gift shop at the Poly to buy hairtyers since I had forgotten to throw one in my bag that morning, and with long hair, it was just getting too hot! The monorail ride back was quick and easy, and we were back in the park by quarter after twelve. When we got back, Mickey and Minnie were both signing autographs in front of the train station. We didn't get in line, but I was again impressed by how many characters were available on this trip!

We decided to take the train to Frontierland to save some walking. Here is a shot of Main Street from the train station:

If you look carefully, you can see Donald Duck signing autographs in town square! We already had pictures with these characters but none of the lines were very long so we could have easily seen them in the MK if we had wanted to.

We took the train to Frontierland, marveling that the park didn't seem too crowded so far -- we hadn't waited in line to get back into the park. Well, when we got off the train and walked down the stairs from thet rain depot in Frontierland, it was like we had descended into hell. We were right near Splash Mountain, and this part of the park was PACKED. It was painful just trying to walk around. Plus, the sun was BURNING hot at this point. (I changed into a tank top at this point, but I don't have any pictures of it.

ASIDE (FOR LADIES ONLY): I worried a lot about what to wear and still look okay for pictures. I ended up buying bras with clear straps to wear with my strappy tank tops. This worked out well because I was comfortable but didn't look like I was -- ahem, falling out. I wouldn't wear these normally and certainly not with something like a formal spaghetti strap dress, but I thought for a casual day in a theme park,they worked out well. One word of warning though -- these bras had a silicone band inside to help them stay up if they were worn strapless, and the silicone irritated my skin near my rib cage and on my back in the heat. So I'd recommend getting the ones with clear straps but no silicone around the band.

We fought our way to the fast pass machines and got a fast pass for Splash Mountain for a couple of hours later. Then we got the heck out of that part of the park as fast as we could. (Note: I did see Brer Fox signing autographs right in this area). We headed over to the Haunted Mansion and stood in line for about fifteen minutes. We love this ride but I was disappointed that it broke down once or twice while we were on it -- it sort of ruins the mood when they make that announcement about staying seated, even if they do claim one of the ghouls caused the disruption.

We wandered over to Liberty Square and I went in the Christmas Shop to buy some ornaments. We planned to see the Hall of Presidents, but they had trouble with the register in the Christmas store and it took so long for me to check out that we missed the next show.

After this we headed over to Adventureland and rode Pirates of the Caribbean. I think this might have been our longest line of the day, it was at least twenty minutes. This ride is definitely worth it though! I loved the addition of Captain Jack Sparrow and of Davy Jones.

After the ride, we walked in on a Jack Sparrow show that was just beginning. This guy looked and talked amazingly like Johnny Depp as Captain Jack:

This show was really cute and we would have watched more of it except that it was right in the sun and we were really hot and tired at this point. In fact, Steve was having a bit of a meltdown, so I offered to let him out of watching the parade with me so he could go to the Hall of Presidents. We split up and it was at this point that Steve bought a talking George Washington doll in Liberty Square. He teaches 7th grade and claimed it would be educational for his kids (it says 25 different phrases), but we all know that his George Washington doll served pretty much the same purpose as the Stitch doll I bought the next day:

I found a great place in Frontierland for the parade. I hate sitting on the ground but I didn't want to stand for a half an hour. Well, right in front of the Shooting Arcade, I found a platform around a tree. I sat down on it, and once the parade started, I stood up, and I was able to see over everyone's heads.

Here are some pictures from the Share a Dream Come True Parade:

More of our day at Magic Kingdom in my next post!

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[exwdwcm]

great report, can't wait to read the rest. congrats on 7 years together and best of luck with the adoption- we are fighting fertility issues now, but are hoping i am pregnant on our trip in 5 days (just did artificial insemination!). i can't wait to take a child to the most magical place on earth either!

thanks for sharing!

 

[BeckyEsq]

After the Share a Dream Come True Parade, I headed over to the Hall of Presidents to find Steve, and then we headed over to Splash Mountain to use our fastpasses. The wait for Splash was 90 minutes at this point -- boy were we glad we had fast passes!!!

This was the first time I was ever brave enough to take pictures during the ride. I made sure I put the camera away before the drop though!!

I love this picture at the end of the ride, when Zip-a-dee-doo-dah is playing.

We got just wet enough on Splash to cool us off but not be soaked.

After Splash we decided to head back to the hotel for a break to freshen up. This was at around 5:00. On our way out, we picked up a Dole Whip.

The Dole Whip gave us enough energy to drag ourselves to the bus stop. We caught a bus back to the Wilderness Lodge and the ride was only four minutes long! We never did take the boat -- it would have been more scenic but it would have taken much longer!

Back at the WL, we filled up our mugs and took showers and then we felt ready to spend the evening at the park. We headed back to the park around 6:00 and it was starting to feel much cooler now that the sun was not so high in the sky. We were pretty hungry at this point so we headed to Pecos Bill's to get some dinner.

We had planned to use two quick service credits here, but then we discovered that the only dessert available was peanut butter mousse, and I am allergic to peanut butter. (they offered apple sauce, but I'm sorry, that is not dessert!) I know it sounds silly but I hated to waste a meal credit on a meal with no dessert. So we got one meal -- a chick wrap sandwich and fries -- and split it, and Steve ate the dessert.

After that we went to see the Tiki Room. We both like this show and it is also a great way to cool off! After this we were still hungry and tried to go to El Pirate y el Perico, but we were sad to find out it was closed! We later found out it closed at 3 pm. So we went to the Columbia Harbor House and split a fish and chips meal, with chocolate cake for dessert.

The Columbia Harbour House was very quiet and almost empty at this point.

Since we were in Liberty Square, we decided to ride the Haunted Mansion again. This time it was a walk-on. We enjoyed the ride but it broke down twice during this ride! After that we decided to ride Pirates of the Caribbean again. The line was still pretty long for this, about 20 minutes, but again, it was worth the wait.

When we came out of POC it was 9:00 and time for SpectroMagic to start. We headed to Frontierland and easily found a spot right up against the rope. I'm glad we didn't waste time holding a spot! Here are some pictures from the parade.

This parade is so much more beautiful in person -- I had to use a flash for the pictures and it takes away from how pretty the floats are.

After the parade we headed over to Tomorrowland in hopes of riding Space Mountain one more time, but we unfortunately found out it was broken down. So we headed over to a spot in front of the castle for Wishes. Here's a picture of the castle all lit up at night:

And a few pictures of the show:

It's hard not to close your eyes briefly during this show, make a wish, and believe it will come true.

After a magical day, we headed back down Main Street USA for our last night at the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[MassMom94]

Wonderful TR. Can't wait for the next installment. Thank you!!

 

[BeckyEsq]

We got up around 7 am on Wednesday morning and after we got dressed we finished packing and called bell services to pick up our bags and store them for us. Then we caught the 8:15 bus for the Disney-MGM Studios. We got there before the park opened and headed towards the rope. The opening show here was cute -- they acted like they were filming a movie and we were extras. Once the rope dropped at 9:00 am and we all walked past the director, he kept saying "Keep moving. Don't look at the camera! Don't look at the camera!" It was pretty funny.

We stopped for a few pictures.

We headed towards Rock n Roller Coaster to get fast passes. They were for 10:05. Then we walked over to Tower of Terror, which had about a ten minute standby line.

After Tower of Terror we headed over to the Great Movie Ride. We enjoyed taking pictures of the signatures and handprints on the "walk of fame."

We hadn't done this ride since our first trip, so we enjoyed it. I actually love the Wizard of Oz part! I wish I could have taken pictures, but I asked and they said no.

After this, Steve ended up riding Rock n Roller Coaster alone because I was still feeling a little woozy from Tower of Terror. I spent a little time shopping for presents for our godchildren. We met back up and went into One Man's Dream.

When we came out, it was time for our ADR at 50's Primetime Cafe.

We used two table service credits here. Since it was our last meal at WDW, we decided to splurge (calorie-wise) and got milkshakes as our drinks. I had vanilla and Steve had peanut butter and jelly. For our appetizers we had onion rings and shrimp cocktail. Steve had the meatloaf:

And I had the chicken caesar salad (is this a 50's thing??):

My salad was huge and after drinking half a milkshake and eating some onion rings, I didn't do very well finishing it, even with Steve's help. It was actually in front of Steve when our waiter came by, but he wasn't fooled.

In spite of being pretty full, we couldn't resist dessert:

This meal would have cost $74.10 without the dining plan. We had never been here before and we liked it a lot.

After lunch we decided to fit in a quick trip to MuppetVision 3D. We love this show!

We did a little last-minute shopping and then caught the bus back to the WL. We got back around 2:00, and our Magical Express was due at 2:35 for our 5:45 flight home. We got our bags from bell services and rearranged some things to fit in our latest souvenir purchases, filled our mugs one last time, and used our last four snack credits for two bottles of water and two mickey rice krispie treats to go.

We moaned about going home on Wednesday night, and wished we could have spent one more night, but when we awoke Thursday morning to the news about the latest terrorist plot and the long lines at the airports around the country, we realized how fortunate we were to be home safe and sound.

One mroe post, with final thoughts and pictures of our souvenirs.