"So. Many. Selfies." A Mother-Daughter Trip! April 2014 UPDATED 1/4

[freckles04]

I'm reading along! Really enjoying your trip report so far.

I have only ever flown on Southwest so I have nothing to compare them to, but they are great! Your detailed travel report really brings back memories of our last trip. Love the Mickey Ear donuts, too. Cute and clever.

AKL looks so lovely!

 

[jediprincess23]

Subbing! Enjoying your report so far! THhis is going to sound insanely creepy but I think we have a lot in common!! especially our favorite number!

 

[courtneybelle]

Joining in! I loved hearing about the AKL details, so awesome that they knew your name and made you feel like VIPs!

Welcome to the AP club! We picked up ours at DTD too and some tears may have been shed. It's so exciting!

 

[DisDance]

More more! Love the TR so far

 

[Pesky]

Love the TR so far!

 

[princess_momma]

Your TR is awesome!! AKL is so gorgeous!! Can't wait to see your room! Love EoS too...it's been WAY too long since I've had it!! YUM!

 

[Lety4480]

Can't wait to read and see the rest of your TR!

 

[disnemma]

CHAPTER 3- Here You Leave Today and Enter the World of Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy ​

April 1, 2014 ​

Our bus back to AKL arrived pretty quickly, and within 30 minutes we were back at the Lodge! First, we stopped by the bell desk to grab our luggage (we opted out of having a bell hop bring it up for us) and the check-in desk to get our room number. We were on the fifth floor of Zebra Trail facing the Arusha Savannah, room number 5457, which is a studio room. Again, getting to stay at AKL is all thanks to our wonderful friend Rebecca! She's the best!!

We found our room without much trouble, but when we got to it the door wouldn't open! We tried both of our MagicBands multiple times and checked and rechecked the room number on the map, but the door just wouldn't open! So we decided that I would stay up there with the luggage while Mom went back down to the lobby to get everything sorted out. I found a bench with a nice view at the end of the hallway and just kind of awkwardly sat there for about seven minutes. Finally, the elevators opened and out came Mom! I guess our MagicBands hadn't been connected to the room yet, so I would have to stop at the front desk sometime to get mine working as a room key.

We tried the door again with baited breath, and this time, a little green light appeared! Yay! We were in! Of course, the first thing we wanted to see was the view from the balcony! It was absolutely gorgeous.

If you look really closely, you can see Expedition Everest in the distance! There weren't many animals out while we were in the room, but we could see a few oxen by the watering hole most of the time.

Here's a shot of our room from the balcony. The bed was really high up!

The studio included a queen-sized bed, a pull-out couch, a kitchen sink, a toaster, a coffee maker, ceramic mugs, and a mini-fridge, among many other things! The bathroom sinks/mirror were separate from the shower and toilet, which we both liked. Here's what the kitchen area looked like:

We freshened up a bit, and then we headed out to the bus station again. On the way, we stopped at the desk to get my MagicBand connected to our room. We passed a huge fire pit in the lobby, where a small fire was blazing. I mean, look at the size of this thing!

It only took about five minutes to get the MagicBand issue sorted out, and we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom bus stop! I really liked the AKL bus station because each stop had its own little "pavilion," for lack of a better word, so it was completely in the shade and out of the weather. And it has water fountains! Which, speaking of water fountains, I stopped to take a drink at one while we were waiting and almost had a heart attack because this thing was staring at me! I'm not used to having those little lizards everywhere!

It took about 5 to 7 minutes for our bus to arrive, and then about 15 minutes to get to... Magic Kingdom!! (if you hadn't already guessed from the title) I was actually pleasantly surprised that it only took that long, since MK is pretty far away from the other parks.

The wonderful gates of the place where dreams come true!

When we got off, I literally ran past the other bus stops to the bag check. I was so giddy this entire night, just because I was in amazement that we were actually there. It wasn't crowded at all, and of course we had to get an obligatory picture together in front of the train station.

I'll admit, I think we both had tears in our eyes as we entered the park. We were home! We meandered down Main Street in complete bliss, just soaking everything in. "Meet Me in St. Louis" was playing, which is like my favorite song on the entire Main Street loop (along with "In the Good Old Summertime") because I also love the movie of the same name with Judy Garland, so it was like fate.

It's so pretty!!

From Main Street, we decided to go with our classic route and headed into Adventureland. There was so much construction going on by the castle! They had completely drained the moat and blocked off the grassy area in front of Casey's, which kind of surprised us. And there were so many seagulls flying around the Hub! It was crazy! There were probably at least 20 swooping down (you can faintly see them in the picture of Cinderella Castle above). It was like the movie Birds!

We were hoping to go on a ride on Pirates, but the wait was 50 minutes. Uh... no thank you! So we kept on walking through Frontierland, Liberty Square, "old" Fantasyland, and New Fantasyland, where we saw an empty train of mine carts fly by on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!! It looks so gorgeous! I WANT TO RIDE IT SO BADLY!

Hopefully we'll get a FP for it this summer!

We continued on past Enchanted Tales With Belle to Gaston's Village. The atmosphere there is so real! It really feels like Gaston, LeFou, or Belle could come strolling by at any minute.

With my man... We're practically twins!!

From there, we went on past Prince Eric's Castle. One new thing from last year's trip in March was that the right-hand side, across from Ariel's Undersea Adventure, was completed. There was also a huge wooden statue of King Triton from the waist up! It was pretty cool.

We entered Storybook Circus and strolled into Big Top Souvenirs. There was a CM with a big collection of pins to trade, and they were displayed to look like they were popcorn. It looked really cool, so I asked if I could take a picture. She was totally up for it and even posed!

This actually turned out to be one of my favorite photos from the trip!

We spotted these awesome magnets while wandering around the store. They're so lifelike! We really liked the waffle and planned to get it later in the trip, but when we went to get it in MouseGear on the last day they were all out. Hopefully they'll still have them during our next trip!

From there, we decided that some Main Street ice cream was in order, so we started on over that way. Here's some various photos from the journey through Storybook Circus and Fantasyland:

Props to these kids' parents for letting them get soaked!

Technicolor Tigger!

I love my Unbirthday pin so much! I won it in a YouTube contest from Keith Lapinig, who is an Interactive Design Manager for The Walt Disney Company. He makes these buttons (and many other awesome ones!) and gives them away in contests on his YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/keithlapinig) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/keithlapinig). He's really nice and his videos are great, so check him out!! I got so many compliments and questions about the button. I'm definitely wearing it on every Disney trip from now on!

The empty moat

We made it to the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and chose the left line, since it seemed to be a little shorter. I love the theming in there -- the color palette and lamps are beautiful!

I ordered a scoop of strawberry and a scoop of birthday cake, and Mom got one chocolate and one strawberry. I remember sitting on Main Street eating ice cream from the Plaza Parlor when I was around nine, and a CM came up and said I could have a pin if I answered one question.... what flavor I was eating! It was during the Year of a Million Dreams, so I got two sparkly Tinker Bell pins -- one to keep, and one to give away randomly. I spent all day searching for the right person to give it to and finally spotted the right one while we were waiting for the parade to start. It's just one of the many Magical Moments at Disney that I'll always remember!

The cast member that took our order was really sweet. She tried to have a genuine conversation with every guest in line, and she said that she loved my mom's (actually, it's mine!) Mickey Mouse Club shirt and asked where we got it.

Finally, our orders were ready! Here's what my delicious treat looked like:

Great... now I'm craving birthday cake ice cream!!

We found a spot to sit and enjoy our ice cream near the Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant. We relaxed and I Instagrammed a bit. It was just so nice to be there!



Well, that's all for now folks. Tomorrow is Wellness Day at school, so we don't have any classes and we get to watch Frozen! Until next time!!
​

Continued in Next Post​

 

[disnemma]

Yay sounds fun! I'm in!
I also plan on doing the college program when I graduate in a year and I can't wait!

Yay! I've got three years until I graduate... but I'm definitively looking forward to it!

I'm reading along! Really enjoying your trip report so far.

I have only ever flown on Southwest so I have nothing to compare them to, but they are great! Your detailed travel report really brings back memories of our last trip. Love the Mickey Ear donuts, too. Cute and clever.

AKL looks so lovely!

Thanks for joining in! Yes, I love how friendly everyone is! And I really liked that there was no business class. Thank you! It's a lot of fun to relive this trip with this report! Aren't they cute?! And they taste even better!! AKL really is wonderful! It can't even be described in words or experienced properly with pictures.

Subbing! Enjoying your report so far! THhis is going to sound insanely creepy but I think we have a lot in common!! especially our favorite number!

Thank you! Haha, not creepy at all! I see that 23 is even in your username! I like it because it's the day I was born on.

Joining in! I loved hearing about the AKL details, so awesome that they knew your name and made you feel like VIPs!

Welcome to the AP club! We picked up ours at DTD too and some tears may have been shed. It's so exciting!

Thanks for joining! It's hard to describe how amazing AKL was, but I did my best! I don't know if they do that at every deluxe resort, but we definitely felt like superstars! And thanks for the welcome! It feels great to say that I'm an AP holder... it also makes me feel like a VIP!

More more! Love the TR so far

Love the TR so far!

Thank you so much!

Your TR is awesome!! AKL is so gorgeous!! Can't wait to see your room! Love EoS too...it's been WAY too long since I've had it!! YUM!

Thank you!! Yes... Earl of Sandwich is heaven!

Can't wait to read and see the rest of your TR!

Thank you!!

 

[coloredimage]

Joining in

 

[freckles04]

Wow, the moat construction was looking most unmagical.

Love the pictures of AKL. I doubt we will ever get to stay there, so I'm enjoying living vicariously.

The kids getting soaked at the splash station made me smile. That may be my 10 year old's favorite spot in MK. I can't wait to let him get soaked there this Fall.

 

[hopex]

AKL looks beautiful, would love to get the chance to stay there one day! That ice cream looks really good as well, have never tried that flavour before but it's on my to do list now!

 

[Sereina]

AKL looks so beautiful! What a neat place to stay at.

That photo of the CM with the pins is perfect. Love it!

How sad that the moat was drained.

Mmmmmmm. That ice cream looks delicious.

 

[JenSop]

Great room at AKL!

And I totally agree about the music when you enter MK. Just makes you feel happy and warm all over!

 

[alice99]

Great trip report! I'm looking forward to the next installment.

 

[disnemma]

Joining in

​

Wow, the moat construction was looking most unmagical.

Love the pictures of AKL. I doubt we will ever get to stay there, so I'm enjoying living vicariously.

The kids getting soaked at the splash station made me smile. That may be my 10 year old's favorite spot in MK. I can't wait to let him get soaked there this Fall.

Yes, I have to say I was a little disappointed at all the construction! But it looks like the moat is back up and running now! Hey, I definitely didn't ever think we would get to stay at AKL/any deluxe resort, but you never know what may happen! Yes, we had a blast just watching them! I think it's great that you let your son get soaked, because I know that there are a lot of parents who wouldn't!​

AKL looks beautiful, would love to get the chance to stay there one day! That ice cream looks really good as well, have never tried that flavour before but it's on my to do list now!

Yes, AKL is gorgeous!! Pictures don't even do it justice. Ahh, Edys birthday cake ice cream is amazing! You should definitely try it!!​

AKL looks so beautiful! What a neat place to stay at.

That photo of the CM with the pins is perfect. Love it!

How sad that the moat was drained.

Mmmmmmm. That ice cream looks delicious.

Yes, it's wonderful! I felt so lucky to get to stay there. Thank you! It's one of my favorites!! I was quite upset... I missed seeing the castle's reflection in the water! Yes, that ice cream was amazing!​

Great room at AKL!

And I totally agree about the music when you enter MK. Just makes you feel happy and warm all over!

The MK entrance loop is definitely one of my favorite park music tracks! Sometimes I listen to it and pretend that I'm there.​

Great trip report! I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Thank you!! ​

 

[annegirl]

Following! Your excitement comes through reading this and it is contagious! Can't wait to read more!

 

[disnemma]

CHAPTER 4- Run Like the Wind, Bullseye! ​

April 1, 2014 ​

Before I start this chapter, I thought I would share a cool little video with you guys that my mom sent me -- it's an old Super 8 home movie from Walt Disney World in 1972, a year after the park opened. You can see a lot of cool things in MK that aren't there anymore, like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the Skyway ride, but it's also fun to see the similarities! Here's the link, if you're interested: http://www.**************.net/video...me-video-brings-back-the-past-in-colorful-hd/

And now, onto the next installment of our Disney adventure!
_________________________________________________________________

After finishing our deliciously cool treat, we decided that we were in the mood for some laughs, so we headed on over to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor! We took the route through Tomorrowland Terrace because we were right there:

I joked that we definitely needed to ride Stitch's Great Escape because it was the greatest ride in Disney history.... JUST KIDDING!

We entered the Laugh Floor and shuffled through with the line, which went by pretty fast. There's a huge mirror right when you enter the building in the line, and it was really gross and grimy from people touching it all day... Ew! I wouldn't want to have the job of cleaning that!

Signs in the queue for the Laugh Floor.... I really need to text in a joke sometime!

Within ten minutes, we were ushered into the preshow area. Since we've seen the introductory video like ten million times (okay, maybe not that many, but still), we decided to see what kind of Fastpasses we could get for the remainder of the day. We ended up choosing Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Big Thunder, but never used the BTM one because it was for like 10:00 that night. This was our first time using the new Fastpass+ system and the MyDisneyExperience app in the parks, and we were pretty pleased with how it worked. The app did freeze up a few times, and my mom had to keep closing the app and reopening it, but for the most part it worked fine. I thought it was pretty user-friendly too, which was a big plus.

We tuned in for the last part of the video, and I noticed that they had added a new part at the end with Monsters University. Finally, the doors swung open and we filed into the theater. Since we were in the middle of the crowd, we actually got some pretty good seats -- almost smack dab in the middle of the room. It seems like we've always sat on the far left side in the past, so it was a nice change.

One thing I love about the Laugh Floor is that even though the show itself never changes, you get a new experience each time because there's a different audience each time. I think this actually ended up being one of my favorite times, just because everyone was laughing so hard. Buddy Boil's hypnotist act was probably my favorite -- the girl he picked had an uncommon name so she had to repeat it so many times, and she was cracking up the whole time. We were still laughing as we walked out of the attraction.

From Tomorrowland, we decided to travel back in time again to the 20th century on Main Street, USA. After moseying down the middle of the street, we cut off into the Emporium to have a look at some glorious Disney merchandise. It was really packed, but we made it all the way from the beginning of the store (women's apparel) to the end (kitchen accessories). When we came out, we took the time to look in some of the Emporium windows:

which reminded me of Disneyland last summer! I think I snuck out of the Emporium to look in the windows then and my parents didn't realize, so they thought they lost me.

And here's a view of the lovely Cinderella Castle from Main Street:

We were walking through Town Square to catch a round-trip ride on the Walt Disney World Railroad when we heard a "toot-toot" and an "All aboard!" so we ran as fast as we could up the stairs and through the train station, laughing the whole time. It was a mad dash (which is where I got this chapter's title, "Run Like the Wind, Bullseye!"), but thankfully the cast member saw us coming and held the rope for us, so we made it through the turnstiles just in time. The train was pretty full, but we actually scored an empty row! Here's Mom enjoying the ride:

The WDW Railroad is a great attraction if you need a rest and want to feel the cool breeze on your face, and it's fun to get some different views of the Magic Kingdom! We took some time to schedule our Fastpasses for the next day and spent the rest of our 20-minute journey just soaking in the atmosphere and listening to the narration. It felt nice to just chill out. The railroad really gives me the feeling that I'm traveling by train back in the '20s... I love it so much!

Another mode of Disney transportation, seen from the train!

As we were pulling back into the Main Street station, we noticed a little garden by the Town Square Theater, so we decided to head over and check it out.

It was really pretty, and I was surprised that we had never noticed the area before! There was also a store back at the end of the path that we had never been in before, so we went to explore it. The theming was really cool since it's the exit point for meeting Mickey, but we didn't spend much time there since we had just shopped in the Emporium.

We came back out into Town Square, and the lighting was just absolutely gorgeous! Golden hour at Disney is extra magical!

Of course, on the way back up Main Street we had to walk through the Confectionery! I took a huge sniff as we entered the store, because the Confectionery has one of the most amazing smells in the world! It's pretty close to the top of my list of favorite Disney smells.... probably second only to the scent of Disney water! If you don't know what I'm talking about, I probably sound crazy.... Haha!

A new addition to the Confectionery was Frozen apples! There was an Olaf one and a snowflake one, which was COVERED in blue sugar! I'm sure you would end up with a blue mouth if you ate it, but it sure looked delicious!!

By this time, our Fastpass for Haunted Mansion was almost ready, so we started on our way over to Liberty Square. This was our first time using our MagicBands for Fastpasses, and I was pretty excited! It's so satisfying to see that little green Mickey light up!

If you want to go through the interactive queue of the HM, don't get a Fastpass! You won't get the chance to go through the interactive queue!

We pretty much walked right into the Stretching Room, where we were herded into the ...dead... center of the room. It was fun to watch everyone's reactions, especially the little kids!

When the doors opened, we just kind of held back and let everyone go ahead. The HM line is kind of odd because it slowly funnels into a single-file line, which makes it really claustrophobic because everyone is pushing and trying to stay with their family. We've found that it's easier if you stay towards the back. Everyone's going to get there, after all!

We made our way into our Doom Buggy, where the bar was automatically lowered by our Ghost Host . The tour of the ghost-infested home was the same, but it was good to be back in my mansion! I noticed that WDW's version was definitively longer than Disneyland's, and I have to say that I like WDW's much better! Here's the very spooky Constance Hatchaway:

Mom hates the ending where she's saying, "Hurry baaaack.... Hurry baaaaack!" so I always tease her about it.... hehe!

It's funny that after all these years, they still haven't found that 1000th ghost!

We exited the ride, and on the way out, I noticed that Mr. Toad was missing from the cemetery! I hope they put him back!

Here's me in front of the mansion!

As we were walking out, Mom pointed out two lanterns in a window across the street. It's a reference to Paul Revere's Midnight Ride -- "The British are coming! The British are coming!"

One if by land, two if by sea!

Well, Disers, that's all for now! Next time, you'll hear about our journey on the Caribbean with some pretty sketchy characters!

​

Continued in Next Post​

 

[JenSop]

Great update!

As for me, I've always LOVED the "Hurry baaack.... Hurry baa-aaack. Be sure to bring your... Death Certificate." Hahaha - I've loved that part my whole life.

 

[disnemma]

Following! Your excitement comes through reading this and it is contagious! Can't wait to read more!

Thank you so much!​

Great update!

As for me, I've always LOVED the "Hurry baaack.... Hurry baa-aaack. Be sure to bring your... Death Certificate." Hahaha - I've loved that part my whole life.

Thank you! Haha, I love it too! I think Mom just finds it creepy, but I find it funny. Did you know that it's the voice of Leota Toombs, who was an Imagineer that worked on the ride? She's also used as the face in the floating ball in the seance scene (Madame Leota), but apparently her voice was too high for that part, so it was dubbed by Eleanor Audley, who also voiced Lady Tremaine and Maleficent. Just a fun little tidbit!! Thanks for following along so far!​