Solo at Disney June 5-10 2006 with pics

[tinkerbell87512]

So I've been back for a while and I finally decided to take some time and write a Trip report. Hope you guys enjoy reading about my trip!

Before i start here are some basics about me and my trip:
Im Cheryl and I just turned 19 and I love love love disney. I decided to save my money and take a trip down to disney by myself to experience the magic on my own.

Monday June 5th Day 1:

At 4:50 am my alarm clock went off and I knew it was the big day! Ive been counting down for months and the day has finally arrived. I woke my mom up and we headed for the airport. My flight was at 7:15 and I arrived in orlando at 10:10. I got off the plane and I knew this is where the fun was going to begin! I headed toward the magical express check in and waited less than 5 minutes, checked in and off i went. The bus that came for us wasnt the magical express bus it was a normal mears bus. i was really dissapointed because this is what happened to my family last year. (mears bus on the way to disney, ME bus on the way back). I almost asked if i could wait for the next bus but decided not to and hop on and head to Pop century. From me walking off the plane and getting on the ME bus it took no more than 20 minutes! It looked like luck was on myside! Our bus driver was so nice he counted down to the Disney Gate where we all shouted YAY as we crossed in to The disney resort!! First stop was Animal Kingdom Lodge and what a beautiful resort that is!! I wish i had taken the time to go back and explore that resort. After letting off half of the bus at AKL we made our way to Pop century! When I arrived i proceded to get inline to check into my room. When i got to the front of the line the woman asked me for my conformation number and i handed her my disneyworld.com conformation print out. She stayed quiet for a minute and then told me she couldnt find my reservation in the computer. Right then my heart sank because i had paid for my room in full. She went to go talk to a manager and asked me for my drivers license and still no reservation. After a few minutes the manager said i was all set they had spelt my name wrong on the reservation and for some reason when they typed in the conformation # it didnt come up. I was so glad they had me scared for a minute! She proceded to give me my room key and show me where my room was on the map. I was so glad it was in the 50's section where i had requested so after i was all set i headed off to my room! Now when i found it i was a little dissapointed because it was on the first floor (i had requested anything but the first floor) i figured i would just deal with it because i dont want to mix up anything with my reservaiton and being on the first floor wasnt so bad.

This is the room i had.

By the time i had gotten to my room it was about 12:30 so i decided to head to Downtown disney. I headed to the bus stop and got on the next bus to downtown. When i got there i went straight to Earl of Sandwich mmmm my favorite! I got my usual cannonballs sandwich, tomato soup and lemonade and called home to let my parents know i had made it to the resort in one piece. As i was sitting outside at the tables i started thinking to myself how great it is to be so far away from home, on my own, taking time for myself. Dont get me wrong I love my family but this was kind of a personal learning trip for me. Anyway back to the trip... after eating my lunch i went off to do what a girl does best...shopping! First i headed to once upon a toy and i got the cutest princess alarm clock. next i headed over to world of disney because i just had to see the new boutique.

It made me wish i was 5 years old again! the little girls in there were so cute and it looked like they were having a ball getting the princess treatment.
After more shopping i explored the west side:

.
AFter a long afternoon of shopping and exploring i deced to head back to pop for dinner. When i got back I dropped off my stuff in my room and took my camera and did some exploring of the resort. Now ive been to pop the year before but we couldnt explore because we were there for a short time and we were so rushed with all the parks and everything so it was nice to see some of the other parts of the resort.

After dinner and exploring i headed back to my room to settle in early because it had been a long day and i wanted to get rested up for my first full day!!

Comming up Day 2 June 6, 2006....Animal Kingdom and Epcot!

 

[ForTheLoveofDisney]

What a great trip report! I look forward to reading about the rest of your trip. I've always wanted to do a solo but haven't gotten up the nerve!

Thanks for sharing and come on with day 2!

 

[LErin26]

Like your report so far. I am from NH too

 

[jazzgirl]

Great pictures! Can't wait until the next installment

 

[tinkerbell87512]

Day 2 First look at everest and my favorite park Epcot!

Ok so For my first full day I decided to wake up at 6:30 take a shower and head off for the day. I was so excited i have been waiting two years to ride expedition everest and today was going to be the day i was going to concor the mt. I hurried up and got dressed and headed over to the pop food court where i got my pop waffel and bacon! (now this is a big thing in our family no day is complete without the mickey/pop waffels)

. As i was sitting at breakfast it hit me that i was really alone and i was going to be heading to the parks by myself. At this point i kind of regreted my choice to go to disney alone but then i realized that i had worked hard for this vacation and nothing was going to bring me down. i was at the happiest place on earth and i dont need to depend on other people to have a great time. so with that said i headed over to animal kingdom.

I got there around 8am and headed to guest relations to turn in my expedition everest game reward to get my free photo pass for the ride and with that in hand i stood in line at the gate till 9. they didnt have the traditional opening with the truck because it was in for repairs so a little before 9 they let us in the park till the next rope. Everyone was rushing to get to expedition everest. I was walking as fast as my legs would go. : As i was walking up to the mt. my heart was beating so fast! I couldnt wait to get on that ride! Walked right on the ride with a 5 min (if that) wait. But omg for anyone who hasnt gone on that ride yet its amazing!!

After i got to ride i went to get back in line to do it again and the stand by was alread 90 minutes!!!! Crazy i know! So i decided to go back in the gift shop to get my free photo (i wish i had a scanner so i could show you) and i also got a EE pin!

So after that i knew i wanted to head over to camp minnie mickey to catch the Festival of the lion king because i had never seen it before and i heard such great reviews and look who i ran into:

Stitch!! I was so excited! I felt kind of weird standing in a line with all little kids but like i said at this point i dont care what other people are thinking. So after seeing stitch i had to get to the show area. I waited no more that 20 minutes and we were seated in the theater. I was in the elephant section and wow was that show amazing!! This is my favorite picture i got from the show.

After the show i was getting really hungry so i went to pizzafari for lunch. Then headed up through africa and asia did some shopping and rides. Now epcot is my favorite park and i could not wait to head over there so i decided thats just what i was going to do. As i was heading out for some reason i thought there wasnt a bus that went from AK to epcot so i decided to get on the contempory bus and then take the monorail from there. So i get on and it was just me. The bus driver was so nice (i wish i had gotten her name) we got to talking and she was telling me all the perks of working at disney,and such. she had to make a stop at blizzard beach because the park became "red flagged" which means its full to capacity. turns out no one got on the bus so we continued over to the resort. She was so impressed that i flew all the way from NH for a vacation all by myself at my age (i didnt go around announcing it just so you dont think i did). It gave me a sense of accomplishment to know that i did something not a lot of people do at my age. Anyway we got to the resort and i said goodbye to the woman and headed up to the monorail stop. Then off i went to epcot

So at epcot it was the flower and garden festival at epcot and all i can say is wow!

I have the disney visa and i remembered you get the free photo character meet n' greet so i decided to do that. Oh my gosh that was so much fun! Minnie and goofy were there and it was just so funny goofy was dancing with me and minnie was jealous. too funny!!! After my photo session I headed over to the countries and started with mexico and worked my way around to the UK and Canada! I stopped in France for the cake of the day. Mmmmm Chocolate cake! Yummy! And i continued on my journey. After traveling the world and checking in with my family i was getting hungry again so i stopped at the electric umbrella for dinner. Then headed over to soarin and waited in the 90 minute line. Boy i love that ride!! It was getting late, time for illuminations! heres my favorite pic from that:

I got my EMH bracelet after the show and did soarin one more time and decided to call it a night and i headed back to the hotel.

Day 3 Magic Kingdom, Mickeys magical milestones tour, and MGM

 

[OhMari]

Great trip report-did anyone help you plan your itinerary?

 

[tinkerbell87512]

Great trip report-did anyone help you plan your itinerary?

nope it was all me from buying the plane ticket, to the hotel to the itinerary.

 

[pumba]

WOW and thanks......I need to go back now......We went in May and I love SOARIN......we did it 9 times while we were there......we kept on going back to Epcot so we could do it over and over...yes I was obsessed.......thanks so much for taking the time to do such great photos and posting them

 

[tribus121]

tribus121's wife: I can't wait for us to go in September. It will be so much fun. And you make it sound so much fun. I think that you are doing great in telling about your trip too.

Tribus121's wife

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Cheryl! I'm so glad you're writing a report about your trip to Disney! So excited to read the rest!

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Cheryl! I'm so glad you're writing a report about your trip to Disney! So excited to read the rest!

 

[tinkerbell87512]

Cheryl! I'm so glad you're writing a report about your trip to Disney! So excited to read the rest!

Hey Lauren you found me on here!! : You must be getting so excited your trip is comming up so fast!! you will have to write a trip report when you get back from yours because i want to hear all about it!

 

[tinkerbell87512]

So on with day 3.

Wed June 7. Magic Kingdom and MGM Part 1 sorry its long

Today was the day that i was going to head over to magic kingdom for the mickeys magical milestones tour. On the phone when i made the reservation for the tour they said check in time was 8:45 so i figured i would get there early so i could take pictures when no one was around. So i woke up at 6:30 got ready to go and headed toward the pop food court to get my pop waffle and oj. lol After checking in with my family i headed out to the busses.

Just seeing that sign makes me so excited! Anyway i got to Magic Kingdom at 8am and went right to the gate and told them i was checking in for a tour and i was allowed in. First stop was to go check in for the tour. AFter i got my name tag i was off to walk main street. First stop Cinderella Castle.

Heres a picture looking just a little bit past the crystal palace.

On my way back toward the train station i came across a couple ducks getting some shut eye before the big crowds of people at 9am

I love the feeling of main street usa when there isnt many people around. It gives you a different sense of the park.

Anyway on with the tour. At 9am our tour guide gregg (with 3 g's) came out to start the tour. At that time it was myself and a Family from GA with 2 girls the mother and the grandmother. He said that we were missing 4 people so we waited till 9:10ish and no one showed up. so he started the tour. We headed out through the crowd of people to the mickey flower bed. He also showed us the new signs that they put up just a few weeks before. They are right under the entrance tunnels

After that the other four people had joined us, turns out they got caught in traffic. we headed to the disney exibit and he told us a lot about the history of mickey and walt disney. like mickey was actually going to be a frog?! can u believe that... haha i thougt it was crazy. but anyway after that we got on the train and headed toward mickeys toon town. While on the train gregg had told us about how he was part of the PR team for Expedition Everest it was very cool! Anyway when we had gotten to toon town before it opened and all the characters houses were roped off but gregg let us right in. we felt so special. We were shown some hidden mickeys in the house and lead right through the kitchen/entrance way and guess who we found...

Mickey! I felt like a kid again. The only other time i had ever seen mickey was on my first trip to Disney when i was 5. But anyway we all got our pictures with mickey and we said goof bye and headed out. By this time toontown was getting ready to open so all the characters were out in full force.

It was so funny as soon as they announced toontown was open we were walking right by Daisy and Minnie they grabbed the two little girls our tour and they started giving them the tour of minnie's house. it was so funny so we all followed Gregg was so suprised. After our tour with Daisy and Minnie we headed out of toontown toward mickeys phillar magic where we got "back doored". Gregg showed me some hidden mickeys during the show (i was sitting next to him) in all the times i had seen the show i had never ever seen them. After the show we headed into some of the stores where we were told more history about mickey mouse then we later headed to our last stop a secret spot in liberty square. And someone special came out to present us with our Golden mickey ears with our name on them

. After that i guess i must of suprised gregg with this picture. lol. (gregg if your reading this hope you dont mind me posting this and you did an amazing job on the tour i learned so much!)

This was the end of our tour. We all said our goodbyes and i headed toward space mt!

Now when i got there the line was at 45 minutes so i hoped right in. The family ahead of me started talking to me about the ride. turns out they had just gotten to the park and this was going to be their first ride. They had never been to disney before and their son was so scared. he was 10 or 11 i think and he was so close to turning around and heading out. i got to talking to him and convinced him that he was going to love the ride. I was telling him that a lot of the rides seem kind of scary but they are all awesome and just to try them at least once. I told him about all the other rides like splash mt. and the different rollercoasters. So we finally get in the space ships. and i was happy the family and i were in the same one. I wanted to see the boys reaction when he got off. Anyway when we got off he was sooooo happy he went on it! he thanked me and gave me a hug for talking him into it and he told his mom he wanted to get in line and do it again. lol she (the mom) laughed and said see "she wouldnt stear you wrong shes a disney expert" haha that was so funny to hear someone say that about me. haha so i said goodbye to the family and headed off to grab a snack and get inline for splash mt.

the wait time was 90 minutes and i figured im in no rush, so why not wait. it went by so fast i dont think it was 90 minutes, but yea anyway i love that ride!!! So it was getting late and i had to head over to MGM for my dinner resservations at SCI Fi rest. so i headed out of the park and took the water launch over to the poloneisan resort. just to kinda walk through boy oh boy is that resort beautiful.

So after i got off the boat i got on a bus and headed toard MGM.

Up next a night at MGM.

 

[disneycutie84]

I am LOVING this trip report! Its great that you did a solo trip and had so much fun!

 

[DisneyDreamer2]

I am loving your report...and your pics are absolutely beautiful!!!

 

[Lil' Grumpy]

this is one "cool" report....and i'mluving the ways yor doing
the magic. ha! i going to show my older sons [19,22] yor pics.! when
we gave them cameras..all they came back with pics of thegirls they
met... ,no characters even when they saw devine!

ahhhh to be 5 hmmmmm to be 19!!!

 

[pumba]

fantastic report and I love your photos. We did the tour a few years ago and loved the undergrounds ....I think your tour was different then ours. but it is a blast isnt it.??
thanks again for your great report...

 

[wdwgirl03]

Cool report! Loved the part about the little boy and Space Mountain.

 

[Diane D]

Great report! What tour was it that you went on?

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Now you're making me want to do a SOLO trip too! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip!