Spring Break-Am I Crazy??? (pic filled!!)

[MichelleVW]

I'm not usually a trip report kind of girl, but what the heck, I thought I'd give it a try!!

Cast-
Me, Crazy crazy crazy about Disney
DD16-loves Disney almost as much as me
DM-loves to travel and hasn't been to Disney in years.

This was a last minute trip--(I know a last minute SPRING BREAK trip, am I nuts?!!) Well, DD18 was going to spend her spring break in North Dakota with friends and DH had to work overtime so he suggested that DD16 and I go to Disney!! OMG I LOVE HIM!!! I had been dying to go to take advantage of the military free ticket deal (I am retired Air Force).

Called Disney and couldn't find any deals at all. In fact the best thing I could get was $1200 for just a room. This sweet CM was on the phone for almost 30 minutes trying EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE to get me a good deal, but no luck.

About to give up I tried hotwire and although we had to stay off site, I got hotel/flight AND a car for under $900!!! Woo Hoo!!

Called my mom to tell her about the trip and she said, "well, would you like company?" SURE!!! The more the merrier!!! Mom hasn't been to Disney since I was little and is always up for traveling!

Mom got plane tickets that meshed with ours and the TRIP WAS ON!!!!!!!!!

Fast Forward to March 17th and we were on our way!!!!

Our flight landed at midnight...zzzz......found Mom who's plane landed at 10 and headed to baggage claim. OMG OUR BAG WAS THE FIRST ONE OFF!!!! Headed to get the rental car and then on our way to the Best Western Lakeside.

(Best Western Lakeside was really nice. We parked 5 feet from our door, the room was a nice size and clean. We didn't spend a lot of time there and it suited our needs perfectly.)

Check in was EASY since it was almost 1 in the morning. Then we went to the CVS or Walgreens or whatever it was next door for some milk for breakfast, Found our room, put the do not disturb sign out and went to sleep....

 

[MichelleVW]

Day 1 Disney

First day we TRIED to sleep in since we got in so late, but even with the hour I lost in transit I was TOO EXCITED TO SLEEP!!

The plan was to get up whenever and head to the MK and just get done whatever we could manage with no lines.

Got to the MK parking lot around 10:30 and had to park a million miles out, but still walked to the front because I was TOO EXCITED TO WAIT FOR THE TRAM!!

I am retired military so we were using the military ticket deal so we had to wait in line to get the tickets. We have been going to Disney since 2001 and never have we had to wait in line in the morning for park tickets, actually with all the planning I do, we pretty much never wait in line for more than 10-15 minutes ever.

So... here's DD wishing the ground would swallow her up because she is so embarrassed that she has to stand in a line!!!

11:00 and we're in the park!!!!! Of course I made DM and DD turn around for the first of a million pictures!!

Head directly to Space Mountain and grab a FP for 4:15 and then head over to Cosmic Rays before it gets too crowded to eat!

I had grilled chicken which was dry and gross. I usually love Cosmic Rays, but this was not good. Mom had a burger and DD her normal chicken nuggets!!

Sent a text to the Dis'er formally known as TotallySnowWhite to let her know we made it and made plans to meet up with her at 4 so we could all ride SM together.

Then we were off to hit as many attractions we could with no wait. Park was crowded but I knew that we could hit all the big loading attractions with no/minimal wait.

Decided that this line didn't look too bad at HM

Thinking it only took us about 15 minutes before we were on the ride, squishing into one car!! I love that you can fit 3 people on most attractions at Disney!


Then I'm thinking we headed over to Fanstasyland...but I'm doing this all from memory and the memory isn't alway right!!

HOLY CRAP THAT'S A LOT OF PEOPLE!!!!

Decided that Philharmagic would be a good idea and although it was crowded, we got in the doors in about 10 minutes...

I LOVE Philharmagic, but we were sitting by the most annoying teenage girls. They would squeal with every changing scene, "OH...THIS IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE BLAH BLAH BLAH"

I know they were just enjoying the show, but I like to just sit back and get lost in the music and they were really annoying me and DD.

Headed over to The Laugh Floor after that, (we did a lot of criss crossing the park to avoid lines). The Laugh Floor was hysterical as always!!

Ice Cream Break for DD!!

to be continued...

 

[MichelleVW]

Time to crisscross park again.....

Headed over to Potc. 15 minute line!!! SWEET!!


DD is a freak....

Talk about GREAT TIMING, we walked out of Pirates and saw them setting up for the Pirate Tutorial!!! Must be in the Front row!!! We let some little people stand in front of us so they could see and the show was great as usual!!

Almost time for another FP so we hung out at the Jungle Cruise for a bit until we could snag a FP for that.

Then it was time to wander aimlessly and take in the sights and sounds of the MK while waiting for 4:00 and the Space Mountain FP....

My poor mother, she had no idea she was about to be attacked......

I make sure that DD is next to me in all the pictures!!

Nice ride on the TTA which of course had no line even though the park was mobbed!!!


Princess DD waves to her adoring fans!!!!

I swear I could ride that thing over and over all day long...


Time to meet up with Fellow Dis'er and ride Space Mountain!!


All I can say is "Thank goodness for FP" because no way would I wait in that line!!!!

Had a great time zipping through the FP line like royalty and talking to my Disney/Facebook buddy in the meantime.

We parted ways with my buddy after that with plans to meet up at Epcot on a later date.

Plan was to walk down Main Street, and then ride the train all the way around the park, back track to Jungle Cruise for FP and then head out.


Heading down Main Street...

The train was a nightmare!!! It was packed beyond belief and people behind us came running in front of us to get on, so we had to wait for the next train!!! RUDE RUDE RUDE

Oh well....it's Disney, I had my Mickey Face on, so we kept smiling and just waited for the next train....

Back to the Jungle Cruise, we had a pretty boring CM, but it was still fun!!


Stopping for more pictures on the way out...

Up next the nightmarish trip back to the hotel which seemed like something out of the Twilight Zone!!!!

 

[goofy's_gurl]

got to love those last minute trips! they can be the best ever!! sounds like you had fun at MK.

 

[MichelleVW]

Ok.....left the park around 6ish and we were about 15 minutes away from our hotel tops. So we figured we would head back, find something to eat and chill out at the hotel and rest up for the next day.

Somehow we missed the back road by Animal Kingdom with the the shortcut which would take us back to our hotel on 192. No problem, we'll find it, I usually do well driving around Disney.

Somehow we made it back to 192 and nothing looked familiar, we kept driving up and down the street but couldn't find out hotel. At first it was funny, but then it got a little scary and weird!! I mean, we found it the night before at 1 in the morning, why couldn't we find it in the daylight when we had already been there???

Up and back, up and back....stopped at a gas station, lady in there had NO idea where the hotel was....try again, different store, still no idea how to get back to our hotel....

We drove up and down 192 for over an hour getting more worried and hungry by the minute.

Finally I called 411 and got the number to the hotel and my mom called to get directions, 411 put us through to the WRONG BEST WESTERN!! Thankfully when my mom was asking directions I said, "make sure it's BEST WESTERN LAKESIDE" and it wasn't, but thankfully we got directions.

Turns out if I just didn't go far enough down 192 because when we would hit 4 and Disney's World of Sports I thought I had gone too far and would turn around....DUH!! I just needed to go past that and then my hotel was right there!!

We were so tired and so hungry that we went into CiCi's next to the hotel. It honestly wasn't very good, but as emotionally drained as we were I just wanted to eat and get back to the room without getting lost again...

It was after 9:30 when we finally got back to the room....so much for early!!

We all crashed out so we could get up early for Animal Kingdom the next day!!

 

[MichelleVW]

Up early for the 10 minute drive to the Animal Kingdom from our hotel. As much as I like staying on site, I have no complaints about the driving time off site!


Of course there had to be a picture of DM and DD in front!

Went into the Rain Forest Cafe to check out their stuff before we went into the park. I was cold and left my jacket in the car, but ended up finding a jacket that I liked on sale!!! I have a major jacket buying fetish and was very excited to get one for only $25 when most Disney jackets are twice that!!


Took a picture of DD with her baby!!

Looked over to see them opening the glass doors that lead to the Rainforest Entrance so we got through the gate quickly and got ahead of this crowd!!!
I love knowing about that entrance!!

Stood there for a few minutes waiting for them to do the morning show and IT NEVER HAPPENED! They even let us in the park early!!! I guess being spring break they wanted to get people back in the park early. They just drove the little safari bus with the characters by and then opened the flood gates!!!

OMG, let me tell you, I have never in all of my Disney days seen anything so crazy. We had sent DD ahead to get FP's for EE and Mom and I were going to head toward the Standby line and meet up with her there. I'm used to a fast walk, but there were people RUNNING!! I'm not talking teenagers, I'm talking ADULTS RUNNING! It was crazy!! At one point I stuck out my elbow and about took out some teenager trying to run by me.

We finally made it to the standby line (still not 9 yet) and stood there and waited for DD. I called her and she said she was about 3 people back from the machine and would be over in a minute. People in the standby line were freaking out because the "LINE WASN'T MOVING" I turned around and told them that it wasn't 9 yet and I'm sure at 9 the line would start moving. Thankfully that seemed to calm the masses, I was afraid of an EE riot!!

Here's a view of the FP line about 10 minutes after they opened the gates!

DD came over with the FP's and then the line started moving!!! I think it took us maybe 10 minutes or so before we were on the ride. DD rode with my mom and I got a nice stranger from the single rider line!

Headed over to Dinosaur next, (what a way to get your blood pumping in the A.M!!)

Took this beauty on the way!!


My kid is so weird!!

Got in line for Dinosaur and then noticed that the line wasn't moving at all....CM came out and said they were having problems and they weren't sure when it would be fixed. GRRR....what do we do??? I think we waited maybe 10-15 minutes or so and then decided to come back to it later. My family doesn't wait in lines especially when we don't know how long it's going to be.

It was almost 9:40(time when I could get another FP). So we split up for a bit. DD and DM got in line for Primeval Hurl. The line said 15 minutes at that point. I headed over to get a safari FP while they waited to Hurl (I love that ride, but it makes me so sick that I just skip it now ).

Wandered over to get the FP and then sat down on a bench in front of ITTBAB and waited for them. Sat and people watched for awhile.....

Duck watched a little too!

I was waiting and waiting and waiting......called DD and she said they were still in line but should be there soon. FINALLY almost an hour later they showed up. They had to wait 45 minutes for a line that said 15 minutes....grrr..I hate when that stuff happens!

ANYWAY....we were at Disney so I put my Mickey Face back on and we headed into ITTBAB with NO WAIT AT ALL!!

Love love love this attraction and I really don't even think there were any terrified kids by me this time!


Now it's almost 11 so we decided to get some food before the restaurants got crowded. Headed over to Pizzafari and got some yummy lunch and beat the crowd!


Next was the safari.....I really miss the poacher stuff...I know it was cheesy, but we still miss it.

Had to wade through the people at the FP entrance who were there early blocking the way. Those people drive me nuts...they will not let you in a minute early so GET OUT OF MY WAY!!

Wandered through the trails after the safari....

Then it was off to see the Tigers.....my favorite!!

The first time we went I took a picture of DD here but didn't notice the Hidden Mickey until we got the pictures developed. (Back in the film days!) So now it's tradition to get a picture of her in this same spot every trip.

After the Safari we used our now expired FP and went on EE again (I'm such a rebel!! ). This time I rode with DD and Mom got to ride with the nice stranger.

Back over to check out the status of Dinosaur and thankfully it was running and the line wasn't very long. So we took a ride back in time and then we were pretty much done with AK.

Dinoland wasn't very crowded....

But this walkway was crazy!!!

I love this park, we don't do shows so we can do it at a leisurely pace and still be done early enough to head back for a nap/swim or both!!




me and mom on the way out, notice the lime green Mickey Head on my backpack....

Up next...pool bar and DTD...