Surprise your going to Disney! Our trip 7/3-7/5 2007 In Photos (Completed 7/14)

2angelsinheaven

Loves making dreams come true!
Joined
Jun 10, 2003
Messages
7,225
Who:
Myself, Darlene, 26 and a Disney addict!
My Fiance, John, 37 and a converted Disney addict thanks to me.

What:
A surprise trip to the world thanks to my lovely Dfiance who thought we needed some time away together.

When:
July 3rd - 5th 2007

Where:
AllStar Music and Port Orleans FQ
 
I'm calling this "Surprise your going to Disney!" because we only made plans for this trip about 30 minutes before heading to the world. :woohoo:

John had taken the week off of work because we had planed to go to California but those plans didn't work out so we had planned on just spending some time together going to the beach and watching movies, etc. And I had made reservation months ago for Ohana's for the 4th just incase California didn't happen, which I was now happy I had.

So fast forward to Tuesday morning I'm checking the DIS like normal and John says to me "hey want to go to Disney today", of course I replied "yes"! Then he asks if I'd like to stay over, of course I would, who wouldn't. So we get to work and are able to book the All Star Music resort for the night. While I'm on the phone John says "why don't you book a room for Wednesday night as well", see why I love this man! Sadly we had no luck, everything was booked except the Boardwalk and at $600 a night it wasn't happening. :scared1:

Of course I didn't care I was on cloud nine tonight I would be sleeping at Mickey's House! :cloud9:

While on the phone we also book a lunch reservation in Morocco, this will be a first for us.

We rush around like mad packing clothes, John tells me to be sure to pack extra just incase we luck into another night. Don't have to tell me twice I reply.

We finish packing, feed the kitties and turn everything off and are out by 11:30am.

On the way over we notice the sky is looking a little, well the reverse of this... :beach:

No fear, we push on and arrive at the All Star Music a bit after noon. John drops me off and heads to park the car. The line for check-in isn't bad at all and we are quickly entertained by the fun trivia on the line poles and make our way to Sam who checks us in and issues us our Keys To The World, he asks if I want to give John charging privileges, ok I guess...lol ;)

We are off to our room 8441 on the first floor of building 8 in the Broadway section. Great location not far from the pool or the parking lot and even though the resort was very busy due to the Holiday it was pretty quiet.

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We were happy to find that our room was remodeled (atleast compared to our stay in December) and snapped some photos to share here on the DIS.

We found this waiting on our bed...

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We loved the new bedspreads and colors in the room...

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Isn't this cute?

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New updated bathroom...

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A view of the room from the changing area...

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A few hidden Mickey's (the bedspread and the carpet)...

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The painting on the wall...

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To be countinued...
 
Ohhh I love the remodeled rooms! Very cute.

Your so lucky to live so close to Disney I wish I could make some last minute trips like that. I would be there every weekend I'm sure. ;)

Can't wait to read more! :goodvibes
 

Yeah, you are so lucky, that must have been so much fun!!!You said your fiance is a converted disney fan? How did you do it,
I am a disney fanatic and my dh tells me that Disney is not a vacation, it's work!!! My 2 sons and I love Disney so how do I convert my dh.
Can't wait for more of your tr.
 
Ohhh I love the remodeled rooms! Very cute.Your so lucky to live so close to Disney I wish I could make some last minute trips like that. I would be there every weekend I'm sure. ;) Can't wait to read more! :goodvibes

The rooms were so nice, more modern I guess is what I would call it. We love living so close.

I'm guessing you got that extra night pixiedust: Love the pictures.

Shhhhh...it's a secret...:rotfl: I was going to make it a surprise but I guess I kind of threw that out the window when I posted the dates, eh? Lol. We took lots of photos just for the DIS.

Yeah, you are so lucky, that must have been so much fun!!!You said your fiance is a converted disney fan? How did you do it, I am a disney fanatic and my dh tells me that Disney is not a vacation, it's work!!! My 2 sons and I love Disney so how do I convert my dh.
Can't wait for more of your tr.

Yes before we met he didn't care for Disney at all, infact it took lots of talking to him before he agreed to put down the $$$ for our first set of AP's a few years ago. But once he had gone a few times he was hooked, corny as it sounds he agrees that Disney is like another world, where else can you ride into space, meet a larger than life mouse and see Tink fly all in the same day? It's so magical and thats why we keep coming back. Here's some Pixie Dust :wizard: that your DH gets the Disney Bug soon as well.
 
After photographing every inch of our room we tore into our suitcase and unpacked, I was moving in I told John fingers crossed this would be our room for more than just tonight. John had other plans, like lunch, oh yeah Morocco. However both of us agreed it just wasn't in the cards today as it was way too hot to walk to the back of EPCOT we both agreed to go to the All Star Cafe instead. So I called dining and canceled our reservation and off we went.

We love the All Star Cafe, we have never had a wait here as it's kind of off the beaten path and it's ice cold and the food is yummy and reasonable.

As we pulled into the complex it looked very busy apparently there was a baseball event and some track events as well but we were happy to find there was not a wait for lunch. We were quickly seated in a glove booth, this was a first for us, sadly it was not the Tampa Bay Bucs booth John is always eyeing but it was very comfy and huge for the two of us.

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We normally get wings and nachos but John picked chicken strips instead and I got my favorite nachos, I actually considered getting a chilli cheese dog but the Nathan's Hot Dog contest was on the large screen and there was no way I could eat one after seeing that, ewwww. So nachos it was.

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Everything was really good and we finished it off with some desert, John got the apple pie which is more like a cobbler and I got the triple chocolate cake. So rich this stuff should be a sin...lol.

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We paid our check and headed out. Our plans were to head over to Typhon Lagoon as we had two passes but the sky looked pretty bad so we headed back to the resort to relax.

The sky looking a tad yucky...

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We arrived back and it was raining so we ended up watching some television together and just chatting about everything and anything. We don't get to spend too much time together so it was really nice. After an hour or so it seemed to be clearing up so we put on our suits and headed to the pool.

The pool however was closed due to the storm but we waited it out walking around the resort checking out the sights. Shortly thereafter we saw the signs removed from the pool and jumped in. It was really nice because we had the pool to ourselves. :love:

John being shy...

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We had a great time and the pool water was like a bath tub. After swimming we walked around and snapped some photos of the resort.

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The pool next to our building...

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Our Building #8...

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I LOVE the theming here, isn't this cool?

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To be continued...
 
After swimming we headed back to take a little nap and did some more talking. By now it was pushing 6pm and we thought about ordering some room service but instead we headed to Downtown Disney and the Hess station and ordered two pizzas and picked up some Krispy Kremes for breakfast. We headed back to the resort and found a closer parking spot and I called reservations to see if we could get a room for tomorrow night, still nothing. Oh well maybe it wasn't meant to be.

We had our pizza and watched the Lot and House and our plan was to go to the Magic Kingdom around 10pm for extra magic hours. Fast forward a bit and we were waking up to the sun rising, oh well I guess it's past 1am...lol. There would be no Magic Kingdom for us. That's ok we had dinner plans tonight at Ohana's during the fireworks and planned on going to the Magic Kingdom after that and we would spend the afternoon at DTD.

John and I relaxed and watched the ceremonies at MK taking place for the 4th on the morning news. Pretty touching. While John got ready I called reservations again, thinking I would get the same thing, sorry no rooms, I was surprised when I heard "we have Port Orleans French Quarter available for tonight". SCORE!!! I ran into the bathroom and scared the heck out of John I'm sure why replied "of course, book it!". I love this man!

I ran back to the phone and told the CM that we would love the room and sign us up. So our new plans were to pack up and head to POFQ for a nice day relaxing at the pool before dinner tonight. We were out of the room just before 10am and headed to POFQ to register. From the moment we drove in I knew we would love this resort, it's just really pretty and themed very well.

There was no line to check-in at all I guess we hit it just right and when I checked-in we were told our room was ready right now! Great! We noticed there was to be a pool party this afternoon to celebrate the 4th, cool we both though we would be going to this. So I gave John his KTTW and he was going to drive the car to the room while I walked to the room to snap some photos of the resort on my way.

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The grounds here are beautiful, you have to see it to appreciate how nice it really is. Infact both days we saw CM's cutting trees, triming bushes, etc. It's very well kept and quiet as well.

Here is our building #7.

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And the street we stayed on.

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I find our room #7334, on the 3rd floor and start snapping photos to share with our DIS friends.

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The view from our room.

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A cute little towel animal on the bathroom shelf.

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The cozy beds.

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And some of the hidden Mickey's in the room...

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John came in a bit after me after getting a little turned around, guess I should have told him the room number, eh? =o)

Both of us are ready to head out for the day so we put up our luggage and head out to The Crossroads area for some lunch befor heading to see what was going on at our company picnic. We arrived there but it was pretty hot and there wasn't much going on out of the norm so we both agreed we'd rather hang out at the resort and enjoy the pool.

So back to POFQ we went. We made our way to the pool, me the shutterbug with camera in hand in my new drypak I got for the cruise.

The pool was pretty busy I guess everyone else had the same idea to cool off in the hot Florida heat. We didn't really see anything going on for the mentioned pool party for the 4th but then again it was pretty dark out again so we figured it had been canceled and we missed the announcement. I tried to get John to go down the slide...

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But it wasn't happening...lol.

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Instead we hung out under this cool fountain in the pool.

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And snapped a few self portraits...

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And a few more random pool photos...

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Then we saw some frantic action on the part of the CM's, John and I looked at each other and said in unison "they're closing it down". Sure enough the whistle blew and everyone was ordered out due to an incoming storm. Ugh! We were told the pool party would take place in the lobby as everyone had to clear the pool deck as well. So off we went in our dripping suits into the ICE COLD lobby...lol. We didn't see much going on except a game of bingo and some kids making braclets so we headed to check out the rest of the lobby area and food court. The foodcourt has these really huge heads hanging everywhere which border between really cool and really weird...lol. It's certainly Mardi Gras.

We figured maybe the storm would clear soon so we headed over to the poolside bar and John tried a Captain's Mai Tai which he really enjoyed, nothing interested me and since we were going to Ohana's tonight I figured I'd enjoy something then. We hung around for a bit longer and realized it was going to be awhile so we agreed to head back to the room for a nap before dinner as we planned to go to MK afterwards till 1am.

We got back and fell asleep quickly in the comfy beds, up next Ohana's, INCREDIBLE fireworks and MK after dark....
 
The best thing about this trip are the little surprise along the way. It's not a dull moment when I go to WDW with Darlene. I hope she remember about our almost brush with an NBA star while at Ohana's. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures and keeps coming back to read more, but for now its back to the grind for me.
 
Love the quickie report! Thanks for the pics of ASMu, staying there in Sept. I hope we get a remodeled room!
 
You trip sounds great...so relaxing. I need to take notes! I always feel like I need a vacation AFTER Disney.
 
The best thing about this trip are the little surprise along the way. It's not a dull moment when I go to WDW with Darlene. I hope she remember about our almost brush with an NBA star while at Ohana's. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures and keeps coming back to read more, but for now its back to the grind for me.

Thanks baby...:love: Hope your having a good night/day at work, see you soon.

Love the quickie report! Thanks for the pics of ASMu, staying there in Sept. I hope we get a remodeled room!

We were very happy with ASMu, the theming was really cool and the larger than life icons were pretty neat. We really enjoyed our room as it was a bit off the path it was very quiet and we loved the new bedspreads and furniture. I'm sure you could request one of these rooms when you check-in, although it wouldn't be gty'd. I hope you enjoy every minute of your trip.

You trip sounds great...so relaxing. I need to take notes! I always feel like I need a vacation AFTER Disney.

We normally are at the park from am to pm but we both agreed to relax and enjoy the resort this time and are planning on doing the same in the future. I told John last night I'd like to do a week or so of just checking out the different resorts and their pools, etc.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask, I love talking about Disney (as if you can't tell)...:yay:
 
Ohhh thats so exciting you got that second night! POFQ is beautiful. Looks like you had a great time hanging around the pool....well till the storm came. :) Can't wait to hear about your night at the MK
 
"Wake up it's time for Fireworks"

Something stirred me from my sleep at 5:30pm before the alarm had been set to go off at 6:30pm for our dinner reservations at Ohana's at 8:20pm. I rolled over and tapped John and told him to get up it was fireworks time! Ohana's for fireworks has become our tradition, for the 4th of July, Holidays, Birthday's, etc we love the view and the food there doesn't hurt either...lol.

I adore fireworks and could watch them all day, I'm one of those saps who cries at Wishes in the MK and who the song at the end of illuminations gets me as well. Oh and don't get me started on Fantasmic, love, love, love it. John on the other hand doesn't mind watching them but can't stand the sound because it reminds he too much of when he served in the Gulf War so our compromise a few years ago was to try to watch them from a location outside of the park. Thanks to some wonderful information I found here on the DIS we tried Ohana's and have been going back ever since.

I can't recall how many times we've done Ohana's for fireworks but it's just as magical every time.

So both of us roll out of bed and get ready, we both think that even though we had planned on leaving about 7pm to head to Ohana's the sooner we could get out of here the better since we both were sure it was going to be busy at the parks where we would have to make a bus switch.

I grabbed the camera and a few pins incase we managed to see any good ones tonight to trade and off we went. We moved our car up to the front next to the buses so that we wouldn't have to walk all the way back to the room late tonight and we headed over to the bus depot. I figured we'd jump on the first bus we saw and go from there. Up pulled an almost empty bus going to MGM so we hopped on and off we went. From POFQ the bus headed to POR to pick up a few more people but by the time we got to the final POR stop I think most everyone had actually gotten off and it was just us and two families heading to MGM.

There was a very sweet couple and their children visiting from China who spoke very little English, she asked us if the bus was going to MGM and we told her yes, they had no idea about the special fireworks tonight for our 4th of July so we explained they should see them as MGM only has them a few times a year. They were very happy with the suggestion and said they would follow us so they wouldn't get lost. =o)

When we got to MGM there were two CM's standing next to the TTC bus depot saying that if you were not a AP or Resort guest MK was now closed due to capacity. Checking my watch it was about 6:30pm. Both of us headed off to the Poly's stop which happened to be right next to ours, what luck!

The bus didn't take long at all but the ride there seemed too. When we pulled onto the street in front of MK there was a line of cars 20+ deep trying to pull into the Poly. We all figured this must have been since the parking lot to MK had been closed unless you were a Ap or resort guest people were trying to get in here and most were being turned around. We even saw two vans pull in between our bus and the guard shack trying to bypass the security guard, brave people.

After what seemed like forever we finally pulled into the resort and headed to the elevator. Time now 7:15pm, yikes! I was on a mission, I wanted to make sure we checked in with plenty of time before our reservation to score a window seat after all that was the plan. We checked in and explained our request very nicely, we were asked if we would wait till 9pm for the best seat in the house, of course I replied.

The lobby area was really busy lots of people trying to get in without reservations but Ohana's had been sold out for weeks. While we waited we chatted with some people from Britain who were on their first trip, how magical that must have been for them.

Around 8:25pm our buzzer went off, not too bad. We were shown to our table but when we sat down my heart sank.....it was a table turned sideways all the way at the back against a wall. There was little to no view of the lagoon and no view of the castle. I was about to give in when John spotted three open tables right front and center in front of the window. I walked over and asked the seater if we could be seated there, he spoke with someone else and said it would be their pleasure. YAHOO! Our tradition will not be broken. Major Kudos to CM Angel who helped us out, you made our night!

So there we were right in front of the window with Cindy's castle directly in front of us and 20 minutes till go time! We met our server Brandon who was great and we had our starters pretty quickly. The new wontons are soooo good, especially dipped in the peanut sauce, yumo!

I was getting super excited at this point the 4th of July fireworks at the Magic Kingdom are incredible and beyond words. They are shot of around the castle, behind the castle, and 360 degrees around the lagoon.

I check my watch and it's 8:58pm, John pulls up a chair next to me and we sit hand in hand as we hear the music come on the speakers in Ohanas and the water parade pulls in front of the window and lights up with American flags.

And then they start....





 
There were fireworks going off from every direction, very cool! I think I may have even seen tears in John's eyes it was a very moving show and made me super proud to be an American on the 4th.

After the fireworks we finished up our meal, which was really good. My plans were to head right to EPCOT to try to catch Illuminations but we had overheard that they were closed due to capacity as well and figured we'd skip trying to get in and just enjoy the entertainment in Ohana's and head to MK afterwards as it was to be open till 1am.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, we were seated next to Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat and his family, they seemed like really sweet people.

Some video of our Ohana entertainment...



And then the entertainer called for all those in love to come up to the dance floor. We John surprised me when he stood up (he doesn't like to dance) and walked me out to the dance floor. Ok more tears, it was very romantic. Brandon our server took some photos for us. We danced to Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling In Love.

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After our dance we were each given a hawaiian lei and after paying our bill we headed out to the monorail, we both agree we have to try the Poly sometime it seems like it would be so easy to get to the parks, etc.
 
When we arrived in MK it was packed, we're talking wall to wall people waiting for Spectro magic. This would be our first experience with going to the parks on a major holiday. We were directed to go through the backstage gate next to Tony's and walked backstage past Mainstreet all the way to the gate next to Buzz Lightyear. We were surprised to see only a 20 minute wait for Buzz so we hopped right on.

I of course kicked John's butt and on the way out I snapped this photo of a hidden stitch in the painting in the gift shop.

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All of the attractions had minimal waits with the exception of the mountains who were holding strong at 90-105 minute waits but everything else had a 10-20 minute wait. NICE!

I know on DCL the characters have special costumes for the holidays so I was determined to find out if this was the case at MK as well. So we headed off to Toon Town, but when we arrived there we were told no go. Oh well, another reason to book another cruise.

The train was closed so we headed over to Fantasyland and on the way we found this super cool hidden Mickey in the pavement.

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I snapped a photo of the area it was in as well, although it's a bit blurry...lol

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When we got to fantasyland we had minimal waits as well and I dragged John off to ride The many adventures of Winnie The Pooh, which I love. In line we ran into a couple who we found out actually lived a few streets from me back in 2000, small world. Our wait was about 10 minutes and then we were on.

We had planned on a long night in MK but after our huge meal at Ohanas neither of us were feeling up to it so we agreed to head to Main Street. We stopped in the art shop under the castle to drool over all the wonderful pieces in there and then stopped to take some photos of the castle in all it's Red White and Blue glory.

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And a rather blurry shot of the crowd on Main Street.

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And a few more shots of the 4th of July castle...

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Then we were stopped by the photopass photographer who took this shot of us. Awe!

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We took our time walking down Mainstreet visiting the shops and wishing the CM's a Happy 4th and thanking them for working so we all could enjoy such a nice evening. We spoke to one near Casey's who said after the fireworks everyone was directed through her area and the count was well over 15,000. WOW! :eek: So happy we had watched from Ohanas.

So we headed back to the bus stop and bid MK farewell around 12:30am. For some reason we didn't get a bus for a long time, POR in the meantime got 3. :confused3 Strange but when the bus did come we all had a seat which was nice after a long night. We arrived back at the resort a bit after 1am and drove back to our room. At this point we were both wired from all the excitement and stayed up watching a bit of Nancy Grace and some comedy show before falling asleep to dream about our night.

To be continued...
 
Your dinner with the fireworks sounds amazing! How romantic...

You guys sound like such a great couple...so in love!

I'm excited to hear the rest.
 




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