That's Olaf... Not ET! Jan '17 Mom/Dtr TR COMPLETED 2/1/17

[iheartbelle87]

Welcome to my January 2017 Trip Report!

If you are joining me for the first time in forever ...welcome! I love meeting new faces!

And if you are coming over from my PTR (link in my signature) it's so nice to see familiar faces again!!

We checked out of CSR at 3:50 this morning. I'm exhausted but so ready to write this TR and share all the fun we had, thousands of calories consumed and steps walked.

Highlights of the trip include attending the first day of the first ever Epcot International Festival of the Arts, first time doing rope drop (x2!), first PPO ADR, first time experiencing dole whips AND BOG x2.., and some other surprises!

Plus, lots of photos

Now.... on with the show !


CHAPTERS

Introductions

5 Ws

Pre Travel Day/Day 1: Part 1

Day 1 Part 2 Animal Kingdom

Day 1 Part 2 Sanaa

Day 2 Part 1 : Disney Springs

Day 2 Part 2: Disney's Hollywood Studios

BONUS CHAPTER: We're Going Back!

Day 3 Part 1 : Epcot

Day 3: Part 2 Epcot, cont.

Day 4: MK: First PPO ADR, BOG & 7DMT walk on!

DAy 4 Part 2: Magic Kingdom, cont.

Day 4 Part 3: Magic Kingdom, cont.

Day 4 Part 3: BOG Dinner/URL]

Daprture/Final Thoughts​

 

[iheartbelle87]

INTRODUCTIONS

This was a girls trip, just my mom and I

MOM 53 year old hospital biller, cat lover, and most importantly my travel partner! She lives in northern New Hampshire with my dad and the cat I rescued while I was in high school and now she refuses to give her back (haha)

We've been to Disney many many times together - basically once or twice a year from 2000-2012.

Before that, Mom had been to Disney many times while she was growing up and even took me as a little kid a few times too, but the annual trips didn't start until was 12.

Name: Mom
Favorite Disney Park: Epcot
Favorite Disney Resort: Beach Club
Favorite Disney Movie: Beauty & The Beast
Favorite Disney Character: Piglet
Favorite Ride in Magic Kingdom: Haunted Mansion
Favorite Ride in Epcot: Soarin’
Favorite Ride in Hollywood Studios: Toy Story Mania
Favorite Ride in Animal Kingdom: Kilamanjaro Safari
Favorite Disney Restaurant: Biergarten
MISC: Mom has allergies to milk and shellfish


ME I'm Ashlee, 29 year old registered nurse. I work in family medicine at a primacy care office during the day and will be starting my FINAL semester of graduate school on January 26th! I've been studying to be a family nurse practitioner for the last 14 months. After working as an RN for 8 years I decided I wanted more autonomy so that's why I went back to school.

I live in a suburb just north of Boston with my husband and our fur baby, Owen!

Name: Ashlee aka the narrator of this TR!
Favorite Disney Park: Epcot
Favorite Disney Resort: Grand Floridian
Favorite Disney Movies: Beauty & The Beast
Favorite Disney Character: Marie
Favorite Ride in Magic Kingdom: BTMRR
Favorite Ride in Epcot: Soarin’
Favorite Ride in Hollywood Studios: Toy Story Mania
Favorite Ride in Animal Kingdom: Kali River Rapids
Favorite Disney Restaurant: Boma ​

 

[BippityBrittany]

joining in for the first time ever! can't wait to read more

love mother/daughter trips, they are the best!

 

[rmw1313]

Joining in!! You are way more motivated to write than I am LOL!!

 

[MuppetFanJM]

Joining in! I'm planning a mother/daughter trip myself and am in need of some inspiration!

 

[ariane37]

Hi Ashlee, sounds like you had a great trip! Can't wait to hear all about it

 

[iheartbelle87]

joining in for the first time ever! can't wait to read more

Hi, welcome, so glad to have you here! Love the frozen references! ️

love mother/daughter trips, they are the best!

Yes !! Welcome!!

Joining in!! You are way more motivated to write than I am LOL!!

Hi!! Haha, I think I'm running on fumes at this point!

Joining in! I'm planning a mother/daughter trip myself and am in need of some inspiration!

Yay, so glad to have you here and hope you can find some inspiration here- I'm confident you will!

Hi Ashlee, sounds like you had a great trip! Can't wait to hear all about it

Hi!!! Yes we did, such a great time! Glad to have you here

 

[iheartbelle87]

5 Ws

Welcome back- it's so nice to see new and familiar faces. Thanks for readings!

Before we get too deep into the trip, here are the 5 Ws of this trip

WHO: Well, we kind of already addressed this... Mom and I

WHAT: A girls Disney trip

WHEN: January 11- January 15 2017

WHERE: Disney's Coronado Springs Resort

WHY: Because sometimes you just need some Mickey & Minnie in your life!



​

 

[iheartbelle87]

Pre Travel Day/Day 1: Part 1

January 10th was our pre travel day, and luckily the day went by quickly

Because Mom lives 4 hours from Boston she traveled via bus from New Hampshire to South Station. She arrived in Boston around 12:30pm and took a taxi to the hotel I arranged for us to stay at the night before we left for Disney. I was working all day, but we kept in touch via Facebook messenger throughout the day which made my work day go by quickly!

Mom is NOT a city person and this was her first time taking a taxi by herself. She took a taxi from South Station to the hotel we stayed at the night of the 10th, which was only 1.9 miles away. Welll... funny story. She accidentally got into someones car that may or may not have been a cab! Apparently she got into the car and then realized it did not look like a cab, so she attempted to get out of the car, but the driver tried to convince her that he was a cab and wanted to show her proof of this on his phone. But the car was unmarked. I have no idea why she got into the car in the first place. She was able to get out of the 'cab' and get into a marked taxi and make it safely to the Sheraton. We had a good laugh about this... once she was safely in the hotel room.




Meanwhile, I was at work until 5:45pm and then I went home to meet DH, who then drove me into Boston. I got to the Sheraton right around 7pm and after a few snuggles and kisses goodbye to DH and our fur baby I was officially on vacation! Mom was waiting in the room for me and sent me our room number via facebook messeger. I bypassed the check in desk and headed straight to the elevator- only to find you can't use the elevator unless you have a room card. Fortunately, there was nice couple that got onto the elevator with me and I used their card to press '7' - the floor Mom told me we were on. The other couple stayed on to their destination to floor 14...

Well, I knocked on the door that Mom told me we were staying in. Nothing. Knocked again- no answer. I finally pulled out my phone and asked her to come let me in- she said 'oops, floor 17!'. I proceeded back to said elevator and it wouldn't let me go to floor 17! At this point it's 7:15 and I'm STARVING. We have to be awake by 2:30am. Luckily I was able to take the elevator to the lobby, wait in line and get a room key. Phew.

I proceeded up to floor 17 and Mom greeted me in the hallway- why she didn't meet me on the 7th floor, I have no idea! hah!

I quickly dropped off my bag and we headed to grab a quick dinner- we settled on SweetGreens as one of my co workers has been RAVING about their Gaucamole Greens salad which both Mom and I ordered. We took our salads back to the hotel room and thoroughly enjoyed them! After a few episodes of 'Little People, Big World' we were asleep by 10pm with our alarms set for 2:30am.


Just four and a half short hours later, our alarms went off. Mom showered and made herself coffee. I stumbled out of bed, took a quick shower, threw my hair into a bun and we were out the door by 3:40am. Luckily there was a line of (real) cabs outside the hotel and we took one to the airport. 20 minutes later we were in line to drop off our bags and head to security. Security didn't open until 4:25am, so we had to wait in line for about 15 minutes. All went well with security and we each got a coffee and oatmeal from Starbucks before we boarded the plane. We left Boston about six minutes later than scheduled because people would not sit down. In fact the captain kept coming over the loud speaker literally saying 'You all need to sit down. If you don't sit down in your seats we can't leave on time and we'll miss our departure time!". It was kind of funny... because what the heck were people doing?!

Otherwise our flight was uneventful and we landed in Orlando around 9am. We met our driver at baggage claim, collected our bags and before we knew it, we saw this!



Up next... Day 1: Part 2!
​

 

[ariane37]

I'm about your mom getting in the *ahem* "cab", because I'm closer to her age than yours and it's something I'd probably do!!! Thank goodness she got out lol!!
Very annoying on people not sitting down so the plane could take off. I find it annoying when I'm waiting to get on the plane, as in I'm ON the plane but not at my seat yet, because people are trying to shove HUGE bags into the overhead compartments That can take forever and it's worse when they start boarding early and you know you could take off early if these people wouldn't have jammed 8 days of stuff into a carry-on!!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Day 1: Part 2
Animal Kingdom

Welcome back, readers! We're moving right along in this TR

We last left off with Mom and I arriving at Disney's Coronado Springs - our home for the next four days! This is probably our favorite moderate resort, although in all fairness we haven't stayed at POR in over 15 years. BUT that is all about to change for me, because DH and I are going back to Disney in May, staying at POR! I'll be starting the PTR soon (in between this TR, work and oh yeah.. .grad school, haha!)

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was after a 90 minute nap on the plane I woke up and realized that JetBlue offers Fly-Fi. I was able to get it to work on my phone but not my mac book for some reason... anyway, I checked my email and realized that Disney Destinations emailed me at 7:36am saying that our room was ready! woo hoo! We were assigned rooms 4360 in Casitas 4. AND this was considered an upgrade, as we booked a standard room and were given a water view! This was the view from our room:


We arrived at CSR around 10:30am and headed straight to our room, dropped off our bags, changed and headed out to Animal Kingdom. I was STARVING at this point but was willing to hold out for Flame Tree BBQ as I've heard so many good things about this QS, BUT I wasn't too sure about Mom- she gets hangry. She agreed that we could go straight to AK instead of getting lunch at the Pepper Market.

According to my notes, we arrived at AK at 11:07am and quickly made our way to Flame Tree BBQ. This was our first time eating here- it was so good! There was no wait and they had the allergy friendly menu that Mom could order off of- win win! I ordered the ribs, chicken and pulled pork combo and thoroughly enjoyed myself! I would say that the ribs were my favorite and would order just them next time. Mom ordered just the ribs which she also enjoyed. The person who waited on us offered us desert, even tho I didn't think it was included with the 2017 DDP. We both got the allergy friendly cookies and saved them for later. Even tho I don't have allergies I figured these were easy to take "to go".

Now that our bellies were full, it was time to finally do something! We had a 12:35 FP+ for "Its Touh To Be A Bug" but it was only 12:15. The wait time was only 10 min so we decided to just do standby by for this attraction. I love this show! I was cracking up the entire time and it really began to feel like we were at the happiest place on earth!

Next up we made our way to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Of course we passed by Kali River Rapids which is closed for refurb. I love this ride! Mom made a snarky comment about how upset (not really!) she was to be missing this ride! I assured her next time she's owes me TWO rides on this!

We saw lots of buffalo, meet cats, a few tigers and many fruit bats! The fruit bats started a theme for the day... elomination. The bats were very active, stretching and eating...and peeing!!! At least four of the bats starting urinating. Ew. Here's a pic of one of the little buggers:


After our Jungle Trek we realized we had JUST missed the 2pm 'Flights of Wonder'. Boo. We decided to check out the Pangani Exploration Trail to help pass the time before the 3:30pm show. We were able to see lots of gorillas, including two babies that were playing together and being silly. Swoon

At the end of our trail, a lady offered to take our picture together so we couldn't pass up the opportunity! I'm pretty sure this was at the end of the Pangani Exploration Trail but it could have been from the Maharajah Jungle Trek... I'm sure someone will let me know?



After our wild walks through Asia and Africa, we did some shopping and made our way to the Flights of Wonder. Both Mom and I LOVE this show - we even had many jokes throughout the week because we saw so many tour groups with 'flags' like they feature in the show haha!

Once this was done we decided to make a few changes to our plans- it was about 4pm and we didn't feel like using our FP+ for FOTLK. We've both seen in many times and were getting tired. We had a 5:35pm-6:35pm FP+ for Kilimanjaro Safari which we changed to 4:15-5:15pm. We also changed our Sanaa dinner reservations from 6:50pm to 5:40pm.

With those things sorted out we made our way to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Mom refers to this as "Rafki". No matter how many times I tell her its 'Rafiki"! We were able to meet "Rafki" himself:


Then it was time to go outside and pet some goats! And now there are donkeys, warthogs and chicken to say hi to as well! I took some pretty funny selfies with a goat... or is it a sheep? I have no idea.



Then Mom noticed there was one goat that just kept following her and seemed to be giving her a dirty look :



I think it's safe to say we had too much fun with these animals!

We washed our hands and took the train back to the mainland just in time for our safari FP+. We didn't even need the FP+ - we walked right onto our bus! We saw the usual animals. I tried to really just live in the moment and not take too many pictures because I have TONS of them from this attraction.

Dad called us as we got off the ride so we found a spot to sit and say hi to him around the Kusafaii Bakery. I knew Dad had a cold and wasn't feeling well, but all of a sudden hear mom say to him:
"What?! You were in the hospital?! You need to tell Ashlee!"

Automatically my heart sank. Would we have to fly back home? Did he have pneumonia? What is wrong with him?! I almost ripped the phone of Moms hands

Well, Dad drives an 18 wheeler truck filled with logs. He was at work and attempting to take the tarp off the top of his trailer (something he has done multiple times a day for 45+ years). One of the large metal cables snapped and hit him in the face. Dad is not someone that goes to the doctors for every little thing- in fact last year when he had a concussion I had to convince him to STAY in the ER while waiting for his CT results!!

Anyway, Dad drove himself to the ER and he said they glued the cut on his nose. But he said he had two black eyes. Then he said he only called to tell us 'incase the neighbor put something on Facebook'. lol!!

With all that excitement of the day it was time to head out of AK and towards AKL for our first time in forever ADR at Sanaa!

Next up... Day 1: Part 3 Sanaa
​

 

[iheartbelle87]

I'm about your mom getting in the *ahem* "cab", because I'm closer to her age than yours and it's something I'd probably do!!! Thank goodness she got out lol!!
Very annoying on people not sitting down so the plane could take off. I find it annoying when I'm waiting to get on the plane, as in I'm ON the plane but not at my seat yet, because people are trying to shove HUGE bags into the overhead compartments That can take forever and it's worse when they start boarding early and you know you could take off early if these people wouldn't have jammed 8 days of stuff into a carry-on!!

Haha so glad you enjoyed that story

And yes the darn carry ons! No kne could find overheard space, I just wanted to gooooo!

 

[Mollydolly334]

Following along!!

Loving the TR so far!! Haha, "Rafki" sounds like something my mom would say... On our entire trip she referred to Test Track as "Fast Track", no matter how many times I corrected her

Your view at CSR is beautiful!!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Hi, so glad to have you here! I'm DYING about 'fast track'... I can only imagine if all went on a trip together what we would hear! haha!

Following along!!

Loving the TR so far!! Haha, "Rafki" sounds like something my mom would say... On our entire trip she referred to Test Track as "Fast Track", no matter how many times I corrected her

Your view at CSR is beautiful!!

Hi, so glad to have you here! I'm DYING about 'fast track'... I can only imagine if all went on a trip together what we would hear! haha!

 

[MuppetFanJM]

I love love love to pet the animal over at Rafiki's. I always feel awkward tho because its only me and the little kids over there. LOL

It sounds like your AK day had zero waiting times, which is awesome! I've never watched the "Bird Show" but so many people like it I might change my mind and schedule it for the next time we go.

Hope your dad is feeling better!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Day 1 Part 3: Sanaa

After reading so many great reviews about Sanaa, Mom and I decided that we decided to try this place out. We both LOVE Boma (although maybe me more than her...). We left Animal Kingdom around 5:20pm and took a Disney Transportation bus to AKL. The first stop was Kidani, so we hopped off the bus just in time at 5:37pm. We got a little 'lost' in the lobby but we found a mousekeeper also wandering the halls and he was kind enough to let us know we needed to take the elevator to first floor (you are on the 2nd floor when you enter the lobby).

We checked in at the podium and were seating immediately. I was kind of bummed we weren't seated next to a window and therefore did not have a view of the animals during our meal. I did manage to get a glimpse of a giraffe on my way to the bathroom mid meal, tho.

The hostess gave us our menus and let us know our server would be right with us. I asked for the allergy menu for mom and they happily brought it over to us. Our waitress came over and we each ordered a glass of wine - I tried the pinot grigio and Mom ordered one of the alternative blend reds. We both enjoyed our wine very much. I wanted a cocktail but I also really wanted to try some South African wine more.

Our server informed us about the infamous bread service, and the table next to us ordered this and it looked DELICIOUS! Mom was hesitant as it isn't on DDP and we already had so much food that we could order that would be included. Plus, the waitress said that only a few of the dipping sauces would be dairy free so we decided against this.



* I made a mental note to come back here with DH, order a cocktail and the bread service*

Mom ordered the New York Strip Steak, which she said was very good and she especially loved the mashed potatoes.


I had the Braaivleis - South African Braai Sampler Plate- trio of grilled meats with Seasonal Accompaniments


This was delicious! I enjoyed the sausage the most but everything was so good, even the brussel sprouts which I don't normally like! I'm not sure this is a must do for every trip but I would certainly return here again.


Remember the peeing bats and pooping goats?
Well the table next to us was a mother, grandmother and a little girl, maybe 3-4 years ago. They did not speak English (at least to each other) during the time we were eating next to them. EXCEPT for mid meal when the little girl kept repeating 'Mama- poop. I have to poo poo". At least 10 times! Bodily fluids don't bother me and at this point I was so exhausted Mom and I were laughing.


We both decided to get the tapioca pudding to go for our desserts. Once we finished our meal we headed back up to the lobby and found a bus to AK and then got onto another bus bound for CSR. The bus from AKL to AK was FREEZING even though I had a sweatshirt on. We made it back to our room right around 7:45pm. We were both exhausted but heard a few loud 'bangs' outside our door so I opened up to see what was going on.. and we were both pleasantly surprised to see fireworks from DHS! It was such a nice way to end the day. Both of us showered and then Mom unpacked her suitcase but I was too exhausted so I laid in bed, ate the tapioca pudding and fell asleep soon after.

Next up...

Day 2 Part 1: Disney Springs

​

 

[iheartbelle87]

Day 2, Part 1: Disney Springs

Welcome back my trusty readers- I hope you are all enjoying this ride!

We left off last time with Mom and I ending our first day with being able to see the fireworks from the balcony near our room- what a great way to end our first day!

I had planned for us to sleep in on day 2, then head over to check out Disney Springs before heading to DHS for the afternoon/evening. Mom was awake by 6:30am- and blow drying her hair. I guess I'm glad she was excited? LOL

I woke up, had some in room coffee in bed and slowly made my way into the shower to get ready for the day around 8am. We then headed over to the Pepper Market with plans for a QS breakfast, only to find that we both really just wanted oatmeal which was a snack credit we did that! It was very good- I forgot to grab a photo, but I'm sure you can imagine what a bowl of oatmeal looks like! haha!

We still had some time to kill before Disney Springs opened so we went back to our room and I believe Mom dropped off her refillable mug but I had just filled mine with more coffee so I brought mine with me to the bus stop. We took some photos around the resort on our way to bus stop #2 and hopped on a Disney Springs bus by 9:37am. I LOVE the new screens that they have for the buses! Now if only they had them in the parks...

We arrived in Disney Springs before 10am, so we walked around and made note of what stores we wanted to visit and by the time we made it to the World of Disney the stores were starting to open. So naturally we started at the World of Disney and made our way to most of the stores. My favorite is the Christmas store, although I didn't get anything. Around 11am our bellies were starting to grumble and we found ourselves at Erin McKenna's Bakery which is PERFECT for MOM! We've actually visited her location in SOHO as well so it was fun to see this the new space in Disney Springs compared to her previois spot in in Downtown Disney. Mom got the Thin Mint cookie and thoroughly enjoyed herself. I opted for the chocolate chip cookie sandwich and ate almost all of it but at the end of it I just felt like I had enough.

As we continued to shop I noticed my right ear was a little sore when I swallowed and all of a sudden I started getting goosebumps and chills. I knew it wasn't the typical warm Florida days we are used to, but I thought it was weird to be cold at 75. I asked Mom if she was cold and she wasn't. I tried not to let her know I wasn't feeling well because I didn't want her to worry. I also have a panic disorder so I started wondering if I was having a panic attack? Although I wasn't nervous... thats the beauty of a panic DISORDER if you panic over nothing. At any time.

Our last stop was at the Coca Cola store and I'm SO glad we got to shop here. My FIL works for Coca Cola and the company essentially paid for DHs college education I hope someday we can come back here with in laws. Again, we didn't end up buying anything but it was such a cool store! I'm adding this as a must do for my trip in May with DH and definitely getting some drinks at the beverage bar!

By 12:30 I was feeling better and Mom and I were ready to move onto Hollywood Studios.

Sorry I didn't grab any pics here!

Up next... Day 2 Part 2 DHS​

 

[iheartbelle87]

I love love love to pet the animal over at Rafiki's. I always feel awkward tho because its only me and the little kids over there. LOL

It sounds like your AK day had zero waiting times, which is awesome! I've never watched the "Bird Show" but so many people like it I might change my mind and schedule it for the next time we go.

Hope your dad is feeling better!

Haha don't feel bad about being the only adult ! Last time DH and I went he tried to play with their toys with them and a cast member told him not to! Haha!

Yes, the lines were so short it was great!

Thanks!!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Day 2 Part 2: Disney's Hollywood Studios

Thanks for joining along everyone! It's been a week since we got home from our trip, where does the time go?!

We last left off with Mom and I leaving DS and heading to DHS. We hopped a bus from Disney Springs to the Boardwalk and then we took a friendship boat to DHS, which was a nice break for our feet since we did quite a bit of walking at DS. The weather was really mild and it also felt good to not be dying of heat while we were there. Once we entered DHS I was started to feel better and used a snack credit for some popcorn (yum!) and Mom used one for a large coke. We wanted to watch the new Star Wars show in front of the Chinese theater but had about 15 min before the show started we watched some Citizens of Hollywood do magic tricks.

Mom and I watched the (? new) Star Wars show and both enjoyed it, but honestly we don't know anything about Star Wars (I know, I know!) so afterwards we were both laughing that neither of us really knew what was going on

Up next we headed over to Beauty & The Beast! Mom and I LOVE this show and its a must do every time we visit. Again, it wasn't scorching (maybe 73?) so it was refreshing to sit on the bleachers without melting. We purposely sat behind a woman and her two small kids because we're both short (I'm 5'1, Mom is 5'3) and didn't want to chance someone tall sitting in front of us and blocking our view. Well... our plan failed. Kind of. The little girl in front of me (she was about 7) kept standing up to take pictures and therefore blocking my view. A lot. I kept scooting over and trying to see better, which helped. At one point I wanted to nicely ask her mom if she could maybe have her kid sit or move a little but I decided against this because people can be testy and I didn't want to upset anyone. Thoughts? What would you have done?



After the show it was time to use our Star Tours: The Adventure Continues FP+. Again, this was our first time experiencing this ride since it was refurbished. We both loved the older version and this one was just as fun! Both of us were laughing so hard during this ride, IDK why tho!

I had been watching the wait time for meeting Olaf throughout the day and it hadn't dropped below 35 min. Mom has never seen Frozen, and 35 min just seemed like a long time to wait. Once we were done with Star Tours I checked the MDE app and it said a 20 min wait! SCORE! We headed over to meet Olaf... and this is where this trip report got its name!

I had grabbed some Disney character stickers at my work (I'm a nurse) that we give to our pediatric patients to wear during our vacation... no judging, right?! Well both Mom and I had Olaf stickers on our tops this day. When it was our turn to meet the cute little snowman, Mom entered first for some reason and Olaf immediately started to point at her sticker. Well, Mom had no idea what he was doing so she held up her finger to his stick finger and it looked something like this...




I. WAS. DYING. The woman kills me and keeps me in stitches. I explained to her that Olaf was pointing to her sticker (of him!) and she was laughing! We got a few pictures and then let others meet Olaf/ET...



Now that we got THAT our of systems it was time for more laughter... Muppet Vision 3D! There was cast member outside the theater letting everyone know it was 3 min before show time but I think we waited less than this. I hope the on again/off again rumors of this show closing are false! Although maybe a refurb would be ok...

We shopped around for a while and then used our Toy Story Mania FP+ - both of us wish we could ride this 10 times a day! I don't remember our scores but it was a lot of fun. It was still a little early for our 4:50pm ADR at Hollywood & Vine (I think it was 4:35) but decided to head over there anyway and check in. We waited about 10 min and then got seated.

This was both of our first times eating here, and we took advantage of the Fantasmic DP. This was our first time doing a character meal in about 15 years. We really enjoyed all the characters, but Goofy was by far the funniest! The food was fine- I definitely won't be craving any of the options, but nothing was terrible either. The food reminded me of the food DH and I had on a Carnival Cruise we went on in 2013- meh. They gave mom a nice hand out of what was/wasn't okay for her to eat with her dairy and shellfish allergy which was easy to use. Our server was Sip and he was really great too. For dessert we each had the sorbet, as its dairy free for Mom and sometimes ice cream hurts my stomach so it was a nice choice. Before leaving we got our picture with Mickey. Overall the dinner took us about 90 min.



With our bellies full it was time to use our last FP+ of the day... Voyage of the Little Mermaid! We waited about 10 min to be let into the theater but honestly we did not need the FP+. There was no line. At all. I haven't watched this movie since the early '90s but I just love the storyline. After the show Mom needed the bathroom and I decided to shop around in the gift shop to the right of the theater after this show (does the make sense...?). There was an adorable little boy in the shop with his parents and I realized how much this trip, more than ever, that I can't wait to come with with babies someday- hopefully in less than 3 years! Mom met me in the shop and we made our way to a bench to call Dad. He said he was feeling better and went to work that day even though he was in the ER the day before and had two black eyes lol.

From there we put on our sweaters as it was getting chilly and then it was time to make our way to Fantasmic. We got to the reserved seating area about 10 min before the show started and it was SO nice to have lots of open seats- we chose the the third row. There was a DJ playing some cute Disney songs and mom and I enjoyed watching little kids (and big kids!) dance and sing along. Both of us forgot that throughout the show water sprays on the first few rows, which usually isn't an issue as we mostly visit in May. Well.. it was COLD! Our plan was to stay until the end of the show, but at 7:23 (show ended at 7:30pm) we looked at each other and decided to leave to avoid the mad dash of everyone else leaving. We made our way out of the park and waited about 10 min for a bus to CSR. We agreed that we that LOVE this show but unless we're hot, next time we'll not sit so close to the front and that leaving a few minutes early was a good idea because we had zero desire to fight the crowds.

On our way back to CSR we decided to stay on the bus and get off at 'Bus Stop 1' which drops you off at El Centro in hopes of grabbing something for breakfast to eat in the room the next day since we wanted to rope drop Epcot and perhaps we could save some time by eating in the room. Surprisingly there wasn't really anything we wanted so we decided we'd eat at the Pepper Market in the morning. We each filled our refillable mugs with iced tea and walked back to the room. A quick shower and we were off to bed with the alarm set for 6:45am the next day!

Up next... EPCOT, rope drop style!

​

 

[iheartbelle87]

BONUS CHAPTER!

DH and I have some exciting news... we've officially booked our May 2017 trip! My MIL agreed to watch our fur baby and I put a deposit on our trip! I'll be starting a PTR once I finish this TR but here are some details:

Who: DH & 1

What: 6 night WDW trip!

When: May 25-31, 2017

Where: POR (for now...)

why: because we're celebrating graduating grad school! ​