The Disney Gods Love Me! The Best Anniversary Trip Ever! Our Last Hoorah!

[snookie5605]

So we are back! Ok we have been back since 9/25 but this is the first time the baby is away since we have been back and now I can use the computer without her screaming to get on it!

This was our last trip alone to Disney for our 5 year anniversary and it was WONDERFUL! I seriously fell in love with Disney and my husband all over again. That place just does that to you! It also really made me want to take my daughter and I now cant wait until 2014 so I can take her! In fact I am already planning it!

So here are the details of our trip which you can find in my Pre-Trip Report. http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2877964

Just to sum it up, we were supposed to be staying at Art of Animation but then we moved the trip up a couple of days so we had to settle for POP. We have stayed before and honestly from the look of Art, it was packed there so we might have made the better choice. We stayed from 9/17-9/25, with 6 day park hoppers (we added on another day while down there) and the deluxe dining plan. We made many changes to our dining reservations but I will get there when I start the report.

Here are the introductions:
Me: Courtney 28. I am a receptionist at a retina specialist in philadelphia, pa. We live in the suburbs of philadelphia. I have been married for 5 years to my wonderful husband and best friend. We welcomed our little princess, Ariella, into the world on March 25, 2011. We have two dogs, Chase and Mocha who are our other two kids. I have been going to Disney since I was 3 and have been there at least 20 times. My obsession with it increased when Mike proposed to me at Cinderellas Castle back in 2006 and we proceeded to have a Cinderella wedding and honeymooned and had our anniversary trip there in years to follow.. I obviously love it there since I named my daughter Ariella, a combo of Ariel and Cinderella.

DH: Mike 27. Mike is a plumber. He is a great husband and a great father and I couldnt ask for a better best friend than him. He really doesnt love Disney but he tolerates it. He actually admitted to me on this trip that he likes Disney because he knows how much I love it and enjoy it. So he puts up with it. He also told me he cant wait until we take Ariella because he knows we will have even more fun with her.

This report will also have food porn so beware, you will get hungry! We are also people that tend to make fun of people and like to voice our opinions on things, so if you are one of those people that gets highly offended by brutal honesty then maybe you shouldnt be reading this! If you are like us and find those kind of things funny then come on over and ENJOY! "Por favor mantengase alejado de las puertas!"

 

[bluejasmine]

Looking fwd to it!!!

 

[snookie5605]

So let's start with the day I was dreading the most, leaving the baby. My mother in law was going to be watching the baby for us the whole time we were gone. My brother in law had just gotten engaged so she was having a family dinner so we could meet his fiance on the friday night before we left. So this moved up the drop off to that day instead of sunday. she lives almost an hour away from us so we didnt want to make the drive twice that weekend.

I was dreading this day. I really wanted to go away with just my husband but I was really beginning to miss her more and more the weeks before we left and I hadnt even left her yet! I was afraid she wouldnt be ok that long without us because she had gotten very attached. She has always been one of those kids that has to be around you at all times but lately she was starting the crying whenever I left the room.

So we got up to my mother in laws house and ate dinner and before we knew it, it was time to leave. She had gotten very distracted with playing with my soon to be sister in law so I decided to jump at the opportunity and get on out of there! We hugged her and kissed her and told her we loved her and........ she hugged us then pushed us away and said bye!! I was all stressed out and she just wanted to go play. So we pretty much ran out the door and got moving. I was a bit upset but I knew she was going to be ok. My mother in law is very active and I knew she would keep her busy enough.

So that weekend was full of packing and cleaning and getting my nails done until Sunday night when my aunts got there. My great aunt and aunt were staying at my house while we were gone so they could watch our dogs. So I told my dad to go get them Sunday night and they could sleep over that night before. BAD IDEA!!! We really dont have a spare room set up for company so my aunt was in our room, my great aunt (who is 95 and doesnt really sleep alot) was on the sofa, and that left me and Mike in our basement on the sofa. We didnt have our tv down there because we moved it upstairs to our fancy living room because they cant go up and down the steps alot. So we were in the basement at like 9pm with no tv and completely bored. We knew we had to sleep but neither one of us could get comfy. Keep in mind we also had the two mutts with us! So Mike decided to sleep on the floor, partially laying on a sofa we bought for the baby and partially on the floor. I got the sofa with the dogs. I guess we werent destined to sleep that night because then the noise started. My aunt was playing computer games and you could hear that nice and loud. Someone was banging the trash can lid in the kitchen which is right above the basement. Someone was washing something in the sink. The lights were on. It was a nightmare! But eventually we got to sleep somewhere around 10 or 10:30, we had to be up at 4:30. Before we knew it, the alarm was going off and it was time to get up!

 

[snookie5605]

So this was it!! The day I had been waiting for since 2010 when I left Disney on our last trip! I wanted one last trip with just me and Mike since we hadnt had one like that since 2008 on our 1 year anniversary. We have a blast when we are together down there so I couldnt wait! We were up at 4:30am and out the door by about 4:50! My dad came over and took us to the Philly airport which is like 10 minutes from our house. We pulled up to the Southwest checkin, checked our bags in outside, and headed on in. This was the first time ever that my bags werent weighed at all because they were so light. I was highly impressed with myself! Usually Im taking stuff out to make weight! I planned ahead also and since we were flying Southwest, we could have two free bags each. So we each took one and then just threw some stuff in a smaller one and stuck that inside a larger one, so we would have enough bags for souvenirs on the way home!!

We got right through check in and security and headed to our gate. We were looking for certain puzzle books to do on the flight but nobody had the kind we like. We gave up on our search and found a McDonalds right outside of our gate. This is our usual breakfast food when we fly. We start the vacation off with a bang. Oh and I forgot to mention, I had been hardcore dieting before we left and in 33 days I had lost 14 pounds, so I was pretty excited. I was just hoping that I wouldnt gain it all back!

So we grabbed our McDonalds breakfast sandwiches and got some coffee from a smoothie place and went to get our seats at the gate. I played some games on my phone and Mike played his golf game on the laptop.

Before we knew it, we were boarding the plane. We got right in front of the wing, I was at the window, Mike was next to me. We thought we would be alone but some guy who thought he was hot stuff sat next to Mike. You know the type...big muscles, tan, expensive watch. Except the guy looked like he was going to puke the whole plane ride and spent a good amount of time in the bathroom! We were almost ready to take off when a family with 10 people comes in. They had like 6 kids between the two families and decided they needed to sit together because of the kids. I understand that but maybe you should have been here on time and you could have gotten on with the family section. So now the stewardesses are asking people to move so the kids can sit with the adults. Lucky us, we get stuck behind one of the dads, his wife and his two daughters. Well the one was young enough to sit on a lap and let me just tell you,she was soooo bad. She didnt want to sit and wanted to stand the whole plane ride, which is about 2.5 hours. For about the last 45 minutes of the plane ride, she screamed bloody murder. NONSTOP! It was now like 9am ish and I just wanted my Starbucks and wanted to be in Disney. I am not a big fan of flying as it is so having this kid screaming was just torture. I felt really bad for her but this was the re-occurring theme this trip. It seems like parents just want to torture their kids and make them miserable and tired. If she wasnt ready for the trip, then you shouldnt have gone. Just like everywhere we went in Disney, parents having their kids out until midnight and then getting mad at them when they are crying cuz they are overtired. I dont get it! But thats another story.

So we finally land, 15 minutes early too!!

Palm Trees!

Mike had to pee of course, so while I waited I called my mom to let her know we were there. Mike called his mom too to see how the baby was and to let her know we landed. We stopped at Starbucks when we got off because I had been dying for a pumpkin spice latte since I couldnt have one since I was dieting. So we got those and then headed to the fakeorail!

We headed to the magical express check in. Since we had our vouchers, we got to walk right up the red carpet and got in our line. Which was empty! We were the first in line for our bus stop. Disney Gods working their magic, check 1! It took a while for our bus to get there but that was ok. It finally arrived and we got the first seat, which was my goal so I could take the obligatory picture! Disney Gods, 2! We got on a bus that had a bus driver who was a NY Mets fan so of course he had to make fun of us because I had my Phillies shirt on. He was nice enough but kind of obnoxious. All I wanted to do was watch the welcome show!

We finally got close to the sign and I could take my picture.

I am going to end here because the hubby is not feeling too well tonight and we are going to head to bed. More to come tomorrow!

 

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

joining in!

 

[saintstickets]

Okay...I'm in. DW and I left our 11 month old twins with grandparents and visited WDW way back in 1985. Yes there was separation anxiety but one of the things that made the trip enjoyable was pointing out places we wanted to bring the boys when they were old enough. Looking forward to your TR.

 

[snookie5605]

So once we got into the World, we headed to Art of Animation first. It looked pretty cute there but it was packed! The majority of our bus cleared out at that stop. So since POP is on the same property as Art, we were the second stop. We pulled in and got right off and headed on in. Since I had done online check in, we hopped right in that line, and didnt have to wait at all. By this point it was 11am or so, which was exactly as I had planned. I was hoping to be on our way to AK by 11:30-12pm. So we got up to the desk and got our envelope.

We had these beauties inside, which they kindly and so cutely wrote how many years on them!

We then found out that our room was ready and we were in the 70s building, right next to the main building and we found out if we walked out the back way, we got right to the buses! Disney Gods, check 3! ixiedust: We also got our King bed. Disney Gods, check 4! I couldnt believe the luck we were having. Everything was so magical already, I was ecstatic!

We went up to the room to drop off our carry ons and to use the bathroom. I took some shots before the hurricane hit with all of our stuff!

We had this little cutie waiting for us!

It was now time for us to head to our first park, Animal Kingdom!

 

[snookie5605]

So I last left you as we were heading out to Animal Kingdom. We walked out the back way and right to the buses and waited about 10 minutes or so for the bus. We got on and were on our way. JAMBO!! We made it and we were starving!

We originally had reservations at Yak and Yeti but we had eaten chinese food the night before with my parents, which was unexpected, and I really wasnt in the mood for it again. So we decided to see if Rainforest could get us in. We wanted to eat before we got into the park, instead of going and stopping to eat. We checked in and had maybe a 10-15 minute wait.

We got seated right next to one of the fishtanks and were near the monkeys when they start their craziness. Since we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan, we had an appetizer, entree, and dessert. We decided on getting the onion rings and the mozzarella sticks so we could share those.

For our entrees, I had the Chicken Caesar Salad and Mike had the Turkey Wrap. Sorry I forgot to take pics of those but really nothing special. Then for dessert, I had mango sorbet and Mike had chocolate cake. Again really nothing special. We did keep count of how much we spent total compared to how much we paid for the dining plan. I will give you the total at the end of the whole trip report. You wont believe your eyes when you see how much money we saved.

We left there nice and full but not sick feeling, and headed to the Kiliminjaro Safaris. There was a 20 minute wait but we didnt wait that long at all.

We had the two person seat which was a first and was really nice because we didnt have to strain to get pictures. There were also TONS of vultures everywhere on this safari. Kinda freaky, like they were right there next to you too.

 

[snookie5605]

warthogs!

look at the baby!

We had a great safari ride. It seemed alot longer and more extensive. I liked it a lot more without all of the poacher things and it was cool to see where they are bringing the zebras.

After this we took the train over to Rafikis Planet Watch. When we got there, Rafiki was out but as soon as we got in line, his line was cut off and we didnt feel like waiting. So we looked around and it was kinda boring so we left! And why is it every time you go to AK, it is like ungodly hot outside. We really dont like AK that much, especially because you are like taking a hike everywhere you go but we had to go. After we got off the train, we stopped for some water and then Mike went to ride Expedition Everest. I sat and people watched and watched the monkeys climb on that thing thats in the middle of the park. Those little things are daring, hanging by the rope and swinging all over the place. Very cool! Mike came back, thoroughly enjoying his ride with the Yeti, and we decided to leave. We were tired from being up so early and not sleeping well the night before so we wanted some rest.

We got back to the room around 3:30 and took a shower and took a nap. Before we knew it, it was time to go to dinner. We left the room around 6:30 and headed to Downtown Disney.We got there a bit early so we walked around the shops to scope out the merchandise. We spotted some things to get for when we came back! I had left my AAA discount card in the room so I didnt want to buy anything without it. It was soon 8pm and we wlaked on over to Fultons Crab House.

Our reservations werent until like 9:20 but we decided to check in early. We were starving! They took us as soon as we checked in, with "Happy Anniversary" wishes all around. We had this waiter that was very good but didnt stop talking! I like good servers but I dont like to be bothered when Im eating. But anyway, we started with our appetizers.

Mike got Fried Calamari, which he said was the best calamari he has ever had. It was huge and not chewy or fishy at all. He couldnt stop raving about it.

I had Portobello Mushroom Fries, which were to die for! They were these big slices of beefy Portobellos that were in a light tempura like batter and fried and they served them with a creole mustard sauce. MMMM!!!

For Mikes entree, he had the Snow Crabs and Lobster Combo, which he loved also.

I had the Shrimp with Cheesy Grits, which were good just really spicy.

For dessert, Mike had the Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae which he also really liked

I had one of the best desserts I have ever had...Chocolate Creme Brulee. I had never had Creme Brulee before but this was delicious.

The waiter then surprised us with a special dessert for our anniversary. It was so nice of him and we were so full we kinda just ate a little to be nice.

Dinner was absolutely delicious. We were so happy we went here instead of Narcoossees. Now that place used to be our favorite place to eat in Disney but they changed the menu a bit and there was really nothing that appealed to us. I am very glad we went to Fultons instead and it was nice that it is now on the dining plan. After dinner, we walked around some more shops and looked around and then went back to the room. We got back around 10 and stopped in the shop before hand so I could buy a postcard to send to the baby. We also got our mugs and some water for the room. Then we went back to the room for the night and got ready for our first full day at the parks the next day. Tomorrow was EPCOT!

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!!