At 6:30, 25 minutes ahead of schedule, our plane arrived in Orlando!!!!!
We got off the plane and saw this near the gate exit:
YAYY!! That's where we were headed!!
We were all so excited to be in that wonderful MCO with the palm trees and the windows everywhere, and the sunshine! A nice man offered to take our picture:
After that, we headed straight for the Fakeorail!
Here's my thing with the Fakeorail. I love it on the way TO Disney, but on the way home it's like the most annoying thing ever. The mentality: when you know you're gonna have the chance to ride the REAL monorail in mere hours, you can just laugh about the illegitimacy of the Fakeorail. But on the way home, you're so sad that you won't be able to ride the monorail again for a while that the Fakeorail is just the lamest substitute in the world. So yeah. Just thought I'd clear the air about that.
It's so true though. The fakeorail has nothing on the monorail.
Por Favor Mantenganse Alejado de las Puertas...kinda.
After that, we had some terminal struggles when trying to find baggage claim. We found Terminal A eventually and met up with Dave! Our luggage arrived on the carousel in just a few minutes!
Then we had struggle numero dos of the MCO adventure while trying to find the Magical Express. I swear, no matter how many times I go to Disney, I will always manage to get myself lost in MCO. It's just one of the most confusing airports ever.
ME TOO. Seriously, it's impossible for me to go on one trip to Disney without getting lost on the way to Magical Express. I think the people that get there in one attempt should receive a special award.
We went back up to the second floor of Terminal A and were told by some lady at a Virgin mobile kiosk to take the escalator down two floors below. We wound up near some relatively sketchy parking garage so we went back up one level and finally found the Magical Express welcome center!
See the new signs? They're awesome!
We were so excited!
We got on a bus almost right away! A real, NEW AND IMPROVED Magical Express bus! The TV's were in the front instead of by every other seat. It was really nice because everyone on the whole bus had a nice view of the movie.
I LOVED the new TV's! They were so much bigger and had such better quality!
I kinda couldn't wait...
LOOK AT IT:
The new TV setup:
The happy couple on Katie's first Magical Express ride!
And the happy Frumps!
Saratoga Springs was the first stop so we settled in and the movie started shortly after that! I love that movie. SO much. It's just an emotional jubilee of happiness and magic. I could watch it every day of my life and be an emotional mess EVERY TIME. I was just REALLY excited at this point.
The whole "Let the Memories Begin" part at the beginning makes me tear up EVERY TIME. Ugh it's so beautiful.
Pretty soon, we were seeing THIS!!!!
WELCOME HOME. TO A MAGICAL LAND OF WONDER AND JOY. Holy crap I'm getting carried away...I need to stop. I just love those gates because they represent hope and expectation and anticipation of the whole trip that's ahead of you! What an awesome moment. EVERY. TIME.
I'm so glad that we got a nice picture with the gates of heaven during the sunset! YAY DISNEY! Ahhhh I'm getting excited all over again!!!
In no time at all we were at Saratoga Springs and we had a lovely view of this while we waited for our luggage:
Then we went inside the beautiful lobby to check-in!
I was ready to take care of everything! Extreme DISer, right here:
Jess and I traded at the pin board at the front desk. Then we went to the Artist's Palette to pick up our refillable mugs, because they're now included in the
DDP!! Katie and Jess got pink mugs, Dave and Mike got black, and I got light blue! They were super cute!
Jess then spotted this AWESOME Aladdin pin on a CM's lanyard, which turned out to be a super rare pin that could only be acquired if you had bought the Aladdin DVD
in WDW several years ago! It was an awesome find and she was totally in love with it! It's one of her favorites! Look how beautiful it is:
You have NO idea how happy I was to find this pin! Oh my gosh. Not only is Aladdin my favorite Disney movie, but it was one of my first DVD's EVER. I didn't get it in WDW, but I got it when it was released. I used to watch it in on our Mini Van DVD player CONSTANTLY. Like... we had it playing in the car for months. I just have such an emotional attachment to that movie. AHHH I was so excited, I was jumping out of my skin!! The cast member who traded it to me gave us the whole rundown on the pin and he said that he had JUST gotten it! So I'm really happy that I snatched it up quick!
Then a lovely bellhop from Jamaica (whose name right now escapes me :/) offered to drive us to our room in Congress Park, which is exactly what I requested! I wanted a higher floor in Congress Park with a view of DTD! And that's exactly what we got! The lovely CM took us the long way so he could show us around the resort and tell us everything we needed to know!
I had heard about the new Paddock Pool, so when we drove by and he showed it to us, I said "Oh yeah! I've heard about that!" And he asked my how, and I just told him that I was obsessed with Disney. He seemed to be very impressed by my knowledge. It was a shining star moment for this DISer!
He drove us by the quiet pool at Congress Park, which was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I was totally blown away by the view of Downtown Disney as well. It was panoramic and simply AMAZING. I can't even put into words how amazed I was.
Gotta love all of the bright lights from DTD right outside our building! It really made our room even more special!
Continued in Next Post
I've been lurking for awhile, now I'm in full wedding and trip planning mode for May so I'm following as many TR's as I can to get!! 
Cant wait to read more!
)
a new TR I'm so happy
So glad to hear your mom is going to join you, Jess, again, you guys always have such a great time
And I love all the Frump Fest pictures at the airport
I also feel like I'm seeing your inner-Muppet Kristen after that last picture, can't believe it's taken me this long though considering your personality lol
to the original Stacey, I recently discovered those videos and I'm just in love with her old ways. I mean, the Triple Mountain Whammy has become a houshehold quote (slash joke for my sisters). She is amazing! Queen Stacey, I bow down before you...
I'm very excited about this lol! Thanks for asking!
