The how we ate and drank our way around the World Trip Report - UPDATED 05/06!

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Hello all! I have been a long-time lurker on the Dis and have enjoyed reading everyone’s trip reports so I thought I’d try one myself.

This trip report actually starts in 1971. The year Magic Kingdom opened. We were there - my mom, dad, sister and I. Here’s a picture of my sister and I in front of the castle in 1971: (Well, technically, it was 1972 – it opened in October of ’71, we were there in March of ’72.)

And here we are today:

I was five when we were there and even though I have very little memory of being five, I do remember Disney. I remember seeing and hugging Pluto. I don’t remember Mickey or Minnie, but I remember Pluto – probably because he was fuzzy. I always had a thing for fuzzy things. I also remember Pluto kissing my mom on her cheek. I remember It’s a Small World because honestly, who can forget it, right? I think I’ve had the tune stuck in my head for the last 41 years. I also remember sharing a moment with my dad during IASW. I remember him watching my reaction to the ride and to this day I still feel him with me when I ride it. I remember feeling the magic at five years old. And I’ve been hooked ever since!

We had to plan this trip around our kids’ college spring break and they only get a week off so my mom, sister and I actually went down a few days earlier than my husband and kids. The moms wanted to eek out a few extra days. So we did. Here’s a picture of the “kids”.

We’ve been to Disney at least a dozen times in the last 15 years and we’ve stayed at almost every resort with our favorite being either Boardwalk or Port Orleans-Riverside. When we have everyone with us (like this trip) we rent a house because we’re all adults (almost) and we would need too much space in a resort and it would break the bank. And by bank I mean my mom. Love you, mom.

Speaking of our mom (Somma is what we call her)… she is beyond generous with all of us. She has been footing the entire bill for our Disney trips since the beginning and without her, none of it would have ever happened. We have been asked many times by our friends if our mom will adopt them but sorry… she’s all full up. Here’s a picture of my mom (Somma).

So… our trip was February 25 – March 11 and we pretty much did it all. We did all the parks (more than once), spent a day at the Ocean (Clearwater) and even snuck in a trip to Universal (yeah, I know – we went to the dark side). We even did the “Keys to the Kingdom” tour at MK so if you want to know all the secrets to Disney (not really), please read on. It was our best trip ever and I can’t wait to re-live it all through this trip report. I took great notes so all the details with pictures will follow. I think between me, my mom and sister, we took about 2,000 photos so I hope you like to look at other people’s pictures!

Thanks for joining and enjoy the ride!

Next up… travel day!

Chapter Links:
Travel Day

Animal Kingdom - Part 1
Animal Kingdom - Part 2
Animal Kingdom - Part 3

Magic Kingdom - Part 1
Magic Kingdom - Part 2
Magic Kingdom - Part 3
Magic Kingdom - Part 4

Downtown Disney - Part 1
Downtown Disney - Part 2

Epcot - Part 1
Epcot - Part 2
Epcot - Part 3
Epcot - Part 4
Epcot - Part 5

Boma - Kids - Part 1
Boma - Kids - Part 2

O'Hana - Part 1
O'Hana - Part 2

Epcot - Part 1

The end for now

 

[MyHappyPlace]

Wow - having the picture from when you were kids.... priceless!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Wow - having the picture from when you were kids.... priceless!

Yes, Happy. My awesome sister dug that picture out of the archives.

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Travel Day (Part 1)
4:00 a.m. was the time my alarm was set even though you never really need an alarm to wake you to get up for DISNEY! I flew out of bed, showered and threw the rest of my junk in my luggage. I then waited for my sister to be ready. And waited. And waited. She’s soooo slow! Her husband dropped her off the night before and the plan was to be out the door by 5:00 a.m. to pick my mom up.

My poor, wonderful husband had the fun task of getting up at the crack of dawn to bring us to the airport and this is what he looked like while we were waiting for my sister to finally be ready.

FINALLY. She comes up stairs only to putz a little more with her luggage.

Now we had the fun challenge of trying to figure out how we were going to fit all of our luggage into our small(ish) car to get to the airport. Here’s all of our luggage (minus our carry on’s)…

And here’s our car.

We had suitcases on us, next to us and all around us but we made it! Here’s a picture of us picking up my mom – doesn’t she look happy?

Once at the airport, we grab a wheelchair for my mom and we received our first fast pass of the trip. When you’re traveling with wheelchair companions, you don’t have to stand in most lines at the airport so we got wheeled right up to check-in. While checking our luggage, we realize my sister’s suitcase is about 15-20 lbs. overweight so in line, we’re opening up all of our suitcases trying to re-distribute her stuff making sure we’re not putting other bags overweight! We successfully do it but caused quite a scene doing it. Did you know that on Delta they charge $90.00 for anything over 50 lbs. but only $25.00 for checkng an extra bag? Yikes.

After a few minor hiccups checking luggage, etc., we’re on our way through security only to find that apparently my mom must have looked suspicious because she had a full pat down. It was actually quite humorous and we were joking with the TSA woman doing the pat down that my mom was secretly enjoying it, etc; however, neither she nor my mom saw the humor in it. I really wanted to get a picture of it, but I was a little afraid to pull out my camera.

After my mom’s pat down and a very short wait, we’re on board!

My mom and sister…

Me…

It was an uneventful flight. As we were landing, it seemed like we were coming in a little fast and as we were breaking, the pilot said over the loud speaker, “Woah, big fella…”. The whole cabin laughed and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We landed safely and more importantly, we were in Florida!

(Continued in next post...)

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Now the logistical fun of getting our luggage with our carry ons and our mom in wheelchair begins - not to mention the fact that we have to pick up our rental car somehow in all of this too! Just as we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to do it all, the airport employee who had to wheel my mom from the plane offered to help us with everything. She was WONDERFUL. She came with us to baggage while my sister attempted to get the car. Not only did she take us to baggage, but she grabbed all of our luggage while I pretty much just pointed out which bags were ours.

As she was grabbing our luggage, I noticed my mom’s nice airplane hair and it struck me as funny so I took a picture of it. Sorry, mom. Love you!

We gathered all of our luggage and assumed my sister was waiting for us with the car. Nope. She’s still in line at National. We catch up with her and I get there in time to see the joy on the face of the National rental guy as he’s not only upgrading our vehicle to a small bus, but he also convinced us to pre-pay our gas. Yeah, I know. But honestly, it did work out in our favor because he charged us much less per gallon than what we were seeing at the pumps… we just had to be careful to bring it back empty. We all make the trek over to pick up the vehicle and finally – we were on our way!

And you absolutely cannot drive through these beautiful arches without taking a picture!

First stop… Downtown Disney to pick up my annual pass, which we more than paid for by all the discounts you are awarded by using it, i.e., parking at the parks for free, 10% discount on a lot of restaurants and stores, etc.

Next stop… pick up the keys to our home for the next 15 days and here it is.

The house was very nice and it was finally big enough for our family, however, not all of the décor was exactly our style…

Yes. These are lampshades…

Pillows that match the lampshades…

In case you want to throw a formal dinner party while at Disney…

Here’s the rest of the house.

Entry.

Beautiful kitchen.

Family room. As uninviting as those white chairs look, they were actually very comfortable.

Other living room.

Bedroom on first floor.

One of two master suites upstairs.

Second master suite (both with King beds).

Oh, and I didn’t take a picture of it, but the walk-in closet to one of the master suites was honestly bigger than my daughter’s bedroom at home. They had a portable crib in it so it can easily be used as a very large nursery – or a banquet room. Your choice.

Beautiful screened-in porch upstairs with entry through both master suites.

Bedroom.

Bedroom.

Game room in garage.

There was also a large screened-in patio in the back with a pool and gas grill. Oh, there were also 8 t.v.’s, one of which was in the garage/game room. We knew we were going to be very happy in this home… and we were.

We were hungry so we had a wonderful dinner at Longhorn. I was bad at first about taking pictures of food, however, I was much better about taking Disney restaurant food pictures. I don’t have food pictures for Longhorn, however, I have our drink pictures! None of us are drinkers, especially my mom, however, keep track of my mom’s margaritas. She had several. Love you mom!

Off to get groceries.

We returned back to the house around 8:00 p.m. Unpacked. Watched a bit of t.v. and finally went to bed dreaming of our first day in Disney.

Next up… Animal Kingdom!

 

[MyHappyPlace]

I LOVE that first drive through the arches. Makes you really feel you are there

The airport help was certainly a blessing for you! What a great start to the trip!

We are looking at a larger group than normal going in the next year or two and will probably look at renting a house also. Makes a lot of sense for a larger group! Love the lampshades!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

I LOVE that first drive through the arches. Makes you really feel you are there

The airport help was certainly a blessing for you! What a great start to the trip!

We are looking at a larger group than normal going in the next year or two and will probably look at renting a house also. Makes a lot of sense for a larger group! Love the lampshades!

Yep - a little better than those golden arches!

I would highly recommend going this route if you have a large group!

 

[__disneygirl]

Wow, I am already hooked on your TR! First of all, what a priceless pic from the early days of WDW! Your memories of your dad almost made me tear up because I also went for the first time when I was 5 and I have so many vivid memories like that, just singular moments that I will never ever forget.

This sounds like it was the best trip ever, I can't wait to read all about it!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Wow, I am already hooked on your TR! First of all, what a priceless pic from the early days of WDW! Your memories of your dad almost made me tear up because I also went for the first time when I was 5 and I have so many vivid memories like that, just singular moments that I will never ever forget.

This sounds like it was the best trip ever, I can't wait to read all about it!

Lia,

It really was the best trip ever. It's hard when the kids are getting older because every year we go, we wonder if it's the last... until they start having kids of their own!

Thanks so much for reading (and commenting). I promise not to disappoint.

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Ahhh… waking up that first day of vacation. In Florida. It’s the best.

What’s even better?

Eating this for breakfast.

There are two things I always eat on vacation – but no other time of the year. One is Cap’n Crunch and the other is olive loaf. With the exception of my mom, my family’s repulsed reaction to olive loaf is welcomed because it means I don’t have to share with them.

The scooter and wheelchair for my mom were both dropped off right at the house and once my sister and I figured out how to get the scooter loaded into the van, we were on our way to AK!

We unloaded the scooter and got my mom all situated.

And here we are!

And we came upon this.

We made our way over to the Safari and took these while in “line”. There really was no line – we pretty much walked right up to the ride.

I told myself I wasn’t going to take pictures of the animals because I’ve done it every trip and the pictures are generally blurry and/or have other people’s heads in the way; however we had a very interesting safari. The animals were more active than I had seen in a long time.

We had to wait for these guys to cross in front of us before we could move and at one point and as I was hanging out the window getting set to the take the picture, I actually had to pull myself in a bit because they were a little too close for comfort and it kinda scared me a little bit - even though I really did want to pet them cuz they were a little fuzzy.

These giraffs were running and chasing other animals. I had never seen that before. Made me wonder what they would have done had they caught the other animals? Have you ever seen giraffs run? They look very unnatural and awkward… like it’s not something they do very often.

Baby elephant. How can you resist taking a picture of baby animals, right?

After we saved Simba from poachers, we took a little jungle trek and saw this guy.

Why do they always look so sad? It just always looks to me like they’re mortified that everyone is looking at them. Hmmmm….

Moving on to probably our favorite show at Disney…

If you’ve seen the Lion King show, you know that the audience is split up into four sections, right? And each section is an animal with a guide or host or what have you. Well, we noticed there were only three hosts and one of the hosts had to take two sections. A first for us. You wouldn’t notice anything amiss if this was your first time seeing the show, however, when the floats started coming in with all the dancers, the missing host came in and here he was.

We noticed that when the dancers would make eye contact with him, they would shake their heads and laugh at him. My sister and I guessed that he got a little delayed in the bathroom due to nerves or something and the show has to go on!

This guy got a nice scare out of my mom. He was standing next to her and said, “boo!”. When she turned to look, this is what she saw! Nice… almost give an old lady a heart attack! Love you mom!

Next up, more of AK. Let’s scare mom some more…

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I think it's so sweet that your mom still loves Disney. I want to be like that too and secretly wish my mom was.

The house is so spacious. I just might have to consider going off property next time.

I'm really looking forward to hearing all about your trip.

 

[katt789]

Oh my goodness, thats so awsome to have that pic from when you were kids! I'm lovin the trip report so far! Excited to read more! That is one goregous house you guys got to stay in!

Ahhh FOTLK, my favorite part of any disney trip! That's so weird that the host didn't come out on time, who knows!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

I think it's so sweet that your mom still loves Disney. I want to be like that too and secretly wish my mom was.

The house is so spacious. I just might have to consider going off property next time.

I'm really looking forward to hearing all about your trip.

Honestly, the houses are really nice and it's just nice to have a lot more privacy.

As far as my mom goes, we cherish every. Single. Moment.

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Oh my goodness, thats so awsome to have that pic from when you were kids! I'm lovin the trip report so far! Excited to read more! That is one goregous house you guys got to stay in!

Ahhh FOTLK, my favorite part of any disney trip! That's so weird that the host didn't come out on time, who knows!

You know you've been there a lot when you notice things like that. It was quite humorous and he was completely busted by all of his fellow actors!

Thanks so much for reading and commenting! We were there for 15 days so there's a lot more to come!

 

[__disneygirl]

Okay, the ankole cattle make me nervous with those huge pointy horns coming so close!

That's funny about the guy coming late to perform during FOTLK. and oh man that guy scaring your mom. Too funny!

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Okay, the ankole cattle make me nervous with those huge pointy horns coming so close!

That's funny about the guy coming late to perform during FOTLK. and oh man that guy scaring your mom. Too funny!

Wow... impressive. You know their real names. They were large brown cows with horns to me!

And yes, the people behind us also thought it was pretty funny because they were watching it all go down!

 

[darty]

Great TR, and great pictures. And you do have the bestest mom.

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Thanks for reading and commenting, Linda! I'm glad you're enjoying the report. Lots more to come!

 

[jedijill]

Wow, fantastic start! You guys look like a lot of fun!! Can't wait to hear more.

Jill in CO

 

[FairyGodmothers Sis]

Wow, fantastic start! You guys look like a lot of fun!! Can't wait to hear more.

Jill in CO

Jill,

Thanks so much for joining in! So nice to hear from you!