The Super Surprise Celebration Trip - June 07 (Updated 10/10 Post #159)

[LizAgna]

Welcome to my TR. This is my 1st attempt at one so hopefully it will be interesting enough to keep some of you around. As you can see from my title that trip was celebrating something and surprising someone. Let’s start way back in 1991. That’s when DH and I were married…June 22nd to be exact. We honeymooned at WDW staying off-site. This was my 1st trip and I absolutely fell in love with WDW. Here is a picture of DH & I leaving the wedding and then the only picture from our honeymoon that we have of the 2 of us.

Then 5 years and 3 days later (6/25/96) our oldest DD, I’ll call her Jasmine, was born. Then 7 years and a week after that (7/02/03) our youngest DD, I’ll call her Cinderella was born. So at our house from 6/22 to 7/2 our house is one big celebration. Jasmine had been to WDW 2 times – 2/01 & 1/06. Cinderella had been once - 1/06.

Here is a pic of Jasmine on her 1st trip...

And both girls on Cinderella's 1st trip...

After our trip last January our girls couldn’t stop talking about WDW. When it came time for their birthdays last year Jasmine wanted to eat at LeCellier and Cinderella wanted to eat at Chef Mickey’s. Of course we couldn’t do that since we had just been in January.

One night last August I was on the Dis reading about someone who had surprised their child with a trip to WDW for their birthday so I turned to DH and said why don’t we do that next year? Immediately he agreed!! So that’s when I started planning. At that point the 07 rates were not out but I came up with a budget. In September after much research on codes and rates I decided to book our trip thru AAA. Our original dates were to be 6/23 – 6/30. Then the more we talked and planned the longer the trip got. We ended up booking 6/22 to 7/1 at Pop Century with the dining plan and 9 day park hopper tickets. I spent months trying to decide where to eat and my 180+10 ADR date was supposed to be Christmas Eve, this had been confirmed 3 times by calls to the ADR line. The day before Christmas Eve about 2:30 in the afternoon I was doing my “practice run” since I was trying to secure a place at CRT and LeCellier. When the CM answered I played dumb and asked if I could make my ADRs yet and she said YES!! I was so excited…I immediately booked everything that I wanted with 15 minutes of the times that I requested.

Our original plan was to leave after work on Friday and drive straight thru to Pop…a 10 hour drive…not telling the girls where we were going and them waking up in the Pop parking lot in the middle of the night. Thank goodness DH ended up being able to be off of work on Friday 6/22. During the following months I spent hours on the Dis. Then in March I got a PM from another Diser who was starting a thread for people going to the World in late June. I joined and 5,300+ posts later we are all still keeping in touch. Thanks again Disneyolic!!! As our trips got closer several meets evolved and so did some fireworks cruises. So members of our group finally got to meet in person.

Well, the closer it got to our trip the more people would ask if we had told the girls yet and the answer was always not yet. There were so many times that we wanted to tell them but thankfully we held strong. While was Jasmine was away at camp in the middle of June I packed my clothes & Cinderella’s clothes, DH packed his clothes and I packed all of the extra toiletries that I had bought. We hid all of the suitcases so she had no clue when she came home. Cinderella asked a couple of times why we were packing but we just told her we were packing for our annual beach trip and being 3 she bought it!! All of Jasmine’s clothes from camp were finally clean on 6/19 so I didn’t feel too good that night (wink, wink) so DH took the girls out to eat so I could pack her. That was Tuesday night. Then on Thursday afternoon my mom took the girls to Chick-Fil-A and on my way home from work DH called and said why don’t we just leave tonight instead of in the morning? We won’t go to sleep until midnight and we want to leave around 5am, we’re all packed anyway. Of course I agreed and when I got home I started gathering up all of the hidden stuff. When my mom brought the girls home the van was loaded and we were standing outside. We told them to go potty and get in the van that we were all going to the beach for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. So at 7:30pm on Thursday, 6/21 we pulled out of our driveway headed to the Happiest Place on Earth!!!

 

[mandy200587]

I'm here.

 

[LizAgna]

I'm here.

Yay!! Thanks for reading. I'm going over to subscribe to yours right now...I love all of the pics that you have!!

 

[LizAgna]

Ok well, the beach that we normally go to is only about 4 hours from home so we knew we couldn’t tell the girls we were going there. So we told them that we would be going to another beach and our room wouldn’t be ready until sometime on Friday. We had decided to drive to a town about 2 1/2 hours away and then find somewhere to spend the night. But everyone was still awake and DH wasn’t tired of driving yet so we kept going. That’s when a good friend of ours, also a Diser, Weluvthemouse, called and did some research for us which landed us at the Hampton Inn on exit 203 off of I-10 in Tallahassee.

By this time our girls were asleep and when we got into our room Jasmine said that the last sign she was for Quincy, FL so that’s where we must be. DH and I just played along. After a very restless night of sleep – insert “too excited to sleep” here – we woke up, had breakfast and checked out. DH and I were dying to tell the girls where we were going so when I got in the van from checking out I told them that we were not in Quincy, FL but we were in Tallahassee. DH told them that we were ½ way to WDW and that’s where we were going instead of the beach. They didn’t believe us until we gave them birthday cards with Disney Dollars. Then out of the blue Cinderella started saying that she wanted to go to the beach. But it didn’t take her long to get excited about WDW again. So for the rest of the trip we told them our plans for the week. For all of you keeping track of the days by now it is Friday 6/22 which is DH & my 16th anniversary. So we stopped in Ocala at the Olive Garden, thanks again to Weluvthemouse and her research, for our anniversary meal. (By the way that day is also Weluvthemouse & her DH’s 16th anniversary too.)

Then we continued our journey to Pop Century. We arrived there about 3:45pm. I didn’t have to wait at all for a CM to check us in and our room was ready. We got a luggage cart and headed to Building 10 room 0314. It was a great location. Even though it was not “preferred” we were close to the bus stop and parking lot. After unloading the car we all suited up and headed to the pool. This was the 1st time Cinderella had been swimming since last summer so she was very scared. We got one of the life jackets that they have at the Pop pool but she still wouldn’t let go of me or DH for any reason.

After we swam and cleaned up we went to the food court for dinner and then we walked around exploring parts of Pop that we had missed on our last trip. When we got back to the room I scheduled a 7am wake up call and we all went to bed. We planned to be at MK for opening in the morning.

 

[Crazy Kanga]

YAY! I am so glad you decided to right a trip report. It's great!!!

 

[CourtneyandRyan]

I'm here too! Great start!

 

[SingingMom]

Subscribed! Although, I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with all of these! lol
Renée

 

[heartofdisney]

I am loving it so far...great start....cant wait to read the rest.

 

[LizAgna]

Hey Laura, Courtney, Renee & heartofdisney...thanks for reading...I'll post more tomorrow night!!

 

[Avivasmom]

WTG on the surprise. I did it 3 times to my DD...first we were going to the beach but when we passed the Nick Hotel she knew where we were (she is an old vet of WDW at 6 1/2).

I cannot wait to hear about your trip.

 

[wendygrace]

I made it!!

 

[LizAgna]

Our morning starts with a 7am wake up call from Stitch & Mickey. Everyone wakes up happy since it is our 1st day so with little hassles we are at the bus stop by 8am. Let’s go over the checklist…park tickets, check – sunscreen, check - little fans, check…looks like everything is here or is it? Guess we’ll have to wait till later to see. We are thru the turnstiles about 8:35 and see the opening at MK…this is a first for us. Here is a pic of me and the girls waiting for the show. I'm in lime green, of course!

We make it thru the gates and back to Dumbo in time to ride on the 2nd ride of the day. Here is DH and the girls waiting to ride.

We have a blast in Fantasy Land and run from ride to ride. We rode the Carrousel, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh & Dumbo. Here are the girls on the Carrousel.

The girls and I then decided to ride the Tea Cups and then much to our surprise DH joined us on our 2nd spin. You see he doesn’t like rides that spin but he decided to ride with us this morning. By now you have seen the pictures and I’m sure you can tell that all of us but Cinderella are Pooh size. We were all in 1 Tea Cup and Jasmine delighted in spinning us as fast as she could. DH regrets that ride to this day! We managed to finish FL by 9:40 just in time for the 9:45 opening of Toon Town. We’re on the 2nd ride of Goofy’s Barnstormer. Jasmine wanted to ride it again. Cinderella enjoyed it but didn’t want to ride it again. DH stayed with Jasmine. Cinderella headed over to meet some characters. She chose Minnie, Daisy & Donald. I was excited because in our previous trips we had never seen Daisy. When we got into the room there was a CM with a white vest counting people off. As soon as they closed the doors to the room she informed us that we had all just won Dream Fast Passes (DFP) for the day!!! I was so excited I even took a picture of “Our Dream Team”.

Needless to say DH & Jasmine were jealous of our passes! Would this be our only time seeing the Dream Team?…I guess you’ll have to wait and see. After a trip to the Judge’s Tent to meet Mickey we rode the train to Frontier Land.

This is where DH & Jasmine used “our” DFP to ride Splash. See since Cinderella wasn’t tall enough to ride Splash we decided to share the wealth with them. After that we ate lunch at Pecos Bills. Remember the checklist…well a couple of important things weren’t on there…some sort of breakfast and water bottles. It was now about 11:30 and this was the first food or drink that I had had all day. It was hot and I was feeling awful! I picked around on my hamburger and drank my Sprite. But I must forge on we are at the MK…so Jasmine and I rode Big Thunder while DH & Cinderella went to ride Aladdin’s Magic Carpets. Then we headed over to Tomorrow Land for DH & Jasmine to use our DFP again at Space Moutain. Cinderella & I rode TTA a couple of times...I love that ride...Paging Mr. Morrow, Mr. Tom Morrow. After that it was time for a break. As I said earlier I was not feeling good at all. When we got back to Pop, DH & the girls went to swim and I just stayed in the room & drank water and rested.

Continued in the next post...

 

[LizAgna]

They finish swimming and come in just in time to get ready to go to Chef Mickey’s at 6pm. I’m feeling better and ready to go eat. CM’s is one of our favorite places.

As soon as we get to our table it is time for the napkin twirling celebration. We all twirl our napkins and then I head to the food bar to fix Cinderella’s plate…did I say I was feeling better? Well, I thought I was feeling better. I made her plate and went back to make mine. I got what I thought looked good but you see I was so far gone from overheating earlier in the day that I really couldn’t eat anything. Basically my dinner consisted of Sprite and 3 bowls of Beef & Barley soup (I love that stuff). Everyone else had a wonderful meal. The characters were great and spent a lot of time at our table. Here are a couple of pictures of the girls with Mickey & Minnie.

After dinner it was back to the MK for the night and to use those DFP.

After our Photopass pics we went straight to Buzz Lightyear then DH & Jasmine went to ride Splash & Big Thunder again. Cinderella & I secured FP for the Jungle Cruise and then rode Aladdin’s Magic Carpets. We met back up with them and all rode the Jungle Cruise. Then we all headed back to Fantasy Land. Then she and I were riding Dumbo when Wishes started…her little eyes were just sparkling with the fireworks in them and she looked up at me and says “Thank you for my birthday at Disney World”…that combined with the soundtrack for Wishes made me cry! Then we sat at the end of the exit ramp of Dumbo and watched the rest of Wishes…I cried again! Then we rode It’s a Small World, Pooh & saw as Cinderella calls it Mickey’s Feel My Magic…that just cracks us up!! By this time it was 10:45 and Spectro was to start at 11pm...since we had an 8am breakfast at Donald’s at AK we decided to skip Spectro and call it a night. When we got back to the room I placed a 6am wake up call and we all crashed!

 

[CourtneyandRyan]

Great, Great, most FABULOSO pictures!!!!!

LOVE it so far!!!!

 

[LizAgna]

Thanks Courtney!! Welcome Avivasmom & Wendy...thanks for reading!

 

[castawaymam]

will read more of your Trip Report when I get to Inlaws house tomorrow afternoon. great start so far.

 

[SingingMom]

How great about the "Dream Team Fast Passes"!! I feel like Charlie Brown in "It's the Great Pumpkin" episode.... "I got a candy bar! I got an apple! I got a ROCK." You would think, being there for EIGHT days, we would have seen the "Dream Team" at LEAST once? Nope - "I got a ROCK." lol
I'm happy SOMEONE we know got something!!

And I'm with your DH - I do not spin well.

Renée

 

[WeLoveTheMouse]

Thanks for sending me the link. I have not been on the Dis in a little while. I am being forced to plan an non-Disney trip to NY. I love the part about watching Wishes with "Cinderella" and I am crying reading it because I know how much you love it just like me. If I can't be there, at least I can experience it with you. If we keep staggering trips, maybe one of us can be there at least every year.

 

[castawaymam]

So glad that one of us Stalkers got some of the "Dream" magic on our trips.

 

[LizAgna]

Mickey and Stitch call to wake up again. I get up first, then DH about 6:15 and then we wake the girls at 6:30. Getting ready goes OK and we are out to the busses by 7:10. We arrived at AK about 7:30 and headed toward the gate. Our ressie was verified and we were on our way into AK. It is very beautiful 1st thing in the morning with the dew on everything. We checked in at Donald’s Breakfastasaurus, decided not to do the picture outside the restaurant. We were one of the 1st families in, our server took our drink orders, told us that the characters would be out in about 15 minutes and sent us to the food bar. They only had 1 side of the bar open and by that time there was a pretty good size line, luckily all 4 of us had gone up together so there was no getting food in shifts this time! We got back to our table right at the characters entered the room. Now I had read reviews about how the characters seemed rushed here but I was hoping that this would not be the case when we were there. I hate to say it but it was the worst character interaction that we had the entire trip! The characters were so rushed that it was almost like they didn’t even stand still long enough for pictures…seriously some of my pictures are blurry because they were in such a hurry! The food was good and I’m not saying that we won’t eat there again but it’s definitely not on the top of our list. Here is a picture of the girls with Goofy.

We finished breakfast about 8:50. DH & Jasmine headed over toward EE to get Fast Passes and ride. Cinderella & I stayed in Dinoland and were on the 1st ride of the day on Tricera Top Spin all by ourselves. We rode again a 2nd time, walked around a little and then headed to EE. When we got there DH & Jasmine had already ridden once and were in line again. DH & I switched places and all Jasmine could talk about is how much fun the ride was!! She & I ride it and it was all she said it would be…it is a GREAT ride!! When we got off we all headed to Kali River, we weren’t sure if Cinderella would be tall enough but she was. We didn’t have to wait at all. The ride was fun but I thought it would be much longer. We all got pretty wet but not completely soaked…which was fine with me! When we got off we stopped by a gift kiosk across from the restrooms and met the nicest CM. She really took an interest in Cinderella and gave her a giraffe finger puppet.

We lost the puppet later in the day though and Cinderella was upset. Then we decided that it was time to ride Kilimanjaro Safari so we headed over that way. On our way we ran into DeVine. I love watching her but she creeps DH out so we didn’t watch her very long. Then the Jasmine played the drums. When we got to KS the wait was almost an hour so we decided to FP it and come back later. We went to see It’s Tough to be a Bug. We expected a wait there too but we walked right into the holding area and right in to the next show. That is such a cute show! Cinderella was a little scared but not too much. On our way back to KS we stopped in front of the Tree of Life for a picture.

I was a little worried about the amount of animals that we would see since it was around noon but we were not disappointed at all. We saw a lot of animals. I took a ton of pictures but I won’t bore you with those. I’m not sure why I always take so many pics on that ride but I do. After that we were all hungry so we went to Pizzafari. None of us got pizza though! Somewhere in there we rode EE again. Man, that is a good ride! And the girls played the bongos.

By that time the afternoon thunderstorm was headed our way so we decided that we would leave and come back to see Festival of the Lion King before our dinner at Boma.