The trip that healed wounds and inspired me to go the distance!

[soundimagineer]

Hey Everyone!

I've been reading all these trip reports and it made me homesick for disney! So I've decided to re-live my trip last September by writing an overdue trip report.

Before I get started in the trip specifics, let me give you some background on this trip, that made it more important than any other time I've been to Disney. My grandmother passed away last Feb. after being in the hospital since Thanksgiving. It took such a toll on myself and my family that I thought I was never going to get out of the funk that I was in. It was extra hard being in the next state over in school, and not being able to be with my family. I had never experienced anything like it before, and by the time she passed we were all so miserable that it was unbearable. I'll jump to the jist of it. My grandma came to me in a dream a few weeks after she died and asked me why I was so unhappy. I told her I was miserable without her, and she told me that she had a surprise that would make me happy again. I didn't think much of it considering I had been having dreams about her often since her death. But sure enough the next evening I was talking to my mom on the phone and my mom asked me when I had to go back to school the next year. I was curious to why she was asking and she told me that we were going to Walt Disney World the week before I had to go back to school! I was so elated I wasn't sure how to react, so I was silent. Then my mom said, "what do you think I was doing to keep sane while I sat in a hospital waiting room for months on end?" She had planned the ultimate WDW trip. She told all of us that she wanted this to be the end of the grief for my grandma, after this trip there would be no more tears for her because she didn't want that anyways.

THE CAST:

DisMom Mary (3redhedgirls on the boards) - CP alumni and the instigator of all the disney madness in this family.

DisDad Bill- i know he loves it, but just goes along with the rest of the mad family.

Me Olivia (20) - my 10th trip to disney, and it never gets old. 3rd year in film school and i'm going back to the place it all began.

DisSis Windsor (17) - The Lion King. enough said.

DisSis Owen (13) - Slowly creeping up in # of trips. Big squishy. Loves Nemo.

That's my family. Now its tradition to always bring another family with us. Usually one that has never been to WDW before, this year was extra special.

a first time DisMom Tina - First time at disney. My mom's good friend.

a first time DisDaughter to Tina, Chas (22) - New to Disney. Been dancing with me and my sisters since a young age.

When?
Sept. 7 - 14 2008

Where?
POP Century (first time there!)


TRAVEL DAY:

We always leave a day before our check in date and stay in a hotel near orlando. So we all piled into the "Church van" as we called it and drove the 8 hour drive till St. Augustine.

all piled in the van, all smiles, ready to go!

After checking out of the hotel in St. Augustine, its 10AM and we're ready to be there!! We must always stop at the tacky rest stops once we hit Florida, so here we go!

the group before leaving the hotel.

We're back on the road, and the anticipation is killing us! We're only an hour away from the MOUSE!

Dad's ready! For mickey moose as he would say.

Chas is too! (those ears are mine from when I went when I was 3!)

WE'RE HOME!

and me and chas are all smiles!

UP NEXT: the resort and DAY 1 in the parks!

 

[winkers]

I'm so sorry about your Grandma. I know how hard that can be. My grandma passed away in Feb. 2 years ago and we used a disney trip to cheer up the kids and give us all something to look forward to.

 

[MushuGirl06]

I am so sorry about grandma. I totally know what you have been through it happened to me when i was in fourth grade and I was in bad shape without her for a little while. But anyways enough of the sad stuff...

This sounds like a really sweet TR. So i look forward to reading it!

 

[Joy1956]

That's so sad about your grandma! Your family sounds great-so gald you have them! Can't wait for the rest of your report!

 

[soundimagineer]

I'm so sorry about your Grandma. I know how hard that can be. My grandma passed away in Feb. 2 years ago and we used a disney trip to cheer up the kids and give us all something to look forward to.

I am so sorry about grandma. I totally know what you have been through it happened to me when i was in fourth grade and I was in bad shape without her for a little while. But anyways enough of the sad stuff...

This sounds like a really sweet TR. So i look forward to reading it!

That's so sad about your grandma! Your family sounds great-so gald you have them! Can't wait for the rest of your report!

thanks everyone! i appreciate all your support. i know many people have gone through what i have and i hope that i can speak some words of comfort through this report.

 

[soundimagineer]

We checked into the POP around noon. While my DisParents checked us in, we explored the resort.

After that, we decorated our doors so all the other DISers would know we're here!

the girls room.

our window.

the adults.

their window.

Then we played in the gift shop.

owen & i with the best hats we could find.

the cutest minnie ears that i was a sucker for and purchased.

OFF TO DHS!

We arrived at DHS around 3. Right in the middle of a parade of course. But we headed straight for ToT and got on with only a 5 minute wait!

Next we ran over to Rockin' Rollercoaster (one of my faves) and rode 2 times in a row with only a 5 -10 minute wait both times! That was one of the most awesome parts of the trip - the wait times. There were none, except for TSM of course.

We did all the necessities, but we were coming back another day. (It was our first time with park hoppers).

Windsor & Chas made a new friend with the law.

only appropriate...i am a filmmaker after all!

Our dinner reservations were at 5:30 for the 50's Prime Time. A restaurant that we ALWAYS do every time we go. Me and Mom had the pot roast (our favorite, sorry i didn't have any food pictures for this meal).

straight from there we went to get seats for Fantasmic! My favorite stage show in the parks. we took some advice from some of you DISers and brought everyone their own glow jewelry.

Chas and Tina were really impressed by the first show they saw at Disney, except that the dragon broke in the middle of the show! We were all so disappointed! Apparently we heard that they were refurbishing the show and only doing it a couple nights a week. But around the time the Dragon died it started to pour, so we didn't get to finish the show! I was mad! It was extra magic hours in DHS that evening so we tried to go on TSM, but the wait was 90 minutes! so we passed and ran over to one of DisDad's favorites, Muppet 3-D!

Chas & Tina had never seen a 3-D show before, so it was hilarious to listen to their reactions! Afterward we wondered over to Star Tours. DisMom&Dad don't care for it, so the DisSisters took Chas and Tina on it. We had a hilarious experience on it. The guy sitting next to Tina was narrating the whole ride! Afterwards, we decided to call it a night and headed for the buses, wet, tired, but happy.

ffirst day is over.

 

[winkers]

I bought my dd the same eeyore shirt your sister is wearing. I got it for 3 bucks on clearance at Wal-mart.
By the way, I love your's and your sisters names.

 

[soundimagineer]

I bought my dd the same eeyore shirt your sister is wearing. I got it for 3 bucks on clearance at Wal-mart.
By the way, I love your's and your sisters names.

that's where she got it! & thanks. I was actually a month or two away from being named Disney, but my mom thought Disney Phillips didn't sound very good.



random side note update:I have an interview with the Walt Disney Studios for an internship this summer! I'm trying so hard to not let my nerves get the best of me! cross your fingers everyone! (this also relates to my TR later)

 

[sunny_stace]

Hey! I'm glad you decided to write a TR! It looks like you guys had a fabulous time! It's nice that such a large group of you could go together! I'm sorry to hear about your Grandma. I'm glad you have a lot of people around as a support system. Can't wait to see more!

 

[soundimagineer]

After a tiring first day and a late night, we were all up early and ready for Animal Kingdom!

owen & chas ready to go.

We were supposed to go to AK later in the week, but there were rumors of rain, so we bumped it up to this day. My family hadn't actually spent a full day at AK (we usually did it on our way out, we weren't huge fans at first). But we wanted to make sure we got to ride EE at least a few times! It was EMH that morning and we got there in time for the rope drop.

We ran straight for EE and rode twice in a row with no wait! We stopped for some photo ops on the way back through to hit the safari.

the darjeeling bus. so pretty.

On to the safari. I had never been really impressed with this until this trip! We went first thing in the morning and all the animals were around! We got these awesome pictures of the giraffes.

Then look who we found! Tina's favorite, Donald! This was her first time meeting him and she was a little teary-eyed.

Her reactions had me going on this trip. It was too funny and so fun to see them experience everything for the first time!

Then Donald thought my sister was a hottie.

Then we had lunch at the Yak and the Yeti. So good! except the birds wouldn't leave us alone.

Here are some of our photopass pictures.

Time for Tree of Life.

Tina & Chas had the best commentary during 3D shows, especially this one!
We saved the Kali River Rapids for last before we headed back to the hotel. my DDad thinks this ride is hiarilous, especially when we get really soaked and he doesn't. There wasn't much of a wait so we rode it twice!

We headed back to the hotel wet, but happy, to get ready for dinner at Le Celliar!

Dad needed a nap! Tigger too!

We all showered and got ready and starving. Off to Epcot!

Everyone got Tink drinks!

We had the best waiter ever! We had so much fun with him at dinner! It was truly a magical moment. Even waiters from other tables came over to get in on the fun. They made us laser guns out of aluminum foil and a glow ice cube!

NEXT UP DAY 3 AT THE MK!

 

[soundimagineer]

Finally I get back to updating, sorry its taken me so long. Things at school have been crazy. The movie I’m working on was picked to go on the senior LA trip in early May and that means all my deadlines are pushed wayyy up! But anyways, back to the fun part.

So day 3, Magic Kingdom! We had 8:00am ADRs for Cindy’s round table. If you are thinking about eating in the castle, I highly recommend breakfast. I think the food is better and the best part is that you get into the park early and you have the best photo ops!

It was Chassity’s first time meeting the princesses, needless to say age doesn’t matter in Disney World! She was more excited than any of the other kids there, but that’s okay, so were we!

My DM surprised us with princess desserts! Everyone around us were just making the biggest fuss about them and kept asking us how we got them. Tina was so shocked that her emotions got the best of her.

Then we hit the parks. We were coming back here another day, so we hit all the big attractions. Of course, Dumbo…

The Teacups..

We headed over to Splash Mountain and ran into one of my favorites, goofy!

Then over to Pirates! We hadn’t seen the refurb or the jack sparrow show. Me and Windsor became official crew members. We also saw our other favorite pirate!

(cont. in next post)

 

[soundimagineer]

After Pirates we moved on to Toon Town. It was time to meet the Big Cheese himself! The heavens opened up just as we got there.

Then we stumbled upon Timon and Rafiki in adventureland. They were too funny! Timon insisted that he have his picture taken with ALL of us ladies, not just individually. He wanted to keep posing for the CM taking the pictures.

Then we hopped on over to Epcot for dinner at Tutto Italia! At that point we were so exhausted and Italy is all the way at the back! But alas, we made it and it was incredibly delicious!

Up next: DAY 4 EPCOT!

 

[soundimagineer]

Finally I get back to updating, sorry its taken me so long. Things at school have been crazy. The movie I’m working on was picked to go on the senior LA trip in early May and that means all my deadlines are pushed wayyy up! But anyways, back to the fun part.

So day 3, Magic Kingdom! We had 8:00am ADRs for Cindy’s round table. If you are thinking about eating in the castle, I highly recommend breakfast. I think the food is better and the best part is that you get into the park early and you have the best photo ops!

It was Chassity’s first time meeting the princesses, needless to say age doesn’t matter in Disney World! She was more excited than any of the other kids there, but that’s okay, so were we!

My DM surprised us with princess desserts! Everyone around us were just making the biggest fuss about them and kept asking us how we got them. Tina was so shocked that her emotions got the best of her.

Then we hit the parks. We were coming back here another day, so we hit all the big attractions. Of course, Dumbo…

The Teacups..

We headed over to Splash Mountain and ran into one of my favorites, goofy!

Then over to Pirates! We hadn’t seen the refurb or the jack sparrow show. Me and Windsor became official crew members. We also saw our other favorite pirate!