The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

[DaisyFoote]

Arriving day - July 2-3, 2015
The day finally arrived that we had been looking forward to for so long. We've been wanting to go back to Disney ever since we returned from our last trip in 2011. We really wanted to go this year cause it is my DH's and I's 25th anniversary; we went to Disney for our honeymoon. My DD was 10 this year so we felt like it was the perfect time for her as well. A friend of mine and her DD were wanting to go too. We would rent a house together. We would get to stay for 2 weeks, July 2 - 17! So here's the we I've been talking about

This is me and my DH. I've been to Disney 3 times before - my Senior trip in 1987, my honeymoon in 1990, and in 2011.
Both of us are school teachers in a Christian School. I teach 2nd grade and DH teaches 5th.
My favorite ride is Soaring.
My favorite park is Hollywood Studios.
My DH had been to Disney twice before - our honeymoon and in 2011.
His favorite ride is Expedition Everest and his favorite park is also Hollywood Studios.

Our beautiful princess - She's been to Disney once before, 2011.
Her favorite ride is Tower of Terror and her favorite park is Hollywood Studios.

Here's my friend and her DD

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 2

My DH, DD, and I were in Tifton, Ga for a VBS. We travel over the summer and do VBSs. After VBS that night we were going to drive a little over 4 hours to the Sanford airport and pick up my friend and her DD. We left Tifton by 8:00 and were so excited about making good time until we ran into bad traffic. It was very frustrating that they were doing construction on a holiday weekend. It ended up knocking us off an hour. It bothered us cause our friends were already going to have to wait a couple of hours in the airport, now it was going to be another hour. We ended up getting to the airport at 1:00am (after paying about $10 in tolls - very frustrating) and to the house we were renting for the week at about 2:00am. The house was a big let down. The ad for it said it was a 4 bedroom house with 3 bathrooms. It was suppose to have 2 rooms for adults, one with a queen size bed and the other with a king. The queen size bedroom was actually a section of the living room that they put a curtain around. The curtain was about an foot off the ground so there was no privacy at all. It would have worked for teenagers to stay in but not for my adult friend. We ended up not even using that "room" except for storage. The bathroom downstairs was only a half bath too - no shower. My DH and I tried to move our luggage in one of the kids rooms, we were willing to stay there and give my DF the master suite. While I was down in the kitchen unpacking the food, she went upstairs and moved our luggage over and put her luggage in the kids room. I felt sick about the situation; hated that she would have to sleep in a kids bed and walk across the hall to the restroom. My DH told me to not be so upset - that we weren't there to enjoy the bedroom but visit Disney. That was a good point. I tried not to worry about it anymore. Tried to trade rooms with her at the half way mark but she didn't want to have to move all of her stuff so we left it at that.

July 3

Normally I'm a firm believer in rope drop and a mid day break. Rope drop wouldn't be possible today with us not going to bed until after 3 last night. So, we were up and out of the house by 10:00, arrived at the MK front entrance by 11:00. First stop - Peter Pan's Flight. This was the only time we would see the queue so I'm glad we did it at least once. The queue was real cute - showed you Wendy and her brother's bed rooms and had Tinker Bell flying around some. We then rode It's a Small World and Haunted Mansion.

We ate lunch at Columbia Harbor House - one of our favorite places from last trip. This is where I tried out one of the tips I had learned here on the disboards - We got free water. All of Disney will give you free ice water. Most of the restaurants has the water made up ahead of time so you just have to ask. Some of the restaurants will have you stand in line to order but it's not too bad. We bought in packets of flavoring to add. It saved my DH from having to bring a cooler filled with drinks as well. Back to CHH, I ordered the Broccoli Peppercorn Salad and my DH ordered Battered Fish Basket and my DD the chicken nuggets. Everything was very good although I regretted not getting the fish basket. After lunch we went to the lockers and got the girl's princess dresses. it was time for our FPs. Our first FP was for Enchanted Tales with Belle (actually we must have done this after the m&g since my DD has changed clothes). We found out later that you really don't need to get a FP for this but before the trip I was just thinking that I wanted to ride the rides that weren't here when we came last time in 2011. We enjoyed ETWB though - the mirror is really cool.
Next we used our Fast Pass for Under the Sea. What a beautiful ride; loved it! We then went to Story book circus and met Minnie and Daisy. This is when DD started to complain about her Ariel dress. She said it was so uncomfortable with the sleeves. I could tell with all the complaining that she would never wear it again. My DH went back to the lockers to get her clothes to change into. I was glad we "only" spent $50 on it. Part of me thought about making her wear it so I could get my money's worth but why torture her and myself? I was able to resell it on ebay afterwards for close to what I paid for it so it worked out. Anyway - here's our m&g.

 

[DaisyFoote]

After our m&g it was time for supper. We went to the Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe where DH got the turkey sandwich kid's meal and my DD got the nuggets. I got a hamburger and fries. It was very crowded; my dh had to stand to eat. After we went to let the girl's change. We had an hour and a half before the special 4th of July fireworks (They do them 2 days in a row) so we thought we would have plenty of time to go to customer's service and upgrade our 10 day park hopper tickets to annual passes. I never realized how complicated a process this would be. Our cm was pretty new and had never done it before either which made things more complicated. He had to ask for other cm's to help him many times. The boss cm asked me where our original tickets came from. When I said Undercover Tourist he said, "Ah, that explains it." He explained that it was difficult to upgrade Undercover Tourist tickets. I had never heard that anywhere on the disboard before. I think he was just trying to make me less frustrated with them by thinking that it was somewhat my fault. Well, I wasn't that frustrated. I understand things are confusing and I was OK. I wasn't thrilled that it was taking so long cause I was nervous about not getting a nice spot for the fireworks. In fact, as it got closer and closer to 9:00 I was getting more nervous. It was actually raining hard plus lightning so we were thinking the fireworks would get postponed. They did which was good cause we were in there until about 9:20 or so. For our troubles though they gave us Fast Passes - yeah!! He gave us 5 anytime, anywhere Fast Passes good for 2 days - yeah!

We weren't sure how long the fireworks would be delayed so we made our way to the little store beside the castle that served funnel cakes. It was an awesome snack and it was really nice to sit down. We stayed there for about 30 minutes thinking that it would be a good spot for the fireworks. An announcement came on saying the fireworks would start in 10 minutes. Almost immediately a cm came by and kindly told us that we weren't in a good spot for the fireworks. She said that most of them would be behind the trees. Ughh - no wonder we found a place to sit down that no one was at. We started walking as fast as we could toward Fronteirland. As we walked we kept turning around seeing if we had a good view of the castle. Finally we found a cm and asked them where we should go. They suggested we go to the bridge that goes toward Splash Mountain. It was a pretty good view. I think we missed a lot (fireworks going off behind us and same behind the trees around Haunted Mansion). Two years ago we watched the 4th of July fireworks from the beach at Poly. I almost wonder if that's a better view - the 360 fireworks are so big I think you might need to be far back to enjoy them.

After the fireworks we went to use up our FP at the 7 dwarfs mine train. Our DFs ran on before us, but my DH, DD, and I were stopped. They said we didn't have a fp. We said we did - that we were with the people who just went through the line. They said we would need to go back to customer service to figure out what the problem was. We decided to wait for DFs - hopefully catch them when they came off the ride. We also decided that we had been in customer service enough that night so we would probably just wait to ride 7 dwarfs another day. When DF came off the ride though she said that the cm probably just didn't link our annual passes to our Disney experience. She obviously got a more knowledgeable cm than we did. She got out her phone and got our pass numbers and poof - we were linked. We rode the 7 dwarfs - it was awesome. It would take us several days to get our magic bands so no pictures yet but we will end up getting plenty.

After our ride we saw the wait time for Cinderella and Rapunzel wasn't so bad so we got in line to meet them. I wanted to ask Rapunzel to sing the song to me to turn me younger but in my exhaustion I forgot. After we exited from them we saw Anna and Elsa's time wasn't so bad so we meet them as well.


It was after midnight at this point and we were wore out so it was time to head out. One last picture before we left -

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 4,

We slept in late because of our late night on the 3rd plus we were afraid to take a mid day break (like I like) since the park would be so crowded we were afraid we wouldn't get back in. We rushed to get to Epcot by 12:30 to use our fp for Spaceship Earth. Then we went to Mission Space - mild. We used our magical fp then and rode Test Track. Then we rode my favorite
ride - Soaring.

We made our way to the World Showcase - American Pavilion to watch the 4th of July concert by the Voices of Liberty. We snacked on an apple pie from Liberty Tree - awesome! The concert was amazing - up there as one of my favorite magical moments from the trip. It bought tears to my eyes several times, very patriotic and moving.

Afterwards we stood in line to meet these guys -

After a wonderful meal at Seasons we rode on the monorail to MK. We decided the 4th of July fireworks were so awesome we had to see them again. They wouldn't have let us on the monorail if we didn't have our annual passes - the MK was partially closed. It was packed. We made our way around backstage and ended up on the Tomorrowland bridge. It was super crowded and rainy but the fireworks made it worthwhile. We met Tink afterwards.

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 5,

We watched our home church's service via live stream and had a good lunch that I cooked at our house. Then we went to Hollywood Studios. HS was having a theme of Frozen summer fun. They had a frozen parade (3 or 4 floats with some skiers and ice choppers), a show with Olaf at mid day, the Frozen sing along attraction, several Frozen themed desserts, and Frozen fireworks at the end of each night (which I read was better than Wishes and I'd have to agree).

We had fastpasses for Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, and Frozen Sing Along - the best fp line up ever. (although Rock-n Roller Coaster is awesome too - kind of a tie)

The Frozen Sing Along was new to us - it is hilarious. The royal historians of Arendale tell the story of Frozen in a super funny way. There is a big screen behind them that shows clips of the movie. It does captions for the songs so everyone can sing along. At the end Elsa comes out and makes it snow throughout the whole auditorium. Truly some Disney magic there. We ended up watching this show many times on our trip. We then watched the Beauty and the Beast musical, excellent. We then went out to eat at Prime Time. The food was excellent, service not so good. I was looking forward to some funny interaction with our waiter but he was more interested in flirting with the teenage girls sitting at the table beside us. Our glasses were empty a lot as well. Excellent food though - I got the chicken pot pie and DH got the pork roast - both excellent, very tender.

We had the peanut butter and jelly milkshake for dessert, so yummy. We then rode the Tower of Terror a couple more times, DD's favorite rides and her favorite activity ended up being making funny pictures for the ride photo. It was another rainy night so Fantasmic was cancelled. We had some snacks while waiting for the fireworks to start (delayed because of rain again)

We watched the Frozen fireworks without the performers. They were very good and we ended up watching them several more times during our trip.

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 6,

We were at Epcot for rope drop se we rode Test Track with little wait.

We then used our fp for Soaring (afterwards a snack from Seasons of a cheese Danish) and then Under Seas with Nemo. We then watched Turtle Talk with Crush. We then had a fp for the character spot and meet these guys:

plus Chip and Dale afterwards. After our mid day nap we came back and toured the left side of World Showcase. This is us behind the water fountains in Mexico.

DD also really enjoyed playing the Agent P game -where they give her a phone where she gets a mission and has to go to certain places. It's kind of like a high tech treasure hunt. We met Donald in Mexico and went to China and met Mulan and ate at the Lotus Blossom.

At the Lotus Blossom Café we ordered the pot stickers and the shrimp and rice .

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 7,

We were at MK for rope drop where we were able to ride 7 Dwarfs Mine Train 3 times in a row with little wait. Then we meet Ariel at her Grotto.


We then rode Under the Sea. We had reservations at 11:15 for Be Our Guest. What a beautiful restaurant and excellent food.

I had the roast beef. DH had the pork roast. DD had the grilled cheese with tomato soup.


After lunch we went home for a nap. We went to Animal Kingdom for the evening. We saw It's Tough to be a Bug. Then we rode Dinosaur and Expedition Everest.


We then went to Down Town Disney (transitioning while we were there to Disney Springs) and ate at Earl of Sandwich. DD had the BBQ sandwich, I had the Italian sub, and DD had the pizza. We love Earl of Sandwich!!

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 8,

We arrived at the MK a little before 8:00 cause we had an early morning reservation at Crystal Palace. I love walking down Main Street when it's practically empty.

We took our time eating at Crystal Palace this time. One of my regrets from our 2011 trip was us rushing through our meal so I could make it in line for Rapunzel and Flynn with a shorter wait time. Crystal Palace is way too expensive to rush through it. Their buffet is amazing!

Later on that day we met Gaston. He was hilarious and our favorite m&g of the whole trip. DH stood up there as I waited in line to hear all of his funny banter. He was acting real cocky and was busting on people and other characters. He said Peter Pan was nothing - why a guy would wear tights he didn't know and then go around and beat up on poor defensive handicapped people. When it was our turn he refused to fist bump DH, didn't want to hurt him. He said the last guy he fist bumped ended up with his fist going through his elbow. We had an autograph picture that had Belle and Beast in the background with Belle looking lovingly on Beast. He scratched out Beast's picture and drew a heart around his picture. DD went to flex for the picture and you can see he's holding his shirt up for him. DF's DD hated him as first because of his arrogance, but once she realized it was part of the act and funny, she got on board and loved him too.

That night we went to Hollywood Studios and rode some of our favorites and saw Fantasmic and the fireworks.

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 9,

Our DFs had always wanted to go to SeaWorld so we did that today. DH, DD, and I had been in the past and really enjoyed it. Today, not so much. Maybe it was because we had annual passes to Disney so the whole time we were there we were really wishing we were in Disney. Or maybe it was because we had been at Disney so much recently so we could compare the two. Disney is just so much cleaner and the workers so much friendlier. Maybe it was also because we hated wasting the money since we could have went to Disney for "free". There was something else that left a bad taste in my mouth as well - literally. We paid extra to get the all day meal plan, one price and you could eat all you wanted all day. Well, we really didn't get all we wanted cause the lines were so long that you didn't feel like wasting so much time in line. The food was cold and not so good. We also bought the front of the line passes. This was worth the money for DH and the girls. They rode Manta, Kraken, and Journey to Atlantis many, many times. It wasn't as worth it for DF and I cause we don't like big rides that much. We bought it though so we could go on the Antarctica ride with them and Journey to Atlantis. Another big difference between SeaWorld and Disney is that SeaWorld doesn't allow you to carry your bags on any of the big rides so every time we rode on anything good we would have to wait in line for a locker or I would have to carry everybody's stuff. It was a pain. SeaWorld does have awesome shows though so everyone needs to go at least once so were glad our friends could mark that off their bucket list.

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 10

DH, DD and I made rope drop at HS. Dfs decided to sleep in. We rode Toy Story, Rock and Roller Coaster, and the Tower of Terror with little to no wait. Rope drop is so worth it!


We went home and took a break. That night we came back to HS.



July 11

Today we went to AK. The girls became wilderness explorers. DD really got into it. My DH was as well - they both love Up and wanted to finish what they started. I kept whining saying we didn't HAVE to finish it in one day, that we could come back, but they were determined. DD ended up finishing the whole book by late that afternoon. The cms that gave her them badge said that they sat a record finishing all of it so fast. Along the way we stopped to see the original wilderness explorer and Mickey and Minnie. They are just soooo cute in their safari outfits.

We rode Expedition Everest three times and Kilamanjaro Safaris and Kali River Rapids. It was extremely hot this day and it seemed like there was no where to get any relief except for Planet Watch. It seems to me like all the gift shops in AK are like these open air markets with no air conditioner. Maybe it was just so hot that day that they couldn't keep up. Planet Watch ended up being my favorite place that day cause I just sat in the building there while they ran around and got badges.

Our wilderness explorers at the end of the day -

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 12

We watched our home church service via live stream, ate a good lunch, and then headed to MK. We were there by 2:00, just in time to see the show in front of the castle. I am a firm believer in mid day breaks, but you have to skip your mid day break occasionally or you'd miss stuff like this. Wonderful show!


We hopped over to HS that night where we went to Fantasmic and then saw the Frozen fireworks with Ana, Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf this time, It was awesome. It snows on Main Street after the fireworks - pretty "cool".

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 13

We went to MK at rope drop. I think we also returned here after our mid day break. Didn't take good note as to what all we did,
but I do know we met these people.


At one point we started playing Sorcerers of the MK. That is a really cool game. They will give you a new pack of cards each day you come to the MK after you open up a portal. I love the cards and want to collect all of them. The game is neat too where you open up these portals and defeat these villains with your cards. The technology to me is amazing - how they can read your card and fight you villain with whatever weapon is on your card. We also found some cards one day while we were there and found out that there are people who hide these cards on purpose for people to find. That is so nice of them.

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 14

We went to Mk today. We rode Splash Mountain again and then stood in line to meet Woody and Jesse. It was worth the wait - they were very good. They acted just like you would expect a toy to act - very playful and cute. They were our second favorite character m&g behind Gaston.

We rode Thunder Mountain railroad. Later we met Mickey - pretty cool he can talk to you.


After meeting Mickey, DH and I had a date night. We went to Tony's Restaurant 25 years ago on our honeymoon. We went back tonight. Here we are 25 years ago -

25 years later -

They brought out this delicious bread. DD ordered the wedding soup and I ordered a wedge salad. Then we split the spaghetti and meatballs.


Our waitress was very good and nice - she brought us a special dessert at the end of our meal, a sampling of 4 other desserts, on the house. She said they normally just did a little something but since it was our 25th the chef wanted to make it real special. How extremely nice - we were over whelmed.


We got the kid's meal menu for my DD cause she was really into Inside Out on this trip. We met up with the girls later that night.

 

[DaisyFoote]

Continue from July 14 -
DD, DH, and our DFs went to ride on the Tea Cups (I get on that ride, especially since my DH and DD try to see how hard they can spin it the whole time) while I tried to get a fp. After they rode it though the nicest cm came up to them and asked them if they liked rides or food better. They said rides so he gave them this paper fp.

Wow, they couldn't believe it! They were so excited to get back to me and tell me about it. We used it right away and got to ride Mine Train - yeah!


July 15

We went to HS for one last time and repeated some of our favorite things. HS is our favorite park.

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 16

We went back to Epcot today. We did some things in future world (Soaring of course) but our focus was on the World Showcase, wanted to visit the countries to the right today. It was so hot and by now I have blisters on my blisters so it was tricky. Epcot has a lot of places to step inside and cool off at though, unlike AK. Here are some highlights -

Pooh and Tigger are in a room behind some buildings in England. I wonder if many people miss them cause they are kindof hidden.

My DD played the Agent P game as she explored these countries.
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We had a fp for a good viewing spot for Illuminations. We saw it once already but it was extremely crowded when we did and thought we could get a better view this time. Well, they overbooked the fp area and it was super crowded there as well. We still didn't get a good view and ended up leaving before it was finished. We parked at the Beach Club Villa (after our mid day break so we weren't parked there too long) this time so we took the back exit to Epcot and walked to our car. Ahh, it was so peaceful and closer that way. Last time we exited Epcot after Illuminations we were in a huge crowd of people and there was this teenage tour group obnoxiously chanting. I mean I'm glad they were so happy but when it has been a long day it just really gets on one's nerves after a while. This way - much better!

 

[DaisyFoote]

July 17

Leaving day, very bitter sweet. I LOVE Disney and hate that our vacation has come to an end. On the other hand, we are all exhausted and the heat is unbearable plus it is very crowded. So, we were ready to go home I guess. We packed up that morning and checked out of our house. The house with it's problems was nice though, so much better than an hotel. I was able to cook several meals, we could do laundry, and we had lots of room to spread out. After checking out we went to the MK for one last time for a while. Our plans were to stay until 3:00 and leave right after the Festival of Fantasy parade, which by the way is a beautiful parade which we enjoyed seeing several times. We ended up not making it to the parade. We rode a few rides and did a m&g with Donald and Goofy.

We were resting exhausted in the train station, just waiting on our DFs. That's when we got this wonderful surprise - a surprise m&g with Mary Poppins! I was a little embarrassed cause I think I was sleeping and then wake up when I hear a sophisticated lady talking to my DD. I jump up and desperately start looking for her autograph book. Wow! We ended up on that happy note and travelled the 10+ hours home.

 

[John Foote]

This was definitely an awesome trip

 

[ArwenMarie]

Very cute trip report, so many nice pictures, looks like you guys had a blast!