"They're not going to make it!!!" A Tale of Two Princesses (Update 9/17)

[Amerangel89]

To all who come to this happy place: Welcome.



We're so thrilled you found this humble trip report of ours! This is my first time doing any real posting on Disboards, but I couldn't be more excited and ready to learn how everything works. After all, we ARE Disney Princesses who thrive on sharing our love of Disney with all of you other Disney characters! Now, in the words of one of my favorite Disney songs...LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!

The Five Questions of any Trip Report?

Who?

Princess Amy

Hi, I'm Amy! This trip was a mass celebration of my college graduation and birthday (both in May)...along with Amanda's graduation (in December) and birthday (also in May). I am currently pursuing my M.M. in Vocal Performance (aka, I sing opera music)...so I am a passionate idealist, dreamer, and entertainer. This is probably where my Disney obsession comes into play, haha. My family's collection of Disney VHS's was unparalleled, and I grew up on all of the classics (along with a healthy dose of Disney Sing-Along tapes and the greats of the 90's). Everytime I see that little Disney movie intro, I always ache to jump inside of that screen into that dreamworld...and my friends like to tease me about it. But they just must not be true Disney addicts. I am a true Disney Princess at heart, so when I took my first trip to Disney World with my family in '04, I found my happy place. This trip was technically my 5th time visiting WDW (I went when I was around 14 months and I also went for a day in '07...I don't count those as real trips, though). But enough of that...let's get to the stats.

Favorite Theme Park: Magic Kingdom (duh...I could practically LIVE in Fantasyland)
Favorite Rides: Dinosaur, Mission Space: Orange, Splash Mountain, EE, TOT
Favorite 3D Show: PhillarMagic
Favorite Fireworks Show/Parade: Fantasmic
Favorite Quirky WDW Attraction: Ellen's Energy Adventure (Stupid Judy!)
Favorite Disney Princess: Belle
Favorite Disney Movies: Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Howl's Moving Castle
Favorite Disney Song: "Just Around the Riverbend" (It makes me feel ALIVE!)
Favorite Disney Artist/Collaborator: ALAN MENKEN!!!
Favorite WDW Memory Prior to This Trip: Being selected along with my family to be the Grand Marshals of the July 4th parade in MK back in '04. It doesn't get more magical than that, folks.


Princess Amanda

Amanda is a close friend from high school who has become even dearer to me since I left for college. She is an Art Education major...so I was the music nerd for the duration of the trip and she had us covered on all of the animation/artistic side of things. She is an absolute sweetheart and about as selfless as they come. Planning this trip and traveling with her was an absolute DREAM. We had always joked about our mutual love for Disney and how we should eventually go to WDW together after we graduated from college...full well knowing we had no serious intentions to plan such a trip. However, one day the idea struck me that we should actually MAKE IT HAPPEN. A little carpe diem, if you will. Anywhoo, here are now...reliving our trip of a lifetime.

Favorite Theme Park: Magic Kingdom (Fantasyland=her happy place)
Favorite Rides: Haunted Mansion, Dinosaur
Favorite 3D Show: PhillarMagic
Favorite Fireworks Show/Parade: Wishes
Favorite Quirky WDW Attraction: Carousel of Progress
Favorite Disney Princess: Rapunzel (duh, she IS Rapunzel)
Favorite Disney Movies: Up, Little Mermaid, Tangled
Favorite Disney Artist/Collaborator: Mary Blair


What?
The Trip of a Lifetime in WDW, of course.

When?
August 7-13, 2011

Where?
Pop Century Resort (our first time on-site, for the both of us)

How?
Lot's of skimping and saving, planning and researching, hoping and praying.

Why?
Because we love Disney. (Yes, I realize I am stating the obvious).


Other than stating the fact that we were on the Regular DDP, I think that about covers it. I hope that this initial entry to our trip report leaves you foaming at the mouth for more...and hasn't sent you running for the hills. I know that reading other people's trip reports was what got me through that summer full of anticipation and endless waiting, so I'd like to contribute a little something myself. So, let's get on to the good stuff!!!

Continued in the Next Post
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[Amerangel89]

Just felt like celebrating the fact that I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO UPLOAD PICTURES!!! That is all.

 

[dismagiclover]

I'm in! Congratulations on your graduation! I can't wait to hear all about the trip!

 

[Amerangel89]

Table of Contents
Introduction
Day One: August 7th
Half of the fun is just GETTING there
Day Two: August 8th
Now we're REALLY on our way
Finding the Magic OUTSIDE the Parks


Day 1~August 7th: Half of the fun is just GETTING there

Words cannot EXPRESS how excited we were for WDW! Of course, that excitement didn't REALLY kick in until we boarded the Magical Express (aka, the greatest invention EVER). But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our flight to the home of the most MAGICAL place on earth was on the 8th at the Branson airport, which is about two hours away from home. So Amanda and I decided to spend the evening before with my Grammy and Papa since they live close to the airport. It was great to squeeze a little visit in, especially since my Papa had done a number and a half to his back the week before (something about pinching a sciatic nerve?) He was COMPLETELY loopy from all the pain meds he was taking, poor thing. Sidenote: he is hanging in there, very slowly and not so steadily feeling less of the pain and able to move around more.

Somehow I had ended up doing most of my packing late the night before our drive up (*cough* and even the morning of *cough*). I tell you, for all of those MONTHS of daily planning and "I can't wait to see ___ in WDW," it really didn't feel real until we were on the ME. Maybe that's why I was such a late packer. On the note of pre-trip happenings, I was at Opera in the Ozarks all summer (about 1 hr. from home) and couldn't plan with Amanda for our trip face-to-face unless we PLANNED to plan. It got kind of ridiculous at a certain point, but we made sure to take care of booking everything BEFORE I left for OIO, so that really helped (especially since I had no consistent internet access all summer). It helped build the suspense though, sending daily countdown texts and reading my UG every chance I got outside of rehearsals and performances. Those are memories I will always treasure, along with the actual trip itself.

Anywhoo, my mom painted my Disney-inspired nails for me RIGHT BEFORE I left the house (note to self, never paint nails right before loading your car with luggage).

We found some pictures online of some INSANELY amazing nail art...and we did our best to duplicate it.

Excuse the blurriness of the pictures.

And I was off to pick up Amanda on our way to our pre-Disney destination.

The drive up was exciting. Beautiful hills full of trees, BLASTING our Disney music over the speakers and talking about what we were most looking forward to at WDW. Before we knew it, we were there. We chatted with my Grammy and Papa at their house and headed out for our surprise trip to Silver Dollar City! My Grammy had some free passes that were going to expire that day, so we decided to make our amusement park total for that week a grand total of 5.

We ate succotash, rode a couple of roller coasters, and decided to call it a night. We also had to swing by Wal-Mart and grab a couple of things for our trip (aka, snacks for the flight). We doublechecked all of our travel info for the next morning and Amanda called her very own Prince Erik (lol)...no crazy partying or staying up late b/c we KNEW our WDW plans had us on a tight/slightly exhausting schedule.

So with dreams of dining with princesses and how much time our Touring Plans would save us (seriously, those TP's are LIFE SAVERS), we called it a night. We looked something like this.

Continued in the Next Post
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[Derby4me]

Cute trip report! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

It sounds like your trip got off to a great start! I hope the rest of it was just as good!


ETA: Read your TR title again. I hope it's not an indication of bad things to come!

 

[Disneyfreak616]

I'm in! Gotta love a girl's trip!

Great start!

 

[Amerangel89]

Yay! It's fun to have people join me in reliving my trip! Maybe y'all can help me since I'm sure you're more knowing of the workings of Disboards.

What is the easiest/most efficient way to link all of these chapters of this TR together? It's taking me longer than I'd like to admit to figure out the ways of writing a good TR...bahaha. Patience is appreciated.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Yay! It's fun to have people join me in reliving my trip! Maybe y'all can help me since I'm sure you're more knowing of the workings of Disboards.

What is the easiest/most efficient way to link all of these chapters of this TR together? It's taking me longer than I'd like to admit to figure out the ways of writing a good TR...bahaha. Patience is appreciated.

What I did on my trip report (and I got the idea from others) was to make hyperlinks to each post and make a Table of Contents at the bottom of my first post.

To do this, you can click on the post number you want to stand alone. It will open in a new tab or window. Highlight and copy the link for that individual post that pops up.

In your Table of Contents (you can add it to the bottom of your first post by selecting the "edit" feature for that post), type what you want the link to say. Then, highlight those words and select the "insert link" icon above the text box. You may need to be in the "advanced" edit mode in order to do this. Then, use the copied link for that chapterfrom your stand alone post and paste it in the box that pops up asking for the URL . Last, you need to save the edit to your post.

Hopefully this makes sense and answers your question.

ETA: Alternatively, you could put your Table of Contents for your chapters in post #2 since you don't have much posted there. It'd be easier for people to find than at the bottom of post 1.

 

[babytrees]

love getting in at the beginning of a report!!

 

[Amerangel89]

Thanks so much, Where'sPiglet!!! I would have NEVER figured that out by myself...lol. BTW, very good point about the misleading TR title. I promise it's just my favorite line from Dinosaur (my favorite ride). I have the feeling I'm about to become an addicted Disboarder. Also, how do you delete a reply? I remove all of the text and it won't let me just delete it at this point...I'm sure I'm just missing the obvious.

 

[Amerangel89]

Thanks so much, Where'sPiglet!!! I would have NEVER figured that out by myself...lol. BTW, very good point about the misleading TR title. I promise it's just my favorite line from Dinosaur (my favorite ride). I have the feeling I'm about to become an addicted Disboarder. Also, how do you delete a reply? I remove all of the text and it won't let me just delete it at this point...I'm sure I'm just missing the obvious.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Thanks so much, Where'sPiglet!!! I would have NEVER figured that out by myself...lol. BTW, very good point about the misleading TR title. I promise it's just my favorite line from Dinosaur (my favorite ride). I have the feeling I'm about to become an addicted Disboarder. Also, how do you delete a reply? I remove all of the text and it won't let me just delete it at this point...I'm sure I'm just missing the obvious.

You're welcome!

Oh, good! I was hoping you didn't oversleep for your flight!

And yes, these boards are addicting!!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I'm joining! I can't wait to hear about your trip.

I'm with you about not feeling like you're on vacation until you are really on your way. For me it's when we touch down at MCO. Then it's real.

 

[sstewart]

Excited to hear about your trip! Congrats on your graduations!

 

[Amerangel89]

I am SOOOO sorry to be one of those people who starts a TR and takes a trillion years to update! I promise I'll be posting within the next couple of days...I had a minor setback where I lost my cd of Amanda's pics, and I didn't want to update with holes of the vacation missing. Here's to hoping it gets here soon! So excited to go on this journey with y'all.

Also, I have recently become OBSESSED with the idea of doing the Princess Half Marathon!!! Anyone else out there with me on this one? I have an AP in preparation for my upcoming family Christmas vacay, so that part of the costs will be covered. I'm trying with all my might to justify the cost...being a broke student gets old after a while. And now I'm in grad school and continuing on in the tradition!

Oh, and did I mention the fact that I've never really run before in my life? I started training this week, though. I've got my pace up to 13'13" and have done 3.25 miles at most this week. I wasn't exactly spent by the end of the workout...it was more that I didn't have enough time to stay at the gym longer. But, I'm so excited to stick with this training plan and to see some progress! I'll be keeping y'all updated on my running journey as I update the TR, so stay tuned!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Yes, I hear you on the Princess Half! You can see in my signature that I did it back in 2010! It was also my first experience at any long distance running. I can't say I got down to 13:13 though! I did a combination of walking and jogging and I FINISHED the event! I also did the Disneyland Half in 2010, so I earned myself the Coast to Coast medal!

You can read about my Princess experience in my trip report (link in signature). My TR is closed for commenting since it's old by now, but I put a lot of photos and details about the event that you might find useful.

Are you planning to do the 2012? You might find Jeff Galloway's training plan helpful. The cost is expensive, but it's a great experience if you can afford it. I split the cost of a value resort with a friend, which brought down costs a lot. They will have a room discount code for people who have signed up for the event - it's not a big discount, but it did help. Make sure you stay onsite at one of the "host resorts" - they add bus routes to the Expo and the race.

 

[Amerangel89]

Day 2~August 8th: Now We're REALLY on Our Way!!!

Now, where was I? Oh yes, we were just at the part where we were HEADING TO WDW!!!

We had a flight for 11:37am out of Branson with one stop in Atlanta. The most exciting part of this day for me (outisde of the Disney part) was the fact that this was Amanda's first time flying!!! How crazy awesome is that? She got to visit Disney World AND fly for the first time in one trip.

So my Grammy drove us up to the airport after running a few errands (including grabbing a McDonald's breakfast), and we were there PLENTY early. Security at the airport was the smoothest/smallest I've ever been through. That airport is GORGEOUS and very homey feeling, so it was a great first-timer airport. We browsed through my UG (Unofficial Guide, for those of you who might not follow my scattered thoughts...haha) while we waited. And we took some pictures.

So not all that long after we got there, they started boarding. I've always despised getting on/off of planes. I always feel so awkward walking past all of the people already seated, terrified I'm going to run over their foot with my suitcase carry-on! Plus, I'm practically a midget at 5'1/4," so I can never quite get my luggage in the overhead compartment bins. Normally people just watch my struggling without helping, but the people I appreciate most are the tall ones who offer to help...keeping me from killing myself in the process! Yay for helpful people! (Excuse my rant, haha).

But we made it to our seats on the plane, and I gave Amanda the window seat (aren't I a great friend?). I could tell she was a bit anxious to go ahead and take off, and we were soon gaining speed. Next thing you know, we were off the ground and Princess Amanda was in flight! She was such a trooper...I thought it was really nifty to be there with her for such a milestone. Anyways, we made it there in one piece (obvi), and we took this shot of Amanda as a new woman.

And us together.

Our next gate was just a ways down the concourse, and the next flight was smooth as well...once we were finally allowed to take flight! There was some sort of weird delay due to storms we wouldn't necessarily be going through, and we were loaded in the plane, stuck on the ground for nearly 40 minutes. But I had my handy dandy UG to keep me happy! I don't honestly remember much after that until we were actually at MCO! We got to ride the poser monorail and then we were off to find the DME area. I was surprised at how easily Amanda and I were able to navigate our way around the parks and airports this trip...considering we're typical girls and not the best at reading maps or following directions (Sorry, Amanda!).

After what seemed like walking FOREVER AND A DAY in the ground transportation area of the airport we FINALLY spotted the DME area! We were SOOOOO excited! Especially since there was hardly anyone there. Like, seriously. I was envisioning a Toy Story Mania type of wait.

We took a quick shot or two.

And then we were led to the buses of enchantment! I thought the DCL buses were beyond precious!

We were starting to get really excited at this point...especially when we saw the screens for the infamous DME video!

It was Amanda's and MY first time staying on property and our first time riding the DME, so we were most looking forward to the all inclusive Disney feel of this vacay as opposed to our previous experiences at WDW.

Next thing we know, the DME leaves the airport and we are watching the most EXCITING video of the trip! We were instantly put in the Disney frame of mind (not that we weren't already, but...you know) and started FLIPPING OUT.

I wrote down in my travel journal that our bus driver's name was Dan. He was a jolly good driver. Thanks, Dan, for that magical start to our vacay!

We were already noticing the overcast weather that would stick with us for the first half of our trip (after the INHUMANELY hot summer we've had in the south, I didn't mind ONE bit). We soon made it to our first stop, CBR!

Someday, money will be no object and I will stay at all of the amazing moderate and deluxe resorts. (Grand Floridian, anyone???) Someday. Better get on that whole finding a millionaire business...

Anywhoo, we soon arrived at Pop Century Resorts! Pop turned out to be a great choice for us b/c we were NEVER in our room...and it was our cheapest option. And we like cheap. But the resort didn't FEEL cheap, necessarily. We had every intention of swimming in one of the really cool pools/exploring the grounds...but this is DISNEY WORLD, people. There was just too much to do IN the parks, IMHO. Of course, we've only been to WDW a handful of times...so I could understand if you were a WDW veteran that your priorities probably shift as it becomes more like a second home.

Our home for the week!

The Online Check-in line was nonexistant, but checking in seemed to take FOREVER. This really sweet girl named Jolinna helped us check in, and bless her heart, you could tell she was a newbie. She was actually from China, so she gained some cool points there.

Now, one of the funniest/most depressing (depending on how you're looking at it) parts of this trip was what initially took place during check in. When we booked the trip, we had specified that this was a trip for celebrating both of our birthdays and graduations. For some UNKNOWN reason, I was handed a "Happy Birthday" pin...and Amanda got a 1st visit pin??? I should have said something right then and there, but it didn't even really occur to me. (Sorry Amanda!...again). So while I got birthday greetings and gifts THE WHOLE TRIP, Amanda was her selfless self and kept a smile on her face and laughed along with me. Even though her birthday was closer to the dates of the trip. Now, is SHE a good friend or what?

After that tedious process, we were FINALLY given our KTTW cards. We were in room 9239 (Jolinna DID help us out by getting us on the second floor in the closest building to the bus stops...thanks Jolinna!). We were in the 80's building!

Actually, I hate anything 80's...basically. The only good things that came of that decade are the people I know that were born then (me included), The Little Mermaid, and my parents falling in love/getting married. Haha.

The theming was very amusing/spot on, though.

Loved the Rubik's cube stairs. Only at WDW, people.

Thought my Dad would get a kick out of that old 8-track nonsense.

You'll never guess where we went for dinner that night (or maybe you will, who knows? lol). We had had all of our meals for the trip planned MONTHS in advance, and we basically knew what we wanted to order at most of the restaurants already. So we were really excited for our first Disney meal of the trip!

Continued in the Next Post
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[Cj Fantasmic]

I'm already loving this report! I can relate haha i'm in college and hope one day, my best friend and I will be able to make a trip to Disney together. That would be one special trip! And I already tell your trip was special Can't wait for more updates!!

 

[Amerangel89]

Yes, I hear you on the Princess Half! You can see in my signature that I did it back in 2010! It was also my first experience at any long distance running. I can't say I got down to 13:13 though! I did a combination of walking and jogging and I FINISHED the event! I also did the Disneyland Half in 2010, so I earned myself the Coast to Coast medal!

You can read about my Princess experience in my trip report (link in signature). My TR is closed for commenting since it's old by now, but I put a lot of photos and details about the event that you might find useful.

Are you planning to do the 2012? You might find Jeff Galloway's training plan helpful. The cost is expensive, but it's a great experience if you can afford it. I split the cost of a value resort with a friend, which brought down costs a lot. They will have a room discount code for people who have signed up for the event - it's not a big discount, but it did help. Make sure you stay onsite at one of the "host resorts" - they add bus routes to the Expo and the race.

Thanks so much for the help and advice! Reading your TR about the marathon actually inspired ME to look into the race in the first place!

I actually am almost ready to book after a couple weeks of research...and I convinced my little sister to run the race with me!!! I'm up to 5 miles at 12.5 minute/mile, and I'm going to attempt 7 miles this weekend! It feels great!