Through the Eyes of a Local

[Jacklynn]

My DH and I just moved to Florida August 1st, 2008. We recently (May 2008) graduated from a University and have relocated from the Chicagoland area to West of Orlando, 17 miles or so from Disney! (Well it is 17 from Downtown Disney at least).

I thought I would create a place in which I could write about DH and I's experiences at all things Disney as locals. Down below you can read more about what DH and I's previous experiences with Disney are. Eventually I may take requests.... like if someone would like a picture of a certain area so they can understand what it looks like more, or if they have a question about something that I could find the answer to by being in the parks when they can't and ect, then I'll write about it here. Who knows, I guess I'll just see where it leads.

The Cast:

Me~Jacklynn
My name is Jacklynn and I am 21. DH and I have been married since May 2007, and started dating way back in April 2001. In May I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in 3 years (it is normally a 4 year program) and have landed my first real full time-benefit giving job working for an Academy. So while I'm young age wise, I have more life experience than a lot of others my age. My mom has always called me "an old soul".
I went to Disney World for the first time with my family in 2003. We stayed a week at the CBR and did it all with no ADRs and not much research, but we went in early May and had a great time. I also went 1 day to the Magic Kingdom in January 2007 with my university for a conference and we stayed at the CSR.

DH~Matthew
Matt is 22 and also just graduated with his Bachelor's degree from the same university near Chicago (we meet in HS and then went to the same University). He will be working as the Youth Pastor at a church in our town here in Florida and he will also be working at the Academy working with their after-school program and doing some substitute teaching.
Until yesterday Matt had never even seen the castle in real life! When we drove down to Florida in March for my interview we went to Downtown Disney but other than that, yesterday was his first real experience with any of the parks.

Soon I will post about our first experience in the Disney area yesterday and from here on out I'll post our experiences with the various parks (water parks included!) and even the places that we eat. Yesterday we ate at WCC so I'll write a small review on that ect.

Up Next:
Did trip to Downtown Disney turned into an unexpected first trip to the Magic Kingdom! We didn't have our FL license yet and no annual passes yet, did I talk Matt into it, could we even get in?

 

[teacher2525]

Looks like I'm the 1st one here, looking forward to here about the trio and your hubby's 1st time

 

[LinzDada]

Welcome to Florida. PM me with all your Hurricane questions once the local media gets a hold of any kind of a "tropical disturbance" within 800 miles of you, LOL.

 

[Jacklynn]

Matt and I finally got our apartment all unpacked and squared away Tuesday night, so when Wednesday morning rolled around we were itching to get out and do SOMETHING, ANYTHING... although I did have one thing in mind. Well we just moved the 1st (a week from tomorrow) and didn't have our Florida license yet. We knew we would want to get Premium Annual Passes, but we also knew they we are cheaper when we had our licenses. We couldn't get our licenses yet because we were still waiting to get something with our new address on it.

So we decided to go to Downtown Disney and to roam around some of the resorts. So we drove there (The whole 17 miles) and walked around a bit, didn't do too much, then decided to ride to the Wilderness Lodge. I always wanted to see that resort. Oh my WORD! That place is beautiful. My lobby picture didn't turn out so well, but here are some:

You will probably see more of him than me, I'm more of a picture taker than he is... he is easier on the eyes anyways

We ate at WCC because, well because we were there and I always wanted to try the "All-You-Care-To-Enjoy" meal.... btw, we like food So here we are there!

Here is some of our food, forgot to take pictures before we dove in.

So what did we think of the food? We LOVED the cornbread, best we have ever had, really moist and sweet the way we like it. We also loved the mashed potatoes. The sausage we could have done without, and we actually did do without, we only took one bite of that. Ribs were good, a little underdone for me (a little red) but I did really like the chicken. The service was fun as well!

Then we took the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom with the intension of just getting to see the castle and then hopping on the monorail.

On the ferry (which we only had to wait for about 5 mins for)

Such a beautiful resort!

This is getting a little long, so I am going to do a few things around the house and try to finish it up tonight.

Next Up:
Did we end up going into Magic Kingdom? If so how did we get in?! And if not what did we do instead?

 

[Jacklynn]

*There aren't many pictures in this one because it was really hot (Heat index over 100).

So last time I left you we were headed over to Magic Kingdom, but just for a look at the castle and then we were going to take the monorail to the some of the other resorts to check them out.

After we got off of the ferry at the front gates at Magic Kingdom, it was hard for me to leave those front gates for the monorail. I kept stalling because I wanted to stay close by I wished and wished we could go in but knew that we didn't have our Florida licenses yet and we didn't want to pay more for them than we had to.

DH noticed I was a little down about it and said that we could go to the ticket counter to see what the price difference was. That got me all excited but I knew it was going to be too big of a price difference to suck up. When we got there we asked to see a price sheet and there it was, $120 extra each ticket for a non resident premium annual pass. BLEH! I was never going to get in now.

So I tell the lady at the front desk why I was asking, and she says some wonderful news! She said we could pay a 1 day admission price right now, and when we come back to get our annual passes, if we bring the tickets and the receipt with us they will upgrade them they will take the PAP price minus ($160 which is what two one day tickets cost us) and that is what we will pay. So 2x$479-$160. If that makes since. So we were going into Magic Kingdom!

Matt had never been inside before so I was really excited. We got in and headed right to Space Mountain to get fastpasses. It was already after 2pm at this time. We got the fastpasses with a return time of 6:45-7:45. We could get new fastpasses at 4:20. Then we headed to see Philharmagic. LOVE that show. Would post the picture of us in the glasses, but its not a good picture.

Then we were going to make our way over to Big Thunder Mountain. We got a little distracted on the way though, we ended up going on small world, then Haunted Mansion, then when we got to Big Thunder Mt. the wait time was 40 mins and the fastpass time (which we were now able to get another one) was for 5:00 (it was currently 4:25ish) so we grabbed fastpasses then waited in line since our next stop was buzz and we didn't want to walk across the park wait in line then come back for it. It turned into more like a 50 min wait, but it made that fastpass line seem so much shorter that second time around!

Waiting for BTM to start

After riding BTM twice, we headed to the Jungle Cruise to see what the wait time was, on the way over though we rode Pirates because the wait time said 10 mins, in reality the wait time was only as long as it took you to walk to the start. The wait time ended up being 40 mins for the Jungle Cruise so we decided to skip it and just headed over to Buzz.

On the way to buzz we decided to stop at the Laugh Floor. We liked it and thought it was cute. Finally we got to Buzz.

I forgot to take pictures of our scores, but I was beating Matt the whole time until the very last second when he beat me by 200 points.

Next we were going to use our fastpasses at Space Mt. then leave. After all it was 6:45 and we were parked at Downtown Disney. We walked up to Space Mt. only to find that it was shut down! The guy said it should be up in about an hour, so we decide to go get our picture with Buzz, whom we saw taking pictures near the Buzz ride then check back.

I was getting really tired and it was hot, so we decided to just go to Space Mt. another time. We wanted to go on it, but we are locals now, we can just come back another time

Here are some pictures we snapped on the way out:

I had my picture taken like this too, but mine had the castle all washed out so I didn't post it.

We are heading to Epcot tomorrow for the first time! My first time as an adult, and Matt's first time ever. We will be stopping by Downtown Disney first to upgrade our tickets to PAPs then we are off to Epcot. We will go in the morning, but not too early because we want to see fireworks, and we aren't too concerned with riding Soarin' yet, only if the fastpass time is decent, since we can always see it another time. We would like to ride Test Track though (Neither of us have rode it yet).

So Next up:

Did we get to ride Test Track? What about Soarin? I'll update sometime within the next few days about our adventures tomorrow!

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

Can't wait to hear about your fun adventures to the world!!

 

[MousekaMaddi]

jealousy is really ugly................. youre soooooooooooooodarn lucky!!
Wish we moved to Fla, wish we were locals.........etc.........

more details soon please

 

[tink1957]

Congrats on your move. You two are such a cute couple. I can't wait to read all about your adventures and I'm turning green as I post....I always wanted to live in FL for that annual pass.....and the beach. You are so lucky.

 

[TrulyMadlyDisney]

I'm in. And dreaming of moving 17 miles from WDW!

 

[jwwi]

lucky, lucky you. I cannot imagine just walking up to the MK and buying a ticket. Can't wait for more adventures.

 

[Jacklynn]

Yay readers! I feel so excited We do truly feel blessed to live here, we are active people, so living so close to Disney, and all the other attractions, as well as the beach-- oh the beach, I grew up in VA near VA Beach so I've missed it so! We haven't been to the beach yet... but I'll be sure to report back when we do.

We're off to buy our Premium Annual Passes (I hate shortening that to PAP.... ummmm it makes me think of going to a certain doctor's office.... that's all I will say haha), at downtown disney in a little bit. We don't want to deal with paying for parking and trying to get it back and such (plus we never carry cash) hmmm anyone wanna call us cheap?! haha Don't wanna pay $12 for parking one time.

Anyways, after getting our Passes (that is what we shall call them, just passes) we will head out to Epcot. Probably get there around 10:30ish and take it slowly since we'll be there until closing. See ya real soon!

 

[reelmom]

Have fun! I can't wait to hear about your day at EPCOT and to see where this thread leads to.

 

[PigletsPal2]

Don't know if you got your FL DLs yet, but if not, you don't need anything w/your new address on it - just go to DMV (or MVA or whatever it's called down here), take vision test, surrender your current state's license, and off you go!

Queen Colleen

 

[Jacklynn]

Don't know if you got your FL DLs yet, but if not, you don't need anything w/your new address on it - just go to DMV (or MVA or whatever it's called down here), take vision test, surrender your current state's license, and off you go!

Queen Colleen

We actually already got our license, umm on Thursday I believe. We didn't realize you didn't have to take any thing with our address which is why we didn't get it sooner! Very simple to get it here in FL, very different than other states I've gotten it in.

Okay, I'm getting ready to write up a report about Epcot! Then tomorrow we are off to Typhoon Lagoon, and then Disney Quest after that (not for long, just to check it out).

 

[Jacklynn]

Saturday morning we left for Downtown Disney to buy our annual passes around 8:50, we got there around 9:25 (In IL it didn't take that long to go 17 miles goodness lol). We were in and out and had our PAP's... ops passes and were back in our car before 9:35.

As we walked back to the car though it was thundering, and was pretty dark out, but I knew it would pass soon. We headed to Epcot and got there around 9:50, earlier than I thought we would, but still almost an hour after the park opened, so I didn't know what FastPasses for Soarin would look like or Test Track, after all it was a Saturday. I was really worried that crowds would be high since it was Saturday.

This is what it looked like as we pulled in:

We got in and this was the plan: Head straight to Soarin see when the fastpass return time was (it was 10:00 by the time we got into the park and I heard they have ran out by 11am before so I was worried), get FPs if possible then ride Test Track stand-by. Well that plan didn't work out like I thought....
Instead when we passed the "tips" board it said the stand-by time for Soarin was 30 mins.... 30 mins?! No way! I was really excited, I had never rode Soarin but have heard how long the waits get. This was over an hour after the park opened so I was surprised. So we booked it there and stood in the stand-by line, and I figured that we would just get FPs for Test Track because the Soarin FP had a return time of like 12-1pm and I didn't know how long we would stay in Future World.

Matt decided to wear his sports digital watch to time our actual wait times for rides, so he reset it as we walked into the line. Can you imagine my surprise when we are getting onto the ride only 20 mins after we got into line?! I wasn't even sure if we were going to get to ride Soarin since we didn't want to do a lot of line waiting.

We were on the bottom row, but in the middle of the screen and we loved the ride, now that I have rode it I wouldn't wait forever and a day to ride it, but when we have people come visit us we will for sure to have them ride it if they go to Epcot.

Next we hustled over to Test Track saying that this is the last thing we are rushing for all day. When we got there it said 40 mins stand-by, and I don't remember was the FP return time was. We decided to just wait since we were going to be here until Illuminations. Luck was on our side again! As we were getting into our car it had only been 22 mins!

Then we ventured over to Spaceship Earth viewing the fountain on the way:

*I often do not have very good pictures of me because my wonderful hubby likes to just click the button and doesn't really look to see if it needs to be zoomed in and such... we are working on that, he just gets in a hurry

After that we go over to Nemo and Friends or whatever it is called and we thought it was cute it was at least a nice break from another storm that had rolled in... the weather guy that morning said the morning would have storms and they would be over by the afternoon, which is opposite than normal.
Then we saw Turtle Talk with Crush, which we thought was cute, but we liked Laugh Floor more.

Next we went to one of our least favorite Disney attraction. It ties up there with Stitch. We hated Honey I Shrunk the Audience. I dk why, but we totally hated it and never desire to go it again (We love Philharmonic, hate this one).

The last thing we did before heading into the World Showcase was go to Club Cool. I had it all planned out, I was going to pretend to take a drink of Beverly and say something like, "Oh Matt this one is really good try it!" --- I'm evil I know! But as we were walking up to the station some lady turns to us and says "Do NOT try the Beverly one! It is so gross!" Awe man, she was just trying to be nice, but she ruined it for me

Next we were off to tour the "World". First stop, Mexico. We walk in and see the beautiful market area and the restaurant in there. Matt wants to see if we can possibly eat dinner there that night, I tell him it is a long shot, and let's look at the menu and prices first we had packed a lunch because we can't spend too much money right now...

This is getting kind of long and we have to be up early to get a run in before we go to the water park (we run btw, did I mention that?) So I will stop here and update that either tomorrow night or Tuesday.

Did we end up reserving a table for dinner? What was the coolest thing we saw around the showcase? And did we end up even getting to stay for Illuminations???? Why wouldn't you, you say.... well let's just say that 30 mins before lightening started to roll in....

 

[OhMari]

Welcome to the WDW Trip Board.
I'm really psyched to see "locals'.

Are you going to be teaching?

 

[Jacklynn]

Welcome to the WDW Trip Board.
I'm really psyched to see "locals'.

Are you going to be teaching?

Actually the school is a college prep boarding academy. It isn't a boarding school for bad kids, it is mostly international kids who come over here to learn English and get an American education. There is a large Asian population among the students, but 33 different nationalities are represented- including Americans.

My husband and I live in an apartment within one of the girls dorms. I am considered a "Dorm Parent" and monitor my floor of girls, plan activities, help them adjust, help with any problems they have and also keep the peace.

I have summers off and during the school year (which starts in about 2 weeks) I make sure they all leave for breakfast/classes by 7:10 and then I have the day to do whatever I want, leave- go to Disney or the Beach or stay home and sleep and then they come back from classes at 3:15, then they leave for "Activities" like swimming or horseback riding or whatever club they are in until 5:15, then they leave for dinner at 5:30 and come back at 6 or so and from 6-11 they are in the dorm. Lights out at 11pm (I have seniors underclassman have lights out at 10:30).

lol so that was a really long description and I don't know if you really wanted to know that much, but it is a very untraditional job! This will actually be my first year doing it and I'm really excited! Especially because my DH when he is not subbing for the Academy his office for the Youth Pastor position is at home, so we will be together during the day.

Woah sorry that was so long.... I'm a little wordy if you guys haven't figured that out. Anyways off to Typhoon Lagoon in a few! Both of our first time, I've only went to Blizzard so we shall see how it compares! And I'll finish my Epcot day later too.

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

Wow sounds like you had a great morning at Epcot. Your job sounds good!

 

[OhMari]

Actually the school is a college prep boarding academy. It isn't a boarding school for bad kids, it is mostly international kids who come over here to learn English and get an American education. There is a large Asian population among the students, but 33 different nationalities are represented- including Americans.

My husband and I live in an apartment within one of the girls dorms. I am considered a "Dorm Parent" and monitor my floor of girls, plan activities, help them adjust, help with any problems they have and also keep the peace.

I have summers off and during the school year (which starts in about 2 weeks) I make sure they all leave for breakfast/classes by 7:10 and then I have the day to do whatever I want, leave- go to Disney or the Beach or stay home and sleep and then they come back from classes at 3:15, then they leave for "Activities" like swimming or horseback riding or whatever club they are in until 5:15, then they leave for dinner at 5:30 and come back at 6 or so and from 6-11 they are in the dorm. Lights out at 11pm (I have seniors underclassman have lights out at 10:30).

lol so that was a really long description and I don't know if you really wanted to know that much, but it is a very untraditional job! This will actually be my first year doing it and I'm really excited! Especially because my DH when he is not subbing for the Academy his office for the Youth Pastor position is at home, so we will be together during the day.

Woah sorry that was so long.... I'm a little wordy if you guys haven't figured that out. Anyways off to Typhoon Lagoon in a few! Both of our first time, I've only went to Blizzard so we shall see how it compares! And I'll finish my Epcot day later too.

Don't worry about long posts. Wow, what a great job. I think I saw your academy get profiled on a news show. I sure can't imagine teenagers around here studying from 6:30-10:30, but then again, I guess this is why they are at a prep school.

Looking forward to your comparison of water parks.

 

[Jacklynn]

Don't worry about long posts. Wow, what a great job. I think I saw your academy get profiled on a news show. I sure can't imagine teenagers around here studying from 6:30-10:30, but then again, I guess this is why they are at a prep school.

Looking forward to your comparison of water parks.

Well they aren't actually studying from 6:30-10:30, they have a "study hall" in the dorm from 7-9 but if they are on the honor roll they don't HAVE to be studying at that time, they can call home, talk to other girls on the floor, ect, but if they come off of the honor roll they have to be studying during that time.

Also you could have seen the school profiled, the academy is nationally ranked in basketball and has won national tournaments, so they are well known in the prep-school sports world.