Two Days Too Short

[Lindsay22]

The Cast:
Me 24 year old self proclaimed Disney fanatic. Walt Disney World College Program Alumni
DBF Jon: 25 year old closeted Disney fan
Ray The coolest Castmember EVER

The Background
DBF works in packaging. (He makes boxes) DBF called me right around Thanksgiving and told me that there was a packaging class in Orlando in January, I immediately invited myself along. In December DBF and I attended my College Program roomate's (Katie ) wedding. At the wedding we ran into Ray, a castmember at CSR. He used to work with Katie. We told Ray that we would be visiting him in the world. And because Ray is so awesome, he offered to book our rooms with his castmember discount. (Have I mentioned that I Ray???)

So the planning began. We decided that I would fly down on Jan 19 after work and meet DBF, who would already be in Orlando. I consulted the Dis disrocks: ) and started to make our plans. Thanks to the dining board we decided to have dinner at Le Cellier and we also found out that we could take a horse drawn carriage ride. Jan 15 came and DBF flew down to Florida without me... But, as far as I was concerned our vacation began!!!

Comin up next... NO IT IS NOT SNOWING

 

[Lindsay22]

Friday Jan 19

I began this day like any other. I got up, got dressed and turned on the weather . (For those of you Good Morning America fans, I LOVE SAM CHAMPION) Sam informed me that it was snowing. Great. The plan was for me to wheel my suitcase to the train station and leave from work to go to the airport. Well I wasn't about to let a little snow stop me. So away I went. I got a little stressed when I realized that I wasn't only pulling my suitcase, but that I was also dragging a pile of snow with me. (Note to self, next time... take a cab )

I finally arrive at work and while I'm working away (very diligently, I might add, I was not on the Dis getting crowd levels... no! Not me ) DBF calls me to let me know that he checked in, found Ray and Ray gave him FREE PASSES for us to use the next day. Finally, the people at work got so sick of hearing me complain that I wanted to be at Disney, they let me go.

Onto the airport! I get to Newark, there is no line at security. I basically undress and stand in (what I assume is) the new metal dector thing. I stood in a box, and hundreds of valves shot air at me. Very weird : but kind of neat as well. Then my shoe fell out of the bin while it was going thru the x-ray thing. The lovely security guard ran after me screaming "Cinderella! Cinderella! Your shoe!" What a fab way to start my trip! I get to my gate, the flight is delayed. Not to worry, I had a good book to read. (Originally, I had planned for DBF to pick me up and then head straight to Poly to get a Lapu Lapu and then maybe a romantic walk up to the wedding pavilion but alas, as soon as I saw snow on the ground, I knew that wasn't going to happen)

The plane finally took off!!! I finished my book (Can you keep a secret by Sophie Kinsella) and watched that Dateline show about catching predators (and that show really disturbed me) so then I switched to watching M*A*S*H I love Jet Blue. We were finally there. DBF picked me up and since it was past midnight we went straight back to our room in the cabana builing 8 of CSR. We got to the room and decided to take a walk. We thought that Ray might still be there and we were determined to try and find him. We walked around the lake and into the front desk area. Ray wasn't there, but that's okay. We would make sure to see him tomorrow. In the meantime, it was time to go back to the room and relax.

We turned the TV on and I have to say, I was surprised to see Stacy again. Haven't the Disney Suits realized that I LIKE KRISTA! (Whatever happened to her???) We turned on the much nicer sounding girl doing the same thing in Spanish. (Neither of us speak Spanish.) We set the wake up call and went to bed.

In my next installment: We finally start parks. It might even have pictures if I can figure out how to work that.

 

[Lindsay22]

Day 1
We start day 1 with our 8am wakeup call. I don't know who it was, but it wasn't Stich. I personally liked it much more when it was Mickey. DBF and I shower and get dressed. When we went to Disneyland this fall I made our entire group wear matching tshirts. So we brought those shirts with us and decided to wear them on our first day. We didn't eat breakfast, figuring we would get something at the park. We walked to the car in fabulous 70 degree weather.

We made our way into Animal Kingdom. As we drove up, we both decided that the entrance to the parking lot looked a lot like the entrance to Great Adventure... neither of us were too excited by that. Anyway, we walked up to the gate and proceeded to use our free passes from Ray! Mine worked fine, for some reason DBF had managed to de-magnatize his so he had to get a new pass. We made our way over to Everest, stopping along the way to get our photopasss card and take some pictures in front of the tree of life. (I actually purchased several pictures of us and the tree) Then, as we continued to Everest we saw another photopass person, so we got our pic taken in front of the mountain. We continued walking and saw a and a I said "CONGRATULATIONS!!!" DBF looked at me likke I had two heads... he just doesn't get it. (Were the Bride and Groom any of you???) We go up to get our fastpasses with a return time of 11:00am. Then we got in line for Everest. We met a lovely father with two kids standing in line behind us. We told them about the hidden mickey game and proceeded to find two (the kids were very excited and so was I) we took a pic of one, I'll put the link here because I can't get my pics to show up...

that was the one that I was most excited to see. Then while in line, we planned out our next course of action which we call "maximizing our fun potential" the man behind us thought that was hilarious. We decided that we would get some breakfast, go ride Dinosaur and then go back to Everest. We escaped the Yeti and then took a picture of our picture

then we went to the little coffee stand and each got a muffin and some coffee and continued our walk. We walked over to Dinoland and DBF INSISTED that Dinosaur wasn't in this land confused3 ) so after I assured him that it was, we walked right on. I really don't like this ride. It really scares me, a lot. But, everytime I ride it I see Mrs. Huxtable and the guy who dated Carrie on Sex and the City and had a sty. (Season 6) and that makes it a little better. We escaped the Dinousaur and still had some time before our fastpasses, so we decided to go on the Kiligimaro Safari. Maybe it's just me, but I could really do without the "search for little red". I know that Disney won't take you on a ride and say "here are some pretty animals" but really, isn't there anything better they can do??? So we did that and then went back to Everest. We really like that ride. Then we shopped a little and made our way back to the car.

Next up! A trip to MGM and a "romantic" carriage ride

 

[tink's girls]

Hi Lindsay. I love your TR so far! Congrats on the CM discount at CBR and the free passes! How did you like CBR? We are going next March - can't wait!! Also, I am curious what is the WDW college program? MY DD(8) LOVES Disney and this may be something she would like to do down the road! Looking forward to your next installment!!!!

 

[tinawv]

Great trip report so far, couldn't see the pictures though.

 

[Lindsay22]

Hi Lindsay. I love your TR so far! Congrats on the CM discount at CBR and the free passes! How did you like CBR? We are going next March - can't wait!! Also, I am curious what is the WDW college program? MY DD(8) LOVES Disney and this may be something she would like to do down the road! Looking forward to your next installment!!!!

Disney College Program was the best thing I have ever done. My sister did it the year before me as a lifeguard and met her current boyfriend there (if they get married, they will have their wedding at Boardwalk Resort where they met). I made lifelong friends and learned a lot... I could go on and on and on about how great it was. You should go to their website. I don't remember what it is, but Google Disney College Program and that will bring you to their site. My parents also liked that they got to benefit from our castmember discount when they came to visit. If you can encourage your DD to go on college program i'm sure she will love it!!!

Great trip report so far, couldn't see the pictures though.

I really have no idea what's going on with my pictures DBF claims that he is going to help me tonight, but tonight is Super Bowl... so I'm doubtful.

 

[Lindsay22]

So when I last left we had just left Animal Kingdom...
So now it was on our way to MGM. I have a very special place in my heart for MGM... that is where I did my CP Internship. It brings back so many happy memories. So we walk in and go directly to TOT. I had checked the refurb list and knew that RnR was under, so I didn't even bother to check the wait time for that, knowing that it was shut down. We immediatley get a fast pass for TOT and then realize that the wait time is only 10 minutes. So we hop in line and less than 10 minutes later we were in our elevator. I have to say, I LOVE THIS RIDE. It is hands down, my favorite in the park.
Somewhat random but interesting side note: On my CP we had a meeting one day where we took a backstage tour of this ride. That might be why I like it so much. Not only did we get a tour of the lobby (so cool) but we also got to see the computer control room and the room all the way up top that has the pulley systems. We were allowed to stand on the roof. So scary!!! You can see Blizzard Beach from there! And now back to our regularly scheduled programming
We left TOT and went over to GMR. Knowing that we can have our wedding reception in this ride has made it so much better for me... and I love the fact that it always makes me want to run out and see some movies. Totally awesome! At this point we were getting a little hungry so we walked into Sci Fi Diner (I wanted to go to 50s Primetime, but DBF doesn't like that they force you to eat your vegetables there...) They told us it was only a 15 minute wait, but we realized that we would miss our FP time. So we decided to shop a little and hang out, ride TOT and then have lunch the lady at the Sci Fi counter looked like we were nuts when we said that. I had really wanted to see what they had done to NY street, I hadn't seen it since the change to Streets of America. So we made our way over to NY and had our picture taken in NY

we didn't really want to take our picture there (as we both work in NY, but the photopass lady seemed really excited to take our pic there..) and then in San Fransisco

. After we walked around there for a little while we went back to TOT for our Fastpasses. We finally got around to eating. We went back to Sci Fi, only this time there was a 20-30 minute wait. I let DBF wait while I went into the Writer's Block for some shopping. (In July DBF and I went with my Dsis and her DBF to the world... she bought the Mickey Parts dinner plates) so I decided to continue her collection. I bought her Mickey parts salt and pepper shaker, a Mickey whisk and a Mickey ice cream scoop.) While inside Writers Block I ran into my old CP manager Jeremy (I used to have a slight crush on him ) I said hello and was really surprised that he remembered me. So we chatted for a little while and then our name was called.

DBF and I were lead to our car (the backseat ) and we started to order. We both ordered a "Glow-tini" which is one of the YOMD drinks.

we both really liked it it was very good. We enjoyed watching the movie, but what we enjoyed most of all, was the person in front of us. She was the mother of a family of 3. At first, Mom and Dad were sitting in front and the son was sitting in the middle. They ordered and their food was brought. Dad and son both started eating. Mom started to complain. She ordered the shirmp pasta dish. The sent it back because the shrimp weren't good enough... okay, fine. Send it back if you don't like it. Whatever. They bring back the food and again, she starts picking at it and complaining. So we listened to her conversation with her son. The waitress comes back and she sends it back AGAIN! Ok, fine. They bring it back again. By this time both Dad and son are finished with their meal. DBF and I were taking bets to see if she would send it back for a third time. Well, in a completely unsurprising move, she sent it back again, but this time asked them not to bring it back... So Dad and son ate and I guess Mom went hungry. I don't understand what is up with those people. You'd think that if you send it back a second time you would just order something else.... I guess not for her.

We left Sci Fi and walked thru One Man's Dream. When we were in DLR this November we had walked thru the 50 anniversary video and museum thing and loved it. I had seen One Man's Dream before, and DBF really liked it. We decided to walk thru my old shops and then we head over to Epcot. We had a 9:00 reservation for our carriage ride so we knew we needed to hurry. So back to the car again. We drove over to Epcot. DBF was surprised at how close it was and I reminded him that there was a path and you could walk there, so how far did he think it was ??

We parked and entered Epcot and this park always reminds me of my Dad. When we were little, Mom would stand in line and buy tickets. Dad would sit me and my sisters down on those big planters and put sunscreen on us and make sure we were wearing our hats. So, even though he'd heard it a zillion times, I told DBF all about that. Then I called my Dad to tell him that I was thinking about him. We found a photopass person who had us sit down and take pictures. She took a fabulous on of DBF kissing my cheek. I just bought it. It's my favorite picture of the two of us. We went in and went to the "less intense" version of MS. I had ridden the more intense version several times and it never really bothered me, but I knew that DBF would probably get and I didn't want that to happen. So this trip, we decided to ride the green version. We both liked it. I actually liked it a little bit more than the orange version. This version didn't hurt my eyes as much. Then we went over to ride the new Nemo and Seas ride. DBF loved the seagulls that said "mine mine'. We waited in line and I really enjoyed the que area. We could finally see the clamshell, so I took a picture in case my Dis friends wanted to see.

We both loved this ride. I especially loved going thru the EAC. Thought that was awesome. By this time, it was about 5pm and we were both getting a little sleepy. We decided to go back to our room and have some dinner and take a nap before our carriage ride.

DBF took a nap. I watched Friends on TV while he slept. I was tired, but couldn't really sleep. We decided to go down to Pepper Market and have some food and see if we could find Ray. We went to the front desk and asked for Ray. He came out and I gave him a big and thanked him again for the tickets. I told him that we were having dinner and then we had a carriage ride in POR at 9. There were two girl castmembers behind him who both said "Oh, that's so romantic!!!!" DBF both rolled our eyes because we are the least romantic couple in the world. Ray said that he was going to stay in our room that night so that we could get an early start the next morning. At Pepper Market I had a pizza and DBF had a chicken ceasar salad... My pizza could have been a lot better. We took two plastic wine glasses and went back to our room to get changed and then leave for our carriage ride.

A quick note about the carriage ride: When we first started planning this trip, I really wanted to try and make it special. I decided that taking a carriage ride would be a lot of fun. I always wanted to see POR and I've always wanted to have a romantic ride in a horse drawn carriage. DBF didn't seem thrilled, but he was willing to go along with it.

We drove over to POR and asked a nice man from Brooklyn where we should meet our horse. He sent us outside and immediately we found a horse and carriage. We asked the man if he was waiting for us, but he said that he was waiting for his 8:30 appointment that had not shown up. He told us to wait around for another ten minutes or so and then he could take us a little early. So we walked thru the gift shop and DBF bought some Claritan because he wasn't feeling spectacular. I liked the gift shop, didn't love it. I actually expected a lot more from the POR lobby. I thought it would be grander... We walked outside and met our horse Dan

we got in the carriage and it had really nice plaid wool blankets, which was nice because it was a little chilly. Dan and our driver Christian started walking. This was so much fun. It was my favorite part of our whole trip. So romantic and relaxing. We opened our screw top bottle of wine and each poured a bit and we toasted and kissed... The funniest part was that people who were just walking around the resort would stare at us. So we'd wave and say hi. We went all around POFQ and people would come out of their rooms and see the carriage. Little kids would say hi to the "horsey" which was just super cute. We both really liked POFQ. How pretty. Then after POFQ we went back along the river and went arond POR. Again, how lovely. It was really lovely and romantic. Our ride lasted about 35 minutes and I wish it could have gone on forever. DBF liked it a lot and actually suggested that we go for the ride at SSR the next time we visit. DBF didn't propose during the ride. A lot of people expected him to, but not me. He told me he wasn't going to, so I didn't expect it and wasn't upset. When our ride was finished Christian, the driver, took our picture inside the carriage

we thanked him, paid him and went back to the car. It was about 10:00 by the time we got back to the room. We watched a little TV and I fell asleep. DBF was awake when Ray got to our room, but I was sound asleep... That was the end of our 1st day in the parks.
Coming up: A LOOOONG Day in the parks with Ray. Including PROPERTY CONTROL!!!!!

 

[PKWallaby]

Great report...so awesome to get the discount and get to see people from your CP days. Can't wait to read more

 

[OhMari]

It's been a month, you can't leave us hanging, how was your day with Ray?