Um, is the pirate boat supposed to stop here? Trip Report!

[rmkstorey]

Hiya! My name is Rachel and this is my first trip report! I haven't been on the boards long, but the little time I have spent here has been extremely enjoyable. I have decided to write a trip report because my last Disney trip had so many interesting things happen (That's where the title comes from. You don't get stuck and escorted of a ride too often. More about that later), that I just need more people to tell them too! So this is the best way!

This trip consisted of myself, one of my brothers ( I have four older brothers), his girlfriend, and their son. We stayed at All-Star Movies from Nov. 23 - Nov. 28, 2009. I sort of went as the baby-sitter because my nephew is about 2 and a half.

My name is Rachel and I come from a huge family that has lots of fond memories with Disney, courtesy of home videos (because I don't remember most of them, but I know I love Disney!) I am 22 years old and I currently work two and a half jobs. I say half because the other one is only sometimes at the thirft store my church owns, where my mom and younger sister work. The other jobs are with an after school program m-f and Wannado City, an indoor role-playing theme park, on the weekends. I have A B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Central Florida, but I haven't been able to find a teaching position yet. Someday...someday...

One of the main reasons I went to UCF was because I wanted to be close to Disney! During my time there, I was able to spend lots of days at Disney, mostly in part to my room mate who worked there. She's great! She still works there too! I miss her. My favorite disney characters are pretty much anything and everything princess (especially Belle and Ariel) and I absolutely LOVE Peter Pan and Wendy. I've never been able to find anything Wendy though. Anyway, here's me:

I'm a goof!

Next is my brother. Out of the four that I have, he is the third oldest. I'm pretty sure he is 25. He lives fairly close to my house with his girlfriend and son. He is a mechanic and has helped me out quite a bit with my silly car. I'm pretty sure his favorite character is Goofy and Pluto. He never really expressed that. He hadn't been to Disney since the castle looked like a cake, so he was excited to go this trip too. Here he is:

Then we have his girlfriend Jessica. She is the one who planned the whole trip and because of her I learned about how cool the dinning plan is, and the different restaurants! She's 25 as well and is going to night school for...what I am not exactly sure. It was never explained to me. This is a picture of her with my nephew:

Then there is Brody. My little monster! And he seriously is a monster. He is 2 1/2. He hasn't seen me much since I went to school, but now that I am back I have seen him a lot more. And he was used to me, but that didn't mean he didn't scream and run away from me at times. Especially if his mom was around, gosh he wanted nothing to do with me. But once he got used to me, we got along great and he loves me. He's a real cutie! He's favorite character is Lightning McQueen from Cars.

And I will end my first post there! My next one is going to be about our first day there! Hope you'll stick around and join me!

Direct Links to TR Posts:

Day One
Day Two, Part One
Day Two, Part Two
Day Two, Part Three
Day Two, Part Four
Day Two, Part Five
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six

 

[IATink]

Can't wait to read all about your trip!

 

[tiggerfan6]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[rmkstorey]

Thanks guys! I'll more up by tonight!

 

[CoP Luv]

I love Peter Pan too!!

 

[rmkstorey]

I love Peter Pan too!!

Then you'll love what happened to me during the spectromagic parade!! ) Thanks for readin!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Hope there's plenty of pics from the hotel! We'll be there in less than 1 month.

 

[rmkstorey]

Okay, soooo where were we? Ah, yes our first day of the vacation! Obviously our first day was the travelling bit, and yes I count that as the part of vacation because when I was younger, it always seemed like fun being in the car, playing games and eating snacks. The trip for us is about 3 1/2 hours, less if the person driving speeds. I've only done the drive twice myself (two round trips) but one time a friend of mine got me home from Orlando in 2 1/2 hours! I fell asleep at one point, so I am pretty sure she turned fly mode on. She likes Harry Potter, I think she could pull that off.

By the way, I live in Fort Lauderdale now (Because I used to live in Orlando for School). So that was our starting point. My brother and his family came to our home (where we both grew up) to pick me up. I am a light packer and we were able to shove my bags into the trunk with all of the toys and products for the baby. Oh and the tons of food they brought for the drive up and back. Geez there was so much! You'd think the drive was three days long! I squeezed myself into the back seat with Brody and all of his toys and then we were off.

My brother drove us, and we only stopped once at a rest stop...Fort Drum, i think...and Brody screamed his head off at the thought of being left alone with me, so his mom had to take him to the bathroom with her. We got back in the car and were off. From that point we had less than a third of our trip to go!

Even though we have all these GPS systems in the world today, I still have a hard time trusting them. So when we got to the point where we choose either I4 west or east, I was pretty sure we should have chosen one over the other. So i told them, and then it turns out wrong haha. It would have been right had we been coming from the direction of UCF...oooopsies...

So, after an uneventful ride of Brody's dvd player scaring me and me playing my DS, we finally knew we were on property. Why? Because the signs turned purple!!! Yay!

Now if you can remember, my brother hadn't been to Disney since the castle looked like this:

So he was pretty confused coming into the area. He said he didn't remember any of this. Me? I felt like I was home!

We had trouble finding our hotel, and I knew where to go and I told them so, but they had trouble listening to me after that whole I4 fiasco. Oh well. They decided to follow the signs.

We pulled into the parking lot of ASMOV and went to check in. Christian and I went to the bathroom while Jessica did all the work. And I hope no one yells at me for this, but I had to hide from the check in people because I was not on the room list. No we were not over the occupancy limit, so it shouldn't be a problem that I was there, but I paid for my own batch of tickets and my friend was giving me one of her sign-ins so i wasn't on the reservation. So I hid. Sorry!

Then when it was time to get into the car, I said no thank you and decided to walk to our building (which was toy story!) I stayed at the same resort with my mom and sister when we came for Christmas in 2007, so I knew my way around. I met up with them and we watched Brody stare at the giant Woody and Buzz then looked for our room. We were on the first floor, which I didn't like but they did. We make it to our room, open the door, and.....

someone else's stuff was in there! Uh-oh!

We quickly closed the door, stared in confusion at eachother, then Jessica said she was going back to the front desk. I told Christian I saw a playground (which I didn't even know existed when we came in '07) and Brody loves slides so we took him there.

Brody may love slides, but he hates sand! So whenever he went down a slide, I would have to pick him up and take him back to where he started. Haha, he is a funny boy! Eventually Jessica said she was ready, so we left to meet her. Brody didn't want to leave, so he screamed his head off. Which I should have seen as a sign of things to come. But he was better once he saw his Mommy.

We made it to our room, this time we were at the second floor and from the elevators we were able to stare at Buzz's butt instead of his ankles. We get to the room, open the door and....

It's clear of stranger's belongings! Yay!

We walked in and showed Brody around, then my brother and I went to get everything from the car. Which was a pain in the butt because as I mentioned before....I think Jessica put their kitchen in the car.

When we got back, we unpacked a lot, and for the first time ever I took my clothes out of my suitcase and put them in a drawer. I never usually do this, but I figured I should since we were staying for five nights.

After we rested from the arduous journey we decided to go to DTD. They had never been so it was going to be fun! We got to the bus and I don't know how long it took, but not as long as it must of have seemed. When we got to DTD, we decided we were hungry. I ranted and raved about how much I love the Earl of Sandwich so thats what my brother wanted, but Jessica was being stubborn and wanted Wolfgang, so we split up and decided to meet outside. We were done before Jessica, so my brother went to go find her and left me with Brody. Brody immediately started whinning and throwing his car. Another sign of things to come.

They got back, we ate. My brother absolutely loved his sandwich!

After eating we decided to walk around and shop. I don't remember most of what they bought. but they did get an autograph book, which Brody never used....oh well, next time!

They left at about 530, but I promised my friend I would meet here. So I waited for her and did some pin shopping. I was looking for some "Princess and the Frog" pins, but didn't really find anything I liked or in my price range. Plus I had to save most my spending money for food and a gift for my sister and mom.

I think it took two hours for my friend to show up, and that was quite frustrating. She agreed to go some far out place to shop with a friend shortly before we arrived. She knew I was coming, so i was little frustrated with that. But we got over it, had some ice cream and walked and shopped some more.

We found this gorgeous book full of Disney Princess pictures drawn by other people. We huddled in a corner and looked at them.

After that, we shopped and exfoliated at Basin. Haha. I was able to purchase three cute ribbon bracelets for my mom, my sister, and I as cute gifts. Mine had the saying, "Think Happy Thoughts" on it.

When we finished that purchase I decided to head back to the hotel because I was tired and needed to be up early the next day. My friend kindly dropped me off at my hotel and when I opened the door...they were sleeping! It was 8:30!

Jessica turned out to not actually be asleep though. she was just laying down. They had a hard time getting Brody to sleep so he was sleeping in their bed instead of the crib they ordered.

I took a shower (because I have to before I go to sleep. I feel dirty getting into bed if I haven't showered) and then hopped into bed myself.

Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day, we were going to Hollywood Studios!

Oh dear, with that I will have to end this installment. My laundry is done and I have to fold it before it gets all wrinkly. My work clothes are in there! Hey look! A little smilie to show you what I am about to do!! Yay!

Since I only showed one pic, I will give you some more that I found in my grandma's photo album that she left to us. They are from the late-seventies, early-eighties, I believe. It includes the castle, cinderella, and that hang glidding ride thingy that they shut down and I never got to go on. What was that? And does anyone know why it shut down? Don't you think they should make something out of that??? I mean instead of a giant stroller parking lot during busy days....

Check out Cinderella's hair and costume! And yes, that is my creepy uncle in the background. He's not actually creepy, this picture just makes him appear so...

The castle! And the hang gliddy thingy! Anyone know what that was called so I can stop sounding like a moron?

See you all real soon with another installment!

 

[rmkstorey]

Hope there's plenty of pics from the hotel! We'll be there in less than 1 month.

Welllllll I don't have any from this trip. But I do have a few (that are awkward angles of my mother in the room haha) from the trip I took in 2007. The theme is different and the layout of the room was flipped form what I had on this past trip.

I reccently joined the board before I went on the trip and if I had done some more lurking and realized that people like the pictures of rooms and scenary that I'm always told to delete...I would have kept them!

I'll look for those other pictures I told you of....

 

[rmkstorey]

I found the pictures I was talking about! They don't really show too many details about the room, but I hope it is something that will tide you over.
I'm kinda shocked myself I didn't take more pictures this time. Hmmm...

I don't know why my mom looks so confused. I think we just busted in on her and scared her a little bit.

Thankfully she was not angry.

And that's it.

Wow that was really unsatisfying, huh? lol

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hey! I've come over for a read. I always say that Disney trip reports are what keep me sane until my next Disney vacation. Thanks for your contribution to my sanity.

Now, let me go back and re-read.

 

[wannago2disney]

 

[mickeystoontown]

Okay, I've gone back and read the details.

I start counting the days to Disney like this.....you don't count today because, well, it's today and it's already here....and you don't count the day you leave because, well, it's the day you leave. You just count all the days in between. My husband thinks that is the silliest thing ever but I'm stickin' with it.

Poor Brody (and poor you). I sure hope that it doesn't take him very long before he gets to be "okay" with you being around him.

I gotta say that I'm not going to scold you for hiding at check in. Why? Because our daughter has been 17 now for 4 years. I think it is absolutely crazy for us to pay extra for another person in a room that accommodates 4 people.

I love your old pictures. I think the castle made up like a cake is really cool even though most people hated it. I would love to have seen. By the way, I think the hang glider thing you are referring to was called the Skyway.

Sorry you had to wait 2 hours for your friend to show up. I would have been a bit ticked off myself.

Okay, I think that's all I was going to comment on. Looking forward to more.

Lisa

 

[rmkstorey]

I hope that wasn't too forward. Thanks for reading!

Okay, I've gone back and read the details.

I start counting the days to Disney like this.....you don't count today because, well, it's today and it's already here....and you don't count the day you leave because, well, it's the day you leave. You just count all the days in between. My husband thinks that is the silliest thing ever but I'm stickin' with it.

Poor Brody (and poor you). I sure hope that it doesn't take him very long before he gets to be "okay" with you being around him.

I gotta say that I'm not going to scold you for hiding at check in. Why? Because our daughter has been 17 now for 4 years. I think it is absolutely crazy for us to pay extra for another person in a room that accommodates 4 people.

I love your old pictures. I think the castle made up like a cake is really cool even though most people hated it. I would love to have seen. By the way, I think the hang glider thing you are referring to was called the Skyway.

Sorry you had to wait 2 hours for your friend to show up. I would have been a bit ticked off myself.

Okay, I think that's all I was going to comment on. Looking forward to more.

Lisa

I saw your countdown on your first trip report (yup I read that one! Loved it!) or this current one, I can't remember. But I loved it! I never thought to take those mickeys from Home Depot!

Brody got used to me, and even though he didn't want to admit it, he loved hanging with me (Which would be hard anyway, because he can't talk yet, or hasn't decided to yet, we think he's teasing us). He just would prefer his Mom, which is understandable. But he was better behaved for me than her. But I'm pretty sure that is because he knows he can play her. I on the otherhand don't have that maternal connection with him so I could care less if he's yelling and screaming at me for no reason. I'll just wait till he's done. Which happened twice on the trip. And I wasn't being mean, because trying to calm him down only made it worse.

I thought it was ridiculous as well, so that's why I hid. From the pictures I've seen of Lacey, I would say she doesn't have a hard time convincing people she's seventeen lol. I seem to remember dissappointed teenage boys from one of your posts....lol.

I was pretty ticked, since we had this planned for months. But we lived together for a year so she knew my mood and I was too tired to be really upset anyway haha.

I love those old pictures! It's so cool to see how different things look. One of my favorite things is to look at the evolution of some of the character costumes from when the park first opened. The cake picture is from when went on Easter when I was like ten. I thought it was pretty cool and was shocked to hear people hated it. Don't really get that. I thought it was creative haha.

And hopefully I can stop calling it the hang glidy thingy.

I should have more uploaded tonight!

 

[rmkstorey]

Okay then. I promised an update and here it is. Sorry it took so long, I just finished putting together cover letters and resumes to send out tomorrow. It actually took a couple hourse because I wrote cover letters specifically for each school. I want a teaching job so badly!

Anyway, you guys don't care about that, so I'll jump to the story. It's not going to be a terribly long update because I am sort of exhausted. But a promise is a promise.

The first official full day of our trip was going to be spent at MGM, I mean Hollywood Studios. Gosh, I'll never get used to that. We had a couple items on our must do list.

- Backlot tour to see the ship from "Flight of the Navigator
- PLayhouse Disney
- Toy Story Midway Mania
- The Magice of Disney Animation (for me! I like to draw)
- Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights
- RNR and TOT
- That stunt show which name escapes me because it is so late.
- See the CARS
- etc etc etc

I woke up that morning with ease, because a) i went to bed at 9, and b) i tossed and turned all night.

Which is weird because I am a very sound deep sleeper. And I had a bed all to myself and yet I did not sleep well. I woke up at least five times in the night because a) all three of them snored and b) Brody kept waking up and freaking out. He had never been away from home before, so when he woke up in the middle of the night, he'd freak out and one of his parents had to calm him down.

So I was awake. And eventually I got out of the bed to change. We all got ready, then we got Brody ready. I helped and he hated that, haha.
Then we packed up and went to the buses!

We waited a while for the bus while four AK buses showed up one behind the other. Soon our bus came and we were off to DHS.

When we were little and going to Disney, we used to play this game. Basically whoever spotted the mickey ears on the water tower first got to pick which ride we were going on first. The last time we played, Christian won and made us go on Alien Encounter. I was a big chicken when I was younger and that ride freaked me out!

SO this time I was hoping to get back at him and do something I knew I would like, but he probably wouldn't. And I did see the mickey ears first, but we still didn't go on my ride. We had prior engagements. Or they did, because I couldn't take part in them. You'll see.

We get to the park and they hunt for the reservation entrance because they had ADR at the hollywood vine n dine before the park opened. Again, I was on the resort list so I couldn't partake. I had to stay behind and enter the CM entrance because I had a ticket print out from my friend. So i was there for the rope drop.

When it dropped I walked towards where I thought the restaurant was, but it wasn't there. Then I thought about getting fast passes for Toy story, but then I realized I didn't have theirs. So I walked in circles all confused and stuff, then decided to wander towards the lagoon thingy and call my brother.

Eventually I found them, and I had been in the park all of ten minutes and they were already done with their breakfast. It was delicious, but Brody was scared of the masked characters.

I told them the line for toy story was long so I would go and get us fast passes. They decided they would go see Playhouse Disney, and I wasn't really feeling that, so I decided to wander around after the fast pass and look for Luigi's Garage so Brody could meet the CARS.

And you know what? I stood in line for 20 minutes for those darn fast passes! When I got them I decided to wander around and I got a little lost because the pixar section confued me and I thought I should be standing where the Streets of America where. And I couldn't remember it looking like this when I came in Dec 07 so something had to have changed....or maybe it was just me.

While I was looking for the cars, which took forever to find, I stumbled across the muppet store and looked for a Fozzy Bear for my youngest nephew (born 4/15/09) He loves the sound Fozzy or whatever is name is, makes. I found it but decided to wait to buy it, until my friend could get me her 50% holiday discount! yay!

Then I walked out the store, and hey! There were the cars!! I called my brother and told him about it, but he didn't pick up. But he sent me a text saying they needed a pacifier for Brody. Now I don't know how old a kid is suposed to be when they get rid of their pacifier, because I've never had one. But it was apparently a big deal to some lady later in the trip, that the 2 1/2 yr old had a pacifier. Whatever, at that point, I was more concerned about whether or not I'd find one. I went back into the ultra quiet muppet store ( I forgot to mention it was super quiet in this area! I guess everyone got stuck in pixar land. OH YEAH! There were so few people that when the power rangers came out no one was standing in line to take pictures with them, and they were standing there awkwardly, doing poses all by themselves. It was hysterical!)

Anyway, I found this nice lady in the muppet store and asked if they happend to have pacifiers. AND GUESS WHAT?

They did!

I was shocked. I told the lady so, and she goes, oh this is a magical place! Never underestimate, Disney thinks of everything!

She was a real sweetie. Oh and the pacifier was under $4.

After buying the pacifier, I took some video of the CARs so I could show my brother, and at that time he called me. I met with him in front of VOTLM and then we decided to go see the CARS and possibly get Brody to get a picture with them. Which was going to be hard because he was petrified of all the characters. But he was wearing the cutest outfit and he had to take a picture with Lightning McQueen! He had a mechanic button-up shirt on, that my sister bought for him (she loves CARS as well). He looked like part of McQueen's pit crew AND he was holding a toy McQueen car!

But before we walked over there, we walked by the backlot tour, and my brother realllly wanted to go on because he wanted to see the space ship from the movie, "Flight of the navigator". So we got on the ride.

During the first part with all the water and explosions....Brody wasn't scared at all! The boy who was afraid of the Leo from Little Einsteins or whatever his name is character at the character breakfast, was not afraid of explosions and loud noises!

After that, we passed the chicken coop from the Hannah Montana Movie (I bet you've been wondering where the pictures are....lol)

Don't mind the random kids....

Then we got on the tram and I took a pic of them!

Good job Jessica at paying attention....Look at Brody's shirt!!

These are some of the things we saw:

Costumes! I love the elaborate princesses on the wall!

Ariel!

At this point we had passed the first boneyard and did not see the spaceship, and then we went to the canyon (which I got a video of, and will post later) and still no space ship. By then, my brother was very upset, but then we turned the corner and....

There it is!

He thought it was the coolest thing. No one else in the tram seemed as excited about it as us. I hear they are doing a remake of that movie....hmmmmmmm Maybe they can use the spaceship they saved!!

And with that, I will end this installment. It is just past two in the morning and I ought to get to bed. Ought to...lol

In the next installment, we will find out if Brody gets his picture taken with Lightning McQueen!

See you guys then!

OH, btw, sorry if these have more words than pictures. I have a tendency to go on and on and on, it's a curse...or blessing....that I got from my last name (Storey) sooooo. yeah. It's not gonna stop. Because I said I was going a while ago and yet here I still am going on and on, who knows when I'll stop.

Oh I did it again.

Shoot.

Bye guys! See you soon!

 

[wannago2disney]

great update! On our last trip my DD was 2 and although she could identify most of the characters, the only one she would go up to was Minnie...which was a complete surprise to us as we were at Chef Mickey's and all the rest of the characters were a NO WAY...then Minnie comes along and she launched herself into minnie's arms! you just never know how they will react to things!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Great update! Don't ever worry about going into too much detail. You know from reading my trip report that I am a super duper chatty kinda gal. I love details and even if my readers don't like them....they're getting 'em.

If you hadn't been to MGM (I still call it that too.) since 2007, then you probably were disoriented when you got over to where Toy Story Mania is. It looks totally different since they redid it with a Pixar theme.

I'm sorry to hear that Brody wasn't liking the characters. Some kids just don't like them. Luckily, my son, Hunter, never was scared of them.

Glad that your brother was able to spot the spaceship from Flight of the Navigator.

Can't wait to see what happens next!


P.S. Hope that your mass resume mailing turns up a job for you.

 

[rmkstorey]

great update! On our last trip my DD was 2 and although she could identify most of the characters, the only one she would go up to was Minnie...which was a complete surprise to us as we were at Chef Mickey's and all the rest of the characters were a NO WAY...then Minnie comes along and she launched herself into minnie's arms! you just never know how they will react to things!

Yeah he's scared of the characters who don't look like humans ( I forget the name they use for those characters) he is absolutely fine with face characters, like the princesses. Oh an explosions apparently.

I was never scared of characters, I was just really shy. Both my sister and I were. We would stand in line, and people would skip over us and we would just wait patiently and nervously. We actually have video of my sister and I waiting to see Minnie. People were passing over us and my sister and I were just standing there. You can hear my mom getting angry at all those people, and then she's shouting "Minnie, look behind you!" Eventually she does and when she sees us, she kneels down and opens her arms and my sister and I run to her. It's a really cute moment. And I actually remember it a little myself!

Great update! Don't ever worry about going into too much detail. You know from reading my trip report that I am a super duper chatty kinda gal. I love details and even if my readers don't like them....they're getting 'em.

If you hadn't been to MGM (I still call it that too.) since 2007, then you probably were disoriented when you got over to where Toy Story Mania is. It looks totally different since they redid it with a Pixar theme.

I'm sorry to hear that Brody wasn't liking the characters. Some kids just don't like them. Luckily, my son, Hunter, never was scared of them.

Glad that your brother was able to spot the spaceship from Flight of the Navigator.

Can't wait to see what happens next!


P.S. Hope that your mass resume mailing turns up a job for you.

Yeah I just can't help it, I just talk and talk and talk and talk.

And thanks for clearing that pixar thing up for me. I had been in the park after 2007 but it was only for like two hours to ride TOT and so everything seemed different when I got there.

Like I said, I was never scared of the characters. I was just shy and would wait until the character said something to me. I never approached them. Now I just run up them and say "OMGosh! PETER I LOVE YOU!" lol. It's awkward because I am more excited than most kids in line, haha.

Christian was so excited about that dern spaceship! I vaugely remember the movie, and all of my brothers loved it. And I want to be loved my brothers so I usually like whatever they like. That's why I like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and enjoy Star Wars (Harrison Ford helps too )! lol.



Thanks for reading!!!

 

[CoP Luv]

OH, btw, sorry if these have more words than pictures. I have a tendency to go on and on and on, it's a curse...or blessing....that I got from my last name (Storey) sooooo. yeah. It's not gonna stop. Because I said I was going a while ago and yet here I still am going on and on, who knows when I'll stop.

Oh I did it again.

Shoot.

I have this same problem with my TR!

 

[rmkstorey]

I have this same problem with my TR!

At least I'm not alone in this boat! I like details, I like going back and seeing how much I remember. I mean, what kind of TR would this be if I said:

We got there. We went on some rides. We ate. We went on more rides. We watched a show. Then we left.

Kinda boring...lol