We got plans! 8/20-8/27 & 9/13-9/16 (pics) updated 10/8, Final Thoughts

[marsh0013]

Cast of characters

me: Marcia, 26 year old Disney fanatic. I planned the whole trip after my mom surprised me with it. Been to the World at least 10 times growing up, maybe more. Last real trip (more than 1 day) was in 2001. Also a huge Yankees fan and Dave Matthews Band fan.

mom: Anne, 53, child at heart. She surprised me with the plane tickets and told me to run with it. She let me pick the Polynesian resort, so I love her forever. She's a part time secretary and keeps our house running.

location: Disney's Polynesian Resort

Okay, so I've been wanting to write a trip report since before we got back, but I'm just now getting around to it. (note - i normally write in all lower case letters, so this capitalizing thing is going to drive me crazy! hehe ). Anyway, so here goes nothing!


Day 1, Monday Aug 20, Part 1

We began our first day by waking up early to catch a morning flight down from Newark to MCO. Luckily, one of my younger brothers (I've got 2 of them) wasn't leaving for college until the next day, so he was able to drive us to the airport, much to his amusement, I'm sure. That's what I want to be doing on my last day of freedom - driving my mother and sister to the airport so they can go on a fantastic trip, and I can go back to school. Yup. Well, we love him for it!

We arrived with plenty of time to spare, so we walked around the airport to find a Dunkin Donuts, because we cannot live without our coffee. Heh, I had already had my travel mug-ful from home, don't think this was my first caffeine of the day! Anyway, our plane got delayed a little, which had me freaking out. No one was going to stand in my way of getting to the Polynesian and getting the best room ever! Okay, I wasn't really that crazy . But that's when I started using the phrase "We got plans!" and it became the motto of our trip. I mean, I was just very excited to get to Disney already, and I just didn't want to be delayed.

Well, our plane ended up leaving a little late, made up some time in the air, so I think we only landed half an hour after our scheduled time of around noon. So we went and found Magical Express and had to wait for our bus. Well, we were the first ones in line, so it took a while for them to give us a bus, and then longer to fill it up. But my mom kept telling me to breathe, we would be okay. But we got plans mom! Don't you know that???

On DME we were seated up front, so we got to talk to the bus driver (funny!) and take pics as we went through the gates. When I took the first one, I was just so giddy I almost couldn't hold the camera straight!!!

We arrived at the Poly around 1:30, we welcomed with Aloha's all around, and went to check in. We were the first off the bus and the first in line, so that was nice. We got our leis, found out we received our room request of Tokelau, and that we had a first floor room. I was absolutely thrilled! All I wanted was Tokelau, and we got it! I felt so lucky!

So we went straight to the room to get a little settled and snapped a couple pics:

stepping outside our patio door

the room

Phew, by this time, we were getting a little hungry, and since we had an ADR for 5:20, we decided to check out Captain Cook's for a quick bite. We ended up splitting a salad and it was perfect to tide us over until the early dinner. Once we finished eating, we just walked around the resort, checked out the pool, the pool bar, and the Great Ceremonial House and its shops. We also stopped by the concierge to upgrade out tix from 5 day hoppers to 8 day hoppers, and they only charged us the "old" price, since it was so close to the price increase. That was a very nice touch. So for about $10, we got 3 more days, could go to the parks every day we were there, and we didn't have to worry about "making the most" of the days.

I think this is about where I'll stop for now. My fingers are getting tired from typing.

Upcoming: Chef Mickey's, MK, Spectro & Wishes!

 

[sandybobandy]

Yahoo! I'm signing on for this one-can't wait for more!

Oh and what an awesome view of the castle! Did you get to watch the fireworks from your patio?

 

[Dizmom0923]

Hi, good start. Can't wait for more.

 

[marsh0013]

Yahoo! I'm signing on for this one-can't wait for more!

Oh and what an awesome view of the castle! Did you get to watch the fireworks from your patio?

thank you! it really was nice. we never actually watched wishes from the patio, but we did watch them from the beach on our way home from the mk one night. actually, you'll hear about that in my next installment! which i plan on working on right now.

 

[marsh0013]

Hi, good start. Can't wait for more.

thanks, it's coming soon

 

[marsh0013]

Day 1, Monday Aug 20 Part 2

So where were we? All, that's right, getting ready for our dinner at Chef Mickey's! Well, you know how we got plans? Well, tonight, did we have plans. Chef Mickey's at 5:20, go to MK and do short lines, then Spectro and Wishes. Due to scheduling, this was the only time we would have to see Spectro during our trip, so these plans were very very important

Sometime around 4pm we walked over to the Great Ceremonial House to take the monorail over to the Contemporary. I forgot to mention this in the last installment, but since we took DME, we didn't have our suitcases when we left for dinner. I had told my mother this and that she should pack *anything she might need* for the entire night in a carry on. Well wouldn't you know it, she forgot shorts! In that weather? At least she was wearing capris and not long pants, but man. That's rough. Don't worry, I continued to remind her of it every time she thought about complaining .

So here I am on the monorail, my first monorail ride of the trip, very exciting!

We got over to the Contemporary pretty early for our ADR, so we decided to take the time to browse around the shops. I like to try on hats that I would never think of buying.

We ended up checking in at 5pm, right when Chef Mickey's opened, and were seated very soon after. We got to see the opening ceremony, done by two adorable little girls. It was so cute! Oooh, some other pertinent information I forgot to mention! It was my mother's birthday on August 19, so for our first dinner on the 20th, I had it noted that it was her birthday. So she was given a special placemat when we were seated.

She was crying! I was so happy that I could "get" her like that! It made my day .

I feel like I should have written a pre-trip report, because you need some other background info. This was our trip to let loose! We both needed to get away, and to have some enjoyable time with each other. It's been tense in our house, so this was the answer for us. Part of the way we wanted to enjoy ourselves was by taking part in the alcoholic beverages that the world could offer us. Sooooo as our first trip down that road, and our first of many many glow cubes to come, we ordered the Happiest Celebration Glowtini .

Alright, so we didn't just drink, we had fun with the characters and had some really great food too. Just a few pics with the characters:

They came so fast, I think those first three were taken before we had any food! And they came back too, so we just said "hi" the second time around, not wanting to take up too much of their busy schedules. Also, because we had plans to get to .

Once we were done, it wasn't even 6 o'clock. I told you we got plans! We went down the escalators (fun!) and took the short walk over to the MK.

Aaaaah, the Magic Kingdom. This for me is the essence of Disney. Although, ask me 5 days later and I will have changed my opinion, but you'll have to wait for that! So we went through the bag check, put in our tickets, scanned our fingers, and bingo, we were in! Where to first, what do we want to do? We got plans, but nothing really necessary until Spectro. So hmm, what should we do, what should we do? Picture in front of the castle, yes, do it!

And next? Well, I came down for 1 day in November 06 and didn't get to ride the updated Pirates because it was always broken. So, that was our first stop. I told my mom that if all I got done was Pirates, I would be a happy girl. Well, Pirates was about a 10 minute wait, so it was perfect! Couldn't have asked for better. Next we stopped off at Jungle Cruise, and it was a bit disappointing. Our guide didn't even tell us most of the corny jokes. Come on guide! Don't you know that I come on this ride to see the backside of water??? I don't want you skipping *anything*. But alas, he did. Oh well, I had the dialogue playing in my head. Hrmph. You're not gonna break my mood! And neither could It's a Small World, which we went on next because it had no wait whatsoever. And you just have to do Small World at least once a trip, so this was our once. And we didn't return to it for the rest of the week! Way to get it out of the way first night, yes!

By then it was time to stake out our spots for Spectro. We were around the circle, right across from the castle. My mom says this is the perfect spot, and that we always used to sit here when us kids were little (do I remember? no, but that's cool, I believe you mom), and that you get to see the parade coming around the circle, at you, then going past you. So okay, sounded good to me, so we did it. Time went by quick, and before we knew it, the parade was coming!

I love Spectro. I loved it when I was little (this I *do* remember) when it was still called the Electrical Light Parade. Something about the parade in the dark, and the music, ah, I don't know what it is, but it makes my heart happy.

Once the parade was over, we had to decide whether to stay for Wishes at 10, or watch it from the beach at the Poly. Since it was the end of a very long day, and we had AM EMH planned for the next day, we decided to book it out of the park, take the boat back, and even with a stop at the Grand Floridian, we made it back to the dock just in time to see Wishes starting. So we scurried over to the Hawaii beach, and a little past it, to watch the show. We could still hear the music coming from Hawaii, so it was really nice. Mom took a few pictures, but they didn't come out so great, so I won't bore you with those.

After Wishes, we went back to the room, and our luggage had arrived! So we spent some time unpacking (thrilling!), set the wakeup call for 6:15am, then hit the sack in prep for our early morning. I know I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow. It was a great ending to a great first day!

Next up: AM EMH at MK

 

[marsh0013]

Day 2, Tuesday Aug 21, Part 1

6:15am and the phone is ringing. Make it stop, what is that horrible sound! Oh that's right, we're at the Polynesian, and Mickey is calling to wake us up! Woo hoo!!!!

Showered, ready, and out the door by 7 for a quick stop to Captain Cook's for bananas, and the Coffee Bar for some delicious Kona Coffee to start our day. Ah, there's the caffeine kick I needed. On to the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom for Morning Extra Magic Hour! We were the first ones on line for the monorail, so we got to ride up front, very nice! We got to the gates at 7:30am. Yeah, this is not a normal thing for us. We like our sleep. But I told my mom that when we're in Disney, we're up early. We got plans, you know!

We were up close for the opening ceremony, and even got some pixie dust to throw up in the air. The family opening MK was so cute, with 2 little boys. They were so excited! Of course they were, they got to open MK! During EMH, we headed straight to Space Mountain and rode it. This used to be my favorite ride when I was a little kid, and it's still up there on my list.

Next up was Buzz Lightyear, where we both got close to 100,000 (very impressive, I know ). But we were happy about being Junior Space Rangers, I think it was. Very proud day for us! Ha! We thought about heading to Tomorrowland Speedway, but decided we'd done that one enough in our lifetime to be able to skip it this time.

No problem! Off to Fantasyland! I knew we wouldn't be able to ride any of the biggies by this time, because we only had a bit of time left until 9am rope drop. Since Pooh and Snow White didn't have long waits, we decided to go on them. We had lots of fun bouncing with Tigger and running from the Wicked Witch.

By this time, it was nearing 9am, so we wanted to head over for rope drop to Frontierland. So, another rope drop, and another rushing of the crowds. It just cracks me up when people actually *run*. I mean, that's all fine and well, when you fall, just make sure not to get in MY way. Thankyouverymuch.

We got FP for Splash, and went right onto Big Thunder. For the wildest ride in the wilderness, of course! We made sure to play it all out and put our hands up like the little kids were doing. It's just more fun that way.

By this time, we were getting a little hungry, so we decided to slow it down a little and head over to the Main Street Bakery to get us some yummies. The line was a bit long, but that was to be expected. I told my mom that it was just like waiting on a line for a ride. But the reward was food, so it was worth it . I was so disappointed that they did not have French Toast Loaf! I'd been looking forward to the loaf ever since I heard of it here on the DIS. I had to settle for a delicious coffee cake. But don't worry too much, stay tuned to see if I ever get my French Toast Loaf...

Anyway we got a little table for 2 and enjoyed our breakfasts. My mom got the ham, egg, cheese croissant sandwich and she said it was really good. And I did enjoy my coffee cake. It was nice to take a break after rushing so much for EMH. We took our time, and when we were almost done, we saw a youngin looking for a table, and told him to take ours. We finished our last bites on the way to the garbage, LOL

By the time we were done eating, our fastpass was almost up for Splash. So we set the plan of attack to grab a FP for Peter Pan on the way over to Splash. Our time frame still wasn't up, so we wandered over to Pirates to take some pictures:

Time for Splash! It was great as usual. I love how well themed this ride is. Thank goodness we weren't in the front row. Last November (read - COLD), my friend and I went on Splash and this was the result:

I know, I know, the point of the ride is to get wet. But have you ever seen such a thing? I never had, until then! Anyway, we had some very nice people in front of us in the first two rows, and they were ready to get wet! I was looking forward to cooling down a bit, but didn't want the total soakage. Third row was perfect. Just enough wet without drench. Very nice

Next, we headed to Fantasyland and went through Liberty Square. Who could resist for photo ops? Well let me tell you. The parents that were around absolutely ignored that I was waiting to get my picture taken, and that their children were the most important. I got a bit outraged, but did not feel like making a huge scene. We're in Disney World! Deep breathes, deep breathes. So finally it was my turn:

See my face? Yeah, that was aimed at all those parents who thought their kids were more important than me! No, no, I'm just kidding, I tried to make a "holy crap this sucks, i'm stuck in jail, gross!" face. I don't think it worked, as I look pretty foolish. Oh well!

Since it wasn't time for our FP for Peter Pan yet, we decided to take a magical journey through Mickey's Philharmagic. I had seen it before, but my mom never had. I was very excited for her to see it. And it was a hit! She loved it. And so did the baby girl sitting next to me on her daddy's lap. Oh my god, was she just the cutest thing ever! She kept reaching out for all the 3D stuff, and I just kept looking over at her and going "aaaawwww".

Once Philharmagic was over, it was time to go on Peter Pan. Yay, I was so excited. This is one of my favorite rides, and I know it's a favorite of many others. By this time, before noon if I remember correctly, the stand by line was already up to 40 minutes. Oh that's right, we got plans, so we got fastpass . Perrrrfect.

When we got off of Peter Pan, we realized how hot and crowded it was getting, so we said, "POOL TIME!" At this point, we decided to walk out through Tomorrowland and grab fastpasses to give to someone on our way out. It was so nice to surprise a couple of people with FP, made me feel all fuzzy inside!

So we took the boat back home to the Poly, walked to our room to change, and did the pool for a few hours. We had no problem whatsoever finding 2 lounge chairs which we could move from shade to sun. Had lunch at Captain Cook's. I think we both had a kid's meal . That became a trend for us that we did a few more times. Perfect amount of food, and perfect amount of money. Oh yeah, and we had our refillable mug with us too, so that was a major money saver!

We also enjoyed some cocktails from the Barefoot Bar. But alas, no pictures this time since we didn't bring the camera to the pool. Bad Marcia, I know, we need pictures! Oh well, maybe next time!

Next up: our evening at EPCOT

 

[sandybobandy]

Another great post!!!

The phones seem to ring *extra* loud at Disney, don't they!?! lol

 

[marsh0013]

The phones seem to ring *extra* loud at Disney, don't they!?! lol

oh yes they do! but after i understood what was happening, i got the biggest grin on my face anyway

new installment should be coming this evening!

 

[Makdyn]

waiting for more especially pics from the Poly.

 

[BobNoxious]

waiting for more especially pics from the Poly.

ditto that.

Great Trippie... I'm on board!

 

[marsh0013]

thanks everyone for the comments! nice to know others are reading along


Day 2, Tuesday Aug 21, Part 2

We were all refreshed and relaxed after an afternoon of the pool and some drinks - the perfect combination if you ask me. Yup. Our plan for the evening was Epcot. And it just so happened that it was EMH PM there. We figured we would play it by ear, see how we felt to decide on EMH later. We
planned to hit the countries for a bit, before our dinner at Marrakesh.

First thing to do - get our picture taken in front of the big golf ball of course! I kinda copied and pasted our photopass pics from the website, because I'm way too cheap to buy the cd, so here's a few low quality images, and yes, I do like to make faces and stick out my tongue sometimes

On our way to World Showcase, I figured I would play a dirty little trick on her by heading over to Club Cool. Oh yes, you know exactly where this is heading. She'd never heard of the Beverly before. But now she will never forget it!

Aw, poor mom, I got her and good! I felt a little bad about it, so I promised her there were margaritas to be had in Mexico. That fixed her up real nice

Next up was the Three Caballeros ride in Mexico. Now I must say, I had *never* been on this ride before, but had heard comments about it being all the leftover people from It's a Small World. And if you've been reading along, you know we already got in our one required trip on *that* marvelous ride. I wanted to grab a Margarita before our trip, but figured it better to save it until after, in case it got taken away on the ride. Well, the ride was...just like IASW, but with movie clips! Everybody OOOOOOH, everybody AAAAAAH. Yeah, just like that. But I figured, hey, why not, we've got some time to kill.

After the ride our next stop was the Margarita stand, where we purchased 1 mango margarita to split. Split??? I know, but we were trying to be good . Then we walked around Mexico a bit, but let me tell you, my mother does *not* enjoy the countries so much. We kind of sped through. That's okay, next time I'm going by myself .

We were going to ride Maelstrom next, but it was a 40 minute wait! Hell no am I ever going to wait 40 minutes to ride that (...again...)! I've been on it once before and I just do not understand how this ride is so popular. Can anyone explain it to me? Well, at least I got to feed my margarita to a troll...

Well of course, what comes after Norway, but China! Again, walked around a bit through the shops, then we were lucky enough to meet Mulan. When did Mulan get this old anyway? But I was happy about spotting a character without even trying.

We hit some more countries (Germany and Italy), skipped over America, nothing too exciting, as I don't seem to have any pictures until Japan. Well, I know what happened in Japan. We happened upon Miyuki who was out doing her candy creations. It was very cool to watch what she could do from a round ball of white candy type stuff. We really enjoyed about 20 minutes here (talk about slowing down!).

And after Japan, of course comes Morocco, where we were having dinner. But it was still early...and I saw on my Times Guide that Off Kilter were playing over in Canada...and I didn't think we'd be able to hit them at any other time, so we booked it over to Canada for a couple of songs. I've always heard such great reviews about them, and I was not disappointed. They rocked out in their kilts!

By now, it was time to book it back over to Morocco for our 7pm dinner at Marrakesh. We arrived right on the dot (I know, should have been there early, but hey, we're on vacation here!) and we were seated literally 2 seconds later. Talk about service! They must have known how important and hungry we were, yup, I'm sure that's it. Well, dinner was delicious. First time we've eaten there, and we're glad we did. Muchos yummo!

By the time dinner was over, it was time to make a critical decision. Well, okay, no, first we got our bracelets for EMH. THEN we had to make the critical decision - watch Illuminations, or go get on line for Soarin (FP were long gone). So we walked to the Land. Saw the wait was 60 minutes. Walked out of the Land back toward the lagoon. Changed my mind, and went *back* to the land. Now the wait was down to 50 minutes. I can't tell you what was going through my mind at that time. "we'll be back to epcot another morning and 2 other evenings. we can see illuminations then. but i don't want to wait that long for soarin, it will be better in the morning. no, i just want to go back to the poly and go to sleep. well, maybe we'll watch illuminations from far away then go back to soarin during emh...." and so on and so on. My goodness! I could NOT make a decision! So, we started walking out toward the lagoon again, but at 9pm, turned around and went back into the Land. This time, we had our decision - Soarin it is, for better or worse. At least the line was down to 40 minutes by now. And (shock, horror, gasp) we waited on it. That's by far the longest line we did all week. But of course, it's Soarin, so it's worth it.

After the Soarin/Illuminations fiasco, we were done. Yeah, we had our EMH bracelets, but we were tired, and we had another early morning ahead of us. So we walked out, over the sparkly lights under the big golf ball, up to the monorail, and back to the Poly. Another day, over and out!

Next up - EMH morning at Animal Kingdom

 

[heaven2dc]

Great report so far! That Glowtini (sp) drink looks so delicious! I see you love 50's Prime Time Cafe - that was my fav back in 1997 (we really were terrible to my brother-in-law, he had the pot pie and when he went to the bathroom, we piled our greenbeans in it, covered it with a napkin and snitched to our waiter - boy did he get in trouble lol. He had to stay and try and eat it while trying to figure it all out while we got to leave -it was a riot!)

 

[LMO429]

Great Trip Report!!!!

 

[carri5317]

Can't wait to hear more. Sounds like you had a great mother/daughter trip.

 

[KimAshton]

Great TR. Love it. Subscribed.

 

[BobNoxious]

Epcot.... up to the monorail, and back to the Poly. Another day, over and out!

Just curious about logistics with the Poly and the monorails.... When you go back to the Poly from Epcot, do you get off at the TTC and walk to your room or did you switch monorails and take it to the Poly?

 

[MAGGIED]

subscribing - loving your report so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[marsh0013]

Just curious about logistics with the Poly and the monorails.... When you go back to the Poly from Epcot, do you get off at the TTC and walk to your room or did you switch monorails and take it to the Poly?

first one. our walk back from the TTC was about 5 minutes, probably less. we were equidistant from the Great Ceremonial House and the TTC, so it was just easier to walk back from the TTC. very easy. i LOVE the transportation at the poly, but i've been spoiled, as it was my first trip onsite . next time (hopefully may!) will be a budget solo trip, probably at pop. i hope i can adjust!

 

[marsh0013]

Great report so far! That Glowtini (sp) drink looks so delicious! I see you love 50's Prime Time Cafe - that was my fav back in 1997 (we really were terrible to my brother-in-law, he had the pot pie and when he went to the bathroom, we piled our greenbeans in it, covered it with a napkin and snitched to our waiter - boy did he get in trouble lol. He had to stay and try and eat it while trying to figure it all out while we got to leave -it was a riot!)

that is so awesome! yeah, i absolutely love it there, it was my first time this trip, but we ended up there 3 times! it won't appear until later in the trippie though. we had the greatest waiter, it was absolutely perfect!