We're On a Hunt for Hidden Mickeys - A Feb/Mar 2018 TR

[PrincessAshlee]

We're On a Hunt for Hidden Mickeys​

Hi! My name is Ashlee and welcome to my trip report! I am warning you upfront, I am not very good at writing trip reports. My TR from our October 2016 trip is still only half finished and I never did get around to writing one for our April/May 2017 trip. But we’ve been back for a couple weeks now and I need something Disney to do in between planning for our October trip, so I decided to give this a try.

Who: Me and my Prince Charming, Corey
What: Our 8 day, 7 night Disney Spring Vacation
Where: Walt Disney World
When: February 24, 2018 - March 3, 2018
Why: It’s “The Year of Disney”!!

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In case you haven’t read any of my PTRs, I’ll give you some background... This was mine and DH’s third trip together (my sixth trip total and DH’s fourth). Our first trip together was in October of 2016 for our Honeymoon. We had a great time, but decided that we would wait a couple years before going back. Then DH surprised me in February 2017 and agreed to go back April 29th to May 6th. That was when DH really started to love Disney as much as I do and in October of 2017, we decided to buy annual passes and make 2018 “The Year of Disney”. This was our first trip as passholders, but we have two other trips planned for this year. (I will be starting a new PTR for those trips soon.)

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Stay tuned to read about our 4 Parks in 1 Day Challenge, the Keys to the Kingdom Tour, our adventures at the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival, and our First Trip to Pandora.

Also, if you want to read more about the planning of this trip, see the link to my PTR below:
Third Time's the Charm - Feb/Mar 2018 PTR

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Table of Contents
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My Top 5 New Things We Tried
Day 0 - Pre-Travel Day
Day 1, Part 1 - Travel
Day 1, Part 2 - Pop Century Resort
Day 1, Part 3 - Epcot
Fun at the Flower and Garden Festival
Day 2, Part 1 - Magic Kingdom'
Day 2, Part 2 - Hollywood Studios
Day 2, Part 3 - Shulas & Boardwalk Bakery

 

[buteraa]

first in!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

My Top 5 New Things We Tried
While we made sure to do a lot of our favorite things from previous trips, I first wanted to make note of some of my favorite new things that we tried (since you never know if I’m going to get distracted and leave this TR half finished too. )

Favorite Take Home Snack - Happy Trails Mix from Westward Ho
I picked this up on our last night at the Magic Kingdom and then kind of forgot about it. I tried it a week later and it was still really good! I would definitely get this again and it’s a fun snack to keep the Disney magic going once you’re home. Plus I love the cute little Frontier Mickey sticker. (Side Note: Liverlips from the Country Bears also gave me one of these stickers when we saw him roaming around Frontierland, while we were on the Keys to the Kingdom Tour. While I like being able to line up at a certain time and knowing that I’m going to get my picture and autograph, I can definitely see why people miss the roaming characters. It’s fun to watch them wander around and interact with everyone; especially when the people are not expecting it. )

Favorite Snack - Dole Whip w/Pineapple Upside Cake from Aloha Isle
This was soooo good!!! The cake was warm and the dole whip was refreshing. It was sweet and tart. It was really the perfect mix! I am sad that we didn’t get around to having it more than once. Hopefully, they will keep this around and we can have it again on our next trip.

Favorite F&GF Slushie - Tropical Freeze with Cruzan Mango Rum from La Isla Fresca
While I tried several F&GF drinks, but my favorite happened to be the last one that I tried, the Tropical Freeze with Mango Rum. A lot of the drinks that I had were very sour or tart and this one was so sweet and refreshing. Plus I love Mango. I only wish the cup had been larger. I usually like the small cups, because they allow me to try a bunch of different drinks, but I could have used an extra large cup for this one! I really should have bought more than one.

Favorite Character M&G - Star Lord and Baby Groot
I was really skeptical about this Meet and Greet, because it was a face character imitating a live actor and I was worried that it would be awkward , but it was really great!! Star Lord was so funny and he was really good at picking up on things that you would say and having different interactions with everyone. I wish that they would have them in a place where you could stay and watch him interact with more people.

Favorite Time Saving Tip - TSA Pre-check
TSA Pre-check is amazing and I definitely recommend it to everyone!!! First there’s the benefit of getting to leave your shoes on and not having to take anything out of your bags. There are no bins to deal with! The bags just go through the scanner as is, including any liquids or electronics. DH has a CPAP machine for his sleep apnea and before we had to take out certain parts and put them in different bins. So with his CPAP and shoes and jackets and liquids and electronics, we could easily have a half dozen bins between the two of us and then we’d have to take the time to put everything back once we were through. Not with Pre-check though. We went through the metal detectors (no full body scanner, unless you are randomly selected) and grabbed our bags and we were on our way. The best part though is really the speed at which we got through. We time it and we were through security at MCO in less than 10 minutes!! The only downside then was that we were super super early and were sitting around the airport for two hours before our flight and that included going all the way across the airport, because we had to go to the Southwest ticket counter before going through security. I am going to see if Disney will adjust our Tragical Express pickup time for an hour later next trip.
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[PrincessAshlee]

first in!

 

[Raeven]

Following along!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Following! Can't wait to hear about how your four parks one day challenge went.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Following! I definitely forgot to look out for you at Epcot, but considering all the people that’s not surprising!

 

[jchurch0409]

Jumped over from your PTR! Can't wait to read and follow along!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Off to a great start!

I never did get around to writing one for our April/May 2017 trip.

Hey, it happens! I never got around to finishing my May '17 TR either... onward and upward!

we have two other trips planned for this year.

YES!!!

Tropical Freeze with Cruzan Mango Rum from La Isla Fresca

This looks delicious! I'm adding it to my list! Was it a slushie type? Does that make sense? hah!

TSA Pre-check is amazing and I definitely recommend it to everyone!!!

OOO! I want pre check! lol! Did you have to go for an interview and finger printing?

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Following along!

Following! Can't wait to hear about how your four parks one day challenge went.

4
It was fun, but exhausting. I'm glad that we did it, but we probably won't do it again anytime soon.

Following! I definitely forgot to look out for you at Epcot, but considering all the people that’s not surprising!

Hope you had a great trip too!!!

Jumped over from your PTR! Can't wait to read and follow along!

Off to a great start!

This looks delicious! I'm adding it to my list! Was it a slushie type? Does that make sense? hah!

Yes, it is a slushie drink and so good!!

OOO! I want pre check! lol! Did you have to go for an interview and finger printing?

It is so great!! We had to go for an "interview" if you could call it that. They asked us a couple simple questions like "have you committed a crime?" and then they digitally took our fingerprints. We were both done in about 15 minutes total and we had our known traveler numbers in about a week.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Pre-Travel Day - Friday, February 23, 2018​

Well, I’ll start out with the day before our trip. I only worked until 10:30 am that day (I did start at 6), but it ended up being a really busy day. I had intended to start packing a couple weeks before our trip, but I kept telling myself that it was too early. Then the week before our trip, work was crazy and I was sooo tired, so I ended up still having a lot of packing to do the day before we left. DH is helpful with a lot of things, but packing for trips is all up to me.

Puppies were pouting; they hate packing almost as DH.
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So I packed most of the afternoon until DH got home around 5 pm and we went to a fish fry at a local church with my parents and my sister and her husband. I don’t really like fish, but they also serve popcorn shrimp which I do like and the rest of my family likes it because the perch and tilapia is all-you-can-eat. I wish we had picked a different day to go because I was already stressed out about not being finished packing and my family was being extra annoying. But we made the most of it and soon we were back home to finish packing.

DH really liked his fish.​

Once I was done packing, I decided to paint my nails, another misstep. I usually schedule an appointment at the nail salon for a mani/pedi, but this time I figured I would save some money and paint them myself (my mom has an at home gel polish kit). Not a great idea. My nails turned out well, but it took me about two hours and it was already 11 pm when I started, so I didn’t go to bed until almost 2am. DH took a nice nap in his recliner while I was painting my nails, so he was fine, but I was sooo tired when the alarm went off the next morning.

Next time I am definitely going to start packing earlier. I am actually thinking of filling our toiletries and such as I unpack from this trip (no I haven’t finished unpacking yet. I did all of the laundry, but that was about it. ) and keeping them organized in a plastic storage tote; that way they are all ready to go for our next trip. I am also going to be sure to schedule the appointment at the nail salon, so that I can relax in the nice massage chair, instead of adding to my stress; it is worth the cost!

We also ended up taking our puppies down to my parents’ house the night before. I wanted to take their food and extra beds (they have upstairs and downstairs beds, so spoiled ) down to my parents anyways and my parents decided that they wanted to sleep in a little bit and would prefer that we didn’t wake them when we left. So I had say goodbye to my babies early , but I knew they were in good hands; my parents spoil them even more than we do.

Crazy Sadie Girl getting spoiled by my mom already.​

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 1 – Saturday, February 24, 2018
Part 1 – Travel​

Our first alarm went off around 5:30 am and I was not ready to get up, but it was Disney Day and what’s more exciting than that!?!? We both showered, got dressed and packed up our last minute things and were on the road by 7:10 am.

Bags are packed, we're ready to go!​

When we arrived in Detroit, we had breakfast at Bob Evans before we went to the airport. We parked our car, checked our bags and headed through security.

Mmmm... Biscuits and Gravy!!​

As I mentioned above, TSA Pre-Check is awesome!! I really can’t say enough good things about it. I have flown a few times each year for work and vacations over the past 8 years and gone through many different airports, but this was the best airport experience I’ve ever had. Before having pre-check, going through security would really stress me out. Making sure that everything is organized correctly and nothing gets lost while trying to move through the line as quickly as possible gets me so frazzled. But not with pre-check. It was just so easy! Shoes stay on, everything stays in the bag. I even had a small bottle of hand sanitizer clipped to my backpack and no one said anything; liquids don’t need to be in a quart size bags. It is just so fast and easy.

In less than fifteen minutes, we were through security and headed to our gate, but we still had an hour to wait until boarding. Boarding went very quickly and before we knew it, we were in the air headed to Florida!

Ready for Vacation!!!​

Since we have started flying Southwest and they do not have TV screens, we have taken to downloading movies from Netflix onto our tablets. (I tried the Southwest app on our first flight with them and it seemed really buggy and didn’t work very well. The Netflix movies are much easier in my opinion.) The only downside is that even though Netflix has Disney movies, they are not available for downloading , so I chose Sing instead. It was very cute and by the time it was over, it was time for landing.

Found our first Hidden Mickey!! ​

We were in about the 7th row, so it didn’t take us long to get off the plane. We stopped at the bathrooms and then headed to the Magical Express.

I found Goofy at the airport!! ​

We only waited about 15-20 minutes before we were loaded onto a bus and that gave me time to pack away our jackets and get out my minnie ears! I am very obsessed with minnie ears right now and I had packed ears and bows to match each of my outfits. Surprisingly (or maybe not) I was the only person on our bus wearing ears, but I didn’t care, I love my ears and we were headed to Disney World!!!

 

[iheartbelle87]

I was already stressed out about not being finished packing and my family was being extra annoying.

Ugh, family.

I am also going to be sure to schedule the appointment at the nail salon, so that I can relax in the nice massage chair, instead of adding to my stress; it is worth the cost!

yes! definitely!

As I mentioned above, TSA Pre-Check is awesome!! I really can’t say enough good things about it.

Ummm yeah I think this is going to my Moms mothers day gift... aka: a gift for me really, since I travel with her, and she gets VERY flustered with taking her shoes off, her ipad, etc. She won't even pack food in her carry on because she think its 'illegal'... I digress!

Can't wait to hear more and see some F&G pics... well, mostly drink pics.

 

[jchurch0409]

We only waited about 15-20 minutes before we were loaded onto a bus and that gave me time to pack away our jackets and get out my minnie ears! I am very obsessed with minnie ears right now and I had packed ears and bows to match each of my outfits. Surprisingly (or maybe not) I was the only person on our bus wearing ears, but I didn’t care, I love my ears and we were headed to Disney World!!!

I plan on making several pairs of ears for this trip! I have fallen in love with them too!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Ugh, family.

I didn't think it was possible, but they are getting more annoying! We're trying to coordinate hotel reservations for my cousin's wedding and my mom says she doesn't care, but then she hates every one that I suggest. I finally gave in and told her just to book what she wants and let me know how much it is... and don't even get me started on Easter plans. I'm so jealous of you getting to stay home!

Ummm yeah I think this is going to my Moms mothers day gift... aka: a gift for me really, since I travel with her, and she gets VERY flustered with taking her shoes off, her ipad, etc. She won't even pack food in her carry on because she think its 'illegal'... I digress!

Good Idea!! I think that Pre-check would be great for her!

Can't wait to hear more and see some F&G pics... well, mostly drink pics.

Don't worry, they should have had time to stock up on alcohol again since I was there.

I plan on making several pairs of ears for this trip! I have fallen in love with them too!

I made a couple pairs of ears for our Disneymoon, but I actually didn't make any of the ears for this trip. I bought three pairs of the official parks ears (black, silver and rainbow) on sale on ebay and then removed the bows. I then made my own bows to match my outfits and attached velcro to the bows and the ears, so that I could change them out. It worked really well; especially for 4 Parks in 1 Day... I did ended up buying an additional three pairs, because I'm addicted.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 1 – Saturday, February 24, 2018
Part 2 – Pop Century Resort​

While we were on the bus, I got a text that our room was not ready and that we had to stop at the front desk. This had me a little stressed, because I was very anxious to see whether we had gotten a refurbished room and whether the requests that I had made through touring plans would be met. I hoped that the delay meant that they were trying to give us a room near where I had requested, since if they were just going to give us any random room, I would have thought one would be available.

Our Home Away From Home​

The line at check in was not very long, but the woman in front of us had three kids and she appeared to be all alone and was not handling it very well; kids were running all over the place and she was too preoccupied with whatever she was doing to care. The line also moved very slowly as the CMs dealt with everyone’s various check-in issues. I feel like there used to be a separate line for check-in if you had already provided your credit card number and information online. I wonder why they would have gotten rid of it. It would be nice if they brought it back. Anyways, I would have had to stop at the desk some time that day anyways, because we had decided to decline housekeeping. On our previous trips, we have declined housekeeping anyways, so it was nice to receive the gift card bonus this time. I was really happy with our room assignment. I had requested room 0401 on our touring plans fax and we received room 0408; so very close!!

We decided to stop at the food court before heading to our room to get something to eat. It was around 3:00pm and we had dinner reservations at 6pm, so we didn’t want to eat too much. We decided to split a chicken cordon bleu sandwich and fries. The sandwich was really really good , but the fries were hard; you could tell they they were not fresh. I was also surprised that in all of the food court, they only had waffle fries. I like waffle fries, but it would have been nice if they had offered regular fries too.

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Also on our way to our room, we decided to stop and get a couple drinks from Petals Pool Bar. This is a tradition that we started on our last trip. Before we go to our room, we must stop for some “We’re officially at Disney World!” celebratory drinks! I decided on a Pina Colava and DH got a Bud Light Lime. My drink was great, but DH wished he would have chosen something else.

So Yummy!!!!​

Our room was really nice. I like all the changes that they made with the refurbishments and it was noticeably cleaner than our room last year; hopefully they will be able to keep them that way. I had read some reviews that the floor gets dirty quickly and we did notice some dust accumulating over the week, but we have two dogs, so I’m used to hair and dust (no matter how often I sweep it up, 5 minutes later, there it is again). Another concern that I had read about before we left was the noise from our neighbors. I had read several reviews that said that with the new floors, the sound bounces and was much louder than when the rooms had carpet. Unfortunately, this did seem to be true. As we were eating our lunch, we could hear our neighbors come into their room and it was loud! It wasn’t clear enough to make out what they were saying, but we could hear them talking and moving around. I was also worried because our room seemed rather warm. However, I had read that you can call down and request a box fan. I didn’t want to come back from the park late that night and have to deal with it then, so I had DH call before we headed out and within 10 minutes, a CM was knocking on our door with the fan. This ended up being a great choice and I would highly recommend it. Our room stayed cool and we never noticed any noise from our neighbors again for the entire week.

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After we finished our lunch, we changed into shorts, DH changed his shirt (he likes wearing his Disney shirts while we are at WDW but he refuses to wear them at the airport ), and we headed out to catch the bus to Epcot.

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[pattyw]

Just found your TR and it sounds fun! Can't wait to read more

 

[absolutmey]

following along!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Woohoo on getting a room close to your request!