What is Pooh like? Read this trip report if you want to find out :) Updated 9/18!

[sand2270]

Well we have been back from our trip for about two and half weeks and I am still battling the post-Disney blues . I have slowly been writing my trip report but wanted to go back and write up a pre-trip post before I started posting. I decided to do that tonight since I am itching to start posting my report and pictures. This post will not have any pictures, however don't worry. I took almost 1,000 pictures on the trip so there will be plenty of pictures in the trip report. I have also added an index at the bottom if you are not interested in the pre-trip posts .

The trip characters are me, my daughter and often my DIS friend, JohnEric, who lives close enough to the World that he was able to come play with us on many occasions.

The only times I had been to WDW were a visit to Epcot in 2006 and a stay at the Beach Club in 2008 for a work conference. The 2008 stay is what prompted me to start planning a trip. I am not going to give you all the crazy, OCD laced, insanity that led up to this trip. I'll just interject tidbits here and there . Let's just say once I decided to take my DD to WDW for the first time 15 months ago I have been obsessing about the trip ever since. I have shared my excel spreadsheet with only a few people and the response has usually been "Wow" followed by a look of pity and some head shaking.

The DIS boards became a regular source of information on a daily basis. It has also led to some great friendships and a wonderful DIS meet in May, 2 weeks before my trip with my daughter. Yes that's right…I got talked into a trip from one of my bestest DIS board buddies (Matterhorn you know I'm talking about you) two weeks before the trip with my daughter. I called it my DisneyWorld Part 1, my pre-trip, my fact finding mission, my 'let me scope this place out a little before I bring my daughter" trip. I will say knowing I was returning two weeks later made me relax much more on the May meet trip. One morning I even opted to sleep in and spend the entire morning and early afternoon by the pool…skipping a theme park. Granted I was just getting over the flu and was still not feeling 100%. I was running a 100 degree fever up to two days before I was supposed to leave for Orlando…which did drive a lot of my relaxing on the trip as well.

So what pre-trip stuff can I tell you? I can tell you that the trip changed quite a few times. I changed it from the beginning of May to the end of May/beginning of June so my daughter would be out of school and we could stay longer. The trip length gradually went from 7 to 10 days. Originally the entire stay was booked at Beach Club. I fell in love with the Beach Club during my stay for the work conference and knew that was where I wanted to stay when we returned. But with the high cost and some pushing from my DIS friends I changed it to a split stay, 5 nights at POP and 5 nights at Beach Club. Once the 7 for 4 offer came out I could not pass that up, so the final plans were May 29th-June 8th, 3 nights at POP and 7 nights at Beach Club.

I started hoarding Disney items for the trip. I ordered make-your-own t-shirts, customizable messenger bags, clothes for my daughter and beach towels from the Disney Store. Which I promptly hid in my closet so my daughter wouldn't spot them and ask to use them before the trip. I dug out all our Disney stuff…shirts, mouseears, spray fans, more mouseears, light up necklaces, lanyards and pins, penny books, Disney pens for autograph books, my daughter's Disney charm bracelet…and stuck it all in a plastic container and stored that in the closet as well.

I obsessed over ADR's and the dining plan. Where do we want to eat? When do we want to eat? Is it going to be too much food? Is the dining plan worth it? Originally I did not have the dining plan on my packages but I did the math…over and over again…another insane spreadsheet. Once the additional surcharge was announced for character meals and buffets that would be applied during our stay that made the savings I could project on the dining plan worth it.

Panic mode set in as my ADR date got closer and closer. I had made my Chef Mickey's and Cinderella's Royal Table ADR's at the 180-Day mark when that was still being offered. The rest I could not make until the 90-Day Mark. Thank goodness it fell on a weekend day. This is from the post I made about it:

"I was a wreck the morning I made mine. I was thinking the exact same thing you were about people booking under the 90+10 rule. I made sure I had a plan...was up at 4:45am (2 hour time difference here), called right at 7am (5am my time). I also ranked my ADR's by what I thought might be more difficult to get and asked for those first.

I got to an agent at 7:02am and was immediately transferred to Ala Carte where I waited on hold for 45 minutes. I really started to panic than. But once I got through I got all the ADR's I wanted including Crystal Palace 8:05 breakfast and Sci Fi (been reading there are problems getting these). However, I wasn't trying for any of the really hard to get places like Le Cellier or OHana, which may have helped me."

I also obsessed over park hours. I had ADR's now for June but I still had no June hours. I had done the best I could to figure out our schedule based on The Unofficial Guides crowd calendar, past June hours and May hours. Why was it taking so long for them to release June hours!? Eventually they did and the only thing I wasn't thrilled about was our Hollywood Studios day fell on a Fantasmic Day. We weren't planning on seeing it since we have seen it at Disneyland many times and wanted to avoid the crowds. I was concerned it would be very crowded that day but decided we would just deal with it.

So let's get this party started!

The day before the day before we leave
We're leaving town but we aren't going to DisneyWorld yet
We are finally going to DisneyWorld!
Day 1: We are here! We are finally here! OR What is Pooh like?
Day 2: Test Track is my daughter's new favorite ride
Day 2 continued: More pictures
Day 3: Who knew Animal Kingdom would traumatize my daughter?
Day 3 continued: POP Big Wheel squashed my kid!
Day 4: Goodbye POP, Hello Beach Club! or First Aid Visit Part 1
Day 5: Russell from Up looks just like my brother!
Day 5 continued: Why are all my pictures fuzzy?
Day 6: Tea cups are a bad idea after breakfast
Day 6 continued: Want it to stop raining...buy a poncho
Day 7: Where is Toulouse?
Day 7 continued: Yeah that's right...I bought a smurf AND saw a movie on vacation!
Day 8: Two Water Parks...Two Visits to First Aid
Day 8 continued: I get to do some drinking around the world
Day 9: Mom you didn't tell me they were in beach clothes!
Day 9 continued: Sorry if we hit you with a flying coin
Day 10: I can't believe this is our last full day
Day 10 continued: I can't tell if I really made Anastasia angry or not
One important detail I forgot about...John found Toulouse
Departure Day: NOOOOO we don't want to leave!
Some final thoughts...Part 1

 

[sand2270]

This will be a shorter post. Our plan starting May 27th looked like this:

-Wednesday May 27th - last work day before vacation
-Thursday May 28th - finish packing and run a few errands. Pick my daughter up around 4pm from summer camp and drive to Phoenix. Spend the night in Phoenix at our park and stay hotel.
-Friday May 29th - Fly from Phoenix to Orlando.

I had some mishaps on Wednesday the 27th which was my last work day before we left:

-I got a speeding ticket in the morning. Bummer.

- I got home and couldn't find my credit card! I was only going to use this particular credit card for the Phoenix hotel room...but still the last place I used it was in our work cafeteria so I was panicking. I found it in the laundry machine later that night, my pants pockets are much deeper than I thought!

- I could not find my Disney gift card I got for signing up for a Disney Visa last year. I probably spent an hour looking for it...and of course I found it in the most illogical place but I guess at the time it made sense.

- Painted my toenails really really late...then realized I had to stay up to let them dry!! Doh!!

So it wasn't exactly the stress free, relaxing day before I was hoping for but that's ok...we were going to Disney!

i will detail the departure day in the next post.

 

[sand2270]

Thursday the 28th was the day we were going to drive up to Phoenix. Our flight departed from Sky Harbor which is about a 90-minute drive from where I live. I booked a park and stay hotel since it was about the same cost as parking my car for 10 days. It was also so we could drive up the night before instead of having to get up around 4am to make the drive up to Phoenix and catch our flight.

My DD was at summer camp and I spent the day finishing our packing and running some errands. I picked her up from camp around 4pm since I promised her she could stay for swimming. We were both hungry so we decided to eat before we made the drive to Phoenix. My DD loves a local sub sandwich chain, Eegee's, and requested that. Here is some Tucson food porn for you

That is a turkey grinder, my DD's ham and tomato (only!) sub, ranch fries and half pina colada and half strawberry eegee's drink...my soda is not in the picture.

As we were eating my DD was telling me about dinner the night before at her dad's. I asked her what they ate and she said "roast peas". I said "you had roast peas?" and she said "yes roast peas". Me: "wait a minute...you had roast peas for dinner? How do you make roast peas?" Her: "Mom!! Roast AND peas...not roast peas!" LMAO oops I misunderstood.

She also could not find the charger for her Nintendo DS at her dad's so we stopped at Target on the way out of town. However they did not have a charger. I knew there was a Best Buy between Tucson and Phoenix in Casa Grande so we stopped there and got the charger.

She did throw out one or two "Are we there yet's"...to which I replied it is only a 90-minute drive!! LOL

We found the hotel, A Quality Inn. I took my DD to the pool for a little while and we finally settled in to get some sleep before our trip the next day. We were leaving tomorrow YAY!!

 

[sand2270]

Getting ready in the morning was pretty uneventful. As we were leaving the room we had some items we did not want to take with us. I had my daughter throw those items in the car while I watched her from the hotel room door (this will be important later). We dragged our bags over to the lobby for the free breakfast. After breakfast we got on the hotel shuttle, we were the only ones, and got to the airport.

Check-in was uneventful since I had checked in online the night before and just had to check my bag. As far as a luggage count goes we had my large bag (too big to carry on), my DD's bag (carry on size), my laptop bag, DD's Disney messenger bag and my small purse. We took DD’s bag on the plane because we were going to utilize Magical Express delivery for my bag. I wanted to make sure we had one bag with swimsuits, a change of clothes and some basic toiletry items until my bag arrived.

Security is always a bit stressful especially when you are not only trying to get yourself through but also a child, but we got through it pretty smoothly. So far so good…uneventful travel morning which is how I like it. Until we got on the moving sidewalk in the terminal to head towards our gate and it hit me…I did not remember locking the car after my DD put her stuff in it. This was when I started to panic a little. My car was going to be in that parking lot for the next 11 days. I called the hotel and asked them to please check my car and if it was not locked to please hit the auto lock on the door. Problem solved.

We grabbed a couple of waters, my daughter requested a 3 Musketeers…it was 7:30am in the morning but we were on vacation so 3 Musketeers it is. I gave her the trip surprise I had purchased for her when I was in DisneyWorld 2 weeks before. It was a learn how to draw Disney characters kit. My daughter has been showing a lot of interest in drawing and art lately…and in my opinion is pretty darn good. She loved the kit and immediately started pulling it out so she could work on it while we waited for the plane. It did not come with an eraser so I ran back to the gift shop and bought her a set of pencils.

In the airport

We were so excited in the airport. The plane started boarding and we were Zone 4. We were Row 18 seats E and F on both flights…F being the window seat. Zone 4 boards last. I still do not understand US Airways boarding logic. We were a window seat in the middle of the plane…why were we boarding last? Both times we boarded our flight the person in the aisle seat was already seated. Wouldn’t logic say you board the plane from the back forward, window seats to aisle seats? It made no sense to me. Anyway we got to our row and I told my daughter to please ask to be let in while I got the bag in the overhead. The nice man sitting in the aisle seat was so kind to not offer to help me with my bag while he stared at me and my daughter…chivalry IS dead. That’s ok…been a single mom for 6 years…used to doing things on my own and I can lift my own darn bag…but still the offer would have been appreciated…that’s all I’m saying. Don’t worry Mr. Aisle Guy my daughter knows how to behave on a plane…she will not cause you any problems. You may as well know now…I don’t have a lot of patience for the lack of common courtesy in public places. Especially places like an airplane where it is even more important. You should know this now because my lack of patience comes up again later in the flight…you have been warned.

While we boarded and left the gate on time, I think there were about 15 planes ahead of us on the runway. So we were sitting for quite a while. Finally…FINALLY…we were taking off. Get me and my kid to Orlando already! They start food service. I appreciate how not only do the airlines now charge for food but they do not bring nearly enough to service the entire plane. Our options were a sandwich, cheese plate (I think) and a snack box. We agreed we would split a sandwich. Normally I would have bought something in the airport, but for some reason didn’t feel like it and decided to just buy whatever was on the plane. Around row 13 they made an announcement they had run out of sandwiches…not even halfway through the plane. There was a collective groan from about row 14 to the back of the plane. Since First Class gets separate food that means they only stocked enough sandwiches for about 8 rows. Ok new plan…we decided to get a couple of snack packs and just munch on those. We only ended up eating one of them, the other one I took with us when we landed. I think in our excitement neither of us was incredibly hungry.

Ok…my lack of patience…here is what happened. Behind me was a little boy probably around my daughter’s age, maybe younger. I think he was traveling with his grandparents. Grandpa decides to teach the little boy how to play war…on the little boy’s tray…that is attached to my chair. After about 15 minutes of the tray consistently being banged hard by them slamming down cards I looked back and said “Do you mind not slamming the tray anymore, thank you”. The man gave me a look like “huh…this tray isn’t attached to anything…it is floating in midair all on its own”. Anyway, my comment seemed to make him remember the darn tray is attached to a chair and they stopped slamming it.

My DD kept herself busy with the stuff in her bag and we decided to watch a movie. I put on The Italian Job. I think at one point my DD fell asleep with her head on my lap for a little while. Finally we were landing in Orlando. The weather was overcast. I had been tracking the weather and knew there had been a lot of rain the last few weeks. We made our way to Magical Express and after a short wait were led to our Magical Express bus. There was a light sprinkle as we boarded the bus.

On Magical Express

As we pulled away from the airport our driver explained that the video is set to play by GPS so when we were in range it would start. He also went on to explain how there was a bathroom in the back of the bus. However he advised against us using that bathroom since he said couldn’t guarantee we would not get shifted around in there and may leave with unpleasant memories of the Magical Express bus. He was a riot! Best thing…the weather cleared up!! It was like we brought the sunshine from Tucson with us…by the time we got to the hotel the skies were clear.

We are here!!

 

[sand2270]

As we were heading to DisneyWorld on Magical Express I almost started crying. I couldn’t believe after 15 months of planning we were finally here. I kept telling my daughter “We are here! We are here!” We went under the wonderful Disneyworld sign and shortly after pulled up at POP Century. I think we arrived around 5pm. I decided to try out the online check-in a few days before, so after we got off the bus we headed to the online check-in line. It was so strange walking into that lobby after being there only 2 weeks before. I could not believe I was back so soon.

I did not find online check-in to be that much quicker than waiting in line. Granted there was a longer line for regular check-in, but there were two people doing online check-in and they were helping two parties who were asking lots and lots of questions. We got to the cast member and she gave us our package. We headed to our room, a preferred room, first floor of the 70’s section. I did not see anything but the 50’s and 60’s during the last trip so it was fun being in a new section. I loved the 70’s section…I liked how whenever we entered it there was 70’s music playing…like YMCA, etc.

We got in the room and immediately changed into our swim suits. I can't remember if our Garden Grocer order showed up with our groceries or if it was waiting for us…but either way I did not have to call for it, it just showed up in our room.

Towel Animal waiting in our room

We decided to eat at the food court before we went swimming. We were on the dining plan, so I got the veggie lasagna, a cupcake and a coke. DD got a child’s mac and cheese and a water. Also with most of her meals it came with some additional sides…she chose grapes and carrots which never got eaten. The lasagna was ok, not great. I liked my DD’s mac and cheese. She cracked me up with the cupcake, I told her I would share my dessert with her and she insisted on the cupcake. Then she said she didn’t want any…well she didn’t want the frosting, so I scrapped the frosting off her half and she ate some of it.

On our way out to the pool I stopped at the Petal Bar and got a Pina Colava. As we were standing there my DD asked if she could have the cherry, I pulled it out and was trying to wipe the alcohol off. The bartender saw what I was doing and said “I can give her some cherries”. He gave her a cup with a few. I thanked him and said “This way you don’t have to call CPS and report me for giving my child alcohol laced cherries”.

We swam for about an hour. We were SOOOO happy to be there . We could not stop hugging and laughing in the pool. Finally we decided to shower and head over to Magic Kingdom. That night was an EMH night so we decided to take advantage of that if we could since we were still on Tucson time.

We stopped in Everything POP and got my DD a new autograph book, a charm for her Disney charm bracelet, and she got a new purse since she thought her messenger bag would be too big and heavy to carry in the parks.

We got to Magic Kingdom and decided we would ride Jungle Cruise first since that is what we rode first on our trip to Disneyland last year. It had a very long wait, so we decided to skip it and went on Pirates of the Caribbean . My daughter’s favorites are Splash Mountain and Big Thunder. Big Thunder was not open and Splash had a long wait so we skipped those and headed to Haunted Mansion.

She saw Philharmagic for the first time and purchased a stuffed Donald in the store outside the ride. Donald is wearing a shirt that says "Crabby but loveable"…how telling this would be later in the week .

We did some Fantasyland rides and walked over to It’s a Small World. The wait time said B5. B5…what is B5? My daughter said “it means it will Be about 5 minutes” , needless to say there was no wait but we never figured out what B5 meant.

We were in line for the Winnie the Pooh ride and my DD said to me, "What is Pooh like?". It must have been my new vacation high because I leaned down and whispered, "Brown and squishy"…I know…I am not proud of myself…sometimes I have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy...but my DD thought it was one of the funniest things she ever heard. It was repeated over and over and over…and over again the entire trip.

The other funny thing that happened in line was this little girl in front of us. She looked a little younger than my DD and she turned around, looked at my DD and said "Are you Chinese?". Now my mom was asked the same question about me and my brother when we were kids, something about our eyes but we are not Asian. My DD says, "No" and she goes, "Are you sure?". She was really cute and wouldn't stop talking to us. Her face was painted like a cat and I said, "Are you a kitty cat?" to which she put her hands on her hips and said, "Nooo! It's paint!". I said, "Are you sure?" and she said no again. Her parents were laughing, it was really cute.

We went on the Tomorrowland Speedway. My daughter always insists on steering…so we weave all over that speedway since she always over compensates when she hits the middle guide bar.

We decided to head out and my daughter said she was hungry. I remember reading about the corn dog nuggets at Casey’s and thought she would like those. I was surprised I couldn’t use a snack credit for these since they were under $4. I asked her if I could try one just because I had read good things. I do not eat hot dogs or corn dogs, I do not care for them, but wanted to try one. YUM!! These were so good with mustard…I kept asking my daughter for another one. She finally said “Mom do you mind if I eat the rest?” Yes…sorry for eating your snack sweetie. We got back to the hotel…we had a great first day and could not wait to start day 2.

 

[sand2270]

I hope people are reading and enjoying this. I haven't gotten any posts so not sure.

I had booked Chef Mickey’s for 8am our first morning. My daughter answered the wakeup call and fell back to sleep with the phone on her face LOL . I put on Stacy for her while I got ready which seemed to help her wake up. We had some trouble getting out of the room because I couldn’t find my sunglasses...they turned out to be in the one pocket which I never checked of my bag. By the time we got to the bus area there was not a bus for Magic Kingdom and I was panicking we would not make it in time for breakfast, so I decided to take a taxi. Well I think I overreacted…which I tend to do if I think I will be late for something and we arrived at the Contemporary half an hour early.

Since we were early we checked out the hotel a little and then checked in. We only waited about 5-10 minutes, they got us in right away. This was a great start to our trip! The food was great, everything was warm and tasty. All fab five characters visited us. Minnie loved my daughter’s Donald doll and kept having it give her kisses. As was par for the course at the buffets, my daughter ate almost nothing. But I enjoyed the buffet and the great character interaction while I got to sit, eat and drink coffee made it worth the price.

After breakfast we got on the monorail to head to Epcot. My daughter wanted to see the flower and garden festival and it was ending soon. My DIS friend JohnEric was also meeting up with us later that morning. We headed over to Test Track, grabbed Fastpasses and got in the standby line. I knew my daughter would like this ride though she seemed hesitant to go on it. She loved it! We probably rode Test Track 5 times during our trip.

John showed up after we got off Test Track. We went over to the Fairy Garden so my DD could see the fairy flower sculptures. They had an area set up for kids where she colored a Tinkerbell picture and it was laminated for her. Very cool keepsake. I think we did both Soarin’…another one of my daughter’s favorites and Test Track with John.

I wanted to do Spaceship Earth. I am not sure why my DD thought it was all about learning but she commented “I don’t feel like learning on vacation” . John did a good job explaining the ride to her and she really enjoyed it. She loved the video you do at the end. We also ended up in one of the Innovention pavilions at one point where she learned how to make recycled paper. Very cool.

It was getting very hot and we decided to go back to the hotel and swim for a bit. I was not hungry, but my DD was (gee I wonder why…she ate SOOO much at breakfast ). She got a child's spaghetti and meatball from the food court which we took to the pool. I grabbed another Pina Colava on the way. We decided to go to the Bowling Pin this time.

After swimming we showered and got ready for our afternoon tea ADR. John wanted to join us for this but I had been unable to get him added. We decided he would go with us and we would ask once we got there if he could join us. They said no problem. I am not sure why I could not get him added, we went a little later in the day and the place was not full.

Tea was wonderful. I had the Grand Tea, my DD the Mrs. Potts Tea and John the Prince Edwards Tea. My DD requested only tuna sandwiches and they happily obliged. The tea, sandwiches, scones and desserts were all very good. The three of us had a very good time at tea and I would definitely do it again.

John at tea

Me at tea...holding up my pinky as directed by my DD

After tea we headed over to Magic Kingdom. My DD and John hit it off pretty quickly, so she rode on many of the two seater rides with John. It was fine with me, I was just glad we were having such a good time and I knew I had her to myself all week. We made it on Splash and got soaked…of course. John bought the pictures and gave us one.

This was really going to be one of our only opportunities to see Spectromagic but my DD wanted to do rides and the place was packed…so we skipped it. I still feel bad she didn’t get to see it, but I have seen it and it was her decision to do rides instead. This was a theme for the week…my DD often picked rides over shows. We went on Jungle Cruise and our driver was hysterical!

John drove us back to the hotel. My DD had been asking for crocs and had seen a pair in Everything Pop she wanted. I said we would look since she had plenty of shoes with her and I know crocs are pricey. The ones she wanted had these cushy inserts (which were great comfort wise…but were not good when they got wet and they stunk after a few days) and they were half off…so I caved and bought them for her.

We got back to the room, set up the wakeup call and hit the sack.

 

[SunnieRN]

Oh my goodness, what a wonderful trip you are having already!! I can't wait to hear more!! Your daughter is so cute!! I lived in CA all my life until 2 years ago and raised my daughter going to disneyland. It was so much fun going as a child and then reliving it through her eyes! Love the brown and squishy joke and you will probably hear it for years!!

 

[Luisa]

Thankyou for sharing your trip! I love reading about other peoples experiences and can't wait until I go in December!

 

[queenof3]

yes, you do have readers! I am enjoying your report a lot!

 

[jenjolt]

I'm also here reading your TR!! Thank you for some of the tea pictures! I will be going to the tea with some special friends in the Fall and I can't wait!!! Glad you and your DD had such a great time!! Can't wait for more!

 

[sand2270]

Oh my goodness, what a wonderful trip you are having already!! I can't wait to hear more!! Your daughter is so cute!! I lived in CA all my life until 2 years ago and raised my daughter going to disneyland. It was so much fun going as a child and then reliving it through her eyes! Love the brown and squishy joke and you will probably hear it for years!!

Yes I am still hearing that joke...I don't think it will ever die.

I have taken her to Disneyland many times, this was really my first big trip to DisneyWorld. They both have a special place in my heart for different reasons .

Thankyou for sharing your trip! I love reading about other peoples experiences and can't wait until I go in December!

yes, you do have readers! I am enjoying your report a lot!

I am so glad to see I have reader's I was starting to worry I was boring people LOL.

I'm also here reading your TR!! Thank you for some of the tea pictures! I will be going to the tea with some special friends in the Fall and I can't wait!!! Glad you and your DD had such a great time!! Can't wait for more!

The tea was wonderful...so relaxing and everything was so good. That is definitely on my repeat list.

 

[JohnEric]

YES, I'M BACK! YAY!

I haven't been on the board for quite a while (I think you know why) but I just had to make time to read your TR. Wow, you have a great memory! I have to go on all my future trips with you... you remember all the best bits.

This was a wonderful time for me. Thanks for writing it all up. I'm really looking forward to reading all the rest of it!

 

[sand2270]

I think I am being a little stingy on the pictures so here are a few more from Day 2.

From the taxi

View from our table at Chef

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

Her favorite fairy...

At the Grand Floridian for tea

Haunted Mansion

Castle

 

[sand2270]

YES, I'M BACK! YAY!

I haven't been on the board for quite a while (I think you know why) but I just had to make time to read your TR. Wow, you have a great memory! I have to go on all my future trips with you... you remember all the best bits.

This was a wonderful time for me. Thanks for writing it all up. I'm really looking forward to reading all the rest of it!

YAY you found it!

There are many more pictures of you coming up in future posts

 

[onelilspark]

Great report! I know what you mean about people on planes! My Dad was always the first one out of his seat the minute he saw anyone struggling with a bag, so it's something I've always come to expect...and I'll help someone if I can too! Luckily I found one of the apparent few gentlemen left since my boyfriend also will pop up if someone needs help putting something up...

Trust me...I hear ya!!

 

[sand2270]

This was going to be our Animal Kingdom day. We were both very excited it being a park neither of us have been to and we were both excited to go on Expedition Everest. I received a Disney planning cd last year and ever since my DD watched it and saw Everest she has been talking about it. I had never been on it, but I really thought we would both be fine on the ride.

We got there around rope drop and we were pretty far back. Everyone headed for Expedition Everest…everyone!! We finally got back there and the fast pass lines were packed. We got our fastpasses and decided to get in the standby line…I think the wait was something like 30 minutes. But all the lines had been moving fast since we had been there so we decided to try it. The wait was probably more like 20 minutes. I thought the theming was great and we were both a little nervous but excited.

Right after the part where you start going backwards I looked over to see how my daughter was doing and she had a look of sheer terror on her face. Oh no my little daredevil is scared…really scared ! So I grabbed her and held onto her as tight as I could. She buried her face into me and stayed there until the ride was over. Truthfully it was a bit much for both of us. I do fine on Splash and Big Thunder Mountain, but Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster pushed my limits a little. This pushed both of our limits as well.

She was fine once we were off but said she didn’t want to go on again. She was pretty shaken up for a little bit. I told her I would buy her an “I survived Expedition Everest” shirt if they had one. We looked at the kiosk and decided on a cute, fuzzy yeti magnet and an Expedition Everest pin with a cute yeti that moves up and down for her lanyard. Once we got off the crowds were gone. The park really wasn’t very busy that day, I think it was just the morning rush to Expedition Everest that made it appear crowded.

One of her favorite rides at Disneyland is Indiana Jones and I heard Dinosaur mirrored that ride so we headed in that direction. This side of the park was empty. We passed Dinoland and this was right up her alley. She loves carnival games. I knew she was still shaken up from the ride so I agreed to buy her some tickets so we could play some games. It was dead enough over there that the two of us could do competition games without anyone else playing, guaranteeing we won a prize. The prize is all my daughter cares about anyway, so I either let her win or if I won gave her the prize. I won one game I was trying really hard to lose so when the cast member went to announce the winner I looked at him and tilted my head towards my daughter and she was declared the winner YEAH!! While the games were a bit expensive to play we did walk out with 3 small stuffed animals which made her very happy.

We wanted to go on Primeval Whirl but I think it was down. We headed over to Dinosaur and there was a minimal wait. Well…she hated this too LOL. The dinosaurs scared her and again she ended up burying her head into me until it was over. Ugh.

I told her to pick the next ride. She likes the Grizzly River Run ride in CA Adventure so we headed to Kali River Rapids which is very similar. I knew she would like this ride and I knew we would get wet. It was so hot that I was looking forward to a water ride. We got drenched…not wet…drenched…soaked…like someone had thrown us in a pool fully clothed.

After this we had enough of rides and went to Flametree BBQ for lunch. I was hoping sitting outside we would dry off a little. My DD loves ribs so she was really looking forward to this. We got a half slab to split and a key lime pie. Mmm…the ribs were a little fatty for me, but overall we both liked them. I enjoyed the key lime pie my DD didn’t want any.

I asked my DD if we were going to use our fastpasses for Everest and she said no . There was a couple sitting there eating lunch. I approached them and told them we had fastpasses and were not going to use them if they would like them. They took them and thanked me.

I told my DD I wanted to do the safari and then we would leave and go swimming. It was so hot we wanted to get out of there. As we were heading over we spotted the hair wrapping station. My DD really wanted to get this done so we decided to stop. After this we headed over to the safari…I think it was a 20 minute wait. Our bus driver was pretty funny…as usual I can't remember the funny things he was saying but for some reason our bus kept going "OOOOOHHHH" when he would point stuff out to us. Seemed to be the running joke on our bus for some reason LOL.

As much as I wanted to explore the park some more it was too hot so we decided to head out so we could go swimming. I wanted a soft pretzel since I had seen someone eating one earlier. We found the stand and finally used some of our credits on a pretzel and pineapple chunks. As we got closer to the front I wanted a soda, we stopped and used two more credits on a coke and popcorn for my DD.

We got out of there to head back to POP to swim...Day 3 will be continued in my next post

 

[sand2270]

This will be my last update for a few days, I am taking advantage of having a long weekend and will be heading out of town. I will continue updating next week.

After we got back to POP my DD insisted on going back to the bowling pin pool. That evening we were having dinner at Jiko with John. This was one of my ADR's I was able to add John to right before my trip. This was the one adult dinner that I insisted on doing because I really wanted to try it. As I explained it to my daughter when she started pushing back about having to endure a nice sit down dinner...we are doing 5 character meals...5!...mommy gets one nice dinner of her choosing on this trip.

We got ready and John drove us over. We got a little lost trying to find the main resort and accidentally ended up in the new DVC section. The bellboy standing outside told us how to get back to the main resort.

I love the lobby's of the resorts…they are all so different! AKL was really interesting with the carved wood and massive window at the end of the lobby.

We walked outside to check out part of the savannah. There were not many animals we could see, mainly birds. I was happy to see the fire pit since I had seen pictures of it on the board.

We checked in for dinner at Jiko and we were sat in the wine room. I managed to get a few pictures of the main dining room.

The wine room was dark and quiet. I ordered a glass of red wine, my DD got a shirley temple and John an iced tea. We started with the kalamata olive flatbread. This was right up my alley…thin pizza like crust, olive oil, goat cheese and kalamata olives…all things I love. My DD got a salad with her dinner. She likes salad so she ate quite a bit of this. Both John and I ordered the filet with mac and cheese and my DD ordered the mac and cheese.

I ordered mine medium, and as my last trip two weeks before realized Disney restaurants tend to overcook a little. Usually the problem I have is ordering medium and it is too undercooked. John ordered his medium rare. Mine was delicious and I loved the mac and cheese, but I think I would have preferred the medium rare temperature. We each shared some with my DD since she wanted to try it and she preferred John's temperature.

She wasn't crazy about the mac and cheese and John was gracious enough to give her some of his filet and she shared her mac and cheese with him. The children's mac and cheese was what came with the filet, and while John and I both enjoyed it I was not surprised my DD did not care for it as much. As she said, "I prefer Kraft" .

John was also gracious enough to let my DD play games on his iphone which made for a pleasant dinner because she was not bored and we could have some nice conversation. Though I hoped John was entertained by all the silly stories we were telling him about past Disneyland trips.

For dessert my DD ordered the Fun-Do which was a chocolate fondue, I ordered the pistachio crème brulee and a chai tea, and John ordered a chocolate cheesecake and a chai tea. The chai tea was served in a french press and was very good. The pistachio crème brulee was so so so good. I was actually surprised at how much I liked it since I have gotten a little burned out (Ha! No pun intended! ) on crème brulee. It was light with plenty of pistachio flavor. I ate the whole thing. My DD liked her fondue, I tried some and the chocolate fondue was very good.

After dinner my DD wanted to look in the gift shop...I think I saw almost every gift shop in WDW this trip. At one point John and my DD spotted a Pooh pin and Pooh was covered in honey. I am not sure who said it to who...John maybe you can help since I missed this conversation...but apparently one of them said "Look it's Pooh covered in honey!" (we had filled John in on our joke). My DD thought this was even funnier than my joke so everytime we saw Pooh she poked me and said "Mom look...it's Pooh covered in honey" and she would crack up.

John drove us back to POP. This was our last night at POP. We had a 30-minute arcade card that came with our package that my DD wanted to use. I also wanted to walk around the 70's, 80's and 90's sections since I had not seen all of them yet. My DD loves arcades, well it turns out the card was only good for games that do not distribute tickets. One of the reasons my DD loves arcades is she loves getting the tickets and getting prizes. She got moody when she realized the card was not good for the ticket machines. I caved and bought a card so she could play a few games with tickets. She played Deal or No Deal and was ruthless…she didn't even pause just kept smacking the No Deal button…it was cracking us up. She managed to get some tickets out of that machine.

She and John started playing air hockey. I was having fun watching them and taking pictures…and well…let's just say my DD was laughing so hard she had a little accident and we had to leave the arcade LOL.

After a wardrobe change my DD and I had a little tift because it was late and I really wanted to see the resort and she wanted more arcade time. Poor John…he witnessed a few little disagreements between me and my DD that week. When I finally got her to understand that there were a few things that I wanted to do as well and for the most part she has been calling the shots she decided to play nice.

We really had a good time walking around the resort. A few times I was laughing so hard I almost had an accident of my own lol. My DD loved the big computer keyboard over by the 80's and ran around that jumping on the letters of her name. John was a good sport and played right along with us.

This is a tribute to my DIS buddies...

This picture just turned out really cool

We got squashed a lot

We finally called it a night. I was exhausted. I still had to get our bags together for bell services to pick up in the morning since we were moving to Beach Club the next day. I decided to get up early the next day and deal with the luggage. My DD set up her wake up call…she ended up doing this every night and we went to bed.

 

[jenjolt]

What a great update!! It sounds like you guys had a great day!! EE can be a bit intimidating, however I'm glad you found other things at AK to enjoy!!!!

Dinner sounded amazing and I would definitely like to see AKL someday!!!!

 

[dallastxcpa]

I am loving your trip report. You and your daughter are so cute and look so much alike. You two remind me of me and my daughter when she was younger.

I hope you have a fun holiday weekend. I can't wait to read your next installment when you get back.

 

[sand2270]

What a great update!! It sounds like you guys had a great day!! EE can be a bit intimidating, however I'm glad you found other things at AK to enjoy!!!!

Dinner sounded amazing and I would definitely like to see AKL someday!!!!

Thanks! It was a long, hot day but definitely great!

I am loving your trip report. You and your daughter are so cute and look so much alike. You two remind me of me and my daughter when she was younger.

I hope you have a fun holiday weekend. I can't wait to read your next installment when you get back.

She is my blonde mini-me

I hope you and everyone else has a great 4th of July weekend.

My DD and I are driving to Vegas tonight to stay with my DIS buddie, Matterhorn and her kids...should be a fun weekend.