"Where's my boarding pass?!" The many adventures of 4 20-somes in the Magical World!

[katt789]

Oh hey, so, we have reached that point in our trip that was sad for everyone. We reached our last morning at Pop. In my attempt to make this day not all terrible & sad, I had booked us in for breakfast at Ohana.

We decided that taking 2 busses/modes of transport was too long & too early, so we jumped into a cab to take us over to the Poly, where we checked in, and wandered around a bit before our buzzer went off.
I definitely decided that I could DEFINITELY stay at this resort, a beach that you can see the castle from? Yes please!!

We had our "OHANA" picture taken, and headed on it. Now, in my opinion, this was the worst breakfast of the week. The food was mediocre, not that great, and everything took FOREVER to come around, including the characters. (The only food plus was that thanks to some mild lactose intolerancy, even after declining milk free eggs, the chef still brought us out a milk free dish). And even when Mickey came around, he shook Nick's hand, and walked away...I understand that we're a table of adults, but we're kids at heart, and are stil paying customers, it just seemed rude.
Stitch however, was as awesome as usual!

By then end of the meal, we were all exhausted and ready to get out of there, especially Emily, who was already sick as it was.

We took some time to wander the resort before catching the MONORAIL (for the first time) back to MK, then bussed back to the resort.

Could we still stand to be this close after a week together??

Oop! There goes Nick....

This picture relates back to the "it's not STRIPPING in the rain" picutre, apparently, when poles are present, VB just gets slutty & her inner stripper comes out, this is Nick, encouraging it!
Next, we have the "alright, I've had enough, and every time I tell Mom he's touching me, she doesn't care"

We quickly checked out, cleaned the room, and hung around the food court for a bit before taking the magc express to the airport and boarded the plane back home!

Now, to end off the pictures, I leave you with the ADORABLE stuffed Tigger that I bought in WDW, that, when my cousin saw, she asked if it was Tigger & I's love child, which of course, it is! Haha

 

[katt789]

I figure it's good to spread your opions of WDW & your trips around on here, so I figured I'd share my opinions & Nick can probably pop in with some of his. So, starting at the beginning.

Rainforest Cafe: Food was ok, it was way too noisy, especially for the first night after a long flight. Head to T-Rex if you want something like this to be where you eat.

Crystal Palace: AWESOME! For a first day in Disney, do the Magic Kingdom, and DO an early, pre park ressie, it's so magical & awesome. Food was great, characters had enough time, and if you eat at a reasonable pace, you'll get out in time for rope drop to have JUST happened.

Magic Kingdom don't misses:-Dole Whip twisty ice cream!
-Meet Tiana & Naveen
-Pirates of the Caribbean
-Fireworks
-Mickey's Phillimagic!

Tusker House: Fantastic food! And great that it's right next to safari's, we have an ADR for Sept here again. Characters were good too, it sucks that Donald doesn't come around, but I can deal with that. Only complaint is that I would say, have a quick snack on the way into the park, as the line for the picture is LOOOONNNNGGG

Animal Kingdom: Dinoland's kinda a bust
-Finding Nemo....right...not a fan
-Festival of the Lion King is a MUST do, maybe more than once.
-Only plan half a day for the park
-Going to Rafiki's planet watch is only a do if you want to see Pocahontas

T-Rex: DOOOO IITTTT
-Delicious food, great service, not too loud environtment

Hogwarts: Gonna be worth it in 5 years.
-If you have the money & extra half day, I'd say definitely do it if you haven't been there yet. Otherwise, wait a few years for them to expand on everything.

Epcot: Lesson learnt. Chew your roast beef at the Rose & Crown
-Canada....could use some work.. HAHA
-If you pass by the French Slushies...you best be underage or don't drink because they are the BEST drinks on the face of the earth.
-Character meet & greets here are awesome, lines seem to never be long
-Make sure to really research Future World so that you actually know where to do stuff
-Beverly really doesn't taste that bad
-There's TONS of amazing photo opperturnities

Akershus: -Worth it if you have little Princesses with you, but I feel like Cinderella's Royal Table would be better.
-ARIEL IS AMAZING
-Food was ok, service was ok, it didn't stand out to me

DHS:-Don't miss the Beauty & the Beast show
-Get TSM fast passes ASAP
-Character Palooza is a MUST DO
-Sci Fi Diner is an awesome place to eat for sit down service

Ohana-Not worth it for adults, it seems like it would be fun for kids though.

General:-Character breakfasts are an awesome way to meet the characters quickly & easily, so you can spend the days in the park riding rides.
-If your resort doesn't have a hot tub, and you don't want to resort hop, have a bath tub party in your swim suits (I totally forgot about this earlier, but one day, Emily & I filled the tub up with hot water and soaked our feet & legs in the hot water in our swim suits & we were not sore the next day at all)

Things I'll do Next time
-More pictures of/inside rides
-Even MORE photopass!! (ask about Magic Shots)
-Sandwich the trip with the 1st & last day at the Magic Kingdom
-Get park hoppers
-Do the evening EMH
-Know more about Future World
-Make sure to have sunglasses!
-Chew my food properly as to not choke...
-Check out the international gateway (or whichever it's called behind Canada & UK) to see if there's any characters in training!

 

[windjacka$$]

I figure it's good to spread your opions of WDW & your trips around on here, so I figured I'd share my opinions & Nick can probably pop in with some of his.

Done.

Rainforest Cafe: I liked it more than you did, plus I was totally pumped and totally happy to be in WDW on that first night so any reservations you had went totally over my head. Plus, it was easy to sneak booze to VB.

Crystal Palace: Awesome. A great location, got to get into the MK early, and awesome characters. Definitely the best one for small kids (i.e. us).

Magic Kingdom: Hate to break it to you, but we never saw Mickey's Philharmagic, but we definitely will next time. MK was my favourite theme park for sure. Glad VB and I snuck out before the fireworks were over though. Busses at the end of the night were definitely not pleasant.

Tusker House: Good food, but given the choice between this and the Crystal Palace, I'd choose Crystal Palace.

Animal Kingdom: The Yeti ride was cool, but it was my least favourite park. There's just not enough to do, and actually, the Calgary Zoo is better. Katt's right - plan only half a day for this one.

T-Rex: Great theme and decor. Good, albeit overpriced, food (but it's WDW. What isn't?)

Hogwarts: Meh. I wouldn't do this again, but Jurassic Park was fantastic. I wish we could have spent more time exploring the other parks here at Universal.

Epcot: World Showcase is spectacular and simply beautiful. Amazing atmosphere. Gonna try and get drunk there next trip. Also want to cover everything in Future World next time. Didn't spend enough time there.

Akershus: Overpriced and fun, but not worth it. Wouldn't do it again.

DHS: My second favourite park. I could stay in line literally for hours at the Great Movie Ride watching those old movie trailers. Going to definitely ride the Aerosmith coaster next time too - motion sickness be damned. Tower of Terror and turkey legs made for an unforgettable last day.

Ohana: Do it if you don't see Stitch at any of the parks. It's worth it just for him.

Things I'll do next time:
-Buy a watch
-Spend a lot more time at the MK. I'm talking two full days minimum.
-Bring back duty-free liquor
-Buy comfier sandals
-Take oil of oregano and coldfx EVERY DAY, TWICE A DAY, so I don't get sick again

 

[katt789]

We totes did Mickey's Phillamagic...it was the one with donald taking over the concert, and there was "4-d" effects....we did it after we came back to the park that night!!

 

[windjacka$$]

Oh yeah, I must be on drugs. We totally did that, and it was totally awesome.

 

[katt789]

I JUST got the photopass pics!! I've weeded through and edited it down to just one of each picture so you dont have to see countless doubles! Here we go!!

 

[katt789]

 

[katt789]

 

[katt789]

 

[katt789]

I figured that I would just pop back in here for everyone who's following along and update on the DISNEY 2.0 trip.

We are heading back into the world Sept 13-19/2011 (Couldn't even wait a full year!) I had orginally planned on going with my Mom, but she has other vacation plans, I priced it out, discovered that there was free dining, and it was WAY cheaper than I thought, so Nick & I jumped on our friends to find a 3 & 4th person to join us in the magical world.

We're again staying at Pop Century, and our schedule looks something like this:

Day 1: Sept 13 Arrive, DTD, shopping, etc

Day 2: Sept 14: Magic Kindom for a full day of adventure

Day 3: Sept 15: Epcot

Day 4: Fri 16: Animal Kingdom (w/Tusker House for breakfast!) then off to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party from 7pm to midnight!

Day 5: Sat 17: DHS

Day 6: Sun 18: Epcot/DHS then to MK for eve EMH (w/Crystal Palace Dinner!)

Sun 19th: Resort hop, possibly do a breakfast/lunch somewhere, then to the plane by 3pm.

The WHO:
ME! You're lovely trip report author, Disney freak who discovered the DIS boards over a year ago & hasn't spent a day way from them since. I love all things Disney & haven't been able to stop thinking about the awesomeness since coming home. I'm hoping to audition while I'm down there next!!

We have Nick: The newlywed husband of Belle (I'll take Gaston, no worries haha!!) Who I introduced to the world & the disboards over these past couple of months, and like me, he was anxious to return before we even left!

Then we have Amy: She's a friend of Nicks & he's gonna have to jump in with her intro, as I honestly know nothing about her!! Haha, he says we'll get along great though & I'm hoping so!

Finally we have Bailey, or Star as I sometimes call her. She's a friend who I have worked at camp with for many a years, 1.5 years younger than me, but one of my best friends. Camp friends are some of the best you can ever have, honestly, because you have already done THE most ridiculous & insane things with them, so no matter what, you're still cool!!

Honestly, that's really all I've got for plans, above posts say things we plan on doing next time! If anyone is going to be in WDW while we're there, and want's to meet up (maybe for a Grand Marnier slushie ) We'd be totes cool!! I'm definitely going to try & get some LGMH this time! Really connect to the disboards lol!!

 

[jane2073]

I loved your trip report and can't wait to read about your trip in September!

The Zombie Apocolypse picture is definitely a keeper!

 

[SilverSynchro919]

I loved your first trip report (especially the AVPM reference)!!!

Can't wait to hear about your next trip =D Your last day is my 20th birthday!

 

[katt789]

Well, since I have last posted, I have gone through one heck of a headache attempting to get everything sorted out for our second trip. You may sense a kind of theme going on in these trips.

So, we had booked the trip, the flights, booked our MNSSHP tix, and sorted out ADRS.

-Cinderella's Royal Table for dinner on our first day

-Tusker House breakfast on our AK day

-Crystal Palace on our last day for dinner.

Nick & Amy got their money into me, and then I started hassling Bailey to get at least some of the money into me to start paying off. Well, I get a reply saying that she had quit her job as they were treating her badly, and her girlfriend was going to pay...untill she lost her job...THUS, Bailey ended up without the money to come, and dropped out of the trip.

Sound a little familiar?

SO, we started our search, and a girl I worked with said she'd totally come! Once she had figured out her finances, she also said she couldn't come. We went through a large number of people who jumped on the offer, then 2 weeks later, when they looked through everything, they wouldn't be able to come.

FINALLY, we found Tyler, one of the guys I work with, who was fullly set on going, and we've made a deal for him to pay everything off in chunks. However...he didn't have a passport

Well, I had heard that passports can take upwards to 6 months to get, and with the postal strike in Calg, we didn't know how long it would take to mail out to him, we were possibly screwed. HOWEVER, apparently passports are a lot easier to get than I thought, or than they once were, so he'll get it in on Aug 22, and we're all set!

The flight was the next problem, now, for me, I didn't want to go through too much hassle, so I just cancelled Baileys tix & booked one for Tyler, though he is on 1 different flight than us on the way home (though he said thats totally fine.)

SO, WE'RE ALL SET TO GOOOOOOOOOO

Finally, everything is now sorted out, there's still some money to pay off the trip, but that's just going to me, as everything has been paid in full & booked & we're set ready to go! 34 days and we're there!!