Yehaw Bob and Blue Mai Tais, I'm back at Disney my-oh-my! May 8-15 magical TR Updated 5/23

[mnscp]

Welcome!
I have been an avid Disboards reader for 7 years or so, I have been wanting to do a trip report for some time now but chose to continue lurking others posts and living vicariously through them instead So here I am, FINALLY getting the chance to relive my amazing trip and share it with all of you! I will start with a little about myself.
My name is Sierra and I will be the narrator of this trip... well my DH will be popping in as he thinks this is a great idea and can remember some things that I may have missed. I am 28, he is 27 and we both live in Tucson Arizona. We travel a lot and live like every night is date night. We met at the adorable age of 11 and reconnected years after high school but here we are now I have only ever been to Disney world once before, which was in 2011 however I have been to Disneyland 30+ times as I live in Arizona and it's a pretty short drive away. In the real world I work at a vet clinic as a veterinary technician. I used to do rehabilitation work for raptors and birds of prey as well as pretty much any animal under the sun. You name it, I worked on it. Bagheeras, Pumbas, Baloos, Nemos, Bianca and Bernards, Thumpers, Bambis... well, you get the drift Mainly now I just work on dogs and cats but equally as rewarding! My husband is in charge of training and hiring at the transportation division of the Grand Canyon. He is gone two weeks every month but it is a pretty convenient schedule to allow us vacation time. Here we are now


Ok, so now the trip deets!
We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside from May 8-13 and continued our Orlando vacay an additional 2 days until May 15 at an offsite location that really doesn't matter because it wasn't a disney hotel so it's nameless to me hahahaha
We did the Disney standard dining plan (Spoiler alert we LOVED it) and I have great pictures and reviews from all our restaurants which for table service included Sci Fi, Artist point, O'hana, Boma and Akershus as well as the Fantasmic VIP dessert package, plus a ton of snacks, alcohol, QS meals, and offsite dining while in Orlando. Oh yeah, and alcohol on a side note I almost NEVER drink but hey, it's included in the dining plan so no way I'm gonna let that go to waste. On the other hand, DH is a beer drinker and i'm pretty sure in order to maximize the DDP he ordered the most expensive beer regardless of description haha But he liked them all and thought they all tasted great. Or maybe he just drank enough that they started tasting great, but I digress lol
We also (due to unforseen circumstances and a change in our last day plans) booked a last minute fishing charter at Disneyworld on bay lake. And last but not least i'll be reviewing Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure as we visited them as well.
OK guys I'm excited!!! I'm finally doing this, I hope you guys join in and enjoy! I promise, lots of pics to come, I kept it limited on this post because I feel strange posting pictures of myself just to talk about myself, but no worries, that will fade as the TR goes on hahaha

 

[dnllmz]

Joining in!

 

[mnscp]

MMMKAYYYY I'm gonna back up a little to the pre trip planning part. Last December we made an impromptu trip to Disneyland. During this trip my DH decided he had never experienced Disney the way it was meant to be experienced. He used to travel a lot for work so he was at Disneyland 5+ times a year but rarely would even enter the parks. I casually mentioned to him if he was ever so inclined we could jet off to Disneyworld and I could really show him a good time well he clearly bought what I was selling because a month later over a phone call he told me to book the trip! Initially we were gonna do it as cheap as possible (as if lol) but within a few weeks he happily suggested we stay at a moderate instead of value and get the dining plan! Then about 4 weeks until the trip he said let's stay an extra few days. Unfortunately we booked plane tickets that were non refundable but to my surprise he said screw it! We will forfeit the money from the flight home and just buy all together new return flight tickets. I seriously didn't even ask questions, I had those new tickets booked before he could backtrack haha Then, because I am a huge procrastinator, I decided I wanted handmade mickey ears for the trip. For about 12 seconds I rolled around the idea of making them myself but quickly realized craftiness was not my fortay. So I ordered them on Etsy 5 days before our flight was scheduled to leave. Ahhhhhh! They all came in time but really that could have ended badly. Here are the little beauties which you will later see planted firmly on my little head

Now onto day 1: arrival day!
We woke up early, our flight wasn't until 3:30 but it was leaving from phoenix which is about a 2 hour drive away. As I stated earlier, I'm a procrastinator so of course I hadn't even packed one day I'll learn. So we did all the packing , printed all the necessary itineraries, blah blah blah. Oh yeah, and dropped my car off at my parents house so they could change the oil for me while I was gone haha.
The drive up to phoenix was uneventful, which really is a beautiful thing because it's well known that drive can go from routine to hair pullingly annoying in the blink of an eye, normally falling on the latter. We parked at a lot (which we later found out was literally the most expensive lot over there haha) and hitched a ride over to good ol' sky harbor international phoenix airport.
Yeah, I get it. Not the prettiest haha we ate at four peaks brewing company for lunch. Good food good drinks, but wait, not THAT good. Jeeze louise we got the bill and I ordered 2 blue mai tais, which weren't blue and they were 16 dollars each!!!!! Most expensive drink all trip and it wasn't even on Disney property. When we asked why it wasn't blue he said oh don't worry about it, we just use blue food coloring and we're out even though it says it's blue because of blue curacao . Not sure blue curacao really packs a punch but for 16 each I'll take everything it's listed with! Ha.

Ok, gotta go do real world stuff :/ but will finish out day 1 later today and then on to the good stuff!

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in!! Glad you made the leap and started a TR

All the ears you purchased are too adorable!

Can' wait to hear more

 

[StacyStrong]

Okay BUT WHAT ETSY STORE IS THAT

in love

 

[mnscp]

Okay BUT WHAT ETSY STORE IS THAT

in love

Yessssss someone who understands the importance of good ears! My husband just doesn't haha The Cruella ones are from MickeyCityEars, the Animal Kingdom ones are from Twistedflorals, The blue light up ones are from NeverlandEars and the Pascal ones from Localshop77. So I was really gambling by ordering from 4 separate places on such a close time crunch!

 

[StacyStrong]

That's okay, my boyfriend barely tolerates my constant talking about my December trip. He just doesn't GET it. See if I care - stay home!

I'll have to check those places out!!! Impressive that every place got them to you in time.

 

[mnscp]

Arrival day part dos:
So we left off with me pouting about having a boring, expensive, non blue, blue mai tai. First world problems, I know
When we went to pay for the bill my husbands card just wasn't reading. We had to use a different card which left us on edge because his bank has a habit of putting random limits on his card and freezing it whenever we're on vacation. I'm happy to report this is the last time it had an issue, but none the less, I kept using it just to make sure there were no concerns
We then bought various snacks to take on the plane, none of which we really ate, we were too excited!!
Easy flight to Orlando, nice and smooth and we got there before schedule! The wi-fi really sucked and was a complete waste of money, but no fear, we still got an episode of desperate housewives in inbetween the interrupted streaming haha And thennnnnnn once we stepped off the plane we were greeted by an almost empty airport. Ahh a thing of beauty

We hopped on the monorail in preparation for some monorail hopping we'd be doing later in the trip, and made it to the magical express! Seriously, from the moment we boarded the magical express the level of customer service just soared (and subsequently dipped once we reached universal studios) but more on that later lol

It was a longer drive to our hotel than I remember it being last time I was here, but maybe I was just anxious and excited! We got to our hotel, grabbed our stuff (or rather they grabbed it for us) and headed to check in. Backtracking a bit... OH MY GOSH I LOVE THE MAGIC BAND SYSTEM!!! made everything so easy,a little too easy in fact when it comes to just charging stuff to the room haha OK, ok, back to check in. Beautiful resort and I loved the southern charm. We don't have that at all in Tucson. Last time I was here we stayed at Wilderness Lodge so I knew going into this that it wouldn't be as "fancy" but the charm and the grounds made up for anything I may have been concerned it would lack.
We were put in the alligator bayou section which was great because it was directly next to the West Depot which is the first of 4 stops at riverside but man oh man was it far from the lobby! This lead to us not really utilizing the resort mugs because it was a darn hassle! Walking the 10 minutes it took (I know I said it was far, but 10 minutes feels far ok , we couldn't help but fall in love with the grounds. Tons of water and trees and grass, (what can I say, we're easily impressed, we live in a desert haha) We got in, super high off our excitement but made ourselves fall asleep so we could have a nice early morning at Hollywood studios the next day. Right as I was drifting off I noticed I was breaking out already from the humidity. I was positive this would be a precursor for the rest of the trip but luckily it wasn't! Goodnight world, I gotta be on my A game for Disney parks Day 1!

 

[reyasmommy]

Joining in ....... POR is one of my favorite resorts, I LOVE it!

 

[Dentam]

Joining in! Your photos are great and I'm already really enjoying your description of your trip! Looking forward to more!!

 

[ml sumner]

Joining in and enjoying your adventure so far. I love all of your mouse ears, they are so creative! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[linda d-isney]

Joining in, POR is our favorite resort we are booked for end of July birthday celebration trip for me. Can't wait and I noticed the nod to Yeehaw Bob. We love him, saw him at Christmas time last trip and he had us all up and doing something all night to Christmas music. Can't wait to end our day singing with him. Everyone needs to pop over to POR to listen to him, it's a great family friendly show.

 

[hardyb]

Great start!

 

[MonorailNate]

Beautiful resort pics! I can’t wait to hear about your fishing excursion on Bay Lake. My husband and son are considering it for our trip the end of June.

 

[mnscp]

Happy Wednesday guys!
It has taken me a little bit to get to this update because I came down with a stupid cold
So I have been getting off of work and going straight to bed. But I'm back ! I have come down with some serious Disney blues since being back and have tried to cure them by buying some awesome Disney shirts from Lost Bros. (check them out, they have cool stuff!), and resort themed candles from Magic Candle Company! Haven't received them yet but with post them in whatever trip report corresponds to their arrival. And nowwwwwwwww:

Day 1 park day: The one where I meet yeehaw Bob and realize that too much alcohol and the Florida heat don't mix

We started our day out by heading to the Riverside Mill food court for breakfast.
We both got the turkey sausage and egg white breakfast sandwich which was good but honestly not memorable, hence why I don't even have a picture of it. We also picked up our resort refillable mugs and filled them up with coke zero. Breakfast drink of champions I also remember my DH mentioning that they don't have real butter and only margarine and then something about cancer He also mentioned that it was really busy (it wasn't too bad, but it sure was loud from all the kids), and then we left to go back to our room, drop off our resort mugs and go to the west depot which is the first spot for the busses which ensured we always got a seat.
I know I know, we are young and could stand but i like resting my little feet when I know they are gonna work hard all day!( Side note, I always let the elderly sit, I'm not an animal hahaha)

We hopped on the bus, and the excitement was tangible. We kept looking at each other saying, "We're in freaking Disneyworld!!!!!!!!!" We got off the bus and the first thing we noticed was that it looked extremely similar to the new entrance to Disney's California adventure in Anaheim. Both radiate with that Old Hollywood charm
We walk in and first thing we see is a buck deer statue on the left. DH was excited, so much so that he instagram storied it haha We love deer, they are so cute, and man are they tasty
You can't tell but this picture was extremely hard to get. Donald duck does a meet and greet right there so between trying not to step in front of the people waiting in line, and getting a picture that doesn't have a throng of tourists as the background, we had to work!
I had made fastpass+ reservations on the disney app the moment they opened up for star tours, indiana jones, and voyage of the little mermaid. Those might seem like silly fastpasses but I don't do roller coasters so I knew DH could do RRC as a single rider quite quickly and they wont allow you to do star tours and Toy story midway mania both as fastpasses and i *thought* that if we went directly to TMM after park opening we wouldn't have to wait too long. Sigh, I was wrong.
We went directly to TMM and the line was...... 95 minutes I really thought that our straight bee line would have produced better results than that but apparently that was a rookie mistake haha We opted not to wait because we had just ridden it a few times at DCA in December so we said nah, no thanks. Also, DH doesn't really like it but my theory is it's because I always smoke him in the final scores
After the failure of that plan, we went to RRC and as expected, he walked straight on as a single rider.
When this picture showed up on the my disney experience app I said dang babe, you look so zen about the whole experience. His reply, "No, I was terrified and didn't know what to think so this was my scared face." hahaha I understand, that's why I don't ride stuff like that. But when it was all said and done he really enjoyed the ride.
Update: Since we left we found out that Steven Tyler was in the park that day! Didn't see him but it's still kinda cool

Next we had our first bathroom stop of the trip, and when I came out he had already found the beer cart haha This is when we first were introduced to the amazing invention of the magic band charge to room feature. We did this for the whole trip and it made it so much easier.... to spend lol JK it made keeping track of purchases easier as well and we could just do one lump sum payment at the end.
We took some pictures with the photopass photographers so we could pass the time until our Star Tours fast pass.
We rode Star tours and had some new experiences! We had the wookie village scene and the under water (Naboo????) scene I believe. I don't say it out loud too often, but I must admit, I don't really get star wars. I love the Star Tours ride (though the nostalgic factor I used to have with the old ride is somewhat gone), but the Star Wars franchise is all a bit too much for me. The one and only Star Wars movie I have seen was the last one, I believe the last Jedi was the name but I fell asleep 20 minutes in. OOPS. I remember waking up when Kylo Ren was doing something mean I think and I leaned over to DH and said, so is darth vader not a thing anymore??? lol NO clue.

We then walked over to Voyage of the Little Mermaid to watch the show. The family in front of us was quite unpleasant. Their daughter, I believe, was throwing a full on tantrum (mind you, she was like 10) and instead of shutting it down they decided that mocking her, and in turn being equally as annoying, was the parenting choice of the day. I'm not a parent so what do I know, but it seemed counterproductive.
Show is cute and I like the bubbles and when they make it seem like you are underwater. LIke I said, simple things keep me amused lol Also, right after this show ended while still in the dark, I turned on my ears (they light up) and I got the oohs and ahhs that I was hoping for hehe. This was a test run for turning them on for Fantasmic that night

Ok guys, I gotta go do some work, but ill come back shortly and update the rest of day 1. Hope you are enjoying!

 

[mnscp]

Joining in, POR is our favorite resort we are booked for end of July birthday celebration trip for me. Can't wait and I noticed the nod to Yeehaw Bob. We love him, saw him at Christmas time last trip and he had us all up and doing something all night to Christmas music. Can't wait to end our day singing with him. Everyone needs to pop over to POR to listen to him, it's a great family friendly show.

We LOVE HIM!!!! I knew I would, we had seen videos of him and I knew I wanted to see him but there is SOOO much to do that I was fearful wouldn't get a chance. But first night we happened to run directly into him and so glad we did. One of the highlights of our trip!

 

[mnscp]

Beautiful resort pics! I can’t wait to hear about your fishing excursion on Bay Lake. My husband and son are considering it for our trip the end of June.

It was so fun! We caught 10+ fish each on the two hour trip. It is pricey, but hey, it's disneyworld! haha
If they do, I know they will have a great time

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like you're off to a great start! Love the PP pics!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

And then what happened?

 

[paradesintherain]

Joining in!!

We met at the adorable age of 11 and reconnected years after high school but here we are now

Awww that's so precious!

You name it, I worked on it. Bagheeras, Pumbas, Baloos, Nemos, Bianca and Bernards, Thumpers, Bambis

No Simbas?

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside

Excellent choice!

Unfortunately we booked plane tickets that were non refundable but to my surprise he said screw it! We will forfeit the money from the flight home and just buy all together new return flight tickets.

He was all in! That's awesome

Oh my goodness these are so cute!

Jeeze louise we got the bill and I ordered 2 blue mai tais, which weren't blue and they were 16 dollars each!!!!!

OH wow, that's absurd!

(and subsequently dipped once we reached universal studios)

Nooo - I mean they're no Disney but they're pretty good! Bummer they dropped the ball.

OH MY GOSH I LOVE THE MAGIC BAND SYSTEM!!!

SAME, especially now that FPs can be booked in the app

we couldn't help but fall in love with the grounds.

They are so lovely! Loved walking them

I have come down with some serious Disney blues since being back and have tried to cure them by buying some awesome Disney shirts from Lost Bros.

The best way to beat the Disney blues is to start planning your next vacation

I also remember my DH mentioning that they don't have real butter and only margarine and then something about cancer

I noticed that last time I was at Disney too! Margarine is gross!

No, I was terrified and didn't know what to think so this was my scared face."

That's priceless. He does kinda look like he's thinking really hard about what's happening