"You don't eat bugs where you're from!?" - An August 2012 trip report *UPDATED 9/8*

[Disney~Cutie]

Hello everyone, and welcome to my very first attempt at a trip report! This is my third Disney trip, and it was pretty awesome! There was a lot of rain, but we managed to make the best of it.
We also had a little bit less planning day by day, making it a more relaxed and less stressful trip overall. We wished we had done touring plans for every single day, but hey, what can you do?
Also involved in this trip are meetups and rain and dole whips and lack of Pocahontas merchandise and MORE RAIN! Oh the excitement!

Anyways, I've been anxious to write this trip report for weeks, and I even managed to keep a carefully logged journal the whole trip.
I just got back about 3 hours ago, and my pictures are already uploading to Photobucket. (A whopping 1101! I'm probably not going to use all of them for the TR though. At least, I hope I don't for your sake.)
Plus, I'm already unpacked and typing away this TR!

So enough of that, I'll give you the basics for our trip!

:Who:

~Me!~
I'm Robyn, the one reporting the trip
Age- 14
Favorite Disney Movie- The Lion King
Favorite Park- Epcot

~Oliver~
Oliver is one of my younger brothers. He'll be known as DB11 throughout the report
Age- 11
Favorite Disney Movie- Monsters Inc.
Favorite Park- Hollywood Studios

~Marcus~
Marcus is my other younger brother. He'll be called DB6
Age- 6
Favorite Disney Movie- Cars 2
Favorite Park- Magic Kingdom

~Mom~
My mother! (Obviously ) She did all the planning for the trip, and is the one that gave the whole family the Disney bug. Her username on here is Disneymom1229. I'll be calling her DM
Favorite Disney Movie- Tangled
Favorite Park- Magic Kingdom

~Dad~
My father! He loves Disney just like my mom and I, but laughs at us when we're already talking about our next trip while we're in Disney. He'll be called DD
Favorite Disney Movie- Toy Story
Favorite Park- Magic Kingdom

My other brother, Leo, couldn't come with us this trip because of college. BUT, because he might be mentioned later on, he's 19 years old, and will be called DB19​

:What:

Walt Disney World Trip 2012! We got the free dining plan due to bouceback. Last year, my parents went to Disney World together. Just them. WITHOUT ME OR MY BROTHERS! Ugh, can you believe it? But anyway, because of their trip, we got the bounceback and got free dining for this trip.​

:When:

We're going to be in the World from Wednesday August 22nd to Thursday August 30th​

:Where:

Port Orleans Riverside! This is our third time staying here in a row. We love it, and it's the perfect hotel for a family of five​

Anyways, I plan on updating this report as quickly as I can, so stay tuned for more!

Oh, and by the way, the title will be explained later on in the TR. As for the "very rainy" part of it, well, we were there during the wrath of Tropical Storm Isaac. Actually, the effects on Orlando weren't too bad, just on again off again rain storms. But anyways, more to come later...

|Table of Contents|​

|Next: Day 1 (8/22) PART 1- Well, kind of day one?| -->​

 

[Disney~Cutie]

-Introduction
-Day 1 (8/22) PART 1- Well, kind of day one?
-Day 1 (8/22) PART 2- We're not going to Magic Kingdom!?
-Day 1 (8/22) PART 3- Home sweet home!

 

[disneymom1229]

Hi!!!! I'll be subbing for updates...even though I lived it!! You're off to a good start. Keep the up the good work.

 

[B-Ride]

I was a little surprised by your rain comments. We were there at almost the same time and other than a very rainy Isaac day on Monday and a bit of rain on Tuesday we had a great trip weather wise. We only used our ponchos on those two days.

 

[Disney~Cutie]

I was a little surprised by your rain comments. We were there at almost the same time and other than a very rainy Isaac day on Monday and a bit of rain on Tuesday we had a great trip weather wise. We only used our ponchos on those two days.

That's strange, because for us it rained on and off almost everyday. The only day we got absolutely no rain was the 30th.
Even so, it's more rain than I've ever been used to in Disney, as during both of my previous trips we had no rain at all.

 

[mickey'sbff]

You made a trip report! ADGASKLGKFBNF

 

[Disney~Cutie]

You made a trip report! ADGASKLGKFBNF

Glad you're excited Sars!

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Awesome!

 

[Disney~Cutie]

Awesome!

Thank you!

 

[*♥Chip&Dale♥*]

D
I shalll read thiss
and maybe make my own
if i have time
and talent
pshh

 

[Disney~Cutie]

D
I shalll read thiss
and maybe make my own
if i have time
and talent
pshh

Glad you're joining Becca! And you should make a TR! I'd definitely read it

 

[Disney~Cutie]

The title for this post is slightly misleading, as it's going to include Day one and the day BEFORE day one, so bear with me.
So, on the 21st of August, we all woke up like normal and we ripped off our countdown for the day!

Disney World here we come indeed! Unfortunately, we had a whole day ahead of us until we actually left for Disney. We weren't going to be leaving until 10:00 at night!
So we waited and waited all day. We had some things to keep us busy, as DD was at work, DM was packing, and I had freshman orientation.

So after a long day of boredom and anticipation, we packed up our little sedan and left the house around 10:20 pm.

Our way of getting to Disney this time is kind of different than what we usually do. Typically, we fly out of the airport in our home city, but this year, airfare to Orlando was ridiculously expensive.
After looking into airfare at the Pittsburgh airport and discovering that it was significantly less expensive, we thought, hey, what if we flew out of Pittsburgh instead?

And that's what we were going to do! Unfortunately, we had a five hour ride down there (As we live in western New York).

Off we went, on the long car ride to Pittsburgh. DB11, DB6 and I were supposed to be sleeping on the ride so we'd be rested for our first day in Disney. We were driving straight to Pittsburgh, parking our car, then flying to Orlando, so there was no sleeping in a hotel or anything for us.

But who would be able to sleep in a car when you're heading to Disney World!?

I ended up getting about an hour or so of sleep, while DB11 and DB6 got about 2 hours. It wasn't easy sleeping in the backseat of a little car with three other people back there.

So after what felt like the longest car ride EVER, we arrived at the Marriot hotel, which was right outside of the Pittsburgh airport!
Time for more explanation: See, we were going to stay at the Marriot when we flew BACK to Pittsburgh from Orlando, but not this night. And since the hotel's parking was free, we were allowed to park our car there until we checked out of the hotel when we came back from Orlando.

(And yet, after the expenses for the gas down to Pittsburgh and the hotel room for one night, plus the airfare itself, it was still less expensive than flying out of our home city! Crazy, right?)

When we got to the Marriot, we got the parking pass for our car. We took all of the suitcases out of the car and into the hotel, and DD parked the car.
We were going to use the hotel's shuttle service to get to the airport for our flight. The deal was, we arrived at the Marriot at 2:45 am... and the shuttle service didn't start until 4 am. So we had a bit of a wait. Luckily, the hotel said it was perfectly fine for us to wait in the lobby until the shuttle service started.

And so we waited. As you can see, DM, DB6 and DB11 kept busy with their video games, while DD watched the TV

The shuttle came exactly on time at 4 am! There was only one other person at the hotel riding the shuttle with us (Some business man), but the shuttle also made a stop at a Holiday Inn nearby, so another family heading to Disney came aboard!
Even with about 12 or 13 people on board, I actually thought the shuttle was pretty roomy. I think it seated somewhere around the realm of 15 people total. (Sorry for the lack of pictures of this )

The ride to the airport only took about 20 minutes. Once, we got there, we waited in a pretty long line to get our luggage checked. It took about 10 minutes for us to get up there. I'm not sure how long some of you are used to, but usually we walk right up there with no wait, so this was a bit different. Of course, it was no big deal as we had plenty of time before our 6:05 flight.

After the baggage check, we made our way over to security, and that went smoothly. Not a long wait for that at all. To my memory, we've never really waited too long to go through security during previous trips.

By about 5:00, we were on our way to our gate! But... we had to make a little pit stop. We just couldn't turn down Cinnabon, as we don't really have one in our area! (Again sorry for the lack of pictures. I wish I had taken some, as this was DELICIOUS.)

DM and I split a roll, while DB11 bought his own mini rolls.

Luckily, the Cinnabon store was right near our gate, so this didn't really slow us down.
DB11, DM and I snacked on our cinnamon rolls, and we waited pretty patiently for about 45 minutes to board our flight. We were already pretty used to waiting by this point

Did I previously mention at all that we flew Southwest? Well, if I did or didn't at least you know now

So blah blah blah we boarded the plane ('A' boarding passes! You can't go wrong!) and our plane took off on time and whatever BUT WE WERE GOING TO DISNEY! AND WE WERE ON OUR WAY TO ORLANDO!

DB6, DM and I sat together, and DB11 and DD sat in front of us.

The flight went perfectly fine. And according to the flight attendant, we landed earlier than anticipated, at around 8:13 am. When we got off of the plane, we wasted no time in getting over to the Magical Express. (No browsing throught the Orlando airport this time!) The last two trips that I've been to Disney, DM got a little mixed up on the location of the Magical Express. We ended up walking around a LOT more than we needed to

This time, we found it with no problem.

This is when I start getting really excited personally

We were on our bus by 8:30 am, with only one other family on board!

And sooo... we were off to Disney!!

|Table of Contents|​

<-- |Previous: Introduction|​

|Next: Day 1 (8/22) PART 2- We're not going to Magic Kingdom today!?| -->​

 

[Reberella]

I'm following along! Sounds like fun, I've always wanted to stay at POR! AHHHHHH! Disney Day! I love the Magical express, haha, it's so exciting!

 

[Disney~Cutie]

I'm following along! Sounds like fun, I've always wanted to stay at POR! AHHHHHH! Disney Day! I love the Magical express, haha, it's so exciting!

Thanks for coming aboard! We love POR so much. It's a beautiful resort.

 

[Disney~Cutie]

The best part about riding the Magical Express for me is when they play that little video at the beginning. I never get sick of watching it. It just makes me so excited to get to the world!!

Right as we got on the bus though, it started to rain. Just a sprinkle, nothing too bad. But who cares about that when you see a road sign pointing you to Disney.

And of course, the Disney welcome sign! As you can see, the rain kind of got in the way of what could have been a really nice picture.

We were at our hotel in no time! We weren’t used to going right to our resort. Usually the bus stops at French Quarter first. And the funny thing was the other family on the Magical Express was getting off at French Quarter, not Riverside. Oh well. Made life easier for us!

We were checked into our room by 9:20 am, and get a load of this! Five days before our trip, DM faxed our room requests, and we got everything that we requested! Our room ended up being in building 16 (Our favorite building!) and we also got a corner room. CHA-CHING!

Oh, and here’s some pictures of the lobby. I LOVE the lobby at POR, but it seemed so much emptier than usual.

If you look in this picture below, there used to be counters along the windows where there would be concierge service. Those being gone probably gave it that more open feeling.

On with the trip! We got our bags together, and we were off! And as you can tell by the title, WE BROKE DISNEY TRADITION! WE DIDN’T GO TO MAGIC KINGDOM THE FIRST DAY! I don’t know about you guys, but for me, it’s just something you HAVE to do. The idea of it made me a little upset, as I love being able to see the castle the first day you arrive, but once I was in the World, I didn’t really care too much to be honest.

We made our way over to the boats to go to Downtown Disney. For those who don’t know, Port Orleans has a boat service that goes to the French Quarter and Downtown Disney. It’s awesome actually, because bussing to Downtown Disney can be a bit… well crappy to be honest. (You’ll see later on in the TR.)

The boat ride was lovely as always. You get such pretty views of the French Quarter and the mansions. I personally have never stayed in the mansions, but they look beautiful from the outside. (Even though I know the room is pretty similar inside.)

After the stop at POFQ, we arrived at Downtown Disney!

I think the boat ride was about 15 to 20 minutes, but either way we got their around 10:30 am.
We promptly made our way right over to Wolfgang Puck Express, one of our favorite counter services, but since the restaurant didn’t serve lunch until 11:00 am, we looked around in Mickey’s Pantry, a store that sells kitchen products. They had such cute mugs and kitchen accessories!

At 11:00 am, we went to Wolfgang Puck Express, which was only a stone’s throw away from Mickey’s Pantry. We loveee WPE because of the large portions. It’s also almost like a sit down meal, because you order your food at the counter and the server brings it to your table. Like I said, one of our favorites. And it didn’t disappoint this time.

I had a roasted vegetable sandwich with sweet potato fries and cheesecake for desert. I thought the sandwich was really good. Right up my alley food wise. I kind of wish that I had gotten a pizza though, because the pizzas are huge and they were very tasty last time I had one. The sweet potato fries weren’t the best though. I’ve had better. And of course, I’m a sucker for cheesecake, so I ate all of mine and half of DB11’s

After eating, we didn’t do much shopping at all. In fact, we had better things to do than shop at DTD our first day. We wanted to go to Typhoon Lagoon! So we took the bus from DTD to Typhoon Lagoon. (No problems this time with the buses, but later on…)

When we got to Typhoon Lagoon, the first thing we did was buy a locker. And boy, were they expensive! It was $8.00 for a small locker. You paid $13.00 and got $5.00 back. We needed a place to put phones, money, cameras, etc. though so buying a locker was necessary. Not too big of a deal.

After we put our things away in the locker and got our swimsuits on in the locker room, we made our way over to the water slides! I mean, why else do you go to Typhoon Lagoon!? (Not many pictures coming up, as my camera isn’t waterproof and I didn’t carry it around with me in the park. Sorry. )

First things first, we wanted to ride Crush n’ Gusher. Of course, DB11 had his own plans. So we let him go off on his own for a bit. He told us he’d be by the wave pool, so we figured we’d go back and get him after riding a few slides.
DM, DD, DB6 and I waited in line to get our tubes for the Crush n’ Gusher, when we discovered that DB6 was too short. It was only by two inches or so! Even the cast member was trying to get him to stand up a bit taller so he’d be allowed on the ride, but it was a no go. DB6 was pretty disappointed, but next time he’ll be able to ride it.

DD and DB6 waited together at the little pool at the end of the Crush n’ Gusher while DM and I rode it. We took the Pineapple route, and we had such a good time! We had to wait about 10 minutes for it, which wasn’t too bad, but it was worth it!

After the ride, DM and I met up with DD and DB6. We figured since it took a pretty short amount of time for DM and me to ride Crush n’ Gusher, we’d go ride something DB6 could do before we round up DB11. So obviously, the family raft ride called Gang Plank Falls sounded most fitting to do.

Big mistake.

Probably one of the worst mistakes we made the whole trip.

We had to wait over an hour for the ride. That is no exaggeration. We thought the line would move quickly, but boy were we wrong! And honestly the ride was not that great. There was nothing too interesting about it, and from my memory, you didn’t get that wet. DB6 had a good time I think, but using almost an hour and a half of our time to ride one slide put kind of a cramp in our day.

After the ride we decided we should probably catch up with DB11. So DD went to go look for him while DM, DB6 and I rode Castaway Creek, the lazy river of Typhoon Lagoon. After about 10 minutes of riding in the lazy river, it started to rain a bit, so we got out to go sit near our clothes that we had put on a chair. The rain let up pretty quickly though. DM had thought that DD would be there with DB11, but that didn’t end up being the case.

DD came back eventually without DB11. We were a bit concerned by now, because we couldn’t find him and DD “had looked through the whole park”. We spent about 40 minutes looking for him, and it turned out that DB11 was right where he said where he’d be: near the wave pool!

We all decided to stick together for the rest of the day, and headed over to the Storm Slides. I sat and waited on a bench at the end, because I was really tired, but everyone else went up and rode the slides two or three times.
After riding the Storm Slides and swimming in the Wave Pool for about half an hour, we headed out of Typhoon Lagoon at 3:30. Usually, we get so much done at Typhoon Lagoon and get a chance to ride a lot of the slides, but this time we didn’t get to do that. We still had a good time though!

|Table of Contents|​

<-- |Previous: Day 1 (8/22) PART 1- Well, kind of day one?|​

|Next: Day 1 (8/22) PART 3- Home sweet home!| -->​

 

[Disney~Cutie]

We made our way over to the bus stop to get to our resort, and the bus was already there! We had DB11 run ahead and get the bus to wait for all of us while we hustled over! I think that ended up happening a couple of times this trip if I remember right

When we got back to the resort, our hotel room was ready! And we were ready to check it out, as we haven’t seen the new refurbished rooms yet!
Like I said earlier, we got building 16 in Alligator Bayou. Our room number was 1608, which was a corner room.

We love this building because it’s pretty close to the lobby, the food court, the pool, etc. and it’s not a preferred room. Anyway, now for pictures of the room!

I thought the room was really cute! I like it much better than before, even though the old rooms were fine.

We had arrived at the room at 4:00, so we took some time to unpack and relax before our dinner reservation. I took a little nap while the rest of the family watched some television. It was nice to finally get a chance to sleep!

We left our room at 5:45 and made our way down to the lobby for a 6:05 reservation at Boatwright’s! Despite this being our third time staying at POR, this was our first time eating at Boatwright’s, and I think we were all pretty excited to eat there.

The atmosphere was so nice, very comfortable and warm feeling. For dinner, I had a blackened fish fillet with pecan pie for desert and I loved both of them.

The food was great and our server, Dawn, was awesome too. She was so fast bringing us our food!

We went right back to our hotel after the meal and got back around 7:20 pm. DM and DB11 wanted to go swimming at the quiet pool, but they weren’t there for very long. We were all in bed and asleep by 9:30, ready to wake up early for Magic Kingdom tomorrow!

|Table of Contents|​

<-- |Previous: Day 1 (8/22) PART 2- We're not going to Magic Kingdom!?|​

|Coming Soon: Day 2 (8/22) PART 1- I'm feeling the magic!| -->​

 

[tink97]

This is a great trip report so far and I can't wait till you write the rest

It's kind of funny because while I was reading your intro I realized we have so much in common We're the same age, our brothers are the same age (11), I'm from New York, my mom has a disboards account too, we flew Southwest, we went in August, stayed in Port Orleans (French Quarter though), we also got free dining and loved it, I agree that you have to go to Magic Kingdom first to see the castle, it was my third trip, and we also tried Boatwrights for the first time and loved it!

Anyway... I hope you finish the trip report cause it was really fun to read. I'm actually going to Disney again in two years for my Sweet 16 trip and I already can't wait!

Tink97

 

[FancyNancy]

I'm really enjoying your trip report so far, especially since I'm staying at POR Sept 2013! I'm usually a value girl simply because I am at the parks all day anyways but next year my DD8 and I are bringing along my mother, brother, and his fiance and since it is her first time at Disney (she's 22 and never been!) we let her choose the resort. I'm waffling between Alligator Bayou and the mansion section though. Not sure which to pick. Anyways looking forward to the rest of your report!