"You Look Like a Beached Jellyfish." An August 2017 TR! Finished 3/22

[DisneyMandC]

Hello everyone!! If you’re joining me from my pre-trip report- WELCOME! Thanks for following along with me on this last minute trip!



And if you’re new here- thanks for joining in! This is my second trip report and I really love writing them! Warning: this post will be text-heavy with no real pictures

Before I kick this off, here's a little bit about me and my Disney family



I have been Disney obsessed for basically my entire life. My first trip was when I was six months old, and my parents took me about every two years when I was little. We took an amazing ten-day trip in 2005 and stayed at the Fort Wilderness Campground. That trip was the first time I really started to understand more about the magic of Disney in terms of customer service and behind the scenes (I took my first Keys to the Kingdom tour on this trip!). Other than a one day Magic Kingdom visit in 2008, I didn’t return to Disney until 2012! My husband (then-boyfriend at the time) took me for a three day, offsite trip. After seeing me obnoxiously excited about Disney World, he started to love it too. So much so that he ended up suggesting Disney for our honeymoon in 2015! We had an incredible eight-day stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which you can read all about here!

While I don’t want to totally rehash my PTR, I’ll give you a brief overview of how this trip was planned. Since April 2015, we haven’t made it back to Orlando at all. We were both itching for a trip, but also wanted to save our money to eventually take our families on a big vacation to the World in a couple years. As this spring turned into summer and we had no plans of taking a vacation on our calendar at all, we really started to get the Disney bug again. As usual, I am constantly playing around with the cost of trips on the Disney website. With the summer room offers, I was finding that you could really get some great trips for a bargain. We still weren’t committed to booking a trip though… right up until I found the PERFECT flights. Southwest sadly discontinued their direct flights to Orlando from our home airport last year. However, it looks like JetBlue has picked up some of those flights in their place! I found that we could take an 8 AM direct flight to MCO on Tuesday, August 1, and return home at 5:30 on Thursday, August 3!

After talking with DH about it, we decided that since we could get down there so quickly and with direct flights, we would go ahead and book a quick little budget-friendly trip. HOORAY!

So, what are the details you ask…

Three Days/Two Nights at a Pop Century Resort Preferred Room
Two Days of Park Tickets for Two Adults (Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom)
Disney Dining Plan for Two Adults
Magical Express To and From MCO

We booked our trip at 7 weeks out from our arrival date, so far beyond the 180 days for ADRs but just shy of the FP+ deadline. That being said, I was extremely happy with the ADRs I was able to get for our stay! I was also able to snag all the fastpasses I wanted. Our plan for the parks was:

Day One
Arrive at 10 AM to MCO, get to Animal Kingdom as soon as possible.
ADR: Yak and Yeti- 6:15
FP+: Expedition Everest- 2:20; Flight of Passage- 3:35; Rivers of Light- 9:15 Show

Day Two
Magic Kingdom Day with EMH until midnight.
ADR: Be Our Guest- 4:05
FP+: Seven Dwarves- 10:05; Space Mountain- 1:45; Buzz Lightyear- 2:55

Day Three
Disney Springs
ADR: Boma- 9:00 a.m.
Fly out at 5:30


So, there's the basic layout! I tried to take a lot of pictures and keep good notes while I was there. This was a short trip for us, but I feel like I have a lot I want to talk about, so hopefully this will still be a decent-sized trip report! Can't wait to fill in all the details for everyone!



Table of Contents
Day One: Arrival Day
Day One: Disney's Magical Express
Day One: Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ
Day One: Kilimanjaro Safari
Day One: Asia​

 

[Lesley Wake]

Wow! 2 days seems crazy! But it's better than 0 days! Following along...

 

[cinderaimee]

Sounds like a great 3 days! Can't wait to hear how it went. I've been toying around with the idea of a 2 or 3 day trip with my sisters but I don't even know how to cram in everything I'd want to show them!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Wow! 2 days seems crazy! But it's better than 0 days! Following along...

Welcome, thanks for joining in! And yes, my ideal trip is a week, but we were on a budget and our real goals for this trip were to see Pandora at Animal Kingdom and Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom. It was also odd for me not to have parkhoppers since we ALWAYS get those. We're planning to do another week long trip in 2019 though! And it looks like you have your first WDW trip next month- how exciting! I hope you'll do a TR!

Sounds like a great 3 days! Can't wait to hear how it went. I've been toying around with the idea of a 2 or 3 day trip with my sisters but I don't even know how to cram in everything I'd want to show them!

Hi there! Thanks for following along! We had such a great time with this short little trip! I was worried we wouldn't get to do everything we wanted or feel really rushed, but we honestly didn't. It was the perfect little getaway!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Arrival Day

::buzz buzz:: It’s 5:15 a.m. and my alarm is going off! IT’S ARRIVAL DAY!!

Funny how I have absolutely no problem waking up early when it’s a Disney day.


#caffeinated

DH and I got up and packed up our last couple of items after getting ready. We managed to fit all of our clothes and toiletries into one carry-on bag since we were taking such a short trip, so we didn’t need to check a bag! I was concerned since I knew there were several souvenirs I was planning to purchase, but we both brought backpacks as our personal items on the plane so we could use those for anything we purchased.

After finishing loading up the car to drive to the airport, we fixed some toast for breakfast and sat down to say goodbye to our sweet little boy, Russell, before we left.



Yes, he is named after the Up! character. We chose Russell instead of Dug even though he's basically Dug brought to life


"Hi there! I have just met you and I love you!"

He seemed a little depressed that we were leaving him, but I gave him a treat and told him that grandma would be over to pick him up later so that he could stay at her house. And I promised to pick him up a new fluffy stuffed animal. We bought him a Pooh Bear tsum tsum on our January 2016 Disneyland trip and he still has it! It looks a little worse for the wear though, so he definitely needs a new one.

After one last pat goodbye, we got in the car at 5:50 and were off to the airport!

After an uneventful trip to the airport, we were inside and through TSA Pre-check in no time. We had plenty of time left at the gate to relax and get ourselves organized for the flight and our day.

Since my birthday fell three days before our trip, DH got me this cute wallet/wristlet for me to carry in Disney! I loved it and it was a great size for carrying what I needed in the park.



I made sure to get my ID and credit cards organized, along with my Disney and Starbucks gift cards to use in the park. After doing that, I started up a new book that I’d brought with me for the plane ride. While it’s not technically new to me, since I read it waaaay back in middle school, I was excited to read it again.



I had seen the recently-released trailer for the new movie and have probably watched it twenty times since it came out. I’m seriously so excited about the casting and that it’s Ava DuVernay. This scene gives me CHILLS:



So anyways, back to the actual trip, we got on the plane in no time and were taking off at 8:00 a.m. with no delays. While the free WiFi on the plane didn’t work, I was very happy with my book and listening to the newest Lorde album.

We came through a fairly heavy cloud bank on our descent into MCO, but the turbulence wasn’t too bad. I managed to snap this picture coming in.



We landed at 9:30 a.m., a little ahead of schedule. Since we were in row three of the plane, we were one of the first people off the plane and were headed straight to Magical Express! First though, it was time for the mini-monorail ride.




I don’t particularly understand why this airport was built with this feature, but whatever.

Up next: Disney’s Magical Express and Arriving at Pop Century!

P.S. Before I go... @Newsies this is where I thought I saw you! This girl was walking in front of me off the plane had this backpack on!

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[Newsies]

Following, following, FOLLOWING!!!

You have the cutest dog ever and I'm so jealous that he doesn't destroy stuffed animals. Our Roxie destroys her stuffies like it's nobody's business.

Sounds like your flight was lovely!

Omg, #BACKPACKTWINS. Thanks for thinking of me!

So excited to read about Pop-C!!!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Following, following, FOLLOWING!!!

You have the cutest dog ever and I'm so jealous that he doesn't destroy stuffed animals. Our Roxie destroys her stuffies like it's nobody's business.

Sounds like your flight was lovely!

Omg, #BACKPACKTWINS. Thanks for thinking of me!

So excited to read about Pop-C!!!

Yaaaay, thank you!! And yes, he really is the cutest dog ever! He'll destroy the occasional stuffed animal, but he loves that Pooh Bear for some reason! Pop Century was fantastic and I'm really excited to share my thoughts on it!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Disney's Magical Express and Arriving at the World!

After completing our mini-monorail journey, we headed straight for Disney’s Magical Express. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.



Ok but actually we stopped for a restroom break and to grab a bag of chips to share since that morning’s peanut butter toast had long worn off. While I paid for the chips, DH fished our magic bands out of his backpack so we would have them ready when we got to DME.



I was pretty excited about the purple magic bands, which they did not have available on our last trip. I feel like this was a good addition on Disney’s part as I feel like I saw A LOT of people wearing purple magic bands.

While I’m on the subject of magic bands, can I just saw how much I LOVE these things? I’m not a creative or technological person, but I just find it incredible that Disney put these together and everything they can do. When I posted the picture of our magic bands on facebook, someone asked me what they did. My response was “literally everything.” It just amazes me how much Disney is able to put on this tiny little band- DME, hotel, tickets, fastpasses, credit card, meals. It’s just amazing. The only thing it’s missing, in my opinion, is the ability to scan it and have items you purchase in the parks sent to your hotel room. It seems so archaic to me that you still have to fill out the forms for it, so I wish Disney would come up with the mechanism to make that work! It would seem like they could make it so that you can scan your band and the computer would print a tracking label to attach to your purchase to send it back to your room. Maybe next time we visit they’ll have it done.

But I digress…

After getting our chips, we booked it down the two levels to DME. There were maybe one or two families at each station when we arrived, which took no time to move through. We were quickly directed to our lane and as I looked down it I realized our bus was already here waiting! I was in such a hurry to get out there and get on it that I didn’t take any pictures though! Oops I promise I did better on pictures (for the most part) for the remainder of this trip.

When we got outside the bus, our driver said we could just hold on to our duffel bag on the bus instead of putting it in with the other luggage if we wanted to, which was fine with us as it wasn’t that big. We got on the bus at exactly 10:00 a.m. and took two seats a couple rows from the front. The bus wasn’t that full, so we knew we’d have a little bit to wait before leaving.

While we were waiting, I decided to start organizing some things for the trip, including my list of souvenirs we planned to buy. I was trying to keep it budget friendly, so my list wasn’t huge. That being said, there were a few things I wanted to buy…



1. A 2017 Christmas ornament. We always buy a Christmas ornament for the years we travel to Disney, so this was a must.

2. A Pop Century pin. DH and I LOVE collecting pins! I promised myself I wouldn’t go crazy this trip though, as those pins can add up fast! I did want a Pop Century pin to commemorate us staying there though.

3. An Animal Kingdom Starbucks You Are Here mug. DH travels a lot for work and collects the Starbucks You Are Here mugs wherever he goes! We probably have 25 on top of our dish cabinet in our house. When we visited in 2015 for our honeymoon, we got all of the mugs except for Animal Kingdom, as that Starbucks wasn’t open yet. So this one would complete his collection!

4. An Enchanted Rose cup. As much as I wanted one of these for myself, I actually planned to buy this for my 14 year old niece. She is starting high school in a few weeks and finished up her last quarter of 8th grade with straight As! We saw Beauty and the Beast together when it came out in March, so I knew she would love this cup.

5. A stuffed animal for Russell! Since Russell had taken such good care of his last stuffed animal, I wanted to get him another one. And honestly, he’s just as bad as a little kid when we got home sniffing through our bags trying to find his present.


*Not his Pooh Bear, but you get the picture

We also had a couple requests from friends and family for souvenirs, which were happy to pick up, but I obviously don’t count as part of OUR souvenirs. But, in case you were wondering, we planned to purchase a couple pins for my brother-in-law, who just came to Disney in June, and a couple of autograph books for my coworker who is planning on surprising her kids with a Disney vacation at Christmas.

As I was finishing my souvenir list, a very magical e-mail came through… OUR ROOM WAS READY!



I really wasn’t sure if our room would be ready this early, considering it’s peak season and all. I told DH and we quickly started looking up Pop Century maps to see if we got the location we wanted.



And we did! My main goal for this trip was to be really close to the buses so we wouldn’t be walking the length of the hotel grounds trying to catch a bus. So far our first stay at a value resort was looking up!

At 10:20, our bus driver boarded the bus and let us know it was time to leave! There were a good number of people on the bus, but it wasn’t totally full. He told us we would be stopping first at Caribbean Beach, then Pop Century, then Art of Animation. Our bus was predominantly Pop Century guests- I think we might have only let off two families at Caribbean Beach, and it didn’t seem like many people on the bus were heading to AoA.

We didn’t hit any traffic on our way and were passing under this beautiful arch in no time. Our bus driver did a cute little countdown to us passing under it and “coming home,” which I didn’t remember our previous driver doing and thought was nice!



I wasn’t able to get any good pictures of Caribbean Beach when we stopped to drop people off. I was amazed at the amount of construction though. My brother-in-law stayed there on his visit and said they began tearing down one of the buildings during his stay and that it was gone in no time. It definitely seemed like there was a lot happening there.

Finally, just before 11:00 a.m….

WE ARRIVED!



Up next, finding our room and heading to Animal Kingdom!
​

 

[Eureka]

We loved Pop Century. (We've only stayed there and All Star Movies, to be honest.) We were in the 60s section.

 

[DisneyMandC]

We loved Pop Century. (We've only stayed there and All Star Movies, to be honest.) We were in the 60s section.

We really enjoyed it too! We're seriously considering it for a larger family vacation in 2019.

 

[dnllmz]

Following along! We stayed at Pop last December and thought it was great. This was before room refurbs.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Following along! We stayed at Pop last December and thought it was great. This was before room refurbs.

No refurbed room for us this trip since I specifically requested 70s, but I they do look really nice from what I've seen in pictures! Since it sounds like the rooms have two queens/one queen and a double, we're seriously thinking about staying there with family and getting two rooms for everyone on a future vacation!

 

[TNGirlwCamera]

I made sure to get my ID and credit cards organized, along with my Disney and Starbucks gift cards to use in the park. After doing that, I started up a new book that I’d brought with me for the plane ride. While it’s not technically new to me, since I read it waaaay back in middle school, I was excited to read it again.

View attachment 259691

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I just reread this too! I loved this book when I was in 5th Grade. I wanted to read it again before the movie comes out.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I just reread this too! I loved this book when I was in 5th Grade. I wanted to read it again before the movie comes out.

Yes! I'm reading A Wind in the Door now too! I'm really, really excited for the movie, it looks like it's going to be phenomenal!

 

[TNGirlwCamera]

Yes! I'm reading A Wind in the Door now too! I'm really, really excited for the movie, it looks like it's going to be phenomenal!

Does the movie cover the whole series or just the first book?

 

[DisneyMandC]

Does the movie cover the whole series or just the first book?

I believe just the first book. I didn't even realize there are four books total! I'm reading a lot of series this year, so I'm going to try to read them all!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

oooohhhh, I just had to join in the fun! So far so good and Russell is just a big love bug, isn't he? Can't wait to read more!!

 

[DisneyMandC]

oooohhhh, I just had to join in the fun! So far so good and Russell is just a big love bug, isn't he? Can't wait to read more!!

Thanks for following along! And yes, he is a very funny and personable dog!

 

[tinkerbell1991]

Following along

 

[DisneyMandC]

Following along

Welcome!! Thanks for dropping in