Trip Report What time is it? MICKEY TIME. August 2014

Is it entirely possible to have two extremely amazing Disney trips in a row? One would think the first trip’s fun and happiness could not be duplicated again…


Unfortunately, I am home. Real home. Not my Disney World bubble. Getting over this harsh reality is like a kick straight to the stomach, after eating a really gigantic meal. What is this life I live? Why am I not waking up on property? Oh the harsh truths we must face when exiting that bubble! Writing a trip report will help cure my Disney depression, it’s a statement I keep uttering to myself while I slowly grip the fact that my trip is OVER. WHAT?! Months of planning and excitement and poof! DONE. GONE. Is it time to go back yet? PLEASE?! Peeling the magicband off my wrist was painful.. PAINFUL I TELL YOU!!



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My name’s Nicole and I am a Disney freak. (I’m the girl on the left.) If there ever is a rehab program for people who are overly obsessed with Disney, you can bet some of my friends, my boyfriend, and my family would check me right in. I love the little mermaid, and change my favorite park depending on the day. I don’t know what my favorite ride is, some days it’s Soarin’, some days it’s Splash, sometimes it’s even Tower of Terror. Whatever is the last ride I’ve been on, that’s the one I will probably tell you. Ugh, I’m indecisive!


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For those who didn’t follow along on my pre-trip report, here’s a quick recap. I flew to Disney World August 17th, and stayed at the Wilderness Lodge until August 21st. The lovely people of WDWmagic convinced us to upgrade from Art of Animation since we had a pin code. From there it was off to Port Canaveral, for my first ever Disney cruise, let alone cruise. Had three nights on the Disney Dream, and then back to Orlando for a day at Downtown Disney. I came home late August 24th, which gave me 8 full days immersed in Disney. This trip was the second trip with my best friend; we went last July for 10 days and had a wonderful, unforgettable time. We knew Disney missed us. :)



Originally, we were supposed to go in June and stay at Art of Animation, then go on the Dream, but due to massive amounts of snowstorms in lovely New Jersey this past winter, we had to postpone to August. Now everyone was warning me about the heat, and let me just tell you all, YOU WERE RIGHT. It may have been the hottest, sweatiest (sorry!) trip of my life, but it was one that I will never forget.


Shall I begin?


It all started not too long ago, at the wee hours in the morning.


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I slept at my friend’s house so her parents could take us to the airport for our flight at 5:59 in the morning. We would be in Disney at 8:30 A.M. Who needs sleep?


Made it though security fairly quickly, and decided it was perfectly acceptable to eat our first meal of the day at 4:30 A.M.


First food picture of the trip! LOL.. and it’s in bags.. Big fail, Nicole.


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Probably not a good idea to drink iced coffee when you are aiming to sleep on the flight down, but with all that excitement I guess it didn’t matter! Do you guys remember the commercial with the little boy who says, “I’m too excited to sleep!” Yep, that’s me in a nutshell on Disney eve.


We took so long eating, we didn’t realize our plane had already boarded and as we were walking to the gate, we heard them announce the final boarding call. We booked it! Could you imagine if we missed our flight? Oh the horror! I don’t know why we didn’t realize that you’d need to be on the plane prior to 5:59 in order for it to take off. Hey, it was early. I’m using that excuse :)


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We made it on and were off! My friend slept for maybe 20 minutes, I didn’t sleep at all. Too much excitement! We read and chatted about what was yet to come.


We landed early (YESS!!!), and navigated our way like champs to the B side of the airport. Last year we got lost…this year we were pros. Haha.


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We scanned our matching pink magic bands at the magical express counter, saw that first mickey head light up green, and we’re off! It was time for our first Disney ride of the trip…a bus ride!


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Wilderness Lodge, get ready for us!!
 

prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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And we’re off! We watched the Disney characters checking into their resorts on the magical express bus ride video, and it amped up our excitement even more. We were staying at a DELUXE resort. For two girls in their twenties, this seemed like insanity to us. We could not believe where we were headed. I kept pinching myself just trying to take it all in. It seems like one second you’re on the bus going to your resort, and then you blink and you’re home. I wanted to make sure I took a deep breath and just let it sink in that I was in Disney World. I didn’t want to rush anything, I wanted to let that magic soak through my bones.


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You can never have enough pictures of the sign! I swear I get goosebumps every time I drive under it. My body knows deep down!


Our first stop was the Grand Floridian. What a gorgeous resort, I will stay here someday, mark my word!


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Next up was Wilderness Lodge! I made my friend take an excited bus picture of me because I remembered this same post from last year. I was in the same seat so I had to!


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The resort was breathtakingly beautiful from the moment we pulled up. I felt like I had been transported to the Northwest. I kept waiting to see falling snow, or a ski lift, or a mountain. It was honestly so overwhelming! The resort looks like it’s been picked up from another section of the country and plopped down in Florida. Everything screamed of the great outdoors, the wild wilderness. The only way I could keep my head around the fact that I was in Disney and not at a national park, was the heat! The heat gave the resort away :)


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Themed carpets… ahh the details!


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Our necks were craned looking above, and all around… there was so much to take in! I absolutely loved the lights; they looked as though they were real teepees! I couldn’t get over how big it was, and how everything was truly detailed. There were totem poles, a fireplace, themed couch cushions and pillows, Native American headdresses in cases, it was just gorgeous. I can’t even explain it to justify the mental images I have in my mind. The pictures don’t do it justice.


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We couldn’t stop snapping pictures, we had completely forgotten to check in, and soon a cast member came over to us to assist us. We had done online check in as soon as we could, so we were excited to see what kind of room we would be given. Would our room be ready? It was only a little after 9!
 

prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The cast member chatted with us a bit, gave us our welcome packet, and apologized that our room was not ready yet. :( She informed us that the resort was at capacity, which made things tricky at least until 11 AM checkout. She said Disney can usually have the room ready when guests arrive if they know their flight information previously, but some times during the year are tougher than others. She apologized profusely, and we assured her that it really was no big deal, we were going to spend all day in the parks anyway… we did not mind! She told us they would text us when the room was ready, but we knew we wouldn’t see it until bedtime. Disney Hollywood Studios was calling our names!


We took in the lobby some more… who could ever get enough of this place!?


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And then we found the resort restroom. Haha… we needed someplace to change! Jersey’s weather has been kind of chilly lately, so we needed to strip off our clothes and freshen up for the Frozen Summer Fun event!


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We donned our Anna and Elsa ears, and were off to find the bus! Took a quick detour and took pictures with this amazing totem pole, can I have this for my front yard please?


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Also, caught a glimpse of our future on the way out the door. Oh Disney cruise ship! Sorry for the picture quality, we were rushing to the bus! Anna and Elsa were waiting!
 

prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The bus arrived in no time, and we were finally off to Hollywood Studios. I still type MGM and then backspace it, don’t know if it will ever sink in. :)


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We walked in just in time to catch the end of Anna and Elsa’s Royal Welcome and watched as they made their way down to the stage. People were everywhere, singing along, waving Olaf’s in the air, swaying to the frozen songs. It was a great park entrance, I must say.


We looked up, and it was snowing! It may have been 95 degrees out with 500 million percent humidity, but Elsa made it snow! Oh Disney, how I love thee!!


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Frozen EVERYWHERE!!


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We posed with our Olaf’s and watched Anna and Elsa welcome us to the world. We had on our ears to match them; we were ready for this frozen summer event! We were excited for our next eleven hours at Hollywood Studios. Who needs rest in the world?! You can sleep when you’re home!!!


:)
 

Longers

Well-Known Member
Yay and oh no. Yay as the trip report has started I can't wait for the rest. (I joined the forum last year just to comment on your last TR, you may remember?) and no as I am sad you are home, and don't we all know how painful that feels. Those Disney blues stay with me most of the year!
Loving the report so far, you have the passion I have for Disney but you express it so well. I phoned Disney yesterday and had a tear when I put the phone down and then just danced around the room in sheer happiness, if I could live in Cinderellas castle in Magic Kingdom I would be a very happy lady!
Looking forward to following along
 

CAPTAIN HOOK

Well-Known Member
[QUOTE="prfctlyximprct, post: 6296916, member: 84657"/QUOTE]Our first stop was the Grand Floridian. What a gorgeous resort, I will stay here someday, mark my word![/QUOTE]
Great report.

You MUST stay at GF - we were there over New Year 2009 and had a great time
 

prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The first real ride of the trip was none other than the Tower of Terror! Who doesn’t love a nice stomach shaking to start your trip? The wait said twenty minutes but we were on it in about 10. Score!!


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We had an awesome time checking in to the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Can’t beat that adrenaline rush! Also, when they played the movie we were giggling like little girls and I guess the CM noticed. After it goes pitch black and then they turn the light back on, he was standing literally directly in front of us. No personal space, NONE. Hello, CM! He freaked us out so much! I love how the CMs can really make your experience a million times better.


After bringing our stomachs up to our heads in all those drops, we decided it was time for a snack. And not just any old snack, but a turkey leg!


I swore they sold these right by the tower, but turns out that place was closed and we were told to go to Min and Bill’s dockside diner over by Gertie the dinosaur. We trekked that way and got our Thanksgiving on!


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We killed that thing! I felt like a caveman, er.. woman! It was the messiest stickiest hunk of goodness to enter my mouth! A frozen lemonade washed it all down. Ah… my mouth is watering right now.


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We had a fast pass at Toy Story Midway Mania at 1:30 so we headed over to that section of the park. We ended up getting sidetracked and heading into Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post. Woohoooooo, family!!


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Oh hello!


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An Olaf hat! HOW COOL?!


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prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
And now, double time!


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I found my stuffed animal for this trip, who could resist this cuddly little snowman who wants warm hugs? Oh, Olaf. Please disregard the sweaty girl hugging the cute little snowman,


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I couldn’t resist a cake pop, it was so cold in the store that I wanted to linger! Sorry Olaf, you’re so cute I just had to eat you up!


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It was then time for a duel!


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Yours truly won of course, but that’s only because my arm goes rapid fire! I have terrible accuracy, but if you shoot as fast as you can, I promise you will do OK… at least that is my strategy!


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Passed my favorite princess’s show, unfortunately I didn’t get to see it this go around! Ariel, I still love you. Elsa ain’t got nothing on us.


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After thoroughly using every arm muscle, we decided it sounded like a good time to go become animators. That makes total sense, right? We headed over to the Animation Academy, we enjoyed this so much last trip we had to go put our skills to use again. Hey Disney, ya hiring??


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Art is NOT our forte, if you cannot tell. :)
 
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prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
All that drawing really works up a girl’s appetite. We decided to try the ABC commissary. We really wanted to do different places from last visit, and I think we did a pretty good job of that.

Burgers, fries, Olaf cupcake and strawberry parfait!
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And yet again, I eat Olaf’s face.


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It is really sick how much food I consume this trip. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Haha!


We now had our fuel, so we went off to get a ticket for the Frozen Sing-a-long. They were giving out tickets for the shows due to the limited amount of seats. I guess this is realllllllllly popular, what frozen thing isn’t? We wanted to check it out so we needed to be sure we could!


Took some more photos on the way!


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We got tickets for a show that was starting soon, so we just hung around and waited. Disney has put a lot of umbrellas up in the queues to block all the direct sun! Thank goodness… it was sooooo hot! We couldn’t wait for Elsa to make it snow in Arendelle. Our Olaf fans came in very handy.


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The Arendelle historians were very funny. I must admit, it was corny funny, but it was a cute show overall. The whole audience was singing!


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I just loved the fact that a whole group of people varying in ages were coming together to belt frozen songs at the top of their lungs. I swear, Disney brings out the best in all of us!

We all shared a common love, and let me tell you, our rendition of “Let it Go” was pretty amazing. If I must, brag!


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The day was already incredible; we couldn’t believe it was only halfway over!
 

skyphotographer

Well-Known Member
I've always enjoyed your trip reports, I think I've seen all of them. IMO, they are the best of the best! I'm going this weekend, to Epcot Saturday night, DHS Sunday morning and MK Sunday night. I just got a new camera, so I'll be taking lots of pictures. Maybe I'll do my first trip report, we shall see!
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
I find it interesting that your Olaf-on-a-stick has an umbrella ~ the ones we got in July were sans umbrella.

BUT...we are going back in a couple weeks, so maybe we can get our umbrellas on :)
 

CtDisneyGuy33

Well-Known Member
I'm loving the food report just as much as the rides. But, no way I inhale that Turkey leg like you guys did..holy cow. I'd go Pork Shank at Gastons, but no Turkey legs..

Ive never done Wilderness Lodge either, great pics!
 

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