Trip Report 4 Days is NOT Enough! COMPLETED

Hello Humans!

Welcome to my very first trip report! I got back from the World 10 days ago and I know if I don't start this report, I never will. So let's get started!

Who: Me and my Mama!


What: My first Disney trip as a travel agent, I sold my first trip to myself!

When: May 11-15

Why: I wanted to sell myself my first Disney trip and my husband wasn't quite ready to go back, so I texted my mom and said "Hey, want to go to Disney?? Just the two of us?!" And here we are.
I was really excited for this trip because my mom used to take us when we were little and then she would tag along with my sister, her husband and their 2 kids. She would always end up watching the kids or running around the park trying to keep up (my sister and brother in law are ALWAYS running late in Disney, makes me crazy ;)). So I decided I really wanted to spend some quality time with her And keep it somewhat more relaxed so she could go on everything She wants.



Day 1, May 11: Departure Day

So for some reason I decided it would be a good idea to straighten my hair before leaving for the airport... only giving myself an hour for that and finishing up my packing... needless to say it was a stressful morning lol. My husband came home to pick me up (he starts work super early) at 6am and we didn't get out of the house until 615. A somewhat stressful drive to the Nashville airport in traffic later and finally made it. Checked my bags and got through security in about 20 minutes. By the time I got to my gate I had about 15 minutes to spare (phew! I Hate being late... especially when flying!). So I grabbed a bottle of water and ate my nutritional breakfast.


I wrote some notes for this report and then took a selfie... I always feel weird taking selfies when I'm by myself... sorry it's a weird one lol. And as you can see, I didn't finish my hair.



Shortly after this is was time to board. I LOVE Southwest and every time I fly any other airline I end up regretting it. I was A30 something, so I walk onto the plane and right in the front row is an empty seat! Score!

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The woman sitting by the window and I were completely wasting the abundance of leg room, but it was nice to sit up front and I was one of the first people off :D. As you can see, I could barely reach the wall :hilarious:



I quick nap later and we were landing in Orlando!!!



Made it to the Fonorail! I LOVE these tiles :inlove:




Had to stop and take a picture of this handsome guy



Then is was over to DME to meet up with my mama! She flew out of Atlantic City and got to Orlando about an hour before me, but she didn't mind waiting. :)

The line to scan our bands to get on the bus was LONG, but then we got in a very short line to.... the Contemporary!!!!! :jawdrop::cool::D This was the first time either of us had stayed at a deluxe and we've been going to Disney for years. Needless to say we were EXCITED!

We were on the bus by 11:45 and were pulling out at 12 on the dot, so not too bad! I really don't like the new video :( it's just not as fun/welcoming as the old one was.

All I can say about the ride is, HOLY CONSTRUCTION! :jawdrop::eek: There was construction Everywhere! We didn't even get to go under the welcome sign... we had to go around it:rolleyes: because of construction.

While going Around the welcome sign, I got an email from Disney that our room wasn't ready yet. (I don't know why they were texting me, my cell is on my account). We figured this might happen, but I was hoping to go to the room to reorganize myself.

We were the second of two stops, just stopping at Wilderness Lodge before heading to...



After grabbing our carry-ons we headed to the front desk first to double check if our room was ready... it wasn't :(. But I was starving so figured we might as well get some lunch and see if our room was ready after that. So we headed over to Contempo Cafe for our first meal of the trip! Now I didn't get the dining plan for this trip. We both aren't very big eaters so I figured we'd mostly eat ice cream and snacks (I ended up being right :cool:). So we decided on 2 kids burgers with fruit.



So good! The perfect amount of food, plus grapes and apples. This may be the only healthy thing I eat all trip ;)
We enjoyed our meals with this view




After our meal, we checked again at the front desk... room still isn't ready :cautious:. It's about 2pm at this point, so I knew it wouldn't be guaranteed but it was still kind of annoying. I had my purse and a backpack filled with a bunch of stuff I didn't want to bring around the parks with me. So I put most of everything in my purse into my backpack and left our stuff with valet. BTW it was HOT today, definitely the hottest of the trip, and now I had to carry around my purse :rolleyes:. First world problems.

After this we headed to our first park... we walked to.. can you guess?! I'll post more soon!
 

DonnaOnTheRocks

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 1 continued...

Now to wrap up day 1. We walked back down the path to the Contemporary (so Convenient!). I got our "room is ready" email (still don't know why they weren't texting, but oh well.) so we first stopped at valet to pick up our carry-ons. Now I knew we had a Garden Wing room and I knew the building was behind the main one. I am fully aware that I paid for the cheapest room possible at the Contemporary. I figured a deluxe is a deluxe and it would be great either way.



So we were in room 6329, as you can see in the photo, that's in the South Garden Wing and our room was all the way to the left. The nice man at the front desk directed us to follow the path outside and take the elevator in the first building...(the bent building in the photo). So we get out on the 3rd floor and walk... and walk... and walk some more. Now, I'd been up since 5 this morning, my mom got up around 4 and we'd been in the park since we got there. We were TIRED and it literally took about 10 minutes to find our room from the elevator at the front building to our room. Also, we did NOT see another elevator in any other area of this building. (Of course we found one in the middle building when we were leaving on our last day). But there was not an elevator in our building at all. So we ended up walking up and down the stairs the rest of the trip (it sucked but it was much faster than navigating inside).

I didn't take photos when we finally found our room, I was way too exhausted and cranky. But here are a few from our last day, sorry about the mess :):






The rooms were really nice, and much larger than the Pop ones I was used to, but I was just so bummed about the walk that it kind of put a damper on things. This was our view.




I think my favorite thing about staying here was the Keurig and making my own coffee in the morning. Plus it was super quiet out there any I got some great photos.




I hate whining about Disney, and after the initial shock of no elevator we got over it and everything was fine. So we finally got to kick our shoes off and called down to the front desk to get our Garden Grocer delivery. Once we got that, we cracked open our bottles of wine and relaxed :p.

Next up, Day 2! Sorry stupid work is getting in the way of my TR writing :cautious::rolleyes:
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
You accomplished so much on your first day! Jealous that you got to see the very last showing of Wishes. I am super sad it is no longer there. I hope I like Happily Ever After. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
 

DonnaOnTheRocks

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

DonnaOnTheRocks

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2- Friday May 12

So I stopped taking detailed notes after the first day... lol. So we woke up Friday morning a little later than planned, probably around 830 :jawdrop:. By the time we were dressed and ready to go, we had missed our first fastpass at.... EPCOT. My Favorite park and one of my favorite rides, Spaceship Earth. Sadly I did not get back to it this trip :cry::cry::cry: the line was ridiculous every time we were near it.

We got there in time for my 2nd fp of the day.. SOARIN! I was SO excited to finally see the new version :D. I really liked the old one, but I was really excited to see what they did with it. After about a 15 minute wait, I found my seat between two couples. During our flight both of the girls on either side of me would accidentally grab my hand :hilarious::hilarious::hilarious: I thought it was funny because they didn't reach for their guys hand lol. Anyway, I LOVED the new Soarin!!!! I had a smile on my face the whole time! I don't want to give any spoilers to those who haven't been yet, but it was excellent. My only complaint was some of the transitions were a little rough. And I think my favorite new smell was over the Taj Mahal... I don't even know what the smell was but it was awesome :D.

My mom passed on this one, so I went outside and found her hanging out with thee guys.



We had a little time before our next fp so we headed to Figment! I Love Figment, but I vaguely remember the older version of this and remember liking it a lot more. It's still a fun ride and it had a short wait.



:cry::cry::cry:

After Figment, we still had some time to kill so mom had her first Mickey bar of the trip! And I ate my pop tarts since I didn't have breakfast yet.



Next it was on to our next fp, that surprisingly we actually needed.. Nemo. Yes, the line was about 30 minutes for this :jawdrop::jawdrop::jawdrop: that's how crowded the park was this day. I tried taking (no flash) photos, but of course they were blurry.

After Nemo we decided to head towards my favorite area and Favorite thing in all of Disney. On the way we stopped here to get this weird photo, I don't know what this pose is :bored::joyfull:





I LOVED all the flowers :inlove::inlove::inlove: and I really liked these trees/bushes for some reason.



It was a Beautiful day in Epcot!




Side note- I became Very good at walking and taking photos at the same time LOL. I don't like to just stop in the middle of a walkway (unlike Many other people) so I took most of my pictures on the go :hilarious::D

Then we made it here. I LOVE World Showcase, I could spend everyday there just walking around and staring at this view.





We stopped to get these PP photos



I have no memory of this photographer, so she must have been fine. After this we continued on our way through World Showcase, taking some photos along the way (while walking of course ;))





Then we finally made it to our destination... one of my "must-dos" every trip... continued to the next post :)
 

DonnaOnTheRocks

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We made it with 10 minutes to spare, so I got the coveted middle seat on the floor. Where were we?



:D:inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

I LOVE Voices of Liberty!!!!! Here is the video :inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lJ0_Td_owKQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


After this awesomeness, it was time to get to another first that I had on my list for this trip. We walked back over to the International Gateway. Soon we were approaching this...



This is where my husband and I got engaged on our last trip :D:D:D:inlove::inlove::inlove: I had to get a few photos since this was my first time back :)



We actually used this as our engagement photo.


We got engaged in that left corner, when the sun was setting. It was absolutely gorgeous and perfect. We were married less than a year later :inlove:



Anyway, on to the real reason for our trek on the Boardwalk...

Ample Hills! I've been wanting to get here ever since it opened and since my mom loves ice cream too, I had to make it a priority to get here.



It was so cute in there! I just wish they had indoor seating since it was HOT out.



This was mom's "small" vanilla cone


And I wanted to try 2 kinds, I got PB Wins the Cup and The Ooey Gooey Butter Cake.


I'm a fan of all things peanut butter, so I definitely liked that one the most. But OMG So GOOD! :hungry::hungry::hungry: We sat outside under an umbrella-ed table but it was still way too hot to be outside. I got a few non-walking photos of the area. I WILL stay here some day!



After we finished our treats we wanted some AC, plus we needed to find the bus stop to get to our next destination. So we headed into the Boardwalk lobby.
Love this chandelier!



I spy Lucy :)


Finally we made our way back out to the bus stop, heading to Animal Kingdom!

Side note: There were A LOT of school groups there this weekend. There was a big cheerleading group- who didn't bother us other than the fact that they were walking around the parks half naked (literally) and there were other school groups who made themselves more apparent on this bus ride.
I also thought it was weird that it was day 2.5 and it was the first time we'd stepped foot on a Disney bus.

After a very loud bus ride, thanks to 25 teenagers and 1 chaperone, we made it!





I had made another FP while we ate our ice cream on the boardwalk. We still had some time to kill, so we headed to one of my favorite spots in AK... The Dawa Bar ;). I can get Golden Monkey at home, so I went for the Safari Amber :inlove::hungry: and my mom went with the Very strong Sangria.



Next up, our FP for... the Safari! Expect many photos :);)
 
Last edited:

DonnaOnTheRocks

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, Continued

After finishing our drinks, it was time for our Safari ride! Our guide was very good and told a lot of facts that I'd never heard before, she knew her stuff :). Here come the obligatory Safari photos :D






If you noticed the shirt I was wearing this day, I LOVE elephants :inlove::inlove::inlove: Here are a bunch of elephant photos :D





Last few, promise :)



No Lions were out today :(. Will continue in the next post.
 

DonnaOnTheRocks

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, continued...

After our Safari ride, we had about an hour to kill before dinner. It was still Really hot out so we decided to head over to It's Tough to Be a Bug. It's not my favorite show, but it's air conditioned and we get to sit for a little while lol. On our way there, we ran into this guy



And of course, being that close to the Tree of Life, I had to take some up-close photos,





After our rest with the bugs, we started back towards Africa for dinner at Tusker House! I booked this as soon as they released dining packages for Rivers of Light! I'd been to Tusker House before and remember the food being decent and since it was a buffet, my mom wouldn't have too hard of a time finding something to eat.

Also, for booking the package we received this:


A ROL popcorn bucket!! It lit up too, so cool :cool:. I later found out that this costs about $20 and only $1.50 for refills, score!

We were seated a few minutes after we checked in and go a seat in the (loud) main room. Our server was super nice (I don't remember his name) but I think he had too many tables because it would take a full 10 minutes to get anything from him. Also, I noticed that the servers all had to go on the other side of the buffet to get drinks, so that definitely add more time.

So this buffet was completely wasted on me and my mom :hilarious:. I had one plate of a little of everything, including those mini corn dog things from the kids buffet :hungry::hungry::hungry: (sorry no picture). Then I was pretty full so my second plate was dessert.



That brownie in the middle was a Turtle Brownie with nuts and caramel... SO GOOD, I ate 2 even though my stomach was about to burst:D:hungry: I would go back to Tusker House just for those!

While we ate, some friends came around




My mom still has a flip phone, and she was taking pictures with my iPhone...



Then the nice people at the next table over offered to take a photo of us with the main man himself!



Many of the characters came around a 2nd time while we waited for my coffee and mom's tea. I was waiting to eat dessert until the coffee came, which was at least 15-20 minutes :rolleyes:.





I will finish up day 2 either tonight or tomorrow. Happy Memorial Day weekend! :)
 

DonnaOnTheRocks

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Loving your report so far. I have a Mother(my mom)/daughter(me)/daughter(DD) trip booked for my DD19's Spring Break next March and I can't wait!
I feel like the scent in the Taj Mahal scene is Jasmine because of Aladdin, but I could be wrong!
That sounds like an Amazing trip! And you may be right about the jasmine, I just remember being upset when a new smell came in and that one was gone lol!
 

DonnaOnTheRocks

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, Finishing up!

After our nice meal at Tusker House, it was about 8pm. Since we did the ROL dining package, we received 2 tickets to that viewing area and we were told by nice CM's to go over by Nemo for our viewing area. Once over there we handed in our tickets and found seats. On first glance, it didn't seem like it was the best viewing spot. I left my stuff with Mom and took our pretty ROL popcorn bucket to the nearest kiosk (in the Dino area) and filled up our popcorn and got a bottle of water for $4! :D:cool:

After returning, Mom and I hung out on the bleachers waiting for the show to start. At first, I thought our area wasn't going to fill up because there were hardly any people around us until about 5 minutes before the show was set to begin. We ended up all the way to the right of the dining package area... and I'm pretty sure it was the best spot you could get :)




I didn't take too many photos because it was my first time seeing the show and I wanted to really take it in. I will say, where we were we didn't really get a good view of the boats but the water projections were PERFECT where we were. I LOVED this show!!!!!!!! I don't want to give spoilers, but I highly suggest this show for everyone to see! Later in the week I overheard people saying it's nothing special, but they probably just had bad seats.;)

After the show, we headed out for the night. Thankfully our bus stop was the first one, And we got on the first bus... I had to stand of course, but I didn't mind. On the way back to the Contemporary, we noticed that the traffic going the other way was stopped and we saw an accident. It didn't look too bad, but it was blocking a lane so that's why that traffic was slow... But for some reason it took us an HOUR to get back to the Resort :mad::rolleyes:. So I was standing there trying to hold on to the bars and those black grip things while the bus driver was slamming on the brakes every 2 minutes. I also had like 3 HUGE guys standing around me and they all smelled Terrible! :hungover::hungover::hungover: Needless to say, I was SO grateful when we finally arrived.

On the way to the room I stopped and took a few photos of my view




Then I rushed upstairs to see if I could get the hockey game on our TV... and I could!!:D:D We drank some wine and I got to watch the end of the Nashville Predators game and they WON :cool::cool::cool::cool::D. Then it was off to bed to get some rest before our big day tomorrow.
 

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