A September 2011 Trip Report about a trip with lots of firsts!!!

Some of the firsts include:

-Traveling in September!- my family has always gone during summer break, it was amazing to see the difference in crowds and heat!

-Flying!- It was my first time flying! EEK!

-First time dining vegan and gluten-free- other times we have went to WDW I was vegetarian and still ate dairy and eggs, so cutting that out and realizing my intolerance to wheat, I knew this trip was going to be a whole new experience!

-First time with a signature dining experience!- well, technically when we went in 2009 we went to sci-fi, but I think Kevin and I just got grilled cheese and fries... haha

-First time not worrying about money!

-First time traveling alone with my boyfriend away on vacation!

-And last, but DEFINITELY not least, first time taking it easy at Disney!!

Ok, on with the trip!!!

We left bright and early on Sept 13th, 2011! 3:30am to be exact! Fed the pups, double checked our packing lists to make sure we had everything, did mah hairzz, and headed off to the airport in Buffalo! We got to the gate while it was boarding because I forgot my video camera in the car at first and had to go all the way back, probably not the best idea, but I needed my camera!

excited for Disney..
P9131685.jpg


..apparently terrified for flying
P9131694.JPG


Kevin likes flying though!
P9131702.jpg


"When do we get to that!?"- (Kevin easing my nerves...) hahaha
P9131705.JPG


Flying JetBlue was great! For some reason since it was such a small plane it made me less nervous. Maybe because it wasn't full of the stressed out people you see in the movies. And the airport itself was small, too. According to Kevin it was less hussle and bussle and also less confusing compared to Boston.

So, we landed early. The pilot said it was due to shortcuts. I'm pretty sure we were in the sky so I'm not sure what shortcuts you can take hahaha.

Around 10am we got on the Magical Express!! This was a first also!

Kevin was so excited that he tried snapping tons of pictures on the way to the resort.

"How come every time I try to take a picture of palm trees there's always a pole in it?"
P9131716.jpg


And this sign always gets me everytime, but my eyes were closed and I almost missed it!

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME WE WERE ABOUT TO GO THROUGH THE SIGN!!"
P9131719.JPG


We got to All Star Music!!!!!! We chose the resort for a few reasons. We wanted our trip to be care-free and we decided we weren't going to worry about money while in WDW, so we decided to budget in other ways here and there. Our way of doing that was booking in March during the 20% offer at the cheapest resort! We booked a preferred room though, we ALWAYS go with the preferred rooms. Another reason is because we have stayed here before as well as the other 2 All-Stars, we liked this one the best. We didn't ever go for the free dining option because we knew it wouldn't even be worth it. We never did before, and knew we would't spend as much as we saved with the 20% off.

So our room was ready right away! Surprise! We got a couple snacks and headed to drop off a couple things in the room.

I got BBQ chips. The ingredients were animal product free (as long as you don't mind refined sugar) and it said "gluten free" on the package!
P9193353.jpg


Kevin got NutterButters, despite the name they are accidentally vegan! (again if you don't count the refined sugar!) I don't have a picture of the package (even though I tried to photograph everything we ate for future reference, but I never thought to get a picture of these even though Kevin got a package everyday).

I guess this would be a good time to say this- Kevin and I do NOT eat like this at home! The last time I had potato chips before this trip was MONTHS ago. I even drank some soda while in Disney. I haven't had soda since probably the last time I went to Disney 2 years ago, and even then I don't think I had any. We eat mostly fruit and some veggies at home, so you can imagine that this food kind of brought us a down a few hours after eating it and we had to change our eating habits a bit because the mid-day naps were becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity! All that fat was taking a toll! Not to say we stopped eating like that, just cut back and added more and more fruit and salads each day..

So back to the hotel! I got really excited

"TAKE A PICTURE!!!!!"
P9131724.JPG


We decided to go to the Magic Kingdom right away!!!! It's been a tradition to visit MK first. We like to sit in the seat they have on some buses that's directly behind the driver, and this bus had that seat so this ended up being our view:
P9131735.jpg


Are we there yet!? Can you see the castle!?!?
P9131739.JPG
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
WE'RE THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ready with my Key to the World!
P9131743.JPG


Daisy was walking by as we entered the park so we freaked out and snapped a picture
P9131749.jpg


Then Kevin set up his camera on the trash can with a timer
P9131752.JPG


Loving those Halloween decorations!
P9131758.JPG


We strolled down Main st. just taking in the sights! We decided earlier that we wanted our first ride to be Space Mountain because it was closed in 2009. We took a right to Tomorrow Land
P9131764.JPG



and- WOO! it was a 10minute wait! Which meant it was walk right on! I was very excited to have one of the red cards for them to check the line wait.
P9131768.jpg


Next was Buzz! Kevin's camera takes decent pictures on dark rides (with NO flash- don't think we were one of THOSE people!!!!) But, as he took this picture of us on BLSRS it seemed as though someone else took a flash picture at the same time from behind us! I thought it was the projector in the Zorg room, but looking back at pictures and video we weren't even in that room yet during this picture!!!!!
P9131776.JPG


Well I'm going to take a little break and spend sometime with Kevin and the dogs, but I will post more later- possibly even more tonight!! See you then!
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Allright!

I'm glad you started your TR and looks great so far. I wish I had the discipline to eat like you.

Looking forward to more!
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
Allright!

I'm glad you started your TR and looks great so far. I wish I had the discipline to eat like you.

Looking forward to more!

Thanks!!! I'm excited to write it!! It's definitely discipline at first, and temptations are hard, but once you get into the swing of things you actually start to CRAVE the good stuff!!
 

LuLaSue

Well-Known Member
TR looks great! Keep it going...

I have been a vegetarian for many years. The past year I have been toying with the Vegan idea. It becomes difficult because DH is a meat and potato type of guy, he doesn't even eat vegetables.
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
We rode a few more rides in Tomorrowland-stuff that we didn't do last time. We did TTA and Carousel of Progress which I don't think I've ever rode before! A woman with her assistance dog were on CoP with us and he got worked up and started barking at the dog from the show a couple times. Everyone had a laugh at that one!

Kevin got a few great photos on TTA!
P9131789.jpg


We started getting hungry and went over to Columbia Harbor House. I remembered they had a vegetarian chili and was hoping it was also vegan and gluten free.

Love this sign!
P9131843.jpg


We got there and said we had an allergy to gluten and didn't eat meat, eggs, or dairy as well. It was funny to see how the cast members react to this! Everything STOPS! The CM called the manager over and he showed us the book of ingredients.

The chili was apparently vegan and gluten free! We found nothing obvious to the contrary anyway. It isn't specified as gluten-free, so if you have a severe allergy to gluten, please don't take my word for this (or any other food I am claiming to be ok for that matter), just remember to check for yourself if you want to try something! The vegan aspect also applies to this.

Here's the delicious chili and a side of fries(fries and popcorn are my weaknesses!!)
P9131801.JPG


Anyway! Cross contamination isn't a HUGE deal for my intolerance, so we just got fries without worrying about it being fried with wheat and other things. I think they can bake you special gluten-free fries there on request, though! They have a lighthouse sandwich which is vegetarian, but the broccoli slaw has dairy. Without that it is vegan (I'm not sure if the bread is vegan though). Columbia Harbor House also keeps Tapioca Rolls in stock (Ener-G brand) they are gluten-free and vegan as well, so we kept that option in mind for future reference!

For some reason there are a MILLION pictures we took of each other eating
P9131798.jpg


The CM also gave us free iced teas, because she accidentally made them! DISNEY MAGIC!

Next right over to the Haunted Mansion! Loved the new queue!
P9131810.JPG



We rode this the most of any ride during the whole trip.
P9131824.jpg


I appreciated the experience of HM much more than ever before! This was a running theme for the both of us throughout the trip- new appreciation for rides, parks, food, and everything WDW. We even watched the parades, stopped for shows, and watched the fireworks!!! I know it sounds silly, but we'd never done this before. During other trips I was always more concerned with riding as many rides as possibly from park open to park close. The only time I would sit was on rides or while eating at CS restaurants!

I should probably start getting ready for work! More later! (remind me to tell you all about the app Kevin bought me- Lines!)
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
TR looks great! Keep it going...

I have been a vegetarian for many years. The past year I have been toying with the Vegan idea. It becomes difficult because DH is a meat and potato type of guy, he doesn't even eat vegetables.

Ooo that's a tough one! At least it's easy in Disney though!!
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Great TR so far!! A couple years ago I went vegitarian for a month. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I don't eat meat nearly as much as I used to.. I eat a lot more fruit and veggies now. It's so much healthier! :)
 

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
Great start, Angie! I'm glad you took photos of your food, I'll be interested to hear your take on vegetarian/vegan options at WDW. I especially cannot wait for your review of Jiko!! :)
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
Great start! Can't wait to read more.

Thanks! Glad you are reading!!

derelicte19 said:
Great TR so far!! A couple years ago I went vegitarian for a month. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I don't eat meat nearly as much as I used to.. I eat a lot more fruit and veggies now. It's so much healthier!

That's great! I love being able to tell people I eat healthy! I feel like it's nice to be able to take pride in that rather than eating stuff that isn't really meant to be food! (not that I don't have vegan nacho and ice cream cheat days!!)


Ariel484 said:
Great start, Angie! I'm glad you took photos of your food, I'll be interested to hear your take on vegetarian/vegan options at WDW. I especially cannot wait for your review of Jiko!!

Yes!! I don't want to spoil anything before I get to those days, but I'll just say this- A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! Well worth EVERY penny!!!!
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
After our wonderful experience on HM we decided we wanted some iced coffee. BAD IDEA!!! If you don't/can't eat dairy then don't order an iced coffee from Sleepy Hollow Refreshments. They have soymilk, but if you ask for no cream and just a thing of soymilk they seem to forget to tell you that the iced coffee is premixed with cream. So we were there for about 30min (though it felt like an hour) waiting for a manager to come to refund our $11. She wasn't very nice about it either (even though we were SUPER nice to her!!! If anyone should have been in a bad mood I feel like it should have been us)

Back to happy!!

This was our first of many sightings of these guys
P9131832.jpg


and these guys
P9131842.jpg


We rode a bunch of rides, BTMRR was next.
IMG_3315.jpg


WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
IMG_3316.jpg


We decided to wait for Splash Mountain because I wanted to save it for last so my hair wouldn't be awful.

Saw this in a store and said I would get it if I didn't find something I wanted more, but I did find something I wanted more later. Maybe next time!
IMG_3318.jpg


Then Adventureland!

Jungle Cruise is always great
P9131885.jpg



awkward!
P9131876.JPG


I love that they do this
P9131886.jpg


A quick walk on to Pirates then it was time for some ice cream!!!

We walked over to The Plaza ice cream shop on Main St. where I had read before that they had Toffuti and Rice Dream!!! Kevin got a double scoop of chocolate toffuti and I got a root beer float with vanilla toffuti!!!
IMG_3324.JPG


I'll let that digest for a while, but much more to come!
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
I feel like I'm on a roll today!!

At some point in all of this we got fastpasses for PeterPan! Then ONLY ride that we wanted to ride that had a wait today! Seriously we just walked on all rides!
P9162826.JPG


So we rode that and some other rides, but we didn't try to run on everything we could like last time. We took our time and with some things we said, "Let's do that the next day we are here!" We tried to be very easy going about everything and not make plans.

We also caught the Move it, Shake it, Repeat it 498657 times throughout the day Parade for the first of 60 times through the trip. Somehow it was fun everytime though!!

Shake it! Shake it!
P9162719.JPG


Love!
P9131903.jpg


Splash Mountain time!!!
P9131892.JPG


after that ride, it was about 6pm. The park was closing at 7, so we made the decision to leave and beat the "crowds."

We were SOOOOOO excited when we found out one of our favorite bakeries from NYC just recently opened up a second location in Downtown Disney!! We had been anticipating going to it since we found out, so leaving the park a bit early wasn't too hard!

Babycakes Bakery! (vegan and gluten free!!)
P9131909.JPG


WHAT DID I DOOOOOO
P9131905.JPG

:D

At this point I was EXHAUSTED, but SOOOO excited for Babycakes, so I only half cared about being tired.
P9131906.JPG

(I'm pretty sure that girl behind me in the picture was mad at me because I told Kevin the smell of chicken was bothering me so I wanted to get outside ASAP to eat out there. She definitely had chicken in her plate and most likely heard me.. OOPS!)

Babycakes also caters to other allergies, but I'm not sure which- check out their website if you have an allergy and want to see if they have things for you! They are located in a building named for one of the other eateries inside Pollo Somethingorother. If you just take a Left immediately after the Lego store, it's tucked away behind that. You would have to be walking from the direction of the DTD bus stop, not the Pleasure Island one, to follow those directions.

After we ate some delicious delights it was time to go back to the hotel. We ZONKED out and wanted to get up early for day 2!!
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
DAY 2- Animal Kingdom and Boma for dinner

Kevin got out of bed as the alarm went (after giving me my daily leg/foot rub- I know how to pick 'em!)

I stayed in bed a bit and watched Stacy tell me what I must do to do the must do's. Kevin left to get some coffee.

What he came back with was....

well....

words can't describe, you just have to see....

P9141914.jpg


GLUTEN-FREE VEGAN MICKEY WAFFLES!!!!
P9141915.JPG


I was in disbelief!!! All I kept saying was, "This is all I've ever wanted in my life!!!!" I guess they keep a separate kids iron ready and heated for gluten-free requests!

The night before we got some head accessories that we had been wanting. Kevin got a hat to shade the sun (and to look very handsome!) and I got the tiara that I was anticipating getting for a long time.

It was a good time for a picture of them.
P9141917.JPG


yay!
P9141923.JPG


On our way to explore the forbidden mountain we decided to cut through Dinoland. We went by this great building and took some pictures.

we liked how paranoid and nervous these birds were

ooooh nooooooooo!
P9141932.JPG


It was only a 10minute wait for EE so we got fastpasses for later and rode once.

"there doesn't seem to be any track"
P9141942.jpg


and then the sun exploded
P9141949.JPG


but we survived the apocalypse
P9141953.JPG


my Hindi is a little rusty, but I THINK this is pronounced something along the lines of Shajanyoovaahuk vooshi (please don't be insulted if you know the language, I probably just butchered that! I can't remember a lot of the characters especially since this looks more like sanskrit than hindi) If that even is right, I don't know what the translation is!
P9141956.JPG
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
Ever cool,I love All Star Music,but of the All Stars I think Sports is my fave:)

Yeah we were talking about maybe staying there next time, if not just for the fact that you get first pick of getting a seat on busses that pick up at all the all-stars!!
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom