Trip Report **COMPLETED** Our First Sister Trip & Report! June 11-15th 2016

After a great five days we are home and ready to share everything with you! I am absolutely exhausted, as we did as much as possible within the past five days. So, without further ado, here we go!

**side note: we told a cast member it was our first visit without our parents, so they gave us first visit buttons to wear and we had to explain to everyone we saw that we had been there multiple times before

DAY 1: SATURDAY JUNE 11
We started in the terminal at the airport with a little breakfast. I got a cheese danish which was pretty yummy.

We boarded the plane and took off on time which was excellent. My sister gets motion sickness, so she got a bit sick on our way there. It was a little frustrating, as I had only slept about three hours the night before (out of excitement!!!) and was hoping to sleep on the plane.

Once we landed, we noticed it was super easy to find our way to the magical express and to use our magic bands for the first time ever! We've been on the magical express a bunch of times before, so maybe that's what made it seem easier! We were put to the Contemporary, Ft Wilderness, Poly, and Floridian line. We waited for maybe about 15 minutes and then finally we boarded the Magical Express and made our way to the resort!

The Contemporary was the last stop of the Magic Kingdom resorts. We finally got there and found out our room was upgraded! We were no longer staying with a garden view, we got a Bay Lake view!!

We were super excited, as you could see the Magic Kingdom when you walked out of our room! The view of Bay Lake from the bedroom was beautiful as well. Excellent upgrade!

Our first stop was over to the Polynesian to eat lunch at Captain Cook's. That is always my family's first stop for lunch, so we couldn't break tradition! I got a delicious burger and my sister got a pulled pork sandwich. Here's a pic of my burger ^_^

After lunch we made our way to the Magic Kingdom!!! We had a feeling we were going to miss our first FP+ reservation which was for Thunder Mt. but we were ok with it because we knew it's usually a ten minute wait at night and we'd get to go on later.

WE WERE SO EXCITED! It was just as beautiful as I remembered! I like the changes made to the hub, and it was just nice to be in such a familiar place.

Once we got there it was almost 3pm, so we scoped out a great spot on the sidewalk and got ourselves comfy for the parade. It was SUPER hot, but we were in the shade. we felt bad for all of the people sitting across from us directly in the sun.

One of the balloon guys was nearby -- I almost bought one! They look so cute! I probably would have purchased it if we were staying for a full week.

 

[Cowboy Steve]

Very cool! Enjoying the trip report! What do you use to take your pictures? Phone or a camera? It takes wonderful pics!

 

[jrogue]

Very cool! Enjoying the trip report! What do you use to take your pictures? Phone or a camera? It takes wonderful pics!

Thank you so much! It was my new camera, the Canon PowerShot SX710! Here's the link to it: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/canon-p...-red/3651143.p?id=1219593475161&skuId=3651143

 

[jrogue]

Hello friends! Here's....

DAY 3: MONDAY JUNE 13

So by some miracle of GOD I managed to wake up in time to get ready for our very early morning reservation! We were showered, dressed, and out of the room by 8:10 which left us 15 minutes to get to our 8:25 reservation at ... THE CRYSTAL PALACE! We were so excited. It's our favorite breakfast buffet.

Once we entered the park we quickly found a Photopass person to get us a nice early morning and relatively empty park shot!

It really is peaceful getting there so early and having so few people! I took my obligatory photo of all the Minnies before anyone could touch them.

Hooray! We made it! It didn't take very long for our reservation to be called. A grand total of 5 minutes, maybe?

We went to our table and sat long enough to order our drinks (coffees, and then orange/apple juice on the side! YUMMY) and then before we knew it we were up and getting our food!!

Ungh, I had dinner already but my mouth is watering just looking at that.

As always, the adorable characters came to our tables to say hello! There was a wonderful character attendant taking photos of us as the characters came over.

Poor Jessica kept trying to make toast while the characters were visiting. She accidentally burned like three pieces

 

[jrogue]

As the Magic Kingdom crowds were headed in, we were headed out! Managed to get a beautiful shot of the trolley.

It's so beautiful! I hope the trolleys never go away.

We were SO glad we had an early morning reservation. Due to the shootings they were being extra thorough during bag check (which was much appreciated!!) and so it was taking everyone extra long to go through.

However, we were on our way to EPCOT! The Express monorail was not picking up passengers from the Magic Kingdom to the TTA, it was only taking people FROM the TTA TO the MK. We were a bit bummed, but we got right on the resort line and it was fine.

Ahh, EPCOT! It's tied with the Magic Kingdom for my favorite park ever. I often can't choose -- Epcot is so unique! And has such great food! The MK is the MAGIC KINGDOM, but Epcot often has its own magic.

Got a quick PhotoPass photo in the front and we were off! Our first stop was our FP+ reservation for Soarin'. We were happy we got to see the original Soarin' Over California one last time before it switched.

To us the queue didn't look much different although I read from others that stuff has changed. It was still good ol' Soarin' to us!

We watched the pre-show, and then we were off!

I was worried that we only had a little bit of time in Epcot. Normally we spend at LEAST two days there, and we are there at night so Spaceship Earth is usually a walk-on. That means to ensure we didn't wait half an hour on line, we made a FP for Spaceship Earth!

I love this ride so much. I will never miss it on a trip to Disney World, and I hope it never goes away ^_^

For our ending, we chose HEALTH! and .. I forget what else, but our video was cute and I would definitely love to take a pill every morning that gives me daily health check ups.

 

[jrogue]

One of my favorite things to watch at Epcot is the fountain show. I never know what time it starts, so when I catch it I'm super happy!

Since it was ten thousand degrees, we made a mandatory pit stop before our next FP.

THERE ARE NEW FLAVORS?????? What!! All of the flavors have been replaced (except Beverly, of course) since 2013!! We tried every single one. The Fanta Melon Frosty was my favorite one. It tasted like a melted ice pop to me!

Since we had EVEN MORE TIME before our FP, we decided to do single rider on Test Track! In total, we rode Test Track 4x that day on single rider. It was awesome. One time we even got to be in the same car! (we got to go on Rock N Roller coaster many times as well. Jess went on 5x and I went on 4x)

Test Track is one of my sister's favorite rides and she will literally cry if we don't go on at least once a trip.

So, since we couldn't get a FP reservation for anything else (TIERS, AGH) we had a FP for Imagination!

Yeah, the ride is old and could be updated ... but I love Figment and as long as he never leaves I will be happy.

Once we did everything we wanted to in Future World we made our way over to THE WORLD SHOWCASE!!!!!

I adore the World Showcase. If I could I would eat in every country each night.

We've never eaten in Candada. But LOOK! It's Canada!

We shopped inside the Trading Post a little bit and considered buying a bunch of things. We didn't, but maybe next time!

Obligatory phonebooth shot!!! They really need to install a Tardis somewhere.

 

[jrogue]

Another phonebooth shot! It's one of our favorite attractions. We spent some time in the UK in Epcot looking through the shops and buying a couple of gifts for those back home.

The UK in Epcot was where I developed my tea crack addiction to Twinings. We went on the Twinings tea tour years ago and I've never been the same since.

Onward to France!

Those pastries are out of this world. Next time I am making a point of having lunch here, because I NEED to eat all of their stuff.

Over to Japan for my FAVORITE lunch and performance! We got chicken teryaki and then watched the drummers! The chicken teryaki was delicious as always, the drummers were amazing, but I didn't really like that green tea cheesecake. I would have much rather had dessert in France. This makes me excited for the way the new dining plan will be set up, because I then could have skipped this dessert.

By this point we were still dying from heat exhaustion. After the show in Japan we made our way past America and over to Italy where we got distracted by an awesome performer!

He was fantastic. Mostly juggled, but very entertaining! The poor guy was sweating so hard he couldn't do one o his tricks.

One day I will buy one of these masks!

 

[jrogue]

We did a drive-by of Germany, and stopped for a couple of pictures.

Like I said, it was getting SO HOT so we didn't want to stop for long and get used to the nice AC.

In Germany there are one of my favorite benches with one of my favorite views. I took a picture!

As we passed the Outpost, I had to stop and get a Coke Slushie. I couldn't bear not having something cold to drink. We continued on and made our way into China's store, where we filmed some funny stuff with the Pandas.

Jess honestly almost bought that hat!

We passed Norway, which was still under siege from Frozen. Poor Maelstrom. I wish I got one last chance to ride it.

Next time we come it will hopefully be fully operational! I know today was its opening day, so I hope the AAs don't break down by then.

Yaaaay we made it to Mexico! We finally got our picture with Mexican Donald!

I wish they offered all three Caballeros!

On our way back to Future World!

 

[jrogue]

We rode Test Track again, and after that time (which was our third I believe) we wanted to customize our cars. LOOK AT THIS BEAUTY:

My car won a lot of categories, and had an overall score of 222. For some reason this website won't let me upload my ride photo for TT, so onward!

I believe this photo was from earlier at the Imagination Pavillion, but here it is now!

And another shot of the fountain as I waited for Jess to buy something in Mouse Gear!

Aaaand off we go! We boarded the Epcot monrail straight to the TTC, then the express monorail from the TTC to the MK. Our monorail paused, so I got some nice pictures of the Seven Seas Lagoon.

That was Monday night before any tragedy struck.

We got our bags checked and saw a cast member in the front!

(or maybe this picture was from this morning? there weren't any times listed!!)

Either way, we headed on over to Fantasyland for our dinner reservation at Be Our Guest. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie, so I was SO EXCITED to eat there! I've had lunch there once and it was ok, but I heard dinner was great. We waited 40 minutes to be seated (even with our reservation!) and we were starving by the time we sat.

A ROSE??? SO BEAUTIFUL

We got to see the Beast come out and greet his dinner guests even though we never got to meet him. Bummer. Maybe next time.

These rolls were absolutely amazing and I loved them.

And here's the steak! This was also very, very yummy.

 

[jrogue]

Sadly we were super disappointed with the desserts we chose, and I wish we had known we would dislike them so we could choose something else. We couldn't even get our forks through whatever that chocolate cracker thing was.

Bummer. We were in danger of missing our Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain, so our waitress gave us a free ultra fastpass! It was good for up to 5 people, so we decided we'd find a family of 3 to share it with us on the Mine Train the next night.

On our way out I needed my super beautiful shot of this amazing stained glass!

We made our way out of Be Our Guest and over to BTMRR. All of the ourdoor rides were closed due to lightning nearby. Bummer, but safety first! Since our FP was good for Space Mountain instead, we decided to head over there.

and my mandatory shot of the fountain! I was bummed Belle's store was closed though.

Since the Little Mermaid ride was a walk-on, we did it. I think the queue and the outside of this ride is amazingly beautiful, but the ride itself is just meh and could have been done way better.

As we got to Space Mountain wishes went off! So we stood for a while and watched from Tomorrowland. It was cool to see the fireworks from that area!

After the one last SPace Mountain ride we made our way out. Another successful Disney Day!

My total steps for that day came out to 29,474. SO CLOSE TO 30,000.

 

[LisaBelle]

Wow! You ladies accomplished a lot today! Beauty & the Beast is my favorite too! Love BOG! Sorry you didn't get to meet the Beast. I had the same dessert in February and it was just okay. I do however love the Master's Cupcake that they serve at lunch Yum!

 

[MinnieM123]

Probably one of the most underrated attractions there, but I also really love watching the "Fountains" water show!

 

[jrogue]

Wow! You ladies accomplished a lot today! Beauty & the Beast is my favorite too! Love BOG! Sorry you didn't get to meet the Beast. I had the same dessert in February and it was just okay. I do however love the Master's Cupcake that they serve at lunch Yum!

we were SO BUMMED when someone else told us that the Master's Cupcake was only served at lunch! That's what we were planning on having for dessert glad to hear you enjoyed it though! maybe one day I'll get to try it!

Probably one of the most underrated attractions there, but I also really love watching the "Fountains" water show!

YES! Totally agree! If they ever stop that show I'll be devistated!

 

[Tuvalu]

Love Crystal Palace for breakfast! I *may* have a slight addiction to Pooh's Puffed French Toast.

It is annoying when the MK express monorail won't take guests back to the TTC. We've had that happen to us several times when we want to hop from MK to Epcot mid-day. But it gives us an excuse to ride an empty ferry!

Flavors in Club Cool changed a couple years ago. I really miss Mezzo Mix.

Did your SSE video include your and your sister's faces? When we rode in May and the first week of June, the video was just cartoon faces. I was wondering if that effect was fixed yet?

Sorry you weren't warned about the grey stuff at dinner...that brownie thing is stale and inedible. Give me a Master's cupcake any day!

Looking forward to reading the rest of your adventures!

 

[jrogue]

I will have a photo update for everyone tonight, but I just wanted to post some thoughts here:

Love Crystal Palace for breakfast! I *may* have a slight addiction to Pooh's Puffed French Toast.

It is annoying when the MK express monorail won't take guests back to the TTC. We've had that happen to us several times when we want to hop from MK to Epcot mid-day. But it gives us an excuse to ride an empty ferry!

Flavors in Club Cool changed a couple years ago. I really miss Mezzo Mix.

Did your SSE video include your and your sister's faces? When we rode in May and the first week of June, the video was just cartoon faces. I was wondering if that effect was fixed yet?

Sorry you weren't warned about the grey stuff at dinner...that brownie thing is stale and inedible. Give me a Master's cupcake any day!

Looking forward to reading the rest of your adventures!

MEZZO MIX USED TO BE MY FAVORITE!! I always looked forward to it. So sad that it's gone! I can add that to the list of things we have in common now: Tuvalu, and Mezzo Mix!! (And also disliking that brownie thing! It was definitely stale and inedible!)

our SSE DID include our faces. Here's the picture from the e-mail we were sent:

That's weird that it wouldn't work for you guys! But we did see a few people who had an issue with their faces loading as well and just had the cartoons.

Thank you for following along!! I'm going to try and finish the report tonight! Or at least post another full day!

 

[LisaBelle]

I will have a photo update for everyone tonight, but I just wanted to post some thoughts here:

MEZZO MIX USED TO BE MY FAVORITE!! I always looked forward to it. So sad that it's gone! I can add that to the list of things we have in common now: Tuvalu, and Mezzo Mix!! (And also disliking that brownie thing! It was definitely stale and inedible!)

our SSE DID include our faces. Here's the picture from the e-mail we were sent:
View attachment 147396
That's weird that it wouldn't work for you guys! But we did see a few people who had an issue with their faces loading as well and just had the cartoons.

Thank you for following along!! I'm going to try and finish the report tonight! Or at least post another full day!

When my sister and I were there in February we ended up with cartoon faces, too . We were ready for the photo so we were bummed that our pictures weren't included in our future.

 

[jrogue]

When my sister and I were there in February we ended up with cartoon faces, too . We were ready for the photo so we were bummed that our pictures weren't included in our future.

THAT STINKS! Hopefully next time you go it will work for you!

 

[jrogue]

I believe I forgot to include this precious photo from our trip on Space Mountain right after Wishes on Monday ...

 

[jrogue]

Okay everyone, strap on your seatbelts cause these next few posts are going to have an insane amount of pictures! I haven't been able to decide how I want my TRs to be. More pictures, less talking? More pictures, more talking? More talking, less pictures? Let's try tons of pictures and tons of talking now!

DAY 4: TUESDAY JUNE 14

And a good morning to us! We tried breakfast at the Contempo Cafe for the first time. When using a quick service for a breakfast, you get your meal + either a drink, or a snack. I made a noob move and got something I didn't end up enjoying very much. I believe it was called the bounty platter. It had some stuff I wouldn't eat (sausage, home fries) and it seemed like a bit of a waste. I love scrambled eggs at Disney, but these had cheddar in them so I liked them a little less. My snack was okay, but a little too filling. It was the cheese danish. Also, I grabbed one too many syrups. Jeez!! I was a mess! Jessica got the chocolate chip muffin and a Mickey waffle, so she was far more satisfied. We (so far) still prefer the way the Polynesian's Captain Cook does breakfast, though.

Here's the danish:

Peep that Twinings green tea!! The Polynesian had my favorite version of the green tea ... green tea with jasmine .... The Polynesian just has everything. I need to stop talking about it!!

After breakfast we hopped on the bus to make our first FP of the day. It took a little longer than before for the Animal Kingdom bus to get there, but at least when it did it was empty!! We got a nice seat and relaxed for the ride.

As we pulled in we got a quick glimpse of some Avatar construction! I enjoyed the Avatar movie, but I was super confused as to why Disney bought the rights to make a whole land there. Whatever, let's hope it's great!

Our bus seemed to pull in kind of far from the entrance, but whatever! More steps for me. We took our obligatory picture next to the Animal Kingdom sign! We've taken this picture (the cast of the photo has been different every year) every time we come here. I love that they kept the dragon in the animal lineup even though they never made the Beastly Kingdom.

We made a beeline straight over to Everest! However, along the way I couldn't help but snap a photo of the Jungle Book/Rivers of Light show area! It's really impressive what they've done with that space.

The queue for Everest had some new screens. I wonder if this will work with MyMagic+ soon, if not already? One of the screens was broken and out! Yikes!

Since we wanted to take pictures (and video) we specifically requested first row. They held us off to the side for just a moment, and then we went right on the next train!

This ride has some views that can't be beat!

Wooo hoooo!!!!

Heading up to the top!!

next post: will my camera's insane zoom be able to catch some great shots? LET'S FIND OUT!!!

 

[jrogue]

LOOK AT THIS SHOT! Isn't it neat? Wouldn't you say my trip report is complete? Sorry it's so blurry, but of course we were on Everest and I didn't have much of a chance to focus. IT LOOKS SO COOL. Can't wait for this section to be open!

Woo woo, going around!!

Up at the top!! look at our friends in the distance! I love sitting in the first row for just this view.

Weeeeeeee!!! I forgot how exciting this drop is!!!

After the awesome trip to Everest we made our way over to the Safari area cause thats what our next FP was. On the way we saw some cute monkeys!!

And this sexy tree!!

I wish I knew the name of these guys playing, because THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST FUN THINGS IN THE DAY. See how I stopped to take this photo? See the guy dancing with the woman? Well, Jess and I stopped and she started video taping them dancing. The woman went away, and the guy started a new song. Before we knew it, he was pulling us over in front of the stage to dance! A nearby cast member was kind enough to grab my sisters video camera and record it for us. And the guy dancing? HE WAS SO SWEATY. BLESS HIM, THE POOR SOUL!! Dancing for hours in what felt like 110 degrees! We danced with him for one song and we were going to die of heat stroke, BUT HE KEPT GOING! He's an animal!! What a fun part of our day.

Next, we made it to the safari! Yay! Here's an ONSLAUGHT OF ANIMAL PICTURES.

....starting with the next post, haha

 

[jrogue]

HIPPOSSSSSSZZZZZZ SO CUTE! Our skipper (skipper? leader? forget what they call them on the safari) was absolutely amazing. I don't remember her name, but she was so full of info and jokes and energy and oh man I wish I could have her every time!

I'm like 99% sure this gator and the one next to it weren't real. We saw them on the nighttime safari too and they hadn't moved at all.

Upside down tree!!!