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.

 

[jrogue]

THE PARADE WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. I loved seeing Belle and the Beast!! I wish they had an entire float to themselves.

One of the coolest parts of the parade was definitely Maleficent. Super impressive!

After watching the parade we hurried over to our second FastPass which was Space Mountain!

After that we took a quick ride on the Peoplemover. Always a nice ride, and super relaxing.

On our way to our next FP+ reservation we spotted the train!

aaaaaand made it to our FP+ reservation for the Mine Train! It was our first time ever on it and we were impressed by how smooth it was. We wished it was longer, though, because it was so well done!

We still had a bit of time before dinner, so we went to get some water. We were SO WARM. I had forgotten how hot it gets in Florida. We stopped by Sleepy Hollow and got the water and then took a few pics at the side of the castle as well as made a new FP+ reservation for Pirates later on.

 

[jrogue]

We were still too early for our dinner reservation so our next stop was Small World, which was amazing as usual. We had tried to be seated for our reservation before, but we were almost an hour early and they wouldn't take us. Makes sense, but we had to try cause we were starving!

I am super impressed by FP+ and My Magic + like I said, and I love the little personalization that it adds!!

Once we were off Small World we were right on time to make our dinner reservation (FINALLY). Dinner was at the Liberty Tree Tavern!

We didn't want any of the green beans (or whatever the green stuff is that they serve! I forget, mostly because we didn't get it) so we asked if there was anything that we could replace it with. Our waiter was amazing, and he brought over some chicken nuggets and fries! At the end of the trip I let guest services know how well he treated us, because he really was great.

We finished dinner and made our way over to Adventureland for our next FP+ reservation which was Pirates!!

We were thinking of going on another ride because we didn't mind missing the MSEP. We have seen it so many times and prefer Spectromagic anyway. However, we knew we wanted a good spot for Wishes, so we scoped out a spot and stayed to watch the parade.

In between the parade and the fireworks we got some ice cream!

Yummy yummy. Wishes was perfect as usual also.

We were tired, but we didn't want to go back to the hotel just yet. There was a five minute wait for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad so we went on that, then headed over to the Haunted Mansion that had a ten minute wait.

 

[jrogue]

The absolute biggest shock to us was that after riding the Haunted Mansion we noticed the standby line for Peter Pan was only TWENTY MINUTES. What!!??? We haven't seen that short of a wait any time aside from maybe park opening! The new queue for it was amazing, and we really enjoyed the interactive part.

After Pan, everything was closed in the Magic Kingdom so we started making our way out. We decided to walk back to the resort and took a couple of last pictures before heading out.

Step total for this day (from my Fitbit) was 23,939 steps!

That's it for Day 1!! I'll follow up tomorrow with more from Day 2!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Enjoying!!!

 

[myhappyplace]

Love your report so far! Great pics too, especially the duck butt!! Lol.

 

[PineapplePrincess]

You sisters are too cute! I loooove that bag on your bed...do you mind sharing where you got it?!

 

[jrogue]

Love your report so far! Great pics too, especially the duck butt!! Lol.

Hahaha thank you!! I thought it was the cutest thing and wanted to share

Enjoying!!!

Thanks! Next post coming up soon!!

You sisters are too cute! I loooove that bag on your bed...do you mind sharing where you got it?!

I got it in Disney World years ago! I also have the laptop bag and the ipad case. Here's a link to them talking about it on the Disney blog: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...tems-coming-in-february-2012-to-disney-parks/

I didn't see them in the parks when I was there this past trip, but they might still have them online!

 

[MinnieM123]

Your pictures are very clear and nicely composed. By the way, I like how the Contemporary has updated their guest rooms (I stayed there maybe 18 years ago, so of course, they look a little different now)!!

 

[jrogue]

Your pictures are very clear and nicely composed. By the way, I like how the Contemporary has updated their guest rooms (I stayed there maybe 18 years ago, so of course, they look a little different now)!!

Thank you so much!! That means a lot to me!! and the guest rooms are absolutely beautiful! I don't have a picture, but I do wish there was more counter space in the bathrooms. Other than that I absolutely loved it!

 

[jrogue]

Hello!! Now that I am fully awake I am ready to present to you day 2!

DAY 2: SUNDAY JUNE 12

We woke up around 7 to get ready for our breakfast reservation at our favorite resort! Breakfast at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian! We headed to the monorail since if I recall correctly there is no walkway from the Contemporary over to where the Poly is.

Finally our monorail arrived and we were off!!

Although I do love the Poly's new lights on the ceiling, I will definitely miss the impressiveness that was that beautiful, giant fountain.

The old waterfall/fountain was the epitome of a tropical escape. This one almost makes you feel like it could be in ANY resort. It's cute, but nothing impressive.

Our waitress at the Kona Cafe was named Macarena! It took everything in my power not to sing to her. She brought over our menus, but I already knew what I was having. I order the same thing every time! THE BIG KAHUNA! That's what my dad now calls me every time we are in Disney because that's all I ever order from there!

That morning they were having trouble with their grill, so they said they would not be able to make the pancakes for us and asked if we were okay with having Mickey waffles instead. UM, YES!! We love the Mickey Waffles!!!

I got mine without the pineapple sauce since I am allergic to pineapples. I also ordered some tea since coffee usually makes me a bit sick. Also, I know Disney's tea of choice is Twinings and I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Twinings! Their green tea is my favorite, and green tea with jasmine is one of my favorite variations of it!

After breakfast Jessica really wanted some Kona coffee, so we stopped at the little Kona Island Cafe to get her some.

She really liked it! Breakfast success!

Since the Polynesian is our usual resort, we know it like the back of our hand and we headed downstairs to the bus area to wait for our bus to Hollywood Studios.

Once we arrived, I took my obligatory topiary picture!

Usually we take a picture in front of it but we skipped that this year. And off we go!!

Once we walked in I saw the view I had been waiting years to see again ...

The Theater in its unobstructed glory! Of course the stage was there, but the hat wasn't! Hooray!

 

[jrogue]

We took a quick photo with the PhotoPass person, then we were off to our first FP+ reservation!

Our first FP+ reservation was Star Tours. How fitting that we saw some Stormtroopers along the way!

Without park maps in hand, we began our auto-pilotted journey to Star Tours ... our ***USUAL** way through Pixar Place. (side note: I CAN'T BELIEVE THE ANIMATION STUDIO IS GONE!! WHERE WILL I LEARN TO DRAW THE DISNEY CHARACTERS NOW??? WHERE WILL I MEET SORCERER MICKEY??)

Excitedly we spotted another PhotoPass person, so we got another picture taken!

However, our old memorization of park maps had failed us, because we totally didn't remember that this area had been closed off!!

Suddenly it all came crashing back to us. No more Backlot Tour. No more Singin' in the Rain umbrella, no more Youse Guys. No more Streets of America. WE WERE HEARTBROKEN ALL OVER AGAIN.

We snapped some more photos of the area we used to haunt, then quickly turned back around and went the other way as we still had to make our FP reservation. What quickly cheered us up was actually being able to catch the Stormtrooper procession!! SO COOL!

One more quick photo as we were on our way. Streets of America :'( :'( I was walking through here with my boyfriend once as I heard the sound of a fake horn. Being a New Yorker, I intuitively stopped, then cracked up realizing that I was just in Disney and not at home! I'll miss that area.

Anywho, we made it to our FP reservation! These weren't the droids we were looking for.

Neither of us were picked as the rebel spy. Bummer! We enjoyed the addition of BB8 and Jakku, but hoped we would get something different during our next ride on Star Tours. We decided to go straight from Star Tours to our next FP reservation: Toy Story Midway Mania!

Our scores were pretty close the entire ride, but I ended up coming out ahead!

Jess had way better accuracy, though!!

 

[jrogue]

**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

Since we went rather quickly through that FP reservation we decided to head on over to Star Wars Launch Bay to see if we could meet some characters. My sister is one with the dark side, so she was really excited to meet Kylo Ren.

I on the other hand sympathize with the rebellion, so I was less than happy. BUT I did get to meet a super cute Jawa and they showed me some of the cool things they collected that day! They had a whole bunch of trinkets in that thing they were carrying! This Jawa was super cute because every time they took a picture with someone new they would take them by the hand and guide them across the room to a new spot :'D

We had some time before going to our next FP+ reservation and my sister really loves Rock N Roller Coaster, so we went on that!! We met a really nice guy on the single rider line who taught us the correct way to do the rock symbol with our fingers and chatted with us a bit more. We ended up riding together and taking the picture together!

The guy who rode with my sister, though, looked less than happy!

After that, Jess went on single rider one more time and then we made our way to the ice cream place on Sunset Blvd. THEIR ICE CREAM COOKIE SANDWICH IS THE STUFF DREAMS ARE MADE OF OH MY GOSH!

THAT THING WAS A MONSTER. A DELICIOUS, HEAVENLY MONSTER OH JEEZ.

Anywho, we went to our FP for Muppetvision and enjoyed it as we always do!

Which then left us open to make A NEW FP+ SELECTION. HOORAY! We chose the Movie Ride. That wasn't for a while, so we went on Star Tours again! It had such a short line. I was really bummed that we got the BB8 and Jakku scenes again. What happened to the randomization??

After Star Tours it was time for our Movie Ride FP. We headed on over to the Chinese Theater and to our delight saw Daisy standing outside of it taking pictures! We feel like we never see Daisy, so we made sure to get a photo with her.

Then it was on to the ride! Last time we went it had different narration and we really disliked this new voice that narrates most of it. Bleh!! The ride is still pretty good, though.

After that we did a little bit of shopping in the Tower of Terror store and then knew we needed to head out in order to make our dining reservation. Our reservation was for La Hacienda de San Angel in Mexico in EPCOT. That meant BOAT TIME!!

Unfortunately, we walked up JUST as the boat was leaving. We walked over to the bus area wondering if there was a bus to take when we saw the path leading to the Boardwalk which would then lead to EPCOT. Jessica looked at me, I looked at her. "Is this crazy? Will you do it?" I asked. "Let's do it" she said. And thus we began our walk in the SWELTERING HEAT over to Epcot from Hollywood Studios!!

 

[jrogue]

The walk wasn't too bad! We really hustled, and it only ended up taking us 15 minutes! And that's WITH stopping to ask a DVC cast member if we were headed in the right direction! The Boardwalk looked cool. It's the first time I have really seen that resort. And it's really great that you could walk to either EPCOT or Hollywood Studios from there!! I don't think my parents could do it, but my sister and I definitely enjoyed doing it! It's something to keep in mind for next time, since we loved being able to walk to and from the Magic Kingdom.

Finally 15 minutes after our journey began, we made it to Epcot.

We were actually completely sweating through our clothes, so we stopped to get some iced water.

Super refreshing! We then made our way to Mexico, where we considered taking a picture with Mexican Donald but then decided against that for the day.

There are always so many beautiful things inside Mexico's pavillion! Jess and I are half Mexican, so a lot of the stuff is stuff we recognize from visiting our family in Mexico.

We did one of our favorite rides, which is the Gran Fiesta Tour! The new animatronics at the end are SO ADORABLE! And a very nice touch! I'm glad they added those in. They really make the ride!!

After the ride, we went right in to our table at La Hacienda De San Angel. It was looking a little dark outside, so we were glad that we would be missing any storm that came our way! We had a really nice view of the water from our booth. (As it turns out, it never rained -- just got really windy!)

One of my favorite features of the restaurant are the beautiful lights they have!

Our other favorite feature is THE FOOD. IT'S JUST AS DELICIOUS AS WE REMEMBERED!

We of course ordered some extra rice, beans, and tortillas to go along with our meal after the initial servings they give us. No one, and I mean NO ONE enjoys this meal more than my sister does. No one. I mean come on, look at her plate when she was done! Nothing left but bones and peas! She even managed to get some beans in her purse

Then came my favorite dessert on property, the apple/dulce de leche empanada with dulce de leche ice cream. To. Die. For. Ohmygosh.

 

[jrogue]

I'm weirdly a really big fan of some of WDW's restroom signs, so I snapped a picture of the ones here in Mexico. On previous trips I've snapped pictures of them from the Tangled restrooms and the ones in Belle's area.

We began our walk back to Hollywood Studios with happy bellies and a much slower stride. The walk back, even though we knew where we were going this time, took us just over 20 minutes.

We were able to make a FP+ reservation for Rock N Roller coaster, so we went on that again! I really, really, really love the personalization that My Magic + allows. Below is an AWESOME example of it!

Sad my show was only $7!! Haha. But the ride was awesome as usual.

After the ride, we headed over to in front of the Chinese Theater to catch the Star Wars Symphony in the Stars fireworks show. And oh my gosh, WHAT A SHOW. If this was available nightly it could easily become my favorite show. Sadly after we left it was replaced with the other Star Wars show. But here, I have some pictures for you!

 

[jrogue]

Seriously, if I could watch those daily I would. My goodness! They were super impressive.

As the fireworks ended, we realized we had about 5 minutes to make it to another attraction before it closed. Our unanimous decision was Toy Story Midway Mania. Jess and I jumped up and started sprinting, only to realize when we got next to the theater that the ride was closed due to being near the fireworks. We were bummed, but quick on our feet! "ROCK N ROLLER COASTER" Jess screamed as she sprinted towards the ride. I followed behind, both of us sprinting desperately through crowds, children, families. As luck would have it, WE MADE IT with 15 seconds to spare before closing! The cast member must have thought we were crazy for literally sprinting over! We were one of the last ones on the ride that night.

Then we began the slow walk home, stopping every so often to take pictures of things along the way. I loved an empty Hollywood Studios!

My step count for Sunday was 26,032

 

[myhappyplace]

Love those bathroom signs! I've only ever eaten at San Angel inside, so have never seen pics of the Hacienda side. Looks yummy! I can totally get behind all of your RnRC rides, because it is my favorite thrill ride at WDW.

My husband and I stayed at the Boardwalk on our last trip, and I would definitely recommend it, it was so nice to be within walking distance of two parks for sure!

 

[jrogue]

Love those bathroom signs! I've only ever eaten at San Angel inside, so have never seen pics of the Hacienda side. Looks yummy! I can totally get behind all of your RnRC rides, because it is my favorite thrill ride at WDW.

My husband and I stayed at the Boardwalk on our last trip, and I would definitely recommend it, it was so nice to be within walking distance of two parks for sure!

Thanks!! I took other bathroom sign pictures on my last trip that I shoud post! I highly recommend La Hacienda. Sometimes my family even eats there twice since we love it so much

That is super cool! When I get the chance I will check out your trip report from then. It sounds like a dream to be so close to two resorts!

 

[LisaBelle]

Sister trips are awesome! I am enjoying following along with yours! Love how you sprinted to RnRC and made it with 15 seconds to spare !

 

[jrogue]

Sister trips are awesome! I am enjoying following along with yours! Love how you sprinted to RnRC and made it with 15 seconds to spare !

thank you so much!! & YES we were so surprised!!! haha. I'll be posting more later tonight!