Trip Report Mom & Maddie's visit to Wonderland - February 2016

Hello Everyone,

I am finally able to post my trip report. Here is my pre-trip report if you would like to read it.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-third-time-is-a-charm-for-mom-and-maddie.903762/#post-7073169

We are Mom & Maddie and this is our third trip to Walt Disney World.

Details:
Dates: Monday, February 22 - Monday, February 29, 2016 (8 days, 7 nights)
Resort: Disney's Art of Animation Resort - Little Mermaid
Tickets: 6 day tickets with park hopper

Thanks for following along and I hope you enjoy my trip report.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Travel Day 1 - Sunday, 2/21/2016

I found a great deal on flights for this trip which is what made this all possible. On this day we packed the car and drove three hours to Albany, NY.

We stopped to grab something for lunch/dinner before checking into the Hilton Garden Inn at the Albany Airport doing the park, stay and go package. Then we just relaxed in the room and watched movies on our devices. Our room was nice and clean but the beds were terrible. We didn't sleep well at all and had to be up at 3am. Oh well, tomorrow we arrive in Disney World!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Travel Day 2 & Day 1 at Disney World - Monday, 2/22/16

We were ready bright and early for our flight. The hotel shuttle took us the the Albany Airport. Southwest check in and security was a breeze. We got our first Starbucks of the trip while we waiting for boarding. We lucked out and had A boarding so that was quick too. Our flight was smooth and we arrived to Orlando an hour early which was so great!

Right after we landed I got the email saying that our room was ready. Off to a terrific start!

We headed to the magical express but my magic band wouldn't work so it took us a little longer to check in as they had to check my paperwork. But after a few minutes we were checked in and on the bus to the most magical place on earth!

We are here!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Travel Day 2 & Day 1 at Disney World - Monday, 2/22/16, cont.

When we arrived at the resort we stopped at the front desk to make sure our magic bands were working properly. The cast member checked them and said that they were all set. We headed to our room.
Last year we had room #9560 in the Little Mermaid section of Art of Animation and this year we had room #9561. How cool is that!

Here are some photos of the room:

Our room was clean and we were very happy with the location. We changed into our shorts and short sleeves then went to The Landscapes of Flavor food court to purchase our mugs and have some lunch.
I had the turkey sandwich on a multi-grain croissant and Maddie had the kids mac & cheese.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Travel Day 2 & Day 1 at Disney World - Monday, 2/22/16, cont.

After lunch we walked over to Pop Century via the generation gap bridge because Maddie wanted a Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar for dessert.
A Florida bird in the water

Maddie's new Minnie Ears and the last picture you will see of her in this trip report because she didn't want her photo taken this trip for some reason (braces maybe?). We didn't have memory maker so I am not in any photos either. I didn't think memory maker was worth it but now I am thinking it is.

Walking back to AoA with her ice cream

Love Disney paths

We decided to walk back to our room for a rest and just after we arrived there was a knock at our door with our luggage. I unpacked and tried to take a nap.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Travel Day 2 & Day 1 at Disney World - Monday, 2/22/16, cont.

After our rest we got ready to go to Disney Springs. We had an early 4:30pm dinner reservation at The Boathouse. This is by far our favorite meal from this trip. It was so good! I had the cedar planked salmon and Maddie had the filet mignon.
The Boathouse

The warm yummy rolls

My Salmon

Maddie's Filet Mignon (photo from wdwmagic) as I forgot to take a picture

After our wonderful meal we walked around Disney Springs. A lot of the new things weren't open when we were there but we could see that construction was coming along.
Here are some photos Maddie took at Goofy's Candy Co.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Travel Day 2 & Day 1 at Disney World - Monday, 2/22/16, end

Next we took a stroll around The Art of Disney. This is our favorite shop in all of Walt Disney World. Maddie and I just love all the art. I purchased a book.
Maddie took lots of photos of the art, here they are...

We were ready to head back to the resort so we took the bus back. We picked up a few waters from the food court and headed to our room to get ready for bed.

 

[FlaggNL]

Hej another TR from you! Great start and absolutely following along!! Thanks for sharing!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Hej another TR from you! Great start and absolutely following along!! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for following!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 2 - Tuesday, 2/23/16

We had plans this morning to try to make the welcome show at the Magic Kingdom but sleep won. We were pretty worn out from our travel day and lack of sleep the night prior. Once we were dressed and ready to go it was time to head out. We walked the back way to the bus stop at AoA and couldn't believe what we saw when we arrived. The line for the Magic Kingdom bus wrapped around the building. So many people! I never saw that before. I was expecting this to be a slower week but it wasn't slow at all! Maddie and I decided that we would just hop on the next bus that arrived since none of the other parks had a line.
The Epcot bus arrived first so we got on the bus. When we arrived at Epcot we decided to take the monorail to the TTC and then head to Magic Kingdom as we originally planned since we had FP+ and a lunch reservation there. We had never been to the TTC so this was a first for us and found the adventure of trying to get to Magic Kingdom fun!

Spaceship Earth from the monorail platform.

When we arrived at the TTC we decided to stay with the monorail vs. taking the boat because the boat seemed very busy but the monorail line was moving much faster.
Magic Kingdom was super crowded when we arrived so the line for bag check and going through the entry way took a little while. Maddie and I walked down main street and we both teared up. We didn't think we would be able to go to WDW in 2016 and we were both so happy! We came across the main street performers so we watched them for a little while. They were pretty great!

I stopped for some photos of the castle. It was a beautiful day!

Our FP+ for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was approaching so we headed over to Fantasy Land. Our ride on Mine Train was super fun. We got to ride in the first car, second row. I really enjoyed this spot so much better then the one we had last year. I am not a thrill ride/roller coaster person but I loved it! This is actually Maddie's favorite ride. Next we walked over to watch Philharmagic and then we rode It's A Small World. We had a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest so we checked in on the bridge.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 2 - Tuesday, 2/23/16, cont.

We had pre-ordered our lunch which is the way to do it in my opinion as they were very busy but we got our food super quick after we checked in. We decided to sit in the library room.

Potato Leek Soup

Two Croque Monsieur, one with green beans and one with french fries

The Master's Cupcake and Triple Chocolate Cupcake

I loved the soup as always. The sandwiches were okay but Maddie didn't like the bread so she picked it apart to eat it. However, she loved the cupcakes and I only had one or two bites.
After lunch we had a FP+ for Jungle Cruise and then The Haunted Mansion. Our skipper on the Jungle Cruise was so funny and it was the best ride we had on this to date. The Haunted Mansion was great as usual but they had to stop the ride a bunch of times to load/unload folks. It felt like the ride was really long due to this. Maddie and I were walking through the sea of people and it was just getting more and more crowded. We decided it was time to park hop. Originally we were going to go to Hollywood Studios but decided to go to Maddie's favorite park, Epcot instead. We took a look in the Emporium on our way out of Magic Kingdom and got on the monorail to head to Epcot.
Hello Spaceship Earth!

We stopped into Starbucks to get something cool to drink. Maddie got a Vanilla Bean Frapp and I got an Iced White Chocolate Mocha. I had given up coffee at home so it was such a nice treat to have some coffee! I bought the Starbucks Epcot mug Christmas ornament for our tree. We wandered around The Art of Disney while drinking our Starbucks. Next we went to Club Cool so Maddie could get her taste of the drink from Japan which is her favorite. We decided to walk around World Showcase next. Maddie's focus was to get to the Japan Pavilion as fast as possible because she couldn't wait to see what was new in the store.
Maddie loves Japan!

We enjoyed our walk around World Showcase and stopped in Mexico to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros. We fell in love with this ride on this trip. The smell inside Mexico is just awesome and it is such a cute, relaxing ride. It just makes me smile thinking about it. We walked into Mousegears to look around and over to the pin stand next. We decided it was time to take a break so we went back to the resort.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 2 - Tuesday, 2/23/16, end

We relaxed back in the room. I asked Maddie what she wanted to do and she said that she just wanted to stay at the resort for the night. I was fine with that so we headed to the food court to grab something for dinner.
Maddie's pizza and cupcake

My create your own salad and carrot cake whoopie pie (It looks like just a bunch of lettuce and dressing in this picture but there were other things in there. It must be at the bottom).

The pin board was out in the store so we traded and bought a postcard to send to Maddie's dad. Next we went back to the room to watch Stacy on Disney TV, then we showered and went to sleep!

 

[DisneyJeff]

The pin board was out in the store so we traded and bought a postcard to send to Maddie's dad. Next we went back to the room to watch Stacy, shower and sleep!

When I first read this I thought "who is Stacy?" and why would you watch her shower and sleep. A comma sure does magical things!!
Great trip report so far. I look forward to reading more.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

When I first read this I thought "who is Stacy?" and why would you watch her shower and sleep. A comma sure does magical things!!
Great trip report so far. I look forward to reading more.

Thanks for reading! I changed that sentence up a little bit to make it not sound so creepy!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 3 - Wednesday, 2/24/16

We woke up nice and early today to go to Epcot. We arrived 30 minutes prior to opening. I was randomly selected to go through the metal detector during bag check which Maddie thought was very funny. She was laughing at me the entire morning saying that she knew I was an evil doer! We rode Spaceship Earth with zero wait. Love this ride! The sights, the interactive nature, the smell of Rome burning and the history. Next up was Figment and then The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Maddie loves wandering around The Seas and she took lots of photos of the fish.
This one is Maddie's favorite fish...

Nemo!

Dory!

We hung out with the turtles, dolphins, sting rays and manatee for a while before making our way over the The Land.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 3 - Wednesday, 2/24/16, cont.

We decided to ride Living with the Land prior to a special thing that I booked for us. We both enjoy this ride as well. They are very creative and I love seeing new additions during different seasons, etc.

The special thing I booked for us was The Behind the Seeds Tour. This was the highlight from our trip and I would highly recommend this tour. It is inexpensive and interesting. Our cast member guide, Kelly, was very knowledgeable and did a great job answering the groups questions. We had a very chatty group. Kelly also quizzed the group and I was impressed that Maddie knew a lot of the answers. Kelly called on Maddie a lot because at times she was the only one who raised her hand. Guess she really does pay close attention when we ride Living with the Land. It helps that they studied plants and trees this year in science class too. Get ready for a Behind the Seeds tour photo overload as we both took a lot of photos.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 3 - Wednesday, 2/24/16, cont.

The Behind the Seeds Tour, cont

I can't express enough how great this tour was. We were able to get up close and personal with the plants you see from a far on the ride. And they give you a cucumber grown at The Land to sample. We learned a lot and had fun going "back stage". Maddie and I bought a dragon fruit clipping after the tour and it is doing great at home.
After the tour we were really hungry as we didn't eat any breakfast. We went over to Sunshine Seasons to get something to eat. Who said you can't eat cake for breakfast?

Next on our agenda, World Showcase!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 3 - Wednesday, 2/24/16, cont.

We started in the Canada Pavilion walking through the shops and around the gardens. A show had started on the stage so we watched a little bit of that before moving on.

This fountain in Morocco was just so beautiful in person. It is such a pretty pavilion and we explored it more then we have in the past which I enjoyed.

We had to get a move on because we had an ADR for Tokyo Dining for lunch. This was Maddie's dining pick of the trip and she couldn't wait to eat here.
The Japan Pavilion (aka Maddie's second home)

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 3 - Wednesday, 2/24/16, cont.

We checked in for our reservation at Tokyo Dining. We didn't wait long and we were seated by the windows overlooking the pavilion.

Maddie ordered the Edamame which she loves.

For my meal I ordered the Grilled Teriyaki Chicken and I liked it very much. The rice, potato croquettes and sweet potatoes stood out for me. The chicken was fine but average.

Maddie had the Panko Chicken with two bowls of the beef rice as she is allergic to shellfish and couldn't have the noodle salad. She really enjoyed her rice, miso soup and the chicken.

We didn't have room for dessert so we skipped out on that but we did have cake for breakfast.
After lunch we walked around the Japan Pavilion a little longer with Maddie taking lots of photos.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 3 - Wednesday, 2/24/16, end

We walked over to the American Pavilion and the A Capella group, American Music Machine just started their performance. Maddie and I loved this. They performed a lot of popular songs and we were singing along. We stayed for the entire performance. It was great!

After that we decided to watch Reflections of China in the China pavilion as we have never watched it and we really wanted to see it. Very interesting and what a pretty country. Maddie bought a few goodies in China including a panda which she loves. Next we took a ride with The Three Caballeros in Mexico.
We had our last FP+ for Test Track scheduled so we walked over to that area. This was our first ride on Test Track but won't be the last. I chickened out riding during our trip in 2015 and I wasn't going to be a chicken again! We both had a blast on this ride. It was so much fun! Really a must do for Epcot for sure!
Here is our vehicle...

We decided to head back to the resort for a rest because we were coming back to Epcot for Illuminations.

After our rest we arrived back at Epcot to this beautiful site.

We walked over to France to grab some dinner from Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie. Maddie and I both had the ham and cheese croissant. We shared the chocolate mousse and macaroons.

Next we found a spot to watch Illuminations.

After that we went back to the resort to call it a night. This was by far the best day of our trip. It was fun, interesting and jam packed.