Trip Report *Completed* The Rain Filled Graduation and Cancer Free Celebration Trip

Hey everyone!
First off let me start by saying this is my first trip report and I am very excited to share my trip with all of you! Secondly, I am going to freely admit that this TR will take me forever to finish since I start residency on Monday haha

For those of you interested in seeing my PTR its here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/graduation-and-cancer-free-celebration.883163/#post-6056949

Just a quick introduction to the trip:
When?
June 6th - June 16th 2014
Where? Port Orleans French Quarter, our recent favorite hotel
Why? My mom is one year cancer free and I just graduated from medical school!
Who? In order of the picture below: My dad, myself (Megan), my mom, my sister Jill's boyfriend Nick, my sister Jill, and my sister Betta

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Ok so Day 1 :) My Dad and I were very excited to be in the airport!
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Our flight was pretty terrible actually. We had a lot of turbulence, so much so that I fell over in the bathroom on the plane haha. However, if you ask my Dad it was smooth sailing (mainly because he slept through the whole thing). Seriously though, I don't think I ever landed so hard haha but it was all good because we made it to Florida!!!
I put my Magic Band on as soon as we landed
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Ok so I mentioned this in my PTR but we have always rented a car in Disney, but this year we decided not to so going on DME was a first for us!
Here is our DME family selfie (my sisters didn't come until the next day)…it was super popular on Facebook haha
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Anyway so I thought DME was pretty great, we barely waited at all and got to the hotel by 11:30 am. I didn't really mind the video…but I also never saw the old one. I will also admit that I was only half paying attention because I was answering some phone calls for residency stuff. I missed the Disney sign because I was on the phone :( I did get a picture of our hotel though!
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Oh, and on a side note at a red light we saw this sign and all three of us thought it said gourmet walk in medical care instead of gourmet pizza haha
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Ok so anyway, I am already rambling. When we got off the bus the most unexpected thing happened! The one cast member was standing there with our name on an iPad! I NEVER EXPECTED IT! I almost walked right past her! So she said because we did online check in our room was already ready AND she surprised us by giving us "I'm Celebrating" pins! My sister Betta called ahead and told them I was celebrating graduation and my mom was celebrating cancer free and they already had the pins made for us (although to be fair they got confused and made my moms a graduation pin too haha but so much Disney magic already)!
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We saw this beautiful sight when we walked into our room
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Basically we spent like 2 seconds in our room, just long enough to get changed (into the clothes I insisted we pack in our carry ons even though my parents thought I was insane) and off to the Magic Kingdom we went! First I had to pose with my new pin!
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Here are my parents at the Magic Kingdom…let me say thank goodness I was wearing sunglasses because I was tearing up I was so excited. Let me also say it was hot…probably because I'm from Buffalo and we had an especially horrible winter but boy was I grateful for that change of clothes
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We got inside and took some obligatory pictures with the Memory Maker
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Then…we were starving. Since we usually had a car we rarely ate on Disney property except for breakfast so this trip was our first chance to try new restaurants. I was standing there suggesting things to eat (since I did a disturbing amount of research) and we ended up just going to Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant because it was close and we were hungry. (We did initially look at Casey's Corner but I have a weird thing about only eating a certain brand of hot dogs from home and my mom doesn't even like them so we said no to that).

My mom and I got kids nuggets and mac and cheese and my dad got the adult nuggets. I thought it was all really good! (also, so much food comes with kids meals its insane!)
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On a side note my family really got into me taking pictures of food (although as you will see usually there was at least one bite out of it because we were always starving haha). My dad would always be like "we need to get a picture for the blog!" haha (blog was the term I used because trip report would have confused everyone)

Ok…next up is our actual day at MK and then dinner at the California Grill! Hopefully I can squeeze it in tomorrow before my graduation party :)
 

mrdrift

Well-Known Member
Thank you for sharing your family vacation with us. It's nice that I can live the experience through your report. All the pictures turned out really cute.
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thank you for sharing your family vacation with us. It's nice that I can live the experience through your report. All the pictures turned out really cute.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I plan on writing a quick summary of things we liked and tips right after I get off my week of nights haha
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ok so I wanted to make a quick summary of things I liked and some tips I have:

pre trip planning: 1. book your fast passes for morning times; this is opposed to what most people would say but on days that were very crowded I liked being able to pick up more passes after we finished with the ones we already had. I booked most of ours starting about an hour to 2 hrs after the park opened so we were able to go to certain rides first we knew would have a long line then transition to our Fast passes and then pick up more after; this is especially true in the case of Epcot and HS that have tiered Fast passes 2. do not worry if you can't get all the dinner reservations you want; we all picked up reservations the day of by using the app in the morning after a lot of people canceled their reservations (including places like LeCellier and Monsieur Paul)

On the trip: the only thing I would do differently is Fantasmic; even with Fast Passes our seats weren't great so I would definitely recommend getting there early. If you are getting there early its probably best to not even waste a fast pass on it anyway (although that depends on what day you go because rumor has it some days Fast Passes do get you better seats)
Another thing is don't go to the polynesian in search of a Dole Whip when its under construction haha

Restaurants I absolutely adored and would definitely go back:
California Grill
Sci Fi Diner
Flame Tree BBQ
1900 Park Fare
Tutto Italia
Germany Candy shop (not a restaurant but still good)

Other thoughts:
I really liked not having a car this trip. I realize its not realistic for a lot of families but for us it was much easier and we wasted less time driving; I think this is especially true since we could take a boat to Downtown Disney to eat
I still stand by Port Orleans FQ as being an awesome hotel…its small which is nice and its really nice in the mornings when there is only one bus stop
Talking Mickey was weird but cool
Star Wars weekend comes highly recommended

Post trip:
there is no cure for Disney depression other than planning another trip
So big news! I have known this for awhile but didn't want to write about it because I read this report to my mom so didn't want her to see. We are going back in February!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!! My mom's birthday is next week and its a big birthday for her so we wanted to do something special. My vacation happened to coincide with the Princess Half Marathon so we secretly signed her up and my sisters and I are going to run it with her! (don't worry everyone we will tell her next week so she has time to train..not sure how much time I will have to train though…meh…at least I have run them in the past barely trained so I can probably do it). I'm so excited! I can't wait to tell her so we can start working out details. Be on the look out for a PTR with lots of questions (for example my mom, Betta and I all have recent half times so can be in an earlier corral but Jill doesn't and is also running for charity since she missed the deadline to sign up so she will be in the last corral which makes me worry about not having enough time to stop for characters). In any case AHHHH!!!

Thanks to everyone for reading my TR I hope you enjoyed :):D:joyfull::inlove:
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Great report! I loved reading it! It really helped get me through the time leading up to my trip. So excited that you will be going back so soon. What a great surprise for your mom! I will definitely look for the pre trip and trip report. I wish you continued good luck with your residency. Now I better get back to working on my TR :).
 

Foltzy

Well-Known Member
Really like the report.

I just stayed at port Orleans FQ and really liked it. Never had a chance to go to the food court. I'm thinking its good by your posts.

Being the transportation freak that I am , I'm curious. What building did you stay in and how long was the walk to the bus stop from your room. I stayed in 7 and only had a 3-5 min walk. I'm wondering if I should ask at the front desk for an upgrade like I always to. (Coronado springs moving to casitas, etc.)

Was the TTA open during your trip? It's one of my favorites and i missed it. The closing date I heard was changing so in curious if it was closed during your stay.

Btw. I took a picture with the front door dude too. He's an awesome guy

Also congrats on graduating and especially congrats to your mom.
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Really like the report.

I just stayed at port Orleans FQ and really liked it. Never had a chance to go to the food court. I'm thinking its good by your posts.

Being the transportation freak that I am , I'm curious. What building did you stay in and how long was the walk to the bus stop from your room. I stayed in 7 and only had a 3-5 min walk. I'm wondering if I should ask at the front desk for an upgrade like I always to. (Coronado springs moving to casitas, etc.)

Was the TTA open during your trip? It's one of my favorites and i missed it. The closing date I heard was changing so in curious if it was closed during your stay.

Btw. I took a picture with the front door dude too. He's an awesome guy

Also congrats on graduating and especially congrats to your mom.

Thank you! We stayed in building 6 and it was nice to be able to cut through the parking lot to go to the bus stop instead of walking through the main building (so we actually weren't that far from 7). We stayed in building one in the past and felt like it was a longer walk so this time I requested being close to transportation on the online check in process (I too am a bit of a transportation freak)
TTA was not open :( I love that ride and was really sad we missed it. They pushed the closing date back but we still missed it by a week
I love the front door guy he's so funny!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Great report! I loved reading it! It really helped get me through the time leading up to my trip. So excited that you will be going back so soon. What a great surprise for your mom! I will definitely look for the pre trip and trip report. I wish you continued good luck with your residency. Now I better get back to working on my TR :).

Thank you! Now I plan on using your TR to help me get through the time to my February trip :) Can't wait to read some more
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Thank you! Now I plan on using your TR to help me get through the time to my February trip :) Can't wait to read some more

Glad to return to the favor! My sister and I are discussing doing a runDisney race to coincide with my 50th birthday in January of 2016. Don't think either of us are up for a half, but we would love to do a 5K. Will definitely be interested in race tips after your trip. Can't wait to hear about your mom's reaction to the news and all the pre trip details!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Glad to return to the favor! My sister and I are discussing doing a runDisney race to coincide with my 50th birthday in January of 2016. Don't think either of us are up for a half, but we would love to do a 5K. Will definitely be interested in race tips after your trip. Can't wait to hear about your mom's reaction to the news and all the pre trip details!

for sure I will have some tips after figuring out how to navigate run disney..it's not as easy as you may think haha. That sounds like it would be a fun trip and an awesome thing to celebrate! A 5k is a good length (I'm definitely regretting signing up for a half haha)
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ohw that's right :) It took me some to finish your report, there was a DLP trip in the way LOL! So now only 65 days left for us.... thanks for sharing your great trip!

Thanks for reading :) I plan on finding time soon to read your recent TR! I can't believe your trip is so close now its almost time to pick Fast Passes!
 

FlaggNL

Well-Known Member
Thanks for reading :) I plan on finding time soon to read your recent TR! I can't believe your trip is so close now its almost time to pick Fast Passes!

Take your time :) The TR is finished to now were left to read other TR's and count down to our October trip :) Fastpasses is more than 30 days away. We stay off-site and then you are allowed to get fastpasses 30 days prior the trip :)
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Take your time :) The TR is finished to now were left to read other TR's and count down to our October trip :) Fastpasses is more than 30 days away. We stay off-site and then you are allowed to get fastpasses 30 days prior the trip :)

Oh man I forgot about that 30 vs 60 day stipulation
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well, I certainly am glad I wrote this trip report because while I was writing my next PTR it occurred to me that I never made my scrapbook for this trip...haha I'm glad I have a full account so that I can figure out how to organize this scrapbook. Does anyone else get behind in making albums and such too?
 

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