10 days of Magic, Mickey, and Memories

Hi all!

And so it has come to an end. All the months of planning and preparing resulted in the best 10 days for my husband and I! Here are the basics:

Who: My DH and I
What: 10 days of Memories and Magic at Walt Disney World
Where: Port Orleans Riverside
When: September 13 to the 22
Why: A trip for resting and relaxing after a very long and hard year and in preparation of starting another personal journey.

Some background: My DH and I have traveled to Disney every year since we were married. So this marked our 8th trip in a row. Now the last two trips, I went solo. I went to Disneyland in 2010 and went for a girls getaway with my mom in May 2011. Since we started going to WDW together, a lot has happened. We moved twice, went through some very hard times, and have struggled with infertility. So this trip was focused on reconnecting and putting all of that "stuff" behind us. In the past, we have stayed either offsite (in 2005 and 2006) and then onsite at Deluxe Resorts. Since 2007, we have been able to drive to WDW since we lived only 4 1/2 hours away from the World. Okay, we are pretty much up to speed so now, on with the show! Or as Peter Pan would say...Here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was the first time we stayed at POR as well as using DME. I will say to both, I would definitely recommend and stay/use again. We left very early on Thursday, September 13 and flew AirTran. It was a great flight and we got exceptional prices! We will definitely fly with AirTran again! The flight was smooth and on time so we arrived around 10 am at MCO and DME was ready and waiting for us! We did not have the fancy blue and cream DME bus which I was a tad disappointed about as I had never ridden on one! But we had a Mears bus and we were just ready to get to WDW!

Excited to get to WDW!

Super happy!

We arrived!

Arriving at POR!

We went ahead and did the online check in which didn't seem to make a difference. It was not busy, we still had questions, and we still talked to an agent. I will do it again, but didn't really notice that it made that much of a difference. We had called and requested a corner room on a higher floor and paid for garden view Royal Room. We got everything we asked for, except, our corner room faced a parking lot and was as far from everything as possible. So immediately called the front desk and I explained that I paid for garden view and would like garden view. We were moved to another room, that was near the pool, and a good location. It was not a corner room. The reason for the request for the corner is that I understand that the rooms can be quite dark so a corner room would let in more natural light. It would have been nice for that corner room but it didn't really bother us much at all.

View from the room

We first ate lunch since we were starved! We headed down to Riverside Mill. The DH tried to the pasta bar with cheese cake and I the burger and red velvet cake! All were delicious!!!!

The Royal Rooms were so nice! We really liked them a lot! They were beautiful!!

Yep, that's Stacy! The Must-Do's! Unt Beer???

 

[disney1077]

Love how serious you both look in this picture.

 

[DizneyPryncess]

Your trip report is awesome!! It looks like you guys had a blast. I love all the details - it makes me feel like I was there. I hadn't seen super detailed pictures of the Royal Rooms yet so that was awesome to see. For some reason, the sink is my favorite part of the room, haha.

Love all your choices for Epcot foods as well - I'm getting hungry just looking at all the pictures, haha.

 

[jimogi]

Great TR, fantastic pics & my DW loved the fact you too well up at the opening ceremony made her well up too. Thanks for taking the time out to do the TR.

 

[disneygirl76]

Good Morning and on to Day 4

So full disclosure here. I headed to MK - we were going to go here later in the day and stay for EMH. And DH stayed behind for a bit. One would think it was b/c he was tired and needed a wee rest. Well....not exactly. So we were able to update our phones this day through our phone carrier. And he needed to get to a TMobile or a Costco. He wants to get us the new Samsung Galaxy S III. This is "our" vacation and I wanted to go see some characters and God Bless him, Niles is so patient but he can only stand in line so much. So I had no problem with this and happily off I went to MK. I took the bus, waited 35 mins before I even saw a MK bus. In that time, 3 AK and 2 DH and 2 Epcot buses came through. 2 AK buses were there at the same time. I didn't care what time I got to MK so this wasn't too much of an issue. So headed off and DH stayed behind. Now I must say, I told him that the cab ride fare alone would make this a silly expedition but he wanted to give it a try.

So I arrived at MK and did what I love to do...slowly wander and take pics! There are a lot of photos here!

I stopped to watch the singers on Main Street!

I tried to the picture shot but really needed someone else there with me. This is as close as i could get it by myself.

White Rabbit! He is my dad's favorite! I see a Christmas Gift here!

Off to see Merida now!

I waited for about 35 mins and it was about 11 a.m. at this point. I didn't think the wait was bad but I could tell that the park so SO much busier then MK was two days before.

So while I was in line, I got a call from my dear hubby. He said he spend over an hour on the phone with tmobile and costco and as he hopped in the cab to go get the phones, he had an epiphany. That this was our vacation and what was he doing running around trying to get phones. (this epiphany also came after the cabbie said it would be about $40 to get him to Costco...one way. So he had the cabby take him to the Poly and he hopped on the monorail and joined me!

 

[disneygirl76]

Okay - got to get ready for work - day 4 to be continued!

 

[OswaldTheRabbit]

Oh I love when husbands have "epiphanies".... It was a good one . I love all the Halloween pics. The place looks so nice decorated for fall. I want to go in oct 2013. We have only done Christmas. Your dad will love the rabbit pic! It is so cute!

 

[ladydi]

Wow-Meredia looks..um...different.

 

[tink65]

I love this picture! Great updates....... Wouldn't it be nice if work could wait and we could get on with the important things....like updating trip reports!

 

[Gojira ゴジラ]

Okay - got to get ready for work - day 4 to be continued!

I really like your trip report.. it really makes me feel that you are there and you're updating this report live

 

[luv]

You look so happy in all the pics. Makes me happy for you.

 

[rufio]

Wow-Meredia looks..um...different.

I agree! She doesn't look much like Merida, does she?

 

[6laurac]

Know I'm late but simply fantastic trip report. I am glad you took the time to share.

Side note about your future family plans -don't ever give up your dream. After three years, my daughter was born on the same sad anniversary of a personal tragedy making a sad day a forever joyful one. I will keep you in my thoughts.

 

[Uncle Lupe]

I'm caught up and great report so far. You will get those rides on Dumbo and the Carousel someday. It's touching that you were moved by the opening of the park.

What is with all the AK buses at POR? I noticed the same thing during our visit. Reading this and seeing your pics has me wanting to make a trip so bad.

 

[soarin]

Love the trip report so far. I LOVE Karamel Kuche. I always get at least one salted chocolate covered caramel. I know this sounds weird, but the caramel and a beer from Germany and I am in heaven! Only 44 more days to go before I can have one!

 

[disneygirl76]

Day 4 continued!

Met the hubs and headed to Pecos Bill for lunch!

Seriously! This burger was stupid good!

(I had to include the pic of the drippy cheese!!)

the only carrots I will eat!

We then headed to Pirates to see Pirate Goofy!

Never noticed the skull before!

I had a great experience at this meet and greet! The photographer was just snapping pics of my as we were waiting in line! It was so funny! I will share when we get the photopass+ photos. Goofy had to go polish his boots and she said, let me take some pics! You are on photopass + after all! So I worked it!

Then Goofy came back and took the hand of the little boy standing behind me. So I just stood there making a pouty face. Goofy realized his error and ran up and grabbed me, dragging me over and kissing me arm! Everyone laughed it! It was SOOO hilarious!

(please note, my husband didn't have the camera on the correct setting )

Pretty!

We headed to Tom Sawyer Island. I asked about the paint brushes and the cast member told me that they don't do that anymore. But that they were revamping the program and something new should come soon. Hmmm...wonder what it could be?

We had not done TSI before so it was cool to experience. I am not sure I would do it every trip, but it was nice to explore. Caves were kind of creepy! And we realized later (on the Riverboat) that we did not do almost half of it! I guess we left too soon!! We then headed to Splash Mountain and used our fast pass that we pulled before lunch.

We then headed to the River Boat. We had not done that since we were kids either! It was very warm on the boat. And the speakers were not working on the top deck so we couldn't hear the story.

the yachtsmen!

 

[disneygirl76]

If I was a bird...i'd live here.

After the boat, we did Haunted and Hall of Presidents and then headed to Sleepy Hallow where we discovered our little parade spot!

We had a table and ordered the magical wonderful waffle sandwich from Sleepy Hallow and watched the parade! It was awesome!!

Words can not describe!!

Parade!

Pinochio?

did you put him down there?

yep, tossed him right over!

Doopy

Oh! Found Pinochio!

Yeah Doopy

Hello!

Its Mary and Bert!

 

[disneygirl76]

I feel that Bert heard me screaming his name!

Then off to tea cups

Squirrel having a snack!

(squirrel still there!)

After tea cups, on to Winnie the Pooh - and we got stuck! Right as the ride was ending...stopped! We got a free fast pass though! Perfect spot to get stuck!!

After Pooh, we did Mickey's Philharmagic and then headed around through TL to get to Crystal Palace.

Crystal Palace ADR for dinner. We have always done breakfast. Never dinner. It was tasty!

(we were celebrating my bday earlier b/c something else is going on for my bday which is another reason we picked September to travel)

Tigger!

Apps!

Dinner!

Okay - these chicken nuggets were awesome!! And the cajun pasta! Super Yum!

Piglet!

Dessert!

from another angle

And from another angle!

And just in case we didn't get enough dessert!

 

[disneygirl76]

Eeoyres holding my hand!

Pooh Kisses!

My bday cupcake! Yep, I made a wish!

After dinner, we headed through to Adventure Land

We rode Magic Carpets for the first time! Super fun!

The lines were getting crazy long. Rode Pirates and checked out Splash and Big Thunder. Pulled a FP for Splash and headed to Haunted

(bubbles)

Off to Tomorrow Land. A bit of a wait for Space Mountain.

We headed over to watch Wishes and found a place in the circle behind about 2 dozen people who were all standing up. Everyone else was sitting down. We didn't think anything of it and it was about 20 mins before Wishes was to begin. Then the rudest most obnoxious thing happened. You know those tour groups I mentioned before? They started chanting and yelling and clapping "sit down - clap clap clap. sit down - clap clap clap". I have no problem if you need/want us to sit down. I have no issue at all with this. But 20 mins before, when we felt we and the other people standing were doing nothing wrong, to clap and chant was completely obnoxious and inappropriate. My husband made a good point. We would never go to another country and behave like that. We were stunned. After 10 mins of their chanting, most everyone sat down, however we were directly behind another couple - a war veteran - who couldn't sit down b/c of his leg and hip. We did sit down on the edge of the curb and the man leaned up against a trash can. When Wishes began, we only watched half and then left b/c the entire time of Wishes, the tour group was talking. I will say, in all my years at WDW, this was one of the only times we encountered anything like this so in hind site, not a bad track record. But still, it shouldn't have happened.

After this, even though it was Extra Magic Hours, we did a lap noticing the wait times and we had already ridden everything we wanted, we decided to head out. Also, we thought that it would be better to head out before EMH ended and after the parks actually closed, hopefully improving the bus situation. Lets just say...we were wrong.

We head to the buses. Turnstile/Corral #5 is designated for POR. The one next to it, for POFQ. #4 is empty, as is the one in front of POFQ. When we got there shortly after 10:15 and all 3 corrals were filled up with people in the middle walkway area trying to stay in their "line." A bus arrived and we though surely, they would send another one b/c they could see all the people waiting in lines. 30 mins later, still no bus. During this time, there was a broken down bus in the spot for #4. I mention this b/c there were people dealing with that and they could see how long it was taking between buses as well as how many people were in line. It was beyond ridiculous! I am really not a complainer. But this whole MK bus to POR thing was completely messed up. We met people later in the week and they were all talking about "sunday" night! It seemed no matter what time you got in line, it was a issue and a long wait. We got home, around midnight.

When we got home, we did have a happy surprise.

and

PS -

looky looky

 

[DizneyPryncess]

Haha - I love the towel monkey! I haven't seen that one before!

Loved reading about the whole day - sounded like so much fun. I have to say I love the idea of just wandering & taking pictures. I feel like Disney trips are so rushed sometimes. You got some great shots. I love seeing all the Halloween decorations.

That waffle sandwich thingy looks SO good! I have to stop reading trip reports this late at night when I'm done eating - they make me want to go dig through my pantry.

Very excited to hear that the paintbrushes are being revamped in some form! Looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

 

[harveyt0206]

Following along....great report!! My hubby and I were at Magic that Sunday as well. We must not have been too far from where you were sitting because we heard/experienced that same tour group right before Wishes. There was a little girl standing next to us with her Dad and bless her heart she looked completely overwhelmed when that roar of sound started right next to her.

Love all the pics. Can't wait to read more.