2 weeks ago today....

It's taken me a week to be able to actually come onto this site... It's only because of a few dutch courage drinks that I'm now posting... but... a trip report may soon follow... 2 nights at AOA, 14 nights at POFQ and 5 nights on Hotel Plaza Blvd (Downtown Disney Hotel)...

I actually can't look at our photos yet. I'm too sad about coming home!!

Does anybody else grieve this much?! I'm having to keep it to some kind of sane level for my other half... he likes Disney (although doesn't always admit it) but he doesn't love it on the same level as me...

Anyway I will report soon... just needed to vent my "waaaah I want to go baaaaack!" first to people who would understand! I've already planned two ways we could go back this year despite holiday allowance restrictions and finances!

And before I even post this... I'm getting sad because the first time I posted here (and the last time I did)... I was in Florida! And the "alert" posts are almost a holiday memory now.... Sniff!

 

[englanddg]

This will sound odd, but trip reports help with that feeling. First, you get to recall all the fun you had as you write it, and then when you need a Disney fix, you have something to go back and read.

It's funny now, when I go back and read my last trip report, how the memories flood back into my mind...

No reason to be sad...just more reasons to plan to go back!

 

[disneysince71]

I know how you feel. I miss it every time I leave... It sounds like you had a blast. Keep the memories close to your heart and start planning your next trip....

 

[Jessica Meier]

It has been almost two years since I have been "home". I miss it terribly but love to read others trip reports and be reminded of fun times and new exciting things to try. I think those of us on here understand your "grieving" but keeping the memories fresh and visiting when you find yourself missing it helps a great deal. Here is to your next trip being as great as your last and for a couple of nice drinks to help you write that trip report! Cheers!

 

[disneysince71]

Of all my trips to Disney in the past 20 years the one I took in March/April was the best. I guess after being on this site everyday I found a new appreciation for all things Disney... I agree with @Jessica Meier being on here really helps...

 

[bethymouse]

plan to go back!
That's why I'm hoping for a good bounce back offer.
Can't wait to see pictures!

 

[englanddg]

I have a personal thing too...I make videos to remember the trips. I find they work better for me than photo albums, etc.

This year I have at least 3 videos planned. I don't do much to block them out, I just piece together pictures and videos I take during the trip.

This past year (2012) I actually went with some sort of a plan for the video, and made sure to grab 30 second or less videos of me or the kid dancing badly around the parks.

The end result was this:



And this:



But, previous years I just pieced together various videos / pictures to a soundtrack, like this:



It's a fun way to spend time when not at the parks to remember the trip...

 

[bethymouse]

my other half..
I am in that same boat. There will come a time where hubby says he won't go! I continue to persuade him, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last since my boys are getting older and want to experience more "thrill" rides. My hubby wanted HersheyPark or Bush Gardens Williamsburg or even Kings Dominion, but I convinced him that the boys still weren't quite "tall" enough to experience the rides that are there: particularly some of the roller coasters... Also sadly, I don't "fit" into some of those roller coaster safety restraints ( especially Hershey and Kings).

 

[englanddg]

Kings and Hershey are both fun, but a far cry from Disney!

 

[Ariel1986]

I love your videos @englanddg !

Ok, I will be posting a trip report this week I've managed to finally start sorting photos and being ok with it! The report will probably be more photos than words as I didn't write down any notes but I hope you all enjoy it anyway! I enjoy reading everyone else's (lol I even read a few when I was in Disney as night time or poolside reading!)

I love that I found this site to be able to post things like this!

 

[5thGenTexan]

I always get bummed out when vacations end, but with both DCL cruises I really had a big lump in the throat problem the day before and on debarkation day. The longer the cruise, the harder it is. Our last cruise that ended on Saturday was an 8 day sailing. I have not done a full trip to WDW resort as a whole, but on a cruise you are pretty much locked into a finite space where to a certain degree you build relationships with the CMs, other guests and even characters. The folks in the dining areas know your name and calls you by name, your room steward knows your name and calls you by name. The youth counselors know your kids and talk to them outside the clubs. Heck, even the CMs at Guest Services know you. I, as well as other past cruisers had a similar experience... CMs from past cruises actually remember you and make a point to visit even though they aren't your server or steward. The princesses are often seen "roaming" and will stop to visit with the kids even though its not an offical time for a meet and great.

So yes, I miss the CMs, I miss the other guests, I miss the ship. Makes me a bit sad even writing this.

 

[gwhb75]

It's the worst feeling. I remember after our first trip I spent about 3-4 weeks doing the "at this time X number of weeks ago we were doing this at Disney". It passes. The trip report does help, and it's fun seeing how many people read it and leave comments.

 

[donaldtoo]

Yep, leaving WDW always blows pretty major chunks.
We were there this past July and are fortunately heading back again in less than 30 days. It'll be the first time ever that we've gone in consecutive years.
Looking forward to your TR! Hold those memories tight and here's to hoping y'all get back soon!

 

[tink65]

I always, always, always play the "this time last week we were...." game for the first week (sometimes) two after we return from Disney. It does pass and then you just start to look forward to the next trip!

 

[foreverbelle]

Its always so hard to come home and sometimes even harder to get on this site after being on such a high, not only from vacation but vacation from Disney. I always think well this time....but I always find doing a trip report helps relieve the pain of those blues just a bit. Hang in there!!

 

[Ariel1986]

Ok so it took a little longer than I thought to get round to it but finally I've got photos sorted and I'll start a trip report! It' probably going to be more photos than words... although I'll probably randomly ramble about the odd thing for aaaages! And I can't remember the exact order of things/what we did day by day hour by hour... but... here we go!

Ok, first an introduction. This is me:

This is me when I'm in Disney World:

I love that photo that is how I feel about Disney. I get so excited! As loads of us do, I love it, it's my home!

So, yes the holiday. I went for 3 weeks! It was the end of an East Coast tour of the US that me and my (what's the abbreviation for boyfriend- well actually he's my fiance?) other half had been on since 21st March, and we arrived in Disney World on the 7th April for our first stop; 2 nights in a Little Mermaid room in the Art of Animation hotel.
I won't be putting any pictures up of my partner as I'm not sure he'll be happy with being plastered all over a disney site ha ha!
So it will just be photos of me, Disney, food and alcoholic beverages... of which there were many. Including in the Little Mermaid cup above ha ha!

So... back to the start...

 

[Ariel1986]

As you can probably tell by my Avatar and name I LOVE The Little Mermaid! I was so excited when I heard they were building this hotel! I found the theming amazing and really well done. I can imagine bringing children here would be great! 5 year old me probably would of melted with excitement. In fact adult me almost did when I saw the bathroom decoration! I could be Ariel!
We were only there for 2 nights so I don't have too much to report on this part as we had a room only booking, our tickets and free dining didn't start until we checked into our next hotel. We actually went to Universal (gasp, how could we?! Lol ) on the full day we had whilst staying here and I won't report on that on this board since it's a Disney one and all!

I would definitely recommend checking this hotel out for the theming- and if you have kids I think they'd love it! It was clean and I personally didn't find any of the walks from our room to the main hall and food court far at all (a 5 maybe 10 minute stroll?) and the Little Mermaid is the farthest section. I did only stay 2 nights though so it may be different for a longer stay. And we could hear the rooms around us but it wasn't too bad- perhaps we had good neighbours though!
Only ate one meal in the food court, I had a turkey... pesto sandwich I think..? My other half had the pulled pork. Both were adequate, the homemade chips were nice (although I noticed a lot the whole holiday that a lot of meals that used to come with fries now had "home made chips" with them instead... hmmm... didn't like that with some of the food options either).

Anyway here are some pics from the AoA:

And then we ventured outside of Disney for dinner and some supplies.... and of course I had to take these on the way back in...

And back to the hotel...

 

[Ariel1986]

Ok so my report is taking a little longer than planned lol! Oh well I suppose it will make it feel as if the holiday is still going!

So where was I... ah yes we'd had two nights at the AoA. Next stop- POFQ!

Ok so on Tuesday 9th April we got packed up and got ready to move out of our Little Mermaid room at the AoA and drive over to POFQ to check in for our 2 week, park hopper, free dining stay!
We arrived shortly before 12pm and checked in with a hope to be able to actually have a room... no not quite ready yet! Check in was smooth and effiecient though, the girl who saw us was very friendly and interested in our stay. We hadn't checked in online previously.

So we decided to go for a wonder and check out the resort and it's sister resort Riverside and grab some lunch whilst we waited.
The resort was very pretty and clean and the 5 or 10 minute stroll to Riverside was a pleasant one.

We saw a turtle from the bridge at Riverside!

For lunch we headed into Riverside's food court where there was quite a wide selection- and most of it was fairly tasty the times we visited during our stay. For this lunch I had a tuna sandwich with home made chips (HUGE and very tasty!) and my partner had a spicy chicken pasta from the "make your own" pasta station. Again a huge portion and quite tasty. Sorry no photos of this meal (I'm sure I took one but can't find it!) but I DO have a photo of THE BEST PART of this meal...
THE MAGIC COOKIE BAR!!!

This was amAZing. Honestly it's just sugary chocolate indescribable goo that tastes better with each bite. Lol I am actually craving one of these right now! I don't know why it works but it does. Nom nom nom.

So, after that injection of sugar we headed back over to see if our room was ready yet. Not quite! It was only 1.45pm still so we shrugged our shoulders and went to look around the resort shop and into the arcade (yes, we go all the way to Disney World and my other half is very happy just sitting playing the star wars arcade game! ).
After about 45 minutes I went and sat in the reception area when a CM came running over saying "I've been trying to find you, just after you asked your room became ready!" I had left a number but there text message hadn't worked but anyway, we had a room (1st floor, building 1), hurrah!

Our well stocked fridge for the stay... yes that is chocolate, yahoo, alcoholic chocolate drinks and margarita drinks...all the essentials of course...!

So after settling in we decided to catch the boat to Downtown Disney (a nice POFQ perk!) for our first TS. We hadn't booked anything for our first day, we'd wanted to take the first few days slowly with no plans- after traveling down the East Coast the past few weeks we were wanting to relax after being pretty go go go in the cities we'd visited. So this is why apart from going to Universal on the Sunday, we'd pretty much chilled and just checked out the resorts for the first few days, and the following day was to be our first Disney park day with an ADR.

Anyway, so, river and boats!

These Treehouses on the way looked cool!

In Downtown we decided to try Bongos for our first TS as we enjoy Cuban food... we both had the special, can't remember exactly what it was but this is the pic:

What I do remember is the taste though... and it wasn't that great! Unfortunately it was just a bit bland and the service was lame. Very slow and they didn't seem bothered about anything. We waited 20 mins for the bill and then another 15 for them to come back with our Key to the World card! Anyway, I know they're not a "Disney" restaurant per se and this wasn't a "must do" for us or anything... so as I was in DISNEY WORLD I didn't really let it bother me! Just glad we didn't actually pay money for the meal and we had free dining!

So after that we headed back to POFQ for an early night because in the morning we had an early ADR at a certain park...

 

[Ariel1986]

Ok so it's been a while- nearly 2 months! I still want to finish this report (plus relive being in Disney again!) I've just been quite busy... oh well I will try to keep up with it this time! You never know the report maybe finished by Christmas...

ANYWAY, where were we...

Ahh yes. MAGIC KINGDOM DAY!!!
Now before this wonderful website I had never heard of ADRs or ADRs that you could make BEFORE THE PARK OPENS!! I couldn't believe this was true when I read it- an almost EMPTY Magic Kingdom?! That's my dream! So as soon as I read this I booked an 8.10am ADR at The Crystal Palace.

Up until this morning I had fretted so much about how to get there and what time to leave, whether we could park or whether the monorails/ferries would be running or if the bus would turn up if we chose the bus!
In the end we went with the bus (but I shouldn't have worried about driving- the car park was open and the monorails AND the ferry were running!) and after a 6.30am alarm we were sitting at POFQ's bus stop just before 7am. An MK bus turned up within minutes- score! And we were the only ones on it. We arrived and were standing at the gates at 7.20am- I was literally buzzing with excitement! I actually felt about 5 and waiting for Christmas. It was brilliant! I'd forgotten that feeling. My other half was still half asleep yet somehow this put him in a good mood... and by 7.40am we were let through the turnstiles to wait inside the entrance (UK peoples... I kept hearing that old Disney advert from a few years ago with the mum and little boy- where they are at the entrance and he's looking with wonder and she says to him "this is just the entrance... why don't you go inside?" Lol! )

About 10 mins later the moment happened... the rope holding us back was unhooked and we were let in!

So we then went and checked in for our ADR and were given a pager, which gave me a chance to get a couple more pics.

And then... this... *droooool pooh's puffed french toast*

I didn't actually see this until after I'd already eaten... plus I actually was so excited about managing to get on some rides without much of a line PLUS there was New Fantasyland (HUUUUGE Little Mermaid fan! Closely followed by Beauty and the Beast!) that I was finding it hard to actually eat! Which for me is actually quite shocking, especially in Disney! So I didn't try it! But if it tastes anything like the pooh's puffed french toast... Ohhhh Lordy

This was also my first character breakfast and I really enjoyed it! My other half only wanted a pic with Tigger though (his fave character along with stitch). Just before Tigger got to our table though (and just as we had paid the bill) a family of 10 sat down and he went to do the rounds with them so we thought we'd leave it as we wanted to get outside and through the castle before rope drop!

So off we went towards the castle again, we had a good few minutes still before rope drop so I took some videos- they're brilliant to watch now as the sun is so bright and the park is empty but the music loops are playing. Aaaaah...

And then.... the castle...

This image is actually off to the side (taken from the smoking area- my other half smokes ) and was taken after rope drop and after we'd explored a few rides but I wanted to add it here as I love the pic (it's my phone wallpaper now!) and it's one of the castle so I thought I'd throw it in.

So up next... MK morning!

 

[bethymouse]

Keep it coming love!