A First Timer's Trip Report! (Text intensive)

WantToBeWhereArielIs · Mar 9, 2013

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013
We decided that Hollywood Studios should be the first park, considering we were both film/media majors and work in the industry! Because of the research I'd done, I knew that we'd have to get fast passes for Toy Story Midway Mania first thing. The park was set to open at 9AM, but they had a "soft opening" around 8:20AM or so, and we were able to get fast passes right away. And since the park had opened earlier than expected, we were also able to walk right on!

After that, we decided to ride Tower of Terror. I am a huge fan of The Twilight Zone and was excited to ride. Now, I knew that big drops were involved, but I had NO idea of the magnitude. I was screaming my head off, thoroughly convinced we would crash to our death. When we got off the ride, my boyfriend complained that I almost ripped his arm off! And because that wasn't enough, he then convinced me to go on Rock n'Roller Coaster, telling me, "It doesn't go upside down!" I KNEW he was lying, and he knew that I knew. But I wanted to be a good sport, so off we went. I didn't know I could scream so loud.

After back-to-back thrill rides, we headed back to Pixar Place to redeem our TSMM fast passes. I then wanted to check out The Great Movie Ride, which was cute, and a nice change of pace to the other rides. After that, we headed for our first Star Tours ride of the trip. Ironically enough, Star Tours made me feel more queasy than ToT or Rn'R! I thought the ride was really well done (especially since they randomly pick someone to be the rebel spy!) and my boyfriend was happy too.

I decided that it was time to meet some characters. Now, this might be blasphemy to some, but I'm not that big on meeting characters. Call it cynicism or whatever, but I just can't suspend my disbelief. I KNOW it's not the actual characters, but rather some Disney employee forced inside of the costume day in and day out. I do, however, find it easier to "buy in" to the schtick when the CM's face is totally obscured. I really wanted to get my picture taken with Ralph and Vanellope, so we waited in line for about a half hour or so. The line moved much faster than I anticipated.

After the meet and greet, we were hungry, so we set off in search of food. We thought about eating at ABC Commissary, but then we saw a snarky poster touting Jimmy Kimmel (who we're actually both fans of), but being as we each work for a competitive network, jokingly decided to boycott the restaurant this trip. We ended up at Pizza Planet. I had a regular cheese pizza and my boyfriend had the meat lover's. It each came with a Caesar salad and a dessert, so we opted for the cappuccino and lemon meringue cupcake. I enjoyed my meal, even though the pizza had somewhat of a frozen quality too it, but it wasn't bad. The cupcakes were delicious.

After lunch, we decided to see what other galactic adventures we could get into on Star Tours again. My boyfriend said he'd hoped we would go pod racing this time around, and we did, so he was happy. After the ride, we went off in search of more Pixar characters - Buzz Lightyear and Woody, and Mike and Sully. Buzz and Woody took the cake for being the most fun and interactive.

Seeing as how we rode all the rides and met all the characters we wanted for the day, we decided to go back to the hotel and rest a bit and get ready for dinner - a special anniversary dinner at The Flying Fish! Now, we wondered the best way to get to the Boardwalk from the Port Orleans. I had read that the easiest way was to take the bus back to the Studios, and then get the boat at the front of the park. For some reason, my boyfriend had it in his head that we should take the bus to Epcot, and then the boat from there. What we didn't realize was that you had to walk all the way through the World Showcase to get the boat. We were worried we would miss our reservation, but it all worked out in the end.

Flying Fish was DELICIOUS. We were given a keepsake anniversary menu, as well as complimentary tomato bisque shooters to celebrate. For the entree, I had the famous potato-wrapped red snapper with leek fondue, and my boyfriend had the NY Strip Steak. We also ordered the mac and cheese and risotto to share. For dessert, I had the PB&J creme brûlée, and he had the Boardwalk trio - popcorn pudding with candied popcorn, a cherry limeade popsicle, and a chocolate "hamburger" with pound cake "fries." Dinner was amazing, and well worth the 2 table service credits we each sacrificed.

After dinner, we took the boat back to Epcot and decided to go on Test Track since it was getting late and it was only a 25 minute or so wait. Test Track was SO much fun. We left the park just as Illuminations was starting.

Zipadeelady · Mar 9, 2013

Sounds great and ready to hear some more.

myhappyplace · Mar 9, 2013

Love reading first timers' reports, you are off to a great start!!

WantToBeWhereArielIs · Mar 10, 2013

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013
We wanted to utilize morning EMH at Epcot, so we got their crazy early - so early that they wouldn't even check our bags! When they finally let us in, I realized I had a problem with my Key to the World - it didn't work when we I had to "feed" it into the machine, then press my finger down, but it DID work with the newer ones, where you tap your card and press down. It was weird, and I couldn't figure out why it worked for the newer machines, but not the older ones.

We picked up fast passes for Soarin', and much like the previous morning at the Studios, there was practically no line, so we hopped right on. After flying over California, we headed to Future World to try out Mission: Space. The less intense "green" ride was walk on, while the true "orange" version was more of a wait. I was worried about getting sick, so we decided to just ride the wussy green version. The fact that the green version also supplied riders with barf bags scared me! After landing on Mars, we rode Test Track again and then headed back to The Land to redeem our Soarin' fast passes. After that, we rode the Seas with Nemo, being as I LOVE that movie. I was disappointed in the ride, however.

Epcot Character Spot only advertised a 20 minute wait to meet Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto, so we went in - but the line looked much longer than that. My boyfriend wasn't pleased, but we had fun meeting the staple characters. We then walked through World Showcase, trying to get our hands on the Grand Marnier slushie in France, but being as it was only 11am, the stand wasn't open. Open up and give us alcohol! No such luck. Walking around a bit more, we stopped for lunch at Tangierine Cafe in Morocco, which had a great ambience. My boyfriend has the kefka sandwich with fries, and I had the pita trio - lamb, chicken, and falafel. The chicken was my favorite. We each also got a small piece of baklava. Yum.

After lunch, we decided to leave Epcot since we had dinner reservations in Mexico. So off we went to the Magic Kingdom! The park I was most excited for (which I think all first-timers are). It's where that Disney magic really shines, in my opinion. So we hopped a monorail to the TTC, then the other one to MK. The first thing we did was get fast passes for Space Mountain, then meandered through Fantasy Land and rode "Small World." What a bizarre ride - but a staple for any Disney trip, I guess. Then we checked out Philharmagic, which I thought was super cute. Since the fast pass kiosk for The Little Mermaid is right near the theater, we picked up fast passes for those as well. Then we headed to Tomorrowland to redeem our Space Mountain fast passes, where I proceeded to LOSE MY FREAKING MIND. Oh my God. After that ride, I needed something calm (ha!) so we ducked into Carousel of Progress. After a journey into the past (and future), we played Buzz Lightyear, where something very strange happened. I scored a staggering 500,000+ points, a rarity since I'm neither dexterous or particularly good at games. My boyfriend couldn't believe his eyes. Still high off my win, we picked up ice pops at the snack stand and then took a spin on the Tea Cups. We wanted to ride Dumbo, but the line was way too long - something that remained a constant throughout our trip. We never did get to ride the Flying Elephant.

Waiting for our fast pass return on The Little Mermaid, we walked through New Fantasyland and Belle's Village. We also took a sneak peek at the new Snow White ride slated to make its debut next year! Exciting. We rode The Little Mermaid, which I adored, being as it's my favorite Disney movie (couldn't you tell?). We also found a hidden Mickey there! I won't tell anyone where it is, lest I spoil the discovery, but it's upon exiting.

After our journey under the sea, we decided to make our way towards the gates. We wanted to spend the entirety of Thursday in MK, so we wanted to leave some things for then. We stopped to look in some of the shops in Main Street USA, including the Confectionery (where we stopped again, and again, before we returned home.) My boyfriend began to make his way back towards the monorail, but I suggested we take the ferryboat to TTC, being as we had time to kill and it was nice out (one of the nicer days of the trip.) We got back on the monorail to Epcot, and made our way to Mexico for dinner at La Hacienda.

Hacienda was delicious. My boyfriend had the house chicken, while I enjoyed delectable shrimp tacos. For dessert, I went with the "adventurous" corn ice cream, and my boyfriend had the empanada apple pie. We were closing in on an almost 12 hour day, and the sun was really starting to get to me (I returned to the hotel to find I'd been quite burned.) On our way out, we noticed Spaceship Earth was walk-on, so we decided to ride before leaving. I really enjoyed the ride! We had plans of maybe heading back out to Downtown Disney or the Boardwalk later that night, but we were both wiped and slept the whole night.

WantToBeWhereArielIs · Mar 10, 2013

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013
Wednesday morning, my boyfriend and I had an appointment to meet with a DVC agent for an info session. My boyfriend's mom had always been interested in joining, so we decided to get as much information as we could for her. Just for attending the session (and there really is no pressure), you get an insane amount of perks: personal transportation to and from the session, refreshments (coffee, tea, muffins, cookies) beforehand, ice cream afterwards, and three instantaneous fast passes per person each. FYI, in case anyone is interested in attending. After the session, we had the driver drop us back off at the Studios.

While there, we picked up regular fast passes (we wanted to choose wisely with our instantaneous ones!) for Rock n'Roller Coaster (yeah, I'm going on it AGAIN). Then we hopped on Star Tours to try for a different experience, but wound up with a combination of the first two. My boyfriend also noticed a canon error, one of which I don't understand or really care to. We then decided to watch Muppetvision, an attraction which I think shows its age. But it was cute. Heading back to Rn'R, we hopped the very short line to meet Phineas and Ferb. After that, we got on Rn'R, which was now at a *140* minute wait. Good thing we picked up fast passes!

We also wanted to do Tower of Terror, but the line was too long. For whatever reason, we didn't cash in our instantaneous fast passes, so we decided to head over to the only park left on our agenda - Animal Kingdom! We got fast passes for the Safaris, then had lunch at Flame Tree. Out of all our quick-service meals, this was the worst. I had the smoked chicken salad, which was admittedly tasty, but my boyfriend did not care for pulled pork sandwich at all. Oh well. After lunch, we got fast passes for Expedition Everest, and then headed for the Safaris. We had a GREAT experience - so many animals were out, and some were even a little up close and personal! So fun.

After the Safaris, we took a look at the otter display (my all-time favorite animal - the mere sight of them puts me in a tail spin). Along the way, I spotted a Hidden Mickey on the ground, and was really proud of myself! We then rode Dinosaur before making our way to Everest. After Everest, I decided I really wanted to try Tower of Terror one more time, so we made our way BACK to the Studios. The line was still pretty long, so now was the time for those instantaneous fast passes! After the creepiest hotel elevator ride ever, we wanted to try to ride TSMM again, but I got sidetracked by the "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" show. I can't get enough Ariel. So we watched that, but the experience was marred a bit by a little girl behind who lost her mind crying when Ursula came out. Why her mother didn't take her outside, as not to disturb the other people, is beyond me...

After the show, we booked it to Pixar Place to find that fast pass distribution for TSMM was over. The CM told us we needed to print out our instantaneous fast passes from a DVC kiosk in this case, but we couldn't find an open one. Oh well. No more TSMM for us. We then decided to make our way towards our dinner - Sanaa at the AK Lodge!

Waiting for our buzzer to go off, we walked around Kidani Village, which we both thought was absolutely gorgeous. Sanaa was a really interesting place - we split an appetizer trio of samosas, lamb,and something else I can't remember. I know it was good, though! For our entrees, I had the slow cooked lamb vindaloo (very spicy) and the shrimp in green curry sauce (YUM!) with five grain pilaf. My boyfriend had the spicy durban chicken and the butter chicken with basmati rice. For dessert, we had rice pudding and the dessert trio (again, I can't recall all three components - chocolate cake, mango ice, and something else). We then made our way back to the hotel to get ready for our night.

First we headed to Downtown Disney. I had gotten my boyfriend a gift certificate to the Lego store, so we went there first. He decided on a Spiderman one, complete with the Daily Bugle building! We made our way to Pleasure Island, picking up a Grey Goose lemonade slushie from Laffers Cantina. We wanted to do Characters in Flight, but it was closed due to the wind. Bummer. We talked about checking out Splitsville, but I really wanted to go to Jellyrolls at some point during the trip, so off to the Boardwalk we went.

Jellyrolls was quite fun, as I'm a big fan of piano bars. We drank a bit and sang along, and then finally made our way back to the hotel. I was in no mood to wait for two buses, so we simply took a cab back to French Quarter. It was $9, in case anyone is wondering.

myhappyplace · Mar 10, 2013

I've always wanted to try Jellyrolls, as well, glad to hear your take on it. Loving and taking in all of the report thus far!

WantToBeWhereArielIs · Mar 12, 2013

THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2013
We decided that the only park we would do today would be Magic Kingdom - we'd already gone to the Studios and Epcot three times each, and neither of us felt the need to go back to Animal Kingdom. So we headed off to MK super early, in time to make rope drop. While waiting, we encountered a very friendly and animated CM who just so happened to be from the same village in Greece as my boyfriend's family.

The first thing we did was fast pass Under the Seas, and then headed right for Peter Pan's Flight, seeing as it always has a substantial wait. After that, we checked the Disney Experience app (I forgot to mention - we utilized this app SO much throughout the trip. It really came in handy in checking wait times without having to schlep to each attraction!), and saw Under the Seas had a minimal wait anyway, so we hopped on for the second time. We decided we didn't need to use our fast passes for it after all, and gave them away. We went to go play Buzz Lightyear, where my boyfriend maxed out, making him a galactic hero. We also had quite the funny photo op, which we ended up buying.

We then got fast passes for Space Mountain, and booked it over to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain, which turned out to be my favorite ride. As soon as we got off, we got word that my boyfriend's cousin was here (she was joining us for the day, being as she only lives 45 minutes away from WDW). She wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain too, and the line was minimal, so again we hopped the wildest ride in the wilderness! After that, our fast passes for Space Mountain were ready for redemption, so I gave his cousin mine so that she could ride with my boyfriend. I didn't mind - I wasn't a big fan of the ride the first time around, and this allowed me to get a breather and a bathroom break.

We then headed to the Tomorrow Land Speedway, where my non-drivers' license having self was worried I was going to drive off course! (I didn't think it was possible, but if anyone could do it, it would be me.) After that was another spin (literally) on the Tea Cups, where my boyfriend decided to have some fun and spin them really fast, making me queasy in the process. After chastising him, I found out his cousin's favorite Disney movie was The Little Mermaid, so guess what that meant? Yep...back to Under the Seas it was!

After riding this for the *third* time, it was time to ride some rides we hadn't yet been on. Our first stop on this quest was Haunted Mansion, which was delightfully spooky. We decided to grab some lunch around this time, and settled on the Columbia House, which we all really enjoyed. I then wanted to head to Adventure Land to ride Pirates, but it was down! What?! After that disappointment, we decided to go on Jungle Cruise and back to Main Street USA before retiring to the hotel for a bit - we wanted to get a head start on packing!

After a brief respite at the Port Orleans, we headed back to MK where we used three more instantaneous fastpasses to ride BTMRR again. I loved that ride! Then we grabbed food at Casey's Corner (hot dogs, nachos, and the like) and tried to get a spot to view the Electric Light Parade and Wishes. Well, my boyfriend was the hero of the day - he managed to snag a TABLE at Casey's that had a perfect view of the Castle, and the parade as it went by! Hooray!

ELP and Wishes were as magical as I expected. After the show, the three of us hopped on Buzz Lightyear again (a grudge match for my boyfriend and I!) I scored more than him this time around, but he *claims* his gun wasn't working properly. Yeah, OK. I wanted to ride Pirates one more time before the end of the trip, so we headed towards Adventure Land. On the way, I just HAD to stop and ride the carousel, so we did. After Pirates, we decided to ride BTMRR one more time - I knew it would be just gorgeous at night, seeing the castle all lit up. And it was.

Before calling it a (wonderful) day in MK, we stopped by the Confectionery and cashed in the rest of our snack credits. After purchasing way too many sweets, my boyfriend asked the CM, "Do you have any of the magical Disney insulin in the back?"

Tomorrow is our character breakfast and last day at the World

WantToBeWhereArielIs · Mar 20, 2013

FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2013
Our last day at the World also saw us our first "real" breakfast. We booked a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's because, well, according to my boyfriend, it's a must - especially for a first-timer. "Buffet breakfast" are also two of my favorite words, so I was of course game. Before we could gorge ourselves, though, we had to check out (sniff) and give the Disney people our luggage for the DME.

After checking out, we went to The Contemporary (officially my favorite property out of the ones I've seen) and enjoyed a great breakfast, complete with characters. We walked around The Contemporary a bit, and then hopped on the monorail to check out the Grand Floridian. A gorgeous hotel, no doubt, but a bit too "hoity toity" for me. Give me The Contemporary any day.

While at the GF, we got word that my boyfriend's best friend (who lives in Gainesville) was there to meet us, so he picked us up and we drove to Downtown Disney to walk around and get a bite to eat. We ended up at the House of Blues, and then we found out that an acquaintance of my boyfriend's was actually at the World too, so he and his girlfriend also joined us. My boyfriend and I were quite full from breakfast and enjoyed a liquid lunch (ha!) After HoB, we walked around World of Disney where I picked up souvenirs for family.

I must say, we were pretty wiped out by this point of the trip. So much so that we took a bus (after grabbing one more set of free Ghirardelli samples for the road) back to the French Quarter, and proceeded to just sit in the food court/lobby for a few hours, relaxing. It was quite honestly the perfect way to end the trip.

Loved my first time at Disney World and can't wait to return!

EmmabaRose · Mar 20, 2013

Awesome TR! Glad you enjoyed your first trip!

A First Timer's Trip Report! (Text intensive)

WantToBeWhereArielIs

New Member

Zipadeelady

Well-Known Member

myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady

WantToBeWhereArielIs

New Member

WantToBeWhereArielIs

New Member

myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady

WantToBeWhereArielIs

New Member

WantToBeWhereArielIs

New Member

EmmabaRose

Well-Known Member