A September 2011 Trip Report about a trip with lots of firsts!!!

Some of the firsts include:

-Traveling in September!- my family has always gone during summer break, it was amazing to see the difference in crowds and heat!

-Flying!- It was my first time flying! EEK!

-First time dining vegan and gluten-free- other times we have went to WDW I was vegetarian and still ate dairy and eggs, so cutting that out and realizing my intolerance to wheat, I knew this trip was going to be a whole new experience!

-First time with a signature dining experience!- well, technically when we went in 2009 we went to sci-fi, but I think Kevin and I just got grilled cheese and fries... haha

-First time not worrying about money!

-First time traveling alone with my boyfriend away on vacation!

-And last, but DEFINITELY not least, first time taking it easy at Disney!!

Ok, on with the trip!!!

We left bright and early on Sept 13th, 2011! 3:30am to be exact! Fed the pups, double checked our packing lists to make sure we had everything, did mah hairzz, and headed off to the airport in Buffalo! We got to the gate while it was boarding because I forgot my video camera in the car at first and had to go all the way back, probably not the best idea, but I needed my camera!

excited for Disney..
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..apparently terrified for flying
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Kevin likes flying though!
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"When do we get to that!?"- (Kevin easing my nerves...) hahaha
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Flying JetBlue was great! For some reason since it was such a small plane it made me less nervous. Maybe because it wasn't full of the stressed out people you see in the movies. And the airport itself was small, too. According to Kevin it was less hussle and bussle and also less confusing compared to Boston.

So, we landed early. The pilot said it was due to shortcuts. I'm pretty sure we were in the sky so I'm not sure what shortcuts you can take hahaha.

Around 10am we got on the Magical Express!! This was a first also!

Kevin was so excited that he tried snapping tons of pictures on the way to the resort.

"How come every time I try to take a picture of palm trees there's always a pole in it?"
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And this sign always gets me everytime, but my eyes were closed and I almost missed it!

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME WE WERE ABOUT TO GO THROUGH THE SIGN!!"
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We got to All Star Music!!!!!! We chose the resort for a few reasons. We wanted our trip to be care-free and we decided we weren't going to worry about money while in WDW, so we decided to budget in other ways here and there. Our way of doing that was booking in March during the 20% offer at the cheapest resort! We booked a preferred room though, we ALWAYS go with the preferred rooms. Another reason is because we have stayed here before as well as the other 2 All-Stars, we liked this one the best. We didn't ever go for the free dining option because we knew it wouldn't even be worth it. We never did before, and knew we would't spend as much as we saved with the 20% off.

So our room was ready right away! Surprise! We got a couple snacks and headed to drop off a couple things in the room.

I got BBQ chips. The ingredients were animal product free (as long as you don't mind refined sugar) and it said "gluten free" on the package!
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Kevin got NutterButters, despite the name they are accidentally vegan! (again if you don't count the refined sugar!) I don't have a picture of the package (even though I tried to photograph everything we ate for future reference, but I never thought to get a picture of these even though Kevin got a package everyday).

I guess this would be a good time to say this- Kevin and I do NOT eat like this at home! The last time I had potato chips before this trip was MONTHS ago. I even drank some soda while in Disney. I haven't had soda since probably the last time I went to Disney 2 years ago, and even then I don't think I had any. We eat mostly fruit and some veggies at home, so you can imagine that this food kind of brought us a down a few hours after eating it and we had to change our eating habits a bit because the mid-day naps were becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity! All that fat was taking a toll! Not to say we stopped eating like that, just cut back and added more and more fruit and salads each day..

So back to the hotel! I got really excited

"TAKE A PICTURE!!!!!"
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We decided to go to the Magic Kingdom right away!!!! It's been a tradition to visit MK first. We like to sit in the seat they have on some buses that's directly behind the driver, and this bus had that seat so this ended up being our view:
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Are we there yet!? Can you see the castle!?!?
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flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
For some reason I didn't do a trip report this time, even though it was the best trip we have ever had at the World. Now that I know what you and Kevin look like I will have to scroll through my pics to see if I can find "Lady Ga Ga" anywhere in them. Lol....

What if you really DO find her!
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
You know what would be a great Christmas present??? Updating your TR. :animwink: :lol:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! hahaha

So... all of a sudden... it dawned on me in the middle of Country Bear Jamboree... we. have. lunch. reservations. at Tony's Town Square!!! But we JUST ate lunch at Columbia Harbor House!!!! hahahaha

We started walking over to have "Second Lunch" and caught the parade we've seen 23957397 times already!!

I don't know why they couldn't have given her a neck
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We made it through the parade crowd on main st! We couldn't find the restaurant at first because we'd never been and both thought it was where the plaza is!
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waiting for the chef
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happy but not hungry
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I wished I had a piece of paper to use these
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still waiting...
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flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
I had read that they could make a vegan/gluten-free pizza, but the chef seemed confused by this when we brought it up. So instead we both got gluten free pasta with a garlic sauce and veggies.
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Usually for me you can't go wrong with pasta, but I really just did not like this (maybe it was because I had just eaten a full lunch). Kevin LOVED it though!! We also got a little flat rice-bread appetizer with tomato sauce on top. I really liked that even though it seemed so plain.
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I was still happy we ate there even though I didn't like my meal. I probably wouldn't go again just because my options are pretty much limited to that specific meal and I didn't like it. I liked the atmosphere though!
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enchanted_belle

Active Member
:sohappy::sohappy: Christmas came early!!! :xmas: hahaha.

I love hearing about the gluten-free options... I have been toying with the idea recently due to some health issues, so it's great to know that there are lots of options in WDW.
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
We decided it was a good time to stroll down Main st. and walk in and out of some shops.

We found these little beauties and saw that they were Vegan if you don't mind refined sugar! I didn't get one though.
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The chocolate ones have milk though. Wa wa...

At the end of our browsing trip, it was back to Tomorrowland! Kevin bought a gorilla pod for his camera before we went, and noticed a great photo-op along the way!

Setting up for a good shot
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attempt 1
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It worked out pretty good, but we noticed our faces were shaded from our face accessories.

attempt 2
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This one came out good, but we thought it looked too prom. We also wanted a different angle. TRY AGAIN!

attempt 3
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Win! Now just crop it, go to DTD and get an ornament, and voila souvenir for my parents!

Here's the gorilla pod propped up on the place he set the timer to go off! It belongs in this "world"
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flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
Since we felt cheated out of missing Space Mountain our last trip during its rehab in 2009, we had to ride it as much as we could!

So off to zoom through space another time!
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Then we decided to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway. I had never done this before since the line is always so long, but I decided it was time since all the lines during this trip were so short!!
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I got in the same car as Kevin and had him drive because I just get too anxious about things like this!
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Waiting in line
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Kevin pretending to take a candid and me looking like I'm saying "duuurrr"
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I really found a new love for the Alice character during this trip. The way she talked and acted was very appealing. So, that meant it was time to ride the Tea Cups!!
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flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
We starting making our way over to Fantasy land, when suddenly I felt very sick from all that spinning.

I told Kevin I wanted to go sit down at Columbia Harbor House since it was close and I knew there would be seating and air conditioning.

I'm quoted in our home video saying, "We had a little TOO much fun..."

After that we wanted to walk through the castle. We had tried to do this numerous other times during our trip, but it was always blocked off for the show.

On our way we spotted the new interactive pooh-queue
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and I thought that maybe, just maybe, the mailbox was interactive too... so I tried to pull it open, and was apparently quite angry that it wouldn't!
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We also took a while admiring the Fantasy Land Expansion map
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and I tried to get the Beast's attention, but he was busy
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Goodbye forever!
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a quick shot outside the castle. Of course Kevin HAD to stop me when I was JUST ABOUT to FINALLY enter!
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flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
Then, the moment we were waiting for finally arrived! I finally entered the castle (MY castle :animwink:)
We took lots of pictures of the amazing mosaics. So impressive.
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I love how quirky the art style is, even though it is done in such an elegant medium.
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We exited the castle through the front and started taking some pictures of how happy we were to have just seen what we saw.
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and a nice man offered to take our picture!!
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We noticed the parade was going by
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and Kevin spotted his favorite character so tried to zoom in as much as he could to get a special shot
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flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
we decided to take some new angle pictures of the castle, since we hadn't seen it from this angle earlier in the trip
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I wonder if my dream will ever come true to live here!
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We wanted to head down to Disney Quest tonight since we knew we would be visiting MK one more time during this trip and we didn't feel the need to stay for the rest of the night. Since I knew I could fix my hair at the hotel, it was time to ride splash mountain!
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paparazzi shot with the red card!
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On our way out we were craving ice cream. So back to the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor for more toffuti!
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Britt

Well-Known Member
What camera is he using?? I LOVE LOVE those roller coaster pics ON the coasters. You've totally inspired me to try getting some next time we're on one!! haha
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Original Poster
What camera is he using?? I LOVE LOVE those roller coaster pics ON the coasters. You've totally inspired me to try getting some next time we're on one!! haha

Olympus xz1. It's basically a high end point and shoot. I'm jealous of it, but I got a new video camera this year for our trip in Nov, so now I can feel a little bit on the same level as him!
 

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