Trip Report Better (very) late then never :)

Hi, I'm Steph

I'm a 26 year old girl from Australia & I luurrrve all things Disney. I only found this website, & along with it an absolute wealth of great Disney tips, information & trip reports, a couple of months ago. So naturally i have been greedily reading as many as I can living precariously through all of you lucky USA citizens who can visit without having to cross an Ocean .

I am currently planning a trip to the World in Sept/Oct 2015 which is just exciting beyond words as it is only my 2nd time and were planning to stay for a whole 2 WEEKS!!!! In the meantime I thought I might write a TR on my first WDW experience way back in August 2013.. (Well as much as I can remember anyway) just cos I thought i would be awesome to relive it all with some people that understand my love of all things Disney.

Who?


This is us, The 'cast', Me on the left and my boyfriend, Anthony, on the right, on our very first night in the bubble, having delicious Sundaes from Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate shop! Antz, (24) is not a disney nut, but we were in the middle of planning a month long holiday touring the USA and I didn't think it would be worth the trip without a stop at Disney. Sooo what started out as one day turned into 4 nights with 3 days at the parks YAY! He had no idea what to expect or what was in store.

When?
August 1st to August 5th 2013

Where?
After much, and I mean much (it is so hard to choose all the way from over here) deliberation we chose to stay at Port Orleans Riverside.

ADRS!
Dinner at Fultons crab house on our first night as we didn't have park tickets
Dinner at BOG on our first park night
Lunch at Biergarten on our last day.

Day 1
We actually started the Day in Miami at South beach. We had only been there for 24 hours (long story short I made some mistakes when booking an overnight flight from Vancouver so instead of 2 days in Miami we had one) and I didn't really mind. The best 4 days of our trip were finally here!!!!!
We caught a cab from our hotel for our 11am flight, running a tad late but not to much to worry about... Well we missed our flight didn't we. The only one of the trip mind us & we caught 9 different flights! Somehow we were accidentally lined up in a complaints line & yeh... anyway I blame the over tiredness from so much travel. Not to worry we got seats on the next flight and off we went! I found the airline ticket in the book i was reading just the other week & it made me .
Finally we arrived at MCO and it was off to find DME....



Look at that! Is that not the best sight you ever will see! (unless it's taking you back to the airport of course)

Next Stop Port Orleans Riverside!

 

[belle717]

So exciting just seeing that bus The best way to get excited about an upcoming trip is reliving an old one. Look forward to following along

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

When?
August 1st to August 5th 2013

You're right - it is a late report

 

[FlaggNL]

Like always better late the never Thanks for the share! Off course want to see more, so absolutely following along!

 

[mrdrift]

I can't wait to read the trip report, I would have to say that was a lot of planes to catch just to get to Florida. Love to see the bus, it means the magical vacations is about to start. It doesn't matter when the vacation took place but that you are actually writing the report. Following along.

 

[StephK]

From the minute we arrived on the doorstep of PORS to the minute we left I was basically floating on air! Isn't it just a gorgeous resort!! We checked in, got our 1st time badges & found out we were staying in Aligator Bayou, building 14, which is actually the closest building to the food courts & the main bus stop, score!


The view from our room

After a quick look around the room admiring the mouse keepers beautiful work




We decided to check out the rest of the resort so went for a walk through the grounds & a look in Fultons General Store.




So pretty! It really felt like a whole other world!


Playing around, already had my badge on haha.

We had an ADR at Fultons crab house that night so once ready lined up for the boat to take us to Downtown Disney. Unfortunately a pretty big storm rolled in just as we were boarding so there went that idea. We caught the bus instead.

The rain wasn't letting up so we walked through some of the shops and admired the many different Disney souvenirs, I was in absolute awe of this Disney consumed place, I'd never see anything like it and couldn't wipte the grin off my face! Eventually we made it around to Fultons. Its a pretty impressive sight!



We were seated quickly & from what I can remember were given some bread with oils & possibly some herbs to dip in. I'm sure we just ordered mains, I had the crab cakes and Antz had this


It was delicious but unfortunately the crab cakes were a little meh...

After dinner we did some more shopping, I brought myself some T-shirts to wear around the parks over the next few days, Antz wanted a photo with his friends


Looks like Minnie's getting a little inappropriate there


How cool is this train that goes around above you!

We ate our Sundaes above as we listened to some live music, had a browse around Pleasure island then caught the bus home, I had such a great afternoon/night & the next morning we were heading to the Magic Kingdom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[StephK]

I can't wait to read the trip report, I would have to say that was a lot of planes to catch just to get to Florida. Love to see the bus, it means the magical vacations is about to start. It doesn't matter when the vacation took place but that you are actually writing the report. Following along.

Lol, yep, it would be a lot of planes to catch to Florida, but by the time we got here we'd already visited Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Fransisco, Vancouver Island (Canada), & Miami

Thanks for following along

 

[Scott10]

Great start to your report! My family did a split stay between Art of Animation and POR this past summer....we too LOVE POR! We have been in the mansions and alligator bayou, and I think I enjoyed the grounds and theming more so in the bayou! Can't wait to read more!

 

[StephK]

I'm going to start by saying, this day I am about to write about was/still is one of my favorite days EVER! I want to say, best day of my life at this point I might not remember every single detail but I'll never forget the feeling of seeing Cinderellas castle for the first time or eating in Belles castle & meeting the beast or just the general feeling of my first whole 24 hours being in the WDW bubble.



I set the alarm for 7.00 I wanted to be up and outta there by 7.30 if possible.


More then ready for the day!

We had breakfast in the Riverside Mill Food court. The selection was fine as far as I can remember. I am a massive people watcher & it was interesting to see all of the different family dynamics going on. We noticed a lot of families with young kids had also brought Grandma & Grandpa along, what a fabulous idea, as well as enjoying Disney as a family you also have built in babysitters, I've already ran the idea past my mum for when I have kids, she loved it now thats forward Disney thinking!
We then walked to the main bus stop, We didn't have any bus trouble the whole 3 days, from what I can remember we didn't wait more then 10 maybe 15 minutes. Anyway being such a Disney novice I had no idea you could see Micky & the gang at rope drop but we arrived by 9.05 or something anyway! As you can below


My first castle view Ahhhhhh! Wow it looks super busy doesn't it, well it was August!


One of my favourite photos ever! The crowds look a lot thinner here, I wonder where they all went.

We, well I, was in awe! Antz was happy enough too & maybe a tad scared of my enthusiasm haha, we walked straight under the castle and our first ride was Peter Pan I think, which i loved, memories a tad fuzzy here but we have this



These




& this




So I know we went on HM soon after, which I LOVED! Its definitely one of my fav's! The theming is so awesome!! Splash mountain was down for the morning so next was BTMR & then POC & jungle cruise.
All of these ride's within 1 hour! So good! except it gave Antz a false sense that this was how it was going to be all day hahahahaha, poor naive Antz. We went for a stroll up the Swiss Family Tree house & by now it was starting to get hot & I mean really hot & busy. I think poor Antz's jaw dropped to the floor when he saw that Peter Pans wait was now 80 minutes. We walked out of Adventureland and caught the end of 'Move it Shake it Celebrate it' where everyone was just having a casual dance in front of the Cinderella castle, SO MUCH FUN!

I've only gotten up to this stage with uploading photos to photobucket and I'm at work SO until later...

 

[mrdrift]

What a wonderful start of the day. I remember the first time I saw the castle with the kids, It brought tears to my eyes. The pictures are really cool. The lobster dinner from Fultons looked amazing. I would have to agree that Minnie was getting a little fresh with Antz. Following along.

 

[Mom@disney]

Thanks for sharing your trip with all of us Disney fans! Your next trip in September/October, you must go to the Halloween Party!

 

[StephK]

Thanks for sharing your trip with all of us Disney fans! Your next trip in September/October, you must go to the Halloween Party!

Its actually really fun reliving it all, it feels like a lifetime ago.
That's definitely the plan, The dates came out yesterday, so exciting!!!

 

[belle717]

Wow, POR is so pretty. I stayed in POFQ, which was great but now I wish I'd gone to take a look at Riverside.

Your MK day is off to a great start! Early mornings at the parks are probably my favorite time of the day because you can get so much done and the day is new and it's all so exciting.

 

[StephK]

Ahhh I've been so slack with this, the memories are only getting hazier AS i plan our next WDW trip in 159 DAYS!! woohoo!!!
So where did I leave off, ah yes the dancing, it was amazing! here are some photos!




Oh Minnie, how i love you!!!


Castle view from Swiss Family tree

Anywho! next i believe was the ever classic tea cups! I hate to admit it but it left me feeling ill, too much spinning!!!




We then made our way through the growing fantasy land ( the mine train was a still a construction area at this point! We got out photo with Minnie!! After waiting 40 minutse mind you :/



We checked out Gastons which i thought was sooo awesome! Beauty & the beast holds a special place for me so i just loved everything about their area. We also had BOG booked for this night!



We also lined up for The little mermaid ride which was very cute but maybe not worth a 40 minture wait in the sun.

It was lunchtime & we decided on something quick and easy so went over to Cosmic Rays and had hotdogs, the air conditioning was bliss as it had hit the 97 degree mark so we made the decision to leave the park and give Typhoon Lagoon a visit for the afternoon.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Loving your report, and your shirt! I love Disney clothes Following along! Jealous of your next trip haha

 

[StephK]

It was a tiny bit of effort to get the bus back to POR, get changed and get the bus to Typhoon Lagoon but I really didn't mind, I love water parks. Unfortunately I have no photos as our camera wasn't waterproof and we didnt have a whole lot of time anyway, we definitely made the most of our afternoon and gave the majority of slides a good go and the wave pool, prety sure I also had a doughnut or two YUM! I'm excited to try out Blizzard beach in October, even though it might be a little chilly!

We made our back to POR to have showers and get ready for DINNER AT BOG!!!!!! i was soooo beyond excited! it was such a beautiful warm night i couldn't wait to see that snow out the dining room window!

Here we are waiting at the bridge!!!


See any resemblance?


We were seated in the Main Dining room, beast even walked through and waved a few times!


Hi Beasty!!!
I had the steak with Truffle Sauce it was AH-MAZ-ZING!!! Antz was jealous, he had the chicken and mine was way yummier! I also had this pink dessert
YUM! its all making me hungry!

I walked through and took photos in each room, I was awe struck with the whole thing, was I really in Belle's castle, it was just so unbelievably amazing! and then we were treated to this!


I was beyond happy at this moment in life


So Beautiful!

Next up was wishes! We made our way to the front of the castle and watched on with awe. My very first Disney fireworks show did not disappoint!!! The light show on the castle was also insanely clever and awesome!




We had a late fastpass for Space mountain so off we went, maybe not the best idea in a skirt but i loved it, i laughed the entire way through!! WOOHOOO
We caught the bus back to our room around midnight and literally passed out what a massive 18 hour day!
Tomorrow was Hollywood Studios and DAK!

 

[FlaggNL]

Love the pics! Thanks for the share!

 

[LisaBelle]

Fun Report!

 

[Princess A]

I love your report so far. We just got back from Riverside on Monday and I'm so upset to have left! Lovely pictures. BoG is amazing! Following along.

 

[sheriffwoody]

Love this! I debated posting a trip report after I discovered this forum, but I have the worst memory, so it would be pretty scant I'm impressed that you remember this much from almost two years ago!!