Trip Report Bring out the Tour Guide Flags.. I’M TAKING THE NEWBIES! A June TR

Jambo once again everybody! :)

I never thought I’d be writing 2 Trip Reports in 1 summer! Well, technically the first TR of the summer was back from January because I was having Disney withdrawal and didn’t think I would be lucky enough to go back this summer… But after an invite at Grandma’s house on Memorial Day and a few weeks later I WAS ON MY WAY BACK TO DISNEY WORLD! :D This time with my relatives who had never been before, hence the name of the TR! The whole time we joked about getting a flag like the lovely *cough cough* tour groups so that in case they fell behind they could still see where I was going;)

Let’s start with the introductions!
I’m gonna do separate pictures cause I thought that’d be easier for now than a big group picture and trying to pick everyone out haha!
I’m not sure if you all know me by now or not so I’ll start off the Roll Call :p…

Myself, Rachel (19), Disney enthusiast, volleyballer and Disney College Program hopeful! I also love to laugh and just have a great time with family :)

The Narrator herself by LeCellierLover, on Flickr



My cousin Kyle (18), obviously new to all things Disney (he didn’t want to hear or see anything about it because he wanted to be surprised) and loves, I mean LOVES all things Star Wars!

Kyle and Cinderella by LeCellierLover, on Flickr
This was taken on the trip during his quest to get a picture with all the Princesses :p


My other cousins McKayla (15) and Raven (14), they’re sisters and (obviously) Kyle’s sisters as well haha. McKayla is on the right-hand side of the picture with Raven being on the left. This was taken in their room at home hence all the decorations on the walls ;) Both new to all things Disney, but they looked a lot up on YouTube. McKayla loves all things Anime and her favorite character of all time is Peter Pan! Raven is my mini-me and is obsessed with the show Dance Moms, her favorite character is Tinkerbell!

Raven and McKayla by LeCellierLover, on Flickr

And last, but certainly not least, the bread and butter of this trip, my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dan (forever kids at heart that never wanna grow up :D ). They had been dreaming about this trip forever and wanted everything to be a surprise as well. My aunt is up for anything and my uncle is just like Kyle and LOVES all things Star Wars!

Aunt Kathy & Uncle Dan by LeCellierLover, on Flickr
This picture was obviously taken during the trip as well. Their 1st time seeing Cindy’s Castle! :)

So how did I get to go on this trip with my relatives some may ask? Well we always go over to my grandma’s on Memorial Day and my aunt Kathy had asked my mom to help her plan some of the trip (like where to buy tickets, what parks should they do on which days, etc.). Well I kept popping in and out of the room they were in and was gushing with excitement for them. Well, I think my wonderful mom told my aunt how much I wish I was going on the trip with them to show them the ropes and experience everything with them. The next thing I know I was called outside by my mom and my aunt came up to me and softly asked “Do you want to come with us to Florida?!” I SCREAMED with excitement, I couldn’t believe it! I had to ask multiple times “Are you guys sure?!”. Then I was able to break the news to Raven and McKayla and they were STOKED! Kyle’s comeback was “REALLY?! We have to squeeze ANOTHER person in the car?!” and my Uncle Dan laughed and said “Hey the way I see it she’s another driver! :p” So that was that! I got home and plugged the date into the Disney Countdown app on my phone as we anxiously awaited June 22nd! :)
 
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LeCellier.Lover

LeCellier.Lover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Marc Gil said:
Great TR so far! I can't imagine how long that drive must've been! LOL I mean we drive from South Florida to Orlando (which is 3 hours) and I think it's absolute h***. (Pardon my French) You have tolerance and loads of patience! It looked like you had tons of fun though. I can't wait to see more
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Hahah o my what I would do to make our drive to Disney only 3 hours... The drive honestly didn't seem that bad? I don't know if it was because we watched so many movies or because I was with my family? But then again it could've just been that "beginning of vacation" adrenaline? Haha! We had so much fun, thanks for reading along! :)
 
LeCellier.Lover

LeCellier.Lover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Disney80 said:
Awesome!

Keep it up!

Cannot wait to read more! ;)
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Thank you! :) And thanks for reading, more coming up very soon (once Flickr starts working again.. lol)

journ116 said:
Enjoying the report thus far! Makes me long for a road trip...
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Thank you :)
Even though I love flying because it gets you there so fast, I have to say switching it up and enjoying the scenery along the highway from the different states is very enjoyable and in my opinion a great time to bond with your family!

KLeigh said:
YAY! Another Rachel TR!! Loved the last one, and can't wait to hear all about this trip to the World!
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Aww thank you so much! :) Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy this one just as much (even though I'm pretty sure you will ;) haha)
Englebabies said:
Loving it so far
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Goofnut1980 said:
love it so far!
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Thanks guys! :) Can't wait to start writing more!
 
LeCellier.Lover

LeCellier.Lover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
WE’VE FINALLY ARRIVED!- June 23rd, Day 2 :)

So the next morning we were all up by 8am (now we’re talking Florida time) and headed down to the hotel lobby for a free complimentary breakfast. It was very yummy and a perfect fill up to fuel us for the rest of the drive to Florida!

So by about 10:45am we were passing under this beauty! :D


One thing that was so funny was seeing all the cars stopped on the side of the road by the first “Welcome to Florida!” sign. Helloooo people don’t you know that there’s one at the welcome center in a much safer spot than on the side of the road?! You could tell that the parents were all uncomfortable throwing their kids in front of a large sign on the side of a busy highway for a picture haha.


This was were my tour guide ( ;) ) skills started to come into play. I told my family that we needed to stop at the Welcome Center for a picture under the sign and free orange juice!
Now you guys are going to start seeing pictures with dates in the lower right hand corner, all of the ones with dates on them were taken on my aunt’s camera, the rest were from my iPhone :)























 
LeCellier.Lover

LeCellier.Lover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So after getting smacked in the face by the Florida humidity we got back in the car and started our final push to Orlando!

After a few hours of driving we started seeing these pretty billboards! :)
It was a good thing too because we were all getting soo slap happy and laughing at everything anyone said.. :eek:



We also were welcomed to Orlando by these ominous looking clouds.. Luckily everything was south so no rain on our parade! :D




Alright I lied.. we must have gotten a sprinkle according to the little rain drops on the windshield..


I’m not a very big Universal fan, but I knew we would be going there later in the week so it was very cool to see the park as we were driving on I-4! I was able to shout “EVERYONE LOOK THERE’S HARRY POTTER WORLD!” I even joked about being on a tour guide microphone to direct them on what to look at ;)


Finally at about 1:15pm we had arrived! :D :D
We were staying at a timeshare called Parkway International right on Irlo Bronson.



Raven had a little bit of a bed head, but I still needed to take a picture of the happy girl! :)



And I just HAD to document our matching nails as well haha ;)



Wow, I’m sorry for my looks in this picture, but in my defense we had just been in a car for like 5 hours! ;)






And then we went to check out.. THE POOL! The prettiest part of the hotel in my opinion ;)


Excuse my finger in this picture, urgh! :banghead:












Our room wasn’t quite ready.. so we were told that Mickey would text us when it was ready.. oopsies, wrong resort! ;).. So we were told to come back in about an hour.

Since our room had a full kitchen we went to a Publix right down the street to fill up our refrigerator with some late night foods for after the parks.
Ugh I can’t wait til the day when a Publix will be my local grocery store! :)



After getting our groceries we went back to the resort, but our room still wasn’t ready so we explored the grounds some more.
They had a nice walking trail! A lot of the boards were half broken with tape holding them together and some of the props were run down, but there was background music and it made me think of Adventureland!

















 
LeCellier.Lover

LeCellier.Lover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Raven66 said:
C'mon!! Don't leave us hanging!!:eek:

I love the dolphin.
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Hahaha I'm trying my best to crank some out before I get too tired and hit the hay :p
I thought the dolphin was very cute and Florida-like! I'd never seen it before (granted it's been like 7 years since I last drove to Florida.. Haha)
 
LeCellier.Lover

LeCellier.Lover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The resort also had a little playground, arcade area, and (very run down) basketball game. There was also this cute little elephant statue so of course me and Kayla had to take a picture with it! ;)






So we were able to get into our room and put the groceries away. My uncle forgot to get orange juice and I forgot to get whipped cream for our strawberry shortcakes! Luckily, the trail I was just talking about led to a little strip mall by our resort that had a convenient store with the items we were looking for! :)

Squirrel on the trail! :eek: I think he got a little scared that I was gonna take his lunch from him.. Haha



When we got to the store McKayla and I saw sun hats so we of course had to take a picture with the very touristy hats! :p



Here are some pictures of the room..
This was the view when we first walked inside the door, the “living room”!



Full kitchen :)



Master bathroom.. hahah the only reason why I included this picture was to show you guys the nice big jacuzzi that came in handy when our tired feet needed a good relaxin’!



View of the playground outside from our living room window



There was also a little screened in patio that could be accessed from a door in the living room and a sliding glass door in the master bedroom.


Little patio we never ever used.. Except for when I hung my swim suit across the chairs to dry haha!



View of the kitchen and front door from a couch in the living room as I watched my cousins crack open the salsa we got from Publix! :p


Not pictured was the master bedroom, mine and Kayla's bedroom, and the kids bathroom. The master bedroom was on the left-hand side right after the couch in front of me in the above picture. Our bathroom and bedroom was down past the kitchen, but right before the door (obviously) on the left hand side. Kyle slept on the pull out couch and Raven slept on a blow up mattress that I brought with. The original plan was the girls got the room and I was gonna sleep on the mattress, but since it was really tiny (and Raven's the tiniest) she was nice enough to let me take her bed. We're so nice to each other ;)
 
LeCellier.Lover

LeCellier.Lover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So after some more exploring we went back to the room to unpack. I kept my swim suit in my luggage in the closet thinking I probably wouldn’t be using it yet, but boy was I wrong! As soon as I was done packing Raven said, “We’re going swimming!!”. So I turned right around and ran with excitement to get my swimsuit. Now I have a pool at my house, but for some reason it’s just more exciting when you’re surrounded by Florida palm trees ;)
Allll reeady to go swimming!



I brought along my brother’s underwater camera, so we had a lot of fun with that!








Rachel’s toes go swimming in Orlando! @Disneyfalcon ;)






For some reason the camera wasn’t too good at focusing in the sun so the one palm tree just kind of ends into oblivion.. haha









The awesome thing about our room was that it had a front door, but it also had a back door that was right on this walkway that led to the pool! Suuper convenient! :)



Sorry this isn’t a good shot, at all, but it gives you guys somewhat of an idea of what the playground looked like. Even though I ran to this one thing that your supposed to hold and then slide to the other end, but unfortunately the thing was all rusted out and didn’t move, even for Raven.. haha! The door you see to the left of the picture was the exit to the small arcade.



I couldn’t get enough of all the palm trees :)



This is a picture of our living room window from the back entrance. The screened in patio was to the left. As you can tell there were multiple levels to each building. Luckily we were on the first floor so we never had to climb stairs after a long day at the parks! :)



Blurry, but this is how we accessed our room from the back door. Our door was the one on the left.
 
LeCellier.Lover

LeCellier.Lover

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So after swimming everyone else just kind of wanted to chill, but the girls and I were wanting some ice cream! I had high aspirations of going to Ghirardelli’s at Downtown Disney, but with it being a Sunday night I had visions of it being super duper crowded. So I asked my aunt and uncle if I could take the girls to the Coldstone that was right by the Publix we went to earlier and then go to Downtown Disney afterwards. They said yes! So we hopped in the family van and I was able to drive it for the very first time! :p



BEAUTIFUL SUNSET ALERT!






Birthday cake reeemiiiixxx!



Like who wouldn’t love having this view while enjoying Coldstone ice cream outside on a beautiful Florida summer night?!









We finished up our ice cream pretty quickly because we were SOO excited for what was to come next!
So we got onto Irlo Bronson and I thought that we were going to be going under the Disney arch by Pop Century and the entrance to WWoS. As we kept driving I realized that I was wrong and we were going to be entering by the “official” Hollywood Studios entrance.
My cousin created a Vine video of us passing under the arch, but sadly I can’t find it..:( It captured the moment perfectly though because this was the first time my cousins were ever on Disney property! It was a VERY exciting car ride to say the least! :D
Now this is where I felt bad that we were going to be seeing more than just the entrance to AoA and Pop. Before we left my aunt said “You guys can go as long as you’re not going to be seeing the castle or anything right?!” because understandably she wanted us all to experience that together. So I assured her that we wouldn’t be seeing anything! Well I was about to take the exit towards WWoS and Pop to get to DTD, so that Kayla and Raven wouldn’t see the backside of Tower of Terror. I asked the girls what they wanted to do, but they said that they’d seen pictures of the Tower online so I wouldn’t be spoiling anything for them. I honestly think it was the best idea to drive by HS because it was so cool to be able to tell them “Look to your right there’s Tower of Terror! The ride you guys have been waiting years to see in person! :D” They saw the Swan and Dolphin too. We got stopped at a red light right by the HS entrance and all of a sudden fireworks started going off! :eek: Now I felt bad that we were experiencing fireworks without the rest of the family (even though we never did stay for Illuminations so at least the girls got to see a little peak). I learned that trip that my cousins throw other family members under the bus.. A LOT! UNLESS you swear them to secrecy! While we were in the car I said “You guys aren’t seeing ANY of this right now ok?!” And they never once mentioned to my aunt that we saw TOT at night and some of Illuminations! Haha! ;)

It was the weirdest feeling driving to DTD! I kind of had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming because I had never been in Disney with my cousins before so for it to actually be happening was a dream come true! :D And we were alone (without parental supervision) driving around Disney which had never happened before either!

Alright enough paragraphs let’s finally get to something Disney-ish (not just Orlando stuff haha)! We pulled into the parking lot closest to The World of Disney. The sign at the stoplight said the parking lot was full, but I saw a lot of cars leaving so we pulled in anyways. Literally got the perfect spot right by the entrance to the parking lot.. SCORE! This was gonna be a great night in DTD! :D

So we started walking and just soaked everything up! We enter the WoD store and my cousin’s were already on cloud 9!




I absolutely loved these Bullseye pillow pets, but I had to restrain myself from getting him because I already have an Eeyore, Tiger, and Blackhawks pillow pet!






I ran over to the authentic Mickey Ears and told my cousins that they just HAD to put them on! So here are Raven and McKayla trying on their first pair of Mickey Ears! :D :D



And their first time holding a Mickey plush! :D


I soo wanted to get these plates for school because this year I’m going to be living in an apartment with a full kitchen! But sadly I did the usual “I’ll get them later on in the trip!” and never went back for them :(



I LOVED this big Eeyore! He’s my favorite! The big plush was so soft and huggable, but he was like $60.. :(



I also found a “little girl” plush of my favorite princess! Now finally the third time seeing a plush I wanted was the charm and I ended up getting her the next night ;)

 

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