Celebrating 18 Years of Life, Love, and Laughter:Our 3rd Trip to WDW begins Aug. 9th!

Hello everyone!

I am attempting for the first time, to do a live Trip Report. Since we are now only ten days out from the start of our vacation :sohappy::sohappy:, I decided to go ahead and do a little pre-TR. So let's start with our cast of players, shall we?
~DH, the love of my life, who became a dedicated WDW fan after our first experience with the World and is as excited as his children to be returning.
~Myself, who can't think of a better way to end our summer vacation than by walking down Main Street USA.
~DD, 12, who can't wait to visit Pixie Hallow (*inwardly groans*) and get an even better score at Toy Story Mania on this trip.
~DS, 7, who has been patiently marking off his countdown calendar, and talking nonstop about Toy Story Mania, the Lego store at Downtown Disney, and meeting Pluto and Minnie. I should also add that he is high-functioning autistic, so much of our planning involves accomodating his particular special needs. He has an awesome big sister who is a wonderful help to her parents in that regard.

So why the loooong title? :lol: Well, all of the things we celebrate in our family actually happen during the kids' school year. We made the decision to move our trip from November back to August, so the kids wouldn't miss any extra school days (with a child in middle school, it's no longer easy to pull them out). We are only about two weeks shy of our 18th wedding anniversary, so what a better gift to give one another than a Disney vacation? And thanks to Pam from Kingdom Konsultants and a well-timed discount, we were able get a room at the Contemporary with a Magic Kingdom view! :sohappy::sohappy:

So that's it! 18 years of marriage and two wonderful children later, we are embarking on our third adventure to Florida! I'll lay out our itinerary and dining plans in my next post. Thanks for reading! :wave:

 

[heartodisney]

Jenn, thank you for update! Carina and I are recieveing those "tidbits" of info from you to store back on our next trip! The pic of Abby in France is just darling! Joel looks like he is having a great time...I just hope that you and your DH are too! I also hope Jo has gotten to do some things with you guys! The cupcake was a nice touch..a chocolate mickey..that I would have never guessed..it looks plastic! Take good care guys!

 

[tink68]

Great trip report and pics. I have to ask where did your daughter get her orange t-shirt with the peace sign Mickey head? My daughter would love that. We stayed at the Contemporary last October and had that same view. It is great isn't it?

 

[DisneySam]

So glad you guys are having a great time Jenny! It sounds like Joel's doing great.

That's awesome the CM at Dumbo saw the GAC and let the kids on without having to wait in the super long line.

Hope the blisters are doing better today, I know that's miserable.

I think I bumped the setting on my camera, as the pics I took that morning have a bluish tinge to them:

I like the bluish tint in this picture, looks really cool I think!

 

[PotteryGal]

Nibbs and Bunny!

We did 1900 Park fare with my daughter and it was a blast! The food was average but the two sisters where hillarious. We had 2 that looked different and they worked really well together. If you have never done it.. its worth a try in my opinion.. Nibbs, especially with WHF. I think, so long as they have the "right" characters... they can really ham it up with him.

I agree with this...the character experience was great. The only thing I would caution Bun on is if Anya is at all sensitive to noise, it may be too loud. Drizella, as I mentioned, was funny but very LOUD. Joel was cringing, poor thing.

Jenn, thank you for update! Carina and I are recieveing those "tidbits" of info from you to store back on our next trip! The pic of Abby in France is just darling! Joel looks like he is having a great time...I just hope that you and your DH are too! I also hope Jo has gotten to do some things with you guys! The cupcake was a nice touch..a chocolate mickey..that I would have never guessed..it looks plastic! Take good care guys!

We've had a good week, but we're obviously very tired. I'm looking forward to being home soon.

Great trip report and pics. I have to ask where did your daughter get her orange t-shirt with the peace sign Mickey head? My daughter would love that. We stayed at the Contemporary last October and had that same view. It is great isn't it?

I do believe we will not stay anywhere else now...I can't get over our view. Abby got her shirt down at BVG - which is another thing. I loved shopping here at BVG, Fantasia, and Fantasia Market. We all loved shopping this week. A lot. :lookaroun

So glad you guys are having a great time Jenny! It sounds like Joel's doing great.

That's awesome the CM at Dumbo saw the GAC and let the kids on without having to wait in the super long line.

Hope the blisters are doing better today, I know that's miserable.


I like the bluish tint in this picture, looks really cool I think!

Thanks Samie...the blisters are better today, but I'm feeling the sum total of the week. :lol: This week has been our best trip yet...Joel has done really well, and we did not have to use a stroller once! :sohappy: So glad I won't have to maneuver the crowds with one of them anymore.
I really didn't realize how much the GAC would come in handy for us....the CMs at Disney go above and beyond to accomodate our kids' challenges...which is why we keep coming back. It's here that our kiddos are treated just like any other kid....and that means the world to us.

 

[PotteryGal]

Well, our trip is about done....I will be completing my TR after getting home. As much as I love where we are staying...trying to upload photos to my photobucket acct and then trying to post is taking twice as long as it should, thanks to our internet connection. It has been operating with the speed of dial-up.

So when I return home, I will cover our very brief morning at Animal Kingdom yesterday, our special night out that evening for Mike and I and the gifts we gave one another to celebrate our 18 years, and our time today at Epcot. We will finish up tomorrow with a breakfast at Chef Mickey's, and possibly one more trek up Main St, depending on how much we hope to travel tomorrow. Talk to everyone next week! :wave:

 

[Fantasmic!329]

I don't know if CHH makes their mac-n-cheese better than other CS places, but Joel gobbled his food up. Yay!

FINALLY....someone agrees with me!
I have been saying for a long time that Columbia Harbor House has the best mac and cheese on property!!

 

[joanna71985]

I can't wait to see the pictures Jenny!

 

[PotteryGal]

FINALLY....someone agrees with me!
I have been saying for a long time that Columbia Harbor House has the best mac and cheese on property!!

:lol::lol:

I think it's the ONLY place Joel will eat mac-n-cheese on property.

I can't wait to see the pictures Jenny!

And here they come! :animwink:

 

[PotteryGal]

Thursday, August 13th: Animal Kingdom and MK Date Night!

Hello again everyone! Back home in Ohio...had a wonderful week in WDW, but it's nice to be home again as well. Felt a little wistful looking back at MK's train station as we walked out Saturday morning, but we'll be back!

Sooo....on Thursday we headed to the AK. This was probably our least accomplished park our entire week, and yet I took a lot of pictures. Joel was just zoning out, wandering without listening...I think the heat there is just too much for him. So all we did that day was the Safari and and the Pangani trail, a little shopping, and lunch at Pizzafari.
Here's our walk to Africa:

Entering Harambe:

I was able to get a few shots on the Safari that weren't terribly blurry:

Thompson's Gazelles:

These guys were pretty close, everyone got pretty excited to see them:

A lot of animals were snoozing or hiding - like I said, it was a particularly humid day. After exiting the Safari we went over to the Pangani Trail, which we had never done before.
Here's an Okapi:

Here's a turtle, not sure what kind exactly, but I liked the pattern on its shell:

Timon!

When we got to the gorillas, only one was visible, but was sleeping with its back to us. I did get pic of my son's seven year old hands inside this impression of a six yr old male gorilla's:

Joel spent most of his time finding benches to sit or lie on:

More next!

 

[PotteryGal]

Abby:

A really cool post outside Pizzafari:

Dragon waterfall:

After this, we had lunch at Pizzafari. I know everyone complains about Disney's pizza, but we love it here! I also like that they now serve side caesar salads with the adult pizzas. Even the prepackaged chocolate cake tasted fresh and so yummy! :slurp: However, we were spent...and all too glad to drive back to the Contemporary for the afternoon. Mike and I were planning to go out alone that evening, thanks to Joanna71985 here on WDWMagic kiss and had a dinner ressie at the Plaza Restaurant in the MK.

When we got back to the hotel, Mike and Abby each took a quick shower and headed down to the arcade to use up the 30 minute coupon we got with our trip package. Joel and I just chilled in the room during this time. Mike took a few pics of the inside of our hotel:
Looking to the right of our hotel door, we could see the roofline of the WL and SSE in the distance:

The famous 5-legged goat in the Grand Concourse mural:

Fantasia gift shop:

Monorail coming in - I was continually amazed by the fact that it was so quiet. Occasionally when you're on the Grand Concourse level, you can feel the vibration, but it's not disruptive at all. As an aside, you could see how careful Disney is being with the monorail, we were stopped a lot more frequently to maintain a careful distance between trains.

Up next, the only rainstorm we saw all week...just prior to going out, and our evening at the MK!

 

[PotteryGal]

Date Night!

We both agreed we would get each other something for our anniversary while at WDW, and here is what we got:

Mike bought the glass slipper on Main St at MK and said I would always be his 'princess' *and the crowd goes awwwww* - I got the picture behind for both of us really. It's a print from the Crown and Crest in the UK, with our names and the meaning of our names below. At the bottom in the center it says, 'Two people together when the day is done, Two hearts joined to make one. August 31, 1991'
About an hour before we were to leave this was our view from our hotel:

Isn't it purty? We were wondering how truly magical our evening would end up being, but knowing Florida's tendency to have really fast rainstorms, we decided to forge ahead and hope for the best. By the time we took the resort monorail around to the MK, it had faded to a light drizzle, so we headed for the Emporium and just made our way up and down Main St, visiting every shop. By the time we made our way over to the Plaza for our 7 pm ADR, only a few drops were still falling. Yay!
Dinner at the Plaza was delicious - we both got cheesesteaks w/ fries, and for dessert I had the plaza sundae, and Mike had a brownie sundae. By the time we left, we were stuffed. And nightime had arrived on Main St:

And I took probably my most favorite picture of the castle I've ever taken:

After going back to the stores and making a few purchases, we found a place to watch Spectromagic, which I had never seen before. I didn't take any pics of the parade, just enjoyed seeing it. We decided we preferred watching Wishes from our hotel, and made our way back. The kids were good for Jo, and she headed home (once again: Thank you, hon!). We were happy to head to bed, as we were planning to head to Epcot the following day. Our last full day in Florida!

 

[rlaeromech]

Hello again everyone! Back home in Ohio...had a wonderful week in WDW, but it's nice to be home again as well. Felt a little wistful looking back at MK's train station as we walked out Saturday morning, but we'll be back!


Here's a turtle, not sure what kind exactly, but I liked the pattern on its shell:

OOOH! Where do you get the turtle salad?? Looks delicious!

 

[PotteryGal]

OOOH! Where do you get the turtle salad?? Looks delicious!

*snickers* :ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

 

[blackthidot]

*snickers* :ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

Yeah thats pretty good

 

[PotteryGal]

Friday, August 14th: Epcot

And so begins our last full day at WDW. I awoke very early that day (waking up early at Disney is never a problem for me), and took a morning look at the castle. They were beginning to put up the holiday lights! Really cool to see, since going down there during their holiday season doesn't seem likely for us.

After arriving via monorail to Epcot and making our way in, we gave Joel the option of meeting the characters at Character Connection or heading to the Seas to ride, as he calls it, "Nemo-world"....at first he says Nemo, but as we got close to Character Connection, he heads in there instead. Silly boy! And even though it was only about 10 minutes after 9, the line was already long. Oy. Thank goodness Disney shows those cartoons while waiting in line, or I don't think Joel would have been able to wait long. Anyway, first up was the Boss:

After meeting Mickey it was time for Pluto, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. We were to say hi again to them the next morning at Chef Mickey's, so moving on.....
Next was the Seas:

After this, we made our way over to Figment and rode. Joel always wants to see this, but keeps his ears covered, go figure. As for me, I cover my nose at the smell part of the ride - I have a problem with skunk smell, as some of my Magic Friends on here will attest. :animwink: After riding, I got a pic of the fountain:

It was almost time for our 11:30 ADR for Tutto Italia, but as we were leaving Future World, we saw Club Cool and headed there first. Mike was curious about all the hoopla over the Beverly and wanted to try it, as did Abby. I was more interested in catching the moment on film:

Reaction 1:

Reaction 2 (and knowing her proclivity for drama, spot on):

I TOLD THEM!!!! I did have a sip of the watermelon one, which I liked, but we needed to head for Italy, so we took the boat launch around the lagoon to Germany and arrived just in time for our ressie. We were one of the first served at Tutto...seated promptly, had a very friendly waiter named Allessandro.
Joel was fidgety, drove me a little crazy as this was probably the nicest restaurant we were at all week, and he kept acting up. Oy. Didn't have time to take any food or restaurant pics. Abby freaked a little at the menu written in Italian , I convinced her to just stick w/ spaghetti. Mike and I had the lasagna, and Joel had cheese pizza. Nothing too gourmet, by any means, we just picked what would be easiest. Food was hot and delicious to us. I would really like to go back and try dishes I've never had before, but perhaps just with my hubby. Anyway, by the time we got to dessert, all they had on the kids' menu is gelato, which I knew Joel wouldn't eat, so I asked if they had a cake they could substitute for him. They could and did, making it a celebratory piece of chocolate cake for our anniversary. They brought it out singing loudly in Italian, which we loved, but Joel got upset. Sigh......
Our regular dessert orders....wow. I had the Gianduja-Chocolate Torta, Mike had the Mocha Tiramasu, and Abby had the Profiteroles w/ Chocolate Sauce. Soooo good.

 

[PotteryGal]

After leaving Tutto, I started snapping photos:

The miniature village/train in Germany was a huge hit w/ Joel, as he is majorly into Thomas the Tank Engine:

Caught a pic of this little guy over in the farming area of the village - it's GODZILLA!!!!

Joel wasn't quite ready to leave this area yet; actually Mike and Abby were content to follow him around looking at everything too, so I walked over to Germany and snapped some more pics:

After finally tearing Joel away from the train, we started making our way toward Mexico to ride Gran Fiesta. I snapped a couple more pics along the way:

Across the lagoon:

After riding Gran Fiesta (which I thought was okay, but a little hard to follow everything going on), we headed for Mousegears, did some shopping, and heading back to the Contemporary. Time to start packing for the long car trip home.
We just basically chilled in the hotel room the rest of the day. Got supper to go from the Contempo (recommend trying their Chicken Alfredo,btw), and watched Wishes one last time. I'm going to miss that so much.

Up next, breakfast at Chef Mickey's and our final morning at the Magic Kingdom!

 

[HollyBelle]

Love the Beverly photos!!! :lol:

 

[PotteryGal]

Chef Mickey's and Skipper Ian!

Interesting combo in the title, isn't it? But our jungle cruise skipper left a lasting impression on us, and was a wonderful way to say good-bye to our favorite place in the world.
First off, Breakfast at Chef Mickey's. I have to say, since they moved the photo location/check-in area there, there's a much better flow to getting in and being seated.
The characters were great as usual. Goofy was the most laid-back:

Mickey...well, he had a couple extra cups of coffee this morning, as he was dancing all over the place, giving lots of hugs and kisses as he went:

Our waitress brought us an anniversary cupcake for breakfast and snapped a pic:

Next up, Donald. He was about as chipper as Mickey:

Finally Minnie and Pluto. All the characters were great; if you read my TR from last year, you'll know Joel has a soft spot for Minnie...not only had to kiss her nose, but give her big hugs:

Love the character interaction at Chef M's, which is why we go. The food was not so great. Scrambled eggs were runny, other food was so-so....I think we prefer dinner here much more.
After bringing our bags down and packing up the van, we walked over to MK for the morning. Adventureland was the one area we had not explored all together, and that's where I wanted to go. We were the very first boat to depart on the Jungle Cruise...the Skipper. was. hysterical. I don't think I stopped laughing from the time we left the dock till we got back. Ian, you rock! Only managed a pic of the boat as we left (had to take a pic, as my sis' name is Connie):

Afterwards, headed for POTC and were FINALLY able to ride! I think we were the second boat in...Adventureland was really empty. Loved this ride as well...Jack Sparrow was so lifelike it was amazing. Afterwards I went with the kids on the Magic Carpet Ride...Joel giggled when the camel spit on us. As we exited, there was some kind of camera crew there redirecting people around the ride....I don't know if it was for a new planning video or what. Also took this pic:

After this, it was time for our very first Dole Whip...we decided to split one:

Pineapple-vanilla swirly goodness - oh yum!

One last pic of the castle:

And we left to catch the monorail one last time. I must confess to feeling a little teary eyed as I looked back at the train station....when can we go back???? Time to start saving our pennies again...

The trip home was long and tiring. Some drama on the way, as my daughter lost her new cell phone at our hotel in SC and didn't notice until we had been on the road for a couple of hours. Called the hotel and they went up and looked and said they couldn't find it. So now we rendered the phone useless and will need to replace it. Grrrr.

Overall, the trip was everything we hoped for. Joel did remarkably well without a stroller, and thanks to the helpfulness of CMs, we were all able to relax and enjoy this vacation. I think it's safe to say we'll never find another spot to vacation where all of us can have such a good time. And when we return, I hope hope hope it will be a room at the Contemporary with the same kind of view. *Wishes for Pixie Dust to be sent our way*

Thanks for coming along for the ride....I hope everyone enjoyed it!

 

[heartodisney]

WOW! Jenn! What a wonderful thread! Thank you so very much for sharing all this! I cannot wait to do this when we are able to return. VERY rare pic of you and hubby! The kids looked like they had so much fun! Who would have thought to have so much patience to take a pic in Epcot at the little railroad of a model man and a lizard! That was great! Details! I just know that it was a great trip for you all and the celebration of the years you all been together. Thanks again for all this!

 

[DisneyBunny]

Awww! Great TR! And yay for the first Dole Whip!! Now you're spoiled with that contemporary view. One of the main reasons we'll never stay there!

Got to love cupcakes for breakfast! :slurp: