Trip Report * Completed* For the First Time In Forever We'll Have Magic, We'll Have Fun

Hello @Longers @Doc Disney @prfctlyximprct @Tuvalu and my fellow Disney fanatics. Welcome to my 2016 Princess 5K Trip Report!


Who: Me (Lisa) and my younger sister, Tina
When: February 17 -22, 2016
Where: The Poly!
Why: 2015 sucked and we were in desperate need of the magic and protection of the Disney Bubble. And oh yeah, my 50th Birthday!!

How this trip came about:
In December of 2014 my sister suggested that we do something, just the two of us, to celebrate my 50th birthday. Knowing that she loves Disney as much as I do, I suggested a Disney trip. I'd been reading lots of runDisney trip reports so we decided that it would be fun to run in the Princess 5K. Tina had run in a few 5Ks, but until we came up with this idea I had never run a 5K in my life.
Right away I went into planning mode and started researching resorts and planning our tentative itinerary.
Then, in April of 2015 our mom, who has dementia, became very ill and needed surgery followed by a lengthy stay in a skilled nursing facility. At the end of April our dad, who was our mom's primary caregiver, had a sudden loss of his short term memory. Tina and I began taking 24 hour shifts of staying with and caring for our dad. As our mom improved, our dad declined and he passed away at the end of June. The remainder of 2015 was a blur of finding an assisted living community for our mom, clearing out & selling our mom & dad's home and dealing with all the other details that go along with that.
Throughout all of this, the thought of our Disney trip lifted our spirits and kept us going. We decided that along with celebrating my birthday, our trip would also be a celebration of our dad and our wonderful family of four.

Here is a photograph of our family on our first trip to Walt Disney World in the early 1980's.

This is one of our favorite family photographs. Tina was not happy that they put her in that sailor suit, but she was a good sport and smiled anyway!

While we were cleaning out our mom & dad's house we found a box containing all of the maps, pamphlets, guide books, and our mom's notes for every family vacation we took.
We were super excited to find these:




Up next: Our trip begins!

 

[Tuvalu]

B•V•G (Bay View Gifts) is the lettering on the outside of the shop on the 4th floor concourse of the Contemporary. It has always been a fave of ours for the reasons you mentioned (mostly the uniqueness of the gifts!)

Did you and Tina find the 5-legged goat on the mural?

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Your food from Cali grill looks sooooo delicious! Why do I read trip reports right before bed? I'm starving!

 

[LisaBelle]

B•V•G (Bay View Gifts) is the lettering on the outside of the shop on the 4th floor concourse of the Contemporary. It has always been a fave of ours for the reasons you mentioned (mostly the uniqueness of the gifts!)

Did you and Tina find the 5-legged goat on the mural?

Loved Bay View Gifts. I want to make it a regular stop on future trips. No, we forgot to look. I knew there was something about the goats, but couldn't remember what . Oh well, another reason to head back!

Your food from Cali grill looks sooooo delicious! Why do I read trip reports right before bed? I'm starving!

It was delicious! I do the same thing! I read TRs before bed and then feel famished after looking at all the delicious WDW food. Can't wait to read about all your ADRs!

 

[MinnieM123]

Thanks for posting a few pictures of the Mary Blair tile mural, in the Grand Canyon Concourse, at the Contemporary. That's my favorite piece of artwork in all of WDW. Really made my morning here to see those pictures!

 

[LisaBelle]

Woo Hoo! School's out for summer and I am finally back to wrap up my trip report.
In my last post I mentioned a record describing the trip through It's a Small World. It actually describes the DLR version of the attraction, but I found the album and wanted to share it here. Did anyone else have any of these records when they were younger?



And now back to the TR…
We woke up around 7:00am on Sunday. The plan was to make it to MK for the opening show. Before breakfast we took some photos to send to my daughter. She had a volleyball tournament that day and we wanted to show her that we were representing her team colors.


For some reason which I can no longer remember, we got delayed and didn't make it to the MK until about 9:30. I was a little disappointed that we missed the opening show, but as I was trying to live in the moment I vowed to relax and enjoy this beautiful sight…..




We stopped in to visit with Pooh and his friends from the Hundred Acre Woods.




Then we decided to visit my favorite Princess, Belle.

 

[LisaBelle]

This was our first time visiting Belle's cottage. It was so much fun exploring all the details. We loved it!







The magic mirror was amazing. I could watch it over and over.

The children cast to act out the story of how Belle and the Beast fell in love were adorable!
I loved seeing Lumiere

And of course, Belle!

 

[LisaBelle]

We took a quick selfie and headed out for our next adventure…..

The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Notice my sunglasses. Now you see them……...

Now you don't!

As we went through the dark ride portion of the ride, I put my sunglasses on top of my head so that I could see things better. When we came back outside and started down the hill I felt them sliding off my head. If you look closely you can see that I reached back to grab them and accidentally knocked them off! They went flying behind me. I tried to grab them, but no luck!
Then we made a pit stop at the most beautiful restrooms in the world.




My daughter Allie updated us on her volleyball tournament and asked us what we were doing, so we sent her this….

Then we went to visit some hitchhiking ghosts.

 

[LisaBelle]

The sun was super bright and I had no sunglasses, so I look very squinty!


We were starving so we headed for Columbia Harbour House. We found a table upstairs and enjoyed looking at this lovely scenery

While we enjoyed these delicious lobster rolls .

Since we were close to Peter Pan's Flight we decided to check the wait time. It said 40 minutes and I should have known better but we didn't have a Fastpass+ for it, the lines would only get longer and I kind of wanted to see the new queue so we got in line. The queue was delightful until we got stuck in the bedroom FOREVER!


We finally made it on to our pirate ship and enjoyed our flight over London.

If I had it to do over again, I would skip Peter Pan and go to ride Space Mountain like Tina wanted to do. She was nice to me since it was my birthday trip and although I like Peter Pan, the hour long wait really wasn't worth it.
We had some time before our next Fastpass+ so we took a spin on Aladdin's Flying Carpets.

 

[Matt and Kelly]

So much accomplished so far! Loved reading your report.

 

[LisaBelle]

Just took another look at my last post and realized I put in 2 pictures of the scenery and 0 pictures of the lobster roll . Here is the lobster roll!

And as you can see by the Aladdin's Carpet Ride photo I got myself a new pair of shades!
Next, we headed for the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness, BTMR. It is one of my favorite rides.




It was quite warm outside and we had a few minutes before our next Fastpass+ window opened up, so we treated ourselves to these.


I can't believe that was my first and last Mickey Premium Bar of the trip .
Then we took a ride with Brer Rabbit and his friends.




I got wet and Tina got completely SOAKED!! We made a quick stop in the restroom to mop ourselves up. Luckily Tina had another shirt in her bag so she put that on and we headed to Frontierland to grab a last minute spot for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. I didn't get to see this parade on our last trip so I was super excited.
We found a spot and Tina went to the Fastpass+ kiosk hoping to grab a FP+ for Space Mountain, while I guarded our small piece of real estate. No luck on Space Mountain, but we got one for Jungle Cruise which we hadn't ridden yet, so we were cool with that.

 

[LisaBelle]

So much accomplished so far! Loved reading your report.

Thanks for following along! Glad you are enjoying it. More coming up shortly!

 

[LisaBelle]

I was super excited for FOF so prepare for photo overload!


Not the most flattering photo of Anna and Elsa, but I loved seeing them.

Rapunzel is my daughter Allie's favorite princess so I had to get a picture of her.

And who can resist Flynn Rider? Allie loves him! I tried to get a good shot of him on the moving pendulum, but my photography talent was not up to the challenge!

Tina and I tried to get our picture taken with these people at the Princess 5K but the line moved wayyy too slowly and I was afraid of getting swept from the course so we bailed.


Loved this!

Off to Neverland!

Sorry Tink! Caught you with your eyes closed!

 

[LisaBelle]

Then I finally saw her in person!



Sadly I missed the shot of her breathing fire, but I loved seeing her up close!



I love Dumbo! My son loved elephants when he was young and we watched Dumbo many times.

Hey Pluto! Where's your pal, Mickey?

Goofy is my husband's favorite character so I had to get a shot of him!

And finally Mickey and Minnie!

I loved the parade and since we watched from it's starting point in Frontierland we were quickly off for more fun!

 

[samantha788]

love the FOF pics!

 

[LisaBelle]

love the FOF pics!

Thanks! I was so happy to finally see it in person!

 

[blreinsel]

Never apologize for FOF pictures.. They make my heart SOAR.

 

[MinnieM123]

Loved seeing the colorful parade pictures. I also enjoyed your window seat in Columbia Harbour House--I always go upstairs to those tables by the windows and watch all the people below. It's really very relaxing up there. (I always get the Lighthouse Sandwich--one of my favorite QS meals in WDW.)

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Our 3 year olds favourite movie is Dumbo. She has about different Dumbo stuffed animals.

 

[LisaBelle]

Never apologize for FOF pictures.. They make my heart SOAR.

Glad you enjoyed them! It truly is a beautiful parade. You'll be there enjoying it in person before you know it!

Loved seeing the colorful parade pictures. I also enjoyed your window seat in Columbia Harbour House--I always go upstairs to those tables by the windows and watch all the people below. It's really very relaxing up there. (I always get the Lighthouse Sandwich--one of my favorite QS meals in WDW.)

I knew there was an upstairs seating area but this was the first time I ever sat up there. Tina had read about it and really wanted to sit up there. We got there just before the big lunch rush. We basically had the upstairs to ourselves for the first 10 or 15 minutes and as you said, it was very relaxing. The view from the window was beautiful. I've never had the lighthouse sandwich. I will have to keep that in mind on my next trip, but it will be hard to resist the lobster roll.

Our 3 year olds favourite movie is Dumbo. She has about different Dumbo stuffed animals.

So sweet! Our now 20 year old loved elephants and we watched Dumbo over and over. We watched the Colonel Haati, elephant portions of Jungle Book over and over as well. We had elephant Beanie Babies and a variety of other elephants all over our house for years!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Glad you enjoyed them! It truly is a beautiful parade. You'll be there enjoying it in person before you know it!


I knew there was an upstairs seating area but this was the first time I ever sat up there. Tina had read about it and really wanted to sit up there. We got there just before the big lunch rush. We basically had the upstairs to ourselves for the first 10 or 15 minutes and as you said, it was very relaxing. The view from the window was beautiful. I've never had the lighthouse sandwich. I will have to keep that in mind on my next trip, but it will be hard to resist the lobster roll.


So sweet! Our now 20 year old loved elephants and we watched Dumbo over and over. We watched the Colonel Haati, elephant portions of Jungle Book over and over as well. We had elephant Beanie Babies and a variety of other elephants all over our house for years!

Oops meant to say she has 6 different ones lol.