Trip Report * COMPLETED* The Let's Never Go Home Trip

Hey everyone! I don't have all my pictures and videos sorted or anything yet but its a rainy cold day here in Buffalo so why not work on my trip report :) I took over 4000 videos and pictures (I started a youtube channel for my videos :happy: ) so bear with me as I sort through them all! All and all we had a great trip and I wish we weren't home already :(

For those of you who want to see my PTR here it is: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-dole-whip-extravaganza.910063/

Let's get started!

Who?:
From left to right: My Dad (Jeff), My Mom (Mary), Nick (Jill's Boyfriend), My Sister Jill (@Disney Dentist ) and Me (Megan!)
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When?
Jill and Nick were there from April 29 - May 6
My parents and I were there from April 30 - May 12

Where?
We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter! Its our favorite hotel (moderate wise) for sure and it did not disappoint this trip :) We had a great time there and after not having stayed there for a few trips we really enjoyed being back at our "home."

Why?
Why not? We planned this trip before my mom and I went to DL and WDW by ourselves; it was originally a trip to help us get through our post Disney depression from February 2015 but we also ended up going twice more before this....haha

The Title?
We were there for a record (for us) 13 days and it seemed like we were never going to have to leave...unfortunately day 13 did come and we did eventually have to go home. Even after being there for so long I still wasn't ready to leave!

T-1 Day to go:
Jill and Nick were already in Disney but my parents and I could not leave until Saturday because I have clinic on Fridays which is non-negitionable (we get our vacation in two week blocks so technically my vacation didn't start until May 2 but luckily I was able to get the weekend off before). Anyway we had Jills dogs to take care of for one day. I was off my from regular rotation in the morning which was nice because we had time to get our nails done. However, just about an hour before I had to go to clinic my sister's one dog had some issues :hungover: Here I am bathing him (with my fresh manicure) right before having to go to work...
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Meanwhile this is the text I get when I am at clinic....
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Must be nice...;) Anyway we got him cleaned up and when I got home from work we got the dogs all situated at their respective places to stay. We then checked we packed everything and I made my Dad sit down with me and make sure he had everything he needed. This will come into play later since he really wasn't paying attention to me :happy:

Day 1 Travel Day
Well our flight was leaving at 6:50 am so we got up around 4:00 am to get ready to go. Luckily we live close to the airport but still planned on leaving around 5 am to make sure we had time. I had a weird feeling all morning that the airport was going to be packed so I was a little more anxious than usual
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Anyway we shoved our five (yes five, and my 2 were both full size) suitcases into my Dad's car and off we went to the airport. We ended up leaving a little before 5. We got to the airport and we parked and had to drag our suitcases into the terminal. Its not that far but I was spoiled by our last few trips where my Dad dropped us off at the door haha. Anyway as we were on the elevator I was super anxious and my Dad was like calm down its never that crowded. Literally as soon as he said that the door opened and what did we see? A HUGE line for security...like out the entrance for it all the way through the airport. :eek::confused: I almost panicked but instead thought "oh no worries we almost always get TSA pre-check." So we check in and the tickets come out and no pre-check for my Mom and I. My Dad always gets it because he is a government/army employee. He was going to wait in line with us but I told him to go ahead so in case we were so long we didn't get to board on time he could save our seats. I also assumed maybe he would get us breakfast...spoiler alert he didn't haha
Anyway my poor mother had to deal with me through the almost hour we waited in security..I was so nervous we were going to miss our flight (or at least boarding). Luckily we got out around 6:15 and our boarding was 6:25.
My mom and I met my Dad at the gate and while he didn't get us breakfast he did get us cookies so there is that :) Thumbs up we made it on time, as I am sure many people did not make it! In fact our flight definitely left without some people.
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My penguin and dinosaur were ready to go!
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We were in the early A's so we got a good seat and immediately put on our magic bands :)
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Next up: traveling continued
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sorry for the delay everyone! Hope you all had a great holiday weekend :)
Day 7 continued
We had reservations at Be Our Guest for lunch so headed over there! My Mom and I were the only two who had ever eaten there so it was new for everyone else. Actually it was semi-new for my Mom and I too since we never had lunch there before! We checked in and did not order ahead of time so waited in the long line to order.
We ordered our food and Nick was able to find us a big table in the ballroom to sit at together
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Its funny its obviously the same place as dinner but it looks so much more like a cafeteria at lunch time!
Not sure why I don't have a picture of Nick here haha
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There was a slight confusion because we had two different roses at our table but eventually they figured it out :)
Its a little dark but you can see the food :)
My Mom and I split the Carved Turkey Sandwich! This was super good!
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We each had our own French Onion. Our favorite French Onion ever :)
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Jill had the Carved Prime Chuck Roast Beef...this was also very good!
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Nick had the Croque Monsieur. He and Jill both loved this! I don't like ham, but I tried it and it was OK haha
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My Dad had the Vegetable Quiche. He enjoyed this
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Jill and Nick both had soup as well. I believe Jill got the French Onion and Nick got the Potato Leek. I did not try the Potato Leek but everyone who did really enjoyed it!
Jill got the Master's cupcake which was good
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Nick got the Strawberry Cream Cheese cupcake which was also good
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We all really enjoyed our lunch and will be back here for sure!

Next up: wandering around MK
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 7 continued:
When we got out of BOG my Mom decided to take a 10000 pictures on the bridge. I will spare you and only leave you with a few :)
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We had a FP for Haunted Mansion after this so headed over!
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I always try to take pictures on the ride and it turns out like this...
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Oh well. haha I like the new ending when it says where you are from and such.
Time for some Photopass pictures!
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I was so excited about this! We have never had the hitchhiking ghosts before!
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After this we headed to POTC. The wait time was posted at 35 minutes but we figured it would be much longer based on how far out the line was. My Dad ended up leaving the line and heading back to the hotel early because he didn't feel good. Later he said he does not like crowds and it was getting him nervous :confused:. Thats the first we ever heard of this hatred of crowds and it would continue to haunt us the rest of the trip o_O
We ended up waiting about 50 minutes total but the line went fast because two kids kept trying to cut us in line and we made a game out of not letting them pass. We sat in the first row, but luckily we did not get too wet!
We decided to head out after this. We took one last picture with Jill and Nick
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We split up after this. Jill and Nick wanted to go to the Polynesian and my Mom and I headed back to the hotel.
I don't remember seeing these flowers before around the bus stops!
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On the bus ride back to the hotel my Mom and I were on with these girls who self proclaimed themselves as Disney experts and then proceeded to spend the whole bus ride going through their Flower and Garden passports talking about the food they got at the "Food and Wine Festival" :happy:. Some experts :hilarious::joyfull:

Next up: relaxing and back to the MK
 

Longers

Well-Known Member
Intrigued for a new ending at the haunted mansion and love your hitchhiking ghost picture.
I am hoping Pirates may have sorted out the front row wet issue! We are trying to decide if we give it another go or not so I have been following other comments closely. Subscribed too!
This trip is easing my counting down :)
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Intrigued for a new ending at the haunted mansion and love your hitchhiking ghost picture.
I am hoping Pirates may have sorted out the front row wet issue! We are trying to decide if we give it another go or not so I have been following other comments closely. Subscribed too!
This trip is easing my counting down :)

I shouldn't say new ending so much as an addition to the hitchhiking ghosts :)
The water level was much lower on POTC so I think they figured out the water issues!
Thanks for subscribing :)
Glad I can help you with counting down!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Drooling over your French Onion Soup pictures. :inlove: And of course the desserts!

It's annoying when people self-proclaim themselves to be experts.. It's even more annoying when they follow it up with "knowledge" like what you overheard. :hilarious:

I wish I could fly right down there today and eat some French Onion soup. If only I wasn't a poor medical resident..haha
Some people truly are Disney experts, but most people aren't and just think they are :p I feel like I read a lot and know a lot about Disney but I still would not call myself an expert by any means haha
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 7 continued
Back at the hotel we relaxed by the pool, grabbed a drink at the bar and stopped by the food court to say goodbye to Jill and Nick. Then we got ready to head back to the MK!
While we were waiting for my Dad to get ready we walked around a bit in the gardens
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This is the biggest one of these guys I have ever seen
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Finally my Dad was ready so we headed back to the MK!
It was much less crowded than it was in the morning which was nice
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This was meant to be in front of the Partners statue but you can't really see it :rolleyes:
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We were semi-hungry after this so decided to head to Pinocchio Village Haus. First my Dad had to use the restroom and I forgot about the ones right next to the Village Haus and sent him all the way to the Tangled bathrooms haha oops
Grabbed this picture randomly while waiting
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When we came back it was finally time for eating.
You guys, my food pictures are so blurry this whole trip I'm so sorry! I focused too much on videos and snapped my pictures too fast :(
Anyway I had the flatbread pizza...delicious as always!
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My mom had the kids mac and cheese
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And my Dad had a side salad...yep a side salad. He was still not feeling well because of the crowds :banghead: (AKA MK was essentially empty so not sure what crowd he was referring to..). This picture makes it look horrendous but he ate it so it must have been fine.
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Next up: Jungle Cruising
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 7 continued
I made a FP for Jungle Cruise since it was one of the few available and I knew my Dad would not want to wait stand-by for anything :)
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This is what I must look like all the time...whenever I am filming something I always make sure to not look through my camera so that I am still enjoying things in real life too :)
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We had a good time on the cruise. I used to hate this ride but its growing on me a little bit...just a little :)
I really wanted to make sure we saw the MSEP this night so we found some seating after this
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We had some time to kill so I stopped into the Confectionary to get a treat for my Mom and I
I grabbed a rice crispy treat
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This was a bit much for me...I'm more a plain rice crispy gal myself.
My Mom wanted a cupcake but they didn't have any so I got her a cookie with lemon flavoring on the ears. She really liked it.
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We sat right on Main Street which seemed like a great spot but soon they pulled out the rope and a bunch of people sat in front of us. Luckily where I was when I stood I could see just fine :)
My favorite part of the parade...
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A salute to all nations but mostly America :p (They should steal that from the Muppets and put it in the parade haha)

We headed home after this (avoided the Wishes crowd) and off to bed

Next up: "off day"
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 8
This morning we got up early (again for no reason) and headed to breakfast.
My Dad found us a table and my Mom and I grabbed our food. A man cut us in line saying he deserves to go ahead of us because he only had three items :cautious: Mind you we had three things too...
I had a bagel, my Mom had a Mickey waffle and my Dad had a crumb cake!
Crumb Cake!
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Breakfast was very crowded this morning! Its unusual when its crowded at POFQ
Anyway, we got ready and headed to Typhoon Lagoon!
When we arrived it was closed still so we patiently waited for the opening :)
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The air was still pretty chilly so we walked around a little bit to look around and take some pictures
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We headed over to the Shark Reef but it was closed so just looked around there too. That was fine by me...I don't enjoy swimming with the fish (don't mind the sharks...hate the fish haha)
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Typhoon Lagoon is so pretty...I feel like its slightly under appreciated :)
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We finally decided to go into the water and went down Keelhaul Falls and Mayday Falls slides. Mayday Falls is so funny! I literally almost fell off my raft its so bumpy! My Mom had never really done water slides before this trip (at the water parks) so she braved these two but after Mayday Falls she was done with water slides for a bit :p
Well, done with slides except for Gang Plank Falls *the family raft ride* because we knew that one is pretty tame!
Finally it was time for the wave pool!
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A view of the pool from within...loved my waterproof camera. Actually side story: before we went on this trip I was thinking of things with my Dad that I may be missing and he jokingly suggested an underwater camera. While he was joking I had already had it in my head that I needed one so that prodded me enough to go to Target that day and buy one. Luckily for me it was on sale :)
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Look at this great picture of my Dad...hahahaha
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So many water spots on the lens :facepalm:
In any case I have some pretty funny videos of the wave pool so the waterproof camera was the best $100 I ever spent :inlove: (Well, maybe not the best but you know what I mean!)

Next up: continuing in the Lagoon
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 8 continued
After a few big waves in the wave pool we headed over to Castaway Creek (aka the lazy man river)
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Its cool when you go behind the wave pool wall and you can hear the big swoosh of water
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After our trip we headed to grab some lunch at Leaning Palms!
My Mom and I both had chicken nuggets (figured you did not need to see a pic) and my Dad had a chicken, rice and bean dish
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We had some other plans for the afternoon so grabbed a few more pictures then headed out
Not sure why I am walking around with a massive towel on in the heat haha
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Next up: and afternoon and evening full of new for us!
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
....no.....I actually don't think I was ever even on it before. Time to put something on my Disney bucket list (theres not much left on it anyway haha)
Too bad! One of the most fun water slides we've ever been on. It's like a water roller coaster since you go up and down hills...not just down like a regular water slide. I think Em and I rode it 7 or 8 times in a row. :p
 

prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
I would have walked right up to those girls on the bus and said to them "I'm about to drop some knowledge on you!" No ones a Disney expert unless they are here on the forum! Lol.. And who am I kidding, I'm shy.. :)

Loving you day at typhoon lagoon! I have a day mapped out for it this trip since BB will be closed, let's just hope that day is sunny and hot in November. Now I need to go get me an underwater camera...
 

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