Trip Report *Completed!* The "pick a celebration and stick with it!" Trip Report :)

My husband and I have just returned from six wonderful days at WDW! The trip could not have gone better. I seriously did not want to leave.

I won't delve too far into the background here, because it's all in my pre-trip report here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/because-im-driving-myself-crazy.882149/ Don't want to read all that? No problem. Here's the Reader's Digest version:

The cast:

My husband and me:

With guest appearances by our dear friends Jason,Karissa, Neil, and Barbara (pictures of them to appear later).

The reason:

Pick one!

1) DH and I have both had weight loss surgery (the gastric sleeve, to be exact) and maintained our goal weights for over two years. For before and after pics, see the pre-trip report. He's lost over 200 pounds, and I've lost 130. We both have our health back!
2) I had been unemployed for several months and finally found a new job in January.
3) We were celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary (May 27th, but since I teach, we couldn't go anywhere until after school got out).
4) Add numbers one, two, and three, and what do you get? The go ahead to stop taking birth control, that's what!

So, yeah... this trip was a "celebrating weight loss/return to gainful employment/wedding anniversary/conceptionmoon (yes, apparently that's really a thing- I had to Google it to get the name of it) trip."

And, if the trip had had just one more drop of pixie dust, I would seriously think we were dreaming the whole time. Maybe we were...

The when, where, and how:

On May 31, we drove down to Orlando from Atlanta and spent the night with our friends Jason and Karissa. They live just outside of Orlando and were kind enough to let us crash at their place the night before our check in so that we would be refreshed for the parks the next day. On Sunday, June 1, we checked in at the Pop at eleven and stayed there until Saturday, June 7, when we drove home.

And now, let the report begin!

 

[dancingtodisney]

Only just starting to read your TR but have to say congratulations on your weight loss! You both look amazing and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your TR.

I'm hoping to celebrating for the same reason in October although my weight loss goal is only 3stone, I've signed up to the Wine and Dine half marathon!

 

[cw1982]

Thank you to everyone who has left warm wishes, congrats, or comments in general so far! I love getting your feedback and knowing that you're following along

Only just starting to read your TR but have to say congratulations on your weight loss! You both look amazing and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your TR.

I'm hoping to celebrating for the same reason in October although my weight loss goal is only 3stone, I've signed up to the Wine and Dine half marathon!

How exciting! I want to do one of the runs... I haven't decided which one yet! And hey, weight loss is weight loss. Sometimes it's harder to lose when you don't have as far to go, so in my mind there's no such thing as "only x-amount of weight to lose." You can do it

 

[Mom@disney]

What a great trip review so far! Look foward to reading the rest. Happy Anniversary!

 

[cw1982]

And now, on to day 4!

Epcot baby!

Matt and I had discussed our fastpasses two months ago and decided that we would FP+ Soarin' and take our chances with single rider on Test Track. So, with that in mind, we got up around 9, ate more Mickey Waffles and omelettes, and headed to Epcot for Soarin' FP+ at 11. Just like every other morning, the buses were practically waiting for us, and just like every other morning, even though I felt like we were running late, we made it to the park of the day with more than enough time to spare. We took an obligatory picture in front of Spaceship Earth:

and worked our way through Future World and on over to The Land. I did notice that the Garden Grill was not rotating, and it made me very glad that I had not booked any character meals... I would have been disappointed if I had been looking forward to eating there and seeing the restaurant rotate. Good thing we don't have kids yet... maybe by the time we have kids and go back, it'll be rotating again

Anyway, Soarin' was awesome! I was so glad that we picked that ride as our first fastpass of the day. Afterwards, we ended up riding Living with the Land, which was far more interesting than I expected it to be. By the time we got through that ride, it was time for our next FP+, so on to Mission Space. We both rode orange, and I honestly couldn't figure out why people make such a big deal about it. I honestly couldn't even tell that we were moving, other than just feeling like I was moving with the action on the screen. Matt explained to me when we got off that the movement of the ride vehicle was what made us feel like we were on the spaceship. Pretty neat effect, just not what I had thought it would be.

We had a little time to kill before our next FP+ for Spaceship Earth, so we went back over to the other side of FW and rode Nemo, explored the aquarium, rode Figment (which was every bit as awful as everyone says it is lol), and watched Captain Eo (which was about as good as Figment haha). At least we can say we did everything we were curious about, right?

But first, a little chill time with Chip and Dale!

Not sure what Chip was looking at, but whatever...

Between all of those, though, of course there were some more very important pictures to be taken:

Spaceship Earth was about what I remembered it being. It was nice to experience a ride that had not changed much since my last time there, and to see certain scenes and remember them from last time.

After SSE, I decided to see if we could happen to get a FP+ for Test Track... didn't think our chances were great, but since the signs all said the passes for that one were "limited" I figured we could at least try. Imagine my surprise when the CM at the kiosk kept hitting refresh over and over again until a time right before our dinner ADR showed up! Perfection! However, in the meantime, the standby wait was only 30 minutes, so we went over there right then and there for an extra round and ended up riding single rider, where the posted wait was only 10 minutes! We ended up getting in the same car, too, because the girl who was supposed to sit behind Matt was willing to switch cars with me. So we rode single rider and still got to sit together lol.

Good times!

By then, it was getting later in the day than I had expected, and I knew Matt would want to spend as much time as possible at World Showcase. Since we were already closer to Mexico than Canada, we started with Mexico. For lunch, we shared the beef tacos at the Mexican QS. They weren't anything to write home about, but I did enjoy sitting by the water and taking it all in.

After strolling around Mexico and riding the boat ride, it was time for our first drink of the day: a margarita!

Next: on to Norway, where Matt got a great picture with this guy:

And we shared one of these... too delicious for words!

We also rode Maelstrom. Honestly, now that I've ridden it, I can see the benefits to revamping and giving it a Frozen redo. It was cool and all, but definitely outdated in terms of animatronics and slightly stale. Besides, to those who say the characters shouldn't be at Epcot, this has already gone far out the window: you have the boat ride in Mexico that features Donald Duck and Disney characters to meet in most of the pavilions. At this juncture, I really don't see why one more character reference would be any kind of downgrade. I'm not a huge Frozen fan, but it somewhat makes sense at least.

We sort of glazed over China, where we picked up some candy, and then Germany. Matt wanted to meet Snow White, but the wait was going to be too long for his liking, so instead we enjoyed some caramel popcorn and wandered through the shops. We then grabbed a glass of Sangria in Italy, which I forgot to snap a picture of lol.

But, we still had that Fastpass for TT, so we needed to get back across the lagoon! Find out what we did to remedy that, next

 

[LAM378]

What is that Norway snack with the fruit and cream? I want one right now. And I'm glad you got to enjoy the Dole Whip!

 

[cw1982]

I'm sure most of you would say, "well, duh! Take the friendship boat across the lagoon to get to Future World! Especially since you're in Germany!"

Nope... not us Instead, we took a brisk walk around the rest of WS, noting where Teppan Edo was (since that's where dinner was), and booked it over to Test Track, only to find... it was down. We were given a floating FP+ to use for the rest of the day, but since it was 6:45 by then and our ADR was at 7:50, this wouldn't help us. I calmly went to the MM+ service station inside Innoventions, and I found a very helpful CM who cancelled the floating pass for tonight and reissued it for tomorrow. She said it would only be good for Test Track, but that was fine with us, since that's all we wanted to use it for

We made it back to the lagoon just in time to catch the very last friendship boat back to Germany, where DH decided to go all sweet and take my picture:

and we also got to looking around the shops in Japan after checking in for dinner, where Matt found this little gem of a weapon:

He wanted it, but he didn't want to pay $30 for it ($60 for both of us to have one... need two to have a sword fight!)

And then, it was finally time for dinner! I was saved by the buzzer

The drinks at Teppan Edo were pretty good. We got this:

which had apple juice, lemon juice, and sprite in it, and this:

Which was more like a mai tai. Very fruity

Service was great here! Our chef informed us that he was from "Sacramento, Japan" (lol) and asked where we were all from. Turns out he worked not too far from our neck of the woods when he was in the military. Small world! His food was amazing, too:

We split the steak and shrimp combo. The meat in this picture is my half of everything (I think I got greedy and ate a few bites before I took the pic though... sorry. And to think we almost didn't come here because they don't do fried rice! The rice in the picture is "beef rice," which is steamed, seasoned, and has been in it, but the noodles are really really good. Matt didn't want to go here when we first picked restaurants for ADR's, but now he can't stop talking about how much he liked it. Seriously. Men... lol!

Here's the super cool part of this meal, though:

The server brought us a free slice of cheesecake for our anniversary! The glaze on the side is a raspberry sauce, and she hand-folded that pink origami heart. It was very much as big of a deal as birthdays are... she brought it out very ceremoniously, asked us to hold hands, close our eyes, and make a silent wish. I'm not going to say what mine was ('cause then it won't come true!), but I'm sure you can guess, if you read the first post in this report

After dinner, we found a perfect spot to watch Illuminations just a little ways down from the lounge in Morocco. We watched the show, made it back to the bus, and decided tonight would be round two of attempting to swim, since we had discovered that the main pool was warmer than the one by our room. This water was indeed warmer, so we stayed there until a few minutes before closing (11 pm), but it still wasn't what I imagine when I think of swimming in Florida haha.

We stopped at the food court and grabbed a bedtime snack (Mickey bars and brownies) before heading back to the room to relax with more old school Disney toons. We got halfway back, and Matt said he forgot something and told me to go ahead, that he'd meet me at the room. I was a little confused, because we didn't take anything with us, other than our bands, which were on our wrists...

When he got back to the room, he had something in a Disney shopping bag, which he handed to me. I then understood why he wanted to go shopping at Animal Kingdom yesterday. He had bought me something:

It was the doll I had been gushing over at the shops! I couldn't believe he did this lol... talk about knowing how to make a girl giddy

This was just enough to lift my spirits... I was starting to feel a little down about the fact that we were already coming up on the last two days of our trip! I can't wait to tell you all about how we made the most of those two days. The best is yet to come!

 

[cw1982]

What is that Norway snack with the fruit and cream? I want one right now. And I'm glad you got to enjoy the Dole Whip!

Hah! It was amazing... It's called a Berry Cream Puff, and it's at the Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe (the QS place near the church). And yes... the Dole Whip... there would be more Dole Whips in our future

 

[cw1982]

Oh, one more thing...I know, enough with the side notes already haha... but very important tip for anyone staying at the Pop: Mousekeeping loves to leave the curtains open when they finish up each day, even if you left them closed when you left for the morning. When you get back to your room, always check to make sure the curtains are closed BEFORE you start changing into your swimsuit! Maybe this isn't an issue for those of you with kids, since then (I imagine) everyone takes turns changing in the bathroom. But it's just me and DH, and I'm not bashful like that... so I can think of two separate evenings this week when I accidentally changed in front of a window that was only covered with sheer curtains (the thick, privacy ones were open!) and I didn't realize what I had done until it was too late. Hopefully I didn't give too many people a good show...lol! Oops!!!

 

[MattnMissouri]

Oh, one more thing...I know, enough with the side notes already haha... but very important tip for anyone staying at the Pop: Mousekeeping loves to leave the curtains open when they finish up each day, even if you left them closed when you left for the morning. When you get back to your room, always check to make sure the curtains are closed BEFORE you start changing into your swimsuit! Maybe this isn't an issue for those of you with kids, since then (I imagine) everyone takes turns changing in the bathroom. But it's just me and DH, and I'm not bashful like that... so I can think of two separate evenings this week when I accidentally changed in front of a window that was only covered with sheer curtains (the thick, privacy ones were open!) and I didn't realize what I had done until it was too late. Hopefully I didn't give too many people a good show...lol! Oops!!!

We totally had this issue in April... Oops!

 

[LisaBelle]

Really enjoying your report. Will definitely have to try the spiked dole whips when we are there next month! It was so sweet of your husband to buy baby Dumbo for you. I had to lol at your story about the curtains !

 

[cw1982]

We totally had this issue in April... Oops!

Glad I'm not the only one... haha!

Really enjoying your report. Will definitely have to try the spiked dole whips when we are there next month! It was so sweet of your husband to buy baby Dumbo for you. I had to lol at your story about the curtains !

Yes! Definitely try the spiked Dole Whips! They are at Tamu Tamu something or other in Africa. And yes, I still get giddy about my new Dumbo lol. He's so cuddly, and I'm such a sucker for stuff like that! And I'm glad you're laughing about the curtains... I keep laughing about them too

 

[LAM378]

Those baby plushies are so cute. I stood in front of walls of them for waaaaaay too long deciding which one to buy my niece. Settled on Bambi but a Dumbo might be in her future.

How can you ride all these rides and still call yourself chicken?!?!? You are NOT (and that's awesome!).

 

[cw1982]

Those baby plushies are so cute. I stood in front of walls of them for waaaaaay too long deciding which one to buy my niece. Settled on Bambi but a Dumbo might be in her future.

How can you ride all these rides and still call yourself chicken?!?!? You are NOT (and that's awesome!).

Oh don't let the ride photos fool you! I love RnRC, and EE is a new favorite for me, but I pretty much had a panic attack while waiting to ride ToT. Now that I've done it I love it too, but I was seriously crying in that queue lol.

The Bambi one was cute too! I could see myself wanting that one if I hadn't seen Dumbo first lol.

 

[LAM378]

I have a panic attack looking at ToT from outside HS.

Seriously, good job. I feel like I've missed so much never being on the big rides. You definitely don't get the full WDW experience when you chicken out, and I'm happy you did them all!!

 

[dancingtodisney]

How exciting! I want to do one of the runs... I haven't decided which one yet! And hey, weight loss is weight loss. Sometimes it's harder to lose when you don't have as far to go, so in my mind there's no such thing as "only x-amount of weight to lose." You can do it

I know I'm really excited about it! I've never done anything more than a 10km race and I didn't even run that so the training has been tough so far! I'm setting myself some mini targets with the Holiday being the final goal

 

[stevehousse]

I didn't know you could switch your floating FP (ride breakdown) to a different day if needed! That's a great tip!

Loving your report so far!

And you would be suprised by the amount of people that DO change with the curtains open! LOL

 

[stevehousse]

I didn't know you could switch your floating FP (ride breakdown) to a different day if needed! That's a great tip!

Loving your report so far!

And you would be suprised by the amount of people that DO change with the curtains open! LOL

 

[cw1982]

I didn't know you could switch your floating FP (ride breakdown) to a different day if needed! That's a great tip!

Loving your report so far!

And you would be suprised by the amount of people that DO change with the curtains open! LOL

The changing it to a different day thing isn't common practice. I only asked them to do it because it happened right before our time ran out for rides for the day, because we were on our way to dinner and everything would be closed by the time we got out. I was a little pleasantly surprised that they did it actually lol. Keep in mind not just any CM can do that either. It has to be a supervisor, and I had to go to a mm+ station (not a FP kiosk) to find them.

Good to know about the curtains lol!

 

[mrdrift]

Great report with some nice pictures. Glad to hear you enjoyed ToT. Will be following.

 

[cw1982]

Day 5: Magic Kingdom and Epcot!

We started the day right with more Mickey waffles and omelettes (notice a pattern here? ) and went straight to the bus stops to make our way to the Magic Kingdom. I was a bit nervous when I got to the bus stop and saw the huge line of people waiting, but then I looked at the bus that had (apparently) just pulled up, and saw that we would still get on this bus; it was twice the length of the regular buses! It had some kind of accordion-looking thing in the midsection, where a normal bus would end, and it stretched on to be the length of two buses. So we still made it on the bus at the very time we needed. Good stuff!

When we got to the MK, we decided to ride the train around the park, since we didn't do that on Sunday. We rode all the way around the park, and I got a very neat view of the park entrance from the train:

Might not look like much to most, but something about seeing the monorail line in front of all that water makes me very happy

After taking a ride around the MK, we headed towards Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain. Along the way, we got a couple of good pics in front of the castle :

That last one is probably one of my favorite pics of the whole trip!

We got to Space, and enjoyed it as much today as we did on Sunday. Have I mentioned yet how much we love that ride? It shows here:

And I just love the view of Space as you take the side road behind the cars to head back towards the circus area:

We were walking through Storybook Circus on our way around the park, and looking for a quick snack for lunch, when Matt noticed the stand right outside of the area where you can meet Minnie and Daisy that had Mickey pretzels! I had been wanting to try one of them, so I got that and some cheese dip. Matt was holding out for a turkey leg from in front of the river boat, but he definitely had to help me eat that thing... it was huge! I returned the favor by helping him eat his turkey leg. It worked nicely lol.

Next stop: Splash Mountain! I love this ride, but I can't lie: I hate the last drop. With. A. Passion.

See?!? I'm holding his arm again, because I'm scared. I guess somehow I think holding onto him will make me stay in one place better? Lol... for whatever reason, that's my go-to reaction when I get scared on a ride.

We got a tad wet this time. Just a little.

We had timed things just right, so by the time we got off of Splash, we were getting a tad bit hot and ready for a cold treat. I remembered what @Wdwprince had told me about Citrus Swirls, and my promise that I would try one while I was at MK. We decided to go watch Country Bear Jamboree and then head over to get a Citrus Swirl after that (since the place that sells them is right behind there). I have to say, I enjoyed the Citrus Swirl, but the ice cream part made it a little too creamy for me. Matt and I shared one, so I was able to enjoy just the right amount, but I don't think I could have handled one on my own (sleever problems, as we say. Something about the creaminess of anything ice cream just doesn't "sit well" on my tummy in large amounts).

Soon, it was time for our last FP for the day at Big Thunder. When we rode it on Sunday, we were in the back of the train, which made me happy because I have read it's more intense from the back. I was a tad disappointed at first when we got put on the very front this time, but I soon realized I love the front on that ride, because the experience is completely different when all you have in front of you is the front end of the train. Hmm... you learn something new every day

Since we had discovered that going back behind Country Bear Jamboree puts you solidly in Adventureland, we decided to check out the FP kiosk in front of Jungle Cruise to see if there was anything we could get on quickly before time to head to Epcot. Sure enough, Jungle Cruise had times open in ten minutes lol. So, we sipped on ice water for five minutes (which we had grabbed on our way to the kiosk) and then got in line exactly five minutes before our window officially opened. I can now say I got to ride Jungle Cruise in the day and at night... I think I like the night rides better, but the day was fun too.

After that, since the kiosk was right by the exit, we looked for one more pass. We decided to grab one for Haunted Mansion for 30 minutes from then, but then I looked in the phone app and realized that the wait was only 20 minutes for standby. So we headed that way, and I went in the app and changed the FP for Pirates at 11 pm (we were coming back for Wishes after dinner).

After riding HM, we decided it was time to head back to Epcot for our TT fastpass from yesterday. We finally got to ride the monorail! I had been dying to do this since we got to WDW on Sunday, but so far we hadn't really had the time. I had heard stories about how long monorail wait times could be, but this didn't end up being a problem for us either. We took the resort line over to the Contemporary, because I had stayed there several times as a kid (back before it was so much more expensive than everything around it lol), so I wanted to show Matt what my childhood memories were like. After a quick look at the pools, the beach, and the restaurants, we got back in line for the monorail and headed to the TTC so we could go to Epcot. That wait wasn't long either. I think from the time we left the Magic Kingdom to the time we walked into Epcot was about 30 minutes, including stopping at the Contemporary. Our luck was continuing.

Find out all about dinner and our magical evening with Wishes next