Trip Report *Completed* The Rain Filled Graduation and Cancer Free Celebration Trip

Hey everyone!
First off let me start by saying this is my first trip report and I am very excited to share my trip with all of you! Secondly, I am going to freely admit that this TR will take me forever to finish since I start residency on Monday haha

For those of you interested in seeing my PTR its here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/graduation-and-cancer-free-celebration.883163/#post-6056949

Just a quick introduction to the trip:
When?
June 6th - June 16th 2014
Where? Port Orleans French Quarter, our recent favorite hotel
Why? My mom is one year cancer free and I just graduated from medical school!
Who? In order of the picture below: My dad, myself (Megan), my mom, my sister Jill's boyfriend Nick, my sister Jill, and my sister Betta

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Ok so Day 1 :) My Dad and I were very excited to be in the airport!
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Our flight was pretty terrible actually. We had a lot of turbulence, so much so that I fell over in the bathroom on the plane haha. However, if you ask my Dad it was smooth sailing (mainly because he slept through the whole thing). Seriously though, I don't think I ever landed so hard haha but it was all good because we made it to Florida!!!
I put my Magic Band on as soon as we landed
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Ok so I mentioned this in my PTR but we have always rented a car in Disney, but this year we decided not to so going on DME was a first for us!
Here is our DME family selfie (my sisters didn't come until the next day)…it was super popular on Facebook haha
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Anyway so I thought DME was pretty great, we barely waited at all and got to the hotel by 11:30 am. I didn't really mind the video…but I also never saw the old one. I will also admit that I was only half paying attention because I was answering some phone calls for residency stuff. I missed the Disney sign because I was on the phone :( I did get a picture of our hotel though!
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Oh, and on a side note at a red light we saw this sign and all three of us thought it said gourmet walk in medical care instead of gourmet pizza haha
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Ok so anyway, I am already rambling. When we got off the bus the most unexpected thing happened! The one cast member was standing there with our name on an iPad! I NEVER EXPECTED IT! I almost walked right past her! So she said because we did online check in our room was already ready AND she surprised us by giving us "I'm Celebrating" pins! My sister Betta called ahead and told them I was celebrating graduation and my mom was celebrating cancer free and they already had the pins made for us (although to be fair they got confused and made my moms a graduation pin too haha but so much Disney magic already)!
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We saw this beautiful sight when we walked into our room
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Basically we spent like 2 seconds in our room, just long enough to get changed (into the clothes I insisted we pack in our carry ons even though my parents thought I was insane) and off to the Magic Kingdom we went! First I had to pose with my new pin!
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Here are my parents at the Magic Kingdom…let me say thank goodness I was wearing sunglasses because I was tearing up I was so excited. Let me also say it was hot…probably because I'm from Buffalo and we had an especially horrible winter but boy was I grateful for that change of clothes
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We got inside and took some obligatory pictures with the Memory Maker
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Then…we were starving. Since we usually had a car we rarely ate on Disney property except for breakfast so this trip was our first chance to try new restaurants. I was standing there suggesting things to eat (since I did a disturbing amount of research) and we ended up just going to Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant because it was close and we were hungry. (We did initially look at Casey's Corner but I have a weird thing about only eating a certain brand of hot dogs from home and my mom doesn't even like them so we said no to that).

My mom and I got kids nuggets and mac and cheese and my dad got the adult nuggets. I thought it was all really good! (also, so much food comes with kids meals its insane!)
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On a side note my family really got into me taking pictures of food (although as you will see usually there was at least one bite out of it because we were always starving haha). My dad would always be like "we need to get a picture for the blog!" haha (blog was the term I used because trip report would have confused everyone)

Ok…next up is our actual day at MK and then dinner at the California Grill! Hopefully I can squeeze it in tomorrow before my graduation party :)
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Absolutely following along! Thanks for sharing! Great TR so far!! Enjoy the stay!!
Thank you! I see that you are heading to Disney in the near future….have fun!

You're pictures are great :)
Thank you! I just got a new camera so I am pretty pleased with most of the pictures!

Still loving your report! Your parents are great. Your pics are fun. Looking forward to the next installment.
Thank you for continuing to follow, I love my parents they were especially funny on this trip! Are you going back soon?
 

CtDisneyGuy33

Well-Known Member
Great trip report! How was POFQ- I'm headed down in september and have read the sites, any personal insight??

What Med School are you going to again?
 

roropatches

Member
Great report so far. Congrats to you on your graduation and that is great about your mom!!
I am hoping to take my folks down there next year... did you enjoy any of the interactive queues? You mentioned it can be annoying when kids won't stop playing and move up when the line moves... I was just wondering... I don't remember many (if any) interactive queues the last time I was there but they look interesting.. especially the mine train...
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Great trip report! How was POFQ- I'm headed down in september and have read the sites, any personal insight??

What Med School are you going to again?

POFQ is easily one of my favorite hotels, I really enjoy how small it is especially in the morning when there is only one bus stop so we don't wait so much time. I also love the pool, even though I am not a kid the slide is super fun haha. Its also super nice that there is a boat to downtown Disney. Lastly, the food in the cafeteria is pretty good…I have been to New Orleans multiple times and the food is similar in taste. I really don't have any bad things to say about it. I am in Residency in Buffalo through the University at Buffalo system!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Great report so far. Congrats to you on your graduation and that is great about your mom!!
I am hoping to take my folks down there next year... did you enjoy any of the interactive queues? You mentioned it can be annoying when kids won't stop playing and move up when the line moves... I was just wondering... I don't remember many (if any) interactive queues the last time I was there but they look interesting.. especially the mine train...

Thank you! I guess the only interactive line I paid attention to besides Space Mountain (which is super fun computer games) was Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh was only irritating because it was almost like a little playground on the side as opposed to the others that are directly in the line. I missed the mine train one because I only went on once and it was via Fast Pass. I do think they are slowly making more lines interactive which is nice in most cases :)
 

roropatches

Member
Thank you! I guess the only interactive line I paid attention to besides Space Mountain (which is super fun computer games) was Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh was only irritating because it was almost like a little playground on the side as opposed to the others that are directly in the line. I missed the mine train one because I only went on once and it was via Fast Pass. I do think they are slowly making more lines interactive which is nice in most cases :)
Yeah.. I have a feeling I won't see the mine train que simply because I already have fast passes scheduled for it (twice) and I do not think we will wait in line for it after that.. but the Haunted Mansion que looks cool and a few others too.....I don't remember Space Mountain having that either.. is that new? Or at least newish? I have not been since '07 and it seems so much has changed....
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yeah.. I have a feeling I won't see the mine train que simply because I already have fast passes scheduled for it (twice) and I do not think we will wait in line for it after that.. but the Haunted Mansion que looks cool and a few others too.....I don't remember Space Mountain having that either.. is that new? Or at least newish? I have not been since '07 and it seems so much has changed....

Oh I forgot about the Haunted Mansion one! That one is fun too but you usually move pretty quickly through it. The Space Mountain one is rather new…it was there my last trip in Jan of 2013 but I don't remember it in my 2010 trip…doesn't mean it wasn't there though haha A lot has changed but most of it is for the best :)
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued:
We decided to go back to our hotel and wanted to spend time at our pool! The pool is one of my favorites at Disney…I love the slide. My favorite part is the fun little things kids say when waiting in line for the slide haha I had a full conversation with kids who were terrified to go down and I convinced them it was fun. Some of those kids were little bullies though. One kid kept punching my Dad in the back and then proceeded to push him down the slide haha
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We then decided to check out Mardi Grogs the pool bar. I had a Mango Margarita…it was ok. I'm not a huge fan of frozen drinks and I'm not sure why I ordered it anyway. It was probably because I didn't know they had a full bar until like like 2 days ago.
At this time we finally saw my sister Jill and her boyfriend Nick. Their flight came in around 11:30 am and they decided to go to Epcot to introduce Nick to World Showcase
Jill was making this face because she didn't pack a change of clothes and ended up having to walk around Epcot in the heat so she was hot
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Jill and Nick at the pool
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At the pool I made dinner reservations on my phone for Paradiso 37. Jill and Nick had dinner reservations for Bongos downtown too so the plan was to meet up with them after for a drink.
We went back to the room to get ready before taking the boat down to Downtown DIsney
My adorable Mom waiting for my Dad to finish getting ready for dinner.
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Everything is so remininsistent of New Orleans…I had just gotten back on a trip from there 2 weeks before this trip so it warmed my heart
Down by the river
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When we got to Downtown Disney I was surprised that there was only one boat stop now and that they didn't drop you off at Marketplace. I was also genuinely shocked by how much construction there was. I read that there was a lot but I didn't think it was going to be as much as it was! The walls up everywhere was very weird and it made me not really feel the Disney Magic!
In any case we got down there a little early so we decided to walk around to T-Rex and look at the gift shop. We were going to walk around some more but we seriously can't handle heat haha So we went back to Paradiso and checked in early and they seated us right away. I was starving so I apologize I cut my food before I remembered to take a picture. My mom had quesadillas (basically her favorite food). They were very good! My mom wasn't feeling super great (we did a pretty poor job of hydrating) so she didn't eat much but wished she could have eaten more.
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I had the Jalapeño Burger which was super good. It had guacamole on it which is my new favorite thing on burgers haha
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My dad had the enchiladas (I think…?) They looked good, but I did not try them. I think my dad said it was good.
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We were supposed to meet up with Jill and Nick for a drink but they weren't feeling well from the heat so they didn't end up making it to Bongos and stayed at the hotel. We all made the executive decision to go back to the hotel and pool after dinner because we were too hot haha. We swam a bit and waited for my other sister Betta to arrive.
She made it!
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We took her to the cafeteria and she got the quesadillas which she said were good. I love most of the food in this cafeteria but the actual place tends to weird me out. As an example,
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My Mom also got her first Mickey Bar, her favorite Disney snack!
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After this we all went to bed, Betta's flight came in around 7:30 pm and the luggage was delivered to the room around 11:30 pm (according to my Dad…we were all sleeping haha) so not bad!

Next Stop: Epcot
 

CtDisneyGuy33

Well-Known Member
POFQ is easily one of my favorite hotels, I really enjoy how small it is especially in the morning when there is only one bus stop so we don't wait so much time. I also love the pool, even though I am not a kid the slide is super fun haha. Its also super nice that there is a boat to downtown Disney. Lastly, the food in the cafeteria is pretty good…I have been to New Orleans multiple times and the food is similar in taste. I really don't have any bad things to say about it. I am in Residency in Buffalo through the University at Buffalo system!

Very cool. I'm headed down with friends and I pushed for the POFQ after reading posts here and reviewing a bunch of sites. So, I'm glad it sounds like we wont be disappointed. And one of the selling points was the slide, so yes, I am a big kid. :)

Just saw the Go Bills tag - not sure how they will be this year. EJ Manuel and Sammy Watkins are good, but Stevie J was your best WR. Hope they will be exciting if nothing else..

Great report and pics!
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Thank you! I see that you are heading to Disney in the near future….have fun!


Thank you! I just got a new camera so I am pretty pleased with most of the pictures!


Thank you for continuing to follow, I love my parents they were especially funny on this trip! Are you going back soon?

I will be back in just 19 days. I CAN'T WAIT!!! We are staying at the Wilderness Lodge from July 13-21st. We will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. We honeymooned at WDW and wanted to celebrate our 25th there with our kids. I am passing the time until the trip by reading trip reports. I hope to write my first ever trip report when we come back!
 

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