Disney Anniversary Vacation

Hello! We just recently returned from our trip to the World over Memorial Day Weekend. It was such a lovely trip, so I thought I’d share with you.

Since I’m fairly new here, let me introduce the cast for this trip:

I’m Jenny. That’s me:


2013-05-24 12.07.14 by jrab616, on Flicker

And my husband, Chad:



2013-05-24 12.07.00 by jrab616, on Flickr

This trip was our One Year Anniversary Trip and we were also celebrating Chad’s Birthday. It was a 4-day magical filled mini-vacation.

If you want to read my pre-trip report, you can find it here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/introductory-ptr-may-24-17.864083/

 

[jrab0616]

Thursday, May 23

I took at half day on Thursday, so I worked until 1:00pm and headed home. I got us checked in for our flight and printed our boarding passes, so they would be ready in the morning. I loaded new music onto my iPad for the trip and finished packing what I could. Chad got home about 3:00pm and we cleaned things up around the house and decided to go get dinner. Chad had gotten a gift card to Long Horn for his birthday, so we went there for dinner. We had to stop to pick up my prescription on the way, so we were hungry when we got to the restaurant. Chad got the bacon wrapped filet and I had the baby back ribs. I ordered a half rack, but what they brought me was huge! I only ate about half of it.

We got home and did a few last minute things and I wanted to be in bed by 9:30 or so, so we went ahead and took the dogs to the in-laws. Here are the babies on their way to grandma’s:





photo 1 by jrab616, on Flickr


We got there about 8:30 and just Chad’s mom was home. So we put the dogs away and were about to leave when his Dad got home and they started talking. We didn’t leave until about 10:00pm. Once we got home, Chad’s brother came over to get my leftovers from dinner (since we were leaving the next day, we didn’t want the food to go to waste). He chatted with us for about a half hour and I finally said I was going to bed. It was 11:30 before I crawled into bed. But the bags were packed and by the door except a few things to throw in in the morning.

Up Next... Disney Bound!

 

[Pooh Lover]

Welcome Jenny! Happy anniversary and happy birthday to your husband! Looking forward to reading your trip report. Your "babies" looked a little sad that you were leaving....LOL.

 

[jrab0616]

Friday, May 24th

The alarm went off at 3:15am and I got up and got a quick shower. We got ready pretty quickly and were out the door by 4:15am. I bought a Groupon for an off-site airport parking, so we headed there and ended up at the outdoor lot. We had made reservations at the indoor lot, so we had to go back out and down the street before finding the indoor lot. It was a really nice place and the bus picked us up right at our car. We waited a few minutes for a few more people to board and we were off to the airport.

Since we already had our boarding passes and we weren't checking luggage, we went straight to security. It took about 45 minutes to get through security, even at 5:00am. I got an email update that our gate had changed as we were going through security, so to the T-gates it was. We bought some drinks and ate our cereal bars at the gate while we waited for our 6:50am flight. We only had to wait about 30 minutes before they stared to board.

When our boarding number was called we were forced to check our bags because they said the plane was already full. Not a problem, usually they gate check them and you get them back at the gate upon arrival. Nope, not this time. We had to check check our bags. The gate agent printed tags for our bags and we were sent down the tunnel before I had a chance to think. So in the tunnel, we stopped and I pulled my tennis shoes out of the suitcase and put my flip flops in the bag and grabbed a few extra things I thought we might need and put the DME tags on the bags and let them go. I’m glad I packed those little yellow tags even though I didn’t think we would need them. Turns out we did. We left our bags at the end of the walkway and found our seats. I was a little miffed at this point because there was still PLENTY of room in the overhead bins and people after us were allowed to bring their bags on. Not sure what was up with that. Anyway…

Our flight was about an hour and 15 minutes. We were hungry when we landed so we stopped at Burger King and got a Cinnabon and a Dr. Pepper. We then stopped into the Disney Store real quick to check it out.



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We didn’t spend long, because we had somewhere to be! Check in with DME was a breeze and we only had to wait a few minutes for our bus. Lane 5 please!



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Sorry it’s blurry. We were moving pretty quick.

There she is!


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We got loaded and got the first seat on the bus. We had to wait a little while to be sure there wasn't anyone else coming. While we waited, we chatted with the bus driver who suggested we try the pork shank at Gaston's.

After about 15-20 minutes of waiting (and yes, more families did load), we were on our way!

Before we knew it we were here!


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We stopped at AoA first and then onto POP!



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Up Next...On to the Studios!

 

[bluejasmine]

Nice start!!!

 

[foreverbelle]

Oh another memorial dayer/bdayer with me!!! Love it. And grabbing the front row, was awesome!!! Looking forward to your report!

 

[Allie_Marie]

Can't wait to continue reading! Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday to Chad!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Loving it so far

 

[jrab0616]

We went straight for the Online Check-in line and were served right away.


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Yay! We got what we requested! King size bed in the 70s Building. Double Yay! It was ready! She gave us Anniversary Pins and a Birthday pin for Chad.

We went up to the room to drop off our extra backpack and I snapped a few pictures along the way.


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Once we dropped the bag we headed for the buses to head to Hollywood Studios!


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The bus was loading as we walked up, so we got on and the ride was pretty quick. We were entering the gates about 10:30am!


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We went through the new Mickey Head scanner entrance. I think these things will make things go a lot faster once they get them up and running for everyone.

The Star Wars parade was about to start when we walked in. It was so crowded. We stopped for a quick picture, but kept moving.



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We saw this guy on the street too:



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I saw a hat stand, and I really wanted to get a hat with a visor on it, so we bought one. I really like it and it really helped keep the sun off which was nice. We grabbed a few more pictures:


47514670027 by jrab616, on Flickr

Our first stop was Toy Story Mania to see about a fast pass. Yes! They still had them and they were going for 6:00pm. Next, off to RnRC to see about single rider line, but when we got there, it wasn’t open. The regular queue was 70 minutes and we had just gotten a fastpass, so we moved on. We did get a picture on Sunset:


47514670030 by jrab616, on Flickr

At this point I realized that all the sunscreen I packed was in the bags we checked (since it had to be the quart sized bags for security) and I was really starting to feel the sun. It was super hot! We bucked up and bought the $13 sunscreen. It was probably the best $13 spent all weekend.

As I mentioned, it was hot! So we got a frozen lemonade and decided to head toward the back of the park since the front was so crowded because of the parade.

 

[jrab0616]

We walked up to Backlot Tour just as they were letting people in. The tour was about the same as always, but they did have the costume shop open and it was cool to see people actually working in there.


2013-05-24 11.37.45 by jrab616, on Flickr

I guess they were refurbishing this guy:


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LMA was starting as we were finishing the tour, but we decided not to try to rush to see it. We got to stop in and see Mike and Sully. Here’s a creepy paparazzi shot:


2013-05-24 11.55.18 by jrab616, on Flickr

Sully had to got to class, so we got pictures with Mike:


47514670039 by jrab616, on Flickr

We walked the SoA for a bit and headed to Muppet Vision 3D. When this was over, it was getting close to 1:00 now, so we headed back toward BatB for the show. It was great! Belle was perfect! I love this show!


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When the show was over, we were pretty hungry, so we headed for lunch. We checked out the menu at Staring Rolls, but I’m not a big sandwich person, so we headed for Backlot Express.We got a few more pictures along the way:



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Then it was lunch time! I found a table while Chad ordered the food. I got the Chicken Nuggets and Chad got the Bacon Burger.


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Both were good. As we were finishing up I noticed a guy walking back and forth looking for a table. We offered him ours as we got up.

Next we went and got FP for RnRC it was for 6:45. Next on the agenda was Animation Academy.


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We got there just as they were loading the cue for the next show. We waited for the current show to let out (about 20 minutes). I pulled out the sharpie and wrote 1 year on our anniversary buttons while we waited. Once we were in the classroom, we got to draw Sheriff Woody. Our drawings turned our decent:

This one was mine:

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And this one was Chad’s:


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It was a lot of fun. Chad really enjoyed it. When we came out of there, Daisy was standing there with no line, so we jumped in and got a picture.



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47514670057 by jrab616, on Flickr

 

[jrab0616]

We went to Voyage of the Little Mermaid next.


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We didn’t make it into the show that was just about to start, but we only had to wait for one show.


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At least the queue was in the shade. The show was just okay. Ariel had a very strong southern accent and her pitch was off on a few notes.

We hit up The Great Movie Ride next.


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We had a girl gangster and I have to agree, it’s just not as convincing. I do like this ride, but I like the Cowboy scene a lot better and I do think it could use a little updating on the movies that are included in the ride. Some of them are classics and can stay, but some just aren’t relevant anymore and need to be replaced.

We walked through One Man’s Dream next.


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I’ve seen the movie before, so we just walked through the museum part and enjoyed the A/C for a while.


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We walked through a few shops, but didn’t buy anything. We stopped for a few pictures


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Then decided that it was almost time for TSMM so we would start heading that way.


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We got there about 10 minutes before our time, so we waited a bit. While waiting one of the green army men, tried to get past the Cast Member at the FP line and go to the ride. She stopped him and asked for his FP and they bantered a little bit, but she wouldn’t let him in. It was cute to watch. She let us go in about 5 min before our actual FP time. The ride was cute as always. I won, but barely.


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I did get best in the car though!


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When we got off TSMM, we were feeling the fact that we had been up since 3:00am. We debated what we had left and decided that RnRC and Fantasmic were the only things left, but we didn’t want to wait until 6:45 to use our FP for RnRC. We decided to go back to the resort to rest a while before coming back for the 10:30 F!. We gave our FP to a couple who was very excited about it.

We caught a bus to POP. We didn’t have to wait very long before one pulled up. While on the bus, the boy across the way from us was blowing raspberries into the air and spitting all over everyone. The lady next to him slid over as close as she could to her family. The mom was just sitting there ignoring him and not stopping him. It was humorous and disgusting at the same time.

Our bags were in our room when we got there, so we changed into our swimwear and walked down to the food court to fill up our mugs. We saw a mama and her babies on the way:


2013-05-24 18.49.34 by jrab616, on Flickr

On the way there we heard a lot of thunder and a big clap of lighting. We thought they might close the pools, but they never did. It didn’t really rain either. It sprinkled for all of two minutes. We walked over to the computer pool in the 80s-90s section. It was lovely to sit on the edge of the pool and put my feet in the water.


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We sat there for a while and I called my mom to let her know everything was going well. We saw a double rainbow while we were sitting there too!


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We decided to check out the main pool, so we walked over to the food court for a refill and went over to the pool and sat there for a while. We got hungry, so Chad went to get a pizza meal for us to split. I’m telling you it was huge! Two pieces of French bread pizza and a salad for $10? Yes, please.


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He was gone for a while though; I guess they were making it fresh. While he was gone, a life guard blew his whistle and jumped into the pool. I couldn’t really tell what was going on from where I was sitting, but the ladies next to me asked one of the other guards and he said they were being audited. There was a Cast Member in a green polo talking with the guard who had gone in.

When we finished eating, we headed back to the room to change and head back to the park. We waited about 10 minutes for a bus and were on our way. We got to the Studios right as the first F! was ending and we could see Mickey at the top of the mountain before we made our way to the turnstiles.
We got a couple more pics:


47514670081 by jrab616, on Flickr


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Then we headed to see what the wait was like for RnRC. It was still 45 minutes and they didn’t have single rider open, so we decided not to do it and to just wait for F! since we definitely didn’t want to miss the show. We got pretty good seats close to the top and pretty center. I LOVE this show! It’s my favorite night time show at Disney. I didn’t get many pictures because I wanted to just enjoy the show.


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There were a couple things I noticed that weren’t quite right, though. (1) During the jungle scene, only two of the rafts came out – there was no King Louie! (2) Several of the torches on the Indian boats were not lit. I know this happens from time to time, but there was one boat that was not lit at all. (3) The spinners on the steamboat weren’t spinning. It kinda loses the effect when the fireworks are just spraying straight down. (4) And finally and the biggest thing of the whole show: Mickey didn’t appear at the top of the mountain as the Sorcerer. The lights came on and they had the fog going, but he never showed up. It was a little weird and awkward for a minute before they turned the lights out and focused on the dancing water.

The show was soon over and the park was closed, so we headed back to the room. The bus was pulling away just as we were walking up, so we had to wait a few minutes for another (This would become a theme over the weekend). There was a family that walked up behind us and the kids started talking to us. Then when the bus came and we got on, the little boy wanted to sit next to us. He kept talking and asking Chad “Guess what?” He went on and on about the Kermit and Piggy Star Wars figures he got and was asking all kinds of questions. It was rather amusing, but his mom was a bit upset that he wouldn't listen to her when she told him to stop talking to us.

When we got back we grabbed our mugs and got a drink and headed back to the room. We got stuff ready for the next day and showered and fell right asleep. We had been up since 3:00am and it was about midnight.

Up Next...An early morning with the animals.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Loving your report! Sounds like you had a great time! I love your purple shirt! They didn't have a purple one when I bought mine and I had to settle for a pink one. Oh well! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Zipadeelady]

I'm in for the rest!

 

[jrab0616]

Welcome Jenny! Happy anniversary and happy birthday to your husband! Looking forward to reading your trip report. Your "babies" looked a little sad that you were leaving....LOL.

Thanks! The pups weren't to happy we were leaving them. They knew something was up when we started to pack their blankets and toys.

Oh another memorial dayer/bdayer with me!!! Love it. And grabbing the front row, was awesome!!! Looking forward to your report!

That's right! You were there at the same time! I'm looking forward to reading about your trip!

Loving your report! Sounds like you had a great time! I love your purple shirt! They didn't have a purple one when I bought mine and I had to settle for a pink one. Oh well! Can't wait to read more!

We got our shirts in December of 2009. I believe it was right after they first came out. We each got a different color. We love them!


Mickey 2012 by jrab616, on Flickr

 

[jrab0616]

Wednesday, May 25

The alarm went off at 5:30am. We got ready to go and filled up our mugs at the drink station on our way to the bus at 6:15.

The food court was pretty empty at that time of the morning.


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Animal Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours at 7:00am. We got to Animal Kingdom and went straight through the entrance.


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Chad had issues with his card and the Mickey Heads, so they had to call a Cast Member with an iPad over and she got him checked in.

We walked in and up to the Tree of Life and waited about 5 minutes for rope drop.



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Nothing special here, just here’s some stuff you need to know about and enjoy your day, then they let you through. We went straight for Dinosaur to get it out of the way first.


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We walked right on. There was no one in the loading area when we got there.


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I’m not sure how I feel about this ride. I don’t really like that it goes dark for so long in the middle of the ride.

So after Dinosaur, we headed toward Expedition Everest.


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There was no wait and we walked right through the line. I loved it!

Picture of a Picture

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We decided that since the line was so short we’d do it again. So we got right back on. Again, no wait.


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After this time, we decided to get a FP for later and head to the Safari. We went over to get a FP and the CM there gave us two more and told us Happy Anniversary! So now we had four FP for Everest!

 

[jrab0616]

We headed over to the Safari. I took a picture along the way:


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Again the line was non-existent and we walked right though.


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The animals were all out and pretty active.


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The driver was just okay; I’m not sure he was fully awake yet. The lions were enjoying their morning a little too much for a kids ride!


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We saw a baby elephant and a baby rhino. When we got off the Safari the park was officially open and it was starting to show. It was getting pretty crowded. Since it was after the time for our E:E FP, we grabbed a set for the Safari and headed back to use the ones for E:E. We stopped for a picture along the way.


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Since we had two sets of FPs, we rode this back to back again. Our picture didn’t show up the first time through. And we couldn’t get a great picture of the second one.


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Anyway, we headed out and took a few more pictures.


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[jrab0616]

It was only about 9:15 at this point. We headed toward the front of the park since we wanted to get pictures in front of the Tree of Life.


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Magic Shot!


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I told you we went to get pictures!

We decided we were getting pretty hungry – we had been at the park for about 2 and a half hours now and the cereal bars were wearing off fast. We stopped in Pizzafari for breakfast and got the Bounty Platter to share.It was really good. I particularly liked the potatoes.


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While waiting for our food, the CMs behind the counter were talking to us and congratulating us. We got our food and walked off, but I realized we didn’t get any syrup for the French toast, so I went back to get some. As I was walking up, I heard one of the older CMs say “Oh, they’re already gone; I was going to give them a cookie.” The other CM saw me and said “she’s coming back!” The first CM disappeared and I asked the second for the syrup. She was moving in slow motion trying to stall time until the first CM came back. She gave me the syrup and the CM came back with a huge Mickey Mouse cookie. It was so sweet.


2013-05-25 09.07.37 by jrab616, on Flickr


So we ate breakfast, which was really good, and headed back to use our FP for the Safari. Our driver was much better this time! Though he did have to keep telling someone in the back to sit down. We saw some different animals this time than we did before, but also a lot of the same ones.

It was about 10:00 when we got off, so we headed for Festival of the Lion King to see the show. We sat in the Warthog section. The show was cute and a lot of fun. We both really enjoyed it.



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After the show we went to walk along the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. It was pretty cool, but the gorillas weren’t out, so it was a little boring.

When we came out of there, we headed straight for Finding Nemo: The Musical. Of course we had to stop for a picture along the way:


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We got to the show about 5 minutes before it started.


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We were sitting where we could see the sign language interpreters and it was really cool to watch them. They were acting just as much as the cast on the stage. I love this show! It’s one of my favorites.


2013-05-25 12.36.24 by jrab616, on Flickr

After the show we debating going to Kali River Rapids, but I checked the wait time on the app and it was over an hour. We didn’t want to wait that long to get soaked, so we decided to go back to the hotel and the pool for a while. We went out stopping for a picture:


47514670140 by jrab616, on Flickr

We waited for a bus for about 15 minutes. Once we got back to the resort, we grabbed more pizza and filled our mugs. We headed over to the Computer pool to sit and eat. We found a table with an umbrella and enjoyed just sitting for a while.


Next up...An evening out.

 

[Pooh Lover]

Loving the trip report! You guys are so cute and photogenic. Awesome pictures too! Can't wait to read more.

 

[LeCellier.Lover]

OMG it sounds like you guys had an awesome day at AK! I like to see that there's other people out there just like me that enjoy spending time and actually doing different things in that park such as the Pangani Exploration Trail! I love your guys' Photopass pictures, they are so cute! The one of your husband showing his muscles and you admiring him, then him kissing you on the cheek and all the rest, you guys are so adorable! I also love all the magic you guys experienced that day with the extra set of fastpasses and the Mickey cookie!
Ok I'm done rambling.. haha sorry
Can't wait to read more!

 

[foreverbelle]

Man how awesome would it be to have a no wait at the AK..especially on Everest, which just happens to be my favorite!! I am so jealous. And score one for getting a free cookie. Wahoo. That is pretty amazing as well. And be careful with that baby Simba photo, we got one done and shortly after, we had our son. LOL....just be warned. LOL. But still sounds like an amazing time.