First trip as adults and we're hooked! A Dec 2011 TR

Hey Everyone! This is my first trip report, so hopefully i'll be able to get the photo posting right. I really enjoy reading everyone elses TRs, so I'm hoping mine can help someone pass the time until their next trip home!! Here goes...


Who: Me (26, graduate student) and Austin (25, teacher)

When: December 17-23
Where: Pop Century
How? By car…. Over 15 hours of car..


Both of us have been to Disney as kids (Austin three times, and me once) but neither of us had ever stayed onsite! Plus, it had been over 10 years since the last time we went. First trip as adults!! Needless to say, we were VERY excited about this trip!

I’m the type of person who feels like they need to know as much as possible about anything they do! So when we started planning this trip back in May, of course I started reading these wonderful boards and learning lots and lots and lots about Disney! Thanks to everyone :wave:

Planning: We were bound to our dates by our school schedules, but we also LOVE Christmas, so we were excited to visit at that time of year. We also are planning on moving to Philadelphia during 2012, so we wanted to try to go to Disney once before the big move.

I have LOVED spending hours and hours researching, reading the forums, reading trip reports, and planning out our magical vacation. There are so many decisions, so many choices!!

I really wanted to upgrade to a moderate or deluxe, but we honestly just couldn’t afford it! I’m so glad we didn’t this time though, because we were in our room so rarely!! I do, however, look forward to trying many other resorts in the future!!

We chose Pop Century from the other values mainly because of it having it’s own bus. I also just thought it looked cool ☺
We chose not to get park hopper passes, just to save money. Worked out well for us on this trip!

We also got free quick service dining, and I’m so glad we did! Almost every time we sat down to eat, my husband said “Thank you so much for doing research and getting us free dining! I love not having to worry about spending money!” I know the pros and cons of free dining have been discussed to death, but it was the right discount for us for this trip!

Despite having free quick service dining, I also made us a few ADRs:
Dinner at Le Cellier!!! And Breakfast at Kona Café on our last day. I think for our first trip as adults, this was a perfect amount of ADRs. In the future we may book more, but we just wanted to play all the time, not spend an hour on a meal!!

Ok, onto the trip….. some of these pictures will be from my phone, some from our digital camera, then some from my sister’s DSLR that I borrowed, and then some from my brand new DSLR that I got on this trip!! ☺ enough cameras for ya?

December 16th – 17th:
I was already out of school, so I packed up the car and had everything ready to go by the time Austin got off work… I may have rushed him just a bit ☺

We loaded up our pups….

and took them to my mom’s house for the week. Then, we were on the road!!

We left at 4 pm and drove all night! Stopping only for bathroom breaks or snacks… such as this one:

We don’t have DD around us and we love it!!

As we got closer and closer the anticipation just kept building! Every sign made me shriek!!

And then……

We’re finally here!!! I must admit… I cried a little. Months of planning and reading, and booking and rebooking and obsessing… and we’re finally here!!

 

[val002]

So excited to read your trip report! I go in 11 days and this is just what I need to survive the next week and half! Great start!!

 

[mamamouse]

mmmmm ooey gooey cheese sauce

 

[Howe]

Day 3: December 19th (WWoHP, Best Buy, and MK)

Day 3: December 19th (WWoHP, Best Buy, and MK)

I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan! We actually started planning this trip because after the Harry Potter movies were over, books had been over, I was so sad and decided I needed to see Wizarding World! Well what began as a trip to see Harry Potter, became a full-fledged Disney trip with just a few hours at Universal. We woke up, Austin got us breakfast and coffee from Everything Pop

We got in our car (ewww, after being in the bubble for two days I did NOT like leaving!) and drove to Universal. When we bought our tickets, I think the sales lady asked us about ten times if we were SURE we only wanted to do one park. YES! We are only here to see HP!!

As we walked through IoA, it was really empty! Felt strange!! Already I was missing the Disney magic. Austin wanted his picture in front of this jeep thing:

Once we got towards the Harry Potter part of IoA, we saw where everyone was!!
As we entered Hogsmead, we saw the line for the Forbidden Journey…. It. Was. So. Long. I think it was 120 min posted wait time? Terrible, slow moving line. Plus, once we actually got into the part of the queue where they had the interactive portions, we basically had to speed walk through because there was no one in there and the employees were rushing everyone and telling them to stop taking pictures. I think the bag check is what held up the line before this portion.

The ride was awesome! I got really scared when the dementors popped out! But the ride was over in a flash, and right as we stepped off it broke down! We looked around the gift shop, but it was so busy we decided we’d get souveniers in another gift shop. Next up….Three Broomsticks for lunch and butterbeer!!!

 

[Howe]

The details here really were great. I loved the feel of Hogsmeade!

Waiting in line at the Three Broomsticks

The food was really good, but the place was a mad house! I had the Cornish pasties with the garden salad, and Austin got the fish and chips. They were both very good, but Austin felt like the portions were a bit small. The butterbeer was so good!! And I loved the souvenir mug.

 

[Howe]

Next we tried to shop into Honeydukes and Zonkos, but it was so crowded you couldn’t even get to the shelves. After looking through those shops, I asked Austin if we could just go back to Disney. We had only ridden one ride, eaten a meal, but we were both ready to leave! I was also disappointed that so many of the shop fronts in Hogsmeade were just fronts, not real shops. So we spent over 200 dollars for Lunch and one ride… but now we’ve gone! Probably won’t ever go back, sadly. Maybe when they expand we will try to go at a less busy time of year.

And with that we left the Wizarding world!

 

[Howe]

Next we went to Best Buy!! Merry Christmas to me! I still can't believe Austin let me make such a spontaneous big purchase. We are not normally like that. I am so glad he did, because it gave us such a better way to capture memories for this trip!!

I was soooo excited! When we got back the resort, Austin took a nap while I ran around Pop taking pictures and getting used to my new camera and lenses.

New towel creation from Mousekeeping!

Art of Animation across the lake

 

[Howe]

More Pop photos and our window decorations!

 

[Howe]

P.S. Some of the parts of this TR are awaiting moderator approval, so sorry if it seems disjointed! Be sure to check back when they are approved and posted! :wave:

 

[Howe]

I woke Austin up from his nap and we went to head back to Magic Kingdom for the night because they were having EMH til 3AM! Yay!

When we got off of the bus we saw this beautiful sight

It was a beautiful night!

 

[Howe]

As we walked in, the evening parade was starting, so we stopped to watch a bit of it and get a few shots of main street.

I love balloons!!

Next we headed to Tomorrowland to ride peoplemover, but it was broken down. We actually saw it broken down several times during the trip! Instead we rode COP

The grandma is so hilarious to me for some reason!

 

[Howe]

We rode a few more rides in tomorrowland, and then headed over to Columbia Harbor House for dinner. The food here was pretty good! Nice change of pace from the burgers, plus we really liked the décor inside.

On our way over to Columbia Harbor House I took these pictures of the castle. HOW is it SO beautiful and WHYYYYYY can’t I live there?!

Columbia Harbor House

Somehow we ended up back in Fantasyland and decided to ride the carousel.

One of my favorite pictures of the castle!

 

[Howe]

Then we rode Haunted Mansion again, then the Astro Orbiter, then stitch, and looked around in a few gift shops.

I loved this hat on Austin, but he would never wear it in public so he didn’t buy it.

Then it was time for the Magic, Memories, and You, and the fireworks!! I was so excited to take some pictures with my new camera!

 

[Howe]

More fireworks pictures!

After fireworks, we still had several hours of park time left! We stopped and got a root beer float as the MSEP rolled by. Afterwards, we rode rides until about 2am! We just couldn’t make it until 3!

Dude was in my way…

Then we went back to the room and passed out!!!

Next up, Animal Kingdom!

 

[Howe]

Left out some fun pictures from EMH at the Magic Kingdom, so here are more!

The Hippo and his lazy eye were cracking me up!

This was the coolest thing! Right as we got off of the happiest cruise that ever sailed, the clock opened up! I was able to get a quick picture.

 

[mamamouse]

oh i was so happy to see an update!!!

 

[Howe]

A few more pictures from EMH that night:

And with that, our EMH night at Magic Kingdom was over! Next up (for real this time), Animal Kingdom (and of course a million obligatory animal photos)!

 

[Howe]

Day 4: Animal Kingdom

We were hoping to get to AK first thing in the morning, but yet again we were just too tired! So while I got ready, Austin got us coffee and chocolate croissants from the Pop food court, and then we were off to the park!

I loved the tree here! Might have been my favorite tree out of all of the parks. And I loved the little Piglet sitting next to it.

We have GOT to try to take better advantage of the Photopass photographers next time… pictures like this one are not very flattering!

 

[Howe]

Animal Kingdom was felt so crowded this day. I’m not sure if it was just me. First thing we did was stop in the Kodak photo center to see if they had a mickey camera strap, and they did, so we purchased that for my new camera! After that, I took a few pictures while Austin ran to get fast passes for Everest. We walked around for a while, then saw Nemo (which we absolutely LOVED!).

Then we went to get fast passes for the safari, but they were all gone! So we got in line… it was sooo long. I think we waited about an hour. This wouldn’t bother me so much, but there was a family a little ways behind us that kept trying to cut in line! Not only trying to cut, but talking about how they were going to work there way up through the line. This is not a mosh pit, this is a LINE. It was rather annoying, but all the other families sensed what they were doing and started standing across the whole sidewalk to block them. It was really awkward. But the animals were worth the long wait and the awkward family!

 

[Howe]

More animals!

I really like this dude laying there with his mouth open.

I also like this dude’s style, hanging out in the shade.

I want the baby!! So cute.

Our only glimpse of a lion:

 

[Howe]

After the safari I believe we headed over to Yak and Yeti to grab lunch. We were starving! We both had the honey chicken, which was really good. I had the banana pudding and Austin had frozen lemonade.

After lunch, we walked around back towards Dinoland where Austin grabbed us FPs for dinosaur while I took some pictures.