First trip report 2/9-2/16 (pic heavy)

I really wanted to write a good trip report becuase everyone was so helpful and i love reading everyone else's especially the details so i will try to make it as detailed as possible...
I got so many great tips, advice and ideas from everyone on here I thought I would write my first trip report to let you all know how it went and what I thought…
I thought I would start with a few tips and things that worked for us… First, we spent the entire week wearing nothing but crocs they were wonderful! My bf doubted them but then wore them everyday. My legs hurt before my feet and I have to say that I have NO blisters. The backs of my ankles were beginning to rub by the end of the week so I just moved the band to the front and problem solved. They were also great because when it rained, I took my socks off and didn’t care if my feet got wet, when the rain cleared socks went back on.

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The other thing that was wonderful was my bagalini… I had the water proof one the messenger bag style it was great. It held so much and was never heavy or uncomfortable. I was able to swing it around to the front on rides and had a place for everything important and organized. And the last tip that worked great was to plan plan plan I had a spread sheet that laid out park hours and event times I scheldued a park for each day and an idea for all 3 meals each day, meals with reservations were color coded and res # was listed. I also added flight and hotel confermation numbers and other details such as the PPParty and EMH it was very helpful and even though we didn’t stick to it to a “T” it was still a nice guide and info. (If anyone wants the layout pm me its an excel sheet.)

So we flew Airtran, no complaints the online check in was a nice convenience and flight was fine. We also used magical express, also no complaints bags were there when we go to the room late that night. I did see people putting their own bags on the bus which is also nice but we chose not to.

We stayed at POP Century. Really liked the hotel, very kid oriented, a lot to see and do. Our room was ready when we arrived. We stayed in the 80’s over looking the pool not too far from the food court but far enough after a long day haha. I thought the food court was good, ate there a few times they had a lot of choices. We did buy souvenir mugs which was nice.

The day we got there we went to our room and changed then went out to explore the hotel. I took a lot of pictures, as a matter of fact I think I took a picture of every icon there..haha. We grabbed some hot dogs at the food court and headed over to DTD for the afternoon/ night. I bought the bf La Nouba tickets for V-day so we caught that at 9… it was an awesome show but I was soooo tired it was a struggle to keep my eyes open. We also gave ourselves way to much time in DTD when I was there 10 years ago I remember it being so much bigger or was it that I was smaller…haha. We walked up and down so many times I have memorized the entire area. So sleeeeep finally after a very long day

 

[CinderellaStory]

days 1 and 2

Our first full day we had reservations at the Crystal Palace for breakfast.. Pooh was waiting for us so we had 8am ressies.

I thought it was soo great walking through MK with no one there I got some great pictures. Breakfast was good, character interaction was alright, we don’t have any kids and piglet and eeyore walked right past us.

We made it over to tomorrowland before the rope drop and rode stitch because everyone was pushing and shoving near space mountain, waited for the crowd to clear and rode SM with no wait. We took it slow, it was a Sat and were planning on returning later in the week. We rode everything except POC. BF told me I wouldn’t get wet on Splash mountain, he lied! Lol The dream along with mickey show was cute worth seeing once and I loved the dreams come true parade or more the proposal right before it that brought tears to my eyes… I LOVED Wishes the music and show was so magical and a great way to start our vacation! (p.s. I saw it 2 more times before we left..)

Our second day we had planned on sleeping a little later to catch up but was up bright and early and ready to go my 8… we started seeing a lot of cheerleading groups and the busses took a little longer but the whether was nice so no complaints. MGM is a smaller park so we walked around first to see everything grabbed fast passes for rockin roller coaster and waited on line for TOT both I was TERRIFIED of, im not a big roller coaster person and was sick with nerves but bf convinced me, I chose to ride TOT first thinking it was the better of the 2. We had front row.. I loved it!! Rode it 3 more times by the end of the week. It was also the first time either of us had used fast pass, it was easy to figure out and worked great even though the wait wasn’t too bad, the longest I saw all week was soarin in Epcot was 120 min one day. After Rockin roller coaster we used fastpass all the time.. by the way also loved the coaster!! Apparently I am not a roller coaster fan, surprise to me!

We both really enjoyed the car stunt show, Indiana jones, beauty and the beast and was disappointed they had to close nemo L The pep rally passed by us once, catchy music but I wasn’t interested.. I really enjoyed the parade and I cannot say enough about fantasmic and my friends from Canada I had a wonderful conversation with the 5 year old! Another fun day at MGM Studios…

I should also add that we took FULL advantage of photopass this trip we ended with a little over 100 pictures. I was however very disappointed with the quality of the pictures… which surprised me. I thought they were professionals, maybe just lazy I don’t know but most pictures were horribly cropped I even have a few that are blurry! I fixed a few by zooming in but I have all close ups now. I do want to say that there were two or three VERY good photographers I was very happy with and some that took the time to change around our poses and such but overall not too happy with that even though I would do it again I do think it is worth it, hey it is a free service! And nice to have both of us in the pictures so I will buy the CD and I can scan some in after I print them for now your stuck with my picture taking which in case your interested I took 432 pictures!!

 

[CinderellaStory]

Day 3

Day 3 was what Monday already! Its going way to fast.. Monday was AK day and we woke up to rain, but at least it was warm rain and since Home was expecting a major snow storm early in the week, ill take the warm rain in WDW any day!

We started in Asia and saw its tough to be a bug and I learned it is pretty tough! Cute show… the safari was next we found the bounty hunters..haha. all my pictures came out blurry and wet. We saw animals but not as good as I had expected. Dino land was cute. The Dinosour ride was scarrrrry hehe and another which I thought was a kid ride made my stomach turn. After riding TOT and Rockin coaster I was excited for Everest we had front row and it was soo much fun. A good smooth coaster. I thought AK would be one of my fav. Parks, it was good but not my favorite. We saw the lion king show I was a lion… roar!! And took pictures with safari Minnie mouse (my favorite) and went home early to rest before dinner. oh yea. Rafiki's planet watch recycle bin that talks to you is absolutly the funniest thing i have heard in a long time! i was laughing sooo hard.

We had dinner at the Hoop Dee Doo. The hotel told us to give ourselves and hour we gave it an hour and half. We didn’t realize it was the night of the PPParty and planned on taking the bus to MK and boat to FW but had to wait 5 busses and then 2 hours for the boat needless to say we were late to the show. It was still very good, we got called on to ask where we were from. I liked the entertainment and the all you can eat food. Expensive but worth it, I would do it again. After the dinner we went over to the beach and waited for the electrical light parade… so sad, so old. Haha but we cuddled up on the beach and had a good time. The way back to MK we were the only ones on the boat had a nice conversation with the CM but I didn’t catch his name he was very nice. Wait to get back to the hotel from MK wasn’t too bad lots of little pirates and princesses!

 

[CinderellaStory]

Day 4 and 5

Now that I am all into reliving my trip I am going to be up all night doing this.

Tuesday was Epcot day. There is so much to see there and we planned to do it all in one day but that didn’t happen. We wanted to get to this park early but apparently forgot to set the alarm the night before. BF was up all night sick, he ate 50 too many ribs the night before.. haha. I had been sick the whole trip with a really sore through but finally started to feel better. This morning however I woke up coughing and couldn’t breathe. Let the cold begin.. oh joy!

Anyways, back to epcot, at least I could scream this time like when we went on test track, it wasn’t what I expected but it was still good. Had front row again, really good luck with getting front rows.

We got fast passes for soarin’ which had a return time for like 4 hours later so he walked around about, did spaceship earth, nemo and journey into the imagination with Figment! I thought of all you die hard epcot fans especially when I was looking for a pin for my co-worker and asked someone if they had anything to celebrate epcot’s birthday and no one knew what I was talking about. Oh well. We went on that greenhouse tour I cant remember the name of and then had lunch at the garden grill. I was nervous at first that I wouldn’t like anything.. ewww catfish! Its was sooooooo good! Everything was good, all you can eat. BF was still feeling a little queezy so I ate enough for the both of us. Character interaction was good there was chip and dale and mickey and Pluto. The place does spin very slow, it was neat and yummmmy. Bread pudding for desert I can still taste it.

After lunch, it was time for Soarin. Such a good ride. We had 2nd row and could see feet but ahhh it was so nice and so real. Walked around some more of epcot through all the buildings, made a robot I came in 2nd for style..haha and road the thingies I cannot remember the name of at the moment. Then we headed over to the countries around 7 and did a full circle and a half, found a good spot for illuminations. Very Very good show. Im still partial to Wishes but it was great! After the show my legs hurt sooooo bad we had to go back.

I really wanted to see the countries in the day light and get some pictures and pressed pennies for my scrapbook so we went back the next morning with was valentines day! YAY! I was up really early from coughing up both my lungs so we got there just as epcot opened at 9, forgetting that the world showcase didn’t open till 11 we walked around the empty showcase and epcot. We rode Soarin one more time it had about a 30 min wait and this time was in the front, again, amazing. When the world showcase opened we did a little shopping and took some pictures and then headed over to AK to ride everest one last time.

The line was about a 90 min wait and fastpass return wasn’t until 5 so we couldn’t wait and went back to the hotel for a little R & R before dinner.

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BF had beautiful roses waiting in the room for me. We got all dolled up for dinner and headed over to the MK for some dressy pictures before dinner.

We got some really good pics by the castle and the entrance but only used photopass so you’ll have to wait to see those. So we gave ourselves way too much time this time and rode the monorail around once before getting off at the cont. we had 6:15 ressies at the California Grill. So I need to talk about this place for a min. I chose it because it was a fancier place for a special dinner and the observation deck for wishes but not the food. I am a very very picky eater and knew I wouldn’t find anything I would like on the menu so we were going to split everything and I would try things. The menu has very few choices. We ordered cheesy flatbread first.. soooo yummy!! So we ordered raviolis to share for app. We had 1 each for $12 I think..haha. its expensive but they were the best raviolis I have ever eaten. I then ordered the lasagna which I didn’t like and it was too cheesy for my weak stomach to handle, but bf had the pork tenderloin said it was delicious. Now for desert, we had the carmalized banana dish and if I could order 100 and take them all home I would.. soooooo good!! So, next time we are at the “world” the Cali grill is at the top of my list! We watched wishes from the deck.. it was soooooooooo cold but the view was to die for and of coarse they piped in the music. Now, to get down you have to get back in the elevator. I am a bit claustrophobic so im a little uneasy about elevators however this ride was the worst! It was jam packed and stopped at EVERY floor! It was funny we were all yelling “happy valentines day” everytime the door opened. The first 2 times was funny but 15 floors later I was struggling to breathe and by the time I could finally get out of the elevator I had passed out for a second and was gasping for air. It was horrible. Took a little while to straighten out but I made it! Haha. Just a warning to anyone else who has my same problem. We were so tired and I was so sick we had to go home after that.

 

[CinderellaStory]

day 6

So wed. night we decided to buy ticket to the PPParty so we did go to MK of wed like I had planned instead we headed back over to MGM to ride RRC and TOT again. We got FP for RRC and waited for TOT and then got FO for TOT, rode RRC (front row) and rode TOT one more time..haha. I love that they are right next to each other!

We also saw the little mermaid before we left and then went back to our hotel to pack and relax. We weren’t planning on going over to the MK until 4 or 5 but I was too excited to sleep, it was after all our last day . So went over at like 2:30 and just walked around, watched the parade and fireworks and as everyone else was clearing out we rode the rides over and over again. On Thunder mountain, we didn’t even have to get off the ride.

So, a lil about the party, when we got there they were setting up for the party but we got wrist bands as we went through the gate, we were wondering how they would kick people out after the park closed but they did a good job with checking wrist bands and escorting people out the park. We got little black velvet bags and a treasure map to collect beads and candy. Everyone was dressed up I wish I had my snow white costume. Almost every ride was open we rode POC and Small world as well as the big rides. Characters were everywhere as well as cinderella’s coach and a throne. We didn’t go in search of the X’s but when we came across one we would collect some candy to snack on and a necklace. It was realllly cold by the way and started to rain as the night went on. We watched the special fireworks really good show. By they way, the first time we watched wishes from infront of the castle and couldn’t see half of them, this time we watched wishes from the bridge between ummm I cant remember near the haunted ferry boat ride on the way to splash mountain, I don’t remember the land it was in.. so we watched the pirate fireworks from there as well. By the time it was time for the parade it was raining and it took an extra 45 min of waiting in the rain apparently they had to take the horses out. There was no one around and it was extra short, but it was good. After the parade we rode POC and then went home cuase we were wet and freezing. We checked out our photopass pictures before we left and we took a funny one with our coffee cups and jackets all bundled up..haha

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Friday morning we checked out early and they held our bags for us while we went to DTD to shop. We saved our souviner shopping to the last day and had plenty of saved Disney dollars to spend. Then we were off. Our plan was delayed but not too bad and the airport was a hastle by the time we got home we were sooo tired! It was a great week and we have started our planning for next year. We have started saving change again.

I did want to add a little about the money saving tips from our trip. During the year we only use cash bills to pay for everything we buy and the change goes into the water jug, in 7 months we had saved over $800 which covered the flight and most of the hotel. For birthdays and holidays all we asked for was Disney Dollars and had collected over $500 between both of us. His dad had some left over park tickets and my parents gave me tickets from Christmas. We used Disney dollars to pay for all our food except v-day which bf covered and hoop dee doo which you have to pay for in advance. The meals I planned were either buffet or set price for an all you can eat meal. I also packed an extra bag with plenty of food. We got the mugs at the hotel so we tried to eat there as much as possible and not pay for drinks. I bought the tickets for La Nouba as a gift so all in all we hardly spent any money on this trip it was great! And we plan on doing the same for next year. It is easier with just the two of us but I got a lot of money saving ideas from this site which made for an even more carefree trip!

 

[barnum42]

Appears you had a great time. Nice selection of pics :wave:

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Nice report - thanks for sharing

 

[One Lil Spark]

I really enjoyed your trip report! :sohappy:

Oh, and a BIG congrats on the engagement while down there! Is there any way you can post more random pics from the trip including the engagement? How exciting. I can't wait to see your photopass pics too!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[pinkrose]

I loved reading your trip report. Great pictures too!

 

[garyhoov]

Cool!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Monty]

We were there for almost the same period! :wave:

Glad you had fun! We did too.

 

[CinderellaStory]

thanks! Did i say i was engaged? if i didnt i didnt mean to.. you might have misunderstood my lil story about ANOTHER girl in the crowd before the parade i talked about... I didnt thou..haha Ill add photopass pics when i get the cd

 

[LouDisney]

Great trip report and pics. Thanks!

 

[George]

Nice report. Thanks for sharing.

 

[BSikor]

Great detailed report! Sounds like you had a great time!

 

[Figments Friend]

Nice one Cindy!

So...did you have a Dole Whip?

:slurp:

 

[SewIn2Disney]

Great TR!! And I love the Crocs! I have the black Mickey ones and wear them almost every day to work....soooo comfy!

 

[CinderellaStory]

haha dole whips... so i couldnt remember where you said that stupid stand was and spent the week looking for it. We did find it the first day we were there but decided to pass on it since we had ice creams in our hands at the time and i suppose i couldnt double fist on treats..haha. Anyways, so we couldnt find it again until the very last day we were there, the night of the PPParty. We finally found the stand and i got hot chocolate instead becuase it was sooooooooo cold and raining..... oh well, its on the top of the list for next year :wave:

 

[CelticRose]

Cindy,

Great trip report and beautiful pics, :dazzle: looks like you guys had a great time. We are going in May and we haven't been since '99, so there will be alot of new stuff for us.

Thanks again for your trip report and wonderful photos, I have to live vicariously thru your trip until I get there in 72 days:sohappy:

 

[aeillill]

Love the pics! Looks like you had a great time!