Trip Report Frozen No More: a live birthday TR *Completed*

What: A mother/daughter long weekend to celebrate a Valentine birthday
Who: Myself (Tuvalu) and Emily (@TrolleyFollower91)
Where: POP! (70s building, yeah!)
When: Feb. 13-17, 2014
Why: I have never posted a trip report but was inspired by @coachwnh and @disneysince71 to go live!

Until about six hours ago, when our plane actually departed, I wasn't sure this trip was actually gonna happen. We live in Atlanta, a place that is not equipped to handle winter storms. You may have seen photos from "Snowjam/Snowmaggedon" (as the locals called it) from a couple weeks ago, where thousands of commuters were trapped in their vehicles from 8-12 hours and schoolchildren had to spend the night in their schools since the buses were unable to transport them home. Emily's usual 15 minute ride home from the elementary school where she student teaches took her over 3 hours, including having to abandon her car and walk the remaining two miles home.

After that storm blew over (so to speak!) I remarked to Emily how fortunate we were that the storm didn't happen the day we were scheduled to fly to Orlando. She replied, "Don't worry, that won't happen again."

Until this week.

Monday the forecasters began predicting a "catastrophic" snow and ice storm (I hear all you northerners laughing!) The governor of GA declared a state of emergency through the weekend. Schools and businesses
were closed beginning Tuesday. We began to see our long-awaited trip drift away...

Our Wednesday flight was cancelled at lunchtime on Tuesday. Sleet and freezing rain began that night and everything was frozen Wednesday morning.

Wednesday was a mix of sleet and snow. I was able to rebook our flight for late Thursday afternoon, doubtful we'd get to leave. And this is what we woke up to this morning:

 
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Steve1005

Well-Known Member
Glad you're having a great time!! Thats a VERY fine way to spend a birthday. (Happy birthday btw) :)
Those waits are crazy! The worst I had last week was about 40 at space mountain then the usuals, TT, soarin, TSMM you know. But Pirates was 5-15 minutes all week!
 

coachwnh

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Too vah loo. It's my favorite longhouse at the Poly.
You just hit 1000 messages! Way to go!

Sounds like a great day so far.

We did WDW last February. In fact, we did MK on Valentine's Day as well. It was insane. That and the fact it was mardi gras and all of New Orleans was there. WOW!!!

PS Im hating the FP+ even more as I follow this report
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
It seems Feb 14 to Feb 22, is considered a 9 among crowds, while every other week in Feb is ranked 3 or 4.
Which makes me pretty sad. Between refurbs, snow storms, and crowds, I'll never spend a birthday in Disney World. :cry:
You could try spending your birthday at Disneyland... I did that for my first visit there many years ago :) Today is only the 2nd time I have spent my birthday at WDW.
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
We are back in our room watching the Winter Olympics after a busy but very fun day at MK. The wireless service was snail slow today and many times I was unable to get connected, so I will try to "fill in the gaps" of our day with some pictures and additional commentary.

Is there anything prettier than Cinderella Castle in the morning? Especially when you can walk through it (which we did!)



We had a brief wait on Peter Pan and decided to head here next before it got too crowded ~



We visited the world's best-themed bathrooms next. An excited little girl announced to her mother, "We're going in here to meet Rapunzel!" At which point the poor mom had to explain that no, Rapunzel would not be inside :oops:

There was no wait for Small World so we hopped on. The Spanish castanet dancer and the yodeler in the first room were both MIA (sad that we notice missing dolls, LOL.)
 
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Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
I thought this was a pretty shot (albeit a bit dark) of Prince Eric's castle beyond the new 7 Dwarfs MIne Train. We're hoping the MIne Train will be open on our spring break visit!



We ventured Under the Sea next. We love this ride. Love the dancing turtles. Love the ducks in the "Kiss the Girl" segment. Love Flounder waving to Ariel and Prince Eric at the end.




A few weeks ago we booked a fastpass for lunch at Be Our Guest. Pre-ordered our meals like we had done the last time we visited in December. And just like the last time, there was no record of our order. Oh well. We both had the roast beef sandwich. Emily chose the Triple Chocolate cupcake for her dessert; I had the Master's cupcake for my birthday, because the grey stuff IS delicious!!




 
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Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Because of the cool weather, most of the water jets on the Casey Jr. Play area were not turned on. This proved to be a great opportunity for pictures:







We then boarded the train at the Fantasyland Station, intending to disembark at Main Street. We were talking and not paying attention when someone stuck their double stroller right beside us:



Seriously, how rude is that?! When we arrived at the Main Street Station, the stroller's owner was nowhere to be found. I tried lifting the stroller, but it was jammed in at an angle and couldn't be moved. A gentleman in the row behind us got out of his seat and attempted to help me, to no avail. Finally, clueless stroller owner noticed the commotion a few rows ahead of him and came to retrieve his stroller. Which he then promptly put back in the same spot!
 
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Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
We explored the Main Street shops. The Art of Disney had a special guest:



Larry Dotson is a very talented artist who has done numerous drawings of Disney Resorts, World Showcase pavilions and a few attractions. We have many autographed Dotson prints in our home, and have given them to other family members who love Disney. We always like to see what he has that's new.

I loved this sign which was also in Art of Disney:

 
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Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Then we went to use our first FP+. MK was becoming very crowded, as evidenced by the 45 minute Jungle Cruise standby wait. Perhaps if they actually FILLED the boats the wait time might be shorter?


Untitled
by tuvalu14, on Flickr

We timed our FP+ so that we went right from Jungle Cruise to Pirates. We had a little time to kill before our last FP+ for Big Thunder Mountain. Splash Mountain is being refurbished:


Untitled
by tuvalu14, on Flickr


Untitled
by tuvalu14, on Flickr
 

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