"Is this the Magic Kingdom?" - A November Trip Report

“Is this the Magic Kingdom?!” - A November Holiday Trip Report

53 rides
36 characters
6 table service meals
5 nighttime shows, fireworks and parades
4 and a half days
3 girls
And 2 resorts
All add up to….

One magical Disney getaway!

Hey everyone! I may be home physically, but mentally I’m still in Disney World. We had a GREAT long weekend (or short week, as some people have called it) For those who have read my pre-trip report, you already know the scoop. For those who haven’t, here’s a little run down:

Who:
-Me: Darolyn (or most people call me D) age 28. Disney enthusiast to the max.

DSC07392 by Derelicte19, on Flickr

-Sister: Ashley, age 26. Loves Disney as well but not quite to the same obsessive level as I.

DSC06321 by Derelicte19, on Flickr

-Mama: Terryn, age 29... Again! I thank her for bringing me to WDW at the tender age of 11 months and getting me hooked. I also thank her for buying our timeshare in Kissimmee so we can enjoy a vacation with Mickey and friends every year J

DSC06942 by Derelicte19, on Flickr

We’re all Disney fanatics!! J

Here’s me and my sister (and friend) in 2006

8131_189995891071_674341071_4381286_4635389_n by Derelicte19, on Flickr

And here we are in 2007

n674341071_2766527_4062959 by Derelicte19, on Flickr

And at Busch Gardens in 2009 (Yes, sometimes we cheat on Disney… sorry!)

n674341071_2824009_4791285 by Derelicte19, on Flickr

Me and Mama on our 2010 trip

155212_10150099410841072_674341071_7868956_7013788_n by Derelicte19, on Flickr

And May of 2011

DSC07059 by Derelicte19, on Flickr

We visited Disney World together this past May and had a great time. We had originally scheduled our next WDW vacation to be fall of next year, for a week, in our timeshare at Vistana. Well, plans changed. None of us wanted to wait a year and a half so a couple schedule changes, a few number crunches and some reservations had us flying into Orlando on Thursday night November 10 and returning home Tuesday night November 15. Yup, a full year ahead of time. Since we wouldn’t be using the timeshare, we decided to stay on Disney property. Much easier doing that than renting a car and staying off-site (though in the long run, that might have ben cheaper!) We’d stayed at the All Stars a couple times but this time we decided we wanted to go big… deluxe resort big. So we booked a courtyard view room at the Wilderness Lodge for 4 nights and 1 night at the All Star Movies (since our flight wasn’t scheduled to arrive into Orlando til midnight, we couldn’t fathom the idea of spending the $300+ nightly rate when we were arriving so late.)

This trip was a trip of many firsts for us: Our first deluxe resort. Our first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. We added 3 new restaurants to our itinerary and also it would be my sisters first time visiting WDW during the holiday season (my mother and I both visited Thanksgiving week back in 2001 and again last November) Also, our first time experiencing the Magical Express and our first time NOT having a rental car and relying completely on Disney transportation.

Now, onto the good stuff…. Enjoy!!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Thursday 11/10/11: A night of delays…

The day we left started out differently than most of our departure days: with work! Since we were leaving on a 7pm flight, I was working until 2pm while my other travel companions worked til 4. My sister and I live about a mile from the airport so we had plenty of time once Mama showed up to pick us up at 5pm. We loaded the car, made sure the cats were in and had food and we were off. A quick stop for some dinner at D’Angelo’s (I had a chicken Caesar salad wrap.. So good!) and a quick stop to meet my Mom’s friend who would be taking her car for the weekend and we were at the airport by 5:45. There was practically no one in the security line and within a few minutes, we were sitting at our gate, (im)patiently waiting for our flight. My sister and I passed the time by trying to get the Boston Bruins game to stream onto my iPhone but it wasn’t working.

(I apologize for lack of pictures here… It gets better, I promise!!)

By that point it was 6:30 and I figured we should be boarding soon. But there was no plane at our gate and no attendant at the desk. So we waited some more…. Finally around quarter of 7 someone announced that the plane arriving was late so we wouldn’t leave until 7:30. As frustrating as it was because we were so ready to just be at Disney already, it wasn’t a big deal. We had some time during our layover in DC so we would still make our connecting flight. We were finally in the air and landed safely in DC. When we got to our gate though, we discovered another delay. We would be leaving DC at 10:32 rather than 9:54. Not a huge deal but this put us into Orlando around 1am… YAWN!!!

Our plane landed at 1am and we dragged our tired selves to the DME. There were a handful of people on the bus. We left MCO at 1:51am! I loved the video they played. It just made me more excited to get to the parks!! J

We stopped at Pop Century, Coronado Springs, All Star Sports then FINALLY…. All Star Movies! Check in was a breeze and we were in the 101 Dalmations section, just a quick walk from the lobby. I really didn’t like having to pay for a room we were going to be in for like 7 hours… *sigh* that’s what we get for taking a late flight! If we had a choice, we would have definitely taken an earlier flight but the option was not there, unfortunately. Thankfully the AP discount we got made it a little more bearable and we saved a little money.

We quickly got to the room and into bed around 3am. We knew we would be tired the next day but we’d manage… We were in Disney after all!!!


Friday 11/11/11: Our first day of firsts!

We woke up bright and early on Friday morning, ready to kick off our weekend at Disney. Well, if you consider 9am bright and early. While the other were getting ready, I stepped outside to take some pics:

We were all dressed and headed out the door by 10am. See ya, All Star Movies. Thanks for letting us rest our weary bodies!

Of course, we had to stop and take a few pics of the larger than life dalmations!

(For those of you who don’t get this picture.. This is Ashley and me “Tebowing”. Tim Tebow is one of my favorite football players and it’s become kind of an internet joke for people to do the Tebow pose in pics..)

(Ash and D - tv)

I just love all the little details Disney puts into things, like these bones on the walkway

We checked our bags with bell services and headed to the food court for a small snack. We didn’t want too much for breakfast since we had an ADR at 11:30 for lunch. I grabbed a chocolate croissant and Ashley and Mama got muffins. We also all got the refillable mugs which we plan on reusing every time we stay on Disney property (… just kidding!!!!) Personally, if people reuse their mug stay after stay, that’s their business. They know it’s wrong and I’m a full believer in karma, even for something small like that. Though we did see a woman fill her empty plastic Diet Coke bottle at one of the machines. Pretty sure those don’t come with free refills… Eh, some people.

 

[Aurora79]

Hi D Welcome back. I just read your pre- trip report and was looking forward to the real report. So far so good. The pictures are really nice. I cant believe the woman filling up her used coke bottle. People cease to amaze me :brick:. Can't wait to read more. -A

 

[bamillerpa]

I love seeing the pics! Thanks for posting them. I can't wait to see more! I'm busy planning our next two trips and hearing about your trip and seeing the pictures just gets me even more excited.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Hi D Welcome back. I just read your pre- trip report and was looking forward to the real report. So far so good. The pictures are really nice. I cant believe the woman filling up her used coke bottle. People cease to amaze me :brick:. Can't wait to read more. -A

Thanks!! We had a blast!

Yeah... the Coke bottle thing... I was like it's one thing to reuse a mug from a previous trip.. but a Coke bottle?! lol

I love seeing the pics! Thanks for posting them. I can't wait to see more! I'm busy planning our next two trips and hearing about your trip and seeing the pictures just gets me even more excited.

Two trips?! Lucky ducky!! We're actually planning our next trip now, too. I love reading other peoples TR's to help me with my Disney blues!! :lol:

Thanks for reading!! :wave:

 

[switts]

another good trip it looks like so far. Getting me excited for mine which is in 3 days :sohappy: cant wait

 

[chrissyw14]

Love Tebow! I'm excited to read the rest of your report, I haven't gotten to visit during Christmastime yet!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Day #1 Continued….

We strolled out front and wouldn’t you know it, an Epcot bus was pulling up right as we got in line. SCORE!! This would be the first of many positive incidents we had with the transportation.

A few minutes later, God’s golf ball came into view and we hopped off the bus. The place was PACKED.. But we expected it, being the last weekend of F&W Festival and all. We made it through bag check and then headed over to the ticket windows to get our passes. This proved to be a task in itself. The line we picked moved… soo…. Slow. After waiting a bit, I hopped out of line into another line and by the time I reached the front, my Mom and sister were still 1 group away from the front of theres. Apparently picking out passes is a huge issue. Personally, we decide on our passes BEFORE we get to the front of the line. And speaking of passes, I am now the proud owner of a Disney Annual Pass!!!!

Woooo hoooooo!!! SUPER excited!

As soon as I took this pic, I had to motivate very quickly up to Guest Relations to get our Tables In Wonderland card. It was about 11:00 and we had an 11:30ADR to get to. There was no line at Guest Relations and I had the TIW pass in hand. As we were leaving GR, the line had stretched out the door so good timing on my part there.

I met up with Mama and Ashley outside and we began our stroll over to WS. Even though it was only 11am, there were lots of people heading to WS for eats and drinks already. And don’t let the sunny demeanor of my pictures fool you. IT WAS COLD!! And windy!! I don’t think it hit 65 that day and with the wind, it wasn’t fun.

YAY! We’re here!!!

We made it over to Italy for our first visit to:

It was a toss up between this or Beaches N Cream. My sister and I are pizza lovers so this was our ideal choice for lunch. It all depended on what my Mom and sister got for park passes though. Since they decided to be cool and get an AP, we were good to go for Via Napoli!

And boy, am I glad we ate here. Not only was the food DELICOUS, the scenery was great as well. I’ not talking about a table overlooking World Showcase though.. I’m talking about the hot Italian waiters!! Ladies (and some men!) if you’ve never dined here, I HIGHLY recommend it! Our waiter was David and he was super nice. It also didn’t hurt that he was REALLY easy on the eyes. We ordered drinks. I had a Bellini. YUM!! And they brought us out some bread and olive oil.

For our meal, we split a pepperoni pizza.

Now I know the huge debate that goes on here regarding if Via Napoli does have really good pizza… Well, here’s my 2 cents. The pizza was AMAZING! It was so super yummy. Probably some of the best pizza I’ve ever eaten. There. I said it. Via Napoli, IN MY OPINION, ranks up there with the best…. Let the lynching begin!!!

The pizza came out super hot from the oven. Ashley was trying to get a piece but it was too hot to touch so David brought us over a little thing to help us cut it. He was so very attentive. He had someone in training helping him and he was always right there filling our water glasses and what not. Top notch service! Kudos to those two!

Ash and Mama

After lunch, we had some time before we were going to head over to the Wilderness Lodge so we wandered back towards Future World and stopped in Australia to try some wine. I like white wine, especially Moscato and Pinot Grigio. My sister and I got a Moscato and it was very tasty.

We shared our table with a group of older men and women. They were nice, which surprised me considering they were Yankee fans! lol

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

another good trip it looks like so far. Getting me excited for mine which is in 3 days :sohappy: cant wait

Wish I was going back in 3 days.... Say hi to Mickey for me!!

Love Tebow! I'm excited to read the rest of your report, I haven't gotten to visit during Christmastime yet!

Tebow is so awesome! I'm a huge Florida Gators fan (as if you couldn't tell by my Florida Gators shirt lol) I'm super pumped he's doing well so far in the NFL!

Christmas time is BEAUTIFUL! They do such a good job with the decorating

 

[switts]

Wish I was going back in 3 days.... Say hi to Mickey for me!!

I can do that for you. I feel like i may have to figure out how to stream the bruins games on my phone before I get down there

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I can do that for you. I feel like i may have to figure out how to stream the bruins games on my phone before I get down there

I went to the B's game last night! .. And last Friday, their one loss all of November I tried to gt it on my iPhone but it wouldn't work.. Not sure why. I couldn't get the Sports Hub channel to stream...

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

 

[switts]

I went to the B's game last night! .. And last Friday, their one loss all of November I tried to gt it on my iPhone but it wouldn't work.. Not sure why. I couldn't get the Sports Hub channel to stream...

I havent gotten to a Bruins game yet this year. If I miss any games next week it will be the first time in almost 4 years that I've missed a game . I may have to spend most of the trip at the ESPN club so i can watch the bruins and then the Pats on Sunday

 

[ArtieJim]

Now I know the huge debate that goes on here regarding if Via Napoli does have really good pizza… Well, here’s my 2 cents. The pizza was AMAZING! It was so super yummy. Probably some of the best pizza I’ve ever eaten. There. I said it. Via Napoli, IN MY OPINION, ranks up there with the best…. Let the lynching begin!!!

I fully agree with your two cents about the pizza.

What I don't agree with is the Bruins. Lets Go Rangers!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I fully agree with your two cents about the pizza.

What I don't agree with is the Bruins. Lets Go Rangers!

Rangers?! Rangers?! Ohhh noooo!! Booooo!! haha.. I'm actually going to see the Bruins play the Rangers in January in Boston. Cant wait!

 

[ArtieJim]

Rangers?! Rangers?! Ohhh noooo!! Booooo!! haha.. I'm actually going to see the Bruins play the Rangers in January in Boston. Cant wait!

Nice, I saw the Bruins both times they played the Rangers in New York last season, always nice to see a team that goes on to win the Cup, unfortunately it wasn't my team.

 

[blackthidot]

Look at you in front of my neighborhood! I live in a town called "Etna" inside of Pittsburgh.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Look at you in front of my neighborhood! I live in a town called "Etna" inside of Pittsburgh.

So it just took me a few minutes to figure out what you were talking about... I'm sitting here going "etna"? ... "etna?" ... "what does he mean?!" haha... duh. Right there!!! I'm slow sometimes....

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

After sampling the delicious wine from Australia we decided to head to the front of the park and to the resort. On the way out though, we knew we couldn’t leave without at least one ride on one of our favorites..

I rode with my sister and Mama flew solo for this one.

Forgive my inside non-flash photos.. I only have my point and shoot.

We debated on taking the monorail over to MK and then take a boat over to the WL but we decided just to take the bus straight to the resort. We waited about 15 mins for a bus. That was the longest we waited the entire time we were there for any transportation. I ate the leftover piece of pizza from lunch while we waited… Mmmmmm…. So good!

We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge and headed up to check in. It was around 2pm, so I wasn’t sure if our room would be ready. We did the online check-in so all I had to do was get the packet and sure enough, our room was ready!! Room 5011. If you know the Wilderness Lodge, then you’re familiar with the layout. We were on the side closest to Roaring Fork, facing the pool. We were a little ways down the hall but we didn’t mind.

View from the room:

I didn’t take any pics of the room right away. I did later on so those will come later in the report. What I wanted to do was get down in the hot tub and warm up. Mama took our mugs down to Roaring Fork and filled them while Ashley and I hit up the hot tub. Mama joined us a few minutes later. It was so nice and relaxing just to sit there and take in the scenery of the lodge.

Now this is where things get weird… We had an ADR at 5:10 and were heading over to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party right after so we wanted to head out around 4. At 3ish, we gathered our stuff and headed back up to the room so we all had time to shower and get ready. When we got to the room, there was a little Do Not Disturb thingy stuck in our key slot. We were a little confused but we attempted to enter the room anyway. When we walked in there was a manager of some sort in there and the beds were completely stripped. She explained she was responding to the call about the bed bugs…. Uhhhhhh, what call? What bed bugs? I told her we hadn’t called about any bedbugs as we had just checked in. She seemed a little confused but told us everything was ok and there were no bedbugs. She also explained that 2 other managers had been in there with her to check everything out. She told us she just needed to make the beds up real quick so we waited outside. There we were standing in our bathing suits, in the air conditioned hallway. Since it was already cold outside, I was freezing. So we waited a few minutes… And a few more minutes. How long does it take to make a bed?! I was getting really impatient. When I get impatient, I get cranky. And when I get cranky, I’m not a nice person to deal with. I knocked on the door and opened it again and she had made one of the beds up… One bed… In five minutes?! Ummmm, ok. She said she just needed to finish up and we would be all set to come in as soon as she was done. So we waited…. And waited…. Probably about 5 more minutes though it seemed like more. Finally she came out and apologized and then said “Oh I should have let you guys wait in the room”.. Ummmm, ya think?! Since we only now had about 40 minutes to get ready, I kn ew that wouldn’t be enough time for me to shower, blow dry my hair, straighten it and get dressed. I don’t take that long on purpose, mind you. My hair just takes FOREVER to dry. So I let my sister have the shower and I attempted to try and blow dry the part of my hair that got wet in the hot tub and straighten it. It turned out ok, if not a little frizzy. Oh, and it smelled like chlorine. AWESOME!!

OK, enough ranting about that.. Back to the good stuff. We headed out at 4 exactly and headed down to the boat. There was one wating right when we got there… And at that point we got the name for this trip report. As we were going to board the boat my sister stopped and said “Is this the Magic Kingdom?” Now, my sister has been to Disney over 20 times. She knows where the Magic Kingdom is. My mother and I both understood that she meant is this the boat we take to get there. However the boat captain had some fun with her and said “No, this is a boat.” Well everyone who was already on the boat heard this and laughed. I laughed hysterically. Luckily my sister has a good sense of humor and thought it was funny too. The captain helped her into the boat and we enjoyed a nice relaxing boat ride over to the Magic Kingdom.

Mama on the boat

A woman behind me asked me to take a picture of her, her husband and her son. I noticed she had the camera I had been looking at investing in before our next trip (Canon T3) and we chatted about it for a few minutes. She gave me some pointers and told me it was pretty much “idiot proof” lol

Oh Contemporary.. You are on my list of resorts to stay in one day…

After a few minutes, we reached the Magic Kingdom. When we disembarked the boat, we were so close to the magic I could almost smell the Main Street scents.. The popcorn and cookies. But as much as I wanted to run through the gates, under the train station and into Town Square, that would have to wait. We had a little dinner matter to handle first…

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Yay you started your report!!! :sohappy:

So jealous you're going back in May!!!! Come on by and pick me up hahaha

The Wilderness Lodge just looks so beautiful! I can't wait to see pics of the room, it's one of the places I would love to stay someday!!!!

And I agree with Via Napoli the pizza is awesome there!!!!!!!

Can't wait to read more!!!