Just how much can you do in 2 weeks at WDW?

After reading so many wonderful and interesting trip reports on here, I have been inspired to write my first ever trip report (although I do not promise it to be wonderful or interesting!).

Background Information:
I had been planning this trip for nearly 6 years, from the day I returned from my previous one in 2006. I spent every day listening to podcasts and searching the internet for details to make the holiday special as I didn’t know how long it would be until our next one. My Disney planning obsession may have gone a little overboard, as my itinerary shows:

Who:
Husband, Gary
9 year old daughter, Molly
6 year old son, Matthew
and me, Karen.

When:
December 29th 2011 to January 12th 2012

Where:
Pop Century for 3 nights
Old Key West for 11 nights

Any other info:
This holiday was to celebrate my 40th birthday later in the year, as well as being a surprise Christmas present for Molly & Matthew. I still can’t believe that we kept the trip a secret for over a year!!! I guess that as I talk about Disney all of the time anyway, they just didn’t notice anything different!

The adventure really started on Christmas morning of 2011, when the children opened their first Christmas present:

Inside was a 4 foot tall Mickey Mouse balloon with a sign around his neck telling them that they were going to WDW in 4 days. They were very surprised and couldn’t really take it in at first. It was great fun, although in hindsight I don’t think Christmas morning was the best idea as they were a bit overwhelmed, especially with more presents to open.

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

Monday 2nd January 2012

This morning we set off early to the Animal Kingdom to have breakfast at the Tusker House with Donald & friends. We enjoyed the food and the characters were fun too.

Daisy loved Molly's t-shirt:

When we were done, we rode the safari. Matthew loved how bumpy it was and Molly loved the animals, so this was a big win for the kids.

As Gary was feeling a bit rough, we went back to the hotel so he could rest. Molly, Matthew and I went to the quiet pool near our room. Although they have been having swimming lessons for over a year, they are making slow progress. So it was a bit tricky to look after them both in the pool at the same time on my own. We still had fun though, but it was getting a bit chilly so after a sit in the ‘very hot tub’ (as Matthew calls it!), we went back to the room.

We left Gary in the room again, while we went over to Hollywood Studios for our late lunch ADR at Hollywood & Vine. It was really quiet and we had a lot of character time, but we weren’t too keen on the food.

Next stop was the Muppets 3D. We have been educating the kids about Muppets for a few months by watching DVD’s and taking about them. Matthew was a bit concerned that the theatre blew up at the end and that the people in line wouldn’t be able to watch the next show. I explained about the Disney magic and that it would be OK!!

Time for more characters, so we met Lightning McQueen & Mater and Mr Incredible & Frozone.

After a snack break, we went to wait for Fantasmic. I was so excited to be seeing it as I hadn’t seen it before. We had to huddle together to keep warm as it was starting to get colder and we ate some cookies while we waited. I didn’t take any pictures as I wanted to enjoy the show and I really did!!

We had missed Gary, but the kids loved telling him about their afternoon and it was lovely to see their excited faces.

 

[Crush Dude!]

:wave:
I'm glad you're enjoying it, I was so worried that people wouldn't find it interesting!!

We took the children out of school for just over a week as it was the only time of year that my husband could get off work.

We managed to get a great deal on the OKW portion of the holiday:

We had 40% off our room, free dining and 14 day passes for the price of 7 day passes!!! :sohappy:[/QUOTE]

LOVE THAT DEAL :sohappy::sohappy::sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

 

[wdweric2.0]

Great Report so far!

 

[emh1960]

Wow that's great!

:wave:
I'm glad you're enjoying it, I was so worried that people wouldn't find it interesting!!

We took the children out of school for just over a week as it was the only time of year that my husband could get off work.

We managed to get a great deal on the OKW portion of the holiday:

We had 40% off our room, free dining and 14 day passes for the price of 7 day passes!!! :sohappy:

That is a nice price!

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

:wave:
I'm glad you're enjoying it, I was so worried that people wouldn't find it interesting!!

We took the children out of school for just over a week as it was the only time of year that my husband could get off work.

We managed to get a great deal on the OKW portion of the holiday:

We had 40% off our room, free dining and 14 day passes for the price of 7 day passes!!! :sohappy:[/QUOTE]

LOVE THAT DEAL :sohappy::sohappy::sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

That is a nice price!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another good deal next time! :lol:

Great Report so far!

Thank you. :wave:

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

Tuesday 3rd January 2012

Today is jam-packed with things to do, so we were up nice and early and off to the Magic Kingdom. (on a side note, Gary was surprised that at home it takes me ages to get up in the mornings, but at WDW I was the first up every day and usually ready before the other got up!!! Some things are worth getting up early for!!!)

When we entered the park, we saw Pinocchio with a short line in front of the Fire House, so we went over to say Hi before going to Fantasyland.

Me, Molly & Matthew rode Dumbo (Gary doesn’t do rides that ‘go round’!!), then we all went on Peter Pan, It’s a Small World and Pooh. Gary watched as we went on the Carousel and the Tea-Cups.

We met the White Rabbit…

…and went over to the Haunted Mansion. I really liked the new queue, but wouldn’t see it every time. The kids were unsure about riding this, but my rule is that you try it once and if you don’t like it you never have to do it again (sorry if I’ve said that already!). Molly said it was OK, but wouldn’t do it again. Matthew said it needed dusting!!!

We had lunch at the Columbia Harbour House. The food was OK, but the service was slow and they couldn’t get the order right, so we ended up with extra chips and cookies because they wouldn’t take the incorrect items back!!

As we left, we bought balloons for Molly & Matthew and posed for a photo.

The boys went back to Old Key West for a nap and us girls went to Saritoga Springs. Molly had a manicure and pedicure while I had a pedicure. It was really nice but as we forgot to bring our flipflops, we hobbled out in the disposable ones that they gave us when we were done. Needless to say, they fell apart as soon as we left the spa, so we sat on a bench for a while and took a chance and put our shoes back on (in case you were wondering, the polish was OK!)

It was now a rush to get to Epcot. We arranged to meet the boys there and heir bus pulled up just after ours. We dashed over to the Land and were just in time for our Behind the Seeds tour. Matthew was really into it and loved the ladybirds and the 9 pound lemon…

Molly said the best bit was the cucumber!!! Gary is a gardener, so he found it all interesting. I liked watching the boats come round and the people looking at us and wondering what we were doing!

When were had finished, we rode Living with the Land to see it from the other side and went back upstairs to check in for dinner. I really liked the Garden Grill, and we all enjoyed the food selection. Gary was OK with it going round, but the kids were adamant that the kitchen in the middle was turning, not us!!

We met our Pal, Mickey again…

..and Chip & Dale.

Pluto was becoming Molly’s favourite…

We weren’t too keen on the desserts, so when we were done, we went outside and had a Mickey Bar each. The cast member said mine was free for my birthday!!

Tomorrow…back to Animal Kingdom!

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

4th January 2012

Sorry, there’s not a lot of pictures for today.

As Matthew had had a bad night and we didn’t want to wake him, Molly and I went to the Animal Kingdom on our own. The boys would catch us up when they were ready.

We rushed over to Expedition Everest, only to find that it was temporarily closed. We picked up fastpasses and went to Dinoland USA instead.

We went on Primeval Whirl, which Molly really loved!! As we got off the ride, we received a text message to say that the Gary & Matthew were on the bus. We bought some rice crispy Mickeys and went to the front of the park to wait for them. We took the boys back to Dinoland USA and the kids played on the ‘fairground’ games and won 4 toys between them (it helped that they were only playing against each other as it was empty!).

Molly, Matthew and I went on Triceratops Spin.

It was time for our fastpasses, so we went over to Everest, only to find it was still closed. We joined the queue for Finding Nemo – The Musical. I really liked it, Gary said it was OK and the kids were a bit bored!

Third time lucky – Expedition Everest had just opened, so we walked straight on to the ride using our fastpasses (the standby queue was getting longer by the second!). As expected, Molly said she will never do it again! It was a lot faster than I thought and I must be getting old as I said that I wouldn’t do it again this trip, but would give it another go whenever we come back!

The kids loved It’s Tough to be a Bug. W then headed over to Pizzafari for lunch, which was really nice.

That concluded our Animal Kingdom part of the holiday. At the time, I was OK with not seeing the rest of the park, but since I’ve been home I’ve kind of missed it!

The afternoon was to be ‘Molly’s Choice’. She wanted to go back to EPCOT to do a Kim Possible mission, so one bus trip later and we were singing up for our mission. We had to check in at Italy at 3pm. We had some time spare, so we went into Innoventions to find out ‘Where’s the Fire?’ and then headed over to Italy. Our actual mission was in Germany. We had great fun and it was a big thumbs up for all of us.

Next stop, the UK. I keep wondering why do we spend most of our time in this pavilion? I found the answer – chocolate!! You can’t beat being in another country and paying a lot of money for some warm chocolate that’s a lot cheaper at home!!! But it has to be done and it tastes a lot better just because it is in a different country!!

We met Mary Poppins…

We looked around the shops in the UK, and decided that we had to have fish and chips from the counter service. I thought that they wouldn’t be a good as at home, but they really were! We sat in the square behind the UK to eat our food and it was so much quieter than when we were here on New Years Eve!

Back to Future World and we rode Journey into Imagination and The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

We all loved Turtle Talk with Crush - that is one really clever attraction!

On the way out of the park, we rode Spaceship Earth.

When we got back to our room, we found this:

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

Thursday 5th January 2012

Molly, Matthew & I went to the Magic Kingdom for the extra magic hour morning, while Gary headed for the Marathon Expo to pick up his race pack.

Firstly, we got a locker to store Molly’s Tinkerbell costume.

Next, we checked that Matthew was tall enough and got fastpasses for Space Mountain as there was already a long wait. We walked straight on to the Peoplemover and I enjoyed seeing the inside of Space Mountain with the lights on as the ride had stopped.

Next, we went in to watch the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, which we loved and they kept picking on the man next to us. When we came out, we spotted Buzz Lightyear, so we joined the queue. He loved Matthew’s cap and tried to put it on his head but it kept slipping off!

We texted a picture to Gary and he was rather jealous that we saw Buzz without him.

We headed over to Adventureland to get Matthew a pirate outfit and saw that Pirates had a 5 minute wait, so we walked on. After, we chose some Jack Sparrow clothes for Matthew and took them to store in the locker.

It was time for our fastpasses, so back over to Tommorowland and on to Space Mountain (with the lights off). Matthew loved it and Molly said she would never do it again!!! I really enjoyed it, except my glasses nearly fell off, so I spent the whole time concentrating on keeping hold of them instead of the ride.

We walked over to Frontierland and caught the train back to the front of the park. The sign showed that there was only a 10 minute wait to meet Mickey, we went in. It was a lot longer than 10 minutes, but it was worth it for Mickey!

Just as we left, Gary sent a text to say that he had just come in the park, so we met him and went to the locker to collect the costumes and get the children changed into them.

Gary took Matthew to the Pirates League while I took Molly to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Molly had her hair and make up done and was sprinkled with fairy dust. She looked beautiful. It didn’t take too long and when we were done, the fastpass lady advised that we go to the shop next door and ask if they could take some photos. They turned out lovely, it was like a proper photo session and they took quite a few photos, here's 2 of them:

We sent a text to the boys and found that they had only just started transforming Matthew, so we picked up some cookies and crisps (as we had just realised that we forgot lunch) and went over to see them.

We found the boys and I was surprised that the make up was so good that I didn’t recognise Matthew!! It was really funny that all of the cast members made a big fuss of ‘Stinkerbell’, saying how she smelled disgusting, like flowers and pixie dust!!! Molly thought it was hilarious. It took me a second to get the connection: Tinkerbell is friends with Peter Pan, who fights Pirates!!

When Matthew (pirate name, Gerrard Goodwater) was done, he was told that if anyone asked, the black eye was from when he tried to kiss a mermaid and she hit him with her tail!!! He had to swear the pirate oath. We went into a secret room and he had some photos taken.

Now we had a pirate, we had to go back on the ride, which had a longer queue than before. But it gave us a chance to eat our cookies and crisps as we waited.

When we came out we saw pirate Goofy, who had a sword fight with Matthew and danced with Molly.

Molly and Matthew insisted that Gary had to ride the Peoplemover, so we did this before checking in for our dinner ADR at Cinderella’s Castle.

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

We met Cinderella in the lobby and had our photo taken and waited to be called. Molly loved meeting the Princesses and Matthew loved that they were all a bit concerned that he was a pirate, but the all said that they know deep down he was a good pirate!!! (Matthew had taken off the costume as it was a bit itchy)

When we left the restaurant, there was a sea of people waiting for the Electrical Parade. We decided that it was too packed to find a space to watch, so we went to the Wishes viewing area that we had booked. From our table, we could see the tops of the floats. It was lovely to be able to sit down to watch the Magic, Memories & You and Wishes. We snuggled under blankets and really enjoyed the show and fireworks.

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

Friday 6th January 2012

According to my itinerary, this was supposed to be our Blizzard Beach day. However, Molly had a bit of a cold and the weather was rather chilly, so we changed this to a relaxing/Downtown Disney day.

We had breakfast at Olivia’s Café which was lovely. Gary liked it so much that he insisted that we change tomorrow’s ADR at Via Napoli to here for his pre-marathon pasta.

We spent time looking around the shop and bought postcards to send home. Back in the room, we wrote the postcards and had a rest before going to catch the boat to Downtown Disney. I think my favourite part of a WDW holiday is the boat rides and all of my favourite resorts include them (POFQ, OKW & Wilderness Lodge).

Our room (top floor of the blue building, with the large balcony):

We had a lovely lunch at Planet Hollywood (where I was surprised that they asked if we were on the dining plan, apparently they had just started taking it) and then we looked around the shops.

As Muppet fans, we were all excited to see the new film, especially as it was not to be released in the UK until 10th February. After we bought our tickets, I had to take a picture and send it to my brother, who is the biggest fan of all!!!!

(nail picture):

The experience was pretty much the same as a UK cinema visit, except the seats were so much more comfortable and with more legroom. Also, I loved the popcorn. We loved the film and couldn’t wait to get outside to call my brother. When he answered, we all shouted ‘Manah Manah’ into the phone and hung up (well, it is expensive!!) and he replied with a lovely text message that I cannot repeat here

After looking around some more shops, we caught the bus to the Wilderness Lodge where we had dinner reservations at Whispering Canyon Café. The food was lovely. Molly & Matthew took part in the hobby horse parade and enjoyed getting all of the ketchup bottles when they asked for ketchup as well as having to take them all to the next table that shouted ‘We Need Ketchup!!’.

On our way to the boat, we saw the geyser erupt, which is something that I really wanted to see.

We took the boat to the Magic Kingdom and went straight to catch a bus back to Old Key West.

The end of another fun-filled day!

 

[tink65]

Hey there! Lovin' your TR! Thanks so much for sharing. I can't wait to read more and especially excited to hear about the marathon!

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

Hey there! Lovin' your TR! Thanks so much for sharing. I can't wait to read more and especially excited to hear about the marathon!

Thank you for reading and I'm glad you're enjoying it. It really does keep the excitement going after coming back and is putting off the post-Disney blues!!

I'm nearly at the marathon part - I'm hoping to put a few days on this week.
:sohappy:

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Love the photos from the boutique and Pirates League. They look great!

We love Whispering Canyon Cafe. We are staying at the villas at the Wilderness Lodge for 2 nights in May and have a dinner booked here. We didn't get to see the geyser when we stayed there in November so I'm hoping this time we can see it.

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

Love the photos from the boutique and Pirates League. They look great!

We love Whispering Canyon Cafe. We are staying at the villas at the Wilderness Lodge for 2 nights in May and have a dinner booked here. We didn't get to see the geyser when we stayed there in November so I'm hoping this time we can see it.

I'm sure you'll have a great time. :wave:

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

Saturday 7th January 2012

Today, we were up bright and early to get to Hollywood Studios for the extra magic hour. However, I totally forgot about the half marathon closing some roads and the traffic was moving very slowly. When we eventually got into the park I ran ahead with the tickets to get fastpasses for Toy Story Mania. When I arrived I was shocked that the area was empty, it appears that everyone else was stuck in traffic too!!! I got the fastpasses (for 10:05 – 11:05) and had to wait around for the others to catch up and then we went in with a 10 minute wait!

We loved the ride and were so glad that we could do it again in just over an hour.

Next, we headed over to Rock n Roller Coaster. Matthew was really disappointed that he was too short to ride, so just Molly and I went on. As with Space Mountain, I spent the whole time holding on to my glasses – I had to ask Molly if we went upside down because I didn’t notice!!! As usual, Molly said that she would never ride this again!!!

Molly, Matthew and I then went on the Tower of Terror. Gary doesn’t like it, so he waited by a wall (he did ride it once, many years ago, and had a nose bleed in the queue because he was getting anxious!!!). Matthew declared this as the best ride ever (along with Splash Mountain), whilst Molly said that she would never ride it again!!!

We got some snacks and went to see the Beauty & the Beast show.

 

[UKDisneyAddict]

Saturday 7th January 2012 continued...

It was time to go back on Toy Story Mania and we all improved on our scores.

We took some photos around Pixar Place…

…and went to see One Man’s Dream.

We met Phineas & Ferb and went for lunch at Pizza Planet.

After lunch, Gary went back to the room to rest for tomorrow and I took the kids over to the Magic Kingdom for the most exciting part of my holiday - the WDW Radio Meet of the Month. I had a really long chat with Lou Mongello and I was thrilled that he knew who I was from my chat name (UKDisneyAddict). His daughter gave me a button and we chatted with his son, who said that as we had travelled all the way from the UK, we should come to his house to play video games!!!!

I also saw Beci Mahnken and had a chat with Matt Hochberg from WDW Today.

When we left the meet, we went over to Liberty Square to watch the parade. Matthew played frisbee with some cast members while we waited. Next, we met Peter Pan. He asked Molly & Matthew if they knew Wendy as they had the same accent!

We left the Magic Kingdom and went back to the hotel (for which Molly still hasn’t forgiven me as this was our last day to ride Big Thunder Mountain before it closed for refurbishment as tomorrow would be taken up with the marathon.)

We had our dinner at Olivia’s Café and had an early night ready for our very early start tomorrow.

 

[masht]

Love reading your report. Our children are precious. Did you purchase all their t-shirts and other Disney wear in the UK or once you got here as they are adorable. Loved seeing you room at Old Key West would love to stay there sometime looks amazing. Can't wait for the rest of your report.

 

[LizC]

Your trip report is great, it looks like you all are having such a fun time. I love that your kids are wearing Disney shirts most days. I am going in 6 months and I already have quite a collection for my two!

You stayed at OKW in a one bedroom. Did you find it big enough for all four of you? Was there a door to close off the bedroom? My family (mom, dad, & two 15mo. olds) is going and we need a hotel to accomodate us. We need a room where we can put the kids to sleep in a seperate room and still be able to relax ourselves, watch tv or whatnot. If you have any answers I would appretiate it.

Thanks! And I look foward to reading more about your trip!

 

[bethymouse]

Incredible!

Wow that looks like a fabulous trip! The pictures are fantastic! The one w/ Peter Pan is priceless! Thanks for posting!:wave:

 

[disneygirl1]

Hi Karen! Such a lovely trip report! I am really enjoying it! Looks like you all had a very magical trip so far! Can't wait to read more! Thanks for sharing!