Trip Report LIVE - We're Andy's toys and we're going to play!

Hello again.
Well this trip has taken its time to come around. I'm sure you can all relate to that. The endless countdown that doesn't seem to get any smaller and all your friends going off to Disney while you're stuck at home. For those of you still there I feel your pain,

But

My turn has finally come and you get to share it with me, that is if you want to? Albeit in a virtual format.

I debated long and hard on whether to do another live report given all the time it took last year but I have decided I am going to try to give it a go again. I should be updating at the end of every day or in the mornings but everything depends on free WI fi. Fingers crossed.

For those of you who didn't read my last report (where were you?) here's a bit of background

Me Tracey
My husband Chris

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Disney mad, every comment in my life relates back to Disney. I've been travelling to Disney every November since 2000 (I went in Nov 1996 for the first time and then in Nov 1998 then May 1999) and then every year in November since.
Disney is a huge part of my life, I'm addicted and everyone thinks I'm mad (one of a kind, and a wee bit crazy) but I don't care - I love it and always will.
Chris isn't as mad as me (but that would be pretty impossible anyway) and pretends that he does it for me but I have those photos with the glint in his eye so who is he trying to kid?!

So here we are our 19th trip and I still get the excitement and butterflies in my stomach at the though of actually going back again. I will rack up 280 nights spent in POR during this trip and am aiming for 365 - a whole year of my life spent in Disney! That's my ambition and I think it's a pretty good one to have although Chris tells me not to admit that to anyone outside of this forum!

We've never had the same holiday even though we've been going back year after year, somehow each trip is different. I guess everyone on here can kind of relate to that too

So what's the plan?
We travel on Thursday 5th November from Gatwick at 1pm a later flight than we normally take but it was the only Virgin Atlantic flight out on this day. We are staying for 15 nights at our beloved Port Orleans Riverside - POR
We have Disney Dining plan so our meals are taken care of - we normally come home with loads to spare.
We have a 14 day Disney pass so our first day will be at Universal (as we are staying 15 nights and have to go to Magic Kingdom the day we leave)
We have BOG (be our guest for any non Disney abbreviation friends reading - Lianne at work! (not a toilet reference as some of my non Disney friends thought when I told them!) - this is a restaurant themed on Beauty and the Beast, my favourite film) booked for 2 lunches but apart from that these 15 days are all mine to absorb as much Disney as possible to keep me going another year.
And of course there will be ice cream every day (something I have to do while on holiday and will definitely feature A LOT in this report - as it did in the last one too!) and hopefully a few WDW Magic meet ups along the way. There are quite a few of us there so I am sure we will be running into each other.

My brother Mark and his wife Claire were meant to join us on this trip however, Claire was told in July that she had to be at a meeting on 13th Nov and her company said they would pay for travel costs etc to get her there. This would have meant loosing a week of their holiday though in terms of travel time etc. We all looked at travel dates to move but it wasn't possible so they have re booked for 2016 so will be joining us then. I was so looking forward to showing them the full on Disney experience of staying on site etc but it just wasn't meant to be (this time!) I was really disappointed not to have them join us, but it won't spoil our fun. I think they will feel the pain more than us!

And just in case you want to follow along @coachwnh and @prfctlyximprct (for helping me with Disney blues in the past) @LisaBelle thanks for your message earlier this week and hopefully this report will help pass the days until your Feb trip (keep up the training) - @Minnesota disney fan who contacted me direct and we have shared email and Facebook messages since about May this year (looking forward to meeting you in person on 12th Nov in Magic Kingdom) @Zipitidoda so you can enjoy more of my gorillapod shots which you enjoyed from my last trip report @PrincessOfDisneyworld who actually read my last trip report 3 times, (I am still touched you enjoyed it that much) and @Tiggertoo56 who read my report twice and this time last year was in Disney - I hope this helps re live some memories.
And obviously welcome to any previous or new readers - you are all more than welcome

So, I am at home sorting out the last bits and Chris is still in London and we want to leave for the airport in 2 hours for our overnight stay in a hotel before our long 9 1/2 hour ish flight tomorrow to "Our laughing place"
I've pinched myself and it hurt so it's actually happening! Zip a dee do dah
See you on the other side........

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh....... We're finally off. (Well nearly!)
 

Tiggertoo56

Well-Known Member
Thursday 12th November

So today was the day that Chris had been looking forward to - because he got to play golf! :rolleyes:

Me on the other hand had been looking forward to it for another reason - a meet up with @Minnesota disney fan

So Chris was up and awake and out of our room by 6.25am for his 7.30am tee off time.
It was a bit foggy out but that had all gone by the time he got to tee off.

I got ready and headed down to reception to meet the operations manager and general manager of he hotel. I wanted to thank them for their lovely voice messages they left last week and they had said they wanted to meet me do why not!

The general manager had phoned in sick but the operations manager was in.

I thanked him for his lovely message and he thanked me for staying so many nights in Riverside.
He was quite impressed at my love of this resort and the number of nights I had stayed here.
To be honest so am I as I probably could have bought a mansion in the US for the amount of money we have spent coming to Disney but I wouldn't have all the memories I have.
We had a good chat and then got a few photos - little things like this make memories for me that I treasure.

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And then he gave me permission to pretend I worked at Riverside :D
Here I am getting my training - if only!

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He asked if I had everything I needed and I said yes everything was great and I was just absorbing every second of my time here - but he asked if I had a few minutes and asked me to wait.
I waited and he returned to tell me that he had given myself and Chris 3 additional fast passes for today, tomorrow and Saturday. I didn't need to book them I just needed to go and scan my magic band where I wanted to ride and I would get straight in!
Wow!
I was a happy girl with just a phone call but now I had additional fast passes :cool:
He told me to use them wisely - and to pick the biggest queue times to get maximum benefit from them.
I told him not to worry I would as I have plenty of practice. ;)

I said my goodbyes, we hugged and I was on my way to the bus stop to get to the Magic Kingdom.

I made it to MK at just gone 10.10am and was meeting Ruth @Minnesota disney fan at 10.30
Now this meet up was a relatively easy one, as I have previously said we arranged this before we both left home via messages and we are now friends on Facebook so we have seen pictures.

We hugged like old friends. It was great to finally meet

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I joined her husband and daughter and we all headed to ride BTMR and Splash together, chatting along the way and appreciating each other's accents.

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I didn't realise I had this photo but thought it quite funny! (I hope Ruth agrees!)

I walked back up Main Street and we said our goodbyes as they had dining reservations to get to.

I walked back towards the castle where the Xmas parade was being filmed.
Ariana Grande was singing on the stage so I watched a while.
I could have been part of the audience if I wanted but I was happy to just watch and take it all in.

Think you can just about see her in the photo with the Mickey ears on.

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For me it was nice as even though it was Xmas taping, it wasn't Xmas songs so I was in my element.

November is too early to be playing Xmas songs in Disney - just saying!

I sat on the no grass area and listened and watched the world go by. The grass area might well be my new favourite spot to people watch without the crowds.

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By this point Chris had messaged to say he was nearly at MK

Reunited :)

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We headed to ride BTMR together and then went to lunch at Columbia Harbour house
Love your teeshirt! Glad you met up with @Minnesota disney fan as planned. What a lovey treat from the operations manager - both being able to pretend to be staff and the fastpasses! Hope you made the most of them. I've just been looking at the pics on here for the Christmas celebration and the warm sun - here it's cold, wet and miserable and really windy!!! So have been making the most of our TR as I got home from work. :cool:
 

Tiggertoo56

Well-Known Member
Love Cogsworth too - just got to the end of the report so far! Fantastic pics of the lights - I'm going to miss the Osborne lights as I don't think they will be there when we get to come back home!:(
 

Longers

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
That Cogsworth statue is super cool...I may have to look at picking one up when we go this weekend.

You will only get one from the beauty and beast shop in Magic Kingdom so just bear that in mind. Hope you manage to get one. If you see me make sure to say hi.

Love Cogsworth too - just got to the end of the report so far! Fantastic pics of the lights - I'm going to miss the Osborne lights as I don't think they will be there when we get to come back home!:(

I just had to have the t shirt when I saw it - all my friends agreed it summed me up perfectly and I've heard it's miserable at home.
It's been much hotter this year than any other year we've known and whilst it has slowed us down a little it's been nice to have warm evenings.
And it was lovely to meet Lorn the operations manager what a lovely man and it made it really special. And of course I am using my fast passes wisely.
This is the last year of the Osborne lights but who knows maybe they will bring back after they make the changes to HS?
Thanks for reading and hopefully it's helping others any Disney blues and maybe helping you remember your trip last year.

I must have that Cogsworth!!!!!! And I suddenly have a huge hankering for ice cream... man this trip report is killing my diet! LOL

He is sooooo awesome. He properly ticks and everything.
I didn't want to remove all the packaging as I need it to be able to tell the time when I get home.
And the ice cream and fries is doing nothing for my diet either but hey who cares I'm on holiday!

I love Cogsworth! He looks to be worth the effort to get him. It is always great to find that special souvenir on a trip.

He was worth the effort trust me. I had seen him online about 2 weeks before I got here and I didn't want to go home without him, so glad he is now in my possession.
I just need to get him home in one piece now.
 

Longers

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday 13th November.

So somehow we seemed to be up a little later today - by later I mean we woke at 7.55am - whoops.

That just meant that we were at Magic Kingdom later than expected but we got an email before we left to say our Peter Pan fast pass was going to be good all day as the ride was currently down.

We headed to TTA

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From here we hit 7DMT as we had a fast pass and then we headed back to Peter Pan as this was now working.

Random picture shot on the way

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We did BTMR and a few Sorcerer of the magic kingdom Windows in order to get our free cards for the day - these are nice souvenirs to keep!
We headed towards Main Street and popped into the shops, now if you read my last TR you will know i bought a few Alex & Ani bracelets which I hadn't heard of before I joined the forum, well today another joined the collection (it was an impulse buy but sometimes they are the best)

Not sure if you can read what it says but it's "a dream is a wish your heart makes"

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We then headed onto Main Street where more filming for the ABC Xmas parade was taking place.
I would love to see the finished version but we can't get it in the UK.

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Snow on Main Street with blue skies and 80 degree heat!

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We left the Magic Kingdpm about 2.30 and headed to Epcot
 

Longers

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So we were headed to Epcot on the monorail (our first monorail trip of the holiday)

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Here it comes

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Gorillapod shot of us as we arrived in Epcot - we're getting good at this!

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We headed straight to Ellen - Cooly hot, hotly cool.
We often refer to this ride when it rains in the UK, "what is rain!"

Look out for those sentences if you don't know what I am talking about!

We then headed to world showcase - first stop ice cream.

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I did feel a bit guilty sting Mickey but only for about a second!

Then we took a few more gorillapod shots

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By this point it was 15 mins away from the 5.30pm Maxi Priest show as part of the eat yo the best concert series so we stayed to watch

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I think he was camera shy!

We stayed for about 15 mins and then decided we needed to make use of today's 3 free fast passes we had been given
So we headed to Soarin, we then queued 5 mins for the land and then hit Soarin again.
We were quite proud of ourselves for using 2 free FP wisely.
With 1 left we headed towards TT but this was showing 100 min wait and the FP line was backed up and wasn't moving either. We figured if we were to wait it was going to take some time so we decided to go to the Character fun spot (this was showing 45 min wait) this was probably a wasted FP in terms of freebies but we were not headed anywhere else so we just needed to use it up. So in we went

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Longers

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After our character meet and greet we decided to head back home.

We returned to Riverside earlier than normal at around 8.30pm.

And I finally spotted @JIMINYCR - it was weird as on the way back we had considered stopping for food in French Quarter thinking we may spot him but my feet were killing me and I didn't fancy the walk do we had settled on Riverside and there were Don and Brenda!
Finally we had seen each other!

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It was great to finally see and meet you, I will keep looking out for you on our travels!

My night finished with a snack and a double scoop of ice cream!

Tomorrow AK and HS PM.
 
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Longers

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Forgot to mention yesterday that myself and Chris were playing it (I think in the US you call it tag!)

We generally are just silly when here and have a laugh.

We were playing as we entered the Soarin queue thinking no one was noticing and as the family behind joined the queue one of them turned to us and said "now if you two don't behave you will have to go straight home to bed!"

We all laughed together - oops

We're just getting ready to head out ............
 

slipperalwaysfits

Well-Known Member
I had such an awesome day, The extra passes can be used across parks which is great and even better still we don't have to book anything. I guess when you don't expect things it's even more magical.

Yes, when I went to Disney for the first time at Thanksgiving 2013 with my boyfriend who was a Disney pro I had NO idea what to expect, including that we had character meals and we could just meet characters anywhere and the fastpasses in general and transportation and meal plans and really everything else that was amazing. Also, I did not expect the castle to be so incredibly amazing with those lights! I had zero expectations, which is why it was incredibly magical and sucked me in for life.

Last year, was just as magical with a little engagement :) Just the fact df and I will be together in a magical place for so long in just a few days is really all the magic I need right now!

Can't wait to read the rest! Surprised about TT being such a long wait but you got lucky with Soarin!
 

Longers

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yes, when I went to Disney for the first time at Thanksgiving 2013 with my boyfriend who was a Disney pro I had NO idea what to expect, including that we had character meals and we could just meet characters anywhere and the fastpasses in general and transportation and meal plans and really everything else that was amazing. Also, I did not expect the castle to be so incredibly amazing with those lights! I had zero expectations, which is why it was incredibly magical and sucked me in for life.

Last year, was just as magical with a little engagement :) Just the fact df and I will be together in a magical place for so long in just a few days is really all the magic I need right now!

Can't wait to read the rest! Surprised about TT being such a long wait but you got lucky with Soarin!

I know this place is addictive!
 
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Longers

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Saturday 14th November

Today we headed to Animal Kingdom, first ride was the Safari, we ended up queuing a while but ended up with a good safari!

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Now they say they are never the same and that's right (I should know)

It was a bit cooler today but still like 78 degrees first thing but I think that had made the animals active.

We saw 4 cheetahs, all active and walking around and then we got these shots of the lions. Wow!

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From our safari we went to see the yeti, just once round today on the single rider line!

Then we stopped for frozen lemonade (no photo as I think you all know what that looks like now)

The park was busy (I guess as it opened early today, and it's a weekend) so we decide to leave and head out

We saw di. Vine as we left

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I look forward to seeing the new bits in Animal Kingdom when I return next year

The cranes were out today so the work is progressing.

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We jumped in the car and headed to Lake Buena Vista shopping outlet for an hour for a quick look around and then headed back to Riverside.

We still find it quite unusual that the traffic lights hand for wire over the street?

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When we got back to Riverside we contacted Ruth to see if she was around and we all met up for a while to chat and exchange some gifts we had bought for each other before we left.
We had both obviously had the same thoughts before we left!

We said our goodbyes again and headed on our way.
 
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Longers

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our next stop was Hollywood Studios (this park was also super busy)

But we had fast passes and our extra ones! :) :D

So we headed to star tours and then onto TSMM, (we did this 3 times in a row)

And I am only posting the pictures so I have proof!
I beat Chris on the first 2 (and also got highest score in the vehicle for both)

And then Chris finally beat me!
So it's 6-1 to me.........

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From here we headed to RNRC to use up our last free fast pass :(
It's been fun getting something for nothing - thanks to my friend at PORS - thanks

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Rides all done we headed for ice cream - we had the same as we had last time we were at HS (but we've already decided on what we are having next time!)

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We sat on a bench watching the world go by and just looked at each other and said does life get any better than this.
We were eating ice cream in the heat, (at night) in shorts and t shirts in November in the most magical place on earth

I had a little tear as we left as I really don't want this to end.

We were back to the room by 8pm for an early night as I want to be at Magic Kingdom first thing tomorrow.

Trip report completed at 9pm now it's time to rest.
My feet are killing me!
 
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disneypearl

Well-Known Member
You got some nice photos of the lions! Did you see the hyenas during your ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris? I was glad to see that DiVine was out and about. I missed seeing her on my last visit so good to see she is still an active member of AK.
 

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