Mickey, Harry Potter, and Shamu Walk Into a Bar

Welcome, y’all, to my trip report. Now some of you may be disappointed in the (somewhat distasteful) name that I chose for this particular trip report, while others may be upset in the lack of actual bars in the trip report. However, you will not be disappointed in the amount of photos, fun, and new adventures that my family went on during our 10 day stay from May 5- 15. I won’t waste too much time on the introductions because I plan on getting into more detail as the report continues.

The cast again, in case you forgot, included: myself (Rachel); husband, Jordan; mom, Disneybird; pops; grandmother; sister, Amanda; brother-in-law, John; nephew, Victor; niece, Julia. Yep, that’s a big ‘ole party to travel with.

Now on with the show.

May 5, 2012

I’m including this day for one very special reason: my husband graduated from college on this day! Three years after returning to school I was very proud to watch my husband walk across the stage to receive his Bachelor’s in Bible and Theology. Many people often ask if I am older than my husband considering that I have my Master’s. He is actually three years older than me, but he lived a much cooler life than I did before he went back to school. He backpacked through Scotland, traveled the country playing music, and traveled to different parts of the world doing missions work. On the other hand, I went to school…fun.

Still, I was very proud to see him receive his diploma, and this entire trip was planned to celebrate his graduation, as well as his new position at the church where we attend. He worked very hard leading right up to graduation. Trust me, writing exegetical papers, memorizing hundreds of years of history from the Nicean Councils, and debating Calvinism vs. Arminianism made for a very exhausting last semester. So, I was excited to spend a relaxing 10 days with a stress free husband.

We were hoping to have an additional reason to celebrate while we were in WDW, as well. Last July I received my Masters of Arts in Teaching. I am certified to teach History 7-12, with an add-on in Language Arts. For the past year I have worked at the high school where I did my year long internship in the testing department and as a tutor in English and U.S. History. Unfortunately, the school did not have a teaching position for me, but I was blessed to have a job regardless. Honestly, the best way to get a job in a school is to stay in the school. Rumors started circulating about three months ago that a position would be opening in the Social Studies Department. The department rallied behind me to be the person to fill the position in case it came open. I even had several meetings with members of the administration to discuss job opportunities. However, as it got closer and closer to our trip it seemed less and less likely that there would be a position open. The week before we left for vacation two different people on two different occasions approached me and suggested that I start looking at other schools for jobs. They were both looking out for my best interests and wanted to make sure that I could find employment. While I appreciated it talk about a devastating blow. On top of it all this came during my busiest week of the year, the week of End of Course testing (I was able to take off the entire next week because my job is based on hours, which I built up enough of during the week of testing.). So, I was so ready to just get out of town and away from the craziness for awhile. I planned on using these 10 days not having to or wanting to think about jobs.

The day and a half leading up to Jordan’s graduation were very hectic in our little household as Jordan’s mother and brother came down from Maryland to stay with us. Packing and resting beforehand became a little rushed. Still, Saturday morning I was ready to pop out of bed and get going with everything. Fortunately, Jordan’s graduation was early in the morning because we had a very long drive ahead of us.

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Blurry but this was the best I could do.

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All smiles afterwards

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Once graduation was over, my parents met us over at our place for lunch before hitting the road. We hit the road around 1:30 for a long journey ahead. The ride down was uneventful, and traffic wasn’t bad at all. We stayed off-site for the night at a Comfort Suites. My mom was nice enough to get Jordan and me our own room for the night. Once we got there we were so excited to be starting our vacation that we literally jumped up and down on the bed.
 

popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Beautiful World Showcase photos! Although not so sure about those Japanese snacks! Looks like you had a great time, thanks for sharing.

Thank you so much! Yeah, those snacks looked absolutely disgusting! I have no idea why someone would eat those.

This may be the best trip report I have ever read on here. I shoot with a Nikon D80 and never get photos like this. It may have already been asked, but what camera are you using?

Thank you so much! That is such a nice compliment! I shoot with a Nikon D5100. It is kind of idiot proof for me. I am definitely not using it to its fullest potential yet, but I am trying to learn. I really like it though.
 

popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
POTC was next.

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Saw my first one of these!

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Jordan wanted to explore the tree house next since he had never walked through it. It had actually been several years since I had taken the time to walk through as well. There was absolutely no one around, which started the slight doubt that for some reason this wasn’t open and we were not supposed to be walking around it. No one bothered to stop us though and on we went.

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Having done everything that we had wanted to around the rest of the park we went back over to Tomorrowland to close out the night.
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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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We also saw the preparations for Merida’s debut the following week.

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The Speedway had a short wait, so we went off to race one another. We actually timed it with the help of a friendly CM to where we could be able to take off at the same time.

Look how happy he is.

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I won. It was great. Then, I took another slaughtering on Buzz. It wasn’t nearly as bad this time though.



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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ok, remember that reel of stupidity that I told you about. It is about to get bad. We rode SM 6 times that night, and no, I didn’t get pictures from each time but I got the good ones.

During this particular ride as soon as we got off I looked at Jordan and asked, “Why is your shirt wet?” This is why.

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His “Weekend at Bernie’s” look



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I really wanted to ride Astro Orbiter before we left. It is probably my favorite nighttime ride at the Magic Kingdom. We were cutting this one close because we did want to ride SM again before we left. While we were waiting in line a family was behind us with 3 kids all under the age of 6. This was a classic example of not having young children out at the parks that late at night. They were awful! The whole time they whined, cried, hit, and just generally acted annoying. We made sure to get far away from them by the time we got on the ride.



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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Back to SM we went. We didn’t have a lot of time, but this really was the perfect way to end our day. We were actually able to get two more rides on before we had to leave.

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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
May 14, 2012

Today was our last day at the parks for this trip. We slept in again, and I was getting quite used to the idea of not having to wake up at the crack of dawn to beat everyone to the parks. We decided to start our day out at DHS. By the time we got to the parks the fp for TSMM was too far away to justify trying to remain that long in the park. I really wanted to go through the Magic of Disney Animation. I’m sure that I have, but I don’t remember ever doing this in the past. The CM that did the presentation was very jovial, and I enjoyed what he had to say a lot. However, the presentation was very outdated. Yes, I found the story behind Mushu to be very interesting, but it has been 14 years ago since Mulan came out. It might be time for an update. Kudos for the timing between the two though.

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We decided to determine which Disney character we were most like. The first time I got Ursula because Jordan marked that I would rather dine on humans than dine with humans.



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I did something similar with his, and he received Cogsworth.

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Then, we each did our own without the manipulation from the other. I received my favorite princess.



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Let’s just say that description isn’t much like me at all.



Jordan’s was worse though. He hates to follow rules. Honestly, I should have gotten Buzz.



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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After touring around the animation area we hit up ToT a few times. RnRC was down again so we grabbed fps, but fortunately the line for ToT wasn’t crazy busy yet.

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Leaving Sunset Blvd, Jordan stopped into the restroom and asked me if I would go into the Planet Hollywood store and take pictures of some of the memorabilia there to show his brother. This is the only picture that came out even remotely well, which was the only one that mattered because I love this movie.



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We headed back to Star Tours to ride three more times, which I had to resist yelling, “It’s a trap!” twice when Admiral Ackbar showed up. Give me a break, you know you guys want to, too.



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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We ventured back down Sunset Blvd to see that RnRC was up and running again.

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Photo fail.



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At this point we were getting hungry again, which began our quest of finding satisfying counter service in a park that I think has unsatisfying choices. We headed towards the Streets of America and settled on Pizza Planet there.



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Jordan ordered the meatball sub, which was good and larger than I expected. I actually wished that I would have ordered this instead of the pizza that I ordered. The pizza was good too, much better than I could have expected, but I do love meatball subs.



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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After lunch Jordan wanted to go through the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area. Somehow we missed this during his first trip. This is a man reliving his childhood fantasies.

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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
When we had our fill of being shrunk we got in line for the Backlot Tour. Jordan really enjoys this attraction and wanted to get pictures of the ship from Flight of the Navigator. I had other plans for him though. During Jordan’s first trip back in January 2010 it was too cold to run the stunt show at the beginning of the attraction, so Jordan had absolutely no idea that this went on. Back in March my aunt posted a video of my uncle participating in the show, which was hilarious, but it also got me thinking about how much Jordan would love to be volunteered for this even though he didn’t know it at the time. We got in line and I saw a CM trying to talk another guy into doing the show. The guy was flat out refusing, but it gave me hope that they had not filled all of the positions yet. So I slyly got the CM’s attention and casually pointed to Jordan while he wasn’t paying attention. The CM walked right up to us and said, “You two follow me.” Without questioning him at all Jordan follows right behind him until we get to a door where the CM says, “Give her all of your things.” He did, again no questions. Another family joined us with two adult males, and the three men disappeared behind the door. I was loving this! The other family and I were let into the viewing area a few minutes later to see our guys all suited up and ready to go.

Thumps up, so far…

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He was excited.



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Maybe…



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I was so glad to see that he was the guy in the control room. He told me later that they kept telling him that no matter what do not look to his left.



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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
He told me that he was having a hard time hearing their instructions when it was all over. When they told him to lift up the phone I could tell that he couldn’t hear them. He looked straight at me, so I pretended to pick up a phone and hold it to my ear. He followed with the real phone. That’s called good communication, folks.

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I don’t think that the big smile quite captures the seriousness of the situation.



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At least he was still smiling afterwards. My husband is a good sport.



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popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
And now the finished product for your viewing pleasure. Sorry for the awful quality. We did have a good laugh over the smile on his face paired with the dialogue though.




He loved it. He was surprised about what I got him into, but he had a blast.
 

popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Love the baby elephant pics! First time I saw punk rockers in WDW and

The Space Mountain photos are great!

Thanks! The baby elephant was probably one of the best things that I've ever witnessed on that ride. It was so funny to watch! I was really surprised to see some punk rockers. CMs were even checking for room keys at that time, which just added even more to my surprise.

Beautiful pictures Rachel, especially the castle nighttime ones. Love the animals too.

Thanks, mom! You can add some input into this report too, you know.

I'm loving your pictures Rachel. Great report!

Thanks, Betty! I hope you are absolutely enjoying retirement!

Those Space Mountain pics were hilarious!

Thank you! We actually apologized to people if they were in the photo with us! Thinking of something to do next became one of our favorite parts of the ride.


Alright, so I was hoping to have this report finished up by now, but Jordan and I took on a major painting project. We spent 8 hours painting yesterday, and we are still not finished! I'm about to leave now to help him and hopefully finish up. So, tomorrow everything should be finished up on here.
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
The Space Mtn pics are hysterical!! Jprdan went all out there, pulling out the water bottle!! lol and the one where his arms are out and yours are going under his forward looks like a scene out of Titanic. lol

The baby elephant pics... awwww... who doesn't love a baby elephant? :)

My mom, sister, friend and I got to do the water scene at the BackLot Tour and I was in the same place as Jordan for it. Super fun!! Glad to see he liked it!! :)
 

popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The Space Mtn pics are hysterical!! Jprdan went all out there, pulling out the water bottle!! lol and the one where his arms are out and yours are going under his forward looks like a scene out of Titanic. lol

The baby elephant pics... awwww... who doesn't love a baby elephant? :)

My mom, sister, friend and I got to do the water scene at the BackLot Tour and I was in the same place as Jordan for it. Super fun!! Glad to see he liked it!! :)

I really could not believe that he squirted himself with a water bottle during the ride! I wish we had had a third person with us on the last one though. It was a lot of fun thinking about fun things to do on the ride.

The baby elephant was so stinkin' cute!

I was so worried that they were going to try and get me to do it too. I would have done it though! When I finally get finished with this report my first order is to go read yours. I can't wait to read about your experience with it!
 

popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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I saw the outfit worn by Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men in the villains’ area. This is one of my favorite books and movies.

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By this point we were pretty much finished with DHS, but we did want to ride Star Tours one last time. This ride featured the Death Star, so we figured that was a good indication to quit riding for different scenes. It was a good way to end our time on Star Tours for the trip. I’m sure that our goal for our next trip will be for one of us to finally be the Rebel Spy. After the ride we left DHS to go back to our room, rest, and get ready for our anniversary dinner that night.

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