Trip Report Mom & Maddie's visit to Wonderland - February 2016

Hello Everyone,

I am finally able to post my trip report. Here is my pre-trip report if you would like to read it.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-third-time-is-a-charm-for-mom-and-maddie.903762/#post-7073169

We are Mom & Maddie and this is our third trip to Walt Disney World.

Details:
Dates: Monday, February 22 - Monday, February 29, 2016 (8 days, 7 nights)
Resort: Disney's Art of Animation Resort - Little Mermaid
Tickets: 6 day tickets with park hopper

Thanks for following along and I hope you enjoy my trip report.

 

[Courtney6682]

Funny thing about the braces...As soon as the first pic u posted pooped up(the one of you 2 on the plane) I thought she looked SO PRETTY! The braces look great!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Funny thing about the braces...As soon as the first pic u posted pooped up(the one of you 2 on the plane) I thought she looked SO PRETTY! The braces look great!

I agree with you! I think she looks great in braces and they are really making her smile beautiful. But I understand that teenagers are self-conscious about things like that.

 

[Pudgecontrolstheweather]

Following! Looks like a great start to your trip!

 

[Beckett]

Yay! Another trip report from a mommy and daughter duo! Always happy to read your trip reports since we are also a mommy and daughter duo who love going to WDW together. Maddie has grown a lot! She is lovely, and I think she looks great with braces. I hope the rest of your trip was great!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Following! Looks like a great start to your trip!

Thank you for following along!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Yay! Another trip report from a mommy and daughter duo! Always happy to read your trip reports since we are also a mommy and daughter duo who love going to WDW together. Maddie has grown a lot! She is lovely, and I think she looks great with braces. I hope the rest of your trip was great!

Thank you so much! Yes, she really has grown up. She just turned 13 this month and I can't believe she is entering 8th grade. Time does fly. I am very thankful for Disney as it keeps the kid alive in both of us. Kids grow up so fast! Thank you for following!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 4 - Thursday, 2/25/16

I woke up with a very sore throat which isn't a good sign. Usually when I get a sore throat more symptoms tend to follow. On our way to the bus we stopped in the Ink and Paint shop for throat drops and medicine in hope that would ward off anything forming. Then we hopped on the bus to Hollywood Studios. Maddie and I arrived before opening. A lot of people were there for the Jedi Academy so it felt like we had the park to ourselves for a while. It was a beautiful day but very chilly. We wore our sweatshirts the entire day.

We rode The Great Movie Ride first (walk on). I think the small updates they made are great. I love the Wizard of Oz part of this ride the best. We had a FP+ for Toy Story. I beat Maddie again. She is so much better at video games then me but I always win on Toy Story but she usually beats me on Buzz Lightyear. We walked around the Star Wars area and I bought a drink in the BB8 mug as my throat was still bothering me. Plus we really wanted the mug.
The Star Wars Area, busy!

Next we used our FP+ for the Little Mermaid show. Maddie was getting hungry at that point so we went to Starbucks to pick up some breakfast. After our breakfast we wandered around the shops and Maddie bought herself a Plant Hollywood sweatshirt. She loves it because it is very soft, blue and has gold lettering. Our next FP+ was for the Frozen show. I don't think I laughed that hard in a long time. We had so much fun at this show. A little girl in front of us was dressed as Elsa. She was super cute and sang along to every song. Maddie and I sang along too.

I was starting to feel really ill at this point so we decided to go back to the resort to rest.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 4 - Thursday, 2/25/16, end

Maddie asked if she could walk around the resort and take some photos while I was resting. I felt she was old enough now to do this but I asked her to stay in the Little Mermaid section and to bring her cell phone.

When she came back to the room we talked and decided to go to Magic Kingdom.

Our first stop was the People Mover. We enjoyed our ride around Tomorrowland. Magic Kingdom was super busy and all of the wait times were long. We could hardly walk around Fantasy Land due to the crowd level. I asked Maddie what she wanted to do and she decided that we should go to Epcot. We walked over to the monorail and headed to Epcot.
When we arrived in Epcot we rode Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land. I was feeling extremely ill. I realized that I had a fever and cold symptoms were starting. I told Maddie that I needed to go back to the room. She felt bad for me and we got the bus back to the resort.
We had pizza for dinner at the food court. Then I took a bath, had my medicine and went to bed very early.

We actually went to 3 parks on this day. We had planned to attempt the 4 parks in one day challenge on this trip but because I got ill this was as close as we were able to get.

 

[Courtney6682]

Ughhh...it's the worst getting sick at Disney! I got pneumonia during our Jan 2016 trip and it was AWFUL! Hopefully it wasn't too bad for you

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 5 - Friday, 2/26/16

We had planned this morning to be our morning off from the parks and I am so glad we did. I just didn't feel well at all so I slept in until about 10:30. I decided to throw a load of laundry in because we had been wearing mostly jeans and capris with long sleeves due to the chill in the air. We were running out of clean cool weather clothes. I packed mostly shorts and we only wore one pair the first day. As the washer was going I got us waffles from the food court for breakfast. We just hung around the room until mid-afternoon.
Magic Kingdom was on the agenda as we had reservations for the Wishes dessert party at the Tomorrowland Terrace. We hopped on the bus around 2:00. I wanted to get there before the Festival of Fantasy Parade started. After we arrived, we walked around Main Street trying to decided on a spot to watch the parade.

Yum!

I wanted to purchase this!

The castle is so pretty!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 5 - Friday, 2/26/16, cont.

Maddie and I walked toward Liberty Square and picked a spot to watch the parade. I bought popcorn and water to share. Disney popcorn is just so good!

In 2015 we tried to catch the parade but it was delayed and we missed out. I couldn't wait to see it in real life instead of a YouTube video. I was still feeling ill but the medicine was helping to keep the fever down and the cold symptoms at bay for now.
Away we go, It's the Festival of Fantasy...

I've got a dream..

That boy he ain't ever gonna kiss the girl...

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 5 - Friday, 2/26/16, cont.

Away we go Yo-Ho

Chase the wind and touch the sky

You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream (my favorite float)

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 5 - Friday, 2/26/16, cont.

When you wish upon a star

Who's the leader of the club
That's made for you and me

The parade was outstanding. We loved every minute of it. The music is the best. I sing it in my car on the way to work all of the time!
After the parade we wanted to do some rides. We had a FP+ for Winnie the Pooh so we headed over to ride that. After Winnie the Pooh we rode the Little Mermaid, watched Philharmagic and rode Small World.
Next we used our FP+ for The Haunted Mansion.

We decided to head to Tomorrowland after the Haunted Mansion. We hopped on the People Mover and then used our last FP+ for Buzz Lightyear.
Our reservation for the Wishes Dessert party was approaching soon. We walked through the shops in Tomorrowland while we waited. It was also starting to get cold so Maddie and I each bought a much warmer sweatshirt then the lightweight ones we brought with us.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 5 - Friday, 2/26/16, end

We realized we didn't eat any dinner at this point and I didn't think it was wise to just have dessert for dinner. I have been wanting to go to Cosmic Ray's so we went there. Maddie had chicken tenders and strawberry lemonade. I had the pulled pork sandwich. The food was pretty good and satisfying. I guess we were too hungry to take photos of the food. I wanted to take some photos of the castle before the sun light was completely gone so that is what we did.
The castle at dusk

As it was getting darker we noticed people starting to line up for the dessert party. We joined the line and waited.

When the line started moving, a cast member asked me for some information and allowed us to pick where we wanted to sit. We got a spot in the front.

Maddie and I got our first plate of desserts and sat down to enjoy them. I didn't get a photo of the full buffet, ice cream station or the drink station like I had wanted because there were a lot of guests.

The cheesecake, the Mickey dome and cheese/crackers were my favorite. Maddie liked the rice krispie treat, fresh fruit and the chocolate covered strawberries. I got hot tea to drink and Maddie got hot chocolate because it was freezing at this point. I actually thought we were back home instead of Florida. It didn't help that I still wasn't feeling well. My nose wouldn't stop running. We watched the Electrical Parade (not the best view) for the first time. Then we got to see Wishes. Again, another first for us. It was beautiful and I cried. The dessert party was nice and I loved that I could sit down to watch Wishes but I'm not sure it was worth the cost. It is a one time thing in my opinion. On our way out of the park after Wishes Maddie wanted to get a candy apple. She picked out a red Minnie Mouse one. Guess she didn't have enough sugar at the dessert party.

At this point we called it a night!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Ughhh...it's the worst getting sick at Disney! I got pneumonia during our Jan 2016 trip and it was AWFUL! Hopefully it wasn't too bad for you

You are right, getting sick at Disney is the worst. I tried really hard to not let it slow me down but you will see toward the end of the trip that I couldn't fight it anymore Thanks for reading!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 6 - Saturday, 2/27/16

Neither one of us slept well so we got out of bed early and got ready for the day. Before catching the bus to Animal Kingdom we stopped at the Ink and Paint shop for more tissues, cough drops and a stronger cold medicine. I had started to develop a cough now and it was really annoying especially at night. I am afraid that I was the one that kept us up most of the night. I was trying really hard not to let this cold ruin our trip!
A beautiful day!

We arrived at Animal Kingdom just before opening but they were already letting folks into the park. We walked around the shops a little bit to check out the merchandise and then we decided to go to Starbucks for some breakfast. I also picked up the Starbucks Animal Kingdom mug since I purchased the other Starbucks park mugs our last trip but Animal Kingdom's wasn't open yet. While sipping our beverages and eating our breakfast we walked around the park a bit checking it out. Last year it was pouring rain on our Animal Kingdom day so we didn't get to take in the sights.

The Tree is just so cool!

We enjoyed our walk around. It was all so beautiful. We were able to really appreciate Animal Kingdom for the first time. We had a FP+ scheduled for the safari so we walked over that direction next.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 6 - Saturday, 2/27/16, cont.

We scored the front seat behind the driver for the safari. Last year I didn't get any photos on the safari due to the rain so please be prepared for animal photo overload. We saw so many animals this time. It was just awesome and I really loved it!
This is one of Maddie's favorite animals that we saw on the safari but the name escapes me at the moment.

Hippos

Cattle

Giraffe (my favorite)

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 6 - Saturday, 2/27/16, cont.

Giraffes

Elephants (Maddie's other favorite)

Flamingos

Cheetahs

Zebra

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Day 6 - Saturday, 2/27/16, cont.

Sleeping Lioness

Warthog

Rino

This attraction doesn't get the credit I think it deserves. I can't imagine the time and money it takes to keep this maintained as well as making all of those animals happy. In my opinion they all seem happy and are enjoying their lives. I have been to places where that isn't the case so I give props to Animal Kingdom and Disney! Next we had a FP+ for Nemo the musical which is another first for us.

This show was outstanding and we loved it. Maddie thought that this was only second to the Beauty and the Beast show in Hollywood Studios. It was nice to sit for a while and just enjoy the show. We had a FP+ for The Festival of the Lion King but when we got over there they were having technical difficulties and had to cancel the show. Maddie and I decided that we didn't need to see the show this trip because I was starting to feel really bad. We walked around a little longer and Maddie got edamame from one of the kiosks around the park. We also bought a few souvenirs from one of the shops on the way out.
Everest in the distance which we didn't ride as it is too much for us.

Monkeys

A tiger on one of the trails

This is my favorite picture from the day

We picked up lunch at the resort. Maddie got a burger and I got a make your own salad. We brought our food back to the room. I took some more medicine and attempted to take a nap.

 

[Figment Forever]

Enjoying your TR! I feel so bad for you - it stinks to be sick at Disney!! It happened to me a couple of years ago but not until the very end. I'm glad you were still able to have a good time.