This is gonna be broken up in sections, so pardon multiple postings. I typed it (erm, at work....) on MSWord to make life a little easier for me 
edit to add: I'll add photos to this giant report once I get home tonight! <3
I don't even know what to call this report. The vacation was the first in many, many years (the last being to Disneyland!) and it was just my Mom and me. We stayed at the Polynesian, traveling from Pgh International Airport to MCO.
So here goes. Get a drink, a snack, it'll be a long one....
Day One
After landing in Orlando, stop number one was Lush- as I'm a big Lush fan and the local one here in Pittsburgh... well, they know me by name and skin type at this point. So Lush was on my hit list. 5 bath bombs, facial scrub and face masks later, we were ready to head down to the DME. Upon arrival, we were 'gifted' with a Be Our Guest lunch pass for staying at the Polynesian. I was uber geeked about this because, despite trying to get reservations for BoG for dinner, I had already settled and resigned myself to lunch, and waiting over an hour for it. This pass saved a lot of time. Very happy.
The DME was pretty awesome- we stopped at the Wilderness Lodge first, then the Polynesian. My first thoughts on the Poly were "WOW"... this hotel is INCREDIBLE. My Mom has actually been to Hawaii several times and said it was similar in style and smell. She loved the place. Me too.
At the check-in counter, the girl got our reservations and everything went smooth until I whipped out the BoG card we were given at the DME. The girl had never set up reservations with the new FP+ system and had a bit of difficulty doing it. Her manager had to come over to assist her, and he wasn't quite sure how to set it up either. We had to pick what we wanted for lunch immediately and could not set the reservations without doing so. I got the quinoa salad, my Mom chose the carved turkey sandwich. After a bit more hassle for the check-in girl, we had it set for the following day at 1:15. The check in process took about 5 minutes. The FP+ ressies for BoG took a solid 15 minutes.
My first Monorail ride! EEEE!!! I want to petition the city of Pittsburgh for these. Our "T" light rail is nothing compared to the gliding beauty of the Monorail. Seriously, I was psyched over this. Loved it! I want one. In pink.
We arrived at the Magic Kingdom and were truly blown away by it. It was our first visit (!!) and it's one thing, seeing photos, hearing stories, but actually standing there? Seeing the Firefighter on Main Street? The Dapper Dans? The CASTLE?! Incredible. No words. Love.
At this point we were both hungry, and the first place we stumbled across was the Pinocchio Village House and decided that it looked very much like lunch to us. I got the caprese pizza, she had a burger and fries. Mine was delicious. Mom claims hers was "good enough that I'm no longer hungry" so take it as you will. Ten billion photos later, and we were on our way to the Haunted Mansion.
Ahhh. The Haunted Mansion. The one ride that I swore, if it went down before my trip for refurb, or immediate closing for whatever reason, I'd cancel this entire trip and rebook for Disneyland. A fan? Yeah... yeah I kinda am. However, I was rather dissapointed with it- the scrims were clearly seen all over in the cemetery scene, the lighting was pretty rough. I must have taken a good hundred photos of the HM, and of them, I got maybe 10 decent shots and that was it. The rest are black.
As much as I was looking forward to this ride, I wouldn't let myself feel dissapointed over it... but I kinda was. I still rode it 5, 6 more times during the course of our trip. I think I liked Disneyland's more!
The rest of the day was spent scuttling from attraction to attraction throughout Fantasyland new and old, Adventureland, and Frontierland.
I'm totally impressed with the outside of BoG, its incredible. But standing there snapping pictures, I was amazed to see how many families were going up and standing in line, wondering what kind of attraction it was- was it a dark ride? A coaster? A walk through? boat ride? When these families asked around them, and realized it was a restaraunt, they quickly left the line looking rather sad.
Storybook Circus is ...meh. The dueling Dumbos had a 25 minute wait, and the ride itself seemed to be only about 30 seconds. The Big Top souveniors had some cool ears and the AC was set on "Artic"... that felt nice.
We ended up at the Enchanted Tiki Room. As cute as it is, I remembered why I don't like birds (my Mom has a cockatoo, needless to say she loves them) and this attraction creeped me out. It was cute for what its worth, though.
Pirates of the Carribean was awesome, albiet a bit dark in some scenes. The mermaid effect that folks were foaming at the mouth about wasn't that spectacular and if you blinked, you missed it- I had to point it out to Mom- but it was still a neat effect regardless.
Day One at the park was wrapped up with an adorable parade, a little set from the Dapper Dans, some shopping, and the Monorail back to our resort for a midday nap. The 6:00 torch lighting ceremony was neat- we really enjoyed that little detail. We ended up back at the park, hitting a few more rides, snapping a billion more photos, and hit up a bunch of notoriously long lined rides during the nightly fireworks. Peter Pan's Flight was a 5 minute wait, and I'm glad I didn't wait longer than that
Afterwards, back to New Fantasyland- TLM ride was a walk in. In fact, there wasn't a line after we cycled through, and the CM asked if we wanted to stay on. Of Course! We cycled through two more times. By the middle of the third trip through, we had our fill, I got the photos I wanted. We called it a night, walked up Main Street, me snapping off a hundred photos, my Mom nomming on ice cream, and set out for the Poly again.
Fast forward past late night Captn' Cook's snacks, a midnight swim, a drink or two, some more swimming, and eventually sleeping, aaaaaaaand...

edit to add: I'll add photos to this giant report once I get home tonight! <3
I don't even know what to call this report. The vacation was the first in many, many years (the last being to Disneyland!) and it was just my Mom and me. We stayed at the Polynesian, traveling from Pgh International Airport to MCO.
So here goes. Get a drink, a snack, it'll be a long one....
Day One
After landing in Orlando, stop number one was Lush- as I'm a big Lush fan and the local one here in Pittsburgh... well, they know me by name and skin type at this point. So Lush was on my hit list. 5 bath bombs, facial scrub and face masks later, we were ready to head down to the DME. Upon arrival, we were 'gifted' with a Be Our Guest lunch pass for staying at the Polynesian. I was uber geeked about this because, despite trying to get reservations for BoG for dinner, I had already settled and resigned myself to lunch, and waiting over an hour for it. This pass saved a lot of time. Very happy.
The DME was pretty awesome- we stopped at the Wilderness Lodge first, then the Polynesian. My first thoughts on the Poly were "WOW"... this hotel is INCREDIBLE. My Mom has actually been to Hawaii several times and said it was similar in style and smell. She loved the place. Me too.

At the check-in counter, the girl got our reservations and everything went smooth until I whipped out the BoG card we were given at the DME. The girl had never set up reservations with the new FP+ system and had a bit of difficulty doing it. Her manager had to come over to assist her, and he wasn't quite sure how to set it up either. We had to pick what we wanted for lunch immediately and could not set the reservations without doing so. I got the quinoa salad, my Mom chose the carved turkey sandwich. After a bit more hassle for the check-in girl, we had it set for the following day at 1:15. The check in process took about 5 minutes. The FP+ ressies for BoG took a solid 15 minutes.
My first Monorail ride! EEEE!!! I want to petition the city of Pittsburgh for these. Our "T" light rail is nothing compared to the gliding beauty of the Monorail. Seriously, I was psyched over this. Loved it! I want one. In pink.
We arrived at the Magic Kingdom and were truly blown away by it. It was our first visit (!!) and it's one thing, seeing photos, hearing stories, but actually standing there? Seeing the Firefighter on Main Street? The Dapper Dans? The CASTLE?! Incredible. No words. Love.
At this point we were both hungry, and the first place we stumbled across was the Pinocchio Village House and decided that it looked very much like lunch to us. I got the caprese pizza, she had a burger and fries. Mine was delicious. Mom claims hers was "good enough that I'm no longer hungry" so take it as you will. Ten billion photos later, and we were on our way to the Haunted Mansion.
Ahhh. The Haunted Mansion. The one ride that I swore, if it went down before my trip for refurb, or immediate closing for whatever reason, I'd cancel this entire trip and rebook for Disneyland. A fan? Yeah... yeah I kinda am. However, I was rather dissapointed with it- the scrims were clearly seen all over in the cemetery scene, the lighting was pretty rough. I must have taken a good hundred photos of the HM, and of them, I got maybe 10 decent shots and that was it. The rest are black.

The rest of the day was spent scuttling from attraction to attraction throughout Fantasyland new and old, Adventureland, and Frontierland.
I'm totally impressed with the outside of BoG, its incredible. But standing there snapping pictures, I was amazed to see how many families were going up and standing in line, wondering what kind of attraction it was- was it a dark ride? A coaster? A walk through? boat ride? When these families asked around them, and realized it was a restaraunt, they quickly left the line looking rather sad.
Storybook Circus is ...meh. The dueling Dumbos had a 25 minute wait, and the ride itself seemed to be only about 30 seconds. The Big Top souveniors had some cool ears and the AC was set on "Artic"... that felt nice.

We ended up at the Enchanted Tiki Room. As cute as it is, I remembered why I don't like birds (my Mom has a cockatoo, needless to say she loves them) and this attraction creeped me out. It was cute for what its worth, though.
Pirates of the Carribean was awesome, albiet a bit dark in some scenes. The mermaid effect that folks were foaming at the mouth about wasn't that spectacular and if you blinked, you missed it- I had to point it out to Mom- but it was still a neat effect regardless.
Day One at the park was wrapped up with an adorable parade, a little set from the Dapper Dans, some shopping, and the Monorail back to our resort for a midday nap. The 6:00 torch lighting ceremony was neat- we really enjoyed that little detail. We ended up back at the park, hitting a few more rides, snapping a billion more photos, and hit up a bunch of notoriously long lined rides during the nightly fireworks. Peter Pan's Flight was a 5 minute wait, and I'm glad I didn't wait longer than that

Fast forward past late night Captn' Cook's snacks, a midnight swim, a drink or two, some more swimming, and eventually sleeping, aaaaaaaand...