My “I didn’t know this was a thing” very late March 2012 trip report!

Introductions

You may be wondering about my trip report’s title. Well, you see, I was not a regular WDW Magic user prior to this trip. I had never heard of a trip report, if you can believe it! Luckily, I took a gazillion photos, so I decided to lay it on you six months late – but better late than never, eh?

First things first! Joining us in this trip report are myself, Tracy, 23:

and my fiancé, Coda, 26:

He’s a merchant marine, so it was lucky that he was home for this trip at all!

This is our second child, Luna:

She couldn’t join us, unfortunately. She stayed with her grandparents!

This is my third trip to Disney World since 2009 and Coda’s very first! We are DVC members since 2010 – I was able to convince my fiancé that we needed to join before he had ever even been! I think it’s love!

We had originally planned this trip as our honeymoon for April 2012. Unfortunately, our wedding had to be pushed back to December 2012. But, you know me! I couldn’t let a perfectly good Disney trip go to waste! So we moved it up a month and decided to try to make the best of this Spring Break vacation!

So, without further ado, here is my “I didn’t know this was a thing,” very late March 2012 trip report!

 

[rufio]

Day One – March 9, 2012

We left our home in North Carolina around 8 in the morning, which is insanely early for my fiancé. Coda is rarely out of bed before noon during the months when he’s not on the ship. So after a cup of coffee and a stop at the gas station for energy drinks to get him through the day, we were off!

Serious driving!

The drive itself was fairly uneventful. We passed by South of the Border in South Carolina which, if you’ve never been there, is the absolute scariest place I have ever been. There are giant sombrero wearing folk with hot dogs and such all over the place amongst giant donkeys and other strange creatures. Unfortunately, I was unable to take any pictures. Mostly because I was only briefly awake.


On the way, I spotted this:

The Lord of the Rings is my other love, second only to Disney! It pretty much made my day (until we got there, of course)!

Upon entering Florida, the rain started to pour! I'm sure any of you who've been to Florida, well, ever, know about the rain!

Luckily, the rain didn’t last very long, and this was our first view of Disney World!

We made it to Saratoga Springs Resort around 6 o’clock in the evening. Not too shabby, considering Coda got us lost in some ghetto in Orlando. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been a little concerned. We checked into our room without a hitch! Our first stay as DVC members!

Our room was pretty nice, as far as rooms go. The theming was less than what I’ve come to know and love at Disney resorts, but I would have known to expect that had I been paying attention here before my visit! Still, it was a great room!

And the view was pretty awesome too!

We ended day one with a trip Downtown – a ten minute walk away!

We checked out World of Disney for a few minutes:

We passed by the Lego store:

We glanced at Ghirardelli, one of my favorite places at Downtown Disney – we came back later in the trip to have some ice cream:

Then we headed “home” to get our sleep on in preparation for our first full Disney day!

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

fabulous start!!!! Cant wait for updates! What a GORGEOUS lil pup!!!!

 

[rufio]

fabulous start!!!! Cant wait for updates! What a GORGEOUS lil pup!!!!

Thank you! Very first TR! Getting practice in for December!

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

Can

Thank you! Very first TR! Getting practice in for December!

can't wait to see December's trip report....We will be there too and are planning on a trip report of our own. Crush has set the bar high!

 

[ShookieJones]

Great start!

My wife walked in just as I was getting to the picture of that pup...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW my Goooooooooodddd.. how cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttte"
I agree...however my reaction was a bit more tempered.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Yay!!! A Trip Report! Great start...can't wait to read more!

 

[Tiggerific]

Great start! enjoying it already

 

[DizneyPryncess]

Love the trip report so far!! Lord of the Rings is another love of mine too - love that license plate. I totally would've snapped a picture of it.

Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

I'm enjoying your TR so far! And I appreciate seeing Downtown Disney photos since we never go!

Oh my goodness South of the Border is unfortunate!!! We live in Connecticut and as a kid my mom, aunt, and I would always drive to Disney. After do many trips and of course seeing millions of signs, my mother finally agreed to stop and...wow...never...again... I don't know if it was their 'off season' but NO ONE was the and I saw a spider on a souvenir tshirt Ahhh

 

[minnielaw]

Great TR so far!! Glad you decided to post it and practice for your Disney wedding TR.

Where is South of the Border? We drive from KY to FL, but we take I-75 through GA. I hear people commenting on South of the Border and just curious where in SC it is located. Sounds freakishly weird!

Love the Hobbit license plate pic!! We are a LOR family....so we appreciate the humor! Someone posted a picture once of a bumper sticker that read "You shall not pass!"

Can't wait to read more!

 

[rufio]

Can
can't wait to see December's trip report....We will be there too and are planning on a trip report of our own. Crush has set the bar high!

That he has! Not to mention all the food he managed to put away! Gah!

Great start!

My wife walked in just as I was getting to the picture of that pup...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW my Goooooooooodddd.. how cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttte"
I agree...however my reaction was a bit more tempered.

LOL! Yep, that's our girl! She's my fiance's baby!

Love the trip report so far!! Lord of the Rings is another love of mine too - love that license plate. I totally would've snapped a picture of it.

Can't wait to read the rest!

It was quite a challenge getting close enough and keeping still enough to get the picture! But determination paid off!

I'm enjoying your TR so far! And I appreciate seeing Downtown Disney photos since we never go!

Oh my goodness South of the Border is unfortunate!!! We live in Connecticut and as a kid my mom, aunt, and I would always drive to Disney. After do many trips and of course seeing millions of signs, my mother finally agreed to stop and...wow...never...again... I don't know if it was their 'off season' but NO ONE was the and I saw a spider on a souvenir tshirt Ahhh

You never go Downtown!? You should definitely check it out next time you're there!

Spiders on t-shirts? NOPE!

Great TR so far!! Glad you decided to post it and practice for your Disney wedding TR.

Where is South of the Border? We drive from KY to FL, but we take I-75 through GA. I hear people commenting on South of the Border and just curious where in SC it is located. Sounds freakishly weird!

Love the Hobbit license plate pic!! We are a LOR family....so we appreciate the humor! Someone posted a picture once of a bumper sticker that read "You shall not pass!"

Can't wait to read more!

South of the Border is just past the state line on I-95 (I think that's right). You cannot miss it! There are an insane amount of billboards!

 

[rufio]

Day Two – March 10, 2012

Our first full day at Walt Disney World started bright and early! After dragging Coda out of bed (literally – he’s really not a morning person) at the crack of dawn, we quickly got ready and headed down to the bus stop, which just happened to be right outside of our room! While we were standing there, we realized that my sunglasses were still hanging out on the table in the room! I’m not used to sunglasses because I normally wear glasses, not contacts, but I made an exception after going through Splash Mountain in 2010 without being able to see anything because of not wanting to get my glasses soaked! Coda made the mad dash for the sunglasses and then we were herded on the bus and were off to the Magic Kingdom for rope drop!

I knew that Coda’s first real Disney experience had to be the Magic Kingdom and it had to include all of the magical singing and dancing that only comes with early arrival. He was not a happy camper on the bus ride over! But once we got there and he saw the crowds and felt the excitement in the air, his mood changed almost instantly! Of course, we had to get the obligatory MK picture:

As soon as the show started, Coda pulled out his iPhone and videoed the whole thing! It was so funny to see his mood just change and watch him enjoy the show! As soon as the rope dropped, we scurried through, grabbed a map, and Coda started looking around at everything! I had told him again and again that Disney World is way bigger than he had thought, but he still hadn’t fully grasped it. We turned the corner of Main Street and saw the castle for the first time! He looked at the castle, looked at the map, looked back at the castle, looked at me, and said, “This place is huge!” I laughed and told him that yep, it is, and wait until you see the rest of the parks!

We started in Fantasyland, of course, and our first ride ended up being Winnie the Pooh! I’m still not sure how that happened…

He enjoyed it, but I think the simplicity of it may have scared him a little! He was worried that all of the rides were going to be “kiddie rides”.

Next, we made our way over to It’s a Small World. Again, maybe not the best choice for the second ride of his first Disney trip, but what can I say? I love this ride! Here he is getting ready to go in:

I think he was nervous! Overall, he really liked it a lot more than he thought he would. Still, it was just “a ride with a bunch of dolls” so I knew we had to do something more impressive.

Peter Pan it is! I don’t think anyone can resist the magic of flying over London! And he couldn’t! The whole time we were soaring around in our boat, his face was lit up and he was looking everywhere, trying to take everything in! He was sold!

I really wanted to get over to the Haunted Mansion, but Philarmagic had virtually no line, so that became the next stop. Waiting to go in:

This show always amazes me! Even if the 3D effects aren’t the latest and greatest, I love seeing all of the characters in one place, all of my favorite songs together, and Donald just cracks me up! Coda got a good laugh out of Donald’s butt sticking out of the wall at the end of the show!

After a cute little show, we were ready for lunch! We went over to Pinocchio Village Haus for lunch! We seem to have forgotten about breakfast… We both had chicken nuggets and chocolate cake (no pics, sorry). Not too shabby for our first quick service meal. After we’d eaten, Coda volunteered to run to Tomorrowland for Space Mountain fastpasses! According to my iPhone app, the line was getting pretty long.

When he got back, I figured he’d probably had enough of Fantasyland for one morning, and we headed over to Haunted Mansion. I knew he had been really looking forward to this one!

The queue was a lot of fun, as you can see (he didn’t know I was taking pictures)!

Coda LOVED Haunted Mansion! He has made it very clear that we will be returning multiple times on our Disneymoon! He thought the dancing ghosts were amazing! And he just couldn’t get over the floating head!

After that, I felt like he deserved a ride with a little more thrill! Splash Mountain it is!!! Neither of us had seen Song of the South, and he had never even heard of Brer Rabbit, but he liked the story of the ride, especially Brer Bear! And of course, we snapped a picture of our picture on the way out:

Next up was Pirates! This was another one that he was super excited about! The queue for this ride is always a lot of fun! And of course, I got a quick shot of Captain Jack.

Standing in the queue for Jungle Cruise, I got a lot of “why are you doing this to me” looks.

Going during Spring Break may not have been the best decision we’ve ever made. The line for Jungle Cruise took probably about 45 minutes, which was the longest we had stood in line at this point. And of course, even in March, it’s pretty toasty out. Up until now, we hadn’t used any fastpasses, but it became clear that they were going to become necessity. Good thing Space Mountain was already taken care of! Coda enjoyed the ride, but I don’t think he really cared for the corny jokes. I always enjoy the elephants!

On our way to Tomorrowland, we got a quick picture with the Adventureland sign:

…and caught the Dream Along with Mickey show. Even Coda couldn’t deny the magic! I love this show!

It was time to use our fastpasses and Space Mountain was our next stop! Coda loved it! He’s a thrill ride lover for sure. His only complaint was that there weren’t more rides like it! As always, the theming was amazing and Coda couldn’t get over the details, as you can see:

After Space Mountain, we were both pretty beat, and decided to head back to the hotel to get a quick nap before Downtown Disney and dinner.

 

[rufio]

Night Two – Downtown Disney

Our second night was pretty uneventful. After a nap and uploading pictures, we took the quick 10 minute walk to Downtown Disney. Dinner reservations for the night were at Planet Hollywood!

Coda had never been. Even with reservations, we had about a 20 minute wait outside with another 10 minute wait inside. Once we were actually seated, dinner was great! Good service, good food, and lots of things to look at! Again, no pics – sorry!

After dinner, we took a leisurely stroll back towards the Marketplace and the path to our hotel. There was a lot of interesting entertainment on this particular night! We saw a living statue:

And then we saw this guy:

I’m not even sure what he was doing, but there was a really strange instrument involved. It was really neat! But there was this random guy from the audience playing air guitar next to him. He got a lot of strange looks…

We also spotted another band. They were really fun to listen to!

And some young girl’s dance group thing… They were cool.

Like I said, lots of interesting entertainment downtown! So we headed back to the room to get rested up for day three – Epcot!

 

[JIMINYCR]

We saw him playing there too before. I know someone who majored in music and she studied this instrument as part of her degree

Didgeridoo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


For the Aphex Twin single, see Digeridoo (EP).

Didgeridoo

A, B and C: Three didgeridoos that were Traditionally crafted & decorated by traditional custodians of the instrument
D: Typical non-traditional Aboriginal didgeridoo made for tourist trade with non-traditional decorations
E: A didgeridoo made by non-Aboriginals in Australia, not decorated​

Brass instrument​

Classification​

• Wind
• Aerophone

Hornbostel–Sachs classification​

(Aerophone sounded by lip movement)​

Playing range​

Written range:

​

Related instruments​

Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Cornet, Bugle,
Natural trumpet, Post horn, Roman tuba, Bucina,Shofar, Conch, Lur, Baritone horn, Bronze Age Irish Horn​

​

The didgeridoo (also known as a didjeridu or didge) is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread use today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe". Musicologists classify it as a brassaerophone.[1]
There are no reliable sources stating the didgeridoo's exact age. Archaeological studies of rock art in Northern Australia suggest that the people of the Kakadu region of theNorthern Territory have been using the didgeridoo for less than 1,000 years, based on the dating of paintings on cave walls and shelters from this period.[2] A clear rock painting in Ginga Wardelirrhmeng, on the northern edge of the Arnhem Land plateau, from the freshwater period[3] shows a didgeridoo player and two songmen participating in an Ubarr Ceremony.[4]
A modern didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical, and can measure anywhere from 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 ft) long. Most are around 1.2 m (4 ft) long. Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower the pitch or key of the instrument. However, flared instruments play a higher pitch than unflared instruments of the same length.

 

[rufio]

We saw him playing there too before. I know someone who majored in music and she studied this instrument as part of her degree

Didgeridoo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


For the Aphex Twin single, see Digeridoo (EP).

Didgeridoo​

​

​

A, B and C: Three didgeridoos that were Traditionally crafted & decorated by traditional custodians of the instrument​

D: Typical non-traditional Aboriginal didgeridoo made for tourist trade with non-traditional decorations​

E: A didgeridoo made by non-Aboriginals in Australia, not decorated​

Brass instrument​

Classification

• Wind
• Aerophone

Hornbostel–Sachs classification


(Aerophone sounded by lip movement)

Playing range​

Written range:

​

Related instruments​

Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Cornet, Bugle,
Natural trumpet, Post horn, Roman tuba, Bucina,Shofar, Conch, Lur, Baritone horn, Bronze Age Irish Horn



The didgeridoo (also known as a didjeridu or didge) is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread use today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe". Musicologists classify it as a brassaerophone.[1]
There are no reliable sources stating the didgeridoo's exact age. Archaeological studies of rock art in Northern Australia suggest that the people of the Kakadu region of theNorthern Territory have been using the didgeridoo for less than 1,000 years, based on the dating of paintings on cave walls and shelters from this period.[2] A clear rock painting in Ginga Wardelirrhmeng, on the northern edge of the Arnhem Land plateau, from the freshwater period[3] shows a didgeridoo player and two songmen participating in an Ubarr Ceremony.[4]
A modern didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical, and can measure anywhere from 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 ft) long. Most are around 1.2 m (4 ft) long. Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower the pitch or key of the instrument. However, flared instruments play a higher pitch than unflared instruments of the same length.

Interesting! Thanks for the information!

 

[rufio]

Day Three – March 11, 2012

Our third day at the World was our first day at Epcot! It was my first time at the Flower and Garden Festival and, while Coda couldn’t care less about a bunch of topiaries, I couldn’t wait to take pictures of everything! Imagine my disappointment when we walked outside and saw the gloomy sky.

Nonetheless, we got on the bus to Epcot and were on our way! After a short ride, we were there and Coda saw the top of Spaceship Earth for the first time ever! YAY! As you can see, my prospects for photos weren’t too promising:

Our first ride of the day was… what other than Spaceship Earth?! As always, I was simply overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the “giant golf ball”. Coda was skeptical when he found out that it was another slow ride, but I convinced him to keep an open mind. We got into our little blue vehicles and were off! Of course, no flash photos! And I decided to wait until a later ride to take pictures (until I had mastered the low light setting on my camera). Coda was, of course, very impressed with SSE! I think it surprised even him!

Our next stop was Soarin. Coda had heard a lot about this ride (who hasn’t, really) and was very excited about it. The line wasn’t terrible, surprisingly, and we chose to take the standby line. I think it was up to about 45 minutes by the time we got there. The game screens weren’t up yet, which was kind of a bummer, not to mention, shocking. We got to the end of the first hallway and Coda was surprised to see that we had the long blue one left to go.

He was completely captivated by the ride. Even with the blips in the picture, it was amazing! But you all know that!

Up next was The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Now, I know that a lot of people are not too fond of this ride, but I love it! Perhaps it is because I never rode the original, or because I love the movie, but everything about this ride from the queue to the fish in the aquarium are amazing, in my opinion. Coda definitely agreed! He loved the ripple effects of the “butts” in the queue! And, being a mariner, the aquarium was a must-do. I’d say we spent at least an hour wandering around in there! This guy was cracking me up!

Continuing our tour of the West Side, we made our way to Journey Into Imagination. Of course, we basically walked right on. This was one that Coda was not impressed with. I can’t say I was shocked… He did kind of like the post-show though, and got a little play in.

By this time, it had started to rain. While packing, Coda refused to bring an umbrella, insisting that we did not need one! We would just take ponchos!! Well, let me be the first to tell you – ponchos do not work with glasses! Being dry isn’t very comforting when you can’t see anything. After fighting with the poncho for about fifteen minutes, I gave up and bought a crappy $10 Disney Parks umbrella. It’s broken now.

With umbrella in hand, we headed toward the World Showcase for lunch in Paris! I had a vegetable quiche and chocolate mousse, while Coda had some kind of turkey baguette thing and what he described as cake with “that crunchy stuff” in it. I have no idea what it was though… While we were there, we met Marie! Our first – and only – meet and greet! I’m definitely making it my mission to meet more “people” next time!

After lunch, we made a quick stop in Morocco, though the rain made it a very quick stop indeed…

Next was China, where Coda decided to do the pearl thing. He had actually done one the night before at DTD and was determined to find a black pearl (which he never did). It was hilarious watching him go through the motions, yelling and acting like a crazy person!

We meandered over to the Terracotta Warriors:

and then made haste to Norway where we braved Maelstrom! After a quick stop in Mexico to get out of the rain, we decided to head back to the hotel for a few hours. It was miserable out there! Our shoes were soaked and squishy and gross… But of course, we made one more stop at Spaceship Earth on the way out.

Coming up, the rest of day three!