Our Birthday Celebration Trip Report!! April/May 2011

So here I am, sitting here writing my very first trip report after my visit to the world. Let's start of with the cast of characters that embarked on this vacation.
First there's me.

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I'm Darolyn, 28 years old. I've been to WDW 22 times now. My parents took me on my first trip when I was months old and we returned evey year until I was in 7th grade. After that, my parents separated and it was harder for us to go every year. Since 7th grade, I have been 10 times. In 2001, my Mom purchased a timeshare at Vistana. She only purchased it for every other year, thinking that as we grew older we wouldn't want to go to Disney as much.... boy was she wrong! lol We still enjoy Disney as much as we ever have! So much in fact, she is thinking of upgrading to every year. This does mean we will never be able to take our weeklong vacations and stay on property, but not worrying about saving money for the hotel is a plus for us. So we'll take the timeshare :)
Speaking of Mom, here she is.

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Her name is Terryn and she turned "29 again" the day we arrived in Florida. This was her 23rd trip to the World. Her first time going to WDW was when she took me when I was a baby. She loves it just as much as we do. She not really into the "thrill rides" but I will give her credit as this year she did go on some rides she normally wouldn't (mostly at Universal) so kudos to Mama :)
Then there's my sister:

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Her name is Ashley and she is 25. This was her 19th trip to the world. She has a few less visits than me due to the fact she is A - younger and B - She didn't join us on our Thanksgiving trips in 2001 and 2010.
We had a week full of great food, fun meet and greets, beautiful weather, low crowds, short wait times, thrills, smiles and laughter. So sit back, relax, pop open a beverage or two and enjoy reliving our trip to Walt Disney World :)

***Friday April 29, 2011***
After work on Friday, we were heading down to my aunts house in Rhode Island to fly out of Providence Saturday morning. Why Providence you ask? Well, we have 4 different airports to choose from up here.. We have Portland Jetport, which is a mile from our house but didnt have anything less than $300 roundtrip. UGH!... We also have family right outside Manchester, NH so Manchester is an option as well (but Southwest was even more expensive than anything out of Portland) We also have Boston, but that would require a bus ride and a hotel stay the night before since we wanted a very early AM flight and they were still about the same price as Portland.... But Providence had a GREAT rate of $167 roundtrip with good connection times. Plus we have family in Rhode Island who we dont get to see all that often so we'd get to spend some time with them and we were willing to spend 3 hours down and 3 hours back to save $133 each! :) So at 7pm we hopped into the car for a 3 hour car ride to Rhode Island.. Oh, with a stop at Sonic along the way :) The closest Sonic to us happens to be right outside Boston on the way to my aunts, a little over an hour from our house. So of course, we had to make a stop! We got to my aunts around 10:30pm and immediately went to bed as we had to be at the airport by 5:15 the next morning. So my sister and I climbed into the futon and got as much sleep as one can possibly get the night before leaving for WDW :)

***Saturday April 30 2011***Mama's Birthday***
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DHS - continued....

Sorry for the delay folks but we're back in business now!!

Now, where were we.... Oh yes, waiting for the extras to be chosen for Indy. Well, I guess it was a lucky day again because I was chosen for the show!! Wooo hoooo!!!! I was in the last group (with the "unsuspecting tourist" in the bright pink shirt lol)

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The show was the same... Indy saves the day again!! HOORAY!!! After Indy, we headed back down the Streets of America to Muppet Vision 3D! We LOVe the Muppets and this show never gets old. Everything seemed to be in working order, so that was a plus!

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Being silly.

After the Muppets, we shopped around in the Muppet store. It was getting close to check in time for lunch at my 2nd favorite place on property... 50's Prime Time Cafe!!! I know it receives a lot of mixed reviews, but we've always had a great experience there. We're picky eaters so we like to stick with places that we know and only recently (the past 3 or 4 trips or so) have we begun getting into the "Disney Food Craze" and actually enjoying several sit down meals a trip. Before that, we were content with counter service. (We have 5 sit down meals planned for our 5 night trip in November and looking at 12-13 for our 10 night trip in the spring!) But I digress....

Ashley started off her meal on the right foot with a Magical Star Cocktail. DELISH! I can't tell you how many of these glow cubes we have at the house lol

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I got a chocolate milkshake (normally I would have gotten a cocktail but for some reason after seeing my cousins milkshake he got there in November, I wanted to try one) There wasn't a need for me to look at the menu. I always get the same thing. The pot roast! SOOOO. GOOD! Probably one of the best meals I've ever had. Sometimes I feel like I should try something different but I just can't tear myself away from the pot roast.

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Ashley ordered the pot roast as well, but she said this one was a close second to the one at Whispering Canyon... (Hmmm, maybe I'll have to give that a whirl next time we go there since I got the skillet this time around.) Mama got the meatloaf and she enjoyed it very much.

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We had Cousin Amy as our waitress and she was funny. She made us set the table and told us to get off our "walkie talkie thingys" She also rewarded us as we ALL finished out meals. So we got Clean Plate Club stickers! YEAH!!! Honestly, this meal and my fillet at Le Cellier are the only times I ever clean my plate conpletely.

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Clean Plate Club!

As we were leaving lunch, Countdown to Fun was winding it's way in front of the Chinese Theater. We're actually never stopped to watch any of the parades at DHS and from what I hear about this particular one, we're not missing much. But it is Pixar and my sister loves Ratatouille and who did we spot coming around the corner but the rat himself.... REMY!

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We watched a little bit of the parade and it was ok. It wasn't HORRIBLE by any means but we probably wouldn't ever sit on the curb and wait an hour for it. But afterwards, as we headed to the back of the Studios, I couldn't get that freakin song outta my head!! "I don't wanna work, I wanna bang on the drum all day..." Great, now it's gonna be stuck in my head again... GRRRRRR!!!!

Anywho, we headed to the Backlot Tour. Oh how I miss Residential Street :( 2 of my favorite shows when I was younger were Adventures in Wonderland and The Golden Girls (oh who am I kidding, I STILL love the Golden Girls) and my favorite part was seeing their houses up close and in person.

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That tour def needs an overhaul or they need to get rid of it completely. I miss the actual working studio and seeing where they filmed the Mickey Mouse Club (another of my favorites) There's so much they could do with that area, like make another family friendly ride to get some of the strain of TSM! Oh well, wishful thinking right? lol

Up next: Margaritas and 13 stories of fear!
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We headed over to Lights, Motors, Action to see the show. I actually really like this show. I like the action of the car chases and yeah, it's the same every time but think about it... So is almost EVERY other ride you go on, show or parade you see.... Always the same. I don't get why all the hate for it?

After the show, we decided some drinks were on the agenda so we stopped at the little drink place by the BackLot Tour and I got a maragarita and Ashley got a beer. Don't remember what Mama had.

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More sillyness.

After our drinks, we headed down Sunset Blvd to hit up RNRC and ToT. We had FP RNRC so we cashed in on those. As luck would have it, we scored the very back seat! And lemme tell ya'... the back is the best!! RNRC never gets old!! After that, we went out to find Mama sitting on the curb waiting for us. They were letting in for the first showing of Fantasmic and we had planned on waiting for the 2nd one but suddenly I had an idea... We despised waiting in the long pathway, hot and crushed the other day... So we walked over to where the CM was talking just outside the entrance to walk up to the ampitheater. I asked him if they were letting people all the way up to sit down. He told me yes they were... Well, that did it, we weren't gonna wait for the 2nd show and stand when we could go up and sit now. We made our way up to the ampitheater and sat down. Our seats weren't too bad but it did end up standing room only. I decided I was hungry so Ashley and I went up and got some food. I got a hot dog and I think she got some popcorn and soon, we were lost in Mickey's imagination. Fantasmic really is an amazing show. I was super pumped we got to see if twice on this trip. I think in the future we will try and book the F! Dinner Package so we can just get reserved seating. Seems a little bit easier.

After F!, we meandered outside and the park would be closing in about 30 mins. Everyone who saw the first F! show was heading for the exit and everyone else was in line for the 2nd show. We saw the wait for ToT was only about 15 mins, so Ashley and I hopped in line. This queue is awesome, and even more awesome at night, in an eerie way. lol

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Holding on for dear life.

We got done and Mama told us we had time to ride once more so we hopped in line again and pretty much walked right up to the library. What a great way to end the night!!

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Looking scared!

We headed down Sunset to the exit. Goodbye DHS (or as we still call it MGM) See ya next time!! We walked to the tram and soon were in the car heading back to the hotel. We were tired, but we also only had one more day left in the world.. Booooo!! So sad....

Up next: Some monkeying around at Animal Kingdom
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Great update! Looks like a good time at 50's PT. I agree with you on Back Lot Tour. It's dissapointing.

Sounds like a great evening at MGM though. We also enjoy Fastasmic!

Looking forward to AK stories. :)
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We woke up bright and early to pack the stuff we hadn't packed the night before and to load up the car. Today was our last day at the World. *cue the tears now* waaahhhh!!!! That night, we would be going down to Tampa to catch a flight home in the AM. But first - We still had a full day of AK ahead of us!! I know AK gets some mixed reviews, but we love this park. I think the themeing and attention to details here are second to none. We always manage to fill a full day here. And while we usually like to have MK be the last park on our visit, it just didn't work out that way on this trip. (DHS was actually going to be the last park and we were going to fly home Saturday but a snafu with the airline had us change to come home Sunday so we bumped AK to Saturday...)

OK, onward!! We had the car packed up and ready to go by 8:30 and we were on our way. Bye bye Village at Vacation Parkway!! We really enjoyed our stay there and wouldn't hesitate to switch our stays in the future there if our home resort isn't available. We pulled into the AK parking lot and saw they had part of it blocked off for some sort of event. Come to find out it was a marathon of some sorts taking place either that night or the next day, I don't remember which. We hopped on the tram cruised towards the gate and soon we were bound for KS!! I resisted taking pics on this first one because I wanted to just enjoy the ride. It was great, as always. After KS, we decided to take the train over to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Something new for all of us.

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While we were over there we met Jiminy Cricket and Rafiki!

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The sun is terrible in this one..

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Just monkeyin' around

We went outside to the petting zoo and saw some goats. I know, I know... they're just goats. But I'm an animal lover so I thought they were super cute!

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After the petting zoo, we meandered back to catch the train back to the "mainland" as my mama kept calling it (even though we never crossed any water and we weren't on an island? I dunno... lol) We picked up FP for KS for later in the afternoon and then proceeded to Kusifari for some tasty treats!!

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I got the Zebra Cupcake, Mama got the elephant cupcake and Ashley got the Brownie paw which I actually wish I had gotten. She said it was sooooo yummy!! I definitely didn't finish mine but we ate as much as we could and then decided to head over to Asia and Dinoland!
 

jenseib

Well-Known Member
You've been an updating fool! LOL! I love it though.
Thos cupcakes looks so good. I keep saying I am going to get one and haven't yet. I guess if I ate all I wanted to at the parks, I would mostly each junk. :ROFLOL:
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
As we made our way over through Asia to DinoLand, we stopped to greet a familiar friend...

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PLUTO!!

We also saw Divine.. It took my sister a couple minutes to spot her. Definitely cool stuff!

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We rode Dinosaur and I have to admit, it's scary. lol I have NEVER been able to keep my eyes open when that blasted Dino attacks at the end. And I try. Every. Time!! lol... Maybe next time! We walked over to EE and got some FP for later. When we were walking back to ITTBAB, we passed the Pooh meet and greet area. Since we missed Eeyore at the CP breakfast, i asked the CM if Eeyore would be down there when they came back out. She told me it was possible. They would be out in like 5 minutes so my Mama used the bathroom right near there and we waited. I love Eeyore and was totally bummed we missed him at the CP..

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Waiting outside the bathrooms...

When they opened up the line, we were the first people to venture down to meet the gang from the Hundred Acre Wood. When we got down there though, no Eeyore... Awwww. Oh well... Even though we had already met Tigger and Pooh (TWICE! Once in England @ Epcot and once @ CP) we decided to take our pic with them again. Different backgrounds.

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Pooh was comparing their red shirts lol

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Kisses from Tigg!

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Tigger wanted Mama to get in the picture too! lol

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We always seem to have good luck with Tigger's.. they're always fun and playful. After leaving the M&G, we decided to finally head over to ITTBAB...
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
AK Continued...

ITTBAB is a cute show, though it's no Philharmagic or MuppetVision. Hopper was in full working mode today so that was a plus!

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Being silly while waiting

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After the show, we were hungry, so we stopped at Restauranosaurus on the way over to Dinosaur. I got the chicken nuggets and Ashley got the burger which she loaded with stuff from the toppings bar - very Tom Bricker like!

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After that, it was off to bring the dino back to the modern day! Dinosaur is one of my fav rides at AK. One of my favorite ride at Disney in general. Since there were 3 of us, my sister and mother told me I had to sit on the end, and then an empty seat and then the two of them on the other side of the row. A few years ago when one of the dinos jumped out, I got startled and turned to the side and my elbow went flying up, hitting my sister right in the nose. She ended up getting a bloody nose and through the rest of the ride, I searched my purse for a napkin but the only thing I could find was a receipt. Somehow with all the bumping along, she only got a little drop of blood on her skirt but that's it. We laugh about it now but at the time, it was awful. I felt so bad. I also almost passed out from seeing all the blood.... ugh!

Anywho, we rode on Dinosaur and no one got injured this time so it was a good time. Here's our picture from the ride:

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Not sure I'd look good with orange hair...
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As we were walking past the Pooh and friends M&G area, who should hear is down there now? EEYORE!!!! We had to go see him so we headed down, again...

Awwww, how can you not love him?!?
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Hugs!!
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Up next: The rest of AK and departure day.. Boooo......
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
When we were leaving the meet and greet, apparently it was their time to leave, too. So Tigger decided to have some little fun with Eeyore while they were walking up. He ran up behind him and kicked him in the bottom.. It was funny.

Running to catch up....
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Silly Tigger!!
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After that, we decided to head over to KS to use our FP. We had never been on during the afternoon so we didn't expect many animals to be out, but there were quite a few. I didn't take any pictures this time and I just wanted to enjoy the ride. As we exited, MJJP was just finishing up.

Hey Mickey! Hey Mickey!! (Great, now I have that one hit wonder stuck in my head... "Oh Mickey you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind...)
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Ashley and I had FP's to use for EE so we headed over to cash in on those. First a Tree of Life photo (or an attempt at one!)
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When we got over to EE, we realized we had 3 (Mom didn't want to go on) So on the way in, the guy gave us an extra one so we could both go again! YAY!! It's those little things that make me love Disney!

Journying up the Forbidden Mountain... Ahhh!!!
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If you look to the right, you can see the Swan and Dolphin as well as Spaceship Earth. To the left you can see The Contemporary and you can barely make out Space Mountain right on the edge...
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fractal

Well-Known Member
Wow! You gave your sister a bloody nose on Dinosaur? I can imagine some small kid waiting outside hesitant to go on the ride; the parents telling him that he'll be fine and nothing is real - then your sister walks out with a bludgeon nose. :eek:

That Restaurantasurous burger looks awesome. I'm glad I got to eat there as well.

I love the pictures from EE!- especially the one looking back and down, it's a bit vertigo inducing but a great pic nonetheless.
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
I also love AK even though lots of people on here don't. In fact, we have planned to be there 2 days (ok, at least 1 1/2 days) on our upcoming trip.

You're Dinosaur story was funny. We are still trying to decide if our kids will enjoy riding it, or if it needs to be skipped this trip.

Those cupcakes looked delicious. Might have to try one of those this trip!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
That Dinosaur story cracked me up!! Oh my word! You would scare anyone who was waiting to board! :lol:

Great report! I hope you hear back from the entertainment department!! :sohappy:
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wow! You gave your sister a bloody nose on Dinosaur? I can imagine some small kid waiting outside hesitant to go on the ride; the parents telling him that he'll be fine and nothing is real - then your sister walks out with a bludgeon nose. :eek:

That Restaurantasurous burger looks awesome. I'm glad I got to eat there as well.

I love the pictures from EE!- especially the one looking back and down, it's a bit vertigo inducing but a great pic nonetheless.

Yeah, I felt sooo bad afterwards. But at least now we get a good laugh while waiting in line. I thik on this trip my sister even suggested I ride in another car alone where I couldn't give anyone battle scars :lol:

I also love AK even though lots of people on here don't. In fact, we have planned to be there 2 days (ok, at least 1 1/2 days) on our upcoming trip.

You're Dinosaur story was funny. We are still trying to decide if our kids will enjoy riding it, or if it needs to be skipped this trip.

Those cupcakes looked delicious. Might have to try one of those this trip!

I really do love AK as well. We're animal people. I could spend so much time just walking around the paths there and looking at the birds and animals. It's so serene there!!

My cousin went on Dinosaur when he was 5 I think, maybe 6 and he came off it crying his little eyes out... Not that I blame him. Dinosaur still scares me and I'm 28 years old!! :lol:

And yes, if you like baked goods, definitely try a cupcake. They are delicious!! Very filling though so I think when we go next month we're gonna share 2 of them!

That Dinosaur story cracked me up!! Oh my word! You would scare anyone who was waiting to board! :lol:

Great report! I hope you hear back from the entertainment department!! :sohappy:

I remember certain things I've seen at the World and I wonder if my sister's incident left a memory on anyone... lol.. Like someone who witnessed it gets in line for Dinosaur and said "Oh I remember this one time we were waiting for this..." and tells the story of my sister coming off the ride gushing blood... Ugh!

Haven;t heard back from them yet. After arly November I can audition again. They have auditions every week so I believe it's super hard to get in! Fingers are still crossed though!! :)
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After EE we headed back over to meet Mama at Camp Minnie Mickey to see Festival of The Lion King before heading out...

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(The red bird looked like a guy my sister and I know back home)

FOTLK is my favorite show on property. My sister and I just went to see The Lion King 3D Friday night and I haven't watched it in so long. Now I remember why it was one of my favorites. I love the music from the movie and the show at AK is FANTASTIC!!

We still had a little while before the park closed so I bought a Mickey premium bar (I think I had like 5 this trip.. YIKES!!) We saw that the character greeting trails didn't have very long lines so we figured what better way to close out our trip to WDW than with some meet and greets...

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Goofy wouldn't show me any love cause I had a Mickey ice cream bar.. Now, I expect this kind of behavior from Donal.. but Goofy?!? lol.. Good thing I finished eating the ice cream by the time we got to Donald!!

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Hugs for Donald!!

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Love Minnie! <3

The line for Mickey was too long so as much as we hoped for him to be our last character, it wasn't to be. So we met this guy instead before exiting the park...

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I can never remember his name....??

With a little sadness in our step, we headed out, taking in the sights of AK for the last time.... Well, not really the last time, but for the last time for (at the time we thought) a year and a half. We hopped on the highway, stopped for gas and headed down to Tampa. We headed right for dinner at Bahama Breeze. We dont have any of these restaurants up here in Maine (We actually in the past year and a half just got a Cracker Barrell!) so whenever we're in Tampa, we like to hit up Bahama Breeze. Their drinks are good as is their food. It was around 9pm when we finished up so despite having a couple friends in Tampa I wanted to meet up with, we decided to call it a night. We had a 7:50am flight the next morning and were all exhausted from the fun filled week we'd had. We hit the hay around 10am and the next morning, headed to the Tampa airport, turned in the car and made our way to the gate to wait for our flight. Apparently we decided to pass the time waiting by snapping some pics...

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Ashley and Horton

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A tribute to my favorite hockey player!! Me and Horton (and my "Horton hears a Woooo" shirt that I mentioned waaaaay back on our Universal/Islands of Adventure day.)

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Horton and Figment. They became good friends throughout the trip. Horton now sits on top of my tv at home and Figment is one of my sister's dogs favorite play toys.

We had an uneventful flight home with one quick stop in Philly. We all expressed our disappointment in having to wait until November 2012 to go back so a couple days after we got home we decided to bump our Nov 2012 trip up to the spring of 2012 and take a long weekend in November of this year... Wooo hoooo!! So in 37 days we will be heading back to the World for some MVMCP, Christmas decorations and our first deluxe resort!! Can't wait!! I've already posted my pre-trip report so check it out! Thanks for following along. I hope I didn't put you to sleep!! lol
 

lbrad

Well-Known Member
GREAT TR!!!
Looks like you all had a fabulous time!!!

So glad you got to see Eeyore ... love him

I'll keep my eye out for your next trip & report ... I can't keep up :lol:
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
GREAT TR!!!
Looks like you all had a fabulous time!!!

So glad you got to see Eeyore ... love him

I'll keep my eye out for your next trip & report ... I can't keep up :lol:

We definitely had a blast! Probably my favorite trip to date :)

I love Eeyore too. I felt like we were destined to miss him the whole trip so I'm glad we found him!

Next trip commences in 8 days so a TR will follow as soon as I get home... I'll work on getting it finished quicker than I did this one :rolleyes: lol
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Great trip report! We will be right behind you! Staying at Pop 11/28 - 12/2!

:wave: Hope you guys have a blast! You'll just miss those big Thanksgiving crowds!! WHEW!! :lol:

I'm keeping up with your marathon TR and I mut say it's definitely giving me motivation in my half training!! :)
 

snookie5605

Member
it is so funny reading your trip report because it sounds like me. i am 27 and have been to disney world maybe 22 times my entire life because we own at vistana too, the one in lake buena vista! we have the every other week too! but ever since 2007 when i got married and honeymooned in disney, we have been staying on disney property not vistana. you do save money at vistana but you cant beat actually waking up on disney property every day! im only on the second day but going back to read more! love it!
 

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