Trip Report The Stalker Surfaces - A First Report for a Long Time Creeper Feb 2019!

Hello everyone!

My name is Annie and I am your friendly undercover WDW Magic Trip Report Stalker. I feel as though I know so many of you personally, as I have read SO MANY trip reports over the years. I travel for work, and often on these travels I find myself passing the time on the boards.

In my childhood, my family was of the "yearly vacation at Disney" sort until I went away for college:
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(some things never change!)

I spent a lot of time during my college years and early professional life dreaming of my return to the World. In 2015, I finally became an annual passholder when I started a new job at a medical school here in Maine and began to travel the country (and Central Florida) quit a bit for conferences, events, etc. I have had MANY Disney World trips paid for by the University over the past few years, as well as fun ones with my friends and family!

I was prompted to write this report by my fiance, who suggested that I repay the favor of all you fine folks sharing your Disney adventures. So.. here we go!

When: February 1, 2019 - February 9, 2019

Who: Me (Annie) and my fiance (Ian)
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Where: Polynesian Village Resort (renting DVC)

Why: Celebrating our ENGAGEMENT! Ian proposed one month prior to our trip after 6.5 years! We survived long distance, civilian service for the Navy separating us, and much more that made us feel deserving of a treat!
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I went to get my nails done with my future sister-in-law this night directly after work. I waited until the very last minute because I wanted my nails looking as fresh as possible the following Tuesday for our engagement photo session on the grounds of the Poly-Grand :inlove: Fun fact: Ian has a twin brother and his wife is who I went with. People like to joke about how I know what my future children will look like based on his and his wife's (she favors me and I her).

This brings us to our next stop. Before I headed home post nail appointment, I had an important question to ask my nephew:
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(he said YES! lol.. the dollar helped :hilarious:)

Once I had solidified my ring security for the big day, I headed home to my future hubby who had only just started packing UGH. I had been packed for nearly two weeks, but that is beside the point. My annoyance with his lack of packing motivation quickly turned to thoughts of "I can't believe I get to marry this man" when he handed me these upon my arrival:
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Day 1: Friday, February 1, 2019
We live on the southern seacoast of Maine, so we are fortunate to live near a decent sized airport in Portland BUT I wanted a flight that would get us to Orlando ASAP. So naturally, I got us up on our first day of vacation at 2 AM to get to the bus station for our ride into Boston for our 6 AM flight. WORTH IT. Or.. not? We ended up delayed nearly two hours. How will we deal with the disappointment?

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BREAKFAST PIZZA! And not pizza that has eggs and sausage.. actual pizza just eaten in the morning :hilarious:

Ian is NOT hugely a morning person, mostly because most days at home he either wakes up for work at 3 AM or works overnights. I told him I found the perfect snack for him:
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Luckily, after almost 7 years he knows to expect this kind of behavior from me! As a side note: during this delay we were dealing with some drama back home. My older sister is getting married in the same year as me which is THIS ONE 2019 (her in June in Colorado and me in October in Maine). Isn't it interesting how some fun aspects of our loved ones personalities shine through during wedding planning? Ian had to keep reminding that we were on vacation and to deal with the drama upon our return but not a minute sooner!

We finally boarded around 8:30 AM and no sooner had we sat down, then Ian had already fallen asleep
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That's right fella, rest up for the mouse!!

We had a very uneventful ride down, and soon we were taking a fonorail ride to our next destination and hopping on the DME!
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(my sister made me the Future Mrs ears for the trip and I got so many compliments on them!)

To be continued...
 

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myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady
Premium Member
Following along and glad you decided to post your trip, looks wonderful! Somehow I believe we follow each other on Insta so it's so nice to read the report along with your engagement and Disney pics!
 

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Following along and glad you decided to post your trip, looks wonderful! Somehow I believe we follow each other on Insta so it's so nice to read the report along with your engagement and Disney pics!
Thank you!! And yes we do! I would relate it to the fact that I have read ALL of your trip reports :hilarious:
you're a great storyteller!
 

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day one continued..

I can't believe I did not mention this in my intro! This was Ian's first trip to WDW. We have spent plenty of time together at DLR, as he has been stationed at the San Diego Naval Shipyard often, but I needed to finally introduce him to the place where my heart belonged.

ANYWAY. We received our room text en route to the Poly, so upon arrival we got our leis and Happily Ever After buttons. These buttons prompted many fun conversations with couples and individuals all week..... for me LOL. Ian is the sweetest man I know, but he is not of the social sort!
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We were in Moorea, so after briefly consulting the map, we made our way over to freshen up and drop off our backpacks.
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On my work trips and family trips, I have only stayed in values and moderates so I was going picture CRAZY in the room. Though Ian has not been to WDW with me previously, he has been with me for many years and did not blink at my running around taking room photos. We sat on our balcony for awhile and discussed our evening plans. I had kept Ian largely in the dark about my plans, as overplanning stresses him out and gives ME LIFE. We were doing a Disney first for me, Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue! My family had done Backyard BBQ many times, so I was excited for a new adventure!

We jumped on a boat to take a leisurely ride over
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Naturally, I forgot to bring the tickets I picked up at check-in. I was losing my mind as we were cutting it close for our early dinner. Ian kept telling me that it would be fine and we would figure it out but I was having a mini meltdown about not having enough time to pick them up at Pioneer Hall. As the planner, it can be easy to get overwhelmed when plans don't go exactly right. That's why Ian is perfect for me, he REALLY balances me out.

We had a comfortable and breezy ride over and I pointed out some fun things to Ian along the way
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Soon we had arrived, and as you probably guessed, with plenty of time! We stopped to get some Photopass pictures done


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It was during our wait for the doors to open that we had our first of many conversations about our engagement with an older couple. The husband actually had served in the Navy, so his wife and I had a great chat about holding down the fort while our men are away for long periods of time.

Soon the doors opened up and we were quickly seated in Category 2 in great seats. The cornbread and salad came out quickly, along with my sangria! To be honest, I was so excited about the sangria and was a bit disappointed. I think it tasted a little chemical? It was truly the only thing off about my whole experience so I won't linger on it!

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To be continued..
 

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day one continued...

We love theater and live shows, so Ian and I really enjoyed the antics and music.. and the FOOD. We each had more than our fair share, which was much needed after a long day of travel.

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Our favorite part was this gentleman pulled up on stage in the wings. He was such a good sport and we were laughing so hard along with the entire hall!

We saved room for dessert and washboard playing of course!

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As things started wrapping up, we were first to leave the theater to quickly get on a boat back to the Poly.

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We had plans! We decided to check out the hot tub before watching HEA from the Poly beach. This was the BEST way to end day one.


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I got very emotional during the show. I was in my favorite place on earth, with my best friend and future husband, and life couldn't be better. We both worked very hard over the past year to get us to this very moment and it felt amazing to finally get there.

I could not walk back to Moorea without a treat, so we stopped quickly at Captain Cook's to get a treat before returning to our room and watching some Stacey before hitting the hay.

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We had breakfast plans for the morning! Stay tuned.

To be continued...
 

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2: Saturday, February 2, 2019

Today started my routine of shutting off alarm, telling Ian to get in the shower, and taking a stroll to Captain Cook's to fill up our mugs. We are terrible at adulting and do not drink coffee or tea - so Diet soda is our wake up beverage! Whatever works, right?

The fog was starting to burn off, making way for a beautiful day

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We got ourselves prepared for breakfast at no other than 'Ohana! I was excited to be able to just stroll through the resort to get to our breakfast destination, and Ian was just plain hungry. We checked in about 10 minutes prior to our 7:30 AM reservation and took a seat to wait our turn.

There are always bound to be some interesting interactions at WDW, and this trip provided plenty. As we were waiting for breakfast, going through our pictures from last night and discussing plans for the day, a couple around our age came up and asked about our buttons. We told them we were given them at check-in to celebrate our engagement. The girl looked at me and said "Yeah good strategy to get as much free stuff as you want" um....... :oops: okay? My objective in having us wear the buttons was simple: remind ourselves what we have to celebrate and maybe encourage some fun conversations with people we meet. This girl then asked how much money I'd sell it to her for. GOOD GRIEF.

Thankfully we were brought to our seats shortly after this exchange, and to great ones at that!

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I warned Ian not to fill up on the delicious bread and fruit, as more was to come. We certainly got our fill of pog juice as well! :hungry:

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We were on the dining plan, so I decided to kick my vacation off with some breakfast heat! (and I do mean HEAT, these Bloody Marys have some serious spice to them)

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We were nearly done when the characters starting making their rounds. From our sweatshirts, can you guess where we were headed this morning?

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Stitch was so impressed by my engagement ring that he nearly passed out! :hilarious:

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This was such a fun interaction! I think this was Ian's first character experience that he got to see how engaging they can be. We had met plenty together at DLR, but nothing like this! I also think the constant attention and swooning over my ring all week made him feel really good, as he truly spent so much time deliberating on it!


Did you guess where we were going from here?

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If this is where your mind went to, YOU ARE CORRECT!

Ian loves animals, so I planned to start our trip at Animal Kingdom. I would say that by the end of the trip, AK ranked 2nd for him after MK. He really felt in love with the magic :inlove:

We stopped first to get some photos in our matching sweatshirts (The photopass CMs had to keep reminding me to stand on the correct side as to properly be read as "Hakuna Matata" rather than "Matata Hakuna" LOL)

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Getting pictures this morning was a test of strength and patience.. mostly on Ian's part. I have spent a great deal of time at WDW and have seen how manners seem to fly out the window, but this was relatively new for Ian. As we waited in a short line for the above photo, a family (from I believe Brazil) was staked out directly in the Photopass shot with their selfie sticks (of course!!) and would not move. No matter how many times the CM kindly asked them to shift over a bit, they ignored him. I truly do not think this was a language barrier issue but a lack of respect. I told Ian he had to learn to go with the flow with these things because this was only the beginning!!

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Note the loss of my cute sweatshirt? It was getting HOT!

To be continued...
 

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day two continued..

Our FPs for the day were not until after 10 AM, as I was unsure how long breakfast would take. So, let's take in some other attractions while we can! Ian was ready to see the TOL up close and personal - so why not try out IABL?!

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It was fun to be with somebody who had NO idea what any experience was going to look like in this park. Will he handle this show better than the small children typically do?

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He jumped up in his seat when our bug friends joined us and then laughed at himself for getting spooked! I loved his reaction. We headed back out into the ever growing heat of the morning and started moseying our way through the park for another non FP adventure.

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(Such a goofball)

We probably waited about 20 minutes for Dinosaur. Ian immediately proclaimed that Indy at DLR was better. Well okay then! Time for our first FP, Everest! Here is where we discovered that Ian's natural ride face features a calm and unimpressed demeanor. It cracked me up!

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("On a rollercoaster, who ME?")

Maybe live animals will impress him more? FP #2 time!

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We had a great safari. Well.. apart from a grown man asking how Disney made so many lifelike "animal robots" for this ride :rolleyes:

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(So lifelike!!)

When planning this, I knew that each day would include a mid day break back to the Poly for us. Personally, I could go all day - but this was not just MY vacation (bummer). I also wanted Ian to really fall in love with Disney World, and I knew if he was tired and cranky he would associate those feelings with WDW. So after our safari, we made our way out of the park to the buses.

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(Not sure this is the best look for Ian!)

As we were not having our room serviced until almost the end of our trip, I was adamant that Ian not sleep on the bed I had just made that morning. Foreshadowing or our marriage?!

He got great use out of the murphy bed for a nap while I took some notes and caught up with my parents. I am very close with my mom and dad, as I am the only remaining child of 3 who still lives in New England (my older sister is in Denver and my younger brother is in Chicago). My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer this past September and I sent her lots of pictures every day to keep her spirits up. My mom tagged along with me in 2017 to Coronado Springs for a week long conference and she fell back in love with WDW! I can't wait until we can come back again together!

The comfy murphy!
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We eventually freshened up to head back to AK - we had some food and a FOP FP to get to!!

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(me and everyone interested in taking a picture with me LOL)

To be continued...
 

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annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day two continued...

We loved our location at Moorea. We were close to the water, steps away from the monorail and a short walk to the buses. It was also very quiet and calm there! We had better luck with buses this trip than monorail rides, funny enough.

We grabbed some necessary treats before we left:


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We waited probably less than 5 minutes for our ride back to AK. We had a quick mission before our Flight of Passage FP - FOOD! We stuffed ourselves silly at breakfast, and this was the point at which we were finally hungry again. I led us to an item I had seen on Instagram quite a bit - pulled pork mac & cheese from Flame Tree BBQ!

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SO YUM! I seriously loved this so much, as did Ian. After we finished he looked at me very seriously and said "I don't care what we have to do to make it happen, but I need this again before we go home" HAHA you got it buddy.

We caught up with some friends on our way out. We were excited to see Dug because we were already missing our dog Gus! My parents were having a blast at home spoiling our dood, but we missed him anyway.

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They were excited about our engagement too! Russell cracks me up in this picture. Time to head to Pandora!!

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We quickly made our way over to ride FOP and cash in on these FPs. Ian was impressed with the area and theme, even mentioning that he couldn't believe we were in a theme park! As usual, the loading zone took forever but soon we were in flight! As we walked off the ride and through the exit I kept watching Ian's face for a reaction and he was very quiet. Eventually, almost 5 minutes later he exclaims "THAT WAS THE BEST RIDE EVER HOLY MOLY" finally!! thank you!! I was relieved because I was ready to end the whole thing right then and there :hilarious:

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We got a picture taken to commemorate the experience

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Rain was in the forecast and we were starting to feel droplets come down. It was time to decide our plan of action. Ian was VERY stressed because he had forgotten to bring any of his dozens of pairs of sunglasses (see what procrastination brings?!) and was worried about going another day without them. This made up our minds to hit Disney Springs. I had no scheduled plans to go to DS this trip. On many work trips in the past DS has been my only option so I had had my fill. Oh well, time to show Ian the craziness!

When we arrived at DS it was an absolute DOWNPOUR. We did not have umbrellas. We did not have raincoats. We would just have to figure it out and run fast. We grabbed a map to find the Oakley store (this man of mine couldn't bear to buy and wear a cheap pair for the week). He found a pair he was happy with and we used my AP discount to soften the blow.

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(insert: I wear my sunglasses at night)

We were feeling ready for some dessert, so it was time to make good use of our snack credits!

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Yum!!

To be continued...
 

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
End of day 2...

I have to own up to a couple of my own purchases I made at DS. Almost all of my Christmas gifts were Disney gift cards and they were burning a hole in my pocket

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I think I made some solid choices! The rest of the evening does not feature any photos because the rain was MADNESS. We managed to make it back to the Poly eventually and crashed almost immediately. We had plans to rope drop DHS the next day!

Day 3 Sunday, February 3, 2019..

Super Bowl Sunday!! Ian is a big football fan. He actually won $25,000 a few months before this on a $10 bet on Draft Kings. He is lucky like that - minimal effort for maximum gain. He told me that much of the winnings went toward paying off the ring LOL. He had no requirements to watch at any point because he was excited to be with me at Disney, and for that I was grateful.

We sleepily made our was to the bus to rope drop at DHS! I had managed to score FPs for Slinky Dog Dash, so we weren't too disappointed when the bus took forever to arrive. We were a little tired

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Once we arrived and made the long trek into the park, we joined the crowds headed for Toy Story Land. I wanted to see it in the daylight, so TSM would be our rope drop attraction. Let's do this!

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Oof! Ian kicked my sorry behind. He crushes me at these things, and likes to remind me about beating me almost every time on Buzz at DLR :rolleyes:

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After that sorry performance, it was time for a well rounded breakfast

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A Mickey pretzel and plastic cheese is what I dream about when I am home.. drooling right now!

On to some thrills and chills. We had a FP for TOT and decided to single rider RNR. This part of the park was still nice and quiet.

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This is when I discovered that Ian MUCH preferred to take a selfie. He had no problem with my picture taking, but he was not totally comfortable with the Photopass CMs. I still pushed for it, but I tried to be more sporadic!

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(Ian smiling away like the bottom didn't just drop out of our broken elevator!!)

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(Selfie for our next ride instead of PP)

To be continued...
 

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