Trip to the World with a First Timer: Sept. 8-12 Pre-Trip & Trip Report

so exactly two weeks from today i will be arriving in orlando and beginning my vacation in walt disney world! :sohappy:

this trip is more exciting than usual for me because i am going with my best friend from college and former roommate, maggie. we both graduated in 2008 from elon university (woo!). after graduation, i stayed in nc and maggie moved back to her home state of georgia. since graduating we have only seen each other once :cry: and that was actually just this past may when she returned to nc to see her brother graduate from elon.

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maggie and ashley (that's me) from the glory days of college. ahh...it's only been two years since graduating and i already miss it. good times.

so back in march maggie had mentioned that some of her friends had just returned from a vacation in wdw and they loved it. she has never been and she knows how much i love it so she asked if i would want to go with her and show her the world! ummm...did she really have to ask the question?! :lol: so immediately i kicked it into planning mode and we decided to go in september for value season and low crowds.

first we had to decide where we wanted to stay. maggie and i are both pretty frugal (i hate that word. let's say financially responsible instead) so i thought that maybe the values would be a definite for us. i had also suggested maybe doing a moderate or staying at the wilderness lodge since it is on the lower end price wise out of the deluxes. i was very pleased when maggie said she wanted to do her first trip right and we would splurge and stay at the wilderness lodge! i have never stayed here before so i am very excited to see what it's like. i also suggested that doing the dining plan might be a good idea and maggie was on board! (i love planning for someone who is so open to suggestion!) i figured that there would either be a room discount or free dining coming out after we booked the trip and sure enough, free dining came out for disney visa card holders (that would be me :D) and we got free dining. a financially responsible person's dream come true!

since this is maggie's first trip to the world, i decided to make her a "first timers guide to walt disney world" i put together a binder with information including the wdw planning dvd, free park maps, menus for the restaurants we would be eating at/considering eating at, disney trivia, park hours and a pair of minnie mouse ears! on her visit in may, we went over her binder and i showed her some shows i had on the dvr that were in wdw.

so now you know the planning process of how our trip came to be. now, on to the scheduled itinerary!

wednesday september 8th - arrival day
9:10am - i arrive at mco
9:20am - maggie arrives at mco (very nice planning!)
then we board the dme and head to the wl!
once we arrive we will have lunch at roaring fork, check out the room, hang out by the pool (weather permitting), check out the resort, etc.
3:00pm - head over to mk for our first park of the trip
TBD - dinner at a QS location TBD
9:00pm - watch wishes
head back to the resort after wishes

thursday september 9th - epcot and dhs
7:45am - head to epcot
11:30am - lunch at tutto italia for our first table service meal
1:00pm - head back to the wl for time by the pool, to relax, nap, etc.
4:00pm - head to dhs
5:50pm - dinner at sci fi dine in theater for the must see, amazing atmosphere this place has
8:30pm - see fantasmic!
head back to the wl after fantasmic!

friday september 10th - ak and epcot
7:30am - head to ak
TBD - grab breakfast at a QS TBD
1:10pm - head back to wl to get ready for dinner tonight
3:15pm - head to epcot
4:15pm - dinner at le cellier! (i have never been so i am interested to see if it lives up to the hype)
9:00pm - illuminations and then emh begin
12:00am - park closes, head back to the wl

saturday september 11th - dhs and mk
6:50am - head to dhs for morning emh
12:30pm - lunch at a QS TBD
1:30pm - head over to mk
3:00pm - watch the parade
7:00pm - head over to the contemporary for dinner
7:35pm - dinner at the wave
then show maggie the monorail resorts after dinner

sunday september 12th - dtd and departure day :cry:
8:30am - head to dtd
TBD - lunch at earl of sandwich
12:00pm - head back to wl then wait for dme to take us back to the airport
5:00pm - ashley departs from mco
5:30pm - maggie departs from mco

i am so excited for this trip and to experience seeing wdw with someone who has never been! i know i need to slow down from my normal pace and let maggie enjoy all the small things that make wdw so wonderful. its crazy, but i actually hope we have some wait times for attractions so she can see all the cool details that go into the queue.

i will be taking a ton of pictures while there and will try to post my trip report shortly after returning. thanks for reading!
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
I can't believe how long you had to wait in line to see fantasmic! We actually skipped it this time because we didn't want to wait in line. Maybe next time we'll try again. Hopefully they'll run it more by then.

Great AK pictures! I love the dinorsaur picture. But what's up with the guy riding with you? Too funny!
 

WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I can't believe how long you had to wait in line to see fantasmic! We actually skipped it this time because we didn't want to wait in line. Maybe next time we'll try again. Hopefully they'll run it more by then.

Great AK pictures! I love the dinorsaur picture. But what's up with the guy riding with you? Too funny!

i know! i can't believe that we waited that long in line but i really wanted maggie to see all the nighttime shows. i think next time i am there, i will skip it. i love the show but spending that much time in line is just crazy.

isn't the dinosaur picture great?! :lol: maggie's face cracks me up! and yea, i hope that guy was pretending and wasn't really scared. :lol:
 

WishIWasAtWDW

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Original Poster
ok, so we made it back to the resort around 1:45 and we needed to be at the bus stop at 3:15 because we had early dinner reservations at le cellier! so that didn't leave us much time to shower and get ready for our evening at epcot.

so we quickly showered, straightened our hair and made our way to the bus stop. we got to the bus stop and we literally saw 2 buses for EVERY other park other than epcot! we saw 2 magic kingdom buses, 2 hollywood studios buses, 2 animal kingdom buses...we even saw 2 downtown disney buses before we saw one epcot bus! and you can never get a bus to downtown disney! :mad: so of course when we really needed to be at the park, our bus took FOREVER to arrive. really it took 20 minutes but when you see 2 buses for every other park?! we couldn't catch a break with the epcot buses.

so we finally arrived at epcot at around 3:45 and our reservation for le cellier was at 4:15. so we made our way straight to canada. we got there, already starting to sweat, and checked in early for our reservation. while we waited we took some pictures of the beautiful canada pavilion.

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we waited outside because we really didn't realize that there was a waiting area inside. :lol: i don't know why we were so dumb but we just stood outside in some shade and sweated it out until we were called for dinner. since there was just 2 of us, we were seated in the middle of the restaurant at one of those two top tables. luckily, maggie and i weren't trying to have a romantic evening or it may have been a disappointing evening. :lol:

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now we were on the regular dining plan so we didn't get any appetizers but i was wiling to pay out of pocket for the cheddar cheese soup. well when maggie ordered her entree, it just so happened that she could get the soup as an appetizer and it would still count on the dining plan. sweet! so we got a bowl to share.
 

WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
ok, so this was my first time eating at le cellier and i had heard a lot of good...okay, GREAT things about this restaurant. i had pretty high expectations and i was very fearful that it wouldn't live up to all the hype. and then the waiter brought out the pretzel bread.....OMG! it was AMAZING! it was like eating a soft pretzel but it tasted so much better! :slurp: :D i LOVED it! we had to ask for more of it! and then the waiter brought out the soup.

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....AMAZING! oh my gosh, it was delicious. i wanted to lick the bowl. :lol:

then our dinner came out. i got the very much talked about filet but i got it with some mashed potatoes instead of the mushroom risotto.

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and can you guess? it was DELICIOUS! :slurp: i really wasn't expecting it to be so good since everyone talked it up, I was sure that it couldn't possibly meet my expectations. well it exceeded them! the steak was so good and so were the mashed potatoes.

maggie got the pan roasted chicken. who gets chicken at a steakhouse, right?! well maggie said it was the best chicken she has ever had. she said it was really really good. this meal had now become her favorite at disney. (that would change later and you will never guess at which restaurant! :lol: )

we were so stuffed for dessert, so we decided to get something that wasn't too heavy. we both went with the raspberry sorbet.

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it was also very good. nothing to write home about but it was nice and refreshing, which was what we needed after stuffing our faces.

sadly, we were done with our dinner and it was time to leave le cellier. luckily, i will get to eat there again for lunch in december! so after dinner, we started our tour around the world!

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WishIWasAtWDW

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Original Poster
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after canada, it was a quick trip through the uk and onto france where we were going to get some grand mariners. mmm...exciting.

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at first we were going to split one but then for some reason we decided we were each going to order one. well i drank all of mine no problem, but maggie took about 5 sips and then kept convincing herself that she had gotten some money's worth out of the drink. :lol: i couldn't believe it that she threw out almost her entire drink.

we were going to see the film in france but it was about a 12 minute wait until the next show and that just seemed way too long. i had seen on the times guide that marie was going to be out for pictures but we had some time to kill so we moved on to morocco.

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we had killed some time in morocco, so we walked back over to france to wait for marie. there was actually already a line forming of people waiting for marie. now i am normally not one to wait in lines for characters, but i had never seen marie before so i thought it was worthy of waiting for a picture. so i took some pictures to kill the time.

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WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
and then marie arrived! yay! i love the aristocats! such a cute movie!

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after france, we moved over to japan and then the america pavilion. the next showing of the american adventure was in about 15 minutes and i knew that it was worth the wait. so we went inside into the air conditioning and saw the show.

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it was a great show. i always get choked up at the end. tear. :lol: but there were some really obnoxious people in the theater. they were in the front row and they would clap and cheer at just about every part of the show. it was fine at first, but then it just becomes obnoxious. they had bachelor party shirts on and i am guessing had been having a good time drinking it up. i just don't think disney world is the place to be wasted. but that's just me. ok, enough with the little rant. :D

so after the american adventure, it was a little after 7. illuminations was at 9 so we knew that we didn't have much time until we would need to find seats. so we made our way over to norway to ride maelstrom. and as we were in line, guess who we saw?...no, not the bachelor party. but a bachelorette party! and i thought nothing was worse than those bachelor party people :lol: the bachelorettes had also been drinking and were in desperate need of nachos as the bride to be kept saying very loudly "i want some naaaaaachos" (but imagine me saying it really drunk, and slurring my speech) obnoxious. :lol: i was really worried that we would be stuck in a boat with them, but thank god we were in the boat in front of them.

we moved on to mexico to ride the gran fiesta tour!

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WishIWasAtWDW

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Original Poster
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after stopping in mexico, it was now time to find a seat for illuminations. we were hoping to find a bench or something comfortable to sit on but there was no such luck. we walked over to germany and found a nice spot in front of a railing where we could sit and would have a good view. so we sat and each called our families.

well we got there about 40 minutes before illuminations. and wouldn't you know it, about 10 minutes before illuminations, this guy comes and stands right next to me between me and the railing to my left. really guy? then his friend stands behind me and his lower region is basically in my face if i turn around. just wonderful. ugh. so maggie and i stand because we now realize that if we don't we are going to get crushed by people trying to stand literally on top of us. so i stand and the guy behind me has now also moved to my left. and he is touching me. like our legs and arms are touching, that is how close he is to me. well there was no way i was moving. i was there 40 minutes early! so the entire fireworks show, this guy and i look like we are boyfriend and girlfriend. ugh. it was ridiculous. and meanwhile, this family starts creeping up on maggie and the lady's are touching maggie's back. you have got to be kidding me! i don't think people understand that you don't touch people. i hate to have my space invaded and this was just awful! maggie and i just kept looking at each other like, really?! we were trying not to let them bother us but it was so hard not to get angry. so long angry rant over, maggie was able to enjoy illuminations but some of the magic was lost. here are a couple pictures from our vantage point.

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so as soon as illuminations was over, we booked it out of there so we could not have people touching us. it was extra magic hours so we went over to test track since it was closest. well i think a lot of people had that idea because it was a 30 minute wait. and a storm was coming so as we are waiting to go into the briefing room, they announce that the ride may be shut down at any time. ugh. luckily we managed to ride but it did take us about 35 minutes.

after test track we made our way over to soarin where we knew we would have to suck it up and wait in a long line. it said it would be a 35 minute wait but we thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. well the wait turned out to really be 45 minutes. awesome. :lol: so we flew over california and then we were pretty much ready to call it a night.

before we left we went on one final ride on spaceship earth. it was my turn to choose our future and there were no health choices in sight! :lol:

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we made our way out of the park at about 11:30 and only had to wait 3 minutes for a bus. we got home a little after midnight and both pretty much passed out from the long day.

i know that i was being alittle whiney in this post but we really had a good day! we had a wonderful dinner and had lots of fun. it was just hot, we were sweaty and people kept getting all up in our personal space! :lol:

tomorrow would be our last day in the park :cry: but it was a fun day with hardly any whining, i promise! :lol:
 

DAKOTADISNEY

Active Member
I'm really enjoying your trip report! You have a right to whine a little. I hate my personal space invaded too. I can't imagine pressing myself up against someone I didn't know, well maybe George Clooney. Just kidding.
 

DiPSU224

Member
Your pictures are great! They are really capturing what looks like a great time in the parks.

I hate being with the friend that is always eating healthier than I am...I think you made the better meal choices though. :lol:


well we got there about 40 minutes before illuminations. and wouldn't you know it, about 10 minutes before illuminations, this guy comes and stands right next to me between me and the railing to my left. really guy? then his friend stands behind me and his lower region is basically in my face if i turn around. just wonderful. ugh. so maggie and i stand because we now realize that if we don't we are going to get crushed by people trying to stand literally on top of us. so i stand and the guy behind me has now also moved to my left. and he is touching me. like our legs and arms are touching, that is how close he is to me. well there was no way i was moving. i was there 40 minutes early! so the entire fireworks show, this guy and i look like we are boyfriend and girlfriend. ugh. it was ridiculous. and meanwhile, this family starts creeping up on maggie and the lady's are touching maggie's back. you have got to be kidding me! i don't think people understand that you don't touch people. i hate to have my space invaded and this was just awful! maggie and i just kept looking at each other like, really?! we were trying not to let them bother us but it was so hard not to get angry. so long angry rant over, maggie was able to enjoy illuminations but some of the magic was lost. here are a couple pictures from our vantage point.

This and the comment about the little girl touching your butt cracked me up! Ugh, personal space in WDW is always invaded. I try not to let people pushing in during Illuminations and other parades ruin the magic for me, but it always gets me. Looking forward to reading about the last day!
 

WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm really enjoying your trip report! You have a right to whine a little. I hate my personal space invaded too. I can't imagine pressing myself up against someone I didn't know, well maybe George Clooney. Just kidding.

thanks dakotadisney! i am glad you are enjoying it! and personal space is a big issue for me. i don't like to be touched, especially by strangers.

Your pictures are great! They are really capturing what looks like a great time in the parks.

I hate being with the friend that is always eating healthier than I am...I think you made the better meal choices though. :lol:

This and the comment about the little girl touching your butt cracked me up! Ugh, personal space in WDW is always invaded. I try not to let people pushing in during Illuminations and other parades ruin the magic for me, but it always gets me. Looking forward to reading about the last day!

thanks dipsu224! i took so many pictures, it was hard to choose which ones to put in this trip report. maggie always makes me feel bad about not eating as healthy as she does. :lol:
 

WishIWasAtWDW

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Original Poster
Day 4: Last day in the parks – Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom

today was our last day in the parks :cry: it seems like just yesterday we were arriving in disney and now it was almost time to go home. every trip its the same thing. always goes by too quickly.

so today was extra magic hours at hollywood studios so we were up at 6:20 to be at the bus stop by 6:45 for an 8am opening. we only had to wait about 3 minutes before a bus was pulling up for dhs. sweet. so we arrived at the park at 7:15 and once we got off the bus, we realized that there was no one else at the park. and i mean no one. we walked up to where they check your bags, and the security guards weren't there. :lookaroun all the sudden i start freaking out thinking what if i got the days wrong and today wasn't an emh day. so we walk up to the turnstiles and still, no one is there. then we see a manager looking dude and he asks us if we are there for a breakfast reservation. i say no, we're hear for emh. it is emh today right?! :veryconfu and he responds oh, yea. thank god! :lol: i was really worried for a minute that we were there almost 2 hours early.

so we just hung out at the turnstiles and sure enough, more people started showing up about 10 minutes after we arrived. so we got a nice spot at the front of two turnstiles and took some pictures as we waited to be let in the park.

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a little before 8, they let us in up to the rope. and i start preparing maggie for the stampede that there will be heading towards toy story midway mania.

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i am really not a fan of the hsm3 stage in front of the hat. i know people hate the hat, but i didn't mind it. now with the stage in front, i don't care for it.

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so as we are waiting, one of the tsmm cast members comes out and announces that tsmm is currently down. he says that we can still walk to get fastpasses but that the ride won't be open right at 8. major bummer. the plan was to do standby and then get fast passes. so we change gears. when it is finally 8, we speed walk to tsmm, with a TON of people passing us like its the running of the bulls and we jump in the fastpass line. and of course the machines aren't working properly. i heard a cast member say that they left the machines on all night so they are overheating. so they have to open them up and they have to put in people's cards and give them their fastpasses. as this is going on, i realize that people are going in the standby line and they are letting people in the ride. it must be back up and running. great. :lol: so our whole plan was blown. oh well.

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after we get our fastpasses, we jump in the line. even though it says 60 minutes, we know that many people haven't entered the line. so off we go.
 

WishIWasAtWDW

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Original Poster
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we probably only waited about 10 minutes and then we were almost to the loading dock.

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once on the ride, i totally beat maggie! i shouldn't brag since it was her first time on the ride. so what were our scores?

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notice maggie is pointing out that she had a better accuracy then me! :lol: she wanted to make sure that i saw that.

so after our first go on tsmm, we head over to rock n roller coaster.

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the sign says 10 minutes but really its just us walking from the entrance to the loading area.

i love how my shoelaces and the stitching in my shoes glow under the black light.

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WishIWasAtWDW

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Original Poster
we decide to skip doing tower of terror again, and make our way to the attractions that we didn't get to do on thurs. so we go over to the back lot tour. again, no one was in line. the cast member asked if we wanted to be in the show and i quickly said no since i didn't feel like getting soaked. by the time it was time to see the preshow, more people had arrived so it wouldn't just be maggie and me on the tour.

after the backlot tour, we went to check out the hista play area. maggie really wanted to see this for some reason. so we walked in, maggie took some pictures, and we left. it was now time for our tsmm fastpasses. who won this time?!

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maggie won! and only by 500 points! that’s like one target. dang. i was kind of bummed that my score dropped this time and that maggie beat me. she still has better accuracy than me too.

we now made our way over to the magic of disney animation.

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and of course we had to get our picture with sorcerer mickey!

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we skipped getting a picture with lotso because maggie hasn’t seen toy story 3 so she didn’t even know who he is. i told her that he smells like strawberries and she said “he really does smell like strawberries” :lol:

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next it was time to go get a seat for the indiana jones stunt show. maggie really wanted to see this show so i made sure that we would go to the first showing of the day so we wouldn’t miss it. we got a seat towards the front center and we were right behind the control booth.

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i love sitting behind the control booth. i used to do this kind of thing for a living. it was for corporate events but i would sit in a control booth and be on a headset. i miss it. and the headset chatter is the best part. :lol: i find that at these disney shows when i sit behind the control booth, i pay more attention to those guys then the people in the show.

right after we saw indy, it was time to get some lunch. we wanted to go see the beauty and the beast show before we left the park so we had to hurry and grab some lunch. i decided that i really wanted a hot dog and that the backlot would be the best place to go eat. not to mention the fact that we were right there. so we let the theater clear a little and then exited the theater right into the backlot express.

here’s my naked hotdog waiting for its ketchup, fries and a strawberry parfait. the strawberry thing was a bad choice. i think maggie’s healthiness was rubbing off on me and i wish that i had gotten the cheesecake instead.

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WishIWasAtWDW

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Original Poster
maggie got the turkey sandwich, carrots and the strawberry parfait. and she said that the turkey sandwich was amazing and that it was now her favorite meal! say what?! :veryconfu she was in love with this sandwich. she is all about sandwiches and she loved this one. she kept saying what a great choice it was to pick the backlot for lunch. your welcome?! :veryconfu :lol:

so after our quick lunch, i wanted to get wes something for his birthday from the muppet store. he loves fozzie bear so i thought it would be a great present to find something for him. well i found a shirt that was left over from star wars weekend and it said “wokka wokka wookie” :lol: i thought it was cute and it was on sale since it was from star wars weekend. sweet. so i bought the shirt and we made our way over to see beauty and the beast.

we got there about 5 minutes before the show was to start and we had no problem getting seats. it was so hot though in the theater. i kept trying to fan myself with the park map. it helped for about 2 seconds and then i was sweating again. oh well.

after beauty and the beast, it was time to head over to the magic kingdom. so we went to catch a bus for the ttc and right when we got there a bus pulled up. awesome. it was so nice to be sitting in the air conditioning. ahhhh. so nice.

we got to the ttc and jumped on the monorail. i love the monorail! after a quick ride we were at the mk!

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since we had started in adventureland on our first day, we were now going to start in tomorrowland to catch some of the attractions we missed the other day. first up was space mountain. maggie said this was one of her favorite rides. so we grabbed a fastpass to use later and got in the standby line. it said a 30 minute wait but again it really wasn’t that bad.

after space, we went over to the monsters inc laugh floor.

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i think this attraction is cute. the jokes are stupid and that’s how i like them. it was funny because maggie was picked for one of the jokes at the beginning and her face was up on the screen and said “doesn’t know where she is right now” :lol: it was funny since she had never been to wdw so a lot of time she didn’t really know where she was.

after monsters inc, it was time for the parade to start. so we ran over to the hub thinking we could get a shady spot but they were all taken. so we decided to run over to liberty square. on our way over, we decided to grab a fastpass for peter pan since that ride always has a crazy wait time. we found a nice shady spot in front of the liberty tree tavern and we waited until the parade made its way to us. i just love the music from this parade!


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WishIWasAtWDW

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Original Poster
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the people next to us during the parade were so funny. there were 3 girls and 1 guy and they were probably in their late teens. they were doing some of the dance moves and then when the characters came by, they would scream that person’s name and when the character made eye contact with them, they would scream in excitement. the guy was doing it more than the girls. he kept saying “ariel! ariel! ariel!” and then she would look his way and he was start cheering that he got her attention :ROFLOL: it was very entertaining. :lol:

after the parade we walked over to do the haunted mansion again. then it was over to fantasyland to winnie the pooh. it was now time to use our peter pan fastpasses.

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i love this ride. its still one of my favorites because it reminds me so much of being a little kid.

after peter pan, we took some time to take some pictures in fantasyland as we made our way back to liberty square to see the hall of presidents.

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maggie wanted to walk through the castle, but it was blocked off since tonight was the night of joy. bummer. i was sad that maggie wouldn’t get to see all the detail but part of the mosaic was showing so we stopped to take a peak.

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WishIWasAtWDW

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we arrived in liberty square and went inside to wait for the show.

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i love watching all the presidents and seeing their subtle movements. it is really cool that they can get so many animatronics to work in sync like that.

after the hop, we made our way back to tomorrowland.

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i told maggie to act like pluto :lol:

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we decided to go see stitch. again, not a great attraction but i wanted maggie to do everything. we had some crazy screamers in the same row as us. omg they were ridiculous. you would have thought an axe murderer was running through the ride.

once we got off the ride, we noticed how much busier the park had gotten. all of the night of joy people had started arriving and it was getting really crowded. so we went to the carousel of progress to hear about that great big beautiful tomorrow! great song.
 

WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
after carousel, it seemed to be even more crowded so we decided we should probably leave the park soon. i wanted to check out toontown since i am not sure how long it will be there. so we walked through mickey and minnie’s houses and took some pictures.

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this plant in minnie’s house is so cute. she had a lot of cute plants!

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WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
i love this picture. how cute are those overalls. :lol:

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then i thought it would be fun to catch the train and ride it back to main street. once we arrived at the main street station, i just couldn’t bring myself to leave the park just yet. so we went to check out some shops first. maggie had seen a scarf she liked and i just couldn’t leave.

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maggie decided not to get the scarf, so we continued to walk through the stores. we ended up back in the confectionary and i must have been hungry because we bought some candy. the jelly bellys looked amazingly good so maggie and i both got some. i got pina colada, coconut, strawberry cheesecake and a few watermelons. :slurp: so good.

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then before i went to check out, i saw popcorn! ooo popcorn! so i got some of the caramel popcorn with almonds and cashews and i also got some kettlecorn. :slurp:
 

WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
and these are just too cute to eat. i wanted to get one but i would never want to eat it.

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after our candy shopping spree, we had about an hour and a half until our dinner reservations at the wave. since the park was getting crowded, we decided we would leave and go check out the monorail resorts before dinner. so we sadly said bye to the magic kingdom, and hopped on the ferry to the grand floridian.

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we checked out the lobby, the stores and then made our way to the monorail to ride over to the contemporary.

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i love this window display.

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we jumped on the monorail and were at the contemporary in no time. we still had some time to kill before our reservation at the wave, so we walked through the contemporary.

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maggie was the most excited about this meal because she thought the menu looked really good. she’s a health nut so the organic food seemed pretty cool to her.

it was time to check in to the wave and we didn’t have to wait long at all for our table. so we went in and waited for our server to come over. she took what seemed like forever to finally get to our table and we were ready to eat and drink. maggie and i were both extremely thirsty and we decided that we should get some alcoholic drinks. so we each ordered a diet coke, water and then i got a mojito and maggie got a pina colava.

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my collection of drinks

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WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
we ordered dinner and it took FOREVER to arrive. i think from the time we sat down at our table until the time our food arrived, it was probably 45 minutes. crazy. we discussed all the fun things we had done on our trip and started looking through some pictures we had taken. so it wasn’t too bad but we were hungry.

i got the linguini with clams and shrimp. it was pretty good.

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maggie got the apple pork tenderloin and she really enjoyed it. we were probably done with our meal about 10 minutes after receiving it. we still needed to get dessert and we knew that if we didn’t order right away, then it would be another 20 minutes before we saw our server. so when she came to get the plates we asked her for a dessert menu and told her we knew what we wanted. so she waited there while we quickly looked at the menu and picked the sorbets. so we didn’t have to wait as long to get our dessert.

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the strawberry and the coconut were good but the lemon was awful. it was so lemony that it was difficult to eat, so i didn’t. :lol:

once our waitress arrived again, we quickly asked for the check. this was our longest meal. i think it took us about 2 hours to get out of there. all the other restaurants we were right around an hour. so this was kind of crazy. but it was a nice final dinner at disney. sad that the service was so slow but the server was nice at least.

so earlier at the mk, i was looking for dog toys because i felt like i needed to bring my dog a toy home since i had been away for so long. so i asked a cast member in the emporium if they had any dog toys. he said no but he knew where i could find them. if i went to the ttc they had a gift shop that had some. so after dinner we rode the monorail to the ttc and went to check out this gift shop. of course it was closed. bummer. but we could see inside the store since and we didn’t see any dog toys. none. thanks guy who didn’t know what he was talking about. so with a minor detour to the ttc, we got on the ferry and rode it back to the mk so we could take the ferry back to the wl.

it was kind of cool because the night of joy music was playing so we got to hear some of the christian rock. its actually very enjoyable. i kept singing the one line from the song over and over on the way back to the wl.

we got to the wl around 10 and went to the room really quick to drop off our stuff and get our refillable mugs. we had talked at dinner about what the game plan was for tomorrow. originally, we were going to go to dtd, do some shopping and eat at the earl of sandwich. well i started to think about it, and i really didn’t want to be rushed trying to get to and from dtd and still manage to catch dme. so we thought, why don’t we just hang out at the resort, sit by the pool and go check out the polynesian since we didn’t get to see that resort yet. so that was the new plan.

we had an 11am check out but i knew that you could get a 1pm check out if you asked. since our dme time wasn’t until 1:45, the 1 o’clock time would work out really well so we would have time to shower after sitting by the pool. so we stopped by the front desk and we were able to change our check out time with no problem. sweet.

we decided that we wanted to check out the gift shop and get some last minute gifts. so we ventured over to the gift shop and we literally spent almost an hour and a half in the store! :eek: and guess what they had in the store?! dog toys! they also had the bag i bought my mom, a pair of boxers i bought wes, and a scarf i had bought for myself! just about everything i bought out in the parks and lugged around was right there in the gift shop at the wl! smart, ashley. real smart. so on my trip in december, i have decided that the first thing i am going to do is check out the gift shop and take a mental inventory of everything i might want to get, so i don’t have to purchase anything in the parks if i don’t have to.

so we got back to the room a little before midnight and began packing. i hate packing up from a disney trip. its just so sad. :cry: but i wanted to get almost all of my packing done tonight and not save it for tomorrow or i would be a mess trying to fit everything in my suitcase. i have already decided that in december i am bringing my bigger suitcase! :lol:

so after we packed, we were in bed at around 12:45. tomorrow would be our last day in disney. :cry:
 

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