Two girls, taking on the World! A January 2012 Trip Report

Well, here we are again! For those unfamiliar, I’m Ashley and this is probably my 10th trip to WDW. This trip begins with some jealousy from my bff. When I went to WDW last year with my other friend, Christa, Lauren let me know immediately that we would have to plan a trip for ourselves. No problem there! I love to do the planning, so once I got home, I started sketching out plans for January 2012. I put everything together and decided on POFQ for our resort, since I had always wanted to stay there. When August came around, we booked the package with free dining and made all our ADRs.

In a flash, the holidays were over and we were ready to depart! Testing out my new memory card on my sideyard:

Goodbye cold, cold NJ, we were on to Florida!

We were leaving on Monday from a smaller airport that only runs select flights to MCO, so we didn’t have much choice about what time we left. But, I was able to go to work for almost a full day, picked up Miss Lauren and we were at Lehigh Valley International within an hour after leaving home. That’s about the same time it would have taken us to get to Newark, but since Allentown is so small, it’s way faster to get through security and much less harrowing. I’ll take that any day!

We checked our bags, went through security and were at the gate within 10 minutes! Great timing, except for the fact that our flight didn’t leave for almost 2 hours. Oh well, better early than late, right?

Finally, we boarded and took off exactly on time. After our first monorail trip at the airport, we found the DME lines (totally empty!) and hopped on the bus! It was really, really tough not to skip the entire way through the airport to the bus, but I managed to hold it together.

Excited to be on the Magical Express!!!

I'd rather not admit exactly how many pictures we had to take, trying to figure out why the picture was so dark. You know the flash usually works better when your hand ISN'T covering it! Duuuhhhhh! Finally figured that out...

It had been a long day...

We were the second stop and hauled our luggage to the reception desk. Since we got into MCO at about 8:30, we thought we’d just pick up our own bags instead of waiting for them to be delivered. It was super quick and we were both glad to have all of our things with us. We ended up in building 4, which is about as close as we could have gotten to the bus stop and the main building!!! Wooooo!!! I don’t know why, maybe we were just too darn excited, but we didn’t bother to look for the elevator and just dragged our bags up to the second floor. We had the most beautiful room on a corner, overlooking a courtyard with a fountain.

Love it!

The giddiness of actually being in WDW was too much for us to handle, so we decided to explore a bit. We checked out the gift shop, the bar, which was jammed because of the LSU/Alabama game, and the food court. I was a little worried about how many people were milling around, since I purposely book trips during the slow season so that we don’t have to deal with major crowds, but who could worry about that now? WE WERE IN DISNEY WORLD!!!:sohappy::sohappy:

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

:sohappy: I'm on board! Can't wait to read about the rest!

 

[Blueskyze]

We just stayed at POFQ, in a room by that same courtyard! I loved it, it was so pretty to walk outside every morning and see that. Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

 

[Ariel484]

This sounds super fun! Love the POFQ pictures, the room looks really pretty...all those windows! POFQ is definitely on my list if we decide to try a moderate in the future.

I'm with you on picking up luggage yourself at MCO. We've never had a problem getting it delivered, but it's nice to have it in hand, knowing that all of your stuff is with you right away, and you don't have to wonder when it will get there, if you'll get a knock on the door late at night...even if it means you're getting to Disney a few minutes later, crazy as that sounds :lol:

Can't wait for more! :sohappy:

 

[enchanted_belle]

I'm on board as well! BFF trips are always the best!

 

[plaz10]

Awesome start. I'm in love with POFQ and I've never been there. It's on my list for (hopefully) Sept. but I'll probably end up doing a value to say cash. [Siiiigh]

Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[HopLow]

:sohappy: I'm on board! Can't wait to read about the rest!

Yay! I was having trouble getting started writing this report, but I figured that if I could just get the first post up, I'd be more motivated to write the rest. Welcome aboard!

We just stayed at POFQ, in a room by that same courtyard! I loved it, it was so pretty to walk outside every morning and see that. Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

Isn't it??? We were really lucky to have such a view. I never thought the view would matter that much, but I absolutely loved walking outside every morning and seeing it. I was a little worried since this was my first time at POFQ, but the grounds were incredible and I felt very "at home" there.

This sounds super fun! Love the POFQ pictures, the room looks really pretty...all those windows! POFQ is definitely on my list if we decide to try a moderate in the future.

I'm with you on picking up luggage yourself at MCO. We've never had a problem getting it delivered, but it's nice to have it in hand, knowing that all of your stuff is with you right away, and you don't have to wonder when it will get there, if you'll get a knock on the door late at night...even if it means you're getting to Disney a few minutes later, crazy as that sounds :lol:

Can't wait for more! :sohappy:

Thanks! POFQ is a tie for favorite after this trip. I loved the corner shutters in our room and the room didn't feel like it was really any smaller than a room in a deluxe.

I feel like we really lucked out picking up our luggage ourselves. Usually we leave at the crack of dawn, so we would let DME just deliver during the day. But I don't know if airports in the Northeast are crazy slow or what, because I've never had my luggage come off the plane that fast! We literally waited less than 5 minutes to pick it up.

I'm on board as well! BFF trips are always the best!

Yes they are! Especially with Lauren and I because we've spent a lot of time traveling together, so we are well aware of how good we are at being roommates. I love all my friends, but there are only a couple that I could do a trip with. We had a great time together!

Awesome start. I'm in love with POFQ and I've never been there. It's on my list for (hopefully) Sept. but I'll probably end up doing a value to say cash. [Siiiigh]

Can't wait to read the rest!

Thanks!! You never know, maybe they will come out with some super-awesome discount for the fall... Lauren and I were both really happy with the resort as a whole. When we do our next trip, I'm sure we'll stay there again.

 

[HopLow]

When we got back to the room, I jumped in the shower, then crashed. I get up for work at 5:30 am, so the early morning, plus a full day at work, the stress of traveling and the excitement of arriving at one of my favorite places on earth was all completely exhausting. I was asleep around 10 pm, but Lauren was still up, drinking a glass of wine and reading. I warned her beforehand that I like to get up and out early, since the January park hours mean that we don’t usually get a full evening in the parks, but she didn’t look in too much of a hurry to get to sleep… Little did she know how bouncy and obnoxious I would be in the morning…

I woke up a few times and finally jumped out of bed at 7:30. Who can sleep in at Walt Disney World??? I definitely cannot. But I didn’t want to “wake the monster,” so I tried to be as quiet as possible. Lauren woke up anyway and wasn’t too horribly crabby, even though she hadn’t slept well at all. We were both too excited to get out there!

Totally gorgeous:

And so we didn't forget where we lived:

We headed to the bus stop (about a minute walk from our room!) for EMH at Epcot. Generally, I like to start and end my WDW trips at the MK, but we had lunch ADRs at the Captain’s Grille, so I thought a morning at Epcot would be more practical. Again, the crowds at our bus stop had me worried. At home, I have to deal with rush hour traffic and hordes of people on a daily basis, so I definitely don’t want to be in that kind of environment when I’m on vacation. Once upon a time, we would go to WDW in Jan/Feb and the parks would be EMPTY! When I was young, I actually remember being disappointed there weren’t any lines at any of the rides, because it felt so weird, like this place had been made to accommodate people, but they were all eerily missing. Needless to say, nowadays empty parks are no longer a problem no matter what time of year you visit. It was only two days after the marathon, so I figured maybe a lot of people just decided to stick around afterward.

POFQ, being the wonderful resort that it is, only has the one bus stop and we all made it onto the bus. Before we left for the trip, I had told Lauren about Photopass and to say she was excited about it is an understatement. Last year, it was like pulling teeth to get a picture with Christa. This year was the polar opposite, as every time Lauren saw a photographer, she screamed, “PHOTOPASS!” and ran to them! Obviously, we had to stop for our first picture in front of Spaceship Earth. I haven’t ordered any yet, but when I do, I’ll try to remember to post them. We were pretty happy with how most of them came out and some of our interactions with the photographers were hilarious. Our Epcot photographer sassed us when I asked for a card (“You want Visa? Mastercard?”), but we eventually got our card and headed toward SSE for our first ride of the trip.

I could barely contain my excitement. I get this feeling on the first day, like my insides are going to burst! It was sooooo hard not to sprint into the park, but we made it without running anyone over. After our ride, we realized we hadn’t eaten anything yet, so we went to Sunshine Seasons for some breakfast.

Now, I am from Jersey and we know our Italian pastries. Don’t try to pass off some sweetened piece of cardboard as a danish. I’ll be ed. But my cheese danish was excellent!!! I was really impressed. Lauren got a chocolate chip muffin and we sat outside and absorbed the wonderful sunshine and 80 degree weather. Ahhhh…

 

[tiaragirl]

Awesome report so far, Ashley! I love girls trips - can't wait to see what kind of trouble you guys get up to!

 

[HopLow]

Nemo was our post breakfast ride and obviously we had to take some pictures with some fishies.

Lala:

And me. Yes, I was wearing my super fancy, sequin Chucks. Be jealous.

After we wandered around the aquarium for a bit, we hit Imagination, and then grabbed some FPs for Test Track. They were only for an hour away, so we headed toward Universe of Energy in the meantime and we arrived exactly at the beginning of the video - perfect timing! Now, Lauren is a huge Seinfeld fan, but I am not. However, Kramer as the caveman discovering fire cracks me up every time. When I looked over at Lauren, she had her eyes closed! Uh oh, naptime? After the ride, she said the movie and the screens made her a little motion sick. Well, that scratches Soarin’ then!

We exited at the precise time our FPs were ready and we basically walked right up to the briefing room. TT is one of those rides that I could take or leave when I think about it, but totally love after I ride. I don’t know if I don’t remember it clearly or what, but both Lauren and I screamed our heads off and wanted to ride again. I’m nervous to see how the changes will be after the ride is redone…

At this point, it was about 11:20, so we strolled toward World Showcase, since our ADR at Captain’s Grille was at noon. And this is what we saw.

What is up with that??? I thought they would have had the Christmas stuff down the day after the marathon, but nope! It was actually a little annoying that it was still there. It seemed like Christmas was years ago and it was just odd to both of us that everything was still up. Even the roping, bows and lights were still up around Canada. Ugh. I mean, I love Christmas, but give it up man. It’s over. Accept it.

We browsed in the UK shops and we both loved some plaid scarves. I don’t like to buy anything right off the bat, so it went on my list to come back to later after I had seen some more merchandise. We left the UK and made our way to the Yacht Club. It was actually getting a little too hot for our outfits at this point, so we made a mental note to take off the long sleeved shirts after lunch.

We were a little early, but they seated us immediately. The place was empty!! Uh oh… That’s not a good sign, is it? Maybe everyone was just out enjoying the beautiful day and didn’t want to sit down and eat inside? Well, I had a roast beef sandwich with sautéed onions and watercress, with orzo salad on the side. It was delicious!!! A little heavy for the weather, but yummy nonetheless. Lauren had the lobster sliders, which were also amazing (we are good at sharing food). My turtle cheesecake was ok and her angel food cake was a little weird. There was lavender on top. Is lavender edible?? Either way, our sandwiches were excellent and I was happy our gamble worked out.

 

[HopLow]

Awesome report so far, Ashley! I love girls trips - can't wait to see what kind of trouble you guys get up to!

Thank you!!! We had so, so much fun! We are going to try and make annual trips from now on. We already have plans for the Alaskan cruise, the Food and Wine Festival, as well as any in between trips we might fit in!

 

[HopLow]

After lunch, we walked down the dock to take the boat back to Epcot. It was so beautiful outside, we wanted to soak up the sun, but we really should have explored the resorts a little.

This was my first time at the Yacht Club, but we were still high on our “first day” excitement, so back to the parks we went. We walked back through to get the monorail to the MK. We had been in WDW for about 18 hours and still hadn’t set foot in my favorite park!! I felt the excitement building again as the monorail got closer and closer… Even my ouchie feet in my snazzy sneakers didn’t bother me too much.

Love the cute topiaries!!

Finally we were there!! We literally skipped through the gates to get to Main Street. Again, what is up with the Christmas decorations?? And the Christmas music? I tried not to let it irritate me too much.

We tracked down another PhotoPass photographer and we got to do the Tink picture! I think that’s going to be on my “to buy” list when I eventually get around to actually ordering pictures.

 

[HopLow]

As per my usual, we headed left toward Adventureland. For whatever reason, I like to go left in the parks (Adventureland, Mexico, Africa, etc) :shrug:

It was pretty crowded, but not unmanageable. We headed to POTC for our first MK ride. The line was to the turnstiles, but it was only about a 15 minute wait.

The ol' ball and chain

Since BTMRR was closed, next was Splash!

This was my first time riding in 9 years!!! Actually, the last time I rode it was with Lauren too. We went to WDW together with my parents in 2003, and since all of my trips since then have been in January, Splash was always closed for refurb. So even though I was bummed BTM was closed, I was super excited to ride Splash again! I suggested FP, but Lauren wanted to do standby (for whatever reason, because the FP time was for an hour from then), which was 30 minutes. There was no skipping, but we were super obnoxious. At least we can recognize when we’re hyper and we tried not to bother anyone else too much…

Of course Splash was awesome and we sang and danced along with the music. HM was next, since Fantasyland was MOBBED! I wanted to try the new queue, and we had fun playing with all the new features. I tried not to think about how many people before me had touched these things…

Love him!

We ventured back to Fantasyland to hit IASW and Philharmagic. La grabbed some cotton candy (calories don’t count on vacation, right?) and we headed to Tomorrowland. We got FPs for Space Mountain and we went to save the universe from the evil Zurg. Afterwards, we took a relaxing spin on the Peoplemover,

and then it was time for Space Mountain. Our on-ride picture came out hysterical, but since we couldn’t add it to our Photopass, I didn’t buy it. It’s actually a shame, because it was one of the best from the trip, but I didn’t want to commit to buying things so early in the vacation. Oh well. Suggestion for Guest Relations…

I like to have my first night, MK dinner at Cosmic Ray’s. The patio has such a wonderful view of the castle and I like to be able to eat outside after being cooped up in the middle of winter. Tonight was even prettier because the icicles were still on the castle. I know, I know, I was complaining about the Christmas decorations. But icicle lights are my exception. They just look so fairytale-ish!!

(sorry for the poor quality - this is from my phone)

Lauren and I both had bacon cheeseburgers with fries and mango gelato for dessert. I was excited about the gelato, but since it was the sugar free option, it had that slightly too sweet, fake taste. Regardless, it was pretty good and a nice option over the traditional chocolate cake.

After dinner, we stalked another Photopass guy and got some pictures with the icicle-laden castle in the background. Although the castle was obviously gorgeous, these turned out to be my least favorite Photopass pics from the trip. We just looked exhausted by this point. Usually, I like to have afternoon downtime in the hotel, but we were just too excited that day to leave the parks. We browsed a few shops on Main Street and waited for the MMY and Wishes. Both amazing, as usual. I am a fan of MMY and I think it compliments Wishes really well. The park was closing, so we headed off to find our bus back to the resort.

 

[Kristia]

Hey fellow Jerseyan! Just started your trip report. Great start so far! Keep it coming :sohappy:

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Great TR so far!!

I love all the Christmas decorations but it seems like they wait awhile to take them down.... I'm not sure why, but I do know some cultures celebrate Christmas in Janaury. My friend is Serbian and their Christmas was mid January I believe so maybe that's why? :shrug:

Can't wait to read some more!! Looks like you ladies are having a blast!!

 

[enchanted_belle]

I love how relaxing the Peoplemover is! Sigh, can't wait to be on it...

is it bad that I kinda wish the icicles will still be on when I go down on the 13th?

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Oh! Now see all the pics I've seen of the corner rooms at POFQ had king beds in them which totally marks 'em off the list for my family. Seriously. It was like just a week or so ago that I was wistfully looking at the corner room pics and thinking, "Why no queens? I'd love to have a corner room!" Now it's back on the list! Love POFQ! Of all the resorts I've stayed at from value to deluxe I still can say with complete certainty that POFQ is the best bang for the accommodation buck. The refreshed rooms are da bomb!

Lovin' a girls trip! Awesome!

Captain's Grille. We had breakfast there twice and LOVED it both times. I wish we'd done dinner here our last night instead of going back to the Yachtsman even if the Yachtsman was mostly at no cost to us that night. I wanted to try a different meal here so bad to see if the awesome-level of breakfast carried to other meals. I really do think the Captain's Grille is a hidden gem. I thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly because it was never mobbed or a magnet for utter chaos. Gotta love a little getaway from the hub-bub.

See?! I'm not the only person who thinks they keep the Christmas decorations up waaaaay too long. Doesn't it just come off as not-right? There's nothing wrong with Christmas decorations and Disney does them pretty nicely but that late in January it's just so out of place. Yeah, I get that. Wish they did! LOL!

Can't wait for more! :wave:

 

[HopLow]

Hey fellow Jerseyan! Just started your trip report. Great start so far! Keep it coming :sohappy:

Yeah, Jerz!!! Thanks!

Great TR so far!!

I love all the Christmas decorations but it seems like they wait awhile to take them down.... I'm not sure why, but I do know some cultures celebrate Christmas in Janaury. My friend is Serbian and their Christmas was mid January I believe so maybe that's why? :shrug:

Can't wait to read some more!! Looks like you ladies are having a blast!!

We did have a blast. We are good at being together, but knowing when to quit so we don't get on each other's nerves.

What annoyed me about the Christmas decorations is that you know that they could take them all down overnight if they wanted to. They just didn't. And IMHO, Christmas decorations should come down after New Year's. By the time we got to WDW, it was over two weeks since Christmas day. Too long!!

I love how relaxing the Peoplemover is! Sigh, can't wait to be on it...

is it bad that I kinda wish the icicles will still be on when I go down on the 13th?

I think they should make the icicles permanent. You could always just turn them off if you didn't need/want them. And the scrims aren't that obtrusive in the daytime. But what do I know??

Loooooooove the Peoplemover! It's so nice to take a break. And I always forget how zippy it gets! It does really kind of take off, and you can especially feel it if you're sitting backwards.

Oh! Now see all the pics I've seen of the corner rooms at POFQ had king beds in them which totally marks 'em off the list for my family. Seriously. It was like just a week or so ago that I was wistfully looking at the corner room pics and thinking, "Why no queens? I'd love to have a corner room!" Now it's back on the list! Love POFQ! Of all the resorts I've stayed at from value to deluxe I still can say with complete certainty that POFQ is the best bang for the accommodation buck. The refreshed rooms are da bomb!

Lovin' a girls trip! Awesome!

Captain's Grille. We had breakfast there twice and LOVED it both times. I wish we'd done dinner here our last night instead of going back to the Yachtsman even if the Yachtsman was mostly at no cost to us that night. I wanted to try a different meal here so bad to see if the awesome-level of breakfast carried to other meals. I really do think the Captain's Grille is a hidden gem. I thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly because it was never mobbed or a magnet for utter chaos. Gotta love a little getaway from the hub-bub.

See?! I'm not the only person who thinks they keep the Christmas decorations up waaaaay too long. Doesn't it just come off as not-right? There's nothing wrong with Christmas decorations and Disney does them pretty nicely but that late in January it's just so out of place. Yeah, I get that. Wish they did! LOL!

Can't wait for more! :wave:

Thanks, Kelly! I completely fell in love with POFQ! Which was really surprising to me, because despite it's problems, the Poly is always number one for me. But the ambiance of the grounds and the size and condition of the rooms had POFQ knocking on the Poly's door for favorite... Lauren and I both agreed that we will definitely stay there again on our next trip!

I was actually reassured about our ADRs at the Captain's Grille after reading your TR. I was a little nervous about the emptyness of the dining room, but I agree with you - hidden gem!

I will try and get more up tonight, but my laptop decided to get a virus. I worked on it yesterday, but we'll see how it goes when I try to post tonight...

Thanks for all the lovely comments!!:wave:

 

[HopLow]

The next morning, I was up obnoxiously early again. I can’t help it, I get too excited to sleep in! The least I could do was pick up breakfast, so after I got ready, I ran down to Sassagoula to fill my mug with some coffee before I got a raging headache, and also ordered some beignets. I had heard a lot about them, so it was on my Must Try list for this trip. Fresh out of the fryer, I carried them back up to the room to wake Lauren up with their delicious scent. Oh my!!! And delicious they were! It was like funnel cake, except 10 times more awesome! I have a major sweet tooth, so I would be totally ok with eating these for breakfast for the rest of my life.

Luckily, Lauren woke up and wasn’t too cranky, even though she had another bad night’s sleep. I blamed the soda, since she’s pretty sensitive to caffeine and doesn’t drink much when we’re at home. Note for the evening: No tea, no soda!

Since there was rain in the forecast, we changed our plans a bit. Originally, I thought we’d go to Animal Kingdom. But since there aren’t as many places to hide out from the rain, we switched to Hollywood Studios. I knew Lauren would love TSMM (we are both pretty competitive), so we had to get there as close to opening as possible. We were on the bus by 8:45. Not too bad!

Of course, first stop was Photopass. Then, we zipped on over to get FPs for TSMM and then to get in the standby line. Our FPs were for 11:05 (not bad at all!) and the posted wait time was only 30 minutes.

I asked Lauren where she wanted her picture taken. She thought next to Jail was the most appropriate :lol:

I don't know why, but this is always my favorite part of the queue:

When we got to the bottom of the stairs, the CM let us up the FP line!! Our 30 minute wait ended up being only 20! By the end of the ride we were exhausted! But we loved it and couldn’t wait to ride again later.

Me on the left. Booyah!!! :sohappy:

Last time, I missed the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and since Ariel is Lauren’s favorite, we had to see it this time. We basically walked right into the theater – the timing worked out great. It was a cute show and of course there was some singing along going on next to me.

Outside, we stopped at the shop with all the princess merch and Lauren got a cute hair tie with little shiny Mickeys all over it. I really wanted to do the drawing class again, so we went over to the Animation building. Our timing was not so great – we got there about 5 minutes after the class went in. So we hung out, looked at some pieces in the shop and then went back to get in line. My Mickey came out pretty good, I think.

 

[HopLow]

By this time, our FPs were ready. So we went back over to Pixar Place and instead of going through the Fast Pass line, the CM let us go the handicapped route and we literally walked right on the ride!!!!! I’m pretty sure we caught some dirty looks from everyone in the long, long standby line. Oh well!!

After two intense TSMM rides, we were starving. We were also feeling really out of shape since our arms were now sore after two rounds? Sad. Anyway, La wanted a turkey leg, so we headed on over to Fairfax Fare, where I had a hot dog with truffle mac and cheese on it. It sounded way better than it actually was.

However, Lauren was really happy with her turkey leg, so not a total loss.

We were sitting under cover, however the forecasted rain decided to make an appearance. I yanked my poncho out of my bag and we wandered toward the back of the park, eventually landing at MuppetVision. I love that show – it’s hysterical! I think Sam Eagle’s my favorite: “It’s a tribute to all nations, but mostly America.” :ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

When we got out of the theater, we were in gridlock. The rain was coming down even harder, but whatever. We were prepared. It was also still moderately warm out, so not a big deal. Star Tours was a walk on, and though I was a little worried about possible motion sickness, I had to see what everyone was raving about. Yes, it was awesome. Yes, I had to close my eyes at times. But I was so glad we rode and also pretty disappointed that I was not the rebel spy. :lookaroun

It was about time to head back to PO for an afternoon break, but we browsed through some of the shops first.

I am so disappointed in Villains in Vogue. I love the villains and there are about two things in there related to them. Everything else is Jack Skellington and TNBC. I mean, I love that movie and everything that Tim Burton/Danny Elfman does, but he’s not even really a villain. He’s an antihero. Get it straight, Disney!! I keep holding out that the next time I go in, they’ll have better merchandise, but it doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. We continued into other shops, Lauren bought a couple things, and I made mental notes of what I wanted to buy at DTD later in the week. I try to make a list of everything I want, then go to World of Disney to see if I can get everything at once and make the most of my Disney Visa discount. It’s easier for me and prevents me from getting impulse purchases. We waited about 20 minutes for a bus and looked forward to getting out of the rain and relaxing for a bit before our ADRs at Flying Fish Café.