Trip Report (UPDATED 03/17/14) First timer, First time runner, 2nd timer, and a seasoned vet. FROM CANADA!

INTRO

Hello everyone!

I have read many trip reports on this forum and absolutely loved how how they brought back memories and allow me the opportunity to learn from other people's trips. I have grabbed many ideas of things to do on my trip from other's trip reports.

Our trip took place Feb 20th - Feb 28th. The reason for the trip was mainly due to my gf participating in the Princess Half Marathon. This was her first ever half marathon and she had trained for many weeks in temperatures as cold as -4 Fahrenheit.

The members of my party include myself (Rob), and my gf (Kristin).

This photo was from our first trip to WDW together 2 years ago. Kristin had been once before when she was in elementary school, so this trip was now her 3rd time. I have been 8 or 9 times I believe.

The other members were my good friend Jason and his sister Jenn. They have both been to Disneyland many times. Jason has been to WDW once, and Jenn had never been to WDW. Also, Jenn is a cast member at the Disney Store in one of our malls here in Calgary. She was VERY excited to see WDW.

For this trip we booked two standard rooms at the Art of Animation Resort, obviously in the Little Mermaid section. I had stayed at Pop Century on most of my previous trips so I was very excited to stay in a similar resort that was brand new. I have always loved Pop and I don't know if I will ever make the jump to a moderate resort just because I don't spend a ton of time at the resort, it's not worth it to me.

Our plans were the following:
Thursday 20th - Arrive and tour resort
Friday 21st - Magic Kingdom
Saturday 22nd - Outlet mall for me and Kristin and Universals Islands of Adventure for Jason and Jenn.
Sunday 23rd - Up bright and early for the half marathon followed by a night at EPCOT with an ADR at Via Napoli.
Monday 24th - Animal Kingdom, a massage at the Grand Floridian for Kristin, and Beaches and Cream for dinner.
Tuesday 25th - EPCOT
Wednesday 26th - Hollywood Studios
Thursday 27th - Magic Kingdom and Be Our Guest for dinner.
Friday 28th - Downtown Disney and flight home.

Hopefully I actually finish this report, I want to so I have something to go back on and read. I will warn you that none of us are amazing photographers, but we do have nearly 2,000 photos from the trip, so I will try to create a good story along the way.

Thanks! Hope you enjoy!

 

[wardpr68]

Day 1: Arrival & Tour of Resort

We landed in Orlando around 5 o clock after leaving Calgary around 6:30am. Getting up at 3:30am for the flight was not very enjoyable, but going down to warm Florida in the dead of winter is the one thing I can get up early for! When we left Calgary the temperate had been around -22 Fahrenheit, so we were beyond excited to get into some warmer weather!

We grabbed our own bags (I prefer to get my own rather than have Disney deliver it), and headed down to floor 1 to catch the Magical Express.

I love the hype video they show on the way

About 30-40 minutes later.... (and the first stop! Reason #1 I loved Art of Animation!)

We hopped off the bus, gathered our personal belongings, watched our head and step as we disembarked, and headed to the lobby to check in. One strange thing we encountered, since we are from Canada, Disney does not ship magic bands to homes in Canada. So, to say I was excited to see our magic bands was an understatement. I chose red, Kristin pink, Jason orange, and Jenn blue. I was amazed by how comfortable they were! I really hate wearing watches or necklaces or anything, so I thought I would hate wearing this thing all week. Nope, it was great!

The lobby at Art of Animation is absolutely beautiful!

After check in we headed to our rooms. We stayed in "Ursala's Lair", on the top floor with a pool view. And of course, Disney gave us side by side rooms with a shared door, perfect! Mousekeeping left us a mickey head.

The first thing Kristin did was hang up her tutu for the race. Getting this thing down here was actually quite an ordeal. It shed glitter like crazy when she was making it and trying it on back at home. So my coworker came up with the idea of putting it into a zippable garment bag. GREAT IDEA! It made it to our room and there was no glitter scattered throughout the suitcase.

I was worried staying in a Little Mermaid room would seem very childish, but the theming is discrete enough that it wasn't too in your face. I really liked it.

The pool view room was not nearly as noisy as I thought it may be, this place was turning out to be great!

We unpacked our stuff and then went for some food at the Landscape of Flavors food court and went for a quick tour around the resort. I believe I had the Buffalo Turkey Sandwich which, while not as spicy as I thought it would be, was very good. And for some reason the side of potato chips it comes with were always very good (I had this 2 or 3 times on the trip I believe). I also got a refillable mug as I love my Coca-Cola, it keeps me energized. I am not a coffee drinker . Well, it had been a long day, so it was off to bed we went! Magic Kingdom tomorrow! Goodnight Art of Animation.

 

[FlaggNL]

Great start! Great hotel

 

[officialtom]

Nice start! Makes me excited for our trip in 15 DAYS!!!

And hello from the Maritimes!

 

[FlaggNL]

Nice start! Makes me excited for our trip in 15 DAYS!!!

And hello from the Maritimes!

WOW just 15 days?? We have to wait 220!!!!! days

 

[Betsyboo]

We were there at overlapping times. Can't wait to read more.

 

[LindsayLoves]

I love trip reports but I really love race reports. Great start so far!

 

[joshsprincess921]

looking forward to more

 

[wardpr68]

Day 2: Race Expo and Magic Kingdom

Thanks for all the comments thus far everyone!

Our first full day of fun would be at both the Princess Half Marathon Expo and the Magic Kingdom. It was quite overcast most of our trip but I really didn't mind it all. As I said, we were leaving an extreme cold snap in Calgary, so anything above freezing felt amazing. I also like it right around that 68-80 range, I find I get less tired and can get more done in a day.

First stop was the Expo. We wanted to get there at opening to avoid crowds, I am glad we did. By the time we left the crowds on the expo floor were starting to get claustrophobic. I had never been to ESPN Wide World of Sports and being a sport loving kind of guy I was excited to check it out.

One thing I was very impressed by was the transportation for the race weekend. The buses to and from the expo and the race itself were frequent and convenient. I would definitely advise any future runners to stay on property and use Disney transportation, I can't imagine how difficult it may have been with a car.

The Lion King crew greeted us on our way to the food court to get some breakfast.

Kristin is a huge breakfast person, not eating breakfast is not an option for her. So every morning she would go get breakfast and I would either catch up with her later or just watch her eat. All the breakfast food looked really good, I just couldn't do it though.

We arrived at the bus stop at 8:25am to catch the first bus at 8:30am. Again, I would advise trying to get there as early as possible, it gets nuts! After a short walk we were at the front of ESPN Wide World of Sports!

We went into the first building and grabbed Kristin's bib, then off to another building to grab her race shirt and packet. When she first saw the pictures online of the shirt she was not thrilled about it, but it ended up being much nicer in person. Kristin walked right up, (no lines yet), and was handed the shirt and a plastic bag (to check at the race). Her first thought was, "that's it?" Upon further examination she found a snack size bag of Craisins and a mini Luna bar, and pins for her bib. Still, for the price of registration, you don't get much she thought.

We then headed to the Run Disney booth, Kristin was excited. Unfortunately she found the selection a little underwhelming. Lots of the merch was themed to the Glass Slipper Challenge and not so much for the Princess Half Marathon. Regardless, she got a hat, mug, and magnet. She tends to collect mugs and magnets which dominate our kitchen (I have electronics everywhere, I shall not complain).

Kristin went off to check out other booths and Jason, Jenn, and myself started searching for high ground as the expo floor was starting to get full. This photo shows the calm right before the storm... like 2 minutes before.

Eventually Kristin came close to where we were scoping out the floor and I yelled down to her. We were on our way out! Just in time! Kristin is also a purse collector (now that I think about it she tends to collect lots of things...) so we had to stop by the Dooney and Bourke store to check out the special Princess Half Marathon purses. Unfortunately unless you had ordered a bag online they were SOLD OUT! WHAT? These bags are well over 200 bucks if I remember correctly, I was shocked! So, if you really want a Dooney bag, make sure you pre-order online!

We left the Expo around 10:00am and headed for the bus, the people coming IN was far more than the people coming OUT! I was happy we were leaving!

Overall I thought ESPN Wide World of Sports was interesting... but I didn't really see the value in it for a park guest. I don't really like baseball or football much, so maybe that's why. I just didn't understand what you would do there for a day as a guest. Anybody able to fill me in?

Well, it was back to the resort to grab some food and a little rest before we head off to Magic Kingdom!

TO BE CONTINUED!

 

[wardpr68]

Day 2 Continued: Magic Kingdom

Well it was off to Magic Kingdom! I seem to always go to Magic Kingdom first on my trips, totally not on purpose, but I think it's a great park to start at. It really get's you in the Disney mood.

We have arrived!

As you can see, crowds were very low for our trip. That's one benefit of no kids and having jobs that allow us to vacation whenever we like. I think the longest line we waited in the entire trip was for Big Thunder Mountain, 24 mins, and we didn't even need to as we had a fastpass for it another day of the trip.

I believe Jenn was quite impressed with Cinderella Castle since she had only seen Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland before this day. Kristin and I's last trip was to Disneyland and the castle was definitely underwhelming.

Our first ride of the trip was none other than the TTA! Before our trip there was rumors of a refurbishment happening during our dates, I was not pleased. BUT THEN, the refurb got moved! I was a little more excited than I probably should have been, but I just love the TTA for some reason.

I won't go into extensive detail about every little thing we did, but one highlight was going on the Liberty Square River Boat. I had never been on it before and it offered some neat perspectives of the park, including this great shot of people having a blast on Big Thunder Mountain.

Would I do the Liberty Boat again? Probably not. But I was glad we tried it. I also could not hear the narration over the speakers at all during the ride. We were standing on the top deck on the left side near the middle... so not really an obscure spot, would have been nice to hear.

One more cool shot from the boat of the Mansion.

We did several more attractions, the lines were very minimal, including my favorite: Space Mountain! I think the Space Mountain at Disneyland is definitely more polished and well done, but for some reason I LOVE Space Mountain at WDW. I think the element of danger from the rickety old track makes it just seem more thrilling. Also, I think it's much darker at WDW, I can never tell where we are going, I just love it. On our way out we noticed the fireworks were starting soon, so we just found a spot near the washrooms by Casey's.

It was time to go back to the resort after a very successful day at the Magic Kingdom. We mainly covered Tomorrowland, toured the new Fantasyland without really doing anything in it, Liberty Square, and Frontierland. It was a great first day! Tomorrow had me and Kristin having a slow day since she would be running the race the day after and had to be up super early. Meanwhile Jenn and Jason went to Universal to check out Harry Potter.

Good night Magic Kingdom! See you in a few days!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Great trip report so far! We were there overlapping days. I can't wait to hear how the marathon went. So cool that she ran it. I would love to get to the point where I can do that someday.

 

[maelstrom98]

, watched our head and step as we disembarked

Oh my goodness. I could hear the recorded voice in my head when I read that. Gave me chills. Out of all the TRs I read today, nothing got me more excited to return than that simple line haha!

 

[wardpr68]

Day 3: Outlet Mall & Resort Hopping

I'm back! Sorry it was a while between updates, I work in the car industry and this week our city held a big car show that I was working at all week.

For day 3 we planned a very relaxing day. Kristin and I had to be up very early for the half marathon the next day so we really didn't want to do anything too intense. Jenn and Jason were off to Universal's Islands of Adventure for the sole purpose of seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Jason had seen it before but Jenn had not.

Kristin and I got a cab at about 10am to head to the Premium Outlet Mall. On the way, I noticed our cab driver had passed the outlet mall near WDW. You know the one... about 10-15 mins away? I asked her about it and she said she was taking us to the bigger/better one. Ummm... ok. We got there and the cab ride was FAR more expensive than I had anticipated. The outlet mall may have been a bit bigger, I am still undecided if it was worth the more expensive cab ride. Kristin bought a pink Kate Spade purse and some running pants, I bought some bulk candy from the candy store. I really don't buy anything on vacation, I do not know why.

The most exciting part of the outlet mall was the fact they had Vanilla Coke at the candy store. We don't get Vanilla Coke in Canada anymore, and I absolutely LOVE IT. I bought one and had it my Five Guys burger. OM NOM NOM.

We left the outlet mall and headed back to our resort, Art of Animation. Upon return I noticed the drawing boards they have out front. A board with instructions on how to draw Nemo, paper and pencils. Let me preface this by saying both my writing and drawing skills are non-existent at best. But hey, I tried. You will get to see more of my amazing talent later! *sarcasm* (laughing at my drawing is acceptable and expected)

When we got back to our room Kristin and I just relaxed for a while. Being the busy body that I am, I had to go do something after a while. I called up Jenn and Jason who had returned from Universal and asked if they wanted to do some monorail resort hopping, and off we went!

We decided to take a bus to EPCOT and then hop the monorail there so we could essentially do the entire monorail loop at WDW. I took this picture from the monorail station and thought Sam Eagle would be very proud. "It's called a salute to all nations but mostly America."

Our first stop was the Polynesian Resort. I had never been in here and I was excited to see what it was all about. The lobby is absolutely beautiful. If the rumors of the lobby water piece being taken out is true I would be quite disappointing, I thought it really helped theme the lobby well. We then struggled to find Captain Cook's so we could get some dole whips. I forgot how much I loved them! We sat outside behind the restaurant and then went to explore the pool, very impressive!

We then hoped on to the monorail which had just pulled up and went to the Grand Floridian. I know this resort pretty well but I am always blown away by just how beautiful it is. We looked around a bit and then I snapped a photo of the very talented band playing. What a great resort.... one day, one day!

Our last stop was the Contemporary. We explored around the resort and I got adventourous... Jenn and Jason seemed unsettled with my exploration. We went up to some obscure floor so I could get a good view of the lobby down below and then went down the staircase. Jason and Jenn thought it was sketchy, but we went on, AND GOOD THING WE DID. I found the observation deck out on the Magic Kingdom side and WOW, what a view.

I am so glad we stumbled upon this deck. I would definitely come back and just watch the fireworks from here with some snacks and a drink, amazing! After this we headed back down the stairs and sort of got lost, we ended up coming out on the ground floor outside the building. I was adamant we needed to go check out Bay Lake Tower. We headed up to the floor where the walkway was and about halfway Jenn and Jason thought we were breaking the rules. I didn't see any signs, security, or card readers, so we went on. We headed down the lobby where I snapped this picture to prove we were there.

I am pretty sure we were allowed to be there, but it did feel like we were being judged or not welcome, so we left quickly. Paranoia?

We hoped back on the EPCOT monorail and caught a bus back to our resort. I passed out quickly knowing that I had to be up at some awful hour for the half marathon the next day.

Thanks for following and commenting thus far! Next post will be all about the half marathon day including some guest writing from Kristin!

 

[DisneyFreakEst1994]

Not gonna lie... I only started reading this TR because your picture is the Flame's logo. I'm always down to read anything from a fellow hockey fan! Glad I found your TR, its really entertaining. Can't wait to read more!