We Came, We Saw, We Froze

Jambo!

The Dinosaur Institue and I welcome you to my trip report. There was one theme to this year's trip, and that was...

It was FREEZING this past week in Florida. They haven't experienced cold like this in years. And of course it starts when we arrive. But that's okay...we were in Disney World, nothing could ruin our trip! Luckily we checked weather reports before leaving and packed accordingly.

A little background on everyone. First there's my family- mom, dad, me (19), Shannon (15), and Zach (12). This is our fourth trip to Disney World. We began planning a year ago and have been anxiously awaiting the trip ever since. I think my parents were more excited than the kids were. :lol:

Then there's my best friend of 10 years, Jamie. She is a part of the family, so of course she had to come along! This was her first trip to the World and couldn't wait.

I think that's all. Arrival day coming up next!

 

[cdunbar]

This is not a funny joke.

I thought it was! :lookaroun

 

[greebomusic]

I'll use your trip report as a template for my upcoming trip! Love it! :sohappy:

 

[Pongo]

Figured no one would want to hear about it.

Also, I think for many people reading this thread, specifically Dot, this is the ONE PART they would not forgive you for cutting out :lol:

 

[Nicole220]

This is not a funny joke.

Tee hee.

 

[Nicole220]

Monday, January 4th. Disney Hollywood Studios.

We wanted to take it easy on the first day, so we figured DHS would be perfect. We woke up to good news- mom's bag had been found and it would be here shortly. Yay! Apparently it wanted to go to Denver instead of Disney World.

Zach was asked to hand out park maps on the boat. What a great widdle helper!

Our first stop was Toy Story Mania, which already had a 30 minute wait. So we fast passed it.

Pixar Place was cute, but way too crowded. It didn't give everyone enough room to move around.

From there we went on Tower of Terror and Rockin' Rollercoaster. Zach decided to give ToT another try, after a disasterous first time in ’06. Mom couldn’t wait, this is her favorite ride. Zach ended up loving it. Yay! He also decided to brave Rockin' Rollercoaster and loved it as well. Jamie sat both out. She’s not big on thrills….it took her two years after getting her Disneyland AP to go on Space. Yeah. But she did promise me before the trip that she would go on Everest. We'll see if she survives later on...

This guy was awesome.

Thank you for posing so beautifully for me, Bucky.

 

[Nicole220]

Up next was Muppet Vision 3D.

Meep!

By this time we were all hungry, so we split up for lunch. Dad and Zach went to Pizza Planet and the girls went to Catering Co.

My family and I are all Idol fans, so we were looking forward to the American Idol Experience. The last guy blew the other two out of the water. Overall I liked it.

On our first trip in 1995, my sister and I took a picture with the snowmen by Muppets. We decided to recreate the picture.

Awww...

After Idol we went across the street to Indiana Jones. I realized that we have never seen this before. A storm had cancelled it the last time we tried to see it. We all really enjoyed it. I tried to get chosen to be an extra, but no luck. The guy from Morocco was hilarious, too bad he turned out to be a cast member. Boo.

 

[Nicole220]

Oh, and sometime before my parents left, we used our TSM fastpasses. I dominated my family. Woohoo!

The girls and I decided to go on the Great Movie Ride, watch the Voyage of the Little Mermaid (my first time on this one, too. Oy. So cheesy.), and take some pictures around the park.

My intense Jedi face

 

[Nicole220]

We started to feel like this guy

So we made our way back to the hotel.

 

[Nicole220]

I walked around the Beach Club and took some pictures before joining everyone in an afternoon nap before dinner.

While the beach theme was nice, it really made me miss warm weather even more. :lol:

Coming up, dinner at Boma...

 

[mouselvrmom]

I love all your cute poses! Great pictures! :sohappy:

 

[Mikester71]

Great trip report and pictures!!! Just seems SO wrong though seeing people at WDW having to wear winter clothing! Being Canadian, when I think of WDW and Florida, I picture it as ALWAYS being 80 degrees and sunny! :lookaroun

 

[Andrew54]

Loved the theming of your pictures in the beginning. Awesome!

 

[mousebymarriage]

Great report and pics! You all look like you had a great time even though it was cold. It's so weird to see people with winter coats and hats in Disney. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it warms up for my trip, we check into Pop on Feb 6th.:sohappy:

 

[everitt]

Nicole great pictures. My husband and I have been to Walt Disney World 20 times.(our son is a cast member at Studios).When I saw those pictures I got real excited for our trip in 3 weeks.Not only to see our son but to see our favorite place.It never gets old. Thankyou again.:sohappy:

 

[Nicole220]

Great trip report and pictures!!! Just seems SO wrong though seeing people at WDW having to wear winter clothing! Being Canadian, when I think of WDW and Florida, I picture it as ALWAYS being 80 degrees and sunny! :lookaroun

Great report and pics! You all look like you had a great time even though it was cold. It's so weird to see people with winter coats and hats in Disney. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it warms up for my trip, we check into Pop on Feb 6th.:sohappy:

It was very wrong, indeed. Hopefully it warms up soon!

Loved the theming of your pictures in the beginning. Awesome!

Thanks!

Nicole great pictures. My husband and I have been to Walt Disney World 20 times.(our son is a cast member at Studios).When I saw those pictures I got real excited for our trip in 3 weeks.Not only to see our son but to see our favorite place.It never gets old. Thankyou again.:sohappy:

Glad I could help!

 

[Rufus T Firefly]

Great pictures and great trip report. Did you do a Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream? :slurp:

 

[Nicole220]

Our reservations for Boma were at 6, but we left at 4 so we could see the animals and the hotel in the daylight.

We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge on our last trip and loved it. Stepping into the lobby again made us miss it terribly. The theming...animals...huge lobby...nothing can beat it. I asked my dad if we could switch hotels for the rest of our trip. We all agreed that this will alway be home for us. I don't think we'll be staying anywhere else on future trips. The Beach Club was great, and nothing can beat it's location, but it just doesn't compare.

There weren't very many animals out due to the weather

Warming our feet by the fire.

My mom got in one of her picture taking modes, so we had a little photoshoot in the lobby.

This was our second time eating at Boma and I think it was even better this time! We were blown away by everything we ate. The only thing we could say was "Oh my gosh this is to die for!"

I don't know how they do it, but the soups there are the best I've ever had! We all got some of the potato bacon (my favorite, absolutely wonderful!!) and an African inspired one. I could eat those every day and not get tired of them. And the mango salad dressing! Yum! For dessert, I had the Zebra Domes and chocolate mousse. :slurp: Jamie, Zach, and my dad fell in love with the pineapple upside down cheesecake. They said it was sent from heaven. By this point I was too stuffed to eat any more. I was so full it hurt! Darn buffets. :lol:

The only way back to our hotel was to go to Epcot. We needed to make a stop at Space Ship Earth because it was so cold outside. It definitely did the trick. Since the parks closed so early, we decided to go back to the hotel and get ready for tomorrow....Epcot!

 

[Nicole220]

Great pictures and great trip report. Did you do a Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream? :slurp:

We were planning on it! But never got around to it.

We'll just have to plan another trip so we can try it.

 

[Uponastar]

Also, I think for many people reading this thread, specifically Dot, this is the ONE PART they would not forgive you for cutting out :lol:

:lookaroun

There would be definite repercussions.

 

[Nicole220]

Tuesday, January 5th. Epcot.

Epcot had EMH this morning, so we were up early to make it to the 8am opening. Our first stop was Soarin', daddy's favorite. It was a walk on and we ended up getting B1. Yay!

On our way out we grabbed fastpasses for later. Our next stop was Test Track, another walk on thankfully. I can't stand the line! It gives me a headache. This is a family favorite and now Jamie's new favorite. We also got fastpasses for this. Zach and I were the only ones brave enough to go to Mars. I forgot how intense it was! This is a ride I can only do once per trip.

We met up with everyone else in Innoventions, where they were waiting in line for this:

It was a neat virtual rollercoaster where you got to design your own track. It was a lot of fun!

Before our trip, we would tell Jamie all about the Beverly that she just had to try. I was worried she would catch on, but she never did. :drevil: Here's how it went:

Bottoms up!

It's kicking in!

Rushing back to get a different flavor

Final thoughts?

Tee hee.