Leesha.Monster
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2018
Can't wait to read more!! Loved the vlog!
The Rose Gold Rat Pack Takes on WDW! A July 2018 TR (Update 03/25)
- Thread starter coloredimage
- Start date
LeiaIsAPrincess2
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 10, 2018
Following along! I'd have been panicking about my luggage, lost luggage is my worst fear.
dnllmz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2011
The video was amazing. I loved, loved the reaction to the room and the grotto. I never knew the shower was the grotto. That is adorable! The table with the music sheets was really cute too.
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
LOVE LOVE LOVE Cant wait for more! oh and by the way how you got your name.....pricless!
Thanks! I still have the video on my computer though I never uploaded it, I may just because it makes me laugh!
Thanks!
Welcome! When we went to London for a week during undergrad my friend did lose her luggage (it never left Dublin) and that has freaked me out ever since.
Thanks! One of my favorite things about this trip was that Kristen and Sadie have only been to Disney once before and Jenny's never been to WDW so it was nice to see it through their eyes. I loved all the little touches in the rooms, it was so cute
there was even a faint bubble pattern on the sheets.
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
Chapter One: Princess Day
Part One
I didn’t sleep great that night. I passed out while Kristen was in the shower, but then woke up about an hour later because she had accidentally left the wrong light on (the one to the sink area, not the one to the bathroom proper that we normally keep on at night) and it was bright. After that I was in and out of sleep for the next few hours. At some point I turned my phone to “Do Not Disturb” mode because I was worried about it vibrating in bed and waking Kristen up.
Jen and Jenny’s flight wasn’t due to land until 6:30 am, so the night before (really earlier that morning, let’s be real) so I had set my alarm to go off at 7 am. Since I had showered the night before and pulled out my outfit for the day I figured that would give me time to get dressed, put on some makeup, and repack my carry on so we could drop our stuff with concierge for the day. I’m one of those people who, unless I’m absolutely exhausted, generally wakes up before my alarm goes off, no matter what time the alarm is set for. I allow my work alarm to go off only because it’s pre-set for Mondays through Fridays.
It’s probably a good thing, because I woke up at 6:45 to a text from Jen saying that they had landed and were on their way to the Magical Express. It came in at 5:30. I frantically - and as quietly as possible because everyone else was asleep and had set their alarms for 7:30 - jumped out of bed, sending her a message. Thankfully their bus, like ours the night before, sat for a while waiting for passengers, so I quickly got dressed and started in on my makeup, keeping myself sort of facing the window at all times.
Around 7:30 I saw Jenny walk past the window and ran over to the door, trying not to wake anyone else up. Since Jen and Jenny had taken the redeye from LA to Orlando, they used our shower/bathroom to get ready for the day while Sadie and Kristen got up and got ready in the sink area.
While we were all getting ready I got the text saying that one of our two rooms for the week was ready, and it was in the building right next to us! Perfect! That would mean we wouldn’t have to walk up front to drop off our bags or worry about getting them later! I had also gotten a text from Liz saying that she and Kyle would be getting to the hotel around 8:30 instead of 8 like they had thought the night before so I told them what room was ready so they could drop their stuff off.
Liz and Kyle managed to get to the room before us and dropped their bags. They were going into the parks with Liz’s former roommate, B, who would be spending the morning/afternoon with us. They left to get to the parks while we were walking over - Liz figured that it would take them just as long to get to MK from the TTC parking lots as it would for us to drop our bags and get the bus so they headed out.
I was slightly annoyed they didn’t wait for us because we were walking to the room when they left. But whatever, it wasn’t a huge impact on our lives. I knew Liz was frazzled because they hadn’t left as early as she wanted to.
Apparently, the only picture I took of our Lion King room is this one?
I did take video of it though. I dunno?
Jen and Jenny’s bags were already there, which was great! Once we dropped everything we headed to the parks - our stop of the day was MK!
We had a fastpass that was up at 9:45 for Haunted Mansion so we had to hop to it. We managed to get a bus quickly and it was really not busy at all? At least not at the entrance to Magic Kingdom. Liz was texting us telling us that they had been in a stand-still line at the TTC for over ten minutes and that we should use our FPs and not wait for them. So when we got to the park we kind of scrambled that way. I filmed a bit of our entrance but that was all I managed to do - no photos yet!
Not even coffee!
We got into Haunted Mansion fairly quickly and got through to the ride without any sort of issue. We had all grabbed on to each other so we wouldn’t get lost in the inevitable crush and….it just wasn’t there?
I’d like to stop here and make a note about a long-standing joke we have:
There is a truth universally acknowledged - when one goes to Disney with Jen, one recognizes two things will happen. First, the ride will break down and second, you will get wet on any water ride.
So, we got to the ballroom scene in Haunted Mansion and we stopped for a solid three or so minutes. First ride, new streak!
When we got off we walked past Liz, Kyle, and B just getting into the FP queue right at the end of our time. Liz was mad about how long everything she was trying to accomplish that morning was taking and I don’t blame her. We told her we were getting breakfast and to meet us after they got off the ride then headed over to Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow hadn’t had a line when we first walked past earlier and while the line was long by the time we got there it was moving at a pretty nice pace.
I got the fruit and nutella waffle with some water:
Kristen and Sadie (and later B and Liz too) got the regular waffle:
And Jen and Jenny both got the ham and egg waffle with an iced coffee.
I liked my waffle. Jen and Jenny weren’t fans of theirs because they didn’t like the eggs, but they were thankful for the food. I had half of Jen’s coffee but neither of us really finished it - we weren’t overly thrilled with the french vanilla flavor and neither was Liz with her coffee.
Liz, B, and Kyle met up with us about 5 minutes after we sat down and got their own food. By the time we finished, it was nearly time for our Big Thunder fast pass, so we all headed over in that direction. The line was long for the FP queue and something was definitely leaking because the outside section of the FP queue had rushing water, but it moved fast and the water was just weird and I had to mention it.
After our spin on the wildest ride in the wilderness we really didn’t have a plan. We hadn’t been towards Fantasyland yet so we decided that’d be our next stop. We were already headed that way when we could hear Great Moments in History starting in the distance. This was on Kyle’s list of top things he wanted to see because he loves the Muppets so we headed over to watch it. We only saw about half of it, but it was still fun!
From Great Moments in History we headed into Fantasyland. We didn’t really have a plan, and we didn’t have any more fastpasses for another couple of hours, so we kind of just wandered. The wait for Philharmagic was, as usual non-existent, so we figured that’d be a good thing to do to get out of the heat.
While we were waiting for Philharmagic to let us in Jen decided that she and Jenny would head back to the hotel and nap a bit before our dinner ADR. So after we got out we said goodbye to Jen and Jenny for the time being and….
...honestly, we had no idea what we wanted to do. It was one of those first day moments where you’re like “cool, I’m here but now what?” before you get into the groove of your vacation, you know?
Thankfully Jen sent me a text not three minutes later to tell us that she had seen Peter Pan haunting around the castle so we went hunting for him. He must have been going in because we did not find him, but since we were up front we decided to take refuge in the Emporium for a few minutes just to get some AC and look at merchandise. Liz and Kristen both wanted a spirit jersey this trip so they figured they’d take the opportunity to try sizes to see what they liked most (I am the most unhelpful in this case - I have 4 spirit jerseys and they are all different sizes, ranging from Medium to 2x depending on if I want it to be fitted or worn with shorts or something snuggly I can wear with leggings).
While we were in the Emporium Kyle stepped out to run to the restroom and was gone longer than we expected. Turns out he had found Snow White and decided to get pictures with her while he was bounding as her.
Aaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd he had lost his magic band somewhere between leaving us and finding Snow.
He called Liz to ask what to do and she had me talk to him (as this was her first time dealing with magic bands as a guest and not as someone who works for the company). I told him to go to Town Hall and let them know it had been lost. They gave him a card temporarily for FPs and told him to check back with them later in the day and also go to the front desk at the hotel just to see if it was found or so they could set him up with a new one.
As we were making our way back down Main Street the castle show was starting. I went over to grab some popcorn and some water with Liz while the others went to stand in the Hub to watch the show.
I'll leave it there for now, it seems like a good place to stop!
Part One
I didn’t sleep great that night. I passed out while Kristen was in the shower, but then woke up about an hour later because she had accidentally left the wrong light on (the one to the sink area, not the one to the bathroom proper that we normally keep on at night) and it was bright. After that I was in and out of sleep for the next few hours. At some point I turned my phone to “Do Not Disturb” mode because I was worried about it vibrating in bed and waking Kristen up.
Jen and Jenny’s flight wasn’t due to land until 6:30 am, so the night before (really earlier that morning, let’s be real) so I had set my alarm to go off at 7 am. Since I had showered the night before and pulled out my outfit for the day I figured that would give me time to get dressed, put on some makeup, and repack my carry on so we could drop our stuff with concierge for the day. I’m one of those people who, unless I’m absolutely exhausted, generally wakes up before my alarm goes off, no matter what time the alarm is set for. I allow my work alarm to go off only because it’s pre-set for Mondays through Fridays.
It’s probably a good thing, because I woke up at 6:45 to a text from Jen saying that they had landed and were on their way to the Magical Express. It came in at 5:30. I frantically - and as quietly as possible because everyone else was asleep and had set their alarms for 7:30 - jumped out of bed, sending her a message. Thankfully their bus, like ours the night before, sat for a while waiting for passengers, so I quickly got dressed and started in on my makeup, keeping myself sort of facing the window at all times.
Around 7:30 I saw Jenny walk past the window and ran over to the door, trying not to wake anyone else up. Since Jen and Jenny had taken the redeye from LA to Orlando, they used our shower/bathroom to get ready for the day while Sadie and Kristen got up and got ready in the sink area.
While we were all getting ready I got the text saying that one of our two rooms for the week was ready, and it was in the building right next to us! Perfect! That would mean we wouldn’t have to walk up front to drop off our bags or worry about getting them later! I had also gotten a text from Liz saying that she and Kyle would be getting to the hotel around 8:30 instead of 8 like they had thought the night before so I told them what room was ready so they could drop their stuff off.
Liz and Kyle managed to get to the room before us and dropped their bags. They were going into the parks with Liz’s former roommate, B, who would be spending the morning/afternoon with us. They left to get to the parks while we were walking over - Liz figured that it would take them just as long to get to MK from the TTC parking lots as it would for us to drop our bags and get the bus so they headed out.
I was slightly annoyed they didn’t wait for us because we were walking to the room when they left. But whatever, it wasn’t a huge impact on our lives. I knew Liz was frazzled because they hadn’t left as early as she wanted to.
Apparently, the only picture I took of our Lion King room is this one?
I did take video of it though. I dunno?
Jen and Jenny’s bags were already there, which was great! Once we dropped everything we headed to the parks - our stop of the day was MK!
We had a fastpass that was up at 9:45 for Haunted Mansion so we had to hop to it. We managed to get a bus quickly and it was really not busy at all? At least not at the entrance to Magic Kingdom. Liz was texting us telling us that they had been in a stand-still line at the TTC for over ten minutes and that we should use our FPs and not wait for them. So when we got to the park we kind of scrambled that way. I filmed a bit of our entrance but that was all I managed to do - no photos yet!
Not even coffee!
We got into Haunted Mansion fairly quickly and got through to the ride without any sort of issue. We had all grabbed on to each other so we wouldn’t get lost in the inevitable crush and….it just wasn’t there?
I’d like to stop here and make a note about a long-standing joke we have:
There is a truth universally acknowledged - when one goes to Disney with Jen, one recognizes two things will happen. First, the ride will break down and second, you will get wet on any water ride.
So, we got to the ballroom scene in Haunted Mansion and we stopped for a solid three or so minutes. First ride, new streak!
When we got off we walked past Liz, Kyle, and B just getting into the FP queue right at the end of our time. Liz was mad about how long everything she was trying to accomplish that morning was taking and I don’t blame her. We told her we were getting breakfast and to meet us after they got off the ride then headed over to Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow hadn’t had a line when we first walked past earlier and while the line was long by the time we got there it was moving at a pretty nice pace.
I got the fruit and nutella waffle with some water:
Kristen and Sadie (and later B and Liz too) got the regular waffle:
And Jen and Jenny both got the ham and egg waffle with an iced coffee.
I liked my waffle. Jen and Jenny weren’t fans of theirs because they didn’t like the eggs, but they were thankful for the food. I had half of Jen’s coffee but neither of us really finished it - we weren’t overly thrilled with the french vanilla flavor and neither was Liz with her coffee.
Liz, B, and Kyle met up with us about 5 minutes after we sat down and got their own food. By the time we finished, it was nearly time for our Big Thunder fast pass, so we all headed over in that direction. The line was long for the FP queue and something was definitely leaking because the outside section of the FP queue had rushing water, but it moved fast and the water was just weird and I had to mention it.
After our spin on the wildest ride in the wilderness we really didn’t have a plan. We hadn’t been towards Fantasyland yet so we decided that’d be our next stop. We were already headed that way when we could hear Great Moments in History starting in the distance. This was on Kyle’s list of top things he wanted to see because he loves the Muppets so we headed over to watch it. We only saw about half of it, but it was still fun!
From Great Moments in History we headed into Fantasyland. We didn’t really have a plan, and we didn’t have any more fastpasses for another couple of hours, so we kind of just wandered. The wait for Philharmagic was, as usual non-existent, so we figured that’d be a good thing to do to get out of the heat.
While we were waiting for Philharmagic to let us in Jen decided that she and Jenny would head back to the hotel and nap a bit before our dinner ADR. So after we got out we said goodbye to Jen and Jenny for the time being and….
...honestly, we had no idea what we wanted to do. It was one of those first day moments where you’re like “cool, I’m here but now what?” before you get into the groove of your vacation, you know?
Thankfully Jen sent me a text not three minutes later to tell us that she had seen Peter Pan haunting around the castle so we went hunting for him. He must have been going in because we did not find him, but since we were up front we decided to take refuge in the Emporium for a few minutes just to get some AC and look at merchandise. Liz and Kristen both wanted a spirit jersey this trip so they figured they’d take the opportunity to try sizes to see what they liked most (I am the most unhelpful in this case - I have 4 spirit jerseys and they are all different sizes, ranging from Medium to 2x depending on if I want it to be fitted or worn with shorts or something snuggly I can wear with leggings).
While we were in the Emporium Kyle stepped out to run to the restroom and was gone longer than we expected. Turns out he had found Snow White and decided to get pictures with her while he was bounding as her.
Aaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd he had lost his magic band somewhere between leaving us and finding Snow.
He called Liz to ask what to do and she had me talk to him (as this was her first time dealing with magic bands as a guest and not as someone who works for the company). I told him to go to Town Hall and let them know it had been lost. They gave him a card temporarily for FPs and told him to check back with them later in the day and also go to the front desk at the hotel just to see if it was found or so they could set him up with a new one.
As we were making our way back down Main Street the castle show was starting. I went over to grab some popcorn and some water with Liz while the others went to stand in the Hub to watch the show.
I'll leave it there for now, it seems like a good place to stop!
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
Chapter One, Part Two
The show, the snack, and the water energized us a bit. We headed into Tomorrowland since we were right there and went onto the People Mover.
While we were on it we saw Edna Mode go by and were super excited to see her out and about and we were super excited to see her as we got off the ride too. I’m fairly certain Kyle may have yelled “Queen!” or something close.
It was almost our time Mine Train fastpass, so we took the long way around to Mine Train and got in line, luxuriating in the super blasting air conditioner. We had fun on Mine Train, though our favorite thing is Liz in these pictures - see if you can see her.
She was going through our photos while I was away at the end of July and sent me this picture saying it made her laugh. She is not a fan of roller coasters even though one of her favorite rides in the parks is a roller coaster so even the ones she goes on she’s minorly terrified of. It’s kind of hysterical actually.
After we got off Mine Train we had no real plans. We had about an hour and a half before dinner and we had to wait for Jen and Jenny to get back to the parks so we didn’t want to wander too far away from Fantasyland since that was our meet up point. We decided to do something that I hadn’t done in a while, and we were off.
The sign for Enchanted Tales with Belle said it was a 15 minute wait, but it was probably closer to 5. Clearly we had to see how close Liz was in height to her favorite princess while we waited:
Once we were let in through the enchanted mirror Kyle was quickly cast as a knight. We were the most obnoxiously supportive of families.
After Enchanted Tales with Belle we got a text from Jen and Jenny that they were on their way back to Magic Kingdom. We took a detour to Gaston’s because it was getting so hot and got a LeFou’s Brew:
And enjoyed! We sat in there for about ten minutes just to cool off and, since we had used all our FPs for the day, we decided to make one for Buzz Lightyear later on. Once we were done with our LeFou’s Brews we decided to take a journey Under the Sea.
Which I have no photographic proof of.
I may have filmed some of it?
We’ll find out when I finish editing the video I guess?
We met up inside Big Top Souvenirs. B really wanted to grab a snack at the confection stand inside since she wasn’t going to dinner with us, so she went to do that while Kristen and I went to go look at the Mickey ears.
See Kristen, Liz, and I have a fourth best friend who we had originally asked to come with us on this trip. We thought it would be a nice thing for all of us to do, and we figured if she came her husband would too and there would be another guy for Kyle to spend time with (also, her husband is Kyle’s best friend). She had originally said no because she and her husband just weren’t able to swing it this year, but it all ended up working out because she ended up being seven months pregnant by the time we went on our trip. Liz, Kristen, and I are super excited and happy for her and we wanted to get her a small memento on our trip just for her son. So we decided to get him custom Mickey ears. Since she didn’t have a name picked out by the time we left we decided to get them embroidered with the nickname that we have all been using for her son.
We didn’t end up getting them on our first day - we waited until our last evening in the parks so that we didn’t accidentally crush them. I’ll share them (and her reaction as we gave them to her at her baby shower last weekend) once I get that far into my Trip Report.
Since we had about twenty minutes to kill before we could check in for our dinner reservation we decided to do one last ride all of us together before B headed home. And since Dumbo is such a classic we chose that!
I tried to take pictures of all of us with our Dumbo partners but I couldn’t see Liz and B perfectly and when I tried to take a picture of Kyle and I the sun was behind us and we were glowy orbs.
Off the ride, we said goodbye to B and headed over to our first ADR of the trip!
Be Our Guest!
We got in about a week and a half before the changes were made to the menu, which was nice but also a pain because now I cannot find the old menu to explain what we got and did not think to take a picture of the menu. Go me.
Anyway, it took about 10 minutes after we checked in to be seated, and we were given a large table in the ballroom right by the windows which was such a perfect table. Liz used to work here, so our waitress was an old work friend and she got to see a couple other old work friends, which was nice for her!
We ordered our drinks and Kyle got an order of mussels for an appetizer. He and Sadie enjoyed them and soon enough our food came out.
Well, all but Kyle’s - they brought out a chicken dinner that was for another table, so I did not take any photos of his food. But he got the pork.
Kristen, Jenny, and I got the braised beef:
While Jen and Liz got the steak:
And Sadie got the ratatouille:
We all really enjoyed our meals, and while we had decided we were too full for desserts, we still got them. I mean, it’s Disney, of course you get dessert!
I only got a picture of my cupcake because we all basically devoured them. I got the chocolate cupcake:
Kyle got a cream puff because he isn’t a fan of cupcakes, Liz got the strawberry cupcake, Kristen got the grey stuff, and Jen and Jenny each got a lemon cupcake. Sadie doesn’t like desserts much so she didn’t have one.
After we paid our bill we explored the other rooms a little. I was really impressed that I even managed to get this picture of the rose in the West Wing:
And then we went to wait in line to meet the Beast! We were all super excited to meet him:
Goodbye, Be Our Guest! Until next time!
The show, the snack, and the water energized us a bit. We headed into Tomorrowland since we were right there and went onto the People Mover.
While we were on it we saw Edna Mode go by and were super excited to see her out and about and we were super excited to see her as we got off the ride too. I’m fairly certain Kyle may have yelled “Queen!” or something close.
It was almost our time Mine Train fastpass, so we took the long way around to Mine Train and got in line, luxuriating in the super blasting air conditioner. We had fun on Mine Train, though our favorite thing is Liz in these pictures - see if you can see her.
She was going through our photos while I was away at the end of July and sent me this picture saying it made her laugh. She is not a fan of roller coasters even though one of her favorite rides in the parks is a roller coaster so even the ones she goes on she’s minorly terrified of. It’s kind of hysterical actually.
After we got off Mine Train we had no real plans. We had about an hour and a half before dinner and we had to wait for Jen and Jenny to get back to the parks so we didn’t want to wander too far away from Fantasyland since that was our meet up point. We decided to do something that I hadn’t done in a while, and we were off.
The sign for Enchanted Tales with Belle said it was a 15 minute wait, but it was probably closer to 5. Clearly we had to see how close Liz was in height to her favorite princess while we waited:
Once we were let in through the enchanted mirror Kyle was quickly cast as a knight. We were the most obnoxiously supportive of families.
After Enchanted Tales with Belle we got a text from Jen and Jenny that they were on their way back to Magic Kingdom. We took a detour to Gaston’s because it was getting so hot and got a LeFou’s Brew:
And enjoyed! We sat in there for about ten minutes just to cool off and, since we had used all our FPs for the day, we decided to make one for Buzz Lightyear later on. Once we were done with our LeFou’s Brews we decided to take a journey Under the Sea.
Which I have no photographic proof of.
I may have filmed some of it?
We’ll find out when I finish editing the video I guess?
We met up inside Big Top Souvenirs. B really wanted to grab a snack at the confection stand inside since she wasn’t going to dinner with us, so she went to do that while Kristen and I went to go look at the Mickey ears.
See Kristen, Liz, and I have a fourth best friend who we had originally asked to come with us on this trip. We thought it would be a nice thing for all of us to do, and we figured if she came her husband would too and there would be another guy for Kyle to spend time with (also, her husband is Kyle’s best friend). She had originally said no because she and her husband just weren’t able to swing it this year, but it all ended up working out because she ended up being seven months pregnant by the time we went on our trip. Liz, Kristen, and I are super excited and happy for her and we wanted to get her a small memento on our trip just for her son. So we decided to get him custom Mickey ears. Since she didn’t have a name picked out by the time we left we decided to get them embroidered with the nickname that we have all been using for her son.
We didn’t end up getting them on our first day - we waited until our last evening in the parks so that we didn’t accidentally crush them. I’ll share them (and her reaction as we gave them to her at her baby shower last weekend) once I get that far into my Trip Report.
Since we had about twenty minutes to kill before we could check in for our dinner reservation we decided to do one last ride all of us together before B headed home. And since Dumbo is such a classic we chose that!
I tried to take pictures of all of us with our Dumbo partners but I couldn’t see Liz and B perfectly and when I tried to take a picture of Kyle and I the sun was behind us and we were glowy orbs.
Off the ride, we said goodbye to B and headed over to our first ADR of the trip!
Be Our Guest!
We got in about a week and a half before the changes were made to the menu, which was nice but also a pain because now I cannot find the old menu to explain what we got and did not think to take a picture of the menu. Go me.
Anyway, it took about 10 minutes after we checked in to be seated, and we were given a large table in the ballroom right by the windows which was such a perfect table. Liz used to work here, so our waitress was an old work friend and she got to see a couple other old work friends, which was nice for her!
We ordered our drinks and Kyle got an order of mussels for an appetizer. He and Sadie enjoyed them and soon enough our food came out.
Well, all but Kyle’s - they brought out a chicken dinner that was for another table, so I did not take any photos of his food. But he got the pork.
Kristen, Jenny, and I got the braised beef:
While Jen and Liz got the steak:
And Sadie got the ratatouille:
We all really enjoyed our meals, and while we had decided we were too full for desserts, we still got them. I mean, it’s Disney, of course you get dessert!
I only got a picture of my cupcake because we all basically devoured them. I got the chocolate cupcake:
Kyle got a cream puff because he isn’t a fan of cupcakes, Liz got the strawberry cupcake, Kristen got the grey stuff, and Jen and Jenny each got a lemon cupcake. Sadie doesn’t like desserts much so she didn’t have one.
After we paid our bill we explored the other rooms a little. I was really impressed that I even managed to get this picture of the rose in the West Wing:
And then we went to wait in line to meet the Beast! We were all super excited to meet him:
Goodbye, Be Our Guest! Until next time!
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
Part Three
Sorry this took me so long guys! School started up again and I've spent every free moment helping my parents move into their house now that renovations are done. I'm hoping to get the next vlog up soon!
Anyway!
Once we left dinner we had a little bit until our last FP of the evening so we decided to head into Tomorrowland. I had decided that I wanted a photo of my entire outfit so Sadie snapped this outfit quickly for me.
Fun Fact: Scott from Oh Yeah was behind me in this picture. I turned and saw him taking a picture of the new Peter Pan parfait thing and had that “wait, I think I know you” moment (in that I stared really intensely for a second, walked away, then went ‘oh wait I should have said hi!’ when we were too far away for it to be socially acceptable anymore).
Once we got into Tomorrowland we headed to Buzz and our final FP of the evening. Somehow I misplaced Sadie and Kristen’s photo. I’ll add it in later once I go back through my photopass photos.
I actually did pretty well for myself!
I mean, it’s not awesome, but it’s better than I’ve done in the past and I was alone in the vehicle (I am really bad at steering and hitting the targets lol).
We didn’t want to go back to the hotel yet but we were definitely winding down our day so we decided to have another ride on the Peoplemover to think over our plan of action.
Once off we saw a Photopass photographer at one of the Incredibles Expo displays so we decided to get some photos:
You know you’ve known each other a long time when you pose exactly the same in every photo lol!
Since we were there we decided to head onto the Carousel of Progress. Once we got off we were starting to get tired. Kye really wanted a snack from the Eggroll Wagon, so we headed in that direction. The cart was closed already, but the wait for Pirates was only a 10 minute wait so clearly we got in line.
When we got off the wait for Jungle Cruise was also fairly short, about 10 minutes, so we got in line there. By this point Jenny was fading - she wasn’t used to the humidity and we had been going pretty hardcore all day, even with her break. We decided this would be out last ride of the night, so once we got off we started out of the park around 8:30. Liz and Kyle went up to the front of the park faster than the rest of us in the hopes of finding his Magic Band. We happened to walk by as he was standing at the counter doing a victory dance and when he came out he was victoriously waving his Magic Band around. Clearly he got it back. They said he was lucky that it was a specialty band that had been personalized because if it had been a regular band he wouldn’t have been so lucky.
When we got back to our hotel we still hadn’t gotten a room for the second half of our group yet so Kristen and I went to the front desk. It showed up on my MDE app the second someone started to help us but he gave us a map with some extra information so we were glad we hadn’t wasted his time.
Liz, Kyle, and Sadie came up to the first room, got their stuff, and headed out to the second room. Once they were gone Jen and Jenny pulled this out:
Since they drove through Anaheim on their way to the airport the night before they decided to stop in Downtown Disney and buy me a pin as a thank you for planning our entire trip. I love it! They also bought Liz a pin as a thank you as well.
The four of us spent some time talking and trying to plan the next morning. I kept having to play phone tag with Liz because our room would drop wifi occasionally and depending on if I was in the living room or the library I would have no service at all. We finally made a plan to meet up at 7-ish the next morning, so with that all settled we decided to shower and call it a night.
Sorry this took me so long guys! School started up again and I've spent every free moment helping my parents move into their house now that renovations are done. I'm hoping to get the next vlog up soon!
Anyway!
Once we left dinner we had a little bit until our last FP of the evening so we decided to head into Tomorrowland. I had decided that I wanted a photo of my entire outfit so Sadie snapped this outfit quickly for me.
Fun Fact: Scott from Oh Yeah was behind me in this picture. I turned and saw him taking a picture of the new Peter Pan parfait thing and had that “wait, I think I know you” moment (in that I stared really intensely for a second, walked away, then went ‘oh wait I should have said hi!’ when we were too far away for it to be socially acceptable anymore).
Once we got into Tomorrowland we headed to Buzz and our final FP of the evening. Somehow I misplaced Sadie and Kristen’s photo. I’ll add it in later once I go back through my photopass photos.
I actually did pretty well for myself!
I mean, it’s not awesome, but it’s better than I’ve done in the past and I was alone in the vehicle (I am really bad at steering and hitting the targets lol).
We didn’t want to go back to the hotel yet but we were definitely winding down our day so we decided to have another ride on the Peoplemover to think over our plan of action.
Once off we saw a Photopass photographer at one of the Incredibles Expo displays so we decided to get some photos:
You know you’ve known each other a long time when you pose exactly the same in every photo lol!
Since we were there we decided to head onto the Carousel of Progress. Once we got off we were starting to get tired. Kye really wanted a snack from the Eggroll Wagon, so we headed in that direction. The cart was closed already, but the wait for Pirates was only a 10 minute wait so clearly we got in line.
When we got off the wait for Jungle Cruise was also fairly short, about 10 minutes, so we got in line there. By this point Jenny was fading - she wasn’t used to the humidity and we had been going pretty hardcore all day, even with her break. We decided this would be out last ride of the night, so once we got off we started out of the park around 8:30. Liz and Kyle went up to the front of the park faster than the rest of us in the hopes of finding his Magic Band. We happened to walk by as he was standing at the counter doing a victory dance and when he came out he was victoriously waving his Magic Band around. Clearly he got it back. They said he was lucky that it was a specialty band that had been personalized because if it had been a regular band he wouldn’t have been so lucky.
When we got back to our hotel we still hadn’t gotten a room for the second half of our group yet so Kristen and I went to the front desk. It showed up on my MDE app the second someone started to help us but he gave us a map with some extra information so we were glad we hadn’t wasted his time.
Liz, Kyle, and Sadie came up to the first room, got their stuff, and headed out to the second room. Once they were gone Jen and Jenny pulled this out:
Since they drove through Anaheim on their way to the airport the night before they decided to stop in Downtown Disney and buy me a pin as a thank you for planning our entire trip. I love it! They also bought Liz a pin as a thank you as well.
The four of us spent some time talking and trying to plan the next morning. I kept having to play phone tag with Liz because our room would drop wifi occasionally and depending on if I was in the living room or the library I would have no service at all. We finally made a plan to meet up at 7-ish the next morning, so with that all settled we decided to shower and call it a night.
xlsm
Snow White
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2013
I got the fruit and nutella waffle with some water:
yum!! I haven't had one in so long...i used to make them at home. I feel like I need one on the next trip!!
coffee flavorings are one of those things that can make or break a drink. If it tastes too artificial I can't stand it, especially when it leaves a weird taste in my mouth, blech!
I relate to this Muppet love!
OMG, that is the prettiest Snow White I've ever seen!! She's perfect!
Ok, Liz was funny, but...the guys behind your friends
Everyone is so excited and they're just...not.These are so cute!
Aw, this is really sweet!!
Her braids are killing me. You know how people will ask "What superpower would you have?" I would not pick flying or invisibility, I would pick self-french-braiding skills!
This is awesome!
I'm glad Kyle got his magic band back, I felt my blood pressure rise when you mentioned he lost it. That's a huge fear of mine, I don't know why.
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
yum!! I haven't had one in so long...i used to make them at home. I feel like I need one on the next trip!!
coffee flavorings are one of those things that can make or break a drink. If it tastes too artificial I can't stand it, especially when it leaves a weird taste in my mouth, blech!
I relate to this Muppet love!
OMG, that is the prettiest Snow White I've ever seen!! She's perfect!
Ok, Liz was funny, but...the guys behind your friends
These are so cute!
Aw, this is really sweet!!
Her braids are killing me. You know how people will ask "What superpower would you have?" I would not pick flying or invisibility, I would pick self-french-braiding skills!
This is awesome!
I'm glad Kyle got his magic band back, I felt my blood pressure rise when you mentioned he lost it. That's a huge fear of mine, I don't know why.
Thankfully, because we had to split our group into two rooms after we had initially booked we all had a second magicband IF he hadn't been able to find the other one, but this was the specialty one that we were all super excited about and I think he would have been really sad if he had lost it.
Not to mention probably disowned if he had
I cannot braid to save my life. My hair is braided on this day because I literally sat down in front of Kristen and said "I dunno, do something" and that's what happened. Sadie's braids are my favorite though!
Also the people behind us on rides looking less than amused to be with us? This is a theme for almost every ride except RnRC (the single rider that ended up next to me was a really nice girl) and Splash Mountain (the couple in front of us just joined in on our banter). I can't wait to share our Dinosaur picture because it is my favorite ride picture lol.
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
I finished editing photos for day two in the parks and after fighting with Youtube for DAYS I finally got my video from July 8th uploaded.
Fun fact: You can just make out Sadie calling me by my full first name in this video and I just didn't edit it out lol!
Fun fact: You can just make out Sadie calling me by my full first name in this video and I just didn't edit it out lol!
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
Before I start this next post, I figured I'd let my excitement ring out here! Friday my mother and I head down for a weekend at Universal - she hasn't been since they first added Hogsmeade and that trip was right when it opened so instead of spending the morning/afternoon in Universal exploring before heading back to dinner with my dad it ended up being a "deal with a really rude manager, wait in a three hour line to get into Wizarding World, wait in another hour-long line for a ride, then leave and have the worst cab ride ever" kind of day so since Mother's Day and her birthday are so close I decided to spring for a weekend at Portofino (we had been talking about going to Universal on Columbus Day weekend as early as last year so I wasn't really surprising her with the trip, just paying the majority of the hotel price as a gift). I've had much better experiences at Universal since the last time she and I went so I'm hoping she'll like it as much as I do. Since I don't really frequent the Universal side of the boards much (I am way less of a planner when it comes to Universal, I don't know why?) I'll probably tack a trip report onto this thing for anyone interested.
We have also officially booked our RGRP 2019 trip to Disneyland! It'll be this crazy crew, minus Sadie next August! We're staying at Best Western Park Place - we figured we'd book early because we'd need a suite and know those can go quickly. We'll be doing 5 days at Disney and two days other places. We may do some days exploring during the day and come back to Disney at night as well. But since it'll be a couple of days after Kyle's birthday, Kristen, Liz and I are going to surprise him with a day at Knotts!
And finally, Liz and I are going to the first weekend of Festival of the Arts! It'll be just the two of us, and a birthday trip for me (a couple weeks after my birthday since the week fo New Year's is always still super expensive), and my one request is the Edison, so I grabbed an Open Table reservation for one of the nights we're there. I'm excited!
Day Two: Let's Explore Pandora!
The next morning we were up by 7 am. Animal Kingdom had morning EMH and our plan of action was to go to Pandora in the morning, see if we could get onto Flights of Passage in the morning, and then spend the day in Animal Kingdom until it got too hot for us to be there anymore.
Well, we got to Animal Kingdom nice and early and while there was a bit of a line in front we figured we’d be okay.
Yeah, we were not.
We could see the line for Flights of Passage when we first got in, so we decided to go get coffee and then explore.
Rose Gold Rat Pack, stylish with our coffee cozies, our matching backpacks, and our completely on theme outfits we did not actually coordinate to match, ladies and gentlemen.
After everyone had a drink we decided to explore Pandora even though we knew that the lines were long. We also really wanted to get a group photo bright and early because, while we got the picture with the Beast, we hadn’t gotten a real group photo yet and we were pretty bummed about it. So that was our plan. Off to Pandora we go!
Of course, we stopped to take some cute pictures of Liz and Kyle that I do not have, though I do have this adorable picture of and then we decided to play the drums that are out:
Then we managed to take a nice group picture in Pandora:
We were all real proud of ourselves. We hadn’t actually meant to be in a DAK theme for the day. We theme hard, guys.
We walked around Pandora after that, just kind of taking in the theming and getting used to the layout.
Once we got as far as the store we decided to walk against the current of the Flights of Passage line that wove all the way down through the back entrance of Pandora into Africa and managed to get to the back of the park that way.
We weren’t sure what we were going to do by that point. The park had just opened but we knew nobody was really going to be coming in our direction for a while so we decided to hit up any ride we didn’t have a FP for later on in the day. That meant we headed off to Everest!
Since Liz doesn’t like rollercoasters she sat this one out. The line was about 20 minutes long but we were in and out fairly quickly, probably closer to 15.
We take the prettiest ride photos:
From there we decided to go on something we’d all enjoy, and headed on over to Dinosaur. The wait was fairly long for that time of day, about 35 minutes already, but I think if I’m remembering correctly it had to do with a kid Code V’ing in front of us.
The people behind us on the ride were not amused with us:
Kyle thinks they were mean mugging for the camera. I think not, but it’s fine. We had so much fun.
It was almost time for our first FP, so we took a quick water/bio break and headed back to Pandora!
Last time I went on the Na’vi River Journey it was back in October and we had only had the four of us (my mother, her two friends, and me) in our boat at that time, so I wasn’t sure we’d all get into a boat together, but we did! My friends all loved it, which was great!
Once off, we had about an hour to kill before our next FP, and since we hadn’t had anything for breakfast really, we decided to head over to Sat’uli Canteen and grab food. I think we all ended up with a Night Blossom at some point as our “dessert”? Kristen, Liz, Jen, Jenny, and I all got the cheeseburger bao balls. I ended up getting the Pandoran Sunrise (which is basically pineapple juice and Powerade) and Kristen grabbed me a Night Blossom when she went to get hers:
Oh, nope, Kyle got a margarita (I should have known that - it’s his go-to!). He and Sadie both got the beef bowl:
And Jen and Jenny shared the cheesecake, which I stole a picture of:
And think I tried? I think it was good?
The one thing I really like about eating in Pandora, besides the food which we all enjoyed, is the fact that they have tables that are reserved for larger parties. I haven’t been with a larger party in some time, but I remember how hard it was for us to make it work when I was a teenager going on family trips with my parents and their friends, so I appreciate that.
We sat there for maybe 45 minutes while everyone finished eating, then we were off on our next adventure!
We have also officially booked our RGRP 2019 trip to Disneyland! It'll be this crazy crew, minus Sadie next August! We're staying at Best Western Park Place - we figured we'd book early because we'd need a suite and know those can go quickly. We'll be doing 5 days at Disney and two days other places. We may do some days exploring during the day and come back to Disney at night as well. But since it'll be a couple of days after Kyle's birthday, Kristen, Liz and I are going to surprise him with a day at Knotts!
And finally, Liz and I are going to the first weekend of Festival of the Arts! It'll be just the two of us, and a birthday trip for me (a couple weeks after my birthday since the week fo New Year's is always still super expensive), and my one request is the Edison, so I grabbed an Open Table reservation for one of the nights we're there. I'm excited!
Day Two: Let's Explore Pandora!
The next morning we were up by 7 am. Animal Kingdom had morning EMH and our plan of action was to go to Pandora in the morning, see if we could get onto Flights of Passage in the morning, and then spend the day in Animal Kingdom until it got too hot for us to be there anymore.
Well, we got to Animal Kingdom nice and early and while there was a bit of a line in front we figured we’d be okay.
Yeah, we were not.
We could see the line for Flights of Passage when we first got in, so we decided to go get coffee and then explore.
Rose Gold Rat Pack, stylish with our coffee cozies, our matching backpacks, and our completely on theme outfits we did not actually coordinate to match, ladies and gentlemen.
After everyone had a drink we decided to explore Pandora even though we knew that the lines were long. We also really wanted to get a group photo bright and early because, while we got the picture with the Beast, we hadn’t gotten a real group photo yet and we were pretty bummed about it. So that was our plan. Off to Pandora we go!
Of course, we stopped to take some cute pictures of Liz and Kyle that I do not have, though I do have this adorable picture of and then we decided to play the drums that are out:
Then we managed to take a nice group picture in Pandora:
We were all real proud of ourselves. We hadn’t actually meant to be in a DAK theme for the day. We theme hard, guys.
We walked around Pandora after that, just kind of taking in the theming and getting used to the layout.
Once we got as far as the store we decided to walk against the current of the Flights of Passage line that wove all the way down through the back entrance of Pandora into Africa and managed to get to the back of the park that way.
We weren’t sure what we were going to do by that point. The park had just opened but we knew nobody was really going to be coming in our direction for a while so we decided to hit up any ride we didn’t have a FP for later on in the day. That meant we headed off to Everest!
Since Liz doesn’t like rollercoasters she sat this one out. The line was about 20 minutes long but we were in and out fairly quickly, probably closer to 15.
We take the prettiest ride photos:
From there we decided to go on something we’d all enjoy, and headed on over to Dinosaur. The wait was fairly long for that time of day, about 35 minutes already, but I think if I’m remembering correctly it had to do with a kid Code V’ing in front of us.
The people behind us on the ride were not amused with us:
Kyle thinks they were mean mugging for the camera. I think not, but it’s fine. We had so much fun.
It was almost time for our first FP, so we took a quick water/bio break and headed back to Pandora!
Last time I went on the Na’vi River Journey it was back in October and we had only had the four of us (my mother, her two friends, and me) in our boat at that time, so I wasn’t sure we’d all get into a boat together, but we did! My friends all loved it, which was great!
Once off, we had about an hour to kill before our next FP, and since we hadn’t had anything for breakfast really, we decided to head over to Sat’uli Canteen and grab food. I think we all ended up with a Night Blossom at some point as our “dessert”? Kristen, Liz, Jen, Jenny, and I all got the cheeseburger bao balls. I ended up getting the Pandoran Sunrise (which is basically pineapple juice and Powerade) and Kristen grabbed me a Night Blossom when she went to get hers:
Oh, nope, Kyle got a margarita (I should have known that - it’s his go-to!). He and Sadie both got the beef bowl:
And Jen and Jenny shared the cheesecake, which I stole a picture of:
And think I tried? I think it was good?
The one thing I really like about eating in Pandora, besides the food which we all enjoyed, is the fact that they have tables that are reserved for larger parties. I haven’t been with a larger party in some time, but I remember how hard it was for us to make it work when I was a teenager going on family trips with my parents and their friends, so I appreciate that.
We sat there for maybe 45 minutes while everyone finished eating, then we were off on our next adventure!
xlsm
Snow White
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2013
Yay!! Have fun at Universal!!
Haha, I love it!!!
The people behind us on the ride were not amused with us:
Haha, I love it!!!
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
Thanks!!! I've never done more than a day at Universal, so I'm excited to not have to rush around and actually enjoy the park! I actually enjoyed Universal way more than I have in a while in July just because I knew I was going back in a couple months and didn't have to run to everything I wanted to do.
Thanks for reading!
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
So since I went away for the weekend (and missed the hurricane by a day, phew!) I did a quick TR for my 2 days in Universal. It's going to be two posts long probably, but since Mum and I just relaxed more than anything I decided not to do a full TR. So, here’s a quick recap (with more pictures than is specifically necessary for a mini-TR, oops!):
Mini-Trip Report: You're a Wizard, Elle!
Part One
Friday I left work at 2:50-ish and drove to the airport. When I parked and got into the airport Mum was already at the desk and was waiting for me. Apparently she thought I wasn’t going to make it.
Our flight was nothing special, super easy,
and once we grabbed Mum’s checked bag we headed to the Universal Studios desk on the A side. There was a mother with a middle school aged daughter in front of us, but once they were done we were in and out quickly.
My one issue with Universal’s Super Shuttle system doesn’t have much to do with Universal itself, but with the specific driver. We were told to go out and wait in a specific location (between numbers 26 and 30) and that our name would be called. The guy was standing there, looked at his iPad, then just stared at me. He never said anything to me until we finally just walked over. He then told me “Why didn’t you come over? I was about to leave without you!”
Oi.
But, whatever - we were on the shuttle and quickly out the door. We were staying at Portofino so we were the first hotel dropped off. The check-in was painless and we were off to our room.
We were overlooking the main pool, which is gorgeous at night btw.
We went to bed pretty quickly after we got in for the night, so we turned in. We decided to get up early the next morning to make sure we could go into Universal during Early Entry so we were up around 6.
Early Entry started at 7, and we were in City Walk by 7, but we decided to stop at Voodoo Donuts for breakfast.
I got Dirt and some milk:
Mum got the maple bacon donut and some milk:
We both enjoyed our picks and then headed off to the park. It was about 7:45 at that point, so we got in and bee-lined for Diagon Alley.
We got in line for Gringotts while it was still a 10 minute wait time, and were through the queue quickly.
We made it almost all the way through the ride when we stopped. We were there for about two-three minutes but got through again. Aaaaaand then we were stuck juuuuuuust beyond the loading platform. So close and yet so far!
We got on the ride around 8:10 and weren’t off until around 8:45 according to my photo stamp from the store:
Mum and I meandered around Diagon Alley and watched the dragon breathe fire (which never happened when I was there in July, it was too windy that day).
We stopped inside Magical Menagerie:
Mum got a t-shirt with Crookshanks on it and a new collar for one of the dogs. When we left got ice cream (at 9 am - Mum was living her best YOLO life this weekend!) and went over to sit near The Hopping Pot to watch the storytellers.
Next up: a trip to see the wand demonstration at Ollivander’s.
I had promised Mum that I would wait until we went together to get an interactive wand, so after the show we waded through EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE PARK OMG (it was the largest crowd we faced all weekend) to buy our wands. She got a vine wand while I got my exact Pottermore wand - hawthorne:
Also the wand that Mum bought me when the only place you could buy Harry Potter merchandise in the early 2000s was Alivan’s was hawthorne as well so it all kind of came together.
We kept walking through the stores, and Mum got us some butterbeer.
And went back to the stage to listen to Celestina Warbeck perform.
By this point it was about 10:30 and we had spent all morning in Diagon Alley, so we decided to head out and do a couple other things. We walked around a bit, went on Men in Black (I got 189,100 which is the best I’ve ever done on this ride!), rode The Simpsons ride, and I got a Duff while Mum got a soda. We also decided to compare wands. Mum’s is gigantic next to mine:
Mini-Trip Report: You're a Wizard, Elle!
Part One
Friday I left work at 2:50-ish and drove to the airport. When I parked and got into the airport Mum was already at the desk and was waiting for me. Apparently she thought I wasn’t going to make it.
Our flight was nothing special, super easy,
and once we grabbed Mum’s checked bag we headed to the Universal Studios desk on the A side. There was a mother with a middle school aged daughter in front of us, but once they were done we were in and out quickly.
My one issue with Universal’s Super Shuttle system doesn’t have much to do with Universal itself, but with the specific driver. We were told to go out and wait in a specific location (between numbers 26 and 30) and that our name would be called. The guy was standing there, looked at his iPad, then just stared at me. He never said anything to me until we finally just walked over. He then told me “Why didn’t you come over? I was about to leave without you!”
Oi.
But, whatever - we were on the shuttle and quickly out the door. We were staying at Portofino so we were the first hotel dropped off. The check-in was painless and we were off to our room.
We were overlooking the main pool, which is gorgeous at night btw.
We went to bed pretty quickly after we got in for the night, so we turned in. We decided to get up early the next morning to make sure we could go into Universal during Early Entry so we were up around 6.
Early Entry started at 7, and we were in City Walk by 7, but we decided to stop at Voodoo Donuts for breakfast.
I got Dirt and some milk:
Mum got the maple bacon donut and some milk:
We both enjoyed our picks and then headed off to the park. It was about 7:45 at that point, so we got in and bee-lined for Diagon Alley.
We got in line for Gringotts while it was still a 10 minute wait time, and were through the queue quickly.
We made it almost all the way through the ride when we stopped. We were there for about two-three minutes but got through again. Aaaaaand then we were stuck juuuuuuust beyond the loading platform. So close and yet so far!
We got on the ride around 8:10 and weren’t off until around 8:45 according to my photo stamp from the store:
Mum and I meandered around Diagon Alley and watched the dragon breathe fire (which never happened when I was there in July, it was too windy that day).
We stopped inside Magical Menagerie:
Mum got a t-shirt with Crookshanks on it and a new collar for one of the dogs. When we left got ice cream (at 9 am - Mum was living her best YOLO life this weekend!) and went over to sit near The Hopping Pot to watch the storytellers.
Next up: a trip to see the wand demonstration at Ollivander’s.
I had promised Mum that I would wait until we went together to get an interactive wand, so after the show we waded through EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE PARK OMG (it was the largest crowd we faced all weekend) to buy our wands. She got a vine wand while I got my exact Pottermore wand - hawthorne:
Also the wand that Mum bought me when the only place you could buy Harry Potter merchandise in the early 2000s was Alivan’s was hawthorne as well so it all kind of came together.
We kept walking through the stores, and Mum got us some butterbeer.
And went back to the stage to listen to Celestina Warbeck perform.
By this point it was about 10:30 and we had spent all morning in Diagon Alley, so we decided to head out and do a couple other things. We walked around a bit, went on Men in Black (I got 189,100 which is the best I’ve ever done on this ride!), rode The Simpsons ride, and I got a Duff while Mum got a soda. We also decided to compare wands. Mum’s is gigantic next to mine:
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
Part Two
We headed back to Diagon Alley to get lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. I got bangers and mash as well as a Dragon Scale and a chocolate potted cream:
Mum got a cottage pie, a fishy green ale, and a sticky toffee pudding. When we finished eating we road a bunch more rides. We got stuck again on The Mummy. Around 4-ish Mum was starting to get tired and wanted to go to the pool so we rode Jimmy Fallon. I got to actually watch the quartet this time for a couple minutes before we were called in to the ride!
Mum went back to the hotel after that. She wanted to go swimming and I had forgotten my bathing suit so I did a quick run to City Walk and found a bathing suit on the sale rack at Fresh Produce so I grabbed it quickly. Spoiler: we didn’t go swimming. But at least I have an extra bathing suit?
That night we went to Mama Della at Portofino for dinner. They sing to you there, which makes me slightly uncomfortable but it was a cool experience. Mum got ravioli and a glass of moscato while I got spaghetti and a glass of malbec.
We also got a blueberry, lemon, almond tart that was pretty good, but we were so full we couldn’t finish it.
We went to bed around 9-ish and got up around 6:30-ish. I was originally not going to get up until 7 but I ended up waking up early.
Once we were up and dressed we went to Starbucks and grabbed coffee. I got the egg white sous vide while mum got a sandwich.
We ended up getting to Islands of Adventure about 15 minutes before it opened. It was way hotter than the day before already and a bit more crowded. When we were let in we walked around Seuss Landing, which used to be my favorite section before Hogsmeade opened.
We also explored Lost Continent
Before heading into Hogsmeade!
The wait for Hogwarts was only about 15 minutes so we headed on through and sped through the queue up until we got to Dumbledore’s office. Then we explored around Jurassic Park area. We didn’t end up going over to Toon Lagoon or Super Hero Island. Mum was really hurting at this point so I wanted her to do what she wanted to. She really wanted to ride the Hogwarts Express to experience it so we headed back to Hogsmeade and got onto the train!
We ate at the little baked potato stand outside of Hogsmeade. I got the loaded baked potato and a Strongbow:
While Mum got a Shepherd’s pie baked potato and a Strongbow. It was super hot and humid by this point and it was barely 1 PM. Mum wanted to swim or at least relax so we headed out and back to the hotel. My plan was rest a bit then head back to Islands to poke around the parts we had missed, but the second we got onto the boat it started pouring. It kept downpouring on and off for the next five hours, and by the time Mum and I had eaten dinner (pizza from Sal’s) and I trusted that it wasn’t going to rain anymore there wasn’t a lot of time left before the park closed so I stayed at the hotel and packed and just relaxed. I showed off my purchases from the weekend:
On Monday we were up by 7:15. We finished packing and headed for breakfast. All weekend, every time we walked past the buffet, Trattoria del Porto, Mum would comment on it. Every time, without fail. So Monday we ate there for breakfast. I don’t remember what Mum got from the buffet but I got a blintz, a breakfast empanada (basically scrambled eggs and green peppers), a pan au chocolate, fruit, cereal, and some scrambled eggs. I ended up not eating much of the pan au chocolate or the blintz because the empanada had been so filling.
We left the hotel around 10:30 and were back home by 5, like a normal work day. We had fun, and it was relaxing!
We headed back to Diagon Alley to get lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. I got bangers and mash as well as a Dragon Scale and a chocolate potted cream:
Mum got a cottage pie, a fishy green ale, and a sticky toffee pudding. When we finished eating we road a bunch more rides. We got stuck again on The Mummy. Around 4-ish Mum was starting to get tired and wanted to go to the pool so we rode Jimmy Fallon. I got to actually watch the quartet this time for a couple minutes before we were called in to the ride!
Mum went back to the hotel after that. She wanted to go swimming and I had forgotten my bathing suit so I did a quick run to City Walk and found a bathing suit on the sale rack at Fresh Produce so I grabbed it quickly. Spoiler: we didn’t go swimming. But at least I have an extra bathing suit?
That night we went to Mama Della at Portofino for dinner. They sing to you there, which makes me slightly uncomfortable but it was a cool experience. Mum got ravioli and a glass of moscato while I got spaghetti and a glass of malbec.
We also got a blueberry, lemon, almond tart that was pretty good, but we were so full we couldn’t finish it.
We went to bed around 9-ish and got up around 6:30-ish. I was originally not going to get up until 7 but I ended up waking up early.
Once we were up and dressed we went to Starbucks and grabbed coffee. I got the egg white sous vide while mum got a sandwich.
We ended up getting to Islands of Adventure about 15 minutes before it opened. It was way hotter than the day before already and a bit more crowded. When we were let in we walked around Seuss Landing, which used to be my favorite section before Hogsmeade opened.
We also explored Lost Continent
Before heading into Hogsmeade!
The wait for Hogwarts was only about 15 minutes so we headed on through and sped through the queue up until we got to Dumbledore’s office. Then we explored around Jurassic Park area. We didn’t end up going over to Toon Lagoon or Super Hero Island. Mum was really hurting at this point so I wanted her to do what she wanted to. She really wanted to ride the Hogwarts Express to experience it so we headed back to Hogsmeade and got onto the train!
We ate at the little baked potato stand outside of Hogsmeade. I got the loaded baked potato and a Strongbow:
While Mum got a Shepherd’s pie baked potato and a Strongbow. It was super hot and humid by this point and it was barely 1 PM. Mum wanted to swim or at least relax so we headed out and back to the hotel. My plan was rest a bit then head back to Islands to poke around the parts we had missed, but the second we got onto the boat it started pouring. It kept downpouring on and off for the next five hours, and by the time Mum and I had eaten dinner (pizza from Sal’s) and I trusted that it wasn’t going to rain anymore there wasn’t a lot of time left before the park closed so I stayed at the hotel and packed and just relaxed. I showed off my purchases from the weekend:
On Monday we were up by 7:15. We finished packing and headed for breakfast. All weekend, every time we walked past the buffet, Trattoria del Porto, Mum would comment on it. Every time, without fail. So Monday we ate there for breakfast. I don’t remember what Mum got from the buffet but I got a blintz, a breakfast empanada (basically scrambled eggs and green peppers), a pan au chocolate, fruit, cereal, and some scrambled eggs. I ended up not eating much of the pan au chocolate or the blintz because the empanada had been so filling.
We left the hotel around 10:30 and were back home by 5, like a normal work day. We had fun, and it was relaxing!
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
Let's get back in action with the main part of this TR!
Day Two, Part Two
As we left lunch we were stuck by the mech suit.
We watched for a second, with enough time to reapply sunscreen, and then snuck around to head back towards Africa. It was time for our safari fast pass!
It was getting hot, so after our ride on the safari we popped into the store. We all split up - some to the bathroom, some to the store - and all met up at the Dawa bar. Liz and Kyle got a drink at the bar while the rest of us just grabbed some water. We had about a half hour before we could get in line for our fastpass for Lion King, so we stood at a table and relaxed. The women who perform came out while we were there and began their set so we listened to them for a bit, then headed over to the Lion King theatre.
While we were in the theatre Kyle asked if I could find some FPs for Kali for us since it was so hot and we could book more passes now. There was nothing left until after 7 and we knew we weren’t going to be in Animal Kingdom that late. But there were FPs available for the Finding Nemo musical for 4, so we decided to grab those.
In the meantime we decided to go visit with Pocahontas so Liz could get a video of her for her niece’s birthday present. This was the one and only time we did the video then didn’t get a picture with the princess and felt really bad afterwards because we came in as a giant group then just walked away. We did not do that again.
We did use it as a quick selfie time!
But it was time for Finding Nemo!
We bought some waters and ice cream for the wait in line before the doors opened, and then got a nice seat right in the center.
We settled in to watch the show after I made a quick FP for later that evening. Everyone loved the show! But it was time to head out.
Liz had one stop first though. My mother had asked her to grab her a pair of the giraffe Minnie ears that had come out earlier in the summer, so we were going to stop on our way out. I stopped at Flame Tree to get the fries with pulled pork and cheese.
It was so good! Probably one of my new favorite snacks. I only left a little bit of it once I was done with it and Kyle finished those few french fries that were left over.
Liz couldn’t find the ears - she was told they were sold out and hadn’t come back in a few weeks - so she bought my mother a different pair of ears with all different animal prints on it instead because she felt bad they didn’t have them.
When we got back to the hotel we were all pretty hot and tired. Jen and Jenny decided to take a nap while the rest of us went to the pool. We had a ton of fun playing in the pool with one of the pool balls, just throwing it around and seeing how long we could keep it from falling. We even got a little girl and her dad involved. It was nice and relaxing, and we were in the pool for about an hour before deciding to go get changed and go back to the parks for the evening.
We headed out to Hollywood Studios for the night - we had made FPs for Fantasmic for the later showing that night. But our first stop?
You know, our first stop, 9 days after Toy Story Land opened? The thing we were super excited to see?
I’m sure you can guess what our first stop was!
Muppet-Vision! Lol!
It was a walk on and we all love the Muppets so it was perfect. When we had been walking in there had been a photopass photographer set up at the wall blocking the construction for Galaxy’s Edge. I had changed into a Star Wars shirt so I wanted to go back over there and get a picture in front of it once we got through Muppet Vision and were back outside the photopass photographer was gone. Not to be deterred we had a photoshoot ourselves.
Kyle joined me for the first part because he was wearing a Star Wars shirt. He doesn’t like Star Wars and knows how much it bothers me when he pretends not to know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek, which is why he’s doing the Vulcan Salute behind my head.
We went into Baseline as we were walking and Kyle grabbed a beer, then we headed to Toy Story Land to see it all lit up for the night time!
We had no plans to do much of anything in Toy Story Land other than look around because we had a planned TSL morning later in the week, but we enjoyed walking around and seeing it all. We did decide to go to Andy’s Lunch Box for dinner. I apparently did not write down what Sadie, Liz, or Kristen got, but Kyle got the grilled cheese with the adult lemonade, Jen and Jenny got the tots with the adult lemonade and I got the grilled cheese and a pop tart:
The grilled cheese was good. The pop tart was pretty dry. I didn’t really eat much of it. We wandered a tiny bit more…
….then we decided to go to the Fantasmic area to get in the FP line. We all linked arms and just walked for as long as we could (we got almost all the way there all seven of us linked together!) - it’s probably one of my favorite parts of the trip, just a fun in the moment thing!
We enjoyed watching Fantasmic:
And headed home once it was over. Back at the hotel we had a quick group meeting to figure out what our plan of action was for the next day, and then we all went to bed around midnight.
Day Two, Part Two
As we left lunch we were stuck by the mech suit.
We watched for a second, with enough time to reapply sunscreen, and then snuck around to head back towards Africa. It was time for our safari fast pass!
It was getting hot, so after our ride on the safari we popped into the store. We all split up - some to the bathroom, some to the store - and all met up at the Dawa bar. Liz and Kyle got a drink at the bar while the rest of us just grabbed some water. We had about a half hour before we could get in line for our fastpass for Lion King, so we stood at a table and relaxed. The women who perform came out while we were there and began their set so we listened to them for a bit, then headed over to the Lion King theatre.
While we were in the theatre Kyle asked if I could find some FPs for Kali for us since it was so hot and we could book more passes now. There was nothing left until after 7 and we knew we weren’t going to be in Animal Kingdom that late. But there were FPs available for the Finding Nemo musical for 4, so we decided to grab those.
In the meantime we decided to go visit with Pocahontas so Liz could get a video of her for her niece’s birthday present. This was the one and only time we did the video then didn’t get a picture with the princess and felt really bad afterwards because we came in as a giant group then just walked away. We did not do that again.
We did use it as a quick selfie time!
But it was time for Finding Nemo!
We bought some waters and ice cream for the wait in line before the doors opened, and then got a nice seat right in the center.
We settled in to watch the show after I made a quick FP for later that evening. Everyone loved the show! But it was time to head out.
Liz had one stop first though. My mother had asked her to grab her a pair of the giraffe Minnie ears that had come out earlier in the summer, so we were going to stop on our way out. I stopped at Flame Tree to get the fries with pulled pork and cheese.
It was so good! Probably one of my new favorite snacks. I only left a little bit of it once I was done with it and Kyle finished those few french fries that were left over.
Liz couldn’t find the ears - she was told they were sold out and hadn’t come back in a few weeks - so she bought my mother a different pair of ears with all different animal prints on it instead because she felt bad they didn’t have them.
When we got back to the hotel we were all pretty hot and tired. Jen and Jenny decided to take a nap while the rest of us went to the pool. We had a ton of fun playing in the pool with one of the pool balls, just throwing it around and seeing how long we could keep it from falling. We even got a little girl and her dad involved. It was nice and relaxing, and we were in the pool for about an hour before deciding to go get changed and go back to the parks for the evening.
We headed out to Hollywood Studios for the night - we had made FPs for Fantasmic for the later showing that night. But our first stop?
You know, our first stop, 9 days after Toy Story Land opened? The thing we were super excited to see?
I’m sure you can guess what our first stop was!
Muppet-Vision! Lol!
It was a walk on and we all love the Muppets so it was perfect. When we had been walking in there had been a photopass photographer set up at the wall blocking the construction for Galaxy’s Edge. I had changed into a Star Wars shirt so I wanted to go back over there and get a picture in front of it once we got through Muppet Vision and were back outside the photopass photographer was gone. Not to be deterred we had a photoshoot ourselves.
Kyle joined me for the first part because he was wearing a Star Wars shirt. He doesn’t like Star Wars and knows how much it bothers me when he pretends not to know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek, which is why he’s doing the Vulcan Salute behind my head.
We went into Baseline as we were walking and Kyle grabbed a beer, then we headed to Toy Story Land to see it all lit up for the night time!
We had no plans to do much of anything in Toy Story Land other than look around because we had a planned TSL morning later in the week, but we enjoyed walking around and seeing it all. We did decide to go to Andy’s Lunch Box for dinner. I apparently did not write down what Sadie, Liz, or Kristen got, but Kyle got the grilled cheese with the adult lemonade, Jen and Jenny got the tots with the adult lemonade and I got the grilled cheese and a pop tart:
The grilled cheese was good. The pop tart was pretty dry. I didn’t really eat much of it. We wandered a tiny bit more…
….then we decided to go to the Fantasmic area to get in the FP line. We all linked arms and just walked for as long as we could (we got almost all the way there all seven of us linked together!) - it’s probably one of my favorite parts of the trip, just a fun in the moment thing!
We enjoyed watching Fantasmic:
And headed home once it was over. Back at the hotel we had a quick group meeting to figure out what our plan of action was for the next day, and then we all went to bed around midnight.
xlsm
Snow White
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2013
As we left lunch we were stuck by the mech suit.
I named it George the Robot Guy
Aw, cute little warthog!
I stopped at Flame Tree to get the fries with pulled pork and cheese.
Yummm!! I ended up getting the mac and cheese over these, and they haunt my dreams. Also, that's the same watch band that I have!!
Personally, I feel this is an excellent choice!
Poor Woody looks a little dazed, doesn't he?? I love pics of TSL at night, I can't wait to see it!!
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
July 9 Vlog!
The Vlog is up! This is the last day I remembered to like vlog for real? Oops?
The Vlog is up! This is the last day I remembered to like vlog for real? Oops?
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
I named it George the Robot Guy
Aw, cute little warthog!
Yummm!! I ended up getting the mac and cheese over these, and they haunt my dreams. Also, that's the same watch band that I have!!
Personally, I feel this is an excellent choice!
Poor Woody looks a little dazed, doesn't he?? I love pics of TSL at night, I can't wait to see it!!
I love this watch band! Super cute and it was a great price
Also I'm in love with these fries. I love French fries to begin with, and pulled pork, so it basically was made for me, but it's the perfect "I'm hungry but I don't want a real meal yet" treat!Muppets is always the right choice
Woody's seen some stuff in the time he's been up lol!
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