“If you can dream it, you can do it” ~ A July 2015 Pre-Graduation Trip *Updated 9/6/15 COMPLETE!

[tinkfan160]

Hello Everyone! This is my first attempt at writing a full trip report, so please be kind! I attempted to write one for our Magic Kingdom day trip in December, but I didn’t finish it because it seemed as though it wasn’t being read. However, I really enjoy reading the trip reports of others, so I will give it another shot! I became a serial lurker on the Dis prior to our July 2013 trip, finally after we returned from that trip I started posting. As I already mentioned, I LOVE to live vicariously through others and read all kinds of trip reports. I’ve never commented on one, but I definitely continue to follow along with those that I enjoy.

Now that a brief introduction is done, let’s move onto the good part! So without further ado, the dining room proudly presents...my trip report! (PS: You have to read that part in Lumiere’s voice!)

Who Needs a Graduation Party When You Can Go To Disney World????

Before I jump right into the trip, I figured I should talk a little bit about why the trip is happening and who is going. In July 2013, we visited WDW for a vacation and my dad’s birthday happened to fall during the trip. As a result, the trip sort of became his birthday trip. Almost immediately after returning home from that trip, my dad and I (who are the total Disnerds in our family) began contemplating when our next visit would be. While we knew a longer trip needed to be in our future, a day trip to Magic Kingdom fell into our plans in December 2014 while we were taking my grandma to her winter home in Florida. After that trip, this one truly took off.

I will be graduating from college in December 2015 and I have always told my parents that I didn’t want a big to-do after I graduated. Instead, I told them I wanted the three of us to go to Disney. For all technical purposes, I was done with college in May, but as I am going into teaching I have a semester of student teaching before I graduate. That will be done this fall. In the education field, jobs can pop up at any moment, therefore I had to convince my parents we needed to do the trip before I actually graduated. We found we had liked July last time, despite the heat, so we thought it would be good time to go again. We did end up going about a week and a half later than in 2013, because I selfishly wanted to make sure my dad’s birthday wasn’t during the trip!

Bring on the Details:

When: July 19th to July 25th
Resort: Staying off property was not an option, so to save some money we originally decided to stay at a Value resort. We had stayed the night at All Star Sports in December and decided to head there again. The smaller beds meant my 6’5” dad would get a solo bed and my mom and I would have to share, but we’d make it work. However, this plan quickly changed. My dad has a co-worker who goes to Disney every year and buys Vacation Club points from a friend of his wife’s. He also told us that this individual always has points and would probably be willing to sell some to us. Long story short, for right around the same price as it would have been to stay at All Star Sports, we found ourself with reservations at Old Key West Resort!
Distance Walked (Sun to Fri only) (with the Fitbit craze, this seems like a relevant category): 95,739 steps = 41.3 miles
Who:
I’ll start with myself...my name is Chelsea and I am 23. As I previously mentioned, I am going to be graduating in December with a degree in Secondary Education (grades 6-12 for those who aren’t familiar with the system). I am a History major and an English minor...basically in addition to being a huge Disnerd, I’m just a nerd in general! HAHA I also love hair bows and flowers more than a 23 year old should, so throughout this trip you will see that I have some kind of flower or Disney-themed hair accessory! (Fun Fact: When I packed my clothes I made sure I had something that went with every shirt I took...I was missing a couple so I had to make them at the last minute!)

Picture from "senior pictures" on Main Street...there will be more later in the trip!

Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom (this is like picking a favorite child, but MK just says “Disney” to me)
Favorite Ride(s): Tower of Terror, Expedition Everest, American Adventure, pretty much everything MK
Favorite Snack(s): Chocolate covered banana or Mickey rice crispy treat
Favorite Place to Eat: Patisserie in the France pavilion
Favorite Character(s): Tinker Bell and Elsa
Favorite Princess: Belle
Favorite Disney Animal: Marie
Favorite Nighttime Show: Fantasmic

Mom:
My mom’s name is Ann, but I will just call her mom throughout the report, because it just flows better when I’m writing. She loves Disney, but is definitely the least Disney-crazed person in our house. She helps keep my dad and I’s crazy ideas grounded, but once we get “home” she loves every minute of it just as much as the rest of us. She is also where I get some of my crafting abilities from so throughout the report you will see a few of the awesome things she made/decorated for this trip!

Mom and I on the boat to Downtown Disney

Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride(s): Haunted Mansion
Favorite Snack(s): Chocolate covered banana
Favorite Place to Eat: Earl of Sandwich
Favorite Character(s): Eeyore and Olaf
Favorite Princess: Cinderella
Favorite Disney Animal: Pluto
Favorite Nighttime Show: Wishes

Dad:
Last, but not least, we have Bill, my dad and partner in crime in most aspects of life. My mom often refers to him as her second child and I will admit that he and I have a tendency to gang up on my mom if there is something we both want to do...we once made a PowerPoint presentation about why we should go to Disney to convince her on one of our past trips! In real life, my dad tends to look a little bit grumpy most of the time even when he’s not. However, it never fails that he always looks the happiest in our pictures from our Disney trips, but there have been a few times when he lets the grumpy face slip and gets called out by cast members (you’ll see later in the trip that he got the ultimate call-out this time around!).

Dad and his long lost brother!

Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride(s): Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest
Favorite Snack(s): Chocolate covered bananas
Favorite Place to Eat: Pecos Bill’s
Favorite Character(s): He says he doesn’t he have favorite because “they’re all pretty cool!”
Favorite Princess: He says he likes them all equally.
Favorite Disney Animal: Stitch
Favorite Nighttime Show: Illuminations

Continue to next post to read about Day One!

 

[tinkfan160]

Day One: Sunday, July 19th ~ “Grab Some Pixie Dust and Here We Go!”

Our trip started with a VERY early day! Even though we have an airport about 3 minutes from our house it is very small and fares are very high, therefore this trip started with a 45 minute drive South to a slightly larger airport with nonstop flights to Orlando on Southwest Airlines (YEAH for free checked bags!). Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30 AM which meant we needed to leave our house no later than 3:30 in order to leave plenty of time to allow for any traffic and checking our bags once we got to the airport (surprisingly we actually left about 15 minutes early). My mom is a morning person, but my dad and I are NOT! This meant we got up around 1:45 to finish packing the last minute stuff and generally wake up. We had gotten up quite early on Saturday and were in bed by 9, so it wasn’t too bad since my mom and I are usually kind of night owls. On a normal day, I would need A LOT of pixie dust to be functioning and friendly that early in the morning, but knowing that I was going to Disney gave me some motivation and I feel that I was quite pleasant!

I couldn't wait to get through security so we could put these on!

On the plane...soo early, but I think we look pretty happy!

To spare you all the boredom of non-eventful air travel, I will give the abridged version of what happened next.
1. Flight was on time! YEAH!
2. Stayed awake until after the free drinks/snacks and then slept until they announced we were getting ready to land.
3. Landed, Disembark plane, potty stop, ride the fake-o-rail
4. Magical Express!!!!

Okay, I will start back up with our journey to the DME area. We got down there and had our bands scanned (I had forced everyone to put them on as soon as we got through security at the airport) and were directed to the next cast member who scanned them again and directed us to lane #3. We walked right up to the doors and were welcomed onto the happiest bus on Earth. We were the last 3 guests on the bus, so once we got settled we were on our way! The bus was pretty much full other than a few empty seat, but we were excited to find out that OKW would be the first to be dropped off. Before we knew it, we had arrived and were about to start our first experience at a DVC resort.

AHHHH I love driving underneath this arch!!!

After collecting our carry on bags from below the bus a cast member welcoming guests outside walked us right into the Hospitality House and took us to the concierge desk since all of the cast members at the check-in desk were helping other guests. It was only around 9:30, so we knew that the chances of our room being ready were pretty slim, so it wasn’t a surprise when were told it wouldn’t be until later when we got our room assignment. We set up the text alert, so we could head to Downtown Disney since we did not purchase park tickets for our arrival or departure days. We learned the hard way last trip when our flight was delayed and we were not able to use the park ticket we had for our day of arrival.

During the start of the check-in process my dad was acting strange and attempting to force me to go look at the library portion of the Hospitality House. I wasn’t having it, because I wanted to make sure everything was linked properly to our bands. Finally, he made it fairly obvious that I didn’t have a choice, which then lead me to believe that I was probably ruining some kind of surprise they had arranged for me OOPPSS! I finally agreed to go with him and all was well again! After getting everything settled, I hit the bathroom to put my contacts in and we took our bags to bell services so we could officially start our vacation!

First official picture at OKW...in the library!

We decided to take the boat to Downtown Disney and it happened to be waiting for us as we walked down to the dock (this was a great trend that would recur frequently during our trip!). After the relaxing boat ride we walked down to the Marketplace stopping to browse in the stores. We perused the merchandise in World of Disney, but didn’t buy anything since it was just the first day. Even though it was still early we felt like we had been awake for half of a day and all we had eaten were muffins from McDonald’s at 3 in the morning. After some thought, we decided on Earl of Sandwich. I had read some awesome things about it in other’s reports so I thought we should give it a try. My dad had the Earl’s Club, my mom had the All American, and I had the Chipotle Chicken Avocado (minus the chipotle). We also had various drinks and sides. My fellow Disers did not let us down...the food was AWESOME (and not just because we were really hungry). All in all, I’m glad we gave it a try as it was a great way to start off our food adventure for the week. While we were browsing the Christmas store (around 1:00) we got the text telling us our room was ready. Since the bus stops were only a few steps away we decided to take the bus back to OKW.

On the boat to Downtown Disney!

Dreams crushed!!! Mom informed me that I couldn't fit in a child's XL....BUT I WANT AN ELSA DRESS!!!!

Practicing getting our picture taken with a princess!

We got off at the Hospitality House and picked up our bags from bell services. Our text told us our room number was 1920, so we could head right there. Since we had no idea where we were going we got a ride from a bell services cast member in a golf cart. While we were driving he also called about the rest of our luggage and assured us it would be delivered soon. Our room was on the second floor of our building, but the walk up the stairs at the end of the day wasn’t nearly as bad as I remembered the walks up the stairs at All Star Movies on a past trip being. We were also pleased to see that our building was directly across from the Miller’s Road bus stop (SCORE!). Less than 10 minutes later our luggage arrived and we unpacked the essentials, but other than that we just live out of our suitcases.

Just as I had nicely settled down on my bed to chill for a bit there was another knock on the door. This time my mom insisted that I answer it. My mom and dad had ordered me a gift basket from Disney Floral to celebrate my upcoming graduation. We had done this for my dad on his birthday trip, but I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting it! My basket was an adorable Minnie bag/cooler with my name on it. It was filled with some cookies and Mickey rice crispy treats (my all time favorite treat)!It also had a signed photo mat from Mickey and Minnie that said congratulations. My mom had wanted the graduation Minnie plush, but it was sold out. However, she found a generic graduation Minnie at Walgreens and customized it herself. That was what she was delivering to the front desk when my dad dragged me away so they could put it in the room if they delivered my package before we got there. I love all of it and it was a great surprise even if I unknowingly tried to ruin it!

Custom graduation Minnie that came from home (please excuse my horrible bed head, this was the only picture with Minnie in it!)

Awesome cooler which was filled with my favorite Mickey rice crispy snacks!

Custom Minnie and Mickey photo...kinda hard to read with the glare

Realizing that even after being awake for hours it was STILL THE SAME DAY we decided we should eat again. OKW doesn’t have the greatest quick service restaurant, which honestly was one of the only downfalls, so we had to decide where to go. We contemplated doing a double boat trip to POFQ, but ended up on a bus to MK to take the monorail loop. Ultimately we ended up at the Contempo Cafe for dinner around 6:40 after two rounds on the monorail resort loop. We all had one of our staples, the Disney cheeseburger. We also picked up our Rapid Refill mugs while we were there. After enjoying our dinner and spying on the characters at Chef Mickey’s. We hopped on the monorail and transferred to the Epcot loop at the TC. Two trips around Epcot and then we disembarked at the Epcot station to catch a bus back to OKW. When we got back we finished settling in and called in a night relatively early knowing we had a mission to complete first thing the next morning at MK!

Step count for the day: 12,883 steps; 5.57 miles

Thanks for reading if you made it this far! I know I’m a fairly wordy person (one of the curses of being a History/English person), but I will try to at least keep it interesting if it’s going to be long! Stay tuned for the our first park day...we hit it big and made it to 3 out of 4 all in the first day!

PS: If you're reading leave a comment to say "hello"!!! Also any guesses as to what our big mission to accomplish at MK is???

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Following along! OKW is one of my favourite resorts! I recognize your MBs from the decorating thread! They are so cool! I wish I had some arty skillz!!
I am guessing you are going to hit up all the mountains...or maybe meet A&E?

 

[tinkfan160]

Following along! OKW is one of my favourite resorts! I recognize your MBs from the decorating thread! They are so cool! I wish I had some arty skillz!!
I am guessing you are going to hit up all the mountains...or maybe meet A&E?

Thanks for reading! It makes me happy to know that someone is reading my report...I've been watching the view count go up, but no one was commenting! I thought our bands turned out really cute and lots of people noticed them in the parks! If you remember the shoes I also posted that my mom made for me they will appear later in the trip!

PS-One of your guesses is correct, but we had a special reason for going!

 

[tinkfan160]

Day Two, Part One: Monday, July 20th ~ “Where are all of the people???”

Overall, we had very few set plans for our trip, but we knew there was one task that needed to be accomplished right away. On our travel day we had missed my 3 year old cousin’s birthday party. She is a HUGE fan of Anna and Elsa, so I wanted to visit them and get short videos of them telling her happy birthday to send to her mom. We were hoping we wouldn’t have to wait too long, but we were willing to wait as long as we had to in order to make sure we could send the special birthday messages.

I had been under the impression that MK opened at 9 on Monday, however we quickly learned that it was 8. This immediately put a little kink in our plan, because we didn’t plan on having to get up THAT early after a very long day on Sunday. By the time we all got up, got ready (my only other complaint about OKW was that the sink/mirror part of the bathroom was in with the shower/toilet, which meant two people couldn’t be getting ready at the same time) and had bagels in our room, it was clear that we wouldn’t make it to MK by park opening. However, we didn’t end up making too bad of time. By the time we got a bus (which *spoiler alert* this was the ONLY time that we had to stand on a bus the whole trip) and into the park it was about 8:15, which also meant we missed the huge, scary mass of people at rope drop!

Deciding the wait for A&E was going to be whatever it was we took our time going up Main Street and savoring being officially inside a park. On our walk up to the castle we all noted that there weren’t many people around, but we just decided that they were probably all at A&E or the Mine Train. Since there weren’t many people by the castle we stopped for some photos and a selfie (something that will be a trend this trip).

There's no better sight on a Monday morning!

Obligatory selfie in front of the castle!

We walked through the castle and when we arrived at PFH the posted time was 25 minutes! We were super excited at the prospect of such a short line. However, it got even better when we only waited 15 minutes at the most! Our PP pictures with Elsa are time stamped 8:46 and Anna at 8:48. They were both great and made adorable little videos for me to send to my cousin. Instead of signing my autograph book (I got them in December) I had them sign the inside of the Frozen Golden Book to give to my cousin for part of her present.

Me with my favorite queen! I have several shirts with Elsa and Anna (but, mostly Elsa!) on them, but I opted for Olaf this trip!

Arendelle's favorite princess...I like her, but she'd be better if Kristoff was with her!

While we were waiting for A&E we noticed the line for Cinderella and Rapunzel was non-existent, so we decided to hop right into their line next. We weren’t sure if my cousin knows them like she does A&E, but we figured she might like two more special videos. We waited a few minutes to get into the room with them, but that was all. Their PP pictures are time stamped 8:58 and 9:03, respectively. Cinderella was wonderful and made the longest out of all of the videos. We also had a good talk about the picture I had in the front of my autograph book. Brief off-topic storytime: I have been a dancer since I was 5 and for our recital in June we always do a combination of ensemble and small group dances for our pointe routine. This year we did Cinderella. I was in the group that portrayed the Stepsisters (soooo much fun!). I had brought a copy of one of our “family photos” (yes, our Stepmother is a guy, it’s actually my dance teacher’s husband!) to show to the Tremaine family as I thought they’d get a kick out of it. However, as Cinderella was the first to sign my book she found the picture in the pocket and easily identified what is was supposed to be!

Here's the "family photo" that I brought with me! (I'm the one in the pink on the right!)

Cinderella was happy once she established that I was NOT evil like her stepsisters!

After Cinderella, we moved over to Rapunzel. She also made a little video for my cousin and signed my book, but overall the interaction was kind of lacking. On our 2013 trip the “friend” of Rapunzel we met was really awesome and this one just didn’t hit the same level for me. Overall, she was probably the most disappointing character interaction of the whole trip.

Family picture with Rapunzel

After our epic princess meet and greet session, we figured why not shoot for the Mine Train. The posted wait was 40 minutes so we got right in line. This wait time pretty accurate, but appreciated since the Mine Train was one of our few MUST DO’s for this trip. The interactive queue was fun, but we weren’t really by anything long enough to enjoy it. Before we knew it we were boarding our mine cart. I suspected the cart would be a tight fit for my dad’s legs and I wasn’t wrong. I also felt a little bad for the lady they crammed into the cart with him. I offered to sit with him, but he said he didn’t care if the other person was squished or not and that mom doesn't really care for coasters, so she'd probably like to sit with me. Overall, the ride was cute and I enjoyed it, but without a FP I would not wait longer than an hour for it. Our cart did not swing much at all, but with four adults in it I wasn’t surprised. My dad said it wasn’t very comfortable, but he would go on it again (unlike Space Mountain). Our PP pictures are time stamped 9:48! This means we hit the typically two longest waits at MK in an hour starting almost an hour after the park opened! We thought this was a pretty great way to start our trip!

HEiGH HOO...it's off to the Mine Train we go! Here's a selfie we took waiting in line.

Here's our ride photo...we all managed to smile at the camera without even knowing where it was!

Having accomplished our set plans for the morning surprisingly early we decided to spend a bit more time at MK before heading back to change our clothes for Animal Kingdom. We walked on It’s A Small World and had about a 10 minute wait for the Haunted Mansion. This was our first time seeing the new queue, as we somehow got put in the FP line on our last trip even though we didn't have one, and I thought it was really fun. We took PP pictures outside the exit of the mansion at 10:40.

OOH LA LA!!! My favorite part of IASW...I even had to have the doll version when the Disney Store sold the Artist's Collection IASW dolls a few years ago. She somewhat creepishly (I only use this word, because I am a fan of the Kingdom Keepers book series...if you've read them, you understand what I mean!) hovers over my head on a shelf while I sleep! HAHA

Came across this little guy in the HM queue...my cat at home looks like this sometimes, so I couldn't help but take a picture!

Looking for a ride home!

At this point we decided to head out of MK for the day knowing we would have a full day there on Thursday. As we were crossing the Liberty Square Bridge on our way out I noticed that Dream Along with Mickey was happening. I knew that the show was not going to be going on anymore after that day. Since it was already well into the show we decided to watch from the walk-way around the castle. Having seen the show from the front and online quite a few times, it was cool to watch the "backstage" area. It was fun to see how the characters were totally "turned on" the second they walked out of the castle knowing that they could be seen!

My mom took this while we were watching the show...when I seen it the first thing that came to mind was a scene from the Lion King. Therefore, I am calling this picture "Everything the light touches is our kingdom." starring my Dad as Mufasa and Me as Simba

We exited by walking through the Emporium and browsing the merchandise. When we exited by the fire house, the end of Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It was entering from the backstage area so we waited and watched the end before we could cross to exit the park. Our bus to OKW west came very quickly and we headed back for a quick break and outfit change (for me) before heading out to Animal Kingdom where we would have our first encounters with using FP+!!

In my favorite spot on the bus! I don't know what it was about it, but when I got to pick the seats I was ALWAYS in the back right corner!

Thanks for reading!!!

 

[tinkfan160]

Day Two, Part Two: Monday, July 20th ~ “Welcome to the Jungle!”

When we left off we were back at OKW for a quick break and change of clothes for me. I had purchased a Lion King tank top specifically to wear to Animal Kingdom and knew this was probably going to be our only day there, so I had to make sure I changed into it. After this brief break we quickly boarded a bus and were on our way to AK. I’ll openly admit that we are not fans of FP as we don’t like having to be in a certain place at a certain time, we rarely even used them when it was a simple as getting the little paper from the machine. However, I had made some FP+ for AK on Sunday. I only selected EE, as that was my priority, and it filled in KS and FoLK as our other two choices. We got late afternoon times, but had no idea if we’d be able to use or not because we needed to see A&E. Due to our quick morning at MK we had more than enough time to make our first window of EE from 1:30-2:30!

We got to AK a little before 1, we stopped for some PP pictures in front of the Tree of Life and got a little worried about the dark clouds moving in and the potential of EE being shut down.

Tree of Life photo...notice my appropriate wardrobe change!

Check out the lovely, dark clouds in the background!!!

GRRRR...wild animal faces!

Hey...where did these guys come from???

We finally found our way back to EE (I pride myself in being able to get around all of the parks without a map, but AK is like a jungley maze to me and I feel like I could walk in circles all day!) and were a bit early for our time. There was a PP photographer by the sign for the ride so we stopped. This was a great choice as it resulted in the funniest/most confusing photo EVER! I will let you guys try and decide what he was going for when he told us to do this pose!

"Normal" pose

And DRUM ROLL.....................

??????????????????????????????

The FP+ check in line was quite long so we got in figuring our window would be open by the time we got up to the scanner. This marked our official first use of FP+ and we even got let in a few minutes early! After a close run-in with the yeti (the ride picture was time stamped 1:39), my dad and I were ready to go again since the SB time was short. My mom sat by the exit of the gift shop and waited while we got in line. The wait was marked 25 minutes and our ride photo was marked 2:15, so it was pretty accurate!

Ride number one...my dad said the kid next to him sat through the entire ride like that!

Ride number two...we spent our whole time in the line coordinating this pose and then dad screwed it up by not putting his hand down low enough!

At this point we were hungry, so we wandered around sort of aimlessly until we found Restaurantasaurus. We all had chicken nuggets (sorry I didn’t take any food pics!). Then it started raining so we cut through some shops on our way to KS to use our next FP.

We got in line a bit early again (our window opened at 3:40). We have always done the safari first thing in the morning as is often suggested and really haven’t seen many animals. We were expecting the same thing since it had just rained, but we were proven wrong! This was probably been the best safari we have ever had at AK! We got to see the playful baby giraffes, which were new to the ride according to our guide, and pretty much all of the other animals!

There were 3 adorable, playful, baby giraffes that were fairly new to the safari!

This giraffe was right next to our truck eating!

Lots of active elephants.

OMG!!! They actually have lions...I was starting to wonder if there actually were any!!!

Our final FP was for FoLK, so we headed over that direction. We had missed the 4:00 show by about 15 minutes so we figured we would just wait and not worry about using our FP, which was good for the 6:00 show. While we waited my dad got a pineapple soft serve from the nearby stand. There wasn’t anything that appealed to my mom and I there, so we decided to wait until later for our snack. We had not seen FoLK in a long time, so we were looking forward to it. We were about 3 rows back in the giraffe sections so we had a great view of everything. We didn’t take too many pictures and just enjoyed the show!

This was our first time seeing the show with "talking" Timon...I think it was a great addition!

After the show was done, we headed out of AK to beat the rush at park closing. We stopped for chocolate covered bananas for my mom and I to snack on. While we do enjoy AK, this was the only time we had set aside for the park. For me, the big draw is EE and to be honest if that wasn’t there I’m not sure we would even bother to go to AK on every trip. I have never seen Avatar (and really have no desire to), but the new areas look aesthetically cool, so maybe that will give more of a draw to the park for us in the future.

Rather than going back to the hotel, we hopped right on a bus to HS from AK (something we don’t remember being available in the past). We arrived at HS ready to complete our park trifecta on day one!

Continued in next post!

 

[tinkfan160]

Day Two, Part Three: Monday, July 20th ~ “You give me fever...Frozen fever!”

The main goal for HS tonight was to see the Frozen fireworks and Fantasmic. I know many people are getting a bit tired of the Frozen craze, but I love it! I love the story, I love Elsa, and I don’t think I will EVER get tired of hearing “Let It Go” (this may have something to do with my love for Idina Menzel)! We stopped on our way into the park for PP pictures by the Anna and Elsa topiaries (this was at about 6:20).

Photobombed by Sven!!!

Since our whole day had gone a little quicker than we’d plan we now had time to do a few extra things. We decided to stick with the Frozen theme and check the other Frozen events off of our list. First, we headed over to check out Frozen Fever. We never got a chance to go see Cinderella in theaters and I had been looking forward to seeing the short. We waited a little bit for the next show to begin, but were quickly inside the theater. The short was adorable and worth the wait to see it!

Next we seen that it was close to 7:30 and I had noticed that was the start of the next Frozen Sing a Long. We headed back over there and the queue was pretty full, but the CM told us if we got in line we may make it into the 7:30 show, but she couldn’t guarantee it. We got in line and figured if we didn’t get in we would just wait for the next show. They started to let people in and we started to think we may not make it in, but WE DID. By the time we got in there was probably less than 10 seats left (I would have liked to be a little closer, but I don't think there is really a bad seat). WOOHOO for great timing! I loved this show! I had watched it on Youtube, but it was even better in person. I’ll admit I was lame and didn’t sing along, but there were several times that I laughed out loud at the Arendelle historians’ jokes! I was also quite excited to see a real-life Kristoff face character for the first time SWOON!!!

AHHH I wish we could have seen him closer...I'm sure he was perfect though!

MY QUEEN!!!

"Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart."

I thought the graphics for this part were super cool!

After the show let out, we decided to find a spot for the fireworks (even though it was only 8:30) and just people watch until it was time. We found a nice spot opposite of Starring Rolls and made ourselves comfy on the curb...I even had a garbage can to lean on! Mom and I left dad to guard our spots while we headed to a food cart for a snack and drinks. We got popcorn. Mom and dad got pop in regular cups and I got a strawberry lemonade slushie in the souvenir Olaf cup. While he was adorable, I sort of felt like I was drinking his brains haha!!!

MMMMM BRAINS!!!! HAHA

While we were sitting there, the lady next to me asked me where I had gotten my AK themed hair bow and when I told her I made it we continued to talk for a bit. Her daughter was also a dancer so that gave us something in common. I also gave her some park advice for their next few days. Once it got closer to the start time, we stood up. People kept trying to creep into our space at the last minute so I assumed my “I was here first, so back off” pose. This is composed of me standing with my feet shoulder width apart and my hands on my hips (if people run into my elbows, that’s their own fault). PS-I know that’s kind of awful, but it really bothers me when we get to a spot with plenty of time and people show up at the last minute and think they can just creep in without us noticing, because I NOTICE!

Even though they were fairly short, I loved the Frozen fireworks! Everything was so well timed and I always love when it “snows” in Florida!

LET IS SNOW, LET IT SNOW!!! (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

I knew from reading threads here on the Dis that in order to make it to the 10:30 Fantasmic we would need to book it to the entrance. I had briefed my parents on this and we came up with game plan while we were waiting. As soon as they turned the lights up we assumed what we like to call the position (a single file line with mom in front, me in the middle, and dad in the back while we hold onto each other’s purse straps to stay together!) and went for it. We got there easily and with plenty of time. We waited to get let in and knew we wanted to sit closer to the back anyways (bad experience in the front on a windy day...felt like we were at Sea World!), so we let everyone else rush to the front and found seats in the back of the Sebastian section. We purposely spaced ourselves out a bit as we were all getting a bit hot and cranky and really didn’t want anyone sitting right next to us (in all of the times we have seen the show, I have NEVER seen the show so full, especially the second show)! I LOVE Fantasmic!!! It is my all time favorite show at Disney. We did take a few pictures, but we mostly just took the opportunity to enjoy the show since we have the same pictures of the show from all of our past trips.

My dad seems to be fascinated with water on fire, because we have quite a few pictures of this part!

My FAVORITE part...it is one of the few things at WDW that makes me have "feelings" haha!!!

After F! was done we waited around until CMs kindly asked us to leave so they could clean to let some of the rush out of the theater. We stopped for some PP pictures in front of ToT around 11:30. They didn’t turn out too well...they are kind of blurry and it seems like the photographer was moving!

The quality of these photos suggests that maybe we really were in the Twilight Zone!!!

We also wandered through the shops and made a pit stop at the small bakery located in the shops (the name is escaping me at the moment and I can’t seem to find it anywhere). We got a gigantic Mickey shaped chocolate chip cookie drizzled in chocolate to share when we got back to the room. We also picked up some bottled water to take back to the room knowing the shop at OKW would be closed.

We made our way out of the park and to our bus stop. We waited a bit for a bus, but were quickly on our way. We got back to the room and ate our cookie before heading to bed. We knew were heading back to HS the next day, but had no plans on getting up super early since we had two early days in a row.

Step count for the day: 21,307 steps; 9.19 miles (this was our big winner for the most steps all week!)

Thanks for reading and stayed tuned for Day Three and our adventures at Hollywood Studios!

 

[roller99]

Loving your trip report! Congrats on your graduation!

 

[I_Luv_Stitch]

Loving the TR so far! Wow you got so much done in one day especially 7DMT and A&E before 10am!!
Can't wait to read more about your Graduation trip and loving how you got a surprise from your parents and your mum made you that adorable graduation Minnie!!

 

[tinkfan160]

Loving your trip report! Congrats on your graduation!

for reading!!! I'm glad you're enjoying it, I'm enjoying reliving my trip by writing it!

 

[tinkfan160]

Loving the TR so far! Wow you got so much done in one day especially 7DMT and A&E before 10am!!
Can't wait to read more about your Graduation trip and loving how you got a surprise from your parents and your mum made you that adorable graduation Minnie!!

and thanks for reading! We were quite impressed with what we accomplished on day one and, as you'll see, our luck continues pretty much the whole trip! I LOVED my gift...like I said we had done it for my dad's birthday, but I wasn't expecting it! I will have to take a better picture of Minnie to post...my mom made her hat look just like the customized one I made for myself that I have on in the introduction post!

 

[tinkfan160]

Day Three: Tuesday, July 21st ~ “Lights, Camera, Action...A Full Day Hollywood Studios”

When we left off, we just returned to OKW after a hitting a three park trifecta on our first park day. As I mentioned before, we knew that today was going to be a Hollywood Studios day and that we had no set plans. I had contemplated trying to make FP+ selections since we had used them successfully the day before at AK, but I ultimately decided not to.

We started our day a little bit later considering we had two pretty early mornings on the previous days. We had some bagels in the room and then headed out. I don’t have an actual time for when we got a bus, but it had to have been a little after 10 or so.

When we got to the park we headed right in and surpassed any PP pictures this morning since we were on a mission for our first ride. While we didn’t have any set plans, I knew our first ride of the day was going to be Tower of Terror since we ran out of time for it the night before. ToT is my FAVORITE ride in all of WDW! I didn’t ride it until I was a sophomore in high school, but once I got on it I fell in love. I just love the themeing and the unpredictability of the ride sequences! I like to think that, if they’d let me, I would ride ToT all day long without ever getting off!

When we got up Sunset Boulevard (around 11:00) to the glamorous, old hotel we were greeted with a wait time of 40 minutes, but I was willing to wait. The line wasn’t too bad as it’s pretty shady. Before we knew it we were entering the decrypt lobby and being shuffled into the library (I have a picture in the library at 11:32). Finally after a short wait in the boiler room we boarded our service elevator. The ride was AWESOME...one of our drops was HUGE (my favorite kind)! Our ride photo (which are all highly entertaining now that my dad and I know where they take the picture!) was time stamped 11:43, so the wait time was fairly accurate.

Ride #1 Poses: Dad pointing at the camera, me blowing a kiss, and Mom clinging for dear life!

After we exited the dump shop, we contemplated another ride, but the wait had gone up a bit. We promised to come back later and kept moving. We headed over to Rockin’ Roller Coaster and with a 40 minute posted wait dad and I decided to hop in line. Mom has ridden it once and didn’t care for it, so she uses this time to hold my purse and people watch (one of her favorite activities). This also means we don’t like a long wait, so we aren’t leaving her all alone while we are supposed to be on a family vacation. The wait was pretty uneventful other than a group/family of about 12 pushing up through the line to join the rest of their party (#annoying). I do think this wait was a little longer than posted, because our ride photo was time stamped 12:40.

Selfie while we waited with ToT in the background

I can't believe I'm sharing this!!! I seem to lose all control of my face during the ride take off, but if you look close I did figure out how to do the "rock on" hands while still hanging on!

Looking at the time we decided to see if we could catch the 1:30 Frozen Processional knowing this was going to be our last day at HS. We headed back to the main road and were surprised to see that there were hardly any people lining the street. We headed up towards the big stage and asked a cast member where we could stand. We staked out a front row spot for a few minutes and then it started to rain a bit so we retreated to the tables with umbrellas nearby. The rain stopped a few minutes later, so we went back to our spot. At this point we heard a couple of management CMs walk by and mention that the parade would happen, but it was just going to be a “ride and wave” due to the threat of bad weather. The parade started on time and was cute. I think it would have been better if the characters would have gotten off of the floats and interacted with guests like they usually do it would have been better, but it still served its purpose!

Waiting for the Frozen Processional

Olaf...Mom's favorite!

Anna was riding with Kristoff (who was sadly not looking as attractive as he did yesterday ) today instead of in her carriage.

Elsa looking very regal

After the parade, I had a meet and greet mission to fulfill. I had worn my Mike shirt today knowing that we could see him and Sulley at HS (something we'd never done before). On our way back to find them, we found Sorcerer Mickey in his new home at the entrance to the old Back Lot Tour queue. His wait was pretty short (even with a quick cheesecake break for Mickey). Even though being indoors was nicer in the Animation Building, I must say that I really liked the backdrop in the new location. This was our first encounter with Mickey on our trip and it also turned out to be pretty funny! In the introduction I mentioned that my dad often gets called out by CMs for looking grumpy, but he got the ultimate call out during this meet and greet. I had gotten my autograph/picture first and then my parents came to join me. As dad was walking up, Mickey stopped and looked at him, then he started miming a smile with his hands. Dad knows he usually looks grumpy, but he never thought Mickey Mouse would call him out on! It gave my mom and I something to give him a hard time about for the rest of the day too!

Mom made us stop and pretend to be monkeys...we didn't have to try to hard!

Cheesin' it up with Mickey

Here's the photographic evidence of Mickey telling my Dad he needed to smile!!!!

I really like this family picture!

While we were waiting for Mickey to finish his cheesecake break we were talking to his character attendant. She had noticed my Mike shirt and asked if we had visited them yet. We told her we didn’t think we would make the line for the set they were finishing up, but we were going to have lunch and then head there for their next set. She looked at her watch and told us we had plenty of time and told us the fastest way to get there (right around the corner). So, after we said “see ya later” to Mickey we headed over to Monstropolis. There was a line and it was getting close to the end of their set, but no one stopped us from getting in line, in fact it was a while before the line was closed. Mike and Sulley took a quick break to go eat chicken with Roz, but in no time it was our turn.

Monsters Inc came out when I was 9 and I can distinctly remember going to see it in the theaters with my grandma. I loved the movie (I even had a poster of Boo hanging in my closet)! I had been pretty excited when I found the Mike shirt online a few months prior to the trip and I had to have it and it was SOO worth it! Mike was so excited to see himself on my shirt (I don't think that he sees that very often on an adult!) and it made for a really fun interaction. After solo pictures and family pictures we were ready to say our goodbyes, but Mike “told” his attendant that he and I should take a picture with just the two of us first. After this, with one last excited hug from Mike we headed out to find some lunch.

Kind of an awkward hug (It's bad, but I just can't get past the eye placement haha)

Hanging with my favorite monsters!

My dad always likes when the characters are TALLER than him...Wreck It Ralph was a big hit with him on our last trip!

One of my special pictures with Mike!

It was about 2:30, so we had missed the lunch rush and found we didn’t have to look too far for food. We headed right to Studio Catering Co. which was across from Mike and Sulley’s meeting spot. We were a little disappointed that they didn’t have the typical QS fare, but we were hungry and all found something we would eat. My dad had a spicy chicken sandwich and my mom had a barbeque beef sandwich. I wanted to the turkey and cheese panini, but couldn’t fathom that it came with soup (I love soup, but not when it feels like it’s 100 degrees!). I didn’t want to be too picky so I got the soup and my dad said he would eat it. He ate some and told me to try it...much to my surprise no matter how hot it was that tomato basil soup was AMAZING. Therefore I took back my offer for him to eat it and dunked my sandwich in it.

After lunch, we wanted to head back to OKW for a little break, but when we walked by TSM and seen a line that wasn’t coming out the door we decided to stop there before leaving the park. The posted wait was 60 minutes and it was accurate if not longer. I’m not sure what it is about the line, but it seems like you make a big move and then you stand there FOREVER before you move again. Finally, about 4:10 we were by Mr. Potato Head (where we heard the same jokes/songs about 5 times). Eventually we made it to the ride and I remembered why the wait is always so long...the ride is just plain FUN!

Finally nearing the end...this was before I heard his whole speak about 5 times and kind of wanted to punch him!!!

After TSM, we headed towards the front of the park. On our way we stopped by the Hollywood Studios arch by the entrance to the Animation Courtyard area for PP pictures (it was 5:02).

I guess this is the unofficial park icon at the studios!?!?

UH OH...looks like we got photobombed by Baymax (whose movie I still need to see)!

After our pictures, we headed to a bus and quickly back to the resort. If I remember correctly we were the only people on the bus!

How often do you get to sprawl across 3 handicap seats on a Disney transportation bus???

We knew we didn’t want to take a long break, but it is always nice to be out of the heat for a little bit. We headed back to HS a little after 7. Once we entered the park we stopped for PP pictures around 7:40.

One of our photos with the Chinese theater/Frozen stage...not exactly the best background!

Our first stop was the Great Movie Ride. We knew that the line was shut down early due to the fireworks, but we weren’t sure how early. Turns out we made it just in time. We got in line around 7:45 and the line closes at 8. I enjoyed the new movie clips in the queue and the different script for the show really didn’t make that much of a difference for me. It was kind of funny...we got the gangster scene (as usual), but our “gangster” was the same one from our trip in 2013. I only remember this, because it was a female gangster and she was very distinctive.

In the theater lobby

I really liked the changing posters...I had to study the order to be ready to take this picture!

We had one more mission for tonight. Since the fireworks and Fantasmic had been taken care of the night before we knew we could take advantage of that time to do other things. We headed back to ToT. The wait time was 20 minutes so we got in line. Our ride photo was time stamped 9:00. When we exited we noticed the wait time was still the same, but the line was visibly shorter. With some convincing of my mom we got back in line. This time I was gifted with the majestic red wait time card (the only time this trip) by a very in character CM at the line entrance (she had full-on 1920s hair/makeup and fancy accent...it was great!). we buzzed through the line and our second photo was time stamped 9:15. During our break I had watched the ToT video you get on Memory Maker, so this time we were able to do fun animated poses knowing it was taking a video right before our picture!

Ride #2 Pose: JAZZ HANDS!!! (We convinced mom it would okay to let go with one hand so she could do it with us!)

Had to document the red card while we waited to get into the library!

Ride #3 Pose: The Princess Wave (or as my friend who works at Disney informed me - wrist, wrist, elbow, elbow, touch your heart and blow a kiss)

Deciding that we were ready to call it a night (we had another early morning on Wednesday), even though I could have ridden ToT about a dozen more times, but that wasn’t really practical. We knew if we headed out now, we could miss some of the rush after the fireworks. However, there was one last stop we needed to make. We had to go back to the bakery (whose name I STILL can’t remember) for another giant Mickey cookie. We got one of those, plus my dad got a carrot cake sandwich and I got a Maleficent rice crispy treat. We also decided to stop for Starbucks. I had come with gift cards from home knowing they accepted them in the parks. It was too hot for a hot drink and mom only likes one thing from Starbucks...the Vanilla Bean. My dad had never had Starbucks before so we made it easy and all got the same thing. My dad was instantly in love with it...I’m pretty sure he would have licked the glass clean if he could have. Every time we walked by a Starbucks the rest of the trip he had to point it out, although we sadly never had any again.

We got back to the room and ate our treats (well some of it, they were HUGE) and went to bed. We had an early morning, but it would be worth it since Mickey waffles would be involved!

Posing with 2 of our treats when we got back to the room...YUMMY!!!

Step count for the day: 13,300 steps; 5.72 miles

Thanks for reading!!! Any guesses about where our Mickey waffles are going to come from???

 

[tinkfan160]

Sorry it has been so long since I updated...I spent most of the week up north with my Grandma and while I like doing that she doesn't have the internet so I am limited to what I can do on my phone! Now...let's get back to the good stuff!

When we left off, I had you all wondering where my Mickey waffles were going to be coming from...if you guessed Ohana, you picked right!

Day Four, Part One: Wednesday, July 22nd ~ “Aloha Wednesday!”

Wednesday met us with another early morning, but for a fun reason. When we booked the trip we decided to do a character meal since we hadn’t done one in awhile. We have found we prefer character breakfasts and have done most of them at some point or another. We decided that we would do it halfway through the week, so that meant Wednesday. I will also point out now that this post won’t be as heavy on pictures as the others, but that is for a good reason!

When deciding on where we would have breakfast, I’m not going to lie, we made our choice because it was the cheapest, but in the end it was more than worth it! As the title of this post might suggest, we picked Ohana as our special meal for the trip. I didn’t know much about the breakfast until after I booked it, but all of the positive reports here on the Dis lead me to think we made a good choice. I could have made an earlier reservation, but we picked 9:05 so we knew transportation wouldn’t be an issue.

After getting ready (my outfit was carefully picked to match the restaurant, of course) we headed out for a bus to MK. We ended up on a bus that was barely half full even at that close to park opening! We got off the bus at MK and decided to take the boat to the Polynesian since we still had plenty of time. The boat was just leaving when we got to the dock, so we did have to wait a bit. However, we were its lone passengers until we picked up a few others at the Grand Floridian.

On the bus...it must have been a little too early for us, because it only took about 5 attempts to get this half-way decent selfie! HAHA

It was an awesome morning for a boat ride!

We disembarked and headed inside to find the restaurant. When we got to the second floor we were still plenty early and there was a line at the check in desk so we wandered around the gift shop for a bit. Finally we decided to go check in even though we were still about 20 minutes early. We got our buzzer and took a seat in the small waiting area. Much to our surprise, the buzzer went off just a few minutes later!

I'm convinced the buzzer went off so quick because my dad was "hula dancing" in the lobby and they wanted him to go away!!!

We headed into the restaurant and were led to our table. I had read here that Ohana was often behind in their seating times, so it was no wonder I was surprised when we were seated around 8:45 at a table by the windows with a PERFECT view of the castle (it would have been the ideal table to eat at during Wishes)! Our waiter quickly brought us our juice (and coffee for my dad). Now, I’ve heard about the juice on the boards, but didn’t believe it could be that good...boy was I wrong! I think we had to have had about 2 or 3 pitchers of the juice between refills for all three of us! Our food also arrived quickly and I was looking forward to my first Mickey waffles of the trip!

They need to trim their palm tree, but the view of the Castle was AMAZING!!!

Breakfast is served...

The breakfast of champions! YUMMY!!!

We really enjoyed that the food was served family style. We have done numerous character meals that were buffets and I always feel rushed as to not miss any of the characters. Never having to leave the table was great! We ended up getting all of the characters very close together shortly after our food came. This platter didn’t stay warm for long, but it was still tasty. All of the characters were fun, but Lilo and Stitch were especially excited to see Stitch and Scrump on my shirt and my matching Scrump hair bow!

Lilo was the first to visit our table!

Lilo was really good at taking a selfie!

Selfie with Stitch

I really like the angle of this picture my mom took while we were taking our selfie.

Picture from Stitch's official photographer.

Mom and Dad with Stitch

I thought Mickey's Hawaiian theme outfit was pretty cool!

Selfie with Mickey

Mom and Dad with Mickey

Not the greatest pic with Pluto...he needed to angle his head down or my dad needed to stand up...

But our selfie is pretty good!

After seeing all of the characters and watching the parade around the restaurant, we ordered another platter of food. My mom also mentioned that we were celebrating my graduation and our waiter said he would make sure that I got a cupcake. Our food came and we took our time enjoying it. I also enjoyed my cupcake (who says you can’t have a cupcake at 9:30 in the morning...what happens at Disney, stays at Disney)! When we were all done we paid our bill and headed out of the restaurant at around 9:45.

My celebration cupcake!

However, we did not leave the Polynesian. We went down to the lobby so I could send a very important test message. The next part of the report doesn’t have pictures, but it’s still exciting and important!

I have a friend who I have known for many years through my dance studio that works at Disney. She did the College Program two times and decided to stay the second time. She currently works in the various stores in Frontierland, so if you are ever there are see a Shannon from Michigan be sure to tell her hi! Anyways...back to the story! Shannon had come home for a visit earlier this year and told me to make sure we let her know when we were there, because she could take us to the discount store that they have for the CMs. We coordinated our schedules and found that she had Wednesday off so it would be perfect. The only way to access the store is via car or CM bussing so she would have to come pick us up. After a text and a phone call to tell us that she was stuck in traffic our exciting adventure was getting ready to start!

We took some pictures by the waterfall outside while we were waiting for Shannon to pull up...we thought it was a great place to show off our coordinated outfits!

Dad and I...I went with the ferny theme on my shorts!

Finally, around 10:45 we were on our way to Cast Connections. It’s location is kind of secret, but I can tell you it is over by Coronado Springs. The store is primarily for CMs, but they are allowed to bring up to 6 guests into the outlet area. However, only CMs are allowed in the room that contains the “damaged” merchandise.

I won’t bore you too much with the details, but this was soo much fun! When we go there Shannon headed into the “damages” room so she could send us pictures to see if there was anything we wanted. We had sent a gift card in with her to pay (she actually had to pay for everything in order to also get us her employee discount and they can't see you hand her money or they won't allow it...this was why I had only made one purchase up until this point!). While we shopped in the outlet area (I was sort of impulsively putting things in my basket and had to reevaluate before we checked out...I did put a few things back), we also had Shannon pick up a few items up in the other room for us. We were birthday shopping for my cousin and she got A LOT more than expected due to great prices!

I’m not exactly sure how long we shopped, but we left with quite a few great purchases (3 of the very large bags to be precise). Shannon took us back to OKW and dropped us off by her building. We thanked her immensely for taking us on an awesome adventure and told her we hoped to see her at MK the next day as she was working.

Before I move on, I just have to compliment Disney on only selling merchandise that is in pristine condition, but some of the stuff we bought seemed a little crazy! We made purchases from the “damages” room based only on prices and cell phone pictures so we weren’t really sure what we would be getting, but when unpacked our purchases we weren’t disappointed. I will just list a few of the things we got for a steal that were considered “damaged” by Disney.

-Marie stuffed animal with the long tail: $6.75 (regularly $26.95), because it had a tiny chocolate mark that took me about 5 seconds to wash out in the hotel room
-A&E flip doll (creepy in my opinion, but I’m sure my cousin will love it): $7:75 (regularly $32.95), because the cardboard PRICE TAG had gotten wet and was crinkly
-Big stuffed Sven: $6.75 (regularly $29.95), to be honest we never figured out what was wrong with him even after inspecting them in the other stores
-Minnie Mouse tank top: $8.00 (regularly $32.95), because it had a teeny, tiny pen mark on the hem (it took all 3 of us about 5 minutes to even find it and it washed out)
-Princess Crayon set: $4.95 (regularly $16.95), because one of their heads had broken off. We tried to glue it back on but it didn’t work so we just bought a different container to put them in before we gave it to my cousin.

Well I will leave off here (so you can process those crazy prices) for this post before I continue with our day! Stay tuned for the next post about our first visit to Epcot for this trip! THANKS FOR READING!!!

PS-I have a package on the way...I'm still doing my discount shopping at home! HAHA I'm a sucker for the new Tsum Tsum craze and when we were there they had some for $2.99 (plus her CM discount), so I bought a few. They had all 7 of the Dwarves, but I just got Dopey since he's my favorite. When we got home I got Snow White at Target to go with him and I started to regret not getting all of them, so needless to say they will be arriving to be sometime soon!

 

[tinkfan160]

Day Four, Part Two: Wednesday, July 22nd ~ “It’s Time for a Journey Around the World”

After a short break to organize our shopping and changing our clothes, we went down to the bus stop to wait for a bus to Epcot. We must have gotten on a bus a little after 2, because we stopped for PP pictures in front of Spaceship Earth right around 2:30. This stop also led to another of my favorite (for a bad reason) pictures of the trip. This particular photographer had started taking photos when a woman walked right in front of the camera. After noticing what she did the woman quickly shouted out a brief, and kind of pointless “sorry” to the photographer and kept walking. The CMs response was awesome, she shouted right back to her “Don’t tell me sorry, tell them. You just ruined their picture.” It was awesome...I kind of wanted to hop out of the pose and go high five the photographer! After our photobomb, the photographer took a few extra pictures, including a cool one with the monorail coming up behind us!

Spaceship Earth!

BEST PICTURE EVER!!! While it was annoying when it happened, I'm so glad there was photographic evidence of it!

Cool shot with the monorail in the background.

We headed to Spaceship Earth after the entertaining photo stop. The wait time was 10 minutes, but I don’t think we waited that long. While we were in line I decided to check FP+ for no reason really. However, it worked out great...I ended up booking a FP for Illuminations just hours before it was going to happen! I also had one for Nemo and Figment, but we didn’t use them. After a relaxing ride through time and an entertaining look at our future, we were finished up SE about 2:50. We exited to find that it was starting to rain.

Getting ready to check out our very interesting future!

We quickly went across the way to the Innovations building. It’s kind of sad now that it’s all blocked off even though we never did any of the activities there. We came up to the Visa Character Meet to see that there was only one family in line so we hopped in. That family went right in and we followed soon after my mom had her card checked and we got the coupon for our free 5x7. We entered the room to find that Minnie and Pluto were waiting for us. We hugged, they signed my book, and we took some selfies! My parents came in for a few quick pictures and then we said goodbye right around 3:00.

Pluto!!!

Minnie!!!

Group Shot!

We decided to continue walking through the empty building instead of going back the way we came and it was a good thing we did! As we rounded the corner towards the exit we seen people lined up, but couldn’t see what for. We got closer and seen that they were meeting two very playful chipmunks. We quickly hopped in line and had a good time watching Chip and Dale fight in between guests. When it was our turn, I went up and gave them my book to sign. While Chip was signing Dale seen that I had my phone ready to take a selfie and held out his hand for it. I wasn’t sure what he planned on doing, but I gave it to him. The next thing I knew, the screen was flashing…Dale was taking selfies! I have no idea how he did it, but it was hilarious! The character handler told my mom that they have gotten very good at taking selfies, because they practice a lot. After he was done, he gave my phone back and all three of us took one together. We took some pictures with my mom and dad and then headed out.

Dale in action!

One of the several pictures that Dale took on my phone!

Time for a group selfie!

The final product!

They were so much fun!

It was still raining pretty hard so we just stood by the doors for a bit before heading over the the Seas with Nemo. When we left, Chip and Dale must have finished up their set and came out the doors shortly after us. It was too funny...they were running around and jumping in the puddles! Their handler wasn’t very happy with them!

We walked right on Nemo and were riding by about 3:25. After the ride we hung out in the aquarium area for a bit so my dad could text his cousin who lives in Orlando, we were trying to coordinate some lunch plans at DtD for Friday. When we left the Seas we headed to Club Cool as we had promised my dad a stop there. We sampled pops (my dad a bit more than anyone else) and then we headed out.

Dad filling multiple cups at a time at Club Cool!

We decided to head to Test Track, we knew the line would be long, but we had no set plans until Illuminations. We weren’t sure the ride would be running due to the rain, but it was and the posted wait was 50 minutes. We hopped in line and waited for a while. Now I knew sampling the pop at Club Cool probably wasn’t a good idea, but I did anyways (I stopped drinking pop a few years ago and now it tends to give me some tummy trouble when I occasionally do). The line was slow moving, but I convinced myself that I would be fine. That lasted until they announced that the ride was having problems was delayed for an undetermined time. It was then that I decided we should get out of line, it was annoying since we had already waited quite awhile, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. So, we were the annoying people that walked back through the line to get to an exit door. After a quick stop, I was feeling much better, but we decided to look around Mouse Gears just to make sure before we wandered too far. When we left Mouse Gears to head to the World Showcase we heard an announcement that TT operations were “terminated” for the time being...I guess it was a good thing we got out of line, because we never would have gotten to ride anyway!

We started the WS in Mexico. We took a ride with the Three Caballeros and did some shopping (my mom got a small black cat statue, just like the little guy we left at home with grandma). When we got outside, we decided we were going to take selfies around the world (my dad has a huge phone that is awesome for taking selfies). We took our picture and continued on. I love the idea of the WS, but we just never do much there. We aren’t adventurous eaters on vacation so we don’t eat the food and you can only look at the stuff in the stores and see the movies so many times. We took our selfies in Norway (I’m not gonna lie, I’m looking forward to the Frozen ride), China, Germany, and Italy. We went to get in line for Snow White in Germany, but her line was already closed and we didn’t want to wait for her next set.

Hola from Mexico!

Hallo from Norway!

Nín hǎo from China!

Guten Tag from Germany!

Ciao from Italy!

Once we got to America we took our picture and then waited for the next American Adventure show to start. As a HUGE nerd, you have to understand that this is a MUST DO for me! The show is a little cheesy (I mean I’m pretty sure that Ben Franklin and Mark Twain wouldn’t have been friends), but I still love it and the stupid song at the end with the video montage always makes me feel all emotional! My parents enjoy mocking this fact!

Howdy from America!

After the show we stopped to eat at our usual spot in the WS, the Liberty Inn (so exciting, I know). I had chicken tenders, my mom had a burger and my dad had the surf and turf burger (a burger with a crab cake on it). He also couldn’t resist a beer (the only alcoholic trip of the trip...it was just TOO HOT). We finished eating and went to look around the American Pavilion store. I seen a cool wall tapestry that I would love for my classroom (Mickey, Donald, and Goofy dressed like a fife and drum group), but it was kind of pricey and too big to bring home since it was already attached to the rod to hang it.

With full bellies we gained enough strength to finish our journey around the world. We stopped for selfies in Japan, Morocco and France. We also stopped for PP pictures by the fountain in France. I got one of my favorite magic shots here! I am kind of obsessed with France, specifically Paris. While I’ve never been, it’s certainly on my bucket list (including a visit to DLP). The beauty and history of the city just fascinates me! As it will likely be awhile before I am visiting the real place, I just have to savor my time in “pretend” Paris!

Kon'nichiwa from Japan!

Ssalamū 'lekum from Morocco!

Bonjour from France!

Just a quick family trip to Paris...I wish!

Dreaming of real Paris!

This is my dad's favorite picture from the whole trip! I was expecting Tink when the photographer told me to put hand out, but I was so happy to see Chip when I checked the pics out later!

We rounded out our journey around the world with a stop in the UK and Canada.

Good Day from the United Kingdom!

Obligatory phone booth picture!

Hello from Canada!

We didn’t want to get into much as it was getting close to our time to line up for our Illuminations FP. We did need to go to the Photo Center to pick up our free picture from the Visa meet so we decided to do that now instead of waiting for it to get busy after the fireworks. It was still pretty busy, but we got our picture and then headed back to the spot for FP+ viewing. We also took PP pictures on the backside of SE on our way there a little after 8:00.

We look a little sweaty, but this was a great view of Spaceship Earth!

There was quite a line to get in, but once they started letting people in it went really quickly. Everyone was crowding to the front, but we went all the way to the back. We sat down and noticed the ground was angled and would be perfect for viewing if everyone stayed sitting, but they didn’t so we did have to stand to watch the show. Either way I am glad I was able to get the last minute FP, because it was a great spot to view the show. Illuminations had been a priority this trip since it is my dad’s favorite and we unfortunately ran out of time for it on our last trip (as a result, he also took several hundred pictures of the show!).

Waiting for Illuminations to start.

Panoramic of the WS and a pretty sunset.

I'll just share a couple of the good shots my dad took!

Selfie while we waited for the area to clear out a bit.

After Illuminations (which was extra good after not seeing it for a few years) we waited for a bit before heading out of the park. When we got to the bus stop there was a bus for OKW loading, but we knew that we would be stuck standing on a cramped bus if we got in line. So we stopped a little bit away from the line and pretended like we were waiting for someone since there was a CM ushering people in line for buses. After the bus left we casually got in line and the CM called us out and thought it was actually a good idea. I guess we weren’t fooling him haha! Another bus came pretty quickly and we easily got a spot to sit. After a few stops we were the last people on the bus, so the driver asked us where we were going. He was nice and skipped a few stops to get to ours since the park was closed and he didn’t need to pick anyone up.

It was still pretty early, but my dad and I took showers and we all headed to bed knowing that we would have another early morning the next day for MK EMH (apparently we don’t relax on vacation!?!?!). Even though it would be early, it was exciting because I was going to wear my special outfit and take my “senior” pictures in the MK!

Step count for the day: 16,925 steps; 7.31 miles

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for a very photo heavy visit to MK!!!

 

[tinkfan160]

Day Five, Part One: Thursday, July 23 ~ “A Picture Perfect Day at the Magic Kingdom”

Thursday was AM EMH for Magic Kingdom and even though they usually aren’t recommended we had special plans for the morning. Since we were celebrating my upcoming graduation, we decided that I should have some “senior pictures” taken while we were at Disney. I had wanted to the graduation ear hat, but knew it might be hard to come by in July. Earlier in the year we had gotten the 2014 version for a great deal at the Disney outlet store that is located a couple of hours from our house. I ended up customizing it and making it a 2015 hat with a Minnie Mouse theme. I think it turned out really good and it cost A LOT less than the new one would have. I did also order the other style of the 2015 hat online, so I did have an official one. I knew I needed a special outfit to go with my hat and the Minnie Mouse collection at Kohl’s gave me the perfect thing. My grandma bought me the red and white polka dot shorts and we added some Mickey and Minnie buttons to a white shirt. This outfit was also what my mom created my custom tennis shoes for.

All ready to go!

We had bagels in the room again before heading out. We were a little late getting to the park and didn’t make rope drop for EMH. This was okay, because, like Monday, we missed the crazy rush when the park first opens. The morning was devoted to getting pictures taken before I got too hot and gross looking.

We stopped in front of the train station after getting into the park for our first photos. These were at about 8:35.

Look who showed up in our picture!

I had considered hopping over to Epcot to go to the Character Spot at some point during the day to get a picture with Minnie in her classic outfit, but then I had decided that it really wasn’t worth it and while my outfit was cute it wasn’t made of very breathable materials. This meant that I was going to change as soon as we were done with pictures. After walking on to Main Street, my dilemma was solved. I was expecting to see Pluto and Marie by the flagpole, but much to my surprise it was Pluto and Minnie, who was sporting her classic dots! Deciding Mickey could wait a few minutes we hopped in Minnie’s line. It was quite warm in the sun and we had to wait a bit longer while Minnie went to check on the cheesecake she was baking for Mickey, but around 9:10 I was able to get my pictures matching Minnie. She clearly loved my outfit and was so excited to see that we matched!

One of my favorites...I love the background with Main Street and the Castle!

After waiting for Minnie, we were ready for some AC and I had a date with the Big Cheese. We headed in Town Square Theater and were happy to see that the wait for Mickey was only about 10 minutes. Before we knew it (around 9:20), we were heading into Mickey’s dressing room. We watched him talk to the guests in front of us about the Hitchhiking Ghosts at the Haunted Mansion (complete with asking them to reenact their pose with him) and then it was our turn. I went up to Mickey by myself first and he asked me if he would like to see a magic trick. Of course, I said “yes”! Mickey was talkative for the first time in December when we met him and he was fun, but nothing special happened, so I was SUPER excited to get some special interaction with Mickey. Mickey got out his deck of cards and told me he could read my mind. He had me pick and card and show it to everyone in the room and then he would guess. Mickey guessed right, so he wanted to try it again. I was suspicious when the card was the same as the first time and, what do you know, he guessed right again! I think Mickey’s trick might have been a little fishy, but it was fun nonetheless! After showing me his trick, Mickey and I took some pictures and then my parents joined us for a few shots. We said “see ya later” to Mickey and headed out into the gift shop. We browsed for a bit before moving on.

Picking my card!

Awkward Vanna White face while showing everyone my card...I wish I knew they were taking pictures, because I would have smiled!

I wish Mickey wouldn't smile with his mouth closed...I just think he looks a bit odd!

Mouth closed...again!

One of my favorite characters is Tinker Bell and the first time I had been able to meet her was on our trip in 2013, so we knew we needed to visit her. We headed right back into the theater and got in her line. Her wait time was also only about 10 minutes. We found some Pixie Dust and were shrunk down to Tink’s size and then we headed into Pixie Hollow. We ended up meeting her around 9:40. Tink was adorable and very sparkly, as usual. She complimented my shorts and told me that they reminded her of her lady bug friends. She also asked me if I had seen any painter bugs around, because she was interested in changing the color of some of her flowers. We took our pictures and then flew out of Pixie Hollow and back into the Magic Kingdom.

My favorite fairy!

Dad doesn't shrink well...TEEHEE!!!

The next half an hour, or so, was devoted to stopping at PP photographers on the way down Main Street to take pictures. We did a variety of different poses, some with just me and some with all of us. It was a lot of fun to just take pictures and talk to the photographers about my upcoming graduation. When I do graduate in December we will probably send out an announcement card family and friends and I will definitely use some of the pictures. At the point my outfit, while cute, was starting to make me roast a bit. I had planned for this and packed a change of clothes in my mom’s new, purchase-with-purchase backpack. We headed over to the bathrooms by the Crystal Palace so I could change. On our way we seen a cute photo opportunity at the tables outside of Casey’s Corner. My dad took a couple of pictures on his phone (these were some of my favorites).

Perfect...I wish I had the skills to Photoshop some of these people out of the background!

Close up of my hat.

Family shot.

A rare picture of just Mom and Dad!

I got a Tink magic shot from a nice photographer...we talked about how his daughter was a teacher too!

On the bridge by the Crystal Palace (photo credit: Dad)

Tables outside of Casey's...this is one of my favorites! (photo credit: Dad)

After a quick change into my Stepsisters tank top we headed for our next stop. Unfortunately when I check the character locator on MDE it showed that only Lady Tremaine would be out today. I was pretty disappointed as I really wanted Anastasia and Drizella to see my shirt and tell them about getting to be them for my dance recital, but I figured that it was better than nothing. We headed up to their meeting area next to the Castle and seen that the Fairy Godmother was still out. Her line was already closed and we had a bit before she would switch with Lady Tremaine. The closest attraction was Mickey’s Philharmagic so we headed there and had perfect timing to catch the next show.

After the show we hustled back over to Cinderella’s fountain and hoped we wouldn’t have to wait until later since Lady Tremaine had already been out for a few minutes, but we were able to get in line. We waited for a while, but it was in shade so it wasn’t too bad. Like I mentioned, I had been a bit sad that the girls weren’t out with her, but let me tell you, it was still SO MUCH FUN! Lady Tremaine greeted me and promptly noticed that her “sweet little girls” were on my shirt. I asked her where they were today and she told me that they had chores to do in the Castle, so they couldn’t come out until the parade later that night. Now, I personally don’t think that Anastasia and Drizella do chores, but whatever! HAHA Lady Tremaine found my photo from dance (I posted it in my post about our visit to MK on Monday if you missed it). We talked about that and she remarked about how she felt bad for my “mother” because she had two sets of daughters. Next she asked me if my “sisters” and I had decided how we would seek our revenge on Cinderella. I told her we were still deciding and then she motioned for me to come closer and shared a secret with me. She invited me to a “super, secret villain’s bridge tournament” at Gaston’s Tavern that night. It was a pot luck (evil things only)! It was too funny, and oh how I wish I could have actually attended! We took our photos together and she “allowed” my parents to join us too. For a meet and greet that I was a bit disappointed about at the start, it ended up being wonderful!!!

Cool castle pic I took while we were waiting in line.

Noticing my shirt and hair clips...I like the new turrets in the background!

Receiving my special invitation...she was VERY into it!

A portrait with my second "mother"!

I did my best Anastasia pose since she wasn't there!

Since we didn’t see Anastasia and Drizella, I knew there was one place we could sort of see them. We headed into the Castle corridor and found them on the mosaic. I took some pictures with “them” and then we moved on. My stepsisters shirt will have to travel with us on a future trip so I can hopefully get a chance to show them. I had ordered the shirt online and was hoping to get something with them on it while I was at the parks. Sadly, they seem to be the most underrepresented villains! I did find a pin of Lady Tremaine, but nothing with the Stepsisters. We did see the Precious Moments doll event at Once Upon a Toy at DtD on our first day and they did have them there, but as much as I wanted them I couldn’t justify $49.95 a piece for them (and you can’t just have one!).

I found my "sisters"!!!

Selfie with the fam!

We finished up with Lady Tremaine and my pictures in the Castle around 11:10. Our next stop was Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel. In all of our trips to Disney, we have never ridden it!My dad and I rode horses and my mom just stood by us. She was afraid her horse would stop up high and she wouldn’t be able to get off. She made the right choice because when the ride stopped the horse she would have been on was up pretty high!

Carousel selfie...not really sure why my dad decided to wear his hat backwards!

My horse wasn't so good at taking selfies!

Dad on his tiny, little horse! HAHA

I'm highly amused by how my dad rode his horse!

Continued in Next Post!

 

[tinkfan160]

After the carousel, we headed back to Storybook Circus. We hopped on the train and decided ride the train all the way around the park. After a relaxing ride around the park, we stopped into the Sideshow Tent to see Goofy and Donald. Goofy was a little scared of me at first when he seen the Stepsisters on my shirt, but I assured him that I was nice and then he was okay! Donald was also fun!

Selfie time!

He was great...he changed his pose in each shot, so I have 3 different pictures, but this one is my favorite!

Selfie with Donald!

Donald was quite the gentleman, he came and took me by the hand and led me over to his spot!

We got back in line for Minnie and Daisy, which was a little longer, but it moved pretty quickly. Daisy and Minnie both noticed my shirt. It was fun that so many people noticed it! I think it was just because you don’t see them on things very often.

Daisy was always my favorite when I was little...I have one of the old-school character baseball hats with the plastic beak of her!

Minnie was really excited to take a selfie!

Taking our picture.

By the time we left the Circus it was almost 1:00, which meant that the next MUST DO of our trip was coming up soon. In 2013, Festival of Fantasy did not exist yet, and in December we seen the Christmas parade. I have seen FoF on Youtube and I fell in LOVE with it, so I HAD to see it in person. We were still pretty early for the parade so we headed over to Liberty Square and stopped to visit some of my favorite guys in the Hall of Presidents.

After that was done, it was still pretty early, but I wanted to make sure we got a good spot. We have learned that we like to watch the parades from Liberty Square/Frontierland because it always seems much less crowded. We staked out a spot on right outside of Liberty Tree Tavern (traffic in the area was pretty low since it’s currently not open). We decided we need a little snack and my mom got us each a frozen lemonade cup from a stand nearby. It was an hour before the parade was set to start, but I wasn’t going to miss it! While we were sitting and eating a custodial CM came up to us and asked if we had a camera. He said all of us sitting on the little brick wall eating our lemonade would make a perfect picture. I gave him my phone and he took a couple pictures. He insisted that we didn’t look at him while he took it so it would look natural. It was just a super cute, and kind of silly, moment that shows how CMs go out of their way to make things special for guests!

Here's one of the two pictures the CM took...it's a little weird, but cute!

The closer it got to 3:00, the cloudier and darker it got! This was worrying me...on our last trip we only got to see the Rainy Day Cavalcade and I was hoping that it wouldn’t happen again. We still had one more park day, but MK wasn’t in our plans so this was my only chance to see FoF. Finally an announcement came on and said that the parade would be delayed to make sure that the bad weather had passed, but they didn’t say it wouldn’t happen. We overheard some CMs saying that the weather had been worse the previous day and it went on, so it should be fine! Finally, about 20 minutes after it was set to being the trumpets blared and welcomed us to the magic celebration.

The parade DID NOT disappoint! Belle has always been my favorite princess, so I may have felt a little emotional when I seen my favorite princess round the corner to start off the parade. We took quite a few pictures of the parade, but I will just share a few of my favorites!

"Tale as Old as Time" ~ My princess...I just love her new dress! Fun Fact: We dress up for Halloween at my dance studio and last year I was Belle, this year I am going to be Elsa!

Sisters=True Love

AHHH...one day we will meet Flynn Ryder!

"Under the Sea"

"Off to Neverland"

Time for a little Pixie Dust!

"Chase the Wind and Touch the Sky"

SOOOO AWESOME!!!

"Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho"

The Big Finale!

After the parade we headed through the stores in Frontierland to see if we could find Shannon. She was working 2:15-2:15, but she was stocking. We didn’t see her and we were hungry, so we knew a stop at our favorite eating spot was in order. Pecos Bill’s, or as we affectionately like to call it Picasso Bill’s (an unfortunate mis-read on a trip with my friend and her family originated this name), was right there and calling us! While I was pretty upset that the self-serve liquid cheese was gone, our burgers were extra tasty with an excessive number of mushrooms added to them from the condiment bar!

After lunch/dinner we were ready to head out of the park for an hour or two to rest in the AC. We started to exit through Adventureland when I seen people in the queue for Aladdin and Jasmine. I had only met Jasmine at Akershus many years ago and I had never met Aladdin so we got in line. We got there just right as they closed the line a few families after us. We had to wait a bit for them to come out, but the line went quickly after the did. They were very cute together and we had a conversation about my Stepsisters shirt. We also talked about taking care of respective cats...I’m thinking Raja is a bit more work than my little, black cat!

When we were done with Aladdin and Jasmine, we headed out of the park a little after 5 and went back to OKW

Thanks for reading...I know it was pretty long, but there were just too many good pictures that I couldn't resist sharing! Since I did two updates today, I will save the rest of our full MK day for another time, so stay tuned for that coming soon!

 

[tinkfan160]

Here's the better picture of my graduation Minnie that I promised a while ago!


Also, I mentioned that I was Belle for Halloween last year, so here's a picture. I made it out of a dance costume! Just ignore my cat who is attempting to eat my skirt at the bottom! My dance teacher and her husband were Eeyore and Tigger and one of the other teachers was Dumbo...I made everyone's costume accessories!

I even managed to pull off pretty good Belle hair!


The year before I was Alice and my dad was the White Rabbit (yes, he participates in dance sometimes)! My teacher and her husband were the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter!



I will have to do an update on my Elsa costume once it comes together!

 

[sara1215]

Day Five, Part One: Thursday, July 23 ~ “A Picture Perfect Day at the Magic Kingdom”

Close up of my hat.

Family shot.

A rare picture of just Mom and Dad!

I got a Tink magic shot from a nice photographer...we talked about how his daughter was a teacher too!

On the bridge by the Crystal Palace (photo credit: Dad)

Tables outside of Casey's...this is one of my favorites! (photo credit: Dad)

After a quick change into my Stepsisters tank top we headed for our next stop. Unfortunately when I check the character locator on MDE it showed that only Lady Tremaine would be out today. I was pretty disappointed as I really wanted Anastasia and Drizella to see my shirt and tell them about getting to be them for my dance recital, but I figured that it was better than nothing. We headed up to their meeting area next to the Castle and seen that the Fairy Godmother was still out. Her line was already closed and we had a bit before she would switch with Lady Tremaine. The closest attraction was Mickey’s Philharmagic so we headed there and had perfect timing to catch the next show.

After the show we hustled back over to Cinderella’s fountain and hoped we wouldn’t have to wait until later since Lady Tremaine had already been out for a few minutes, but we were able to get in line. We waited for a while, but it was in shade so it wasn’t too bad. Like I mentioned, I had been a bit sad that the girls weren’t out with her, but let me tell you, it was still SO MUCH FUN! Lady Tremaine greeted me and promptly noticed that her “sweet little girls” were on my shirt. I asked her where they were today and she told me that they had chores to do in the Castle, so they couldn’t come out until the parade later that night. Now, I personally don’t think that Anastasia and Drizella do chores, but whatever! HAHA Lady Tremaine found my photo from dance (I posted it in my post about our visit to MK on Monday if you missed it). We talked about that and she remarked about how she felt bad for my “mother” because she had two sets of daughters. Next she asked me if my “sisters” and I had decided how we would seek our revenge on Cinderella. I told her we were still deciding and then she motioned for me to come closer and shared a secret with me. She invited me to a “super, secret villain’s bridge tournament” at Gaston’s Tavern that night. It was a pot luck (evil things only)! It was too funny, and oh how I wish I could have actually attended! We took our photos together and she “allowed” my parents to join us too. For a meet and greet that I was a bit disappointed about at the start, it ended up being wonderful!!!

Cool castle pic I took while we were waiting in line.

Noticing my shirt and hair clips...I like the new turrets in the background!

Receiving my special invitation...she was VERY into it!

A portrait with my second "mother"!

I did my best Anastasia pose since she wasn't there!

Since we didn’t see Anastasia and Drizella, I knew there was one place we could sort of see them. We headed into the Castle corridor and found them on the mosaic. I took some pictures with “them” and then we moved on. My stepsisters shirt will have to travel with us on a future trip so I can hopefully get a chance to show them. I had ordered the shirt online and was hoping to get something with them on it while I was at the parks. Sadly, they seem to be the most underrepresented villains! I did find a pin of Lady Tremaine, but nothing with the Stepsisters. We did see the Precious Moments doll event at Once Upon a Toy at DtD on our first day and they did have them there, but as much as I wanted them I couldn’t justify $49.95 a piece for them (and you can’t just have one!).

I found my "sisters"!!!

Selfie with the fam!

We finished up with Lady Tremaine and my pictures in the Castle around 11:10. Our next stop was Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel. In all of our trips to Disney, we have never ridden it!My dad and I rode horses and my mom just stood by us. She was afraid her horse would stop up high and she wouldn’t be able to get off. She made the right choice because when the ride stopped the horse she would have been on was up pretty high!

Carousel selfie...not really sure why my dad decided to wear his hat backwards!

My horse wasn't so good at taking selfies!

Dad on his tiny, little horse! HAHA

I'm highly amused by how my dad rode his horse!

Continued in Next Post!

SVSU? I graduated from there too (ten years ago). Congratulations on your graduation!

 

[tinkfan160]

SVSU? I graduated from there too (ten years ago). Congratulations on your graduation!

You're reading correct...I will graduate from SVSU in Decmeber, I just have to get student teaching out of the way! It's so cool to come across a fellow Cardinal here on the Dis!

 

[bamacmac]

Hey! Just getting started, but hopefully will get caught up soon. So fun! I will comment more later...but I laughed about what you said about being long-winded and being a History/English person. I think each individual day of my TR is over 2500 words.That is DEFINITELY the history major in me coming out. When you have to write THAT many papers, you become wordy.

Our writing style seems very similar too.

Can't wait to read more!