40 Attractions to Celebrate My 40th Birthday! ***6 days to go PTR update and how many emails?***

Elandon

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Hello! And welcome to my first ever trip report. To prepare for this, I have diligently read a bunch of other trip reports and uploaded all my pictures to photo bucket. Let's hope that's sufficient.

First, some introductions....

PhotoPass_Visiting_EPCOT_7946529133 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

My name is Emily (I'm the one on the left) and, yes, I wore my birthday button the whole trip. Please don't judge me. I'm forty and I'm a doctor in Chicago. My son is in the middle, his name is Alex and he's 8. My mother (Grandma Missie on the right) never took me to Disney as a child (and I'm definitely not bitter at all :sad:) so I started taking my son when he was 5 months old and he took to it like a duck to water. In fact, Alex has wanted to be an imagineer since he was 4 and he loves Disney as much as I do. My mom lives in the Chicago suburbs and has a house on the gulf coast of Florida for the winter. Despite her gross negligence in failing to emphasize the importance of Disney in my upbringing, my mom has since mended her ways and gets a Florida Annual Pass every year. She is our frequent travel partner and goes with her friends or on her own as well. We get annual passes about every other year and try to fit two big summer trips in then do something different during the off year.
This trip is happening mid-AP year for us (it was the third trip of our AP) and is my very first trip report. If it goes well, maybe I can write up the other ones.

Sadly, our party is missing one person. My significant other, SW, was supposed to join us on this trip but he woke up the morning we were supposed to leave with a fever, a cough, and a headache- influenza. He stayed behind to recuperate and we brought some tamilfu. We missed him a lot but we still managed to have a great time.


Before we get started, I have a little disclaimer about about what is and is not an attraction: I decided because it was my birthday. Some of my attractions are not what Disney would call an "attraction". I counted some restaurants and our club level lounge so I'll appreciate your just going along with it, please.
 
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OMG I am first!! I don't think I've ever been the first commenter! Can't wait to read about all your adventures!

My son is in the middle, his name is Alex and he's 8.

I love your DS's shirt. My DS has the exact same one and now it's too small and I've been looking for the same shirt in a bigger size since with no luck!!

Sorry your SW wasn't able to make it. That stinks!
 
Feb 8: Arrival Day & Lunch at Beaches & Cream (#1)
Alex and I left Chicago via Southwest Airlines on our favorite 7:30 Am flight and arrived at MCO around 11. Here's Alex on the pretend monorail at MCO. We are in LOVE with Hamilton and just saw it in Chicago the Sunday before our trip. I think he wears that hoodie every single day.

IMG_0698 by Emily Landon, on Flickr
My mom (who was wintering in Florida :charac2:) met us at the airport and we headed straight for WDW!
For this trip, we were staying in a very, very special place. Initially, I had wanted to stay at Grand Floridian and we were booked there for a long time. But the Beach Club is my hands down favorite resort and searching online for upgrade options the week before I found a good price (still expensive but a good price) for a 2 bedroom suite at Beach Club so I took it! We checked in a t club level (I just absolutely love it up there) and had our strawberry sparklers (strawberry puree and champagne or ginger ale if you are 8) but the room wasn't ready when we arrived so you'll have to wait for those pictures. Instead, we left our bags and headed downstairs to Beaches & Cream!


Now I'm not a big food photographer so you all will have to excuse me. I'll try to do better on our next trip. But at lunch I think I had a burger. Alex most likely had chicken strips (he fancies himself a bit of a connoisseur) and my mom had chili. For dessert I wanted a big old birthday sundae. I love the No Way Jose but nothing beats hot fudge with vanilla ice cream. We even had the same server we had over the summer so she posed for a picture with us.


IMG_0705 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

IMG_0704 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

IMG_0708 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

There are some bites eaten but it still looks pretty awesome. I mean, who gets pristine pictures of ice cream? Thats pretty much impossible. You have to eat it.

So Beaches & Cream was my first attraction of the trip. I told you I was being flexible with the definition of "attraction" but I was pretty attracted to the sundae. Besides, they sang happy birthday and everything. It was pretty awesome. We've celebrated Alex's birthday at WDW before but never mine. I highly recommend it.

So what attraction will be next? You'll have to wait and see.
 
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I love your DS's shirt. My DS has the exact same one and now it's too small and I've been looking for the same shirt in a bigger size since with no luck!!
I'm sure it was from target but we definitely got it last summer so I don't know if it's still there.
 
So Beaches & Cream was my first attraction of the trip. I told you I was being flexible with the definition of "attraction" but I was pretty attracted to the sundae. Besides, they sang happy birthday and everything. It was pretty awesome.

B & C for SURE counts as an attraction in my books. I can't wait to go back there. A traditional sundae is always a good choice. I always find when I eat there I'm too full to do much more than ice cream but next time I go I think I'm going to have a sundae as a meal instead!

I didn't know if anyone would even bother!

I felt the same about my PTR. It takes a while of commenting and being around here and then people find you!! But I love reading about peoples' trips. It's fun and always gives me ideas for my upcoming trip...however far off that might be!
 


There are some bites eaten but it still looks pretty awesome. I mean, who gets pristine pictures of ice cream? Thats pretty much impossible. You have to eat it.

Yum!!! What a fun start to your trip! Looking forward to reading more of your adventures! :)
 


Feb 8: Storm Along Bay (attraction #2) and our awesome suite!
After lunch, we went back up to the club lounge where the CMs assured us we would be ready to get into our room in about an hour and the weather was great for February (about 80F) so did we head to a park? No, we changed into our swimsuits and headed to Storm Along Bay. This is a HUGE reason we love the Beach Club. When we were coming to the Beach Club for the first time, I thought the pool looked pretty cool but I kinda felt like the sand bottom was going to be a bit of a gimmick. I figured we would want to spend a couple of hours at the pool and it would be a great place for me to relax and let Alex get his energy out. Boy was I wrong. There is something really spectacular about the sand bottom and the pool complex is huge. Just making your way through all the waterways is fun. We just love swimming and exploring together and we usually go almost every day of a trip. In February, I did't plan on it much because we usually get terrible weather when we visit (I think I'm bad luck for Feb weather) but this day was good so we took advantage of it. Grandma Missie hates the water so she did her favorite thing at the Beach Club. She stayed behind in the club lounge and read her book while snacking on those awesome home made potato chips and drinking decaf lattes from the nespresso machine.

IMG_0711 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

Alex is playing the poolside games. I think he's supposed to be tossing something.

IMG_0712 by Emily Landon, on Flickr


We played pool for a bit in the gazebo above Hurricane Hannah's.

IMG_0714 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

Our favorite lazy river ever. It's about 8 feet deep at the deepest place. We both love to swim so this is perfect. And Alex loves to try to dive all the way down and bring back up a handful of sand. Once they let him be a junior lifeguard but that was a different trip!

IMG_0724 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

While we were swimming, I got a text that our room was ready. We toweled off and headed upstairs to see our amazing 2 bedroom suite! I've never actually stayed in a room this fancy before in my life so I was pretty excited. We definitely didn't need all that space without SW but he encouraged us to keep it so we did!

I wish I had kept track of the room number but it was on the fourth floor (the club lounge is on 5) and is right at the end of the hall on the corner and looks over the entry courtyard and the water/boardwalk. The basic setup is a one bedroom suite (king bed in the BR and pull out couch in the LR) attached to a regular room with two queen beds and another bathroom.

Here's the view from the LR and the second BR.

IMG_1298 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

The main BR also has a bit of that view but it's on the corner and looks out the other way.

IMG_1300 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

When you walk in the door, this is what you see first. The main bedroom is to the left and the second bedroom is on the right.

IMG_1308 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

IMG_1305 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

IMG_1303 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

IMG_1302 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

IMG_1301 by Emily Landon, on Flickr


IMG_1676 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

IMG_1678 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

And Alex claiming the big bed.

IMG_0728 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

Alex was pretty happy that there were three TVs! He doesn't usually get to watch much TV so the prospect of every person having their own TV was a pretty big deal. The TV in the main bedroom actually recesses into the dresser which is awesome if you are 8 and always like to know how things work (it makes for shallow drawers which I was less excited about). So, predictably, he immediately figured out how to lower it back into the dresser. Unfortunately, he couldn't figure out how to get it back out again. In fact, none of us could get it back. Alex did try pretty hard though. He broke off our only house key in the dresser and it turns out he was on the right track. The hotel guy came to fix it but even he had to look it up because he said no one had ever done that before. Only my kid. Of course.

IMG_0727 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

This was, by far, the nicest room I have ever stayed in. It was awesome. We could watch fireworks from the window in the bedroom and the door in the living room opens out to a beautiful juliet balcony with excellent people watching. It really was the perfect splurge/celebration room. I doubt we will ever be able to do this again but, boy, did I love it. And I'm not even counting it as an attraction!

 
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What a great start so far!

I have lots of love for Beach Club too - my parents are DVC members and it's their home resort. My son and I stayed there our last trip in Dec with their points and we just adore it!

Your son is so cute! My son is almost the same age, he will be 8 in July :) They are at such a great and fun age!

Looking forward to reading more :goodvibes
 
Following along! I also celebrated my 40th in Disney but that was a few years ago (unfortunately). What better place to celebrate! My DH and I are going in early Dec. - that's his favorite time to go so whatever I need to do to get him there, I'm OK with it :rotfl2:
 
What a great start so far!

I have lots of love for Beach Club too - my parents are DVC members and it's their home resort. My son and I stayed there our last trip in Dec with their points and we just adore it!

Your son is so cute! My son is almost the same age, he will be 8 in July :) They are at such a great and fun age!

Looking forward to reading more :goodvibes
:welcome: Thanks for joining! I love my big kid! He can be somewhat responsible and independent but still loves to snuggle his mom.
 
Following along! I also celebrated my 40th in Disney but that was a few years ago (unfortunately). What better place to celebrate! My DH and I are going in early Dec. - that's his favorite time to go so whatever I need to do to get him there, I'm OK with it :rotfl2:

:welcome: December is a pretty good time in my opinion. Our trip before this was for Thanksgiving and I just love all the holiday decorations.
 
Feb 8: Stone Harbor Club & MK (attractions 3&4)!

Welcome back, friends. Now you would be forgiven for thinking we spent the rest of the evening just enjoying our suite but that would not be accurate. We needed to fulfill an important tradition: visiting Magic Kingdom on the first day.

But before we get to that, I want to say a few words about the Stone Harbor Club (club level lounge at Beach Club). I have a serious food allergy to apple. You might think it would be easy to avoid apples but apple cider vinegar and fruit pectin are "hidden" ingredients and most fruit is cut on the same board in kitchens. In order to avoid unnecessary trips to the hospital or "down time" from benadryl and steroids, I usually over compensate by avoiding all fresh fruit, anything that may have needed thickening (lots of desserts, yogurt, jam), and anything with vinegar (salad dressing, sauces, etc). This can make for a very bland and limited diet but not at Disney. The Disney chefs have these big binders full of recipes that include every ingredient and every single one has always been more than happy to check on anything I wanted to eat. That said, there is something really special about Chris at the Stone Harbor Club.

IMG_0880 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

We have stayed here a number of times and we frequently stay club level because of him. When I arrive, he goes through everything on the menu for my stay to make sure I know what is safe and what is not. Then, without my request, he frequently makes special versions of anything I showed interest in without the offending ingredients. Most evenings I come back to the lounge to find a huge plate of strawberries and raspberries set aside for me that he specially cleaned and sliced with no cross contamination. This trip was my for my birthday and when he found out, he insisted on making me a special dessert for every evening (many of the available desserts have pectin). Talk about pixie dust! My heart swells every time I think about it :lovestruc

First I needed some help with my FPP situation. We were all hungry but we were going to miss a very valuable FPP at MK if we stayed to eat. Luckily, the CMs at the desk were able to change it for us (I couldn't get it on the app so this was helpful). Having that all taken care of, we stopped by club level for some snacks (we usually just have snacks for dinner, especially after a big lunch). The club lounge is also a great place for an 8 year old to feel a little bit independent. He can get his own food (I've trained him how to do it correctly--I'm an infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist so these things are a big deal at our house) and sit in front of the TV to eat. What a treat! AND there were some kind of chicken tenders so we have one VERY happy kid.

IMG_0733 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

Here's what my mom and I were eating.

IMG_0729 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

After this we headed down to the bus stop and caught a bus to the Magic Kingdom! I love MK at night.

IMG_0746 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

On to attraction #3- the first in-park attraction of the trip. You might be able to guess where we headed first: Meeting Mickey! We had a FPP and were arriving near the end of the time window so we got right in. He sang happy birthday to me and I felt as awesome as a kid does on their birthday. There's something about meeting the mouse that always makes me feel as joyful as a kid. Maybe that's why I love Disney so much. That and all the totally awesome details. Did you notice these? The second poster is like a play on Tesla's electricity tower.

IMG_0742 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

IMG_0745 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

PhotoPass_Visiting_MK_7944238442 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

PhotoPass_Visiting_MK_7944240411 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

Now you should know that choosing attractions and fast passes and touring plans is usually a collaborative process. Not so for my birthday. And that means you will not find popular 8 year old choices like Tomorrowland Speedway (which was a total disaster the first time Alex drove on his own but that was in a different trip) on the roster. So after meeting Mickey we headed off to a personal favorite that is always surprisingly difficult to get: Attraction #4 is Peter Pan! We used the FP specially arranged by the Concierge CMs which means we missed the new queue. I've still never seen it! Sorry about the poor quality selfie but you can see how happy we all were to be sailing off to Neverland.

IMG_0749 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

IMG_0751 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

I think it's nearly impossible to get good pictures on this ride but this one from the end is one of my favorite parts of the ride and it's actually passable. I really wish I could load music to go with these posts. Wouldn't it be nice to hear the sound track as you read?

IMG_0752 by Emily Landon, on Flickr

So where would you go next? We still have one FPP and the park wasn't too busy so we got a few standby rides in too. Four more attractions to go before we call it a night....



 
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Following along...what an amazingly awesome trip so far!! I can't wait to see the rest of the 40 attractions. What a fun way to do a trip report.
 
Following along...what an amazingly awesome trip so far!! I can't wait to see the rest of the 40 attractions. What a fun way to do a trip report.
:welcome: Thanks for joining! It was an almost perfect trip, in my opinion so I thought it would make a good report. Plus I can't wait until our summer trip this year and writing this report helps the summer go by more quickly! Why would anyone want such a thing? Alex spends a lot of the summer with his dad so it can get rather lonely around here!
 
Hi! I followed you over here from your post on the Beach Club thread! Happy belated birthday :) What a fun way to celebrate!!
 

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