As Hot As The Surface Of The Sun... A June, 2015 Trip Report (Update August 11)

[DisneyAllen]

Hello there. This is going to be an attempt to write a trip report. I once tried to write one of an earlier trip to Walt Disney World but.... failed... miserably. The concept is awesome so this time, I'm hoping I can actually get this done.

My name, as you might have guessed, is Allen. I am the father of two and husband to one. This is me:




I'm in my mid 40's and live in California with my wonderful Disney family. My wife and I grew up on Disneyland in the 1970's and 1980's and we've raised our children to love Disneyland. Now, we have, as a family, taken two trips to Orlando to visit the bigger version of our favorite park(s). This is the story of how we coped on this trip (it was an amazing and memorable trip! But yeah, hot as Hades' underworld!).

This is my beautiful wife:



Christine has been going to Disneyland with her family since the 1980's. She's maybe not quite into it as much as me, but she loves it and had a blast on this trip.

Here is my oldest (14) child:



Anthony is like many 14 year old boys in that he loves Darth Vader and... explosions. He is very impressed with the castle at Walt Disney World. His favorite Disney Character is Donald Duck.

And of course, there's the Princess:



Olivia is 10 and wishes she could live at Disneyland (or Disneyworld). She loves sparkles and pretty dresses. Her favorite Princess, the last time I asked her, was Tiana (or maybe Jasmine, she loves them ALL).

Well, anyway. That's the short story of us. I've already "written" most of my trip report so I'm excited to begin the long journey that took a year to plan and 10 days to live through!

 

[DisneyAllen]

Day One: Travel and Beach Club Arrival

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Let's get the obligatory travel post out of the way quickly. We live in Orange County. Yep, about 12 miles south of Disneyland. People are sometimes surprised that with our proximity to the happiest place on Earth, we would travel all the way across the country and go to Walt Disney World BUT I felt that there was easily enough difference between the two places. At Disneyland, it's a place where, if you have an annual pass (which we usually do), we would just pop in for few hours before going back home and back to our lives. With Disney World, it's more of a vacation destination. We immerse ourselves in the magic 24 hours a day/7 days a week instead for a few hours from time to time every couple of weeks.

Well, we had to fly there and it's not easy to plan a trip to WDW, coming from the West Coast. Most of your first day is spent in the air. Unless you decide to take a Red Eye the night before, you have to catch the fight as early as possible in the morning but by the time you take off, it's usually already mid day on the East Coast and when you get to Florida, it's usually already afternoon drive time.

I didn't take too many pictures of our trip out of Los Angeles because who really wants to see that? But also because we were running a little late. It's easy to be late or just on time for your flight when coming into LAX because it's just so hectic.

We parked our car at an off site parking garage and took their shuttle into our American Airlines terminal. I had hoped to be able to grab a coffee or something before we took off but after checking in, checking our bag, removing some weight from our bag because it was a few ounces too heavy, going through security and then rushing to the gate, it was almost time for our plane to board.

So no coffee for the adults and instead we were just going to have to accomplish what I wanted us to accomplish today on pure adrenaline.

Well, after the 4+ hour flight, we arrived in Florida a little after 4 pm Florida time. We had to get to our resort first and naturally, we took the most stress free way possible. Magical Express:

The Magical Express bus was waiting for us right when we got to the area. Olivia scored a sticker and we were on the bus and headed to our resort!


Happy Girl


Sure, I'll smile!

20 or 30 minutes went by and the time was coming soon:


Pretty bad picture but I was way back in the bus... whattya want?

They pretty much let everyone off the bus except us. This allowed me to get some nice pictures of our resort:


Well, with the glare, of course!



Almost there!

Once we arrived at the Beach Club, we were immediately met and ushered upstairs to the club lounge by a cast member. It's just not service we are used to. They treated us so well. We were so excited to be there. In fact, I was SO EXCITED that, like an imbecile, I left my cell phone on the Magical Express! Amateur move!

Once up to check in at the concierge, I told the concierge what happened and they immediately called the powers that be to put them on the case. They did finally find it. Took a couple of days but I blame Allen, not Disney for this issue.

The family was hungry so they went into the club lounge to grab some appetizers. I was able to bring Christine out long enough to take this picture:

Champagne toast prior to visiting our room:



And then our room, which was incredible. I had taken advantage of a 30% rate drop but the only choice they had for us was water view rooms, so okay, it's not something we necessarily need, but that's fine.

Here was the view from our room:



This was even more beautiful at night, though I clearly need to work on my night photography because none of those shots came out very well.

They left us chocolates:



Well, we did feel at home. But it was time to leave and hit our first theme park. No time better than the present!

Continued....

 

[ariane37]

Hello there! Happy to join your TR right at the beginning, I'm usually much later to the party lol. I think you're off to a good start!
I've been debating attempting a TR for my Nov. trip but not sure how successful I would be......first I need to figure out how to post pictures
Look forward to reading more!

 

[N8sgirl12]

Looking forward to reading more! Yes, summer in Orlando - FREAKIN HOT!!

 

[kcpinwdw]

im following along! We'll be at BC for part of next trip

 

[DisneyAllen]

Hello there! Happy to join your TR right at the beginning, I'm usually much later to the party lol. I think you're off to a good start!
I've been debating attempting a TR for my Nov. trip but not sure how successful I would be......first I need to figure out how to post pictures
Look forward to reading more!

Welcome to my trip report. My goal is to post one segment twice a week. We'll see how that goes. We were there for 10 days so it's probably going to be a long one. Getting to relive the trip is almost as fun as actually going though.

I also had a little trouble figuring out how to post pictures and to be honest, I think my pictures were too small. I might go back in and edit those, we'll see. Anyway, glad you're here!

 

[DisneyAllen]

Looking forward to reading more! Yes, summer in Orlando - FREAKIN HOT!!

Welcome to my trip report. It was SOOOOOO hot, yes. Probably the thing my family (who live in mild California and have all grown soft) remember most about this trip, unfortunately. Lots of good stuff too!

 

[DisneyAllen]

im following along! We'll be at BC for part of next trip

Welcome. We loved the Beach Club. I would like to try to other resorts but after doing the Yacht Club in 2012 and Beach Club this year, I'm not sure how we're ever going anywhere else on WDW property, unless we start going more than once every three years!

 

[luckylady]

I'm in. We stayed BC club level eleven years ago for our 25th anniversary. Looks like your room was close to where ours was. Waiting for more.

 

[nilla]

In in, too. As another man in his 40s, with a 14-year-old son, a soon-to-be 10-year-old daughter, a recent WDW June trip in the books, and the inability to take good photos at night, I feel almost obligated to read

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Bubbenstein]

Joining in! We were there in June as well, so I can totally relate to how hot it was!

Looking forward to your trip report

 

[purplelover88]

We were also there in June and with the title of this trip report I just had to come over. We also stayed at the Yacht Club so not too far away.

 

[DisneyAllen]

I'm in. We stayed BC club level eleven years ago for our 25th anniversary. Looks like your room was close to where ours was. Waiting for more.

Welcome to my report. Club Level was awesome. We did it also at Yacht Club three years early. It's a splurge. I think in the future, we may not do that but it sure was nice!

In in, too. As another man in his 40s, with a 14-year-old son, a soon-to-be 10-year-old daughter, a recent WDW June trip in the books, and the inability to take good photos at night, I feel almost obligated to read

Thanks for sharing!

HaHa. A member of the cult! Good ages on the kids. This was the first time we let my son roam around the parks by himself so 14 seems like the prime time for that.

Joining in! We were there in June as well, so I can totally relate to how hot it was!

Looking forward to your trip report

Welcome. So hot, huh? I could barely handle it. Having children, it just makes sense for us to to go in the summer, unfortunately.

We were also there in June and with the title of this trip report I just had to come over. We also stayed at the Yacht Club so not too far away.

Welcome! I love the Yacht Club. We stayed there in 2012 but for my family, the Beach Club just felt more comfortable plus closer to Epcot, even though just a few hundred feet or so... it was important.

 

[Gma2lillybean]

Your title pulled me in!! We usually go in mid-September and it's still miserably hot then, so I can relate! Sounds like you're off to a great start - minus the phone snafu...can't wait for the rest!

 

[DisneyAllen]

Well, after traveling all day and making our way over to hot and steamy Orlando and the Beach Club. I wanted us to not slow down. I know people were telling me that I should just take it easy and maybe go swimming our first day BUT I just thought it would be too hard to contain our energy. So, after spending 15 minutes or so in the room, we were off to the Magic Kingdom.


On the bus, rocking the 60th anniversary Disneyland merch!

The Magic Kingdom is awesome but to our family, it is like a bizarro version of Disneyland. Similar to it, yes, but different stuff in different places. It's also the one park in Walt Disney World where I don't mind going on cloned rides. Not sure why but it feels different riding Space Mountain versus riding, for instance, Toy Story Mania, which we don't do at Disney World.


Man those buildings in Florida's Main Street are HUGE!


The Castle!


Photopass picture

Yep, it was busy this night, but for whatever reason, this didn't affect our mood one little bit!

There are a bunch of cool things at WDW Magic Kingdom which are different than what we have here in California. One of them is, clearly, the castle. Cinderella Castle is much more impressive than Sleeping Beauty Castle. I think the Disneyland Castle has a lot going for it but Cinderella is very pretty in itself and wins the sheer size competition!



Anthony loves the size of this thing!

I was hoping we'd get here early enough to do a few things before our first FP+ came due but with all the traveling and the bus, etc..., we had to get to our first ride....

So we took a right turn and headed to Tomorrowland to my wife's favorite ride. It was time for Space Mountain.

Obviously, this is a truly iconic ride. I am not a huge fan of the jarring rocket ship version in WDW as compared to the also jarring (though less) version in Disneyland.

I'm always taken aback by where in the park they put these rides in comparison to each other. Where the WDW Space Mountain is, I expected to see Innoventions or Autopia.





Christine was giddy about riding!



Excited or Frightened? You be the judge!



That's me in the front trying to remember the number of my chiropractor!

I will stop here... we are going to only be in two lands this evening with a couple more stops here in Tomorrowland in the next update.

 

[DisneyAllen]

Your title pulled me in!! We usually go in mid-September and it's still miserably hot then, so I can relate! Sounds like you're off to a great start - minus the phone snafu...can't wait for the rest!

Welcome! They eventually found the phone and hey, I was in Disney World, so what the heck if I have to replace my phone which is now like two generations behind!

 

[purplelover88]

the Beach Club just felt more comfortable plus closer to Epcot, even though just a few hundred feet or so... it was important.

We also thought that. I originally tried to get into the Beach Club but you have to go where the discount leads and the Yacht Club won for us this trip. The Beach club just feels so much more homey and comfortable where as the Yacht Club feels so formal to me. I completely understand about the few hundred feet. I will admit that more than once I did say that if we were at the Beach Club we could have been there already. The Yacht club is closer to the boat launch for hollywood studios however so that was nice.

 

[purplelover88]

I wanted us to not slow down

as opposed to what? Resting at Disney World? What a concept!

people were telling me that I should just take it easy

And who are these people telling you such negative things?

I'm always taken aback by where in the park they put these rides in comparison to each other.

I bet that has got to be such a weird experience; we are considering taking our first trip to Disneyland for the 60th anniversary and I wonder about this as a WDW native, looking around for what you know is there only it is really across the country.

 

[DisneyAllen]

I bet that has got to be such a weird experience; we are considering taking our first trip to Disneyland for the 60th anniversary and I wonder about this as a WDW native, looking around for what you know is there only it is really across the country.

Yep, it's very strange, especially in MK. I mean you have Big Thunder RIGHT NEXT to Splash! The weirdest looking Haunted Mansion (much creepier in MK). And in some place called Liberty Square? What did you guys do with New Orleans Square??? Yeah, they are not quite the same. And that's before you even get on the rides.

 

[DisneyAllen]

Sorry that I haven't been by for a while. I am going to try to amend that and post several updates over the next week or so. Thanks for hanging in there (if there's anyone still following my trip report!)