Celebrating 10 years of marriage!!

[rewilliams]

My First Disney Trip Report…7/6/14 to 7/12/14

Celebrating 10 years of marriage in the most magical place on Earth​

I have read several trip reports and I am not an amazingly funny writer like many of you but I wanted to share my trip with the group of people that helped me plan, calmed some of my worries, and got me so excited I could think of nothing else!!!
Let me start by giving you a little background about our Disney history. I have been to Disney 4 times in my life before this trip. Our last trip was in 2009 when my DD was 4, my parents gave us an amazing Christmas gift and took us all to Disney. The 2009 trip was both my husbands and daughters first trip to Walt Disney World. Everyone was excited to go but hubby didn’t understand all the “magic” and thought I was a little crazy! Once we got to Disney and he experienced the magic for himself he began to get into the whole Disney fun a little more.

So once we had decided to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary at Disney, my hubby was a little more understanding about my planning craziness! Now this trip was about taking our time and not rushing or forcing ourselves to do everything. The plan was to take lots of pics (bought the memory maker), ride the rides since Olivia was big enough and meet some new characters. July 6th couldn’t get here soon enough.

So now to introduce my Disney cast:
First is my hubby, Aaron, he is not a Disney fanatic like myself but goes along with my craziness.
His favorite park is Epcot. His favorite character is Donald Duck.
Second is my 9 year old daughter Olivia, she is becoming a Disney fanatic like her mom.
Her favorite park is Magic Kingdom. Her favorite character is Rapunzel. Her favorite rides are the Tower of Terror and the Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups.
And then there is me, Rachel. I have loved Disney since I was a kid and wish I was capable of visiting more often. My favorite park is Magic Kingdom. Cinderella is my ALL time favorite character but any Disney character will do for a big hug!

I started planning our July trip in mid-February and as each little milestone occurred I got more and more excited.

 

[rewilliams]

Day 1 Sunday 7-6-14
Rain, Rain Go Away!!​

We left early Sunday morning and thankfully had a smooth flight with only a minor arrival delay because of the rain storms that had hit as we got close to Orlando. After what seemed like forever, the Magical Express dropped us off at the resort.

We checked into All Star Music and freshened up for our night of shopping and dinner at Downtown Disney. After another seemingly endless bus ride, Downtown Disney was in front of us!
We ate at Cookes of Dublin that night…It was AMAZING!!!! My husband had the traditional Fish and Chips and loved it. I had the deep fried cheeseburger….it was DELISH!

As we dodged the rain, we did some shopping and Olivia and I began our insane obsession with pin trading. The LEGO structures were awesome again! The Maleficent one was my favorite!!!

We took a sneak peak at BBB (Olivia has an appointment on Wednesday at MK) and she was still trying to make some final decisions. After some silliness, shopping and pin trading we got back on the bus.

We got back to the resort around 10PM and had an ice cream treat at the food court! Back in the room we prepared for our first day at the parks!!! I could barely sleep, almost like a kid the night before Christmas! Hollywood Studios here we come!

 

[rewilliams]

Day 2 Monday 7-7-14
Orlando was “Frozen”​

So 6AM came early, oh wait, Olivia and I were up about 5AM-waaaaay before our wake-up call from Mickey Mouse. After an okay breakfast at the resort we were off for some movie magic. We were spending our first day at Hollywood Studios.

Olivia and I were excited to hear that there were some special activities devoted to Frozen. We didn’t pay for any of the extra stuff but we did enjoy all the special pictures and the shopping!

We started our day with a little “terror”. We headed straight for Tower of Terror. Olivia has talked about this ride for 5 years and how she couldn’t wait to ride it again…yes she rode it at 4 and LOVED it.


We did a lot of window shopping and watched a few of the random street shows. We would beat the heat by seeing a lot of the shows too. The whole family loves The Little Mermaid musical so we saw that again this trip. We rode Toy Story Midway Mania for the first time….I won!! After some more shopping, in which I did find my latest book series to read. As a side note I fell in love Kingdom Keepers, it is a tween series but for a Disney fan it is pretty cool! We met a few characters, walked through a few of the museum style attractions and took a TON of pictures and then after the Muppets 3-D, we had dinner at Hollywood & Vine. It was a great dinner; I fell in love with the lobster mac and cheese.

After stuffing ourselves we went to Echo Lake to watch the Indiana Jones Spectacular. Olivia watched the whole show in utter awe and amazement.
We called it a day after that, the heat and all the walking was a lot for our first day. About half way to the resort Olivia remember that Mousekeeping would’ve been by…she LOVES to see what they do. Our 1st night Mickey, Minnie and Pluto were just chillin’ out on our beds.

Once back at the resort, we headed down to the pool to cool off and relax.

 

[rewilliams]

Day 3 Tuesday 7-8-14
Peace, Love and Pixie Dust​

After a good night’s sleep were up and ready for our first day at Magic Kingdom. First I was VERY excited about our matching shirts for this day; I had them since April and could not wait to wear them.

We packed a lot in but it was nice not feeling rushed. We met Tinker Bell, Stich, and Merida.


We headed to Storybook Circus and meet the traditional characters as they prepared for their circus acts.

We rode some of our favorite rides, Space Mountain, the Tea Cups and rode the train. Did some more shopping down Main Street of course…and guess what?! Olivia found her dress for BBB, she decided to be Rapunzel. So she bought her dress and mommy and daddy bought her Pasqual to go along with it. After our shopping we jumped on the monorail and headed over to the Grand Floridian for dinner. I heard such great reviews about the character interaction at 1900 Park Fare and since I LOVE Cinderella we had to try it out…plus the strawberry soup sounded divine! Again the meal was very yummy and the soup was great. But I wasn’t all that impressed with the characters. Like I said I had heard how great the step-sisters were but they were just so-so for us. It wouldn’t stop me from recommending it or going again but I was a little disappointed.


After admiring how the other side lives and listening to the amazing pianist, we jumped on the monorail and went back to MK. We rode a few oldie but goodies like It’s a Small World and Peter Pan. We went and checked out the area around Be Our Guest and got stuck in a down pour! Finally we say Philhar Magic, for the first time. It was really cool too! Once back at the resort we had the BIGGEST ice cream sandwich I have ever seen. Tonight mousekeeping adventures left our room toilet papered by Pluto.

 

[rewilliams]

Day 4 Wednesday 7-9-14
Morning safari and then off to tour the world​

How many can say they have been on safari in Africa? Not I but I sure do love a safari in Animal Kingdom.

I am not a huge fan of AK, there are only a few attractions I enjoyed the last visit so we only spent a half day at AK this time. After getting up close and personal with the animals, we went on a hunt for Pocahontas. I don’t think she sweats! It was soooo humid and she wasn’t even shiny!

Being from Ohio, we are big Ohio State fans so we had to find ways to take the traditional O-H-I-O pics, so I was able to recruit Safari Mickey and Minnie to help us out.

Today we had lunch at Restaurantosaurous before we headed back to the resort. We were not disappointed with our meal here either. BREAK TIME!!!! After a swim and a shower we headed off to EPCOT.

Aaron really enjoyed EPCOT on our first trip but since Olivia was ALL about characters we spent a lot of time in line for meet and greets. So during this trip, we took extra time so we could visit all of EPCOT and it was worth it. Olivia wanted to participate in the EPCOT passport activity so we were on the lookout for Kidcot stations as we toured the world. But before we made it to any countries we stopped at Club Cool. OMG!!! I am so glad we did not pass it up! None of us drink a lot of soda (and Olivia does not drink it at all) but it was really COOL to try the colas of the world. After touring 1 and a half countries we headed off to Germany to eat dinner. My hubby chose Biergarten for today’s dinner and we were not that pleased. Food was okay and I was not fond of sitting with strangers. And one of our strangers was a little stranger than the rest! After dinner we toured a little more and then headed back to our resort in preparation for our big day…..BBB and our anniversary!

 

[rewilliams]

Day 5 Thursday 7-10-14
Love is in the air and we are surrounded by Princesses​

Another extra early morning as Olivia and I were off for her Princess make over at BBB. It was pretty cool being aloud in the park before anyone else to get to our before opening appointment. As I watched Olivia’s Fairy Godmother make her into a princess I got a little emotional. After some of the horror stories I was very pleased how quickly we got in (and out) of BBB. We were actually done with her appointment before her actual appointment time. So we headed to get our glamour shots while we waited for Daddy.



Since we got done so quickly we went ahead and met Rapunzel before we went to eat breakfast in the castle. The interaction with Rapunzel was great, she was one our favorite meet and greets.

And finally off to eat in Cinderella’s Castle and what a bummer! The princesses were great and Olivia was excited to meet Jasmine. But the quality and amount of food for 2 dining credits was not good! Thank god for the pastries…the kid’s portion was soooo small, I ended up giving part of my small portion to Olivia so she would not be hungry all day. The pastries are what helped fill us up. I can say I have eaten in the castle and will never do it again.


I made my hubby take a million pics because it was officially our 10th anniversary and we had cute shirts again.



Then we went to meant the coveted Elsa and Anna, thank goodness for FP.


It was time to cool off, so we took a load off and visited the presidents. Then we spent the rest of the day riding “rides” and seeing shows. We went in a Haunted Mansion, took a river boat ride, and saw some singing bears.
After some shopping, we decide it was time for dinner. Back to Downtown Disney we go! With a quick pit stop at the resort to drop off some bags we back out to eat and shop! Everyone knows that July in FL is the rainy season and we had our ponchos EVERYDAY…..well guess what I decided to leave behind? The ponchos! I mean it has only rained on Tuesday. Well guess what? It decided to rain as soon as we got on the bus and did not stop until we got back on the bus 2 hours later. We were soaked!

But we did enjoy our dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express, did some amazing pin trading and found some good souvenirs.

 

[rewilliams]

Day 6 Friday 7-11-14
Touring the World Part 2​

Our last day at the parks was very laid back and we had no big plan. We started the morning in Future World.

We got on every “ride” with a less than 10 minute wait for any of them. We played with some piggy banks and did some more great pin trading.

Hmm…what country did we leave off at? Off we went to the rest of the world.



After a lot of walking, window shopping, kidcot searching we travelled back to the future for dinner. The Garden Grill is still one of my favorite places for dinner. The service was great, the food was great and the character interaction was amazing. I would eat there every time!


After dinner we meet a few characters, looked for some last minute souvenirs and then rode the golf ball! I know that is not it’s name! There was a break down and we are at a standstill for like 15 minutes. At this point we were all exhausted and still had to pack up to go home, so back to the resort we go!

Day 7 Saturday 7-12-14
Back to Reality​

I was sad to leave it all behind but I was ready to go home but not for reality…Disney magic is addicted and we had a hard time leaving it behind!