"I am so hungry I am going to eat your arm off" Ohh motherly love... A Nov 2013 TR!

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Last Update 4/23/14

Intro:
This is a girls trip, so a mother and daughter trip, we left our husbands behind We live in Colorado, I am from Northern VA though. Mom moved to Northern Va before I was born then moved back to CO after 25 years in the DC area.

A little about us:
My name is Marcea, I am a 29 year old, who has a little 8 year inside of her ready to burst at any moment!

So my day job is something that takes advantage of the fact I loove to plan and researcher things to death and is very stereotypical for a person who loves to plan.....
I am a wedding planner, yep like Jennifer Lopez but a lot less glamorous.
I am the person standing in the background making sure all the magic happens just like the Disney World CMs.

Yep, that is me in the background. I get to work in some pretty fantastic locations in Colorado like this:

My Fav Ride: Space Mountain
My Fav Park: HS (Star Wars, Muppets, and Disney all mixed in one, need I say more?)
My Fav Character: Tie between Mulan and Merida ( I love the princess that fend for themselves and do not need a prince to save them)
My Fav Movie: I have a hard time with this answer I love to many to pick just one.
My Fav Restaurant: Be Our Guest
My Fav Drink: The Grey Goose Slushy in France

My Mother is a civilian working at a local military base. She travels a lot for work, which means lots of millage points! She is my best traveling buddy. When we have to take our men (ie my dad and my husband) we have to slow down and we do not get to go at our normal fast pace but hey we love them. I just do not think they appreciate all my planning I put into my trip plans as much as mom does.

Mom's Fav Ride: Tea Cups
Mom's Fav Park: Epcot (because she gets to eat and drink a lot)
Mom's Fav Character: Mary Poppins
Mom's Fav Movie: Mary Poppins (there could be a theme going here)
Mom's Fav Restaurant: San Angel Inn
Mom's Fav Drink: The Tequila and Sangria at San Angel Inn

We have not been to Disney a lot like most of the people I have been reading on here. I have been about 3 times to Disney World and 1 to Disneyland. Mom grew up in Colorado so she went to Disneyland a lot growing up but only Disney World twice. Also it has been such a long time ago when we went to Disney World, it is now about 15 years ago, so it is like we are going to Disney World for the first time.

So I hope you guys will all enjoy the ride, I know I will with my first trip report!

Chapters:
The Details
Day 1
Nov 16th, 2013
Day 2
Flying
Heading to our Hotel
Disney Downtown Part 1
Disney Downtown Part 2
Dinner DTD
Day 3
Epcot Part 1
Epcot Part 2
Epcot Part 3
Lunch in Epcot
World Showcase Part 1
World Showcase Part 2
World Showcase Part 3
Epcot Dinner
Illuminations Part 1
Illuminations Part 2
Day 4
Magic Kingdom Part 1
Magic Kingdom Part 2
Magic Kingdom Part 3
Magic Kingdom Part 4
Magic Kingdom Part 5 ( Yes I just did a post about a bathroom!)
Magic Kingdom Part 6
The Parade!
Magic Kingdom Part 7 (Man am I really writing this many post for just one day!?)
Be Our Guest!!
Magic Kingdom Part 8, Tink!
Dessert Party
Fireworks!
Leaving MK
Day 5: Going to the Dark Side!
Harry Potter Part 1!!!
Harry Potter Part 2
More Harry Potter Part 3!
IOA Part 1
IOA Part 2
Three Broomsticks Dinner
Day 6: Hollywood Studios
Hollywood Studios Part 1
Hollywood Studios Part 2
Lunch
Hollywood Studios Part 3
Hollywood Studios Part 4
No Fantasmic! for us
Leaving HS
Day 7: Beach Day!
Beach Time
Day 8: Resort Day!
Animal Kingdom Lodge
GF!
High Tea
Leaving and Review

Check Out My Next Trip Report!
Vader, F&G, Mother's Day, A B-Day, 4 Parks & Only One Weekend!! Can We Do It All!?
​

 

[Moodyzblu]

Following !!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

This trip all started with the fact that mom said she was flying to Tampa for work and she realized that Tampa and Disney are close enough together that we should extend her trip and turn it into a vacation too.

When we started to plan this trip mom said her top priority was budget.This also was my B-Day present which I have to say is an the best B-Day present ever!!

(Sorry not a lot of pics here, but I promise they will soon come!)

Tickets:
Again remember mom does not want to spend too much money, so we are going for has basic tickets. We are getting the three day park pass, no hopper at Disney World. Then we are also getting one day ticket for IOA so we can see Harry Potter. Since my mom works on a military base, she bought the tickets there, so no taxes and a little bit of a discount, yeah!

For the two of us the total came to around $700, it made my mom say this may be your x-mas present too, Merry Christmas!

Over All Plan
Saturday: Drive to DIA and spend night at airport hotel
Sunday: Arrive and DTD
Monday: Epcot
Tuesday: MK
Wednesday: Harry Potter
Thursday: HS
Friday: Beach
Saturday: Beach/High Tea at the Floridian/Resort Touring
Sunday: Leaving

I know sadly we are not seeing AK, I would love to do it, but mom said only 4 days at the parks, that is as much as her pocket book could handle and I had to see Harry Potter too.

Transportation
Work will be flying mom out and mom has enough United points to take me along in economy plus with her. I love mileage points
Our original plan was Flying in on Sun Nov 17th and then Flying out Sat Nov 23, but there was no available flights so had to push it back to Sun 24th ooh darn. To bad they where both early morning flights...but hey that is what happens when you plan a trip at the last min.

For getting around in Orlando and Tampa, mom has points in Hertz, so we are going to rent out a mid size car for a week for free.


Hotel
We are staying at all Hilton hotels, using mom's points so we will not have to spend a dime! We looked into staying on property but when you have enough points to stay free it is hard to beat that even with free dining. We booked these rooms before we knew about the whole FP+ issue with off site guest not getting to use them.
Nov 16th Embassy Suites DIA
Nov 17th - 21st Hampton Inn Buena Vista Lake
Nov 21st - 23rd Double Tree Beach Resort
Nov 23rd -24th Embassy Suites Orland Airport

And that is the overall game plan, now on to the fun stuff, the trip!!!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Following !!

Yeah, welcome

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Sat: Nov 16, 2013

So we were having a hard time sleeping the night before. We were just too excited.
We also started to worry because the news was saying it could snow tomorrow, which is not good since that is the day we take off.

We spent most of our Saturday packing and getting last min details in order.

All done and ready to go!!

We call this pink monster luggage Mamu!

So we had out to the airport, we live about 2 hours away from the airport and with the threat of snow and an early morning flight it was good just easier booking a hotel that is right next to the airport.

My husband was kind enough to take us up to the hotel.

Yep, that is as good as a pic as I get from him

We arrive at our hotel Embassy Suite at DIA and say goodbye to my husband.

Check was a breeze, we also let them know we will need to be on the shuttle next morning for the plane to Disney! We lug our stuff up to our room and this is what greets us so nice.

I love Embassy Suites you get soo much room in your room.

And look a nice robe

And a nice wet bar area.

After a little TV time, we head down the evening snacks at Embassy Suites. I have to say this is my fav thing about Embassy free snacks and drinks!

I had a margarita, while mom with a diet coke and rum. We started the vacation off right with probably about 3 or 4 of those drinks. They were light on the alcohol since they were free.

After we felt a little tipsy we stopped and headed off to bed for our early morning flight to Disney!! Our hope was if we were a little tipsy, we could go to bed easier because I was just to excited to go to sleep.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Following along!

Fabulous!! Welcome

 

[DisneymoonJess07]

Following along too!!

 

[Moodyzblu]

The night before Disney is my least favorite .. I get so excited/stressed and I can't sleep !!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Following along too!!

Yeah, welcome!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

The night before Disney is my least favorite .. I get so excited/stressed and I can't sleep !!

I know it is the worst I kept waking up in the middle of the night checking the time, I think I only got a few hours of sleep soo sad.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Today is the big day, flying to Disney!!

We woke up extremely early again having trouble sleeping. We had to be down to meet the shuttle to take us to the airport at 5:30am. We did that easily, I must of woke up every hour starting at 1am. Soo sad I know. I eventually gave up and around 4ish and started getting ready to leave.

We got down to the lobby around 5:15am and man I hate having to leave an Embassy Suite before 6am because they do not have the breakfast buffet out

They did have plenty of coffee and some fruit. I am not a big coffee drinker but my mom is and grabs a cup while I grab a banana and take out my soda I saved from the night before.

We hopped on the shuttle at 5:30 am head out, yeah!!

We head off to the check in, since mom is United premier we get to head to the the short line. After our check in mom found out I was upgraded to first class, yeah!! What a great start to the trip.

Next we head off to security, the line was so short we breezed through it recorded time. If this is a sign of what things to come we are going to have a great trip.

Next we head off to get some breakfast. Now if you have not been at DIA before it is a must, we have great food choices. Since we had so much time we wanted a sit down option. We went with Pour La France!, it is soo cute look and has good food.

I went with a basic breakfast with eggs, ham and potatoes with a warm croissant.

Mom went with a healthier breakfast, veggie omelet, at least she got a warm croissant though.

After a yummy breakfast we head to our gate. Sadly we find that our gate has no plane and this:

What do you do when your flight has been delayed? Go to the nearest bar of course

After we hung out at the bar, we went back to the gate to wait for our plane.

On another note, do you notice the t-shirts, we are wearing? That day was the day Broncos play against the undefeated Chiefs. So we wanted to make sure we showed our Bronco colors that day.

The plane finally arrives.
After they cleaned up and restocked the plane we were allowed to start boarding.
We head off about an hour late, not to bad but not great. But hey I am in first class soo my problems are not all that bad.

The flight it self was smooth and we had tons of movies to watch from, I ended up watching Pacific Rim, I cannot help myself I am a nerd. Also another cool thing, we could finally have all small electronics on during the take off and landing of the plane, yeah

Next up, we arrive at Disney.

 

[Moodyzblu]

Breakfast looked awesome !

First class !!

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

Can't wait to read more

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Breakfast looked awesome !

First class !!

I know soo cool, it was my first time ever in first class, loove it. The seats are soo comfortable and I did not need to pay for the movies, which now you need to do for economy class in United.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Can't wait to read more

Yeah, thanks!!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

We arrive in Orlando,yeah!!

Flight landed and they gave an announcement to let all the people go who are trying to make their connection flight, since the flight was running late. Then we head out.

Ohh my gosh, the moment I leave the airplane I hit a wall of humidity and heat. I feel my hair getting frizzier by the second. I am soo happy we came here in late November, I do not want to think about how hot and icky and sticky it is during the summer here.

Since we were running late, I did not take time to take pictures here, I just wanted to get our luggage and to get to our car as fast as possible.

Luckily by the time we make it to our luggage it is already there, yeah, so no waiting and we head off get our car.

So mom is in the Hertz Gold Plus program and they let us skip the counter and go strait to the car. Love it We look for the our name on the car and they have it on and ready to go. Got to love that service.

We plug in the address into our phone nav system and head to our hotel.
It is not a bad drive, no traffic, sucks with all those tolls though. They diffidently try to milk every dollar out of you.

And finally we turn in to Hampton Inn Orlando/Lake Buena Vista, we made it!

(Surprisingly we did not get lost once driving here!)

We head to the lobby and they just redid the lobby and it looks great. Nice and modern looking

Next we head to our rooms.

Man these beds were comfy, soo important after being all day in the park and you the pillows were great too.

One of the nicest features in our room was the mini fridge with a real freezer, with was great to help freeze our icepack for the cooler in the parks. Also a microwave and coffee maker, all the basics

Here is the bathroom, very nice.

Here is our view, nothing special, but we are overlooking their pool area.

A little background on the hotel, it is located 5 mins off of DTD and right off the major highway. Lake Buena Vista area is perfect for those who want to stay offsite, but still being super close to disney without the disney prices and you do not need to get on to the highway to get to Universal too from here. Also this hotel is very reasonable prices most of the time it is under 100, we were staying here on Hilton points, we sooo recommended it. So if you are looking to stay on Hilton points I would come here or if your trying to save money while being in a nice place, this is perfect. Also they have plenty of outlets, no need to have to pack a strip here too. Just comparing to Hilton in DTD, we did not need to pay for parking and breakfast was included unlike Hilton DTD.

So next on our list to do that day is to get our supplies ie the food and drinks!

We headed to a very close grocery store and it had a liquor store that was right in the parking lot of it, perfect

Here is the address for the grocery store just in case anyone wants a place to pick up groceries near Disney.
Winn-Dixie
11957 South Apopka Vineland Road Orlando, FL 32836
I would recommend it is clean, big and prices are reasonable with everything they you get from your normal grocery store.

Here is what we came back with:

We had sandwich making supplies, some snacks, couple huge waters to fill up my camelpack, soda and rum.

Also we picked up a late lunch it was around 3ish so we were starving but did not want to pick up anything big before our ADR later tonight. They had a yummy wings bar to tide us over for a real cheap lunch.

We wolf down our food then head to DTD. We decided to take a cab so that way both of us can drink and we do not have to worry about drinking and driving. Always good to play it safe

We have the hotel call for the taxi and we wait outside for the taxi to pick us up. The ride was super quick to DTD.

Next up Downtown Disney!!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

DTD!!

We arrive at Downtown Disney!!

Now cool fact we have never been to Downtown Disney any of the times we have been to Disney, so I was excited to say the least.

What is the first place we go to.....

If you guessed World of Disney you are correct

So our plan is to buy everything we can get here that we want, so we do not need to waste time in the parks shopping.

So after a few mins, of just marveling at the spender we get to shopping!

Man this place is huge!!

The pictures really do not do it justice.

First stop, we need to get something for our fav little kids, my cousin's daughter and son who we just love and spoil to death. They will be going to Disney at the end of this year.

Now her son wanted something with swords, so we went to go find the pirate section. Yeah soo cute!

Okay next we went to get Frozen's new dress for her daughter, ohh my gosh it is soo cute.

Now if I had some more cash laying around, I would sooo get this dress

Also saw the new disney Vera pattern, to bad they only had this bag and did not have any of the smaller bags or I would have gotten it.

Man this store is dangerous, I could get in to a lot of trouble here

Now, it took us a while to find them, I swear I think they were hidden but we finally found mickey ear section. I wanted to get them as soon as possible so we could start wearing it

Here is a pic that has both of our ears, mom went with purple since it is her fav color, I went with the cute back and feather ears. I loved how different they looked.

Also in this picture you can see the T-Shirt my mom ended up picking up, a cute pink one which ended up being true with the rain.

The shirt I ended up picking up was a Minne mouse shirt, that has as much sparkles on it as possible, I love it. Here is a good pic of it.

We also picked up some cute lanyards and a packet pins to trade with which you can also see in the pick.

They also had a nice little sale on scarves, I loove scarves 2 for 35, so I picked up a cute silver one and a purple one for grandma for xmas. Then went over to the guy section and saw cute gold accessories and picked up something for my aunt and her boyfriend who love golf. And then finally we saw the star wars area, ooh my, my husband would love this area. We picked two T-shirts since we could not decide.

Did not find anything that screamed dad though....

So while picking out the guys stuff at some point I accidentally put down my Phone/Camera and when we go to check out I realized it was not in my purse. Cue freak out.... So I take my mom phone and try calling it and retracing our steps. Do you know how hard that is in this crazy store?! I look everywhere, talk to a few CMs, in the areas I have been to see if they have seen it. I start thinking I really may have lost it, but I had once last hope the lost and found desk in the store and they found it thank GOD!! That almost ruined our whole trip before it even started. For the rest of the trip my mom now asked my where is my phone/camera and even though it bugged the me to no end with how many times she asked me, I could not get mad because hey I did loose it in the worst place possible.....

So we checked out, chatted with a nice CM, telling her about my whole phone ordeal, so nice and we leave, feeling like very happy.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

(If you like pictures this is when I get picture happy!)

We head on out of the store with our pocketbooks much lighter and what do we see....

The Lego Store of Course!

Man I have seen pics of this but seeing it in person is sooo coool!!

I love this snow white scene, the details are just amazing!

We saw a couple taking a cute picture of themselves and I loved the background so I suggest I would take a pic of the two of them, if they can take pic of the two of us. They did a good job.

While walking around we had a few men comment on our Broncos outfit saying "Go Broncos" and "Yeah Manning" Love getting Bronco love when we are out of Broncos country.

The clouds and sunset were looking really pretty!

We continued shopping and had to stop and look at the yummy sweets! Mom had to remind me we have a ADR coming up soon and I would regret it later, I was thinking it might be worth it but passed

I love all the X-Mas decor around, it is getting me into the x-mas spirit early!

With the sun going down and the lights going up it made the place look very cool and here is a good idea what the crowds were like for this Sunday evening.

I will not lie, we watch this thing change colors for a little bit, soo pretty!

Do not mind me I started having fun with the palm trees, I just do not get to see them in Colorado and I love the way they had them lit up.

After a while of wondering around and window shopping, we find a nice spot to sit here in front of the Crab House, and listen to live music and while we grab a drink. I went with a frozen Pina Colada and mom went with her standard rum and diet coke. Also this is when I started to find out when I am wearing Minnie ears, nobody believes I am over 21 and when they see I am almost 30 they really do not believe it. When the lady looked at me she was just like yeah, I am really going to have to see your id sweetie and her look was priceless when she saw my age. My thought if you want to find the miracle youth pill buy Minnie ears or Mickey ears, they take off at least 5 years, on me they seem to take off 10 years.

The music was very nice, he even used the conch shell, in the music. He was really good.

After listening to the music for a bit we head out to our ADR at 6:45pm. Where you may ask?? Well you will have to come back to find out

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Joining in! Looks like you're off to a great start! And I love your Mickey ears!

Also love all the Star Wars Disney hybrid tshirts. My favorite one is with Darth Vader on the carousel (? I think) with a quote "This will be a day long remembered"