Oh god there's the yeti! Siblings do WDW - THE TRIP REPORT! *NEW/FINISHED 3/10/15!*

[stindall]

Housekeeping came really early again, but we didn't get up until 9:30. We were ready quickly and out to the bus by 9:45. It took a while for a bus to show up and we were towards the back of the line, so we decided to wait and whaddya know one showed up quickly after!

It was perfect timing because it was already 10:03, and our lunch reservations were for 10:30-11:00 and I was a little worried we wouldn't arrive in time. The bus was full and ready to head out, but an ECV had pulled up and even though it was a full bus, she let them on anyway and I'm not sure why. It didn't put us behind too much. We arrived and were at the gates by 10:28!


I guess I didn't take any morning photos because this is my first one.

We booked it back to Be Our Guest but had to fight a crowd to get to a cast member and tell them we had a fast pass for lunch. We ended up following two large families down the ramp. This was frustrating because we had pre-ordered and they hadn't, so we had to wait.

We tried so hard for The West Wing but it was full, I really wish they'd made it bigger or roped it off when it's full. I feel like had we arrived 10 minutes earlier we would have made it in there. One day guys, one day! We had a nice table though, next to the wall and the main hall wasn't very crowded at all.








The view from our table.

Our food arrived pretty quickly and I soon learned my meatloaf had onions in it. This was a huge bummer for me, I HATE onions. They're the one food I absolutely will not eat under any circumstances. So I ate a fair amount of fries, my veggies, and most of the cupcake (which was so so good!) and I was full. I think I had a bite of Aaryns sandwich too.





We took some time to just enjoy the place, I had spoiled the surprise earlier in the week but he still loved it. We took a few photos and then left.










​

 

[stindall]

Of course since we were so close to The Little Mermaid we had to stop there. Then we made our way to It's a Small World and then Haunted Mansion. I love those new queue elements a lot! Especially Cullpepper Cline!














Love this detail.

After Mansion we had a little time before our mine train fast pass. We stopped next to some of Eric's Castle walls and watched Cinderella's step family for a while. They were pretty dang amusing. I wish we had gotten in line.









It was a good thing they didn't because when we were in line it looked a lot like rain, and a cast member had announced that they may have to stop the ride for a while. Turns out we were the last train out of the station before it started raining!




I don't really remember taking this one.




Almost boarded!











We didn't think it would be that bad so we headed for Tomorrowland, but made a detour at Big Top Souvenirs instead. The place was so crowded though, that we left shortly after we arrived. We had overheard several people asking for park ticket refunds, as if WDW can control the weather.





It was pouring at this point so we stopped in Cosmic Rays. In that short walk we were so soaked, our shoes were terribly wet and I had been a bit worried our feet would blister. DarkSky said it would let up in 20 minutes so we had a seat on the floor (it was so packed) and waited it out. I was wishing I had Aaryn bring the other bag so we could have had extra socks. Here's a video of how much it was raining. I think I took that to send back home.​

 

[stindall]

New Disboards woah! Very weird, but I think I like it! It'll take some getting used to for sure! I'm very excited to announce that Mark and I booked Curry Village in Yosemite Valley for our trip in August. We're still planning on a day at Disneyland too! Only having one day there is making me a little anxious! Anyway, we last left off with a downpour and a stop at Cosmic Rays...

When it let up we made our way for Space Mountain. I think the wait was about 15 minutes. The entrance of the ride had so much water in it! I wish I had taken a picture! After we got off, we hopped on again with our fast pass. This ride wasn't captured on our MM. Bummer! We had said we wanted to get on once more before we left, especially because we weren't in the same car for our first photo. (I have the two pictures we did get taken, they're not great so I won't share)

Aaryn suggested Carousel of Progress next because we had't done it yet. It's on of my favourites, and such a nice little break from walking around and standing so much! It was pretty sunny when we got off, a nice change from the drenching we'd just had. I wanted to do TTA next, but the line was so backed up we opted for Buzz instead. After Buzz the TTA line had calmed so on it we went.



I saw people walking through the castle, something we hadn't been able to do yet, so we made a beeline for the castle to our Peter Pan fast pass. On the way a CM recognized my Pizza John shirt. That was fun!

















On the way over I had asked Aaryn if he was hungry. We had thought about going to Cosmic Ray's again, but he wanted to go somewhere different so we chose Pinocchio's Village Haus instead! We got lucky and were able to sit up top all alone. If it wasn't so warm we probably would have opted to sit outside, it was also empty.


I had the Caprese flatbread, I don't really remember what Aaryn got. We both enjoyed our meal for the most part.











Being in "old" Fantasyland where do you think we headed next? Haunted Mansion of course! We couldn't get enough of it! We had the unfortunate experience of someone taking a flash photo across from us in Madam Leota's room. When we got off though, they were being stopped and had their camera taken! We had a good laugh at that. We stopped for a photo outside before moving on.





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[stindall]

Alright I'm not sure I'm a big fan of the new boards. They seem less user friendly to me.

Anyway, we left off exiting a tour of the Haunted Mansion. So I was headed to Big Thunder Mountain, but Aaryn threw me for a loop and suggest The Hall of Presidents. Don't get me wrong, I like HoP and it was on my to-do list, I just didn't think we'd actually do it. I wasn't sure Aaryn would be too interested. It didn't start off as a nice visit to the hall, the CM's were rude and not paying attention to anyone that came in. They stood chatting to themselves and never greeted a guest. That made us a bit sad. We had about a 15 minute wait until the next show so we had a look around and enjoyed the cooler air I didn't really take any pictures, we were just relaxing.



When we left the theater we headed towards Splash Mountain. I wrote down that it was a 35 minute wait, which is the grand scheme of things doesn't sound long, but it seemed very long to us! This was just a crowded day in general. After Splash I *think* we had intended to actually ride Big Thunder, but my pictures tell a different story.








Trying to sneak in a photo before getting splashed!


My hair is so bright! Shortly after we got home I started putting purple in it, so now it's a lighter blue based purple. It's a bit faded right now from washing so seeing this bright blue is strange! (I'll see if I can find a recent picture to share)





I think what had happened was Big Thunder was too long of a wait, and we wanted a snack, so we headed to Aloha Isle for Dole Whip floats. We hopped on Pirates on the way there and ended up being crammed into the front row of a boat. During the drop our feet goat SOAKED! That's something I had never had happen to me before. We also got hit with cannon splash and.

We saw Jungle Cruise was a short wait so we went on it as well. After getting our floats finally, we scarfed them down and went back to Big Thunder. It was getting close to 7 when we had to leave because the party was starting, so we were in a hurry to do ALL THE THINGS! I remember on the way back to Big Thunder, Aaryn had hardly gotten through his float, and he was going to toss like 75% of it! I ended up stopping him and eating most of it so quickly I got a brain freeze! In hindsight we should have only gotten 1 and shared.




He stopped to take a photo of the Genie part of Aladdin's Magic Carpets.






I know it's blurry, but I just love the smile on his face. I just wanted him to have a nice time. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this somewhere, but we both have just had a really hard few years but him especially. I am so so so glad we got to take this trip together.


This one was out of order, we had this picture taken at some point. We have a really awkward prom pose photo at this spot too, because once again the photographer thought we were a couple.



After getting off of Big Thunder we noticed we had time for one more ride and we walked as fast as we could to Haunted Mansion! We made it with 8 minutes to spare, and ended up getting off at 7:00 exactly. It was fate! We made for the bus stop as quickly as we could and were on a bus by 7:15. Earlier I had also told him I wanted to go Downtown Disney in the evening. The plan was to head back to Pop to shower and change clothes/shoes.

That's where I'll leave for now. I think one more small update and this day will be done!​

 

[MissMaryQC]

Haven't replied too much, but I wanted to say I'm glad you two had such a great time together.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

They took their camera? EEEK! I would be afraid that they didn't understand... if they speak English then they deserve it though! I am totally a rule follower when it comes to pictures and flash. (Drives me bonkers when they don't allow any photography though... who am I hurting when I don't use my flash?)

I love all the smiles on both you and your brother's faces. It is so great you were able to do this together.

 

[stindall]

Hello! I am back once again to continue this journey! I wanted to do another chapter a little earlier this week but I've been under the weather. So here we are at last!

The bus ride back to Pop was sad for us. We had more full days behind us than in front of us and that is never a fun thing! I definitly did not want to go back to work, and he school. Anyway, when we got back to Pop we were changed and freshened up and on a bus by 8:45. Aaryn had become a bit grumpy again. I think he was just really sad our last MK day was over, and he was tired and not in a shopping mood. When we arrived it was basically wall to wall people.







Our first stop was the Christmas store where I bought a Mike and Sully ornament. That seemed fitting. Aaryn had seen a hat in their Nightmare Before Christmas section, but decided against it for the time being. I was catching his grumpy-ness. There were so many people and we were beat. We found Tsum Tsums in Once Upon a Toy, though they
were limited and not the ones I was looking for. We made our way to WoD and asked a CM and she said she didn't think anyone sold them. So instead of looking around in there, we went back to Once Upon a Toy and bought 2. I got a Stitch for myself and a Minnie for Mark's cousin's daughter. I also bought a Stitch pillow pet for myself. I had been eyeing it, and I thought worst case scenario I would just have to carry it on the plane.

I kept asking him what he was getting his girlfriend (side note: After a little over 2 years, she dumped him a week or so ago. Poor guy is pretty upset, understandably so. I wish I could help him more!) but he was just so grumpy I gave up. After we had gone back to Once Upon a Toy, we both perked up a little bit. It wasn't very busy in there so we took some time to just look and goof around.










We went over to the Lego Store to take a look at the "sculptures". We have a Lego store at home so we chose not to go in. Aaryn wanted to go back into World of Disney so there we went. He ended up buying himself a hat because he thought it was the same one he'd seen earlier, I didn't think it was (more on that later). I think he also bought a friend a shirt and maybe something for our Mom? I do remember looking for a Genie pin because we thought we had lost the one we got on day 1. It was very har to find any Aladdin pins! We went into the Co-Op next and this is where Aaryn bought his girlfriend some lipstick. We spotted
the pin trading station so we hopped in there and again, had no luck finding a Genie pin.





After that we hit up Goofy's Candy Company where I got a macaron, and we took silly pictures. We both decided we were pretty tired and done shopping so to the bus we went. Since the Christmas store was on the way, we popped back in to see if the hat he bought
was the same one he had seen in the store. It wasn't and he was visibly sad because he liked the Christmas store one better. I urged him to buy it and return the other one, but he didn't want to. So we got back to our makeshift bus stop and had hopped in line
just as a bus was pulling away. I could just tell he was upset he didn't get the hat he really liked, so I kept telling him I'd hop out of line with him and go return it. I told him you can return the hat at any store and it wasn't a big deal. He finally decided to do it! He ended up just keeping the one hat and buying the other! He never spend money on himself so this was big. He said "I'm on vacation, I never buy myself anything I'm getting them both!"






The hat

We were back at the bus stop and on a bus in no time. It was a full bus, and some people ended up taking a seat in someone elses' ECV. This made me really upset and a family near us agreed, so we ended up striking up a conversation about rude people, taking flash photos
on rides and a lack of personal space sometimes. We also talked about Disney of course. They had 2 little girls and were from Kansas City, Mo. Hello to you if you're a DISer and happen upon this! When we got back to the room we had some snack mix and passed out
pretty quickly.






​

 

[MissMaryQC]

I'm glad Aaron got both hats; seemed to lift his spirits a bit.

I love the decorations in your window!!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I had when you get sad on a trip! The end always comes, though, doesn't it? Yucky! I'm glad Aaron got what he wanted in the end. I love DTD shopping. I hate DTD shopping when it's too busy.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Hey just jumping in to say I really lie your trpr report and I hope you don't mind if I gave you a follow on flickr when I watched your tower of terror videos.

 

[ElsasMom]

Two Nightmare Before Christmas hats, FTW!! I hate it when you see something early on and think I'll buy that later and then you can't find it anywhere!

 

[stindall]

I'm glad Aaron got both hats; seemed to lift his spirits a bit.

I love the decorations in your window!!

I wish that was our window, just one we saw on the way back to the room, very cool! I think next time we go down we'll decorate our window!

I had when you get sad on a trip! The end always comes, though, doesn't it? Yucky! I'm glad Aaron got what he wanted in the end. I love DTD shopping. I hate DTD shopping when it's too busy.

It's hard to avoid! I only cheer up knowing I'll be back again. I can't wait to see the finished DTD area, it looks really cool!

Hey just jumping in to say I really lie your trpr report and I hope you don't mind if I gave you a follow on flickr when I watched your tower of terror videos.

Oh yeah sure, I wish I used it more. Maybe I will now!

Two Nightmare Before Christmas hats, FTW!! I hate it when you see something early on and think I'll buy that later and then you can't find it anywhere!

Right? They're both really cool. I had that happen a few times, especially since a lot of the merch is the same in nearly every store; but nope, it's always that one thing you actually wanted you can't find!

 

[stindall]

This was our last full day, and it was a sad one to begin with. I set alarms for 8:45 and 9:00 but we were so tired I ended up canceling those sometime in the morning and set one for 10:30, though we never fell back asleep. We decided to get up at 11:00, we knew we had to get up early tomorrow and we were spending another day at AK so it was no big deal.

When we left the room we saw our transportation tag had been left on the door. It said we had to be at the resort for magical express by 3:25. We were at the bus stop by 11:30 and a bus had pulled up less than 10 minutes later. It took about 20 minutes to get to the park, including a stop at Blizzard Beach. One of these days we'll do a water park! When we got through the gates, the first thing we did was stop at the anteater exhibit, but it was temporarily closed. So we made our way to the tree for a few photos instead.













We were both pretty hungry which was perfect because we were headed to Flame tree for a large meal! I had Aaryn grab a seat while I ordered. We ate looking over the river at Everest, it was perfect. We also noticed they had started construction on River of Light.


I meant to take a picture of this lady's purse in front of me, but I snapped this instead I guess!




The Mousse had cute little Halloween sprinkles in it.



After a very filling meal we headed to Everest for a photo but soon learned that it was walled off at the "shrine" spot. Super bummer! So many walls which is not something we've ever really experienced before! We went to Everest though and rode standby twice, while in line I was rearranging our fastpasses and snagged a fp+ for everest really soon, so after the 2 standby times we had our fast pass.








​

 

[stindall]

Continued from the last post​

I could tell Aaryn was becoming less grumpy. After Everest we decided to head to Dinoland but not before a pit stop at a bathroom! The plan was to hop on Primeval Whirl but Everest kinda made us dizzy so Aaryn opted for Dinosaur instead. I waited in the gift shop for him. I got him a fastpass for later on in the day. He confirmed my fears, that I would definitly not have enjoyed it. (I've been on it a few times, I hate it)




Me waiting apparently.​

 

[ElsasMom]

Why don't you like dinosaur? That's one I haven't done yet.

 

[MissMaryQC]

Last day blues! Looks like AK was fun though; lots of Everest rides!!

 

[stindall]

Why don't you like dinosaur? That's one I haven't done yet.

It's loud and jerky and the dinosaurs scare the crap out of me! I also have automatonophobia which is the fear of anything that falsely represents a sentient being. I can handle the stuff like in It's a Small World, and Pooh etc, though it still freaks me out. The dinos however, I can't do.

Last day blues! Looks like AK was fun though; lots of Everest rides!!

Never enough Everest rides!

 

[stindall]

After we perused the gift shop of Dinosaur, we when to Primeval Whirl. I didn't ride it last year and had forgotten how intense it was! It's fun though. When we got off Aaryn decided on dinosaur again. When he disembarked we agreed it was so hot; so I decided I needed a Mickey's Premium...but it fell apart really quickly. I think I got one bite! Bummer! I cleaned up quickly and we ducked into Flights of Wonder that had just started. Aaryn wasn't too keen going in but really liked it!















We realized our fast pass for Safari was expiring soon so we made a out way over there. I think it was a pretty good ride, even in the heat. After of course we went to the Pangani trail and the Maharaja Trek as well. Aaryn was feeling Everest again so we went there, ended up riding it 3 times before we felt ill.




























more in the next post...​

 

[stindall]

These lil birds darted out in front of us!











We had about an hour left until closing time, so we went back to dinoland for Aaryn's fast pass. We did primeval whirl again too. I was feeling pretty sick while I waited for Aaryn to get off dinosaur, I took some tums and hoped I wouldn't hurl on primeval whirl! Luckily it was a semi-long wait so by the time we got on I felt better.







​

 

[stindall]

After that we decided to head out. We had done all we wanted and it was so very hot! On the way out I decided to try for the anteater again and we saw it! I cried a little and took so many pictures and video. Day made! We got to the bus right as one was going to leave, lucky us! We were back at Pop by 6:05 and we pretty much collapsed when we got to our room.



and I took a video of it!

Around 6:45 we decided we should probably do some laundry. Aaryn needed socks and undies and I needed my shorts washed. I bought detergent last year and had never used it, it was actually still in my suitcase when I packed for this trip! It was $2 to wash and $2 to dry. We decided to come back in about 30 minutes to check on it. We had a nice little walk to and from the laundry building. I was getting really sleepy and I just wanted to pack up but of course I couldn't do that without the laundry we were washing. I think we ended up using shopping bags to take it all to and from.





When we got back to the room I had my macaron and unfortunately it was not very good. I tossed nearly all of it. We went back for the laundry around 7:50 and decided to get some dinner. I got the cheesy flatbread and cheesecake, Aaryn got the chicken parm. We decided to take a look at the gift shop after we ate. We wanted more snack mix and I wanted to see if they had a mug for a friend. They had neither. Not one to walk away empty handed, we bought 6 pins and some mickey head suckers.














One last dessert!

We went back for the laundry and thankfully it was dry. When we headed back to our room we discussed how we really did like where the room was. I tried to call Mark once we got back, no answer. Aaryn took a shower so I decided to start packing. My pillow took up so much room! I fit everything except the toilitries, so once Aaryn got out of the shower I had him pack and we put some of the extra stuff in his bag.

By the time we were done packing it was 10:00. Brave was on and we had been watching it. I think we caught the last 45 minutes or so. I decided it was best I showered so we could pack nearly everything else. By the time I got out I was so pooped, I quickly dried my hair to the best of my abilities and hopped into bed. The Princess and the Frog had started, so we watched it and fell asleep. So that's the end of our 7th day! It was fun and hot and sad. Tomorrow's going to be a great day though!​