Ride all the boats, meet all the characters - a first-timer's Jan '15 TR 7/28 updates and conclusion

[ach222]

Hi guys! We're back! We had a wonderful time and I'm so excited to share it with all of you who helped me plan it. If you didn't read my PTR and would like to, it's here ....

Can We Ride the Boat First?

I'll start with intros and a bit of info on our trip.

Here we are on this trip - I'm waiting to download my photo pass pics until my date later this week (we had a memory maker share and each have a day assigned to get in there and download). Most of the pics will be of just DS and ALL the characters but hopefully you won't mind too much!

Me : Amy, 31. I'm a wedding planner who planned this entire trip within an inch of it's life with the help of The Dis. I hadn't been to Disney since I was 5/6ish so I am claiming 1st timer status.
Fave character : Snow White
Fave ride : Soarin
Fave food/bev : Grand Mariner Slush in France

DH : Jon, 30. He is an engineer who was just excited to be there. He had never been before and really enjoyed it.
Fave character : Peter Pan
Fave ride : Rockin Roller Coaster
Fave food/ride : Via Napoli meal in Italy

DS : Grant, 5. Grant was so excited for this trip and was crying when we left - he is a total convert. Loves all things Disney.
Fave character : He says his favorite meets were : Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, talking Mickey.
Fave ride : Dumbo or TSMM
Fave Food/Snack : Ice cream! (in France, Via Napoli, Raglan Road ... )

We drove from Arkansas. We left on Friday Jan 16 and got home Sat Jan 24. We spent 6 nights at Port Orleans Riverside and loved every minute of it! We ventured over to Universal one day and spent 5 days in Disney Parks.

I hope you'll enjoy my report - and if you are looking for a TR featuring a very timid child and a pretty explicit guide to what a very timid child will and won't do, you've found the right place

travel day/check in
sun afternoon - epcot
sun evening - DTD
Mon - Chef Mickey's
Mon - morning MK
Mon - afternoon/evening part 1 MK
Mon - afternoon/evening part 2 MK
Tues - Part 1
Tues - Part 2
Wed - Part 1
Wed - Part 2
Wed - Part 3
Thursday - Universal Part 1
Thursday - Universal Part 2
Thursday - DTD
Friday - Part 1
Friday - Part 2
Friday - Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage
Saturday and Conclusion

 

[Sharpdisney]

Subbing - looking forward to your report, as my trip sounds like it might be like yours! Planned like crazy before we go; I'll add "first timer status" too since last time I went was when I was 6. DH and 5.5 year old DS! Excited to see what he really enjoyed!

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm here!
I'm glad Grant enjoyed the trip. I'm looking forward to seeing all the pictures of him and the characters ... he picked some excellent favorites!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We're here and following along. Can't wait to hear how your first family visit went.

 

[ursalita]

I'm in! Looking forward to reading all about your trip.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

joining on over from the PTR - so glad to hear you had a good time.

Definitely approve of all of your favorite foods/drinks!

 

[princessbelle2015]

I'm here! I can't wait to read about your trip.

 

[Chicago Mo]

Ohh I am here!!! I love your intro!
Very excited to hear all about your trip! your all so cute!!!

I think the picture of Jon and Grant needs to be on a disney brochure!

 

[DisMom1981]

Looking forward to reading about the trip!

 

[KathyM2]

Following along!! I have a very cautious child too...so looking forward to hearing about yours!!

 

[librarygeek]

Yay, can't wait to read about what sounds like a great trip! Glad you converted your son - that probably means more Disney trips in your future!

 

[ariane37]

Hi Amy Found your TR, went back and read your whole PTR and came back here to post Glad you had a good time and can't wait to hear more!

 

[jchurch0409]

Subbing ! I really enjoyed your PTR and was hoping you would start a TR!!

 

[ach222]

Subbing - looking forward to your report, as my trip sounds like it might be like yours! Planned like crazy before we go; I'll add "first timer status" too since last time I went was when I was 6. DH and 5.5 year old DS! Excited to see what he really enjoyed!

Hi! - DS is also 5.5 so should be pretty close! Hopefully yours is a bit braver than mine and you can get him on more rides haha! Although I must admit I enjoyed getting to do a lot of character meets and feeling like I had a 'little' kid again.

I'm here!
I'm glad Grant enjoyed the trip. I'm looking forward to seeing all the pictures of him and the characters ... he picked some excellent favorites!

Hey! Glad you are here - sooooo many character pics, he's already asked me if I've printed them all out yet ...

We're here and following along. Can't wait to hear how your first family visit went.

Hey guys, welcome! Loved POR so much, glad I had read most of your report before we went.

I'm in! Looking forward to reading all about your trip.

Welcome, thanks for joining!

joining on over from the PTR - so glad to hear you had a good time.

Definitely approve of all of your favorite foods/drinks!

Hey there! We even did some beer flights and such - wasn't great about taking pics of them but I'll try and remember all of the selections!

I'm here! I can't wait to read about your trip.

Hi! Thanks for coming over, hopefully I'll get my photo pass stuff asap and get going!

Ohh I am here!!! I love your intro!
Very excited to hear all about your trip! your all so cute!!!

I think the picture of Jon and Grant needs to be on a disney brochure!

Hey there! You think we get free trips if we are part of their marketing campaign - Thanks, I think they're pretty cute too

Looking forward to reading about the trip!

Welcome! I'm hoping I remember all of it, I took notes but am going to try and update quickly so I don't forget.

Following along!! I have a very cautious child too...so looking forward to hearing about yours!!

Hi! Well this is the report for you - G was definitely timid about everything but the characters - we had some definite ride fails!

Yay, can't wait to read about what sounds like a great trip! Glad you converted your son - that probably means more Disney trips in your future!

Hey, glad you came over! Yes, I think DH and DS both are already daydreaming about the next trip - yay!

Hi Amy Found your TR, went back and read your whole PTR and came back here to post Glad you had a good time and can't wait to hear more!

Hey! Glad you enjoyed the PTR, I glanced at the first couple of posts the other day and realized how much ended up changing from my first plans!

Subbing ! I really enjoyed your PTR and was hoping you would start a TR!!

Welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it - hopefully this will be fun as well

 

[ach222]

Here we go .... (this is pretty picture scarce, I promise there will be more pics once we get to park days)

The original plan had been to leave on Saturday, Jan 17th. However we decided to get a jump on the trip and leave Friday after work/school and drive a few hours over to Little Rock.

As it turned out, Grant didn't even have school that Friday and we could've left that morning. Jon didn't feel like he could take another day of work off on such short notice, so that left Grant and I counting the hours until Jon got off of work.

My mom and I had switched cars the night before (we drove her Traverse to be able to get all of our bags plus the jogging stroller in) so I had all of the snacks/entertainment stuff loaded and ready to go. Jon got home around 3:30 and finished putting a few things in the big bag. We then crammed the car full of suitcases (we actually didn't have as many as I thought we would). We then took our dogs and our younger DS to my parents' house - we were off!

I was starving for some reason, and we didn't want to fight Friday night crowds in Little Rock for dinner, so we stopped in Conway for a meal. I had done a quick google search on my phone and settled on Tacos4life - this was soooo good! All sorts of crazy combos and all were delicious. They have a business model based on giving meals to people in need (think Toms, buy shoes/give shoes) for each meal you purchase, a meal is provided to someone in need. So that was a bonus and again, such yummy food!

Throughout the trip, I only took pics of my own food just FYI.

I got one Ono Shrimp taco - "hand-battered, crispy shrimp tossed in our famous pineapple cream ono sauce; served with pineapple, green onions, and toasted coconut in a grilled flour tortilla"
And one Sweet Chili Shrimp taco - "hand-battered, crispy shrimp tossed in our sweet chili sauce; served with lettuce, mango, fresh avocado, and pico de gallo in a grilled flour tortilla"

So good! Jon got beef based tacos and also thought they were delicious - G was very pleased with the chips and cheese dip.

We hit the road and very quickly were at our hotel for the night in Little Rock (only about 2.5 hours from our house) - we got checked in and crashed for the night.

Obviously all of the stuffies had to accompany us in.

Saturday we were on the road by 7ish - Jon and I spent the day listening to the Serial Podcast. I had already listened to it but Jon had not and I wanted to hear what he thought about it. That made the day go very quickly. If you haven't listened, it's a 12 part series covering the true story of a murder trial from 15 years ago. It's gotten a lot of press lately and is pretty well done in my opinion.

Grant watched a bunch of movies and played some iPad. We stopped for lunch at a Five Guys somewhere in Mississippi.

We hit Pensacola around 4 - one of the things Jon really wanted to do was stop and let G see the ocean. ( I may have suggested we could just show him the beach at the Poly and he would never know the difference, but I was overruled )

We went on to Madison, Fl - I would have liked to keep going but G was having some stomach issues so we stopped at a nice Best Western and slept.

We took off around 7 I believe the next morning and before we knew it (around 10:30) we were seeing these lovely sights.

Side note : that small car ahead of us almost got everyone killed as they came to a dead stop to take pics - ya know, despite all the signs, which drove me nuts because there was someone in the passenger's seat but the DRIVER was taking the pics

So about a week before the trip I sent in a faxed room request using a form letter I found on the Dis. I requested we be in Alligator Bayou and be as close to the main buildings as possible. As we had paid for Garden View, not preferred, I knew the closest was building 16 so that was my request. As per the suggestion on the POR fax thread, I listed my reasons for wanting this. I mentioned in my PTR, I have had arthritis since I was 2 and being on my feet all day is hard for me, thus I wanted to be close to as much at the resort as I could be.

When we went to check in we got some major pixie dust. Our room was ready and in building 14 - this means we were upgraded to a preferred room and we were literally as close to the lobby and the bus stop as we could be! What a great way to start. We were also on the 1st floor which I had requested.

(I promise I start taking pics with my DSLR soon, sorry for all of the phone pics)

We also got G and Jon's 1st visit buttons which G was very excited to sport!

I'll stop here - next we spend an afternoon in Epcot!

 

[princessbelle2015]

Great start to your trip. Those tacos look great.

Yay for the room upgrade!

 

[ariane37]

I'm going to comment on your drive down (over??). It seemed to go so.....nice! Easy, uneventful, calm. We have debated driving a few times but our youngest DS9 is SUCH a pain on car trips I love him to death but even when we drive to our friends house 50 minutes away, it's a constant "Oh my God are we almost there???" DH and I try very hard not to throw him out of the car.......BUT, we are now seriously considering adding another trip this year(going March and Nov. and thinking about Aug) but Aug. we would drive. For us it's 24 hours but we'd stop overnight.

I think I'm going to use your drive as an example for younger DS - "if a 5 year old can make it 17 hours with his movies and Ipad and not drive his parents crazy, you can too! You may have 7 more hours but you've got 4 years on him!!"

Or I'll use your other example and have younger DS stay home with Grandma

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Sounds like a pretty smooth trip - well, other than almost having a multi-car pile up when that car stopped to take pictures. I mean, sure it's a multi-lane highway but stopping shouldn't be an issue, right?

I wonder if Disney has considered having an area you can safely pull of too take pictures.

Your tacos sounds really good (though I am not a huge coconut fan) and that is cool that they give a meal away

So glad you got the check-in pixie dust and were happy with your location. I just love how happy Grant looks in basically every photo.

 

[HumblePie]

Joining in! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!

 

[DisMom1981]

Lucky on the upgrade! That is fantastic!