Yeah baby, we're LEGAL!! **updated 9/22**

[Pixie Princess]

Welcome to our little tale of merriment and magic. Before I go on any further, I should let all you dear readers know that if you've opened up this TR hoping for a wild tale of revelry involving newly minted 21 year olds, you will be disappointed. There is only a minimal amount of drunken debauchery (which is to say none, unless a glass or two of champagne counts as drunken debauchery....we shall see), and all the participants involved in that passed 21..well lets just say its been a while.

So why the clever word play of a title? Well, this was our legal trip.. our 21st! Woo Hoo!

The players in this adventure are:

Me- your intrepid narrator, tour guide, electron wrangler and photo journalist. There isn't much to say about me other than that.

DD13- Your spokes model, show volunteer and comic relief. I have successfully brainwashed this child. She still LOVES Disney even as a teen. She has timidly stepped into the world of thrill rides, and I'm not sure she is 100% ready for that other place that shall not be named. LOL! I need to feel like Ill get my moneys worth out of the $100 admission price before I venture over there.

So, the particulars of our little journey.

Date: August 28- Sept 2.
Resort: Pop Century (we are a couple of high class broads!)

Whilst I wait on photos to upload in order to continue this tale, feel free to check our adventure at the 24 hour Monstrous Summer kickoff extravaganza with the TR I am finishing up, Jack Bauer is a Sissy Pants. 24- Disney Style.

 

[Pixie Princess]

As you saw from the introduction our dates and resort location put us in a position to the test the new Magic Bands and Fast Pass+ system. I’ll be honest and say I debated about whether to participate in the test. When we booked this trip in late July, I only had one day that I knew for sure which park we’d be going to. I never really thought about it again until I went to link our hotel reservation in MDE, and lo and behold I get a pop up saying to customize our MBs and pick FP+. I never got anything other than that from Disney to ‘invite” me to the test. When push came to shove, I decided to take the plunge because, well, I wanted get the bands and bling mine out with the MagicBits. Yep, the powers that be at Disney saw me coming a mile away when they came up with all those accessories for the bands. I ordered our MBs and made FP+ reservations for the one park day I knew for certain (eventually I would come back and make reservations at other parks). I ordered the bands late on a Friday night, and they were at my door the following Tues. (Cue the heavenly choir)

I immediately put my band on. I couldn’t resist. The phrase, “child with a new toy” comes to mind. Alas, these bands would have to sit in their box for several weeks before they would get put to use. I made a pact with myself that we would leave for WDW in enough time for me to be able to “get my bling on” at Everything Pop the night we arrived. Knowing my history, this would be no small feat. Do we make it? Will I get my sparkly Mickey Head MagicBits??

Stay tuned to find out.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[Pixie Princess]

Following along!

Welcome wiigirl!!! Glad to have you along!

 

[Pixie Princess]

The magic day had arrived! I was hoping to leave between 2:00 and 3:00 especially since I was going to have to run some errands on the way that I wasn’t able to do during the week because of a couple of big projects that had popped up that week at work. Well a 2:00 meeting pretty much put a damper on that, and we left shortly after I picked my DD up from school at 3:20. By the time we really got under way it was 5:00. This would put us arriving in FL past midnight which would mean getting my band bling would have to wait until Friday.

I was pretty dismayed during the drive down as I could not pick up The USC (S. Carolina for those not in the know) football game. I picked up every other game east of the Mississippi it seemed. Bengals, Jags, Braves, some other college I can’t recall. Oh well. There was the Braves game to listen too, and I had loaded up a few Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show podcasts to listen to. I listened to his interview with Jon Lovitz which was hilarious and made me laugh quite heartily. I find this helps keep me awake when driving at night, so I always try and have some funny stuff loaded up on the iPhone.

Luckily we didn’t hit rain for most of our trip. Then as we started down the Turnpike, the sky opened up and walls of water poured down upon us. Always fun in the dark. And just to keep things interesting and huge bolt of lightning struck what felt like right outside the car window. My DD and both screamed bloody murder at that and the sonic boom clap of thunder that followed. I was certainly awake now!

We finally passed under this arch

[

At

We mercifully pulled into the parking lot around 12:30 a.m. and went to get checked in. We arrived behind a DME bus so there were several guests in line in front of us, and I was cursing myself for not using the online check in. I usually do, and it slipped my mind this time.

We finally got called up to check in, and were checked in by the sweetest but slowest man on the planet. Bless his heart, he couldn’t remember what part of the process he had done and what he hadn’t. Thank goodness we already had MBs and he didn’t have to set those up for us and explain them to us. When he finished up he gave us a couple of carnations, and wished us a pleasant stay.

He was the only one of the desk clerks I saw giving female guests flowers, so I think it was something he just did on his own. How sweet!

We were assigned to building 1 in the 50s section, on the fourth floor. The penthouse! (It’s the best.) I love the fourth floor. No noise from above you. Our room faced the pool which I wasn’t too excited about, but I got both my requests (50s or 60s and not on the first floor) so it was all good. We used our MB to get in the room. It took a minute to figure out just how to position the band over the reader to get in, but once we had that figured out, we got right in.

Thoroughly exhausted we went to sleep.

 

[Pixie Princess]

Here we are, our first full day at WDW. Note, I did not say first full park day. No, for you see, what should have been a lovely day a MK was spent in our room at Pop, working. Thats right. Working. Remember those projects I mentioned? As it turned out at 2:30 on Thursday afternoon, I was assigned a nice chunk of work for a proposal for one of the projects, and the work I was assigned had to be completed before anyone else could start their part. I considered making some last minute changes in our stay, but since the proposal was due the following Wednesday, I figured there was no point in changing. Tuesday would be a busy day as well, and it would mean my DD would miss dance class/rehearsal for the week and two days of school. So we just headed down on Thursday as planned and I worked pretty much all day.

Im sure youre thinking, "your poor DD, stuck all day in a hotel room all day," worry not. It turned out she had an essay that was due on Tuesday, so it kinda worked out that she could get her school work done while I was doing my thing. Much better than her trying to work on it in the car on the way home. I tried to change all our MK FP+ reservations for the day to ones later in the evening with no luck&.at any park. Seriously, there is not one single FP slot available anywhere for the day??? Minus one for FP+!! I was able to re-book our BOG FP for another day, so at least that worked out.

So finally around 3:30, everything was wrapped up for work, and I was hungry. I skipped lunch as did my DD. We headed out to food court for a late lunch/early dinner.

She got a pizza.

I got the grilled chicken sandwich

After we finished dinner we stopped in the gift shop and bought some bling for our bands. We got both some MagicBits and a package of Cover Bands. We dropped back by our room to brush our teeth and I popped in couple of my MagicBits, then it was off for a Dismeet at Fort Wilderness!

 

[Pixie Princess]

We headed off to grab a bus to MK. I was hoping to pop in to the MK later in the evening for the fireworks and maybe a ride or two. A MK bus was loading just as we got outside so we hot footed it over to the bus and were able to make it before it took off.

We arrived at MK and headed to the boat launches to wait on a boat for FW.

We only had to wait about 5 min when a boat pulled up. When we arrived at the dock at Fort Wilderness, I had text to find out where we were supposed to meet. Joy of all Joy! We were meeting for the campfire! We have never done this, so I was pretty excited to go. We caught an internal bus back to the Meadow Trading Post and made our way over to the campfire. Dismeet ahoy!

Not long after we arrived, Tammy (one of the organizers of the meet) and Colleen and their kids arrived. Everyone was introduced, and while the kids went off to play the adults grabbed some seats and chit chatted. A little bit later the other organizer of the meet and my dear friend since middle school, Susan, arrived with her family and Meg and her mom Melissa. Susan was smart enough to get photos, so you can check out the pics on her TR here.

Susan also came bearing gifts for everyone. For the older kids she brought the cups filled with candy.

The other item in the photo is a tissue holder. Isnt it cute!


For the ladies and girls she made these little coin purses.

SOOO. CUTE.

For the younger kids she made crayon rolls. You can see a picture of those on her TR as well.

The kids went off and played while the adults talked some more. A few more people joined us at the campfire area, so the entertainment CMs decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and kick off some Disney trivia! Awesome! We were told to divide into two teams, so we decided to play adults against the kids. Now, before you feel sorry for these kids, keep in mind the people raising these children. Trust me when I say, those kids were at no disadvantage. About four questions in the entertainment CM said the campfire and our trivia game were cancelled due to lightning in the area. Gah! Oh well, the campfire goes back on the list to do for another trip.

Tammy was camping nearby and invited everyone to come back to her campsite. So we gathered up and headed over to her camp site. She had a primo site. It was very close to the campfire area, and pool. And her camper&it is amazing. She and her husband basically gutted it and remodeled the inside to be Disney themed. They call it the Mickey Mobile. So cool! Not long after we arrived a gentle rain began to fall. It was one of those off and on light rain falls. That being the case the kids decided they wanted to off to the playground.

The time came when we needed to head on back to MK to get a spot for the fireworks. I rounded up DD and noticed she was missing her rain jacket. Great. She swore she hadnt brought it, but I told her I know she had it at the campfire. Even Susans husband said he saw it clipped on her shorts. I told her to go back over to the campfire and playground to look for it. Well you would have thought I sent her to Timbuktu. She was gone a long time. Long. Time. She finally came back empty handed. We said our good-byes to everyone. It was so much fun to meet everyone, and I wished I wasnt so shy so I felt like I contributed more to the conversation. Sigh.

We got a bus back to the Settlement Station and headed off to the dock to catch a boat to MK. On the way we saw the Pioneer Hall Players waiting to go on at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue.

By this time Wishes was minutes from starting, so wed have to catch it another night. The good news though was the boat for MK pulled into the dock just as Wishes had started, so we had a poor mans Wishes cruise on the way back to the park to catch the bus.

And we got a little bit of the Electrical Water Pageant too!

We were the only people on the boat. So we can add one more transportation option we've had to ourselves to the list. Bus, MK Ferry, water taxi to DTD, maybe the monorail, and now resort boat. Awesome. Once we docked we hot footed it to the bus area as Wishes had ended and we needed to try and get in front of the exiting hoard. There was a bus boarding once we arrived, and by the line of people waiting, I knew it would be close as to whether wed make it on the bus or not. Luckily we did. We had to stand, but that was fine.

On the way back to the resort a mother and daughter sitting in the seats next to where we were standing were having a one sided conversation about school. The mom was talking endlessly about some sort of testing the daughter would have to do that year, and homework she had etc. As we made the turn on to Victory Dr. (the road on which Pop is located), the mom says, But were on vacation, you dont need to think about school right now. Whaatt?? She just spent a 15 min. bus ride talking about school to this kid. The words were barely out of her mouth when she started right back talking about this testing again. Huh?! DD and I got off the bus and just looked at each other and burst out laughing. Nothing had to be said, we were thinking the same thing. I imagine DD and I give people something to talk about as well from our bus discussions. We have some doozies!

We made a pit stop in the food court for a cold treat. Me a fruit bar and DD a Mickey bar. We enjoyed them on the way back to our room.

Time to call it a night. Up next Epcot!

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Following along!

 

[Pixie Princess]

Following along!

Welcome Surfinpiratee! Glad to have you along!

 

[jecskc]

I'm here !! All caught up !!

Yay for your 21st visit !! We have some catching up to do if we are going to keep up with you!!

You need to post photos for you Magic band bling!! I remember seeing it, but now I forgot what it looks like.

We have the RFID AP cards and EVERY SINGLE TIME we entered a park, one of us had the Mickey Head turn blue. It was very random. Once it was me, the next day it was DS, etc. Very annoying. So they still have a few bugs to work out. Looking forward to using the bands though !!

Loved the Dismeet !! I am soooo glad you came !! I hope you liked the gifts. They were so fun to make and I just had to share !!

I was bummed about the campfire getting rained out. We were having so much fun with the trivia, too. The adults were gonna win that one for sure!!

Tammy's camper was super cool. They had already been there two weeks by that time. Wouldn't that be nice?? You could get so much done !!

Bummer that you had to work that day. I have had to take projects to Disney as well, but I didn't have to this time which was nice. You have to admit though, it is nice to have a job where you CAN work at Disney instead of having to cancel a day or (horror of horrors) cancel your whole trip !!

Looking forward to reading more !!

Susan

 

[jecskc]

Oh, and thanks for the TR plug !! I shall do the same on mine !!

Susan

 

[IheartDDuck]

I'm here! Just gotta go back and read what I missed.

 

[Pixie Princess]

I'm here !! All caught up !!

Yay for your 21st visit !! We have some catching up to do if we are going to keep up with you!!

You need to post photos for you Magic band bling!! I remember seeing it, but now I forgot what it looks like.

There are some coming up!

We have the RFID AP cards and EVERY SINGLE TIME we entered a park, one of us had the Mickey Head turn blue. It was very random. Once it was me, the next day it was DS, etc. Very annoying. So they still have a few bugs to work out. Looking forward to using the bands though !!

We had that problem with the other APs. More often than not it would be DD, and they would insist that she was using different fingers on the scan, but no. Then we'd get in the park, and mine would never work at FP kiosks. Crazy. The RFID passes worked wonderfully on our last trip, and only one hiccup with MB. My fingerscan didn't work once, but I just rescanned and got in no problem.




Bummer that you had to work that day. I have had to take projects to Disney as well, but I didn't have to this time which was nice. You have to admit though, it is nice to have a job where you CAN work at Disney instead of having to cancel a day or (horror of horrors) cancel your whole trip !!

Looking forward to reading more !!

Susan

Yeah, working stunk, but I'm with you, at least I can work from any where. And it really did work out for the assignment DD had. She spent most of the day working on it.

I'm here! Just gotta go back and read what I missed.

Welcome! Glad you're along for the ride!

P.S. You will be making a cameo "appearance", sort of, later in the TR.

 

[Pixie Princess]

We got up and drove to Epcot. We were running a little bit behind and got to the bag check just a few minutes after 9:00. Things moved quickly through both the bag check and the “turnstiles.” Stop number 1- Soarin’. We had a FP+ for 10:30, and were hoping to get at least one standby ride in. We got there and the wait was posted as 30 min, but I felt sure that was not the case. And I was right. We walked right up to the concourse split and were sent down to Concourse 1. We kindly asked to wait for row one, and the CMs obliged.

Row 1, it’s the best.


I had a big ol’ backpack full of bottled water and what not with me. It doesn’t fit under the seat easily, so they moved it to a spot over near the exit door. On my phone I have the Soarin’ music, and after one particularly rowdy ride, I now like to listen to my own music. Usually I forget to take my earbuds, but I remembered this time. We took off into the air, I synced up my music and we enjoyed the ride.

We got off the ride and the FP return time was still pretty early. So we grabbed a FP and headed over to Living with the Land to ride while we waited for our return time.

My DD and I have a deal about this ride. She will ride it if I do CoP. On our last visit we had ridden CoP and I didn’t get my Living with the Land ride in. She owed me.


We got off and headed back to Soarin’ to use our FP+. Again row one, and we didn’t have to wait this time. Yay! We got off and it was time to use our FP, so we just circled around and rode again. Triple Soarin’ Whammy!

At this point it was time to head over to TT to use our FP+ for that. When we arrived that morning, TT had been down. I had received an email from abou 10:15 letting me know it was down and that I could re-book my FP+ if I wanted. Um..no thank you. I checked the MDE app to see if it was still down, and woo hoo! it was up.

 

[jecskc]

row 1 is definitely the best !!

Yay for a Soarin' triple whammy.

We haven't ridden LwtL in a while. I always want to, but the kids are meh about it.

I should have ridden CoP with your DD while we were there. I can't get anyone to do it with me.

 

[Pixie Princess]

When we reached the TT the standby and single rider lines were pretty long. I figured it probably hadn’t been opened too long and was trying to catch up the back log. We joined the FP line, which was kinda long itself.

We weren’t in line more than two or three minutes when an announcement was made that the ride was temporarily stopped. So we, and most of the people in the line, grabbed a spot on the floor to wait out the stoppage.

Sitting pic

While I waited I realized I hadn’t photographed our bands.

After wearing the bands the day before, I noticed that in the heat they do make your wrist a little sweaty. Nothing bad, and really you don’t notice it unless you move the band. I like to wear mine loose..more like a bracelet…so I noticed it from time to time. I thought the Cover Bands might make the MB more comfortable in that regard, and they do.

I started out the day with 3 Magic Bits and lost one (and by the end of the trip DD would lose one of hers as well). I didn’t realize it until we were in line at TT. I’m pretty sure that I popped it off putting on the backpack outside the Land. Moral of the story..keep your eye on your Magic Bits. They can pop off.

We waited for a while, and then the dreaded announcement came..the ride was being shut down and we had to leave. Since we had used a FP+ for it, I was concerned that we’d be able to come back if the ride came back online. I asked a CM about it and he told me it we be okay to return, but I could go to GR and get it fixed and that I’d probably get an e-mail about the ride being down. Well I already had gotten an e-mail when the ride was down previously, and the prospect of schlepping all the way up to GR to stand in line to get my FP+ redone did not appeal to me. It seems to me that if they will let past due paper FP through when a ride goes down, they should do the same for FP+. I think they see the time of your FP when you hold your MB up to the reader, so they should just wave you through, right? We decided to pull a “safety FP” in case the CM was wrong and we were denied entry when the ride opened back up.

So now what? DD didn’t feel like going on Mission Space, and wanted to go to Space Ship Earth instead. I suggested we stop in to Innoventions for SOAT if she wanted to do it. As it was now nearing noon. DD was all for that so off we went.

 

[jecskc]

Ah yes, no I remember what you MB bling looked like. TT was down a bunch during that week. And we always got stopped on it. I just quit riding because it wasn't much fun. But DD just kept on riding. She LOVES it !!