Don't Blink, You Might Miss It! Our Super Quick MNSSHP 2012 Trip - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Don't Blink, You Might Miss It! Our Super Quick MNSSHP 2012 Trip
Hello! I wasn’t sure whether or not I should do a TR since this was such a quick trip, but I decided since it covered some things that I’ve seen lots of people asking questions about/being interested in lately (such as AoA and MNSSHP) that I should go for it! I hope you all enjoy reading along. Let’s get to the introductions!
Our Party: Me – Ashli (32); DH – Kyle (33); DS – Aleksander (11); DSis – Jennifer (she might kill me if I announce her age in public…but I will say she’s my older sister. Hehe!); DNiece – Elaina (12); DNephew – Caleb (10); DExBIL – Steve (35)
Our Journey: Thurs 9/27/12 – Sun 9/30/12; Driving down to MouseTown!
Our Lodging: Disney’s Art of Animation – Little Mermaid rooms!!!!!! for Thurs and Fri….will we get to extend our stay there for Sat as well?
Special Plans: MNSSHP!!!! Basically our family’s favorite thing at WDW. This will make our 7th year in a row!
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MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
I just love the excitement of waking up to the day you are heading to WDW, don’t you? This day started out quite early, as I had to get DS up and ready for school as usual. I didn’t want him to miss two full days now that he’s in middle school, so we decided that he’d go to school and we’d pick him up at 1:00pm so he’d only miss his last two classes. He’d already discussed it with his teachers and taken his spelling test that was supposed to be today, yesterday. So up and at ‘em we were as usual, and he headed out the door at 6:20 to get the bus. Then what did I do? Went back to sleep, of course!
Kyle’s alarm went off at 8:00am, and we both got up. We’d packed all our bags and loaded them into my car so that was one thing we didn’t have to worry about this morning. DH got dressed and took the dogs to the kennel. (4 big dogs and 1 man in a Honda Civic hatchback…I’m glad I didn’t have to go! ) I did my exercise DVD and was in the shower when Kyle got back (our kennel is about 35 min away, so no, it wasn’t the world’s shortest exercise video LOL!). DH worked out while I vacuumed and cleaned up a bit (love coming home to a clean house!). Before we knew it, it was 12:30 and time to head out to pick up DS and hit the road for WDW! I did a quick luggage double check to make sure we had everything, and then we were off.
We got to DS’s school just before 1:00, and it only took a matter of minutes for the front office to get a hold of his teacher and have him sent down to meet us. We all hopped in the car, DS changed his shirt, and then we hit the road. (DS wears a uniform to school and who really wants to start a vacation in a school uniform? So I brought him his Rainforest Café shirt to change into.)
The drive was pretty uneventful. We listened to Halloween song cds to get in the mood for our Halloween trip. We zipped right along until we got to about Sanford, FL which is when the deluge started. It was raining HARD. My sister had left a little before us and she had called to let us know that the rain was coming. Fortunately, it didn’t just rain continuously. We’d drive through some hard rain for about 5-10 minutes, then it would be all sunny for about 5 minutes, then rain again. On the up side, we saw a bunch of beautiful rainbows, and even one double rainbow! We hit some traffic in downtown Orlando (which we weren’t entirely unprepared for since it was about 5:30pm after all), but it wasn’t terrible for too long. We’d arranged to meet my sister and her side of the party at Sweet Tomatoes for our annual arrival night dinner. We LOVE Sweet Tomatoes having grown up in the Tampa area, but sadly don’t have one here in Savannah.
After our delicious dinner (and fortunately it stopped pouring right before we left so we didn’t get soaked going out to the car!), we headed to our resort – Art of Animation – to check in. As we got out of the car, we noticed yet another rainbow, just over the AoA sign.
(You can see it if you look directly up from the "IO" in ANIMATION.)
A good omen? I think so! There was only one person in line in front of us at check in, so it didn’t take any time at all. Our CM was very friendly and enthusiastic. The lobby of AoA is beautiful with a rainbow theme. I wish I had taken some pics, but I was just so happy to be there that I forgot all about my camera right then. After the quick check-in, our CM said “Sketch ya later!” and we were off to our Little Mermaid room. (Don’t worry, it was dark by the time we were heading to our room so I didn’t take any outside resort pics this evening, but I took a bunch of pics on day 2!)
The Little Mermaid room was AWESOME! It was just perfect. We had also been granted our request of connecting rooms, so my sister’s family was just a door away. My favorite thing about the whole room I stupidly did not get a picture of. It was the inside of the shower. It is designed to look like Ariel’s cavern where she keeps all of her human treasures and it is SO cool. I probably wasted a good 10 minutes every time I took a shower just staring at all of the things on the walls!
The curtain that seperated the sink area from the rest of the room
Shower curtain (which you can buy at the AoA store if you wish)
After we brought our luggage in and got situated, we all decided catch the bus down to Downtown Disney and do a little shopping. The bus didn’t take too long at all, and we were on our way. We got off at the Marketplace stop and while there were people down there, it wasn’t too horribly crowded. We wandered along in and out of the shops.
Aleksander, Elaina, and Caleb
Steve, Kyle, me, Jennifer
We spent quite a while in the Lego store for Dnephew (he LOVES Legos and spent all of his money he’d saved up in that store) and quite a while perusing World of Disney.
Me playing around at WoD. I loved this hat, but since I never wear hats, I didn't get it.
I just love WoD, and I was also on a mission to find a little something that a friend had requested. I found it! I also found a Dole Whip shirt that I thought was great – being a Dole Whip addict as I am – but decided not to purchase it tonight. At about 10:00, we decided to head back to AoA and get some sleep. We were all excited for tomorrow to come – MNSSHP day!!!
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MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
Here comes my lesson on why if something you want at WDW isn’t available and they tell you to keep trying because it might become available, DON’T GIVE UP! Originally when we planned this trip, our plan on this day had been to drive over to Tampa for the FSU/USF football game. DH and I are both alumni of USF and big football fans. DH’s parents still live in the Tampa area, so we were going to stay with them this evening, and then head home the next day. However, USF really ticked me off with how they handled this game, and they never released single game tickets for it. They basically were trying to force people into buying season tickets. We live 5 hours away and thus do not have the luxury of going to more than 1 or maybe 2 games a year, so there was no way we were going to waste season tickets on that. During this week they had still said they “might” release tickets, so we were hoping for that and didn’t make any other arrangements. Well, by the time we got to WDW on Thursday we had decided, forget it. We were going to just stay at WDW an extra night and have fun there. Here’s where the problem came in. I had not thought about how the Tower of Terror Ten Miler race was this weekend and because of that, all of the values AND mods were sold out! Nuts! We had asked about getting a room when we had initially checked in at AoA, but all they had was family suites. We definitely didn’t need that because my sister and her part of the gang had to head back Saturday morning because she had to work Saturday evening. The CM told us to keep checking though, because there are always chances of cancellations. Friday we had stopped by the desk again and asked, but still everything was booked. Saturday morning when we got up to say bye to DSis and crew, DH called the reservation number to give it one more shot. We had decided if we couldn’t get a Disney room, we would still hang around and do what we wanted during the day, then grab a room on International Drive in the evening. No luck on the reservation hotline. So, I started getting all of our stuff together and headed to the car, while DH and DS went to check out. It seemed to be taking a while, but I didn’t really think too much about it. Then, I got a call from DH. He was on his way back from the front desk and they’d been able to find us a room at All Star Sports!! Woohoo!!! So like I said, always keep trying! It was particularly neat that it was ASSports, because that’s the only value we’d never been to. So now I can say I’ve stayed at all the values and all of the mods (still working on getting to all of the deluxes!). We finished loading the car, and drove over to Sports. Check in didn’t take long at all (although there were about a million people in the lobby getting info on that evening’s race), and our room was already ready! (It was only about 11:30am at this point.) Nice! We were in the Surf’s Up area, building 6. It was a great location! We had a beautiful view of the main pool and building. When we checked in they had let us know that the main pool was under rehab, but there was the football pool as well as we could go to any of the pools at the other AS resorts. No problem!
We drove the car around to our room and unloaded our stuff. I of course got some pictures before I let anyone touch anything.
The room was really nice, and I actually liked being on the top floor. We are almost always on the bottom floor, even though we don’t request it. At this point we were getting pretty hungry for lunch, so we decided to head over to Boardwalk. DH had specifically requested a meal at Big River Grille, because it was the season for their Oktoberfest beer and he really enjoyed it the last two years. (DH is very in to craft beers.) We decided to drive, because once again it is usually quicker to get from resort to resort that way. We got there with no problem. I have a feeling Boardwalk was quite full as well, because they were directing us to park in the overflow lot across the street. I’ve never had to do that before when I had a Disney resort parking pass. They were only allowing people with an actual Boardwalk parking pass to park in the main lot though. No big deal. We walked down to BigRiver and got seated inside right away. Now normally, I always order meatloaf here. I love meatloaf, and in my opinion, BRG has the best on WDW property. However, it was getting quite warm and really humid (and if I say that, it’s saying a lot because I am a huge lover of heat and humidity!) and I knew that we were going to be outside for a good while during our next activity in that heat. I also knew that the meatloaf portion is HUGE and I would eat the whole dang thing because if it was in front of me I just wouldn’t be able to stop; it’s that good. Instead, I opted for the pulled pork sandwich. DH got my beloved meatloaf (he did let me have a bite) and DS got a gigantic hamburger.
Kyle and his favorite WDW beer
A 10 oz hamburger for an 11 year old...
This took less than 10 minutes. Where does he put it all?!?!?!
Pulled Pork sandwich
Meatloaf
I was really pleased with my choice – the sandwich was delicious! Now I’m going to have a tough time deciding what to order next time we are there. The pork was super tender, and the barbque sauce was so good! It said they made it with one of their beers. I don’t care to drink beer, but I love beer cooked in things where you just get that little tang and not an overwhelming bitter beer taste. It was one of the best barbque sandwiches ever.
After we finished our meal, we paid and headed out. We made a quick stop at the little gift shop down on the Boardwalk though to see if they had Baby Oil. They did!! I had completely forgotten to bring any to get my fake tattoo from the evening before off. I had tried to scrub at it with soap and water, but that baby wasn’t going anywhere. I love tattoos (I have 7), but a big black tattoo of a skull and a snake right there on my forearm wasn’t exactly something I was interested in having without my costume. After we bought the baby oil, I stopped off in the bathroom off the Boardwalk lobby and took the tattoo off, easy as pie.
One of our favorite things to do at WDW when we aren’t at a park is go mini-golfing. That’s what we had lined up for this afternoon. We drove over to WinterSummerland (we had done FantasiaGardens most recently before this). It was very nice and quiet. We opted for the Winter course first. DH won. You know, he always seems to win and he also keeps score… coincidence? He actually got the course record for the day for Winter.
I love the details!
Aleksander's first hole-in-one of the day!
Maybe if I look to see where the hole is, that will help...
After we finished the Winter side, we decided to take advantage of the half price discount on another round and play the Summer side as well. I think both sides at this golf course are so adorable. DH and I tied on the Summer course, but didn’t make the course record this time (DS did really well too, he was only 2 strokes behind us).
We all had a really fun time golfing, but decided that it was getting so warm we needed to head back to the hotel and hit the pool. We each grabbed a mini candy cane (one of my favorite perks of WinterSummerland) and hit the road.
To be continued...
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MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
Great start Ashli! I wish we lived a closer driving distance to WDW. Love the Little Mermaid room, thanks for you sharing the pictures. I really am a sucker for themed rooms.
Sounds like a great start to your trip! The pics of the room are awesome, too bad you didn't get one of the inside of the shower. I love that your family has an arrival night dinner tradition. We have one too. We always eat dinner at Kouzzina on our first night.
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The room looks wonderful! Geat way to spend your first night-- a little shopping at DTD. (I got curious about seeing the details in the shower and watched the new video at allears.com. VERY cool!)
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This day started out quite early, as I had to get DS up and ready for school as usual. I didn’t want him to miss two full days now that he’s in middle school, so we decided that he’d go to school and we’d pick him up at 1:00pm so he’d only miss his last two classes. He’d already discussed it with his teachers and taken his spelling test that was supposed to be today, yesterday. So up and at ‘em we were as usual, and he headed out the door at 6:20 to get the bus. Then what did I do? Went back to sleep, of course! 
DH got dressed and took the dogs to the kennel. (4 big dogs and 1 man in a Honda Civic hatchback…I’m glad I didn’t have to go! 
) I did my exercise DVD and was in the shower when Kyle got back (our kennel is about 35 min away, so no, it wasn’t the world’s shortest exercise video 
LOL!). DH worked out while I vacuumed and cleaned up a bit (love coming home to a clean house!). Before we knew it, it was 12:30 and time to head out to pick up DS and hit the road for WDW! 
I did a quick luggage double check to make sure we had everything, and then we were off.
So I brought him his Rainforest Café shirt to change into.) 
We zipped right along until we got to about Sanford, FL which is when the deluge started. 
It was raining HARD. My sister had left a little before us and she had called to let us know that the rain was coming. Fortunately, it didn’t just rain continuously. We’d drive through some hard rain for about 5-10 minutes, then it would be all sunny for about 5 minutes, then rain again. On the up side, we saw a bunch of beautiful rainbows, and even one double rainbow! 
We hit some traffic in downtown Orlando (which we weren’t entirely unprepared for since it was about 5:30pm after all), but it wasn’t terrible for too long. We’d arranged to meet my sister and her side of the party at Sweet Tomatoes for our annual arrival night dinner. 
We LOVE Sweet Tomatoes having grown up in the Tampa area, but sadly don’t have one here in Savannah. 
(and fortunately it stopped pouring right before we left so we didn’t get soaked going out to the car!), we headed to our resort – Art of Animation – to check in. As we got out of the car, we noticed yet another rainbow, just over the AoA sign. 
There was only one person in line in front of us at check in, so it didn’t take any time at all. Our CM was very friendly and enthusiastic. The lobby of AoA is beautiful with a rainbow theme. I wish I had taken some pics, but I was just so happy to be there that I forgot all about my camera right then. 
After the quick check-in, our CM said “Sketch ya later!” and we were off to our Little Mermaid room. (Don’t worry, it was dark by the time we were heading to our room so I didn’t take any outside resort pics this evening, but I took a bunch of pics on day 2!)
It was the inside of the shower. It is designed to look like Ariel’s cavern where she keeps all of her human treasures and it is SO cool. I probably wasted a good 10 minutes every time I took a shower just staring at all of the things on the walls!
I also found a Dole Whip shirt that I thought was great – being a Dole Whip addict as I am – but decided not to purchase it tonight. At about 10:00, we decided to head back to AoA and get some sleep. We were all excited for tomorrow to come – MNSSHP day!!! 
Originally when we planned this trip, our plan on this day had been to drive over to Tampa for the FSU/USF football game. DH and I are both alumni of USF and big football fans. DH’s parents still live in the Tampa area, so we were going to stay with them this evening, and then head home the next day. However, USF really ticked me off with how they handled this game, and they never released single game tickets for it. 
They basically were trying to force people into buying season tickets. We live 5 hours away and thus do not have the luxury of going to more than 1 or maybe 2 games a year, so there was no way we were going to waste season tickets on that. 
During this week they had still said they “might” release tickets, so we were hoping for that and didn’t make any other arrangements. Well, by the time we got to WDW on Thursday we had decided, forget it. We were going to just stay at WDW an extra night and have fun there. 
Nuts! We had asked about getting a room when we had initially checked in at AoA, but all they had was family suites. We definitely didn’t need that because my sister and her part of the gang had to head back Saturday morning because she had to work Saturday evening. The CM told us to keep checking though, because there are always chances of cancellations. Friday we had stopped by the desk again and asked, but still everything was booked. 
It was particularly neat that it was ASSports, because that’s the only value we’d never been to. So now I can say I’ve stayed at all the values and all of the mods (still working on getting to all of the deluxes!). 
DH had specifically requested a meal at Big River Grille, because it was the season for their Oktoberfest beer and he really enjoyed it the last two years. (DH is very in to craft beers.) We decided to drive, because once again it is usually quicker to get from resort to resort that way. We got there with no problem. I have a feeling Boardwalk was quite full as well, because they were directing us to park in the overflow lot across the street. I’ve never had to do that before when I had a Disney resort parking pass. They were only allowing people with an actual Boardwalk parking pass to park in the main lot though. No big deal. We walked down to BigRiver and got seated inside right away. 
it’s that good. Instead, I opted for the pulled pork sandwich. DH got my beloved meatloaf (he did let me have a bite) and DS got a gigantic hamburger. 
I love tattoos (I have 7), but a big black tattoo of a skull and a snake right there on my forearm wasn’t exactly something I was interested in having without my costume. 
Hybrid Mode
