Our First Trip, MY First TR!!! (Dec. 2010) About This Page:

[OCEANGRLLG]

Ol I am so sorry you lost all your notes, that would make me really sad too! But hey you still got your pics though!!! And the wonderful memories!

[lazanya]

I'm so sorry you lost your notes.

[ilovedisney247]

So sorry you lost your notes! I actually write almost all my reports from memory--I like reliving the trip as I write!

[Cam22]

So sorry about the loss of the thumb drive! I would be a mess if I lost my notes!

[mcc0313]

Sorry about the loss of your trip notes, glad to hear that you did not lose the photos though.

[WDWHarpua]

Originally Posted by chezp

What a pain! I'd be so upset if that happened to my notes as well.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Sorry you lost all your stuff!

Originally Posted by OCEANGRLLG

Ol I am so sorry you lost all your notes, that would make me really sad too! But hey you still got your pics though!!! And the wonderful memories!

Originally Posted by lazanya

I'm so sorry you lost your notes.

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

So sorry you lost your notes! I actually write almost all my reports from memory--I like reliving the trip as I write!

Originally Posted by Cam22

So sorry about the loss of the thumb drive! I would be a mess if I lost my notes!

Originally Posted by mcc0313

Sorry about the loss of your trip notes, glad to hear that you did not lose the photos though.

It's been months, and this TR has been sitting here unfinished and I have been feeling bad about that. To all those quoted above, thanks for your kind words about my notes. I'm planning to actually finish this TR now! At first I was really bummed that I lost my flash drive, then I got upset t myself for not taking better care of it. Then I just got to a point where it felt like this thing had gone on so long without being updated, why should I even bother?

Well, over the past couple of weeks I've gotten into the Disney mood more and more, and I've been talking about both of our recent trips with friends and I decided I remember it well enough to give a rough detail of how the trip played out and if I didn't finish this TR I'd feel like a failure as a writer. I generally quit when the going gets rough, so not this time. I took a break and now I'm back. Embarrassment over how I reacted to losing my notes will not keep me away from here any longer. Starting today, this TR is back on.

I'll understand if people don't read much of it. I don't really know anyone here and don't expect to get 50 responses to each section like some of the more popular TRs I've read, but if just one person reads it I'll have done what I came here to do; share my experience at Disney World. And that's what it's all about.

Notes or no notes, Beth and I still took over 500 photos over our 4 day trip, and I can use those to reinforce some of the fuzzy memories. But I'm sure that once I get back into the groove, It'll all just come right back to me.

So, without further Adieu, On to the resumption of this TR! My first, and possibly not last!

[WDWHarpua]

When last we met, Beth and I were headed to DHS for our first afternoon in the parks together. From Coronado Springs we hopped on a bus directly to the Studios and got our first glimpse of a park decorated for the holidays! The giant tree outside DHS was impressive, and actually helped me get over the fact that my family wouldn’t be having a tree at the house for the first time in my 32 years. (Kittens would have destroyed it anyway)



We walked up to the front gates of the park and headed over to guest services to get our Annual Passes before heading into the park. What a surreal experience that was. An Annual Pass. We could go to any park in Disney World, almost every day, for a year! We were in the club! Bona-Fide!

After getting our passes we walked right up Hollywood Boulevard and got our pictures of the big-giant-hat.



After this we Beelined it straight for Sunset Boulevard because we knew we wanted to hit the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith, but we made a pit-stop at Catalina Eddie’s as I wanted Pizza, and Beth wanted a Salad for Lunch as we had last eaten at Starbucks/Dunks at the Airport back home. The Food was… Well pretty good. I like their Pizza, and they didn’t mess up the Salad. The Carrot Cake Dessert was even pretty good.(See, the details come right back even though I had no photos of it) After our yummy lunch We got in line for Aerosmith, which stated it would be about 30 minutes. 1:45 later, we were finally in the Recording Studio and ready to take our limo to the show.

With Beth’s Birthday Button we had no issues getting the first row (we thought we may have had a hard time if she didn’t have the button. But were probably wrong about that) and we rode our very first ride at Disney World together after 11 years of talking about it and hoping and wishing we could go together it was finally happening.

After our poor experience at Aerosmith’s line, our fast pass for the Tower was ready, so we headed right there and had a great ride. Again, the CM’s saw Beth’s button and when we asked for front row, they just had us wait for the next group to go and we got to sit right in front. Having always been in the back row for the Tower of Terror, front row was a GREAT experience. Nothing is between you and the outside world! If you haven’t experienced it, I recommend that you do!

After our ride on the Tower, we wandered up and down Sunset and did some window shopping. Next was off to Pixar Place, but the line for TSMM was 2 hours and Fast Passes were already out, so we kept walking and made our way over to The Muppets, skipping past the Stunt show because it was just too long for us to want to do it. Muppets had JUST started when we got there, so we decided we’d skip it as well and just took some Photos. We wandered around more and just took photos and took in the sights. The only two rides we did the entire 5 hours we were at DHS were the two best ones in the park, so I don’t think it was much of a waste, other than the fact that I had the wrong shoes for the trip and my feet were already killing me.
At around 6:00 we decided to pack it in and head to the Contemporary for our dinner, as we had both heard that you should give yourself an hour and a half to get to an ADR… It took us about 20 to get there, and we had over an hour before dinner. So rather than go put our names in, we wandered the Contemporary and took pictures of the Decorations. The GIANT Mickey head on the side of the building was awesome!



If you notice the image is blurry, yeah that’s because I had smudged the lens of my camera and hadn’t noticed or thought to even look. The rest of my pictures this trip came out looking similar. On some it’s a cool look, on most it’s a ruined photo.
We headed over to the Bay Lake Tower and tried to get pictures inside, but we’re not DVC so we couldn’t even get in. Oh well. When we walked back to the Contemporary by the water we saw that they had a screen set up and there was a small viewing area for Robin Hood. I love this cartoon! We watched for about 5 minutes and then the frigid 50* air got to Beth, so we headed inside to check in a half hour early for Dinner.

I’m glad we did, because 5 minutes later we were seated and I had a Beer in my hand. I got the Abita Beer Flight, and Beth got an Agave Margarita. Both were delicious. It was at the Wave that we had the best meal I have ever eaten. Anywhere. Ever. For real.

Beth had the Crab Cakes, and the Apple Marinaded Pork Tenderloin with the Burboun Mashed potatoes and a Warm Spinach-bacon salad, which was ALL amazing. I had the Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Potato and onion Gratin and Braised Swiss Chard. The most tender, flavorful beef I have ever eaten. Bar none. I had the Chili for appetizer with the jalapeño corn bread… it was delicious. As it’s been about 9 months, I forget what the desserts were exactly, and I didn’t take photos at dinner out of respect for the other diners, I don’t have any way to fully remember them, but I know we each had 4 little treats, which fit into a category. Beth had an apple pie one and I think there was a couple of Mousse ones, and a Boston Crème one. I just don’t recall. I do know they were decadent and I’d order all of them again!

After dinner though, it was just about 9:00 and we decided to walk to MK and take a bus back to the hotel as we’d been up since 4AM. This was a good idea. We got back to the room and slept like we’d never slept before. Well, after soaking my throbbing feet in the tub for about an hour. They felt a bit better after that. The blisters though. They were hurting. Never wear the wrong shoes!!!


That’s it for Day 1. More on Day 2, coming up!





Part 12!!!!!!!!!!!! (Previous Post)
Part 13!!!!!!!!!!!!! (This Post)
Part 14!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Next Post)

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you had a good time at DHS and a great meal at The Wave! Glad you're back to writing!

[Cam22]

That is the coolest picture of the Mickey wreath at CM! :waytogo;

[tcmary]

Welcome back to your TR! It's fun hearing a man's perspective. Great photos!

[ilovedisney247]

I'm so glad you are back to writing! I love the photo you took of the Mickey Head Wreath! I had a great meal at the Wave, so I'm glad you did too! I was super impressed with the service there and the care they took with making sure each plate was perfectly put together!

[chezp]

Glad you're back to writing!

[OCEANGRLLG]

Glad to see your back! Great update!

[WDWHarpua]

On day 2, we had planned to have Breakfast at the Kona Café at 8:00, so we had a very early morning ahead of us. This resort was so amazing. I wish we had spent more time there, since we were pretty much only there to sleep. When we woke up it was so peaceful out, we decided to take some more pictures of our view in the early morning sun. There was a very fine mist hanging over the lake, and I just thought that looked awesome.



After taking in the view, we got dressed and ready for our day. With 16 hours ahead of us, we headed to the bus stop to catch a bus to Magic Kingdom. At this point I’m pretty sure it was still around 7:00-7:15 AM but we were ready for our breakfast at Kona Café. I was very excited for this breakfast as I was planning to have the Tonga Toast which I have heard rave reviews about. Beth wasn’t sure what she was going to do for breakfast, but we knew we were going to order the Kona Coffee. For a coffee fan like me, it was a no brainer. Add to that the cheap Nescafe stuff they have in the rooms, I knew I was in for a treat.

As we walked into the Polynesian, we both noticed there wasn’t anyone handing out Lei’s so Beth was disappointed, but we’d make up for it soon. We headed to the restaurant and let them know we were there. It wasn’t a long wait and soon we were sitting at a tiny little table for two right in the middle of the place. The atmosphere was great and we both loved the décor.



She’ll kill me if she finds out I posted this, but here’s Beth with our French Press of Kona Coffee.



I didn’t get any pictures of the actual meal, which is a shame because I don’t remember what Beth got. But I did not get the Tonga Toast(have to go back!) because I saw a Pumpkin Pancake on the specials board.

Let me say that again. Pumpkin Pancake.

It was divine. I have never had a better pancake in my life. And they gave me two. I love just about all things pumpkin, which is a bit funny because Orange is generally my favorite color of choice. Though I don’t like pumpkin based on its color, it’s just a strange coincidence. Well. That said, We had our great breakfast and loved each and every bite of it. I cannot wait to go back and actually get the Tonga toast. After breakfast was done we wandered around some more taking in the sights. I got a Goofy hat which I had seen at DHS the day before, but hadn’t purchased, and then Beth got my picture in front of their Christmas Tree in it. It was my facebook picture for about 3 months earlier this year.




From the Poly, we decided to walk over to the Grand Floridian (I know, what was I thinking? My feet were killing me already!) and take in the sights and smells of their grand lobby.



The tree inside the Grand Floridian was huge, and the decorations were just perfect for the theme of the resort. The Gingerbread house was immense and so intricate. It looked awesome and smelled even better. The store wasn’t open yet, so we couldn’t buy any, so that stunk.







With that done, we hopped onto the Monorail and sped off to the Magic Kingdom for our longest day of the trip; 7AM – 1AM. But it was so worth it!






We made our way up Main Street, which we couldn’t walk on since it was the morning of the Christmas day Parade taping, but we wandered through the Emporium and got some great Christmas gifts for our families, and yet another Disney mug for me. I think that makes 3 Goofy mugs in three trips. This may become a thing. Oh I hope not. I have no photo of the mug, but it’s Goofy all the way! And It’s Orange. If I haven’t told you before, Orange and me, we kind of have this thing… It’s unhealthy whatever it is. I mean look at my car….


(This image actually belongs to the April Disney Trip as a “this is what we left…”)

But I digress, We made our way through the Emporium and out onto the sidewalk where they had it all roped off for the parade taping. As it was around 10:30 at this time, they were well into their rehearsals. It was odd to see the process. Not only was there no music to be heard, there was a guy in a big lift up by the front of the park with a megaphone barking out orders. It was definitely not what I expected, but it looked really cool on TV.

We actually stopped to watch as some of the floats went by and the CM directing traffic told us we could duck under the rope and watch if we wanted to, so we did just that. Out in front of Casey’s we stood there watching for about 5 minutes. The Megaphone told our side of the street to cheer like crazy and we did, and all of a sudden there was a camera in our faces! We could have been on TV, but I never saw us… They must not have used that footage. But after a few, we decided to head to an attraction or two, so we made our way to Adventureland for our first attractions.

Along the way, we passed the Dole Whip stand and had to get one, as we were not even close to ready for one while we were at the Poly earlier in the day. I got my first ever Dole Whip, and I was hooked!



Rather than just sit there and eat it, we decided to take them on the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Beth had never seen the Swiss Family Robinson, and had never walked the Treehouse, so it wasn’t as cool for her as it was for me. We still had a good time, and it gave us a chance to slowly finish our tasty treats!





After we finished with the treehouse, we headed over to The Magic Carpets of Alladin which was my first time on the ride. As it was a bit chilly, the Camel was not spitting on the crowd, which disappointed Beth, as she was planning to surprise me with it. (Would never have worked). The line wasn’t so long, so we hopped in line and took a spin. Of course, after this ride, we headed straight to one of my favorites (formerly) Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, I’m not sure if it’s the final scene, or what, but Pirates just doesn’t do it for me anymore. I’m hoping to get to DLR and ride theirs again, as I have heard that it is longer. All in all, it was a pretty good ride, but not what I remember as a kid. It did prove to me though, that I would need a much better camera to take photographs inside dark rides at Disney World. I don’t think a single shot I took came out inside of a ride, whether I used the flash or not. (I never used the flash. That’s highly frowned upon. Why would I do that???) I set all of the settings for what I had been told may work, but with my camera everything was still very dark and blurry. It’s just not got the chops to do this kind of photography. I’ll fix that before our next trip. Whether it’s with a dSLR or a better P&S, I’ll have something that can take better shots on rides.



Anyway… From Pirates, we made an executive decision to ride Splash Mountain and Old Thunder Mountain before heading over to the Haunted Mansion. Splash mountain is a ride that I had only been on once before, not for lack of chances, but because that drop scared the bajeebies out of me. I finally decided to ride it with my Dad, Sister, Brother-in-law and nephew on our trip in 2007. I figured if a 57 year old and a 7 year old could go, I could. Little did I know that my BIL would try psyching me out at each and every hill. I wound up terrified by the time we got to the top of the big drop, and you can tell on my face. (I wish I had a copy of that photo, because it was a look of sheer terror, which my mother thought was feigned until I told her this story 3 years later as Beth and I talked of our trip.) As soon as we tipped over the edge and the cameras flashed, my look of terror changed into a grin of exhilaration and amusement that I’d been that scared of the ride. It’s now my favorite ride in the park.



So, Beth and I made it a point to ride it three times that day. This, being the first, we asked the CM if we could sit in the front row for Beth’s Birthday. He obliged and off we went with wet butts and smiles on our faces, there was no way we could know the magnitude of what was in store. As we wound through the ride, I took in more of the story, as I wasn’t really paying attention the first time I rode it. It’s a really fun ride! I especially like the laughin’ place! As we neared our destination, I remembered the view of the castle from the top of the hill and made sure to look directly at it… for a split second before the log dropped out from under me and we were plummeting down the hill to our watery end!

We got soaked. I mean literally soaked. It was about 75% coverage. I couldn’t believe it. It was so cold and we were wearing Jeans and long sleeves and it was just miserable! We were lucky that it was only about 12:30 as there was still a couple hours of good sun!

After this ride we headed to use our Thunder Mountain fast passes, and asked the CM if we could keep one for Beth to Scrapbook. He agreed, and after seeing Beth’s Birthday pin, even gave us some special FPs which were good for any ride, at any time of that day! What a special treat! We had about 8 of them, which we had no idea where to use them.
After riding Thunder mountain, and not feeling the least bit more dry after all of that wind, we decided to go do Tom Sawyer Island, as I had never been there before. We also figured to be outside in the sun would be better than sitting in a cold dark ride, so we wandered around looking for paint brushes and didn’t find any. I guess it must have been too late in the day for that. It was pretty fun anyway. I especially liked getting my feet soaked on the barrel bridge. That part was great fun! Soon After this, we made our way up towards Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion, and there is where I’ll meet you on my next installment!

See You Real Soon!


Part 1! (First Post)


Part 13!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Previous Post)
Part 14!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(This Post)

[WDWHarpua]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Glad you had a good time at DHS and a great meal at The Wave! Glad you're back to writing!

It was really a great day! I wish I had more photos to share Especially of the food!

Originally Posted by Cam22

That is the coolest picture of the Mickey wreath at CM! :waytogo;

Thanks Cam! I actually think the smudge on my lens made that one look better than it would have otherwise!

Originally Posted by tcmary

Welcome back to your TR! It's fun hearing a man's perspective. Great photos!

Thanks! I did notice I'm one of the few men to post these! Glad you like it. Any tips or hints at making it easier or more fun to read will be greatly appreciated!

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

I'm so glad you are back to writing! I love the photo you took of the Mickey Head Wreath! I had a great meal at the Wave, so I'm glad you did too! I was super impressed with the service there and the care they took with making sure each plate was perfectly put together!

Thank you!! So nice to know people appreciate what I write! I loved the Wave. though this past April, Mom and Dad and My Sister, B-I-L and Nephew all went and they said they felt rushed their whole meal. I think it was just slow and the staff was attentive.

Originally Posted by chezp

Glad you're back to writing!

Thanks! I am glad too!

Originally Posted by OCEANGRLLG

Glad to see your back! Great update!

Thanks Hope you like the next one! Just posted it!