She was so excited she cried... I'm just thankful she didn't pee... - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Ok, trying to get the tears out of my eyes. I agree, that should come with some kind of warning. I'm glad you were able to pull off the surprise. Makes me want to try and do something similar for my little DD (okay, she's not so little at 17) who is so gullible that I could probably do this. And my DS could record it.
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Apologies in getting this written... I've been Royally Obsessed since I came home... Oh and that pesky work thing too... what the heck is up with that? (Oh and I also have an addiction to reading TRs and not writing them... enough excuses?)
Day 1 – Thursday, April 14, 2011:
The Cast of Characters for Day 1:
This trip is the Disney World Equivalent of The Love Boat, except instead of guest appearances by Charo there’s guest starring roles for members of my family and some friends (who are family of my friends – follow?)
Shannon (that's me) – Complete description above in Day 0 post
Morgan (my DD)
CM – My cousin, who’s initials are CM, who is, ironically a CM.
Day 1 started out pretty simply. We got a 4:00 a.m. wake-up call (combined with my cell phone alarm going off 5 minutes prior – just in case). We had showered the night before and I had “repacked” the bags, so we literally rolled out of bed and headed downstairs. Tipped maid service $2 as our room was spotless the night before.
I put the bags that we wouldn’t be needing on our journey in the trunk of the car and headed into the lobby. I commented to the front desk person that the room was in great shape and asked where we needed to wait for the airport shuttle. She invited us to visit the continental breakfast set up (um, didn’t know about that – BONUS!). With that Mo and I walked over to the other end of the lobby and made ourselves some waffles and grabbed some juice. I also stole some bananas for later in the trip.
The shuttle arrived promptly at 4:30 (standard airport shuttle). We were delivered to Bradley International in no time (I swear it was less than 10 minutes). The only confusion I had when we were dropped off is that I didn’t know wether to go left or right when I entered the terminal. (Turns out it was left, but I didn’t figure that out til we walked allll the way to the right – me + 9 yr old + 2 back packs + 1 bag to check + a small carryon. Are you picturing this visual??) Tipped shuttle driver $2 for handling one bag.
After we had the bag weighed and tagged and dropped it off with the friendly (yes, they were really friendly at almost 5am) TSA agents we proceeded to security. But not before we stopped to admire the Mark Twain House made of Legos. (The Mark Twain House is a tourist destination popular with school groups and day-trippers in Connecticut, and the Lego headquarters is also here – a perfect marriage if you ask me.)
We waited for a fairly short time in the terminal, and were soon joined by a high school senior class who were going on a trip. They were pretty well behaved for a group of teenagers with minimal adult supervision – I think they had 2 or 3 adults with a group of 25 of them (one teacher commented that last year they had 75).
The flight to DC was unproductive. It was only an hour – how bad could it be? We arrived for our one hour layover and got to sit quietly on the plane for about a half hour before the fun really began…
Now, you know that you’re getting on a plane that is “full” (literally full, not one seat to be had – not even first class), that they’ve announced several times “we will check your bag for free you just need to bring it to us so we can tag it” and “you are entitled to one personal item and one carryon item” yet you still bring on one “carry-on” (read: wheeled luggage) one personal item (read: true carry on bag that DOES NOT fit underneath the seat in front of you) *and* a purse – a large purse at that??? Really??? Are you serious????
Imagine the entertainment value in this show – as I watched one person at a time trying to shove (literally shove) their “carry on” in the overhead compartment. It was crazy. Then they would get upset when the flight attendant would take their bag to the back of the plane because there was room in the compartment back there. I think my favorite was the guy who tried to stow his luggage in first class and the flight attendants got all upset and told him that first class compartments were for first class passengers only – would it really make that big of a difference if the guy put is bag there if the compartment was empty and it made the difference in us taking off on time??
OK, so after the show we were on our way to Orlando. Again, uneventful. Mo slept the majority of the flight. I may have gotten a quick cat nap in. We waited for everyone else to rush off the plane before we deplaned. (I never really understood why people are in such a rush to get off the plane – particularly when we land a few minutes early.) In my case, I knew we didn’t have an ADR until Hoop de Doo at 7:15 that night, so we were in no rush.
Hidden Mickey while landing in FL (This would be a recurring theme this trip)
We made our way to the Magic Express area of the airport. There was a HUGE line (I mean HUGE!) at the desk area, but I followed the signs and didn’t get in that line, instead I just skipped to the podium and the CM tore off the back of my booklet and wrote how many bags I had checked and told us which line to get in.
In minutes we were on a bus bound for Saratoga Springs (we had to wait a few minutes for it to take off though). I think we stopped at Port Orleans French Quarter and Old Key West. (I just double checked with Morgan and she remembered it was 2 stops before us – “we were the last stop” she said.) Tipped DME Driver $2 he handled no bags, but didn’t let us fall off the steps exiting, so it was worth at least $1 each to me.
The best sight in the world!
We checked in (no wait for check in) and surprise surprise our room was ready! Awesomeness! A wonderful bellman named Mark (please take note, he will appear later in our story) drove us in a golf cart to our room. Forgot to tip Mark.
Morgan had opted for a quick dip before we hit the park, so we put our suits on and walked to Artist’s Palate for a bite (we shared a kid’s chicken fingers (plus grapes and carrots) = $5.32 or a CS credit) and got our refillable mugs (included in the QS dining plan) – I didn’t get the price of that before it cleared (whoops! Sorry guys!).
We went for a really quick swim. I think Morgan went down the slide a dozen or so times and then I encouraged her to head back to the room to get ready for the rest of the day.
As we were getting dressed into the clothes I had brought in the carryon there was a knock on the door – DME had already delivered our bags! Woweee! Can we say pixie dust? Not that I need anything out of those bags as I was fairly prepared, but it was nice to know the stuff was there.
We headed over to the MagicKingdom and traded in our vouchers for our APs and walked through the gates. After a quick stop by the “Let the Memories Begin” sign (and is it just me, or can other people Not move out of the way of Photopass pictures) we were soon walking right down the middle of Main Street. I feel like a little kid everytime I do that!!! It was just as perfect as I remembered.
After a quick stop in the Emporium for an autograph book and pen (with a AP savings!) we headed towards tomorrowland. First stop: SpaceMountain!
Space had a long-ish wait (I generally won’t wait over 30 minutes for any attraction) so we got Fast Passes and headed I believe to Buzz – which had a 25-30 minute wait and then onto one of my Favorites…
At that point, I think the Space FPs were good to go, so we took a quick orbit and then headed to Frontierland to hit up the other two mountains in the great Disney range. On the way through we picked up some fast passes to fly over London with our good friend Peter Pan.
And a quick stop at the HauntedMansion to check out the new queue! Definitely cool!
If memory serves correctly we did Splash first. When we exited Splash my Cousin was waiting for us. The three of us headed off to Thunder together. He was off that night, so after ThunderMountain we headed out of the park and off to FortWilderness for the Hoop De Doo Revue and planned to meet up with him after dinner.
This is probably the “funniest” transportation story of my trip. (Funny for me but not funny for the other families involved.)
I leave the main gates of the MagicKingdom around 5:45/6:00 (original plan 6:15 for a 7:15 dinner/show) and get into line with a whole bunch of families. (Lots of families, lots of little kids.) A boat had just pulled away. Well, we wait, and wait, and wait… the clock keeps ticking… (picture the Croc’s clock near the good ol’ Captain)… And people start talking… and complaining… Apparently they have scheduled the 6:30 Mickey’s Backyard Barbeque. And it’s now close to 6:20.
Now this is why I find it funny. Because everytime you make an ADR at WDW you are told to “allow up to 1 hour travel time to get to your destination.” I know the boats run every 20-30 minutes, so I’m wondering if these folks truly allowed the full hour.
Eventually the boat comes and we’ve gotta wait for someone to fold a stroller (there’s always one person who doesn’t empty out the bottom of the stroller in the half hour we were waiting for the boat) and then we’re off!
We arrived at FortWilderness around 6:45, got in line for our picture (which was awful by the way) and headed to Crockett’s Tavern. I picked up a Bahama Mama and Mo got a Shirley Temple ($11.60 + $3.00 tip – please note I tend to tip at least 20% when waited on, although I didn’t tip at all when I was at those kiosks in EPCOT – which I didn’t realize until after – there was no tip line on the receipt).
We took our drinks with legs and went to check out the little shop across from Pioneer Hall. Eventually we were brought in.
I paid for Category 1 Seating. It was $96.98 (includes tax and tip) for 1 adult, 1 child. My seat stunk. We were in the corner right by the kitchen. I sat Morgan on the “inside” so that I was the one with my back to the kitchen and she had a better view of the stage. (I meant to complain about that… maybe I will in my email.) I think we were probably on the outskirts of “Category 1” and were approaching Category 2.
Just a shot to show how awful-ish our seats were. Six Bits is on the ground, but you can't really tell.
Our server was Lisa – she was awesome. When we told her we didn’t need ribs she kept coming back to check our chicken bucket to make sure we didn’t need anymore food. The food was great (as always) and the entertainment was the best I think I’ve ever seen at the HDDR. There was a table of CMs behind us (I think they must be in the show) and they were having a grand old time and were starting up the hand clapping and foot stomping. When it came time to pick the volunteers, they picked one of the CMs to be the Indian Scout. He was HILARIOUS and it totally added to the show. Left an extra $5 on the table because although the tip was included, she was just that good. (Our glasses were never empty long, she made sure we had enough food, etc.)
We had a bit of a wait for the boat going back to MK - but for good reason...
Eventually we were on a boat back to the MagicKingdom (please note: I'm not at all complaining about this transportation delay) where Mo decided to call it a night “early” (remember we had been up since 4am and had only really cat-napped on the plane). We started sailing in while Wishes was going off… so cool to see it by boat. The only problem with Wishes finishing as we were arriving at the MagicKingdom – the mad dash to the busses with the entire crowd exiting the MagicKingdom!!!
Wishes over Bay Lake Tower
Horrible picture but you get the idea.
We were on a bus pretty quickly (I don’t think we waited more than 10 or 15 minutes max for busses leaving the parks – our only real bus wait was at the resort) and then dropped off at the bus stop where we had a short walk to our room.
Yay! I have been waiting for your TR. Love the video of the reveal! I cried too. Luckily I was home alone so I didn't have to explain to anyone!
Great first day!
I have a question for you: You said you traded in your vouchers for APs. What do you mean by that? Did you buy a package and then upgraded your park passes to an annual passes? I am wondering if this is a possibility...
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Yay! I have been waiting for your TR. Love the video of the reveal! I cried too. Luckily I was home alone so I didn't have to explain to anyone!
Great first day!
I have a question for you: You said you traded in your vouchers for APs. What do you mean by that? Did you buy a package and then upgraded your park passes to an annual passes? I am wondering if this is a possibility...
Hey there! We got APs instead of Park Hoppers. I really want to go back to do the Princess 1/2 Marathon in February of next year (within 365 days of this trip). Another benefit (although I'm not sure if that will work this time) is we did the premium AP (which includes the water parks) so we got 20% off almost everywhere we made a purchase. (So if I was making major purchases it would be a huge break, but heck I'll take even $3.00 off here and there, you know?)
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What a great first day (long but great ) it always amazes m that once you get to WDW it is like you no longer need sleep...lol
Definite magic to start your trip with your room being ready (I love when that happens) and your bags in the room before you headed out. Dinner sounded delicious, sorry about the lousy seats though. Thansk for the boat info - we have a dinner at WCC in August and I had planned on leaving MK an hour or so before so that sounds like it will be just about right.
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