Trip Report Part 2!

Second half of our Trip Report!

Day 5:

            Today we were taking a 5 hour walking tour of the Magic Kingdom! It was quite possibly my favorite part of the entire trip! Although it was the hottest day in Florida yet and walking around in the sun for 5 hours was draining, we absolutely loved it!

            Due to the heat and straight 5 hours of walking in the sun, we were beat! So, we decided to head back to our resort for a quick nap to make sure we were ready to go for the rest of the night.

            We headed to Hollywood Studios that night because of our dinner reservation. First we rode Toy Story Mania with a FP+ and then checked out the Frozen Funland. It was then time for dinner at Hollywood & Vine which is a buffet with no characters. The food was delicious and the desserts were even better! We received our Fantasmic Dinner Package Voucher and then were off for some ride before the Fantasmic show. We rode Star Tours with our FP+, Great Movie Ride and Tower of Terror with our FP+. It was then time for Fantasmic! Because of our dinner package voucher, we were able to bypass the standby line and head right into the theatre for our reserved seating of the show. The show was wonderful as always and it closed out our night.

Day 6:

            It was time for our Epcot day! We headed right to Soarin’, then rode Living with the Land, The Seas with Finding Nemo , sat for Turtle Talk with Crush and then saw Mickey, Minnie and Goofy at the Epcot Character Spot. We then had lunch at Sunshine Seasons before our FP+ for Test Track. After Test Track (Our car came in 1^st place!) we rode Mission Space, Spaceship Earth and then explored Innoventions West. Due to the fact that I have a Disney Visa, we were able to have  special meet and greet with Minnie and Pluto! Then we did Ellen’s Energy Adventure, Malestrom, Captain EO and had dinner at Coral Reef. Coral Reef was really neat because you can see the aquarium from your seat. Although my sister said it was a tad weird to eat fish while seeing fish, we still enjoyed our dinner here.

            After dinner, we headed to our resort before catching a bus to Downtown Disney.  This time in Downtown Disney we shopped (and shopped and shopped!) We spent lots of money, but came away with some awesome merchandise. We knew we had some packing to do tonight, so we headed back to the hotel to tackle packing.

Day 7:

            Today we were switching hotels since we decided to extend our trip semi last minute. It was nice to find out that they would take our luggage, so we dropped off the luggage and headed to the resort. Our room wasn’t ready (again!), but we just headed to the Magic Kingdom instead of waiting for it to be ready. We were able to meet Tinkerbell (my favorite!) and Merida before having lunch at Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and Friends. After lunch we met Anna and Elsa, saw Phillharmagic again (yay air conditioning!), did Enchanted Tales with Belle, met Cinderella & Rapunzel and rode Seven Dwarfs Mine Train again! We barely used any of the snacks on our dining plan yet, we decided to use them up at the Confectionery on Main Street.

            Our room was finally ready, so we headed back to the hotel to make sure we could grab our bags before bell services closed and ate a quick meal at our hotel cafeteria. After dinner we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for the last time in this trip. Usually I make sure Magic Kingdom is the last park I visit before I leave, but with the Villain’s Unleashed Event, that wasn’t happening.

            Once we got back to the Magic Kingdom, we took the railroad around to Fantasyland, met Ariel at her Grotto, rode Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel, rode Winnie the Pooh and then found a spot to watch Celebrate the Magic. After Celebrate the Magic was over, we headed to the train Station to find a good spot for the Wishes Fireworks show. We said Goodbye to the Magic Kingdom and headed back to the hotel before our last day in Disney World.

Day 8:

            We started our last day in Animal Kingdom! We rode Kali River Rapids twice because there was no wait. This was not a good idea on our part because we had to walk around in soaking wet clothes all day, but we dealt with it. We then saw Festival of the Lion King, rode Kilimanjaro Safaris, and rode Expedition Everest 3 times in an hour! The first and third time in the single rider line and the second time with FP+.

We then traveled to Hollywood Studios and had lunch at the ABC Commissary. We then rode Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, and then Rock n Roller Coaster in the single rider line. We headed over to the Art of Animation building to take a drawing class where we learned how to draw Mickey. We then met Sorcerer Mickey and Minnie there before taking another drawing class learning how to draw Minnie.

By that time it was time for us to check in for the Villains Unleashed Event! I stood in a crazy long line to buy t shirts and a pin while my sister sat in line to meet Captain Gantu who wasn’t coming out for a while, but I knew the line would get very loooong. When I met up with her at the Gantu line, I figured we might as well try to get other characters in while the other person waits in line. So I went over to meet Jafar while she stayed in line for Gantu. By the time I got back to her, Gantu was coming out any minute. After meeting a verrrry tall Gantu, my sister got inline for Jafar while I was able to meet the Storm Troopers and then save a spot in line for Darth Vadar. She met up with me at Darth Vadar and then she was able to see the Stormtroopers. By this point we saw everyone we wanted to plus extra and were very happy we were able to attend the event. We learned a few things to do differently if we are able to make it to the event next year, but for our first year we were very happy.

 

Overall we had an AMAZING trip and I miss it already! I hope you enjoyed our trip report and stay tuned for next week’s post on whether the Dining Plan was worth it for us or not!

 

Thanks for reading and have a MAGICAL day!

J

Trip Report Part 1!

Here is our day by day trip report!

Day 1:

We arrived at our hotel around 10:30 in the morning to find out our room was not yet ready, so we packed a quick park bag with the essentials (sunscreen, money, camera, etc.), gave the rest of our carry-ons to Bell Service to be held until later and were off to the Animal Kingdom!

Once in the Animal Kingdom, we headed to Expedition Everest and rode it in the single rider lane because the regular standby was 45 minutes! We then decided to head to the 12 o’clock show for Finding Nemo: The Musical! When we went into the musical it was sunny and hot, when we came out though, everything was wet and the sky was dark. We made it into the center of the park when the next storm came. It rained for roughly an hour.  In Animal Kingdom that can cause a bit of a problem because a lot of the attractions are outside, but we decided to run from store to store and check out the goodies! Once the rain seemed to stop for now, we went to meet Dug & Russel from Up! We were the last group to see them because the storms started again and characters can’t be outside in lightning. So once again we headed to a couple stores to wait out the storm. The rain slowed to a drizzle so we made our way to our lunch reservation at Tusker House with Donald, Mickey, Goofy and Daisy. After lunch, we grabbed a ride on the Wildlife Express Train to go to Rafiki’s Planet Watch where we met Rafiki, as well as, Chip and Dale. This wrapped up our time in Animal Kingdom for the day.

That night we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom! We went over near Liberty Square and were able to meet Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. If you were following along on Facebook, you would have learned that I now have a HUGE crush on Naveen! He was adorable and just overall awesome. We went to find a snack before our Fastpass+ reservation for Splash Mountain. We were soaked from Splash Mountain, but it felt nice in the very hot temperature. We then saw Mickey’s Phillharmagic, used FP+ for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, rode the Mad Tea Party, went to the Monster’s Inc laugh Floor, used our last FP+ for Space Mountain and then battled Zurge in Buzz Lightyear’s Space Spin. We closed out our night by watching the Main Street Elextrical Parade near the Train Station. We headed back to our resort in the hopes of catching some sleep after a very long day.

Day 2:

            We started off by heading to Typhoon Lagoon Water Park! We were there before it opened which is a great way to go because you beat the rush of people. We were able to do every single slide/raft ride in an hour and a half because there is never usually a wait right when the park opens. Since we were able to do all of the big stuff early, we decided to take it slow and go around in the lazy river a couple times and then headed for the wave pool. After lunch, we went in the wave pool and then headed out so that we could both shower before dinner.

            That night we had dinner at 1900 Park Fare located in the Grand Floridian. This dinner is a buffet with Cinderella, Prince Charming (swoon!), Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella. This has always been a favorite character meal of mine and it definitely did not disappoint!

            Once dinner was over, we headed to Downtown Disney to go to Disney Quest which is an in-door interactive play area. We did things such as a Buzz Lightyear Bumper car-like ride, learned how to draw Mickey Mouse, created our own roller coaster simulator, and a bunch of other fun things. Being worn out from running around the water park all morning, we called it a semi-early night and headed back to our resort.

Day 3:

            We made sure we arrived at Hollywood Studios before rope drop because we wanted to get to Toy Story Midway Mania as soon as the park opened. I knew from reading Disney blogs and such that the “running to Toy Story” was intense, but we decided we wanted to do it anyway. They were not kidding about it being intense! Once they let us scan our magicbands to let us in the park, everyone ran up to the hat in the middle of the park where there was a set of ropes holding us back from going any further. They replaced the rope with a line of cast members that quickly walked from the hat towards Toy Story Mania. There were hundreds of people all trying to get to the same place as us. We were luckily to be two of the first fifty people to walk into the line and were able to ride it with no wait. By the time we walked out of the ride, the wait time was already 60 minutes! I couldn’t believe it and was happy we made it to the front of that line. After Toy Story Mania, we were able to meet Buzz and Woody and then decided to head to find a spot for the Frozen Parade. We were in a VIP section because I surprised my sister with the premium package (more info on all the surprises I had in another post). We watched the Frozen Royal Processional and then decided to do some shopping before we went to see Beauty & the Beast Stage Show. After the show we rode Tower of Terror with our FP+, then headed all the way across the park for the Frozen sing-a-long. The sing-along was awesome! It’s amazing how big of a phenomena Frozen is and all of these people coming together to sing along with the movie songs was pretty neat. It was then time for our Rock n Roller Coaster FP+. After RnRC, we headed to the Art of Animation Building and were able to meet Ralph & Vanellope from Wreck-it Ralph and then we met Mr. Incredible & Frozone from the Incredibles.

            By this point, it was time for us to head to dinner because it was at a resort and not Hollywood Studios. That night dinner was at Chef Mickey’s in the Contemporary and what a great experience we had. J

            We were then heading back to Hollywood Studios for the rest of the night. We were able to get a picture with Sven from Frozen and do some shopping in Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post. It was then time for the Frozen Fireworks Dessert party that was included with the premium package. They had tons of desserts, drinks and entertainment. Once everyone filled their bellies, we were able to watch the Frozen Fireworks Spectacular while singing along to Frozen songs of course! The fireworks closed our day in Hollywood Studios and we headed back to the resort for some shut eye before another long day in the parks.

Day 4:

            We made it to the Magic Kingdom this morning in time to see the Welcome Show they do every morning. We then made our way to Jungle cruise, then rode Magic Carpets of Aladdian, saw the Enchanted Tiki Room, and were able to ride Splash Mountain with basically no wait. We then took the Railroad to Fantasyland, rode Goofy’s Barnstormer, Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid, and It’s a Small World all before an early lunch at Be Our Guest. After lunch we traveled to Tomorrowland to ride the PeopleMover, see the Carosuel of Progress, and ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with a FP+. By this point is was about 1 in the afternoon, over 100 degrees, and we were losing energy quickly. We decided to take the railroad to Frontierland to use our FP+ for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and then found a shady spot for the parade and waited for it to start while eating frozen lemonade to cool down. We then watched the Festival of Fantasy Parade and then used our last FP+ for the day on Splash Mountain. Due to the excessive heat and running around, we felt gross and sticky! Because of this we decided to head back to our resort to shower since we knew we had dinner at Cinderella’s Castle later that night.

            During our dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table, we met Cinderella (obviously), Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White and Aurora. Due to the timing of our reservation, we were able to see some of the fireworks show from our table threw the window. Knowing our next morning was going to have to start much earlier than usual, we headed back to resort for some shut-eye.

 

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for part 2!!!

J

Update on the New and Old experiences of our trip!

Sadly I wasn’t able to get on the site to give a quick update during the week because the wi-fi was being finicky, but here are my thoughts on our new and old experiences from our trip!

New things going to be experienced:

·         Traveling with just my sister- We ended up having an awesome time! There were ZERO quarrels which was pretty surprising if you ask me. Only once did I have to say “I’ll leave you behind if you don’t want to come!”

·         Be Our Guest (For lunch with FP+)- Pretty disappointing. I much prefer dinner here over lunch. The food was alright and even though we ordered our meals beforehand, we still had to go through the same process as those who hadn’t pre-ordered. It wasn’t the same without the Beast there either. I will definitely be sticking to dinner here from now on.

·         Switching hotels during our trip- Almost completely painless! I talked to the front desk of Old Key West the day before we had to switch hotels to figure out how we were supposed to get ourselves and all of our luggage from here to All Star Sports. The woman shocked me by saying that the bell service of the hotel will take your luggage there free of charge and just to make sure you had anything you needed because it didn’t happen until late afternoon. I was very impressed with this and over happy that we didn’t have to lug it all the way across Disney by ourselves. The only down side was getting ourselves to the resort. We had to take a bus from Old Key West to Hollywood Studios and then take a bus from Hollywood Studios to All Star Sports. Although it doesn’t seem bad, it ended up taking over an hour and a half to do so. Once we arrived at the resort our room wasn’t ready which was a bit of a downer, but we decided to head to Magic Kingdom and just come back later. Overall, not too bad.

·         Fantasmic Dinner Package- Wonderful choice! Absolutely loved not having to stand in the looooong standby line to get in, plus we had seating in the center of the theatre which is the best!

·         Keys to the Kingdom Park tour- One of my favorite parts of the whole trip! The tour was absolutely amazing. Of course it was the hottest day in Florida all summer so that was rough considering it was a 5 hour walking tour, but the tour guide truly helped in making sure we had time in shade and had plenty of water. I learned so many new things that I am still thinking about all the new facts and information.

·         Memory Maker- probably the best $150 I spent the whole trip. Not having to worry about having my camera out all the time and getting special magical shots was totally worth it. We ended up with over 200 pictures to download which was great. I would buy this again in a heartbeat.

·         Villains Unleashed- I hope they have this again next year! I loved the event, but we definitely learned a few things to do differently if we were to attend again another year. Being as we were up and in line to enter Animal Kingdom by 8:30 that morning, we were a bit tired once it was time for the event at Hollywood Studios beginning at 8pm. Being tired and really hot had a slight impact on the event, but we still enjoyed it and was able to meet all the characters that we wanted to.

 

Favorites that are being revisited:

·         Tusker House – I was a little sad to be rushed through the characters and eating, but otherwise the Characters were great and the food was very yummy!

·         Chef Mickey’s- AMAZING! Always love it here. Never disappoints.  

·         Celebrate the Magic/Wishes- Wonderful as always!!! J

Overall, we had an amazing time and I can’t wait to write up my trip report! Hopefully I’ll have that done by the end of the week!

 

Thanks for reading and have a MAGICAL day!

:)

Disney Here We Come!

My sister and I leave for our 9 day Disney Trip tomorrow!!! There will be many new experiences on this trip as well as lots of favorites, so I’ve compiled a list below.

New things going to be experienced:

·         Traveling with just my sister- My sister (age 18) and I have been to Disney World together twice, but never just the two of us. We were both under the age of 18 both times so we never had the opportunity to go by ourselves (We also love our family and are sad to leave them behind when we go this time). Being sisters only 5 years apart, we have our quarrels from time to time, so just the 2 of us for a 9 day trip should be interesting!  J

·         Be Our Guest (For lunch with FP+)- I was lucky enough to snag a reservation for dinner here in my May ’13 trip, but we were not so lucky this time. I was, however, able to snag a FP+ for lunch here so that we do not have to wait in the long line to get in. Lunch is a completely different experience than dinner because lunch is a Quick Service meal whereas Dinner is a Sit Down meal featuring the Beast.  **They are currently making changes in order to not have the long line waiting outside the restaurant for lunch, but we are sticking with our FP+ direct to table this time.

·         Switching hotels during our trip- Staying in the same hotel for your entire Disney trip is obviously very common and it is what I’ve done every time I’ve gone; except this time. When we originally made our plans we were staying 8/16/14-8/22/14 at Old Key West Resort (OKW). Our Uncle was nice enough to give us his Disney Vacation Club points (can explain this whole system in depth at a later time) so that we could stay at this Deluxe Hotel in Disney at no cost to my sister and I. A couple of months ago a special once a year event was announced (I talk about it later on in this post) that is taking place the day AFTER we leave to return home. I tried to find the cheapest way possible to stay an extra 2 days in order to attend this event. After talking to my sister and some help from my mom, we decided to do it! We are switching hotels due to OKW costing $300+ a night which is clearly not cheap. Instead we will be checking out of OKW on 8/22/14 and checking in to All Star Sports Resort for only $100 a night. I’ve heard that switching resorts is awful, but we don’t really care since we get to attend this special event!

·         Fantasmic Dinner Package- Fantasmic takes place in Hollywood studios and I’ve seen this show multiple times and love it! The difference this time being that we attached it to our dining reservation made that night so that we can have prime reserved seating instead of seating opened to everyone at Hollywood Studios that day. More in depth information on this can be found here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/hollywood-studios/fantasmic-dining-package/

·         Keys to the Kingdom Park tour- A graduation gift I bought for my sister! We are taking this 5 hour walking tour of the Magic Kingdom in the middle of our trip and I cannot wait to learn even more about the magic that is Walt Disney World. (I'll upload photos later to show you how I made her figure out her gift!)

·         Memory Maker- New digital photos that replaced the old Photopass + system. There are tons of Photopass Photographers throughout Disney World that will take your picture in the best spots around the parks. These photos as well as ride photos are included in Memory Maker where I can download them to my computer as many times as I want within the time range. This cost $149 since I bought it in advance and would have cost $199 if I had waited until our trip.

·         Villains Unleashed- The special event happening August 23^rd in Hollywood Studios! This is a hard ticketed event (aka extra cost, limited amount of tickets) that features more than 50 Disney villains roaming the park from 8pm to 1am. There are special events, food, merchandise and character meets. We are very excited that we are able to attend this rare event!

Favorites that are being revisited:

·         Tusker House – My best friend and I found this buffet restaurant before we left for our trip in May ’13. It is Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy character breakfast and lunch in Animal Kingdom. We love character meals and figured we’d give this place a shot. We loved the atmosphere, food and character interactions! Looking forward to showing my sister this hidden gem and being able to join the fun with the Mickey Safari crew!

·         Chef Mickey’s- A classic! This is another buffet meal that is located in the Contemporary Resort near the Magic Kingdom. This is also a character meal (I realllllly love character meals so be prepared) starring Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto in chef costumes. I personally love this place because it is a fun/exciting environment and the classic characters always make the experience even more fun!

·         Celebrate the Magic/Wishes- Celebrate the Magic is the castle projection show in the Magic Kingdom and Wishes is the firework spectacular following it. I first saw Celebrate the Magic when I traveled to Disney in May ’13 and we were amazed. It is so neat to see all of the different pictures/videos that they display on the castle. I am always in awe at how they were able to create something so different and think to have it displayed on the castle. Wishesis my favorite fireworks/nighttime display in Disney World so far. It is set off behind the castle and tells a wonderful story during the firework show. It also help that my favorite character is used in this show (Tinkerbell!).

We are super excited for our trip! Since I won’t be able to make a full post while in Disney, I’ll make sure to check in!

 

Thanks for reading and having a MAGICAL day!

J

Welcome to my Disney World Blog!

Hi there!

As the name of the blog entails, I truly am a Disney World Nut! I'm sure my family and friends can oblige. :)  I've started this blog to express and share my love for Disney. As I am about to embark on my 8th Disney adventure (1 of those being Disneyland Paris), I decided that I really enjoy telling others about my plans to Disney and random information I've learned all about Disney throughout my life, which is why I figured this blog would be a great idea!

A little about myself:

• I am currently 23 years old (You are never too old for Disney!)
• Live in South Jersey
• Have been to Disney World 6 times (7th in a few days!)
• Have been to Disneyland Paris once (itching to get to all of the Disneyland locations!)
• I've been told countless times that I should work in marketing/something Disney related
• Strongly considering becoming an Authorized Disney Travel Agent

I hope you enjoy reading my random Disney facts, reviews, trip reports, and such as much as I enjoy writing about them!

Have a Magical day!

:)