tinkfan160
Believer in Faith, Trust, & Pixie Dust
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2013
Hello Everyone! This is my first attempt at writing a full trip report, so please be kind! I attempted to write one for our Magic Kingdom day trip in December, but I didn’t finish it because it seemed as though it wasn’t being read. However, I really enjoy reading the trip reports of others, so I will give it another shot! I became a serial lurker on the Dis prior to our July 2013 trip, finally after we returned from that trip I started posting. As I already mentioned, I LOVE to live vicariously through others and read all kinds of trip reports. I’ve never commented on one, but I definitely continue to follow along with those that I enjoy.
Now that a brief introduction is done, let’s move onto the good part! So without further ado, the dining room proudly presents...my trip report! (PS: You have to read that part in Lumiere’s voice!)
Who Needs a Graduation Party When You Can Go To Disney World????
Before I jump right into the trip, I figured I should talk a little bit about why the trip is happening and who is going. In July 2013, we visited WDW for a vacation and my dad’s birthday happened to fall during the trip. As a result, the trip sort of became his birthday trip. Almost immediately after returning home from that trip, my dad and I (who are the total Disnerds in our family) began contemplating when our next visit would be. While we knew a longer trip needed to be in our future, a day trip to Magic Kingdom fell into our plans in December 2014 while we were taking my grandma to her winter home in Florida. After that trip, this one truly took off.
I will be graduating from college in December 2015 and I have always told my parents that I didn’t want a big to-do after I graduated. Instead, I told them I wanted the three of us to go to Disney. For all technical purposes, I was done with college in May, but as I am going into teaching I have a semester of student teaching before I graduate. That will be done this fall. In the education field, jobs can pop up at any moment, therefore I had to convince my parents we needed to do the trip before I actually graduated. We found we had liked July last time, despite the heat, so we thought it would be good time to go again. We did end up going about a week and a half later than in 2013, because I selfishly wanted to make sure my dad’s birthday wasn’t during the trip!
Bring on the Details:
When: July 19th to July 25th
Resort: Staying off property was not an option, so to save some money we originally decided to stay at a Value resort. We had stayed the night at All Star Sports in December and decided to head there again. The smaller beds meant my 6’5” dad would get a solo bed and my mom and I would have to share, but we’d make it work. However, this plan quickly changed. My dad has a co-worker who goes to Disney every year and buys Vacation Club points from a friend of his wife’s. He also told us that this individual always has points and would probably be willing to sell some to us. Long story short, for right around the same price as it would have been to stay at All Star Sports, we found ourself with reservations at Old Key West Resort!
Distance Walked (Sun to Fri only) (with the Fitbit craze, this seems like a relevant category): 95,739 steps = 41.3 miles
Who:
I’ll start with myself...my name is Chelsea and I am 23. As I previously mentioned, I am going to be graduating in December with a degree in Secondary Education (grades 6-12 for those who aren’t familiar with the system). I am a History major and an English minor...basically in addition to being a huge Disnerd, I’m just a nerd in general! HAHA I also love hair bows and flowers more than a 23 year old should, so throughout this trip you will see that I have some kind of flower or Disney-themed hair accessory! (Fun Fact: When I packed my clothes I made sure I had something that went with every shirt I took...I was missing a couple so I had to make them at the last minute!)
Picture from "senior pictures" on Main Street...there will be more later in the trip!
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom (this is like picking a favorite child, but MK just says “Disney” to me)
Favorite Ride(s): Tower of Terror, Expedition Everest, American Adventure, pretty much everything MK
Favorite Snack(s): Chocolate covered banana or Mickey rice crispy treat
Favorite Place to Eat: Patisserie in the France pavilion
Favorite Character(s): Tinker Bell and Elsa
Favorite Princess: Belle
Favorite Disney Animal: Marie
Favorite Nighttime Show: Fantasmic
Mom:
My mom’s name is Ann, but I will just call her mom throughout the report, because it just flows better when I’m writing. She loves Disney, but is definitely the least Disney-crazed person in our house. She helps keep my dad and I’s crazy ideas grounded, but once we get “home” she loves every minute of it just as much as the rest of us. She is also where I get some of my crafting abilities from so throughout the report you will see a few of the awesome things she made/decorated for this trip!
Mom and I on the boat to Downtown Disney
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride(s): Haunted Mansion
Favorite Snack(s): Chocolate covered banana
Favorite Place to Eat: Earl of Sandwich
Favorite Character(s): Eeyore and Olaf
Favorite Princess: Cinderella
Favorite Disney Animal: Pluto
Favorite Nighttime Show: Wishes
Dad:
Last, but not least, we have Bill, my dad and partner in crime in most aspects of life. My mom often refers to him as her second child and I will admit that he and I have a tendency to gang up on my mom if there is something we both want to do...we once made a PowerPoint presentation about why we should go to Disney to convince her on one of our past trips! In real life, my dad tends to look a little bit grumpy most of the time even when he’s not. However, it never fails that he always looks the happiest in our pictures from our Disney trips, but there have been a few times when he lets the grumpy face slip and gets called out by cast members (you’ll see later in the trip that he got the ultimate call-out this time around!).
Dad and his long lost brother!
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride(s): Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest
Favorite Snack(s): Chocolate covered bananas
Favorite Place to Eat: Pecos Bill’s
Favorite Character(s): He says he doesn’t he have favorite because “they’re all pretty cool!”
Favorite Princess: He says he likes them all equally.
Favorite Disney Animal: Stitch
Favorite Nighttime Show: Illuminations
Continue to next post to read about Day One!
Now that a brief introduction is done, let’s move onto the good part! So without further ado, the dining room proudly presents...my trip report! (PS: You have to read that part in Lumiere’s voice!)
Who Needs a Graduation Party When You Can Go To Disney World????
Before I jump right into the trip, I figured I should talk a little bit about why the trip is happening and who is going. In July 2013, we visited WDW for a vacation and my dad’s birthday happened to fall during the trip. As a result, the trip sort of became his birthday trip. Almost immediately after returning home from that trip, my dad and I (who are the total Disnerds in our family) began contemplating when our next visit would be. While we knew a longer trip needed to be in our future, a day trip to Magic Kingdom fell into our plans in December 2014 while we were taking my grandma to her winter home in Florida. After that trip, this one truly took off.
I will be graduating from college in December 2015 and I have always told my parents that I didn’t want a big to-do after I graduated. Instead, I told them I wanted the three of us to go to Disney. For all technical purposes, I was done with college in May, but as I am going into teaching I have a semester of student teaching before I graduate. That will be done this fall. In the education field, jobs can pop up at any moment, therefore I had to convince my parents we needed to do the trip before I actually graduated. We found we had liked July last time, despite the heat, so we thought it would be good time to go again. We did end up going about a week and a half later than in 2013, because I selfishly wanted to make sure my dad’s birthday wasn’t during the trip!
Bring on the Details:
When: July 19th to July 25th
Resort: Staying off property was not an option, so to save some money we originally decided to stay at a Value resort. We had stayed the night at All Star Sports in December and decided to head there again. The smaller beds meant my 6’5” dad would get a solo bed and my mom and I would have to share, but we’d make it work. However, this plan quickly changed. My dad has a co-worker who goes to Disney every year and buys Vacation Club points from a friend of his wife’s. He also told us that this individual always has points and would probably be willing to sell some to us. Long story short, for right around the same price as it would have been to stay at All Star Sports, we found ourself with reservations at Old Key West Resort!
Distance Walked (Sun to Fri only) (with the Fitbit craze, this seems like a relevant category): 95,739 steps = 41.3 miles
Who:
I’ll start with myself...my name is Chelsea and I am 23. As I previously mentioned, I am going to be graduating in December with a degree in Secondary Education (grades 6-12 for those who aren’t familiar with the system). I am a History major and an English minor...basically in addition to being a huge Disnerd, I’m just a nerd in general! HAHA I also love hair bows and flowers more than a 23 year old should, so throughout this trip you will see that I have some kind of flower or Disney-themed hair accessory! (Fun Fact: When I packed my clothes I made sure I had something that went with every shirt I took...I was missing a couple so I had to make them at the last minute!)
Picture from "senior pictures" on Main Street...there will be more later in the trip!
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom (this is like picking a favorite child, but MK just says “Disney” to me)
Favorite Ride(s): Tower of Terror, Expedition Everest, American Adventure, pretty much everything MK
Favorite Snack(s): Chocolate covered banana or Mickey rice crispy treat
Favorite Place to Eat: Patisserie in the France pavilion
Favorite Character(s): Tinker Bell and Elsa
Favorite Princess: Belle
Favorite Disney Animal: Marie
Favorite Nighttime Show: Fantasmic
Mom:
My mom’s name is Ann, but I will just call her mom throughout the report, because it just flows better when I’m writing. She loves Disney, but is definitely the least Disney-crazed person in our house. She helps keep my dad and I’s crazy ideas grounded, but once we get “home” she loves every minute of it just as much as the rest of us. She is also where I get some of my crafting abilities from so throughout the report you will see a few of the awesome things she made/decorated for this trip!
Mom and I on the boat to Downtown Disney
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride(s): Haunted Mansion
Favorite Snack(s): Chocolate covered banana
Favorite Place to Eat: Earl of Sandwich
Favorite Character(s): Eeyore and Olaf
Favorite Princess: Cinderella
Favorite Disney Animal: Pluto
Favorite Nighttime Show: Wishes
Dad:
Last, but not least, we have Bill, my dad and partner in crime in most aspects of life. My mom often refers to him as her second child and I will admit that he and I have a tendency to gang up on my mom if there is something we both want to do...we once made a PowerPoint presentation about why we should go to Disney to convince her on one of our past trips! In real life, my dad tends to look a little bit grumpy most of the time even when he’s not. However, it never fails that he always looks the happiest in our pictures from our Disney trips, but there have been a few times when he lets the grumpy face slip and gets called out by cast members (you’ll see later in the trip that he got the ultimate call-out this time around!).
Dad and his long lost brother!
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride(s): Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest
Favorite Snack(s): Chocolate covered bananas
Favorite Place to Eat: Pecos Bill’s
Favorite Character(s): He says he doesn’t he have favorite because “they’re all pretty cool!”
Favorite Princess: He says he likes them all equally.
Favorite Disney Animal: Stitch
Favorite Nighttime Show: Illuminations
Continue to next post to read about Day One!
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