Dutch & Matt Take On Disney - Our First Time in Forever Feb 2020 TR - UPDATED 5/27 - COMPLETE

dwonderz

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 7, 2009
Hi Everyone :wave2:!

My name is Dutch and this is my first time writing a trip report! I’ve been lurking on the Dis Boards since I was a teen and have loved reading everyone’s reports over the years … and finally thought maybe it was time to try myself! It will most likely filled with a lot of photos and quite a few GIFs ... and hopefully it's enjoyable!


Introductions:

I'm Dutch (well not actually Dutch ... like the people ... just the name ... you'd be surprised how often I have to clarify :laughing:) and I was born and raised in New York City. After going to college upstate, I moved back to the city, and I am currently a professional dancer with a modern dance company here in NY. A job I am super lucky to have! When I am not dancing - I work evenings as an office manager at a private practice and on a very part-time basis at a local elementary school.

Favorite Character: Miss Piggy (also Edna Mode)
Favorite Ride: Flight of Passage & Haunted Mansion
Favorite Disney Treat (because Food is always relevant): Cheshire Cat Tail or Night Blossom


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Matt & I (Matt's wearing the light blue and I'm in gray)
Joining me on this trip was my BF, Matt. We met in college when he came to one of my indoor cycling classes (I taught spin classes in college) and then he started working at the library where I also worked (working lots of jobs seems to be a trend in my life :rolleyes1). Matt currently lives in Central New York (which is also where he is originally from) and now works at a University Library as a Circulation Manager.

Favorite Character: Anything Muppets
Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest/Slinky Dog Dash
Favorite Disney Treat: Totcho Bowl from Woody's Lunch Box


How Matt envisions himself at work (accuracy could be disputed)....
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The Trip:
So ... technically this was neither of our first times at Disney - we both had visited way back in 2011 (#paperFPera) long before we knew each other. However, it was our first time in forever visiting together (bad pun?) and our first time in a long time visiting WDW. Soooo ... we are counting it as our "first trip" with some terms and conditions attached :rotfl:.

We had talked about visiting back when we were both still in school - but it was too challenging to coordinate schedules/classes/etc. - so we decided once Matt graduated in May 2019 we would start looking at dates/times. We originally were going to head down in January - but I had a performance conflict - so we changed to the end of February (Feb 23 to Feb 29). After some research - we landed on a split stay at Caribbean Beach and Yacht Club (spoiler alert: YC has my heart for the rest of my entire existence) with a small discount.


We then started checking out flights for our dates - and managed to score round trip tickets on Delta from NYC for 22,000 miles total - which we thought was a great deal. The only thing was we had to stay an extra night in Disney .... which we didn't think was necessarily a bad idea...
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With our hotel/flights booked - all that was left was planning, checking the planning, changing the planning, color coding the planning (did I mention the planning?), grabbing our fast passes, booking dining, and waiting … so …. much … waiting.

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Anyway - I think that wraps up our introductions/overview - I’m planning on doing the rest of this TR in “chapters” - so if you've got this far - thank you :worship:and be on the lookout for Chapter 1 soon!
 
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Hi Dutch! Joining in! Looks like I'm first, which never happens LOL!
You and your BF are so cute! I can't wait to read about your first trip together!
 




Chapter One: Pre-Travel Day/Part of Travel Day!!!

It was finally here - after what felt like MONTHS of waiting - it was finally time to head to Disney!! :rainbow:

Matt came down to the city on Friday afternoon - and we spent the rest of Friday and Saturday packing and running errands. I don't know if anyone else suffers from temporary pre-trip crazy :rolleyes1 but no matter how prepared we are for a trip - without fail the day before we leave I will come up with a list of things which just have to get done before we leave because they've suddenly become vital to the success of the trip.


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In this case it was creating Mousekeeping envelopes (which required a whole trip across town to Michaels to get "special" paper)

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In my frenzy - I didn't take a picture of the end result - this was my "sample" envelope. The red is glued to the black cardstock on the edges forming a little "pocket." Clearly channeling my inner Martha Stewart.

and printing out day-by-day laminated cards so we would have easy access to our plans.

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Formatting these was a nightmare :scared1: ... but you know it just had to get done.

With everything packed and my last minute craziness out of the way - all we had left was our flight down to MCO!

As I mentioned - we booked the flight using miles - so we essentially only paid taxes/fees. In the weeks leading up to the trip, Matt kept trying to convince me to pay the upgrade fee for Delta Comfort, but I was hesitant because I was really holding on to that whole flights for free mindset :laughing:.

However, I knew we would both be happy with more legroom - so I looked into the price/etc. Then I did what any logical person would do (not....) and I looked into how much it would be to upgrade to First Class.


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And wouldn't you know ... it was only a bit more .... and when you factored in that we wouldn't be paying baggage fees... it became only a little bit more. And add in the fact that it was midnight and I was a bit delusional :rolleyes: - I decided to go ahead and pay for the upgrade. I also really wanted to surprise Matt because we had never flown First Class - and I thought it would be a really special way to start off the trip.

I told Matt that I ended up getting us the Comfort seats - and on Saturday night surprised him with the First Class seats. He was quite happy! I tried taking a video of the big reveal ... but stopped recording right when he opened it ... of course ::yes::. With all of our pre-trip crazy out of the way - we tried to get some sleep before waking up at 5:00a.m. the next morning to head to LGA!

The next morning came both quickly and slowly. I woke up about 5 times over the course of six hours and finally at 4:45 just got out of bed. After a last minute check of everything - we headed downstairs to grab an Uber to LaGuardia.


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My very blurry "sunrise" picture on the way to LGA.

A short 15 minute ride later and we were there! We got in the "Sky Priority" line to check our bags - feeling oh-so-fancy ... until one of the Delta Agents yelled from behind the counter that this was "Priority ONLY" and told us to "Get in the right line!" The look on her face was p-r-I-c-e-l-e-s-s when she looked at our tickets.

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We then headed to a very short security lane ...

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And just like that we were through! Matt grabbed some coffee and then we headed to wait for a little under 45 minutes at the gate.

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We were the first to board (quite a change from my usual last-possible-boarding-group-on-earth situation) and got settled in the last row of First.

Oh. My. God. The seats were huge. There was water waiting for us. I could STRETCH my legs. We were quite the sight. Of course everyone else in First was acting like it was just another day ... so we tried playing it cool (not...)


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Matt caught in the middle of doing a mid-seat-dance when we first sat down

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Our flight attendant was FANTASTIC - sadly we didn't get his name - but he was so nice. I think he could tell it was our first time in First (so much for playing it cool :laughing: ) and he kept coming back to check on us.

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Fully taking advantage of every amenity ... Matt used the provided blanket despite the fact that he was hot 😂

About halfway through the flight they served us breakfast on a real tablecloth ... insane! We hit some rough air after breakfast - but soon enough we were starting our descent into MCO and putting on our Magic Bands!

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Obviously had to take a pic of just the tablecloth 😂

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Not a bad way to start off our day!

Our landing went smoothly and we quickly (and sadly :sad1: ) got off the plane - we had to stop by the baggage carousel to pick up my suitcase (we only had 2 Magical Express Tags and we had 3 suitcases total ... light packing is something we struggle with :blush:). After grabbing my suitcase - we headed to ME - scanned our magic bands for the first time ever and got in line for CBR.

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Waiting for our ME Bus!

After literally three minutes of waiting - they walked our line out to a bus!! We settled into the fourth row - and we were off!


Next: Our arrival to CBR and first day at Epcot!
 
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I don't know if anyone else suffers from temporary pre-trip crazy :rolleyes1 but no matter how prepared we are for a trip - without fail the day before we leave I will come up with a list of things which just have to get done before we leave because they've suddenly become vital to the success of the trip.

Every time lol!

and printing out day-by-day laminated cards so we would have easy access to our plans.

Oo smart idea.

I also really wanted to surprise Matt because we had never flown First Class - and I thought it would be a really special way to start off the trip.

Sweet!

The look on her face was p-r-I-c-e-l-e-s-s when she looked at our tickets.

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Matt used the provided blanket despite the fact that he was hot

I would do the same thing lol
 
I’m here! You guys are adorable. When my DH and I went to Disneyland a few years ago I surprised him with first class too so I can relate to your excitement. First for us too and we were geeking out. I’m not sure how often you fly, but I gotta warn you that for me, that first time in first class has been a little bit of a curse. I’ve upgraded us more times than I probably should have since then now that I’ve had the experience. Hope you’re not as weak as I am!

Looking forward to reading more!
 
Love your report so far! Happily following
Yay!! Thank you for joining!

Count me in! Loving this so far!

Also, I am actually DUTCH, sooooo
OMG! That's great! Thank you for joining in :goodvibes

I’m here! You guys are adorable. When my DH and I went to Disneyland a few years ago I surprised him with first class too so I can relate to your excitement. First for us too and we were geeking out. I’m not sure how often you fly, but I gotta warn you that for me, that first time in first class has been a little bit of a curse. I’ve upgraded us more times than I probably should have since then now that I’ve had the experience. Hope you’re not as weak as I am!

Looking forward to reading more!
Thank you for joining in! The first thing Matt said when we got off the plane was - "So are we going to try to do that all the time?" :laughing: I definitely feel the curse coming!
 
Hey Dutch, I just wanted to point out for future trips, you can call and request additional Magical Express luggage tags. We are heavy packers as well and always need two large suitcases each. I call around 30 days before departure which is around the time that the automatic one tag per person is being printed. They will send the additional tags in a separate envelope. It usually takes 7-10 days for them to arrive. The Magical Express number is 866-599-0951. The automated system will offer a few choices for directing your call. There isn't a perfect option so I choose the one for updating flight information. The representative is always happy to help.
~Angela
 
Following! First class looks like fun!

We almost named our son Dutch but our daughter’s nickname is Swede and that seemed like too many nationalities. :)
 
Chapter Two: Arrival to CBR
Apologies in advance for the blurry photos which follow ... it definitely took me a few days to get a handle on the whole taking pictures thing :rotfl:


Our ME ride was super quick (under 30 minutes) and we were luckily the first stop. We attempted to grab a picture of the CBR sign ...

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A blurry CBR Sign....

The super fast ME matched with our plane landing 45 minutes early (!!) meant we were about 1.5 hours ahead of “schedule.” With all that extra time - we decided we would explore CBR and go for a swim. After a quick stop to reorganize our bags, we dropped them at Bell Services, and headed off to check out CBR!


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We were very excited to be there...

Before long - we started to get hungry - and decided to try out mobile ordering from Centertown Market. We both ordered the Chicken Rice bowl and were very happy with it!


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My food photographs never seem that appetizing :o

We were also very happy with mobile order and would continue to use it any chance we got throughout the trip. Seriously - a game changer!

After finishing up lunch we headed over to the main pool and spent some time in the pool. It wasn’t too warm out yet - but that didn’t stop Matt from spending a lot of time splashing around. I, on the other hand, was a little more hesitant.
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Me - attempting to get into the pool

After another hour hanging around the pool we decided to change and stop by the front desk to see if a room might be ready. We forgot to pack a plastic bag to hold our swimsuits - so we stored them and the refillable mugs we bought in one of the lockers they had by the pool.

We were greeted with quite a long line and a lovely woman who came running in, cut the line of 10 people, and demanded to speak with a manager. We were all a bit confused...


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Long story short - she was trying to convince the manager that the tickets she had from her last trip were still valid/she required an upgraded room/Cinderella had to personally serve her breakfast in the morning (okay....the last part is a stretch).

We eventually got to the front of line and were assisted by the super helpful Kyle. I had submitted room requests via Touring Plans and also called in our requests (Upper Floor/Aruba Building 52) - and it appeared that neither request was noted :confused3. Kyle said we were currently in Martinique on the Ground Floor.

We had been hoping for Aruba so we could be close to the Skyliner - and after a few phone calls - Kyle had us in the building we wanted, on an upper floor, and upgraded to a water view! :woohoo:Talk about some pixie dust!! And the best part was our room was ready - so we headed on over to Aruba (the whole process took about 20 minutes … and the woman who cut all of us in line was still there).

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View of Riviera as we walk toward our building - we both felt it looked a bit plain during the day - but at night it looked gorgeous!

We were in room 5251 and loved loved loved our room and it’s location. We were less than 5 minutes from the Skyliner, a short-ish walk from the main area, and super close to the new Riviera resort. I was a big fan of the double sinks and even though it was only the two of us - we both thought the fold down bed was cute!


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Apologies for the blurriness - I was racing around trying to grab photos before we settled in.

We spent some time relaxing in our room and placing our Amazon Prime Now order (water, bagels, and cheez-its … all the essentials) before getting ready to head off to Epcot!


Next - Our First Day at Epcot!
 
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Hey Dutch, I just wanted to point out for future trips, you can call and request additional Magical Express luggage tags. We are heavy packers as well and always need two large suitcases each. I call around 30 days before departure which is around the time that the automatic one tag per person is being printed. They will send the additional tags in a separate envelope. It usually takes 7-10 days for them to arrive. The Magical Express number is 866-599-0951. The automated system will offer a few choices for directing your call. There isn't a perfect option so I choose the one for updating flight information. The representative is always happy to help.
~Angela

So good to know!! We had so many issues getting our ME in order (with the split stay/etc.) - I was on the phone with them at least 3 times! I totally would have asked for more - thank you!! :thanks:
Following! First class looks like fun!

We almost named our son Dutch but our daughter’s nickname is Swede and that seemed like too many nationalities. :)
No way!! It's so rare that I hear of anyone thinking of that name! Thank you for following :goodvibes

Great start to your TR! Can't wait to read all about your adventures! :cool1:
Thank you for joining in!! :yay:

Following along! Looks like a great start, first class flights are on my to-do list!
I definitely think it's a must do if you can!! Thank you for joining!
 

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