"I Trust Disney with My Life" - A Mother/Daughter June '15 TR UPDATED 8/14!

[harambetheaterhobo]

“I Trust Disney with My Life” – A Mother/Daughter June ‘15 TR!


“Welcome to Fantasmic. Tonight, friend and host Mickey Mouse uses his vivid imagination to create magical imagery for all to enjoy. Nothing is more wonderful--”

Wait, no.

“Welcome, everyone. It’s me, Simba! You’ve all picked a very special day to visit. You see, today we’ve come to town--”

Still no! One more time.



Hi everyone, and welcome! As I’m a long time reader of trip reports but a first time author, I feel a little background is necessary (feel free to skip right over it!):

My family has been to the world fifteen times since 2000, and our last trip was in May 2012. In the weeks following that trip I had my worst case of Disney withdrawal ever – like, it was bad. My sister and I discovered the Dis that summer and it was like HEAVEN. Everyone writing about their trips, talking about Disney stuff every day? Sign me up. And I DID sign up! I made an account. And while I read trip reports avidly the next few years, I never used the account. Whatever. I figure though, with this trip, what better time to start over!

This trip is one for the books. We weren’t just celebrating my high school graduation (as if that’s not enough), but being back in Disney World for the first time in three years!!

But wait - who are we?

Allow me to set the scene: June 7-13, 2015. 95+ degrees and 80%+ humidity every day. We zoom in on the main characters – they’re sweating profusely, but also smiling. True heroes of our time. Who are they?



Hi, I’m Kayla! On the left, with the Minnie ears. I’m 18 and a recent high school graduate! I’ll be studying psychology with a pre-med concentration in the fall. I’m a go-with-the-flow, rarely serious (also very wordy) person. That being said, I also planned everything for this trip from our FP+ to our ADRs. Here are the important need-to-know facts:

Favorite park: Magic Kingdom
…ride: Splash Mountain
…show: Fantasmic or FotLK, please don’t make me choose
…character: Sorcerer Mickey and Naveen
…movie: The Lion King
Loves: THE SMELL OF THE CONFECTIONARY


On the right is my lovely mother! We’ll be calling her by a nickname I started using a few years ago, “Mom.” She is *static noise* years old and a wonderful, wonderful person. We’re pretty similar in what we like and are both anti-commando in our touring styles, which made the trip very laid back. Her need-to-know facts:

Favorite park: Animal Kingdom or Epcot
...ride: Kilimanjaro Safari
...show: Impressions de France
...character: Kermit
...movie: The Muppet Movie or Toy Story
Loves: visiting different resorts!

Also joining us on the trip were my mom's sister, her two daughters, and one of THEIR daughters! That's right, we did Disney with three generations -- with a 1 1/2 year old, no less! They're all very laid back as well, so we never felt pressure to spend every moment together. Consequently, there is not even one picture of the six of us together. Oops I'll show (the few) pictures of them as they appear in the report and talk about them then as well.


There was a lot to love about this trip -- we tried a lot of new things (despite being 15-time Disney veterans), including a KTTK TOUR (!!!!) and an ADR at a certain restaurant... in a certain castle... whose name comes from a certain song... from a certain movie... no spoilers though. And oh man, that's the tip of the iceberg.

I hope you join along for the ride of me reliving my Disney vacation vicariously through this report! It'll be fun, I promise. On with the show!​

CHAPTER LINKS:
Day 1 - Travel
1: Tell Everybody I'm (almost) On my Way!
2: Haul It Over the Speed Hump​

 

[harambetheaterhobo]

Chapter One: Tell Everybody I’m (almost) On My Way!



Finally. The moment I’d been waiting six months for. All the planning in my notebook during school, all the calls to a representative at Disney World. It’s all been worth it. The day had come – the day before we leave for Disney World!


“WAIT wait wait wait. Wait. Who cares about the day before you leave. It’s high stress and anxiety.”


True! However, this day was important. If not for the events on June 6, Mom and I would have been in Disney World days earlier. Yep - my high school graduation!





We should have been riding Space Mountain. Instead, we were sitting through a two-hour ceremony listening to a man tell my graduating class how much harder life will now be and how much more responsibility we now have. Not to sound bitter about it or anything.

After the ceremony, we went out to eat! A very serious picture from the restaurant:



(I was going to leave this out because of the poor quality, but I love it too much.)

FAST FORWARD to the next morning! We had to get up early for our flight, but at least it wasn’t the crack of dawn. Nope, it was earlier than that! 4am to be exact. Yikes! Understandably, not much was going on so I didn’t take many (any) pictures – take this as a warning for many many MANY words.

Here's the abridged version of what went down that morning: Mom slept through her alarm and was half an hour late picking me up! And she wasn't done packing, so she finished and we were an hour late leaving for the airport! And her credit card didn't work, so we had to stop at an ATM to see if it worked and that set us back an additional 10 minutes! But we managed to get to the airport 15 minutes before our boarding time! Disney magic at its finest! Yay!


Aaaaand the unabridged version - skip down to the next picture to avoid!:

The airport we were flying out of is about 45 minutes away from my house. This was my first time flying EVER and Mom’s first time in years, so we wanted to get to the airport fairly early just in case we got lost or something. So to get to our gate by 6:30 (and the airport itself by 5:30) for our 7am flight, we needed to leave the house of Mom’s friend (who offered to drive us!) by 5:05. Which means Mom needed to pick me up from my house by 4:30.

I woke up at 4, got ready and did some very last minute packing, and I was ready to leave at 4:30! I waited by my door with my carry-on and purse. Five minutes passed. Then another five. I texted Mom, “almost here?” She sent back, “be there in 5.”

Okay! Not too bad. We could make up for time on the road. Just fifteen minutes. Or maybe twenty minutes. Okay, twenty-five, max. Half an hour tops.

Mom pulled into my driveway at 5am, when we were supposed to be leaving her friend’s house for the airport. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t annoyed – but we could probably make up the time if we were quick, so I tried to relax. Mom, on the other hand, was so upset; she had slept through her alarm. I felt really bad for her, I could tell she was mad at herself.

We got to her friend’s house around 5:20. I thought we’d be ready to go right away, but it turned out Mom still had some packing to do. Yikes. While she finished up, her friend offered me some coffee. I CHUGGED that mug, not knowing when I’d be eating/drinking next.

Mom finished around 5:30, and that’s when we left her friend’s house! On the way, she asked me if the payment I made with her card the day before –a last detail for our flight— had gone through. I told her the truth, that her card didn’t work, so I had just used mine. This worried her a lot, because she said she had just put money on it a few days earlier for vacation expenses. If that card didn’t work, we’d be living off mine for the week, because she tried not to bring a lot of cash with her! Yikes! Her friend suggested that we stop at a gas station and try to see if her card worked at an ATM.

We stopped at a 7/11 around 5:50. Mom and her friend went inside while I stayed in the car and stared at the clock. They were in there for longer than I thought it should have taken, but when they came back to the car they insisted her card worked fine. Mom withdrew some money though, just in case it started to act oddly again in Disney.

We were back on the road by 6am! Woo-hoo! Except for that fact we were now looking at getting to the airport around 6:20, all was well.

Long story short, we got to the airport at 6:15, got our boarding passes or whatever, went through security, took a bathroom break, and made it to our gate BY 6:30. It was crazy. You know those people running past all the gates to get to theirs at the end, hauling their carry-ons, wearing pajamas? That was us. We got to the gate just as boarding began. Amazing.


We got on board, and it was just like. Okay. I don’t know what I expected first my step in an airplane to be like, but in reality it was pretty lackluster.



Window seat! It was a pretty morning in good ol’ Ohio.

The plane took off at 7:02. Mom had enough energy to ask, “Is the plane moving? Kayla, it doesn’t look like we’re moving,” before falling asleep.



I made the ill mistake of not bringing anything to do on the plane. I thought I could just listen to music and look out the window, which I would have been happy doing, had I not forgotten my headphones Luckily my sister, Erica, made me something to read!



She and I have a tradition that, whenever we go to Disney, we make little notes for each other that have games/trivia and little drawings on them!

Mostly though they're just inside jokes and we make them to see who can make the other laugh more.



Erica can scream just like Steven Tyler does. It's amazing.



If you've seen the Walt Disney World Beach Sing-a-Long, you're familiar with Toby. We love Toby. Also feat. Tsum Tsum Mickey!!!



I love these notes. Erica and I have the same dumb sense of humor so they're always funny. This was the first trip we weren't going together and reading this made me miss her a lot. I wish she could have come with us. It didn't work financially, though (Mom and I both paid for our own half of the trip, but Erica didn't have the money at the time to pay for her part), so she was understanding about it. I still feel bad -- hopefully we'll be doing the DCP together next year!

And the fun part: TRIVIA!! See if you can answer these correctly (most are pretty easy) - I'll post the answers in the next chapter!



Extra points to whoever can guess her favorite Magic Kingdom attraction.



RIP to the Little Red/Big Red storyline </3 always in our hearts.

We started to descend at 8:46, and we landed at 8:55 -- half an hour early. NICE.



It looked beautiful beneath us! Gotta say, I'm a fan of flying, even though I LOVE and sorely miss the 18-hour car ride from Cleveland to Orlando.



I'VE MISSED YOU ORLANDO!! Now let's get to that terminal.



As you can see, Mom really enjoyed the fake-o-rail.



It looked SO BEAUTIFUL outside! I couldn't wait to get out in the sun and on Disney property. I was literally giggling because I was so excited. Mom gave me a few looks.

We exited out into the main lobby/whatever (I do not know airport terminology) and like. I couldn't not take this picture.



Mom passed Whatever, her loss!

We had time to go to the bathroom and whatnot, then we went on to find the DME area! It wasn't too difficult, even for us airport novices.



Would you look at that! Think that means we're close? Well, after the mile long walk across that bottom floor, we were!



DO NOT TALK BAD ABOUT THE ALL STARS TO ME I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. Except for Sports, please feel free. Unfortunately, the discount Disney was offering at the time didn't extend to our home, ASMo So ASM it was!

We were the first people in that line, so we were the first people on the bus! Score! The first row was "reserved", so we sat in the second.



WHADDUP MICKEEEYYYY!!!

Being on the bus first also meant we waited the longest. Half an hour, to be exact. Oh well! Better get used to that waiting.



I'll wrap it up here! I really wanted to get traveling knocked out in one post, so if you made it through this, you got through the thick of this report! Congratulations! We'll pick up with the next chapter, in which the motor coach departs and I try to hold back the tears. Thanks for reading!​

 

[princesspower278]

Love it!! Looking forward to a mother/daughter trip with my mom this upcoming spring break next year (high school junior ) I'm totally in, can't wait to read more!!

 

[harambetheaterhobo]

Love it!! Looking forward to a mother/daughter trip with my mom this upcoming spring break next year (high school junior ) I'm totally in, can't wait to read more!!

Yay, thanks for joining in!! Mother/daughter trips are the best for real. btw I LOVE your profile picture so much.

 

[harambetheaterhobo]

It's been awhile since I've updated this, oops! I realized I had next to nothing for my dorm (which I'm moving into in two weeks - yikes) so I had to do a lot of shopping in the past month, and some people at my work left so I took on a lot of extra shifts. Things have kind of calmed down though -- hopefully I can knock out a few updates before school starts!

ALSO just an fyi, I'm switching the tense I'm writing in. Oh my god I know. The writer in me is telling me no, but my heart says yes please.

Chapter Two: Haul It Over the Speed Hump

Before we know it (around 9:50), our motor coach is departing! I am SO EXCITED and just soaking up every word that 30 minute infomercial is spewing at us. Mom, on the other hand, is out like a light the second we leave the airport

I think she wants to stay awake, I really do, but it's tough when you've got this guy's voice lulling you into a sense of security.



THANKS, Gus.

As much as I love the video playing, I would prefer it if they show literally anything else. Even if it's an episode of Sofia the First or some of the new Mickey cartoons (both of which I genuinely like). Or rather, THE MUST-DO'S WITH STACEY??? Hire me Disney.

Look, cows! But I thought we left Ohio?



Eventually we were seeing our first ***DISNEY*** sign! Well, not ***DISNEY*** Disney, it's not purple, but you take what you can get.



shoutout 2 my homiez on Osceola Pkwy<3

Another sign of getting close - billboards!!!!



This is actually like the only one we see? It's weird. We usually see at least two for the water parks and one for La Nouba.

Whatever. As long as we're getting close and I can see these things in person I don't mind too much. Speaking of getting close...



OH MAN



And at last I see the light, and it's like the fog has lifted...



And at last I see the light...



And it's like the sky is new...



And it's warm and real and bright...

Sorry I'm done, I promise. What, overdramatic? No.

Our first stop is at Coronado Springs! To pull in we have to pass over the speed bump. Oops, no I mean,



????????????? Has anyone ever seen this called a speed hump before??? Mom and I are dying over this, I don't know why we find it so funny.



CSR is so pretty! I love the color scheme throughout the resort. Our family stayed here once many years ago. All I remember is my sister and I going down the Jaguar Slide over and over for half an hour. Our legacy.

A few people get off and soon we're on the move again! We pass through All Star Sports and FINALLY we're at our home for the week!



YEEESSSSS!!!!!!!!



Words really don't describe how happy I am in this moment. It seems unreal.

We go up to the online check-in counter and confirm some details about our ADRs and where our room is and yadda yadda and most importantly I get my CELEBRATING button!!!!!



Like I said, we're also told where our room is - the country section. I mean.... okay. It's not like earlier this morning I was telling my dad "it doesn't matter what section we're in, as long as it's not the country one!" so it's definitely cool.

Our room is ready but Mom and I decide to look around in the gift shop to check out new merchandise. And yes, this shirt is definitely new.



It actually DOES smell like hot cocoa, I'm surprised. I wonder how many of these Disney sells? Also I wonder how many washes the scent lasts through?

Mom, my new purchase (not the scratch n sniff shirt), and I exit the gift shop. I LOVE the display they have outside it!



I approve, All Star Music.

We couldn't have asked for a better arrival day -- it's so gorgeous outside!





I'm surprised to see a fountain like this in an All Stars. Not to say the All Stars aren't classy, but it looks kind of out of place. I love it though, and being able to walk past it everyday is nice!

Our room is closer to stairs on the end of the building, so we use those to get up to the third floor. It's a standard value room, but I love it. It feels so homey!



Is there anything better than flopping down on the bed in your room for the first time?

While Mom gets ready for the day, I check in with my girl Stacey.



She's good.

Here's the purchase I made at the gift shop!



YES. I told my sister before I left that I would buy a pair of ears to wear the whole trip, and that's what I did. The price is a little steeper than I wanted, but I'm not planning on buying much, anyway.

Seems like a good place to leave off! Up next we be leaving the room and venturing out into Disney property (finally)!​