We're finally going to Disney? I won't believe it until I'm on the Plane!

[DisneyPride072308]

Hi and welcome to my first trip report!
My name is Lele and, if you haven't checked out my PTR, here's a link to it:

1st PTR!

You can see my introductions there.

We stayed in a 1 bedroom OKW villa from May 26th-June 1st. It went by wayyy too quickly! We had an amazing time, and a few bad moments, but overall the trip was a great way to reconnect with my sister's family.

For those of you who don't know, this trip was my graduation present. I graduated in June of 2013, but my sister was deployed at the time and could no make it. So, she surprised my gf and I with this trip to Disneyworld--my favorite place in the world!

We've been planning this trip for close to a year. We were initially going to go in February, but it was cancelled just 30 days before we were set to leave! We finally had our Disney vacation and I am very excited to show and tell you all about it!

I had a few goals for this trip. It was a free trip so I wanted to take advantage of it as much as I could.

Goals:

Catch the Magic Kingdom Welcome Show
See Wishes in FULL. I'm new to Disneyworld, and this is only our second trip. Being on the West Coast, it was just easier to go to Disneyland. We never caught Wishes on our last trip.
Ride Expedition Everest
Convert 1 member of the travelling group into a true Disney Dork (For real guys, I was travelling with a bunch of Disney Haters--Even the 5 year old!)
Try a Lefou's Brew
Try a Dole Whip Float--I know, it's a shame that I've never had one
​

Did I meet all of my goals? Well, You'll just have to read on to find out!



So, without further ado, let's get started!

​

 

[DisneyPride072308]

Chapter Links

Chapter 1: How Did You Forget Your Purse?

Chapter 2: Auntie, I've missed you my whole life!

Chapter 3: We're Officially Back at the Compound!

Chapter 4: Let's Go to Chef Mickey's!

Chapter 5: Chef Mickey's Gets Rockin!

​

 

[DisneyPride072308]

"How did you forget your PURSE?!"​

It was finally travel day!

I woke up early on the 25th, extremely excited to be travelling later that day. Our flight didn't leave until 11pm (yes, I would regret waking up at 6am) so I had the whole day to finish packing our luggage, carry-ons, and making sure everything was set for our hotel arrival the next day.
Skip a couple of hours, I went to pick up my partner around 7 and then we headed to my house to wait for our friend Daria to pick us up. We both showered (I always feel icky the next day after an overnight flight), ate dinner, and made sure that we had everything we needed.

My friend Daria showed up around 8:45pm and we made it to the airport around 9:30--she drove pretttyyyy fast!
She dropped us off and we were in just the happiest of moods. We were going to check in and take our time through security, stop for a couple of drinks then get on the plane and fall asleep.

So we go to drop our luggage off (we had checked in online) and someone may or may not have forgotten her purse all the way at home.
That person may or may not have been me.
All the planning I'd done all day and checking to make sure I had everything just did not help because I ended up forgetting my darn purse and wallet at the end of the day anyways.

Thankfully, my grandpa wasn't asleep yet and was able to rush to bring it to me. The next hour was extremely stressful though as he took quite a bit of time to get to me. Boarding started at 10:20 and my grandpa got to us at 10:30ish. Doors closed at 10:50 and we thought we were good until we realized that there were only 2 security lines open and they were LONG!!!

Here's where our miracle came in. After about 5 minutes In the line I was seriously starting to freak out. We were not moving at all. I knew it was going to take quite a bit of time to get through the line. I was voicing these worries out loud and yes, I had started to cry (Heads up: There will be lots of tears on this trip, both happy and sad. I can go from "everything is okay" to "everything is going to hell" in about 2 seconds lol). Well there was a choral group in front of us (about 40 people) and they took it upon themselves to let us skip in line.
Once we got past them we were out of line with only a few minutes to spare. We BOOKED IT TO OUR GATE.

Thankfully the folks at United were holding out for us because they'd seen that we had checked in online and were waiting for us. We got on the plane, sweaty and breathing heavily, hearts pumping and adrenaline rushing--all leading to us not going to sleep on this flight.

There were quite a few things that saved my butt this night. Daria's crazy driving (lol), my grandpa actually being awake and available, and the folks in the line who let us cut them to get to our flight on time. Also, shout out to United for being on top of it for their customers and waiting for us.
Operation get our behinds on the plane: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Flying into Chicago at 4:45am:


Next up: Auntie, I've Missed You My Whole Life!

 

[DisneyPride072308]

"Auntie, I've missed you my whole life!"​

When I last left off, we were travelling to Orlando.
Our flights were relatively good, but we didn't sleep much. To make a long story short, and to get to the point when I actually started taking pictures I'm going to skip to the part where we run into my sister.

So, unfortunately as well as initially forgetting my purse, I also forgot my wonderful camera!
I really didn't have it together for this trip already!
Anyways, once I realized this, I was a little sad. I was grateful to be going to Disneyworld but I HATE cell phone pictures--they don't come out well, and without a camera around my neck I'm going to feel a little lost. lol

So as a warning, there is a fair share of iPhone pics--taken, not by me, but my fellow travelers (I've been just BEGGING them to send them to me :/)

We arrived in MCO about an hour and a half before my sister and her family did. We walked to the other side, just outside of the terminal exit to wait for them.
Fast forward an hour and there they were! (Sorry no pics Yet) It was at this point that my nephew said the cutest thing as he tried to jump out of his stroller as quick as possible: "Auntie, it's you! It's you!" As I picked him up he said, "I've missed you my whole life!" We all laughed and laughed. It was wonderful and I cried because I hadn't seen them in 2 years!!!! He was so grown! We usually only Facetime so I wasn't prepared for how tall my not so little man had gotten.

We made our way over to the Magical Express and I distributed everyone's Magic Bands. Everyone had a green mickey. Yay!



We boarded and unfortunately got a seat towards the back of the bus. It was fine though because we hadn't seen each other in a while and were a little loud doing all of our checking in and. Hold on. SELFIES!!!





Yeah, this was a pretty uneventful part of our trip. We all ended up taking a nap expecting to have a long ride, but we weren't even on the bus an hour before it announced that we were arriving at Disney's Old Key West Resort. WOOOHHHH!! We were finally there!



Credit goes to the folks at the mouse for less for this Olivia's photo. Unfortunately I did not have enough pics from our arrival.

We got there around 11:45 and, even though I'd done online check-in, check-in was NOT a breeze. Sadly, we were skipped over as they let two groups go in front of us. I finally said loudly, "EXCUSE ME! We have been waiting to check in and you all have been ignoring us."
That seemed to get their attention.
The castmember who checked us in was pretty awesome and friendly. He was rushing us, and we didn't appreciate that but whatever. They were pretty busy. Our room was ready and we were escorted to building 47 room 4725!
When I requested a room I had selected close to Hospitality House and with 2 entrances into the bathroom. I only got one, the bathroom--but we realized that we weren't actually that far from Hospitality House after all.

This resort is huge, so I'm sure EVERYBODY was requesting closer to Hospitality House, and DVC members most likely had preference. Sigh.

We were in the South Point Area



Up Next: We're Officially Back at the Compound!

 

[jrj]

My oh My... the beginning of your trip was interesting I would have

Am glad everything worked out and that you made it to OKW safely

Looking forward to reading all about your trip

 

[DisneyPride072308]

My oh My... the beginning of your trip was interesting I would have Am glad everything worked out and that you made it to OKW safely Looking forward to reading all about your trip

I almost did faint! Worst thing ever. I will now always check for my ID at least if not anything else before I leave for the airport.
Taking a trip in a few short weeks here and I'm already burning it in my brain: "DO NOT FORGET ID/PURSE!" Lol

Thanks for following along! I'm getting lots of pictures from my family members so updating has been slow. Hopefully I can get a few knocked out this weekend though.

 

[jrj]

I almost did faint! Worst thing ever. I will now always check for my ID at least if not anything else before I leave for the airport.
Taking a trip in a few short weeks here and I'm already burning it in my brain: "DO NOT FORGET ID/PURSE!" Lol

Thanks for following along! I'm getting lots of pictures from my family members so updating has been slow. Hopefully I can get a few knocked out this weekend though.

I'll be here

Have fun on your upcoming trip

 

[freckles04]

Following! Sorry your first day was less than magical. Forgetting my purse and camera would be devastating so I feel ya! Can't wait to see what's next. Your nephew is a handsome little dude.

 

[DisneyPride072308]

Following! Sorry your first day was less than magical. Forgetting my purse and camera would be devastating so I feel ya! Can't wait to see what's next. Your nephew is a handsome little dude.

I'm just realizing how devastating forgetting the camera was. All of these pictures I'm going through look so crappy. And thank you! He's a pretty cute guy lol..

 

[FrozenOne16]

Joining in! Sounds great so far!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Joining in as well, enjoying your report.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

Your trip started out as a real life Disney trip nightmare.
I would have been crying and getting the evil eye from my husband if I left my camera and my purse at home. I'm glad it all worked out for you

 

[DisneyPride072308]

We're Officially Back At the Compound!​

We arrived at our room and were AMAZED at the size of the one bedroom villa. We were originally going to get a 2 bedroom and then decided that budget-wise, My partner and I wouldn't mind sleeping on the couch bed.

We didn't take too many photos in the room as we were all tired and excited at the same time and just didn't think about it.

Here's part of the bathroom with the jetted tub. We used this only once. But it looked fancy!



Bedroom and happy little guy! He was so excited to see the Mickey Mouse Towels


Overall, we really enjoyed this room. We've read reviews about it and were a little nervous concerning cleanliness. I think the bathroom (especially the shower enclosure and flooring) could use an update, but we would definitely come back to Old Key West again. There was a huge porch with entrances from the bedroom and living room, a full kitchen, full-sized washer and dryer and every area was spacious--bigger than any of our 1 bedroom apartments!

After we all chatted a bit and rested, we decided to go to Downtown Disney to grab some lunch.

We stopped at Wolfgang Puck where we all got pizza. After lunch, we were re-energized and ready to head to Wal Mart to stock up on a few snacks and drinks for the room and to get souvenirs for our folks back home (Yeah, we don't like paying the prices in the parks for our lovely friends and family haha)

We had a pretty bad experience in Wal Mart. Our cards were not going through on a certain register. My sister tried hers and it didn't go through. She tried another card and it didn't go through. Her wife tried 2 cards as well and they didn't go through. At that point the cashier was really rude and insinuated that we just probably didn't have enough money in our accounts. Excuuuuuusssseee you?? She brought the manager over and she had the same attitude with that self-satisfied smirk like we were wasting their time and didn't have the money to pay for our purchase. Well, we went to the ATM inside Wal Mart and we got cash out. Went back and told the lady that she might want to check her machine as it seems to be messing up. She would not give in and said "No, it's probably your bank account."UGGGGHHHH. Lady was rude but whatever. Not going to ruin our day.

We left to head back to our room. That night, my nephew, partner and I had reservations at Ohana and my sister and her wife had reservations at Raglan Road.

Our bags had arrived so we showered and changed into fresh clothing.
Side note on Magical Express Luggage Service: I don't think I will use the Magical Express Luggage service again. Just travelling from across the country it would have been easier to have my luggage right away and to freshen up. I appreciated the service, I'm just not sure it's for me. What about some of you? How do you feel about that perk?

My nephew took a good two hour nap. Once he woke up he was being quite the jerk though .
We ignored his attitude and made our way over to the Magic Kingdom and then took the monorail to the Polynesian.

We were about 20 minutes late for our reservation but luckily they let us in. It was super crowded in the waiting area. Because we were tired that was a little frustrating.
At this point we were all realizing how exhausted we were from travelling all day, but we didn't have to wait too long before we were seated.

Hanging out with his tia!


Our "Cousin" escorted us to our seats and salad arrived as soon as we sat down! Sadly this would be the quickest part of our night as there seemed to be quite the wait between each of our courses. Of course, we were extremely exhausted and, in hindsight, it was not a good idea to go to dinner on arrival day after travelling the night before. We hadn't slept in over 24-hours! Thus, I'm not sure my opinion of Ohana is fair. Had we been fully rested, I'm not sure our experience would have felt so blahhh.



We ordered our drinks. A lapu lapu for my partner and I and some kind of punch for the little one. It had soda and he is not allowed to have soda but we did inform them that he'd be breaking all the rules this trip with his favorite aunties!
Don't think I'd get that Lapu Lapu again. One thing I've noticed about Disney is that they need better bartenders. 12 bucks each for those drinks and they tasted like juice! lol



I didn't take pictures of all the foods but we really enjoyed the chicken wings--which is about it. My nephew loved the pot stickers and the salad and ate all of the pot stickers by himself. We had to ask for more! I thought the salad was really weird. It was mixed greens with a Honey-Lime Dressing and I just didn't enjoy it.

Here's our happy, hungry guy!


This was actually pretty decent.


And here's the little guy so happy to be getting a cupcake at 10pm!


We found the noodles to be under cooked, though the veggies were decent. We probably will give this a try again when we aren't so exhausted though!

We got back to the hotel pretty exhausted. We took a Taxi because it'd be quicker and we were all just annoyed by that time.
My sister and her partner REALLY enjoyed Raglan Road and it was their favorite meal on the trip. Of course, they didn't take any pictures. They also said they were super excited to have some time without a kid however, they too were too exhausted to want to eat.

For scheduling in the future, I don't think I will plan any meals on the first day again. Thinking back, I'm still shocked that we made it through this day without falling out or being at each other's throats! lol

Around 11pm we were all ready for bed. Here's a quick picture of the newlyweds falling out on the couch when we were SUPPOSED to be watching a movie together. Lol


Quick Note on the title of this chapter: My sister's partner really hates Disneyworld and only goes because we want to go. She started calling it the compound last year because it's so big and she said she felt like she couldn't get off of it lol.. She says we've all fallen prey to the Disney indoctrination. Haha.

Up Next: Let's Go to Chef Mickey's!

 

[DisneyPride072308]

Joining in! Sounds great so far!

Thanks for joining in! Glad to have ya!

 

[DisneyPride072308]

Your trip started out as a real life Disney trip nightmare.
I would have been crying and getting the evil eye from my husband if I left my camera and my purse at home. I'm glad it all worked out for you

Lol. Well, yes my gf was pretty much giving me the side eye. She was super peeved at the purse but by the time we realized we'd left the camera she just said, "Whatever."

I'm ready for another trip to right all these wrongs! Still having slight anxiety about how badly the beginning of this trip went. lol

 

[DisneyPride072308]

Joining in as well, enjoying your report.

Thanks for joining in! Glad you're enjoying it.

 

[DisneyPride072308]

Let's Go to Chef Mickey's!​

The night before, we’d decided that my partner and I would head to the Magic Kingdom for rope drop. My sister and her wife were tired and wanted to sleep in. We had 11:00 reservations for Chef Mickey’s and they were to meet us there.

As you’ll see is the trope of this trip—that totally did not happen. You see, we had military salute tickets. You’re given a certificate at your base office and have to switch them over to an actual ticket at Guest Relations. I had this in the back of my mind, but had completely forgotten about this until I woke up that morning all bright and early and happy. We were showered and were eating bagels and drinking mimosas (ooohhh the freedom to have breakfast cocktails on vacation. I miss it so much) when I realized that we were going to have to wait until later to get to the Magic Kingdom. SOOOO sad. I have never caught the welcome show and had looked forward to seeing it.

So here we are guys. Goal #1: Already not met.

We had a 10:00am FP+ for Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain and I looked at cancelling them when I saw that there was a FP+ available for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at 1:30-2:30pm! I hadn’t thought that I’d get to go on this ride. It was newer so I knew that it would consistently have long wait times. It’s a short ride and I just didn’t want to waste that much time waiting in line for it when I could do other things. I also wasn’t as excited about it as most other folks in the Disneyverse seemed to be. Well, with a FP+, I could get a bit excited about it. Told my partner and my nephew who happened to stroll into the kitchen and they both got excited.

My nephew was too small for a lot of the rides last time we came and his goal was to do lots of mountain rides or, “GO THROUGH THE BIG MOUNTAINS,” as he so adorably described it. This one is technically a mine, but if he thought it was a mountain whatever right?

With that squared away, I made him a bowl of cereal—it was only around 7:30 at this point. Looking back I’m kind of mad I didn’t get to sleep in! I could have easily slept until 9. We all know that Disney trips are not exactly the most restful of vacations, but those chances where I do get to sleep I wholeheartedly take them!

Chillin on the porch until it's time to go!


Before our trip, I had ordered matching shirts for our first day of the trip. My nephew and I were the only ones excited to be matchingL. I guess I have the personality of a 5-year old (or I was just travelling with a bunch of kill-joys!).

Auntie's ready but the little guy is still in his pj's!


We all were ready in our matching shirts and got on the bus towards the Magic Kingdom. “The Banana Boat Song,” started playing and I LOVE this song, mostly due to my complete infatuation with the movie Beetlejuice as a child lol. I started a little dance with it and my nephew and two kids sitting next to us joined in on the fun. It was so cute! Remembering that makes me so upset that I didn’t have my camera to record and that none of my other companions thought to record this cute interaction. Oh well, I’m the shutterbug and usually the one taking pictures, so I should have
expected not to get a lot of our memories taken.

















Once we arrived at the Magic Kingdom we hopped on the monorail towards the Contemporary. We were quite early for our reservation. I was shocked at how quick we had gotten to the Magic Kingdom and, subsequently, the Contemporary. You see, when we did some deeper research on OKW initially, there were complaints about the slow bus system. I didn’t find it to be slow save for the Downtown Disney and Hollywood Studios buses. They seemed to come quite infrequently. We didn’t go to Downtown Disney often so this wasn’t a problem, but for those of you who do; it may be—especially if you don’t want to go to Hospitality House to catch the ferryboat.

Back on topic, I was really excited to be back at Chef Mickey’s. I didn’t care for the food too much last time, but for our 5 year old (and maybe the 23 year old auntie who just loves her some Mickey and Minnie) you can’t beat the atmosphere.

When we walked up I was just overjoyed at the fact that we were back in Disneyworld once again. My sister had picked Chef Mickey’s as our first family meal because she said she felt like it was a great opener to our trip. I was on the fence because I wanted to try different restaurants this time around. She was right though! It felt great to be spending our first official Table Service meal together at the place it all started at last time.

We were given a buzzer and our ticket for pictures, which confused my girlfriend. Apparently the hostess did not explain to her well that the ticket was for our pictures. I had completely forgotten about it as my nephew and I played near the TVs. When our buzzer went off I realized that we hadn’t gotten our pictures taken! I mentioned that to the cast member who was to take us to our seat and she told us that she’d be willing to wait. Problem was, the line had gotten quite long. Oh well, hopefully it didn’t take long. It didn’t—took about 5 minutes and my sister and nephew snuck Elmo in the picture :<!




We were taken to our seats where they explained that the characters would be coming around right then but if we were really hungry to go get some meals and they would explain to the characters to come back around. Cool. That worked, especially because my nephew seemed lost in all the commotion of loud music, swinging napkins, and oversized characters. Best to get food first before he got too excited and refused to eat.

We all ordered our drinks and got our first plates. I should mention that, by this time, we had gotten at least 6 compliments on our shirts. It was awesome! Go me! J I designed the shirts to reflect our Pride as Gay Days was a few days after we’d leave and official Pride Month started on June 1st. I found that slogan somewhere and asked a seller on Etsy to design that shirt with Rainbow lettering, our names, and “Disney Family Vacation 2014” on the back. They were 10.50 each. Not bad!

Up Next: Chef Mickey’s gets Rocking!

 

[DisneyPride072308]

Chef Mickey's Gets Rockin'!​

We sat down with our first plates but my nephew had an attitude for whatever reason. This guy’s a little spoiled (perks of being an only child I guess). Minnie started to come by and he says, “I DON’T WANT TO SEE MINNIE!” She overheard him and acted as if she were crying. Of course our little jerk of a child didn't care. I told Minnie that I thought that maybe if she came back a little later he’d be in a better mood.

Now, I hate to say that I made him feel guilty to get him to interact with the characters, but I did. We were only at that restaurant because of him, and, well, he'd also had an attitude at dinner the night before. I was tired of being the family with the mean kid! I said, “oh I can’t BELIEVE that you made Minnie cry. She and her friends worked so hard to make you all this food and she just wanted to see if you liked it and meet you.” He looked at me like, yeah whatever.

Well, whatever happened, he certainly perked up when Mickey came around. He told Mickey, “I like your food. I’m sorry I made Minnie cry.” Mickey touched his heart and they had a cute interaction. My girlfriend told Mickey that I was slightly obsessed with him and has quite a bit of Mickey paraphernalia around my home and even in my car. He seemed flattered and gave me a hug. We then took pictures. Mickey really loved signing the autograph book. He pointed at the stickers of the characters and it was a GREAT interaction. Most of our table was gone when Mickey showed up, so there aren't too many pictures.

Auntie and the main mouse himself!






Adios!


Next came Goofy. Except, I didn’t see him coming. I was face deep into my sausage, biscuits and gravy when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Now, we all know that Goofy as a costumed character is seriously huge. Because I wasn’t expecting it, I turned around and freaked out a little. He laughed and the tables around us cracked up. Thanks for embarrassing me Goofy!! Haha. I always enjoy interactions with Goofy. He’s quite silly and was great with my nephew. He, as well as most of the characters on this trip, really enjoyed the autograph book.

Is this seriously the only pic we have with Goofy?!


After Goofy was that awful Duck Donald . This was probably the best interaction of the entire trip. He signed his name, "Donald #1," in the book. And I said, “No Donald, I’m pretty sure Mickey is number 1 and you are number 2.” He put his hands on his hips and acted angry with me. I said, “You can get mad but Mickey is my favorite!” He then signaled with his fingers that he was watching me. Throughout the rest of the meal he would come by and do that again and again. Great interaction and cracked my nephew up!







Next was Minnie. I highly doubt she remembered that my nephew was being a jerk to her earlier, but he apologized anyways like a good little boy. She gave him a peck on the cheek and that boy lit up like a Christmas tree on crack! They had a cute little interaction. Later on towards the end of the meal she came around and came up to him and just pecked him on the cheek again unexpectedly. He LOVED that. He kept saying that he got TWO kisses from Minnie. AWWWW.







Pluto was last. My partner had to get in this picture with us. Her 3 year old niece’s favorite character is Pluto, except she can’t pronounce his name well and ends up calling him an expletive in Spanish—I’m sure most of you can figure it out. We took a picture and sent it to her. Pluto always bores me. I am never sure what to say to him and none of us ever get too excited about him. Well, my nephew enjoyed him regardless.







I didn't mind Chef Mickey's this time around. I was told not to go at the time we went because we would get rushed character interactions (due to our reservation being near closing time), but the opposite happened. The place was a little empty, so we got great interactions from all of the characters. They took their time signing my nephew's book and I enjoyed joking with them.
The food was okay. Better than last time if I remember correctly. I wouldn't come here for the food, however. There were some hits but way more misses when it came to finding good eats here.

After we finished eating, we walked around the Contemporary for awhile and then made our way up to the monorail to head to the Magic Kingdom.

Next Up: Magic Kingdom Madness

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Great updates, thanks! I do enjoy reports with good narrative. Love the shirts too!