Our Funfilled Action Packed Trip to Disney over the Fourth of July. COMPLETE

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Welcome to my trip report! You can find the introduction in this post below the table of contents. If you are just finding my report please don't feel shy about commenting. I love to hear from the people reading my trip report and I respond to every comment!

In addition to the Table of Contents there is a link at the end of each installment to take you to the next part of the report if you do not care to read the comments and chat.

Table of Contents

June 30th
Day One Part One Arrival
Day One Part Two I love the Wilderness Lodge!
Day One Part Three Our first night in the Magic Kingdom!

July 1st
Day Two Part One Magic Kingdom Part One
Day Two Part Two Magic Kingdom Part Two
Day Two Part Three Our Date With Cinderella

July 2nd
Day Three Part One A Beautiful Character Filled Morning at Epcot
Day Three Part Two A Beautiful Character Filled Morning at Epcot continued
Day Three Part Three Our Fantasmic Night at MGM
Wilderness Lodge Photos

July 3rd
Day Four Part One Our Totally Radical Morning at Typhoon Lagoon
Day Four Part Two Our Whirlwind Trip to Downtown Disney
Day Four Part Three A very crowded evening at the Magic Kingdom
Day Four Part Four Independence Day Fireworks at the Magic Kingdom

July 4th
Day Five Part One Fourth of July at Animal Kingdom
Day Five Part Two Animal Kingdom continued
Day Five Part Three Animal Kingdom continued
Day Five Part Four Animal Kingdom continued
Day Five Part Five Animal Kingdom continued
Day Five Part Six A relaxing evening at the Wilderness Lodge

July 5th
Day Six Part One Our chilly morning at Blizzard Beach
Pictures from previous trips. Disneyland 1989 and WDW 1997
Day Six Part Two Mini-Golf at Winter-Summerland
Day Six Part Three In which we become photopass stalkers
Day Six Part Four An afternoon at the Magic Kingdom
Day Six Part Five Dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern
Day Six Part Six Spectromagic!
SpectroMagic continued
Day Six Part SevenJust Mommy and Me
Day Six Part Eight A Late Night at the Magic Kingdom
We interrupt this trip report to bring you this special update from Alek and Erich

July 6th

Day Seven Part One Rockin Out at MGM!
Day Seven Part Two Tale As Old As Time
Day Seven Part Three The Tragic Death of Indiana Jones
Day Seven Part Four Going Our Separate Ways
Day Seven Part Five The Great Flood
Another update from Alek and Erich
Day Seven Part Six Splish Splashing Around The World
Day Seven Part Seven Where Have All The E-mails Gone?
Day Seven Part Eight Our evening in the World Showcase
Day Seven Part Nine Touring the World Showcase and Illuminations
Day Seven Part Ten Our Last Night at the Lodge

July 7th
Day Eight Part One An Early Morning in the Magic Kingdom
Day Eight Part Two Breakfast at the Crystal Palace
Day Eight Part Three Trapped in Cinderella's Castle!
Day Eight Part Four A Royal Encounter
Day Eight Part Five Toontown continued
Day Eight Part Six A Little Change in Plans...
Day Eight Part Seven Ariel's Grotto
Day Eight Part Eight A Procrastinated Exit
Day Eight Part Nine Roughed Up by a Disney Duck Gang
Day Eight Part Ten Back to Reality

Final Thoughts


Hello fellow Dissers! My name is Lessa and this is my very first trip report. I am a 23 year old Canadian who has loved Disney her whole life and I have been planning this trip for my family since August of last year. Over the past year I have managed to make all my family, friends, and coworkers think that I am completely nuts with all my talk of Disney and my constant planning and my constant need to be reading the Dis boards and complete strangers trip reports. I love reading trip reports so much that I have decided to try my hand at it and I hope that you all enjoy it. This report will be filled with lots of laughter and fun and also some family arguments because it can not be a family vacation unless there is a blowout and I would be lying if I said our trip was perfect and that nothing was bad or horrible. I will try and be as honest as possible about our experience as I have found that the honest trip reports are the most entertaining and also the ones that help you plan your trip the most. I also promise to include lots of pictures as that is one of my favourite things when reading other trip reports!

The details of the trip are as follows: June 30th - July 7th at the Wilderness Lodge. We are booked for a courtyard view. We have signed on for an 8 day Parkhopper pass with the water parks option and we are also on the Disney Dining Plan.

The Cast Members of this report are my two brothers and our mom and here is a brief intro to them.

Mom/Beth (43)- Our mom introduced us to Disney at a very young age and made sure that we all carried the love of Disney through to adulthood. She made sure to take us to every Disney movie that came out in the theatre. One halloween she sewed me a Snow White costume to trick or treat in. She is in desperate need of this vacation as she works in a very hostile work enviroment where some of her coworkers can be very nasty to her and pretty much everybody else in the office. This really stresses my mom out as she hates confrontation and does not handle negativity very well. She has been looking forward to this trip almost as much as I have but without the crazy planning and Dissing.

Alek (21) - Alek is the middle child. His favourite character is Goofy and it is his goal on this trip to get his picture with him. Alek is very expressive and likes to act in the moment without really thinking sometimes about others around him. He can be very silly sometimes and this can cause problems with our mom as she is constantly wishing he would act more his age. Our brother Erich will often join in with Alek in his antics and they can be very funny together. Alek is a thrill ride lover. When we were children he was the only one who would go on roller coasters as the rest of the family was too scared. I am much braver now and I am glad that I can now experience the rides with Alek.

Erich (18) - Erich is the baby of the family. He graduated from high school two days before the trip and so this trip is partly in celebration of his graduation. Erich like my mom does not care for thrill rides but he suprised us a few times on this trip. I was very proud of him for conquering a fear. Erich's favourite character is also Goofy and he was very much looking forward to this trip as he is hoping that Disney World will have some good Goofy merchandise as the Disney Stores do not seem to like carrying Goofy stuff.

The other two members of the family that deserve mentioning are our precious kitties, Amber and Hobbes. Amber is 3 years old and Hobbes is about 7 months. I always hate leaving my kitties when I go on a trip but on this trip they will be well taken care of. We have two of our neighbours coming over to feed and check on them and Erich's friend Jessie has said that he will stop by to play with the cats before he goes to work at night. Here are our kitties










Day One Part One

[Disney5Mom]

Great start! Looking forward to your next installment. Your kitties are too cute!

[Disneyolic]

I'm signed up and waiting for the next installment. Kingston isn't too far from where we are in Central New York. We drove right past one year as we made the drive around Lake Ontario.

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Day One Part One

After 11 months of planning June 30th finally arrived. We were scheduled for a 6am flight out of Syracuse, NY with a connection in Atlanta and due to arrive in Orlando around noon. In order to get to Syracuse with plenty of time and in case there were any delays due to the border crossing we left Kingston around 2am. I don't think any of us got much sleep due to the excitement and nerves of traveling. The drive down to Syracuse was very uneventful, I think Alek and Erich may have slept a bit but I was wide awake. We got to Syracuse around 4am and found the long term parking lot and started to unload the car. This is when the first dramatic event of the trip occurred. My brothers and I were getting our backpacks our from the front of the car and my mom decided to go ahead and unload the very large and very heavy suitcases. Well my mom is not very strong and so she ended up dropping our big black heavy suitcase right on her big toe. It started bleeding all over the place and she was in a lot of pain. My brothers shock their heads while unloading the rest of the car as our mom is always doing things like to herself. We walked up to the terminal as mom hobbled and found the nearest bathroom. Mom cleaned her toe up the best she could and then wrapped it up in some toilet paper. Once we got on our flight she was able to get a proper bandage from a flight attendant.

We proceeded to check in, got our boarding passes, dropped off our luggage and went up to security. Well security obviously thought my shoes were suspicious as they took them over to some special shoe scanner on the side. I think this was probably due to the Nike ipod sensor that is in the sole of my shoe. It sends signals to my ipod that tells me how fast I'm walking/running, how far I've traveled, how long it's been and how many calories I've burned. I forgot to take it out before the trip and the sensor probably showed up on the security scan and they though it might be some sort of bomb, who knows. Anyways after they checked my shoes out they decided I wasn't a terrorist after all and let our group proceed to the gate where we sat for the next hour and a half waiting to board our flight.

Once we boarded we all proceeded to fall asleep, or at least we tried. I think only Erich was successful in getting any sleep.


We arrived in Atlanta around 08:00 and Alek and Erich were hungry and wanted to get something to eat. They proceeded to the food court where they found out that they could only get breakfast food. They were very upset about this. Who would have figured that at 8 in the morning that only breakfast would be served? Well Alek and Erich thought that was ridiculous but they finally settled for an Egg McMuffin type sandwich from one of the restaurants.

The flight from Atlanta to Orlando had a bunch of flight attendants in training on board and one in particular was great. His name was Luigi and he really went the extra mile to entertain the kids on the flight and to bring out their excitement over their trip. He would joke around with them and play little games with them and he really brought the smiles and laughs out of those children. He should work for Disney as he is clearly very good at spreading the pixie dust

As we approached Orlando I saw this from my window


I said to Alek "Oh look at all the pretty white fluffy clouds" I came to hate those clouds minutes later. The pilot came on to the speakers and told everybody that the descent would be very bumpy and that everybody must remain seated for the rest of the flight. He was not kidding. I was scared out of my mind. I thought the plane was going to crash. I think I even let out a little scream at one point. Needless to say I was very happy when that plane landed. I was not feeling very well as I deplaned.

We boarded the fun little monorail to the main terminal and exited into the large atrium. We were very impressed. The Orlando airport is very nice. We quickly spotted the Disney store and hightailed it over. We were eager to start emptying our wallets. None of us bought anything at the Disney store but Erich bought a big stuffed Scooby from the Universal store. We then went down to baggage claim where our bags came out promptly. One of my big worries when flying is that our bags will get lost but all were present and accounted for.

We decided to rent a car for the trip as we were able to get a good rate for a mid-size SUV so we had to go down to the National desk to pick up our car. There was only one person working the National counter and he was incredibly slow. He eventually checked us in and we went over to the garage where we picked a pretty blue Toyota Highlander to be our vehicle for the week. We loaded our luggage in and then we were off to Disney! My mom was driving as I had to rent the car in her name since I am not yet 25 and did not want to pay the underage driver surcharge. My mom is a very nervous driver while in unfamiliar places and ordered us all (my brothers) to be quiet until we got to the hotel as she did not want any distractions. I assured her that it would not be hard to find and that the highway would take us straight to Disney and then the signs would direct us but she was still a bundle of nerves. It was not hard to find and did not take very long to get there and pretty soon I saw this


We were finally at Disney World!

Day One Part Two

[blue_river]

What a wonderful way to celebrate graduation

We weren't impressed going through the turbulance either

In fact, it may be the reason we're taking a road trip to WDW this summer rather than flying. I was outnumbered on that one

Isn't it just the most wonderful feeling driving through the WDW arch???

Looking forward to more

[jmb912]

We were finally at Disney World![/QUOTE]

[COLOR="Red"]Happily reading along......can't wait for more!!![ /COLOR]

[Disneyolic]

Originally Posted by Lifelong_Dreamer

After 11 months of planning June 30th finally arrived. We were scheduled for a 6am flight out of Syracuse, NY ...

That where we live - well, a suburb of...

I said to Alek "Oh look at all the pretty white fluffy clouds" I came to hate those clouds minutes later. The pilot came on to the speakers and told everybody that the descent would be very bumpy and that everybody must remain seated for the rest of the flight. He was not kidding. I was scared out of my mind. I thought the plane was going to crash. I think I even let out a little scream at one point. Needless to say I was very happy when that plane landed. I was not feeling very well as I deplaned.

We had one of those descents once coming home and there were 3 people getting sick from it while a lot of us (me included) were going wheeeeeee!

It was not hard to find and did not take very long to get there and pretty soon I saw this


We were finally at Disney World!

That is always the bestest feeling seeing that sign!

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Originally Posted by Disney5Mom

Great start! Looking forward to your next installment. Your kitties are too cute!

Thanks! I love my kitties, they are my babies

Originally Posted by blue_river

What a wonderful way to celebrate graduation

We weren't impressed going through the turbulance either

In fact, it may be the reason we're taking a road trip to WDW this summer rather than flying. I was outnumbered on that one

Isn't it just the most wonderful feeling driving through the WDW arch???

Looking forward to more

Our first trip to Disneyworld was a road trip. We really enjoyed it as we got to stop off and visit places like Charleston, Savannah, Kennedy Space Center and Key West. Of course we were only driving from Virginia Beach where we lived at the time. The drive from Ontario is much longer. I wish you luck

Originally Posted by jmb912

We were finally at Disney World!

[COLOR="Red"]Happily reading along......can't wait for more!!![ /COLOR][/QUOTE]

Thanks for reading along!

Originally Posted by Disneyolic

That where we live - well, a suburb of...

We had one of those descents once coming home and there were 3 people getting sick from it while a lot of us (me included) were going wheeeeeee!


That is always the bestest feeling seeing that sign!

We make trips down to Syracuse a few times a year to go shopping at the Carousel. We used to live in Virginia Beach and we really miss the shopping available in the States so we have to make trips to hit up the stores that we don't have up here in Canada like Bath and Body Works.

I have never been a big fan of flying so add turbulence in there and I am a nervous mess! It was worth it though to get to Orlando and finally get to see Disneyworld again after 10 long years!

[BeautyNBeast]

Subscribing. Cannot wait to read all about your trip. I love reading trip reports too.

[AlyssinWonderland]

Sounds great so far! I hope you had a fantastic trip! I can't wait to read more about your adventures!!!

[Disneyolic]

Originally Posted by Lifelong_Dreamer

We make trips down to Syracuse a few times a year to go shopping at the Carousel. We used to live in Virginia Beach and we really miss the shopping available in the States so we have to make trips to hit up the stores that we don't have up here in Canada like Bath and Body Works.

Ah yes, the Carousel Center...I try to go at least once a week. Plus I have to stop in the Disney Store.

I have never been a big fan of flying so add turbulence in there and I am a nervous mess! It was worth it though to get to Orlando and finally get to see Disneyworld again after 10 long years!

If you go back to Orlando, take JetBlue from Syracuse. They have a nonstop direct flight that is wonderful!

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Originally Posted by BeautyNBeast

Subscribing. Cannot wait to read all about your trip. I love reading trip reports too.

Thanks for coming over to read my report

Originally Posted by AlyssinWonderland

Sounds great so far! I hope you had a fantastic trip! I can't wait to read more about your adventures!!!

Thanks, our trip was great and I can't wait to tell you all about it

Originally Posted by Disneyolic

Ah yes, the Carousel Center...I try to go at least once a week. Plus I have to stop in the Disney Store.

If you go back to Orlando, take JetBlue from Syracuse. They have a nonstop direct flight that is wonderful!

I love going to the Disney Store! It is my favorite shop. There is a Disney Store up here in Ottawa but that is also a two hour drive from where I live

A friend of mine recently flew on JetBlue and enjoyed his flight. It will for sure be an option for my next flight to Orlando which will hopefully be in December 2008!

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Day One Part Two


I left off with our arrival on Disney property. We followed the signs to the Magic Kingdom informed the booth attendant we were checking in at the Wilderness Lodge and he waved us through. About a minute later we turned onto Timberline Drive and saw this



We informed gate security who we were, he checked our names on his list, issued us a parking pass and welcomed us home!

We pulled up out front and walked into the beautiful lobby. I was on There was no line at the counter and we were able to check in right away. The CM informed us that our room was not ready but it was in a great spot and would we like to wait. Of course I said yes! After receiving all our documentation we went back outside and jumped into the car and headed to the grocery store to get our provisions for the week. I had originally planned on going to the Publix but we were tired from the flight and did not feel like navigating Orlando so we simply went to Crossroads. Mom once again drove and was a bundle of nerves. She was always asking "What did that sign say? Are we in the right lane? Are you sure this is the way to the grocery store?" It got a bit annoying but we found it no problem. Once we arrived my mom handed me the keys and said that she wanted me to drive for the rest of the trip since I seemed to know where I was going better than she did. That was a wise decision on her part as the driving for the rest of the trip was much more relaxed.

It was about 2 in the afternoon and we hadn't had anything to eat since our quick breakfast in the airport. There is a Friday's at the Crossroads so we decided to grab lunch/dinner there while looking over all the info that Disney gave us. Lunch was good and the service was quick and friendly. We were done eating around 3 and I decided to call and see if the room was ready and it was. I was told that we were in Rm 4161. We quickly ran into the grocery store to grab some bottled water and sunscreen and then headed back to the hotel.

We lugged all our bags upstairs to Rm 4161 (which is located at the end of the south wing) and Erich opened the door. The room looked great and we even had a towel Mickey on the bed which my brothers unfortunately destroyed before I could get a picture of it.

I opened the doors to the balcony and here is the view I was greeted with







I was thrilled! This was exactly the view I wanted and requested. I can't imagine getting a better view.

Here are some pictures of the room






My mom and I unpacked while Alek and Erich checked out the tv stations. They ended up watching Stacy's Top 7 of course.

Here is a picture of an armadillo that Alek and Erich spotted from our balcony.


Once we were all unpacked we decided to head down to the pool for a while. The water was kinda warm but not uncomfortable. On later days the water was cooler. Alek and Erich had fun going down the slide while mom relaxed on a lounge chair and I drifted around in the pool. Once they were done with the slide Alek and Erich joined me on the other end of the pool where the spring meets the pool. This is when we experienced one of our favourite things about the hotel, the duck families that are all over the property get right in the water and swim with you. It was so cute and all the kids in the pool loved it.

We spent about an hour in the pool and then headed up to the room to change so that we could head over to the Magic Kingdom for the night!

Day One Part Three

[Disneyolic]

We stayed at the WL once and I always wished I got a pic of the main gate when we arrived on Timberline Dr. Your view was absolutely gorgeous! We were on the same wing, same floor, but we overlooked the Villas pool.

It's always great to get what you wanted!

[MousekaMaddi]

great report, keep it coming! Lovely pix too