“Is there anything in my teeth?” “God I’m so full!!!” The Trip Report from 06/23-07

[snookie5605]

Ok so here it is. The moment I know you all have been waiting for…..MY TRIP REPORT!!! Haha, ok so probably you aren’t losing sleep over waiting for this one but I am excited writing. This is my first one so bear with me. I took well over 500 pictures which is a lot but not a whole lot. I didn’t follow my exact itinerary as posted in my pre-trip report, and I forgot to take a lot of pics of food, but I think I did ok!



So a little background if you didn’t read my pre-trip report which is linked here:







My DH and myself decided to take our niece to Disney World as her gift for graduating high school. It was a plan in the making since we went on our honeymoon in Disney in 2007. We stayed at POP Century from 06/23-07/06, which I have to say I absolutely loved the hotel. I would never stay at another All Star and would pick POP over them anyday. I will say this though, I will NEVER go back to Disney again for that time of year. The crowds were so good until around July and then it got crazy.



We live in Folsom, PA right outside of Philly. My name is Courtney (25), my DH is Mike (23) and DN is Chynna (17). Here we are at Chynna's graduation:

So I guess that’s all you really need to know before I start. Some of the pics you will see will not have Mike in them with the characters. This is because he was taking the pictures! So he claims he was not on vacation because you can’t see him anywhere! So here we go!!!!



Tuesday 06/23/2009 DEPARTURE DAY!!!!



I can’t believe it’s finally here. It felt like it was going to take forever until this day got to us. Me and Chynna had been talking about this trip and counting down for so long and it was finally here. We had set out alarm for 4:30am but I was so excited I started poking Mike at about 4:15 to get up. That night before me and Chynna both took Tylenol PMs so we could get to sleep. Well Chynna took hers at like 6pm and was asleep on the sofa by 8pm. So me and Mike decided to just head to bed early. So anyway, we got up and I had to call my dad to get him up. Well he wasn’t supposed to come over to get us until 4:45. I think he got to us by 4:30 and we were ready to go.



Just a side note, I was devastated leaving my two dogs, Chase and Mocha at home. The looks they gave us when we left was just heart-breaking I could have cried. But my dad was taking care of them so I knew they would be in good hands.



So anyway, we were off to the airport by 4:45am. We made a stop at Wawa for my dad to get himself some coffee so he could wake up. Well Philadelphia airport is only 10 minutes away from our house, right off of I-95, so we were there by 5am! We checked our bags at the curbside checkin with Southwest. The man that took of us was so polite which was a shock for the Philly airport. We got inside and got right in the line for security. We get through and of course my bags go through and I see some woman waving my purse around asking whose handbag it was. I came forward and she asked me to open it. Well looks like I forgot to take out my lotion that I use in the tanning salon and it was too much liquid to carry on. No biggie, it was only a 8 dollar bottle from Walmart so I told her to trash it.



So by the time we got to our gate it was only 5:30am and our flight didn’t leave until 7:05am. We went to get some breakfast. I got a cappuccino and a crumb cake for myself and an iced coffee for Mike which cost $8 something. Chynna got a iced chai latte and a yogurt parfait which cost her $8 something and Mike got a sandwich from Burger King which was $4 I think. And this is where part of my trip report title comes in. we are done eating and just sitting and talking and Chynna asks “Do I have anything in my teeth?” let’s just say after everything we ate for the two weeks we were there, she asked this same question!!!! It drove us nuts by the end of vacation. Oh and let’s not forget 6am came around and what did I announce? “It’s time to take our Bufferin!” Let me explain…my mom is a bit nervine when it comes to getting blood clots on planes from sitting too long, so one hour before any flight she reminds us all to take our Bufferin, so of course my dad brought it over to us when he picked us up that morning! Here we are sitting and waiting at the airport:

Southwest finally started boarding the plane and even though we were boarding group B, we still all got seats together. Chynna was in the middle. Now keep in mind, she has not flown a plane since she was about 3 so she remembers nothing and was a nervous wreck just getting on. Well our flight attendants were hysterical. They were singing the mickey mouse club ending song (“M I C, see ya real soon, K E Y, why because we like you”)and getting the kids all excited that they were going to Disney. When the plane finally started to take off, Chynna got VERY nervous. Every little noise the plane made and every movement, she would freak out. When we started to accelerate and go down the runway, she grabbed my hand and by the time we were up in the air I had white marks on my hand from her squeezing so hard!!! The plane ride was very smooth, hardly any turbulence which was nice. We got the usual airplane cinnamon graham cracker cookies and a bag of pretzels and our drinks. Next thing you know the plane is landing and it was only 09:10. we were supposed to land at 9:35!!! So we were again ahead of ourselves which also seemed to be another theme of this trip. We walked down to the Magical Express counter and there was not one person in line anywhere. Usually you still have to go to counter and check in and give them your magical express passes. But not this time! There was a CM standing there waving her Mickey hand and told us to proceed down the red carpet to the next CM. We did so and she checked us in and told us to proceed to the POP line. We got there so fast I didn’t have a chance to take a picture of it. Next thing we know, the CM at the head of the line opened the line and led us to our bus!!! No way was this happening to us! We thought this was a very good sign!



So we hop on the bus and were told that POP is the first stop! Yet even more good news! And off we go!!!! This is us on the bus ride there...

By this point I was jumping out of my skin and I was waiting to see the video that they show on your way there. Well guess what?! They NEVER showed it. I was bit upset about this because Chynna had never seen it. But whatever I wasn’t going to let that ruin my good day so far. And we're home!!!!

So we then arrived at POP. These are just some pics i took while we were looking around.

Oh and let me just mention it was very hot in FL. It was extremely humid. Just to mention we were checked in at POP by 10:15!!! And let me just tell you, the CM that checked us in was HORRIBLE and NASTY! First of all she could hardly speak English and I couldn’t understand her but she was very rude also. She informed us that our room was not ready and gave us a card with a number to call to check. She gave us our package that was waiting and never gave us pins. So I asked her for one and her response was “Well what do you need that for?” I told her that we put on our reservation we were here for Chynna’s graduation. She looked at me, smiled, and said “Oh Congratulations”. After I was done checking in, I realized that she never asked me to pay for the refrigerator we had on our reservation and I also noticed that inside of our packet were “Celebrate” pins anyway! I ended up going back up a few minutes later and got another CM and she took care of writing on Chynna’s pin what we were there for plus letting me pay for the fridge.

So since we were at the hotel so early and our lunch reservations were not until 2pm, we had no idea what to do. We decided to just head to the POP food court and get a snack to eat because we hadn’t eaten since like 6 that morning. This was us sitting in the food court. Lovely pics of us right?!

So we went and got our 3 free mugs that were included with the Deluxe Dining Plan and I got a bag of chips, Mike got a chocolate cake, and Chynna got celery and carrots with dip. The mugs would have cost us $41.51 and the snacks would have been $10.30. (just so you know we kept track of what everything cost so that we would see if the DxDP paid off.)

I'm going to finish up here for now, until I get more pics loaded up on photobucket because they are taking forever. But i will continue soon!!

 

[tinkgurl]

Woo! You started!

Ahh the 23rd was a good day for both of us! It was the day you got there and it was our first morning waking up there!

 

[snookie5605]

We finished up and headed off to Downtown Disney. We walked around a bit. We checked out Tren-D, the new shop they opened. Me and Chynna loved it! They are expensive but have the cutest things. She got a sundress there that was really cute. You’ll see her wearing it later on in some pics. We headed to the World of Disney store and she got a pair of sunglasses there because she had none and it was very sunny the whole trip. After we left Tren-D I decided to give it a try and call to see if the room was ready. Well it was about 11:45am and it was ready! This was a very nice surprise. By the time we got over to T-Rex it was about 12:15 and decided to just try and check in early. We got right in!

These are some pics of the Lego things at Downtown Disney...

T-Rex is an awesome restaurant. You walk in and there are dinosaurs everywhere. Every 20 minutes they have a meteor shower. You look up to the ceiling and it gets all dark and you see meteors shooting across the sky. The dinosaurs go nuts at this point. They also have a ice glacier room you can eat in. the brick oven area has fire shooting up at the counter and above it.

Of course this restaurant is out of pocket, but we didn’t care. They have a huge menu also so when you go take your time and check it out. For drinks, Chynna got a water, I got a Pellegrino, and Mike got a soda. Chynna and I decided that we were going to get two appetizers and split them. We got the flatbread and the appetizer sampler.

Mike got the Bronto Burger.

The OOP cost for the meal and the tip was $68.00. oh yeah and just a little add in…the table next to us got done eating and this guy stopped at our table and said “Enjoy your lunch Phillies fans” and laughed. He was a METS fan.

After we were done eating, we decided to head back to the room to rest up a bit since we had dinner reservations at 7:45pm for Tutto Italia. We got back to the room and to our surprise our luggage was there and it was only 1:45! So this was nice. We also had a little towel animal dog sitting in our window!

I was ecstatic considering all the years I have been there I have never gotten a towel animal. So we started to get showers and get ready and while I was in the shower my niece knocks on the bathroom door and yells “Thanks Aunt Courtney!” The basket I had ordered from memoriesbybetsy.com had arrived. It had her graduation Mickey ears in it that had her name engraved on the back, a 2009 Mickey graduation stuffed animal who appropriately was dressed in red (her school color), and a 2009 graduation pin. She loved it so I was very happy!

We were all ready and headed down to the bus stop to go to Epcot. I have to say POP has the BEST bus service ever. We never waited long at all. I felt really bad for the Caribbean Beach people though because their lines were always horrendous and they waited forever. If I ever want to stay at another value resort in the future I would not go anywhere else besides POP. So we were on our way to Epcot. We got there and decided to go on Spaceship Earth since the line was very short and Chynna had never been in there. Plus me and Mike love the new additions they have to it at the end. So we went on and Chynna was cracking up at the part when you are on your way back down the ball. Of course we advised her to make a funny face because well that makes the whole thing! So then we walked over the World Showcase because they were dying to do Kim Possible. Mike had even threatened that he was going to roll around on the ground like he was in Mission Impossible. On our way we stopped at Club Cool because Chynna had done this before and we never did. I was a bit scared to see what Italy’s tasted like since I have heard so many gross things. Well I absolutely loved I think it was Japan and India? The one was a watermelon flavor and the other was like a lemon something. And the goofball that Mike is loved the Italy one. He kept on drinking it. Chynna and I spit ours out because it is a very bitter flavor and leaves a disgusting after taste.

So anyway, we stopped at Innoventions to get our Kim Possible ticket. We were told to meet up in Norway by I think it was 2:45. So we went there and got our Kimmunicator. We went to the first stop and of course Mike was running around singing the Mission Impossible song. Well we really did not have fun with this thing at all. We hated it actually. I think maybe if it didn’t have you going around in circles following the clues, then it would have been ok. I mean don’t get me wrong, the things that they have popping up and coming out and talking when you are on your mission are cool. It also started to rain so that was kind of a downer. We pretty much just walked around for a while and looked at some things. We went on the Norway ride to waste some time and we also did Living with the Land.

Our reservations at Tutto Italia were for 7:45pm but we were hungry so we went and checked in at 6:40pm. To our surprise, we got right in!

 

[snookie5605]

Again our luck was really good today. It was a nice start to our trip. Now the fun times began!!!! FOOD!!! And lots of it! Our waitress was Guiliana who was very good. I got an iced tea, the Insalata Mista, the Tagliatelle alla Primavera, and the Noci dessert.

Mike got the Calamari, Lasagna, and the Tiramisu. In fact here is a pic of him after his first big meal!

And then Chynna got the Insalata Mista, the Farfalle that had prosciutto and peas, and Pistachio Gelato.

The total cost of the meal OOP was $152.30 but 1 credit on the DDP. I also forgot to mention we got 3 waters while we were there in the park which OOP cost would have been $10.50 but it was 3 snack credits on DDP. So after our dinner, we pretty much decided to head back to POP. Again the buses arrived very early and we went back and went to sleep, preparing for our first full day the next day. Oh and let me mention, on Tuesday I think we figured we were up and going for about 18 hours!!!

 

[snookie5605]

Woo! You started!

Ahh the 23rd was a good day for both of us! It was the day you got there and it was our first morning waking up there!

yay!!! hope you had a good time!!

 

[snookie5605]

let me just add a little something which i forgot. my dining review!! haha wow thats bad that i forgot to put my reviews. for trex: the flatbread was UNBELIEVABLE! it was a flatbread with a very light tomato sauce on it. then it was covered in mozzerella and goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and covered with carmelized onions. it was very good. the appetizer sampler had bruschetta which was excellent. not only did it have tomatoes for it but marinated eggplant. it also had onion rings, chicken quesadillas, and chips and nacho dip. mike said he liked the bronto burger. it was a burger so nothing special.

now for tutto: mike loved the calamari. it said it was very light and crispy. the salads were ok. the salad itself is made up of very different lettuces so it had a bitter taste. the dressing was good though, a citrus vinegarette. my tagliatelle was a thick spaghetti that had vegetables in it and a very light tomato cream sauce. mike loved his lasagna. it was very thick and full of meat and ricotta cheese. chynna loved her farfalle. farfalle is bowtie pasta and hers had prosciutto and peas and a light tomato sauce. mike loved his tiramisu, it was your usual. my noci dessert was amazing. it had soft nutella cookies that were topped with a mango sorbet, and glazed nectarine slices on the side. and chynna became obsessed with her pistachio gelato. it was her new favorite thing.

 

[tinkgurl]

Whoa, both T-Rex and Tutto Italia look amazing!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

very good start, that appetizer sampler is huge....and you got a ton of calamari for an appetizer.

no wonder he was so full

 

[mickeystoontown]

Signing on for more! Looks like you guys are off to a great start...well, with the exception of the rude check-in.

 

[snookie5605]

Wednesday June 24th

It’s Wednesday! Our first official day here. We got up around 6:15 or 6:30 since we had breakfast reservations at Boma at 7:30. We went down and waited for the Animal Kingdom bus to get there. Luckily nobody else got on, so the bus driver took us right to the Lodge!

We got there and the restaurant wasn’t opened yet so we had to wait a few minutes but that was ok. So we waited and were the first ones in. this was out first tasting of that juice that they give out. It is a mixture of I believe mango, guava, and orange? Or something like that. From all of the breakfast buffets we went to, I liked this one a lot. Now whether or not it was because it was our first one and by the end of the trip we were sick of the breakfast buffets, I don’t know. We had a selection of things, ranging from eggs (which were UNBELIEVABLY GOOD), made to order omelets, chocolate croissants, apple turnovers, cinnamon rolls, bacon, sausage, you name it.

The OOP cost would have been $67.07, but only cost 1 credit per person with the DDP.

We decided to walk around the resort, which I was really excited about because I wanted to see the animals. Well of course, not one animal was out! I was really upset but whatever. It happens!

the rest of the day will be continued in another post

 

[snookie5605]

So we hopped back on the bus and headed back to POP for some pool time! We were there in time for the lifeguards to come out and put on their little show. They come out with neon colored wigs and get little kids, give them wands, and let them turn on the flowers that squirt out water. It was cute.

We stayed at the pool until about 11:15am or so and went back up to get ready for lunch.

We had lunch reservations at Whispering Canyon at 2pm so we hopped on the bus to MK and then the boat to the Wilderness Lodge. Here are some pics from the ride over.

We got there early and walked around the resort, which is beautiful. Here are some pics I took of that.

We got seated a little bit early which was nice. Our waited was pretty funny. We had plans to get Chynna to ask for ketchup so that she could yell for it and get everyone to bring it to her, but they had ketchup on every table so that was a bit disappointing. Of course we had our napkins and straws thrown at us. Chynna and I both got the salads for an appetizer and Mike got the BBQ pork rolls. The salad was very good, very refreshing. Mike loved his rolls. And of course we ordered 3 skillets. I think this is the best way to go here. We’ve done it before and it is plenty of all you can eat food and its very good. The mashed potatoes are awesome. I also love the Cole slaw. I’m not a Cole slaw kinda girl but theirs is made with a lot of mustard and it’s really good. Their chicken is also very good. For dessert Chynna and I got the fruit domes, which I have to say were disgusting! We didn’t want anything too heavy but they were just gross. Mike got the Smores cheesecake.

He really liked that. I like this place. The servers are usually very funny and make the atmosphere. Plus the food is pretty good. The OOP cost would have been $115.31 but it cost 1 credit a person on the DDP.

Now we decided to head over to play mini golf. We were going to do the Summer one which is at Blizzard Beach since Mike and I have already done the Winter. Now let me mention, this was the day that the room was getting decorated by the Disney Florist. We ordered the Mickey’s Welcome for Chynna. We had to stay out of the room between 4-6pm so we pretty much couldn’t go back until after dinner. So we played mini golf, which was interesting. First of all it was ungodly hot that day. By the time we were done, there was sweat just dripping off of us. There were lizards everywhere, which Chynna hated. All she did was scream every time she saw one. There was also a black snake on the loose somewhere so the staff was looking for it. And of course Mike won. Mike was an assistant golf professional at a golf club so he is really good at golf and you can like never beat him. It doesn’t help any that I can probably beat him but I have NO patience whatsoever with golf and end up getting frustrated and lose. And Chynna is just bad at it, so she can’t win! So after the golf game we got some waters, which OOP would have, cost $7.50 but we used 3 snack credits instead. We talked it over and decided to go over to the Boardwalk and walk around for a little bit since Chynna had never been there. So we waited at Blizzard Beach to get a bus to the Boardwalk, but the line was way too long and we waited a while. So we went and took the bus to Fort Wilderness and figured we would just go to the Contemporary really early and just sit and relax until our dinner reservations that night. Well we get there and looked at the map and thought we had to walk to get to the boat to go to the Contemporary. So we start walking! Well it seems that we were like taking a nature walk because we were following this trail that had nothing around it. We were walking for about 20-25 minutes! I will do the next installment shortly....youll have to wait to see what happens....

 

[Captdonswife]

What a great aunt & uncle you guys are! I'm sure Chynna had a great time - can't wait til your next installment!

 

[tinkgurl]

I forgot to say...we were at DTD/Epcot the same day as you!

 

[snookie5605]

so to continue where i left off, it was crazy. we thought we were going the wrong way. we even considered hitch hiking with someone on their golf cart!! But We finally realized, when we saw the bus, that it is like Caribbean Beach where they have an internal bus that stops all along the way. So we went to the first bus stop we saw and waited for the Internal bus to get there. We took this back to Pioneer Hall which is where everything is and got on the boat to the Contemporary. By the time we got there, we were exhausted! We all headed to the bathroom to clean up a bit since we were disgusting from sweating with golf. Luckily the ladies room had washcloths and stuff so that was nice. It felt so good to just have a cold cloth on your face!!!

Since we got there at like 5 and our reservations weren’t until 7:30, we just took a seat next to the window and watched the boats go by. We did some videotaping and took some pictures while we were waiting.

We did some people watching too, which all 3 of us love to do. Let me just say, people have no common sense! I can’t tell you how many people would try and cut in front of us in line when we finally went up to check in! it was insane when there was clearly a sign that said “Please stand behind the line to wait for the next host/hostess to check you in.” It isn’t that hard people!!! Sorry just venting, but on this trip I have realized just how many ignorant, rude, and sometimes stupid people there are in this world! It was crazy how many rude people go to Disney!

So anyway…we checked in around 7:15 and didn’t get called back until 8:05 which was 35 minutes after our reservation time!!! So we finally get in there. The first character that was out was Donald. He was great as always!

Then came out Pluto. He wanted Mike to pose a certain way with him,which was cute.

Then Goofy came around. Well guess what he did?! He walked by our table, waved at us, and never stopped and went on to the next!!! Goofy totally dissed us!!! I was very upset! So then Minnie comes out. Just wait until you hear what she did to Chynna and me! She walks up, goes to Mike, gives him a kiss and wants a picture with him looks at us, waves, and walks away!!!! She wanted nothing to do with us!

Yeah so anyway…. the big guy himself comes out now. Mickey was so good.

He took pictures with all of us, and then noticed Chynna’s pin. He pointed to it and held up his finger as to say wait a minute. He takes her napkin and starts to do something with it. I thought Mickey was going to pull out some origami or something!!! Haha!!! But no he rolled up napkin to look like a diploma and gave it to her, shaking her hand, like she was graduating and he was giving her the diploma! It was so cute and she really liked that.

Chynna kept on saying all that night, “That’s right we may have been dissed by Goofy and Minnie, but Mickey gave me my diploma!” It was so funny. Mike also seemed to enjoy the celebrate portion of dinner where the characters walk around swinging their napkins and dance, to celebrate any special occasion that people are there for. Here is a picture of him having some fun.

So here, they have typical buffet food. Sorry I forgot to take pics of the food, I only got some of dessert. They had chicken fingers, mac and cheese, salad, veggies, some pasta in cream sauce, salmon, some meat, tons of stuff. The desserts were a soft serve with tons of toppings, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, key lime tarts, cheesecakes, rice krispies treats, etc… the soft serve was very watery, which we were disappointed in. the krispies treats were stale.

The rest was pretty good. The OOP cost would have been $108.60 but it cost 1 credit per person on the DDP.

So we headed back to the room. Mike had the camera ready. He opened the door and let her go in first. She was totally shocked. When you walked in the room there were Mickey footprints leading in.

Now there was supposed to be 2 signs on the wall, one was supposed to be a sign saying Congratulations and the other was supposed to be fake balloons. Well we didn’t get this. Instead there were 3 balloons hanging on the chair, one of Mickey, one of Minnie, and a gold star.

There was also a floral arrangement on top of the fridge. It was red, black, and white daisies in a Mickey mug with a Congratulations balloon on it. It had a card in it but it was blank. I only looked at that because I thought maybe her parents or my parents sent her something but they were just an extra! The flowers had little Mickey things in them too. They were so pretty and were a nice surprise.

Then sitting on her bed was a big stuffed Mickey, her autograph book that was signed by Mickey, and a big box that had Mickey hands in it, and a picture album book.

Then sitting on the table in between the beds was a bunch of Mickey confetti, with a huge picture frame with a picture of Pluto, Mickey, Goofy, Minnie, and Donald and it was signed “Welcome Chynna, Your Pals at Disney”.

So we were busy marveling over everything and all of a sudden Chynna yells, “Aunt Courtney, look over there. It’s Tinkerbell!” So I glance over at the tv dresser and sitting on the side of the dresser is a black Tinkerbell that is lighting up! It was the cutest thing.

So that was pretty much the end of the day. Chynna called her mom that night and bragged about the gifts. I’m glad she loved them. We got to bed pretty late for having to get up so early tomorrow for our first park day, but oh well. So I’ll check back later to report on our day at the Animal Kingdom

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

wow all that stuff was really really neat, way to go on suprising her.

sounds like she loved it.

 

[TinkLovinMomma]

I love that you brought your neice for her graduation!! You and your dh are the same ages as me and my dh. He has been making fun of me and calling me an old lady since i turned 25 lol!!

I love the idea with the florist arrangements... how did you book that? Next October we will be down there for my dh's bday and I would like to do something like that for him!

We were in Disney the same time as you (actually 6/29 until 7/5) but Im waiting to write my trip report until I have more posts because right now I cant post pictures

 

[snookie5605]

I love that you brought your neice for her graduation!! You and your dh are the same ages as me and my dh. He has been making fun of me and calling me an old lady since i turned 25 lol!!

I love the idea with the florist arrangements... how did you book that? Next October we will be down there for my dh's bday and I would like to do something like that for him!

We were in Disney the same time as you (actually 6/29 until 7/5) but Im waiting to write my trip report until I have more posts because right now I cant post pictures

oh i know my husband thinks im an old lady. and hes been calling me that too since i turned 25. he keeps on saying that im going to hit 50 before him because hes only 23! im like, thanks Mike, appreciate it! haha! for the florist thing, you can go on disneyflorist.com and look at the stuff they have and then you just call them and order whatever you want. actually you may be able to order some stuff online i think.

 

[snookie5605]

so yeah its been a while and i completely apologize for not writing. but for the past couple of weeks i have been planning my aunt's bridal shower since im the matron of honor! well it was on sunday so now that that's over with, i can give my attention back to my trip report. so i will most likely be posting my next installment tomorrow! hope you are all still following!

 

[girliewhirlie]

Been eagerly awaiting for more posts!!!! Come on girlie ... you got me interested!

 

[TinkLovinMomma]

I'm still here! Cant wait for a new update!!