Chunkymonkey + Chubbyhubby's Mem day weekend at WDW = Updated Day III part 3

[chunkymonkey]

Hi Everyone! This is my very first WDW trip report, and I'm very excited to be posting here. I have been reading DISboards trip reports for a while and I thought it would be nice to share my experiences with everyone, so here goes!

I thought I would introduce myself and my DH first.

The Cast:

Me = Chunkymonkey. 33 years old. Oldest of 4 sisters. A business analyst and project manager who unfortunately was a victim of the financial crisis last year and was laid off from a large financial firm a few months before our wedding in Nov. 2008. Well, I took it in stride and looked at it as an opportunity to plan the wedding and honeymoon of my dreams without having a full-time job. Let me tell, you wedding planning IS a full time job!! Lately, I have been trying to turn my love for photography into a full-time business. I have visited WDW and DLR numerous times when I was a kid with my family. I also lived in Tokyo as a child so I have been to Tokyo Disneyland about 7 times. This trip marks the 3rd trip to WDW for me and DH, and the first time as a married couple. Yay!

DH = Chubbyhubby. 33 years old. Middle child with 2 brothers. A private equity consultant. Super smart, super kind. Eats anything spicy, supports my endless shopping habits (I have slowed down, really!) and loves to play video games and watch movies. He’s from Southern Cal, so he’s been a long time goer of DLR with a few trips to WDW as a kid.

Me + DH = newlywed couple living in NYC who LOVE to travel, eat, watch movies, and especially visit anywhere DISNEY!! Our first travel experience together was to WDW in July 2003. We had such an awesome time. We stayed off property at the Hyatt, rented a car and had a blast. We visited DLR a few times after that while visiting his family in So Cal. We planned another trip to WDW in May 2006 where we stayed at the Disney Palace in DTD. After we got engaged in Dec 2007, we planned a wedding in Temecula, Ca which gave us even more reasons to visit DLR on our numerous planning trips to So. Cal in 2008.

We were married in a vineyard on a fabulous day filled with fantastic memories on November 1 2008. We honeymooned in Tahiti and Bora Bora.. That was the first trip report I every wrote and I was hooked. (If you want to read this trip report please pm me separately as I don’t’ want to post a link here since it’s non-Disney related)

Here is a pic of us on our very first trip to WSW as a couple in July 2003. We went for Afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian:

Here’s a pic from a trip to DLR in 2007

And in DLR 2008. We were in Disney’s Cali Adventure theme park on the big ferris wheel. We opted for the “moving” cars instead of the stationary cars. I don’t think I like it judging from the expression on my face. DH seems to think it’s fun though.

A bit of pre-trip planning:

Fast forward to 2009…it’s the beginning of May, and I am sitting at home bored perusing for travel deals on www.expedia.com since I was tired of looking at job sites. The job search is really really slow, especially within the financial industry. I speak to recruiters daily but it’s a tough job market out there. So of course my spirits were low. I initially was looking for travel options for our 1st Anniversary trip…himm, Hawaii, Caribbean, where shall we go? Then I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we got to WDW!!??! But also, wouldn’t it be great to go to WDW a lot sooner than November???

Sooo I started looking for deals for Memorial Day weekend. DH had started a new job, and his first real holiday was that weekend, so we wanted to make use of any days that he had time off. Pretty soon, I found a sweet deal at the Swan that included flights from NYC, and 4 nights at the WDW Swan. I had always wanted to stay at the Swan or Dolphin. It was in close proximity to Epcot and Hollywood studios which are my 2 favorite parks.

I called DH and asked if we could go. He said “Would that make you happy?” And I was like, heck yeah!!!! After a few emails were exchanged between him and his managers, we were booked!!! *did happy dance* (btw, I had to book on expedia.com because I had a 25 dollar coupon that was going to expire soon. I am not one to let a free coupon go to waste!)

This trip in May 2009 is our first time staying at Disney property, and it’s not even a REAL Disney resort. Although the Swan does participate in the EMH, it does not have Magical Express or Dining Plan privileges. We were OK with that because we actually had 4 days left on our 6-day Park Hopper tickets that we hadn’t used during our last trip in 2006. We thought we would save some money by using those tickets. If we didn’t have those park hopper tickets I would have probably purchased a completely different Disney resort trip, one of those Magic your way packages especially since they were giving away the DDP for free in recent promotions! Well…we’ll save that for next time.

Since this was such a last minute trip, I only had time to make 2 ADRs, one for dinner buffet at Biergarten in Epcot, since we love German food, and also for the Fantasmic Dinner package at Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios. The rest of the time, we figured we would wing it. As you’ll find out later, it really isn’t too hard to get a reservation once you are AT the parks. Aside from Character Dining and some of the more popular options, I think most places have a very high turnover and can accommodate walk-ins, even on a busy holiday weekend.

Up next…Day “0” as I like to call it – our travel day. Plus tons of pics to come!!

 

[Lynn5700]

Hi!!! You guys are so cute!!

Welcome to the boards!! Can't wait to hear about your trip. Sorry about all the rain, but it sounds like you guys still had a great time!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 0 – Friday May 22nd

We took a risk and decided to book a flight Friday evening before a long holiday weekend. I usually like to travel on Saturday mornings as it’s less crowded but we didn’t want to lose a full day at the parks since we were only going for 4 days. Our flight left out of Newark airport in NJ at 6:15pm. I had made plans to hang out with a friend of mine who lives in NJ. She would pick me up from the PATH train from NYC to Hoboken, NJ, and then we would go shopping at Jersey Gardens, which is an outlet mall next to Newark airport, and then she would drop me off in time for my flight. It was great since I got to hang out with her 18 month old daughter who is the cutest thing in the world. I see her about 3 times a week and I *heart* her so much! At the mall, I wanted to find some comfortable flip flops to walk around in. I had brought a few pairs a long with me, but I wanted comfy ones that were waterproof too (totally needed this). I didn't find any though, but I thought I would give Crocs a try one day.They seeom to be highly raved about. I hate wearing shoes or sneakers because I don't like hot feet (I also don't like wearing heels). Flip flops for me please.

DH was going to meet me at the airport. He will be leaving early from work, around 3:30pm and taking a train from NY Penn Station to Newark and then take the Airtrain to the Jetblue terminal. I was really worried that he wouldn’t get there in time. Holiday weekends at airports are just soooo crazy and DH is known for being late…I told him to remember to leave early!!

I had started packing about a week prior to the trip since I didn’t want to have a last minute “scramble” but of course about an hour before I had to leave I took stuff out and put more stuff in my suitcase. DH took his suitcase to work with him. I had been monitoring the weather for the past week and it pretty much was RAIN RAIN RAIN. Ugh. I hate the rain! I packed 2disposable ponchos that I picked up for about 99 cents at the drugstore. The previous times we went to Disney, it had not rained so I never had the need to purchase a poncho before. But I had to be prepared this time…and I am glad we were.

I got to the airport at around 4:30. I had already printed out our boarding passes and we weren’t checking any bags. I waited for DH in the food court next to the Airtrain exit. Luckily, he was out of the train by 4:45! He made it in time! Whew!

Security line was ok…I knew it was going to be long but it didn’t take as much time as expected. I guess I was just expecting the worse since it was a long weekend. The gate was crowded and our flight was delayed by 15 minutes. I plopped our suitcases with DH and went in search of magazines and food. I ended up getting an US weekly and a carton of these special cereal mixes. I can’t remember what the brand was…cereality comes to mind…It looks like a Chinese take-out box, and they list the ingredients in each “mix.” I got one with cheerios, pecans, whole wheat flakes, golden raisins and some other crunchy stuff. It comes with a carton of milk. I chose 2%. I ate the cereal on the plane and it was DELISH, crunchy and full of nuts and sweetness from the raisins! I love cereal!

Us waiting at the gate. There were no chairs available so we had to sit on a window sill.

Pretty soon we were boarding the plane. We were lucky enough to be sitting in exit row seats which had more leg room. They were the only seats available at the time we booked so we had to pay the extra 20 bucks to upgrade regardless. I only did this for one way. I didn’t reserve seatst for our return flight, but jetblue could figure it out that we booked together and would like to sit together. More on that later…

Finally on the plane on off to Florida!

This is the first time in Disney that we haven’t rented a car. I usually like the flexibility of a car but DH didn’t feel like driving around this time, so we relied mainly on Disney’s transportation. But since the Swan is not part of Disney’s magical express, we were on our own to and from the airport. After a quick google search, I booked a private limo from www.happylimo.com using the Mousesaver discount. Car service is expensive in Orlando! And I thought NYC was expensive. A car service to JFK is about 50 bucks without tax or tip. In Orlando, it’s a minimum of 60 one way. Eeesh. I guess it’s a lot cheaper if you have a group of people since it’s per car, and not per person. I didn’t want to wait for a shuttle since we were arriving so late, so we decided to fork over the extra 20 bucks a person to get the private car service. I also asked happy limo for a grocery stop before arriving at the Swan so we could sock up on some snacks and water.

When we arrived, we were about 40 minutes late – I hoped that our driver would still be waiting there. Luckily he was…his name was Guy and he was a very nice guy. Our airport transfers were very easy. Guy held up a sign with our name on it at ground transportation and we walked right up to him! Someone actually stopped to ask us a question. A guy had also booked through happy limo but his driver wasn’t there. He said he’d been waiting for 20 minutes. Our driver said that he needed to call the happy limo main line, but if I could remember, I think it was closed at that time. (It was about 10:30pm at this time) I told him that happy limo had to email you the confirmation and that you would be given the driver’s name and cell phone number prior to your arrival. The guy looked all confused – so I am not sure he had confirmed his limo, but he thanked us and left.

Getting ready to leave the airport in a happy limo car. I think they are usually town cars and vans. But you can also rent hummers as well.

Sharing a ride in a private car but we are soo soo tired

I asked Guy if he knew about our scheduled supermarket stop. He says the supermarket is closed, but there is a 7Eleven on the way there. I said that’s fine. So after about a half hour of driving, we pull into a seven eleven. The weather seems to be warm, no rain, whew! We bought some snacks and drinks and left. Then headed to our final destination: the Swan!!!

The Swan is a beautiful hotel on its grounds, lobbies and hallways. The rooms, I was not too impressed with. I didn’t think it was a 4 star just in terms of rooms only, everything else was very clean, well manicured and well designed. But the rooms, eh, they weren’t that special. I could tell there were several coats of paint on the walls from prior refurbishments

The hallways look like they were recently refurbished

Room and bed, which was pretty comfy. I don’t like down pillows though but it was nice nonetheless

There were sinks inside and right outside the bathroom. The bathroom was very small!

The tub is on the left.

The bath products by bliss spa. It smelled like Mandarin Mint. It smelled nice. They don’t’ give a body wash, just soap. I like body washes better but that’s ok. They have Shampoo, Conditioner, Soap and body lotion.

Our food stash we picked up at 7eleven.

I had thought the Swan would charge for a fridge rental, but they didn’t, There was an empty fridge in the room, and you can request that they stock it up for you. Interesting. We had brought a collapsible cooler to hold our drinks but we didn’t need it anymore, and it was too bulky to bring to the parks since we had bought a large one to leave in the room with lots of ice and room for sodas, juices, milks, etc. Oh well.

By this time, we were pooped. After unpacking, we fell right to sleep. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hi Lynn, or Lynnmarie as I see from your siggy...I am a Lynn too! A Su-Lynn that is. Thanks for being the first to respon in my TR! I can't wait to write somemore!! I have seen your trip reports including your wedding ones and they are wonderful. I even showed them to my sisters since they want to get married at Disney! Thanks for all the wonderful information!

 

[KathyRN137]

Me + DH = newlywed couple living in NYC who LOVE to travel, eat, watch movies, and especially visit anywhere DISNEY!!

...and I'm guessing you both like Ben & Jerry's, too!!

Thanks for giving all the background info... I love to know all about the cast when I read TRs!

The room at the Swan does look refurbished; DH and I stayed there a few years ago and it looks very different.

Looking forward to more!


Kathy

 

[chunkymonkey]

We opened the curtains the next day and was greeted by the sun. Alas, is all the rain in FL over? Hmmmmm. The scenery was beautiful though

We went to MK on Saturday. There were EMH today, and since this is our first time using EMH, we thought we would check it out if it was worth it.
We woke up around 6:30, showered, changed, and ate cereal for breakfast that we bought at 7eleven the night before. I was inspired by the cereal mix I bought the night before so made a mixture of regular cheerios and fruit loops, which was all we had, and hey, it was pretty good!

Off to the shuttle from the Swan. When we got to the Shuttle station, we were the only ones there for about 5 minutes.

Slowly about 1 family and another couple show up. The MK bus came in about 10 minutes. We managed to get a seat immediately, which wasn’t always the case throughout the week.

DH: Are you going to photograph our entire trip?
ME: Why, of course!

The bus stops at MK were fairly empty but there were a lot of people at the park entrance. We pulled out our park hopper tickets. They were about 3 years old at this point. I thought to myself, I hope they still work!!

After the bag check, I walk to the turnstile, and of course, our tickets don’t work, they didn’t read in the card reader. I thought to myself, uh oh, have we miscalculated the number of days we had left? Do we have 0 days left? How can that be?? The CM was really nice though, and she said, I’ll be right back, and took our tickets with her. She was back in about 3 minutes with new tickets. “They get demagnetized sometimes” she said. Whew! New tickets worked, and we were in!

The park hadn’t opened yet so we waited with everyone else. In the meantime, I snapped this pictures:

MK entry

Waiting for the park to open

BTW, I am taking all these pictures with a point and shoot Canon powershot that is about 3 years old, which equals 10 years old in the world of gadgets and photography. I didn’t bring my DSLR with me because I didn’t want to carry anything too heavy since I knew we would be running around like a pair of nuts everywhere. As a compromise, I also brought a Holga 135BC, a plastic toy camera that can take interesting artsy shots on film. Although I am glad I didn’t bring the DSLR because of the rain, I think next time I might bring it out with me since I do miss my SLR. Ever since I got it a year and a half ago, that is all I have been using. I shoot 100% manually too, so with the point and shoot, it is not as challenging to take pictures as it usually is. The manual settings on my p & s are not that great so I didn’t bother adjusting any of the exposures or settings.

Here’s a shot with the holga:

It was about 5 mins to 8 that we heard the train approaching, signaling the characters arrival for the welcoming ceremony. It was short but cute.

Finally the gate opens and we went in. Whoohoo!!

First look at the castle

So we usually head to Tommorowland first, so that’s what we did.

Buzz Lightyear is one of our favorite rides. I told DH that I would kick his butt. He just laughs when I say that. Hmph. We grabbed a FP and also got on line since the wait was about 10 minutes.

On line at Buzz Lightyear

To infinity and beyond!

Here is the final score at the end of the first run

Me

DH

Hahahaha who got their butt kicked??? Although I shouldn’t laugh because the second time we went on, I got a thorough beating. My scores are too embarrassing to post this time.
After doing Buzz Lightyear, we walked over to Astro Orbiters. I had actually never been on this ride, btu there was no line for it so we said, why not? We got into the elevator with the CM and rode up. After we got into our orbiter (I sat in front) I pulled out my p & s and my holga cameras.
DH: are you really going to steer, and handle 2 cameras?!?@?#!?
Me: Duh, yeah!??!

So hear are some shots of us on the ride.

Here’s a holga shot of the castle as we were up in the air

I made a sad face as the ride was ending

After the Astro Orbiters, we went back onto Buzz Lightyear using the FP. I got my butt kicked so I’m not going to post the score. Hehe. By then I got a little hungry, and I wanted a snack. As DH went to use the restroom, I followed my nose to The Lunching Pad counter service around the corner. I bought myself a cream cheese stuffed pretzel. It was sooooo good! The pretzel was warm, and it oozed a sweet cream cheese filling. It was perfect. I tried to look for this at other parks, but never found it anywhere else! Bummer.

CC prezel

Coming up…more ride pics and lunch!!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

...and I'm guessing you both like Ben & Jerry's, too!!

Kathy

Hi Kathy! It's funny, someone called me Chunkymonkey about 10 years ago, which is odd since I was also about 10 llbs lighter then.
And even though I love B and J ice creams, Chunkymonkey is not one of my favorite flavors. I gave DH his Chubbyhubby name because he has, um, kinda settled into marital bliss (we both have) and have gained a few lbs since the wedding. So much so that his doctor has told him he needs to lose a few lbs since he does have a family history of high cholesterol and high bp. Whoops, guess a Disney vacation isn't the best idea since all we do is eat, but at least we are walking a ton and getting some exercise!?!?

Thanks for reading...I have lots more posts to come!

 

[MissMichelle]

Loving this report! Can't wait to read more. My and Dfiance actually had all of last weekend off (5 days) and I almost booked to go to WDW during that time but I couldn't get cheap enough flights.

Keep it coming

 

[castmemberb4]

subscribing !!! I'm loving all of the rainy trip reports coming out right now. Rainy park days are my favorite, or my favorite any time days really. Trip reports with lots of pictures are the best, and you're a good photographer, so I'm really looking foward to your rain photos. Hope you had a good time despite the rain.
I've never stayed at the Swan or Dolphin but always consider it for Food & Wine festival trips so your "4 star" observations are very interesting. Thanks for that commentary.
That green dress you're wearing is just darling, gotta look for one of those.
(another) Lynn

 

[KathyRN137]

We opened the curtains the next day and was greeted by the sun.

Ooh, nice view!


DH: Are you going to photograph our entire trip?
ME: Why, of course!


DH: are you really going to steer, and handle 2 cameras?!?@?#!?
Me: Duh, yeah!??!

My DH always asks me the same thing... Don't they know by now??

Just between you and me, I think they get a little jealous when we pay attention to anything other than them!


Looking forward to photos and and the food.....



Kathy

 

[mickeystoontown]

What a cute couple you two are! I'm signing on for more. I often say that trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until our next WDW vacation. THanks for your contribution to my sanity!

 

[Lynn5700]

Hi Lynn, or Lynnmarie as I see from your siggy...I am a Lynn too! A Su-Lynn that is. Thanks for being the first to respon in my TR! I can't wait to write somemore!! I have seen your trip reports including your wedding ones and they are wonderful. I even showed them to my sisters since they want to get married at Disney! Thanks for all the wonderful information!

Hi!!! Aww cool! That is awesome, I hope she gets married in Disney. She won't regret it! Glad I could help.

So the Swan looks beautiful!!

HAHA OMG your DH sounds like Tim. He gets annoyed with me taking so many pictures of us lol.

We went on the astro orbiter for the first time this past trip. That thing is fast, it started to make us dizzy lol. Oh and it is hard to get into that thing lol!

LOVE MK rope drop!!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

After the yummy cc pretzel ( I wish I had one right now), we got on line at Autopia, which had about a 20 minute wait. Not bad.

DH on Autopia line

Shot with my Holga on line with Space Mountain in the background. We were really sad we didn’t get to ride Space Mountain but we both agree that it needed an update. The DLR one has music blasting as you ride, which was a lot of fun. Reminded me of Rock n Roller Coaster (one of my faves)

Holga shot of Autopia cars

I realized that this ride didn’t have the Pixar Cars movie cars like they do at DLR, but it’s still a fun, classic ride. I am driving around holding 1 camera this time, not 2. Me and DH usually get our own cars because we both want to drive. I got in front and he got the car behind me.

Looks like a bit of a traffic jam

After Autopia we went to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was my first time at this show. It was cute and funny, yet short and sweet. Sometimes I get impatient if things last too long and I get fidgety. I think I sometimes have adult ADD.

We decided to go to Adventureland and get on Thunder Mountain. So we trekked out of Tomorrowland and walked pass the castle. Couldn’t resist a few shots of us. I used a gorillapod for most of the shots with us together. It’s such a cool invention! We never did have to ask anyone to take a shot of us. I set the gorillapod on the trash cans they have located everywhere. They are great because the tops are flat so you get pretty good even shots. Well, I tried to, at least.

We realized that they were starting a show behind us at the castle, so we stopped and watched for a bit. It was called something like, Dreams Come True. It was cute.

Dreams Come True

After the show, we trekked with the crowds to Adventureland. The crowds were definitely starting to pick up, you could tell the wait times for everything were just going to be outrageous soon.

It was also getting super hot at this time, so I put on my “tourist” hat. I only wore it once though. I just didn’t want to carry it around with me all day so I left it in the hotel room after that.

The line for Thunder Mountain had about a 30 minute wait. We grabbed a FP and went to Haunted Mansion which had about a 15 min wait instead. It felt nice and cool in Haunted Mansion. Aaah, I love AC. I think the ride was recently refurbished? It felt slightly different to me. But it was great all the same.

Spooky shot of HM

After HM, we still had time before we had to use our Thunder Mountain FP so we decided to stop for lunch. It was also beginning to rain at this time. So we dart into Columbia Harbor House for some counter service lunch. Sorry no pics of us in the rain since I don’t think plastic ponchos make for a nice fashion statement.

We decided to split an order of the chicken salad, and the fried fish, which we got with apple slices instead of fries (trying to be healthy) and we split a large diet coke. I carry I large bottle of water with me so I didn’t see the need to get 2 sodas.

Slightly blurry pic of the food. I was hungry!

Food was good. The salad was tasty. It had grilled chicken, fresh squash and zucchini, salad greens, sunflower seeds, and cheese. I love seeds and nuts in my salads so it really hit the spot for me. I added the apple slices to the salad too since I also like fruit in my salads. It gave it a nice sweetness The fish was nice and crunchy and hot. I am not a big fan of packaged tartar sauce though, and I thought the fish could use a squeeze of lemon or two, but it wasn’t a big deal and we ate it all up. I think it was a nice sized meal for us. We had the Biergarten ADRs that evening so I didn’t want to eat too much during the day. Plus I planned on having dole whip AND a frozen banana at some point too.

We stepped outside of CHH and it had stopped raining. YAY! *did happy dance* On to Thunder Mountain! We looked at the line, and the wait time had gone down to 20 mins, so we decided to get on the regular line and save our FP for later. The line moved a lot slower than 20 minutes though, more like 35!! But finally we got on the ride.

Good thing for wrist straps otherwise my camera would go flying off. After we got off the first time, we got back on line, this time with the FP…much much better.
I took some Holga pics this time

See the difference in the shots? The holga uses film and a plastic lens, so the pics have a very blurred, and dreamy quality to them, that’s why people like the holga because it’s cheap and it gives a nice vintage feel to the pictures. I took a few pics later on in the weekend that I love the feel of. You will get to see those soon!

After TM for the second time, we decided to get some Dole Whip. I *heart* DW but you can’t get it in NY. I have only had it at WDW, DLR and Hawaii. Hahaha. Me and DH split the pineapple flavor.

DH with the Whip

We wanted to go on PoC but the wait times were about an hour at this point! Grrr. We decided then to go back to the Swan for a rest and then head to Epcot. We head back out to the exit to hop onto the bus back to the Swan.

We couldn’t resist a stop in the shops on Main Street
Should we get married again at Disney?

Back at the Swan, DH wanted to take another shower so I took these pics during that time with my Holga

This is us getting ready for Epcot. I didn’t think it was going to rain since the sun was back out again, so I wore a cute little black dress. (bad idea)

Coming up….the Maelstrom and Biergarten…and when it rains, it pours!

 

[chunkymonkey]

subscribing !!! I'm loving all of the rainy trip reports coming out right now. Rainy park days are my favorite, or my favorite any time days really. Trip reports with lots of pictures are the best, and you're a good photographer, so I'm really looking foward to your rain photos. Hope you had a good time despite the rain.
I've never stayed at the Swan or Dolphin but always consider it for Food & Wine festival trips so your "4 star" observations are very interesting. Thanks for that commentary.
That green dress you're wearing is just darling, gotta look for one of those.
(another) Lynn

Hi Lynn, Thank you! Unfortunately although I can write a lot about our rainy day experiences I dont' have too many pics of the rain or us in the rain since I was hugging my poncho so hard so it wouldn't fly off, I didn't have hands to grab my camera! We had a fantastic time despite the rain. It definitely was a new experience for us to deal with rainy day Disney but we had loads of fun.

The location of the Swan and Dolphin is superb if you like Epcot or Hollywood Studios. It's only a 20 minute walk to Epcot and about an 10 minute boat ride. We didn't walk to Hollywood Studios but we did take the ferry and it was about 8 minutes to get there.

Thanks for the compliment for the dress, it's from the GAP! It comes in many colors - I have it in black and turquoise too

Thanks for visiting!

 

[chunkymonkey]

My DH always asks me the same thing... Don't they know by now??
Just between you and me, I think they get a little jealous when we pay attention to anything other than them!
Looking forward to photos and and the food.....

Kathy

Hi Kathy, I totally agree. I think DH indulges me with my photo hobby but he does look pained at time when I try to take a picture of the same thing for about the 5th time.

 

[KathyRN137]

Su-Lynn, you two look like you're having so much fun!

Please post lots-o-pix of Biergarten... we're thinking of trying it out for the first time!

Kathy

 

[chunkymonkey]

Loving this report! Can't wait to read more. My and Dfiance actually had all of last weekend off (5 days) and I almost booked to go to WDW during that time but I couldn't get cheap enough flights.

Keep it coming

Hi MissMichelle, thank you so much for reading my TR. It was definitely a last minute trip for us, and so I had to give up my usual meticulous planner "mode" and just go with the flow this time. I usually write out an itinerary for us, and make dozens of reservations for ADRs, but this time we didn't do that. I made only 2 ADRs and we didn't decide which park to go to until the day of. It made for some fun spontaneous activity though. DH is the opposite of me. He doesn't care what we do or where we eat and usually leaves the planning to me. So there were a lot of " What do you want to do?" and " I dunno, what do you want to do?" on this trip

We were lucky we got decent packages out of NYC at the last minute. I am not sure if I would go on a holiday weekend again since it's soooo crowded.

Cheers!

 

[castmemberb4]

Girl You are sailing through this TR
That's great!

 

[chunkymonkey]

So we head out of the Swan to catch the next ferry to Epcot. The ferry comes about every 20 minutes or so. On the way I snapped a few pics of the Swan

A light fixture that was pretty

DH carrying a tote bag with our ponchos and water. He initially had a backpack but he spilled juice in it. So he carried my Envirosax all weekend long. I tried to find him a more “manly” bag, and ended up finding a Disney boat tote but he liked the light weight of the Envirosax so he just continued to carry that. He said he didn’t mind!

Waiting for the ferry

On the ferry we passed the Boardwalk and Yacht and Beach Clubs. They look really nice, I want to stay here next time!

At Epcot the ferry drops you off at the “back entrance” which is pretty much off the World Showcase near England and France. Epcot was having their Flower and Garden festival which was really pretty. We had been here before during that time. It is not so good for allergies though, so we had to take some allergy meds before coming here. Ah-choo!

We decided to check out of Soarin’ had any more FP left so we headed to the Land Pavillion. It was really hot at this point. I couldn’t wait to get into some nice cool AC.

The Land

As we had thought, there were no more FP to Soarin’. Sigh. So we decided to do something else. We checked the wait times for Test Track. It was 90 minutes…sigh, and no more fastpasses either. I then remembered that we can go get our free pic taken at Innoventions West! I have a Disney visa card which entitles you to one free 5x7 print from 1:30pm to 4:30pm every day at Epcot. So off to Innoventions we went.

The line wasn’t too long when we got there. We were about 4th in line. The line goes by fairly quickly.

I guess it is called Magical Memories Club

The characters change every day and the CM told us that it’s a surprise each day and there is no set schedule for characters. I guess they want you to show up at Epcot daily and take your chances. Today was Mickey and Pluto!

The photopass photographers take pictures of you as you come into the room. I guess they want to capture your look of surprise as you see the characters for the first time. I had a really dorky expression on my face and DH wasn’t even facing forward when the photopass lady took the “entry” pic. She shot about 3 pictures of us and asked if we wanted to use our own camera. “But of course!” I replied. I gave the CM my camera and she took a few shots of us. I honestly think the shots from my camera look better than the photopass shots!! I also got a new photopass card as my old one was from 3 years ago and I wanted a new one

Here is the photopass photographer’s pic. We chose the border when we went to pick up the pic

Here’s the shot from my p & s. I think mine came our better! Or at least I think I look better.

The CM told us as we were leaving to give our pics about 30 mins before we go pick them up. We left to go get some refreshments at Coca Cola Club Cool. I remember when this used to be called Ice Station Cool. They have a bunch of soda fountains where you can try different popular sodas from all over the world. My favorites were Mozambique (tasted like ginger ale) and Japan’s Vegi Beta (tasted like drinking a Flintstone’s vitamin mixed with carrot juice). DH’s favorite was I think from Israel. It had a honey lemon flavor to it, but I didn’t really like it that much.

Since we still had a few minutes before our photopass pics needed to be picked up, we decided to hop onto Spaceship Earth. There was only a 10 minute wait.

I like how they had refurbished the ride to make it more interactive. They take a picture of you at the beginning of the ride, and then they ask you some questions which you input answers into your computer screen and it creates a future “scenario” using your pictures. DH tried to make as funny an impression as he could.

It was a totally fun ride. Much better than before!

Coming up…yes we’ll finally get to Biergarten I promise!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Just trying to see why my siggy sometimes shows the image and not show the image. I uploaded my images to picasaweb but I had to change my siggy pic to photobucket. hopefully i won't have to redo all my other images in my TR so far...uuploading pics takes a while!!