The Flowers Might Be Wilting, But We Won't Be - Less than 200 days now!

[DisneyLilly]

Welcome!!!​

Can you spot the hidden mickey? ​

We've survived the hottest May on record (no really it was!), and we are ready to take it on again. The sunburns, the sweating, the ice cream melting as soon as you buy it. Bring...it...on!

So why is the title the way it is? Well because it's so HOT in May! That's right, you walk out your door in the early morning and you are blasted with heat. But I love it!

So, I know that it is CRAZY early to start a pre-trip report, especially since the trip isn’t until May 2011 but I just can’t help myself! I love planning trips to Walt Disney World, I love talking about WDW and I love listening to WDW music. I think it’s safe enough to conclude that I just simply love everything Disney. Plus I have A LOT of photos to share from my last trip in May. I hope that you all can excuse the earliness of this pre trip report. I’m so excited for this trip!

So what’s the official countdown? Well there are 216 days left until WDW 2011!! It seems so close, yet so far.

Now, the introductions for this pre-trip report will be a little short. We don’t like having our picture taken (ha-ha), so instead of seeing us, you will just have to imagine us. So if you all are ready then so am I.

Please sit back, relax and enjoy!

​

Update 1 – Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?​

I know that you all want to know the details of this trip. Trust me, there is A LOT to fill you all in on, so brace yourselves. Let’s begin with the introductions

We live in Canada, eh! Yeah no…we don’t live in igloos, although that would be cool. That’s punny right? Ha…?

I’m not good with jokes…

Lily (me) – Well, I am a Disney freak, and I’ve been one since 2000. With each trip my heart seems to grow fonder of Walt Disney World. I’m currently in my second year at University achieving my life long dream of being an elementary school teacher.

Mom – She is a beautiful person inside and out. She loves Disney as much as me. She enjoys making plans, and I enjoy making them with her (as long as they don’t change too often ha-ha).

Dad – He is an amazing person. He likes Disney, but maybe not as much as my mother and I, but if we said that we were going to Ireland he would be there in a heartbeat. He helps us with our plans, but he’s pretty laid back when it comes to what we should do/where we should eat and when.

So that’s the short…but sweet introductions. There are only 3 people going with us on this trip (much like last trip).

For the next portion of this episode I will be taking you all on the journey of how this trip came to be or why this trip came to be. See it’s a complicated story, which needs some explanation. I’ll give you all the shortened version of a long story.

Now I’m sure we all know how expensive Disney is, and despite the price we still keep going back. But anyways, our last trip to WDW was in May 2010. Of course we came back saying that we needed to take a break, to save for the next trip. However, the thought of not going back for almost 1.5 years was a little heart breaking. It was a battle of “we’re going, we’re not going, and we’re going…” So it was decided that we were going in 2011. We originally had planned on going in February 2011, but those plans soon changed after we realized how beautiful it was in May, and regardless of the heat, May is our favorite time of the year to visit.

That’s the shortened version of the whole how this trip came to be. The rest of the details do not matter, because all that matters right now is the fact that we ARE going next year.

So the moment you all have been waiting for…WHERE on EARTH are we STAYING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Great question! We love the Polynesian, but this trip we are trying something a little different…a little down the Seven Seas Lagoon. We are staying at…guess!

Think you got the answer?​

If you guessed the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, then you are CORRECT! We booked a garden view room (in the outer buildings). So here are all the details of the trip.

Dates: Saturday, April 30 to Saturday, May 7 2011
Hotel: Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Room View: Garden View

Delightful! I love staying at new resorts, but the Polynesian still has my heart…no matter what.

Update Links
Update 1: Who, What, Where, When, Why & How?
Bonus Mini Episode: The Past Is Never Far Behind
Update 2: Planning the Fun
Picture 1: My Favorite Disney Candy
Flashback 1: Let the Memories Begin
Update 4: A Random Update
Picture 2: Expedition Everest

 

[DisneyLilly]

Bonus Mini-Episode: The Past Is Never Far Behind

I have been venturing to Walt Disney World ever since 2000 and with each trip my heart grows more love for the Disney magic. Of course at the end of each trip I begin crying. I don't know what it is about WDW, but it's like as soon as we pass by the Tower of Terror and then through the exit gates and back into the real world, my heart sinks. Let's review the past trips!

2000 - All Star Music
2001 - Caribbean Beach
2003 - Wilderness Lodge
2004 - Wilderness Lodge, Pop Century, Port Orleans Riverside, Polynesian
2006 - Polynesian, All Star Sports
2007 - Polynesian
2008 - Polynesian
2010 - Polynesian

I am lucky to have gone so many times to WDW. I think thats why I love it so much. It is truly the most magical place on earth . I have to admit that I am a slight Disney Resort snob. Ok, maybe not slightly...maybe like a lot. I love the value resorts, I love the theming etc. But the deluxe resorts have my heart.

 

[DisneyLilly]

Update 2: Planning the Fun

So we have some of our plans etched out, and of course planning meals is quite a challenge in the sense that you don’t necessarily know if you are going to get the time that you planned for. Nonetheless, it is always fun planning and making ADRs when the time comes around because that’s when you know, the happiest place on earth is only 6 months away.

Of course, we have our park days planned out, so why don’t I go over those with you all!

Saturday, April 30: Magic Kingdom
Sunday, May 1: Hollywood Studios
Monday, May 2: Epcot
Tuesday, May 3: Magic Kingdom
Wednesday, May 4: Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Thursday, May 5: Animal Kingdom
Friday, May 6: Magic Kingdom

These plans are a little different because we havn't arrived on a Saturday for a while. I'm super excited to start the trip off at DHS, that is my favorite park!

Some places we plan on eating:
→ Biergarten [Lunch]
→ Cape May Cafe [Breakfast, Lunch]
→ Earl of Sandwich
→ Grand Floridian Cafe [Breakfast, Lunch]
→ Le Chef Des France [Lunch]

Of course due to the Grad Nights that we will be encountering on our trip, we aren’t necessarily sure if we will be going to the MK on the day that we arrive (April 30). It just depends on how we feel. We might just pop into the MK for a quick snack and maybe a ride?

We are buying our tickets when we get to WDW. Usually we buy them at the Disney Store, but the lady told us that they were more expensive at the Disney Store. So we will give this a shot and see how it goes. It’s always a positive to save money ha-ha. I was actually surprised that the manager of the Disney Store told us that we should buy the tickets at WDW. That was VERY nice of her - she could have just let us spend the extra money and buy them there. The disney magic lives beyond the parks

So, I learned that Disney would be releasing some discounts during mid-August. Of course I was super excited especially when rumors began that the discounts would extend into September 2011. I got my hopes up, so that is my fault. Of course…I had no idea that Disney would only select one out of three offers to go through September 2011, and of course exclude our days. Oh well, we might have tried the dining plan, but we are hoping for maybe a discount on the room. Not keeping my fingers crossed this time ha-ha!

So I was thinking, since the theme for 2011 is “Let the Memories Begin”, it would be nice for me to share some of my Disney memories from my previous trip (May 2010)! Of course since pictures can replace my words, I will manly make posts that consist of pictures with a few captions. On the trip in May 2010, I took almost 2,000 pictures. Surprisingly they all turned out well which of course i'm happy about. I find that when I scroll through all the pictures I still find ones that I didn't know that I took.

 

[DisneyLilly]

Picture #1: My Favorite Disney Candy

Let's just say that i'm a candy freak, I don't like being this way but whenever someone presents candy to me I fold like a stack of cards. My favorite candy at WDW would have to be...

Goofy's Candy Co. Taffy
(Psst...see that green & pink one in there, that's watermelon. Delicious!!)

 

[DisneyLilly]

Flashback 1: Let the Memories Begin!

The memories that are the most vivid in my mind are the ones from our previous trip in May 2010. I’ll just give some introductory comments & background information and then we will see where it goes from there.

Our flight left at 10:30am, or so we thought. Of course airplanes don’t always leave on time because some people are late, or they are late loading luggage etc. Regardless we took off at approximately 10:50am. We were supposed to arrive at 1:15pm, but instead we arrived closer to 1:30pm. Once we got off the plane, we made our way through the Orlando International Airport. I remember exactly how I was feeling and what I was thinking. I was SUPER excited to finally be back in the sunshine state. I also couldn’t believe I was there. I love that when you step off the airplane you can feel the heat and the humidity. You can see the bright sun shining through the windows and you could feel the happiness. Magical.

We walked down to the luggage claim section, and since our plane was late our luggage was late as well. That was when my mother and I decided to go to the Check-In Kiosk at the Alamo center because it was not a far walk from the luggage claim. The car rental area was empty, which was something that I had never seen before. Then it dawned on me, most of the planes were probably just arriving, or people were waiting for their luggage – that’s why it was so empty. So anyways, after we got our receipt we walked back up to the luggage claim area and met my dad. He only had one piece of luggage, but soon enough we had all three pieces and we were on our way to go pick out a rental car.

They changed the rental car “garage” area. I thought Alamo was on the second floor of the rental car garage, but this time it was on the main floor. Which made me happy because we didn’t have to drag our luggage on the escalator. That gets annoying after a while ha-ha. So anyways, there wasn’t that much of a choice for rental cars. We picked out a Chevy Impala, which was basically all that was left. A lot of the cars were scraped or not in good condition, so we were only left with one color option – white. That didn’t matter to me; I just wanted to get in the car and DRIVE!

Vrrrroooooooom!

After sorting out the Alamo rental car, we were soon on our way to Disney World! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! The sight of palm trees and billboards made me smile. It was definitely hot, and we were all tired from the airplane ride down and the “fun” we had at the airport. It wasn’t long before we started seeing signs directing us towards the correct exits. We rounded a corner and that’s when I saw the Wide World of Sports sign, and then I saw the prettiest thing EVER. Can you guess what it was?

It was the “Walt Disney World” sign!!! We were finally in Disney! We entered into the bubble and reality seemed to stay behind as we drove down World Drive. Seeing the Hollywood Tower Hotel made me smile, and really set things in motion, we were actually in Disney World. After months of waiting it was here. Then I saw a monorail, the Tron monorail…or the “tron-o-rail”. Everything was just so exciting. I tried to take pictures, but they didn’t turn out so well.

*continued later*

 

[DisneyLilly]

Update 4: A Random Update

Wake-Up Disney Song: Beauty and the Beast

I thought that for each morning I will state my Disney Morning Song, or the song that I listened to, either to wake up or while eating my breakfast.

I can't believe that it is almost October. It's funny how time flies when you are waiting for a specific date to come. I remember last year, it felt like it was September then May. Every month in between just flew by. So now it's time for our daily Disney countdown. How many days left until WDW 2011?

There are 215 days left until our next WDW vacation!

I'm keeping a watchful eye on the flight & rental car prices. You never know when new discounts will appear, or when the airline will have seat sales. The prices seem to be staying the same, but again that soon could change. For the past two trips we have been lucky enough to get GREAT discounts on the flight. It's always nice to find ways to save money, because than you feel like you have accomplished something or found some sort of spectacular discount. Last year as well we also had a 40% off pin code for our room, so again that saved us a CHUNK of money.

I'm going to miss staying at the Polynesian only because i'm so used to always staying there. For the past 4 trips that is the place where we stayed so it started to feel like home for me. But i'm sure the Grand Floridian will be spectacular also! We requested a specific building which had a view of the Marina, so i'm not sure if we will get that. It would be cool if we did, but i'm not expecting it. We have to drive by the Polynesian resort entrance and again it will feel weird not turning in there, but who knows maybe i'll fall in love with the Grand Floridian.

We are trying a new restaurant this year though, "The Wave". It sounds delicious, and from the pictures i've seen it looks delicious too! Speaking of food pictures though, I need to remember to take more this year. I took some last year but there came a few times where I forgot because we were so hungry. Like I never got a picture of my parents "Aloha Pulled Pork Sandwich" and they had it at least a few times. All the food pictures turned out well which i'm happy about. Whenever i'm hungry I'll look at them...which is clearly a big mistake.

Last trip we found two places in Epcot that we really enjoyed: Les Chef De France & Biergarten. They had great service, and the food was delicious! At Les Chef De France we ordered off of the Fixed Price menu, but this trip I don't think i'm going to do that. It was too much food, and i'm not a big fan of French Onion Soup. At Biergarten, I loved the pretzel bread, but I think this time I might try more of the meats...just not the sausage. I had mainly salads and dishes that didn't contain meat because I wasn't sure what anything was. Don't get me started on the desserts, they were DELICIOUS!!!

Anyways, that's just a quick update for now...more later!

 

[DisneyLilly]

I have a quick question for you all - when making lunch reservations do you make them in the 12:00pm hour or in the 1:00pm hour?

Let's say you are at a park, what would you do? If you make the reservation at 12:00pm or so then you don't have as much time in the park to explore. If you make it at 1:00pm then that gives you a little more time in the park, just incase you decide you want to leave after eating lunch.

 

[DisneyLilly]

Picture 2: Expedition Everest

I thought that my last little post for my PTR for today would be a picture. I had no idea that I took this picture, imagine if it was in HD.... I get frustrated at Animal Kingdom because of Kilimanjaro Safaris. I want to take pictures on that ride but I simply can't, and if I can than it's a fluke.

I remember when they were first building Expedition Everest, I swore to myself that I would never ride it. Simply because it looked too scary from all the twisted metal that was being placed together. Yup, but guess what...now I love it!

 

[DisneyLilly]

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Update 5: Boo! It's almost October...or Octo-brrrr

It's been a few days since I last did an update. Nothing much has changed, just the fact that we are getting closer and closer to the day we can make ADR's for our trip.

So whats the trip countdown so far?
- There are only 211 days left until Disney World (2011)

It's gotten quite chilly here. I've had to wear my sweater outside, lucky if it even gets to 70F during the day. Oh well, that's a sure sign that winter is just around the corner.

I'll have a more detailed update tomorrow

 

[2princesses2princes]

Subbing. I love reading your memories and seeing your pics. How fun. Please continue to share as you plan your newest trip.

 

[DisneyLilly]

Subbing. I love reading your memories and seeing your pics. How fun. Please continue to share as you plan your newest trip.

Welcome!
Thank you so much for subbing
I'm going to try to do an update a day, but for now I have a few assignments for school & exams :/

 

[DisneyLilly]

Update 6: Less Than Seven Months Now!

First of all I would like to formally say...Happy October! I guess it won't be long before we start seeing Christmas commercials. They don't even wait until after Halloween anymore .

Anyways, now there is less than 7 months until Disney World! So whats the daily countdown?

- There are 210 days left until Disney World
- There are 30 days left until we can make ADR's

Wow that's not that long, now is it? I cannot wait until we reach the 200 days mark because that means that after another 100 days of waiting we would be in the double digit countdown.

For some reason I've been thinking about Mickey's Philharmagic lately. Is it weird if I say that it kinda scares me? Well anything flying out at my face scares me. I know that it's all on the screen technically, but seriously when those musical instruments start flying out of the screen, I jump a little.

I need to attempt to figure out a way to get out of It's Tough to Be a Bug. Do I want to see it? No. Have I seen it, yes but technically no. See the last time I went to go see it, my eyes were closed and I was screaming. Yes, I hate bugs, sure they might be harmless and tiny, but MAN they are scary.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - Beautiful isn't it?​

 

[DisneyLilly]

Update 7: Did I Just Read That Correctly?!

So, I was checking the airplane prices this morning and I think I nearly fainted. The price to go to Orlando...

Brace yourself...

Is $469.00.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Why on earth would they think someone would want to buy a seat on the airplane for that price when not even a week ago it was $299.00?!

That's a $170.00 difference in price.

*breathe...breathe*

Ok let's think of possible scenarios as to why they would raise the prices:
[1] The flight is selling out (doubt it...)
[2] They want to make more money (think so...)
[3] They are getting ready to lower the prices ALOT (oh they better...)

The idea #2 that's highlighted in pink is the most likely reason as to the increase in prices. In the mean time i'm going to attempt to not panic. It's not a big deal. We booked our flight in December last year so it's ok. .

While I am discussing airplanes, I might as well just say that although the flight is due to leave at 9:30am, knowing this airline I highly doubt that will ever happen. Not once in the 4 times that we have flown on them has the plane ever left on time (or early).

Ok now it's time to think of happy thoughts. Happy, happy thoughts. (Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain...triple mountain whammy).

Ok i'm ALL better now.

The Polynesian is a very nice resort. It will be weird seeing it from across the Seven Seas Lagoon when we stay at the Grand Floridian.

If you look closely at the center of the picture, you can see a little bit of Cinderella's Castle ​

*continued later*

 

[DisneyLilly]

Update 8: Come On Already!

So it's October, and trust me it certainly feels like it's October. For the past couple of days it has been pouring and chilly. I guess the next time it will be warm is in April maybe, but if not than certainly when we go to Florida. I think i'll be in a heat shock. Going from extreme cold to extreme heat in a matter of 2 hours and 45 minutes. But hey, I don't mind.

Last year there was record heat. As you walked out the sliding doors of the Polynesian in the morning, you were bombarded with a wall of heat. Immediately you felt like you wanted to be on Splash Mountain. Weeeee!!!

We typically don't go to a park on the day of arrival. But as nighttime approaches and I stare off in the distance at Cinderella's Castle I become so excited to know that the very next day I will be going to a park!

*Fall asleep FASTER*

Hey did you know that WestJet is calling the price of $469.00 to Orlando a seat sale?! If that's a sale, I don't want to see the original price. .

Thanksgiving is the weekend (in Canada). So excited, SO EXCITED

Alas this is a short update, I need to get some sleep. But I will leave you with a photograph.

 

[DisneyLilly]

Update 9: The Magic Is So Close!

I was doing some "research" and found out how far away I live from Walt Disney World. According to Google Maps I live 2,203 kilometers or 1,368.88 miles. That to me is too far away.

Thank goodness for airplanes though, I mean it only takes us 2 hours and 45 minutes to fly there. Oh but when we land in Orlando, I am always super excited. To know that in just a short little while I will have seen the Tower of Terror.

The drive to Disney World is super fun from the airport. I mean you get to see palm trees and the Disney signs. It's like taking a breath of relief. Finally, a vacation - and a fun vacation as well.

There are only 206 days left. That is not far away. So for the rest of this update I will just be posting some pictures .