"It's So Beautiful, I'm Crying..." A March '15 Best Friends TR *Updated 4/20*

[belledreamer]

Alright. I'm determined. I'm going to finish a TR if it kills me!!

And you know how I know it'll be done? Because I'm typing the whole thing out before I post! HA!!

I'm okay I promise...



Welcome to my TR full of magic, memories, and selfies!! (More on that later...)

We headed to Disney from February 28-March 5 at Pop Century to catch the beginning of the F&G Festival and just miss the Spring Break crowds.

Now for intros!

I'm Ashley (a.k.a. Belledreamer on the right) and like my username suggests, I am a die-hard BATB fan. Seriously. It's my tradition to see Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage at least twice whenever I go to Disney World with my record being 4 shows in one day. I've been to Disney 20+ times so far and have a fairly hard crush on Peter Pan.

Next up is my friend Lesly (on the left) who is joining us for her first ever trip to Disney! It's been nearly 15 years since I last went to Disney with a friend (mostly because the last time hadn't been that enjoyable) but we had shared a room on a week-long cruise without a problem last year so I knew we'd do fine. Despite being almost 10 years younger than me, we are quite literally two peas-in-a-pod. She's the Anna to my Elsa, the Dale to my Chip and I'm so glad she was able to come along for the ride.


Finally, my DMom and DDad!

While neither are as big into Disney as I am, they've also wracked up around 20 trips to Disney (mostly Mom with several mother/daughter trips) but even though they usually say this is the last time, somehow we end up catching the Disney bug after a year or so. Mom has a great love of flowers (thus the reason for going when we did) and while Dad isn't a big fan of Disney, every so often he's willing to tag along.


Here's our plans:

February 28th: Arrival day, 1st day at MK, and dinner at Ohana's
March 1: AK
March 2: HS
March 3: 2nd day at MK and lunch at BoG
March 4: Epcot/F&G Festival
March 5: Half day at MK/Going home...


Let's get going!

 

[belledreamer]

RESERVED FOR LINKS

 

[KathyM2]

Looking forward to reading all about it!! Looks like you are gonna pack a whole lotta Disney into a short trip!!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Hi there! Joining in!

 

[belledreamer]

Looking forward to reading all about it!! Looks like you are gonna pack a whole lotta Disney into a short trip!!

We really did get a lot packed into this trip. And had the sore muscles to prove it. Hope you enjoy reading!

Hi there! Joining in!

Glad to have you aboard!

 

[belledreamer]

So since we already have a few people on board, let's go ahead and get started shall we?

(Did I mention there will also be several gifs used during this TR?)



1st day -Arrival and MK- 'We've made it!!'

Despite trying to go to bed early since we knew we'd be getting up early, I only managed about 4 hours of sleep before my alarm went off at 3 am... So much for sleeping...

But we're going to Disney today!

We finished up our last minute packing, I finalized the last bit of care for my cat, Lesly made it there with her parents who would be dropping us off at the airport and after a slight bit of panic about not being able to find my iPod, we were off by 4am. Too excited to sleep in the truck and with no iPod to distract me, (I ended up finding it in my purse at the airport) Lesly and I pretty much chatted the whole way about our upcoming trip. Since we were up so early, the roads were relatively clear and made excellent time to the airport. We took a few pics, said our goodbyes to Lesly's parents, grabbed our suitcases and we're off!

Made it through TSA very quickly and once we had found our gate, we were ready for breakfast so Lesly and I took advantage of the Subway in the airport to get some breakfast sandwiches. (No food pics, but I think we could all live without pics of Subway breakfast sandwiches. )

(First selfie of the trip! Yeah we totally don't look like we've been up since 3AM...)

After that, I revealed my little surprise of Frozen Anna and Elsa bands for our M&G later in the trip. Plus as I've said, she is the Anna to my Elsa so when I saw these, I knew I had to get them.

Lesly: (after seeing the pic) "Good grief my arms are hairy..."

Me: So your arms are hairy and mine are ridiculously pale. In the end, I think it all evens out, don't you?"

Thanks to Dad getting us checked in early the day before, we were able to be some of the first people on the plane. (Thanks Dad!) and managed to grab 4th row seats (Even better!) Now let me start off by saying that this was not only Lesly's 1st trip to Disney, but also her 1st time on an airplane and had been saying quite a bit leading up to it that she was getting nervous about it. But I'm glad to say that except for a few “Oh My God's” at take-off, she handled flying like a pro.

The sky was dark and gloomy at our landing in Orlando, but it didn't matter. We were at Disney! Took our first ride on the airport monorail and practically walked onto the Magical Express. While heading to our resort, we got a text that our room was already ready, which was a nice surprise and after finishing our check-in at the hotel and getting a quick lunch of pizza at the hotel along with one of these little beauties,

We were off to Magic Kingdom!!

Obligatory Castle Pic!

It was shortly after this that the continuous drizzle turned into a fairly steady rain so for our 1st ride of the trip, we actually broke our tradition of going to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and headed to Haunted Mansion instead. Haunted Mansion has always been one of my favorites; some for the theming, others for the awesome CM's that work there. But when Dad comes, it's for his awesome screams that he does in the 'stretching room' that are usually a big hit with whoever happens to be there when he does it and this time did not disappoint with him managing to scare the people that were directly next to us. Really hate that we didn't record it this time... Oh well.

Next up was something I hadn't been on in over 10 years: Country Bear Jamboree. Usually a skip for us, but we went on it partly for Lesly and partly to get out of the rain. Needless to say, it's exactly as I remembered it, with Lesly comparing it to the scene in “A Goofy Movie” where Max and Goofy went to Lester's Possum Park.

Actually... I think that was a fairly accurate description of the experience.

Still it was nice to do this again after so long and a kick to realize that Mom and I remembered the words to "Blood on the Saddle" and that Dad remembered "Mama, Don't Whip Little Buford"

By this time, our first two FP+ had come up...for Splash and TMRR...and it was still raining... I have to say that this was my only grip with FP+ because we were forced to decide if we were going to give up the FP for the ride we planned on two months ago and try to ride it later in the trip or just go on it anyway in the rain since we were fairly wet as it was. Choices choices...

 

[KathyM2]

Looking forward to reading the rest!!! That cupcake looks delish. Also, it must have been so much fun to show your friend Disney who had never been before. It's so different than anywhere else. Too bad about the rain though...but what can you do.

 

[xlsm]

I'm along for the ride!

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Actually... I think that was a fairly accurate description of the experience.

Yeah I can't decide if we are skipping Country bears or not on our trip.

 

[Sailormoon2]

A rainy wet start, kind of disappointing, I'm sure, but would curb crowd levels, so there's always a silver-lining.

 

[RejoyceoverDisney]

oh no! Anxiously awaiting the next post.....I need a WDW fix.

 

[belledreamer]

Looking forward to reading the rest!!! That cupcake looks delish. Also, it must have been so much fun to show your friend Disney who had never been before. It's so different than anywhere else. Too bad about the rain though...but what can you do.

It's definitely a different experience since we did a lot of things during this trip that we wouldn't have otherwise. But it was a lot of fun.

I'm along for the ride! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip

Yeah I can't decide if we are skipping Country bears or not on our trip.

It's not bad by any means. If anything, it's cute. But it's never been a must do for me.

A rainy wet start, kind of disappointing, I'm sure, but would curb crowd levels, so there's always a silver-lining.

Actually, I was really surprised how many people were still in the park. Once it started raining harder, everyone was scrambling for the indoor rides.

oh no! Anxiously awaiting the next post.....I need a WDW fix.

I promise there's more coming soon!

 

[belledreamer]

~DAY 1 - MK Cont.~

So when I left off, we were debating if we should go ahead and use or FP+ for Splash Mountain even though the weather had shifted into full-out rain. Still, even with our ponchos, we were already wet so why not? Got in the first and second rows with an awesome group of people, got totally soaked and had a blast. Next up was our Thunder Mountain FP+ and despite the rain holding steady decided to go ahead and use it. Afterwards, the wait time to get on again was only 5 minutes so we hopped back into the stand-by line and did it again. Definitely one of the perks to riding when it's raining and it was actually one of the best times I've had on TMRR.

After that, we were completely soaked through (especially Dad who had given me his poncho since I had forgotten to pack one and was down to his hoodie) and were ready to be inside somewhere so we went to one of my favorite's, Mickey's Philharmagic. Seriously, I can not say enough about how I love this attraction. Plus it's fun to go with someone for the first time and not telling them that they're going to get a little wet and then laugh at their expression when they do.

We still had about 30 minutes before our Peter Pan FP+ and not wanting to leave before we did it and not being able to find somewhere to get, we resigned to going on...

T-that ride...

It's A Small World...

No offense meant to all you IASW fans, but I do not enjoy this ride. At all. The last time I had been on it was over 8 years ago and was only for the sake of my 3 yr old cousin. Still I had a feeling that I'd be riding for Lesly's sake (after all, I wasn't about to tell her she wasn't going on a ride because I didn't want to.)

So we got on.

And then got stuck at the end of the ride waiting to get off...

For 10 minutes... Oh yeah...

Needless to say, I've heard the song enough while we were waiting to get off to last me for at least another 8 years...

After that, we did our Peter Pan FP+ (I had every intention of checking out the new interactive queue there and never had a chance...) and by this point were ready for some dry clothes and a rest before heading to our 8pm reservation at Ohana's. Thankfully, our luggage had made it to our room (Thank you Disney!) So Mom and Dad went to search out a dryer for our drenched clothes while I unpacked. Figuring that someone should go ahead and take a shower so that we weren't all battling for the bathroom when we got back and since no one else wanted to get in, I went ahead and freshened up before we left to catch the bus back to MK to take the monorail to the Polynesian. Thankfully, the rain had quit for the time being so it was nice to not have to worry about breaking out the ponchos.

We did have a slight delay getting on the monorail due to technical difficulties, but we still managed to make it to our reservation on time and were at a table next to the grill within 10-15 minutes. Each of us had certain things we wanted to accomplish during this trip and this was Dad's choice; this restaurant being his favorite one and the food did not disappoint. Everything was very good, from the bread to the salad to the meat. I wasn't a big fan of the pot-stickers (which I usually do like) or the noodles, but the chicken and steak were absolutely delicious. Didn't have enough room for the shrimp (plus I didn't want to risk it considering how my stomach had fared on the last few trips) but I've been told they were very good. Then came the bread pudding... Oh my gosh this thing is huge!

Personally, I prefer back when they brought out a big hunk of pineapple that you could put in caramel dipping sauce, but this was good too. Of course, we had to take video of pouring the sauce on top for our Instagrams (we each have one) since we had family back home who knew we were going and from that video came the title of this trip report when one of our friends said that the sight of caramel being poured over this dessert was so beautiful that she was crying and it just stuck. So needless to say that phrase was used a lot this trip. Service was okay, not as good as we've had on other trips but we still had an enjoyable time.

We had planned to go back to the MK for EMH since the park would be open until 3am but by the time we finished dinner, the drizzle rain had started up again. And since we knew we'd be spending another day and a half at MK and had been up since 3 am anyway, we opted out and decided to go back to the hotel. We did however manage to catch the end of Wishes before beating the crowds back to the bus which was nice, got showers and were in bed by 11pm to which we all quickly fell asleep.

NEXT POST: Heading to AK...and heavy rain's in the forecast... Will we get rained out again?

(Sorry for the lack of pictures, but more's coming I promise!!)

 

[RejoyceoverDisney]

So fun to read!!!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Mmmmm Ohana!

I am so glad to hear that the salad is back! I heard they took it away for a while and I was going to be really bummed. Now I am hungry!

 

[KathyM2]

Sounds like a fun day...if wet . Glad Ohana is good - I have been there for breakfast but never dinner - I keep hearing about that shrimp...one day. I don't know how people have the energy to stay at a park until 1am...maybe on a day when you didn't get up at 3...maybe lol.

 

[AshBriSmi]

Alright. I'm determined. I'm going to finish a TR if it kills me!!

And you know how I know it'll be done? Because I'm typing the whole thing out before I post! HA!!

I'm okay I promise...



Welcome to my TR full of magic, memories, and selfies!! (More on that later...)

We headed to Disney from February 28-March 5 at Pop Century to catch the beginning of the F&G Festival and just miss the Spring Break crowds.

Now for intros!

I'm Ashley (a.k.a. Belledreamer on the right) and like my username suggests, I am a die-hard BATB fan. Seriously. It's my tradition to see Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage at least twice whenever I go to Disney World with my record being 4 shows in one day. I've been to Disney 20+ times so far and have a fairly hard crush on Peter Pan.

Next up is my friend Lesly (on the left) who is joining us for her first ever trip to Disney! It's been nearly 15 years since I last went to Disney with a friend (mostly because the last time hadn't been that enjoyable) but we had shared a room on a week-long cruise without a problem last year so I knew we'd do fine. Despite being almost 10 years younger than me, we are quite literally two peas-in-a-pod. She's the Anna to my Elsa, the Dale to my Chip and I'm so glad she was able to come along for the ride.


Finally, my DMom and DDad!

While neither are as big into Disney as I am, they've also wracked up around 20 trips to Disney (mostly Mom with several mother/daughter trips) but even though they usually say this is the last time, somehow we end up catching the Disney bug after a year or so. Mom has a great love of flowers (thus the reason for going when we did) and while Dad isn't a big fan of Disney, every so often he's willing to tag along.


Here's our plans:

February 28th: Arrival day, 1st day at MK, and dinner at Ohana's
March 1: AK
March 2: HS
March 3: 2nd day at MK and lunch at BoG
March 4: Epcot/F&G Festival
March 5: Half day at MK/Going home...


Let's get going!

just now joining, but am loving it so far!!

 

[belledreamer]

So fun to read!!!

Thanks so much! I hope I can keep it up!

Mmmmm Ohana!

I am so glad to hear that the salad is back! I heard they took it away for a while and I was going to be really bummed. Now I am hungry!

The salad was delicious! Although I think my fav was probably the chicken. Now I'm getting hungry too!

Sounds like a fun day...if wet . Glad Ohana is good - I have been there for breakfast but never dinner - I keep hearing about that shrimp...one day. I don't know how people have the energy to stay at a park until 1am...maybe on a day when you didn't get up at 3...maybe lol.

I've never done breakfast there before, although we did go to the Poly once on a previous trip for Tonga toast which is one of my parents' favs. I don't know how they stay up that late either. If it hadn't been raining, we probably would have gone for a bit, but considering how much we went later in the trip, I'm actually glad we didn't.

just now joining, but am loving it so far!!

Welcome to the party! Should be getting a new update tomorrow morning!

 

[belledreamer]

Day 2 – AK - 'As long as I have Fabulous hair...'

Woke up bright and early on Sunday slightly worried about the fairly high chance of rain for the day and that we'd have a repeat of soaking wet clothes... Thankfully, it was only overcast with a really nice breeze; perfect for AK! After taking the first of our morning selfies...

getting on the bus and listening to two ladies talking about the benefits of wearing silk underwear for most of the way there

(Thanks btw... I've always wanted to know all about that...)

we arrived shortly after rope drop and since we still had some time before our first FP+, we decided to take a few pics of the Tree of Life

and go on 'It's Tough To Be A Bug'.

Needless to say, it's lots of fun going on this attraction with someone's who's never experienced it and watching them react to the things you already know to prepare yourself for.

Next was our FP+ for Expedition Everest, which I do enjoy with the exception of that first climb, (both Lesly and I are terrified of heights) still we all enjoyed it but by this point we were all hungry from not having breakfast so we stopped to use some of our Quick Service meals on some Honey Chicken. (I don't remember exactly where it was from, but I'm fairly sure it was a quick service in Asia)

Next was our FP+ for Festival of the Lion King

and I had debated for a while when making our FP choice if we should use it for this or Finding Nemo and I'm glad to say we made the better choice. With our FP+, we were able to get a third row seat in the Lion section which gave us some awesome views for pics and videos. Not to mention a little Disney magic when Timon came over, jumped on to Ddad's lap and planted a kiss on him, taking us all by surprise. Unfortunately none of us had our camera's together when that happened but it was still a great moment.

Next was Kilimanjaro Safari, where several of the animals were up and around thanks to the cooler weather.

(Sorry folks, this was the only pic I saved from it...)

Mom and Dad then decided to go on Kali River Rapids while Lesly and I opted out to work the elephant fountains that give you a final burst of wet at the end. (Always fun to do it when you had a vehicle come by where no one had a poncho and was already wet to give them one final drenching.)

The last showing of Finding Nemo: The Musical was coming up so we went ahead and headed in that direction. As I said before, I questioned between this and TLK as to which was the better one to use FP+ for and I can honestly say for those struggling with the choice that it all depends on what's important to you in sitting. Unlike the three firework shows, parades and BATB: Live on Stage, FP+ for TLK and Nemo just gets you in first for seating. There isn't a particular section. That being said, most people with FP+ for Nemo sat in the lower 'bubble section' which I really don't consider to be the best place to sit since there's quite a bit of action that goes on in the upper section. So unless you're the photographer of the group and are wanting to get close-up shots of the performers, my seating suggestion is definitely the first three rows of the upper section. You'll still get an awesome view of everything without a ton of people in front of you.

After going on Dinosaur (and having a slight touch of motion sickness) Lesly and I went for one last go around on 'It's Tough To Be A Bug' since it was only a 5 minute wait and then we all headed toward Downtown Disney with one thought in mind: Earl of Sandwich. Always a favorite among our family, I was so glad to see that they made the Holiday Sandwich a permanent part of the menu and Mom and I wasted no time ordering one each while Lesly and Dad both got the Earl Club and declared it delicious. We all had some shopping we wanted to do, so Mom and Dad went off in search of some new coffee mugs while Lesly went off in search of a specific plush; Tsum Tsums.

(Aren't they just ADORABLE?!)

For those of you who have never heard of them, Tsum Tsums are part of an adorable game of the same name that reminds me of Bejeweled where you have to get groups of three or more off the screen in a limited amount of time. I'm not a huge fan of the game but the plushes are absolutely adorable. And there's so many different kinds depending on what size you want; the mini ones having more of a selection. We couldn't make up our minds and figuring that SURELY there'd be somewhere else at Disney to get them, (FYI: If there was another place to get Tsum Tsums we never found it, so I believe the only place to find them on Disney property is Downtown Disney.) we decided to head on back to the hotel.

It was still too early to go to bed and I had been eyeing the caricature artist for a while since I was considering getting an updated one since my last one was in 2006. So after some going back and forth, both Lesly and I decided to go ahead and get one. I can't remember the artist name for the life of me, but we had a great time talking with him about 'Once Upon A Time' (he and his family are working their way through the seasons) and anime (since his teenage daughter is a huge fan) and he did a great job fulfilling my request for something Beauty and the Beast and Lesly's request to be Pocahontas with FABULOUS hair.

Personally, I think he did a great job catching the likeness.

By the time we finished though, it was almost 11pm so we hurried back to our rooms, got showers and headed off to bed.

NEXT UP: Hollywood Studios! Beauty and the Beast!! Will we break my record?!

 

[KathyM2]

Love those caricatures!! I thought about getting one too...but never have...maybe next time! I always seem to be in too much of a rush!! Looks like you had a good time though at AK and DTD.