~*~our 2011 DISNEY-POTTER trip~*~

[JanetorsCloset]

Are you gonna do a live trip report?



Heh. I bet I'm favorite sister #1 now.

 

[jtawesomesauce]

 

[wingedjojo]

I think it's smart to have your camera and video camera too. Howard has a Canon (I never remember which one), and when he records videos, it drains the battery very quickly. Plus, because it's filmed in HD, it's harder to upload because the file is so large. There are some rides that he doesn't want to bother filming because he'd have to hold the expensive camera up. I'm the one who gets more videos because it's so much easier to hold something smaller. Definitely worth it, I think!

I do think, however, that you have to be mindful of your video camera because there was one year that my dad had ours (a small one likes yours), and he clipped it to his belt and used it like, once!!! Haha, he kept forgetting he had it, so if you're always holding your camera, don't forget to take some video too! Those can be much more fun to have sometimes too. For example, we have video of ordering the Dole Whip Floats and my cousins trying them for the first time! Can't capture that in just a picture.

Since you don't have any ADRs for MK, I'm going to suggest Columbia Harbour House if you haven't already tried it! We LOVE it, and we got my cousins to love it too! The fried fish was so yummy. Plus, we eat around 10:30am or so to avoid the crowds. We go upstairs, and it's so quiet and it's nice to get away from the crowds and noise level. Oh, and we like to eat in the part of the building that separates Fantasyland and Liberty Square because we can still SEE WDW! We also loved Pecos Bill. I especially loved it because of the hot cheese sauce and the onions that I was able to add to my cheeseburger (also has banana peppers and mushrooms and other things as well).

Ohh...I completely forgot about battery drainage and the whole HD thing. Good thing I have that camcorder now. I was going to make Jan in charge of filming things. And she will film things. Right, Jan? If you want to be favorite sister #1.

You got me sold at hot cheese sauce. I am a sucker for melty cheese. I was considering Pecos Bill already because I heard good reviews but it's ultimately dependent on when people get hungry and where we physically are located at the moment. If nobody can decide, I'm sure it'll be easy to make an executive decision and herd everyone there.

Are you gonna do a live trip report?



Heh. I bet I'm favorite sister #1 now.

No, because that's too hard and I rather enjoy the trip and write later.

Maybe.

Yes Jess, you should be sad. And scared.

 

[wingedjojo]

(but replace the angry face with )

Since I am in the middle of my spring break, it's only right if something exciting were to take place. So! Last night, my friend and I went to see a concert featuring the one...the only...the mother of all little monsters...Lady Gaga!!!

The ticket says $50 but boy was it so much more expensive than that. We were in the nosebleed section and paid more than $100 each. It was so worth it though. She was amazing!!!

We started the night off with a short 30 minute drive from Davis to Sacramento. We only had one small hiccup where we got lost and took the wrong highway exit. It wasn't a big problem; I had my phone's gps to recalculate an alternate route and we were there in no time. We got there a little over half an hour before the show was supposed to start and I guess that's when everybody decided to show up because it took forever to get to the parking lot after getting off the highway. Cars were all backed up trying to exit:

During the stop and go in getting into the lot, we noticed the car in front of us had a peculiar license plate.

It made us think of pizza. Digiorno anyway?

Once we parked, it was a short walk to the arena. Apparently, it's no longer called Arco Arena. It's like....Powerade something or other. I think they changed ownership earlier this month so none of the signs were changed yet.

We breezed through the security checkpoint and looked for our section. It happened to be right by the merchandise booth and with time to spare, we thought we'll get our concert t-shirts now rather than later.

There really isn't any sort of system besides crowd around the booth and wait until one of the sales people noticed you. It was also mighty crowded with only 3 people selling the stuff. While we waited and tried to decide what we wanted, we snapped a quick photo to document our time together (I've blocked my friend's face because I don't know if she'll be okay with me putting it on the internet).

I tried to dress up a bit (too bad I forgot to take pictures of my outfit) but I was considered tame compared to other fans. There were some crazy cool outfits last night. Here's one I dub bubbles girl:

Some pictures while we waited for Lady Gaga to perform:

Finally, she comes on and puts on the most amazing performance ever. It was such a good show. I only wish I was closer or had a better set of lens.

I would totally go see her again in a heartbeat. The theatricality was top notch and she just rocks at what she does. Next time, I just need to get better seats (or lens). This little monster loves Lady Gaga!!!

 

[OThopeful35]

Awesome!! Lady GaGa gives great performances!

 

[wingedjojo]

Spring break is over and it's time to go back to school. Looking at the bright side, it only means one more quarter of tests and papers and stress until we get to go to DISNEY WORLD!!! Oh yeah, and my graduation. That's important too.

I don't even remember where I left off in terms of plans and such. I'm already starting to get bored of this pre-trip report; is that normal? It's probably because I don't really have much to say and I'm kind of boring. Hopefully it'll be more fun to write the actual trip report.

Anyhoo~ Still got to finish what I started. Let's see...
Monday, June 13: flight, eating at T-Rex, checking in and swimming
Tuesday, June 14: Islands of Adventure to see Harry Potter land
Wednesday, June 15: Magic Kingdom
Thursday, June 16: Animal Kingdom
I think that's where I left off.

SO! Friday, June 17, is our Hollywood Studios day and also a very important date. I'm pretty sure I completely forgot to mention it before but it's our mom's birthday!!! She's going to turn the young age of youngness and what's a better way to spend it than in Disney?

For this day, I actually made a lunch reservation. Ever since I found out it existed (thanks to the boards), the sisters and I have been wanting to go to:

Something about eating in a car while watching clips on a big screen is very alluring. It's such a neat idea of a restaurant.

One thing on the To Do list is the Animation Academy. I really want to learn how to draw a random character and while I'm fully aware that Jess will win in terms of prettiness, at least I'll get a souvenir out of it. Besides that, we will attempt to get both Fastpasses as well as go through the stand-by line for Toy Story Mania. Jess and Jan have also both agreed to do Rock n' Roller Coaster as well as Tower of Terror. Mom refuses to do either.

I've been trying to tell her that rides at Disney are not that scary (compared to say Islands of Adventure) but she still refuses. I even brought home the Birnbaum 2011 guide as well as the Unofficial color companion for her to read and see how un-scary it was.

It's still a no go for her and the rides. Makes me sad to think she's going to sit there by herself. As much as I understand my mom's a big girl and can be perfectly content to be alone, I still don't like it. To me it feels like it's going to fall short of a real family vacation if one member is always opting out of everything we do, yet I can't force her. This was another reason why I was so hesitant to readily agree on a Disney vacation since I know mom isn't super pro-Disney. Oh well. This'll probably be the last we take as a family anyway (at least to Disney).

Continuing along...

Satuday, June 18, will be dedicated to Epcot. I wanted us to end at Epcot because as a family unit, we love this park the most. Mom is pretty okay with doing everything in this park and it's just relaxing and fun to see the World Showcase. She'll even go on Test Track. Last year, I think we waited a good 2 hours for this ride as well; the only reason because I think it broke down a couple of times. Again, nothing is booked in terms of food and what not. It's another "wing-it" type of day. Hopefully we can last long enough to catch Illuminations. None of us have ever watched this show before and I'm curious as to what'll entail.

And finally we get to Sunday, June 19. This is our last day in Orlando with an afternoon flight back home with a pit stop at Texas. For once, I'm allowing us to sleep in. Not too much sleeping in though because I reserved a brunch for us at 10am. Here's the dilemma. I have reservations at both Ohanas and 1900 Park Fare for the same time. I think both places have Mickey waffles, which is something I really wanted and I think Jan wanted as well. I wanted to do a character breakfast because we've never done one before and these were the only two with acceptable characters (not a big princess or Winnie the Pooh or playhouse Disney fans). The only problem is which set of characters do we want? The reason I originally wanted Ohanas is because it's at the Polynesian and I think mom will enjoy looking around the resort and who doesn't love Stitch? 1900 Park Fare is also a contender because the sisters and I just LOVE Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. So I don't know; we have time to decide but it's not an easy decision.

Following brunch we'll probably finish packing and/or hit Downtown Disney before finally getting on the flight home. While a week seems like a short time to pack so many things in, I'm sure we'll be ready to go home. Back in 2007, we went for 9 days (I think) and we were ready to go home by the end of it. A week is the perfect amount of vacation time for us.

So that's pretty much the backbone of the trip. Now if only I can figure out what to wear...

 

[wingedjojo]

Boy, have I been absent.

Since the last time I posted, a new quarter has begun. While classes are not on the higher difficulty level, there's a ton of work to do so I've been pretty busy.

Regardless, there were still some Disney-related stuff I was able to fit in.

A couple of...probably a month ago, I ordered these personalized maps from the Disney website. Here's the link: http://customizedmaps.disney.go.com/

Basically, you're getting fancier versions of the park maps and you can add/subtract whatever you like. It came a couple of weeks after ordering them (they're completely free by the way) and they are pretty snazzy.

First off, here's the package as a whole, pretty cool:

(the front)

(the back)

Opening it up, we see:

- a general letter of good wishes
- the park maps
- a sheet of stickers

I ordered maps of all 4 of the parks and they print them back to back. This is just a picture of one side:

This is a sheet of stickers they included that's supposed to help you highlight/pinpoint your must-do's or areas of importance:

It's a pretty neat thing to get for free. Plus, it's a good tool in building up that excitement. I guess if someone really wants, they can make good posters or what-not as well.

Also, as a little pat on the back to myself for getting that much closer to graduation, I picked up a little something something.

Oh yeah! Tangled AND Bambi. I haven't seen Bambi in ages and it's pretty cool how far along animation has come. Tangled was one of the few movies that I actually went and saw in theaters. My policy is that if I know I'm going to end up buying a movie, I don't watch it in theaters. I hadn't expected to like Tangled that much but it was surprisingly good. So now I have two new movies to add to my collection.

Aren't my bed sheets pretty?

 

[RachelNinja]

Ooo, I always wanted to do the personalized maps, but every single time I tried, it never went through. Maybe I'll try doing it next year for my Disneymoon.

 

[wingedjojo]

Wow, it has been a long time since I've been on this thing.

It's finals week (again) here in cow-town Davis and you know what that means? Procrastination time!!! a.k.a. DISboards time!!!

What has happened since the last time I posted? Uh...hmm... So remember how I said this was a trip mostly for celebrating graduations? Well, Jan has graduated!

Fresh out of high school and now onwards to study at the University of California, San Diego. Sadly, I couldn't make it to her graduation because it was on a Wednesday and I still had school/finals to prepare for. I was there in spirit though!

Can you believe that it's almost my turn? In 4 days I walk the stage and in 5 we'll be off to Walt Disney World. How exciting is that? I should really start packing.

In other news, I've gotten myself a brand spanking new lens; a Tamron 18-270mm lens to be exact. It's marketed as an all-in-one lens so hopefully this will get me through all my picture-taking needs without having to lug multiple lenses around the parks.

Alright, I'm back to studying.

 

[SigalTchelet]

What happened to the trip report? Btw-Hi neighbor! I am from Sacramento. I have not been to WDW since 1994 but have Annual Pass to Disneyland. You should definitely try to go down for Halloween!