Terra Nova guy
DIS Dad #811 Newfoundland, Canada
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2014
Welcome everyone to my first trip report! I’ve been reading many reports here since my last trip in 2014 and I’m excited to finally be able to report on a trip of my own. I’ve “met” some great people interacting through these reports and I’m happy to be able to share my experiences this time.
INTRODUCTION
First off, the 5 W’s.
Who:
There’s me, Jeff (44), the husband and Dad (and yes, DISDad #811). (Hint: I’m on the right in the picture)
I’ve enjoyed everything Disney as long as I can remember. I grew up with Disney movies and TV shows. My first trip to Walt Disney World (just Magic Kingdom and a 1 year old Epcot back then!) was in 1983 when I was 9 years old. I was hooked from the start and after many years I was happy to start bringing my family to WDW, starting in 2008.
I live in Newfoundland, Canada. Some of you may have heard of this place, others may be not. It’s in Eastern Canada, about as far east as you can go in fact until you run out of land and head across the Atlantic.
Along on this journey is my wife, Tish. She enjoys Disney and our trips (as long as there is a day or two of shopping in there), although is not quite as obsessed as me.
We have two girls. My step-daughter Brianna is 18, just finished high school and off to start university. She is a Disney princess at heart, and in fact in her spare time performs as a princess at kid’s birthday parties. She’s mainly a “friend” of Elsa, but has also been a friend of Ariel, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Aurora.
My daughter Katie just turned 11 right before this trip. She’s all about the princesses too, and has a soft spot for Stitch. We may have bent the truth just a little and pretended she was celebrating her birthday during our trip, even though it was a week earlier.
The last member of our family is our cat, Shelby, who we adopted from the city humane services this past January. She’s 9 months old now and stayed at home with my parents during our trip. It was out first time being away from her since we got her, so the girls were a bit sad about that. Me on the other hand, it didn't bother me to leave her, cause I'm a guy, and we don't care about furry little things that meow and have pretty little eyes and a pink wittle nose and a fuzzy wuzzy tail and cute little teeny itty bitty paws and...wait...what was I saying...Oh right. Cat. Left it. Didn't care.
What:
Our fifth family trip to Walt Disney World
When:
August 17-27, 2018
Where:
All-Star Music resort (with free QS dining)
Why:
Because we like Disney…..
Well, that’s obvious. But here’s where I should give you some more details about why this trip came about, and why I have titled it “Raiders of the Lost Park”. So, if you notice in my signature, we had become used to WDW trips about every 12-18 months. October of 2014 was our last trip for some time. Our beloved Walt Disney World had become lost to us. There were a few reasons for it. There was uncertainty around my job, financial worries, some medical issues, a bunch of “life stuff” that meant the time just wasn’t right for a trip in the last four years. Through the jigs and the reels, things were finally looking brighter this year. When free dining was announced, I started looking at pricing, thought it was doable, as long as we made some changes from our previous trips. The biggest would be to save money where we could, which meant going with a value resort as opposed to moderate. The only thing available with free dining by the time I was ready to book was All-Star Music, but it seemed fine to us. So there it was, a couple ADRs and some FP later, we were ready to go.
How about a preview of what’s coming up? (It’s free, no charge)
- This is princess central. If you enjoy seeing princess pictures, you’ve come to the right place. My girls enjoy meeting them, and every trip we’ve given ourselves the challenge to meet and get the autograph of every official Disney princess, plus the Fab Five, and a bunch of others as well. Yeah, we do character meets. So, were we successful in meeting every princess? You’ll have to find out…
- This is our first time with a QS dining plan. How did we find it? Would I do it again?
- Although I won’t call it a dining review, food will be a feature in this report. (At least when I remembered to take pictures)
- We also go to MNSSHP. It’s our third one (2010, 2014, 2018). How did we find this year? Would I do it again?
- We visit Toy Story Land! That’s new to a lot of people. But there’s a bunch of other stuff we see for the first time, like Pandora, Frozen Ever After, Star Wars fireworks, Happily Ever After, Rivers of Light, Disney Springs, even the gardens around the Hub are new to us! IT’S BEEN FOUR YEARS PEOPLE!
Hey, since this is my trip report, why don’t I have a little fun? I won’t call it a contest, but I’ll ask a couple questions every update. Or maybe not. You can answer. Or not. I’ll probably give the answers eventually. Who knows? I’m new at this. I don’t know what I’m doing.
Questions for fun (and no copying ):
1. My trip report title is a play on a movie title. Which one?
2. Do we meet and get the autograph of every official Disney princess this trip? (OK, you will have to wait a while for that answer)
3. In what building is our room located at All-Star Music?
Alright folks, that’s what I got for an intro. I’ll be around again to actually get this thing started.
NEXT TIME: Early rise on travel day, a delay at the airport changes our plans, and finally…check in.
INTRODUCTION
First off, the 5 W’s.
Who:
There’s me, Jeff (44), the husband and Dad (and yes, DISDad #811). (Hint: I’m on the right in the picture)
I’ve enjoyed everything Disney as long as I can remember. I grew up with Disney movies and TV shows. My first trip to Walt Disney World (just Magic Kingdom and a 1 year old Epcot back then!) was in 1983 when I was 9 years old. I was hooked from the start and after many years I was happy to start bringing my family to WDW, starting in 2008.
I live in Newfoundland, Canada. Some of you may have heard of this place, others may be not. It’s in Eastern Canada, about as far east as you can go in fact until you run out of land and head across the Atlantic.
Along on this journey is my wife, Tish. She enjoys Disney and our trips (as long as there is a day or two of shopping in there), although is not quite as obsessed as me.
We have two girls. My step-daughter Brianna is 18, just finished high school and off to start university. She is a Disney princess at heart, and in fact in her spare time performs as a princess at kid’s birthday parties. She’s mainly a “friend” of Elsa, but has also been a friend of Ariel, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Aurora.
My daughter Katie just turned 11 right before this trip. She’s all about the princesses too, and has a soft spot for Stitch. We may have bent the truth just a little and pretended she was celebrating her birthday during our trip, even though it was a week earlier.
The last member of our family is our cat, Shelby, who we adopted from the city humane services this past January. She’s 9 months old now and stayed at home with my parents during our trip. It was out first time being away from her since we got her, so the girls were a bit sad about that. Me on the other hand, it didn't bother me to leave her, cause I'm a guy, and we don't care about furry little things that meow and have pretty little eyes and a pink wittle nose and a fuzzy wuzzy tail and cute little teeny itty bitty paws and...wait...what was I saying...Oh right. Cat. Left it. Didn't care.
What:
Our fifth family trip to Walt Disney World
When:
August 17-27, 2018
Where:
All-Star Music resort (with free QS dining)
Why:
Because we like Disney…..
Well, that’s obvious. But here’s where I should give you some more details about why this trip came about, and why I have titled it “Raiders of the Lost Park”. So, if you notice in my signature, we had become used to WDW trips about every 12-18 months. October of 2014 was our last trip for some time. Our beloved Walt Disney World had become lost to us. There were a few reasons for it. There was uncertainty around my job, financial worries, some medical issues, a bunch of “life stuff” that meant the time just wasn’t right for a trip in the last four years. Through the jigs and the reels, things were finally looking brighter this year. When free dining was announced, I started looking at pricing, thought it was doable, as long as we made some changes from our previous trips. The biggest would be to save money where we could, which meant going with a value resort as opposed to moderate. The only thing available with free dining by the time I was ready to book was All-Star Music, but it seemed fine to us. So there it was, a couple ADRs and some FP later, we were ready to go.
How about a preview of what’s coming up? (It’s free, no charge)
- This is princess central. If you enjoy seeing princess pictures, you’ve come to the right place. My girls enjoy meeting them, and every trip we’ve given ourselves the challenge to meet and get the autograph of every official Disney princess, plus the Fab Five, and a bunch of others as well. Yeah, we do character meets. So, were we successful in meeting every princess? You’ll have to find out…
- This is our first time with a QS dining plan. How did we find it? Would I do it again?
- Although I won’t call it a dining review, food will be a feature in this report. (At least when I remembered to take pictures)
- We also go to MNSSHP. It’s our third one (2010, 2014, 2018). How did we find this year? Would I do it again?
- We visit Toy Story Land! That’s new to a lot of people. But there’s a bunch of other stuff we see for the first time, like Pandora, Frozen Ever After, Star Wars fireworks, Happily Ever After, Rivers of Light, Disney Springs, even the gardens around the Hub are new to us! IT’S BEEN FOUR YEARS PEOPLE!
Hey, since this is my trip report, why don’t I have a little fun? I won’t call it a contest, but I’ll ask a couple questions every update. Or maybe not. You can answer. Or not. I’ll probably give the answers eventually. Who knows? I’m new at this. I don’t know what I’m doing.
Questions for fun (and no copying ):
1. My trip report title is a play on a movie title. Which one?
2. Do we meet and get the autograph of every official Disney princess this trip? (OK, you will have to wait a while for that answer)
3. In what building is our room located at All-Star Music?
Alright folks, that’s what I got for an intro. I’ll be around again to actually get this thing started.
NEXT TIME: Early rise on travel day, a delay at the airport changes our plans, and finally…check in.
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