Updated 7/28 - SWGE Preview trip planning! - Coooo-rrect! Mom/Daughter Do WDW—A Feb 2019 TR

How fun! I love the pictures with the train station in the back, and I also like the sweatshirts. Mickey's and Minnie's costumes are super cute!
 
I feel like I should be keeping a tally of how many birthday cupcakes and such she got? Feels like a lot. But it was so nice to see her get all the pixie dust and birthday wishes--just spoiling her a bit. Lovely. :)
My mom refused to wear her birthday button after the first day! She didn't like being fussed over, so only 1 free cupcake for us!
 
Another great update. You guys were clearly having an awesome trip.



I love it!
Thank you!! All the awesomeness :)

How fun! I love the pictures with the train station in the back, and I also like the sweatshirts. Mickey's and Minnie's costumes are super cute!
Aren’t their outfits adorable? The only thing I don’t like is that Mickey is wearing shorts—I think that’s weird in what is essentially a suit. But Minnie’s costume...I want that dress! :)

I'm loving it all! It's just such a magical trip!
Aw thanks! It really was! :)pixiedust:

My mom refused to wear her birthday button after the first day! She didn't like being fussed over, so only 1 free cupcake for us!
Aw, bummer! Still, one is probably all you need, considering the sugar bombs that they are. I think Mom secretly liked the attention though. Or else I was super intimidating on the first day when they gave it to her and I said she had to wear it? :rotfl2:
 


Hopping aboard a little late. Wow y’all got a lot done each day plus all the pixie dust ! Looking forward to reading more about your adventures
 
Once on a family trip we left our room and got to the Magic Kingdom only to realize we were all freezing and my Dad ended up having to buy all five of us (including himself) hoodies lol that was an expensive day but one of my favorite memories! lol

My Mom, sister and I also ended up buying sweaters in March too lol Disney must LOVE cold days. It reminds me of rollercoaster tycoon when it would rain and all the people would buy umbrellas $$$ :rotfl:
 


Hopping aboard a little late. Wow y’all got a lot done each day plus all the pixie dust ! Looking forward to reading more about your adventures
Welcome!! :) Yea, I think I get my "go-getter" attitude from her--gotta conquer all of WDW! :D

Once on a family trip we left our room and got to the Magic Kingdom only to realize we were all freezing and my Dad ended up having to buy all five of us (including himself) hoodies lol that was an expensive day but one of my favorite memories! lol

My Mom, sister and I also ended up buying sweaters in March too lol Disney must LOVE cold days. It reminds me of rollercoaster tycoon when it would rain and all the people would buy umbrellas $$$ :rotfl:
LOL so many fond memories of rollercoaster tycoon! They must indeed--they had those little portable racks of sweatshirts rolled out into the front of every shop, and I swear most people were wearing the same 10 sweatshirts/jackets. Disney got us indeed! :)

You guys seriously just look like you are having the best time!
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Thanks!! We really had a great time, despite the slight chill. At least we weren't sweating :D
 
Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom!
Wednesday, February 13th (part 3)

We'd just finished dinner, and were all ready and raring to go for the evening Extra Magic Hours! First stop? Pirates!
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I was trying to make a hook with my finger. I tried to get Mom to do it too, but she was busy looking at something in her fanny pack and looked up just in time for the photo. That really is the worst spot for a ride photo--everyone always looks a bit deer-in-the-headlights!

I was still having fun with my new phone camera on dark rides:
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I'd gotten us another Seven Dwarves fastpass during dinner--I think people must have been leaving the park 'cause it was so cold! Not complaining though; we got awesome fastpasses! I realized as we were walking over there we might be on the ride during the fireworks! Unfortunately we missed that by about 2 minutes. Still had fun riding though!
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So the fireworks started going off as we exited the ride, but we decided to take more pictures with Cinderella's carriage, since it was lit up all pretty at night. And the line was short due to everyone watching the fireworks in front of the castle--bonus! :) We were totally dancing and singing along while we waited in line.
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After the picture, the fireworks were still going, so we ended up just hanging out right there behind the carousel, dancing and singing along. Guys, it was amazing. There was so much room, and the fireworks were going off all around us...I think it was my favorite part of the trip. Mom and I just singing and dancing together with fireworks all around.
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Hardly any people, just us and the music and the magic. It was fantastic. If you've seen Happily Ever After in front of the castle, try seeing it from Fantasyland. It's a totally different experience, and lots of fun. There's definitely something to be said for having room to dance around. :)

Coming down off the high of the fireworks, Extra Magic Hours had officially started, so we headed over to Space Mountain! On the way, we ran into the special photo opportunity in front of the teacups.
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Unfortunately the light from the flash washed out the light from the lantern itself--they need to fix the lighting so it's more along the lines of the Tangled lantern photo opportunity. Still fun though. :)

Next, Space Mountain! The line wasn't too bad, and when we got on, the lights from the Peoplemover were on ('cause the Peoplemover wasn't running during Extra Magic Hours), which Mom thought was amazing. The Peoplemover lights gave off just enough light that Mom was able to see where she was going and could brace accordingly. She liked it so much, we rode again.
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Yea, super fun. We then decided to head over to the Haunted Mansion, crossing through the hub on our way. You know what that means right? More pictures! :D
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I just love that castle. :)

I was really impressed with how short the lines were during Extra Magic Hours--there was practically no wait for Haunted Mansion. Of course a ghost then used a lantern to blow our heads away, but oh well. You win some, you lose some.
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After Haunted Mansion, we needed some more excitement in our rides! So Big Thunder it was, again, with hardly any line. I tried to get Mom to go on Splash Mountain, but apparently that was too wet a ride for the cold temperatures. :rotfl2:

After Big Thunder, we wanted to ride Jungle Cruise in the dark, but when we got over there, Jungle Cruise was closed! Bummer. :(

At that point, we were pretty tired and decided to head out, taking pictures along the way (of course). Found this fun photo op in the little alley off to the side on Main Street:
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The lights turn into Mickey heads!!

We also got some fun pictures in front of the train station at night.
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We had more bus luck: it came pretty quickly and we got a seat! We were back at the resort super quick, but our exciting evening at the Magic Kingdom had made us a bit hungry. So cake it was! Mom ate her birthday cupcake from the night before, and I broke into the cake we'd bought at Amorettes.
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The Amorettes cake was a strawberry shortcake cake. Sooo good. Probably not the smartest thing to eat at 10:30 at night, but hey, the rules are different at Disney!

I must have gone to the food court or the main building that night for something, though I have no memory of why at this point. But you get the one and only picture I took of the resort!
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A very very large drum set. :D

Overall, a cold but fantastic day. We were tired, but it was a good tired from having a fun day. Too bad tomorrow we had to leave!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 25,301 (11.4 miles)
Ride count: 18 (Tower of Terror x2, Frozen show, Rockin Roller Coaster, Teacups, Peoplemover, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, Buzz, Small World, Big Thunder x2, Meet Mickey and Minnie, Seven Dwarves Mine Train x2, Pirates, Space Mountain x2, Haunted Mansion)
 
I was still having fun with my new phone camera on dark rides:
Which phone did you get? I am looking to upgrade mine soon.

So the fireworks started going off as we exited the ride, but we decided to take more pictures with Cinderella's carriage, since it was lit up all pretty at night. And the line was short due to everyone watching the fireworks in front of the castle--bonus! :) We were totally dancing and singing along while we waited in line.
So awesome!

After the picture, the fireworks were still going, so we ended up just hanging out right there behind the carousel, dancing and singing along. Guys, it was amazing. There was so much room, and the fireworks were going off all around us...I think it was my favorite part of the trip. Mom and I just singing and dancing together with fireworks all around.
I love this....so much fun!

I was really impressed with how short the lines were during Extra Magic Hours--there was practically no wait for Haunted Mansion. Of course a ghost then used a lantern to blow our heads away, but oh well. You win some, you lose some.
You are having such a great night!

We had more bus luck: it came pretty quickly and we got a seat! We were back at the resort super quick, but our exciting evening at the Magic Kingdom had made us a bit hungry. So cake it was! Mom ate her birthday cupcake from the night before, and I broke into the cake we'd bought at Amorettes.
Your cake from Amorettes looks almost too pretty to eat!
 
Which phone did you get? I am looking to upgrade mine soon.
iPhone XS. Expensive but the camera really is fantastic. And I’m not a photographer (obviously :) )

What a fun and extra special night! Riding Space with the Peoplemover lights on would be so much fun.
I think it was one of the highlights of the trip for Mom—she was telling someone about it the next day too!
 
The Saddest Valentine's Day Ever: Last Day at Disney!
Thursday February 14th

Our last day!
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All good things must come to an end, right? Oh well. We slept in a bit and packed up, had the leftover sweets for breakfast (Mom ate the rest of that fancy chocolate chip cookie from Disney Springs--srsly breakfast of champions), and headed to drop our bags off with bell services. We were able to check our bags at the hotel, which was super nice. I always appreciate that service--leave your bag at the hotel, see it again at baggage claim back home. So convenient!

That all taken care of, we hopped in line for the bus to Animal Kingdom. When the bus came (pretty quickly, actually--maybe a 5 minute wait), we got the last two seats! Score. :) We arrived at Animal Kingdom about 10 minutes later, and saw the WALL of humanity. Don't arrive shortly after park open--too many people! We took advantage of the short(er) Annual Passholder line. Phew!
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We had a 9 am fastpass for Primeval Whirl, but decided to skip it, in favor of Expedition Everest over and over. :) I do love the Expedition Everest in the first part of the morning usually has crazy short lines, and today was no exception. We rode 4 times in a row!
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We did single rider first, which is why Mom and I are in separate cars. Mom totally made friends with the scared little boy next to her. She also talked up Space Mountain to him and his family: he was scared of the dark too so she told him all about the awesomeness of riding it with the Peoplemover lights on! My mother: roller coaster evangelist. :)

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Mom and I were in the front row on the last ride, so decided to pose like we were driving the train. It didn't really work...:rotfl2: As we kept going back around in line Mom decided that she was a Yeti puncher, and that's how we'd vanquish the yeti every time. We bought a small yeti plush to commemorate her conquests as the great Yeti puncher. :D

It was time for us to head over to Flight of Passage in Pandora for our last fastpass. We took our time, and took some pictures by the entrance to Asia:
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This photographer was great. My shirt has Ariel and says "Mermaid at Heart" and so he treated me like I was Ariel, and then sang Mom a quick birthday song! It was a fun little experience taking pictures. And as we finished up, he pointed out to us that the macaws were heading our way, over the bridge, so we got to watch the bunch of macaws fly right over our head! That was really neat. I didn't get a picture though. :(

We also stopped to get pictures in front of the tree of life, including a really fun magic shot.
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Flight of Passage was great, of course (Mom still didn't like the long pre-shows...After Hours at Hollywood Studios which let her skip the pre-shows spoiled her!), but we were hungry! Good thing we had an ADR at Yak'n'Yeti. :) Walking back over to Yak'n'Yeti, we got distracted by Kevin again!
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She was out for a while, just wandering around. They were even letting little kids come up to her and hug her, which was super cute to watch, both the kids and how Kevin would react (close her eyes, shake her head and make cute cooing noises). Having her wander around Animal Kingdom is just such an awesome touch--A+ to whoever came up with it. :)

We moved on to Yak'n'Yeti and got seated fairly quickly, in the upstairs front part. We could actually see Kevin still wandering around out front! But we soon focused on the food...we were hungry!

I got a strawberry icee to start, and then the Ahi Tuna Nachos.
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The nachos were fantastic and fresh and yummy: we may have eaten too much! For our entrees, I got the sweet and sour chicken:
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Mom got the honey chicken. Both were excellent and fresh, but it was all a bit too much food. Dang it Disney, I need more stomach space!

After lunch, we had time for one more ride, and so I'd been scouring the app for one last fastpass. What for? Everest of course!! There were a lot of Everest fastpasses, so that worked out pretty well. We finished up lunch and headed that way, stopping (of course) for a picture with our favorite mountain in Animal Kingdom.
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We got a picture of Mom threatening the yeti with her punch (this was also a picture taken by her request...2! Crazy!)
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And then our last ride at Disneyworld...
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As we got off, we saw that the fastpass line had gotten INSANE. Not sure why, as I don't think any of the rides had gone down, but it was crazy. Look--it's practically down to the bridge (heading towards the Nemo show)
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That made us a bit happier that we were heading out the park!! We passed the fastpass line to head out, and saw another photographer stationed there--turned out to be the same one who sang the song to Mom earlier in the day!
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He asked us to rate the ride: thumbs up, down, or just "meh". Definitely 2 thumbs up from these gals!

We also saw one of the Rivers of Light floats out? Dunno why, since it was about 1 pm, but *shrugs*
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We were on a bus back to All Star Music at 1:20. Mom was going to be picked up by the Magical Express at 2 pm, so we had a little bit of time. We ended up going out to the pool and hanging out there for a little bit in the shade. They were doing Disney love song trivia ('cause Valentines day!), so I entertained myself by yelling out the songs that they were playing. And then a CM brought around free mini cupcakes for Valentines Day!
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Mom on her phone. Kids these days and their screens. Tsk tsk tsk.:rotfl2:

All too soon though, it was time for Mom to head off to the airport.
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She's entirely too happy in this picture!

My pickup wasn't for another hour, so I browsed in the gift shop, and then ended up playing skeeball in the arcade for a bit. Lookit this high score!
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Then it was my turn to head to the airport.
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Not soon enough, Mickey!

Security had really long lines, but then they weren't even checking liquids or making us take off shoes or anything. That was a bit strange, but hey, whatever. *shrugs*

And of course, flights ended up being delayed. Our flights were in separate terminals, but we both were delayed like 2 hours. Luckily Mom was flying Southwest and while she had a connection, it was on the same plane, so there was no chance of her missing it. Phew! I had a fairly long layover, so by the time I arrived, I had about 45 minutes to make my connection, which was plenty of time. Even had time to get some Jamba Juice...bad Dis-er though, forgot to take pictures.

The flight back to DC was practially empty--I had a row to myself. The flight attendant was super funny--cracking all sorts of jokes. She was just in a really great mood. If only all flights could be that pleasant! And it was quick too, which was nice. We landed, I got my bag, and then Trevor picked me up. We got home a little bit after midnight, so even though Valentine's Day had technically ended, look what was waiting for me!
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Chocolate and violets. :) We aren't super in to Valentine's Day, so this was an unexpected and sweet gesture. A lovely end to the trip.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps Walked: 13,414 or 5.6 miles
Ride Count: 6 (Expedition Everest x5, Flight of Passage)
 
Now it's Time to Say Goodbye...
Final Summary

Thanks for coming along with me! Mom and I had a fantastic trip. It was lovely to be at Disney, but lovely to just spend time together by ourselves. I'm the oldest child (out of 7) and the youngest is 12, so usually on vacations Mom is focused on the kids and making sure everything goes smoothly and everyone is happy, etc etc. It was really nice for both of us to just do what we wanted to do: riding rides, eating snacks...whatever struck our fancy. It also was a great distraction from the crazy and stress of the move that Mom was dealing with--I loved seeing her visibly relax and get into everything as the days went on. And especially all the attention she got for her birthday! Mom deserves all the spoiling she gets. :) I hope we can do another trip soon! (Mom and Dad are moving to Las Vegas so you bet your bottom dollar I'm trying to figure out how to work in a trip to Disneyland...)

See ya real soon!
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Fun with Metrics (for the last time):
Steps Walked: 137,316 or 58 miles
Ride Count (Tiffany): 80, including 10 on Tower of Terror, 8 on Everest, 6 on Seven Dwarves, 6 on Soarin, 5 on Rockin Roller Coaster, 4 on Space Mountain, 3 on Slinky Dog, and 3 on Flight of Passage
Ride Count (Mom): 76, same as above, except 4 on Seven Dwarves :)

And in case anyone is interested--some of the souvenirs!

Star Wars lounge/pajama pants for men: I got these for Trevor at the outlet. I think they were $14.99 or so?
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Various souvenirs: Alien Popcorn bucket, Haunted Mansion Doom Buggy, Haunted Mansion Stretching Room bag, Mickey rice krispie treat, Up puzzle, Mickey kitchen towels (a gift for a friend):
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Attraction pens!!
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Disney art! These are all decorating my cubicle at work and I can't take a picture of them there, so that's why they're on my car seat. :)
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Lastly (though it's in one of the photos above)--the rice krispie treat in all its glory.
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This thing was amazing. I didn't end up eating it until a week after I bought it, and it was still soft and FANTASTIC. Like, I can't believe I wasn't getting at least one of these every time I went. So much wasted opportunities! I intended to eat half and give Trevor the other half. This is what I actually ended up leaving for Trevor.
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Totally half, right? :)
 
Amazing trip, thanks for sharing! Having your parents in Las Vegas definitely sounds like a reason to go to Disneyland :D All the great times you had with your mom have made me even more excited to bring my dad this year!
 
Fantastic trip report. I hope I’m still going with my daughter when she is married! Need to add that to the perfect son-in-law description.
Great photos and reviews- thanks!
 

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