Aren't Graduations Grand! - May 2015 TR (New 10/30 - MK and California Grill)

[thornton0511]

Okay I'm a little late but I'm here now Jenny! So excited to follow along!!!

 

[SuperNEMOfan]

It's funny how reluctant she is to open the envelope. I'm so glad you got these on video

 

[KathyM2]

That is so so awesome...that you planned everything and all she had to do is show up. But it's especially great because you knew all that she would want to do!! I can't wait to hear more!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Oh I don't know.
A lot (and I mean... a lot) of people have called me names.

No, people have called you names?!

I'm shocked!!!

I'm exactly the same!
Started with POR, then stayed in ASMu.

We could be twins.
Non-identical, differently aged twins...

Darn right.

Yup, sounds about right.

I can pack for work trips in fifteen minutes flat... why is it that packing for a two week trip takes hours?!

Haha, well, I guess she's excited. I can't wait to see the upcoming reactions.

Anika is a bit more, shall we say, subdued, than her sister. She was super-excited for the trip, just perhaps a bit camera shy. (Her reaction for Resort #2 is still low-key, but she is obviously more excited for that surprise. I think she was simply baffled by the plans for the first resort - just one night at a value? What?! )

Aww, I love the idea that everything was mostly a secret and you had reveal envelopes.
I'm sure she was wondering if you all were staying at Grand Floridian from the get go! But since there are 4 resorts there's still a chance, LOL.
Can't wait to see the reveal for that.

Sisters have sooo much fun together!!

I'm sooo looking forward to the rest!

I had a lot of fun with those envelopes! It was a great way to reveal the resorts!

I think she held out hope... but it was a pretty dim hope as I did a good job denying that she had a chance to stay there. We'll just say it paid off.

We do! I'm always grateful to have a great relationship with my sister.

So... you did all this impressive, highly detailed, top secret planning for months.

Yet mere hours before leaving for the trip, you still hadn't packed?

I know, I know...

In my defense, I was barely home in the weeks leading up to the trip. I had back-to-back weeks of out-of-town work travel for the first two weeks in May, was gone the entire long weekend before our departure for Anika's actual graduation, and was then attempting to get tons of work things wrapped up so I wouldn't worry about it when we were gone. I had an extensive and detailed packing list and had everything purchased, washed, and set aside - I just had to get a few things ironed and into the suitcases. It look a heck of a lot longer than I thought it would.

After seeing the first video, I think this will work out to be a good strategy.

I liked the sense of confusion and the look on her face that was basically asking why in the heck are we doing this.

Little does she know...

It was such a good (and genuine!) moment! I love that I have it on video!

Wow. Your sister is so lucky to have such a thoughtful and generous sister! I can't wait to read the rest of you trip report.

Thanks for joining in!

Thank you! I was thrilled to create this trip for her - planning it was so much fun!

Actually the first post (well I guess the second one...the picture one...)was VERY EXCITING!...that is what makes us want more!

The video is adorable! And yes, I see that glimmer of hope when she reads the word "grand". Bad teasing sister! LOL! I can't wait to see what she does when she learns that she really is staying there!

I understand getting things done on the weekend...hopefully you will have more by Sunday afternoon, when I will have time to read them. As I need to go back to work at the mortgage paying job for the day right now, and Saturday, I work at the fun job, and Sunday morning I am doing a dog transport for a rescue group helping get a puppy to her forever home! So I will come back and check on Sunday afternoon! (I'm not pushy or anything, am I?)

Lynn

Tease? What?! I'd never do such a thing...

I plan to have a post up by this evening - we'll see how my afternoon shakes out!

She is great! Daddy gets plenty of sleep... Mommy not so much
Okay, he may not get *plenty* of sleep, but he gets more than I do! It's funny how my body has gotten used to lots of interrupted sleep and I really don't feel like a zombie anymore, so yay!

No longer a zombie is definitely a step up with a young baby!

I'm super duper excited for these reveals and I wasn't even there!

Yup!

I can't wait to see her reaction to the Universal hotel. More updates please!

Her reaction to the Universal resort was pretty darn good.

By the way, I couldn't see the picture of the fancy reveal paper? Is that an issue on my end? I'm going to try reading this on a different computer and see if it works there.

Okay I used a different browser and it worked!

I originally uploaded the picture as an attachment so it would be a little bigger, but due to the issues the DIS have been having with attachments, I changed it to an uploaded photo. It seems to be working better now.

Okay I'm a little late but I'm here now Jenny! So excited to follow along!!!

Jenn! I tried to send you a PM to let you know but it wouldn't let me for some reason?

I'm thrilled that you found me!

It's funny how reluctant she is to open the envelope. I'm so glad you got these on video

Sometimes she's such a goober. I don't think it was a reluctance to open the envelope as much as it was a reluctance to have it on film!

That is so so awesome...that you planned everything and all she had to do is show up. But it's especially great because you knew all that she would want to do!! I can't wait to hear more!

I definitely included a few experiences for myself into the planning, but thankfully we like a lot of the same things! Planning this trip was SO much fun!

 

[domesticking]

good read. following ...

 

[pkondz]

No, people have called you names?!

I'm shocked!!!

You're shocked... you should hear what some of those names were!
Now that's shocking!

I can pack for work trips in fifteen minutes flat... why is it that packing for a two week trip takes hours?!

Because you're terrified that you'll forget something when you're on vacation... and you could care less when it's work.
"Whoops! Forgot to pack my toothbrush. Sorry, I'll have to miss the meeting."

 

[TGM]

Yay! New TR!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

good read. following ...

Thanks so much for joining in!

You're shocked... you should hear what some of those names were!
Now that's shocking!

Okay, perhaps I wasn't REALLY shocked...

Because you're terrified that you'll forget something when you're on vacation... and you could care less when it's work.
"Whoops! Forgot to pack my toothbrush. Sorry, I'll have to miss the meeting."

True.

Yay! New TR!

I've read through several of your aunt's awesome trip reports - I'm thrilled to have you along!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

We’re Leaving on a Jet Plane
Day 1 – Saturday, May 23rd

After months of planning, and scheming, and planning (and lying? )… it was here! Departure day for the grand graduation celebration!

I would’ve had more enthusiasm when I woke up at 3:15 in the morning if only I’d had a bit more sleep…

We did the important early-morning things such as showering, carrying the bags downstairs, and me checking to MAKE SURE that I had our magic bands and stack of gift cards for the 452nd time.

I’d pre-ordered a taxi to pick us up at 4:45 that morning. We were doing very well and were ready to go with our bags in the garage by 4:40. The taxi still hadn’t pulled in by 4:50, so I went out on the driveway to look for him. I was pretty sure I saw him driving around (as there is not much traffic activity at this time of day!) and finally managed to wave him down. The poor guy – I live in a townhome complex where all of the buildings have the same address yet different unit numbers. He drove around for more than ten minutes to find us before he saw me. Thank goodness I spotted him!

Despite our slight departure delay, our drive to the airport was quick and easy and made even better by our chatty and upbeat taxi driver. It’s always nice to run across a chipper person that early in the morning. I needed it this morning!

When we arrived at the airport we made our way to the desk to check our bags. I knew my bag would be VERYCLOSE to the weight limit – darn all that extra sunscreen and the full-size contact solution we needed for a two week trip! Sure enough – I was two measly pounds over the limit. Thankfully, my travel companion had room to spare, so we moved one toiletry bag from my suitcase to her suitcase and voila! We were good to go!

Security was a breeze (thank goodness for our smaller airport!) and we stopped at one of two food locations to grab some breakfast fare. I bought a breakfast sandwich and bottled iced tea, while Anika got a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.

Did I get a picture of my tasty breakfast sandwich for the trip report? No. Trip report FAIL.

(I SWEAR I got a picture of that darn sandwich, but I can’t find it. It was egg, cheese, and bacon on a bagel – I’m sure you can figure out what it looked like.)

We boarded on time for our 6:20 flight. We were flying on Southwest and I paid the extra fee for the early-bird check-in so we could get board in the A group. It probably isn’t necessary as we don't often use the overhead bins and could easily sit apart on the plane, but it’s nice to get settled early and guarantee spots to close the front.

Here we are at 5:55 in morning:

What more can you ask for that early in the morning? We also took a more normal-looking picture:

You can see that she confiscated my neck pillow at the beginning of the flight. I did manage to wrangle it away from her shortly after we took the picture – I was SO TIRED and wanted the extra sleep!

Anika went beverage-free for our first flight as she already had her coffee, but I got a tasty cup of tea:

Our flight to Chicago Midway was short and sweet.

Despite my early morning breakfast sandwich, I decided to grab a pastry in Chicago as we wouldn’t be having lunch until the early afternoon. We found this super-cute spot in our terminal:

I picked up a very tasty blueberry muffin and Anika grabbed a milk. She had a collection of granola bars in her backpack so she didn’t need a snack.

Soon, we were boarding on flight #2 of the day:

Hooray for another on-time departure!

I made a deal with Anika that we would split the window seat for our two flights – she got it on the Chicago flight and I got it on the Orlando flight. (I may have twisted her arm slightly to get the Orlando leg – I wanted a chance to spot Disney World from the air! And I did! )

I also wanted the window so I could grab shots like this:

I love looking out the window during a flight.

We landed a bit earlier than expected, so we were on everyone’s favorite mini-monorail just a few minutes after noon:

Someone was excited to be in Florida:

Hello, B Terminal – we’re coming your way! (Do you see the family with the Disney World bags? SO CLOSE!!!)

Less than ten minutes after boarding the mini-monorail, we were greeted with this site:

What can I say? We walk pretty fast.

We’d put on our magic bands on the plane (and we were certainly not the only ones!) and Anika had the first opportunity to use it at the Magical Express check-in desk. Spoiler alert: it worked!

(continued in next post)

 

[SimplyGoofy]

(continued from previous post)

We only waited ten minutes (!) before we were loaded on our bus:

It wasn’t a Magical Express bus (or even a Disney bus!) but it was headed to Disney World so it worked for us!

As our value resort line was the last group to be let onto the bus, our seat choices were a little slim. We ended up on the right side about halfway back on the bus – not exactly prime seats for taking pictures of the welcome sign.

I was not excited about seeing the new Magical Express welcome video – all the reviews I’d read ran from fair to very poor. Now that I’ve (kind-of) watched the video I can see why people were baffled by it – it’s just BAD. I LOVED the prior video while I lost interest in the new one in less than five minutes. I understand they needed to introduce the magic bands and My Magic + into the welcome video, but couldn’t they have done that in a video that was as charming as the original? Ho-hum, Disney.

The welcome video aside, the drive from the Orlando airport to Disney property was very nice. As a bonus, it was fast! Just thirty minutes after boarding we had a view of this beautiful site:

Do you remember our not-so-great location on the bus? Yes, this is the best I could do!

No matter, as WE WERE IN DISNEY WORLD!!!

(Even better, Anika will make up for it in a few days with AWESOME pictures of the welcome sign! )

Our first stop was the newest resort, the Art of Animation resort:

It was such a neat looking resort! I was VERY excited about wandering around there just a short time later!

It was fun to see this group, waiting to celebrate with some other friends and family members:

(Sorry for the blurriness – I think the humidity on the outside and the air conditioning on the inside were not cooperating!) Their group must have been coming on a later bus as we didn’t spot any reunions when we were parked at the resort. It looks like they had a lot of fun in store!

Once the Art of Animation guests were unloaded, we looped around and made our way around to our home for the night, Pop Century:

It was really exciting to step into our first resort lobby of the week. I love the little girl in the princess dress! We’ve definitely arrived in Disney World!

I’d done online check-in for Pop Century and received the text with our room number while we were on the bus, so we were able to bypass the desk and go straight to our room. I was never an online check-in person for prior trips, but I ended up doing early check-in for all three of our Disney resorts and I LOVED it. It was fantastic to be able to troop right past the lobby and straight to the room via our handy text message – consider me converted!

We headed through the lobby and toward our room – we were on the fourth floor of building five of the 60’s section (straight ahead and to the left in this picture):

They had these nifty maps throughout the resort, which were handy:

I loved the stairs on the Pop Century buildings – they are themed to match their respective decades. Our 60’s stairs were some fabulous yo-yos:

After following the signs and winding our way around the building, we found our room. Based on the magic band color, it appears Anika let me have the privilege of opening the door:

Here we are! Welcome to room 5418:

Hello, towel Mickey!

I really liked the detail on the bottom of the bed, similar to the old bedspreads. I never know what to call these… it’s not really a blanket – more like a table runner? Whatever it was, I liked it:

They have fun art in each room that includes Disney items from your respective decade. It didn’t photograph well at all, but it is a fun picture:

It even included a picture of one of our favorite attractions, the Carousel of Progress!

The other side of the room includes the dresser and entertainment center combination (complete with refrigerator), as well as a table and chairs:

The bathroom area is separated by a curtain and includes one sink. There is a closet bar and shelves to the side:

The bathtub and toilet are next to the sink and behind a door:

I LOVED the hidden Mickeys on the wallpaper:

They’re not quite as fancy as the toiletries at the deluxe resorts or CSR, but I do like the cute Mickey ears on the shampoo:

Here’s the opposite view of the room (including one of its inhabitants!):

Although our room location wasn’t what I’d requested (I’d asked for the 50’s section), our room location was AWESOME. This was our view from our room:

This was a standard room! What a view! Our room was just around the corner on the back side of the 60’s building – it was very close to the main pool and just steps away from the bridge to AoA. As you can see from the picture, the Cars section is right in our view! Our room was also a pretty short walk to the main building. I have no idea how we got such a great room - perhaps it was because we were there for only one night? Whatever the reason, I loved it!

After changing into different clothes (well, one of did – Jenny in her late-night packing state forgot to add shorts to her carry-on! ), we were eager to explore and eat lunch at the brand new resort just over the bridge. Onward to Art of Animation!

Up Next: Lunch and exploring Art of Animation Resort

 

[AussieMumma]

Sounds like an awesome trip, I'm looking forward to reading more
We are doing a big 'Graduation Vacation' for our eldest daughter in November (we are in Australia) and can't wait!!!

 

[afwdwfan]

I would’ve had more enthusiasm when I woke up at 3:15 in the morning if only I’d had a bit more sleep…

Short night.

Did I get a picture of my tasty breakfast sandwich for the trip report? No. Trip report FAIL.

I'm fine with that. Food

We boarded on time for our 6:20 flight. We were flying on Southwest and I paid the extra fee for the early-bird check-in so we could get board in the A group. It probably isn’t necessary as we don't often use the overhead bins and could easily sit apart on the plane, but it’s nice to get settled early and guarantee spots to close the front.

In my opinion, it is worth it to get to sit together. I mean, why sit next to a stranger when your sister is on the plane with you somewhere else, right?

Anika went beverage-free for our first flight as she already had her coffee, but I got a tasty cup of tea:

That's probably going to work against that idea of getting a little bit of extra sleep.

I wanted a chance to spot Disney World from the air! And I did!

Cool!!!

(Do you see the family with the Disney World bags? SO CLOSE!!!)

Don't you feel sorry for them? They're going the wrong way!

Do you remember our not-so-great location on the bus? Yes, this is the best I could do!

No matter, as WE WERE IN DISNEY WORLD!!!

Yeah... and that's what matters. You're there. We've all seen the sign!

I’d done online check-in for Pop Century and received the text with our room number while we were on the bus, so we were able to bypass the desk and go straight to our room. I was never an online check-in person for prior trips, but I ended up doing early check-in for all three of our Disney resorts and I LOVED it. It was fantastic to be able to troop right past the lobby and straight to the room via our handy text message – consider me converted!

I'm coming around to it too. I mean, we did online check in and still got an upgrade.

That was before they started texting the room numbers though so I'm not sure how that would play out now.

well, one of did – Jenny in her late-night packing state forgot to add shorts to her carry-on!

Well, if that's all you forgot in a late night scramble, I don't think you did too bad.

 

[pkondz]

After months of planning,

Yep.

and scheming

Yup.

and planning

Uh, huh.

(and lying? )…

What?!?!?!?

Departure day for the grand graduation celebration!

Yay!!!!

I would’ve had more enthusiasm when I woke up at 3:15 in the morning if only I’d had a bit more sleep…

two hours of sleep will do that to you.

and me checking to MAKE SURE that I had our magic bands and stack of gift cards for the 452nd time.

Paranoid much?
But you know... you know that if you only check 451 times that you'll forget them.

He drove around for more than ten minutes to find us before he saw me. Thank goodness I spotted him!

I wonder what he would've done if you hadn't gone out and waved him down?
Given up and driven away?
Waited somewhere and hoped?

It’s always nice to run across a chipper person that early in the morning.

On the way to Disney? Yes.
Coming back? Not so much.

Did I get a picture of my tasty breakfast sandwich for the trip report? No. Trip report FAIL.

What? That's it. I'm outta here.

Well.... considering the many, many photo fails (you'll see) on my TR, I guess I should stick around.

It was egg, cheese, and bacon on a bagel – I’m sure you can figure out what it looked like.)

Was it bigger than a bread basket?

Here we are at 5:55 in morning:

Whoa! What was in that coffee???

You can see that she confiscated my neck pillow at the beginning of the flight. I did manage to wrangle it away from her shortly after we took the picture – I was SO TIRED and wanted the extra sleep!

We found this super-cute spot in our terminal:

Good name for a bakery. I like it.

I made a deal with Anika that we would split the window seat for our two flights

Don't do it! If you split the window, the air will escape and you'll get sucked out!!!


Oh. Window seat.
Nevermind.

I wanted a chance to spot Disney World from the air! And I did! )

Nice! I've never done that in... umm.... four flights.

I love looking out the window during a flight.

I do too, but I seldom get the chance.
I'm usually travelling with DW or one or more DDs, so they get the window seats.
How does that work, exactly, when I'm paying for it??

Someone was excited to be in Florida:

Who?

Do you see the family with the Disney World bags?

I assume that means they're on their way home...


Suckahs!

We’d put on our magic bands on the plane (and we were certainly not the only ones!)

I wish. But being a foreigner, I have to wait until I get to the resort.

Spoiler alert: it worked!

Oh, man! Why didn't you warn me ahead of time about the spoiler?
Now the whole TR is ruined.

We only waited ten minutes (!) before we were loaded on our bus:

Hah! I beat you with my zero minutes wait.

Stop! Stop!!!!
Did you not see the R2D2 carry on that boy has??????

Want.

We ended up on the right side about halfway back on the bus – not exactly prime seats for taking pictures of the welcome sign.

I hear ya.

I LOVED the prior video while I lost interest in the new one in less than five minutes.

Try it without sound.

I love the little girl in the princess dress!

It was fantastic to be able to troop right past the lobby and straight to the room via our handy text message – consider me converted!

Nice.
I wonder if online check in serves any purpose for me?
Even if I had a phone that worked in the States (I don't), I'd still have to go to the desk to get my Magic Band.

we were on the fourth floor of building five of the 60’s section (straight ahead and to the left in this picture):

Hey! That's where we were!

Here’s the opposite view of the room (including one of its inhabitants!):

Oooh, Florida wildlife in it's natural habitat?

This was our view from our room:

Wow! Nice!

Jenny in her late-night packing state forgot to add shorts to her carry-on!

Whoops! Bet she won't make that mistake again.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Joining in. What a wonderful graduation surprise! I look forward to reading along.

 

[MagentaMulan]

Following!

 

[cinderkelly]

Sounds like a great arrival day so far!

Great view you got from your room! I love that AoA and Pop are so close. We have stayed at AoA and walked over to the Pop food court. The theming there is so cute.

I'm the type that loves to look out the plane window to see if I can spot stuff too! So cool you got to see DW from the air!!

 

[purplelover88]

I'm here and excited to read along. We actually overlapped some. I too was there for my graduation celebration from May 29-June 6. We also had 4 hotels if you count the Hampton inn on the way.

 

[heathsf]

Did I get a picture of my tasty breakfast sandwich for the trip report? No. Trip report FAIL.

It's okay, it's only the airport so we'll forgive you.

Disney Departure Day Excitement! There's nothing like it!!!!!

I wanted a chance to spot Disney World from the air! And I did!

Wow! I never have! How did you find it?!

What can I say? We walk pretty fast.

I would too if I was headed where you were headed

I was not excited about seeing the new Magical Express welcome video – all the reviews I’d read ran from fair to very poor. Now that I’ve (kind-of) watched the video I can see why people were baffled by it – it’s just BAD.

It's so bad

It was really exciting to step into our first resort lobby of the week.

Yay!!! I love that feeling!

You got a great view! Awesome!

 

[glennbo123]

I loved the video. You could tell that she was not liking the idea of the reveal's getting doled-out one-by-one! Hehehehe.

I'm sure it was tough waking up that early, but it paid off by getting to Disney with still a lot of the day left!

 

[Dugette]

I would’ve had more enthusiasm when I woke up at 3:15 in the morning if only I’d had a bit more sleep…

I don't think I could be cheery at that hour no matter how much sleep I'd gotten. I'd probably do better just to stay up until then.

I was never an online check-in person for prior trips, but I ended up doing early check-in for all three of our Disney resorts and I LOVED it. It was fantastic to be able to troop right past the lobby and straight to the room via our handy text message – consider me converted!

Isn't it handy to just get the room number and go straight there? I really liked that too (well, when it worked ).

Although our room location wasn’t what I’d requested (I’d asked for the 50’s section), our room location was AWESOME. This was our view from our room:

Awesome! One of the coveted standard/lake view rooms! Very nice!