I'm walking right down the middle of Main Street USA! [Sept 2014 TR - Updated 9/30!]

[hakunamomtata]

Well hello there! Welcome to my trip report. Let's get started with some introductions!




My name is Jen. I am totally and irrevocably in love with everything Disney. I only realized my love for Disney about two years ago. *STORY TIME!* My husband (who you'll meet in a short bit here) took me to Disney World for our honey moon. I have always wanted to go, but my parents never got the chance to take me. But the minute I walked onto Main Street for the first time....chill bumps covered me from head to toe and I felt more home than I have ever felt in my life. I literally fell in love with Disney World, and I have no regrets. The day we left Disney after our honeymoon, I knew we were going to be going back. After some serious financial setbacks and life changes, we finally got settled...and I began planning this trip. I have jumped head first into everything Disney, studying crowd calendars and every thing there is to know. I'm by no means a Disney expert, but I know more than my husband....which means I get to do all the planning. BOOM! Haha It's actually my life goal to move to Florida and become a cast member. I totally love the magic of Disney, and want to be able to create it for people every day.
Favorite Character: Oh gosh, really? I LOVE Beast from Beauty and the Beast. I also have a strong soft spot for Stitch.
Favorite Face Character: I absolutely love The Tremaines (I know its not just ONE...but you can't judge me.)
Favorite Disney Movie: Beauty and the Beast, or Frozen (But somehow I've had too much of it lately...no idea why )
Favorite Park: MAGIC KINGDOM! *chill bumps!*
Favorite Ride: Carousel of Progress


Okay, now on to meeting the famous husband, Shaun...



He loves Disney, and he's a total goober. We're two peas in a pod, even though we argue like cats and dogs sometimes. Haha. We met when I was 16 and have been together ever since. He's only the second guy I ever dated, and I knew right away he was "the one". Love this guy and his antics!

Favorite Character: Darth Vader (I insisted he's not a Disney character...they didn't create him, just bought him....but he still said he's his favorite. Fooey!)
Favorite Face Character: Face characters make him nervous. LOL. (But he was flirting with Anastasia Tremaine pretty heftily...so I'd say her!)
Favorite Disney Movie: Toy Story
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: Rock 'n' Roller Coaster!


Now, we have a son. He's 3.5 years old. We decided not to bring him on this trip because we wanted one last trip alone before we start bringing him. Plus right now, he's just too short for most of the rides that he'd want to go on...he's an adrenaline junkie and would want to ride all the roller coasters. So we asked our parents if they'd team up and watch him throughout the time we were gone. They agreed...and the planning began! We do plan to bring him next year when we go. We're planning on visiting in December....that way we can see the Christmas decorations! *WOOT!*


This year we went home for 9 wonderful days.

We had fun, we had hiccups, we had tears, and we had food. SO. MUCH. FOOD. Oh my dear lord, I am so glad I brought sweatpants for the plane ride home.

Okay, so now you know who we are and all that jazz. Please take your seats, pull the safety bar down and remain seated at all times. Keep your arms, legs, feet, head, children and mind inside this trip report at all times. Place any sanity you don't want to lose inside the safety net. This trip report will begin momentarily.

 

[hakunamomtata]

Chapter 1: Are you done yet!?
Chapter 2: How do you have this much energy?! Chapter 3: Pop! goes the vacation...

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Joining In!

Adult only trips are fun. DH and I took one last year.

 

[hakunamomtata]

Our trip dates were from 9/16-9/25, but since the airport we have to fly out of is an hour south of where we live, we decided to get a hotel near the airport and park the car at my parents house. My parents live in the next town over from the airport, so my Dad agreed to drop us off at the hotel. We could use the free shuttle to get there in the morning.

So on the 15th, Shaun had to work. He was scheduled to be out at 5 PM but said he'd try to get out early if he could. And of course...nothing ever goes to plan. His regional vice president decided that he was coming to visit, so Shaun wasn't going to be able to leave early. Really, on my semi-first day of Disney travel!?

So I spent the day packing, repacking, checking the packing list, cleaning our house, and entertaining our son. I have to say...time was going in reverse that day. It went by SO SLOW. Holy crap!

I wanted to call Shaun and ask if he was done about every ten minutes...but I couldn't. DRAT. So I sent him periodic snap chats...to no reply.

Finally, around 4:30, Shaun called me and said his RVP never showed up. REALLY!? WHY?!

So, naturally, I insisted that he get home ASAP so we could start our travels. Because really, once we got to the hotel, OUR VACATION WOULD START.

He obliged (very wisely) to come home. Then once he got home...he was lollygagging something awful. What are you doing, it's go time! So while he wasted precious time, I loaded the car up with the luggage, our son's luggage (since he'd be spending 10 days away from home), and made sure everything was locked up.

I came back upstairs to find Shaun....sitting at his computer. What!? So I naturally spent the next 4 minutes repeating "Are you done yet?!" until he FINALLY got it in gear and we were on the road!

When we got off the exit to my parents house, I realized that I didn't even feed our son dinner. Oh my god. So we had to make a pit stop at the grocery store and buy him something to eat for when he got to my mom's house. It was only about 6, so it wasn't that far off from dinner time. Poor kid!

We finally got to my parent's house around 6:20 and talked with them for a minute. Don't get me wrong, I love my parents, but I was ready to GOOOOO.

We gave our little man hugs and were finally on our way to the hotel. Woo!

Shaun's grandma had reserved us a room at a Doubletree as our anniversary gift instead of buying us something. We originally just planned on staying at a motel 6 because we didn't want to spend tons of money on a room...so this was a nice upgrade!

We went to the desk to check in and were greeted with warm cookies....oh my gosh. Now, I should have a picture of them to insert here, but they didn't make it to the elevator.

The lady behind the desk also informed us that we'd been upgraded to the presidential executive suite. WHAT!

So we headed upstairs to check out our room and drop off the luggage. Now...this room was seriously amazing.







Then I noticed these bad boys.





They were still cold, and I have no idea how they got them into our room before we got upstairs after check in, but they did and they were amazing. So sweet!

So we quickly engulfed those strawberries and walked over to the mall area for some food. I wanted Chipotle, since there isn't one near where we live. Shaun got some chinese food, then we walked around the mall for a few before heading back to our hotel.

We wasted some time watching the news and taking selfies....




We finally layed down around 9:30 to try to get to sleep early...but I was literally wide awake. Shaun passed out pretty quickly, of course. So I layed there....and stared at the ceiling. And the clock. And the window. And....the clock. Around 1:30 AM I finally fell asleep. Our alarms were set for 3:30, because we had to be to the airport for 4:00 to give us enough time to get through security and such.

Up next : How do you have this much energy?!

 

[hakunamomtata]

Joining In!

Adult only trips are fun. DH and I took one last year.

They are so fun! I've never been with any kids, so it will be an adventure taking our son next year.

So glad you're following along!

 

[vleeth]

Cookies and chocolate covered strawberries??? That's my kind of hotel!

The cookie monster thing made me lol.

 

[hakunamomtata]

Cookies and chocolate covered strawberries??? That's my kind of hotel!

The cookie monster thing made me lol.

Seriously, I want to go back and stay there again JUST for the cookie. SO GOOD.

 

[hakunamomtata]

At about 3:15AM I woke up, and I was WIDE AWAKE. Usually, any less than 8 hours of sleep is dangerous for anyone remotely near me.

But this morning, I was going to DISNEY WORLD! I jumped in for a quick shower and got dressed. And of course, I had to take a quick "travel outfit" selfie.





Can you tell I was just a wee bit excited?!


While Shaun jumped in for a quick shower and to get dressed, I brewed him a cup of coffee in the room so that he'd have some liquid energy. The first time I added the creamer to the first cup of coffee it has mold in it....totally disgusting. So I made him a fresh cup, and by the time that was ready, Shaun had gotten dressed. I did a quick sweep of the hotel room to make sure we didn't forget anything, and we were off!


The transport van was already waiting for us, so the driver loaded our luggage into the back while we checked out. It was an incredibly easy process, which hasn't been the case in the past so I was very happy. Next thing I knew we were on our way to the airport. WOO!


We checked into our flight and got our boarding passes, and headed to security. Last time we went through the security in our airport, it took over an hour. This time however....it was 4:15 AM, and the airport only opens at 4. So....it went incredibly quickly. We were through security in under 20 minutes. I was nervous about my carry-on not fitting since it was a larger duffel...but it fit fine. WOOOOO!


I have notes about a group of obnoxious people...but I have literally no memory of them. So they must have annoyed me at the time, but not enough to make an impact. LOL.


We got to our gate and staked our claims on some seats. There was a starbucks right next to our gate. So...the theme of Starbucks throughout our trip begins here. Neither of us had ever experienced Starbucks since we primarily have Dunkin' Donuts in Maine. I got a bagel and an orange juice, Shaun got a bagel with a pumpkin spice latte.




As you can see, Shaun REALLY approved. Yep, he was addicted. So as I was nomming on my bagel, our plane pulled up and started loading luggage. I WAS ABOUT TO BURST.





Soon they began boarding passengers. Our seats were close to the front, so we loaded in the last group. It was so hard being patient. Then finally...






We were on the plane and in our seats! Everyone was very quiet on the flight, probably because it was so early, but it was nice. We were offered cookies or pretzels and water or coffee. I took the bottled water and bag of pretzels and threw them in my bag for later. I figured I would either get hungry on the way to disney, or it'd be a good snack in the parks.

As we were landing at JFK, the sun was just rising.



We only had about 40 minutes before our next flight took off. Just as we made our way over to the next gate, they started boarding. Perfectly fine by me! Again we were in the front of the plane, so we boarded last.

There was an exponentially grouchy old man waiting and yelling at his wife the entire time we were waiting to board. She handled it wonderfully, by playing off his attitude and making fun of him for being so angry about going on vacation. I joked with Shaun that he'd probably be the one we were sharing a row with.

And...as I got on the plane and approached our seats...there he was. Sitting in our aisle seat. LOL. Whatever, no grouchy guy could ruin my mood.

I only packed one set of headphones, so Shaun and I split them. We started by watching the same TV show so that our audio would match. But eventually I changed it to the map so I could see how close to Orlando we were.





It felt like it took no time at all to get to MCO. We got off the plane and headed to find the Magical Express. Somehow we got lost in the airport.

And we got more lost...


And then got lost some more. Eventually we asked someone who led us in the right direction. Then I saw a little girl with an Elsa backpack and shouted to Shaun "FOLLOW THE ELSA BACKPACK!" He laughed at me for a long time. LOL.

Then I saw this beautiful sight...



[Excuse the blurryness...we got there just as it was loading so I had no time to stop for a solid photo]

THE FAKE O RAIL! And it was PACKED.




They scanned our book (since we didn't have our MBs yet) and sent us to row 5. Then someone else scanned our book. And then a third person! Finally we were waiting for our bus to show up.



We got on the bus, and I let my hair down. I mean literally....I let it DOWN. And went into full Princess mode. Hello, I was on the MAGICAL EXPRESS!



Up next: Pop! goes the vacation...

 

[hakunamomtata]

Finally we were on our way to Disney World! Our bus was filled with extremely animated people, which always makes for a nice trip. The driver announced that the first stop would be Art of Animation, then Pop! Century. HOORAY!!

I really don't enjoy the new videos on the Magical Express. Shaun and I agreed that we miss the old videos. But change is inevitable...so whatever. Moving on!

Soon we were seeing this beautiful sight...



Followed by this!




Woo! As we pulled up, I was overcome with chill bumps. The AoA was so pretty! It really hit me that I was in the World. It was so vibrant and so...DISNEY.



Love it. Soon everyone was unloaded, and we were on our way to Pop! It took no time at all to get there.




We got off the bus and grabbed our carry-ons. We headed into the lobby, which was so cute. I had checked us in online, so we headed to the "Online Check In" line.

Now, I'm not sure if you're familiar with the set up of the Pop! lobby. But there is one counter, that is very long. First is the check in area, then the online check in area, then on the far end is the concierge desk. As we were waiting in a very packed lobby, I began hearing a man's voice yelling. I started to look around, and noticed there was an employee down at the concierge end yelling and waving his arms.

When I looked toward him, he began waving at me and yelling "Come on!"

Was he talking to me?! I told Shaun, and we headed down to his desk. Yeah...that was just the beginning.

He asked us to scan our magic band. I said "We don't have them, they were supposed to come in the mail but..." and he cut me off, and began berating me saying that if I didn't get them that he wouldn't be able to check us in. I again explained that they should be waiting at the resort for us. THEN he said "Well you should have said that." and marched off. I was SO PISSED. I don't get upset easily, but this was supposed to be magical....and this was so far from it.

When Mr. Grumpy Gus returned, he said "Well you have so many room requests that your room isn't ready, so you're going to have to wait if you want the room with a king bed that faces the lake." I said that was fine, because we were heading to the parks anyway. I asked if there was any way we could leave our carry-ons there so that we could go to the parks. He literally replied "I'm not taking your bags, I'm better than that. Take them outside and there's a desk. Go talk to them." What?!

Oh my gosh, I was livid. Shaun didn't say a word, because he knows when I get upset that his best plan of attack is to stand back and let me handle it.

I left the desk before I got any more upset and we went to find where to leave our bags. The guy outside took our bags and gave us a ticket for them, and said that they'd try to get them to our room with our suitcases if they had time. Oh boy.




Luckily right then, a Magic Kingdom bus pulled up. We high tailed it onto that bus. I knew once I got to MK and onto Main Street, all the awful feelings I just got from that guy would disappear.

And as soon as I saw this...nothing else mattered...



Now, I love all of Disney World. The entire place and all the parks are beautiful. But Magic Kingdom has my heart by a long shot. I can sit on a bench and stare down Main Street for hours and be on cloud 9. There is no place on Earth that makes me happier.

We got off the bus and soon I was standing and staring at this beautiful sight.



We went up to the gate, and honestly I was so nervous that our bands wouldn't work since the guy at Pop! had been so rude. Luckily they had been fine, and we were inside. I took a minute to breathe before I went around the corner to see the castle and Main Street. Then...





I remember bursting into tears and being covered in chill bumps. I'm actually crying now just thinking about it. There is no place like Magic Kingdom, and the only feeling I get while I'm there is that I'm home. Gosh....love.


Once I gained my composure, I had a mission...



I have wanted an Alex and Ani bracelet for a long time. And buying this one warmed my heart. Shaun was in some desperate need of caffeine, so we headed into Starbucks for his first 'disney' pumpkin spice latte.

We were both starving since we hadn't eaten since 430 AM. And I had a specific place that was first on my agenda...



I am totally in love with this place. The food isn't amazing, and the atmosphere is very "cafeteria"...but something about it gives me chill bumps. Listening to the alien talk and eat greasy food.....I love it. Haha.

Shaun and I both went for the same thing, so I only took one picture.



Once we were done, we agreed on what our first ride should be. So we started heading that way...



The Carousel of Progress is my all time favorite ride. Shaun loves it too. So we enjoyed some AC and sang along to that. The song was exactly what I needed to hear since we had a rough start to our time in the world.

Up next : Chapter 4: These bathrooms are famous!

 

[vleeth]

Wow, how incredibly unDisney was that guy?!?

Did you have more room request than 'king & lake'? Cause two is a normal amount if you ask me!

CoP is one of my favorites. The song is just so darn catchy.

 

[hakunamomtata]

Wow, how incredibly unDisney was that guy?!?

Did you have more room request than 'king & lake'? Cause two is a normal amount if you ask me!

CoP is one of my favorites. The song is just so darn catchy.

We didn't! We only requested king and lake, and really the only thing that mattered was a king sized bed so that we could sleep together. Room view at the values never really mattered to me since it wasn't like I'd be seeing a theme park or the savannah anyhow. He was SO grumpy. Geesh!

 

[OperationPalmTree]

Jennnn I'm herreee!!!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

What a grumpy pus at check in! Glad you were able to shake it off and not let it ruin the start to your trip.

 

[hakunamomtata]

jennnn i'm herreee!!!

kaylaaaaaa!!

 

[hakunamomtata]

What a grumpy pus at check in! Glad you were able to shake it off and not let it ruin the start to your trip.

I'm pretty sure a nuclear blast couldn't prevent me from being happy at Disney. I was so determined not to let him pee on my parade! Lol