My Very First Trip Report- January '15 Honeymoon (Completed)

[Opicana]

I've never done this trip report thing, though I have read several on these forums. Please feel free to give feedback, recommendations, tips, encouragement, etc... throughout this process as I have no idea what I'm doing!

I hope it is okay to still start a trip report this long after the trip. I wasn't planning on doing one, but I was on here yesterday reading some other people's reports and was inspired. I'm currently planning my next trip and it'd be nice to relive my previous experience with all of you while I'm waiting for the next.

The cast of this trip:

- Kära (me): I'm a 31 year old molecular biology lab technician. Besides Disney, I love cats, penpaling, blogging, board games, pc games, Legos, reading fantasy, D&D and soap-making.

- Jimmy (my husband): He's a 32 year old astronomer. He loves cats, fixing cars, football, home improvement, watching video clips of funny things on the internet, and board games.

Notice we both love cats? Yeah, the result is that we have 8 furchildren. No human offspring yet, but hoping to get around to that within the next 5 years.



After 15 years together, we were married in October 2014. We are originally from Massachusetts, but moved to Ohio to attend graduate school (I got a Masters in Biology, he got a PhD in Astronomy). Graduate school, for both time and money reasons, kept us from getting around to the whole marriage thing until last fall. We had a small, informal wedding where guests were allowed to wear jeans, we ate pizza, and played board games.

The money we and our families saved on the wedding allowed us to take an awesome honeymoon. Our friends were also very generous in helping to fund our trip. We have a lot of people to thank for our amazing time!

We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for just over a week!

Up next: For the First Time in Forever

 

[thiabelle]

You are off to a great start! I'm following along

 

[Opicana]

The First Time in Forever

I visit WDW several times as a child staying at everything from Port Orleans to the Grand Floridian. I also visited DL a few times as well. I was fortunate enough to have parents who adored Disney. Unfortunately, my last trip was 13 years prior to this one. My husband's first and only trip until now was that same trip. We went with my mom, stepdad, stepbrother, stepbrother's girlfriend, stepsister, and sister. It was a good experience. Nothing super memorable, but nothing bad either. However, it was nothing like we experienced on this past trip. I had only been dating Jimmy for a couple years, so we hadn't settled into the comfortable zone yet. Also, I was a senior in highschool and he was in his first year at college (if my memory serves correctly, anyway), so we were young, awkward, and striving to be cool. This time was totally different.

After that trip, Disney faded into the background. I still said I loved Disney, still put on Finding Nemo whenever I wanted something on the TV while I cleaned, and occasionally purchased some Disney merchandise, but I wasn't the fan girl I once was. I missed WDW a LOT. Every few years I'd buy a couple of planning guides just to dream, but I thought it was financially impossible.

In fact, the only vacations we went on were: back home to visit family, or up to Maine to share my grandfather's cabin with a group of friends. This honeymoon would be our FIRST trip that was just the two of us (and certainly not our last, why did I wait this long?!), not only to Disney, but to anywhere.

I can't believe it took me 13 years to get back to Disney. It won't happen again!

Due to the circumstances (the wedding), I went with a travel agent for this trip. I didn't have the time or energy to make the needed phone calls and figure out the steps. It was disappointing, because I LOVE planning so that's a huge chunk of the fun for me. But the reduction in stress was worth it. We also flew down since Jimmy had limited time (he had to squeeze it in between semesters of teaching) and a generous family member purchased our tickets with frequent flyer miles. Normally, we'd drive. We are moving closer this summer (to Virginia), so we'll be driving next time.



I purchased a Duffy from the Disney store to accompany me on my journey. I adore my Duffy. He has traveled other places since (to Virginia for house hunting). He also is the only stuffed animal that gets placed on the bed after I make it. He's got lots of privileges.



I also pre-purchased some snazzy improvements for my magic band.


Here's my band. Jimmy got a gray one.



Packing began two days before our trip- January 7th.

My goals for this trip:
- See as much as possible (it'd been 13 years!)
- Get into Pin Trading
- Meet Gaston
- Wear Mickey Bride ears

Up Next: Airplane Snacks and Arrival at AKL

 

[Opicana]

You are off to a great start! I'm following along

Thanks!

 

[Opicana]

Hmm...for some reason my images appeared to stop working. They were previously fine. I'll need to look into this before moving on...

 

[Opicana]

Okay, photos are fixed. I think.

 

[Opicana]

Airplane Snacks and Arrival at AKL

Sorry for the technical difficulties involving the photos, I used the same method as I do on other forums (image URl) but for some reason the photos only lasted a few hours. It took me awhile to upload since I have to resize everything- the files are too big.




We got two of the snack boxes on the airplane. I love samplers, gift baskets, surprises boxes, etc...and I also LOVE food...so this was right up my alley. Everything we had was really good, and it was actually pretty reasonably priced- they give you a LOT of good stuff. I expected to feel ripped off, but I was full and happy after these.


This was my first time on the Magical Express- very exciting!



There was a bit of lobby construction (changing the floor) but AKL was gorgeous and well themed. This was agreat choice for a honeymoon.

Here are the views from our room:



And another from a hallway:


I'll discuss this now since I'm not sure it'll come up later. While we LOVED our resort, a lot, we discovered that we don't fully utilize our resort. We don't go to bars and lounges, we don't spend time in the pool or arcade, we don't sleep in, we stay at the parks all day, we don't participate in very many resort activities, we spend all day in the parks, and don't eat often at the resort. Basically, we discovered that we'd do just fine at a value resort- for now. Since a value stay is in the budget for this year, I am planning our next trip for January. Perhaps sometime in our future we'll desire a deluxe again, but for now...just bring on the parks!

And that's this installment since it just yelled at me for trying to upload more than 10 photos,

Up next: Dinner at Sanaa

Thanks for reading!

 

[wiscbugs]

Pics look good now!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Following along! We just took our Disneymoon in April! I am writing my trip report as well We also stayed at AKL!

 

[SarahDisney]

Following along!
We always stay value just because we really don't spend enough time at the hotel. The deluxe hotels are really nice ... but it's hard to justify spending the money if you're not spending time there.

And I love that Duffy went house-hunting with you. If it's not good enough for Duffy, you can't live there!

 

[Opicana]

Pics look good now!

Great, thanks!

Following along! We just took our Disneymoon in April! I am writing my trip report as well We also stayed at AKL!

Awesome! I will check out your trip report later today!! AKL is such a great choice for a honeymoon!

Following along!
We always stay value just because we really don't spend enough time at the hotel. The deluxe hotels are really nice ... but it's hard to justify spending the money if you're not spending time there.

And I love that Duffy went house-hunting with you. If it's not good enough for Duffy, you can't live there!

Exactly. More money saved on lodging = more money I can spend on pins or a longer stay or come back more often.

So, my husband and my cats and all my furniture and stuff are in Virginia without me while I stay in Toledo to sell our old house, but Duffy is with me, LOL. He reminds me of my happy place.

 

[Opicana]

Dinner at Sanaa & DHS


Duffy Bear settled in for the night to relax, while we got settled in and prepared for our dinner with my father (who lives nearby, so we met him at the resort).

We also picked up our Happily Ever After pins!

Sanaa was one of my favorite dining experiences of the trip. I wish our ADR were a bit earlier so that we could've seen the wildlife for a bit longer. Still we made it there early enough to get some awesome views before we ate, and then it got to dark.
We shared the Indian Bread Service...I loved all of it.

We had the chicken tandoori for dinner. Once again, we shared. It was good, not as great as the appetizer or dessert. But good.

For dinner, we got this piece of heaven. I don't usually like caramel sauce, and banana-flavored things are just okay but all these were DELICIOUS! Look at the gorgeous butterfly! The first one, on the left, is Tanzanian Chocolate Mousse, the second is banana cheesecake, and the third was pumpkin kulfi (an ice cream-like thing). The kulfi was AMAZING best dessert of the trip!
Highly recommend Sanaa!

The next morning was Disney's Hollywood Studios! On this trip, we had 1 day at DHS, 1 day at AK, 2 days at MK, 2 days at Epcot, and 1/2 free day plus some DtD. I picked DHS for this day because of crowd levels, and because I like saving the best things for later. DHS is my least favorite park, so it went first.

Our day is slightly more relaxed at DHS than for some other people. I don't do RnRC or ToT due to motion sickness, so without having to battle lines for those rides, our day is a bit more flexible than other folks.



Obviously, we went to Toy Story Mania! I didn't take a picture of my score since I had never ridden it before so I didn't "get" it, or know what to expect. I don't even remember my score! However, now that I know I'm going to want to keep track and try to beat my previous score, this is on my to do list for my next trip. Also, I've already add it to my touring plan twice!

I LOVED the queue! Well done, Disney.



Since I wasn't planning on doing a trip report (though I did do a daily blog for my family while we were down there), I didn't do a very good job of a) taking ride photos or b) taking notes. Also, remember this is in January. I have a horrible memory so pardon my descriptions that read something to the effect of "we rode stuff".


And that was pretty much we did in the morning, I think the morning was Toy Story, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Muppetvision, and the Great Movie Ride.


Next Up: A Very Thick Sandwich

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Sanaa!

The Toy Story queue is one of my favorite queues in all of WDW. It's so much fun! (It also helps that it's one of my favorite rides)
Sounds like you had a good morning! It's definitely hard to remember what you did months later ... that's why I mark maps (which is something I was doing long before I had ever heard of TRs just because I knew I wouldn't remember things when telling my family & friends about the trip!)

 

[Opicana]

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Sanaa!

The Toy Story queue is one of my favorite queues in all of WDW. It's so much fun! (It also helps that it's one of my favorite rides)
Sounds like you had a good morning! It's definitely hard to remember what you did months later ... that's why I mark maps (which is something I was doing long before I had ever heard of TRs just because I knew I wouldn't remember things when telling my family & friends about the trip!)

Interesting! How do you mark them? Just check off rides? Record times? Take notes? Do you use the park maps they give out or print your own? I'm interested in finding a good way to record the day (since I have an awful memory) that goes beyond photos. I'm not particularly good at keeping up with a journal.

 

[SarahDisney]

Interesting! How do you mark them? Just check off rides? Record times? Take notes? Do you use the park maps they give out or print your own? I'm interested in finding a good way to record the day (since I have an awful memory) that goes beyond photos. I'm not particularly good at keeping up with a journal.

I grab an extra park map when I get to the park and whenever I go on a ride, I mark off what number ride that was. And since I'm directionally impaired, I often have the map out anyway, so it's not even that much extra work, it's just writing down a number next to the attraction name.
I also sometimes take notes, but it's easier to mark it off on the map.

 

[Opicana]

A Very Thick Sandwich


Here is our second meal at WDW and is where we began to realize we'd be able to share every meal. Jimmy and I enjoy sharing meals. He's a pretty light eater, we have similar tastes, and we like being able to get snacks/desserts/apps/etc... We actually spent significantly less on food than I had budgeted for because the portion sizes were so big! This definitely helped with my decision to plan another trip as well, it was more affordable than I had thought.
This turkey sandwich, cookie, banana and chips came from Starring Rolls and it was delicious! My only issue was the severe lack of seating. The park wasn't particularly crowded that day, but we still had to walk a ways and plunk down on a park bench.

I decided Duffy needed some more photos.

The proportion of shows at DHS made scheduling challenging...lots of rushing to make it to the next show, and lots of waiting downtime. I wasn't particularly a fan of the Beauty & the Beast show or The Little Mermaid. They were good, of course, but they are basically just shortened versions of movies I know by heart. They aren't as unique as Finding Nemo- The Musical, for instance. On our next trip, I am planning to skip these two, in order to go on some rides twice (such as Toy Story, Star Tours and the Great Movie Ride).

This photopass photo actually happened pretty early in the day, I believe. It was just in a different folder of photos, so I decided to toss it in now.

It has been a long time since I'd seen Indiana Jones, so I totally fell for the audience plant for a little while, lol.

I think my family always skipped Lights!Motors!Action! in the past, so it was interesting to get to see it for the first time. I could do without the hosts and premise of the show, but the drivers are really fun to watch.


We had an early ADR at Hollywood & Vine for the VIP Fastpass package. We were sort of tired at this point, had an awkward amount of time before our ADR, and the Patriots were playing a playoff game that Jimmy was trying to watch on his phone. So, we took a little break near the lake for some downtime.


Once again, this picture is out-of-order. This may have been taking on our way in, I can't remember.

Next Up: Dinner and Fantasmic VIP seats

 

[Opicana]

I grab an extra park map when I get to the park and whenever I go on a ride, I mark off what number ride that was. And since I'm directionally impaired, I often have the map out anyway, so it's not even that much extra work, it's just writing down a number next to the attraction name.
I also sometimes take notes, but it's easier to mark it off on the map.

Smart! I'm going to try to remember to add that to my planning notes sometime today. Simply knowing the order of attractions could do a lot to refresh one's memory!

 

[SarahDisney]

I think one of the biggest problems with DHS is the show times - somehow it's never easy to figure out how to properly schedule your show watching, and you're either waiting forever for a show with nothing else to do or rushing between shows. I'm really hoping they do something about that at some point ... but so far, no luck. Maybe if/when they add more rides it'll make it easier to find things to do in the long gaps between shows (not sure what they can do about the rushing between shows other than changing show times).

 

[Opicana]

I think one of the biggest problems with DHS is the show times - somehow it's never easy to figure out how to properly schedule your show watching, and you're either waiting forever for a show with nothing else to do or rushing between shows. I'm really hoping they do something about that at some point ... but so far, no luck. Maybe if/when they add more rides it'll make it easier to find things to do in the long gaps between shows (not sure what they can do about the rushing between shows other than changing show times).

Exactly. More rides would probably help. I think they are working on that! Fingers crossed.

 

[Opicana]

Dinner, Fantasmic, and the start of our first MK day



I started collecting pins! I went for the Hidden Mickey blind packages- because I love blind bags/surprises/randomness. The pin situation will grow out of control quickly, LOL.



Dinner at Hollywood & Vine was very "meh". The food quality was just okay, and it was definitely not worth the price. We learned even more about how food was going to operate for us on this trip- buffets would be our most expensive meals by a LOT. Hollywood & Vine was our least favorite meal. However, our seats for Fantasmic were pretty great! Perfect view!



I really enjoyed Fantasmic and plan to go on my next trip. My favorite part is the music. When I think of Disney, I always get the Fantasmic music stuck in my head! I'm considering getting a Fastpass for the next trip so we can still get decent seating. Since we don't do RnR or TOT, and we get there early and go during low-crowd times, it may be the best use of a FP.



I'm a huge fan of Christmas- I have special Christmas eyeglasses I switch to for the holiday season and I start wearing them in mid-November, for example. So it came as a surprise to Jimmy and myself at how angry I became at the Christmas decorations still in the park. It was mid-January. Christmas was long gone and I hadn't been to Disney for over a decade, I wanted DISNEY music and DISNEY decorations, gosh darn it! Fortunately, these started coming down about half-way through our trip. Next January, I plan to go a week later, lol.



I picked up my Mickey Bride ears! Jimmy found it difficult to wear the hat all the time, so he didn't wear his, but left it in the room. I agreed that I would have found the hat annoying, but I was lucky enough to have the bride version available in a headband. Much more comfortable! Duffy was in charge of keeping them nice for me at night.



Waiting for the bus! And now we are on to Day 3 (our second day in the parks) with a trip to the Magic Kingdom!



Much to our surprise, the bus dropped us off at the TTC! As it turns out, it was because of the marathon weekend events. It was okay, though, because crowds weren't that terrible, and we had fun taking the boat over!



Our first stop turned out to be one of our favorite rides of the trip- the Jungle Cruise! I had a new appreciation for it as an adult. I love all the jokes, the delivery of the jokes, and how the script varies depending on who you get.



Although, I was not entertained by the Christmas decorations still being up.



I'm not exactly sure the order in which we did things here. I'm guessing we probably did Pirates and the Tiki Room before heading to Frontierland, but I don't know. I can't even remember if we had Fastpasses at this point, LOL. All I can tell you is that we had a LOT of fun!!! Here is Duffy at Country Bears. Duffy sat on my lap for this one, thought'd he appreciate it.

Definitely going to take @SarahDisney's suggestion of numbering the ride order! That would be SO helpful right now, LOL.

Thank you ALL for following along. I am having SO much fun reliving my Disney experience. Despite not being able to remember the fine details of things, I am remembering how much fun we had and it's making me super excited for the next one. So thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this.

Up Next: Big Thunder and Be Our Guest lunch!