Vader, F&G, Mother's Day, A B-DAY, 4 Parks & Only One Weekend!! Can we do it all!?

[DisneyMountainWoman]

A May 2014 TR!! Updated: June 25th, 2014

Intro:
Mom ended up doing a work trip in the area and we noticed it was right around Mother's Day and my Husband Birthday. So we decided to do a quick trip We only have 2 days in the park and we plan on hitting all 4 parks, celebrating my husband's b-day, mother's day for my mom, Food and Garden Festival in Epcot, 2 all new Star War Character Meals and all in one weekend!!

We live in Colorado, I am from Northern VA though. Mom moved to Northern Va before I was born then moved back to CO after 25 years in the DC area. My husband is also from Northen VA and then moved out to Colorado with me.

A little about us:
My name is Marcea, I am a 29 year old, who has a little 8 year inside of her ready to burst at any moment!

So my day job is something that takes advantage of the fact I loove to plan and researcher things to death and is very stereotypical for a person who loves to plan.....
I am a wedding planner, yep like Jennifer Lopez but a lot less glamorous.
I am the person standing in the background making sure all the magic happens just like the Disney World CMs.
I get to work in some pretty fantastic locations in Colorado like this:

I may be getting back into teaching history though, keeping my fingers cross.

My Fav Ride: Space Mountain
My Fav Park: HS (Star Wars, Muppets, and Disney all mixed in one, need I say more?)
My Fav Character: Tie between Mulan and Merida ( I love the princess that fend for themselves and do not need a prince to save them)
My Fav Movie: I have a hard time with this answer I love to many to pick just one.
My Fav Restaurant: Be Our Guest
My Fav Drink: The Grey Goose Slushy in France

My Husband:
He will be turning 31. He is an accountant for a local CPA firm. This is a great trip for him since he just got out of the crazy tax season. So this will be a nice break for him. He is the silent type and does not like being in pics, so I would not except a lot of pics of him I am the outgoing one this relationship. He grew up going to WDW all the time as a kid, he has been there way more times than me.

So when I told him, that people write what they like about the park, he decided to have some fun and pick things that are not around anymore. This is what he decided:

His Fav Ride: Honey, I Shrunk the Audience
His Fav Park: Pleasure Island because I never got experience it
His Fav Character: Mufasa
His Fav Movie: The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made
His Fav Restaurant: Cinderella's Castle (that was a big surprise and he just could not think of a restaurant that was not around anymore that he liked)
His Fav Drink: New Coke (but he really just loves coke and he just wanted to keep with the theme)
His Fav Food: He doesn't remember but he sure they do not make it anymore

My Mom:
My Mother is a civilian working at a local military base. She travels a lot for work, which means lots of millage points! We are very much a like, we like all the same things. I love traveling with my mom

Mom's Fav Ride: Tea Cups
Mom's Fav Park: Epcot (because she gets to eat and drink a lot)
Mom's Fav Character: Mary Poppins
Mom's Fav Movie: Mary Poppins (there could be a theme going here)
Mom's Fav Restaurant: San Angel Inn
Mom's Fav Drink: The Tequila and Sangria at San Angel Inn

I hope you enjoy my trip report, I have learned a few things from my first trip, like I need to take notes while I am at the park, so it should be good!

Also check out my older trip report that is in my sig too!

Chapters:
The Details!

May 8th, 2014:
Travel Day

May 9th, 2014:
Arriving at Pop!
Our room!
The Pop Century Resort
Pool Time
Lunch Time
Exploring AoA
Downtown Disney
Dinner
Evening Fun

May 10th, 2014:
3 Parks in One Day!!!
Animal Kingdom Part 1
Animal Kingdom Part 2

 

[anniebabymu]

Hi from Facebook! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Hi from Facebook! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

Hello Right now I am working on editing all my pics, man that takes a while but should be posting my details page today

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Tickets:
We only have two days, so we went with park hoppers so we can see all the parks.

Transportation:
Mom will be traveling for work, so free airplane tickets. She will be flying in Tuesday and will be working all week.
So mom travels for work a lot, so we are using United mileage points for free flight. When we looked at what was avaible and there was no flights we could use points for on Friday, grr... So we checked Thursday and there was one available flying out at 4:00 pm, yeah! We will be flying out on Monday at 9:20 am, early but it was the only thing open.

Mom will be renting a car, we will be taking advantage of the free buses until mom meets up with us on Friday.

Accommodations:

Thursday:
Hampton Inn and Suites next the Orlando Airport: Since this is a extra day we did not budget for and we will be arriving late at 10:00 pm, we booked using mom's Hilton points for a hotel that had free shuttle to and from the airport and free breakfast.
Friday-Monday:
Pop Century Resort: Budget was key so we were looking at Shades of Green and Pop Resort. What finally pushed us over was Pop was cheaper, esp cheaper when you factor in having to pay for parking and we wanted to book our FP+ ahead of time. (At the time, only on site guests got to book FP+)

Overall Plan:
Tuesday May 6th, 2014: Mom flies in and works.
Thursday May 8th, 2014: We fly in arrive at 10:00 pm and take free shuttle to Hampton Inn and Suites.
Friday May 9th, 2014: Take free shuttle to Airport and then take Disney Magical Express to Pop resorts. Meet mom later that evening at DTD.
Saturday May 10th, 2014: AK, MK, HS
Sunday May 11th, 2014: HS, Epcot, MK
Monday May 12th: Leave

So there is our overall game plan, hope you guys enjoy!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So our first day started off with a surprise.

Yep, that is snow in our back yard and it is May!

Well the plan was for my Husband to mow the lawn, I guess he got out of it today

Our flight isn't till 4:30pm so we are not rushing. We pack and get the house ready. Drop off our doggy at his camp.

Then Mark gets an important email from work, so before we head out, we head out to his office, to answer the clients questions.

And then we head out!

It takes about 2 hours to get up there. You can see my husband is thrilled

I warned him this is just the start of the picture taking and I gave my evil laugh

Check in was interesting. From some reason they had problem with Marks ticket. But hey it is a free ticket and we get free luggage Yeah mom united points!

Security was really fast, there seemed to be no one traveling today. We decided to get dinner here and we will either eat it on the plane or when at the hotel. We will be arriving late enough the airport restaurants will be all closed.

We go to Dis board's fav Wolfgang Puck Express. One of the best things about Denver Airport

We decide pizza is the best option, because it taste good cold or hot.

So we pack this away for when we are hungry and we wait. Luckliy our plane is on time, I have fun with selfies....

Our view:

So boarding starts, we are in United plus with priority boarding, so we get in nice and painless. Our seats are nice, nothing to complain about. They even now have chargers in our seats So I put on Up the movie and relax and try not to get too excited...

And 3 and 1/2 hours later we arrive!!! 9:45 pm

We head to the fake monorail and then get our bags. Since we are not taking Magic Express till tomorrow we have to get our bags.

My husbands happy face

He really is happy, he just hates pics and I just do not care, like any good wife

We get our bags and call our hotel shuttle to pick us up. It takes about 10 mins and we are on our way! Again we are staying at Orlando Airport Hampton Inn and Suites.

Check in is fast, I am to tried and hungry at this point to take pics until we get in to our room.

We walked into our room and were floored!

We got a suite upgrade!!

We get out our Wolfgang Puck food and microwave the pizza and dig in. It is still yummy and then we head to bed.

Tomorrow Disney!

 

[dramadrew]

Hello back from facebook!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So today we wake up nice and early. Well at least I do from all the excitement and then my husband joins me

One of the nice things about this hotel is the free breakfast, so we head on down for some food

I take the opportunity to get some pics of the lobby area.

The area outside looks nice, with a fire pit too.

Big breakfast area

We eat our food and head back to the room to grab our luggage. Luckily we really did not unpack so it was pretty easy to pack up again.

We hop onto the 7:30 shuttle (they have the shuttle run every 1/2 an hour) to the airport. Our driver ask us what airline we are going on and we told him we are not going on an airline but Magic Express. He said np, he can drop us off where he normally picks up people to put us closer to Magic Express buses. Yeah

We arrive at our Magic Express pretty quickly and they are literally just opening up at 8am, yeah!

We so far look like the only guests here. It looks strangely deserted.

They asked us which resort, which I said with a smile Pop Century and they directed us to lane 4.
While we waited a few mins, I took this opportunity for more pics, as you can see my husband was thrilled

Check out his shirt he is wearing, I love that shirt on him because it is soo him.

After a few mins of waiting, they have us meet our driver and he let us know we will be having our own bus, yeah!

Our Bus Driver, so nice

We watch the new video, which is okay. It was funny having my husband watch it because he has not been to disney in a while and he was amazed at all the new things.

And then in the distance we see our magical sign!!

I am now literally not trying to jump up and down like a little kid and I even see my husband smiling now

So pretty soon we see our sign to our home Pop Century Resort

He helps us with our bags and we tip him with what little cash we had on hand. And we head in to check in.
We did the online check in, so we went into the short line. It looks like there are a lot of people who are inline about checking out.
While waiting I grab my minnie ears out of my carry on bag and quickly put them on. That is how I know I am in disney

We checked in and they called the cleaning CMs to see if they got our room ready, I said no worries, we did not except our room to be ready so early and they said it was ready!!! It is around 9am and they already had our room ready. Wow, what great service! In the online check in I indicated we were going to be there really early and man do they try and accommodate you. In our online preference we asked for a floor room and close to transportation.

Next post find out what room we got

 

[MeeskaMomma]

Joining in

I have the quiet picture hating husband too, but he was a good sport for Disney. Loving the TR so far. Need to catch up!

 

[scrpbookr]

I've subbed and I'm looking forward to following along on your trip!

 

[DisDancerina]

Love your TR so far; so fun! And you're super adorable, too! It looks like you guys had a great time. I can't wait to hear more!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Joining in

I have the quiet picture hating husband too, but he was a good sport for Disney. Loving the TR so far. Need to catch up!

Hehe, sounds like our husbands would get along.

I've subbed and I'm looking forward to following along on your trip!

Welcome!

Love your TR so far; so fun! And you're super adorable, too! It looks like you guys had a great time. I can't wait to hear more!

Thanks, I hope you enjoy the rest of it!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So they directed us to our room!

We got 80s building, floor 1, right across the parking lot. Yeah,this is what we requested! This was the area I wanted because it is one of the closest rooms to the bus without having to upgrade.

Also before we could leave the check in lady, we asked if she could hold on to Mom's magic band and parking pass. Mom was going to meet us at DTD, so we would not have any easy way for letting her into our room. She needs to change out of her work clothes and into vacation clothes before she joins us this evening. And they said yes. Cool.

So we trudge on to our room with our luggage and now we start dripping with sweat. I wanted to take a ton of pics already, but hands were full, so I would just have to wait. We seem like we are going against traffic, seems like everyone is heading to the park or breakfast.

When my husband saw our building he laughed, he loved that we were staying in the pac man building since he is a gamer and a child of the 80s.

And then we made it to our room. Yeah

What I find funny about these rooms, the outside is so loud and in your face and cool and then the rooms on the inside are kinda of boring. But I already knew that and really how much time do you spend in your room, if your are park commandos like us not much time. The shower looks strait out of the 80's which means it is ugly. But the shower head is actually really nice, better than what we have, so yeah!

Next we start putting our stuff away and put up a little sign for my husband's b-day. Husband texts my mom, to let her know her know our room number and they are holding her magic band at the front desk.
Slight issue I found out, my sign is a bit to big for the window.... but I make it work. I brought little window suction cups to use to hang the sign.

So I told my husband, I will be wondering around, taking pics and buy our mug and I asked if he wanted to join me this was his answer...

So I head off and leave my husband doing what he naturally likes to do sleep on vacation

So here is the 80 and 90's pool area, kind of boring compared to the others but it does the job.

One of my husband's fav movies

Love these things, they look even cooler in the dark.

LOOVE these guys!

So then I head over the lake area and this area is gorgeous. Almost makes me want to request a lake side room next time, but the walk at the end of the day from the bus to our room makes me want to keep our room

Next up the rest of Pop Resort

 

[amberg93]

Following along from Facebook.

Yay for free flights and free upgrades! Can't say no to free

Great pictures of Pop, it looks super nice. I may or may not be there in September, so it's nice to see it.

Also, agreed. Bus walks at the end of the night at the best way to judge things.

 

[TillyDe]

Enjoying your report.
Subbing

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Following along from Facebook.

Yay for free flights and free upgrades! Can't say no to free

Great pictures of Pop, it looks super nice. I may or may not be there in September, so it's nice to see it.

Also, agreed. Bus walks at the end of the night at the best way to judge things.

Hello fellow facebooker!

Enjoying your report.
Subbing

Welcome

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So next I wonder over the 70s building, sorry for all the pics

Now all I need is a soccer ball

Pretty flowers

Then the 50s area

I love that they even have bowling balls next to the pool!

Next I head to go get a mug.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

test, could not see my last post

 

[MeeskaMomma]

All caught up! Love your pics! We briefly walked through pop our last visit. It is really neat.

I think our husbands would sooo get a long!

 

[scrpbookr]

You took some great Pop pics! It is such a fun resort!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

All caught up! Love your pics! We briefly walked through pop our last visit. It is really neat.

I think our husbands would sooo get a long!

I really love Pop it is my fav Value, AoA I really do not consider a value because of the high prices.
Hehe, I joke around with my husband that I should set up play dates with him with some of the other husbands here

You took some great Pop pics! It is such a fun resort!

Yeah, thanks, Pop is just really cool esp for the price.