WAIT! IS THAT THE SWALPHIN?! A January 2014 Trip Report

[Surfinpiratee]

WELCOME EVERYONE!

Welcome to my first TR! I've been waiting to write one of these since I first started planning my trip!

Let's get right in to it! But first, we must do introductions

First off - the people who embarked on this journey!

This is me (Mary) and my boyfriend, Billy!




THIS WAS MY FIRST TRIP TO DISNEY WORLD! It was quite exciting. I have been to Disneyland back in 2001. I was young then, but definitely remember it! Disney Facts about me?
1. Favorite movies: Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lion King, Tangled, and now FROZEN (that movie was so good GDHSUIGHDJSFK)
2. Favorite Princess: Rapunzel and Bell.
3. Favorite Prince: FLYNN RYDER.

And now, onto my boyfriend of 3 years, Billy!


He went to Disney World as a kid, a few times. Nothing he REALLY remembers though. So a lot of it was a first experience for his as well!!!

Favorite movies: Finding Nemo, Tangled, Frozen, UP.
Favorite Princess: I'm not sure of his favorite...all I know if Jasmine is one of his least favorites... SHE'S LIKE MY SECOND FAVORITE!
Favorite Prince: Probably Flynn Ryder...or Kristolf(sp?!?) from Frozen (even though he's not a prince, but he's lovely )

On with the trip details....

We drove to Disney!! Took us like 20-21 hours
We were there from January 3 - January 9.
We stayed for POR for the first 2 nights, then Coronado Springs for the last 4 nights!!

I can't wait to re-live my trip through writing this TR!

So until next time..

----------------------

P.S.
WHAT THE HECK DOES EVERYONE DO WHEN THEY DON'T HAVE A TRIP PLANNED?! Like, the next day I was home I started fake planning another trip!!! I can't wait until I actually have another trip planned... *sigh..*​

 

[RDawn]

And thank you for letting us re-live your WDW trip too. "Fake Planning" is one of my favorite things to do! I have a trip priced out for May & one for September. I am so happy to hear that I am not the only one who does this!

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Thursday, January 2nd - Day 1 (Part 1): Driving and Driving and Cold Toes!!!

This is the departure day chapter! It's not very exciting..because I don't really have any pictures. So I'll keep this short! YOU CAN'T JUST NOT TALK ABOUT DEPARTURE DAY!

So skipping the boring details: woke up early, packed, all that good stuff.

Billy picked me up and we went to his house so he could finish packing. This was around 5:30pm. Our goal was to leave by 7-7:30pm. So I was downstairs talking to his Mom while he packed. It was quite cold in his house and his Mom informed he their heater was broken . It didn't help much that we were standing on very cold tile for a while (FORESHADOWING).

Moving on...Billy finished packing, we made pizza, and began to pack the car.

While I was loading up the car, I noticed my toes were SUPER numb. I went to run hot water over them in the bathroom, and they were like, WHITE. They were so cold! So I put 2 other socks on each foot (total of 3 pairs on each foot ) They were indeed warmer! And once we started our drive and cranked the heat, they were soon nice n toasty!

Driving was very uneventful. I drove the first leg. It was SUPPOSE to be like a 6-8 hour leg. Yeah, no. After 3 hours I was kinda sick of driving. So we got gas and Billy continued the drive. He drove from roughly 30 miles outside Indianapolis:

(This lovely photo is from google images)

So from there ^ all the way to Louisville!


So we drove through Nashville, and Chatanooga (mountains!), and Atlanta.

Soon enough, we were in Florida!

But it still took us another 3 hours to get to Disney. IT WAS NEVER ENDING.​

 

[Surfinpiratee]

I'm really really really sorry for that dreadfully painful update! But it had to be done, I promise my next trip I will make the drive more exciting, so I have something more to talk about

ONTO THE UPDATE!

Friday, January 3 - Day 1 (Part 2)

So when I had left off, we had arrived in Disney! Except..

WE DIDN'T PASS UNDER THE ARCH.

However I didn't let that ruin my day! I was basically like, I was really excited. And guess what? I cried..it was just so overwhelming! And then I started seeing sights that I had been reading/seeing pictures of for my months of planning! One of which was the Swalphin (this is where the TR title comes in). So I cried out "Look it's the Swalphin!" Billy had no idea what a 'swalphin' was. So I had to explain it to him...multiple times on this trip...

Anyways. Our GPS was silly and tried taking us through some employee entrance We had to turn around and find the main entrance to... PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE!

We parked and went to check in, it was 7:20pm so I figured everyone had pretty much checked in. WRONG. It was a rather long line. Then Billy asks, "Do you have the Magic Bands?" Don't worry I did They were in the car.

So we got our MBs and continued to wait in line. The line moved fairly quick. Soon enough we were checked in and headed to our room section!

We were put in Alligator Bayou! I had requested Magnolia Bend..so I was hoping we would like AB section. And wow. We were in love.

(First Disney picture if the trip!)

We were in love with the rooms!



The rooms were just perfection.

We did indeed have a Murphy bed. I also joked around saying 'Fra-gee-le' How they say it in A Christmas Story?



I wasn't sure what kind of animal this was. But it was a towel animal and I was pumped.

The bathroom was pretty much the most amazing bathroom ever. Just look at the detail!



So ridiculously adorable.


After we explored our room a bit. We were very hungry. So we headed down to the food court for dinner.​

 

[funnycat]

Really looking forward to more updates! Riverside is such a pretty resort. I can't wait to see what you think of Coronado Springs too.

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Really looking forward to more updates! Riverside is such a pretty resort. I can't wait to see what you think of Coronado Springs too.

We really loved both resorts!! We liked different things better about each one. I think over all we liked POR better...not really sure why..haha

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Friday, January 3 - Day 1 (Part 3)

So when I left off, we were on our way to the food court to eat dinner! Now, we wanted to save as much money as possible. So we pre made a lot of our meals, and brought snacks and stuff. So tonight, we ate Chicken Tortilla Soup!! We made this in the crockpot before we left home It was delicious, and I don't have a picture of it. But you get the idea. Here's the super cute dining hall at POR:


It was really nice, a lot of tables so everyone can sit.
When we were finished eating, we went to check out the gift shop!!


Billy found Mickey's Sorcerer hat. He was pretty dead set on getting it, but decided against it


I really liked Jack Sparrow's hat..but again, didn't buy it haha.

This was pretty much the greatest gift shop to ever be created


I mean, could you really get more adorable?

After the gift shop, we went back to our room, watched some Stacey and HGTV (don't even ask, we became obsessed) and passed out! We were super tired from our long journey, and super excited to go to my first Disney park tomorrow! ​

 

[GetUpTop]

Subbed!

My DGF and I are probably staying at POR in the fall, it looks pretty amazing! Also, it's funny how a 17 hour drive turns out to be much much longer. Happened to us as well

 

[LuvEeyore]

Joining in on the fun. I am planning a trip for the same time you went next year to celebrate my 50th. I am probably going to drive for the first time in years. 11 hours is enough. I cant imagine 20 hours.

 

[PH7]

Great review so far! DBF and I are going in may

 

[WildernessExplorer04]

Joining in!
Your room is so cute, I love how Louis is on the pillow!
What a fabulous gift shop; so adorable!

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Joining in!
Your room is so cute, I love how Louis is on the pillow!
What a fabulous gift shop; so adorable!

I was thrilled!!! The room and resort was ridiculously cute!

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Hello! Sorry I haven't posted much recently! But I will be posting an update soon!

I've just been busy between work, friends, and I started working out (almost) everyday!! (i've only not worked out 1 day so far! )​

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[BOG Obsessed]

Joining in on your TR.

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Oh my goodness guys. 2 days ago I wrote an update and was about to post it, but the format to the pictures were wrong..and I didn't have time to fix it. I was kind of rushing through the update. But tonight, I have lots of time! So this update will be much better than it would have been. Okay. ONWARD!

Saturday, January 4 - Day 2 (Part 1)​

Today was my official first Disney park day!!! Needless to say, I was excited Not surprisingly, I woke up around 6:30am and just laid there (Billy would have been upset if I woke him... )

I obviously watched Stacey I believe I ended up falling back asleep for a couple hours.

This morning, we wanted to explore the resort (since we arrived at 7:30pm last night). So this update may or may not be filled with Port Orleans Riverside photos! WOOOOO.

This morning, we turned on the lights above the bed and were mesmerized by them.


We got ready and began our walk to the main lobby! Obviously taking loads of pictures of the way! POR is such a beautiful resort (as you will soon see.)



We were in the Alligator Bayou section (as I mentioned before). It's super woodsy and feels secluded. We loved it!

Alligator Bayou ^

Like..would you ever think this picture was taken in FLORIDA?! No.


This is the pool. We never swam in it. It was either chilly or we didn't have time! Note for next trip: plan break days/pool time!




So perfectly adorable.



It was a good time for a selfie



Inside the lobby:


We made our way to the bus stop...

And waited.
And waited and waited. Now people are always talking about POR not having the best bus system. That wasn't really the problem. It was like..we'd get to the bus stop, and a bus would show up every, maybe....3 minutes? Maybe less? But it went through like...allllllll the parks before it got to our park of choice. We obviously always JUST missed the bus we wanted We never waited longer than 15-20 minutes though

Which park were we going to on our first day?! ​

 

[PH7]

Still following along

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Joining!

Sounds like a great trip ... fun to follow along with peoples "first" trip

Glad you liked PO Riverside - that is one resort we are considering for our next trip

BTW - I think if anyone ever puts out a T-shirt with a list of stereotypical DIS sayings "I wasn't sure what kind of animal this was. But it was a towel animal and I was pumped." is going on there

Looking forward to the next update

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Oh my goodness. I totally fail at updating trip reports. SORRYYYY. I have a new job now! I nanny a 7 week (almost 8) old baby! its pretty awesome and time consuming! Ill try to update this weekend!!!

 

[MidnightParade]

Joining in, pics are great, hope to see more!!