We Came, We Saw, We NAILED It! 2 BFFs Take On The World **9/1 One Man's Dream**

[JessicaKnits]

Welcome, one and all, to what is certainly going to shape up to an amazing trip report.

We just returned from a wonderful, magical, spectacular, 11 night/12 day excursion to Disney’s Art of Animation and I’m so excited to tell you all about the good, the bad, and the not so ugly.

For those that are interested, you can check out my PTR for all the planning details and more information on what caused this trip to come about. For those of you not interested in reading the PTR, I will provide you with Cliff’s Notes on it here.

This trip was solely about two BFF’s celebrating life, happiness, and each other. Due to unforeseen work circumstances, this trip was delayed multiple times over an entire year before it finally went off without a hitch! We picked an amazing time to go, as Wisconsin plunged further into what seems to be a never ending, brutal winter.

What you will find in this trip report:

Fun, frivolity, and lots of EATING and food porn.

There was also an adventure in “Drinking Around the World” and many other new and exciting experiences.

I also plan to include an honest and thorough review of our experience with Fastpass+. Did I convert into a believer?

What you won’t find here:

Fantastic and amazing examples of photography, although I am getting better!

Anything other than Disney fantabulous-ness. Even with 12 days, I just couldn’t pry myself away from the Disney magic, although I fully intend to check out Universal one day. Perhaps after the craziness of their newest expansion wears off.

Now, on to the good stuff!

Who: Jessica (26) and Megan (27) Introductions to follow in the next post!

When: February 22nd thru March 5th

Where: Disney’s Art of Animation – Little Mermaid Section

Dining: Deluxe Dining complete with 28 ADRs for this trip!

I do plan on doing a complete dining review as well for those that are just interested in the food. Once that is up and running, I will post the link for it here.

I do hope you will join along with us for the amazing fun that is to come.

Please stop by and introduce yourself!

UP NEXT: Introductions!

 

[JessicaKnits]

The One Where...They Introduce Themselves

Day Zero - February 21st
The One Where...Nothing Really Happens

Day One - February 22nd
The One Where...Everything Is Perfect! Too Perfect?
The One Where...Everything is Beyond Perfect
The One Where...They Aren't In Disney Anymore, Toto
The One Where...There Are Irish Boys And Irish Music

Day Two - February 23rd
The One Where...There Is All The Running
The One Where...They Get So Much Done!
The One Where...They Just Keep Swimming
The One Where...Everything is NEW
The One Where...They Eat Lunch at Kona Cafe
The One Where...It's A Small World After All
The One Where...They Have Dinner At Tony's

Day Three - February 24th
The One Where...The Eat Breakfast At The Wave & Prepare To Drink Around The World
The One Where...They Drink Around The World
The One Where...They Eat Lunch With The Sea Creatures
The One Where...I'm a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Friend
The One Where...They Wander The World
The One Where...They Are Amused
The One Where...They Want To Bang On The Drum All Day
The One Where...They Can't Try This At Home
The One Where...There Are Jeweled Dragon Acrobats (Part 2)
The One Where...They Have Their Own Fiesta
The One Where...They Are Illuminated

Day Four - February 25th
The One Where...They Have Margaritas For Breakfast
The One Where...Lions, No Tigers, No Bears! Oh my!
The One Where...They Are On Safari (Part Two)
The One Where...They Are On Safari (Part Three)
The One Where...They Pangani...Because It's a Verb!
The One Where...They Conquer The Yeti, Mutiple Times
The One Where...Its a Big Bluuuuuuuuue World
The One Where...They Safari (Yes, Again!)
The One Where...They Take A Trip Along The Maharajah
The One Where...It's a First!
The One Where...They Venture To Kidani

Day Five - February 26th
The One Where...They're Off To Hollywood
The One Where...They Go To The Movies
The One Where...They're Under the Sea
The One Where...They Mambo Italiano
The One Where...One Man Had a Dream

Day Six - February 27th

Day Seven - February 28th

Day Eight - March 1st

Day Nine - March 2nd

Day Ten - March 3rd

Day Eleven - March 4th

Day Twelve - March 5th

 

[JessicaKnits]

To all who have come to this happy place, Welcome!

My name is Jessica, and I will be your navigator, tour guide, ghost host, rebel spy, whatever you will have, for this entire journey! I am a North Carolina native, who now lives in Wisconsin. Brr...

I am 26 and work in health insurance sales. I am a devout follower of the Green Bay Packers (fear not Viking and Bears fans, this is a judgment free zone.) My favorite park is Magic Kingdom, because I think it is truly in a league of its own. It simply cannot be compared to the others, in my humble opinion. Of the three remaining parks, I love them all equally, for very different reasons. I know indecisiveness is not a great quality, but I really can't decide.

This was my third trip to the World. I had previously been in August 2010 (Pop Century), March 2012 (Coronado Springs) and now February 2014 (Art of Animation).

My hostage, err...traveling buddy for this adventure, is my BFF Megan. She is 27 and has a degree in something related to veterinary science, the exact phrasing always escapes me. Just a few weeks before this trip, she FINALLY got a job she was super excited about, after almost an entire year of looking! Way to stick in there Megan! So, while this trip was not officially planned as a celebration for anything, I did my best to throw in some pixie dust for her along the way.

This was Megan's first trip to Disney anything, and only her 2nd time on an airplane!

Here is a great shot of us (eye roll here) on the plane...

Can you tell we needed to get up at 3 AM for a flight? I promise, as the trip progresses, the hair gets bigger, (thank you humidity!) the pictures do not necessarily improve.

If you've made it this far, you have already passed the "chicken exit" so please lower your safety restraints and push up to make sure they are secured. Keep your head back and HOLD ON for this wild and crazy adventure!

UP NEXT: Day Zero!

 

[Credit Man]

I'm in! Sounds like an e-ticket ride!!!

 

[jordansmama]

I'm in- can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

 

[anniebabymu]

Subbing in! Can't wait to hear all about your trip! From the sound of it, I bet it was amazing!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[jewels1916]

Woohoo!! I am in! Can't wait to read all about your trip! 12 days.....wow, I'm so jealous!

Courtney

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

28 ADRs?! Whaaaa.

And drinking around the world. I did this a few years ago with my family. Can't wait to see how you did.

 

[JessicaKnits]

I'm in! Sounds like an e-ticket ride!!!

Oh boy, that's a lot of pressure! Hope it doesn't disappoint.

I'm in- can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

Thanks for joining!

Subbing in! Can't wait to hear all about your trip! From the sound of it, I bet it was amazing!

Spoiler Alert = It was the best trip yet!

Following along!

Welcome! Thanks for stopping by!

Woohoo!! I am in! Can't wait to read all about your trip! 12 days.....wow, I'm so jealous!

Courtney

This was definitely a once in a lifetime trip!

28 ADRs?! Whaaaa.

And drinking around the world. I did this a few years ago with my family. Can't wait to see how you did.

You won't have to wait long, as the drinking adventure begins on Day 2!

 

[JessicaKnits]

Being that we live in the Northeastern Wisconsin area, airfare out of our home area can be pretty out of control as far as costs go. Not to mention, that flight times are usually awful, since you can't go anywhere nonstop. That means that my Disney trips usually start the day before the Disney Magic actually happens.

For us, "Day Zero" was Friday, February 21st. The plan was to leave late afternoon for the two hour drive to Milwaukee. I used my Hilton points to book a room at the Hilton Garden in, which was supposed to include parking for $25 for the duration of our stay and a free shuttle to and from the airport. More on that in the next update though!

We were flying Southwest, and I paid for early bird check-in. I booked our flight five months in advance w/ Early Bird and we ended up with A31 and A32. I don't know that I would pay for this service again, since on our return flight we ended up with A45 and A46 with me just doing the check in myself.

I apologize in advance, as I literally took ONE picture of our Day Zero adventure. So, unfortunately this will be a word heavy and illustration light update.

Two years ago, I went to Disney exactly one week later than I did for this trip. Our drive to the airport looked like this...

I think this winter has been particularly awful for everyone this year. Kids here have had more cold weather days than actual snow days, but fear not, we've had plenty of the white stuff too. Anywho, there is a point to so much talk about the weather. Thursday, aka the day before we had a two hour drive to deal with, they were forecasting temperatures above freezing for the first time in almost two months! They were also forecasting over an inch of rain, with serious potential for flooding. Friday was expected to bring a high of 15 so you see where this is going....

All week I was beyond stressed that we would be forced to make that drive over a sheet of ice. Not to mention, THIS is what our ten day weather forecast looked like for Florida...

I was beginning to get a little paranoid that our trip was not going to start off the greatest.

The plan was to leave as much time as possible so that we didn't have to be rushed. Thursday night, the rain rolled in with a vengeance and we even had a thunderstorm come through. It was expected to switch over to snow in the wee morning hours.

I woke up at precisely six AM on Friday, and immediately looked outside to find....

Nothing.

No snow. No ice. I'm not sure where all that rain went, but it didn't freeze. It seemingly vanished into nowhere. Ahh...to be a weather man.

After breathing a huge sigh of relief, I set out to finish packing. I finished a few last minute vacation errands, mainly getting my car cleaned, getting my hair done, and getting a pedicure. You know, SUPER important stuff! I headed back home, threw my bags in the car, double checked that all the lights were turned off and that fridge was cleaned out, and was backing out of the driveway at precisely 2:28. My planned time of departure was 2:30. Not too shabby!

Megan lives about 30 miles away from me, so I picked her up and before we knew it we were on our way!

The roads were perfect on the way down, and we managed to just miss the Friday rush through Milwaukee. We arrived at the Hilton and checked in. We signed up for the 5 AM shuttle the next morning and dropped our bags off in the room.

We were on a mission to find the California Pizza Kitchen in Milwaukee. I LOOOOOVE CPK, and this is the closest one to us. We were seated immediately, even though it was Friday right at 6 PM. We ordered a round of Sangria to toast with...

Our meal was excellent and in no time, we were headed back to the hotel. We did some carry-on bag rearranging, and went to bed, we had an impossibly early morning!

 

[JessicaKnits]

Just want to put this out there. The sizing on my laptop has been a little off as of late. How is the font size for everyone? Too big? Too small?

 

[anniebabymu]

I finished a few last minute vacation errands, mainly getting my car cleaned, getting my hair done, and getting a pedicure. You know, SUPER important stuff!

Ummmm... I agree, getting your hair done and a pedicure is probably one of the most important things!

Just want to put this out there. The sizing on my laptop has been a little off as of late. How is the font size for everyone? Too big? Too small?

On my computer, it looks perfect to me!

 

[BookTrout]

Great start and I'm looking forward to reading more.
Sharon

 

[redhed7588]

Following along and can't wait to read more!

 

[JessicaKnits]

Ummmm... I agree, getting your hair done and a pedicure is probably one of the most important things!



On my computer, it looks perfect to me!

Great! Thank you!

Great start and I'm looking forward to reading more.
Sharon

Thanks for stopping by!

Following along and can't wait to read more!

I have lots more to share, thanks for joining along.

 

[JessicaKnits]

Fearing we would oversleep, and also wanting to make sure we were ready in plenty of time, a chorus of alarms fired off at 3:00 AM. Or as we affectionately called it, the real Zero Dark Thirty. I headed for the shower while Megan began double checking luggage and went for coffee.

I was really worried that one of my bags was going to be overweight. I had an at home luggage scale that said it was 52 pounds and I did the good old bathroom scale method that said it was 49 pounds. Megan was thankfully able to rearrange like a ninja, to balance out the bags. (Spoiler alert! They were both 47 pounds at the airport. Phew!)

We were ready by 4:45 (right on time!) and headed to the lobby to await the shuttle. We were pleased to discover that they offered free Starbucks in the lobby, but more importantly, they offered a huge variety of the little International Delights creamers. Nicely done, Hilton Garden Inn!

I promise, in a little while, there will be pictures to go along with all the words. So. Many. Words.

We were not the only ones awaiting the shuttle that morning. While waiting for the shuttle, I decided to go and ask for a receipt for our stay. A print out of my folio showed that we had not been charged the $25 parking fee. Not wanting to risk my car being towed for non-payment, I kindly informed the front desk clerk that I hadn't been charged for parking, and I was told I needed to pay since I booked my reservation on points. He kindly replied that they no longer charged the fee for Diamond members who book on points. Awesome!

We hopped on board the shuttle, free Starbucks in hand, a little gleeful about the free parking. We arrived at the airport to find an astronomical line at Southwest. Since Southwest does not participate in e-boarding passes in Milwaukee, we had to stand in line to receive our boarding passes and check our bags. While the line seemed long, it did move quickly. We had our bags tagged with the much desired yellow ME tags and were ready to go! This check in process went much more smoothly than the last trip, which happened to coincide with the morning that United and Continental merged their reservations system. Guess who we happened to be flying?

We headed off towards security and found another very long line. I have become somewhat of a ninja when it comes to security lines, since I travel so frequently for work. Just as I was about to start the process of getting shoes and jackets off, we were ushered inth the TSA pre-check line. Woohoo! We were through security in less than 2 minutes!

We headed off in search of breakfast and stumbled upon a Chili's. There were no empty tables, so we took a seat at the bar, where several other groups had set up camp. We were promptly and sternly told there was no alcohol until 6, and we could not sit there. We weren't really that interested in alcohol, just breakfast, so we tried to explain that we just wanted breakfast and there were no tables. After some back and forth, and one party threatening to leave and go elsewhere, the waitress finally relented. She was not a very happy person, but who is at 5 in the morning?

We placed our orders for breakfast (picture the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld) and waited...and waited. The bartender arrived and began setting up shop. We waited some more. Come to think of it, a drink sounds pretty good right now. Our food arrived. We told our waitress we wanted 2 Mimosas. She told us we needed to talk to the bartender, so we did. Our check arrived, no Mimosas on it. We informed the bartender so he could run a separate tab for us. His response? "She wouldn't put those in for you, so I guess those are free Mimosas." Yay! Free Mimosas!

We left him a great tip and headed towards our gate. We had just enough time to visit the facilities before it was time to line up for boarding. In no time were on the plan, and were able to snag a seat in the third row! The first was available, but I hate sitting in that row since you have to put everything up above you.

We settled in for our flight, which was scheduled to leave at 6:50 and land in Orlando at 10:50 (with a 1 hour time change.) We were excited to learn we were scheduled to land almost thirty minutes early! We had a very uneventful flight. The sky looked like this...

Ahh...so up here is where they keep the light! The person in at the end of our row was kind enough to take this lovely shot...

Yay! We're going to Disney. We watched The Little Mermaid on my ipad, in honor of where we would be staying for the next 11 nights. That ended, so I played the Disney Parks movies for Megan, so she could get a little preview of what was to come. Before we knew it, we had landed! He leaped off the plane, and felt the warmth on our skin. It felt amazing, but wowza! It was hot already!

We made our way to the terminal, but before we could ride the fake-o-rail, we had to make a very important stop...

Seriously Megan, there is no time to stop for things like bathroom breaks, when we're in DISNEY!!

After a small delay, we got on the fake-o-rail...

And made it to the main terminal. We ran like rabid wolves to the Magic Express station, and tested out our new Magic bands. They worked!

The line for Pop and Art of Animation was wrapped around twice, but again, moved quickly. We were on a bus in about 15 minutes. Now, if you followed my PTR, you know that I have NEVER ridden on the Magical Express. I've ridden on a Mears bus, (they didn't even play the Disney movie! They played Madagascar!!) and the Disney Cruise Line bus. But never ME. I really, really, wanted to ride an offical bus. I have NO idea why this matters to me. So we walked outside...and...

More success! I was very sad that they cut out the footage of the parents surprising their kids with a trip, it made me tear up. The new video was ok. I can't say I loved it.

We made our way to the resort, and what follows are my horrendous attempts at capturing pictures of the welcome signs. They are captured here, for posterity's sake, and for your amusement.

and...

We arrived at the resort and headed for the online check-in area. I had requested the highest floor possible with a water view. You will have to wait and see how that turned out.

Raul was our Concept Artist and he was so awesome! He happily gave Megan her 1st Visit Button and gave me an "I'm Celebrating" button. Our room was ready, even though it was just approaching noon! Just a week before I left, I discovered that my credit card had been used fraudulently, likely a result of the Target scam. They had to rush me a new card, so I needed to update my card info on file for my Magic Band, and as much as I love Megan, we needed to link her Magic Band to her own credit card. It took a few minutes, but was resolved more seemlessly than I thought it would be.

Before we knew it...we were off to check out the room!

Up Next: Checking out our room, lunch, and a Disney First!

 

[LLM]

Great trip report so far! Thanks for sharing! I look forward to following along with the rest of your trip! We will be staying on site for the first time in August. Art of Annimation Cars suite. Super excited!

 

[rteetz]

Yeah! Fellow Wisconsinite, I'm following along.

 

[JessicaKnits]

Great trip report so far! Thanks for sharing! I look forward to following along with the rest of your trip! We will be staying on site for the first time in August. Art of Annimation Cars suite. Super excited!

The Cars area was AWESOME! And the Cozy Cone Motel (Pool) looked like SO much fun! Maybe next time, we will spring for the suite, but for this trip, that standard room was just fine.

Yeah! Fellow Wisconsinite, I'm following along.

Woohoo Wisconsin!!