Disney World Trip 2012 - Where Wishes Come True!

Abby and her magic wand and Wishing Star

After months of planning (ok after months of Stefanie planning), we headed down to Florida for our Dinsey World vacation (Feb. 6 - Feb 13).  Overall it was one of the best vacations I've enjoyed.  Even the flights on Jet Blue reminded me of the times when flying was fun!

Arrival

We flew down arriving in the evening.  We made our way to the "Disney Magical Express" lounge area, and boarded the bus immediately.  We then traveled to our Disney Resort - Port Orleans Riverside.  Lindsay had already checked us in, and so we headed to our room.  When we got there, because we had used the luggage tags Disney had sent us,  our checked luggage had already been delivered to our rooms!

Soon "my shadow" for the next week <the missing shadow reference hinting of Peter Pan, is intentional:-) >, anyhow Abby tells us she is staying with us and not with her mommy and daddy.  Lindsay, who was going to stay in our room, decides she would rather take her changes with Mark, Stef and her little nugget, Luke!

Day 1 - Epcot

 

We met up with Kelly who used her employee fringe benefit tickets to get us into the park, and gave us a brief tour.  After a little bit of walking, ok A LOT of walkig Leta was tired and hurting!  I snapped this picture after we had gone through one of the exhibits, not knowing this scene would later be repeated, only much more so!

The girls also tried out some headgear for Sharon Bisline's  upcoming wedding.

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom 

We got up, Leta decided she was too sore and tired to head out for our Character Breakfast and the Crystal Palace, inside the Magic Kingdom.  So she loaded up on her pain and muscle relaxant medications and planned on going back to sleep and meeting up with us around lunch time.  Unfortunately, Lindsay came into our room and noticed Leta wasn't dressed and sorta "persuaded" Leta she needed to come with us immediately!  We arrived at the park met up with Kelly again and entered the park before it was even open!

I thought it was extremely cool, as we entered Main Street only the 'cast members' were there, preparing to greet the guests upon opening.  By this time the drugs were in high(!) gear for Leta who decide to sit down on the first bench we found.  She asked me to get her a drink.  I couldn't find a place that sold soft drinks and ended up eating breakfast, with the rest of our group and Whinny the Pooh, Eeyoer and Tigger 

After breakfast, I raced  back to Leta.  I found her right where I had left her, although she was sprawled out all sideways and ready to fall off the bench.  I rousted her and we headed off to enjoy the day.  Leta admitted people avoided her (I wonder if they thought 'Disney now has a homeless person sleeping on the bench on Main St.?').  She also said the park cast members asked her repeatedly if she was ok, and that she couldn't remember what she said to them, but she did remember falling off the bench one time!

That night we had the Fireworks Desert Buffet.  What a treat!  We had front row seat for the show and fireworks, while enjoying many, many deserts.

Day 3 - Disney Hollywood Studios

We arrived and headed to the Disney Studio Park and Abby decided the first ride would by the "Hollywood Tower Motel".  This was the scariest ride I had ever been on!  We 'free fell' repeatedly in an elevator!  As the ride concluded they snapped a picture of us.  Lindsay is holding onto my arm and Mark, Lindsay and I are all looking at Abby who looks so scared!   We didn't ride it again!

Later we went to a show where they showed how they filmed a 'harbor attack' scene like in the movie "Pearl Harbor"  Somehow(!) Mark got volunteered, I mean he volunteered and got filmed as the Captain who is giving orders to get underway when the ship is attacked and a huge 'wave' of water hits him!

The rest of the day was ok.  We ate a terrible lunch and got our money back from the commissary.  The best part of lunch was the picture I got of Lindsay and Abby.   We also got in trouble because we sat in the handicapped bleachers at the Ready Set Action show.  And then Stefanie had the gall to try to calm Luke and stand off to one side on the 'ramp' into the stadium.  In fairness to Disney they have tried repeatidly to contact Leta to investigate and/or resolve the issue.

We  rode the Star Tour ride, a 'virtual reality' ride where you are seated and there is a movie screen and the seats move a little but seem to move a lot in co-ordination with what is shown on the screen.  Anyhow, We are prepared to leave the Starbase in our 'shuttle' when Darth Vader stops and says he is looking for a 'Rebel spy' and up on the screen flashes a picture of Abby! Then the 'chase is on'.!  It was pretty cool and caught us all by surprise (I think Abby was the most surprised!).

Day 4 - Downtown Disney

Day 4 was our 'down' day.  So we headed down to Downtown Disney.  This is a shopping and entertainment area outside the park.  We took the Disney boat and got on just as it started to pour down rain.  We had some umbrellas so it wasn't totally unbearable, although we all got wet a bit.  We look around at the different shops including the Leggo store:  I remembered how much Matt liked Leggos.

 

And the Ghirardelli Chocolates Store:

   

Day 5 - Magic Kingdom with the Princess and Prince

Today is Abby's big day.  We took her, dressed in her Cinderella's Wedding Dress, to the "Bibbity, Bobbity Boutique"  at Downtown Disney, and got her makeover. We rode the bus to Magic Kingdom and met the nicest retired couple from Tampa.  They had season passes and were spending 8 days at Disney World.  They also collected Disney Pins.  I didn't know what a big deal it was to collect and trade pins!  They are my inspiration!  We  had lunch in the castle and the different Disney Princesses circulated around the room.

 

Luke got his first kiss by a Princess and I got my wish to come true too.  Check out my desert!

   

At some point Abby heard us discussing Walt Disney and all his accomplishments..  She said I think it is so cool he had the same name as the park!"

Every time we walked by or rode the Tea-cups, I remembered how much Erica loved to make me ride them and other rides that caused my motion sickness to ummm 'surface'.  Thank goodness for Dramamine.

That night after we had watched the Electric Parade, we headed back to the buses to take us back to the resort.  As the bus pulled away, the driver changed the standard announcement (to stay seated, etc) to "Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, please be on your best behavior, because we have a Disney Princess on-board" (meaning Abby, because she was still dressed in her Wedding Dress and was all made-up).

Day 6 - Epcot

Day 6 found us riding the monorail system to the Floridian Resort for another Character Breakfast Buffet.  This time we saw Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland, not to mention the Mad Hatter.

 After breakfast we waited for the monorail to take us to Epcot for the final time.    I happened to noticed a man with a camera bag, name tag, lanyard with disney pins and dressed almost like a 'cast member'.  He also had a tag saying it was his birthday.  So I said "Happy Birthday Mike"  And he proceeded to talk and talk and  talk.  Giving us advise (which turned out to be great,  like don't try to ride 'spaceship earth first, the lines will be long, but save it for a 'crowning event as you leave the park!)  He advise me which side of the monorail to stand for the best pictures of the park.  He told us the monorail was almost 30 years old and in desperate need of an upgrade but that wasn't scheduled until 2014.  He also told us, due to the construction at the Magic Kingdom, Mickey's and Minnie's house had been moved and they were living in the castle, but for security reasons he couldn't say any more than that!  I finally asked him if he worked here, and he said no.  But rather he informed us he had been there for opening day, and he showed us his admission ticket!

Departure

Leaving Disney wasn't as easy as arriving.  We had to take our own bags to the Airline Check-in Center and get our Boarding Passes.  We got on the bus and went to several other Resorts until the bus was almost full.  Then we headed to the airport.  On the way, I noticed I had two boarding passes, but none for Leta.  Uh Oh!
I had visions of Leta stranded in Orlando overnight!  But Jet Blue corrected the mistake without us even having to wait in line.

There was a LONG line waiting to clear security,, but since we a family group with an infant, security took us to a special area, where we were quickly screened by TSA and allowed to pass and get some lunch.  On the ride home Abby and I share trail mix (she did the sharing, I got raisins and almonds, she got peanuts, cashews and the m&m's!).  We watched Dolphin Tale, a good family movie on the ride home and we were soon back in Austin.

Final Comments

 We had a great time and one of Disney's mottos is Let the Memories Begin, and we have some of the best memories from this trip.  I wasn't able to make it over to my 5k run, as the bus couldn't get me there in time and a taxi ride was over $80 one way! 

Thanks to Stefanie for her planning, and everyone else for no melt downs.  Even baby Luke was great.  Kelly was so nice and accommodating, what a wonderful ambassador for Disney.