Day 2 - Ready Set Go (Part 2)

Ok... Where were we?? Ah yes... the journey back to Wilderness Lodge! One of the best things about staying at the Wilderness Lodge (in my opinion) are the boat launches that go right from Magic Kingdom. It is so relaxing after running around the park.

We walked over to the Wilderness Lodge Villas and found our room. We had an ok view... it wasn't of the woods or the pool area... it was facing more towards the main building. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't that great either. Luckily our luggage had already made its way into our room. I laid out our "dress up" clothes for our dinner reservation and jumped in the shower. It felt so good to finally clean up after all the travel and running around we'd been doing. I got out of the shower to find Adam completely passed out on the bed. Poor guy was exhausted. We had enough time before our dining reservation so I let him nap while I finished getting ready.

After a few attempts to wake Adam, he got ready and we were heading out to the Yacht Club Resort to have dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse. Since we didn't rent a car we were at the mercy of the Disney World bus system. We waited a LONG time for a hollywood studios bus to show up but once it did we were on our way. When we arrived at the studios we saw how long the wait for the friendship boats were and decided we'd take a leisurely walk to the yacht club. Although my feet were killing me, I was hungry, exhausted, and hot I must say I do love that walk along the river. We saw a lot of the places we took pictures after our wedding last year, it brought back some good memories.

We finally arrived at the yacht club (beat the friendship boat i might add) and headed to the steakhouse. I don't know why I didn't take pictures here but I didn't and totally wished I did. The decor was so beautiful! After we checked in with the host we sat in the bar while we waited to be called. I ordered an Eco-Tini which i highly recommend, it was delicious AND it came with an awesome acai berry seed bracelet, which i still am wearing. The wait wasn't long and before we could finish our drinks we were lead to our table.

The service at the Yachtsman steak house is superb! The food was equally as amazing! I think I was so excited to be eating something other than a Dunkin Doughnuts bagel that I just inhaled my dinner before I got to take a picture of it. Adam and I both highly recommend that you try Yachtsman steakhouse. The food, service, and theming exude an air of class and sophistication that I think adults traveling to Disney World would really appreciate.

After dinner we headed to the lighthouse dock to catch the friendship boat back to hollywood studios. There was one thing and one thing only that I HAD to do this trip and that was the newly refurbished Star Tours. If you don't know i'm a HUGE star wars fan and i'd been watching the updates about the star tour refurb closely. I could hardly wait to get on the ride! Adam and I ran over and jumped right in line. The stand by wait time was only 15 mins so we totally lucked out. I love the new updates that were done to the queue! I found myself walking really slowly so I didn't miss anything. When we got up to the loading area Adam and I were put right in the front row of our star speeder.

I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't ridden it yet but the new star tours was totally incredible! I didn't stop smiling the entire time and even after it was over I was still totally amped up. Adam is not at all a Star Wars person (he actually never saw all of the films and has no desire to) but he even said the attraction was awesome. 

We browsed the star tour gift shop for a while before we headed back to the streets of hollywood studios. I wanted to do the backlot tour but since it was so late they stopped running it. The queue for toy story mainia was insanely long and there were no more fast passes left so we decided against that... we headed back over to the big blue sorcerer mickey hat and Mulch, Sweat, and Sheers were playing! We stopped and watched their whole performance. They were so good! We had such a blast singing along to the songs.

After their performance it was getting close to closing time for hollywood studios and we were getting pretty tired. Our stomaches were still too full to do Tower of Terror or Rock'n'roller coaster, so to close out the night we did one of my most favorite attractions, The Great Movie ride. As cheesy as it is, I really love all that The Great Movie ride represents and the classic movies that it pays homage to. I was glad this was the way we ended our first day at Walt Disney World.

Good night hollywood studios!

I don't remember the bus ride back to the Wilderness Lodge, or the walk to the room. But some how we made it and we passed out instantly. The next day was going to be equally as exhausting, but just as fun! 

I hope you're all enjoying my little trip report. If i'm going too fast, or too slow, or you want to know more about our dinner at yachtsman steakhouse, or the wilderness lodge please let me know! And feel free to comment and let you know you read Day 2!

xoxo

Day 2 - Ready, Set, GO! (Part 1)

Happy Sunday everyone! Day light savings is totally screwing up my internal clock. Even though its only 5:30 I feel like I should be getting ready for bed, not getting ready to cook dinner. I can't believe how dark out it is already! Anyway let's start with day 2 of our amazing trip!

My alarm wasn't even necessary since I didn't really fall asleep that night. I was almost waiting for it to go off so that I could have an excuse to get up and Adam wouldn't be mad at me. When it did go off i jumped in the shower, got dressed, did my make up and had everything back in the luggage bags before Adam even started to get ready. I took a walk down the lobby to see what the weather was like and to check and see how busy the diner was. If Adam got ready fast enough maybe we could grab some breakfast there. When the elevator doors opened all I saw was the buckets of rain coming down outside. It looked like a monsoon! The diner didn't seem busy so I went back up to the room to check on Adams progress. He wasn't moving as quickly as I thought he would be (Try barely moving) and breakfast at the diner went out the window.

We gathered our things and went down to the lobby to check in for the shuttle service to the airport. We must've been the only people under fifty that were heading to the airport that day. I don't know if there is some sort of a senior discount in Vegas during the fall or what but everyone using the shuttle service that morning were eligible for medicare and had fanny packs on that said some sort of "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas..." slogan on it. Meanwhile i'm in my mickey t-shirt and Adam is looking at the food and wine festival information on his phone... We were definitely the minority.

After a quick trip to the airport we said headed to the nearest dunkin doughnuts for some much needed coffee and bagels. The flight was pretty uneventful... flash forward two and a half hours to landing! My first sight of palm trees always gets me insanely excited! We flew through security and down to Magical Express. We walked right up to the next Magical express attendant and I made a terrible discovery... I had packed up my magical express transfers! I almost had a heart attack! The nice man at the desk told me not to worry and looked me up in the system. He printed out a whole new voucher for me and told me to have a "magical day!" to which i replied "I most certainly will!"... God i love hearing "have a magical day!" Lesson learned... Do not panic at disney! They fix everything!

We boarded the bus headed to the Wilderness Lodge. I could hardly contain myself! The entire time I was tweeting and facebooking that I was on my way! We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge and went to the check in desk. I got a really nice cast member who chatted with me about Disney Cruise Line and told me all about the fun things that were going on around the world the few days i'd be there. Our room wasn't ready yet but we did the text thing that would let us know when it was ready and what room number we were in. It was so convenient. By this time Adam and I were pretty hungry. We went to the roaring fork and grabbed some chicken fingers and a pizza. I was so happy to be back in my happy place!

Excuse my finger in this one

After lunch we jumped on the next boat to Magic Kingdom. The first thing I wanted to do was ride the haunted mansion! I hadn't been on it since the new queue refurb. It was so much fun. I won't spoil it for those who haven't done it yet but just know that we loved it! After Haunted mansion we did Space Mountain. The whole time we were in line I was praying that we got the back... I LOVE the back of the train on space.. I feel like it goes faster and you get whipped around more. Guess what we got... the back! woohoo! I had my hands up and scream/laughed the whole time! Space is one of my most favorite rides! 

After space mountain I think the early morning, the flight, and running around got to us. It suddenly felt like we were moving in slow motion. We sat down in tomorrowland when I started tweeting with Scott from Collect the mouse and a Disney Driven Life. He and his wife Peggy were in the park that day and wanted to meet up with us! After some tweeting and a quick phone call we found each other and rode the TTA together. Scott and his wife are such nice people, it was like we'd known them for a long time.  It was so nice to just sit and relax on the TTA and have a nice chat with cool people! I wish I had gotten a picture with them but somewhere my brain totally blanked out and i forgot! :( 

After our TTA ride we said goodbye to Scott and Peggy. Next up was Pirates of the Caribbean, I can't go to Magic Kingdom and NOT do it! I still know all the words to the song and sing it in my head through the whole ride. Sadly this wasn't my favorite trip on pirates... there was some guy behind us who clearly didn't care about the "no flash photography" rule and kept blinding me! It was so bad that they stopped the ride twice and asked him to stop and he still didn't. At the end of the ride a cast member did pull him aside and said something to him but at that point the ride was over. I love a good photo but don't ruin someone's ride with a blinding flash! 

After that bad experience and our energy levels going down the tubes we thought we'd try one more ride... Splash Mountain. We got over to the queue area and the line was super long... we tried fast pass but the fast pass return wasn't until 5 o'clock and we had a dining reservation 5:30. Feeling defeated I heard the train whistle... it was sitting in the frontier land station. PERFECT! We ran up the stairs with every last bit of energy and were the last two people they let on. 

Adam and I started talking and as much as we wanted to keep going in Magic Kingdom we knew we were pushing it. We decided to go back to the Wilderness lodge for a quick nap, shower, and change before heading to the yacht club for dinner and Hollywood Studios that night. I checked my phone and sure enough we had a text telling us our room was ready. The train pulled out of the frontierland station and we were on our way to the main gate. We kept trying to peak behind the fences to see the fantasyland expansion construction but we couldn't see much. What we did see though looked super cool!  

We pulled into the main gate station and went down the ramp to leave...WAIT! I can't leave without a castle picture! I told Adam I need to get our picture in front of the castle and he reluctantly agreed, I think the poor guy was falling asleep on me. We got the nearest photopass photographer to snap this picture of us. 

Not our best photo but we're going to blame it on the crane in the background and not the fact that we look exhausted....hahaha

Wow this post is long... Ok i'm going to stop here. Don't want to loose you guys to too much in one post! Things to look forward to next include, Dinner at yachtsman Steak House...ummm omg yum!, Mulch Sweat and Tears, Star Tours meltdown, and Passing out!

Thanks for reading! And don't forget to leave a comment so I know you were here! 

xoxo

Let's start at the very beginning

Waiting for my chocolate chip cookies to finish baking seems like the perfect time for me to start my trip report.... YAY! ::Applause applause!:: Ok who guessed where I was in that last picture???.... If you said we were on the Magic Kingdom Railroad train then you are right! :)

I'm going to start at the very beginning (like the title says) on Wednesday September the 28th. Technically I didn't get to WDW until the 29th but I feel that I should include the 28th too.

I woke up that morning totally amped! The entire time I was getting ready for work I was humming Disney songs, imagining seeing the Disney Magic for the first time, EPCOT! ect. It wasn't until I grabbed my keys that I realized I had to actually work ALL DAY before we would be starting our journey. During my hour commute into work I tried giving myself a pep talk, if I didn't bring my excitement level down a notch I wouldn't be able to handle working and my day would seem so much longer. Unfortunately no matter what I did I couldn't stop day dreaming! My ten and a half hour, 6:30am - 5pm shift felt like an eternity! The dentists would ask me questions and half the time I found myself responding with Disney jibberish. Finally after watching every painstaking second of the day go by it was quitting time! I grabbed my things and sprinted to my car. I squealed like a little girl the whole way home!

At the house Adam and his brother were there waiting for me. We decided to get a pizza and go over any last minute details. We gave my brother in law the vet information, instructions on the dogs eating schedule, the cruise and hotel information, the number to the local police and fire department, and made sure to emphasize NO PARTIES! After we ate dinner we loaded up my truck with all the luggage. Then it was time to say good-bye to my babies. For those of you who don't know I'm some what neurotic, especially when it comes to my puppies... they are my children and I worry about them like crazy. After a tearful fifteen minute "so-long" it was time to hit the road.

After another good hour in the car we arrived at the Holiday Inn in Manchester New Hampshire. By this time it was 8:30 at night and i'd been up since 4:50 in the morning. I was totally exhausted. We checked in and made our way to our room. It was a nice enough room for just a night... and we really liked that there was a diner located right down stairs. Adam thought it would be a good idea to go down and grab alittle dessert before we went to bed. The diner was themed like an old airport pilot bar. The food on the menu looked really good and had I known that I would've suggested we ate there instead of grabbing the pizza at home. I got the strawberry short cake and Adam got this insanely sized grasshopper pie. We chit chatted about our schedule for the following day and about how excited we were to be going back to the place we love and where we got married. It was really nice having that time to relax before all the traveling we'd have to do in the morning.

After we finished our yummy desserts we headed back up to the room to hit the hay. Our flight was leaving at 6:50 in the morning so we had to be in the lobby for the airport shuttle at 5:15. I set the alarm on my phone and got into bed. Adam was asleep in SECONDS! I swear that man can fall asleep anywhere! I however was too excited to sleep. I turned on the TV and watched the news, then I picked up my book and read, nothing would get me to sleep. I even went as far as trying to count sheep! (lame!) The last time I looked at the clock it said 1:14am (don't ask me why I remember that but I do) I know I fell asleep sometime after that... needless to say I didn't get the proper amount of sleep one needs for an early morning.

So that is how this crazy trip started. I will say that I am VERY glad we stayed at the hotel near the airport the night before. It was extremely convenient and if we ever do an early morning flight I will be sure to stay close by again. I am also glad that I went to work... even though it seemed like it was the longest day ever, I think if i took the day off to prepare and pack I would've gone stir crazy! Being at work made me focus on something else other than flying, and disney, and worrying about travel.... well most of the time.

My next post will be more exciting and will have many more pictures! But until then i'll leave you with this one...

Guess who was extremely tired and on a plane!

bad blogger! Bad, bad, blogger!

I am such a slacking blogger. I can't believe my last blog post was August 4th... that makes me so sad! Let me explain whats been going on...

First the bad, In my last blog post we were putting our house on the market and then we were going to build our new house. As painful as it is for me to say, nothing worked out. I hate that I feel embarrassed about it. I guess I shouldn't start telling people things until I know for sure they are going to happen... lesson learned. As we stand now the house is off the market, we are slowly bringing all of our packed away things home from the storage unit, and putting the house back together so that it looks like we actually live here. It was kind of depressing and I was in a bit of a funk that our house got NO interest at all, but sadly this is the market we're in these days. We seem to have another game plan for the future but until I know its going to work i'm keeping my lips sealed!

Now the good! The other reason I haven't been blogging is because, well I wasn't here! We had the most amazing vacation to WDW and our first Disney Cruise. We were gone for nine days and had the the best time! It was exactly what we needed to get out of our terrible moods. Adam and I met some fabulous people both in WDW, and on the ship. We even booked our next cruise for 2012 with the other couple that we became friendly with. We now have cruising buddies! I've been emailing them and keeping in touch. Its like being a kid in elementary school when you had a pen pal.  I can't wait to share with you guys everything that we did and all that we are going to be doing next year. It has both Adam and I VERY excited!

My plan is that i'm going to be a better blogger. My goal is to post something at least 3 times a week. Even if it is just a small quick post. We're (mostly) settled in the house, we have power back on from that stupid snow storm we just had... seriously how does it snow in October?... and I have so much I want to share and so much Disney talk I need to let out. I find that I miss doing trip reports on message boards so I'm going to do one here! I hope you will all enjoy reading it. :)

Before I end this post i'll leave you with a teaser picture from the trip!

Can you guess where we are??