Princess Girls HOT AUGUST Trip-Part 1

[princessgirls]

Cast of Characters:

Me: Julie 42 LOVES LOVES LOVES WDW!!!

DH: Fred 40 Loves his girls and is a great fastpass runner!

DD #1: Morgan 10 Loves Rides, shops and all things Disney!

DD #2: Madison 9 Loves the shopping, rides, and characters!!!

August 20-29 Pop Century

Day 1:

We start our morning at 4:30am, when I happily jump out of my bed saying..."In a few hours we will be in Disney! "Wake up"!!!
We all were excited, bags were packed the night before and put in the truck. A friend was taking us to the airport, which was a treat, as we usually park in long term and shuttle over. We would be dropped right off at the door, which allowed us an extra 1/2 hour of sleep!!!
We flew out of Newark Liberty on a 7:15 am flight. Delta airlines which meant a connection in Atlanta. I didn't want too...but when I booked in January they were the cheapest, and I could get a free bag for everyone with my Delta Amex. I do mean the cheapest...Jet Blue was $900 more!!!!
We had absolutely no problems with flights, they were all on time, and our connection was even in the same terminal! That never happens!!
We arrived in Orlando at noon, and were off to the Magic Express counter and boarded a bus right away!! While on the Magic Express I received a text from Garden Grocer that my order had been left with bell services. Good News!!! Within a half hour after a stop at The Carribean Beach Resort we were at the POP!!! Oh, we were happy!! Vacation has begun! No wait at the Online Check-in counter, provided a photo-Id, got our packet, Room was ready!! Oh, it was a GREAT ROOM LOCATION!!! I WAS EXCITED!! Room 4139 off the Main Pool, facing Hour Glass lake. Close but yet quiet! I said Fred...we scored ourselves a great room! We went to the room to drop off our carry-on's and headed back to the buses to catch a bus to the Magic Kingdom!! This was a perfect check-in arrival day experience and I was really on at this point! Sometimes I worry about ALL of the little details. In past trips at POR, we were always so far away from everything. Our kids were little when we stayed at the POR, we hardly enjoyed the resort. The pool, ice machines, classic hall, buses were all close! No late night long walks to get back to our room!!!
Bus to the Magic Kingdom came quickly (LOVE LOVE LOVE THE BUSING AT THE POP!) and we were on our way!!!!
Arrival at the Magic Kingdom...sigh.... HAPPY FAMILY!!! I always get a little teary upon walking through the gates, arriving on Main Street and looking at the Castle! I always feel very blessed to have been able to come back to our favorite place!! Fred usually likes to grab the Main Street train and head over to Frontierland (our favorite) but he knew I wanted to walk down Main Street and take in all of the sights, and just breathe it all IN!!! We grabbed our first Mickey Bars before we actually got to the castle and headed over the bridge to Adventureland!! Fred ran and got Fastpasses for Splash, as it was a 90 minute wait, and we came up with a plan! Oh...plans change...thunder storm that moved in quick! It was sunny when we entered!!! Headed over to Pirates! BIG RAIN STORM!!! OH MY!!!!! At least 2 inches fell!! By the time we were done with Pirates, it was just rain, so we did the New Tiki Room. "In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room...that became the phrase of our trip! Fred could not get those words out of his head!!! By the time we got out of there it had stopped raining, AND they had just reopened Big Thunder! Got right on!!! Enjoyed this! Grabbed another fastpass and went on Splash with our pass that we got earlier. This is our family favorite ride!! Had some fun over in the Haunted Mansion. Look the new queue. I really enjoy this attraction!
As much as the afternoon shower was annoying, the sun was back out and it was a good 10 degrees cooler. That was a bonus...because it was so HOT!!
Went back and did another round of Splash and BTM! I had in my notes for today that our ride count with these two was 3X each for the day...Not too bad considering we arrived through the gates at 2pm!
We had a 6pm ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern and hit the Hall of Presidents before that time. There were many trips that I didn't really have a desire to go in here. Honestly, it is a great presentation! I have come to really respect and love this attraction!
Dinner at Liberty Tree was delicious!!! I was looking for a good place to eat in the Magic Kingdom and wanted to try something different (have done Crystal Palace every trip). Ian recommended, and he did not steer us wrong! LOVED the location too...didn't have to run really anywhere! Enjoyed this first dinner, and when we were done moved over to Tomorrowland! We spent the rest of the evening in tomorrowland enjoying EVERYTHING!!! It was a Saturday night, so they had a dance party going on. My girls LOVED this and went over there between attractions a lot to get down and boogie!
Fred had grabbed fastpasses for Space before dinner (he is good!) so that was our first attraction over there! Just the girls and I went on...it is not Fred's favorite at 6'5" it's not a comfortable ride for him! I had the girls laughing, because I screamed through the whole thing!!! We did the classic Carousel of Progress..."It's a great big beautiful tomorrow", Buzz, TTA (my favorite) Laugh Factory, I went and got myself a good spot for Wishes at 10pm and enjoyed the Memories and You show and Wishes so so much! More tears for me!! As I was sitting there watching Wishes that there was NO PLACE on earth that I'd rather be than right where I was! I had a big smile on my face and just enjoyed enjoyed enjoyed!!! Park was opened late tonight, so I rejoined Fred and the girls over by the dance party. Girls wanted to go on the Astro Obiter, and the wait was 20 minutes. We sent them on, Fred and I grabbed a chair sat back and relaxed for a bit.
We made our way out of the park hoping that by staying later most of the crowds had gone ahead of us...well...it was chaos down at the buses. We saw that the Monorail was shut down. It was not working. Park closing was at 11pm, so it still would have been running until midnight. There were problems...people everywhere! Extra buses going to the TTC, so many people...We didn't get back to our room until 12:30. I will say that there were plenty of employees everywhere directing people to where they needed to go. There were just so many more people in the bus area in general. The monorail moves a good amount of people! It was greatly missed!!!!
Finally arrived back to the room! It has been a GREAT first day! Luggage and Garden Grocer delivery awaited us! Love that Disney magic!
Girls showered and went to bed. They were really tired at that point! They slept and Fred and I unpacked and organized our room. After a shower we were in bed close to 2am. I had a wonderful magical day!!! We covered a lot of ground and all had fun!
Part 2...Epcot Day!
Thanks for reading!
Julie
Julie

[faline]

Except for getting back to your room that night, you had a wonderfully, smooth beginning to your trip!

[Disney4us2]

Sounds like a great day Julie. You really did a lot in a short time.

[mouseketeer mom]

Hi Julie!
So excited to read your reports and boy oh boy, do I understand your enthusiam! We have like minds and hearts, I can tell!!!! Fantastic about a great room, I agree, those details matter, and love how smoothly it all went. Looking forward to more!~Lisa