"It's all so magical Mommy!" August 16-22, 2011 WDW

Good morning!!!

Well, after being home for 4 days I am going to begin my WDW trip report! Yippie!! :yahoo:

If you want to read my pre-trip report and get to know me a little better and hear my adventures before my trip click here!
http://www.wdwradio.com/forums/trip-...tml#post949167

If you just want to jump into the story, let me introduce you to the cast.

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Jamie -32 -ME
Kayla -5- Daughter
Sandra - Mom

We just returned from our Walt Disney World trip! We stayed at the All Star Movies Resort from August 16-22nd! It was a FUN trip, with only a few tears and meltdowns, but LOTS of magical moments! We were celebrating Kayla's 5th birthday and my 32nd birthday on August 18th, so we wore our birthday buttons all week long! My Mom's birthday was in July, so we were celebrating her birthday too! Every time we went to a resturant or attraction, the CMs would be so surprised for 3 birthdays!

Well, we started our journey to WDW on a very cold morning on August 16th at 3am! I had been up til about midnight, making sure everything was packed and ready to go, and doing a few things on the computer. I kept saying I should just of stayed up, cause the little 3 hours of sleep didn't do too much for me. I need my 6-8 hours! But, for Disney I would make the sacrafice!! LOL I got up and hopped in the shower and got dressed, then I woke up Kayla and got her ready. My mom got ready after us, and by 3:50am we were ready to go. Before we left I took out our dog, Tigger, for a potty walk and then we loaded our suitcases/bags in the van and at 4:10am we were off to the airport! My step-father drove us and it was about a 35 minute drive to Midway in Chicago, with a 10 minute potty break about 3/4 of the way there...Kayla!!

When we arrived we bypassed the desk since I had done the online check in and printed our boarding passes. So we went through security, not too long of a wait, maybe 10 minutes, although the line looked a lot longer. I was kind of annoyed because we went through the family lane and still felt rushed and Kayla even went through the checkpoint before I was even done taking the stuff out of the carryon bags. I was tempted to say something, but my Mom was close to her, so I felt a little better. But then my mom had to be screened because the TSA agent let her go through the screener and she has a pacemaker so it set off the alarm. So as she is being pulled to the side, I still wasnt through security and Kay is standing by herself! :inquis: Finally I made it through, got our stuff back together, and we set off to find out gate. We barely took 5 steps away from security when this really nice guy named Perry came along on one of the airport valet golf carts and offered us a ride to the gate! We gladly accepted (mind you, it was about 5:30am by now and we all were still super tired!)

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The Blue's Brothers greeted us on our way to the gate!

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So, we finally made it to our gate, found a few seats, and me and Kayla went to get some breakfast from McDonalds! OMG, airport MCDs are SOO overpriced. I spend almost $20 on what would normally cost me $10! So begins the overpriced expenses of the trip! I needed my Caramel Frappe, my Mom got a Caramel Cappacino, Kay got a fruit punch, then we shared a big breakfast and my Mom had an Egg McMuffin. It was good though, Kay almost devoured the food, I didn't have too much just a few bites. I was hungry but not ready to eat.

We finally began boarding about 6:40am
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This was what I sat down to see!

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My poor tray! What had someone done to it to make it inoperative?!

After a very QUICK takeoff ( the pilot really stepped on the gas pedal), we were airborn in the clouds!

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Thought it was cool we saw the moon! Kay had said "Mommy, look the moon" and I was like, "no Kay the moon is not out its daytime" but look, there is is! LOL

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Kay ate the rest of her breakfast...

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then took a short nap and woke up to find me listening to my Ipod, so of course she had to listen. I don't remember exactly what I was listening too, it was either Disney music or the WDW Today podcast! I know I did put on a few songs from the attractions and we were singing "It's a small world" and "In the Tiki Room"!

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After our short not quite 2 hour flight we landed...


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and soon were greeted by the Mouse himself....

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Now...to find out way to Magical Express??

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Keep it coming Jamie!!!

Enough with the tease, we (I think I can safely speak for the rest of us) want the GOOD stuff! :)

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Originally Posted by Mo Noyz

Keep it coming Jamie!!!

Enough with the tease, we (I think I can safely speak for the rest of us) want the GOOD stuff! :)

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Haha, the good stuff is coming!! I told you guys the report will be worth it!! Gonna try to work on another chapter or two tonight, Kay just went to her dad's for a few hours...

Glad you enjoyed the beginning!!

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Saw this after getting off the plane and right before getting on the "mini-monorail"!! Got super excited!!

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It's just not the same as the real monorail ride! :no:

Soon, we were off to find Magical Express on Level B...and it was CROWDED!! We waited in the line to get to the check in desk for maybe 10-15 minutes. The line moved quickly but so many people didn't have their vouchers or tags, so it took a lot longer. After we got our vouchers and the info was put in for our return flight, we were directed to the lines for the buses. There are seperate lines for each of the resorts, grouped by "price", like all the values were together, all the moderates, and the deluxe. LOTS of people coming into WDW! We waited about 20 minutes in this line, although it seemed a lot longer. This was my 1st time using ME but I heard so many people say they didn't receive their info, I hope something is done to fix this problem. It's supposed to be hassle-free, off the plane and on the bus! Instead we spent about 45 minutes in lines waiting from start to finish. Then we didn't even get an actual ME bus, we had a yellow Mears bus! :inquis:

Well, at least we were on our way! After a few minutes we were watching this:
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The bus ride was about 25 minutes or so from MCO. Finally we passed under the BEST sign in the WORLD!!

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We stayed at All Star Movies, so we had to stop at Sports and Music first to let those people off. It only took about another 10 minutes until we pulled into our "HOME" for the next week! I loved what greeted us! THE RED CARPET!!

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It was about 12:30pm or so when we finally arrived. We left at 7am from Chicago, arrived at MCO at 10:25am, got on Magical Express at 11:45am

View of the lobby

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I believe every resort has one of these...very helpful!!

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After we went through the Online Check-In line, we were given our welcome packet and directed to our room! We were in the Toy Story section!! I loved when we walked into Andy's "Room" and saw this:

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I literally jumped up and down like a kid and kept saying "this is soo cool!" :yahoo:

Kay and my Mom looked at me like I was nuts...but I was soo happy to finally be in Disney with them and finally able to feel some peace! I have been through so much this past year and just being able to be in my favorite place in the world just helped relax me soo much!!

We found our room and unpacked a few things. We were going to the beach later with our rental car, but first we had to stop in our food court and eat something. It was about 1:15pm right now. I also called Alamo and let them know we had to be picked up to get our car for the day, so they said about 2pm they would be there for us.

We didn't take anything with us, figured it would be easier to come back with the car and get what we needed. We walked over to the food court, about a 5 minute walk or so, and I remember we bought our resort mugs and I think some cookies. We decided not to eat since we were pressing on time and figured we could grab something along the way. Here is what our resort mug looked like:
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ASMov had pink, teal blue, and black for the colors. I believe it was Sports that I found out that had purple!! :wow: Lucky people!! But they do have the testing going on, so I guess it wouldn't of worked trying to get one from there! LOL Not that I would. I totally respect the system Disney has in place for the refillable mugs, and after using it for a week, I really think it is worth the price of $14. I know we made great use of our mugs, we refilled them probably 2-3 times a day, usually when we left out, with breakfast a few times, and when we came back once or twice. I did see some people with older mugs but only maybe 1 or 2. The mugs do have a yellow lock on them when you buy them, so the CM's know if you paid for them or not when you come back. And there are CM's working the floor area cleaning up and I noticed them watching people with mugs. I am sure they can say something if someone uses an old one or misuses one they bought. But we had no problems at all! Other than the midnight closing of the food court! LOL

We got picked up by the blue Alamo bus and we were the only ones on the ride over to the Car Care Center to pick up our rental car for the day. We had requested the smallest type they had, since we were only using it to go to the beach and WalMart, and were told they were all out of everything except midsized and minivans. So we went with a midsize something or other...
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and were on our way! I used my debit card to pay for the rental car, so it was about $45 for the rental, then we did get the insurance on it, which was $28, so it was close to $80 for the day. If I had rented it out of MCO it would of been probably $30 cheaper total, but I wanted to whole ME experience.

We went back to our room and got our beach stuff and headed back out down World Drive to get onto I-4. I loved driving on Disney property, I have been there soo many times I feel so relaxed and peaceful. I usually can find my way around pretty good too, I only missed an exit once! I really can't wait til I get my life in order and save up enough money to move myself and Kayla down to Florida so I can live my dream of working at Disney!:mickeywav
Plus I have always wanted to move back down to Florida, I was born in Miami and moved up to Chicago when I was 3, but we always went to visit every year either Disney or the beach or my older sister and biological father, so it is more of "home" to me than Chicago is. If that makes any sense? I just love the whole atmosphere of Florida/Orlando/Disney. People seem nicer and more laid back, and I don't feel as stressed as I do here.

We did stop at the McDonald's right before you get on World Drive and got some very overpriced 20 piece nuggets to share cause Kay was "STARVING" and god forbid I don't feed my child!! The girl had a hollow leg I swear. LOL :cookie:

We took the Beachline out to Cocoa Beach and there were 3 tolls we had to pay, I think they were 75 cents, $1.50, and $1.75...so keep that in mind anyone going to the beach!

We came up past Port Canaveral and I saw the second most beautiful sight in the world...the Disney DREAM!! (sorry its so far off, couldnt get a good shot closer, keep in mind I was driving too)
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I literally cried as we drove past it (hard to do when I was the one driving, lol) and told my Mom " I don't wanna wait til next November for Lou's cruise, I wanna go right now!" :cry: She did suggest pulling off the exit and looking closer, but I told her no, cause if I did I would try to sneak on! So...I guess I must wait until next fall for the WDW Radio 2.0 cruise!! :cruise: I did see the ship again going out to sea when we were on the beach, so that was pretty neat. I did get a picture but I am still uploading them to my photobucket so I will add it in here soon!

More to come soon...

Great TR so far!! Looking forward to the rest!

AWESOME IS ALL I CAN SAY SO FAR.. i love all the pics and stuff!!!

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Originally Posted by Chrissy&Tayen

AWESOME IS ALL I CAN SAY SO FAR.. i love all the pics and stuff!!!

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Thanks...I try!! I have lots more to come...stories, opinions, reviews...and of course pictures!! :)

such a great TR!! I've been waiting for it!

one word for this ...... Amazing!!!!!!!

Great report! Can't wait to read more to see how the rest of your trip went! Keep the rest of us looking forward to our trips! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

So far so good! Have to agree with an earlier post...want to see the good stuff! Good luck continuing the report.

It's coming guys, it's coming...had a busy couple days. Hopefully tomorrow or Monday another installment or two ok!

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Originally Posted by eeyore79

It's coming guys, it's coming...had a busy couple days. Hopefully tomorrow or Monday another installment or two ok!

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No worries, take your time...just look at me, I'm WAY behind because I've been so busy.

I am really enjoying reading your TR. Yes, I do want to hear all about your adventures in the parks, but I truly enjoy reading about all the small stuff too. It makes it almost like I was there with you (with a detailed report like this it isn't a big stretch to feel like I was there!). Keep 'em coming, just like this. I know there is lots to do after a vacation like this, so take your time posting them but do know that I will be checking daily to see if I can read another section!

yay trip report!