The Sea Witch Stole My Voice! Our Two Week Land and Sea Adventure! Updated 3/9

lifelong_dreamer · 06-10-2009

Hey everybody! I am back from my fantastic two week land and sea vacation and I am ready to get this, my third trip report started! As with my other reports you can expect lots and lots of photos and detail, our photo count is right around 5000! Also there will be some video for your enjoyment. I am also going to try my best to get an update out every day and at the very least every other day so there will be no long waits for updates here. I love and appreciate all my readers so if you are reading please don't be shy, post and say hello! :goodvibes

For those of you who are new to my reports let me give you a brief introduction to my family and myself.

Traveling this year were myself, Lessa, and my mother, Beth. Usually my crazy brothers, Alek and Erich come along as well but they opted to stay at home this year. What trouble could they have gotten up to while we were away?

First there is me, Lessa (25), your dedicated trip reporter. I love traveling and WDW is one of my favourite places to visit. I also love to take pictures so you can be sure that this report will be full of them. :thumbsup2 I graduated from university a few years ago and I am heading back to school in the Fall to start working towards a Nursing degree. Since school will be taking up a lot of my time and money for the next couple of years this was our last Disney trip for a while. :sad1:

Next there is Mom, Beth (46) to the rest of you. ;) She is a great Mom and loves to indulge me, thus agreeing to go on this lovely two week adventure. Not that I had to twist her arm or anything, she loves Disney and WDW just as much as I do. :rotfl: She works for a hospital fundraising foundation, very busy and stressful work so she really deserves her vacations.

(No we are not crazy people who walk around wearing napkins on our heads)

Of course I can not leave out my brothers. Of course they did not come with us physically to Florida but their influence is far reaching and I felt like they were there with us in spirit if not in body. Of course the fact that Mom wanted to call them everyday to check on them helped keep them fresh in my mind as well. ;) Keep a look out for them as they like to pop by and make contributions to my reports which usually turn out to be hysterical. ;)

With the introductions out of the way now I can get to the details of the trip! We visited WDW from May 16th - May 23rd staying at the Pop Century and then we set sail on the Disney Magic for a 7 night cruise!

scott-loves-disney · 06-10-2009

Ooh I am so excited you brought this over. You were my tr tonight to catch up on or Carissa's.

phibbles · 06-10-2009

oh goody, now I can stop reading over there.

lifelong_dreamer · 06-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by scott-loves-disney

Ooh I am so excited you brought this over. You were my tr tonight to catch up on or Carissa's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by phibbles

oh goody, now I can stop reading over there.

Well I am not bringing all of it over all at once ya know.

scott-loves-disney · 06-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by lifelong_dreamer

Well I am not bringing all of it over all at once ya know.

that would take a lot of work to do all at once. I can wait I am doing the info site and that is taking up most of my time. That is why I am reading one tr a day there now.

Thanks for bringing it over.

retiredkid · 06-11-2009

YAY!! Can;t wait to read all about it!!!

lifelong_dreamer · 06-11-2009

May 16th - Arrival Day

After almost two years of waiting departure day had finally arrived! I had originally booked our cruise way back in August of 2007. Our original sail date was December 6th 2008 but due to schedule conflicts and my decision to go back to school we had to reschedule the cruise for May of 09.

We were set to leave the house at the nice hour of 3am, yuck! We fly out of Syracuse, New York which is a two hour drive from our house and of course we have to factor in the border crossing. All that combined with an early flight time makes for a very early departure!

We had packed all our bags the day before so when my alarm went off at 1:30am all I had to do was shower and dress as I was set to go!

We decided to stop at McDonald's on the way out of town as we would not be eating again until sometime around 3pm! Unfortunately for us there seemed to be a large car full of drunks in front of us so we sat in that drive-thru for what felt like forever! Finally with food in hand we were off!

The drive to the border was nice and quick, no trucks around which is unusual for the 401 in the middle of the night. I am not complaining though, I hate driving on the highway at night with those huge trucks. I am always afraid that they are not going to see us and decide to switch lanes and push us off the highway in the process!

Another little neurosis of mine, I hate driving across long, tall bridges. Of course living in the Thousand Islands region we have to drive across two of them to cross the border and get into New York. So combine the driving across the bridge with a huge truck coming at us from the other direction and you have one very nervous Lessa!

We crossed the border very easily and were at the airport in just over an hour. The highway was deserted, so strange as we are used to a steady flow of traffic even at night.

Finding a parking spot was fun too, we finally found one after having to do some creative maneuvering around the parking lot.

Not much of a line at the check-in counter at JetBlue so we were helped after waiting only a few minutes. I walked up placed my purse on the counter and handed our confirmation and passports over to the agent to check-in. Lucky us our bags were only 30 pounds each, no idea how we managed that one as both were packed pretty full! All checked in I grabbed my carry-on from behind me and we were off to Security.

The line at Security was fairly long, well long for Syracuse. lol I went to put all my stuff up on the security screening machine and I freaked out! Where was my purse! I turned to Mom in a panic hoping that she was holding it but no such luck. My heart was racing, where could it possibly be! Did I drop it? Did I leave it somewhere? The last place I saw it was at check-in. I quickly threw my shoes back on and explained to TSA what had happened. Didn't want to rush out of security without explaining, they might have thought I was a terrorist or something! Today was my lucky day though, as soon as I exited the Security area I saw a JetBlue rep standing there with my purse calling out for me. Turns out I had left it at the check-in counter. Doh!

Happily reunited with my purse we headed back through Security, again. Mom got pulled aside as they needed to search her bag. Something suspicious has come up in the scan. Turns out she had thrown a full tube of toothpaste in her bag! I gave her a good teasing for that one. She of course got mad at me for it. It was all in good fun. She better watch out though, last year she tried to smuggle a coke in, this year toothpaste. If it happens again that will be three strikes against her! Wonder if that would put her on the no fly list.

Once on the plane I was delighted to see that there was an Angel marathon on, just like last year! So I settled into my seat and watched that while we flew to New York. There was a brief layover there and then we were off again! Angel was over now so I settled for watching Law and Order. I find that the flight goes by so much faster when you have something to watch. I am so glad that most airlines have added the personal tv sets to the seats.

For a snack we had potato chips made from blue potatoes. Who knew there were blue potatoes, I sure didn't!

There was a lot of turbulence coming into Orlando but we arrived safe and sound although a little deaf from all the screaming children on the plane who were frightened by the turbulence.

After collecting our luggage we were off to pick up our rental car. We had gone with Budget this year as they have an office in Cape Canaveral which offers a free shuttle to the cruise terminal. I had read on the boards that the line for Budget was ALWAYS long and they were right on the money. I think we were in that line for at least 45 minutes.

Our rental agent was very friendly though, it turns out that she had just been on the Disney Magic for their first sailing to Tortola so she was giving us all kinds of tips for the cruise. I of course already knew most of what she was telling us from reading the boards but I smiled and nodded as she was just being friendly and helpful. She also tried to upsell us to a convertible which we of course turned down, lucky that we did!

Budget operates a bit differently from National. With Budget you are assigned a car and have to go to a kiosk in the garage to pick up your keys whereas with National you go to the garage and pick your own car from the selection provided in the size of car that you reserved. No big deal, just different and more like a traditional car rental.

With keys in hand we found our car, packed the trunk and were off! I must have been excited or something as I missed the turnoff for the highway and we ended up driving right into Orlando???? We just did a U-turn back to the airport and then hopped right on the highway. It was smooth sailing from there. I was driving which left Mom in charge of the camera.

She did a pretty good job don't you think?

When we got out of the car at POP I was looking around and was happy to see that there were barely any love bugs around. I was worried leading up to the trip that they would be swarming around everywhere.

Check-in went by quickly, we got assigned to the 50's building. The CM was originally going to assign us a third floor room but I kindly requested something on the fourth floor and she was able to accommodate me no problem.

Our room turned out to be in a really great location. Right near the staircase which was right next to the parking lot.

Once in the room we unpacked, got changed and then headed out to Downtown Disney, we were starving!

Once we got to DD we headed straight to Wolfgang Puck Express. I knew that if I did not eat soon I would be sick. I ordered the four cheese mac and cheese and Mom ordered the Pepperoni and Mushroom pizza. They gave us our order number and we then went and found a seat. We decided to eat outside as it was a nice day and we wanted to soak in the nice weather.

Doesn't Mom look happy to be on vacation?

The food came out quickly and we chowed down. Well first I had to take pictures of course.

I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the Mac and Cheese. I had read rave reviews of it here on the boards so I was expecting something spectacular and instead it tasted just like plain ol mac and cheese, nothing special about it. The ceasar salad that came with it was very tasty though. Mom's pizza but excellent, a bit flimsy though. Overall I would say that our meal at WPE was just okay.

After eating we went and walked around the stores for a little bit, just browsing to see if anything caught our interest.

In the Christmas Store I loved their Christmas village, especially this light-up castle.

The Art of Disney had this really pretty painting

We walked by Rainforest Cafe, they had somebody out doing a bird show.

The way this bird was looking at me freaked me out. I thought it was going to fly at me and attack at any moment. We used to have a cat, Smokey, who at random times would hunt me around the house. I always knew when he was going to do it as he would get this look in his eye before he pounced, the same look that bird was giving me. I took a picture real quick and then got out of there. lol

Mom took this picture of the devil bird, he looks nice and friendly there doesn't he?

Unfortunately I did not stop here

We heard music coming from near the World of Disney so we walked over to check it out and found what looked to be a school group performing. They were pretty good.

Next we headed into World of Disney which was a zoo so we did not stay in there long. Instead we hopped over to the new store Tren-D. They had some really nice stuff in there. Very pricey though. I saw a really beautiful Tink pillow that I fell in love with but I walked away.

We saw this lovely outfit and I knew that T would appreciate it so I snapped a quick picture. lol

The original plan was to get some ice cream at Ghirardelli but the line was crazy long so we skipped it. We decided it was time to leave as we still needed to hit up the grocery store for some water and breakfast food. After that we returned to the hotel to drop off the groceries.

Coming up: The Magic Kingdom and the Spectro/Dole Whip Meet!

scott-loves-disney · 06-11-2009

great update and pics.

I think that is where I stopped reading. I remember the girl.

The food looked good.

I enjoy DTD, Biff hates it. Oh well.

lesprivate · 06-11-2009

I am can't wait to hear about the cruise.

ddstratton · 06-11-2009

Very nice start to the trip! Can't wait to hear more...

06-10-2009	#1 (permalink)
lifelong_dreamer Pluto Info Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Ontario Posts: 1,185 Awards Showcase Total Awards: 7	The Sea Witch Stole My Voice! Our Two Week Land and Sea Adventure! Updated 3/9 Hey everybody! I am back from my fantastic two week land and sea vacation and I am ready to get this, my third trip report started! As with my other reports you can expect lots and lots of photos and detail, our photo count is right around 5000! Also there will be some video for your enjoyment. I am also going to try my best to get an update out every day and at the very least every other day so there will be no long waits for updates here. I love and appreciate all my readers so if you are reading please don't be shy, post and say hello! :goodvibes For those of you who are new to my reports let me give you a brief introduction to my family and myself. Traveling this year were myself, Lessa, and my mother, Beth. Usually my crazy brothers, Alek and Erich come along as well but they opted to stay at home this year. What trouble could they have gotten up to while we were away? First there is me, Lessa (25), your dedicated trip reporter. I love traveling and WDW is one of my favourite places to visit. I also love to take pictures so you can be sure that this report will be full of them. :thumbsup2 I graduated from university a few years ago and I am heading back to school in the Fall to start working towards a Nursing degree. Since school will be taking up a lot of my time and money for the next couple of years this was our last Disney trip for a while. :sad1: Next there is Mom, Beth (46) to the rest of you. ;) She is a great Mom and loves to indulge me, thus agreeing to go on this lovely two week adventure. Not that I had to twist her arm or anything, she loves Disney and WDW just as much as I do. :rotfl: She works for a hospital fundraising foundation, very busy and stressful work so she really deserves her vacations. (No we are not crazy people who walk around wearing napkins on our heads) Of course I can not leave out my brothers. Of course they did not come with us physically to Florida but their influence is far reaching and I felt like they were there with us in spirit if not in body. Of course the fact that Mom wanted to call them everyday to check on them helped keep them fresh in my mind as well. ;) Keep a look out for them as they like to pop by and make contributions to my reports which usually turn out to be hysterical. ;) With the introductions out of the way now I can get to the details of the trip! We visited WDW from May 16th - May 23rd staying at the Pop Century and then we set sail on the Disney Magic for a 7 night cruise! __________________ Lessa Come read my May 2009 Land and Sea Report! ♥ Four Trips to WDW ♥ ♥ One Trip to Disneyland ♥ ♥ One Trip on Disney Cruise Line ♥ Last edited by lifelong_dreamer; 19 Hours Ago at 10:05 AM..

06-10-2009	#2 (permalink)
scott-loves-disney If I say big girl panties I will be looking for a new place to live Administrator Info Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: New York City Posts: 7,205 Awards Showcase Total Awards: 9	Ooh I am so excited you brought this over. You were my tr tonight to catch up on or Carissa's. __________________ Scott,

06-10-2009	#3 (permalink)
phibbles Moderator Info Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: I swear...not in NJ. Nope. Not there. I would never want to live there. Posts: 1,553 Awards Showcase Total Awards: 1	oh goody, now I can stop reading over there. __________________ My new Trip Report from Jul/Aug 09: Sweatin' with Mickey My Finished Trip Report from Aug 08: Click Here

06-11-2009	#6 (permalink)
retiredkid Pluto Info Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Toronto Ontario Posts: 1,044 Awards Showcase Total Awards: 2	YAY!! Can;t wait to read all about it!!! __________________ CATHY Read my Report ----> Bucket list trip to Alaska

06-11-2009	#7 (permalink)
lifelong_dreamer Pluto Info Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Ontario Posts: 1,185 Awards Showcase Total Awards: 7	May 16th - Arrival Day After almost two years of waiting departure day had finally arrived! I had originally booked our cruise way back in August of 2007. Our original sail date was December 6th 2008 but due to schedule conflicts and my decision to go back to school we had to reschedule the cruise for May of 09. We were set to leave the house at the nice hour of 3am, yuck! We fly out of Syracuse, New York which is a two hour drive from our house and of course we have to factor in the border crossing. All that combined with an early flight time makes for a very early departure! We had packed all our bags the day before so when my alarm went off at 1:30am all I had to do was shower and dress as I was set to go! We decided to stop at McDonald's on the way out of town as we would not be eating again until sometime around 3pm! Unfortunately for us there seemed to be a large car full of drunks in front of us so we sat in that drive-thru for what felt like forever! Finally with food in hand we were off! The drive to the border was nice and quick, no trucks around which is unusual for the 401 in the middle of the night. I am not complaining though, I hate driving on the highway at night with those huge trucks. I am always afraid that they are not going to see us and decide to switch lanes and push us off the highway in the process! Another little neurosis of mine, I hate driving across long, tall bridges. Of course living in the Thousand Islands region we have to drive across two of them to cross the border and get into New York. So combine the driving across the bridge with a huge truck coming at us from the other direction and you have one very nervous Lessa! We crossed the border very easily and were at the airport in just over an hour. The highway was deserted, so strange as we are used to a steady flow of traffic even at night. Finding a parking spot was fun too, we finally found one after having to do some creative maneuvering around the parking lot. Not much of a line at the check-in counter at JetBlue so we were helped after waiting only a few minutes. I walked up *placed my purse on the counter* and handed our confirmation and passports over to the agent to check-in. Lucky us our bags were only 30 pounds each, no idea how we managed that one as both were packed pretty full! All checked in I grabbed my carry-on from behind me and we were off to Security. The line at Security was fairly long, well long for Syracuse. lol I went to put all my stuff up on the security screening machine and I freaked out! Where was my purse! I turned to Mom in a panic hoping that she was holding it but no such luck. My heart was racing, where could it possibly be! Did I drop it? Did I leave it somewhere? The last place I saw it was at check-in. I quickly threw my shoes back on and explained to TSA what had happened. Didn't want to rush out of security without explaining, they might have thought I was a terrorist or something! Today was my lucky day though, as soon as I exited the Security area I saw a JetBlue rep standing there with my purse calling out for me. Turns out I had left it at the check-in counter. Doh! Happily reunited with my purse we headed back through Security, again. Mom got pulled aside as they needed to search her bag. Something suspicious has come up in the scan. Turns out she had thrown a full tube of toothpaste in her bag! I gave her a good teasing for that one. She of course got mad at me for it. It was all in good fun. She better watch out though, last year she tried to smuggle a coke in, this year toothpaste. If it happens again that will be three strikes against her! Wonder if that would put her on the no fly list. Once on the plane I was delighted to see that there was an Angel marathon on, just like last year! So I settled into my seat and watched that while we flew to New York. There was a brief layover there and then we were off again! Angel was over now so I settled for watching Law and Order. I find that the flight goes by so much faster when you have something to watch. I am so glad that most airlines have added the personal tv sets to the seats. For a snack we had potato chips made from blue potatoes. Who knew there were blue potatoes, I sure didn't! There was a lot of turbulence coming into Orlando but we arrived safe and sound although a little deaf from all the screaming children on the plane who were frightened by the turbulence. After collecting our luggage we were off to pick up our rental car. We had gone with Budget this year as they have an office in Cape Canaveral which offers a free shuttle to the cruise terminal. I had read on the boards that the line for Budget was ALWAYS long and they were right on the money. I think we were in that line for at least 45 minutes. Our rental agent was very friendly though, it turns out that she had just been on the Disney Magic for their first sailing to Tortola so she was giving us all kinds of tips for the cruise. I of course already knew most of what she was telling us from reading the boards but I smiled and nodded as she was just being friendly and helpful. She also tried to upsell us to a convertible which we of course turned down, lucky that we did! Budget operates a bit differently from National. With Budget you are assigned a car and have to go to a kiosk in the garage to pick up your keys whereas with National you go to the garage and pick your own car from the selection provided in the size of car that you reserved. No big deal, just different and more like a traditional car rental. With keys in hand we found our car, packed the trunk and were off! I must have been excited or something as I missed the turnoff for the highway and we ended up driving right into Orlando???? We just did a U-turn back to the airport and then hopped right on the highway. It was smooth sailing from there. I was driving which left Mom in charge of the camera. She did a pretty good job don't you think? When we got out of the car at POP I was looking around and was happy to see that there were barely any love bugs around. I was worried leading up to the trip that they would be swarming around everywhere. Check-in went by quickly, we got assigned to the 50's building. The CM was originally going to assign us a third floor room but I kindly requested something on the fourth floor and she was able to accommodate me no problem. Our room turned out to be in a really great location. Right near the staircase which was right next to the parking lot. Once in the room we unpacked, got changed and then headed out to Downtown Disney, we were starving! Once we got to DD we headed straight to Wolfgang Puck Express. I knew that if I did not eat soon I would be sick. I ordered the four cheese mac and cheese and Mom ordered the Pepperoni and Mushroom pizza. They gave us our order number and we then went and found a seat. We decided to eat outside as it was a nice day and we wanted to soak in the nice weather. Doesn't Mom look happy to be on vacation? The food came out quickly and we chowed down. Well first I had to take pictures of course. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the Mac and Cheese. I had read rave reviews of it here on the boards so I was expecting something spectacular and instead it tasted just like plain ol mac and cheese, nothing special about it. The ceasar salad that came with it was very tasty though. Mom's pizza but excellent, a bit flimsy though. Overall I would say that our meal at WPE was just okay. After eating we went and walked around the stores for a little bit, just browsing to see if anything caught our interest. In the Christmas Store I loved their Christmas village, especially this light-up castle. The Art of Disney had this really pretty painting We walked by Rainforest Cafe, they had somebody out doing a bird show. The way this bird was looking at me freaked me out. I thought it was going to fly at me and attack at any moment. We used to have a cat, Smokey, who at random times would hunt me around the house. I always knew when he was going to do it as he would get this look in his eye before he pounced, the same look that bird was giving me. I took a picture real quick and then got out of there. lol Mom took this picture of the devil bird, he looks nice and friendly there doesn't he? Unfortunately I did not stop here We heard music coming from near the World of Disney so we walked over to check it out and found what looked to be a school group performing. They were pretty good. Next we headed into World of Disney which was a zoo so we did not stay in there long. Instead we hopped over to the new store Tren-D. They had some really nice stuff in there. Very pricey though. I saw a really beautiful Tink pillow that I fell in love with but I walked away. We saw this lovely outfit and I knew that T would appreciate it so I snapped a quick picture. lol The original plan was to get some ice cream at Ghirardelli but the line was crazy long so we skipped it. We decided it was time to leave as we still needed to hit up the grocery store for some water and breakfast food. After that we returned to the hotel to drop off the groceries. Coming up: The Magic Kingdom and the Spectro/Dole Whip Meet! __________________ Lessa Come read my May 2009 Land and Sea Report! ♥ Four Trips to WDW ♥ ♥ One Trip to Disneyland ♥ ♥ One Trip on Disney Cruise Line ♥

06-11-2009	#8 (permalink)
scott-loves-disney If I say big girl panties I will be looking for a new place to live Administrator Info Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: New York City Posts: 7,205 Awards Showcase Total Awards: 9	great update and pics. I think that is where I stopped reading. I remember the girl. The food looked good. I enjoy DTD, Biff hates it. Oh well. __________________ Scott,

06-11-2009	#9 (permalink)
lesprivate Moderator Info Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Long Island Posts: 1,496 Awards Showcase Total Awards: 5	I am can't wait to hear about the cruise. __________________ DVC Owners - Saratoga Springs since 2006 August 2010 AKV - Kidani, August 2009 SSR,May 2009 SSR, August 2008 VWL, August 2007 - POR and BCV, November 2006 - POFQ, August 2004 - ASSP, January 2001 - Offsite, December 1998 - Offsite, May 1997 - Offsite, June 1996 - Offsite, December 1995 - Offsite, June 1994 - Offsite, February 1989 - Offsite, April 1986 - Offsite, April 1985 - Offsite, December 1985 - Offsite, Numerous times as a child

06-11-2009	#10 (permalink)
ddstratton I've been playing again. Big surprise, huh? Moderator Info Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Bath, NY Posts: 924	Very nice start to the trip! Can't wait to hear more... __________________ Darla Mom's Going Back - May '10 Pre-trip First Timers Took on the World - October '08

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