Zip-ah-de-doo-da, Zip-ah-dee-EH! Two Canadians Visit WDW for the 1st Time - COMPLETE!

[fallonkendra]

I will definitely continue reading!

And this makes sense when you break down the cost...I missed the churros and the soda...I can deal with $15 for the fajita platter, lol.

If you're on the dining plan, it's actually a really great use of a quick service credit since it includes the drink and the dessert!

These guys are ADORABLE!!! You need to do a comparison photo and see if they will hop in the dish for you...when I looked up the pictures, they reminded me of tiny chinchillas. My sister has (had?) a chinchilla...he was cute but he was definitely nocturnal...he kept us awake the week we stayed at her house a few years ago.

Degus are actually related to chinchillas, but they're smaller. A degu usually weighs around half a pound, a chinchilla is closer to 1.5 pounds. That's another reason I like degus - they sleep at night! We occasionally hear them on their wheel at night, but for the most part they are sleeping, and stay active during the day (especially in the early evenings, I find they have lots of energy then).

 

[Sailormoon2]

Loving your report. I really meant to do one after our August trip, but got so confused about posting photos I gave up. LOL.

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Joining in! Of course your report title caught my eye - always great to read TRs from fellow Canadians! And (originally) from the East Coast as well

I'm from Newfoundland (you may have figured that out from my avatar). I liked the pictures Jets cap in MK. You probably don't see that very often. We had your Jets AHL farm team in St. John's for a few years. I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I did see a few of their games.

Be Our Guest looks great, especially your steak and the grey stuff. I haven't been there yet but I think it needs to go on my "list". For a future trip. I just hope our exchange rate improves soon!

 

[fallonkendra]

Loving your report. I really meant to do one after our August trip, but got so confused about posting photos I gave up. LOL.

Thanks for reading!

It took me a bit of time to get used to it, I'm not normally a Flickr user...I still haven't figured out how to keep my pictures clean without all of that stuff around them...

How busy were the parks in August? I've always gone during slower times...

 

[heaven2dc]

Enjoying your TR! I had to chuckle when I saw this pic of the Beast lol I can't wait to dine at BOG next year - I think you had a perfect table next to the Christmas tree! Since moving to Anaheim area and visiting DL a lot, I too like Space Mountain and Pirates better. I loved your pic with the Partners Statue and Cinderella's Castle <3

 

[fallonkendra]

Joining in! Of course your report title caught my eye - always great to read TRs from fellow Canadians! And (originally) from the East Coast as well

Thanks for reading along! Hope everything is going well on the East Coast, I miss that place and can't wait until my next trip back.

I'm from Newfoundland (you may have figured that out from my avatar). I liked the pictures Jets cap in MK. You probably don't see that very often. We had your Jets AHL farm team in St. John's for a few years. I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I did see a few of their games.

My boyfriend is the Jets fan, I was raised a Leafs fan (typical Maritimer haha), and I am a big Oilers fan now that I live in Edmonton.

Be Our Guest looks great, especially your steak and the grey stuff. I haven't been there yet but I think it needs to go on my "list". For a future trip. I just hope our exchange rate improves soon!

I would go back to BOG for supper again in a heartbeat! I was so impressed by my meal! I hear you on our exchange rate, when I booked the $150 Photopass it actually ended up costing $211. Ugh.

 

[Sailormoon2]

We went the very last week of August. Both DH and I hate crowds so we found that the actual park space still felt busy, yet (perhaps due to a well executed touring plan) we never really waited more 10-15 mins in line. RnRC was the one 30-45min exception. In saying that, it rained A LOT!!

Also, I LOVE your hair colour!

 

[fallonkendra]

Enjoying your TR!

Thanks for joining in!

I had to chuckle when I saw this pic of the Beast lol I can't wait to dine at BOG next year - I think you had a perfect table next to the Christmas tree!

The whole meet and greet with the Beast was crazy, but in a good way! I laughed a lot on this trip. I loved our table beside the tree, but people kept coming over to take pictures of the tree so I'm sure I am in the background of a few people's photos stuffing my face with those delicious beans haha. I wouldn't hesitate to go back to BOG on our next trip!

Since moving to Anaheim area and visiting DL a lot, I too like Space Mountain and Pirates better.

I love the Anaheim area so much, and not just because of Disneyland! I'm a little bit jealous you live there haha.

I loved your pic with the Partners Statue and Cinderella's Castle <3

Thanks!

 

[fallonkendra]

We went the very last week of August. Both DH and I hate crowds so we found that the actual park space still felt busy, yet (perhaps due to a well executed touring plan) we never really waited more 10-15 mins in line. RnRC was the one 30-45min exception. In saying that, it rained A LOT!!

Wow! Impressive! It sounds like you really planned an excellent trip with minimal wait times! We were actually pretty lucky on this trip and didn't have very much rain (except of course for the morning of the 10km, which was the main reason for this trip in the first place...)

Also, I LOVE your hair colour!

Thanks!

 

[tammilynne]

Great pictures! Just read through your trip report and following along!

 

[fallonkendra]

Great pictures! Just read through your trip report and following along!

Welcome! Thanks for reading!

 

[ariane37]

First I have to say that every time you mention a ride being better at DL, it just makes me want to go there more! I was actually there once but it was way back in 1995 and quite honestly I don't remember much.

I knew exactly what I wanted before I even sat down - the grilled strip steak (cooked well done of course!) with green beans and fries.

And the beans - Oh. My. God

I'm so happy you guys enjoyed BOG dinner! It's one of my family's favorite TS restaurants so I get excited whenever I hear somebody else enjoyed it. We've had dinner there 6x and I've had the strip steak 5 times. And I'm TOTALLY with you on the green beans I'm not even a veggie eater - as in, other than corn which we all know isn't really a veggie lol, I don't eat them. But those beans??!! I have to eat them!!

The grey stuff was a grey coloured mousse that tasted like cookies n' cream tucked inside a chocolate tart. The tart was harder than I was expecting, but it was still really good

Yes, not sure why they just don't serve the Master's cupcake at dinner like they do at lunch. It has the grey stuff for frosting and it's actually so much better than the grey stuff "bar" at dinner.

We needed to get some sleep, I had another busy day planned for us tomorrow (although the day had other plans for us...)

Hmmm......been there......kind of afraid to find out what this means!

 

[fallonkendra]

Day Three - Thursday, January 7, 2016 - Part One

We woke up around 8am (I know, I know, it's not a true Disney trip unless you're at the parks at rope drop, but I just like sleep way too much). After getting dressed, we headed straight to the buses. We were heading to Animal Kingdom! We had to wait less than 5 minutes for a bus to show up, and then we were on our way! I was really excited about this park, I love animals (which you might have figured out since Luke and I have 11 pets haha). The bus ride to Animal Kingdom from the All-Star resorts is so short!

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We actually had trouble getting into the park, my thumbprint wouldn't work. They needed to call over a supervisor, who had to reset it and then take my picture on her iPad to make sure I wasn't just passing off my MagicBand to someone else. I didn't mind that, I completely understand them taking those steps to ensure everyone is honest. Luckily, I had no more issues the rest of our trip, but I did need to have my fingerprint thing reset at Universal every time I entered. I guess I have weird thumbs haha.

After getting through, we set off into the park. That first view of the Tree of Life is almost breath-taking! I love how the parks were designed to play with your perspectives - the road which slants down towards towards the Tree, which is set up on a slightly higher piece of ground makes the entire thing appear so much larger than it actually is. The castle in Magic Kingdom does the same thing. (Yes, I notice things like that, it's my actual job to pay attention to small details haha). Anyways, enough of my jabbering, here's a picture of the tree:

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I really wanted to stop for Photopass pictures with the tree in the background, but we were running out of time on our first Fastpass of the morning, so we just had time to stop and snap the picture above before hurrying over to the Safari. We made it there with a few minutes to spare, but I was just happy we had made it! It took us about 10-15 minutes to get through the Fastpass line before we were boarding a truck. I loved this - and we saw so many animals since it was still early in the morning, and it was a little cool out. Some of the animals were really close to us! Here are some of my favourite pictures I took, starting with a sweet photobomb of our selfie:

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[fallonkendra]

First I have to say that every time you mention a ride being better at DL, it just makes me want to go there more! I was actually there once but it was way back in 1995 and quite honestly I don't remember much.

I really love Disneyland, just because it was the first park we went to, it has such a classic feeling to it and it's also so easy to Park-Hop, but I really love the feeling of the bubble at WDW. I can't see us ever staying on-site at DL, it just doesn't make sense when some of the neighbour hotels are closer than the Disney owned hotels, and you don't have to walk very far from the park entrances to get to main roadways. But, I can't imagine NOT staying on-site at WDW, where everything is Disney!

I'm so happy you guys enjoyed BOG dinner! It's one of my family's favorite TS restaurants so I get excited whenever I hear somebody else enjoyed it. We've had dinner there 6x and I've had the strip steak 5 times. And I'm TOTALLY with you on the green beans I'm not even a veggie eater - as in, other than corn which we all know isn't really a veggie lol, I don't eat them. But those beans??!! I have to eat them!!

Yes, not sure why they just don't serve the Master's cupcake at dinner like they do at lunch. It has the grey stuff for frosting and it's actually so much better than the grey stuff "bar" at dinner.

I'm glad someone else gets me on those green beans! And that steak! I can't imagine ordering anything else! I ended up just scooping most of the grey stuff out of the chocolate tart haha, it was a little too hard for me.

Hmmm......been there......kind of afraid to find out what this means!

Having an inflammatory bowel disease is not fun sometimes...

 

[Ensusieasm]

After snapping a picture of the airport Disney store, we set off to check in with Magical Express. We didn't have our Magic Bands yet, as they won't ship them to Canada, but I had my booklet from Disney with all of our confirmation information. It went very smoothly, and we joined the line for the All-Star Resorts. While standing in line, I remembered that I had forgotten to do online check-in, so that's when I did it. We stood in line for less than 10 minutes before we were directed onto a bus! We ended up sitting on the Magical Express bus for about 15 minutes waiting for more passengers before we started driving to Disney. We used this time to take our first selfie on our Disney trip
[GALLERY=]Untitled by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]

We were staying at the All-Star Music Resort, so we were the third stop out of four (Coronado Springs guests were also on our bus). We had used the yellow luggage tags and I had checked in online from the airport, so after walking off the bus we were at the counter getting our Magic Bands and room number within 2 minutes. After receiving a map of the hotel with the location of our room, we decided to stop at the Intermission Food Court. We hadn't ate much all day as I really try to limit myself to what I eat on travel days (I have Crohn's Disease, so flare-ups on an airplane are not fun for anyone). It was late by this point, so the menu was limited but we didn't care. We activated our refillable mugs - I chose blue and Luke grabbed a green one for himself. Luke ordered the chicken nuggets with salad and I had the make-your-own pasta with penne, a chicken breast and marinara sauce with a breadstick and salad on the side.
[GALLERY=]DSCN0022 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]DSCN0021 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]

For this meal, we paid out of pocket as we didn't want dessert that late at night, and we didn't even think about saving it for the morning. Total cost was $20.10. We were both pleasantly surprised at the quality of the meal, especially for the cost. It was nothing fancy, but it really hit the spot after a day of travelling!

After eating, we set off to find our room. It really surprised us how large All-Star Music was! We were in the 7th building, Broadway themed. We found our room and tested both of our Magic Bands to make sure they worked. No issues there, so we settled in to wait for our luggage to arrive. It ended up being a pretty late night, our bags didn't arrive in our room until 12:20, but we were asleep within 20 minutes of it arriving.

I also forgot to take pictures of our room when I first got there, and didn't actually take these pictures until the morning we were checking out...oh well! Here's our room!
[GALLERY=]DSCN0435 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]DSCN0433 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]DSCN0437 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]DSCN0438 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]DSCN0431 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]DSCN0430 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]DSCN0439 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]

Next up: Race Expo and our first day in the parks!

What are the boxes in your room photo? Did you buy a lot of souvenirs?
Love your photos! Now I know what to order at BOG next time I go there!
Love the photo bomb guy! Keep trip reporting! Very entertaining!

 

[A State Of Autumn]

Day Two - Part Three

After making a purchase (which I didn't have to carry with me for the rest of the day - score!) it was time to head to our second fastpass of the day (and our second ride of the trip!) We basically had to walk from one side of the park to the other, but that was okay, we had lots of time. Luke snapped this picture of me in front of the castle while we were walking to Tomorrowland: (and yes, I had a different Disney outfit to wear every single day we were there haha)
[GALLERY=]Untitled by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]

We stopped for our first Photopass pictures of our trip along the way too! We were both really hesitant about buying Photopass before we left, especially with our terrible exchange rate, but my mom decided to give us money towards the cost as part of my birthday present. So, I prepaid the $150US for it - which ended up being $211 Canadian dollars, ugh.

Anyways, I was determined to make it worth it! So here's a few from our first stop at a photographer (as well as the picture from the first post of this trip report):
[GALLERY=]MK_FNTSYBRG_7571910734 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]MK_FNTSYBRG_7571913910 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]MK_FNTSYBRG_7586840079 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]

From there, we headed over to Space Mountain. The Fastpass line was huge, and I was a little worried we might be in for a long wait time, but it ended up moving pretty well, and we were at the front of the line in about 20 minutes. The star effect isn't nearly as good as it is at Disneyland, and I wasn't a huge fan of the single file seats. Also, 7 weeks after this, we were at Disneyland again and got to experience the Hyperspace Mountain overlay - and nothing can compare to that. It was phenomenal! I still enjoyed Space Mountain at WDW, but I definitely enjoy this ride more at Disneyland. That being said, here is our on-ride photo (our Space Mountain pics were among my least favourite of the trip sadly):
[GALLERY=]PhotoPass_Visiting_Magic_Kingdom_Park_7605785703 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]

After this, we decided to head to Fantasyland. Mad Tea Party had a really short lineup, the sign said the queue was 15 minutes but it was actually only about 5 minutes.
[GALLERY=]DSCN0041 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]

As we were exiting the ride, Pooh and Tigger walked past us, so we decided to follow them to their meet and greet area. There were only a few people in line already, and I love those characters so we hopped in line for our first character meet of our trip!
[GALLERY=]MK_FNTSCHR1_7571937253 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]MK_FNTSCHR1_7571937254 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]MK_FNTSCHR1_7571936828 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]MK_FNTSCHR1_7571936829 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]MK_FNTSCHR1_7571937257 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]
[GALLERY=]MK_FNTSCHR1_7571936833 by fallon Vickers, on Flickr[/GALLERY]

Continued in next post...

I love your olaf picture!

 

[SarahDisney]

I love your pictures with the Beast! BOG is probably my favorite restaurant ... it's such an amazing place to eat and the staff there is incredible.

That selfie photobomb is hysterical. People are funny. And I love your safari pictures!

 

[A State Of Autumn]

I love your pictures with the Beast! BOG is probably my favorite restaurant ... it's such an amazing place to eat and the staff there is incredible.

That selfie photobomb is hysterical. People are funny. And I love your safari pictures!

I'm so adding BOG to our list for next trip, I can't wait!

 

[Sarahh1027]

Your review of Be Our Guest makes me even more psyched to try it in May!! I'll be getting the steak and grey stuff also!!

 

[fallonkendra]

What are the boxes in your room photo? Did you buy a lot of souvenirs?

We placed an order from Amazon and had it shipped to our hotel Luke was there for the race, so we ordered a case of water to help keep him hydrated (and also save some money). I also had to order a bunch of different snack foods that we can't get in Canada - damn you Oreo thin mints for being so delicious, yet I can't buy any more of you

Love your photos!

We had so much fun with Photopass/Memory Maker/whatever they call it now. Luke isn't usually game for having his picture taken all the time, but he was having such a good time at Disney that he didn't mind it at all!

Now I know what to order at BOG next time I go there!

That meal from BOG was so good. It's on my must-do again list for our next trip!

Love the photo bomb guy! Keep trip reporting! Very entertaining!

We laughed so hard when we looked at our selfie and saw the photobomb guy. I turned around and told him how awesome he made our picture, he was laughing and made me show it to his wife.

Thanks for reading!

I love your olaf picture!

Thanks! The photographer told us to look cold...that was the best we could do haha.