Disney Trip Report Day 1

Sunday, October 6, 2013
Arrival, Downtown Disney

It was finally here! The day we leave for Disney! My husband, our daughter and myself, plus daughter's BFF, were all flying down this afternoon and ready to have a week long full of Disney fun! We have always gone in May in the past and thought it would be fun to mix things up. We decided to go in October so we could attend Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party.  It just happened to also be during my birthday!  

We had everything packed and ready to go the night before. My friend was roped into volunteered to take us all to the airport and pick us up when we got back. We decided to kick off our vacation with all of us going to breakfast at Bob Evan's before heading to the airport. We had a hearty breakfast and good conversation with good company and then set out for our airport adventure.

We had a 1:05 pm departure time and also needed to go through airport security. Having never flown with another persons child, we wanted to make sure our i's were dotted and our t's were crossed. I had a letter from BFF's mom stating that she was traveling with our family and medical and insurance information. My husband also had a note, from our family doctor, because he was born with spina bifida and scoliosis so he has a metal rod fused to the lower portion of his spine and walks with a cane. He is also, taking insulin injections and carrying that on his person. It turns out that getting through security was a breeze and took us all of 10 minutes.  Except it was just after 11 am, so we had a while to wait before we would board our plane. Fortunately, as teens do, the girls had their various electronic devices and were more than able to entertain themselves as we waited. 

After a short while there was an announcement that our plane had to turn around and would be late. The announcement was repeated many times and the arrival time got pushed back further and further. Our plane finally arrived around 3:30 pm, around the time we were supposed to land in Orlando. We ended up eating lunch at the airport. Bummer! It turns out the plane hit a bird and they had to return and have a maintenance check.  I am glad I was not on the plane when it hit the bird.  I am also really thankful that they made sure the plane was good to fly before I took a ride in it.  I do not enjoy flying. I feel nauseous, and hot, and crowded and uncomfortable and am so very happy when we land.

We arrived in Orlando around 6-ish and made our way to the Magical Express area. Disney had emailed me a few days before our departure and asked us to wear our magic bands in the airport to test it as part of magical express, which we did.  The girls thought it was extra cool to wave their magic bands over the magic mickey's and have all of our information pop up for the cast members. Our wallet was NOT impressed with the ease of purchasing things.

We were assigned to a lane to board our Magical Express bus and soon we were on a touring style bus on our way to Walt Disney World! They showed a little movie about Disney World, the resorts, the magic express and other bits of information. Our bus driver also pointed out the gate as we passed under it and onto Disney property. We were dropped off at our resort.  We stayed at Pop Century. We love the over the top theme and my husband and I love looking at all of the memorabilia in Classic Hall. 

We get checked in and my husband is anxious to get his refillable mug so we start heading over to Everything Pop. On the way, we see several cast member's setting up a boom box and break into The Macarena. My daughter is vibrating with excitement and sort of dancing as she watches when another cast member tells her she should go join them in dancing because they love it. So daughter drops her bags and is off to dance!  (she loves to dance!) BFF was too shy so she watched with us. After the dance all of the cast members thanked her for dancing with them and then they gave her some stickers and temporary tattoos.

Macarena Video - daughter is the platinum blonde in the long black dress at the far left.
http://youtu.be/OUOpcFfCl-Y

After this we did indeed get our mugs and filled them with the beverage of our choices and then headed to our room. (which I did not take photos of) We were in building 8 in the 90's section. We got into our room around 7pm. We were supposed to go to a Be Our Guest Podcast fan meet-up at Downtown Disney at 6pm but we knew earlier in the day we would not make it. Bummer about that. We decided to go ahead and go over to Downtown Disney because I had purchased the Disney Photo pass and we had dinning reservation the next evening and I wanted to go ahead and get the pass. So off we went! We went straight to Team Mickey and the photo pass area is inside between Team Mickey and Arribas Brothers.  As I was getting the information for the photos pass the girls spotted shiny things in the next store so they went over there to look while we adults took care of the paperwork.  The cast member got me in the know of all things photo pass and then we adults headed over to the shiny stuff. It was Arribas Brothers and they sell glass and crystal things.  My husband bought me a glass Mickey Silhouette necklace.  The girls decided that they NEEDED crowns. I wish I had taken photos in this place but it didn't dawn on me. They has such amazing and beautiful items in this store.  We also spent a bit of time in the pin traders store. We were feeling tired and decided to go back to our resort.

We ended up going back to Pop Century and getting a late diner.  My husband and I got french bread pizza and the girls got mac and cheese. I must have been really hungry because it was the BEST french bread pizza ever! Back in our room our luggage had been delivered and we decided to unpack and organize and then we all headed to bed.

First day photos on Flicker