waltsdream
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 23, 2014
Hello fellow Disney lovers! I’m waltsdream, and this is my first trip report. My friends and I stayed at BLT from May 4-8 2014, to celebrate our college graduation! Our commencement ceremony was just three days after our return to school, and funnily enough we were all of the opinion that our Disney World trip was a much more fun and magical celebration of our graduation than the commencement events themselves!
A little background in planning our trip: I’ve been hoping and dreaming of this trip since last summer 2013. I wasn’t sure how much convincing my friends would need to spend so much money on a senior/graduation trip, but I was prepared to do anything I needed to convince them! To my extreme surprise, my best friend (who’s also my roommate) agreed almost immediately, and our other good friend didn’t need any convincing either – I was so excited! We decided to take our trip the first week of May, because we would officially be done with finals (and college!) then and had a gap week between the end of finals and commencement weekend events. This worked out really well – crowds at WDW were pretty low, and we were able to enjoy the trip without any impending deadlines over our shoulders.
I am definitely a planner – it actually brings me joy to plan things and arrange schedules, and I’ve also been to WDW several times with family and once with friends, so I took on all the organizing and planning for our trip, which the other two were completely fine with! I actually had a Google Doc spreadsheet with multiple pages for our trip; one page per day of our trip to plan our schedule and FP+s, and then a page with all the phone numbers, confirmation numbers, etc. that we might need. This really came in handy and was easy to access throughout the trip via the Google Doc iPhone app.
Since this would be a first visit to WDW for one of my friends, we planned to go to all four parks and stay onsite. We decided to rent DVC points at BLT, a studio with a lake view. I was initially worried about everything that could go wrong with renting points, but the whole process went extremely smoothly and was very easy. I was so happy that we were staying at BLT, because my family has stayed at CR every time we have ever gone to WDW, for many many years.
A little about everyone going on the trip:
This is me, waltsdream! I have been a Disney lover since I can remember – it really is my happy place. I love the Disney Princesses, and I really believe in the magic that can happen at WDW – there’s so much pixie dust to enjoy if you stop and notice it, and really believe!
Favorite park: The Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: Peter Pan’s Flight … and the monorail!
Favorite Disney Movies: can I say all of them? Tangled, Frozen, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Monsters Inc…. and so many more!
Favorite characters: Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse, Chip and Dale
Favorite princesses: Ariel and Anna all the way!
Favorite night entertainment: My favorite above all will always be SpectroMagic. But even though it’s gone now, I love all the night entertainment at Magic Kingdom, and I love Fantasmic!
Last visit: March 2010 at the Boardwalk! I was lucky enough to celebrate my high school graduation with friends here during our spring break. My last visit with my parents was in 2004.
This is one of my best friends and my college roommate – we’ll call her Eeyore, after one of her favorite characters. We met in a class we had together our freshman year, and became fast friends. One of our favorite things to do together is watch Disney movies, and we always joke that she is so much like Eeyore. I made her watch a looottt of WDW-related Youtube videos in anticipation of this trip.
Favorite park: The Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: Mickey’s Philharmagic and the Teacups
Favorite Disney Movies: The Lion King and Finding Nemo
Favorite characters: all characters from the Lion King, Buzz and Woody, Captain Hook
Favorite princesses: Belle and Snow White (she’s a Once Upon a Time fan)
Favorite nighttime entertainment: Celebrate the Magic – the light show projected on the Castle. She was obsessed with it and saw it three times during our trip!
Last visit: Never! This was Eeyore’s first ever visit to WDW, and I was so excited to share the magic with her!
This is one of my other best friends in college – we will call her Cinderella after one of her favorite characters – Cindy for short. We met in our orientation group and we were in the same hall during our first year of college, and have been friends ever since!
Favorite park: Epcot – she loved the World Showcase!
Favorite ride: She loved TSM, SM and POTC!
Favorite Disney movie: Cinderella
Favorite character: Peter Pan
Favorite Princess: Cinderella – she loves Prince Charming
Favorite nighttime entertainment: Electric Light Parade
Last visit: Her first visit was a couple years ago during spring break, but this was her first trip staying onsite.
My Dad also joined us, for our first day (for his privacy I’m not going to share a picture, sorry!) He travels a lot for work, and as luck would have it, we found out a couple weeks before our trip that he would be about an hour outside Orlando during our trip. I immediately asked him if he could join us, and he said he could join us for our first day of our trip, as it was a Sunday and he wouldn’t be working then. I was so excited!!! We haven’t been to Disney together since 2004 – ten years ago! I have so many special memories of WDW with my parents. I think my Dad is really who got me into loving all the character interactions so much – he is always so chatty and animated with all the characters, like he’s a kid again!
Favorite park: The Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: Peter Pan’s Flight, IASW, CoP and the monorail
Favorite Disney movie: The Lion King
Favorite character: Mickey and Minnie, Peter Pan, Tink
Favorite Princess: Belle
Favorite nighttime entertainment: SpectroMagic – we so wish it was still there!
Last visit: August 2004, staying Theme Park View at the Contemporary! We were actually stuck there a few extra days due to a hurricane and I had to miss my first couple days of school – I thought it was super cool to be stuck in the Contemporary during the hurricane – they brought out Minnie and Cinderella’s mice friends to entertain us!
Thanks for joining us – I am so excited to share our magical trip and all the pixie dust we received with you! This is my first trip report so I'm not quite sure I'm following correct procedure, but thanks for sticking with me!
A little background in planning our trip: I’ve been hoping and dreaming of this trip since last summer 2013. I wasn’t sure how much convincing my friends would need to spend so much money on a senior/graduation trip, but I was prepared to do anything I needed to convince them! To my extreme surprise, my best friend (who’s also my roommate) agreed almost immediately, and our other good friend didn’t need any convincing either – I was so excited! We decided to take our trip the first week of May, because we would officially be done with finals (and college!) then and had a gap week between the end of finals and commencement weekend events. This worked out really well – crowds at WDW were pretty low, and we were able to enjoy the trip without any impending deadlines over our shoulders.
I am definitely a planner – it actually brings me joy to plan things and arrange schedules, and I’ve also been to WDW several times with family and once with friends, so I took on all the organizing and planning for our trip, which the other two were completely fine with! I actually had a Google Doc spreadsheet with multiple pages for our trip; one page per day of our trip to plan our schedule and FP+s, and then a page with all the phone numbers, confirmation numbers, etc. that we might need. This really came in handy and was easy to access throughout the trip via the Google Doc iPhone app.
Since this would be a first visit to WDW for one of my friends, we planned to go to all four parks and stay onsite. We decided to rent DVC points at BLT, a studio with a lake view. I was initially worried about everything that could go wrong with renting points, but the whole process went extremely smoothly and was very easy. I was so happy that we were staying at BLT, because my family has stayed at CR every time we have ever gone to WDW, for many many years.
A little about everyone going on the trip:
This is me, waltsdream! I have been a Disney lover since I can remember – it really is my happy place. I love the Disney Princesses, and I really believe in the magic that can happen at WDW – there’s so much pixie dust to enjoy if you stop and notice it, and really believe!
Favorite park: The Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: Peter Pan’s Flight … and the monorail!
Favorite Disney Movies: can I say all of them? Tangled, Frozen, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Monsters Inc…. and so many more!
Favorite characters: Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse, Chip and Dale
Favorite princesses: Ariel and Anna all the way!
Favorite night entertainment: My favorite above all will always be SpectroMagic. But even though it’s gone now, I love all the night entertainment at Magic Kingdom, and I love Fantasmic!
Last visit: March 2010 at the Boardwalk! I was lucky enough to celebrate my high school graduation with friends here during our spring break. My last visit with my parents was in 2004.
This is one of my best friends and my college roommate – we’ll call her Eeyore, after one of her favorite characters. We met in a class we had together our freshman year, and became fast friends. One of our favorite things to do together is watch Disney movies, and we always joke that she is so much like Eeyore. I made her watch a looottt of WDW-related Youtube videos in anticipation of this trip.
Favorite park: The Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: Mickey’s Philharmagic and the Teacups
Favorite Disney Movies: The Lion King and Finding Nemo
Favorite characters: all characters from the Lion King, Buzz and Woody, Captain Hook
Favorite princesses: Belle and Snow White (she’s a Once Upon a Time fan)
Favorite nighttime entertainment: Celebrate the Magic – the light show projected on the Castle. She was obsessed with it and saw it three times during our trip!
Last visit: Never! This was Eeyore’s first ever visit to WDW, and I was so excited to share the magic with her!
This is one of my other best friends in college – we will call her Cinderella after one of her favorite characters – Cindy for short. We met in our orientation group and we were in the same hall during our first year of college, and have been friends ever since!
Favorite park: Epcot – she loved the World Showcase!
Favorite ride: She loved TSM, SM and POTC!
Favorite Disney movie: Cinderella
Favorite character: Peter Pan
Favorite Princess: Cinderella – she loves Prince Charming
Favorite nighttime entertainment: Electric Light Parade
Last visit: Her first visit was a couple years ago during spring break, but this was her first trip staying onsite.
My Dad also joined us, for our first day (for his privacy I’m not going to share a picture, sorry!) He travels a lot for work, and as luck would have it, we found out a couple weeks before our trip that he would be about an hour outside Orlando during our trip. I immediately asked him if he could join us, and he said he could join us for our first day of our trip, as it was a Sunday and he wouldn’t be working then. I was so excited!!! We haven’t been to Disney together since 2004 – ten years ago! I have so many special memories of WDW with my parents. I think my Dad is really who got me into loving all the character interactions so much – he is always so chatty and animated with all the characters, like he’s a kid again!
Favorite park: The Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: Peter Pan’s Flight, IASW, CoP and the monorail
Favorite Disney movie: The Lion King
Favorite character: Mickey and Minnie, Peter Pan, Tink
Favorite Princess: Belle
Favorite nighttime entertainment: SpectroMagic – we so wish it was still there!
Last visit: August 2004, staying Theme Park View at the Contemporary! We were actually stuck there a few extra days due to a hurricane and I had to miss my first couple days of school – I thought it was super cool to be stuck in the Contemporary during the hurricane – they brought out Minnie and Cinderella’s mice friends to entertain us!
Thanks for joining us – I am so excited to share our magical trip and all the pixie dust we received with you! This is my first trip report so I'm not quite sure I'm following correct procedure, but thanks for sticking with me!