"Come To Mama Shark, Baby Shark" May 2017 BC TR UPDATED 7/21!

Guess what? We missed our boarding section. Passengers with the letter "C" on their boarding pass were getting on the plane. We were able to hop right in line and still grab two seats together... YAY!
OK, I've said this to other folks too - I just don't understand SW :scratchin and I don't think I want to. JetBlue you book your flights, pick your seats, and that's where you sit. All done right away and you're sitting with who you're flying with, no worries, doesn't matter if you're the first ones to board or the last :thumbsup2

We landed a few minutes early at 9:03am! Yep, we LANDED a 9:03am!!
Awesome! Those are the kind of flights we love, too! We landed before 9:15 am last Nov. and then this past March. Last month we didn't land until shortly before 5pm which isn't terrible but we missed that early arrival, and unfortunately for our Aug. trip arriving early just wasn't happening.
 
Just found your report and joining in! A 9:03 arrival...that is awesome! We finally have direct to Orlando service from our small airport, but it only takes place one day a week...just one! And that one is a 12:30 PM arrival. You are lucky on that!!

Also, very nice of them at the YC to check you into your BC room and at least you got your balcony request, even though you didn't get the lake view!
 


OK, I've said this to other folks too - I just don't understand SW :scratchin and I don't think I want to. JetBlue you book your flights, pick your seats, and that's where you sit. All done right away and you're sitting with who you're flying with, no worries, doesn't matter if you're the first ones to board or the last
That is one of the reasons I don't like flying Southwest. It is cheap and the service is pretty good, but my anxiety hates not knowing where I will sit! I usually only fly if it's for work (so flying alone) and a short flight (1-2 hr max)! I can understand why people like them though!
 
Arrival Day, Part 2: Yes, We'll Take All The Food

Hey everyone! I feel like it's been FOREVER since my last update. Not knowing when we'll be back has definitely made it difficult to get over the PDD. It's real. BUT, DH had such a great time and has agreed we can go back in 2018! Also, real life has been... hectic, yet fun. I've been studying non stop for my nurse practitioner boards that are only 3 weeks away and we traveled to Lake George for three nights. Oh, and my surgery is 4 weeks away. I'll do a real life update soon as to not bore anyone that doesn't care! haha!!

We last left off with DH and I getting checked into our room. Let me tell you- our room location was perfect for us! That staircase in my last post? Our room was about 8 doors down from there. Its was GREAT - no need to take the elevators and we were so close to the lobby, it was just a quick walk to the Marketplace to get coffee in the morning, etc. There was quite a bit of foot traffic that passed by our room, which didn't bother us but I would say if anyone likes true peace and quiet, its not a good location for them. And our balcony was great, although people eating in the solarium could look up and see us. Kinda weird, but honestly I didn't care, I'm not that interesting so if they wanted to see me reading Elle magazine and sipping coffee, that's cool with me :magnify:

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(view from the chair on the left on the balcony... does that make sense??)

Bottom line: We loved our room. DH agreed we can spend more money next time (yes, there will be a next time!) and get a water view room. YIPEE!

LUNCH

After we got settled in our room and changed into cooler clothes, it was about 11:15ish and we were getting hungry for lunch. We decided on Hurricane Hanna's, as their seafood salad sandwich was calling my name and DH agreed it sounded delicious! Of course, I had to stop and take pictures along the way

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We were not fans on the seafood salad sandwich purely because we didn't care for the citrus-y taste. I'm sure some people like it, we're just not those people. Lesson learned. Fortunately we got a great table with a view of Stormalong Bay.


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Ok, well, you get the point :rolleyes1

DH was still hungry (as I write this, I'm realizing why our weekly grocery bill is so much...) so he decided we wanted another meal. Yes, another entire meal. He ordered the pulled pork sandwich from Hurricane Hanna's "to go" and took it up to the room to eat. I had a bite and it was DELICIOUS. Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic...

Originally I had planned for us to go to Typhoon Lagoon for the day but having been awake for 10 at that point we were both pretty tired, and the pools at the BC were enough for us! We didn't have any ADR plans, so it was nice to spend our first day just relaxing and not a schedule. DH decided he wanted to nap in the room and I was itching to lay by a pool. I went to the quiet pool, napped on/off and listened some podscasts I've been wanting to catch up on. Pure bliss.

After a few hours of R&R, we were ready to do some shopping! Well... I was ready to shop and DH was ready to eat again...see a pattern here? haha!!

We decided to hit up Disney Springs, and while on the bus there DH told me he was feeling pizza for dinner. We settled on Blaze Pizza for dinner as they have GF pizza there and we don't have this chain near us. DH got pepperoni, I got a white pizza and we split a vitamin water. I forgot to grab a pic (oops!) but we really enjoyed our meal. Next up I did some shopping and DH was happy to tag along with me :flower3: We paid OOP with a Disney Gift Card we had as I didn't want to use a CS credit on pizza.
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On the bus ride to DS

One of the "must do" shops for us was the Coca-Cola store. DH LOVED it in here, and we found a cute little polar bear Christmas tree ornament as souvenir. My FIL works for Coca-Cola, so it was fun to send him photos of all the merchandise they sell in this location. We didn't get anything to drink on the rooftop as we were STUFFED from Blaze, so it's still on our 'bucket list'.

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(Sorry random people!)

After our shopping extravaganza, it was about 8pm and it was getting busier and we saw many kids melting down, AKA: our cue to head back to our home for the next six nights!


But, before we left DS I knew I wanted to grab a GF dessert at Erin McKenna's Bakery
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I mentioned this in my Jan '17 TR and my PTR, but I've also been to the Erin McKenna's in SoHo... such a cute little bakery that meets everyones dietary needs! There was about 8 other people in line so we had time to decided what we wanted. DH was thinking about a cupcake, but ended up saying he didn't want anything and I should get two things. I got the vegan ice cream and a brownie cupcake to go. I don't care for cupcakes that much, but I knew DH would want it later on.

With our ice cream and cupcake in hand, we made our way back to the bus stop and waited about 6 minutes for a Yacht/Beach Club bus to arrive. DH decided to dive in to his cupcake!


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We were in bed by 9:30pm as we were completed exhausted despite our afternoon siesta. We could here the Epcot & DHS fireworks, and even tho we couldn't see them it seemed to make the night more magical.

Up next... Magic Kingdom
 

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OK, I've said this to other folks too - I just don't understand SW :scratchin and I don't think I want to. JetBlue you book your flights, pick your seats, and that's where you sit. All done right away and you're sitting with who you're flying with, no worries, doesn't matter if you're the first ones to board or the last :thumbsup2

I love JetBlue too!! Unfortunately they don't fly out of the Manchester, NH airport.. and I'm not about to spend the money for America or Delta, haha!! Altho DH did mention wanting to fly 'first class' next time... so who knows!

I love reading trip reports BC so much fun and lots of information for helping plan our first Disney trip in aug 2017

AW welcome!! I can't wait to hear about your first trip, let me know if you have any particular questions!

Just found your report and joining in! A 9:03 arrival...that is awesome! We finally have direct to Orlando service from our small airport, but it only takes place one day a week...just one! And that one is a 12:30 PM arrival. You are lucky on that!!

Also, very nice of them at the YC to check you into your BC room and at least you got your balcony request, even though you didn't get the lake view!

YAY welcome!! It was SO nice to be there early, its one of my favorites!! I agree we were so lucky to get our balcony request, and next time we'll likely pay for a water view room

That is one of the reasons I don't like flying Southwest. It is cheap and the service is pretty good, but my anxiety hates not knowing where I will sit! I usually only fly if it's for work (so flying alone) and a short flight (1-2 hr max)! I can understand why people like them though!

I think once we have kids we'll likely spend more money and fly another airline, just for the pure convenience of being able to pick our seats.. but for now we're okay with! .
 


Jumping in on your TR. Love the Turkey Legs shirt and it looks like you had an amazing arrival day! Stormalong Bay looks super inviting right about now.
 
Jumping in on your TR. Love the Turkey Legs shirt and it looks like you had an amazing arrival day! Stormalong Bay looks super inviting right about now.

WELCOME! DH LOVES his Turkey Leg shirt!! And yes, I'd love to be at SAB right now!! ahh!!
 
Following along.....

Hey, thanks for joining!!

I'm in! We are staying at BC for the first time in September so I'm looking forward to your comments on the resort.

OMG you will LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!


Following. We're staying at BC next May! So excited!

SWEET maybe we'll be there the same time, as we want to go again in 2018!!

Ooo you should do a real life update about what you did at the Lake!

OOO I'm on it!!
 
Magic Kingdom/First Full Day, Part 1


I'm back with another update! Actually I'm hoping to get two updates in today, this one and a Lake George TR. I may need more coffee...


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On our first full day we woke up around 7am right when our alarms went off. Our plan was to spend the morning in Magic Kingdom, eat lunch at LTT and then head back to the resort for some pool time in the afternoon. Most of which, we stuck to.

Once we were showered and ready head out the door our first stop at the new The Market at Ale & Compass. It was about a 6 minute walk from our room to the market which wasn't too bad.

We were on a mission to get a smoothie for breakfast, and I was able to snag some pics for the purpose of this TR as it had just opened before our trip... those are making their debut in a later in the TR!

I actually didn't know where this market was located, I just knew how to get inside the Yacht Club. I asked the nice woman working at Fittings & Fairings Clothes & Notions for directions as this was located in the corner of the lobby. Her response, "it's right where Fittings & Fairings used to be.". Considering I'd never been to the Yacht Club I think my face looked like this...


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(Sorry I had to... you guys know how much of a Britney fan I am!)


Eventually she gave us directions and we were off to get our smoothies. We both got strawberry banana... YUM. And they are a snack credit... woot woot! :goodvibes

We were at the bus stop waiting for an MK bus by 8:23am. Here I am sipping on my strawberry banana smoothie...and yes, I realize that this is becoming a pattern. hahahah!


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At the bus stop... patiently waiting for the most magical bus ride!I forgot to say, we got on the bus at the Yacht Club since we were already there. For the amount of time we spent there, you would have thought we were staying Yacht Club style!

The bus VERY full and DH ended up standing and I stayed sitting. A very sweet woman, maybe in her lates 60s, sat next to me and we chatted the entire 18 minute-ish ride to MK. They were visiting from Mississippi, they are passholders, she was staying at the YC for 11 nights with her husband and son... such nice people! Plus, I love a southern draw.


Side note- I binge watched all four seasons of Southern Charm while in Disney. I couldn't be stopped. I LOVE Charleston. I would move there in a second. Please tell me someone else loves this show too?!

Once we got off the bus I took a moment to gaze at the GF and DH let me know its still on our bucket list and said 'someday'. I added onto this, '...in 2018'. hahahah!!


We had FP+ for Haunted Mansion, POTC and... crap, I don't remember what else. Ugh. We immediately made our way to Liberty Square and rode HM with our FP+. The line was already kind of long even tho the posted wait time 30 min... as we were walking through the FP line DH asked me why all those people were waiting... and I had to remind him we had FP. He then (jokingly!) looked over to the stand by line and said, 'ppfft, peasants'. All week we joked and whenever we had FP and others didn't we would said this to each other... and sometimes if we waited too long for something we deemed ourselves 'peasants'.

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After our ghost host tour, we stopped into Memento Mori as I wanted to look for a birthday present for my mom, as her birthday is June 29th. I didn't really see anything I wanted to get her so we moved on towards Fantasyland.

We saw that IASM had a 10 minute wait so we hopped in line.. this was literally a walk on! :earseek:

Funny story: You know how at the end of the ride they have all the signs that say 'goodbye/hello' in different languages? Well DH and I were trying to figure out what languages each sign was from.. and for some reason I said, "I think this one is from Arabia".


.....

:confused::confused::confused:

DH could not control himself and then nicely pointed out to me that, no, Ashlee- there is no such country as "Arabia". We were dying of laughter!

Up next was one of my all time favorites...



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Confession: I stole this pic from my January TR. Can't win them all.

We only waited about 8 minutes for the show to start. We were good Disney park guests and moved allllll the way down to the end of the row. Unfortunately the man next to me was taking up more like a seat and a half... but luckily the theatre did not fill up all the way so I DH scoot down a few seats. I hope I didn't hurt his feelings.

And yes, the show was amazing as always. I couldn't help but sing along, especially to the Aladdin & Jasmine song...:wizard:


The park was getting CROWDED after this.

We decided to walk through Fronteirland into Adventureland to get to POTC for our FP+. DH had to use the bathroom so we stopped at the restroms near the shootin' range area for a quick pit. It wasn't long before we were standing under this sign...


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The time stamp on the photo says it was taken at 10:26am. We got A LOT done in the few hours we'd been at MK! We waited about 15 min in the FP line, and DH was getting antsy. I think its the 'unknown' that makes it worse- like not knowing how far the line goes inside. But before we knew it we were ready to hop into the little boat thing and we scared my pirates. Well, I was scared. I'm scared all of things. haha!! DH kept commenting how both HM and POTC would be scary for little kids... and I agreed. But obviously there were little ones on the rides with us and they did fine. What troopers!


After our trip the pirate infested Caribbean, we had about an hour until our lunch ADR. I knew what we had to do next... COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE! DH had never seen it and I really wanted to look for a mug like @Raeven has. The sign said the next show would be in 4 minutes and it felt great to be in the air conditioning. Once the show started... DH just stared at me. With a lot of confusion. I started giggling non stop and telling him how its supposed to be corny/cheesy... he did not appreciate it. I don't think he cracked a smile once. And at one point he told me I was just laughing because I was trying to prove a point...:dogdance::dogdance:

Upon exiting the show, the Country Bears were doing meet and greets!! DH said absolutely not and wanted to get as far away as possible from them... hahaha! We stopped in the country store gift shop but didn't find anything. We were both getting hungry and it was close to our ADR time so we went over to LTT and got checked in.

About 10 minutes later our name was being called. This part killed me... anyone who has eaten at LTT knows that the hostesses 'declare' your family when your table is ready. Um... the cast members were not feeling it. They could barely mumble the words... didn't bother, again I chose to laugh and DH agreed it was comical. Like a sitcom.

We were given the allergy friendly menus which the entrees listed. I could tell DH was disappointed that they did not have the 'all you care to eat' on this menu. LTT is his FAVORITE. Fortunately, when our server (I can't believe I forgot his name... he was so sweet!) came over to our table I asked if we could get the the 'all you care to eat' and he said yes! PHEW!!

Our meal was fantastic, complete with GF rolls, and stuffing as pictured. We both go the Patriot Slush... yummmm.


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Our server brought us sorbet automatically, as this was the only GF dessert. We were very satisfied with our meal! After our lunch we made our make to the bus stop for some post lunch rest before our night in Epcot


Up next... an afternoon of relaxing, and then Epcot!
 
Lake George TR

Hey all! I've had many requests for a Lake George TR so here it is! You ask, I deliver *insert hand emoji*

First, confession time. Prior to this trip, I had no idea that Lake George existed. I guess you could say I'm not that well traveled o_O

Our trip took placed 6/12-6/15, and the reason for the trip was that DH had a work conference there... originally I was supposed to have hip surgery 6/11/17 but that had to be put on hold as DH's work told him that he if didn't go to this conference, it would look bad for him. We toyed with the idea of me proceeding with the surgery and having my mom come stay with fur baby and I, but ultimately we just didn't think this would work. So I traded in surgery for a trip to the Adirondacks!

DH's work paid for the hotel room and his food so the trip wasn't that expensive. Oh, and they paid for gas and mileage too. The only thing we had to pay out of pocket for was the $75/night fee for fur baby and my food.


6/12

Both DH and I worked a little over a half day on departure day. I left my work around 1:15pm and DH left work around 1:45pm. You guys- it was HHHOOT out this day. So hot. And the AC in my car decided it would be a good time to only work when it was on full blast. Hmm. There was nothing we could do about it then, so we just embraced the sweat. Think sweat lodge style soul cleansing :rotfl2:

I packed fur baby and I and DH packed when he got home - we were on the road by 3:30. GPS said our arrival time was 7:13pm. Ugh... why didn't we fly?

I drove first because DH needed to make some phone calls as we are trying to get central AC installed in our house and, surprisingly, no one had called or emailed DH back a week after he left a few companies messages.

The GPS took us through western Massachusetts, and we stopped in Chicopee, MA for a quick bite to eat at a chipotle. Say that five times fast- chipotle in chicopee!

Fortunately there was an outside seating, so I stayed with fur baby on the patio and DH went inside and got our food. It was still so hot. I was sweating just sitting in the chair. At one point during our drive the thermometer in my car read 106 degrees. O.M.G.

Once we were back on the road we still had two more hours to go. DH decided to take over the driving. It seriously felt like we were in the car FOREVER. Finally we were getting closer, and decided to look on the GPS for a supermarket not too far off of the highway as our hotel room had a kitchen in it and we wanted to stock up on snacks for the room, waters, etc. We stopped in Glen Falls, NY at a Hannaford. DH went into the store and I stayed with fur baby and walked him around little shopping center to get some exercise. About 40 minutes later I saw DH coming through the parking lot like this...


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He's a kid at heart :hyper:


Next we were back on the highway. 10 minutes in, DH noticed we have less an a quarter tank of gas. UGH. Will someone just get me to this darn hotel?! It was 7:45pm by now. I wanted OUT of this darn car. So we take the next exit and apparently DH saw a sign that said 'gas' and it pointed both left and right so DH went left. And we drove for a good 10 min, and it looked like we just kept getting deeper into the woods. At this point I was so annoyed... so DH agreed to turn the car around :laughing:

And we soon discovered the little town Lake George Village and were able to get gas. This town was so cute! Part of me wanted to get out of the car and explore, but the majority of me wanted to get the heck out of the car I'd been in for the last five hours whose AC either didn't work at all or worked full blast.

About 15 minutes later we were FINALLY back on the road and according our GPS we were about 15 minutes from the hotel. Thank you, Jesus.

8:15pm we pulled up to the hotel... it was breath taking!


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We were not staying the main hotel though- we were in one of the lodges because those rooms allowed dogs. I didn't get a pic of the lodges but here is what they looked like from the out side(shout out to google image for the pic!)

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Our room was amazing. We had a full balcony, living room w/ gas fireplace, kitchen, dining room table, amazing bathroom and a master suite. It was nicer (and bigger!) then any of the apartments DH and I have ever lived in. We half-jokingly asked each other if we could just move in permanently.

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I was exhausted once we got there but DH was hungry and ordered a GF pizza from room service. I was hoping to catch the latest episode of Southern Charm especially since we don't have cable at home and I have to wait until the next day to watch it. For some reason I was busy unpacking and missed it- sad face.

6/13

The day started at 4:03am with fur baby jumping on me. I did what any good fur mom does... and woke DH up to take him outside to relieve himself :angel:

Then at 6am fur baby woke me up again. I succumbed and brought him outside, fed him breakfast and then made myself some coffee. DH woke up around 7:30am and was out the door by 8:45 for his conference.

I immediately got to studying for my nurse practitioner test. That lasted four hours. Then fur baby and I went outside for a walk and were back in my 1pm. I ordered a salad and a pot of coffee for lunch via room service. Yes, I had an entire pot of coffee to myself. #nurseproblems. During my self proclaimed lunch break, fur baby and I watched a few episodes of "Below Deck- Mediterranean" .

Then I studied from 2pm-5:30pm and decided I wanted to close my eyes for a bit before DH got back from his conference. I woke up around 6:30pm and he wasn't back yet, but had texted me saying he'd be in the room by 7pm. We got room service for dinner -split a lobster roll and a pizza. We love pizza. And lobster.

DH was in bed by 9pm and I went to bed a little later because I had a few TV shows I wanted to catch up on. I even managed to sneak outside to get a few pics of the sunset... it was GORGEOUS.


Continued in next post....

 

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