WDW - January 2016 - Day Two Part Two

Day Two - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - Part Two

After dropping off our goodies from the race Expo, it was time to head to our first park of the trip! We headed out to the front of our hotel and had to wait..... one minute until the bus was pulling up. We were killing it at Disney transportation so far!

After a bus ride which took around 25 minutes, we were pulling up to Magic Kingdom! We had picked this to be our park of the day based on our supper reservation, and it just seemed like the perfect one to start with! And the Christmas decorations were still up, which I didn't think they would be so I was excited about that!

As soon as I entered the park, I stopped to get a birthday pin (my birthday was the following Wednesday, so I figured it was ok to wear one since it was within a week). As soon as we got to Main Street the Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Parade was starting, so of course we stopped to watch our first WDW parade.

While watching the parade I actually got a little choked up, after months of planning and reading other trip reports, I was finally standing in Magic Kingdom! The parade itself was nothing special, but it was cute and had some great characters. After the parade, we walked down Main Street (where I was again a little choked up at the sight of Cinderella's castle - it's so big and beautiful!). We didn't really have a ton of time to admire it though, we had to get to our first Fastpass selection of our trip! FP+ #1 - Splash Mountain! Once we hopped into the fastpass line, it took about 5 minutes before we were boarding our log. I also prefer the logs here compared to Disneyland - sitting side by side is so much better! It's so easy to plan ahead for a funny photo on this ride, so here's our first ride photo of the trip:

By the time we finished our visit with Briar Rabbit and Briar Bear, it was after 1pm and I hadn't ate much since breakfast, but we were both getting hungry. We knew we wanted a quick service option, since all of our table service credits on our dining plan were spoken for with reservations, so we decided on Peco's Bills! We figured we'd be fine splitting an entree, since we did have a supper reservation for later and we knew we'd have a fairly large meal there. We chose the steak fajita platter with a coke and churros with chocolate sauce as the dessert included with a quick service credit. If we had paid out of pocket, it would have cost us $24.69, but we used one quick service credit. After loading up at the fixin's bar, we headed out and found ourselves a table.

It ended up being more than enough food for us to share and hold us over until supper. While we were eating, I noticed a crane walking around. I'm actually terrified of birds, and this guy walked right up to us with no shame, and stole a mouthful of steak off our tray before we even realized what had happened. I had my phone out just to take a picture of him, he was a couple feet away from us when I started raising my phone up for a picture - this guy was fast!

A cast member actually saw the entire thing and came over to ask if we wanted anything else (since we weren't offering food to him, he just took it upon himself to steal it). We were fine, but it was so nice that they offered! I guess it's a fairly common occurrence there, the CM started telling us stories about other people having food stolen and some of them were pretty funny stories!

We finished up and went to the Christmas store in Magic Kingdom. I've been trying to buy a new ornament on every trip we go on, so eventually I can decorate an entire Christmas tree just with ornaments that remind us of trips we've taken together. I decided on this one, I knew I wanted something that had the year on it, and also said Walt Disney World (which this one has on the side).

I was scared of breaking it if I had to carry it around with me all day, so I had it shipped to our hotel for pickup the next day - I love this feature of staying on site!

I'm going to stop here before this gets too long!

xoxo,

Fallon

Walt Disney World 2016 - Day Two - Part One

January 6, 2016

We woke up on our first day at Disney around 8am. I know from reading a lot of trip reports that this is "sleeping in", but I am not a morning person, and we had a late night the night before with our luggage not showing up to our room until after midnight. We got ready and headed to Intermission Food Court at our hotel (All-Star Music). I'm not much of a breakfast person (I never eat breakfast before leaving for work, and I've been known to snack on chocolate bars and bags of chips at my desk in the mornings...) so I just used a snack credit and picked up some banana bread.

Luke on the other hand, eats breakfast every morning (he does start work an hour and a half later than me), so he picked up the breakfast platter with eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, bacon, a biscuit and a Mickey waffle, and he also picked up a banana. We also paid out of pocket for this meal, it came to $11.97. I would like to point out that the banana cost $1.69. Seriously, most expensive banana ever.

After eating, we stopped to take this picture:

and then we headed outside to catch a bus to the race Expo. It opened at 10am that morning, and we wanted to be there as close to that time as possible. We walked outside the hotel to a coach bus sitting there waiting, so we walked on and were off to the race Expo! This was our first Disney transportation (excluding Magical Express) and our wait time is currently zero minutes - I was so worried we were going to waste so much time waiting for busses...

Before long the bus dropped us off, we had a short walk and then we were seeing this:

I apologize, I didn't write notes or pay attention to the buildings we went into here. The entire thing was quite overwhelming, and unlike anything I've ever experienced. It also started raining shortly after we arrived, so I left my camera in my bookbag to keep it dry, and any pictures I did take here were with my phone (and I didn't take very many). 

Luke went and picked up his race pack in one building, and then we had to go into another building to pick up his race shirt. He also bought himself a Disney marathon weekend tshirt, and we looked around at some of the expo vendors. I loved the Ariel NewBalance shoes, but I couldn't justify the cost when it's not the brand of sneaker I wear (I love my Asics). I did end up buying Luke a Disney themed medal display, as it was something I had looked at ordering online, but the shipping cost to Canada was a little ridiculous. So when I saw the exact one I was going to order there, and I could take it home with me that day, I was sold! I don't have a picture of it, but it's this one in sparkly black: http://www.heavymedalz.com/Product/10OnceUponBlack.php Now to fill it I guess we'll just have to plan on more RunDisney events (which are already in our plans...).

We didn't spend too much time at the Expo, we had FastPasses to get to! We did see what we wanted to, and Luke had more than enough time to look at the official RunDisney merch, so we decided to head back to our hotel to drop off our purchases. But first, I made Luke pose for this picture:



We walked over to the bus pickup spot, and there was a bus sitting there waiting! Two for two today! We went back to All Star Music, dropped off our race Expo purchases and then headed back out to catch our first bus to one of the WDW parks! I might have been a little bit excited at this point...

xoxo,
Fallon

WDW Trip - Day One, Part Two

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 

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.

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!

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

xoxo,

Fallon

The beginning of the WDW Trip Report....

Now that our trip to Walt Disney World is over, and our weekend trip to California (which Luke won!) is over, it's time to start my trip report of Florida! I apologize now, this post is lacking on photos, but I will more than make up for it in future posts!

The day before we left, we woke up extra early to drop our dogs off at the kennel before going to work for the day. We take them to one that is about a half hour drive away, and they are only open during certain hours, so we knew there wouldn't be time after work while we were trying to finish packing, and our flight left early the next morning so no time then either. I'm always sad saying goodbye to them, but I was just so excited that I was going to be in Disney by the next day!

On our travel day, our alarm went at 4am. I am NOT a morning person, but that morning I had no problem getting out of bed - we were going to WDW! We had most of our packing complete the night before, so we were on the road by 5, and had a very quick and easy drive to the airport. Traveling can sometimes be a bit of a risk in January, but lucky for us there were no storms in the forecast! We checked our car in at our preferred parking lot by 5:30, and waited less than two minutes before a shuttle bus to the terminal had pulled up. We had decided to splurge and reserve valet parking, so it's the last stop and the bus was full by the time we got on, so we had to stand. We were the only ones on the bus going to the US Terminal of the airport, so we were the last ones off the bus. Luke had checked us in online, so we used the kiosk to print off our baggage tags, went to the desk to get our boarding passes, and off to customs! Security was really quiet, we were the only people in our line. Once we got to customs there was only one other person using the electronic kiosks, so we walked right up to one. Once it printed off our receipt, we took it up to an extremely friendly customs agent who made a few jokes with me about my hair colour, and then we were through! While we were looking around the duty free store, I remembered that I had forgot my headphones at home, boo! So I had to go to the tech store and spend my first $20 of the trip. Oh well, such is life.

We decided to grab some Quiznos for breakfast - turkey, swiss and ranch on white bread for me and a honey chicken club on whole wheat for Luke. Sorry, no pictures of that meal. By the time we finished eating it was still only 6:30 - our flight didn't leave until 8. We were expecting security and customs to take a bit longer...but better to be early than risk missing the flight. While we were waiting, Luke went to Starbucks with a gift card we had found on the weekend to get himself a coffee and a Very Berry Hibiscus for me.

Our flight to Minneapolis/St.Paul left on time, even with de-icing. The flight offered free Wi-Fi and had a decent selection of free movies to watch, so we watched the original Jurassic Park (which I had never seen...). 

We ended up landing early in Minneapolis, so we had plenty of time to get to our next gate (we were originally worried we might be cutting it close). Our next flight was to Detroit, and it was packed. It left a few minutes late, but made up the time in the air and ended up landing early as well. We had trouble getting the Wi-Fi to work on this plane, so we just played games on Luke's iPad. I was really impressed by the Delta Terminal at the Detroit airport, I thought it was really nice! I was way too entertained by watching the mini-monorail thing inside the terminal...

Our flight from there to Orlando was close to full, but not 100%. There were actually less children on it then I thought there would be. The flight left on time, and arrived in Orlando on time. We spent our time on that flight getting into the Disney mood by watching Brave (we're big Pixar fans). 
After our quick ride on the fake monorail, we saw our first sign of Disney - the Disney Store in the airport!

I'm going to finish this post here! My next post will cover our arrival at our hotel (complete with pictures!) and our first meal at Disney!

xoxo,

Fallon

Update

Happy 2016 everyone! I'm only a month late wishing you all that!

I've been away from my blog for awhile, but that's due to my dad coming to visit us for two weeks at Christmas, and then Luke and I went on our DisneyWorld trip for almost two weeks. Life is finally settling back into a routine, so hopefully I'll find time to get a few more blog posts written over the next few months (including my Disney trip report!)

Until there, here's a little sneak peek of one of our photopass pictures from Disney!

xoxo,

Fallon

November Empties

It's time for the most exciting blog post I write - about my monthly empties! 

November was a good month, that's a pretty full box!

So I guess I lied in my October empties post when I said we only finish off one of these per month - in November we finished off three (and there are already 2 empty ones in our bucket for December...). As I've mentioned before, we have 7 of these on the go at any given moment (3 bathrooms, 2 in each plus one in the kitchen). 

Scents finished this month: 

Paris Amour (one of my favourite scents from Bath & Body)

Malibu Sunset (this smelled amazing too!)

Strawberry (this was good, but paled in comparison to the other two)

Oh hair dye, my old friends! I had dyed my hair fairly regularly for about 2 years, and then I dyed it close to my natural colour and let it be for over a year to give it a break. But, I was bored of brown hair, so magenta it is! I had this bottle of 30Volume Creme left from when I was dying my hair before (I don't use that entire bottle on two applications, don't worry). I dyed it twice in November, about a week apart. After getting the colour I like, I then go about 4-6 weeks between dyes.

Also - if you want to see how it looks, check out my Instagram over here ->

Foil Samples!! I have so many of these things kicking around, I'm really trying to make a conscious effort to use some up. This month I finished off:

Eucerin Anti-Wrinkle Night Cream - meh, it was cream

Eucerin Anti-Wrinkle Day Cream - again, meh. It did it's job but nothing special

EcoBeauty Good Day, Good Moisturizer - I received this in an Ipsy bag in the past. When I opened it, I thought it would last me about a week...5 weeks later I finally finished it off.

Korres Black Pine Night Cream - this stuff was good, once you got past the smell. It seemed strange to be rubbing something that smelled like trees on my face.

Real Beauty Serum - I received this in a Memebox (which I blogged about here). I loved it at the time, but it sat forgotten in a box after our move until I found it again in November. I put it on my face, and immediatedly did not like the way it felt, I think it might have been expired (which is fair, it had been over a year since I'd opened it). I had used about half of this before deciding it needed to go.

PureSmile Milk Essence Mask - another item I got from a Memebox (although I don't remember exactly which one...). These things look so silly on, I scared my dogs with it, but it left my face feeling so soft and smooth!

Vitabath Bath & Shower Gelee - Another foil sample used up! Hurray! This shower gel smelled really good!

Lise Watier Night Serum - I believe I got this from Topbox with a day serum as well (which I'm still using). I liked the night one much better than the day one, but I still don't notice if these things actually do anything or not...

Pantene Expert Conditioner - This was only 75mL, but it lasted a long time! It was nothing special, but it did exactly as conditioner should. I'm pretty sure we received this as a free sample from Beyond the Rack or something.

Aquafina Flavoursplash Lip Balm - Seriously. I finished a lip balm before I lost it. This was a momentous occasion - and it was one I didn't even really like, it just happened to be the only one in my desk at work for a few months. I didn't hate it, but I'm pretty sure I bought this in a three pack from the D-Rama (so cheap!)

Perfume samples! I've mentioned before about loving the sampler packs Shoppers Drug Mart sells; I think I've bought 4 of them now. I also bought one for Luke last year, so two of these are his.

Calvin Klein Euphoria for Men - this got a "Meh, 3/5" from Luke. 

Givenchy Pi - Luke loved this one, and it's in the running as the one he'll trade his coupon in for a full size.

Givenchy Very Irresistible (female) - I loved this one, but I think Gienchy's Hot Couture is just slightly better (I already own the full size of that one)

And there you have it, 19 items used up in the month of November! Go us!

xoxo,

Fallon

What The Hell Is A Pre-RD ADR @ BOG?!

After we had our dates set, I started reading about Disney World and I quickly realized that it was very different from Disneyland. We were able to fly by the seat of our pants when we went to Disneyland - zero planning was involved (we decided to go to Anaheim on a Monday afternoon and landed there Thursday afternoon). This time was going to be different - good thing we had 8 months to plan!

We didn't book our tickets for our flights until mid-August, but I spent many hours in May, June and July reading articles and blogs about Disney World. One thing I kept noticing were the abbreviations that kept being used. Disney people are pretty intense about their abbreviations, let me tell you! At first, I had no idea what people were talking about, until I found this handy little website: http://allears.net/tp/abrev.htm 

So, what exactly is a Pre-RD ADR @ BOG? In simple English, that is a pre-rope-drop (before the park opens) advance dining reservation at Be Our Guest (a restaurant located in Magic Kingdom). These blog posts are essentially a PTR - a pre-trip report. Once we get back from our stay at ASMu (All-Star Music Resort), I'll be writing a TR (a trip report) about our experience with PH (park-hopper's) and FP+ (fast-pass plus).

Did all of those abbreviations make your head spin? I personally avoid shortening words whenever possible (I am the person who will text "y-o-u" instead of "u" every single time). Going forward with my planning posts about our Disney trip, I will try to use real words instead of letters, but you will see a few. If you're ever curious about what I'm trying to say, just leave a comment!

xoxo,
Fallon