MAHALO Walt! A Sept. 2016 DisneyMoon *Completed 10/29*

[kaymil]

Jambo everyone!

Welcome to my first official trip report!

I've been a long-time trip report connoisseur and finally decided it was time for me to jump into the fray!

So without further ado, it's time for some introductions!


KAYLA

​

I'm Kayla, and I am the #1,000 happy haunt. I love Br'er rabbit, chocolate covered pineapple from the Germany pavilion, the Wishes! soundtrack (RIP, Wishes), the Poly, Main Street, and Spaceship Earth.

I teach high school English just outside of Kansas City and help people plan their Disney trips on the side. One day I hope to do that full time. Or just live in one of the teepees on the WDW railroad loop.

KEN

This is my husband, Ken. He has now been to WDW 3 times with me, and I convert him more to a Disney addict each time. He loves changing the lyrics to the Splash Mountain song, beer from Germany, O'hana, Test Track, and trying to beat me at Toy Story Midway Mania.

He is a financial auditor in KC and helps support our yearly trips to our real home.


This trip report actually starts the day before the real trip, because we were busy gettin' married on September 24th!

It was a beautiful day complete with a few little Disney touches, including the musical suite from Up, "Married Life"

Our DisneyMoon took place from September 25th to October 2nd. We spent a lot of time at the parks, like usual, but we also got to enjoy plenty of pool time, boardwalk exploring, Disney Springs shopping, and general resort wandering.

Here are some of the exciting things to come!

A split stay: 3 nights at the Poly, 1 night at POR, and 3 nights at the Beach Club
Our first ever MNSSHP!
Plenty of Food & Wine Festival goodies
Dinner at several new restaurants, including O'hana and Yak and Yeti
The 45th anniversary of the opening of Magic Kingdom!
The Marceline to Magic Kingdom tour

And so we're off! Thanks for coming along! Now please, do not pull down on the safety bar...I will lower it for you


​

 

[kaymil]

CONTENTS

Sunday, September 25th
Post-Wedding and Arrival Night

Monday, September 26th
Day 1, Part 1: A Rain Storm and A Parade
Day 1, Part 2: Fireworks and Flaming Drinks

Tuesday, September 27th
Day 2, Part 1: Food, Wine, and Patrick Warburton
Day 2, Part 2: Giraffe spit and Yetis

Wednesday, September 28th
Day 3, Part 1: Breakfast bills and Island hopping
Day 3, Part 2: Pixie Dust and Elevator Problems

Thursday, September 29th
Day 4, Part 1: Beingets and Bus Stops
Day 4, Part 2: Ghost Hosts and Hocus Pocus

Friday, September 30th
Day 5, Part 1: Margaritas and French Food

Saturday, October 1st
Day 6, Part 1: 45 years and Mickey ears​

 

[kaymil]

Sunday, September 25th
Post-Wedding and Arrival Night

The morning after our wedding was spent at my mom's house opening wedding gifts and spending time with Ken's family who was in town from Rapid City. We had a 1:50 PM flight to catch, and my mom lives 20 minutes from the airport, so we needed to leave right around noon.

Spending time with our family post-wedding was great, but I couldn't contain my excitement. WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!!

I spent a lot of time checking and re-checking our luggage since we had to do a lot of re-packing and switching things around from our wedding bags. Getting married requires lots of supplies

Finally it was time to leave, and Ken's parents volunteered to drive us to the airport for some extra time with us before saying goodbye.

I somehow have zero photos of us at the airport or on the plane.

It was a CRAZY flight, though, so maybe that's why. We experienced some of the most extreme turbulence ever that included one person falling as they returned from the restroom and several people screaming. All I could think was "please don't let me die before being at Disney one more time."

Luckily we survived and began the worst part of every Disney vacation:

The LONG walk to the MDE

Me:

Ken trying to keep up with me with all the luggage:

Disney is the only thing I will run for.


After being ushered into the Poly line (EEEKKKK!!!), we snapped an obligatory magic band photo.

Anyone else as excited as I was when they finally added purple to the lineup?

It was only about 7 PM by this time, but all the wedding festivities were starting to catch up with us. Finally getting on our first Disney bus of the trip was very welcome.

I enjoyed my favorite MDE cartoon

and sent some quick texts to our family letting them know we made it OK despite the near-death experience. We included some "we're so excited" photos:

Mine is clearly better


The MDE pulled up to the entrance of the Poly and I about lost it. I've wanted to stay at the Poly for a long time now, and even just walking into the lobby was ultimate excitement for me

We checked in at the front desk and the cast member gave us pins and an adorable frame since we were celebrating our honeymoon! I was hoping for a little DisneyMoon pixie dust and I was not disappointed.

Later in the trip a cast member decided our pins were boring, so she added our wedding date to them. She was a bit sassy about it, but we appreciated her enthusiasm.

I snapped a few pics of the room while Ken moaned about how hungry he was. Shush, boy, I'm photographing the best resort ever.

I wanted this lamp, who I named Pongo, and proposed that we just stick him in our luggage when we check out, but Ken talked me down. Luckily we found an acceptable replacement for him later in the trip.

We quickly headed off to find some food.

Unfortunately for my new husband, I am easily distracted and easily excitable, and just as we were leaving our room the Electrical Water Pageant was floating by, so food would have to wait a little longer.

Once I was satisfied, we headed on to the Great Ceremonial House.

Isn't it lovely?

We made it in to Capt. Cook's finally. Ken chose a flatbread and I settled on GF chicken fingers with fries and plenty of ranch. I have to eat gluten-free now, which really puts a hamper on my chinese buffet habits, but Disney's selection of GF food makes my soul happy. Another reason I'm looking to rent a Frontierland teepee.

We took our food back to our room and ate it while watching an episode of Below Deck, which became a staple for our late-night or afternoon TV viewings. Nothing like some yachty drama to make your chicken fingers go down smooth.

With a whole six days of Disney magic ahead of us, I fell asleep about like this:

Click here for Day 1 Part 1!


​

 

[heaven2dc]

Congratulations to you both!! Love your wedding pics! The Poly is such a beautiful resort and perfect for a Disneymoon <3

 

[kaymil]

Congratulations to you both!! Love your wedding pics! The Poly is such a beautiful resort and perfect for a Disneymoon <3

Thank you! The Poly definitely was perfect--only problem is now every other resort feels slightly disappointing

 

[beckyx3]

Congrats! We just got married in May so reading this is almost like reliving our own trip

Anyone else as excited as I was when they finally added purple to the lineup?

YESSSSSS! I had to stop myself from just getting purple every single time we've gone so far!

 

[kaymil]

Monday, September 26th
Day 1 Part 1

IT'S DISNEY TIME!!!

Arriving at WDW, obviously, is exciting. But this was the first time I'd ever arrived at night instead of bright and early, so after our relatively uneventful evening in, I was more than ready for some park time.

I'm a realist, though, and I knew we'd be ready for a little down time after all the excitement of the last few days, so we started off slow with a run (Ken)/ walk (me) around the Poly and GF. Well...I started off slow. Ken's a fast runner.











I had to stop and say hello to this guy:



Ken was way ahead of me and wanted to keep running so I decided to check out the GF.



The GF has some wayyyy fancy gift shops...

I beat Ken back to the hotel room and got ready for breakfast, then enjoyed some Stacy and some time on our balcony.






We had a nice view of...foliage. Better view to come soon!

Once Ken showered and got ready, we headed to breakfast, all the way to...Kona Cafe!

I went over the week's plans with Ken while we waited for our food, and it's one of my favorite memories of our trip. So much ahead of us still

I desperately wanted the Tonga Toast, like any normal french-toast loving human, but since it's not GF, I opted for GF Mickey waffles with the Tonga Toast's strawberry compote and cinnamon and sugar. Plus also POG juice. Duh.

Ken actually did get the Tonga toast, as well as Kona's Hawaiian coffee, which he loved.



After breakfast, Ken had to finish some time entry for work, so I headed down to the pool to wait for him. I decided to search out the Oasis pool on the other side of the resort because I was looking for something a little more chill than the Lava pool, but I'm directionally challenged, and it took me about 12 minutes longer to find it than it should have...

There were only a handful of people at the Oasis so there were TONS of empty chairs to pick from, which actually made it a bit stressful for me to choose I'm a perfectionists, so things like this are hard for me

I eventually settled on what I thought to be a good spot...then quickly found that this was not true, thanks to a few adorable children who decided it was the perfect area for cannonball practice. So I did some more scouting and found a new location.




Mickey toes! And a much better location.

Then, about 20 minutes in to my new choice of seating, a cast member came over to tell me the pool was closing thanks to a looming thunderstorm. Apparently it just wasn't my day for the pool.

I made it back to the lobby and decided to stop in and talk to the front desk to ask if we could change rooms. Our current location was right next to the elevator, and we were a bit frustrated hearing people getting on and off all night long. We're pretty sound sleepers, but it was definitely enough to keep us up.

Happily, they got us a new room right away!

Ken was just finishing his work when I arrived and told him we were moving. We packed up and headed over to the Fuji building to enjoy this fabulous new view!



Wowza! I was so pumped about this, as it was definitely an upgrade to our previous room. Notice the rain clouds doin' their thang.

We settled into our new room and talked about our plans. We were supposed to head to Magic Kingdom soon, but a torrential downpour had indeed begun, and we decided it would be best to wait it out instead of ending up like this:

Anyone else think Emperor's New Groove is one of the most under-appreciated Disney movies out there? Patrick Warburton's best work.

We decided to watch some TV and found that Below Deck was on once again. Yay!​

2 hours later, we woke up from a nap neither of us intended to take

And it had stopped raining! Magic Kingdom time!

Before we headed to the park, we stopped for some food at Capt. Cook's since we hadn't eaten lunch yet and our breakfast was starting to wear off.

The sky looked super cool post-rain. It looks like dusk in this picture, but my time stamp says it was 2:13 PM!



I love the posters inside Capt. Cook's. I'd probably buy them all if they sold them in the gift shop.





That's the face of a man really enjoying his chicken fingers.

Now that we'd had some food, we set off for our first park of the trip. And then I remembered...

We get to ride the monorail there! Hooray!

It was our first time staying at a resort on the monorail line, so we were particularly excited about this. A short ride later, and we were greeted with this little beauty:




There's no better welcome out there.

As we approached the bag check, another excitement hit me:
FALL DECORATIONS!!!
It was also our first time at WDW in the fall, and this was my exact face when I first caught a glimpse of them:

Gotta get a picture of this guy

Now, we need to talk about mid-trip depression.

Anyone have constant bouts of sadness during any trip to WDW when you realize that time is passing and it will be over soon and how can you make it slow down?

This was my longest trip to WDW to date, and I was already feelin' it on the first full day.

But THEN. The Festival of Fantasy was passing by just as we were walking in, the big cheese waved at me, and everything was fine again.





Plus, also, more fall decorations helped.



After a quick pass through the Confectionary to find that they no longer had chocolate covered pineapple spears (I took it in stride. I knew Werther's in the Germany pavilion had them, and theirs have caramel, so they're better), we waited in our first line of the trip: the Main Street photopass photographer.

He had us hold our pose for a few seconds before he actually took any pictures and we kind of looked at each other like...what's happening. And then this happened:






Perfection. I was worried paying for Memory Maker might not be worth it, and, frankly, I probably wouldn't buy it again, but perfectly timed fireworks in the background?! Worth it.

After our photoshoot, we headed off to Tomorrowland for our first real ride of the trip; any guesses what it is? Find out in Part 2!

Click here for Day 1 Part 2!
​

 

[kaymil]

Congrats! We just got married in May so reading this is almost like reliving our own trip


YESSSSSS! I had to stop myself from just getting purple every single time we've gone so far!

Congratulations!!! I totally understand--that's the best part of any trip report is reliving it all over!

I've gotten purple...3 times now

 

[SweetSerenity]

Congratulations on your wedding, Disneymoon, and upcoming anniversary! Following along!

 

[Raeven]

Congrats!

desperately wanted the Tonga Toast, like any normal french-toast loving human, but since it's not GF, I opted for GF Mickey waffles with the strawberry compote and cinnamon and sugar. Plus also POG juice.

My boyfriend is gluten free too. He used to love the pulled pork eggs benedict they had, but they took it off the menu. But those waffles look like a delicious gluten free alternative to tonga toast.

 

[beckyx3]

I love the posters inside Capt. Cook's. I'd probably buy them all if they sold them in the gift shop.

YES! I always think that. And they have similar posters on the cruise line and Disney needs to jump on that!

 

[kaymil]

Congratulations on your wedding, Disneymoon, and upcoming anniversary! Following along!

Thanks so much! Glad to have you along!

Congrats!

My boyfriend is gluten free too. He used to love the pulled pork eggs benedict they had, but they took it off the menu. But those waffles look like a delicious gluten free alternative to tonga toast.

WHAT?! Pulled pork eggs Benedict! That sounds amazing!!!
They definitely were delicious!

YES! I always think that. And they have similar posters on the cruise line and Disney needs to jump on that!

I’m so glad someone else feels me We’ve yet to do a Disney cruise, but it’s on the list!

 

[Raeven]

Sadly I think they replaced it with a new dish that has pork belly instead, but he said it used to be really good.

 

[beckyx3]

I’m so glad someone else feels me We’ve yet to do a Disney cruise, but it’s on the list!

Good luck! Once you get on one, it's really hard to not do it again but that price tag is enough to stop you

 

[kaymil]

Good luck! Once you get on one, it's really hard to not do it again but that price tag is enough to stop you

I will definitely keep that in mind

 

[kaymil]

Monday, September 26
Day 1 Part 2

After our photoshoot, we headed towards Tomorrowland while I snapped some pictures.


The skies were still pretty cloudy from the afternoon storm.




We arrived at our destination and used our first FP of the night on our first official ride of the trip: Space Mountain! We took our traditional selfie before our spaceship launched, and it's a good thing too, because I can't find our ride photo


After our trip through space, we headed to one of my (and any true Disney fan's) very favorite rides, the Peoplemover.




This was one of my favorite photos from the week.
After our leisurely ride around Tomorrowland, I know we went somewhere to get dinner, but for the life of me I can't remember where or what we ate. So...[insert your favorite MK meal here].

We then headed to our 2nd FP to see our favorite rabbit!


Fun fact about us: Ken likes to change song lyrics to something goofy, and the Splash Mountain Medley is one of his best works to date. Instead of "time to be movin' along," his lyrics are "might as well be smokin' a bong." Totally not appropriate, and not one of our extracurricular activities, but it's so funny when he sings it. When there's children on our boat, he has to whisper it


Another fun Splash Mountain story my family loves to tell:

When Ken and I were at MVMCP with my mom and brother back in 2015, we decided to ride Splash. It was a bit chilly out, so everyone was a little weary about getting wet, but I assured them that it would be fine. Ken and I had ridden it in similar weather that February and I knew I didn't get wet, so I told them I thought they didn't have the blasters on at the end in cold weather or something.

So we get on the boat and we're the only ones on it. As we go down the big drop, I realize that the reason I didn't get wet in February was because I DUCKED. Which I did this time I think just out of pure reflex. As we all recover from the drop, a chorus rings out: "KAYLA!!! WHAT THE HECK!!!"

I look around and everyone else is wet except me. And my mom, who was sitting directly behind me, is SOAKED. Water is streaming from her bangs into her face. Me ducking meant she got double the water splashed on her.



My brother loves to tell that story whenever he's trying to win the "favorite child" card
I ducked this ride and didn't get wet again, but we were in the back so there was no one behind me to soak.

We had some time to kill before our next FP, so we wandered around to whatever caught our fancy.


The sky looked so cool tonight, and we saw a rainbow!

I

I convinced Ken to ride IASM with me. He HATES this ride. When he rode it for the first time a few years ago, he turned to me just before we de-boarded and said, "That's the sh**iest ride I've ever ridden."

I disagree, because he's wrong. Stitch's Great Escape is.


English teacher geeking out.


Ken: "Take a picture of that kangaroo. That's me carrying you around."



We then headed to ride Little Mermaid. After our trip under the sea, I wanted to stop and get a LeFou's brew and check out the gift shop, where I bought this puzzle and had it sent back to our hotel.


Ken decided to be obnoxious at Gaston's fountain.


We then ventured over to Storybook Circus. Since I somehow had never ridden Dumbo (WHAT?! I know.), we decided to do that.


It's so pretty over here at night!

We stopped in Big Top Souvenirs, which is now my favorite MK gift shop. It's just so adorable and spacious and has fun stuff in it. We spent a while trying on funny hats, and I bought this super cute and comfy Mousketeers shirt.



Just as Wishes was starting, we headed straight to our last FP, which I was SO excited about: 7DMT! I really wanted to ride it during the fireworks, and it was everything I was hoping it would be. For some reason I can't find our ride photo, but it was so funny because everyone on the train was looking up at the sky with huge smiles instead of paying attention to the ride






Wishes gets me every time.

We made our way out of Fantasyland and over to Main Street so we could watch Celebrate the Magic. I didn't know at the time that it was going away and this was my last chance to see it, or I would have gotten my mind right I loved CTM, especially the part at the end with Walt. It's at the 9:45 mark of this video:

I love the new Once Upon a Time show and the new fireworks, but I'm sad there's no Walt in either of them

We waited out the crowds in a few gift shops, then made our way to the monorail to head back to the Poly.


It was only about 9:30 when we got back to the hotel, so we decided to head to Trader Sam's to see if we could get a table. Nothing was available inside, but outside is open seating, and we found an empty spot and snagged it. Yay!

As soon as we opened the menu, Ken pointed out that there were no prices next to the drinks. So we were expecting to spend a good chunk of change. And boy did we.
I really wanted a drink with the souvenir glass, so we picked the Uh-Oa since the menu said it was a drink for 2. It was $40. But it had rum and fruit juices and was ON FIRE. The little...shelves? on the side had cinnamon you could throw on the fire to make it sparkle, and it was awesome. Here's a video if you're curious, as I got zero photo evidence of the flames.

The drink itself was...fine. The sugar that was previously flaming got really clumpy and kind of weird tasting, so I wasn't in love with it.

We polished that guy off and Ken decided we needed another, which I found hilarious because I thought he was going to have a heart attack from the price tag on the Uh-Oa. I guess the alcohol mellowed him out

We decided to share a Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum next. And WOW. It was like an adult version Dole Whip on steroids. So delicious. I didn't take a picture, but I think it was gone in like 2 seconds.

By that time we were pretty tired and ready to call it a night. Tomorrow was our first F&W Festival experience, so we went to bed excited and hungry!

Click here for Day 2, Part 1!​

 

[beckyx3]

My brother loves to tell that story whenever he's trying to win the "favorite child" card

THIS is a great tool. I'll have to remember it next time I'm trying to remind my parents that I'm their favorite.

It was only about 9:30 when we got back to the hotel, so we decided to head to Trader Sam's to see if we could get a table.

One of my favorite places on property. It hasn't even been around that long and some of my favorite memories are at Trader Sam's.

As soon as we opened the menu, Ken pointed out that there were no prices next to the drinks.

This is one of my biggest peeves about bars anywhere. It irks me to no end.

 

[cinderaimee]

Following! Congratulations! Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip. Howwww did you not run straight into the MK as soon as you got out of bed on your first day?!

 

[Raeven]

Ken likes to change song lyrics to something goofy,

My dad does that too.

Water is streaming from her bangs into her face. Me ducking meant she got double the water splashed on her.

Since I somehow had never ridden Dumbo (WHAT?! I know.), we decided to do that.

I haven't either!

 

[kaymil]

This is one of my biggest peeves about bars anywhere. It irks me to no end.

Right!? I guess it’s just a tactic, but I feel like it would deter a lot of people...

Following! Congratulations! Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip. Howwww did you not run straight into the MK as soon as you got out of bed on your first day?!

Thanks for joining! It was definitely hard to contain my excitement!