May 2009 Disney Trip Purchase Summary

Now that I'm finally finished (well almost) my daily reports from my trip a year ago, it's time to share what I actually bought at Disney World!

First up, the first two issues of Twenty-Three:

Since I didn't become a D23 member until the fall, I was itching to purchase the first 2 issues. I found issue #2 at the Vero Beach Resort gift shop (the name of the shop escapes me...). The premiere issue was purchased in the Disney Store in the Florida Mall in Orlando

Of course no trip to Disney World is complete without purchasing a few t-shirts:

I purchased these two in the Island Mercantile store, in Adventureland. The Jessica Rabbit caught my eye as you don't see enough Jessica merchandise!

The third shirt was purchased at Buffalo Jeans. I really like the Oswald character and it has become one of my favorite shirts to wear around the house. Very comfortable and stylish!

On previous trips, I started a tradition of buying polo shirts at each resort I stayed in. For this trip, I changed that tradition and started buying ball caps.

I also decided to start another new tradition of buying Mickey Ears:

Of course the blue ones are my son's. The Steamboat Willie hat was a good find and it was on sale!

I also bought my first Olszewski pieces: the Tiki room Pokit pal and the first of the series Haunted Mansion Pokit pal.

No trip would be complete without buying some pins to add to my collection.

In addition to buying hats of resorts I stay at, I also buy a pin from the resort.

I also love buying books and CD's from the parks. One great find was the Nemo book.

I purchased the World's Fair CD set. I know I probably could have purchased it for a cheaper price on Amazon, but I wanted to get it in person to make sure the packaging was in good shape.

A new collection (groan...) that started this trip was my Vinylmation collection. While I do have a couple of the 3 inch pieces from the first Park Series, that someone brought back for me, I was only able to find a few 9 inch pieces. I think that is a good thing, or I would have bought a whole tray to bring home!!

Finally, some rare finds: first off, I found this great key chain in the Boardwalk Resort gift shop that is located on the Boardwalk. I was looking for something for my nephews and found this little gem. It's an old style mini slide viewer with pictures from each of the parks. What's special about it, is that it has a picture of the Great Movie Ride without the hat and pictures of animals that don't look like they were taken at Animal Kingdom. My guess is that they are stock photos that were used as teasers.

I found these ceramic tiles/trivets in the store that is at the exit of Mickey's Philarmagic. You don't see a lot of Three Cabelleros, so this was a good find.

Finally, the item that I was really hoping to purchase while on my trip: Gnome Mickey! I saw this item on the Art of Disney Parks website, when they announced the EPCOT Flower and Garden Expo. I looked all over for this gem and finally found what I believe was the last one at the International Gateway gift shop. I unfortunately did not get the original box with it, but I really didn't care since it was the last one!!!

Well, that's it. Now that I have my next trip planned, I have to start my new shopping list.

Day 12: Our last day

May 13, 2009

EPCOT

I realize that it's now over a year later from when I was actually in WDW. Instead of writing out my trip report for my last day, I thought I would just show some pictures from that day.

Day 11: Back to EPCOT

May 12, 2009

EPCOT

We rose at our usual time, completed our usual routines and headed to EPCOT for some more fun.
We headed back to the Land for a delicious breakfast. Once we were done, Janice and I wanted to ride Soarin'. We flashed our special fast passes at the fast pass entrance and made our way in. Surprisingly, the Fast Pass line was busy. We back tracked out and picked up regular Fast Passes for later in the day (which we never used).

Since we only completed half of Future World on our last day at EPCOT, we decided to do the rest. We walked through Innoventions West. A lot had changed since our last trip.

We headed to Spaceship Earth to find another long line up. We skipped the line and went to the Universe of Energy, to experience Ellen's energy nightmare.

After watching Ellen win Jeopardy, we planned to visit the flower and garden event centre in the old Human Body pavilion, but for some reason it wasn't open yet.

We decided to walk through the butterfly tent on our way to Mouse Gears. We then walked through Innoventions East and decided that it was lunch time.

We ate at the Electric Umbrella where Charlotte started to get a little grumpy.

Steve left us after lunch and Janice and I headed back to Spaceship Earth. This time there was no line. I visited the Art of Disney store one more time and Janice and I walked through Mouse Gears where we picked up a few more souvenirs.

We went back to the room in time for a swim, but was disappointed with a thunder storm (the first one we had experienced on our trip). We relaxed a bit more before heading back to EPCOT for dinner. We were supposed to go to the Wave in the Contemporary for dinner. Based on how disappointed we were with the bus service, we switched our reservations to Tokyo Dining in Japan. I had heard good things about Tepan Edo (where they cook in front of you) but not about Tokyo Dining. The dinner and service was one of the best of our entire trip. They have a great selection (not just sushi). I plan to eat there on our next trip.

It was still raining after dinner, so Janice and I wandered through the Japanese department store and the stores in France. Steve and Charlotte left us early, as they were both tired.

We also were tired so we turned in early. We wanted to have lots of energy for our last day!

Day 10: Meeting up with old Friends

May 11, 2009

Magic Kingdom
Disney's Hollywood Studios

Since we had already gone to all the parks in our first four days, we decided it was time to head back to the Magic Kingdom. We were also meeting up with Ken and Khristine and their kids for lunch. Ken, Khristine and I met while working together at the Disney Store. Ironically, we see each other only once or twice a year, so meeting up with them at Disney World was special.

We got out of the room at a decent time and hopped on the bus. We hit Main Street at a good time and headed to the Bakery for breakfast.

After our bite to eat, we walked up the rest of Main Street towards Fantasyland via Adventureland and Liberty Square as the Castle was closed and they also had a section of the "hub" closed off due to a mysterious back-pack left unattended. Interestingly, they made it look like a normal occurrence while maintaining safety.

We went on the Carousel first. Both Charlotte and Graydon loved it! Steve wanted to take Charlotte on Dumbo, so Janice and I went into the store that is right off of Mickey's Philarmagic attraction exit. I was able to find a nice set of three trivets of the Three Caballeros. There was also a great t-shirt of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, but they didn't have any my size (post trip note: I was able to order the shirt from the mail order service.)

Steve eventually came off the carousel, as the line up was too long for Dumbo. We headed towards the Mad Hatter Tea Cups. Again Janice and I opted out as Graydon was asleep and I would have lost my breakfast on the tea cups.

Before we hit Tomorrowland, Steve and Charlotte went on the Tomorrowland Speedway, which was perfect timing, as Graydon was ready for his snack. Once we met back up, we went on one of my favorite rides in the Magic Kingdom, the Carousel of Progress. As outdated some of the sections are, it is still a classic.

We finished the morning off with the Buzz Lightyear ride. It was getting close to lunch time and we needed to get to Cosmic Rays to meet Ken and Khristine. We arranged to meet near Sunny Eclipse. It was really busy, so it was difficult to get tables close to each other. We finally met up and had a good time sharing some stories of our trip so far.

We eventually bid our farewells and made our way back to Adventureland for one more ride on Pirates of the Caribbean and then stopping for the best snack in WDW: a Dole Whip Pineapple Float! It was a hot enough day that the treat went down nicely. I really wish they sold the snack in the other parks. Steve and Charlotte decided to head back to the room early, so Janice and I decided to walk through all the stores on Main Street.

Once done our shopping we bid a tearful goodbye to the Magic Kingdom, as we figured we wouldn't be back there for the rest of the trip. We had another eventful bus ride back to the resort. For some reason the bus service to and from our resort was a mess!

I failed to mention that after I complained on Saturday night to the resort manager, I received a call from a manager of Disney Transportation. He was very apologetic after he heard about our plight. He ended up giving us four special Fast Passes that could be used by our entire group at any park and they had no expiry date.

We lounged around the room and pool before heading to Hollywood Studios for dinner at 50's Prime Time cafe. I always enjoy eating there as the food is good and the cast really ham it up.



Tonight was no exception! I noticed that at the end of our main course, Janice had not eaten all of her vegetables. I quietly pointed it out to our waiter who proceeded to play air plane with her fork and food. Janice played along but she was not impressed with me.

After dinner, Steve headed to Star Tours (another ride I end up sick after riding), while Janice, the kids and I headed back towards the Art of Disney. We had to exchange one of the nine inch Vinylmations, as the box for the original was damaged.

We met back up with Steve at the Sorcerer's hat and decided to go on Toy Story Midway Mania one more time. We knew the line up would be long so we decided to use one of the special fast passes. I'm glad we did, as the ride is a lot of fun.




We finished the night with a quiet boat ride back to the resort, where we called it a night as we needed to get our rest for another day of fun.