Our 2014 Walt Disney World Vacation pt. 1

Day 1: Saturday, June 14th, 2014

Our June 2014 Walt Disney World vacation was a highly anticipated trip for the both of us. It had been two years since our last visit and we couldn’t wait to get back! Flying from Atlantic Canada, we took two flights, connecting once in Laguardia, NY. Our flight departed at 6:00am and we were travelling internationally, so we had to be at the airport around for 4:00am. It was an early morning but full of excitement and anticipation. We had a seamless flight into Laguardia and had a one and a half hour layover before heading on to Orlando! The second flight was great and we arrived in Orlando around 1:00pm. We always use Disney’s Magical Express Transportation Services but opt to pick up our own bags. When you sign up for the Magical Express you’re sent two yellow tags to attach to your luggage. This notify's Airport/Disney staff to pick up your luggage and transport it to your resort and room for you. There is a waiting time so if you want to change when you first arrive at your resort, you may not be able to do so. While it’s a great service, it’s only the two of us and we find it just as easy to pick up our own bags and bring them with us on the Magical Express.

Our first time in NY

One more stop 'til Disney!

Before we knew it we were on the bus and heading to our resort – Disney’s All Star Sports Resort! If you’ve read some of our previous posts, you’ll know we always opt for the value resorts. Firstly, because they’re affordable and secondly, because they offer everything we need with a great theme. On our 2012 trip we stayed at Disney’s All Star Movies which was a great experience, we had no complaints. This time around, we considered going back to Movies but thought it’d be fun to check out all the value resorts so Sports it was! We arrived at the resort around 4:00pm and had the chance to grab some dinner (we hadn’t eaten much that day other than granola bars and plane snacks). We ate at our resort in the End Zone Food Court which offers a good variety of choices. Ellen opted for the make your own chicken salad and Ryan had the chicken dinner. After supper we headed back to our room to setup our window decorations. We had decided to decorate this time around and are happy we did, we had a lot of fellow guests admiring our window full of toys and Disney fun.  

After grabbing a bite to eat and getting settled in our room we were off to our first park of the trip – Disney’s Hollywood Studios! Our travel agent, Flight Centre, offered the opportunity to match/upgrade any offer Disney put out so when we noticed they were offering a free fifth park ticket with the purchase of a four-day pass (which we had already purchased) we jumped on the opportunity! Although we only had an extra evening to spend in the parks we couldn’t pass up a free ticket!

With our free ticket in hand...err programmed into our magic bands... we made our way over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While we would have another full day of our vacation to devote to Hollywood Studios, the main reason we choose to go to this park twice was because we wanted the opportunity to see Fantasmic!

Our first attraction of the day was Star Tours – the Adventures Continue. We went on this in 2012 and had indifferent feelings towards it. This time around however, it was much better! From what we understand there are several different versions of the ride so this must’ve been one of the more exciting.

We had some time before our FastPass for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror so we headed over the Animation Academy. We hadn't done this in the past but knew it was something we wanted to try this trip. We loved it! In this session we drew a Little Green Alien from Toy Story. We enjoyed this so much that we ended up doing it two more times on our full day at DHS.

After the class wrapped up it was time for our FastPass window so we headed to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This is an iconic ride at DHS and one our favourites!

By now it was after 7:00pm so we headed over to the Fanstasmic theatre to grab a good seat. We were pretty early and had about an hour to wait so we decided to get a Mickey Pretzel to snack on... yum! It started raining a bit so we pulled out our ponchos. We were worried the show might be cancelled or postponed due to the weather but we were happy when the lights dropped and the show began. Ellen was really looking forward to seeing Fanstasmic and we were not disappointed. It was full of classic songs, dramatic effects and a bunch of characters. It’s definitely on our must-do list for DHS now.

Waiting for Fantasmic!

A little rain never hurt anybody!

As you can imagine, when the show let out, it was dark and rainy and the area was packed with people leaving the park as it was close to closing time. We were passing by Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and couldn’t pass it up! We didn’t have a FastPass but the line was minimal and we were on our favourite DHS ride in no time!

3-2-1!!!!!!

We headed back to our resort after the roller coaster and called it a night. Little did Ellen know there was a surprise waiting for her in the room. Ryan had planned a Disney surprise through Disney Floral and Gifts by ordering a "A Magical Wish-Romance your Love" package and had it delivered in secret to the room. When we walked in the room she was surprised with her very own magic wand, a beautiful bracelett, balloon and sweet note. It was truly a magical and heart-felt surprise. We went to bed to rest up for a full and exciting day at Disney’s Magic Kingdom.