That was the BEST Most Magical Trip EVER!! (A Sept 2011 TR) [COMPLETED]

[katt789]

Our next stop: the most talked about ride of all!! (not a great pic, but you get it!)

This was a first for both Tyler & I, and I was excited, knowing that it was what people compared the Forbidden Journey over at Harry Potter land, to! My verdict: not so good. It, I’ll admit it, I don’t really care for Soarin! I know, I know, it’s blasphemous! I dunno, I just didn’t really like it, that, and I did get pretty queasy on it especially because when I get queasy, I try and figure out the best plan if something is to come back up, and on Soarin, that place is no place! That made it worse, I think it was a mix of the “take off” feeling, and the swaying, and the type of screen it used. Tyler said he liked it, but it wasn’t a must do, that was definitely the group consensus.

After our flying adventure was done, we continued in the Land pavilion with a little boat ride! (which honestly, I still wasn’t feelin it…uh-oh)

Living With the Land was actually pretty neat, lots of information, cool little thing. Our boat docked, and we were done with the Land Pavilion, and on my way out, I made sure to buy a bottle of water, hoping it would cure my queasiness (though I wasn’t going to let anything stop me!)

What was next, but the seas of course!!

I didn’t want to bother waiting in the line to get a picture with Bruce, but managed to grab one without anyone else’s kid in it! Now remember, fish are friends, not food!! Once we finished up there, we headed into Turtle Talk with Crush!! Yeah, sure, it’s a kids thing (and some people say that all of Disney World is…well…we’re all six inside, right?) Let me tell you, Turtle Talk was amazing!! There’s tons of jokes in there that are funny for the kids, but funnier for the adults, I thought it was totally awesome dude. Taking it slowly, we wandered around the rest of the seas pavilion checking everything out.

I found a shirt I liked (although I wouldn’t buy it haha) I love Dory, I love Ellen Degeneres, Finding Nemo definitely has it’s very quote-able lines in it, so I appreciate that there’s acknowledgement of it in the parks.

Up next? Well would we dare go into Space? See what our future holds? Race some cars, or explore our love for Michael Jackson!? You’ll just have to stay tuned and find out!!

 

[katt789]

Well, we were done in the Seas pavilion, and had already done the Land pavilion, so we headed over to where we could let our imaginations run wild!!

As I’ve said earlier, we managed to miss most everything in the Future World side of the park last trip, and thanks to Amy knowing where basically everything was (that was our other problem last time, we didn’t know where anything was!! ) we managed to hit up most everything on this side of Spaceship earth.

I had heard lots of stuff about Figment, and I liked what I saw from the photos on other people’s TRs, I was excited! I showed this excitement by taking a pic of my favorite imagination-eer.

I liked it! I thought it was pretty cute, I couldn’t tell ya what happened on the ride, aside from Figment himself, and some smells & stuff, but it was super cute!

Next, we decided to brave the last part of the Imagination Pavilion (we browsed through Imageworks, but didn’t stop for anything much along the way)

Captain EO. Yup…we did it. I mean, we had a plan to do everything and anything that we could do while we were there. We went in knowing basically nothing about it other than it was Michael Jackson and some 3D effects, and that had been re-released after he died. Here; is our reaction:

Yup. There that is. It wasn’t that we hated it, I wouldn’t even say that we disliked it, we merely walked out of the theatre going: “what…..was….that….” it just didn’t really make any sense, there were some 3d effects, there was Michael Jackson…yup…that’s about it…what? Mind boggiling….

Done with out minds being over worked trying to figure it out, we crossed Epcot to the other side, to try out some new cars at Test Track. The wait was less than 20 minutes, but we of course took the time to take some pictures.

Then we were loaded into the car, and we were off!! I do really like TT, it’s a cool ride, kinda jerky at points, but it’s awesome once you get out there on the track spinning around (also, did you know that the “race car” sounds you hear around TT are actually all on an audio track? Little fact!) I also love that you can add your ride photo to your photopass for this one, makes me so happy!!

By this time on the trip, we were getting bored with all the plain, regular ride photos, and we started planning what “poses” we were doing on the rides. I call this one, “in thought”. Everyone all enjoyed the ride, then ducked inside MouseGears (that is the store right there, right?) to cut through some air conditioning and take a look around before we headed into World Showcase. Funnily enough, Nick, who wasn’t going to meet us until after noon, was in the store! We managed to bump into him, and made the decision to all head into WS together! That is, once we managed to collect everyone in our group, that store is HUUUGGEE, so easy to get lost in!

Once we gathered everyone together once again, we made a plan to start in Mexico and work our way around, on our way over, we stopped for some photopass pics in front of the golf ball before heading into World Showcase.

Next, we ran into Mickey’s favorite stuffed friend. (Although we don’t really get this while thing, but we got the idea after I looked into it, explained it, and then they had the little picture book in the cue line.

We said goodbye to our newest friend, and made our way to travel the World! Would we even attempt to drink around it? Tyler & I had wanted to…or at least the majority of the countries….let’s see how our afternoon goes!

 

[Merida]

Yay for Figment! It's weird, I remember Figment and the glass pyramids from when I went to Epcot as a kid but I don't remember the ride. And I never found the pyramids again on my other trips (not that I tried since for some reason I only thought there was a gift shop inside?? I definitely remember a gift shop, but not a ride!). It's so neat to see what people retain from old trips/what they're able to navigate by memory.

I've never been on Soarin' either and am kind of sad to hear about the deterioration. At least I won't have really high expectations? And will be really wowed whenever it gets cleaned up??

Do you know what you're aiming to do at MVMCP? I really want to try for Rapunzel/Flynn but I'm not sure what else. I'm so awkward at meet'n'greets! Maybe Belle in her Christmas dress. Definitely want to do some rides at night - it's my favorite time.

 

[katt789]

Clearly a theme of this trip was to go clockwise through the parks, as we started in Mexico for World Showcase! Our first stop in Mexico: why, the boat ride of course!!

I thought the ride was cute! Yes, it was pretty much the same as IASW, but something I developed on this trip was a little lovin for Donald Duck, definitely my favorite of the Fab 5, that’s for sure.

Also, while we were getting into the cue for the ride, or some point on the ride, I’m not 100% sure, Tyler (it might have been Nick…I just remembered this moment now) goes “Why does it smell like food in here?!” To which the rest of the group kind of went “really?? Are you that dense?” to which he replied “Sometimes I just like saying really stupid stuff to see what people’s reactions are.” Good one…

Poor Donald!!

Overall, cute ride, there was seriously, no wait time for it, and anything with no wait time is worth doing at least once!! Browsing through the shops was next on the to-do list! I found it funny at one point, when I found the Mexican “ponchos” that, for the kids sizes, were upwards of $30.00. Well, a group of us went up the mountains this spring, and all bought matching ones for $12.00 in a shop there (and since then have referred to ourselves as a wolf pack…we’re that cool…yes… Although, I have to say, Nick drove through the same town after Disney, and bought himself one as well!)

That…was a list of ALL TEQUILA!!! For some of you, even the *thought* of tequila is too much, but in reality, it’s my shooter of choice! Especially the good quality stuff! It was a little too early for tequila shots though, so I passed by the opportunity.

What it wasn’t too early for: Margaritas!! I had seen an awesome looking picture of the Fiesta Margarita here on the disboards (of course) and since then had made a mental note to try it next time I was in Epcot. So of course, I had to have one (as did Tyler). Now, there is something about blending drinks in Orlando/Disney, they seem to be suuuper strong, a double at the least. It was a great drink, but I ended up throwing the last ¼ of it out, as I didn’t want to finish it and be tipsy before even eating lunch!

Norway was next on our list (and can I just say, I’m super glad we came through WS this way, we missed these pavilions last trip, as we always started in Canada). Nick & I found it highly amusing to tell Tyler how AWESOME the Norway ride was, that it was definitely the best ride in Epcot, and would surpass Mission: Space in the level of awesomeness. Once we arrived in Norway, we decided now would be a good time to tell Tyler that it was in fact, not the most awesome ride, and we actually did end up skipping it. (I think that was more because Tyler & I still had margaritas, and I wasn’t about to chug that down!!)

One thing that I had my mind set on, and it was about morning snack time right now: School Bread!!

Now…did it live up to expectations? Well…nope…it just tasted like a donut…a dried out, kinda old donut. Maybe it had been left out from yesterday, maybe it’s my love for Tim Horton’s, I guess I’ll never really know, but I wasn’t a big fan of it. Everyone shared it, or at least had a bite of it, and we all agreed that it wasn’t the greatest.

 

[katt789]

I was ready to leave Norway, margarita in hand, and disappointed in the school bread, so, we were on our way. Now, at this point, we began talking about the whole Drinking around the World. I figured that I wouldn’t even want to have a drink from every country, but if I wanted to do the one drink per country, I would have to share, or at least sit down, enjoy my surroundings, and spend an entire day doing it.

Why, do you ask? Well, I was still nursing that margarita from Mexico, and we were now in China!!

We wandered through all the shops, the others were taking a look at the food menus, to see if they ended up wanting lunch here. Amy decided on no, as she had had rice & shrimp the other day at Pop. We checked out inside the pavilion;

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the ceiling, it was pretty cool looking! On our way out from inside, I threw out the margarita, I wasn’t going to finish it, and I certainly wasn’t going to let Tyler have 1 and a half of them!! On our way out of China, we stopped to say Hi to a friend, as she didn’t have many people around her!

She was great with the interaction, I’m pretty sure she asked whether or not the boys were our soldiers, or if they were protecting us, something usual of the princess interaction. I t was great too because she made sure that after we all got out individual pics, to make everyone come back for a group pic too!

We said goodbye to Mulan, and moved on to our next country!

 

[katt789]

Yay for Figment! It's weird, I remember Figment and the glass pyramids from when I went to Epcot as a kid but I don't remember the ride.
I've never been on Soarin' either and am kind of sad to hear about the deterioration. At least I won't have really high expectations? And will be really wowed whenever it gets cleaned up??

Do you know what you're aiming to do at MVMCP? I really want to try for Rapunzel/Flynn but I'm not sure what else. I'm so awkward at meet'n'greets! Maybe Belle in her Christmas dress. Definitely want to do some rides at night - it's my favorite time.

I don't really remember the ride either, and it's only been a few months!

Soarin was good, and I can understand why people love it so so much, I just personally wasn't a fan.

And for MVMCP, now that schedules and stuff have started to come out, I think we'll aim to be at MK by no later 3:30, ride some rides and such. I have it all planned out already, I want to get into the Princess Line at Town Hall, see Cindy & friends, see Belle in her red dress, see the stage shows, parade & fireworks. Then just spend the rest of the time riding rides & just having fun. Hopefully it'll work out!

 

[katt789]

While we were at this point, we were just wandering through the shops, checking everything out, but not really stopping, buying or anything, but made sure to take some pictures of the things we liked throughout the pavilions, first in Germany

Wow, I don’t know how I made it through that shop without buying anything, everything looks too delicious. I think the reason that I never bought anything from any shops like this was that they all look too heavy, it would take me a week to eat any of the sweets they had!!

Pickle tree!!

While we continued through everything, we didn’t really go into any of the buildings past Germany, I dunno, nothing really grabbed our eyes past that point, and Amy & I were still getting hungrier by the minute.

Epcot’s has some of the most beautiful scenery, all the parks do, but I love all the different aspects of all the different counties, and the beautiful water, especially with Spaceship Earth in the background! Tyler got his picture done in front of it too:

Judging my this next photo, we were about in Italy right now, I liked the hat, and I always prefer to have pictures with people in them, rather than just scenery, and we had a serious lack of trying on hat pictures, and you know how I love to make ridiculous faces!

Now, at this point, we hit the American pavilion, and could hear the voices of liberty singing, so we popped in to check it out. The boys (more so Nick) definitely wanted to check out the show, so as Amy & I sat down on one of the benches, the boys headed upstairs. Once they noticed that we weren’t behind them, they peered over the railing and we motioned to them that we were going to get “om noms” aka food, so we took off as they entered the theatre, since they knew roughly what direction we would be going in (towards Canada, as we had passed up all the food options up to this point.) Along the way, we would half look into restaurants, and half just ask “do we want this country’s cuisine?” nope….ok… and took some pictures.

Around this point, we started discussing what options we had left, and where we could go, so that if we decided to back track somewhere, we wouldn’t have to walk around the entire Showcase again. Fish and chips sounded like a great idea, so we decided on that and continued on our way through the heat until we were at the UK.

Of course, when we crossed through France, I couldn’t resist stopping for a Grand Marnier slushie!! Amy grabbed one to try as well!!

We finally reached the UK, but saw a practically perfect friend with practically no line, so we jumped over to meet her. As there was no photopass, so Amy was busy taking pictures, and I’m sure a cm shouldn’t be seen with alcohol in their hand on shift, I was a little confused on what we should do with our drinks, but Mary suggested putting our “rum punch drinks” down on the little ledge of the curb. I wouldn’t dare go near one of the characters costumes with a drink or food, especially one that’s that white! I can’t imagine how much dry cleaning Disney does in a day!

Once our visit was done, we FINALLY reached the Fish & Chip shop over in the UK, and ordered our food, both of us had Fish & Chips, with chips for dessert, and a bottle of water to drink. At this point, Amy & I were usually ordering the same thing for meals, and as our dining plan was on all the cards, we just ordered as one person, sped everything up!

After searching around a bit, we ended up on the curb around the corner where the UK band would play. Fish & Chips verdict: delicious!! I’m usually VERY picky about my fish & chips after spending 3 months in Australia , fish & chips never taste the same, but these, these came pretty close to par! I seriously enjoyed them.

As we were finishing up, the band started to play, so we took some time in the shade to cool down & enjoy the music.

 

[shan23877]

I've never stopped for Voices of Liberty, I really need to one of these days.

Mary Poppins sounds like lots of fun. I love the "rum punch drinks" line. Too cute. It's amazing how in character they stay!

 

[katt789]

It was time to Park Hop! And we were off! Here’s your first clue onto where we were going: Monorail!!!

Amy and I wanted to get some minor shopping done that we didn’t know if we would be able to get done on the last day, as we had plans to park hop all over the place, and we just wanted to jut back over to my favorite park to chill out for a bit!

If you know me at all, (which is doable from these trip reports) you will know that Magic Kingdom is my favorite park, and I’d spend an entire trip there if I could! Today however, WOW!! IT WAS PAAAAACCCKKKEEEDD!!! Let me tell you, yes, it was Saturday, so I expected it to be busy, but I didn’t think it’d be quite this bad! I tried to get a picture of the crowd, but this is the best I could come up with!

The intense crowd level quickly abolished any plans of attempting to get onto any rides, so we wandered the shops, and tried to find a place to eat some dinner. I, personally, would eat at Magic Kingdom every day, I think they’ve got the best counter service places, and some of the most variety of choices. We ended up at Pecos Bills! It was another moment of a cm being SUPER thankful that we knew how to work the dining plan. The group in front of us was VERY confused on how to use it, and did the whole, 2 separate orders and junk. We went up, and Amy ordered for both of us, on one card, and schpeeled everything off quickly. We both ordered Taco Salad with carrot cake & water!

It was gooooood! I liked that you could add pretty much any of the toppings that you wanted, and that you could add as much as you like to your salad. I had a little trouble working out how to get the shell into the salad, as it was also the bowl, but just kinda broke it all down around the plate and made a mess of my eating space (which honestly, isn’t too much of a surprise when I’m eating haha!!)

After eating we wandered through the shops on the way out & jumped back onto the monorail to meet up with Nick for Illuminations. Where had he been during this time, well, we walked over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios! Here are his pictures from his adventures (hopefully he will pop in to give some input on what he had been doing!)

 

[Merida]

I don't really remember the ride either, and it's only been a few months!

Soarin was good, and I can understand why people love it so so much, I just personally wasn't a fan.

And for MVMCP, now that schedules and stuff have started to come out, I think we'll aim to be at MK by no later 3:30, ride some rides and such. I have it all planned out already, I want to get into the Princess Line at Town Hall, see Cindy & friends, see Belle in her red dress, see the stage shows, parade & fireworks. Then just spend the rest of the time riding rides & just having fun. Hopefully it'll work out!

It's so weird that when you write out potential plans for MVMCP it seems like such a short list - a couple meet and greets, some shows, the favorite rides - but it'll actually take ages due to all the people!

Pickle tree!!

My mother loves the pickle at Christmas tradition. We had a whole process to go through but we all got extra presents at the end so it was totally worth it

Chilling at Magic Kingdom is always a good plan!

 

[kcandbella]

Wow that is a lot of updates! I think I finally got caught up. It looks like you were having so much fun. I love the reaction to Captain EO picture, too funny. I have never seen it but with two six year olds this trip we didn't think it would be much missed. Now I can see we were right!

You guys got a lot done in WS in a short time, too, and managed to get some great pictures!

 

[ZehnJahren]

This has got to be one of my favorite TRs ever! Love the pics, love the story, and enjoyed the updates coming so fast! Thanks for the entertainment!!! Hope you do more!

 

[katt789]

It's so weird that when you write out potential plans for MVMCP it seems like such a short list - a couple meet and greets, some shows, the favorite rides - but it'll actually take ages due to all the people!

I know!! I feel like we don't have enough plans, but then I realize how long they'll actually take, and all the stops we'll make, it'll take up all the time we've got! Plus, you've got to stop & smell the roses too!! (or the main st bakery... )

Wow that is a lot of updates! I think I finally got caught up. It looks like you were having so much fun. I love the reaction to Captain EO picture, too funny. I have never seen it but with two six year olds this trip we didn't think it would be much missed. Now I can see we were right!

Ahaha! Captain Eo is....interesting...yeah...you're not missing too much! haha, I really like that pic too, it's one of my faves from the trip!

This has got to be one of my favorite TRs ever! Love the pics, love the story, and enjoyed the updates coming so fast! Thanks for the entertainment!!! Hope you do more!

Ahh!! Thank you!! I have bookmarked yours to start reading when it's not so late!! I'm glad you're enjoying! There's probably about 5 more updates then we're done! but it's not too early to start my next PTR, so we'll see how fast time goes!

 

[JasmineEvans]

Those pictures are simply gorgeous and is seems to be really great experience. Great story!

 

[mike the canuck]

Lol. I like your Captain EO pic. I completely understand your reactions. My GF and I went on it for the first time last trip and enjoyed it a lot for some reason? We even went on a 2nd time a few days later. I have no idea why I liked it so much because I am in no way a fan of Michael Jackson. Maybe it was because it was something new to me at Disney, or because Lucas and Coppola made it. Or because of my bias opinion about anything made in the 80's being awesome. lol

 

[katt789]

I've never stopped for Voices of Liberty, I really need to one of these days.

Mary Poppins sounds like lots of fun. I love the "rum punch drinks" line. Too cute. It's amazing how in character they stay!

Voices of Liberty are definitely a talented group of people!! According to the boys, the American Adventure isn't worth the wait, but it depends on your opinion!

Mary Poppins was great! The characters work so hard, as a character server, I can tell you, especially with some of the things people say, it's hard to not crack! (though, at dinner theatre, we get a lot more innappropriate things said )

 

[katt789]

Those pictures are simply gorgeous and is seems to be really great experience. Great story!

Thank you!! I can't take credit for all of them, they're a combined effort of Nick, Amy & I! I'm glad you're enjoying

Lol. I like your Captain EO pic. I completely understand your reactions. My GF and I went on it for the first time last trip and enjoyed it a lot for some reason? We even went on a 2nd time a few days later. I have no idea why I liked it so much because I am in no way a fan of Michael Jackson. Maybe it was because it was something new to me at Disney, or because Lucas and Coppola made it. Or because of my bias opinion about anything made in the 80's being awesome. lol

Yeah..it's an odd one...we'll be finding out what Nick thought about it shortly! I can't say I liked it, but I can't say I disliked it either...it's an odd one...

 

[katt789]

As Nick began his walk back to Epcot from Hollywood Studios, Amy & I jumped on a monorail back to Epcot. We had plans to meet up at the Martin Short sign in front of the Canada pavilion at 7 (maybe 7:30?) to grab a snack, and snag a spot for Illuminations. On our way back in, Amy & I couldn’t resist a photopass!

We had planned to meet up with everyone, as Tyler had disappeared after the American Adventure earlier. We later found out that his day went like this: he stopped to ride Mission: Space twice in a row, on the orange side of course! A CM even told him that it was an intense idea! And a second ride on the orange side of Mission: Space, well, let’s just say that it leaves ones stomach in not too great of a mood! After his space adventure, Tyler left back to Pop Century for a nap that ended up taking up the better part of the day, and he never made it back to Epcot

Once meeting up in Canada, we started to walk around the Lagoon for a nice place to sit and wait for the show to start, when we hit France, well, if you know me at all, you know that I couldn’t resist another Grand Marnier Slushie!! The other two got some ice cream, (it was a hot evening!!) and we settled down in a spot right against the railing in Japan.

Within about twenty minutes, which we killed time by looking through our photos so far, and just taking a break, the show began. I’ll go through my schpeel now; Illuminations is a great show, I really did like it! It will take 2nd on my Firework/end of the night show scale though! (3rd if we include Hallowishes!) I love the “reflections on earth” side of things, and that they don’t just make it another display of simple fireworks (it wouldn’t be Disney if they didn’t!)

And now, here are a million pictures!

There were a couple of points during the show that the fireworks that launch off from around the World Showcase, were DIRECTLY in front of us, let me tell you! That is some scary stuff the first time it happens.

Now that we had had our fireworks fill of the night, we decided to slowly meander out of the park. If there was one thing we had learnt, was that it was not worth it to run for the busses, we had time, it was only around 9:30, we could wait. On the way out, Nick took the opportunity to share his opinion on American Adventure.

And Amy & I took some time for a pic in Mexico!

And of course, one last pic of the happy team now that we had split off & done our own thing for the afternoon!

I have it in my notes that we were back to the hotel in 1 hour, not sure if that’s once the show was done, or how long everything took with the lines & junk. We then shopped around, picking up any packages that we had in the gift shop & then headed back up to the room.

Tyler was awake at this point, and was a little sad he had missed Illuminations, but it didn’t seem to bother him too much. We discussed going down for a swim, or playing some Disney Apples to Apples, and I think someone may have gone down to the pool, I’m not sure. I, however, after a long week of walking, and a busy day ahead of us, knew what I was doing! Soaking in the tub!! (In my swimsuit so I could still talk to the others) This is a major key for anyone who doesn’t stay deluxe, and is hot tub-less at the resort! Last trip, Emily & I filled the bath tub with hot water & climbed in, in our bathing suits of course, to soak our tired legs, and IT WORKS WONDERS. I, naturally, brought Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows with me, but still didn’t manage to make it through the Battle of Hogwarts as we kept having conversations through the wall! (Don’t worry though, I have finished it before, about 6 times haha)

After that, it was time for bed, it was our last full day in Disney the next day, and we had BIG plans!
Stay tuned!!

 

[ronnmel]

Why have I never thought of climbing on the little ledge to take a picture in front of Spaceship Earth? That is SUCH a good idea!!

 

[Merida]

Those slushies look amazing right now, not sure why (it's definitely not hot!) but I want one!

Ha, I've never been in American Adventure just because it seems so boring. I hope they never do the rumored Disney America or whatever just because Disney's track record on historical America theme parks is not great. (Also, it would probably be cheaper to actually see the real landmarks vs. seeing the Disney version )

I really like Illuminations too; do they still do the massive fire plumes? That was always my favorite part.