Overall sounds like a good MK day to me. I love the people mover and I get the award of King Whimp when it comes to rides. My first and last ride ever on space mt was many years ago but I think I said an entire rosary while we hurtled thru the darkness, my eyes closed of course and I could not get the door open when it ended, the CM coming to help upon seeing my shakeing legs was "are you alright maam?" 
Forida and rain go together like Minnie and Mickey Mouse, it is something I have come to expect and am very pleasantly surprised when like on our last trip March of 2009 no showers during our park days at all 
Your meal at Artist Point looked good, and you should really try to stay at WL sometime, it is beautiful, we stayed there twice and it is DH favorite resort. the promo out there now with 40% off the villas makes a studio quite affordable, just a thought 
Enjoying your trip report very much 
I think I'm over my ride fears fully... now to get over the fears of being sore after Space
. I think I'll try it again this year in the front car and see what happens. Just remind me to bring the Advil!
Yep, those afternoon downpours. It's a fact that one of my favorite things about visiting my grandparents growing up were the afternoon thunderstorms every day. Always got a kick out of that. We get them here in Mobile too quite often, so this year I had grown quite accustomed to them.
I think if I could convince someone to go with me, I'd certainly do the WL. It's just too much for one person to do
. The resort alone, even with the 40% discount, would have added about $1100 to the next trip. I suppose if I cut my trips short I could do it... but 10 days or 6 days... hmm.
I hated to hear that you didn't care for Space Mountain. John said it kills his back and he hates to ride it too. Did you know that when they did the refurb last year, they actually smoothed out the ride? What you were riding was the smoother version.
I'm glad that the rain didn't stop you guys from enjoying yourself.
Oh the food you had a Artist Point looks really good. I love kimchi. When I was a little girl, we had a Korean lady who lived next door and she made it all the time.
Yep, that was the smooth track, would have hated to see it before. In reality, the track needs a whole redesign (something that's very unlikely to happen). Would be a lot more fun with swooping shallow hills than what's there now. Would feel more like "space" anyway... I'll try it again this year and aim for a front car.
As I mentioned above, we're both pretty used to the rain. We actually get the most rainfall of all the major cities in the US (excluding HI and AK) here in Mobile, so pretty used to it now.
Funny thing about Kimchi (which I could never remember how to spell ><). My buddy at work's wife is Laosian and she makes it quite often. He's constantly telling us how awful it smells and all that. This version wasn't too bad. Not a favorite, but not bad. The rest of Artist Point was great too. Not going back this year, but that's more due to wanting some new places than anything.
Ouch - Space Mountain can be painful. I hate the back row, too. I LOVE the front row - fun, fun, fun! It's amazing a seat can be the difference between pleasure and pain! It's hard to enjoy the ride when you are dreading every bump. Ah - to be young. It wouldn't hurt at all then.
I love AP. My DH and I had April as our server last year. She was really good. After eating there I was determined to stay at WL. I used my points there last May and it was a lovely place. But even if you can't stay there, did you know they do a daily tour of the place at 9am? (Well, its almost daily - you have to check the schedule). The ranger (Ranger Joe) is amazing and if you show up by yourself he can personalize the tour a bit. He asked me if there was anything I really wanted to see and I asked to see the roof. DONE! It's very hot up there in the warm weather, but the view is worth 10 or 15 mins of stifling heat. I highly recommend it if you ever get a chance. It's like a free behind the scenes tour and you can learn so much about the place. Place a bunch of Walt's toy trains are over in the villa on display.
Oh yeah, for sure. I wish I had ridden when I went as a kid. It's a great ride, just really showing design flaws now-a-days. Not a whole lot they can do without ripping out the track and doing it over though, which they aren't going to do anytime soon, if ever.
Thanks for the info about the WL tour. Definitely something I might look into. About how long did it take? I'm already dreaming of the pictures I could get from the roof
.
Looks like you had a nice MK day, it's good the rain held out for most of the day. I have never been to Artist Point but I have been to WL (went to Whispering Canyon) and it is definitely a beautiful resort. My DH HATED Space Mountain, I can't get him to go on it anymore. It was actually the first ride he ever went on in WDW, I guess that was stupid on my part but luckily for me it didn't turn him off all rides. I like SM but it's not a "Must Do". I haven't been since the refurb.
So far, I've been real lucky with my late Sept trips. 2009 we had rain at night once, and it was after we were already in bed for the night. 2010 it only rained twice, both times I was at parks, but it worked out just fine
(and the 2nd time allowed me to get some really nice sunset pics, so I'm kinda hoping it does the same this year
).
I'm actually quite proud of myself for the rides this past year. I did every "big" ride except Spash and Kali... and those were more because I didn't want to get wet. Next hurdle will be the big ones at IOA or something, but that's not in the plans for awhile.
Great update, Allan. We've thought of going to Artist Point, but have never made it (the whole WL turned me off with some very rude CM's and our miserable dinner at WCC). We do love Liberty Tree Tavern's lunch and are thinking of putting it back on the list for this trip. Mark would love that toffee cake dessert.
Artist Point was very good and certainly worth the trip over. Our server was pretty good (albeit a little slow), but we didn't encounter any rudeness at all. Of course, we pretty much just kept to ourselves until dinner. I remember hearing the horror stories about WCC, it's one of the things that's kept me away from there (plus the menu doesn't sound good to me, plus I don't like the interaction type stuff, same reason why I wouldn't do 50's Prime Time.)
LTT was great though. Dinner isn't something I'd do (again the picky eater in me strikes), but lunch was quite good. The cake was one of the best desserts I ate my whole trip.
---
Since all 4 of my vocal readers have posted at this point (I'm going to go ahead and assume I have throngs of non-vocal readers, mostly to satisfy my ego and self-esteem
), I suppose it's time for another update
. I've been slacking a bit as I've been busy with other stuff. Mostly guiding people on proper
DDP usage over in the restaurant forums, and sleeping. In fact, I just woke up about 45mins ago after falling asleep around 7pm. I also think I'm coming down with my flu/whatever that I get pretty regularly at this time of year (the same thing that made me lose my voice last year).
I've also verified with Mom about the dining plans for this year, and Boma and Tusker House were her only "Must Dos", so the plan works. We'll just have to see how the MNSSHPs work out and the official dates on them. Shouldn't be too hard to swap around once they come out if it changes back to Tue/Thu/Sat that it was last year (which I'm doubting).
(We get down into the 20s here, but normally doesn't last long at all, a week or two tops at those temps, then it's back into the 40s and 50s during the winter).
