skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
"For a few Fastpasses more!" TR-Nov 9-18, 2013 (Cruise TR LINK added April 10th)
- Thread starter skier_pete
- Start date
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
Glad it went well for you, as I said, I could foresee it being an overall positive experience. Just ours wasn't.
So let's see- my #1 would be ToT, #2 (very close 2nd) is Everest, #3 is Soarin' (although I would like to see a digital upgrade), #4 is Splash (it ranks ONLY as #4 because of the drop at the end- I don't like getting wet but LOVE the story in the ride) & #5 is Pirates. Oldy but goody.
If I could throw in Disneyland, I would put Haunted Mansion in place of Everest (#2) but with the Halloween overlay which was AMAZING.
Just so you know, Soarin' is probably getting a digital update soon. They are doing it in DL this spring. They just have to decide when to take it down at WDW long enough to do the same.
So.. .um.. yhea.. I just pulled ahead.
Get with it!
See below - it's a TIE ballgame again!
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
Its been such a busy morning, I STILL was running around in the cool weather in shorts and a T-shirt. But before I could get it, we had our lunch ADR at the Sci-Fi. This is STILL one of my favorite restaurants to eat at in WDW. While the car configuration is not the most convenient, the experience cant be beat. I wish the movie loop was a little longer so you didnt get repeat scenes during your meal, but watching those old cheesy sci-fi trailers are simply awesome. (Ive also seen a lot of the movies, as many were covered on Mystery Science Theater 3000 during the ninties.)
Its been probably 3 years since weve eaten here and I have to say the food was sort of on the so-so side. DD again had a kids meal, which was made up of Penne Pasta with a side of fries. OK for kids food I guess:
DW had a turkey club sandwhich with a side of cucumber salad. She said the sandwich was good.
I first had for my drink the scrumptious Oreo Cookie Milkshake. Still delicious as ever, but the portion size has been cut in half. For my meal I usually go with the Reuben, but instead chose the Picnic Burger which is health-nuts dream: A hamburger topped with a hot dog.
Unfortunately I dont think this was as good as it sounds (or does it even sound good) the hot dog was small and very bland. The hamburger was OK, but also nothing special. Overall, and OK meal, but probably my first time here where I didnt go away thinking how good it was.
I needed to get my sweater by this point, and so DW and DD headed over to the Art Of Animation studios to take the drawing class. I told them I would try and join them, but to go ahead without me if they needed to. Well,I dont know if it was the cold weather or what but there was a massive line when I got there, and they were still waiting to get in. We ended up sitting right in the front without a desk (which stunk) and then the character they decided to draw GOOFY! Yup same as yesterday. I dont have pictures at the moment, but I have to say I did better drawing Goofy the second time.
Next up, we had our FP+ scheduled for between 2:30 pm AND 3:30 pm for Toy Story Mania, so we rode that again. I got almost the same score, but I think DW won the match. (I always beat DD.)
We now were heading over to Streets of America to try and catch Characterpalooza. It used to be that this event occurred inside the Art of Animation, but my guess is it got well known enough that it was getting too busy, so they moved it. We waited for about 10 minutes, where DD got a hot pretzel. There were a few other people milling around, you could tell they were waiting for the same thing. Suddenly, from the end of San Francisco street the characters arrived.
Green Army Man:
Chip and Dale:
Meeko and Pocahantas:
Jasmine well prepared for the cold weather:
Tigger
Minnie Mouse
The Evil Queen
Pinocchio
Mary Poppins Penguin
Stich
So, I count 12 characters all at once, and some you cant see anywhere else. Now thats Disney Magic!
Its been probably 3 years since weve eaten here and I have to say the food was sort of on the so-so side. DD again had a kids meal, which was made up of Penne Pasta with a side of fries. OK for kids food I guess:
DW had a turkey club sandwhich with a side of cucumber salad. She said the sandwich was good.
I first had for my drink the scrumptious Oreo Cookie Milkshake. Still delicious as ever, but the portion size has been cut in half. For my meal I usually go with the Reuben, but instead chose the Picnic Burger which is health-nuts dream: A hamburger topped with a hot dog.
Unfortunately I dont think this was as good as it sounds (or does it even sound good) the hot dog was small and very bland. The hamburger was OK, but also nothing special. Overall, and OK meal, but probably my first time here where I didnt go away thinking how good it was.
I needed to get my sweater by this point, and so DW and DD headed over to the Art Of Animation studios to take the drawing class. I told them I would try and join them, but to go ahead without me if they needed to. Well,I dont know if it was the cold weather or what but there was a massive line when I got there, and they were still waiting to get in. We ended up sitting right in the front without a desk (which stunk) and then the character they decided to draw GOOFY! Yup same as yesterday. I dont have pictures at the moment, but I have to say I did better drawing Goofy the second time.
Next up, we had our FP+ scheduled for between 2:30 pm AND 3:30 pm for Toy Story Mania, so we rode that again. I got almost the same score, but I think DW won the match. (I always beat DD.)
We now were heading over to Streets of America to try and catch Characterpalooza. It used to be that this event occurred inside the Art of Animation, but my guess is it got well known enough that it was getting too busy, so they moved it. We waited for about 10 minutes, where DD got a hot pretzel. There were a few other people milling around, you could tell they were waiting for the same thing. Suddenly, from the end of San Francisco street the characters arrived.
Green Army Man:
Chip and Dale:
Meeko and Pocahantas:
Jasmine well prepared for the cold weather:
Tigger
Minnie Mouse
The Evil Queen
Pinocchio
Mary Poppins Penguin
Stich
So, I count 12 characters all at once, and some you cant see anywhere else. Now thats Disney Magic!
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
At this point, we wanted to hit the Backlot Tour. DD had never done it, and DW hadnt since the early days of DHS (maybe 1999), and since it was rumored that it could be shutting down soon for Star Wars/ Cars / some other land, we decided we should check it out.
The backlot tour is sort of a shell of its former south. It could also easily be called the Junkyard tour. It starts out with a demonstration of effects, which it was so cold out, they didnt even ASK for volunteers to get wet in the Pearl Harbor scene. We got out of there first, and managed to jump on the back of a tram that was just about to leave.
Heres some of the crap Oops sorry, Movie Memoribilia that they kept out back.
The only semi-neat thing about the tour (besides catastophy canyon which even wasnt that great due to the fear of getting wet on such a cold day), was that LMA Stunt Show was actually running at the same time, so as we were toodling along in our trams we could see the drivers hanging out backstage.
The mutilation of Walt Disneys plane with Planes eyeballs:
It was now close to 5 PM, and we wanted to be back in the area before 6 PM for the Osborne Lights. I suggested Great Movie Ride, but DD was being obstinant and didnt want to do anything else, so we sat in Pizza Planet (what a friggin dump that place is) to wait for it to be late enough. Eventually, we went back outside and the sun was starting to set.
DD complained about being cold, but fortunately, Mulch, Sweat, and Shears were playing, and we went over and listened to them, which made the time pass well:
We LOVE the Osborne Lights, and I was more than determined this time that we would see them switched on. We were in prime location, and it is amazing when they turn them on they just all come ON. I cant imagine the experience of seeing that for the first time!
DD at the Singin In The Rain Umbrella. Good thing it was turned off.
DD was ready to go, but we needed to do two things before we left. One, we wanted to get a picture for our Christmas card that we couldnt get at the Christmas Party. It took us a while to find a Photopass guy, and then the angle he was at not to mention the way he framed the shot was pretty awful. These were our two choices.
I was able to crop one of them and make an acceptable picture. In addition, we HAD to track down and take a picture of the legendary Purple Cat. This is a decoration that the CMs hide each year in a different location. This year, it wasnt too hard to spot, though it was hidden up in a tree.
WE had one more FP+ to use, and that was for Star Tours. There was a little bit of a line that we got to skip in front of, but we probably didnt need it. (I forgot to mention that earlier I was wearing my Ski Hoth T-shirt (I wish I had a picture) and got a lot of comments from the CMs, this time it was covered up because it was probably now down around 50 F.
By the time we were done with this, DD was whining heavily, and we decided that it was time to head back to the hotel, as we didnt really want it to be a late night. As I said before, whereas we had bad morning bus karma, we had GREAT evening bus karma, and the bus pulled up about 2 minutes after we got to the bus stop. We were back at the room shortly after 7 PM. (DW actually stayed behind to look for something in the shops, so she came one bus later. This was also the point at which I found out the Buffalo Sabres had FINALLY fired Darcy Regier, their General Manager this is only interesting to Buffalonian Hockey fans but I wanted to jump up and down and celebrate while riding the bus back.
For dinner, we got food from the food court. The food was actually very good. The was a Beef Brisket I think.
And I had the Carribean pork with rice and beans and vegetable and corn bread. All good stuff! Actually, better quality than our lunch.
The Good
Osborne Lights!
No lines to speak of today (except below)
Single Rider for Rock n Roller Coaster ROCKS!
The Bad
The morning bus situation screwing up rope drop.
30 minute wait in the morning for TSMM (because of the buses)
The Ugly
COLD! Not that I want to complain, but we dont come to Florida in November for COLD!
FP vs FP+
Well, FP+ is the hands down winner here. Pre-booking TSMM versus getting an early morning FP for TSM @ 7:40 PM that we never really used. (And I feel like a bad Disney citizen because I never gave the FP away). The other two FP were probably unnecessary, but overall the FP+ wins out.
The backlot tour is sort of a shell of its former south. It could also easily be called the Junkyard tour. It starts out with a demonstration of effects, which it was so cold out, they didnt even ASK for volunteers to get wet in the Pearl Harbor scene. We got out of there first, and managed to jump on the back of a tram that was just about to leave.
Heres some of the crap Oops sorry, Movie Memoribilia that they kept out back.
The only semi-neat thing about the tour (besides catastophy canyon which even wasnt that great due to the fear of getting wet on such a cold day), was that LMA Stunt Show was actually running at the same time, so as we were toodling along in our trams we could see the drivers hanging out backstage.
The mutilation of Walt Disneys plane with Planes eyeballs:
It was now close to 5 PM, and we wanted to be back in the area before 6 PM for the Osborne Lights. I suggested Great Movie Ride, but DD was being obstinant and didnt want to do anything else, so we sat in Pizza Planet (what a friggin dump that place is) to wait for it to be late enough. Eventually, we went back outside and the sun was starting to set.
DD complained about being cold, but fortunately, Mulch, Sweat, and Shears were playing, and we went over and listened to them, which made the time pass well:
We LOVE the Osborne Lights, and I was more than determined this time that we would see them switched on. We were in prime location, and it is amazing when they turn them on they just all come ON. I cant imagine the experience of seeing that for the first time!
DD at the Singin In The Rain Umbrella. Good thing it was turned off.
DD was ready to go, but we needed to do two things before we left. One, we wanted to get a picture for our Christmas card that we couldnt get at the Christmas Party. It took us a while to find a Photopass guy, and then the angle he was at not to mention the way he framed the shot was pretty awful. These were our two choices.
I was able to crop one of them and make an acceptable picture. In addition, we HAD to track down and take a picture of the legendary Purple Cat. This is a decoration that the CMs hide each year in a different location. This year, it wasnt too hard to spot, though it was hidden up in a tree.
WE had one more FP+ to use, and that was for Star Tours. There was a little bit of a line that we got to skip in front of, but we probably didnt need it. (I forgot to mention that earlier I was wearing my Ski Hoth T-shirt (I wish I had a picture) and got a lot of comments from the CMs, this time it was covered up because it was probably now down around 50 F.
By the time we were done with this, DD was whining heavily, and we decided that it was time to head back to the hotel, as we didnt really want it to be a late night. As I said before, whereas we had bad morning bus karma, we had GREAT evening bus karma, and the bus pulled up about 2 minutes after we got to the bus stop. We were back at the room shortly after 7 PM. (DW actually stayed behind to look for something in the shops, so she came one bus later. This was also the point at which I found out the Buffalo Sabres had FINALLY fired Darcy Regier, their General Manager this is only interesting to Buffalonian Hockey fans but I wanted to jump up and down and celebrate while riding the bus back.
For dinner, we got food from the food court. The food was actually very good. The was a Beef Brisket I think.
And I had the Carribean pork with rice and beans and vegetable and corn bread. All good stuff! Actually, better quality than our lunch.
The Good
Osborne Lights!
No lines to speak of today (except below)
Single Rider for Rock n Roller Coaster ROCKS!
The Bad
The morning bus situation screwing up rope drop.
30 minute wait in the morning for TSMM (because of the buses)
The Ugly
COLD! Not that I want to complain, but we dont come to Florida in November for COLD!
FP vs FP+
Well, FP+ is the hands down winner here. Pre-booking TSMM versus getting an early morning FP for TSM @ 7:40 PM that we never really used. (And I feel like a bad Disney citizen because I never gave the FP away). The other two FP were probably unnecessary, but overall the FP+ wins out.
PrincessInOz
Thanks for my avatar, Mary Jo!
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2010
Sounds like the afternoon was much calmer than the morning.
I like SciFi Diner for the atmosphere and like you wish that the trailer loop was longer. Shame that the food has gotten so-so. Oh well, it's going to be a long time before I'm back there for a meal.
I've never really understood why Disney has kept the junkyard tour. Still....nice to see Walt's plane.
Love the Osborne Light pictures you've gotten. Such lovely night time colour. And which of the two pictures did you use for the card?
I like SciFi Diner for the atmosphere and like you wish that the trailer loop was longer. Shame that the food has gotten so-so. Oh well, it's going to be a long time before I'm back there for a meal.
I've never really understood why Disney has kept the junkyard tour. Still....nice to see Walt's plane.
Love the Osborne Light pictures you've gotten. Such lovely night time colour. And which of the two pictures did you use for the card?
STLMickeyMom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2013
We weren't overly impressed with the food at sci fi either, but the movie clips were fun. We love MST3K!
Characterpalooza looks fun! You got to meet some great characters.
Oh the lights are always so pretty! I'll have to remember that about the purple cat
Characterpalooza looks fun! You got to meet some great characters.
Oh the lights are always so pretty! I'll have to remember that about the purple cat
khertz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2008
Ugh, DH just loves that picnic burger!!
Great finds at Characterpalooza. I have to say, it's much better now that it's on Streets of America. It seems like they send a lot more characters out than they did when it was inside! The picture of Minnie pointing out DD's polka dot jacket is adorable.
I love love love the Osborne Lights! I still have never been there to see them actually come on at night. But I love wandering around and taking it all in. So beautiful!
Great finds at Characterpalooza. I have to say, it's much better now that it's on Streets of America. It seems like they send a lot more characters out than they did when it was inside! The picture of Minnie pointing out DD's polka dot jacket is adorable.
I love love love the Osborne Lights! I still have never been there to see them actually come on at night. But I love wandering around and taking it all in. So beautiful!
Tinker326
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2006
We are equal! 
I will probably JUST start posting Wednesday sometime later this week. So I won't be too far ahead of you even with your cruise!
I have work deadline next week, Birthdays, Kids activities & I need to get back down to the gym this week. I have not run since the half and I signed up for a Green Beer 5K on St. Paddy's weekend at Soldier Field! I signed up for the beer- of course- NOT the health benefits of running.
We ate at Sci-Fi too for the ambienance (sp?). Love it in there. Even if the food is only so-so.
Nice picture of you guys in front of Osbourne LIghts- I think it turned out nice!
Again- HAVE FUN on your cruise next week! Jealous- I want to get out of this snow/cold!! Find the Mickey on the snorkel trail at Castaway (still have not found it!)
I will probably JUST start posting Wednesday sometime later this week. So I won't be too far ahead of you even with your cruise! I have work deadline next week, Birthdays, Kids activities & I need to get back down to the gym this week. I have not run since the half and I signed up for a Green Beer 5K on St. Paddy's weekend at Soldier Field! I signed up for the beer- of course- NOT the health benefits of running.
We ate at Sci-Fi too for the ambienance (sp?). Love it in there. Even if the food is only so-so.
Nice picture of you guys in front of Osbourne LIghts- I think it turned out nice!
Again- HAVE FUN on your cruise next week! Jealous- I want to get out of this snow/cold!! Find the Mickey on the snorkel trail at Castaway (still have not found it!)
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
I'm not sure which picture I used now, we trimmed out our backpack lying on the sidewalk, though!
Sci-Fi is worth it even for so-so food.
Purple cat wasn't so hard to spot this past year. Just stuck up in a tree. They should've had a fire truck nearby trying to get him down!
The picnic burger is brilliant, but I think in execution it wasn't so good. We have really good hot dogs up here in the north, so I tend to think it was the weak dog that did it in.
I like Characterpalooza outside. I'm not sure all of the characters did. It was chilly!
This was our first time seeing the lights come on. I was surprised that they just *pop* on, I figured they would bring them up a section at a time to make the most drama.
That picnic burger is quite the creation!
Looks like a great DHS day overall! DD is looking over my shoulder as I read your TR, and she highly approved of all your meet and greet photos!
Yeah, I have to say outside of the bus problems, it was a really great day. The weather could have been warmer, but we are a cold-weather people so it wasn't that big a deal!
I'm glad your DD liked the pix!
We are equal!
I have work deadline next week, Birthdays, Kids activities & I need to get back down to the gym this week. I have not run since the half and I signed up for a Green Beer 5K on St. Paddy's weekend at Soldier Field! I signed up for the beer- of course- NOT the health benefits of running.
We ate at Sci-Fi too for the ambienance (sp?). Love it in there. Even if the food is only so-so.
Nice picture of you guys in front of Osbourne LIghts- I think it turned out nice!
Again- HAVE FUN on your cruise next week! Jealous- I want to get out of this snow/cold!! Find the Mickey on the snorkel trail at Castaway (still have not found it!)
Well, I'm going to try and stake a little lead on you...Day 6 is going up in a few minutes. Yup, I'll have a one-day lead. Of course, I'll be gone for a week, so I figure you'll have plenty of time to catch up.
I am ready to get out of the cold. Heard today that Buffalo is the second snowiest city in the country this year with 94" of snow. Doesn't feel like it's been that much, but its definitely been a harsher than usual winter. Just three+ days until warm weather! (I hope.)
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
This is probably the last posts before our Disney Cruise. Since I write over a period of time and post when I've built up some stuff, hopefully I will have more time this week, but I've yet to start packing for our trip. Anyways...on with the TR...
I have three rules of Disney park touring, and Rule #3 is Have a plan but be flexible Today was the perfect example of this. Our original plan had us spending today at the water park, but we woke up and it was still rather cool. Not COLD, but probably in the morning only in the high sixties. And while I wont let RAIN stop us from going to a water park, I will let cool temperatures. When I planned the trip, I built into it the flexibility to move the Water Park day. We had dinner plans on two separate nights at Epcot one tonight (Thursday), and one the last night (Sunday) The plan has Sunday as a full Epcot day, but the back-up was to do the water park on Sunday and instead spend today at Epcot. Since Sunday was predicted to be the hottest day of our trip, we thought the switch would be perfect. DD was NOT happy about the switch, but we didnt give her a vote.
Today was the day where FP+ really shone. We had FP+ booked for the evening for Soarin, Character Connection, and Spaceship Earth this was pre-tiering of FP+ at Epcot, where now the first two would be a tier 1. So, I decided to play it cautious. I went on my phone, and while I left the FPs the same, I changed the TIMES only. I moved Soarin from evening to before lunch, Character Connection from evening to 3 PM, and Spaceship Earth to 2 PM.
In addition, we decided that since we were already planning on a later start for the water parks, we would NOT head to Epcot for Rope Drop. (Breaking Rule #1 of Disney Park Touring, but sticking with Rule #3!)
So we headed down to the bus stop and again waited like 25 minutes for an Epcot bus. While less surprising at this time of day, we still saw every other bus come through before ours did! I was only annoyed at this today because I was hoping to get a paper FP for Test Track, which we did, but the return time wasn't until 6 PM!
Entering Epcot we stopped for a quick picture. This is the one where we gave the Photopass photographer our camera:
I took a quick detour over to Test Track to grab paper FP. These gave us a return time of 5:30 6:30 PM, which was just about perfect. We now headed for our first FP+ attraction:
Always a good time on that one! After an exhausting morning of park touring we headed to lunch at probably our favorite QS restaurant Sunshine Seasons! The selection and quality here is second to none, and always worth the stop.
DD loves Chinese style noodles, so that was her pick. She also got a piece of chocolate cake.
This is my favorite meal here, the pork chop with potato wedge and an apple cobbler (cause the *******s that set the menu at Columbia Harbor House took away their apple cobbler.)
DW had the same thing as DD except I think she had a different mix of ingredients in the stir fry.
After lunch, we wanted to see where our meal came from, so we rode Living with the Land. No pictures today, sorry. DD loves this ride, not sure why, but it is pretty fascinating. Us, we like to make Jungle Cruise jokes on it. Look, those butterflies can grow anywhere from 12 up to a whopping 1 foot. They are the rulers of the jungle. Im sure people hate being on the same boat as us.
Next, we headed over to the Imagination Institute, also known as The ride most in need of a refurb. (The sun was behind the pavilion, and I couldnt get a good shot.)
As usual, crowds were amassed to see the spectacle that is Journey Into Imagination (sorry for the blur, camera phone and we were concerned we were going to be trampled by the crowds.)
On the ride!
Whew, after that epic journey, we were on schedule to go see our FP+ for Spaceship Earth. However, we got so SSE and turned out there was no line at all, or at least < 5 minutes. So, I didnt want to use a FP+ for this (though DD was upset we didnt get to use the swipe). My solution, switch it up. I went on my phone yet again and changed it. In doing so, I couldnt change BOTH the ride and the time at the same time, so actually what I did was first change the TIME, and then change the RIDE, so instead we had a FP+ for Nemo in another hour. (another ride we didnt really need it for.)
We rode SSE, and then headed over to the character connection. We skipped about a 20 minute line with our FP+. It was interesting to see how they redid this area. You USED to be able to see the characters through the windows, but no longer. Why did they do this? This became apparent when we were at the front the of the FP+ queue. They ushered us through a door, and then before closing the door, they drew a curtain across in front of the door. We had passed a second curtain on the way there.
What this showed me is that they had taken the Character Connection to the next level of Character meet and greet. This means there were in fact TWO identical character M&Gs here, not just one. (This is also what they did at the Princess M&G in Fantasyland.)
The off-shoot of breaking this location into two greeting areas is you no longer get to greet the entire Fab 5 here. This was the ONLY place in WDW where you could do that, and the fact they eliminated that is a little disappointing. That said, the M & G was still a great interaction:
Mickey as usual played the wonderful host:
Goofy was a stand up guy as usual.
But Minnie, there was something up with Minnie
I couldnt quite put my finger on it.
Until she told DW and DD to close their eyes. THEN I figured it out! Shes sweet on me.
Dont tell Mickey. Ill get a lifetime park ban.
(Now that I look at these pictures taken with our camera, whoever took them did a TERRIBLE job, they are all blurry. I'll have to replace them with the Photopass pictures eventually.)
To be continued.
I have three rules of Disney park touring, and Rule #3 is Have a plan but be flexible Today was the perfect example of this. Our original plan had us spending today at the water park, but we woke up and it was still rather cool. Not COLD, but probably in the morning only in the high sixties. And while I wont let RAIN stop us from going to a water park, I will let cool temperatures. When I planned the trip, I built into it the flexibility to move the Water Park day. We had dinner plans on two separate nights at Epcot one tonight (Thursday), and one the last night (Sunday) The plan has Sunday as a full Epcot day, but the back-up was to do the water park on Sunday and instead spend today at Epcot. Since Sunday was predicted to be the hottest day of our trip, we thought the switch would be perfect. DD was NOT happy about the switch, but we didnt give her a vote.
Today was the day where FP+ really shone. We had FP+ booked for the evening for Soarin, Character Connection, and Spaceship Earth this was pre-tiering of FP+ at Epcot, where now the first two would be a tier 1. So, I decided to play it cautious. I went on my phone, and while I left the FPs the same, I changed the TIMES only. I moved Soarin from evening to before lunch, Character Connection from evening to 3 PM, and Spaceship Earth to 2 PM.
In addition, we decided that since we were already planning on a later start for the water parks, we would NOT head to Epcot for Rope Drop. (Breaking Rule #1 of Disney Park Touring, but sticking with Rule #3!)
So we headed down to the bus stop and again waited like 25 minutes for an Epcot bus. While less surprising at this time of day, we still saw every other bus come through before ours did! I was only annoyed at this today because I was hoping to get a paper FP for Test Track, which we did, but the return time wasn't until 6 PM!
Entering Epcot we stopped for a quick picture. This is the one where we gave the Photopass photographer our camera:
I took a quick detour over to Test Track to grab paper FP. These gave us a return time of 5:30 6:30 PM, which was just about perfect. We now headed for our first FP+ attraction:
Always a good time on that one! After an exhausting morning of park touring we headed to lunch at probably our favorite QS restaurant Sunshine Seasons! The selection and quality here is second to none, and always worth the stop.
DD loves Chinese style noodles, so that was her pick. She also got a piece of chocolate cake.
This is my favorite meal here, the pork chop with potato wedge and an apple cobbler (cause the *******s that set the menu at Columbia Harbor House took away their apple cobbler.)
DW had the same thing as DD except I think she had a different mix of ingredients in the stir fry.
After lunch, we wanted to see where our meal came from, so we rode Living with the Land. No pictures today, sorry. DD loves this ride, not sure why, but it is pretty fascinating. Us, we like to make Jungle Cruise jokes on it. Look, those butterflies can grow anywhere from 12 up to a whopping 1 foot. They are the rulers of the jungle. Im sure people hate being on the same boat as us.
Next, we headed over to the Imagination Institute, also known as The ride most in need of a refurb. (The sun was behind the pavilion, and I couldnt get a good shot.)
As usual, crowds were amassed to see the spectacle that is Journey Into Imagination (sorry for the blur, camera phone and we were concerned we were going to be trampled by the crowds.)
On the ride!
Whew, after that epic journey, we were on schedule to go see our FP+ for Spaceship Earth. However, we got so SSE and turned out there was no line at all, or at least < 5 minutes. So, I didnt want to use a FP+ for this (though DD was upset we didnt get to use the swipe). My solution, switch it up. I went on my phone yet again and changed it. In doing so, I couldnt change BOTH the ride and the time at the same time, so actually what I did was first change the TIME, and then change the RIDE, so instead we had a FP+ for Nemo in another hour. (another ride we didnt really need it for.)
We rode SSE, and then headed over to the character connection. We skipped about a 20 minute line with our FP+. It was interesting to see how they redid this area. You USED to be able to see the characters through the windows, but no longer. Why did they do this? This became apparent when we were at the front the of the FP+ queue. They ushered us through a door, and then before closing the door, they drew a curtain across in front of the door. We had passed a second curtain on the way there.
What this showed me is that they had taken the Character Connection to the next level of Character meet and greet. This means there were in fact TWO identical character M&Gs here, not just one. (This is also what they did at the Princess M&G in Fantasyland.)
The off-shoot of breaking this location into two greeting areas is you no longer get to greet the entire Fab 5 here. This was the ONLY place in WDW where you could do that, and the fact they eliminated that is a little disappointing. That said, the M & G was still a great interaction:
Mickey as usual played the wonderful host:
Goofy was a stand up guy as usual.
But Minnie, there was something up with Minnie
I couldnt quite put my finger on it.
Until she told DW and DD to close their eyes. THEN I figured it out! Shes sweet on me.
Dont tell Mickey. Ill get a lifetime park ban.
(Now that I look at these pictures taken with our camera, whoever took them did a TERRIBLE job, they are all blurry. I'll have to replace them with the Photopass pictures eventually.)
To be continued.
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
DD wanted to go back to The Seas, and wouldn’t you know it, we had a FP+. Well, the wait was listed at 10 minutes, but we really didn’t have anything else to switch it to…so we used it. Turns out, if you are going to blow a second tier FP+ at Epcot, Nemo is the ride to do it on. See, you end up short-cutting past that giant queue that winds about a 1/2 mile through the building. I never understood that design, it’s not like we don’t walk enough at WDW!
After the ride, DD wanted to do Turtle Talk with Crush, and also explore the aquarium a bit. I walked with her while DW sat outside.She claims the building makes her uncomfortable.
We wanted to get over to the Mexico ride, and I NEEDED to get some Schoolbread. Plus DD wanted to do one more Agent P mission. So, we headed to World Showcase.
On our way, we stopped and took a picture in the same spot where the crowds back been so crazy just 4 days before:
And as a reminder, here’s the Sunday shot. This was taken in almost the exact same spot. (There's an extra building on the right that was taken down by Thursday.)
We enjoyed our ride with the 3 Caballeros, and moved on to Norway for school bread. YUM!
I first tried Schoolbread last trip, and it has become one of my top three treats! It’s kind of like a cream-filled donut, but way better. I am not a fan of coconut, but it just works. Unfortunately, the Schoolbread was so popular with my family that I had to share it, which of course forced me to buy another one!
We did the Agent P adventure, and then headed into the shops so DD could color a Duffy bear. While wandering around, I met Anna and Elsa from Frozen, as they walked through the shop on the way to the meet and greet. I didn’t get a picture but since the line to meet them was about an hour long (and the movie wasn’t even out yet) I thought it was cool enough that I would mention it.
We returned back to Future World. It was just starting to get dark, but it was a little too early to use our Test Track FP, so we figure we had just enough time to ride Ellen’s Energy Adventure. I really enjoy this ride/show, even if it is a little overly long. It’s one of the few rides that still has the feel of the early days of Epcot (even though it’s not the original version of the ride).
Then we did FP for Test Track. The FP line merges with the regular line in the “design a car” area, so we really still had to wait about 10 minutes to get on.
We got off the ride and it was time to head over to our DISmeet. We were going to meet with the family of Tinker326, her DH and three DD(11, 9 and 4). Our DD was VERY excited about this prospect. DD as an only child always wishes she could experience the parks with other kids, and I can’t say I blame her.
Well, having taken up an on-line friendship with Tinker326 during the trip planning phase, we had discovered our girls were similar in age and personality, and she had been nice enough to agree to let them spend some time together during the trip. Doing such things is a tricky proposition when it comes to Disney trips, but we were able to organize our plans such that we were going to meet for dinner tonight, then meet in Magic Kingdom on Friday and Animal Kingdom on Saturday. This was planned to be a very loose arrangement of “whatever works out for everyone”, but I have to say right now that it was very much appreciated by the three of us, and especially DD who loved spending time with the two older girls.
In fact, prior to the trip we had arranged a couple Skype calls so that the girls could meet. And at first they were very shy when the parents were around, but once the parents got off the call, they chatted away for quite a while. It was similar when we arrived at the Garden Grill. At first, the girls were all very shy while the parents got to talking right away, but we let the kids sit together, and I think by the end of the meal they were fast friends.
I think we spent half the night looking for this hidden Mickey. Finally a CM helped us out. Can you spot it?
Somehow in our time together we never got a shot with the parents!
One nice thing about the Garden Grill, it’s small enough that you usually have no problem seeing the characters once, and sometimes even twice. They still merited a hug for it:
Wait, but how was the food. Well, I would say very good. The meal is served family style, with the kids getting one thing (Chicken drumsticks, mac and cheese, sweet potato fries and broccoli) and the adults getting something different (pork, white fish, and turkey with stuffing). This is our third time eating here, and the food has been consistently good each time.
After dinner, we had all decided to go to see Illuminations. It was getting pretty close to the start of the show at that point (probably 8:30 PM when we headed over) and so the location selection was pretty limited. However, the kids found one of those carts where they sell light up toys, and somehow they convinced the Cast Member to let them “help” sell the toys. I can’t believe the CM was so foolish, but “helping” involved basically playing with the toys on the cart and not paying for them. I even went over to the CM and said “You know if for one second they give you trouble just let us know and we’ll tell them to stop.” But apparently she didn’t mind.
Things were all great until Illuminations actually started, then DD remembered that she doesn’t like loud noises/fireworks, and declared it “time to go”. We headed out of the park, and again got to the bus stop just as a bus pulled up, getting us out of there well before the Illuminations crowds.
The Good
The weather, while too cool for a waterpark was near-perfect for park touring!
Looking back, I am so impressed with what we did this day. We basically saw everything in future world (except M:S and Innoventions) in a single day, considering we showed up at the park after 11 AM, we rocked it!
Meeting new friends! Disney friends are the best kind of friends!
The Bad
The AM bus again making us wait excessively.
The Ugly
I just don’t have anything for today. Maybe having to share my Schoolbread with my family….grrrrrr, get your own!!
FP vs FP+
FP+ wins this one hands down. We DID get a paper FP that we did use, but with FP+ in place, the FP was for 7 hours after we got it. The FP+ system allowed us to move our times, change (some) of our experiences, all on the fly. We even changed one experience when we were
After the ride, DD wanted to do Turtle Talk with Crush, and also explore the aquarium a bit. I walked with her while DW sat outside.She claims the building makes her uncomfortable.
We wanted to get over to the Mexico ride, and I NEEDED to get some Schoolbread. Plus DD wanted to do one more Agent P mission. So, we headed to World Showcase.
On our way, we stopped and took a picture in the same spot where the crowds back been so crazy just 4 days before:
And as a reminder, here’s the Sunday shot. This was taken in almost the exact same spot. (There's an extra building on the right that was taken down by Thursday.)
We enjoyed our ride with the 3 Caballeros, and moved on to Norway for school bread. YUM!
I first tried Schoolbread last trip, and it has become one of my top three treats! It’s kind of like a cream-filled donut, but way better. I am not a fan of coconut, but it just works. Unfortunately, the Schoolbread was so popular with my family that I had to share it, which of course forced me to buy another one!
We did the Agent P adventure, and then headed into the shops so DD could color a Duffy bear. While wandering around, I met Anna and Elsa from Frozen, as they walked through the shop on the way to the meet and greet. I didn’t get a picture but since the line to meet them was about an hour long (and the movie wasn’t even out yet) I thought it was cool enough that I would mention it.
We returned back to Future World. It was just starting to get dark, but it was a little too early to use our Test Track FP, so we figure we had just enough time to ride Ellen’s Energy Adventure. I really enjoy this ride/show, even if it is a little overly long. It’s one of the few rides that still has the feel of the early days of Epcot (even though it’s not the original version of the ride).
Then we did FP for Test Track. The FP line merges with the regular line in the “design a car” area, so we really still had to wait about 10 minutes to get on.
We got off the ride and it was time to head over to our DISmeet. We were going to meet with the family of Tinker326, her DH and three DD(11, 9 and 4). Our DD was VERY excited about this prospect. DD as an only child always wishes she could experience the parks with other kids, and I can’t say I blame her.
Well, having taken up an on-line friendship with Tinker326 during the trip planning phase, we had discovered our girls were similar in age and personality, and she had been nice enough to agree to let them spend some time together during the trip. Doing such things is a tricky proposition when it comes to Disney trips, but we were able to organize our plans such that we were going to meet for dinner tonight, then meet in Magic Kingdom on Friday and Animal Kingdom on Saturday. This was planned to be a very loose arrangement of “whatever works out for everyone”, but I have to say right now that it was very much appreciated by the three of us, and especially DD who loved spending time with the two older girls.
In fact, prior to the trip we had arranged a couple Skype calls so that the girls could meet. And at first they were very shy when the parents were around, but once the parents got off the call, they chatted away for quite a while. It was similar when we arrived at the Garden Grill. At first, the girls were all very shy while the parents got to talking right away, but we let the kids sit together, and I think by the end of the meal they were fast friends.
I think we spent half the night looking for this hidden Mickey. Finally a CM helped us out. Can you spot it?
Somehow in our time together we never got a shot with the parents!
One nice thing about the Garden Grill, it’s small enough that you usually have no problem seeing the characters once, and sometimes even twice. They still merited a hug for it:
Wait, but how was the food. Well, I would say very good. The meal is served family style, with the kids getting one thing (Chicken drumsticks, mac and cheese, sweet potato fries and broccoli) and the adults getting something different (pork, white fish, and turkey with stuffing). This is our third time eating here, and the food has been consistently good each time.
After dinner, we had all decided to go to see Illuminations. It was getting pretty close to the start of the show at that point (probably 8:30 PM when we headed over) and so the location selection was pretty limited. However, the kids found one of those carts where they sell light up toys, and somehow they convinced the Cast Member to let them “help” sell the toys. I can’t believe the CM was so foolish, but “helping” involved basically playing with the toys on the cart and not paying for them. I even went over to the CM and said “You know if for one second they give you trouble just let us know and we’ll tell them to stop.” But apparently she didn’t mind.
Things were all great until Illuminations actually started, then DD remembered that she doesn’t like loud noises/fireworks, and declared it “time to go”. We headed out of the park, and again got to the bus stop just as a bus pulled up, getting us out of there well before the Illuminations crowds.
The Good
The weather, while too cool for a waterpark was near-perfect for park touring!
Looking back, I am so impressed with what we did this day. We basically saw everything in future world (except M:S and Innoventions) in a single day, considering we showed up at the park after 11 AM, we rocked it!
Meeting new friends! Disney friends are the best kind of friends!
The Bad
The AM bus again making us wait excessively.
The Ugly
I just don’t have anything for today. Maybe having to share my Schoolbread with my family….grrrrrr, get your own!!
FP vs FP+
FP+ wins this one hands down. We DID get a paper FP that we did use, but with FP+ in place, the FP was for 7 hours after we got it. The FP+ system allowed us to move our times, change (some) of our experiences, all on the fly. We even changed one experience when we were
Tinker326
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2006
Way to get it posted. I downloaded pics this morning to do part of Wed morning at lunch! I'll still be behind - I should just link my report to yours because it's the same pics! Hahahahaha!!! Actaully I have one of you and U that's pretty good...
Love the picture of Minnie & you guys. That's a great shot!
Great update! Have a blast on your cruise! Tell Mickey we miss him!!!
Love the picture of Minnie & you guys. That's a great shot!
Great update! Have a blast on your cruise! Tell Mickey we miss him!!!
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
You keep saying Wednesday - I think you mean Thursday. Pretty sure you already finished Wednesday!
There will definitely be some picture overlap between us, but since our time together sort of weaves in and out, I think it's probably better that we each write our own.
That Minnie picture was completely her idea. We couldn't figure out why she wanted them to cover their eyes. They didn't know what she was going to do.
Tinker326
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2006
You keep saying Wednesday - I think you mean Thursday. Pretty sure you already finished Wednesday! There will definitely be some picture overlap between us, but since our time together sort of weaves in and out, I think it's probably better that we each write our own.
Yhea yhea Thursday... I was testing you! Hahahaha!!!
PrincessInOz
Thanks for my avatar, Mary Jo!
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2010
Looks like a great day. Glad that it wasn't so busy at Epcot for you.
How nice that DD could spend some time with kids her age. I totally get that single child thing. It's so easy to overlook the fact that our teens/tweens still need to hang out with people their age; rather than their parents all the time,
I'm looking at the picture....but I can't see the HM (*hangs head in shame*).
How nice that DD could spend some time with kids her age. I totally get that single child thing. It's so easy to overlook the fact that our teens/tweens still need to hang out with people their age; rather than their parents all the time,
I'm looking at the picture....but I can't see the HM (*hangs head in shame*).
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
It's right in the middle, hiding BEHIND the branches of the fern. Not a traditiional 3-circle but a full face in profile. It was small, and you couldn't get real close to it, but I find the out-of-focus shot actually mades it easier to see than in person. (Even after we finally saw it, I questioned the CM that it really was a hidden mickey and not just a vague Mickey-shaped blur. However, it IS in the Hidden Mickey book, which I guess makes it official.)
Being an only child myself I know the pitfalls of it from a kids point of view, and in this day and age its even harder to find kids to play with as there is so much organized activities out there (at least in the US) that other kids are spending 6 nights a week in. (Just found out our neighbors daughter has cheerleading on Sunday NIGHTS as part of her schedule.) I sooooo much want to find a friend for DD to bring next time (2015?). I have one in mind but I'm not sure if the parents will let her go.
Tinker326
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2006
I think it really is a Mickey- I can see it pretty clearly when I look at it now even though it was VERY hard to spot.
Also, feel free to take Sarah in 2015. Hahahahaha!!! (I was also an only child and my parents always took a friend with me on vacation but it was a different age and parents were not as..ah..um... smothering?!?protective?!?!..not sure the word I'm looking for....)
skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
That would be a popular choice for both of them! The tricky part would be for us to swing through Chicago on the way to Orlando...not quite sure how to work THAT one...
Certainly there's alot more awareness of what can happen to kids while away. But I think both when we were kids and now it's a case of you really have to be comfortable with the family -moreso the parents even than the kids. We talk about what age would we be comfortable allowing DD to go away for a week with someone - and I think probably about 12. We are sending her off for a week with her grandma in April, but that is not really the same. It really has to be another family you trust as much as your own.
Tinker326
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2006
Even my mom says "I can't believe some of those parents would send their kids off and we barely knew them". One friend went to California with us, another to England.. it's just funny compared to today where certainly I would never send my kid off to another state with a family I barely knew.
Different times- I'm sure due to the internet that makes us more aware.
Different times- I'm sure due to the internet that makes us more aware.
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