Howard412's Very Delayed Trip Report

(Happy Rainy Bank Holiday All! Hope this will cheer everyone up! :cool1: )

I woke up at 6am today, but being the nice friendly chap I am, let my brother keep on snoring all the way to 7.45

Showered and on over to the Food Court for The Breakfast of Kings © - more French Toast!

We were on the bus to Epcot by 8.50 so we arrived just after opening.

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After reading all about Soarin', I dragged my brother over to it first. There was a 20min wait time posted (why they don't display this information/have fast passes outside the land flummoxes me), but that was just the walk to the "departure gate"! We walked straight on. Completely blown away by the ride, what a fantastic addition to Epcot.

My brother wanted to do Mission Space next.

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I've got to admit I was quite apprehensive about this after reading about the people made ill (or worse) on this, but we dove right in at the deep end and got tickets for the Orange team. The CM at the entrance told us "Go on Orange, come out green!" - just what I needed to settle my nerves! Another walk on. Seeing the airplane style sickbags made me feel so much better. Not. (The 1990's called just after I wrote that, they wanted their joke back).

Was a touch jittery throughout the ride not knowing what to expect, but we were both fine getting off until we were halfway down the exit when a familiar smell hit our nostrils...
The fresh air perked us both back up so it was onto Test Track next. Now I really don't like the way Disney is putting pre-shows on almost every new ride, but this one is done really well and sets the scene fantastically. Especially when Bill McKim and his assistant Sherry pick a "surprise" test and the video shows a car crashing into a wall. Kids scream and adults laugh.
It was the longest wait of the day at massive 10mins, however I'm really unsure if I'd wait through the long queues in the summer to experience it.

We realised we hadn't gotten a map or ridden SSE yet which was a lot clunkier than I remembered it to be.

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Silly I know, but the sleeping monk always makes me giggle like a small girl. :lmao:

It was just after 11am now and we were both getting hungry so we took a slow stroll through the middle of Innoventions, through Canada and the UK;

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Into my favourite place in the whole of Epcot

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No not France; - The Boulangerie Patisserie!

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Following our snack break, we talk a walk around the rest of World Showcase, just looking and wandering, stopping in Norway to ride Maelstrom (another walk on) - didn't stop for the post-ride video though!

We realised we hadn't done Figment yet, so enjoyed the sunshine as we walked that way. What a great time to go do Figment - as we walked in through the doors, we were greeted by a whole team of smiling Cast Members (was only a little freaky!) and told we were Year of A Million Dreams winners! We had won;

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Hats!

(I'd like to take a moment here to say IN YOUR FACE! to everyone who has been and won diddly squat :rotfl: :lmao: :banana: )

Not a fan of the new (since I was last there anyway) Figment ride compared to the old, but it was enjoyable all the same.

Honey I Shrunk... next, which was ruined by a tour of about 120 Argentinian teens making fun of the CM's and shouting all the way throughout the show. As we exited, we followed them until they all pealed off into The Land. We both wanted to do Soarin' again, but the thought of queuing up and riding with all of them was too much, so we walked on down to The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Not much I can say about this, as it obviously isn't aimed at my age group and I have a confession - I've never seen Finding Nemo. But it was fun to do it just the once none-the-less.

Found ourselves with empty tummies once again, so found ourselves in The Electric Umbrella with a tray full of Chicken Strips and yet more Chocolate Milk.

After milling around in the CBR shop last night and being horrified to find they no longer sell Jelly Bellys, it was a huge relief to find them in MouseGear. Bought a HUGE bag full. Popped into Club Cool to find out exactly how disgusting Beverly really is. The answer? Very. I tried to convince my brother that it was infact so good it could only have been made from crushed angel wings, telling him the look on my face was because I wasn't expecting it to be fizzy, but he wasn't having any of it. Wuss.

Walking out we found two new Hidden Mickeys on the pavement;

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Jumped on the next coach back "home" to the CBR. We were in the pool by 3pm. A quick 8" pizza each about 5.30ish and back to Epcot for ROE!

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I wanted to ride The Land, but as we got there at 7.05pm it had closed just a few minutes previously. Jumped on Soarin' then took a walk around WS to find the best place to watch ROE. We ended up grabbing some railing right infront of Debi's spiritual home - the Margarita stall in Mexico!

The show was fantastic, as I'm sure you'll all agree, so I'll let the pictures and videos do the talking. I'm so pleased these came out well.

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We powerwalked through all the crowds and got to the bus stop so early, the first CBR bus was just us on it... We thought it was quite odd the driver didn't sit there for 5/10mins to let the crowds descend, but as we exited, another 4 CBR buses were pulling up. Super organised!

We were back in our room by 9.20 with more lemonades and ESPN to swat up on American "Football".

Weather - As you can see from the pictures and video, clear skies, but windy.
Lemonade Count - 4 each.

:mickeyjum Next time - 27th January, OMGwhoinvitedallthesepeopletoMGM
 


Well done. Excellent writing and good choices of photos to illustrate your report. I'm not finding the link to the video you mentioned. Is it somewhere other than in the current report? Looking forward to reading about the rest of your adventures. Congratulations on receiving your Dream Ears.
 


SusanEllen,
The videos are youtube videos, embedded in to the post.. At the start of the illuminations pics :thumbsup2

Just click the play button on the 'pic' and the video will play.
 
Awesome report, awesome photos, laughing a lot, please keep it coming:thumbsup2
 
Thank you, Morning Glory. The mystery is solved. I was reading this trip report at school where the server blocks YouTube. The photos with the YouTube link just didn't appear. I'm home now and see them, so going to watch right now. I might not have thought to look at the thread here at home had you not written a reply that the DIS forwarded. Thank you very much.
 
it's time to add another (quite short) day to my trip report.

After yesterdays long day, it wasn't the greatest start to be woken at 7am by our alarm clock, but we had made plans to get to MGM (I REFUSE to call it "Disney Studios"!) for the Early Magic Hours. After the usual breakfast and shower, we got to the park for just after 8am; Another rope drop missed!

The buses dropping off at the park were very full, but as we walked into the park, it seemed pretty quiet;

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We soon found out where everyone had gone!

Started with ToT with only a very minimal wait;

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;- Just as great as we remember it to be. The view out over the rest of the park is great, just as you start looking at something, WOOSH! you drop. Such a great rush.

As we were down there, we decided to check out RnR next; about a 20minute wait. I was a little disappointed with the length of the ride for our first time on it (or at least that's what I've written down! I was a bit of a grumpy guts today. Wasn't feeling great with my illness after yesterday & woken up far to early by the alarm!)

We wanted to ride ToT again before leaving that side of the park, but the time posted outside was already up to 45mins. We thought about Fast Passes, but if we were the other side of the park, it would be a bit of a trek just to go and ride it. We fought our way up Sunset Blvd feeling a bit like a salmon swimming against the tide.

Star Tours was a minimal wait;

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We had a very enthusiastic CM, and our trip to Endor was eventful as ever.

A stroll in the sunshine and we ended up at The Muppet show;

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I really do enjoy this show! It was great fun as ever, and it was nice to escape the increasingly busy crowds.

On to the Backlot Tour. Apparently it was too cold today to give someone a good soaking :confused3

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Lights Motors Action up next. We only just got there in time, so had to sit right at the back.

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Videos!

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This vid tips the scales at about 99MB for about 4mins. Don't be put off though!

We had a wander through the quietest part of the park, Streets of America, followed by an early lunch of Hot Dogs and... you guessed it, Chocolate Milk at the Backlot Express.

The crowds were growing all the time, and it wasn't much fun having to battle through groups of strollers that were wandering around aimlessly not watching where they were going. We were back at the hotel by 12:30.

We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in or by the pool catching some Rays until dinner at about 6ish. We elected to have the "Grilled Chicken Sandwich", or in laymans terms - chicken breast in a bun. Went back to the room to read and watch some TV (more ESPN). Fell asleep by 9.

Weather; Sunny and warm! Woohoo!
Lemondes; 4 each (again.)

Next up - We learn to use chopsticks!
 
really enjoying your trip report as we were there at the same time (jan 20th-feb 3rd) looking forward to reading more
 
Great Day! :goodvibes

Was that stunt driver suppose to fall off, I have seen it before but dont remember if that was part of it? ;)
 
We woke up at 7am today, very tempted to get up and go straight out, but we couldn't decide what to do. We considered taking it pretty easy; take some boats out on the lake in the morning before over to Epcot for lunch. Finally rolled out of bed a 9am; showered and dressed and over to an unusually busy food court. Where did all these teenage girls come from? Why are they all in uniforms?

Cheerleader Invasion! :laughing: It was like a scene out of Bring It On. We found out that this was the reason we didn't get our room in Aruba - the cheerleaders/dance teams had taken over Jamaica, Barbados and Aruba buildings.

We escaped out of the madness with our Breakfast of Kings. The weather was overcast and windy so cancelled our Speedboat plans.

We got on the bus to Epcot about 10 o clock loaded with jumpers and coats. Straight over to Test Track to pick up Fast Passes for the 1 hour queue. We waited 5mins for Orange Team Mission Space, then over to Universe of Energy.

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As you can see by now, the sun has come out and it was warming up nicely.

UoE was really good fun, Ellen DeGeneres was very good and the whole show is a) quite educational b) a long sit down in an air conditioned area!

Sighed quietly to myself as we passed Wonders of Life;

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and grabbed a cold drink and sat in the sunshine for 15mins to wait for our FP time on Test Track. When we got there of course there was no queue at all. In fact, the FP queue was longer than the standby line, but we realised the FP queue takes you through a different part of the displays and as we were in no real rush, we took the FP line anyway.

A slow walk around the lagoon starting in Canada and we arrived in Japan for our Teppanyaki ADR just before 1pm. We waited for the rest of our table to arrive which gave us time to have a wander around and take some photos.

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The rest other two families arrived and we were taken into the dining room and met our chef, Kenbo, all the way from... Orlando Florida! The whole meal was thoroughly entertaining - so much so that we both forgot to take photos :confused3 Next time I go, i PROMISE i'll get some video!

My brother and I both had "Tomosama", steak and chicken, with a fruit juice mix to drink. We even braved the chopsticks, which we both got on with surprisingly well! The other families at the table didn't bother to try to use them - I thought it was a bit odd. We sat next to the Browns from Rhode Island (Hi if you're reading this!). They were big Boston Red Socks fans (booo...) and have never seen them lose at Fenway. The other family at the table were celebrating a birthday and were given a chefs white hat with japanese writing wishing them a happy birthday. They were visiting The World until Feb 2nd, and were giving Groundhog plushes out to their waitresses at all their ADR's. A nice personal touch instead of a tip I thought. For the two of us, the bill including tip was about $50.

We decided to go back to the hotel to dump our unworn jackets and put on some sun-tan lotion, and stopped for dessert on the way out;

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Hopped on the first bus that came to the bus stop to avoid any arguments! So it was off to MK.

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to feed the Buzz Addiction. I finally beat my brother 430k - 233k, and boy, I didn't let him forget it! The ride got stuck in the first room, and I think I hit the 100,000 point target a few times.

Feeling rather childish and full of myself I dragged my brother on The Many Adventures of Whinnie the Pooh, followed by Snow White and Mickeys Philarmagic, which we both were amazed by! By about 4.30, the sun was setting and the wind was picking up so decided to hop back to the hotel for dinner. Quickly checked to see if Splash Mountain had reopened on time (it had), then out to the bus stop

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Chicken Strips for dinner amongst all the cheerleaders.

Tried to take some photos of the hotel and sunset walking back to the room, but due to the low light/long exposure situation, they all came out like this;

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ESPN. Hot Chocolate. Bed.

Weather - Cloudy and Windy until we got to Epcot. Clear and warm until we got to Magic Kingdom.

Lemonades - 4 each

Next Up - Howard Meets The Yeti
 

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