What I learned today!

[jamieguffey]

Day 2 - Disney Hollywood Studios - Sunday 8/23/09

Our first real touring day started off great. Getting in the park early was super cool and the character breakfast entrance was clearly marked and easy to find. Hollywood and Vine was again EXACTLY as described. The food was good not great and we got to see all of the characters. As expected Noah was shy and not interested with this first encounter.

At this point, I made a little mistake. The plan was to get settled at breakfast and then run out for rope drop to get the Toy Story mania FP. Had I worked the plan everything would have been right on again. Unfortunately, I forgot the advice I had received from so many of you! I could see out the window from the restaurant that they had let allowed people to push up to the rope at Hollywood and Vine. I said out loud that I should go and my wife agreed. But Goliath was at the table and JOJO wasn't far behind so I decided to wait for a bit. BZZZT wrong answer! No matter how many times I read that I should RUN as fast as possible to get that FP I never imagined what I found. 15 minutes after the rope dropped the standy wait was an hour and the line for FP's Was all the way down to the Little Mermaid. By the time I reached the machine (20 minutes later) the return time was 12:00 or so. There were 6 different cast members dedicated to helping people through the FP process?

Luckily, this mistake didn't ruin the day it just set the plan back about an hour and a half. We followed the touring plan otherwise and when we arrived for our TSM return time there were still FP's available (albeit for a 7:00 return time). So I was able to pick up more. I have to say the ride is definitely all it's cracked up to be. The first time they shot back at me and the 3D object came flying back at me with a puff of wind I jumped like I really had been shot! I rode with Sophie and she really didn't get it. I can't say it came as a surprise she really isn't into any games at home either. She is a Princess already!

The kids loved Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney. Everyone loved Lights Motors Action (even though the whole we are making a movie theme was a bit cheesy). We decided to skip American Idol even though it was tops on Mommy and Daddy's list of to do's and headed back to the room for lunch break.

A swim and some food is a great way to recharge a battery! But as we found later in the week, turning off the lights and taking a nap is much better. Since we were behind schedule we didn't get back to the park until around 6. We did Beauty and the Beast and Muppetvision (Mommy's Favorite) which took us up to the return time for TSM. This is where we made a small mistake it was getting close to 8pm and we certainly could have made it to the 8:30pm showing of Fantasmic but we decided to wait for the 10:00pm show. Looking back we should have hit Fantasmic at 8:30pm and then did TS before we left. As it was Mommy and Sophie decided to let Noah and I double dip TSM while they shopped and had a snack. We got through two rides of TSM and headed down to Fantasmic. Unfortunately, it was barely 9pm and we had an hour before the show. The good news is we found a spot close to the entrance and the wait was bearable.

I had heard mixed reviews on Fantasmic but for our family it was GREAT! Noah talked about it for days. In my opinion, the definitive storyline made it the best of the evening shows.

Another late night dip in the pool capped a great day!

 

[jamieguffey]

Day 3 - EPCOT - Monday 8/24/09

Well our late night mistake cost us on EPCOT Day. We didn't get out of the hotel until after 12pm and we got to the Park just in time for Lunch. Coral Reef was EXCELLENT! The food was great and the atmosphere was extra special. We probably got one of the worst seats in the house but the view of the aquarium is still great! The kids LOVED it!

After lunch we did Nemo and Turtle Talk. If you have little ones Turtle Talk has got to be a can't miss. We all loved this show! "Totally Sweeeeet!"

By this time the FP's were all gone for Soarin and Test Track. So we had to do Standby. As far as Soarin is concerned I am glad we did. The queue is very nice. The little "games" made the time fly by. This was however one of the 40" rides that scared us as far as Sophie was concerned. Either I am measuring her wrong or she grew an inch while we were on the plane because she passed rather easily. (She made it on all the 40 inch rides). Soarin' did not disappoint and the 50 minute wait was well worth it! After that it was over to Test Track. The standby was 40 minutes which is was extended by another 40 minutes by inclement weather. Once they shut the ride down DW and I discussed passing on it and decided we would hang in as long as the kids could make it. I cannot believe how well our 3 and 4 year olds dealt with an hour and 20 minute wait.

All we did at Epcot was Nemo, Turtle Talk, Soarin and Test Track. With the exception of Nemo (which is a nice break but barely qualifies as an attraction) the other 3 all make our favorites list.

We took a leisurely stroll through World Showcase while we waited for Illuminations. I checked out the pearl thing in Japan but the wait was unmanageable and the wife was only slightly interested so we passed. We decided to watch Illuminations as close to the exit as we could. I was a little worried because there weren't a lot of people where we were, I guess we could have been closer to the lagoon and had a better view of the globe but otherwise it was a great view. We were straight up from Spaceship Earth on the little bridge back from the Kidcot area and when it was time to leave we had an easy trip to the buses.

We made it out on about the third bus and went back to the hotel and swam for a while. Some parts of me wishes we would have got started earlier and spent more time but we got what we needed out of it for this trip.

 

[jamieguffey]

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom - 8/25/09

Our first full day at Magic Kingdom. Everything was exactly as hoped. We pretty much got through everything we wanted to in Fantasyland and Frontierland. Noah LOOOOOVED Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain and as I mentioned before Sophie passed all the 40" requirements with no issues. She said she liked the big kid rides and she rode them at least 2 or 3 times each without argument but she certainly was not laughing and screaming for joy so in all honesty I would guess she really felt they were tolerable. The day however was not without some drama. Our second trip out on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Sophie was playing on the gate where you wait to load the ride. I asked her to get off of it and she wouldn't. After further review she couldn't. Somehow she had slipped her knee through the gate and it was stuck. Not a big deal until the gate opened to let us on the ride and it drug her leg out with it. Very scary situation but the castmember helping load was right on top of it and made sure that the gate didn't close on her. Once we calmed down and figured out that she needed to straighten her leg out to make her joint smaller she was out without a problem. She had a little bruise and she cried a bit but otherwise we loaded the ride and she took it like a champ!

Now I need to be a little cynical for my own piece of mind. The Country Bear Jamboree is so far past its prime that even preschoolers are bored to death by it. I remember it from Disneyland when I was twelve. I remember thinking back then that it was rather cute but the technology is so old and outdated and the attraction itself is so cheap and rundown looking that I think it is time to put it out of its misery (or our misery).

Now that that is out of the way, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by It's a Small World. It is another one I remember from my pre-teen trip to Disneyland and I was not really all that anxious to ride it as an adult. Of course it is not exactly a wild and crazy thrill fest but looking at it for what it is (A celebration of all cultures) I have to say it is definitely a ride that I would ride again.

We went pretty hard until around 2 or 3 and headed back to the resort for a little break before going to Chef Mickey's.

Chef Mickey's was excellent. Our ADR was at 7:50pm and we were seated about 8:15pm but the waiting areas were comfortable and the kids had fun watching the characters. The food was better than the other buffet's we had and the character interaction was spectacular! It seemed like we were never 5 minutes between visits. Minnie, Goofy, Donald came by twice while we were there. We got done in time to step outside on the observation deck and watch the Fireworks....the only problem was the fireworks went off at 9:00pm not 10:00 so we had missed them. All of my research said 9:00pm but the little paper you get at the park said 10:00 and it threw me off. There were about 10 of us out there with the same story so I didn't feel too bad. We did get to see the Kiss Goodnight from the Castle which was kinda cool but I would have love to been able to see the fireworks from there!

The good news was when we started back to the hotel it was smooth sailing thanks to Magic Kingdom closing an hour earlier.

 

[jamieguffey]

Day 5 - Animal Kingdom - 8/26/09

Tusker House was another good not great one. We probably should have passed on that one since we did Chef Mickey the night before all the characters at Tusker House were at Chef Mickey's but Chef Mickey's added Pluto (a family favorite). The only complaint I had was that the waitress took FOREVER to return my card and bill and it caused us to have to wait longer than we wanted at Kilimanjaro Safari's. (Okay 15 minutes wasn't bad but it was 15 minutes we shouldn't have had to wait.) Just a little side note. They give out Fastpasses for the 10:30am Nemo at that breakfast!

We did everything at Animal Kingdom except for Everest with a couple of hours to spare! I really wanted to take Noah on Everest after he had done so well with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad the day before but the timing didn't work out and standby was unmanageable seeing as how Sophie wasn't going to be able to ride. The kids were not impressed with Dinosaur. They were not particularly frightened by it but I think it was probably just a little more than they wanted to deal with because neither were interested in a second trip. Myself, I could take it or leave it as well. The storyline is a bit silly and the roughness is really over done. Next Trip out we will definitely skip it and stay in Asia for Everest.

It's Tough to be a Bug was one of my favorites. The 4D effects were spot on and the "bee sting" scared the crude out of me. The kids loved it as well and two of the best pictures we got were of them in their bug glasses!

Finding Nemo the Musical was excellent and we really liked the Festival of the Lion King also.

I would have to say that Animal Kingdom was a great park to throw in during the middle of the week. We were out of there by 5pm and the rest of the night was relaxing at the pool.

 

[jamieguffey]

Day 6 - Magic Kingdom - 8/27/09

Back to Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours. Unfortunately, we ruined that by deciding to stop at the Main St Bakery for breakfast. It was worth it though. The Cinnamon Roll was Cinnabonesque without the 3 gallons of icing. The kids loved the warm Donuts.

If there is one thing I was disappointed in it was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Maybe it was because I was expecting Toy Story Mania 2 or maybe it was because the tiny little dot of a laser was next to impossible to keep track of. I didn't get it and Noah was thoroughly lost. Mommy and Sophie just rode around in the cart spinning every now and then.

On the other hand the Astro Orbiters were a pleasant surprise. Not because the ride is anything special but because the view from up top was super cool!

The highlight of the day was Noah on the Tomorrowland Speedway! He "drove" while I held down the gas pedal. Okay so the little rail under the car drove us and the ride was more bumpy than Dinosaur but he loved it. Unfortunately, this is one that only has standby and the wait was about 30 minutes so we didn't do it a second time.

The Monster's Inc Laugh Floor was good, kinda like Turtle Talk but not quite as good. Although I did get up on the big screen when they were talking to the crowd before the show actually started.

We took a break in the middle of the day and headed back in time for our early ADR at Crystal Palace. A beautiful restaurant with better than average food. The Winnie the Pooh characters are my wife's favorites (Especially Piglet) but I am anti-pooh. (Stop reading here as I am only going to rant about my dislike for Pooh)I think Winnie the Pooh is a glutinous ****. Piglet is okay I guess, but the only decent role model of the bunch is Tigger! I think he teaches kids to be confident in themselves and he is a go getter unlike that dunce Eeyore!(Okay I am done now. Sorry if I offended any of the Pooh fans. For whatever reason I just don't get them.)


After dinner we headed into adventureland and frontierland to end the day.

Pirates of the Caribbean was a bit of a let down but the Magic Carpets of Aladdin (okay the spitting camels) were one of our favorites. Noah got to do the up and down of the carpet and he loved getting us sprayed.

If there is one thing I HIGHLY recommend it is to do Splash Mountain at Night. When you top the hill before the 5 Story drop the view of the Castle all lit up and colorful was Magical! We hung out in Frontierland to watch SpectroMagic and Wishes. Spectromagic was good but I still like the Dream Come True parade better. We watched Wishes from the bridge in Frontierland right in front of Splash Mountain. What a wonderful spot to watch a fireworks show! Probably not the best view of Wishes though because the Castle is not part of the show from there. Everything is going on behind it! This is also probably the Worst spot to watch the show from if getting home at a decent hour is of any concern!

By the time we made it to the bus stop we were 8 buses deep. We didn't get back to the Resort until just before midnight! The good news is the 12am closing time on the pool was never enforced and Noah and I got to take a quick dip. Mommy and Sophie were out before we got our suits on.

 

[jamieguffey]

Day 7 Downtown Disney/ 1900 Park Fare 8/28/09

Friday was our "down" day. No touring just relaxing and enjoying some food and shopping.

We had 11:00am lunch at T-Rex. The themeing in the restaurant is spectacular and the food isn't too bad either. The kids loved the Dinosaurs and Daddy loved the Colossus Nachos! Noah got a build your own Dino and Sophie fell in love with the Baby Wooly Mammoth so she got a stuffed one to bring home! We did a Design a T for the kids and mommy and daddy enjoyed desert at Ghirardelli's Soda Fountain! (the best chocolate malt I have ever had!)

We didn't end up doing the Characters in Flight although I am not sure why? I think we just wanted to go back and relax.

That night we had an ADR for 1900 Park Fare and as far as characters are concerned Lady Tremaine and The Step Sisters do not have an equal at Disney World! They are the BEST! Unfortunately, by now we were buffeted out, so any critique of the quality of the food would be unjust! It probably was standard for the rest of the trip but we just weren't up to it anymore. If I had a complaint it would be the little back room they put us in. They need to just get rid of that room. If you read the reviews on allears.net almost every bad review they get is from people who were seated in that room. It is deserved. The highlight of the night was Noah's trip to the sundae bar. He dropped his bowl and broke it (that isn't a highlight but the step sisters response was!) On cue like they had practiced it a thousand times (which they probably have) they both screamed CINDERELLA! It was awesome!

We checked out and as we boarded the monorail we heard the first cracks from Wishes. This sent a shiver down my spine. The mess at the bus stop the night before still fresh in my memory. Watching the fireworks from the Monorail was kinda cool though and watching them from an empty busstop was even better. We were on the first bus out and spent the rest of the night at the pool!

 

[jamieguffey]

Day 8 Travel Day 8/29/09

Our week closed anticlimactically. We got up, got packed, had lunch and checked in at the resort airport check in. The motivation (or lack there of) to go home caused this process to take us up to around 2pm. We still had a day left on our park passes so we decided to go back to Epcot. It seemed like the easiest in and out. We decided we would try to do Soarin one more time but the standby line was 50 minutes so we skipped it. The first time we went to Epcot we had missed the Imagination stuff. So we decided to check that out. Figment and Honey I shrunk the audience are sub par and other than a wonderful air conditioned room on the hottest day of our week it was really just a waste of time. We got back to the resort in time to pick up our checked bags and jump on Magical Express to go home. Once again this whole process truly is magical!

 

[bjakmom]

We got tips. . . then we got tweets. . . now we get trip reports!! It just keeps getting better!
Welcome back, jamieguffey! So glad you had such an awesome trip. . . you're hooked now!

 

[joy13]

Wow - it sounds like you had a great trip!!!!!!! I'm sure all the work you did prior is a big reason for that. Thanks for sharing it with us

 

[jamieguffey]

He posted his Twitter earlier in the thread and it looks like he did twitter on his trip:

http://twitter.com/jamieguffey

Definitely. For associated pictures of the aforementioned trip report check out the twitter page.

Final Thoughts!

The trip was everything we had hoped for. Thank goodness for all the stuff you guys taught me! Like I said on day 1 there really wasn't anything the entire week that snuck up and bit us. Any problems we had were self inflicted. I couldn't imagine trying to do a trip like this without 3 months of research!

In our eyes the Dining Plan was just too much. Yes it saved us a TON! Sort of. No one can eat that much food (and that is coming from a man that can eat!) Future trips will be taken outside of free dining and we will not be using the service. We will probably get a cabin at Fort wilderness, schedule a couple of character dinners, and have garden grocer deliver groceries for the week.

On the subject of character meals. We really had a good time with this. However, if you are looking for ANYTHING other than a photo op and a quick autograph you will be disappointed. To be perfectly honest if you are looking out for the characters and trying to be respectful of the other 500 people in the room you will feel rushed. It is really nothing more than an assembly line process. They simply do not have the time to do anything other than say hi, give the kids a hug and take a picture. Have your camera and autograph books ready!

8 Days is either too long or not long enough. You have 8 days and you fell like you can get everything in. Unfortunately, you are so busy that you never really have time to just enjoy it. Don't get me wrong! We had a wonderful time but it came at a cost. We beat ourselves senseless at times and there were a couple of days that I wished we just didn't have anything to do. (This could also be a product of the 7 ADR's we had as well!)

Disney transportation is AMAZING but it is not without its pitfalls. If I put a stop watch to it I would bet we spent more time waiting for a bus then we spent waiting on an attraction. Then after we waited on said bus it was usually packed full and if we weren't standing we had someone standing on top of us. I will rent a car next time, I know it comes with it's own set of issues but I would much rather be sitting in traffic in my own air conditioning than standing on a bus sharing the air conditioning with 50 other people.

August is just a bad time to go to Disney World. Our next trip will be scheduled in late September or October. We will take the kids out of school if we have to but summer in Florida is not comfortable! Although, with that said, we were prepared for the worst and really I would have to say it wasn't as bad as it could have been. It was hot and humid but it wasn't unbearable...just uncomfortable.

 

[HawkeyeMickey77]

Great trip report! I checked out your twitter posts too while you were in the world! All is getting me excited for our trip in 6 days! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences!

 

[g-dad66]

August is just a bad time to go to Disney World. Our next trip will be scheduled in late September or October. We will take the kids out of school if we have to but summer in Florida is not comfortable!

Agree that August is not the best time to go, but..

Warning: September and first half of October are just about as bad. We went last October 7-13, and the temperatures were right around normal (average high of 87). We went this August 1-6, and the average high was about 91.

So yeah, August is a bit hotter, but not by enough to make a difference, in my book.

Our next trip will be December.

Enjoyed reading your trip reports.

 

[jamieguffey]

One thing I forgot to mention. Pina from Mousekeeping was amazing! Everyday was a different surprise. The only complaint came from Noah because she always put the Princess stuff in the window! To fix it I went down to the gift shop and found him a pack of Villains and left Pina a note to make sure they made it to the window. She took care of it for us and all was good again.

So note to any mousekeepers out there...don't forget the boys!

 

[lexmelinda]

Great trip report, Jamie! Glad to hear all went well.

It's so hard not to burn the candle at both ends on the first trip. Especially after all the research....you just don't want to miss anything.

I laughed when I read your assessment of the Country Bears. I feel exactly the same...only a little better than the stage show at Chuck E Cheese IMHO.

Also, I agree that the dining plan will keep you full and running if you let it. The last trip I scheduled a couple of two-credit dinners and we just stayed at the hotel a couple of nights to rest. Much easier! Hard to beat the free food though.

We have done both car and buses and I have to say the buses are easier for us. It's nice to have the car if you need to get to the other resorts but for getting to/from the parks, nothing is easier than the buses for us.

My last trip was January 3-11 of this year. The weather was very nice, crowds were low and most of the Christmas decorations were still up. We saw the castle lighting and the Osborne Lights. AND. We got the 4/3 deal. I highly recommend January for your next trip. It makes a nice little present to unwrap on Christmas....luggage tags, DVD, a picture from your last trip.

BTW I enjoyed the Twitter pictures. Thanks again for taking us along, Jamie.

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Thanks, Jamie! I'd been following your tips, but hadn't realized that you were doing a trip report until today! I've saved several of the tips for our 16-person trip in June, even though this will be my 8th trip to the world (and the fourth as the/one of the main planners). It sounds like you guys had a great (but hot) time. Every Disney trip, no matter how long it is (at least I've found) has that moment when you wish you could just spend a day laying on the bed. I'm hoping to change that in June with our longest trip yet, but I think I'll have to find a way to stay two weeks for me to be able to do that... Thanks again!

 

[kiranic]

Awesome trip report! Thank you for sharing this experience wtih us!