lilpritch04
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2004
- Messages
- 452
OK, we just returned yesterday from our HM and it was great! There were a few hiccups, but overall everything exceeded our expectations!
We were supposed to fly out of MSP to MCO on Sunday, 9/26, but after following Jeanne, I changed our flight to Saturday 9/25. We got to the airport only to find that MCO had already closed and our options were to fly into Tampa, by way of Detroit, and land at 10:45pm or fly into Jacksonville and arrive at 5:30.
We flew into Jacksonville because we were confident that Tampa would probably close by 10:45 and we didn't want to be stranded in Detroit. So we rented a car in Jacksonville and began our drive to Orlando around 6pm. I should really mention that car trips are not DH's and my favorite things to do. It was raining pretty hard off and on and there were a few strong wind gusts, but it was pretty OK. It was a little odd being one of the only cars driving into Orlando, though.
We arrived at the Celebration Hotel (Disney only had rooms avail for $500) around 8:30. The hotel was very nice and in a great area with little shops and eateries lining the streets. We would love to go back and spend a long weekend there, but then we realized that it was so close to Disney, that we probably would never take time to do it. Anyway, curfew began at 11pm Saturday thru 5pm Sunday. We stayed in our hotel that whole time. The staff was great and allowed us to stay in our hotel room until curfew ended (checkout was at 11am) and they had buffet meals instead of sit down meals to accommodate all of us who were feeling stranded.
We left Celebration at 5pm and drove over to POR to check in. I thought DH was going to turn around and leave when we walked into the lobby. There were kids and parents camped out all over the lobby floor doing arts & crafts and playing games. This was his biggest fear of our Disney HM--being surrounded by screaming kids with no place to go. So we checked in (I actually called POR twice, once Saturday after landing and once Sunday to confirm that we would be keeping our reservation and for them not to give away our room--I don't think they would actually do that, but I didn't want to take a chance)
We made it up to our room and relaxed a bit, hoping that when we went down for dinner it would be a little more calm. It was while we were in our room that we realized that curfew had been extended to 6am Monday and then we were thankful for not being arrested! Dinner was still quite busy and hectic and Boatwrights was closed, so we jumped in line and got our food to go. I don't mean to give the wrong impression, DH and I love kids and we knew we would see them in Disney, but DH was just worried that the rest of our vacation would be just like walking into the lobby on Sunday night. Luckily, it was nothing like that!
We woke up early Monday to see if the parks would open, the CM at checkin thought if they opened at all it would be in the afternoon. To our surprise, all 4 opened on time!!! We were off to the Magic Kingdom to start our WDW HM!!
We got to MK before opening so that we could see the character show. I actually started to cry. I was so happy to finally be there. I was thrilled. All of the magic overwhelmed me. I was seeing children just amazed at the gates of MK and all of a sudden my eyes were filled with tears. DH was in no way prepared for this and couldn't stop from laughing his "this is an awkward situation" laugh. Oh well. He said that next time he would be prepared to handle it
I hadn't been there in years, nor had DH so the second the gates opened I completely forgot my gameplan and we walked aimlessly around for 30 minutes just taking it all in. We ended up near Splash Mountain, so decided to jump on and use the rest of the day to dry off. Bummer! We made it through Briar Patch and the ride stopped. We we stuck with other logs bumbing up for about 10 minutes. Luckily they turned off the music after 5 minutes--DH probably would have lost it. We were evacuated out the back of the ride. I guess there were some technical difficulties and Big Thunger Mountain was down as well. So we walked a little bit more--still not looking at our plan or even a map--and eventually got to Space Mountain. This is my favorite ride!!! I really enjoyed every whipping turn. When we got off DH told me that he wasn't going on any more rides with me this trip. I guess it was a bit too much for him
The rest of the day we just walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere. Since MCO opened some time on Monday, the park was pretty empty and it was nice to wait no more than 5 minutes in line for anything! We both loved Mickey's Philharmagic. That is my favorite 3D show!! Pirates was fun. DH even indulged my inner child by walking through both Mickey and Minnie's houses with me DH ended up having so much fun. It was hard for him to admit it the first day though.
We went back to the hotel for a nap and then headed off to Downtown Disney. What a blast! We tried to get seating at Planet Hollywood, but it was 1 hour 45 min wait! Crazy! We went to McDonald's and then walked around with our shakes. I think we were still in awe of everything because we didn't do a whole lot, just looked and talked about what a good decision it was to fly in Saturday so that we could make use of Monday.
Tuesday we started off early at MGM--early opening for resort guests. DH kept his word and wouldn't go on anymore rides with me. I went on Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster by myself. ToT was good. I wouldn't go on it by myself again, but if someone wanted to ride it I would go enthusiastically. It just wasn't amazing to me. Rockin Rollercoaster started out really well. I love the speedy takeoff and loop, but after that it just seemed like a lot of S curves. It was a very smooth ride, so DH could have gone without worry. I think this is a great roller coaster for everybody. I still love Space Mountain and I think it's the most thrilling rollercoaster I've ever been on at WDW. We never made it to Star Tours, but I'll just have to save that for next time.
So, I was done with the rides and we went off to the attractions. We went on the backlot tour and DH got a few great pics. He really liked Indiana Jones. I've seen it before, but it's still a great show. Muppets 3D was good. Overall, the 3D shows were probably DH's favorite because we got to sit in air conditioning instead of being out in the 90% weather. We loved going to the Walt Disney show--One Man's Dream??? Walking through there was probably what really hit home with DH. We both thought that show was fascinating. We also went on the Great Movie Ride. The line for that was actually quite long and we were stuck 3 times watching snippets. It was a fine ride/show, but I thought it really got much better towards the end. I'm a sucker for the Wizard of Oz.
I thought MGM had a lot to offer. I had read posts before about only spending a half day there, but I found that we could have spent much more time. We only had 3 1/2 days to hit 4 parks, so we were on a time crunch!
We went back to the room and took a LONG nap before heading out to Epcot to look around a little before sitting down for Illuminations. What a wonderful show! I really love fireworks but they are even better when done to music--with a story! We were both so impressed at how amazing it was. DH was really in the Disney spirit by this time and he didn't stop taking pictures! We had a lot of pictures of Illuminations, a lot of which didn't turn out, but some that are just great. What a wonderful show! (I'm a little confused about the Illuminations cruises, though. It lookes like they just sit under the bridge?? I'm sure I'm not getting the whole story on that, so I'll have to do more research. Our seats were great--right between France and the UK. People on the bridge probably had the best view, but we were just a little lower infront of the bridge. Fantastic!
We went back out to dinner at Planet Hollywood after Illuminations. Actually, we took an unexpected detour. We got on the shuttle for Downtown Disney and the driveer told us there would be 2 stops, one at the Marketplace and one at West Side. We knew we wanted the West Side stop. As we entered Downtown Disney, he stopped at Marketplace and again stated that he would make another stop at West Side. A passenger started talking to him about Pleasure Island and then I stopped listening. Anyway, we stopped at Pleasure Island. We just stayed on the bus thinking that he would stop at West Side. Nope. Back on the road. So we thought, OK, we'll just go back to POR--thinking the bus was just making rounds between the 2 places. Well, we ended up at AKL! I convinced DH to get off the shuttle and look around the resort. What a wondeful resort! The theme is carried out so well. It's like you are completely enveloped. Awesome!! So, after taking a self guided tour, we were back on the bus to go out to eat--at 11:45!
Planet Hollywood was serving their full menu until 1am so DH was happy. We had great food and service. I've eaten at PH in other locations and was never impressed, but DH had never been. Excellent! Then we were tired so we went home--I mean back to POR.
Wednesday was another early day starting at Epcot with the early Magic hour for resort guests. But first, this was the sweetest moment of our entire trip and it happened on the shuttle to Epcot: A family was sitting behind us on the bus and one of their little boys, 4 yr old?, kept telling his dad how excited he was to go to "The Epcot" and he kept talking about how much fun it would be to go in "The Epcot." His enthusiasm was definitely contagious and soon many other kids were getting excited and the question "Are we there yet?" was asked with more frequency. Anyway, as we pulled up to Epcot the little boy proudly announced that he was going to go golfing inside "The Epcot Golfball!" It was so cute. His dad tried to tell him what Epcot was all about and his mom said sweetly, under her breath, "he is going to be so disappointed." Then his *older* sister wisely said, "We'll just have to find Mickey real soon so he forgets all about it!" I don't know what exactly it was about this experience, but DH and I still chuckle about it. It was just so cute!
Anyway, back to our trip! I went on Mission Space and Test Track right away. Again, staying true to his word, DH sat outside and patiently waited for me. I got on Mission Space immediately, but again there were technical difficulties so it took more than 20 minutes to get the ride over with. I WAS NOT impressed with Mission Space. Maybe I just read too many posts about how great it was and built it up too much, but I really thought it was blah. There were quite a few people that planned to go again right away and several that felt sick after, but I just didn't see what all the fuss was about. I jumped on Test Track hoping to be thrilled. To me, this ride was more of an attraction than a rollercoaster. I thought it was great, but it is not a thill ride in my book--but the 65 mph turn was fabulous! I really liked how they stressed buckling seat/safety belts. I think any kid that wants to go on this ride should go. It is really great information and interesting to know what kinds of tests are done on cars. Even if you don't go on the ride, go into the Exit where they have cars to look at. I found DH in the GTO. He's pretty sure that he is going to buy that car. So, maybe I'm crazy, but Space Mountain is still my favorite ride at WDW!
We went over to Honey I Shrunk the Audience (3D) and really enjoyed that. Then we went on the Figment ride thing. It was really cute. DH and I were the ONLY ones on the ride and it was just great. It is a little silly and probably a lot of adults with out kids can skip this and not feel bad, but we had fun
We also took pictures of the jumping water and the dancing water drops. These are my very technical terms for the fountains outside of the 3D show.
It was already quite hot and humid, so we stopped at the Coke attraction. We had no idea what it was, but there were pops (sodas for all of you non Minnesotans) from all over the world to taste test. I'm not a Coke fan, but I was dying for a Coke after tasting some of those pop flavors. Yuk! We both agreed that Beverly was the most unpleasant of them all! It is fun though. The best part--it's air conditioned!
Right after exiting the Coke thing, the water fountain started it's very own show. It felt like it was just for us! Oh it was wonderful! We just stood there in awe and the water danced to the music. It was really magical. Even DH was finding magic everywhere by this point!
We missed quite a few things, but we headed over to the World Showcase anyway. Our first stop was Mexico and the river ride. I really like this short little ride. I remember making my parents wait in line for 25 minutes to go on this ride when I was 8 or 10. So, DH and I got our own little boat again and enjoyed the whole thing. No lines! Yea! As we toured the countries we stopped in the shops and talked to the CMs and had a great time.
When we got to Norway we went on Maelstrom (sp?) and that was fun. We did a self portrait in Morocco because no one was around to take our picture infront of the tiled fountain. And the rest of the countries are kind of a blur right now. But we did listen to a Beatles concert in the UK! I'll have to look at my pictures to remember some of the other things!
We then took the ferry to the Boardwalk and ate at the ESPN Club. The food was good, but neither of us liked the nachos. DH then found a great ESPN ballcap. He wanted something different and since we don't have an ESPN Club or Zone near us, this was *unique* in MN. We walked around and looked at Boardwalk, Swan & Dolphin, Yacht Club, and is there another resort over there??? Anyway, we really liked the Boardwalk Resort and we decided that if we ever have the funds we would probably stay there. We weren't at all impressed with S/D. It was just so plain. I'm sure it's a nice hotel and I know it's not Disney, but no. It was a nice beach/pool area, but I'd take POR anyday. YC was OK. I know it fits with the theme, but just too many pastels for us. They were all beautiful hotels, but Disney has something for everybody and I think they made POR with us in mind
After a nap (yes, we sleep a lot!) we went to MK for Wishes. Oh my goodness! That is fabulous! We sat all the way in back near the entrance and looked down Main Street. It was just amazing. I think we misses some of the effects that were off to the side of the castle, but overall our view was excellent! And our distance worked well for the camera too! We did get some great pics of the show, and then some funny ones, but I highly recommend this. I almost cried again. I think it has something to do with MK. The magic is just too much for me there!
After the show it was back to Downtown Disney and Disney Quest! So much fun! Most of the things inside were only OK for us (kids and gamers would have a great time) but the design your own rollercoaster was great! DH had no idea that we actually got to go into the simulator and ride our rollercoaster so he made it extra scary. I think it said that it would be too scary for 4 out of 5 guests to ride! Anyway, we got in line and he wasn't nervous until we got up to our capsule and there is a small TV outside where you can watch the people infront of you on their ride. He saw someone get lifted off their seat and he knew he was in for a real ride! We did a great job designing our rollercoaster with barrel rolls, upwards twists and spirals and even jumping across tracks! I thought it was great--it even challenged Space Mountain in my book, but DH was less than thrilled that he went on a simulated rollercoaster, but a rollercoaster none the less.
Thursday was our last day at the parks
and we went off to Animal Kingdom so that we could catch the cruise line shuttle from there. It was great to see the opening show and we got great pics! We went to have breakfast in Africa--Tuft's? Tuttles? Tufters? I have no idea what the restaurant was called, but it had great food! My sticky bun was also great from there later in the morning!
We then went off on the walking tour in Africa. (I am so bad with names right now!) It was the garden tour. That was nice. Very relaxing to walk at your own pace and just admire the scenery.
Next was the Lion King. See this show!! It is wonderful! It is so wonderful that I can't believe it's free! It was just fantastic! While researching Disney for this trip, I came across one post where a woman wrote down the Top 10 things to do at Disney, 4-1 were all "See the Lion King!" and now I know why. All the preformers are terrific. The music, the dancing, the stunts--everything is amazing! Don't miss this show. If you need another reason to see it, it is inside and you'll stay cool!
Right as we left the show, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto were all right outside and there weren't any lines for them yet! We got our picture taken with all of them! What fun!
We walked around and explored some more. This whole day is a blur because we were moving so fast! We went on the water rapids ride. That was good. DH wanted to go on that one We took another walking tour in Asia and got great pics of the animals there.
We didn't have much time left before the shuttle was taking off, so we went to the 3D show (surprise surprise) It's tough to be a bug. That was great. Next to Mickey's Philharmagic that was probably my favorite 3D show. Disney always finds a new way to get ya! Now I know why the bench seats are so shallow!!!
We stopped to by postcards and look at pins before heading off to port!
We have already decided that next time we go we will have a full week just for the parks, and then extended time just to relax and get over to Universal Studios and Sea World. DH is very excited about our next trip to WDW. Hopefully we'll get again within the next couple of years! Next year we're off to Paris (hopefully) maybe we'll fit in Disneyland while we're there!
Anyway, I have to get some work done today, so I'll write Part 2 about our Disney Wonder cruise tomorrow!!!
We were supposed to fly out of MSP to MCO on Sunday, 9/26, but after following Jeanne, I changed our flight to Saturday 9/25. We got to the airport only to find that MCO had already closed and our options were to fly into Tampa, by way of Detroit, and land at 10:45pm or fly into Jacksonville and arrive at 5:30.
We flew into Jacksonville because we were confident that Tampa would probably close by 10:45 and we didn't want to be stranded in Detroit. So we rented a car in Jacksonville and began our drive to Orlando around 6pm. I should really mention that car trips are not DH's and my favorite things to do. It was raining pretty hard off and on and there were a few strong wind gusts, but it was pretty OK. It was a little odd being one of the only cars driving into Orlando, though.
We arrived at the Celebration Hotel (Disney only had rooms avail for $500) around 8:30. The hotel was very nice and in a great area with little shops and eateries lining the streets. We would love to go back and spend a long weekend there, but then we realized that it was so close to Disney, that we probably would never take time to do it. Anyway, curfew began at 11pm Saturday thru 5pm Sunday. We stayed in our hotel that whole time. The staff was great and allowed us to stay in our hotel room until curfew ended (checkout was at 11am) and they had buffet meals instead of sit down meals to accommodate all of us who were feeling stranded.
We left Celebration at 5pm and drove over to POR to check in. I thought DH was going to turn around and leave when we walked into the lobby. There were kids and parents camped out all over the lobby floor doing arts & crafts and playing games. This was his biggest fear of our Disney HM--being surrounded by screaming kids with no place to go. So we checked in (I actually called POR twice, once Saturday after landing and once Sunday to confirm that we would be keeping our reservation and for them not to give away our room--I don't think they would actually do that, but I didn't want to take a chance)
We made it up to our room and relaxed a bit, hoping that when we went down for dinner it would be a little more calm. It was while we were in our room that we realized that curfew had been extended to 6am Monday and then we were thankful for not being arrested! Dinner was still quite busy and hectic and Boatwrights was closed, so we jumped in line and got our food to go. I don't mean to give the wrong impression, DH and I love kids and we knew we would see them in Disney, but DH was just worried that the rest of our vacation would be just like walking into the lobby on Sunday night. Luckily, it was nothing like that!
We woke up early Monday to see if the parks would open, the CM at checkin thought if they opened at all it would be in the afternoon. To our surprise, all 4 opened on time!!! We were off to the Magic Kingdom to start our WDW HM!!
We got to MK before opening so that we could see the character show. I actually started to cry. I was so happy to finally be there. I was thrilled. All of the magic overwhelmed me. I was seeing children just amazed at the gates of MK and all of a sudden my eyes were filled with tears. DH was in no way prepared for this and couldn't stop from laughing his "this is an awkward situation" laugh. Oh well. He said that next time he would be prepared to handle it
I hadn't been there in years, nor had DH so the second the gates opened I completely forgot my gameplan and we walked aimlessly around for 30 minutes just taking it all in. We ended up near Splash Mountain, so decided to jump on and use the rest of the day to dry off. Bummer! We made it through Briar Patch and the ride stopped. We we stuck with other logs bumbing up for about 10 minutes. Luckily they turned off the music after 5 minutes--DH probably would have lost it. We were evacuated out the back of the ride. I guess there were some technical difficulties and Big Thunger Mountain was down as well. So we walked a little bit more--still not looking at our plan or even a map--and eventually got to Space Mountain. This is my favorite ride!!! I really enjoyed every whipping turn. When we got off DH told me that he wasn't going on any more rides with me this trip. I guess it was a bit too much for him
The rest of the day we just walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere. Since MCO opened some time on Monday, the park was pretty empty and it was nice to wait no more than 5 minutes in line for anything! We both loved Mickey's Philharmagic. That is my favorite 3D show!! Pirates was fun. DH even indulged my inner child by walking through both Mickey and Minnie's houses with me
DH ended up having so much fun. It was hard for him to admit it the first day though. We went back to the hotel for a nap and then headed off to Downtown Disney. What a blast! We tried to get seating at Planet Hollywood, but it was 1 hour 45 min wait! Crazy! We went to McDonald's and then walked around with our shakes. I think we were still in awe of everything because we didn't do a whole lot, just looked and talked about what a good decision it was to fly in Saturday so that we could make use of Monday.
Tuesday we started off early at MGM--early opening for resort guests. DH kept his word and wouldn't go on anymore rides with me. I went on Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster by myself. ToT was good. I wouldn't go on it by myself again, but if someone wanted to ride it I would go enthusiastically. It just wasn't amazing to me. Rockin Rollercoaster started out really well. I love the speedy takeoff and loop, but after that it just seemed like a lot of S curves. It was a very smooth ride, so DH could have gone without worry. I think this is a great roller coaster for everybody. I still love Space Mountain and I think it's the most thrilling rollercoaster I've ever been on at WDW. We never made it to Star Tours, but I'll just have to save that for next time.
So, I was done with the rides and we went off to the attractions. We went on the backlot tour and DH got a few great pics. He really liked Indiana Jones. I've seen it before, but it's still a great show. Muppets 3D was good. Overall, the 3D shows were probably DH's favorite because we got to sit in air conditioning instead of being out in the 90% weather. We loved going to the Walt Disney show--One Man's Dream??? Walking through there was probably what really hit home with DH. We both thought that show was fascinating. We also went on the Great Movie Ride. The line for that was actually quite long and we were stuck 3 times watching snippets. It was a fine ride/show, but I thought it really got much better towards the end. I'm a sucker for the Wizard of Oz.
I thought MGM had a lot to offer. I had read posts before about only spending a half day there, but I found that we could have spent much more time. We only had 3 1/2 days to hit 4 parks, so we were on a time crunch!
We went back to the room and took a LONG nap before heading out to Epcot to look around a little before sitting down for Illuminations. What a wonderful show! I really love fireworks but they are even better when done to music--with a story! We were both so impressed at how amazing it was. DH was really in the Disney spirit by this time and he didn't stop taking pictures! We had a lot of pictures of Illuminations, a lot of which didn't turn out, but some that are just great. What a wonderful show! (I'm a little confused about the Illuminations cruises, though. It lookes like they just sit under the bridge?? I'm sure I'm not getting the whole story on that, so I'll have to do more research. Our seats were great--right between France and the UK. People on the bridge probably had the best view, but we were just a little lower infront of the bridge. Fantastic!
We went back out to dinner at Planet Hollywood after Illuminations. Actually, we took an unexpected detour. We got on the shuttle for Downtown Disney and the driveer told us there would be 2 stops, one at the Marketplace and one at West Side. We knew we wanted the West Side stop. As we entered Downtown Disney, he stopped at Marketplace and again stated that he would make another stop at West Side. A passenger started talking to him about Pleasure Island and then I stopped listening. Anyway, we stopped at Pleasure Island. We just stayed on the bus thinking that he would stop at West Side. Nope. Back on the road. So we thought, OK, we'll just go back to POR--thinking the bus was just making rounds between the 2 places. Well, we ended up at AKL! I convinced DH to get off the shuttle and look around the resort. What a wondeful resort! The theme is carried out so well. It's like you are completely enveloped. Awesome!! So, after taking a self guided tour, we were back on the bus to go out to eat--at 11:45!
Planet Hollywood was serving their full menu until 1am so DH was happy. We had great food and service. I've eaten at PH in other locations and was never impressed, but DH had never been. Excellent! Then we were tired so we went home--I mean back to POR.
Wednesday was another early day starting at Epcot with the early Magic hour for resort guests. But first, this was the sweetest moment of our entire trip and it happened on the shuttle to Epcot: A family was sitting behind us on the bus and one of their little boys, 4 yr old?, kept telling his dad how excited he was to go to "The Epcot" and he kept talking about how much fun it would be to go in "The Epcot." His enthusiasm was definitely contagious and soon many other kids were getting excited and the question "Are we there yet?" was asked with more frequency. Anyway, as we pulled up to Epcot the little boy proudly announced that he was going to go golfing inside "The Epcot Golfball!" It was so cute. His dad tried to tell him what Epcot was all about and his mom said sweetly, under her breath, "he is going to be so disappointed." Then his *older* sister wisely said, "We'll just have to find Mickey real soon so he forgets all about it!" I don't know what exactly it was about this experience, but DH and I still chuckle about it. It was just so cute!
Anyway, back to our trip! I went on Mission Space and Test Track right away. Again, staying true to his word, DH sat outside and patiently waited for me. I got on Mission Space immediately, but again there were technical difficulties so it took more than 20 minutes to get the ride over with. I WAS NOT impressed with Mission Space. Maybe I just read too many posts about how great it was and built it up too much, but I really thought it was blah. There were quite a few people that planned to go again right away and several that felt sick after, but I just didn't see what all the fuss was about. I jumped on Test Track hoping to be thrilled. To me, this ride was more of an attraction than a rollercoaster. I thought it was great, but it is not a thill ride in my book--but the 65 mph turn was fabulous! I really liked how they stressed buckling seat/safety belts. I think any kid that wants to go on this ride should go. It is really great information and interesting to know what kinds of tests are done on cars. Even if you don't go on the ride, go into the Exit where they have cars to look at. I found DH in the GTO. He's pretty sure that he is going to buy that car. So, maybe I'm crazy, but Space Mountain is still my favorite ride at WDW!
We went over to Honey I Shrunk the Audience (3D) and really enjoyed that. Then we went on the Figment ride thing. It was really cute. DH and I were the ONLY ones on the ride and it was just great. It is a little silly and probably a lot of adults with out kids can skip this and not feel bad, but we had fun
We also took pictures of the jumping water and the dancing water drops. These are my very technical terms for the fountains outside of the 3D show.
It was already quite hot and humid, so we stopped at the Coke attraction. We had no idea what it was, but there were pops (sodas for all of you non Minnesotans) from all over the world to taste test. I'm not a Coke fan, but I was dying for a Coke after tasting some of those pop flavors. Yuk! We both agreed that Beverly was the most unpleasant of them all! It is fun though. The best part--it's air conditioned!
Right after exiting the Coke thing, the water fountain started it's very own show. It felt like it was just for us! Oh it was wonderful! We just stood there in awe and the water danced to the music. It was really magical. Even DH was finding magic everywhere by this point!
We missed quite a few things, but we headed over to the World Showcase anyway. Our first stop was Mexico and the river ride. I really like this short little ride. I remember making my parents wait in line for 25 minutes to go on this ride when I was 8 or 10. So, DH and I got our own little boat again and enjoyed the whole thing. No lines! Yea! As we toured the countries we stopped in the shops and talked to the CMs and had a great time.
When we got to Norway we went on Maelstrom (sp?) and that was fun. We did a self portrait in Morocco because no one was around to take our picture infront of the tiled fountain. And the rest of the countries are kind of a blur right now. But we did listen to a Beatles concert in the UK! I'll have to look at my pictures to remember some of the other things!
We then took the ferry to the Boardwalk and ate at the ESPN Club. The food was good, but neither of us liked the nachos. DH then found a great ESPN ballcap. He wanted something different and since we don't have an ESPN Club or Zone near us, this was *unique* in MN. We walked around and looked at Boardwalk, Swan & Dolphin, Yacht Club, and is there another resort over there??? Anyway, we really liked the Boardwalk Resort and we decided that if we ever have the funds we would probably stay there. We weren't at all impressed with S/D. It was just so plain. I'm sure it's a nice hotel and I know it's not Disney, but no. It was a nice beach/pool area, but I'd take POR anyday. YC was OK. I know it fits with the theme, but just too many pastels for us. They were all beautiful hotels, but Disney has something for everybody and I think they made POR with us in mind
After a nap (yes, we sleep a lot!) we went to MK for Wishes. Oh my goodness! That is fabulous! We sat all the way in back near the entrance and looked down Main Street. It was just amazing. I think we misses some of the effects that were off to the side of the castle, but overall our view was excellent! And our distance worked well for the camera too! We did get some great pics of the show, and then some funny ones, but I highly recommend this. I almost cried again. I think it has something to do with MK. The magic is just too much for me there!
After the show it was back to Downtown Disney and Disney Quest! So much fun! Most of the things inside were only OK for us (kids and gamers would have a great time) but the design your own rollercoaster was great! DH had no idea that we actually got to go into the simulator and ride our rollercoaster so he made it extra scary. I think it said that it would be too scary for 4 out of 5 guests to ride! Anyway, we got in line and he wasn't nervous until we got up to our capsule and there is a small TV outside where you can watch the people infront of you on their ride. He saw someone get lifted off their seat and he knew he was in for a real ride! We did a great job designing our rollercoaster with barrel rolls, upwards twists and spirals and even jumping across tracks! I thought it was great--it even challenged Space Mountain in my book, but DH was less than thrilled that he went on a simulated rollercoaster, but a rollercoaster none the less.
Thursday was our last day at the parks
and we went off to Animal Kingdom so that we could catch the cruise line shuttle from there. It was great to see the opening show and we got great pics! We went to have breakfast in Africa--Tuft's? Tuttles? Tufters? I have no idea what the restaurant was called, but it had great food! My sticky bun was also great from there later in the morning!We then went off on the walking tour in Africa. (I am so bad with names right now!) It was the garden tour. That was nice. Very relaxing to walk at your own pace and just admire the scenery.
Next was the Lion King. See this show!! It is wonderful! It is so wonderful that I can't believe it's free! It was just fantastic! While researching Disney for this trip, I came across one post where a woman wrote down the Top 10 things to do at Disney, 4-1 were all "See the Lion King!" and now I know why. All the preformers are terrific. The music, the dancing, the stunts--everything is amazing! Don't miss this show. If you need another reason to see it, it is inside and you'll stay cool!
Right as we left the show, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto were all right outside and there weren't any lines for them yet! We got our picture taken with all of them! What fun!
We walked around and explored some more. This whole day is a blur because we were moving so fast! We went on the water rapids ride. That was good. DH wanted to go on that one
We took another walking tour in Asia and got great pics of the animals there.We didn't have much time left before the shuttle was taking off, so we went to the 3D show (surprise surprise) It's tough to be a bug. That was great. Next to Mickey's Philharmagic that was probably my favorite 3D show. Disney always finds a new way to get ya! Now I know why the bench seats are so shallow!!!
We stopped to by postcards and look at pins before heading off to port!
We have already decided that next time we go we will have a full week just for the parks, and then extended time just to relax and get over to Universal Studios and Sea World. DH is very excited about our next trip to WDW. Hopefully we'll get again within the next couple of years! Next year we're off to Paris (hopefully) maybe we'll fit in Disneyland while we're there!
Anyway, I have to get some work done today, so I'll write Part 2 about our Disney Wonder cruise tomorrow!!!
