Disney '06: Blogs from my trip to Walt Disney World. Pics in the cam archive.
We stayed at the Boardwalk Villas as usual.
Monday, January 2nd
First, since I didn't blog yesterday, the party Friday. Was much fun. We watched video of last year and of the Christmas party where I sang to a stuffed bear. Was quite entertaining, especially when I started cracking up. Let's see, and we had sugar cookies and started watching... oh ya Space Balls but by then I was falling asleep. There was also snow wrestling outside at some point. I got pics of that in the came archive.So today, we woke up at 4am X( and got to the airport at around 5:45. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:45 and you shoulda seen the line to check the bags. We made it with 20 minutes to spare. My mom was still freaking though since everyone was already on the plane. And we were like, relax, they're not gonna leave 20 minutes early without us. Then she freaked out when we got there about the bags. Disney has the new magic express thing where they pick up your bags for you. So, course, she has to worry about this too. But we made it to our hotel just fine as did our bags.We tried making reservations at Prime Time for dinner tonight, but they were all booked up, so we made for tomorrow instead (note to self: 4:50) and decided to go to EPCOT today. First thing we do is eat because by this time it's like noon and none of us have eaten anything yet. We try the ESPN place, but these people inadvertently cut in front of us, so we decided to just eat at EPCOT. Yes I know my backup battery is low you stupid little computer that's because you ate it up like you always do! Seriously, third one this year.Anyway, we went to EPCOT and since England was closest, we ate there. My dad had a bad dining experience there once, so we avoided it in the past, but the food was actually really good.After lunch we went over to the American Adventure, listened to the peoples singing and then saw the show. My parents went back to the hotel to nap and to see if our room was ready. Theirs was when we checked in, so we just left all our stuff there.So the three of us, me, Carolyn and Rachi, ya, those are the peoples on the trip, probably shoulda said that earlier... we went to Norway to go on Maelstrom, me favoritest, but line was too long, so we decided was better left for another time. What's with the restaurant there??? It's like all Princess dining now. They had the best cheese there! And this yummy bread. I know, I get obsessive about food. Not so surprised though, the place hasn't been crowded at all the past couple of years.After Norway comes Mexico. We went on the ride and then headed over to Future World. Went on Universe of Energy, Spaceship Earth and then Mission Space because, surprisingly, no wait. Guess everyone FastPassed that and then went on Test Track which did have a 60 minute wait. That shall wait for another day as well.We came back to the hotel and unpacked our stuff. We were going to go swimming but decided it was getting too cold. We watched a little TV instead and then went out for dinner. Spoodles! Oh how I lerve my Spoodles. My next dog shall be named Spoodles. I had the steak. OMG, so goooood! I still have half left which will be my breakfast tomorrow.Oh, another thing we're mad about, the crepe thingy is gone! No more crepes on a stick! First they take away my smores, though no one else seems to know anything about Prime Time closing for refurbishment, so maybe they're not... but anyway, first maybe they take away my smores and now my crepes! What's a girl supposed to pig out on! OK, is getting late and we were up very early. Time to get ready for bed.
Tuesday, January 3rd
Today was so great! We went to MGM and headed to the back of the park to FastPass the Rockin' Roller Coaster. We then went on The Great Movie Ride. Got the gangster yet again. 50% chance and every time. After that we saw the new stunt show: Lights, Action, Motor Cars. Not really my thing, but was interesting.We then met up with my parents and had them hold our stuff while we went on The Rockin' Roller Coaster. When we got there we had to wait a while. People were actually leaving the FastPass line. Guess someone threw up or something, but we eventually got on and it was awesome as usual. When we got out I asked my parents where my sweatshirt was. Somehow they had lost it. We had to ask two people in the store before we found it.Then we decided to wait online for Tower of Terror. Was only 30 minutes. Ya, I don't like that ride much. The screaming's fun, but I just don't like the feeling of being dropped. After the ride was over Carolyn's like, what's that noise. It was me, shaking, lol. 'Least I didn't fly out of my seat this time. I hate that.Then we saw The Muppets. Loves dem, : P Specially the end of the preshow : D Best preshow ever. We went into the giftshop after and they had the new 50th anniversary CD. OMG they have like everything on there! Even from rides that are long gone like World of Motion and Horizons and they have old songs from The Tiki Room and Imagination : D I was so happy. Kinda expensive, $26, but I woulda speant $50, lol.Then, just when you think my day can't get any better, we went to Prime Time, no wait :O We had reservations, but usually they make you wait a good 15 minutes still, but nope. I only had half my dinner so I'd have room for dessert. We ordered two plates of s'mores : P Oh how I love my s'mores. I have dreams about, oh wait, I've said that already, but words really cannot express my love for those s'mores. I should spell it smores so it auto plugs for me : P Oh they were soooooo good. I had 10, lol. The marshmallows. I don't know how they do it. They're magic! It's the only explanation! Then we headed back to the hotel for some swimming and we actually swam this time. Alternated pool and hot tub. Carolyn lost her contacts : ( It was like 60 degrees out, but the hot tubs so hot we weren't cold at all when we got out. We came back to the room and all took showers. We may head out again and go to the karaoke place. Gotta get dressed.Later... We did go to the karaoke place. We got there around 8:30. After spending almost $30 on the teeniest bit of sushi we were informed that karaoke didn't start until 10. We waited. Then the karaoke lady comes over to us around 9:30 with the big book o' music and informs us we cannot sing after 11pm because we're not 21. OK, whatever, we weren't gonna stay that long anyway.Carolyn and I sung A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes and then I sung Part of Your World. By that time, I was shaking like a leaf. I don't get it, I didn't feel nervous, yet... You could hear it in my voice too. Maybe cause I haven't sung in front of people in so long. I should more often. Is good for me. Then Carolyn and I got up again and sang Barbie Girl just cause we thought it would be funny and it was. Wasn't shaking much during that. Song sucks anyway.Carolyn and I spent the rest of the night writing down lyrics to pirates and haunted mansion so she and rachi could memorize for tomorrow. And now we should probably go to bed...but practice the songs first. (carolyn wrote that last sentence)
Wednesday, January 4th
Started off our day at the Magic Kingdom. FastPassed Thunder Mountain and went on Haunted Mansion. Sign said 20 minutes, we waited about 10. No FastPass for that or Philharmagic today. We did that after Thunder Mountain.Then we headed over to Future World to FastPass Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, but it was closed for refurbishment, so we FastPassed Stitch's Great Escape instead. We ate lunch, went on The Carousel of Progress and back to Stitch. Then the Tomorrow Land Transit Authority thing and back over to Adventure Land for some Pirates : P We decided to head over to MGM to see the Christmas lights and Fantasmic. On our way out, they just started Cinderellabration. We watched for about two minutes when we decided it was quite lame and left. We took the ferry over to the transportation center and waited forever for a bus to MGM.We saw the pretty lights and Fantasmic and came back to the hotel for dinner. We got pizza with the intention of eating it outside while watching the fireworks from Illuminations. But we finished with 20 minutes to spare and were cold, so we decided to get ice cream and go back to the room.We soaked our feet in the jacuzzi for a while. Carolyn drowned the remote. Or so I was told. I was taking a shower when this happened. Hopefully it shall work once it's dried out. *shakes head*
Thursday, January 5th
We started off our day at the Animal Kingdom. FastPassed Dinosaur, though there wasn't much need since they seriously exaggerated that 30 minute wait by, oh, 30 minutes. Is very fun ride though, love that one. We had lunch at our usual. That Flaming Tree BBQ place. We FastPassed the safari thing and saw It's Tough to Be a Bug. Got a few good pics on the safari thing. Still think it's pretty lame. Why the bother with the whole story I do not know. You see animals, why can't they just leave it at that?Then we came back to our rooms, grabbed our jackets and went over to EPCOT. We were gonna go on Soarin', but the wait was like an hour and a half. Instead we went on Imagination, Test Track and Maelstrom. "Disappear! Disappear!" While waiting on line, we bumped into my parents. After watching the movie for the millionth time, that kid has got to be like in his 30s by now, we went into the store for a bit. Then we walked around and took pictures. Went into one of the stores in Italy and then headed over to Germany where we had reservations. We never ate there before and most likely will never eat there again. I wasn't impressed. I've had dining hall food that was almost as good. That's one thing I learned tonight, our dining hall likes to serve German food. Seriously, a good potion of that stuff I've seen in our dining hall before. Probably mostly on Octoberfest day : P After dinner, the three of us shopped around in Japan for a while and then we came back to the hotel. When we got in we were greeted by a huge spider. I went next-door to get my daddy, but he was taking a bath, so I made my mommy come and kill it instead. She comes in the room. This is what Carolyn said she heard from the bathroom, "tap tap, scream, 'die! die! die!' bang bang bang, vroom." Ya, my mommy got a mop from the closet and I told her to hit it really hard so she taps ever so lightly so the thing just falls to the ground. Then we're looking around for it and I see it moving and I yell, get it! get it! And she's like what? I don't see it! So I grab the mop from her and I give it three good whacks. We look to see if anything's moving and we don't. My mom gets the brilliant idea to use the vacuum cleaner. We couldn't figure out how to work it so now there's spider guts somewhere in the carpet. 'Least I hope so. I gotta sleep in this room tonight.
Friday, January 6th
Today we went to Universal Studios. We got there around 10:30 and soon learned some things had changed. Now, you can no longer buy a pass for just one park, you have to buy a pass for both Universal and Islands of Adventure. The price $70. Now, it's not that we didn't want to go to both parks, well, my parents didn't, but there's no way there's enough time to do everything. But, yeah, my parents are not roller coaster people nor are they sit in a car and shake you around people, so they weren't happy. They just spent the whole time at Universal. We weren't thrilled either. $70 is a lot more than we thought we were going to spend and we have roller coasters at Great Adventure.But there was nothing we could do about it so we just figured we'd make the best of it. We decided to eat first, but we passed Shrek 4D and there wasn't really any wait, so we did that. Then we decided to Express Pass (like FastPass) thingy the Mummy and go eat... change number two! The Express thingies are no longer free. That's right, not only do they force you to pay extra money for a park you don't even want to go to, now they want you to pay even more money for something you get for free in Disney World. Oh how we love Disney. At this point, we're really pissed off. The whole Express system really ruins everything. All the waits are longer because they don't like switch off between lines, take some here, take some there, no. All the express people just automatically are allowed on the ride before anyone else so the regular line moves ever so slowly. That's gotta be a nightmare in the summer.We waited 45 minutes for The Mummy. By the time we go to the end of the line we were starving. The ride was good though. I'll give 'em that. They make ya wait forever, stuff your stuff in lockers, but that ride is frelling cool. Finally, after that, we got to eat. Good lunch too. I stuffed my face and I was still hungry after, lol.Next we went on Earthquake. Then we headed over to Men in Black. We were waiting on line for about 2 minutes when a guy came over and said they were having technical difficulties. So we went on Back to the Future instead. 30 minute wait! You know the last time I waited that long for that ride? I think it was before I even saw the movie. Stupid Express thingy, grr. We get on the ride and we're all the way on the top right corner so we could see all the other cars. Totally destroys the illusion. They should put a divider up or something. I didn't even know there were that many watching the same screen. 24 cars and one giant screen. Never knew.Then we did go on Men and Black. That line crawled too. By the time we were done with that, it was 4:30. We were just going to go to Islands of Adventure, but ET only had a ten minute wait... or so we thought. They only had two people taking names for the passport thingies. That's so lame. You have to wait on line like 15 minutes so he could say your name. We also ended up way in front of my parents because everyone decided they were pushovers and cut in front of them. Those two gotta learn to be a little bit more aggressive.By the time we got out of there it was 5pm. By that time last year we had done everything in the park including the animal show and that stupid parade. Anyway, we then left for Islands of Adventure. As we were leaving, who should pop out of a car but Doc Brown! I was like :O Pretty good impersonator too. I got a picture : P By the time we got into the other park it was freezing and everyone had left. In less than two hours we were able to go on The Dueling Dragons, Spiderman and The Hulk twice. I went one with Rachi and then once with Carolyn who wasn't sure if she wanted to go on since it was so cold. Was much fun and by the time we left I was in a much better mood.We came back to the hotel and we all collapsed on the bed and took a nice little nap. 9:10 we left for the steak place at the Yacht Club where we made reservations. Was goooood, as always : D
Saturday, January 7th
Today was another non park day. We went to Disney Market Place and shopped around a little. We ate lunch at Captain Jack's. Good food, bad service. After we finished eating, we waited like 30 minutes for the waiter to come over and ask if we wanted dessert. Had a really good smoothie though. Still, lunch took longer than it should of.Then we shopped around a little more and went to see a movie. The theater's much nicer here and $2.50 cheaper than ours. We saw The Producers. Was almost as good as the show. They only skipped two songs I think. While in the movie my daddy called twice. He made reservations at Gulliver's for us and the rest of my family who all came down yesterday. We got there about 15 minutes late. They didn't have a free table over by them, so we sat a few tables away. Goofy and Pluto came over. I visited their table when Goofy was there. My two little cousins were so cute. One was all like, hey Goofy! And the other got a bit freaked out and made Goofy cry, lol.After dinner we went back to the room to get all pretty for Pleasure Island. We got there around 10 and had to walk from The Market Place cause the bus was having issues. We went to Motion since it was the only 18+ club you didn't need to be 21 to get into on Saturday. When we first got there, there was like no one there and we had our winter jackets on. After a very long search for the lockers, we put our stuff away and came back. Was a bit crowded by then. Carolyn was all, whee, let's dance. Rachi was like, owies my head. And I was like... I don't dance, I just wanted to dress up. Really I thought I'd be a little better, but no. Suddenly I felt like I was in high school again. Too many people, bad music, bleh. I had my best I'm not happy, don't talk to me, defense shield up and a guy still came up and talked to me. Not so easy to do either considering how loud it was in there. But Rachi saved me and we left soon after cause she was even more miserable than I was. Poor Rachi wasn't feeling good and the music and crowds didn't help. Boy was it crowded in there. Too many people, people scary *hides.*Low of 33 last night. Know what the low was in Jersey? 30. It's gonna be warmer the rest of the week though.
Sunday, January 8th
Carolyn drew a picture this morning and she showed it to me and I laughed. She says what? And I said, it's the scary bunny from Donnie Darko, right? And she goes, no. Then she looked at it and agreed it did look like him. Was funnier this morning. *shrugs* the picture's sitting next to me.We went to MGM again today. Went to Prime Time again which never closed by the way. Stupid site. We got two plates of smores for the three of us. I think the two guys sitting next to us thought we were insane cause we were talking about them the whole time. But they so good! They weren't as good as last time though. The chocolate wasn't melted all the way. Marshmallows weren't really either. Still quite yummy.Then we did Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster again. Did the backlot tour and Millionaire. Now we waitin' in the room to leave for EPCOT. We have reservations at 8:45 for the Japanese place.
Monday, January 9th
We went to EPCOT this mornin' for lunch and Soarin'! That's the new hang gliding over CA thing they got. Was very spiffy. No more singin' food though : ( They totally redid like all of The Land. Instead of all those little places to eat they just have one big cafeteria-like place. Food wasn't bad though and since I bought a salad made yesterday, was the cheapest meal I've had here so far. Less than $7 for a salad and strawberries and cream. The strawberries were sooooooo good.Then we saw Honey I Shunk the Audience and headed over to Inoventions. Saw the house of tomorrow thing again. Was pretty updated from last year. I want the entertainment system and that floating bed. Well, actually I want everything, but especially those two : P My parents were over at the Magic Kingdom, so we took the monorail over there. Went on It's a Small World and looked around inside the castle, but not in that order. Then we met up with my parents and saw The Hall of Presidents *rolls eyes.* I never manage to escape that one. Then we went on The Haunted Mansion again. We split up and the three of us went on Splash Mountain and Pirates.Then was dinner. We had a little too much fun playing with our food. We stuffed fries and ketchup and napkins into our water bottles and made the fries talk... we were laughing pretty hard. Guess you had to be there.Then we saw Spectromagic and Wishes. The highlight of the evening was the bus ride home though. Our bus driver was very entertaining. Was full of fun useless Disney trivia, lol.Right now we're watching this Broadway songs performed on Ed Sullivan thing we rented for free from the hotel. They had like actual movies, but this is the only thing we could all agree on that they had left, lol.
Tuesday, January 10th
We went to MGM yet again and went on the Tower of Terror for the third time this trip. Was hardly shaking this time. Still don't find it much fun, but not quite as scary. Had a very important job to do though. I was the carrier of one of the cards they use to get the wait times which was kinda weird cause we FastPassed it, but, ya. I guess they like to compare the standby wait with the FastPass wait? *shrugs* Ate lunch at one of the fast food type places with my parents. Saw the rest of my family for a few minutes before we headed off to Indiana Jones. On the way there we passed by Prime Time which was in fact, CLOSED FOR REFURBISHMENT. As well as Test Track btw.We couldn't believe it. It was like a half hour until the show started and the place was practically empty. After the 30 minutes it was only about half full, if that. We should always come down the second week in January from now on. Still didn't get picked as an extra though : ( Let's see, after that we saw the animation thing and spent waaaaay too long playing with the little interactive thingies after. They have a thing that does what Disney character you're most like, one where you color in characters and one where you do the voices for a few of 'em. That last one was our favorite. Certainly have gotten better since the days of the ones they used to have after The Monster Sound Show. I miss that show : ( Then we saw the One Man's Dream thing and headed over to The Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Reastaurant which happens to be one of my all time favorite restaurants in the world. We got there around 4pm, our reservations were for 4:20 for the *counts* 13 of us? Sat in two cars. The twins kept switching between the two. They're very cute. Abby was telling me I should eat my M&Ms, though I was trying to explain I was too full. I really was quite full. I had the Shrimp Penne Pasta (which I highly recommend if you go there) and their Happiest Celebration Cheesecake that came with caramel popcorn and the M&Ms. Was very good.After dinner, half the gang went back to the hotel and the other 8 of us were going to go on the backlot tour, but 'twas closed already, so the three of us went over to EPCOT and met up with the other 5 later. Actually we had to run to cat the bus cause Lissy made a little boo boo and went to the right instead of the left of where the buses were and we saw the EPCOT bus coming around the corner so we started walking faster so we'd make it. We get all the way down and I think, hey, where's the bus. I look back and it's on the other side. *slaps forehead* I didn't know there was another side. So we ran and we made it : D We went into MouseGear for a while and then Carolyn bought a sweatshirt outside. We went on the Norway ride again and then walked over to Japan where we spent the next two hours. Met up with my family again. My daddy paid for me and my cousin to do the Pick a Pearl thing. She got a big one, I gots two :O I can make earrings : P Then we sat around for a while and then watched Illuminations from upstairs by the restaurant. Good spot to watch.And now we're back at the hotel and I should back even though I really don't wanna. Bleh.
Wednesday, January 11th
On the plane ride home. Woke up at 8am, so I little bit sleepy. Left the hotel at around 9. Flight didn't leave until like 1:30. I bought a magazine, Wired, read though it already. Can't believe I gotta go back to school next week. As bad as my classes will be, the thought of dining hall food seems worse.
Home now. So depressing here. Florida was all bright and sunny, perfect temperature. Here it's dark and gloomy and cold : ( I wanna go back! I missed my puppies, but *sigh* home's so depressing
) Love the daily almost live reports - hopefully I can inspire my daughter to write one on our next trip.
