Dax
Emma and Christopher's Mommy - Best job ever
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2000
- Messages
- 4,171
Well I waslucky enough to have the chance to go to WDW on a maingate with some friends. As usual, a great time had by all. Our main goal. All 4 parks, one day. Can we do it? Read on and see....
The Cast of characters...
ME: The WDW addicted writer.
DH: My hubby who also has a WDW addiction
Steph: A very good friend of ours
The Dude: (yes we call him this
) Stephs hubby.
The trip:
DH and I awoke early on Fri morning. I had to work till midnight the prior night, so I knew I wouldnt be getting a whole lot of sleep. I was awake at about 6:50am to get myself and my puppies prepared for the day ahead. We left the house about 8:15. A quick McDonalds run for some grub, and we had The Dude and Steph picked up by 9:10. We arrived at EPCOT parking at 9:35 or so. We parked in Journey, and walked to the front. We met Meryl, the wife of a CM who was assisting us in getting in. We made a quick run to Mission: Space, posted wait time at 10am, 15min. Not to shabby. We headed out as we were planning a trip to AK. We boarded a bus and were on our way.
We got to AK, and it was kinda crowded(compared to EPCOT). We did Its Tought to be a Bug first. Great with first timers and still fun for DH and I. After this we walked over to the safari with a 15min posted wait. It was a bit chilly today so we feared nothing would be out. We managed to see alot, including a rhino, who seemed like he was going to charge into us
.After the safari, we headed over to Dinosaur. Had a great ride. This pretty much wrapped up AK for us, and we still had 3 more parks to do and it was close to 1pm already. So we headed out to catch a bus to TTC. We just caught it and were on our way.
Once at MK, we got right in, and headed right to Tomorowland. Managed to get on the TTA, and had a leisurly ride. We grabbed a fast pass for a 2:40 return on Space Mountain, which means we had about 40 min to kill. We took a journey on the Carousel of Progress, which is always a delight, if not a bit dated.(Laser Discs? come on...)Once this was over we wandered over to the SM area, but there was about 10 mins to kill, so we sat off to the side, out of the way, and waited. This is when we witnesses an interesting altercation. It seemes as if a gentleman decided he wanted one of the nice X-mas hats(the one that is a X-mas tree and lights up). So he just took it. Well it didnt take long for a SM CM to round him up. We couldnt hear exactly what was being said, but from what we could gather, he was doing whatever he could to get out of it. Our FP for Space came up so all but Steph went. Had a wonderful fin ride. Also noticed that the TTA was stopped, and there were CM's escorting people off...wonder what happened. We exited Space, and joined up with Steph. Turns out the hat stealer also stole a pair of gloves. Security was now with the guy. He was trying to offer up money, as was his family who had now joined him. Security would have none of it. There was also a few supervisors hanging around too. We decided to leave before we saw the final result, but it sounded like they had called OPD in to escort him out. Way to go Disney. We continued on to HM, which had no wait due to the parade. Once we exited, the line had jumped to 20min wait . We tried to ride Pirates, but sadly it was closed due to a technical dificulty. So we decided to leave.
We went to the Grand Floridian to the fast food place and had a round of cheesesteaks(which are the best on property IMHO) and recharged. Next up was MGM. We got to MGM where I had some issues getting in due to a hand stamp issue. They finally let me in, but seemed pointless to argue as the park was closing in about an hour and a half. We headed right for the ToT. We all went in, but Steph did not ride as she has some back issues and was worried it would make it worse. There were only 3 elevators in operation tonight. Of course we picked the line that had only one..LOL. Had a great sequence, very surprising.
Steph told me that she was talking to the CM in the elevator, and she had mentioned to him that her friend(me) had to go to the bathroom. He told her not to worry, as all of the floors had a grated floor for easy cleanup..LOL. Friendly tip: Dont ride ToT when you have to pee...
. We moved on RaRC which was posted as 5 min. We had a great ride as always. We pretty much were done here, but we walked through an almost empty(everyone was at Fantasmic) park, to show The Dude and Steph the backlot DE-struction as I refer to it. We saw a CM walking around asking us if we were there for The Osbourne lights. I gave him my opinions, and we moved on. It was about 6:45, and we only had one park left. EPCOT. So we caught a boat and departed at Swan/Dolphin and walked to EPCOT.
We got into EPCOT and went to M:S. Posted wait time, 35min. FP were still avail, so we grabbed on with a return of 8:06..LOL..which was about 25 mins away. We played for a bit in the TT car area. I had a bad experience with the Dreamcather thing. TIP: Keep BOTH feet on the footrest at ALL times, or your seat wouldnt move. The CM was prety rude about it, so I got off. Told her I didnt need her GM commercial..
. We still had some time, so we went to the Advanced Training Lab at M:S and played the game there. Once this was over, it was time to ride . Steph sat out again. The Dude had never ridden, DH and I, only once. We were a bit nervous. I was assigend Navigator, DH was Pilot, and The Dude, commander. I noticed something about this ride, if you sit on the ends, in the Navigator or Engineer seats, you get a MUCH more intense ride. I have tried both middle and and seats and noticed the difference as did DH. He was on the end last time and said it was less intense this time, while I thought it was more so. Keep this in mind when riding. This ride has become my favorite ride. I just LOVE it. So did The Dude and DH! We met back up with Steph, and we had about half an hour or so till I:RoE. We walked around WS, starting in Mexico. We rode the lame boat ride, and moved on to Norway. Rode that ride too. We were going to see the movie in China, but reliezed if we did, we would miss I:RoE. So we passed. We kept walking until we got to Japan, where we stopped to watch the show. Brilliant as always, my DH loves the fire in the beginning. We still prefer the older show though, with the lasers.
We followed out the masses, continuing out tre around the now closed WS. We stopped in Canada to let most of the masses go ahead of us. We finally made it back to the car at 10:15pm, tired but happy.
Final Thoughts:
We managed to do 4 parks in one day. We missed some things, but we wernt trying to do it all. We had a great time. Its so much fun going to WDW with rookies. The decorations were great too. Only bad thing was the weather. Very chilly for FL standards. But fun was still had by all.
Let me know what you thought about my day. And if you have any questions, let me know. Thanks for sticking around!!
The Cast of characters...
ME: The WDW addicted writer.
DH: My hubby who also has a WDW addiction
Steph: A very good friend of ours
The Dude: (yes we call him this
) Stephs hubby.The trip:
DH and I awoke early on Fri morning. I had to work till midnight the prior night, so I knew I wouldnt be getting a whole lot of sleep. I was awake at about 6:50am to get myself and my puppies prepared for the day ahead. We left the house about 8:15. A quick McDonalds run for some grub, and we had The Dude and Steph picked up by 9:10. We arrived at EPCOT parking at 9:35 or so. We parked in Journey, and walked to the front. We met Meryl, the wife of a CM who was assisting us in getting in. We made a quick run to Mission: Space, posted wait time at 10am, 15min. Not to shabby. We headed out as we were planning a trip to AK. We boarded a bus and were on our way.
We got to AK, and it was kinda crowded(compared to EPCOT). We did Its Tought to be a Bug first. Great with first timers and still fun for DH and I. After this we walked over to the safari with a 15min posted wait. It was a bit chilly today so we feared nothing would be out. We managed to see alot, including a rhino, who seemed like he was going to charge into us
.After the safari, we headed over to Dinosaur. Had a great ride. This pretty much wrapped up AK for us, and we still had 3 more parks to do and it was close to 1pm already. So we headed out to catch a bus to TTC. We just caught it and were on our way.Once at MK, we got right in, and headed right to Tomorowland. Managed to get on the TTA, and had a leisurly ride. We grabbed a fast pass for a 2:40 return on Space Mountain, which means we had about 40 min to kill. We took a journey on the Carousel of Progress, which is always a delight, if not a bit dated.(Laser Discs? come on...)Once this was over we wandered over to the SM area, but there was about 10 mins to kill, so we sat off to the side, out of the way, and waited. This is when we witnesses an interesting altercation. It seemes as if a gentleman decided he wanted one of the nice X-mas hats(the one that is a X-mas tree and lights up). So he just took it. Well it didnt take long for a SM CM to round him up. We couldnt hear exactly what was being said, but from what we could gather, he was doing whatever he could to get out of it. Our FP for Space came up so all but Steph went. Had a wonderful fin ride. Also noticed that the TTA was stopped, and there were CM's escorting people off...wonder what happened. We exited Space, and joined up with Steph. Turns out the hat stealer also stole a pair of gloves. Security was now with the guy. He was trying to offer up money, as was his family who had now joined him. Security would have none of it. There was also a few supervisors hanging around too. We decided to leave before we saw the final result, but it sounded like they had called OPD in to escort him out. Way to go Disney. We continued on to HM, which had no wait due to the parade. Once we exited, the line had jumped to 20min wait
. We tried to ride Pirates, but sadly it was closed due to a technical dificulty. So we decided to leave.We went to the Grand Floridian to the fast food place and had a round of cheesesteaks(which are the best on property IMHO) and recharged. Next up was MGM. We got to MGM where I had some issues getting in due to a hand stamp issue. They finally let me in, but seemed pointless to argue as the park was closing in about an hour and a half. We headed right for the ToT. We all went in, but Steph did not ride as she has some back issues and was worried it would make it worse. There were only 3 elevators in operation tonight. Of course we picked the line that had only one..LOL. Had a great sequence, very surprising.
Steph told me that she was talking to the CM in the elevator, and she had mentioned to him that her friend(me) had to go to the bathroom. He told her not to worry, as all of the floors had a grated floor for easy cleanup..LOL. Friendly tip: Dont ride ToT when you have to pee... . We moved on RaRC which was posted as 5 min. We had a great ride as always. We pretty much were done here, but we walked through an almost empty(everyone was at Fantasmic) park, to show The Dude and Steph the backlot DE-struction as I refer to it. We saw a CM walking around asking us if we were there for The Osbourne lights. I gave him my opinions, and we moved on. It was about 6:45, and we only had one park left. EPCOT. So we caught a boat and departed at Swan/Dolphin and walked to EPCOT.We got into EPCOT and went to M:S. Posted wait time, 35min. FP were still avail, so we grabbed on with a return of 8:06..LOL..which was about 25 mins away. We played for a bit in the TT car area. I had a bad experience with the Dreamcather thing. TIP: Keep BOTH feet on the footrest at ALL times, or your seat wouldnt move. The CM was prety rude about it, so I got off. Told her I didnt need her GM commercial..
. We still had some time, so we went to the Advanced Training Lab at M:S and played the game there. Once this was over, it was time to ride . Steph sat out again. The Dude had never ridden, DH and I, only once. We were a bit nervous. I was assigend Navigator, DH was Pilot, and The Dude, commander. I noticed something about this ride, if you sit on the ends, in the Navigator or Engineer seats, you get a MUCH more intense ride. I have tried both middle and and seats and noticed the difference as did DH. He was on the end last time and said it was less intense this time, while I thought it was more so. Keep this in mind when riding. This ride has become my favorite ride. I just LOVE it. So did The Dude and DH! We met back up with Steph, and we had about half an hour or so till I:RoE. We walked around WS, starting in Mexico. We rode the lame boat ride, and moved on to Norway. Rode that ride too. We were going to see the movie in China, but reliezed if we did, we would miss I:RoE. So we passed. We kept walking until we got to Japan, where we stopped to watch the show. Brilliant as always, my DH loves the fire in the beginning. We still prefer the older show though, with the lasers.We followed out the masses, continuing out tre around the now closed WS. We stopped in Canada to let most of the masses go ahead of us. We finally made it back to the car at 10:15pm, tired but happy.
Final Thoughts:
We managed to do 4 parks in one day. We missed some things, but we wernt trying to do it all. We had a great time. Its so much fun going to WDW with rookies. The decorations were great too. Only bad thing was the weather. Very chilly for FL standards. But fun was still had by all.
Let me know what you thought about my day. And if you have any questions, let me know. Thanks for sticking around!!
