"A Coaster A Day"...Day 3:HS,MK updated 11/21

[mplsmom1]

Subtitles could be: "Rides, Rides, Rides" or "Disney with Men"

We were in the World 10/16 thru 10/20 and had just a fantastic family time.

Here's the cast of characters:

Me (Anne) - 45 yrs young and a Certified Disney Fanatic! Classic type A personality, borderline OCD on certain issues (purses, locked doors, whether all appliances are off), hopelessly addicted to that elixer of life (diet coke).
DH (Neil) - Also 45, Goes along gamely for the good of the family - but has his fun. Has a very dry sense of humor, usually an insomniac
DS1 (Nathaniel) - 18, senior in high school, serious yet funny (See DH), frugal, tending towards control freak (see me!)
DS2 (Clay) - 14, freshman in high school, fun-loving, peacemaker, social butterfly.

We've been lucky enough to go a few times with the kids, the last trip being 4 1/2 years ago. What was amazing is how little Clay remembered ...I would have thought as a 10 year old last time he would have retained a lot, but most everything seemed "new" to him or he didn't remember doing certain rides. Our first trip in '99 set the standard, it was all new to both my husband and I and it instantly became a touchstone for me as to the ulimate family experience. We had to go back in '01 due to the scariness of the world after 911, back in '04 because I missed it and this year I needed to escape from the reality of losing my best friend, my Mom, to cancer.

Upcoming - a reminder that Disney magic can be found where you might least expect it , likes and dislikes and reviews...but first.... day 1 finds us over on the "dark side"

 

[muppetkaties]

I am very familiar with the dark side! Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[mplsmom1]

I am very familiar with the dark side! Looking forward to hearing more.

Muppetkaties - thanks so much for putting down a comment! I'll be embellishing my intro and getting down to brass tacks soon! From re-reading my intro. I can tell that writing at nearly 11 PM isn't my strong suit

It's just been crazy busy since our return, currently I am just snatching a quick check at lunch here to see if I've gotten any 'bites'.

So ...thanks again... and stay tuned

 

[mplsmom1]

The Dark Side – Universal Studios

Ok – the first big compromise was at hand. After getting to the World, we were going to leave the World and tour Universal for the day. Arguments for: we have never been, the ‘children’ were clamoring that it was ‘cool’ and ‘amazing’ and their sense of ride adventure finally matched what I had read about the park rides (seriously – ITTBAB scared the ‘you-know-what’ out of my boys their first trip to Disney – picture a 9 yr old and 5 yr old white faced, huddled outside the tree of life crying and shaking, neither of them made it through it – not one of my finer memories of motherhood!) Arguments against: It’s not Disney (d’oh!) and by going Day 1 I would have to forgo my ADR at the Crystal Palace.

Kids win and the plans are set, 2 park-1 day passes are purchased ahead of time and will be picked up at an electronic kiosk at the park. Part of our allure is no driving on vacation, so I arrange for the Mears Shuttle to pick us up at 8 AM Thursday Oct. 16th from ASMo (thanks to fellow DIS’er Clkelley who so generously provided me with all the information on the Transportation board - the Dis ROCKS!).

We arrived around 11:30 PM the night previous, carry-on in hand with clothes for the next day. We stayed in room 2826 in Mighty Ducks – nice room, quiet location. We made the decision not to do a preferred room and it worked out just fine for us….we are all capable of walking distances, heck I have the smallest stride of them all. Alarm goes off, we’re up, through the shower, and out to the stop 10 mins. prior to 8 AM. A little angst if we are in the right spot, but the Mears bus pulls up promptly at 8 AM, takes our money, loads several of us off and heads out. A quick stop at ASMu and then direct to the park. We’re in right around park opening at 9 AM.

Boys have their thoughts and we enter Islands of Adventure and set off at a good clip for Dueling Dragons. This ride looks like it’s being re-engineered from part of the “Lost Continent” area into Harry Potter, so the pre-show is a little jumbled with a Harry Potter soundtrack and pirate-y skull and crossbones look throughout the castle. Hopefully they’ll correct that and have some moving staircases and the like. Walk right through and onto Ice – front row. The coaster is amazing – tons of fun and we get off and go right onto Fire. Consensus, we liked Ice better. Left the dragons and set off for Hulk.

Here’s where I start to dislike Universal – although there is practically no one on the main walkways and areas…the rest of the rides for the day have MAJOR lines. I was not going to buy Universal’s “Fast Pass” (essentially $26/per person for the day we were there – I’m sorry, that crosses the line towards extortion in my book and should not have been necessary given general overall crowd levels). Hulk (at 9:40 AM) had a 45 min. wait. We head to Spiderman (20 mins). We ride Spiderman and I HATE it. The 3D is too in-my-face and the ride is too jerky. Off to Hulk and a 50 min wait (which we do). This is a fun coaster!

After Hulk a couple things start to converge: we’ve had no food yet and it’s getting hot out. We decide we like the look of the Mytho’s restaurant and hoof it back thru Dr. Suess world (which I loved) to eat there. But – Mytho’s turned out to be a myth….at high noon there’s a lady in front stating they have “technical difficulties” and may be opening at 1:30 PM. We mention out loud – oh, we’ll come back for dinner and she tells us “we close at 4 PM”. WHAT?!? What kind of restaurant is only open for 2 ½ hours?!? BIZARRE. We hike off to Margaritaville and have a very nice lunch.

Up next – the rest of Universal and the most torturous ride of the day – the bus ride home

 

[mplsmom1]

After lunch (Neil and I each had the soup then split the cheeseburger slider plate, Nathaniel had the 'cheeseburger in paradise' and Clay had the chicken sandwich) we went out through the gift shop ('natch) and started shopping. Both boys wound up coming from different areas of the shop with the same shirt. That was a problem. Nathaniel won that skirmish and Clay consoled himself with another style of shirt. The clerk taught us a card trick he was so bored, which was cool.

Then we walk over to Universal and head over to the Simpson's ride. Ok, I am not a fan of the Simpson's ....so the "pre-show" with its endless TVs blasting away isn't my favorite. But the boys are captivated and before you know it I too am snickering along with the rest of them as the Simpson's have "the best vacation ever". We get to see most of the pre-show as the line is again really long (although I expected this as it is Universal's newest ride). And "Now, let us not speak of it again" is a phrase we'll use throughout the rest of our vacation. The staging area directly before going onto the ride is extremely clever and the actual ride is really fun! I really enjoyed this ride, all of us thought it was a hoot.

Off of Simpsons and over to MIB. Here's another thing that rubs me the wrong way ....the 'free' lockers. You have to queue up to get one, the location of the lockers is horrible for mid-day....and it's blistering hot waiting in line ( !) for a locker. Once up to the front, the sun is glaring so much on the computer screen it takes two of you to read it. Finally, the entire "rental" process is just not very intuitive. Fortunately they have a service man stationed right there and he's helping folks move along.

Souveniers stashed, we head over to the ride. Again, the preshow leaves something to be desired...the 'elevator' that opens up into a very small room and then continues to open and open with more and more folks. I am usually not claustrophobic, but the crowd is starting to irk me, especially since it's hot out ....everyone could use a fresh application of deodorant, myself included! We herd down the small corridor (the break room is cute) and up into the rest of the preshow. Sorry, the aliens on the console look a bit dated to me. We move fairly quickly from this point and get on the ride (my feet don't even touch!). The ride itself is fun and Nathaniel turns out to be the high scorer, which makes his day.

Back to those 'free' lockers and yet another queue. This line isn't moving and finally it's determined (this is difficult due to that pesky sun) that the computer has crashed. The service man starts rebooting and opening lockers after asking to see ID within the locker. That's just goofy, I'd never put my wallet in these....all we have are our purchased tshirts. By the time we get to the front of the line, the computer is back up (sort of) and the program is asking me for $2 to complete this transaction. Steam is starting to come out of my ears , the service man alertly notices this and comps my locker.

We are hot, hot, hot (it's about 3:30 PM) so we start looking for an ice cream store. I haven't committed the layout of this park to memory (as we'd never been before) so it takes us a while to find the ice cream shop. After ice cream we head out to Revenge of the Mummy. Not much of a wait (10 mins) and we all really like this ride too. By now, we're wearing down (not much sleep, long hot day) so we call Mears. It's around 4:30 and they state they can pick us up at 6:15 PM. That sounds good and we all start over back to Islands of Adventure to do a little shopping (I wanted to check out the Grinch clothing in Suess Landing). Most everyone is doing the same as Universal is shutting down for Halloween Night, so another queue to get into the park. We decide to ride "The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train ride". Let me digress a moment and state that Seuss Landing is by far my most favorite part of both parks. I love to read and I love Dr. Suess. The area is done to perfection and all the rides with the actual story on the wall just makes me smile. We had a great time as a family remininscing of all the Dr. Suess books we have read, including the "Six by Seuss" softcover book we literally read to pieces. And I loved the bookstore as well! End of digression. However, the Trolley train ride is broken, so we retreat out of there and onto the Cat in the Hat - which was very pleasantly enjoyable.

Then it's off to the bus....and the final thing that soured the Universal experience. We arrive to the bus area about 6:05 and the bus pulls up. Great we think. We however, don't leave until 6:30 and then it takes another 1 3/4 hours for us to return to our hotel. Seriously, I think we stop at every resort along the way and we are literally the last people off the bus at 8:15 PM. We have been on this bus for over 2 solid hours. PLUS, the bus driver is a maniac, one of those who hits the brakes, lurches from lane to lane, etc. etc. My husband is seriously ill by the time we get 'home', swallows 3 migrane excedrin and lays down for an hour. YUCK!

All in all, Universal didn't wow me over. I did like a lot of the rides - esp. DD, Simpsons and Mummy - but Neil isn't much of a ride person. I'm glad we went, I think the boys enjoyed the thrills and the experience, but next time I'll stick to Disney or perhaps try Seaworld if I venture again off property.

Next up - EPCOT. Guess Clay's favorite ride and hear about our awesome dinner!

 

[mplsmom1]

We slept in until 7:15 the next day and got up, ran everyone through the showers and out to the bus stop by 9:05 AM (an advantage of traveling with men....not a lot of primping time needed!). Being the first one showered, I ran over to the food court and picked up some breakfast for us all to share in the room - the 4 of us split a Mickey waffle and an adult breakfast plate.

Today is EPCOT and we are all pysch’ed as this is our favorite park! We decide our must dos are Soarin’ and Test Track and we move into the park to do both of them first. We get to Soarin’ so quickly the queue is only 15 minutes. so we decide to ride. Mixed reactions to the computer generated art along the way - I loved it, Neil thought it should be real pictures, the boys were somewhat indifferent. The line moves along and I think the advertised time was just about right and soon we are on the ride. I loved this ride, very enjoyable and my favorite part was smelling the orange grove.

Off to Test Track. That’s about a 35 min. wait, so we grab a FP for 40 minutes out and head over to the EPCOT ball....a/k/a Spaceship Earth. We know this is one of our favorite rides, but wow - we really liked the update! The computer ‘game’ at the end is very fun and we spend some time in the after-show admiring the visitor globe and racing some races. But it’s time to head to Test Track, so off we go.

Test Track was ok, not exactly thrilling and we decide to move on (at one point earlier in the day we thought of FP this again). But different things for different folks, as we are getting ready to board a family was finishing the ride and their 11 year old son is just whooping it up....”Sweet - let’s do that again”. This sort of stuff just melts my heart, it’s so astonishing to me that my boys are so grownup – “Again, again, again" used to be Clay’s thing to say when he loved something - where or where did that time go?

It’s about 11:45 so we move into the World Showcase. It’s getting hot and we’ll all starting to flag a bit. Some discussion as to what the plan was for lunch (Neil had thought sit-down, which ok ...we probably didn’t need an ADR: but I had planned nibbling around the Food/Wine kiosks ). We find some shaded seating and I convince him our dinner is going to be large, so we get to nibble.

The boys get hot dogs and chips from “Africa”. I have the Chicken Sha Cha ($3.50) and Neil has the Pork Pot Stickers ($3.50) both from China. Neil then selects the Durban Spiced chicken on a skewer from South Africa and follows that with a Regensburger Sausage with Saurkraut and a Beck’s Oktoberfest from Germany. I of course get to share bites and slurps of all. By this time we are close to the American Experience - something we’ve never done and I’ve decided we are going to do this year. So we go in and are just in time to hear the American singers (amazing) and watch the show (interesting and yes, I do put the MN connotation on that word!). When we get out we reconvene and decide it’s time for a nap break.

Off to ASMo! Here’s my major quibble with Disney - everything and I mean everything is much too loud! My ears hurt....and I tell the boys no TV, no lights... a total recharge. We arrive at the room at 2:20 and by 2:40 all three ‘boys’ are fast asleep. 3:30 I wake everyone up and we troop back out to EPCOT and to our ADR at Teppan Edo......

 

[EPRV We love Disney]

Hi!

I've followed you from the darkside! I first read your US/IOA portion on their boards and decided to take a look at the rest of your trip.

Loved your day at Epcot and would like to hear more!

 

[mplsmom1]

Thanks so much for coming over EPRV! I hope to get another update done very soon!!

 

[mplsmom1]

Off to the bus stop. This is another funny observation - I am a TOTALLY impatient person for most everything , yet waiting for Disney transportation doesn’t faze me in the least. Whereas, the rest of my family goes NUTS! Nathaniel in particular, I just laugh, he could be a Disney exec - picture him: clipboard in hand, blackberry to ear, bawling out the transportation supervisors - “ok that’s 2 buses for All Star Sports - no one is even in line - where is the bus for these poor All Star Movies folks”? I think the reason I’m so calm is because in real life I bus for a commute - I go to a large park and ride and there is always a bus coming - every 10-20 minutes or so. I’m just conditioned to know one is just around the corner. There’s a book we used to read when the kids were small that had a line repeated over and over in it “Is this the bus for us?” so I usually bring that up when buses are starting to turn into the area. But at 18 and 14 they are so just tolerating Mom on that!

Anyway - no problems, we’re on the bus and into World Showcase by about 4:15 PM. Loiter around looking at entertainment going on - we watch the Servant Amusant for a while, they are pretty good! But time to get moving for our ADR. We pass the belly dancer in front of Morocco - interesting reactions from my crew. Nathaniel is still charging ahead (mustn’t be late), Clay is walking but his head is definitely swivelled back and he’s slowing down, Neil of course is moving at a crawl.... But we make it to Teppan Edo and 5 mins later we’re headed into our meal. We’re seated with a family that has small children, they are nice but not really into conversation - which is really too bad as living with 3 men – I’m ready for conversation! But the chef and his helpers are entertaining and the food is actually way better than we remembered, so again two thumbs up from all. Clay and Nathaniel even try using chopsticks - without resorting to cheating (they will put roll up your straw paper, stick it between the two chopsticks and rubber band it together at the end of them if you ask).

Tummies are full, but we must get ice cream (Clay’s idea of vacation is to have ice cream every day ....who am I to deny that!). So we tramp all the way back to Edy’s ice cream by Club cool in Future World and have some dessert. Off to re-do Space Ship Earth and this time we send postcards in the aftershow and play the energy game - old folks against the teenagers. Teenagers off course supply more energy - they make a city as large as NYC, whereas we were slightly smaller. All had fun and we wander off to the Land to go through “Living with the Land”. In my secret heart of hearts I’m such an earth person – too bad I have trouble with execution: my garden this year consisted of 3 sad looking tomato plants . But there is always next year!

It's getting to be 8:30 and we head over to World Showcase to view Illuminations. Neil decides he needs refreshment and stands in the Longest line at McDonalds for a Diet Coke. The boys are getting anxious for just the right spot. We wander around and end up around Canada - we have a good view and we enjoy the show very much. We’re trying to decide if we should brave the crowd or wait a bit to go home, so we decide to do Ellen’s Universe of Energy prior to going home. The show was having technical difficulties so we wind up in the back of the crowd generating some mild teenage angst. And yes, we do wait a bit longer than at least 2 of us want to but we get on a bus and get underway. My complaint is that we’re sharing the bus with a Brazilian tour group - and yes folks they are as advertised – VERY LOUD. Since I’m grumpy about the general decibel level in the parks, this doesn’t make me too happy - but it’s a relatively short trip and we are back at home and in the quiet comfort of our room. All’s well that ends well.

Tomorrow’s events have us off to HS and MK. This will be the day we experience the unexpected Disney magic (a clue - Mom starts out impatient) and a couple of ride disappointments. Please stay tuned! (And comment - I’d love to get your comments!)

 

[MEK]

I Love your trip report. Sounds like you had a blast. Your boys sound very nice. My sons are 15 and 14. DS 14 is still fun to take and very appreciative of everything, but DS 15 is a pain in the a--. He thinks everything is boring. Poor, deprived kid. That's what happens when you go to the world every year and you're a spoiled teenager. We let him bring a friend this past summer and that kept him entertained.

 

[mplsmom1]

I Love your trip report. Sounds like you had a blast. Your boys sound very nice. My sons are 15 and 14. DS 14 is still fun to take and very appreciative of everything, but DS 15 is a pain in the a--. He thinks everything is boring. Poor, deprived kid. That's what happens when you go to the world every year and you're a spoiled teenager. We let him bring a friend this past summer and that kept him entertained.

Thanks for commenting MEK! We really did have fun and thank you for the compliment on the boys. Mostly they are good kids and they made a real effort to be good sports on this trip -- but of course we also tailored the trip to their tastes as well (not one show other than Illuminations and Wishes did we see).

I know what you mean about the poor spoiled factor as well.....my kids always say "if we were rich we could do so-and-so"........to which I always reply...."baby you don't know how good you have it!" And I bet your major pain is a pretty great kid - it's been my experience that the guys "save it for mom" when it comes to the grump and whine dept.

Off to do ! Thanks again for your comments...hope to update soon

 

[EPRV We love Disney]

Hi! Great update!

I loooooved Epcot. Oh yeah, my family did too!
We got a visit from the Dream Team as we were getting off of Living with the Land. We got Fast Passes for use at Epcot that day!! So, now it's my fav ride!

I'm enjoying your trippie.

 

[mplsmom1]

Hi! Great update!

I loooooved Epcot. Oh yeah, my family did too!
We got a visit from the Dream Team as we were getting off of Living with the Land. We got Fast Passes for use at Epcot that day!! So, now it's my fav ride!

I'm enjoying your trippie.

WOW - Getting a fast pass for all of EPCOT - that would be awesome! Thanks for following along...it's been super crazy busy, hope to get back at it this weekend!

 

[mplsmom1]

Day Three - HS, MK & Some Disney magic!

Saturday’s plans have us hopping around. Due to the fact we were cramming in 4 parks, Disney Quest and Universal Studios/Island of Adventure into 4 ½ days - something was going to have to give. We decided it wasn’t going to be a park, we wanted to go to all of them - so we had to start narrowing down which park when. I knew that due to the boys not really being into shows we could narrow HS down to ½ a day. Throw in the complication of TSM being both a ride I really wanted to go on and a really, really popular ride and HS ½ day needed to be with some Early Morning Magic.

So - up we are again relatively in quick order and we are at the park entrance at 8:10 AM. We start bee-lining to TSM – along with a smallish crowd. We round the corner into the Pixter studios area (very nice updates) and encounter the line for fastpass. Nathaniel hops in 1 line I hop in the other and we ‘race’ to see who is first. Nathaniel wins. We grab fastpasses (9:30 AM return time) and head off to Rockin Rollercoaster. Must start the day with a coaster!

We love this rollercoaster – although we have memories of being stuck on it right at the point of takeoff - Clay had to use the restroom and Neil had put his lap bar on way too tight - so we’re all a little nervous that this doesn’t occur again. We essentially walk on and the ride is great. This coaster is SO smooth - I love it. We dump out into the gift shop and again Clay and Nathaniel pick out the same shirt from separate areas of the store. Clay wins this round and when we are purchasing it the CM volunteers to send it off to our resort for us. Sweet! I didn’t want to haul it around so I fill out the paperwork (with apologies to the lady in line behind us, she I’m sure didn’t appreciate the extra wait) and we are on our way once more.

We ride TOT next and again we all enjoy this ride. By this time it’s just about 9:30 AM and we mosey on over to TSM and fasspass on (technically a minute early). This ride was a HUGE hit - my only nit would be I wish I could see the rest of our group - perhaps we would be in two separate cars instead of all in 1 car?! We even got some bonus target practice (all points went to zero but we continued to shoot). I think they must have been loading someone with extra assistance. We didn’t care - we had a blast. Of course Nathaniel and Clay came out with the best scores and Neil beat me so all the men were happy. We checked when we got done - standby was 60 minutes and fastpasses were already into late afternoon, so no more TSM for us.

We head over to Starring Rolls and grab some breakfast. Neil, Clay and myself all have the chocolate croissants and some juice - YUM. Nathaniel takes shares some of both Clay and mine We decide to head over to the Great Movie Ride and encounter the largest line of the day. It probably was a 40 min. wait....I wouldn’t wait that long again. The ride is fun, just not great.

We then trek over to Sounds Dangerous - an attraction Nathaniel remembered from last trip and find that it’s only open in the afternoon. What?!? We were very disappointed. We head over to Muppet Vision 3-D (another favorite) and get there 1 minute until the ‘performance’. Perfect! On the way back we see little guys (and gals) in front of Star Tours practicing to be Jedi - so cute. I later learned my 6 year old nephew got picked to try that when they went to WDW this past August.

We decide it’s back to ASMo for lunch at the food court to be followed by a nap then MK. Here’s where we encounter the unexpected Disney Magic. We get to the food court and it’s deserted (everyone is at the park!). GREAT. We’re hungry and tired. My kids love the food court, they think it’s a great place to eat. Obviously, they are not foodies in any sense of the word. So - anyway we get our food and head to checkout.

Now - confession time. I am probably the world’s most impatient person...it’s terrible. There are 3 ladies working and I get in the ‘shortest’ line. There’s a couple in front of me and all they have is a stack of cookies (This is a clue that I should have and didn’t pick up on, I bet all you DIS’ers know where this is going ). They also seem to have a pile of Keys to the Kingdom cards and they spend HOURS (ok - 4 minutes) going through all of these cards. I’m so frustrated - it’s like sitting at a red traffic light that turns green, only you can’t move an inch because there is too much traffic and the light turns red again. Steam is literally just about pouring out of my ears. It’s so bad, Nathaniel is standing in front of me (back to the people/cashier) mouthing “It’s ok Mom - Calm Down”. Again - so not my finest moment! FINALLY - they are done and we move in. Then the couple doubles back and starts saying “anyone need meals”, “Meals anyone”??

It clicked! I said, excuse me - and they explained they had the dining plan, that they are leaving for home in 10 minutes and had meals left on their card. The cashier asked are you people on the dining plan - we said no and this unknown couple “bought” our lunch. Was I humbled! And grateful!! A huge belated thank you to these two - what a magical experience! I wish I could say it’s cured my impatience, but sadly I’ve had several relapses since I have been home.

Next it's a rest then off to MK and one of my must do of this trip - Wishes.
Do you think it turned out well?

 

[mplsmom1]

After a rest, we were off to MK! I confess there is just something about MK - I love all the rest of Disney but for me, being at MK is the very best feeling in the whole world. Something about stepping onto Main Street just bathes me in a warm nostalgic glow . And today - what a Main Street! The thing I really noticed about the World this time is how interactive the cast was with everyone. Each morning cast members would be standing out waving with big Mickey Mouse hands and now in mid-afternoon cast members all down Main Street were twirling jump ropes as kids jumped in and out. There must have been at least 12 stations as well as kids with hula hoops etc. It was so fun!

We decided our big item was going to be Space Mountain so we headed off to Tomorrowland First. We got our FastPasses - I want to say we got there about 4 PM and our fast pass was for 7:30 PM, the memory is a little fuzzy. We then headed over to Monsters Laugh Floor and the ‘show’ was starting in 3 minutes, so we went in. This was new for us and we enjoyed it, some good chuckles. When we came out of the Laugh Floor it had started to rain. It hadn’t rained too hard or long so it really never interfered with what we were doing. We then went to one of our favorites - COP. This however wasn’t the enjoyable ride we remembered due to 2 things - the first being an obnoxious man who TALKED on his cell phone through the entire first section of the show, then we got stuck at the end and listened to the last section twice! After COP we then did one of our other favorites - the Transit Authority. There were quite a few people in Tomorrowland at this time, we actually had a bit of a queue to get on. In the section that goes through Space Mtn we got a surprise! The ride was ‘down’ and all the lights were blazing. It was really something to see the actual coaster! We speculated whether or not it would be up in time for our slot.

After Transit, we decided we had time for an ice cream break before Space and we walked over by the Plaza Restaurant and got Ice Cream. We all had waffle cone sundaes and boy were they good. Back to Tomorrowland, a stop to pick up Buzz Lightyear Fast passes and onto Space. It was up and running and we had a great time. Off of Space and onto Buzz - again a great time had by all.

We decide to walk over to Haunted Mansion and experience this before Wishes. We did but had a hard time noticing the updates to the ride. Still, a ton of fun. Back to Tomorrowland and Buzz once again. We then decide to find a place for Wishes. We had seen Wishes before and remembered the beautiful fireworks and Tinkerbell flying. It was one of the top things I wanted to do....so do you think I took the time to research the best place to watch?!? No - I went on memory and we stood on the bridge from Tomorrowland to the castle - and of course we were WAY too close. The trees blocked most of our view, it was beyond loud and to top it all off, Tinkerbell did not fly. Bummer. But, it was a wonderful day. We headed for the exits, enjoying the SpectroMagic parade as we walked along. We would be back again in the morning before heading over to DD and DisneyQuest

 

[manchurianbrownbear]

I'm enjoying your report very much! We're also from MN (New Hope) and also extended MEA a few days to get in a 4-day DCL cruise and three days at WDW (10/16 - 10/19). We were at Epcot with you for a few hours Friday evening!

I have a trip report somewhere here, but my writing skills didn't attract a lot of replies and it dropped like a rock!

I'm looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[mplsmom1]

I'm enjoying your report very much! We're also from MN (New Hope) and also extended MEA a few days to get in a 4-day DCL cruise and three days at WDW (10/16 - 10/19). We were at Epcot with you for a few hours Friday evening!

I have a trip report somewhere here, but my writing skills didn't attract a lot of replies and it dropped like a rock!

I'm looking forward to the rest of your report!

It's hard to get any hits at all on these lists I find - I'm going to search out your trip report - I hope you had a fantastic time! I know we did