ADP Live From Disney World & Universal Too!

[tinkbutt]

tuning in for the TR

 

[aprince&princess]

Enjoy your trip; I love reading along. We just returned from Disney on Monday and really enjoyed Food & Wine and MNSSHP. We arrive again Christmas Eve and can't wait to be Home again.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

Are we there yet????

 

[crazydisneyman]

I bow to your superior skills as a live trip reporter. I am going to finfish the trip report that I started. (yikes) Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful time!

 

[ADP]

Saturday, Oct. 18th

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the kind words!

Sorry to keep you hanging, but we arrived at Pop Century around 3:00PM today and couldn't wait to get over to the Magic Kingdom.

Our flight on Southwest was pretty smooth. We managed to arrive 10 minutes early. Yahoooo!!! We got our luggage and headed straight for our car at Alamo. Since I'm part of their free Quick Silver program we went straight to a car and out of the garage with no wait.

We took State Route 417 South or the Green Way. One note to anyone coming to Orlando in the future. Make sure you have the exact change when using 417. When exiting off of Osceloa Parkway you must have .50 cents with you or you may have no choice but to run the toll booth. There is no attendent. You will get fined if you do, but if you don't have exact change you don't have much choice. Long story short, someone behind us had to lend us a dime. LOL! I know I heard this on the podcast, but did I learn....Noooo! Anyway, crisis averted.

Here are some photos of our arrival at the airport today.

Orlando Airport. We are here!

Welcome to Central Florida....Tram to main terminal

Our check-in at Pop Century went very smooth. No wait and check-in was very good. We have a nice room close to Classic Hall which is the main lobby, shopping and food court area for Pop Century. We are located in the 1950s building. There were no problems with our room. It was clean and ready for use when we arrived.

Here are some photos from our arrival at Pop Century today.

Larger than life decades!

Entrance to Classic Hall

I wanted to report on our arrival earler today, but Kim and Anna couldn't wait to head over to the Magic Kingdom. We also had a 6:25 ADR at the Crystal Palace.

We decided to take our car over to the MK since the line for the Magic Kingdom bus was long! Once we arrived at the MK I had to stop at Guest Services and pick-up our new annual passes for the year. I purchased them before the last price increase, but just needed to pick them up before we could enter the park. Since we are DVC members we get $100 off each AP. One of the best perks of being a DVC member.

Here's a shot of us getting ready to jump in line to catch the monorail

Upon entering the MK we noticed the wonderful decorations on Main St. They've really done a nice job of decorating Main St.for Halloween however, the rest of the park really isn't as well deocrated for the Fall. I'm sure it looks nice for the Halloween party, but the difference between Main St. and the rest of the park is night and day.

Here are a couple of photos of the decorations on Main St.

Main St. Train Station at night.

You know its kind of funny, but there were some Cast Members at the front of the Magic Kingdom awaiting our arrival today.

We headed back to Fantasyland as we all wanted to ride the Mad Tea Party. Nothing like getting spun into the ground right away. We then moved into Tomorrowland and rode TTA and caught a show of the Laugh Floor Comedy Club.

After we finished those attractions it was time for our ADR at the Crystal Palace. We checked in right at 6:25. We waited about 10 minutes before our names were called and we were seated. I find the food at the Crystal Palace to be the best food in the Magic Kingdom. Tonight was no exception. In fact, I had the best salmon I've ever had. What made it taste so good was the rub or flavor on the outside. It was very memorable. There were several variaties of food in the buffet so the selection was wonderful. They had a pumpkin cheesecake which was also very good. There's nothing like pumpkin in the Fall! our waiters name was Patrick. He did a great job and we never felt like he ignored us.

The character interaction was very good; however, all the characters came at one time. It was a character bum-rush! They were not spread out at all. Pooh, Tigger, Eyore, and Piglet all came within 10 minutes of each other. They did spend some time with us so it wasn't bad at all.

About my only complaint of our meal was the price. Although I thought everything was good, not great, but good, our total bill was $79 for 2 adults and 1 child. Disney has recently increased their food prices. I don't remember any buffet costing $30.99 per person before this trip. Our DDE (Tables of Wonderland) saved us 20% and the bill with the tip and tax came to $79.

Here are some photos from our meal at the Crystal Palace.

Restaurant Signage

Buffet area

Restaurant topiaries & decoration

After dinner we decided to head over to Adventureland and ride Pirates of the Caribbean. There was not wait. We jumped right on. The crowds at the Magic Kingdom were moderate today and tonight. I saw wait times range from 20 to 40 minutes. Really not bad at all.

We were able to catch Spectromagic and saw something we'd never noticed before. A hidden mickey at the top of one of the floats.

After Spectro we fastpassed Big Thunder Mountain and then walked over to Fantasyland and experienced Mickey's Philharmagic. Our final attraction for the evening was Buzz Lightyear. At that point we decided to leave. It was around 10:00PM and we need to get an early start tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow we are going to try and make it to Hollywood Studios before it opens at 9:00AM. We want to experience Toy Story Mania before the line builds to 2 hours LOL! We also plan on visiting EPCOT most of day. We have some eating and drinking to do around World Showcase as part of the Food & Wine Festival. After Illuminations tomorrow night we are headed back to Hollywood Studios for Evening Extra Magic Hours and hopefully another spin on Toy Story Mania. Who know, we may run into another DISer.

Our next update may not come until Monday morning since we will be out and about all day tomorrow.

More to come and thanks for following along!

Here are a few more photos from today.

The Liberty Square bridge was just refurbished and it recently opened to foot traffic

Here's a photo....Well, don't ask me why Kim wanted me in this photo, but she did....So I appeased her. A booth over at Liberty Square.

Up Next:
Hollywood Studios
EPCOT Food & Wine Festival
Hollywood Studios EMH

 

[ADP]

Great pre-trip report!

We are going to Orlando today too---about 10 hour drive. We have only been planning seriously since Monday. We are off-site except I cave-in to my obession and got CSR for Friday night so that we can enjoy some adult beverages in the parks.

Have a great trip! If you see us stop and say hi!

We have 2 monorail magnets from 2005 (one is active and the other is a spare). We play it often. Sorry, the magnet is no longer available.

I hope to bump into y'all---but, no Universal for us.

Hope to see you down here.

Have a great time! I am eager to hear about Blue Man Group, we have tickets for Christmas Eve.

I'll tell you as much as I can about Blue Man Group, but I doubt pictures are aloud in the theater. I'll take some outside of the show though.

We are along for the ride Aaron! Have a blast and take lots of pictures.

Will do. Thanks!

Yippee... another ADP report. I always enjoy your reports and pictures. I also love the poster of Anna flying into Orlando and the monorail magnet. I'm going to have to keep my eyes peeled. I'm heading to the world on Thursday so I'll also keep an eye out for you. Have a great time!!!

If you see us stop and say hi.

I am looking forward to reading more. I enjoyed your last TR and pictures. Have a great time!

Thanks and we will!

Hopping on board!!

Hey Sooze!

Are we there yet????

We are here! It's been a whirlwind since we've arrived! Since our time is somewhat limited here at the Mouse House we are trying to make the most of it. More to come!

I bow to your superior skills as a live trip reporter. I am going to finfish the trip report that I started. (yikes) Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful time!

Thanks Chris. Let us know if you want us to check anything out.

 

[tinkbutt]

what was goin on with the cast members??? I AM SO JEALOUS ADP!!!!!

 

[~Fisharefriends~]

what a very productive first day, you really managed to get a lot done.

 

[WaltD4Me]

Hey Aaron .... Great report so far! Good to see some pictures of you! I will know what you all look like now for DHS! (Aaron and I made plans to do a very mini-meet Sunday night at DHS) 10:15 at the FP machines for TSM...if you are there earlier, we plan on doing the Dance Party at Playhouse Disney before heading over to TSM.

Okay, it's 5:30am and I gotta go get in the shower. Hope it's warm there! It is just freezing here this morning!!!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

wow an ADP live report!!!

glad i made it in today..

but i HATE you Aaron....hate hate hate hate hate.....
did i mention that i hate you?????????????????
i seem to remember another live report of yours just recently...
i HATE HATE HATE all of you who live in the states and can go to WDW at the drop of a hat (rather than get on a plane and fly for hours and hours and hours and hours....then get on another plane and fly some more....and then do it all again in reverse...)....
i wish we lived closer to mickey and friends.....

oh well...at least there are wonderful people like aaron who take the time to write live reports (with pictures!!) so we can live vicariously ....

thanks for taking us along for the ride!!!

can't wait for your next update,....

 

[Launchpad11B]

Great trip report and pics Aaron. What's the temperature down there? As I sit here and read your trip report it's 30 degrees outside! Hope you guys have fun today.

 

[jennz]

 

[ADP]

Hey Aaron .... Great report so far! Good to see some pictures of you! I will know what you all look like now for DHS! (Aaron and I made plans to do a very mini-meet Sunday night at DHS) 10:15 at the FP machines for TSM...if you are there earlier, we plan on doing the Dance Party at Playhouse Disney before heading over to TSM.

Okay, it's 5:30am and I gotta go get in the shower. Hope it's warm there! It is just freezing here this morning!!!!!

Hey Lisa. See ya tonight. Have a safe trip down! It actually might get kind of chilly tonight so we maybe wearing jackets.

wow an ADP live report!!!

glad i made it in today..

but i HATE you Aaron....hate hate hate hate hate.....
did i mention that i hate you?????????????????
i seem to remember another live report of yours just recently...
i HATE HATE HATE all of you who live in the states and can go to WDW at the drop of a hat (rather than get on a plane and fly for hours and hours and hours and hours....then get on another plane and fly some more....and then do it all again in reverse...)....
i wish we lived closer to mickey and friends.....

oh well...at least there are wonderful people like aaron who take the time to write live reports (with pictures!!) so we can live vicariously ....

thanks for taking us along for the ride!!!

can't wait for your next update,....

I've never been hated so much. I understand. There are definately times we wished we lived closer to Orlando ourselves. Living in Indiana we still are 1000 miles away. Right now life's circumstances dictate us living in Indiana, but maybe someday we can move here.

Great trip report and pics Aaron. What's the temperature down there? As I sit here and read your trip report it's 30 degrees outside! Hope you guys have fun today.

The temps yesterday were wonderful. Last night was very comfortable for us. Today is supposed to be the coldest day and night of the week. We are taking jackets and sweaters with us as we head out the door. The high maybe only 78 degrees, but the low could be in the 50s tonight. The rest of the week looks great with highs in the low 80s and lows in the mid 60s.

 

[ADP]

Hi Everyone,

We are headed out the door for the Everything Pop food court. I'll grab some photos of the food court for the next update. It's a pretty neat place. We are going to grab some breakfast and head over to Hollywood Studios this morning. Our plan is to jump on Toy Story Mania first thing and, hopefully, grab some fast passes.

We are headed over to EPCOT for Food & Wine this afternoon and evening. We may stop and see today's Eat to the Beat concert; although I'm not a big fan of Spyro Gyra.

And finally back to Hollywood Studios for Evening Extra Magic Hours. A full day for sure.

I'll be back with another update with pictures tonight or first thing in the morning. If I can do an update sooner I will.

 

[disneyholic family]

have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1000 miles would be nice (when we lived in the detroit area we went down at least twice a year, sometimes more).....

i keep saying i'll retire to WDW....15 more years and i'll be there......

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I bet you're on Toy Story Mania right this minute! Can't wait to hear about your day!

 

[DVCsince02]

Yeah Aaron! Have a wonderful and safe trip. It's nice to see you in a picture or two.

Question: Does your wife think you are nuts after touring the parks all day and posting trip reports at night?

 

[MenashaCorp]

Color me SUBSCRIBED!!! Love the ADP TR. It's so unselfish of you, Aaron, to take time WHILE ON VACATION (and late at night) to share a glimpse of WDW with those of us currently stuck in flyover country (or overseas).


46 days till our next first-hand look....

 

[Launchpad11B]

Jason, are you going to mousefest and the podcast meet?

 

[MenashaCorp]

Yup. Susan and I will be there Dec 5-14, so the night of the 13th will be our last. Haven't registered for MF yet. This trip is about getting my Mom back to WDW for the 1st time in about 30 years, so we may/may not do a lot of MF events, but the DIS Saturday alligator rassle/amoeba snort/chicken&waffle supper is a definite!!