KickTheSky
Resident Coaster Enthusiast
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2003
- Messages
- 82
WDW 8/27 - 9/4 All Star Music - No Kids
This trip is a cast of two. Just me and my wife for a week at the Happiest Place on Earth. My son is so anti-Disney that I decided to not even fight my ex-wife for the vacation time for him to go. He's at that age where everything "sucks". My daughter just turned eighteen and she wanted to get a good start to her final year of high school. So it was just the wife and I.
Of the three visits I have taken to Disney with my wife, this was definately the most planned. We got one of those Passporter guides and meticulously planned where we were going on what day. We called ahead and got reservations for all of our table meals. Of course, you know what they say about best laid plans...
We booked our trip with the special going on for the free dining plan. We booked at All Star Music to save some money. We got the park hopper plus for the entire length of our stay. We also booked our airline through Northwest so we could take advantage of the Magical Express with luggage delivery.
We arrived in Orlando at around noon on Sunday. I was happily bouncing down the escalators to the Disney Welcome Center. I was disheartened, however, to see a huge line when I got there. That line moved VERY quickly, however, and we were soon on our bus to the All Star Resorts.
We got to the All-Star Resorts and were the second resort to be dropped off. Check in was very quick and efficient. Despite the fact that it was one o-clock, we still had a room.
We quickly dropped off our carry on bags and got some lunch at the food court. I had a craving for the chicken strips so that is what I got. There was a bit of confusion as to what is considered a dessert and what is considered a snack. Everything that is covered by the Disney Dining Plan had the little logo for the plan, but there was no real diferentiation between what was considered a snack item and what was consdiered a dessert for a counter service meal.
After lunch we headed out to Downtown Disney. We had reservations at Fultons that evening so we figured we would do some browsing before dinner.
Of course, our first stop was the Wonderful World of Disney store. I was struck at how empty my wallet would have been if my daughter would have been with us. It seemed that everything there was centered on the Disney princesses, with even a make over studio (the Bibbidy Bopity Botique), and several full sections of merchandise just for girls. On the other hand there was a pirate display for the boys and it was weak at best. I found quite a bit during our vacation that everything was being marketed to the girls. If I was a little boy visiting the park I would probably feel left out. Even most shows picked girls to go on stage rather than boys.
I stopped in at the Lego store (one cool boy thing
) and was happy to see that the store seemed to be bigger than my last visit. There were a few things I definately considered having shipped home, but my wife put the veto on them
Dinner was at Fultons. Since two of our table service dinners were being taken up by dinners that included shows we paid for dinner at Fultons. Dinner cost about fifty bucks a person. My wife is a vegitarian and had indicated as such when she made all the dinner reservations. A chef came out to talk to her before we ordered and made something special for her to eat (a wild mushroom pasta dish). I had the Alaska King Crab claws. It was very delicious. The restaurant itself was very beautiful. The seats we had overlooked the lagoon. We had a wonderful view of Illuminations over at Epcot from where we were sitting.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and to get ready for our first day at the parks.
8/28
Animal Kingdom had early magic hours so we planned on hitting the park for the first part of the day and then heading over to MGM for dinner reservations at Brown Derby.
This was also our first run in with problems in the Disney Transportation System, something that would plague us throughout our vacation. Our previous stay on property was at Caribbean Beach and we had NO problems with transportation. The fact that we had to walk to our building instead of being dropped off at our building already grated on us, but we dismissed it as being part of being at a cheaper resort. Anyways, for this trip we waited an hour for a bus and because they loaded two wheelchairs on the bus they decided to move everyone over to another bus they brought in. Well, this bus had already stopped at Sports, so it was already pretty full. They jammed what few people they could on it and meanwhile the other bus left with only the two parties with the wheelchairs. Finally we got a bus, but it was nearly full as well so we ended up standing. Needless to say we made it to Animal Kingdom well after the Magic Hour was over.
Upon entering the park we headed straight for Everest and got a fast pass. After that we ran over and did the safari. We've done this every time we have visited the park. My wife loves it but I am finding that the attraction is losing it's appeal more and more every time we do it. There also weren't a lot of animals out or awake when we went which took away from the ride.
We ran back over to Everest and rode that using our fastpasses. Wow! What a ride. I am a coaster enthusiast and love thrilling rides. While this ride wasn't thrilling per se, it was one of the best coasters I have ever ridden (over 150 to date). The reason is theming. I am almost ashamed that we missed a lot of the queue themeing by doing fastpass. The yeti at the end was breathtaking. I am glad it wasn't on their "B" program. The full range of motion makes this beast very very scary.
Next up was Kali River Rapids. It was an EXTREMELY hot and humid day and we both needed to cool off. We jumped in line, expecting the posted 30 minute standby wait. Instead we waited for well over an hour. The ride itself was disappointing. It was a lot like the one out at California Adventure. You really don't get wet on the ride unless you are lucky enough to be in the right spot for the drop. There are no other points during the ride where water will enter the ride vehicle. I've been on a lot of raft rides like this where you get wet practically throughout the entire ride (Busch Gardens Tampa being one of the best).
After disembarking from a disappointingly short ride we stopped off at the closest restrooms and found a fountain area near the bathroom. If I would have know the wait was so long and the ride was so disappointing, I would have just hit the fountain to cool off instead.
We headed off to find a place to eat for lunch. Finding something to eat at Animal Kingdom is pretty difficult. We settled on counter service at Flametree Barbeque. I'm sure the food was good, but I found myself getting extremely ill and had to rush to a restroom to throw up. I knew right away that the heat had gotten to me and that I wasn't drinking enough water. So, I ended up tossing my entire lunch away and my wife and I headed back to the hotel. After an hour and a half of waiting on a bus and the actual trip to the hotel, I was in my room and lying down.
My wife and I both napped right up until it was time to leave for MGM Studios. It was extra magic hours so the bus line for the resort was packed. Still, we got there a little earlier than we expected and we got to catch the beginning of the parade. I am a HUGE fan of Cars, so I was really excited to see Lighning McQueen and Mater leading off the parade! After they passed, we headed into the Brown Derby for our dinner.
Brown Derby was two dining credits as we were doing Fantasmic! with dinner. Looking back, I probably would have eaten somewhere else and then gone in to Fantasmic the normal way. The Brown Derby is very expensive, however, if you do dine there normally. This is gormet faire, so portions are small. I got filet mignon and it was very small, with a circle of potatoes underneath it. My wife got some sort of pasta as she cannot eat meat. The staff was very friendly and attentive. The ambiance was nice. The theming was emersive enough that you almost think you are in Hollywood in say, the 1950s, dining with the stars. In fact, I was reading the menu about how the stars interacted in the orginal Brown Derby and I thought to myself, "wow, that all happened here", and then I remembered I was in Florida, at MGM Studios.
I probably wouldn't dine here again, however. I don't really like gormet dining. I like big portions when I eat. My wife was of the same opinion. Oh, one last thing about the Brown Derby. Try the grapefruit cake! It is to die for!
After dinner we had some time to kill so we went over to the Great Movie Ride. In all my visits to MGM, I have never been on the ride. There was a short wait while we watched some old movie trailers. All the movies in the trailers are featured in the ride. The ride itself was pretty good. You go from scene to scene of different movies and audio-animatronic figures make the scenes come to life. The ride is narrated by a cast member, and later by someone from one of the scenes (I wont give away who). My wife loved the ride. I was pretty much on the fence about it. We did ride it two more times during our vacation and I found myself bored with it, but my wife loved it every time.
We did some shopping and then headed over to Fantasmic! We got a quick jaunt behind stage as we went to get our priority seats. In many ways, the whole thing reminded me of going to the Tommy Barlett show in the Wisconsin Dells. There are plenty of vendors on hand to sell you food and light up toys. Right before the show, everybody started standing up and looking back. Then I saw what could have been the most awesome picture of my vacation if my camera didnt suck. It was the full moon rising, through the clouds, over the Tower of Terror. It was breathtaking.
The show itself was really well done. They combine pyrotechnics, lasers, and water imaging, to create Mickey Mouse's dream, inspired by Fantasia. There is a lot of characters, which keeps the kids happy, and enough wow factor to keep the adults glued to their seats. Definately a show worth seeing again. Oddly enough, it was our only "fireworks" show for our entire stay as we really did not feel like dealing with the throngs of people leaving afterwards and having to wait for two months for a Disney bus.
After the show, we did some magic hours activities. I hit Tower of Terror solo. My wife doesnt do drops, so I was on my own. I had just riden the one out at California Adventure, so I was comparing the entire experience. Disney/MGM has California Adventure beat hands down. The hotel is better detailed, there is the section where the car goes through the fourth dimension, and to be honest, the drop sequence was much better. The drops were also harder. I found myself off my seat more than I was on it. That's a good thing, by the way!
After that, we headed over to Rock-n-Roller Coaster. My wife had never riden it before. She is just getting into Roller Coasters. She was really nervous but I kept reassuring her how much fun she was going to have. Now, Rock-n-Rollercoaster is one of my perfect rides as it combines two of my favorite things. I am a serious roller coaster junkie. I go to roller coaster events half way across the country. I also love Aerosmith. I see them in concert everytime they come to town. So, there is nothing better to me than jamming to "Love in an Elevator" while being catapulted upside down on a coaster. My wife ended up loving the ride. She loved the ride more than I did! We rode it a couple more times and then decided to call it a night as we had to get up early the next morning.
8/29 Magic Kingdom / MGM
We awoke early to get ready for our Keys to the Kingdom tour. I made sure to start drinking water right from the start today so there wasn't a repeat of the day before. We stopped for a quick breakfast at the food court and then waited over an hour for our bus to the Magic Kingdom. We really thought we were going to miss our tour. We had to call the hotel on our cell phone and ask them to send a bus out for the 100+ people waiting.
We got to MK and got early entry because we were on a tour. We made it over to City Hall and we got a special button with our names on it and a special pass for going backstage. We also got a small radio with an earpiece so we could hear the tour guide. Our tour guide was Mark and he was excellent from start to finish. He started with the Roy Disney statue at the beginning of the park and we talked about what TEAM is and what the Keys to the Kingdom are. I won't tell you. Take the tour and find out! He went on to ask us who we all were, where we came from, and who our favorite Disney character is. We had one couple with us that had just gotten married! How cool is that?
We headed down Main Street and Mark talked about the forced perspective of the buildings, what the names on the windows mean, and how different elements of the park that you might consider simple, contribute to the overall guest experience. One of the coolest things he pointed out was a vent by the bakery that pumped the smells of the bakery out onto the sidewalk, thus increasing traffic into the bakery.
We then headed over to the Crystal Palace and Mark talked about transitioning between different themed lands. It was neat to see how the music from one land blended into the next. Same with the architecture.
After a short break, we headed over to Jungle Cruise, where we all got a ride, narrated by Mark. He told a few of the Jungle Skipper jokes, but mainly went over the attraction and some of the secrets of the ride.
Mark pointed out a few more theming facts before we ducked backstage right before Splash Mountain. He showed us the yellow line that is the sight line where cast members need to be "in character" when crossing. Once backstage we saw some ride vehicles and parade floats that were being refurbished. They were working on floats for Halloween. Cast members in shorts and t-shirts were rehearsing for the Halloween parade. We also saw the building where all the trash ends up.
We went back onstage and we saw several details around Liberty Square before heading over to Haunted Mansion for an exclusive ride. Mark talked about hidden Mickeys and told us there were three on the ride, one intentional, one non-intentional, and one placed by cast members. My wife and I only saw the one placed by cast members, which was three plates left on a table to form a Mickey head.
After Haunted Mansion, we headed over to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. All of our food was cold by the time we got up there, so they replaced our food free of charge and let us keep the cold food, too, if we wanted to eat it! Mark took a break so this woman from Sweden entertained us as we ate.
After lunch, we walked back to Main Street and talked about theming again. Then we ducked into a shop and went backstage. This was the part of the tour I looked forward to the most. We headed downstairs and into....THE UTILIDORS!!!!
The Utilidors are cooridors (UTILity corriDORS) underneath the park that facilitate the movement of cast members and supplies around the park. Many of the park's operations and offices are located here.
After that, the tour was over. My wife and I headed over to Jungle Cruise. I love Jungle Cruise, both at MK and also at Disneyland. We took a quick ride, realized we heard most of the jokes already, and headed off to the Tiki house.
I am ashamed to admit that my first visit to either Tiki room happened on our last visit to Disneyland. I was entralled with the beautiful animatronic show there. Fast forward to this trip. The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management. Seems Iago and Zazu have gotten themselves into the act. I don't think I have ever walked away from a Disney attraction more disappointed. Not even after the Kali River Rapids the day before. Iago ruined the entire show. The new songs were horrible. The people who thought up the change should be fired!
We cheered ourselves up by going on Pirates of the Caribbean. When we were in California, Pirates was closed for the rehab to bring in the characters for the movie. While the California version is far superior (even without the changes), we still had a lot of fun and we both enjoyed the new show elements. The audio was a bit quiet, but otherwise everything looked good. I especially liked the Davy Jones mist effect.
Time was running out for us for the day, so we headed to the train station and took the train all the way around to Main Street. I love the trains at Disneyland, especially since these are the trains that Walt Disney loved so much. There seems to be so much more history behind those trains. I also like the seating on the Disneyland trains, where they keep your attention focused inside the berm.
We headed out to the Ticket and Transportation Center and then caught a bus over to MGM. We had dinner reservations at MGM, so we decided on spending the rest of the day there.
We started out by hitting the Great Movie Ride. My wife loves that ride so she rode it often. We headed over to Star Tours next and walked on (with a posted 40 minute wait!). This is one of my wife's favorite attractions both at MGM and at DL.
We then headed over for dinner at...50s Prime Time Cafe!
Everytime we have been to Disneyworld we have dined at the Prime Time Cafe. We love how the cast members there act like your brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and of course...Mom. Our server this time was so-so, but we did get to see Aunt Claire again! We had her on our last visit and she actually remembered us! We got her address again and we will be sending her another picture for her scrapbook.
After dinner we headed out to check out the rest of the park. We started with a quick one two punch of Tower of Terror and Rock-n-Roller Coaster. We then headed over to do the backlot tour, which hasn't changed much since the first time we rode it. I was disappointed that they no longer do the Golden Girls house...
Our last stop of the evening was the Animation Studio. We had never done this before so it was a really nice surpise. The little show at the beginning with Mushu was really cute and funny. I went nuts with the camera taking pics of all the storyboards, stills and other paraphenalia from Cars! Have I mentioned that I love Cars? After that we did the Animation Academy and I drew Mickey Mouse while my wife looked on and laughed at me.
After that, it was back to the hotel for a little swimming and then settling in for the night.
9/30 - Magic Kingdom
Wednesday was supposed to be the day that Tropical Storm Ernesto was to hit. Because of this, the Magic Kingdom was a ghost town. We got in just before noon and there were no crowds whatsoever. What this turned out to be for us was a free day to get in as much of the Magic Kingdom as possible. We didnt have to commando the park. We didnt have to bounce around the park figuring out a fast pass strategy. We just hopped onto rides and moved on.
We started with Adventureland and knocked out Jungle Cruise and Pirates right off the bat. We didnt feel like getting wet so we skipped Splash Mountain. I don't know why we skipped Big Thunder Mountain Railway, but we did. We then got in a quick ride on Haunted Mansion and then hit Hall of Presidents. The last time I was at WDW, George W. Bush was in office, so there was no change to the attraction. I still love it, though. Very patriotic and I thought it was a good way for people not from the US to learn a little bit about our country.
We grabbed our one fast pass of the day for Peter Pan's flight (why does this thing always have such a huge line?). We grabbed a quick counter service meal over at the Pinocchio Village Haus. Not much different than Columbia Harbor House. Same type of food. Almost the same atmosphere.
Grabbed a quick spin on It's a Small World. Again, the California version is far superior. Peter Pan was next. It's a fun ride, but not worth what everyone was waiting for it.
Snow White was next. It's a cute ride with kids. Without, it's a bit...outdated.
Next up was Pooh. I kept asking myself why they removed Mr. Toads Wild Ride during the entire ride. I do have to say that I liked the Tigger section. Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce!
Next up was the Indy 500 Speedway. Is there anyway you can actually steer these cars? Haha. I felt like I was driving drunk.
It started raining once we got into Tomorrowland. We figured it was the first band of Ernesto. While it rained hard, it didnt rain any longer than any of the usual Florida afternoon thunderstorms.
We hit up Space Mountain, which...sigh...was inferior to the Disneyland version. Disneyland's just went through a major refurbishment complete with onboard audio and side by side seating.
To escape the rain we hit Carousel of Progress. I love this ride and hope they never get rid of it. It is a masterwork in audio-animatronics. Plus, you cannot help but sing along during the entire show. "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day!"
Next up was Buzz Lightyear, or as my mother-in-law called it the last time we were at WDW, the "Power Ranger Ride". She still gets teased about that to this day. The ride shutdown part way through when we were pointed right at a target about five feet away. We racked up a couple 100,000 points and ended up scoring pretty well! It was also the first time my wife won one of those shoot out games. She pretty much smoked me, in fact. Probably revenge for all the times I smoked her on Men In Black at Universal.
We took a couple rides on the Tommorowland Transit Authority. I just love this ride. I hope that Disneyland gets theirs running again in the future. Its a nice way to relax and see all of tomorrowland. You also get to see Walt's vision for Epcot, the city of the future.
We did some shopping on Main Street after that and then headed out to the boat for our ride to Fort Wilderness. The weather had turned foul, so the ride over was a bit fun.
We were doing the Hoop-Dee-Doo. I had so many second guesses on this ADR since we made it. I heard a lot about how this was a kids show and adults wouldnt like it. Well, I am here to say that the Hoop-Dee-Doo was probably THE best dining experience we had during our entire stay. The food was good. Nothing like family style ribs and chicken when my wife doesnt eat meat. Don't worry, though, because they took good care of her and she ate really well too. I loved how they served all the courses of food to a song. The actors in the show were great. I was probably waving my napkin over my head higher than any one there. Do yourselves a favor and get out and see this show during your next visit. You won't be sorry!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Because the storm was right over the park, they sent special busses to pick us up and take us back to our hotel. They were very orderly in making sure that everyone got to where they needed to be. Kudos to Disney for that!
9/31 - Epcot
This was to be the first of two days we would be spending at Epcot. We wanted to knock out most of FutureWorld on this day and then do World Showcase the next day we went. We arrived at the park really late and found the park to be packed to the gills with people already. We were fearing a day of long lines, but we found the opposite to be true. Epcot is such a huge park that seemingly huge crowds disintegrate into the large surroundings.
We, of course, started out with Spaceship Earth. We both love Spaceship Earth. Yeah, it's outdated. Yeah, it's cheesy. We still love it. It gave us some good cuddle time while we relaxed and saw the story of communications. We did get stuck in the fall of Rome scene. Ugh, that smell.
After that we headed over to Test Track to get a fast pass. We got a surprise fastpass for Mission Space! We ran right over there and used that.
During our last visit they were putting the final touches on Mission Space. In fact, they did their soft openings weeks after we had left. We ended up splitting up for this attraction. My wife chose the green side and, me, the thrill seeker, chose the orange side. For my first ride I was the engineer. Really could have done without Gary Sinese as the nararator. The ride itself was nothing short of spectacular. I really loved the G's that thing pulled, especially as you do your slingshot around the moon. My wife liked her experience as well, which means the green team isn't all that bad
We fooled around in Mission Control for a little while, waiting for our Test Track fastpass and then headed over. Our fastpass wait ended up being around 25 minutes, which I was pretty disappointed about. This was my wife's first ride on Test Track. Last time we were there she chickened out for some reason. She enjoyed herself this time. The ride seems a little rougher than I remember it, though. After the ride we looked at all the new GM cars. I just bought a new GM car and was unhappy to not see my car there (I think mine is one of the nicer ones that GM makes ) My wife was getting pretty impatient because she knows I'm a car guy and that I love to look at new cars, even though I wont be in the market for one for awhile now.
She finally dragged me out of there and we headed off to go find Ice Station Cool. I had been looking forward to this the whole trip. I was disappointed to find out that it was no longer Ice Station Cool, but rather, Club Cool. They got rid of the whole ice motif and that wonderful blast of frigid air. I was further disappointed by the fact that many of the brands of soda were out of stock, including <<gasp>> Beverly. Drinking Beverly has become one of our WDW traditions!
We ditched Club Cool and then headed over to Electric Umbrella for lunch. It was while I was holding the table for us, waiting for my wife to get our food, that I witnessed my cutest moment while at WDW. I was seated on the second floor, overlooking the covered walkway between the Innoventions buildings. There was a vendor that was selling giant balls. This little girl, couldnt have been more than five or six, starts playing with one while her Mom is talking to the lady running the stand. Now, these folks must have been deep into their conversation because the little girl has the ball ripped out of her tiny hands by a gust of wind and the ball sails about 50 feet away. The girl chases after the ball and comes close to catching it and the ball sails away a little further. This gets repeated a few times until she finally catches it. She holds up the ball in victory, and you guessed it, the ball gets blown out of her hands again! She had the ball blown out of her hands three more time before she got it back to the ball vendor. Not sure if I'd take my eyes off of my daughter that long, though, if she were still that age.
We had a good counter service meal at Electric Umbrella and then headed out towards Soarin. I was actually looking forward to riding "Living with the Land" as I had never riden it before. (I rode Soarin at California Adventure). Unfortunately, it was closed for refurbishment and that got me in a sour mood when we got in queue for Soarin. Soarin, though, cheered me right up! The ride is identical to the one in California. I think I like the building at DCA a bit better, but that's just my preference. I really think they should think of renaming this to the original Soaring over California. Retheme the area with a lot of California-ish theming and make it out to be a whirlwind tour of California by hang glider. You could even go so far as theming the queue areas to the California that Walt Disney knew and loved. The building that the ride is in now and the themeing of the queue just doesnt work for me.
As for the ride itself, my wife and I love it. The soundtrack is probably one of the best for a Disney attraction anywhere. The smells of the pine trees, orange groves, and the ocean really add to the immersion of the ride.
Next up was Journey into the Imagination, which is a ride neither of us have done before. We had a marvelous time on the ride! Figment is awesome. So awesome, that I got a Figment stuffed animal to put in my den at home and I got my picture taken with him.
We headed back and did Test Track and Mission Space one more time and also hit Spaceship Earth a couple of times. Then it was time for dinner.
We had ADRs at the Biergarten in Germany. We took the water taxi over from Mexico. My wife and I have eatten at the Biergarten on every visit to WDW. It is one of our must sees. I like the restaurant because it reminds me a lot of my time spent in Germany with the US Military. For her it is the Spaetzle. She talks about that spaetzle all the time in between trips to the world.
We were seated with a family that had triplets (fraternal, two girls and a boy). It was their birthday and the Biergarten went out of their way to make those kids happy I love watching the band. We stayed for two of their shows and I sang along with just about every song. Everyone at our table thought I was from Germany because I knew all the words <<blush>>
I am not a big drinker, but I do love German beer, so I had their German beer flight. It was four glasses of beer (small glasses, mind you). Two light, two dark. All different brands. It was definately worth the ten bucks I paid for it.
After dinner, and being barely able to move because we were so full, we hit all the countries from Germany to Mexico. We hit both the Maelstrom and the Rio del Tiempo as well. I had a blast in the Norway shop after Maelstrom, trying on the Viking hats and getting my pictures taken with the troll. My wife wanted me to get a pinata in Mexico for my God-daughter's up coming birthday party, but I figured it would cost more to ship it home than the pinata actually cost.
We got out of the park just before the fireworks show. We saw it the last two times we visited and we didnt want to deal with the busses afterwards. It was bad enough, anyways, trying to get out of there, as we still waited a good half hour for a bus.
10/1 Animal Kingdom, MGM Studios, Downtown Disney.
This was our pickup day for the most part. We wanted to knock out what we didnt see at Animal Kingdom and at MGM Studios. The Tom Joyner Family Reunion was going on that weekend, so crowds were abnormally heavy getting into Animal Kingdom.
We made a beeline for the Festival of the Lion King show. It was about as far off the beaten path as you could get. We have seen this show every time we are at Animal Kingdom and we love it. We were in the elephant section this time. Lion King is definately in my top five for Disney movies. We sang along to all the songs and had a blast.
After the show we headed over to DinoLand USA. Grabbed a fast pass for Dinosaur and rode Primeval Whirl real quick. 40 minute posted wait time turned out to be a virtual walk on. I'm not much for spinning mouse coasters, but this one was quite fun. The brakes at the end need to be adjusted a bit as the lap bar nearly took the wind out of me.
I know a lot of people hate this section of the park because it looks like a huge carnival, but I like it. I think the theming works. These same people have problems with DCA's Paradise Pier, too, and I like that as well. Not many people can see that they went with a neo-Coney Island style there and it works well.
Anyways, back to Animal Kingdom. We hit up Dinosaur. We have riden this before. I think the ride vehicles worked better for Indiana Jones at DL, but, the ride wasn't bad.
We hit up Everest one more time and then left for MGM.
Once we arrived at MGM, we imediately looked for a place to eat. We hit the Backlot Express for counter service. Nothing thrilling. It was just another place to eat. I did take one set of pictures in there, however. They had some buckets of paint (theming for stuff they would keep in a backlot). The paint was probably used for painting attractions, or more likely for attraction signage, as the company that made the paint, Matthew's Paint, does outdoor sign paint primarily. How would I know that? I worked as a consultant for Matthew's Paint for over a year. So, needless to say, I had to get a pic of the paint cans.
We noted the time for the car stunt show and went off to do other attractions. We hit up Star Wars seeing we were right there and then hit up the Great Movie Ride again. We squeezed in the Animation Studio and barely made it in line for the stunt show.
The stunt show was one of the highlights of this trip. I love cars as I have stated before. I liked the chases, the extreme driving, and of course the stunts. The finale was out of this world!
We had enough time to catch a quick spin on Rock-n-rollercoaster and then we left to go downtown. This is where things got a little goofy. We took a bus to the Ticket and Transportation Center figuring that there would be a bus for Downtown Disney there. Nope. Come to learn that the only place you can get a bus for Downtown is at a resort. I was fuming as I had already dealt with enough crap from the transportation system. We took the resort monorail over to the Polynesian and got a bus there.
We had ADR's at House of Blues. I am a huge fan of Blues music so this was a natural choice for us. Dinner was fair at best and overpriced. I was upset that none of the merchandise they offered in their store came in a size larger than a large. I guess only good looking thin people can wear their clothing. I seem to remember the House of Blues at Downtown Disney in Anaheim being much much better. (I do have a shirt from there )
We spent the rest of the evening shopping. We bought souvineers for the kids. My son got a generic WDW shirt without any characters. My daughter got a tink purse and a bunch of other tink accessories. I picked up a few shirts for myself and my wife did the same. We also got birthday gifts for my soon to be 10 year old god daughter. She also loves tinkerbell, so she got a smaller tink purse and a bunch of tink accessories.
10/2 - Typhoon Lagoon / Magic Kingdom - Chef Mickey's
We managed to get up real early and made it out for the bus to Typhoon Lagoon for extra magic hour! If you go to either waterpark, I would advise hitting the extra magic hour, if, for nothing else, to get a good spot for your stuff. We had a choice of wherever we wanted and when we left there were absolutely no spots and about twenty people wanting our spot.
Highlights at the park included the Shark Reef, Crush 'n' Gusher, the lazy river, and of course, the wave pool. I of course had to hit the Shark Reef as it was the place that spurred my interest in snorkling and diving. I thought it was a bit over the top that we had to listen to the whole spiel on how to snorkel every time we did the attraction. Lots of sharks, rays, and several species of tropical fish. Good times.
Tried out Crush'n'Gusher and I was a little disappointed in it. I was expecting a more thrilling ride with the uphill sections. In the end it just seemed like another water slide.
We headed back to the hotel to change and took a power nap and then headed out to Magic Kingdom. There were only two attractions we really wanted to hit. Lines were attrocious at just about every ride. Still, we managed to hit Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean before getting to Splash Mountain.
Now, I know this is strange, but this was my first time riding Splash Mountain at WDW. My other visits had my wife too scared to ride and lines too long to wait without her. I managed to get her on the one at DL back in March, which was also my first time on that one! She was miserable on the one at DL because it was really cold that day and she got soaked.
This time, however, it was over ninety degrees and super humid. We wanted to get wet!
We thoroughly enjoyed the ride but didnt get wet. I think this one is far superior to it's DL cousin. I really found myself getting into the storyline and even singing the songs. We rode this twice and then headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railway.
We rode this both of our previous visits, but still enjoyed it. Some parents brought on a terrified little girl and she was screaming bloody murder the entire ride. I really felt sorry for her that her parents would force her to ride. Most ride accidents involving kids occur because a parent forced their kid to ride and the kid freaked out and tried to exit the ride vehicle while it was in motion.
We hit Splash Mountain one more time and then took the train back to the front of the park. We did some shopping on Main Street and then left the park.
We took the monorail over to Contemporary Resort, where we would be dining at Chef Mickey's. This was an ADR I didnt want to make, but my wife insisted. I had no interest in being an adult with no kids in a character dining situation. I have to say, however, that I was pleasantly surprised. While I didnt see any other kidless couples there, I found that the characters paid as much attention to us as they did the tables with kids. Actually, some of them, Dale especially, spent more time with us!
We had Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Chip and Dale all visit us. Donald Duck was out by the buffet where you could get your picture taken with him. We had a late reservation so we were there until the characters packed it up for the night. They ended up hitting our tables several times each as the restaurant started to clear out. My wife got to dance with Dale, which made her evening. We also witnessed Dale stealing some guys umbrella and Dale provoking Mickey with it! Good times! We got a really nice view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks and then we left to go back to the hotel.
10/3 - Epcot pt 2
This was our last park day at Disney for this trip. The next day we would be going home. We didnt want to go home. We wanted our Magic to continue!
We hit Epcot around noon. Again the park was packed, but even moreso than last time. Once we got in, we waited, yes, waited 10 minutes to get onto Spaceship Earth!
We hit up the Electric Umbrella afterwards and got lunch. That place is really convenient!
We did Test Track and Mission Space a couple times each and then headed over to Soarin. We balked at the 90 minute wait and went over to the world showcase.
We took our time in each country, looking at the various shops and exhibits. We had pictures taken of us in each country. Did a little shopping in Japan, buying my son an Inuyahsa shirt (he loves that show), and my wife buying some clothes there.
After World Showcase we headed back over to Soarin and found the line alot shorter. We grabbed a quick ride and then went over to Innoventions to kill some time before our ADR.
Our ADR was at the Coral Reef restaurant in the Living Seas. We asked for a table by the glass when we got there and they accomadated us without a problem! I ordered steak as I felt funny about eatting fish in front of a giant fish tank. The food was excellent! I think I had a steak or something along those lines. My wife had a mushroom pasta that was made specially for her because of her dietary needs.
We saw sharks, turtles, huge schools of fish, and even a few scuba divers. I kept making jokes about the Full House episode that was filmed at Disney. One of the scenes was filmed in that very restaurant where Danny tries to propose but gets interrupted by a phone call that Michelle is missing. I mocked a proposal and then picked up my cell phone and played around that my daughter was missing. We had a great time!
After dinner we hit Mission Space and Test Track one more time and then did Spaceship Earth as our final Disney attraction for this vacation.
Afterwards we headed downtown for one last shopping spree, picking up a few more shirts. My wife picked up a pirate rubber ducky for her Dad because he had mentioned before the tropical storm hit that we might need a rubber ducky. With all of our purchases done we headed to the hotel to pack.
10/4 Boma & Departure
We awoke early on our last day and we quickly got our luggage checked in for our flight and got our boarding passes. We checked in our carry on luggage at the bellhop stand and then picked up a bus for Animal Kingdom. Once at AK, we got a bus for AKL.
Our last ADR was for Boma. We heard great things about their breakfast buffet. We werent disappointed. Really good food. Great scenery. Wonderful theming. Very friendly staff. I really love those huge sausages they had there. Also, the omlettes were top notch.
After Boma we headed back to All-Star. We puttered around the resort for a little bit while we waited for our bus to take us to the airport.
Once at the airport, we hit the Disney store there for one last immersion in Disney. I think my wife and I both nearly cried when we walked out fo there. We had such a wonderful vacation and we didnt want it to end.
Ironically, there was a couple that got on the bus with us at All Star Music and we literally followed them all the way home. (well, at least to our home airport). They rode the bus with us. They were on our first flight. And we nearly passed out when we saw them get on the plane for our second flight.
Observations:
Hotel: (C+) The resort itself was very beautiful with a lot of bright eye candy around. The pools looked nice but I remember Caribbean Beach having a better pool. The Mousekeeping was horrible. Our room was rarely clean and we had to complain several times about the shoddy upkeep. In many ways it seemed like we were being treated like second class citizens because we were staying at a value resort. There was little of the Disney charm in the cast members that worked there. When I stayed at Caribbean Beach, the cast members there, whether they were maids, lifeguards, the cashier at the food court, or the lady checking you in, all had smiles on their faces and they were ALWAYS asking if you were having a good day. Most of the cast members at ASMu would not even acknowledge you.
Transportation: (F) Next time I am renting a car. The Disney Transportation system needs a serious overhaul. I heard several guests complaining that if they had to take buses on their next vacation that they would either not come again or they would not stay in a Disney Resort. Key word here is several, as in a lot. We heard it on every bus trip we took because they all sucked. We ended up complaining to guest services about this numerous times.
The Parks: (A+) Wonderful as always and very magical. I really appreciated the parks more this time because of the Keys to the Kingdom tour.
We are already planning our next Disney vacation. We will be taking my daughter as a graduation present after she graduates in the spring. She will probably be helping us plan this vacation so she knows how to do it for her own kids when she gets older.
This trip is a cast of two. Just me and my wife for a week at the Happiest Place on Earth. My son is so anti-Disney that I decided to not even fight my ex-wife for the vacation time for him to go. He's at that age where everything "sucks". My daughter just turned eighteen and she wanted to get a good start to her final year of high school. So it was just the wife and I.
Of the three visits I have taken to Disney with my wife, this was definately the most planned. We got one of those Passporter guides and meticulously planned where we were going on what day. We called ahead and got reservations for all of our table meals. Of course, you know what they say about best laid plans...
We booked our trip with the special going on for the free dining plan. We booked at All Star Music to save some money. We got the park hopper plus for the entire length of our stay. We also booked our airline through Northwest so we could take advantage of the Magical Express with luggage delivery.
We arrived in Orlando at around noon on Sunday. I was happily bouncing down the escalators to the Disney Welcome Center. I was disheartened, however, to see a huge line when I got there. That line moved VERY quickly, however, and we were soon on our bus to the All Star Resorts.
We got to the All-Star Resorts and were the second resort to be dropped off. Check in was very quick and efficient. Despite the fact that it was one o-clock, we still had a room.
We quickly dropped off our carry on bags and got some lunch at the food court. I had a craving for the chicken strips so that is what I got. There was a bit of confusion as to what is considered a dessert and what is considered a snack. Everything that is covered by the Disney Dining Plan had the little logo for the plan, but there was no real diferentiation between what was considered a snack item and what was consdiered a dessert for a counter service meal.
After lunch we headed out to Downtown Disney. We had reservations at Fultons that evening so we figured we would do some browsing before dinner.
Of course, our first stop was the Wonderful World of Disney store. I was struck at how empty my wallet would have been if my daughter would have been with us. It seemed that everything there was centered on the Disney princesses, with even a make over studio (the Bibbidy Bopity Botique), and several full sections of merchandise just for girls. On the other hand there was a pirate display for the boys and it was weak at best. I found quite a bit during our vacation that everything was being marketed to the girls. If I was a little boy visiting the park I would probably feel left out. Even most shows picked girls to go on stage rather than boys.
I stopped in at the Lego store (one cool boy thing
) and was happy to see that the store seemed to be bigger than my last visit. There were a few things I definately considered having shipped home, but my wife put the veto on them Dinner was at Fultons. Since two of our table service dinners were being taken up by dinners that included shows we paid for dinner at Fultons. Dinner cost about fifty bucks a person. My wife is a vegitarian and had indicated as such when she made all the dinner reservations. A chef came out to talk to her before we ordered and made something special for her to eat (a wild mushroom pasta dish). I had the Alaska King Crab claws. It was very delicious. The restaurant itself was very beautiful. The seats we had overlooked the lagoon. We had a wonderful view of Illuminations over at Epcot from where we were sitting.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and to get ready for our first day at the parks.
8/28
Animal Kingdom had early magic hours so we planned on hitting the park for the first part of the day and then heading over to MGM for dinner reservations at Brown Derby.
This was also our first run in with problems in the Disney Transportation System, something that would plague us throughout our vacation. Our previous stay on property was at Caribbean Beach and we had NO problems with transportation. The fact that we had to walk to our building instead of being dropped off at our building already grated on us, but we dismissed it as being part of being at a cheaper resort. Anyways, for this trip we waited an hour for a bus and because they loaded two wheelchairs on the bus they decided to move everyone over to another bus they brought in. Well, this bus had already stopped at Sports, so it was already pretty full. They jammed what few people they could on it and meanwhile the other bus left with only the two parties with the wheelchairs. Finally we got a bus, but it was nearly full as well so we ended up standing. Needless to say we made it to Animal Kingdom well after the Magic Hour was over.
Upon entering the park we headed straight for Everest and got a fast pass. After that we ran over and did the safari. We've done this every time we have visited the park. My wife loves it but I am finding that the attraction is losing it's appeal more and more every time we do it. There also weren't a lot of animals out or awake when we went which took away from the ride.
We ran back over to Everest and rode that using our fastpasses. Wow! What a ride. I am a coaster enthusiast and love thrilling rides. While this ride wasn't thrilling per se, it was one of the best coasters I have ever ridden (over 150 to date). The reason is theming. I am almost ashamed that we missed a lot of the queue themeing by doing fastpass. The yeti at the end was breathtaking. I am glad it wasn't on their "B" program. The full range of motion makes this beast very very scary.
Next up was Kali River Rapids. It was an EXTREMELY hot and humid day and we both needed to cool off. We jumped in line, expecting the posted 30 minute standby wait. Instead we waited for well over an hour. The ride itself was disappointing. It was a lot like the one out at California Adventure. You really don't get wet on the ride unless you are lucky enough to be in the right spot for the drop. There are no other points during the ride where water will enter the ride vehicle. I've been on a lot of raft rides like this where you get wet practically throughout the entire ride (Busch Gardens Tampa being one of the best).
After disembarking from a disappointingly short ride we stopped off at the closest restrooms and found a fountain area near the bathroom. If I would have know the wait was so long and the ride was so disappointing, I would have just hit the fountain to cool off instead.
We headed off to find a place to eat for lunch. Finding something to eat at Animal Kingdom is pretty difficult. We settled on counter service at Flametree Barbeque. I'm sure the food was good, but I found myself getting extremely ill and had to rush to a restroom to throw up. I knew right away that the heat had gotten to me and that I wasn't drinking enough water. So, I ended up tossing my entire lunch away and my wife and I headed back to the hotel. After an hour and a half of waiting on a bus and the actual trip to the hotel, I was in my room and lying down.
My wife and I both napped right up until it was time to leave for MGM Studios. It was extra magic hours so the bus line for the resort was packed. Still, we got there a little earlier than we expected and we got to catch the beginning of the parade. I am a HUGE fan of Cars, so I was really excited to see Lighning McQueen and Mater leading off the parade! After they passed, we headed into the Brown Derby for our dinner.
Brown Derby was two dining credits as we were doing Fantasmic! with dinner. Looking back, I probably would have eaten somewhere else and then gone in to Fantasmic the normal way. The Brown Derby is very expensive, however, if you do dine there normally. This is gormet faire, so portions are small. I got filet mignon and it was very small, with a circle of potatoes underneath it. My wife got some sort of pasta as she cannot eat meat. The staff was very friendly and attentive. The ambiance was nice. The theming was emersive enough that you almost think you are in Hollywood in say, the 1950s, dining with the stars. In fact, I was reading the menu about how the stars interacted in the orginal Brown Derby and I thought to myself, "wow, that all happened here", and then I remembered I was in Florida, at MGM Studios.
I probably wouldn't dine here again, however. I don't really like gormet dining. I like big portions when I eat. My wife was of the same opinion. Oh, one last thing about the Brown Derby. Try the grapefruit cake! It is to die for!
After dinner we had some time to kill so we went over to the Great Movie Ride. In all my visits to MGM, I have never been on the ride. There was a short wait while we watched some old movie trailers. All the movies in the trailers are featured in the ride. The ride itself was pretty good. You go from scene to scene of different movies and audio-animatronic figures make the scenes come to life. The ride is narrated by a cast member, and later by someone from one of the scenes (I wont give away who). My wife loved the ride. I was pretty much on the fence about it. We did ride it two more times during our vacation and I found myself bored with it, but my wife loved it every time.
We did some shopping and then headed over to Fantasmic! We got a quick jaunt behind stage as we went to get our priority seats. In many ways, the whole thing reminded me of going to the Tommy Barlett show in the Wisconsin Dells. There are plenty of vendors on hand to sell you food and light up toys. Right before the show, everybody started standing up and looking back. Then I saw what could have been the most awesome picture of my vacation if my camera didnt suck. It was the full moon rising, through the clouds, over the Tower of Terror. It was breathtaking.
The show itself was really well done. They combine pyrotechnics, lasers, and water imaging, to create Mickey Mouse's dream, inspired by Fantasia. There is a lot of characters, which keeps the kids happy, and enough wow factor to keep the adults glued to their seats. Definately a show worth seeing again. Oddly enough, it was our only "fireworks" show for our entire stay as we really did not feel like dealing with the throngs of people leaving afterwards and having to wait for two months for a Disney bus.
After the show, we did some magic hours activities. I hit Tower of Terror solo. My wife doesnt do drops, so I was on my own. I had just riden the one out at California Adventure, so I was comparing the entire experience. Disney/MGM has California Adventure beat hands down. The hotel is better detailed, there is the section where the car goes through the fourth dimension, and to be honest, the drop sequence was much better. The drops were also harder. I found myself off my seat more than I was on it. That's a good thing, by the way!
After that, we headed over to Rock-n-Roller Coaster. My wife had never riden it before. She is just getting into Roller Coasters. She was really nervous but I kept reassuring her how much fun she was going to have. Now, Rock-n-Rollercoaster is one of my perfect rides as it combines two of my favorite things. I am a serious roller coaster junkie. I go to roller coaster events half way across the country. I also love Aerosmith. I see them in concert everytime they come to town. So, there is nothing better to me than jamming to "Love in an Elevator" while being catapulted upside down on a coaster. My wife ended up loving the ride. She loved the ride more than I did! We rode it a couple more times and then decided to call it a night as we had to get up early the next morning.
8/29 Magic Kingdom / MGM
We awoke early to get ready for our Keys to the Kingdom tour. I made sure to start drinking water right from the start today so there wasn't a repeat of the day before. We stopped for a quick breakfast at the food court and then waited over an hour for our bus to the Magic Kingdom. We really thought we were going to miss our tour. We had to call the hotel on our cell phone and ask them to send a bus out for the 100+ people waiting.
We got to MK and got early entry because we were on a tour. We made it over to City Hall and we got a special button with our names on it and a special pass for going backstage. We also got a small radio with an earpiece so we could hear the tour guide. Our tour guide was Mark and he was excellent from start to finish. He started with the Roy Disney statue at the beginning of the park and we talked about what TEAM is and what the Keys to the Kingdom are. I won't tell you. Take the tour and find out! He went on to ask us who we all were, where we came from, and who our favorite Disney character is. We had one couple with us that had just gotten married! How cool is that?
We headed down Main Street and Mark talked about the forced perspective of the buildings, what the names on the windows mean, and how different elements of the park that you might consider simple, contribute to the overall guest experience. One of the coolest things he pointed out was a vent by the bakery that pumped the smells of the bakery out onto the sidewalk, thus increasing traffic into the bakery.
We then headed over to the Crystal Palace and Mark talked about transitioning between different themed lands. It was neat to see how the music from one land blended into the next. Same with the architecture.
After a short break, we headed over to Jungle Cruise, where we all got a ride, narrated by Mark. He told a few of the Jungle Skipper jokes, but mainly went over the attraction and some of the secrets of the ride.
Mark pointed out a few more theming facts before we ducked backstage right before Splash Mountain. He showed us the yellow line that is the sight line where cast members need to be "in character" when crossing. Once backstage we saw some ride vehicles and parade floats that were being refurbished. They were working on floats for Halloween. Cast members in shorts and t-shirts were rehearsing for the Halloween parade. We also saw the building where all the trash ends up.
We went back onstage and we saw several details around Liberty Square before heading over to Haunted Mansion for an exclusive ride. Mark talked about hidden Mickeys and told us there were three on the ride, one intentional, one non-intentional, and one placed by cast members. My wife and I only saw the one placed by cast members, which was three plates left on a table to form a Mickey head.
After Haunted Mansion, we headed over to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. All of our food was cold by the time we got up there, so they replaced our food free of charge and let us keep the cold food, too, if we wanted to eat it! Mark took a break so this woman from Sweden entertained us as we ate.
After lunch, we walked back to Main Street and talked about theming again. Then we ducked into a shop and went backstage. This was the part of the tour I looked forward to the most. We headed downstairs and into....THE UTILIDORS!!!!
The Utilidors are cooridors (UTILity corriDORS) underneath the park that facilitate the movement of cast members and supplies around the park. Many of the park's operations and offices are located here.
After that, the tour was over. My wife and I headed over to Jungle Cruise. I love Jungle Cruise, both at MK and also at Disneyland. We took a quick ride, realized we heard most of the jokes already, and headed off to the Tiki house.
I am ashamed to admit that my first visit to either Tiki room happened on our last visit to Disneyland. I was entralled with the beautiful animatronic show there. Fast forward to this trip. The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management. Seems Iago and Zazu have gotten themselves into the act. I don't think I have ever walked away from a Disney attraction more disappointed. Not even after the Kali River Rapids the day before. Iago ruined the entire show. The new songs were horrible. The people who thought up the change should be fired!
We cheered ourselves up by going on Pirates of the Caribbean. When we were in California, Pirates was closed for the rehab to bring in the characters for the movie. While the California version is far superior (even without the changes), we still had a lot of fun and we both enjoyed the new show elements. The audio was a bit quiet, but otherwise everything looked good. I especially liked the Davy Jones mist effect.
Time was running out for us for the day, so we headed to the train station and took the train all the way around to Main Street. I love the trains at Disneyland, especially since these are the trains that Walt Disney loved so much. There seems to be so much more history behind those trains. I also like the seating on the Disneyland trains, where they keep your attention focused inside the berm.
We headed out to the Ticket and Transportation Center and then caught a bus over to MGM. We had dinner reservations at MGM, so we decided on spending the rest of the day there.
We started out by hitting the Great Movie Ride. My wife loves that ride so she rode it often. We headed over to Star Tours next and walked on (with a posted 40 minute wait!). This is one of my wife's favorite attractions both at MGM and at DL.
We then headed over for dinner at...50s Prime Time Cafe!
Everytime we have been to Disneyworld we have dined at the Prime Time Cafe. We love how the cast members there act like your brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and of course...Mom. Our server this time was so-so, but we did get to see Aunt Claire again! We had her on our last visit and she actually remembered us! We got her address again and we will be sending her another picture for her scrapbook.
After dinner we headed out to check out the rest of the park. We started with a quick one two punch of Tower of Terror and Rock-n-Roller Coaster. We then headed over to do the backlot tour, which hasn't changed much since the first time we rode it. I was disappointed that they no longer do the Golden Girls house...
Our last stop of the evening was the Animation Studio. We had never done this before so it was a really nice surpise. The little show at the beginning with Mushu was really cute and funny. I went nuts with the camera taking pics of all the storyboards, stills and other paraphenalia from Cars! Have I mentioned that I love Cars? After that we did the Animation Academy and I drew Mickey Mouse while my wife looked on and laughed at me.
After that, it was back to the hotel for a little swimming and then settling in for the night.
9/30 - Magic Kingdom
Wednesday was supposed to be the day that Tropical Storm Ernesto was to hit. Because of this, the Magic Kingdom was a ghost town. We got in just before noon and there were no crowds whatsoever. What this turned out to be for us was a free day to get in as much of the Magic Kingdom as possible. We didnt have to commando the park. We didnt have to bounce around the park figuring out a fast pass strategy. We just hopped onto rides and moved on.
We started with Adventureland and knocked out Jungle Cruise and Pirates right off the bat. We didnt feel like getting wet so we skipped Splash Mountain. I don't know why we skipped Big Thunder Mountain Railway, but we did. We then got in a quick ride on Haunted Mansion and then hit Hall of Presidents. The last time I was at WDW, George W. Bush was in office, so there was no change to the attraction. I still love it, though. Very patriotic and I thought it was a good way for people not from the US to learn a little bit about our country.
We grabbed our one fast pass of the day for Peter Pan's flight (why does this thing always have such a huge line?). We grabbed a quick counter service meal over at the Pinocchio Village Haus. Not much different than Columbia Harbor House. Same type of food. Almost the same atmosphere.
Grabbed a quick spin on It's a Small World. Again, the California version is far superior. Peter Pan was next. It's a fun ride, but not worth what everyone was waiting for it.
Snow White was next. It's a cute ride with kids. Without, it's a bit...outdated.
Next up was Pooh. I kept asking myself why they removed Mr. Toads Wild Ride during the entire ride. I do have to say that I liked the Tigger section. Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce!
Next up was the Indy 500 Speedway. Is there anyway you can actually steer these cars? Haha. I felt like I was driving drunk.
It started raining once we got into Tomorrowland. We figured it was the first band of Ernesto. While it rained hard, it didnt rain any longer than any of the usual Florida afternoon thunderstorms.
We hit up Space Mountain, which...sigh...was inferior to the Disneyland version. Disneyland's just went through a major refurbishment complete with onboard audio and side by side seating.
To escape the rain we hit Carousel of Progress. I love this ride and hope they never get rid of it. It is a masterwork in audio-animatronics. Plus, you cannot help but sing along during the entire show. "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day!"
Next up was Buzz Lightyear, or as my mother-in-law called it the last time we were at WDW, the "Power Ranger Ride". She still gets teased about that to this day. The ride shutdown part way through when we were pointed right at a target about five feet away. We racked up a couple 100,000 points and ended up scoring pretty well! It was also the first time my wife won one of those shoot out games. She pretty much smoked me, in fact. Probably revenge for all the times I smoked her on Men In Black at Universal.
We took a couple rides on the Tommorowland Transit Authority. I just love this ride. I hope that Disneyland gets theirs running again in the future. Its a nice way to relax and see all of tomorrowland. You also get to see Walt's vision for Epcot, the city of the future.
We did some shopping on Main Street after that and then headed out to the boat for our ride to Fort Wilderness. The weather had turned foul, so the ride over was a bit fun.
We were doing the Hoop-Dee-Doo. I had so many second guesses on this ADR since we made it. I heard a lot about how this was a kids show and adults wouldnt like it. Well, I am here to say that the Hoop-Dee-Doo was probably THE best dining experience we had during our entire stay. The food was good. Nothing like family style ribs and chicken when my wife doesnt eat meat. Don't worry, though, because they took good care of her and she ate really well too. I loved how they served all the courses of food to a song. The actors in the show were great. I was probably waving my napkin over my head higher than any one there. Do yourselves a favor and get out and see this show during your next visit. You won't be sorry!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Because the storm was right over the park, they sent special busses to pick us up and take us back to our hotel. They were very orderly in making sure that everyone got to where they needed to be. Kudos to Disney for that!
9/31 - Epcot
This was to be the first of two days we would be spending at Epcot. We wanted to knock out most of FutureWorld on this day and then do World Showcase the next day we went. We arrived at the park really late and found the park to be packed to the gills with people already. We were fearing a day of long lines, but we found the opposite to be true. Epcot is such a huge park that seemingly huge crowds disintegrate into the large surroundings.
We, of course, started out with Spaceship Earth. We both love Spaceship Earth. Yeah, it's outdated. Yeah, it's cheesy. We still love it. It gave us some good cuddle time while we relaxed and saw the story of communications. We did get stuck in the fall of Rome scene. Ugh, that smell.
After that we headed over to Test Track to get a fast pass. We got a surprise fastpass for Mission Space! We ran right over there and used that.
During our last visit they were putting the final touches on Mission Space. In fact, they did their soft openings weeks after we had left. We ended up splitting up for this attraction. My wife chose the green side and, me, the thrill seeker, chose the orange side. For my first ride I was the engineer. Really could have done without Gary Sinese as the nararator. The ride itself was nothing short of spectacular. I really loved the G's that thing pulled, especially as you do your slingshot around the moon. My wife liked her experience as well, which means the green team isn't all that bad
We fooled around in Mission Control for a little while, waiting for our Test Track fastpass and then headed over. Our fastpass wait ended up being around 25 minutes, which I was pretty disappointed about. This was my wife's first ride on Test Track. Last time we were there she chickened out for some reason. She enjoyed herself this time. The ride seems a little rougher than I remember it, though. After the ride we looked at all the new GM cars. I just bought a new GM car and was unhappy to not see my car there (I think mine is one of the nicer ones that GM makes
) My wife was getting pretty impatient because she knows I'm a car guy and that I love to look at new cars, even though I wont be in the market for one for awhile now.She finally dragged me out of there and we headed off to go find Ice Station Cool. I had been looking forward to this the whole trip. I was disappointed to find out that it was no longer Ice Station Cool, but rather, Club Cool. They got rid of the whole ice motif and that wonderful blast of frigid air. I was further disappointed by the fact that many of the brands of soda were out of stock, including <<gasp>> Beverly. Drinking Beverly has become one of our WDW traditions!
We ditched Club Cool and then headed over to Electric Umbrella for lunch. It was while I was holding the table for us, waiting for my wife to get our food, that I witnessed my cutest moment while at WDW. I was seated on the second floor, overlooking the covered walkway between the Innoventions buildings. There was a vendor that was selling giant balls. This little girl, couldnt have been more than five or six, starts playing with one while her Mom is talking to the lady running the stand. Now, these folks must have been deep into their conversation because the little girl has the ball ripped out of her tiny hands by a gust of wind and the ball sails about 50 feet away. The girl chases after the ball and comes close to catching it and the ball sails away a little further. This gets repeated a few times until she finally catches it. She holds up the ball in victory, and you guessed it, the ball gets blown out of her hands again! She had the ball blown out of her hands three more time before she got it back to the ball vendor. Not sure if I'd take my eyes off of my daughter that long, though, if she were still that age.
We had a good counter service meal at Electric Umbrella and then headed out towards Soarin. I was actually looking forward to riding "Living with the Land" as I had never riden it before. (I rode Soarin at California Adventure). Unfortunately, it was closed for refurbishment and that got me in a sour mood when we got in queue for Soarin. Soarin, though, cheered me right up! The ride is identical to the one in California. I think I like the building at DCA a bit better, but that's just my preference. I really think they should think of renaming this to the original Soaring over California. Retheme the area with a lot of California-ish theming and make it out to be a whirlwind tour of California by hang glider. You could even go so far as theming the queue areas to the California that Walt Disney knew and loved. The building that the ride is in now and the themeing of the queue just doesnt work for me.
As for the ride itself, my wife and I love it. The soundtrack is probably one of the best for a Disney attraction anywhere. The smells of the pine trees, orange groves, and the ocean really add to the immersion of the ride.
Next up was Journey into the Imagination, which is a ride neither of us have done before. We had a marvelous time on the ride! Figment is awesome. So awesome, that I got a Figment stuffed animal to put in my den at home and I got my picture taken with him.
We headed back and did Test Track and Mission Space one more time and also hit Spaceship Earth a couple of times. Then it was time for dinner.
We had ADRs at the Biergarten in Germany. We took the water taxi over from Mexico. My wife and I have eatten at the Biergarten on every visit to WDW. It is one of our must sees. I like the restaurant because it reminds me a lot of my time spent in Germany with the US Military. For her it is the Spaetzle. She talks about that spaetzle all the time in between trips to the world.
We were seated with a family that had triplets (fraternal, two girls and a boy). It was their birthday and the Biergarten went out of their way to make those kids happy
I love watching the band. We stayed for two of their shows and I sang along with just about every song. Everyone at our table thought I was from Germany because I knew all the words <<blush>>I am not a big drinker, but I do love German beer, so I had their German beer flight. It was four glasses of beer (small glasses, mind you). Two light, two dark. All different brands. It was definately worth the ten bucks I paid for it.
After dinner, and being barely able to move because we were so full, we hit all the countries from Germany to Mexico. We hit both the Maelstrom and the Rio del Tiempo as well. I had a blast in the Norway shop after Maelstrom, trying on the Viking hats and getting my pictures taken with the troll. My wife wanted me to get a pinata in Mexico for my God-daughter's up coming birthday party, but I figured it would cost more to ship it home than the pinata actually cost.
We got out of the park just before the fireworks show. We saw it the last two times we visited and we didnt want to deal with the busses afterwards. It was bad enough, anyways, trying to get out of there, as we still waited a good half hour for a bus.
10/1 Animal Kingdom, MGM Studios, Downtown Disney.
This was our pickup day for the most part. We wanted to knock out what we didnt see at Animal Kingdom and at MGM Studios. The Tom Joyner Family Reunion was going on that weekend, so crowds were abnormally heavy getting into Animal Kingdom.
We made a beeline for the Festival of the Lion King show. It was about as far off the beaten path as you could get. We have seen this show every time we are at Animal Kingdom and we love it. We were in the elephant section this time. Lion King is definately in my top five for Disney movies. We sang along to all the songs and had a blast.
After the show we headed over to DinoLand USA. Grabbed a fast pass for Dinosaur and rode Primeval Whirl real quick. 40 minute posted wait time turned out to be a virtual walk on. I'm not much for spinning mouse coasters, but this one was quite fun. The brakes at the end need to be adjusted a bit as the lap bar nearly took the wind out of me.
I know a lot of people hate this section of the park because it looks like a huge carnival, but I like it. I think the theming works. These same people have problems with DCA's Paradise Pier, too, and I like that as well. Not many people can see that they went with a neo-Coney Island style there and it works well.
Anyways, back to Animal Kingdom. We hit up Dinosaur. We have riden this before. I think the ride vehicles worked better for Indiana Jones at DL, but, the ride wasn't bad.
We hit up Everest one more time and then left for MGM.
Once we arrived at MGM, we imediately looked for a place to eat. We hit the Backlot Express for counter service. Nothing thrilling. It was just another place to eat. I did take one set of pictures in there, however. They had some buckets of paint (theming for stuff they would keep in a backlot). The paint was probably used for painting attractions, or more likely for attraction signage, as the company that made the paint, Matthew's Paint, does outdoor sign paint primarily. How would I know that? I worked as a consultant for Matthew's Paint for over a year. So, needless to say, I had to get a pic of the paint cans.
We noted the time for the car stunt show and went off to do other attractions. We hit up Star Wars seeing we were right there and then hit up the Great Movie Ride again. We squeezed in the Animation Studio and barely made it in line for the stunt show.
The stunt show was one of the highlights of this trip. I love cars as I have stated before. I liked the chases, the extreme driving, and of course the stunts. The finale was out of this world!
We had enough time to catch a quick spin on Rock-n-rollercoaster and then we left to go downtown. This is where things got a little goofy. We took a bus to the Ticket and Transportation Center figuring that there would be a bus for Downtown Disney there. Nope. Come to learn that the only place you can get a bus for Downtown is at a resort. I was fuming as I had already dealt with enough crap from the transportation system. We took the resort monorail over to the Polynesian and got a bus there.
We had ADR's at House of Blues. I am a huge fan of Blues music so this was a natural choice for us. Dinner was fair at best and overpriced. I was upset that none of the merchandise they offered in their store came in a size larger than a large. I guess only good looking thin people can wear their clothing. I seem to remember the House of Blues at Downtown Disney in Anaheim being much much better. (I do have a shirt from there
)We spent the rest of the evening shopping. We bought souvineers for the kids. My son got a generic WDW shirt without any characters. My daughter got a tink purse and a bunch of other tink accessories. I picked up a few shirts for myself and my wife did the same. We also got birthday gifts for my soon to be 10 year old god daughter. She also loves tinkerbell, so she got a smaller tink purse and a bunch of tink accessories.
10/2 - Typhoon Lagoon / Magic Kingdom - Chef Mickey's
We managed to get up real early and made it out for the bus to Typhoon Lagoon for extra magic hour! If you go to either waterpark, I would advise hitting the extra magic hour, if, for nothing else, to get a good spot for your stuff. We had a choice of wherever we wanted and when we left there were absolutely no spots and about twenty people wanting our spot.
Highlights at the park included the Shark Reef, Crush 'n' Gusher, the lazy river, and of course, the wave pool. I of course had to hit the Shark Reef as it was the place that spurred my interest in snorkling and diving. I thought it was a bit over the top that we had to listen to the whole spiel on how to snorkel every time we did the attraction. Lots of sharks, rays, and several species of tropical fish. Good times.
Tried out Crush'n'Gusher and I was a little disappointed in it. I was expecting a more thrilling ride with the uphill sections. In the end it just seemed like another water slide.
We headed back to the hotel to change and took a power nap and then headed out to Magic Kingdom. There were only two attractions we really wanted to hit. Lines were attrocious at just about every ride. Still, we managed to hit Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean before getting to Splash Mountain.
Now, I know this is strange, but this was my first time riding Splash Mountain at WDW. My other visits had my wife too scared to ride and lines too long to wait without her. I managed to get her on the one at DL back in March, which was also my first time on that one! She was miserable on the one at DL because it was really cold that day and she got soaked.
This time, however, it was over ninety degrees and super humid. We wanted to get wet!
We thoroughly enjoyed the ride but didnt get wet. I think this one is far superior to it's DL cousin. I really found myself getting into the storyline and even singing the songs. We rode this twice and then headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railway.
We rode this both of our previous visits, but still enjoyed it. Some parents brought on a terrified little girl and she was screaming bloody murder the entire ride. I really felt sorry for her that her parents would force her to ride. Most ride accidents involving kids occur because a parent forced their kid to ride and the kid freaked out and tried to exit the ride vehicle while it was in motion.
We hit Splash Mountain one more time and then took the train back to the front of the park. We did some shopping on Main Street and then left the park.
We took the monorail over to Contemporary Resort, where we would be dining at Chef Mickey's. This was an ADR I didnt want to make, but my wife insisted. I had no interest in being an adult with no kids in a character dining situation. I have to say, however, that I was pleasantly surprised. While I didnt see any other kidless couples there, I found that the characters paid as much attention to us as they did the tables with kids. Actually, some of them, Dale especially, spent more time with us!
We had Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Chip and Dale all visit us. Donald Duck was out by the buffet where you could get your picture taken with him. We had a late reservation so we were there until the characters packed it up for the night. They ended up hitting our tables several times each as the restaurant started to clear out. My wife got to dance with Dale, which made her evening. We also witnessed Dale stealing some guys umbrella and Dale provoking Mickey with it! Good times! We got a really nice view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks and then we left to go back to the hotel.
10/3 - Epcot pt 2
This was our last park day at Disney for this trip. The next day we would be going home. We didnt want to go home. We wanted our Magic to continue!
We hit Epcot around noon. Again the park was packed, but even moreso than last time. Once we got in, we waited, yes, waited 10 minutes to get onto Spaceship Earth!
We hit up the Electric Umbrella afterwards and got lunch. That place is really convenient!
We did Test Track and Mission Space a couple times each and then headed over to Soarin. We balked at the 90 minute wait and went over to the world showcase.
We took our time in each country, looking at the various shops and exhibits. We had pictures taken of us in each country. Did a little shopping in Japan, buying my son an Inuyahsa shirt (he loves that show), and my wife buying some clothes there.
After World Showcase we headed back over to Soarin and found the line alot shorter. We grabbed a quick ride and then went over to Innoventions to kill some time before our ADR.
Our ADR was at the Coral Reef restaurant in the Living Seas. We asked for a table by the glass when we got there and they accomadated us without a problem! I ordered steak as I felt funny about eatting fish in front of a giant fish tank. The food was excellent! I think I had a steak or something along those lines. My wife had a mushroom pasta that was made specially for her because of her dietary needs.
We saw sharks, turtles, huge schools of fish, and even a few scuba divers. I kept making jokes about the Full House episode that was filmed at Disney. One of the scenes was filmed in that very restaurant where Danny tries to propose but gets interrupted by a phone call that Michelle is missing. I mocked a proposal and then picked up my cell phone and played around that my daughter was missing. We had a great time!
After dinner we hit Mission Space and Test Track one more time and then did Spaceship Earth as our final Disney attraction for this vacation.
Afterwards we headed downtown for one last shopping spree, picking up a few more shirts. My wife picked up a pirate rubber ducky for her Dad because he had mentioned before the tropical storm hit that we might need a rubber ducky. With all of our purchases done we headed to the hotel to pack.
10/4 Boma & Departure
We awoke early on our last day and we quickly got our luggage checked in for our flight and got our boarding passes. We checked in our carry on luggage at the bellhop stand and then picked up a bus for Animal Kingdom. Once at AK, we got a bus for AKL.
Our last ADR was for Boma. We heard great things about their breakfast buffet. We werent disappointed. Really good food. Great scenery. Wonderful theming. Very friendly staff. I really love those huge sausages they had there. Also, the omlettes were top notch.
After Boma we headed back to All-Star. We puttered around the resort for a little bit while we waited for our bus to take us to the airport.
Once at the airport, we hit the Disney store there for one last immersion in Disney. I think my wife and I both nearly cried when we walked out fo there. We had such a wonderful vacation and we didnt want it to end.
Ironically, there was a couple that got on the bus with us at All Star Music and we literally followed them all the way home. (well, at least to our home airport). They rode the bus with us. They were on our first flight. And we nearly passed out when we saw them get on the plane for our second flight.
Observations:
Hotel: (C+) The resort itself was very beautiful with a lot of bright eye candy around. The pools looked nice but I remember Caribbean Beach having a better pool. The Mousekeeping was horrible. Our room was rarely clean and we had to complain several times about the shoddy upkeep. In many ways it seemed like we were being treated like second class citizens because we were staying at a value resort. There was little of the Disney charm in the cast members that worked there. When I stayed at Caribbean Beach, the cast members there, whether they were maids, lifeguards, the cashier at the food court, or the lady checking you in, all had smiles on their faces and they were ALWAYS asking if you were having a good day. Most of the cast members at ASMu would not even acknowledge you.
Transportation: (F) Next time I am renting a car. The Disney Transportation system needs a serious overhaul. I heard several guests complaining that if they had to take buses on their next vacation that they would either not come again or they would not stay in a Disney Resort. Key word here is several, as in a lot. We heard it on every bus trip we took because they all sucked. We ended up complaining to guest services about this numerous times.
The Parks: (A+) Wonderful as always and very magical. I really appreciated the parks more this time because of the Keys to the Kingdom tour.
We are already planning our next Disney vacation. We will be taking my daughter as a graduation present after she graduates in the spring. She will probably be helping us plan this vacation so she knows how to do it for her own kids when she gets older.
