rubberband1293
Hakuna Matata!
- Joined
- May 28, 2005
- Messages
- 145
My famiy of 4 just returned last night from a week-long trip to WDW and it was by far the best vacation ever! (It was also the most expensive ever, but who cares!) We have gone to WDW before, and each trip has been better than the last because we have learned from past mistakes. We don't even use guidebooks anymore - we know what we want to do and the order we need to do it in.
We drove 11 hours and arrived at Port Orleans Riverside at 9:30AM on 7-2-05 and our room was ready when we got there. I was prepared to leave our luggage in our van and get our tickets and spend the afternoon at Downtown Disney - but we were able to check in at 9:30 in the morning! POR was perfect; the CM's, the grounds, and of course our room. We then spent the afternoon at DisneyQuest to avoid afternoon showers. The next morning, we were among the first in line at Epcot - OUTSTANDING EXPERIENCE! The crowds were low and the longest we had to wait for anything (including food) was 20 minutes. On July 4th we went to Animal Kingdom (I knew Epcot and Magic Kingdon would be packed!) and were pleasantly surprised at the low turn-out. We rode the safaris twice, Dinosaur trice (back to back with no line) and the Kali rapids back to back (again with no line)! We waited 10 minutes to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald at Camp Minnie-Mickey; 10 minutes for Festival of the Lion King and walked right into Pocahantas' show! The next day we went to MGM (first thing in the morning). Again the crowds were low in the morning and we rode everything we wanted to and did not have to use fast pass until the afternoon! I think we saw every show there and had a great time! Had PS for SciFi and the kids loved it! They had never been to a drive-in before! The kids had a lot of fun with all the different characters and they were truly everywhere in the park. It rained for about 20 minutes and that only made the park better because apparently a lot of folks left the park thinking the rain "had set in" for the afternoon. We did the dinner and Fantasmic package - ate at Hollywood and Vine (pretty good!) and had great seats for the show! Magic Kingdom was next and once again I was surprised at the low crowds - this all during the week of July 4th! We did all the rides and shows before 2PM - then returned to our room for a few hours before returning for the Spectromagic parade and fireworks - absolutely fantastic!!! Now we did see and hear some unhappy folks - rudeness abounded but I ignored them. Seems that more and more riff-raff gets in Mickey's world each year - but it is still the best vacation destination around. We had great service everywhere we went. We saw 4 parades, visited 4 parks, DTD and both water parks in 7 days, got pictures with about 20 different characters during the course of the week and I gained 12 pounds at least!!! We went last June and had a great time, but said we'd never return in June due to the heat and humidity. Well this trip was during what I thought would be the absolute worst week of the year (week of July 4th), but it was by far the best week we have ever spent at Disney! Can't wait til next year!
We drove 11 hours and arrived at Port Orleans Riverside at 9:30AM on 7-2-05 and our room was ready when we got there. I was prepared to leave our luggage in our van and get our tickets and spend the afternoon at Downtown Disney - but we were able to check in at 9:30 in the morning! POR was perfect; the CM's, the grounds, and of course our room. We then spent the afternoon at DisneyQuest to avoid afternoon showers. The next morning, we were among the first in line at Epcot - OUTSTANDING EXPERIENCE! The crowds were low and the longest we had to wait for anything (including food) was 20 minutes. On July 4th we went to Animal Kingdom (I knew Epcot and Magic Kingdon would be packed!) and were pleasantly surprised at the low turn-out. We rode the safaris twice, Dinosaur trice (back to back with no line) and the Kali rapids back to back (again with no line)! We waited 10 minutes to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald at Camp Minnie-Mickey; 10 minutes for Festival of the Lion King and walked right into Pocahantas' show! The next day we went to MGM (first thing in the morning). Again the crowds were low in the morning and we rode everything we wanted to and did not have to use fast pass until the afternoon! I think we saw every show there and had a great time! Had PS for SciFi and the kids loved it! They had never been to a drive-in before! The kids had a lot of fun with all the different characters and they were truly everywhere in the park. It rained for about 20 minutes and that only made the park better because apparently a lot of folks left the park thinking the rain "had set in" for the afternoon. We did the dinner and Fantasmic package - ate at Hollywood and Vine (pretty good!) and had great seats for the show! Magic Kingdom was next and once again I was surprised at the low crowds - this all during the week of July 4th! We did all the rides and shows before 2PM - then returned to our room for a few hours before returning for the Spectromagic parade and fireworks - absolutely fantastic!!! Now we did see and hear some unhappy folks - rudeness abounded but I ignored them. Seems that more and more riff-raff gets in Mickey's world each year - but it is still the best vacation destination around. We had great service everywhere we went. We saw 4 parades, visited 4 parks, DTD and both water parks in 7 days, got pictures with about 20 different characters during the course of the week and I gained 12 pounds at least!!! We went last June and had a great time, but said we'd never return in June due to the heat and humidity. Well this trip was during what I thought would be the absolute worst week of the year (week of July 4th), but it was by far the best week we have ever spent at Disney! Can't wait til next year!
We plan to go back in October 2006 and will stay there again. 
