Cheerleaders, Brazillians and Yetis--Oh My! (Day 5-Post 15)

[bekkiz]

I can only hope and dream the rest of this will be half as clever as the title. I apologize in advance for my lack of wit!

Me: 26, Disney-aholic who, due to a lack of a real job has been pretty much obsessing over this trip for the past 3 months.

DH: 27 turning 28 who is simply along for the ride, but had no problems making fun of my Mouse House radio addiction in the weeks leading up to the trip

I conned the Hubs into this trip a looong time ago. Before we bought a house and moved 900 miles away. That’s right, I knew we were going to move and I got him to buy airplane tickets anyway. Luckily I had the foresight to purchase them for the new home airport, instead of the one at our old house. The trip was planned between our 3rd anniversary and the DH’s birthday, so we got two celebrations in one!

So we moved and it was wonderful. I was looking for teaching jobs, tutoring jobs—all sorts of things, until I found out I was a likely candidate for major back surgery. I have a fracture in my spine that causes all sorts of problems and at the end of the summer, the wonderful spine specialists suggested that spinal fusion is the best way to ensure a long and less painful existence.

*I will admit here and now I ignored pretty much every health warning I saw on our trip. My pain level can be aggravated by rides and stuff (like walking and emptying the dishwasher, which is why my house is a mess ) but the injury can’t really get worse. I was not endangering my health in any way. Just so that that’s out there*

Now I was REALLY looking forward to the trip. I would need some awesome memories to get me through a 3-4 month bed rest. We scheduled the surgery for January 8th, well after the trip and all the holiday festivities. The other consequence of the trip was it severely limited my job taking ability. Who would hire someone for a couple of months who then needed a medical leave of absence? Ummm..no one. I did take a very part-time and low-paying coaching position to kill time, but really, my days were filled with Disboards goodness!

My mom and sister actually also went to WDW, just before Thanksgiving, so I also was helping them plan their trip. I love playing travel agent, even if I don't get paid.

Just the basics before we move on:
December 2-10 at the Coronado Springs Resort, with 7 day PH passes and the dining plan. We also planned one day at Islands of Adventure.

Here's a link for the dining reviews along the way:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=15958313#post15958313

 

[bekkiz]

Departure Day, Dec. 2

When we bought the tickets 8 months ago, we were set to arrive in Orlando at 8:15 pm. Not the most conducive to first day fun. However, American changed the flights a few months later and we were now going to arrive at MCO at 5:45—much better! Of course that meant we left Seattle at 7:30 in the morning (ack!), necessitating a 4:30 am wake up call. However, I felt just like the kids in the Disney commerical—“I’m too excited to sleep!” and I think I finally fell asleep around 2 am.

The early morning drive to the parking lot was uneventful. We parked and quickly hopped on the shuttle to the airport. The magical check-in computer offered us an upgrade for the 2nd leg of the flight for a mere $180 a person. All of the eye-batting and puppy dog faces I could muster was not going to get DH to agree. Our bags were well under the weight limit (for once! Woo hoo!) and we had our boarding passes.

Adam had eaten some doughnettes in the car, but I needed some sustenance. Because I am an airport savvy kind of girl, I knew not to wait in the 30 person deep Starbucks line in the central terminal. There would be shorter lines and more choices down the road. Instead I picked up an egg and cheese bagel and a cranberry juice closer to our gate.

*Another aside. I have never been as prepared as I was for this Disney trip. Due, probably, to my never ending reading of the tips board, I bought all sorts of things we might need. I started taking Ziacam 3 days before the trip as a precaution. I also bought not 1, but 2 Tide pens to combat my seemingly genetic disposition to spilling things on myself.*

I had barely opened the cranberry juice when it dripped down the front of my shirt and jeans. I was a little unsure about the Tide pen’s effectiveness on bright red juice. But never fear, the juice stain vanished almost immediately. This will not be the end of the Tide pen’s heroic powers…

Flights were fine. A little late getting into Dallas, but the flight to MCO was also slightly delayed, so we had time to grab some lunch (DH had Pizza Hut and I have Mickey D’s). The MCO flight was “overbooked” and offering travel vouchers, but honestly, neither one of us was willing to wait around for another couple of hours. It was weird though, they were looking for 2 voulenters to give up their seats, and there were at least 2 seats in first class open. Why not just bump someone up? Whatever, we were on our way!

We landed at MCO about 15 minutes late, and quickly made our way to the Magical Express counter. This was our first time using ME, and we were somewhat unsure of how it was going to go. And so begins our participation in Disney’s version of Waiting for Godot.

We waited (it seemed) a very long time to actually get on a bus. Many of the other lines moved rather quickly, but we waited, and waited and waited.

Actually, it really wasn’t THAT long; I mean it is a free service, so really, who am I to complain? From the time we got in line to the time we arrived at the hotel, it was about an hour and 10 minutes (maybe an hour and 30 from when we got off the airplane.) I think I was just anxious to get to Disney.

We checked in, with a reasonably short line (about 3 people in front of us.) We received an excellent room location, in building 9B, closest to El Centro. We had a king bed room, which was also handicapped accessible with a roll in shower and no tub. At first we weren’t to sure about the shower, and thought about switching rooms, but in then end decided it wasn’t a big deal, and the closeness to El Centro outweighed the lack of tub. By the end of the week, I liked the roominess of the shower and the hand held shower head, so it all worked out!

Our room was in pretty good shape. The door to the fridge cabinet was broken, so you had to be careful when opening it. We had a couple of towel animals in the window as well. Really cute! We dropped off our carry-ons and headed out to Downtown Disney for some dinner.

More waiting! I think we must have just missed a DTD bus, because it was about 20-25 minutes before another one came. The weather was warm with a slight breeze, and I was just so happy to be there, I didn’t care.

We had already decided to eat at Earl of Sandwich and it would be our first use of the dining plan. DH was still a bit confused on how the whole the worked, but he trusted me to not lead us astray.

After dinner, we did a bit of shopping. I HAD to hit Basin to stock up on their Body Butter—I just love that stuff. We also picked up some gifts for the family there. We walked through the World of Disney, but it being a Saturday night, it was pretty crowded. Eventually we made it over to the Pleasure Island bus stop and made our way back to CSR.

I was really excited to see our luggage waiting back in the room when we returned. Except, wait…It’s just my bag, not DH’s! Not good—all of the toiletries are in his bag, so I can’t take out my contacts or anything. We put a call into the luggage people (it had been 4 hours since we landed) and they couldn’t tell us anything. They said not to worry but that they were really backed up and the bag might still be at the airport! I just thought it was really weird that one bag made it and not the other.

Finally, after another call to the luggage people and DH made a trip to Bell Services, the bag finally arrived. At midnight. 6 hours after we landed! It’s ok, they made it and we could finally go to sleep!

 

[lynn71092]

Great report so far!!

 

[OhMari]

I don't have much luck with the tide pens. It yellowed my white shirt. My dd had better luck with it, when she spilled some "non-alcholic margarita on her pants."

 

[bekkiz]

Day 2, Dec. 3rd

Animal Kingdom is my absolute favorite park, and it makes sense that we would start our trip there. Expedition Everest hadn’t opened the last time we were at WDW, and I was excited to see the new Finding Nemo show. We made it over in time for the Opening Ceremonies, which I had never seen before. It was really cute! We also saw the talking palm tree, Wes Palm, while we waited

We, of course, headed straight for EE, but it was apparently having troubles. DH grabbed a FP, and we sort of hung around while they sorted out the technical difficulties. By 9:30, they had people on the ride and we hopped right in line, which moved quickly. WOW! This is my new favorite ride. It is just awesome.

The day was quite warm, and we had only brought jeans with us (silly weather reports—I shouldn’t listen !) Of course, AK always feels a lot hotter than it is too. The Safari ride was great as usual. I had never seen so many elephants, including two babies (not including Little Red ).

We also made it over to Finding Nemo: The Musical. This plus EE really cements AK as my favorite. Although Nemo was having some trouble with the spotlights, the puppets and performers were quite good and it was a really fun show! We hit Pizzafari for lunch before heading back to CSR for a nap.

After some rest, and turtle watching (the water at CSR is full of them!) we headed out to MGM for the Osborne Lights. We weren’t sure about the crowds, so I didn’t expect to really get on the rides, but luckily it was pretty quiet. We got on TOT faster than ever before—there was literally no one in front of us the whole way through the line. We also hopped in line for RnR. There was a big group of teenager types in front of us, trying to figure out how to get on the same car with their friends still outside. I really don’t understand the draw, you can only sit next to one person!

This was our first time seeing the Osborne lights in a while, and I loved the dancing effect. It was so cool, especially with the Trans Siberian Orchestra music. The snow was kind of fun too.

We headed back to CSR for dinner at the Pepper Market and a walk around the resort. It is SO pretty at night. Just a quick tip, we bough some milk to have in the mornings. In the Pepper Market a little ½ pint is 1.60 or something. If you go to the gift shop closer to the check-in area, you can get a quart for 1.75. A much better deal!

 

[PrincessNED]

Great start - look forward to both this and your dining review

 

[amamed1]

I was there during the same time as you, Dec. 4-11th, looking forward to hearing how your trip went.

 

[scrap4u]

Great start. Can't wait to read more!

 

[kimwim8]

Hey Bekki! What a GREAT start to your trip report! I look forward to reading more. Do you have any pictures to share??

 

[bekkiz]

Day 3, Dec. 4th

Another early morning and we got to Epcot right at opening again. Their opening ceremonies are not nearly as cute as the AK ones!

Like everyone else and their mother, we headed over to the Land side of the park before the lines for Soarin got too outrageous. It’s the only ride all week that had a wait over an hour, at least from what we saw. I think at one point it was 110 minutes. I love that ride, but that’s a bit ridiculous. We were in line behind a really cute family and the parents were SO excited their son was going to ride. It was so cute to see the whole family getting into it. We also hit Living with the Land and saw some monstrous pumpkins hanging in the air.

Over at Living Seas, we rode the new Nemo and Friends ride. Technically speaking, it’s pretty darn cool. However, the message is LAME. Nemo comes across as quite a naughty little fish and I’m not sure that’s a great thing for parents to be celebrating with their kids. I was also very disappointed to see so many of the fishy exhibits taken out from the upstairs area. We loved to look at the cuttlefish and they were all gone. We saw a little girl, maybe 8 months old, in a totally adorable Crush/Squirt outfit. I looked for it later at DTD, but never saw one. It really made me smile.

From Epcot, we headed over to the Wilderness Lodge for lunch at the Whispering Canyon Café. We didn’t stick around too long after lunch, because we were anxious to get over to the Magic Kingdom.

The lines were SO short for everything at MK, we had no problem riding what we wanted. Space Mt. and Buzz were both walk-ons, and Tomorowland in general seemed empty. We did see a young teenage boy (maybe one of the football players there for Pop Warner?) yell “Is that the Seahawks?” and make a mad dash for…well, I don’t know. But we thought it was hilarious, mostly because we had no idea what he was talking about! Also, I don’t spend a ton of time with tween aged kids anymore, so I’m not super familiar with the High School Musical craze. But we did catch a minute or two of the show walking through Tomorrowland, and let’s just say, I’m kind of glad I haven’t seen the movie. Not my cup of tea! But I understand it’s a huge hit with the 6-12 set, so that’s good. I had Grease and Dirty Dancing—they can have High School Musical.

We dodged a bullet on Splash and didn’t get wet, save a few drops. I didn’t want to tempt fate, so I avoided it for the rest of the trip. We tried the new and improved Pirates and had an AWESOME skipper on the Jungle cruise. I couldn’t stop giggling. Looping around to the Tiki room killed some time and we decided to hit Pirates one more time before trying to escape the masses before closing.

Big mistake, we got stuck for about 20 minutes at the part with the pigs in a boat full of people who seemed compelled to break the rules. Flash photography, sticking their hands in the water and standing up in the boat. Usually I try to just let that stuff go, but being stuck there and having to watch it just made me crazy. It didn’t help that once we finally escaped every other person in the park was trying to leave (it was just as the fireworks ended) and so it was crazy trying to make it out to the bus stop.

We headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma. We had a really neat experience as we were finishing up. The table next to us obviously knew the chefs at Boma, and our waitress mentioned that one of the people is the head chef over at the Garden Grill. They got this huge plate of truffles and fried oreos, and honestly I couldn’t help but staring. It looked so cool. The plate was one of the biggest I had ever seen! Because I was very rudely staring, I noticed that one of the women had gotten chocolate on her sleve. “Tide Pen!” I exclaimed to myself, and got it out of the backpack to hand to her. Chef Tony thanked us and shared a fried oreo with us, explaining that he used to work at Boma and now runs the Garden Grill. It was really cool, and made up for a ho-hum dining experience (see the dining report for a run down!). After dinner we walked out to the “people pod” to check out the animals. There were a number getting their evening snack, and we had a great talk with the CM there. It was getting pretty chilly, so I felt bad she had to stand out there!

We met a nice family from Mississippi while waiting for the bus to MGM and chatted with them for a while. It was Evening EMH at MGM so we went to see if we could sneak another ride or two—or even the Osborne Lights. It was a bit crowded, but the lights made up for it!

Since we had been to all four parks and DTD, plus ridden all of the rides--we decided to go home....Just Kidding! But considering all the brou-haha about Pop Warner and the conventions, we found the waits to be short and all of the crowds were very light. It was a nice surprise. It would be even more obvious tomorrow!

 

[kimwim8]

Another great installment. Fried oreos, huh? Sounds delish!

I was in WDW last December during Pop Warner week and had short lines too, and no interaction with the football players or cheerleaders. I absolutely would go at that time again.

 

[Gregory]

Thanks for the TR. Can't wait for more.

 

[bekkiz]

Day 4, Dec. 5th

After a couple early mornings, I thought it would be good to let DH sleep in a bit! I picked up some cherry danishes from the Pepper market (yea for snack credits!) and we took a cab over to Islands of Adventure. From CSR is was about $30 and took maybe 20-25 minutes. Even though we arrived at IOA almost 2 hours after opening, the park was EMPTY. We have always started our trips to Orlando with a night or two at a Universal resort, to take advantage of their Front of the Line privileges, and I was nervous about not doing that this time. My fears were totally unwarranted as we did not wait in a single line the entire day. Just as an example, DH was able to ride the Fire dragon (one of the roller coasters) a total of 16 times in the 5.5 hours we were at the park. He could get of the train, go through the “re-ride” line and get back on the same train, often the same seat, before it left again. I was nervous about putting too much stress on my back, so I rode many fewer times (4 or 5!).

We hit all of the major rides over and over, although we avoided the water rides; I hate getting wet and it was a chilly day. I spent much of the day people watching and I noticed a lot of poorly chosen shoes. I know this is a common topic ‘round the ‘Net, but seriously, pointy toed, snakeskin heels while you’re pushing a stroller? I won’t even wear those if I’m going to a wedding, there’s no way in heck I’m pulling them out to go to a theme park. The only ride with a line more than 5 minutes was the little kid’s ride Pteranodon Flyers Ride. I don’t even know what the ride is, as you have to have or be a kid to ride, but it was funny to see the electronic wait board. Everything is 5 minutes, except that ride—45 minutes!

We left earlier than we thought we would, basically because we ran out of things to do! It’s funny how fast you can get through a park where there’s no one there. We hopped back in a cab that took us to Downtown Disney. Because our time was off, due to the early departure, we had some time to kill before dinner, and got in some shopping. We don’t have kids yet, but some of our friends are starting to have them. I love shopping for presents for the little ones. A friend is due in February with a little girl and we found just the cutest little Tinkerbell onesie! I’m in trouble once we start having kids, I won’t be able to stop myself.

We had dinner at Raglan Road and brought dessert home with us for an early night and some TV. One weird thing, I was finishing up in the shower and DH was getting ready for his turn, when someone opened the door to the room. I think it was security, I’m not sure, but he said we had called. I yelled “it wasn’t us” and he apologized and left. It was really weird. We were more careful to bolt the door after that.

 

[Lauralee131]

Great report so far!! I can't wait to read the rest!!!

 

[bekkiz]

Day 5, Dec. 6th

We wanted to get to MK at opening so we could get on some of the Fantasyland rides. The wake-up call started with the Tiki Room song, followed by Stich and Mickey. I hadn’t heard of that happening before, it was a cute surprise.

We had no problems riding everything we wanted, including some of the Fantasyland rides (Pooh, Peter Pan and Small World). Later in the day some of the rides had up to 30 minute waits, but we were able to use Fast Pass to avoid them. We actually got a Fast Pass for Big Thunder, and then rode the train around twice to kill the wait time. That was an excellent break. I had never been on the WDW train before, only the DL one, and I kept waiting for the dinosaurs!

We lunched at the Columbia Harbor House and grabbed a snack from the Main Street Bakery (Key Lime Cheesecake) before heading back to CSR for a rest.

We hit AK for the nighttime EMH because I had never been to AK in the dark before. We knew that we would probably not do most of the rides, because of the crowds. We were able to get on EE twice, once using the single rider line and once in the regular line. We also saw the Lion King Show. It’s really fun and high energy, but I think I like Nemo more. A man who used to be in the show as one of the main singers was visiting and in the audience. It was fun to see all of the other performers wave or give him high-fives. He looked like he was having a great time!

We took a bus over to the Poly for dinner at the Kona Café. After dinner we walked around the grounds, because neither of us had been there in some time. I would love to stay there some day, the renovated rooms look really nice. I could hear the music for the Electric Water Parade, but didn’t see it. DH thought I was making it up! We hopped on the Monorail. At first we thought we should go to Epcot to take the bus home, but realized it was probably a mob scene. We made the game time decision that busses were probably still running at MK (it had closed about 30 minutes earlier). That was a great call, as a CSR bus was waiting for us and there was no one else around. If we had gone to Epcot, we would have probably had to wait for some time to get on the bus!

Another sort of early night and we were off to sleep soon after making it back to the hotel.