Did I Hear That Right? A Solo Adventure at WDW Updated 8/30

[Pluto0809]

Well, I'm finally back! I had a wonderful week with Mom but then came back to a huge pile on my desk. I'm finally caught up with work so now I'm trying to get caught up on everyone else's TRs and PTRs. If I haven't posted in a while, I promise I'm going to get there soon!

Mom and I did a lot of shopping and visiting with family members. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures but thought I would share what I did take. These are all off my cell phone because I didn't take my camera with me.

We tried to go to a Pirates baseball game one night. When we got to our seats, this was the view:



Less than ten minutes later, this is what the sky looked like!



And then it rained and rained and rained. We stuck it out for about two hours but my Brother and SIL who where with us had to work the next day. We finally had to head out. The game didn't end up starting till after 10 pm! But on the way back to the car, we saw this beautiful site.



On another day, my Mom, Brother and I went to the Whiskey Rebellion Festival in Washington, PA. They had food, crafts, tours of historical buildings and also did a lot of historical reinactments like this picture.



We also watched a canon demonstation that shook the whole street and left my ears ringing for hours.

I managed to find a dress for the Disney wedding in February. Sorry this is a bad picture but it should give you a bit of an idea of what the dress looks like. One of my friends at work thinks the top part looks like Cinderella's castle.



Now I just need to find a very subtle black Disney clutch purse to go with it. I'm thinking leather with just a mickey head etched into it. No idea if I will be able to find something like that!

And finally a picture of my Mom's little dog, Izzie. She is a absolute sweetheart and helped me to not miss my fur babies so much.



And that's it from the trip. I hope to have an actual TR update posted sometime this afternoon.

 

[Pluto0809]

On Monday, I was up at 6:00 am, had my usual breakfast and was on a bus to Epcot by 8:15 am. First though, my day started with this:



The dreaded Magical Express envelope! Luckily all of the information was correct so I didn’t need to call and make changes like I did during my November trip. DME would be picking me up at 8:25 am the next morning.

It was still very cold and I had my double layer of sweatshirts on but it was supposed to warm up some that day. Check out the steam coming off of the pool:



Sometime during the morning, DH had sent me this picture from our backyard:



It had snowed the night before, in Atlanta, in March! As cold as it was on this morning, at least I had missed the snow. And yes for all you northern people I know that really doesn’t count as snow. I did grow up in Pennsylvania after all.

I got to Epcot to find this at bag check:



Luckily the line moved fast and it wasn’t long before I was in the entrance line at around 8:45 am.

They let us in right at 9 am and I followed the rest of the crowd and headed here.



I grabbed a FP and then got in line.





So once again, I took horrible notes this day but I do know that I ended up in the front row all three times I rode Soarin’ this morning, one time in each section, A, B and C. But I have no idea which ride was which.





I finished up my first Soarin’ ride at 9:30 am. By this time, the stand-by line was 60 minutes long. I thought about heading over to Test Track so I could wait in the regular line and do a design. But that whole process just did not interest me. Instead, I headed over and walked on Living with the Land. Once again I was foiled and did not get any decent pictures during the beginning section. But after we headed out into the greenhouse, I took the usual 1000 pictures.









Star Fruit is one of my favorite fruits. I love how pretty it looks when it is cut and add it to fruit salads quite often.





Continued in Next Post

 

[Pluto0809]

Continued From Previous Post

More LWTL pictures:













They didn’t have the Mickey Head made out of lettuce this time but if you look closely, the top one spells out “Epcot”.









It was ten minutes till my Soarin’ FP when I got off of LWTL so I walked around a bit and took some pictures.









Once the time on my first FP became available, I pulled a second FP for Soarin’ that would be good at 11:40 am (if you can’t tell, I really like that ride) and then got in line with my first one. I had another wonderful flight over California and then headed out of the Land to find some more adventure.

Up Next: Strangest Trip of My Life

 

[KatMark]

Sorry about the rain when you attempted the ballgame. They started it after 10 p.m.? Boy, that must not have ended until almost one in the morning.

Great start to your Epcot Day; well, with the exception of that ugly envelope with the ME information in it.

I love Soarin' too (I just wish they'd fix that darn screen).

I never get great pictures in the beginning of The Land either.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Sounds like you had a great trip with your Mom. I can see the Castle in that dress!

Riding Soarin three times in one day? I'm jealous! I haven't managed to squeeze it in more than twice in a day so far.

I never get good pictures in the first part of LWTL either, the lighting is so weird in there. Great greenhouse pics though!

 

[ronnmel]

Welcome back! I'm glad you had a great time, despite the rain that one evening.

Sounds like a relaxing morning, with Soarin and LWTL.

 

[DisneyDoc5]

I have been lurking a bit, but have to just say thank you for your TR, I am really enjoying it. I will have a brief solo trip in September for a conference, so I am gaining inspiration from you. I also love furry babies (see my avatar). Glad you had a nice visit to your mom!

Happy Night!
Erin

 

[jonesy445]

wow!!! i love hearing about your trip!!! Technically i've never been on a solo trip...but when i worked as a cm in the UK pavilion i used to always go wandering off on my own round the hotels and parks!!! i find it so much less stressfull than having to drag various family members around. Lat June i was there with 9 other family members ranging in age from 72 to 1 years old... that was stressfull. But this year it just me and mum and dad... Can't wait!

Love the Disney trivia...actually i thought the Alice question was the easiest...the only one i wasn't sure on were brother bear (alas i don't own it...yet) and the SW one...1 year who knew?

actually my bil gets quite motion sick on star wars...always has done...even when it was the old one. But i love the new one...especially last year when my nephew (who i am training to be a star wars geek) became the rebel spy!! so funny!! oh and i'm not sure if someone else mentioned this (i was too excited by your posts so haven't read all the comments but will go back and read them now) but the prop that you saw but wasn't sure what it was... it is the chess like table from a new hope...the one where C3PO tells R2D2 to "let the wookie win" or at least thats what i think it is based on your pic! oh dear i just let on how much of a geek i am ...oooops! but comeon now we can all be double star wars fans as we eagerly await the new disney movies... JJ Abrahms!!! yay

ok enough of star wars

4 times on SM Wow!!!! on one of my first trips to MK as a CM in WDW some of the more experienced CMs took me on btmr... it was at the end of the night and there were no ques so we convined the CMs on the ride to let us stay on......we did this for 9 trips!!!!! we wanted to do 10 but they had to close ... still i think 9 is pretty good!

I always go to MK when i need to find the magic... did a few times when working there...it can be hard when your family is across the pond but MK always made me feel like i was home again as i had so many lovely childhood memories associated with it. That said...i LOVE EPCOT...but i guess i worked there so that is probably why...so many lovely memories of all the lovely Guests i had to meet...

ok writing this and listening to fantasmic is totally bringing a tear to my eye!!!

anyway i just wanted to say a BIG thankyou for your Trip report!!!! it completely has me in the mood for my september trip now!!!! YAY

 

[jonesy445]

also i love the Fast Pass save the date cards....AWESOME!!!

 

[wiigirl]

Awesome pics!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Welcome home and welcome back to the Disboards, Ariana!!! You missed us, didn't you? Well, we certainly missed you, friend! Glad you had a great time up north with your family!

That is so crazy that you had snow at home while you were at Disney! If your town in GA is anything like where I live, that light little dusting probably shut the whole town down. I lived in Illinois as a teenager and young adult, so it always cracks me up when school is canceled around here due to the THREAT of snow flurries! They have seriously been known to cancel school, and then NOTHING happen with the weather!

Your back to back rides on the headliners really has me thinking I should try a solo trip some time! Now...just have to figure out how to sneak away without the rest of my Disney loving family finding out...

 

[Disney9.9.10]

All caught up!

What a great night at MK! I love the Plaza, and we sat in almost the same spot as you when we went, what a great view! And the food is delicious. MSEP is also so great, I have some great and funny childhood memories from watching that parade.

I'm sorry that you felt sick on Star Tours and had to skip the shop. I am always afraid of that happening. Hopefully it was just a fluke for you.

Sounds like you had a great time with your mom too!

 

[katt789]

Yay! You're back!

Hope you enjoyed the trip with your Mom! Looks like it was a good time!

Glad you tuck it out for Fantasmic, it looks like a good one! I'm surprised to see Meg had her shawl on but Ariel doesn't have anything but the mesh top, differences in people I guess!!


Nice! So many rides on Soarin! That's great!!

 

[Pluto0809]

Sorry about the rain when you attempted the ballgame. They started it after 10 p.m.? Boy, that must not have ended until almost one in the morning.

Great start to your Epcot Day; well, with the exception of that ugly envelope with the ME information in it.

I love Soarin' too (I just wish they'd fix that darn screen).

I never get great pictures in the beginning of The Land either.

Yeah, the rain was a bummer. I felt worse for my Brother and SIL because they bought the tickets for us. If the game had been cancelled, they would have gotten a rain check. But the Pirates were playing the Oakland A's and rescheduling the game would have been hard.

I hate that ME envelope!

I do want them to fix the Soarin' film but that would mean the ride would have to be down for a while. I guess as long as it's not during my trip....

Sounds like you had a great trip with your Mom. I can see the Castle in that dress!

Riding Soarin three times in one day? I'm jealous! I haven't managed to squeeze it in more than twice in a day so far.

I never get good pictures in the first part of LWTL either, the lighting is so weird in there. Great greenhouse pics though!

I did have a wonderful trip with Mom. We really are very good friends and I miss her a whole lot living so far away.

Yep I did Soarin three times! Rope drop worked really well for me on this trip!

I don't think I've ever seen really good pictures from that first part of LWTL. Doesn't stop me from trying and being frustrated every time I ride!

Welcome back! I'm glad you had a great time, despite the rain that one evening.

Sounds like a relaxing morning, with Soarin and LWTL.

I did have a great trip! My morning at Epcot was nice. Since I had already done WS on a previous day, I was able to take my time on this morning.

I have been lurking a bit, but have to just say thank you for your TR, I am really enjoying it. I will have a brief solo trip in September for a conference, so I am gaining inspiration from you. I also love furry babies (see my avatar). Glad you had a nice visit to your mom!

Happy Night!
Erin

Welcome! Glad you joined in! Going solo was a lot of fun. There were some minor downsides but nothing that would ever stop me from doing it again. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

wow!!! i love hearing about your trip!!! Technically i've never been on a solo trip...but when i worked as a cm in the UK pavilion i used to always go wandering off on my own round the hotels and parks!!! i find it so much less stressfull than having to drag various family members around. Lat June i was there with 9 other family members ranging in age from 72 to 1 years old... that was stressfull. But this year it just me and mum and dad... Can't wait!

Yeah, family trips can be stressful but fun too! I like having different types of trips because each is so unique.

Love the Disney trivia...actually i thought the Alice question was the easiest...the only one i wasn't sure on were brother bear (alas i don't own it...yet) and the SW one...1 year who knew?

The trivia was so much fun. I was the only one that knew the answer to the Alice one and there were a lot of people there. I didn't know the Brother Bear one, the young girl next to me got that one.

actually my bil gets quite motion sick on star wars...always has done...even when it was the old one. But i love the new one...especially last year when my nephew (who i am training to be a star wars geek) became the rebel spy!! so funny!! oh and i'm not sure if someone else mentioned this (i was too excited by your posts so haven't read all the comments but will go back and read them now) but the prop that you saw but wasn't sure what it was... it is the chess like table from a new hope...the one where C3PO tells R2D2 to "let the wookie win" or at least thats what i think it is based on your pic! oh dear i just let on how much of a geek i am ...oooops! but comeon now we can all be double star wars fans as we eagerly await the new disney movies... JJ Abrahms!!! yay

The old star tours used to make me slightly nauseous too. I got really sick a few years ago at Universal so I started taking Bonine and it's helped a lot. No idea why I got sick this time!

Thanks for the info on the prop, it was bugging me that I didn't know but as soon as you said what it was I was like, oh yeah!

There is nothing wrong with being a Sci Fi geek. I love most Sci Fi and fantasy movies. The latest Star Trek movie was awesome too!

ok enough of star wars

4 times on SM Wow!!!! on one of my first trips to MK as a CM in WDW some of the more experienced CMs took me on btmr... it was at the end of the night and there were no ques so we convined the CMs on the ride to let us stay on......we did this for 9 trips!!!!! we wanted to do 10 but they had to close ... still i think 9 is pretty good!

Wow, not sure I could do 9 times in a row on any roller coaster! Even with taking the Bonine, it has a bit of a limit as I found out on this trip.

I always go to MK when i need to find the magic... did a few times when working there...it can be hard when your family is across the pond but MK always made me feel like i was home again as i had so many lovely childhood memories associated with it. That said...i LOVE EPCOT...but i guess i worked there so that is probably why...so many lovely memories of all the lovely Guests i had to meet...

I do love Epcot, don't know why I wasn't feeling it this trip. Maybe because Mom and I spent so much time there in November and I was missing her on this trip? For my October trip we are starting at MK. It's just DH and he has no clue so I get to drag him any where I want!

ok writing this and listening to fantasmic is totally bringing a tear to my eye!!!

anyway i just wanted to say a BIG thankyou for your Trip report!!!! it completely has me in the mood for my september trip now!!!! YAY

So glad you joined in! September is not a long way off.

also i love the Fast Pass save the date cards....AWESOME!!!

I know isn't it the best!

Awesome pics!

Thanks!

Welcome home and welcome back to the Disboards, Ariana!!! You missed us, didn't you? Well, we certainly missed you, friend! Glad you had a great time up north with your family!

Of course I missed you guys! I'm still trying to get caught up on everyone's TRs and PTRs.

That is so crazy that you had snow at home while you were at Disney! If your town in GA is anything like where I live, that light little dusting probably shut the whole town down. I lived in Illinois as a teenager and young adult, so it always cracks me up when school is canceled around here due to the THREAT of snow flurries! They have seriously been known to cancel school, and then NOTHING happen with the weather!

I totally understand! We've had work cancelled a few times due to the "threat" of snow. I don't think that one caused too many problems, well at least not for Jim who is used to driving in snow.

Your back to back rides on the headliners really has me thinking I should try a solo trip some time! Now...just have to figure out how to sneak away without the rest of my Disney loving family finding out...

That was definitely one of the advantages of the solo trip! I'm not sure you family would ever forgive you if you went without them.

All caught up!

What a great night at MK! I love the Plaza, and we sat in almost the same spot as you when we went, what a great view! And the food is delicious. MSEP is also so great, I have some great and funny childhood memories from watching that parade.

I'm sorry that you felt sick on Star Tours and had to skip the shop. I am always afraid of that happening. Hopefully it was just a fluke for you.

Sounds like you had a great time with your mom too!

That night in MK was awesome! So much fun riding all of my favorites in a row like that. And I loved the Plaza so much, I'm taking DH there during our October trip!

I do hope the sickness from Star Tours was just a fluke. I'm going to give it one more try in October but if I get sick again I'm done with the ride.

Mom and I always have a great time!

Yay! You're back!

Hope you enjoyed the trip with your Mom! Looks like it was a good time!

Glad you tuck it out for Fantasmic, it looks like a good one! I'm surprised to see Meg had her shawl on but Ariel doesn't have anything but the mesh top, differences in people I guess!!

Nice! So many rides on Soarin! That's great!!

It was a wonderful trip to see Mom and the rest of my family!

I don't know if I'll get to see Fantasmic on my next two trips so I'm really glad I saw it this time! Probably was just the difference in the people. As cold as it was for me that day, I still saw people in t-shirts and shorts!

 

[Pluto0809]

After leaving the Land building, I decided that even though I didn’t want to do a design, I did want to ride Test Track again so I headed that way.

I saw the Jaminators along the way and stopped for a few minutes to listen.



I got in the single rider line again but walked right past the design stations. I figured that since my design didn’t work last time, I wasn’t going to bother this time. I have zero pictures from the line or ride and must have forgotten to take a picture of the ride photo. It was definitely not as interesting as the one from my first day.

I wanted to ride Spaceship Earth next but the line was 30 minutes. All of the outside lines were in use so I decided to try it after lunch when most people were headed to the World Showcase. Instead, I headed to one of the things I’ve never done in Future World.



Nope not Figment yet.



I was shocked to see that all of the FPs were distributed for the day.



I expected to see huge lines but there wasn’t even a time on the stand by sign!



All kidding aside, I walked right into the lobby and just had to wait a few minutes till the preshow started.



There was a family next to me in the lobby that was so excited to see the show. They used to come and see it every year when it was first showed at Disney and they couldn’t wait to see it again now that it was back.

So what did I think of the movie? Hmmmmmmmm………… To this day, I still can’t wrap my head around what I saw. I have seen some strange things in my 39 years and this ranks up there as one of the strangest. Basically Captain EO (Michael Jackson) and his band of muppetity (is that a word?) alien creatures save the world from the evil queen using cheesy 80s music and dancing. Yep, I think that sums it up. Funny thing is, when I described it to DH, he wants to see it. We are both children of the 80s so cheesy 80s music and dancing is what we grew up with. Maybe I’ll get it if I see it a second time in October?

As strange as it was, I’m glad I went and saw it because I always like to see everything at least once so I can form my own opinion.

I headed towards Figment stopping to take one picture of the fountains.



There was no wait for Figment as usually, I pretty much walked till I got to the loading area.







There’s the line!



I got a whole row to myself and we started off on our journey through the senses.





Imagination! Bet you're singing that in your head now and will be for the rest of the day.













After visiting Figments house, it was time for my third ride on Soarin' so I headed straight there.



After riding three times, I realized that the black spots on the movie can be seen from some seats but not from others. One of my rides had no spots at all and the other two had some but in different locations and amounts. I also sat next to two ladies on my third ride that were from Florida. They had ridden Soarin’ enough times that they knew where the best seats were to not see the spots. Wish I had written down the information they told me because I've long since forgotten. As sad as I will be if this ride is closed on one of my future trips, I’m ready for them to close it down and repair the film.

Up Next: Visiting and Eating the Fishes

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Don't know if you saw the announcement but as of January of 2014 Captain EO is gone for good. They are also closing Figment, but didn't say if it's just a refurb or it's going to be gone too. Rumor is that they are putting in something to do with Phineas and Ferb there.

 

[Pluto0809]

Don't know if you saw the announcement but as of January of 2014 Captain EO is gone for good. They are also closing Figment, but didn't say if it's just a refurb or it's going to be gone too. Rumor is that they are putting in something to do with Phineas and Ferb there.

Yeah, I did see that rumor last night. I certainly won't miss Captain EO but I'm going to be sad if Figment goes. Hopefully they will leave Figment and replace the movie with a Phineas and Ferb one.

 

[ronnmel]

I wish you had taken that information about the spots! Like you, as much as I love the ride and would be sad to go to Disney and not be able to ride it, I think they need to either fix the film, or make a new one. Sometimes the spots really are awful. I didn't believe it was that bad until I saw it last January.

 

[KatMark]

Captain EO? I'll never understand it.

YAY for Figment and getting a car to yourself; great pictures.

I wish you would have written down the seats...I would requst them in three weeks.

 

[Pluto0809]

I wish you had taken that information about the spots! Like you, as much as I love the ride and would be sad to go to Disney and not be able to ride it, I think they need to either fix the film, or make a new one. Sometimes the spots really are awful. I didn't believe it was that bad until I saw it last January.

I wish I had too! It was one of those moments where I was sure I would remember the information but probably forgot it as soon as I was done with the ride.

Captain EO? I'll never understand it.

YAY for Figment and getting a car to yourself; great pictures.

I wish you would have written down the seats...I would requst them in three weeks.

I'm not counting on understanding it the second time! I am looking forward to seeing Jim's reaction to it though.

Thanks, I was happy that I got some good Figment pictures this time.

I wish I had written it down now that I can't remember!