Doing the Dis, May 19-May 25

[catne]

Who: DH (52), Me (52), DD, (19), DD'S BFF (18)
TRAVEL, AND DAY ONE AT THE WORLD

Left 5/17, driving from Nebraska to Tennessee. On Sunday, we went through Alabama this time (hate driving through Atlanta, & had heard there were exceptionally bad construction delays on weekends this season, so opted for a route through Alabama-Florida panhandle. Worked like a charm...added about an hour of drive time, but we've never gotten through Atlanta with less than an hour delay...sometimes 2-3 hours delay, so what the heck! It was interstate for most of the way...about an hour in southern Alabama on US highway that was almost as good as interstate with just a couple of slow-downs going through small towns. Not bad at all-and not nearly as stressful as navigating through Atlanta!) Stayed Sunday night in Gainesville, Fl. to relax & prepare for our Disney assault! We ate & shopped for snacks & breakfast foods for Disney World. (On regular DDP, so we planned on eating quick breakfast in room.) Left Gainesville around 8:00 A.M. Monday for a 2 hour drive to WDW.

Arrived Monday, 5/19 at POFQ, at about 10:00 A.M. Very impressed with French Quarter--grounds were lovely, lobby decor beautiful. Everything seemed to be clean & in good repair. Cheerful help at the desk, not particularly busy, so fast & efficient check in (rooms not ready, of course, but that's what we expected so no biggie.) Got our Magic cards & headed for Animal Kingdom, arriving at the park by 11:00 a.m.

Was very hot & humid that day. We headed straight for Kilamanjaro Safari to get FastPass for later in day, then went over to Flame Tree Barbeque for lunch, eating around 11:30 or so.

After lunch, we went to see Festival of Lion King...which started an entire day of unbelieveably good luck on our timing. We got to Lion King about 5 min. before it started, got good seats & thoroughly enjoyed it (saw it last year, too, so knew what to expect.) Then we wandered over to the Nemo show which we had not seen last year. Once again, we waited no more than 10 minutes for that show. Next we meandered over to "It's Tough to be a bug", stopping to look at the wild life here & there on the way. Again, we were very lucky: maybe 10 minutes to wait before show. Loved "Bug", too. (see a pattern here--we're suckers for Disney style shows!) After wandering for a bit, looking at parrots, watching the chimps (some sort of primate, anyway) it was time to use Kila. Safari FastPasses. Hadn't been on it since 2000, when we found it very boring (virtually no animals to be seen.) We skipped it last year due to lack of time. We were really impressed this go around...so many animals in view, many of them active even though it was now mid-afternoon & very warm by this time. After Safari, we figured we had time to go check in at hotel, and get back in time for dinner ressie at Tusker House & evening EMH.

Were pleasantly surprised by rooms-we'd booked through AAA and had been told that our preference for King beds in our room was noted, but not guaranteed. I also asked if we could request water view and had been told that we could not because the AAA discount rooms were limited to "standard view" only. The kids' room was also supposed to be standard view & with standard beds (2 full-sized.) So we get there, and find out the DH & I have been given a king-bed in building 1, top floor, corner room on the river side. Was an absolutely wonderful view out both windows of river & golf course across the way, not terribly far to the elevators, either. Kids' room was supposedly a standard view also. It was around side wing of building one, also on the 3rd floor...but their view was very pretty of courtyard garden area (it could have been a parking lot, they're both called Standard View at FQ!) We loved being on the 3rd floor--very little noise from neighbors, virtually no foot traffic walking by. Both rooms were clean, decor looked fairly new & rooms were well stocked with towels, soaps/shampoo etc. Had exceptionally good housekeeping service all week. Coffee replenished daily - we asked for extra & got it; extra towels always available. Sheets were changed mid-week, trash always emptied. Towel animals several days. (yes, we tipped daily. Always have. There was at least one day housekeeping did not pick up the tip envelopes-DD had them too-but the next day both days' tip envelopes were taken.)

So, late afternoon, we went back to AK in time for our Tusker House ressie @ 5:30...was almost time for EMH (7-10) when we were done eating. During EMH, we did Dinosaur, then Exp Everest. DH & I just sat & people-watched while enjoying a frozen fruit bar-we were tired out from long drive, etc. But DD & BFF continued to ride all through EMH- they did Primeval Whirl & Triceratops Spin (they like the carnival style rides, DH & I not so much.) Then they did Exp Everest several times more with little or no wait, finishing up with Kali River Rapids right before we planned to leave park (knowing they'd get soaked, which they did.) Returned to our resort around 10 p.m.

Couple of general notes about this trip: Crowds were very low, we thought, both during the day & for the EMH. We also thought crowds were low at the resort - parking lots were not even 1/4 full until Saturday of Memorial weekend. Then the lot was maybe 1/2 full at midnight (all parks closed by then.)

We always tour the UG way, arriving at Rope drop, following the guidelines for order of rides, etc. and have had good luck with it. While this week is not the worst for crowds sizes, it's usually fairly crowded. When I checked the crowd calendars several weeks ago, the days we were going to be there were listed at 7-9 on a scale of 10. I don't think any of the days actually came close to that...maybe on Saturday night of Memorial Weekend at MK it might have been an 8...maybe. In general, the UG system worked amazingly well this time around but we think the smaller crowds helped a lot. This is the 5th time in 20 years we've gone to WDW during this same week before Memorial Day...we've never encountered such easy touring. Not to say you could just "walk on" all rides, but just seemed like less lines everywhere, whether security bag-searches at parks, waiting for busses, food lines, or attraction lines.

More later...

 

[catne]

Well, not quite, but the "kids" seemed to think it was. We did get to MK for rope drop @ 8:00 a.m. Now, I'm a planner...probably obsessive, if you must know. I've done this before, and it's always worked, so by now my family is prepared to listen when I say "jump"...so

At rope drop, we headed straight for Space Mountain (walking quickly, but not running...too old for that.) Even though we didn't run for it so were not the first people there, we really didn't wait...by the time you walk through all the empty queue lines, that takes about 5 min., and then you're there & loading. Loved it, of course. Space Mountain was followed by Buzz Lightyear (which is a back-track, I know, but we're strict believers in the UG and that's the recommendation-by pass Buzz to do SM first. It works.) We then headed to Fantasyland where we did Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Snow White & It's a Small World on the way to Haunted Mansion, with virtually no wait at any of these. By the time we headed for IASW, the line for Peter Pan was posted as 30 min. Around 11 a.m., when we were coming back to Fantasyland to go to Mickey's Philharmagic, Peter Pan & Snow White were both 60 min. waits. So it paid off to do them early. And somehow, all the rides are much more enjoyable when you don't stand in line for a long time for them.

After Haunted Mansion - which is better than ever, BTW - we could see obvious improvements from the last re-furb - we headed to Splash Mountain, which we FastPassed, then went over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad...rode that with only about a 10 minute wait (it said 20 min, but didn't take that long.)

After Big Thunder, we headed over to Adventureland where kids did Swiss Family Treehouse while us old folks took a break (that's a lot of walking, starting at Main Street to Space Mountain, all through Fantasyland to Splash, then Adventureland. Quite the work-out in a couple of hours.) We checked Jungle Cruise, but it was still closed for re-furb, so we headed to PiratesOTC. Great fun as always...love Capn Jack... had only about 5 minute wait there after pretty much just walking through all the queue lines.

We were ready for a snack break after that, so we headed to Aloha Isle for our traditional Dole Whips (yummy) and then it was time for Splash Mountain passes.

O.K., we've ridden it before & got a little wet. This time, we were in the very front & we got soaked. May have been a 4 sq. inch portion of my clothing which remained dry, but I'm not sure about that. Well, it was fun anyway, but it was not a spectacularly warm day to get soaking wet, either (had been drizzling off & on all morning, was cloudy & about 80 degrees.)

After some debate whether or not to leave right then, we decided to see Mickey's Philharmagic before we left for the afternoon...we absolutely love that show. Think it may be the absolute best 3-D show Disney has. Then we headed back to the resort for lunch, R & R, & some dry clothes.

My family frequently jokes about how much time I spend researching & planning WDW trips (including typing up step-by-step park plans on index cards that will fit in my waterproof ziplock baggies in my park bag.) Oh, ye of little faith...they don't laugh when we actually get there and go bing-bing-bing getting on virtually every ride we want in just a few hours with little or no waiting.

Between 8 & 11:45 a.m., we did 11 attractions, including the major ones, & also took a Dole Whip break...not bad, eh? DD's friend, who has been to WDW many times with his family, was absolutely astonished that we had an actual plan. On the way to MK that morning, he was telling DD that they needed to decide "what their strategy was going to be...which ride to do first" and I told him, no way...you do it my way, buddy...he started to balk, but DD told him don't argue, just do it: you'll see. By 9:00, he realized he was headed for his 5th ride in just one hour...then he spent the rest of the morning happily following the program, and repeatedly saying he could not believe how much stuff we were getting done. He actually called his mom at one point that day & told her she would not believe how many rides he'd got done in one morning.

Both kids loved touring the park this way...we were at WDW for 6 days, so they knew they'd be back several times in the week to get in plenty of "wandering" around time, and would have the opportunity to try some of the lesser attractions & rides in a more leisurely fashion. They both liked that all the long-lines rides were done on the first day, very quickly...so later in the week, they had no pressure to stand in lines because they'd already had at least one ride on them. Now, they actually did have several more chances to ride all the biggies during the rest of the week but said they'd start my way every time just because they got a big dose of fun so quickly, and were sure to get a lot done.

I know a lot of people like to "go with the flow" but we've always found that guarantees you'll be in a lot of long lines...not our idea of fun.

We were leaving the park at lunchtime, just about when all the major rides we'd already done were posting 60 to 90 minute wait times.

 

[catne]

Slept in on Wednesday (skipping the early EMH at Animal Kingdom, cuz we did everything on Monday that we wanted to do.)

Kids went to Typhoon Lagoon for several hours...they loved it, specially the snorkeling.

DH & I did some shopping at DTD...fun place with all the specialty shops like the Lego store...absolutely awesome photo ops with all the gigantic Lego structures around (loved the sea serpent made of Legos in the lake.)

Kids had Crystal Palace ressies at 5:00, followed by the Pirates & Princess party at Magic Kingdom. They loved, loved, loved the party (if you're wondering if older teens/young adults will enjoy this party, the answer is a resounding yes.) Lots of walk-on rides, special character meet & greets (including with Capt. Jack Sparrow...DD, age 19, said castmembers did fab job on Capt. Jack characterization, and the guy was "hot!") They loved the special pirates/princess parade, and said the fireworks were best ever.

DH & I had the Fantasmic dinner package at Hollywood & Vine, Hollywood Studios. Good meal, and had time for several of our favorites at the Studios (movie ride & muppet 3-d. Loves those two.) Hadn't seen Fantasmic for at least 10 years...loved the show. The dinner package seats are just fine (actually, looks like any seats, anywhere in the place have a good view, because the show is soooo large, you see everything from everywhere. And parts of it are actually reproduced on both "sides" at same time so you all have great view.) Really liked not waiting in line for the show...we skipped it last year because we did not have any package seats and the crowds were lining up 2 hours before the show.

Was great to have a fairly leisurely day after a day & half of intense park attendance. This is the way to do it if you have the time (we've done both versions--the do-4-parks in 3 days trip & do it all in 7-8 days. Much prefer the leisurely version! )