Easter At WDW -- our 2-day weekend getaway!

[iwynlea]

Well, this is my first trip report, but I'll try to post everything I remember, since I enjoy reading other reports so much. Before I left, I had lots of worries about how crowded it would be at the World, so hopefully this will answer a lot of those questions, too. Oh, and yeah, we rode Everest.

We left central Texas at noon on Thursday. We actually got off on time -- for our very first driving trip. See, when my DH drives (even just to the airport), we're always late. Because he was at school (he's a full-time college student AND he works full time), I got to do all the right-before-we-leave-for-vacation tasks (you know, drop the dogs off at the kennel, run to Wally World for those last minute, we realized last night we forgot to purchase whatever things, get the car washed...yeah, that last one is random, but since we're driving this time (did I mention we've never done that before??), I want to be able to see through all the bug guts on my windshield, at least for a little while, until we have new bug guts to contend with.

See, I have a Toyota Prius, which gets approx. 50 miles to the gallon, so we figured that driving would be cheaper than flying (and it was...in money...time, now that's a different story). We only spent about $150 on gas for the whole round trip, which isn't bad considering gas at one Florida station was $3.20 a gallon

Anyway, we got a great room in Florida on Hotwire for $30 a night for the three nights we'll be there, and we figured we would just drive straight through...yeah, all 18 hours. That's the plan. Drive straight from Texas to Disney's Animal Kingdom, Florida. Yup. Just what we're planning to do.

And, we also have enough food in the car to feed a small army. Because, that room I just mentioned, it has a kitchenette, with a two-burner stove, and a microwave, and a full-size fridge, and a sink, and a coffee pot (and a hairdryer, although I brought my own, and that really wasn't part of the kitchenette, but I thought I'd mention it anyway). So we're like 10 miles down the road, and I'm all, "ok, I'm ready for a snack!" LOL! Why is it when you have a ton of new food, that you just want to start eating it all?

So, we're heading off to Florida, on our very first road trip in my car. And we're going to get there in 18 hours without stopping for the night.

Except for one problem...we only got like 5 hours of sleep the night before, so we're both exhausted. But extra hotel rooms aren't in the budget, so we're going to make it.

12 hours later (aka midnight), the excitement has worn off and I'm exhausted. I drove for about 3 hours, and Steve drove the rest. He looks awful, but he wants to keep going. I insist we stop, just outside of...uhh...some big city in Alabama. There's like 8 hotels in this little town, so I'm sure we'll find something cheap. We stop at the Holiday Inn. No Vacancy. Red Roof Inn. No Vacancy. Days Inn. No Vacancy. Super 8...they have two double beds for $78. Nope, I don't think so...even for a holiday weekend. I'm getting cranky, and worried. Some hotel with "Suite" in the name...$156 for a room. Definately not. Finally end up at an Econolodge, which looks recently remodeled and was fine for the night at $60. The room was clean, but the comfortor smelled like someone puked on it (EEEEEWWWWWWW) and the pillows were soo lumpy I didn't sleep well. But at least we got some rest.

And then we were up at 8am to continue on to Florida. In the original plan, well...we would have been at DAK by now! I guess we're going to have to be flexible, neh? That's going to be the name of the game for this trip!

 

[fizz13]

Ooooh, need to hear more, how did you sleep with that smell, yuck! , lets get you to disney,
Claire xx

 

[TLinden16]

Wow. What a long drive. Sorry about the stink in the room. Yuck.

Thanks for posting.

 

[OhMari]

Nothing like a "road trip" to Disney. My husband would of made us sleep in the car. Anxious to hear how the crowds were over Easter-I'll be going next year over Easter Break.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[iwynlea]

Thanks for the nice comments...after another long day in the car, we finally made it to Orlando about 5pm on Friday. We went straight to the hotel, checked in, unpacked, and were headed to Downtown Disney by about 5:30pm. The original plan called for us to have spent Friday at Animal Kingdom, but, well, it closes at 8pm, and I'm not going to waste a day of our precious tickets for just a couple of hours.

As a side note, we purchased 10-day park hopper non-expiring tickets so we could use them in the future. We figured it was a good investment since we've been to WDW 5 times in 3 years...yeah, I've successfully converted my husband into a Disney nut, just like me.

So, we get to DTD, and the parking lot is packed. Cars are circling like vultures, looking for a spot. We're stuck behind a car who thinks he's waiting for a mini-van to pull out...except 5 minutes later the guy realizes the minivan had just pulled in and he was waiting for nothing. Ugh. I ask Steve to keep going, allllll the way to the end of the lot near the Team Mickey store (I think it's called Team Mickey...it might be Team Disney...it's the sports store) because we usually have good luck with parking over there. And, as usual, there's 3 empty spaces right on the end -- whoo! NOW we're really here! For some odd reason, everyone seems to think parking over here is for CMs, but it's really not, I promise, and you end up closer to the stores than if you parked in the big main lot.

We cut through the sports store, and it's PACKED! It takes us almost 10 mintues to navigate our way out of the store...and it's not that big! I guess we've never been down to DTD on a weekend, or maybe it's because it's a holiday, but unhappy, grouchy people are everywhere. Uh-oh, I tell my husband, this doesn't bode well for Easter at the Magic Kingdom! From what I've heard (and it was confirmed later in the trip by a CM), Easter is the second busiest time of the year at the MK. So, we just smile and go with the flow (literally!)...we couldn't fight the flow of people if we wanted to!

We went to the World of Disney, because I want to see the renovations. The big spitting Stitch outside was wearing bunny ears and holding an easter egg...I guess they'll dress him up for all the different holidays. There's a wall of people standing there waiting to get...uhh..'spit' on by Stitch, and it's almost impossible to get by them so we can get into the store. I loved the entrance under Stitch, which is the new adventure room with all the pirates. But, again, there are so many people, I started to feel suffocated. The housewares room wasn't bad, but I'm perpetually scared that 'the backpack' (you know, the one that holds the water bottles and the sunscreen, and the cameras, and Steve's monster tripod) is going to knock something over when he turns too quickly, so we move on to the new princess room. It's very pretty, very little girl-y, and I just love it. I need a small female child to dress up in all this neat stuff...but I digress. We peek into the new Bibbity-Bobbity Botique, and it looks really nice. When we have a child, she will be spoiled rotten when we go on vacation. hehehe.

On to my favorite part -- Pins! But, ack! The room is just crammed full of hot, sweaty, grumpy people, and I can't even get close enough to the pin wall to see what's new! Get me outta here!

We exit as fast as we can, and I heaved such a sigh of relief when we're outside again. It's a really beautiful night, no clouds, nice breeze, tons of stars (I think, the lights are too bright to tell!), and about 10 million people all crammed into DTD. We swim upstream...err, make our way to the DTD Pin Traders store, which is somewhat less crowded than WOD. We looked at all the pins, and I bought 3 of the new Walt Disney pins....$42. WHAT?! $42 for three pins?!? Ugh. But they're really neat pins, and I love anything with old pictures of Walt on it (he's someone I wish I could have met), so I made the purchase. As a side note, I really have to start watching ebay for pin lots, because I'm getting really low on trading pins, especially after Easter at the MK, but I'll get to that shortly.... *teaser*

We window shopped at the Art Of Disney store...tonight, when we win the Florida lottery, I'm going to buy some of that amazingly beautiful and expensive art!

Now it's time for our favorite part of visiting DTD...the Ghirardelli Ice Cream sundaes! Ever since our honeymoon 3 years ago, it's a tradition that we have to go to Ghirardelli whenever we're at Disney. We got their new dark chocolate hot fudge sundae to split, and it was quite yummy. There wasn't as much hot fudge as in the past, which was disappointing, but it was still a nice end to a very long drive.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is Animal Kingdom and our Trek to Everest! Whoo! It's about 10pm now, so we head back to the hotel for some sleep, since I want to be at DAK 40 minutes before they open so we can get close to the front of the line. It was Extra Magic Hours for resort guests, so they could get in at 7am, so by the time the park opens at 8am, I know it'll already be crowded.

 

[fizz13]

Guess it took you a little longer than you anticipated to get there then? At least you made it, can't wait to hear about your thoughts on Everest,
Claire xx

 

[Disney owl]

great reports looking forward to the rest

 

[iwynlea]

Wow...it's been a while. I bet I don't have anyone with me anymore! LOL! Oh well, I want to finish this trip report, because it really bugs me to get interested in someone's tale and then find out toward the end that it's not finished yet! I want to know how everyone's trips turned out, because I'm living vicariously through them!

Steve was exhausted and cranky, and didn't want to wake up and fix breakfast. I told him that was fine, I'd go ride EE without him and he could sleep all day. THAT got him out of bed!

I have to say I really enjoyed our hotel, and the kitchenette. It was very handy and saved us a lot on food. We ate lunch and dinner in the room every day, and had solidly frozen water to take into the parks, which was nice because while it wasn't hot outside, it was definitely warm every day.

Anywho, we finally make it to the park and it's the first time we have to pay for parking in a while, since we usually stay on site. $9! My husband looks at me frantically, because he didn't think to bring cash. I love it when I can fluster him, because it doesn't happen often...I'm the one who get flustered, he just takes everything in stride. But yes, I have planned for this and calmly pull at $10 out of my purse and hand it to the nice man in the little shack. We're in!

Of course, because we're 30 minutes early, we're not really IN...we have to wait and watch all the resort guests saunter past the ticket taker on their way to EE, while we stand in line until the non-resort opening. Oh well, I love to people watch. We pulled out our map and planned the best route to EE; I'd heard that going through Discovery Island was the fastest, but we went through Dinoland, because EVERYONE was going through Discovery Island and I wanted to avoid crowds as long as possible.

I have to say, I got a lump in my throat as we approached EE. Having watched all the specials on the Travel Channel, I thought I was prepared, but it's just so amazing..all the theming, the music, the atmosphere. We just sort of stopped and admired the incredible hard work that went into this new attraction. And then I snapped out of it, grabbed Steve's hand and made for the FastPass machines! The line was already 45 minutes long! ACK! I got us FPs, and then we went to stand in line. I actually wish it had been 45 minutes long, because I wanted to look at everything in the queue! But, it really was about 15 minutes long, which is truly nothing for a new ride in my opinon, and we were on!

It was so great! I know there have been lots and lots of descriptions since then, but when we rode, it was still pretty new. The coaster part was fun, when we went backwards in the dark, I really thought the coaster was going into a loop, the banking is so steep - and you really can't see ANYTHING...it's not like Space Mtn, where there's still light...EE is completely dark. And the Yeti...WOW! So amazing and life-like. I think he would scare little kids. For us, it was just awe-inspiring.

There was someone who I think was an Imagineer standing by the side as we exited the ride. He was asking everyone what they thought. I told him "Bravo! Even better than I thought from watching stuff online." He beamed and said thanks.

None of our ride photos came out very good. Not that I regularly buy them, because I generally think they're overpriced and not worth it, but in my heart of hearts, I wanted a picture of our very first ride. Oh well.

While waiting for our FP times, we took lots of photos and videos of EE and the surrounding area. I really love just taking the time to soak it all in. There's so many little details...like the photos of the Prince and Princess throughout Anandapur. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?!?!

We grabbed a 2nd set of FPs as soon as we could, and took another spin on EE. I'd really love to ride this in the front sometime, but I didn't want to ask, since the ride is so new and the lines so long. Maybe on our next trip. I really love everything about the ride, even the slow, lazy start. It really is like a scenic tour, gently rolling hills, gentle breeze, nice nature sounds. Very relaxing.

While waiting for our 2nd FP time, we went and rode the safari ride, which seemed to go REALLY fast...our driver pretty much kept right on the bumper of the car in front of us, which was kinda disappointing. When we rode this ride the very first time on our honeymoon, we were on safari for almost 30 minutes, because a giraffe was in the road and wouldn't move! It was great!

Oh, well, I guess our expectations were too high to have that experience repeat itself. It's been so long, and I didn't take good notes...I know that we went back to the car for lunch, which we had packed with us, and then when we went back to EE it was so crowded we could hardly move! That area is NOT designed for large hoards of people! And the worst part was that EE was closed! NOOOOOOOOO! We waiting for about an hour, and then gave up. It was so hot, and we were still so tired from the long drive....time to go back to the hotel for a swim and a nap.

----

Refreshed from a dip in the pool, and a yummy dinner of baked potatoes, we now headed for Epcot. Besides AK, we also hadn't seen Illuminations since the honeymoon. I'd heard rumors that Illuminations might be changing or going away soon, so we wanted to get it on tape. Epcot was nice, very leisurely pace. We weren't in a hurry...just mosey to Italy to get a good spot, set up the tripod above everyone's heads, and park it on the steps by the fountain to rest for about an hour. Talked to lots of nice people...it's amazing how many people you chat with on a vacation, and yet you never even know their names. I think that's part of the Disney Magic...on the bus or airplane, do you really chat with the people next to you? I know I don't! But at Disney, I'm almost always in conversation with the folks next to us waiting for the parade, or the fireworks, or in line for EE! And I'm a very shy, reserved person, generally!

Illuminations was amazing...better than I even remembered. It brought tears to my eyes. Just...WOW. You can just FEEL the fireworks vibrate through your whole body...there's just no words I can use to describe how I felt that night. After it was over, Steve and I just hugged for a minute...didn't care who saw, just enjoyed knowing that we were here, we were together, and for a brief moment, everything was right with the world.

 

[FSUMARCHIEF]

Nice story! I didn't catch it the first time around back in April - but am enjoying it now. Say it ain't so about Illuminations. I love that!
Blessings!
MarkyMark