England to Endor (via WDW!) - June 2010 TR UPDATED 02/19 - THE WAVE!

[wlake]

Your slow boat race has me cracking up! I love that you got there first, too!

Great PP pic of you guys at the end there!

 

[TinksThree]

We did the slow boat also from DHS to Epcot, but we all remained! It was one of our last days and we had time to spare though so the slowness never crossed my mind! I love the resorts in that area! I was looking at Boardwalk pictures last night (dreaming) and DD saw them and got all excited thinking I was booking... I may have to plan a girl's trip with her and stay there! You echoed my thoughts on the Dolphin/Swan but I thought the foutnain on the side of the Dolphin (if my memory is correct) was so cool! We took a ton of pictures of it!

I love Donald- even if he does have a bad rap personality wise!- and I hate that we had to forgo seeing Mexico on our trip. I am determiend to get DH back so he can really see what he didn't feel like seeing!

 

[Bookstamper]

I was looking at Boardwalk pictures last night (dreaming) and DD saw them and got all excited thinking I was booking... I may have to plan a girl's trip with her and stay there! You echoed my thoughts on the Dolphin/Swan but I thought the foutnain on the side of the Dolphin (if my memory is correct) was so cool!

Hi Tink! I'm very impressed that you've finished up your TR - you are much more organised than me! Wow, it would be really cool to stay around the Boardwalk - and I'm sure your family (including DH!) would love it - what's not to love?! We are also making (tentative!) plans for a return trip sometime, should have details in a few weeks time!

Your slow boat race has me cracking up! I love that you got there first, too! Great PP pic of you guys at the end there!

Thanks wlake! I think this goes to show just how slow that boat is - I'm certainly not one built for speed!!

 

[Bookstamper]

DAY SEVEN: June 9th

I had been waiting for this morning for a long time...because on our past 3 trips to WDW I'd failed to secure that much-prized reservation: a pre-opening ADR at Crystal Palace! (OK, so I'll admit that on our first trip I didn't even know that such a thing existed but you get the idea...this was a long time coming!)

This year I'd left nothing to chance and booked at the 180 day mark to secure an 08:15 ADR. The night before we set alarms, double checked the reference numbers and tripple checked that alarm clock- we were ready to breakfast with Pooh and the gang. But more importantly we were really hoping to score some cool photos in an empty MK. Sooo you can imagine my horror when I opened my eyes to see the clock reading 07:50!!

So I guess that we'd slept through not one but TWO alarms! Wow, how tired must we have been?! And we both decided that it just wasn't worth jumping onto the bus in our PJs - we were never going to make that ADR. I guess it just wasn't meant to be! So we called and cancelled and then got up at a leisurely pace, finally arriving at MK around 09:15.

I just love coming into MK down Main Street - at whatever time! First up we saw the groups of barber shop singers, and this really cool horse (I read on another TR that his name is Prince?):

Next we hooked a left and headed into Adventureland - on a hunt for POTC!

But things obviously weren't going to plan this morning as we kind of got distracted by the Swiss Family Robinson's abode:

We had visited this just once before and didn't have particularly fond memories as it had been a busy afternoon when there is basically a line of folks snaking up and down the stair cases, so you move with the masses rather than at your own pace. At 09:30 in the morning though it was totally deserted so we headed on in (and up!):

We spent around 20 minutes just goofing around here and checking out all the details. The views from up high are pretty much worth it, even if you're not Family Robinson fans! I could have sworn there was a fourth boy in the book, not sure where he ended up sleeping though:

After we finally came down from the trees, we decided to give the Magic Carpets a whirl - as it was another walk on, woo hoo! Here's our ride vehicle, ahem, I mean carpet....

We got to ride with just the 2 of us in one vehicle, which I was kind of glad about as the back passengers get to control the level of tilt (which can feel as if you're being tipped out - not a great sensation!)

Flying high we got some pics over the rooftops.....

....but not before we got drenched by the camel!!! Coming off the ride, Jasmine and Aladin were at the exit, waving to everyone and signing autographs. Jasmine took one look at Sal and said "haha, someone got chased by that camel!" - yeah, you bet!

Next finally got to ride Pirates which was another walk on and as fun as always! Yo ho ho! After a few tamer rides, I had plucked up courage to give BTMRR a go (for the first time!) and we headed over to conquer the mountain:

I should probably share with you guys just how much of a scaredy cat I am: on our first visit to WDW I got in line for Big Thunder, only to chicken out as we got close and have to make my way right back to the entrance (much to Sal's embarrasment! ) After that, it's been a big no-go zone but I was determined to ride it this year, so we got in line despite my fears! Before I knew it we were in the mine car and there was no turning back:

Well, I had a pretty good time after all! It sure was scary in parts and I screamed my head off a couple of times (apologies to fellow riders!) but I enjoyed it enough to grab a FP for later!

Continued in next post...

 

[Bookstamper]

By now it was around 10:30 and I really liked the idea of chilling out aboard the Liberty Belle so we walked on down in that direction. On the way we saw some really great marching bands who were performing throughout the day - I love this group's name:

Whilst we loved listening to the bands it turned out that we just missed the boat! No kidding, they pulled the walkway off and started it out as we were just running up! Oh well, we had half an hour to spare til the next ride, so we headed into the Haunted Mansion, and I got to carry one of those cool timing tags (I don't know why I always get excited by these...and then start to feel very responsible!):

The ride was good and the cast stayed in character the whole time. I even got scared giving my 'ghost host' the timing lanyard - he was so serious! As we exited the ride I was determined to try and find the Mr Toad statue, which i'd read was hidden somewhere around the HM grounds. We'd looked for this a few times before and pretty much ruled out the areas near the entrance so this time we checked out the pet cemetry area at the end:

And wow, is this hidden away or what?! But we did eventually find it - hopefully you can see Mr Toad here - he's pretty well camoflagued!

After Haunted Mansion we walked round into Fantasyland, where a showing of Philomagic was about to start! I love this attraction, opera glasses and all:

After we'd seen Donald's encounter with the orchestra, we headed back to the Liberty Belle dock where the boat was about to set off again - but this time we made it on board!

Next Up: A Magic Walkway and Another Slow Boat?!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Great update! Maybe one day you'll finally make it to Crystal Palace, just like you finally made it onto BTMRR!

 

[Bookstamper]

Great update! Maybe one day you'll finally make it to Crystal Palace, just like you finally made it onto BTMRR!

Hi there and thanks for reading! I hope your right! My next challenge is going to be Splash Mt. - think I need to brave up for that one - what a drop!

 

[TinksThree]

Hi Tink! I'm very impressed that you've finished up your TR - you are much more organised than me! Wow, it would be really cool to stay around the Boardwalk - and I'm sure your family (including DH!) would love it - what's not to love?! We are also making (tentative!) plans for a return trip sometime, should have details in a few weeks time!

I wish I could have drug out my TR! When I finished, I felt like the trip was ending all over again!

How exciting to be working on new plans!! We were talking about dates last night. I really want to go during Christmas, but that means 18 months between trips......but going back!!

Now to your MK thread!! It looks like a very successful time in the Magic Kingdom!! I am so happy you liked BTMR! I love Splash Mtn!! You really must try it next trip!! The drop is really the worst! There are little dips and such to trick you (especially on a first ride) but you will be singing zippity-doo-da all day long! I like thrill rides though

I didn't know about the Mr Toad statue! I will look for it next trip! And the views from the top of the treehouse makes the tour totally worth it!! Great update!!!

 

[Bookstamper]

I wish I could have drug out my TR! When I finished, I felt like the trip was ending all over again!

How exciting to be working on new plans!! We were talking about dates last night. I really want to go during Christmas, but that means 18 months between trips......but going back!!

Hi Tinks! Christmas would be an awesome time to visit: we made our first trip to WDW in December 07 and just loved the lights, decorations, Christmas parade etc. They even have a Christmas bell ringing concert at WL - so cool! You and your family will LOVE it (DH included!)

I think we have some firmer plans now: probably going back in May as it's Sal's Mum's birthday so we have some celebrating to do - but I'll update on that later!! Thanks for reading!

 

[Bookstamper]

DAY SEVEN cont.

So we left off on board the Liberty Belle, chugging down the river towards Big Thunder Mountain. I love this ride - just hanging out on the decks and spotting all the details:

Sal and I always laugh when we see this as we have first hand experience of fence painting disasters! When we moved into our house way back in 2007, it has a pretty large garden fenced off on all four sides. The fence was unpainted / untreated so I took it upon myself to start painting....well, summer came and went and I had done about 10 metres of fence panels...just another 50 or so to go!! I have been working on and off at it but somedays it was just too rainy / hot / misty / just not a fence paintng sort of day

This past summer (3 years after we first moved in!) I finally got it finished Only to read the back of the paint can where it says the coat is guranteed for 3 years and may then need re-treating, so I guess it's time to start back at the beginning again! Whoops!

As we landed back on dock we decided to give the runaway mine train one more go as we had FPs to use up so off we headed to BTMRR:

Wow - it was a good job we had those passes as the standby line was 50 minutes by 1130! I have to say that I enjoyed the ride much more on the second go - first time I was so scared, I just hung on for dear life! This time I could relax a little and check out the falling bolders (not that they're very relaxing...)

After BTMRR we were getting hungry and decided to grab lunch whilst we were still ahead of the game. We got to Cosmic Rays around 11:50 and it was still pretty quiet in there. Sal reckons these are the best burgers on property (sorry, no pics - we must have been hungry!) and we both loaded up on stuff from the toppings bar to make them extra delicious!

After lunch we cut through what I call 'smoker's walkway' by the castle and headed towards the Future, to FP Buzz Lightyear. After that we jumped in line for Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor - which had a 30 minute wait:

The queue went by pretty quickly as we were texting in jokes (though sadly no luck getting these read out) and we really enjoyed the show! Best joke of the day: What's Donald Duck's favourite snack? A: Cheese and Quackers!

As we exited the Laugh Floor (they finally raised enough power to open the doors...), we saw the TTA was temporarily down so there were loads of folks milling around. Where could we take shelter from the crowds? The carousel of progress of course, so we headed in that direction:

I LOVE this show and that song really gets to you (I think it's nearly as addictive as Small World!). Here's the Dad, just off to get a sassparilla, I could have done with one of those!

And here's the 'modern day' family - already looking a little dated?

More coming up...

 

[Bookstamper]

We emerged from Carousel of Progress to find that our Buzz FP times were up - to infinity and beyond! Needless to say I am pretty bad at this (I can NEVER decide which flashing red dot is mine and usually think I'm doing well, when in fact the points just aren't racking up -doh!) So Sal won out on this one with a very impressive score:

After we exited the ride I decided to jump behind bars with Zurg (I have to confess that I was a little nervous about never getting out again - those jail cells are a pretty tight fit for adults!) and a really nice CM offered to take our picture:

Next up we spotted that the TTA was back up and working so we hopped on board!

Ah, you can't beat the TTA for relaxation although the new bit through Space Mountain is totally in the dark which is a little disconcerting. I kept thinking that maybe we were in for a Pirates-esque drop, but it was a smooth ride the whole way round, perfect for chickens like me!

Whilst looking down over Futureland, Sal spotted a pathway which heads off around the side of the Speedway. We'd never explored around there before so after we left the TTA, it was time to follow that pathway, and look what we found....

The road to Toontown! As we'd never visited before (I know, I know, we just never got round to it...) we decided we may as well visit Mickey and Minnie's house - after all, I'd read on allears.net about the rennovations to these area and we figured that it might have all changed by our next visit. As Sal said "they're raisin' Toontown!!"

We took some time to explore Mickey's House, which was surprisingly quiet - funny story here, Sal bent down to get a photo with the metal mail box and got burnt on the metal - it had gotten so hot in the sun! Haha! She didn't have much luck this trip - what with the palm tree splinter, and a burn from Mickey's mail!!

We were pleased to see that Mickey's also a fan of table tennis (I got a table for my last birthday and spent most of the summer trying to play!). Sadly my scores are more comparable with Donald's:

We had intended to then visit Minnie's abode, but unlike Mickey's house - her place was heaving with people! Seriously, there was a queue of at least 30 folks just waiting to go in - it was one in one out! So we gave that a miss and walked back towards Fantasyland, passing the new construction areas on the way:

How cool does this Be Our Guest restaurant look?! Definitely worth waiting for I think!

Coming Up Next: Escape from Magic Kingdom!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Still cracking up about your fence-painting issues!! Looks like a neverending cycle!

And you found our "secret" path! Minnie's house is always pretty full. It's a slow-moving line, but we've always just walked right through Mickey's.

 

[TinksThree]

Hmmm...I thought I replied yesterday to this edition of your adventures! So I will take another stab at it today!

I have not been to Tom Sawyer's Island since I was 12 yrs old....and we WILL NOT discuss how many years ago that was!! I keep saying I must try to get over for a visit. Our last trip was just too much of a whirlwind to include it but I think DH would have really enjoyed it.

I am so glad you were able to get that BTMRR FP so you could relax and enjoy it! If you have not ridden it at night...you must do so on your next trip!! It is a whole other experience and I like the night ride the best!!

I love CP even if it is a little dated. This one is another nostalgic moment for me each trip! I still remember it as a kid so it brings those memories back up each time!

Awesome score for Sal on Buzz!! I always do so badly on that ride for the exact same reasons you mentioned!

Cosmic Rays is my favorite for burgers, but Columbia Harbour house still ranks as my favorite CS! I think I have very bad withdrawal symptoms when I crave CS food!! (not that it is bad but not necessarily something you would desire as a must in a return trip!)

Okay...I think that is all! A May trip and a Birthday celebration too!! How exciting!! I have considered the last week of May since the kids get out early this year, we could fit in Free Dining, however, I am hoping that something in the "works" totally rules that option out and, thus, I am clinging to a Christmas trip!! The only bad thing is due to work schedules, a Christmas trip may rule out DH going...

 

[TinksThree]

Shoot fire!! I forgot about Toontown!! I am going to miss those houses so much!! I really hope that they place them somewhere else!! DD cried when I told her they were going away! Minnie's house is so pretty in pink, I hate you missed it but it is 1) HOT in the summer and 2) very congested! I think the congestion is due to the Kitchen where you have a lot of interactive things! But I love Mickey's house because he should have known better than to let Donald and Goofy do those renovations on his kitchen!! And the pumpkin garden! Yep, I am really going to miss that place!! But I am happy you all got a chance to see it before it goes away!

 

[Bookstamper]

IAwesome score for Sal on Buzz!! I always do so badly on that ride for the exact same reasons you mentioned!

Cosmic Rays is my favorite for burgers, but Columbia Harbour house still ranks as my favorite CS! I think I have very bad withdrawal symptoms when I crave CS food!! (not that it is bad but not necessarily something you would desire as a must in a return trip!)

Okay...I think that is all! A May trip and a Birthday celebration too!! How exciting!! I have considered the last week of May since the kids get out early this year, we could fit in Free Dining, however, I am hoping that something in the "works" totally rules that option out and, thus, I am clinging to a Christmas trip!! The only bad thing is due to work schedules, a Christmas trip may rule out DH going...

Hi Tink! Thanks for reading along!About Sal's score on Buzz: I checked back at my notes for the trip and see that it wasn't quite scored fair and square! It seems that Buzz broke down whilst we were on it (had totally forgotten this) but we could continue to keep scoring! So....we had an extra 5 mins to shoot the targets whilst we waited for the ride vehicles to get moving again! Sal obviously used the time wisely

Glad you rate CHH too, we visited there later in our trip and were really impressed - loved the nautical theming as well! Sorry to hear your Christmas trip could not include DH - any further plans about possible dates to go back?

Still cracking up about your fence-painting issues!! Looks like a neverending cycle!

And you found our "secret" path! Minnie's house is always pretty full. It's a slow-moving line, but we've always just walked right through Mickey's.

Hi there! I wonder why Minnie's house is so much more popular?? We did laugh when we were looking around as we couldn't find a single picture of Minnie at Mickey's place - all he has is photos of Donald and Pluto! Poor Minnie!

Shoot fire!! I forgot about Toontown!! I am going to miss those houses so much!! I really hope that they place them somewhere else!! DD cried when I told her they were going away!

I agree it's a shame that they are removing these entirely - glad we got to see them before they're gone!

 

[Bookstamper]

DAY SEVEN cont.

Hello there! And apologies for leaving it so long between posts - I was away last weekend and then work has been manic, so I am stealing half an hour to myself to do a bumper update: let's finish up day 7!

When I last left off Sal and I had explored Toon town, and checked out the 'coming soon' boards in Fantasyland. Parade time was approaching and it was roasting, so we decided some light refreshments were needed. And where better to go than Aloha Isle? Two Dole Whips please!

We gobbled these up (well, they were melting as fast as we could eat them....) and then went to Liberty Square to check out possible parade spots. It was around 14:30 by now - half an hour prior to the parade and all the good seated spots were already taken! So...we headed on to Main Street to check out the situation there. I guess with all the coming and going in this area, people are less inclined to hold down spots in advance so no one (and I mean no one!) was sat on the curbside or even standing around - excellent We grabbed a seat at the edge of the pavement and readied ourselves!

I was really keen to see this parade as it featured kermit - my hero! In general I would have to say that we are not great parade fans (Sal in particular) and normally take the opportunity to ride stuff whilst others are lining the streets. But we made an exception for this one - and I was really glad that we did. Within 5 minutes of us sitting down, others started to join us and there were soon lines along the whole of Main Street - despite the lack of shade. We were SOOO grateful to a CM selling spray fans who was demonstrating them to everyone on Main Street. We all got spritzed 5-6 times - heaven on a hot day!

First up came some marching bands (similar to the ones we had seen perform earlier that day in Frontierland). Next was the volunteers cavalcade:

Argh, cookie monster alert!

Next up came Kermit and, of course, Miss Piggy taking centre stage! I love Kermit's tiny legs:

This was followed by the regular Celebrate a Dream Come True parade:

Finishing up with the main mouse himself:

By the time Mickey rolled down Main Street, Sal was almost done for by the heat! So we beat a hasty retreat to the busses and made it back to our room at Pop Century by around 16:00 (where the air con was in full effect!)

We spent a couple of hours relaxing at the resort, watching Gilmore Girls and looking around Everything Pop! Then at 18:30ish we headed back out to DTD, where we had a date with a dinosaur...

Continued in next post

 

[Bookstamper]

A bus for DTD came pretty quickly and we hopped aboard, on our way to the Market Place. Once there, we had an hour or so before our ADR at (yep, you've guessed it!), T-Rex so we visited a few of the shops. First stop was the Christmas store which I LOVE!! I am such a fan of Christmas (yesterday, the festive displays opened at our local department store and I went right in to buy some decorations - even though it's only mid-October)

Sal and I really wanted to buy some Christmas plates, but decided that - once again - our luggage allowance wouldn't allow it, so we saved our money but vowed to come back and buy them next year! After that we wandered around and saw a whole host of birds on display outside the Rainforest Cafe:

This was pretty cool to see and they'd drawn a large crowd. I was very surprised that their handler didn't even wear any protective gloves or arm guards - those parrot claws look pretty scary to me!

Finally we made it to our dining destination:

There were 3 large queues outside and there seemed to be a lot of confusion about which place to stand in if you had a prior reservation. We joined the first line to see that the folks either side of us hadn't booked (and were being turned away, I guess it was a busy night!) so we figured this was a walk ups line and moved over to join a different queue.

At this one, you had to check in with a CM who found your reservation and then moved you over to a third queue for seating! (No opportunity to look around the gift stores or wait at the bar, which was a bit of shame)! About 15 minutes after our ADR time it was finally announced that our expedition was ready to leave and we got seated at an awesome table in the seas / underwater section!

This was really cool and definitely lived up to my prehistoric expectations. Sal was also pretty pleased:

Argh, jellyfish overhead!

Tables for 2 were located around a massive fish tank in the centre of this section, so we got a front-row view of the marine life:

We could also see the other sections around the restaurant: ice cave, fire pit etc. and they all looked exciting. Just behind us there was a massive animatronic woolley mamoth which kept bellowing and moving it's trunk:

We really enjoyed our meal but there was soo much food. First mistake: we started off with the giganto-nachos (and boy, are they gigantic!) I am only glad that we didn't opt for the 3-tiered age of discovery, which would probably have rendered us both extinct:

We then had burgers, which were OK, but couldn't handle pudding! Every 30 minutes or so there was a meteroid-shower in the restaurant, so the lights would dim and thunder sound effects were unleashed. This was really fun and we were lucky to survive 4 showers in the course of our meal - what are the chances?!

Afterwards, we visited the gift store - which is dinotastic - and also includes a Build-a-Dino section. We have a Build-a-Bear store in our home town, but it can't compete with this: where else can you find a plus dino in pink flip flops??

We resisted building a dino of our own, but we did find a cool ice cube tray (which makes ice in the shape of pterodactyls) - the perfect gift for our dinosaur-mad friends back home! By now, it was around 22:30, so we wandered back through the Market Place and caught the bus back to Pop and went straight to bed.

Coming Up: A late start, and how many times can we ride Test Track?!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Great parade pics! I wonder if they're going to change the parade soon since they've changed the theme.
Thanks for the T-Rex pics, as well. We've never been there and we've been wondering how it was and what it is like inside. I'd love some dinosaur-shaped ice cubes!!

 

[wlake]

What a great view of the parade you had! Great pictures, too!

 

[pookersmom]

Just enjoying your trip report. Love the photo of you on your first ride on BTMRR.