First "grown-up" trip- the report

[singingpixie]

Hi everyone, we just got back from a wonderful trip and I'd like to tell you all about it! Look for my more in-depth dining and resort reviews in the appropriate boards.
The details:
Me, Meg, 21- two previous trips: One week at age 10, and a day-trip two years ago.
DBF, Steve, 22- first trip ever
Staying 1/4-10/06 at Pop on MYW w/ park hopper, plus, and dining options.
Wed 1/4, Day 1:
I tried to go to bed the night before at 10, only to wake up at midnight not able to get back to sleep! So after watching a lot of TV and dosing a bit, we got up at 4 and headed to the airport in DC for our 6:25AM flight. While I've flown a lot (my grandparents live in California so our annual vacation growing up was going to see them), this was only steve's second flight ever so it was kinda cool seeing it through his eyes. He kept staring out the window going "this is awesome!" over and over. Then the hour kicked in and he dosed off, but I was still too excited to sleep so I just sat and tried to relax. We landed at 8:30 in Orlando and I saw PALM TREES... I couldn't believe we were there. We made our way to the DME counter and got on our bus where we waited maybe 10 minutes before departing for the World. After stops at the Caribbean Beach and Saratoga Springs resorts, we arrived at Pop Century exactly an hour after we'd landed. We checked in and found out that not only would we get our requests- a king bed close to classic hall, but that it was on a top floor (quieter) and it was already ready! We brought our carry-on bags upstairs to 70s B 0467, relaxed for a bit (ok, so steve relaxed and I sat on the bed trying not to beg him to leave for the park until he was ready) before heading to Epcot at around 1030. After buying a refillable mug at the food court (we decided just to share it), we were off. The plan was to go check out Soarin to possibly get a fast pass before we did anything else, as I figured that would be the toughest ride to see this trip. The Land pavillion was mobbed! We made it down to the fastpass machines (where there was a line) and were waiting to get ours, when someone came by and asked if we wanted theirs- for only an hour later. We took them very gratefully (the others were for four hours later I think) and stopped at the seasons food court to get steve a snack to tide him over till lunch. Then we decided to go check out Honey I shrunk the audience to kill the rest of the time- this was a longer wait than I expected, and it turned out it was time for lunch by the time we finished, so we headed toward France. After lunch steve was sleepy, so he took a quick nap on a bench while I walked around taking pictures. We browsed WS for a bit, seeing the Acrobats in China (those kids are amazing!), a wood carver at the outpost, drummers and the candy lady in Japan. We browsed the stores in Japan and Morocco, watched the movie in France before heading back and finally using our fastpass for Soarin. I liked it, but didn't think it was as amazing as people have made it out to be. Maybe it was because we were in the lowest row. We stopped to see Spaceship Earth on our way out, and headed to the MK because it was getting dark and I wanted to see Wishes our first night! At the MK, we saw Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, stopped to grab steve a burger at Pecos Bills, and then saw the Haunted Mansion, and Space Mountain. We timed it perfectly, because we caught the first moments of Wishes as we exited the ride. We made our way to the bridge to Tomorrowland to watch the rest of the show. As expected, I teared up a bit as steve held my hand during the show and kissed me (he's really not a PDA person at all!) We followed the mob out of the park and caught the Electrical Water Pageant as we walked to the busses. We didn't have to wait long as they were bringing two busses at a time, and we were back at the hotel in no time. After a quick swim (the water was warm but the air at night was COLD!) we crashed after our wonderful and LONG first day.

Stay tuned for the rest of the week in the same thread!

 

[singingpixie]

Thurs, 1/5- Day 2
We started our first full day at MGM, getting there just a few mins past opening. We fastpassed the Rockin Roller Coaster, and rode Tower of Terror (I still LOVE this ride) before using the fast passes. Steve got a bit queezy of RnRC, but his stomach is pretty sensitive, especially in the morning. It's a really cool ride though. We made it just in time for the first showing of the Lights Motors Action show, which was really cool. We both were impressed. Then came the beginning of the Millionaire addiction. Steve and I are both slightly dorky and easliy addicted, so this show was really fun. We ate lunch at Backlot Express, and went to see the Indiana Jones show. I had been telling Steve he should try to be an extra in this as he is an actor generally, and a stage combat actor especially. After a lot of coaching from me ("no honey, stand up, jump a lot and scream LOUDER!") he was picked as the last extra! He had a lot of fun but was mad that the guy chosen for the combat demonstration was a plant. I got lots of pictures. Afterward we saw Star Tours and the Muppets (I remembered both of them better than I found them this trip), we decided to indulge our millionaire addiction- three more shows! We both were on the screen several times, but no hot seat. Oh well, it's only our second day. We had dinner reservations in Epcot, so we headed toward the boat dock. In Epcot we browsed the UK and France pavillions, and took pictures before dinner in Japan. We made it out just in time to see Illuminations from the balcony. A note about making ADR times- our ADR was for 730, and we were seated at 745. We made it onto the balcony literally two mins before Illuminations started, which was fine because crowds were low. If you don't want to feel rushed for dinner though, or want time to stake out a spot, make your ADR a bit earlier than we did. We were lucky it worked out. After the show we worked our way out of the park and back to the hotel where we collapsed at like 1030!

 

[singingpixie]

Fri 1/6- Day 3
Today I woke up at 630 AM and I have no idea why, but I couldn't get back to sleep. This became a trend, I seriously think I become a bit manic at Disney. Anyway, I caught up on my trip report notes and looked at pictures until it was a fair time to wake steve up so we could head out toward the MK. We made it in time for the opening show (this was the last opening we made till our last day, since we were covering a lot of ground, there were little crowds and steve was a lot happier with an extra hour or so of sleep!) which was cute and got me excited for the park. We only had a couple hours till our 1110 brunch at Kona Cafe. Since we'd hit SM and BTMRR the first night and it was a little cool for splash, we started in Adventureland and walked right onto Pirates. I'm still nostalgic for that ride. Walking past Splash we saw that the sprayers weren't on, so we decided to give it a go. We didn't get too wet, and it was a lot of fun with no wait! We headed into Fantasyland after stopping at BTMRR for fastpasses, and rode Its a Small World (I don't think steve quite saw the appeal) and Peter Pan's flight. We used our fastpasses on the way out of the park, and then headed toward the monorail platform. We just caught the train after the doors closed, so the driver invited us to ride up front! I got some good pictures of all the monorail resorts. At brunch we talked about our plans for the rest of the trip. Steve wasn't that into the MK and I had done it two years ago and was more interested in the other parks, so we decided not to spend as much time there as I had planned, and headed out to the Animal Kingdom, a park neither of us had been to before. in the AK we headed back to Africa where we grabbed fastpasses for KS, and checked out the Pagani trail until our time was up. We also got to see the Acrobat act in Harambe. The safari was cool, but we wanted to come back again later to see different animals. We went to see Flights of Wonder (a real test for me because I'm terrified of birds!) which was really interesting, and then took the Maharajah trek, deciding against Kali since it was probably not even 60 degrees. We saw dinosaur after seeing another street performance in Dinoland,and then finished the day with the last showing of Festival of the Lion King. We made it to our dinner at Boma just in time, and got to look around the lodge a bit while we waited. After dinner we headed toward Downtown Disney to see Cirque. This was probably our favorite thing the whole trip. definitely worth the money to see it. We had planned to stay to see Pleasure Island, but were definitely wiped out so we dragged ourselves to the bus stop and back to the hotel.

 

[singingpixie]

Saturday, 1/7- Day 4
This was the first day of the marathon and we expected transportation to be disrupted, so we decided to sleep in a bit and try to get to MGM by 10. When we got there, we grabbed fastpasses for ToT, and rode RnRc before we headed back for the first showing of the Millionaire show. Still no hot seat, this time because a little kid won the fastest finger and the host was really chatty with him. We were both on the board at the end though. We checked out the Great Movie Ride before our FP time for ToT, and then headed to the ABC commisary for lunch. After we ate we took the Backlot Tour, and checked out One Man's Dream before the next millionaire show. Even though we were 15 mins early we barely got in! This time again, one person talked a lot and they never took another, so we stayed for the next show. We were glad we did, because this time Steve won the fastest finger and made it into the hot seat! He did fairly well, but burned his first lifeline on a silly question (what day to catholics traditionally eat fish? still don't know how he didn't know that one) and then lost on the 32000 question, which was a really tough one. No cruise for us, but he got a hat and some pins. And some fans that we kept running into for the rest of the trip! After satiating the millionaire addiction (he isn't eligible for the hot seat again for 30 days), we headed out to Epcot to make sure we saw Test Track before it went down for refurb. We grabbed fastpasses, then went on Mission Space with only a 10 min wait. I'm glad I did it because it was really well done, but both of us felt a little bit disoriented afterward. We checked out UoE because it was a lot of sitting, and felt better. After browsing in Innoventions it was time for our Fastpass so we took a spin on the Test Track. We then headed over to norway to take the ride (I still love that one too, and steve is into Norse mythology so was interested) and browsed the shops until dinner. We ate in Le Cellier, and I go into more detail in my dining report but WOW. Then it was back home and off to bed.

 

[singingpixie]

Sunday, 1/8- Day 5
Today was the second marathon day, and even though transportation the day before wasn't bad at all, we decided we'd still make this a sleep-in day and do DtD and Disneyquest. We shopped a bit in the Marketplace before grabbing lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express, and then walked over to the Westside to do Disneyquest. I really don't like arcades but steve loves them, so we figured we'd spend the afternoon there. He was having a great time but I was feeling a bit woozy after CyberSpace Mountain and Alladin's carpets and with all the loud noise and flashing lights, so I took a break and checked in with my mom and took a nap on a bench while he kept playing for a couple hours. Then it was off to Epcot for dinner in Morocco. Steve loved the belly dancer. this was a really short stop in Epcot though, because we wanted to see Fantasmic and not save it for our last night in case something happened. We just made it to MGM and found seats down front minutes before the show started. We both really liked it. After making our way out with the crowd, we went back to the hotel for a bit and then off to Pleasure island. We saw a couple shows at the adventurers club (I really liked it, steve only said it was OK) before catching the last comedy show (not as good as others I've seen) and calling it a night.

 

[singingpixie]

Monday, 1/9- Day 6
Today we decided to finish up what we still wanted to see in AK and MK. We got to AK around 10 and went straight onto the Safari- got to see the giraffes and zebras really close up, and got some great pictures. Then we saw It's Tough to be a Bug before grabbing lunch at Tusker House and seeing the drummers' show. We headed out and were going to spend the time before dinner in Epcot, but were tired (our fast pace was catching up with us) so we headed back to the hotel for a couple hours. We went back to the MK at about 330 and took a spin on the Railroad and the Jungle Cruise (so much fun) before dinner at 5 at CRT. Then we saw Philharmagic (I love this show) and did Splash before catching a bit of Spectromagic and securing a spot at the hub for a last viewing of Wishes. I wanted to see it from the front, and to see Tinkerbell fly. After the show we headed back to the hotel and played at the arcade a bit before bedtime.

 

[singingpixie]

Tuesday, 1/10- Day 7- Departure Day
Today we got up and made it to MGM at opening, where we got onto the first elevator of the day at ToT. Then we browsed some stores until the first showing of the Little Mermaid. We took the animation tour and two classes at the animation academy with lunch in between, and then headed to finish our last day at Epcot. After a long wait for the bus (we could have taken the boat but I wanted to start in Future World), we checked out the Living Seas, and browsed the stores in Italy, Germany, China and Mexico, and then decided we were tired at about 330. We went back to the hotel to swim and grab our bags before DME picked us up at 540.

 

[singingpixie]

Wrap-up:
The trip was great. This was our first vacation together after being together for almost two years, and was a wonderful break from the stresses of real life- school, work, bills, etc. Since we both work in theater (he's an actor/combat choreographer/technician and I'm a stage manager/technician) he's actually started thinking we might want to move down there! How awesome would that be?
The marathon was no big deal. We saw a bunch of people who had participated and it was a bit crowded at PI the night we went (they were having their wrap-up party), we waited in no real lines and transportation was back to normal by 10 or 11.
The weather was ok- definitely cool a couple of days but I just wore layers and was fine- never wore a coat except the night we went to PI. Most of the time a long-sleeved shirt with a sweatshirt for mornings/nights was great. It didn't rain once the whole time we were there.
DME worked perfectly- I really think they have the kinks worked out.
We didn't end up going to any of the EMHs because I had planned my ADRs before the new EMH schedule had been released. We didn't need to, and might have avoided crowds by not doing them. In any case we saw everything we wanted to see, and I didn't have to try to drag steve out of bed at 7AM to do it.
Going in the off-season was worth it. I could control my Type-A travel self and actually not get there at opening and not be adversely affected. The few times we found lines over 20 mins, fastpass made us able to avoid it. I really don't think we could ever go during the busy season because I'd want to get there at 730AM and steve would mutiny! But that's fine with me- no lines and cooler weather gave us the energy do to everything we wanted to do without collapsing.

 

[lynn71092]

Great post!
Good job!!!

 

[kathymc]

thanks for sharing - sounds like a great trip and you got a lot done!

 

[keri-k]

Sounds like you had a great time!

 

[castoff50]

I'm impressed! It usually takes a more experienced & seasoned Disney traveler to put a tour plan like that together. Great job, I enjoyed your report.

 

[DawnAK]

Thanks for the Trip Report. I am hoping we have the same good luck at POP that you did. We leave home at 3pm on Saturday and arrive in Orlando at 7am on Sunday. After flying all night, a room ready would be great!!! Plus, we requested a king bed too, your location sounds great!

Thanks again. Sounds like you had a great trip.

Dawn