First solo trip to Disney May 16-21 w/pics

[Dizmom0923]

Okay...I'm in

 

[spaceoddity]

Glad I found your report! My first solo trip will be in September, so I am very interested in how things went for you!

Looking forward to the rest!

Thanks for reading, i always enjoy your trip reports. My first solo trip was allot of fun i think you'll have a great time!

sounds like you had a great time on the tour. I've always meant to do one, I'm going to look into it

Yes you should do a tour Disney offers so many and at all different price ranges...so pick the one you think you'll be interested in

Okay...I'm in

Thanks for reading

 

[spaceoddity]

Day 3 part 2

So once the parade was over we headed back to the bus and was taken back to where this 7 hour journey began. So at about 4:15pm we were dropped back off at Epcot and got our Backstage Magic pin..which you can only get by taking the tour.

So now i had to head back to the MK....funny i was just there. Told Shaun i would meet him for 4:30pm...oops not gonna make it for then. Hoped the monorail to the TTC the changed monorails to the MK. Go there about 4:50pm...not too bad. No more learning for the day time to ride some rides

First ride i wanted to do was Splash Mountain...it had been down for refurb when i was here in January. I had never got as wet as i did on Splash Mountain before..were talking almost Kali River wet...and not from the drop. How? Well when a log goes down the drop water shoots out on both sides for dramatic effect. If your log times it ride the water that shoots out to the side can get you...and it did right in the side of my head...almost felt like someone slapped me. I was soaked. It was really funny

So did a few other rides before our reservations at O'hanas at 8:35pm....also trying to dry off too I know we went on Pirates, Mickey's Philharmagic, BTMR...The clouds were getting to get dark so we headed to the Poly...didn't want to get wet again. We walked around the Poly for awhile. I really want to stay here...maybe my next, next trip? The couds cleared...no rain

I had eaten at O'hana's before and new we were about to get an insane amount of food for 2 people. I had warned Shaun..be prepared to get allot of food. I think he was a little shocked and just how much you get. I love the atmosphere here...the food is ok. Some of the meat was a little dry..a common complaint with O'hana's. We also had a great view of the castle and watched Wishes while we were stuffing ourselves. Wow what a long, long day...but worth every bit of exhaustion i was feeling. When we were done headed to the boat dock at MK to get back to the WL...wasn't too bad of wait since the mad rush to get out of the MK after Wishes had died down.

Next up...early start for the Keys to the Kingdom Tour

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Yay- I LOVE solo trip reports! (Of course, I am biased )

Love your WL pictures- I've really been missing it lately!

 

[BriarRosie]

Great report so far! Most of my trips are solo, but I end up meeting with
people I know locally, or others who have trips coinciding with mine.

I've taken the Backstage Magic Tour in 1999 solo, and it was a slightly
different experience. Some of the experiences were the same (American
Adventure, Central Shops, Costuming, the parade end), but we had some
experiences that couldn't be done after 9/11.

I'm doing the Segway tour in October. I liked it enough the first time
around, I wanted to repeat the experience.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report.

 

[spaceoddity]

Yay- I LOVE solo trip reports! (Of course, I am biased )

Love your WL pictures- I've really been missing it lately!

Thanks for reading i love the WL

Great report so far! Most of my trips are solo, but I end up meeting with
people I know locally, or others who have trips coinciding with mine.

I've taken the Backstage Magic Tour in 1999 solo, and it was a slightly
different experience. Some of the experiences were the same (American
Adventure, Central Shops, Costuming, the parade end), but we had some
experiences that couldn't be done after 9/11.

I'm doing the Segway tour in October. I liked it enough the first time
around, I wanted to repeat the experience.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report.

Thanks for reading i would like to do the Segway tour...maybe one of these trips i'll do it

 

[DreaGirl]

What a beautiful site!

Isn't it great walking around in wet clothes?!

I think we are going to skip O'Hana...we'll see.

 

[ccigliano]

Enjoying your trip report. I think it is terrific that you would venture off on a vacation alone but Disney is the only place I would feel comfortable doing that. And look how great it turned out, you got to make a new friend from across the pond. Looking forward to reading more.
Charmaine

 

[spaceoddity]

Enjoying your trip report. I think it is terrific that you would venture off on a vacation alone but Disney is the only place I would feel comfortable doing that. And look how great it turned out, you got to make a new friend from across the pond. Looking forward to reading more.
Charmaine

Glad your enjoying the report, thanks for reading I agree i don't think i would go anywhere else on vacation solo. I feel very comfortable at WDW...it's almost like a second home

 

[spaceoddity]

Day 4

Sat May 19th

Up & out early this morning wanted to be at the MK for 8am. Took a boat from the WL over to MK. It doesn't get much better than riding a boat on Bay Lake to the MK while the sun is coming up

Today i'm doing the Keys to the Kingdom Tour and this will be my 2nd time & Shaun's first. The first tour of the morning is at 8:30am and it's the one i prefer because you ge to enter the MK before it opens and walk down Main Street by yourself...it's empty. You also can have your picture taken in front of the castle with no else around As shown in the picture of me below.

After some picture taking we go to check in for the tour and pick what we would like to have for lunch. Lunch is at the Columbia Harbor House....nice out of the way counter service resteraunt in Liberty Square.

So our tour guide is Matthew....yup same tour guide i had back in January. I'm happy becasue he was great...and very funny.

Sorry he turned is head when i went to take a picture..so this is a side view of Matthew

Ok so i'm not going into great detail about the tour...go take it yourself!! No i don't want to spoil it for anyone. I do recomend it if your interested in allot of behind the scenes workings of the MK. You do get to visit the utilidoors...which for me would make 2 days in a row. I feel like i know my way around in the utilidoors at this point. Yes they do have maps in the utilidoors for those poor lost CM's on there first day or 365 day

If you have any questions on the tour please feel free to ask. You learn allot of the history of Walt & Roy Disney, the Disney Company & MK. What was funny is during lunch Matthew sat with me & Shaun...so i told him i took the tour in January and had you as the tour guide. I knew he wouldn't remember me...but he said it's pretty much word for word as last time huh?? Some of it was...but he still kept it sounding fresh like he was doing it for the first time. They only thing we didn't do but did in January was ride the Jungle Cruise....which was fun because instead of having the skipper talk Matthew took over and talked about the ride...no jokes. The best part is when he points out that one of the head hunters says "I love disco"....which you can never really here if your on the ride with skipper telling those bad jokes


The tour wrapped up at about 1pm, so now it was time to do the attractions we hadn't gotten done the night before and ride Splash Mountain again...hopefully with out getting soaked Tonight was also a Spectromagic night but the park did not seem all that crowded for a Saturday...which is not one of the best days to do MK. Got a dole whip of course...yum-o also introduced Shaun to it and he enjoyed it. Tonight was dinner at the Concourse Steakhouse at 5:30pm....i had never eaten here before. I had the prime rib...it was very good. The atomsphere is kinda lacking but the food was excellent. I would eat here again...o-wait i can't since it will be closing next year

After we ate went back to MK and used the FP we had gotten for Splash & Jungle Cruise...yea didn't get soaked on SM

It was about 7pm and Spectromagic was at 8pm so started to head back to Main street to get a spot. While heading through Adventureland i saw Lou Mongello talking to himself....so didn't want to go over and say hi and interupt his recording. I knew he was going to be there today and i was suppposed to call him so we could meet and say hi. For those who don't know Lou does the WDW Radio podcast (which is great my favorite Disney podcast) and is the author of the Walt Disney World trivia books vol 1&2. I had run out of time...and never got to call him. But if you ever see Lou talking to himself he said it's ok to come up and say hi...so next time i will Lou

Found a spot for Spectro at the front of Main Street...which was nice so once Wishes was over we could just dash out with out having to deal with crowds...both Shaun and i were pretty exhausted at this point...had very low energy today. Spectro is the only parade that is a must for me Never stay to watch any of the afternoon parades..well unless your on the Backstage Magic tour then it's part of the tour.

Was hard to get some pics without them getting all blurry...and i was tired and not holding the camera all that steady. So after Wishes i headed back to WL for some much needed sleep.

next up Animal Kingdom & my last day

 

[KimAshton]

Love this TR cannot wait for more.

 

[spaceoddity]

Love this TR cannot wait for more.

Thanks for reading...only one day left....so it's going to be sad since i'm going home the next day

 

[BriarRosie]

ROFL when I read that Lou was "talking to himself". I've met Lou, and I
listen to a dozen or so Disney podcasts. Lou is one of the nicest people
you can meet. I think he was recording a "walk-thru" tour of the parks.
Fun stuff.

Too bad you only had the side view of Matthew and not the back...tie it
into the Jungle Cruise and you could have had the "back side of Matthew!"

 

[spaceoddity]

ROFL when I read that Lou was "talking to himself". I've met Lou, and I
listen to a dozen or so Disney podcasts. Lou is one of the nicest people
you can meet. I think he was recording a "walk-thru" tour of the parks.
Fun stuff.

Too bad you only had the side view of Matthew and not the back...tie it
into the Jungle Cruise and you could have had the "back side of Matthew!"

When i saw Lou "talking to himself" i almost went over to say Hi but just didn't want to interupt his recording....but next time i will

Clever tie in.....but also it made me groan...as do most of the Jungle Cruise jokes

 

[WDWFlorida2005]

Thanks for reading...only one day left....so it's going to be sad since i'm going home the next day

Great trip report!! Love it! Can't wait to read the rest of the report !!

 

[spaceoddity]

Great trip report!! Love it! Can't wait to read the rest of the report !!

Thank you for reading It's been allot of fun writing it Last day coming soon.

 

[spaceoddity]

Day 5

Sun May 20

My last full day in Disney Again up early want to get to Animal Kingdom before opening. On this day it was unusually busy this morning ..because there was a triathlon going on. On the bus the driver asked if any of us were going to Blizzard Beach..no one was so straight to AK. Bus driver seemed relieved none of us were going there because of the triathlon allot of the exits were closed for the bikers. So on the way to AK the bus driver says the exit is closed...he seems kinda of lost as what to do next....well next he decides to cut across the median to the other side of the road to take that exit which is open. Never been on this Disney ride before "crazy bus driver" i think it's called?

So almost taking out some cars on the other side of the highway we make it to the exit and join a huge line trying to get into the AK...what a mess the triathlon caused. But still made it too AK before opening. Shaun wasn't there yet but i knew he most likely was stuck in the line trying to get in.

Meet up with Shaun and walk up to rope drop....the mad dash to Expedition Everest was about to begin..much better ride than the "crazy bus driver" Also my favorite ride in Disney...the que line is amazing.

Pretty much did everything in AK except the Flights of Wonder show...did EE 2 or 3 times can't remember?? I saw Finding Nemo: The Musical for the first time...when i went in Jan it was closed the day i was at AK, because the day before 2 puppets had crashed into each other and needed repair I thought it was great! It replaced the Festival of the Lion King as best show at Disney for me Got soaked on Kali, it alwasy happens the raft turns at the last minute and puts me so going down the drop backwards so i'm guranteed to walk in the park wet for a bit

It's going on 4pm so we leave and head to Epcot because Shaun suggested we see Illuminations again since it was my last night. I had orginally planned on going to MK after AK but i thought Illuminations was a better idea. So we drop Shuan's car off at Epcot and head to the WL i had made an adr at Whispering Canyon Cafe'....can't being staying at the WL without eating here

The waitress we had was hysterical...she made it allot of fun! The table next to us was a bit rowdy which was great because that really got the waitress going. I love this resteraunt...have eaten here many times and never been disapointed. Instead of getting the all you can eat skillet this time i got the Roast Chicken..which was very good & of the course the bottomless milkshakes!

Now that i'm a full we head back to Epcot to get a spot for Illuminations. We went to the same spot we had early in the week in front of Norway. Illuminations is my favorite fireworks show. I think it's because it's the least Disney & the music is very emotional....and what I mean by being the least Disney is it's not about dreams & wishes..etc like Wishes / Fantasmic! I love those shows too but Illuminations is my favorite.

After Illuminations i wanted to take my time leaving so we walked out towards the Canadian side. It was starting to hit me that i have to leave in the morning...need to be on magical express for 7:30am...no time to do a park tomorrow So get to the entrance of Epcot say my goodbyes to Shaun..thank him for a great time. Then head to the bus for WL...and thank god it's dark...because now it hits me and my eyes water up ...i was trying to keep most of it back since i was going to be standing in a line with a bunch people waiting for the bus. It was back to the real world tomorrow.

This was an amazing trip, i had so much fun going solo. i t was non-stop from the time arrived until the time i left. I will most likely do it again in the near future. Already have my October trip planned but there may be a January '08 trip i can start planning for & making adr's when it's time

Here are a few random pictures...Thanks for reading my trip report if have any questions feel free to ask

 

[WDWFlorida2005]

Great report!
And the pictures are breathtaking!!!! Love them!

 

[DreaGirl]

I really enjoyed reading your TR. I hope you do another one for your next trip.

 

[spaceoddity]

Great report!
And the pictures are breathtaking!!!! Love them!

Thank you for reading Glad you like the pictures!

I really enjoyed reading your TR. I hope you do another one for your next trip.

Thank you so much, i will do another trip report for my October trip..i'm going with my friend & her husband and there 2 kids 1 & 3 years old.....it's going to be a whole new experience going from a solo trip to one with 2 little kids. I'm sure i'll have plenty of stories to tell