First taste of freedom AKA Like a kid at DisneyWorld LITERALLY-My first TR!

[YukiPhnx]

After trolling around this board, I have finally decided to contribute!

This is a TR of a long-past trip that took place during August 2006. So on with the TR!

The cast:
Yuki-That's me!
At the time of trip, aged 17. I've always loved Disney and a dream of mine was to go to WDW. And yes, I'm dressed as a maid. I'm a big fan of anime and I frequently dress up for conventions (and sometimes when I'm not!). This is a recent photo of me taken just this spring.

Here's a non-costumed me, enjoying my Coca-Cola.

Frances- My younger sister
At the time of trip, aged 15. Also a fan of Disney, although not as much as me. This photo shows our surprise to find a cup with her name on it! Back in Canada, it's very hard to find items with her name. The male version, Francis, seems more common. Excuse me for the blurriness of the photo.

Here's a better photo, taken outside a restaurant near the hotel we stayed at.

Kelvin- The baby of the family
At the time of trip, aged 14. Not much interest in Disney, but loves his big sister, so he tried his best to show enthusiasm. One of the reasons it took us so long to get to WDW was because my parents were waiting for him to turn 14. More explained after these intros.

And another one because his sisters got two photos too.

The dates:
August 18-August 25th, 2006. We stayed for 9 days and 8 nights, but only spent 4 of those days at WDW. This being a Dis forum, I'll only report on those days. (I know it doesn't matter, but it makes me easier on me.)

Coincidentally, those are almost the exact dates of my next trip to the World! I swear I didn't mean for it to turn out that way. Imagine my surprise when I found that out after booking for my future trip.

The accomodations:
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Lake Buena Vista. Unfortunately, I didn't take any picture of the place, but it was beautiful. As my parents were the ones that organized this trip through a travel agency package, I don't know what the rates were either.

The rooms were spacious and came with hairdryer, a fridge, coffee maker, a microwave, a safe, and an iron and iron board. There was also a convenient store next to the hotel lobby that offered a great selection of food. We were especially grateful that they sold medicine when I suddenly started coughing during the trip.

The free shuttle to the major theme parks were very reliable. Unfortunately, the first bus would often arrive at the parks after the rope drop, and the last bus to leave Epcot was before Illuminations. Other than that, because I didn't know much about park touring (and the importance of getting there EARLY), I had no complaints.

The deets:
So this was my sibs and I's very first trip to any Disney theme park. Why did it take us so long to go? The same reason for many other people, the cost. It took my parents quite a few years to save up for this trip for the three of us. About 5 years to be exact. I'm making an understatement when I tell you how thankful I am of how hard my parents worked so we could have this trip.

Another reason is that my parents actually wanted us to have a parent-free trip. They're not big on doing a lot during a vacation, so they decided that as soon as my brother passed puberty, we would be old enough to make the trip down to Florida on our own. Simultaneously, they were waiting for me to turn 17 so we wouldn't need an adult chaperon.

My roots:
I was born in China, but both my younger siblings are born in Toronto, Ontario, which is where my family currently resides. I live in Waterloo, Ontario, about 1.5 hrs from Toronto, where I attend the University of Waterloo. I've been trying hard to start a Disneyana club at the university, but the process has been slow. I've always been an advocate for children and a great supporter of the Make a Wish Foundation, Children's Wish Foundation, and the Sick Kids' Hospital. My goal with the club is to hold fundraisers to grant a child's wish to go to WDW. Wish me luck!

Other misc stuff:
My parents bought this trip as part of a 9-day package from their local travel agency that included airfare, accomodations off-site, and tickets to the four major theme parks, as well as a day each at Universal Studios, Sea World, and the JFK Space Center.

In closing:
Since this trip was taken long before I even discovered the Disboards, please bear with me as I try to make this a great TR with my limited number of pictures and fragmented memory of this first ever trip I took without my parents.

WARNING: This TR may be low on pictures, but it will be HIGH on precious memories of my first ever visit to WDW! Updates may also be slow for I am in the middle of exam-period.

For those of you who choose to follow me, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Your patronage is MUCH appreciated. <3

Table of Contents
Epcot-To the Future!

 

[dort]

Waiting for the next installment
What great parents you have!

 

[YukiPhnx]

You have made me SOOO happy! I hope not to disappoint!

And yes, I DO have great parents, thank you!

 

[YukiPhnx]

Epcot-To the Future!

We chose Epcot as our first park because we actually thought it was going to be the least eventful park! Before our trip, we read a little about the theme parks and decided to visit the parks according to least interesting to the most.

Our itinerary turned out to be Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studies (MGM at the time), and Magic Kingdom. I have always believed in saving the best for last. Watching the Wishes fireworks turned out to be the perfect end to our vacation, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

As we entered the parks, the first thing we did was take a shot of Spaceship Earth, the icon of Epcot. Fortunately for us, we were able to take a shot of it with the Mickey hand and wand before they took it down. Because I can't find my own picture, here is a borrowed one from google.

As we walked towards the right side of the park, my siblings and I actually paused a bit to read the names on those monument stones. From what I saw, they were names of people that have donated money to the creation of Epcot, along with the names of the lucky people that got to dedicate a slab of stone to a loved one. Reading those names really made me smile. I can't quite remember why though.

Whenever I go to a theme park, I always head for the right of the park first and go in a counter-clockwise direction. We did that for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, but not for Hollywood Studios. Also for some reason, we switched to going clockwise when we got to World Showcase.

On our way to the right, we stopped into Innoventions East to see what it was about. To our surprise, we had our very first character sighting! Very exciting indeed!

Our very first ride in a Disney theme park was Living with the Land. We were heading in the direction of the Seas with Nemo and Friends, but noticed a large crowd heading there also, so we decided to take on the Land first.

Actually, our first attraction was the Circle of Life movie featuring Timon, Pumbaa, and Simba. Why? Because there were no lines! We really enjoyed that movie, because we had just watched Lion King 1.5 recently. After this, we lined up for Living with the Land. I remember the line for this ride taking longer than expected. My favourite part of it was seeing the Mickey shaped pumpkins.

After that, we headed to Soarin', since it was right outside the exit to LwtL. The line didn't seem long, but it definitely took longer than expected. As we lined up for the ride, all we could see in the queue were aerial views of landscape. We had NO IDEA what this attraction was about! My siblings and I kept trying to come up with ideas of what this ride actually was. From the pre-show video featuring Patrick Warburton (which I loved because he's one of my FAVOURITE Disney voice actors), we could only deduce it had something to do with flying (duh). The closer we approached the ride though, the more apprehensive I became.

You see, I have a HUGE fear of FALLING. With all the warnings I saw around the queue, it felt like this ride would be a manifestation of my fears! I was very unsure about getting into the seat and buckling up. I placed my bags under the seat and sat between my two siblings (they refused to sit beside each other on ALL of the rides. sibling rivalry), bracing for that queasy feeling I get when I'm too high up in a building. Ironically, I LOVE roller coasters and the view I get before the big drop.

When the ride started, and the seats lifted, I started to become less afraid. I dared to look at the screen and swing my legs. The ride felt amazing! With the simulation of wind and the realism of the screen, I actually lifted my leg up when that line of evergreens passed under us. One of my safety measures that I use when I go on rides with screens in front of me is to look off into the corner, past the screen, so I can distinguish between real and unreal, which always calms my nerves. But I have to say, I didn't do that ONCE on this ride! Ok, maybe I did, but it was before the ride started (I had to know where to look if needed).

Ater that rousing start, we headed over to the Seas with Nemo and Friends (just the Seas at the time). Ofcourse, we couldn't pass up this photo op in front of the faux corals.

First thing we saw when we headed in was the SUPER LONG LINE for Turtle Talk with Crush. But since it was being so heavily advertised on that special DisneyWorld channel we got back at the hotel, we just had to try this attraction out. Unfortunately for us, we were too old (and big) to sit up front with the younger children, so we had to stand at the back with the rest of the grown-ups.

This is one of my favourite attractions. Not only because we had a great convo with Crush, where he taught us turtle-speak, there was also this one little girl that sat in the front that had a lot to say. From what was coming out of her mouth, it was very obvious that she had just come from a showing of the Circle of Life video (good thing we caught that before this attraction!). She actually gave Crush a 3-minute speech about how we should take care of the ocean! Then when Crush was finally able to get a word in, she continued with, "And then..." which Crush responded with an "Uh oh." I think that moment made that attraction for me. Great memory number 1. He dealt with that little girl very well and the show finally ended.

Because of that sort of interaction with the children, I am definitely returning. It was like watching an episode of "Kids Say the Darnedest Things".

After the show, we took our time looking at the exhibits around the Seas. And taking more pictures of course.
Frances being eaten up by Bruce! She had to fight her way there, with the children failing to understand the concept of "lining up" for this photo op. Mothers around me even had the audacity to yell, "Don't mind her, just get in front!".

Kelvin posing with I-can't-remember-his-name shark. That smile may LOOK natural, but it came after a lot of persuasion by his sisters.

Kelvin trying to protect Frances?

After the Seas, I believe we went to the Imagination! Pavilion and got in line for Honey! I Shrunk the Audience!. The line was pretty long, but the wait was short enough, due to the large capacity of the theater. My siblings and I are great fans of the Honey! series and was very surprised to see this ride.

You have to understand, before coming to WDW, we actually had VERY LITTLE knowledge of it. Why I didn't do more research to prepare for this trip is beyond me. We ended up missing a lot. But as my DH always says, it gives me a reason to return. And return I shall! Ok, let's continue.

This attraction was a lot of fun. When everyone else was squealing at the sight of mice, I was giggling. I'm a big fan of all rodents and was delighted to see so many on the big screen. Apparently though, it seemed the audience weren't just squealing from the sight of them, there was something else. My siblings and I sat on the very left of the theater, right next to the exit doors. When the mice were "released", they were released on the audience sitting on the right side. So as the screams got closer and closer, I nonchalantly lifted my legs and effectively avoided the "mice" scurrying through the theater. Frances was not so fortunate and almost jumped out of her seat when they got to her! Great memory number 2.

Coming out of this attraction, we got in line for the ride featuring Figment. The most memorable moment of this ride was the optical illusions that used mirrors, and the part where they emitted some smell onto the riders. I remember it being not very pleasant. The ending scene with all those Figments also kind of scared me. I'm not a very big fan of Figment at all.

We fooled around a little in the Imagination Pavilion, playing with those screens that created music and the other little stands they had. After having our fill, we headed towards Spaceship Earth and boarded that, since the line looked like it was moving fast. I actually don't have much of a recollection of that attraction at all! All I really remember was how we got into the vehicle on the spinning platform.

At the beginning of our day, we grabbed a park map and tried to plan out our itinerary. We decided to have lunch in Mexico. We didn't want to eat anything too foreign, nor did we want to eat something we get a lot of at home (ie: Chinese, Japanese, and Italian). So we chose Mexico as our safe bet and decided on Morrocco as our culinary adventure.

On our way to the other side of Future World, we noticed the jumping fountains! I took a video of it cause it was so delightful! It was a very unexpected but wonderful surprise.

We were starting to get hungry at this point, but wanted to get on Mission:Space before lunch. By that time, even though we weren't clear on how Fastpasses were used, we had already learned to make use of the Standby Waiting time. As we headed towards M:S, we noticed HUGE lines at Test Track. Not knowing what that ride was about, and not sure how to use FPs, we decided to skip it. The wait time for Mars was only 5 minutes and we wanted to eat already.

Here's a photo stolen from Google to make up for my own lack of photos.

M:S split people into fours to fit into the shuttle. Since there were only 3 of us, I had double duty during the ride. But I LOVED EVERY MINUTE. The queue was wonderful to walk through, and the ride was beyond anything I had ever experienced. The interaction with the ride was so much fun! I loved having those duties as Engineer and Navigator, pressing those buttons when we were told to. It also had a very fun twist in the end. After being released from that ride, we wandered around the play area and watching others play a bit before heading to World Showcase.