First Timers Took On The World! Updated 3/28 -- Now Complete!

[ddstratton]

I'm lovin your trip report. I also like your picture of the ladies room at the World's Largest McDonald's! We went there a couple years ago, and I had always wished I'd have gotten a picture of that!

That McDonalds was certainly interesting! Honestly, I stopped short when I walked into the restroom. It was just really unexpected.

Just wanted to say that I've been lurking since you began your pre-trippie, and I'm enjoying every minute! Thanks for doing the TR, and looking forward to the rest!

Thanks for reading along!! I've had a lot of fun doing the TR.

You could take the WONDERFUL picture of your mom and the Queen of Hearts over to "Picture of the Day" photo board, post it, and ask someone to clean it up for you. It's amazing the magic some of them can do with pictures. Great trip report - thanks!

I just may do that... Actually, this IS a slightly-cleaned-up version of the photo. It just happened so quickly that I didn't have a chance to do anything other than snap the picture. With Alice (in the white lights) right behind them, it made the foreground really dark.

I am totally loving your trip report! I love all the details w/ the prices! I am going to do that our next trip, you have inspired me LOL. And great idea to keep the reciepts for your scrapbook. I recently got into scrapbooking, this is great! Can't wait to read more!

I saved my receipts, our KTTW, fast passes, our Photo Pass cards, paper napkins from various restaurants... Just all kinds of things. I really like doing the scrapbooks -- they are such fun to look back on.

 

[ddstratton]

We slept in a little bit on this Thursday morning. We did end up getting out the door around 10 am.

We waited between five and ten minutes for a bus to Epcot.

We went and got fast passes for Soarin’, and got in the stand-by line. Our wait was about 30 minutes or so. This time, we were in the front row, center. I actually prefer the middle row, center. In the top row, you can see the top of the screen. This kind of spoiled the effect for me, but not by much. It was still great!

From here, we stopped at Club Cool and I had the others try Beverly (evil me).

I bought a build-a-mug with frozen coke for DD. Cost $8.52. We went to Test Track. DH rode with me and DD, and Mom waited with our bags. We waited about 30 minutes again. I put the photo on our Photopass card.

After riding Test Track, we stopped at the Electric Umbrella for lunch. DH and I had bacon double cheeseburgers, Mom had a double cheeseburger, and DD had chicken nuggets. Total cost was $35.38.

After eating, we hit our Soarin’ fast passes. We waited about five minutes.

DD stopped at the Kidcot station and got a lanyard and a token (a paper ladybug she colored).

Then we rode Journey Into Imagination with Figment with no wait. After the ride, I bought DD a stuffed Figment $12.73. Immediately after Figment, we all saw Honey I Shrunk the Audience, with about a five minute wait.

On the way out of Honey I Shrunk the Audience, we stopped to try to catch water in the fountains for a minute...

From here, we started to walk around the world.

We stopped in Canada and saw the O Canada! show. There was about a ten minute wait here. DD did another Kidcot stop here. She made a mask.

continued in next post...

 

[ddstratton]

We walked a bit more, and DD got another token at the Morocco Kidcot stop.

In Morocco, we saw Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine. Just before we got to the front of the line, Genie had to leave. So he wasn't in our picture. But I did get a shot of him before he left.

DD didn't want to get too close to Jasmine here. I think she was a little skeeved out by the lack of material in Jasmine's outfit....

This Aladdin was fun, but WAY cheesy. I didn't get a picture of the funniest part because I was laughing too hard. Aladdin was picking on DH a little bit, and had DH flex his biceps. Then he pretended to be afraid of DH and hid behind Jasmine. It happened just after this photo...

We stopped at the American Adventure. We waited just over five minutes. The show was ok, but probably our least favorite in Disney World.

We stopped in Norway and rode Maelstrom. We got some school bread ($4.12). I was disappointed with this. The price was lower than I had seen advertised ($1.99 each as opposed to $3.29), however it was a LOT smaller than I had seen pictured before. It was tasty, but was basically just a glorified donut, because of it's now-smaller size.

We decided to call it an evening, and headed out of the park. We waited just over five minutes for a bus back to the resort.

DH and DD went to the main pool. Mom had the leftover tuna sandwich halves from last night for supper. I was going to meet DH and DD at the main pool and we were going to grab some supper at the Food Court. DH and DD came back just as I was getting ready to go meet them. They closed the main pool at 8:00 tonight. No reason given, just that the pool was closing. DH and I walked to Old Port Royale for some supper. DH got a philly cheesesteak sandwich with pasta salad. I got fettucini alfredo with chicken, and picked up one without chicken for DD. We also filled up our mugs again. Total came to $23.62. We walked back to the room and enjoyed our meals. The fettucini was kinda blah -- no real taste. The chicken was good, though. DH said the cheesesteak was good, too.

Again, we vegged for the evening - just watching TV, playing on the laptop and snoozing. And hey! I did find a picture of the TV/dresser portion of the room.

Next up, our last Disney Day (already!!!).

 

[ddstratton]

This is it -- our last Disney Day of the trip. Mom got up early and did some laundry. I started packing up, so there wouldn't be as much to do tonight/in the morning. DH went to Old Port Royale to fill our mugs. He also picked up a bowl of cereal - $2.12. We left the room just before 9:00. We ended up waiting over 25 minutes for a bus. I think this was our longest wait yet! We were headed to the Magic Kingdom.

We stopped at the Main Street Bakery for breakfast. We waited here about 20 minutes. The place was busy, but the line moved along at a decent pace. DH and I each got a croissant sandwich, Mom got a huge Cinnamon roll and DD got a yogurt and a dish of Frosted Flakes with milk. I got a milk, also. Total cost here was... Ummm... I have no clue! Apparently, I have lost that receipt. Anyway, the food was OK. Nothing great, but not bad either.

We walked back toward ToonTown. We stopped at a cart on the way and got a set of plain Mickey Ears for DD. Cost was $10.60. I do like how she decided to wear them...

The wait for Tinkerbell was 90 minutes. And that’s how long it took us to get in! It was our last chance to see her, so we sucked it up and stood in line. This was in incredibly slow-moving line! Horrendously so. The CM working there said that the line is often AT LEAST 90 minutes, and people are lined up in the morning before the line is even open. Ugh. I will say, it was worth it! If you like Tink, the wait is worth it. They take about three families in at once, and you have some one-on-one time with Tink and a couple other Disney Fairies. They were all very good, and we did enjoy it, even with the huge wait.

After seeing Tink, I got a frozen lemonade. Cost $3.51. I got a viewmaster-type keychain for DD. Cost $6.39.

We walked through ToonTown and stopped at Mickey’s PhilharMagic again. We waited less than five minutes for the show. From here, we walked to Haunted Mansion. This posted a 10 minute wait, but we only waited about five minutes.

Then we headed to Splash Mountain. Posted time was 30 minutes. Our entire time on the ride was just under an hour. This included wait time, ride time and gift shop time. Here, I bought DD a stuffed Brer Rabbit, as she and Mom declared Splash Mountain to be their all-time favorite ride. Cost was $10.60.

We also hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again. We waited about 15 minutes in line here. DD was given one of the red tags to monitor the wait time. She thought that was cool.

After riding BTMRR, we decided to head out. We stopped at Casey’s for a snack. I had a hot dog and the others had fries. I got a milk for DD and a coke for me. Cost was $15.28. It was starting to threaten some rain, but all we ever felt was just a sprinkle or two.

We headed out of Magic Kingdom. We got on the Monorail to the TTC. From there, we got on the one for Epcot. This was simply because Mom wanted to ride the Monorail. No other reason, or destination. Just because.

From Epcot, we caught a bus to Caribbean Beach. We waited about ten minutes for the bus.

After packing up a few more things, we went out to supper. We were going to go to Great American Steaks and Buffet, as it was DH's birthday, and he loves this kind of place. There was an accident on I-4 that closed all lanes of eastbound traffic -- the direction we were heading, of course. We got off at the next exit, and got a wee bit lost. We ended up driving around Orlando (near Sea World) for close to an hour. We finally got back near Disney World, and stopped at a Sizzler (near Crossroads). We had a good supper here! Everything on the buffet looked fresh and was pretty tasty. Cost was $46.55. DD kept telling the waitress that it was her Dad’s birthday. They brought him a little sundae and sang to him.

Looks thrilled, don't he??

We left Sizzler and got right back to the resort without a problem.

DD and DH went to hit the quiet pool one more time. DD swam while DH watched. I went to the Custom House to pay off our tab. $198.74. This included some of the items I had put on our room charge, as well as five days charge for internet connection. I had timed most of it so that I ended up getting two days internet connection for one fee. If I signed on at 8:00 pm one night, I made sure to be off before 8:00 pm the next night. That way, I was able to spread the 24 hours of connection over two days.

I finished packing up, and we loaded up the van with everything we could.

DH fell asleep around 9:00, watching TV. While at Disney, he discovered the Lifetime Movie Network, and their cheezy, but addicting, movies. He had fallen asleep while watching one of them. DD and I walked to Old Port Royale to refill our mugs at around 10:00, and rode the shuttle bus back. Mom was asleep too when we got back.

We vegged a bit and hit the beds, too. We knew we had a lot to do in the morning.

Coming up next, our trip home -- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

 

[OhMari]

I got up early this morning and found you again.
Thanks for the good morning read.
I'm going down in a few days, and I think I am going to try and sign up for the Citrus thing you did.

 

[rmom50]

Just finished reading your latest update! Love your pictures. Thanks for fun trip report. I was there when you were.

 

[ddstratton]

I got up early this morning and found you again.
Thanks for the good morning read.
I'm going down in a few days, and I think I am going to try and sign up for the Citrus thing you did.

Thanks for reading! The Showcase of Citrus was really quite fun. The monster truck ride was great. The people running it were very accommodating. They worked around our schedule without a problem. The truck ride took about an hour total. The driver had a running commentary the whole time, telling us about their operation. If anyone had a question, he'd take the time to answer fully. Occassionally, he'd stop the truck to point out something interesting, or help to answer a question. It was a lot of fun. Also, picking fruit straight from the tree was great. It was SOOOOO tasty!

Just finished reading your latest update! Love your pictures. Thanks for fun trip report. I was there when you were.

Thanks for reading! Wasn't it a great time to be there?? The crowds weren't too bad, and the weather was beautiful.

 

[ddstratton]

November 1 – We got up around 7:00 or so. I finished packing up stuff. We went to Old Port Royale to get breakfast and to fill our mugs. We took a few more pictures along the way.

We spotted this guy in the tree outside our room.

Mom had a bit of fun playing around in a hammock.

DH didn’t want anything, Mom had a large chocolate muffin, I had french toast with bacon, and DD had a western omelet with potatoes. Total cost $15.74.

We took the food back to the room and ate. We finished packing up the van. We left the Caribbean Beach Resort at 10:38 am. We got on I-4 and headed toward Sanford. We arrived at the train station at about 11:30 am. We checked in and got our tickets. We didn't need to be there for a while yet, so we drove to a nearby McDonald’s for lunch. DH had the big mac meal, I had a fish meal, mom had the cheeseburger happy meal and DD had the chicken nugget happy meal. She didn’t eat any of the nuggets, though. I have no idea what we spent here, as I didn't write it down and can't find the receipt.

From there, we went to Walmart, about 2 miles down the road from the McDonald's. I picked up some candy, two mini WWE wrestlers for DD (she just couldn't manage to survive the train ride without them, ya know), Sims FreeTime (an expansion pack for my Sims2 game) and a couple of magazines. Total cost $43.35.

We were back to the train station by about 1:30. They put a magnetic number on the car and we waited in the station. I got DD a pop-ball toy, two drinks for us and some Advil for DH (his jaw was kicking in - he has some occasional TMJ issues). Total cost was $12.81.

Hooking up the engine.

Loading docks for the vehicles.

While we waited to board the train, DD played in their little playground, and we just watched people. Some people... you just have to watch them. You can't look away. There was a group near us, about four adults and I couldn't count the kids. They took 2 luggage carts and blocked off the end of one of the aisles. One said to the other, "Now the kids can play and we don't have to watch them." Um.. OK. This same one was saying loudy, "Ohh. My throat hurts still." Remember this.

This is before that group showed up...

The waiting rooms are starting to fill up...

This was the check-in line. We had checked in much earlier, and had no wait.

This was our car number.

This was our car.

Better quit here. Continued in the next post. (too many pictures)

 

[ddstratton]

We boarded the train at about 2:30 pm. The train took off just before 4:00 pm. We had a little time to get settled in our cars. We opted for two roomette sleepers. We were on the lower level, and our roomettes were right across from each other. There was an older couple in the family bedroom, and the two attendants had the other two roomettes in our car on the lower level. So it was really peaceful and quiet.

Between the time we boarded and the time we actually left, they had snacks offered in the lounge car. Free bottled water was also offered. Mom, DD and I went to the lounge car to check out the snacks. They had little bowls of Chex-type snack mix and fresh fruit. We took a couple bowls of mix and a bit of fruit and went back to our rooms. You can see some of the snack mix on the mini table here.

The rooms were actually quite comfortable. The seats were large and cushy, but not too soft. There wasn't a lot of storage space, but we made do.

Looking down the hallway from our roomettes.

We had supper at the 7:00 serving (they offered 5:00, 7:00 and 9:00 dinners). DH and I had NY Strip steak with baked potato. Mom had Zinfindel braised chicken. DD had chicken tenders with mac & cheese. DH and Mom had cheesecake for dessert, and DD & I had ice cream. Everything was delicious! We all cleaned our plates -- even DD! I was really surprised how good the steak was. Very tender and flavorful, and cooked just right. Yum.

Mom was admiring the real coffee, after the "plastic" stuff offered at Disney World...

Remember the lady with the sore throat? Well, she shared! As we were finishing supper, my throat started burning. I know that feeling, and it's never good. I was going to be sick, but good.

We spent the time watching the landscape go by, talking and reading. DD put her video game systems to good use, and had fun with the little wrestlers that she just couldn't live without.

The attendent came and put our beds down at 9:00. DH and DD took the top bunks. We spent some time just sitting in the bunks. I was working on my laptop a bit, DD was playing. I think DH went to sleep, and Mom was just watching the trees go by. I was just feeling worse and worse. If I hadn't been getting sick, I know I would have really loved the ride at night. I did wake up a few times when the train would rock extra hard. I just had a hard time sleeping because of the sore throat and stuffiness.

November 2 – We woke up just after 6:00. I took a quick shower. Oh, man, this was a different experience! The shower was... Interesting. Of course, I forgot to get a picture of it! But I did get a picture of one of the restrooms!

We all went up to breakfast. The dining and lounge rooms were on the upper level. There were these tiny little stairs to go up.

Breakfast was listed as a continental breakfast, but they had the tables all set up, as they did for supper. Cereals, bagels, bananas and muffins were offered, as well as orange juice. We all enjoyed a good breakfast.

That basket held nice warm muffins and bagels when we were seated.

This is the lounge car. They showed movies in the evening, and you could get sodas/drinks and snacks here.

When we got back to our roomettes, the beds had been put up.

We got to the Lorton station around 8:30 (which was really 7:30 - Daylight Savings Time), and got off the train around 9:15. Our van didn’t come off the train until just before 9:30.

Unloading vehicles from the upper level.

Our van unloading.

The Lorton station.

We loaded up and hit I-95.

We stopped for gas at 9:36 - $2.45/gallon. Total cost $41.00. We stopped at a Hardee's for lunch, at 12:04. I was really feeling lousy by this time. DH had a 1/3 lb cheeseburger with fries, Mom had the 1/4 lb cheeseburger with fries, I had the Big Roast Beef. All DD wanted was a chocolate shake and some fries. I didn't care at that point. I ate the meat out of my sandwich and sucked down some cold pills with my soda. Total cost here was $14.24.

We drove the rest of the way home without stopping. (I think. I was so out of it by that time... I didn't write down anything else in my notebook.) The only other picture I took for the rest of the trip was the Maryland state sign, and that didn't come out very well.

We made it to our driveway at about 4:30. I unloaded only what I needed and went inside. I made sure DD got her stuff inside and I hit the bed. I felt lousy. After being off for two weeks, I ended up calling in sick on Monday. My throat was so sore by then that I could barely talk. We had Tuesday off (Election Day is a holiday for us - I work for the local county gov't offices). By Wednesday, I was able to go back to work. What a way to end a vacation, huh? I'm just glad it did happen at the end, instead of the beginning!!

So, the good -- the train ride! It was amazing. Comfortable, easy and clean!

The bad -- rowdy people with uncontrolled kids at the train station.

The ugly -- I got nice and sick on the way home.

Overall -- we had a wonderful time. All of us. DD was really well-behaved for most of the trip. Even for a nine-year-old. She did well in lines, and didn't do the "gimme gimme" buy-me-this stuff. She doesn't normally, but we all know how kids can act on vacation. We did learn to keep her fed, though. If she started getting ornery, we knew to stop and get her a snack. Worked like a charm.

DH didn't ride many rides, but we didn't expect him to. He did go on a few with us, and really had a good time people-watching. He also enjoyed meeting Cinderella, even though DD hated it. He thought she was a sweetie. She was spot-on for her character.

Mom -- what can I say about her? She enjoyed everything. It was like taking another kid along. And not one so used to traveling as our DD. She simply took everything in and loved the new experiences. She is a total Disney addict now. She's talking about saving up and taking a trip again. Little did she know what her Christmas present was -- she's going with us again this November!!

I really enjoyed our trip as well. We didn't get to see some of the things I wanted to. We missed most of the shows -- Finding Nemo, Festival of the Lion King, Beauty & the Beast, Fantasmic, etc. However, that just gives us something to look forward to on our next trip, I guess. I also missed most of the World Showcase. We kind of skimmed by it, but didn't really spend much time exploring. That, too, will be rectified on our next trip.

I guess that's about it for this trip report. Kinda sad to end it. I did love re-living our trip, though.

 

[TraceyDisney2008]

I just read your whole trip report and it was great. The smile on your mothers face says everything. Love the idea about taking the train home...I will have to look into that.

 

[OhMari]

I'm sorry you got sick coming home.


Thanks for sharing your ride home on the Amtrak train.
I had no idea, you could take your car/van along.
While I was reading, it, I was wondering how I missed the train ride to Orlando, but then I remember you drove down.

I rode the Amtrak train over 30 years ago, from Chicago to Bowling Green. We had only a seat like a bus. I remember being so miserable and I was only with my sister who was 14, I was 12, and my 2 cousins were 13 & 14. I sure don't know what our parents were thinking.

Glad you are going back. It is fun, because you make a point to do things you missed, and you don't have to redo things you didn't like.

You should start a pre-trip, lol.

OhMari

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Loved the photos and the TR. I was especially interested in the train experience. I had considered doing this for our trip this summer, but discoverd that to get from our Amtrak depot in texas to Orlando, you have to go through chicago. It's like a 50 hour trip one way.