First trip to WDW in 21 years!!! ***Over 600 pics***

[randy4au]

Since I'm new here, I’ll start with a little background info before I begin the trip report. I’m 38 years old and live in Alabama. My first visit to WDW was in the summer of 1972 (just before my 4th birthday), but I was too young to remember that trip. I returned to WDW three more times with my family in 1975, 1980, and 1983 and once more in 1986 with a church youth group.

After I got married in 1994, my wife (whose last visit was also in 1986) and I hoped to visit WDW again someday, but we thought we’d wait until after we had kids. We didn’t realize it would take 7 years to finally have our first child, and we didn’t want to take him to WDW until he was old enough to remember going. After he turned 5 last year, we started making plans for a trip to WDW, but then my wife became pregnant again, and those plans were postponed. Our second son was born in February of this year, and the following month we decided that we’d visit WDW this summer.

My wife usually leaves all the vacation planning to me, so I spent several weeks surfing the net for info and tips, visiting forums such as this and other Disney-related sites. My wife’s sister decided to go along with us, and my friend, Kirk, from Vancouver, WA who had never visited WDW, soon became enticed and also decided to join us. By the end of March, all reservations were made and an itinerary had been drafted. I was as anxious as my six-year-old son to visit WDW, and it was a LONG four-month wait between the time I planned the trip and when the trip finally took place. Finally, July arrived, and it was time to go to WDW!

Before posting the trip report, I guess I should introduce the starring cast with a photo from the fifth day of our trip:

Left to right:

Kirk (friend) – age 44, first visit
Elizabeth (sister-in-law) – age 40, last visit in 1986
Me – age 38, last visit in 1986
Austin (son) – age 6, first visit
Andrew (son) – age 5 months, first visit
Cindy (wife) – age 38, last visit in 1986

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You can use the following table of contents to access each part of the trip report. I've also included a link at the end of each part to the next part in the series.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DAY 1 - Wednesday, July 11

Part 1 - Arrival in Orlando, check-in at Pop Century, and Magic Kingdom:
APPEARS LATER IN THIS POST (scroll down)

Part 2 - Magic Kingdom (cont.) and Chef Mickey's Buffet:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19905161&postcount=5​

DAY 2 - Thursday, July 12

Part 3 - Animal Kingdom:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19905779&postcount=8

Part 4 - Animal Kingdom (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19906188&postcount=13

Part 5 - Animal Kingdom Lodge (Boma) and Magic Kingdom:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19911053&postcount=19​

DAY 3 - Friday, July 13

Part 6 - Epcot:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19915838&postcount=27

Part 7 - Epcot (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19923789&postcount=34

Part 8 - Epcot (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19924711&postcount=35

Part 9 - Epcot (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19924947&postcount=36

Part 10 - Epcot (cont.) ***Illuminations pics***:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19925137&postcount=40​

DAY 4 - Saturday, July 14

Part 11 - Magic Kingdom:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19936592&postcount=47

Part 12 - Magic Kingdom (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19942192&postcount=52

Part 13 - Magic Kingdom (cont.), Downtown Disney, and Disney/MGM Studios:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19944994&postcount=58​

DAY 5 - Sunday, July 15

Part 14 - Disney/MGM Studios:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19962844&postcount=69

Part 15 - Disney/MGM Studios (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19963467&postcount=71

Part 16 - Disney/MGM Studios (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19981760&postcount=80

Part 17 - Disney/MGM Studios (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19995387&postcount=86

Part 18 - Disney/MGM Studios (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=19995951&postcount=89​

DAY 6 - Monday, July 16

Part 19 - Epcot:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20010320&postcount=97

Part 20 - Epcot (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20019246&postcount=100

Part 21 - Epcot (cont.):
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20029064&postcount=103

Part 22 - Pop Century Resort, departure from Orlando, and arrival in Birmingham:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20029139&postcount=104​

ADDITIONAL PICS

Cindy's Photos:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20048589&postcount=114

Elizabeth's Photos, Part 1:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20067800&postcount=128

Elizabeth's Photos, Part 2:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20068096&postcount=129

Elizabeth's Photos, Part 3:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20068578&postcount=132

Elizabeth's Photos, Parts 4:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20068678&postcount=133

Kirk's Photos, Part 1:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20088408&postcount=147

Kirk's Photos, Part 2:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20088413&postcount=148

PhotoPass Pictures:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20105551&postcount=158​

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DAY 1 - Wednesday, July 11

We woke up very early to go to the airport and departed from Birmingham at 7am (CDT) via Delta for a non-stop flight to Orlando. It was Austin’s third time to fly (well, technically his fifth time, but he was still in the womb the first 2 times), but he was too young to remember the other flights. Andrew did well on his first flight. Here are the boys on the plane:

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We arrived in Orlando at 9:35am (EDT) and made our way through the airport to the Magical Express boarding area. We boarded the bus and a short while later arrived at the Pop Century Resort:

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My friend, Kirk, arrived the night before and was waiting for us when we arrived. His room and ours were located in the 1950's area. A view from the balcony on our floor:

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After enjoying a nice lunch at the Everything Pop food court, we boarded a bus to the Magic Kingdom to spend the afternoon.

Ah, the Contemporary Resort Hotel. I can still remember being in awe the first time I rode a monorail through the middle of it when I was a kid. I finally got to stay there during my 4th visit to WDW in 1983

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Some of Donald's relatives were there to greet us at the bus stop:

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And speaking of the monorail, one of my unfulfilled childhood ambitions was to work at WDW as a monorail driver:

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My first glimpse of the Grand Floridian:

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And there's Main Street Station...long time, no see!

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Oh, how great it was to walk down Main Street and then turn the corner heading towards Cinderella's castle after all these years!

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As expected, Austin was so excited to finally be at WDW:

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Click HERE for the continuation of Day 1

 

[suttlesboys]

Enjoying your TR so far and you're pictures are great. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!!!

 

[meloneyb21]

Those are really good pictures. Your report is getting me so anxious for our trip in May and we'll also be staying at the Pop. Can't wait for the rest .

 

[randy4au]

Thanks suttlesboys and meloneyb21!

After reading some other trip reports today, particularly the recent one posted by scottny, I decided to revise the report of our first day at WDW by including more photos and commentary. I also recalled a funny yet embarrassing incident that took place at the Carousel of Progress that I just had to share.

However, when I tried to edit my previous post with additional photos, I discovered that there is a limit of 25 photos per post. So, I had to split of the first day report. The second half of it will appear in my next post.

 

[randy4au]

DAY 1 (cont.)

From Main Street, we headed to Tomorrowland.

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Kirk, Austin, and I went straight to Space Mountain to get fastpasses. Next, we visited the Laugh Floor Comedy Club followed by Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and the Astro Orbiters.

Here's a sweat-drenched Kirk with Austin. Kirk's not used to this kind of humidity in the Pacific Northwest.

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Next, we all rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority which offers some great views of Tomorrowland:

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While Cindy and Elizabeth waited in line for Austin to meet Buzz Lightyear, Kirk and I took Andrew inside the Carousel of Progress. We were seated in front near the middle, and during the second scene, Andrew started getting a little fussy. So I quickly got up and moved over to the far left end of the front row. Then he started getting louder, and I decided to move to the rear (unfortunately, you can't exit a moving theater). In my haste to change seats, the pocket of my shorts got caught on the armrest, and as I stood up, I heard a rip. YIKES!!! I now had a small rip in the crotch of my shorts. How embarrassing! I assumed my day at MK would have to end early so that I could go back to the room to change. When we met up with the rest of the crew, I told them what happened, and we all had a good laugh. They assured me that the rip was undetectable, but I was self conscious the rest of the day and tried not to spread my legs apart, especially when taking a seat.

Finally, it was time to ride Space Mountain. I will preface this by saying a little more about Kirk. He's a big guy (6'6", somewhere between 250 and 300 lbs...played football at Washington State), and when he visited Six Flags Over Georgia with us last fall, the only coaster he could fit into was Déjà Vu (and he was barely able to do that). What a relief that his size was not an issue with any of the rides he rode at WDW. Anyway, Space Mountain was just as thrilling as it was when I first rode it 32 years ago. Austin is not a big Stitch fan, so we skipped that attraction and made our last Tomorrowland stop at the Indy Speedway (I'm so glad my car doesn't handle as poorly as those cars!).

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Our final MK destination was Mickey's Toontown Fair. Since my sister-in-law, Elizabeth, is too chicken to ride any of the big coasters, she decided to ride Barnstomer with Austin. Before we had time to enjoy any other attractions, a quickly approaching thunderstorm made us decide to leave a little earlier than planned.

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So we boarded the WDWRR for a ride back to the Main Street station, and then boarded a monorail to the Contemporary Resort Hotel where we had reservations for dinner at Chef Mickey's Buffet. Here are some parting shots from MK:

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We arrived about an hour before our 7:40pm reservation time, but only had to wait 15 minutes to be seated.

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The food at Chef Mickey's was delicious (as it was at all the places we would eat at over the next 5 days), and the boys enjoyed meeting the characters.

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After dinner, we rode the monorail back to the MK to board a bus back to Pop Century. Before heading to the bus, we enjoyed this nice view of the Grand Floridian at sunset (and I have no clue why the left side of the image is so blurry):

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Back at Pop Century, we enjoyed a swim in the Hippy Dippy pool before going to bed.

Click HERE for the beginning of Day 2

 

[scottny]

Fantastic photos. Your Chef Mickey pics are great. Great commentary. Keep it up looks great.

 

[randy4au]

Fantastic photos. Your Chef Mickey pics are great. Great commentary. Keep it up looks great.

Thanks Scott! I'm glad I viewed your trip report earlier today for inspiration. My original report was rather dull and contained a lot less photos. I only wish there wasn't a limit of 25 photos per post because now I'm having to split up the reports for each day into multiple parts. Anyone else find that annoying?

 

[randy4au]

DAY 2 - Thursday, July 12

We woke up early to begin the second day of our trip. Before boarding the bus to Animal Kingdom, I shot a few photos at Pop Century:

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This was my first visit to Animal Kingdom (MK and Epcot were the only parks available when I last visited in 1986).

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Finally, the gates opened, and we were off! I was impressed when I glimpsed the Tree of Life for the first time:

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Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto soon arrived for the official rope drop:

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We headed directly to Africa for the Kilimanjaro Safari since many sources recommend doing this early in the morning because the animals are more active and thus more likely to be out in the open at this time (although I read in another thread today that this isn't necessarily true). Along the way we stopped for this photo opportunity with King Louie:

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Passing through Harambe:

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After a short wait in line, we embarked on our safari:

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Click HERE for more of Day 2

 

[scottny]

Thanks Scott! I'm glad I viewed your trip report earlier today for inspiration. My original report was rather dull and contained a lot less photos. I only wish there wasn't a limit of 25 photos per post because now I'm having to split up the reports for each day into multiple parts. Anyone else find that annoying?

Yes but do it anyway, it is more pics for us to look at.
ok gotta read new installment.

 

[scottny]

great safari pics. We did not see many animals but i will explain that when I get to that day.
Great update.

 

[hjd0411]

This is a great trip report. I am loving your photos! Thanks for taking the time to do it, and I look forward to reading more.
You are giving me ideas for my own trip report - I am not a good writer, but I'm sure, with photos, it would be easier for me.

Keep up the good work.

Heather

 

[randy4au]

Thanks Scott and Heather!

Scott, I look forward to reading additional installments to your trip report, and Heather, I look forward to reading about your trip when you post it!

OK, I'm about to post the next installment of my trip report before going to bed (this is becoming addictive). I hope this thread makes it to page 2 soon because this page is going to be harder to download if I add many more photos.

 

[randy4au]

DAY 2 (cont.)

After the safari, we walked through the adjacent Pangani Forest Exploration Trail:

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The Orlando Magic should consider drafting this guy:

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Isn't it a little early to be hitting the bottle?

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A minute later...

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Austin and I were the only ones brave enough to ride Expedition Everest (well, Kirk would have ridden it too if he wasn't having problems with his neck), so we left the others behind to get our fastpasses. Along the way, we ran into DeVine:

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The other side of the Tree of Life:

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Our first glimpse of Everest:

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After Austin and I got our fastpasses, we joined the others and went to see Finding Nemo: The Musical. It was a nice break from the heat and humidity which was much worse today than it was the previous day (more on that later). Finally, it was time to ride Expedition Everest, so Austin and I split off from the others once again. Austin was already familiar with this coaster from the WDW vacation planning video he'd been watching at home and was a little apprehensive about having a close encounter with the Yeti.

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He didn't chicken out, but the ride was a little intense for him--particularly the Yeti encounter and the part where you go backwards in the dark. But he survived to tell about it.

Anyway, we rejoined Cindy and Elizabeth for lunch at Flame Tree BBQ on Discovery Island. As you may recall from a previous post, Kirk wasn't accustomed to high humidity (the rest of us being from Alabama are used to it...well, you never really get used to it, but you do learn to live with it). I'm not sure if this was the hottest, most humid day we would encounter during our trip, but it sure felt like it. Perhaps it was due to the overwhelming size of Animal Kingdom and the long distance you must walk from one end to the other (I'm sure the abundance of tropical plants makes it even steamier), but whatever the reason, we were all beginning to wear out by lunchtime--especially Kirk who had already eaten and left the park by the time we made it to Discovery Island. So the rest of us ate lunch together, and the BBQ pork sandwiches were really good--not as good as the BBQ available back home in Birmingham, but pretty close.

We found another oasis from the heat during It's Tough To Be A Bug--a very enjoyable show! But soon we were back outside in the unbearable heat and humidity and were ready to leave even though there were still several things left to see and do on our itinerary. However, Austin wasn't quite ready to throw in the towel, so he and I trekked over to Dinoland to ride Primeval Whirl (I left my camera behind with the ladies, so I didn't get to shoot any photos in Dinoland). We then decided to go back to our hotel room to relax and cool off for a couple of hours before going to dinner. It was also at that time that I made the announcement that I was ready to discard the intinerary and play it by ear the rest of our trip. Everyone was shocked because I always invest a lot of time creating itineraries for every trip we take and try very hard to stick to it. But my plan to spend an entire day--from opening to close--at a single park without a break each day no longer seamed feasible. So we never made it to Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids, or the Festival of the Lion King. I guess those will have to wait until our next trip (which hopefully will not be during the summer).

Click HERE for the conclusion of Day 2

 

[ILMICKEY]

Lovin' the pictures!! Your children are adorable.

Can't wait for more!!

 

[donaldduck1967]

Great trip report. I love pics in trip reports

 

[LouDisney]

I am from B'ham too!! Welcome to The Dis! Loving your trip report and pics!! Your kids are so cute.

 

[jandkkidsdesigns]

Looks like a great trip!

Heather

 

[randy4au]

Thanks ILMICKEY, donaldduck1967, Lisa, and Heather!

Heather, it's nice to meet someone else from B'ham!

 

[randy4au]

DAY 2 (cont.)

So we enjoyed a short but refreshing nap, changed clothes, boarded a bus back to Animal Kingdom, and then boarded another one bound for the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we had dinner reservations at Boma. The interior of the Lodge was awesome (but the low lighting + the large windows pouring in light from outside made it difficult to photograph).

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Like the night before, we arrived before our reserved dining time and decided to explore the wildlife reserve out back while we waited for our table:

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Cindy stayed behind with Andrew, and by the time we returned inside, she had already been seated. I read a lot of great reviews about Boma before deciding to make reservations to eat there. All the reviews were correct. The food here is awesome! I have more of a taste for exotic food than the others in our party and was afraid that I might be the only one who was impressed by the food. But everyone raved about the food, although they probably didn't sample as many of the selections on the buffet as I did.

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Well, the night was still young, and since we were now playing it be ear (see end of previous report), we decided to return to MK and stay until closing (11pm that night). When we arrived, we hopped on the WDWRR and rode to Frontierland. There was practically no line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This is the type of coaster that Cindy will ride. Kirk's neck was still bothering him, and the only coaster Elizabeth can handle is Barnstormer, so they stayed behind with Andrew while Cindy, Austin, and I rode it. Austin loved it!

It was almost time for the Wishes fireworks display, so there was little or no wait for all attractions in Frontierland and Adventureland, so Cindy, Austin, and I took a quick ride on Splash Mountain (and then "Zippity Doo Dah" got stuck in my head). As we walked over to Adventureland, the fireworks were going off in the distance. We watched them briefly and then rode Pirates of the Carribean and Jungle Cruise. Austin, Kirk, and I rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, and then we all walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse (fortunately, Austin and I watched Swiss Family Robinson not long ago, or else he wouldn't have understood what this attraction was about). We should have waited to do this during the daytime because the treehouse is too dimly lit to enjoy at night.

We then enjoyed ice cream on Main Street as the Spectromagic Parade passed by. My camera doesn't take very good pictures at night without a tripod, so I have none to share from our late evening at MK. Soon we were back on a bus to Pop Century. The ladies were ready to go to sleep, but the guys still had some steam left. So, Austin and I decided to spend the night in Kirk's room so we could stay up watching television for a little while. Austin (age 6) saw the Late Show with David Letterman for the first time and thought it was hilarious. Eventually, we fell asleep too, and the second day of our trip came to a close.

Click HERE for the beginning of Day 3

 

[scottny]

ok staying tuned. great update. I think the lodge pics came out really nice.