Vexorg
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2006
The final installment has now been posted, bringing this TR to a seriously belated close: Post 107, page 8: Part 17: And Now It's Time to Say Goodbye
Newest Blog post added 5/13/09 - See below for link
Index of Trip Report posts:
======
Pre-trip, Getting There and Arrival
Part 1: The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men (Planning, goals)
Part 2: Slip-Slidin' Away (Where the drive to the airport almost turns into a thrill ride)
Part 3: Who Have I Gotta' Bribe to Get Outa' This Town? (Notes from the flight and from a three-hour layover in Chicago)
Part 4: Nice Room, Just Don't Ask About the View... (Seriously, just dont.)
Day 1
Part 5: A Slight Change of Plans (Yes, there IS actually some Disney stuff in this part finally. I knew I shoulda' turned left at Osceola...)
Part 6: Can't I Get Just a Little Bit of Pixie Dust Here? (Day 1 in the Magic Kingdom continued, with a not-so-fastpass and a parade in there somewhere.)
Part 7: Going Out to Socialize with Grim Grinning Ghosts (Wrapping up day 1 in the Magic Kingdom with evening EMH, gratuitous fireworks shots, and finding out if things turn into pumpkins after Midnight...)
Day 2
Part 8: It's the FUTURE... Sort of. (Day 2 begins in Epcot, and I try to figure out why I'm trying to find Nemo in the first place.)
Part 9: Merry Enough For You? (Back to MK for MVMCP, and a futile quest for non nugget-based foodstuffs.)
Part 10: How to Get Into the Christmas Spirit Without the Need for Ghostly Visitors (How NOT to find a spot for the parade, and the MVMCP Fireworks close out day 2.)
Day 3
Part 11: Aw man, You Mean I Have to Go to Disney World Again? (Photos for this part) : (A Walk on the not-so-wild West Side, a Wandering Bag, Folly on the Ferry and the Backside of Not Water. )
Part 12: Well, I THINK It's Still the Future Anyway...: More Future World Adventure and Culinary Misadventure.)
Part 13: Park Hopping For Dummies: More Plans Thrown Out the Window, and a Symphony of Blur-o-Magic
Day 4
Part 14: If You Can't Make it Here, You Can't Make it Anywhere (Nope, not going to be in the movies anytime soon, it would seem.)
Part 15: Just Like Mom Used to Nag You About (Extreme! Stunts! and lunch! at 50s! Prime! Time!)
Part 16: The End is Near... (Putting the "Fast" in Fastpasses, and nearing the end of the trip.)
Part 17: And Now It's Time to Say Goodbye... (The trip comes to an end, but not without a few surprises along the way.)
======
I am also posting an alternate version of this trip report over on my Blog. Basically, what I have been doing there is taking a couple of parts of the trip report at a time as written here and combining them into a Blog post. I'm also going back and making a few modifications and extra notes here and there, and trying to cut out some of the DIS jargon (yeah, there seems to be plenty of that to go around) to make it a bit more accessible to general readers. You can find the Blog posts here, and the corresponding parts of the trip report as posted here:
Part 1: Getting There is Half the Fun, Right? (Parts 1, 2 and 3)
Part 2: Now with Actual Disney in it! (Parts 4 and 5)
Part 3: Just Another Day in Never Never Land (Parts 6 and 7)
Part 4: It's the Future! (Sort of.) (Part 8)
Part 5: The Disney Version of Christmas (Parts 9 and 10)
Part 6: Park Hopping for Dummies (Parts 11, 12 and 13)
The newest installments of the TR will always be posted here first though.
------
I have just returned from four days spent at Disney World from December 15-18, and I am starting a new thread for my trip report (you can find the pre-trip report here. I've got plenty to write about, and since I was apparently unable to get away from the big snowstorm I was trying to avoid it looks like I might have a bit of time on my hands here.. A few things to note before I begin:
-I will probably be cross-posting much of this to my Blog (link in my Sig,) so I will try to keep this as jargon-free as possible.
-I tend to have a bit of a different perspective to the whole Disney experience than some people, as explained in this post. In short, I've never really been a big fan of the stories themselves (aside from being a fan of old-school animation, especially the WB and MGM stuff.) When I go to a place like Disney World, I find myself spending more time wondering how a certain effect was created or what type of mechanisms are found inside an animatronic figure than I do actually following the story that they're trying to tell.
-When I'm in shops, I also have a tendency to be looking mostly for the kitschiest souvenirs imaginable, since I frequently write about such things on my Blog (for example, here is a post I wrote back around last Valentine's Day showing some of the odd merchandise found in the stores in celebration of that particular holiday.) There will probably be a post with the results of said kitsch hunting somewhere in here.
-Although I've been to Disneyland twice now, this trip is my first time to Disney World, and as such, I'm pretty sure I made a few mistakes in planning and execution along the way, and at some point. Some of these were a matter of planning on short notice (or lack thereof), and others were just a matter of making a snap decision. At some point I'll also put together a post outlining some of these, and explaining what could have been done better. I'll probably also have a few comments on the whole Disney experience here and there.
-To be honest, I didn't really have a set itinerary for much of the time I was there, I just happened to go wherever I felt like going. On the first day, I intended to head to Epcot first, but took the wrong bus and ended up at the Magic Kingdom (Well, TTC) instead, and just went with it. Similarly, I found that the combination of a night-owl schedule and three hours of jet lag made it difficult for me to get to bed at a reasonable time or be up too early in the morning, so I didn't make a single rope drop while I was there. Nonetheless, I think I managed to do just fine (for the most part.) On one hand, it's nice having the flexibility to do whatever you want and adjust your schedule on a whim as a solo traveler, but on the other hand, it might have been nice to have someone else to go with as well.
-I've got more than 1,100 photos from the four days (and change) I was there, so there will be no shortage of those.
It seems that based on reading some of the other trip reports here, people tend to take their sweet time with these things. I'll try to keep this moving though, since I'd like to get it done sometime before my next trip (whenever that might end up being.)
Coming up: Part 1 - The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...
Newest Blog post added 5/13/09 - See below for link
Index of Trip Report posts:
======
Pre-trip, Getting There and Arrival
Part 1: The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men (Planning, goals)
Part 2: Slip-Slidin' Away (Where the drive to the airport almost turns into a thrill ride)
Part 3: Who Have I Gotta' Bribe to Get Outa' This Town? (Notes from the flight and from a three-hour layover in Chicago)
Part 4: Nice Room, Just Don't Ask About the View... (Seriously, just dont.)
Day 1
Part 5: A Slight Change of Plans (Yes, there IS actually some Disney stuff in this part finally. I knew I shoulda' turned left at Osceola...)
Part 6: Can't I Get Just a Little Bit of Pixie Dust Here? (Day 1 in the Magic Kingdom continued, with a not-so-fastpass and a parade in there somewhere.)
Part 7: Going Out to Socialize with Grim Grinning Ghosts (Wrapping up day 1 in the Magic Kingdom with evening EMH, gratuitous fireworks shots, and finding out if things turn into pumpkins after Midnight...)
Day 2
Part 8: It's the FUTURE... Sort of. (Day 2 begins in Epcot, and I try to figure out why I'm trying to find Nemo in the first place.)
Part 9: Merry Enough For You? (Back to MK for MVMCP, and a futile quest for non nugget-based foodstuffs.)
Part 10: How to Get Into the Christmas Spirit Without the Need for Ghostly Visitors (How NOT to find a spot for the parade, and the MVMCP Fireworks close out day 2.)
Day 3
Part 11: Aw man, You Mean I Have to Go to Disney World Again? (Photos for this part) : (A Walk on the not-so-wild West Side, a Wandering Bag, Folly on the Ferry and the Backside of Not Water. )
Part 12: Well, I THINK It's Still the Future Anyway...: More Future World Adventure and Culinary Misadventure.)
Part 13: Park Hopping For Dummies: More Plans Thrown Out the Window, and a Symphony of Blur-o-Magic
Day 4
Part 14: If You Can't Make it Here, You Can't Make it Anywhere (Nope, not going to be in the movies anytime soon, it would seem.)
Part 15: Just Like Mom Used to Nag You About (Extreme! Stunts! and lunch! at 50s! Prime! Time!)
Part 16: The End is Near... (Putting the "Fast" in Fastpasses, and nearing the end of the trip.)
Part 17: And Now It's Time to Say Goodbye... (The trip comes to an end, but not without a few surprises along the way.)
======
I am also posting an alternate version of this trip report over on my Blog. Basically, what I have been doing there is taking a couple of parts of the trip report at a time as written here and combining them into a Blog post. I'm also going back and making a few modifications and extra notes here and there, and trying to cut out some of the DIS jargon (yeah, there seems to be plenty of that to go around) to make it a bit more accessible to general readers. You can find the Blog posts here, and the corresponding parts of the trip report as posted here:
Part 1: Getting There is Half the Fun, Right? (Parts 1, 2 and 3)
Part 2: Now with Actual Disney in it! (Parts 4 and 5)
Part 3: Just Another Day in Never Never Land (Parts 6 and 7)
Part 4: It's the Future! (Sort of.) (Part 8)
Part 5: The Disney Version of Christmas (Parts 9 and 10)
Part 6: Park Hopping for Dummies (Parts 11, 12 and 13)
The newest installments of the TR will always be posted here first though.
------
I have just returned from four days spent at Disney World from December 15-18, and I am starting a new thread for my trip report (you can find the pre-trip report here. I've got plenty to write about, and since I was apparently unable to get away from the big snowstorm I was trying to avoid it looks like I might have a bit of time on my hands here.. A few things to note before I begin:
-I will probably be cross-posting much of this to my Blog (link in my Sig,) so I will try to keep this as jargon-free as possible.
-I tend to have a bit of a different perspective to the whole Disney experience than some people, as explained in this post. In short, I've never really been a big fan of the stories themselves (aside from being a fan of old-school animation, especially the WB and MGM stuff.) When I go to a place like Disney World, I find myself spending more time wondering how a certain effect was created or what type of mechanisms are found inside an animatronic figure than I do actually following the story that they're trying to tell.
-When I'm in shops, I also have a tendency to be looking mostly for the kitschiest souvenirs imaginable, since I frequently write about such things on my Blog (for example, here is a post I wrote back around last Valentine's Day showing some of the odd merchandise found in the stores in celebration of that particular holiday.) There will probably be a post with the results of said kitsch hunting somewhere in here.
-Although I've been to Disneyland twice now, this trip is my first time to Disney World, and as such, I'm pretty sure I made a few mistakes in planning and execution along the way, and at some point. Some of these were a matter of planning on short notice (or lack thereof), and others were just a matter of making a snap decision. At some point I'll also put together a post outlining some of these, and explaining what could have been done better. I'll probably also have a few comments on the whole Disney experience here and there.
-To be honest, I didn't really have a set itinerary for much of the time I was there, I just happened to go wherever I felt like going. On the first day, I intended to head to Epcot first, but took the wrong bus and ended up at the Magic Kingdom (Well, TTC) instead, and just went with it. Similarly, I found that the combination of a night-owl schedule and three hours of jet lag made it difficult for me to get to bed at a reasonable time or be up too early in the morning, so I didn't make a single rope drop while I was there. Nonetheless, I think I managed to do just fine (for the most part.) On one hand, it's nice having the flexibility to do whatever you want and adjust your schedule on a whim as a solo traveler, but on the other hand, it might have been nice to have someone else to go with as well.
-I've got more than 1,100 photos from the four days (and change) I was there, so there will be no shortage of those.
It seems that based on reading some of the other trip reports here, people tend to take their sweet time with these things. I'll try to keep this moving though, since I'd like to get it done sometime before my next trip (whenever that might end up being.)
Coming up: Part 1 - The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...