Forest Fires And Pixie Dust 5/4-5/12/06/ 2ND HALF UP

[swillis]

Just returned on Friday from a wonderful trip! I can't thank you all enough for your advice, suggestions and warnings. I'm not going to get crazy with details, but will try to highlight certain things.

The Cast:
Me: I'm the Mom. Have been planning this trip intensely for about 5 months.

Edie: Mom's good friend. She loves Disney, and jumped at the chance to join us when my DH declined to go.

Maddie: She is 11. Daredevil, loves fast, wild, crazy rides.

Kellen: He's 10. Not a daredevil. But reluctantly went on every ride.

Thursday:
Got to hotel after an uneventful flight on JetBlue from Boston around 6:30pm. We stayed at the Marriott Grande Vista which was great! About 12 minutes from the gates of the Disney complex. Edie took the kids to swim, while I waited for a Garden Grocer delivery. We ate dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. We went to bed early tonight.

Friday
Magic Kingdom: My favorite park. Turned out to be my son's as well. We rode SM, Buzz, Stitch, BTMR, SPL MTN all before 11 am, then had lunch at Peco Bills Cafe. It was good. Edie and I had the chicken caesar wrap, and the kids had burgers. We should have split our meals here, but we did learn, and ended up splitting/sharing our meals after this.

After lunch we did Jungle Cruise, Swiss Fam Treehouse and got a Dole Whip. (yummy) We went back to the hotel after this. On the way back home we took a wrong turn and got horribly lost! We were so aggravated and late that we skipped our ADR's at WCC that night. We took a long swim, and had dinner at the hotel instead.

Saturday
We went to visit family in Tampa today.

Sunday
Animal Kingdom: None of us had ever been to this park before, and we were completely blown away by the crowds we encountered. I'm sure EE is the reason for this. We were there at 8:30, with many, many others. We rode EE first,(pretty cool) then went on Safari (not impressed) and Conservation Station. I was really looking forward to seeing the Vet Hospital here, but was discouraged to hear the cast member mispronouncing words and terms when she tried to explain the surgical procedure we were watching. The petting zoo was fun, even for us "big kids"

We got FP for Dinosaur and Kali Rapids, then had lunch. We went to Pizzafari at 11:30, and it was packed! The food was decent. We shared pizzas, and chicken parm sandwhiches. After lunch we let the kids ride Kali (I hate getting wet) and then we all rode Dinosaur! This was my favorite ride for the whole trip! It is so scary, and fun. The picture that they took of us during the ride is priceless! We saw "It's Tough to be a Bug" After this we decided to head back.

A few observations about this park: As I mentioned, the crowd levels were overwhelming. It started to feel unsafe to me, like I was going to lose a child at any time. I don't think the layout of this park can properly handle these kinds of crowds.
Also...I thought DinoLand was really cheap looking. It looked like something out of a traveling carnival. I think Disney can do much better here. The rest of the theming in this park is beautiful.

After a swim and a nap we headed back to MK. We had ADR's at LTT at 6:50pm. This was our favorite meal of the trip! The food was good and comforting, and the kids ate like lumberjacks! The character interaction here was great. They came to our table in a timely manner, were fun and lively! Great TIME!!

After dinner we staked out a spot in front of the Hall of Presidents for the SpectroMagic Parade. I sent the kids to do some shopping, while I saved the seats. The cast members kept the little ones entertained while we waited. Despite my clver packing of glow necklaces and bracelets, my kids wanted none of that. They spent their own money on those silly spinning toys. These expensive toys of course were promptly forgotten once the parade was over

After the parade (which was great!) we walked over to Main Street. Our plan was to watch the fireworks standing on Main St. We stood in from on the confectionary, got some yummy treats, and watched Wishes! It was beautiful. My kids thought I was awesome for finding such cool spots to watch the parade and fireworks.

It was so easy to leave from here. We just turned and walked out. We were back at the hotel by 10:45pm.

Monday
Epcot: This was a Looong day. We didn't leave here until after Illuminations, and we arrived at 8:30am.

We did Soarin, Living w/Land, Soarin again, Honey/Audience, and Test Track before heading over to World Showcase. We loved Soarin, especially the Orange Grove. Test Track seems a bit overrated. Even the kids thought it would be more "thrilling"

Our plan in WS was to snack our way through. We started in Mexico and had nachos and margaritas. In Norway we had schoolbread (OH MY GOD!!!) and smoked salmon. We sampled some wine and got cocolate in Germany. Maddie and Edie has sushi in Japan. We skipped Italy and America. We had planned to get dessert tonight in Italy.

At this point it was VERY HOT, so we took the boat back to FutureWorld to find some A/C. We did Spaceship Earth, Innovations, Figment and Turtle Talk. Turtle Talk was great fun!

It was time for our ADR at Coral Reef. This was supposed to be our big special meal of the trip, and we were VERY disappointed. The atmosphere here is really bad. The noise level is crazy loud. I can't imagine why some parents would take very small children here, as it is sooo expensive, but it's overwhelming the amount of yelling, crying toddlers in here. The waiter made a big speech about how this was the best restaurant in Epcot, and that they get alot of celebrities eating here and that's why the food is so good.

The view of the aquarium is not that great. The tank is pretty dark, so it's hard to really see well. The food was just ok. Maddie LOVES seafood, but she ended up ordering steak because all of the fish dishes were so "gussied up" that she wouldn't have liked any of them. Even the steak was overcooked, and drowingin in a gravy. The only salvation was the Lobster Bisque. I just can't believe we paid so much for such a mediocre meal. We skipped dessert here, and couldn't wait to get out.

We headed over to Italy to get dessert. We originally had planned on watching Illuminations from Italy, but we were getting tired and cranky, so we thought we could find a spot near the entrance to WS, and try to beat the crowds. Big mistake. We had a bad spot, and couldn't see much. We ended up leaving halfway through. Oh well, more reason to come back again!

I will write the second half real soon, I promise.

 

[denanbob]

Great report so far! I totally agree with you about Coral Reef. The dessert was amazing (chocolate wave) but it's the only thing that impressed me about the restaurant. We were there Wednesday night. It was way too loud in there and we could hardly hear our waiter (who seemed overly stressed and busy by the way....his name was Bob). I will write more of a review in my trip report coming tomorrow (when DH and kids go back to work/school and I have the WHOLE DAY ALONE to relax, recover, and write!).

 

[Quinn222]

Had the exact same experience with Coral Reef, it was dreadful. Never again.

 

[swillis]

On our way home from Epcot tonight, we were detoured on I4 because of brush fires. This was pretty close to our hotel, but it did not threaten to come closer. It was scarey though.

Tuesday

Well we had a very long day at Epcot, and we were dragging the next morning. My friend Edie had to leave very early this morning because she had a work commitment back home. Bye Edie

We woke up to thunderstorms, so we had to delay our arrival to Blizzard Beach by about an hour. We arrived at 11 am and found a desserted parking lot. We were siked! We grabbed our stuff, and headed for the front gates. Alas...our hopeful plans were dashed when a grumpy cast member working the lot told us that Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon were closed today. "All day?" I asked with hope? "Yup" he said. I didn't pursue it.

Now if I'm ever asked, I will deny this until I die, but I was secretly doing a HAPPY DANCE because of this unexpected closure. I honestly hate water parks. I don't even like to swim in a pool, never mind riding a slide that I will have to pull my bathing suit out of my teeth when I get to the bottom!!

So we went back to the hotel and spent the day at the pool. Where my kids got to "prune" to their hearts content, and I got to read and sip frozen cocktails

Around 4pm we headed over to Downtown Disney. We shopped and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We had a nice night.

Wednesday: MGM

Today was MGM. We were waiting for the rope to drop, still trying to decide if we should do RRC or TOT first. Decided to do RRC first. This was a crazy ride! I loved the picture that they took of us! We headed over to TOT next. The standby line said 20 minutes, but we waited anyway. I think there were some malfunctions going on because the line literally did not move for over 20 minutes. But it was well worth the wait! Great ride!

We did Millionaire, then rode the Great Movie Ride. We made ADR's that morning for Prime Time, so we headed over to eat. I really liked this place. The atmosphere was awesome, our server was fun, without going over the top. The food was decent. My son was a little weirded out at first by the "rules", but after I explained that the rules were meant to be fun, not real he relaxed.

After lunch the kids got a FP for Star Tours and we went on Sounds Dangerous and Muppets. The kids rode Star Tours, and then we left. Maddie really liked this park, and I think she would have enjoyed experiencing and seeing some of the movie related tours and attractions, but Kellen was so bored by most of it. Kind of tough when you have just one adult and 2 kids with different interests. I told Maddie that the next time we go we'll spend more time here for her.

We stayed in for the evening tonight. Our week was starting to take it's toll. We ordered pizza, and watched tv. It was nice to relax.

Thursday: MK (last day)

We had an ADR at 8:20am for Crystal Palace. We didn't realize that this would be an EMH morning when I made the ADR, so the place was MOBBED! Thankfully we made it on time, and only had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated. Unfortunetly, this place was so busy that after 1 1/2 hours we still hadn't seen all of the characters. We ended up leaving before Pooh made it to our table, but we were bored, and itchin to get out into the park. It's a nice place though, and they did give us a free FP for our long wait.

We headed to Carosel Of Progress which Maddie really wanted to ride, and then the kids used the free FP to ride SM again. We waited in the looong line for Indy Speedway (Kellen's choice) and then headed to FantasyLand.

We rode the Carosel, then Small World (Yeah, I got them on it!!!) and then Mickey's Philharmajic. We next went to ToonTown and saw Mickey and Minnie's houses. The kids rode Barnstormer, which they agreed afterwards that they are a little "old" for that.

We took the steamtrain to Frontierland. The plan was to have the kids ride BTMR one last time, and head out for a long stroll down Main Street before leaving for the day. Mother Nature however had other ideas!! A BIG thunderstorm came blowing in while the kids were waiting in line, and they suspended operation of the ride. A cast member allowed me to go up and get the kids, as I knew (And I was right) that they would be scared to hear the thunder and be stuck in line. But my smart kids were already heading down the exit line and met me halfway.

We donned our ponchos, and tried to dodge raindrops to find a dry spot. It didn't work. The rain was torrential, and we got soaked! At this point there was no way to avoid the rain, and I let the kids run around and play in the rain (the lightning and thunder has stopped now)

This put a damper (pun intended) on our stroll down Main Street, so we just headed out and went home. It's probably best that we didn't linger on dwell on the fact that it was our last day, else we might still be there!!!

We went back to the hotel, and started packing...dreadful. I took the kids to Ponderosa for dinner as they both LOVE buffets, and think that a trip to Florida isn't complete without a buffet dinner. Weirdos!

Friday

Flight home to Boston was delayed about 4 hours due to fog and rain at home. How lovely. It's been raining here (Boston) ever since.

Our trip was awesome. We got to do the most important things that we had on our lists, and only a few things we didn't have the energy to do. I guess that the excuse to go back!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[averill94]

Thanks for reporting- Sounds like you had a really great time!

 

[OhMari]

Glad you finished your report. Saw you took a break and visited family and spent one day at the pool. Did you ever find out why both water parks were closed. I wonder if the water quality was bad. and everything needed extra doses of chemicals.

 

[teaysvalleywv]

We woke up to thunderstorms, so we had to delay our arrival to Blizzard Beach by about an hour. We arrived at 11 am and found a desserted parking lot. We were siked! We grabbed our stuff, and headed for the front gates. Alas...our hopeful plans were dashed when a grumpy cast member working the lot told us that Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon were closed today. "All day?" I asked with hope? "Yup" he said. I didn't pursue it.

Our trip was from 5/6 to 5/13. We were at the same parks for some of the days you mentioned and had the same plans for a water park on Tuesday. What's really bizarre is that your user name is very similar to my actual name...go figure. Well anyway, we like you pulled up to Typhoon Lagoon after that morning thundershower, the sun was out by then, to an empty parking lot. We got the news from the lonely CM at the entrance that both water parks would be closed all day. I checked the Disney website before leaving to make sure there were no closings. What makes me mad is that a company the size of Disney could easily post on it's website that all water parks would be closed for the day almost instantly. Well we changed our plans, drove back to our villa, changed clothes and went to MGM. It turned out to be a great day too.

We managed to stay dry by ducking into Peco Bills just before the start of the rain MK. I could tell it was going to storm.

I agree with you about AK. I thought it was very crowded considering the parking lot was not very full. We could have finished it by 2PM but two of the major rides were both shut down at the same time. We wasted time shuffling back and forth until they opened them back up. It was very hot that day and the people seemed to be all packed into the back section of the park.

 

[swillis]

I never did find out why both parks were closed. The weird part was on the way into Blizzard Beach, I saw a sign that said "Typhoon Lagoon-OPEN" so Id did specifically ask that lonley CM if Typhoon Lagoon was closed also (it was)

I think I am in actual post pardom Disney depression now.