Hope'n and Dream'n - Aug Trip Report from a 20-year-old

[theatregrl04]

I tried to start a report before, but that did not go well with school and stage managing my first Opera- Street Scene.
But now its christmas break and I have time so I'm trying again!

Here is what I posted before:

Hi Everyone!

This is my first trip report. Since we started planning our trip I have thought about writing one and now I am. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it all the way to the end!

I wrote a lot about our trip during and right when we got home in quick notes and fill in the blank style. But I thought it would be cool to get it all written out like this too! I really want to be able to remember this trip. Of course there is a lot I remember from other trips, but I am sure there is a lot that I don’t.

August 8th to 14th
I stayed at the All Star Music with my Family.
My Dad, Mom, Sister (13) and Aunt (Mom’s sis).

This was our first trip to Disney World together since 2000! It is also the first Disney Trip that my sister remembers, other than a little bit of our 2 cruises. So it was cool to be able to share her new excitement of seeing things for the “first” time.

I was able to go to Disney in 2005 with my HS band, we also stayed at the ASMu and that helped to convince my family that we would have an okay time there. And I’m pretty sure our expectations were much exceeded and we would gladly stay there again. Although my favorite hotel is still the Yacht Club.

It was our first time staying as family at a value resort, and we all loved the ASMu a lot more than we thought we were going to. The only small complaint I had was that because it was all outdoor access we were kind of stuck in our room or the food court when it rained or was really really hot, but it is August so what can you expect. We had hoped to take pictures and tour the whole resort but that did not end up happening. However the service was great, the food in the food court was good, and the rooms were clean and never seemed too crowded. We had 2 normal rooms in the Calypso building since one of our group used ECV and we thought that would be easier. When all 5 of us happened to be in one room they were a bit crowded but most of the time they were just fine.

We almost always had good bus service, many times my sister and I walked up and a bus was either loading or pulled up within 2 minutes. I think we waited once or twice for almost twenty minutes and we used the bus A LOT during our week so we didn’t think that was too bad. Even when we had shared busses everyone waiting in line was able to get on the bus and only once or twice was it super crowded. A lot of times everyone had a seat or only a handful of people were standing sometimes with empty seats around them, which I never did understand.

Although we never really took advantage of them it was cool to see and know about all the activities that happened by the pool. One night when we got back “early” we caught the end of a movie there. The programming seemed to be awesome and everyone looked like they were having a great time! My mom mentioned how staying there reminded her a lot of the cruise with all the activities and the fact that our rooms overlooked the Calypso pool. We had a great view every time we stepped out of our room! We were worried that it may be too noisy but that never seemed to be the case. During the afternoon you could hear the music just a little coming from the pool but it was not loud or annoying or anything. I was amazed at how well the door seemed to be soundproof.

That's all for now. I'll try to get more up soon. And hopefully some pictures once I figure out how!

 

[theatregrl04]

Our First Day! Part 1
Sunday August 8th 2010

We all got up around 6am. At 6:30 our grandpa came with our Aunt to take us to the airport. Around 7pm we arrived at the airport, and had almost no wait to check in. When we left the check in we realized that the line behind us had gotten huge! We were there a couple of minutes before the 2 hour point so I guess that was the key, we will have to keep that in mind for future trips.

Going through security was also relatively painless. And we had a lot of stuff! We did get questioned about our liquid bags, but once they realized there were five of us and we had less bags than that and they were just really full it was okay. I did not even beep going through security though other members of our party did! Do not forget to take your cell phone out of your pocket.

We then had about an hour and a half until our 9am flight. I was super excited about getting to Disney. However not so excited about the flight. I really do not like flying, but it is the easiest and fastest way to get to Disney so I’ll deal with it. We were also really lucky that we had a nonstop flight. This was the first nonstop flight our family had. Though I had one when I flew to New York once.

Everything went really well on the flight and we thought were going to land about 30 minutes early around 11am. YAY! It was not long after this we realized that the sun was going from one side of the plane to the other, hmmm that’s not right. Then we realized we were flying in circles…uh-oh! Finally the pilot came on and confirmed that we were flying in circles, because the Orlando airport was closed due to bad weather! AHHHHHH!

(I never thought I’d have such a freak-out moment on the way to Disney again! Back when I went with my HS the bus I was on was hit by a car that was not paying any attention and in a lane going the wrong way. We were only an hour or two outside of Disney at the time and I was really really mad! And this was worse because we were stuck up in the air! Have I mentioned I don’t like flying?)

The pilot came on again and said that the Orlando airport was still closed and we would probably have to pop down to Daytona to get us enough fuel until the Orlando airport opened or we may have to stay in Daytona. I was not happy, especially not when I realized how far Daytona was from Disney! I just wanted to get to Disney and quit all this silliness of going in circles! And they thought we were going to land early ha!

Finally after many more circles and slowly going up and down, which I did not like, it hurt my ears, and the pilot finally said that the Orlando airport had opened up again! A huge cheer and sigh of relief was heard throughout the entire plane! YAY we are finally going to Disney World I said! And it was only about noon. 30 minutes after we were scheduled to land and about an hour after we thought we were going to land. It took a little while to get off the plane but we were to the ME line before we know, we did wait a bit to board a bus than we were on our way! I thought the video they played was really cute. Though I got irritated that our bus driver kept talking over it! Couldn’t he have said all he needed to before the movie started?

More to come tomorrow, and hopefully pictures!

 

[theatregrl04]

Checking to see if I got this photo thing figured out!

Here should be a picture of our airplane!

 

[theatregrl04]

Yay got the photo to work!
More photos and the rest of Day 1 coming tomorrow!!

 

[theatregrl04]

Day 1 part 2!

Finally after dropping people off at Coronado Springs and AS Sports we got to the ASMu where we were staying! Check in was super easy and fast, I think there was just 1 person in front of us. We thought we lucked out when we found out our rooms were right next to each other. But in the end we had to change one of them. I was amazed with how easy the change occurred and we still got rooms on the same floor and same hallway, which was really nice. Most of the time it was nice to be able to walk right out your room into the outdoors and other times when it was extra humid or pouring it was not quite as nice.

We had planned on heading over to AK for Finding Nemo and possibly the Lion King show. Though we decided it was better to take extra time to unpack, our luggage got there way sooner than we were expecting it too! Also sneak in a quick but extra swim. Also this gave us an earlier start to MK which we had not planned on heading to till 7pm.

I do not think I mentioned yet, but we were on the CS dinning plan. My mom had gotten a code to get it free and it was one of the reasons we were able to make this trip to Disney. I am a super picky eater and had been worried I’d be forced to eat chicken fingers (which I don’t even like that much) and mac and cheese all week but that was not the case. I was very impressed by the CS food actually, much to my pleasant surprise. Though there sure was a lot of it! I am sure I will get into more details about our meals as we go but I thought I’d mention this all now.

As we started to get ready to head out to MK at about 5pm it was raining pretty bad. Because of this we knew there was a chance that we were not going to be able to see MSEP. But we thought since it seemed like the rain was almost over and it had been raining for a while that it would be a great time to go to the parks. We assumed and hoped that the rain would have cleared the crowd a bit! And it sure did.

Our first view of the Magic Kingdom!

Originally on the schedule was only Aladdin, Pirates and Jungle Cruise, which we thought we were not going to be able to do until after the 9pm MESP. However due to our early start to the night and the low crowds we got more done. First we basically walked onto Aladdin. The ride was just ending so the people on the numbers loaded and we got loaded onto our numbers I believe it was 12 and 13. I was really excited because the last time I was in Disney we didn’t do Aladdin because it had too long of a line every time we were nearby. This time though I do not think I saw it with more than a 10 minute wait. My sister and I happened to be wearing our Aladdin shirts so we got pictures in theme waiting in line. Mine was from when I was in Disney’s Aladdin Jr: The Musical quite some time ago.

After that we rode Jungle Cruise, which happens to be one of my least favorite rides in Disney, just not my kind of humor I guess. One we were in the loading area my mom goes, “Oh you are going with us? I thought you were going to wait somewhere?” Which I had intended to do, but it all went so fast, ANOTHER WALK ON that I just ended up going. None of us remembered going through the cave at the end, although I highly doubt it is new. I gave it another try but still did not like it.

 

[theatregrl04]

I did not forget about this I promise!
I am currently at American College Theatre Festival for the week.
But will hopefully be able to post some more when I get back to my normal computer!

 

[theatregrl04]

See I promised I'd be back! It just took a little longer than expected!
So here it is!

Day 1 Part 3

Finally we went to Pirates! Another walk on, I was starting to think that it could not possibly be august!

Everyone was walking too fast for me to get a decent picture!
Although Pirates is not in my “top” attractions I still enjoy it very much and try to hit it every trip. Once again it was very enjoyable, although it seemed everyone in our group but me forgot about the small drop as they all acted very surprised! There were so many cool things in the gift shop. As much as I like to be a princess some days I also like being a pirate. I wish I had picked something up to bring/wear on a dress like a pirate day at one of the theatres I work at sometime, though I do have some cool stuff already.

After Pirates we got FPs for BTM since the fast pass return time was about what the wait time was so we figured why wait in line! With FPs in hand we went over to the Haunted Mansion. Which everyone enjoyed, even my sister who was not sure if she wanted to go on it. After that it was almost our FP time. So my mom and sister went off to take pictures in Fantasyland and around the castle, since my sister didn’t want to ride.

And my dad, aunt and I headed off the BTM. I had not ever ridden BTM before and was still not sure if I wanted to. But I did anyways, before we left for Disney I had decided I was going to go on more coasters than I wanted to. BTM was okay. I would might ride it again in the future. But would not wait very long in line, or make special plans to do so. It is a take it or leave it for me now.

We all met up in the hub, near the Tomorrowland spoke and decided to watch the 9pm MSEP from the handicap viewing area there. Although it was a pretty good spot for watching the parade it was just too crowded for me. Although I was able to get some great pictures! I really enjoyed the parade. It was even better than the one we had seen before which I believe was the older version of MSEP but it may have been Spectro. After the parade we decided to keep our spot for the fireworks, as it seemed like a good location and we had never viewed the fireworks from the hub before.

The fireworks were spectacular! I had seen really good 4th of July fireworks and was interested to see how Disney compared. There was no contest, Disney won hands down! I think what set Disney apart was that it was not just a fireworks display. It was a full blown out show with a story and plot and everything. I loved it! We decided that this was something we were definitely going to try to fit in again during our trip!

While we had been waiting for the fireworks we had decided that food was a must after them, as we realized we had not eaten dinner yet! So once we let the fireworks soak in and the traffic clear we headed off to Cosmic Rays in Tomorrowland. Thinking that after dinner we may do some attractions there.

I do not remember what everyone had to eat, I know we used 3 meal credits, and one was rib and chicken combo one. I (silly me) had decided that I was not hungry and that I just wanted a Sprite! Of course they did not have sprite zero, so I had a normal one which is first for me! Then I decided that I needed something of substance and had some French fries. I actually thought they were very good. This is was quite surprising to me, because I generally do not eat anything made from potatoes!

Although we had considered doing some tomorrowland attractions, by the time we had finished eating we decided that it was time to head back to the hotel. The next morning some of us were headed to EMH at AK, and the others to HS RD for Toy Story Mania.