Ok, the last day of our trip to wdw in May 2001. Once again, I realize it's february 2002, but since the dis board has been so helpful, I thought the least I could do is finish my trip reports.
There were so much info posted that helped, I figured if just one person got some info from what I had to say, it was worth it!
I knew the gang did not want to get up at 630am, but I had to start rousing them sometime.
As usual, ds was cranky, why can't you let me sleep? Well, son, we're going to animal kingdom today! And when we're done there, we're going to mk again! That got him moving.
We got our gear, I headed over to the coffee shop, and got the usual two large coffees for myself and df. DB doesn't drink coffee, but he had the trusty volvo pointed once more towards wdw. And off we went to ak!
Drove onto property and headed into the parking lot. We got all our gear out for the trek into
the ak. Inside the entrance plaza they had a bunch of characters come out, and we got pix and autographs with four, but they finished quickly and we missed turk from tarzan. Ds was a bit disappointed. The amount of people in this area made it difficult to get all the characters. They were inside the gate as soon as the park opened, so there was the maximum amount of people here.
I did well, though, considering. I got us all maps and pointed the gang in the direction for camp mickey-the lion king show, pochantas, and character greetings. I went over and got fastpasses for the safari. We got some great pix w/mickey & minnie, goofy and pluto.The pocohantas show is great for small children, they have little animals who are trained come out on stage(raccoons, porcupines, etc.) Pocohantas even handled a snake! At the end of the show, they toss out confetti paper, and we go run and grab it for a souvenir.
Next was the lion king show, which is about 1/2 hour long, and just great entertainment for the whole family. So we went over to the safari ride and went straight on using fast-pass.
We checked out the nature trail, very nice, though dswas a little bored, then we took the train over to conservation station. We got off and took the trail over, and along the way they had a little area where he got a card and had to find thing, animals in the landscape. He was enthusiastic about finding them, I felt like he learned something. We went over to the petting area, as df is really into animals, she must have petted them all. Inside the building they had two characters that we got pix with-King louie and I forgot the second one. I'm not really sure if they have characters here on a regular basis.
We took the train back and headed over to asia, and got a fastpass for kali river rapids. We saw the bird show, and went on the trail for the tigers. We then went on kali, bypassing the poor slobs waiting in the standby line. It was at least 30 minutes.
I will give you my synopsis now-USE FASTPASS WHENEVER YOU CAN!!!
Today worked out great the whole day using the system, everything just clicked!
We had taken along some plastic bags to put my backpack in(which held all our gear, including my sony camcorder) though they did have a place on the raft that you could place your gear into(not really sure how water tight it was) and yes we did get wet, almost drenched! We then headed over to the dinosaur area. I got fastpasses for dinosaur, and we had a late lunch at the mickey d's there. The lunch rush had died down, so we got our food very quickly. The theming in here is great( what 6 year old boy doesn't like dinosaurs?). Here is some info: they take credit cards here and at the mickey d's at downtown disney. Try that in austin! At downtown disney it costs about $1 more for a value meal, than at your regular mickey d's and about $2 more at ak. We had a nice relaxing lunch and got some coins for ds.
We hadn't been planning on doing the coin presses. We were always scrounging for pennies and quarters. And we had to buy two books, to hold them all. Each theme park has enough for 1/2 a book, so we had to buy two, since we did all 4 theme parks. When we go to disneyland in may, I will have some shiny pennies and quarters allready. And I will print out David Tomita's guide(which you can find searching). We then went on Dinosaur, yes, I got to ride twice-thank the heavens df is a nurse and knew about getting me a patch-I will tell you-it works! Then over to see the tarzan show, full of running around and skating. I like the jungle book story better, but that is just a matter of preference.
Then over to hester and chester's dino-shop, and yes, ds got a dinosaur and a cool dinosaur shirt-I got one with carnosaurus on it, it was tye-died with yellow, blue and red!
They were working on the children's dinosaur area, which is now open.
We then went over to the dino play area, for a couple of minutes. While I was riding dinosaur,ds was with db and then df, so he got to run around in there for about 40 minutes total! This worked out great. Earlier I had gotten fast passes for bug's life after dinosaur, but we didn't need, them. It was the last show of the day. When we had gone by earlier into dinoland, they had a character greeting before the entrance with Tigger. Df loves tigger, but for some reason, she walked right by him! To this day I won't even try to understand her, after all, it's not everyday you get to see a character!
Bug's life was great, we hung out for about 10min under the tree of life before the show. At the end of the show, the seats make you feel like some bugs are moving under you. Very cool, but not for small kids-I heard lots of them screaming!
We were on our way out, and it started raining. I thought, oh well, I ran over to a gift shop and got a large pumbaa for ds. It's now sitting on top of his computer desk(yes I know he is 6!) with his pooh bear hat on it. He just wanted a pumbaa. I was in a place financially where we were able to get a few more souvenirs than we had in the past.
The rain continued, quite heavily as we exited and got to the car. We drove over to mk, and got in the lot for free(just show them your parking receipt from the park you were in earlier)
and drove right up to the front of the lot. We sat awhile, about 20-30min, and then it started slowing down. We got on the monorail, and headed on in. Wow, my first time using a park-hopper-and it worked! We headed straight to the alladdin ride-and the fence was down, but it was not running-we waited 20min, but to no avail. We grabbed a fastpass and headed to splash mountain once more. Then I took the family over to buzz lightyear space ranger spin, we had to wait to get a fastpass for that too. By passing through fantasyland, I noticed the pooh bear ride was closed, and I looked at the guide, and it said closed, tues-thurs, and I said wait a minute, it's friday! I felt really sorry for the poor slob who saved all his money and came from missouri, or alaska, or nova scotia, and to bring his 4 year old, and the pooh bear ride is closed! The stand-by wait time was posted as 75 minutes-oh my gosh-thank the stars for fastpass!
We didn't go on too many rides after that-wedway people mover, the cars, mickey's toontown, we just kinda waited around until it was time for the night time parade, and that was terrific! My camera battery finally bit it, and my camcorder battery had also gone out.
The fireworks were terrific too, standing in front of the castle with my family. We waited for most of the folks to leave, then headed out the gate-now here is a trick. Yes the line is long for the monorail, and the boat, but head over to the monorail sign that says resorts. Get in line, yes it is still long, but not as long as the other side, and take the monorail. It does stop at the ttc. And it did, we just had to wait a bit since one of the monorails was unloading.
Summing up our trip: we had a great time! I would have to say it was the vacation of a lifetime, we did so much, but most of all our family was together, experiencing the magic, and sharing it with each other, seeing the smiles, hearing the laughter, the shouts of joy! The expression of disbelief(how many times df said oh my god I lost count) these memories will always be with us.
We are planning on returning to orlando in 2003, with our wonderful host, David, with my now beautiful wife, my son who will be 8 and myself, so I am allready planning.
Thank you all again who took the time to pass on your info and insights and to those who have yet to experience wdw-good luck and enjoy! Fred out
There were so much info posted that helped, I figured if just one person got some info from what I had to say, it was worth it!
I knew the gang did not want to get up at 630am, but I had to start rousing them sometime.
As usual, ds was cranky, why can't you let me sleep? Well, son, we're going to animal kingdom today! And when we're done there, we're going to mk again! That got him moving.
We got our gear, I headed over to the coffee shop, and got the usual two large coffees for myself and df. DB doesn't drink coffee, but he had the trusty volvo pointed once more towards wdw. And off we went to ak!
Drove onto property and headed into the parking lot. We got all our gear out for the trek into
the ak. Inside the entrance plaza they had a bunch of characters come out, and we got pix and autographs with four, but they finished quickly and we missed turk from tarzan. Ds was a bit disappointed. The amount of people in this area made it difficult to get all the characters. They were inside the gate as soon as the park opened, so there was the maximum amount of people here.
I did well, though, considering. I got us all maps and pointed the gang in the direction for camp mickey-the lion king show, pochantas, and character greetings. I went over and got fastpasses for the safari. We got some great pix w/mickey & minnie, goofy and pluto.The pocohantas show is great for small children, they have little animals who are trained come out on stage(raccoons, porcupines, etc.) Pocohantas even handled a snake! At the end of the show, they toss out confetti paper, and we go run and grab it for a souvenir.
Next was the lion king show, which is about 1/2 hour long, and just great entertainment for the whole family. So we went over to the safari ride and went straight on using fast-pass.
We checked out the nature trail, very nice, though dswas a little bored, then we took the train over to conservation station. We got off and took the trail over, and along the way they had a little area where he got a card and had to find thing, animals in the landscape. He was enthusiastic about finding them, I felt like he learned something. We went over to the petting area, as df is really into animals, she must have petted them all. Inside the building they had two characters that we got pix with-King louie and I forgot the second one. I'm not really sure if they have characters here on a regular basis.
We took the train back and headed over to asia, and got a fastpass for kali river rapids. We saw the bird show, and went on the trail for the tigers. We then went on kali, bypassing the poor slobs waiting in the standby line. It was at least 30 minutes.
I will give you my synopsis now-USE FASTPASS WHENEVER YOU CAN!!!
Today worked out great the whole day using the system, everything just clicked!
We had taken along some plastic bags to put my backpack in(which held all our gear, including my sony camcorder) though they did have a place on the raft that you could place your gear into(not really sure how water tight it was) and yes we did get wet, almost drenched! We then headed over to the dinosaur area. I got fastpasses for dinosaur, and we had a late lunch at the mickey d's there. The lunch rush had died down, so we got our food very quickly. The theming in here is great( what 6 year old boy doesn't like dinosaurs?). Here is some info: they take credit cards here and at the mickey d's at downtown disney. Try that in austin! At downtown disney it costs about $1 more for a value meal, than at your regular mickey d's and about $2 more at ak. We had a nice relaxing lunch and got some coins for ds.
We hadn't been planning on doing the coin presses. We were always scrounging for pennies and quarters. And we had to buy two books, to hold them all. Each theme park has enough for 1/2 a book, so we had to buy two, since we did all 4 theme parks. When we go to disneyland in may, I will have some shiny pennies and quarters allready. And I will print out David Tomita's guide(which you can find searching). We then went on Dinosaur, yes, I got to ride twice-thank the heavens df is a nurse and knew about getting me a patch-I will tell you-it works! Then over to see the tarzan show, full of running around and skating. I like the jungle book story better, but that is just a matter of preference.
Then over to hester and chester's dino-shop, and yes, ds got a dinosaur and a cool dinosaur shirt-I got one with carnosaurus on it, it was tye-died with yellow, blue and red!
They were working on the children's dinosaur area, which is now open.
We then went over to the dino play area, for a couple of minutes. While I was riding dinosaur,ds was with db and then df, so he got to run around in there for about 40 minutes total! This worked out great. Earlier I had gotten fast passes for bug's life after dinosaur, but we didn't need, them. It was the last show of the day. When we had gone by earlier into dinoland, they had a character greeting before the entrance with Tigger. Df loves tigger, but for some reason, she walked right by him! To this day I won't even try to understand her, after all, it's not everyday you get to see a character!
Bug's life was great, we hung out for about 10min under the tree of life before the show. At the end of the show, the seats make you feel like some bugs are moving under you. Very cool, but not for small kids-I heard lots of them screaming!
We were on our way out, and it started raining. I thought, oh well, I ran over to a gift shop and got a large pumbaa for ds. It's now sitting on top of his computer desk(yes I know he is 6!) with his pooh bear hat on it. He just wanted a pumbaa. I was in a place financially where we were able to get a few more souvenirs than we had in the past.
The rain continued, quite heavily as we exited and got to the car. We drove over to mk, and got in the lot for free(just show them your parking receipt from the park you were in earlier)
and drove right up to the front of the lot. We sat awhile, about 20-30min, and then it started slowing down. We got on the monorail, and headed on in. Wow, my first time using a park-hopper-and it worked! We headed straight to the alladdin ride-and the fence was down, but it was not running-we waited 20min, but to no avail. We grabbed a fastpass and headed to splash mountain once more. Then I took the family over to buzz lightyear space ranger spin, we had to wait to get a fastpass for that too. By passing through fantasyland, I noticed the pooh bear ride was closed, and I looked at the guide, and it said closed, tues-thurs, and I said wait a minute, it's friday! I felt really sorry for the poor slob who saved all his money and came from missouri, or alaska, or nova scotia, and to bring his 4 year old, and the pooh bear ride is closed! The stand-by wait time was posted as 75 minutes-oh my gosh-thank the stars for fastpass!
We didn't go on too many rides after that-wedway people mover, the cars, mickey's toontown, we just kinda waited around until it was time for the night time parade, and that was terrific! My camera battery finally bit it, and my camcorder battery had also gone out.
The fireworks were terrific too, standing in front of the castle with my family. We waited for most of the folks to leave, then headed out the gate-now here is a trick. Yes the line is long for the monorail, and the boat, but head over to the monorail sign that says resorts. Get in line, yes it is still long, but not as long as the other side, and take the monorail. It does stop at the ttc. And it did, we just had to wait a bit since one of the monorails was unloading.
Summing up our trip: we had a great time! I would have to say it was the vacation of a lifetime, we did so much, but most of all our family was together, experiencing the magic, and sharing it with each other, seeing the smiles, hearing the laughter, the shouts of joy! The expression of disbelief(how many times df said oh my god I lost count) these memories will always be with us.
We are planning on returning to orlando in 2003, with our wonderful host, David, with my now beautiful wife, my son who will be 8 and myself, so I am allready planning.
Thank you all again who took the time to pass on your info and insights and to those who have yet to experience wdw-good luck and enjoy! Fred out
