Some ground rules before I go any further - if at any point in the TR (and I mean ANY point) you have a question about touring advice or are just curious to learn more on something I didn't specify very well, by all means please ask. I write this trip report to help YOU have the best vacation possible and to learn from my mistakes.
So our hotel experience was not off to the best start. Oh, who am I kidding. Scratch that. I don't know how the beginning of our hotel experience could have been any worse than it was.
But we were no strangers to Orlando, so we knew that your hotel doesn't restrict what you are able to do outside the parks. We had every intention of Days Inn being just the place where we sleep and shower. Period. We planned on spending (and did spend) all of our out-of-park down time elsewhere around Disney property. We spent so much time doing fun things around WDW that I almost felt like we stayed on property (alllllmost...).
By the time everything is all squared away with the hotel check-in, it's about 6:00. That's a little later than I wanted to be heading out, considering we wanted to get back earlyish to get a good night's sleep in preparation for the 24-hour day. But when you are just minutes away from seeing those glorious Disney arches welcoming you to the magic, you really don't care about things essential for human functioning like sleep.
On the way to WDW, we stopped (read: parked for 90 seconds while Caleb ran inside to get maps) at the Portofino Bay hotel at Universal. Pretty snazzy place. I didn't realize that Universal had their own actual resorts. Though I am a Disney guy through and through, my eyes are starting to be opened that other Orlando destinations should maybe not be dismissed from my radar altogether. That being said, I will likely never stay at the Portofino Bay hotel or any Universal resort in my entire life. But still, it's nice to know they're there.
And from there we were on our way to Walt Disney World!!
I hadn't been away
too long (Dec. 2010), but it was just surreal to be back. Do any of you feel like you almost get starstruck at the sight of certain buildings and landmarks? I know I do, and it was fantastic to return to the place I love so much and that holds such special memories for my family.
We wanted to drive in the scenic route, so took the entrance to the property closest to Hollywood Studios. From there, our destination was Downtown Disney to park the car since parking was free and we weren't going to the parks. The plan for tonight was to resort hop--remember we have 1-day tickets, and we'd be using our 1 day tomorrow. Well, we had a time driving around the whole property trying (but kind of failing) to find signs directing to Downtown Disney. Somehow we ended up in the Animal Kingdom parking lot lol. (Which, yes, I know, is on the completely other end of WDW.) We eventually made it to Downtown Disney. We didn't go inside DD--we'd do that Saturday. Right now we just wanted to see that Castle!!
Behold, the Animal Kingdom parking lot.
(As a side note, because of our little detour around WDW, I can now say I laid eyes on all 4 WDW parks in 1 day, which I have never done before. I didn't actually go inside any of them... but still, it's got to count for something. Or at least I'll tell myself it does.
)
We wait at Downtown Disney for the bus (excuse me, motor coach), and decide to take whichever Magic Kingdom-area resort gets there first. We'd catch dinner at one of the resort counter-service restaurants. I was kind of excited waiting to see which one it would be... I'm weird and like small surprises like that. It ended up being the Contemporary.
We go farther and farther north toward the Magic Kingdom... and there she blows. Cinderella Castle. The first sighting every trip is just
We enter the Contemporary lobby and make our way up to the 5th floor to catch the monorail. As we walk there, I remember something--Chef Mickey's is here. There's no way of course we'd be able to be seated there, but we'll be able to see it, which means we'll also be able to see some of its "special" residents - and no sooner does this dawn upon me than we get a Minnie Mouse sighting. We didn't meet her, of course, but that's when it really settled in that we were really here. I could not stop smiling.
We hop on the monorail (Please stand clear of the doors...) and make our way to the Polynesian, where we decided we would eat dinner! We came to this conclusion by means of the
Main Street Gazette, a Disney blog all about unearthing the overlooked treasures of WDW. I write for their Thursday roundtable, and the entire blog is a great read and definitely worthy of your time. Anyway, once a week on Twitter, the site's editor Ryan hosts a Q & A: you ask him anything about WDW, and he'll reply with a picture of a post-it note that he has hand-written your answer on. I asked what the best quick-service restaurant on the MK monorail loop was, and his answer was Captain Cook's at the Polynesian, so away we went!
I got a pesto flatbread and (at the request of the Gazette) Polynesian chips. Woah!! Both were excellent. The Polynesian chips were one of the best bargains I've seen in all of WDW... $1.59 and the plate is HUGE!
I'll go ahead and say that I am in love with the Polynesian. We've never stayed here overnight, but we've eaten at Ohana here several times and every visit is a pleasure to just absorb the atmosphere. We chose to eat outside, and boy am I glad we did.
A hidden Mickey in the CLOUDS!
The weather was perfect at that time of the day, the view was beautiful, the food was fantastic, I was looking at Cinderella Castle (as in... Cinderella Castle)... it was just a perfect moment. (We found where we'd be crashing for our power nap tomorrow.
) We probably just sat on the beach chairs for a good 45 minutes. Once we realized it was getting close to dark, we decided to head on out. We needed our sleep and we still needed to pick up our will call tickets. We didn't want to wait until morning to get them in case it was a mad house at park opening.
We took the monorail to the Transportation & Ticket Center. (I know we could have walked from the Poly, but, I mean, the monorail is kind of the more magical of the two options.) Upon arriving to the TTC, we were disappointed to see all the ticket windows closed. I guess we should have known better to think that ticket windows would still be open so close to the park's closing. A Cast Member at the TTC gift shop (which WAS still open
) said that the ticket window at the actual entrance to MK would be open until the park closed at 11, and we could pick up our will call tickets there.
At this point it was about 8:50. Caleb had an ingenious idea. It was brilliant: IllumiNations starts in 10 minutes. Even though we can't go inside the park, if we get on the monorail to Epcot now, the monorail will pass through the park right during the show! As much as we all knew we needed sleep, this was just too good to pass up. (And we ALMOST did pass it up.) So we get on the Epcot monorail, the monorail makes its way toward the park, approaches Spaceship Earth (incredible so up close when it is all lit up), and.... the show is at the calm part with just the earth doing its thing, no fireworks happening. That's a serene moment if you're actually watching the whole show in the park, but for us it was kind of disappointing. Ho, hum. BUT... wait a minute. If we stay on the monorail for another loop... but that would be impossible. It would never happen. Our timing would never be
that good. But I suggest the idea anyway: Do we want to stay on with the hope that we'll pass through Epcot right during the IllumiNations finale? It would be *about* that part in the show, wouldn't it?
Well, why not. So we don't get off at the TTC and choose to head to Epcot again. From a distance as we get closer to Epcot, we see a large blast of fireworks. Mixed bag of emotions: Woah that was cool! vs. Dang! I wish we could have been closer! We missed the big finish.
Wrong. The monorail reaches Spaceship Earth and as we come around the corner, we see that the show is still going on, and (YES!!!!!) the finale is happening!! We all couldn't believe it. It was incredible. Riding through Epcot during IllumiNations... check that one off the bucket list!
We arrive back at the TTC, and at this point we're starting to get tired. Not good. But we still need to pick up our tickets, so we take the ferry to Magic Kingdom. We were on the ferry with a family who had a little girl dressed up as Vanellope the glitch from Wreck-It Ralph. We told her we loved her costume, as we are huge fans of Wreck-It Ralph. Everyone at school really latched onto that movie. When it came to the campus theater, I dragged my friends to see it and they went along not expecting anything, but they liked it so much that they insisted we see it again the next night!
And now a regular phrase worked into everyday conversation is "Have some candy!"
Anyway. Sidebar conversation with myself over.
We get to MK and pick up our tickets without any problems. It was so inexplicably awesome to be right outside MK. In a kidding but kind-of-not way, we joked about blowing tomorrow's ticket to use right now for the remaining hour the park would be open. But... yeah. No.
Our car was at Downtown Disney, and since buses don't run from the parks to DD, we needed to get to a resort, so we just walked to the Contemporary. Just FYI that walk is longer than it looks.
We approach the Contemporary bus stop, and an announcement fills the air: "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Our nighttime spectacular, Wishes: A Magical Gathering of Disney Dreams, will begin in just 5 minutes." First off--I kind of died on the inside hearing an actual Disney announcer voice for the first time. Second--we all looked at each other. We knew we should get back. We were tired already. We had to get up early. We'd be in the park for 24 hours straight tomorrow. BUT... comeonletsgowatchwishesfromupstairs
So we scurried up to the 4th floor balcony just as Wishes started. There was quite a crowd there, and not a whole lot of space. More families came outside as they realized the show had started, too. But then we realized something... isn't there a balcony on every single floor? Indeed there is! So we just went up two flights of stairs and had an entire patio all to ourselves with a perfect view of Wishes. Not gonna lie, I got a little emotional at the end (but just a little...).
Wow. We had seen IllumiNations and Wishes in the same night. But now we really did need to go back to our hotel. It was all magical now, but it wouldn't be funny soon.
As we get on the Downtown Disney bus, we start to head to the back to the available seats. As we're still walking, the bus driver turns all the lights out and FLOORS IT. All 4 of us topple to the floor in what I'm sure was a good dose of physical comedy to those watching. The driver realizes his mistake and turns the lights back on... gee, thanks, Mister. It was just one of those things. Gave us something to laugh about at least.
As we ride, we realize how ridiculous our traveling has been that day. Let's just recap our transportation for the day:
-Car to Downtown Disney
-Bus to Contemporary
-Monorail to Polynesian
-Monorail to TTC
-Monorail to Epcot
-Monorail to TTC
-Monorail to Epcot
-Monorail to TTC
-Ferry to Magic Kingdom
-Walk to Contemporary
-Bus to Downtown Disney
-Car to Days Inn
And we never even entered a theme park.
Not to mention we rode through Epcot during the IllumiNations finale AND saw a prime viewing of Wishes, and the only thing we paid for all night was dinner! If you need a bargain day at WDW, use this plan. But honestly, so much of it was pure luck that I don't know if I'd be able to repeat it even if I tried.
We get to Downtown Disney and get off at the first stop, not thinking that DD has 2 bus stops. We get off at Marketplace before we realize we're parked at West Side.
So... we walk through all of Downtown Disney! Upon arriving back at Days Inn, we go to the front desk to see if our room's door is fixed. It's not. So we get another room. This one is much better---no gross smell, the keys work, the door handle is in tact (that's quite an amenity, mind you)... it was still a $30 hotel room, but it was a step up from the first room certainly.
By the time all of that was said and done, we looked at the clock and were shocked to see that it was 12:45.
The plan was to wake up at 4:00 in time to leave at 4:30 to get to MK in plenty of time to be in front of the park to see the opening ceremony. I didn't even want to think about the fact that we were attempting to spend 24 hours IN the park, plus probably 27-28 hours of being awake with only getting 3 hours of sleep. But... I opted to get some shut-eye rather than contemplate the idiocy of our planning.
Wishes and IllumiNations had been worth it. But for real. It was time for sleep.
Hi, there. My name is Blake and I just got back from 3 nights in Orlando! We took the challenge and survived 24 hours in the Magic Kingdom on May 24-25. 
faint:... but more on that later)
but then it was more like 
because we were about to 
to 
!
Didn't smell like anything particular, it just smelled gross. Everything was all-around just unkept. The ceiling paint was torn everywhere, the lampshades were crooked, and (I kid you not), there was a cable in the corner that rose out of a hole in the carpet and was duct-taped to the wall. 
We started to accept the fact that this is what we paid for. But, seeing as reservations can't be canceled for a refund unless they're 24 hours prior to check-in, we'd just have to suck it up and learn our lesson for next time. 
But on a positive note, at least you wouldn't be using the room for a 24 hour time period so you had that going for you. 
Can't wait to hear more...
