My First Solo Adventure! 3/15-19, 2011 UPDATED 3/23

[xerotheory7803]

I finally did it. For the longest time I always thought "I wonder what it would be like to do a Disney trip all by my lonesome?" Now I know, and I'm so glad I did it!

(note: all the photos I'm going to use in this post are photos I took using an app called Instagram on my phone. That is why they all have some sort of filter on them. Instagram is a twitter-like app that allows you to post pictures to your followers. If anyones interested, my username on there is warchiello)

The whole point of this trip was doing anything I wanted at my own pace, and I must say, after being the "wake up super early and hit the parks like theres no tomorrow" kind of guy for so long, it was SO NICE to not care, to let the trip just happen, as opposed to making it happen.

I arrived on 3/15, staying at Pop Century, check in was a breeze, and then I headed off to the room. To my surprise, some of (if not all, I'm not sure) the standard rooms at Pop now have flatscreen HDTVs in the rooms, along with the curtain that separates the sink area and the rest of the room. Was nice since I had brought my laptops HDMI out plug, so I was able to watch movies from my laptop via the TV, a nice lil bonus. I hung out in the room for a while, then headed to my first park of the trip (and the evening): Hollywood Studios.

I arrived at HS just shortly after 6pm, and just took a nice stroll through the park. I took a look at the times board, everything was just insane, so I didn't ride anything that night, stuck to sightseeing. After a short while of that, I headed to the Sci Fi for Dinner. I had a 9pm reservation, but being a party of one, they were able to seat me much earlier. It was there I reignited a love for one of the best steaks I've ever had. "The best steak I've ever had" isn't something you'd expect to hear from a theme park restaurant but for me, this is entirely true. I first had this steak back in January, and I was COMPLETELY exhausted (40+ hours awake), so I thought "Maybe I was so tired, the steak just seemed great, but was really just ok." So I put it to the well rested, awake test, and it held up just as well as I recalled.

^I would KILL for the chance to watch a full length movie here.

After dinner, I decided to head over to MK since they were open til 1am that evening. I was about to walk over to the buses when I thought "Its still early, why rush?" So I hopped the boat over to Epcot first. After the nice relaxing boat ride, I took a quick trip through the World Showcase, grabbed a few of my favorite drinks (the Orange Grand Marnier Slushie in France, and the Canto Loopy in China, specifically) and found a spot to watch Illuminations. No matter how many times I watch this show, it never disappoints. Once all was said and done there, I headed over to the monorail station to head to the MK. After waiting a few minutes, something awesome happened: The Tron-O-Rail showed up! I know this is common place, but I've never had the chance to ride it since they started running it, and I am a HUGE Tron fan. Once I boarded, I turned the geek level up to 11 by putting my headphones on and listening to the Tron: Legacy score. Sometimes its the little things that excite me.

After a somewhat long journey to MK (something about 4 monorails getting backed up, I dont know) I made it into the park just as Wishes ended, and headed over to Tomorrowland. Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear both had pretty sizable waits, so headed for the ol' failsafe: The Carousel of Progress.

Next I hit the Haunted Mansion (and since it was so late, the new queue was not open when I got there. Theres always next time)

After the always fun time with 999 happy haunts, I decided it was time to head for the laughin place. Thankfully a somewhat chilly night meant a 10 minute wait. Armed with my sweatshirt and not a care in the world, I boarded the newly refurbed (see: stupid lap bars) Splash Mountain.

I took a stroll over to Pirates next to cap off my evening, and then headed back to the room, getting there just around 11:30. Not quite done with being awake yet, I dove into the other reason for this trip: creating! Armed with guitar and my laptop, I started working on some new music, and new scripts for some film projects my friends and I are developing. (Fun fact: thanks to a wonderful app on my iPhone called Celtx, I was able to write a short film script in its entirety while waiting on lines at HS later on in this trip)

That's all for now, as I am exhausted. I'll be back with Day 2 and more tomorrow!

 

[ChattaAlley]

Totally stoked to hear about the rest of your SEW-LOW trip. LOL. Sounds like you had a blast.

 

[devilsgirl538]

I'm in

 

[xerotheory7803]

Day 2 - 3/16/11

This was the day that was curious about, because I honestly didn't know if the solo trip version of me would be the early riser and hit the parks running, or wake whenever my eyes open and take it from there. It was the latter. I awoke somewhere around 1pm and felt great. Was in no rush to get anywhere just yet, so I went through my morning(or wake up time) routine: Coffee, check the email, call the family back home, catch up on whats going on in the world. After that, showertime, and headed out. On the docket for that day: EPCOT.

When I got to Epcot, I made a beeline for Mission: Space, one of my favorites at the park. I grabbed a FP for just after 6pm, and then headed for the World Showcase, just to look around (It was about 3:15 at this point, and I had a 4:15 at Rose & Crown.) After watching some of Off Kilter's set (alot of fun!) I made my way over to Rose & Crown, checked in, and took a seat on a bench outside while I waited. It didn't take long after that for "that group" to walk by. You all know "that group." The ones who hit WC in a large group and drink around the world. I'm guilty of this, several times, its a lot of fun, so I always get a kick out of finding that group. This time it was about 7-8 guys, who made their presence very known by all singing "It's A Small World" while ALL walking into the men's room. I'm not sure they thought that one through too well lol

Not long after they disappeared, I was called into the restaurant, and it was lunch time. I opted for the Filet of Beef, which was great, along with one of my personal favorites, a Woodpecker Cider.

Just after I had finished eating, a friend of mine had sent me a short, 4 page script he had written for an upcoming project. I read it while waiting for the check, and proceeded to be "that guy" laughing to himself as quietly as he could (which wasn't very quiet at all, this script was hilarious.) As if being the solo guy isn't noticeable enough, this didn't help. But who cares? This is my trip, and I'm enjoying myself!

I headed out, started wandering more through the WS, and just observing everything, it was really nice.

Once I finished my stroll through WS (with some stops for drinks here and there, of course) it was time for Mission: Space! Fun as always, though the real highlight was the giftshop. As I stated earlier, I am a HUGE Tron fan. It was in this shop that I found the most Tron merchandise in any of the parks so far. I just couldn't help myself, and bought a few things.

^My awesome new Tron hat and little toy "Recognizer." Not pictured: the two Tron pins I also bought

After my mini-geek fit in the Mars gift shop, I headed for The Seas. One of the few rides in WDW I've never done, so I figured why not? I like Nemo and all. I wasn't wowed by it, but enjoyed it anyway.

Seeing as how I was still only awake for a few hours at this point, I headed for the MK for no reason in particular. These reasons turned out to watch The Electrical Parade, and a get a Dole Whip, and watch Wishes. All the lines were still pretty hefty, so I headed back to the room once Wishes was over.

Upon returning to the room, I flipped on the TV, and discovered something I found to be so entertaining, I just couldn't stop watching, and luckily there were 3 episodes on in a row. I'm talking about Phineas and Ferb. Yes, I'm 24, and yes, its a childrens show, but I found it completely hilarious. After watching those, and some more writing, I decided to hit the hay.

Next up: Day 3! Hollywood Studios and More!