NY, DC, WDW Report

[stevechase]

By the way, to live in NY must have been amazing, it is a fantastic place. You lucky bugger ha ha
Steve n gang

 

[luke]

You can smell the Abercrombie and Finch on 5th avenue all the way from central park!!
I like their clothes but it's way too smelly, loud and dark in there

 

[stevechase]

Hi all
Not been on here for a few days apologies, just seem to have had a load to do.
Highlights in NY, Statue of Liberty (still blows me away), Empire State at twilight, the views were incredible. Mary Poppins at the Amsterdam Theatre was an amazing show, picked the tickets up at roughly half price from TKTS at Times Square. Macys, its nice to visit, but sorry, its just a big shop. The girls enjoyed Tiffanys and the good lady had a nice silver pendant as a keep sake.

Central Park, was fantastic, as was the half a day round the Nautral History Museum. Used the Subway more this time, which is really good and a little cheaper than the one in London, albeit a hell of a lot hotter down there.

Saw the tribute fountains at ground zero, The Brooklyn Bridge, Ellis Island, The Staten Island ferry, Radio City Music Hall, The Rockafeller Centre, Bloomingdales, did I say Times Square? and the shrimp at Bubbas? Excellent! as was the ice cold pitcher of beer at the beer garden near Battery Park.

In all, we had a week round NY and walked our legs off, it has always been a favorite of mine and always will be, a truely amazing city.

We picked up the car from Manhattan last Saturday, but didnt start the drive from NY - Washington until Sunday morning, arriving around noon. Had a good walk round and the open top bus tour, the weather was amazing, absolutely scorching, touching 100 as we stood outside the Whitehouse, which was an amazing thing to see. The bus took us to where Lincoln was shot as well as his memorial, which I have to say is a real 'lump in the throat' moment, seeing the Gettysberg address on the wall and also it is where Martin Luther King stood to make his 'I have a dream' speech. Two of the most recognised speeches ever made, linked with one spot.

Saw the Pentagon, which was nearer the city than I thought and a huge building. All in all, Washington was a fantastic place and we will defintitely go back, very very clean and surprisingly quiet. So moron was protesting outside the Whitehouse, that Bin Laden was wronged!, but there is always one, no trouble caused.

The hotel, was the Avenue Suites, we were only in the room around 10 hours asleep, but big enough and very clean, the staff were very good and we would go there again.

The car is a Chrysler Town & Country, basically, it is a small English size town on wheels. It is a 7 seater and we have 7 cases, so I was a touch nervous about the capacity. We got all 6 of us in, folded a seat down and got all the luggage in too, very nice motor and the drive to Washington of 225 miles we did in around 4 hours, thanks to Sat Nav and the good lady's instructions with a multitude of maps.

Left DC around 9, Monday morning and drove to the Shanendoah National Park, around 65 miles west of DC, here we drove through a little backwater called Front Royal, basically there as the entrance to the park. The Skyline Drive is 105 miles through some of the most stunning scenery ever, we saw deer, some massive birds and after lots of staring into the trees, one black bear, which ambled across the road, this was the highlight of a fantastic days drive. The 105 miles took us almost 8 hours, stopping for breaks and photo stops, it was well worth it and we all enjoyed it. We got off the end of the Skyline Drive and racked up another 140 miles ish stopping in a town called Danville (hey Phineas, what ya doiiinnn?), in Virginia.

This was not for any particular reason, it was just the place we got to before I nearly died through exhaustion. Found a real 1970s motel, took all 6 of us in a room for $50 with breakfast, we got there at 10:30 just in time to miss a storm.

On the road for around 10 ish on Tuesday morning, after breakfast and a slight family argument as to who sat where in the car, looking at almost 780 miles to arrive at Disney, pretty un eventful drive to Fort Wilderness, stopping for coffee to keep me going and breaks because of all the coffee, arriving at 10:30 at checkin, 780 miles in 12 straight hours, almost 1300 miles since I collected the car in Manhattan just 4 days before.

Wed morning, Magic Kingdom, as wonderful as ever had a day round there before shooting over to the HESS garage for some packs of water and pop and back to the cabin at almost midnight.

Thursday, day round the pool and Downtown Disney on the night, nice relaxing day, starting to get up to theme park speed.
Friday (today or yesterday, depending when you read this) Studios, my favorite, had a great long day there and we just all collapsed in the cabin and I am typing this with a cold beer and Josh peering over my shoulder because he wants the laptop!!!!!!!

I will give details of cabin and dining plan (and the black bear that is loose on site) over the weekend, but just wanted to drop an update on here.

Catch you all soon

Steve n gang

 

[Twinkly-Tink]

Wow!!!! Sounds like you're having an amazing time! Those drives sound wonderful, wish I was brave enough to do something like that.

Can't wait to hear about the loose bear??!!

 

[disneyholic family]

after NYC, washington DC is a sleepy little town....and yes, it's always hotter than hades there in the summer...hot and humid...

a fun thing to do if you ever go back - take the subway and get off at the pentagon ....that is, if you like seeing lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of people in uniform....i used to think that was the coolest thing...

DD and her husband are at WDW now...i think they were at the studios yesterday too....yes, she called right after they did tower of terror...

she's a tall thin fair-skinned long-haired blonde and her husband is shorter than she is, with very short black hair and darker skin....odd couple...
and he always has a disney shirt on of some kind or another...
and he might be wearing an RCCL hat (they were just on an RCCL cruise in alaska)...

 

[Giddy Kipper]

Wow, what an epic journey, can't wait to read more. Enjoy your holiday!!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Great to read your catch up - sounds like a really good drive down

 

[stevechase]

Hi all

Just another snippet.

We have been to the Magic Kingdom, which is always fantastic and the New FantasyLand, when complete will be like a park in itself.

Studios, I love, the whole classic movie era it is fantastic to me so it is a real favorite of mine. However, just a couple of things. The Great Movie Ride, this has been there since our first visit in 89 and so far the movie clips shown at the start when you are queing are exactly the same. Now surely, it wouldnt take a great deal of effort to bring these up to date or at least change the clips they show and run the loop longer than approx 7-8 mins, the same with the clips at the end of the ride, although these have been added to a little with a few clips from POTC and a couple of others.

Just a thought thats all.

More to come

Steve n gang

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I saw this discussed on another thread and they were saying the same about the movie clips on the ride.

 

[Cyrano]

Just catching up with your trip. I love multi-centre holidays

 

[stevechase]

Hi all

Got the magic hours at magic kingdom last night, fell back into the cabin at 2 am. Shattered, been on go almost non stop since we arrived in NY 2 weeks ago and we not halfway through yet.

Going for a swim round small pool today and something quiet this evening.

MK was great last night after 10pm, did about 8 rides in an hour, got the photo off splash mountain, will post it when I figure how to.

Golf carts here at cabins are 62$ per day to hire!!!!! So we doing even more walking as you can't really park the car around the resort.

Quick service DP is very good, we got it in with accom and tickets and to be honest can't see us using it all, we started with 252 meals and 252 snacks. Eating breakfast in the cabin so hardly making an impression on the plan even tho we are 6 days in we still have over 200 on each

More later

Steve n gang

 

[stevechase]

Hi all

Been to pool today, but due to the safety concious Americans (another shooting, this time in Texas!!!!!!) We were asked to leave the pool after an hour or so because of the weather.

Anyway, we are sitting in food court at all star movies where we came with the girls in 2002. When we walked up to Andy's room, I secretly shed a tear. Where does time go?

Steve n gang

 

[disneyholic family]

time races by!!!

it really does go by in a blink!!

enjoy every second of it!

 

[stevechase]

In queue for jungle river boat cruise at MK. Very warm today and the park is as fantastic as ever. Going for a pineapple float after this. How good are they.

Steve n gang

 

[disneyholic family]

now i'll make it really easy for you to spot DD - her husband is using an ECV now (one of those scooters)...the walking got to be too much for him..

so now look for a tall, thin, fair-skinned, long-hair blonde with a dark hair, average height/weight guy on an ECV