shatzjsl
<font color=teal>No wonder I love DIS boards so mu
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
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Susie & Laurens 1st WDW Trip
I hope you enjoy my report as much as I enjoyed reliving our trip. This was the first visit to WDW for both Lauren and I. Im sure I forgot some things but this is most of it. I am chatty so I apologize for the length.
Aside: DH Jay couldnt go because of work commitments.
Cast:
Susie - 38
Lauren 10
Day 1 - June 15, 2004
We left the house at 4:45 a.m. to head to the airport for our 6:50 a.m. flight to MCO. I used off-site parking for the first time so I wasnt sure how long it would take to do that. It only took about 5 minutes to park the car and load the luggage on the shuttle and we were off to DFW. Five minutes later we were unloaded and doing curbside check-in, which also took about 5 minutes. We had to sit around the gate for a while before anything opened. My plan was for us to eat breakfast at the McDonalds at the airport but we were too nervous to eat anything. I dont like flying. This was the beginning of a trend for us to stray from the plan.
The flight was smooth except for one bit of turbulence. As is my luck, I was in the restroom when we hit it. We must have fallen 5000 feet in the space of 2 seconds though the cabin crew argued with me on this point. I was in the middle of pulling up my pants when it happened. My life flashed before my eyes and I had a vision of the rescue workers finding me in a very embarrassing position! Luckily, no such embarrassment happened and we landed at MCO right on time at 10:10 a.m. and rode the first ride of the trip. That tram really moves! For some reason I expected it to be slower. MCO is set up differently than any other airport I have been in. Of course my airport experience is limited to Love Field, DFW and Tulsa Intl. so it could be a very common airport set up.
Bob from Murray Hill was waiting at the bottom of the escalator for us. Bob grabbed our luggage, loaded the Yukon and were on our way. We stopped outside WDW and had our picture taken in front of the Welcome to WDW sign then drove on to All Star Music. When I first was the welcome sign I got my first case of Mickey Bumps (formerly known as goose bumps)
Arrived at 11:00 and went to check-in which took about 15 minutes. Our room was ready and all requests were met! Yea! Calypso non-smoking facing the parking lot. We went to check out the room and dropped our bags. The Calypso building is lime green, which I thought was very appropriate.
After dropping off our bags we headed to the food court for lunch. We got our refillable mugs and split a burger and fries. We then stopped in the gift shop to pick up our free lanyards and pins. I had bought some older ones from e-bay for Lauren to use for trading and after she put these on her lanyard we headed to the MGM bus stop. When the bus arrived (about 10 minutes) I remembered that we shared buses with the other All-Stars. It was very crowded! However, this was the only time in our trip that we shared a bus with the other All-Stars. Anyway, the bus was standing room only and we were standing toward the front of the bus. This is where we met Grumpy Dad and Grumpy Son. Grumpy Dad was complaining about how many people were on the bus from the moment we started moving. Our next stop was ASMo. Quite a few people were getting off here. Grumpy Dad started complaining that we all needed to get off the bus and then back on. Yeah, right. After the ASMo people got off everyone was able to sit down. This is when Grumpy Son made his presence known. He complained how hot it was and why didnt the bus driver go faster. Grumpy Dad told him to quit complaining and why was he always complaining. Hmmm I wonder why?
We made it to MGM around 12:30 and here come the Mickey Bumps again. Made it through bag check easily and wondered when the ticket machine was going to give me my card back when Lauren rolled her eyes and told me that it had come out the other side. Hey, its my first time here, how was I supposed to know? Happy that I had made a CM have a good laugh and was told to have a magical day we entered the park. It looked crowded. We stopped and had out picture taken and went to explore. Lauren wanted to take a look ToT first because she wanted this to be her first ride. We stopped by Rock n Roller Coaster but FPs were for 8:30 p.m. and the stand-by was 70 minutes. No thanks; I think well pass this time. Walked over to ToT and all FPs were gone there too. Not sure of the stand-by because when Lauren saw the doors open and how high they were she decided that ToT wasnt quite the ride for her. Secretly I was glad because it intimidated me a little.
We turned around and ended up at Indiana Jones. We grabbed FPs for a later show and kept going. Beauty and the Beast was about 10 minutes away from starting and we walked on in. Got good seats and the place was full by the time the show started. What a great show! Absolutely beautiful. Toward the end of the show it started to sprinkle. After the show we walked around some more and ended up at the Great Movie Ride. Only a 10-minute wait, so we hopped in line. I kind of wish the line was longer because we didnt have a lot of time to look at the theming. We had fun and had a great tour guide. We had the cowboy side and it was kind of lame if you ask me. Loved the Wizard of Oz room. Lauren was always afraid of the witch when she was younger and I always had to fast forward through the parts that showed her. I told her it was coming (cuz I read about it here) and she decided it was time to face her fear. She did fine. After the ride it was time for our Indy FPs. Im sure this is a great show but we only got to see the first stunt because the show was cancelled due to weather in the area. When we came out it was sprinkling again. I had a 5:30 PS for Prime Time and decided to see if we could get in early. We walked in about 4:20 and were seated within 5 minutes. I heard them telling people without PS that the earliest seating was 8:30. Yikes! I finally understood the importance of having a PS.
We were seated and Uncle Dan came and made Lauren set the table. He asked where we were from and had everyone in the room say to Texas From then on I was Mama Texas and Lauren was Texas Darlin. I had the meat loaf (yummy) and Lauren had the mac n chees (so-so). I didnt eat my green beans because I dont eat veggies. Uncle Dan told me that Mom had been up all night cooking my dinner and made the whole room do the airplane sound while he fed me a forkful. Yuck! He also did the same to Lauren with her mac n cheese and she thought it was hilarious!
A man at the table next to us dropped his fork and his Brother made him stand up and put his nose to the wall while we all yelled naughty, naughty at him. A couple of girls came in late to meet their moms and had to sing Im a Little Teapot before they could order. We ordered the Smore for dessert and finished about ½ of it. It was sooooo good! 50s Prime Time was tons of fun and if you havent done so, you really should try to eat there on your next trip.
Apparently while we were eating a big storm blew through because people were talking about it when we came out and I heard people talking about it later in the week. This is the only rain we saw all week. Not a sprinkle the rest of the time.
As we were leaving we saw that the parade was going on so we ran over and caught part of it. Then we went back to wandering. I was so in awe of actually being in Disney that my plans went out the window and I never looked at a map while at MGM. While we were wandering we saw a street show starting so we nabbed a piece of cement to watch the spelling bee. Great fun! We laughed a lot at their antics and the child they picked from the crowd was great and played along very well. She didnt seem the least bit nervous. We were all excited when she won and gave her a standing ovation.
Then, we hit the wall. We had been up since 4:00 a.m. and it was hot and humid. Coming from Texas we are used to 90+ degree weather and humidity. But, we cant compete with Florida humidity! We decided that even though we hadnt done many shows or rides it was time to go back to the room for some rest and relaxation. I want to confess that I felt guilty for a moment about the small amount of time we spent at MGM after reading some of the trip reports on this board but then I realized that this was my vacation and I wanted it to be relaxed so I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and they never came back. We stopped on the way out to pick up our picture.
We waited about 5 minutes for a bus back. We changed into our suits and refilled our mugs and went for a dip. Pool wasnt very crowded and was just the right temp for me. We swam for about an hour and went to watch some TV and rest. I can only take so much of the Disney Channel and Toon Disney so I decided to check out the resort. We walked around Music and Sports for about an hour and took some pictures. Great theming at these resorts! Lauren really like Sports and would have preferred to have a room there. Too bad, so sad. Moms paying so Mom gets to choose. While we were resting I explained pin trading with CMs to Lauren. So, we went back to the gift shop because Lauren had seen a Tinkerbelle pin on one of the CMs there and wanted to trade with her and she did. We stopped by Guest Services and got a printout of the days spending on our room charge, got the first of many Mickey Bars and went back to the room and was asleep by 9:30.
I hope you enjoy my report as much as I enjoyed reliving our trip. This was the first visit to WDW for both Lauren and I. Im sure I forgot some things but this is most of it. I am chatty so I apologize for the length.
Aside: DH Jay couldnt go because of work commitments.
Cast:
Susie - 38
Lauren 10
Day 1 - June 15, 2004
We left the house at 4:45 a.m. to head to the airport for our 6:50 a.m. flight to MCO. I used off-site parking for the first time so I wasnt sure how long it would take to do that. It only took about 5 minutes to park the car and load the luggage on the shuttle and we were off to DFW. Five minutes later we were unloaded and doing curbside check-in, which also took about 5 minutes. We had to sit around the gate for a while before anything opened. My plan was for us to eat breakfast at the McDonalds at the airport but we were too nervous to eat anything. I dont like flying. This was the beginning of a trend for us to stray from the plan.
The flight was smooth except for one bit of turbulence. As is my luck, I was in the restroom when we hit it. We must have fallen 5000 feet in the space of 2 seconds though the cabin crew argued with me on this point. I was in the middle of pulling up my pants when it happened. My life flashed before my eyes and I had a vision of the rescue workers finding me in a very embarrassing position! Luckily, no such embarrassment happened and we landed at MCO right on time at 10:10 a.m. and rode the first ride of the trip. That tram really moves! For some reason I expected it to be slower. MCO is set up differently than any other airport I have been in. Of course my airport experience is limited to Love Field, DFW and Tulsa Intl. so it could be a very common airport set up.
Bob from Murray Hill was waiting at the bottom of the escalator for us. Bob grabbed our luggage, loaded the Yukon and were on our way. We stopped outside WDW and had our picture taken in front of the Welcome to WDW sign then drove on to All Star Music. When I first was the welcome sign I got my first case of Mickey Bumps (formerly known as goose bumps)
Arrived at 11:00 and went to check-in which took about 15 minutes. Our room was ready and all requests were met! Yea! Calypso non-smoking facing the parking lot. We went to check out the room and dropped our bags. The Calypso building is lime green, which I thought was very appropriate.
After dropping off our bags we headed to the food court for lunch. We got our refillable mugs and split a burger and fries. We then stopped in the gift shop to pick up our free lanyards and pins. I had bought some older ones from e-bay for Lauren to use for trading and after she put these on her lanyard we headed to the MGM bus stop. When the bus arrived (about 10 minutes) I remembered that we shared buses with the other All-Stars. It was very crowded! However, this was the only time in our trip that we shared a bus with the other All-Stars. Anyway, the bus was standing room only and we were standing toward the front of the bus. This is where we met Grumpy Dad and Grumpy Son. Grumpy Dad was complaining about how many people were on the bus from the moment we started moving. Our next stop was ASMo. Quite a few people were getting off here. Grumpy Dad started complaining that we all needed to get off the bus and then back on. Yeah, right. After the ASMo people got off everyone was able to sit down. This is when Grumpy Son made his presence known. He complained how hot it was and why didnt the bus driver go faster. Grumpy Dad told him to quit complaining and why was he always complaining. Hmmm I wonder why?
We made it to MGM around 12:30 and here come the Mickey Bumps again. Made it through bag check easily and wondered when the ticket machine was going to give me my card back when Lauren rolled her eyes and told me that it had come out the other side. Hey, its my first time here, how was I supposed to know? Happy that I had made a CM have a good laugh and was told to have a magical day we entered the park. It looked crowded. We stopped and had out picture taken and went to explore. Lauren wanted to take a look ToT first because she wanted this to be her first ride. We stopped by Rock n Roller Coaster but FPs were for 8:30 p.m. and the stand-by was 70 minutes. No thanks; I think well pass this time. Walked over to ToT and all FPs were gone there too. Not sure of the stand-by because when Lauren saw the doors open and how high they were she decided that ToT wasnt quite the ride for her. Secretly I was glad because it intimidated me a little.
We turned around and ended up at Indiana Jones. We grabbed FPs for a later show and kept going. Beauty and the Beast was about 10 minutes away from starting and we walked on in. Got good seats and the place was full by the time the show started. What a great show! Absolutely beautiful. Toward the end of the show it started to sprinkle. After the show we walked around some more and ended up at the Great Movie Ride. Only a 10-minute wait, so we hopped in line. I kind of wish the line was longer because we didnt have a lot of time to look at the theming. We had fun and had a great tour guide. We had the cowboy side and it was kind of lame if you ask me. Loved the Wizard of Oz room. Lauren was always afraid of the witch when she was younger and I always had to fast forward through the parts that showed her. I told her it was coming (cuz I read about it here) and she decided it was time to face her fear. She did fine. After the ride it was time for our Indy FPs. Im sure this is a great show but we only got to see the first stunt because the show was cancelled due to weather in the area. When we came out it was sprinkling again. I had a 5:30 PS for Prime Time and decided to see if we could get in early. We walked in about 4:20 and were seated within 5 minutes. I heard them telling people without PS that the earliest seating was 8:30. Yikes! I finally understood the importance of having a PS.
We were seated and Uncle Dan came and made Lauren set the table. He asked where we were from and had everyone in the room say to Texas From then on I was Mama Texas and Lauren was Texas Darlin. I had the meat loaf (yummy) and Lauren had the mac n chees (so-so). I didnt eat my green beans because I dont eat veggies. Uncle Dan told me that Mom had been up all night cooking my dinner and made the whole room do the airplane sound while he fed me a forkful. Yuck! He also did the same to Lauren with her mac n cheese and she thought it was hilarious!
A man at the table next to us dropped his fork and his Brother made him stand up and put his nose to the wall while we all yelled naughty, naughty at him. A couple of girls came in late to meet their moms and had to sing Im a Little Teapot before they could order. We ordered the Smore for dessert and finished about ½ of it. It was sooooo good! 50s Prime Time was tons of fun and if you havent done so, you really should try to eat there on your next trip.
Apparently while we were eating a big storm blew through because people were talking about it when we came out and I heard people talking about it later in the week. This is the only rain we saw all week. Not a sprinkle the rest of the time.
As we were leaving we saw that the parade was going on so we ran over and caught part of it. Then we went back to wandering. I was so in awe of actually being in Disney that my plans went out the window and I never looked at a map while at MGM. While we were wandering we saw a street show starting so we nabbed a piece of cement to watch the spelling bee. Great fun! We laughed a lot at their antics and the child they picked from the crowd was great and played along very well. She didnt seem the least bit nervous. We were all excited when she won and gave her a standing ovation.
Then, we hit the wall. We had been up since 4:00 a.m. and it was hot and humid. Coming from Texas we are used to 90+ degree weather and humidity. But, we cant compete with Florida humidity! We decided that even though we hadnt done many shows or rides it was time to go back to the room for some rest and relaxation. I want to confess that I felt guilty for a moment about the small amount of time we spent at MGM after reading some of the trip reports on this board but then I realized that this was my vacation and I wanted it to be relaxed so I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and they never came back. We stopped on the way out to pick up our picture.
We waited about 5 minutes for a bus back. We changed into our suits and refilled our mugs and went for a dip. Pool wasnt very crowded and was just the right temp for me. We swam for about an hour and went to watch some TV and rest. I can only take so much of the Disney Channel and Toon Disney so I decided to check out the resort. We walked around Music and Sports for about an hour and took some pictures. Great theming at these resorts! Lauren really like Sports and would have preferred to have a room there. Too bad, so sad. Moms paying so Mom gets to choose. While we were resting I explained pin trading with CMs to Lauren. So, we went back to the gift shop because Lauren had seen a Tinkerbelle pin on one of the CMs there and wanted to trade with her and she did. We stopped by Guest Services and got a printout of the days spending on our room charge, got the first of many Mickey Bars and went back to the room and was asleep by 9:30.
