Our 2nd Time Home (BCV) Very Rainy May Trip Report (FINAL UPDATE 7/29!!)

[lisaviolet]

I really like the idea of a date night. DH is able to come with me for most of my trip next week, which was going to be solo. I do have table service for three meals, and I think I'm going to somehow surprise him with something special.

Bobbi

Bobbi - have fun!!!!!!

Sun. May 24th

Park Visited: Epcot & Magic Kingdom
Dining: Seasons (lunch), O’hanas (dinner)

Sunday morning was early entry day at Epcot, and the weather looked good. I woke up first ( as always) went over to Caption Hook’s to get Melissa coffee (it is a family tradition that I get coffee for my wife every morning at disney - don’t know how I ended up w. this duty other than its how I get her up, but she loves it) and ended up buying one of the refillable mugs for my morning soda. One the way back to the room, I saw a family of ducks in the main pool and then some more right by our building, so I gave that second family of ducks some of my muffin. Anyway, we eventually walked over to the TTC and there was a monorail just sitting there, but it was having issues, so it was maybe like 10 minutes before we could get on it. As we did the loop around Epcot, I took some pics of an empty future world:

Once we got off the monorail (maybe 20 minutes before opening), there was already a large line but I think it was b/c they had “herded” all the guest to only use like the most central ticket machines (something I had never seen before). Anyway, once they let us in early, we saw that there wasn’t going to be a character-driven opening (b/c it was an EMH day) and that the character spot wouldn’t be opening early, so we headed over to Soarin (along with everyone else!)

Once we got to Soarin, I ran ahead to get some FPs, but had problems with a couple of the machines, so by the time we got in line, it was a 25 minute posted wait (actual wait more like 20 minutes) and then a 15 minute wait the second time we went through the stand by line. After soarin through California twice, we did Living with the Land (a family favorite). I thought there was supposed to be something new at the end, but I didn’t see anything really (and they didn’t have any mickey pumpkins either!). From there, we got a second set of Soarin FPs and then we went and signed up to do a Kim Possible mission once world showcase opened at 11am and then headed over to Test Track. We often ride TT using the single rider line and this morning we did so twice with no waits (despite the fact that the standby line was out the door). After TT was done, we walked through Minnie’s Butterfly Garden, but didn’t see that many butterflies and so we also went into mouse gears and bummed around there for a bit. Next, we were trying to kill some time, so we went over to Spaceship Earth. It had only a 20 minute or so line, but we had never seen it so crowded before, as the lines were out on both sides of the “V” entrance. We actually enjoyed it more this time than in past trips, as we often have trouble hearing the narration for some reason.

Now at this point (10:30-11am), it was hot and sunny, so we ended up making a change in plans and decided to blow off the KP mission so we could finish the morning and get back to the Poly’s pool. We went over to the land and eat at the Seasons food court - Melissa got a turkey sandwich and I got a mix chinese plate of beef and chicken with rice and noodles. Once we finished our lunch, we used our two sets of Soarin FPs and headed back to the Poly.

Here are some pics I took from the flower festival:

COMING UP - ONE OF OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS AND OUR FIRST TRIP TO THE MAGIC KINGDOM

TigerLaw - thank you so much for your Trip Report. I loved it. And especially loved these pictures. Since I didn't have park passes?!?!??!? So thanks for a peak.

 

[lisaviolet]

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Gorgeous pictures!!!

 

[TigerLaw]

Monday, May 25th

Park Visited: MGM & Animal Kingdom
Dining: Sci Fi (lunch), Rainforest Cafe (dinner)

Memorial Day found us at MGM for an extra magic hour morning (park open 8am). The forecast called for rain (big surprise) but our morning at AK was rain free. Of course, at open, we did the Toy Story Mania dash, with me weaving in and out to get our FPs. Once I got the magical first set of FPs, we did the ride together basically as a walk on. Both our scores were under 100,000 points, which is unusual for us (I swear my gun was off a large bit!) When we got out, the line was out the door and the stand by time was for 30 minutes, so we headed over to RnRC, which we did twice, once together and then once using the single rider line. After that, we split up so I could Tower of Terror (ToT is the only ride Melissa won’t do). While I was freefalling twice, Melissa got our next set of FPs for TSM and then did RnRC by herself using single rider two more times. The lines at Tower didn’t feel long, but it still took me over 40 minutes to do just two rides. We next met up at RnRC and wait like over 20 minutes just in the single ride line (we have NEVER had such a long wait there!)

Melissa had enough RnRC by now , so we decided to do something easier. My great wife suggested we go over to One Man’s Dream so I could look at the 20th anniversary stuff, so of course I agreed! Here are some pics:

One the movie of Walt ended, we headed over for an early lunch at Sci Fi. We both had oreo shakes with our burgers and fries. It was a good lunch as usual.

After lunch, we used our TSM FPs, and this time, we did much better, with my high score around 160,000-plus. Once we used up our two sets of FPs, we drove back to the poly so we could go swimming and then rest before going to Animal Kingdom.

COMING UP - HOW DO YOU MESS UP A FOUR CHEESE PIZZA THAT BAD?!?

 

[bobbiwoz]

I love seeing the pictures!
Bobbi

 

[TigerLaw]

I love seeing the pictures!
Bobbi

yeah, people used to complain about MGM and/or AK not being a full day park - look at that old MGM map - it only had 5 rides/attractions when it first opened!

 

[BigEeyore]

Thanks for another great update! You guys really know how to work the FP system! And sure - I'd love to see Poly main pool pics!

 

[abbysmema]

Great pictures. I think that we'll need to make use of those EMH at Epcot if we want to go on soaring more than once. You made great use of the FP. Marie

 

[TigerLaw]

Thanks for another great update! You guys really know how to work the FP system! And sure - I'd love to see Poly main pool pics!

Great pictures. I think that we'll need to make use of those EMH at Epcot if we want to go on soaring more than once. You made great use of the FP. Marie

Thanks! One of things we always find a bit amusing is the "when do you FP when going on a ride - before or after" debate. We are big belivers in getting the FP before you go on. As an example, lets say you are at MGM's rope drop, you could do it two ways:

1. Get FPs first, w. a return time of 9am, ride stand by and get off ride say at 8:20.

2. Ride first, then get FP with a return time of say 9:30, and get off ride by say 8:15

I think option one is better b/c the time to get your next FP is shorter, just my thoughts!

 

[Turtle31]

Thanks for the report and great pictures - I leave in 4 days and I am getting SO excited !!!

 

[TigerLaw]

Thanks for the report and great pictures - I leave in 4 days and I am getting SO excited !!!

Have a great trip!!

 

[TigerLaw]

Monday, May 25th (cont.)

That night we went to EMH night at Animal Kingdom. The extended hours were from 6-9 pm. We got there around 5pm, so we tried to do Safari first, as there were signs up that do the early sunset, it would close at 6pm. When we finally arrived in Africa, the line was out the queue and spilling out towards tusker house. There was no way it was only a 20 minute wait and I was right, as the stand by time switched to 45 minutes. We decided to do it anyway, and as we inched closed to the queue, it started to drizzle a bit, but we made it into the line pretty much dry. . . or so I thought! What ended up happening was that there was a part of the line that they opened up (because of the size of the line I guess) that is not covered and right before we got to it, it started to rain HARD, so once again, out come the ponchos! Eventually, we made it back under cover and got on the ride w. maybe a half hour wait. Here are some pics:

From the Safari ride, we went back to the front of the park for our dinner ressies at Rainforest. Simply put, not a good experience! Because of the rain and the park closing, it was REALLY crowded. Then, there was no separate line for people already w. ressies, so I had to stand in line for like 10 minutes w. everyone else trying to get a ressie just to check in. Eventually, maybe lie 10 minutes after that, we got seated. Apparently, we had both forgotten just how noisy the place was. The worst part was the meal though. Since our last time at Rainforest, they had substantially paired down their menu, and much of what I used to like on the menu was gone. We ended up splitting nachos appetizer and then I got a half slab of ribs (nothing special) and Melissa got a four cheese pizza that looked like it came out of a kids pizza bake box! Melissa took like two bits and was done with it! I might have complained but for some stupid reason I was rushing us to get back into the park so we could see the EMH showing of the Lion King show, so I let it pass. Needless to say, we wont be going back there anytime soon!

As I said, after dinner, we went over to catch the 7pm lion king show, which was good as usual. Here’s a couple pics from the show:

After the show, we went over to Dinosaur, which actually had a bit of a wait - maybe like 10 minutes. One ride on that, and we were good. As we walked through Dinorama to get to Everest, you could see the storm clouds coming in. The stand by line for Everest was out the door (so much for shorter EMH lines! ) so we did the single rider line, and even that was still like 15minutes. While we waited, it got darker and darker, and just before we got under cover, it started to rain AGAIN! While a drizzle at first, it got stronger and stronger. Here’s what the sky looked line just before the downpour:

Somewhat surprisingly, they kept the coaster going, so Melissa got on first and rode w/o her poncho. She came back absolutely drenched and said she had to keep her eyes closed the whole time b/c of the rain slapping against her face! . I rode maybe like 3 trains after her, did it with a poncho, and still got pretty wet! After that Melissa wanted to go home, and while I thought about ride Kali, I didn’t push the matter, and we made it back to the Poly around 9pm.

COMING UP - IS ANYTHING ACTUALLY WORKING AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM?!?

 

[TigerLaw]

Tuesday, May 26th

Park Visited: Magic Kingdom & Epcot
Dining: O’hanas (brunch), ESPN zone (dinner)

Tuesday morning was the first of two EMH mornings at the Magic Kingdom. The weather was hot and sunny (for a change - actually I don’t recall us ever having a rain issue during any of our mornings, it as always in later in the day). Anyway, when we went, it was about a few weeks since they switched the EMH attractions to include Splash, Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion instead of the Tomorrowland rides due to Space Mountain’s rehab. We were really looking forward to this, as we aren’t big Space fans so the tradeoff of rides worked in our favor (or so we thought). We got to the park at about 20 minutes before opening and then dashed along with everyone else when the park opened.

Unfortunately, we got all the way to liberty square before learning that both Splash AND Big Thunder weren’t up and running yet. Once we figured this out, we headed into fantasyland and did Dumbo as the second group to ride. By the time we got off Dumbo though, EVERYONE was in fantasyland due to the liberty square section being closed off, so it was a complete ZOO! (For example, at 8:15 am, Peter Pan’s line was already out of the queue and into the main walkway. We decided to head over to HM, which surprisingly was still a walk on. After that, we went over to the mountains to see what was going on, but both Splash and Big Thunder were still down. The bigger problem though was that everyone had started to grab fastpasses, so that the return times for both rides were now past our breakfast ressie time at O’hanas. Eventually , the rides opened up, Big Thunder first, so we did that w. a 10-15 minute wait, then a similar wait time for Splash. We next tried to do jungle cruise, but it already had a 30 minute line, so we saved that for later and did pirates instead with maybe a couple minute wait. We then took some time to look around the Emporium shop and then took the monorail back over to the Polynesian so we can have our character breakfast at O’hanas. Here's a couple more MK shots I took leaving the park:

We set the breakfast up for one of the last sittings, and we really came to like doing breakfasts this way, as the crowds were lesser, so easier for food purposes and for seeing the characters. The breakfast itself was really good and we saw Mickey, Pluto, Lilo & Stitch. Here’s a couple pics:

After breakfast, I went to the front desk to deal with a bill dispute while Melissa waited in the lobby. That took about 10-15 minutes, and then we checked out and drove over the Beach Club Villas, where we were able to get into a studio without a wait. Our room was on the first floor, looking out into the woods (so not much of a view) but a decent location b/c it was right next to the door exiting out to the dunes cove pool.

Once we got unpacked, we headed over to DTD and walked around there for a bit before heading over the grocery store to pick up a few things (including funoodles) for the room. Once we got back home, we took a nap and heard it raining outside.

COMING UP - OUR ESPN ZONE “EXPERIENCE”

 

[mcrabeck]

Fun Review- Too bad about all the rain but it sounds like you had lots of fun anyway!

 

[OurDogCisco]

Great trip report... I hope the rain wasn't too bad... We'll be at BCV in less than 2 weeks.

 

[TigerLaw]

Fun Review- Too bad about all the rain but it sounds like you had lots of fun anyway!

Great trip report... I hope the rain wasn't too bad... We'll be at BCV in less than 2 weeks.

I won't lie, we were far from thrilled w. all the rain, but we still had fun (just would had a bit more fun...)

 

[TigerLaw]

Tuesday, May 26th (cont.)

The following is going to sound like one of Dennis Miller’s old rants, so please bear with me. For dinner Tuesday night we headed to the ESPN Zone. I like their BBQ wings (which are actually a leg and a wing), so Melissa humors me, as its not her favorite place. We got there at a normal or so time, only to find that the door to the restaurant is roped off and we have to wait. Fine. So we wait like 10 minutes or so until we are let in and then we see just how crowded the place was - take a look!

So fine, if they want to try to create an appearance outside that its hard to get in, whatever. So next, we see a empty dining room so we think we’re going to at least be offered a decent table right? WRONG!! They try to put us in the most far away corner of the room on barstools to boot! I think its worth noting here that if we had wanted to sit at a bar, we could have done so w/o any wait! I nicely ask for a regular table and we get moved to a little better location. When we get our waiter, he advises that they have a new menu. Now for dinner I wanted to get the wings as a meal and just get a side of fries. I asked about this, and was told not a problem. I can’t remember what Melissa got, but I think it was a hamburger and fries. Well, soon after we place our order, out comes this tower of fries1 I ask what it was, as I wanted my side of fries to come with my meal (the wings), and the waiter says the only fries they can order separately is the appitizer which is like almost six bucks. My response (at this point) was still civil, this isn’t what I wanted, I was clear in wanting a SIDE of fries, and could he please send it back, which he did. Now here is where I start to lose it - Our meals come out and instead of getting the wings that I wanted, I get BBQ boneless chicken bites (basically chicken mcnuggets). When I asked the waiter did they no longer have the wings with the drumsticks on them, he goes that wasn’t what I asked for! I am getting madder by the second, but I go ahead and start eating what was brought out when halfway through the meal, he brings out an order of the wings I had wanted in the first place! At this point, I just want to leave. The final insult was the bill, they only charged me for one of the two sets of wings, but it was for the higher priced, second set that I barely touched b/c I was getting full from the first set of wings! Needless to say, we won’t be going back there anytime soon!

As an aside, while we are suffering in the meal from hell, our friends at the ESPN Zone decide they are going to host a live ESPN-like show while we eat, so we get to deal with all of this while nearly going deaf from the loud announcers! (See pic above)

After our fabulous dinner, we headed over into Epcot. We just walked around world showcase for a bit before eventually going into Mexico to do the boat ride - DONDE DONALD?!? (One quick aside, in all our years, we NEVER saw off kilter play, but this night we finally got to see them!) From there, we continued our world showcase stroll until we hit france, where I got in line and got us some grand mariner orange slushies and Melissa went over to the beer garden area in England, where planned to watch Illuminations from. One funny note was as we made our way around world showcase, a marching band came by - that was a new one on me!

By now perhaps you are wondering to yourself, hey, we haven’t heard about any rain on your trip lately?!? Well.... what was at the beginning a great looking night, slowly gets worse and worse and so for like the last hour before the fireworks, we are sitting w. our ponchos on totally getting rained on. Actually, I think it started to rain right when we get done with our alcoholic slushies! Thankfully, they had illuminations despite the weather, but after the fireworks, we came home even though our plan was to do the EMH night.

Here are some other Epcot pics from that night to get a sense of how the skies got worse:

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COMING UP - I GET ON THE TOP THREE SCORES AT TSM (FOR LIKE A MINUTE!)

 

[jns]

really enjoying your report
love all the photos

 

[TigerLaw]

really enjoying your report
love all the photos

thanks, I'll have more up soon!

 

[TigerLaw]

Wednesday, May 27th

Parks: MGM
Dining: Pizza Planet (lunch) Cape May Clambake (dinner)

Wednesday was our first regular 9am opening of the week. We did our usual “get to the rope drop line” and I was worried given the size of the crowd:

Well, by the time the dash to Toy Story Mania ended, I was the very first person to get FPs! (I know, that and a quarter....) Anyway, we did TSM as basically a walk on and I score like 160,000+ which for a brief minute was the second highest score of the day (and before we even got off the ride, the score was off the top 3 list!) We next headed over to RnRC and there was a line already and the park wasn’t even open 20 minutes. We ended up doing it twice using the single rider line w/o any major wait. After that, we got another FP and then I went over and did Tower of Terror once with like a 30 minute wait. While I did ToT, Melissa continued to do RnRc by herself and then rode it one more time with me (maybe a 20 minute wait).

Next, I got a couple character pics in before we headed back over to TSM around 11:30 to get another FP (we knew we were coming back at night so we were trying to stock up on FPs).

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We then headed over to pizza planet for an early lunch and we were both surprised how good it was (Melissa got a cheese pizza and a cookie and I got a pepperoni pizza/salad combo). At last, a cheap (in disney terms) place for lunch at MGM that we actually like! Once we finished lunch, Melissa went back to the Beach Club to hit the pool and I stayed a bit longer at MGM, bascially to goof around and take pictures. I tried to get my pic taken with Mike and Sully, but Sully left right as I got there (and BTW, where’s Roz?!?) I did get my picture with Sorcerer Mickey and took pics of the Up characters.

I also went over and did the American Idol show, which I was impressed with even as a non-Idol fan. The girl in the middle below won singing “natural woman”.

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I wraped up my MGM day at 1:30 by scoring another RnRC fastpass so we had two sets each of RnRC and TSM fastpasses for that evening. Here are some more pics from my shooting spree:

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Finally, what does it say about the state of things at WDW when a star, an icon, like Fozzie Bear is left hanging out in a trash can?!? OH THE HUMANITY!!

COMING UP - WE DO MGM TWICE IN A DAY!

 

[BigEeyore]

Oh boy - the Up characters! I LOVED that movie - especially Dug. I hope they are still there when we visit in a couple months (staying at BCV - so I hope you post some BCV pics!).